Strong group of 11, including a “hobo” from another region, posted to the Gashouse this morning for some brick work, something that resembled Dora, and something that resembled a relay.

Pulled into the parking lot courtesy of Fred’s two feet to find a number of PAX in their cars waiting for the show to start.  Whoopee, Stroganoff and Dirt were at the track, finishing up some EC.  Whoopee jumped the fence, 7:00 rolled around, and it was time to get started.

The Thang:

  • 10 x SSH (IC)
  • 10 x Imperial Walkers (IC)
  • 10 x Calf Raises (IC)
  • 10 x Peter Parkers (IC)

and today wouldn’t have been complete without:

  • 10 x Mike Tysons (IC)

The PAX Pledged Allegiance, broke off of Pain Lab, and moseyed to the front of the schoolhouse  for a quick 10-10-3x across the parking lot (think Triple Nickel without the nickels)

  • Apollo Ohno to the curb
  • 10 x Smurf Jacks
  • Bear Crawl back to the sidewalk
  • 10 x Dying Cockroaches

The Smurf Jacks got less and less smurfy as we went along, but we finished up, and Froggered across the boulevard to FPC where the Footmobile was waiting.

Inside the Footmobile was a set of 40 neatly stacked pavers, not to be thrown in protest or used for a patio.  Some tried to refuse the coupons (“But I’m a Republican!”), but we all took some time to get acquainted with the bricks with 5 brickees OYO before heading to the stairs for the next round.

We partnered up for some Dora with one partner running the stairs, and hammering out 5 berkins (brick merkins) at the top while the other partner makes a dent in the exercise count.  Exercises this round were:

  • 200 x Bent Over Rows
  • 200 x 6 Inches Skullcrushers
  • 200 x Standing Shoulder Taps (count 1 side)

The Rows weren’t bad, but that’s about it.  It just got worse from there.

Quick round of 20 American Hammers (IC) before the next round of Dora.

This time, instead of running the stairs and doing berkins, one partner ran downhill to the drop-off area while doing overhead presses.  Once at the drop-off area, the partner did 5 Nutcrackers (each leg), which are just lunges with the added movement of bringing the bricks together between your legs.  In the meantime, the other partner worked through the exercise count for these exercises:

  • 200(ish) x Plank Flys (count both sides)
  • 200 x Michael Phelps (count 1 side)
  • 200 x Prayer Squats

At this point, we collectively selectively lost the ability to count.  The Plank Flys left us disoriented to the point that we were guessing.  One group’s “count” worked for all of us, and we kept on.  The last two sets were better, but the overhead presses got old real quick.

YHC couldn’t wait to get back to the Footmobile to neatly return the coupons.  No windows or businesses were harmed during the course of this workout (that YHC is aware of anyways).

We resisted the urge to clowncar back to the start, and headed back to the track at the schoolhouse to get in some running.  At this point YHC was full of ideas, but lacking in instruction, but we were all a little punchy at this point, so I said some words and we did some stuff, but here’s how it should have read:

4 Man Grinder Relay:

  • Station 1 – Alternating 5 LBCs & 5 Flutter Kicks AMRAP
  • Station 2 – Alternating 5 Seal Jacks & 1 Burpee AMRAP
  • 1 Man running from Station 1 to Station 2
  • 1 Man at Station 2
  • 1 Man running from Station 2 to Station 1
  • 1 Man at Station 1
  • All done in a relay until a certain number of laps are reached or the Q calls time

It’s really not much easier to describe on paper, but the PAX got the idea and ran with it.  With 11 PAX, we sure could have used 1 more to make 3 even 4 man teams.  Luckily there was a walker, who became an honorary member of our 3 man team.  As we’re working on the track, our honorary member became curious about what we were doing, so EZ Rider gave him a good EH.  After about 2 full laps around the track it was time to wrap it up and head back to the shovel flag for some Mary and the COT.

Mary:

  • Whoopee – 10 x LBCs (IC)
  • EZ Rider – 10 x Michael Phelps (IC)
  • Watts Up – 10 x American Hammers (IC)
  • Stroganoff – 10 x Flutter Kicks (IC)

No bells, but time was called.  The reliability of the Presbyterians was called into question.  Pain Lab joined back in and we went over announcements.  A car pulled in, and out from it came our honorary member, Gary.  EZ Rider was expecting it, telling the PAX that he was interested in Pain Lab.  We found out that Gary was interested in coming out, but wasn’t looking to run.  The PAX made sure that Gary knew that at Pain Lab, they just sit around and sing “Kumbaya”.  He sounded pretty ok with that, and hung around as we wrapped up the COT.

Announcements:

  • Qs needed for December at Gashouse.  Contact Linus.

Prayer Requests:

  • Sargento’s List
  • Stroganoff and EZ Rider’s coworker lost a grandson to a hunting accident
  • Whoopee’s dad is having cataract surgery
  • All those affected by Covid and the lockdowns
  • Gary’s family
  • Watts Up has a third job interview coming up

Moleskin:

Oboe was a great addition to the group.  Visiting from the Raleigh area, he posted to Downtown on Friday and Gashouse on Saturday.  Between no one pronouncing his name correctly (“Oboe”, not “Hobo”) and the constant ribbing about nurring into a car, he added a lot to the workout.  And when he wasn’t running backwards, he was really fast.  If you’re ever posting up in the Raleigh area, hopefully you’ll run into him, but if he’s running backwards, look out.

As we all wrap up the November Challenge, don’t stop.  Accelerate.  There’s always work to be done, and strength in the pack.

Hopefully we’ll see Gary next week.

Yabba Dabba Doo