CI Day Backblast from the Extender at the Mutt 6/28/18 #HIDA

Q: Captain Insane-o (YHC; HIDA; tanked in a HIDA tank top)

Pax (22, 1 FNG; Last In (LI)): Glenn Ross, Wapner (DR from F3 Indianapolis), Hooch, Pinky Pie, Duece, Star Child, Cowbell, Fridge, Retainer, Digiorno, Face, Tiger, Snowman, PED, Sump Pump, Tammy Faye Baker (TFB) (FNG), Backdraft, Tureen, Gepetto, Mouth, Left Eye, CI

I really like F3 workouts. Even more, I love to Q. I have to hold back signing up to Q weekly most of the time. Hell, this week I Q’d twice despite a self-imposed Q break. That’s over, I guess.

There are a lot of reasons I like to Q. Some would say I’m a type-A control freak. Probably close to right. But I also like it because it’s a challenge. I usually try to do things that really push my comfort level, which I hope also pushes the Pax. I also want the Workout to be entertaining and fresh, so it’s a creative outlet for me. Which leads me to the backblast. I really like writing backblasts. I’m no Zoo or Gepetto. I’m no Tron or Zartan. I’m no Kilo or Star Child. I’m certainly no Wham! That said, I enjoy writing. It used to be 75% of my job. But legal writing and creative writing – in most instances – are diametrically opposed. So, again, another outlet and challenge. Oh, and I like to Q because of the feedback, good or bad. If it’s good, I know. If it’s bad I know. And this group will tell you.

Anyway, aside over. You probably want to know what we did today. Here goes, sort of.

My youngest turned six yesterday.  He’s a lot like me.  Some say he’s my mini-me.  But in many ways he’s very different.  One of those differences is that he loves baseball.  I don’t.  One of my earliest memories of baseball was from my backyard in Valparaiso, Indiana playing catch with my dad.  As I recall, he rocketed a Rawlings official ball toward me and despite having a perfectly good mitt, I chose to catch it with my face.  That resulted in a giant goose egg under my eye, and a lifelong disdain for batted ball sports (e.g., baseball, softball, cricket, field hockey, polo, croquet).  Having not beaned my kid yet, he’s all in for baseball.  One of his birthday gifts was a hitting tee so he could hone his already powerful swing.  As I surveyed all the bats and balls we have, I decided we’d do a little baseball to start the workout with a nine-sided exercise dice (it’s a dice with exercises on each face) and then move to the thang.

Gearlander:  Hurly shorts (again, maybe swim trunks), HIDA tank top, features socks, Newbie trail shoes, navy buff with red, white an pink highlights.  A foam bat.  A nine sided exercise dice.  A “Can Do Attitude”.

Conditions:  Soupy and hot.  So gross; you feel like you’re breathing luke warm broth.  Full moon.  Freshly coated blacktop parking lots.

Disclaimer and short mosey to the larger parking lot.

COP:  Pax with the bat hit the nine sided dice and mosey to circle around while YHC leads the exercise, per the dice.  If you whiff, it’s 10 (down from the initial 20) burpees on your own (BOYOS).

Many of the Pax were itching to hold that bat when I first explained how COP would run.  Then, I said if you whiff, it’s BOYOS.  That bat might as well have been a Hep-A coated stick of fire at that point.  But a few brave souls stepped up and we did (15 or so IC for most):

Calf raises
Merkins
1 min plank

Then, the ultimate sports fan, Star Child, stepped to the plate.  Doing his best Dododododo impression, he “whoops’d” it for a swing and a miss.

10 BOYOs

I made contact next for:

10 jump squats

Enough of that.  Maybe we’ll do that again.  Maybe the Pax will hit me with a bat.  Who knows.

Thang 1:  Ring around the Rosie

Pax divided into two groups.  Each group runs around the school opposite directions.  As you meet Pax, you’ll say a number, add that number and do that number of exercises.  If it’s Pax of 2, the minimum number each can say is 5, for a total of 10.  If it’s 3 or more, the minimum number is 3, for total of 3 x #Pax.  After you’ve met and do your exercise, you run back to the start.  If you meet no one on your run, when you get back, you say so and you’re minimum number is 7.  All Pax do that number before repeating.

We did this three times around the school, and everyone ran hard.  The numbers were even, so everyone always met up with someone.  Some guys did the minimum, some guys – Backdraft and Glenn Ross — demanded more.  This was a good warm up for….

Thang 2:  Build a Bear

I think this is a CI original.  And since no one from corporate reads this, I’m gonna claim it.

Each Pax starts at the end of a parking space line.  Then, you bear crawl down the line, across the line that separates the spot across and back up the next line.  At the end you do one man-maker (which is a deconstructed burpee with a plank jack before the merkin).  I’ve run this set twice.  Once in the dead of winter in Louisville and once with F3 Carpex at Bradford’s Ordinary as a guest Q.  It was the second set that earned me the HIDA tank; HIDA is an acronym from Burt’s wife.  I’m pretty sure it’s a compliment that describes the Pax of Carpex, which are a lot like our Pax.  Awesome, cool, handsome, stacked, etc.

We went up about eleventy-million spaces and back down.  Wapner promised to take this back to Indianapolis.  Like an evil lord from medieval times, I let him live so he could tell his Pax that winter is coming.  Hahahhahahhahhahhaaa.

Not wasting any time after calling this set, we moseyed back to the flag for a Mary Webb.  Initially, I got the progression wrong.  The hot soupy air had replaced all oxygen, but Gepetto set me right.  1:4 flutter kicks:lbcs.  We went to 11:44.  Usually it’s 10:40.  Glenn Ross thought I was joking about adding more. I wasn’t.

With 2 minutes left, we did another mosey around the school.  I wanted to make sure we got in that mile (each lap is 1/4 of a mile, for those counting).

Fin.

COR, NOR.  Welcome TFB!  He’s been on the Digiorno and Face EH list and he came.  I confirmed that he would come back despite being clergy and now named TFB.  He said he would.  I take him at his word.  A few announcements and some strong intentions for those in need.

I took us out with something along these lines:  No matter where you fall, the next couple of years in our country will be interesting.  Maybe you see it as positive; maybe you see it as negative.  Regardless, don’t let you politics, policies, or even your views keep you from remaining open to discourse, dialogue and civility.  We may not be able to change things on a national level; perhaps that train is moving too quickly, or perhaps it’s going the right way.  But what we can do, in our community, is keep coming to F3, which gives us a chance to expand our horizons, step out of our comfort level, but more importantly, practice being a decent person every day.  Be a decent person.

CI out.