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 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 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 Niagara Hiking Mini Series Humber Bay Park Hike, Toronto, Ontario Canada

Today is Thursday, but I did this walk yesterday. It was supposed to be walk three in the series, but I did it on Day 4. I completed the Niagara Hiking Mini Series with John Peel. Now I need to figure out what to do next. I'm taking today is a rest day. I know I shouldn't have and maybe I'll regret it, but I'm tired and I've slept like crap all week. Yes those are excuses, but they are good ones and I'm not going to force myself to walk if I really don't want to walk. That's one good way to turn myself against this whole walking thing. 

This was another one where he said it's a beginner walk, but we'll walk on speed. He did that with the one from yesterday too. It's a bit annoying that we were going 3.0 MPH for a super beginner walk. I last about a minute or a little more which was less than the walk yesterday. I just knew that I wouldn't make the full thing on the 3 MPH without a lot of shin pain so I opted out and went to 2.6 I think. I upped it to 3.0 when I thought we were almost done with the speed, but I timed it wrong and my speed burst at the end was more than twice my speed burst at the beginning. I survived. My feet didn't go numb and I didn't have too much back pain. My shin did okay too. My hamstrings felt a bit sore which was odd. So far, I haven't had any real long lasting pain or any delayed onset muscle soreness. That's the stuff when you do something today, but don't feel it until tomorrow when you try to get out of bed. My right hip has been a bit stiff when I stand up after being seated, but I don't think that's related to the walking. I could be wrong. 

The view for this walk was nice, but the ending wasn't as spectacular as he made it seem like it would be. We ended in a park. Nothing exciting. Oh and after four walks, we never saw Niagara Falls as far as I remember. 

It's time to get ready for work! Have a great day. 

My Walk

What it should have been 

iFit Niagara Hiking Mini Series Dundas Peak Hike, Dundas, Ontario, Canada

 Today is Saturday, but I did this walk on Tuesday. It was my second walk after coming back from my mandatory vacation. I had planned on four days in a row of relatively easy walks to ease back into the work week and to also let my body rest up a bit. I had done a bunch of 2 mile walks during my vacation and my shin on my right leg was still sore. 

I tried to keep up the pace with him on this one, but at some point we were going up a hill and he's like oh let's make this more challenging and he picked up the pace. I wanted nothing to do with that. My right shin hurt. I went from having numb feet to having pain. I was thinking the numb feet sucked, but the pain is worse. Maybe I'll wear the other shoes again and see if the numb feet make the painful parts less painful. My right leg is also an issue right now. My lower back is getting better, but it seems to be shifting the pain to other places. Last weekend I was looking in the car for something. When I leaned in, I did it kind of sideways and my back went all bendy straw on me and it cracked like five times as I leaned in. I decided that whatever I wanted from the car wasn't important and I was just going to hang out on the couch for a bit. After that, my lower back seems better, but my right leg is wonky. If feels like I have shingles again, but the pain is way less intense so I don't think it's actually shingles, but it's the same type of pain and in the same place.

I'm rambling. This hike was supposed to be the day 1 hike, but I did it on day 2. He said that it was super beginner, but I had to slow the pace so I don't necessarily agree with him on the super beginner part. He's super fit though so I'm sure he thinks it was super beginner since he didn't breathe heavy or break a sweat. Oh well. My right foot didn't go numb with this, but my left foot did a little bit. My left leg also felt weird. 

The plan was to do all four days of this series in a row and end the week with a 2 mile walk before my chiro apt on Friday, but my day went to crap. Hubby decided on Tuesday that he needed to go to the doctor and his doctor told him to go to the ED so Wednesday and Thursday were spent at the hospital. Friday I worked instead of taking it as a day off since I had a meeting on my calendar. I was the only one who showed up for the meeting. I guess it was canceled and no one told me. Fun times. Anyway, it's Saturday now and I need to get back on the treadmill, but hubby is cooking breakfast so it will be a bit before I get up there. I'll do it though. I just don't know if I'll survive two miles with my leg. Maybe I'll plan ahead and take some ibuprofen! I hate doing that though. If your body hurts, it hurts for a reason and it might not be a good plan to just mask the pain and push through. Decisions decisions.......

My Hike

What it should have been 

iFit Niagara Hiking Mini Series Tew's Falls Hike, Dundas, Ontario, Canada

 Today is Saturday. It's been quite the week, but I did this walk on Monday. I had been doing two mile walks during my vacation, but Monday was back to work and I needed something shorter so I could sleep in a bit. I thought this one was the first one in a new four part series, but it turns out it was the second one. Oopsy. Just like me to do them out of order. This was the second part of the first walk. It started where the first one left off and went to Tew's Falls. It was a pretty short hike and it was relatively easy. I used my Nike's instead of my Hoka's and my feet didn't go numb. My right leg was a bit tender though. I've got something going on with my right leg now. I went to the chiro on Friday and he said he thinks I'm still out of whack, but in a different out of whack than I was before. I fix one thing and mess up another thing. Oh I'm sure it didn't help that I fell on the ice taking the garbage out yesterday. I'm jumping around and getting ahead of myself though.

Monday, I did this walk. It was less than 20 minutes. It was weird because I usually am counting down the minutes and get all excited when I hit 20 minutes to go since if I can get to 20 minutes to go, it's only a few minutes until 15 to go and that's only a few minutes from 10 to go and that's only a few minutes until 5 to go and then we're almost done! I started out with less than 20 minutes so I skipped all the hard stuff and went right to OMG! I can do this! Almost only 15 minutes to go! Yes this really is how my brain works. 

The walk itself was fairly easy and I kept the pace and elevation that was set by the machine. My right leg hurt, but my right foot didn't go numb. My left foot was a little numb and my left leg was a little tingly, but this was a vast improvement over what I was doing before. My back didn't hurt when I got off the machine. That was nice. The trainer is John Peel. He was interesting enough I guess. He likes dogs. I think his definition of super beginner is a bit off though. I was able to do this workout at the speed and elevation he set up, but I'm not sure that I would have been able to do that a few weeks ago or just out of the gate when I began any of my attempts at a fitness journey. Beginner is all subjective though. Someone who isn't too terribly overweight might find it easier or someone who doesn't have all of the issues I seem to have might as well. I always had a hard time finding hikes to do around us because they tag them as beginner, intermediate and advanced or easy, moderate and hard, but each of those steps has such a vast range in it. There were things listed as moderate that I found easy and things listed as easy that I found hard. 

Anyway, I don't have much to say since I did this several days ago and don't remember much other than it was a great view and he likes dogs. 

My hike

What it should have been