Victoria.... oh, Victoria.

Victoria, I'm sure you're a very nice person. If you're reading this, I'm sorry... but, your workout was punishing.

I have never been so tired, or pushed so far until the Victoria. Newbies started off with 5 laps around the gym. Most ran, I did the power walk. I'm still scared of running long distances, but I'm going to work up to it slowly. Really, I am. I swung my arms like a champ, though! After those five rounds, it was onto the dips.

Dips, they sound cute, yeah? Not so much. I was using everything I had to keep pulling my body up with my arms straight and tight. "Like a suitcase!" cheered Michelle, our trainer. Well, I have a heavy suitcase, folks, so it wasn't easy. But I did my 20. Then, onto squats. I'm getting better on my form, but I'm still feeling that twinge in my knee. So, I'm either going down too far, or I'm not using my heels to push up right. I'm working on it, but it's not an easy form to master when you're heavy. It was time for pushups, next. 20 of those, but just getting over a stomach bug, I opted for some more squats. Better to work on my form, than push my stomach past its limit. Then came what I thought was going to be the easy part... the shoulder press. I sat down, all comfy, knees bent and I got ready to go. I pushed that bar right over my head, snapping my arms by my ears and I felt every. single. core. muscle. I mean, I felt every one of them. And they were angry. Boy were they angry. I kept going, but soon, I was grunting like a vet.

And then... (yes, there's an "and then"), it was off for more laps around the track. 5 more for the fitter folks, and three for the speed walker extraordinaire. By the last leg of that third one, I was a little wobbly, but I made it back. All I concentrated on was making it one more lap. I did it. I did all three!

Back to more squats, shoulder presses and dips. What!? Oh, for the love of... Alright. Off I go again. Got to haul that heavy suitcase up. 20 more dips. It took me forever, but I got 'em in there. This time I was resting every five. My arms and my lats are just screaming at me. My shoulders are begging me to put down the damn suitcase. But no, I'm going to finish my 20. And I did. Onto to more squats, resting every five squats and then more. I got all the way to the shoulder press with the bar. I sat down, and let me tell you, that felt incredible. Just to plain sit down. Wow. Then, I raised the bar over my head and my shoulders were on fire. That bar couldn't have been but 3 pounds but you could have had an elephant sitting on that thing as far as I was concerned. I snapped my arms up, elbows to my ears and I swear I think I heard screaming. I'm pretty sure my shoulders were about to go on strike. First the suitcase, now this!? But I kept going. My core was tight. So tight in fact, I almost couldn't relax when it was time for more squats.

That's right, I said more squats. I got out 10 more before I heard the best words in the English language from Michelle. "Annnnnnnd time!"

So Victoria, I'll say it again. I'm sure you're a perfectly nice person, but your workout, was in fact, not nice. It was brutal.

But I survived it. I daresay, if I had to do it again, I would. I walked away and I felt like I accomplished something huge. And I think, maybe I did.