Fitness Family part II

Carina is going home. Her host in America gave her a beautiful gift. Carina now knows what it means to work out and what it takes to get in shape. Christine has been very gracious to share her fitness story with us...

Chip,

Here’s my boot camp record.  I think it’d be really cool if I could break a 7min mile—and be safely uninjured along the way.

David ran cross country in high school.  Before kids, we walked the dogs and sometimes jogged around Atlanta Mem. Park in the mornings.  A friend, Ann Stuart Pearce, mentioned boot camp.  I was feeling like a couch potato after having my first child, and the challenge intrigued me.  I’d never had any regular exercise routine before this that really grabbed me.  To this day I still say “I don’t like running,” but greater than that is the enjoyment of exercising outdoors, the group suffering among a friendly and large crowd of people, seeing the stars and sunrises.

I goaded David into trying a boot camp session sometime during the first year.  At least he had forewarning and actually trained before he showed up!  We traded sessions on and off for a while.  Eventually figured out that I was literally a happier camper if I went—all the time.  And an unhappy one if I didn’t.  10 months off due to Achilles tendinitis made that abundantly clear.  So David gave me the gift of the 6am hour and hauled himself around the park at 5am to run.  Eventually (imagine!) that really wore him down.  And it was impossible for him to imagine that he could fit Ethan’s 6pm session into his work schedule.  But it was better than 5am and better than nothing.  So he tried it for a while and managed to make it happen.  (We are super lucky in that neither of us has to travel much for work and that we both have reasonably predictable schedules – we couldn’t do boot camp otherwise.)

We knew firsthand the physical and mental benefits of boot camp.  Bringing Carina in, we knew she’d have a hard job chasing after three girls during the day.  Questions about exercise routines were a part of our interview process.  At first she said she’d like to do boot camp 3x/week.  David and I winked at each other and knew that wouldn’t last.  And here she is doing 3-a-days with Ethan for how many weeks now?!

Like you said, this stuff feeds on itself, and it’s contagious.

4/9/2007 

19:19 2-mile run (~9:39/mile)

43 sit ups

35 push ups

5/18/2007 

15:43 2-mile run (~7:52/mile)

57 sit ups

57 push ups

3/26/2011

28:51 TELC Miles for Smiles 5k (~9:18/mile)

4/30/2011

26:21 Atlanta BeltLine Northside 5k (~8:21/mile)

6/20/2011

7:13 Muscogee mile

54 sit ups

52 push up

8/2/2011

7:13 Muscogee mile

62 sit ups

60 push ups

1/16/2012

26:04 MLK Day 5k (~8:25/mile)

3/24/2012

33:32 TELC Miles for Smiles 5k - stroller division (~10:48/mile)

3/26/2012

7:06 track mile

64 sit ups

58 push ups 

5/24/2012

7:48 Muscogee mile

7/4/2012

56:32 Peachtree Road Race 10k (~28:16/5k, 9:07/mile)