Monday, August 19, 2024 – Weather: 63 degrees and nice
Speed Murph (Smurph) Attendance (6 PAX): Flo, Macho Man, Cake, House Arrest, Crowd Source, Hard Hat
Two new comers to the site, Cake and Macho Man, parked on the backside (or maybe front) of the school, so we waited for them to come around and we took off. The intro and explanation for the Smurph was short, since it is pre-stuff of sorts, but the Smurph does have an origin story and I feel there is some important things to address regarding the Smurph as it relates to how we do things. For this edition of the Smurph, we planned on running the mile + route, doing 10 rounds, and the mile + route in reverse. Things don’t always go as planned though, and with Crowdsource and Hard Hat leading the run, they were convinced they chose the correct route. Flo and House Arrest were quick to question it, but we stuck to it and soon realized we’d taken the 3/4 mile route. To help make up for it, we went down the hill and took the windy sidewalk back up to the playground to help make up a little distance. The rest of the Smurph went as per usual, and we got back to the flags in a decent amount of time. As we were wrapping up the run, I had asked Macho Man if he was sticking around for the 2nd Murph. He said he had to depart to get ready for a work trip out of state. This is where I feel we could use a little more consistency with Smurphs/Pre-Murphs. Sometimes guys are only able to make it to a Smurph, and then they have to leave. I actually love it when guys do this, because they show everyone else that although their schedules are busy and they can’t make a regular workout, it’s ok to show up and do what you can, then leave. The problem with this is that many times, these guys miss out on one of the things that make our workouts so special. That’s the COT. Some guys are good about wrapping up a Smurph with a quick prayer, and I appreciate that every time I encounter it. If the Q is there for the Smurph, he can provide a brief version of the COT for the main event, or maybe share a totally different COT. In the spirit of Q School, I explained that since we had a guy leaving, we would have a short COT to give him something to ponder. The COT was regarding the origin story of the Smurph (the Speed Murph). I give all of the credit to the Smurph to Bubbles, because it was his busy schedule as a swim coach that had him unable to make it to Monday Murphs for a while. The whole point at the beginning of the Smurph was to do a Murph as quick as we could, before the regular Murph. We’d shoot for 35 minutes to complete. Sometimes we wouldn’t finish before the main event started. That was ok, because at first, we only had guys doing one Murph a week. It didn’t take long though (2 weeks?) for guys to start doubling up. Then the start time crept forward 5 minutes, and eventually 10, to give us the 45 minute timeframe we know and love today. This was out of necessity to accommodate more guys that wanted to do an earlier Murph and/or double up. Soon enough F3GSO found out we had guys regularly double murphing every Monday while they were doing their 24 Murphs in 8 weeks challenge. They sent shirts to the guys here that were consistently doubling up each week, and we felt a sense of obligation to participate in their challenge the following year. That is where our annual Murph Challenge in July & August came from. We wrapped things up with a short prayer, and had a couple of minutes to spare to greet guys and prep ourselves for the next Murph.
Main Murph Attendance (13 PAX): Cake, Hotbox, Gainer, Flo, Lite Brite, Hosel Rocket, Bounty, Cutting Edge, Clark Kent, House Arrest, Enterprise, Crowd Source, Hard Hat.
For the main Murph, the full introduction was made, which includes our 5 Core Values, the F3 mission statement, our credo, and the disclaimer. The Q School: Murph Edition was announced, and a brief explanation of what to expect was provided. *Many items that could/should have been discussed throughout the workout were omitted due to time constraints, so this backblast serves as learning material to supplement today’s class.
The routes planned and make up of today’s workout were explained. We would run the 3/4 mile route, do 5 rounds of the prescribed exercises, run the 1/2 mile route, complete the remaining 5 rounds, and then finish with the 3/4 mile route in reverse. Guys were encouraged that if modification was necessary on the run, to make sure to find a buddy to run with. There is no shame in asking for a little help, and we all need to modify at times.
We were off. As we completed the first run, some music was turned on. Although it’s definitely not a requirement, the Boundary Line has become known as a Murph site that usually has music, and it almost seems awkward/uncomfortable doing a Murph there without any music. Before starting with the prescribed exercises, we split into two groups. Boundary Line typically has attendance numbers that facilitate one group to do all rounds together, but 13 seemed like a little much to be pushing it on the pull ups, so we split. This was good, because it allows guys to step up and lead counts and cadences. We did our thang, guys were called on to lead core exercises, and after 5 rounds we went on our 2nd run. We came back, repeated for 5 rounds, wrapped up the exercises with 29 American Hammers (Rancid style), and due to timing, we opted to run the 1/2 mile route. Now before anyone starts complaining about the group not getting the full 2 miles in, just know, the distances described for each of the routes were courtesy of Speed Square when he launched the site, and anyone familiar with this site knows that he underestimated the distances for those routes. Everyone easily exceeded the 2 mile *requirement.
Once back at the flags, we did our Name-a-rama, asked for announcements and prayers, and got into the COT. A couple of guys had to take off after the Name-a-rama, and I explained to the rest of the group, I actually appreciate them doing that. Sure, they miss out on the remaining things we discussed, but I’d way rather guys show up and do what they can then not show up at all. That goes for leaving early, showing up late, only getting a Smurph in, or whatever. We had announcements regarding the Valas weekend, the Boundary Line flag pass next week, the 2nd F Pickball and Potluck on Saturday, and an upcoming 2nd F paintball event. There were several prayers requested. The COT was a 2-parter. First part is regarding the Murph workout. Named after Navy Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, a Navy SEAL, who lost his life in combat while selflessly moving into gunfire to make communication for extraction of his team. The workout is one that he would do regularly (I’ve heard he did it every Friday) and he called it Body Armor, because he would wear his body armor while completing a 1 mile run, then 100 pull-ups, followed by 200 push-ups, followed by 300 air squats, and all wrapped up with another 1 mile run. The crossfit world has taken that workout and really embraced it. F3 has done the same, but not the same in every region. Many guys will find that F3Omaha is pretty unique in that we do a Murph every Monday, and a lot of guys will regularly double up. The 2nd part of the COT was regarding Q School and leading a Murph workout. The Murph is basically an “off-the-shelf” workout that doesn’t require much planning. Think about the routes you want to run, the makeup of how many rounds between runs, and if or when you need to split the group up. If it’s a small group, you can easily stick together and just rotate around the circle counting each of the exercises. If the group is larger and you have to split up, be aware of time, and be ready to call on guys to lead the exercise, or step up yourself if guys are being quiet. It takes quite a bit of time to get through a Murph with a larger group. If you want to shake things up and do the Murph differently, have at it, just think about how you’re going to do it and how much time it will take to complete. If you attempt to do the Murph the way Michael Murphy would have, just know that for most guys that are in great physical shape, it still takes them around 45 minutes to complete, so it’s not very feasible for our standard weekday workout timeframes. That is better suited for a Saturday or some sort of pop up. Also, you may hear of the Farva Murph where you run a mile in between each round of exercises. Obviously that will take more time, because you are running many more miles. Many guys may find that workout to be intimidating, but I assure you, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Again, I love to see guys pushing themselves and doing what they can, even if it means modifying exercises, or the amount of time they can spend on a workout. Many things I would have liked to discuss in this Q School session will be found below in the post workout notes.
Go out, have fun, and lead! – Hard Hat
- Post Workout Notes
- Merkins get called out on your down, unless you’re Enterprise, then it’s up (because he wants to be positive on Monday’s)
- Squats get called out on your down
- Most Core exercises are counted out in a four count cadence, which has the guy leading a 1-2-3 count for each motion, and the group collectively counting the rep. In cadence counts should have the final “1-2-3” called out with some inflection to signify the final rep.
- There’s no shame in messing stuff up, it just makes the morning a little more memorable. Have some fun with it if things don’t go quite as planned.
- If you are the Q, it’s always best practice to have your phone on you during runs. Hopefully the site Q(s) does as well. This is in the event of an emergency. Thankfully we’ve had very few emergencies, but you always want to be prepared.
- The final core exercise we generally do is American Hammers, and we usually do 29 reps of these. Michael Murphy was 29 years old when he lost his life. We do this in his honor. We have become very accustomed to doing these “Rancid style”. Our brother Rancid is known for doing this style of count to include everyone at the beatdown in the counting. I love this, because it gives newer guys an opportunity to practice counting in cadence. Everyone gets involved, and as many of you have experienced, some guys will put their own spin on their count by doing things like counting in another language, or extending the counts duration to incite a little more pain, maybe speeding up the count to get through faster, counting out of order to confuse fellow pax, or even saying something else that may be fun and bring a smile to guys faces.