OYO – But Together



OYO – But Together

How do I start this one, how do I describe what we just experienced in what may go down as the longest April in any of our lives?  I guess I start at the beginning and work my way through it.

 

The Thang:

As March was drawing to a close and I realized I was staring down the barrel of a long and gloomless month, I knew I needed to find motivation in a new way.  You see, I suck at motivating myself.  So many alarm clocks have been set with good intentions, but then snoozed and turned off from deep within the grasp of the almighty fartsack.  If it weren’t for the accountability of the HC and the merciless support of the PAX to whom said commitments were given, a chronic sad clown still would I be.

So I thought about what things drive the PAX.  Mumblechatter, competition, achievement, and fellowship.  Leveraging my somewhat more than mediocre excel skills to build a challenge to bring us into contact with each other, to give us a motivating factor to get out of bed each day, or find space in our afternoons to find a beat down, that was the easy part.  I was certain I’d find a few PAX who would lean in and participate and hopefully that would be enough to do the hard part… show up.

I never counted on 30 PAX to jump on the bandwagon, and never in my WILDEST dreams did I think we’d have 8 PAX go a perfect 30 for 30.  Had you told me on 4/1 I would workout every day in April I would have laughed at you, but look who is laughing now.

Here is the fun part, the PAX got into the competition.  We saw streaks building day over day, until one day Wingman shared he had worked out for #fourteen straight days for the first time in his life.  Fredo was coming off of 30 straight days of #marchmadness and was keeping things 100% as well.  Hoover and Brexit came into this thing with a vengeance and by the end of the first week were miles ahead of the pack.  Then ThinMint, Geraldo and Hightide started to put distance between them and the rest.  For the rest of the month we saw those leads build, with a few of us (gypsy, YHC, Unplugged, Voodoo) making cameos, only to be erased by the steadfast grid of these warriors of the OYO.

Then, for YHC at least, it go more fun when PAX started suggesting how we should update the format for “next month.”  Here we are, two weeks into a 30 day competition and already folks are lining up for another month of challenge.  Not only that, but the suggestions were coming from everywhere… so cool, and so Voodoo and I started working on the May challenge before we even knew how the April challenge would end.

So, how DID it end you ask?  Much as it began really, Hoover and Brexit put everyone deeply in their rearview, and made epic pushes with 2 a days in the final week.  Geraldo and HighTide kept showing up and the rest of us watched them draw away, despite our best efforts.  I cannot be more proud of these guys…

Here are some stats:

PAX: 30

Days Worked Out: 669

Average Days Worked Out:22

PAX w/ 30 days worked: 8

Total minutes under power:43,803 (thats 30 days all in)

Average minutes under power: 1460 (thats just over a day)

 

Finishing Order:

  1. Brexit
  2. Hoover
  3. Geraldo
  4. HighTide
  5. Unplugged

Congratulations to these warriors for their strength, grit and downright badassery… very impressive.

Moleskinny:

What. A. Month. I have to say the most impressive performance has to go to Brexit who offered a very moving anecdote around his acceleration in the month of April.  After his accident, the challenge presented him with the motivation he needed to get into “the best shape of his life.”  just….wow.

I can share for me, I’ve never worked out 10 days in a row nonetheless 30 straight.  I’ve never felt the need I guess, but wow this challenge lit my fire.  Mission achieved I guess.  But I never expected something I did as a project for me, to be so impactful for others.  To all the PAX who said thank you to me for doing it, I turn that around and say thank you to each of you.  Thank you for helping push me, thank you for playing along with the game, and thanks for giving me the opportunity to help you all just a little in your own journey through the darkness of OYO.

 

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