An Intermission

Two things happened this past weekend, first we hosted a massive housewarming party / open house to celebrate the completion of a major renovation / rebuild of our home and second we had no internet access (except email through my blackberry). Comcast likes to dream up new ways to screw us over every single time we call them. They truly excel in pushing my normally mild mannered husband into screaming fits. Unfortunately they do not excel at anything vaugely related to providing consistent service.

The party was a lot of stress, and a fair amount of fun, and we did have a good turn out which was nice. I had a major adreneline fallout crash from it on Sunday because it was definitely the end of the renovation road and now we're just facing endless years of trying to pay for it. It's all so exciting until that first bill comes due.

Then my husband had a very early shoot booked on Monday morning which meant he had to leave the house before I get back from bootcamp so I had to get an excused absence. So I had 3 days sort of disconnected from bootcamp.

I actually felt panicked and SO anxious about missing yesterday morning. I had emailed my instructors and I plan to make up the workout on Saturday but it just felt so WRONG to be staring at the clock by my bed while I knew everyone else was busting their asses. All my fears of not finishing things and of failing really got pushed to the forefront. I was so relieved to return this morning which made me kind of laugh. It felt BETTER to get up at 5 am and go work out than it did NOT to. You'd have to know me to understand what a complete mind%$@^& that is! Jeff was right, the first two weeks were the worst.

On Friday I began to suspect that he was right when I experienced a bizarre phenomenon during our "Pick Your Poison" workout (of course JoJo the instructor pointed out that by "pick your poison" they really meant that the instructors would do all the picking). There were three different stations set up with the three different instructors and we cycled through them. One of the stations involved more suicides. Yay. I must admit I was less than enthusiastic about that. One of them involved squat shuffles back and forth across the parking log. Instructor Michelle encouraged us to work toward skinny thighs but neither me nor my husband find skinny thighs to be the bomb. I pointed this out but was not excused from the activity, rather I was encouraged to work towards strong thighs so I could crack my husband like a walnut. Now that is something to work towards!

Finally, JoJo's station involved, in large part, doing running laps up and down a hill. On the first set of three I thought I would die. I even briefly considered the break I'd earn if I stumbled off the path and fell down. Wow, not one of my more mature moments. Between sets of running up and down the hill we did some Rocky Balboa moves on a set of park benches. I felt like I was in my own "triumphing over adversity" montage in a movie, except without the music. Well JoJo does regularly burst into song but it doesn't quite match the movie soundtrack I think I deserve! Then.......it was time for ANOTHER set of running up and down the hill three times. As I neared the top of the hill on the first run in the second set I realized something. It was EASIER than the first set! WHAT? I'd been all set to just doggedly do it no matter how much it sucked when I felt myself energized to push myself a little faster as I crested the hill each time. I think I might have even cracked a smile. . . . while running . . . . WOW.

Now, let me not get ahead of myself, I was still in solid last place, Chariots of Fire in my head or not. But I was no longer feeling like I was about the keel over and die, which is how I'd felt at every work out for the prior two weeks.

So, coming off that high I had this chaotic weekend and then missed bootcamp on Monday and felt like crap about it. I was really anxious that three days of being disconnected were going to put me back to square one. But today went well, and all the fit people were huffing and puffing a LOT too so I can't tell myself that it was just that the workout was easier today. We did 20-20-20 today, to build endurance. First we started with a warm up run, then stretching, then a bit more running. And I WAS NOT back at square one! I didn't fall as far behind and it didn't suck as bad! Yay! I was so relieved! The workout was an endurance workout, 20 seconds of sprinting and jogging, 20 squats, 20 seconds maintaing a plank. 5 times. Then 20 seconds of sprinting and jogging, 20 sit ups, 20 seconds maintaining a plank. 5 times. Then 20 seconds of sprinting and jogging, 20 push ups, 20 seconds maintaining a plank. 5 times. WHEW, very quick transitions between everything. One nice thing about this work out for me is that we sprinted out and jogged back which meant that I got to the grassy area where we were doing the calisthenics with the group (since I couldn't sprint as far in the allotted time), so I didn't lose anything which I sometimes do when we run between stations (not that I'm overly concerned about missing a few lunges or squats etc., just getting from place to place at a jog is still a big accomplishment for me).

So, I'm feeling back on track today and better able to handle all those other stressors in life. I definitely don't want to add missing another bootcamp to the other anxieties I battle every day