On a Sunday afternoon on August 23rd, 2015, two gents from my neighborhood invited YHC to an F3 workout the following Tuesday. Those gents were Lawn Dart and Julio Cassell (the "other Rocket").
YHC showed up to an AO called "Fallout" on August 25th, 2015; and the rest is history.
Today 11 PAX helped celebrate 5 great years in F3 and it went down something like this:
0502: Run Standard with Dallas, Jolly, and Marker. You can say the route wasn't really planned and you wouldn't be wrong.
0531: We accommodated a couple of late joiners and we were off.
WARM-O-RAMA:
- Mosey up the hill towards the Carrington Ridge neighborhood. On the way we included high knees, butt kickers, and Quadraphilia.
- Circle up, disclaimer given.
- "The Burpee" which was repeat-o-d a few times. An idea stolen from Landshark at my second ever workout.
- Elbow plank x 30 seconds
- IST, Dwight Schrutes, Slow deep squats all x 15 IC
The Thing:
- Mosey back across the street to the Barnette school. Stop for some 45 degree feet on wall with Pax bear crawling underneath. Er…probably not recommended during these COVID times.
- Mosey to "the wall" by the back of the school. Get over the wall. Participation was…50% ish?
- Mosey down to the football field.
- Bear crawl across it. 2 Merican penalty if you needed a rest.
- Recover…er half lap around the track.
Grab a cinder block and bring to the playground area for:
- Front shoulder press, full curls, knee ups, and squats all x 25 OYO in any order you like
- Low flutters x 25 IC
Full recovery lap around the track.
- Front shoulder press x 12 IC
- Full curls x 12 IC or maybe 13. The Incog-ing was intense at this point.
Put the blocks back and mosey towards my car for Mary.
Mary:
- Hold the Al Gore x 20 seconds
- Repeato, but lower
- Repeato 3 more times, lower each time
- Slow low flutters x ? I mean it was chaos by this point.
Recover, recover at 0614. We covered 1.36 miles according to Strava.
Some personal notes about F3: (sorry for the long ramble)
What a 5 years its been! I've made friends with some of the best people I've ever met in this great region of ours. There's been times when I've personally needed help in many ways and the Pax have always come through for me. I've attempted to be there for others in the same way and hopefully I have.
From a fitness perspective I've grown a lot. After that first workout 5 years ago, I almost Merlot'd. Lawndart and Rocket asked me if I wanted to join them the next day. "Hells no" was probably my answer, as I limped home across the street. Made it out the next week, for 2 workouts. Then 3 the week after that. And then slowly Pax started telling me about where and when other workouts were located and I started attending more and more. (It would be months before YHC had "The Twitter" or "The Slack")
I realized early that fitness was something I wanted to track intentionally. I created a spreadsheet which is very OCD but it works to keep myself striving to improve.
Fast forward 5 years, and according to that spreadsheet I've posted 1,072 times and Q'd 197 times including today. This is NOT an attempt to brag. Rather, there are newer Pax in our region who will undoubtedly crush those numbers, so think of them as a target.
F3 has helped me grow as a leader. YHC was given the opportunity to be an MQ not once but twice, was allowed to serve as 1st F Q for the Isotope region, then 2nd F Q (albeit briefly), before being invited to join the region's Board. What an amazing thing it is to help give back to what I consider to be the best region in all of F3 Nation. And it is even more amazing when new Pax join us and take on leadership roles as well.
I've written some of my feelings about our region here. I hope we're still doing this in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, you get the point. Said differently I hope there are many more 5 year F3 Anniversaries for Pax who haven't even joined yet. Or even more boldly…who haven't been born yet.
5 years ago, after almost Merlot-ing, I didn't know that F3 was something I really needed.
Moleskin:
- We prayed for our little ones and big ones returning to school and campuses.
- We prayed for our friends Gnarly Goat, Holiday, and Fenway.
- Appreciate Marker visiting from Denver! Always good to see you my dude.
- Someone commented that 66 seemed "lost" near the end of the workout, and asked if his 2.2 was still riding her bike around the track. Lol.
- Snake Eyes, 66, Bootlegger, Bob Ross, and Hasselhoff all went over that wall with me! Did I leave anyone out? Jolly, for sure, scaled that wall easily. This is not surprising given he was the youngest and probably fittest Pax in attendance. Good to have some Fallout OGs and regulars out, thanks gents!
- We learned that if you want to enlist Freedom's company for their professional services, you better be "Freepass level" wealthy!
- The Incog-ing from Calypso, Dallas, and Jolly was grade A as expected. To them, some of today's routines were invalid because they are 5 years old and no-one really does them anymore. (They kept talking about someone named Chad.) I say, let's change that! Bring back the Burpee repeat-o start and stuff! Also, um, your counts were a little off at times guys; I'm sure that was accidental. And sorry about the deet.
- Mona Lisa, thank you for the opportunity to Q! If we can figure out a way to get into the stadium across the street, we should workout over there.
- Great catching up with Bootlegger at coffeeteria and others including Duvall, Mooch, Hippie, and Mini Me who were running the business park. Thanks for buying my $5.15 venti iced chai latte Jolly.
Aye gents, it was a fine morning. And, it's been a great 5 years. Cheers to many more.