March Madness

Preamble:

Since the departure of the PAX from The Coliseum, the Hall of Justice numbers have been a bit sparse. YHC was hopeful that no rain (or severe thunderstorms with 50 mph winds like the 3 PAX last Monday experienced under the awning of the BB&T) would drive the PAX to come out and accelerate in the gloom. There was still the threat of possible train forcing 10 burpees on the PAX, but it had been many weeks since the last one passed by during a beatdown.

Driving up to Suwanee Town Center in the gloom, the moon hung low over the horizon in a perfect crescent as if a kid with a fishing pole should be sitting on it. As YCH drove in, thoughts of whether or not I had enough planned for the morning caused a bit of worry. Once parked, I pulled out my STEVE to scour the Exicon, screenshotting a few extra possible activities.

YHC got out of the car at 0519, said good morning to YouTube, the only PAX in sight, and discussed his weekend ruck with Birdie who appeared out of nowhere as we were talking about him. Looking at STRAVA on my STEVE, Birdie’s activity from Sunday was top of the feed to which we discussed his ruck with his daughter on Sawnee Mountain. PuffDaddy and SeeYa appeared followed by Radar at 0530. A quick disclaimer and we were off.

Warm-O-Rama:

After a short mosey to behind the stage, we began with chinooks. YHC was a little surprised at how few PAX were accustomed to calling the baby arm circles this name. Following the chinooks, we moved quickly into copperhead squats, windmills, and weed pickers. We then mosied over to the monument (thinking the grass would be dry with all the sun from the weekend) to where all my expectations of what would happen this morning would be completely obliterated. Radar joked about sending a bacon emoji because of the image of the Arkansas Razorbacks Arena in the preblast.

The Thang:

In honor of March Madness, YHC had planned a Nolan Richardson (aka 40 minutes of Hell) named after the famed Arkansas Razorbacks basketball coach who led the Razorbacks to the NCAA tournament 15 out of 17 seasons he coached there with an up tempo style of play known as “40 minutes of Hell.”

We would complete a partner beatdown. Partner 1 performs the exercise below while Partner 2 backpedals about 50 yards, performs a Bobby Hurley, and jogs back to continue the exercise from the count accumulated by Partner 1. This continues until the repetition count stated below is met.

150 – Burpees
300 – Squats
150 – Big Boy Sit-Ups
300 – Chinooks
150 – Merkins
300 – Imperial Walkers

YHC partnered up with Birdie who started with the burpees, while I backpedaled to the sidewalk on the far end of the ellipse (~50 yards.) Feeling pretty strong about the plan, YHC completed the Bobby Hurley and sprinted back to Birdie who said  he had completed 14 burpees. I took over and started my share of the burpees.

This was the moment YHC realized there was not going to be ANY additional exercises this morning.

Dropping to the ground for the first burpee, YHC quickly realized the ground was indeed not dry, but in between a state of frost and dew, which immediately soaked the absorbent gloves I was wearing. 5 burpees in, YHC was already gassed. With eyes shut, as I stood up from #24 (combined count,) Birdie asked how many, and I started backpedaling. YHC had no idea that the 1-2% grade, combined with burpees, would have such an intense effect on the quads. The second 50 yard trip took twice as long as the first. This was when the complaints started rolling in and continued on SLACK after the beatdown.

YHC did my best to encourage each of the PAX for the hard effort each put in, although unsure it was being received well as the culprit of such intense pain. After realizing the grass was icy/wet-ish, YHC suggested we might change the BBSU to Squats. But, once PuffDaddy (the first of the PAX to get to this point) was ready to start, a 43Feet podcast rang in my brain reminding me that “the Virtuous Leader intentionally exposes himself to expected Hardships in order to build the Durability he will need to overcome the unexpected Hardships that await him so that he can turn them into grace.” So YHC changed my mind and we did the BBSU on the icy/wet-ish grass.

With 93 left of the 300 Imperial Walkers, PuffDaddy offered to take 30 of our remaining. YHC was grateful. When each pair completed the Nolan Richardson, we went to an air chair position. Once the six was in, YHC started a prayer while holding the air chair while each of the PAX prayed going in a circle.

We were completely out of time. It took all of the 45 minutes to complete the Warm-O-Rama and The Thang. None of my additional exercises were even thought of. No 6MOM. All PAX were gassed. During the mosey back to the stage, YHC thinks he may have even heard some complaining about the speed of the mosey.

COT:

Circling up on the stage, we counted 8 PAX and did the Name-O-Rama. A quick request for prayer for YHC’s M undergoing eye surgery this Thursday was offered. Some discussion about the Promise 686 race was had. YHC mentioned the discussions surrounding a first ever Gwinnett Area AO Convergence in April and for the PAX to start thinking about a good place to start a Saturday beatdown.

YHC also provided encouragement for the PAX to go out and give what’s been given by EHing some more men. F3 is the cure to male loneliness. A challenge was given to talk to 6 guys and double the number of PAX next week for a Zohan Israeli Military beatdown.

Naked-Man Moleskin:

YHC was impressed with the PAX this week. The continued acceleration is apparent and demonstrative in effort given at this morning’s beatdown. Keep accelerating brothers. You are becoming a HIM that your Concentrica is proud of.