Claiming my Technorati Profile.

Hi, I’m Christina. This is my fourth adventure boot camp, though they haven’t been consecutive. I’m committed to learning to love the burn, so that I can keep up a high level of activity after boot camp’s over.

That was my spiel this morning — the trainer T’ai gets people to introduce themselves on the first day by giving their name, which boot camp it is for them, and what they’re committed to for the next four weeks. One woman said that getting up to be at the field at 5:30 each morning, every weekday for four weeks, was a big enough commitment for her. More, like me, are looking to use it to establish a routine.

After introductions we ran around the track twice (1/4 mile per lap) to warm up, then up and along the length of the bleachers. Then to the start line for a timed mile run. I took a preventative couple of puffs from my inhaler beforehand, but still had to pause near the end of the second lap to cough up a lung (figuratively) and puke a little (literally). Stupid asthma. Stupid phlegm.

There were Canada geese on the grass near the eastern edge of the track. As we splashed through their shallow puddles on the first lap of the timed mile, I was convinced they were thinking “Was ist das?!” at the pack of twenty or thirty women jogging past. I’m not sure why German’s the native language of the Canada goose, but it is. My little upchuck episode meant I dropped back a bit from the group running at my pace, so I was alone going past the geese on the third lap. One of them hissed at me.

I crossed the finish line at 9 minutes 23 seconds, which I thought was 7 seconds faster than my timed mile on August 11, the final day of the last boot camp. Checking my records, though, I ran it in 9:23 then too. At least I didn’t get slower! I’d like to break 9 minutes at the end of this camp.

After the aerobic test (running) came the strength test (push ups). I did backslide on this: I did 30 regular push ups 2 weeks ago, but today could only crank out 23 before I’d reached muscular exhaustion. I’m climbing at Cliffhanger after work tonight — my arms and shoulders are likely to hurt tomorrow.

tags: fitness, goals, exercise, running, pushups, German, geese