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 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 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 Tokyo, Japan Walking Tour Meiji Jingu Shrine Walk, Tokyo, Japan

Today is Saturday, but I did this walk on Tuesday. I really need to get back into the habit of doing these posts every day, but I'm pretty sure I worked late almost every day this week and I had to go to the library once and the grocery store once. In a couple weeks, my work schedule will change so I'll probably have more time for this blogging thing. 

This was the third walk in a four part walking tour of Tokyo Japan. This was my favorite of the four and the only one I actually liked. I did this on day four instead of three since I rarely ever do these things in order. Anyway.......This was a walk through a shrine area in Tokyo, Japan. The scenery was pretty and the walk was more educational the others in the series. The other three of these were mainly the trainer walking down a busy street and pointing out the different stores on the street. Oh he also talked about how clean Japan is because no one can eat in the streets and people are taught from a young age to throw things away. 

Okay so he walked along a path and talked about the different things along the way. There were gates into the area where people are supposed to bow. There was a display of all the saki and wine from the area. There was a shrine and a temple. He talked about having children blessed. Oh there was also a building where cars could be blessed. It was hard to understand him since he talks really fast. He also has a bit of an accent and it's hard for me to follow. 

Nothing really hurt too much on this walk. I did it without hands except for the two bigger hill parts. One of them was 10% and the other was 8%. I held on for those. I felt good. Nothing went numb. I didn't put up the website version of the walk since I didn't deviate from the trainer. 

iFit Tokyo, Japan Walking Tour Shinjuku Walk, Tokyo, Japan

Today is Saturday, and I did this walk on Monday. I'm so far behind on doing these, but life gets in the way at times. I don't remember much about this walk. It was supposed to be the last one and I did it third since I'm terrible about doing these in order. The machine rebooted 3/4 of the way through which is annoying! It flatlines my chart. I hate that! This was another one walking through busy streets. I'm not a fan of this series and I'm glad it was only four parts. Nothing went numb and nothing hurt too much on this walk. I did it without holding onto the bars. 

My walk

What the website shows 

iFit Tokyo Japan Walking Tours Asakusa Walk, Tokyo Japan Day 3, but it was my Day 2

Today is Friday. I had not planned on walking before my chiropractor appointment, but I woke up around 6:30 and couldn't fall asleep so decided to just get up and get on the treadmill. This was the first in the list for the walking tour so I picked it and hoped it was day 2, but it was really day 3. Oh well. I've only done one series actually in the right order so no point in being upset that I'm out of order now. 

This was another one with the same trainer as day 1. It was another crowded street and he talked so fast that I had a hard time understanding him. This was a pretty flat walk which is good since I'm still walking with no hands. This was 2.5 MPH the whole time except the first 30 seconds or so and the last 30 seconds or so. He rattled on about stores in the area. He mentioned the oldest bar in Japan and then said it was closed. He walked through some busy areas and talked about how clean the streets are. He visited a temple and a shrine. He mentioned some really tall building that is expensive to visit and something about four beer companies. Overall, I'm not in love with this series. I knew it was a risk since it was a city tour, but whatever. At least I'm moving and it's only a four part series. 

My Walk

What the website shows

 

iFit Tokyo Japan Walking Tour Tsukiji Fish Market Walk, Tokyo Japan Day 1

 Today is Friday and I did this walk on Wednesday. This was the first one of the series and I did it on the first day. This was a shorter walk than I've been doing, but I wanted to try walking without holding onto the bars. I cut the warm up short and got right into this walk. It started out in a fish market. The trainer had a heavy accent and it was hard for me to understand him. The cadence of his voice didn't help. He spoke really fast too. The area he was walking was very crowded and he spent a lot of time talking about the different stores. He didn't really say much about each store, but he pointed out the things that were sold in them. I found the tour part of this walk to be a bit annoying since the area was so crowded and it didn't seem like I was learning about Japan. I was just learning what was sold on this street. This is a place I will probably never go so it doesn't matter if I know where to buy tuna fish in Japan. 

The walk itself was rather easy. There wasn't much incline or decline and the pace stayed at 2.5 MPH the whole time. I had actually expected to do my first no hands walk at like 2.0, but I stuck with the 2.5. The video froze up at some point, but the audio kept going. Eventually the tablet rebooted and I just kept walking. I initially got really annoyed and I put my hands down on the bars, but then quickly picked them up again and decided to keep up with this no hands thing. It took what felt like forever for the thing to reboot. It ended up adding close to a 10th of a mile to the walk. I had some issues with foot placement and staying straight on the machine. Sometimes my right foot landed flat. Sometimes it landed on the outer edge of my foot. Sometimes it landed on the inner edge of my foot. My chiropractor said that is pretty normal and means I may have injured some tiny muscles and things in my ankle. He mentioned a wobble board. I'm probably not ready for wobble boards yet! It made me think of a Hallmark movie about a guy who had a high ankle sprain and then took ballet classes to rehab the ankle. Maybe I should start taking ballet classes. The ankle with the issues is my right ankle which is the same foot that I broke so it was in a boot for several months and hasn't quite been the same since. I'm rambling. 

Okay so everything went fine. I got through this walk with minimal hand contact and I didn't break any limbs. My lower back hurt more than when I walk while holding on. This was to be expected. What I didn't expect was the neck and upper back pain I had that night and into the next day and still have. It could be unrelated to the no hands thing, but I'm not sure really. I've been using my accupressure mat and not using my other back stuff like the arch thing with the bumps and the foam roller that I lay on. I'm not sure if skipping those for so long has finally caught up with me or not. I just know that it hurts and it sucks, but time to wrap this up. Not a huge fan of this walk. 

My Walk    

What it should have been

iFit Southern Utah Walking Mini Series Day 6 Coral Pink Sand Dunes Endurance Walk Kanab, Utah

Today was the last hike in this series of Southern Utah Walking Mini Series from iFit with Zac Marion. I was kind of dreading this one since there were three minute pushes with only 90 seconds of rest, but it actually went okay. My room got super hot this morning though and I was pretty miserable. I kinda got a headache and wanted to puke, but I powered through. 

Not sure if you've noticed yet, but the whole grid didn't show up because the tablet rebooted while I was walking. That sucked. You lose all of your tracking when that happens as far as the grid goes, but it still tracks your time and possibly elevation totals. The reboot does make it so you have to walk longer so my first push of 3 minute was more like 5 minutes because it takes it about 2 minutes to reboot and get you back into the walk. I hate it when that happens. I was running late too so that really sucked. 

The walk was through sand dunes. It was as interesting as sand dunes can be. I have to admit that I was pretty miserable during the hike so I didn't listen to most of what he said. He did point out some animal tracks and talk about our fitness journeys. He said he lost 100 pounds at some point. I liked this series and will look for more by the same guy. Tomorrow is a 10 minute stretch. I have iFit on my phone and my tablet now so I can watch the ones where no machine is needed. I don't really have a whole lot to say. I have the next 10 days off of work though so maybe I'll have more to say over the next week! 

Part of my hike 

What it should have been 

iFit Southern Utah Walking Mini Series Day 5 Red Hollow Slot Canyon Speed Play Hike Orderville, Utah

I woke up before the alarm today which is unusual, but I just procrastinated getting on the treadmill so I didn't get on it any earlier and I still had to rush to get ready for work after. It's a good thing that I work from home so my commute is from the couch to the same room as the treadmill since that's where my desk is. I'm crammed into the corner. I have my work computer, my personal computer, my treadmill and my weight bench all in one rather small bedroom. The weight bench is getting used as a shelf at the moment, but at least I'm using the treadmill. 

I almost didn't have my heart rate monitor on for this one, but I realized it before I got started and I'm glad because I really do like to see the heart rate graph. I like to see how quickly it comes down after the exertion. 

This was another interval walk, but it was different. The first three intervals were 30 seconds work and 30 seconds rest. The work was supposed to be hard work which was 2.8 mph instead of 2.2 mph. After that, we did two minutes of medium work which was 2.5mph and then 60 seconds of rest which was 2.2 mph. There were some speed adjustments around the elevation changes so during one of the medium work intervals, we went faster than 2.5mph since the elevation was doing down and one of them we went slower since the elevation was going up. Overall, I like the concept of the intervals, but for some reason, this walk really worse me out. My calves were getting sore and I was just tired. I didn't want to keep walking and was so ready for it to be over. 

Oddly enough, my pelvis didn't seem to hurt as much for this work and instead of the pain feeling like it was the base of my spine, it was further out from my spine. My lower back seems to be cracking more on it's own too so maybe the muscles are loosening up and letting the bones move around a bit. I'm not really sure. I just know that I'm thrilled any time there is less pain. 

This was another walk through a slot canyon, but this one was way narrower than the previous one. It also had places where he had to climb up on some big boulders. There was even one section with a rope for him to climb the wall. He likes to talk about how the slot canyons are formed similar to how fitness is formed. It takes consistent work over time. There's only one more walk in this series and then it's a stretch thing. I'm not really looking forward to tomorrow. It's 3 minutes of work and 90 seconds of rest. I'll get through it, but I don't think I'll be happy about it. 

Doing these interval walks has given me some ideas on how to incorporate this into some of my other walks though. The slide show type walks are a bit boring since I control the speed so I can go as slow or as fast as I want. There are no trainers too so no one talking to distract me. I'm thinking of getting an interval timer app for my phone or an actual timer to sit on the treadmill and then I can do my own intervals. It might help with the boredom of some of the really flat walks that have nothing going on to keep my mind off of the walking. Alright, I'm going to call it a day and wrap this up. 

My hike

 

What it should have been

iFit Southern Utah Walking Mini Series Day 4 Vortex Interval Hike St. George

Today was day four of the series and I did the day four walk on day four. That's pretty shocking for me! Woot woot! I slept horribly last night. I did not want to get out of bed and I did not want to get on the treadmill, but I did it. I committed to this treadmill thing since I quit my second job and I need to be on that treadmill on work days. I can slack off on the weekend, but work days need to be treadmill days! 

This was another interval walk, but he was mean in this one. We started off pretty easy with 2.2mph, but we bumped it up to 2.5 or 2.6 I forget which for the first two intervals. Those were a minute long with 30 seconds of rest. Then we did harder intervals with shorter rest so we went up to 2.8mph for 30 seconds and 2.2 for 30 seconds of rest. We did that for a bit and then the speed was less when we were going up hill, but as you can see from the heart rate monitor, going slower up the hill didn't really offset the work. My heart was pumping during those hills. I was so ready to be done with this one when it was over. 

I was able to keep up with him so I was happy about that, but I did hold onto the bars. One day maybe I'll be able to let go. I hear Jillian from Biggest Loser yelling at me to let go, but my back is just too messed up for me to let go yet. I'd have to walk way slower in order to let go and it would still hurt like hell. Today my bad didn't hurt as bad as it has for the last week or so. I was happy about that. It still hurt, but just not as much. It was mainly on the left side. 

This walk was through some desert treed area. It was interesting. At the top of it there was this thing called a vortex. The wind swirls around up there and had created a big whole in the top of the rock. If you filled it with water, you could swim in there. It was interesting, but he made it seem like it was more amazing than it looked on the screen. It's only a 10" tablet though. I don't have the 24" TV screen. That would have pretty much doubled the price of the treadmill and I wasn't going to do that. 

The grid shows that I only did 138 feet instead of the 142 that I was supposed to do. I'll never understand how that happens when I stayed on his pace, but whatever. I've got two more work days this week and two more walks in this series. The last one in the series is a stretching routine. I'm not really sure how that's going to go since I only know how to play this from the treadmill. I might need to learn if I can play this on my iPad. 

Time to go pick up the mail! 

My walk

This is what it should have been 

iFit Southern Utah Walking Mini Series Day 3 Snow Canyon Interval Hike St. George Utah

So this was Day 2 of the plan, but I did the wrong one yesterday. I know that's pretty shocking for me to do the wrong one. As long as I do the right one tomorrow, I should be back on track. Odds are high that won't happen. This weekend, I cleaned out a closet and found my heart rate monitor that came with the treadmill and I also found the heart rate monitor that came with my Polar M400 watch. They both work. I bought some replacement batteries after thinking the battery was dead on my husband's heart rate monitor. I don't think it was dead now. Oh well. I think it had just been so long since they had been used that things were wonky. I had to delete the pairing on my monitor and then repair it. Now it works. However, I did not use that one for this walk. I used the one with the treadmill so the heart rate would show on the same grid as the speed and elevation. 

I'm so excited to have my heart rate monitor back! So this was an interval walk, but he referred to it as endurance. The last interval walk was 30 seconds of work and 90 days of rest. This was one minute of work and one minute of rest. The rest was about 2.2 MPH and the work was 2.5 MPH. I like this guy. He does workouts that I can actually do. These are fun since we increase the pace and decrease the pace plus there was some elevation and some decline as well. I really wish that I had time to do these posts right after doing the walks so I could remember the stuff the trainers talked about. Maybe I should keep notes next time. I like this guy and I like that he talks about things relevant to walking and getting in shape. I did one series with Graham McTavish. He's an actor who was in Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. He talked a little bit about the area and he talked a lot about his acting career. I also did a series in the Easter Islands. He talked a lot about the area we were walking. I liked the series since it did provide some education and some good scenery, but I really like in this one that the trainer talks about fitness and gives tips on posture and motivation. 

The trainer has a very mellow tone and demeanor. He doesn't get all hyped up and annoying. I will look for more with this trainer in the future. I really like that these are doable for me. So many of them have the speed set so high that I can't keep up. This would be a hard one to do with the intervals if I had to control the speed myself. I could do it though since he does give a 3 second countdown going into the interval and coming out of it so I could just bump the speed up or down as I see fit while he's doing the 3, 2, 1 countdown. I just prefer to not have to control the speed and/or elevation on the hikes. I don't have enough brain capacity to do that while on the treadmill and it would be really easy to just decide to skip that interval.

My left pelvis hurt when I got off the treadmill, but my right wasn't too bad. My calves and shins were a little sore while I was walking. I held onto the bars the whole time. I really need to stop holding the bars, but it really kills my back if I don't hold on. I bought an acupressure mat that should be here in about a week to two weeks. I'm hoping that it's the miracle cure I need for this back pain. It's really getting old. If not, I might go to the regular doctor and get an x-ray of my hips/pelvis to see if there's something going on in there. 

The chart for my walk is below. This was supposed to have a couple more feet in elevation and a little bit more in mileage. I'm not sure why it doesn't match if I'm not changing things, but that's how it seems to go. I can't really notice a difference in the heart rate for the intervals. It was pretty much a slow progressive increase until the one hill which has a bump up and then my heart rate comes down. I think there just wasn't enough of a difference in the interval speed vs the rest speed. The other option is that I'm so out of shape that my heart rate just doesn't come down fast enough on the rest periods to show a difference. When I was working out hard core way back a few years go, I did get to the point where I could really see my heart getting healthier since my heart rate would slow down faster than it had previously. I'll get there slowly but surely. Alright that's it for today! I'll see what tomorrow brings. 

My hike

What it should have been 

iFit Southern Utah Walking Mini Series Day 1 Turtle Wall Interval Walk St. George, Utah

 I finished the Montana hiking mini series, so it was time to start something new. I'm still trying to take it relatively easy while I adjust to this one job thing and walking on the treadmill every day. I picked the Southern Utah Walking Mini Series. It seemed similar to the one I had just done and looked easy enough. 

This was the first day of the series and I managed to do the correct walk. I often mess that up. The trainer for this one was pretty low key. He was very calming. He termed this an interval walk. We were supposed to do 30 seconds of work followed by a minute of rest. The work was either going faster or going uphill. I liked this since I was able to test myself with small bursts of speed and I wasn't committing to going faster for the whole walk. I also really liked that I was able to keep up with his speed and elevations. I did not have to adjust the speed at all. It's pretty rare that I can say that for an iFit walk. They usually go super fast. I usually can't breathe at that speed for the elevations, my shins will start to hurt or my legs/feet fall asleep. 

I didn't find this walk to be particularly difficult. He wanted us to be around 7 to 8 on the perceived exertion rating when we did the speed bursts, but I don't think I got that high at the speeds he did. I didn't push it to a faster speed though since I wanted to just follow his workout and I wanted something less strenuous than a 7 to 8 anyway. 

The scenery was nice for this one. Utah is a pretty place. He saw a small lizard and started to mess with it like he was going to catch it and then he decided to leave it alone. Later on he talked about how important it is to leave the turtles alone if you see them when you're there. I'm thinking okay so it's okay to terrorize a lizard, but not a turtle. Interesting. I did this walk on Thursday and I honestly don't remember much more about it other than my pelvis hurt since it always hurts on the treadmill. Even though I did the walk without any changes, I still lost 4 feet in elevation and .85 miles instead of .9 miles. I'm not sure how that happens, but oh well. 

Oh! I haven't talked about the new features with the treadmill! I've always found it highly annoying that you can't listen to it with headphones. There is a jack where you can import sound INTO the machine to play through the speakers, but there isn't a headphone port to use to listen to the workouts through headphones and there wasn't a Bluetooth option. You can do Bluetooth heart rate monitor, but not headphones. I used to use the treadmill in the living room while hubby was watching TV so it was always a struggle on what walks to do since I didn't want to do the video ones while he was watching TV. Those days are OVER! They not have it so you can connect Bluetooth headphones! Speaking of which, I need to charge mine. Anyway, I had some struggles with this walk with the headphones. They didn't connect right away. I missed some of the talking. Oh and I can't remember the trainer's name either. 

The other feature is cool too. They have a pop station that plays music in the background. I actually have the volume on the music turned off because I find it distracting while doing the video workouts since I want to be able to hear the trainers, but it's nice during the slideshow type workouts. Well, I think it will be nice. I actually use YouTube on my Roku Stick on my little TV in the workout room when I do the slideshow workouts. I'm totally rambling now so I'm going to wrap this up. I liked the workout. It felt good to stay on pace with the trainer. 

My Hike

What it was supposed to be

iFit Montana Hiking Mini Series Upper Beehive Basin, Big Sky Montana

I did this walk on Wednesday. It was my third day of having only one job. This first week of being free of my second job is really important and it's really important that I get on the treadmill every day. It didn't have to be anything too intense or too long. I didn't need to break any records. I just needed to get on the treadmill. For years now I've been using the second job as the excuse for why I don't have time to workout. I don't have that as an excuse anymore, so I just need to get up and get moving. I can still blame my back pain, but getting up and getting moving should hopefully help the back pain. I need to fight through it and get rid of this weight. 

This was a short walk, but there was a steep section in it. I didn't go at the pace the trainer set. As soon as she hit 2.5 mph, I went back down to 2.0 mph. I wasn't sure how the elevation section was going to go so I didn't want to be tired out for it. I survived it though. After the steep section was done, I sped up the treadmill and finished with 2.5 mph. I'm glad I did that. It felt good to be moving at my previously slow pace. I used to do whole walks at 2.5 mph or I'd start at 2.5 and then bump it up to as high as 3.1 for the end stretch. 

I really like this trainer. She's a bit perky which isn't my normal style, but she's also a big of a modern day hippy. She's down to earth and says interesting things. She talked about fighting jet lag by getting your feet onto the ground of wherever you landed as fast as you can. She mentioned something about indigenous cultures all having a saying that translates down to be where your feet are. She said other randomly interesting things throughout the three hike series. If you want to see more about those, check out my post on Lower Beehive Basin and Grotto Falls. I'm going to look for more workouts with this trainer once I figure out her name. 

My hike 

 

What it should have been 

iFit Scottish Highland Series Ben Nevis Hike Part 3 The Highlands, Scotland Day 14

It's Wednesday! I skipped walking yesterday and almost skipped today. It was a long day at work and I just didn't want to walk, but by the time we were close to home, I had convinced myself that I should walk and hubby said he was going to take a shower so that gave me no excuses and a whole lot of guilt if I didn't walk, so I did it. I got up there and I got the last part of this dang series done. I still want to go back and redo the first and second walks because those are the ones that I failed at. They were also a good learning experience though. I now know that I can change the speed without losing the elevation changes. It's the only thing that got me through the rest of these walks! It also means I can try new things that I wouldn't have before. 

This thing sucked. It was supposed to be .7 mile with 551.6 feet of elevation. It was set between 1.8 and 2.0 miles per hour. I started at 1.5 and then went down to 1.0. For the last bit, I went back up to 1.5, but I only went .45 miles and 331 feet of elevation. More than 200 feet of elevation short. I still feel very accomplished though. This was hella crazy elevation for me! There were like zero breaks. It was at 12% to 20% for like 20 minutes! My calves were killing me by the time I was done! When I was in the big 20% incline section, I kept telling myself that it would never get steeper than this! Then once the 20% stuff was over, I did that at 18%. After the second to last hill, I checked the time and just kept chanting, "Less than four minutes. Only one hill left. I can do that!" I would then change to 3-1/2 minutes, 3 minutes, 2-1/2 minutes, 2 minutes, 1-1/2 minutes and one minute. It was great! I am a great motivator. I convinced myself to stay up there! Woot woot! 

I had a longer than normal cool down because I needed to get to 30 minutes to get my 100 points for my Engage for Health. I didn't get any eggs hatched. I didn't have Adventure Sync on so I'm not sure if I'll get the credit. So far, I'm not getting my 30 minute workout credit either. I'm only getting credit for my 3,000 steps walked which is only 30 points! I'm getting shorted 70 points. I'm sure it will fix itself at some point, but for now, I'm bummed! 

iFit Scottish Highland Series Ben Nevis Hike Part 2 The Highlands, Scotland Day 13

Today is Monday! Woot Woot! I actually like Monday. I get to go back to work! I like my job! It's also quieter now on Mondays with the new schedule that we have. I was sooooooo tired when I woke up. I thought for sure I was going to fall asleep at my desk. I had no car to leave though so I had to tough it out. Around mid-morning, I started to get my second wind. I was exhausted on the drive home though. I told my husband I didn't want to walk, but then I convinced myself to walk and then not and then to and then not and then to. I knew this walk was going to be hell and I just didn't want to do it, but I knew that I had to do it. This was supposed to be 657 feet in elevation over .9 miles. That's a lot with no breaks. No breaks at all! There were some little blips where it went down so it wasn't as hard, but on a treadmill, you don't stop to take pictures. All you do is walk! I wasn't so sure I could get through this, but I wanted to try. Don't tell anyone at work, but getting points for  Engage for Health is kinda what pushed me over the edge to get on here. I didn't even have 1,000 steps today so that would have been no activity points for the day. I couldn't have that.

I started out with 1.5mph. He was going some crazy speed that was just about running. Not that he himself was doing it, but the machine was set to have me race. Screw that! No way was I doing faster than 1.5. I tried to set up my heart rate monitor to my watch today and it worked, but then I guess I didn't hit the start button so once I hit start on the treadmill, the heart rate monitor hooked up to the treadmill. I still get credit for a 30 minute walk though (with warm up and cool down) so I get 100 points for Engage for Health.

This walk was hell. I'm not going to sugar coat it at all. It was absolute hell. I started at 1.5 mph and then just kept kicked it down until I was at 1mph. I felt like a failure going that slow, but I wanted to give up so many times and I kept going so I guess I'm happy with that. My heart was going crazy and I could barely breathe. My calves were killing me! I'm not sure if I'll be able to walk tomorrow, but I kept going. Graham McTavish was the leader for this one as well, but he brought a friend. I think that was because it was hell and he knew he couldn't talk the whole way up this hill! The next walk is supposed to be worse. I don't think I'll be doing it tomorrow. 

My phone was in my pocket for this walk, but it's being slow to update my Adventure Sync with Pokemon Go and my Engage for Health app is being slow to update with Polar Flow. I did that hellacious walk. I want to see eggs hatch! I want to see my 100 points on Engage for Health. 

iFit Scottish Highland Series Ben Nevis Part 1 The Highlands Scotland Day 12

Today is Saturday! We stayed up way too late last night and we slept in way too long this morning. I also spent way too much time making calls and writing reports today. It was after 1:00 and I hadn't had lunch or a shower. I knew that if I didn't get on the machine soon, it was not going to happen. I woke up feeling like I was going to be sick today, but I've been like that for about two weeks! I have no idea what's going on. I wake up feeling like crap and then later I feel fine. 

I was not really looking forward to this. I knew there was a giant hill at the end. What I forgot about or didn't realize was that it also had a long 10% incline section which sucked. I've done longer sections, but for some reason, I really get bored on long stretches at the same incline. I love iFit because it does the ups and downs for me. If I wanted long sections of the same thing, I'd just set it to manual and go at the same incline. I got through it though and kept going. I started this at 2.5MPH and then went down to 2MPH at the first hill. I stayed there until the last hill. I knew that last hill was going to kill me so I went down to 1.5MPH. At that point, both of my feet were asleep. Not sure what was going on, but I could seriously not feel my feet. I kept going which may have been stupid, but whatever. Once the walk leveled out to zero at the end of the last hill, feeling came back to my feet. Seems odd, but that's what happened. I did a 2 minute cool down and by the time it was over, my feet were tingly, but felt pretty good.

Graham McTavish did this walk as well. He spent a lot of time talking about kilts. He also talked about the battle of the shirts and rattled on about his acting career. I think these walks would be really cool for someone who is a fan of this man. I just don't really care about his acting career. He mentioned something about how when one door closes another one opens. Then he talked about how he was offered a job and then wanted this other one instead so he got out of the first one to do the second one. I'm like yeah so that's not really one door closing and another opening. That's you walking away from a commitment. I don't care that he did it, but I don't find it very motivational or inspiring and it's not a good example of one door closing and another one opening. 

I hatched two eggs! One was a 10km egg! It was a giant pink fish. It's adorable and it's the first one that I've gotten so that was fun! It's called Alomomola. The other was a 2km egg. It was a Venipede. Pretty soon I'll have enough candy to evolve it! Woot woot! 

Not much else to say right now. I need to go deal with finding food for lunch. Oooooooooh! I was doing my labels when I clicked it over to my Engage for Health app and I learned something amazing! If I keep my Polar M400 watch in my pocket while doing the walk, I can get credit for workouts! I have tried this before, but it wasn't working for me. This is going to be a game changer in the points department! If I walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes, I get 100 points! I need to go back and see if I got any points for previous days from when I was experimenting with this and thought it hadn't worked! This is soooooooo awesome and might actually give me more motivation to get on the treadmill!