Twofer

I’m trying hard not to buy into climate change. Yesterday (Saturday) was an anomaly, with a cold and rainy start in the 40’s that got progressively colder in the 7-8 am hour. Cold and Rainy is not a great combination for an F3 workout but as one of our core principals says: “Held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold.” In most cases, there is likely some other idiot dumb enough to suit up in the gloom and post. It’s been a while since I last Q’ed at The Fighting Yank, so good to make the trip over for a Saturday morning despite the conditions. As I arrive at 6:50, our Nantan awaits me at the curb as Sargento has the Bunker. We quickly assess the situation and decide attendance will be light at best, so we should combine our efforts and give the PAX a Two for One special. Sarge informs he has an FNG coming (“Always be EHing”) and he did in fact show (bonus points for posting in the nastiness). Only Dirt was out for EC so as we counted down to 0700, cars began rolling in. The disclaimer and warm-up are brief with the rain pelting us.

Warm-Up: Don Quixotes and SSH’s – grab some gear out of Sargento’s trunk and head up the hill to the upper picnic shelter. The Bunker portion would be first as Sargento planned 10 stations. With 11 PAX, we modified to a merkin station – except Flintstone is working around an elbow issue – so he ran most of this time. The others worked our way through a circuit of:

• Standing straight arm raises w/ bricks
• Curls with 250 pound weights on curl bar (not really – no idea of the weight)
• Standing kettle bell extensions (3 lb kettlebell)
• Flutter kicks
• Shoulder shrugs with paint cans containing exactly 78 oz and 104 oz of paint left in the gallon buckets
• Standing front shoulder raises with paint cans containing exactly 93.5 oz and 77.3 oz in the gallon buckets
• Bent over rows with full concrete block
• Standing triceps extensions with 22.5 lb kettlebell
• LBCs
• Bent-over flys with bricks
• Merkins (except Flintstone)

Sargento brought his mega JBL speaker which his phone and the Tabata timer was connected. Each exercise went 1 minute with a 3 second rest. Music was supposed to play but we were sparred (briefly). I tried the Roscoe move to hijack the bluetooth speaker but it turned into a co-Q fail not only not playing the music on my phone, but no longer announcing the time of the exercise. The rain had subsided at this point but the concrete under the cover had plenty of puddles leaving only a few dry spots for the flutters and lbcs. We found a  way to persevere. With 11 exercises and a few seconds of rest, everyone completed a full circuit plus a few extra rounds to exhaust The Bunker’s first half hour of the Twofer.

With the gloom and doom forecast, I had planned to keep the PAX under the shelter but exact a cardio beatdown unlike no other experience. But what does a Q do when plans change on a dime? Adjust, Omaha, call it whatever you want but I spent most of the time contemplating my adjusted workout. I also was trying to workaround our FNG’s knee injury but there is only so much you can do and still give the PAX their money’s worth. Instead of multiple rounds, I sped through these circuits one time:

1. Squats x 25, R Lunge x 15, L Lunge x 15, R Side Lunge x 15, L Side Lunge x 15, Bench Jumps x 20 (butt to the bench and jumps up off the bench)
2. Calf Raises x 30 (had salute Dirt’s favorite), Bonnie Blairs x 20, Imperial Walker Squats x 20 (count the squat), Bench Jumps x 20
3. Merkins x 15, Shoulder Taps x 30 (ct each tap), Merkins x 15, Peter Parker x 30 (total), Burps x 15
4. Dips x 15, Derkins x 15, Dips x 15, Crab Cakes x 15
5. Glute Bridges x 25, Bulgarian Squat 30 (15 R/15 L), High Knees x 30 (Total)

Partner work: P1 does counting exercise to 25 reps; P2 does AMRAP exercise to maintain the cardio. Two sets for each exercise so the counting equals 100.

1. P1 – SSH’s x 25; P2 – Burpees AMRAP
2. P1 – Mtn Climbers x 25; P2 – Hand Release Merkins AMRAP
3. P1 – LBCs x 25; P2 – Plank Jacks AMRAP
4. P1 – Squats x 25; P2 – Ski Abs AMRAP

Of course I had to introduce some bit of complication but the PAX picked it up and really embraced the activity, especially the AMRAP portion. I had done some parts of this before but as with any new weinke – the timing is the one variable that you can’t always account. So I had about 8 minutes left to burn and we jumped into some core work to finish out the event.

Announcements: Q school and burgers – yesterday – hope you attended and learned something. Community Foundation Run April 9th – have you registered yet?; Prayer Requests: Tesla, Roscoe’s FIL/M – there are others that I missed.

COT – Sargento had been working to EH David Hamilton for a few years. The 1989 Ashbrook Greenwave was a dominant small forward in the Southeastern 4A has since migrated to Belmont to live with his family that his kids attended or currently attend South Point. As our FNG explained some things about himself, Sargento said he had the biggest set of hands he’d ever shaken – hence we’ll now call him The Glove – welcome. For a cold and wet day, we survived it. Doodles, who works for US Air said it best: “I can work in the cold or I can work in the rain, but I don’t like working in both.” As the kids text, TBH, I don’t like working out in the rain or the cold either. I’m ready for Spring.  But the chatter was pretty steady today during both sessions of the combined workout. And getting in a workout with the PAX is better than going at it alone.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.