This week we have a lot of people who are more advanced at hiking than I am, so they are in the advanced group and I am in the intermediate group. This is fine with me because no matter what, I hike at my own pace. This morning my van was assigned to the beach hike. It was different because of the weather and we were the only ones on the beach.
The cold weather made it more difficult, but I did make it to the boat on the other side of the cliffs. It was peaceful because we were the only people on the beach, so I just stood there for a few minutes just observing the natural beauty of the ocean.
On the cliffs right by the boat is a little cave. No one knows if the cave was naturally made or man made. There's nothing in the cave, but I decided to check it out. After making it about halfway down, I realized this is a waste of time and went out.
The photo opportunities today wasn't great because of the weather, so I have a couple of pictures of the entrance to the cave.
What I wanted to mostly focus on today is the afternoon classes. All of the guests are assigned a color group when they first arrive. This determines the order of the afternoon classes. There is always one class in the gym, one in the aerobics room, and one in the pool.
This week I'm in the yellow group, which is the group I was in during my first week. The first class was called cardio intervals, which is kinda like a warm up for mountain tomorrow. The way it works is you chose the cardio machine that you like. After a warm up, increase the intensity every 30 seconds for 8 times. At the highest level, hold it for one minute, then come back down by lowering the intensity every 30 seconds for 8 times so you make it back to the baseline. Then there are two sprints that are one minute each - one speed sprint and one strength sprint. Then, repeat the entire thing once more.
As you can see, it is similar to mountain, but instead of climbing the mountain, it is like climbing the bunny slopes and coming back down. Today I was on the arc trainer machine and pushed the intensity during the climbs up and down the mountain. For the speed sprint, I obviously focused on speed. However, the strength sprint today was awesome. Last week I told you that I put the resistance all the way up during one of the intervals for treading, so I decided to do it again today for the sprint.
The trainer mentioned that there is an incline button on the arc trainers and my first reaction was how did I miss that in the past? Anyway, for the strength sprint, I put the max resistance and the max incline. The arc basically became a stair stepper with the arm movements while being on maximum resistance.
For the first sprint, it was too much and I backed off on the incline for the rest of the sprint. However, at the end of the class, I put it on the same settings and made it through the entire sprint. It was the most difficult thing I have ever done on a cardio machine in my life and I did it!!
Then we get in the swimming pool. Thank goodness the pool is heated because we needed it today. Yesterday it was cold in the morning but sunny in the afternoon. Today it was rainy and cloud cover all day. As we were in the pool, the trainer was wearing a coat and gloves for the entire time. Obviously she was out of the water.
One of the guests that is here is one of the producers of The Biggest Loser television show and tonight we get to watch the show with her. It will be great because she'll tell us a lot of stuff that happens off camera. I can't wait.
Closing thought for the day: Looking back on today, the weather held me back a little on the hike today and in the pool, but I gave it my all in the gym and the aerobics room.
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