Creating strength

I did it.

My most recent hike

Every day last week I woke up around 5:30 a.m., grabbed water, a towel and a yoga mat and drove to Belltown to get my butt kicked by Jenn at For The Glow. The week-long bootcamp was challenging, painful and extremely rewarding.

With a mix of strong Glow Flow workouts and two days of intense Epic Cardio, every muscle in my body was sore at one point or another. The highlight for me was actually the most difficult. I woke up on Thursday dreading the Epic Cardio workout I knew would involve lots of running, which isn't something I do. Running makes me feel like I'm dying. My chest hurts, I can barely breathe and it's just all-around awful. Then I arrived at the Sculpture Park where we were meeting that day and saw this beautiful view.

The Sculpture Park in Seattle

Before the class, I emailed Jenn and told her how I was pretty much the worst runner in the world and was nervous about the workout. She gave me tips on how to get an effective workout without pushing myself to a bad point. I felt prepared. When the group had to jog around the park, I followed right alongside them. When we had to run for a minute and sprint for 20 seconds, I did that too and interspersed a couple short breaks. The last part was the hardest: Sprints followed by Frog Jumps up a set of long stairs. Oh my gosh you guys. Frog Jumps are the worst. Ouch. I finished two sets and my legs said, "Nope." I took a rest then completed one more. Boom.

I really enjoyed my time with the Glow group. The women were of all ages, sizes and different levels of athleticism. It was a very fun and encouraging environment -- oh and the soundtracks to the Glow Flow workouts were amazing! I'd highly recommend For The Glow if you're a woman in the Seattle area looking for not just a great and different workout routine but also an embracing community that will help you reach your goals.

My goal was simply to finish the bootcamp. Every morning I woke up and thought about skipping, but I wanted to be stronger than that. Strength doesn't just happen, you have to work at it. You have to create it. Finishing the boot camp was a good start for me.

On to the next one.