Month: August 2018 (Page 7 of 8)

Sometimes things don’t work out as planned.  YHC got up early to be certain a new area of Belmont was open and available for the PAX to enjoy. Yep, all looks good.  On the Yank to meet Traveler for a few EC miles.  Back to the Yank a little before 0700 and meet Quiche, Tool Time, and Boudine completing some EC of their own.

Q calls time, no FNGs so quick disclaimer and lets get started.  Warmup was SSH x15, Don Q x15, 5 burpee OYO.  Pledge.  Let’s mosey.

Up Nichol’s hill and out Central Ave toward HT.  Nope, not stopping at HT this morning, head to the high school.  Decent amount of activity in the parking lot by the stadium, YHC checks the gate, same gate that was checked at 0600, locked now.  Mosey to the end of parking lot where there was an open gate. Q announces stadium steps and descends down the hill toward the field, feels just like the glory days.  That is until we approached and told that the South’s premier HS football program is holding media day, we need to find another place to go.  Of course a good Q always has a back up plan.  But as for me, I winged it.

Head back up the parking lot towards front of school.  Q sees long row of buses parked side by side.  Announce Dora 123, partner up and do 100 push ups, 200 LBC, 300 squat, partner takes a lap around the buses.  Just so happens that we are working in a parking lot with numbered spaces, 381, 382, etc.  Decision made to call the same burpee (contra, de-constructed, or whatever the evil move is called) in relation to last number of each space starting at 381. So one burpee at 381, lunge to next space with two burpees and 382, etc all the way to 10 at 390.  Q was a little overly optimistic on how long this would take, so we called the second Omaha at 0745 to begin the mosey back to the Yank.

Fun was had by all.

Announcements: M led workout at Folsom 0800 8/11, CSAUP 8/25 and Sargento house destruction that evening, Stop Soldier Suicide 5k/10k Speed for Need event, JKK 5K same day, collection of school supplies by Sparky

Prayer requests: Tool Time asks for prayers for Sly and all our military members

Tiger closed in prayer

Always a pleasure

Tiger

Today was the day to implement the test.  A few days earlier I messaged Roscoe and asked if he remembered a workout at Downtown that I never forgot.  It was my first post in awhile, those two years ago, where I was back from the beach and decided to rededicate effort into F3.  Nearly a year before Painlab was to start, Roscoe was the Q and there were about 10 of us.  I remember Easy Rider, Def Leppard, Hushpuppy and Squirt being there.  Can’t remember any more, but there’s a picture somewhere.

Roscoe took us on a workout around town, running up and down the parking deck, but stopped and had us circle up into 4 groups.  He did a waterfall of Burpees, and it never seemed to stop.  He sped it up with Def at some points, I remember that, but before the end we had done roughly 85 Burpees in a row.  I remember that workout because it was something I wouldn’t have said I could do, if you told me to do it beforehand.  That’s a great part of F3, the time you realize you can do more.  Plus I felt nauseous.

SO….with that backstory here we go.  I get to the parking lot with my truck full of weights and , and there is Linus.  This site Q is all over his job, and has been busting his @$$  pushing the rock.  We shoot the bull, and talk weight-lifting.  We’re thinking that maybe we should start an EC thing at Gashouse with some mass-building-centric stuff?  I keep saying it, the older we guys get, the more muscle loss is going to happen, it’s just a fact.  So you all stew on that.  But he helps me make the stations and set the weights at.   The guys start to trickle in, and I tell Mayor that we might not have but a few folks for Painlab and then we’d join JJ for a bootcamp.  Luckily the number hit just right!

JJ warmed us up, Pledge, then the split.  I told JJ in secret about the Test I was going to do, he said they were going to go away…..far away.  Later I saw they went to Ollie’s.  Adios boys.

8 (9 with me) stuck for Painlab.  Disclaimer, and remember these rules for when you Q:

1) Modify as needed.  Ankle hurting?  Let Q know and he can give you something else to do (Merkins, LBC, there is always an alternative).

2) We do zero to low impact.  You CAN do high-impact, like the hop after the Burpee, or do it slower.  Again, we modify.

3) We’ve had a theme of using weights.  This is not required.  If you Q Painlab, holler at HIPAA and get some original ideas.  He’s done great in innovating this AO.

I set up 8 stations to rotate through.  When someone realized that there was 9 of us, we made a new one on the spot.  Improv!

Goblet Squats with 50 lb. kbell

Diamond Merkins (Hushpuppy missed my diamond drawing.  Uncultured).

Halos with 30 lb. kbell

Curls with 50lb. curl bar

Tricep Extension with 20 lb. dumbell

American Hammer with cinderblock

Rows with 50 lb. kbell

Marches with 25 lb. plate or 20 lb bell

*Lunges with 2 10 lb. hand weights (this is what we made up, good job Mayor!)

You do 10-15 repetitions, rotate when I say so, we rest 30-60 seconds before next station, repeat.  My favorite was when Top Hat grabbed the 50 lb. kbell for squats and yelled out “JOHN BROWN!”.  I think he’s feeling muuuuuch better these days.  So we do this times 2 cycles.  This was more work than what we did 2 years ago with Roscoe, and while I knew it would have an effect, we put in 30 minutes of work.  Perfect.

Next was the test, we split into groups, Hushpuppy remembered what I told the gang about the Roscoe workout and girded himself.  Only difference was that each group would count and we would ascend, not do a 1-2-3-1, count, but just count up.  I thought this would give some mental edge.  Plus, I made a playlist specific for this event.  So me and Hunkajunk paired up, Mayor and Defib, Pedal along with Hushuppy, TopHat with Sledge-o-matic and Hunchback.  I can’t remember what number we were on, but here comes Madoff and Hercules.  They join up, welcome to the pain train!

At this point I set the time for 15 minutes.  I saw the sweat, I saw the push, and tried to keep the chatter up.  The third song on the playlist helped to inspire me and Mayor, when “Real American” came on.  How can you not flashback to your youth when Hulkomania was running wild?  Say your prayers, eat your vitamins and be a good American.  Hot damn I’m pumped up now!  At one point I saw the group sagging just a hair, I told them to put their arms in the air and I checked the clock.  11:30 had passed.  I asked if they had it in them to go for 4 more minutes.  The answer was a resounding yes, so back to work we went.

Final count – 276 group burpees.  That’s 69 individual in a row.  The bench mark has been set for PainLab.  Next time is 277 or bust.  GREAT WORK MEN.  And hats off to Pedal, who did the torture chamber with Gastone the day before, which looked like the stuff of nightmares.

I had everyone sit on their 6 and did some basic stretches to cooldown.  Weightlifting + 69 consecutive burpees is pretty rough on the body.  After 5 minutes of stretch I lead us in some yoga poses to actively stretch.  I enjoyed watching people shake and tremble while planking.  Monk came running up during tree pose and looked like he’d seen a car accident.  GET TO WORK MONK.  JJ joined me in the circle, we did some Mary work, churchbells = time.

MOLESKIN – been waiting for a time to do the test.  Hats off to Roscoe for pushing me 2 years ago, hats off to Painlab participants for not quitting.  You can pause, you can go slow, you can let doubt creep in, but the test has one bigger purpose – push your brother, iron sharpens iron.

Until the next time, adios.  And if interested in an EC kbell-weight session before bootcamp on Saturdays, holler. Gastone was thinking of one through the week too.  Opportunities abound.  Proud of all this new blood taking over site Q’s!

Rudolph

Prison Break at Folsom

Six ran, three rucked, some fart sacked. Two did EC.
All had fun.

YHC took us out.

• Montross….I mean Oompa Loompa