2/27/18 The O’s Bag of Wrenches Backblast

QIC:  Wham!

28 PAX: Butcher; Scratch; Bean Counter; PK; Face; Kilo; Peach (FNG); Gillespie; Ellen (FNG); Tron; Noxeema Jackson; Antman; Goodman; Flo Jo (FNG); Nugget; Nickelback; Swifty; Doododoododoodo; Captain Insane-O; Red Roof; Santana; Pope; Steerage; Scuba Steve (FNG); Vincent (Respect); Double Down (Respect); Road Trip; Wham!

Time:  5:30 am

Weather: Thirty something; Dry!

Playing Surface: Pudgy

ZooZooLemon Gear Check: Gray Under Armour cold gear long sleeve shirt; Wham! pop art t-shirt; Black tights; Gray shorts with faux Adidas black stripes; Black F3 Louisville hoorag; Bear crawling gloves; black/red/green NBs (finally dried out from the Norton Commons washout!)

Pre-WO
Although I typically arrive at workouts with only a minute or two to spare, I like to arrive early on the days I’m Q’ing to set up and get a general feel for things.  Today, I arrived at the O at approximately 5:19 a.m. and quickly planted the Bag of Wrenches shovel flag, laid out some instruction sheets on the tennis courts and returned to the flag to wait for the PAX.  There is always some level of excitement and anxiousness as I wait for my F3 brothers to arrive, and today was no different.  How will the WO go?  Who will show up?  Will we have any FNGs?  Will I lose my keys again? 

Bean Counter was the first person I saw, followed by Tron and Nugget, both of whom win the trophy belt for the day by showing up at 4:45 a.m. to get a ruck in before the WO.  HIM they are.  After that, the PAX started to steadily roll in one after another until I could tell that this was going to be a big crowd.  New faces, old faces and familiar faces all showed up to get better with me this morning and I really appreciated it.

At 5:29 a.m., I gave a quick disclaimer and we were ready to begin.  Rather than doing a short mosey to the tennis courts for COP as is my standard operating procedure, I decided to switch things up and have the PAX go on a nice little run first.  The PAX divided into 2 groups with the first group taking off on a run around the O’s loop in one direction while the other group took off in the other direction until the two groups met up somewhere around the Cannons Lane side of the loop.   A few months back, Zartan started one of his Qs like this and I had been wanting to “borrow” the idea from him ever since.  As my group approached the other group coming from the opposite direction, Gillespie and I commented that it felt like a scene from The Outsiders with two rival gangs meeting up for a rumble.  Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed this morning and no hands were thrown.  Instead, we circled up in the O grass for COP.

COP
1.  20 SSH IC
2.  5 BOYOs
3.  10 Imperial Walkers IC
4.  10 Merkins IC
5.  10  Copperhead Squats IC
6.  5 BOYOs
7.  10 Plank Jacks IC
8.  10 Merkins IC

Thang 1: Dueling Indian Runs
Finding ourselves at the far end of the O loop at the end of COP, it seemed appropriate to Indian Run back to the tennis courts and so that is what we did, with the PAX getting back in their groups and taking off back down the path in opposite directions.  Indian runs are always fun to me not only because they are great calorie burners but also because they give everyone the chance to cheer for and support each other.  We do not leave anyone behind, but we also do not leave anyone where we found them.  Those words exemplify F3 to me.

Thang 2: Tennis Court Circuit Work
Once we finished the Indian Run, we grabbed coupons and carried them to one of the tennis courts for Thang 2, which was a slight variation of something I did back at one of my Qs in October.  Essentially, there were 3 different exercises to be performed on 3 different sets of tennis courts and so the PAX split into 3 groups and each headed to their respective courts.  The following exercises were performed in 3ish minute intervals after which time each group would move to the next set of courts. 

Court 1: Coupon Work
– Coupon Thrusters x 10
– Coupon Curls x 10
– Coupon Rows x 10
– Rinse and Repeat until the end of the interval

Courts 2-5:  Bear Jump Work
– Bear Crawl around the perimeter of one side of the first court
– Broad Jump around the perimeter of one side of the second court
– Bear Crawl around the perimeter of one side of the third court
– Broad jump around the perimeter of one side of the fourth court
– Bernie Sanders back to the first court
– Rinse and repeat until the end of the interval

[Side Note:  The PAX seemed to really enjoy this exercise progression.  I will have to include it in my Q again.  Also, it was during this exercise that Captain Insane-O nearly passed out from the smell of his own gloves.  As he said it, he “stunk palmed himself.”  He tried to get others to take a whiff but only Vincent had the cojones to do it.  Respect indeed.]

Courts 6-9:  Rosalita Suicides
This involved suicide sprints (run to last line of each court and back) across all four courts with a “resting” exercise of 20 Rosalitas to break up each set.  Repeato until the end of the interval.

Each group was able to rotate through these 3 exercises twice before the clock struck 6:16 a.m. and it was time to return the coupons and circle up one final time.

COT
Count-o-rama, name-o-rama (including naming of the 4 FNGs), announcements, and then circled up for intentions and quick closing thoughts/prayer to the Sky Q.  Welcome to the 4 FNGs: Peach, Ellen, Flo Jo and Scuba Steve.  We hope to see you again in the gloom soon.  Also, special shout out to Road Trip who continues to impress by driving in from Lexington for these early morning workouts.  Your effort and dedication to get better is inspiring.

Thanks for the incredible turnout and letting me lead you today.  It made by day.  I hope you felt the same.

-Wham!