One week to go

Sorry for not updating the blog last week but an old friend was in town and writing on my phone from the golf course was proving too difficult. This week’s blog will count for two though and the last two weeks couldn’t have been more different.

Prior to the weigh in on Apr. 12, I had a great week. I had started running using an app on my iPhone called “C25K” or Couch to 5K. You plug in the music you want to play and it tells you how much to run each day, three days a week. By the end of 10 weeks, you will be ready to run a 5K race. Am I going to run a 5K this summer? No, I am not. Running is a great way to lose weight though, so I went for it. Add the running to eating smart and still hitting the gym and I thought for sure I would be the head of the class that week.

No. My weight hadn’t moved one millimeter. 194. Yes, I was highly ticked. Especially since I knew that in two days, my childhood friend was coming to town and adult beverages would be quaffed on more than one occasion.

That week’s class was rough too. My legs were dead from all the running and a lot of the focus was (of course) on the legs. We did lunges and squats and stretches with these crazy bands. We also did this thing where we balanced on the step (elevated higher than normal this week) and barely touched the tips of our toes on the ground, repeatedly. Until it burned.

And it really burned.

I hit entire body fatigue a few times, collapsing during tricep dips and then again during the thing where you elevate your legs towards the ceiling and try to raise them even more. If I have one exercise that I hate the most, it’s that one. Maybe it’s because I’m tall or maybe it’s because we always tend to do it right at the end of class when I am pooped. Either way, yuk.

I knew with my buddy in town, I was going to have to keep up with the diet and exercise as best I could. I ran or worked out in the mornings before he got up and ate well until the weekend hit. Friday night called for a trip to the Braves game and a club afterwards and drinks were consumed. Saturday took us to the Renaissance Festival and their deep-fried treats. In my head, I saw myself standing on the scale on Monday and having to push it up a few pounds. I worried that the whole program would have been for nothing, that my goal would be unreachable, that I would have let my team down.

Fortunately, I had a mega-productive Sunday. I got my run in, ran with my son’s soccer team in their second game of the weekend and then played three straight kickball games with my team during a night of exhibition games. (Yes, kickball, there are still a few slots left for teams. Season starts May 2 - Visit www.homeplate1.com). Whether it was Sunday’s draining activities or the 36 holes of golf during the week or pulling my kids in a wagon at Ren Fest, something worked because I finally went down from 194 to 191 and a fraction. Four pounds to go with one weigh in left next Monday.

This last class was fun, but also kind of crazy. In my previous run with “I Lost It At The Club,” one of the classes featured a short round of Pain Poker. We all got a few cards and each suit represented a different exercise. For instance, if you drew an eight of diamonds, you did eight push-ups. On Monday, Sheila gave us each a full deck, two Jokers included. The class wasn’t over until we all finished our deck. Clubs were push-ups, spades were jump squats, hearts were lunges with bicep curls and diamonds were squats. Face cards were worth 10 exercises, Aces were 15 and Jokers were a 30 second rest. After every five exercises, we had to do 10 crunches. So, we did 99 of each exercise and 100 crunches overall.

Fun.

Actually, it wasn’t too bad. It was exhausting but it goes back to the mantra that I use to get me through these workouts - “I can do anything for an hour.” Eventually, it was over and within minutes afterward I felt better and not as wiped out. I think it is awesome that my team and I could then look back and see that we did almost 500 exercises in less than an hour. It’s things like that that make the class so worth it. Before this, if you told me I’d do 99 push-ups, I’d have thought you were crazy.

So, here we are the final week. Time for everyone on the team to make that final push - eat as clean as possible - no cheat days this week - and work out every day as hard as we can. Who knows what extremes we’ll go to on Monday before the weigh-in. I may call some of my wrestling contacts and ask for advice on making weight.

The day after - I’m going to Ted’s for a George’s Cadillac Bison Burger.