Today’s Q on a windy, cold morning in Chatham, was a mix of two previous beat downs suffered under a pair of Churham’s most legendary Qs, Adolphus and Coco. Last week at the Wall, Adolphus led us through 200 merkins under strict instructions to keep the form of each one as tight as possible– straight back, all the way down, don’t cheat yourself. It was a brutal lesson and, for YHC, a wake up to re-focus on technique, and had YHC sore for most of the week. The other inspiration was a woozy, scary memory of a Coco-suckfest in Durham last summer, combining suicides and burpees and not much else across 4 tennis courts.
With that in mind, 20 PAX circled up at 545 to get better
Warm up
- IW X 10
- 2-man Indian Run to end of adjacent street and back (1/4 mile? 1/3?). 2 lines, and 2 men rather than just 1 sprint on each iteration.
- Arm circles, 10 Merkins, Windmills, 10 Merkins, WMH, 10 Merkins
THANG
To the tennis courts…
SPRINT 14-Leg SUICIDES across all 3 Tennis Courts.
From far-left sideline of Court 1, suicide sprits to each line of each court, 5 Legs per court: R Doubles sideline, R Singles Sideline, Centerline, L Singles, L Doubles (total of 14 = 5 lines per court, minus the ‘starting’ line on Court 1).
REPEAT 14-Leg SUICIDES + 5 BURPEES ON EACH LINE. 14 legs X 5 Burpees = 70.
Focus on Technique!
Squat – do not lean. Kick – do not step. Straight back Merkin, all the way down. Jump back up.
REPEAT 14-Leg Suicide + 5 MERKINS ON EACH LINE.
Out of time Approx ½ through. YHC was on Leg 7 when we called it. Props to GRUNGE and BRIGHT IDEA who were at least 2 legs ahead.
MARY
The Flutter-Bet. From flutter kick position, use legs/feet to ‘spell’ the Alphabet (Capital letters). Good: I and Bad: H and K.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- 2nd F next Monday at the Clubhouse, details on Slack.
- No Money shared his great belief in the difference the YMCA makes in kids lives, and they are having their annual campaign. Be involved and give here: https://www.ymcatriangle.org/campaign/ymca-annual-campaign
- As part of the GORUCK events next Friday, Skynard, Rambler and others are gathering coats and blankets to donate to the PTA store in Chapel Hill. Will go to families in need and thanksgiving forecast this year is colder than normal so the need is real. Get with them if you have a coat donation, kids coats in high demand.
- OPEN POST-THANKSGIVING *VQ slot* at The Wall. Perfect VQ opportunity, if you’ve been out 5 times or more, jump in!
COT
I set up today’s Q to be repetitive and unimaginative because, as I said up top, I wanted to focus everybody on technique, on precision, on demanding accountability from yourself for each rep – each burpee, each Merkin, each line you touch in the Suicide. Nobody is going to check your form at F3, but you can only get the results you hold yourself to.
I decided on that format sometime yesterday as a way to begin thinking about an upheaval that anyone who subscribes to F3 values must recognize and decide how they are going to respond. Most of us grew up in a similar world, one that led to our neighborhoods, our jobs and the community we’ve found in F3. But I’ve come to realize this year that, all along, most of the women we knew and know today grew up, and still live, in a world that’s very different.
But that world is getting peeled back. As I thought yesterday about today’s Q, a far-right Alabama judge and far-left Hollywood TV star, almost in the same hour, found themselves equally unable to answer – and refusing to answer – for how they decided at sometime in their life to treat women. They join a diverse list of other successful men we’ve learned about this year, a list that is not going to stop growing.
You want to believe this is something we all almost always get right, that men know right from wrong and these few lost their minds, but ask any – and I do mean any – woman you know if what we are now seeing is familiar to them. They will tell you, in one way or another, ‘welcome to our world.’
I asked the PAX today to focus, beyond speed and reps, on technique. To be accountable even though, in the windy dark, nobody was going to be watching. Losing track of that personal accountability – doing what’s right when you won’t get caught – in how they treated other people is how every single one of these men – Roy Moore, Louis CK, Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Bill O’Reilly, Cosby, and the next 10 we’ll find out about soon enough – failed.
And now, to what I’m sure is their shock and terror, accountability has found each of them. And they got no damn excuse for the results.
Be better, men.