Picnic Table Weave

As YHC rolled into BLP this morning, I was feeling a little nostalgic.  So this may be a little long.  Sorry.  You see it was roughly 1 year ago, I was at church on Sunday night, when T-Bone asked a fateful question.  “Hey man, do you workout?”  I didn’t know whether to be offended and grateful that he had to ask.  Did I look like I needed to work out and he just phrased the question that way to make me feel good or was he about to ask where I was keeping the fountain of youth, as I seemed to be in such great shape.  The truth is my shape was getting rounder by the year, so I answered his question like many 40 year old men in that situation would:  “Not really, but I need to.  I am not really a gym guy, but I have P90X and I was thinking about giving that another try.”

T-Bone then told me about this thing he and few others were going to start doing, called F3.  It sounded “cool”, but I knew with my work and life schedule it would be tough for me to commit depending on the meeting time.  So I asked, “When are y’all starting?” His response, “Tomorrow”  Whoa, hold up there cowboy, this seems too real too fast, shouldn’t you at least buy me dinner first.  My next question, “Where and What time?”  His response, “Boyd Lee Park at 5:45”  My next question, “In the morning?”  Wow.  At this point all I could think of was that I needed an exit strategy.  I really had to find a way out, don’t commit, do not commit.  You see, I am a night person and this would require me to be up at an hour of the day that I typically do some of my best sleeping.  Not to mention it may require me to go to sleep before a ball game or movie ended.

But the way T-Bone sold it, made it sound neat (however, the one thing that he neglected to point out was that this was an outside work out.  I think he did this on purpose.)  I knew BLP had a gym, so I assumed that the rain falling when I got up the next morning, would not be an issue because we would be in the gym.  (Had I known that we were going to be outside, I may not have gotten out of bed.)

What happened next has somewhat changed my life.  Five men exercising in the cold rain on a Monday January morning, ultimately giving each other silly nicknames, pushing each other to be better physically, but ultimately to be better spiritually.  To better husbands and fathers and better leaders in our community.  I remember that Tuesday morning, being so sore from the lunges that I could hardly walk.  Our 5 grew and then ultimately merged with another F3 group in the area that we knew nothing about, but when finally together, we were like a family who had been searching for each other the whole time.  I didn’t see this thing turning into what it has become, but Papa Smurf, Closed Hand and many others did and for that I am grateful.  Old guys and young guys from all walks of life, supporting each other each and every day in so many ways.

If you had asked me a year ago if I wanted to run a 5K, I would found an excuse not to do it, because I was scared to try or just too lazy.  In October, I ran my second 5k of the year and I did it with my 9 year old son and we loved every minute of it (even though I was glad when it was over, I still hate to run).  We wouldn’t shared that experience if not for this F3 thing.  So thanks for all that each of you do to encourage and push me each time I post.  You are a fine group of men that I am proud to call my brothers.

Now, on to the BB:  YHC had tweeted a hint the night before.  A “Foul” Warm Up was in store.  The cold didn’t seem to scare off many in the PAX as we had 16 at 5:30.  So with a flag planted, the disclaimer was given, and we began.  At sub-30 degree temps a little warm up is a good thing, especially if we are going to start the day with 30 burpees.  So we did some SSH-IC and then some DQ-IC, before setting off for nice run around the track stopping at every foul pole to do 5 Burpees (30 total).  We finished up at the picnic shelter and held Al Gore for the six.

The Thang

Picnic table weave – up, over and down the picnic tables in a line weaving from one end to the other – at the end do Dips for 60 seconds.  Repeat Picnic table weave and then do Freddy Mercury’s for 60 seconds.  Repeat Picnic table weave and then do Incline Mountain Climbers 60 seconds (Double Time).  YHC was unsure if the Picnic table weave would be a good thing or a bad thing.  In a nut shell it was supposed to be a new spin on step ups.  I thought it sucked pretty good and some others made similar comments, we might see this again.

Next up was Bench touch merkins – push up touch bench with right hand, push up touch bench with left hand (1 rep) – 25 total reps.  YHC figured this would lead to much complaining and that is exactly what happened.  Someone even noted that doing these with your knees down didn’t seem to make them easier.  I expect we will see these again.

Next up was Inclined Burpees – Burpee using a picnic table bench for your hands, then finish with a jump up onto the picnic table bench – 25 total reps.  An internet find that seemed like a good take on the usual burpee.  Seemed to be a fan favorite, with several folks indicating they liked it, could have been the hypothermia talking though.  Either way, I know we will see these again.

From there we moseyed to the Rock Pile and each PAX member chose their coupon.  The PAX then made 2 lines, facing each other and we began swapping rocks, be careful who you get near.  This is when being the Q has its advantages, you get to pick the next rock you are going to use.  The following exercises were called IC – 25 reps each.

• Goblet squats
• Curls
• Box Thrusters

The PAX then moseyed back to the flags for some Mary, all called IC for 15 reps.

• Ju-Jitsu walk throughs (another internet find, had to be there – not sure we will ever see these again)
• Flutter Kicks
• Dolly’s

Prayer Requests

• Wimpy’s 2.0 – Cobra Kai – Cat Scan on Friday
• String Bean’s Dad – Eye surgery
• Joker’s 2.0 – Surgery
• Joker’s co-worker recovery from serious motorcycle accident
• Scoop’s stepmom passed away
• Hokie’s FIL has Alzheimers, MIL keeping him at home
• PAX competing in GO RUCK event this weekend

Announcements

• January 23rd – Paintball – Sign Up (I am on Splinter’s team)
• February 27th – Concealed Carry Class – Let Shrimp know if you plan to participate
• Stadium Blast this afternoon
• January 23rd – Call to Business Meeting – Gary Green (Great Harvest) is the sponsor – Meal tickets $15

Nice work by the PAX this morning and thanks for trying the new stuff.  It gets tough to keep some variety in the workouts.  Glad to have E-Z Rock (DJ Jones- FNG) with us.