When Jedi asked me back in June to pick a day in August to Q, I had hoped to get out of it. After all, I had not been to a workout in a month at that time. But that “forced HC” was the proverbial kick in the pants needed to get me back out a bit more regularly this past month in hopes of being at least mildly prepared to lead others in a sweat fest.
And sweat fest it was. A soupy 78 degrees made even more sauna-like as I had planned a workout in the lower parking deck. But I only had one member join me for my birthday party. Three others were likely scared of the presents I mentioned in my preblast and ran away before I even arrived. I passed them headed in the other direction on Stumptown. When I got to Birkdale, it was just Cornwallis waiting on me. He apologized for not having a present, but I told him all was OK — I had party favors to go around.
We got down to business with some warmup exercises:
- Mountain Climbers x15 IC
- Slo-Mo Merkins (down on 3) x10 IC
- Windmill x10 IC
- Tony Hawk (h/t SVU) x10 IC
- Jabberwocky (not sure of name; “crab kicks”) x10 IC
- SSH x47 IC
After 47 SSH in honor of my new age, I decided we had had enough warmup and we moseyed to the lower parking deck where I had parked the car containing two party favors — 8# and 12# medicine balls. I had been counting on 3-5 pax for this, and with only 2 there was a lot more running than I would have liked, but we still managed to get through all the exercises with a little time for MARY.
Note: P1 does AMRAP of an exercise while P2 runs up deck, around and down stairs. Flapjack:
- Rolling Merkin (1 hand on 8# ball; roll ball between hands after each push up)
- Rock & Roll Up (similar to Turkish Get Up with both hands on 12# ball)
- Figure 8 (make a figure 8 with 8# ball over head keeping elbows locked)
- Wall Pass (keep elbows at shoulder level; throw 12# ball against wall and catch)
- V-Ups (lie on ground with 8# ball in hands; up to “V” passing ball to legs and back)
- Hay Bailer (kneel on 1 knee; 8# ball in both hands; touch ground on one side/air on other. Switch knees)
- Mason Twist (standard exercise but with 12# ball)
- Overhead Slam (12# ball behind head; lean forward, slamming ball on ground. Catch ball and repeat)
When I finished my run while Corwallis was doing the Wall Slam, I noticed he had moved to one of the cement pillars instead of the cinder block wall I had used previously. Apparently there is a security guard station below the parking deck ramp and the guard thought someone was trying to break down the wall. #oops
I informed Corwallis after about the 6th round that he was getting a lot more AMRAP than I was. That was because I was stopping to catch my breath at the top of the ramp each time I went up. He said he pictured me standing on the stairs watching him while I rested; probably better I hadn’t thought of that during the workout. /wink
After 8 rounds of medince ball work & running, I was sufficiently sore and exhausted. I think Cornwallis may have broken a sweat himself. We put the party favors away and returned to the main square where Jedi was “eagerly” waiting for us so that he could join in on MARY. The plan was to celebrate my birthday with another round of 47 flutter kicks, but my core firmly rejected that idea. So I went for a cumulative set of reps instead:
- Low Flutter x25 IC
- LBC x22 IC
As we were wrapping up, Two Buck and Red October joined us. I couldn’t let them off without a little post-run fun so we elbow planked until 0530. We wrapped up with name-o-rama and a brief prayer asking for safe travel and activity at Dad’s Camp this weekend. Thanks to all for hanging out with me on my birthday, and a special thanks to Cornwallis for playing with my balls buying my coffee this morning. Aye!