Swimming anyone?

11 Pax showed this am. It was cold. We had a roamer from Florence who was visiting in-laws and decided he wanted to get after it. Glad to have you Belding. We will expect you at least twice yearly (hopefully more often) from now on. I did not realize I had the Q until yesterday. I put together the electronic weinke with a smile late afternoon, but did not think about the cold weather and battery drain so I had to go rogue for the second half when the battery went dead-good! I now get to challenge myself to think on the fly and come up with something painful, probably more painful than what I had on my weinke.

Here is what I remember:

Quick disclaimer, brief explanation of the PainLab-low impact workout for recovering or those with issues related to potential impact injuries. I could have done a better job with the explanation-will make sure to do that next time.

WU: Quick, warmups are necessary but not what we came for. SSH, Merkins, Jump Rope, Mtn Climbers IC anywhere from 3-8 reps-whatever felt right. 10 burpees finished up the WU then we hit the Pledge.

Thang-PainLab split off with 3-good to see Shadrap and SledgeOMatic back. You get kudos Rudolph-great idea starting the PainLab. Hopefully other un-named pax who posted in the past but are not regulars will reconsider their reasons for not posting. I had at least a hundred reasons not to post. More importantly, there were 7 different reasons standing in front of me for why I should post. Those 7 are stronger reasons than the hundred or more I could have thought of to not post.

8 of us moseyed to the back side woods of Schiele for some partner work on the dirt hill. P1 does exercise, P2 runs up the hill to the special tree. At the top of the hill, do 5 Merkins then come back and flapjack. Exercises were as follows: Merkins, Squats, Flutter kicks. Quick break with 5 burpees then round 2 same process but exercises were the following: Mtn Climbers, Jump Squats, and Freddy Mercury. At about this point, my electronic weinke was dead. Not a whole lot of mumble chatter so our partner group got to pepper Belding on some info about himself. He was Head of School when he joined F3 and introduced to F3 by a teacher, but now works in another field (help me out Roscoe). His wife grew up here in Gastonia and her family has a surveying company. He likes long walks on the beach. He received a cat wrapped in a box for Christmas. He has an uncle named Eddie who has a metal plate in his head and a dog named Snotz. He drives a wood panel station wagon…..wait a second, maybe some of that is not right. Back to the workout.

We moseyed up into the parking lot for a lap or so then headed to the wall of the museum. Hmmm, what should we do here? How about EMOM? Every Minute On the Minute. Sounds good, but Q failed on this. I misjudged the timing so for the first few rounds we had very little recovery time. Sorry, 50% discount on your admission cost. For the next 10-15 minutes we started our routine every minute on the minute. The exercises were as follows: 10 high knees, 10 SSH, 5 burpees then run a short distance and back. The “and back” part was the mistake which gave us little recovery time. After a few rounds I figured that out and we modified. Once we did about 8 rounds of this, we modified the Burpees to……..(drumroll please)……….hip slappers. I got a strange look from Monk as I announced this. That was better than mumble chatter. Much better. I can’t help it. I really do like them. They hurt, but in a really good way. For motivation, we reminded Monk that his M and one of his 2.0s were in the Bahamas and probably would be swimming soon.

Next we moseyed back to the woods down to the pond for Dips and Derkins, 11 style. Start with 1 dip, 1 derkin (no, not Jerkin. Save that for tonight, or for coffeerama???#showtoknow) then take a lap around the pond. 2 dips, 2 derkins, take a lap around the pond,…up to 11 dips, 11 derkins, a lap around the pond. There was more mumble chatter at this point, but not enough. I began offering rewards for anyone willing to swim across the pond-we would quit the workout, I would buy them breakfast, throw in a nice, gently-used F3 hat? Any takers? Anyone? Anyone? How about if anyone would throw Stroganoff in? I even offered to join them. Still no takers. I believe there was also discussion about music and we all (UNANIMOUSLY) agreed that…what was it again? Oh yeah, RUSH sucks. Yup, that is exactly what we discussed and agreed. I distinctly remember Stroganoff raising his hand (all five fingers?) when we asked who thinks Rush sucks. We got a quick 10 count for recovery then did 5 burpees. We moseyed back to start and joined the pain lab for modified Mary as a group. Definitely some painful stuff that will provide the burn with a lower chance for impact injuries. We lunged a little way then finished with the COT.

Good stuff this am. Got a lot going on and people going through things during the holidays-current stuff, memories, travel, sick family and friends/co-workers. Remember, if this is not you going through this now, it will be in the future. Build that relationship with the guys around you now so you have someone to lean on when (not if) you are in the ditch. Getting out here and busting your butt early only makes you a better person and helps move you to be the best version of you possible.

Again, come back anytime Belding. Enjoyed meeting you this am. Great work guys.

We had 5 at coffeerama. Be careful where you sit next time you go-avoid the wet spot. It’s not my fault-it’s been a long time for me.

Whoopee