Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Lei Me

Glowing and burning blinded by thirst
They didn't see the stop sign
Took a turn for the worse
She said, listen baby. you can hear the engine rev.
We've up and down this highway, haven't seen a goddamn thing.
Life in the fast lane
Surely make you lose your mind
The Eagles



Well, There she blows. The first Biggest Loser van rolled on to campus yesterday. The van was the same, but the name on the side was different. Can't wait to be the fat kid riding the Biggest Loser van to my hikes :) I'm sure the locals will stare a little extra hard until they get used to seeing these around town.









Tuesday is Cardio Intervals and Total Toning in the afternoons. I'll start with total toning because I rarely make it into that class. Total Toning is done in the aerobics room. You have barbells in your hands and a mat on the floor. The class lasts 45 minutes as do most of the classes and you get a full body tone. It's not lifting weights really but there are plenty of reps and I sweat for sure.







Yesterday, I again did two sessions of the cardio intervals. You spend about 50 minutes on the treadmill for each class. You get a ten minute warm up then proceed to do 30 second intervals increasing your speed each time for 8 units, get a one to two minute sprint on top and then decrease your speed for 8 30 second intervals down. You get a couple one to two minute sprints on the bottom and then repeat the intervals and sprints a second time.






As you can tell by the joy on my face these sprints are nothing but fun.










Some people do intervals on the elliptical as shown here. Others choose the stationary bikes. My sweat is always running like a waterfall onto the treadmills.














Sally Sand and I celebrating the completion of our intervals class. As always I look a million times sweatier but I can assure you that Sally broke a sweat. In fact I felt like I was motoring at my top speed only to look over and see Sally sprintinga full 2.5 mph's faster. Plus since she was next to me she got to hear my singing over my ipod which I tend to do when the shut off in my brain malfunctions from all the oxygen racing to my lungs. I imagine hearing an acapella "Take it to the Limit"from the big, sweaty, panting dummy on the next treadmill is a bit disconcerting especially when he probably only pronounces every 3rd word due to lack of air.





Ending the day with pool class is always the highlight to my day.











A little shout out to the new trainer John. Nice to see a boy on the staff. Just for the record John will push you...hard. And when Satan throws in an exercise dvd for his minions in Hell, I am 99% certain it is a copy of John's step class.






Deb the hiking guide just spent some time in Maui. I, of course, asked for her to bring me back a lei from paradise. Now this isn't just any run of the mill lei. And Deb was not your normal hanging out on the beach, drinking mai-tai's vacationer in Hawaii. Deb was in Maui to run in the Maui Marathon. And she has run a marathon or two before. In fact Maui was #185. And St George on Saturday will be #186. And when you finish the Maui Marathon they congratulate you by slipping a lei around your neck. And the lei that went around Deb's neck when she finished she passed on to me. I have rarely been so touched by a gift and hung it on the treadmill for yesterday's classes. I was 20 miles short of the marathon distance but it felt good slipping that lei on when I finished class. Thank you Deb. Have a happy day Peace Love and Lei's for all my friends, Jim





4 comments:

Christina M. said...

Hmmmm......definitely not loving the van, but that's just personal vanity I guess.

Sounds like you are doing awesome in cardio classes! Makes me laugh (in a nice way) to imagine the singing.

Anonymous said...

I agree about the van. Still mulling over the whole Biggest Loser/Fitness Ridge merge.

Just think of how many marathons you will have completed by the time you leave Utah! You earned that lei!!!

Anonymous said...

Well hell, I secrectly had on two shirts so the sweat was just really hard to see!! My hat changed colors too which is pretty disgusting. As for Jens time...that means my best time was 48:00, right? ;) Oh yea and damn them vans, I had to ride in one on an "advanced" hike on the way out a bunch of damn kids were making fun of us. Bastards.

~Sally.

Sabine said...

When I started reading about Deb, I knew a marathon had to be involved.....Do you know that she is the only person that run every single one of the St. George Marathons.....
I love talking about running (talking about it is so much easier than the actual running).
I am "easing" back into running signed up for the Disney Half M. in January.