Decatur: Week 5, The Ruth.

You know when you see a name to the workout, it's going to be a tough one. And Monday night's did not disappoint. (I'm also beginning to think the shorter the name, the more work it will be!)

Here's the breakdown:
"The Ruth"
For time:
100 lunge steps
80 push-ups w/overhead claps (daily max pushups are built into workout - so campers should try to complete their # +1 before starting overhead claps)
60 double-unders (sub 300 singles)
40 burpees
20 wall balls
800m run (6 laps)

The first time we did this, I got to do newbie reps. Which were 40 pushups, 20 burpees and 5 laps. But this time... what a sucker I am, I went for the gold. I was so excited to get this one under my belt. I'd had great results with repeating the timed workouts and shaving time off, so I thought for sure I'd at least get to finish this beast.

I'll get back to that in a moment. I do have some small triumphs for this workout. Since taking off my ankle brace I've been able to do small jumps and get some jump rope in. The first time I did this workout, I had to sub sit ups for the jump rope. (Which really added to my time considering I absolutely suck at sit ups. After about 10 I slow down to a snail's pace.) This time around with Ruth, I got in ALL 300 SINGLE JUMP ROPES. I put that in all caps because it's really quite a feat. When I got to this first camp, I couldn't jump, lunge, jog or really do just about anything well. I'm not even done with my second camp and I can jump rope. I might not be as fast as the others, but the fact that I can even do it makes me proud. The other triumph I have to tell you is the fact that I managed to also do ALL 40 BURPEES. And not the walking burpees that I used to do. I did the full on jump down, jump up, stand up jump and clap burpees. I had to do them in reps of 10, but I got them all in there! I was so happy! That is quite possibly the most I've done in a single night yet.

But those small triumphs were short lived. I tried in vain to jog those 6 laps and had to break down into a speed walk halfway through the first lap. My shins were just not letting up. I'm pretty sure that they hadn't forgiven me for last week, much less all that jump rope. I was so sure I was going to finish The Ruth and move on to the second round of it like my FitWit counterparts, but it was not to be. I struggled on those laps and only managed to get 4 whole ones in before time was called.

I trudged to the mat to stretch and I can tell you honestly, I was pretty disappointed. I almost started crying right there on the mat. I wanted to finish so badly, I just can't possibly tell you enough. I really wanted to say that by the end of the second camp I could hold water with the rest of the vets. I'm just not there yet. And while I know that it's only ourselves we compete against, and I did do MUCH better on time and volume of exercises, I am still a little sad that I didn't make it to the finish of at least one round of Ruth.