Boot Camp begins!

Today I went to boot camp, and it was great! The instructor's name is Kerry, and she's a tall, cute, southern lady with a mean streak. We started with a lap around the track, then some calisthenics to warm up. The camp has been going for a couple of years, but once a month they have a new "session" where new recruits are encouraged to start. We were tested on our fitness, and we'll be tested again at the end of the 4 weeks.

First we had to run a mile as fast as we could. Now, I can run, sure... and I can run for a longish time. But I am slow. Still, she started us off and I got a bit carried away, finishing the first lap in under 2 minutes. Now, that's absurd for me -- because I believe my fastest EVER mile was just under 10 minutes. So when she called out the first split I thought, "oh, dear, remember that you can always speed things up at the end if you have anything left in the tank!"

I tried to slow down on the second lap, with some success, but I was still faster than I should have been at 4:15. (Yeah, I know, plenty of people run twice that fast. Whatever.) I also started feeling the queasiness I get when I'm working out too hard. So I got to the far side of the track and decide to walk the turn briskly and try to get my breath back and my heart rate down a bit.

I then ran/walked my way to the end, finishing in a new PR of 9:17. Not fast for a lot of people, but wicked fast for me. I walked counter-clockwise around the track to cool down a bit, rooting for my fellow recruits as they finished. Oof.

Then it was time for pushups -- as many standard ones as we could do, and then as many modified (knees down) ones as we could do for the rest of the minute. My partner Helen (Ellen?) was a rock star, doing 6 standard and another 19 modified. I managed a mere three standard and 17 modified.

Then sit-ups -- as many as we could do in a minutes, with our arms crossed over our chests. Usually sit-ups aren't a real challenge for me, but somehow I struggled to do 20 in a minute. Helen did 26.

Then squat press -- as long as we could hold it. I thought we were just going for a minute, but noooooo.... we just went down into a press and held it. I stopped at 1:09, halfway out of boredom, and halfway because I was expecting to be done at a minute! Oops. One tiny woman held her squat for 4:15!

We ran a bit to shake out our legs, and then it was time for planks. I barely held on for a minute (I've got a notoriously weak core and I always worry about tweaking my back). The tiny woman held hers for over SEVEN minutes. AMAZING.

All in all, a good workout, and fun to be outside. I liked that it was drizzly this morning -- made me feel as if I was extra virtuous and determined when I walked out the door at 5:40am!