Decatur: Things I have done this camp.

It's only the beginning of Week Three in this camp, but I already have some pretty good accomplishments under my belt.

1. I did toe push-ups. That's right. Toe. Push-ups. No more knees for me, I'm going all the way.

2. I am no longer the 15lb kettlebell user. I'm a 30lb. That's right. 30lbs. I am a badass. I'll be ready for that 35 lbs one in no time.

3. I can hit the floor on my squats now. All the way down. It may be slow, but I can get down there and up. (And do it all over again.)

4. I can go for 45 seconds straight on sit-ups without stopping to breathe. It took me three camps, but I can finally hold my core long enough to go unbroken.

5. I'm no longer a red medicine ball user. I'm going for black, baby. That's right, 12 lbs. on the throws, and 15 lbs on the lifts.

It may not seem like much, but it's further than I ever thought I would get when I started FitWit back in January. I'll post more pictures, soon. The changes are happening fast. I'm doing my best to stick with the Paleo diet as closely as possible. I can't wait to see what the changes will be at the end of this camp. Maybe another four jean sizes, yeah?

Tough Week in Grant Park

This week was a tough week for me and Friday was not a FUN FRIDAY!! I almost had a mental cleansing aka melt down to get me through the Mary Mary. I need someone to tell me about Mary! What camp did she attend? Still with FitWit? Mary, I would love to meet you since I've met Ruth and Victoria. Hopefully, at the end of camp I will be able to defeat you instead of you getting the best of me.........

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary:

50 Overhead bar lunge steps – 25 down, 25 back
50 Overhead bar squats or hands behind head squats
25 Dips
15 push-up burpees (I did a few burpees and then 15 push-ups and 15 jumping jacks for the modification)
3 rounds and then finish with an 800 m run.

I was able to complete 2 rounds and jogged about 300m and sped walk the rest of the 800m. This week has been a BUSY week for me with work, volunteering at my daughters school and preparing for a 8th Annual King and Queen program for the visually impaired. I've helped them to get various things together for the program today(Saturday) and will be the narrator for program. They have truly inspired me and I feel that I should not complain about the simple things and ALL the things that I take for granted. I have gotten my focus and drive back and know that I have to work hard despite feeling tired. I just feel burnt out! Keeping positive thoughts are the main thing that helps me to get through a workout. I think that my positive thoughts were fading my the second and Lindsey was there trying to keep me motivate. THANKS CHICA! I just felt like my fitness level from this week was lower than any other week at FitWit.

I am doing my homework this afternoon and will continue my 5 workout sessions per week. I am still striving to meet my short term goal and want to have it done my the end of the week.

Well, we are almost 1/2 way through the camp and I wonder what week 3 will bring.....I guess that we have to wait and see.

Have a Great Day and THANKS for taking the TIME to read MY BLOG!!!

JCE

My stupid @#$#%&*! ankle!

I'm trying really hard not to be disappointed in myself this week. I've been doing great moving up in the weight intervals. I'm able to endure more, and actually focus on my form. Those are good things. But this blasted ankle still will not let me jog, run, jump or walk even remotely fast. Every time I think I have enough to keep going, I get those sharp pains on the top of the ankle and I have to slow down.

It's infuriating!

During that first camp, I would've jumped at the chance to slow it down and do easier exercises. Now that I've been at it for a while, it's driving me up the wall to not go all the way! Stacy and JB are sympathetic and won't let me do a lot of the exercises that will make it flare up. I really hate having this injury! I still have the energy to keep going, but not the physical ability.

Just the other day it was the 2 mile run exercise. I was really excited to be able to do this again and compare my times. The last time I attempted this, I got around the route once for a time of around 15 minutes. I was itching to beat it this time 'round.

We all gathered at the front of the high school and off we went. I got two steps in and a sharp pain went right from the middle of my ankle straight up through my calf. DAMMIT! Nooooooo! And there went my ankle. I hobbled the entire lap around. I got to the halfway time and Jen told me my time. 8:06. There was no way to beat my old time with a huge hill coming up and limping. I was crestfallen. I gimped the whole way to the finish line. I was crying by the time I got there. Some was from pain, but mostly it was disappointment. The workout was to go twice around. I could barely get once. And my time? Well, it was a horrid 16 minutes. Gah. Not good. Stacy told me to catch my breath and get to work on some kettle bells. I wasn't even going to attempt the second lap. But, I still had the energy! I had barely broken a sweat (compared to the last time where I was soaked halfway through). I was ready to go. My ankle however, was not. Even attempting to do the kettle bell work it was yelling at me. I had to go to a lighter weight and kibosh some of the exercises that had me put all my weight on my ankle.

I'm ready to move up. I want to go go go! I don't want to be last. I'm finally getting the weight off, and I want to keep pushing. But ankle says no. Ankle is a jerk. You hear me, fix yourself or we're gonna have problems!

I know I can't bully my ankle into healing. It does make me feel better, though. I really thought I was going to kill this camp and do some amazing things. Now, it's just going to be a struggle to maintain with this injury.

Stacy's been really good about encouraging me and letting me know what subs are equal to the running/jumping exercises. But it doesn't quite make up for not being able to keep up with the rest of the camp.

So, fine. I'll sit. And be still. And keep off my ankle. I'll always wear shoes with support (okay, *most* of the time). And I'll take care of myself so I can come back full force.

Decatur: Mary, Mary; Why ya buggin?

It's not often our named workouts actually have the person they are named after in our camp. It was a real treat yesterday to do the Mary, Mary while Mary was doing it right beside us. (By the way, Mary; you took all the comments with such grace. I don't know that my gestures to some of the complaints would have *just* been a hand wave. Just sayin'.)

All that being said, the Mary Mary was no pony ride. That workout was real work and it is now up there with the Victoria for me. I seem to gravitate to the workouts that have a long list of things to do. I really enjoy getting through that task list.

Here's what Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary looked like:
For time:
3 rounds of the following:
50 1-arm overhead lunge steps (25 each arm)
50 overhead squats or prisoner squats
25 dips
15 pushup burpees
After three rounds, finish w/800m run

*Newbie version = no bars

I'm sad to say, that the squats I had to do newbie style with no bars. I tried, but it just didn't feel right, even using just the 9 lbs bar. I just can't hold that kind of weight on my knees yet. I'll get there, just Tuesday was not that day. I also had to sub the weighted lunges for some supermans. But rest assured, Stacy was NOT letting me off easy. I had to do 100 of those suckers to take the place of the lunges. (Surprisingly, that took a lot of time for me to get through. I now have a new exercise to practice in front of the tv.) But here's the best part, I did pushup burpees. I was still on my knees for the pushups, and I had to do a little bunny hop to get my feet back to my hands at the end, but I did them! I was really proud of myself for those. I didn't give up and just switch to regular burpees like Stacy said we could. I wanted to keep going and I did.

I've also started to try something different when it comes to timed workouts. I set myself a goal, one I think I can hit and I go for that rather than focus on "finishing" the workout. Some of those I just know I can't do in the allotted time. I want to focus more on getting form right, increasing weight and getting a good quality workout. I'm really trying to get my mindset out of this have to finish or I failed rut. I set myself up to fail that way and it makes it hard to get happy about boot camp when I do that.

I set my goal at 2.5 rounds and let it go at that. I may have taken longer to get there, but I met my goal and managed to get keep my form for the whole workout.

I LOST 4lbs in Grant Park!

I lost 4lbs and I FEEL GREAT! I am SOOOO close to at short term goal that I am taste it! Less than 4lbs and then I really will be JUMPING for JOY! It will be by the end of the month as long keep working. I think that I lost those 4 lbs at the Grant Park workout on Thursday. That hour was the LONGEST hour! Mary Tipton was my partner and a newbie. I am her mentor for this camp. I started off jump roping while Mary Tipton held the medicine ball overhead and went up the steps, lunged and then came back down the stairs. Then together we put our backs almost together and passed the medicine ball from side to side. Then to sit-ups and passed the medicine ball b/w our legs. It was my turn to go up the steps and lunge while she jumped rope. We repeated that several time. Like to run? Well, we ran UP HILL and around the corner to the pavilion. Guess what? I was not the last one! YEA!!! So we get to the pavilion and we are the show for several by standers that are watching us...There was our moment of FAME!! They watched us as we worked out butts off doing dips, abs rocks and step ups. I think that Becka was getting enjoyed as we were dipping sweat. My eyes were burning as the sweat was dripping from head. Then...... Guess what? .........Yep, you guessed right! Running again....UP a HILL then DOWN then UP then DOWN! I was breathing SO HARD.......my shirt was soak and wet and I thought that my body was just going to give out on me. I was huffing and puffing......then I notice that a newbie, Tremaine(sp) was my frat brother. OMG! I told him that I did not know that he was my frat(I'm a Zeta). We belong to the the ONLY constitutional bond brother and sister organization. OK! back to me huffing and puffing and walking in circles with sweat burning my eyes. Then squats holds...Josh was counting so that you know the 10 secs were really 30+.......guess what?.......running....again.....UP the HILL then DOWN the HILL. Mary Tipton did squats while I was running UP the HILL and back DOWN. Then she ran UP the HILL and DOWN.....I just knew that it was 6:55 and it was time to stretch when we going back to the start point. So we are running back and a camper asked Josh who came up this the workout....He said that it was me on one of those late nights with the baby. Erin, Please let him skip those late night diaper changes! I am only kidding. Think twice!..That is what I get for thinking during a FitWit workout. Amy always says to never THINK just WORK! One partner had to go back up the steps and down while the other one did push ups. Think we were done?...NO! Of course not back to sit-ups and passing the medicine ball. Mary Tipton and I ROCKED! We had a heavy ball at one point that we started to drop, so we created our own modification and gave HIGH 5's when we sat up......Then the time finally came and it was time to stretch....the moment that I was waiting for............I think that I dropped those 4lbs in that workout session since I weigh about an hour later. If that workout would bring those results then I vote to do it 3x per week for the rest of the camp....LOL!!!!

By the way, Banana relays are not for me when you are doing jumping jacks and banana is flying everywhere....banana and sisterlocks don't match.....Josh was teasing me about my sisterlocks and we could not mess them up.....See Josh knows me well. I really enjoyed the banana relay and my team was last place, but 6pm campers SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST!!! Way to go Mary Tipton, and Sue!

Off to week #2!

JCE

Decatur: End of Week 1.

Whew! What a great first week. I thought I was taking it easy, but my body says differently. Maybe it's the switch to an all morning camp, maybe it's that I'm really trying to focus on form and weight. Either way, I am sore! I haven't been this sore since the beginning!

This camp I really wanted to focus on increasing the weights that I'm using and not focusing on the counts so much. I had that chance today with the Gimme 10 AMRAP workout. Unfortunately, it's also the very first time I've had to cut out of a FitWit session early. (Silly meetings, don't they know I have fitness to do!?)

Here's the breakdown:
“Gimme 10”
20-min AMRAP
Run 100m (50m shuttle run forward and back)
10 clapping pushups (15 if on knees) (newbies do regular pushups)
10 broad jumps
10 rows
10 KB 1-arm Thrusters (5 each arm)

3-man team game (exerciser-runner-rester)
Runner to 40 total mtn climbers
Exercises on white board for team to complete – 100 sit-ups, 100 superman, 50 burpees

Because of said cutting out early, I did not get to the 3-man team part, but I did manage to get 3.1 rounds of Gimme 10. I actually got some air on the clapping pushups, too. No clap, but I did get off the group. (By the way, those suckers are hard on your wrists if you come down too hard. I have to learn some control on those. Maybe it's time for a Wednesday practice session.)

My ankle is still giving me some serious trouble since last camp when I fell on it. It's just not strong enough to handle jumps and sometimes even power walking will trigger it. I've got to be better about taking care of it and keeping it rested. It's very frustrating to not be able to have the full range of movement on it.

So, week one is complete and now we get to move to the tough workouts. I've got an awesome crew at 7am and I'm looking forward to getting fit with them!

Decatur: Week 1, Rocking out with the Noobs.

7am camp, I am ready for you! I was so excited that Decatur was able to branch out and offer this new time for the FitWitters. This will be a camp time that I can stick to no matter what the husband's schedule calls for. No more 12 hour turnarounds, or bouncing back and forth. My poor body just couldn't take night time workouts and then an early morning one.

So, I got the chance to start all over with this 7am. With so many newbies, I chose to stay in with them and re-learn some of the basics. As my body is changing, so is my form. This was the perfect opportunity to teach my body how to do some of FitWit's basics exercises.

I'm noticing a vast improvement in these exercises now. With squats, I can get all the way down to the crate below me and pop right back up with little effort. It still takes me a second to remember to point my toes, but a quick nettle in the knee sure fixes that. The pushups are still going strong, but I'd really like to be able to do at least one or two regular ones. I can get down, but not back up. I'll get there, but it's going to take some more work. Situps are slowly getting better. I can dig my heels in now and really stay rooted, where it used to take JB or a partner standing on my feet to keep me rooted. I guess after all that work, my core is actually starting to get stronger.

The second day we got to work with the weights. This was actually the newbie instruction I was looking for. I wanted to really push myself more with the weight training and increase my pound increments. I feel like I've been coasting, I haven't felt the results like I did from that first camp. That was my body signaling it's time to move up in weight.

I tried out the 25 lb kettlebell from some swings and squat high pulls. The swings felt great, I really could feel my lower back getting strong. The high pulls were definitely a little harder. My forearms were burning when I pulled it all the way up to my chin, but after one or two it got a little easier. I was feeling pretty good about my form. That trick that Jose taught me from first camp holds true. Look straight ahead and you'll keep your back straight.

We moved onto the medicine balls and body rows from here. Two of my favorite exercises. I can't tell you how therapeutic slam balls are in the morning. Really. Nothing phases you after that. All your aggression, irritation, annoyance... whatever, it's all gone after you smack that ball to the ground over and over again. I moved up a little on the weights for those balls as well. I tried it with the 12 lb and was pleasantly surprised at the ease of using it. I'd almost expected it to be more difficult, but in fact I got my wall balls higher than ever before. It did take me a little longer to find the rhythm for the slam balls though. They're a tad bigger, and I have small hands. I just couldn't get the hold of that ball to save my soul. Once I figured out where to place my hands, I got to rep them out.

Body rows. I have no idea why I even like these. They give me blisters, for goodness sake. But there's something awesome about pulling yourself up to that bar and actually hitting it. I've always gotten close, but not quite. JB let me get up there and rock 'em out like a rockstar. I hit the bar over and over again. I got ooohs and aaaaahs from the newbies. I told them if my fat butt could do it, there's no reason for they can't either. Just takes a little practice.

I'd like to think that I showed them that anyone can do it, no matter what their body type may be. All it takes is a little practice and some hard work.