Earlier in the week I saw RamRod’s tweet inferring that the pax were grumbling about his lack of creativity during his Q at MMM. Seems he could only come up with 3 things to do and then just keep repeating them over and over. I know I sometimes get nervous when leading extremely fit men in their morning workout regime, so I can appreciate that he was unable to think of anything more than “starting position, in cadence, repeato” but I knew I would need more to keep the boys happy.
Although we have a fancy new website just for our region — Isotope (unless the nantan tries to bungle things up by changing it) — we are still able to visit f3nation.com where — get this — other men at other workouts actually post back blasts! I know, right? But the nice thing about these entries is that we can browse through them to get new and creative ideas for our workouts. After all, who wants to complain all the time about burpees when there are “Burp & Turks” and “Blocktanamos” to complain about?
How It All Went Down
0458: arrive to an empty parking lot with a light drizzle.
0500: SweetC rolls in ready to run “Millennial Falcon style” (with rain flying in the headlamp)
0501: Amen comes in on 2 wheels and off we go for a 2 mile standard
0531: let’s get to work
Guys start circling up for SSH, but what’s this? YHC isn’t doing boring stuff that we always do.. He decides to shake things up with Tracing Spaces where we face Stumptown the whole time and trace the parking spaces up one side and back the other, requiring fancy karaoke maneuvers: left – forward – right – left – yada – yada – right – back – left – you get the point. Complaints early about skipping the normal routine, but they died off quickly as the heart rate went up. I care about your fitness.
Next up was a MiniMe favorite (where was he this morning?) — the Hillbilly. It quickly determined who had ryhthym and who did not. We followed that with some Windmills but no one seemed to mind. Next was the Sumo Squat which involved a squat to touch the ground with our hands, followed by coming up and lifting one leg out to the side and in the air. Flapjack with the other leg. We took a breather by doing some Cotton Pickers before ramping up the creativity again with the Daniel-son which we did OYO since it involved balancing on one leg — crane-style — kicking the leg as you jump, then coming down on the other leg and repeating. As Miyagi would say, “Don’t forget to breathe. Breathing important.”
Since the sky was still urinating on us, I suggested moseying over to the covered walk by the bus lot. It’s always nice to be a benevolent dictator when possible. Under cover and with some light, we set up for the Indian Bear Crab by planking head to foot in a single line. The guy in back bear crawls to the front while everyone else does AMRAP merkins. Repeat until all pax have bear crawled. But don’t recover yet! Next turn over on your six and do AMRAP LBCs while the front guy crab walks to the back. Continue until all get to enjoy the crab legs sans butter.
On to the block work. Each man got a cinder block while trying not to cripple himself with the ice alongside the dumpsters, then we returned to the school where we got into people’s chair (sans block because YHC is a nice guy) for the Wonderbra, which involves “pushing them up and out”. It entailed air presses with arms going out – in – up – down. Next was the Clock Pendulum which could have been a back breaker had Spare not been there to enforce correct form. Men stood in upright row formation with brick hanging, then in cadence twisted brick up and to left, back to center, up and to right and back to center. I think we managed a half dozen before Q was thoroughly exhausted.
Admittedly there was a long break. I said it was so I could check the weinke, but really it was because my arms and shoulders were burning big time! Next we got down in plank position for the Mini Hair Burner, presumably because the motion might produce a smell similar to burnt hair. It involved pushing the brick away from you with left hand, then pulling it back and repeating with the right hand all while maintaining the plank position. My understanding is that the regular Hair Burner involves the same motion while moving around a track. To the guy who came up with that one: “bless your heart.”
Bears and Brick Ceilings was next on the sampler platter which was supposed to have men holding their bricks out in front of them while guy on end bear crawled under bricks pushing his own. I was worried I would drop my brick on a bear and audibled to have guys do curls while each man crawled.
Thin guys may want to avoid future SweetC Q’s as he voiced his enthusiastic support of the next item up — The Great Equalizer. I always tell myself that LexLuthor and ElChapo might not be so speedy if they weren’t so thin, and apparently another man in F3 agrees. For this segment, if you weigh less than 175, you take two blocks. If you weigh less than 225, you take one. For those of us blessed with big bones, we go blockless. Now run/mosey/walk to end of bus lot and back and enjoy what it feels like to run while supporting the added weight.
EDITOR’S NOTE: there WAS a disclaimer at beginning and every man should always follow the “you vs you” mantra by doing what you can *safely* manage. Also, if you finish early, in typical F3 fashion, it is encouraged to go back to help out the six if you can.
With only a little time left, we put back the bricks and then returned to the covered walk for a little MARY. But no LBCs and J-Lo’s (sorry Amen). Instead we started off with the Bay City Scissors, an 8-count exercise with a 4-count of high flutter followed by a 4-count of horizontal scissors where each leg took a turn crossing over the other. Olaf mentioned that it felt like a FiA workout at this point, but I assume he approves of tomatoes with tight … well, you get the idea.
Unfortunately, due to time, we had to skip Captain Thors, Not-So-Lazy Boys, Rosie W and LBFCs, but we did have time for the Gas Pump which I did in honor of Amen and his Papa Murphy’s fetish. It started in LBC position, then had legs pumping out together at a 45-degree angle and back, in cadence.
With some remorse, I had to call “recover, recover” due to time. We moseyed back to the cars and circled up for prayer at 0616 (gotta get an honest 45 minutes in). We went around the small circle and each man offered a prayer of thanks for something in their lives followed by a short prayer from YHC to wrap things up. Great work by all and much thanks for braving the wet stuff to support me in my first Q of 2017. Hopefully it won’t be the last.
Soggy Skin of the Mole:
- Turnpike told me he was experiencing writer’s block and needed help on back blast titles. I pointed him to Blog Title Generator where you put in the workout name and choose event/location and let it come up with catchy titles for you. I was going to use it myself, but came up with a title at the last minute.
- Spare volunteered me for a Cauldron Q to which I said I would if he posted at MightyOak today. With the rainy weather I thought I might get out of the Friday Q but he pulled off the 7-10 split and knocked the pins down just as his name implies.
- Amen and SweetC are the latest non-runners to commit to the BRR. To celebrate, we ran a standard up to St Mark and back. Aside from some lingering ice, it went well. SweetC is already attacking hills with gusto (at least that’s what it looked like through the cloudy mist as I huffed up the hill myself).
- I told Funky Town that I have been having nightmares about the new house having problems (we live in the same ‘hood now). He laughed, but then told me about windows starting to fall apart. Thanks … I think.
- Jimmy O could have posted at Mad Scientist to show support for our other Bad News BRRs member Nordberg, and stayed dry to boot. But us MOTYs (SweetC included) have to stick together and it’s appreciated. Maybe next time, MiniMe?
- Olaf showed up sans Rocket. I hope the surgery went well and each of your hips are mending where they were split. Olaf certainly didn’t show any signs of pain as he hauled a cinder block across the bus lot and back. #RESPECT
- And of course, congratulations to the Mighty Oak’s MQ, Mr Burns on the birth of his 2.1, Kipton.