It has been a whole two weeks since I last went. Week 1, went once, and then took the rest of the week off, friend visiting from out of town. Week 2 – crappy on Monday, knocked out Tuesday Wednesday, and recuperated the rest of the weekend, missing social obligations to do so, but I knew that if I went out on Saturday night, it would set me back BIG time. I had to go back – the additional incentive, the OTHER Sunil was going back on the 30th. From the time he re-upped to the week before, I had spent several gleeful conversations doing my best to give him flack and scare him – even choosing the same Full Metal Jacket/R. Lee Ermey picture to send to him just to add insult to injury.
I walked in, did my 5 push-ups, and made my way across the obstacle course, the only clear space, given the size of the class, which had to have been around 20. Alex gave me his special greeting – two fingers in a V across his chest (this could either be a peace sign, or V for Vincent. In my own happy storybook world, it is the latter). Wondered what was in store as I saw the huge class ahead of us struggling with tire sit-ups, squat thrusts after arm curls with the bar, and punching bag exercises, and spent a good 15 minutes seeing which squad was doing what. Nothing looked easy. Sunil came out, having changed into his camos, looking a bit nervous. I couldn’t help but grin and chuckle. I gave him a playful punch on the shoulder and headed over to the PT area to start our warm-up. I was a bit torn between wanting to hang toward the back where he was, and staying at the front, where I always start. I chose to stay near the front to give myself a good starting pace – always key.
We began with 7 laps around, came back without my heart exploding, thankfully. Partner stretches – I offered to pair up with Sunil – he had no idea what he was doing (apparently when he did boot camp they didn’t stretch out like we did); leaned hard on him (I knew he could take it). When it came time to introduce ourselves, forgetting the years before, Sunil shouted out his first name. Whaaat? Was he on crack? He knows better now. Then, 30 jumping jacks – I was wondering why were they letting us off so easily, but I should have known better. Into push up position for 15 push-ups. Back on our feet, facing reach other. Ruben did his best to startle me as I faced Sunil – it worked, I flinched a bit (I shouldn’t have been surprised, he hollered out my name when he saw me waiting for class, which meant that I was possibly in for a world of haranguing that day) Next - squat thrusts – they said we were going to 25, groan, amazingly enough, I didn’t falter as much as I thought, but then people weren’t sounding off to their satisfaction, so we kept on going!!! We went to 50!!!!! And Alex had the audacity to single me out when I started losing it – realistically speaking, I think I only missed 5. 45 in total, have NEVER done that before.
On our backs for leg lifts – too slow, Ruben barked ’12 seconds’ – which I think I was extra sensitive to hearing his voice, I bolted like it was nobody’s business. Back to the PT area, for 15 more push ups. On our backs again, but then another 12 seconds around the gym – are you kidding me – and then my position shifted further from the wall. As I lay there, doing my leg lifts, Alex loomed over, and decided to step on me, eliciting a slight ‘oof’ (he’s definitely heavier than Ruben). And then, since I seemed to be having a too easy time, in his eyes, he pushed my feet together and then threw my feet to the floor several times, which made me grumble at him – “Alex, these are leg lifts, not throwdowns!” When we were finished with that – we had to hold for a count of 20 (when I bent my legs slightly, Wong shouted at me to straighten them out). Up on our feet, high knees for a count of 25, DI barking for us to sound off louder. Then facing our partner, we did lunges, 15 on each leg, with our opposite knee touching the ground – my partner and I looked at each other with a combination of glee and determination as we counted off our lunges – YEAH!
Down to push up position, hold. First line was to hold in plank position, while the other would run two laps. I had to run first, no problem. When I was planking, inevitably I heard “Vincent, get that butt down!” Luckily my partner was a quick runner. Second time in plank position, Ruben called out, “I think Vincent has an a$$ problem” Funny, I muttered into the ground, I don’t have any problem with my a$$. Only to find Alex’s boot on it, pushing me down. These guys must have missed me LOADS.
When we finished 3 rounds, my partner was ordered to grab a bar, and I grabbed a tire, and we headed over to the hurdles to do 100 tire sit-ups. How was I going to handle this? Managed it, surprisingly. Initially, I broke them down into counts of 25, but I found that I didn’t need to focus as much, using the bar as momentum to help me. Ruben came over and with his hands and face over the wall, continued his haranguing – asking me where I’d been, and when I told him I’d had the flu, he was like, “You should have come in and sweat it out. I’m sick, and I am still here.” Smoothly as I came up from my sit-up, I grinned and said, “Mental illness doesn’t count.” A brief smile appeared on his face, replaced with, “oh, I see how it’s gonna be.” Meaning future pain and torture. We were at 80 at this point, and I needed a bit of assistance, so I grabbed my leg once or twice. Bad cop Ruben kicked in, and he threatened to make me start from zero if I grabbed my leg again. Our count got louder as we got to 100, made it! Water break? No, Ruben said, water is for wimps. Then he sent us over to Alex, who mercifully did give us a 10 second water break.
Grabbed a 15-pound green bar and then started around the gym for a lap of lunges and arm curls. Having done no upper body exercises the last two weeks definitely made it tougher, and my legs felt like rubber after the 15 count lunges from earlier in the class. My lunges were definitely not the long-stride-down-to-the-ground type that I was used to doing. Made it around eventually. Next, you had to place your hands two inches apart in the middle of the bar with feet shoulder length apart facing away from the course. You had to squat down to the ground, and then come up, bring the bar to your chin, lower it to hip level, flip the other way, and do the same thing, all the way around the course. Boy was I slow at this point. Made it around a little over halfway when Alex called for me to run it in.
Next exercise was boxing. I picked up the boxing pad, and hooked my arms into the handles in back. My partner was to do a 1-2 jab, which was 1 count, up to 50. Switched places, and I did my 50. Then we ran two laps, my partner holding the pad. Came back to the PT area, and switched positions, and Alex gathered everyone around to demonstrate the next exercise. It became obvious very quickly that he was going to use me to help him – I am sure my face was a mixture of incredulousness and fear, and other people looked at him like, could you choose someone beside the smallest person in the squad? Nope. Alex made me position the pad at a slight downward angle, held my shoulders, telling everyone each step of the way what he was doing.
“You’re going to hold your partner’s shoulders, and bring your left foot back, and then as hard as you can, hit the bag with your knee.”
I managed to stand my ground; definitely took a lot of resistance to go against a 5’9 buff drill instructor – couldn’t let him knock me off my feet. When someone gasped when he hit the bag the first two times, they were like, couldn’t you have used someone else? He said, “She can take it.” Yay. My partner completed her 25 reps on each leg, and then we switched. As I was just on my 8th rep on my left leg, I felt someone come up behind me – it was Sunil; he came up close and said something like, “five foot nothin’, hundred pounds nothin” I told him to get away. That’s my buddy for you. Clowning around. I finished up my reps, and then we did 2 laps, with me holding the bag above my head. Tough getting around the second time, with Alex hollering at me to get a move on. Came back to the PT area, and then Alex told us to bear crawl to Ruben.
We moved over the windowsill, where Ruben assigned us our next task. First, 25 dips against the windowsill, then 15 diamond push-ups against the sandbags, and then over to the tires for 40 squats. We were to do this 3 times. First circuit was fine – if you cheat a bit and do your dips really quickly, you can get through them fine; and diamond push-ups on your knees are still challenging. Tire squats usually aren’t too tough, but since I hadn’t done them in forever, took a bit longer. Then back to the windowsill to repeat it again. This time, I tried to be good and do the dips slower to try and challenge myself, but had to take a pause at 15, and then start up again; finishing up at the tires, slower this time. Third time around, the toughest, naturally so. By the time I got to the tires, I was moving at a snail’s pace; Alex definitely saw me, but since I was in another squad, couldn’t yell at me. Made it to 31, thought I could speed through because they had called for group sit-ups, but felt content to almost make it. As I flopped down near the wall, getting ready for sit-ups, listened to Sunil continue his clowning on the other side of Davis, and giggling about it – Ruben promptly told me to shut my hole, and then started counting off. They had us do 24, which was weird.
I’m definitely feeling the second day effects today. But thankful to have gotten through, and feeling all warm and fuzzy, having been more than adequately welcomed back by the drill instructors’ boots.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment