Outdoor Workout

I went to the park and did 4 rounds of a modified recent workout of the day from the CrossFit website: 15 pull-ups 10 alternating one-legged squats 5 handstand pushups On rounds 2 and 3 I only completed 5 pull-ups and several fractions; on round 1 I took lots of breaks to get to 15. Doing handstand pushups, I balanced myself against an equipment support. I couldn’t get very low for the pushups—they were very shallow, but I did five every round. After the four rounds, I did two other things: 10 hanging knees-to-elbows (rings) Two jogs around the soccer track with four sprints the length of one side It’s fun to work out outside on a nice day. It was sunny but cold—perfect for getting all heated up with exercise. The park, Grass Lawn Park in Redmond, is spacious, new, and not heavily used during the workday. The workout equipment is crowded together in a little mulched area surrounded by a vast lawn like an afterthought. (Possible thought process of the park designers: “Some people want to work out independently, are not on a soccer or ball team, and don’t have children with them? Are you kidding me? How bizarre! Well, let’s stick some bars and rings in this remote spot over here just in case somebody that strange comes along!”) Crossing the giant, empty lawn, I was surprised to find a group of moms and toddlers clustered around the equipment, which is nowhere near the playground. I felt really self-conscious. To help myself through it, I avoided looking at anyone, even though there were about ten moms and kids milling about within 15 feet of me. I couldn’t help wondering why they chose to loiter there of all places when the park is probably a quarter of a square mile in area. So I struggled through my pull-ups and did my one-legged squats surrounded by the cooing sounds of moms and toddlers who were almost invisible, so intent was I on not looking at them. When I bent down to start trying the handstand push-ups, and kicked my legs up into a handstand, I felt the weirdest of all, a lone woman doing truly strange exercises among a group of women doing something completely traditional. Nobody made me feel weird except myself, but it seemed surreal. I imagined myself in their shoes wondering why anybody would want to do exercises like that—what’s the point? But for the most part I’m satisfied that whether there seems to be a point to it or not doesn’t matter to me. I just want to get better at the handstands! I like workouts that involve only body weight so that I can do them at the park or at home. We have a pull-up bar attached to our basement rafter, but we’re planning to build a better one in the yard and attach rings to it. Tom loves this stuff even more than I do and I think we’ll both use it.