YHC’s most bittersweet moment in 3+ years of F3 came when Sweats stopped posting at the Vortex to found The Big Dance. Sweats never leaves anything on the table and his intensity remains a key ingredient in the Vortex DNA. He is building something special with the North Durham PAX at TBD, so there were big shoes to fill when we switched AOs this morning. The degree of difficulty in approximating Sweats-level challenge was even higher than usual b/c burpees and merkins were off the table following a wrist injury for YHC. We had to get it done mostly with our legs (with apologies to BB, who commented on sore calves before we even got started, but played through nonetheless!).
Following a brief warm-up, we snuck in a few minutes of muscle failure for the arms in the form of pull-ups. The eight PAX paired up, and each man did three sets of max PLUS five assisted pull-ups. Sweater Vest’s extra credit work at Devil’s Ridge showed, as the rest of the PAX needed to SSH until his pair finished.
On the way to the tennis courts for the main event, we did thirty jump-ups on the low wall just to get the cardiovascular system into a higher gear.
Pairing up again at the tennis courts, we started off with a bit of Dora. One PAX bunny hopped two courts while the other did one-legged squats. After three minutes, we switched legs for more bunny hopping and one-legged squatting. Without so much as a ten count, we then switched to lunge walks and floor-slapping (or gently touching!) jump squats. For the “speed round,” we did “shuffle suicides” across all four courts, with wall sits for early finishers. Repeato, opposite direction. Happy Gilmore couldn’t figure out if we were using our conductor or abductor muscles, a mystery which still remains. The backbreaker was the final court exercise: sprint the length of all four courts, 10 cadence-count jump lunges, backwards run back, ten jump squats, then repeat ad infinitum. One of the fun things about doing new exercises is that one gets to see the various skills of the PAX. Peppermint Patti is a jump-lunge ninja. Incredible.
The idea for Mary was to do 12 cadence-count apple pickers, 24 cadence-count Russian Hammers, 36 cadence-count flutter kicks, and 48 cadence-count Freddie Mercuries. We got through the flutter kicks and had to call it a day.
Terrific COT and 2nd F on the way out. Soda Popinski’s name is a gift that keeps on giving. Grateful for all of the PAX, the effort each man puts out in the morning, and the good work each does out in the world. Celebrations with Screech, whose fiancé just demolished her last set of boards. Thoughts and prayers for several folks struggling with illness, especially Linda but also those unnamed. Prayers also for Pebbles as he ministers to those at a protest and counter-protest on UNC’s campus—and for our country, that we may figure out how to be more just and how to recapture some of the civility that makes democracy work.