I woke up this morning and my legs felt sore, not too bad though, but I was really hoping that we would do some exercises for the abs and arms today at Basic Training and don’t focus too much on the legs. But of course that didn’t happen…! If I would have known about today’s workout upfront, I swear I wouldn’t have gone to class...I think we were 12 people today, so the group was much smaller than yesterday which was nice. And we had two instructors, so we definitely got a lot of attention. After our regular warm-up we started running… ”Just follow me!” were the last words I heard from Charles as the group took off. And then this feeling inside of me started creeping up…Are we running to the Lyon Street stairs…? Again…? After “leg day”…? No, we must go somewhere else, right…? Yeah, keep on dreaming Sue! We indeed ran to the stairs! This time, the hill seemed a little bit easier to tackle than last week, but still, when reaching the bottom of the stairs, my heart rate was probably at 180 already…I walked the lower part of the stairs, Charles made me run the second part up to Broadway (which alone are more than 100 stairs…yes, I started counting…). By then, my heart rate was probably 220, I am not kidding, I felt sooo exhausted. I didn’t have time to recover because I found myself doing push ups and all kind of things mixed up with jumping jacks and burpees in order to “bring the heart rate up again”…Seriously? I mean it never had the chance to come down! When Michael then told us to run up another hill to Pacific Street, I thought this is must be a nightmare. Luckily, the group is really motivating so you just do it. Being on the top of the hill, everyone was partnered up with a workout buddy again (HOORAY!!! That way I got a 30 sec break…) and when they told us that we jog down to Pacific @ Presidio and race back up against our buddy I felt like crying…It doesn’t sound so bad but if you know which hill I am talking about, you would feel my pain (see picture above). Good thing that there was no time to whine or protest, we jogged down and raced back up the hill. I only saw my race buddy from the back…Back on the top of the hill, we did some pull ups, chest presses and bicep curls which almost felt like a recovery. Who would have ever thought a pull up could be considered a recovery…? And then, we did the whole thing again – race the hill. This time, something changed in my head. Either my body switched in “survival-mode” forgetting to transmit pain signals to my sore legs or may be my brain simply shut down…I have no idea why, but I took off and sprinted up the hill. I guess I just wanted it to be over…We did another set of upper body workouts to then do another hill sprint. And again, it was almost like a miracle, I was much faster than expected rocking this hill. My running buddy was super nice and said “Girl, what happened??? You kicked my ass twice! Great work!”. That’s the thing, even though they sometimes set up little races, everyone supports each other, there is no jealousy or serious competition. I guess most people (including me) are there to push their own limits, the purpose is not to be better than others. Of course I am happy when I don’t come in last (because I am the slowest person quite often), but it’s really more about improving your own performance and not to beat someone else. And the group spirit makes you do things you never thought you could possibly do (and I swear I would never run those hills by myself without the group!). We then jogged back to the Palace of Fine Arts, running all the way downhill felt like a breeze.
I had another Bar method class 9h later, I have to admit that it was really hard on my legs and I am very much looking forward to tomorrow – no bootcamp, no bar method, just a simple, relaxing, old-fashioned run along the coast!
Honestly, I am really knackered now. I pushed as hard as I possibly could, and even though I almost felt like crying at some point during bootcamp today, I felt like I can achieve anything once the class is over. It sets my mood for the whole day, I feel balanced, happy and proud.
Lastly, I would like to mention that I resisted our weekly Friday treats in the company which are free bagels and donuts. I had high fiber cereal and a banana instead :). I really hope that I will see results soon and that it is all worth it…
12 days down, only 30 more to go! Looking forward to take it easy this weekend and relax!
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