Bootcamp: Day 21 (The Home Stretch)

It's my last week! There were a few snags along the way, including illness and travel, but I'm in the Home Stretch! Not that it's any easier, mind you.

Today, as I'm sure you know by now, was Abs Day. But it was no normal Abs Day. That Alex is a creative and sneaky fellow. Just when we thought it was time to do the normal abs routine, he mixed it up a bit and nearly killed me!

I've mentioned before how much contempt I hold for exercises involving lifting, pressing and or squatting with tires, right? Well, today was no different, save for the fact that Alex made me use the heaviest tire in the bunch! I swear, this monster came off of a Mack Truck.

Then it was on to more creative things to lift. Sand bags! The old sand bags that line the perimeter of the obstacle course (to keep us from escaping, perhaps?) were replaced with shiny new ones. I noticed a wall was built with a bunch of them to block off our usual "short cut" during our run (it cuts off about eight inches of the running space-- ooooh, we're cheating!). In the middle of our hour I learned where the other sand bags went.

"Grab a sand bag and RUN!"

These little sacks of horror must weigh about 300 lbs each (or maybe 20lbs.) and we were instructed to toss one on our shoulder and do two laps. Next we were to lay down on our backs, hold the sand bag up as if bench-pressed and do leg lifts.

It was like doing leg lifts inside of an hourglass, with tiny grains of sand slowly trickling down onto my sweaty face. I woke up at 6:15am for this.

But that was not all. It was another fun round of over and under the hurdles, scaling the walls and back over the hurdles. Then partner sit-ups-- how many can you do in 2 minutes? (I did 73 and nearly died).

And then another blast of Alex creativity-- 3 laps of bear crawl around the gym. 3 laps of Star Jumpers around the gym (basically like stationary long-jumping, which sucks when your legs are tired). 3 laps of -- get this-- skipping. Yes. Skipping. Like little girls do, except with an emphasis on lifting your knee high and jumping super-high. Sounds girly, hurts like hell. Then 3 laps of sort of a sideways bear crawl and 3 of something that reminded me of the Shuffle Off To Buffalo move from tap dancing school back when I was 8.

Sounds like a lot for an hour, huh? Well, we haven't even gotten to the Abs routine yet! He started us off with the normal thing-- butterfly crunches, raised-leg crunches and the torturous "In-and-Outs". But then instead of moving us onto the second series, we partnered up to do things I have never even heard of, the most insane of which being the "Push-up Plank". Starting in a plank position on your forearms and toes, you lift your arms to a push-up position so you're on your hands and toes. We did 100. I actually probably only did around 12, a) because I was confused and b) because it was one of the most exhausting exercises I've ever done.

Luckily, Alex went easy on us for that one. I literally stopped a couple of times but kept counting and either he didn't see me or he let it slide, because normally coming to a stop would bring on some yelling and some lap-running.

Did I mention also that there were only 5 of us in class today? Maybe there was a telekinetic memo passed around to the other kids who were smart enough to stay in bed.

On the bright side, though, I was standing taller all day!