A Legend In My Own Mind

A Legend In My Own Mind

When Hops put in the call for me to queue at my alma mater (class of 1991), I knew that I could not and would not refuse. I also knew that it was my chance to take the PAX on a journey to relive my glory years and teach them a little about the school.

The Thang, with some of the Moleskin baked in

I built a workout that would take us around the various part of the “old” campus that many, based on the PAX comments, had not been seen before.

We had one FNG (see below), and so a thorough disclaimer was in order (whether or not anyone was listening is another story). With F3, Latin, and most importantly me in the clear, we were off.

Mosey from the parking lot, up the sneaky big hill, to where the carpool line used to be for warm-up. I say “used to be,” because there is a big ole building there now that wasn’t there before. I have no idea what they do in there. It may be the latest secret bunker built by the US Government (YHC went to The Greenbrier this weekend – that place is cool, but I digress).

• SSH x20
• IW x20
• Low Slow Squat x20

When we were warm, clearly noted by the level of conversation not ceasing and even possibly increasing, it was time to move. Mosey to the entrance to the 400 building (Middle School) for a circuit of alternating bear crawl and lunge walk, with a merkin set at each corner. The circuit would take us from the 6^th/7^th grade hallway where my career at Latin began back in 1985, over to the 9^th grade building, and then over to one of the two primary upper school buildings. This was a critical component of the workout, as it paid tribute to the academic excellence of Charlotte Latin.

• Merkins x20
• Wide arm merkins x15
• Diamond merkins x10
• Merkins x20
• Peoples chair to wait on the six

At 10:00 every morning, we had a fifteen minute break from our rigorous academic curriculum. On many days, I wondered over to the gazebo right in the middle of this academic quad to sit at the picnic benches with my friends and a snack. It was only appropriate to bring my newer friends back to this same spot, especially for our break following the previous set.

• 10 step ups each leg
• 15 derkins
• 20 dips
• Repeat once
• Plankarama

Not only is Latin a top notch academic institution, the Hawks are often dominant on the fields, pitches, gyms, and pools. Time to venture to the extracurricular (not those, Spack). The first sports team I made (yes, we had cuts) was the JV tennis team in 7^th grade. I took the boys down to the tennis courts for some suicides. We only ran two four-court suicides each, and despite being plenty, it was significantly easier in the 50 degree gloom vs. the 90 degree heat that feels 7 degrees hotter even on hard courts that comes with a Charlotte late spring.

• Partner up – Suicides across all four courts while partner does LBCs
• Repeat once

We then moved down to the track, where I told them of my senior cross country season where 100% of the training was done on the track, most of it 400s. Talk about nasty. Had I known that our new coach at the time had that in mind, I’m not sure I would have committed. Nonetheless, our team of scabs managed to put this approach to work and we finished 2^nd in the state. YHC even made all-conference. Interval training does work.

• 400 at pace, 200 recovery x3

But a trip down memory lane wouldn’t be complete without a stop by the gym. While we were outside the “new” gym, and I had played in the “old” gym (Belk Gym – which felt a little like Carmichael Auditorium, Reynolds Coliseum, or even Cameron Indoor Stadium – think small, hot and loud), I had to bring basketball into this equation, despite being short on time.

• Peoples Chair with arm raises (x20 +x10 double-time)
• Repeat

Back to launch. Done with 15 seconds to spare.

Additional Commentary

Big and quality group of guys out this morning, and also plenty of chatter. Horsehead made a nice appearance, and it was great to see Kirk at Hawk’s Nest. Pretty ironic that when the harassing of the Q and his private school heritage started during warm-ups, it was predominantly coming from a group standing on the sidewalk refusing to get their shoes wet in the dew covered grass.

Spackler and Semi-Gloss provided plenty of their own commentary for the Q. As usual, Sprockets was way out in front, especially on the 400s. Hops is getting some wheels, too, I might add. There was plenty of huffing and puffing, but he pushed through, leaving YHC well behind. Good to see Bugeater out there this morning, despite apparently being left behind by Scratch-n-win’s chauffeur service.

Welcome to FNG Nathan, now named Kobayashi.

Announcements:

• Several events with “beer” in the title coming up. Check Slack.
• Swift and Fast Twitch are converging at Community House for a timed mile next week. You will not want to miss this.