Fitness Ridge 2011 - Friday

Today was my last long scheduled day here at Fitness Ridge.  Here was the schedule today:

• 6 AM - Yogalates
• 7 AM - Breakfast
• 8 AM - Hiked Camelback
• 11:15 - H20 Intervals
• 12:25 - Lunch
• 1:30 - Biked for 45 min easy
• 2:30 - Zumba
• 3:30 - Liquid Moves
• 4:30 - Liquid Moves (I doubled up on this class and skipped Circuit Training)
• 5:30 - Dinner (long dinner chatting tonight)
• 7:30 - 30 min of weights
• 8 PM - Chatted with fellow guests for a quite awhile

Tonight is a bit quiet in my room.  My beautiful roommate Diana left late this afternoon. I am so lucky to have met her on my first stay here.  She is such a lovely kind person.  I was sad to see her go this evening and hope to see her again soon.   She has me very close to committing to booking another week here next April.  I will decide before I leave as we get a discount for doing so.

We hiked Camelback today.  Unfortunately I took a little spill early in the hike today and dropped my camera.  The shutter won't open and I can't get it to work.  So I was cameraless today.  

This won't be as appealing .....

Breakfast - I substituted the parfait for granola with almond milk and half a banana.  (I think around 430 calories?)

Snack - Orange

Lunch - I substituted the caeser salad for tuna with pita.  Served with onion soup.

Dinner - Turkey burger with side of carrots and broccoli.  Dessert - Chocolate oranges

After lunch today I was getting really anxious to see my weight so I went to the office where we weigh in upon arrival and asked to get on the scale.  They don't encourage us to do so mid-week but if we want to they don't stop us.  I was feeling good and just really wanted to see that number.  I know the number shouldn't be so important but the truth of the matter is that it is. I stepped on the scale and was ecstatic to see that I was down 8 pounds!!!!  And that was after lunch.  Now maybe it was give or take a few ounces.  I don't recall the decimal value when I checked in but it is darn close to 8 pounds and I am super excited about that.  But wait....... 8 pounds. ..........doesn't that mean I can hit 10 pounds before I leave Sunday??? After all, it was the middle of the day and I had more time to work out today and all day tomorrow!  Heck yeah I can.  I'm going for it.  I would have been happy with 5-6 this week, but now that I saw 8, I'm shooting for 10!

Tomorrow morning we have the choice to sign up for a hike or do a 2 1/2 hour cardio blast workout.  I'm also due for a 12 mile run tomorrow with my marathon training schedule.  I couldn't decide if I'd be able to run the hikes and never signed up so tonight at the end of the night I decided to go for the gym cardio workout.  I think I'll get a better calorie burn.  So far, my name is the only name on that list!  Maybe I'll be getting a 2 1/2 hour personal training workout if no one else signs up.    I'm not too excited about that long in the gym but that's what this is all about......working out of our comfort zones.  I'd much rather hike so I'm going to do the cardio blast.  I'm going to count the miles on the treadmill and finish the rest of my workout outdoors to make sure I get my training miles in.   There is only one class tomorrow and then a fun water volleyball game that I will probably skip to get my miles in.  Hoping to get more laps in the pool in as well.  We'll have the rest of the day as free time so I'm sure I will.  

I can't believe it's already Friday night.  Besides a bit of sunburn from all the pool classes, I'm feeling great!  I'm ready to give it my all tomorrow for my last chance workout.  Better get to sleep.

Fitness Ridge 2011 - Thursday

• 6:15 AM - Open Gym - Used the NuStep where you use arms and legs (pictured right) and stretched
• 7 AM - Breakfast
• 8 AM - Hiked Scout Cave (Much easier than Saddle but still had some challenging climb on the first half.  Garmin results here.)
• 11:15 - Stretch Class
• 12:00 - Personal Training session with Tiffany to work on my run form and speed
• 1:00 - Lunch
• 1:00 - Departing Guests Announcements (I missed this because I was eating lunch still.)
• 2:30 - Treading (Pick your cardio equipment, I picked treadmill.  5 min fast, 5 min recover, 4 min faster, 4 min recover, 3 min faster yet, 3 min recovery, 2-2, 1 faster than you've ever hit before, 1 recovery, Bonus 30 second round and then cool down and stretch)  AWESOME workout and challenge!!!  I hit 9 for the last 1 minute round, and 9.5 for the bonus 30 seconds.  I broke through a barrier in this class today that I didn't think I could do!
• 3:30 - Ball Works
• 4:30 - Total Body H20 (WHEW, needed this.)
• 5:15 - Swam 40 laps (1,000 yards)
• 5:45 - Dinner
• 6:15 - Lecture - Increasing Your Income 
• 8 PM - Massage with Mike (Surprisingly I had no areas that felt super sore but the massage felt wonderful)

Thursday Menu

Bacon and Egg Sandwich with Fruit

Sunchoke Soup and Mediterranean Pita

 Stuffed Chicken  with Sugar Snap Peas

Peach Cobbler

Today we hiked Scout Cave and ended at Chukawalla (sp?). 

This is our thinking pose.  Can you see the brain power happening here?

Richard crashed our photo opp here.  We have no idea who he is but we let him in the picture. 

 Say cheese Diana.  Are you on your phone again?

A pepper grass that we all tasted today. It has a slightly hot taste.

Cheers!  Toasting our pepper grass.  I see I forgot to "swallow my stomach" as Diana tells me to do for pictures!  Suck in that pooch Annelise!

We all want to take Chef Camron home with us but I guess we can't do that.  He's giving us a cooking demo here.

Fitness Ridge 2011 - Wednesday

• 6 AM - Yogalates (we really need to stop being the last ones there!)
• 7 AM - Breakfast
• 8 AM - Hike - Saddle (only 4 miles but tough terrain with 1252 ft elevation gain, garmin stats here)
• 11:15 - Deep End Suspension (oh how I love the water classes!)
• 12:00 - Counselor (personal session with Christa who gave me some good advice to reflect on)
• 1:00 - Lunch
• 1:15 - Lecture - Emotional Eating
• 2:30 - H2O Circuit (Still loving the water class.  I even snuck in 40 laps before class started.)
• 3:30 - Kickboxing (Sharon rocks this class.  I tried hiding in the back but she pulled me up front.  What's up with that?!?!)
• 4:30 - Mountain (Pick a cardio machine.  Warm up, then every 3 min for 12x increase the power of the machine.  I choose bike.  Started at level 3 and went to the highest level.  During the stretch at the end, I jumped on the treadmill for a quick half mile run to experience the run after biking at such a hard level.)
• 5:30 - Dinner (yum!)
• 6:15 - Lecture - Intuitive Eating
• 7:15 - Laundry, Shower, Skype w/ daughter, get ready to do it all again tomorrow
• 8:30 - Bed, chit chat with roomie, and computer time....and then more chit chat.....then more computer time.  
• 10:15 - I'm FINALLY finishing writing and going to bed.

Wednesday Menu Board

 Breakfast

We are offered an optional snack of fruit and or a protein to take with us on the hikes each morning.  The protein is either a boiled egg or 12 almonds.  We can get apple or orange slices cut up in baggies for us.  Today I took an egg and orange.  It does add to the daily calories but well worth it.

We hiked Saddle today.  This is a hike that I remember not liking last July.  It was hot and hard.  The terrain varies from brush hitting your legs, lots of uneven rocky footing, to hands and feet climbing, walking along the edges of cliffs, and ending in a long bout of sand.  The views were phenomenal.  I was not looking forward to it because I remembered the difficulty I had with it last time.  My balance is still rather funky and uneven terrain and heights together don't work well for me.  There were many points today where I really had to tell myself I could do it, and each time I could and did.  It is such an amazing feeling of accomplishment at the end.  And it really wasn't so bad after all.  It was an excellent fitness hike climbing up over 1200 feet and climbing down another 1100 during the duration of the climb for 4 miles total.  Great hike, great views and great company.  Here are pictures from today's hike.

This shot below is at the top of the most challenging part of the hike.  

Do we look cool or what?  This is an area of the hike that I didn't get to see last summer.  Pretty cool.  

One of our three hiking guides, Jordan and Laura.  We have three guides with each group of hikers.  There are 9 of us in our group.  So no matter how slow or fast, you are guaranteed to have a guide with you.  

Yes, that is my foot in the picture. And yes, I need to get from up there, to down there.  Only one way and that is sliding on the bootie.  Not as bad as I thought it would be.  Diana actually got this one on video of me coming down.  

We did a bit of butt scooting today.

There's not much wildlife but we did see a paw print of some unknown animal.  

It's nice that our hikes seem to have either a water class or stretch class after them before lunch.  We actually get a couple water classes a day.   They say that we burn a higher percentage of calories of fat in the pool classes than we do in the gym.  Plus the low impact of the water allows us to exercise longer hours with less chance of injury from the pounding and impact of other classes.  I love the water so I choose water each time there is an option.  And when there is time to burn, I've been trying to get a few laps in.

Lunch - Tomato Soup and BBQ Chicken Pizza

 

 Dinner - Salmon with Orzo and Fruit Skewers that I forgot to take a picture of.

 New friend Laura with me in the dining room.  She's from Seattle.  There are people from all over the United States, Canada, and more.

This is lovely Emily in the front of the room here.  She is the dietician who gives talks each evening on nutrition.  She is wonderfully sweet and full of helpful tips for us.  Tonight's discussion was on learning to be an intuitive eater.  I haven't attended all the lectures but was glad I attended this one.  (Returning guests have the option of attending lectures.)  She maintains a blog about nutrition here.

Tonight we have terrible winds.  There is this HORRIFIC LOUD banging noise on the roof that is coming through our bathroom fan to our room.  Diana called the front desk and asked if there is anything they can do about it but they said no.  She told them she didn't know if they should come and check to make sure something didn't blow away.  But then she said, "Well, I hope it blows away."   For whatever reason, we giggled about her saying this for many minutes.  LOL.  I guess it's not so funny here in writing, but believe me, it was funny when it happened.  The front desk said they had ear plugs we could come get but heck, it's cold and windy out so I think we're gonna brave the banging and pounding all night.  Wish us luck.  Good night.  

Fitness Ridge 2011 - Tuesday

6 AM - Yogalates

7 AM - Breakfast

8 AM - Hike - Stop Sign, jogged 4.3 miles uphill, then walked a couple miles more to a scenic lookout. Garmin results here.

11:15 - H20 Circuit

12:35 - Lunch

1:00 - Calorie Challenge

1:30 - Open Gym --- swam 90 laps, or 2250 yards

2:30 - Cardio Intervals -- hit 8.3 on the treadmill for one minute

3:30 - Total Toning

4:30 - Deep Water Suspension

5:30 - Dinner

6:15 - Lecture - Spending Your Calories Wisely 2

7 PM - Facial

WHEW!  What a day!  I'm exhausted tonight!

Tuesday's Menu

Fruit is served with each breakfast.  Today's muffin was much more filling than it looks.  It was a bit dry though and not the best of meals here.

These lettuce wraps with quinoa were SOO filling!  

The hike today was called Stop Sign simply because we hike to the top to a Stop Sign.  It is a paved route the entire way with incline the whole way.  It is a hike known for challenging oneself to go quicker than we can go on other hikes due to the terrain.  So today my plan was to jog the entire thing.......and I did!  It was a great hike with great views along the way and an excellent cardio workout.  My heart rate was btn 148-152 the entire hour it took me to run the 4.3 mile climb.  

Once at the top of this hike you can either walk a little over a mile to this beautiful lookout or head back down and make it as far as you can until the van picks you up.  We went for this scenic lookout.  It is so worth it.  

Today was pretty exhausting.  Tomorrow we are doing Saddle for our hike.  I remember it was my least favorite last July so I'm a bit nervous.  Wish me luck!

Fitness Ridge 2011 - Monday

Monday Schedule

6 AM - Yogalates

7 AM - Breakfast

8 AM - Hiked Barrel Roll (Garmin results here)

11:15 - Stretch Class

12:15 - Lunch

1:30 - Ran outdoors 40 min (Garmin results here)

2:30 - Core Training

3:30 - H20 Intervals

4:30 - Circuit Training, 2 min cardio machines, 2 min weights, repeat for 45 min

5:30 - Dinner

6:30 - Swam 45 min
7:15 - Hot tub and socialized
8:15 - Shower, download gadgets, computer time and bed

Since I am a returning guest, I have options of not attending lectures.  There are usually two lectures a day.  That is where I  added the extra run and swim today.

Today's hike was to assess everyone so that we could be grouped by ability levels for the remainder of the week's hikes.  The terrain wasn't too bad today.  There were a few spots where I had to watch my footing pretty closely but most of it wasn't so bad at all.  The temperatures were beautiful.  We couldn't ask for better weather.

Below is my beautiful roommate Diana and myself along the way.  This is actually one of the least scenic hikes so I didn't get many pictures.  

Here is our daily menu for today.  I didn't get pictures of breakfast but it didn't look too fancy...but surely tasted good.  Everything as usual was super delicious.  I can't say enough good things about the food here!  It might not seem like a lot of calories, but it is so nutritionally dense that you get plenty to sustain the activity.  There are always extra bananas, apples and oranges available as well. I ate one extra banana today that added to the calories.  You also have the option of taking an extra boiled egg or 100 calories of almonds as an extra snack in the mornings if you feel you need the extra nutrition.  I passed on that today though. 

It is nice that the temperatures allow for us to have the option to dine outside for lunch and dinner.  It was a bit cooler today but still nice for dining outside.

And I even got my chocolate in today!!!  Woot!

Today's schedule was actually a bit easy but I think that won't be the case the rest of the week.   Diana and I booked time with a trainer tomorrow for some one on two time.  I booked some time with another trainer for later this week to get some help breaking through some running barriers.  I'm slow and steady and want to be able to push myself to go faster.  She is going to analyze my gait and I don't know what else.... but my goal is to have her push me to a new level so I can break through the mental barrier that tells me I can't go faster.  I need to figure out if it is mental or physical.  

Well, past bedtime for me.

Will try to post again tomorrow.  Off to snooze away so I can burn tons of calories and hopefully leave some pounds here in Utah when I leave!