All good things must come to an end!

Well, sorry it's taken me so long to update the final days of Camp! Thursday was another CRAZY day at work and I missed Boot Camp again. I didn't even have a chance to workout on my own that night before dark...oh well...I AM human I guess :)

Friday was the last "real" night of Boot Camp and we played Ultimate Frisbee again. It was a lot of fun. Several campers brought friends and we had a great night of competition...although my team only scored once all night! Anyway, we stood around and talked a while after camp and I got my much-deserved t-shirt...yay! The instructors were asking if I was going to do it again this month, but I have to decline. I would really LOVE to do it again, but I'm going back to school and start my graduate studies on August 24th. Also, I'll be going to Las Vegas and Colorado during the next session. I don't really want to miss that many days of camp.

All that being said, Monday was the repeat PT testing. We do the same workout as the first day of camp so we can see how much progress we've made over the last 28 days. Here are my results:

ACTIVITY---------------FIRST DAY-----LAST DAY

1 Mile run 9:00 mins 7:49

Push ups 15 20

Facilitated push ups 23 24

Sit ups 30 40

Tricep dips 65 80

So, as you can see, I improved in ALL categories...which brings me to my inital goals:

1. Lose a pant size - well, not a whole size, but EVERYTHING is fitting better or too big!!!

2. Perfect attendance - I didn't make it to every workout, but I did homework as much as possible

3. Improve in all PT Test categories...yup!

Overall, I really loved Operation Boot Camp. The trainers were great and the workouts were different every day and very challenging. I will definitely suggest it to anyone and will be returning for more punishment one day!!! For now, I've passed the flame to my friend April who's enjoying it too! If you're interested, check out www.operationbootcamp.com

HUMPDAY

I'm not sure what today's workout was called, so I'll just call it HUMPDAY. April was back again today...yay! Despite her sore muscles, she came again. It's so nice! First of all, the palms of my hands are literally sore today from all of the push up holds during last night's "Push-N-It" workout. They were read almost all day...crazy!

Anyway, tonight, there were 4 campers and 4 instructors, so we got some 1 on 1 attention. Tonight, there were 3 stations.

1. Cones shaped like a X. We did a mixture of cardio and strength on this station with jogging, sprinting, bear crawls, push ups, back peddling, crab walks, etc.
2. Zig Zags - we did various cardio exercises here like jogging, high knees, high skips, etc.
3. SICK station - lots of leg lifts, side leg lifts, back leg lifts, kneeling leg lifts, etc.

We rotated thorough these station about 4 times I think. They were a little longer than usual because they weren't really timed. We were just doing a certain number of reps at each station. After the core workout, we still had some time to spare, so we ran about 1/2 mile. I was kind of dreading it, but it actually felt really good to just run after all of that up and down during the workout! I really enjoyed it. We picked up all of the cones and stretched it out after another successful night at Boot Camp. Only two more days this week!

Monday (House of Pain) & Tuesday (Push-N-It)

Well, at least my friend April is still talking to me...she even came to Boot Camp on Monday and Tuesday! This is preview week and it's free to anyone who wants to try out Boot Camp, so she's been tagging along. She often makes me smile during the workouts by saying profanities and her favorite word, "SICK," when one of the instructors suggests an exercise she doesn't want to do. Example:

• Instructor: "OK, let's do some more plank holds!!!"
• April: "SICK!"

or

• Instructor: "Good job on those walking lunges, next we'll do 2:00 minutes of push ups."
• April: "Oh S**T!!!"

...she makes me laugh when I'm miserable...that's what friends are for, right?

Well, Monday was the "House of Pain." This was about 6 or 7 stations of various exercises. We would do 5 counts of one exercise and alternate it with another for a total of 75 seconds. There were so many combinations I can't even start to remember them all. Oh, and we would do things like shuffle, back peddle, high knees, etc. from one station to another. This went on for about 30 or 35 minutes. It was much hotter than last week, so back to sweating profusely! It was really tough! But I always feel so good when I'm finished...and proud of myself for finishing.

Tuesday was another 100 degree day and April returned for another fun night. The workout was called "Push-N-It." There were 3 different types of exercises for the night. One was cardio, then push up holds and then moving strength exercises. The cardio consisted of sprints, high knees, butt kicks, toy soldiers, and others. The push up hold station was my least favorite. We did between 90 seconds and 120 seconds of staying in a push up position, doing push ups, doing planks, etc! SICK!! The moving strength station was things like walking lunges, shuffle, "breaking and entering," bear crawls, crab walks, etc.

I was sweating so bad that every time I would sit or lay down, the dirt would just turn to mud on my skin. By the end of the workout, I had mud on my knees, back, arms and face! Now, that's a good workout! Again, I felt great when I was finished and I'm ready for Wednesday. Hopefully, April will come again to keep me entertained!