18 PAX posted in the humid gloom for a Thursday beatdown from YHC. After co-Qing last week at TRoad with Boucher (Durham’s premier AO), I didn’t want to have too much of a repeat this week. I spent some time yesterday afternoon looking at recent backblasts for some inspiration. Floyd’s “Making it up as I go…” from late May served as inspiration for coming up with this morning’s Q. Related to that backblast and somewhat related to planning for the Q, his backblast title reminded me of a lyric from one of my favorite songs: “This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)” by the Talking Heads: “Make it up as we go along”. Today’s Thang was an escalator, and per Floyd and as the Talking Heads wrote, I decided to “make it up as we go along”.
Warm-Up:
SSH
Arm Circles
Reverse
Slow Willie Mays Hayes
5 burpees OYO
Air Squats
Single count Merkins
Quick mosey lap around the peanut to the soccer field.
The Thang: Escalator.
Floyd’s commentary here: “This is a nice last-minute Q for a PAX to unleash on the group. It doesn’t require any planning ahead. I usually think of the next exercise as we are running to the next station.” I took this to heart and followed his directions. It was as easy as he said it would be!
The PAX ran around the periphery of the field to each goal box. At the box, they did the exercises called out by YHC.
Set 1:
Single-count Merkins x20
Set 2:
Single-count Merkins x20
Air squats x20
Set 3:
Single-count Merkins x20
Air squats x20
Toe-taps x20
Set 4:
Single-count Merkins x15
Air squats x20
Toe-taps x15
Mountain climbers x20
Set 5:
Single-count Merkins x15
Air squats x20
Toe-taps x15
Mountain climbers x20
Jump squats x20
Set 6:
Single-count Merkins x15
Air squats x20
Toe-taps x15
Mountain climbers x20
Jump squats x20
Burpees OYO x7
After the 6th and final set of the escalator, YHC had the pax mosey to the rock pile/playground area. As we had a nice even number of 18 men, we partnered up and grabbed 1 “medium” rock per group. One partner stayed back at the playground with his rock, while the other ran to the concrete baseballs and back as the timer. As the running partner returned he would take over the rock and perform the exercise, and the other partner would run.
Rock exercises were:
1) Overhead press
2) Bent over row
3) Bicep curls
As groups completed the 3rd and final round, we planked it out until everyone was done.
Mary:
• YHC started with LBCs and then recruited several members of the pax to call out “MARY” exercises. Cardiac led us in flutter kicks. Pedialyte led us in one of his favorites, “ski abs”. And last and certainly least (not really), OPEC hit us with JackA$$ Merkins as our final exercise. Lesson learned: Do not call on OPEC for MARY…
Closing Out:
Great group of men this morning. 18 guys at Tobacco Road is really, really solid. Earlier this year, there were back to back weeks when there were only 4 of us out there. Since May, we’ve recruited some newer pax who have become Thursday regulars. It was an honor to lead this morning. Thanks for the positive vibes and hard work.
Prayers:
• Continued prayers for Chubb and his family during this difficult time.
• Elf safely returned from Mongolia, even after drinking fermented bear’s milk…he thanked us for prayers offered up while he and his family were abroad. Glad to have you back!
FNGs: we welcomed 3 new pax this morning: Stefani, Socket, and Swamp. 3 names that start with S’s was a total coincidence. Strong work guys, we hope to SYITG on a regular basis.
Lastly, it was great to welcome a visiting pax all the way from Northwest Indiana? Or the New Jersey of Indiana as he so lovingly termed it: Pack Rat!