You can pause, but you cannot quit…

You can pause, but you cannot quit…

QIC: Rudolph

Date: 08.12.2025

PAX: Zephyr, Brown Bag, Hotdish, Rachel Ray

High Life is for men; humid, gnarly and awesome.  A month ago I wrenched my knee and the injury pops up every now and then.  On top of that, I’m week 5 on a new weights program, so how to tie all this into F3?  Easy, let’s just modify and get nasty.  The crowd gathered early, starting to be a real core here at #HL.  Zephyr was there before me and I was pretty early (beastly guy if you’ve not met yet), AO Site Q Hotdish also arrives, and while I had my back turned here comes Brown Bag from his jog in, and beside him is Rachel Ray…in a bullet proof vest!  Beware Miller Park.  Actually a 20lb. weight vest.  I knew he was going to regret that later.

I explained my leg (no lateral moves) and my weight program, and told them I had figured out the damn secret to a Q today; I mean I cracked the friggin’ code, and at the end everyone was smiling in agreement.  Maybe.

W/U: my normal, show to know.  Full body and sexy.

The Thang:  today’s workout from my program was 10 super-sets of 7 pull-ups and 14 push-ups.  Well, that’s almost like a….murph!  So I told the guys we’d do a half murph to start, so break up how you want but 50 pull ups, 100 merkins and 150 squats were owed.  All did well, and my metal music chased off an old lady and her chiropractor.  Step your game up lady, you gotta be tough to hang.  RR finished first, and it was so humid my glasses fogged during every transition.  Thank God Frostbite taught me about headbands.  BALD LIFE!

Next was my own creation, I mean a stroke of genius:  we go to the horeshoe pit and I tell them we already worked pecs, arms/back and quads, so we need shoulder, hamstrings and calves.  We would Scorpion March (think bear crawl but one leg in the air hooked over your back) and at each horseshoe peg you do 5 CDD’s.  I mean this was too easy.  The guys were full of energy and vigor, and the mumblechatter was in full effect.  ALL LIES.  At the end I simply collapsed because this looked better on paper.  But you know what?  I’m the one that has a wonky leg and I’m the Q so enjoy.  Really great pushes from Zephyr (who I know was secretly competing with me) and Hotdish who said “I have nothing left in my upper body” and THEN pushed out the last 3 sets.  Strong.  RR shed the vest here I think?  From the rear I heard something like “this vest ain’t it” or some such.

Okay, I told them we’d take it back but I was gassed, so I led us in some LBC’s, and then we went to the railroad ties for calf raises.  Everyone feeling better?  Back to the horseshoe pit.  They got excited to repeat but I said it’s OMAHA time.  Let’s lunge every step as I call it, and then do an exercise I call at each pit.  I called burpees everytime, sometimes 1, sometimes 2.  Great work, way to stay together, I like this.  Scorpion Death March can go suck a root.

When that was done we tried the famous “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor” challege.  Play the song, whenever you hear a number you do a merkin, when you hear the title you do a donkey kick.  Otherwise you are in plank.  I called for a break twice.  This SUCKS after the earlier activity.

We did one round of Mary each, but had 3 minutes left.  So here I said we should cool-down with a burpee waterfall, but with increasing pumps (1 merk at bottom, then 2, then 3, then 4, and when we got to 5 it was time).  TIME!

ANNOUCEMENTS – new date for that FIA thing.  Hotdish needs Q’s in September at HighLife; get your man-badge by working out in the heat, you can do it.

PRAYER REQUESTS:  – kids going back to school, college, teachers, kinda everyone.  my stupid knee (which Brown Bag actually diagnosed for me after the workout, free of charge!  Ain’t that something!  Great guy).

MOLESKIN – I knew this pack of badasses would meet the challenge.  I really like this core group of HighLifers but remember you can always EC more (I’m 0-4 for dry headlocks while at the site, one guy yesterday looked at me like “are you ####ing kidding?  I saw that thing in the horeshoe pit….”).  My rule as a Q is like my rule in life, which I told the guys at the top of the workout, and in closing prayer:  you can pause but you cannot quit.  You adopt that philosophy everywhere, you are a winner no matter the outcome.

SUPERLATIVES:  Badass award: Rachel Ray.  Leadership award:  Brown Bag.  Indominatable award:  Zephyr.  Guts award:  Hotdish.  Sexy award:  yours truly.

Always a pleasure – Rudolph.