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

iFit South of France Beginner Walking Series Hautpoul Village Walk, Mazamet, France Alex Gregory

Today is Wednesday. I did this walk on Monday. I struggle with this and I'm not really sure why. I did drop the speed down in a couple spots even though the incline really wasn't all that horrible. Maybe my head was just not in the right place, but you can see how my heart rate was bouncing up high on the inclines. This was part of the iFit South of France Beginner Walking Series. It was supposed to be the last one, but I did it second to last since why would I bother doing the series in order. Nothing really hurt all that bad, but I just wasn't really feeling it. 

The walk was interesting enough. It was a trade route or something between two towns. There was a huge bridge over a really deep gorge. It was pretty. I don't remember much about what he said. I find his voice rather soothing and I zone out. If I can focus on what he's saying, I find him interesting and I actually remember most of the story he told during the Heart to Heart Finding Failure. I just can't seem to pay attention to him during these South of France walks. 

Not much else to say other than I got my email and ordered my magnet for completing the February iFit Trainer Meet and Greet Challenge! Woot Woot! 

My Walk

iFit South of France Beginner Walking Series Gorge du Verdon Walk, Cote Azur, France Alex Gregory

Today is Saturday. I did this walk yesterday. I had planned on taking a rest day since it was running around town and doing errands day, but I recently got an iWatch and my errands didn't close my rings so I got up there and got it done. I only needed 14 minutes, but I did a 30 minute walk. I guess I'm an over achiever. 

This was a nice walk through a big gorge in France. He said it was their version of the Grand Canyon. The walk was a nice steady pace at 2.5 MPH except for a few parts. The incline was going up and down a lot, but it rarely got very steep. It went negative a few times, but not for crazy long periods and it never went down to 6%. Negative 6% is the death of my machine. It does not like me at negative 6% for more than a few minutes. It will let me stay on a high incline for long periods of time, but it will stop dead if I'm at negative 6% for 10 minutes. It makes sense since uphill my weight will help pull the tread down, but downhill, the tread is pushing me uphill and I'm a big girl. 

I liked this walk. I really don't remember what he talked about, but he was interesting at the time. My legs were a little sore from the prior day's incline. I had also shoveled snow in the morning. The fact that I shoveled snow and didn't get my rings was really infuriating. I guess I should have set it up as an Other workout. I just left it without setting a workout since I wanted to see what it would do. 

Nothing went numb on this walk or hurt too terribly badly. My lower back was a little painful, but it wasn't so bad that I wanted to get off the treadmill. I don't really have much else to say so I'm going to wrap this up. 

My Walk    

iFit South of France Beginner Walking Series Day 2 Croix de Provence Walk, Vaugvenargues, France Alex Gregory

Today is Saturday. I did this walk on Thursday. This is the second walk in the South of France Beginner Walking Series with Alex Gregory on iFit. So far, I'm on track with doing the correct workout on the correct day. Go me! This is not normal for me. I'm rather impressed with myself. 

I don't remember a whole lot about this walk because I wasn't really paying all that much attention to him since the incline was killer for some section of this and I was pretty much in misery. It was also my first walk with my new iWatch and I was messing around with it a lot. 

This walk got STEEP! It didn't stay steep for a crazy long time, but it did get steep! This is tagged as a beginner walking series, but 18% incline is intense. I know that it's got to be difficult to rate these walks though. If you think of beginner, intermediate and advanced as the basic terms we use to describe a hike, there isn't a lot of room there. The walk was relatively slow paced, but it did have some steep sections. I wouldn't consider this an intermediate walk, so I guess beginner is where it needs to stay and it would be considered maybe advanced for a beginner. We do have the option of dropping the incline or the speed, so I think people should try it and adjust as they see fit. I went down in speed for the last two hills since my heart rate was going insane. 

I had to hold onto the bars for the bulk of this walk. That messed up my activity thing so I didn't close the rings. I ended up so annoyed by that. I ended up just setting up an Other workout later in the day and letting it run to make up my 7 minutes. Out of the 30 minutes I was on the treadmill with the warm up, the walk and the cool down, I got credit for like 13 minutes or something stupid like that. My heart was beating crazy fast, but my arm wasn't moving so I guess it thought I wasn't doing anything. Oh well. I got my rings closed and I don't feel guilty about it. 

Nothing went numb or hurt too terribly badly during this walk. I'm happy that I got through it. My quads were a bit tender the next day when I was shoveling snow.

My Walk

What the website shows 

iFit South of France Beginner Walking Series Carcassonne Castle Walk, Carcassonne, France - Alex Gregory

Today is Thursday, but I did this walk yesterday. I had hoped that I would be using the new fancy Smart Adjust, but my treadmill didn't get the update yet. Not that I really needed it for this one. This was a new series by a trainer that I have used before. His name is Alex Gregory and he was an Olympic rower. I did one of the iFit Trainer Meet and Greet walks with him. It was a place in England. I really liked that one. I also did one in the Heart to Heart series. I also really liked that one so I was looking forward to doing this series when I saw it pop it. It was great timing since I saw it as I was about to finish the Meet and Greet Challenge. 

This walk was nice and flat. There were a couple little blips, but nothing too hard. It was also a good pace at 2.5 MPH. I wasn't expecting the scenery to be quite what it was. When he mentioned castle, I was thinking of a traditional castle. One big building a moat maybe. This was more like King's Landing in Game of Thrones. There was a giant stone wall around the place and a bunch of buildings inside the wall. It was interesting, but not what I was expecting. It also looked like people either live in there or they just have shops in there. I'm not sure which really. 

He talked about the place as he meandered around. His voice is very soothing. He talked a bit about his rowing career so there was a bit of overlap with stories I had already heard, but I enjoyed the walk. It felt good being back in a walk that I could complete as it was designed. 

Nothing hurt all that bad and my feet didn't go to sleep. I didn't have to hold onto the bars. I felt good when this was over. 

My Walk 

What it should have been 

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