So This Is 37?

So This Is 37?

I’m not big on birthdays.  I tend to keep it simple with a small celebration with the family.  But this year, I saw The Body Shop had an opening on my birthday and I thought “Why not make some guys miserable on my birthday”.  And so here it is:

WARM UP

Mosey 10 Aussie Burpees where you stand.

Mosey about 100 yards for another 10 Aussie Burpees.

Mosey about another 100 yards for another 10 Aussie Burpees.

THE THANG

After a short mosey around the parking lot, we circled up for:

• 10 Ranger Merkins
• 20 Mountain Climbers
• 10 Wide Arm Merkins
• 20 Mountain Climbers
• 10 T Merkins
• 20 Mountain Climbers
• 7 Arm to Heaven Merkins (Tried looking at lexicon to get official name.  3 pages into 9 total pages of Merkins, I gave up.  F3 really needs to clean up the exicon….its gotten too complicated to become useful).
• 20 Mountain Climbers.  NOPE.  Sorry Das Boot (who begged for them).

Quick mosey to parking spaces to avoid Covid sweat pile crossing.   Jack Web of Carolina Dry Docks and Crawl Bear.  Somewhere around 4 and 16 I screwed up the counting.  Being the idiot that I am, I decided we needed to start over (Bad Idea).  Some pax groaned…others laughed.  Several suggested I needed to go back to Q School – touche.   Approaching the last round I had intentionally planned on ending at 37 since perhaps the pax didn’t quite register why we did 37 merkins earlier….but Posse decided it was his turn to Q Jack the count.  Nope!  I just kept repeating 37 over top of his 38, 39, and 40.

Quick Mosey to the rock pile for rocks.  Partner up.  Partner 1 Jail breaks 100 yards, takes a 10 second walking recovery, and jail breaks back 100 yards.  Partner 2 does a lifting exercises.  Keep rotating through.

• 37 Curls
• 37 Tricep Extensions
• 37 Military Presses
• 37 Rows
• 37 Chest Press

It was at this point I noticed I was getting lapped and the angry elf in me called for those fast bastards to keep going until I was done.  Once the 6 finished (me) we joined back together for 37 sumo squats accompanied by Form Police Posse reminding us to keep our backs straight (mine wasn’t straight and almost never is during squats so feel free to call me out – it takes me back 20 years ago to my football coach yelling the same thing at me – I’ve never had good squat form).

Lunge Walk back towards the rock pile.  Apparently some pax heard mosey…I quickly nipped that one in the bud and had everyone lunging.  Rocks up and circle up for a final 7 Aussie Burpees  (Haha, I made y’all do my birthday burpees with me…suckers).  It was at this point that the first light headed moment took place.  Very quick and passing.  (Serves me right for making yall do my birthday burpees with me I guess)  Lets mosey to the speaker near COT.

5 minutes left, just enough time for Thunder Struck….damn it, black out coming again.  This one a little stronger.  Faked a music hick up to give myself a little extra recover time (I’m not sure we covered that at Q School – “What to do when your passing out”)….there we go, I’m back.  Ok, AC/DC Thunderstruck…Mountain Climbers until you hear Thunder then do a Merkin.  During instrumentals we stood up and did air presses.  It’s a fan favorite.  Every pax wishes we did this more often.  Ended right on time depending on your definition of “On Time”.  I’m never on Hooch time (a guy that use to do F3 (shots fired) in Waxhaw that typically ended his workouts 3 minutes past time), but sometimes I do like to apply Clemson Football Coach Danny Ford’s famous quote “Hit through the echo of the whistle” to F3 (Posse is grinning from ear to ear seeing that I mentioned Clemson Football).  We ended at 6:45:35 instead of 6:45:00 as some pax apparently feel is required.

MOLESKIN

• What the hell is going on with me.  Since giving blood my cardio has plummeted.  I nearly passed out during my own Q today (has that ever happened in all of F3 before?!).  And my resting heart rate has jumped 10%.  But we saved a lot of lives so….that’s good I guess.
• Posse pushing hard on the runs.  Apparently had races with pax who didn’t even know it.  JWoww and One Star….did you know you were racing Posse?  Well if you didn’t, did you know you lost?
• Masher’s killing it as always.  Bunyon straight of his VQ on Monday stepped up to lead again.  Joined by Legalized and Damascus (Kotters).  Mashers still slow to get over to COT which results in screwed up counting.  You get a pass this time since Legalized was on crutches…but I’m looking at new Site Q Mayhem to clean that up under his new reign.
• Chopper roped me into a Mile Prerun before we started.  He asked a group of us and no one volunteered to join…and I can’t let a guy go prerun on his on…so I left the music playing and off I went….Damn it, I hate preruns.
• Lots of other pax I could name about working hard (Because pretty much everyone passed me on the runs), but I will leave it at good work everyone.
• Soap Box Time!  Another year passed which has me reflecting on my time with F3.  I often used the example that the workouts were the bait, the fellowship was the hook, and the third F was the IMPACT – the life changing impact that you can have on others lives in our community that ultimately has impacting change on your life.  Almost 3 years into F3 and I’m to the point that I feel I’m impacting others enough for it to in turn impact me.  Life seems more meaningful now.  The sad clown has been left in the dust.  Much like giving Christmas gifts is more joyful than receiving them.  That being said, you don’t move from First F to Second F to Third F and leave the others behind.  You have to continually push in all three areas.  Some of us are more active in some areas than others.  My social anxiety usually means I struggle in the 2nd F.  Thanks to F3 I’ve openly admitted my issues there with a push from Lazy Boy last year who opened up about his own social anxiety issues.   Take note of where you can grow within F3.  If your a 5 workout a week guy but have never helped at Christ Closet or any of our other Third F opportunities, maybe its time for you to jump in.  If your a Sanctuary guy that has never come to a workout – guess what, we are waiting for you with open arms with plenty of guys willing to circle back to pick you up.  Where are you heavy, where are you light, and what can you do to improve.  If there is one thing I’ve learned from watching the pax in Waxhaw, I can always do more.  Some of yall amaze me.  Lets do more.  Lets impact our community.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Hey, speaking of second F….looks like the 2nd F’ers are getting together for socially distanced beers tonight.   Lawson (Small Pool?) parking lot.  No clue the time…look to GroupMe calendar for more info.  And after my soap box rant above…I can’t make it tonight due to Birthday Time with the family.
• Blood Drive # 2 cooking in Waxhaw.  Turnbuckle and Rudy taking the reigns and looking at early October.  If you are interested in helping day of or helping them recruit, reach out to them.
• Prayed for pax, their wives, and a couple dads going through surgeries, recoveries, or hard times now.