Picture Day!

This was my hike on Wednesday, with the three girls that gave me the nickname Alpha. This hike was called Fern Gully, and has been my favorite of the week.


Here's Mom and her merry little band. I think this hike was Three Ravines and they made it through the first ravine, which surpassed all expectations. See Mom for more details.

Me at the stop sign.

Mom and our friend Jennifer at the stop sign.

Half Day!!

So, it's 6:22 Saturday morning, and today we only work until 12:00! That's the best news ever!

Yesterday was the achiest day yet, for both Mom and me. We both started the day on the same hike. It's Fitness Ridge's signature hike, and everyone's supposed to do it every week. It's called Stop Sign, because you hike up a mountain to .... yes, a stop sign. You'd think it would be a little anticlimactic, but honestly, when I turned the corner and saw the 'stop sign ahead' sign, the sign could have said 'In five minutes you'll meet an angel princess who will be your new best friend and take you on a year-long cruise of the world and buy you a new wardrobe and introduce you to the man of your dreams.' and I wouldn't have been happier.

The hike was paved the whole way, and I think that made it a lot harder on my joints - especially in my feet and ankles. Also, the last portion is all incline. On the way up I was listening to an audio book about North Korea on my iPod. Just as the trail was getting steep, my book was describing the conditions of a work camp where 3-5 men starved to death every day and had to sleep 10 to a blanket on concrete floors until that moment came. I decided that it wasn't exactly the driving pick-me-up that I needed, so I switched over to some peppy music. After I got my picture at the top (possibly the only picture of me standing under a stop sign that I'll ever be proud of) I started back down the mountain. I was so happy and the music was so peppy that I danced my first 10 minutes down the mountain.

I passed Mom a few minutes later. She hit the top about 30 minutes after I did. She's hiking around this place defying anyone who tells her that she probably won't make it all the way up this week. She's contrary like that. And, she dragged the whole hiking 101 group up the mountain with her.

Anyway, because of the severity of the hike, we both shuffled around for the rest of the day.

I have to go get dressed for breakfast and another hike, but I want to throw out one more thing. I remembered that I hate volleyball. I forgot that it was because I'm actually afraid of volleyball. I had a minor freak out yesterday when they had us playing volleyball in the pool and have officially gotten permission to go to another class anytime we have pool volleyball on the schedule. They get a lot of guests who skip the hikes because of fear or stay out of the deep end because of fear. I wonder if I'm the first guest who's had to skip the 'fun', easy class because of fear.

I hope we get waffles for breakfast. :)

Denice (daughter)

Jet Lag

They say that Wednesdays are weepy - but Thursday is supposed to be 'Happy Thursday'. My body must still be running on Korea time - because my Weepy Wednesday sure came a day late.

That's all.

Denice (daughter)

Today I hit my wall.

I KILLED the hike! It was an incline on a fairly packed trail with some rocks we had to watch out for but apparently this is my power hiking environment! Two of the women stayed with me because they couldn't let the "old" lady out perform them and the three of us made it to the end of the hike. The hike coordinator had only expected our group to make it 1/2 way. Our trail leader gave my pace credit for getting us all the way in. It was exhilarating and exhausting!

After lunch we attended a cardio class called "treading". We picked our poison: treadmill, elliptical, or reclining bicycle and then we went at it as hard as we could for 5 minutes followed by a 5 minute active recovery period. Then a 4 minute hard interval followed by 4 minute recovery, 3 minute, 2 minute, 1 minute and then we repeated the 1 minute a couple of times. It was the hardest thing I have had to do. I was on the treadmill. I increased it higher then I have run before and I just kept running and when it was all over I was done. Not with the class, not with the day, I was done with it all! I looked at Denice and told her I wanted to go home! And then I burst into tears. The trainer came over and said you were amazing, you ran the whole thing. What? I wasn't supposed to run the whole thing? Well yes, if you can do it, you should do it but come to find out the other women my size and my age start out walking on the treadmills...


Today I hit my wall, Denice is a great roommate she talked to me about patience and posted a quote about growth, lots of hugs, swimming came next and that was good. There have been tears today but I am better and stronger and today I did some rather amazing things and so I guess I will stay a little bit longer. I am missing a lot of you a whole bunch.

Kim (mom)

An Honest Mistake

I keep waking up to this smell and with a little embarrassment I climb in the shower to freshen up before I head to class. I've been showering in the evenings and just assumed I was sweating through the nights. Come to find out it is Denice's new grapefruit scented lotion. oops. :oD

Kim (mom)

Weepy Wednesday

I have 15 minutes until lunch, so I'm throwing down another mini blog. I think this will probably have to be my style while I'm here, though they say we'll have more free time next week.

They have a list of nicknames for the days of the week here and Wednesday is called ... actually, you already know what it's called. If you don't, glance up to the title of this entry. They say it's the worst day of the week and that if you can get past it, then everything will be great after that. Well, I hope I'm not jinxing myself here, because I'm only halfway through the workout day - but if this is the worst it gets then nooooo problem! I've had the best morning ever! I'm barely stiff or sore at all, too.

We started off the morning with a 6 a.m. yogalates class (stretching) had breakfast, then left on our hikes. Mom and I hike in different groups, but we started in the same general area today - and the scenery was unbelievable. I have to apologize for the lack of pictures. I promise to post some on Sunday when I have more time. Anyway - my hiking group killed it. Our guide said there was no way we'd have time to make it to the end of the trail, but three of us did. I was right with her the whole time and my hiking group gave me a nickname. I'm Alpha. After we got back and dumped about a 3/4 cup of orange sand out of each sock Mom headed to a deep water suspension class (water treading) and I did cardio intervals - and killed it again.

So, the day's not over, but so far, so stupendous!

Denice (daughter)

Sunchoke Soup

So, I only have a snippet of time before I'm off to a cardio intervals class. We're both hurtin' a lot today, but still getting by (so far).

Yesterday at lunch we had sunchoke soup. It was really tasty (as everything has been so far. I feel like a regular epicurean.) Anyway, I asked one of the servers what a sunchoke is. He said he wasn't sure, but he'd check with the chef. The answer he brought back is that a sunchoke is closely related to artichokes, and it comes from the Jerusalem area.

Last night I was all jet lagged and awake at 2:30 a.m. so I looked up sunchokes online to see a picture of them. What I learned is that they are neither related to artichokes, nor from Jerusalem. They are in the daisy family (you eat the root) and are native to North America. To the chef's credit - the name sunchoke is rather new. They used to be called Jerusalem artichokes. Why the new name? I'll leave you to wonder on that one. I have to put my trainers back on now and head out.

Denice (daughter)