Tuesday morning. Day after the tornados in Nashville. Some touched down, there was some damage done in the area, but fortunately for me the only damage done to my property consisted of a broken gutter and a tipped-over basketball goal. Oh, and my windows were open so the inside of the house looked like my daughter had blown through there.
The tornado recap really has nothing to do with boot camp this morning, except that it gave me opportunity to mention that my windows had been open on Monday; this gave all the Tennessee springtime pollen ample opportunity to fill my home, and subsequently my lungs as I was sleeping. So I awoke this morning with a raw, burning chest, a neverending flow of snot running from my nose, and lungs filled with goo.
So what did I do? Well, it’s Tuesday – I went to boot camp. I’ve missed the last two Tuesdays, so I wasn’t about to let a little fire in my chest keep me from going today.
Tuesday is usually running day, but because of the swampy conditions after all the rain yesterday, we did accumulators inside instead. I was very happy that we were going to be inside; running outside might have killed me. Maybe not killed, but breathing in all the tree copulation byproduct while running would not have been a good thing. I was willing to try, but I’m glad I didn’t have to do it.
(As I write this, it occurs to me that those with weak constitutions should probably skip the next paragraph. Particularly if you don’t have a bathroom or a bucket handy.)
The workout got off to a fantastic start when about three minutes into the warm-up I had a small coughing fit, got gagged by my own mucus, and vomited into my tissue. It wasn’t a full-on vomit; just a little string of snot. Which of course gagged me more as it exited my throat. Fortunately I did make it to the bathroom before too much action ensued. It was lovely. I sure hope no one missed it.
Accumulators were very, very difficult in my gross, allergic condition, but I made it through. Sarah the running coach was there, and she kept trying to encourage me to breathe more deeply. I didn’t want to make excuses, but the honest truth was that I just didn’t have any room in my lungs to breathe deeply. I tried to focus on breathing as far down into my lungs as possible, really using my diaphragm, but it was a rough day. I went back and forth between feeling really strong and feeling like I wasn’t going to make it. Obviously, my cardio was weak; my biceps were also weak; triceps felt strong; abs felt strong (I actually surprised myself with some fantastic V-ups today); push-ups were mostly good (my butt goes up when I drop to my knees, but my push-ups from my toes are getting great); lower body felt great.
I struggled a lot today because there was a lot of cardio and that was a killer with respiratory irritation. I couldn’t give the verbal responses we were supposed to give; I couldn’t give the encouragement to my fellow recruits that I wanted to give because I had to take all the recovery time I could to try to replenish my oxygen supply. But I had a lot of strong moments today, too. It all works together to make me stronger. This is working.
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