Nine men and a dog showed up in the parking lot of Torrence Creek Elementary 10 minutes prior to the start of the workout. Unlike last year, BoarHog finally signed up on the website and got Slack working on his phone so that he would not be left standing alone at St Mark at 0700. “But Blackbeard, your #f3counts tweet said there were 11 men — what about the other 2?” Patience sir, we’ll get to them in just a bit.
At 0700 the nine of us circled up in the parking lot for 25 IC SSH. I figured it might give any last minute pax a chance to pull in on 2 wheels, plus I wanted to see how my 15-year old would manage in flip-flops. Afterward, we moseyed walked to the pool. When we were within 50 yards, Funky Town walked across the street to meet us as he lives as close to the pool as I do to #Cauldron.
Once in the pool area we started with 10 “How’s the Water” One-Legged Squats on each leg before moving to one end of the pool for a ladder. The plan was to swim/wade to one end of pool, climb out and do 1 Merkin, then hop back in pool, swim another lap, climb out and do 10 Squats. Repeato going up by one each time on merkins and down each time on squats.
During the ladder, Chickpea showed up outside the gate. Turns out he ran from Wynfield to St Mark. When he didn’t see us, he ran on to Torrence Creek Elementary. When he didn’t see us, he ran on to the pool. Many men would have considered the run their workout, but Chickpea didn’t hesitate to join in on the water workout. Strong effort!
After the ladder, we partnered up for Muscle Ups with partner #1 pushing themselves out of the pool to a sitting position on the deck. AMRAP while partner #2 swims across short length of pool and back. Repeato x5 per partner.
It was during this activity that the former HOA president stopped by to complain about Boar Hog’s dog sitting calmly outside the gate. Anyone who has met his dog would know him to be very well disciplined, but our guest was adamant about the dog not being at the gate where someone might want to come in. Sure, the pool officially opens at 0700, but I have never seen anyone arrive before 0900. I tried to suggest as much, but Mr HOA inisted he was there (not that he ever had any intentions of joining us). Boar Hog kindly moved the dog to an out of the way location and returned to the workout. I was hoping he might further question our use of the pool since it would have been satisfying to point out that we had 2 home owners with 4 guests apiece which is OK per neighborhood rules, but he moved on without further incident.
With that done, we moved on to 25 IC Muhammad Alis on the ends of the lounge chairs then hopped back in the water for 10 Double Step Ups (step up onto seating area in pool, then up on to deck then back to pool floor; repeat). In between those 2 exercises, we got into groups of 3-4 pax with one person doing AMRAP WWIIs at one end of pool and another doing AMRAP Hand Release Merkins on the other while partner 3 (and 4) swam from one end to another to relieve one of his men. We repeated this so that each person completed 2 laps and a whole bunch of sit-ups and push-ups.
Following the step-ups, we moved to the deck for a little MARY, with Flutter Kick, Homer-to-Marge, and Jane Fondas. After that we circled up around the kiddie pool where everyone elbow planked while each man took a turn doing a hydro-burpee. We wrapped up with one more lap each using a stroke not previously used. I saw several doing breast or back stroke while Chickpea gave an inspiring effort at Butterfly!).
As the last man stepped out of the pool, we called “recover-recover” and moved to CoT where we (re)named my 2.0 “Umbro” due to his love of soccer and a wardrobe that heavily features Adidas clothing. Following a prayer, we made our way back to the TCE parking lot and dispersed for whatever the rest of the day had in store.
Mighty, Mighty Moleskin
- “Back flatulence” was a thing last year during WWIIs. This year it was during Homer-to-Marge.
- Gnarly Goat is the clear winner on swimming skill.
- Boar Hog lives on the lake but apparently does not own a swimsuit. Primo would have been proud.
- The pool workout is always well-received. Deceptively difficult when climbing in and out of the pool repeatedly for ladders.
- Does anyone have access to a “pit crew”? I would like to hire them to put Toxic’s Jeep on blocks during a workout one day to get back for all the wiper gags he has pulled over the years!
- Knockout is ready to Q. Who concurs?
- Jiminy Cricket mentioned he lives in the Steele Creek area. Turns out this falls under the Fort Mill region (https://f3thefort.com).
- Thanks to all for your support of MightyJungle. This workout marks my 1-year anniversary since taking over as MQ.