Fit2Fat2Fit Blog: May 13, 2014

We are on the second day of the second week of Paul Lacoste’s Summer Training camp. Me (and around 75 of my closest friends) workout on Madison Central’s football field at 5 a.m. sharp. It’s tough, tough training — both mentally and physically demanding.  I am in very good shape for my age yet it has still been kicking my butt.  But that’s OK. That’s why I am out there — To get my butt kicked.

Getting your butt kicked in training means you won’t be as susceptible to it in life.

The first week was tough for  me. Thanks to allergies, I had developed a sinus infection.  Between it and those damn allergies, my lungs performed like I had asthma. I came into the training being able to run 14 miles.  Yet by the time I got out there, I was gasping for breath  (and barely ran 10 miles last Saturday).   This week has been a little better. But I’m a step slow and am in a very competitive line of fantastic athletes.  I need to work much harder.

But that’s my plan. I want to be around people who are better than me. I want to workout with friends who will push me to be better than I am.  Because it’s not where you start. It’s where you finish.

We all can be better than we are.  We are capable of so much more than what we do on a daily basis. We lack discipline. We lack a plan. We lack motivation. We lack will. We lack heart.  The one thing we seem not to lack is lack.

This 12 weeks (other than a brief hiatus for some family time), I am going to push myself harder than I ever have before. You’re probably sitting there thinking, “WHY?!”

Because I can be so much more than I am now — in all phases of my life. Me training at 5 a.m. sets the tone for the rest of the day. Be a warrior on the field and you will be a warrior in life.

NEXT LEVEL NOTES: 

We started in the weight room. I’ve been really sore from the weights this time around — which is good. Soreness equals getting some good out of it. Of course, my arms vibrate more than they used to.  I could barely grip a pencil yesterday — an occupational hazard. We went on the field and ran 50-yard sprints with hard weights.  That was fun.  Then we ran a big box (1/4 of the football field) while carrying a 35-lb. weight. From there we went to the circuit (everything from pushing boards, to inchworms to running with a medicine ball over our head to quick feet on the box). We finished out with the box drill, which was running, shuffling, bear crawling and backpedaling around a big box. That was one hour of nonstop moving and working out.

I sweat a lot, particularly on days like this when it is so amazingly humid. This morning, I was a mess. But as I ran with the weight, I noticed the first rays of the sun peeking over the stadium through the clouds.  It was amazing. I felt truly alive.

And really, that’s what it is all about. Celebrating being on this side of the grass.