We Have to Say HOO-YA and Everything!

I was feeling very G.I. Jane as I lay on the grass at the park surrounded by 40 other boot campers. It was raining in my face as I struggled to do as many sit-ups as possible in one minute. That was really a nice moment. I felt good about myself in that moment. My first day at Boot camp was more than half way over. Light was seeping into the air. The morning was cool and the rain was gentle.

“14, 15, 16….C’mon, you can do it!”

That’s my partner. We buddied up for this portion of the camp. We had to count for each other while we did push-ups, sit-ups, more sit-ups but in a different way, tricep presses and then some more sit ups. My partner’s name is Dallas. She was a very good counter. She is skinny, a little older than me and has a black eye, but she looks very cool. I was a sucky counter for Dallas because I lost track very early into her pushups. The instructors were walking around all of us barking out things like, “ENCOURAGE YOUR PARTNER” and “30 SECONDS LEFT”. I got distracted and forgot where I’d left off with my counting. I was not prepared for the mental focus needed to count. So I guessed at it. I hope she wasn’t counting for herself, then she’ll know I goofed it up. I will not blame her if she finds another buddy tomorrow, but it should be noted that I did an EXCELLENT job of counting for the rest of the bajillion exercises they made us do.

Class started at 5:30am. Dark Thirty. It was cute. They had a Coleman lantern set up at the table where the instructors check our log books every day. We have to keep a log of everything we eat and how we’re feeling. We get daily emails with encouragement and menu ideas. Andres’ daughter, Andrea, began her boot camp experience about two weeks ago and so was able to give us (us being me and Andres’ daughter-in-law who is in the same class as me) tips like, plan ahead when it comes to eating six meals a day. So I packed my mini-meals last night and had it all ready to go this morning.

The hardest part of camp today was the end of the mile run. They timed the run to get our first day best time. They will time us again on the last day to measure how much we’ve improved.

I was flat out exhausted at the end of that run and looked forward to a little breather, but there would be no breather. At the end of the trail, trainers greet you with this…”GOOD JOB! NOW GET DOWN ON ALL FOURS AND DO...” I don’t know the name of the exercise they made us do, but it was NOT an easy one. (I think it should have been an easy one, because really…the run was very hard) My hands were planted on the asphalt trail. Why couldn’t we be on the grass? (don’t forget, it’s still raining) My feet were together extended behind me. I had to jump up and bring both feet in at the same time and then jump and extend them back out. Totally sucked and I thought I would die.
But I didn’t.

After that terrible exercise I started feeling better Apparently, there is no standing still allowed in Boot Camp. We had to move the entire time. Even if you’re standing there listening to the instructors yak you have to be doing a quick time jog in place. Other instructors will walk around us and yell at us to “MOVE”.

Overall, was very excited about doing day one and worried that they’d cancel class because of the rain and lightening, but the lightening was to the west of us (and beautiful, I might add) so they stayed the course.

When I think about doing this every day it’s a bit overwhelming, so I put that thought out of my mind. Now that I know what to expect, I probably will have a little more dread in my heart about tomorrow morning. I really hated that run and then the quick turn-around to exercise, but I’ll be there and I’ll do it.

And with that I will leave you with a hearty….
HOO-YA!!! ß(they force us to say this at the end of every exercise)