The Journey Back to the Top Begins with the First Step

The PAX have spoken, or at least voted. Congratulations to Big Pappy being honored as 2021 Q of the year. Do I sound disgruntled? Some at the workout say I could be or maybe they were trying to ignite me into an F-bomb. The PAX also surmised the voting could have been influenced by the Folsom folks. So much for a democratic voting process – maybe George Soros has some interest in our region? Ah – that’s a rabbit hole we don’t need to visit. Let’s move on to the beatdown. Initially I tried to get on the Folsom calendar for today but Site Q Ball Joint said Breaker beat me to the request. No worries – I texted Freight and he obliged to let me have the Q this morning. The forecast called for rain so I organized the Weinke accordingly, making use of the covered picnic area. I rolled up with two minutes to spare and couldn’t get the speaker’s blue-tooth to connect – Q-fail. One minute late starting so had to make do. A veteran crew but Broke mentions his back hurts. I offer the disclaimer “do whatever you want to – I’ll offer some suggestions.” Here we go:

Warm-up – no cadence necessary

• SSH
• 4×4 (4 merkins + 4 mtn. climbers)
• Squat Jack Twist
• Flying Squirrel
• Shoulder Tap + Plank Jack
• 8 Count Body Builder
• Jump Rope (no rope, just pretend)
• Ski Abs
• 180 Jump Squats
• Single Line Suicide (don’t attempt to do this w/o me present)

We rolled through 10 exercises at 30 seconds each, taking a 30 second rest after the first set and repeating. Ten minutes of pure cardio. I had the PAX wondering if we’d go the rest of the hour at this pace; I considered it but had other plans. The rain held off – lets mosey.

Thang: Fellowship mosey out of the parking lot. Thankfully Pizza Man is with us and I lean on him as my cruise director. Right on N Maple, Left on W Church. At the corner of Church/Pine, we do 10 merkins + 10 squats + 10 mtn. climbers (count one side). Mosey south on Pine to W Carpenter – do the routine. Go one block and head north to the back street of the grocery store – stop and do the drill. Go out of the parking lot and turn right on W Main St – go one block and do the drill. Go to the next block on Maple – do the drill. Go another block to Oakland – do the drill. Make sure Seuss gets to the side of the road as more cars interfere with him running in the right lane. Go one block to N Holland – do the drill. Turn right and go south on Holland – I briefly consider asking the PAX to do pull-ups at Pizza Man’s house but since I can’t do them – I keep us moving. At the corner of W Church and Holland – do the drill again. Head back into the parking lot and one final time of the set. That makes 90 of each exercise – I had in my head to do 10 sets so fell short by one. This kept our cardio up and the mosey kept the chatter going – all good in my book.

Return to the picnic shelter and find a table or space. I did a garage workout focused on lower body this past Monday night. It was a leg burner for sure. Check it out if you ever need to work your legs. I didn’t want to completely focus on legs, so added upper body and core to round out the routine. We did two exercises at 10 total reps (5 each leg or side when called for or 10 total) in four minute sets with one minute rest between. I think the PAX will agree, the first one or two times through are okay but that third one comes and you begin to feel it – usually with about two minutes to go. Here it is:

• Seated Jump Squats (butt touches the bench, then jump) x 10 + Step-ups (5 left, 5 right)
• Dips x 10 + Burps x 10
• Flutter Kicks x 10 (one side) + LBCs x 10
• Glute Bridge x 10 + Lunge (5 right, 5 left)
• Derkins x 10 + SSH x 10
• Heel clicks x 10 (squat then jump and click your heels together) + Am Hammer x 10 (time was running out so we only got 3 minutes of this one)

Announcements: Convergence January 1 at Midoriyama – look for a pre-blast; see Sarlaac collecting for a family. Prayer requests: Broke’s mom, Pizza Man’s grandmother moving to retirement home, those with loved ones no longer with us during this holiday season.

Moleskin – Everyone has their brand of tricks to make the workout challenging. Cardio is one of mine. The PAX noted today’s bag of exercises were surprisingly simple, well, some of them were weird (see heel clicks). Some thought the warm-up were moves stolen from boy band’s dance moves – possibly. If the smart watches were working, most should have burned over 500 calories – check that – Seuss may not have that many to burn. At least Broke got to order hash browns for breakfast. I did joke with the group that my journey to make an impression on the PAX with my Q’s began today. I hope my 2022 is a healthy one that I can consistently push the rock and reach some of the lofty goals that I have set. And that is really what this is about – not winning awards or recognition. After all it’s ‘you vs. you.’ Look at what Michael Jordan did to create an edge as he revealed in “The Last Dance.” It’s like seeing that one person ahead of you on the relay race that you pick up the pace to get a kill. It’s in a set of 11’s where you’re staying just ahead or just behind some oblivious PAX – the push or pull you need to motivate through the routine. The journey to your next goal begins with the first step. Today was the first. See you again for the next.

Short Sale