Swifthole

Swifthole

Conditions

• 15 degrees and no breeze
• No Shovel Flag (didn’t want to shatter an ankle trying to stick it in the permafrost)
• Bratwurst, the famous running coach and siteQ at Swift (Tuesday Mornings), was in attendance and we ran so thus the title: Swifthole

Thang

At First

There were a record 5 pre-runners for Foxhole. This is a startlingly large amount, given
YHC had proclaimed on Slack the night before that the main event would have some
miles in it. One Niner pushed the pace a bit on the back half of the run, well done. Hope that shoulder feels better soon. Bratwurst joined us a few minutes in, dressed as the “bad guy” from those horrid Panthers-themed CPI security commercials. 2.7 – 3.0 little miles for the pre-runners. At around 5:28, some of the regular Foxhole crew rolled up like a gang (minus the bass thumping). Disclosure given, warm up ensued:

• 10 SSH
• 10 Merkins
• 10 Windmills
• Run with your bells down to the Elon park Rd.
• Gather PAX at the first speed bump
• Run out to the 3rd speed bump, and back. (1/2 mile)

The road that takes you to the rear of Elon Park has a couple of speed bumps, and
is well lit. From our starting speed bump to the first it is 120 meters, to the second, 300 meters, to the third, 400 meters. Downhill out, Uphill back. If you run the speed bumps in a suicide fashion, it is 1640 meters or ~ 1 Mile. So we did some suicide style runs, with a twist:

Mile #1 (Leave KB at the Starting Bump)

• Run to 1st bump and back
• 15 KB Squats
• Run to 2nd bump and back
• 15 KB Jump Squats
• Run to 3rd bump and back
• 15 KB Squat and Press
• (Throughout, stop at each bump as you cross them, with feet on the bump, and do 5 hand-release merkins)

Mile #2 (Bring Your KB)

• Run to 1st bump (bring your KB on your shoulder), 7 deep KB squats
• Run back to starting bump for 15 hand-release merkins
• Run to 2nd bump (pick up your KB from 1st, and bring it), 7 deep KB squats
• Run back to starting bump for 15 hand-release merkins
• Run to 3rd bump (pick up your KB from 2nd, and bring it), 7 deep KB squats
• Run your KB back to starting bump for 15 hand-release merkins
• (Run back to collect and encourage the six)

At Last

• 12 civilian count deep KB squats, with long pauses at the bottom to discuss
  bathroom technology (i.e squatty potty, Nard Dog’s bidet #cornellgrad). The 10
  second conversations about lavatory innovations were MUCH more entertaining than
  simply counting down from 10.
• 15 Flutter IC (hands over head)
• 15 Chippy Cross IC
• 15 LBC IC
• 15 Heels to Heaven IC
• Done

Frosty the Moleskine

It was obviously going to be important to stay warm today. Standing in a circle doing KB presses was not going to be on the docket (it rarely is at Foxhole). To stay warm, we were going to need elevated heart rates, and big muscle groups: enter stage left, running and squats, respectively. Strong work from the guys who had to modify a bit due to shoulder injury: Loogie was looking almost back in perfect form on the merkins, definitely rehabbing well. OneNiner was moving pretty quickly out there, despite the bummed shoulder. Mighty Mite was rocking that awful NC State hat/tuque/”girl braid” thing; YHC tried to keep up with Bratwurst for the duration, and Nard Dog is quite quick for a man of size. Voodoo was strong and had the largest bell within the suggested range of 35-45 lbs. Escobar has started stalking YHC a bit; posted at each of the last 3 Qs. Fahvre had us all licked by the 2nd hump each time #beastmode. Good work out there gents.

(Since this is somewhat of a personal reflective, I’ll dispense with the usual “YHC” 3rd person stuff for this paragraph.)

Well. It’s been a year. A year since my first post. Early January 2016. Foxhole. Madamme Tussauds gear Q. A couple epic dudes in attendance. Frehley’s, Irish Creme, Chanel, Wingman, Voodoo, Freon. Fire Hazard was one of them, introduced himself as “Chip” since I didn’t have a “callsign” and said I was “Calvin”. I’d read about the “nicknames” online, so for the duration of the workout, I was pretty sure “Chip” was a nickname, until COT. It was a great experience, and a hard workout. No doubt of who was in charge, or what to do next. A bunch of guys that show up on time, respect each other’s leadership, and challenge each other to work harder. Thanks for the warm welcome, the leadership, competition, and friendship.