The Long Awaited Update . . .

So, I've been a little absent online the last few days. Most of that is due to starting the new job. It seems to be going well, at least from my end. The trip to Louisville went well and everyone in that office is very nice. Currently, I'm still the only one in the Atlanta office, so it's been quiet. Thank goodness there's a radio! I'll have company this week at work as someone from the Louisville office is coming down, so I'm excited about that.

Yesterday was the last day of bootcamp. However, we start a new session on Monday which I'm all signed up for! For that reason, I'm going light this weekend. I might go for a run tomorrow if the weather's nice. We'll see.

Last night, we had an end of bootcamp type get together. It's always fun to sit and talk with everyone, and to see everyone in normal clothes. It's especially fun seeing all the women dressed up, make-up on, and hair fixed, because we don't see that at all at 6:00 a.m.!

I'm going to do a little shopping this afternoon, but have plans to watch the Tennessee v. Georgia football game this evening. I really hope Tennessee wins!

Hopefully, I once I adjust, I'll be back to posting regularly here. It might take a few days!

Back . . .

I made it back to Atlanta around 6:00 tonight. I'm worn out from the drive, and must be up at 5:00 a.m. for bootcamp in the morning.

Tomorrow is my first day at my new office! I'm excited! I plan to update tomorrow night about tomorrow's workout and my trip.

Kentucky . . .

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I'm safely in Louisville. The drive wasn't too bad, about 5 1/2 hours. The weather was great today, it was a beautiful day to drive. I have wi-fi access here at the hotel, so I should be able to update. Hopefully, I can find a safe place to run while I'm here.

Wish me luck for my first day at work tomorrow! I'm a little nervous!

Following Orders . . .

So, I've been told to get off my booty and blog. Happy? (I mean this in the most loving way - you know who you are!)

I didn't get into camp yesterday due to a very late night on Wednesday. I did make it this morning. Today we did a scavenger hunt around the campus where we work out. You have to find certain spots on campus, answer a question about the spot, and do a specific exercise there. You also have to run from point to point. We had a few people absent today, so my group was small (2 campers and 2 leaders). But, it was fun! Another fun thing about today was that we had several former NFL players working out with us today. That, of course, explains where the NFL Combine workout came from! I think stuff like that shows how strong of a program we have, if it can accommodate so many people of varying fitness levels and allow each of them to work their hardest!

I finally got my hair trimmed on Wednesday. Meg did a great job, as usual. I changed my mind on cutting it above my shoulders, so it's still long.

I think I'm heading to Louisville on Sunday for work. Although, I haven't received any hotel information, so we'll see.

Today's Motto . . .

"Just because your muscles are complaining doesn't mean you have to listen."

Except! Substitute "shins" for "muscles" and you have me pegged. Needless to say, my shins are still bothering me. Hopefully, with continued ice and some rest they will be fine. Tomorrow, thankfully, is an off day for us, so I don't have to workout until Thursday morning.

Yesterday was one of my favorite workouts. First, we ran 1 mile or so and then headed down to the field for the workout. We did random exercises, some for 30 seconds and some for 1 minute, and each exercise is some sort of skill. For example, we did jump rope, different type of squats and jumps, mogul twists, throwing and squatting, lunging and shooting a fake basketball. The exercises are meant to keep your heart rate up, and also to max out your muscles - legs especially. It's a fun workout because Stacy is very creative, and has some fun, and funny, exercises.

Today, was also a fun workout, but very challenging. The workout came straight from an NFL Combine Training Program. These are used to increase your speed and agility. We had five stations set up, and did different drills at each station. So, lots of sprints, suicides, shuffles, and things of that sort. The stops and starts really bothered my shins. In between the stations, we did an ab exercise.

I was very excited to finally watch "Heroes" last night. I really liked it. It's probably my favorite new show (although I still haven't seen "The Nine", it starts next week, I think). I'm not a huge fan of X-Men, or some of the other comic book type stuff, so a lot of it will be new for me. I loved Hiro! He was easily my favorite character. I'm already looking forward to next week!

The Weekend . . .

It's been a quiet weekend for me, which I'm very happy about. Even though I couldn't run, I did manage to get outside for a bit yesterday. I'm itching for a run -- which is good! Today, it's been raining off and on all day long. I've been reading mostly - which is so nice.

I've been icing my shins all weekend. They feel better, and I hope they feel okay during the workout in the morning. We have two full weeks left of our workout sessions. I'm going to miss three in the last week as I'll be in Louisville for work. I hope that my work schedule will allow me to do the next set of workouts. We're only going until around Thanksgiving because it gets so cold in the mornings. Then, things will start back up sometime in March.

I renewed my Crunch membership a couple of weeks ago (and for less than I was paying) for another year. I love my gym. So, I'll at least be able to run indoors and get in a good workout if it gets too cold for me outside.

I'm getting my hair cut on Wednesday afternoon. My step-brother comes in Wednesday night, and is staying until sometime on Saturday. I was planning to go with him on Friday because all the drivers mill about and sign autographs and meet the fans. I so wanted to see Patrick Dempsey again. I had originally considered taking the picture of he and I from last year and having him sign it for me. Unfortunately, I have to go into the office some on Friday, so I won't be able to go. I guess hugging on Patrick Dempsey once will have to be enough!

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.

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.

Bootcamp: Day 6, Round 2 . . .

First, a pretty picture of my badly bruised kneecap!

I'm telling the truth when I say it doesn't hurt. However, because I compensated for it yesterday during the workout, my shins were hurting pretty bad today. I had to take it easy on all the non-abdominal exercises.

Anyhow, today's workout was an Ab-O-Rama! It was so painful, mostly because I despise doing ab work . . . it just sucks. We set up in four staging areas and did a different exercise at each one, for a total of 12 exercises. Each exercise was performed for 90 seconds. 90 seconds doesn't sound like a long time -- it's only a minute and a half -- but it sure seems like a very long time when you're doing difficult ab exercise. The 12 that we did were: rowboats, plank position, ball twists, push-up to plank, leg scissors, bicycles, side planks, regular crunches, supermans, oblique crunches, leg holds (6 inches off the ground -- can you say "ow"?), and up & downs. We also did different exercises, such as sprints, back-pedaling, and walking lunges between the stations. That was the part I had to take it easy on. The first set of sprints got my leg.

I'm thinking of cutting my hair. Right now it's almost down to my collarbone, and it really needs to be trimmed. I'm trying to decide if I just want to trim it, and keep the same style, or if I want to have it cut to just below my chin. I'm debating, and looking at pictures. Who knows. We'll see what happens when I get into Megan's chair.

Bootcamp: Day 5, Round 2

My knee and foot are both feeling better. My knee doesn't look pretty. It's totally blue right on top of my kneecap. It felt okay during my workout this morning, save for the jog back down the huge hill (yes, the huge hill from Friday). I noticed the further into the workout the more achy my knee became, I suppose it's simply from the jarring of the exercise. My foot felt a little wonky when I woke up, but once I put on my shoes, and it had a little support, it was fine. It didn't bother me at all during the workout.

So, today's workout was a mixture of jogging and 1 minute recovery exercises. All in all, we probably jogged around 1-1.5 miles. AND! I jogged the massive hill without stopping or getting nauseous! I was very pleased, as was Bryan, the guy who stayed with me on Friday when I was walking off my nausea. In between the jogging portions, we did the following exercises: 1 minute curb toe-touches (x 2), corner jumps (x 3 -- once with both legs, and once on each leg), walking lunges, 1 minutes basketball slides (x 2), 1 minute plank, 20 sit-ups, 1 minute bicycles, 20 tripcep dips, and 20 push-ups.

Tomorrow is ab day! I'm really dreading that. I hate working my abs!

Yesterday, we didn't get to go to Nino's because they were closed. Instead, we went to Roxx Tavern. They have great burgers, but I was good and ordered Lemon Rosemary Chicken with green beans and carrots. I wanted that burger so bad I could taste it, but the chicken was good too!