Bootcamp: Day 9, Round 2 . . .

I'm so happy that I'm working out with this great group of people. They all offer such unconditional motivation and support. I was talking today with Stephanie, one my my favorite leaders, about races this morning. She turned me onto Active.com, which has a ton of training tools, and race information. She also said she had a great half-marathon training program which she used for hers, so I should have that soon. The website is great. They had several 10Ks listed for November and December which are in Atlanta. So, now, I'm considering one of those instead of the bridge run. Although, Steph has done the Cooper River Bridge run in Charleston, South Carolina (which is similar to the one I've been considering). She said it was a blast. A lot of the leaders are running a 5K in the morning, which I decided I would do too . . . until the workout. More on that later.

Today we did "B-52". It was a competition workout. We were divided into 5 groups, and each group had a deck of cards in the middle. Each team member would sprint to the middle, pick up a card, and based on what the pulled card was, complete an individual exercise. Numbers 2-9 meant repetitions of the card value, face cards were 15 reps, and Aces were 20. However, when the first Joker was pulled, all the reps doubled until the second Joker was pulled. You have four different exercises based on what suit you pull from the deck. The first group to get through the entire deck, put it back together, and bring it back to the middle wins. It was fun. The first round of exercises was push-up variations, round 2 was ab work, and round 3 was leg work. My legs were bothering me during a good portion of the workout. So, much so that I was nearly in tears -- and I do consider myself to have a high pain tolerance as far as exercise goes.

After the workout, three of the guys were checking on me because I was limping and walking slow. After they all inspected my legs, including prodding around a bit, they decided I've probably got shin splints. Those aren't fun at all. One of our leaders is a chiropractor, so he was able to give me very detailed and good advice for recovery. First, ice, ice, and more ice. He also suggested that I fill a bucket with ice water and soak my legs. I really dread that. He cracked up at the look I gave him after he informed me that "after the first 5 minutes, your legs are numb anyway." I was reading about the benefits of ice baths earlier this week, it's just getting up the nerve to try it. I can't run this weekend, under their orders. It was pretty funny, because all three of the guys were babying me a bit. They've all been teasing me about my fall most of the week. One even teased me that he was going to come over tomorrow and just cut off my legs. I told him that I was already short enough! Hopefully, by resting this weekend, I'll be okay for Monday. Keep your fingers crossed for me.