There is a mistaken belief that the origin of “420” was due to a police code for marijuana possession or pot smoking in progress. This is incorrect. Still many folks in “the culture” use this as the rallying cry to make time to sprinkle a little herb in their diet. Well, in “truth,” (as in, per the wiki-wiki interwebs…) the reference started with five “yewts,” all high school students (S. Capper, D Reddix, J. Noel, L. Schwartz, and M. Gravich) in San Rafael, CA who dubbed themselves the “Waldos” (based on their favorite hang out spot at a wall just outside school grounds). In somewhat Stand By Me fashion, these upstanding young men devised a plan in 1971 to meet up after school at 4:20 by a statue of Louis Pasteur to go on a hunt for an abandoned cannabis crop that they learned about from finding a local rogue grower’s treasure map. They were persistent, yet ultimately unsuccessful. The plan was eventually scrapped. Nonetheless, the reference evolved as Reddix grew up to become a roadie for the one and only Phil Lesh (“Let Phil sing!!”) and called for 4:20 to be the prescribed time for a bit o’ High Times.
Well, last night, I was going over various options for my Q this morning and not really feeling anything. I decided to spend some quality time in deep “meditation” and got my groove on by listening to a bit of Radiohead. The playlist went through a number of great, classic cuts, then Burn The Witch, the first tune on their 2016 release A Moon Shaped Pool came on and I sorta drifted into a dream…
“This is a low flying panic attack…sing a song of sixpence that goes…”
Sometimes, that’s all it takes for inspiration to strike. As is typical, the gears of F3 logic spun into action and I spiraled down the rabbit hole. “Ah, yes, sing a song of sixpence…4 & 20 blackbirds baked in a pie…4 & 20…420! Yes, of course. That’s perfect for The Cougar.” Oh, yeah, we are gonna have us a High Time…livin’ the Good Life. But, as Lorde so aptly put it, “that” kind of lux just ain’t for us…Yeah, us F3 boys, well, we crave a different kind of buzz (well, except for weekends, and holidays, and birthdays…).
Time to get smoked, y’all.
ROLLIN’ ROLLIN’ ROLLIN’
Rolled into the AO with Goat, Cat, and Toad. Parking lot empty. Pulled out the papers. Time to finalize game plan.
Soon, the lot began to fill. Lots of familiar faces! A bunch of new faces! Fist bumps, hugs, greetings.
15 Second Warning.
Circle up. Introductions. Preliminaries. No FNGs. Let’s…
LIGHT THIS FIRE
Good Mornings, x10 IC
Big A** Sun Gods/Arm Circles (F/R), x10 IC
Downward Dog & Cobra
Deep Lunge Hip Flexor/Hammie Stretch (L/R)
Plank Calf Stretch (L/R).
‘K now, we ready to…
HIT IT/INHALE
Fellowship Jog to the track.
Circle Up. Introduce our plan for today. We are gonna do “The 420.” Pretty straightforward. We will take a hit of 4 exercises and hold it in for 20 reps each. These will take place at the 4 “corners” of the track. We will have different modes of travel (which really just ended up being Bolt & Bernie, a couple heavy hitters in their own fields).
SESH ONE: SSH IC, Merkins SC, Am Hams IC, Squats SC, all x20
- AYG Sprint, 100 Meters
SESH TWO: Burpees OYO, Dry Docks SC, LBCs IC, Alt Leg Lunges 1-2 Ct, all x20
- Bernie Around The Curve
SESH THREE: Thrusters SC, Dive Bomb Merkins SC, Hollow Hold 20 Ct, Bridges SC, all x20
- AYG Sprint, 100 Meters
REPEATO SESH ONE ABOVE
- (** Singlet…the man can sing and the man can hop! Made my way next to him for the round of SSH and tried to match his style. Attempted to draw smooth, but ended up choking. Seems I need to up my hop game.)
- Bernie Around The Curve
REPEATO SESH TWO ABOVE
- (** At some point while we were making our rounds, someone’s Officer McGruff must have been a little “pooped” as we all came around to find his little “bite outta crime” dumped right onto the track. Special thanks to Spooky for spotting the doodie roll and warning us so as to not messy up the crime scene. Thankfully, no soles were tainted. Spooky was able to locate a receptacle to scoop up the hash browns, dispose of, and still crushed his 20 burpees. Beast!)
- AYG Sprint, 100 Meters
REPEATO SESH THREE ABOVE
Aw yeah, feelin’ it. Strong work by all! Time for a “Mellow”-ship Jog back to the track gate. Passed the dooch to Goat.
SLOW EXHALE
Goat had the PAX count off into groups of 3. We all made our way to the pull up bars just outside the track.
- Group 1: 10 Pull Ups (This group is the timer)
- Group 2: BW Squats (AMRAP until Group 1 is done)
- Group 3: Hold Al Gore (Embrace your inner treehugger!)
Rotate groups until all had a turn to burn one.
Goat led the PAX back to the AO lot for 6MOM
MARY
- Flutter Kicks, x20 IC
- Around The World Merkin Smoke Ring o’ Fire, x5 each (PAX counted in a number of languages. I heard Spanish, Italian, French, German, Hindi?, Japanese, Mandarin/Cantonese? I know there were a couple others!)
- Merkin Wave, x1 rep, x1 revolution
- Superman Hold (Goat had Bandcamp lead us with the Greatest American Hero theme song, which we all sang 2x. Nice!).
And this bowl is dusted! Time to…
ZONE OUT
COT/BOM
Announcements
- With the roll out of The Earl, the Deep Chatham boys are holding monthly 2ndFs @ City Tap, Pittsboro. Check Slack channels (The Earl, Chatham Chatter) as the next one is happening tonight or tomorrow night. 2000 hrs.
- Invited the PAX to BC’s 2ndF, a farewell BYOB for Golden Pinky, 6/20 @ The Wall AO, 2000 hrs. Burpees are optional, burps mandatory.
- Sir Mix a Lot is leading a special off site extendo Basecamp this Saturday, meet up location @ Jordan Lake (Transis Camp Road), 0600 hrs. Check Slack (basecamp, rucks, etc) for deets.
- Not mentioned, but wanted to add: Outbreak hosting a special AMRAP style workout tomorrow @ The Gravel Pit, 1595 Crawford Dairy Rd by Chicken Bridge. Meet up 0530 hrs. Looks to be a great crew HC for this already. Check Slack (churham news) for deets.
Name-o-Rama
BOM
Posted Radiohead’s Burn The Witch on The Cougar channel last night in anticipation for today’s workout. Those of you who know me know that I don’t invite politics into our gatherings and I am not about to get into that here. However, I did draw inspiration for today’s workout and message from the tune, which IMO, is a great one. I was struggling a bit coming up with a workout plan for today, but then I heard the line “Sing a song of sixpence” and it reminded me of the nursery rhyme. “Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye, 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie. 4 & 20…420. Baked. I like it. Decent workout fodder. After all, I do, indeed, like my “greens.” This thought then led me to think of the message I wanted to share with you all this morning.
I suppose back in the day, it was considered the height of hilarity to done goof someone by presenting them with a nice pie with a bunch of birds baked into it. You would cut into it and, surprise!…you get b*tch slapped with a couple dozen set of wings. Ha, jokes on you. Obviously, they didn’t have Seinfeld back then. Whether this bit of lore passes the Snopes test is up for debate and actually, it’s all besides the point. See, the more important takeaway is that perhaps this food “gotcha!” was all fun and games in simpler times, but it is no laughing matter today. Nowadays, it’s big business.
If fitness was a three legged stool, then exercise and recovery would be two of the legs. Looking around, I would venture to guess that most of us don’t have much issue with these two. All you PAX crushed the workout and are quite fit. However, perhaps some of you, myself included, may struggle with the third leg, nutrition. Do any of you wonder why you are not further along the fitness curve? Or not getting the progress you think you should? It could be due to poor nutrition. I was speaking at length with Juco, his M has significant expertise in the science of food, diet and the effects it has on our well being. The foods we eat have a significant impact on our bodies in ways we may not realize. Some of it is obvious and immediate. Others, it takes time and it quietly and imperceptively builds up to something catastrophic. Be mindful of your food choices, brothers. We all come out here and do the work to get our bodies in top shape, but if you go home and fill up on fatty, salty, sugary, processed, fast food or other junk (sorry, my beloved chicken biscuits! man, it pains me to say that…), it can more than easily cancel out all that hard work you just put in.
Big business wants you to mindlessly consume, whether it is food or pills. Don’t let all the beautiful structures you build out in the gloom…your 4 corners, pyramids, escalators, ladders, circuits…your 420s! go up in smoke. Burn the witch of poor nutrition, men. Be mindful of what you put into your bodies, brothers. Be vigilant and keep a keen eye out for food gotchas. I want to see all of you out in the gloom and in your life, happy and healthy, for a long, long time. Thanks again for your warm hospitality, Cougar brothers. Until next time. Aye!