The new site Q, Old Bay, pulled into the parking lot on Zoo/Tiger time and proceeded to mosey with his Blender flag to plant it beside the Mutt flag. I said, “you’ve got about 30 seconds to get that in’, to which he replied, ’30 seconds is all I need’. Queue litany of jokes from the PAX and an assurance that the morning was off to a great start.
PAX: Cowbell, Sump Pump, OJ, Ham, Vincent(R), Mad Cow, Left Eye, Scratch, Spinal Tap, Wedding Singer, Old Bay, Glen Ross, Zima, Curly, Grinder(Q)
We did a quick mosey to the side parking lot for warm-ups: 20 SSH(IC), 20 IW(IC), Downward Dog, Runner’s Stretch, Michael Phelps, DiGiornos, 20 GG(IC)…a pretty standard Q warm-up by YHC.
Next it was time to mosey through the neighborhood, starting with a Prisoner Run. When we hit grass, we all went into a Bear Crawl. When we got past the grass to the top of the first hill, we went into a crab walk. I decided to call the crab walk after the second lamp post, because my tris were already screaming and I knew we had more tri work to do. None of the Pax seemed to mind.
With every Q, I try to plan one, if not all activities to be extremely challenging for me. I figure that if I hate it and it’s hard, it must be good for me. Mainly though, I want it to be challenging for all the PAX, plus, I don’t mind being the six…even at my own Q. So with that in mind, we did 11s on the big neighborhood hill that leads down to the creek. We started with one Plank Jack at the top of the hill, then 10 Dips on the bridge at the bottom and progressed from there. Because of the number of PAX in attendance, I suggested we break up into two groups. Once the first 3 PAX complete their 11s, we move on to the next thang. Off we go!
Then the cops showed up. Well, a cop. I think we were around #5 or 6 on Plank Jacks, when the SMPD crept up on us slow at the top of the hill. While I have a feeling the police ‘may’ have been called because of a disturbance in the neighborhood(mmm…F3?), the officer played it off like he was just waiting at the top of the hill for us all to finish so he could turn down the hill. Glen Ross used to opportunity to try to HL him (ABC, right?), and as the cop pulled away, GR had the brilliant idea that we should have tried to get a picture of him putting me in the back of the car. I wish I would have acted on that, but after roughly an 80-count break, I was still trying to catch my breath and figure out how I was going to make it another 5 times up and down that hill.
I learn something every single time I post, and I feel like the learning is accelerated when I’m Qing. The best lesson of this day came from Mad Cow. For some reason, my watch kept switching screens, and I was having trouble keeping track of the time (wanting to make sure we finished thang one in enough time to do all of thang two). I got so pissed I stopped running for a moment to figure out what button I had to push to get back to the clock, and while stopped, Mad Cow asks, ‘you all right?’. ‘Yeah’, I say, ‘my watch keeps messing up and I can’t tell what time it is’. Mad Cow responded, ‘It’s time to run!” as he sped past me. No shit. I got so wrapped up in my plan that I forgot to just go with the flow and focus on the workout. Lesson learned.
We finished the 11s and headed over to grab coupons while hydrating on the way. Next thang was two consecutive AMRAP sets (with coupons) of Curls, Squats, Overhead Presses, American Hammers, Coupon Swings, Decline Merkins (Coupon under feet), and Flutter Kicks. 45 seconds on, 15 seconds rest between intervals. Set one started out a little shaky as I had Master of Puppets blaring from my speaker, but the generator at HT was so loud that half the PAX couldn’t hear the music or the voice commands. Finally, the generator quit humming, just in time for the second song, Enter Sandman…which never played. Second lesson of the day – listen to the entire workout on the Tabata timer before the workout. So instead of more Metallica, the PAX had to listen to me serenade them. It was the hardest part of the workout for all of them, I’m sure.
We finished up the second set at 6:14, giving us enough time to put back the coupons and circle up. Name-a-rama, intentions, and a few moments giving thanks for all the good things we have in our lives. Thanks to all the PAX that attended. As always, I was humbled by your presence and love you all. Until next time, Grinder out.
F3 Louisville 