Do you know what today is? Yeah, it’s Wednesday, hump day, running club day, midweek… but it’s also our freaking birthday! Cos we are onnnnneeee (sung to the tune of We are Young by Fun). What do one year olds do on their birthday? Smear cake all over their face and dribble? Wicked.
To celebrate we thought we’d take a look back over the last 12 months and pick out our top blogging highlights, so in no particular order here they are.
1. Bloody brilliant fitness people (yes, you included!)
Tell you what, fit people are aces. Through the blog and Twitter we have infiltrated London’s underground fitness circle (not really that underground, more open to all) and met some truly wonderful people who have since become friends. It’s great to get to know other bloggers across the country and meet instructors and fitness professionals doing innovative and inspirational things (special mention here to Rebecca Cox for getting PTs involved in improving school PE lessons and Nicola Miller for the social enterprise A Mile In Her Shoes, aimed at getting homeless women running). It’s also been wicked to meet people who actually read our blog (we never thought that’d happen) and to see people who are changing their lives through fitness (shout-out to Abi Wright running her first half marathon this weekend and Lorna, aka Shoebird – if this was the X Factor we’d say she’d been on an emotional fitness journey). We’re not usually ones to gush but we love you guys!
2. Amazing new classes
Whether it’s raving in underground tunnels with Fitness Freak, leapfrogging and playing British Bulldog on the Southbank with Fitness Playground or acro-yoga with a hip-hop harpist at Life Shoreditch (yep, that happened) we’ve tried out a whole host of different fitness classes, races and workouts this year. As well as the aforementioned, we’ve really enjoyed: Cyclebeat – fantastic indoor cycling studio; Bunny bootcamp at GymBox (sorry); free Nike training club classes and events – including the amazing 5k they did to celebrate the launch of Flyknit trainers complete with beat boxers and pink smoke; and yoga of every description across London (particularly liking Blue Cow and Yotopia). As for races, we’ve really enjoyed Cycletta, the women-only Bike Ride series, fun friendly and beautiful scenery, and the small pre-marathon races held in Surrey including Cranleigh 21 and the Surrey Spitfire – proof that bigger is not always better.
3. Going to Switzerland
Earlier this year we teamed up with Human Race as their official blog partner for their Women Only Series. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, in September they invited us out to Switzerland to train with them, gorge on chocolate and hang-out with their mate Victoria Pendleton (aka ‘The Vixter’). Running, cycling, mountain biking and open water swimming in B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L Switzerland. The trip was designed to show us how great the country is for active holidays. We didn’t need much persuading. A massive thank you Human Race Events and the Swiss Tourist board for inviting us out….we’re already planning our escape to Switzerland next year!
4. L&L Fitness Bloggers Late Summer Social
We love any excuse for a party so in September we had a big old blogging get together. A treasure hunt, a squat off, a chinwag, some scran from Honestly Healthy and loads of booze. We may be biased, but we thought that it was chuffing amazing! Word is that the stragglers may have ended up drinking till 4am with Jamie Foxx’s bodyguard and personal trainer. Living the brand.
5. Swanky kit
Come on, who doesn’t want to be among the first to try out new kit and get a few free pairs of trainers? Exactly. Although we have been spending far too much on jazzy fitness leggings.
The future
Who knows what the next year holds, but keep your eyes peeled for some exciting announcements (the words running and bootcamp may be involved.) And if you want to buy us a birthday present, a few extra days in the week so we can cover everything we want to on the blog would be great! Thanks for being a reader and everyone who has supported us you chuffing wonderful people!
