Bootcamp Week 5: Bursitis Survivor

Week 5 started off great, because we were soaking in a hot tub at 7 AM on Monday instead of doing push ups in the park. Ahhhhh. But that didn't last for long. On Tuesday we were back down at the AIDS Memorial Garden. My knee had been feeling a lot better, so Ray had me run on flat surfaces and Bursa Reynolds didn’t act up at all. I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor!

I was relieved to finally be running without pain again. While we did a combination of running and mat exercises, Ray continued to tell us gruesome stories of people who died while working out (at other bootcamps). “This one guy showed up to bootcamp and he was puking blood. His trainer encouraged him to work out anyway and he died on the spot.” Who shows up for bootcamp if they are puking blood? That makes my bout with bursitis look like a laughing matter. Other stories involved various freak accidents slipping on wet ground or hills while running resulting in cracked teeth, broken necks and heart failure. Not exactly the kind of chatter you want to hear when you’re doing lunges on wet bleachers. For some reason Ray went easy on us and only gave us a 50 minute workout. She even let us WALK to and from the memorial grove back to our cars. Maybe she sensed my lawsuit stare.

Not sure if I’m getting more in shape or if I’m just getting accustomed to regular workouts, but somehow the Friday workout with Killer Keith wasn’t too terrible. He had us do a lot of running and pushups, then squats and more push ups. Bursa Reynolds was on his best behavior, so I participated in all activities. By the end of the week 5, I was sure that I could take even more of this. I was looking at all the other people at the intermediate and advanced level and realized that six weeks of intense workouts is just a nibble off the big slice of fitness pie. Six weeks alone will not whip you into the best shape. I must have been crazy to think that it would, but now I realize that it's all in baby steps. Most of these advanced people have been working out at this level for a year a half. So I'm still chugging along and checking for the appearance of abs daily. Nothing yet. Lil' Wendy is still bounching along with me, choking the whole way.