Midweek training at Memorial Park

The weather is getting nice! Even though that bomb cyclone dropped so much snow on the mountains that it'll likely still take weeks to melt out, the town is heating up. It was almost 70 degrees today and will be over 70 tomorrow!

I took the opportunity of warm weather in town to get some urban running in, and also to visit the newly redesigned exercise stations at Memorial Park.

Memorial Park is a little more than 3 miles from my house, so it's a perfect warm-up for hitting the pullup station.

The exercise stations are all around the lake, right on the waterfront trail. There's one main exercise station which has all the different components, and then each of these "components" is also duplicated separately at another location around the lake.

First I hit the standalone pullup bars, and then I jogged to the combined station.

The combined station is THE COOLEST thing! It has a complete body workout with mostly bodyweight exercises. It is well setup, and each part has a small explanation of various exercises that can be performed at the station.

What's really cool is that if you go around the whole station as a circuit, you get exercises that are complimentary to each other, so that you get a well-rounded workout. For example, one part of the station might offer a flexion exercise and the next station offers decompression of the same muscle, balancing out what you're doing.

I did each station around the circuit twice, utilizing each part for two different movements. What fun!

I especially enjoyed the box jumps and the monkey bars. It's like a playground, but for adults. I fully believe that exercise should be fun! I enjoy running for the sheer joy of moving my body under my own power, and these bodyweight exercise stations follow that same philosophy. Not that I'm giving up lifting heavy weights at the gym, but a bodyweight station like this is a great for an alternative exercise day.

After the circuit, I ran around the lake, stopping to do a couple more sets at the standalone situp station on the far side of the lake.

I added some mileage by going back along the Shooks Run trail and joining into the Rock Island trail, rounding out 9 miles for the day. I'd call that solid for a midweek training run plus circuit! Although I kept thinking about how Craig plans to go over 50 miles tomorrow, wow! I can't wait to hear about his adventure.

I'm liking this kind of midweek training run where I'm able to incorporate more than just running. I do plan to start going to the Thursday hill training sessions with the Incline club soon, so that'll be my speed work day each week. I was thinking of doing the club track sessions on Tuesdays also, but it's  more likely that I'll be doing more circuits and urban running instead - I'm not sure I'm cut out for *two* speedwork sessions each week, plus my weekly long run on Sundays.

So it seems that my general training plan for the Ascent is falling into place. A weekly quality hill session, a weekly long run, a weekly circuit run, and at least two weightlifting sessions. Plus the odd bonus Incline thrown in, and lots of summit work once the summer heats up! Let's go for that sub-4:00:00 Ascent.