Tuesday Night Track Workout

Tonight we met again at the Foothill College track and field for another fun filled hour and a half of laps, stairs, hills and stretching. We started with a couple of warm up laps (half mile) around the track, then did some stretching. After that, we did 6 sets of stairs, and another 6 sets of stairs walking sideways up and down. Apparently some trails are narrow or steep and it's easier to hike on the trail sideways. Since our legs don't normally get much sideways movement, this muscle group isn't used and isn't as strong as the muscle that control the normal back and forth. I notice that it's becoming easier to do this sideways walking, although I also notice that one side is usually easier than the other. So I wonder if the brain's left/right dominance is at work in this like it is in handwriting.

After the bleacher stairs we walked over to the hill in back of the track and field. We walked up and down the hill three times. We spied a coyote running across our trail. We had a beautiful clear night with a bright, full harvest moon. In fact, this was our first Tuesday night meeting that it hadn't been raining. Consequently, I forgot to bring my exercise mat.

After the hill, we walked back over to the track and out onto the football field to do our first core exercises. Since I had no mat, I did my exercises on the AstroTurf, which fortunately wasn't wet. These core exercises involved laying down and then trying to do what was essentially one push up, and then hold it up. We did this facing up, down and on both sides. This was not as easy at it looked!

After that, we did a couple more laps around the track (another half mile) and then it was time to go!