To my surprise, I wasn't the only one hobbling in this morning. Pete and I arrived at the same time and all I had to do was glance in his direction and, even through the morning darkness, his face said it all. He and I felt exactly the same. Not only that, we were moving at about the same speed. There's a term for it, it's called "snails pace." Screw that, I'm calling it "Wild Bill's wrath pace!" I smile and say hello to everyone as I walk in and then walk closer to the prestigious whiteboard. In my head I had only one thought which was: "Please don't let it be squats! Please lord, don't let it be squats. Please, oh please, oh please!" When I was close enough to read it, here's what we were all greeted with:

- 2 Muscle-Ups

- 4 HSPU's

- 8 KB Swings (32K, 71LBS)

CHA CHING! Ring it up baby! We've never done this one before and what a bonus, no squats. Game-friggin'-on! Another day and Bill brings in the HQ WOD which is something he doesn't always do. Surely, there's a reason for it - and we certainly all notice him doing this - but we're not complaining at all. We love the method to his madness. We warmed up with a quick row, some standard mobility drills and finally some new stretches. Mind you, stretching is never easy but these sure felt good. By the time the WOD was ready to kick off nearly all of the painful moaning ceased and we were ready to go.

Music loud, humidity high and gang members focused, we did what we always do: We all went right after "Nate." This was our first meeting and while I won't speak for anyone else, I found him to be very sneaky. Kinda like "creeper." The first few rounds weren't too bad and my confidence was soaring. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, "Nate" stopped with the creeper and swung the hammer. It was the end of round 9 with 5 minutes to go and my body was wanting to go into shut-down mode. I was on the floor and just finished 1 HSPU and was hurting. Tired. Breathing heavy. Body tightening. Dying. Thankfully I heard Pete yell out "COME ON Tommy Mo! COME ON! Kip up and get to work!" Those little shout-outs from the gang members go a long way with me - for all of us!

The 20:00 mark came, Bill called "TIME!" and once again in near cadence we all hit the deck and collapsed. Only today, it was hotter in the box and we all were drenched. Jeff? He looked like the most recent contestant in the dunk tank. Pete? His shirtless upper body could have blinded you with the shine. Nicole? Her hair in shambles and knots. Barbie? Her workout clothes might as well have been saran wrap. Me? The sweat angel tells the entire story. Look closely at the bottom. See that? You're seeing it correctly. Those really are sweat puddles. I got up and headed outside where it was still raining and stood in the chilling rain trying desperately to cool off. Bill strolls over, congratulates us on the hard work and then turns and looks at the floor: "That's one really impressive 'Sweat Angel'. Look at that thing, it's actually got a few puddles! Thank god we washed the floors yesterday."

What else can you say? It's the sign of hard work, right? Combine that with a tough WOD, high box humidity, positive encouragement and good music and I - or anyone else - produce a sweat angel on an entirely different level.

Whatever you do, don't even think about asking us to wash the floors.

Naga. Naga. Naganna happen.

M'man Jeff took one step closer to graduating to BEAST status today. Wanting to "stick to the norm" he almost used the 16K kettle bell. Instead, he set it back down and went to the 24K bell for the WOD. On his blog he writes about how heavy it was and how at round 2 he wanted to scale back. However, he found a way to "tame the animal" and stay with that 24K bell for the entire 20:00. That alone deserves respect. Way to go, Jeff!

Way to gut it out today, Gang! Thanks for the B-L-A-S-T!

-tmo

--> Tommy Mo's HSPU - (go BIG!)

--> Pete & Tom post "Nate" - (go BIG!)

--> Tommy Mo's 'Sweat Angel' - (go BIG!)

--> "Nate" Whiteboard - (go BIG!)