52s at Casino Royale
FNGs: None
Warm Up: YHC was anxious about this Q. Slept poorly the night before waking up repeatedly. Had sent out a pre-blast getting PAX excited with a Daniel Craig-themed meme wearing a tuxedo talking about coupons and asking if PAX were all in? The problem was simply, was the Q all in? With a 52nd birthday rapidly approaching, I wanted to incorporate the number 52. A deck of cards was too easy. Regardless, I broke out pen and paper and wrote down various exercises for each weight. Somehow I managed 4 hrs of sleep. Alarm went off and I was delighted to see we had just missed the rain in the forecast. Still wicked humid with temps in the 70-75 range. We were still going to be moist. I pulled into Fleming Loop and only saw two Deputies parked side by side in a distant parking lost. They watched me unload hundreds of pounds of kettlebells and dumbbells lining them up meticulously (6 feet apart) on the sidewalk adjacent to the snack shack. I planted the flag and waited. I was early. In the distance I saw glowing lights from a vest approaching. It was the site Q, H1N1 with his son Messi. I think Messi literally grew a foot since the last time I seen him post. I said hello and excused myself as nature called for the second time that morning. Luckily being the Eagle Scout that I am, I was prepared. Took care of business and sanitized just in time to see 16 bit had joined and was delighted to see another PAX pull in in a Honda Pilot. It was Banana Seat. Did not recognize him without the Yoda mobile. Well it was 530 am and when needed to start. Started slow with 10 good ams. Proceeded to do 10 Daisy pickers, 10 windmills, 10 seal claps and some static arm stretching. Not sure what I was thinking but I called 52 merkins. Started and got to 10 before a car pulled in and head for us. Poor planning on my part. Stopped while the car ended up a bit away from us. Called merkins again to finish off with 42. About #38 I was like, “WTF”? I can crank out 50 just about anytime in my house. I was on the struggle bus. Fudge me. I know, F3 isn’t for everyone or if you can’t do it, don’t Q it. Disclaimer: were these merkins “perfect”? No. I’m sure my ass was in the air, arms were too far out, etc. That’s ok, right? On to the workout.
The Workout: I gave direction early on with the seven stations laid out. I set the goal for 52 reps for each exercise. Mix it up. Do sets of 13 or use your imagination. It was up to you. Do I dog it? Do I try to do 52 of each? The only non-52 rep was the dreaded overhead carry or farmer’s walk using the 40 # dumbbells. I tried the two 40 # dumbbells over my head like John Cusack. That was a quick no and modified to just one. Still, walking to the fence and back – that was a bitch. The Farmer’s carry with both dumbbells was no joke too. I liberated a neat neat exercise to the coupons with the addition of a frisbee. I had heard of these merkins before using a towel. Merkin position with one hand on a frisbee sliding the frisbee out out/above and forcing yourself to do offset merkins. Other exercises included kettlebell swings, figure 8s, halos, thrusters. With the dumbbells, one round was from your six doing nipplers, chest presses, overhead presses, and straight arm Tricep extensions. Additional exercises included curls for the girls, ground pounders, Tricep curls, lawn mowers, rutrows, and upright rows. It got sweaty real quick. Funny part, it was too quiet. BS needed some music so I ran to the car grabbed my phone, turned on Pandora and found a hard rock station. The PAX gave it their all! They put in the work this morning. Nice job!
Mary: it was 6 ish and I asked PAX to grab some wall. In honor of 52 we held people’s chair and BTTW for 52 count (4 PAX x 10, YHC counted to 12). I did not think my arms would hold up.
I immediately called for Yoga. The rock music continued with a song that had some profanity. It was not the soothing music one is accustomed to when conducting yoga. PAX were cutting up. We finished with downward dog, runner’s stretch, child pose, some neck/leg stretches.
Announcements: Mulch at Bass Lake. New AOs – get out and try a new/different AO this week.
T-Claps (Recognition): All PAX who gave 100% this morning.
Prayer: Silent prayer, unspoken. YHC took us out.
An honor to lead and thank you for pushing me when I was anxious and not feeling my normal self.