When I issued the preblast for this morning’s workout, I indicated that the running would be indirectly proportional to the number of pax. While 6 or 8 pax in attendance would have meant less movement, the 4 pax that posted made for just the right mix of reps and running.
Following a short mosey from the cars to the pull-up bars (“station 1”), I kicked things off with a few of the usual warm-up exercises. I took some mild ribbing for doing long snappers before windmills — apparently the latter loosens up the torso before reaching down the middle. Following that, we each grabbed a cinder block, set them down to the side, and moseyed halfway between the blocks and the school.
At “station 2”, each of us took a turn calling out an exercise. Being the first stop of the workout, exercises were fairly standard, and the most memorable event was hearing Nextel take his first shot at calling cadence while doing Muhammad Alis. As we ran to the school entrance, I mentioned that calling cadence was one of the hardest things for a virgin Q.
At “station 3” things got interesting. Nextel aced cadence calling on his 2nd try, including a steady count and remembering to raise his voice for the last rep. Toby opted for B2W with everyone completing a 10-count. He started off with a controlled countdown while the rest of us spit out our counts rapid-fire. Then it was Rocket’s turn. #SMH
As a Q with some experience, I am at fault for thinking that the sharing of Q duties would follow the expected idea of various exercises with a rep count of 10-15 IC. I should have known a former MQ who hadn’t Q’d a bootcamp in months would suddenly start thinking (way) outside the box. While the rest of us stuck to standard sets of squats, dry docks, overhead press and the like, here’s a sampling of Rocket’s choices:
- Merkin/Squat ladder with bear crawls & lunges in between
- Crab walk 30 yards and sprint back
- Jack Webb with cinder blocks (on the rough asphalt)
- Muscle ups on the retaining wall
After 45 minutes, the real Q needed a breather and opted for an extended broga mix to let the heart rate settle. This led to Tobra Commander mentioning that it was Batman Day. YHC, not knowing much about the caped crusader, asked why 9/21 was chosen for the date which launched an impromptu line of trivia from Nextel about which comic book title Batman first appeared in, which issue of said title, and what Mr Wayne was originally called. Toby answered most of the questions with minimal difficulty. #NerdAlert
On our last stop at Station 1, YHC tried to extend my turn by doing 3 sets of chest presses and then ordering the blocks to be put away, but Rocket found himself with about 90 seconds to go and made us all grab one of the precious logs he donated (aka dumped) to do a quick round of curls. I told him I was planning to clean up the coupon area in a few weeks which would include getting rid of some of each coupon to maintain a smaller footprint. This led to a bit of an argument on the way back to the cars for CoT. I finally cut him off by saying that he could have taken the MQ role to have veto power had he wanted the final say (LMK if you would like to adopt any logs for your AO).
Following CoT, 75% of the pax reassembled at the Starbucks on Knockando to meet up with the Bedrock crew. Pax are encouraged to join us next weekend for a rare sighting of Toxic at a workout not named “The Sword” or “The Cauldron”. And the week after that the guy from Toledo takes the reins. I’ll understand if you’re “out of town” for that one. #KiddingOfCourse