Bash the Q

My first Q of 2018 thankfully was not last week in the frigid cold, what is hopefully the low-point of our temperatures for this year. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live in the north where it is really cold and the snow thaws in early Spring. So after the New Year’s Day post, I fartsacked the first week. What is actually worse, at least in my opinion, is being up at 5 am in plenty of time to dress and make it on time is getting up at 5 am is to check my phone’s weather app to see if the gloom had breached my internal (and by internal, I mean my nut-sack) threshold of 30 degrees (note the average low for this time of year is 29). So with single to teen digits, I postponed F3 exercise but this day was coming and wouldn’t you know the initial forecast was a 90% chance of rain for Thursday. However I was fortunate some high pressure system pushed warmer air to our part of the country. Kind of bad for a Southerner when you walk outside at 40 degrees and think how warm it feels. No wonder Tool Time showed up this morning in a t-shirt and shorts. I kept a mindful eye of the weather forecast all this week, like a bride with a planned outdoor wedding. The chance of rain declined to about 50%. After doing my daughter’s grammar homework (that’s another story) last night, I wrote a Weinke designed to be completed under the cover of a picnic pavilion or gazebo and really hopeful the PAX took my twitter post to heart and do what I did last week by sleeping in. 0500 I awoke, dressed, and instantly realized upon exiting my house the ground was wet but no precipitation was falling, at least for the moment. I only used my wipers to clear the remnants of drizzle from my windshield and contemplated a change of plan.

 Goat Island’s parking lot was surprisingly full, not only of the About Face Bootcamp women and men (but mostly women), but plenty of PAX as well. Dolph claimed I promised a trip to Floyd and Blackies coffee shop. That’s out with this group. It was a balmy 45 degrees, warm enough for Tesla to thankfully convert away from his tights and back to shorts. Our new Nantan was gyrating trying to keep warm in his limited garb and the mumble chatter was alive, so much that I completely missed the FNG present in the circle. The disclaimer was polite, something like “you verses you, do what you can, enjoy what you can do…” I think I said something like that. My train of thought went into defensive mode and the only way to shut the PAX up was to call an exercise.

 Warm-Up

• Cotton Pickers IC x 10 (Somehow the PAX read my mind that I would stop at 10 though I failed to elevate my final count. Does this mean I’m getting predictable? For the sake of Brownstreak, and myself, I stated “All warm-up exercises end at 10…”)
• Toy Soldiers IC x 10
• Seal Jacks IC x 10
• Imperial Walkers IC x 10
• 5 Burpees OYO

Thang

“Let’s mosey,” I called and began to physically move amid the cat calls from the PAX. For future reference, Floyd and Blackies apparently does not open until 0600. So we jogged up the hill to arrive at First Baptist Church’s empty parking lot. I attempted a quick count off which proved to be a challenge. Midoriyama may have some company among AO’s math skills. After a few attempts, we arrived at a final number of 11. Like a substitute in from of a remedial math class, I began catching more heat while I fumbled to organize my speaker and Weinke.  I finally announced the “Accumulator” was our first challenge. It was my challenge as well, deciphering my timing app to build the progressive sets of 30 seconds for each exercise with a 30 second break between rounds.

1. SSH
2. SSH, Squats
3. SSH, Squats, Shoulder Taps
4. SSH, Squats, Shoulder Taps, High Knees
5. SSH, Squats, Shoulder Taps, High Knees, Merkins

Mayor was impressed with my one to no armed SSH’s employed before my speaker finally picked up the signal and led off with Jackson Brown’s “Running on Empty.” The first few rounds were fairly easy but by the 5^th round, three minutes of cardio provided the impact. On the return mosey, the mumble chatter cranked up once again. I decided to go impromptu “Triple Nickel” using the hill adjacent to the parking lot (this is for you Brownstreak). 5 monkey humpers at the bottom, 5 burpees at the top for 5 rounds. This was a gasser but the guys pushed through. Should be noted the work of Dr. Seuss that was in the lead pack of Dolph and Boudin demonstrating age is only a number. Awesome work. For the final segment, a fellowship mosey was to the gazebo was called. Only a few actually listened to that (big surprise) and followed. I had a three individual sets of five exercises to do in a Tabata of 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off format with a 45 second break.

Round 1

• LBC’s, diamond merkins, squat pulse, butt kickers, Rocky Balboas
• Sidebar: Mayor once again achieved comedic gold suggesting that Dolph’s squat pulses, which were going at a really fast pace, would get him to ‘finish early’ generating a few laughs then hitting the zinger that his M pays for the 60 second love package and always gets her money refunded. You had to be there for this to make sense but as a reminder for the 11 that were – another bright moment in the gloom.

Round 2

• Mountain climbers, Peter Parkers, pike ups, Freddie Mercury, WWI

Round 3

• CDD, Lt. Dans, baby dips, jack merkins, ski burps

 A check of the watch indicated 0613 leaving two minutes for Mary – time for the expedited edition, calling in a quick cadence or single count:

• Flutter Kicks IC x 10
• Leg Lifts SC x 10
• Am Hammer SC x 10
• LBC’s SC x 10
• Scissors SC x 10
• Box Cutter SC x 10

 COT: Prayers for T-Square’s neighbor that lost so much in a fire to their home. T-Square has posted daily each week (way to push) to collect donations. See the newsletter for needed items. Cash and gift cards are welcomed as well. Prayers for those getting into the flow of the new year. We have the Rooster upcoming where our region has three teams registered. The FNG was Danny Hovis, EH’ed by Dolph at the gym the night before. A young fellow that is a local product of our area works for Buchanan Concrete is now known as “Slump.” The Mayor can explain what it actually means but rest assured it has to do with concrete. Welcome to the PAX!

Moleskin: We were fortunate the window of non-rain covered our workout period – thanks to the Sky Q! I imagine even if it didn’t the same group would have posted indicating what I missed last week dealing with my Sandy V. Of the 10 men that posted, I knew two of them outside of F3. Crazy to think how excited one can be to show up in the gloomy mist to exercise outside in early January. More importantly was to enjoy the amount of abuse heaped upon the Q which is really a faint disguise of affection. It sure beats the few occasions when I exercised on my own. One day we may actually follow through the threat to skip the workout to enjoy a 2^nd/3^rd F at the coffee shop but not today. Today it was a good ole fashion Q bashing and I was happy to suffer through it. Thanks for the opportunity to lead.