On a beautiful, crisp autumn Saturday my friend Karin and I decided to take our workout outdoors. We met at the Dipsea steps that are close to my house. If you are not familiar with the Dipsea stairs…here’s the scoop:
The stairs start in the little town of Mill Valley on Throckmorton Ave. They are kind of hard to find, but if you get to the park, you take a private driveway up a ways to find the start of the stairs. There are 3 sections to the stairs and a total of 688 steps. The first section is wooden stairs that are very shallow and hard to see. So it’s great for balance and agility. The first set of stairs eventually become huge stone steps near the top and can be rather treacherous when wet. The second section of the Dipsea Stairs is also wooden and the steps are spaced at a normal height and length apart, which is good because this is the longest section of the stairs at about 313 stairs. The last section of stairs is concrete and donors have paid to have plaques put into the stairs in memory of or commemoration of the race and its participants.
Every year since 1905 there is a foot race called the Dipsea that starts on these stairs and then runs over the top of Mt. Tam down into Stinson Beach. It’s one of the oldest cross country trail events in the country. It’s a 7.5 mile trek and only about 1500 participants are allowed in the event each year.
Anyway, back to our workout. We started down the stairs and then doubled back up the first section to get our heart rates up. Then we proceeded down the stairs to the park in Mill Valley.
Here’s where we got creative. There was a play structure at the park so we did Dips, Pushups and Pullups on the Monkey Bars and Reverse Crunches on the Slide. The incline of the Slide made the exercise more challenging and fun at the end as we slid down it! Then we used the swing set to do some planking. The unstable surface of the swings and the sand made for a great plank hold.
After our strength portion at the park, we climbed the bottom section of the stairs again and then returned to the park to do our strength moves again. After that we made the continuous trek up to the top of the stairs and then as a “cool down” we walked to my house which is about a mile from the stairs.
Great workout! It was fun to be with my friend Karin, fun to be outdoors and fun to think outside the box and get creative with our fitness routine. Here’s our workout in a nutshell:
Dipsea Workout:
Stairs
Dips
Pushups
Pullups
Stairs
Planks
Reverse Crunches
Stairs
Next time you are in Mill Valley check out the steps, even if you only do the first section, it’s a treat!
Cheers!
Heather
