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