Aye! All my dire warnings about the horrors that would befall those who obeyed the #Cantores (who said there was an 80% chance of monsoon-like precipitation during the first Nola pre-launch workout) were for naught, as the Gloom was clear and cool at 0530 Tuesday after a night of heavy rains and thunderstorms, and the ground was drained and just barely damp.
Three brave FNGs met Your Humble Correspondent on Roosevelt Mall in City Park, across from Tad Gormley Stadium and we proceeded promptly to …
The Thang:
Jog to warmup COP: Side Straddle Hops, Merkins, Flutter Kicks, Low Slow Squats
1 lap around the track
Ark Loader: Lunge Walk; Bear Crawl; Crab Walk; Leapfrog
1 lap around track
Burpee Suicides on football field: Sprint from goal line to 10, 1 burpee, sprint back; sprint from goal line to 20, 2 burpees, sprint back; … to midfield and 5 burpees, sprint back.
1 lap around track
Push-o-rama COP: Merkins, Larry Craigs, Diamonds, Stagger Right/Left, Chuck Norris.
1 lap around track
6 Minutes of Mary: Flutter kicks, Hello Dolly, High Dolly, Rosalita, Little Baby Crunches, Bicycles, Superman (with singing)
1 lap around track
Plank Rotation: Regular, Right Hand High, Left Hand High, Elbows, Southern Gentleman, Yankee Aggressor, Cross Plank, Tom Cruise.
1 lap around track, sprinting the final straight away.
COT
Spreadsheets from the Gloom:
_ FNGs were Jim Parrie (initially nicknamed Spreadsheeter, but a quick name change to KeyMan (explanation below)); Chris Mysing (Roots); Christian Vaicius (Wicked).
_ The Nola guys have been a little quiet on our e-mail chains, so I challenged them last week to give me an “Aye!” to confirm that they would be coming out for these sessions and not leaving me standing with my ShovelFlag in my hand in the middle of the City Park Gloom. KeyMan and Roots have been enthusiastic Aye-ers, so I was expecting to see them, but Wicked was a pleasant surprise, as he had remained quiet on all emails after our initial phone conversation.
_ The track across from the stadium apparently was the warmup track for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials, which were held at the stadium. It is a full 8 lanes, in great condition, is nicely lit even in the Gloom and was well populated with other folks getting after it in the pre-dawn, including some speedy varieties of tomato. This is going to be a great F3 AO, particularly with the rest of the park to explore.
_ As we wrapped up the COT, Spreadsheeter realized that his car key had fallen out of his pocket at some point during the workout (this led to a quick lesson about the car-key-on-top-of-the-tire trick). After a search of the AO in the dark, we decided that it would be easier to take him home for a spare, then return to the park for his car by which time the lighting would be more conducive to a search. The spare was retrieved and the key was found after the sun had come up, but Spreadsheeter is now KeyMan.
_ The pax were just as weak on the “Greatest American Hero” theme as their predecessors in Richmond were last month. Here’s the YouTube link, men, with the full opening credits sequence and awesome early 80s fx. I expect you to be in full throat by Saturday’s launch workout.
_ After returning KeyMan to his car, I had a very good breakfast at Cafe Navarre, on Navarre Avenue about half a mile from the AO. Potential good spot for Saturday Coffeeteria.
_ Cobains to F3/Metro Redwood Original Achtung Baby, who took a fruitless ride in a Nola taxi trying to get to the workout from his downtown hotel. That’s what you get staying in a fancy CBD hotel instead of a right-next-to-the-interstate no-tell motel, AB. Tomorrow, I’ll pick you up.
OBT
