Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Journey Begins

Today was the start of our 90 days of bootcamp-like training. I was very excited to get started and as my husband would say, I was "hungry for it." After hurting my knee last week, I've been taking it easy for the past 7 days. My husband has been on a business-trip all week, eating far too much and not exercising, so today we were both ready.

Just to give you some background, I am 39 years old and my husband just turned 53. To make him feel better on his birthday, I switched the candles around to read "35." He honestly looks and acts more like 35 than 53 and I think he's going to have an easier time getting through this program than I am.

We have both stayed in pretty good shape for the past several years. We have been together now for over 6 years and during this time we keep very active biking, kayaking, hiking, lifting, doing yoga, to name a few activities. But at the same time, we live in CT and it's just plain difficult to keep in good cardio shape in the winter time. Although we have free access to several indoor cardio machines, they simply bore me to tears. I can pedal on a real bike all day and cover incredible distances, however I think I’m gonna die after 2 miles on a stationary bike. I just can't do it. At this point in the winter, we have been trail running just about every day for the past 3 weeks, but that, and a little Zumba dancing for me, has been the extent of our winter cardio.

Our first training DVD was "Core" fitness. I have to say it started out pretty good. I was able to do just about every move, but not as many reps as the chiseled robots on the video. These people just make me sick! Yes, it's inspiring to see perfectly fit human beings, but it's a little depressing at the same time. It's hard not to mumble under my breath and call them names. But overall, I kept in good spirits.

The best part about today was that it didn't require the use of much equipment - just some dumbbells. We are trying to do this routine in a spare bedroom and space and equipment may pose a challenge. The piece of equipment that is scaring me the most right now is the chin up bar. I have to say that I'm pretty darn proud of myself, as I can already do about 7 pull-ups, but not from a dead hang. I can only come down until my arms are at 90 degrees - so it will be my goal after 90 days to do 10 pull-ups from a dead hang. Ouuch, it hurts just thinking about that . . . But we'll see.

So we got through our 55 minutes today without too much whimpering or complaining. Overall I feel pretty good about our first day. I can't wait to see how sore we will be tomorrow and the thrill of not knowing what the next video will be is very exciting. I love the format of the DVDs and the lead dude is very motivating. I know it's very early to give a rating, but after today, I give it a 2 thumbs up!

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