Boot Camp

About a week after my triathlon, I started the Body Core Boot Camp. It was two days a week at 5:30am which is quite early for me. I am a night owl to Paul's chagrin since he normally gets up at 5am to get ready for work, while I am sleeping until the absolute latest I can to still get the kids up and ready for school. However, since I was already in workout mode for the triathlon, I decided I should try to keep on going. I was afraid of the idea of boot camp, but it turns out that I loved it. It was extremely hard; harder than I ever pushed myself on my own, and I was sore in places that I never even knew there were muscles. OK, I'm exaggerating there. I don't want my gross anatomy professor to think I never learned anything in his class, but you get what I mean, right? Our friend and fitness trainer, Michelle, is spectacular at her job and whipped us into shape (better shape). I was sad when the month was up. However, to toot my own horn, I came in second place to the biggest loser which was based on weight loss, and improvement on the 800 meter run, push ups and sit ups.

So... when she started her next round of classes I really wanted to do it again and I wanted Paul to start with me. After harrassing him for a solid week, he finally succumbed to the pressure and decided to go with me. Because of work and the fear of the summer heat, we signed up for the MWF 5am class. That's right... 5am. That means we have to get up at the crazy hour of 4:40 A(freakin')M!!! Last year, I would never believe that I would get up that early to EXERCISE of all things. However, I have found that exercising that early in the morning actually does free up my day for other things. If I am not too tired to do them. It used to be that I would put exercising off for mid-morning, find some reason I couldn't go, plan for afternoon or evening and then be too tired to do it. Now it is over and done with before I even fully wake up!

Anyway, I got Paul to agree to do this and the night before it started he was pushing a mountain of laundry with his feet when his knee cap popped out of place. He was rolling on the floor writhing in pain like I had never before seen him experience. I thought we were bound for the hospital, but after a few hours of icing it, he decided to still try to go to boot camp the next day. He did everything slowly, but he still did it. On the second day of training, his knee came out again while sprinting and he fell- well, not just fell, but went flying into the rocks and bushes. He really needed stitches, but he just kept on working out with blood streaming down his leg for the next 45 minutes. After a few days of rest, he is back and pushing himself harder than ever and showing me how it should really be done! It is impressive how hard he works. With two bum knees, he really overdoes it sometimes. It shouldn't be a surprise though because he does that with everything in his life. It is one of his traits that most endears me and frustrates me at the same time.

Here's a picture of his knee three days on the mend.

Wish us luck that that is extent of our injuries.