To keep from losing a bet and having to jump into chilly Jordan Lake in early March, Maraschino has been working hard to amp up attendance at The Thicket in February (and try to beat Paradise’s total numbers for the month.  Well it was effective today, with 25 PAX out in the gloom for the ME with 9 or 10 out for running, rucking or pullup EC.  February was designated as “Love Is In The Air” co-Q month at The Thicket and YHC penciled himself in with plans to bring in a co-Q from outside of the Briar Chapel regulars.  Homes has been running with us a lot lately at The Rabbit on Tuesdays and, from attending one of his Qs previously, I knew he could bring it when it came to leading a bootcamp.  I asked him a few weeks back if he’d be my co-Q and he immediately agreed.  With a little pre-game planning, we decided Homes would lead the first half of the workout and focus on legs, while YHC led the second half of the workout with a focus on upper body.

1 FNG this morning.  YHC introduced the morning’s co-Q, gave the disclaimer, and off we went!

Warm-Up (led by Homes)

• Side Shuffle Hops x 20 IC
• Good Mornings (Mannafort style–down slowly and back up slowly with a lean backwards) x10 IC
• Hillbillies x10 IC
• Willie Mays Hayes x10 IC
• Forward Arm Circles x10 IC (no Reverse Arm Circles, I believe that’s called Marky Mark style though I was absent that day so I’m not sure of the details)

Thang 1 (led by Homes)

Lt. Dan–1 body weight squat, 4 walking lunges…2 body weight squats, 8 walking lunges…3 body weight squats, 12 walking lunges…up to 10/40.  We were warned by Homes it would start to suck around 7/28 and he was right!  YHC missed the details, but somewhere along the way Homes’ slow 4 count walking lunges apparently started to feel like 5 count to some PAX!

Thang 2 (led by YHC)

After getting our legs crushed by Homes, I was handed the reins.  I turned the focus to upper body, instructing the PAX to hobble over to the brick pile, grab four bricks each, and return to the circle for the following series. PAX could choose to hold one brick or two bricks in each hand.

• Lateral Raises x10 IC–was supposed to be x15 IC for each of these to pseudo fit in to the COT message below but it was all I had to get to 10 laterals raises IC with 2 bricks in each hand.
• Squat Thrusters x10 IC–there was some mumble chatter to the effect of ‘don’t think we’ve worked legs enough, huh?’
• Bus Drivers x10 IC–YHC definitely went single brick in each hand on these
• 6 count CPRs x10 IC (Curl-Press-tRicep)–RG3 introduced this at The Wall a few weeks back but the count didn’t flow.  I went with 6 count and it felt better, PAX may disagree.  Side note: RG3 performed them with rocks instead of bricks, leading Chum to refer to them as the Over The Shoulder Boulder Holders.
• Brick Burpees x5 OYO
• Two 10 counts to catch our breath and we repeated the whole series.  Mumble chatter was getting a little heavy the second time through around the CPRs, 10 extra burpees always helps with that.

Thang 3 (led by YHC)

After putting our bricks back in the pile it was time for Mary but YHC wasn’t particularly interested in lying down on the wet ground at this point so we did 6 sets of sprints across the parking lot instead.  And that’s a wrap!

Announcements

• Props to Fingers for coordinating getting 100 vaccines out to an underserved population in Raleigh
• Vice is leading The Rabbit tomorrow with a special 5:15am start time
• Good to see several Southern Village/Chapel Hill guys down in Chatham this morning

COT

YHC likes to look ahead on the calendar to see what’s on the horizon, what he could be planning for, etc.  A quick look at the calendar last night showed that the unofficial start of summer, Memorial Day, is only 15 weeks away.  With all the terrible weather we’ve been having in February, summer can’t get here soon enough!  With only 15 weeks to go, now is the time to start thinking about that summer body, not April.  Think about what else you want to accomplish this spring.  Think about where you want to be this summer and what steps you need to take to get there.  Until next time, aye!

Moleskine

• Welcome to FNG Jordache!  Genes…jeans…close enough.
• Post workout, we had to explain to Cricket what Jordache was.  His response: carrot farmers are very different in the States than the UK.
• One PAX was celebrating a birthday today but flew under the radar and YHC didn’t pick up on the new age in Name-o-rama, shame on me!  Happy 44th B-Day, Dueling Banjos!
• I think this is the biggest turnout ever for one of my Qs…clearly, they’re all here for Homes!