June 1st, 2018 By Greek

12 worthy victims showed up this morning for a beat down at Skywalker.  The workout was called “The Final Countdown” primarily because YHC is only days away from having a second child, but I tried to incorporate the countdown theme throughout the Q.  Also, several members of the PAX were beginning the Triple Nickel Challenge, so I committed to giving them a head start by providing lots of Merkin, sit-up and running activity.  After delivering a short at-your-own-risk disclaimer, the Final Countdown began….

Warmarama

• 15 Side-Straddle Hops
• 15 Imperial Stormtroopers
• 15 Mountain Climbers
• 15 Cotton Pickers

The Thang

The first part of the workout included a stairs exercise.  For some reason, I really had an urge to do stadiums.  But then I realized Skybrook didn’t have a stadium….yet (hoping Kool-Aid will petition the HOA given his good rapport).  Thus, we formed a line in front of the tiny set of stairs leading to the club house and took turns in pairs going up and down the steps 10 times each way.  While each pair was running the off-brand stadiums, the rest of the PAX enjoyed a few audible rounds of Merkins, WWII sit-ups, Monkey Humpers and LBCs.  After achieving a sufficient level of dizziness, the PAX moseyed over to Hillspring Drive.

The next section of the workout included a countdown of Merkins.  We started with a random tree at the top of the hill on Hillspring Drive and worked our way down the street, stopping at every other tree to complete 10 Merkins at the first tree, then 9 Merkins at the next, then 8…etc. until we reached the path to the Pavilion at Central Park.  Once at the Pavillion, we were greeted by the picnic tables and their benches invited a few rounds of synchronized Incline Merkins, Dips, Decline Merkins and Sit Squats (bottom-to-bench squats).

The last part of the workout was intended to have an AO on the Soccer Fields, but the heavy rainfall suggested it would have been mostly swamp land.  Also, Black Sheep had preemptively shared his opinion on drudging through Barrister’s weed infested wetland football field a few days prior, so I decided to keep the PAX happy…or at least dry (Phantom was also appreciative).  The setup included a starting point and 5 other stations indicated by either a street lamp or an orange cone.  The course began at the playground and led up to point #5 at the top of Hillspring before returning back through each point and ending at the playground.  These points provided 10 stations and, thus, a perfect number for countdowns of 10 whereby we would run to each point and complete a declining number of reps at each station (so 10 reps at the first marker, 9 reps at the second, 8…etc.).  Unfortunately for the PAX, I aggressively started with a round of Burpees.  Then I remembered Burpees are never, never a good idea.  I gave the PAX an audible option to Monkey Hump instead of Burp.  Although most of the PAX completed the Burpees, we were pretty exhausted afterwards so the next round included Jump Squats (and a much better reception).  As time began to run out, we finished up with a half round of Merkins and then headed to Mary.

Mary

Given we had already tackled a fair amount of Merkins and running for the Nickel Challengers, we began our recovery with a “sit-ups to exhaustion” session to help balance everything out.  For good measure, we did some more LBCs and then ended the day with a final countdown using our feet to write out numbers in the air starting with 10, then 9, then 8…..etc. At that point, we were all down for the count and thankful that the beat down was over.

Moleskin

• Thanks to all guys who attended my second Q today- appreciate several folks from the Highlands crew coming over.  Hope you all enjoyed it.  I’ll be leading The Nature Boy Part II sometime this summer after I reset my life with this second baby.
• Not sure if I made Ty Webb’s blacklist, but I didn’t do myself any favors with the intense round of Burpees.
• King Tiger 5K this Saturday.
• It’s not too late to join the Triple Nickel Challenge for June (5,000 Merkins, 5,000 sit-ups and 50 miles of running).  We made some serious progress today.
• Don’t forget The 4th Musketeer Extreme Character Challenge is coming up October 4th.  I’m planning to attend, but need some fellow brothers to join me.  Luigi is hosting an informational session at his house next Thursday night with free pizza starting at 6:30pm.  Check out the evite for more details (http://evite.me/qqbEjz9eNT).

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