It can be done!

A two week vacation, one week of it on a cruise with all the food you want, more alcohol than I've had in 8 months and I didn't gain any weight. It really makes a difference when you stay active. We always walked the stairs and tried to walk everyday.

The last blog shows the fitness room at the Sophie Station hotel. Following was my workouts and some photos:

8-3 Fairbanks Ran 2 miles plus 2 sets of reps in weight room.

8-3 Fairbanks Evening power walk with Cyndi and Jessy. Watch out for the mosquitos!

8-4 Fairbanks It's really smoky out because of the forest fires so I walked the floors and stairs in the hotel's long hallways for about 20 minutes. Round trip to Fred Myers twice about 1 mile

8-5 Train trip to Denali - day off from workout

8-6 Denali Steep uphill trek in the rain on the trail behind our lodge with Paul, Cyndi and Jessy. Not sure if it was really a trail or just a run off. Paul said if Rob had been with us we would have kept climbing. I was glad I had my trekking poles.

8-6 Bus trip to Talkeetna. This was the town where they begin the Mt. McKinley climbs. However the clouds never lifted so we didn't get to see the mountain. After spending a long day in the bus the girls decided to walk to and from town. 4 miles round trip.

8-7 First day on the ship....Let the stair climbing begin....

8-8 Day off from workout except for the stairs

8-9 Let's check out the fitness room! There is a track outdoors on deck 12. Jessy and I ran a mile and then did hand weight reps. In Juneau we took the tram up 900 feet and hike the nature trails. Steve, Jessy and I hiked to the snow field 3.5 miles round trip. Donna, A.J. & Sera did

about 1.5 miles.

8-12 We did our 8 mile round trip hike to the Laughton glacier. 1 1/2 miles were actually hiking on the glacier. We went through rain forest, then did rock scrambling before we made it to the Alpine area. The temps went down to the low 40's. We burned a lot of calories.

Except for our glacier hike, we ran the track and worked out in the fitness room the rest of the days on the ship. One of the days, Jessy and I even ran a full 2 miles without a rest. I wasn't looking forward to getting up early for boot camp, but I knew I was missing some core work.

Alaska - no boot camp up here.

But we are going to try and work out every day, especially next week when we are on the cruise ship with all that food.

Saturday was a 20 mile ride at home. We kind of took it easy because it was my 13 day in a row of intense exercise for a minimum of 1 hour per day. Sunday we did take a day off and Sunday evening we were on the plane to Alaska. Our room at the Sophie Station hotel, which we will be staying at for two more nights is a suite with a complete kitchen. So this morning we had a light breakfast and then Jessy and I went to the fitness room to do upper body weights. Steve joined us and we did a 1 1/2 mile jog down a dirt trail through the forest and ended up at the airport.

Poor Steve, stopped to pee and got a bee sting on the leg. The photo shows the view from the fitness room and the trail where we started our jog. Cyndi will be here tomorrow morning and Jessy will put together a boot-camp work out.

Conditioning by Bicycle

Today we rode 30 miles in just under two hours. We rode to the beach then to Newport and up the river trail. Quite the head wind, but I was able to hang with some guys at about 20 miles per hour for several miles down the coast.

Boot camp has definitely increased my fitness level and the little rises are easy to push up and over. In six weeks I need to be able to do 70 more miles in addition to the 30. I only had a 90 calorie granola bar for breakfast and some sugar in my tea, so round about 15 miles I felt like I was beginning to bonk. I could have sure used a banana at that point. My husband, Steve who rides with a heart rate monitor, a body bug and a power tap said we had burned 1000 calories.

We will see if I can get up and ride tomorrow before church as well. Got to get the miles in.

It's light out now when we start our work outs!

I know, I got really behind on updating my blog. We have a whole new group of girls but they seem really fit and willing to do everything. There isn't even much groaning. For the first week of this session we started out with lots of conditioning including two runs up the hill on Thursday. Pat did an awesome job not stopping her jog until she reached the top. Pat blames it on Jessy, but Jessy said she was walking behind her and Pat was so close when she was tempted to walk that she just had to encourage her to finish the climb.

My husband has signed us up to do the Orange County Wheelmen Amtrak ride in September. It's a century (100 miler) which means I have to find some time to get my bottom time in the saddle to make the 6 plus hours the century will take. We've been able to ride on weekends and last week I pounded up Edwards hill but I need to get in close to 100 miles per week and I'm not there yet.

The conditioning from boot camp though has really helped me when I'm riding. I'm able to ride hard for a full hour and at a decent average MPH. I forgot how much I loved my bike. For a while I thought it was just because I was overweight and then I realized it was because my fitness level wasn't where it should be. I am really enjoying the cool wind we create when riding especially during the hot summer weather months.

In two weeks we will be going to Alaska and the excursion we signed up for was an 8 mile hike. I'm not sure of the elevation or elevation gain, but I hope my current fitness level will enable me to do this hike easily.

Roy has been working us a lot on different circuits including a lot of arm and core work which we all need.

Over 1/2 done with our session...

Wow...I think we should call this a conditioning camp session. Roy seems to keep us really moving, running, jump roping, running some more, overhead presses with weights, also with TRX bands. Always something new. He also seems concerned that we are using our core and strengthening our core. I seem to end up sweating every day. Although it's still hard to get out of bed in the morning so early. I never regret that I was there once the work out is over. In fact sometimes the hour goes by so fast we feel like we still want more. Got to say though...working out with music is much better than listening to everyone's joints cracking and Roy's joke cracking.

Jessy started a training for her first 5K blog. She has included some info on how to tie your running shoes. I always thought it was weird that since I tied them in the dark, once my feet/ankles warmed up, it always seemed like I needed to tighten my laces. Of course I never wanted to stop at the beginning of my run nor at the base of the hill to tighten them, but the whole time I'm jogging I wished I had. Check out her Random Facts blog for the details: http://jessysrandomfacts.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-tie-your-running-shoes.html

You're killing us Roy....

Ok, you know we can handle it. But on a Monday morning -- two sets of Indian runs as well as the full parking lot and those burpee things and the half-knee squat with weights! Don't forget some jump roping in the middle of it all. I guess we are working on extra conditioning and I definitely need to work on my speed.

We are also all concerned with summer vacations coming up, how not to lose any conditioning or fitness when we can't be at boot camp every single morning.

It is so much fun having Jessy with us every morning. I can't wait until she can run again (although, then she will be passing me).

First one around the parking lot!

That was really nice of Roy to have all the fast runners stay home today. He kind of tricked us saying just go around the round-a-bout and back. I think he knows I'm use to do long distance riding and depending on the length will determine my pace, so I ran a bit faster than I normally do because I thought it was a shorter distance. But then he fooled us into a full parking lot run. Well with the girls taking a tapering day off for the mud run, Beca still not back at camp and Marta still overseas... guess who made the lap first! Actually once I was into a faster pace and after the success of a full hill jog yesterday, I just kept it up.

It's been a tough week, I'm a bit concerned about the new girls, but they seem to be keeping a good attitude and aren't giving up. I also know how much faster I could be and how much easier the hill would be (darn gravity) if I could get more weight off. At least we haven't done pull-ups or burpees yet.

And...... the Barb is back. Somehow, there are new campers that have been able to do the sarcastic comments for Roy. So although we missed her, she knows that her spirit will live on and we will make sure that Roy doesn't get away with too much.

I crushed the hill today!

I was inspired by last boot campmates, Kellen and Sabina. At the last hill day of the last camp session, Kellen and Sabina slowly ran to the top of the hill together without walking. At the top they had huge smiles and did a double high-five. If they can do it after one camp, then I thought I should be able to as well since I'm in my fourth session. I'm sure I could have walked it faster, but I just kept moving in a jog and made it all the way to the top without stopping or walking.

This morning there was a lot more cardio before our first attack on the hill. Roy had us doing relay style races around the small parking lot carrying a weight above our heads. I thought he wouldn't notice on the back side of the bushes, but he is like a teacher with eyes everywhere. I was just trying to reserve some energy for the "hill".

I was so surprised for a first week of camp that he had us do the hill again. For the 2nd run of the hill this morning, I just couldn't "crush it" again. But there is always next week.

Yes! We did miss boot camp...

Or maybe it was Roy? Or maybe it was the camaraderie of the group. It does feel good to be "at it" again. It's kind of weird because although we drive to camp in the dark, within minutes of arriving it is already light out.

This morning we had a handful of new girls. Kind of fun to see them a little nervous not sure what to expect. Roy however has a way of getting everyone comfortable yet still ensuring that everyone is challenged.

Today when we ran the parking lot, I tried to go a little bit faster. Usually I guard my pace because I want to ensure that I run the whole thing and not stop and walk. But then, I'm always the last one back and everyone seems to pass me. Today however I was only passed by about 4 girls and definitely made better time. (Jessy didn't have to tell me that many of the girls had to stop and walk. I guess my glory will be short lived as they find out they can probably run the whole thing too).

On Saturday's 18 mile ride with my husband, I did feel much stronger and the little rises seemed like nothing. I could keep my pace and easily accelerate after stops. If I can only break my sit bones back in, it would be no problem to go for a 50 miler (mostly flat).

Happy Birthday Cyndi!

Cyndi chose to spend her birthday morning getting up early and working out with us. Today we did the "hill" twice plus some partner medicine balls and runs around the small parking lot. I saw three bunnies surprising one in the bushes. Still no snakes, Barb. This week I have been really sweating. My husband says that is good because it means I am burning calories. Jessy is going to be able to join us in Aliso Veijo for camp this month. We are missing Barb, but her spirit remains.
I'm not losing tons of weight, but my pants definitely fit better and the scale slowly shows improvement week by week. Next week it's back to 5 days per week. We've so enjoyed some time off of the early morning.s