Day 11

View from today's hike.
The lighter color green are vineyards. 

Our trail.

Happy St. Partrick's Day!

Thursday is over and done with, and that feels great. Today we went on a new hike at Latigo Canyon. We spent the whole first half climbing up and then at the top we turned around and went back down. You would think that going down would be easy, but because some parts are so steep your stomach ends up getting a work out because it's trying to keep your body balanced.

Thursday is a tough cardio day because of two classes, treading and ball works. Treading is a 5,4,3,2,1 class, meaning 5 minutes pushing your limits, 5 minutes rest. Then it goes to 4 minutes hard, 4 minutes rest and so on. The objective is the lower the amount of time the harder you should be pushing. So today I started with the 5 minutes at 4 mph on the treadmill and every time we went down in time I bumped it up one notch in mph. When we got to the 1 minute set I decided to run at a 5.5 mph and was able to get though it with minimal pain. Then came the three "surprise" 1 minute sprints, since I don't feel comfortable sprinting on a treadmill I kept it at the 5.5 mph, but I did all three!

Ball works is all about working with the big exercise balls. Last week it felt more like an abs class because we were leaning off the ball lifting weights and working our core. Today's class brought back memories. Things that I loved as a kid didn't seem to be as fun as an adult. We spent a lot of the class sprinting while dribbling the ball, and that brought back memories of middle school basketball. Then we threw the ball up in the air and caught it, you'd be surprised how fast the ball gets heavy. Lastly, Andrea and I partnered and passed the ball back and forth for a while. It may not sound like much but my arms got a workout!


Today's card is from:

Dawn Ho!

Thank you Dawn, I really appreciate your support! You understand the reasons that I am doing this! I am so happy for you and Richard, and I am looking forward to seeing you and your baby bump when I get back! Take care!