YHC arrived at Herndon Road Park 10 minutes early, with Virginia Slim and Pancake hot on his heels. I wanted to mentally go through this hastily planned Q and I wanted to stretch out a lingering sore calf, but it was much more fun to hear about Floyd’s relaxing vacation. Pong, questionably still asleep, rolled out of the car, expressing what I still feel at every post: “It’s early! What am I doing here?”, continues to impress as a 2.0 on a mission. Castaway smoothly slid in with about 5 seconds to spare, so 9 PAX got to it:
WARM UP
SSH x 25
WMH x 10
Arm circles x 10 (optional Cosmo Calf Stretch RIGHT)
Reverse arm circles x 10 (optional Cosmo Calf Stretch LEFT)
Harvester x 10
Imperial Walkers x 10
Slow merkin x 10
MAIN EVENT
Peanut Lap Mosey
Escalating Four Corner Merkin Pyramid Variety Pack:
Four corners on the soccer pitch, (with remarkably less turf crumbs, since Floyd and Cosmo took them all home last week) performing a different style of Merkin at each corner as follows:
5 diamond merkins
10 slow merkins
15 wide merkins
20 regular merkins
25 Carolina dry docks (this took us around the field once. I was expecting less mumblechatter, assuming everybody was as winded as me, but the conversation about inappropriate anatomical drawings persisted….My solution? DEescelate the pyramid and complete one more merkin-filled lap. Mission accomplished.)
20 regular merkins
15 wide merkins
10 slow merkins
5 diamond merkins
Peanut Lap
Ball Wall:
Divide into three unnecessary groups of three, then rejoin into one goup of nine and perform the following together:
Box jumps x 10
Step ups x 10
Squats x 10
Rinse and repeat all of the above x 3
Peanut Lap
Painground:
Divide into three groups of three and perform once set of each of the following in a moderately haphazard fashion, since there are only TWO swings for swerkins:
Pull-ups x 10
Swerkins x 10
Burpees x 10
Thought REALLY hard about another Peanut Lap, but the clock was not working in our favor
Rock Pile:
The PAX were encouraged to find a moderately substantial rock, so some complimentary muscle groups did not get neglected. Exercises below were performed in cadence, interrupted only by some rock-envy that led to Kia and Pong swapping stones and Floyd reevaluating all the rocks in the ditch, as only a SiteQ can do, like a proud farmer overseeing his crop. Of rocks.
Overhead press x10
Bent over rows x10
Curls x10
Rinse and repeat x 3
Peanut Lap
Mary:
Flutter kicks x 30 took us to 6:15 on the dot, so an additional Peanut Lap was avoided
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Bull will be taking place on October 26 in downtown Durham. Likely a squad-based downtown tour. Shirt design and order TBD. Logistical details to follow. The planning team has been hard at work.
COT
“Your Comfort Zone is a beautiful place, but nothing grows there.”
It was subtly suggested 18 hours before time to post at Tobacco Road that YHC take the Q which was empty. I did, without hesitation but with much trepidation. I am typically a planner and organizer and this last minute commitment didn’t afford me the prep time that would allow me to be comfortable leading a workout. A perfect way to get out of my comfort zone.
Getting out of the comfort zone sort of turned into the theme of the workout. I am not a great runner, so I decided to incorporate as much running as I could stand. I also wanted the PAX to be in near-constant motion during the entire workout and I think we accomplished that. I wanted to plow through many reps of many different exercises. I think we did that, too!
YHC was also out of his comfort zone because he forgot gloves and was still recovering from last night’s epic Parent vs Kids end of season 9u Baseball game (2 of 3 from the plate and only 2 fielding errors…).
Pong was out of his comfort zone and had no desire to be up that early, but became a Peanut Lap smokin’ big rock stealin’ machine by the end of the workout.
Cosmo was out of his comfort zone because there was no EC or rucks in sight. I was hoping to smoke him enough to prevent post-ME pull-ups, but I’m sure he got them in, the beast!
It’s clear Virginia Slim and Pancake were out of their comfort zone. YHC witnessed 2 wrong turns as they were trying to high-tail it out of South Durham after the ME. YHC would like to take credit for their fatigue and confusion as they were recovering from such a tough workout, but I also witnessed a pre- ME wrong turn, too! No worries, men. Keep heading this way and the drive gets easier.
I think Floyd was feeling it a little,too because the mumble chatter died down briefly. He has the gift of being able to turn every 1st F into a 2nd F event. It makes the pain of the workout more bearable.
From a “this day in history” standpoint, there were some great sports accomplishments. In the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, we saw Michael Johnson win gold in 2 events, the 200m and 400m. We also saw Dan Obrien win the 1st US Olympic decathlon gold since Bruce Jenner in 1976 (I wonder what he is up to these days?). More impressive, we witnessed Iron Mike Tyson unify the WBA, WBC, and IBF belts for the first time in history. Think of the discomfort all these men endured to make themselves better and become the top in their field. While few of us have such lofty expectations for ourselves physically, if we push ourselves out of the comfort zone in all aspects of our life, we are certainly going to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. Thanks for the strong work today, guys.