Maquinna's Poop du Jour

Banished to Boot Camp

I keep telling myself that it's not the wedding dress, it's not the wedding pictures, it's none of that...it's just that my routine is stale and needs a good shake-up, and I need to get out of something of an exercise rut. I keep telling myself that, and I nearly believe it.

A few weeks ago I learned about Bay State Boot Camp, an intensive one-hour workout, five days a week, for four weeks, that promised to completely invigorate me (and yes, take a little gut off in the process). Monday to Friday...starting at 5:30 a.m. Before I could talk myself out of it, I signed up.

I went to bed before 10 last night so that I had half a hope of getting up when the alarm went off at 4:45. Unfortunately, I'd left the blinds up all day yesterday so the bedroom was about 80 degrees all night long, even with the fan blowing full blast. It made for a night of tossing and turning, and sweating enough to make me wonder if I would save any sweat for boot camp in the morning.

I'd put out my clothes the night before so I wouldn't have to search around. My mat and hand weights were already in the car. Water bottle near the sink to fill up before I left the house. I got up. I got dressed. I got in the car.

Boot camp is outside in a park. We go to a nearby church gym if it rains. About a dozen other women were there. They all seemed normal, except they were here at 5:30 am ready to start working out. Sargeant Erica and Sargeant Alexis took the roll, then the music started blasting out of the ghetto box and we were on our way. Jumping jacks. Squats. Running. Skipping rope. I realized very quickly that my workouts to date were not nearly this hard. I was never the last one in, or the worst at any activity - but I wasn't even close to the top of the pack at anything! Granted, many of these women have done this before; there were perhaps three other newbies besides me. I was very quickly winded.

I did better with the strength training and weights based exercises. I guess that shouldn't surprise me since a lot of my working out has been strength training, and I'm pretty strong that way.

I was surprised how quickly the hour went by. I got through it, and I credit myself for just showing up at that ungodly time (check earlier post, 'The Egg', if you're unclear about my liveliness in the wee hours of the morning). I know that boot camp is going to get harder and harder as the days go by - that's the point. My muscles are a little sore already, but I've set two goals for myself during this month:

1. I will get through the whole thing, by the end of it, without getting so winded I have to stop.
2. The wedding dress will get zipped up that final inch at the top.

Ha. And you thought I was serious when I said it wasn't about the dress...

posted by Maquinna @ 9:56 a.m.