Eye of the Tiger

What a pure rush of adrenaline last night's bootcamp was.  It was time to run the obstacle course, and see how well we had improved our time.  Exactly one month ago, I ran the obstacle course for the first time while being timed.  I ended the course with a time of 2 minutes 39 seconds - and I was amazed.  Last night, while warming up, I was psyching myself up to beat that time - no matter what.

Rather than doing our regular burn-outs, we were told to spend some time working on the obstacles that gave us the biggest problems.  There are only 2 of the 8 obstacles that I can't do: the Tarzan and the Wall.  I spent some time on the Tarzan.  Now, I don't know what it is about monkey bars but I have never IN MY LIFE been able to do them.  I don't know why, I just can't.  Last night, I was determined to at least make it to the second bar - something I have never been able to do.  Well, it took several attempts - but I finally did it.  For those of you that can swing across those bars as if you have monkey in your blood - you probably won't understand how momentous it was for me to be able to swing myself to the second bar...but it was.  I cheered, and so did everyone else.  Such a great feeling to overcome something like that, no matter how small a victory.  I decided to then try and work on the wall a little.  That was pretty much a waste of my time.  The wall is 5'6" tall - the same height I am.  No matter how hard I jump, I just can't get myself up on that wall. I was able to get up on it with the use of some sandbags, but was informed that there would be no sandbags allowed during the time run. Oh well, no biggie - I just decided I would do what I could, and take my chances when it was time to run. 

Before the actual test, we had to warm-up.  Luckily, only 4 people forgot their dog tags and/or food log - so it was cals before cals.  Despite my just LOVING it when people forget their stuff (**insert sarcasm**), I have to say that I did really well on our punishment.  I actually managed to do REAL mountain climbers, my flutter kicks were stronger than they have EVER been, and I knocked out several burpees.  Then it was time for our regular cals.  Cara was back from vacation, and I was happy about it.  She led the cals last night, and "Cara cals" are much more manageable than "Jillian cals".  We did a set of side straddle hops and squat benders - and that was it.  Then, came the moment we'd all been waiting for - it was time to run the course.

I was designated to run first with Linda.  My heart was pounding - and the eye of the tiger kicked in.  I had to run this course faster than I've ever done before.  Jillian signaled us to go - and I was gone: sprinted to the tires, hopped through the tires, up the rope wall, down the other side, leaped across the hurdles, made it to the second Tarzan bar, held on for 7 seconds, up and over the next set of hurdles I flew, up the wood wall, down...zoomed under the crawl wire, made 2 attempts to get over the wall, over the zig-zag beam - and sprinted as hard as I could to the finish line.  I had no idea what my time was, but my I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest.  I knew that I had given it everything I had - and needed a moment to recover.  Once I finally got my composure - I asked for my time...... 2 minutes 11 seconds!!! WOO HOO!! I had knocked 28 seconds off of my original time.  I was so happy with that. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get too long to bask in my victory.  Jillian decided we needed to do some cals to keep our heart rate up... good ol' Jillian.  After everyone was done with their timed run, we were then told it was time to do a "double duty" run.  If you remember, that means running the obstacle course twice without stopping.  I was up to go first again, and this time - there was no flying or zooming.  I got through both runs, and then finished up with some cals (thanks again, Jillian) while everyone else finished. 

When the course runs were over, my calfs were so sore.  I knew that I had given everything I had up until this point - and my body was letting me know.  There's only one thing to help with sore calfs - a nice run.  We finished the night out breaking in to two teams for a run.  Cara joined Linda, Karrie, and myself for the "beginning group" and Jillian took the "advanced".  My run turned into a hobble jog/ power walk, but the sweat was pouring off of me the whole time - so I knew I was working hard. 

The night ended with some well needed stretches.  I left camp last night feeling strong, motivated, and so proud of my accomplishments.  Wednesday, we're going to do our final fitness tests.  I am so excited to see how well I do on my 1 mile run - and how I've improved on my push-ups and sit-ups.

Till next time.  ;)