I woke up this morning with anticipation of today’s workout. Not the stressed out scared type, no this was more like the first day back at summer camp after having been a camper for years. It was a comforting feeling, almost like going home. During work today I couldn’t wait for the day to come to an end so I could go workout with my trainer. Yes, it was my first time working back out with Steve at Green Mountain Rock Climbing since before WTM.

I walked into the gym and it was like walking into an old friends home. Steve and I are starting back up again. We had talked about starting a little back from where I was in December and build back up until the summer. Last time we just focused on my upper body to get over walls. This time we are focusing a little more on all around fitness with emphasis still on my upper body.

As I warmed up I hopped on the wall for a boulder around the gym. I turned off my brain and just let my body feel the holds and propelled myself around the gym at a surprising speed. I am definitely a little out of practice as my arms pumped before I had made my first time around. Shaking Steve told me I was going to do it again this time just before the Whale through the end. I didn’t make it very far before my I could barely grip the holds anymore.

We moved into the heart of the workout, a circuit. I love circuits for the fact that anyone part taken alone is well easy. As Steve described the workout, I thought I totally have this! Then we began… We did six sets: each one consisted of 250 meter row on the urg (averaging 50 – 57 seconds a set) followed by 100 jumps ropes. The last part, Steve’s Burpees, think burpee with a cinderblock, starting with 10 reps, then 9,8,7,6,5. The rest between each set started with 30 seconds then after each set another 15 seconds were added so after the last set I had two minutes rest before the next part of the workout.

Well, here is the interesting part of the workout, what it did to me. The weakness in this circuit is my jump roping skills. I could get a good 40-50 and even 60 once in without a slipup. After that it was hard to get back into the rhythm. During one of the sets, I found I needed to pause for a second when I had to eye around for the nearest exit as I had the distinct feeling that the chicken parm from lunch was about to make a second appearance. Sweat ran down my face. The local high school climbing teams stopped their practices at times to gawk at what this lady (me) was doing on the other side of the gym. Quickly, I was down to my shorts and a sports bra sweating buckets. Then, it was over. I contemplated collapsing and seeing what happened, but instead kept moving forward.

We ended the season with some hangs. My shoulders barely made it a minute with my legs at my chest so instead we moved over to the wall where I had to accumulate four minutes on the wall. It took a couple times falling off. I think my longest stint was just over a minute and a half without losing my grip. Humbling to be back in the gym not exactly where I was in December but further than I was when we started in the summer.

Thanks to Steve for another great workout and the start of our training season again. My shoulders are still sore and the shaking has finally subsided from my arms. We will see how they are after tomorrow morning with Jason and Joe in Pittsfield. Yes, it finally feels like training season is back ON!