- Thursday’s Schedule:
- Oxygen-Intake Test
- Cardio with Trainer (1 hr)
- Abs/Core (1/2 hr)
- Swimming (64 laps = 1 mile, 1 ¼ hrs)
- Massage!
- Volleyball Drills on the Beach (1 ½ hrs)
- Cardio & A Movie (“Marley & Me”) (1 ½ hrs)
- Friday’s Schedule:
- Re-do Oxygen-Intake Test
- The Hell of Sand (I mean, The Dunes) (4 climbs, 2 hrs)
- 2-on-1 Training (1 hr)
- 30-Minute Cardio
Nowadays my fatigue comes from exercising 4-6 hours day and my stress usually comes from when I am challenged by something new and I don’t do as well as I think I should (but at least I try). When I returned home Thursday, I was absolutely beat. I think I was not recovered from the bike ride on Wednesday. So, I’ll try to remember everything about Thursday…
On the first day of camp and then every four weeks or at the end of your stay, each camper takes a VO2 Max test. It looks like an oxygen mask, and as I understand it, it measures how much oxygen you breathe in at various levels of exertion. The mask is secured over your nose and mouth, and then you start slowly on the treadmill. 
The trainer slowly increases the incline and the speed of the treadmill, ‘causing your heart rate to increase as you keep pace with the treadmill. I did the test on Thursday morning, but for whatever reason the machine didn’t pick up an “anaerobic state” and thus we didn’t get a good reading. So, it was rescheduled for Friday. I’ll tell you about that later.
Next up was Cardio with Jason. USUALLY cardio is done on our own, but they do like to throw in cardio sessions with a trainer every now and then. In this instance, Jason, the New Kid On The Block, had us doing a gradual climb at our own speed. I’m not quite ready to run so I walked as fast as I could with each climb. I think our highest setting was 10. I SWEAT the most when I do this type of training over any other kind. On days like this I REALLY need to bring a second set of workout clothes with me (no showers at the gym). This was followed by another killer session of Abs/Core with Marco. These are brutal exercises, but I AM SEEING RESULTS. Most of the inches that I’ve lost have been in my abdomen, hips, and butt, and I can definitely feel more strength than before in my lower abdomen (but I still have a ways to go). After this we went to Santa Monica College to swim. I had exercise flippers this time so I was able to get the full 64 laps done. I still get breathless when I do freestyle, but I DID notice that I was able to take fewer breaths to get to the other end of the pool. I just love how the improvements are TANGIBLE. Back at the gym I had a massage, thankfully. I ached all over after Wednesday’s bike ride. This was followed by one of my favorite activities…Volleyball drills on the beach. Now…doing anything in the deep sand just sucks the life right out of me, and my heart rate zooms to past its maximum very quickly, but I just love smacking that ball around! I suck at overhead passes (i.e., setting) and overhand serves, but I don’t mind diving into the sand to try to bump the ball and I definitely love serving. I do a sideways serve, in which I toss the ball and hit it from the side rather than overhead. Now that I think about it, this has been a weakness of mine for years….overhead/overhand strength. There are some weightlifting exercises with which I struggle if they are directly overhead. Hmmmm, I will ask my trainers to work on that. Regrettably during overhead pass drills, I twinged a tendon in my right elbow. I iced it as soon as we returned to the gym. A day later it still hurts a little bit but not as much, however it hurts when I raise my shirt over my head to get undressed. Dang. And there’s no one to help me either! OK OK…..on to the Cardio Movie. Marco selected “Marley & Me” for us. I hadn’t seen it yet. Cute movie, but truthfully, it frustrated me. That dog should have been properly trained from the very beginning – but then there would be no movie, right? Hmmmph
Friday morning I awoke feeling very sore all over; my right elbow was especially bothering me. I was thinking that I really needed a day off, but I know the reason for that is because The Dunes were on the schedule. Ugh! Well, this time I wasn’t going to let myself make me miserable. I.e., I wasn’t going to let Desdemona come out and play. But first, I had to do the Oxygen Intake Test again. This time we used a smaller mask (‘cause I actually have a tiny head) and we were able to get good readings. In fact, the readings were excellent. They were excellent FOR ME because they showed a marked improvement in my fitness level, oxygen intake, and heart rate zones. Four weeks ago my maximum cardio heart rate was 139; that’s too low for someone my age. Today that max rate is now at 160. Another significant improvement was my VO2 Max number; four weeks ago it was only 12.7; that’s very low on the fitness level. Today it was 24.1. On the fitness level that is just under “fair” (I’m out of “very low” but up to the high end of “low”). I was really very pleased with that. With all that I had been doing, I HAD to have better levels, and I knew that physically I was feeling stronger. So this was validation that gave me a bit of a nudge to get up The Dunes today.
I never wear earrings while working out, but today I put on my Happy Face earrings to remind me to keep a positive attitude at the Hell of Sand (yes, I really want to spell it that way). I also didn’t want to infect anyone else around me with all the negative talk that I puked out last week. My goal was to do at least 4 again, but do a better job of it. There were two new campers with us. I tried not to talk too horribly about the Hell of Sand; I wanted them to formulate their own opinions. So…we get there, I suck it up, take a deep breath, and start going. This time I wore some beach shoes (sort of like scuba shoes that you wear with the scuba fins) in hopes that this would help me grip the sand better than last week when it just kept oozing through my toes. This did help a bit, although the shoes filled with sand very quickly. But, I could feel myself moving better than I did last week. Rather than only 10 steps at a time, I did 20 or 30, and I just went at my own pace. I had warned Marco that he should let me go on my own so that if I do spew out any negativity he nor anyone else would have to hear it. I have to admit I was THINKING it, but I made a serious effort to have positive thoughts. And I prayed, “Dear God, please get my ass up this hill.” Soooo, made it up the first time in under 15 minutes. For me that was pretty good. Some of the other campers were already on their second or third climb by then! I caught my breath and headed down. Had some water, psyched myself up again, and started on climb #2. I went slower this time because I was exhausted and out of breath and the “burn” from the exertion was covering my entire body. Every 20 steps or so I would stop and turn around to face the bottom and give my thighs and calves a break. Marco also would take turns between me and Belinda (one of the brand new campers) to help push us up a few steps. Finally I was getting close to the top and I was taking one of those breaks, and I saw Marco coming up to help me. Well, dammit, just because I was feeling silly and Maxime was with me at this point, I said, “Oh no, you stay away, don’t let him catch us!” and I ran the last 40 steps to the top. Holy mackerel…my heart rate was nearly 170! BUT Marco did not have to get to me after all. However, this really wiped me out. I knew that I had enough time to do at least two more climbs and I had to suck in all the air that I could to get ready for that. The 3rd and 4th climbs were very slow, but I did them without complaint. Well, OK, except for one time when Marco was pushing me and I had to turn around to stop and catch my breath, and I said, “I can’t breathe” – well, Marco would have none of that (it was Evil Marco, I’m sure) and said “If you can’t breathe then you would be dead.” OK, that made me laugh even if I was pretty pissed off that I was doing this freaking climb. What does frustrate me with all of these exercises which require a lot of exertion is that I get out of breath very quickly. It takes out most of the enjoyment that I’m feeling (‘cause I really do enjoy all the exercises!). Anyway, thankfully the two hours were finally over and while I only did 4 climbs, same as the first week, I did them better and without being a whiny baby about it.
As Fridays are shorter days for us, all I had left was lunch at the office along with a motivational group discussion with Eric the owner, a 1-hour break, and then partner training and cardio. During the break I walked to the Sports Chalet to pick up knee wraps, sand socks, extra padding for my bike seat, and weightlifting gloves with wrist support. Hah…I have never had this much workout gear in my life! How DIFFERENT my life is now from only a few months ago. You know what? I love it! AND I burned over 400 calories…JUST SHOPPING! I’m telling you…somebody is going about this the wrong way ;-) I should be doing more shopping and I think some dancing exercises (which would also be more enjoyable and productive, I’m sure). Back to the gym for 2-on-1 training with Eric (v’ball player) who knew that my elbow was still sore from the previous day’s volleyball drills, so we worked on legs and abs. This time he gave me a new crunch exercise on the Bosu ball in which I sat low on the ball, leaned almost all the way back, and instead of coming up and down for normal crunches, I had to lean back most of the time while moving my upper body in a flat circle. He said that I should focus on something on the ceiling so that I wouldn’t get dizzy. He was right. At one point I closed my eyes as I often do (to concentrate on proper form) but the movement felt like I was on a boat rocking in very unsteady seas. Blah….! We also did supine planks…and I’m getting better at those. He tortured me with 20-second holds. It’s OK though….when I first started I could barely hold it for FIVE seconds. Once again, I’m seeing tangible improvements.
I finished with Eric, did a little cardio and headed home. Tonight one of my meals was turkey sausage & shrimp jambalaya. NOW……I KNOW many of you have heard me say that I refuse to eat any Cajun or Creole meals unless they are prepared by someone who is either from Louisiana, has been trained in Louisiana, or has been trained by a professional from Louisiana. When I saw this on my menu choices last week I almost did NOT choose it, however, I felt like I should give the chefs a chance, and besides, it can’t hurt to know a healthier way to make jambalaya (not that jambalaya is an unhealthy dish, you know…if you change the beef sausage to turkey sausage and use brown rice instead of white rice, you have yourself a healthy jambalaya!). What did I think? WELL, the FLAVORS were pretty good. The texture…aaannnnh, not so much. Jambalaya is really much better with sticky white rice instead of brown rice. I will discuss this with Chef Robert, ‘cause I cannot give up jambalaya! I’m going to have to ask him how we can make muffulettas healthier (nahhh, not possible with the olive salad!).
So, now it’s time to relax and recover. My knees are wrapped up in ice packs for now. I discussed my sore knees with Eric and he gave me some extra stretches to do with my quads and also reminded me that during many of my exercises, I should be pushing through my heels, rather than my knees. I probably have patella tendonitis in both of my knees. I really just want to give them a break for a whole day but that’s not possible ;-( Besides, I don’t want to miss any workouts. OH! I forgot to mention another visible improvement. Today I wore my black yoga crop pants and a black tank top, along with black sports bra. I looked in the mirror and I was pleasantly surprised….my hourglass shape is back! First my dimples have reappeared (according to my Mom and Aunt) and now, from the front, I’m shaped like an hourglass. Yaaay! From the side profile, too, the “basketball” (i.e., my gut and butt together) are a little smaller. And I’ve dropped two dress sizes. All in 30 days. I’m very pleased. And relieved! It’s working! I’m very glad that I still have nearly eight weeks to go because if the results are so good now, I can only imagine what they will be at the end of all this. More inches and pounds lost and improved fitness to come. How cool is that?
Tomorrow, Saturday, is our usual Boot Camp at the beach (going to break in my new sand socks, even if they’re not sexy), lunch at the Catering Kitchen, and then Group Circuit in the gym. I hope you all manage to get a little bit of exercise in while enjoying the weekend. Love and hugs to all!
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