Hitting the playground

Over the weekend I purchased my trail shoes for the Spartan Sprint in July.  That is just one small part of preparation.  The other would be going out and training.

Today was the first time I went out to do something obstacle like to prepare.  Hubby and I headed over to the local playground to "play."  It's a new-fangled playground with all sorts of things we didn't have as kids.  I had a feeling it would be a good place to go to get a little training in.

The playground.  This is the second of two play grounds at the park.  There's also a mile running path here, a basketball court, and two really nice picnic areas, one with a fire place.

After getting out of the car, hubby said we should run to the play ground, so we ran.  As we got to the playground, he kept going and hit the rock wall.  We both had no problem getting up it.  Hubby even got over it.  I got up it and failed at going over.  Ugh.  Something to work on.

Hubby scaling the rock wall.  He did awesome!

I got to the top, but couldn't get over.  Too scared.  :-( 

We hit up the other stuff as well.  There was a yellow wall that reminded me of a rope ladder that we climbed (and I got over!).  There were rounders you walked across that spun and/or dropped as you stepped on it.  

  What made this a little challenging is it's concave, so easy on one side, difficult on the other.

Walking over the rounders.  I got over them easily each time.  Hubby fell off the first time.  Heehee!

Then we headed over to the monkey bars.  I have never gotten across the monkey bars in my life.  I have no upper body strength and I always fall off after hanging on the first bar.  I let hubby go first.  He's much better at these things than I.

  Look at that movement!  He is very good at this.

After hubby went, I took my spot at the bars.  I was not anticipating good things.  One of the main reasons I wanted hubby to go with me to the park was in case I fell off the monkey bars and got hurt.  I honestly could see this happening.  But, I tried.  I grabbed the first bar and swung my body forward and grabbed the second bar and stayed on the monkey bars!  I didn't fall off!  I made it to one more bar before dropping to the ground.  Woohoo!

This is from my second attempt at them.  I got about a third of the way through the monkey bars before falling off.  Yea me!

Not a bad start to training.  I'll need to get my butt out there many more times before the Spartan race, but it's ok.  I stand a chance of getting across that monkey bar before July 14th!  I also want to get over the rock wall before the race too.  I may not need that skill, but I'd rather have it.  

Did I mention I'm a bit sore?  The muscles along the side of my chest under my arms are a tad bit angry at me.  I'm assuming it's from that move you see directly above.  Those muscles better get used to it.  I'm going to need them over the next few weeks!