The Girl Can't Help It (Cont.)

You Are Here:

Home >> Fitness and Bodywork >> The Girl Can't Help It (Cont.)

Today's Question
How can I improve my balance for snowboarding? answer

Is visiting the sauna healthy? answer

Today's Question
How can I maintain a healthy diet if I'm lactose intolerant? answer

Am I at a greater risk for heart disease if I eat whatever I want? answer

Online Favorites

Special Issues

Photo Galleries

Outside Magazine April 2003

Page:

The Girl Can't Help It (Cont.)


	"Watch me, Ironman": Draper strikes a for-real pose. (Mary Ellen Mark)

THE MEMBERS OF TEAM FIREJOCK won't be allowed to lose anything. One day in mid-May, months before the Challenge regionals in Denver, the three assemble at the base of a five-story Colorado Springs Fire Department training tower that stands in a sparsely populated part of town. Scarred by burn marks, the tower smells like a barbecue gone wrong, but to Juliet it's the perfect proving ground. The week before, she showed off to her trainees by pushing a pickup truck around the surrounding parking lot with her butt. (Helps develop ass.) Then she had them drag 45-pound weights around with chains, and run the stairs in full gear. This week, Juliet is starting in with new workouts that specifically mimic the Challenge.

Chief R.C. Smith, a.k.a. The Fat, has just run up the tower a few times, wearing heavy "bunker" pants and army boots. Now Juliet wants him to weave through the orange highway cones, moving as straight as he can, and fast. Halfway through, though, he runs out of breath.

"He's a strong guy, a power lifter," Juliet says. "But we need to work on his aerobic capacity. Excuse me a moment." Stepping three feet away, she starts hollering: "Go, R.C.! Go, R.C.! Pick it up, FAST, FAST, FAST!"

The Fat, a little startled, picks it up.

"I didn't even really hear what she was saying," he says moments later, still red in the face, his trousers unfastened to make room for his belly. "Was it 'looking strong, looking strong'? I hate that. And when it's over, and I'm coughing up little bits of lung, she says, 'Good job, R.C., looking strong!' Please. I'm not looking strong. This whole thing might be easier if the Cheesecake Factory were involved."

The Fat is here partly for his own benefit, partly in support of his friend Denny Peffer, who's already plenty durable from his ultramarathon training. But short-term speed and agility have never been Denny's strong suits, and today he's having trouble perfecting the zigzag pattern required for running the Challenge's cone course. If you get the order wrong, you have to go back and start over, losing valuable seconds.

"Watch me, Ironman," says Juliet. She's run the cones ten times already. She does it again without even breathing hard.

In recent weeks the unusual spectacle of Team Firejock has started to attract a crowd. Little boys line the chain-link fence bordering the lot. Today, two chiefs from other districts are also hanging out.

"I saw Juliet at the gym once," one says to the other with awe, "and she stacked up this barbell and I thought, Shit, I never benched that much. It turned out she wasn't benching it, she was doing some tiny little thing with her triceps. I didn't even want to see her bench-press after that." "She's so strong," the other guy agrees, "and she's so small."

"For a man she's small," his friend corrects. "For her, she's...well, she's her."

Page: