Ain’t got time to bleed? Yes you do!

It was a cool morning at the Gashouse with the remnants of an overnight rainfall marking the parking lots with puddles.  Most of the PAX travelled to Shelby for the convergence.  For those that decided to stay local, all the Saturday Gastonia AO’s were open for business.  Linus had asked for a Q so YHC volunteered.

YHC was extremely surprised and pleased to see none other than Van Winkle in the parking lot.  He brought with him Do Re Mi and they came to post and promote the F3 blood drive “Freed to Bleed”.  More on that in a minute.  He inquired as to the Painlab versus bootcamp option and was wondering how much running we would be doing in the bootcamp.  Lucky for him I am the Q and can modify the workout since I had some general ideas but no printed Weinke.  The second nice surprise was seeing “Eddie” posting with Defib.  It is a treat to have 2.0’s post to a workout where they can help us old guys push the rock and we can hopefully influence them to advantage as they find their way in the world.  Eddie is a guitar virtuoso and YHC brought my wireless speaker and had some John Petrucci solo work dialed in for the “Thang” that we would do later.

At 0700 a quick disclaimer and a brief warmup consisting of SSH, Merkins, Squats, LBC’s, and the Pledge of Allegiance.  The boot campers followed me and the Painlab folks stayed with Tube.

We had 8 for the Bootcamp according to the count off that we tried to execute.  There were some problems with getting the right number and some candor was shared as we ran up to the Grier parking lot.  We started the workout with some bear crawls from one side to the other, followed by 5 merkins, lunge walk back for five rounds.  I inadvertently threw Van Winkle a bone because apparently bear crawling is his D2X.  He led the way and the rest of us just tried to keep up.

After this we held a plank until we heard what JJ was grateful for.  His response was family.  #truthnugget

We moseyed over to Parkwood parking lot for the descending triangle.  Three exercises would be called at each point of the triangle.
The “Thang”…

10 burpees, mosey to next point: 10 8-count bodybuilders, mosey to next point: 10 Squat jumps

repeat with the exercises with reps 9-9-9-8-8-8-7-7-7-6-6-6-5-5-5-4-4-4-3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1.

We decided to do this in cadence together with the speaker blaring some guitar virtuosity.

This workout perhaps should be done for time OYO and it would be awful.  It was bad enough staying together as a group.  The descending triangle will now be known as “The Stroganoff”.

Stroganoff was to take the Q so we were expecting the “wolfpack grinder” or the “Forrest Gump” workout.  Since he couldn’t make it he gave it to me so today he gets the honor of having an exercise set named after him.  Remember this set piece if Strogi is at a workout you are Q’ing.

After this we moseyed to the steps at FPC.  15 Dying cockroaches at the top and 20 LBC’s at the bottom for 5 rounds.

Next we moseyed to the dental office wall for some derkins and dips for three sets.  We played Frogger crossing the street and some of us had to double time to avoid some traffic.  Jerry Reed’s “Eastbound and Down” was playing on the speaker at this point.  We headed back to start are rallied up with the Painlab PAX for 51 Flutter kicks and a few toes touches when the bells rang, signaling 0800 hours and the end of the workout.

Announcements:  Christmas Party

Prayer Requests:  Dry Rub’s M, Do Re Mi’s son Will, Tube’s Co-worker DJ, Sargento

The AAR:

Van Winkle was the first person to tell me about F3.  We played in a charity golf tournament with a mutual friend.  This would have been 2014.  Gastone called me just before midnight on December 31st, 2014 to place me in the EH.  I was sold and posted within the first few weeks when our region was being planted.  I am thankful to both of these men for getting me started and I am thankful for all of you reading this for being part of the journey.

Now for the Freed to Bleed!

Van Winkle and Do Re Mi are Charlotte “Core” workout guys but they came to visit to motivate and inspire more blood donations.  Do Re Mi had never given but missed his calling as his D2X is bleeding apparently.   He said his donation record now is in the three minute and change mark!  That is unbelievable!  Anyway, here is what is happening…

The mission of Freed to Bleed is to donate 10,000 pints of blood for 10 years of F3.  If you aren’t a blood donor or have never donated, please consider it.  Once they stick your arm it takes most people less than 7 minutes.  I average 5 minutes.  Do Re Mi can do it in under 4 minutes.

Tiger has scheduled a blood drive for this Thursday at Park Street Methodist Church in Belmont.  Please take a moment and click this link, https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/donation-time  type F3 in the “Give Blood, Find a Drive” screen in the top left.  It will show up.  Select a time and plan to be there.  It will be a terrific second F and a third F for doing something for others.

Always a pleasure to lead!

Roscoe