fitness challenge: the park fitness course

The first time I saw one of these fitness courses was at Camp Helena in Hellertown. We goofed around on it. I have sprent years goofing around on them.

This afternoon Angel and I approached the one at Louise Moore Park seriously. It's not the most difficult I've seen. Nor is it the easiest. It's somewhere in the middle.

Neither of our pants had pockets. We had to workout and keep track of our keys. And the camera. Oops.

First we took around the trail. It's new since the last time I was there. It's made of loose ground-up tires. No bound together like running tracks are. It's actually difficult to walk on. You sink in and then have to pull your feet out. It's kind-of like walking in wet sand at the beach.

First we did one loop. It's fairly flat and it was a 19 minute mile. We were not lolly-gagging.

The second loop we did the fitness stuff. Let's rephrase that. Angel did the fitness stuff. I attempted, and failed frequently.

First the original balance beams. There's actually 2 fitness course. the original wood one, and the new plastic one. Success here. No success on the new one.

Monkey bars. (Is that still PC?) Again these are the old ones. I couldn't get off the first step. I have no upper body strength. Though I toyed with the idea of grabbing the middle bar, taking a swing and landing on the other side. I could do this easily at 12. (Do you remember the jungle gym at Ft. Hill playground? I digress.) Not any more. The new "ladder" bars were too short. I could walk them on my tip toes.

 Then I got to climb over this old wall. Again, good thing I'm tall. Not too much effort needed.

Then it was time for push ups. I did four before almost crashing my chin into the bar.

All the upper body items came next. I failed at them all. There was also a stepper, which I could do. And this odd leg lift thing, that I could also do.

We did the incline board last. I could do the sit ups...okay 2, crunches, and I could do the leg lifts, if not lifting your butt counts.

I was hot and sweaty when I reached the car. I guzzled my bottle of water, which was still relatively cold. The metal bottle kept the cold in. By the time I got home I was stiff and sore. Especially in my arms and shoulders.

I must have been doing something right.

I need to work on Upper body strength
Lower bbody strength
Flexibility
Agility
Well pretty much everything.

I also walked to the south Bethlehem farmer's market this morning and carried two bags of groceries home. I need a shopping cart.