1: Kickstart Boot Camp for Women & My Kickstart

My word.  I have rarely been more nervous about doing something in my entire life.

Walking into a new place, starting a lifestyle change that I wasn't really engaged in...it was tough.  Almost as tough as it was for Maverick to engage in the battle after Goose died.  Really; I can totally relate.

In my prior career, I'd taken some pretty heavy fire.  Now here I was embarking on a new career, and a Fitness Quest to boot.  "It's not good.  It doesn't look good," were words never far from my thoughts.  Hiking was one thing - I've had a 28 year history of loving hiking in Arizona, despite only living here the past four.  Exercise, however?

I cannot stress enough how my dread of not being able to breathe has greatly effected my exercise efforts in the past.  Only a few times have I been able to push through it - only to loose that fitness due to one thing or another.  Once was in college - I ran sprints for the track team - but right after I had the breakthrough in being able to breath, shin splints shut that down.  More recently, in the fall of 2012 I was up to 15 mile hikes in a day; only to have that shut down when my hiking partner left me cold to pursue his own fitness quest.  My last foray into fitness was the spring of 2013, when I began mountain biking with my son.  That ended with a broken foot, by the time it was healed the monsoons had started and the trails were a mess.  This time, I'd committed to a year.

Maybe I needed to be committed instead.  It's freaking dark at 5:25am.

Sgt. Steve's car.  There is no escape.

I had my notebook with me as I walked in; I'm an old-timey reporter in that I like to write things down instead of using voice to text.  My memory is pretty good (I'm a trained historian), and I could tell you some pretty interesting tales...

So I walk in, I'm trying not to look nervous, and I'm looking around at the old Armory gym.  I've always held a fondness for old armory's, this one is no exception.  As my mind escapes the present with a jaunt to the past, I imagine the gatherings of yesteryear; the faded stenciling on the closed window casings sparking my imagination.  I wonder if there is a time portal here and I can escape this exercise? 

The Armory in Prescott, AZ.

Did I mention I love sci-fi?

Seriously, I think this is just the place for a secret bunker to survive a zombie apocalypse.

This is what it looks like inside:

Sgt. Steve is the only guy in the picture.

So when I walk in, no one is just standing around.  They are all power walking laps, which scares me as that means they are focused, fit individuals.  Sgt. Steve comes up to greet me, and is pretty great about putting my mind at ease.  We start with a warm up, just everyone standing in a circle and doing some easy stretching.

I wonder if stretching might have kept my back from tweaking last week?

Probably.

On to the main course:  it's raining this morning (a rare thing in Prescott) and Sgt. Steve announces we are making Alphabet Soup.  For a moment, I think we really are going to eat something.

It is my first day.

He holds up a bowl of individual letters, divides us into three groups and has us each take a turn running down to collect a letter.  When we had twenty letters in our group, we could stop.

I tried to spell VEGAS.  I spelled VOGAS instead.

Once we collected the twenty letters, he handed us a recipe card (for disaster!!! LOL! - sorry, could not resist.)  Each letter represented a set of exercises to do (I about fell over laughing when he demonstrated the fire hydrant.  I was told "Happy Baby" the prior week was much worse.)  As a group of four, we began the sets, my new found friends happily demonstrating the proper form & technique at this early hour.  By the time it came for cool-down, I was glistening in sweat, but had not run out of breath.  My relief had to have been palatable, I was nothing but smiles as I realized I had made it through the first day without a collapse.

I took a few minutes to chat with some campers & Sgt. Steve, and upon discovering he had a 6:45am class, asked if I could stay and observe.  A more "dedicated" group of campers with advanced fitness needs, I found these women to be just as friendly as the group before (even if several of them did have on outfits that coordinated with their shoes.)

OK, never ever Google images for "athletic female" to find pictures of women in matching athletic gear. 

By the time the class had ended, I felt I had a pretty good idea of a day at Boot Camp, and tomorrow didn't seem as scary.  Time for a hike.

It was raining.

I would surely melt.

Cancelling a hike due to weather led to my downfall in November of 2012 - I wanted to hike in the snow, my hiking partner did not.  Although I was gung-ho and ready to go, he put it off to teach a colleague to shoot instead.

Outside.

In the snow.

I never hiked again after that, until Feb. 11, 2015.

This time, however, it was different!  It was raining and I had three more hikes lined up that week.  I would make it work.  Or would I?