When YHC first joined F3 in 2018, he lived in downtown Durham and almost exclusively attended Durham AO’s. Since moving to the Meadowmont area last summer, YHC has been gradually exploring more Chapel Hill AO’s. This was his first visit to the Vortex, which is somewhat confusing and somewhat understandable. On the confusing hand, the Vortex is a relatively convenient 15 minute drive from YHC’s new apartment and a relatively convenient 20 minute drive to YHC’s office. On the hand, YHC tends to run or do his own workout most Tuesdays and the Vortex forms the third vertex of a triangle rather than a waypoint along a line between the aforementioned apartment and office. On either hand (or with both hands) YHC’s first visit to the Vortex was long overdue and was thoroughly enjoyed!

Stationary Warm-Up

10 reps of: side shuffle hop, windmill, good morning, overhead clap, and arm circles.

Dynamic Traveling Warm-Up

A common warm-up on my high school soccer team was jogging the lines of the field (i.e. the sidelines, goal lines, center line + circle, and penalty box lines). The PAX ran these lines at a fellowship pace to complete the warm-up.

Main Event

Mosey to the playground. Here the PAX split into 3 groups:

1. Swing Set (my favorite playground element when I was a child…and my favorite playground element today…maybe today I am still a child). Round 1 exercise: derkins. Round 2 exercise: bulgarian split squat.
2. Benches. Round 1 exercise: box jumps. Round 2 exercise: dips.
3. Travelers. The traveling PAX set the time for the other two groups (i.e. the swing set and bench PAX completed AMARP until the traveling PAX returned). Round 1 exercise: bunny hops to the bathroom building, job back to the playground. Round 2 exercise: broad jumps to the bathroom building, job back to the playground.

Mosey to the tennis courts. The PAX slalomed down the 6 tennis courts lengthwise (i.e. traveled the length of court 1 in direction A then proceeded to court 2 which they traveled the length of in direction B, then court 3 in direction A, etc.). The travel methods included: bear crawl, 1 legged bear crawl, crab walk, backwards lunge, inchworm (aka traveling burpee), gorilla hop.

The PAX made the return journey to tennis court 1 widthwise. On each court the PAX completed an explosive plyometric exercise, which develops power. To develop power, decrease the reps and increase the intensity/force application. The goal is maximum force application per rep. The PAX completed 2 rounds of : 5 squat jumps, 5 plyo merkins, and 5 broad jumps to cover the 6 courts.

Mosey back to the soccer field

Mary

Dealer’s choice – each PAX chooses a core exercise and leads the group through 15 reps of it. Two rounds of this were completed. The first round included plank variations. The second round included “on your 6” exercises.

COT

Form week is coming up soon. PAX and Site Q’s should keep a heads up for information regarding that.

Zika is putting on a virtual Run for Malawi to raise money for the Malawi Children’s Initiative. Here is the goal for this year’s event: “This year our goal is to raise $100,000 and expand our Malnutrition Initiative, where we partner with our Malawian colleagues to provide evidence-based interventions to improve the care of severely malnourished children at KCH. We recently hired a clinician dedicated to these vulnerable children, and we would now like to hire a nurse.”

Here is the link to donate or sign up: https://runsignup.com/Race/NC/ChapelHill/RunforMalawi2021