Boot Camp for Dummies

Hello Bloggers!

Today I am going to talk about my first experience with this tortuous thing called "Boot Camp". A friend of mine has blogged about this before and she is much wittier and more clever than I. The name of her Blog is Mother Hen. I am just going to share a bit because at this point, lifting my arms as high as the keyboard is just about all I can muster.

Back it up a bit, I've always been a bit of an exercise class snob. I've done my share, I "Jazzercised" my way through part of the 80's, although never a leg warmer have I donned. I've done step classes and they were fine, but I've never reached the cardio burn I get from running and always just pooh poohed them.

My friends Kara and Shannon have been regulars in this class for awhile, they recently recruited a couple other friends and voila, here I am on this Wednesday, nearly crippled.

It began at the glorious hour of 4:55 am. I pretty much hate mornings, so already I'm off to a very cranky start. I roll out of bed, cuz that's how I roll... ba da boom! I brush teeth, put on my workout garb, grab some coffee and jump in the car. Bonus, no traffic on the bridge at 5:00 am. That's probably the last silver lining you'll get from this blog. Arrive at the YMCA and look at the parking meter to see what I owe... I lied, another silver lining, don't have to pay til 8:00 am. Crazy people can keep their quarters, thank you very much.

I wander in and immediately spot Kara, who IS a morning person, yippee freaking skippy! She does dial it down and greets me with a subdued for her, "Dudster!" Shannon arrives and it's a party. We head up and I'm a bit nervous, but first thing you do is run 6 laps around the tiny track at the Y. Yes! Running is my favorite, so that was easy. Get in the room and my eyes are darting around nervously for this person they call Tina who I've heard is slightly mean. Kara introduces me and I say "nice to meet you". She said, "We'll see what you think after." Gulp.

The rest is a blur of me trying to follow directions while doing things like push ups, carrying heavy things over my head while running, more push ups, circuits of different things using my weak little runner arms. I was doing modified push ups aka the dreaded "girl" push ups only to realize that my sweat was making me peel out and I couldn't get a grip. That was fun! The wall sits reminded me of high school basketball, our coach called them "Green Chairs" and we had to do them when we cussed in practice. I was pretty good at those and I didn't cuss once today while doing them.

Fast forward, I made it through and it was fun, yes I know I'm a masochist, but it really was and I feel invigorated! Now, I will end this blog entry with a list of things that it's difficult to do when your arms are so weak, you can barely lift them:

1. Taking off your sweaty sports bra. Who knew, I thought I might have to get a scissor, I made it.

2. Washing your hair.

3. Shaving your arm pits, ouch, literally braced one arm against the shower wall, sorry for the visual.

4. Putting on deodorant.

5. Drying your hair.

6. Putting on your shirt.

7. Putting your hair in a bun. The salt in that wound is that after arms were up, I realized I'd grabbed the sweaty hair tie from
the torture class and didn't care enough to replace it.

8. Reaching up for bowl to make oatmeal (thank the Good Lord the oatmeal is on a lower shelf of the pantry)


I could probably go on and on, but you get the idea. I feel like I am going to be pretty sore, but hey, I survived it and it can only get better from here right? Question to fellow campers: Is it better or worse when Tina doesn't have a migraine? One of the thoughts I had...

Dudster is out (of her mind)