May 29, 2016

Monday, May 30th 2016

MURPH

The big day has arrived!

We will be starting heat 1 at 10am (so be here by 9:30 to warm up) and one starting at 10:45a (warming up by 10:15a). If you did not sign up for heat one, you are in heat two (heat one is full!).

Larry will be here with his Bullhead Pit Beef truck so please support him! And bring a side, snack or beverages as this is a pot-luck style event.

A few housekeeping notes (that we will also review tomorrow). It will be a packed house so we’ve written out recommended warm ups for everyone (it will be too difficult to warm up and get everyone ready at once… especially with different heats).

Thankfully, the weather looks like it may hold up, but just in case, please bring a DRY TOWEL for your hands. Wet hands and chalk is a terrible combination (makes for very sticky and slippery bars) so please dry your hands vs. chalking up on those pull ups.

Bar space will be at a premium so we are asking that if you are using a box, PLEASE PUT IT TO THE SIDE by the stanchion (the upright part of the rig). We will need two athletes at every bar (specifically, the double ones… especially the Speal bars!) so you won’t be able to plop your box down and take up a whole bar. And for safety purposes, boxes should be to the side as you do your pull ups anyway. We are also suggesting that people on bands use the interior bars. We will not be utilizing J-hooks for tomorrow’s WOD as the bars will take up precious rig space.

Please scale the workout appropriately! We are thrilled to hear that so many of you are doing this in teams and we have spoken to many of you individually about scaling options. Feel free to scale volume (shorten the run, do half the reps, etc), scale the movements (ring rows vs. pull ups) or push ups on knees vs. full plank).

We do NOT recommend doing the reps in consecutive order! While you must run first and last, how you divvy up the pull ups, push ups and squats is completely up to you. Most people do 5 pull ups, 10 push ups and 15 air squats (for 20 rounds), but if push ups are a weakness, try splitting them up even more. Think 5 push ups, 5 pull ups, 5 push ups and 15 air squats. Or 5 push ups, 5 pull ups, 5 air squats, 5 push ups and 10 air squats). You get the gist.

And lastly, we ask that everyone just be patient as we’ll have a lot of athletes to cycle through. Try to remember why we are there as it puts a lot of the small stuff into perspective.

To that end, for those of you who aren’t aware, tomorrow we honor ALL of our servicemen and servicewomen with a workout named for fallen Navy SEAL LT. Michael P. Murphy. He was on a mission to capture or kill a key Taliban leader, when he and his four-man team found themselves seriously outnumbered in a firefight with hundreds of enemy troops. Pinned down and under intense enemy fire and with their communications operator severely wounded, they were in desperate need for help. Due to the mountainous terrain, communications could not be received. Understanding the situation, LT. Murphy moved to open ground, to use his satellite phone, exposing himself to enemy fire. LT. Murphy was mortally wounded making that call. They continued fighting until Lt. Murphy and two of his three team mates were mortally wounded. His fourth team member, severely injured himself, managed to escape and was rescued 4 days later. He went on to tell the story in a book and movie titled “The Lone Survivor”.