Remember on yesterday I told y’all about the quest to get leaner and faster to improve my running pace and next marathon finish time? [READ: #RapOnTheRun: I Need To Run Faster, I Need To Get Leaner]. Well today was day one of fitness boot camp. The goal of taking this boot camp is to add cross training and strength workouts into my running routine. These combinations supposedly help your overall running by improving your fitness, flexibility, strength and more.

What made today even more exciting is the trainer emailed me before class asking if I’d bring music for us to work out to! So for today’s session, I chose De La Soul’s “Are You In? Nike+ Original Run” that came out in 2009.

Our trainer had us complete a 7 minute fitness test after we warmed up, but before we actually worked out. The goal of the 7 minute fitness test is for us to have a baseline of our fitness level. At the end of the eight sessions (which runs for four weeks), we’ll do the same 7 minute test to see how our fitness levels improved. I’m also going to be monitoring my running pace to see if it gets faster over the coming weeks.

Below are the results of today’s 7 minute test:

Squats: 39
Pushups: 25
Burpees: 10
High Knees: 80
Lunges: 57
Plank: 20 seconds
Crunches: 20

Seems like I should have been able to plank for longer than 20 seconds, but couldn’t. That let me know my core is weak as heck. I definitely have work to do over the coming weeks.

I’m fresh out of fitness boot camp and a bit worn out. I definitely broke out in a sweat even though it was cold outside. It was a good workout though. The music was on point, our trainer has a great attitude and she kept me motivated. I’m definitely looking forward to the next fitness boot camp class.

Y’all can stay tuned to my Twitter (@nancioishiphop), ‘Gram (@nancioishiphop), Facebook (Nanci O Is Hip Hop) and the blog. I’ll blog about classes as sessions progress and also post training results after the last class to let y’all know how fitness boot camp goes!

#RapOnTheRun