Suffering on the Sabbath


I went to church this morning. It didn't have four walls and a steeple. It had 400 meters and an infield.

I made the trip to my parents' hometown for a little downtime. The local gym didn't have a squat rack, but the High School track was abandoned, save one senior citizen taking his daily constitutional. The perfect setting for a top-to-bottom body thrashing.

Mom and Dad came with me--Dad as the photographer and Mom as Coach. Mom ran track at Springfield College, later coached at Somerville High School, and taught phys ed in the Newport Elementary Schools for over 10 years. She's a fourth grade teacher now, but it turns out she remembers a thing or two about athletic training.

They were both amused that I'd brought a tire and a sledgehammer--until I started using it.

Sunday's Sermon:

400m
40 sledge swings (20L, 20R)
100m Beck's Burpees
40 sledge swings
100m Beck's Burpees
40 sledge swings
400m

Hitting a tire with an 8# sledge is all kinds of fun. This was my first encounter with Beck's Burpees--they require a lot of focus.

If you're doing them, identify your landing spot before you jump. When you look further down the track, you jump further, and you end up doing fewer burpees (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the "Brand-X Burpees" article from last week).


I managed this in just under 20 minutes. I'm not sure of the exact time, because I was too blasted to check my watch. Go faster!