Session 3 Results and a Paddle Boarding Disaster!

 

Celebrating this session's winner Sirisha in a "v" formation - inspired by a motivational video about geese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUiDjvrZjLg. Honk honk!

Our final assessment was Tuesday and it wasn't until Monday night that I started to get excited. As I was laying out my workout clothes I realized my stomach was full of butterflies.

I had a hard time falling asleep. And then I woke up every few hours to check the clock and make sure I didn't sleep through class.
It was also my birthday!

First was the weigh in and I almost couldn't believe that the number on the scale was exactly my goal! It's only 1.6 lbs down, but that's a total loss of 19.6! I also lost another inch off my chest and an inch off of my waist. Yahoo!

Because of my hurt leg, I had debated whether or not to do the run. But once I got there, I decided to go for it. I had put so much into this session, I just had to see it through. I ended up matching my last session time and all things considered, I'm okay with that!

I was also able to add a few more sit-ups and squats in one minute exercises:


My "sexy" "after" pose! Haha!

(Week 1 - Week 8 - Week 16 - Week 24)
Sit-ups: 0 - 18 - 25 - 27
Squats: 40 - 56 - 67 - 80

I actually decreased in reps on the bicep curls and push-ups, but this is one of those cases where you realize how mental it all is - because I was only trying to beat my results from the beginning of this session, and not the end of the last session...

Bicep curls: 25 - 31 - 52 - 45
Push-ups: 12 - 27 - 35 - 31

By far the best part of the assessment for me, was the plank. It was tough, but with everyone in the class cheering me on, I was able to do another 6-minute plank! I also got back to my 2-minute side bridge!

It was an awesome way to start off my special day!

Nice day for sailing - bad day for paddle boarding...
Then Saturday, my husband and I tried out paddle boarding for the first time.

I had been hearing from lots of people about how fun it was and what a great workout it was - I couldn't wait to try it!

My sister-in-law came over to watch Coen and we headed out to Mission Bay. My cousin, Jessica, had told me to go early before it gets too windy. We didn't make it down there until after 11, but the rental guy assured us that the wind wouldn't be a problem.

As we carried the giant, heavy paddle boards from the rental place, across the street to the water, the instructor joked about how this was the hardest part.

He gave us a two-minute spiel about how easy it was, and we got in the water. There were people out there of all shapes and sizes, so I felt pretty good about my chances.

Standing up was no problem. And though it took a little while to get the hang of steering, things were going pretty well. There were three other people in our group and we all followed the instructor around the little marina.

Pat had a waterproof camera and we took turns taking pictures of each other. We were having so much fun!

Then we realized our group was kind of far away - and getting farther. The current seemed to be pulling us away.

Suddenly Pat fell off of his board and it quickly started floating away. I was able to get to it and pull it on top of my board but then I couldn't go anywhere. And he started getting farther away. I was panicking when a good samaritan came up and helped me get the board back to Pat. Thank goodness!

Finally we were reunited, but now we were so far from our group we couldn't see them anymore. We tried to paddle in the direction they'd gone, but the wind and current had picked up even more and we didn't seem to be going anywhere. And there were boats and kayaks and jet skis - lots of them - kicking the water up even more.

My legs started getting tired so I kneeled down. We paddled and paddled and paddled some more. We literally weren't moving. 

My knees started hurting so I sat down on my butt. By this time I was so frustrated I started to tear up.

I felt like "Old Man and the Sea" and it was like we were stuck in some sort of weird Bermuda Triangle, black hole vortex or something.

What the hell was going on? Why was this so hard? No one ever said this was this hard!

I kept asking Pat, "What do we do?"

"Just keep going," he'd say. He wasn't nearly as ruffled as I was.

A few sail boats flew by. It was a nice day for sailing!

Then the freaking Bahia Belle went by. Are you kidding me? The water got so rough I almost fell off the board from sitting!

Clearly no one was coming to rescue us, so we just had to dig deep and paddle our asses off. I'm not usually one to drop "F" bombs, but I gave that ocean a piece of my mind.

It took us almost two hours to get back to where we started. I was exhausted. And kind of pissed that the instructor never came back for us.

But it was over and we made it back safe, so that was all that really mattered.

It was one hell of a workout. And, yes, I would totally do it again!

But next time, I will take my cousin's advice and go early! And stay away from the vortex...

(By the way, if you are thinking of taking a lesson, I don't recommend Surfari.)