Tag: Cowbell

  • Remembering

    5 men did the annual 9/11 stair climb on Tuesday to remember and honor those 2792 men, women, and children who died 18 years ago. Hard to believe it’s that long ago already, and how much that event changed our world.

    With the grueling Iron Pax Challenge happening both the day before and after this beatdown, this was a great opportunity for us to slow down a bit, talk, and reflect.

    Sweating profusely with the 100% humidity that seems to accompany every day here, we wondered aloud how difficult it must’ve been for those firefighters to ascend in all their gear, with all that weight and heat, and with the knowledge that things would likely not go well for them. YHC cannot imagine the fear that would produce, and that these men were able to push that aside and rush up is astonishing.

    So we climbed 82 1/2 flights at Grandmother’s, which according to Pelican’s calculations approximated the 110 floors of the WTC. Quick Mary of 20x Merkins, Hello Dolly’s, Freddie Mercs, and LBC’s. COT and Chewy prayed us out, reminding us to be thankful for the sacrifice those men and women made for our country.

  • The Backup

    Being called in as a last minute backup can go one of two ways: either you’re a little stressed because you have to plan a beatdown quickly, or maybe the opposite, a little too relaxed, shirking that preparation because… hey, you’re the backup, what’re they expecting?

    Now, I’m not gonna say that YHC came wholly unprepared, not my style.  But preparation was …light.

    We already knew Pik and Wacker were out this morning, so Shooter and I stood in the darkness wondering if it’d be just the two of us.  Then we saw Cowbell’s truck coming in hot… or at least, we thought it was Cowbell’s truck.  It came and went.  Hmm. “I guess that wasn’t Cowbell,” I say to Shooter. “No, that was him,” he responds. And sure enough, the car returns after pulling a three-point turn and Cowbell pops out.  Hmm. Well, it is early in the morning, no judgement here.

    Warmorama:  Torso twist, arm circles, SSH, IW’s, high knees, and butt kicks, all x20 IC.

    Thang:  Mosey a whopping 20 feet to the edge of the basketball court for a mix of suicides and AMRAPS:

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of merkins

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of BB sit-ups

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of jump tucks

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of one leg lateral hops, another minute for the other leg

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of Aussie pull-ups

    Full court suicide

    90 seconds of plank jacks

    Lunge walk half the court, bear crawl back

    1 minute of shoulder taps

    Full court suicide

    Over to center court for a rousing round of Burp n’ Merk (ascending merkins with each burpee), up to 10. Shooter requested we descend back down to 1, as real men would, but time was short.

    Closed it out with some Mary, little manny crunches, hello dolly’s, x 25 in random cadences.

    COT and Shooter prayed us out.  A sincere thank you for the opportunity to better myself with good men like yourselves.

  • Back Blasts from the Past

    Inspired by Chewy’s spate of back to back to back blasts, YHC figured it was time to put some fingers to the keyboard. I love to read these things, so why have I shirked my duty for my last 3 Q’s?  

    Alright, let’s forget the counts just this once, as I’ll be lucky to get the rest of it right:

    Warmorama – SSH, IWs, Cherry Pickers, arm circles, air presses, etc.

    And finally, high knees until called, then drop for a burpee…. round the circle we went, a few times.

    Thang: Over to the pull-up bars, my favorite feature of the marsh.  One man does 5 pull ups, while the rest of the pax does flutters.  5 rounds of this, (that’s 25 per man for you non-mathematicians) and then on to hanging knee tucks.  10 per man this time, while everyone does J-Los.  3 rounds here of this.

    A long mosey from the warm confines of the Marsh to the warm expanse of the lakefront.  Oh, forgot – we sprinted a few of those blocks.  Maybe… 2?   Then hit up the sea wall for none other than: Step Ups, Freaks, Bulgarians, Freaks, Step ups with Knee Raises, Freaks.

    Over to a grassy spot for some Captain Thor, 1 sit-up to 4 putins, up to 10/40.  This was Cowbell’s virgin Thor experience, he seemed to enjoy.

    Mosey back to the Marsh, this time stopping at each corner to do 10 merkins.  Switched it up each block, alternating between wide, diamond, T, and your plain ol’ average merkin.  

    COT and Cowbell prayed us out.  Thanks gents for the opportunity to lead, and for keeping each other sharp.  Love to start the week out here with you guys.

  • B-Limps

    8 pax met at Gma’s house on the gloriously muggy morning.

    The attendance was a little up this morning, after Cowbell’s call to action on Saturday at the lakefront.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to parking lot for Quick Warm up:

    SSH x 20; IW x 20; Merkins x 20 all IC

    Mosey to the under pass for

    1 lap of hill repeats and 25 Burpees, Lunges, IW, Merkins, Plank J’s, and Skwaats after each

    Mosey back to the Flag
    Distance 2.5 miles according to Cowbell.

    COM: including Side ups, and V Ups x 25 and BB sit ups x 10 led by Zoo

    Zoolander, again showing his ability to heal like Wolverine, running hill repeats < 10 weeks post-op ankle surgery.

    COT, Name-o-Rama: Welcome FNG Handy, who is married to Zoolander’s sister. Prayer .

    thanks guys for letting me lead,

    Chewy.

  • SOAP Note

    Subjective: The pax arrived at Shovel flag, everyone was happy to see EiEi and Burgundy. They haven’t been around in a while.

    Objective: Warm up exercises including jane fondas, wife pleasers, Mt climbers and IW x 20 each. The pax then ran 3.something miles, and then finished up with 100 skwaats.

    Assessment: Cowbell and Waterpick are fast, they had to plank a long time waiting for Ei and YHC. There was a lot of grumbling about the 100 skwaats, but overall everyone enjoyed the run and seemed to tolerate it well.

    Plan: Lets do it again next Thursday!

    Thanks for letting me lead,

    Chewy

  • A Love Letter to the Gipper

    Hey Gipper! It’s been a while. Did you miss me? I sure missed you. In fact, I missed you so much that slow-ass drivers and blinding rain couldn’t keep me away this morning. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder! And, of course, my most sincere apologies for my lateness, but I made sure you were in the excellent hands of Barely Legal until I arrived. He made sure you were nice and warm with Windmills and other exercises by the time I got there. Though I had to be absolutely certain you were ready to break a sweat by adding Torso Twists and Scorpion Kicks to the list.

    I didn’t want to waste any time in getting reacquainted so I lead you to the top of the justice center parking garage, which seemed like the perfect setting for some…fun n games;)

    I was planning to honor Coconuts, and crown a new champion in Turbo Tax’s conspicuous absence, but, alas, I forgot my phone with the freshly downloaded Beep Test app. Instead, I – wouldn’t quite say settled – on Doracides to really get you all hot and bothered. Moby Dick was playing with himself, as we all teamed up to do cumulative 100 SSH, 200 Merkins, 300 Squats and 400 100s, while the odd partner did suicides with 1 or 2 burpees at each point.

    By this time our pulses were racing, but things were really about to get Jacked Up. In cadence, we did a set of x50SSH, then 40Seal Jacks, 30 Plank Jacks and 20 Smurf Jacks. I don’t know about you, but that really took my breath away!

    After revving our engines so hard, I wanted to finish things off a little more gently. So we mosied back to the flag for some Little Manny Crunches and Freddy Mercurys.

    Still flying high on the buzz of our electrifying encounter, the COT was immediately followed by some direct O MY HALLELUJAH from Einstein.

    I’m sorry I had to run out so abruptly when we finished, but, ya know, I had a… thing… I had to get to. You were incredible Gipper! My body aches in places I didn’t know I had, for cryin’ out loud! You’ll always be my favorite…be seeing ya.

  • Routine break

    Backblast will be like the beatdown, just a routine break at work.. It shall be brief and to the point so here it goes..

    Warmup

    10IC Torso twist, 10IC Scorpion kicks, Down dawg stretch with right leg high and left leg high.. 10IC SSH and 10IC Butt kicks..

    Thang

    Standard route through ole Mandeville with 4 breaks in the run. 3 taking place at the corner of Monroe and Massena Street to drop for 5 Merkins, 5 eight count body builders and 25 LBCs. One on the run down, after the circle, on Sunset pier and again at the corner on the return to the AO..

    Upon return the PAX completed 20IC Freddie Mercuries, chill cut Plank with right arm high and left arm high.

    count, announce, COT

    Appreciation to Waterpik for 🙏🏻 us out!!

    👍🏻👊🏻✌🏻 Till the next Gloom!

  • Roots

    When planning today’s beatdown, YHC decided it might be a good idea to get in touch with our roots. With that in mind, YHC revisited the roots of the Milestone March. Of course Bushwacker, ever the commentator, accurately pointed out that YHC was not around when the roots were planted by Senor Butt Splice et al. at the Milestone Marsh. Who cares? Not me. And off we went into the Gloom.

    Warmup

    SSH, Arm Circles, Squats, Imperial Walkers

    Thang: 1 minute merkins, 1 minute Big boy sit ups, then timed 1 mile run to the seawall and back.

    Mary:

    Flutter kicks, Hello Dollies, 1 minute Plank, Crunchy Frogs.

    I think I may have forgotten some exercises that we did because that BB is awfully short.

  • F2 With the boys

    Warmup– SSH, Windmills, Toe Touches, Mummy Walk,

    Main Event–10 minute circuit– 10 of each, Squats, Merkins, Scissor Kicks, LBC’s. Include stair run and 50 meter run.

    Move on to arm presses and extended arm rotations.

    Mosey back for some cool down exercises.

    Prayer led by Grundy then on to the Top Room for some refreshments

  • When You Gotta Go…

    Mid 70s never felt so humid! How foolish to suppose that a respite from the summertime blues would result from an unseasonably cool beginning to the eighth month of 2019. And speaking of beginnings…

    WARMORAMA

    x10 IC:

    Toe Touches

    Torso Twists

    Imperial Walkers

    SSH

    Windmills

    THANG

    The prescribed scramble route was taken in earnest by the cavalier band of brothers, which included the long lost Pelican! After a near miss early on by a Charger which obviously couldn’t conceive of pre-dawn runners on the streets of it’s neighborhood, the trio of Steve, Cowbell, and the road warrior Waterpik were off to a respectable 8:25 pace. Meanwhile, Pelican and YHC were tangled in conversation over the merits and/or faults of letting females into traditionally all male organizations such as scouts and military.

    Upon exiting Sunset Point, Q’s bowels suddenly reached critical mass! Instructions were quickly proffered for Pelican to lead ISI for the day, as a super-scramble was made to the providentially placed port-o-potties.

    While back at the flag, Waterpik was making Shooter-inspired sweat angles, Steve was making Grundy-inspired form corrections, and Cowbell was having Bushwacker-inspired diarrhea of the mouth…or so YHC could only imagine!

    MARY

    At the exercise area, PAX did LBCs while each man bear crawled across the space and back. Similarly, was Freddy Mercurys/Bunny Hops, and Leg Raises/Duck Walks.

    COUNT/NAME

    Pelican prayed us out and the PAX dispersed to greet the day.

    Thanks for your patience with the Q today guys!

    *Alternate title: I Really Hate to Poop n Run, Guys