Today IS That Day

Today IS That Day

QIC: Zima

Date: 1/8/24

PAX: Palin, Lamb Chop, Frostbite, Van Gogh, Root Canal, Frank and Beans, Hansel, Turnover, Schlitz, Green Acres, Rubber Ducky, Woodpecker, Greenspan, Huckleberry, Workbench, Zima

There will come a day when you will conquer that inner demon that tells you to modify an exercise because it’s too hard.

There will come a day when you realize that pain is just weakness leaving the body.

There will come a day when you crush the urge to stay in a warm and comfortable bed at 0400 on a sub-freezing gloomy morning.

There will come a day when you post to a beatdown that you really don’t want to just because you know other men will be out there cheering for you.

There will come a day when that inner strength you earned from those around you is passed onto the next man who needs it.

There will come a day when you don’t get up for easy.

There will come a day when you shoot for the moon and miss, but land among the stars.

There will come a day when you look at the corner and decide not to cut it.

There will come a day when the actions you take in one specific moment will have a profound impact on someone near you.

There will come a day when you cannot win, but you will make the one ahead of you break the record.

There will come a day when you laugh at what others see as impossible.

There will come a day when you see a challenge and run towards it.

There will come a day when you figure out that victory lies just past the point that most people quit.

There will come a day when you realize limits are made to be broken.

There will come a day when you do just one more rep.

There will come a day when you tell yourself that every endeavor pursued with passion produces a successful outcome regardless of the result.

There will come a day when you eat that frog to start off your morning.

There will come a day when you understand that being defeated is only an optional state of mind.

There will come a day when you will not be first, but you will not quit.

There will come a day when you are proud of the man standing next to you.

There will come a day when you are proud of yourself.

There will come a day when you learn what male community leadership is all about.

To bastardize and paraphrase DQ and Arya Stark (I often get them confused) … TODAY IS THAT DAY!

TIME WASTERS.

OYO beforehand

BEATDOWN.

Description: The launch spot will move from the normal location to the parking lot by the cinder block storage area.  This is a 45 minute EMOM workout.  The timer will start exactly at the beginning of the beatdown.  All warmups and stretching should be done prior to the beatdown.  Each minute on the minute, perform 1 Perfect Spider Burpee, then run 10 yards, touch the ground, and run back.  For the rest of the minute, perform the listed exercises.  Once 45 reps of an exercise is completed, move on to the next exercise.  The workout is finished at the end of 45 minutes.

Score: Number of reps completed in 45 minutes.

EMOM:

– 1 Perfect Spider Burpee

– Run 10 yards, touch the ground, run back

EXERCISES (x45):

– Overhead Presses

– WMDs

– WW3s

– Squat Thrusters

– Mountain Climbers

– Curls

– Side-to-Side Merkins

– Blockees

– Gas Pumps

– Iron Mikes

– Merkins

– Heels to Heaven

– Block Swings

– Jillian Michaels

DONE.

NAKED MAN MOLESKIN.

• I am humbled, honored, and floored by each of the PAX who showed up this morning.  It warmed my cold heart.  Despite the multiple warnings of the shenanigans that would take place during the beatdown and a preblast detailing the full plan, these HIM stuck up their middle fingers at that preblast and willingly (unless they were carpooling) chose to post in the cold gloomy weather.  This workout was on par with middle-of-the-road IPC ones and what blows me away is that there were plenty of IPC protestors and conscientious objectors in attendance.  Although I received a few HCs the night before, I figured we’d still max out at around 5 PAX.  But 16!  Oh boy!  Giddy up!  I almost even smiled.
• More than one person was convinced that I was filming the workout.  Come on, who would do that?
• I wanted to kick my own ass for this special beatdown.  That part was accomplished.  The sad and unfortunate casualty, however, was that it limited the prolonged interaction with everyone in the group.  For that, I am sorry.
• Is there an award for fastest adoption of F3 or maybe rookie of the year?  There are some great candidates in our region, but the front runner at the moment seems to be Frank and Beans, who is making a meteoric charge in the right direction.
• Many nice things were said about the beatdown and the Q.  Unfortunately, they were all drowned out by the music.  There was music playing, right?
• Van Gogh did Van Gogh things.  I can only assume he lapped everyone and was on his second time through the exercises when time was called.  That’s not out of the realm of possibility with him.
• If you have not seen Turnover (I think it was TO, but it was hard to tell under those 17 layers of clothing) perform Iron Mikes/Bonnie Blairs, then you are missing out on poetry in motion.  During the Iron Mike round, I figured I was maybe 3-4 minutes ahead of the pantyhose-clad member of the PAX and still worried he would pass me!
• Although I did not personally witness this transgression, I later heard after the fact that there was some liberal interpretation of the number 45.  “One two skip a few and now we’re at 45.”
• Rubber Ducky brought his BDE (uh, that’s “Duck”, with a “u”)!  Does anyone in F3WS work harder than that dude?  He may not be the fastest or strongest or smartest or best looking or kindest or quietest or tallest or friendliest or well-liked or funniest, but damn – that guy will not be outworked.  Can I get an Amen?
• Who else remembers when Frostbite was a lost soul, lurking in the ether of bygone PAX never to be seen again?  Now an elder and wiser baby-Redwood, he is a fine example of a leader of the younger generation.  Mathematically able to be Green Acres’s or Root Canal’s great great great great great great grandson, he stands shoulder to shoulder with other HIM and scoffs at the new obstacles laid out in front of him.  Oh, and now he’s an EC runner too!
• To my knowledge, nobody spilled merlot.  But the Q came perilously close to calling the dinosaurs multiple times.
• Let’s talk about Schlitz-y Claus for a second.  A little over a year ago, he cursed out Palin the entire car ride home after one of my Qs and said he’d never come to one of my bleepity bleeping bleep bleep bleep bleeping mother-bleeping piece-of-bleep beatdowns again.  Not only did he break his own rule by showing up and dominating, but the stupid fool chose to do an EC run beforehand.  Who the hell is this guy?  What have we done to him?
• Kotters to Hansel who awoke from his winter slumber for this beatdown.  Sadly I fear he might retreat back into hibernation until the mercury rises above 70 degrees.
• I’m about 93.4% sure that Lamb Chop did not read the preblast because if so, there’s no way he would have posted.  On the other hand, he might have pulled out an entire alternate weinke and did whatever the hell exercises he felt like.  I’m going to check the video replay.  #YouDoYou  Still got props for getting out of bed and being there.
• At one point Van Gogh asked if we could make this an hour long beatdown.  Nobody answered him, probably from lack of oxygen.  The redwoods of The Speakeasy know what happened the last time someone asked that question and there was no response.  Let’s just say that beatdown was like the Energizer Bunny – it just kept going and going and going and going.  Thank goodness the timer officially ran out on this one.
• Speaking of timers, my cool new Black Friday gym timer purchase worked well, except for the minor flaw of a barely audible beep.  That was quickly remedied by a chorus of helpful PAX yelling, “beeeeeeeepppppp” at various intervals, rarely (maybe purposefully) actually sync’ing with the timer.
• If Green Acres is not an inspiration to you in every aspect of life, you suck at being human.
• “Palin Counting” was in full effect.  He would often ask someone else what number they were on so he could know when he was done.  Dismayed when after the 4th round of a single exercise, the response was, “15”, I assume he just stopped what he was doing and chatted until he found someone who had finished.
• It’s safe to say that Mr. Woodpecker contemplated life choices more than once this morning.  It didn’t show in the work effort though, but I’m sure the conversations were happening in his head.  Strong work!  #ISI
• Since physical paperwork was not properly submitted onsite for the medical reasons for exercise modifications, go ahead and use the Google Form.  The Nantan will collect that information and send it to Corporate for final evaluation.  It may take a few weeks to respond due to the sheer number of entries.
• I know there were many other places Greenspan would have rather been, but I think he gets a thrill out of making my workouts look easy.  He was one of those special brand of insane people who didn’t think they’d get a good enough workout so they decided to actually run before the beatdown.  Do you want to kick me in my surgically repaired knee too?  Why not bruise my body and my ego at the same time?  Sheesh.
• Some people are loud, talk a lot, and crush a workout.  Some people are loud, talk a lot, and don’t do diddly squat at a workout.  Then there’s Workbench.  That man barely utters a word, but if you look closely, you can see the slight formation of a smile as he easily breezes through the exercises.  Take a look at his guns.  He has the strength of 10 men – if you count Lamb Chop as a man.
• Gone are those days when the original Teacher’s Pets runs (you know who you are) had to be coordinated and performed in underground secrecy.  In the early days, it was considered anti-F3, rude, and insulting (by weak-minded PAX) to run before a beatdown.  Now, it’s a daily occurrence with multitudes of men bettering themselves at even earlier hours.  #Progress  Homage goes to those brave pioneers.
• I’ll get to Huckleberry later.  He’s still working on the curls and won’t read this for a few days.  But notice how I had to throw in blockees instead of regular burpees because going up against him in a burpee competition is a fate that should not be levied upon any mortal.
• At what point will Root Canal start acting his age?  I’m getting very tired of going all out and thinking that I’ve destroyed the guy next to me only to see this man, who was born at the turn of the century, two steps ahead of me, barely even breaking a sweat with that silly grin on his face.  I want him tested.  Sorry, let me be more specific … for PEDs.
• YHC forgot to ask the PAX what each of their scores were for the workout during name-o-rama (Q fail), but since it’s You vs. You, it doesn’t really matter.  Just do your best and forget the rest.
• By the way, for all those who were wondering, the hot tub was a pro move post-workout.  #InvitationWasOffered
• I sincerely appreciate each and every single HIM who chose to post this fine, glorious morning.  With the utmost gratitude, thank you.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Rubber Ducky has Flatline on Tuesday.
• Zima needs new friends.

PRAYERS:

• Turnover’s mom
• Green Acres’s sister-in-law

Zima Out.