The Joy of Shared Suffering: 100 Burpees and 3 Miles



The Joy of Shared Suffering: 100 Burpees and 3 Miles

I hate burpees with a passion. They are pointless, painful and plain. But they’re ruthlessly efficient. And for that reason, they remain a staple of F3 workouts. There’s even a nation-wide #CSAUP happening right now centered on these bad boys #MakeAmericaBurpeeAgain

I’m challenging myself to #EmbraceTheSuck in 2021 by leading workouts in areas that are outside of my comfort zone. I suck at pull ups too. *Reminder to get back to @Das Boot with a commitment to lead this at Body Shop soon*

With a heavy focus on burpees in the event preblast, I knew this workout would scare away a few. I’m okay with that. To be honest, I wouldn’t have attended if I was on the receiving end of that message. But I knew that I needed the accountability of leading a workout (and Q juice) to tackle these frivolous things head-on.

And so it began. 0525 rolled around and lo and behold, @Atlas and @Brexit join me in my pointless endeavor! Together we embraced the burpee suck and we all learned a thing or two about the joy that is found in shared suffering.

The Thang

Run a lap in the teachers parking lot. 10 SSH’s, 10 Hill Billies, 10 Mountain Climbers and 10 Burpees (CUE THE GROANS).

BURPEE COUNTER: 10

Mosey to football practice field (football field is locked) for 100 meters of Killer B’s: 1 burpee + 2 broad jumps + 4 bear crawls

BURPEE COUNTER: 22

The Burpee Mile: Perform 12 burpees, run 1 lap around practice field (.25 miles/lap). Repeat 4x Plank until all three are in.

BURPEE COUNTER: 70

The Big Boy Sit Up Mile: Perform 20 Big Boys, run 1 lap around practice field (.25 miles/lap). Repeat 4x. Recover with 12 burpees. Atlas reminded me that burpees are not an appropriate cooldown exercise, that would be stretching. Whatever.

BURPEE COUNTER: 82

Offer choice between tire flips and repeating Killer B’s for another 100 meters. @Atlas and @Brexit were in immediate agreement to go with tire flips. 15 Freddy Mercuries to round these out. Mosey back to launch. Would you look at that – we ran 3 miles! Round out the morning with remaining burpees until time.

BURPEE COUNTER: 100

Moleskin

  • Announcements: Waxhaw and SOB blood drives coming up in February. Waxhaw CSAUP in early February.
  • I’m quite grateful there were only three HIM that attended this one. It provided ample opportunity for 2nd F, with topics ranging from Brexit’s dank man cave (complete with NBA 2k arcade machine and microbrewery taps) to how Atlas’ 2.0 wakes up at 1:30 in the morning to watch cartoons. Both are holding on to way too many CD’s and records that they’re now trying to get their kids to enjoy to justify not throwing them away
  • T claps to Brexit for punching the fartsack in the face despite limited sleep due to 2.0’s. We c
  • T claps to Atlas for the 2-mile prerun and prairie doggin it until he could make it home for much-needed relief. He made it back in time 😉
  • The site continues to amaze me as there’s so much territory to explore here between the fields and school parking lots. Brexit also said something about hills nearby, which was immediately rebuked by Atlas

Truth Nugget

My life was upended in many ways in 2020, some driven by the pandemic, others not. Like many others, I fell down. Over and over again. But it meant that I had to get back up. Again and again.

And what is a burpee except falling down and getting back up?

I first posted at an F3 workout on 1/11/2020. As I reflect on the this last year, my F3 brothers and friends are with me when I fall down and need to get back up. Sometimes I’m the one falling. Other times I’m the one helping get someone else back up. But the constant is that I’m not doing it alone.

We get knocked down. We get back up. Again and again. Together.

This workout (and many others) helped me see how there is joy to be found in sharing the burden of hard things.

It took 3 miles and 100 burpees to realize how much joy being miserable would bring me.

midriff out

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