…but got running and burpees instead.
What a great day in the gloom. Upper 60s with low humidity — did a good bit of sweating during the workout, but a slight chill during the cooldown and while writing this recount. I woke up this morning to a Twitter DM from Scrappy who called me SlimBeard — that kind of flattery will get you everywhere and made me feel better about my plan to leave the school yard for this week’s edition of The Vanquisher.
We started on time…on our six. Not wanting to miss out on the stunningly attractive Jane Fonda, we gave her our best right up front. Then we threw in a little SSH just to appear normal. Then YHC threw a curveball and began running. But I thought this was a Blackbeard workout? We made it to the bus entrance before stopping for some “middle shelf” derkins on the split rail fence before continuing to run down to the circle.
At the circle we fell into plank position with space between each man. Going clockwise around the circle, we would hop over the legs of each pax — kackalacky choo-choo style — but do THE Burpee between each planker. With 7 men in attendance doing 3 sets each, that worked out to roughly 18 burpees each (Burner, can I get a math check?) May sound like a lot, but YHC argued you never did more than one before doing something else.
From there it was a Native American run up to Travolta hill. Travolta tried to argue that the hill began at the corner of Chaddsley (don’t get me started on that dumb road) but I insisted we move further up to where the hill actually became deserving of its name. And there we did a 9/1 ladder with quadrophelia up, squats at top, mosey down and groiners at the bottom. The pax planked as YHC finished up.
From there it was a jailbreak to the circle at the top of the hill where we lunge walked a quarter way around the circle to the next road — oh, look at that. It’s Chaddsley again. We ran Native American style again to the end of that road then bear crawled to the stop sign because the runners were complaining that we were not doing enough upper body work. A short mosey to the next block was followed by crab walk to the next intersection. Toxic and another (was it Turnpike? Travolta?) made it all the way while the rest of us made it varying distances before falling back to lunge walking.
As most Qs probably do, I had plans for more at each block, but ladders and burpees and bear crawls use up a lot of the clock so we moseyed down the hill to the McCauley entrance where we did some dips at the bridge. Then we dodged cars across Stumptown before doing Muhammad Alis on the curb beside the school entrance. My Garmin restarted during the dips so I was uncertain of the time, but squeezed in some low flutters and an elbow plank before calling “Recover, recover.” The 1stF Q in attendance said I may have stopped a minute early — not bad for the old internal body clock after 4 years of F3 workouts.
TNM
- I originally took the open Q slot because I didn’t want a repeato Toxic Q, but turns out there is a lot of great options at this AO, whether or not you choose to go off the plantation. So good in fact that I grabbed a Mighty Oak Q in a few weeks to get another shot on school grounds. Open spots are filling up fast at The Vanquisher.
- Toxic crushed me on Travolta Hill. Someone mentioned a spot in the hill where it gets suddenly steeper and once I found it, it got in my head and my slow pace got slower. I may have missed a round of groiners in there somewhere despite Toxic trying to keep me honest.
- Toxic also informed me he expected counts to be exact in this recount of the day’s events. I opted to withhold the numbers to protect the innocent. (Hey, it sounds good when they say it on Law & Order — not that we ever have much of that in the gloom!)
- Turnpike asked up front if he should bring a headlamp. I said “no” and then we proceeded to dodge cars all morning. Not a good 43rd impression with the 1stF Q.
- Speaking of the 1stF Q, kudos to him for the uptick in reporting of numbers and journal entries of late. Marked improvement from the last 1st F Q, although I promised that person I would not talk about those BB things for a week.
- I was thrilled when I saw Nordberg like my #PB tweet on Sunday. Was more thrilled when I saw him as I pulled into the AO. Sounds like he just celebrated a 2-year F3-aversary during his midlife retirement. It was enough to bring him back into the fold and unsurprisingly, he picked up right where he left off.
- Travolta is a runner now. The only time he talked smack was when he threatened to spend the morning getting his kids ready for school rather than do a ladder on the hill named in his honor. I assume that was because it did not involve running.
- Knockout (or was it Titan?) is ready to Q. He may not know it yet but the EHing has begun. Be ready when it happens, because he is going to kill it, especially if it involves rocks, blocks or bells.
- Hopefully FunkyTown accepts my Q today as an apology for conspicuously driving by his AO 2 weeks ago as I made my way to Arnie’s. We could practically clown car what with living 5 yards apart, but I like to meander around the region choosing my workouts by Q rather than AO. Still appreciate allowing me to take the Q on this one. I’ll be back.
- One other piece of trivia about FunkyTown: he is the only guy in F3 (that I know of) who has a verified Twitter account.
- Saw a note from Amen post-workout that his car would not start. That may be his first missed weekday since starting 2+ (?) years ago. No worries brother, there will be plenty of opportunities to do it again soon.
- I have the Q on Friday at Cauldron where I plan to re-introduce the harnesses. I’d invite all to join me, but just like last time, it’ll probably be a drag.