Introduction:

The weather did not look good – if it wasn’t raining, it was going to be snowing. No matter what – a wet and cold morning was in store…. Until it wasn’t… I woke up this morning to a clear forecast. But by that point the die was cast and the workout was planned… We were, however, able to move it away from the overhangs into the open and take advantage of the premier Conjunction Junction Wall.

The workout today is based on a recent lesson I taught in American History II about the Cuban Missile Crisis and specifically the namesake for this workout – Fidel Castro.

The story I focused on was one from Castro’s childhood that tells us something about who he was as a person (see video above). As a teen, Castro invented a game for his fellow classmates at the all boys catholic school he attended. The story goes that the game required only two things: a wall and a bicycle. The boys set a predetermined amount of space between the wall and a starting position. They would then, 1 at a time, ride as fast as possible, full speed, into the wall. Whoever was willing to risk it all, and get thrown into the wall, moved onto the next round, where they would move the starting position further away to create more speed. Fidel never once lost the game. He was willing to sacrifice everything, over and over and over again, for something he believed in. And while that’s not the guy you want with nuclear capabilities/a radically different view of the world just 90 miles from our southern coast, it’s a character trait we could learn from at least in part.

So – who would be willing to risk it all??

Warmup:

• SSH
• Imperials
• WMH
• Merkins
• Frog Jump

The Thang:

The Fidel Castro – Suicide Bike Wall. Each round started with bicycles together, then all PAX move to the wall, where they all held a static exercise position as long as possible until all dropped out except for one. Those who dropped off the wall then had an assigned exercise to complete whilst waiting for the next round. The final man to last on the wall then came off and led the PAX in a final assigned number of the

• Round 1.) Bicycle x 5; Air Chair, hands up x ?; everyone else star jumps until last man drops
• Round 2.) Bicycle x 10; BTTW shoulder taps x ?; everyone else dry docks until last man drops
• Round 3.) Bicycle x 15; People’s Chair with alternating straight legs x ?; jump squats until last man drops
• Round 4.) Bicycle x 20; BTTW x ?; Overhead Air Press until last man drops
• Round 5.) Bicycle x 25; People’s Chair  x ?; burpees until last man drops

Next, to further our upper body beatdown, the PAX took one last chance to charge the wall with a Jacob’s Ladder.

The framework for the ladder was: Crawlbear the basketball court to the wall (and up the wall) 1 handstand pushup, travelling burpees across the basketball court, 4 merkins. Next trip, 2 handstand pushups, 3 merkins, so on and so on until we reach 4 handstand pushups on the wall and 1 merkin on the other side.

Mary:

Our third stop moved us to the pullup bars to start Mary

• 15 second hang; 5 burpees
• 10 hanging knee raises; 5 burpees
• 5 hanging straight leg raises; 5 burpees

10 second recovery

• 30 second hang; 5 burpees
• 20 hanging knee raises; 5 burpees
• 10 hanging straight leg raises; 5 burpees

Return to the parking lot for quick ring of fire + long slow flutter

COT:

Q sheet is open next week! Fish and Chips says he’s happy to Co-Q if you’re weary