One of the beauties of being Q is that one can plan around one’s injuries.  With apologies to the 14 other PAX who posted at the Vortex, YHC shamelessly orchestrated a workout in which he avoided merkins and burpees—but gave others plenty of opportunities for each!

After the customary warm-up, the main event consisted of 30 minutes of a “game.”  It ended up being pretty awful as a game—sort of like Monopoly would be if the cheapest property cost $1,501, or more than the total starting amount for each player.  Sure, it would be possible for someone to purchase the equivalent of Baltic or Mediterranean if the planets aligned, but the game would far more likely end in heartache for all.

The idea was that a “timer” (YHC) would do laps around the soccer field, with side-to-side shuffles on the short sides and a sprint and backward run on the long sides.  PAX were divided into two teams, and individual players were to follow the leader as closely as possible.  Bold PAX could pick up a tennis ball and point for their respective teams by doing 30 (later 20) burpees before getting lapped.  Every time a player got lapped, however, he had to do merkins until being lapped again and lost whatever balls he had collected.  Lots of panting, shuffling, and doing of merkins.  The fatal flaw was that YHC couldn’t help himself from trying to keep up with Kitten and Buffet and therefore ran too darn fast.  No one could score any points!  The final score after half an hour was red team=0, blue team=0.  Some rule adjustments are in order.

We moseyed immediately after the game to the playground, where each person ground out max pull-ups (good ones, with a hold at the top and bottom) PLUS five assisted pull-ups.  “Resting” PAX did endless air squats.  This left us just enough time for 15-20-25-30 cadence-count fun for Mary, with Freddie Mercuries, Apple Pickers, Russian Hammers, and Flutter Kicks.

I am so darn grateful for the PAX.  It was great to see everyone after too long on IR.  Prayers for those putting life together after Hurricane Harvey and preparing for Irma.