Skiing is great exercise. Not only are you outside, getting tons of fresh air, you’re working out muscles on your body that you didn’t even know existed. I’ve skiied in North Carolina, and Colorado, and I’d love to travel overseas and ski there too, like at Chalets St Anton. Could you imagine skiing in the Alps? Quite a difference from the small runs in North Carolina I’ve experienced. St. Anton offers a huge vertical ski area from nearly 2700m down to 1300m - that’s amazing. What a great way to get a cardio workout!

I saw this piece of exercise equipment on late night tv, and it’s called the Fluidity Bar. I think it’s an overpriced piece of nothing if you ask me - $200, and you could get the same workout by building yourself a bar out of PVC, or holding onto your kitchen counter. The video shows a woman doing a ballet style workout - exactly the kind of thing I dislike, having taken 10+ years of ballet as a child and teen.

Since I’m pretty clueless in the YMCA, I’m always looking for infomation on what I should be doing in my workouts to prep for the big walk.  I found a Bodybuilding Forum that has discussion topics like training, fat loss, exercise, and more.  There are lots of people in the know there, who are willing to give you information to help you have the best workout possible.

Since I’m relatively new to the world of working out and fitness, I don’t really know much about equipment, other than what I use at the YMCA (uhh…when I make it to the YMCA!)  I saw that Keiser Performance Equipment was featured in the latest edition of Sports Illustrated.  It’s the preferred brand for many top sports stars and training facilities. 

I checked out the lower body information on their website, as that’s where my focus is right now with my walk coming up in 8 weeks.  Their machines will assist with strength and power development, joint stabilization, and for sport specific needs.

Their TrekMill is a lot nicer than the treadmill I’ve been using too - it allows you to set inclines of up to 50% and has preprogrammed hikes as well.

During my training, I have found that it is much easier to walk on a treadmill than it is on actual ground. Easier on my body, feet, joints, knee & back. We walk on the treadmill at the YMCA because we are members and pay monthly for it…so what started out as a “get healthy & exercise”, has now, through the 3 day, turned into “build our stamina”. So we alternate between outside walks, since we live in paradise and can do so in January …and walking the treadmill inside the Y, which smells like the high school locker room and brings back bad memories of P.E. class wth Mrs. Lasher! I can set the treadmill for different heights, speeds, and set my own mileage, and I find that I burn many calories doing so…but it is still not the same as walking outside on actual pavement…so as we continue our training, I feel we must do more “outside” walking than “inside”.

I had my first spinning class tonight. Yes, I’m insane. It was tough, and I actually got a bit “damp” (I don’t sweat). Too bad I can’t bike my 60 miles for the three day, because I felt like I went a few miles - at least! My calves were killing me after 30 minutes of spinning. By that time, Cheryl and Dana were at the YMCA, so I did a mile on the treadmill.

The good part about spin class was that the instructor played great music. The bad part about spinning class was that the instructor was way. too. perky. I seriously don’t know how she was able to spin AND call out commands!

If I can’t walk tomorrow, I only have myself to blame.