OCTOBER 19, 2009 -- On Sunday mornings, lululemon athletica welcomes downtowners to its storefront (G Street, between Seventh and Eighth streets) for a free workout that leaves your gluts taut and tired. I tried it out, and this Urban Bootcamp is definitely no day at the beach.
Susannah Stucchio usually leads these city workouts, but my guides were the uber-able Trish Davis and Leslie Thomas. We kicked off with an easy jog to Petco Park. We shuffled, squatted and sprinted away—before realizing we left our water bottles behind. We made a jaunt back to pick up the liquids, and our trainers made us work all the harder while we circled back.
With water bottles in hand, we jogged past hotels and eateries where tourists dined and raised eyebrows as our group panted by.
Our next destination was the stairs at the San Diego Convention Center. Ugh. As we headed that way, I wondered if I was in shape for this. With all the different exercises we did—sudden bursts, isolated pushups and jumps to get the heart pumping—we all seemed to hit a wall at one point or another.
Davis describes the fitness technique as being: “Based off of the CrossFit methodology, utilizing the San Diego urban landscape and architecture as our workout equipment. The workouts are varied in functional movements, with a mixture of calisthenics, plyometrics, sprints and stair climbs, done in a bootcamp fashion.”
This 60-minute workout went by so fast because despite the intensity, we were outside on a glorious day in the Gaslamp. In some ways, it was just as fun as a day at the beach. Every week, the routines are different—so they remain interesting and challenging.