Wednesday, August 24, 2011

So I am back at home and recovering from my Alaska adventure with Disney!  Went rock climbing at the gym, but it’s just not the same :( 

So back to to the conditioning room this afternoon while I ran to the tunes on my iPod.  

 

Not much to say since the time change from Alaska to here is 4 hours and I’m still tired……

Sunday, August 21, 2011

So yesterday in Juneau, I (and 17 other teens) was supposed to go up in a helicpoter to go on a glacier and go hiking and then mushing with a dog team, but it got cancelled :(  because of the pouring rain.  My parents still went on their hike, so I got to sleep in and hang out at the Vibe with my group of friends! A really lazy day....
 
But today, I went Ziplining, sweeeeeet! 

We went to Herring Cove in Ketchikan, Alaska to experience the Rainforest Canopy & Zipline Expedition.  Once there, we took a Unimog (all-terrain custom 4x4) that took us up a steep rainforest hillside to the chalet.  

This is where the guides outfitted me with the safety equipment and provided me with a detailed orientation before zipping from the first platform!  The first one is a short zip to get you used to the equipment and I felt really goood about it! As the zips progressed, they got longer and higher - check this one out!   Wheeeee…..

The guides progressively eased us into the forest canopy along cables ranging from a short 100-foot zip the 850-foot pulse pounding “Ben’s Revenge”.  The guide said that you can often see eagles and bears from the tree platforms – we saw 4 bears in the creek. 

We zipped the course, which has I think 11 ziplines and 2 suspension bridges. 

 .... can you tell how long the zip is?  I loved flying in to the clouds... wheeeee.......

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Today was an overcast day and the ship sailed in to Tracy Arm Fjord.  At the end of it was the Sawyer Glacier. 

Hey mom, notice I am wearing my hat and my Canada mitts that I didn't think I'd need!

With the exception of playing tag on the decks, I did not really do anything that I can be proud of for the purposes of this blog (lol).  But my teacher said to just blog or jot down a few things anyways and have fun, so here is the fun I had!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

 

A day at sea and I already made lots of friends at the teen club (the VIBE) on board the ship. 

The pool was 80 and we were cruising through the Inside Passage and I could tell that it was getting colder.   

I walked the 4^th deck with my dad and we ended up doing just over a mile!

A cool-looking maintenance area in the bow of deck 4 on the Disney Wonder. It's only visible from the jogging track. My mom stitched together several shots to create this fisheye panorama.


 See ...even on vacation, you can stay active!  I hope that I can keep this up!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

I woke up to another bright and sunny day and am looking at the Disney “Wonder” cruise ship docked at Canada Place.  I will be on that ship in a few hours because our family is cruising through the Inside Passage to various Alaska ports. Got my mitts and hat and I find it hard to believe that I will even need them.

I am not a Disney nerd, but how could I resist getting my picture taken with Captain Mickey....

So this is what it looked like from the Fitness Centre on my treadmill......lol... (my mom took tons of pictures and is known as "mamaratzzi", so we have a lot of pictures from this cruise!)

 

Now here’s the cool part - as the ship cruised out of port and under the Lions Gate Bridge, I was on the treadmill in the fitness center and my mom got a shot with her zoom of the people on the Lions Gate Bridge and they were waving to us!   How neat is that?

Now for some history......(yeah, it's from the Vancouver web site)

The Lions Gate Bridge, officially known as the First Narrows Bridge, is a suspension bridge that crosses the first narrows of Burrard Inlet and connects the City of Vancouver to the North Shore municipalities (North Vancouver and West Vancouver). The term "Lions Gate" refers to The Lions, a pair of mountain peaks north of Vancouver.

Monday, August 15, 2011

What a bright and sunny day here in Vancouver!  I can see Canada Place from here!  We all went for a walk through Vancouver and my dad went to see the office tower of where he worked and then bought a lottery ticket for good luck!

 

The mountains are wonderful here too, right by the ocean.  

We explored Stanley Park and then went to cafe Crepe on Granville to have Banana-Nutella Crepes.  Yummy……   and then more walking around the city to burn off the nutella (lol). 

Canada Place at night!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Today I went rock climbing and I noticed that my strength in my upper body and my flexibility had improved. My instructor also commented on my form and said that he noticed that I seemed stronger. He called me "Spidie"!!!

We talked about my workouts in the conditioning room and determined that my time there has helped my climbing skills! Yay me!!

I also went to Yoga today since I felt that I needed to work more on my stretching. Plus I am leaving to go to Vancouver so I'll get in some nice hikes and outdoor stuff.

The split is coming along, but still slow progress. I am not as excited to work on the splits anymore as I was when I started because I like the Yoga relaxation better. They still get you to stretch and in a lot more areas so i find that I am getting a better stretch all over.

Bye for now – I am off to Vancouver

Saturday, August 13, 2011

I skipped my training yesterday ‘cause I went to an art camp that I REALLY REALLY enjoyed. 

Anyhow, I didn’t feel about missing the Friday workout since I think that I have worked very hard this week. And the drops from yesterday worked! no more earache!

This morning I went to the conditioning room to work on my flexibility and my cardio on the treadmill.  I am finding that I am getting more and more comfortable on the treadmill, even with the “talk test”.  And I am remaining within my Target Heart Rate!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

This afternoon I went for Aquafit class and then did a few laps in the pool since there were no annoying kids there at that time!   

I think I got too much water in my ear ‘cause it hurts now. My mom went to get some drops for me so I hope this helps :(

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Had a great workout this morning! 

Went to the conditioning room to work on my aerobics and then my strength training.   

Rushed this a bit ‘cause there was a Yoga class that I wanted to go to relax! Ha! She actually had us working too! 

But it was fun and I felt really good about myself.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

I am exhausted and my legs still hurt – I swam 40 laps! OK, the pool is not that big! But still, I am tired!

When I first go to the pool, I was the only one there and I had to stop half way through because some little kid kept jumping into the lap lane – lifeguard asked him to finally leave.

I had a great stretch before the swim still trying for those splits!

 

I also made friends with the lifeguard – she gave me lots of tips such as instead of swimming with my fingers tense and together, open them up a little bit under water and pushing ‘cause it causes more resistance, so you get a better workout.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Ok, so I read about the intensity component of my exercise program and it is only now that the course describes that it is important to be exercising at the right level. Well, HAHAHAHAH!  I’ve already been doing that since early July because I am tracking my Target Hear Rate. It’s not that hard to calculate, its actually simple math.

·         Normal Resting Heart Rate ~ between 50-90 beats per minute (bpm). Because of differences in our teen bodies and our physiology, my resting heart rate range is greater than for other age groups.

• Maximum Heart Rate ~ about 200-205 bpm. To calculate my maximum heart rate in bpm, I used the formula  220 – age = 206.
• Target Heart Rate for:
• Fat loss workout, I must work at between 50%-70% of my maximum heart rate, or 103-144 bpm.

·         Cardio workout, I need to be between 70%-85% of my maximum heart rate, or 144-175 bpm.

So anyways, I got on the treadmill, thinking about this intensity stuff, wondering if I could really sing at the same time!  Not that I would do it in front of all the guys at the gym – I’m not that adventurous.  SO, I got my Target Rate up to … I’d rather not say. Let’s just say that I should have been singing!

So what this means is that I need to increase my intensity (or stop singing!)

In the meantime, check out these 4 guys on 8 treadmills (Music video by OK Go performing Here It Goes Again (The Treadmill Video).) - wonder what their intensity is at? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA&ob=av2e

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Hey everyone!

Today I got on the treadmill again and got a real good run in for about 45 minutes. Target Heart Rate was up to 168bpm (whoo hoo) and then I had a nice stretch to work on my splits! I keep forgetting to work on the splits so I am not progressing as fast as I wanted to - only at about 7-inches still... aaargh!

Dontcha think this dude kinda looks like Shrek?

With a bit of motivation, I also worked on my strength, you know, practicing my dude push ups - the real ones!

No, I will NOT look like the Hulk!  GREEN is not my color!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Did some rock climbing – great stretching tonight! Gotta get them splits!

 

Also had a bit of lap time in the pool!  Great to be in the water, but I am not sure if I like the laps – there is no music and I get confused how long I’ve gone. Not fun. Next time, I’ll go to the conditioning room instead and run on the treadmill.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Today was a rainy day and very gray outside – perfect for getting more assignments done!

But I did manage to go to a Yoga class cause I didn’t feel like working out. As I said before, yoga really help me relax and stretch. Still working on my splits, but haven’t made much progress as I only managed to improve by about a half inch – OUCH!

Tuesday August 2, 2011

OK, so I went back to AquaFit – don’t laugh.  I got quite the workout yesterday!  The instructor told me that Aquafit helps you balance out your muscle groups that may have become sort of uneven through my repetitive actions, say in the gym, or through regular work.

 

But working out in the water gives you equal resistance through your full range of motion. 

Remember when I said in an earlier post that you didn’t want to pick up bad habits and that you should learn how to use the workout machines properly before adding weights. Well, water makes you do the movement correctly.

Monday, August 01, 2011

For my course, I need to complete the following chart on how I am doing so far. 

	Activity	Goals/Notes	Starting score	Score # 1
Strength	“Man” push ups	Be able to complete 3 sets of 15	2 sets, 5 reps	3 sets 5 reps
Flexibility	Splits	Be able to touch the floor with the splits	8-inches from floor	7.5-inches from the floor
Endurance	Aerobics	Maintain a Target Heart Rate between 144-175 beats per minute for a minimum of 20 minutes, 4 times a week	140 bpm	I am able to maintain the bottom end of zone for 25 minutes 4x/week.

If you remember, in one of my initial posts at my blog (http://kimsblogforppl10.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html) Week 1 ~ July 3-9 ~ This week's focus: A Personal Fitness Plan & Goals)

I had documented some specific goals for areas including strength, flexibility and endurance.  .

So, what did I do today? Took an AquaFit class and it was not as easy as it looks ya know!  

I couldn’t help but start giggling as the mommies in the class were waving their noodles around in the air!  I think we all looked kooky, but we had fun!   

Our instructor said that in an hour class, you can burn about 400 calories!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Happy Friday!!!!

Headed straight for the conditioning room this afternoon to get in some stretching – gotta work on my splits!  

Felt good about my efforts and then got back on the treadmill for about 30 minutes, maintaining a good Target Heart Rate! 

I am able to keep a good pace going now and I find that when I have some great tunes on, I get soooooo motivated to just go, go go!  

 “Jumpstart” by “These Kids Wear Crowns” is a good one!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Did some rock climbing but really wasn’t in the "ZONE"  – too many screaming little kids today that I wasn’t in the mood to hear. (Was I REALLY that whiney???) Great stretching though, so it wasn't all bad.

Anyways, I left the wall and headed to the conditioning room where I had great run on the treadmill – got my Target Heart Rate up to 160bmp .... Oh Yeah!!!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Today was my Yoga night.  Did some great stretches --- keep getting better at my splits!   

After that, I went back to the conditioning room and did the treadmill for 30 minutes and got a real energy boost! 

Had a great run – got my Target Heart Rate up to 166bmp again.

Tuesday July 26, 2011

OMG!!!! I just realized that my posts from last week didn't get posted -sorry peeps!  Let me post my notes from last week....

Anyways I kept putting it off ‘cause my friends were around, but I finally went to the YMCA and had a FANTASTIK workout last night!  I didn’t realize how tight my abs are getting until I put on an old pair of shorts!  Not a 6-pack, but nice and tight.

Worked on my flexibility, did some upper body strength training and had a great run on the treadmill – got my Target Heart Rate up to 155bmp, right in the zone, dudes!

I’m really lovin’ the gym and I am finding that I have more energy!!!  

Used a cool song called “Skeletons” by “These Kids Wear Crowns” for my treadmill warm up. Take a listen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pGIKICkHPg and let me know what ya think!