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Hey there! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Last Saturday, I attended the Be Well Philly Boot Camp for the second year in a row, and I had a great time at the event! Sponsored by Philadelphia Magazine, Be Well Philly Boot Camp is “The Ultimate Fitness Experience for Women”, with 5 hours of great content covering running, yoga, strength training, cardio, nutrition, and wellness! I wanted to share a recap of the event with you!
Had an amazing time at this year's Be Well Philly Boot Camp! #fitness #sweatpink #fitfluential Click To Tweet
When I got an email back in February about the return of Be Well Philly Boot Camp, I signed up immediately! You get so much value for only $30 (if you sign up early enough!). If you read my recap from last year, you’ll see why I was looking forward to this event!
I took the Indego Philly Bike Share to Drexel University’s Athletic Center where Be Well Philly Boot Camp takes place each year, getting there sometime after 9 am. Registration was pretty straightforward, and we were able to get bananas, yogurt, fruit, and granola for a light breakfast. I ran into Krissie of Philly Nerd Girl while I was waiting for my first fitness event. It was actually our first time meeting, so it was great talking to her! If I was a good blogger we would have taken a selfie!
I’ve mentioned before that I am a City Fit Girls Ambassador (and you could be too!), so I was especially excited to learn that City Fit Girls would be involved in hosting a boot camp and fun run at the event.
I’ve been really busy training for the 1/2 Sauer 1/2 Kraut Half Marathon the past few months, and the week before Be Well Philly was very physically taxing – I had yoga classes, cardio kickboxing, softball, and running (8 miles the day before this event!), so I really didn’t want to abuse my body too badly! But I was really excited because while I’ve participated in the running club, I’d never gone to one of Kiera’s boot camps. And this was intense!
No time was wasted as we started the warmup doing lots of squats, lunges, some balance exercises, and eventually getting down to burpees. The music was great and SO many women were in the tent getting down! We also did some work with partners – throwdowns and sit ups, and we had plenty of pushups, mountain climbers, bicycles, crunches and even more burpees to keep up occupied for 45 minutes. Phew! Thankfully I was able to do everything with a smile.
The Boot Camp was a blast and there were several other City Fit Girls that were there. It was a great way to kick things off for the day!
Just some of the City Fit Girls crew at Be Well Philly Boot Camp
After a short break, I attended this cooking demo (one of many that were on the schedule) with Rich Landau, owner/chef of Vedge and V Street. They are very popular restaurants in the city (I went to V Street with Bret about a month ago; the food was amazing!) that vegetarians and vegans really love. I wanted to learn how to be more creative making dishes without falling back on meat. We had to hear a bit of preaching about the vegan lifestyle and a pitch on his latest cookbook before the cooking began, but it was fun and he gave us a few good laughs.
Rich cooked zucchini in a pan with some Cajun-like spices then added chopped tomatoes, cilantro, and red onions to make a nice sauce. This was topped with avocado and looked absolutely delicious! I picked up some tips, especially about using lighter oils like safflower oil instead of extra virgin olive oil. If only I could duplicate what a professional chef and restauranteur could make, lol!
After the cooking demo session I decided to wander around the expo and see what kind of free stuff I could get in my goodie bag. There were a lot of really cool vendors there from skincare facilities to barre studios to organic food delivery services, and some of them were having raffles and giving away free fitness classes. There were also business selling jewelry and fitness accessories. I didn’t get to hit all the spots but I’m looking forward to trying 2 free classes at Flywheel…the only time “spinning” really looks fun to me!
Before I knew it, it was time for my studio class with GFit Women. Be Well Philly Boot Camp offers tons of studio classes, but you have to get in by lottery. Of course I picked everything I could (there was kettlebells 101, BodyPump, and Pilates to name a few) just to make sure I’d be selected, and I’m so happy I was able to try H.I.I.T. – that’s high-intensity interval training – for the first time.
The instructor was simply awesome. I loved how she was honest, explained everything clearly, and made sure that everyone went their own pace. She had several assistants present who would demonstrate each move, watch our form, and cheer us on relentlessly!
The warm up was a pretty cool cycle. I worked with 2 other women. One person had to do lunges across the room, one person had to do mountain climbers, and one person had to do a wall sit, and we did this over and over for about 3-4 minutes. You couldn’t stop sitting on the wall until the person doing the lunges met you…so it was definitely a good burn!
After that we ended up seeing the deck of cards…I still can’t believe we went through the whole pack. The different suits told us how many sit ups, burpees, jumping jacks, and ball slams (with 10 or 15 pound balls) to do. The Joker card gave us a 1-minute plank to tackle. Needless to say, this was a killer workout! Because of my general fatigue of the week, I burned out a lot faster than I normally do, but I did the best I could! It was really fun though and a reminder of all the workouts I’ve been missing out on!
I had a little bit of time to spare so I figured I’d check out the running clinic and see if I could get some shoe recommendations. The guy that worked with me knew his stuff, so that was great that I didn’t have to worry about getting influenced to buy the wrong kinds of shoes for me. He recommended the Brooks Ghosts, Nike Zoom Vomero, Brooks Glycerine, and I think the Saucony Rides? He wrote them down for me, thank goodness haha. I am now pushing 400 miles on my current pair of Adidas Glide Boosts, so once this race is over, hopefully I can FINALLY get the new shoes I need.
The day was flying by so fast, and somehow I completely missed lunch. This was the second time I felt that the lunch logistics weren’t clearly communicated. But in any event, Be Well Philly Boot Camp was such a fun time! I love being in a room full of women who are committed to fitness…makes me feel a little less crazy! Of course my abs were hurting for days (they’re just getting back to normal now!), but it was worth it! I will definitely make sure that I can participate in the Boot Camp in 2016!
I’m linking up with Tuesdays on the Run with April at Run the Great Wide Somewhere!
Have you ever gone to a wellness “retreat” or day-long Boot Camp?
