Chariots of Fire July 20, 2011

Chariots of Fire was an Oscar nominated film from 1981 that I found both overrated and terribly boring. Fortunately for me (or unfortunately), today's workout was neither overrated nor boring.

The weather here is incredibly hot and muggy. Today was supposed to be the worst of the week so far. Temperatures were supposed to reach 100 degrees and with the heat index, it was supposed to feel like 115. At 5:30 in the morning, though, it wasn't too bad. Only about 78 and, when I got out of the car, there was a slight breeze.
This should be doable.

I knew things would be tough today when I noticed that Dustin had the tubing out which is never good. Then he told us part of our warm-up would be taking all of our things to the hill. Not only to the hill but to the top of the hill. Our weights, mats, water and whatever else we had. That was going to be quite the workout in itself. So I lugged my stuff all the way up. As an added bonus, I was trying to work through some serious shin splints. I was quite winded when I got to the top but, I must admit, I was warmed up. That wasn't enough though. Ashton had to do some additional warming up with us. Finally we were ready to go and we were split into 2 groups. The first group went down to the bottom of the hill with Dustin. The rest of us stayed at the top with Ashton.

We did 8 sets of exercises with Ashton, 4 on the mat, 4 standing with weights. Then we would repeat. I started with the standing weight exercises. We did walking lunges, squat jumps, walking lunges with a chop, and planks with upright rows. The 20 lb weights really do get heavy and my glasses kept getting steamed up. I also had a pesky mosquito bothering me so maybe it is time to break out the Off. Once on the mat I did v-sit ups, mountain climbers, sit-ups with the weights over our head, and lying on our backs while we did scissor legs.

Now during our exercises I was pretty curious as to what was happening at the bottom of the hill. From our angle I couldn't really see what was going on. So maybe they weren't running up the hill. Maybe chariots at the bottom. Or some kind of sprints. Still I kept an eye out. Finally I did notice the top of a head. It was there and then it was gone. I kept watching and soon I was rewarded. Here the second group came, running chariots up the hill! Oh, you have got to be kidding, I thought. Looking at the faces of the chariot runners, they weren't kidding. Oh, this should be fun, NOT! I could hardly wait for my turn to be in Dustin's group.

Well, my time came soon enough. Dustin told us that chariots was a good exercise for us, and running up the hill was a good exercise for us, so the combination of the two should be really good for us. Dang. I hate chariots, and I hate the hill so the combination of the two should be something I really hate. Now, let me explain that all exercises that are really difficult and good for me I hate. But I know how much benefit there is to doing these exercises so I willingly accept the challenge for my health, dang it. We started by running a couple 7 minute sprints to warm up. Then we would run chariots for a designated amount of time and switch places. At the end we had to run all the way up the top of the hill. The chariots weren't as bad as I thought as the longest run was 45 seconds. They were tough though. The last part, the final run up the hill, was not a good showing for me. My shin splints were hurting badly and I didn't quite make it up all the way. But a combination of running and walking did get me done and our workout was finished for the day. I did take a really long time coming down and getting back to the shelter. I think I was the last one. The humidity was really getting stifling and I was so glad it was over for the day.

Have a good one.

Heat Wave July 18, 2011

At 4:30 this morning the temperature was already 82 degrees. I wasn't sure I wanted to go to bootcamp. To be honest I wasn't sure that it was the smartest or even healthiest thing to do. However, since the rest of the week isn't supposed to be any better I decided to go ahead and give it a try. That way I could judge whether or not to go the rest of the week. I did decide not to use my ac as I drove to my workout so that my system wouldn't go from the cold to the heat.

The first part of the workout wasn't too bad. Ashton had us work with partners. One of us did wall sits while the other did weighted lunge walks or half moons. Then we used our mats. On the mats we did side planks with a dip, skull crushers which is a tricep exercise, and one other exercise that slips my mind. While not on the mat we did lunges with a chop, squats with biceps, squats with deltoid work, and rows. We finished by working with our partner, doing 60 pushups between two people. My partner and I each did 30. Then it was time for cardio with Dustin.

Dustin said this heat and humidity was perfect for sprints. So that's what we did. Sprint. Over and over again. First we ran across the tennis court and rested. Then back and the same. Then we got to run across and back, then rest. Next we got to run across and back, twice. Then we did that again but we had to do push-ups as we reached the fence each time. We did get to take a water break between which was, of course, very important in the heat. We next chose a line and had to jump over it, side to side and then forward and back. We finished by shadowing another person.

When we were finished I was drenched and stinky. I had to walk a little bit and take my time catching my breath. Overall, it wasn't too bad and I got my workout done early. I think I'll try it again on Wednesday.

Have a good one.

Roger

Watch the Skies Monday, July 11

This morning I was greeted with an amazing light show. When I got out of bed at 4:30 am and went downstairs, I saw a flash of light through the window. I wasn't sure at first what I was seeing so I went over to the patio window and looked out. The flashes came so quickly I wasn't sure if it was lightning. There were light flashes but no thunder. Maybe it was some kind of alien invasion like War of the Worlds. Nah couldn't be. These weren't lightning bolts. Dang. Then came the low rumble. Ok. So it was lightning and thunder. Briefly I thought about going back to bed. After all, you can't go to bootcamp in a thunderstorm. However I noticed there was no rain. Okay. What to do? I was already up so I might as well stay up. I decided to check out the bootcamp web site. Dustin said he would post by a 1/2 hour before class whether or not it was cancelled due to severe weather. When no such announcement came, off I went across town.

The parking lot was already crowded when I got there. I had to hurry as I was pulling in at the last minute and I really did not want to do push-ups. I tried to move quickly but it still looked like I was going to be the last one. Luckily as I was walking to our usual shelter Dustin was checking the weather on his cell phone. Even though the lightning had stopped it looked like rain was coming our way so he told me to go over to the other shelter. The rest of the class jogged over as part of the warm-up. Once we were all there we were in for a pretty tough workout.

The temperature was about 78 degrees with high humidity when we started. There was no breeze to speak of. To be honest, I can't even remember everything we did today. Dustin and Ashton had to make up the workout on the fly since the plan for today was scrapped due to weather. We chose partners to work with and then we separated. For core we did weighted crunches, side planks with a weighted twist, side dips with weights, and oblique work with weights. For early cardio we used the picnic table and did a kind of jogging toe tap, a side lunge with one foot on the bench and then repeated. We also sat on the bench and then stood using only one leg. After switching legs we had to sit on the bench and then jump up. Not as easy as it sounds.

Ashton had us do additional upper body work. We did push ups, tricep work while lying on our backs, upright rows, and tricep extensions. We also did 1 minute wall sits with bicep curls. I was absolutely drenched in sweat from the heat as were the other bootcampers. But we weren't done yet. Time for more cardio so out we went to the parking lot for sprints. I am happy to say that I really did go all out on my sprints but boy was I winded afterwards. Finally, to finish, we did an exercise where we mirrored what our partner was doing. I told my partner that if I vomited she didn't have to mirror that. We did this for about 3 minutes and we were done. As we left I was so glad I did the early class. I would have been so sad to just be arriving while seeing all these people soaked with sweat, looking exhausted, leaving. Still, it left me with a real sense of accomplishment. And some really wobbly legs.

Have a good one.

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.

Outdoors Again

Well, the outdoor season is upon me and I've gone through 4 classes already. I've documented the first class on Dustin Maher's website so check it out here.

I survived the first day and returned for the second. Dustin and Ashton were there to guide us through this workout. We did our warm up with Ashton and she took us out into the grass. It was a good warm up and I always kind of hang out in the back during this.

When we got to our workout it went really quickly today. We partnered up and 1/2 of us went with Ashton and 1/2 went with Dustin. Sharon and I went with Ashton. We got into groups of 4 for this part of the workout. Each participant did a different exercise. One person did a lunge walk with 6 bicep curls at the end, another did squats while holding weights followed by some squat jumps, another did planks, and another did push-ups. I must confess that I waited a while to write this blog so I can't remember what we did next. But after we did it, we rotated to the next exercise in the rotation. Then we repeated everything we did. The thing I do remember. It was a tough workout and my legs were tired when we moved over to Dustin.

Dustin took us through Sharon's favorite exercise, the Chariots. She was my partner again. The first time I was running it suddenly got really tough. I thought, wow, Sharon has really gotten stronger. Then I looked back and Dustin was holding me back with Sharon. Ouch! No wonder it was so hard. So I really started pushing and suddenly, I was almost stumbling forward! I guessed it. Dustin had let go. We did a variety of chariots across the tennis court. Once we had to stop because Sharon's glasses fell off. Sharon also snapped me in the butt with one of the tubes. She said it was because she thought her glasses were falling off again and she stopped to grab them, but I think it was because I pulled her too hard. This class ended really quickly and no hill! Awesome.

On Friday, I went alone to boot camp. Sharon had to sleep in because we stayed out too late the night before. I was tired but last year I only missed outdoor boot camps when we were out of town so I'm trying to commit myself to that again.

Dustin told us as he rounded us up that we were going to have an intense hill workout that day. Oh joy! Plus we would get an additional intense core workout with 2 visiting trainers from Michigan. Sharon suddenly looked like one extremely smart cookie! Ashton again warmed us up, this time on the tennis court. I had a new partner today. Penny. And she is in great shape so I knew it was going to take my all to keep up with her. In the warm up we did some lunge walks, jumping jacks, and jogs. But then we did some sprints. I took my time the first time across and back but Penny went pretty fast so I made myself go faster the 2nd and 3rd time across so I didn't slow her down. We finished by jogging over to the hill. And, as usual, the hill was there waiting for me.

We began by running sprints up the hill. We'd run for 30 seconds and then have 1 1/2 minutes to get back down and recover. I didn't do as well as I'd like but it was for a kind of strange reason. I couldn't seem to get any traction. Have you ever seen the Flintstones or Scooby Doo where they kind of run in place for a few seconds before they take off? That's what happened to me. The grass was still kind of frosty and I just seemed to run in place for a bit before going anywhere. No one else seemed to having this problem. Still, while my feet were slow in starting, my quads wasted no time in letting me know they were working! After the sprints we did some red light/green light activity. Like when we were kids. We'd run up the hill backwards on green light, stop on red light and then go again on green light. I knew there was a reason I always liked being the one getting to call out red light/green light when I was a kid. Paid for that today. We finished by doing side shuffles up the hill, facing our partner. We were supposed to keep up with them as best we could. I did fine on one side but kind of faded on the second. But, to my complete relief, the hill was done for the day. So back to the shelter we went.

We got some good deltoid work here. We sat on the mats and did deltoid presses while our partner pushed down on our weights. I think Penny and I did pretty well here but boy can those 20 lb weights get heavy. We also did wall sits. I hate these too! We held out weights while our partner ran around the shelter 3 times. Poor Penny. Took me a while to get around but she kept shouting encouragement. I listened to Dustin and kept to the outside of the track each time but I sure did want to take a short cut by running a little closer to the inside when I got tired. But that wouldn't really benefit anyone so I didn't do it.

We finished with the trainers from Michigan. We did some different ab work and my core was already tired. The tricky one was an exercise in which we clasped hands and pulled each other off the ground. One would sit and the other would pull the other up. It was okay on one side but when we switched sides it was almost impossible. It was kind of comical though. Luckily, by then the next class was there so time to go!

My fourth class of the week was the opening Saturday class. There were about 90 people there and the weather was good. I especially looked forward to this since Elijah, my son, would be participating. Ashton once again warmed us up. It was nice to start the warm up when it was actually warm outside. Our first task of the day, run all the way up Elver Hill and back. There was no way I thought my legs would cooperate but that was ok. I would run with Elijah to encourage him. Plus, I thought, Dustin said we would divide into two groups. The first 40 would be in the fast group and the second group would be the not as fast group. Kind of sounds like the "almost winners" they used to have on Bozo's Big Top doesn't it? Anyways, off we went and I did run with the boy. We kind of jogged over and, as I predicted, we were pretty far back. But then Elijah betrayed me. He said he was fine running by himself and he wanted me to go on without him. I asked him if he was sure, and he was, so I had to push on. I thought maybe it wouldn't be too bad knowing I only had to do it once. So I just did the best I could to get through it. As I neared the top I saw some people walking. You didn't read my first blog! I thought. I warned you! I cautiously came down, knowing I was losing speed but I really did not want to fall, I then did what I could when I was back on flat ground. Dustin and Ashton both gave me encouragement as I kind of sprinted to the end. However, I was not happy to hear Dustin call to me "22" as I passed. Dang, the fast group. Still, when I was finished and kind of jogging in place to not come down too fast my heart leaped. There was Elijah coming down the hill, running! I was so proud of him at that moment. The kid didn't give up. Sharon finished up and I pointed out to her that he was still going. We shouted out encouragement to him and some of our fellow boot campers shouted out to him too! He liked that. He told me later he heard people calling out to him to keep going. He did make it to the end too!

After everyone was finished Dustin divided us up. One group went to the shelter and the next group, off to the hill. The hill! Seriously? And who was waiting at the hill? Ryan. Smiling Ryan. I went back for my water bottle and over to the hill. Luckily we were divided again into groups and I was in the core group first. We did planks, side planks, bicycles, and V-sits. Then off to the hill. It was not encouraging when a younger guy who looked to be in pretty good shape told me "good luck" when we passed. I tried to pace myself on the hill. We did sprints again. When Ryan said this was the last sprint so push ourselves I did. My quads burned but I was determined to give a good shot. But then, what did I see when I was walking back down? The core people were lining up at the hill again. This had to be a mistake. No mistake. Back for more core. I did it but I kept an eye out to see how much more we were gonna have to do on the hill. It was tough. Some backward running this time in addition to the sprints but for some dang reason, when we got to that last spring, dang if I didn't push myself.

Off we went back to the shelter. We did more strength training here. I did mostly 20 lbs but did have to drop to 12-15 on some. At one point we did something where we turned and I could see my son on the hill. He was working at it. I saw him going up and then running down. However, later I was laughing as I looked and he was rolling down! That's my kid!

Saturday was really fun. We worked very hard. No mistake about it. But we got to see some people from the other camps and I got to see some of the instructors I had never met before. And it was great for Elijah. He was encouraged and wants to attend more Saturdays.

Have a good one!

Roger