Why do we do this to ourselves? Why did 30 (no, not a typo) men show up this morning to a cool, dark parking lot at an unheavenly hour? Because someone gave us the gift, and now we are hooked… So here’s The Thang:

Some FNGs in the crowd so Disclaimer was disclaimed in more detail than it sometimes is, and we also did a quick review of the 5 core principles of every F3 workout:
1. Free
2. Men Only
3. Outside (Rain or Shine)
4. Peer led
5. End with a Circle of Trust
With that, we mosey to the parking lot in front of the strip mall and circle up.

Vince Lombardi once said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Today, we chase perfection, in that we will try and do each exercise with “perfect” form in the hopes that we will attain a more “excellent” form.

First we stretched a bit to get us loose:
– Toe touches x 5 with a 10 count
– On your 6 and open hip stretch (feet together and pull them close) x 3 with a 10 count
– On 6 – one leg over other and twist and stretch outer hip x 1 each leg for a 10 count
– Plank on hands and stretch calves and Achilles tendon

Then we warmed up a bit:
– SSH x 20 (IC)
– High Knees with a sprawl at command of Q (sprawls x 10 – basically just a drop to a push up)
– Ludicrous Speed SSH x 10 (IC)

1 forward lap around the small lot (OYO)
1 backwards half lap around the small lot (OYO)
Plank for the 6

Grab a partner (speed matters, so does size a little):
Partner 1 planks on hands and Partner 2 takes his feet and does 20 curls then flapjack.

Then your partner will keep you accountable to “perfect” form (each exercise demonstrated by YHC) for the following exercises:
– Perfect Merkin x 15 (arms around shoulder placement, elbows in, head up, body straight)
– Perfect Squat x 20 (back straight, head up, weight more on heels)
– Perfect Plank x :30 seconds (just counted around the circle – core tight, abs doing the heavy work – not your back)
– Perfect Burpee x 10 (squat down – don’t bend down, feet shoulder width apart, strong plank when you kick out your feet, perfect merkin, jump nice and high at the end)
– Perfect Bombjack x 0 (The only perfect Bombjack, is NO Bombjack… so we didn’t do any of those)

Mosey over to the big Lowe’s parking lot and move to triple partners instead of doubles (seriously, there are 30 guys here…). There, YHC had placed some cinderblock coupons (10 to be exact) with P-E-R-F-E-C-T-I-O-N spelled out on them. So we lined up for a Devin Hester. We literally are going to “chase perfection” now… Partner 1 takes a coupon and gets a (roughly) 30 yard headstart then the other 2 partners try and catch him before he reaches the end of the parking lot (100 yards away). Then flapjack through the other two partners. Then 10 guys who didn’t get caught, grab the bricks and do one more run against the remaining PAX. (Hey, I had to get all those blocks back down toward my car somehow…)

Circle up for Ring of Fire:
All Pax plank and wait while each PAX in turn does the following:
– LBC x 10
– Flutter Kick x 10

Time’s up! Head back up the hill to the COT and Name-o-rama where 4 men (Barry Manilow, Flashdance, Blackjack, and Rocky Top) got their new names.

Announcements:
– Convergence (all other AOs closed) – LET’S BREAK 100 PAX!!!
– Hog and Coyote: 13 mile run with 5 workouts along the way – do it OYO or as a 2 man relay

Prayers/Praises:
– Prayers for Destiny and his emerging company that the highs and lows will even out and things will continue to go well
– Prayers for Flat Tire and his M and family
– F3 Golf was successful, and reminds us to give it away
– Praises for Stang’s Dad, as he got the “all clear” on his medical issues

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Moleskine:
As I snapped awake today at 4AM, my thoughts turned to the impending #gloom, and a smile spread across my face. Today, I get to give it away…
See, just under 6 months ago I posted at my first F3 workout at WEP. Pusher (in attendance this AM) and Jekyll split the Q that Saturday morning. Here’s how it went (briefly). I didn’t know what I was in for. I didn’t tell the guy who EHed me (Whitesnake – who was at this workout this AM) that I was going, so I knew no one and vice versa. Within a few minutes, Package notices that I have no gloves… In November… and so he runs and gets me some out of his car. I’m thinking, “hey, that was decent of him.” I was certainly the 6 more than once and guys ran back to finish with me. I remember thinking, “hey, this is pretty cool.” Then Pusher brings us in and says something inspirational, and I thought, “hey, that was a good workout, I am beat!”. Then he said, “Now I’ll hand it off to Jekyll for the cardio portion of our workout.” I thought he was kidding, then realized, oh no… We ARE only halfway through… ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME? How do I go home unseen…? Bear crawls up hills? Partner carries (sorry WWL, you got the crappy end of that one)? But I finished. And I got it. And I was hooked.
So, I thank Whitesnake for giving it away to me. I thank all the men of F3 Nation for being willing to chase perfection. To keep motivating their brothers. To keep EHing SadClowns to get them out of their life ruts… To keep pushing me to chase perfection and hopefully, one day, land somewhere near excellence in every single aspect of my life. Because for me, the real “First F” that F3 has given me, is Freedom. Freedom from wimping out on myself and my family. Freedom from saying “can’t”. Freedom from all the bullsh*t reasons that I tell myself about why I am not living the life that God planned for me. Freedom from excuses for not giving it away…

Helmet out…
#GoBeAwesome