CONDITIONS
Upper 80’s and humid, made slightly worse by the 0600 start (but not as bad as Hostel’s proposed 9 AM start time). Celebration was in the air for we had visitors….#F3DepotRoyalty Box Wine popped over from Goat and #F3DepotRoyaltyEmeritus Devito popped over from Globogym. YHC noted that both men, just like our current/former and perhaps future (God help us all) commanders in chief, were tanned, toned, and ready for action…..
I’ll leave the politics to the pundits and twitter experts (does having a twitter account make you an expert on things?), but YHC did promise an epic beatdown that helped us celebrate the birth of our great nation. Did he deliver? You’ll have to read on to see…
WARM UP/PLAYLIST
After a quick disclaimer and decision on who would be liable for any injuries sustained (not it), YHC wanted to make sure the PAX were properly warmed up. YHC has seen enough 1980’s action movies to know that you need a solid backing soundtrack (and a training montage or two) if you are going to chew bubble gum (which we were out of) and kick some commie asses. Enter Lumbergh with a speaker (cause YHC’s 2.0 misplaced his) and Chowdah with his technical savvy (cause YHC is a boomer) who helped us kick of an epic mostly 80’s playlist to motivate the PAX. This playlist included:
- Real American – Rick Derringer (Hulkamania ran wild over the PAX)
- Living in America – James Brown (RIP Apollo and Carl Weathers….anyone seen Chubbs lately??? and of course James Brown)
- Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen (lets just focus on the chorus here)
- Rocky IV Training Montage – Vince DiCola (made the PAX want to chop some wood in Siberia and/or inject performance enhancing drugs)
- In America – Charlie Daniels Band (made Soccer Mom reminisce about the days of yore)
- Burning Heart – Survivor (also Rocky IV soundtrack…”the warrior’s code knows no surrender” you damn right Survivor)
- Rockin’ in the Free World – Neil Young (as above, lets just focus on the chorus as a southern man don’t need him around anyhow)
- No Easy Way Out – Robert Tepper (dipping deep in the Rocky IV soundtrack here, but with a nod to our boy Stagecoach as well #IYKYK)
- You’re the Best – Joe Esposito (special request from Soccer Mom. So the Karate Kid isn’t super patriotic, but it is quintessentially 80’s. Also, no better song to roundhouse kick some scrubs in the face as you prep to do the same (illegally) in the final against Johnny Lawrence. #TeamEagleFang4Life)
- America – Neil Diamond (the sequins ran wild over the PAX)
- God Bless the U.S.A. – Lee Greenwood (I’m not crying, you’re crying)
Now to the actual warm up in the theme of 1776 #HappyBirthdayFreedom!
- SSH’s x 17 IC; 7 Merkins; 6 Big Boys
- TTT’s x 17 IC; 7 Merkins; 6 Big Boys
- LBAC’s (forward) x 18 (oops) IC; 7 Merkins; 6 Big Boys
- LBAC’s (reverse) x 17 IC; 7 Merkins; 6 Big Boys
- Hillbillies x 17 IC; 7 Merkins; 6 Big Boys
- Run the big lap, grab a block, circle up at skin tag
THE THANG
As the tunes rolled on, we began The Thang which went down like this:
Part 1 (itty bitty thang), in any order you choose
- Merkins x 20 OYO
- Squats x 20 OYO
- Overhead Presses x 20 OYO
- Curls x 20 OYO
- Rows x 20 OYO
Then, run a lap and Flutter Kicks on the six.
Once we were all safely back at the skin tag, YHC surprised the PAX with a request to get yet another block and return for instruction.
Part 2 (great big thang)
Part 1 was just the primer for Part 2 as you’ll see.
- Farmer’s Carry your two blocks around the track as far as you can, when you stop:
- Overhead Presses x 20 OYO
- Curls x 20 OYO
- Rows x 20 OYO
- Run back to the skin tag (ideally along the track, but some folks did some trigonometry and decided a straight line is the shortest distance….jury’s still out on this #FakeScience) and then do:
- Squats x 20 OYO
- Merkins x 20 OYO
- Run back to your blocks along the track, and continue to Farmer’s Carry, rinsing and repeating the above until your blocks make a whole lap around the track
- Once done, pick up the six and join in on their exercises
The above took up most of the Q, but we did another lap sans blocks, stopping at the Pull Up bars to do Pull Ups/Dips/Tire Flips mixed and matched until you hit a total of 20 reps.
MARY
Blocks away, we circled up for Dealer’s Choice Mary which consisted of:
- Chowdah – Struggling to remember, but thinking Hello Dollies
- Devito – Freddy Mercuries
- Incognito – Russian Twists (complete with commentary on how it was sacrilege to do Russian Twists on the 4th of July….Incognito is now on the watch list)
- Lumbergh – Variation on Pelvic Tilts that might get Devito banned from Globogym
- Laettner – Iron Crosses
- Box Wine – Box Cutters
- Hostel – Rosalitas
- Soccer Mom – Jump Squats into Merkins (because Burpees are expressly forbidden during Mary at Depot)
COT/BOM/End Workout
MOLESKIN
What with the vast F3 Exicon and all of the expo marker colors (and 20-sided dice) available these days, carefully planning a Q can be one of the most fun parts of the experience. Aside from picking the tunes, today’s Q mostly came together on my post-coffee drive in to Depot. Farmer’s Carries kinda suck and I’m always sore after them, so I thought that would be a good idea. The PAX seemed equally in agreement on their suckage, with only a handful of folks requiring 2 rounds to get their blocks around the track, but most of us took 3-ish trips to make it all the way around. Certainly the heat/humidity adds to the fun as well.
One benefit of the Farmer’s Carries is we get to dust off the old #UTP blocks. The blocks originated from a “challenge” we did a few years back which culminated with PAX who succeeded being presented a concrete masonry unit (purchased by Joanna and artisanally decorated by Pothole) at a BBQ at Stagecoach’s place. It was a fun event to celebrate some blood, sweat, and beers and certainly helped get a lot of PAX out in the gloom. Toting those blocks around (some of which remain in pristine condition) was a good reminder of the ebb and flow of F3 participation (I had the fortune of toting Stagecoach and Soft Toss’ blocks around the track today). Some folks have moved away, perhaps others have moved on, and maybe a few are just waiting for a call or text to get back out in the gloom.
So…if you are reading this. Ruminate on that F3 Rolodex for a minute. Who is that guy you haven’t seen for a while. Maybe put down what you are doing right now….
…and shoot him a text or slide (I think that’s what we do these days) into his DMs and see how he’s doing. It might not get him back out in the gloom, but it might make a difference in your day or his.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Run groups are still a thing, Box Wine is a good source of information for this or of course the twitters – @f3swagger is still going strong, despite the heat
- F3Newberry Re-Launch continues this Saturday. See @f3lakemurray for details
- Next week @ Depot – Flash Dance on Tuesday and Lumbergh on Thursday
- Q sheet is open on 7/18, get in there and grab a slot
- 7/25/24 is Chowdah’s farewell Q. TTHH will be that night, details to follow as we celebrate our boy before he heads to greener pastures out west.
PRAYER REQUESTS
- All those and their digits on July 4th (hopefully you can still count to 10 if you are reading this)
- Those PAX recovering from injury/illness
- PAX traveling for the holidays
- Unspoken
TL:DR
Celebrating Independence Day with your best bros>80’s training montages/music>celebrating Independence Day by lugging concrete masonry units
FG Out, #SYITG!