Not only did I meet my goal I destroyed it.

The last 2 weeks have been amazing, my workouts have been extreme, and I hit some great strides. In my last blog post I talked about the toughest workout I have ever done. Well the following Tuesday Damir tweaked it and made it much harder.

It started with Damir explaining that there would be two stopwatches, one will time the workout, and with the other, he would be timing the amount of time that I was taking a break or switching from the Airdyne bike to the hamster wheel. The workout was 1min on the Airdyne and then 2mins on the hamster wheel and so on... until I reach 10mins on the hamster wheel. As I started out I was on the Airdyne I was thinking this is going to be hard, really hard! At the 6min mark I was not sure I would be able to finish this workout. I must have jumped off that treadmill 10 times in that 6min run. That is when Damir started raise his voice a little, letting me know that if the break stopwatch reaches 10mins the workout is done. At the 8min run on the treadmill I was freaking out, it was crazy hard, but dug deep and finished the 8mins. Now Damir could see I was not doing well mentally and while I was on the Airdyne he sat on the bike beside me and calmed me down. Now the 10min run was the hardest thing I ever did. The speed of the hamster wheel was high, and as I ran I just started to panic, and I jumped off time and time again. Now Damir is yelling, because I was over 8mins on the rest stopwatch, every time I hopped off he got louder and louder. The last 2mins of that 10min run I had Meghan on the treadmill beside me cheering me on, and I was crying it was so hard, it was so bad. I did finish with 9:15 of rest. I was so pissed, so I asked immediately asked if I could do it again 10 days later, on next Thursday.

I decided that was not good enough, I wanted better under 8mins of rest is what I was thinking would be good. So at boot camp I tried to push hard, and these were hard boot camps. The great thing about Boot camp is that everyone in the class is very supportive and certain people will call me out if I am slacking. The first boot camp workout after that hard workout we had to pick partners, so I picked Shaimaa, she pushed me good. During the several circuits in the few weeks I tired to be close to people who would call me out and push me, like Meghan, Sandra, Jacob or Paula. Boot camp was good and I gave it my all.

So the redo day of that workout came, this time I was so focused. Damir said “are we still shooting for under 8mins of rest?” I said let’s just get it under 9. This time I controlled my breathing, taking each time on the treadmill 2mins at a time. When I was on the Airdyne I really focused on my breathing, before I knew it, I was doing the 8min run and this time Damir did not raise his voice once. In fact he kept saying... “Oh we are going to have changed this for next time; it is too easy for you!” I kept focused and finished the 8min run. During the ten min run I only stopped 3 times. I finished under 7mins of rest. Not only did I meet my goal I destroyed it.

This week started off with a bang, Tuesday’s session was awesome we got to play with the Big Ass tire and I am very much improving on that.

Fear starts to set in

This week started with a bang. Monday, Damir was still away from boot camp so Kate was the Sub instructor again. It was another awesome class, the warm up was very intense, the spin bike and push ups one hand on a step one hand on the ground. It was hard we did that for about 10 to 15 minutes. The rest of the class was the same way very intense. Kate made me realize I can do more cardio then I think I can and I enjoy the way her class flowed. It was great she is definitely as crazy as Damir.

Tuesday session with Damir was awesome. I warmed up on the hamster wheel just walking as my legs were very sore from boot camp. At the beginning of Ryan and I session Damir Said “ let’s put u on the Airdyne bike before Ryan comes out of the change room” now I was very apprehensive about getting on as the last time we did that it did not go well. I got on and it went well, very well so we started on the bike. I started with 3 minutes on the bike, after that it was pushing and pulling a weight sled and Giant tire flips. The whole time Damir worked on fixing my form with flipping the tire. We made 2 adjustments and it felt a little easier to flip the tire. That was the first half of our session; it was tough but not super insane. That came in the second half session. The second half consisted of burpees, rowing in the weight sled (which felt extremely heavy), bear crawls and push ups. It was repeated 5 times, it was intense and went on for a very long time and there was no stopping to catch my breath. In fact all I heard was Damir “come on Brian.....Lets goo Brian ..... pick it up Brian ......good job not stopping Brian... chest First Brian....lets Go” like I said it went on for a very long time!!

Wednesday I took a rest Day

Thursday was Crazy I arrived at 2110 Fitness Damir was Training Kim, as I walked By, Damir Said “Remember last month when I said I can’t wait to put you through the workout that Kim was doing? YEAH we are doing that today!” now I did remember, it looked like Damir was trying to kill Kim with the hamster wheel and Airdyne. In fact I had never seen Kim work so hard ever, and she is an animal when it comes to working out. So I got changed, ate my snack, and hopped on the hamster wheel to warm up. I was walking for about 5 minutes when all of sudden Damir was turning off my hamster wheel and he said “Get off I want you to lift weights to warm up!” now he has NEVER taken me off the hamster wheel before a workout before so fear starts to set in. I fire a text off to Ryan letting him know he just pulled me off the hamster wheel, why should I be the only on freaking out. As I am doing the weights Damir suggested I am sure I look terrified..... Because well I remember that the two times I seen Kim do that workout she was doing it non stop! Off the Airdyne on the hamster wheel not stopping to catch her breath she just powered through the whole hour like a machine. I think she had 1minutie of rest the whole time. The half hour of lifting weights blow by very fast. Ryan arrived and I ask if he got my text he responded in his sarcastic tone “thanks for that”

I hop on the Airdyne and I start; it was 1min going as hard as I could, then off to the hamster wheel at a 15 incline. While I am on the hamster wheel Damir says “hope you boys are ready! Because this session will not be easy like all our other sessions” I am thinking are you fucking kidding me I am still feeling Tuesday’s workout and Tuesday was not easy! The first 2mins were intense. Then on the Airdyne again this time 2mins. now my heart is just pounding. Then it’s off to the hamster Wheel for 2mins now I am feeling overwhelmed, I remember something from the Zen Book I am reading and I just breathe and focus and the overwhelming feeling leaves. At the 5 min on the Airdyne mark I ask for the bucket in the corner just in case, but it turns out I did not need it at all. After the 6 min on the Airdyne Damir says that we were done. Ryan and I made it to 6mins I have to say we gave everything we had to it; Kim made it to 10min on each in her hour’s session. That is just crazy, she is a workout machine. She makes me want to work even harder on my cardio to be able to make it to 10mins on both as well. That Session went by so fast, I had all the signs of a great workout, light headedness, dizziness, I had to vomit and my shirt was soaked wet. I have done an hour on the treadmill with Damir many times before, which was hard; this was 10 times harder it rocked!! After that session I have named the Airdyne, Emma, because it is awesome, and I think I may have found my new love, it is much more fun than Sara (the curved hamster wheel). Best Session Ever!!

Friday’s boot camp was an awesome circuit, 13 crazy exercises. Started with burpees, that is my favourite station to start with as I don’t want to end the hour with them. It was a very sweaty hour, I felt bad for Kat Jacob as I think she shared a sweat spot with me through the whole class. She was very motivating we had lots of hi five and I think we both cursed at the same exercises. It was a great class I liked it a lot.

This week was so intensely awesome makes me excited to see what happens next week!