Cold Runnings, Biking, and Boot Camp- Day 4

8AM on a Sunday morning where it was a chilly 22 degrees but sunny. I couldn't resist not giving it a chance to run in the colder weather when it was so crystal clear out. Plus, I thought that it would be good preparation for the Cold Turkey Run that takes place on Thanksgiving morning. So out I went with two layers on, a pair of liner gloves and donning my new tech material hat.

(photo of my new SUGOI hat! I'm in love with it! Isn't it funky!?!)

I started out by walking a couple of blocks then broke into a slower run. I kept my eyes focused on the pavement a few feet in front of me. There was some patches of ice in a few places where I had to be careful. I finally got the last bit of chill out of my system as I just passed the 2 mile mark. Oh, it felt so good! I was surprised as I was about 3 miles in and I still had energy to push for another mile and a quarter. Traffic was light and I very rarely had to stop and run in place. I felt good as I rounded the corner to my place. I did a little stretching and then headed on up my 3 flights of stairs.

I had to laugh when later in the day I was set to lead a bike ride of 18 miles and people were calling me and asking if I was still planning on doing it. I guess another cycling member had cancelled a ride earlier in the morning. Yes, I ran 4.25 miles at 8AM when it was 22 degrees out, and I was planning on riding my bike in the afternoon when it was a balmy 35 degrees. The roads were clear, why not? Well, I only had one other cycling club member that braved the cold temps to join me. Her and I did the entire route of my bike ride, and couldn't understand why no one else showed up. Yes, we were both bundled up in our winter gear but it was gorgeous out. The temp even got up to 38 degrees as we finished the ride. But then I've been told that I'm crazy for cycling year round.

Then, this morning I went to the Boot Camp. Day #4 and I was feeling a little bit of yesterday's run and bike when I started out. But what doesn't kill you can only make you stronger, right? Or so, I've heard anyway. The teacher started us out with the usual warm up... high knees running in place, knees out to side(Hee Haw!), and jumping jacks. Still working on getting my knees very high but I think I'm improving some, maybe.

Then we get into the routine of the day. First off, is lunges. Wow! My balance seems to be improving. I wasn't risking falling over as much on these. Then, she has us doing squats with our feet together on the exercise bands and doing arm curls at the same time. Next grabbing the weights, we were to point our toes out towards each corner and then squat at the same time doing chest presses up with the weights. "Try to get down to where your thighs are at a 90 degree angle at your knees." The teacher would say. I was struggling with doing the presses on top of the squats, so she had mentioned that we could just let the weights hang in the middle with our arms down or you could just do one arm and then the other. I let the weights just hang there for the most part. Then, she asked us to stay down in the squat and do little pulses up and down. OUCH!! I could really feel that burn in my thighs.

Then, after that we were to do 10 push ups. I did "girlie" push-ups on my knees instead of the full body. I'm such a whimp! Then, we were to do 20 of the "Burpees". After doing 15 of these the first time through I had to stop because I was getting light headed... lack of oxygen? Or could it be that I cut back on eating after 7:30PM? (Something I started since, I discovered two days ago I'm up 10 lbs since the end of Sept. YIKES!) We then repeated doing the lunges, right on through to the "Burpees" again. The last set of "Burpees" I was down on my knees just throwing my hands up. Diane just cracked up at me. I just couldn't do the full thing. I just didn't have it in me.

Then we do the "Inch Worm"; which you stand with feet together, reach out as far as you can in front of you to the floor. Keeping your legs straight and your hands on the floor, you move your feet towards you hands as close as you can. Then, repeat the process all the way across the mat. OMG!! Charlie horse hit my upper thigh, and I rolled to the side of the mat. OUCH!! I rubbed and stretched while all the rest of the class went slowly from one side of the mat and turned around and came back via the "Inch Worm". One gal was noticeably in the lead. She had been taking the Boot Camp since May. Wow!

Then we did stretching the last little bit. This was good and what I needed. But when we got to a part where we were to do a "plank". I couldn't hold it even with my knees on the floor. The easy version even proved too hard for me. So thus, the day was finished with more stretching and I was feeling that I was still in over my head. I'm hoping to work towards managing more of the class as time wages on. I'm hoping that my body's learning curve will kick in sometime soon!