Also Overboard – Freaky Fast – Mr. Roboto – Donuts and Toga for 17 strong.
Preblast MumbleSlackChatter (including, most prominently, Tiny) accused YHC of always “running around on campus” for Qs, so the Q generously took exercise requests on Slack and ignored them all. Instead, he put it out on Twitter two hours prior to post time that we might be doing “Remember the Merkins” or playing cards while “running around on campus,” or AOTA. And that’s what we did. Only Duvall and Tater noticed, and neither of them posted. So the PAX was clueless about which of the many ridiculous suggestions the Q would accept.
Warm-Up: Opened up with 10 burpees IC. On the 2-count you have to do the pushup and the kickout. Pax counts reps on the jumps. This format change provides accountability for burpee prevaricators, because we’re still in a circle watching each other while burpee-ing.
SSH x15 IC
MC’s x10 IC, stretch calves
Merkin x10 IC (this is where PAX has to start remembering)
CP x10 IC
Wide merkin x10 IC
Tin man x10 IC
Diamond merkin x10 IC
Imperial walker x10 IC
Stretch
Perfect merkin x10 IC (it got real here).
THE THANG
Mosey to Zen zone near track. People were in a state of Zen there, so we parked at the outdoor fireplace nearby and picnic table / bench accommodation. All of a sudden we had 17 PAX when we had started the workout with 14. Had the Q known the group had grown by about 20% after the burpees IC and some of the merkins, he would have added a tardy penalty before leaving the Green (and on a night Early is on a mission trip in Bolivia, at that).
Hand-release merkins x10
Squats x10 IC
Incline merkins x10 IC
Side lunges x10 IC
Decline merkins x10 IC, off of the same place where PAX chose to do inclines.
Mosey to track.
LBCs x 20 IC
Staggered merkins (L) x5 IC, then (R) x5 IC
Here we tested the PAX, asking if anyone could Remember the Merkins we just did by naming all nine of them. Ever the eager beaver, Stalker named ‘em all. Penalty burpees averted.
Run the stadium, “Remember the Merkins” – style. At the bottom of each section, drop to the track and do 10 merkins (single count), one set of each of the 9 styles we already completed. At the bottom of section 7, do 10 supine pullups. Heard some gasping for breath by about section 3. By 25 minutes into the workout, each PAX member had done 250 pushups. Nice work!
Next the Q and a couple of helpers (thanks Cookie and Hawkeye) distributed about 30 playing cards to each of three stations around the track, then the PAX tried to divide up into four teams of 4-5 each but couldn’t get the count right so just formed little masses of people that worked out almost even. Contest was to see which team could collect the most cards, but you could not cut across the football field and you could only bring back one card at a time. One station required burpees equal to the number on the card drawn (Jacks, Queens and Kings were 11, 12 and 13 respectively), another required CDD’s and the other mandated WWII sit-ups. Points awarded at the end for # of face cards collected and # of team members who hit each station. Grouch’s team came up the victor, having lucked into a lot of face cards and having had the most team members go around to the CDD station on the opposite 50.
Mosey back to the lauch pad, Indian style. Recover Recover.
We’re really proud of the newer guys (Donuts, Bullseye, Toga, Mr. Roboto) who are whipping into shape, and we seem to have a lot of 51-year-olds and 21-year-olds at the moment. Makes for a fun workout.
COT – we lifted up Toga’s father (health issue), the Q’s youngest son (undelivered passport just before vacation), and Early (mission trip to Bolivia). Great 2nd F afterwards, and Journey joined us for a cold one and we educated him about #Sweatshop.
Thanks to Samsung for suggesting the title, “Merkin Misery,” and for the Q’s M, who provided one of the pitchers at 2nd F!