Marshall Ramsey

Cue Led Zeppelin’s Fool in the Rain…

It was pouring when the alarm clock went off at 4:09 a.m.  My back hurt (I pulled a muscle yesterday while ripping out carpet.) I could have rolled over and went back to bed.

But I kept hearing a voice.

It was Paul Lacoste’s.  I could hear him screaming, “Those of you who weren’t here yesterday stand over here.”  I’m sure there was some cussing in there, too. Paul cusses like the clouds like to rain.

I looked at the radar. Madison Central High School was on the backend of the rain. By the time I got to the football field, the rain had stopped.

No excuses.

Bad back and all (I was praying the ibuprofen would kick in — it did 45 minutes into the workout), I showed up.  And isn’t 80% of success just showing up?

Warm ups let me know things weren’t going to be easy.  I kept having shots of pain (back pain is the worst). I focused on doing my exercises the best I could.

I ran backwards a lot in Wayne’s group. (Warrior Wednesday!)

I did most of the exercises in Morgan’s (although she showed a bit of compassion by allowing me to modify a couple of them.)

Paul (thankfully) kicked me to the track.  I attempted to do all the burpees and mountain climbers with the rest of the group.  My line mates (who I am really getting to like) joined me for the second set.

We then finished up with six 100-yard sprints at 85% speed.

As I drove away, I was thankful I got my butt out of bed.  Life is full of opportunities. Even for a fool in the rain.

Gassers. Core work. Gassers. Core work. Gassers. Core work. Jumping Jacks. Shuffles. Push ups. Shuffles. High Knees. Shuffles. Mile run (Mile +, actually). It was an hour of trying to catch your breath.

Today was about staying in motion.  We moved and we moved quickly.  After two sessions of core work and Gassers (Running across the football field four times), we went over and did shuffles and exercises in between. We finished the hour up by running as mile (I managed a little over  a mile.)

The humidity wrapped it’s blanket around us.  I was drenched by the time we were done.

Today was a confidence building workout. I haven’t had many of those so far — but when you have them, it gives you the little glimmer of hope that you are getting better at this. I’m not naive — I know that tomorrow will probably knock me on my ass. But this morning’s workout was a small victory.

And I’ll take those wherever I can find them.

I woke up at 4:09 and wanted to sleep in so badly.  I painted for 12 hours yesterday (after running nine miles) and, believe it or not, I was freakin’ sore (I must have gone up and down the ladder 500 times).  An hour more of sleep would have felt good. But the satisfaction of knowing I got up and pushed myself feels even better. And I sanded the skin off my elbows (the football field has sandpaper qualities). So I’m sure I’m lighter.

Stations today:

1. Weight room. 20 second sets. Upper body. We did the whole cycle.

2. Paul. We broke into twos and had a coach and an athlete. The athlete wore the mother of all bungee cords. The coach held it tight while the athlete ran drills through the ladder. We flipped flopped and then finished out by running in place and hitting the deck repeatedly. Paul said we would have to do that for 15 minutes on graduation day.  Fun.

3. Wayne. We ran sprints and shuffles with a few burpees and jumping jacks thrown in for good measure.  It was a station where we really worked on our breath.  One thing I learned about sprints in high school (when I played football) that the secret is catching your breath in between segments.

4. Morgan.  Lots of pushups, burpees and pushups out of planks (where I sanded my elbows bloody).  I didn’t do as well on this set as I should have.  But I did much better than I would have last year when I weighed 250 lbs.   I am not particularly good at exercises where I have to bend over. But I have gotten much better. Practice makes perfect.

We ended in the end zone with Paul having us hit the deck six or seven times. He told us how our bodies are crying out for us to love them. For us to eat the right food (and drink lots of water since I had nearly dehydrated over the previous hour).

I could have slept in. It’s Monday and I’m tired from traveling and painting. But I know the only way I’ll have the energy to travel and paint and do anything else is for me to get up early and leave it on the field.