smashing it out the park

ooocha

Inverleith Park is less than a mile away from where I grew up. It has a pond into which I fell I more than once as a nipper, and a few acres of rugby, football and cricket pitches. More recently the council have put a number of apparatus round the North side of the park tempting passing runners to tear muscles and gain 3-day-aches as they jog past.

I have been a couple of times and enjoyed most of the trials; all except for the leapfrog which is over single posts of increasing height. There is insufficient room on the top of each post for both hands and a really good chance of landing atop the posts damaging the contents of your shorts. Best avoided. There are suggestions but no rules next to each challenge and I worked out a strategy for each which last Sunday I explained to Mary. She ignored this and decided to do the course in the opposite direction. 

Diagonal steps through the tyres x3.

I forgot to take a photo of the next apparatus - a plank suspended on 4 chains that is just off the ground. My idea was to traverse the plank from one side to the other doing 3 full turns at midpoint - harder than it sounds as it is wobbly as buggery.

next up dips

Either the bars are the wrong distance apart or my arms are. I can manage about 3 in a very poor style before walking off disgusted. Further work required! Check out Brian Jacks in Sporting Superstars from 2.30 in the video, doing 100!

Next up feet-together-jumps over several horizontals.

Try to take off from where landed ie no repositioning.

Then sit ups. This is easier than sit ups without foot/leg leverage. x20.

Although you can do pull ups like this ^ it is far less shaming to do long arm pull ups as below. I used (when climbing) to be capable of 10~15 but 3 is sufficient each round (to avoid sore ribs for several days afterwards.)

Mary said this one was too easy - but if so, you might want to take it at a run rather than a walk.

back to climbing skills 

once you have mastered this try using only alternative rungs or going across and back.

tricep dips (10~20) or easy push ups x20