Camp-a-palooza continues

Just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't disappeared completely from the blogging world. I've been busy trying to keep up with people ten years younger at me at camp.

We had our first day of physiological testing today-we started with stepping onto a scale (I won for being the heaviest-at least I won something), we did a power test by running up stairs, and then we did something that is intimately called "the peddle and puke test".

The physiologists at Brockport tested power output by having us bound up three stairs at a time for nine stairs and tested the time it took us to get from the bottom step to the top step. I think I was somewhere in the middle with .84 seconds while there were some at the .71 second range. The test isn't as easy as it seems-the hardest part of it is trying to get rid of any fear that you may trip and fall going up three stairs at a time. Not only did the women's foil team not trip but everyone did an amazing job.

The second test was a thirty second bike test where you peddled as hard as you can with 9% of your weight as the resistance. This test figures out how much lactic acid is in the muscles-translation, it measures how much work effort you are able to produce at your greatest effort. It turns out that I am second in the whole group. Not bad for just training for a month and a half and being the old grandma of the team.

Tomorrow will be the endurance test-a twelve minute run on a treadmill. Oh yeah-I forgot we have to do a body mass composition test to tell us how much fat we have and where. Um, this is not my favorite test-especially since I broke down and had two brownies today after the lab tests. Oops-definitely not keeping up with my diet.

All and all the camp is going really well. I love that the team members are bonding. It's also nice to have conversations with the younger fencers about how hard it is for them to train, have a social life, and go to school all at the same time. Hopefully I can help them with some of my stories and experiences. Sometimes it's enough to believe that you are not the only one going through something.

I should go since I have to get up in a few hours (4am to be exact) to get on television for an early morning news interview. I wish I had the channel we will be on in Rochester but alas, I don't have it. I will have pictures of the camp up in a few days-make sure to stay tuned!