Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt, September 7, 1903
It is never too late to celebrate labor, and the 13 PAX reporting to the Vortex feted the American worker on the Tuesday after Labor Day.
After the usual warm ups, we divided into groups (3 x 2, 3, and 4) for the main event, a circuit devoted to work. There were five stops:
- Business Trip: Run to the playground for three sets of 12 pull-ups and three of 12 dips.
- Busy Work: Carry five tennis balls, one at a time, to the half field line. Retrieve them one at a time. Total distance = c. 1,000 meters. Meaningful work accomplished = zero.
- Manual Labor: Commemorating the classic 40-hr work week, 40 cadence-count shoulder lifts of a cinder block.
- The Runaround: An 800-meter (+) run.
- Agriculture: Massive wheelbarrow race, all the way across the field—and back.
PAX did SSHs when they finished their respective tasks (at least in theory), until all were done. As long as the 800-meter runners finished first, we only had to do 10 burpees before rotating. Alas, the runners never won, with the result that all four losing groups after each round had to do 20 burpees before the next rotation (winners, typically cinder block folks, only had to plank). The murderous burpees may have pushed us over the edge in terms of timing. YHC anticipated being able to do an additional cycle at ½ reps, but we barely finished the first.
We celebrated the blessing of meaningful work in the COT, a prayer especially poignant in the midst of men who have devoted their professional lives to alleviating human suffering.
Instead of another sentimental love fest about how much I appreciate the chance to work out with such a great group of guys, please see this hilarious and heartwarming back blast from our neighbors to the south. I frankly couldn’t understand enough of the terminology to appreciate how challenging the workout might have been, but the testimonial is a classic—and the product review for a new kind of underpants (seriously) made me belly laugh.
