Labor Pains

What a week. It appears we all survived our first three sessions of Dr. Evil Dr. Drill, and I don’t think many people, if any, dropped out. It is really tough, but seriously, he’s a pretty inspiring guy. You can really tell he’s doing this because he wants us to push ourselves outside our comfort zone and be truly fit and healthy. And he’s sincerely nice. Just no-nonsense and no-excuses.

Still, though. There were a couple moments when I did ask myself if I was nuts. Like the class on Wednesday when the front row had to lay on their backs and hold their feet six inches off the ground, while the back two rows had to do planks. Forever. One at a time, he went around to each person on their backs and dropped a ten pound medicine ball. Each person caught it and threw it back up at him. He worked his way around the room, row by row, as we all took turns between the medicine ball and the planks, and I had to dig down deep not to collapse and then be forced to do pushups.

Speaking of pushups, they were doled out frequently. Latecomers, knockers-over of canteens, and someone who snickered at a command in the back row. Today I was singled out to carry two heavy ammo cans around the track three times, then do shoulder shrugs with them, but I can’t tell if it was a punishment for looking the wrong way, or if I was just one of the lucky ones.

A highpoint: during an isometric exercise I got my first atta-girl: “excellent job Cora!" (I would have flushed with pride were I not already flushed with exhaustion.) No time to rest on my laurels though: later I was scolded for not picking my knees up high enough when jogging.

Anyway, I love it. I’ve never pushed myself this hard before. I’ve never hurt this bad before. In fact I couldn’t sleep the other night, every muscle ached so much I couldn’t get comfortable. But there’s some pride to be had in crawling out of bed at 4:45 and working up a sweat before the sun is up! And I admit I get a kick out of telling people what I’m doing and watching them cringe.

One week down, four to go!

P.S. We should have our dossier mailed to China next week. I don’t know which will be more likely to flow: tears of relief or swigs of champagne?