...fun with balls

Friday!! Yay, I'm so excited that the weekend is here. There were 3 campers and 2 trainers tonight...a much smaller group than yesterday. But, it was a good group. We did a thing called "Fun with Balls." There were about 30 rubber balls all filled with sand that all weighed a different amount from 4 to 12 pounds. We started out with sit ups, squats, etc. using the balls for extra difficulty. We partnered up, stood back-to-back and passed the balls to each other side to side.

Then, we tossed the balls as far as we could, ran to pick them up, then threw them back. Over and over. We concentrated on using our abs and arm muscles. Then...my favorite...push ups. We went for a little run with one of the trainers. Kari, the head leader lined up all of the balls and we started doing push ups down the line. First, you would put your right hand on the ball and left hand on the ground, do a push up, then move to your right. You move your left hand onto the ball and right hand on the ground, the move to the right again. So, we did 2 push ups for each ball...about 60 push ups in all!!!

Then, we went for a quick run. When we got back, we did it all over again! This time, to the left. By the end of the second round, my arms felt like they were going to fall off. My wrists hurt the most, though! We went for another run and were finished with push ups, so we moved onto plank walks. Same concept, but omitting the push up part. It was really intense and sweat was pouring from my face. If that wasn't crazy enough, on the last few steps of my plank walk, I stuck my hand in a old, hard piece of dog doo-doo...SICK!!!! Kari said "You haven't done Boot Camp until you've sat on or stuck your hand in some dog poop." lol...we all got a laugh out of my disgust, so it was an okay way to finish the week. I'm excited about the weekend. I need to do some homework Saturday and Sunday...I'll keep you posted.

...my friends are never talking to me again

Today was bring a friend to camp day! Whoever brought the most friends to class got a "prize," so I was trying to talk a few of my work friends into coming with me. Pretty much every day at work I would ask everyone to come, not really thinking that anyone would actually do it. But...I had 3 friends come today! My friend April came as well as Kyle and his wife Jamie. So, that was fun. I was hoping they wouldn't hate me forever...

Top 5 Reasons my friends may never speak to me again:

1. Our warm up was the "jumping jack marathon."

• do 1 jumping jack, run up the "hill," do 2 jumping jacks, sidestep down the "hill," do 3 jumping jacks, etc. until you've done 10 jumping jacks and then work your way back down to 1

2. Next we ran to the cones for the "catepillar."

• It's kind of hard to explain, but there's a lot of sit ups/running/getting up and down/crunches/side planks involved...enough said

3. There were two sets of cones for running/high knees/butt kicks/bear crawls/etc.

4. The station where you "catch your breath," but don't rest was for various strength exercises

5. Core on the "hill."

During one of the runs, I recall Kyle saying, "I will never do a favor for you again." I'm not 100% positive that he was talking to be, but I have this feeling...

But seriously, when we were all finished, they were still standing. Tonight's workout was not easy and they did EVERYTHING and kept up with the group. It was fun to have them there. I think they were glad that the came. Oh, and they helped me win the prize for having the most friends! So, I got a $25 off incentive for a future Boot Camp...hopefully I will be able to use it. They all got one of those as well as a koozie. Also, next week is a free preview week, so April might go with me to some of the workouts! Yay...we're still friends!

Tuesday

Well, we almost got rained out, but just about 6:30, the clouds cleared and the sun was shining brightly! The rain cooled things off a little, too. It was in the 90s earlier in the day, but had cooled into the 70s with about 50% humidity. So, things were a little sticky and muddy, but it was a nice night for a workout. We did what they call the "Sniper's Triangle" tonight. Basically, it's three stations that you run to with different activities at each.

The first one was the cardio station which was set up like a obstacle course. We did lots of jumping, weaving, shuffling, high knees, etc. through hoops and around and over cones. The second station was using the bungees again for bicep curls, lateral raises, etc. The final station was for core strength...the infamous ab bridges, spider push ups, planks, etc.

I'm not sure how many times we did each station, but we stayed at each one for 90 seconds each with running in between. It was a really good workout. I'm really not much of a sweater, but in that humidity and in the sun, I was sweating within 2 minutes and sweat was literally dripping from my face in the first 10 minutes. It kept getting in my eyes, which was really distracting. Would've been a good night for a cap! Anyway, it was fun and we, of course, finished with a core workout...using a hill to make things a little tougher. By the end of the night, I was muddy and basically soaking wet. That's a sign of a good workout!

We don't have Boot Camp tomorrow night, so I'm sure to have another report on Thursday!

The weekend & Monday

Saturday, there was a workout at Lake Hefner, but I didn't make it. It was just too tempting to sleep in. However, I did do my homework. I ran 20 minutes around the neighborhood around 5:30 p.m. It was still in the 90s, but I did this on purpose. I really wanted to sweat...and sweat I did! When I got home, I did my the usual core routine and stretched for 1o minutes. I don't think I've ever told you what the "usual" core routine is:

• 30 sit ups
• 30 crunches
• 30 right elbow-to-left knee situps
• 30 left elbow-to-right knee situps
• 30 toe touches (with feet high in the air)
• 30 "rockers" side to side touching alternating heels
• 30 leg lifts

I think that's it. Anyway, these are still challenging after 14 days of Boot Camp, but have gotten somewhat easier with repetition. AND...it's MUCH easier to do this at Boot Camp with everyone participating than to do it at home all alone!

Saturday night I had my CHEAT meal of the week - sushi & ice cream...yum! Sunday night I did another suggested workout which was 100 squats and 50 sit ups. My legs and arms were really burning after that...and I did the above-mentioned core exercises too!

Today was a really rainy day here in OKC. The morning Boot Camp was cancelled because the rain was coming down pretty hard, but it had cleared up by the afternoon and was bright and shiny. There were several people there tonight who usually go in the morning, so it was a nice change to have a larger group. I'm not sure of the name of tonight's workout, but I really enjoyed it.

We started with a moving warm up of squats, toy soldiers, high knees, butt kicks...etc. Then stretched. Then...RUNNING! We ran in 4 minute increments and held rubber bands as we ran. After 4 minutes, we would re-group and do a strength exercise. We alternated like this up and down the north side of Lake Hefner until we had done 6 sets of runs and 5 strength exercises with the bands, which were:

• "Fire Hydrants" - down on all fours with band just above knees, then pull right leg up like a dog at a fire hydrant...repeat x10...switch to the left for 10...back to the right...back to the left...yada yada yada. It went on forever!!! My hips were burning
• Squats - but not just standing there. With our bands around our ankles, we squated and jumped, squated and pushed our legs to the sides, squated and kicked our legs to the front...etc...etc
• Walking squats - kind of like a SLOW shuffle...50 steps to the right...50 steps to the left
• Push ups - lots and lots of push ups...moving push ups :)
• Ab bridges - feet flat, knees together, weight on heels & neck with butt in the air...then with band around the ankles, right leg up with crunches, repeat that with the left leg up, pelvic thrusts...and just holding the bridge position the whole time.

All in all, I felt really good tonight. The weather was nice, a little humid from all of the rain, but in the 70s, so it was tolerable. It was sunny...and I'm pasty white, so I'll probably look like a lobster tomorrow...oh well :) It was worth it! More rain in the forecast for the week...yay

OH!!! I almost forgot to mention. One person in the class wore her watch that measures the distance of the run...we ran close to 3 miles tonight! It went by pretty fast by breaking it up with some other exercises!

...Wednesday & Friday

Well, in the beginning, one of my goals was to have perfect attendance. Well, it seems that work gets in the way sometime. I was home at 7:00 Thursday night...definitely messed up one of my goals :( But, I did go for a 15 minute run, lift some weights and do the usual core exercises. I'm sure it wasn't as much as they did in class, but it was something!

Wednesday night was really nice outside. We did a bungee workout, which was really fun. We paired up and had on some belts that we could loop bungee cords through. Then we took turns with our partner doing different things like sprints, high knees, butt kicks, lunges, etc. We did this for about 4o minutes and then did our usual core workout. I was feeling really good afterward, but I was really sore that night when I got into bed. The best thing about our workouts, though, is that I'm never really sore for a long time. It's like you use your muscles so intensely during the workout, but you never push too far.

. Thursday was just one of those crazy, running behind all day, nothing goes right kind of days at work. So, I definitely didn't want to miss tonight. There were only two campers there tonight, but that worked out well. We played "Ultimate Frisbee." There were 2 teams of 4. It's a lot of fun and you move around a lot, especially if there's only 6 people on the field. Every time a team scored, we would all do a strength exercise or core exercise. There were times that I was so tired and sweaty that I would've rather been doing crunches! It was very tiring, but it went by really quickly. My team ended up losing, which was fine with me...I was just glad the time flew by! I'm ready for a relaxing weekend. They're having a boot camp in the morning at 7:00 that's optional....hmmm. Not sure if I'll go :)

Recap of Monday & Tuesday

Well, I had a great weekend with my sister and mom in Fort Worth. Monday, I was refreshed and ready for a good workout. There were more campers there that night, so it was much more fun. We did a thing called 20 'n 2. We circled around together and did 2 minute intervals of different exercises. They're really good at thinking up lots of things no one has ever heard of before like "superman" and "mountain jacks." So, everyone did these exercises together back to back without rest in between. There were 10 exercises (20 minutes) followed by 2 minutes of jumping rope. Oh, did I mention that we held the jump ropes the whole time and usually held them above our heads or made a bicep curl motion with them? yea, that too.

After the first 22 minutes, things were good and we were all ready for another round of exercises. I was initially excited when the 3rd or 4th thing was arm rotations...how hard could that be, right? Well, the first 2 minutes were fine - arms extended out to your sides. The 3rd and 4th minutes were a little uncomfortable - arms extended out in front. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th 9th and 10th minutes were definitely unbearable! There were several times I had to take my arms down for just a brief pause for rest. I couldn't believe it!!! Anyway, we finished with another 2 minutes of jump rope and then cooled down and did some core exercises. I really thought my arms might fall off, but they were still intact come Tuesday morning.

Tuesday's workout: Called "Thank you, I'll have another"

Half of the campers started out with 12 pound bars and we all lined up and jogged around the park in two lines. We would jog while doing some arm exercises with the bar and then pass the bar to the person directly across from us in the other line...these were 30 second intervals. I think we did this for 10 minutes...that was the warm up. Then a little stretching. The "Thank you I'll have another" part of the night was based on two stations. One was cardio and the other was strength (with the 12 pound bars). They were one minute intervals switching back and forth. The cardio area had cones (never a good sign) and short little hurdles (yuck). We would do one activity like jumping jacks, then run about 20 yards, do some more jumping jacks, and then run back and do it all over again. We would also do this with push ups, vertical jumps, etc.

The strength exercises included squats with bicep curls, squats with military presses, inverted squats with tricep presses, etc. We alternated between these for about 20 minutes (warm up was longer than usual) and then did some core exercises before going home. The weather has been great this week. It was 90 degrees on Tuesday. Right now, it's 88 and I'm about to head out...looking forward to another beautiful evening!

...one week down

Friday was a good day. Not as humid as Thursday, and we moved to a new area of the park that I like much better. There were only 2 campers, but there were 4 trainers...we were OUTNUMBERED! But, it wasn't so bad b/c all four trainers did every exercise along with us.

We broke up into two groups and there were 50 "Fit Cards" near a tree about 25 yards away. One group member would run to the tree and back with one of cards and everyone in the group would do the "advanced" number of exercises listed on the card. Then, the next one in the group would run to the tree, and so forth. Some examples of exercises listed on the cards:

• 40 arm rotations
• 25 squats
• 20 full sit ups
• 40 crunches
• 12 eight-point body-builders (a.k.a. the death of my energy)
• a bunch of other crazy made-up moves that never should have been invented

The goal was to be the group who went through the MOST cards...my team won by one card. It wasn't too bad. Some exercises were more difficult than the others. You get a little rest between exercises. You're not completely rested, but you're not so tired that you can't do the next exercise. Then...

we did a thing called a "Plank Off." Well, by 'we' I mean 'they.' A plank off is seeing who in the group can hold a plank position the longest. After all of the other things we had already done, I could hold a plank for about 45 seconds. 2 of the trainers were still going strong at 6 minutes!!!! The stopped early because they didn't want us to just stand around waiting for them...lol. It was amazing! I was impressed! Well, I had a good restful weekend and am ready fo another week of torture :)

comments...part II

ugh...I think I figured it out. I'm pretty sure it was a problem with my layout design. So, I have comments set up to pop up in a new window...hope this works! I would love to hear your comments!

Oh, and yesterday's workout was good. 90 degrees was nice, but 78% humidity was HORRIBLE. I was sweating so bad...I did half of the workout with my eyes closed b/c sweat had dripped into them and they were burning! The workout was pretty brutal! There were about 25 stations set up for circuits. We did each one for one minute without stopping. Then, just when we though we were finished...25 push ups...25 incline push ups...and 25 tricep presses. I could not feel my arms when we were finished!!!! They were like jelly! Then...core workout!!!! yay...7 or 8 more ways to torture my abs! I better see some results after a month of this stuff. Well, gotta go...don't want to be late for the Friday night workout!

Hopefully, I will have some time to write a report tonight as well...if I can feel my arms, that is

comments

Sorry, I guess I didn't have comments enabled on this blog...I think I worked it out. If you try to comment and cannot, please let me know and I will look into it again. By the way...it's cooler today (80 degrees), but the humidity is 78% b/c there were storms earlier...can't I catch a break?? Wish me luck...

...I don't really like the 21 gun salute

Day 2...only 3 people in boot camp today. But, there were 3 trainers, so there was a good trainer-to-camper ratio. So, our main leader's name is Kari. She's really great and encouraging, but I do despise her a little for calling our all-arm workout the "21 gun salute."

We started out with "fun" on the curb in the parking lot. "Fun" includes alternating jumping toe touches on the curb as well as squats and lunges with one leg on the curb. Then we started alternating 3 minutes of cardio with several minutes of arm exercises...this continued for 40 minutes or so. We carried our bungee cords around everywhere. When we were running, we had to hold our bungee cords above our heads! I was so sick of the bungee cord by the end of the workout. Who knew that you could do tricep presses, bicep curls, rows, lunges, squats, leg presses and shoulder presses with a bungee cord? ugh...

After the 40 minutes of cardio & arms, we FINALLY got to sit down and...

Core exercises!!!!!! YAY...20 whole minutes of every abdominal exercise you can imagine! I was SO tired. Today, my abs are sore and my arms and upper back are as well (stupid bungee).

There was no Boot Camp tonight, but I did have some homework. I did 75 lunges, 35 push-ups (OUCH) and 10 minutes of stretching...I enjoyed the stretching part :) More to come tomorrow...

...It's 102 degrees

yay!  It's cooler than yesterday!  I'm leaving the house in 20 minutes for day 2.  I have to admit that I am a little sore from yesterday and have been tired throughout the day as well.  But, I'm not so sore that I feel like I can't work out (I've been there before).  I hope I can perform just as well today as I did yesterday!

I've taken in about 5 eight ounce glasses of water today, so that should help...that's a LOT for me!  I HATE running to the restroom 5 times a day, but oh well, I know it's good for me!

Call Me Crazy...But the first day wasn't so bad

I have to admit...I started feeling a little nauseous as I drove up to Lake Hefner for my first Boot Camp day. I didn't really know what to expect, so that made me feel uneasy. There was a group of about 12-15 campers with 5 instructors. The campers ranged from young and fit to older and overweight, so I felt like I was right in the middle. Myself and one other girl were the only 2 new people. Everyone else had already completed at least one month. That made me a little more nervous as well...

Standing in a group waiting for everyone to show up, I was already starting to feel hot...106 degrees is no joke. My car temp was 108 when I arrive and 114 earlier in the day. We jogged to our first destination with a little shade (luckily). This is where we stretched and did some calisthenics. Today was our "PT Test" day. This includes a one-mile run and one minute each of sit ups, push ups and dips. First off was the one mile run. I was feeling a little apprehensive knowing that all of these people except one had been working on this and had probably improved their times. However, I felt strong and finished either 3rd or 4th! I ran a 9:00 mile in 106 degree heat! I think the best time of the group was around 6:40...wow!

These were my numbers for the other PT test items:
Sit ups (real ones, not crunches) - 30
Push ups - 15 "real" and 23 "facilitated" (aka "girl" push ups)
Dips - 65

I think those are pretty strong numbers, but I know I can improve on those over the next 28 days. We were given a logbook in which we record our meals, water intake, protein and carb intake and veggie intake. I'm sure they will be really impress that I ate Sonic for lunch today :) I feel surprising strong considering the weather and know that I will rest well tonight!

My goals for this program (as written in my logbook):
1. Perfect attendance
2. Lose at least one pant size
3. Improve in all categories in my PT test

Call Me Crazy...But I'm Starting Tomorrow

Monday, July 13 is my first day of Boot Camp. I have been thinking about doing this boot camp for a while. I started seeing the advertisements about one year ago. At the time, they were only offering boot camp at 5:3o a.m. I'm not much of a morning person, so I just kind of forgot about it. But, as the year went on, my workouts waxed and waned and I felt myself getting more and more out of shape. So Brett and I started working had and eating better. Brett was riding his road bike at ever opprotunity and was consistnetly going to the gym. In the first three months of 2009, I lost about 15 pounds and was feeling great. Brett and I went to Euroupe for a FABULOUS 10 day vacation, and then Brett got in a car wreck. His car was totalled and he stopped riding his bike and couldn't play golf. And, for some, reason, I quit too. It was just easier...I got lazy. Luckily, I didn't put any of the weight back on, though.

As my 26th birthday rolls around (August 22nd), I feel motivated to start working out again. So, I found out the boot camp would nw ow be offered at 6:30 p.m. I was excited, but the $275 fee for Operation Boot Camp seemed unreachable. Then, I decided to ask for this for my birthday! What more could a girl want? So, Brett came aroud to the idea and said that I could have this for my birthday if I really wanted it...so I took the plunge and signed myself up for the class. I'm looking forward to something different, but I'm definitely NOT looking forward to 100+ degree temperatures! I've decided to do this blog as a sort of accountability...I appreciate any encouraging words you may have to offer.

Here's a copy of the email that I received from my Boot Camp instructor last week:

Greetings boot campers! My name is Kari and I would like to welcome you to Operation Boot Camp! Congratulations on taking the first step in the journey to achieving your fitness goals! Please review the following information carefully:
You are registered for boot camp at: Stars and Stripes Park 6:30 PM. Please arrive at least 10 minutes early so you can get checked in. Be sure to be on time! Class starts promptly at 6:30 PM. End time is 7:30 PM.

IMPORTANT - Prior to our meeting please review all of the documents from this link http://www.androidgun.com/Default.aspx?tabid=261 you
should see documents: 1) New Recruit Pack 2) Extreme Refrigerator Makeover 3) Grocery List

Lake Hefner Schedule:
Week 1 - Stars and Stripes
Park: Meet Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri with Wed off
Week 2 - Stars and Stripes
Park: Meet Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri
Week 3 - RR Pat Murphy
Park: Meet Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri with Wed off
Week 4 - Stars and Stripes
Park: Meet Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri

YIKES...what did I get myself into? Well, here goes nothing...wish me luck for tomorrow!!