Week 3 of Bootcamp Class

Week 3 of bootcamp was good. I've been going to the morning classes (they start at 5:45) and actually really enjoy it. It's dark when I walk over, but we get to workout with the sunrise; that might be changing with day light savings coming up next weekend. The only thing I'm not a fan of is that on the weekends my body tries to get me up before 6am. I do run on weekend mornings, but I start later then my bootcamp class, so technically I get to "sleep-in" on run days!!
I'm glad I take photos of the workout board or I'd never remember what my workouts were. I'm fairly certain this is the order we did the workouts. I do know that I'm loving these classes! They are fun and change up from my same-old, same-old routine.
On Monday Troy brought back his Chargers board (he was giving me a hard time about the upcoming Thursday game between the Chargers and the Broncos).

 I liked this workout. He gave us all random numbers of 1, 2, or 3 then we went to our stations. 10 minutes of as many rounds as possible in each station. When time was up we ran 2 laps (half a mile). I started in #3, then #1, and finally #2. Great board to start off the week on!
Tuesday was Pain-a-palooza. I liked this board because we could pick and choose. I started off with the slam balls/reverse crunch, then I did the C2F pushups/squat jumps, and finished with the jumping rope/jumping jacks. There was not enough time to get through all the exercises. It was also a little early in the morning for all the math! You did a total of 15 reps, so for my first set it was slam balls and reverse crunches. I did 14 slam balls, 1 reverse crunch, then I did 13 slam balls, 2 reverse crunch; 12 slam balls, 3 reverse crunch, etc. all the way down until it was 1 slam ball, 14 reverse crunches. When you were done you went to the next station (which you could choose what you wanted). I went for pushups to get them out of the way. C2F pushups were actually kind of fun - you did the down motion of the pushup, lowering yourself all the way to the ground, then you raised just your arms up and brought them back to the ground, then pushed yourself up - that was one. All exercises went the same way 14, 1; 13, 2; etc. My last set was the jumping rope/jumping jacks. These were a little different. 1 = 10, so it was 140 jump ropes, 10 jumping jacks. If I remember correctly I made it to 90 jump ropes, 60 jumping jacks. I've never really been good at jumping rope, but I pretty much mastered it Tuesday!

Since Chris is on night's we've been able to spend a lot more time together during the day. After we took Katelynn and Denver to school on Tuesday we decided to go for a run at the beach (not in the sand, but on the road around it). It was a 4 mile loop and when we were done we went and stood in the nice, icy cold gulf. It felt amazing!!!

There is no morning class on Wednesday. I did go for another run though. Chris took Denver to the airplane museum while I ran around NAS. I did 6 miles in 60 minutes. I was very proud of myself! My runs have been getting so much stronger since the humidity has gone away. I'm actually starting to enjoy running again - which with my marathon coming up in two weeks, it's a good thing!
On Thursday it was another fun board!! I dubbed myself the Queen of Push-ups for this board. We got partners for this board which was also a nice change. We had to run down to a box of cards (I think it was at the 50 yard line), grab a card, come back and do the exercises. My partner grabbed a lot of clubs so we were doing a lot of rockers and pushups. On our very last set I grabbed the queen of diamonds and had to take a photo. It felt like every card I picked it was pushups. The workout was to do the card so if I had a 10 of diamonds and she had a 10 of clubs we'd do 10 pushups and 10 rockers then run and get 2 new cards.
My only complaint with this workout was I wish he'd change up the exercises half way through. 45 minutes of just these 4 exercises made the workout kind of long. It was still fun though since you didn't know what card you'd get. I think we only pulled a heart card twice, but the poor girl next to us was dubbed Queen of Burpees.

I did not take a photo of Friday's board. It was very similar to Thursday which was a good thing! We lined all of our towels up in a row. On the 50 yard line there was a long line of cones. Taped to each cone was an exercise. We had to sprint to the cones, back to our towels, sprint back to the cones, grab a cone, and then back to our towels. While we recovered from our sprint everyone else completed the exercise on the cone. I seriously picked the cone that said "burpee" both times I ran. I took a short break, and then jumped in and did burpees with everyone.
I'm really glad that I signed up for this class! It's been a lot of fun and I really am starting to feel stronger and more confident. It's been just what I was looking for!

WTF Half

I got up and drove to Ft Walton beach for my first half marathon race since last October. I was really excited and hoping to have a great time. It took me about an hour and 40 minutes to get there (thanks to hardly any traffic and a lot of green lights). There was ample parking and not a whole lot of people there when I arrived, and as it turned out there wouldn't be too many more runners. I'd say there was less then 200 runners. It was a very small race and not at all what I was expecting. We ran on roads that had cars driving around us, a few small aid stations, and no port-a-potties. I found my rhythm fairly quickly and was probably running a little faster then I wanted. I started my 4:1 intervals just after 4 miles, and then at mile 7 my watch died. I was super frustrated and tried to do the intervals in my head based off of how I felt. It didn't work. My last two miles were a lot of walking. I basically got trapped in my head and kept telling myself how horrible I was doing and that I'm sure it would be my worst time ever with all the walking - which didn't help me any. When I rounded the corner to the finish there was hardly anyone there at all. No one clapped or cheered, I crossed at 2:22. I was only 2 minutes off of my best time. Turns out I wasn't doing as bad as I told myself I was, but when you're in the middle of no where surrounded by no one it's easy to tell yourself how bad you're doing and believe it. I've never ran a half marathon with that few of people before, and while my time was very normal for me, I guess for that community it was slow. When I signed up for the race a few months back I thought it would be a great training run for the marathon. I was hoping for that race atmosphere to help me control my nerves. I really, really hope that the Pensacola marathon has more support and more of a race atmosphere. It will be a very long marathon if it's just me and the road. I'll get through it, but it will be tough. It's so much better when you're surrounded by other runners who are encouraging and motivating each other. I can run alone for free all I want, when I sign up for a race I'd really like it to have that race feel. It's part of why I've enjoyed doing so many races. I guess this is part of the FL racing experience.
My team, Team RWB actually had a great representation at the race. I'd say half of the racers were in red shirts. Unfortunately, I didn't know any of them. I had met one or two back when I first moved here, but only one of them remembered me and came up to talk. I've never been very good in social situations and I have trouble approaching people; throw in a race first thing in the morning and I feel quite awkward when I don't know anyone even if I was surrounded by tons of people in the same shirt.
The Ft Walton chapter had one of the aid stations on the course and it was seriously the best one. They had about 8 people and they clapped, cheered, held signs, and took photos for us.
Here I am around mile 4.2:

 and on the way back around mile 8:

I love that I'm smiling in this picture because by this point I certainly didn't feel happy. I still had 5 miles to go, my watch had just died, and I was not feeling so hot. When I got home and took off my shoes I had a nice size blister above my toenail. I need to figure out a way to protect that toe before the marathon so it doesn't give me any trouble. It's the way I push off, I curl my toes up and then push down as I land. I'm not sure if it's something new I started, but I've definitely been noticing it more and more. It's also the same toenail that turned black on me back when I first started speed work and wore the Nike Air shoes (probably 2 years ago now). It bothers me more in my Glycerin Brooks shoe then my Ghost, so I'm leaning more towards wearing my Ghost shoes for the marathon. I might even head into the local running store this week and take a look at their shoes. I've got 2 weeks to break them in for the big day.

Week 2 of Bootcamp Class

This pretty much sums up week 2 of my outdoor bootcamp class! It's a good feeling though, I'm working some muscles that have not been worked in awhile. I'm hoping it's only going to make me stronger and help get me through that marathon.
Monday was a holiday and it threw my schedule completely off. We didn't have bootcamp class and I didn't go for a run. In fact the only day I managed to get a run in this week was on Thursday, but it was a good run!
All the classes this week seemed to be go-go-go. Tuesday was fun since I got to jump rope - haven't done that in ages. We did pushups, 90 seconds jumping rope, in and outs, jump rope, forward/backward lunges, jump rope, scuba steve's, jump rope, Russian Twist (holding 12 lb medicine ball), jump rope, squats, and then for the last 90 seconds we had the option to jump rope or hold a plank. I did the plank. We went through it twice I believe...can't remember any more.
**My trainer does seem to think he's pretty funny. He's a Chargers fan. I make it a point to bring my Bronco's towel every week...

I didn't have a chance to take a photo, but while I was doing the jump rope on Tuesday he thought he would be funny and place his #1 Chargers Fan license plate on my towel. I just ignored him until he tried to take it away and then I told him he needed to leave it because it was firing me up - HA! He took it away because he didn't want me to spit on it.
Wednesday he showed up with a new white board. Yea, he thinks he's pretty funny!

Chris is on nights for a few weeks, so I didn't get to do my weekly run downtown with my team. No worries, I got lots of running in with all the suicides we did Wednesday night! I kept my weight light on the routines (only 10 lbs) since my back has been bothering me.
**Side note - I did finally break down and go to the doctor about my back. It's been sore for almost 5 weeks now (ever since we traveled to Atlanta to see my brother and Katelynn got really sick - lots of carrying her and sleeping on the couch that week). The doctor believes I might have sprained it and has given me stronger medicine, a patch, and referred me to physical therapy and OMT (occupational massage therapy - which he does in his office, I go on the 30th to give that a try). He did not put any restrictions on me for exercising because it actually seems to help - I get really good stretches in after a class or run.
Thursday night just wasn't happening for me. Katelynn had her occupational therapy appointment at 430, so it was 550-6pm before I made it to class (it starts at 545). About 20 minutes in (enough time to get through the first 4 exercises on the board) and Denver had to go potty (and not pee), so I just called it a day. He does the same workout Thursday night and Friday morning.

My legs were sore when I headed to class this morning; however the sky was full of stars and the sunrise was beautiful so I had plenty of distractions. I started where I'd left off so I was on 60 broad jumps/burpees - oh my!!! It actually worked out really well. Those bear crawls were a lot easier once my body was warmed up. The double walking lunges however sucked both days! It was probably not the best workout to do two days before my half marathon.

I signed up to do the half marathon in this series. It's on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't ran a race since May and I haven't ran a half marathon since last October. It should be a great training run for me. I'm hoping to get a PR and beat my 2:20 time, but we'll see how the day goes. 

Adding Something New

I've been struggling since moving here to FL. It's been hard to find my motivation to get moving. I've started and stopped several workouts without any success. I signed up for the Pensacola Marathon earlier this year in hopes that it would keep me motivated and moving; however with the heat and humidity here my runs have suffered which in turn have me hating running. I don't want to run. I don't want to workout. I don't want to eat well. I don't want to do anything. It's making me a pretty miserable person to be around.
Last week, I decided that enough was enough and it was time to get back in the game. No more pitty-parties, no more woe-is-me attitude. I talked to Chris about it and we agreed that the bootcamp class I'd been talking about would be a good start. So, I did it. I signed up. It won't hurt my marathon training any (mostly because I haven't been able to stick to the training), it will only make me stronger.
The bootcamp class meets 4 times a week at the track across from my house. It's at Katelynn's school so there is a playground. On evenings when Chris works the kids can come with me which he ends up bringing them over anyway and they love going and playing with the other kids! We started off the first class with measurements:

My home scale says 164. Other then that the measurements are not that far off from the last time I had them taken. Day 1 was a Ladder Workout.
Bicep Curls
Overhead press
v-ups
2-count russian twist
squat
reverse lunge
reps: 10, 20, 30, 40, 30, 20, 10
Suicides between each set of reps (do 10 of every exercise, do suicides; do 20 of every exercise, do a suicide, etc). I used a blue band. For the lunges if it's 10 reps, then it's 5 on each side for a total of 10.
When the workout was done we did core.
45 second plank
1 minute plank
alphabet plank
**45 minutes to do the ladder workout. I made it to the second set of 30, but only did 5 squats before time ran out. My planks were quite pathetic.
I ran Tuesday morning with my friend Suzanne. We actually ended up doing 9.8 miles at a run/walk (average pace of 12:14). I was only planning on about 4-5, but we ended up going further. The last 2 miles were mostly walking. I know I wouldn't have gotten out without her!
Tuesday evening was Day Two of bootcamp class. This was the workout: Bear Down

It was a tough, but fun workout. His handwriting is impossible to read which is probably a good thing because I might have ran home after reading it.
4 Gassers (2 minutes). This is a fancy name for sprints. Out and back two times. You had 2 minutes, so if you went out and back twice in one minute, you had a minute rest before repeating. We repeated it 5 times.
DWL/Pushups. Double walking lunge for 30 seconds, stop and do pushups for 30 seconds. Keep repeating for a total of 4 minutes. My arms were on fire by the third set.
Bear crawl/Prisoner squats. Bear crawl for 30 seconds, prisoner squat for 30 seconds. Keep repeating for a total of 4 minutes. My quads were screaming by the second set. I was literally sitting on the ground pounding on my quads to help loosen them up (I'm sure my morning run didn't help this any). Harder then it looks!
SLL/Plank. Single leg lunge and planks. Same as other exercises, repeat for 4 minutes.
Squat kicks/Flutterkicks. Again, repeat these things for 4 minutes.
4 Windy's. More sprints. Only this time it was one time down and back, but you only got 1 minute. Repeated 5 times.
Finish workout with alphabet planks. This is where you hold the plank position while the group goes through naming things in the alphabet (ie - items in Wal-mart, things you'd eat for breakfast).
It's safe to say that my abs were on fire after day 2!!
Wednesday is my weekly run. They don't have bootcamp class on Wednesday morning and I couldn't go to the night class so no bootcamp this day. My Wednesday runs happen downtown at WOB (World of Beer) with my Team RWB teammates. I opted to do the 5k since I did almost 10 miles on Tuesday and I didn't want to overdue it. I ended up walk/running it with my friend Victoria. We completed it in around 43 minutes (it was her first 5k!!).
Thursday I met Suzanne again for another run. This time we kept it short. We ran 5 miles (average pace 12 minute mile). It was a beautiful route! 90% of the course was along the water. It was a little hot, but overall a very good run. Day 3 of bootcamp was Tick Tock:

2 laps on the track (1/2 mile)
Then 30 seconds of each of the exercises, followed by one minute break, then repeat exercises 3 more times (total of 4 rounds). Repeat only exercises no the laps on the track.
Jumping Jacks
High Knees
Pushups
Supermans
Mountain Climbers
Russian Twists
Ski Abs
Prisoner Squats
After all 4 rounds, run 2 more laps around the track.
Finish with 90 second plank
I did not do the 90 second plank. Apparently bringing a Bronco's towel when your trainer is a Chargers fan warrants tire flipping. I flipped the tire for 90 seconds while everyone else held the plank. You can see by the sunset that even God is a Broncos fan!

Day 4 of bootcamp class was on Friday morning. It was a repeat of Thursday night's workout. I normally workout in the evenings but since I missed Wednesday for my weekly run, I made it up by coming to the Friday morning class. Chris has to leave for work at 630, so I need to cut the workouts short by 15 minutes, so it's a good thing it's only a repeat of the night before. I did the whole workout, but only made it one time around the track before having to head home.
Saturday was a rest day for me. Sunday was my long run. I did not want to get out of bed, but I did. The sunrise was beautiful! My photo does not do it justice.

My running Coach Michael has had an injury and has been riding his bike with me during my long runs. He actually ran with me this week! We completed 11.5 miles in 2:05 (10 of those miles were done in 1:45). We had a great run! It was my second good run in a row. I've been having so many bad runs, that I was really starting to worry about the marathon. I'm so very happy that my runs have started to turn around. Of course it has coincided with the weather getting better and not nearly as humid (nothing like finishing a run looking like you just swam in the ocean). For most of August and September when I would finish my long runs I would hobble into the house and then not move from the couch all day - I was stiff and sore and upset from having to walk so much. The last two weeks I have felt good and have actually not lost an entire day because of a run. It's a great feeling!
Tonight it's back to bootcamp! Monday's class was cancelled because of the holiday.