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On a fresh powder day, editor Felice Hardy is the first to wallow in the steep and deep, but when there's the chance of walking up carrying skis to find even better snow, she'll balk at the thought. It's not that she's particularly unfit - but, as a mother of three whose main exercise is walking the dog, she's just not fit enough.

The idea of a boot camp somewhere in rainy England with ten to a dorm, meagre rations and a lot of time crawling though the mud horrified me. So when I came across La Manga Boot Camp in sunny southern Spain, where they promise a room to yourself and better than average food, I went for it.

The course on offer - men and women have separate weeks - lasts a full six days and, to deter obsessive dieters, back-to-back weeks are not allowed. I booked into a villa for six where I had my own small, but comfortable bedroom. Ten women aged between 19 and 54 would be my fellow campers for the week, their fitness levels varying between a serious athlete to some reasonably sporty types (I foolishly envisaged myself in this bracket) and a few campers whose main idea of exercise had clearly been lifting fork to mouth or walking from car to pub. No one was dangerously overweight, but some of them were chunky. The previous week had attracted some even larger sizes as well as a fairly fit 65-year-old.

The boot camp troop, Felice front row centre

The first evening

As soon as we finish our surprisingly tasty bowl of Thai green curry and glasses of water we are ordered by the two Royal Marine trainers, Staff Greg and Staff Dixie, to change into walking kit - complete with water bottles and insect repellent - and meet back at Villa 1 in 15 minutes. We quickly learn that individual lateness is punishable by extra exercise for the entire group, and an amnesty box is put out for boot campers to give up their bars of chocolate or chewing gum - rooms are to be searched for any offending contraband. I hand over a box of Special K, which was my breakfast the day before.

We are then handed head torches and ugly nylon glow-in-the-dark vests (we are to wear these at all times while on the resort grounds), divide into two groups and off we set at a brisk left-right-left-right pace. The 'walk' is more like a route march around hilly La Manga Club and I feel breathless already. We are given our 'detail' for the next morning: meet outside Villa 1 at 6.55am, in similar kit, for a pre-breakfast walk.

The guides: Greg and Dixie

Day One

Day One proper has yet to manifest itself when my alarm goes off at 6.15am - it's still pitch dark outside. I grab a quick shower to revive myself. Out we go, marching 4km for an hour around one of the resort's three golf courses. That doesn't sound too tough but sadly it isn't that straightforward. Every few minutes we put down water bottles and perform a set of daunting exercises - such as press-ups, star jumps and 'sergeant jumps', as well as sprinting and crawling across the sodden grass on all fours. Then on we trudge again before stopping for more repetitive exercises.

Eventually we arrive back at the villa, desperate for breakfast, which turns out to be what looks like gruel and a choice of water or herbal tea to drink. The only luxury allowed is a sprinkling of cinnamon, a small squirt of honey, and two microscopic pieces of strawberry on top.

After breakfast we walk again, this time interspersed with hill sprints, and by now the day is starting to heat up nicely. We march to La Manga Club tennis courts where we take part in a 'bleep test', running backwards and forwards across the hard surface as many times as is physically possible. The test enables the instructors to measure everyone's fitness levels and set goals. Naturally, the 20-somethings shine at this.

After the test we drag ourselves through a gruelling series of press-ups and squats in the encroaching midday sun. Later on, a quick aquarobics session in the villa swimming-pool is a wonderful relief for screaming muscles, before heading in for lunch of tuna salad and yet more water. Then it's more walking and sprinting for the afternoon followed by an hour's session with television's Celebrity Fit Club resident nutritionist, Marisa Peer.

From now on, she tells us, wheat, dairy and sugar must be cut out of our diet, not to mention fizzy drinks which she refers to as 'osteoporosis in a can'. A healthy wheat/dairy/sugar-free dinner follows at 6pm, but that's not the end of it. We don head torches and walking boots for another brisk walk in the dark, this time steeply uphill to La Manga Club Spa (minus the welcoming treatments, of course), before coming back down again and falling into bed by 8pm.