Boot camp / Crossfit - Hotel Style

As I am still stuck away from home, I had to figure out what I could do for a workout. No 6:30 Crossfit; no Kerstings Court. So I decided to make something up based upon what I could find in the hotel "gym". The first key to putting together a hotel WOD is ignoring key rules in the hotel gym such as:

• Use equipment only as directed
• Do not exercise alone; and
• At the first sign of discomfort - discontinue use. (This one actually made me laugh. If everyone stopped when they were "discomforted" at boot camp or crossfit not sure any of our work outs would last very long.)

So, I got to the gym and fortunately there was no one else there. Then again, what do you expect for a Friday night at 8:00 p.m. After looking around at what equipment was in there, I decided I would do the following:

Warm up:

• 1/2 mile on the treadmill (It just reinforced that I hate the treadmill!)

Then four rounds of:

Running 400m:

• This was on the treadmill. I actually did 800m the first round, and then 400m the last three. The thing that really sucks about the treadmill is that it is so artificial and takes almost 30 seconds to get up to any real speed.

Push press w/ dumbbells (25 each round):

• I used two 15 lb dumbbells the first round, and then 10 the last three rounds.

Step ups (25 each round):

• For this, I had to build a step. I found one of those "life steps" from the 80's in the corner. They had 8 height pieces for each of the two steppers in the corner - so I just made one step up of 8 pieces per side. I was going to do box jumps, but the plastic stepper really was not very stable and decided killing myself would not be a good idea, especially when violating Rule No. 2 - by exercising alone.

Wall balls (25 each round):

• So the heaviest ball in the gym was only 8 pounds - only half of the 16 pounds we normally use. So I decided I would still use it, but to compensate for the lighter weight, I would aim for about 12 feet. This was the trickiest of the exercises, as it did involve throwing a ball at a pillar. I realized after the first round that the ball was leaving smudges about 12 feet high on the wall. It actually made me smile, but it did not stop me.. I would love for them to figure that one out, and I am sure that the smudges would just wipe off. Then just as I was going to start the fourth round, I eyed security walking through the door. I saw him before he saw me. So I turned around and started throwing the all straight up in the air instead of at the wall. I must have fooled him, because he merely walked in and asked if all was o.k. I said yes. He turned and walked out, so I returned to finish the last 10 ball walls against the wall.

My time was around 29 minutes, I think. I am sure that I should have been able to do this much faster - but at least I did something.