MAINSTAGE BACKBLAST—EXCEDRIN EXPRESS
Date: 8/24/22
Weather: 68 degrees, partly cloudy
21 PAX: ABC, Armando, Beaver, Pit Stop, Kidney Stone, Barbershop, Obi-Wan, Truly, Back Country, Singlet, Rowdy, Baby Shoes, Tax Man, Lilly Pad, Robin Hood, Ruxpin, Thomas, Longneck, Bayside, Sister Act, T-Ball
Q: T-Ball
No FNGs present, but several new HIM to Main Stage and welcomed by the group.
21 PAX arrived to hear the F3 Core principles, Mission statement, Motto, and Credo, as well as exercise disclaimer. Today in particular is a great day to realize that I am not an exercise professional and modification may be necessary to prevent injury or dislike of me as a Q in general!
Warm-o-rama: Warm-O-Rama was completed near shovel flags, which included 10 side straddle hops, 10 Tappy Taps IC, and 10 Big Ones. At this point, WOR was concluded as there is only so much time for exercise and I continue to pay homage to Khakis for the brief WOR idea! Upon completion of the WOR, we moseyed down to the south goal line of the football field for the Pre-Thang
Pre-Thang: This consisted of PAX lined up across the goal line. Upon starting, PAX ran into the 10 yard line, completed 1 Burpee, returned to the goal line and completed 2 merkins. PAX then ran to the 20 yd line, completing 2 burpees, returned to the goal line and then performed 4 merkins. Succession of these exercises was performed all the way to the 50 yard line, where PAX did 5 burpees, then returned to the goal line and did 10 merkins. Once they reach this point, PAX were able to start back down, going to the opposite 40 yard line for 4 burpees, goal line for 8 merkins, etc until Omaha was called on the Pre-Thang at 5:45am. Not a whole lot of mumble chatter going on with this portion of the beatdown due to some shortage of oxygen as alluded to in the Pre-blast, but everyone pushed through it with great energy.
The Thang: The Thang consisted of 5 stations and PAX were broken up into 5 individual groups. Each station was aligned with a flight of stairs on the west grand stands. PAX completed 4 exercises (Leg, abd, merkin variation, and a wild card exercise listed on the sheet), at which point they would then run the stairs to the top, go over to the next stairwell, then run down the steps to the next station and start on those exercises. Station exercises were listed as performed:
- Station 1:
- 25 Monkey Humpers IC
- 25 Flutter Kicks
- 25 Werkins
- 10 Burpees
- Push up steps and over to next station
- Station 2:
- 30 Air Squats
- 30 LBCs IC
- 30 Alligator Merkins (15 each arm forward)
- Bear Crawls from Sideline to Hash marks and back to sideline
- Push up steps and over to next station
- Station 3:
- 25 Bonnie Blairs IC
- 25 Box Cutters IC
- 25 Diamond Merkins
- Reverse Crab Walk from Sideline to Hash marks and back to sideline
- Push up steps and over to next station
- Station 4:
- 30 Alternating Lunges
- 30 Heel Touches IC
- 30 Knerkins
- Reverse Bear Crawl from Sideline to Hash Marks and back
- Push up steps and over to next station
- Station 5:
- 25 Squat Jumps
- 25 WWI Big Boys
- 25 Ranger Merkins
- 25 Mountain Climbers IC
- Run Track back to station 1 and start with first exercise
The PAX pushed incredibly hard through these exercises. Would like to give a special shout out to my man Ruxpin who has been on the Bruiser cruiser and was out throwing haymakers at this workout, as well as Longneck for making it 2 days in a row after his first beatdown yesterday! Each group completing approximately 4 stations until Omaha was called at 6:05 am. We moseyed to shovel flags for 6 MOM and proceeded through 3 rounds of U-Call-Its (15 Freddie Mercurys IC, 15 Box Cutters IC, and 15 LBCs IC) to finish off the beatdown.
Prayers/Announcements:
-Pop up coming for Block Party (Site Q is Fine Print)–will have 2 pop ups and formal launch toward end of September. Will be on Fridays at 186th and Q and will be a coupon beatdown site—details on Slack and Twitter
– Halfway house this Sunday, with 5k, 10k, and ½ marathon options
-VQs coming up for Muffs, Armando, and Tax Man—please get out and encourage your fellow PAX to consider leading a beatdown and support those who are out doing it their first time. PAX encouraged to look up any of us for advice/thoughts on doing a VQ!
-Continue to look for 3rd F opportunities—congrats from YHC to those who were able to help with the Brush Up Omaha project we participated in, which we had over 20 F3 participants and 2.0s helping out.
-Unicycle given props for bringing out some friends to beatdown at the Helix yesterday—continue to look for those around us and the sad clowns we know who could use F3 and extend opportunities to bring them out and support them
-Thanks to Lilly Pad for the massive pile of Excedrin he chose to share with PAX who needed a resupply at home for those various aches and pains!
Circle of Trust:
I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection on goals and challenging myself as well as contemplating what this is all for. Going through the murph challenge recently taught many of us that we are capable of way more than we thought possible and many commented on the physical transformation they could see just within 8 weeks. While I’ve had similar results and definitely noticed a physical change, the major difference was in my mental makeup of getting out of a place of comfort. At times, even within a beatdown, it becomes very easy to run at 50-60% effort for the full beatdown. While not all of us have an engine that runs hot 100% of the time, it is worth asking ourselves what our transformation could be if we gave even 20% extra effort. Do we ask ourselves difficult questions, such as “could I have done more? Did I do all I was capable of doing? Did I lead by example and remember to lead those around me to a place of greater advantage?” This is symbolic of more than our workouts. It’s a reflection of a life well lived and we would be remiss to not take advantage of doing so at the beginning of our day with these workouts. Obi-Wan reminded me of this at the Whetstone yesterday after kicking my ass with his beatdown and issued a similar challenge. Our Q source last week discussed the issue of being a true leader. It’s not by staying in the status quo. That is what governing or managing is. Leading is taking those around us from a place of stasis and indifference and moving them (and ourselves) to a better place. Getting there requires discomfort and you can encounter resistance from those being led until they realize you are coming from a good place and genuinely care about moving them to a higher level. I encourage you all to continue your efforts at this and we need to stay open to pushing ourselves to a higher level. Then watch that transformation take hold—it won’t take long!
YHC,
T-Ball
