. I honestly can’t believe it is free — I would pay for this thing. I may just join the site at a premium level to give them some love.
So, I downloaded the thing this morning to take on my XC-Ski. If I’m staying close to home, I ski at the Phalen golf course. I can walk there. It’s a nice, rolling loop. It’s easy and the conditions and grooming have been really nice lately. The only thing that confused me was the distance. Some places online say they have 10k of trails. A map I found online said 7.5k. Then there was the day when the course was different and I *knew* it was less than that. So, I never really knew for sure how far I was going. Of course, that’s no longer an issue. I brought my phone, turned on the app and skiied my little heart out!
I’m not sure how to do “laps” on the app just yet so I actually had it map three different workouts for each of my three laps. And it was weird because it did log 7.23 first, then 7.00 and then 7.55. But I’m sure I didn’t always hold the same line on the trail and I did fall once and had a little interaction with a raccoon that diverted me on the final lap. But still, it’s VERY cool to have all these stats (including elevation!) and it saves it right to the site online.
Here’s a map of my route:
So, I’m a little smitten. If you have an iPhone, you *need* this app. And I can’t believe I used to want a Garmin. Hah!
On a side note, that means I completed 21.8k today in about 2 hours and 23 minutes. It was long and I was getting tired at the end so the idea the 35k ski race next week is starting to freak me out. Everyone says it’s flat, but today’s route isn’t *that* challenging. And how long is this thing going to take me? 3.5 hours? 4 hours? Yikes. On my third lap today I could feel my arms and ankles turning to jello. It’s been a long time since I’ve entered a race that has scared me so much. This is truly going to be one of those “my goal is just to finish” races. Because, honestly, I’m not that confident of even that right now.
With my anxiety aside, the ski was LOVELY today. It felt a little slow and the snow was a bit sloppy. But the sun was gorgeous and it was warm. The sky brilliant blue and birds chirping. When I would ski past Lake Phalen, I would get a glimpse of the kites from the Winter Carnival events. They were so cool — one giant one shaped like a fish was mesmerizing. And on my final lap, I came across a raccoon passing by. He was so cute! He stopped to look at me and then climbed up a nearby tree to watch me go by. Very adorable.
It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the nerves of trying something new. After numerous triathlons and a couple of marathons under my belt, I felt race anxiety like I haven’t felt since my first few triathlons. I had crazy dreams the night before the race and I thought of bailing a half a dozen times right up until race time. But I did it.
I completed the Pepsi Challenge 10k “Mini Challenge.” I entered the freestyle (skate) category. And while most of my buddies (and husband) were out there competing in the 26k distance, 10k was more than enough to introduce me to the competitive end of the sport.
And the reason for the stress? I was freaked about my inexperience. I was afraid of being “in the way.” I was afraid of falling. I’m not that good going downhill. And I was more than freaked about racing with skis and poles and all these things that could get caught up all together.
But, of course, it wasn’t nearly as scary as my mind had made it. In fact, falling and getting tangled with other people was the least of my issues. In fact, the biggest challenge was the terrain (super hilly) and the snow (cold and powder-y and not great for skate-skiing). Truth be told, barely 1k into the course, I was thinking about only completing 5k — it was that hard.
The course was up a giant hill and down a giant hill. Two laps of this. It was slow. Classic skiers were kicking my ass on the climbs. There were kids racing that were half my height and triple my ability.
But it was fun. I was better on the second loop. I passed a few people – including a couple of kids (take THAT suckers!). And it was pretty cool to finish my first race, get a medal around my neck and be done with all that anxiety re: my first race.
I also got to compete the race with my buddy, Judy. She and I placed 1st and 2nd place in our age groups respectively (of course, we were the only two women in our age groups!). After our race, we waited for the rest of the hardcore gang who were completing the 26k including my husband who chose the crazy, slow, cold long course for HIS first ski race. We also had two rockstars in our cabin who did the 45k! Completely amazing.
And now that I’ve done it, like all my other sports, I’m ready for more. In fact, I’m going to jump right in and go from a 10k to a 35k! Of course, this 35k is flat — so hopefully not has hard as even the 26k at Pepsi.
When all is said and done, my race time was 1 hour, 5 minutes. It’s probably not great for a 10k, but I have no perspective. And, like I said, the course was super-slow. But I did it and I’m, obviously, ready for more.
Sunday January 04th 2009, 5:07 pm
Filed under: weight watchers
Ironically, with as much as a WW follower as I have been in the past and with as many health-related bloggers and sites that I follow, it actually took an online advertisement in my Yahoo! mail to make me aware that Weight Watchers has a new program. (And online advertising works. But I already knew that, right? ;)
At any rate, I came across the ad just a bit ago in my mail and clicked through to the site. I will say that Weight Watchers didn’t go a very good job describing this new program. In fact, the shtick on the page sounded like the regular same old, same old WW-speak with a shiny “2009″ spin. But then I did a little Googling and came across this article.
One, I have to give Peertrainer some credit. It’s hard to cover Weight Watcher info in a way the WW lawyers approve and PT does a good job linking back to the corporate site to encourage those interested to sign up and find more information. But they were also able to fill me in a little more on what this program is about. Here’s an excerpt:
But one of the key criticisms we’ve seen of Weight Watchers overall was this idea that you could do the diet in an unhealthy way.
But now Weight Watchers has made a real turnaround and introduced a new program they call “Momentum”, and it looks like this program tackles this weakness head on. Specifically, they have introduced the idea of “Filling Foods” that are high in fiber and high in water content. Which means a diet high in plant-based foods which are excellent for long term health. The Momentum Program is also designed to give you some very practical ideas to put these ideas into action. This is a new area of focus. Read more >>Sleeper
They go on to explain that they are focusing more on the psychology of Weight Loss (something that, I have to admit, always seemed to be missing a bit in meetings) and they’ve restructured points to value healthy foods. They’re right — 30 points of nacho cheese rice cakes is NOT the same as 30 points of healthy, nutritious foods. They also mentioned that they’ve released new recipes to rave reviews and the Core foods list is now the “filling foods” list. Kind of a “volumetrics” approach , at least linguistically. But I love having a more literal label attached to the food. It also sounds like there is less focus on some of those highly processed “low point” foods that plague the WW culture (yes, Fiber One bars and Western Bagels, I’m talking to YOU!).
For me, it might just be enough to jump back into the program officially just to see what it’s all about. I was beginning to count points again, anyway. It might be worth the $$ investment to hear the entire new take (and get the recipes and tools).
Of course, you can always Google the program to see what else is available online.
Final note, I thought I’d leave you with the commercial they’re running. Not really that relevant, but I think the Orange Guy is cute.
Although, some free marketing advice to WW: add some damn sharing functionality to the info and the commercial videos on your site. I WANTED to share them, but had to search YouTube, instead. Totally lame.
As for me? I start my 2009 training program tomorrow morning with swimming and weight training. It’s not a new year’s resolution, but I thought the first whole week of the 2009 was as good as any week to start the real program rather than the ad hoc workouts I was doing in Nov & Dec. I am dreading a full club in the morning, though…
