Swings, Sprints, Squats – The Winning Way to Start a Week

Swings, Sprints, Squats – The Winning Way to Start a Week

On a pleasant morning in the southernmost point in the greater Ballantyne region seven men gathered to swing some iron and were somewhat confused by the eighth car in the parking lot.  Since Foxhole uses an elementary school as an AO this would normally not be anything out of the ordinary since sometimes teachers show up early.  This mystery car had an F3 sticker however, so some started to wonder if Tolkien was serious about showing up sometime in the 4 am hour to run seven miles.  We knew it wasn’t Cheese Curd however, even though he had tweeted about trying to make it to the workout if it wasn’t too far away.  Never mind the fact that at minimum Voodoo, Wild Turkey, the aforementioned Tolkien, and YHC all had longer drives.  Once the watch struck 5:30 we circled up to begin the festivities with a fair to middling disclaimer and an unconventional warmup:

40 kettlebell swings, 40 SSH, 40 LBC

30 kettlebell swings, 30 SSH, 30 LBC

20 kettlebell swings, 20 SSH, 20 LBC

10 kettlebell swings, 10 SSH, 10 LBC

Next up we did 5 snatches with the left side, then 5 snatches with the right side, 10 goblet squats, and a lap around the parking lot.  The next round was 4 snatches each side, then 8 goblet squats, then take a lap.  Then 3 snatches each side, 6 goblet squats, and a lap.  Continuing the pattern we did 2 snatches each side, 4 goblet squats, a lap, then 1 snatch each side, 2 goblet squats, and one last lap.  YHC’s legs are still an absolute mess after Southern Discomfort this past Saturday so the laps were on par with a three legged basset hound running uphill through a puddle of maple syrup. Sometime in the middle of these sets Tolkien ran into the parking lot to join us.  Rumor has it he started by running to the end of the road, then decided to keep going and ran across town, then since he wasn’t tired, ran across Greenbow county.  After that he decided he may as well just run across the great state of Alabama..   After eventually reaching an ocean he turned around and somehow managed to wind up on the mean streets of South Charlotte where the only reasonable thing to do in the pre-dawn gloom is swing a kettlebell.

Take the bells to the soccer field for some sprint work.  Line up on the line in front of the goal and do 20 swings, 20 merkins, 20 Russian twists the sprint to the corresponding line on the other end of the field.  Plank until the group is all at the far end, then lunge walk to the midfield line and jog back to the bells.  Repeat the process four more times for a total of five rounds.  Tolkien just did a bunch of Mary exercises and may or may not have actually brought his kettlebell to the field.  Time is now running short so pack up the bells and head back to the parking lot.

The next cluster of exercises consisted of 5 Romanian Deadlifts with the left side, 5 with the right side, 5 racked squats with the left side, and 5 with the right.  The next round was 3 reps of the four exercises, followed by a round of 1 rep of each exercise.  With only 90 seconds left until the bell the only reasonable thing to do is swing the bells and get in as many reps as possible until 6:15.

Announcements: Sign up for the Christmas party, Registration for the Joe Davis Run is open, there’s a Jingle Bell race in early December, and there is some New Year’s Day trail race where for $20 you get a shirt and some beer after running 17 miles.  There’s also the option of spending $40 for plenty of beer, putting on an old shirt, and not running 17 miles on trails in the middle of winter.  Seems like a no-brainer.