Weight 225 lbs. Goal 200 lbs.
My bed was warm. The covers soft. My pillow fit neatly around my resting head. The red light of my alarm clock glowed “3:49.” It was one minute before the alarm would sound. One eye glared at it while the other desperately tried to stay shut. Thanks to muscle memory, my right arm came up out of the covers and turned off the alarm. My feet swung around and hit the cold wood floor.
The hardest part of my workout was done.
I put on shorts and a long-sleeved shirt. It was pretty cold, so I figured we might be inside. But JUST in case, I packed tights, gloves and a hat. My foresight saved me — we were outside today. Let’s just say a frozen artificial football field makes doing sit-ups a whole new experience.
At 5 a.m., we broke into lines. I got into my normal line 2. But John (my workout partner) and I were quickly moved into line 1. Line 1 is the top line — where the top athletes reside. I’m definitely at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to athletic ability in that group. And I know I’ll have to make it up with effort and attitude.
That’s my goal this 12-weeks. To be worthy of Line 1.
We started with Coach Neil in the weight room. (Yay, inside!) We did a weight-machine circuit and stayed at each station until our muscles burned. I think we did around 13 stations. I lost count. From there, we went to Coach Richard and the quick-foot ladder drill. My group hustled through those and I felt my half-operational lungs burning. Then it was on to Clark, were we did arm-mechanics and some core work. He had us do 60 sit-ups and then raising our feet into the air. Let’s just say the ground was chilly. Next, Coach Trahan was awaiting us, where we did dynamic warmups. (I got to dust off my inch-worm abilities.) And the cherry on top was a 200-yard run and then two 100-yard runs. My line mates turned it into a sprint. I was right there in the middle of them.
I noted the temperature when I left. It was 32 degrees and lord knows what the windchill was. And a sane person would wonder why I got out of the bed at 3:49 to be part of it. Well, I’ve seen the statistics for Mississippi. I know we nearly spend a billion dollars of Medicaid money treating obesity. I’ve seen my own family members suffer from health problems that are preventable. So when I took a moment to study my alarm clock this morning, I made the decision not to be a statistic after all.