Extreme fitness challenge: Am I out of my league?

Week 2 Day 4: Woke up at 5:30 as usual. 

I normally hit the snooze the alarm for an extra 15 minutes but I'm still quite paranoid about turning up late again...this fear of being late probably goes back to some hidden memory of when I was kid or something. I don't know.

But apparently "lateness" results in nasty push-ups or as I fondly refer to as "face-plants" which I've discovered I'm naturally proficient at.

Anyway, I'm up! And I make my way to the gym.

We begin with our usual warm up jog around the block but this time I'm one of the leaders of the tribe! And I make it without stopping! Major breakthrough!

Also having two days to recover was good because I was able to do my warm-up exercises (walking lunges) without cringing from sore body parts! Another first! The tribe still had to wait for me to finish but not as long this time.

Below is a quick video of me just before I hit another TribeFIT session!

The session looked something like this...

10-20-30-40-50 reps of the following:

• Burpees (which I loathe almost as much as "face-plants")
• Box jumps
• Kettlebell swings
• Floor climbs (these may have just become the new hated burpee)
• Jump rope (I love these)

During my work out today I had the usual horrible failure thoughts which have been by my side since I started, those lovely thoughts like: "what are you doing here?" Followed by "you're completely out of your league man!" as well as "you should probably just quit now".

These thoughts have been my constant companion and I've had to fight hard to drive them away. 

It's very easy to think this way when you are surrounded by a bunch of superfit gals. And at times like when I'm face-planting or when I'm falling off the box or struggling to get a technique right because I'm uncoordinated with things like this.

But then I think of how fast I'm seeing results. The first week I couldn't run around the block without stopping and today I made it all the way up to 40 reps and when I finished the session I was exhausted, but I still managed to finish with another run around the block without stopping!

I'm proud of what I've been able to achieve so far, it's quite cool.

I had some moments of absolute exhaustion and my face and head feels so red and hot like I'm going to explode and the dizziness is weird - this seems to happen with burpees and floor climbs (my two enemies!)

I'm absolutely loving the support side of things. One of the girls Julia helped me finish today by doing it alongside with me.

Having someone with me really seems to help me stop resting. I'm learning the importance of building up momentum and then keeping it high. I'm always being reminded by the team that the longer you rest the harder it is to regain that momentum so you have to keep moving so I just break my work up into smaller bite-sized pieces so it's easier to manage, which is working well for me.

I hear this Wednesday involves quite a bit of running so I'm kind of looking forward to that although I get the feeling that I'll be eating those words!

Right, I'm off to work, see you next session!

Dunedin hairdresser Emma Rastrick has bravely decided to take on World Fitness Centre's TribeFIT training programme with the aim of getting in shape in just six weeks.