Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Measuring Achievments



Life doesn't wait for us to get it right, day after night,
It just goes on, when it goes wrong it goes and then it's gone
So I'm going to do my best to make the most of it, avoid regrets

Take a breath, realize, time is irreversible,
This aint no dress rehearsal


Carolyn Dawn Johnson







For those of you reading this that attended the Ridge back in the pre-biggest loser days I thought you may enjoy this picture of what the Monday morning stop sign hike now looks like. Between the campers and the guides I think we put close to 80 people on the trail. A far cry from back in the day when 20 was a big number. Speaking of back in the day It has now been exactly two years since I walked onto the Fitness Ridge campus for the first time.



This my friend Joyce, She has been at the Ridge for I believe 18 weeks and we walked together on the stop sign hike on monday. It was the coldest day since I have been here and just for fun the rain from the night before had frozen in a few spots on the trail. It was a nasty walk. And when we got to the small stop sign and started to head up I decided to talk Joyce into climbing up Galoot rock. 18 weeks and her first off road climbing adventure, I was happy to be there when she reached the summit. So I did not do the full stop sign hike but I felt awfully good that I could share a new experience with a fellow camper. Not all achievements are measured against the stopwatch heading up the hill and in fact it is much better and rewarding to measure them by the smiles they produce and the satisfaction they create.
Tami one of the principal owners of the Ridge has been hiking and doing classes all week and joined us for the hike monday. And for the record it was the first time I broke out the sweatpants for a walk up the hill. One thing about getting so many pictures with girls is I almost always look really tall :)








Here's a picture of Suzy Hoover from season two of the Biggest Loser. Not only is her sweatshirt funny and appropriate she is extremely funny and friendly as are most of the people here. Speaking of shutting up and sweating I guess I may have felt a little guilty for not pushing myself that hard in the morning or perhaps it is that I am an idiot but I did 500 single arm 12 lb medicine ball sit-ups on Monday afternoon. My last personal best was 300 and my abs are feeling way sore today. I swear there is a six pack in there somewhere.
Tuesday I got into the pool that hosts the swim for the triathlon. It was a little cooler than I expected but not too bad. I banged out the whole swim without much of a problem. Need to work on my turns and improving my speed. Knocked out 4.1 miles on the treadmill in the afternoon. I feel pretty good, a little sore, but no major aches. I do have an unusual craving for lobster for some reason. I believe this stems from the tales of joy in Vegas I have been hearing from some of my fellow campers. Shout out to Marissa from Southern Virginia for today's blog song. She has been here two separate times while I have been here but sadly not this trip. And she was my personal water mule on many of my big hikes last fall hauling my water bottle up the hill for me. Hope everyone's day is warm and dry. Peace, Jim












9 comments:

Sarah said...

Jim, you ARE tall whether you're next to girls or not :)

karen said...

keep up the great work Jim! I am swimming every day as my belly grows. Love the pictures of your hikes, makes me want to travel and hike. Make it a great day. k

Anonymous said...

Joyce looks great. When I was at FR in December I don't think she had been on a hike yet. She looks great and so do you.

Fantastic Four said...

What a great inspiration you are. That is so awesome that you got her to go on her first hike.

Mmm lobster pizza. You do know what happens if you eat a whole lobster? Haha, yikes!

Anonymous said...

Jim,

What's the deal with the stop sign hike? You have mentioned it several times... How long and how steep is it? I think you said it is 4 1/2 miles... but is that each way (up and back down)? Is its purpose to gauge everybody's ability? Or...?

Thank you for your reply and your funny posts! Look forward to meeting you...

Anonymous said...

The stop sign hike is 4.5 miles up and you have the option of being picked up at the top or you can work your way back down and there are a few other pickup spots. The last 1/3 of it is rather steep. Everyone at the ridge does that hike on Monday and Saturday. The other days of the week you can choose that one or do an off road hike instead. All of the hikes are challenging in their own way. The stop sign one is probably the biggest calorie burn.

Anonymous said...

"Biggest calorie burn"? Sounds interesting... and exciting!

Thank you for your immediate reply!

laura said...

wow, that stop sign hike photo is a far cry from my first visit there in 2006. Has the atmosphere changed with so many guests?

riss said...

Wishing I was there now. It sounds like you're doing so well with your training. Keep up the hard work :)