Trees instead of Light Poles?

24 “you-vs-you” fighters brought their A-game to a battle that went down something like this…

Mosey up, around and down the Carillon and then across to the far end of the field.

COP (all IC) – 52 SSHs (in honor of Podcast 52), 10 merkins, 20 american hammers, 10 merkins, 15 copperhead squats, 10 merkins, 10 don quixotes, 10 merkins, arm circles, 10 merkins.

Mosey to the “burpee pond” (named for Fudd’s Q a few months ago) to the house.

Dora 1-2-3

Partner up. One partner starts the exercises while the other runs up the hill, across the road to the tennis courts, up to the top of the bleachers to yell “FEBA!” and return. Exercises -> 100 dips, 200 LBCs, 300 squats.

Merkin/LBC loop around the pond.

One partner heads in one direction around the pond. The other partner heads the other direction. 3 merkins at every tree until you reach your partner. 10 booyah merkins with partner. Continue but do 5 LBCS at every tree until you finish. 10 booyah merkins with partner.

Mosey up to the tennis courts.

Burpee suicide / Jump up the bleachers

One partner jumps up the bleachers to the top and back while the other partner does a burpee suicide on the tennis court. 10 booyah merkins when finished. Flapjack and repeat.

Mosey back to the shovel flag

1 SSH…

Numerama, Namerama, Announcements. YHC took us out.

NMS

The DaVille takeover finished today with Dogpile and GridIron (Spit took the Q there). YHC wasn’t originally scheduled to take this Q but was honored to take up the challenge when asked by the DaVille crew. For YHC, Dogpile is the “Super Bowl” of the F3RVA Q’s and it is a special morning shared by all. Excitement is always on a high level going to bed the night before this Q!

YHC and Opus rolled into the parking lot to see the shovel flag and F3 flag planted compliments of Swirly (thank you!). The cars stormed the parking area and the PAX geared up. YHC tossed a tennis ball around as a veiled introduction to one of the locations for today’s workout. The PAX then took off on time on this beautiful morning. YHC led the PAX over to the Carillon and up and around it to get take in the morning view. Swirly and YHC noted how much pain had been dished out over the months/years at these spots.

YHC kicked off the COP with 52 SSHs in honor of Podcast 52 and the “poking of the DaVille bear” that went down. Some of the PAX stood in protest of the SSHs… UpChuck claimed to be the ringleader of the late audible to resist the SSHs. #SSHresistance may be a new hashtag against YHC’s leadership. YHC decided to keep the number to 52 instead of going to 104 (2x the podcast) in light of the disgruntled faces… instead, we fired up a ton of merkins in light of the monthly challenge.

We then headed over to some newer territory by “burpee pond.” Fudd led us there a few months ago during the 1 mile monthly challenge. YHC took a more direct route and the PAX went to work on the Dora 1-2-3. There was reference to Frogger in a backblast earlier this week. We had the opportunity to play some more Frogger this morning as we crossed the road over to the tennis court bleachers. Hardywood showed quick instincts (as expected) in order to avoid cars and maximize the sprint to/from the bleachers.

YHC messed up the next exercise. YHC had planned for 3 merkins at every light post but called for trees instead. YHC drove by the pond later to count 54 trees but only 29 light posts… The PAX logged 25 more exercises than planned and got some extra credit this morning! The change to LBCs after finding your partner is an admitted audible in light of muscle failure for YHC on the merkins insanity. Flipper and YHC talked about possibly including an option for the PAX to swim across the pond after the halfway point next time as an option…

The rest of the workout flew by and the PAX finished with a strong run back to SF. The PAX rallied around one another and went back to encourage all the runners until the end. The final exercise was 1 SSH in order to show that “pulling a Carpenter” doesn’t always equal going to 100 SSHs… there are other options.

Gomer Pyle summed it up well when he approached YHC at the end and said, “Aren’t you a pastor? For that workout, you are going to hell!?”

YHC couldn’t be more proud of the way each man fought through today’s workout and pushed themselves while encouraging one another. We are all getting stronger as we push through one workout after another together. YHC would not even come close to doing half of what we knock out as a team if I tried alone. We are better and stronger together. If that plays out in our workouts, then just think of how much we can impact our wives, children, neighborhoods, workplaces and faith communities?

I am always honored to lead the PAX in any workout at any location but Dogpile is truly the Super Bowl of F3RVA for me and I couldn’t be more humbled to take the Q on this fine day. Thank you to all for a glorious F3 morning!

The Carpenter