Today was my second day back in the Gloom and my first day Q-ing in it. I had stayed strong during the lockdown virtually posting with Traffic Cone 4-5 times a week. The rest of our shield lock fell off or went back to the gloom over time but we held strong until Memorial Day. After a pretty grueling Q before the holiday I decided to take a rest day. And that was when the wheels finally fell off.
Traffic stayed strong, continuing to workout. I didn’t. A day went by, then another, then another. At a week I admitted I was struggling . When you struggle in F3 you reach out to your brothers. Pierogi was one of the first to reach out. When I begged off his offer of a conversation-paced mosey twice I realized I was beyond struggling.
“Ok,” I said to Pierogi. “Where are you posting Monday? I’ll be there.”
“You do know you’re signed up to Q Hells Bells, right, Frisco?” he said.
“Of course, I do!” I said, wondering when I had done that. Then in my mind flashed a vague memory of waking up on my lawn in a pile of half eaten donuts, pizza crusts and 5 empty chocolate syrup bottles. I hoped I had eaten the missing milk cartons rather than just drunk the chocolate syrup like a beverage.
I decided that the act of excess in question must belong to Pierogi and I had just picked up the story. I shook my head sadly. No wonder the poor lazy schmuck had reached out to me for help. He probably was even going to fartsack Monday. I finished eating my tub of butter, washed it back with some mayonnaise and set about writing up my HB workout.
I arrived at HB to find at least one PAX finishing up ECP and some Um-Bop-ers rolling in from an EC Run. I brought out my two Kettle Bells (Mary and Widow)–a 20 lb and 40 lb. Lugging them to the curb I decided discretion was the better part of valor and went with Mary.
“Can I borrow one of those?” Kwik Stop asked, walking up.
“Sure, take this 15 lb one. I call it ‘Widow (maker)’.” I tossed him the 40 lb Widow.
Kwik Stop caught it then toppled over backwards. “Long time no KB, KW?” I laughed. I would wake him up before we started. Probably.
-—–
Circle Up, above average disclaimer (for me anyways), and a quick mosey around the parking lot to warm up.
Warm Up
Sir Fazios f/b, seal claps, Liverpool claps (overhead), Steve Earls, some burpees
I noticed at this point one of the site Qs was missing. “Where is Wahoo?” I asked Yahoo.
“I am Wahoo,” he said. “Yahoo is on the other side of the circle.” I looked behind me but didn’t see him.
“Where is Yahoo?” I said.
“I AM Yahoo,” Yahoo said. “Wahoo just ran around to the other side of the circle.”
“Then why did Bubba have to plant his flag? Another AO’s flag?” I demanded. The PAX were up to 75 Seal Claps and starting to grumble. Still it was time to sort this out.
“There are two flags over there,” Yahoo said, pointing. “Bubba just plants a flag everywhere he goes. It’s a comfort thing I think.”
I thought I saw Wahoo running up to the warm up circle. But maybe it was Yahoo. Or maybe Yahoo was running up…to Wahoo who was…running up the…here um ah…the flag….uhhhh…two flags….umm….
“Who’s on 1st,” I asked, wishing I hadn’t eaten all four rashers of bacon for breakfast.
The Thang - Iterating 5s
Curls for Girls (x5)
Prisoner or Goblet Squats (x5)
Lily Pads (x5)
Mountain Climbers (x5)
Merkins (x5)
Repeato X10, repeato x15, repeato x20, repeato x25
Somewhere around during the 15 reps cycle I realized a fatal flaw in my workout. I had let my cardio go during my week of excess and my body was letting me know. I divided us into partners so I could send one (my own group) down the parking lot with lunge walks and farmer carries so I could catch my second wind. My partner, Bubba, thwarted that however by assuming he was Partner 1 and lunged off down the parking lot. I considered throwing my kettle bell at him to take him out so I could call a medical rest but Kwik Stop had woken up by then and was giving me a less than cordial look. I probably couldn’t go to the same well twice.
Luckily, I was able to hide my exhaustion by passing off the count to Snooze. I had to say it three times because I was face down in the gravel but eventually he deciphered “Smouge, mall me mext set” and jumped in.
Thang 2 - Irritating 5s
Side Raises with KB (x5 each side)
Side plank with leg lifts (x5)
Side plank with front and back toe taps (x5)
Side plank with J-LOs (x5)
Side plank with kettle bell lawn mowers (x5)
Repeato on the other side. Iterate with x10 reps.
I passed the x10s count off to Kwik Stop–now I bet you wish you hadn’t taken a nap in the street while everyone else was choosing KBs , don’t you?
Mary - I Understand Why The British Tried to Stop Revere Now
Pax choice followed by some quick stretching. I made the mistake of starting with Hansen who set the count at 25 reps Am Hams. On Revere’s turn he just had to one-up Hansen. I finally stopped Revere’s diamond merkins somewhere around 4,023.
COT:
Nam-o-rama: Respects (3), Mehs (9), Hates (5)
Announcements: None (there’s a first…sign of the times.)
Prayers/Praises: Elementary’s friend, family of Shipper’s employee who passed from COVID, Snooze’s friend, Oleg continued process of getting here, the couple trying to adopt that are running into some complications, the country and our leaders now managing two major crises, people on different sides of issues that can hopefully find common ground, others unspoken.
NMS:
I am a man of few words. But if I have to say something it would be I am glad to be back-ish in the Gloom. I did not expect it would be so hard to step back out into the Gloom once I felt it was safe-ish.
All that said I am still keeping the Monday and Wednesday virtual workouts open to give the guys still on lockdown an opportunity to still post. DM me if you are interested. The Zoom isn’t the Gloom, but it’s better than the alternative.
Great to lead you men today. MIAGD.