It's been a long winter of snow packed sidewalks, which has caused me to give up running for the last several months. I know it's not the best excuse to not exercise because I totally could still run indoors somewhere, but I just don't like to. So I've taken a 6 month hiatus from running. My gall bladder surgery also somewhat contributed to this in the beginning. I was all signed up in November to do a boot camp at a local community center, but then my gall bladder flared up and my subsequent surgery canceled my plans.
My friend, Kirsten, has done the last 2 sessions of this boot camp and has been harassing me to get signed back up for this next session. She has told me how grueling it is, but how many inches she's lost from all over her body. I've debated it back and forth, partly because I'm already so busy and like to have mornings free and partly because I was just plain scared. Well after my jeans have been fitting me a little tighter over the last month or so, I decided to take the plunge. I signed up for boot camp!
This session runs every Monday and Wednesday morning 9:00-10:00am for 6 weeks. What's fabulous about this is that they offer super cheap childcare to go along with it. I realized I really had no excuse to not do this.
I arrived at boot camp on Monday morning in my shorts and t-shirt, expecting to sweat profusely. After dropping the girls off in the daycare and heading into the gym to meet my fellow boot campers, the instructor informed us that the first thing we'd be doing is running a mile outside in the 38 degree weather! Excuse me? A mile outside to start things off? I totally was not dressed for this, and am not prepared to run a mile from the get go. Most of the other girls had long sleeves, pants, hats, and gloves. They were obviously far more prepared for this than I was. Didn't I sign up for a boot camp that is for all fitness levels? I don't think just anyone can run a mile outside on the first day.
Oh well, enough complaining and off I went. A lot of other girls had participated in the boot camp for the previous 2 sessions so they finished well in front of me on the mile. My final time was 12:09. I couldn't run the entire thing (the hills were a little tough), but I wasn't too disappointed in time considering I hadn't run a foot in 6 months, let alone a mile. After finishing the run, we headed inside to test on several different areas including sit-ups, push-ups, wall squats, etc. The instructor wanted to have a baseline for where we started so that we can see our progress in 6 weeks. She also took measurements of our arms, thighs, hips, and waist. On Tuesday morning I was extremely sore, mostly from the wall squats, but I was feeling pretty good about how things had gone and was looking forward to yesterday.
Yesterday was brutal! Our normal instructor, Jess, is out of town for 2 weeks so a guy named Brandon has stepped in to take her place and torture us. He is the devil reincarnated. After what he put us through in the first 10 minutes of class yesterday, I thought I was going to die. Running, jump roping, jumping jacks... all in the first 10 minutes! I have kind of blocked out everything that we did in that horribly long hour yesterday, but I do know that it was by far the hardest work-out I have ever endured. By the end, I was dripping with sweat and ached all over, but somehow I felt fantastic! I was in pain, but I knew I had completed it without dying or passing out, and that as hard as it was, I was going to do this for the next 6 weeks and get my lazy butt in shape. I had forgotten what an adrenaline rush it is to complete such a grueling work-out.
Today I am extremely sore, but I am looking forward to next Monday and the next 6 weeks. After this is over, I plan to get back to running outside on a regular basis (I'm sure it won't be snowing in 6 weeks, will it?). I am shooting for running a couple of 5Ks again this summer and may even shoot for something bigger. We'll see where my body and ambitions lead me!
