2021 PT Test #1

Former 1st F Q Broke created the PT Test during his time leading the Fitness portion of our organization. It’s a great idea to measure your performance over time, consistent with the common You vs. You theme, though there was chatter about breaking Pizza Man’s 29:14 mark from the first iteration last July. Not much fanfare for this one. A light crowd with other AO’s open and plenty of things going on. Here’s what went on:

Warm-up:

Toy solider IC x 15, Imperial Walker IC x 15, Side to Side Lunge IC x 15, Moroccan Night Clubs IC x 15. And since the patent holder of the newly created fabulous warm-up exercise was among us, I had permission to request Right over Left followed by Left over right toe touches. Apparently my version of counting was incorrect. Oh well – sue me.

Time to mosey to the track. Only a few guys stayed behind for Pain Lab that Sargento was scheduled to lead but as a true HIM, he said damn whomever can’t run – I’m making the Pain Lab perform the PT test. So another HIM, Rudolph stepped in to lead the Pain Lab for Top Hat and El Torro. The SLT is taking this situation under advisement and will render a decision if Sargento gets credit for his 80th Q of the month.

Arrived at the track – the routine bared repeating once again and several times through. Amazing how the mind fails to focus but it does wander a bit when chaos looms.

• Run a lap
• Perform in sequential order: 100 merkins, squats, LBCs, and SSH’s
• Run a lap
• Perform the same set at 75 reps each
• Run a lap
• Perform the same set at 50 reps each
• Run a lap
• Perform the same set at 25 reps each
• Run 4 laps
• Total is 250 reps of each exercise for 1000 reps and total of 2 miles

This is a challenge for all skill levels as there is no break. All agree merkins are the most challenging, especially the first 2 sets. Despite having April as a “challenge month” replicating the 3 primary exercises, if you’re like me, you’re breaking up into sets. In my opinion, it takes an elite athlete to power through 100 push-ups consecutively. So, once past the merkins come the squats and this is what gets me all the time, PT Test or the Murph. Note to self – do more squats on a consistent basis to prepare otherwise my Adductors feel like root canals for a few days.

Here is the good news, Les Nessman and Hermie improved from 3 laps remaining the first time to finishing with several minutes before time was called. Then Linus has shown steady improvement all three occasions: 1 lap remaining in July to 85 seconds ahead of time in November and this time finishing with 9 minutes to spare. Big shout out to those guys. Now for the rest of the group that had previously done the test at least once, all those times were slower by a minute. I’m not sure if there is an excuse but as Coach John Fox once said “it is what it is” or maybe he also said “we picked a bad day to have a bad day?” Maybe both of those apply. Or maybe he wasn’t a good coach and had a lot of lousy excuses. In either event, we’ll get ’em next time. And there will be another PT Test for you slackers that didn’t post. Start doing some squats and merkins.

Announcements: Thursday – 2nd F Lunch at Wild Wings in Gastonia. See Allen Tate for details…check that – ask someone on Slack for details. Prayer requests: Turtleman, Big Pappy, Sister Act 2.0, and others.

I tried to video the event to gain some evidence in case the form is called into question. Rookie mistake and clicked the camera off instead of on when I moved it so limited footage. Qfail. Everyone pushed hard despite slower times but we all finished which was a great accomplishment.

SS