My conclusion about bootcamp…

serious sequins..just right for a work out

Okay. So. The grande finale of boot camp and my buddy and I turned up dressed to improve. I wore red and pink with a weeny gold sparkly top, buddy wore green and blue with a multi coloured sparkly top. No..the personal trainers were not expecting anybody to arrive dressed to the tens. Other ‘combatants’ were arriving giving us quizzical looks and wondering if they had missed the ‘lets get dressed up’ email. Anyhoo, the final day consisted of a fitness test to see how much we had improved. Here are my stats, (bated breath..): Beep test, first week was 7.6 and..ta daaaa..second beep test was 7.6. I actually stopped there because (apart from wanting to hurl), I thought I had only got to 7.2 the first time, so 7.6 was an improvement. I got it wrong. However, the other reason I stopped is, my first result was classified ‘superior’ anyway. What the hell can be better than ‘superior’??? ( Next time I wont stop. I realize a ‘superior 8.blahblah is better..).

From the beep test (hate hate) we did the ‘how many press ups can you do in 60 seconds’ thang. I got to ….31 full followed by 7 knee press ups. (The first time was 24 full/8 half-good improvement). Then I completed 83 situps (crunch) in 60 seconds, a big change from the 38 the first time). Last but, by no means least was prone hold (plank). The goal is to hold this position for 2 minutes. The first time I got to 1.22 before folding, this time folks, I got to 2 minutes and everyone else dropped but I kept up. I wanted to see what I could do you see. I looked up and one chick is also holding out. We got to 2.30, we looked at each other, poked out our tongues and kept holding. The group was urging us on..I told my (now) ‘competition’ that I was ‘gonna drop at 3′, fully planning to whip her ass and keep holding. Long story short, I made it to 3 minutes 2 seconds and collapsed and ‘that’ chick kept on for four minutes. She broke and we applauded her. (I told her I wasn’t really trying.)

Tell ya what! Boot camp was a blast. I will do it again, it has amped my training for the half in June, and cooks landing in July. I am definately fitter and stronger. I still have not reached my ‘fitness ceiling’, (if there is one). I attempting to find it…the ceiling.

Feelin’ good…I will write more about my training for the Wellington half marathon next post. See ya then.x

Last week of bootcamp…will I cry on the last day?

The workout at boot camp yesterday consisted running up a short steep gut busting hill to the Ataturk memorial carrying a weight bag…every few corners  you stop, do ten weighted squats. There are fantastic views at the crest, if you could see them with your nose on the ground struggling to finish one full pushup, (you are meant to be doing 20). You run back down the hill, zigzagging, sliding and hopping over slippery morning steps. You give the wet grass another set of pushups and follow this with burpees. And guess what? Yep. Back up to the memorial-run spot, run. Complete a set of lunges followed by dead lifts with a bag. oh yeah-and squats. Repeat a few times, after the last  run back down the hill,  hold a plank for 2 minutes. Cry. Great session. I followed it with a coffee. Last night I did an easy five k run, and scootered to pick Rose up from hockey, raced her back. Scooting is fun! Especially down hill all though a bit dodgy in the dark.

Life is excercise. Am I doing enough?

My body feels like a small car has run over it, then stopped and reversed over a different part of it. yep. Boot camp plus a new weights routine will do that to ya. Hmm…I gotta harden up. I have a headache, which I put down to too much chocolate. I keep finding the stuff. People offer it to me on platters. Silver platters. What can I do? Boot camp on Friday went…well, went fast. We started off with a sprint to the second corner of the zigzag then jogged down, then sprinted to the third corner of the zig zag and jogged back down, then sprinted to the fourth corner of the zig zag then jogged down then sprinted..okay…crawled to the fifth corner..etc etc. I cant remember how many ‘corners’ there are. I know it’s steep and it sucks. After that, we ran on the beach (thick sand) and completed fun circuts of weighted sled pulling, lunges (which you jump into the next leg lunge), squat jumps and alternate low lunges. We finished off the session with a 2 minute plank hold. It’s all fun. No wonder I have a major headache. As well.  After the session, I ran around town like a nut, stressing, getting my painting into 32 the terrace (for its ‘outing’). Finding a park on the Terrace is like finding…errr…a.. dunno, cant think of an analogy…Im not too smart..but its damn hard. I drove the big block three times, before I gave up and drove and did other errands. I went back a few hours later, found a park, retrieved the painting and the four year old from the car and sailed into the cafe. I say sailed because it was pretty windy, and the painting is rather large (1meter by 1meter). Picture it. It really happened. The terrace is pretty busy, I had to struggle not to be pushed into other people. Oh! life is so fun! After we returned home, Deane arrived home with a trailer, and I helped him fill it with tools and ladders from his shed. Grrreeaat excercise as this consisted of running up 140 steps, then down carrying some heavy piece of equipment, then up and repeat for 30-40 minutes. No wonder I have the ‘small car’ body feeling. smash.