the pomegranate tiger

Yee Ha! Another week down. It hasn't been exactly easier, but seems more doable. The warm-up runs are still a challenge (I hate running) and I still finish at the back of the pack. I try to counteract this by starting my run early, so there won't be such a huge gap between me and the others. I can do the three laps non-stop now and finally did a 25-minute run (basically twice the distance) non-stop. It's not that I didn't want to stop at least a dozen times. I just talked myself into continuing. I'd think, okay, you can start walking at the next driveway. The next driveway would come and I'd think; you can make it to the next tree; then the next corner, etc. until I finished. It's really a mind-game. And I've figured out why people like to run with earplugs and music -- So they don't have to listen to themselves huffing and puffing with each step! When you're running alone, you can hear every single wheezing inhale, exhale and poundin...

So, I managed to survive the first week of boot camp. As I expected, things got a lot tougher on Days 2 through 5. Each day starts with a "warm-up" run of three (count 'em - 3 ) laps around the track. If it was walking, I'd have no problem at all. I can walk miles and miles. But running? Not so much. Needless to say, I can't quite make it all the way without walking part of it. My strategy is to go at a comfortable, even pace and try to walk less each time out. I'm now down to walking for only one short break abut half-way through the run. I figure that's not bad progress in a week. Of course, I'm always last to finish – but you know what? I don't care. One of the things I like about this class is that every day is different. Here's a re-cap of the rest of my first week: Tuesday: Following warm-up, we did standing, leg exercises. I'm sure we did every variation of leg raise imaginable. By the time we finished and had a water...

I arrived at the designated meeting place at 5:55 a.m. under cloudy and rainy skies. Our trainer, S, checked us all in and I found out that only two of us from the 50+ group decided to join the regular group (the sixty year old man didn't show up). We immediately glommed onto each other for moral support. S reassured us that her classes are geared for everyone to go at their own pace and we should have no trouble at all. (She wouldn't lie to us would she?) First thing on the agenda was a quick rundown about what to expect and a few tips about equipment, and pre-workout meals. Today would be mostly about fitness testing and body measurements for our "Before" level. There will be another fitness testing day at the end of the four week period to see how much we've progressed. We started with body measurements first: Biceps, chest, waist, hips, thighs and calf. Then it was off for a timed one kilometre run (one and a half laps around the high school track)....

I didn't think I'd be posting such an early follow-up blog about fitness boot camp. But here I am. It's Sunday afternoon. I'm getting pretty excited about my new fitness commitment. I've got my workout gear ready to go: weights, mat, shorts, running shoes, hat and jacket because it's supposed to rain. Then the phone rings. It's Tammy from Survivor Boot Camp. Unfortunately, there aren't enough participants for a separate 50+ class, she says. The four of us signed up for the 50+ will have to join the regular group. Ummm, okay, I say. What are the ages of the others? Well, there's a woman who just turned fifty, a man who is sixty, and someone else probably also in her fifties, a twenty year-old, and the rest in their thirties. Tammy hastily adds that she's quite sure I'll fit right in and won't feel out of place. It'll be fun. Okay . . . It's been a long time since my twenties or thirties. Heck it's been awhile sinc...

I need to preface this by saying that I've always been a person who likes trying new things. I get bored doing the same thing. So it should be no real surprise that I signed up for Survivor Boot Camp . Now, lest you think I've completely lost my marbles, I signed up for the 50+ class. It started innocently enough. On Friday (my day off), I was relaxing and reading my local community paper when I saw an ad for Survivor Boot Camp . I was just about to flip the page when I saw, "NEW – 50+ Class" . I knew it was speaking to me. I'm no stranger to fitness classes. However, in the last seven years, along with a more sedentary desk job, I've fallen out of a regular fitness routine and put on unwanted pounds. Most people would say I'm not fat, but I'm pushing the upper end of what a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) should be for me. Not good. My family has a history of high blood pressure and stroke. Also not good. I'm at an age that family ris...

Okay, after posting this --> Is this cheating? , I felt the tiniest bit guilty. I realized I wasn't really giving the system a chance. I'm going to give it another try and this time I'm going to choose at least one of my current reads with this method. Last week I came up with The Barclay Family Theatre on the random number generator and finished it over the weekend. The next number up is 15, Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte. And when I finish it, I'll remove it from the queue. So now I've done it; put it down in writing, right here on my blog for all to see. Let's see how long I can keep it up.

Growing up, my family, along with other fifties post-war families took weekend drives as a form of recreation in the summer. We'd pile into my uncle's station wagon with beach blankets, snacks, playing cards and assorted beach paraphernalia; the 'we' being an assortment of cousins, aunts and uncles. There being no such thing as seatbelt laws, we'd cram as many bodies as possible into that poor vehicle; usually six adults who would occupy the two front bench seats and at least as many kids crammed into the back compartment (I cringe when I think about it now, but that's the way it was back then). The cousins would sit, backs to the side windows, feet towards the middle, staggered and stacked like sardines in a can. The lucky ones got pillows to lean against, but mostly we just took it for granted that we'd end the trip a bit battered and with numb bums. I'm sure kids of today would be appalled at such cramped, primitive quarters -- being accustomed to S...