Heavy on the Flipping, Light on the Meat

The BackBlast:

Intro:

I’m a creature of habit. I like a routine. And when you have 2 kids under four years old, you absolutely need a routine. I’ve been posting 3-4 days a week for +4 years on a steady rotation of Monday – Phoenix, Wednesday – Bandit, Friday – Sparta, Saturday – Latta. Tues / Thur are some combination of #meatpuppet training or peloton in the basement with dueling baby monitors while my better half goes to one of those overpriced boutique fitness studios. Sunday is always #smartsack day.

I can probably count on two hands the number of times I’ve posted somewhere other than my normal rotation. Ring Run twice, SharkTank twice, and Worm twice. That may be it. I’ve still never hit WIB, SIB, Sweet Six, Ranger, Indy, Big Hair Monday or Mustang. If its south of AG, forget about it.

Until last week, I had never posted to PWW despite the AO being 0.4 mi from my house. For those outside of Metro, PWW has the reputation of being the fastest and least FNG friendly “bootcamp” in Charlotte. On Sunday night 3/14 I shot off my weekly text to Frogger.

Sheep: Phoenix?

Frogger: Negative – PWW. Holtz has the Q.

Sheep: Nice. Never been. Will I get dropped?

Frogger: Naw, you’re good

I saw Checkpoint’s pre-blast that mentioned something about Holtz calling a code red. Not sure what that means, I thought, but Holtz seems like a nice guy. I’m sure it won’t be too bad.

Show up Monday morning 5:29 (gota act like you’ve been there, amiright?) and do a mental check through the who’s who of metro batflippers, some of which I’d never actually posted with before. It had been a while since I’ve had the pre-workout jitters, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous.

First exercise, is the merkin. Ok, I thought. Merkins in the parking lot to start. Not so bad.

Next exercise, meet at the top of Bonesaw. Um…. What? I could tell by the immediate reaction of the Pax that I wasn’t the only one hoping this was a joke. Bonesaw is not only one of the steepest hills in Charlotte, its also over 2.5 miles from the PWW AO. There was about a 5 second collective pause by the Pax, and then everyone took off. ThinSlice immediately suggested forming a splinter group, to which Dredd rightfully noted that we would never live it down.

Now, I know where Bonesaw is and how to get there. However, I typically drive in my car around the I-277 beltline to get there. I’d never run there, which consists of running across uptown, through a slightly sketchy industrial area, and into NoDa. If you want to run faster, I highly recommend a training regimen that includes potentially getting dropped in slightly sketchy parts of town at 5:30 in the morning.

We ended up doing three trips up and down Bonesaw, a comically low number of merkins and a total of +6 miles. I made it back just under the 45 min time limit and surprisingly did not get dropped. I waited for Frogger to get back (that’s right, I beat Frogger home) to tell him that I hated him and I was going back to Phoenix next week.

Not so fast.

Checkpoint (in COT): Holtz, who’s got Q next week.

Holtz: I think Sheep should take it.

Now I really hate Frogger. I begrudgingly accept, knowing this must be some type of PWW hazing where trying to weasel out of it would only make it worse.

Sunday roles around, and I get a friendly reminder from Checkpoint that I have the Q in the morning. Knowing that my only reference point was the prior week, he mentions that the “junk show” from Holtz was not typical. Though I suspected it was closer to typical for PWW than say, a true bootcamp. I tell Checkpoint I have a plan, and I’ll give the people what they want.

It only took a few minutes on onthegomap.com (extremely helpful for planning Q’s, btw) to figure out my plan. Hills – check, miles – check, merkins – check, and most importantly, designed so I don’t accidentally drop myself at my own Q. I also had a backup plan given the PWW reputation for refuseniks.

The Thang:

1. Mosey to YMCA parking lot entrance on Morehead. Quick set of merkins.
2. Run down the Morehead hill to Euclid, 10x merkins, back up the hill to the Y, 10x more merkins. 0.2 miles each way (0.4 miles total)
3. Run down the Morehead hill to McDowell, 20x merkins, back to the Y, 20x more merkins. 0.4 miles each way (0.8 miles total)
4. Run down Morehead to Kenilworth, 30x merkins, back to the Y, 30x merkins. 0.85 miles each way (1.7 miles total)
5. Run down Morehead to Kings, 40x merkins, back to the Y, 40x merkins. 1.2 miles each way (2.4 miles total)
6. Quick mary while we wait for the 6 then mosey home.

5.5 miles, 200 merkins and a few LBCs for good measure. It was in fact, what the PWW people wanted (well, most of them).

Moleskin:

• Morehead is not the steepest hill, but damn it’s a long hill. I was rethinking the trip down to Kings while running back from Kenilworth, but the Pax already sensed the plan and there was no turning back.
• Holtz complained about too many merkins and not enough miles
• Minimal hazing and refuseniking, but not sure if it counts as a true PWW VQ without Cindy in attendance.
• PWW is fast. YHC clocked around a 7:20 average pace and was near the back of the pack. I think Foulball was in the lead, but I couldn’t tell from my vantage point.
• ThinSlice and Checkpoint were the only ones to make Slaughter proud with their “things” in COT
• FNG courtesy of Bunny. The PAX did not like Boone’s suggestion of “yay high” and instead opted for ThinSlice’s suggestion of Van Der Beek, after the actor from Dawson’s Creek, which was filmed in FNG’s hometown of Wilmington, NC. Slice also provided a less than spot-on impression of the “We don’t want your lies!” quote from Varsity Blues.
• Dredd “passed” on informing the PWW crew about the Grow Ruck event. #knowyouraudience
• Checkpoint with the Q next week. Switching it up by meeting at Bonesaw for some KOTH training.

Take-out:

Routines are great for the 2^nd F, but sometimes you need to change it up to broaden your 2^nd F. I need to do this as much as anyone. 2 weeks in a row for PWW; we’ll see if it becomes a habit. Maybe not every week. I do miss the Phoenix crew, and most importantly, I know they miss me.