Tobacco Road is one of YHC's favorite AOs. There's nothing like leaving a beatdown with little pieces of rubber turf clinging to your back and finding them in your car days later, a cherished momento from the gloom.

YHC pulled up to Startex and it was a chilly 31 degrees. SoDu legend and proponent of the burpee, Cardiac, was rocking shorts and said that he was cold and wanted to know if there was anything I could do about it. I gave the obligatory disclaimer and realized the only way to tame the cold would be…

WARMARAMA
Side Shuffle Hops IC x20
High Knees IC x20
Butt Kickers IC x20
WMH x10
Harvester x10
Michael Phelps x10
Arm Circles x12
Reverse arm circles x12

THE THANG
Mosey over to the turf field. On this day in 1802, West Point was established. Two American Presidents graduated from West Point. Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower. In honor of these two Presidential graduatentials, we did two exercises at each of the four benches on the field.

Round 1
Bench One: Dips and Merkins
Bench Two: Derkins and Diamond Merkins
Quick stop at Burpee Island (center of the field). Army-Navy is one of the oldest rivalries in college football. They have tied 7 times. 7 burpess OYO for each tie.
Bench Three: Ierkins and Supermans
Bench Four: Reverse Crunches and LBCs
Burpee Island for 7 more burpess

Round 2
Bench One: Step Ups and Forward Lunges
Bench Two: Bulgarian Split Squats and Reverse Lunges
Quick stop at Burpee Island for 7 burpees.
Bench Three: Johnny Dramas and Jump Squats
Bench Four: Hip Thrusts and Homer to Marge
Burpee Island for 7 burpees

Round 3
Dwight D. Eisenhower was rumored to be nicknamed Double D. Even though my Wikipedia research was silent on this, I want it to be true so I willed it into existence. For Double D, we doubled down and repeated round one. During this round, Cosmo chimed in with some trivia. The S in Ulysses S. Grant doesn't stand for anything. It was a mistake that West Point made when they were doing the paperwork. Grant knew that having the initials "U.S." would be politically beneficial in the long run and kept up the charade for the rest of his life. Even Wikipedia's page on him is titled "Ulysses S. Grant." I'm still working on sneaking that Double D into Eisenhower's page.

After finishing round 3, we circled up at midfield. On this date in 1970, Motown singer Tammi Terrell died far too soon at the age of 24. Her biggest hit was "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." In honor of Tammi Terrell, we climbed the mountain doing a circle of mountain climbers and air presses, starting at one each and climbing up with each PAX leading a round. After we hit the apex, we climbed back down.

MARY
Flutterkicks
Freddy Mercurys
Plank – Regular, Right Arm High, and Left Arm High

COT
Prayers to Cosmo's cousin, Claire. This month is Mental Health Awareness Month. When we sprain our ankle or break our wrist, we go to the doctor. We don't treat our mental health with the same care and compassion. If you need help, reach out to someone. We have an incredible community of men here in F3 who you can talk to and, chances are, that you are not alone and someone else is going through something similar. It can be a transformative experience to be able to talk to someone or to listen to someone who needs an ear. I love therapy so much that I married a psychologist. Aye.