Work and Play, Every Day

June 26, 2018

WHEN: 06/26/2018
QIC: Assisi and Soybean
PAX: Amphibious, Assisi, B & B, Boucher, Bushwood, DOI, Eddie the Eagle, Loonie, Malware, My Little Pony, Newt, Nightshift, Poser, Shake It, Shovel, Sidecar, Soybean, The Worm

All work and no play isn’t good for anyone, so we mixed it up a little bit this morning at the Vortex.  Assisi took the crew to work, and Soybean led playtime.

Assisi reminded himself of Chris Farley’s Tommy Boy, who got so excited in the 1995 movie that he “killed his sale.”  After six months away from the Q, he planned to squeeze 55 minutes of activity into the first 22.5 minutes of the workout.  Sigh.

After a quick warmup, PAX split into two teams of nine apiece and lined up facing one another on opposite end lines.  Teams then did “Vortex Pinball,” bear-crawling from the end line to the eighteen, doing five burpees, then crab-walking back for five more burpees—and repeating ad infinitum.  Each group inched their way down the field when the three PAX on the end peeled off, sprinted to the center, did fifteen kettle bell swings, and ran back to the opposite side of the queue.  Assisi had planned for four trips (for a great image of failure, cf. the 35-second mark of the video clip above!)…

Soybean’s World Cup-themed play was meant to be fun, but you don’t really realize just how hard these guys have to work to be that good at playing the game.

Yet every man ought to have a shot at glory, aiming for an 8 yard x 8 foot net and being able to holler “Gooooooooooooooooooaaaallllll!” at the top of his lungs should he find himself successful. So that was the, uh, goal for the second half of this morning’s Work/Play program.

PAX lined up at a mark just beyond the penalty box, about 15 yards out. Each man took a turn to shoot on goal. If he hit his shot, PAX did 5 Merkins. If the man missed, 5 penalty Burpees for everyone. Kicker called out a mode of travel for PAX to retrieve the ball at the end line, do the Merkins or Burpees, then sprint back and low squat hold or high plank until all get back.

Highlights:

  • 40-50% success rates overall – congrats to all who hit net!
  • Nice Attempts: YHC and others were over-confident; most of first shots leaned left; others (in accurately) course corrected to the right…and some were so close, but the ball bounced (twice) off the left post
  • Memorable Moments: Shovel scored and called for a Brazilian dance move; Bushwood belted it beautifully down the middle; and Nightshift nailed it, including no small amount of air under the ball before it nestled in the net. (Forgive me for missing others’ shining moment…feel free to Slack smack about it).

In all seriousness, one of the absolute best aspects of F3 is that it’s a heck of a lot of fun. Yes, we’re out there feeling fierce and getting fit. But we’re also reclaiming some small part of our younger years when it was okay for play to be a larger part of our lives. YHC hopes each of us enjoys many other ways of combining work and play throughout the day.

Work hard, play hard.

Thanks to all of the PAX for bringing such energy and enthusiasm—and five extra kettle bells, to boot.  What a great group of guys!