Marathons anybody?

One of the great things about this place is the staff, especially the trainers and guides. They are so enthusiastic, unceasingly motivating, positive, and active, it's really all quite too
much for an Englishman! I can see that my citizenship of 6 months now has no chance of displacing that centuries-old, inbred distrust for anybody that energetic. Take for example, one of the guides, Debrah: this morning, she had to say goodbye to us all because she's off to run a marathon on Sunday. And not just any marathon - it's her 193rd - yes, 193. That's close to the mileage on my last car. And these are just warm-up races for her real passion: ultra-marathons - 100 miles. Too, too, much to even contemplate.

Ironically, We're actually going to come quite close to such silliness tomorrow. The St.George Ironman Triathalon is being run on Saturday:
2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bike ride, and a marathon (26 miles 385 yards, 42.195 km) run, raced in that order and without a break, and most Ironman events have a time limit of 17 hours to complete the race.

They will run right past Fitness Ridge. You'll be pleased to know that we will NOT be taking part. However, as a modest doffing of the cap to their incredible endurance, we will be participating in a 6.2 mile (10K) fun run at 6:00 am tomorrow morning. I will be finishing my sixth mile in roughly the same time as they will be finishing their 26th mile.

It's been a great week here and I'll wrap up my final thoughts over the weekend.

No Losers Here

It was a strange experience tonight being with some of the participants at Biggest Loser at Fitness Ridge watching this week's episode of Biggest Loser on TV.

I'm not sure whether it was life imitating art or art imitating life, or life imitating art imitating life. I guess it will be something to think about on tomorrow's hike. One thing for certain, there were no "losers" at Fitness Ridge or on TV. Nothing more need be said.

D is the new C

I seemed to be embroiled in vitamin hell. On the way to Fitnesss Ridge, the shuttle driver regaled us with the benefits of vitamin D, especially vitamin D3, and how vitamin C is so 2009!

Then on our arrival, we were seated with the inhouse counsel for Garden of Life vitamins, who confirmed our humble driver's enthusiasm in that Vitamin D is definitely the new C. Of course, Garden of Life vitamins are the best, he assured us, not being made of synthetic but only natural ingredients, and delivered not in splendid, synthetic isolation, but entwined with a "combination of nature's most powerful whole foods and ingredients to provide optimized nutrition your body can easily digest and absorb."

We got plenty of natural vitamin D today as temperatures rose into the mid-80s under a glorious sun. We completed our first 6-mile hike today and caught the tail end of the desert flowers:

The splendid cylindrical Cactus Barrel,







the vibrant red Indian Paintbrush,













and the delicate violet Desert Poppy



















were abundant on the normally barren, semi-arid, scrublands of Southern Utah.

Unfortunately, I rather over-did it on day 1 - just too competitive when it comes to sport - and am heading to bed early to nurse my aches and pains and over exposure to the sun; and, we get to do it all again tomorrow!

Return to the Ridge

Having had a great two weeks here at Fitness Ridge last July, we decided that we needed a little tune up!

The ride from Las Vegas to Utah looked very familiar but then the desert hasn't changed in the last million years so why expect anything new in the last 9 months? The Joshua trees continue to eke out an existence but seemed healthier this time taking advantage of the meager water from the last days of spring.

Some seemed as if they hadnt had a drop of water for decades; others looked as if they had found the mother lode of trapped moisture and were flourishing like Florida palms, some quite green, clinging to the last remnants of Spring as another 110-degree summer began its heated campaign

The 2 hrs from Las Vegas to St. Georgr sped by pretty quickly and soon we could see the Mormon temple of St.Georeg rising majestically from the valley floor long before we got into town, with it's spire pointing the way like some celestial sign to its heavenly destination.

Apart from the spectacular Mormon temple, (now being competed against in size by a big box Walmart closeby), St. George, the Fresno of Utah, is a pretty ugly town. A cautionary example of strip development and it doesn't even have a strip!

Leaving St.George, it was just a few more mile to our destination, Fitness Ridge, or as it is now known, Biggest Loser at Fitness Ridge, having entered into a partnership with the TV show of the same name.





Looking forward to being back - first class at 6:00 am tomorrow morning!

Sweet dreams everyone!

The End of the Beginning

Sunday/Monday, August 2/3, 2009
Last days and home

The Results
After 2 weeks of 1200 calories a day, early morning mountain hikes, and 6 hours a day in the gym and pool, I’m sure that you’re anxious to hear the results - some surprising, some not so dramatic, but all really encouraging. Not so much weight loss as might be expected but pretty impressive reduction in fat percentages, meaning that we’ve been converting fat to muscle.

Betsy
Weight loss – 7 pounds
Waist reduction – 1.25 inches
Body fat – 44.9% reduced to 39.2%
BMI – 29.2 reduced to 27.8

Ray
Weight loss – 7 pounds (from 211 to 204)
Waist reduction – 2.5 inches (one belt notch!)
Body fat – 30.4% reduced to 22%
BMI – 30.3 reduced to 29.3

So much fitter and “funner” – a local Utah term – and much more self-righteous.

Take Aways
So what did we learn? Well, everything we already knew rationally, we experienced in reality.

It really is no more complicated than calories in/calories out – if your body needs only 1200 calories a day and you put in 2,000, and you do no exercise to burn those calories off, then you will put on weight, and it takes an awful lot of effort to get rid of those calories so why ingest them in the first place (other than incredible enjoyment and satisfaction!)

It is a matter of mind over matter – whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t, you’re right. It was great pushing myself again physically and I don’t want to get away fromf that.

Read labels – the stuff we put into our bodies is pretty gruesome when you read the ingredients (not just the nutrition tables but the actual ingredients) – there’s barely anything these days that has not been fully or partially hydrogenated.

It’s very hard to feel full on processed food – there’s so many calories packed into small amounts, for example, 800 calories in a bag of chips, that it’s easy to keep inhaling them and still not feel full. Try eating 800 calories of cauliflower – not so easy.

The value of the group was really brought home to me – it’s so much easier to do this with a team and a support system rather than on your own. It keeps you going through the hard times and is supportive even when you slip.

The Close
We had to fly back from Las Vegas and of course the contrast hit us right between the eyes. We sat in the airport for about 5 hours in front of half a dozen fast food restaurants: McDonalds, Taco Bell, the Jose Cuervo bar, Wolfgang-Puck-To-Go, Round Table Pizza, and so on. We stared at them. They stared back, sending out death eaters clutching triple chocolate shakes, bags of French fries, slices of pizza, giant chocolate pretzels, wafting them in front of noses and sending siren calls of decadence tempting us back to follow the evil path. We managed to resist but we know that it will not be easy. We won’t be able to rely on supercilious superiority forever! I guess it’s going to be one day at a time.

Thank you to everyone for your support and advice, your emails, and your Facebook comments. So not the end; not even the beginning of the end; but, definitely the end of the beginning. Here endeth the reading.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Day 12

The Hike
Today’s hike was the timed one we do each week. Just under a half undulating on a paved path and just over a half straight up the road to the most photographed Stop sign in the US. I finally broke through the 1 hour barrier to finish in the top four, and Betsy knocked several minutes off her personal best too. So I guess it’s working. Probably not so much weight loss this week as fat is definitely being turned into muscle mass.

After the hike I was so excited that when I was standing still, I tried to take a photograph and felt flat on my face. A few people rushed over to my rescue but I just rolled on my back laughing. I couldn’t believe that I’d done all this hiking, rock climbing, and jogging without incident only to fall over when I was stood still. The only thing that I hurt was a little bit of pride.

LDS
With the exercises finished, and Saturday afternoon to ourselves, we went into St. Georges, named after George Smith, prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints (Mormons) or simply LDS. We visited Brigham Young’s winter home where he lived for just 4 years, a modest 2-storey house built around 1870 which he used (and fathered several of his 57 children) while the temple in St. Georges was being completed. I guess you had to make your own entertainment in those days! It was sold several times after his death and fell into disrepair for a long time until the Church repurchased and restored it relatively recently in 2003. A lot of the furniture, linens, and utensils were handmade as it was considered dutiful to use whatever God-given skills you had.

A lot of the guides and instructors are LDS and are totally over the top nice; but genuinely nice. They don’t push their religion at all but are happy to answer any questions you put to them. It’s been quite a revelation (no pun intended). LDS is also not uniformly practiced as our taxi driver pointed out, an ex-LA wanna-be-but-never-quite-made-it-bass-guitar-plaging rock star, (his group was named Fast Eddy), who left and returned to LDS, and although he doesn’t agree with or follow all tenets, still considers himself LDS.

A lot of the boutique art galleries we visited had romanticized versions of peasant girls picking flowers, angelic teenage boys, fishing; proud parents looking devotedly at their young, with a biblical simplicity that was just too good to be true, especially at $25,000 per painting. Very interesting to see an art genre that we never knew existed. Also a lot of red rock landscapes in oils (the water colors were just too weak for this kind of rugged country) and also quite a bit of modern cowboy art, with just a few native American Indian themes.

Close
Lots of good byes today. I don’t think that we became close friends with anybody but there will be a few that we’ll continue to stay in touch with by email and by Facebook Fitness Ridge Alumni. Also we had a farewell last dinner together and watched all the photographs and videos of this week’s exploits. I’ll set them up so that everyone can see them after I get back.

Tomorrow is our last day and final check in. Our strategy so far has been to stay above the yellow line but we hope to be “pulling big numbers” tomorrow to avoid the drop. However if I don’t, I have several alliances with the remaining guests and will definitely be voting to send Betsy home! (If you’re not a Biggest Loser fan, just ignore the whole last paragraph.)

Friday, July 31, 2009
Day 11

The Hike
It’s weird to be saying that the 8 mile hike today although our longest, (I haven’t run or walked 8 miles since my days at Lambeth), was an easier one but it was. I chose this one to regroup and save some energy for the timed hike tomorrow. It was on a gravel trail the whole way, and although undulating a lot, there were no major hills and no sand! Betsy and I walked together for the first time and chatted with the guide all the way there and back and the time just flew by especially as you didn’t really have to pay a lot of attention to where you were putting your feet and we could gaze around in wonder at the magnificence of West Canyon in Snow Canyon National Park. It was also a wonder to me to gaze up at these magnificent peaks and know that I actually climbed many of them over the last two weeks.
Betsy was in the wars a little as you can see from her scarred legs. I guess bare flesh, gravel, and cactus don’t really go together. She did great today and made the full 8 miles there and back.

Close
Meals are taken communally on long refectory tables in a cafeteria-like setting and the classes are always taken in groups (individual coaching is available but is extra.) It’s very much like summer camp: people are exchanging emails and promising to write; the ones leaving are concerned but happy to go; the ones left behind now have to create new friendships all over again; and the really long term residents are hunkering down to get through their own individual trials.
Our two weeks are almost over, one last hike and a few classes on Saturday morning and we’re done. We feel great, have absolutely no regrets, and are already considering coming back again next year.