On a nice, rainy, morning 2 PAX met to do an EC run with some PT stops. A third PAX rolled in nice and early to greet the EC runners upon return. Below is the account of 3 men trying to do better then their best.

Warmup:

Tempo Squat IC x 15

Arm Circles – Forward and Reverse both x 11

Slow Willie Mays Hayes x 10

The Thang:

Before the festivities began a quick set of ATMs was preformed. Those consist of: 15 IC shoulder taps/10 Tempo Merkins/10 Standard Merkins – No rest.

Now it was on to the headliner, the tire! The 3 PAX all had some sort of coupon, up to and including the big ‘Ol tire. The other coupons were a 40# sandbag and 2 very suspicious looking “bricks” wrapped in black tape, that felt like they had something soft and possibly powdery inside. Weight of each was approx. 6-7#, though YHC felt a unit of measure like kilos would have been more appropriate, but I digress. The workout was as follows:

PAX traveled the length of the parking lot and stopped for PT at each end, the travel rotation was:

1 PAX on tire preforms 10 flips

1 PAX on Rambler’s “mystery bricks”

1 PAX on 40# sandbag

The PAX on bag and bricks traveled as they saw fit, a combination of lunge walks, traveling burpees, lateral squats, coupon throw and retrieves were all mixed in.

After 10 tire flips the PAX rotated – rotation was Tire to Bricks. Bricks to Bag. And Bag back to Tire. Rotation continued until PT stops. The stops were as follows:

1. 1 set AMRAP pull-ups and 1 set AMRAP Poseys
2. Each PAX does 15 sledge slams (8#) on tire while other PAX plank hold with feet elevated on tire.
3. Derkins with feet on tire x 25 single count
4. 1 set AMRAP Poseys and 1 set AMRAP pull-ups
5. Diamond Urkins x 20 single count

At this point time was still left before Mary, but the will to carry coupons and do more PT was waning, YHC called an audible and decided that the PAX should do tire flip to the far back end of the lot and back, rotation would be 5 AYG style each PAX.

Seconds were left before Mary, so a really quick 5 of the Worst Merkin Ever were done. Those are 1-Wide Merkin 1-Standard Merkin and 1-Diamond Merkin for a 1.

Mary:

Captain Thor x 10

Flutter Kicks x 20 IC (Zika)

CoT:

Lots of great CSAUP coming up in the area. BC is hosting The Gambler on 3/24, sign up on the channel to get some gamble on. Also look out for The Bull in Durham. Speed for Need is around the corner as well. Don’t forget all the awesome GoRuck events, Rambler seems to have an in on a sweet deal for those.

BoM:

YHC has been trying to get inspired for Murph training as it is only a few short months away, and YHC pretty much sucks at it right now. This week YHC stumbled on a documentary from 2001, BUD/S Class 234. It follows a BUD/S class through training, and helps give a huge appreciation for what those men are willing to endure to achieve a goal, while growing as a team and a community. At one point one of the hopeful Seals has fallen far back on a run. While taking his pulse one of the Cadre asks him why he is not running while the rest of his class is, his response “I am doing my best…”. Without hesitation the Cadre responds, “You aren’t here to do your best, you are here to do better than your best!”. Now I don’t know exactly what he meant, as I wasn’t there and have never done anything nearly that hard, but here is my takeaway. If you do your best you are doing the best you have ever done. If that is your goal you will forever hold yourself back from getting any better than you have ever been. If you consistently strive to do better than your best you will get better. Long story short, we all get better through effort and force of will. These men are not doing any movement or evolutions most men couldn’t do as a single event, it is the cumulative effect of those evolutions, combined with the need to cease being an individual and become a cohesive unit that forces these men to break past barriers, but it is mostly mental. As an example, in that class 2 men finished Hell Week with broken legs. They were running, swimming, carrying a boat, doing log PT and all sorts of hell over the course of 5 and a half days with 4 hours total sleep. All with a BROKEN LEG. They certainly did better that they had ever done, better than their best.