When YHC was asked by Bump Draft to Q at TBR, the phrase “A Cold Day in Hell” came to mind. But from my mouth came the words, “Sure! I’m excited”. I signed up for February 25, expecting that it would be a cold morning with a small crowd of diehards. Instead, I got an almost perfect morning and a crowd of 21.

While thinking about this Q, and especially the expectation of cold, I recalled a book that was very important to me during a challenging period of my early 20’s. The book, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (quick read of relatively short sentences and relatively long names) tells the story of a carpenter/bricklayer in a Stalinist work camp as he endures a day of immense cold, starvation, and extreme physical labor. While the book exposes the horrific ways that people were treated in Stalinist Russia, it also reveals the importance of maintaining one’s dignity through pride in one’s work, and through small acts of defiance, such as eating with a spoon, standing straight, saying prayers. The book has always offered me a little extra spiritual strength to endure and overcome.

At my M’s suggestion, I reread “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”. It had been over 20 years and while the book hasn’t changed, I apparently have, and those changes give me a much different reaction to the book. I still love this story and the way the terse writing frees the imagination, but this time around, the overwhelming feeling I have is one of deep gratitude and humility. Solzhenitsyn says it best, depending on the translation, “A man who is warm cannot understand a man who is freezing”. I am literally reading this while sipping hot tea next to a blazing fire. Not only am I an immeasurable distance from the Stalinist atrocities and a killing cold, I have few trials in my life to overcome, at least for the time being.

So, the Ivan Denisovich-inspired Q, one that hoped to challenge the body and embolden the spirit, was constructed with a sense of humility. Humility that comes from a place of comfort and a recognition that my family, my community, and my God strengthen me. Unlike the challenges that Ivan Denisovich faced, the physical challenges of any time we post are volitional and temporary. We finish, we put on dry shirts, we drink hot coffee. As a wise PAX once said, “The day I stop being thankful for a dry shirt and a cup of coffee, is the day I got deep problems”.

The Warmarama
Imperial Walkers IC
Hill-Billies IC
Bushwackers IC
Michael Phelps IC
Forward Arm Circles IC
Harvester IC
Windmills IC (still perplexed as to why these aren’t named Don Quixotes)
Reverse Arm Circles
At some point in the warmup. 5 penalty burpees were assessed to the PAX for failure to expeditiously state the mission of F3, which is “to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership”.

The Main Event
PAX lined up facing Carmichael Arena and ran a stride the length of the field, beginning with a slow mosey, accelerating to an All-You-Got, and decelerating to a slow Mosey. High plank was held until the 6 arrived.

Together the PAX performed 10 slow jerkins to honor an article of clothing, called a “jerkin”, worn by the men in the camp. For today’s purpose the jerkin was a J-Lo into a slow merkin, performed in tempo.
Pax lined up facing the School of Government and ran a stride the length of the field back.

The next set of exercises referenced the way the men in camp started their day. The book opens, depending on translation, with the phrase…”The hammer banged reveille on the rail outside camp HQ at five o’clock as always. Time to get up.”

Since there were 200 hundred men living together in the 50 bunks of Ivan Denisovich’s hut, we performed 20 sets (200/the 10 PAX who HC’d for the ME) of the following exercises (1 rep each).
American Hammer, Alarm Clock, Prisoners’ Squat, Absolution

PAX then mosey’d into the parking garage to brick pile for a sequence that referenced the actual work of Ivan Denisovich as he literally earns his daily bread.

Since my grand plans of having the PAX bear crawl to the Forest Theatre were thwarted by the clock, and my dwindling Q-juice, PAX grabbed 2 bricks each and began to bear crawl in a line around the lower level of the parking deck. PAX without bricks held places at the end of the line until they took a set from the PAX in front of them and Rickie-Bobbied to the front of the bear crawl line. Stops were made along the way for our brickwork.

First stop was merkins (bricks in hands) with an alternating single-arm row (10 each arm, IT). Flutter kicks, bricks overhead, 15 (IC).

Second stop was Spooky Squat Thrusters (10, IT). Starting from a low squat hold with arms and bricks extended overhead, the PAX lowered their arms as they raised up from their squat, squeezing their shoulders blades down and back at the top of the squat, similar to a pull up without the bar. Reverse motion.

Third stop was Brick-Body-Builders (10, IC). Total anoxic moment as it took me a few 10-counts to remember how to begin the Body Builder. Thanks to Rebar for picking up my 6.
Bricks were stacked neatly in their pile.

PAX then raced back to the AO for Mary, as did Ivan Denisovich’s work unit trying to beat the engineering unit back to camp.

Mary
LBCs (IC)
Chilly Willies (thank you Brotox for bringing these to Paradise because I find them delightful and they really worked with the cold theme of the Q)
WWIIs with straight leg toe holds (IT)
Uzi Hip Holds, right and left on his count.
Various old school leg and groin stretches and a Cobra were mixed into the Mary.
Supermans (IC)

Prayer Requests
Lazarus is making miraculous recovery and will be undergoing chemotherapy. Prayers as he moves into this next phase. Prayers for Nitro who was attending a service for one of his best friends.

Name-o-rama
Welcome FNG “The Bus”

COT
A modified version of the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.

Coffeteria was at Whole Foods