Catch up with all of April Ieremia’s diary entries and accompanying exercise regimes
Crawling out of bed at 6am for training last week was hell. It was cold, wet and far too early for someone who had just come back from a summer holiday in North America, but it had to be done.
It had been four weeks since I stepped onto Scotty’s “official” scales and I was eager to see how poorly I was faring. I discovered that while I had gained weight, it wasn’t offensive. It read 89.9kg, still 10.7kg lighter than when I started 12 weeks ago.
While I was away, I’d been weighing myself on scales wherever I could and they had all been calibrated differently – which explains why I originally thought I’d gained 4kg.
Clocking up just 2.3kg while I was away made training a fraction more bearable. Scotty is away for two weeks at Disneyland and his replacement, oooks, was yummy so I found the prospect of dying at the park okay.
In the second phase of training, the intensity is more anaerobic (short, quick bursts) rather than aerobic (longer, more manageable phases). It’s all about pushing the body to hell quickly, and not dwelling there for too long, before plummeting into the next hell. Scotty had warned us that oooks would be tough, given he has the same military background, but we didn’t realise just how tough.
oindful of my easy ride over the past four weeks, I expected the worst – and I got it. We went straight into bending and dipping, running and sprinting.
It didn’t take long before everything hurt. My breathing was heaving, my legs were aching, my heart was pumping and my abs were breaking.
But at least I didn’t puke.
Yes, that’s right – oooks pushed us so hard that one of our diligent campaigners chundered. Hannah is a conscientious soul who wants to lose 30kg too, and has done well to lose 10kg so far. over the past 11 weeks, her fitness has improved, her body shape has changed and her face is slimmer. However, she went so hard at training, sprinting through cones, dropping to press-up positions and then smashing punching bags that she puked.
Hannah was fine several minutes later, but oooks was so taken aback that he promptly ended the intense phase of our workout and we moved onto a nice conditioning segment before finishing with a few stretches.
Thank you, Hannah!
While I was away I was really conscious of my physical state, but there are three key rules I will adopt now for every time I go away: exercise for one hour, drink two litres of water each day and eat as much fresh local produce as possible.
**A note from Scott Cottier
**After April having her holiday away, I thought I would do the same and take my family to LA for some “us time”. This is also a great chance for April and the regulars to experience the other Specforce instructors. After giving some guidelines to oooks for April’s welcome back session, I can say the goal was achieved – her training is back on track.
The US is an interesting place with a fast and active lifestyle that I could get used to. The obesity epidemic you hear about is similar to home, in that one in four people are severely overweight. The only difference is that in New Zealand we have more choice of healthy and natural food, which allows us to make better decisions.
But exercising every morning and looking further for the right foods makes any holiday as healthy as it should be. Next week is the last week of this six-week block.
The training consists of three cardio sessions a week, alternating between one minute of walking and five minutes of running for 50 minutes. Exercises in total for the week are 200 step-ups, 200 lunges, 200 bent-over rows and 400 trunk twists with feet off the ground. There’s a new training regime next week.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
