For the past week, I have been working out with some star-trainers, here in Aspen, to get some new insights into what leading trainers are saying these days.
A highlight: doing “intervals” with Jean Robert. For this famous Aspen guy, that turns out to mean you drive up a thousand feet to one of the prettiest valleys in the world…put on snowshoes. And hit it.
For the warm up, we follow a slightly beaten track in the deep snow. For the hard part – getting your heart rate up into the 80’s – you just step out into the unbroken powder and ZOOM! your heatrate flies up there.
It was an incredible workout…and all the time you are staring around, stunned at the beauty of the place. What a sensational way to get in good aerobic shape.
JR’s recovery rate was 50. Good for him. But MINE! was 40, which is pretty hotsy-totsy for an old boy, recently up from sea level. The deeply laconic Jean Robert (he is Belgian and looks like Jean Paul Belmondo) gave me a slow look and then made my day: “I am impressed.” Followed by a Gallic shrug, to show that he was not THAT impressed. This stuff is hard. And fun. What a great, great job I have. Yikes!