Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Fitness Ridge day 9
I’m getting pretty homesick. I can’t believe I originally planned to stay here for 4 consecutive weeks. I would never have been able to do it. It’s to the point that I’m thinking about coming home on Saturday instead of Sunday. All the exercise is over for the week by noon on Saturday so I could stay for lunch, then pack and leave. I’m going to look into changing my flight tomorrow. If it works out, then I’ll be able to see the Super Bowl at home this Sunday. I missed the last 2 playoff games because I was traveling to Utah all that day.
I also changed my plans for the second 2 weeks. I was supposed to come back March 28th through April 11th, but both mine and Danny’s birthdays are during that first week. So I gave up that week. Now I’ll be back from April 4th through April 11th, then back one more time in October. I’m thinking that one week at a time will be best for me. And, by October I’ll be able to do some of the more advanced hikes.
Today I did the stop sign hike again. I think I’ll do the same one all week. I actually kind of like it. As for the rest of my classes, well my schedule was pretty much the same as last Tuesday, except I took 2 pool classes today because my knee was bothering me again.
The food was good. I had tomato soup today for lunch. I had never had tomato soup before. It was pretty good. And, they gave us enchiladas for dinner. Those were really good. The weird thing was that they served it in a bowl. I couldn’t figure out why they would do that, then it dawned on me, they put it in a bowl to cover up the small portion size. I could have eaten twice what I was served, but with all the water that I drank, I’m feeling full now. There are pictures of tonight’s dinner and dessert below.
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (fruit, yogurt and granola parfait)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Yoga stretch
12:45PM Lunch (tomato soup and turkey sandwich)
2:30PM Cardio intervals
3:30PM Pool
4:30PM Pool
5:45PM Dinner (Enchiladas and chocolate sorbet for dessert)
Yummy, but small portion of enchiladas
Yummy chocolate sorbet
This is Jim (in the center) with trainers John and Tiffany. Jim has been coming to Fitness Ridge for years and keeping a really good blog about it all. Reading his blog is what got me interested in coming here.
I also changed my plans for the second 2 weeks. I was supposed to come back March 28th through April 11th, but both mine and Danny’s birthdays are during that first week. So I gave up that week. Now I’ll be back from April 4th through April 11th, then back one more time in October. I’m thinking that one week at a time will be best for me. And, by October I’ll be able to do some of the more advanced hikes.
Today I did the stop sign hike again. I think I’ll do the same one all week. I actually kind of like it. As for the rest of my classes, well my schedule was pretty much the same as last Tuesday, except I took 2 pool classes today because my knee was bothering me again.
The food was good. I had tomato soup today for lunch. I had never had tomato soup before. It was pretty good. And, they gave us enchiladas for dinner. Those were really good. The weird thing was that they served it in a bowl. I couldn’t figure out why they would do that, then it dawned on me, they put it in a bowl to cover up the small portion size. I could have eaten twice what I was served, but with all the water that I drank, I’m feeling full now. There are pictures of tonight’s dinner and dessert below.
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (fruit, yogurt and granola parfait)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Yoga stretch
12:45PM Lunch (tomato soup and turkey sandwich)
2:30PM Cardio intervals
3:30PM Pool
4:30PM Pool
5:45PM Dinner (Enchiladas and chocolate sorbet for dessert)
Yummy, but small portion of enchiladas
Yummy chocolate sorbet
This is Jim (in the center) with trainers John and Tiffany. Jim has been coming to Fitness Ridge for years and keeping a really good blog about it all. Reading his blog is what got me interested in coming here.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Fitness Ridge Day 8
Yesterday all I wanted to do was be a hermit. I stayed in my room and read, watch The Matrix Marathon and iced my left knee. Even at dinner I just picked my food up and took it back to my room. For the life of me I could not figure out why I was being so anti-social. Then it dawned on me, I was really bummed about the fact that many of the friends that I made last week were now gone, Anndriette, Carla, Cassandra, Marilyn, Cynthia, Evelyn and Shelly just to name a few. I miss you guys. Between that, and the slow day allowing time to feel homesick, I was being crabby.
Today was better, no time to mope. Everyone does the timed stop sign hike on Monday and Saturday, and guess what? I beat my time from last Monday by 16 minutes!!! That’s huge! I think my body must have finally acclimated to the altitude here. I thought I was going faster, but not that much faster. Let’s see if I can keep it up.
It’s pretty cold here, in the mornings especially. There is snow all over the surrounding mountains. It looks so pretty so I took a picture and posted it below.
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (fruit, egg and beacon on English muffin)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Mountain
12:45PM Lunch (sunchoke soup [picture of sunchoke below] and 2 fish tacos)
2:30PM Circuit training
3:30PM Step-and-pump
4:30PM Pool
5:45PM Dinner (Baked chicken over wassabi mashed potatoes [which are green picture below as proof] and asparagus, pineapple sorbet for dessert)
Today was better, no time to mope. Everyone does the timed stop sign hike on Monday and Saturday, and guess what? I beat my time from last Monday by 16 minutes!!! That’s huge! I think my body must have finally acclimated to the altitude here. I thought I was going faster, but not that much faster. Let’s see if I can keep it up.
It’s pretty cold here, in the mornings especially. There is snow all over the surrounding mountains. It looks so pretty so I took a picture and posted it below.
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (fruit, egg and beacon on English muffin)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Mountain
12:45PM Lunch (sunchoke soup [picture of sunchoke below] and 2 fish tacos)
2:30PM Circuit training
3:30PM Step-and-pump
4:30PM Pool
5:45PM Dinner (Baked chicken over wassabi mashed potatoes [which are green picture below as proof] and asparagus, pineapple sorbet for dessert)
Sunchoke, looks just like ginger.
This is what I ate for dinner tonight. It was pretty good.
Can you see the snow in the surrounding mountains? No wonder it’s so cold here!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Fitness Ridge Day 7
Sunday is our day of rest around here. I’ve spent nearly the entire day in my room, except when I went down for breakfast, and then left for a little while so the maids could clean the room. I don’t feel like doing anything today. For dinner I’ll just go down and get my food to go then come back to my room. I almost wish we didn’t have an entire free day because I’m feeling a little homesick. I miss my hubby and my dogs.
Somebody asked in a comment about people pushing each other, and whether the staff asks us to do this. The answer is that there are great people here. Both guests and staff want you to succeed. People encourage and push you in class and on the hikes, and when you’re successful they cheer and clap for you. We’re all going through the same thing, and are happy to see the success of others.
I’m trying to think of some tips for those readers who are planning to visit Fitness Ridge soon. All I can come up with are things that I read on other people’s blogs. Duct tape has been my savior. Don’t forget to bring scissors to cut it with. Bring VERY comfortable shoes, two pair or more would be best. Most people don’t wear actual hiking boots/shoes on the hikes. Check the weather report, and if you think there might be rain then bring a poncho. Know that if you dislike a meal, there is always another option. If you don’t want what is being served for breakfast you can have cereal or toast. The toast is served with a tablespoon of peanut butter and jelly. The alternative for lunch and dinner is a Boca burger, which has a patty made with soy, veggies and grains. It sounds weird, but tastes pretty good. Try to get to sleep early on Sunday night. Monday will be tough.
Somebody asked in a comment about people pushing each other, and whether the staff asks us to do this. The answer is that there are great people here. Both guests and staff want you to succeed. People encourage and push you in class and on the hikes, and when you’re successful they cheer and clap for you. We’re all going through the same thing, and are happy to see the success of others.
I’m trying to think of some tips for those readers who are planning to visit Fitness Ridge soon. All I can come up with are things that I read on other people’s blogs. Duct tape has been my savior. Don’t forget to bring scissors to cut it with. Bring VERY comfortable shoes, two pair or more would be best. Most people don’t wear actual hiking boots/shoes on the hikes. Check the weather report, and if you think there might be rain then bring a poncho. Know that if you dislike a meal, there is always another option. If you don’t want what is being served for breakfast you can have cereal or toast. The toast is served with a tablespoon of peanut butter and jelly. The alternative for lunch and dinner is a Boca burger, which has a patty made with soy, veggies and grains. It sounds weird, but tastes pretty good. Try to get to sleep early on Sunday night. Monday will be tough.
Fitness Ridge Day 6
Saturday is a relatively easy day, compared to Monday through Friday that is. Everyone does the timed stop sign hike again. So, we can all see if the week of exercise helped us improve our time. I only beat my Monday time by about 2 minutes. It could have been better, but I’m okay with my time since I was walking with a sore knee. I just wanted to get to the top and didn’t really care about my time. After the hike I did a stretch class, which was good. I feel a little more flexible than I did on Monday.
The vast majority of the people here are women, making up about 90% of all guests. Of the 10% who are men, half of them are here with their wives. I asked one husband if he was having a good time and he said, “Absolutely not!” He said he thought he and his wife were coming to a spa, the kind where you get massages and facials and lay around by the pool all day sipping cocktails. Ha!
On Friday I was too tired to write about my favorite class called Cardio Disco Jams. It was a really fun class where we all did these 70’s style dance routines to great disco music. The instructor, the only male instructor here, made all the men come to the front of the room for the second half of the class. Then, someone came up with the idea for the men to do the last 1 or 2 minutes of class by themselves. They were all great sports, and nobody dashed out of the room (like I would have done if I were one of only 5 people dancing in front of 60 women). Anyway, I’m glad that I didn’t write about this on Friday when it happened because the wife of one of the guys posted a video of the thing on youtube.
The link to the video is below. The guy doing the break-dancing at the very beginning is funny and super nice. His name is Seth Word. He lives in Salinas, and was in second place on season 2 of The Biggest Loser. The tall guy in the middle of the front row is an NFL football player and is here with his wife. His wife is the one that posted the video on youtube. The man in the back row, all in black is the husband that thought he was going to a spa. The two other guys are Eric Chopin and his brother Doug Chopin. Eric, in the front row won season 3 of The Biggest Loser. The man in front is of course the instructor, John. Most of the women are standing at the front of the room, so you can’t see them. And I think near the beginning I walk right in front of the camera. I didn’t know she was video taping this thing.
Cardio Disco Jam Video
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (parfait with fruit yogurt and granola)
8:00AM Hike (stop sign, shaved two minutes of Monday’s time)
11:15AM Stretch class
12:45PM Lunch (Carrot soup which wasn’t bad and two soft tacos made with turkey and which tasted pretty good)
5:45PM Dinner (Teriyaki chicken and rice bowl, not bad even though I’m not a fan of teriyaki)
From 6-8PM was graduation, where everyone gets to talk about what they learned, or loved or gained from their week at Fitness Ridge. I just thanked the boys for being such good sports in that class, because watching it was the most fun I had all week. We all also got our gift for attending all the classes. First-weekers get a t-shirt. After that we had karaoke. I didn’t sing, because I can’t, but some people were really good. I didn’t stay for the whole thing because I wanted to get to bed.
The vast majority of the people here are women, making up about 90% of all guests. Of the 10% who are men, half of them are here with their wives. I asked one husband if he was having a good time and he said, “Absolutely not!” He said he thought he and his wife were coming to a spa, the kind where you get massages and facials and lay around by the pool all day sipping cocktails. Ha!
On Friday I was too tired to write about my favorite class called Cardio Disco Jams. It was a really fun class where we all did these 70’s style dance routines to great disco music. The instructor, the only male instructor here, made all the men come to the front of the room for the second half of the class. Then, someone came up with the idea for the men to do the last 1 or 2 minutes of class by themselves. They were all great sports, and nobody dashed out of the room (like I would have done if I were one of only 5 people dancing in front of 60 women). Anyway, I’m glad that I didn’t write about this on Friday when it happened because the wife of one of the guys posted a video of the thing on youtube.
The link to the video is below. The guy doing the break-dancing at the very beginning is funny and super nice. His name is Seth Word. He lives in Salinas, and was in second place on season 2 of The Biggest Loser. The tall guy in the middle of the front row is an NFL football player and is here with his wife. His wife is the one that posted the video on youtube. The man in the back row, all in black is the husband that thought he was going to a spa. The two other guys are Eric Chopin and his brother Doug Chopin. Eric, in the front row won season 3 of The Biggest Loser. The man in front is of course the instructor, John. Most of the women are standing at the front of the room, so you can’t see them. And I think near the beginning I walk right in front of the camera. I didn’t know she was video taping this thing.
Cardio Disco Jam Video
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (parfait with fruit yogurt and granola)
8:00AM Hike (stop sign, shaved two minutes of Monday’s time)
11:15AM Stretch class
12:45PM Lunch (Carrot soup which wasn’t bad and two soft tacos made with turkey and which tasted pretty good)
5:45PM Dinner (Teriyaki chicken and rice bowl, not bad even though I’m not a fan of teriyaki)
From 6-8PM was graduation, where everyone gets to talk about what they learned, or loved or gained from their week at Fitness Ridge. I just thanked the boys for being such good sports in that class, because watching it was the most fun I had all week. We all also got our gift for attending all the classes. First-weekers get a t-shirt. After that we had karaoke. I didn’t sing, because I can’t, but some people were really good. I didn’t stay for the whole thing because I wanted to get to bed.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Fitness Ridge Day 5
I decided to do the 101 hike again this morning because after pushing myself so hard in Treading yesterday, my knee started to feel a little sore. The 101 hike is for people who want to see some of the gorgeous scenery but are a little too slow for the intermediate and advanced hikes. I assumed that 101 would be easier on my knee than the stop sign hike… BOY was I wrong! Climbing over all those rocks, up and down mountains is definitely not the way to protect a sore knee. The knee is not too bad but I did spend some time icing it after lunch, and before all the afternoon classes. Below is a picture of one of the rocks that we climbed. It’s called The Stair Mistress (you know, like stair master). It’s like walking up (then down) 10 flights of rough, uneven and bumpy stairs. Also, below is a picture of me icing my knee and foot.
Oh, I found out something very interesting / funny about the chocolate mousse that I mentioned a couple of days ago. It’s not chocolate mousse at all. It’s a chocolate and TOFU pie. Can you believe it? TOFU! It tasted so muck like mousse, but the major ingredient in the recipe is tofu. Weird huh? Tonight we had something similar for dessert, which I took a picture of and posted it below.
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (Egg and sausage muffin)
8:00AM Hike (bad for my knee)
11:15AM Stretch class (good for my knee)
12:45PM Lunch (potato and broccoli soup and sloppy joe with turkey not beef)
1:15PM Lecture: preparing for next week
2:30PM Circuit
3:30PM Cardio Disco Jam (super fun. I’ll write about that tomorrow)
4:30PM Pool (really good for my knee)
5:45PM Dinner (salmon burger, pretty good even though I hate fish)
Stair Mistress
My poor left leg
Limon pie (Made with lots of tofu!)
Oh, I found out something very interesting / funny about the chocolate mousse that I mentioned a couple of days ago. It’s not chocolate mousse at all. It’s a chocolate and TOFU pie. Can you believe it? TOFU! It tasted so muck like mousse, but the major ingredient in the recipe is tofu. Weird huh? Tonight we had something similar for dessert, which I took a picture of and posted it below.
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (Egg and sausage muffin)
8:00AM Hike (bad for my knee)
11:15AM Stretch class (good for my knee)
12:45PM Lunch (potato and broccoli soup and sloppy joe with turkey not beef)
1:15PM Lecture: preparing for next week
2:30PM Circuit
3:30PM Cardio Disco Jam (super fun. I’ll write about that tomorrow)
4:30PM Pool (really good for my knee)
5:45PM Dinner (salmon burger, pretty good even though I hate fish)
Stair Mistress
My poor left leg
Limon pie (Made with lots of tofu!)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Fitness Ridge Day 4
I did the stop sign hike again, but did it a little slower today. I think I must have hurt my foot in kickboxing yesterday. The top of my left foot feels like I dropped a 10 pound weight on it or something. It was a little swollen when I woke up this morning. Between that and the black ice on some of the trail, I almost talked myself out of doing the whole thing. One girl actually fell on the slippery black ice. I took a picture of the black ice, since I’d never seen it before.
On the way back for the hike we saw a roadrunner. I had never seen one of those before, and almost thought that they were just a cartoon character. But no, they’re real. I put a picture of that below.
My hardest class today was called treading. The way it works is you pick a cardio machine and go as hard as you can for 5 minutes, then recover (meaning go slower) for 5 minutes. Then go as hard as you can for 4 minutes then recover for 4 minutes then go as hard as you can for 3 minutes then recover for 3 minutes, then 2 then 1. By the time this class came around it was 3:30PM (my next to last class) and I was tired. I figured I would sweat a little but not overdo it because I wanted a break already. But the person who was on the machine next to mine challenged me to go all out. So I pushed myself SUPER hard. I really thought I was going to pass out during the 5 and 4 minute hard parts.
Tomorrow is Friday, and that means the last full day of the week. On Saturday we just do the hike and one class. Then, after lunch we get to rest until Monday morning. I’m looking forward to the rest, especially if my foot is still hurting. As long as that’s as bad as it gets, I’ll be okay. Some of the people here have had a terrible time with blisters, something that I have been able to avoid so far. Yay for duct tape! One girl has had a ton of blisters. And another girl had a blister that she popped and got infected with a Staph infection. It got super swollen and turned black. She’s leaving early because the poor thing also hurt her knee.
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (fruit smoothie and a whole wheat English muffin)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Gym class (lots of weights)
12:45PM Lunch (turkey sandwich)
1:15PM Cooking demo
2:30PM Ball works (a lot of arm and leg work using a balance ball, super hard)
3:30PM Treading (my hardest class today)
4:30PM Pool (fun, but still hard)
5:45PM Dinner (stuffed bell peppers, too bad I forgot my camera because it would have been great to show a picture of that)
Here’s the black ice. It’s kind of crazy that it’s called black ice because it’s the only part of the pavement that’s not black. The black part is actually thawed out, so is just wet. The “black” ice is actually kind of white. The red stuff is dirt... yep the dirt is red up here.
Here’s a picture of the little roadrunner. We were in the van heading back to campus when the driver spotted it, so we stopped and the little guy came right up close to us.
On the way back for the hike we saw a roadrunner. I had never seen one of those before, and almost thought that they were just a cartoon character. But no, they’re real. I put a picture of that below.
My hardest class today was called treading. The way it works is you pick a cardio machine and go as hard as you can for 5 minutes, then recover (meaning go slower) for 5 minutes. Then go as hard as you can for 4 minutes then recover for 4 minutes then go as hard as you can for 3 minutes then recover for 3 minutes, then 2 then 1. By the time this class came around it was 3:30PM (my next to last class) and I was tired. I figured I would sweat a little but not overdo it because I wanted a break already. But the person who was on the machine next to mine challenged me to go all out. So I pushed myself SUPER hard. I really thought I was going to pass out during the 5 and 4 minute hard parts.
Tomorrow is Friday, and that means the last full day of the week. On Saturday we just do the hike and one class. Then, after lunch we get to rest until Monday morning. I’m looking forward to the rest, especially if my foot is still hurting. As long as that’s as bad as it gets, I’ll be okay. Some of the people here have had a terrible time with blisters, something that I have been able to avoid so far. Yay for duct tape! One girl has had a ton of blisters. And another girl had a blister that she popped and got infected with a Staph infection. It got super swollen and turned black. She’s leaving early because the poor thing also hurt her knee.
Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (fruit smoothie and a whole wheat English muffin)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Gym class (lots of weights)
12:45PM Lunch (turkey sandwich)
1:15PM Cooking demo
2:30PM Ball works (a lot of arm and leg work using a balance ball, super hard)
3:30PM Treading (my hardest class today)
4:30PM Pool (fun, but still hard)
5:45PM Dinner (stuffed bell peppers, too bad I forgot my camera because it would have been great to show a picture of that)
Here’s the black ice. It’s kind of crazy that it’s called black ice because it’s the only part of the pavement that’s not black. The black part is actually thawed out, so is just wet. The “black” ice is actually kind of white. The red stuff is dirt... yep the dirt is red up here.
Here’s a picture of the little roadrunner. We were in the van heading back to campus when the driver spotted it, so we stopped and the little guy came right up close to us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
