YHC wanted to try something different for this workout, and I appreciate the 11 strong PAX going all-in with me as we incorporated footballs into this morning’s boot camp workout. As we’re approaching the earliest sunrise of the year and in less of a gloom than usual, this was an ideal time to try this without footballs bouncing off heads of the PAX. With the Crucible’s location of Williams Park being adjacent to Lynn Road Elementary School (the variety of fields/equipment in these two areas combined with the surrounding neighborhood makes this a great AO), we figure if Lead Mine wants to start a team with our 11 playing on both sides of the ball we can compete with any team in the state. Since we had one FNG (Broadway, strong runner and Auburn alum who did not find “Roll Tide” name suggestion amusing), a jumbled disclaimer was given and we proceeded to …
Warmup
- Jog partway around the track, incorporating some high knees and buttkickers, then circle up for …
- Imperial Walkers x 20
- Merkins x 30 (first 10 with left leg up, second 10 with right left up, third 10 standard); YHC then called “both legs up” to make sure the PAX were paying attention — pretty sure ManRam was about to find a way …
- Mountain Climbers x 25
- Good Mornings x 15
The Thang
- Line up on soccer field sideline for a “gasser” — run hard across soccer field (which is actually slightly wider than a football field) and back twice in a row, with no break in between (always YHC’s favorite in August three-a-days)
- Three stations of agility drills on the tennis courts, with each group rotating through …
- 5-cone drill using 4 corners of one side of a tennis court, repeatedly running to a corner and back to the center, then to the next corner and back
- side shuffle in a zigzag formation across the widths of both courts, then backwards shuffle in zigzag on the way back
- 3-cone “L” drill — run from first cone to second and put hand down, back to first cone and hand down, then around the corner past the second cone and loop around the third cone before running back around the L
- And then we spent the largest portion of the workout actually using the footballs, where we had four teams of 3 (the 4th team had just 2 PAX, so ran a little extra) each using one of the 5-cone formations to work some more on speed and agility (and passing and catching!):
- 2 men (one with a football) start about 5 yards beyond one end of the staggered cones, with the third about 5 yards past the other end of the cones
- 1 of the 2 takes off and runs two diagonal lines with relatively quick turns, then two longer diagonal lines, then two more shorter diagonal lines with quick turns again — during either of the two longer stretches, the “QB” throws a pass to the man running the zig-zag route, receiver hauls it in and completes the route, ending up next to the third man; at that point, the third man starts running the route in the other direction, the prior receiver becomes the QB and so on in a continuous cycle (YHC’s description is not doing this justice; come join us next time)
- Every time a ball hits the ground, all 3 men on that team drop and do 5 merkins, then the receiver picks the ball up and continues on (one or two of these teams seemed to complete way more merkins than passes)
- All the PAX stopped where they were in place a couple of times to complete 10 burpees OYO and 40 LBCs OYO, respectively, then jumped right back into routes
- Three teams (of 4, 4, and 3 PAX) line up on soccer sideline for a relay race. 1st man from each team takes a football as he sprints across and back soccer field, then hands off to second man for the same, then third, and then fourth (except for team of 3 where runner #1 also ran the anchor leg). Those not actively running are planking. Still had a few minutes left and it was a competitive race, so we switched a man between the 3-man team and one of the 4-man teams and ran it back again.
Only a couple minutes left to circle up for:
Mary
WWII situps x 50 (YHC had brought along a medicine ball to work in during the football portion of the workout if we had one extra guy, but didn’t need it then, so we passed it around a bit during this)
COT
Announcements: F3 Forum at Panera on Six Forks, at 12 noon today; Race for the Cure this Saturday — F3 deadline today, but can actually register with Komen right up until that morning and can donate money even if not available to run; outstanding showing of 53 PAX for Juggernaut’s 1-year anniversary on Friday — let’s continue supporting this neighboring AO going forward
Congrats to CDC on completing his first year with F3!
Prayer Requests: I don’t recall any specific spoken requests, but please sound off if I missed any.
Thanks to Overdraft for taking us out with some strong words, and to Wilson for providing extra cones and a couple of the footballs!. YHC wanted to switch things up and make things fun, while still ensuring a solid workout — PAX seemed to think that was accomplished. I appreciate the opportunity to lead you fine men and your flexibility in going with me as we tried something different.
