Wheel of Misfortune

No Pat Sajak. No Vanna White.  For this is the “Wheel of Misfortune.”

The IronPax Challenge 2020 – Week 2

Update: This backblast includes both IPC 2020 – Week 2 Workouts on Wednesday, 09/09/2020 and on Saturday 09/12/2020.

Part 1 – Wednesday, 09/09/2020:

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.

Theodore Roosevelt, from the speech “The Strenuous Life”, 1899

(6) PAX: Photo Finish, Dick Clark, Brisket, Mountie, Scar, and Dos Equis

The workout prep started the evening before when Brisket and YHC met up at the AO to cut 25 yards of rope, in order to quickly set the six cones up for the pain stations in the morning, and to create the square for the 400m one direction run, that would start at the shovel flag located at soccer pitch midfield.  We both noted the strangeness of being at the AO at another time of day.  There were other people at the park and on the soccer pitch!  We are too accustomed to having this 123 acre park to ourselves in the gloom.

In no way could I sum up the sequence of the routine for this “game”, given to us by F3Greenwood, so check it out at their website.  Lots of moving parts indeed.  The cones at the pain stations were set at the end of the rope measure. (We did an eight point circle with the middle length of soccer pitch without two cones for the 400m run.  We marked the corners of the 400m run with cones, too.)

Blockees were terrible! Rifle carries were no picnic. There were buckets of sweat, and not much mumblechatter, as the pax were just trying to breathe.  We are grateful to Mountie for bringing the F3Princeton Spotify Playlist, and for Scar to bring suggested adjustments for the exercises, to modify as needed.

The men got better.  They pushed themselves hard on this workout.  They encouraged one another onward.

An appropriate observation:  We need to do more coupon work with regularity in the workouts leading up to the Iron Pax Challenge.

We get another chance to do this on the upcoming Saturday: to push ourselves further and to improve our form.

Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the goal of true national greatness.

Theodore Roosevelt, The conclusion of the speech, “The Strenuous Life”, 1899

Part 2 – Saturday, 09/12/2020

The second Iron Pax Challenge – Week 2 Workout.

I can’t believe I just kicked up an earthworm. What’s the story with that?

Dick Clark

(13) pax + (1) on ZOOM (The Inimitable ShamWow): WallE, Brisket, Mountie, Scar, Black Hole, Milky Way, Cruiser, Dick Clark, VanDamme, Photo Finish, Trailblazer, RedCoat, Dos Equis

62 degrees, low humidity.  The men got after it and strongly encouraged each other through it.  Mountie’s Spotify playlist helped. We admit feeling “the burning ring of fire” (Johnny Cash) and encouraged Milky Way with “Black Hole Sun.”   We were grateful for Scar to bring modifications and adaptations, as needed.

Twitterless #DickClark during Blockees: “I can’t believe I just kicked up an earthworm. What’s the story with that?” Note to #EarthwormNation, you are not safe during #ipc2020.

(9) for Coffeteria and we returned to Grover’s Mill Coffee House, sitting outside on our Homer buckets.

More fun to come….

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