Wake Up Call

The alarm buzzer got me up early today; so early that I don’t think the sun had yet risen. At this point, as with every convention past, the body starts to feel the effects of long days of walking, learning and having fun. But sleeping in isn’t an option today as I get ready for another boot camp challenge, this time at beautiful and scenic La Jolla Shores.

We met in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel and as I scanned the room, it was apparent that I wasn’t the only one experiencing a bit of fatigue. We all boarded the bus, and each participant (we even had people from Kazakhstan, Portugal and more!) chattered quietly among themselves. The mood was mellow, and I couldn’t help but grin at the thought of kick-starting these folks (and myself) into a high-octane workout that would take us both in and out of the water.

I must say that I, and my fellow instructors Ry Peterson and Cynthia Roth, had our work cut out for us this morning as our group’s energy seemed to be lacking some steam. But in traditional boot camp style we left no room for lagging and were off like rockets toward the beach for our “dry” warm up. Despite a bit of initial lethargy, this group proved themselves more than worthy of the challenge as they tackled the “wet” warm-up (Yup, they worked through push-ups, mountain climbers, dive bombers and more while facing pounding by the crashing surf), the intense playground circuit (playgrounds aren’t just for kids!), a harrowing human body obstacle course, and the final, most grueling challenge of all: the sand and sea relay race. Team “Booty” rose to the challenge to beat each of the other teams, but everyone agreed that there weren’t any losers today. It was like night and day from class start to class end with lots of sweaty, soaked and sandy bodies with ear-to-ear grins and pounding hearts. My hat definitely goes off to this tough group of boot camp challengers.

A Few Miscellaneous Notes

Two words: Todd Durkin. The guy is like an earthquake. When Durkin’s teaching, you can almost hear the screams of laughter and excitement all the way at the top of the Marriott Hotel. Ok, so I may be exaggerating, but the point is this guy has tremendous energy. So much energy that it seems he is somehow able to infuse it into the 100 plus "Train the Joes Like the Pros" workshop participants as they shout through 1-legged hops, plyometric BOSU Balance Trainer push ups, two-person tag drills and a host of other exercisers I don’t think I can accurately describe in words. You can literally feel the ground shaking, which can be somewhat disconcerting here in Southern California. And the smiles on the participants’ faces are enough to discern that these people are getting just what they were looking for.

Well, that’s day 3 down, one more to go. For those of you reading from home: Wish you were here!

Cheers!