February 22nd, 2023
PAX (15): Griswold, Retweet, Khakis, Skipper, Vandelay, Slow Pitch, Wait Time, Low Flow, Black Lung, Tight Lip, Hindsight, Stella, Grillz, Lite-Brite, Hard Hat.
Q: Hard Hat
Weather: Feels like 17, a little breezy and cloudy. Streets, sidewalks, etc. were clear.
Welcome: Plenty of PAX doing pre stuff. The group was chatty leading up to start time. The chats were interrupted and the intro ensued. There were no new guys, although I’d spotted a water bottle next to a car tire in the lot, and assumed there may have been a new guy in our presence. We hit the core principles, the mission, and the disclaimer. The PAX were informed that this would be similar to a traditional Paradise Island beatdown, with running and exercises, but the difference would be the running route. Instead of a large loop with stops along the way, we’d have a much smaller loop with one spot for exercises in between laps. This way the bruisers could ruck a small loop and join the main group in between each lap.
We took off for the laps, with the runners heading to the pond between the apartments and parking garage, and the ruckers/bruisers heading to the statue at the South side of the pond. The goose shit covered grassy area is where we’d circle up for our exercises. After the first lap, the group convened and were instructed that they could either pick up the six or do Monkey Humpers until the six came in. This was expected after completion of each lap. The first round of exercises was some nice easy broga stretching to get everyone loosened up. We reached for the sky, folded down to our toes, walked into a down dog, and did Lizard poses with an added twist. Upon recovery, the runners were informed that their second lap would go around the bean shaped trail to the East, which is a little longer loop than the one around the pond. The rounds of laps would alternate after each round of exercises. Following the 2nd lap, Merkins were performed. The amount was only known by the Q, as he instructed the group to do Merkins on his “down” until he told them to stop. After 47 merkins, “Recover” was called. Following the 3rd lap, Flutter Kicks, IC were performed. Again, the PAX did not know how long this would go, until the obvious inflection in cadence call instructed the PAX to halt after 51 flutter kicks. Following the 4th lap, the PAX performed Ass to Grass squats in a slower “down” count, and this time “Recover” was called out after 30. Black Lung seemed a little disappointed though, stating that we could do those all day. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do more. The PAX were instructed to complete one more lap around the pond, then make their way back to the shovel flags.
Due to time, the workout finished with one round of Rancid style American Hammers.
Closing: We had an announcement regarding the Halfway House this coming Sunday. There were prayers requested for Davinci as he mourns the loss of his brother. There were a couple other items brought forward, but they are escaping me at the moment. We did have a Nugent Flag passing from Khakis to Grillz, which occurred following the COT.
COT: Yesterday on my way to wrestling practice, I was listening to a podcast with my son about wrestling mindset. The topic for the episode was “are you having fun this season?”. A point was being made, that a wrestler chooses to do this sport, which is difficult, and usually has goals in mind. If you accomplish your goals, but you didn’t enjoy the process of being able to accomplish them, was this accomplishment a success? Surely you enjoy what you do, at least to an extent. The podcaster encouraged the listeners to think about what it is that you enjoy about the different aspects of the sport (i.e. tournaments, practices, etc.). My son and I were discussing this as we continued on to practice, and I couldn’t help but think about this in other aspects of life, outside of sports. We know its good for us to identify things we are grateful for, even if we don’t make a habit of writing that out, or focusing on it daily. Finding the things we enjoy about different relationships, work, etc. is essentially the same thing. Think about the joy you get from the different parts of your life and try to focus on those. It’s too easy to focus on the negative things. After our discussion, we got into practice and our club’s recent state champ was there. He won his title just a few days ago and was already back in the wrestling room, training for his next one. Saturday after he won, my son and I were betting with each other whether the champ would take a well deserved day off on Sunday, or if he’d be right back into training. We found out yesterday, that he was right back to training and was getting into the wrestling room daily. He did this because he loves the sport. He knows what brings him joy with it, and he’s focusing on those things. It was a great example of that point in practice.
Aye!
Hard Hat