I made it to Friday of Week 1 which means I have been away from home for exactly 7 days. I’ve been skyping with the family sporadically but it just isn’t the same not being able to hug them. Given that I am already missing them and there are nine more weeks to go, I will likely be an emotional wreck around week 4 (give or take). Brace yourself.
My section had our fitness test yesterday and it was a good starting point for the gains we all hope to make at the Academy. Weight and body fat seemed to be a rude awakening for some while others really struggled with the run. To keep it in perspective, the average age at the NA is 41 with roughly 20 years of service. Obviously all are police executives which means the only physical activity a lot of them get are walking to the car to drive to lunch!
We all reminisced of the early years where we stayed in optimal physical shape to meet the demands of the street. These days, the only thing I wrestle with is a staple remover.
Having said that, there are all different physical fitness levels here. The push up winner was a 50+ year old from Albuquerque, New Mexico who pumped out 71 like it was butter. There is a female Lieutenant from Murphey, Texas who kicked everyone’s arse in the mile run and is swimming for the blue brick (a crazy amount of miles in the pool). She’s a beast and I try to stand next to her a lot in the hopes that her skills rub off.
I’m somewhere in the middle. I weighed in at 125 and have a calculated caliper body fat of 15%. I was very pleased with the body fat percentage which means CrossFit has resulted in great gains for me. My mile run time, however, was extremely unimpressive at 9:40. I’ve always been a very slow runner so I’m hoping that I can knock some time off of that by the end of the 10 weeks as we work our way through the challenge runs. I’m also hoping I can keep the same fighting weight and body fat (which might prove to be a challenge because of the extra calories from the Boardroom!)
My classes are harder than I anticipated. I got mixed reviews about the academics at the NA and I’m here to report that I will be spending copious amounts of time with my face in a book, building power points, writing speeches, and writing research papers. This will be an impediment to my socializing but from what I gather thus far, I’ll be better for it.
I’ll be taking a drive to New Jersey tomorrow to spend Easter with a beautiful friend who graciously invited me and one of my classmates to her home. I’ll be missing my kids on Easter so I’m grateful to be away from dorm life for a few days as a diversion.
Onward and upward.