We got into Salt Lake City on Monday around noon. We headed right to Park City Mountain Resort before we checked into our condo for some night skiing. They only had a couple runs opened but we did not care. The couple hours we spent on the hill was a great warm up for the next couple of days.

For Tuesday we headed back to PCMR. It snowed over night and there were blue skies all day. We tried to shred as much of PCMR as possible but the place is so big and the lift lines were a little busy as people were celebrating Mardi Gras. It made for a fun day. My legs were getting a great workout on all of the Blue and Black Diamonds I went down. I’ve had a set of Volkl Skis for a couple years now and they worked very well with my new set of Salomon Ski Boots. Besides my feet hurting a little from breaking in the new ski boots it ended up being an awesome day.

On Wednesday we decided to get into our rental car and drive out to Robert Redford’s Sundance. This place had more of a rustic feel to it. The majority of the buildings were wood and much of the attention was focused on the outdoors…as it should be. It started snowing lightly at the peaks but it was near 45 degrees at the base making the snow very soft. I brought out my K2 snowboard for the day. It ended up being a great day as the views were amazing along with the mountain having a wide open but unique feel to it. I did not get to meet Robert Redford though which would of made it the highlight of the trip.

To keep the adventure going we picked Brighton to shred on for Thursday. It snowed all day again making conditions very soft and alot of fun. What I liked most about Brighton was that all of the runs funneled down to the few lifts they had making it easy to not lose each other. Brighton might be my new favorite place as it had a little bit of everything even though it was not as big of a resort as PCMR or The Canyons. I used my Salomon Snowblades which are a lot of fun when going in and out of the trees as they are easy to maneuver. You use different muscles with them compared to normal skis so its a little bit of cross training.

We had some left over discounted lift tickets for PCMR and used them on Friday. Again, it snowed a couple inches during the day making conditions nice and soft for us to snowboard on. Fatigue was starting to set in from the previous couple of days and a little bit of late night partying.

The Canyons were calling us on Saturday. This place is huge. I snowboarded again as I’m trying to get better at it. Plus, its really good cross training as you use a whole different set of leg and core muscles. It snowed all day again. We even hiked to the top of the Expert Only lift. It was a cool site to see as there was 3 feet of fresh powder to ride on. That part was cool. The rest of the run was a little bit above my ability as there were gigantic moguls everywhere. It would have been easier on skis for me. After 45 minutes of falling, taking breaks, and waiting up for a friend who was doing the same we finally made it down.

For our last day in Utah we drove to Snowbird. I wish we would have gone there during the middle of the week as most of the runs are Black Diamonds. The blue runs were challenging too. It was snowing all day again which made visibility bad. It was not a big deal the previous days but this place was moguled out from everybody skiing on it. There were a couple moments when the nerves jumped up as I did not see a bump until the last second. I even gave myself whiplash when I hit a rut on a catwalk. My snowboard flung me around and I smacked me head. Good thing I was wearing my helmet. We took the tram up to the top and hung out on the back side bowls known as Mineral Basin. If it was not the seventh day of shredding it probably would have been a lot more fun. My mind and body were in two different places after smacking my head. I was exhausted. The runs were steep and bumpy. If it would of been day 1 on my board I would of done better. Since it was not, I did not get to enjoy Snowbird as much. If I get back to Utah in the future it will definitely be the first place I go to.

So after 7 days of skiing and snowboarding I felt whipped. We would go 4 – 5 hours each day. The afternoon pass is what works for us. We use to try to do the all day passes but we would take our lunch break, drink $40 of beer, and burn ourselves out much faster during the trip. Doing the half day saves $15 – $30 on lift tickets plus we don’t drink $40 of beer saving us lots of money and energy to go all out.

There is no way I would have been able to go as hard as I did for all 7 days without getting myself in shape first. Leading up to my trip I focused most of my workouts on leg and core specific workouts. I mixed in P90X and Insanity workouts like P90X Legs and Back, Plyometrics, Yoga, and Cardio Circuit Training. The soreness didn’t set in until the day after I got home. It was mainly because I have never snowboarded 3 days in a row in my life so those muscles got a much harder workout. My abs feel ripped right now because I was using my toe edge so much the last day on the steeps to make sure I would not fall head over heels and tumble off a 60 foot cliff.

I’m pretty pumped about making it all 7 days knowing that I did not eat all that well and partied all most every night. Its what we do on our trips. From what I’ve read I was probably burning about 500 calories per hour which comes out to almost 2500 calories burned on the slopes. So anything I was drinking or eating was being burned up. The only thing I wish I would have done differently was bring some P90X Recovery Drink packets and P90X Protein Bars. I didn’t bring either because I like travelling light and there was no more space for those. I always take those after a workout to help me recover faster. They would of helped for sure. Its been two days since I got home and I can’t stop eating. Next time I embark on a 7 day shred fest I will need to eat much more.

If you are big into skiing or snowboarding and really want to get the most out of your ski vacations then take the time to get in shape before you go. Insanity is probably the best workout to do because it uses your body weight as resistance and is a lot of leg and core work. Both of which are used in skiing and snowboarding. After this trip I think I might be done riding for the season. We put in almost 30 hours of shredding the gnar. One things for sure, I’ll be taking the next week off from working out to let my body recover as I’m tired as hell.

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My 7 days of Skiing and Snowboarding in Park City Utah

The snow reports are starting to look like it might actually drop a couple inches this year. It better as we seem to bring bad luck where ever we go. Last year it snowed for the first time ever on a trip with a steady snowfall for all 4 days on the slopes. Nothing big but just enough to make it soft.

We found a house to rent two blocks away from downtown Park City with what looks like the ability to put our skis on from the back porch and follow a trail to the Park City Mountain Resort chair lift. We are renting a mini van so we can check out the other resorts in the area like the The Canyons, Brighton, and Sundance. Hopefully Robert Redford will be at Sundance so we can see him show off some of his ski moves he put so brilliantly together in Downhill Racer.

The goal this year is to shred every single day. To do so I’ve been busting my ass trying to get my cardio up to do it. I’ve done a bunch of different workouts in the past month to hopefully allow me to shred as much gnar as possible during the day, party at night, and repeat the next day.

I’ve been doing more endurance workouts including 4 mile runs followed by a 3/4 mile swim twice a week. It takes me about an hour and a half to do this while only taking a break to change clothes to get into the pool. Every day after doing those I feel sore as hell but good at the same time as every muscle in my body was challenged. On the other days I’ve been doing a combination of P90X, P90X Plus, and Insanity workouts. The ones in particular I’ve been doing are Insanity Pure Cardio, Insanity Cardio Recovery, P90X Yoga X, P90X Upper Plus, P90X Interval X Plus, P90X Kenpo Cardio Plus, along with the ab workouts like Ab Ripper X and Abs Core Plus.

The mountains (hills) here in Michigan are merely a place to warm up or practice new tricks and I’ve been going once a week to break in some new ski boots I got for Christmas. I’m not into doing tricks so its mainly a time for me to get loosened up and get out of the house. After skiing at places like Vail, Whistler, and Lake Tahoe, the plces in Michigan are kind of a let down.

I should be able to go for it and ski or snowboard every day with the shape I’m in. The first couple runs are going to burn a little but hopefully my conditioning will help me power through and enjoy myself out there. My buddy Dave has told me he’s going to shred every day also. I hope he does as I know our other friends who are coming usually burn out after the second day. Maybe with the extra two days on the slopes Dave will beat his weight loss record from last year when he lost 7 pounds snowboarding. Its an amazing feat as we ate like crap and drank lots of Canadian beer last year. He might lose 10 or more this year.

That’s it for now. I’ll do a recap in a week talking about the trip and if I was able to shred everyday. Dave and I write more about our ski/snowboarding trips at a snowboarding blog that we run. Feel free to check it out and tell us your shred stories.

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Off to Park City Utah for Skiing and Snowboarding

Tuesday (9/1/09) – Insanity Core Cardio & Balance – Felt sore again from doing it but its nice to do something not as intense for a couple days.

Wednesday (9/2/09) – Drove To Kentucky – Was heading down to Kentucky with a group of 12 people to do some Houseboating. It will be my first time going on one. The lake we were going down to is called Dale Hollow Lake. Its in Kentucky and Tenessee.

Thursday (9/3/09) – First Day On Houseboat – We picked up the house boat around noon and it is quite a large boat. The houseboat is 72 foot long. Its funny to think that the place we got it from just gives over the keys and sends you along your way. It only goes 4 mph so its not like you don’t have time to react. Of course I got sick for the first time in two years this day. My head was just pounding.

Friday (9/4/09) – Second Day On Houseboat – What started out as a great day with doing some swimming, jumping off the back of the boat and water slide turned into being one of the most real situations I have ever been apart of. At around midnight my friend was walking down the side of the boat from the back to the front. While coming around he said he got bite by something. When he sat down we could see fang marks. It was a snake. His leg instantly started to swell up and he began puking. We had to call the Tennessee River Valley Authority to come pick him up from our boat and rush him to a dock where a ambulance was waiting. None of us had seen something like this before as Michigan does not have snakes like those.

Saturday (9/5/09) – Last Night On Houseboat – I picked up my friend from the hospital in the morning and he was in some pain. He was ok but his leg was a balloon and a little bruised. He decided to come back to the boat and spent the whole day resting. The rest of us went about our activities and enjoyed the rest of the day or so we thought. Around 9pm at night we were hanging out on the top deck playing a game. One of the girls went down to get a couple beers from the coolers. We heard a deafening scream. The snake was back. It appears that it never got off the boat and was hiding under our coolers the whole day while we sat 2 foot from them. The culprit ended up being a Copperhead. Of course he was hiding right next to the sliding door waiting for one of us to walk through it. Even worse than that was he worked his way in front of our beer coolers. We were stuck inside without our beer as we waited for the Tennessee River Valley Authority again along with the Animal Control. They came back out to our boat again to take care of it. After they got it into a jar the guy who caught it said he has been doing this for 30 years and has never handled one. We were happy when that thing was gone.

Sunday (9/6/09) – Drove Back To Michigan – Parked the boat and spent 8 hours driving back.

While I was excited for this week to be a relaxing one it ended up being a educational one. I started it with my recovery week with the Insanity workout. I still have two more days to go next week because of the house boat trip. The whole experience with the snake made things unforgettable. It leaves a bad memory in a trip that was still a lot of fun.

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Workout Review For 8-31-09 To 9-6-09

The village was a lot of fun with its cool bars and restaurants and the nightlife was not too shabby either. I brought my snowboard, skis, and snowblades there and did all of them on different days. My favorite had to be the days I used my snowblades on. They are just so much fun because I could turn on a dime. Since they were that much smaller I did feel a bit more pressure being put on my knees to stay up on them.

We decided this year to only do the afternoon ski on 3 days and a full day on the last one. The difference in price from a full day pass to a half day pass was $77 to $59 in Canadian $$. Four hours on the slopes going all out is a very good workout to begin with. In the past we have pushed ourselves all day and had nothing left for the next day. I will say that I felt like I was in very good shape and did not feel sore at all. As a matter of fact, the most muscle discomfort I had was sitting in a Ford F-150 with 4 other guys for 11 hours there and 11 hours back to Detroit. All of the P90X I had done before I left made the trip that much more enjoyable. I did the legs and plyometrics workouts more than I normally do to get the legs ready for 4 days of raging on the slopes.

I give the trip to Mont Tremblant “Two Thumbs Up” and I would definitely go back there again.

Post from: P90X Workout – Insanity workout – Shakeology

Back From Mont Tremblant Canada

The one thing I thought could not change, the beach, did. It use to be very sandy with good waves that could be reached on a boogie board with flippers. Now the whole beach had rocks showing up everywhere. It was difficult getting into the ocean and now there was no sand bar to walk out on. It went from rocks to 6 feet deep in a matter of steps. No more 6 foot waves rolling in either. There was no point trying to boogie board or body surf those because you would be landing in the rocks. Disappointing to say the least.

With my main options of exercising taken out from underneath me I looked for other ones. The gym that our resort has went from free to $8 a day. No thanks. Its not that I could not afford it, its just that it was always included for all families who were apart of the resort. I think the owners of the Royal Resorts are getting a little greedy as their maintenance fees have increased too.

Since I did not bring down my P90X DVDs to workout I really did not do all that much of exercising. A couple laps in the pool here and there and a round of golf at the Iberostar golf course was all that I did. I guess it was not that bad because some times a week off is good. I definitely need to get back into the swing of things because I just feel out of it. Rarely do I go 3 days without some sort of exercise and to go a week is out of the ordinary.

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Back From Cancun Mexico

To This

for a week should not be all that bad. I spend most of my time in the ocean boogie boarding. I should be in good enough shape from doing P90X all the time to handle the waves again this year. There is a strong under tow right in front of our resort and it takes a lot out of me every year. Swimming in the ocean for 7 days, doing some running on the beach, and a round of golf will be my workouts for the week. Hopefully I don’t blind anybody with my non tanned Beach Body. Bring on the Mexican food, cervezas, and Margaritas. Will probably be a week until I update the site. Don’t miss me.

Cancun Mexico

Post from: P90X Workout – Insanity workout – Shakeology

Off To Cancun Mexico