Adventure Boot Camp (ABC) sponsored by Garmin

As you might have guessed, my sister won a boot camp and chose me as her partner in crime which I was extremely grateful for. The boot camp happened yesterday morning @ 09h30 at George Lea Park in Sandton. I was very nervous to begin off with as I was early for the first time I think ever and ended up having to wait 40mins for the event to start. When my Sis got there we made our way to the Garmin tent and there were were coloured cones, netball balls, jumping ropes and some more cones everywhere you looked. Oh and a rope ladders of course.. During the introduction they explained Garmin's role in the boot camp coz - if like me -you thought that Garmin only does satellite navigation for your car, you were wrong. 6 volunteers could each wear one of Garmin's heart rate monitors, step counter and watch, that picks up the data from the heart rate monitor and step counter and shows what your heart rate was during the event, time lapsed and total calories burnt. I of course had to be one of the 6! With my Sis pushing and looking like she is ready to jump anyone who dares to not give me a watch, it all came down to a ching chong cha- best out of 3 -that would determine who would wear the last available gear. Now I saw myself as quite a pro as Daniel and I play this game in the car on our way to school in the mornings. He is a very good player and usually out-thinks me. For the first time ever I thought and planned what my next move would be while trying to establish what my opponent's next move would be. I won 2 out of 3 with my paper beating rock both times. While my sister tried to get the heart monitor on (which is a strap that had to be secured below my sport bra's strap) the photographer went absolutely crazy, so keep an eye out for us in the next Cleo magazine or check out ABC's website.

It was time for the boot camp to begin, we did some slow jogging in school -of - fish-like motion having to pass our cones to one another ensuring that you do not have the same colour cone each time you take a new one. After this we did some warm up stretches and the hecticness was soon to follow. We took turns with sit-ups and jumping rope across the field, resistance running -with your partner trying to hold you back with the rope across your hips- and my favourite was ab-exercise where we had to pass a netball ball to our partner, touching the floor on your one side before you can pass the ball- with your feet in the air. We had so much fun and my sister was so motivational and inspirational. I had such a great bonding experience with her and we are def going to do more of these type of activities together. I cannot elaborate on all the exercise activities that we did as I would be writing for quite some time, but let's just say that my arms wanted to give in after all the push-ups. We had to team up with 2 other teams for the closing challenge, a race! Now being as self-driven as we are, my sister and I were determined to win. We were the pink team (not saying that colour had anything to do with it, but pink is a pretty cool colour). We had to sprint to the rope ladder with a cone in our hand, double step between each ladder-step, sprint to the cone on the other end and drop it on top of that one, and do the same going back. Tag next team member and so on until all the cones are on the other end. We were in the lead but by the second lap we were head-to -head with another team. We all did our best and ran as fast as we could. I was the last one to go and on my way back I remember thinking, do not look back, just go-go-go, push-push-push. It worked and we WON! We were all thrilled that after all the exercise we still got all our strength together and pushed ourselves to the max.

We had snacks after that and they gave out Garmin goodie-bags for a few ladies. They had a prize to give for each letter of GARMIN. My fab sister won Miss Racey! She motivated all the ladies in our last team challenge and applauded them and gave recognition after they had completed their task. She is such a team player.

It was time to do the reading of the Garmin toys and so turned out that I had burnt 647 calories in 60mins! My max heart rate was 190 beats p/m and average was in the 160 beats p/m.

I am extremely proud of us for giving our best at all times, pushing to the limit and never giving up - not even once.

Thank you for the awesome experience ABC and thanks my Sis for sharing this amazing opportunity with me xoxo


***Check out adventurebootcamp.co.za, there are weekly bootcamps for 4 weeks at a time in all areas. It is so worth it! ***