Saturday, November 14, 2009

Bootcamp

I signed up for Groupon this spring, which is a daily email with some sort of special in the greater Boston area, whether 70% off at a restaurant, or spa treatments, or something of the ilk. I signed up for one of them, 3 classes of ultimate bootcamp for the price of one ($20) to be used by the end of the year. Basically, it is a 1.5 hour Saturday morning workout at various sites around Boston.

I had done the first two classes during the frisbee season, the Bootcamp Basic class, once in Cambridge and once in Framingham. For both of those classes I was probably the best overall conditioned person there (I know, pretty scary). There were a bunch of people that really were not athletic at all but by the same token it was good to see them actually signed up and out there trying to do stuff. So for my last class I signed up for the Bootcamp Blast in Charlestown, which is an advanced class. The class took place this morning. All week we have had gorgeous weather in Boston, mid-50's or better and sunny. The weather had been looking pretty sketchy for today, and when I rolled out of bed at 8AM this morning and went outside to get the newspaper, it was POURING, with rivers of water cascading down the street. Fortunately it was already just above 50 degrees, but I was NOT thrilled to do the class at all. And I had just finished a 10 day fast (another blog entry) a day early yesterday, eating my first food at lunch on Friday trying to get some energy for the workout.

Quick breakfast of half a buttered pita with shredded cheddar, a banana and a cup of coffee for the drive over. I get to the Paul Revere Park in Charlestown at 9:20, with a GORGEOUS view maybe 100 yards from the Leonard P. Zakim bridge. I am the only car there until some poor sap shows up to walk her dog (it is POURING). Finally a truck shows up and then a guy gets out and walks over to the field carrying a mesh bag filled with fitness goodies. We are ON! I get out of the car sporting all my Patagucci gear (capilene 1 bottoms, Patagonia shorts, cap 1 top, rain shadow jacket). There are two guys there. I get there, introduce myself, and both of the guys are trainers for the class. 24 people are signed up for that morning's class, and I end up being the ONLY person there. So two trainers all for me. We decide that the class will only be an hour instead of an hour and half because it is going to be much more intense with just me.

I'm writing this two hours after the class, and I can still barely lift my arms and I'm still a little nauseous. They KICKED MY ASS! Four laps to warm up, then an active warmup, then lower body work, upper body work, interspersed sprints, pushups, exercise band work. It is incredible how little upper body strength I have. The extra bonus is that they were going to talk to the organizer to get me a bonus class because of what happened, which I don't completely understand, but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth.

More importantly, they also have something called the ultimate bootcamp which is a 4-week program that meets 4 times a week in the morning and is a far more specific yet varied program. With my childcare schedule of every other week I would have to try and get a modified schedule but I am definitely interested in exploring doing more.

A couple of times I almost felt like making it live up to the name of 'boot' camp, but I was able to make it through. Highly recommended though. I think I'm going to buy a set of the resistance bands so I can work on some stuff on my own time.

1 Comments:

Blogger Luke said...

like the suffering: tuesday and thursday were my 'boot camp' but i bet it was lame compared to yours. not having done any plyos this year... an hour of single leg jumps, tuck jumps, etc. was brutal... the first time. and i bet you find it the same in your free lesson.

10:49 PM, November 14, 2009  

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