Follow me and I’ll pretend to look like I know what I’m doing

DATE: 2021-09-21
AO: General
Q: 2 percent
PAX: Toolbox, Fairweather, Trolley, Booking, Traveler
FNGs: None
COUNT: 6
WARMUP: SSH, Imperial Walkers, Hill Billy’s, Arm Circles, Willy Mays Hayes, Cherry Pickers, Downward Dog
THE THANG: Ran up and down the stairs of the General with various exercises in between: dips, Bulgarian split squats, toe taps, derkins. Onto the pull up bar, 2 rounds of 10 reps each while the onlooking PAX performed box cutters, 6 inches, Freddy Mercury’s, SSTS (side straddle toy soldiers), low plank. Next up, 2 circuits consisting of 6 rounds of box jumps. Mosey to a gate that was not open. Turned around. Hopped a fence. 15 Australian Merkins. Mosey to the bike rack, bear crawl through then 15 dips on the bike rack. Mosey back to the gate. Still not open. Mosey to the corner of wash blvd and Stafford. Scared a few joggers and one lady pushing a baby in a stroller with a round of 10 Kraken Burpies. Or maybe it was Toolbox’s farts. Both were equally horrific. MARY: Flutter kicks, Nolan Ryan’s
ANNOUNCEMENTS: the Grunt 11/13
COT:sometimes it’s ok not to prepare anything and pretend you know exactly what you’re doing. Not sure if this was one of those times. Trolley led us out with a prayer.

Lady Luck

DATE: 2021-09-21
AO: Delphi
Q: Pop Fly
PAX: Switch, Nano, Zeus, Dunder, Hoolihan, Joint Chief, Derecho, swish, Rambler FNGs: Tony Hawke
COUNT: 11
WARMUP: Yes
THE THANG: Random deck of cards Dora style workout. partner 1 would perform some cardio exercise (e.g. sprint 400m) while partner 2 would perform some exercise (e.g. Bonnie Blair’s), then the partners would switch. we did 12 rounds of randomly paired cardio and non-cardio exercises MARY: 30 BBS
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grunt and Turkey Trot are upcoming
COT: adapt and overcome

Playground of Pure Pain

DATE: 2021-09-21
AO: Freestate
Q: Horshack
PAX: CashOnly, Deagle, Winston, ShowMe
FNGs: None
COUNT: 5
WARMUP:
SSH x 25 IC
Imperial Walkers x 15 IC
PlankJacks x 15 IC
El Capitan x 15 OYO
3 laps around blacktop (High Knees, Alabama Ass Kickers, and Karaoke on the sides) Cherry Pickers x 15 IC
Michael Phelps x 15 IC
Carolina Dry Docks x 10 IC
Windmills x 15 IC

THE THANG:
Playground of Pain x 3 Rounds: 40 sec on / 20 sec off
– Step Ups
– Plank
– Dips
– Squats
– Pull Ups
After Round 1: One four stop Tenniscide
After Round 2: Jacobs Ladder (1 – 2 – 3- 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 Burpees at the top and bottom of the hill)

MARY:
Leg Lift Rosalitas x 15 IC
Freddie Mercuries x 15 IC
Plank-o-rama x 10-15-10-15-10 IC
Reverse Crunches x 15 IC
Rodeo Flutters 10 Clockwise Outlaws -10 Flutter (long and fast) -10 CCW Outlaws -10 Flutters (long and slow)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– 4th 3rd Thursday Happy Hour at Irish Inn at Glen Echo at 6:30p
– F3 Hooky on October 15th at Precision Rafting – Upper Yough (dam controlled, last run of the season) . Horshack will open it up to the rest of TheCapital Region

COT:
>From Art of Manliness . . .
“An old maxim advises: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Transitions can be some of the most difficult parts of life.

Childhood into adolescence; adolescence into young adulthood; young adulthood into post-college maturity. Ending a relationship. Beginning a marriage. Starting school. Finishing school. Having your first kid; being done with having kids; becoming an empty nester. Quitting a job. Taking a job. Moving out. Moving in.

You’ve stepped beyond the established routines and understood expectations of an old stage in life, but don’t yet feel confident in the altered roles and expectations of a new one. You’d learned to ace the roles and responsibilities of a previous position, but feel like an awkward, bumbling noob in the roles and responsibilities you’ve assumed. You miss the well-worn trails of the comfort zone you left behind, and are far from grasping the contours of the landscape you’ve journeyed into.

At such times, amidst the frustrating in-between, it’s easy to despair. You feel disoriented, discombobulated, weighted with a burden that hangs heavy on a back unaccustomed to the load, and it seems as though you’ll always feel just the way you do right then. You may think you’ve made a mistake. You may lose heart and turn back. You may lie down and refuse to move forward. You may crawl into the nearest seeming shelter.

Yet the tangles of the messy middle deceive you. It will not always be like this. New light, fresh courage, refound footing — self-assurance and satisfactions heretofore unimagined — lie just around the corner, over the next hill, but a few furloughs hence. If only you’ll continue on.”

Sunrise journey to the top of arlington … and burpees

DATE: 2021-09-20
AO: Horizon-Ao
Q: 3 mile
PAX: Kodiak, Undertow, Jenner, Riot, Poe, Old Bay
FNGs: attache
COUNT: 8
WARMUP: SSH Arm Circles WMH Cherry Pickers Down/Up Dog kneeling hip flexor stretch
THE THANG: mosey to top of arlington, stop occasionally to pick up the 6; adding exercises at each stop: 10 merkins, 10 BWS, 16 Dry Docks, 15 calf raises … sprint last 75 yards to the top
2 sets of 1) burpees for 1 minute 2) magoos (1 leg lifts) * 12 3) plank jacks / toy soldiers MARY: mtn climbers, A-Rods (J-Los ++++)
ANNOUNCEMENTS: ARC coming up, 2nd F for freestate
COT: my 8 year old struggled mightily in his first game as goalie but rallied quickly and encouraged another teammate who got scored on then asked to play goalie again in the same game (!); made his dad realize that the fear can be worse than the thing itself …

“Bert and Ernie” – Battle Buddy Circuit Workout

DATE: 2021-09-20
AO: Loco
Q: De La Rocha
PAX: Refueler, Anchorman, Aragorn, Rikers, Bobcat, Stiches, Hoff, Leonidas, Madonna, Brisket, Ronaldo, Nolan, Dial-tone FNGs: Salt, Valsic
COUNT: 16
WARMUP: Side Straddle Hop, Michael Phelps, Hip Rotations, Cherry Pickers
THE THANG: – a Battle-Buddy circuit workout, consisting of a slew of partner-assisted exercises. Coupon Big Boy Sit-Ups Pass Shoulder Press
Back-to-Back – Coupon Squat hold with Side Pass
Back-to-Back Coupon High-Low Pass
Buddy Assisted ‘Mericans (Hold Pax Feet wheelbarrow style)
High Five ‘Mericans
Reach and Shoulder Touch Plank Hold
Plank Hold with Dumbbell Swap
Leg Throws
High-Five Jump Squats (I like to call these 21 Jump Squats)
SQURL and Pass (Medicine Ball)
MARY: Medicine Ball Circle Pass, and Plank Pass.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Prayers for Hoff’s Daughter who is recovering for a concussion.
COT: I read an article a while back that described the differences in the way men and women interact through friendships and fellowship. The paper revealed considerable differences, but the one that stuck out to me the most was how men and women interact with each other. For example, men tend to have shoulder-to-shoulder friendships and women face-to-face friendships. I started to look back and realized I was trying to build male friendships over coffee and lunch while I should have been seeking opportunities to develop shoulder-to-shoulder interactions. With this knowledge, I’ve committed the last year to promote and encourage these types of encounters. They have come in the form of signing up for an ultra-marathon and running hundreds of miles with a friend. You can find a lot to talk about in those four-hour “long runs. It can be a simple as driving over to a friend’s house to swing a hammer to help with renovations and his old farmhouse. This commitment brought me here to F3 and recognizing that the second “F” is often more critical than the first.

“Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him.”