Friday, May 18, 2007

Last Day of Boot Camp

Wow, I don't think I've felt this physical fit and mentally good in I don't know how long. This camp has far exceeded what I ever hoped to get from it. I went to get better looking abs and came away more in shape than I've ever been, and my outlook on life has shifted a little.

My plan is to continue boot camp. Not five days a week though. I'll stick with the three. If there's a boot camp in your area I would HIGHLY recommend checking it out and giving it a try.

One of the reasons I took this class was because of my interest in becoming a lifestyle coach. I really believe that getting yourself mentally healthy can be better done if at the same time you're working on your physically well being too. This camp has totally proved this for me personally. In both small and big ways.

One change I've noticed is this. We are tested twice during camp. In the first week and then the very last day. This way we are able to see our progress. I'll be honest with you, I hate tests. As soon as I'm being tested, my mental well being takes a nose dive. On that first mile run my mind was working against me the whole time. Thoughts like, "I think I have to stop now, what if I can't make it, I'm not any good at this...on and on...
Today when I ran my outlook was different. I've been reading more life coaching articles out there and I came across this one suggestion that said every time you have a negative thought come in your head, replace it with something positive. So this time when I ran today I just kept telling myself that I'm a runner and that I can run fast.

The other thing I did was the night before I thought about how I was going to run this mile. The camp is held at a campground/park. We don't run on a nice even track. It's more like a dirt/gravel road that has a up and down hills. I made my plans on how to attack the hills and today it pretty much went how I planned it.

The first week I ran my mile in 8 min. 40 seconds. Today 7 min. 26 seconds. I so wanted to run in the seven minute range today, that was my goal and I reached it.

You need to know I don't enjoy running. I'm good at quick sprints, but long runs...not my thing. So this hasn't been easy for me. Which I thinks makes the results even sweeter.

Below you'll see a picture of where our boot camp takes place. It's outdoors and it overlooks vineyards and hills. Not only is this camp a physical experience for me, but it's also been a spiritual experience as well. As we're working out there's deer feeding around us, blue herons flying over, rabbits running all over the place. On our hikes we come across salamanders and wild turkeys. And then their are the sunrises. It hasn't been a bad way to start my day.




Saturday, May 12, 2007

Women Pilots

There's a story I love to tell. I believe I came across it in one of the Chicken Soup For the Soul books I believe. It's basically about a young girl in the 50's who told her teacher that she wanted to become a pilot. The teacher basically told her women didn't do those types of jobs so forget about it.

This girl tried to forget about it and thought of other careers she could do. Well she finally came across a teacher in high school who changed her whole life. She was given an assignment on what she wanted to do with her life. She put things like waitress, wife etc. The teacher handed back their assignments and asked them to rewrite their paper with the following criteria. If they could be or do anything, money wasn't an object etc...what would they be. Well this girl went crazy and wrote down that she wanted to be a pilot. That teacher said, "Then DO IT"

This girl went on to be one of the few first female pilots out there. LOVE this story.

Today I came across an organization for women pilots called Nintey-Nines. I saw that they were having an air rally and landing contest. You can read the whole story here.

There still aren't a lot of women pilots out there. Which is why I think this is such an awesome organization. If you ever thought about flying or currently fly and would like to meet up with other women pilots out there, check out the Nintey-Nines!
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In other Women Pilots News...

Maj. Gen. Teresa M. Peterson is set to leave the Air Force in September, retiring as the commandant of the joint National War College in Washington, D.C.

Peterson’s aviation career earned her a long list of firsts. In 2000, she was the first female pilot to become a general officer. (Currently, there are four female pilots wearing brigadier stars.) In 1990, she was the first woman to command a flying squadron, the 42nd Flying Training Squadron at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.

When Peterson was commissioned in 1973, after graduating from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, the Air Force didn’t allow women to pilot aircraft. She spent 4½ years as a maintenance officer. Soon after women were allowed to fly mobility and training aircraft, Peterson entered the student pilot program in 1978 at Williams Air Force Base, Ariz.

(The above was taken from airfortimes.com)

Friday, May 11, 2007

My Four Week Boot Camp Experience

For about two years now I've wanted to take this four week adventure boot camp course for women that is given in my area. I gave myself several reasons why I couldn't go over the past several months. Money being a huge reason, the second was I have a bad knee that tends to act up after a few miles of running and the other good reason is that I'm not a morning person and this camp starts at 5:30 in the morning and goes for one hour. That's early. Especially for someone who tends to go to bed around 11 PM at night.

A friend of mine at work is really the one who got me to sign-up for it. I mentioned it once and the next thing I know she has paid and registered and she had the nerve to keep asking me if I had registered yet.

At that point money was a huge factor for not taking this class. It's $300 for four weeks and I didn't know how I was going to do it. But I managed to scrimp and save and come up with the money a few days before class started. Again, if it wasn't for my friend pushing me to do this with her, I probably would have never taken this class.

TIP: Stay away from the negative friends and find ones that motivate you to be a better, healthier person.


THE NIGHT BEFORE CLASS STARTED!

I was a wreck. I was so nervous the night before my first class. I didn't know what to expect. Thoughts like, "WHY am I doing this?" ran through my head. Wouldn't you know it the first morning of class my alarm never went off. At 5:15 my friend called and wondered why I hadn't picked her up yet. Amazing enough I made it to class on time.

THE FIRST WEEK

The first four days I was so sore I could barely move. Sore and tired. The third day I was emotional and in a really bad mood. I didn't think the pain my body was feeling would ever go away and that most likely I would feel this way for the whole four weeks.

By the fourth and fifth day I was a new woman. Weird as it was the pain was pretty much gone from my body. There was hope for me yet!

One the last day of the week we did some timed tests. At the end of the four week course we'll time these again and hopefully see an improvement. My 1 mile time was 8 minutes 40 seconds. Not bad!

THE SECOND WEEK

The one thing that came from the second week was emotions. I felt so emotional this week. It's odd what comes forward when you start working out.

Still pretty tired. Wish I could get more sleep. I go to work and I just want to curl up some where and sleep for awhile. I try to catch a quick nap when I got home from work. All I need is 5 min. and I feel so much better.


THE THIRD WEEK

I feel myself getting so much stronger. It's amazing. We did a time test run on Wed. and I ran a 8 min. 6 second mile. I see myself running faster and faster. I'm a sprinter, hate long distance. I keep wondering what I can do with this? I've had such issues with my knee hurting and locking up on me after a few miles. I've noticed my knee getting stronger though and not bothering me. I didn't think that would be the case at all. I find this very odd.

I'm still very tired though. I think I need to get more sleep. Go to bed earlier. I know if I wasn't so tired, I'd feel really really good.

I do love how I'm feeling and how much stronger I'm feeling. I don't want to loose this. I can't afford to keep going to this camp. My friend and I are thinking of doing this on our own three days a week instead of the five days we've been doing and meet at 6 AM instead of 5:30 AM. I know this won't be easy. It's so hard for me to get up in the morning.

WEEK FOUR

To come!

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