Records are meant to be broken

I've heard the saying many times that records are meant to be broken and I agree.  The theme for today was all about breaking personal records.

For the hike, my van was assigned to Cheseboro Canyon, which is a great hike.  The people in the group were fast, so I was in the back.  Sam was the hiking guide in the back, and it almost felt like my own personal hike with Sam.  After watching the Biggest Loser show, I have a lot of questions and today I was able to ask Sam all of my questions.  It was great because he is willing to answer any questions and take any pictures.  I got a lot of good tips that will help me here and later in life when I go home.

The afternoon classes are core training, circuit training, and something in the pool.  For those of y'all that have been here, you know how hard Megan's core class is.  Megan is one of the trainers and she is awesome.  The core class is difficult because it is 45 minutes of the toughest core moves.  For the past 5 weeks I have had to take a little break sometimes throughout the exercises.

As soon as I do that, Megan could be on the other side of the room and within a second be over where I am asking what's going on.  Nothing gets by her.  For example, we'll probably do about 40 crunches where we hold each crunch for 15 seconds.  Halfway through the crunches, I'll need a rest of 1-2 crunches then get back to it.  Today I was able to do every move and repetition without needing a rest during the set.

Then we moved to circuit training.  Remember circuit training is 2 minutes of cardio followed by 2 minutes of weight training and repeat the cycle.  At the end of the class, for our last cardio session we did two sprints of 30 seconds each with a rest in between.

It just so happened that I was on the treadmill at that time and Sam was standing next to me.  He said that he'll control the speed and for me to just run.  I agreed.  Last time we did sprints like this, I ran at 6.5 mph.  Today with Sam's help I was able to go 7.6 mph!!  That was really fast for me and the next time we do sprints, I want to see if I can get it to 8.0 mph.

Throughout my time here I've had to pick up the intensity each week.  I have maxed out the resistance and incline on the cardio machines.  Some of y'all might be wondering if there is room to pick up the intensity.  The answer is yes and it is called the Jacobs Ladder.

The Jacobs Ladder is marketed as the ultimate fitness experience.  I got on it my first week here and it definitely delivers.  I wasn't able to stay on it a long time because I was so sore then.  Today for the last sprint I decided to get on the Jacobs Ladder because I knew that I could go 30 seconds.  Here's a picture of the Jacobs Ladder.  In my opinion, it doesn't look like it would be that good of a cardio workout, but it is, believe me.

Closing thought for the day:  Today was the best start to any week that I have had here.  It took me until my sixth week to use the Jacobs Ladder in class, and today my sprint on the treadmill was 7.6 mph.  Records truly are meant to be broken.

Wow, what a Saturday!!

I will admit there were some alternative motives in posting about the 90/10 rule yesterday.  Yes, the rule is great and I plan to stick to it.  However, I planned on this weekend combined with last weekend to be part of the 10% during my stay here at the BLR.

This past week Mason's sister was here at the BLR and one of Mason's friends flew in for the weekend.  We had planned to pretty much repeat the events of last Saturday.  It was a lot better the second time around.  Please read further because it gets pretty cool at the end.  I know that I haven't been posting a lot of pictures, but today will make up for it, especially if you like cars.

This morning I went to the beach hike.  The last time I was there was on Tuesday and at the end of the beach we could tell they were starting to set up to shoot some film, but we didn't know what exactly.  Then, the group that went on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday reported that they were filming an episode of Outsourced.  If you've never heard of the show, then I'd recommend googling it.

Everyone that saw the filming said they didn't know how it related to the storyline, but indicated there was an elephant involved.  So, if you watch the show in the future and notice an elephant on the beach, that was filmed here in Malibu, not in India.

Yesterday they did a good job of tearing down everything, so today they took down the last remaining peaces.  There's really nothing to see, but here is a picture of what I saw today.

Then after the hike all of us went to a famous hot dog place in Hollywood called Pink's hot dog stand.  The family name is Pink and they have a whole lot of pictures on the wall of celebrities who have eaten there.

After lunch we drove around Beverly Hills and Hollywood.  We saw the Playboy Mansion, Aaron Spelling's house, and the graveyard from last week.  We had some time to spare, so we had drinks at the Polo Lounge, which is in The Beverly Hills Hotel.  On our way out of the hotel we saw Will Arnett.  If you don't know who he is, go to IMDB.com and look him up.

As you probably know, the Oscars are tomorrow and we drove past Hollywood Boulevard where the Kodak Theater is located and it was blocked off.  Here's a couple of pictures.

Due to the Oscars, there's a lot of activity at the Playboy Mansion for parties.  We couldn't get inside the gates, but here's a picture of the top of the roof.

A few houses away from the Playboy Mansion is Aaron Spelling's house, which is on sale for $150 million.  Here's a couple of pictures from the street.

For those of y'all that like cars like I do, now we get to the good stuff.  We finished our afternoon on Rodeo Drive.  I didn't do any shopping this week, but went for the experience, and was not disappointed.  When we first entered Rodeo Drive, I noticed there was a Mercedes Maybach at the intersection.  Here's a picture.

For those that don't know about the Maybach, it is Mercedes' most luxurious car.  People do not buy this car to drive, they buy it to be driven in.  The price range is between $350k to $450k depending on the model.

Oh, it is only beginning.  Later on Rodeo Drive we came across a Bugatti Veyron, which is the most expensive road car in the world and probably the fastest road car in the world.  I'll have more description after the pictures.

Now that you've seen this car, get ready for the price tag.  This car sells for $1,700,000.  If that doesn't get your attention, then try this.  Bugatti is owned by the Volkswagen Group and it costs the company $4,00,000 to make the car.  That's right, the company looses money on these cars, but makes it up on their other road cars.

Eventually we had to leave the Veyron and go eat dinner at Cut, which is one of the top steak restaurants in LA.  I had the Australian kobe beef steak and it was the best steak I have ever had.  By the way, there's a lot of things to google on this post.  Go ahead and add the restaurant Cut to your list.

We drive up and immediately I spot the Porsche Carrera GT.  For those that don't know, this is Porsche' supercar and costs $440,000.  But that's not all, this car was parked between a Rolls Royce and a Bentley.  I didn't get the model for the Bentley and I think the Rolls Royce was a Ghost model.  Here's some pictures.

This last picture above is me giving my approval of the Porsche Carrera GT and the Rolls Royce Ghost behind it.  By the way, if you do the math, you could buy the Porsche Carrera GT, the Rolls Royce Ghost, and the Bentley and be about $750,000 to $800,000 short of the price of the Bugatti Veyron!!

Eventually we made it to the restaurant and it was just as good as what I remembered from last weekend.  When Mason's friend was walking in the hotel, he noticed a tall guy walking out of the hotel.  He didn't immediately recognize the guy at first, but realized who it was after the guy had left.

It was Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics.  We checked the schedule on the iPhone and the Celtics are in town playing the Clippers tonight.  We asked our waiter if other basketball teams stay here at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and he said most of them do.  By the way, this is the same hotel that is featured in the movie Pretty Woman.

Then, later on in the meal Steven Spielberg walks in with a little group to eat dinner.  We heard the hostess say "Mr. Spielberg, right this way" and we looked up and there he was wearing a ball cap.  I didn't take a picture because it wasn't right in this setting.  He was with a small group and everyone left him alone.  It was still cool to be in the same dining room with him.

Closing thought for the day:  Today was a day of many firsts.  It was my first sightings of a Porsche Carrera GT, a Bugatti Veyron, Will Arnett and Steven Spielberg.  I had cocktails at the Beverly Hills Hotel and ended the day having the best steak of my life at one of LA's top steak restaurants.  What a day!!

90/10 rule

Let me first start off by providing an update from the past couple of days.  I reported that I hit the wall physically on Wednesday.  After Wednesday's post, I realized that I was probably dehydrated.  I could easily tell from the color of my urine.  I started taking electrolytes after dinner Wednesday and all day Thursday.  The dehydration issue is over and I am back to normal.

Today was cold, wet, and raining, so I'd like to talk more about the food.  I've already said that the food here is low calorie, but designed to fill us up.  This includes lean protein like chicken breast and fish, whole grains, and lot of fruits and vegetables.  They don't serve any red meat, processed foods, dairy, or caffeine.

The recommendation from both the nutritionist and the dietitian is to stick to the 90/10 rule.  This means that 90% of the time we should stick to the plan, then the other 10% go off the plan and have whatever you want.  This is a general rule and the execution will vary according to each person.

So, if you want to take the rule on a daily basis, you can go off the plan 10% for that day.  When grocery shopping, at the end before checking out, look at your basket.  90% of the items should be on the plan and 10% whatever you want.

For me, it would be best executed on a weekly or monthly plan.  Throughout the weekdays, I will stick to the plan, then have my 10% sometime on the weekends.

The hike today was Solstice Canyon.  This is the hike that has a steep incline for the first fourth of the hike and later we go up to the fireplace.  It was one of those hikes where it went in cycles.  It started off cold and rainy, so I had my coat and poncho on.  Then, it would get hot and steamy, so I would take off my coat.  Later in the hike I would get cold, so I put the coat back on.  I spent a lot of time taking the coat off and putting it back on.  Same with the poncho.

Last week I had a picture of the waterfall.  Actually now I realize that was not the water fall, but the creek that is after the waterfall.  So, today we went up to the waterfall and it wasn't raining at that time, so we took a picture.

The afternoon classes were circuit training and cardio disco.  There's always a class in the pool, but like I said, it is cold, wet and rainy.  Do I really want to get in the pool?  No, so instead I went to another cardio disco class.

Closing thought for the day:  Week five went real fast.  With the weather being like it is, there are a lot of people getting sick.  I have taken the precautions to not get sick and have succeeded.  There's just something about cardio disco that hits the spot on Friday afternoon, and today was no exception.

Missed opportunity

Today my van was assigned to Cheseboro Canyon for the hike.  This is the hike that I did last week when it was raining and muddy.  After sliding around for several steps in the mud, I went back and walked on the pavement.

It didn't take long for the mud to dry out and it was a pleasant hike.  The scenery is beautiful because of the rolling hills.  I think that I've mentioned before that the hikes are owned and operated by the California Department of Parks and Recreation.  At the end of my hike today, a couple of park rangers or staff members came through the trail driving an SUV.  I didn't pay attention to the specifics of the vehicle, so I don't know that kind of SUV is was, all I know is that it was white.

After the SUV passed, I noticed there were other people coming the other way, but I didn't think anything about it.  The hiking guide knew a couple of them by name and after they passed, she told me they are members of greenpeace and hike out here all of the time.

I put two and two together and started laughing.  The entire greenpeace movement is based on abolishing evil SUVs from the planet, but here they were passing an SUV on the hike and didn't do anything.  Then I realized that it is their state tax money that paid for that SUV.

If I would have known about this before they passed the SUV, I would have taken a picture of greenpeace leftist walking past an SUV without doing anything while their entire mission is to abolish the SUV.  And this is the missed opportunity.

However, the hike was still beautiful.  Here is a picture of the group at the start of the hike and some pictures of the hills.

The afternoon classes are ball works, something in the pool, then treading.  The other day during cardio intervals, I was on the arc trainer machine.  For the sprints, I challenged everyone else in the arc trainers to put the machine on max resistance and max incline.  Most of them did accept the challenge.

Today I get in the gym for treading and notice there were only two other people on the arc trainers.  I wonder if I scared everyone away.

Closing thought for the day:  Looking back on yesterday, I think my problem was not hitting wall, but instead I was dehydrated.  I've been on electrolytes since dinner last night and today my body was better.  I slightly backed off the intensity in the classes today, but now I think I'm back to normal.  Tomorrow morning will be Solstice Canyon for the hike and if there's any energy left in me in the afternoon, I'll leave it all on the dance floor in cardio disco.

One of those days

Today has been "one of those days."  For the past four and a half weeks, my body has responded great to the program, but this morning it decided to stop responding.  Another way of putting it is that I have hit the wall.

I still made it through the hike alright and got some good benefits from the hike, but I had to stop and catch my breath a lot.  There was one time going uphill that I had to tell my legs to move.  It was disappointing because I've made good progress every week and was looking forward to more progress this week.

At lunch today I asked other guests that have been here longer than I have if they hit the wall yet.  Both of them said that in their fifth week they hit the wall.  So I know that I'm not alone, and maybe this is normal.  Wednesday is called hump day for a reason and today I'm really feeling the hump.

As a result, I didn't get any pictures on the hike because I was more focused on putting one foot in front of the other.  Today we did Switchback, which I did a couple of weeks ago and overall is a challenging hike.  It starts at the same parking lot as Zuma Ridge and Ocean View.  It is a shorter hike, so we took a loop a couple of times and got bored, so the group decided to spend the last part of the hike going up Zuma as much as we could in the time allowed.  Remember that the hikes are at least 2 hours long.

After the hike there is always a class before lunch.  Everyone's favorite class is stretch because it is relaxing and yoga-like.  As I mentioned before, everyone is assigned a color group - yellow, orange, or purple.  This determines the order of the afternoon classes, but today I found out the color group also determines which days you have stretch class after the hike.

Everyone will have stretch twice a week and the other days we are given an option - either a class in the pool or a repeat of one of the classes in the gym like circuit training and mountain.  I always select the class in the pool because I like the water.  Besides, after hiking for two hours, do I really want to get on the treadmill?  My feet say no.

This also means that a few days a week I am in the pool twice for classes.  Then on Thursday after the hike we play kickball.  I'm already excited about it tomorrow.

The afternoon classes on Wednesday are kickboxing, mountain, and something in the pool.  Kickboxing is one of my favorite classes.  It gets the heart rate up, the sweat dripping, and burns a lot of calories.  Besides, it is a great outlet for anger issues.

Mountain is the same as always - easy in the beginning, very tough at the end.  I had to take the intensity down just a bit in mountain and the pool class because it is just one of those days.

Closing thought for the day:  The head trainer said that most people hit the wall in their third week - I hit the wall in my fifth week.  Tomorrow is another day and I hope things get better because we get to hike Solstice Canyon on Friday.  I'm going to sleep early tonight and put this day behind me.

Compassionate Tuesday

Ok, so there were two unusual events that happened today.  The other day I mentioned that there are three guests here this week from other countries.  One girl is here from Saudi Arabia and last night on the way to my cabin I saw her and asked how her first day was.

She turned around and was crying with tears all over her face.  She asked if it is normal to be homesick.  It took me back a bit because it was an answer that I wasn't expecting.  However, I'm glad I was there because of my experience working overseas I felt that I was in a position to help her out.  So I did.  I told her it was normal, don't feel ashamed or embarrassed, gave her words of encouragement, and recommended she call her family.  This morning at breakfast I purposely sat by her and she was feeling better.  I also told the professional psychologist staff member about her.

In my first month here I've gotten to know a lot of people and I go back and forth between two groups when eating in the dining room.  Last Sunday one of the guys in one of the groups left and today as a thank you gift, he sent the rest of the group flowers.  It was a great gift and he will be missed.

My van today was assigned the beach hike, which is fine with me.  It never gets old going to the beach, but it got me thinking that this is the third week in a row that I have gone to the beach on Tuesday.  The group at the front took a detour to the side of the cliff because they spotted a whale and wanted a closer look.

I arrived shortly after and we waited a couple of minutes for the whale to resurface, but it never did.  We continued on the hike and I made it well past the boat this time.  At the end of the hike, I was looking at the houses on the top of the cliff and each house has a staircase to the beach.  I noticed this before, but there was something unusual about this one house.

I looked at it closely and it looked like an elevator.  Here, take a look.

Can you imagine living on the beach in Malibu right on the cliff and having an elevator to take you to and from the beach?  Must be nice.  In the picture above, you can see the house right next to it has stairs.

The rest of the day was business as usual.  The afternoon classes are probably my favorite on Tuesday.

Closing thought for the day:  One of the things that is not mentioned in the BLR's website is that once you come here, you'll have 82 new friends.  Note that 82 is the maximum number of beds available.  Everyone is on the same journey but it is a group experience.  Being homesick is a natural emotion and I miss people every week that go home.  Simply by being here for 8 weeks, I am going to see a lot of people come and go.  It is good to know that I had such an impact on someone that he decided to send us flowers.  What an awesome day it was.

Start of week 5

I didn't know what to title this post, so I went with the generic start of week 5.  Today was close to a regular day at the resort.  This week the resort is at full capacity, which includes some guests from other countries.

This morning's hike was at Backbone Canyon.  By the way, I was assigned Backbone on my second day and this was my worst moment.  My feet had blisters on top of blisters and this hike was the hardest on my feet.  Since then I have been looking forward to going back to this trail for revenge, but it actually didn't happen this morning.  We were in Backbone Canyon, but took another trail.

The trail was muddy from last week's rain and the cold weather took the breath right out of me.  Despite this, I did well and the halfway point was at the parking lot at Castro's Crest.  Our group decided to take the road back to the resort rather than the muddy trail.  It was a wise decision.

At one point in the hike, we could see Zuma Ridge on one side and Castro's Crest on the other.  Here's the pictures.

On the way back to the resort, we passed by this one house with some old gas station stuff in the front yard.  Take a look.

Every day there is one class in the pool that I can't describe what we do.  On Mondays the other classes are core training and circuit training.  Core training is self-explanitory where we train all of the muscles in the core.

When I had a personal trainer at the gym back home, we had several core training exercises that consisted of easy, medium, and hard exercises.  The core training class here is 45 minutes of all of the hard exercises from my personal trainer.  We do crunches (obviously), planks, superman, bridges, and the bicycle.

Closing thought for the day:  Today I went back to Backbone Canyon and conquered the trail.  Even though it wasn't the same trail from my second day, I still feel it was a great accomplishment and the perfect way to kickoff my second and last month at the BLR.

Welcome to Hollywood!!

Yesterday another guest named Mason and myself spent the day in LA, mostly in the Beverly Hills and Hollywood areas.  It was awesome and I'm going to tell y'all about it.

There is a company that partners with the BLR to provide guests with a car and a driver for whatever their needs are.  When I say car, I mean a Mercedes S550, and our driver has driven over 300 celebrities.  He knows all of the hot spots and where things are located, so we gave him some ideas and combined them with his ideas for a great day.

Since Mason and myself both like cars, we stopped at a classic car place in Hollywood.  The highlight was two old Rolls Royce cars from the 1950's era that were restored.  Speaking of cars, I enjoyed seeing a lot of the top cars on the road throughout the day like Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, Ferrari, and Lamborghini.  

I needed some street clothes, so we went to a mall to go shopping.  This was kinda like my own biggest loser makeover week.  I'll show you a picture later in the post.

After lunch we let the driver show us a couple of places.  He took us to a spot in the Hollywood hills that overlooks the Hollywood sign on one side and overlooks LA on the other side.  Here is a video and a couple of pictures.

After this we did a driving tour of the area and saw the sites around Hollywood including Aaron Spelling's house that is for sale for $150 million, the Playboy Mansion, and the Beverly Hills Hotel.  From the street, you can't see anything inside the Playboy Mansion, and only the roof of Aaron Spelling's house is visible.  It was still cool to see these houses, which by the way, are very close to each other.

The driver took us to a graveyard in Beverly Hills, which at first sounds creepy, but it turned to be alright.  Here's some pictures of the graves.

In the first picture above, you'll notice that Farrah Fawcett's gravestone only has her name.  I remember when she died, but couldn't remember if she was buried back home in Texas.  Also, around the edge of the graveyard is a place where it looks like smaller graves are, but they are for people who have been cremated.  Here's a picture of that it looks like.

If you look closely at the picture above, you'll notice one gravesite that is colored differently.  There is a reason for it, and we walked up to it, so you can see for yourself in the picture below.

Yep, that's right, this is where Marilyn Monroe's remains are kept.  The stone is a different color because everyone that visits touches the stone and it has changed colors over the years.  We spent a couple of minutes looking at the other names and here is one more picture.

After we left the graveyard, we picked up Mason's sister at the airport because she is spending one week at the BLR.  We arrived a couple of minutes early, so the driver took us to the cell phone lot.  Normally this would sound boring, but the cell phone lot at LAX is at the end of the runway where the airplanes are landing.

Here's a picture of us in street clothes standing next to the Mercedes car with a Delta Airlines plane landing above us.

You can't see it in the picture, but I'm wearing jeans that are two sizes smaller than what I was wearing when I came here.  

Also, in the picture above, you'll notice the rain clouds.  It started raining a few minutes later and I didn't take any more pictures because of the rain.

After we picked up Mason's sister, we went shopping on Rodeo Drive.  Let me type that again because I never thought I'd actually get to say it.  Before dinner, we went shopping on Rodeo Drive.  By shopping, I mean walking into stores, looking at what they have, having a mini heart attack over the price tag, walk out, and repeat at the next store.

There's nothing that we needed and a lot of the stores are for women, but I did buy a pair of sunglasses from Versace.  I know this sounds expensive, but it honestly wasn't that bad and they looked pretty cool.

Dinner was at a restaurant called Cut, which is in Beverly Hills just off Rodeo Drive.  Mason had been there before and agreed to pick up the tab.  His recommendation was the kobe steak sampler, which is three small kobe beef steaks from around the world.  The word amazing only begins to describe the taste.

Mason and his sister stayed the night in LA, so the driver brought me back to the BLR after dinner.

Today will be a day of rest, laundry, and get ready for the next week.

Closing thought for the day:  This weekend marks the halfway point for my stay at the BLR.  I ended the day eating kobe beef steaks from around the world in Beverly Hills wearing my new Versace sunglasses that were purchased on Rodeo Drive.  Do I feel guilty for it?  Not at all, because I still lost 5 lbs this past week, which is a pound per day of working out.

Zuma round two

Ok, so last night I went to the chiropractor because I'm having a little problem with my left knee.  When I move the knee laterally, I get some pain in the inner part of the knee.  Don't worry because everything is fine.  This issue has not prevented me from any of the workouts, but it needed to be addressed.

It turns out that the muscles that control my knee are tight, causing my leg to naturally rotate outward.  The chiropractor loosened those muscles that control the knee, put some tape on my knee, gave me some stretches to do, and sent me on my way.

Now, when I mean he tape my leg, I mean he taped my leg.  Here's a picture.

Today's hike as Zuma Ridge, which means we hike up and up as far as we can, then we come down.  You may be noticing that this week I am in the intermediate hiking group, and asking why are we doing such an advanced hike?  The answer is because the rain shuts down a lot of the hikes.  It actually doesn't matter to me because the hike is challenging and I'm ready for it.

We hiked uphill for 2.7 miles then came back down.  I only stopped once to get my breath, but stopped a few more times for my coat.  If the wind was blowing, I needed the coat.  If the wind was calm, the coat became too hot and I took it off.  At the top of the hike is a good spot to just observe the scenery and that is exactly what I did.

Here's a video and a couple of pictures at the top.

The afternoon classes were cardio disco, something in the pool, then circuit training.  I'm not taking any chances on catching a cold, so due to the weather, I substituted cardio disco again instead of pool class.

This week I received a special gift in the mail just for cardio disco class, so here I am wearing it with the instructor.  Go ahead and laugh because I did and so did the other people in the class.  Here's the picture.

By the way, the shorts that I'm wearing in the picture are a size smaller than what I was wearing when I first arrived.

Closing thought for the day:  Looking back on this week, I am glad that I went to the shoe store on Sunday to make adjustments to my shoes.  The hikes are much more enjoyable and blister free.  Last week Zuma Ridge was brutal on my right foot and got the best of me.  This week I tied it up and the score is now Brian 1, Zuma Ridge 1.

Destination Fireplace

Each year I go through the same routine.  I am amazed how fast the weather changes throughout the day.  In the morning on the way to work I use the heater in the car, then in the afternoon use the air conditioner.  Today was one of those days.

The hike started off cold, so I had my coat and gloves.  A little ways into the hike, the sun came out and apparently I got sunburned.  My van was assigned to Solstice Canyon, which is one of the toughest hikes.

It is tough because the first part is steep uphill.  The incline is not as long as Zuma Ridge, but it is much steeper.  The first incline took about 30 minutes and required a lot of energy.  I had to stop a couple of times, but mostly I just powered through.  The other parts of the hike were not hard, but the steep incline part took a lot out of me which made the other parts relatively hard.

There is a spot in the hike where we go down the hill to the valley, where there is a waterfall and a creek.  The waterfall wasn't that big, but it was still wonderful to see it.  After the waterfall, we hiked up the other hill to an fireplace at the top.  One of the guides told the story about the fireplace, but I spaced out for a moment and didn't get the story.  Besides, I was still worn out from the the first incline part and was having a small victory moment for making it to the fireplace.

So let's get to some pictures.

The picture above is of a trash can at the beginning of the hike.  I saw this and started laughing because it says trash only.  What other items would I place in a trash can besides trash?  Is this a problem in California?  Do people put valuables in trash cans and need to be reminded that only trash goes in trash cans?

Here's a picture of the waterfall and the creek.

This picture was on the way to the fireplace.  We started the hike on the other side of the hill, and the waterfall is located in the valley.  You can even see the ocean in the background.  Beautiful scenery.

Here I am at the fireplace.  Notice the sweat line in my shirt, and this is only halfway through the hike.

This picture is of the chocolate covered strawberries.  I'm glad it turned out good because the lighting in the dining room isn't the best for pictures.  I know this isn't part of the hike, but is one of the best deserts on the menu.  Yes, that is real dark chocolate.

The afternoon classes were treading, pool class, and ball works.  Ball works is about using the ball in the gym to get a total body workout.  Some of the exercises are awkward, and this is my least favorite class. For those that don't know what ball I'm talking about, I'll take a picture tomorrow.

Treading was good.  I decided to use the arc trainer because I like it.  At the end of the class, we have a one minute sprint and I challenged myself and the other people around me to max out the resistance and incline for the last one minute sprint.  I got some strange looks from some people, but we did it.

This is what I did in the cardio intervals class on Tuesday, but today I had a lot less energy so I wasn't sure if I could do it.  Then, at the moment before we started, the trainer told us the last sprint was all mental - mind over body.  I thought she was right and got it done.  Max resistance and max incline on the arc trainer for one minute at the end of treading class on a Thursday after hiking Solstice.  What a great moment it was looking back on it.

Closing thought for the day:  Solstice Canyon is the one hike that I wanted to do since I got here because it is challenging and the scenery is beautiful.  Today I got to do it and wasn't disappointed.  I have now completed the three toughest hikes offered and am on week four.  I can't wait to see what the other four weeks have in store for me on the hikes.