Bootcamp: Day 8, Round 2 & Super Motivation . . .

I missed the workout yesterday, deciding to let my knee and lower leg rest a bit. It was a good decision. It felt much better during today's workout. The bruise is still really ugly -- but I'm kinda fond of it. I think it makes me look tough -- some might say klutzy, but I say tough. Yesterday, they did interval training, so I picked a tough workout to miss.

Today was 21s. It was 49 degrees when we started and throughout the workout I shed two layers of clothes. I was drenched when we finished. We started off running the stadium stairs, up and down three times, then we did our regular dynamic warm-ups. We probably ran about 1 mile around campus. The strength exercises were in downward pyramids, starting at 21 and moving down in 3's (i.e. 18, 15, 12, 9, etc.) Each circuit consisted of jumping jacks, some form of squats or lunges (or sometimes both), some form of push-ups (regular, military style, and diamond), and some form of ab exercise (sit-ups, crunches, butterflies, flutterkicks, and plank). Then we did two sets of 21 tricep dips, and 2 sets of 21 elevated push-ups, angle to work the triceps. Mine gave out at the end. It's the weirdest feeling to be pushing and pushing and your muscle is so fatigued that it won't go. Afterwards, we sprinted up and down the massive hill for 2 minutes. I have officially named that hill "Bane" -- as in the bane of my existence. I hate it.

In other news, I start my job October 1st. I'm looking forward to it. I'm still not sure what's going on with next week. I emailed them this morning, so hopefully I hear from them today.

My stylist -hair, not fashion, but how I wish I had a fashion stylist too -- is on vacation this week. So, I may have to wait until next Saturday to get my hair cut. If I don't go to Louisville, I can do it earlier. I must call Meg once I find out my schedule.

I've lost 4 pounds, as of today, since I started this session. Everybody told me that your second session is when you see vast improvement. So, hopefully I'll see changes in my body tone over the next couple of weeks. People told me they could see differences with the last session, and I sort of did. I'm already seeing a little bit now, and we still have 2 weeks to go.

Last night, I was reading through my "Runner's World" magazine and came to an article about Dean Karnazes. He's an ultramarathoner who is running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. For those unfamiliar, that's 26.2 miles per day. He's sponsored by The North Face and you can read more about it here: endurance50. He's going to be running in Atlanta on October 27th -a.k.a. the day of reckoning for Georgia Bar Examinees, and Helen's birthday! This guy amazed me. He finished 8th in the Badwater Death Valley Ultramarathon! This race covers 135 miles, is held at the end of July, and the racers not only run for approximately 60 hours, but have to deal with temperatures of up to 130 degrees! Talk about tough, I mean, look at this picture. Sure, it's beautiful, but could you imagine running there?

He also has written a book titled Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All Night Runner, which I totally want to read. It really motivated me to read about him. I mean, if he can run that many miles, then surely I can stay off my ass and keep running.