4 PAX got up early in the soup for a few trips up Lone Pine.  Kudos to Vespa for his virgin trips on the Pine.

Warm-Up:

• SSH x50
• BWS x13
• Arm Circles (forward and reverse) x10
• WMH x10

The Thang:

YHC wanted to do something with the number 242 in honor of America’s 242nd birthday.  Performing some quick factoring to the number, YHC figured out that the prime factorization of 242 is 2 x 112.  One thing that YHC has tried to teach the PAX in his time with F3, is that you can calculate the number of reps in a pyramid, by squaring the top of the pyramid.  With this being 11 squared, we started the workout with a merkin pyramid up to 11 and back down to 1.

Quick mosey down to the tennis courts.  PAX completed a burpee suicide along the tennis courts.  We did 1 burpee at the end of the 1st court, 2 at the 2nd, …, and 6 on the 6th.  Of course because it was a suicide we had to go back down as well.

YHC gave the PAX a brief water break and then we headed over to the pavilion.  20 cadence count dips, 20 box jumps, 10 cadence count dips, and then 10 box jumps.

Mosey over to the midway point of THWM.  YHC had the PAX travel to the yellow gate by gorilla crawl.

With the opening merkin pyramid only getting us halfway to 242, we had to get the rest of the way there.  For the second time in the workout, we completed a merkin pyramid up to 11. With energy reserves running low we transitioned to a few minutes of Mary.

Mary:

• Box Cutters
• LBCs
• Heels to Heaven

COT:

Today America celebrates its 242nd birthday, marking the anniversary of the American colonies standing up against the crown of Great Britain and declaring their independence.  After the suicide of Anthony Bourdain, my girlfriend and I have been watching Parts of Unknown, which is available on Netflix. Bourdain does a great job of showing the culture of the areas he’s visiting, but also educating the viewers on the history of the location.  In fact, I’m usually so intrigued by the episode that I usually do some online research to learn more. One theme I’ve seen across the history of these countries, is the scars and turmoil caused from former colonial rule. On the episode featuring the Democratic Republic of the Congo you see the issues of a government trying to govern a large country whose borders were constructed by a colonial treaty in Europe, with no knowledge of the tribes and ethnic groups in the area.  Tribal warfare and rebel insurgency is still common in the area. Also not helping the government’s cause is the fact that the Belgium crown destroyed the buildings and infrastructure on their way out. This is only one example of something that happens all over the world. I bring up all of this to say, don’t take your freedom for granted. America is not perfect, evident by the shitstorm going on at our Southern Border, but at least we have a government set up in which all of our voices can be heard.  It doesn’t always feel like we are being heard, and equal opportunity for people of all races, gender, and sexual orientation is still an issue, but we are off better off than most people around the world.

Happy Fourth of July.