day 10: be your own inspiration

today was the hike "stop sign" again. i'm with a whole new batch of people this week, "the fast van", so i was a little bit nervous this morning. but kateri made me feel better pretty quickly. when we got there, i paced myself out more than last time. i didn't fall behind like i thought i would. in fact, i shaved a solid 4 minutes off of my time! that means it only took me 1:10 to do it this time.

on the way back down, i didn't think i'd make it to the bottom so i was prepared to stop at west canyon again, as i did last time. francine, a woman i met last week who is in my group this week, was pretty close behind me and we stayed pretty close together for the remainder of the hike. she kept me motivated to jog out the rest of the hike back, so i did. i don't think i would've finished the entire 8.6 miles without her. so, that was a big accomplishment!

it rained on the hike today. apparently it never rains in ivins. sharon seemed a little flustered by it. i absolutely loved the feeling of hiking up in the rain! the entire desert smelled of gratitude as each drop fell. it was ridiculous and i felt like i was a part of rejuvenation.

breakfast was a banana muffin with a mixed berry puree on top. it was absolutely delicious! i hope that i can actually bake those muffins at oswego and have one for breakfast instead of skipping breakfast... (i hope, i said).

after breakfast, i went to strength circuit. it was okay, but it doesn't get your heart rate going like circuit training so it's a little less intense. next i went to stretch, which was in the newly opened gymnasium.

lunch was a cauliflower curry soup, and a chicken salad sandwich. cindy, a guest here, makes me laugh so much everyday. she's one of the funniest people i've ever met. each week she gets in her local town newspaper. apparently it's run by just one woman, who writes/edits/self-publishes. today's headline was "babysitters find jobs challenging". underneath was a picture of the abstinence club's most abstinent.... we laughed about that for a while. cindy wondered aloud how one could be "more abstinent" than the next.

lucky for us, shanelle asked chef to make the granola for his demo this week. so after lunch i sat through his demo. it took a little bit to keep my eyes open through most of his talking, but i loved learning how to make the granola. it's so great i can't wait to make it for my fam when i'm home!

today's afternoon schedule was a bit easier than usual, i felt. i had total toning with robin first, then h20 deep water suspension with sharon (it was still raining at this point), and lastly i had cardio intervals with annamarie. i had a breakthrough in cardio intervals. i chose the treadmill next to francine, who hurt her knee today. usually francine goes pretty hard in the cardio classes, but today i think she ran vicariously through me. it's eight 30 second increases, a minute at the top, eight thirty second decreases for speed. then two sprints, which i ran at 6-7. after that, we do the same interval again, only i chose to do incline for the second one. afterwards, you do two more sprints.

before we did our last 2 sprints, annamarie told us a story about how she was afraid to run past 6 until one day the guy she was working out with reached over and pushed her speed up to 9. she told us to break our speed barriers and go beyond what we had been afraid of passing. i knew my speed barrier has been about an 8.7. i just don't think my feet can take me much faster than that.

well, i was wrong i guess. both sprints are only a minute long. the first sprint, with francine motivating me the whole time, i got up to 9.5. i could not believe it. her voice just made me feel like i should keep moving up the ladder and going faster than i ever have before. the next sprint, i only got up to a 9.2 but she was still just as motivating.

for some reason after i broke 9, my eyes started to sweat... (incase you don't understand what i mean, i guess you could say i cried.) it was the first time i've cried at fitness ridge, which is kind of amazing since people love to cry here. i don't really know what happened but i guess my body was just so confused and i was so astounded at what had just happened that i couldn't grasp the whole situation. francine totally got me through the whole day! everyone here is so supportive of everyone else.

dinner was meatloaf and string beans. for dessert we had this cinnamon tortilla with ricotta that had been blended with berries on top. it was actually one of the most amazing things i've ever eaten for 94 calories. after dinner, i went to open life coaching and we talked about how to move past pressures of friends and family to eat badly. i'm so lucky for my family. i thought about that the whole time. jen said that her parents were supportive of her to come here when she first came, but when she got home they shoved bad food in her face. i know that my family is reading this and waiting for me to come home and share anything i haven't already shared here with them. i wouldn't be here without either of my parents and i'm so glad to have gotten this opportunity. i can't say it enough: it isn't about the number anymore. i've pushed myself beyond limits i'd once mentally set.

kateri pulled me out of the lecture early to go play tennis with her. i absolutely love kateri. everything she says makes me laugh and we get along so well. she's such a genuinely great woman and i'm so glad that i got a chance to connect with her. (i'm so going to visit her in west africa, what a life.) anyway, the really important part is that i beat her 6-3. but every game was close, so i was getting a little nervous.

on our bike ride back from the tennis courts, scott (theprettymasseuse) beeped at me from his truck and my heart rate hit it's high for the day. just kidding. (a little).

back at the room, natasha and i talked for a bit. she's really wonderful and encouraging. she spent a good ten minutes telling me how impressed she was by me in our cardio intervals class and that makes me feel great because she is in way better shape than i am. i'm happy to have her as my roommate.

i love you all, it's time for bed.
goodnight!