YHC has done a number of “Christmas” themed workouts. Mostly in July (Does it irk anyone else that July isn’t the half-way point to next Christmas?). Generally involving 12 days. It was  time to think outside of the box.  Not unlike our old friend, John McClane.

4 HIMs gathered at Quagmire in the 40ºF rain. Not the coldest rain that one can experience, but it’s not far off.  No newcomers were there, so a very brief disclaimer was disclaimed and we immediately launched towards the overhang at Lowes.

Warm Up

We just ran 400m. What more do you need?

Part One

Anytime YHC thinks about the 80’s, it reminds me of my brother, who still has the first few Paula Abdul albums in regular rotation. So when I found the routine in the Exicon, it was almost kismet. The plan was (if it was drier) to run to Target.  Starting at the first big red ball, run two balls forward, do 10 LBCs then Bear Crawl one ball back for 10 dips on the sidewalk.

But soaking wet, cold feet doing all that running can make for a very bad day.  Thankfully the overhang at Home Despot has four sides that are roughly the right dimensions! Three sides together are about the same distance as the median span between any three adjacent balls, and the long side is about the same as the median span between any two adjacent balls.  We adapt. We move on.  We write the word “balls” in two paragraphs far more often than anyone had anticipated

Instead of running two balls forward and one back. We ran three sides of the overhang, then bear crawled the final leg.  After each running segment there were 10 LBCs. After each bear crawl, 10 dips.  We repeated this 8 times.

Part Two

We moseyed on over to the base of the stairs and with 28 minutes left. YHC revealed that we would need to climb the 34 flights to the top of Nakatomi Plaza in order to save the hostages. Bonnie Bedalia is counting on us.

Pax would start by running up and down the stairs. On the other side we would dip into the shelter under the deck and perform 10 reps of one of the following exercises. On the f irst round 10 merkins, on the second round 10 big boys, etc.
1. Merkins
2. Big boy situps
3. Plank jack
4. Shoulder taps
5. CDD

When descending on the parking lot side, the PAX would do the curbside shuffle (no Exicon entry). PAX in plank position with hands on the curb, legs in the street. Without crossing hands or legs over each other, move to the right or left.  Each time we got to the parking lot, each PAX would move right two parking spaces. Then left back to the starting point.

In order to get 34 floors, we’d need to do 17 rounds. There was some great mublechatter and YHC would dole out a bit of Die Hard trivia from time to time.  After 17 rounds there was about 3 minutes left. Congratulations were in order. The hostages were safe, as is Bonnie Bedalia’s flock of seagulls hairdo.

YHC, always respectful of everyone’s time, said we were very close to 0600, but Half Shell said “Let’s go to the roof!” It made a lot of sense, and so one more up and down for plank jacks and some more curb shuffle and a mosey back to COT.

COT

Clave Boss 5/10k tomorrow. Rucking on 12/31 at Fire Ant. Lots of prayers thrown out there as well.

*I had not set my watch to record until the end of part one, so I don’t know exactly the distance we ran.  But even that part was .92 miles. Not bad.