I am very impressed with the well-organized, free session. As I wrote in the HIIT and the Social Athlete post, socializing and camaraderie seem to be a useful driver of sustainable fitness lifestyle.
We spend a lot of time introducing ourselves as we do some static stretching exercises and then play an introductory game involving merging into a big group, grabbing each others hands and then untangling the mass of people.
I really, really can't imagine my serious triathlon mates putting up with all this for very long at all.
But on this sunny morning I am happy to play games and make new friends.
Then we start the actual circuit training and I quickly discover something I suspected, but which proves even more dramatic than I anticipated. I am either relatively good at obstacle race elements (running, climbing on the bars, push-ups) or I am very, very, very poor (ducking under bars, hopping over barriers, jump lunges).
We start with one of the exercises I am pathetically bad at - ducking under a series of barriers, and soon all of the other team participants have lapped me on the little circuit. Two of the workout leaders notice my achingly slow pace and my painfully stiff awkward form and they immediately express their concern -- they seem genuinely anxious about whether I will hurt myself - whether I will survive and not be carried off in an ambulance and potentially sue them.
Three different participants ask me if I am OK. All the other participants seemed to have started with a burst of adrenaline and competitive spirit, whereas for me after all my decades of doing frequent endurance events I instinctively pace myself. Not to mention it is 8:30AM and I'm dealing with the constant background fatigue from my various other training sessions. I feel rather bad to be causing the leaders and groupmates so much distress-- maybe I should have worn my Ironman World Championship top? I have to think that would assuage some of their concerns about my overall level of fitness.
I am fine when we climb on the monkey bars and then start running around the park.
Then I decline to do the sit-ups altogether. I realize this is not in the true spirit of the ancient Spartan warriors, but I have read so much criticism of sit-ups over the years and never liked the way they felt, and so I waited in the plank position while the real Warriors paired up and powered through the 30 sit-ups.
Then at 9:40am, I commit another unpardonable Spartan Warrior sin -- I need to leave early. When I tell our group leader that I need to bail out with 20-minutes remaining in the session he looks at me with a mixture of pity and disdain. He tells me that I did a fine job and if I continue to work at it I will be stronger next time and perhaps have the endurance to make it through the whole workout.
Epilogue -- It is at this point, at 9:40am that my most intense obstacle course racing begins, I have a group waiting for me across town to lead Hill Repeats and I sprint out of the park, down busy city streets, and into Ginza station - the whole way weaving and dodging people -- I must have been running at 3:20 per kilometers pace. I manage to make it to hill repeat session just in the nick of time to lead everyone through the hill sprints.
