March at West Midtown Boot Camp and a day at Blackburn Park: 3/9/08

What a week! I've been extremely busy at work and have been unable to enter any posts to my blog. It's been an exciting week and I have a lot to talk about. So read on and enjoy. Sorry for the long entry, but here it is...

Monday was the first day of the new March session of boot camp ast West Midtown. We have several veterans joining us for another month, as well as several new boot campers that have taken the initiative to try boot camp for the first time. For once, we have more guys than girls at boot camp this month. It's going to be interesting to see how this goes. This is unchartered territory for the West Midtown boot camp location. So far, so good...

I had to miss boot camp on Tuesday due to an early meeting at work. This being the case, I went to the Blackburn Park boot camp on Wednesday to make up for my missed day. What an experience! We average about 15 people at our West Midtown boot camp location. Blackburn Park has a group of about 50! Working out with a group of that size was incredible. The workout was very similar to the ones that we do at our West Midtown location, but the atmosphere was totally different. I can't put into words how pumped up I was to see that level of participation. They had us split up into six different groups for the workout. At my normal location, we usually split into two groups. The massive number of boot campers and the different location made for an exciting workout of doing cone sprints. Unfortunately, we repeated the same workout the next day at our West Midtown location. I was absolutely worn out after repetitive workouts for two days straight. I could really feel my legs burning.

Friday was in interesting workout in the rain. We didn't touch the flooded soccer field and took advantage of the basketball court and used workout bands for the first time in a while. It was nice to get a good upper body workout from the bands, but I have been feeling the pain in my arms all weekend. Denny did an excellent job leading us on Friday and it really took a lot of effort to complete the workout. I was using one of the blue bands which is one of the stronger, heavier resistance ones. A couple of the other guys started out with the blue ones, but they both had to move down to a lower resistance level in order to complete the workout. It was tough, but I was able to do it. I couldn't have handled the blue band my first month of boot camp either.

On a different note, I had a interesting weekend. I went quail hunting on Saturday morning for the first time since I started boot camp. Other than being a little sore in my arms and trying to shoot birds, it was great. The biggest difference I felt was a lack of exhaustion after walking all over a huge field following the bird dogs as they spotted the quail. My dad and I killed 40 birds during the hunt, and we really had to move around a lot in search of the quail. We only took one break during the hunt to change out the dogs and empty our game pouches, but I never felt tired the entire time. On previous hunts, I can clearly remember being worn out after walking all over the place following the dogs. This was just a small reminder of how much better shape I am in after doing boot camp for over three months.

I attended a wedding on Saturday night for an old childhood friend. This was the first time that I had seen a lot of friends from home in a long time. Only a handful of them have seen me since I started boot camp last October. Numerous people complimented me on how good I looked. They could all tell that I had lost weight. Plus, I wasn't half as exhausted as I usually am after cutting a rug on the dance floor. I can usually last a few songs and then need to take a break, but I was out there last night dancing more than most of the other people at the wedding reception.

These two small things that occurred this weekend are the kind of motivation that keeps me going. Experiencing a clear change in my behavior and feelings as well as the continued support from family and friends are two of the main driving forces pushing me to continue on this journey the rest of the year. You'd be amazed at the differences you can feel when you decide to make a life-changing adjustment and start working out and eating right.

Come join me on Wednesday evening at The American Boot Camp Company studio in Brookhaven for an exciting time. The Big Peach Running Company is going to have their running stride tester out there. This machine analyzes your step when you run and can match you up with the best running shoes for your stride. I'm looking forward to seeing what it says about me and possibly getting a new pair of shoes. There's also going to be a body fat tester for those who are interested. All this takes place from 5:30 to 8:00 pm on Wednesday. Go to http://www.thebootcampcompany.com/ for more details and directions. I hope to see you there.

I've got the ShamRock 'N Roll 5K this coming Sunday morning at Atlantic Station. We do our long run around Atlantic Station and I am really looking forward to seeing what kind of official time I can put in for the race. I'm shooting to beat 29 minutes. Come join me at the race and see how you do. Details can be found at http://www.shamrocknroll.org/. I hope to see you there!