July 30, 2010 Hitting the Wall and Other Thoughts

"Whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes, ..." Just like the Grinch I looked for a reason why I gave such a poor showing of myself today at boot camp. Of course, I know the only one I really disappointed was myself and disappoint myself I did. Could it have been that I have been feeling pretty lousy the last couple days and haven't quite recovered from that? Maybe it was a lack of sleep last night. Or maybe I just didn't have it in me today. I'm not sure. Just felt like I hit the wall.

I woke up the same way I always do on the morning of camp. Although tired, I really looked forward to the challenges I knew Dustin or Ryan would have for us and whether or not I would feel like I've made some progress. Ryan was our instructor today and he put us to work immediately. His suicide drills got us going fast but I liked those a lot. Quick, intense, and fun. The fun didn't last long though because we moved to the hill. Eight minutes of running up and down the hill, and seeing how many times we could make it up to where the hill kind of plateaud out. For whatever reason, I could not motivate myself here. I was on the very edge with no one to my right, and no one real near me on the left. Probably should have moved in closer so I wasn't so isolated. Might have gotten my competitive fires going a little bit. The strange part was that my legs really didn't bother me that much, and actually felt pretty good at points. It just seemed like I was out of breath and having to breathe really heavily. I made it up and down 3 times during that time but feel I could have done so much better. I kept telling myself "you can do it" and "keep going" but just couldn't do it.

Our circuit was good. I did better than on the hill. It's amazing how long 45 seconds can be or how short it can seem. So I figure I either do better on some things or our timer isn't being as accurate on some rotations. Luckily I didn't feel overly disappointed here. I feel like I was able to push myself more. Still, I tried to go all out on the agility drill with the medicine ball and on the box hop but know it wasn't nearly as well as I've done on other days.

On the final group of core exercises I really floundered today. Again the breathing seemed to be more of a factor than anything else. I kept pulling back to take breaths. The russian twists and v-ups bothered my back a little more today too. At least I didn't quit though. I kept at it. I did as much as I could until the end. Ashamed to admit that I did modified push-ups for my partner push ups at the end. Again, I tried, but couldn't keep myself up. I was really glad when we were done because I don't think I could have done much more. Hoping I'll be ready to go again on Monday.

I must say though that being at boot camp is so inspirational. I love watching all the people in various stages of fitness continually push themselves to get better. At the end of our session, when Ryan was pushing us to our limit, there was no quit in these people. People jokingly whined or complained but they kept going. Everybody wants to be there. We've also been taking more time in the shelter after class to stretch and Sharon and I have been getting to know people better. It has been a real opportunity to learn about the personal and physical challenges other people face and to see that we're not alone using boot camp as a stress reliever.

Finally, just a quick address to how we are doing as a married couple working out together. Prior to starting boot camp I had a few people tell me that we were lucky we can work out together because they can't with their spouse. Some say they can't keep up with each other or too much competition arises between them and they get angry. Luckily, we've never had this problem. We actually met in a very stereotyped aerobic instructor, participant scenario. Only I was the instructor and Sharon was the participant. So exercise has always been a strong part of our relationship. When we work out at the health club we are pretty independent of each other but help each other out when necessary.

We decided to do boot camp together both to challenge ourselves in a new way and to help relieve the stress in our lives. We have a high, special needs child and a teenage daughter
(can there be anything more stress inducing than that?). By attending together we can understand what the other is going through physically and we know how we can best encourage the other. We are able to support each other, especially in those early mornings when it would be so easy to turn over and go back to sleep. It gives us a common point of conversation so that we don't spend all our time talking about our kids, but rather some time to focus on ourselves. And, luckily for us, we just like each other! We need some time independent of each other too but exercise is such a common interest for us, that this has worked out great!

Have a good weekend!

Roger

July 28 No Boot Camp, No Problem

When I woke up this morning, I looked out the window and asked Sharon, "Dang, where's the rain?" I was actually kidding although it was so early and dark, the prospect of a second rain day looked kind of inviting. But, I figured it was not to be, so I got ready for boot camp and off we went. As we were headed out the door I asked, "Was that thunder?" I figured I imagined it since Sharon didn't think she heard it. Sharon drove as I was the most tired this morning. I rested my eyes on the drive but I think my wife did comment on seeing some lightning. However, last week we had a similar scenario and there was camp so we just continued on our way.

Upon arriving we thought maybe something was wrong. There were other people there but they weren't at the shelter we usually go to when there is adverse weather. I wanted to wait a little bit in the car, more out of laziness than anything else, but we got our stuff together and went down to the shelter. People were wondering whether or not there would be class because there hadn't been anything on the bootcamp page when they left home. Finally someone checked facebook on their phone and discovered that class was, indeed, cancelled. Some brave people decided to run a bit anyway, but, being deathly afraid of lightning and wet shoes we decided to just go to our health club to workout.

However, we got kind of tired driving home so after a heated 30 second debate we decided to go back to sleep and then go to the health club later. I am proud to say that we did make it to the club and got our workout in.

For my workout I decided to create my own boot camp in the weight room. We were at the club when it wasn't particularly busy so it didn't really get in anyone's way. I started by doing lunges with a bicep curl, switched to rows, then did some bunny hops forwards and backwards (which I'm sure looked amazing to anyone walking by), used a step bench for some lateral hops, proceeded with some deltoid presses, and did some russian twists on a stability ball. I did each station for 45 seconds, then took a water break and did my rotations again for 30 seconds. After another water break I then did my core work. I did some push-ups on the medicine ball, some front and side planks with a twist, some back extensions and swimmers. Again did each exercise twice. Finally I did some cardio on the stationary bike. Yesterday I used the treadmill at a high incline and practiced walking backwards. Backward exercises kill my quads so I was trying to get some extra practice in. I did have to hold on to the bar though. I'm gonna keep trying it and let go of the bar but I was a little nervous about doing that this first time. Anyways, I was glad there was air conditioning in the club because I wound up working pretty hard.

Well, tomorrow we are taking a rest day. We've already worked out 4 days this week and will get a fifth at boot camp on Friday. Elijah goes to overnight camp so we'll just relax with Brenna and hopefully get some stuff done around the house.

Have a good one.

Roger

July 26 Brenna's Birthday and Hill Workout

A nice break in the humidity today. We turned off the air conditioning and we were able to air out the house a bit. Very nice temperature for our outdoor workout this morning.

Before talking about the workout just wanted a quick shout out to my daughter. She turned 17 on Friday, July 23rd. In her honor I wrote a little poem. It's actually a song that should be sung to the tune of "16 Going on 17" from the Sound of Music.

You are 17, going on 18
Princess, you're on the brink.
Lots of temptation, for your generation
Brenna, be sure to think.

You are 17, going on 18
It's time to get a job.
All of your spending, it's never ending
A bank you'll have to rob.

Probably unprepared are you
to face the world out there.
Lots of decisions you'll have to make
besides who's straightening your hair.

You'll need someone
older and wiser
Helping with what to do-oo
I'm your daddy, Sharon's your mother
We'll always be there for you!

Brenna had a good birthday with lunch at Red Lobster. Not a good eating day for me though.

It was beautiful weather for our boot camp workout today. Wish it would go back to being light in the morning so it wasn't so hard to get up but we know that's not going to happen. Today was a hill workout. We paired up and then divided into two groups. One group ran the hill first, the other did strength training. We decided to do the strength training first. Hill running is so much fun that we thought we'd save that for last.

The strength exercises weren't too bad. We did some lunges with knee lifts, deltoid presses while standing on one leg, some rows for the back. Boy those 20 lb weights get heavy after continually using them. They get a little harder to hold up with each exercise. Using them has really helped my rotator cuff injury though. Seems to have strengthened them and I don't feel the pain I felt for so long.

Alternating with the strength exercises were the cardio on the hill. Our first section on the hill we would run 30 seconds as far up as we could and then have 90 seconds to walk back down. I'm surprised that I was able to run all 3 times. Slower each time but still did it.

The next time was much harder. One partner would walk up the hill doing lunges while the other ran up the hill backwards. The backwards running just killed my quads. That, of course, made things so much harder. We did that a couple times and then we went back to running. The other person bunny hopped up the hill while holding a weight. You had to keep hopping until the other person walked back down to you. Sharon hurried back down to me so I wouldn't have to hop too long. I, on the other hand, came down pretty slowly. Sharon had to keep hopping away. It was really to her benefit that I came down slowly.

After the hill we did some core exercises. We did the front plank, the side plank with a twist, russian twists with the weights, front planks again with alternate leg and arm raise, and then some crunches with the weights. These core exercises at the end are brutal! I'm increasing in length though, holding them a little longer each time. A couple of them I held the whole time. My balance isn't good though. Was hard to do the overhead presses on one leg and the alternating lifts on the planks. Just something else to keep working at I guess.

Have a good one.
Roger

July 23, 2010 Storms Aplenty

Woke up this morning and it seemed especially dark. It's been staying darker longer so that makes it harder to get up at 4:45 am but I'm still getting up.

Lots of storms last night. I was worried about Elijah because he was camping overnight during all this. He called before he went to bed though and he was fine. So when I woke up this morning I was wondering if there would be boot camp or not. It wasn't raining or anything anymore so Sharon and I got up and went. On the way it started to rain and then suddenly the sky was lit up by lightning. We questioned whether or not to continue but pushed on. Then it did it again, really big. Scary big. We really should have turned around, but since we were up, we decided to at least go to the park shelter and see if anyone else would come to class.

When we got to the shelter, sure enough, other people were there as well as the instructor. The rain had slowed down to a drizzle now, and the lightning stopped. I was glad there was camp so that I wouldn't have to go back to the club to exercise later.

The shelter workout was tough. What else is new? I'm still amazed at how easy the exercises look but they are far from easy. There were about 8 different stations. One of the hardest was for the quads. It was constant, brought up your heart rate, and killed the legs. We also did work for our biceps, abs, triceps, speed and agility, lats, and deltoids. Somehow we managed to miss 2 stations though. And not on purpose! Then we had to run a sprint around the parking lot. Dustin told me to take longer strides. I laughed to myself because with these short legs, my stride wasn't getting any longer. I remember having to take four steps to other guys two steps when racing in school. But I made it around in okay time, and then did all the stations again, this time doing all of them.

To finish, we got to choose our favorite 5 stations to do one more time. Once it was ruled out that water break was not one of the stations it was so hard to choose a favorite among all of those stations. I thought about not doing any so as not to play favorites but we did manage to choose 5. Then we did some stretching and it was time to go home! Poor Sharon. When the humidity gets bad I get so sweaty and stinky. Really stinky. I think Sharon is tempted to go in 2 cars on these days. But as gross as I am, I love it! It's awesome! I love really feeling and showing how hard I've worked.

Once home Sharon immediately started working on making a trifle cake for Brenna's 17th birthday. I wanted to get in the shower but Brenna was in there so I changed shirts and started sorting the laundry for the day.

Later, when we picked up Elijah, he told us camping in the rain was great and much more fun than camping when it wasn't raining. He also asked if we couldn't somehow put a mud slide in our yard.

Have a good weekend.

Roger

July 21, 2010 Inspiration

I slept fitfully last night.

I tried to go to bed early. About 10:00. I know boot camp comes early and the more rested I am, the better I can perform. Unfortunately, I had a couple of things kind of collide that had me thinking too much in the night and did not make for a restful sleep.

The first was the news that my great nephew has ALD (Adrenoleukodystrophy) . This has been a disease that has been in my family for years. Unfortunately, it has resulted in the death of 2 of my brothers and my nephew. My first brother passed from this disease in the mid '70's. My second in 1997. Both were misdiagnosed as having died from MS. Only when my nephew passed in 2001 was the diagnosis of ALD given. It also became the diagnosis for my 2 brothers. This is a disease that is only passed from mother to sons. I had to have a type of blood test given that showed I did not have the disease. Every time one of my nieces has a son, the baby has to be tested. So far 4 of my great nephews has been diagnosed. The oldest of the 4 was progressing to fully developing the disease when he received a bone marrow transplant. While the transplant was unable to undo any damage the disease caused, it won't progress any further. The other two are a 10 week old baby, a 3 year old, and an older one. All will need a lot of medical attention, keep on special diets, but at least there is more hope for them, especially with Jordi, the bone marrow transplant recipient, around to always show a positive outcome is possible.

The second was reading the book Not Without Hope. This was the true story of Nick Schuyler and 3 other guys in Florida who went fishing one day in February. While out to sea they managed to capsize their boat, with eventually only 1 person surviving. It was such a tragic story. All the guys were in terrific shape, 2 being NFL players and Mr. Schuyler was a personal trainer. Reading not only their story but what he has to go through emotionally now really moved me. Especially the part about "survivor's guilt". I think I often wondered why didn't I get that horrible disease? Why was I spared? There must be a purpose. Fortunately I'm pretty sure I have discovered my reason.

Both of these things kept me thinking into the night. They made me sad for my nephews and really sad for my brothers. I guess you never really stop grieving. Both of my brothers were older. One was only about a year older. He was 16 when he died and I was 14. My other brother died when I was 35. He was about 44. Although both were hard, the one in 1997 was particularly hard. He was such a bright, witty guy and a great deal of fun. Both brothers had a love for wrestling and Larry (the older of the 2) was always teaching Joe wrestling moves. If he had made it to high school he would have been a great wrestler. Larry also left behind 5 children. Sometimes I still think to myself that I need to call Larry to talk to him about the Wolverines, or a book I read, or something that struck me funny. I think about my brothers everyday.

But theses two events also kept me up because they served as inspiration. I thought about those guys on the boat, how they gave everything their body had to give to try and survive. I also thought about how my brothers and nephew wanted to give their all but after awhile they couldn't. I told myself I'm going to continue to push to give what I can.

So, back to boot camp. Today was so, so hard! We started out warming up by jogging on the field Then we had to run a sprint across the field and back so that we could put ourselves into 2 groups based on speed. I wound up in the fast group again, not having learned my lesson from the last time. We had two different workouts today. One was an obstacle course, the other was strength training. Our group got to do strength work first and I was glad. After that sprint I didn't think I could go to cardio right away. Little did I realize how cardio intense the strength work was. Push ups on the weights with tricep kickbacks, abs with weights, side planks with a side dip while a weight rested on our side, and then we did it again. I got tired and wanted to stop but I kept thinking about those guys from the book and my brothers and thought push yourself, keep going, even if I rested a second, I made myself go again as quickly as possible.

When we did the obstacle course it was the same thing. I got tired but I kept trying to push myself. Even if my sprint became a really slow jog I kept moving. We did push ups on the medicine ball, bunny hops, crab walks, side shuffles, sprints, a side to side agility move and again it left me a sweaty mess. But I kept going. If I had to go to a modified push-up I did and then tried to get on my toes again. My goal is to get my mind to overcome that "I can't" mentality but it will take some work!

The whole class again went very quickly and we had to group up with people we didn't know at the end to do a slow jog while discussing what we hoped to achieve exercise-wise in the future as well as what might happen if we stop exercising. I hope I don't find that out!

Oh, yeah, tonight I found another inspirational story:
http://detnews.com/article/20100720/SPORTS0201/7200317/1131/SPORTS/U-M-coaches-helping-player-s-brother-to-walk-again

Check it out if you get the chance!

Roger

July 19, 2010 22 Years and Counting...

I often have people ask me if I still teach at Princeton East. These are colleagues, friends, or members of the club that remember that instructing was a big part of my life. My answer to that question is yes. Over 22 years now and I'm still going. I only teach on a rotational basis now. It became much harder to find time once the kids started getting older. I actually thought it would get easier once they got older. Silly me! It is nice though to have members tell me they wish I taught more or how much they enjoyed the class. The exercise in the picture is a stability ball roll in for the lower abs. Looks like we were just starting to roll the ball in. I like this exercise a great deal for abs and upper body.

I taught Sunday and was interested to see how this would affect my fit camp workout on Monday. Well, it did I think.

When I woke up on Monday my legs felt pretty good. I attribute this to fit camp and all the quad work we've done. Usually my quads are killing me after a day I teach but not today. More progress. Unfortunately the inner thighs were sore. I don't exercise those enough so I can always tell when I do. When we got to the park I thought "Oh no!" because we could see Dustin's car by the hill. I was relieved when he pulled it back to the shelter. Unfortunately when the group formed by the shelter he told us that much of our workout would be on the hill. Dang the luck.

The first part of the workout was killer as well. Looking at these exercises it doesn't look hard, but once you start doing them the heart rate really gets going and they work the muscles. We warmed up on the tennis courts. We had a couple sprints at the end that got the heart going good. Then we went back to the shelter and divided up. For half the circuit we used the picnic bench. We did one legged step ups with weights. I started with my 20 pound weights and did as many as I could but started wearing out pretty quickly. But I did it for the full time, both legs. Unfortunately, I didn't reach the 20 reps we were supposed to. Then we had to do it again! I started with the 20 but had to switch to the 10. I was figuring that all that leg work we did in my class yesterday was not helping me any now. When we finally switched we went over to the mats. We had to do front planks with a partner that we kept slapping hands with, and then we did back extensions with hand slaps as well. We had to do each twice. Man this was hard. The time goes really slow during these although the class goes quickly!

When we went back in the shelter we sat on the benches and did these one legged squats. We sat and had to get up on only one leg. My balance was bad but I was able to do it okay. There was no way I was going to be able to do this with weights though. Finally we did one more rotation on the mats, swimmers and one-legged side planks, and then we were ready (for better or worse) for the hill.

We sprinted over to the hill and then chose a partner that was in our speed range. We ran up the hill for 30 seconds, trying to beat our partner up the hill. Then we would walk back down. We continued this going for a shorter time each time. Then we went up the hill backwards. Then we hopped up the hill. The we combined the two. My legs were not happy campers at this point. I pushed what I could but still had to walk some. Finally we got back down and sprinted back to the shelter. I cheated just a bit at the end because I wanted to check in with someone from my group last week and she was a little slower. However, it was the end anyways. I, as usual, was a sweaty mess. Luckily my deodorant has been working better but now I smell like OFF because I don't want those mosquitoes bothering me.

Have a good one.
Roger

Friday, July 16, 2010 Ouch!

I was the most sore I have been since my very first day at fitness boot camp. Unfortunately, this was before today's boot camp even started. On Wednesday we did the playground workout and I really pushed myself to see if I had made progress. My arms were a little shaky after but I didn't think much of it. Thursday and today my arms and chest were more sore than they have been in ages. The body rows and pull-ups, I think, were the main culprits. It's the good kind of sore though. The kind you get from working muscles harder than you are used to. As I'm typing, they are still pretty sore.

We did the picnic table workout today. Our first task was to push the picnic table up to the post that was situated at the other side of the field. The difficult part was we had to do it while someone was on top of the table doing push-ups. My poor team started with me on top of the table. I'm sure I was the heaviest in my group so it couldn't have been easy. After they went about as far as they could go we switched people so that someone else finished the ride. Our group was too weak so we had to have our person on the table get off so we could get all the way to the post. Now we had to pull the table back to the starting point and the other 2 people got to do the push-ups. The second time we used the table we carried it to the post and brought it back but this time we had to do 10 pushups and 10 tricep dips at either end. The third time we had to extend our arms so that the table was over our heads and then we brought it back. It wasn't really that heavy but my arms were pretty tired by this point. In between our trips to the wooden post, we did circuits that worked the quads, glutes, deltoids, and biceps. Good workout but tough with sore muscles already.

Our cardio was fun but really pushed my endurance. We had to sprint across the field and then group ourselves according to speed. There were 6 in a group. I pushed myself and ran as hard and fast as I could. Unfortunately, this put me in the fastest group. Now we ran in a line, one behind the other, at about 60-70 percent of our peak speed. When the person at the front of the line called out the name of their favorite food or drink, the person at the end of the line sprinted to the front of the line. So we kept rotating being at the front of the line. Of course, I messed up. After I called out the name of my favorite food, pizza, I started to run to the back of the line. So my whole line followed me and we made a little circle. The other person did come to the front of the line eventually and again I started to run to the back. I have no idea what I was thinking! Oh, well, I finally got it right and was just hoping I didn't have to lead again because I was about spent. Right before it was to be my turn again it was time to sprint to the finish. I was glad because I wasn't sure I was going to be able to go much further. Sharon and I did take the time after camp to do more stretching. Hopefully this well help to prevent future injury.

After boot camp we went to Woodman's grocery store. This was still before 7 am so the store was still shiny and really clean. Sharon started laughing when she noticed I was leaving a trail of grass from my shoes all down the aisle. I started stamping my feet as we walked so I was leaving grass everywhere. We separated to get some different items and I told Sharon she could just follow my trail to find me after.

On Sunday I'm teaching my first body sculpt class since starting boot camp. It will be interesting to see how I hold up as often my legs are pretty sore after I teach.
Have a good weekend.

Roger

July 14, 2010 Playground Workout, Revisited

Yes I did my Happy Dance today. A really tough, challenging workout and I didn't have to run the hill! Plus, we did this great workout and I finished with dry feet! Awesome.

We did the playground workout today which was the same workout we did on my first day of fitness boot camp. It was really a nice way to gauge the progress I have made so far. I know I have made progress in terms of weight because my clothes that were tighter at the beginning of the summer now not only fit but are becoming loose and too big. That is real incentive, I tell you. But I wanted to see what kind of progress I have made physically.

We did many, but not all, of the same stations. And I am so happy to report that I did better on all of them than I did the first time. The pull ups are still difficult and I still did the modified version, but I did more of them and held myself up longer than I did previously. These pull ups, by the way are done on the rings from the swing set. I keep adding to my tricep dips off the park benches and did pretty well on the side planks with the twists while holding a weight. I really like how Dustin announces how much time is left for each exercise so that just when I feel like I can't possibly do more, I hear how many seconds are left and realize that I can. Honestly, I sometimes still have to break for a second but I still keep trying to push myself to get back up and do more.

There seemed to be many stations today. It was exhausting but really gave for a well rounded workout. We also had to sprint around the tennis court between our first and second circuits. Dustin told me I could run faster and, you know, he was right. I pushed myself to go faster. It was hard because of the problem I've been having with my achilles tendon, but I've added some support in my shoe and it seems to be making a real difference. So Dustin continues to personally challenge me which is what I said I really needed.

The people in fit camp are very inspirational. Everybody seems to be at a different level and yet we are all jointly working toward the same goals. People are so encouraging to each other, accepting of the challenges we all face and there is no spirit of competition. I think that is why I've always preferred groups exercise. There is such a spirit of camaraderie that exists among the members. Fit camp has been such a great addition to my summer so far. The only downside is that it has made my summer break go too fast!

Roger

July 12, 2010 Morning Dew

Have you ever read poetry about the beauty of the morning dew? It is so beautiful. It is nature's tears. Like little crystals from heaven...blah, blah, blah? All I can say is try running through it in your athletic shoes and socks, at 5:30 in the morning. It's not so great! Your feet squish around in your shoes until you can finally get those shoes and socks off. Yuck. Oh, well, back to the beginning.

It was actually a really nice day for working out outside today. The temperature was comfortable and humidity was low. Ryan was our instructor. Things started out great. We went for our warm-up jog in the parking lot. Cool. Dry feet. We did some other things like jumping jacks and walking lunges to get the cardio going.

Our circuit was really effective. Lots for the quads but other stuff too. Squats with shoulder presses, wall sits, jumping rope, rows using the tubing, and tricep dips were just some of our stations. Then we had a water break and I was ready to go through the circuit again but, yikes, we weren't doing it again. Time for the hill! Now we got to run through that wet grass, getting our feet nice and wet. Oh well, I guess they won't get overly sweaty. Then we had 5 minutes to run up and down the hill as many times as we could. We didn't have to get all the way to the top, just to where the hill plateaued. This was much further than I thought. I kept saying to myself, "I thought we didn't have to go all the way to the top" but it sure seemed like it. Unfortunately, up to this point my sore achilles area had felt pretty good but for some reason the motion my foot goes through when running upwards really bothers me. It does the same thing when I climb stairs. So I didn't do as well as I hoped, only made it up and down twice but at least I did it.

Then we went back to the shelter for another water break and a different circuit. Just two stations this time. One legged leg dips off the picnic benches at one station, planks and seated russian twists at the other. My russian twists went well and I was able to keep my feet off the ground the whole time with no back pain. Yay. More progress. The leg dips were a little scary because my darn wet shoe kept slipping. But I got through it without falling.

Another water break and then two more stations. More wall sits (ouch!) and some little hops back and forth while in a squat position. Burning quads now! Then another water break and, Ryan said, one last thing. Thank goodness. These 45 minutes go really fast but they are hard. Anyways, the one last thing was partner push ups. We did our fifteen and I jumped up full of energy because we were done for the day. Oops, wasn't really the last thing after all and my energy was zapped from my body. Still the last thing was jumping jacks again and I was able to do them for the required amount of time. Now it was really thank goodness. Great workout but poor Sharon had to put up with my stinkiness again because these workouts eat right through the deoderant. And some very nice soul lent me some "Off" which was so kind because those mosquitoes continue to love me.

Dustin will be back on Wednesday and I'm sure he'll put us through our paces. Looking forward to it.

Roger

July 10, 2010 Missed Friday :(

Okay. Didn't go to fitness boot camp on Friday. Hate making excuses, should have gone. But here is my excuse. I still have that sore area around my achilles tendon. I think that's part of the soleus but unsure. Anyways, looked up that injury online and it said to ice it and let it rest. I haven't been letting it rest so I thought I better before it gets worse and I can't go to boot camp at all. So just took it easy on the foot.

I did get a different kind of workout though. Yard work. Spent a couple of hours weeding and clearing up all the sides of the house as well as lugging branches and other debris from the tree that had been sawed off. We used some kind of Cutter's Backyard Bug Killer stuff that really took care of the mosquitoes. It was awesome! We had not even been able to step outside without getting eaten alive and this let us spend almost the whole day outside, back or front yard without bug spray. Even better, Brenna, my daughter, sprayed the Cutter's. When she heard we were going to try it she said "I want to spray it", so we let her. She said the mosquitoes tried to get her when she was doing it but it worked pretty quickly. So now, at least for a couple weeks, we can go outside into the yard again. It's supposed to work for 6 weeks, but as bad as the bugs have been, we're going to spray again in two.

So, tomorrow a regular workout at the Princeton Club. I'll do some weight training because it is either weight training or weight gaining, and just ride the stationary bike. The bike is real impact and feels better on the heel.

On a final note, saw Despicable Me today with Brenna and Elijah. It was very good and quite funny. IT'S SO FLUFFY! We saw it in 2-D so have no idea whether or not the 3-D is any good.

Have a nice weekend.

Roger

July 7, 2010 Humid and Buggy

First let me say I hate mosquitoes. Hate them, hate them, hate them. Unfortunately they seem to love me. This morning was again very humid but for the first time (for me anyways) the darn mosquitoes really seemed to be out. I stopped a few times to either try to swat them away or to itch. As much as I don't like doing it I'm going to have to start wearing some insect repellent in the morning, just in case.

Today was another killer day on the hill. We first ran up the hill for about 20 seconds, dropped our cone, and then came back down. After that the amount of time was changed and we were supposed to try to reach or pass our cone. Finally we took a few turns running up the hill backwards. Man does that work the quads! By the way, this boot camp is really working the quads. I cannot believe how toned they are getting and they really didn't seem in bad shape before.

We returned to the shelter for our strength training. We worked in groups of three. We did one station for abs, one station weights, and one station cardio. We did things like side planks with a twist, swimmers, alternating deltoid presses, squat thrusts, rows, and more. When you are watching these things, it really doesn't look too hard. When you actually do them, with the addition of the energy you just expended on the hill, it is really hard. Then we had to sprint one last time over to the fence by the hill and back. I was tired but I made it all the way there and back without walking. Yay for me! We were done. I thought. Nope. Now we had to partner up for some push downs for the abs and some partner push ups. I had to bed my knees a bit for the push downs because my back was bugging me (how appropriate) some and by the time we got to the push ups I just did what I could. Again, though, I feel like I left everything I had out there. But then there was some more. We had to do some one legged hip lifts. That however really was the end.

We finished in a circle where people shared their successes so far. It was really impressive to hear what people are accomplishing. I'm surprised that I've been able to get myself up and there. People who know me know that I am not a morning person (unless getting up to go to a football game in Ann Arbor) so this is quite the feat. And I'm enjoying it too. It has been a great way to start off the day. Oooh but on Friday, Ryan.

Roger

July 5, 2010 Man Was I Stinky!

Oh my gosh! That was a workout this morning. My arms were a little shaky when I left for home. It was great. My shirt was pretty much drenched and I even cut right through my deodorant! Poor Sharon, we drove home with the windows open so the breeze probably didn't make things too pleasant. She had no problem with me taking my shower first.

Back to the workout. It was raining on and off this morning and pretty humid. Traffic was almost nonexistent since this is the end of the holiday weekend. When we arrived, I thought maybe we didn't read that camp was canceled due to the weather because there weren't any other cars there. Then someone else pulled up, and then someone else so all was good. There were only 6 of us in class today, probably due to the 4th of July but that was good. 6 people and 2 instructors meant plenty of individual attention. We did a circuit today in the shelter. No hill. We weren't going to have to run in that soaking wet grass which I really appreciated. There were several stations. We had to do russian twists while passing the medicine ball off, leg lifts with a roundhouse lift, push-ups with a side lift, rows using the tubes, squats with a lift using dumbbells, dumbbell lunges, side to side hops touching a cone on each side, wall sits with a medicine ball chest press, a squat jump throwing up the medicine ball as high as we could, some high knee lift jogs in place, and some squat thrusts. Yikes. And we had to do this circuit 3 times!

I was so surprised that I could do the push-ups with the fly twist. I wasn't able to do it before when I tried. Woo hoo making progress! The other stuff I was pretty familiar with so it was more of a matter of just pushing myself to do the most I could. That can be very difficult but I make myself go until I really need to rest.Then I try to make myself go again as soon as I can. It's getting better. After the stations I thought we were done but we had to do more. We ran in place with high knees while holding the medicine ball over our head. My knees weren't terribly high but they were as high as they were going to go. I laughed because I had just told my group that I couldn't get my knees any higher when Dustin called over to me to get my knees higher. Next we got to take the medicine ball and slam it into the ground as hard as we could. That was fun. At the next station we did bicycles and then front planks. I thought I was doing pretty well on the front plank until I realized I wasn't on my forearms but still on my hands. Had to quick drop onto my forearms. Whew! Finally finished. Nope. Had to run one sprint around the parking lot and then we were finished. With the humidity and all this turned out to be a really intense workout but, as I stated before, it was great!

Oh, yeah, did manage to lose another pound but, more importantly, I notice the change in the way my clothes fit. It still wouldn't be noticeable to anyone else but I can tell. Things are going in the right direction!

Roger

July 2, 2010

The hill! The hill! What a workout! Our cardio portion of boot camp took place on the hill. Well I wanted a challenge. This was really meeting it head on. We warmed up first with a jog to the hill and then running around the garbage cans that were set out for the fireworks at Elver Park. Sharon said something to me that I can't remember but for some reason it made me think of a line from Golden Girls. It was the episode where Rose wants Miles to be more exciting. She signs them up for skydiving. She liked the idea of dropping down towards the field, watching the cows grow larger and larger. Miles asks her if he can't just run towards her and Moo? Guess you had to be there but that really cracked me up.

Anyways, back to class. We started by running up the hill for 30 seconds and then resting 15. The we would do it again. I didn't mind this because, surprisingly, I did pretty well. By the time we finished I almost made it to the top. Then we jogged back down. Next we did the same thing but for a shorter time. 15 and 5. The problem for me was that I couldn't just stop. I had to slow to a walk and then stop, but by the time I stopped we were running again. Still I got pretty high on the hill, which didn't seem so great since we were supposed to jog back down again. My jog became a walk back down. I was glad to see so many other campers had the same definition of jog. Next we shuffled sideways up the hill, switching sides when Dustin yelled "Switch" (as if you couldn't figure that out). Then the jog (walk) back down. One final exercise. We had to run to the top of the hill and down, and then back to the shelter for water. This was really hard now! I went as far as I could, but finally had to walk part of the way. It was interesting to me that it usually is my quads that get tired and make me start to walk but they were up to the challenge. This time it was my hamstrings that got the best of me. Maybe that is a sign of progress that my quads are getting stronger. Sharon, of course, with her great endurance jogged the whole way! She says that her jog is her sprint.

We moved next to the strength training. We had to grab out mats and some weights. Since the weights were for abs ( I thought) we just used Sharon's 10 lbs. We were in partners with 1partner using the mat and the other doing calf raises. Sharon insisted on doing the mat first so I did the calf raises. Anybody actually believe that? We did sixty calf raises, 10 slow and then 10 fast. I don't do this one very frequently so my calves burned pretty easily but I managed it. With the mat we did a crunch up, weights held against our shoulders and then pressed up with the weights once we reached the top of the crunch. Unfortunately I couldn't crunch all the way up. So once I got in the up position I stayed there for the presses :( but the next time we went through the rotation and I was on crunches again I was able to do it better. I was trying to keep my heels on the ground and we were supposed to have them off the ground. Dang I guess I didn't listen very well. But I got it better the second time.

We finished with core strengthening exercises. Seated russian twists, swimmers, and finally a front plank. By the time we got to the 90 second front plank I had nothing left. But I didn't give up. Mind over muscle. I held it as long as I could, dropped down for a second and then made myself get back up. Even if I couldn't hold it long I kept getting back up. That was a really looong 90 seconds!

On the ride home Sharon and I talked about how much we are enjoying camp. It is motivating, challenging and everyone is so nice and supportive. We also realize that in this economy money is tight for everyone, but the money spent on this boot camp has been worth every penny!

Have a great and safe 4th of July!

Roger

Thursday, July 1, 2010

As stated before, Wednesday was an exhausting day. It actually all started Monday night.

A few weeks ago I took a class on Elluminate, which was basically a tool that could be used for creating virtual classrooms. The Madison School District was offering this class to teachers interested in using technology and those trained would receive a certificate that would allow them to train other teachers. Upon completion of the course it was expected that you fulfill other outside requirements. One of these requirements was to prepare a lesson that was to include various components. No problem. You would then present this lesson, online, to the instructor. A virtual observation. No problem again. I preplanned what I would do and stored it in my memory bank, figuring I would put this together a couple days before my observation as it really didn't seem that complicated. That is, unless, something goes wrong with your computer. Which, of course is what happened. I sat down to put all my ideas together Monday night. Unfortunately, I couldn't access the internet which is where my virtual classroom was located. Usually it comes back up, so I waited but when it didn't come back I decided I better check to see what was the matter. Well, turns out the router was shot. Would not power up at all. And it was too late to go pick up another one. Okay, still, not a big problem. I would just pick one up Tuesday, reinstall it, and finish my project. Not that simple after all. We had an appointment for my son in McFarland that lasted an hour and a half. Then we had to take him to Stoughton for camp. It was already noon by then and we had to pick up my daughter. We went home, had lunch, relaxed for about a half hour and then went to get the router. They really are not that hard to install. Unless, you have a really old desktop that takes about 45 minutes to boot up. I tried first installing it on one of the laptops but kept receiving errors on both. Then I tried installing it on the desk top. It said a file was missing. I clicked on the ok button and it totally shut down the computer. After 45 minutes of waiting for it to boot up and access my CD drive, it shut it down again! Now what? Okay, still not too panicked, I would just go out and pick up and external Ethernet adapter. No luck. Nobody had one. They could order it for me online but I did not have time for that. So I ate my dinner and went to the other side of town (after picking up my daughter from driver's training), but still no luck. Then I realize there is the option of installing without the CD by using the Internet options. Ok. So back to the old Dell desktop, another 45 minutes for booting up, and finally accessing the Internet. Then a long, long setup as the computer took forever to load each necessary page. To make a long story short, still did not work. I worked until 11:00 pm switching cables and adjusting settings, returning to the internet set up until finally it worked. But, now, it is 11:00 pm, I haven't started my assignment, and my observation is scheduled for 10:00 am the next morning. So I stayed up until 1:00 am getting it as ready as I could and hoping for the best.

4:45 am came really early! Off to boot camp. Dustin was our leader today. We did the picnic table workout. We were in groups of 5 and lifted the picnic table over our heads and carried it to a designated cone. Then we set it down, did 10 pushups, 10 tricep dips, and carried the picnic table back to our starting point. I laughed to myself as I thought, "This must be what the Hebrews in The Ten Commandments must have felt like when they carried Nefretiri's barge to the mudpits to see Moses!" We did jumping jacks then until it was our turn to do the circuit. To be honest, I was still so tired from the previous night that I can't remember what was all in the circuit. We did some lunges with overhead dumbell presses, we did some rows, and some other strength training exercises. Dustin kept us motivated so I didn't just go through the motions, I gave it wall I had. After we carried the picnic table a couple of times and did the circuit a couple of times, we focused on more core exercises. We used the weights and did V ups, russian twists, and various types of planks. It was a good, intense workout. It amazes me that we do so much that it never seems like it is early in the morning. We are just up and going and not thinking about the time of the day it is. However, again, I'm always glad to see those six-fifteen people arriving.

After class, went home and got the boy child ready for camp again. Dropped him off and went straight to school for my virtual observation. I could have done it at home but was not willing to take the chance that something would happen again with the router. I arrived at school early so that I had about an hour and a half to refine and test my presentation. The observation went well, the teacher actually said she was impressed with my lesson and now that part is done. I still have an online quiz to do but it is open book so shouldn't be too bad. Of course, I'll probably wait until the last minute to do that too!