It’s Tuesday night, which meant it was time for the finest evening 1st F AO in all of Carpex – Rush Hour! To truly make it Rush Hour, YHC strapped on my workout belt and blared some Rush tunes from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. One of the things you may not know about me is that I loved Rush when I was in middle school / high school, and I was a drummer, so I was always awed at the pure genius and precision of Neal Peart. Even to this day, as I sit here listening to La Villa Strangiato while writing this backblast, I am amazed at his skill!
Anywho, as we were jamming out to Tom Sawyer, Theismann decided that he needed someone to join him in wearing a weighted vest during the workout, and O’Douls was his huckelberry. I did warn him that we’d be doing a lot of strength work, heck, I even pre-blasted that there would be a lot of strength work. But they stuck with the vests. After a perfunctory disclaimer, our first exercise was the Pledge, after which we did some light moseying over to the grass west of the Parking Deck, including butt kickers, high knees, and karaokes.
Warm Up
Good Afternoons ICx10, SSH ICx10, Quad Stretch 10 count, SFAC forward-Seal Clap-SFAC backwards-OH Clap each ICx10, Calf Stretch (or what Frisco calls the Runner’s Stretch) 10 count provided by Kermit in a couple of different fashions (1-10-2-9-3-8-4-7-5-6, etc.)
It should come to nobody’s surprise what happend next. Yes, there will be painsticks. Each PAX went to the pile to grab a pain stick, and we gathered back up in the parking deck lower level for the following….
Thang – Full Body Pain
15 Squats OMD – carry painstick up the stairs to the top level – 15 Mericans OMD, using the painstick underneath your chest to “spot” you (the Merican doesn’t count unless your chest hits the painstick) – Overhead carry painstick to the far side of the Parking Deck for 15 Calf Raises OMU – go down the stairs to the first level for 15 Curls for Girls OMU, then walk down the ramp to our starting point.
The whole idea behind this sequence was to get in an upper and lower body workout, as well as hit one of the oft overlooked muscle groups in normal F3 workouts – the calves. There wasn’t a whole lot of mumblechatter, but there was a lot of heavy breathing, so I felt pretty good that the PAX were getting a good workout in. There was also appropriate sharing of the heavier pain sticks in the group, including the guys who were wearing vests.
The plan was to rinse and repeat this sequence 5 times. But after the third go-round, I did a time check and realized that we were about done. So I did a bit of a fake out, starting the fourth sequence with Control Freak squats, and had Theismann call the last up, since he had the most weight of anybody (most likely). Painsticks were gladly returned to the pile, for an Indian run back through the courtyard and over to the pocket park to wrap up
Mary
First exercise of the Mary was “Take off your shoes and socks” This raised some questions from Bluewater and O’Douls, but they dutifully complied. Back to some more standard Mary – LBCs, Freddy Mercuries, Homer to Marge, Chillcut Plank Holds, Dying Cockroaches, and my favorite finishing move, the four count flutter kick with an extended hold (at least a 10 count) before calling recover and Have a Nice Evening.
After gathering our socks and shoes, we headed over to the fountain, and dipped our feet in the water of the fountain, which was only marginally cooler than the ambient.
COT
Countarama – 1 hate, 2 respect, 3 meh
Six hole – as it happened, I was “in the six hole” so I took some time to talk about what F3 has done for me and what I like the most about it. I spoke to how the men of Carpex have given me more than support, networking, and prayers during my career transition after having been severed on May 1 as the result of an acquisition. Maybe more importantly, it has given me a really good reason to get up in the morning and get active to counteract the depression-like feelings brought on by the void created by not working.
Announcements – 9/11 stair climb at Carter Finley stadium (which is still happening on 9/11…), VQ Week is coming up on 9/16, and Rucktoberfest is coming up in mid-September through mid-October – basically rucking at various Oktoberfest celebrations across the Triangle
Prayers / Praises – for Captain Kirk who recently lost his mother, praises for the men who came out to support Liverpool at his testimonial about losing his son to suicide 18 months ago, Kermit with specific prayers in his heart, along with all the unspoken prayers.
YHC took us out
NMS
Super HIM Press On brought post-beatdown refreshments, including waters, Gatorades, and assorted beers. There’s really nothing like having a cold Naturday right after a workout, especially if you’re drinking it in the parking lot of the police station. It was a genius move for him to bring Orange solo cups, since Red solo cups just scream “I’m trying to hide the fact that I’m drinking in public!”
VERY impressed at Theismann and O’Douls for completing the beatdown with not just painsticks, but the weighted vests as well – total beast mode!
I do love the RH AO, as it is nice having a smaller group of guys to drag through the workouts.
It really is a shame that they have built a fence by the railroad tracks at the back of the parking lot, cutting off our very convenient shortcut to Bond Brothers. Maybe we should just go with the BYOB approach and bring some camp chairs? Or hit up Jordan Lake brewery for a change?