Giving THANKS…twice

Preamble:

A cold morning didn’t stop 10 men (including 3 pre-runners) from posting and working hard.  I explained that as Thanksgiving week started, during the workout we were going to share what we are thankful for and why we are thankful for that thing. Disclaimer was given and we were off.

Warm-O-Rama:

Mosey around a bit until we ended up at the newspaper staging lot near the tennis courts.  Circled up for:

• SSH x12 IC
• Imperial Walkers x12 IC
• Weed pickers x12 IC
• Hangovers
• Michael Phelps

The Thang:

The intent of the workout was to spell the word THANKS twice.  Between each exercise/stop, one guy shared something he is thankful for and why he is thankful for that thing.  Great sharing and transparency at each stop.  Here’s what we did:

THANKS part 1

T – Triple Nickel – at the bottom of the darkest hill in the park, 5 burpees then run to the top for 5 star jumps (so three exercises = Triple).  Repeat 5 times (Nickel).

H – Hip Slappers – after a mosey to the building by the tennis courts, feet up on the wall, slap your right hip with your right hand then repeat on the left side.  x15

A – Annies – we moseyed on the new back path to the basketball courts.  A well-intentioned cadence prescribed by the Q turned into “just do them until I say stop”

N – No surrenders – on the big field.  Why does Zohan always want to do things alpha count?

K – King of Hearts – in the long parking lot by the lacrosse field (aka Mater’s Lot) we actually did apple turnovers but were supposed to do King of Hearts (which we did later).  Both exercises are in the exicon and they both suck.

S – Scorpion Dry Docks – mosey down to the pond for 20 Dry Docks with one leg up in the air (like a scorpion’s stinger).  Repeat with the other leg raised.

THANKS part 2

T – Travoltas – mosey through the tunnel and back around to another parking lot.  Travoltas are planking with alternating hands pointing up and then back down across your body (check the exicon for the details).  We did 15 alpha

H – Hail Marys – mosey to the pavilion by the playground, partnering up on the way.  P1 high planks while P2 puts his feet on P1’s back and performs 15 dips.  Flapjack.

A – Apple Turnovers – mosey back to Mater’s lot.  See K in part 1 above.  Speedo kant spel

N – Nipple scraper merkins – mosey to the lot that looks down on the amphitheater.  10 of these amazingly awesome and terrible merkins.

K – Kraken burpees – down at the path that runs behind the amphitheater.  A Kraken burpee is just a normal burpee but with three hand-release merkins each time.  With time running short, we only did 5.  The PAX were extremely disappointed we couldn’t do more.

S – squats – back at the flag, we finished up with 5 squats to complete THANKS part 2

COT:

Lots of workout opportunities this week – check Slack for details

Other stuff going on (Slack has the details):

• Blood drive
• F3 Foundation Campaign
• Santa Ruck – donate, volunteer, participate
• 12/16 – Holiday party at Casa de Feathers

Naked-Man Moleskin:

We all agreed we have lots to be thankful for.  Speaking for myself, I could relate to every example given this morning (and every guy shared at least once).  It’s easy to look at a tough situation, a stormy season in life, etc. and see the bad in it.  But if you look again, look more closely, you can usually see something to be thankful for.  Maybe it was something you learned about yourself during that time.  Maybe it was a reminder to not just think about being thankful for someone but actually telling that person you are thankful for them.  I could go on but you get my drift.

I’m thankful for all of you men…your friendship, your humor, your efforts during workouts, and for accepting me as I am but pushing me to get better.  Let’s keep doing that for each other and be thankful along the journey.

— Speedo out