Week ending 10/27 - too many titles

I caught a cold a couple weekends back. Which completely derailed me for a week. I was barely functional during the day, so boot camp was pretty much out of the question. Reason being is that my (now old) office is the environmental equivalent of an airplane. If you are somewhat under the weather when you walk in, it gets progressively worse as the minutes pass. I can't imagine how my colleagues must have felt as I blew my nose multiple times in the most obnoxious way - not to be gross, but the first part of the week was merely voluminous honking, and then as I got better, there were nasty noises coming from my upper respiratory tract. If I could have worked from home, I would have. Technically, I guess I could have, but guilt brought me into the office. Which drew this damn cold out longer than it should have lasted, evoking panicked/worried reactions from my parents.

One thing I noticed was that the lack of having to go to boot camp made me feel a bit rudderless; and made me realize how much structure it added to my life, not only that, but it afforded me the energy to actually go out and be social and active.

Stayed in that whole weekend, determined to kick it. By Monday, I was just about back to normal, still not 100% there, but was determined to go back to boot camp. Honestly, I thought it could do one of two things. Either it would sweat the sickness out of me, or knock me out so bad that I would be forced to stay at home and recuperate in a proper manner, not the half-assed-responsible-working-adult method I had adopted the week before. Because I am so far behind, I decided to do a recoup of the past week:

MONDAY - Got upstairs, and was greeted very enthusiastically greeted by Linda, a welcome sight. Wondered what the experience would be like, given that I had never gone a week without boot camp since I started the program back in August (wow, it's been about two months?). Fortified by Vitamin Water, I started the laps around at a good clip - validated by Ruben giving me a high five as I ran around. Warm-ups started, and somewhere in between sit-ups, fly kicks, mountain jumpers, and squat thrusts, Ruben flipped on the evil switch. First he and Titus harangued Fischer, and then when Ruben caught me pausing at the squat thrusts, he shouted "Vincent, what the f**k - every time I look you're standing there!" Walked right up to me, and stood there hollering as I tried desperately to keep up. Tears threatened; I felt a strong urge to holler back at him, but refrained, anticipating the repercussion. Was pretty silent as we counted the number of reps we were doing - it was a trade-off between yelling to their satisfaction and actually having the lung capacity to breathe in enough air to get through the exercises.

It wasn't as bad as I thought, managed to make it through everything, but there were definitely moments. We were partnered up to go through a boxing/tire press exercise; one person would hold a pad, and the other person would punch the pad for a minute, and then would run around for as many times it took for the other person to complete 25 tire presses. I was partnered up with Fischer; being that she is slim of build, and wasn't going to grit her teeth and get all crazy and ballistic (like I imagined I would), I didn't think it would be so bad fielding her punches. Wrong. I was like a kitten fighting a 30-pound cat; barely could keep my footing, and felt like the bruises would form immediately on my chest and arms as I was pushed back. Then, as she ran two laps, I was made to do pushups until she came back. I was praying for those laps to pass quickly.....and then it was my turn to box, which I barely managed. And then, during the run, Ruben trained his sights on me, and started out his sentence like he started every sentence when he was on a tear (I think you can guess by now - WTF!).

"Vincent, move those little ass legs! Run!"

And just when I thought we were at the end of class, we were directed to grab a tire, two mats and a canteen, and were ordered to do 125 sit-ups. Are you kidding??? They weren't. Somehow, I made it through, didn't help that Ruben was hovering over us, hurling verbal abuse mainly towards my partner. And then, told me that pulling on my pants wasn't a part of the sit-ups. No getting around that one.
I think that was pretty much the end of Monday's session. I slowly shuffled towards the rock wall for group sit-ups, thankful for making it through without collapsing.

WEDNESDAY - Tender Loving Titus (yeah, right!)
Definitely was feeling the stiffness more than the day before, a by-product of not having done this much exercise in a week. Got through the warm-up just fine, even with Alex and Titus slowly pacing in between the lines as we did our jumping jacks - I figured that the torture would be minimal if I got really loud as they passed by. They seem to like the noise, I have discovered. As we were counting out jumping jacks, I could hear Titus hounding someone behind me.....something to do with her shoes or jewelry or the like. After that, into push up position, and 20/25 of either feet-together-feet-apart or mountain climbers, forgot which one. And then we were given 5 seconds to get on our backs to get ready for fly kicks, but the group didn't collectively get into position on time, which caused Titus to impose the '12 seconds to get around the gym' thing. I was hoping people would get in line so we wouldn't be suddenly jarred into these random sprints. Luckily, people got into position this time around. And then, into the fly kicks. Warm-up seemed to go by smoothly. Lastly, we were given another 12 seconds to get around the gym.

I was partnered up, and we were directed to go through the course, but between each obstacle, we were to go to the windowsill and do 15 dips. I have to admit, I do like the course now more than before; from a laziness perspective, I don't have to constantly be going through punishing calisthenics like warm-up. But moreover, I am getting into the spirit of attacking the obstacles I know I had previously approached in a trepidatious fashion. First off, we were to do the hurdles. No sweat, although, to this date, I am still getting over the hurdles in the 'Level 1' fashion. On my first day, DI Raimondi, who is no longer with PPBC (due to some contractual dispute which led to a loud confrontation, according to the girls in the pup tent), showed us that there were 3 ways to get over the hurdles. Level 1 was throwing your leg over at thigh level; Level 2 was jumping up so that alternating feet were on the hurdle, and Level 3 was just swinging both legs over, while balancing with your arms. I should probably try to get to level 2, but I fear that my height would be an issue. Mrs. Perfect, who was not that much taller than me, actually never even did the hurdles in any of the fashions described above, but hopped up on either side of the hurdles. But, to her credit, it probably was harder than she made it look.

15 dips, not a problem if I did them really quickly. But, then Lauren stepped out of her office, and walked over to where we were and hollered at us to do our dips straight legged, going all the way down, and rather slowly. Which definitely made it harder. I guess that's the point, right? Not to digress, but I am thinking that I would like to get to the point where I am doing my pushups 'military style' as opposed to the girl pushups that I always do. Back to the course. My partner, who hadn't been back to boot camp in 10 days, was having a bit of an issue with the dips, so I paced myself a bit. There were two people in front of us, struggling with the rope net, so Titus made her do jumping jacks while she waited, and then looked at me and said, "What are you waiting for? Get to it!" As I began, I zoned out a bit, but kept an eye on the woman who was floundering in the net; and then I found Titus in front of me, but as opposed to the smirk, he had a smile on his face, and his ice-blue eyes seemed to lose their coldness and took on more of a twinkle. Knowing how old he was gave me the confidence to say, "I am not even looking at you." He grinned and then went off to help the people in front.

When it was my turn, Titus was nowhere near. Despite everything, I feel it would have been obnoxious to shout out for my drill instructor, at the risk of sounding either imperious, or like a princess who couldn't do things on her own. Given my long history of being acquainted with the military, the idea of respect for a higher rank was pretty ingrained. I guess from a cultural perspective, Desis tend to do that as well, don't they?

Finally, he noticed me standing at the start of the rope net, a shrug on my shoulders, and a helpless look on my face. He said, "Go on, get on up there". Emboldened, I threw back, "With what? The extra 15 inches I have hiding in my pocket?" He grinned as he walked over, as I continued my rant. "When are you going to realize that I am a special needs recruit?" His answer? "C'mon, you're a ninja, get up!" With a boost, I got up. Titus decided to be benevolent and not violently shake the rope net as I made my way up. As I flipped over the top, and jumped down, he clapped me on the shoulder and told me to go to the rope swing (no dips this time - to keep pace). No problem, to this date there have been only two people who have failed to clear the log, and have fallen into the water hazard, a site which probably was the origin of the dengue outbreak in South Asia. This time, though, he did holler me over to the windowsill.

Over to the second set of hurdles, and over to the 4 walls. The first two were easy, as usual. The third wall, well, this was another issue. Not that I couldn't get over it, but that I had always needed a boost. Between Monday and Wednesday, I had been thinking about the possibility of getting over the third wall without any help. What if I bent at the knees, and gave a jump up? Well, I looked up at the Perseverance (3rd) wall, took a deep breath, and jumped. Grabbed a hold of the top, scrambled my feet up the wall, and made it over!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!

Inwardly triumphant, I strutted over to Titus for the next task. Unfazed, he pointed to the monkey bars. A bit fatigued, I asked him to spot me; the first 1/3 was okay, but as I struggled with the second part, a moment came when I paused and Titus didn't. My grasp slipped, and despite Titus' best efforts to steady my legs, I fell like a chopped down tree. Toppled to the ground, and hit the right side of my face on a metal beam. Ow. Tears did well up, but I did my best to put on a brave face. Titus, trying not to seem overly concerned, looked at me, told me to go grab some water, and then walk a lap around to shake it off. I made my way over to the PT space where I drank my water, and inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying not to break down completely, especially given that Alex was nearby. Took a few moments, and thankfully, no one was yelling at me.

Deciding not to do the walk around, I trotted back to the scene of the crime. Titus said, “I need you to get back up there, to get over the fear.' What was he smoking? But, to appease him, I hopped back up. Not quite like the time when I had a major skiing accident in 2001 and took 3 weeks to get back onto the slopes, it was all the more accelerated. Not sure it was quite the same effect, though. Then, the next obstacle. Looked to my DI for a boost, and then hopped up to the log roll. Over to the Intensity wall, over that with no problem. The rest of the workout was a bit fuzzy, possibly due to the minor concussion (kidding).

There was a bruise the next day, and the day after. Friday was somewhat of a redeeming day, but the details evade me. I do remember trying to milk the 'I fell off the monkey bars' thing to Ruben, but he was decidedly less than sympathetic. But learned something very interesting from Linda. I don't know how much of it was her unconditional support and enthusiasm for me being in the program, but she told me that I was one of Titus' favorites - he called me a ninja, and apparently had told Linda that sometimes he was afraid of standing in my way, for fear that I would run him over.

This came as a surprise. I was always under the impression that he favored the strong ones; I was all about the attitude, not the extreme prowess. But it was nice to hear, and made me look differently at the young drill instructor who had once looked upon me with a mix of indifference and disdain.