YHC has signed up for the Master Q challenge. What better first stop than Paradise? I signed up because I want to meet the PAX I have not met, and see the AOs I have not seen. Most imporant, I want to learn more about what F3 brings to me and, in turn, what I can bring to it. I am also challenging myself to create something different for each Q: I cannot repeat any series of exercises I have already done in other Qs. And a programming note, since I’m going to be writing a lot of BBs, I have decided to stop writing in the third person. The only reason is I find it tiresome and a little too theatrical for our purposes here.
6 gloom warriors showed up for a 5K EC. Shake It called for it and Harbaugh told me he might not show. Ye of little faith. I knew it was him because I can spot his Atlanta Braves license plate a mile away. Why? Because no one else has that around here (I haven’t really heard from Braves’ fans since the days of Glavine, Smoltz, and Maddux). Shake It is too young to remember those guys since he was born in ’12. Anyway, Homes led the way and showed YHC around the place. Cinder blocks? Hills? Giant tires and pipes the size of men? (Remember, some men are longer than others). After a nice cruise around the neighborhood with some challenging hills, we returned to find 6 more soldiers waiting to kick things off.
One thing I have decided to do differently than the other Qs I’ve assumed is talk a little before the workout about what F3 means to me. I aspire to do this without saying anything trite or repeating what has already been said. Here’s what I said today at Paradise, and it is fitting for why I chose to begin the Master Q experience here. F3 pushes you to do what is hard first. Get it out of the way. Do it right and do it well. The rest seems easier. When something scares you, run right at it and give it the horns. When you feel yourself veering off the path of what you’ve done before, turn into that skid. This is a huge reason why I signed up to Master Q, and I do believe that what I will find overall I found this morning at Paradise. Yes, the end was in the beginning: a bunch of great men who welcome all with open arms and giant tires. Well, maybe not the last part, but most of that sentence is true.
The Thang: The Sweats 500. Did I say 500? I meant 200. I also meant Sweats, because sweat we did. We did two sets of the following: 20 burpees, 20 merkins, 20 WWIIs, 20 squats, and 20 lunges. After the first set, we backwards bunny-hopped up the hill near the track/stadium, and lunge walked down. After the second set, we crawl-beared up and then jogged down. After I saw Spooky stumble I figured the rest of us had no chance to keep our footing.
Q audible to the tires and pipes. And we thought Moore had large pipes (spoiler alert: he does). We had two guys on each large tire (2), flipping it back and forth to each other. We had two guys on each pipe (2), squatting it together. We had the rest of the PAX doing squats and merkins. That’s five stations altogether, and everybody got a little taste of the action in each one for one minute per station. Python came up with some creative ways to toss around the smaller tire while the rest of us suffered with the big-boy fare.
Next came the cinder blocks. Each PAX grabbed one and proceeded to do a three exercise sequence: push press, squat, merkin. We lasted 5 minutes, non-stop.
For Mary, we ended with 30 flutter kicks, 30 heels-to-heaven, 20 Russian Hammers, and a 1.5 minute Superman hold. And yes, if you are doing a Superman hold and not belting out “Believe it or Not” together, then you sir are doing it wrong. You’re doing life wrong. Yanni ended with a little photo of our team today. It was sticky out there, but what a time to be alive and part of F3!
CoT: Man, this site has it all. Hills, toys, you name it. Thanks to Homes and Moore for helping me navigate the site and the 5K EC. Actually, you guys might be to blame for the gruesome variety of the workout today!
Prayers to Zika, who is leaving with his family to Malawi for a few weeks, and to Red October, who is off to The Netherlands, uh, Holland, um, the Kingdom of the Low Countries, to see the Dutch. Safe travels good sirs, and godspeed.
