Twas the week before the big rivalry game – the one that would ultimately end Coach K’s career, and that was all anyone could think about.  8 PAX gathered to play Final Four Corners and get in the Tobacco Road spirit.

The Thang:

• 10 x SSH (IC)
• 10 x Don Quixotes (IC)
• 10 x Hillbillies (IC)
• 10 x Moroccan Night Clubs (IC)

Mosey to the entrance of Martha’s to finish up the Warm Up

• 10 x Mike Tysons (IC)
• 10 x Dying Cockroaches (IC)
• 10 x Jingle Balls (IC)

Mosey down to the Picnic Tables by the Turd Shack for

• 15 x Superman Pull-ups (IC)
• 15 x Decline Peter Parkers (IC)
• 15 x Double Crunches (IC)
• 10 x Step-ups (OYO – Each leg)

Down to the main soccer field for a little 4 corners and some trivia.

Here’s how it’ll go.  We run to a location, we ask a trivia question, if the PAX get it right, they get to choose the next exercise.  If not, YHC chooses.  All questions are about the Carolina/Duke rivalry.  But before we start all that, mosey to station one for

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

Next to the second corner:

Question: Does Coach K have a winning, losing, or even record agains the Tar Heels as Duke’s coach?

Answer: Winning (50-47)

PAX answered correctly and added 10 merkins, so we did

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)
• 10 x Merkins (OYO)

Corner 3:

Question:  Who is the only All-American playing in the UNC/Duke Final Four Game?

Answer: Paolo Banchero

PAX answered incorrectly, so YHC added the only logical thing, 15 Bobby Hurleys

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)
• 10 x Merkins (OYO)
• 15 x Bobby Hurleys (OYO)

Corner 4:

Question:  Who is Duke’s all-time leading scorer?  YHC gave the hint of all hints that JJ would know this one (which he would… in fact, the whole time, everyone wished JJ was there to make this whole thing easier… he would have known them all)

Answer: JJ Redick

PAX answered correctly, and added 20 Flutter Kicks, so the lineup was

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)
• 10 x Merkins (OYO)
• 15 x Bobby Hurleys (OYO)
• 20 x Flutter Kicks (OYO)

So at this point, we turned around to go back, and undo all that we did.  At each station, we’d ask a question, and if the PAX got it right, they would get to take an exercise off the list.  If they missed, they all stayed.

Question: Which school, UNC or Duke, has won more NCAA Championships in basketball?

Answer: UNC (UNC 6, Duke 5)

PAX answered correctly and got rid of the Bobby Hurleys

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)
• 10 x Merkins (OYO)
• 20 x Flutter Kicks (OYO)

Mosey to the next corner

Question: There have been 4 Wooden Award winners in UNC history.  Name 2 of them.

Answer:  Phil Ford, Michael Jordan, Antawn Jamison, Tyler Hansborough

The PAX correctly picked Jordan and Hansborough, so they got rid of the 5 burpees

• 10 x Merkins (OYO)
• 20 x Flutter Kicks (OYO)

2 questions left.  Next station

Question: Who is the most hated player in the history of the UNC/Duke rivalry?

Answers:  YHC would have accepted a number of answers, but the PAX were unanimous – Christian Laettner.  Take of the Merkins.

• 20 x Flutter Kicks (OYO)

Last corner

Last Question:  Spell Krzyzewski

No answer

• 20 x Flutter Kicks (OYO)

5 of 7 was a good test.  Solid 71% for this group.  If JJ were there, they would have aced it.

Back to the picnic tables for another round of:

• 15 x Superman Pull-ups (IC)
• 15 x Decline Peter Parkers (IC)
• 15 x Double Crunches (IC)
• 10 x Step-ups (OYO – Each leg)

Then with the time remaining, YHC wanted to do some 22’s in honor of the rebounding performance by Armando Bacot in the Elite Eight game, but we ran out of time, so instead, on the way back, every streetlight we passed we did

• 2 x Merkins (OYO)

to the entrance, then ran it out to the flag.

And that was that.

COT

Fun way to start a fun week.  Got some work in and learned who Duke’s All American was.  It was a privilege as always to lead these men.

Yabba Dabba Doo

Only 3 HIM were there to run between the rain showers.   A new route was explored and approved by the nantan.

Prayers

Turtleman

Huckleberry

Queso – checking out colleges

Good luck to all those running relays a races soon!

Defib out

8 including myself made it out to run a few

Some more than a few

6 of us stayed for a few words / quotes  from Mansfield’s book of Manly Men

Discussion was on men of action

Seems like if you do this enough, you’re bound to show up to Q and be the only one there.  Today it was my turn.

I rucked.

Prayer Request:

• Castle Rock’s mother-in-law
  • Prayer answered as the surgery that was scheduled was cancelled because her healing was progressing well enough that there was no reason for the surgery.

Yabba Dabba Doo

No, not 20 PAX at Gashouse.  There were 8 of those, and the groans were plenty when they heard we were combining PainLab and Gashouse for a joint beatdown, but  no running today.  At all.  If you were a F3 Gastonia PAX and wanted to run, there were plenty of options between the relays and the Community Foundation Run.  Today, at Gashouse, we carried.  Went somethin like this.

The Thang:

• 12 x SSH (IC)
• 12 x Hillbilly Walkers (IC)
• 5 Burpees (OYO – Train)
• 12 x Gravel Pickers (IC)
• 12 x Toy Soldiers (IC)
• 12 x Dying Cockroaches (IC)
• 12 x Mountain Climbers (IC)
• 12 x Mike Tysons (IC)

The Footmobile was loaded up with coupons (cinder blocks), so 6 of us grabbed the 6 blocks that YHC brought, and the other 2 grabbed a kettlebell and we were off.

With a combined beatdown, we could go to the track and take our sweet time and not get run off the track by Wojo and sprints, so that’s where we were headed, but a couple stops on the way:

At Garrison:

Core work

• 20 x Toe Touches (IC)
• 20 x Freddie Mercuries (IC)
• 20 x Heels to Heaven (IC)
• 20 x American Hammers (IC)

Got tougher as we went.  Also, the phrase “hung like a gnat” may have been used.  May have.  Wasn’t the last time unit jokes would make an appearance.

The cinder blocks were like the robot babies that the early childhood development classes made students keep to simulate caring for a newborn.  Wherever we went, our coupons went.  The main difference is you can carry them however you want without fear of public shaming.  Or maybe just being in public with these men in the gloom was shaming enough.

Anyways, up the hill to Grier for:

Partner work

1 partner exercise/1 partner hold, then switch roles

• 20 x Merkins / Plank
• 20 x Calf Raises / Al Gore
• 20 x Reverse Crunches / Six Inches

The “Six Inch Hold” strikes again as a PAX mumble chatter favorite.  Needless to say a number of us overestimated our 6 inches.

Drag the baby, errr the coupon, however you want to the track.  Here we hit a little Wolfpack Grinder, but a little different, with PAX choice and call and a different pair of exercises at each stop.  First stop, YHC asked for volunteers to lead an exercise, and Les couldn’t wait to get out “LBCs” before YHC announced that it need to involve the coupon.  So LBCs with the coupon were born, or rather just described as:

• Les Nessman – Some kind of reverse crunch thing x 20 (IC)

followed by

• Voodoo – Squat Thrusters x 20 (OYO)

Carry the coupon 1/2 a lap

• Clavin – Box Jumps onto and off of the coupon x 20 (OYO)
• Bondo – 30 x Curls (OYO)

Another 1/2 a lap

• Flintstone – Chest Press x 10 (IC)
• Castle Rock – Coupon Swings x 10 (OYO)

Last 1/2 a lap

• Linus – Upright Rows x 10 (IC)
• Orange Peel – Overhead Presses x 30 (OYO)

As we came in we noticed some gates were unlocked, so we meant to go explore parts of the school we don’t usually have access to, but time was getting short on us, so we took our coupons up and down some stairs, and around the sidewalk under a covered walkway that was apparently made for vertically challenged middle schoolers to a spot which was a good length for:

• Murder Bunnies

This was a new one for some of the PAX, and I was glad to dust ’em off.  I learned later that Merlot was considered.  No splashing though, and we still needed to finish up.

As we head out, Leslie is telling jokes about twenty six year olds and we start retracing steps:

Partner work

• 20 x Merkins / Plank
• 20 x Calf Raises / Al Gore
• 20 x Reverse Crunches / Six Inches

A quick spell of dizziness, then we hauled our coupons back to the flag, where we dropped the blocks back in the Footmobile, but not before sacrificing one of the weaker coupons to the PainLab deity-of-choice as it was cracked and care was taken not to have the break and it’s mess take place in the car.

One last round of Core Work before we wrapped up:

• 15 x Toe Touches (IC)
• 15 x Freddie Mercuries (IC)
• 15 x Heels to Heaven (IC)
• 15 x American Hammers (IC)
• 15 x Flutter Kicks (IC)

And that was that.

No relevant announcements as all the runs are already over.

Prayer Requests:

• Bondo’s wife
• Turtleman
• Huck

Moleskin:

Strong showing by the PainLabbers today.  Bondo and Orange Peel threw it down and made that work look easy.  Solid little sweat today too.  Voodoo said somewhere along the way that he saw something where someone was asked to hold an 8 ounce glass of water, and it’s not heavy until you’re holding it for 30 minutes, and hour, 2 hours, and so on.  Sometimes your body can get used to some things, and it just doesn’t seem hard anymore, but sometimes the consistency itself, and a perpetual grind can turn out to be the hard thing over an extended time.  The focus can be exhausting.  What can we do to stay sharp and keep accelerating?  Sometimes it’s just hard as hell to stay focused, because the “stay” part has no end.  We’ve never fully won and it’s never over.  That block never really felt light, but we just kept grinding.  At the end of the day, we do it for each other.  Thanks for the push today and every day.

Yabba Dabba Doo

YHC was a little concerned when he rode hot into the Ricky Bobby parking lot and found only a few players, as in just the three of us plus Bouquet coming in hot out of the gloom. What it lacked in numbers it made up for in capability and commitment as the story tells here:

COP:

SSH X 20

2 burpees

IW X 10

4 burpees

Gravel pickers X 20

6 burpees

Grapevine stretches

8 burpees

Mtn. Climbers X 20

10 burpees

Note to all: YHC usually likes to get on the field here at the Bobby. But, YHC is also a seasoned vet and a pro at this! So we kept to the parking lots due to the inundating rains we had the previous night.

Back parking lot for partner Blimps

B- Burpees

L- Lunges

I- Imperial Walkers

M – Merkins

P- Plank jacks

S- Squats

Partner 1 runs the lot and does 5X of the work. Partner 2 does the work until P1 returns. Flapjack. Do all of this together as a team.

Light pole suicides:

Round 1 : Bear crawl then run back.

Pole 1 – 5 jump squats

Pole 2 – 10 jump squats

Return

Round 2 – Broad jumps

Pole 1 – 5 CDDs

pole 2 – 10 CDDs

Return (run)

Round 3 – classic suicide run

Four corners

C1 – 10 hand release merkins

C2 – 10 HRM, 20 squats

C3 – 10 HRM, 20 squats, 30 LBC

C4 – 10 HRM, 20 squats, 30 LBC, 40 SSH

Mosey back to COT, circle ab work. Pledge

NMM:

Great work on a great morning! Everyone put it out there. Fun, small group. Competitive! Love that in a quality group. Wish we could have had more players but small circle of friends.

Our wold has changed in macro and micro ways guys. And more to come! Chaos and disorder are the norm. but, they always have been. Our present generations have not experienced it in essentially a century. Quantum physics rules. Newtonian physics is an illusion. Pray hard and prepare guys!

Tesla

Disclaimer

Pledge

Warm up:

20 SSH IC

15 Imperial Walkers IC

10 Merkins IC

10 Gravel Pickers IC

20 Squats OYO

Mosey to bridge Lunge Walk across, continue Mosey to the parking lot on the other side of the Park.

25 of the following exercises then Mosey back to the light before the bridge

Squats

Merkins

Smurf Jacks

CDD

5 Burpee

20 of the following exercises then Mosey back to the parking lot

Squats

Merkins

Smurf Jacks

CDD

5 Burpee

15 of the following exercises then Mosey back to the light before the bridge

Squats

Merkins

Smurf Jacks

CDD

5 Burpee

10 of the following exercises then Mosey back to bridge. Lunge walk across then Mosey to Gazebo.

Squats

Merkins

Smurf Jacks

CDD

5 Burpee

At the Gazebo partner up for  DORA 123

100 Big Boys

200 Reverse Lunges

300 Flutters count right leg.

With time running down we did

25 LBC

25 Heels to Heaven

Time 6:15 am.

Annoucements

Prayer request

Nameorama

I took us out in prayer.

Thank you for the opportunity to lead.

Warm Up: SSH, Goof Balls, Nolan Ryans,

Mosey:
Tennis courts for some Ball play:
Dora 1,2,3,
100 Monkey Humpers, 200 Shoulder Taps, (count one side) 300 seal straddle Hops, Yeah thats what we are calling them now so Deal with it LOL.
This got the Pax and my self fired up so onto the next.
To the picnic Shelter land of the smooth concrete.
Step Ups, Merkins, LBC’s, Dying Cock Roaches, Swimmers, 20x each and we did this 4 times.
Well YHC still does not know how to offer direction to the effectiveness as others. I am a work in progress per Dredd it takes about 10,000 hours to perfect something I got a few more hours to go. But none the less we got all the werk done and told Stogie good by since it was close to 6am. Only thing left is some 11’s
We had the Great Tonka coming in Hot in a tractor trailer with the J brake sounding like a long fart after an evening at the Golden corral. You know Loud full of vibration you dont know if something will fall out or your greatest symphony will take place.
11’s I see this massive piece of manstruction just hanging out and think. What would Hacksaw do? so I modified the 11’s
we did dips off the flat bed and squats on the other side. I may not be the best at cadence, math, or anything else to do with 1 leg or 2. But By God when I see something cool I know how to put it Werk!
Great job from everyone this morning. I was proud to know Westside mentioned he burned a good amount of calories today. Also we talked about discipline, and Tonka said a field caught on fire he was working the other day. He told them “you can’t start a fire in a mudhole” So thus the title. Maybe wichita said that Im not sure..

Prayer Request:
Turtle man, Pappy, Oompa, Stripers Brother, Westsides Wifes family who recently lost a grandma, Wichitas family, travels for some of the pax this week.

The Bed Pan is full