Ten men and one tough junior took a gamble and came out to Mighty Jungle this morning to see if YHC was capable of bringing the pain. After mentioning that I ran a 7:58 mile at 6 AM (applause…thank you), they may have thought I would bypass further running at 0700. That would prove to be a false assumption. Thankfully the temperature was in the 70s with low humidity and a glorious cool breeze blowing from time to time. A seemingly perfect day to introduce the St Mark Bicycle Built for 2.
We started with a short warmup lap around the parking lot before stopping for CoP. In the circle we managed the following:
- Mountain Climbers, 16 IC
- SSH, 30 IC
- Cotton Pickers, 12 IC
Enough warm up, let’s get to the main event. We ran Native American style down to the driveway behind the school where we were met with a piece of paper outlining the day’s WIB. It involved partnering up based on speed, with one partner running up the hill to the circle around the St Mary statue while the other partner ran down to the roundabout at Hugh Torrance. At each circle the pax would do an exercise before returning to the driveway to meet up for a partner exercise at the top of the hill. Partners would then flapjack so both ran to each wheel of the virtual bike. This cycle (see what I did there?) would be repeated 5 times with varying exercises that went something like this:
Front Wheel (Mary statue):
- Crab walk (around circle, run back)
- Lunge walk
- Bear crawl
- Frog jump
- Duck walk
Rear Wheel (Hugh Torrance roundabout):
- Burpees, 5 x 3 (5 burpees, run around circle, 5 more, run around circle, 5 more, run back)
- Jump squat, 10 x 3
- Merkins, 10 x 3
- Monkey Humpers, 10 x 3
- Carolina Dry Dock, 10 x 3
Seat (driveway behind school):
- Quadrophelia up hill, perform partner exercise, mosey down
- Pat-a-cake situps, 20
- Hand slap merkins, 10 IC
- Partner Throwdown, 10 each
- Helping Hands, 10 each
- Back-2-back PC, 60 sec (audible to PC against fence)
There was some confusion on what to do after each flapjack when partners met for 2nd time per set. Some moved on to the next exercise at the “seat” while others repeated the original set as intended. It didn’t really matter since everyone was moving (and sweating) for 45 minutes prior to cutting it short to leave a little time for MARY. There was an audible to only go halfway around the Mary status with the assigned motions before moseying — I had no idea that circle was so large). I think 2 groups may have completed all 5 sets (kudos to Rocket/Metallica who led the whole way). I only managed the first 3 sets, complaining to the Q the whole time.
We called the bike ride at 0750 to return to the start via some karaoke L/R and a little more quadrophelia up the Stumptown hill followed by a slow mosey to the parking lot. Being the slack Q that I am, I opted for a little MARY-go-round to wrap up where each pax picked a core exercise to lead until time was up. This is what the pax came up with for about 4 minutes:
- YHC: Touch dem heels, 15 IC
- Schmick: Bay City Scissors, 15 IC (4-count up/down scissor then 4-count side to side for an 8-count exercise)
- Holiday: Bay City Dying Cockroach, 15 IC (amazingly similar to Isotope version)
- Deep Dish: Rosalita, 15 IC
Recover, recover!
Moleskin
• Everyone did a great job today. Not sure what they expected from YHC but it looked like everyone was sharpening iron out there.
• I mentioned that I did not like to be stereo-typed like GnarlyGoat with merkins and jugs, but by mixing it up I punished myself with hill running and burpees. Maybe stereotypes aren’t so bad.
• Little Professor (Deep Dish’s 2.0) did fantastic today. He’ll be a great help to the Ducks this season in football. His nickname is a tribute to Dom DiMaggio, Joe’s younger brother who spent 11 years as CF for Red Sox.
• Nice to have Schmick out there with us today. Originally from Isotope, he is now living with family outside LA where he works for the DEA – truly an honor to know him.
I had a great time leading the gang today. I am always hesitant to lead because I know I won’t be able to lead from the front as F3 encourages. But the encouragement and support from the pax are fantastic and with a WIB, it’s possible for everyone to push themselves and get something out of it. I would strongly encourage those pax who are often at the six with me to try leading now and then. I know that the “elite” athletes appreciate a day off from Qing and it’s always nice to get some new ideas to avoid the same routines at the AOs. These back blasts are super helpful in coming up with ideas so the only thing holding you back is self- doubt. Nike has the best advice here: “Just do it!”