I’ve been planning a workout that’s themed to “Run to the Hills” for about 1.5 years. I can’t tell you why I never just went out and did it – but it was one of those things where you think of it and how great an idea it would be, it slips your mind, and rinse/repeat on that cycle. Essentially all I had in my mind that “Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden would play for 45 minutes and we’d spend 90% of our time running up and down hills. Not too complicated.
A rainy Friday morning at Juggernaut greeted the PAX as we huddled under the shelter as EC ended. Historically, when it’s been raining, even a little mist, Qs would get modified and most of the time we’d stay under to keep dry. I couldn’t do that today. The hills weren’t close enough to the shelter to make it worth it. And plus, one of the core principles had my back on this one.
The Warmup:
15 Side Straddle Hops
10 Good Mornings
The Thang:
16 PAX followed YHC to the rock pile alongside the entrance to the park. YHC advised the PAX to pick up a traveling rock and that they’d become close friends with that rock for the next 45 minutes. We continued towards the Baileywick trail and met at the bridge. At this point, the PAX were also partnered up.
At the first hill, the PAX were to complete 100 rock curls, 100 tricep extensions, and 100 overhead presses collectively. Partner 1 would run up the hill, complete 10 squats while partner 2 started up on the rock exercises. Once partner 2 got back down the hill, the PAX flapjacked. Keep in mind, Run to the Hills is on its 3rd repeat.
Once all PAX were completed, we moseyed back to the hill close to where we picked up the rocks. Since the PAX made quick work of the 100s, I upped the total reps to 150. This time, however, the PAX running up the hill would bring their rock with them and they would complete 10 monkey humpers. Again, once the PAX made it down the hill, flapjack.
It was around this point too that the mumblechatter was really in full swing. YHC was getting berated with comments about “the darkside of Coco” and how I was such an “a***ole”. All in good fun and love of course. Or at least that’s what I was being told.
The last hill was back in between and baseball fields, and having run up and down that hill a handful of times over the years, I knew how tricky it could be, while dry. Adding a few hours of rain and ice would make it that much more challenging.
It wasn’t until after the workout that I was told that, while we started running in that direction, someone asked, “He would really take us over there, would he?” “No, no, of course not”. “Oh wow, he actually is, how dangerous”. The first group barely made it up the hill, as YHC knew immediately that this was a bad idea. Rather than going back down and having the other group run up, we ran back through the trail and did a big loop back to where we started.
The PAX picked up their rocks and mosey back to where we grabbed them. We returned the rocks but since we had some time left, the final hill exercise was to run up the hill, complete 25 monkey humpers, 25 sumo jump squats, and 25 reps of an exercise of their choice. Once all PAX came down, a final push and sprint back to the shelter closed us out.