New Challenge: Get Into Shape!

One day last weekend, I was mindlessly surfing the internet as I frequently do on the weekends, more than I should really, when I came across a story about a group of men who are training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro this fall. This caught my attention as I too am hoping to climb Kili one day (its on the infamous life's "to do" list.) The article talked about their training regimen with an Aussie company called Physical Advantage , a military-style fitness "boot camp". I had heard of these boot-camps before, it looked like fun so on a whim, I signed up. Every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 7am for the month of September. How hard could it possibly be?

I have to say, I was woefully unprepared for what I committed myself to and was unpleasantly surprised to see just how low my fitness level has become! Four years ago I started training for triathlons which was very hard (at one point, I thought my coach was gonna drown me during swimming drills!) But over time it got easier and I succeeded in completing Sprint and Olympic distance races, completed my first half marathon, almost completed Sylvan Lake Half Ironman and won a bronze medal at Calgary Corporate Challenge for the Team Swim event. It was a gratifying time in my athletic career.

But then I moved to the UAE, not the most active, sports friendly place around (however there are several triathlon clubs, volleyball leagues and a big marathon event in Ras al Khaimah every February). Other things became priority, namely work, work and more work. I became a hermit and a couch potato.

Last Sunday was the first boot camp, I dragged myself out of bed at 5am (which in itself is an achievement) and headed down to Jumeirah public beach to meet my new “platoon”. That was the easy part!

What followed was 65 minutes of mortal agony – sprinting up and down the beach, push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, squats, bench-presses, jumping jacks, more sprinting, then more sit-ups, lunges and squats and finally a 1.6K run. Throw into the mix a constant barking of commands from our “Commander”, plenty of “suck it up!” and penalties for being too slow, lazy or marching out of formation and you have a pretty darned good reason to not join the military in my humble opinion! Throughout the session, our stats were recorded as a bench-mark and each of us was issued a "uniform" (T-shirt) and a “rank” based on the results: soldier, commando or elite. They take the military theme pretty seriously.

An additional wrinkle is that we are in the midst of the Holy month of Ramadan. From day break until sunset, Muslims are fasting: abstaining from food, drink, smoking and sex during daylight hours. For non-Muslims, the law says that we must also abstain from these things in public. For the most part, this is not that difficult to accommodate; my daily Starbucks is concealed in a paper bag, I hide out in my colleague's office to eat lunch, I don't smoke and I don't usually have sex in public places at the best of times, so no big deal.

It is also still summer which means, even in the wee hours of the morning, the temperature is still mid 30’s and still humidity hovers around 65%. Heavy exertion in warm weather and not allowed to drink water … this can be a problem. Fortunately, Dubai is more lenient than most other places in the region provided we are discreet. Boot-campers are allowed short water breaks inside a tent that is erected on the beach for that purpose.

And just in case I was not totally miserable by this whimsical decision to get into shape military-style, I caught a sinus cold last Sunday and have been coughing and wheezing ever since.

The one bright spot so far is that these sessions take place on the beach. It may be infinitely harder to do interval-sprints on sand than on a more amicable surface (such as a gym floor) and it may be sticky and sweaty without the comforts of air conditioning, but to swim in the ocean after an intense work out is … well, nothing short of divine! The water is still quite warm at this time of year but none the less, it is a soothing and glorious indulgence.

So for all my huffing and puffing, moaning and groaning, sniffling and sniveling, a fitness shake-up was overdue; a change in attitude was in order. I probably picked one of the more radical ways of going about it … but it will be good for me, it will get easier insha’allah and it is fun (in a warped kind of way.) For the time being, Kilimanjaro will have to wait.

I need a nap (and a good massage therapist)!