Queen Irene

Queen Irene, Boss, Judge

Queen Irene is a pure Georgia Peach. Listening to her sugary sweet North Georgia twang goes with pick'en wild black berries and sucking honeysuckle. I am pretty sure she put the fuzz on the peach. Of course, this Georgia redhead bleeds UGA red & black.

EYE'rene is a Renaissance Woman. She plays the traditional roles of Wifey & Mommy. She also has the ear of Georgia's most influential law makers. After spending an hour with us every morning, she spends the rest of the day at The Georgia State Capital. Her nickname "Queen Irene" comes from her office. It seems that folks are listening to her.

Queen Irene is of the people, for the people and with the people. Irene takes it to the street every year on the 4th of July. Like any good American Girl born by the Grace of God in the great State of Georgia, she lines up every year with 65 thousand of her closest friends and runs The Peachtree Road Race. This year will be her 33rd time running Peachtree. For the last 10 years, she has prepared herself for the annual trek with us at Boot Camp. She has been a lot of fun for us. She loves to cut up and can occasionally be a little naughty. I love her for that.

This is a big year for Queen Irene! She has committed her time and talent to a rising star who is running for a higher office next year. We are very proud of Lt Governor Casey Cage and Irene's influence in his office. We are hopeful that he will become the next Governor of Georgia.

Casey Cagle for Governor

The Baker

At age 45, Baker joined Boot Camp. The big crowds were fun for him. Baker loves to talk. We weren't sure if he cared about fitness, but we knew he loved the fellowship. 

In the old days, the Peachtree Road Race required us to run under 42 minutes in a certified 10K in order to qualify sub seeded. Boot Camp would run the Buckhead Sizzler every year in an attempt to get as many guys/girls as possible under 42 minutes. In our first attempt, Baker joined us. It seemed like usual Baker, there were a group of people getting together to run, so he joined. 

On our journey that morning from the Chamblee Marta Station to Piedmont Rd, we clicked off 6 minute and forty five second miles like clock work. At 5 miles, we looked around and saw that everyone was still with us, including Baker! Baker asked with his typical smile "hey Boss, what should I do?" I said "hell Baker, you have come this far, you might as well go all the way." Baker ran 41.59. 

Equipped with evidence that he is a competitive club runner, Baker has enjoyed road racing ever since. In addition to winning age group awards over the years, he has also qualified for the Boston Marathon. 

In the last decade, Baker & I have seen wives, girlfriends, friends, jobs & houses come and go. Much in our lives comes and goes, but the workout stays the same. We have remained grounded in the discipline and we still love it.

It's never to late to play it straight

1) never miss a workout
2) give an honest effort
3) Go easy on easy days
4) fuel your body for fitness
5) Responsible Recovery
   a) Use a foam roller every day
   b) stretch
   c) Ice or Epsom Salt bath
6) Sleep

It is simple.

Kaffee

"KAFFEE, GET UP THOSE STAIRS LIKE YOUR ASS IS ON FIRE"

Ten years ago, Boot Camp was just starting our second year. We were wildly popular. We had workouts with 100 participants & 4 instructors with walkie talkies. Boot Camp was so hot that, once we got your money, we made the workouts impossible so y'all would quit. Attrition was the mission.

I came to realize that the crazier my behavior instructing, the more people would spread the word about this "insane workout." This was a perfect storm for a raging alcoholic, ego maniac with massive inferiority complex and voice that could carry two city blocks. The wilder I acted, the more people would come to my workout.

It wasn't enough that I could out run, out exercise and out drink everyone. I needed more. My military college experience taught me a lifetime of schoolyard bully tricks. The most effective way I could insure people believed I was a psycho was to pick on the little kids.

Enter Kaffee. I knew she was perfect. Kaffee has the sweetest face. She is most pleasant. She is always up beat. In 10 years, I have never felt anything but Love for her.

Kaffee ran 26:20 for two miles on her first day. That is nearly the winning time of the Peachtree Road Race every year. I was sure there was no way in Hell she was going to stick around. I was wrong.

A month or two after she started, everyone knew sweet adorable Kaffee. One morning, I showed up to the workout drunk. It was supposed to be Maile's workout. Maile no showed. I was so F-ing pissed off, I went into a typical rage. Just before I went completely bonkers, I pulled Kaffee aside. I said not to be alarmed but, I was going to yell at her to freak everyone else out. As far as everyone else knew, if I was going to flip out on Kaffee, everyone was a target. It worked. The workout came to be known as "The Rage Workout". Of course, more people came after that witch reinforced the vicious cycle.

Kaffee was featured in the AJC. The paper was writing about exercise programs all over town. They put her picture in the paper and wrote a long article about her routine. She loved Boot Camp and told everyone about it.

Kaffee & I count each other as one of the many blessings in our lives. We formally say so every Thanksgiving. I am also proud to be her "other husband" from 5:55 am to 7:05 am on weekdays (Bill approved). She is the only person I completely trust at triple nickel to roll me out before our workout. She has the perfect touch.

Kaffee claims that Boot Camp is "in the top 5 things she has ever done." It is a honor and a privilege to share so much with this beautiful lady.

Excuses

Three Score and a few years ago, these young ladies were born into this world. They are an example for all of us. You will never hear them say:

• I am too old for this
• It is too cold to work out
• I cant do it
• This is too much
• This is too far
• Take it easy on me
• I don't want to do it
• Slow down
• Wait
• Where are the light weights?
• Do I have to?
• Why?
• I want to take some time off
• I'm too busy to work out today
• I want to take a break
• I hate running
• I am too tired

We have the TOP Masters, Grand Masters and Great Grandmasters athletes in Atlanta working out on a daily basis. On certain days, these girls are age graded better than any of us!

Get In

Plug in. Get connected. Stick and Stay. Get up, suit up, show up.

We have spent over a decade finding the formula. Boot Camp can:

Improve your overall health
Start every day with a clear head
Get a different tour of Buckhead daily
Meet & exercise with fabulous people
Start, develop & nurture meaningful relationships
Improve your posture
Lose weight
Burn enough calories to offset an undisciplined diet
Get fitness
Get ripped
Get fast
Get recipes
Get a new Joke
Get made fun of
Get fussed at
Get great ideas from a higher collective conscience
Get elected
Get a job
Get fired
Get laid
Get pregnant
Have a baby
raise a child
Get your kid in private school
Get engaged
Get married
Get divorced
Fall in love
Get your heart broken
Get the Gossip
Qualify for Boston
Qualify for Peachtree
Find Budda
Find Jesus
Find a good restaurant
Get invited to a party
Get invited to another party
Create, Organize, Promote & Produce the MLKday5K Drum Run (the Worlds best foot race)

Yea, Boot Camp is a FUN dysfunctional fitness family. We stay in shape because we love each others company.

from Dad Bod to HOT ROD!

Fatness to Fitness Elite

60,000 people run the Peachtree Road Race. 99% line up in waves from A-Z. The top 1% start up front with Pro Runners. Cliffy ran a 18:48 5k to qualify as a seeded runner. He is the top 1%.

Cliffy's words:

I have always identified myself as an active person since I was a kid but the level of activity declined over the years as I became a young adult.  Starting a career, pursuing social interests, and getting married/starting a family took priority over my health and well-being.  It was not until the birth of my son in 2007 that I realized my life had to change if I was going to be around for my family for the long term.  At that time, I was drinking heavily to avoid coming to terms with being overweight and depressed.  It was a dangerous path I was on and the only thing I could think to do was literally start running away from it.  I started off running every couple of mornings out of necessity so that I would be less inclined to drink the night before.  The more I ran, the less I drank , the better I felt.  The weight started to come off from a high of roughly 230 pounds when I started (2008), down to 200 pounds by my 40th birthday (2015).  At 40, I thought this was the best I could be in terms of weight, strength, and fitness.  It wasn't until I received an invitation by a good friend, Jim Woodward (Woody), to join the Peachtree Road Boot Camp would I come to understand I was just scratching the surface.  Between the challenging workouts and the fellowship I was enjoying with others, it ignited my passion to show up every day and embrace a different approach to fitness.  I started to realize that I was capable of much more as fellow campers gave encouragement and challenged me in ways that I could not have experienced on my own.  Boot Camp offered an unique opportunity to share my goals with others and then celebrate when they were reached.  I lost another twenty three pounds over the past year and now weigh 177.  I also achieved another fitness goal that I never thought would be possible a couple of years ago.  I qualified for a seeded position at the Peachtree Road Race and will race with some of best runners in Atlanta and the US on July 4th.  Here I thought that 40 would be the peak and now who knows what it is.  It gets me excited to think what is possible over the next several years with showing up, putting my best effort forward, and being part of the Atlanta fitness community.

Phat Tuesday

Nobody likes a quitter. Quitting is for sissies. Why quit? Why give up? Why surrender?

In the recovery community, the hook is a "life that is Happy, Joyous & Free."

Conventional wisdom in America believes that happiness, joy and freedom come from a life filled with luxury, leisure and consumption. The catch with these pursuits/cravings in life is, they always require MOAR (more with a roar) to produce the same satisfaction. It is often suggested that any attachment to stuff is for pride and pleasure. Feeding pride & pleasure feels so good. It must be happiness & joy, right?

So it is suggested that a life of freedom, happiness and joy is devoid of attachments that seek to satisfy pride and pleasure.

Taking a day off feels so good. Being lazy, sleeping in is very pleasing. A glass of wine is nectar from the Gods. A cheese burger with french fries and a cold coke taste soo good. A bowl of chocolate ice cream is like sex. And sex...

On another religious holiday, The Grinch who stole Christmas took everything from the Who's. He found out that Day:

And the Grinch, with his grinch feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling. "How could it be so?

It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes, or bags!"

He puzzled and puzzed till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!

Giving up stuff IS freedom. Freedom from cravings, attachment & desire requires us to drop the bottle, the box or the bag. Living without stuff during Lent teaches us that a Happy, Joyous & Free life is really an inside job.

Also, if you want to rock the pool this summer, make the f-ing workouts and quit being a lazy, booze guzzling, sugar addicted fat bodied pig. If you can't be disciplined for 40/365 days a year, you have a problem.

Drinking

I successfully drank alcoholically for over 30 years. I won foot races drunk. I got high the night before running 14:56 in the Turkey Day 5K. I also hit the pipe 30 minutes after anchoring the DMR at The Florida Relays with a 4:10 mile. We hadn't even left the Gator's Track. No one on earth could have stopped me when I was partying. I thought I was winning in life. Running with the Devil was a Hell of a ride.

Every year I would dry out when I was training for a big race. Even as a high functioning alcoholic, I knew drinking wouldn't allow me to train at the level I needed to win.

I would have never believed I could live a life without alcohol. It was a ridiculous notion. What's the point?

I am nearly 8 years sober. I've lived two lives. The second one is better.

It doesn't take much to sabotage your fitness and beauty.

One third of the American population does not drink at all. Another third drinks less than one drink per week. 

Alcohol makes you fat, old and slow.

Alcohol will steal your good looks.

Elites don't drink

Our day On

“The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others.” ― Robert Baden-Powell

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”
― Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery

“Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion.” 
― Oswald Chambers

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peachtree Road Boot Camp - 

• Distributed over 2,000 race bibs, one at a time
• Distributed over 2,000 T shirts, one at a time
• Coned a complicated 5K race course at 5 am
• Mobilized 200 drummers with two U Hauls
• Mobilized 2,000 runners/walkers on bicycle
• set up/broke down an efficient and friendly place to greet participants in two separate locations in under 24 hours

Our fitness family enjoys a lifestyle of activity together. On MLK Day, we came together and gave it back to the community. In doing so, I believe we have grown closer. We put on a Hell of a Show! Thank you for your service.