Back to Boot Camp

Well, I've had the hiatus. The break. The mornings off, for about four months now. So it was time to get back to that good ole boot camp. Today was the first morning. We are back outside, at Manito Park. It was fresh and actually exhilarating. Dare I say it.. it was fun! Of course, it was just the first morning, and there were enough newbies participating that we took it sort of easy. But my gosh, it was great.

Boot camp is technically called Adventure Fitness Boot Camp, so as not to confuse it with military boot camp. And I'm sure it isn't as strenuous as the military. Certainly it isn't as long - we are there for just an hour - but it is a lot, a lot of exercise from 6 to 7 a.m. in the morning.

In the winter the boot camp's indoors, and it's dark and foreboding when we arrive, since we live so far north (not that we're Alaska or anything, but our winter days are pretty short). In the summer, though, we are out at Manito Park - at the tennis courts there. Summer's taken charge, and the sun is already up and about for at least an hour before our designated arrival time.

This morning - the first day for the upcoming month's session - it was brisk and damp, but not raining. And now here's the surprising part - I'm already in pretty good shape. Soccer these past few weeks has helped, I'm sure, as well as has the previous boot camp sessions from the past year... But I actually had fun this a.m., and may just go ahead and join up for four days instead of three.

Speaking of good shape... Danna Snow, our instructor, competed in weight lifting in Cleveland recently and set a new record for her weight category for deadlift - 347 pounds. Wow. She'll be competing internationally in the Czech Republic in coming months (with a stop in Puerto Rico in August for the North American championships), and is looking for sponsorship. This is her website: www.dannasnow.com. Good luck, Danna!

Last Day of Boot Camp

Today was the last day of boot camp. It's hard to know whether to celebrate or feel sad. It's a month of torture when I take it - not the least of which is arriving by 6 a.m. to the camp. But it has such impact. Literally and figuratively. Very much figuratively (ha ha). And I can feel how much it improves my health. And it's great camaraderie - the same small group of us has showed up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. If one is missing, we wonder if we've lost her - and are glad when we haven't.

Most everyone else is starting back up for a three-week session the week after Thanksgiving. I am doing so much traveling, however - I leave Tuesday to spend a week in El Paso with my mom - that I would miss most of December sessions, so I won't be joining them. Carry on, brave ones! I salute you.

I am taking it again in January, though. So I may have a respite now, but I start back up at the new year. There I will be, with all the rest of them, grunting and sweating and feeling the evolution. I can't wait 'til February 1.

photo credit: Noel Fields, found here

BC Update

With regard to boot camp, and two steps at a time, which I discussed a day or so ago - it was three flights of stairs, not four.

But while we're on the topic of BC... Today we did "laps," which means that we did five sets of exercises, two exercises per set, and then a countdown of those exercises from ten down to one. So, for instance, if push ups and squats are the two grouped together, then we did ten push ups, then ten squats, then nine push ups and nine squats, etc., down to one push up and one squat. And then on to the next set of two exercises grouped together. For an hour. Do you think that doesn't sound like much - or much different than just doing exercises in general? Hmmm. Try it out and see what you think then.

OMG Boot Camp

So yesterday, at boot camp, we were supposed to run up three flights of stairs, two steps at a time, twice. (We jogged back down.) Then we'd go back to the workout room, do some short set (10 bench curls or something), and then go back to do two sets of three (or was it four?) flights of stairs, two steps at a time. OMG.

I couldn't run it. Just couldn't. But I did keep going two steps at a time. I didn't know I could be so nostalgic for longer reps for the in-between exercise.

Just as I thought I couldn't do another set of steps, our instructor switched up the last ten minutes with another event. I think I ended up doing seven or eight sets of the steps. Not that I had the energy to keep count.

Then last night, I went to Zumba (my dance class). Love that Zumba. (Caveat: the instructor really matters.) Every squat killed my legs. Go figure. And no exercise today. I think I've earned it.

Calisthentics

I joined boot camp again - something I did this past summer. With summer gone, the boot camp is now indoors. Still early. So yes, I'm paying money so that I can go to a workout room three days a week at 6 a.m. in the morning for an hour and - well, work out. Like a madwoman.

There were supposed to be 12 of us total in this month-long session. Usually about six or seven show up. It's separating the girls from the women, that's for sure.

What I like about it is that we each go at our own pace. So if it takes me twice as long as everyone else to do - say - 12 push ups, then that's what it takes. What I also like is the variety. I never know what the morning will bring. Well, I have an idea. A lot of exercise. But where will the focus be?

What I don't like about it is (a) it's really early, (b) it's a killer for the whole hour, and (c) it makes me sore all day - week - long.

But then anther thing I like about it. It really works. The old body gets in shape. Quickly.

Speaking of old bodies... One of the women in the class - young, it appears - is waaay ahead of me in skill and speed. The other day, she mentioned something about boot camp being new. "You've never taken boot camp before?" I said, pointing out how much further ahead of me she was, even without the background. Then I laughed and shrugged and started to say our instructor's motto: everyone goes at their own pace. But the young woman interrupted. "Well, I'm a lot younger!" she said. Just as I was trying to decide whether to be offended by her comment, she added, "I just hope I'm still doing this sort of thing when I'm your age."

Huh. How old exactly do you think I am? I wanted to ask. But then I thought, well, she's right. I am old. At least I'm older than her (I thought as I dragged myself out of the gym to get started with the day).

Later that same day, I was at a legal education seminar. I ended up meeting some lawyers who have been practicing in this region since the 1960s. They asked me how long I'd practiced law, one thing led to another, and suddenly I had announced my age. They were shocked - shocked! - that I possibly could be that old, and were skeptical that I had recited the correct age.

So there, young-woman-from-boot-camp. We don't always look as old as you think we do.

The "Way Over 40" League

Boot camp ended Friday - just as our co-ed outdoor soccer season began on Saturday. A friend was asking me if I played in the "over 40" soccer league. "We're way over 40!" I said - and thought, now that would be the right name for our league. The "Way Over 40" league.

Our league's technical name is "Grand Masters" - a euphemism for "old people." At 48, I'm one of the youngest on my team.

But we have such a good time! Though we lost this past Saturday. Without one of our players, we would have been skunked. Thanks to him (and the assists he got), we scored 3 goals - still lost, but with a little dignity intact.

Boot camp seems to have agreed with me. Though it was about 85 degrees on the soccer field Saturday afternoon, and though I don't play well in the heat, and though we were playing without enough women again (which meant all the women on the team played the entire game) - I never really got out of breath. This - borders on a miracle.

I usually play fullback - not halfback, not even forward - so I should always be able to say, at the end of a game, that I did not struggle, since fullbacks do the least amount of running. But usually I am too out of breath to say anything, much less that I "did not struggle" (irony sounds).

And if I wasn't in too bad of a shape at the end of a hot day... Boot camp has made its impact.

So, let's see - highlights of the game... Well, one of our players scored a hat trick (three goals), as I mentioned above. Our goalie did an amazing job... We had a couple new women who played valiantly - one of them has an amazing "cross" (she played wing - which means, forward and on the side). She needs to play up there all the time.

I had a couple headers (well one header and one noser - mmm hmmm, that means I got to the ball, only it missed my forehead...) And I think I had a couple of hippers, too (again, this is not a real term, but is descriptive of what actually happened on a couple of occasions, when the ball came sizzling towards me and my "stop" of it involved sacrificing my side rather than my front - or my back! I wasn't totally chicken! Um- or, maybe I just didn't twirl around fast enough...) Oh, and I did suck the ball once out of someone's foot as she tried to get by me. I love that when it happens. It's like I am a vacuum, and the other player has just stepped out of their shoe (and sock), so surprised they are that they no longer have the ball at their feet.

And then there's Zumba - which I'm starting on Tuesdays and Wednesdays... This apparently is a dance class, with Latin flavor. I'll find out more tomorrow night.

Between boot camp and walking, soccer and zumba - I'm calling this the "Season of the Body." It's been a long time since I've taken the time to get in physical shape. Usually I'm too busy with all my mental responsibilities to take the time to care about my physical being... But I'm 48, and it's now or never. Or, well - it's now, anyway.

And here's a funny thing that's happened on that way to that forum... My entire right side (not just a little noggin of a lower back) is in some sort of traction. It would be funny, if it didn't hurt from my rib cage down to my knee cap. Ha ha. (Actually, it is a little funny, and I've been laughing, trying to imagine what exactly I might have done to have caused this new, expanded ailment.)

But then, here's the good thing - I'll make an appintment to see my chiropractor. Maybe it is just my body's subtle way of encouraging good care all around.

'Tis the season!

Manito Park Insanity

There is a little-known fact that, every summer, from 6 to 7 a.m. on weekday mornings, Manito Park - one of the nicest parks in Spokane, and oldest - plays host to a group of women crazy enough to sign up for a month-long "boot camp." Some of these crazy women sign up for this "boot camp" three times in a row - i.e., all summer long.

Now here's the sad part: for the next four weeks, I'm joining them. And this morning was my first day. It's only 7:30 in the morning, and I feel like the day has been going for half a day now.

I keep telling myself that this will be a good thing. And it will be, four weeks from now, when it's over. For as much as my walking program is going well (and look at all the books-on-tape I get to hear!), I thought one more big jump-start to getting healthy again was the way to go.

I'm only signed up for three mornings a week, since next week I'll be missing most of it (will be in El Paso, visiting my mom). This means that I'll be doing make-up days - for instance, this week's three-day week will be four days...

Boot camp sounds difficult, looks not-so-bad as you get started, and then really feels like hell at about 6:35. I did this program back in January 2008 - with a similar goal of getting in shape - five days a week that time - nothing like overdoing it, right up front...

Here's the saddest part. I will have disrupted mornings for the next four weeks. Usually I have such nice mornings... I wake up early (around 6 a.m.), get my coffee going, feed the cats, read the newspaper, get on the computer, make blog entries.. Annie and Alex (my cats) hang out with me as I hang out, and it's just calm and lovely, especially in the summer when the weather is so nice, first thing in the a.m. When it's going to be 95 degrees for the day, the mornings are particularly nice (usually around 70 - given our altitude and northern exposure) and so I spend those first few moments out on the front porch in the light breeze, drinking my coffee, reading the paper...

Now though, that will not be how my summer goes. For the rest of this summer's mornings, I'll be lifting weights and running around tennis courts and simply making myself grumpy - on purpose!