I pulled up to the Kings Dominion and saw 10(!) PAX crushing some EC kettlebells. Loonie was leading the charge and teaching PAX the proper kettlebell swing form and thus ensuring that the conception of future 2.0s would not derailed by an errant swing into a PAX's unsuspecting nether-region. Needless to say, this pumped me up and got me stoked for my first Q at the SoDu AO with the smoothest asphalt I have ever burpee'd upon.
WARMARAMA
My Casio watch said 5:30 and I tried to gather the fine gentlemen of the Kings Dominion, but Swamp informed me that I still have two minutes. I chalked it up to the two minute time zone difference between my house and the AO. I patiently champed at the bit for the next two minutes to get the party started. After what felt like an eternity, we began the warm up.
Mosey with high knees and butt kicks
25 Side Shuffle Hops IC
10 arm circles and 10 reverse IC
10 Michael Phelps IC
6 Manafort Good Mornings
10 Willie Mays Hayes
10 Slow Lunges
MAIN EVENT
We mosey'd over to the street. On August 3, 1936, Jesse Owens famously won the 100 meter dash in the Berlin Olympic Games. In honor of Jesse Owens, we did 105 total reps (5 more for inflation). We came down the pyramid with one exercise at each lamppost with running as the mode of transport.
Lamppost 1 = Merkins
Lamppost 2 = Jump Squats
Lamppost 3 = Mountain Climbers IC
Lamppost 4 = Seal burpees
Started with 10, 10, 10, 5 and then 8, 8, 8, 8, 4 and then 6, 6, 6, 3 and you get the idea until we got down to ending with one seal burpee.
Mosey over to the upper parking lot. On August 3, 1921, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned for life 8 members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox for throwing the World Series. One member of the St. Louis Browns (who weren't even playing in the World Series) was banned, too, for betting on the games. In honor of the 9 players who were banned, we did a side shuffle with a burpee in each parking space. There just so happened to be 9 parking spaces between two islands in the parking lot. How serendipitous! There is no proof that I spent an hour looking at a Google satellite image of the AO the night before and trying to somehow make some connection between the banned Chicago White Sox players and the number of parking spaces in the parking lot. Hey, stop looking at my browser history!
Mosey over to the wall. On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Europe across the Atlantic looking for another way to India. We did an exercise for each of the ships that sailed the ocean blue in 1492. We did it "line of fire" style.
Nina = People's Chair (10 count for each PAX)
Pinta = Balls to the Wall (5 count for each PAX)
Santa Maria = Chicken Peckers (4 count for each PAX)
MARY
Mosey'd back to startex. No more history facts, just some flutterkicks, LBCs, and Freddie Mercurys.
We ended with a Floyd Plank…ring of fire…in cadence.
COT
Scapula dropped some knowledge about stretching and directed all PAX to listen to the podcast that was posted in the Slack recently. It was informative to know that warming up is just that, warming up. Get the blood flowing with some high knees, SSH, etc. and not the stretches your gym teacher made you do in the 7th grade.
Thank you to everyone in F3 for this journey. I began in January and, in seven short months, it has benefited every aspect of my life – physically, mentally, spiritually. I truly believe I am a better husband, father, co-worker, friend, and son because of this group. Please keep my mother, Vicki, in your prayers as she undergoes surgery tomorrow for breast cancer.