Day 4, Champneys boot camp, Henlow Grange.

We are half way through the week now and the pain is beginning to hit hard as our punishing fitness routine – six house of activity a day – takes its toll on our bodies and we begin to hurt all over, especially our thighs and bottoms, which is not surprising after around 200 each of squats, lunges and press-ups  in the last few days, though our motivation remains high.

The two hardest parts about the day are getting up early each morning for a jog or power walk, or the gruelling session of circuit training which pushes you beyond endurance, and although extremely tough, I actually don’t mind it. The second is the burning sensation in my thighs and bottom which proves that I have pushed all boundaries in my effort to be fitter at the end of my boot camp week. In fact, I do not know one person in our group who has not got a sore bottom.

Many of us have suffered headaches too from the caffeine withdrawal. I have never before given up tea and coffee, it’s my first ever such detox, and the last time I gave up alcohol was when I was pregnant, and my youngest son is 19, so we have had this to cope with on top of pushing ourselves beyond our pain barriers.

Today we had outdoor circuits, and I would like to commend Richard and Lewis for planning such a diverse range of activities throughout each day, and always including a daily outdoor activity. It got off to a shaky start as I was 5 minutes late and had to do 10 press ups on the wet grass for my punishment, along with three others were also late, my new lovely social worker friends from London; it could have been much worse, we could have been made to do 100! It was good practice as a couple of the circuits involved doing press-ups on the wet grass and crawling on all fours under a low bar.

We then played a team game of frisbee, which was tremendous fun, and again, and the fierce competitiveness of boot campers was clearly visible. Suddenly those who perhaps didn’t appear the fittest found hidden reserves of energy and were absolutely demons on the field, transformed into whirling dervishes.

We also had a session of fitball which I always enjoy, but my highlight of the day was Zumba with Charlotte, a real cracker with lots of fizz who charmed us all into swinging our hips to the Latin American beat. I even asked for an extra routine to my favourite Ricky Martin dance song. I have tried Zumba before at my gym and didn’t enjoy it, and now I know why, the teacher was nowhere near as good as Charlotte. Thank you Charlotte, I always knew I would love Zumba.

Other planned activities throughout the week are another long walk, spinning (cycling madly on an exercise bile) and swinging hoola hoops, which is great for the waist.

The biggest challenge for our trainers who are encouraging us to work as hard as we can and more, is the past injuries that people have, such as knee problems, as well as injuries sustained during the week. I badly hurt my calf after pulling a muscle or ligament and couldn’t stand on it without wincing for several hours, and even now I am  careful with it so I do not exacerbate it.  A girl in our group fell on her back, and these injuries naturally restricts us both, though we are working to our best ability and not shirking.

After our six mile walk yesterday which I completed with the aid of a stick, my fellow boot campers surprised me by saying they had nominated me their “man of the match” for completing the walk instead of giving up and sitting round the pool for the afternoon, but as walking is one of my big pleasures in life, I was not going to let that hold me back. I am no wimp.

We now have a Greek themed dinner and I am taking my Greek music with me. If all goes to plan, we will burn a few extra calories with some Greek dancing too.

*I am a guest of Champneys.