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Only thing to fear is ‘making fool of myself’

By Staff | Sep 30, 2012

The time has come for me to find out if I really can climb a rope.

On Saturday, I will take part in the Renegade Playground Challenge – self-described as not “your ordinary 5K” – at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, my first time running an obstacle course race.

Way back in June, when I signed up for the race, I asked Shelby Young, one of the personal trainers at Hampshire Hills, for a workout that would help me prepare for the race. He gave me one, and it promptly kicked my rear end.

The workout involved things to improve, like my grip and ability to pull, strength, agility and hip mobility.

Some of the exercises were things I typically didn’t do, or were horrible at, like a modified rope climb and hanging ab crunches.

June was a long time ago, but if you’ve been keeping up since then, my workout schedule has been sporadic at best. I got off to a great start, but faltered down the stretch, something that has made me nervous heading into the final week.

But when I have made it into the gym to workout, I’ve noticed something encouraging.

The exercises that gave me trouble, like the ones I mentioned above, aren’t as difficult as they first were.

It is a workout climbing the rope, but I’ve been able to add a repetition to each of my two sets, and at times tack on a third. And my ability to hang has improved.

Remember the kid at recess who always tried to do the monkey bars, and promptly fell off moments after grabbing hold? That was me – in June.

Now I can hold myself up through three sets of 10 before my hands give out.

While I was worried about doing some of the obstacles – and if the online map is to be trusted, there will be a lot of climbing – they might not be my undoing.

Throughout my preparation, I figured I needed to spend most of my time preparing to go over and under and around stuff. Never did I really think about the 5K part of this.

I went for a run earlier this month, for the first time in a while, and about a mile I started to wonder, how am I going to be able to do this and then climb across some monkey bars?

A conversation with one of my fellow racers helped ease my nerves.

He’s done a similar race in the past, and said that he got so distracted by the obstacles, the running became secondary, and almost unnoticeable.

So as I head into the final week of preparation, my goal remains the same – trying not to make a fool of myself.

Joe Marchilena writes a weekly fitness column for Hampshire Hills. To find out more information about the “90 Day Commit to Get Fit” program, call 673-7123 or email hhinfo@hampshirehills.com.

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