iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Dubrovnik Overlook Strength Run Croatia Kelsey Sheahan

Today is Sunday and I did this walk yesterday. It was the last in the February iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Twist. I've said this a bunch of times already in previous workouts for the challenge, but I'll say it again just in case this is your first post with me on this topic. Each month, iFit has a challenge and yo can earn a magnet. Odd how something so small can be so inspiring. Anyway, February was the Trainer Meet and Greet. There were 8 workouts and each had a different trainer. About midway through the month, they announced there would be a twist. A week after that, they said the twist was a Flash Challenge with three new workouts that would be released over the final week of the month and a new magnet would be given to those who finished the final three in addition to the original 8. This was the last of the final three. I was pretty much dreading it. 

The incline sucked on this. The trainer was super excited about this walk because Game of Thrones was filmed at this place. The set for Kings Landing was at the bottom with the water and then we climbed this ginormous hill to see it from the top. The walk was pretty much hell with the incline and then she did speed intervals. I skipped those. She kept encouraging me to let go of the machine and I let her know just how I felt about her every time she said it. Of course she didn't hear me, but whatever. 

I liked the trainer well enough that if I could actually survive her whole program, I would do it, but it's going to be awhile before that happens. I can't even run on a flat surface and she's running on 12 and 15% incline. I'll pass on that and there isn't much point in me doing these hard workouts right now just to adjust them down when there are workouts that I can do without adjusting and I'll feel way better about myself. 

I had to put my Apple watch on Other workout so I could get credit for all of my minutes since this incline sucked! 

My Walk

What it should have been 

iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge Jog Away Workout Danielle Gray

Today is Sunday! I did this workout on Thursday. This was part of the February iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge Twist. Every month, there is a challenge and you can earn a magnet if you complete it. February was the trainer meet and greet. There were 8 different workouts and each had a different trainer. This was a way of getting some exposure to different trainers. The first couple I had already workout with, but then everyone was new. So after the first 8, they released three more and called it a twist or a flash challenge. They released them individually over the course of about a week I think. Doing the last three, earned another magnet. Yay!

Okay so this was another studio walk. This was only my second studio walk. My first one with Jesse Corbin was part of the original 8 workouts in the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge. I was not a fan of that one so I was dreading this one. I was also not really looking forward to this incline. I was ready for an incline break and this one has a couple sections with 15% incline. It also involved jogging and there was no way that was going to happen. I can barely make it through walking at around 2.8 MPH for more than a few minutes so no jogging was going to happen. 

I have to admit that this studio workout was way better than the first one. The trainer was fun and adorable. I'm not saying that Jesse Corbin wasn't fun, but that whole workout had a super 80s bouncy vibe for me and this Jog Away Workout did not. I'm usually not a fan of the videos where the whole time it's all about the actual workout like we talk about the intervals, proper form and RPE stuff, but this trainer seemed to do a good job of intermixing some interesting or fun tidbits in the middle of the talk about the actual workout. 

I had to hold onto the bars for the bulk of this workout. I ended up setting my Apple watch to Other activity to make sure I got credit for all of my minutes. If my heart is going to be pumping out of my chest, I want to get credit for every single moment of it. I tried to find this workout in the library so I could show what the speeds were supposed to be, but it's not on the website. I was able to find it in the app, but I can't find it on the website. Weird. Oh well. 

When I get strong enough to do more of this type of workout, I'll probably look for it and do some of them. The trainer is super nice too. She's on an iFit Facebook group and she always comments if people tag her. She even commented on my post about this workout and I didn't tag her. I just included her name with no tag. 

My Walk

iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge Twist Atlantis Sand Dunes Tempo Run, South Africa Knox Robinson

Today is Wednesday, but I did this walk yesterday. I did the February iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge. It was a series of 8 workouts each with a different trainer. This was a chance to meet new trainers and get a magnet. A week ago they said they were going to do a twist, but didn't say what it was until about Sunday. The twist was they were doing 3 more workouts and we could earn another reward. I'm a bit curious what prompted this. I wonder if some of the trainers were hurt about not being included in this or maybe iFit wanted to just have fun with people. Who knows. I have gotten to meet different trainers and found some that I might like when I'm actually ready to run. Right now, I just walk them all. 

So this was part of a 12 part series for running basics. The trainer was new to me. He was super mellow and I enjoyed his style. I much prefer this type of trainer over someone who is in your face with a lot of rah rah let's go let's go let's go! His hair was amazing too. It was just bouncing all over the place and it made me giggle. No way I would have been able to run with his hair. Mine is up in a tight bun to keep it as immobile as possible. I hate my hair touching my face or neck. I got issues. Anyway, this run was through sand dunes in South Africa. The sand was amazing and there was no one around. It was interesting to see his footprints in the sand as he ran. He giggle when he ran down a hill. I can't wait until I can actually run. I want to do this whole series, but I feel like I should do all the beginner walking ones now while I'm still super out of shape and save the running ones for when I can run. I can adjust them down now, but that would mean adjusting down now and adjusting the others up later, so I might as well just stay in my lane and do the walking ones now. 

I don't remember much about what he said, but he was super chill and I really enjoyed this one. Nothing went numb or hurt too badly on this one. I didn't get my heart rate strap on. I should do that, but I have my Apple Watch now so having two devices on seems excessive and the iFit one seems to go wonky more often than the watch one. 

There are a couple of 5 MPH spikes on here. One of them almost got me killed. The other one I caught in time. I tried to hit 2.5 MPH, but hit 5 without the 2. Oh that was scary. I ended up on the rails and had to get back on it while it was moving. It was kinda like jumping into a double Dutch jump rope. Dangerous! I guess next time I should pause the machine and then let it pick up speed for me gradually. This workout was set up to do I think 2 minutes of RPE 8 and then 6 minutes of RPE 6 and then two minutes of rest, 6 minutes of RPE 6 and then I think we rested again. I'm not sure though. There was a five minute warm up and a bit of a cool down as well. 

I really want to do the running program with this guy. He really is awesome. 

My Walk

What it should have been

iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge Trinity Bridge Interval Walk, Aruba Stacie Clark

Today is Thursday and it's my last Thursday that's a Friday! No more three day weekends. I'm rather bummed. I'm happy about the new job, but sad to see my three day weekends go away. That could change in time, but for now, it's back to five 8s. I did this walk on Tuesday. It was the last one in the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge. Now I just need to wait for the email so I can order my magnet! 

Okay so this workout was part of the Turks & Caicos Weight Loss Walking Series. It sounded like it was a joint effort with her husband and I did see another series with them together and it was a weight loss walking one. I wasn't in love with this one and I kept watching the clock the whole time. I found her walking style to be weird. She looked like she was power walking which just looks odd. I guess it makes sense though that she's not going to do a leisurely stroll, but it just felt really awkward. 

I don't remember a ton about this walk, but she did talk about the area and the terrain. We got to see a couple of natural bridges. One of them had collapsed. I didn't find her off putting or annoying. It was just not really a big inspiration to jump out and find another series with her. It's supposed to be a beginner series, but she walked pretty fast. She was going about 3.5 MPH during her push intervals. I liked the way she mixed up the intervals. It was Three rounds of five pushes. The first was 1 minute on and 1 minute rest, the second was 45 seconds on and 45 seconds rest. The last was 30 seconds on and 30 seconds rest. Then after all of that, there was one big push at the end and she said she wouldn't say how long it was going to last. I can't remember exactly what I did, but I think it was 2.7, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9 and 3.0 for the first two rounds and then 2.7, 2.8, 2.8, 2.9 and 3.0 for the last round. The last push I only did 2.8. From looking at that chart, I'm really bad about getting the numbers pressed in time. There are a bunch of dips in speed that leave my grid all ugly looking. 

My Walk

 

What it should have been 

iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Temae Beach Fartlek Run, Moorea, French Polynesia Elyse Miller

Today is Wednesday and I did this walk on Monday. This was part of the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge. If I do all 8 of them in the month of February, I get a magnet. LOL. Yes the magnet is my motivation. Although, I'm only doing this because I joined the challenge in error and I can't bring myself to just skip them. 

Most of them have been runs, but I'm just walking them. This trainer was actually new to me. The first few were with people I had seen before, but after I got through that, they have been new to me. I was not a huge fan of this workout or the trainer. She was running on the side of the road. It was a busyish road and the side was pretty narrow. She also looked like she was running on uneven ground. She kept saying she almost stepped on a crab. She was way too chipper for me. She did a lot of, "Let's go, let's go, let's go." She also chanted, "Come on, come on, come on." 

My grid is a bit weird because I was apparently too slow hitting the buttons so it looks like I went down to like 2.0 a few times. This was an interval walk. There were three rounds of four intervals. I think I did 2.7, 2.8, 2.9 and 3 for my work for the first one and then 2.8, 2.9, 3.0 and 3.0 for the second and then 2.5, 2.6, 2.7 and 2.8. We were going uphill at 7% incline during the last section. I wasn't going to be going too fast during that mess. 

I felt good during the 3.0 MPH sections. I was pretty surprised. None of them lasted too terribly long though. My back hurt a little bit, but my feet didn't go numb so that was good. I don't have much else to say about this other than, I won't be looking for more workouts from this trainer which seems to be what I keep saying about these people. I much prefer them to talk about the area and not focus on the workout, but it's hard with interval walks to be able to do that. They're also running so it's harder for them to focus on giving me a lecture on the local history. 

Oh well. I'm running out of time so I'm going to wrap this up. I got out of work late and my computer took like 10 minutes to turn on. I still have two other posts to write, but those will wait, again. Oh I did try to find this workout to show what she did with it, but I could not find it.  

My Walk

iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge Rockfeller Center Bootcamp Interval Run, New York City, New York Casey Field

Today is Sunday and I did this walk today. It's part of the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge. There are eight total and if I do all 8 of them in February, I get a magnet. I wish I had learned about this in January and then I could have gotten a full years worth of magnets if I did them all. Oh well! I can't go back in time. 

This was my first time doing anything with Casey Field. I was not a fan of this workout. It's a run jog and I did it as a walk walk faster. There were six run intervals. I started out doing 2.4 MPH for the jog intervals and 2.7 for the run intervals. I did three like that and then went to 2.8 for the run and 2.3 for the walk. Then it was 2.9 and 2.3 and then 3.0 and 2.3. After the last run interval, he went to a park for some cross training. I stayed on the treadmill since I wasn't really expecting this cross training thing. I walked at 2.0 MPH and then went slower as the section got closer to be done. I just wanted off the machine at that point. The 3.0 MPH run interval kinda killed my will to live. 

He jogged and ran on busy streets in New York City. He talked a bit about the area and how many people are there. I find it incredibly rude to be running down the streets of New York with a camera crew in the middle of the day. If you want to make a run/jog workout in New York, wake up super early in the morning and film it while you're impacting less people. There were times where he seriously just ducked between two cars and crossed the street. No cross walks. Not much time actually seeing if any cares were coming. He just jogged out into the road and across the street. This reminded me of the Gideon run (I walked) that I did to start off this trainer Meet and Greet. This run/jog even went into Grand Central Station. I was not impressed. 

After the intervals, he went to a park and did this cross training thing. It was 50 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest. There were five different moves. I'm not sure if I remember them all. There was a squat followed by a rear lunge on each leg, body thrusters (squat and then as you come up out of the squat your arms go up over your head), alternating front lunges, a push up followed by a mountain climber on each leg (that sounds weird, but that's how he described it) and the final move was burpees. I just walked through it. This was also a weird thing too because he just picked a spot in the middle of the park and started filming his workout. Maybe there was some conversation before or after with the people around him to make sure they were okay with this, but I don't know. There was a guy just hanging out in a chair to the right of the trainer jumping around. It was very awkward for me. 

I looked for this workout in the library or anything by this trainer, but I don't see it. I didn't read every single thing, but I did a search on his name, boot camp and New York. I could not find anything by this trainer. I find it a bit odd that this workout would be in the trainer meet and greet if the trainer didn't have other workouts, but I can't find them. I'm not too upset about that though since I didn't really like this one. 

Nothing went numb, but my feet did hurt. I got through it. My left lower back/pelvis area did hurt a bit, but oddly it was more when I was going slow than when I was going faster. I think I have two more meet and greet walks left and I've heard good things about both trainers. Although, one of the workouts is super fast. I won't be going fast, but the trainer goes fast. I'm going to stop rambling now and go get in the shower. 

My Walk

iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge Death Road Interval Walk, Cordillera Oriental Mountains Bolivia Hannah Eden

Today is Saturday and I did this walk today. It was part of the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge. This was my fifth workout from this challenge. It's only the second trainer that I hadn't experienced before. I really like this trainer, although she did say this was a beginner walk and the speed was way too much for me so I had to knock it down. This is from the Bolivia Train to Terrain series which is 16 workouts and is listed as a difficulty level of 4. Okay so how exactly is a level 4 supposed to be a beginner workout? On what planet is walking at like 3.8MPH considered beginner. These are the types of things that can completely devastate someone and derail them. If you have to constantly have to reduce the speed on beginner workouts, you start to feel like a failure. 

Okay so moving past the fact that this is not a beginner workout and I had to reduce the speed.... The beginning of this thing was 2.0 and she's got us doing shoulder rolls, arm swings, tricep/lat stretches, high knees and butt kicks. That was fun. NOT. This was an interval walk. It was 30 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest for 10 rounds. Then it was a 2 minute rest followed by another 10 rounds of 30 work and 30 rest. The second round was supposed to be faster than the first. My first round 10 minute stretch of intervals was 2.6 work, 2.3 rest followed by 6 rounds of 2.7 work with 2.3 rest, then 2.8 work, 2.3 rest, 2.9 work, 2.3 rest and then 3.0 work and 2.3 rest. Since I had to manually adjust the speed, my intervals were not always an exact 30 seconds. There were times when she talked too long or totally forgot to say it was a rest interval. My 2 minutes of rest was 2.3. My second round of work was 2.6, 2.6, 2.7, 2.7, 2.8, 2.8, 2.9, 2.9, 3.0 and 3.1. All of the rest intervals were 2.3. 

I actually felt pretty good with that. My left leg got a little wonky and my feet hurt, but mentally speaking, I wasn't fighting with myself to continue. I wasn't counting down the minutes. I wasn't wishing for this to be over. My left leg went wonky, but I wasn't in pain really. My left lower back area was a bit tender, but I'm used to that. My legs felt good as far as propelling me forward and I didn't have shin pain even though I was going faster than I normally do on the work rounds. I was also going slower than I normally do on the rest rounds since I wanted to make sure I could get through this. 

I took Monday through Friday off of walking this week. Last Saturday and Sunday were pretty much torture for me on the treadmill. I did not want to be on there, but I forced myself to do it. I made myself push through and get it done. The plan was to take Monday and Tuesday as rest days to let my legs recover, but then I was just so exhausted all week long so I wanted to sleep in. I'm changing my work schedule in two weeks so I'll be able to sleep until 6:00 and still get a workout in so I'm not overly worried that I was too tired this week to get up and get on the treadmill. I figured that on Friday, I'd sleep in and then do a walk mid morning or early afternoon. I woke up at 6:30ish I think. At some point I ate breakfast and then fell asleep. I figured I was just too dang tired to get on the treadmill. Today I'm still tired, but it's the weekend so I had to get on the treadmill. I was hoping that after five days or rest, I'd feel better and I did. My legs propelled me forward and my mind was totally engaged in the walk. I didn't even zone out. 

The trainer talked pretty much the entire time. Some of it was about walking form, some was about what the rest of the series would be like and some of it was about the area. She was entertaining and helpful. I liked her tip about pretend like you're filing you nails on your hips. I have a tendency to have my arms swing across my body instead of along the sides of my body. I'm not sure if that's just because I'm on the treadmill pushed up to the bar so my belly is touching it or not. I stopped holding the bars, but I still have my belly touching the front bar of the machine. I'm not sure why, but I know that part of it is a fear of falling. Speaking of which, the tread kept slipping on this walk. Most of it was downhill which was nice, but the machine does not like it when I walk downhill for too long so every time it slipped I thought it was going to die on me so I upped the incline a bit. I never went lower than 3% decline or maybe it was at 4% for a little bit. Most of it I did at 2% decline, but then I ended up at .5% because it kept slipping. 

Overall, I really liked this trainer and will need to check out more of her workouts. 

My Walk

What it should have been 

iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge Beginner Treadmill Workout Jesse Corbin

Today is Saturday. I did this walk last Sunday. This was another one in the iFit Meet the Trainer Challenge. If I do all 8 of these before February is over, I get a magnet. Woot woot! I was not a fan of this walk. The trainer was fine, but it was a studio walk. I much prefer to walk out in the jungle or on the beach. I'm already walking on a treadmill inside of my house. Watching other people walk on a treadmill inside of a building is rather boring. The whole workout ends up being about the workout instead of learning things or listening to a story that will keep my mind off the fact that I'm walking on a treadmill inside the house. 

This thing was recorded live and I guess some people are into this whole live class thing which is why spin classes are so popular. I just don't get it. The trainer was also a little bit too Richard Simmons for me. Everything was just a little extra and I prefer a much lower key kind of experience. 

The walk itself was fine. It was intervals and I like intervals. I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that during the slow sections where I was supposed to be recovering, the incline went up to 6%. This was also called a beginner treadmill workout, but jogging was involved. 

So this live class thing is weird. I guess there is a leaderboard that I didn't see since I wasn't doing it live. The trainer does shout outs to people. According to posts on Facebook, this shout out thing is super awesome and this is what people want. During the workout, the trainer used my name. It freaked me the hell out. If this had been a live class, I probably would have shut the machine off. I'm hanging out in my house. I don't need the attention. This taught me that I should never take a live class. 

My feet went numb during this walk. I'm starting to think my new shoe purchase was a bad idea. They were comfy to walk in, but not comfy on the treadmill yet. I don't really want to wear them out and about shopping and stuff to break them in. I kinda feel like shoes are supposed to just be comfortable. I hate buying shoes! I need to give it more time but these might turn into shopping shoes instead of treadmill shoes if this doesn't stop soon. 

I only have the chart for my walk. I wasn't able to find this one in the library to show what it was supposed to be. Let's just say more distance since I slowed it way down. That one blip of speed in the second recovery interval was an accident. I think I hit follow the trainer which kicked up the speed and it took me a moment to knock it back down. 

 

iFIt Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge Seathwait Walk, Lake District, England - Alex Gregory

Today is Saturday and I did this walk today! This is the third walk I did in the iFit February Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge. It's my third walk in a series to get me to meet new trainers and it's the third trainer that I've already met in a previous walk. He did one of the Heart to Heart walks that I did recently. I liked him in that one and I liked him in this. I might have to look at the other ones he's done. They haven't popped up in the difficulty level 1 stuff that I've been trying to stick with. Soon my work schedule will change and I'll have more time for the walks so hopefully I can do some of the longer or more challenging ones. For now, I'm working on this meet and greet challenge. 

The trainers accent wasn't too hard for me this time. I'm pretty sure the first time I had some issues with it. I'm just not good with accents. I also prefer to be able to see people's mouths the whole time since I think I do some amount of lip reading when they talk to help me understand them. I do that with TV and in person too. Anyway.........This was a pretty walk through some old farmland in the Lake District. He talked about the sheep, the farm houses, the fences and the fact that it's a popular place to visit. He mentioned that Beatrix Potter liked to visit the area. The area has some sort of designation as a historical site or something like that and people can go wherever they want in the area. That was interesting. 

I'm not sure why, but I was really not in the mood to walk. I thought I was, but once I got up there, my body just didn't want to do anything. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and I usually feel better the next day, but today my low back hurt. My feet ended up going numb as well. I started out at the 2.5 he was at and then he bumped up to 2.8 and I tried it, but my calves started to hurt and then my shins started to get sore so I knocked it down so I could get through it. I really hate shin pain so I tend to slow down if I think they'll hurt too much. I can fight through a lot, but shin pain is my Achilles heel. I ended up knocking it down to 2.4 at some point and I think even 2.3. I just struggled to keep walking. My choice was to put my hands on the bars or slow down so I slowed down. Sitting here my upper right section of my back hurts too. Not sure what the heck happened, but I'm fairly miserable today. Maybe I'll take tomorrow as a rest day even though I just had one yesterday. Although, does it count as a rest day if you have two medical appointments and you go shopping at several different stores? Probably not. I'm going to wrap this up since we still have a desk to put together and I need a shower. 

My Walk

What it should have been 

iFit Meet and Greet Challenge Lepenjica Waterfall Interval Walk - John Peel

Today is Saturday, but I did this walk on Thursday. This was the second walk in the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge for February. This is my second walk in the Meet and Greet and it's the second trainer that I've already met before. I did the Niagara Hiking Mini Series. I like him as a trainer. I will probably look for some of his other walks as well. He has several of them. Some of them are short and some are much longer. I'm currently looking for programs that aren't too long per workout and don't have a ton in the series. I'm not really ready for another large commitment like the 2 Mile Challenge which was 30 workouts. I still haven't finished the one that was super hard. 

Anyway, I don't remember a ton about this walk. There was a waterfall I know that much and we did intervals. I slowed the speed down since I wasn't going to survive the 3.0 MPH page. I'm pretty sure I did this whole walk without holding on. There wasn't much of an incline. 

My Walk

What it should have been 

iFit Meet and Greet Challenge Erawan Waterfall Run, Kanchanaburi, Thailand - Gideon Akande

Today is Saturday, but I did this walk on Wednesday. This is part of the iFit Challenge for the month. I get these emails every month about challenges, but they've never looked like something I could do and I didn't know anything about them. Last month, I got one that looked interesting so I looked into it. If you do the challenge of the month, they send you a gift. (Spoiler alert!!!) It's a magnet. I thought it might be fun to try it out so I joined one. The one I joined though is like a three month thing. I have to do 12 workouts each month for January, February and March. For February, I got an email about a Meet and Greet challenge. I clicked a button to read more about it and apparently that was the wrong button. I ended up joining the challenge and now I feel obligated to do the challenge. 

This was the first workout for the challenge. It was a running workout. No way was I going to be running! I can't even walk 3.0 MPH for more than a couple minutes without my shins killing me. Running is not going to happen. The trainer was Gideon Akande. This wasn't my first workout with him. He did one of the Heart to Heart walks. I wasn't really all that impressed with him in that one and I was definitely not loving him in this one either. At least the last one he was pretty mellow. He's one of those in your face kind of trainers. It was more of that personal trainer kind of rah rah motivation that I'm not a huge fan of. I also found him to be incredibly rude to the people around him. There was some funny stuff where he was high fiving people who were there, but he was trying to run through a crowd. It was rude and I just didn't want to walk more of that. 

If I had been running, I might have found this to be a bit weird because he was actually running pretty slow and he walked at time and even stopped to point some stuff out. I always feel weird if I'm walking and the trainers are standing there looking at something. If I'm moving, I want them moving. Maybe that's my own hang up. 

Nothing really hurt on this. Nothing went numb on this. I held up when the include was 6% or more. The area was very pretty. The falls was really pretty. It would be a great place to go experience in person. It was a bit of a crowded path. 

 

My Walk

What it should have been