Bootcamp.  At 6am.  In the friggin cold.  On a Friday morning.

Yes, that’s how I finished off my week, and the only way I could cope with early morning outdoor training in the middle of winter was to

  1. sleep in my training gear
  2. purposefully oversleep so that I am forced to hit the ground running (and therefore warm up faster)

The group that gathered in Sea Point yesterday morning was noticeably smaller than usual, so I gave myself a quick self-high-five for commitment and hanged around the back of the pack until we started running.

What followed was an hour of running, sprinting (or as Steve calls it – running as fast as you can when you’re being chased by a bergie), push-ups, sit-ups, buddy-PT, planking (and not in the nice social networking kinda way)… and burpees.

I hate burpees.

If you Google it, it claims to condition every single muscle in your body in the shortest space of time.  Basically it’s a stand-to-plank-to-pushup-to-squat-to-explosive-star-jump-to-plank-to-pushup….  Done over and over again.

How burpees should be done…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21dvQyNiTjM]

We were supposed to do three sets of 10 burpees with 200 metres of running in between.  I managed three sets of three.  By burpee number four in each set my explosive star jump qualified to be renamed to “wilting flower”, because I managed a lame little hop while performing an arm movement that resembled swatting away a fly.  Not pretty.

I don’t remember much of bootcamp but I do remember pain, sweat and mud.

Early morning planking. Fun was had by all.

Sofie and I trying to look cool and casual while preparing for partner sit-ups.

ExPLOsive star jump… you’re doing it right

LOL – glad to see Sofie and I weren’t the only ones who struggled with a spot of partner squatting…

Oh, yes, the mud…

It was still dark when I left Sea Point for work, but on the way I was really cold and clammy and wanted to pop into the 24-hour Woolies around the corner from my office to refuel.

As I got out of the car my eye caught the car’s side mirror, and then I saw myself for the first time:  face full of mud, legs covered in mud, a brown muddy butt and dirty hands.  And blood coming through my tights – I still can’t figure out where I cut my knee.

I sighed, turned around and went straight to the office.

But that’s not where the fun stopped

… because for some reason my office’s security gate wouldn’t open, the alarm countdown had already started and a few seconds later the alarm went off.  After managing to reset the gate’s keypad, I got in, waited for ADT to call, then gave up and stripped down to shower.

I was about to turn on the taps when I heard the doorbell ring and the security guy calling, and a few seconds later the ADT dude had the fright of his life when he came face to face with a chick (moi) in a tiny little towel, hair standing in all directions and mud on her face and a bloody knee.

He laughed.  I laughed.  And he walked away, shaking his head.  I guess he realised that I belonged there, even though I didn’t know the password.

Looking ahead

After singing the praises of my immune booster remedy, I was caught off-guard by a bunch of flu symptoms last night, which kinda screwed my training plans for the weekend 🙁  I’m now trying my best to expel the lurgies from my body before my

  • 8km run time trial on Tuesday
  • 1km swim time trial on Thursday
  • 40km bike time trial on Saturday

Hold thumbs…