I was asleep by 11 pm last night, so waking up at 4 a.m. seemed kind of "easy" for a change. Easy meaning I didn't want to die. Alarm was set for 4:45, but at 4 I was up and wide awake, so I rolled with it. Used the extra time in the morning to scrub out the remaining floor vents before I left as I think I have traced the funky cat smell to be actually in the in-floor ductwork of our house.
So, boot camp. We ran after warmups. Today we did the loop that I calculate as .4 of a mile per mapmyrun.com, and did it twice in a row. Then we had an obstacle course. It involved running figure-8 type loops around cones, sprinting with KNEES HIGH and then sprinting with HEELS HIGH, followed by jumping over tiny little hurdles that were oh so easy to jump over the first 6 times around, and then seemed to grow much taller and more challenging after that. We also did a kind of stradle walk, like you would do in tires on a big time obstacle coure, but using little rings instead of tires.
So we went three times through the obstacle course, then hit the weights. Tricep press x 30 then a combo exercise of forward lift, open out to sides, lower to sides. That's one. Then side lift, bring forward, lower to front. That's two. 30 of those. Then back to the obstacle course. Two times through and repeat the weights. Then two times through and new exercises, this time kind of a forward leaning row x 30 followed by side bends with 5 lb weight over your head x 30 each side. Obstacle course 2 times, repeat weights. Obstacle course 2 times and then fire hydrant style leg lifts, 30 each side. Followed by BEAR CRAWL up a FREAKING HILL, then walking lunges BACKWARDS down the FREAKING HILL. Repeat up the hill and down the hill. Back to the mat for the leg lifts again, then back to the hill for the bear crawl again. I just finished the leg lifts and was heading to the hill for round two of the crawl when, drats! shucks! darn! it was time for cool down.
Hit the mat and, oops, we're not cooling down, we're doing abs. CRAP. One minute of crunches. One minute of slower crunches where you go halfway up STOP up, halfway down STOP down. Then final minute of halfway up to up NO DOWN. After that, legs up and we did circles with the legs for lower abs, then back to crunch position and upper torso circles x a minute. Flipped over to stretch in cobra pose, then did plank position for one minute. THEN we stretched and cooled down.
Today was my easiest morning as far as getting up and at 'em, but man was the workout tough. The last few times through the obstacle course I did not jump the hurdles and felt like A WINNER because I was able to run alongside the hurdles and not have to slow down and walk. But no way was there a jump coming out of me.
One day of boot camp left. I have a feeling that on Friday it is going to be REALLY CHALLENGING to get up and out of bed. I don't see early to bed Thursday night in my future with my sister in town and my husband's brother in town as well (getting ready for the big camp out!). But I did decide today to actually attend Friday boot camp (was considering skipping it), so I give myself a gold star just for contemplating going.
Showing posts with label Boot Camp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boot Camp. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Boot Camp Saga ... Day 7: The Beginning of the End
Today was Day 1 of Week 3 of Boot Camp. And this being a three-week session, I am almost done. And since the weather has taken a turn for crap, I am ready to be done.
Exercise at 5:30 a.m. is apparently not my thing. Exercise outside in nasty weather is also apparently not my thing. It's good to learn these things about yourself and know what NOT TO sign up for in the future.
There are some women in the camp that do this all of the time. Like, literally, this is what they do for their normal workout. They just sign up for session after session, back to back. And they love it, and it works for them, and they see results. I can't afford to do that and keep my gym membership, and I'm not ready to give up my gym membership for boot camp. My gym does have a boot camp style exercise class Mon and Weds at, guess what time, 5:30 a.m. But at least it's inside. When this is over, maybe I'll give that a shot. (As my kids will tell you, though, when mom says maybe, it means maybe not.)
The advantage of working out at 5:30 a.m. is that no matter what my schedule is work-wise, I can do it. Work out 5:30 - 6:30, home by 6:45... I'm usually up at 7 to start the school/work morning routine, so the timing works. The problem is that I'm freaking starving and exhausted by 9:30 or 10 a.m. That whole getting up early thing has a price, people.
So today's boot camp session. We did partner stuff again, which was not as bad as the previous partner stuff as it did not involve any touching or invasion of personal space. We did progressive sets of alternating exercises. So for example, the first one was biceps curls and triceps curls. Partner 1 does biceps, partner 2 does triceps. Do 15 seconds, then switch and do 15 seconds. Repeat for 30 seconds each, then 45 seconds each, then a minute each. Sounds a lot easier than it is.
Did that with biceps/triceps; lunges/tricep dips; shoulder press/holding weights overhead; squats/squats; and lunges/knee raises. To mix it up, we did a 1/4 mile run around the park (once for the warm up, then once in the middle of the session). EDIT: I just did a map of the running route around the park and it is .4 of a mile. I did not realize that we were doing that much running.
I know that I will be feeling this in my arms tomorrow, but I must be building a little bit of strength because the lunges and squats did not kill me so much today. I'm going to count the two .4 mile runs as one mile toward my Lazy Man Triathalon, giving myself a .2 mile run credit for the workout. Does that seem fair?
Exercise at 5:30 a.m. is apparently not my thing. Exercise outside in nasty weather is also apparently not my thing. It's good to learn these things about yourself and know what NOT TO sign up for in the future.
There are some women in the camp that do this all of the time. Like, literally, this is what they do for their normal workout. They just sign up for session after session, back to back. And they love it, and it works for them, and they see results. I can't afford to do that and keep my gym membership, and I'm not ready to give up my gym membership for boot camp. My gym does have a boot camp style exercise class Mon and Weds at, guess what time, 5:30 a.m. But at least it's inside. When this is over, maybe I'll give that a shot. (As my kids will tell you, though, when mom says maybe, it means maybe not.)
The advantage of working out at 5:30 a.m. is that no matter what my schedule is work-wise, I can do it. Work out 5:30 - 6:30, home by 6:45... I'm usually up at 7 to start the school/work morning routine, so the timing works. The problem is that I'm freaking starving and exhausted by 9:30 or 10 a.m. That whole getting up early thing has a price, people.
So today's boot camp session. We did partner stuff again, which was not as bad as the previous partner stuff as it did not involve any touching or invasion of personal space. We did progressive sets of alternating exercises. So for example, the first one was biceps curls and triceps curls. Partner 1 does biceps, partner 2 does triceps. Do 15 seconds, then switch and do 15 seconds. Repeat for 30 seconds each, then 45 seconds each, then a minute each. Sounds a lot easier than it is.
Did that with biceps/triceps; lunges/tricep dips; shoulder press/holding weights overhead; squats/squats; and lunges/knee raises. To mix it up, we did a 1/4 mile run around the park (once for the warm up, then once in the middle of the session). EDIT: I just did a map of the running route around the park and it is .4 of a mile. I did not realize that we were doing that much running.
I know that I will be feeling this in my arms tomorrow, but I must be building a little bit of strength because the lunges and squats did not kill me so much today. I'm going to count the two .4 mile runs as one mile toward my Lazy Man Triathalon, giving myself a .2 mile run credit for the workout. Does that seem fair?
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Boot Camp Saga... Day 6
I'm in a little late in getting this posted and I have to say, I am cracking the eff up over the emails that I received from people saying, "Hey, what about boot camp?" as if me going to boot camp and then blogging about it has any import in anyone's life. So funny.
Anyway. Day 6. The park was CLOSED OFF for the Wine & Jazz Fest this weekend, so we had boot camp in the courtyard of the condos across the street from the park. I am sure that the condo dwellers loved this and are hoping we'll meet there every day at 5:30 a.m., to do circuit training in their courtyard outside of their windows where they are certainly probably not trying to sleep.
We did a circuit with a partner. I am not a big fan of partner exercises. It involves touching and being touched while sweating... and not in a good way. We did nose-to-nose push ups with a high five between each one, then interlocked our feet for sit ups. We did squats and twisty things with each of us holding one end of a stretching cord thing, and more twisty stuff standing back to back and passing around a medicine ball. We did a wall sit torture move where one person is doing a wall sit while the other does triceps dips on the wall sitters thighs. I am not kidding. Then there was something called a chariot run that involved a stretchy band thing and pretending you're a horse. Good times!
After completing the circuit, it was time for SUICIDE RUNS. Any exercise with the word SUICIDE in the title is NOT FOR ME. The guys hauling the garbage cans out of the condo complex enjoyed being in the middle of the suicide runs and stood there looking at us with that WHAT THE.... look on their faces.
That was about it. Warm up. Circuit. Suicide Runs. Circuit. Suicide Runs. Cool Down. Starbucks. Two weeks down, one week to go. I need to start making a plan for what I am going to do post-boot camp because to go back to doing nothing seems kind of lame. Something that is not at O-dark-thirty would be nice.
Anyway. Day 6. The park was CLOSED OFF for the Wine & Jazz Fest this weekend, so we had boot camp in the courtyard of the condos across the street from the park. I am sure that the condo dwellers loved this and are hoping we'll meet there every day at 5:30 a.m., to do circuit training in their courtyard outside of their windows where they are certainly probably not trying to sleep.
We did a circuit with a partner. I am not a big fan of partner exercises. It involves touching and being touched while sweating... and not in a good way. We did nose-to-nose push ups with a high five between each one, then interlocked our feet for sit ups. We did squats and twisty things with each of us holding one end of a stretching cord thing, and more twisty stuff standing back to back and passing around a medicine ball. We did a wall sit torture move where one person is doing a wall sit while the other does triceps dips on the wall sitters thighs. I am not kidding. Then there was something called a chariot run that involved a stretchy band thing and pretending you're a horse. Good times!
After completing the circuit, it was time for SUICIDE RUNS. Any exercise with the word SUICIDE in the title is NOT FOR ME. The guys hauling the garbage cans out of the condo complex enjoyed being in the middle of the suicide runs and stood there looking at us with that WHAT THE.... look on their faces.
That was about it. Warm up. Circuit. Suicide Runs. Circuit. Suicide Runs. Cool Down. Starbucks. Two weeks down, one week to go. I need to start making a plan for what I am going to do post-boot camp because to go back to doing nothing seems kind of lame. Something that is not at O-dark-thirty would be nice.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The Boot Camp Saga... Day 5
Halfway through with my boot camp session and I finally must admit complete defeat.
Waking up, OMG, impossibly hard with the rain and the coolness and the snuggle-in factor. I have to say, thank goodness I am carpooling because if I had been left to my own devices I would have stayed in bed.
It was drizzly, so at least no pounding rain during the outdoor workout. After stretching and a jog we played a game (yay for games!) with Uno cards. There was a list of exercises which were color-coded. For example, the red exercise was a squat/thrust/push up thing. You go into a squat, jump out into plank position, do a push up, jump back into squat and then jump upright. That's one.
So we divided into teams and each team had a stack of Uno cards and you had to divide them by color and addup the colors. So for the first round, we had 22 red cards, which means we did that freaking squat thrust push up exercise 22 times! Repeat with walking squats along a low wall, a squat/overhead press, a twisting punch thing. Twisting punch thing? Easy! We got eight of those. Insane thrusting thing? 22 the first time and 26 the second round! Ugh!
Played this "game" for two rounds, then started a third round with new exercises and, voila, it was time to stretch and leave. One thing I have to say for the games, it makes the time pass quickly.
After boot camp, I came home, showered quickly while Tim got Carlie up for camp so we would not have a repeat of yesterday's bus missing episode. Got her on the bus, and then had to go to work. Got to work to find out the job was cancelled. Came home, got in bed at 9 and slept til noon! I was absolutely DEAD. Now I am up, and starving.
There is a video of the last group of women who went through boot camp up on You Tube. Click here to see it. I am not in it. It was taken for commercial purposes a few weeks ago. Same instructor, same park, even some of the same women, but this is not my boot camp group. But you get the idea. Only difference I would definitely point out is that it is PITCH BLACK for most of our entire session, and these ladies appear to have some daylight. Don't know how they managed that.
Waking up, OMG, impossibly hard with the rain and the coolness and the snuggle-in factor. I have to say, thank goodness I am carpooling because if I had been left to my own devices I would have stayed in bed.
It was drizzly, so at least no pounding rain during the outdoor workout. After stretching and a jog we played a game (yay for games!) with Uno cards. There was a list of exercises which were color-coded. For example, the red exercise was a squat/thrust/push up thing. You go into a squat, jump out into plank position, do a push up, jump back into squat and then jump upright. That's one.
So we divided into teams and each team had a stack of Uno cards and you had to divide them by color and addup the colors. So for the first round, we had 22 red cards, which means we did that freaking squat thrust push up exercise 22 times! Repeat with walking squats along a low wall, a squat/overhead press, a twisting punch thing. Twisting punch thing? Easy! We got eight of those. Insane thrusting thing? 22 the first time and 26 the second round! Ugh!
Played this "game" for two rounds, then started a third round with new exercises and, voila, it was time to stretch and leave. One thing I have to say for the games, it makes the time pass quickly.
After boot camp, I came home, showered quickly while Tim got Carlie up for camp so we would not have a repeat of yesterday's bus missing episode. Got her on the bus, and then had to go to work. Got to work to find out the job was cancelled. Came home, got in bed at 9 and slept til noon! I was absolutely DEAD. Now I am up, and starving.
There is a video of the last group of women who went through boot camp up on You Tube. Click here to see it. I am not in it. It was taken for commercial purposes a few weeks ago. Same instructor, same park, even some of the same women, but this is not my boot camp group. But you get the idea. Only difference I would definitely point out is that it is PITCH BLACK for most of our entire session, and these ladies appear to have some daylight. Don't know how they managed that.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Boot Camp Information
A couple of people have asked for contact info for Boot Camp, so here's the link to the Web site http://www.vancouveradventurebootcamp.com/index.html
A friend on the East Coast said she found something similar in her area, though maybe not the same outfit. So if you're not in the Portland/'Couv area, although this link won't help you out very much, it may get you started on your way to being a Booty too!
A friend on the East Coast said she found something similar in her area, though maybe not the same outfit. So if you're not in the Portland/'Couv area, although this link won't help you out very much, it may get you started on your way to being a Booty too!
Boot Camp Saga ... Day 4
A new week, another day at Boot Camp. What can I say? 4:45 is still hell'a early to wake up and, oh yeah, I am still weak and have no muscle definition. Oh, did I mention that I have lost exactly ZERO POINT ZERO pounds during Boot Camp? Yeah, there's that.
What did we do today? We stretched, then we did upper body with handweights, progressive sets. So for example, on biceps curls, you do ONE, then you do ONE TWO, then you do ONE TWO THREE, etc. until you've done a set of 10 reps. Did that with biceps, triceps, forward lift and upright rows and shoulder press. Then did it with lunges. Then for a break, we went for a run.
Second segment... we did the same progressive thing with push ups on a rock wall and triceps dips on park benches, with running in between. So one push up, run to the benches, one triceps dip, run to the rocks, two push ups, run to the benches, two triceps dips, until we'd reached 10. Then for laughs we went for a little jog.
Played a game somewhere in there that involved knocking over and picking up orange cones. Woot!
Did I mention that I am pathetically weak and that the puniest bit of upper body exercise makes me want to weep openly?
So that was boot camp. I had 1/2 a whole wheat bagel for breakfast and a salad for lunch, so if I can NOT eat crap food for dinner, I should show a deficit in calories today. Wouldn't that be grand?
UNRELATED TOPIC: Carlie went to camp at Royal Ridges today and OH MY GOD was I on the verge of sending her with the imprint of my foot on her ass. She was so whiny and didn't want to go and didn't know why she was going and accused me of forcing her to sign up (because I love writing $140 checks for summer camp, yeah, uh huh) and that she never wanted to go and life is bad, very, very bad when you are Carlie. If she gets off of that bus this afternoon with a big smile, I don't know if it'll make me laugh or cry after the grief she gave me this morning.
Friday, August 15, 2008
The Boot Camp Saga... Day 3
Man, did today kick my ass. Everything was harder. It was harder to wake up. It was harder to get moving this morning. It was hot and muggy at 5:30 a.m., which is just not a good way to start any day.
We were all about the circuit today. Let me see if I can recount the stations: abs, walking sideways squats, twisty thing with a medicine ball, stretchy band row with squats, triceps dips on stairs, pushups on stairs, wall sit (which is another f*ing squat), jump rope, crab-walk thing with cones, jump and squat (surprise, squats!). I think that is it. We did one minute at each station. After that circuit we ran for 15 minutes. Then did it again. It whipped my ass, in a major way. Whipped me to the point that I was doing "modified" versions by the second circuit, and I didn't want to be modified! Made me feel very short bus.
I think running 5k last night was a BAD IDEA and I won't make that mistake again. My Tu/Th runs need to be in the morning or not at all. Lesson learned.
So that's the report. It's HOTTER THAN HELL here today and that makes me cranky. I am running in a 5k Sunday morning (Mt. Hood Jazz Festival Fun Run) and if it is this hot I am going to croak.Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Boot Camp Saga ... Day 2
Went to boot camp. Had to get up at 4:45 a.m. I will continue to harp on this fact until this thing is over! 4:45 might not seem so bad if I got a decent night's sleep, but instead of going to bed early last night I went to see "Stepbrother" (hilarious!) and then could not wind down and fall asleep until it was, like, pretty much time to wake up again. Which explains why it is 9:50 p.m. and I am functioning at the level of Living Dead right now.
So... boot camp. We ran blah blah blah. We did squats blah blah blah. We did crunches blah blah blah. Pretty much nothing but an hour of semi hard core exercise, not much fun to write about. Oh, forgot to mention, PLANKS SUCK ASS.
I needed a mental diversion, so I spent the last half hour of boot camp planning in my head a boot camp reunion for two weeks after the last session. It involved a pancake breakfast and a boot camp instructor pinata.
One of my boot camp comrades made me feel better about my soreness yesterday when she reported that she had to use her cell phone to call her kid from kid's bedroom to the living room to pick up the remote when she dropped it, because she couldn't bend over to get it. She also commented, "Well, I had planned to sit on the couch and watch the Olympics for five hours without moving ANYWAY, so being sore wasn't that bad." At least I wasn't immobilized.
(Yes, I DO KNOW that it is not okay for me to make myself feel better by comparing myself to those less fortunate and thinking, yay, not it. But I am broken.)
On the soreness front, my legs are killing me. I was hobbling around like a little old lady today. Not pretty. It did not help that I had a back to school volunteer responsibility that had to be carried out today at my daughter's school that involved hauling heavy ass boxes out of the basement... with my hobbly legs and limp spaghetti arms, up and down the stairs a gazillion times. And that it was hot as balls all day today.
Because I am a NICE mom, I let Carlie clean out and vacuum my car today so she could "earn" the new Jonas Brothers CD. So I have a clean car and, bonus points, got to listen to the Jonas Brothers CD eleventy thousand times today! Holla! (If you knew how many times we have listened to the Miley CD over the last week, you'd be doing the happy dance for the Jonas Brothers, too. No shit. How scary is that?)
So... two days of boot camp down, seven to go. I will persevere. I will conquer. I will make boot camp my bitch.
So... boot camp. We ran blah blah blah. We did squats blah blah blah. We did crunches blah blah blah. Pretty much nothing but an hour of semi hard core exercise, not much fun to write about. Oh, forgot to mention, PLANKS SUCK ASS.
I needed a mental diversion, so I spent the last half hour of boot camp planning in my head a boot camp reunion for two weeks after the last session. It involved a pancake breakfast and a boot camp instructor pinata.
One of my boot camp comrades made me feel better about my soreness yesterday when she reported that she had to use her cell phone to call her kid from kid's bedroom to the living room to pick up the remote when she dropped it, because she couldn't bend over to get it. She also commented, "Well, I had planned to sit on the couch and watch the Olympics for five hours without moving ANYWAY, so being sore wasn't that bad." At least I wasn't immobilized.
(Yes, I DO KNOW that it is not okay for me to make myself feel better by comparing myself to those less fortunate and thinking, yay, not it. But I am broken.)
On the soreness front, my legs are killing me. I was hobbling around like a little old lady today. Not pretty. It did not help that I had a back to school volunteer responsibility that had to be carried out today at my daughter's school that involved hauling heavy ass boxes out of the basement... with my hobbly legs and limp spaghetti arms, up and down the stairs a gazillion times. And that it was hot as balls all day today.
Because I am a NICE mom, I let Carlie clean out and vacuum my car today so she could "earn" the new Jonas Brothers CD. So I have a clean car and, bonus points, got to listen to the Jonas Brothers CD eleventy thousand times today! Holla! (If you knew how many times we have listened to the Miley CD over the last week, you'd be doing the happy dance for the Jonas Brothers, too. No shit. How scary is that?)
So... two days of boot camp down, seven to go. I will persevere. I will conquer. I will make boot camp my bitch.
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Boot Camp Saga, Day 1
Wow, 4:45 is FREAKING EARLY. Like still dark early. Like still NIGHT early. I had planned to ride my bike to boot camp, but, hello, still PITCH BLACK at 5:15.
Got to boot camp in the park at 5:25, so a few minutes early for the 5:30 start time. Surveyed the participants (about 20) to make sure that I was not the oldest or the fattest. With that confirmed, I could relax a little bit. Lame, I know, but that's how I roll.
The instructor arrived. She's about 4'11", weighs about 75 pounds and, literally, cute as a button with braids in her hair. And perk-perk-perky! Perky out the wazoo. I do not heart perky on a good day. I detest perky at 5:30 in the morning.
Short run down of what we did for an hour: stretch, run, use handweights, run, handweights, jump rope, handweights, run, abs, stretch. There was more jump rope in there, but I am forming some kind of mental block because, jumping? not so much feeling the love for jumping, especially with a rope.
After the initial stretching the first thing we did was run. I thought, cool, this is where I will be able to reign superior as, hello, I am a runner! as evidenced by the fact that I have run 4 miles! in a row! more than once! So, running, totally my thing, piece of cake.
Turns out, not so much. I am slow. I am so slow. I am lamely slow. So the first run, which was the longest around the whole park, I brought up the rear. On the interval runs between weight training, which were shorter, I was mid-pack. My running expertise (haha) did pay off, however, by the end of the hour, because I still had some running stamina left where others (who smoked me in the beginning) were starting to lag and walk. So there, I knew running every other day would pay off eventually.
Overall, I am giving Day 1 of Boot Camp an A. It was fun, it was a good workout, but not like kill yourself workout, and, hello, it's 9:16 a.m. and I am up, have eaten breakfast, have worked out, showered, took a kid to the dentist at 8 and have proofread one transcript, all at 9:15 a.m. So yay for early starts. (I'll revise this at 2pm if I pass out.) Thank GOD I am signed up for the wuss session of only three days a week, though, because if I had to get up this early again tomorrow, I'd be very sad right now.
Boot Camp Day 2 on Wednesday. The saga continues.
PS: the photo is of the gazebo at Esther Short Park, which is where Boot Camp is happening. We're on the bandstand with our yoga mats and weights, like a free fitness show for the homeless in the park! So fitness and humanitarian good deed all in one.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I think I have lost my mind
My job for today got cancelled, which is a good thing because I have a shit ton of 'old' work to get out. Am I at my desk working on said shit ton of work? No. It's after 10 am and I am still in my bed, in my pj's, on my laptop. This is not good.
What am I going to do to fix it? Well, never being one to shy away from extremes, I just signed up for this. As soon as I clicked the PAY NOW button, I regretted it. 5:30 in the morning?!? WTF was I thinking. It starts Monday... this Monday... as in four days away... at 5:30 am.
Pray for me.
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