Honey Badger Don’t Rest

May 11, 2018

WHEN: 05/11/2018
QIC: Sweats
PAX: Baxter (FNG), Toolbox, Justice, The Exchange, Crab Cake, Roach, Soybean, Sweats, Juco, Beano, Happy Gilmore, Knope, Pre-K, Soda Popinksi

When Knope and Happy founded Honey Badger and invited me to Q, I jumped at the chance to play in yet another Durham concrete jungle.  Toolbox told us he had a FNG (welcome Baxter, and good luck in your nuptials this weekend!) coming, so I had extra incentive to cook up a good one.  It had been a while since I took the helm in a F3 workout, and it felt great to get back in the urban gloom with a lot of guys I haven’t seen in a while.  I thought about taking us for a tour of downtown, but really you only need a parking garage to inflict a good amount of carnage, but not a lot of rest, on the PAX.  It just so happens that a parking garage is right across the street.  More on that later.

Having been involved with F3 for some time now, I have had the opportunity to routinely reflect on its value in my life.  We all go through various phases in which we are more or less involved – 1st through 3rd F – and ultimately if we ever begin to orbit a bit too far, it is there waiting for us, welcoming us back with open arms (and side-shuffle hops).  I think back to a time when I ran every other day, or alternated days in the gym with some squats, a few dumbbell flys, maybe a couple of curls (for the ladies, of course), barely speaking to anyone and stuck in a self-imposed, passive hamster malaise in my own head.  I am grateful for F3 because it enables a (re)discovery of ambition, power, speed, endurance, empathy, compassion, curiosity, courage, agency, accountability, pride, humility, camaraderie, purpose, identity, joy, and anticipation of the future that many men lose along the way, some never to find again.  Through the F3 journey, you start to think less about yourself, and (especially when you start to Q) you think more about the guys around you and how you can improve their experience.  You start trying new things.  You strike up new friendships or even partnerships.  And in your best moments you just come to terms with the fact that for the most part, if you want to improve something, you’ll do it, no matter the perceived difficulty.  And if you don’t, you won’t.  That’s a good reminder.  So it warms my heart to see a new site expand our Durham presence, and to see new guys checking out what we’re up to.

Right, you wanted to read a backblast?  Today we escalated slowly, kept it in Park (not) most of the time (the parking garage, get it?), but really got the heart rate moving and sustained the push for the entire ME.  Some of my favorite workouts to Q involve steady work with little rest.  Honey Badger did not rest today, so let me finally tell you a bit more about what Honey Badger DID do!

Warm up: SSH, smurf jacks, Wille Mays Hayes, slow squats, merkins.

The Thang: Mosey to the parking deck, sprint to the top.  SSH until all arrive.

Bear crawl down a level, crawl bear back up, SSH.

First escalator: 20 slow jump squats

Partner wheelbarrow down a level, switching half way, then back up.  SSH.

Second escalator: 20 slow jump squats, 20 slow merkins

Dora: 100 burpees with your partner while he runs around the top of the parking deck.  Jogging in the same pattern until all finish.

Third escalator: 20 slow jump squats, 20 slow merkins, 20 slow WWIIs

20 partner squats, partner carry to the other end of the parking deck, switch, 20 partner squats, partner carry back

Lunge walk down a level, backwards run back up

Fourth escalator: 20 slow jump squats, 20 slow merkins, 20 slow WWIIs, 20 overhead claps and just a little cherry picking and placing them in baskets.

Mosey back to the flagpole for Mary.

Site Qs honor, each chose an exercise to take us out.  Happy chose Crazy 8s, and Knope chose Makhtar N’Diayes.

CoT: Prayers to Green Egg and Draper and wives, who are expecting.  Prayers to Knope and Soda’s buddies, who have lost loved ones.  Best wishes to Spartans tomorrow in Fayetteville.