In which it's Bootcamp, Day 2

If someone asked you to do jumping jacks for 1 minute, that doesn't sound so bad, right?

It doesn't. Until you try to do it, than it's, like, Frak, when is this minute up?

That was one of what I thought were the "easy" intervals this morning. Ay yi yi. A good ay yi yi, but still ay yi yi.

Today was my first regular Wednesday class. There are 8 other people in the class, all ages, shapes and sizes. Our trainer on Wednesdays is different than Fridays, but she was just as nice and helpful.

Again, after just the warmups I'm sucking wind. But at least I know I'm burning calories along with my impending stroke, so that's nice.

Each of the six stations had different exercises from last Friday's class. They were all new and interesting. And exhausting. But overall the workout is great, I'm sweating like a draft horse, and it's all done all by 7 am.

I think the hardest part of this experience is mental. I can't make it straight through the whole minute doing whatever I'm supposed to do. I either run out of breath or my muscles are so fatigued I can't continue straight through.

That's OK, the trainers say. Take a break, try again and do your best.

But I'm so all-or-nothing in my thinking in this (and many other areas) that I automatically feel like I "failed" by stopping and restarting. I'm having to employ a lot of positive self-talk in order to beat back the negative thoughts.

I keep telling myself: This is all new. You're learning. You're getting stronger and better each time you try. Just keep trying.

And I should be able to dead lift a Kia by fall.

It's funny, last night I felt a little anxiety about class this morning. It was sitting there, in the back of my head, You have bootcamp tomorrow morning...You have bootcamp tomorrow morning. Then it hit me: It was the same nervousness I had before gym class as a kid.

If you're wondering, What's with boxing bell? A boxing bell sound effect plays at the beginning of each interval. It dings again at the 30-second mark. Then it dings several times in a row when there's 10 seconds left.

I'm convinced the length of time between the first ding and the 30-second one is, approximately, 3.5 minutes.