When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love, to do 100 goddamn burpees before 7:30 a.m. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Many of our tribe arrived tired this morning, having been woken in the middle of the night by a 4.9 magnitude earthquake with an epicentre only 11km (6ish miles) from our workout zone. Kept awake by the adrenaline coursing through their veins and versions of the question, “What. The. Fuck?!?”
On my run over to the zone, I came across a new tag on the sidewalk (pictured), clearly written post-quake sometime in the past few hours. Melodramatic? Yeah. Funny at that? Yup. But kinda…poignant? Not to get all Hallmark, but yes, that too. A bunch of us were thinking – me included – that it’s time to get real about being prepared for the Big Shaker that’s eventually, definitely, coming down the pike.
But that’s kinda human nature, right? We don’t pay heed to the things that really matter until they’re smacking us in the face. Which is kinda what we’re about at NP_Vic: Smacking each other in the face with the wake-up call that we’re all alive. Fully, awesomely, fucking alive…but that it’s fleeting. And that the best thing we can do to honour this fragile little life is to such as much marrow out of it as we can. To surround ourselves by the best people. To enable ourselves to have the most amazing experiences. To do a whole SHIT TON of burpees on a Wednesday morning.
So that’s what we did. What better way to shake out that earthquake adrenaline than by overrunning it with NP adrenaline. What better way to be ready for the next one than to be fit as hell to run away from it. (Ok, kidding. But damn, if this morning’s workout didn’t enable functional fitness – for addressing the apocalypse or otherwise, then I don’t know what would.)
After warm-up, The Baller broke out his card deck and threw down a such a randomly proceeding series of sprints, jump squats, toe taps, push-ups, sit-ups, mountain climbers and, yes, hell yes, burpees, that many of us though we may have been about to die. When in fact, we were just getting to that juicy point, tinged by the tasted of lactic acid, that we feel most ALIVE.
Up the hill for the sunrise and high fives, then down to Bubby Rose’s Kitchen for our first-ever extra-curricular outing as a tribe, and off we all went on our days. A little sorer, a little more jacked, a little more alive, a little more ready to live.
Happy New Year Rumon & Vic November project crew/participants!
My wife, Linda and i had no idea such a unique group existed in Victoria, just happened to be listening to CFAX and heard Rumon being interviewed re polar bear swim and chatting about the Wednesday morning workouts. Decided to check it out this morning (Jan 6TH). Had a blast! Great warmup, challenging workout but the time went by fast…Loved the infectious enthusiasm, spirit of Camraderie…..F____kYEAH!
Check it out, participate, be amazed, get fit, get jacked.
Thank you for organizing this unique weekly event!
Best wishes in 2016 from Chris Wille, round the world cyclist, marathoner, triathlete, trail runner, and fellow hiker/climber who very much treasures all the amazing peaks on the island.
Chris! Huge thanks for the kind words, but most important for you and Linda showing up this morning and for bringing your positivity there and to your comments here. We’ll be hoping to see you weekly, or as often as you can, and to you sharing what sounds like your many kickass stories about how you express your fitness outside. If you’re on the social, track us down as tag your stories with #np_vic so we can spread your stories and the NP awesomeness. High fives!