Category: Fitness

Elite Warrior Boot Camp Diary: The End

For a quick recap, I decided in an energetic moment to join a 6-week Elite Warrior Boot Camp at my gym. The boot camp was led by a trainer, Walter, and classes were held Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week. A small group of people attended the private training classes, ranging from 4 – 8 depending on the day.

Here are my two previous posts for easy clicking:

Let me start off by saying, I’m not a boot camp kind of person. I don’t especially enjoy working out and I’ve never stuck with an actual workout program or class for more than a month or so. Signing up for this ELITE WARRIOR boot camp was totally out of my comfort zone and I wasn’t really sure if I was going to like it or not.

Now that the 6 weeks is over and I have completed 18 workouts, I can say… I loved it.

By having a core group of people to work out with, it kept me motivated to show up each day. Walter is a fantastic trainer. He keeps you motivated to keep doing more and trying harder, and most importantly he doesn’t yell.

I was kind of concerned that someone was going to yell at me and I’d instinctively punch them.

With that being said, sure there were days where I didn’t feel like going to the gym. However, I didn’t miss ANY of my workouts. Which is basically one of the biggest workout accomplishments of my entire life.

Now, let’s talk about the results. I wasn’t using this boot camp as a diet/exercise thing where I’d have a goal to lose a set amount of weight. In fact, I didn’t really change my diet at all. Instead, I just concentrated on whether I felt good about myself and whether I was feeling stronger throughout the program. Also, Easter was in there… and I love me some peeps.

With that being said, I did get my measurements done on the first day of the boot camp. I went back in on Monday to get measured again. I knew that I hadn’t lost any pounds, but I was curious if there were other changes.

I actually did end up losing about 1/2 inch off my waist and belly area, as well as 1/2 inch off each thigh. I realize that a half inch doesn’t sound like much, but with no diet changes at all I’m totally okay with that. Most importantly, the boot camp really helped me feel good about myself – both mentally and physically. I also ran a 10k in the middle of my boot camp and got my fastest time yet.

Even better, I showed Jack how mommy likes to work out to be strong!

Now here is the super surprising thing – surprising to me at least – I enjoyed it so much I want to sign up for 6 more weeks! I was actually planning on jumping right back in with no break between the sessions, but then Walter planned to be out of town for a week, and then I have our vacation and my sister’s wedding later this month. So my current hope is that I can start 6 more weeks right after Memorial Day!

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Running the 2019 Sole of the City 10k

Why do I keep signing up for these races?

The last time I ran outside was October, when I did the Baltimore Running Festival 5k. The last time I ran a 10k was in June, when I did the Wayfarer’s Annapolis 10k. I was supposed to run the Across the Bay 10k in November… but we drank too much the night before and decided sleep and coffee were a better idea.

So yeah, NO running for 6 months… why wouldn’t I shove my 41-year-old body into a running skirt and run a race?!

Running races with no preparation is kinda my thing though, so I strapped my lady lumps into my exercise bra, laced up some running shoes, stuck a few Tums in my fanny pack in case I got hit with a case of the I-haven’t-run-forever-case-of-the-pukeys and went for it.

And…

It was GREAT!

First of all, I love running with Lindsey. So any time I get to just chat with her while burning a bunch of calories is a win in my book. Especially if we get brunch after. With bacon.

Which we did, of course.

Also, the run actually felt pretty great. In fact, I have to check but I may have gotten my fastest 10k time ever (which is NOT fast for a normal person, but I run at turtle speed… so I’m cool with it).

Anyways, before the brunch (and bacon) was the beer and band!

At the end of the race, each runner got beer tickets for 2 cans of Natty Boh. But after meeting up with another friend, we ended up with a pile of beer tickets. Which did not go to waste.

The after-party band, Alter Ego, was also really fun. So we basically danced, bounced and drank our running aches away until they shut everything down around noon.

THEN we had brunch.

All in all, it was a fantastic day. Of course, once I got home and took a shower I needed a little nap to recharge. And my knees felt awful until I got a full night of sleep. But I’m totally ready to sign up again for next year!

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Elite Warrior Boot Camp Diary: The Halfway Point

In case you missed it, I decided to join a 6-week Elite Warrior Boot Camp at my gym. I’ve been in a bit of a gym rut, so I thought that working with a trainer in a small group might be just the thing to get me motivated again. I picked the 3-day-a-week option, so as of today I am 9 classes in… or the halfway point.

You can read my thoughts after my first week here: Elite Warrior Boot Camp Diary: Week One

Thoughts on my Second Week:

Coming back into the gym for my second week of classes was much easier than starting the first week. I kind of knew what to expect now that I’ve been through three different workouts. I also have seen many of the same faces at each class, which is nice. At the beginning of this week, I’m already feeling stronger than I was last week.

Monday was a “normal” workout with a mix of cardio and weight training. On Wednesday, the trainer had to reschedule the class for the weekend (which I was unable to attend), so I went to the gym on my own and did an hour of cardio. Friday was another beating-the-crap-out-of-the-punching-bag-day, which is my FAVORITE kind of day!

Class #6 was the one that really killed me. The session started with the group running up and down 3 flights of stairs 13 times and then just kept it going with bunch of different cardio activities for the full hour. I. Was. Pooped. But, I felt pretty great about myself.

Thoughts on my Third Week:

This is where it started to get hard. Not so much physically hard, but emotionally hard.

My goals when starting the boot camps were basically to feel stronger and altogether better about myself. However, I do admit that deep down inside I also hoped that like 10 pounds would just slide off and I’d suddenly look amazing in a bikini.

That hasn’t happened.

I DO feel much stronger and my muscles ARE much stronger, but my weight is basically the same.

I understand that muscle weighs more than fat, so at the end of the program I am interested to see if I have lost any inches. I also understand that it’s only the third week and real body change takes time. Also, if I really want to see some hard-core changes…I’d need to adjust my diet even more.

Even knowing all this, the petulant 13-year-old inside me is grumpy about it.

I brought that bad mood into class #7:

But luckily, I snapped myself (mostly) out of it by Friday… because as I’ve mentioned before boxing day is my favorite day!

Yesterday was class #9 for me, marking my halfway point and I’m still feeling really great about my choice to push myself with this boot camp. It feels good to go to the gym and sweat it out for an hour. I’m not happy about my tummy, but I’m working on it — both mentally and physically. I feel proud of myself when I’m able to keep up with the other people in the class. And I really feel good when I punch the hell out of a punching bag.

If you want to follow along with my Elite Warrior Boot Camp, I’m trying to post after each workout on my Instagram account (find it here). I’m also planning to do a Results blog check-in at the end of the 6 weeks.

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