I haven't been posting about boot camp for some reason. So for those of you who are curious what goes on in boot camp here are some details:

Today: On the roof - warm-ups- butt kicks, heel-toe rocks, shoulder stretch, triceps stretch, left-over-right (bend down and touch toes), modified hurdler stretch (right and left), butterfly, quads, ITB, 90 degree squat and then the running begins. First we jog in place, then we do high knees, then more jogging in place. This is to get our blood flowing. I'm usually sweating by this point. Like LT G. told us, I try to keep my abs tight throughout the warm up part of the morning. Then we start PT. Push-ups, steam engines, toe touchers, cherry pickers, mountain climbers, etc. all with jogging in place in-between. I may have missed a few but you get the idea.

Then the Marines broke us into groups based on our mile times (7:30 and faster, 7:30 - 8:30, 8:30 - 9:30 and 9:30 and above). I'm in the 8:30 - 9:30 group. Our group got to go do to the indoor track. We started doing a group run. Problem was our group was the largest and since it takes a while to get that many people down the stairs when I stepped out on the track my group was rounding the corn a quarter of a lap ahead of me. Myself and the rest of the group had to catch them and Sgt H made sure they didn't slow down and wait for us. I took me almost a lap to catch them. Once we all got back together we ran as a group for 2 or 3 laps then the indian runs began. For those of you who have never heard of an indian run, let me explain. Our group was about 30 people. We are all running together in a long single file line which covers about a quarter lap of the track. When we start the indian run the person in the back of the line sprints all out to the front of the line as the rest of the group continues to run. The real challenge is to get folks to realize that the purpose of the indian run is two-fold. First the group must run as a group, it is not about individual effort it is about supporting the group, cheering on folks as they spring and making sure the line is as compact as possible so the sprint is as short as possible (especially when you have 30+ people in your group). There are always a few folks that join a group below what they should be running in. They like to get to the front of the line a pick up the pace causing the line to extend and making it harder for slower folks in the group to sprint. These people don't make friends. Anyway, this is the activity that just about killed me in my first boot camp. That first boot camp I dreaded indian runs. I pulled out of the run a few times to catch my breath and it was also the only activity that almost made me barf (or "Grady"). Now that I am in better shape I actually like the indian runs.

After we ran for a mile or two we headed back up to the roof.  We jumped in for sprint across the four tennis courts, up and back.  Then we ran in a circle for a few minutes and then the entire class got in a large circle and did more PT, focusing mainly on abs.  Did this for about 15 minutes.  A good work out.  My body if finally starting to recover from the long break I had when I was traveling for work and on vacation.  I've been in town about 7 days (work days that is) over the last 7 weeks.  During that time I did run on my own but it is very hard to get a workout in at the same intensity as boot camp.  I'm glad to be back into the routine.