Monday, August 25, 2008

Hello My old Friend


"Proud and alone, cold as a stone
I’m afraid to believe the things I feel
I can cry with the best I can laugh with the rest
But I’m never sure when it’s real
And it may be the hardest thing I’ve ever done"

Jackson Browne

I arrived yesterday in St George, Utah and spent most of the afternoon splashing around the pool.  I had the recent fortune of taking a flyer on a swim mp3 player that hooks on your goggles and allows you to listen to music while you swim.  Let me just say it may be my greatest purchase since tivo.   I love it and swim lap after lap with my musical friends.

So here's day one.  Alarm at 5:45 am drive one mile to ridge, listen to hiking talk and then ride van over to Snow Canyon and start up the hill at 6:30 am.  Spend next 2.5 hours walking, jogging... mostly walking up the hill down the hill.  Good news faster, less pain, than when I left.  Didn't do the full 4.5 up.  Did over 3 up, 1/4 down and then one more mile near the bottom.  The elevation and incline of the last mile was too much today, but that's mostly cause i was not willing to fight through it.  Amazing difference than when I started my first day last february.

Got back for breakfast at 10am.  One slice turkey bacon, wheat english muffin, eggs.  Skipped the eggs.  Into the pool at 10:30 for laps followed by pool aerobics.  Lunch at 12:30 veggie burrito, salad, soup, about a two on the FR scale of good food.  2:30 circuit training class followed by 3:30 circuit training class, followed by 4:30 lap swim, 5:30 hot tub, 6 pm dinner 3 oz chicken breast and purple mashed potatoes.  I give it a 3.5.  6:30 lecture on diet fads and falsehoods. 8pm type a little dribble to keep the blog readers entertained.  And with that i am heading to bed to start the whole thing over again.

Quickies:  It was over 100 today but didn't seem that bad.  The drive out here was infinitely better in summer than winter.  Vegas was fun as usual but not very crowded especially dismal on the weekend.  

A number of the campers had followed my blog which freaked me out, but one said I was her inspiration for coming which also freaked me out but made me feel good.  The maid said i was "more skinny,"  I'll take it.  Peace and more and better will follow.  Peace, Jim



7 comments:

Anonymous said...

how long are you out there? I need to plan a trip to Vegas.

karen said...

Hike up that mountain like there is no tomorrow boy!! Push those weights in your curcuit like you are moving the world to a better place!! Work it and watch the muscles grow, and the weight melt away. Good luck! Working hard here in Madison with NO workout partners to hear of, but still getting up, hitting the weight room. I will have to get some music for the pool too, so are you like your new toy? Karen

Anonymous said...

Hey Jim - Kudos to you for heading back out to the Ridge. Sounds like the summer schedule is really different from the one we had in April. Hope things continue to go well!

Leigh Ann

Jim Trudeau said...

I will be here through all of September.

kenny said...

hey! That chicken and mashed potato dinner was my absolute favourite and you have it a 3.5? Please! If they'd served it every day I would have been in heaven!

Sabine said...

Hello Jim
I am glad you are doing so well. You are right about the hike guides. They are amazing. Give them my regards and tell them I am planning to come back in April. To remind them who I am, may be the one with the German accent may help.
If you could get a group shop of them and post it that would be great. I am sure others would enjoy that too. Since they are the ones with the cameras all the time their pictures are far and few between and never as a group. Keep us posted
Sabine, Waterloo, ontario

NancyS said...

Affable, I think I'll need my dictionary for this blog. Not only "more skinny, but smart too.