On Friday, a friend forwarded an email to me from her fitness trainer, inviting her to join in a “boot camp” workout at Red Rocks Park on Saturday. In typical viral fashion, the email encouraged my friend to bring her like-minded (read: crazy) friends along. Being a fitness junkie, I signed up. At the time, it seemed like fun to get up at 6:00 on Saturday morning to arrive at Red Rocks for 7:30 am boot camp. The Park is located 6,400 feet above sea level, adding a dimension of oxygen deprivation that gives a boost to your workout. At the appointed time, armed with one bottle of water and one of Gatordade, I cheerfully jumped into my friend’s car with another friend, who was equally naive about what lay ahead.
Stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. And lots of really fit people with very little body fat. There were no fewer than 200 people, split among about 15 trainers who inflicted varying degrees of pain upon their willing participants. I even saw two women wearing weighted vests. I guess that was to give them a bit more of a challenge than the altitude, the heat, the screaming traininer and the stairs didn’t provide. For the next 90 minutes, we did countless sets of stairs: single step at a time, two at a time, alternating between left and right leg leading, jumping up one step at a time, and then we moved to the bleachers and did sets of push-ups, dips and crunches, alternating with climbing the bleachers. After that, we ran (to use the term loosely, in my case) all the way around Red Rocks park (1.4 miles) - twice. We ended one loop by running (actually, shuffling) backward up a ramp. A really long, steep ramp. The only thing that tempered my pain was that other trainers seemed to be much tougher than ours. On a water break, we observed one trainer who was demonstrating a drill that involved carrying a 15 pound rock up the bleachers while a partner provided resistance using an elastic resistance band. I did everything I could to distract our group’s trainer; I didn’t want her to get any bright ideas.
Today, I was tempted to use the elevator to get to the second floor where our offices are located.
Did I mention that I paid $10 to participate in this “fun and invigorating workout,” as the viral email described it? Oh, and I plan to go again next week. Let me know if you want to join.