The Morning Boot Camp

Morning Workout
RUN
1 hour 21 minutes (8.3 miles)
Pain level: Moderate

LIFT WEIGHTS + STRETCH
Some power lifting. Not that I'm very powerful, but I try.

Random Comments: Since I had some weight lifting on the schedule and since I had a breakfast meeting planned, I decided to save some travel time by starting and finishing my run at the YMCA. The festivities began at 6am.

The Y is only 6 blocks from the ocean, so I had the joy of running up along the coast in the early morning hours. If there's one thing I learned about running up the coast at such a time (and I reckon that I learned at least one thing, if not more), it's that there are a heckuva lot of women out there huffing and grunting in their boot camps.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the boot camp phenomena. For all I know, this may be a very LA type of thing. Basically, you pay somebody too much money to tell you to do more sit-ups. Technically, the leader is supposed to act as a drill sergeant and get you into shape. Hence the "boot camp" name. The truth of the matter is that, though there are a lot of drills, there's not a lot of sergeanting involved. From what I can gather, it's a half hour of sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks and potato sack racing.

This whole boot camp thing seems to be quite the cash cow though. In just 1/2 mile I saw no less than four boot camp leaders guiding their group of yoga pants wearing, tight shirt sporting, scrunchy-wrapped poneytail-ing, 30-something women through the same sorts of exercises I was about to do at the gym when I finished my run. The thing is, the boot camp clientèle - ALL women. I mean, nothing but. The only outie genitalia was with the boot camp leaders.

If I were a single guy (which I'm not) and if I were looking for a new woman to date (which I'm not) and if I were sick of the ridiculous bar scene (which I am) and if I became frustrated with online dating (which I was), I'd be signing my sorry ass up for an early morning boot camp. Not only do you get to hang out with the aforementioned yoga panting women, but if you play your cards right, you can get yourself some pretty ripped abs.