The day was January 2nd, 2020 – the first AMRAP post of the new year and it was an honor to be leading this morning. This was the second workout I was signed up to lead this week, but only the first workout I would actually lead this week. Fartsacking my Q earlier in the week was a temporary embarassment but, it raised the stakes and made it even more important that I lead a solid and efficient workout for the men. You can judge for yourself if I actually accomplished this goal.
The morning was cool and damp. It was approximately 35 degrees at the start of the workout so only a couple layers were necesary to stay warm. When I arrived to the AO Bump Draft was finishing up an EC run around the parking lot. Griswold was just arriving from an EC ruck. I posted to the Big House the day prior and my ankle was still slightly agitated – three weeks post sprain – so the Triple Dora was out for today. My ultimate goal of leading a Triple Dora would need to be set aside today in favor of another worthy cause. The “Push-Pull” challenge started yesterday and Brotox led a great workout based on adding to uor push-up and pull-up totals. Since it was likely that the folks at this workout would not overlap much with the Big House workout I borrowed heavily from his efforts on New Years Day – thank you Brotox.
Warm Up
SSH – 20, Merkins – 10*, WMH – 20, Merkins – 20, FWD Arm Circles – 20, Merkins – 20
* Jingles arrived right after our first set of Merkins. His shoes were on, but his laces were not tied. He makes admirable progress every day. I look forward to his unique mumble chatter when I see him at our workouts. If your M needs any interior design assistance look him up at your next workout – he has connections in the business.
Main Event
The PAX moseyed over to the Woods Charter playground where we proceeded to add to our pull-up count for the day. We grabbed a partner and executed a round of of 10 pull-ups each followed by a 30-60 seconds of BTTW. We repeated this sequence of events five times to tally 50 pull-ups each. During this portion of the workout Griswold – as only Griswold can – described the pain we would soon feel in the days to come if we jumped too quickly into the pull-up portion of the “Forces of Nature” challenge. I laughed off most of what he said assuming that my 42 year old body would be able to adapt quickly to the sudden change in my workout routine – my inability to raise my arms above my head by lunch made me realize that you never ignore Griswold’s warnings… just like nobody ever puts Baby in the corner.
After our pull-up quota for the day was filled the four of us moseyed up to the Woods Gazeebo – henceforth known as the pee shed – for some dips. The PAX executed five rounds of 20 dips in order to balance out he bicep work we had done earlier. This was a great portion of the workout becasue the PAX got to learn more about Bump Draft and his line of work. Our kids are friends at school and I hear about his boy all the time from my son. Turns out that Bump Draft is actually Dr. Bump Draft and teaches at a college in the Triad. As luck would have it, today was a day of “Professional Development” for Bump Draft and his colleagues at the college. Bump Draft did a great job of trying to put a positive spin on the event, but I’m sure it’s about as fun as it sounds. Here’s hoping that Bump Draft didn’t need to do anything with his arms today at work.
After spending some quality time with the PAX in the pee shed talking about life – between sets of dips – my plan was to take us back to the pull-up bars for another round. My arms said that would not be happening and I remembered the old addage that if you can not do it – don’t Q it. So instead of adding to our pull-up totals we finished up our push-ups by getting our final 20 Merkins.
Announcements
The PAX believes there may need to be a quarterly Festivus style airing of grievances.
On a more serious note we have many brothers with challenges before them and their families right now – make an effort to assist in anyway you can.
On a positive note we have some great ruck events coming up in the neighborhood soon – catch up with Griswold or Rambler if you need more details.
COT
It’s day two of the new year – if you haven’t set some goals for 2020 yet consider a Personal, Professional and Fitness goal.