YHC knew that today would be tough after yesterday’s push with Cardinal to complete the Yankee-Jerf-Lee Challenge at The Stage in time to get him to say Mass without mud on his face. And, we also needed some warmup for Week 0 of the Iron Pax Challenge to be completed on Thursday morning. So, with the truck loaded with coupons, YHC moved slowly and trepidatiously (behind the usual creeping vehicles on Main Project Rd.) to Schriever Park. Simultaneously, Goats in the Machine was traveling to The Stage with dreams of sweaty brotherhood dancing in his poorly mistaken head.
Due to the slow traffic, YHC arrived exactly at 6:00 to meet Enron and do a poor job of unloading the truck, which required a second trip through the mire to get the bug spray and the coupons. That’s when Elmer’s pulled in hot, saying something about slow cars and a snotty baby. So, warmup commenced at 6:06, which ended up being a merciful gift of providence since six more minutes may have been the death of us.
Warmup: the usual routine, but added a never-before-seen-in-Thibodaux exercise that was a favorite on the Northshore–Good Mornings: hands behind the head, stand up straight, and bend over at the waist as far as possible before coming back up again. Fires up the lower back muscles to get them warm and flexible, for they would be much abused today.
Thang 1: Swamp Crawlin’ and Coupon Ploppin’
Partner Dora of the following exercises: 100 coupon thrusters while partner bear crawled the length of the fence (at the back of the tennis courts, near the playground, in the mud) and ran back; 200 coupon curls while partner bunny hopped through the mud and ran back; and 300 coupon rows while partner nurred through mud and back. Gloves and socks were muddy, and the coupons made a satisfying plop as partners flapjacked.
The thrusters were to prepare for Thursday morning’s ridiculousness (some pre-trauma trauma), and the curls were to keep the Jerf-Lee routine strong, though Enron seems to remain completely unfazed by any and all coupon curls. Even Elmer’s, with his beefy carpenter arms, had to bow to the finance wizard’s steely biceps.
At some point during this routine, Goats drove by honking wildly on his way to Mr. Ronnie’s (I’m assuming) after showing up to a dark and empty Stage at 6:05. (Cardinal and Yankee Joe were able to respond quickly to his GroupMe plea for help–well done, fellas.)
Thang 2: Thunder-dome
With very little felt energy left in the tank after the Dora (thrusters are truly the worst), YHC knew the mental battle was just getting started. Anker was activated and AC/DC echoed through the mini-Thunderdome with pounding rhythm of “Thunderstruck”. PAX instinctively started Imperial Walkers and dropped for burpees at every “Thunder”. They didn’t even have to be told–they felt it. We began to feel a number of other things as the song continued, such as the desire to tell Ozzy to shove it and just end the song already, and ideas for how to travel back in time and remove Imperial Walkers from the Exicon.
Slow moseyed back to the flag for some Mary and to get mud on the parts of us that weren’t muddy yet. COT and Elmer’s prayed us out.
It’s been awesome to see so much engagement and drive moving into September with the Yankee-Jerf-Lee and the Iron Pax Challenge, not to mention potential resurrection from Goats, Gordon, and the newly minted Toe Loop. Looking forward to some serious growth!
SYITG,
Goose
