Good Morning Boot Camp!!

As you might have guessed Halloween did indeed throw a wrench in my workout plans.  After a super-fun evening with the kids I just couldn't drag myself away from them to go to the gym.  Our son stayed up later than usual and, well, it was just such a fun family time I didn't want to miss it.  These are the kinds of decisions time-pressed moms who are trying to exercise face all the time.  No worries though - not only will one week of less than planned workouts not derail me in the long run, it might also be good given that I'm doing the sprint triathlon on Saturday.  More on that in a minute.

A quick rundown on Tuesdays gym visit.  Couch to 5k, Week 9/Day 3, Intervals on ye olde treadmill.  Was feeling *really* good when I realized (about 2/3 of the way through) that I didn't have the elevation set to 1 like I normally do.  Amazing the difference that makes.  Upped it to 1 and finished out my 30 minutes, still feeling pretty good.  I ran the last 30 seconds at 6mph, which was fun.  The run was followed by chest and triceps, core work and 2 minutes on the stair climber.  I am holding the line on that stair climber in that if it starts to become miserable, I get off.  The whole point was a good little boost at the end of my workout.  If I start hating it, the "good" part isn't worth it.  So, 2 minutes was enough.  I wrapped up with some stretching and headed back home.

So, on to today.  You might notice that I'm blogging quite early today, Wednesday, my day home with the kids.  They are still sleeping and normally I would be too.  But I saw an ad for a boot camp that meets in my town and decided to try it out - first class is free so I had nothing to lose.  The neat part (depending on your own definition of "neat") is that it meets at 5:30am!  Whoa, that's early.  But early enough that I can be home and in the shower before Miguel has to leave for work.  Perfect.  Today I have a mother's club meeting in the evening so this is even better for my schedule than normal.

My alarm went off at 0'dark thirty, aka 5am.  I got out of bed and took about 10 minutes to wake up enough to get dressed.  The boot camp is less than a mile from my house so I only needed 2 minutes for travel time. I had a couple bites of banana but skipped the coffee until later.  I layered on the clothes and headed out the door.  Since signing up yesterday I had a few thoughts about being able to keep up but in general I figured I'd do what I can and that's all I can do.  I'm not a super competitive person so I figured I wouldn't feel too bad if/when I pooped out early.  In any case I wasn't having too many concerns.  Changing my clothes 1/2 naked during transition (in triathlons) has pretty much wiped out any self consciousness I used to have.  Also, I'm in 1/2-way decent shape, which makes a big difference. Enough about the inner workings of my neurotic brain.

I arrived at the high school where the boot camp is held and it was coooold.  I had a fleece on that I figured I'd take off at some point when I warmed up.  I never took it off.  My car said it was 43 degrees.  I know that for people in snow states that's practically a spring temp but for this California native - cold!  We started out by running around to warm up. We did various strength and core moves with brief periods of running in between.  We also did these rope workouts where we'd grab these giant ropes and "whip" them up and down, or sideways while in a 1/2 squat. Sometimes we'd run in between and other times we'd do jumping jacks or, more painfully, jog in place with your arms in the air.  At one point after several rounds of rope "whipping" and arms-in-the-air jogging he had us run around with our arms in the air.  Ouch!  We wrapped up with some stretching and I left feeling awake and alive.  A nice feeling at 6:30am.  And I was very happy with my ability to keep up.  At one point we did bench dips and I got nervous, I didn't think I could do them. But John just told me to dip just a little bit and I'd be ok.  And I was.  Boot camp, check.  I got home and Miguel was just getting out of the shower, the kids were still asleep, and the house was quiet.  There was something very rewarding about knowing my workout was done before my little ones even woke up.

So, do I want to do this again?  I think I do.  I like that on Wednesdays I don't have to worry about going to the gym in the evening.  But what I like even better is that it mixes things up.  It's a really different type of workout than what I normally do.  And he does different routines all the time so it's guaranteed to stay a challenge. There's a living social special right now for one month of unlimited classes for $40.  But I can only go on Wednesdays, all the other days I have to be in the shower by 6:30am so I don't think it would work. Besides, I've got a pretty full gym schedule as it is.  So John, the owner/trainer of the program, said he'd do 6 months of once-a-week classes for me.  I have to decide today if I want to blast out a month of two-a-days, boot camp in the morning, gym later, and really go for the gusto!  I'd have to leave boot camp a few minutes early to get ready on time for work.  Or just buy once-a-week and keep it as a Wednesday option.  I'm leaning toward the latter but we'll see.

So, I've got three workouts done for the week.  I plan to go to the gym tomorrow (Thursday) for #4 and then do something light on Friday just to keep warmed up.  Then, Saturday is the triathlon!!!  I know it's getting close because every time I think about it I get a little jolt of adrenaline.  Eek!  I'm excited and nervous.  The weather forecast is looking better.  They were forecasting rain for Saturday but now they are showing a nice big sun with "Cold AM" and "breezy" as the descriptors.  Better than rain is all I'm thinking.  You see Saturday is sandwiched by rain so I'm hoping this weather prediction holds.  And I'm glad I'm not doing the Olympic on Sunday.  Having my first road ride in the rain during an event does not sound ideal.  But if it rains on Saturday, so be it, I'll be there giving it a go either way.

Well, that's all for me today.  I should close with a few pictures of my kiddos at Halloween, right?  Oh, I stood by my promise to eat NO candy, but I did eat my fair share of cupcakes, pizza, cookies, etc and a fun Halloween party with the kids' playgroup.  Oh well, the holiday rule applied.  I'll have to blog about the holiday rule next time.  And yes, Myra had two costumes.  They were just too cute!