I needed a starting point for my new exercising regime, so when this magazine contacted me to join their organized boot camp, I immediately responded; YES! This is NOW or NEVER!
Yes, it was THAT bad.
I arrived at the venue of the boot camp excitedly by cab; first guilty confession, when I could use the public transport and a bit of… walking *grimaced*. It was a sort of park, or small field on a hill (Nuff’ said.).
I went to this park once, during a school field trip and I remembered telling myself that I am not going to come back. I meant; whatever for? I was not outdoorsy enough to explore the vast, green, grassy hill, sweating and panting along the way! And my idea of relaxing was not exactly sitting on the grass under the trees, either. Gimme a cool café anytime.
But then I found myself standing there, looking around the vastness, and thought; what I have gotten myself into?
I saw a guy standing about the field; is that the… trainer? Even thinking about it made my excitement sunk lower.
But first thing first; finding the changing area.
And the nearest toilet was… drum roll, please… at the second floor of an old, colonial, Victorian building (and that means stairs), up, up, up the hill…
Right…
So I walked all the way up, and all the way down, and I was panting! And sweating! What mortification!
And there was this guy, looking perfectly fit, standing on the field, listening to music. *confidence sunk*
Timidly I asked, “Is this the venue for the boot camp?”
“HUH?”
Apparently my question was not loud enough. Repeat.
“Oh, yeah! Hi, I’m S” (Name concealed for confidentiality)
Is your name really P*nk? popped in my mind. (The full name was mentioned in the e-mail notification of the boot camp)
Let me say this first, I am not good with people, especially guys. But he was friendly (thank goodness), and has this amiable aura about him and after a bit of chit-chat, he seemed quite nice. *relieved*
The participants were coming; what the hell they are doing in a boot camp? I mean, they were as lean as fish! *confidence sunk even lower*
My instinct to ‘flight’ went soaring, but they had already seen me so I might as well swallow the embarrassment and will my feet to be rooted to the ground.
I survived the first session of stretching, but the main course? My knees were going to give with one wrong step and you asked me to run?
So, when everybody was running up the hill, I could only walk; small, little, slow steps to avoid falling, or worse, rolling down the hill.
This, was humiliation. Total humiliation.
Then came the paired resistance training; S paired me with TY, the magazine journalist who would be joining us for the sessions. She has this very lean (I do not like the word ‘skinny’; sounds unhealthy) body, big eyes and kind-of-pixie hair. She would look real good as cute, cheerful fairy.
Oh, and I should remind you, that especially at this point of time, I was not the easiest person to strike a conversation with, with all the panting and nausea and shock and so on and so forth. And I was also the lousiest partner to be paired with. If there was a lowest standard in fitness level, I just hit the new low. I could not do much, looked real bad, felt sick, and was going to throw up. I am sure you would understand that I would not be too friendly or even cheerful.
But I got to hand it to her to be so patient; kept on encouraging and be with me all along the way. That was really nice of her. I really appreciate it, really touched. Thank you very much *teary smile*
After another stretching set, we had a sort-of-reflection session.
Honestly, it felt good that I went through, finished, the first day of the boot camp, survived without vomiting, falling or collapsing, even when I could not do the whole activities well. I also seriously hoped that after this, I could go through all the sessions more easily than before and thus able to encourage myself to have a more active lifestyle.
Still, I could not ignore the screaming voice in my head; D*mn this training! It can go to hell for all I care! What pain! Sh*t, I am going to fall! Uh-oh, my throat is contracting… This is not good… yada, yada, yada…
Yes, I am a pessimist. I like to grumble, too, a lot.
But after all those full-hour of grumbling, it felt good to finish the boot camp. Those grumblings were just casual remarks (XP).
I felt… proud? Hell yeah, I felt kind of proud of myself for taking the first step. *stupid grin*
Then I heard somebody said that the muscles felt like jelly. Jelly? This is mashed potato!
The not-so-pleasant after-effect:
My body felt constantly hot and I could not sleep a wink that night. My brain went overdrive; I could not keep coherent thoughts, and got a terrible headache. And I could not stop crying for no apparent reason. Frustrating, to say the least.
Right there and then, I seriously reconsidering about going for another session.
But after a deep slumber from 5 a.m. (Yes, I could only started sleeping at 5 a.m.) to 9 a.m. (What little sleep…) (TT), when my body ached all over and moving was a chore, I felt good. I felt more relaxed, even with the tensed muscles. With a better mood, I stopped by a mall to buy a hot cup of tea on my cheerful way to school.
Oh, and I felt less sleepy during the day than I usually was in class. *silly grin*
And I noticed that I had lots of gas in the stomach… (XP)
Disclaimer:
In the moment of typing, the writer was still high on endorphin, thus the uncensored mouth, or rather, fingers.
Update:
The ache escalated during the day… (TT)
Love,
Lina.
