Final Countdown

It was about 30 degrees out and the last day of the year-was not sure how many would post for this workout and thankfully the pax did not disappoint. I arrived to find a crowd already assembled including a few Kotters (welcome back Jobu, T Square, and Rudolph) and at least 1 who came early for EC (attaboy DaVinci). Despite my best attempts at taunting on Twitter, however, the Ghost Flag was not threatened and remains in GasHouse. Apparently the ShackyShackyBoomBoom and Homer mooning the camera were not enough.

After a brief disclaimer and explanation that I would be trying to briefly discuss part of the book Freedom From Fear, we started. This is the book we are starting this week at our Tuesday 6am 3rd F AO at the new Harris Teeter (newest GasHouse AO)-props to Stroganoff on introducing this book to us.

Here is what we did…
WU: 10 IC SSH, Squats, Merkins, LBCs then 10 Burpees OYO.
Mosey to the Flag for STANDING Pledge (again, up yours Kaepernick)

The THANG: theme: COUNTDOWN (new year’s eve is tonight for those of you living under a rock)
Long mosey to the church steps (chasing Gomer who I think had 5 minutes of sleep) for quick background of above book-basically main character was Sad Clown who met guy named Len who ultimately became his life coach. The plan was to provide Len-isms throughout the workout to think about-see below for the ones we were introduced to.
Partner up (not needed, Q fail) 25 Merkins at bottom, run up steps, 20 hip slappers, run down steps, 15 merkins then run up steps, 10 hip slappers then down steps, 5 merkins. Mumble chatter was starting up at this point.
Hop up all steps with feet together then mosey to school track for some Bojangles with blueberries. 10 burpees then run, walk, mosey, or crawl half a lap and do 9 burpees then run half a lap and do 8 burpees…down to 1 burpee (total of 55 burpees!!!!) This looked bad on paper and was worse in action. Originally we were going down 1 burpee per lap but thankfully I came to my senses.
Mosey to field at church with partner (still not needed, Q fail again) for hip slapper countdown but running out of time so Omaha’d to save time. Start on 1st base side with 10 hip slappers on fence, run across field to parking lot and back then 5 hip slappers then across field and back with plank in hip slapper position (nice work Gomer).
Mosey to church steps again with partner-NOW YOU NEED YOUR PARTNER-
Q had trouble with the exercises and keeping them straight-just a ploy to keep all of you focused, had it all together the whole time…..Partner 1 up and down steps for 1, 2, and 3 minutes while Partner 2 did called exercise (in alphabetical order!!!) for 1, 2, and 3 minutes. Exercises were Merkins (1 min), SSH (2 min), and Squats (3 min). Flapjack after each set of exercises to alternate btwn stairs and exercises. I got things fired up with some “Final Countdown” music. We hustled back to partners and did a quick Hodor partner carry up the stairs then quick moseyed back to start as the bells of freedom were ringing.

GREAT WORK BY ALL-lot of running today and lot of hip slappers/stairs. I’ll be sore tomorrow for sure.

Here are the Len-isms we talked about:
We become what we think about.
First we form habits, then they form us.
Good habits are hard to form and easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to form and hard to live with. If we don’t consciously form good habits, we will unconsciously form bad ones.
Challenges don’t make the man, they reveal him to himself.
Freedom from fear is more important than freedom from want.

COT, namorama (thanks Roscoe), and quick prayer.
Great seeing the new “old guys” out here today. Life gets busy and things get in the way, however, remember you need F3 as much as it needs you. You are no good to anyone in your family or at work if you aren’t healthy and able to take care of yourself. Hope to see all of you early and often in the gloom in 2017.

Whoopee