Child's Play is Hard Work

So this blog is having one of its intended effects, which is to make me move around on days when I might otherwise blow it off, just so I can have something to write about. I know all 25 of you are waiting with bated breath to find out whether I'm going to ride my bike to work or walk around the park or dip myself in some river or other, and I hate to disappoint you.

Today was a glorious, beautiful, wonderful day in that the temperature probably peaked at 75 degrees. I'm more acclimated to Sacto heat than I was last year, but it'll still be a year or two before 95 feels comfortable, if it ever does. After a full day of reading the unreasonable requirements of county agencies and private foundations, emailing clients who suffer from varying degrees of panic, stress, and underfunded infrastructure, and other grant writing delights, I was damned if I was gonna transition straight into Cheetos and junk TV. But part of me really wanted to. Look, there's a "Mythbusters" I haven't seen yet! Oooh! But I couldn't figure out what to do. Bike, swim, walk? Nothing appealed, despite the weather.

But I figured I'd been cycling and swimming more than doing any actual weight bearing activity lately, so I slipped on the Asics and headed out aroud the neighborhood-school-canal-levee loop. But I decided I would take a work-play break at the playground in the park next to the school (See Chapter 5 - Embrace the Awesome Power of Fun). It's a little kids' playground, so I had to be creative. I climbed fearfully onto the middle section of this crazy spring-rigged seesaw, and just as I had anticipated, it acted like a balance board from hell. My ankles wobbled, which made the springs jiggle even more, which made my ankles wobble further, setting up a self-feeding energy loop that threatened to hurl me out of the galaxy in a blaze of glory. So I jumped off. I tried a couple more times, but each time I only managed to stay up there 15 or 20 seconds.

Next was a session on the swings (good for the abs, arms, shoulders), followed by the spiral slide (good for the abs as you keep your feet up). Then some fake pushups and fake pullups, a few step-ups onto the climbing structure, and voila! instant exhaustion. I continued past the skate park, over the canal, and back home with a satisfying sense of exertion. My torso and shoulders felt like they were lined up over my hips and legs, much more so than before my little playground adventure. I even jogged up the levee path to test out its suitability for future hill repeats.

A future task - figure out how to use the ferocious dinosaur playground equipment pictured here as a means to a workout. Without killing or maiming myself or others. (Note: I love the internet. I think this is actually a picture of the very dinosaur in my playground. How cool is that? And if it isn't my dinosaur, it's the exact same model.