Don’t worry that title is purely ironic. Please read on.
6 men gathered for the winding odyssey that is the Brave. Here is a brief summary with commentary.
With disclaimer given and Kirby’s gear in place, we head east on Ballantine Commons. Left on Meadows run and head toward the playground at the bottom of the Murderhorn. Stops along the way as follows (all IC): 5 merkins, 5 squats/10 merkins, 15 merkins, 10 merkins/10 squats.
At this point YHC gives the instructions for 5 rounds of pull ups and dips and points vaguely toward the playground. PAX begin to move when we see that… the pull up bars have been taken out!!! What sick, twisted maniac would do such a thing. Anyway, no pull ups.
Consumed by rage because I really wanted to do pull ups, YHC begins barking out whatever comes to mind on the picnic benches. 10 dips IC, 5 jump ups, 5 decline CDDs IC, 10 jump ups, 10 dips IC, 15 jump ups, 5 decline CDDs IC, 10 jump ups, 10 dips IC.
Run to the top of the Murderhorn, which is fun. Briefly circle for the Six with planks and 6 inch planks. Then continue to Stonecrest movie theater and the “mini-Murderhorn” grass hill. Line up facing the hill for three rounds of: 10 speed skaters IC, sprint the hill, 5 jump squats at the top.
Back down the Murderhorn. 10 reps each leg of single leg romanian deadlifts, then run backwards to the first lanp post, which is kind of far. Repeato. Run up the Murderhorn to the top, which is fun. Circle for the Six then start the long trek home. Several stops to keep the PAX together included: flutters, planks, LBCs, and everyone’s favorite, the 8 count “Man-maker” burpee.
With about four minutes left, we tried a new approach to Mary. Line up a breast and do 5 inch worms forward then roll to your six and do a called exercise. Repeat until time called. Need more time for this next time.
Announcements: Blood drive. Collections for Escobar.
Moleskin: Pleasure to lead as always and great effort by all. Thanks!
The Perfect Plan
I planned the entire Wienke last night, set the alarm for 5:15 arrival at Diesel, setup Premature’s famous cones in the parking lot, and finally complete a pre-workout stretch. Got into car and arrived at 5:12 which was better than planned and who do I see, Chastain and Brutus already ready. Well started talking to them and my plan went out the window: no setup or stretching but still had Wienke memorized. PAX cars kept rolling in until 5:30 and some were even a little late, no name Posse. 5:30 hit and we were off, walked 15 feet, to circle up and start Warmup.
The Warmup
The Thang
The Wienke was designed to focus on abs, legs, and shoulders using a coupon. PAX broke up into teams of two to perform various pain exercises shown below along with coupon rifle carries. One-person rifle carry, while the other performs the exercise. The quantity is per team, not per individual. If any team finished an exercise early, they continued until the 6 finished.
Well, I can tell everyone was loving the idea of performing all the rifle carries. I had the joy of rifle carrying next to Brutus while he was singing something, if that is what you call it. At the same time, the entire PAX kept hearing an angry chicken clucking in the background however it was not our Chicken Little. Many PAX were groaning since their shoulders were fatigued after 30 minutes into the work out. I told them “Good news only 15 minutes to go” and Jwow and Carb Load gave me a nice facial expression. Chastain was my partner and I saw him lower the coupon a couple of times to his shoulder during the rifle carry. I could imagine he was saying to himself “I cannot wait till this ends” and I was silently thinking, success. I happened to look over to my right and I see Turnbuckle crushing Big Boy Situps! Nice job!
I did not get to see Rockwell, Posse, Chicken Little, Sledge-O-Matic, Penalty Box, Dough Boy, Dish Dish, Bunyan, or Red Bull since they were on the other side of the parking lot but sure heard their moans!
6:15 came and Chastain said “I cannot believe we did over a mile of rifle carries”
Thanks everyone for pushing through and I enjoyed being the Q.
Announcements
Turnbuckle laundry list…lol
CSAUP Feb 6 – signup
Premature will Q tomorrow at Commitment tomorrow for one-year anniversary. The official anniversary date is 1/18, which I will also Q, at Flash but Commitment was my first F3 experience.
Only three of us this morning, which was nice, we stayed together and grinded out a good workout.
Long opening mosey, stretch and headed to CF for the Merkin Mile, rotating hand release merkins and burpees. Found our way over to Chisholm Ct for hill work, big boys and monkey humpers, 3 rounds was enough of that. Back to CHS campus for more running, squats and dips, 3 rounds and it was time to go, 4 minutes until COT, yikes.
Great running with Ice9 and Sugar Daddy, 2 good dudes. We were all pushing hard. Got in about 6 miles plus exercises.
Missed all the rest of you. I’m having knee surgery on 1/27 and will be out a few weeks but I will be back quickly. I’m in a good place because I have all of you. Someone of you have been thru much tougher injuries and come back, and you inspire me. I have the mashers to look forward to. And of course F2 & F3.
I’m traveling today and posting via phone, so keeping this short, but wanted the guys to get credit for their hard work this am!
If you have seen the picture that Gerber posted last night look again at the kids….they made it FUN!!!!! Also, I think Gerber summed it up well when he noted below the picture “the pandemic has made pax hungry for fellowship, hungry for exercise, hungry for family time, hungry for positivity. Nowhere, is that more evident than by the explosive growth of these evening 2.0 friendly workouts”. Well said Gerber!
He is right! As the pax (and 2.0’s) made their entance last night a different vibe was in the air. It was a fun vibe. An exuberant vibe. A happy vibe. A positive vibe. The adult pax were in turn all smiling and we were all taking in the youthful enthusiam, energy, and exhuberance of the kids!
Warmup
DICCS given- we have cell phone, CPR trained, reminder for non- related pax to keep socially distanced -its go time!
Mosey down the trail– to keep the energetic pax together I interrupted the usual mosey with 10 SSH at every 3rd light—this kept our big group together (still socially distanced) until we reached Rudy’s shed and circled up for some more exercises and light stretching – SSH. IW, Moroccan NC, LSS etc..more of the usual suspects.
The THANG
Kids vs Adults—- Guess who won??????
I wanted to make it fun! What do kids like to do for fun? Compete and Win!!!!
We moseyed to the two roundabouts and it was kids vs adults- like we normally do circle the two roundabouts doing 5 merkins at each one—fastest back to the start wins. (kids only have to reach the roundabouts-not circle them—distance shorter) Ready go!!!!!….They were pumped to beat the Adults! Baby Gazelles are off. Adults are smiling then gettting gassed as this is hard. Kids win round one. Adults are punished with MERKINS.I wanted to get a good w/o for the adults while stimulating the kids. No rest for the Adults —Round 2 begins. Time for revenge??? No–Kids win again. More MERKINS for the adults. The THANG was to have the adults run as hard as they could and still lose-made possible by the much shorter distance for the kids without being too obvious to them —then Merkins for the Adults. Kids were happy.
Time to mosey and bunny hop our way to the Stadium parking lot…..It is now time for the Adults to pair up with the kids and LEAD them in 4 corners –they needed guidance on where to go and what exercise to do—-it was so great seeing all the adults (parent or not) LEAD the kids—Then lineup on the parking lot lines for bear crawls, frog jumps, backward run etc…. Now race to the lightpole—Who won? Did more kids win or did more adults win? KIDS win again….more MERKINS for the adults—Kids do five adults do 15 rinse and repeat…..Kids win again.
Mosey back to the roundabouts for exercises down to Rudy’s shed to finish the evening—Adults time to call out different exercises—-then its time to (5 Minutes)-to race back up to COT—finshed!!!
MOLESKINe
FUN:…lots of energy.
IMPRESSED and HUMBLED: I witnessed Pax in a different environment. I saw some really terrific Dads! You are good men! Great Leaders to your kids! Very inspiring!
Special shout out to Posse, Rudy and Driveby—They were 3 Pax without their own kids tonight—they were HIMS tonight—each of them helped lead the kids and assist and got a great workout in…Selfless. Great job men,
High Hat, Zinfandel, Gerber, Cobbler, C3PO, Carbload, Rubbermaid—it was easy to see what your priorities are in life! All your kids look up to you and I could see the love and respect.
Announcements:
Why not come back from injury to Q. Took away some sleep the previous night, but being on Q made me commit.
DICCS given.
Mosse to Animal hospital parking lot for some warmups (SSH, Imperial walkers and Moroccan nigh club).
The thang: Mose to start of N.Providence St. Run around the uncharted territory.
10 Jump squats / 10 bobby hurries and 10 squats at each of the triangular loop. Repeat 3 times. Fuse tried to push me to run faster, but today was not the day. Back to COT for some exercise for the core (Big Bois and Merkins). Had couple of mins left, so decided to run a short loop with dips in between. End with some stretching.
Moleskin:
I missed F3 so much and was glad to be back. Learnt importance of stretching after the workouts, let’s not forget to stretch. It is good to Q, it helps to commit and push harder.
Glad to have (FNG) Josh Tutwiler (Blood clot) join us today.
Always glad to be out with fellow PAX who support and push each other.
Announcements:
Five Stones Church
1117 Cuthbertson Rd
Saturday, January 30 09:00 AM – 01:30 PM
https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?order=DATE&range=10&zipSponsor=F3
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
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
The truth is, the gloom is always quite gloomy at 4:55am. But, the gloom has been extra gloomy these days. I look back on the AO’s that became shield locks and the pax that disappeared. The parking lot zoom workouts that were led. The stories from pax about juggling working from home and the kid’s virtual school as if work wasn’t stressful enough. We all learned about the life cycles of stars and planets in school. Now we know a lot about the 24 wife cycle. Not to mention the added pressure of the pandemic on the soul/psyche when dealing with so much unfamiliar ground. And the News… or should I say propaganda. To quote my late pops, It feels like “We are all going to hell in hand basket.”
But then comes the gloom. I for one have said on multiple occasions, “guys, I’m sorry for my rant, but I really needed to get that off my chest.” I’ve been using these F3 workouts as inexpensive mental health therapy. Really it’s been soul therapy. Not only has the pax listened to my puke fests, they’ve encouraged me through it. As a pastor, this has been a bad dream. As a small business owner, this has been a nightmare. Nothing is consistent. Everything is cancelled. It’s all up in the air.
Except for Jesus… and the gloom. The gloom is always quite gloomy at 4:55am, but at 5:55am, though it’s still dark outside, it appears as the noonday. Why? Because the light of men is shining forth in the darkness. I’m not talking about headlamps and heartrates. I’m talking about Isaiah 58. The context of the passage is true and false fasting. It could be true and false praying. Or true and false religion. The important thing is that it’s true. And in that truth (which is so hard to find these days) “your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom will be as the noonday.” In the morning gloom, beneath the mumble chatter, the sweat, the push and the pull there is truth. The opinions may differ, for there are as many as there are pax, but at 5:55am, when your gritting your teeth pushing and pulling or being pushed and pulled, the façades are dropped and you find only truth and the gloom becomes as if noonday.
That’s what happened today at The Valley. How was your workout?
Oh and these 13 pax also did these movements:
COP
the Thang
Moleskin
We went 5 minutes over and but covered 3.5 miles during ME; 4.6 with EC. Nice work gents and thank you. Thank you for the gloom.
7 men got fast, powerful, and mentally tough during the 2nd running of cowbell. They slung heavy bells, they sprinted, and never stopped. These are some of the fittest men in the nation. Yet at the end, some were literally unable to lift their bells for another rep. Others appeared to be swaying on their feet, breathing hard. These men were and are complete bad-asses.
Why inflict brutality on themselves this cold winter morning? To get fast, strong, and mentally tough, of course. Each man next to his brother knew he could accomplish what would be impossible alone. No matter what trial he faced later that day, it would seem smaller. These men do this most every day. You see, the men of F3 inflict trials on themselves for a reason. They know that trials produce perseverance, and perseverance produces character. With character, the really good stuff is right around the corner.
That brings me to Zinfandel’s semi-reluctant take out. For those of you who don’t know him Zin, he has one of the biggest hearts in F3. He urged us this morning to hug our neighbors, to think of them, to love them, and to think bigger than ourselves. Implicit in what Zin said was that each of us has been given a kind of power that most others are missing. We have the obvious: speed, strength, mental toughness, and the character that comes from it. And we have each other: other men to come alongside us with their own speed, strength, and mental toughness.
Let me ask you. What are you doing with these gifts? Consider your answer. And consider how to use your gifts going forward if you are not satisfied with your answer. Your brothers will support you. And when the world sees you and your brothers, using your strength, character, and relationships, acting sacrificially, in love, for others, without profit to you, they will ask WHY. Only good things come from that question. It is the 3rd F.
Ice9 out.
Sixteen braved the foggy cold morning, several in summer shorts. Note, they do sell sweatpants on the F3 Gear site or really tall socks (just ask Geraldo). Hoover destroyed my legs with an AMRAP (crap) session on Monday, but I braved it out this morning.
Warm-up: Ran to oval. 15 each of side straddle hops, imperial walkers, low slow squats, mountain climbers, and Peter Parkers.
1st series: Ran to nearest entry to north parking lot. Started at entry with 20 merkins, then ran to end of lot and did 20 LBC’s, then ran to the other side of lot across from the start area and did 20 jump squats. Then back around to the start and repeated three more times but lowered to 15 reps, 10 reps, and ended with 5 reps.
Planked to wait for all to finish.
2nd series: Ran to hot box and partnered up. Partner 1 did step ups, while partner 2 ran to the 2nd light post and back. Swapped. Next round partner 1 did dips and partner 2 ran to the 2nd light post. Swapped. Then repeated the routine.
3rd series: Ran to rock pile past cemetery and got a lifting rock. Partner 1 did curls while partner 2 ran to the last tree island in that parking lot. Swapped. Repeated next with presses, then triceps, then squats.
4th series: Ran back to starting parking lot. Circled up for Mary’s. 15 flutters with hands to the side. 15 dolly’s with hands to the side. 15 heals to heaven with hands to the side, all in cadence. Then finished with 1 burpee.
Announcements: Spackler’s Beef Curtain persona announced himself. Mighty Mite (aka Dracula) is advertising another blood drive on slack, so expect a visit from him.
Prayer request for About Time and his son Jennings.
Thanks to site leaders Lorax and Point Break.