iFit The Sun & Sand Challenge: Beginner Strength - Intro to Yoga - Briohny Smyth

Today is Saturday. I did this yoga workout yesterday. It was the first workout in the iFit The Sun & Sand Challenge: Beginner Strength. I've been wanting to get back into yoga so I thought this was perfect. The challenge is 12 workouts and I can alternate these with the John Peel beginner treadmill walks in the iFit The Sun & Sand Challenge: Beginner Treadmill. I had done yoga workouts with this trainer with Daily Burn several years ago. I liked her then, and I liked her in this. She's got a mellow style and a pleasant voice. I have iFit for my treadmill, but I also have the app on my phone so I casted it to my TV and watched it there. 

The workout was simple enough as far as the moves she did. I haven't done yoga in a long time and I'm probably 80 pounds heavier than I was when I did do yoga last. I also haven't been doing anything other than walking on the treadmill in what feels like an eternity. This was rough for me! I was slow to get into position and I had to come out of downward facing dog several times because my shoudlers were killing me. Oh and my Apple Watch was driving me nuts. The push button kept getting pushed since my wrists were bent for awhile. I kept focusing on that and then didn't really focus enough on the workout. 

I'm not sure it was a good idea to try to do this challenge! I really need to start lifting weights again. We'll see how I handle getting through these 12 workouts and then next month maybe I'll start lifting weights again. 

I don't have a pic of the workout. I used the activity app thing on the watch, but I can't figure out how to find it from yesterday and there isn't anything in iFit to track. 

iFit The Sun & Sand Challenge: Beginner Treadill Bosque Nuboso Interval Walk, Costa Rica Walking Series John Peel

Today is Saturday. I did this walk on Thursday. It was the second one in the iFit The Sun & Sand Challenge: Beginner Treadmill with John Peel in Costa Rica. This was in some bird sanctuary or something. He had to be quiet to not disturb the bird watchers. This wasn't too horrible. My right calf was sore from the previous workout since I went 3.2 MPH which is not a good plan for me. Looks like I did that a little bit in this walk too. How crazy of me. I didn't do it for all of the speed intervals though. My shins just can't handle that yet. I'm doing better though since 3.0 MPH used to kill me. Now I can handle some 3.0 and the 3.2 kills me. I got through this. I closed my Apple Watch rings for the day. Life went on. 

My Walk

What it should have been 

iFit New York City Walking Tour Financial District Walk, New York City, New York - Jack Palitz.

Today is Wednesday and I did this walk today. I was happy to have a relatively easy walk to recover from the speeds yesterday. I wasn't sore when I woke up, but my calves were a big tender during the walk. It was super high up on my calves and it wasn't pleasant. My glutes were also a bit tight. I'm was tempted to slow the pace and just do a leisurely 2.0 MPH but that felt like cheating. 

This was supposed to be the second one in the New York Walking Tour series, but it ended up as my fourth due to some scheduling issues. Now I'm done with this tour. It was only four. I'm kinda sad about that. I liked this guy. He was funny and had interesting tidbits about New York. It was interesting to hear the history of how some streets got their name. Wall Street got it's name because it used to have a giant wall going down it. They still have the fence posts embedded in the road. Broadway was named because it was a wide road. 

This was a fun walk and I have things I need to do so I have to wrap this up! Still trying to decide if I'm going to do the yoga challenge and the walking one or just the walking one. I still have time to decide. Tomorrow is walking and then the next day might be yoga. We shall see! 

My Walk

iFit March The Sun & Sand Challenge: Beginner Playa Carrillo Interval Walk, Costa Rica Walking Series- John Peel

Today is Tuesday and I did this walk today. They announced the March iFit Challenge! It was The Sun and Sand Challenge. They offered a beginner and an intermediate option. They have them for the treadmill and strength with beginner and intermediate. There is also a challenge for rowing machines, but it's just one difficulty level. I'm totally thinking about trying the beginner strength too since it's Yoga and I've been wanting to do yoga again. I would get two magnets for the month and I would alternate them so it would be Yoga one day and the walking the next day. I might have to double up towards the end of the month if I miss any days. We shall see what I decide. 

So I picked the beginner workout for the treadmill because no way was I going to survive the intermediate one. This one is 12 workouts that are supposed to be done three per week for four weeks. I'm afraid of this series, and I thought about not doing it since I'll have to adjust so much, but I was hoping to push myself to see what I can do. Without the challenge, I'm just going to do all the easy walks to get them done. 

It started out easy enough at about 2.2 MPH. Then it was 2.4 I think. There were only four speed rounds. They were two minutes each and they were supposed to be 3.2 MPH. That sounded crazy scary. I usually do 3.0 as my max. Sometimes, I'll do a push at the end of a workout and go up to 3.1 or even 3.2, but it's at the end and it's for like 30 seconds max. Two minutes of 3.2 sounded scary! 

I did the first round okay with a little tenderness in my shins. There were four minute recovery rounds though so I knew I was good. I did the second speed around at 3.2 and survived. My breathing was okay and my heart rate wasn't too terribly crazy, but my legs were on fire. My shins were killing me and my glutes were sore too. At the end of the second speed round, I thought it was best to not do 3.2 for the third round. I did 3.0 instead. It felt a lot better. The fourth one I did at 3.0 as well up until the last 10 seconds or so and I went to 3.2. I survived this workout. I did modify it, but I did more than I expected that I would. Tomorrow will be a recovery day with the shins though. They are tender. My glutes are also tender. I walked to the mailbox and really felt them. 

I liked this walk. I like John Peel. I've done other workouts of his. All I can find in my notes is the Niagara series, but I thought I did others with him. I can't find them though. Maybe I'm just so used to seeing his name all over the iFit Facebook group. He's awesome. Everyone loves him. He even joins in on the conversations. I'm not including a screen shot of what the walk should have been since I only adjusted two things and they were minor adjustments. I'm glad this was a flat walk. I would not have survived incline. 

Oh! My Apple Watch March Challenge has posted! I spent forever yesterday trying to figure it out. I never got it to pop up, but today it did! My March Challenge is to close my Move ring 11 times for the month. There is also something that I need to do on my birthday to get the thing for International Women's Day! How fun! A medal for my birthday. And I got the email to order my magnet for the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Flash Challenge Twist thing. Which reminds me that I think I need to go back in there and see if I actually finished it. I was trying to work and order it at the same time. Shhhhhhhh don't tell my boss! 

My Walk

iFit New York City Walking Tour Rockefeller Center Walk New York City, New York - Jack Palitz

Today is Tuesday. I did this walk yesterday. It was supposed to be the last one, but I did it third. I had missed one and added it to the end. I didn't want to do it third and then have to reschedule this one. However, that didn't work out so well for me for two reasons. This was longer than I remembered so I was late getting to work. Oopsy! I also ended up having to reschedule the third one again because I set it for today and then ended up doing something differnet for today. 

Okay so this was another one of the iFit New York City Walking Tour walks with Jack Palitz. He's an interesting guy and talks about interesting things about New York. The streets were a bit busier than the other two walks that I did. This was at night and it was Christmas time so there were a lot of tourists. It was so pretty with all the lights! I think this guy needs a TV show like Anthony Bourdain or someone like that. He doesn't talk about food, but he has so much knowledge about the area and he's very personable. I like these because it's just a guy walking the streets of New York. No one cares about form or speed or inspiring me to move. He just talks the entire way and provides interesting facts about the area. One of the tidbits was about why they called a certain street the channel. He also talked about 5th Avenue being the middle between the east and the west. No one wanted to live on the waterfront which is not normal, but that's what it was like in New York. He also talked about a hotel that had the windows designed so people couldn't look down and see the red light district activity. Oh and there was a apartment complex for rich people that has an escape tunnel that used to be used during prohibition. 

I only have one walk left in this series and I'm a bit bummed to be done with it since he really is a fun guy. I was able to do this without modifications. I didn't have anything fall asleep or hurt too terribly badly. I've also been using my rolling stuff and my torture device of nails so my back has been doing a little bit better. I totally slacked off of that for awhile. Anyway, not much else to say here. 

My Walk

iFit New York City Walking Tour Soho Walk, New York City, New York Jack Palitz

Today is Sunday and I did this walk today! This is actually the third in this series, but I did it second since I must have messed up something when I set up this series. Normally if I skip a day, it will still be there, but walk 2 was missing. I didn't do it yesterday because I was doing the last of the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Twist challenges to earn my second magnet. 

This was a nice flat walk at a nice pace of 2.5 MPH. I thought about bumping the pace up, but I really wanted to take today as a rest day so I didn't want to increase the pace. I only did the walk today because today is the 7th day of the week for my first Apple Watch medal to finish one full week of closing my rings. Yes this is true, I got on the treadmill to get a digital medal. I'm not even getting a real life magnet. Nope. It's just a digital medal. Don't judge. 

This was a walking tour. There was no mention of working out. The only mention of anything related to movement or exercise was when he walked through a park where people were playing Chinese Chess and he said he would stop to play some rounds and win money, but he had to keep the pace going. This walk was through Little China, Little Italy and possibly something else, but I can't remember. It was interesting to see the architecture of the buildings and also the policing structure. He said that Little China and a Jewish neighborhood in New York City are allowed to police themselves instead of having NYPD officers do the policing and Little China has one of the lowest crime rates. I thought that was pretty wild. Now I'm not sure if they really have a low crime rate or just a low reported crime rate because of their methods of policing. He didn't get into that. He just said they police themselves and have a low crime rate. 

He talked about how Soho became popular and pointed out some interesting things about some of the buildings. It was interesting to see the original police department building. Oh and he talked about how Manhattan joined with the four burroughs and they formed the five burroughs. Overall, I really like this guy. I wish he had more tours or maybe more walks in this tour. 

My lower back hurt during this walk. I don't think I've done any of my back stretching things this week. Sometimes I just don't feel like dealing with it after work. I live to regret it later, but at the time, it's nice to just sit on the couch instead of lay on the floor on a torture device. Oh well such is life. I need to get back to the chiropractor on a weekly basis. Things were going well when I was there very week and using some sort of torture device every nice. 

My Walk

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 New York City Walking Tours Booklyn Heights Promenade Walk, New York City, New York - Jack Palitz

Today is Sunday and I did this walk on Friday. They released the last of the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge Twist workouts, but I saw that it had incline and I was in a no incline kind of mood so I started a new series of four walks through New York. I'm glad I picked this one because that last twist workout was pretty much hell. 

This was a fairly level walk through New York streets. There was one incline section, but it did not last long at all. This was a walking tour like you would get if you went to New York and signed up for a walking tour. It was just a guy walking the streets of New York while talking about the history of the area. No one talked a about form, no one tried to get me to let go of the bars (not that I was holding the bars), no one tried to make me move faster or anything like that. It was a straight up walking tour. It was so refreshing! I've done a few walking tour videos with iFit. I like the because they usually aren't too terribly difficult so the are nice for a rest day type of walk, but they also seem to help the time go by a lot faster since I'm not focused on intervals or breaking or RPE or form or any of that. This may have been one of my more favorite walking tour tour guides. 

He talked about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. The design was finished by a women. I was a bit surprised by that. I was also surprised that the bridge was from the late 1800s. I thought it would have been newer than that. He also talked about an area that started off like Soho as an artist squatting area, but then some guy bought a bunch of the buildings for $4 a square foot and at the time of the filming of the walk (which I think was pre-COVID since no one had masks on in the streets) it was worth over $1800 per square foot. Crazy! 

Nothing hurt too terribly much in this walk and I was able to keep the pace without holding the bars. I don't have much more to say other than I did enjoy this and look forward to the rest of the series. This is the only series with this trainer. It sounds to me like he has a walking tour company and iFit just got him for this one series in New York. 

My Walk

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 South of France Beginner Walking Series Gouffre de Padirac Cave Walk, Padiriac, France Alex Gregory

Today is Wednesday and I did this walk today! I like to be on track with these pots. This walk was my last one in the iFit South of France Beginner Walking Series with Alex Gregory. It was supposed to be the fourth walk, but I went out of order. I knew this one was going to hurt. That 20% incline was not something I wanted to do. It was short though so it actually wasn't that bad. They slowed it way down to 1.6 MPH for the 20% and 1.9 for the 15% sections. This was totally doable and I never slowed the pace beyond what it was set to. Nothing went numb and nothing hurt too terribly badly. 

This walk was in a cave way down under the ground. Part of it had collapsed so there was daylight, but it was pretty deep. The scenery was nice. I did this walk this morning, but don't really remember much of what he said. He's just so mellow. He did say that stalactites and stalagmites only grow like 1 cm every 100 years or something crazy like that. I was surprised by that. Well now that this series is done, I'm not sure what I'll be doing next. Tomorrow is another part of the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Twist, but after that, who knows! I have to walk every day until Sunday too so I can get whatever digital medal the Apple Watch has for this month. Check me out, free magnets and digital medals will make me exercise. 

My walk