Tuesday morning, bootcamp time! I was looking forward to class today even though it was really windy and cold outside this morning. Today, we were a large group again, probably 20 people. We had 3 instructors, Jen, Charles and Michael. While we were doing the warm-up, Jen went from person to person telling them whether they’ll go with Michael (the "beginner" group, which never feels like a beginner group anyway...) or with Charles (leading the advanced class today). Not for one second did I consider myself to be “advanced”, I am not a strong runner and usually come in last even when the group is not split up…When Jen came to me she said “Do you want to be in the beginner or advanced group?”. That question surprised me and I stumbled a “Aw, I don’t know…” (a voice inside of me was “BEGINNER, BEGINNER, DON’T BE CRAZY!!!”). I hesitated and then Jen said “Well, it’s up to you, you can be first in the beginner’s group OR you can CHALLENGE yourself and go with the advanced group.” Alright, there was no way out anymore, I don't want to be a wimp... I am there to push myself, and I am saying it in this blog every day. So the advanced group – now including me – took off. Guess who was running at the very end…We ran towards Lyon Street again, my brain kept thinking “Why did you bring yourself in this situation, what were you thinking?? What the hell are YOU doing in advanced class... you shouldn’t be!”. To my surprise, we did not run uphill on Lyon Street and with that, I pushed all my negative thoughts aside and decided to give my best. We ran to Divisadero. Charles was really encouraging and pushing me. We ran up the first block on Divis. We ran up the second block. We jogged back, did push ups and did the whole thing again. Then we ran up another block. All uphill, quite steep. Charles said “Sue, you are in this group because you are ADVANCED! You can do this!”. So I did. Man, it was hard. Sometimes I feel like a little child that needs a lot of encouragement...but yes, it really helps! In between all those hills, we did “wall sits” and push ups. We ran to the next block to Broderick, same thing – running uphill, all the way to Broadway. I think we were all dead at the end. Especially the last part of the Street is incredibly steep (see picture above). But we did it. We jogged back down a couple of blocks and Charles set us up for a sprint race, everyone trying to beat another “bootcamper”. The “track” was the length of one block, doesn’t sound too much but it is long enough after all those hill runs…! I am happy to tell that I won my race, the sprint almost felt easy compared to the hills…it was very close and we were almost at the same speed – it didn’t matter who won because we both pushed each other and that’s the point. But honestly, I gave all I could and there wasn’t much left after this sprint, my legs were on fire… But I felt really good about myself - may be I am more competetive then I thought??? We did a couple more exercises for the arms, jogged to the Lucas’ lagoon, did some abs-exercise and then jogged back to the Exploratorium. I really appreciate how Jen and Charles pushed me this morning, I feel amazing now. This workout is like a drug. When I run those hills, I have a hard time understanding why I'm doing this and why I even pay a lot of money for it... but after the workout, I just feel amazing! All day long. I think the time between 6 am and 7 am is my favorite hour of the day now. It can do things I never thought I could and I totally LOVE the team spirit and the encouragement in the group.
Went to another bar method class in the evening, I enjoyed it. But my glutes and hamstrings were still on fire from the hills, so it was tough but no one said that it will be easy... I drank a lot of water today but I wasn’t good as far as breakfast is concerned. I know I should fuel my body after such a hard workout, and I know it’s wrong to not eat, but somehow the harder the workout the less hungry I am afterwards. I was sitting at my desk with a big cup of coffee and felt so happy.
We had a meeting at 11 am – for this meeting, the presenter has to provide snacks. Today, a person brought sausage and mustard - kind of an unusual snack for 11 am I guess. The excuse was that it was “for the Germans” (which is basically just me). It’s nice but then everybody wanted me to eat the greasy sausage and I didn’t feel like it – not just because of my healthy eating but also because I can’t eat hot sausage too early in the day even though I am German…And no, not all Germans eat sausage all the time (even the agricultural guys at immigration always ask me if I have sausage in my suitcase when they see my German passport…REALLY???)! Anyway, to all their disappointment, I didn’t eat the sausage (it really wasn’t too tempting) and after the meeting my boss stopped by at my desk to check if I am ok because I didn’t eat sausage… That made me feel a little awkward, honestly. We have so many meetings with food and cookies and everyone seems to observe very carefully who is eating and who isn't, really strange. And it’s not that I am not eating, in fact I haven’t been hungry very often during the last 2 weeks, I had a lot of food but tried to make (mostly) good choices. I had whole grain bread with chicken breast and cucumber for lunch and a fruit salad, a glass of milk and a cereal bar in the afternoon and a salad with steak and another glass of milk for dinner. I am really not starving but trying to fuel my body for the next workout. I stepped on the scale this morning at work (I don’t have one at home) and I am was happy to see that another 2 pounds are gone =) That’s a total of 4 pounds in 2 weeks without doing a “real” diet, result of my hard work. Yeah! If I can keep it up, chances are good that I will fit in this dress for the wedding soon!
16 days down, 26 to go!
Went to another bar method class in the evening, I enjoyed it. But my glutes and hamstrings were still on fire from the hills, so it was tough but no one said that it will be easy... I drank a lot of water today but I wasn’t good as far as breakfast is concerned. I know I should fuel my body after such a hard workout, and I know it’s wrong to not eat, but somehow the harder the workout the less hungry I am afterwards. I was sitting at my desk with a big cup of coffee and felt so happy.
We had a meeting at 11 am – for this meeting, the presenter has to provide snacks. Today, a person brought sausage and mustard - kind of an unusual snack for 11 am I guess. The excuse was that it was “for the Germans” (which is basically just me). It’s nice but then everybody wanted me to eat the greasy sausage and I didn’t feel like it – not just because of my healthy eating but also because I can’t eat hot sausage too early in the day even though I am German…And no, not all Germans eat sausage all the time (even the agricultural guys at immigration always ask me if I have sausage in my suitcase when they see my German passport…REALLY???)! Anyway, to all their disappointment, I didn’t eat the sausage (it really wasn’t too tempting) and after the meeting my boss stopped by at my desk to check if I am ok because I didn’t eat sausage… That made me feel a little awkward, honestly. We have so many meetings with food and cookies and everyone seems to observe very carefully who is eating and who isn't, really strange. And it’s not that I am not eating, in fact I haven’t been hungry very often during the last 2 weeks, I had a lot of food but tried to make (mostly) good choices. I had whole grain bread with chicken breast and cucumber for lunch and a fruit salad, a glass of milk and a cereal bar in the afternoon and a salad with steak and another glass of milk for dinner. I am really not starving but trying to fuel my body for the next workout. I stepped on the scale this morning at work (I don’t have one at home) and I am was happy to see that another 2 pounds are gone =) That’s a total of 4 pounds in 2 weeks without doing a “real” diet, result of my hard work. Yeah! If I can keep it up, chances are good that I will fit in this dress for the wedding soon!
16 days down, 26 to go!
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