6 lbs lighter

Today I had my post-boot camp fitness assessment, and I am 6 lbs lighter and 3% less body fat. I guess that's pretty good right? I want to do it again, and see if I can take off another 6 lbs, but I don't think with a wedding coming up in less than 3 months that I can really afford the expense. I'm definitely going to try & keep it up though, work out hard like that every morning that I can. I feel so much stronger now...even though the post test said I was about the same in strength & flexibility, I don't believe it. The last day of boot camp I could bear crawl like never before!! haha. And I can do more than 10 pushups without collapsing. That's saying something.

I have to say that my favorite days of boot camp were 2 days last wk and then the last day (on Monday). One of the days we did an Easter egg hunt of sorts...one person sprinted to the eggs and brought one back, and whatever was written on the egg was what the group had to do. Another day we went to Centennial Park and did a lot of running, stopping at various points in the park and doing different things. A really nice change-up in routine, and of course, we all know that I can run. The last thing we did at the park day was run from one end of the park all the way back to CNN center...it was long and a gradual uphill, but I didn't stop even though I felt like I was moving so slowly. At the top of the hill I thought, how did I ever do that for 26.2 miles?! I can't even imagine it now.

Then the last day of boot camp, we did a relay race where we sprinted, ran backwards, skipped, and sprinted again. My team won so we didn't have to do extra stairs! Yippee! But that day was fun, in addition to the relay race, we did a sequence of bear crawl, run, crabwalk, run, side squat, run, lunge, run. I actually enjoyed that too. It was hard but we could go at our own pace.

So in summary, boot camp was a worthwhile, effective and even fun experience. There were days I dreaded getting out of bed, but man, I am so glad I did. Above all, I'll miss the people. It's funny how attached you can get to people after seeing them every morning, bright & early, for 20 days. I actually saw one of the boot campers today before my post test, she was just lunging away around the athletic club track. Dedication! Encouragement...motivation...I think that really makes a difference. We'll see how that works when I'm on my own!

And I guess it's back to long distance running :) Half marathon, Disneyland??

last wk!

This is my last week of boot camp! Yippee! I don't think I'm going to do it next month. It's well worth the money, but it's pretty expensive for my budget. However, I do have a wedding coming up in August that the money would be better for! I've learned a lot, and although I don't feel much thinner, I do feel stronger, and that's important. I may do it again in July, depending on how much I slack off in June.

Last week, the girl instructor was gone, so we had the guy Brian every AM. So imagine my surprise this AM when I was expecting Jenn to be back today and maybe an easier day...there was Brian. Ughh. I love the guy, he is a great instructor, but he's INTENSE. There's just no better word. So today we did most of the usual...mountain climbers, planks, pushups, squats, lunges, bear crawls, windmills, jumping jacks, running. Maybe I should make a video so you can understand some of these ridiculous moves, haha. With Brian, I have to peek out the corner of my eye to make sure he's not looking if I need to take a break. Anyway, the crowning moment was at the very end. Instead of running up the stairs like we usually do, we walked up the stairs while holding a kettle bell above our heads with our arms straight & elbows locked. It BURNED. We did probably 400 stairs this way. I envisioned my arms giving out and the kettle bell crashing into my head.

Anyway besides the boot camp, my mom got me the Wii Active, and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with it so far. A lot of the exercises overlap with what we've done in boot camp (squats, lunges, high knees, resistance band arm exercises), so I've been using it in the evenings to get extra workouts in. The leg strap can sometimes be annoying and fall off, and the resistance band isn't very hard either. I'll probably have to go buy a real one. I started the 30 day challenge and have done 4 of the workouts so far, none of which were the same. The exercises switch up every minute or so, it's never monotonous. Although...I've only tried the "hard" intensity, I'm not sure what medium and low are like. Definitely give it a try if you have a Wii...it's easy to pick up and get a workout in when you're crunched for time.

treadmill of death

I just want to note here that I almost died by the hands of a treadmill today. We were inside for boot camp b/c of the rain. So we did sprints on the treadmill for 2 minutes. Ugh. I can't sustain a sprint for that long. So, at one point I felt like I was going to fall off, so I put my feet on the sides, and when I went to get back to sprinting, my little legs just couldn't keep up and I almost fell off.

So that's the bad news for the day. In good news, I've made it through 2 wks of boot camp! Yay for a long weekend.

kettle bells

My coworker & friend at boot camp sent me this article. Take a look at kettle bells...something we use every day at boot camp!

one wk down

So I made it through a whole wk of boot camp! Phews. Thursday was the toughest day. I got called out so many times for doing things wrong and then had to do even more to make up for what I didn't do right! Embarrassing and hard. Friday was actually fun though. Also hard, but we did a little obstacle course of sorts that I found fun. Today we were inside since it rained yesterday. It wasn't too bad until we did one of the things I dread the most...bear crawls! They are really hard to do inside. I actually had gloves to prevent blisters from the track, but I think they just made my hands more slippery. Plus we had just done a lap of lunges. I'm pretty good at lunges - I mean I have strong legs, I was a runner and was always working on lengthening and strengthening my stride. But after prolonged lunges, it's hard to get down on the ground and crawl like a bear. Another hard thing was at the end, we did reverse burpees down the length of the basketball court. So we got down, kicked both legs out (like doing a pushup), then walked our hands backwards while keeping our legs straight so that we were eventually standing up again. And then we got medicine balls and did a squat and then threw it at our partner. Who knew an 8 lb ball could have so much force!?

We also turned in a week's worth of food logs today. I can't WAIT to see what the coach writes on mine. I am sure it will be a humbling & eye-opening experience.

Ok next I am going to blog about the marathon. I'm feeling inspired listening to my Lady Gaga Pandora station. Thanks Lauren/Elliott :)

boot camp

So I have been through 3 days of boot camp now, and I can honestly say that an hour of boot camp is exponentially more difficult than an hour of running. Put it this way, marathon training is much, much harder over a course of a year. Mentally and physically, it is quite the undertaking. But boot camp is harder when you look at the timeframe of an hour. Every single part of your body is exercised in some way, and in a way that doesn't give you much rest time or recovery.

Anyway, the first morning, I didn't eat anything before going. Big mistake! I felt so sick & dizzy near the end, I wanted to quit. But if there's one thing I know about myself, I'm not a quitter. So, I kept going. Let me see if I can run down what we did. First, we ran about half a mile. Then we did wall sits. Then, lunges and bear crawls around a track (I had bruises on my hands afterwards). Then we moved on to more calisthenic type things - frog jumps, jumping jacks, burpees (sp? they're like up downs), plank, high knees, windmills. Pushups & situps. Suicide sprints and more frog jumps. I was amazed at how much we could fit in an hour!

Then yesterday we made a new friend. Stairs. Like, running up 5 stories of stairs...back down, run back up, back down, run back up. And an obstacle course of sorts, and dips. And today we met resistance bands and I remembered how little arm strength I have since running put all my strength in my legs. I ate a banana before each workout too so I felt a lot better.

I was pretty sore when I woke up on the 2nd day. My lower back and thighs were sore. Today my thighs are still sore but now my abs really hurt, because guess what? I have homework too! 250 situps a night...I'm just doing crunches til I can work my way up to situps. And we're also supposed to work out 3 times outside of boot camp. Tonight I did some yoga & strength exercises with the wii fit.

It's very intense.

I don't feel too different yet, although today I felt a little stronger, or really just more in the know. The first day I was so clueless, but now I feel like I kinda know how to do all the stuff we're doing. Oh! We also have to keep a food log that we turn in every Monday. I already know I'm going to get some comments on "m&m cookies" (thanks holly ;) they were worth every delicious bite!) and "lobster ravioli". Hehe. At least I haven't drank any kind of coke product yet! Our food goal this wk is to replace all cokes with water. So far, so good.

yikes...

So I ran a marathon...and then I've worked out maaaaybe 5 times since then. That's being generous. Well today I took a fitness assessment because next Monday, I'm starting boot camp at my company's athletic club. I'm a little nervous - it's going to be hard, and it's going to be at 7 am every weekday morning. I'm not much of a morning person.

Anyway, what is really "yikes" is that my fitness assessment today has revealed that I've gained at least 10 lbs since the marathon, and my body composition is 30% fat! Yuck. I need to lose at least 20 lbs to be in the ideal % fat. This has definitely been a sobering day for me. Who knew running for almost a yr, stopping for 4 months, that I could be in such terrible shape? :(

So here's hoping I can change things around. I'm going to try to start waking up early this wk in prep for next wk, and maybe get some good workouts before boot camp starts. Another adventure is starting! It will be fun to have something to blog about again, anyway :)