Turn Up the H.E.A.T.

I'm sitting on a bench in front of my locker, elbows on knees, watching the sweat drip off my nose and I'm just shaking. I can't seem to get the shaking, blackout feeling to go away and my heart rate feels high and thready.

I'm going to die, or blackout... maybe both.

I'm breathing through my nose and trying to calm down but something's very wrong with my heart rate, I can feeeel it.

I check the Garmin, HR 84. (Resting is 69 but this is on the way down).

FINE! There's goes my big epic death scene, that's just great! I get to enjoy this moment even longer - sigh. So my heart rate isn't high and thready, I guess it's my pecs that are high and thready. My entire body feels affronted, assaulted and annoyed, giving me nothing but tude, "Bill? Entire body here, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! I mean O-M-G!!! The horror, the horror!"

I've blacked most of it out, the details you know, like when you get your first cavity search but bits and pieces of it swim around in a mental haze. It starts out innocently enough, an email, something innocuous. Bubbles and Diablo have roped me into this goofy Holiday Holdout thing where you try and lose weight during the holidays. Me? I just want to maintain, Bill does love his pumpkin pie so. Anyway Bubbles had sent out some email babbling about hoping we're maintaining our weight and what not and giving a list of courses to help, one of them was:

H.E.A.T. - High Energy Athletic Training (This is not a beginner class)
This class utilizes sports conditioning and agility drills combined with plyometrics to get your heart rate up and to keep it there!  Get ready for an intense workout and don’t forget to bring your water bottle and towel!

She also buttered me up beforehand asking if I would try the class out. She was trying to set up a class for the morning crew since she knew we weren't lunch time folk, when it was normally held. All I knew about the class was that it was normally taken by the hardcore crazies, like JRock, wickedWoman, princessLongLegs and others.

Can I be included with those folk? Do I dare?

Sure, why not? I can at least try.

So I stroll into the gym around 6am disappointing IronMan who was hoping that I'd miss two days in a row and have to bring in doughnuts. I'm not sure when that rule was passed but I managed to avoid that fate. IronMan's ordeal was over and mine was just beginning. awesomeGirl, AT Everest, goodMood and the otherPonyTail were there. I was wondering around doing some warm-ups, did ten minutes on the bike and we were gabbing about how Tiger Woods was getting his just desserts.

And then it was time. The class starts with Bubbles ABS class which I haven't attended in awhile. It hasn't changed, well the routines are different but I still break. Still it was a good workout. Once that fifteen minute nightmare is over the real fun begins!

There were six in the ABS class and suddenly there were three - me, tireTosser and J-TOSRV. Once the pansies rest had cleared the basketball court the gates came crashing down and we were sealed in, alone, with... crazyBubbles.

It's obvious to the trained observer, such as myself, that Bubbles' baby, incubating away, has driven Bubbles insane. She hides it well though, her voice a low, almost whispered command or encouragement to keep hurting yourself but I'm pretty sure she's stark raving bonkers. This class proves it.

You start with a lap around the gym at a jog or power-walk thinking, "What's the big deal?" and then you start doing what an old school guy like me would call calisthenics and side lunges and it's all mixed up and there was various things you end up doing on the step. The thing is, they generally fall hard upon the previous one. There are breaks but the point is (I think) to get the HR up and keep it there and then do some kind of strength training by surviving the push-ups or whatever Bubbles is throwing at you at the moment. There was even jump rope which was the first time I ever used one of those. That wasn't pretty.

At first I was trying to race J-TOSRV on various floor exercises but that didn't last long. I was exhausted or just didn't know the hokey-pokey (put your right foot in...) steps as well as J-TOSRV but mostly it was fatigue.

Halfway through the forty minutes I was just trying to hang in there. I was slowing down, way down. Where the others were doing the requested 25 or whatever I was doing about half of them. My heart was hammering (or felt that way) and I just didn't have the energy to do more, BUT I was doing what I could and sometimes that's all there is. In short I wasn't 'dogging' it.

The last thing Bubbles had us do was grab a medicine ball and your partner does a squat thrust while you do a deep knee bend with the ball (look this is all sorta hazy so I probably have it wrong), when they get up you toss them the ball and you do the squat thrust thingy. We did around 25 of those and then did another set of something with a slight variation but essentially the same thing.

I was spent! I was shaking and whiting out a bit and having all sorts of trouble controlling my breathing. Bubbles was leading us through a cool down of some sort of high kick walking or whatever and tireTosser was just burying me in that getting to the end of the gym and I'm kinda doing what Bubbles is asking of me, I mean I want to but I'm having difficulty with motor control.

Bubbles is hanging near me, checking on me. I can dimly tell she's concerned enough to keep an eye on me, asking what my HR is etc. Mainly I just want to lay down and puke, in either order. But I keep trying to listen to her and I'm trying to breath through my nose. I'm getting some control back. I help clean up the stuff in the gym and head for the lockers.

What did I learn?

1. Bubbles is right - this is NOT a Beginners class. If you're coming out of the gates wanting to lose pounds and drop weight, improve yourself in some manner don't start here. Honestly - there are better classes for that.
2. I'm eating a Clif bar an hour or so before the next class
3. Those sets that Bubbles gives you for your exercise routine, you'll get the best benefit going straight from one to the other without any down time. This is how it's done in the H.E.A.T. class. I enjoy 'recuperating' by gabbing between sets. That's not what's intended. I'll need to modify my behavior but I do enjoy the social aspects of the gym too.
   

Is it a good 'challenging' class? - Oh yeah! It'll challenge you ::nods head::

Will I take it again? - Next Tuesday right? At 7am? I'll be there, God save my soul.

J-TOSRV and tireTosser appeared to do much better than I did in the class, meaning they weren't enjoying the 'near death' experience I was, or maybe they hid it better, you'll have to ask them. I know tireTosser told Bubbles that this class felt like a real workout and J-TOSRV high fived me as I was stumbling about after the class for hanging in there. That was nice, and Bubbles is always encouraging saying stuff like, "You did well in ABS today" to which I usually reply, "I did sucky." I just want Bubbles to know that's kind of part of my nature but her encouragement does help.

I hope more of the morning crew will try this course, it is an experience. ::grin::