Tag: Popeyes

  • IPC Stragglers – from Goose

    A few of us had waited till the regular Saturday, Peltch-fest IPC time to crank out the hoagies and grinders, I mean burpees and thrusters. Or, maybe we were grateful for the chance to put it off till the last minute.
    As the expected PAX waded in through the waste deep water, and the rain continued for the fourth straight day, YHC was looking for a place where we could do thrusters in the grass but burpees on the pavement. (Mud burpees are fun, but not if you’re trying to do over 200 for time.) That’s when the last person any of expected to show up showed up. That’s right, Yankee Joe, Mr. Backiotomy himself, pulled up with the Prius’s waterproof battery installed.
    He immediately revealed The Fire Within, and that, combined with YHC’s being clad in Phil the Hurt, Enron’s left-out feelings began to stir. But, hey, there are only three named tank tops to go around, so, you’ll have to wait your turn.
    After a lengthy warmup for maximum back and shoulder loosening, we moseyed to the edge of the playground where the coupon herd awaited us. After some debate about the best combo of mud and pavement, Smooth pointed out that the wooden pylons around the playground made for perfectly spaced stalls for each PAX.
    YHC explained the routine at YJ’s request, revealing that had YJ known what a back-blaster this workout would be, he may not have been so cavalier in jumping back into the fray. But here we were, so suggested modifications were given, the music was cued up, and the tyrannical EMOM timer was unleashed.
    Round 1 was done by all with plenty of confidence, each of us surprised and hopeful at the amount of thrusters we could fit into the 40-ish seconds left after five quick burpees. And that was it—that’s how long the confidence and hope lasted. Round 2 revealed the truth—we were in for a long, awful grind made possible only by the fact that the man next to you wasn’t gonna stop. And the men Wednesday didn’t stop. So, don’t think about how many are left, don’t think about whether you can do it, and definitely don’t take breaks—the loop monster was hot on our heels.
    Enron and Valve were driving each other at a breakneck pace, and Pope was popping burpees like they were side straddle hops. YHC, on the other hand, takes a little longer to throw this long, heavy body around, and after seeing Honeysuckle’s performance on Wednesday and hearing that his thruster form was impeccable throughout, my thrusters would have to be real thrusters. Elbows to knees every time. No man should be left alone in his suffering, and doing that many proper thrusters in under 25 minutes is suffering, no matter how low your resting heart rate is.
    Pope, Enron, and Valve took off on the 400 meter run, but YHC still had a ways to go. YJ and Smooth were courageously sticking with it. Smooth even commented that he was already farther along than he got on Wednesday. What a hoss.
    The numbers kept creeping along, with every thrusters and burpee bought at a high price. They each felt valuable, but there were still so, so many required before the rewards of rest and pride could be attained.
    YHC hoped irrationally that the second half would at least start off a little easier given the recovery mosey and the change up of exercises, but the EMOM thrusters, though doable, did not pair well with the effort to max out burpees. YHC thought maybe shrinking the expectations of how many burpees were actually doable in the time given would bring some relief, but it only meant more thrusters. It was a cruel trap with only one long, agonizing way out.
    Eventually, as with most things in life, the few burpees every minute did actually add up to 100, and it was time to rejoin the land of the living , where people generally have hope and a sense of humor.
    After a needed recovery mosey (once YHC could rise from the ground) it was time for the PAX to take the load off Annie/YJ, so we all took the necessary amount of burpees to get him to 100, and then turned our attention to Smooth. He peacefully let us know that he’d been in a thruster loop for quite a while and felt no pressure to get out of it. It was like watching your friend get slowly eaten by a monster, but he’s like, “It’s ok, brother. These things happen. This isn’t my first, and it won’t be my last.”
    With two minutes left, we did some Hello Dollies and LBC’s in puddles to get us to 7:30, and then it was back to the flag for shirt swapping and COT.
    The Fire Within went to Valve for some cool reason (does anyone even listen to those anymore? Or have the reasons become too arbitrary? Valve noticed this, and brought it to YHC’s attention. It could be anything from a manly performance to a well placed fart. Each named shirt may need some clearly assigned criteria for what earns it. That could get fun.) Smooth earned the new Phil the Hurt by willingly doing IPC twice. Not sure how it’s gonna fit, though.
    YJ prayed us out, and we’re grateful for the 24 hours of not having to think about/
    dread the next one. Yet, somehow, there’s nothing quite like September. Grateful to suffer with you fellas.

    SYITG,
    Goose

  • IPC week 0 @ the Coliseum – from Honeysuckle

    YHC plus four PAX arrived at the coliseum in the black, star lined night.

    Warmarama
    SSH, arm circles, cherry pickers, windmills

    Wet tap marked the 200 m turnaround point.

    Right before the EMOM timer was started, popeye dropped this gem: you know, it’s possible to get into an endless burpee loop. With that segue, the pax immediately had to chew on this as the burpees started.

    Some time during the first half, smooth operator began coughing and the only question was bottle of red, bottle of white? We would later learn that he swallowed an insect or some grass, and it was not a symptom of thruster madness.

    YHC was questioning several things during this event, but the overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia kept things moving forward because they had to. EMOM to the left of me, exercises to the right. No amount of pleases could shield us. A break would mean one step closer to the burpee doom loop.

    Overall, the Pax agreed that the most surprising part was the amount of time taken up by the 5 exercises at the EMOM beep. Regardless, every one put forth a consistently high level of effort until the end. Eventually, the 6 arrived.

    Blue tube passed on from wet tap to popeye. Word on the street is that week 1 IPC is putting on and removing it. Wet tap prayed us out.

    Good luck to the Saturday crew.

    Syitg,
    Honeysuckle

    I heard it through the honeysuckle vine
    —did paradox hack into valve’s Spotify? It may not be that hard now that he’s stealing their WiFi.
    —the mowed track at the coliseum worked out well for this workout. The jury is still out if YHC will develop a belly rash
    —smooth did not use gloves today!

  • The three little pax – from Safety Valve

    It was a beautiful morning. The stars shone bright.
    But, only three little PAX decided to put up a fight.
    Those three little Pax were in fact not so little.
    They all thought they were as mighty as Diddle.

    Pope with his 17, I mean 16, year old endurance.
    Goose there with his unwavering reassurance.
    YHC just trying to keep up with them wondering if he has enough life insurance.

    Dox was ridding his house of Covid.
    While all the others just fartsacked-the-bed.
    AB was neither seen nor smelled.
    Lil Cuz stayed where he dwelled.
    Enron was busy dreaming of crunching some numbers.
    White meat had fallen into a deep slumber.
    Honeysuckle was tending to his hive.
    Yankee Jeaux, are you still alive?

    Those three mighty PAX did great deeds.
    In fact a total of 55 Burpees.
    Three miles they ran by each empty lot.
    Afterwards they completed 55 Goblet squats.
    They continued to push and continued to strive for more successes.
    In the end they did 55 overhead presses.

    #Renewyourvalves
    Funnest beatdown ever… This group is awesome. There will always be at least one person to stand by you. Thank you to Goose and Pope for being those men today. Enjoy the extra day off and the extra time with family. We will get back to work tomorrow.

  • At least the tree was happy – from Honeysuckle

    Today’s story begins before the beginning of the story. YHC robbed AB’s barn of coupons and deposited them near the scout hut prior to the beatdown. YHC took a roundabout way to get to the usual meeting place to make it appear that YHC was traveling directly from home and no prepping had occurred. Four PAX were waiting for YHC as well as the rain to arrive. Only one would make an appearance, unless crying is a type of rain.

    Warmarama

    Most notably, no SSH. Both fast and slow high knees were done, as well as fast and slow high knees. This was in addition to most of the regular exercises though some were forgotten. And counting appeared to be hard for the PAX today.

    Thang 1

    There is a 1/3 mile loop in the grass in Peltier Park, and the PAX did three of these to get started. Then the PAX did about another ¼ mile to get to the place where the coupons were, while discussing and admiring the row of trees. Pope was the first to spot the coupons placed near the base of the last tree.

    Finally remembering why no SSH’s occurred, YHC called an Equalizer starting with 10 count. Then, a pickup truck turned into the parking lot and for a moment we thought it was Valve appearing, right on cue. Upon closer inspection, it was not a Platinum, however. Perhaps white gold, or palladium, or sterling silver.

    Thang 2

    All we needed for a theme was a geometric shape and a bodily effect. Circle of death was already taken this week, so today would be line segments of high heart rate. Numbers weren’t our strong suit today, so the rules were simplified.

    Transport method was a running suicide format with the turnaround points at successive trees. And there are a lot of trees. To keep track of trees, Duke graciously moved a cone to whatever the current tree was. In true gosling form, he was spotted doing LBCs and other exercises while waiting for us to run out to the trees, and even had to remove his shirt at some point.

    The coupons stayed at tree 1. PAX did either 8 thrusters, 8 goblet squats, or 15 curls each time tree 1 was visited (i.e., thrusters to start, then run back and forth, do goblet squats, and so on). At the turnaround tree, 5 air squats were done before heading back every time.
    The first few trees were only a few feet from tree 1. But it didn’t take long until the distances became significant. Was running the break? Was the coupon exercise the break? Ultimately the answer was, where we’re going, we don’t need breaks.

    YHC believes that 18 rounds were done, so each coupon exercise was done for 6 sets, plus 90 air squats.

    The paths that each PAX took were clear from the dew in the grass, but AB’s discipline proved superior as his path was a very tight line.

    To add insult to injury, we all had to run from the remote part of the Peltch back to the flags. The distance covered exceeded 4 miles in total today; well done PAX! With two minutes to spare, Freddy Mercuries and Flutter Kicks were done to complete the hour.

    To come full line segment with our counting issues, Pope declared himself 17 for the day.
    Announcements: clearly the looming IPC, plus the Femmes Natales 1 mi / 5k on 9/14. An upcoming double valve is causing some angst.

    Prayers for babies, people with babies, people expecting babies. Pope, now 16 again, prayed us out.

    I heard it thru the honeysuckle vine: Yeah, maybe that was a bit too much running. Special thanks to Cone 2.0. And as YHC was driving over to load up the coupons, it became apparent that everyone was also going to that spot to help. This group never fails to impress.

    SYITG,
    Honeysuckle

  • Neuron Expanding Recreational Fun – from Paradox

    YHC has always been fascinated by what the human body can do under extreme pressure. YHC recently listened to a podcast interview of Cole Hocker, and he described basically blacking out on the last leg of his crazy gold medal 1500m finish. WILD right? But it got me to thanking. What could our “slightly less than gold medal track athlete” pax perform when given the right pressure.

    Early this year, AB introduced a paradigm shifting beatdown based on the fact that everyone knows an unhealthy amount of information about at least 1 or 2 topics. Sometimes, ashamedly so. It hooked several pax into the Learned Llama multiverse you see today plus introduced a new wrinkle to an already strong group of exercise/trivia pioneers. YHC has been tinkering with alternate versions of it since and below is the result.

    So here’s how the game works.
    YHC names an exercise for each round then Pax will Hold Al Gore around an ominous coupon pile.

    YHC will then name a list of words one by one with a few seconds in between for thanking.

    Your goal is to name the common factor of the list as fast as possible.
    You will get one shot per pax , if you are incorrect you will start SSH (later ti be converted to burps) until the round is over.
    If correct then we will stop on that round and do the corresponding reps (after 1 -10 reps , 2-20 etc)

    Example

    Brown (10) ….Black(20) …paddington (30) Polar (40) … Grizzly (50) … all bears and you have an increasing chance at getting the correct association but as options increase so do the reps.

    Duke!
    Glove up, summers over and we got some iron to sharpen!

    Standard warmup with that big Pax energy when several cars roll up at once that makes YHC all warm and fuzzy inside.

    We started where the Bible begins and most friendships end…with the members of Genesis.

    1.) Tony Banks
    2.) Mike Rutherford
    3.) Phil Collins
    4.) Peter Gabriel

    Early guesses at drummers but we went 30 Reps and there were grumbles that sounded an a lot like Sussidio.

    National Parks (Star Jumps)
    1. Teddy Roosevelt
    2. Glacier
    3. Arches
    4. Grand Canyon
    5. Yosemite

    AB flashing his generational trivia talent and we took 20 reps.

    Army Bases w “Fort” at the beginning (HR Merkins)

    1.) Campbell
    2.) Carson
    3.) Detrick
    4.) Bragg
    5.) Hood

    Had this loaded for Pop and he didn’t dissapoint with the early answer for 20 reps.

    Speed Skaters (Bonnie Blair’s )
    1.) johan olav Koss
    2.) Eric Heiden
    3.) JR Celski
    4.) Apollo Ohno
    5.) Bonnie Blair

    This one went deep for 40

    Pokémon (Coupon Curls )

    1.) Spearow
    2.) Pidgey
    3.) Weedle
    4.) Charizard
    5.) Pikachu

    Lil Cuz with the performance of the day. He blamed his 2.0 toy pile but we all know he’s got dat Arcanine in him.

    Satellites (Goblet Squats )
    1.) Terra
    2.) Aqua
    3.) LandSat8
    4.) Explorer 1
    5.) Sputnik

    40 Reps
    Not a peep from our resident beekeeper.
    The man just likes others to improve I guess.

    GI Joe (Ranger Merkins)
    1.) Roadblock
    2.) Shipwreck
    3.) Zartan
    4.) Duke
    5.) Snake Eyes

    30 reps
    Knowing is half the battle.
    Ranger Merkins are the rest.

    Members of *NSYNC (Apollo Ohnos)
    1.) Chris
    2.) Joey
    3.) JC
    4.) Lance
    5.) Justin

    TANA!!!!
    From the rafters the Peoples Rep saved the pax from atleast 20 extra Ohnos until we got to JT.

    Vice Presidents (box jumps)
    1.) James S Sherman
    2.) Levi P Morton
    3.) elbridge Gerry
    4.) John C Calhoun
    5.) dick Cheney

    40 box jumps were contended by pope who reported a whispered correct answer so we split the difference and did 25. Complex numbers are my thing.

    Triple Crown Winners (Carolina Dry Dox)

    1.) Omaha
    2.) Gallant Fox
    3.) Seattle Slew
    4.) American Pharoah
    5.) Secretariat

    30 Reps as Maneater started to heat up.

    CMM (Thrusters)
    1.) Birdman
    2.) Turk
    3.) BG
    4.) Manny Fresh
    5.) Lil Wayne

    Maneater again
    He’s On Fire!

    Heisman trophy winners ( Merkins )
    1.) Jay Berwanger
    2.) Billy Sims
    3.) Steve Spurrier
    4.) Desmond Howard
    5.) Tim Tebow

    A few chuckles at Wanger but then HS got down to business and ID’d spurrier as a champion.
    30 reps.

    Bankrupt Companies
    (Decline Merkins)

    1.) pacific gas and electric company
    2.) Washington mutual
    3.) Silicon Valley Bank
    4.) Lehman brothers
    5.) Enron

    30 reps as mutiple pax supplied this one.

    DDay Beaches – WW3 sit-ups

    1.) Sword
    2.) Gold
    3.) Juno
    4.) Utah
    5.) Omaha

    Pope/Pop are a force of military history to be reckoned with.

    Van Gohg paintings (Thrusters)
    1.) The potato eaters
    2.) almond blossoms
    3.) cafe terrace at night
    4.) self portrait w bandaged ear
    5.) starry night

    40 Reps to finish us out but these larks were saved by the bell.

    COT and Prayer intentions
    HS prayed us out

    Amazing seeing the collective pax mind under pressure. The hidden talents of this group never cease to amaze YHC.

    Thanks for the privilege to lead.

    -A Dox of Chocolates

    Imagine you are one of 86 billion brain cells. All with important tasks for sending and receiving messages at 100 meters/second. The capability to solve complex formulas, write ballads , or serve your fellow man awaits at a moments notice. Butttt instead you only get one assignment. Just once in 40 years you will be asked to associate the memory of two random NSYNC band members and It will save many men from coupon thruster destruction.

    “Bye, bye, bye” you whisper when the job is complete, then you return to brain cell retirement singing Kokomo at random intervals.

    No Neuron left behind.
    But leave no Neuron where you found him.

    SYITG
    Dox

  • Life to the MAX – from Paradox

    Facts only:

    It would be super duper to have an FNG visit from Poland.

    And if that FNG posted every day on his vacation, pretty Rad as well.

    Could we name him after a nerd scientist with big BIG ideas .
    For certain.

    But What if I told you (switch to Morpheus voice )
    What If I told you, that an FNG from Poland closely connected to one of our own posted all week long through ridiculous IPC preps with a huge smile on his face ?

    And I hope now that you are nice and lathered up and your Garmin is recording …because what if one of those same days was actually a feast day for one of the greatest Polish Saints in history ?!

    These were the facts in Aug 15 2024 and 10 pax were present at the Den to share the labor.

    Grab that red pill and come on in!

    Duke! Get the Coups
    It’s IPC prepppp

    FACTS:
    St Max Kolbe was a Catholic polish priest who lived from 1894 to 1941.
    Known as the Saint of Aushwitz
    He died on August 14 1941 volunteering to exchange his life for another prisoner.

    Those are the facts for this beatdown men.
    I’ll spare the usual dox fluff (just this once) and encourage you to dig more on this Saints incredible life of sacrifice.

    Each round :
    Reps : 10, 9, 8 …etc to 1
    MOT in between varies

    We kept it simple
    Each round for a rule of life for St Kolbe.

    1. Devotion to our lady at an early age

    Purity – no cheat merkins
    MOT bearcrawl

    2.) Take care of your body in order for our body’s to better be able to glorify and serve God and others.

    **As a Friar- he founded one of the largest Franciscan orders of his age
    Devoted to exercise he was diligent about starting the day with mutiple rounds of jumping jacks. Seems like a man who loved SSHs and being in time. YHC wishes he had more neighbors like this …

    SSH and Karaoke

    3.) Worked hard to spread the gospel by all means necessary
    Radio, magazine , theater etc

    Coupon Squats and coupon Lunges

    All of a sudden you could hear every cricket at the Den

    4.) We need strong men trained in the faith.
    Militia Immaculate
    Rifle Carry and Overhead Press

    5.) We have a mission to Carry Faith Abroad-
    Setup community in Nagasaki
    Burpees and Broad Jumps

    6.) Growth toward Ultimate Sacrifice

    53 merkins for 53 years that Franciszek Gawoniczek lived after St Kolbe gave up his life for him.

    COT and tremendous gratitude to Copernicus for showing up all week. Thank you for sharing your story and the suffering with us. We hope you made it through customs with all that F3 swag.

    St Kolbe , pray for us !

    SYITG
    Dox

  • It Was Quite the Palooza – from America’s Best

    30 years ago today: August 10, 1994.
    Do you know where you were? Of course not, you were probably a preteen or a baby. But old man AB does. Lollapalooza, Raleigh, North Carolina. Green Day. The Beastie Boys. A Tribe called Quest. Smashing Pumpkins. George Clinton. The Breeders. Even Shaquille O’Neal.
    Could this PAX even identify the music of these performers?
    Probably not without Honeysuckle, and definitely not without Popeye.

    The warmarama:
    SSH, Abe Vigotas, mountain climbers, slow high knees, regular butt kicks, crazy arms circling whilst picking cherries, maybe something else.

    The First Thang- Left my gas card in El Segundo:

    Begin with a mosey down the road…

    (YHC still clearly remembers casting off his mother’s suggestions to bring extra snacks and drinks for the journey. “Mom- it’s not the Oregon Trail. We can stop at any gas station if we need any of that.”
    Unfortunately, 18-year old AB didn’t think to stop at a gas station for gas… and car no go without the gas.
    It was a different time. It was the 90s.
    No cellphones, no internet. Not a single luxury. So when you run out of gas on the interstate, you just … wait.)
    So we stop on our mosey and just wait.
    And just listen to A Tribe Called Quest (and another yet-to-be-identified band)
    Hold Al Gore until you can’t anymore. Then hold plank until you can’t.

    The 2nd Thang:
    Boulevard of Broken Dreams

    The girls spent too long getting ready, some of the crew wants to stay in the car a while longer, and the guy with IBS has to find a porta-potty immediately. The result of all this nonsense is missing almost all of Green Day’s set.
    Because YHC is still a bit salty about that, the PAX gets to relive some of the frustration of traveling back and forth to the car before finally getting into the show.
    11s
    Start with one Bobby Hurley(at the gates) then run to do 10 no-cheat Merkins (at the car), then bear-crawl back to the start. Continue the process until the physical pain erases the emotional anguish.

    3rd Thang:
    A Brass Kicking

    First song: Brass Monkey
    (Like I said, it was a different time. The 90s were wild with songs normalizing questionable social practices).
    Curls during the song, and monkey-humping goblet squats on each “monkey”

    Followed by “Can I Kick it?”
    Yes you can… flutter kick until you hear that question, then heels to heaven.

    Final Thang: Again, Again, Again
    The best and worst thing about Lollapalooza is all the music and all the stages. Here the PAX got to celebrate and lament moving between the stages.

    4 stages (corners) escalator
    Stage 1: 10 burpees
    Run to
    Stage 2: 10 burpees+20 BBS
    Run to
    Stage 3: 10 burpees+20 BBS+30 merkins
    Run to
    Stage 4: 10 burpees+20 BBS+30 merkins+40 air squats

    About halfway through, the PAX flexed its music chops, as Popeye ID’d Kim Deal’s band The Breeders, then Honeysuckle the Album name, and Cardinal called out the year released (he was 1).
    Then, sometime near the end of the escalator, Popeye made me question my memories, nay, my entire existence, insisting that the Beastie Boys surely didn’t play Sabotage at Lollapalooza ‘94.
    But I SWEAR they closed with it. What was happening? At this point I was somewhere between burpee number 40 and my 112th merkin, so I was beginning to question everything. What if Puddle of Mudd IS my favorite 90s band? Am I actually a fan of Depeche Mode? Maybe I do enjoy omelets?!?!?
    YHC was beyond confused, like Arnold Schwarzenegger at the end of Total Recall, or Joe Biden at the end of breakfast. “Who ate all my toast?”

    Thankfully the beatdown was ending. I pushed Popeye’s ill communications from my mind and stumbled to the flag for COT.

    Super-stoked to have Cardinal out there again, and honored to have him pray us out.

    Always an honor to lead this group (and subject you to some of the Best American music history).

    SYITG,

    AB

  • Et Tu, 80? – from Honeysuckle

    YHC plus five men gathered at the Lion’s Den on a fine Thursday morning for some side straddle hops. Then Paradox and Safety Valve showed up for the rest of the beatdown.

    Warmarama

    Side straddle hops, imperial walkers, side straggler hop, arm circles, cherry pickers, windmills, willie mays hayes.

    The main thang

    Being within a week of YHC’s birthday, today’s beatdown would be centered around that milestone. Several laminated pieces of printer paper sat gleaming around the greater Municipal Auditorium – Aldi micropolitan area. Each had an exercise and quantity at the top, another exercise in the middle, and a mode of transportation at the bottom. When the PAX reached one of the pages, all members had to do the number and quantity of the top exercise while listening to a Top 40 hit from this week in 1980.

    If the PAX could name the song title, they didn’t have to do the middle exercise. Otherwise they had to do 44 of them. If the PAX could name the artist, they could simply mosey to the next sheet rather than doing the MOT listed.

    The playlist included some enduring hits along with some obscure songs. One thing is for sure: Popeye knew all of the artists and song titles but chose to wait a really long time to release the information to increase the anxiety level of the PAX. In some cases, he refrained from even saying the right answer, because he didn’t show up to skip exercises and MOTs. Unless the extra exercise was monkey humpers, of course.

    Lil Cuz, on the other hand, might as well have been listening to music from Mars. Pope was under the impression that the lyrics were originally written in cuneiform.

    A semi-obscure Paul McCartney song (which no one knew the answers to) landed Enron the award for the easiest question YHC has ever had to answer. “Does this person have any other hits?” Even if you exclude his time as a Beatle, to say “yes” to this is an understatement.

    Goose’s exemplary deduction skills were in full display on several of the songs, figuring out song titles on many of the obscure ones. For example, the McCartney song surely sounded like he was saying “Coming On”, but Goose observed that the line “Like a Flower” was more appropriately describing “Coming Up.”

    We had a few minutes left once back at the circle, so another from that week’s Top 40, “Misunderstanding” by Genesis, was played. YHC immediately regretted this as it opened up some old wounds between Goose and Paradox. We ended with about a minute’s worth of Freddy Mercuries while listening to Boz Scaggs. Not Lido (shuffle), but Jojo.

    Valve was waiting for some Air Supply but we were all out of time.

    Announcements, then Popeye prayed us out.

    Thanks guys as always for showing up and working hard, even if you’re working hard to get out of work, that’s still work.

    I heard it on the Honeysuckle vine: It’s sort of strange when the mode of transportation is a duck walk and there are actual ducks walking across your path. Although as someone observed, to the ducks it’s just a walk.

    SYITG,
    Honeysuckle

  • Strange Things are Afoot at the Circle O’T – from America’s Best

    Warmarama
    SSH, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, WMH, arm circles to and fro, Carolina high knees with slaw, butt kicks, self-love

    The Thang:
    Here’s the deal: The PAX is split into 2 teams, each competing to be the first to bring back 6 historical figures.
    To get them, they must mosey the circuits of time (those new streets) and knock out some reps at each station.
    If you can identify the historical figure by the associated exercise, you mosey back. If not, take the MOT penalty back.
    So roll that die to see which number you get to run to. And if you’ve already been to that number, stay in San Dimas, do some Smurf Jacks or No Surrenders or LBCs with Napoleon and then roll again.

    Station 1: Wood Choppers. For Abe Lincoln, understood by all, no lunge walking.
    Station 2: Colt 45s. Both teams easily got that this was Billy the Kid, so nobody had to Broad-Jump-Burpee back
    Station 3: Nutcrackers. Popeye, drawing strength and wisdom from the tickets, came through for team 2 with Freud. Not sure if Team 1 crabwalked or not.
    Station 4: Gadfly’s. Just regular flys, but who knew Gadfly was Socrates’ nickname?
    Station 5: Curb Alpert. Apparently, no PAX present has ever heard of Herb Alpert, so the music connection was not made to Beethoven. MOT back was caterpillar.
    Station 6: Apollo Ohnos. Although separated by time and space, Goose and Pope each wisely guessed that this was Socrates. And it should be. But, as he said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing.” So stop being so smart and thinking so much. The actual answer took no deep thought, just the superficial (and somewhat racist and offensive) fact that Genghis Khan was also Asian. Sorry, dudes, but history is not woke. So we all Dragon walked.

    With only a minute left, team 1 took the win. Team 2 was most non-triumphant, still moseying back from their final station.

    We’ve had many excellent beatdowns, but none as bodacious as this.

    Circle OT and Goose prayed us out.

    Catch ya in the gloom,

    AB

  • Mark it, Dude. – from Honeysuckle

    Seven HIMs who were wise and would never compromise arrived to the Peltch for what was clearly going to involve the track. The only real concern for Daryl Strawberry’s or Popeye’s shoes were the warmarama and COT, so everyone carefully chose a spot and we began.

    Warmarama: SSH, Imperial Walkers, Lafayette Nightclubs, Arm Circles (F/R), Cherry Pickers, Self Love, maybe some other things

    Thang 1:

    Mosey to the track. Since the front gate was open, we entered that way and felt like we weren’t sneaking in. As the speaker wasn’t working for YHC this morning, the PAX did not have the pleasure of hearing the Greta Van Fleet (schism-worthy) playlist that was to be the background motivational music. So the first thang was done in silence, other than the heavy breathing.

    Starting at the goal line, bear crawl to the 5 yd line, run back. Do the same thing for the 10 yd line through 50 yd line. At the 5, 10, 15, … yd line turnarounds, do that number of tempo squats. At the 10, 20, 30, … yd line turnarounds, do that number of merkins. This was done to the 50 yard line. This was a challenging task and YHC thought a few times about being merciful, but ultimately no modifications were made and the PAX completed this eventually.

    Thang 2:

    Now on to something a little more fun. The overall idea for the next two thangs were to make the PAX run, but have tasks to complete to take their minds off it. Everyone received a slip of paper with five colored circles. Each PAX’s circles were in different order. Around the track were seven orange cones, five of which were covering markers. PAX had to run around the track, and checking cones to find the markers. Their circles had to be colored in the order that they appeared on the paper. If the marker was the correct color, PAX would fill in the circle. If the marker was not the correct color (or there was no marker), PAX had to do 5 burpees. Also, after you flip a cone, you had to reverse direction.

    As difficult as these instructions were to understand, they were also difficult to carry out. The 5 burpees seemed cruel so YHC did change this to 1 burpee. Eventually, Coyote and Daryl Strawberry finished, and YHC ended the game right before Goose and Pope finished. Depending on how good or bad you were at this game, you ran quite a bit.

    Thang 3:

    Since the markers were already distributed around the track, the PAX paired up and each went to a different location on the track. At the start time, the pairs would play Paper/Scissors/Rock. The loser had to do Big Boy Situps in place. The winner would use a marker to make a mark on their paper (like a passport stamp) and run to the next location. The person doing BBS would keep going until someone showed up to play them. If the BBS person completed 30 before someone showed up to play them, they could get their mark and leave. YHC does not remember the result, but it was quite a while before YHC was able to leave the initial station. That’s a lot of situps.

    Thang 4:

    Quick try again for some Greta Van Fleet (Black Smoke Rising), now using a different speaker, so we circled up and did SSH during the song and mountain climbers during the refrain. But YHC had trouble identifying the refrain. Then mosey back to the flags for COT.

    Announcements, prayer intentions, Goose prayed us out. No clothing to exchange today.

    Thanks everyone for showing up and grinding through today! It continues to be a blessing to be a part of this group!

    I heard it through the Honeysuckle vine: What’s the deal with that Olympics opening ceremony? Can we just watch sports?

    SYITG,
    Honeysuckle