When I went to sleep last night, the wind was whipping around the lawn chairs on my back porch. The rain was pelting against my window. And I had no doubt that when I awoke at 5:00 AM to the din of my alarm clock, it was not going to be an ideal day for outdoor bootcamp.
I got dressed, made a power smoothie, let the dog out, and 45 minutse later suited up in 4 layers to brave an hour of outdoor push-ups, tricep dips, squats, and lunges in some of the worst workout weather yet.
The air was brisk. It was a balmy -5ºC. The stairs to my front door and the pathway to the sidewalk were frozen over with a thin sheath of ice. I balanced poorly as I "whoa whoa whoooooaaaa"ed my way to the car. I hoped in. The windshield was buried under a 1/4 inch of ice. I sat in my car as the defroster chugged away, like an Ontarian idiot who *may* have sold her ice scraper because she thought it never snowed in Vancouver. 15 minutes later, the ice had sufficiently melted and the condensation subsided. And I cautiously nudged my way across the bridge to meet my crazy bootcamp crew.
10 of us showed up this morning. about 50%. Not a bad turnout considering the sub-zero temperatures and our collective desire to stay in bed this morning.
Having arrived feeling good about my ability to forgo more sleep for a painstakingly difficult workout in the arctic tundra (ok. that's an embellishment), I was heftily rewarded by a brilliant view. Our workout locaiton is oceanside, in English Bay by the marina. The ocean, this morning, was so still. It mirrored the early morning lights of land perfectly. So much so that you couldn't tell where land ended and water began. It was delicious.
I felt immediately motivated.
Our coach quickly hoarded up our water bottles in his backpack and decided to make today's bootcamp "mobile!"
"Run to the Casino!" he said and pointed about a kilometre down the seawall trail toward the bright lights of the water front monstrosity. We ran. The cold air clung to my lungs. I felt alive.
At the Casino, we did Leg Ups on the stairs, some agility work between the 30 or so flag poles, Knee Ups, and more.
"Ok. To the stadium!" coach yelled.
And we hustled off the BCE Place, the local sports stadium, where we quickly found ourselves racing up and down four flights of concrete stairs. Our reward for accomplishing this task? Squats, lunges, and more stair running.
The day went on like this.
running and intervals. I didn't stand still once.
7:00 AM rolled around quickly and unexpectedly.
At first, I was glad to see the minute hand reach 12. I was exhausted. My legs were on fire. My energy was spent.
Then I was bummed: todays workout was brilliant.
I had forgotten about the cold (I even stripped off two layers mid-workout) and just fully embraced the day.
It's beautiful here. Even at 6:00 AM on a frosty morning when the moon shines brighter than the sun.
