Back To It

Friday, July 8, 2011

Hey everyone. I've had a couple people ask me about where my bootcamp blog has gone so I guess somebody has been reading it after all. So without further ado, I'm back to share with you the further grueling adventures of Roger, bootcamp sweathog.

After a nice vacation of relaxing and eating way too much I returned to bootcamp this morning. I should have returned Wednesday but only had a couple of hours of sleep Tuesday night so I wasn't quite ready to go back that morning. But today, that alarm went off and I jumped right out of bed, a smile on my face and a spring in my step. Sure. I knew it was going to be rough going today because Smilin' Ryan would be our instructor and he always challenges us way beyond what we think are our limits. And that, of course, is what we are there for.

Before beginning I doused myself with a generous amount of Deep Woods Off. Even when not bothering anyone else, those mosquitoes love me so I was going to be prepared. I saw a great commercial for this insect repellent so I knew it would be all I needed. I was careful to keep it away from my lips, though, because my brother-in-law accidentally got some on his lips and he got Angelina Jolie lips. But, I digress. After spraying myself I gathered my weights and mat and headed over. I got there just in time to hear Ryan tell us to grab our stuff and our water and head over to the hill. See, he wastes no time.

Once we got to the hill Ryan told us it was time to warm up. We needed to grab one dumbbell and follow him. I knew it was not a good sign when he told us to choose our weight carefully. We started by jogging with the weight held our in front of us. Then we did side shuffles, again with the weight held out at arms length. When Ryan told us to switch we would change direction. As we continued I noticed that my arms length kept getting shorter. After the shuffles we did some semi circles with the weight over our head and coming down to the ground, followed by an explosive jump up, all the time moving over to the side. When we finished we next did push ups for 25 seconds followed by star jumps, repeating each a couple times. Then we ran over to the shelter for some wall sits, again holding our weights out in front of us. I was breathing pretty hard already, with sweat coming down my forehead and this was the warm-up?!?

On to the hill. First we did deltoid presses, one arm for 25 seconds then the other for 25 seconds. Then we sprinted up the hill for 19 seconds. We came down and then sprinted up backwards for 18 seconds. Then forward, backward and more deltoid presses. I must admit I was pleased with myself in that I actually went all out on the sprints for once. At least forwards. I'm a little more hesitant going backwards. I don't want to fall. We did this combination 3 times with a water break thrown in. I was so happy when Ryan told up we were on our last sprint as my legs were pretty tired.

When we finished we got into groups of 3 and moved away to where Ryan had set up some cones. One of us had to get a mat, the other some dumbbells, and the 3rd a tube. One person had to do a kettle move, and the other 2 had to do chariots. What?! Chariots?! With my exhausted legs?! I didn't think I possibly had this in me but I got through it. My legs, of course, were like jello but I did get through it. We finished with 3 minutes of core work. I don't think the plank has ever been so hard, because my legs had no strength left. We also did Russian twists and V-sits, alternating between the two. I was so spent when we were finished but also had a nice feeling of accomplishment. Now, I just gotta keep at it.

Have a good one.