The "BONUS" Workout

Sunday. Afternoon. Englewood Dam stairs. BONUS HILL!

5x on these stairs. I am only ~ 4 steps down

Today was the "Kickoff to the start off the school year!"  Boss Lady goes back to school next week. Kelly goes back Tuesday (I think).  I don't think they are doing the "happy dance" like the rest of us are! I am actually kinda sad. But it's selfish of me. I will lose my "Boss Lady" trainer. Unless....I can get her up earlier! HA! I will keep you posted on that! ;)

I was looking forward to this workout. I was curious about these stairs. Nate's football coach did this workout back in the day when he played football. He also recently took his son out there. I wanted to do the same thing.  So I took Nate. Surprisingly, he wasn't as resistant as I thought he was going to be. Now, I don't think I can get him up at 530 to go run with me, but maybe on some of my late day workouts I can get him out to run with me.  

Once I figured out how to get to these stairs, it was on! It's actually quite easy. Coming from Vandalia, you turn into the parking lot before you go over the dam. And park. Get out. Walk down the unpaved/unmarked/blinded trail which leads you the "cliff" where the trail leads you to the stairs. Did you know that road across the park dam from Vandalia to Englewood is a mile long? Nope, I didn't either. And it's a half mile from the parking lot trail to the stairs. At least that is what the untrusty Nike app says. And we jog it. You have to warm-up after all. 

The stairs don't look too terribly daunting. Going down is always harder than going up sometimes. I have this horrible fear of falling down. I have the same fear running on trails. If it's not paved, I am seriously afraid of falling, twisting my ankle, breaking a leg, something horrible happening! UGH! I am always up for an adventure. But in the middle of my training...I need to be a little bit more careful! Boss Lady texted me tonight to inform me that she wants to "start trail running. It's a great cross-fit!" I am not even going to go there right now.

There is a HILL behind us!

We get right into the stairs. Hitting them straight on. There is a couple there doing them as well. Slightly different though.They go down and rest. We go down and we go right back up! I told them I wanted to run with them! HA!

Three sets in. Nate peters out. It's okay. He did 3 more than I thought he would! Boss Lady sees a hill on the Englewood side. "Hey, BONUS HILL! Let's do it!" CrAzY TaLk I SAY!  Eh, okay.  So, one more set of stairs! Walk to the "white building" then jog to the BONUS hill! Nate is like "what?!?" Let's go son. It's not a terrible hill. But it's a hill. It's comparable to the top of fabulous Farrell. Just steep enough to make you work for it!  Up we go. And we make it. Nate did it too! That boy just amazes me in his "older" age! 

Note to self: Don't pose like that. It's not flattering.

Run down the little path and walk back to the stairs. You know that law of gravity or something like that..."what goes up, must come down". Well, the stairs are kinda like that. But opposite...what goes down, had to come from the up." WoW! That is so backwards and makes o sense at all! LOL! But hey, it's how I work! Point is, we have to go back up the stairs to get back to the parking lot. "Run to that white post with the sign then we can walk" OK! Nate looks at me like I am crazy! Or maybe it was that Boss Lady is crazy. But he can't call her crazy. She was his 1st grade teacher and his 1st teacher in VBCSD. I have taught him respect. So, we run this together. He wants to talk! YES! SCORE! MY SON WANTS TO TALK TO ME!!! I tell him okay. But we have to run. So, he starts talking about this new video game recording device he would like to purchase with his birthday money. And he would like to show me. He tells me what it does and why it's better than what he currently has. And how he intends to pay for it (give me the cash, I put it on my cc). He is so smart. Today was a win-win for us! 

The INAUGURAL Englewood Dam crew!

So the bonus part of this workout is two-fold. Yes, we got a hill in on the eve of our hill workout. But the best BONUS for me was that I got some BONUS time with my son today. It was pretty cool. I am pretty lucky to be his mom. I am mighty proud of him today. He told me this morning that I 'looked skinny" in my baggie pjs. And then when we got done with that hill, he said to me "I think I underestimated Farrell Road, mom. Sorry about that." Yeah, ya think?!

Run. Strong.

-t-