Cardinal is an EH specialist, though if you asked him, he’d deny it. However, after just one conversation, he convinced a group of young dads to commit to Tuesday morning beatdowns–not just one beatdown, but every Tuesday morning–in Houma. So, the Thibodaux shovel flag was planted this morning amidst the frozen clover on the top of the hill at the Lumen Christi Retreat Center overlooking a gorgeous sunrise on the lake.
Two of the dads in the group showed up while two more who couldn’t come wailed and ground their teeth with commitments to move heaven and earth so as not to miss next week. Cardinal and YHC walked them through the basics and the disclaimer, and it was on.
Warmup: side straddle hops, windmills, arm circles, Imperial Walkers, and self love; all x20, all IC.
Thang 1:
YHC wanted to wake the muscles and lungs up, introduce them to some F3 basics, and start a love/hate relationship with that hill, so we undertook a set of 7’s–Merkins on one side, Big Boi Situps on the other, with 5 jump squats every time the hill was topped.
Thang 2:
YHC also wanted to give them an experience of F3 creativity, so I thought back to a few of the highlights from my experience on the Northshore and settled on a game Steve came up with a few years ago. A playlist was created for a version of “Name that Tune,” and each song was assigned an exercise to be executed for the duration of the song unless any PAX could name the title and/or artist. If they just named the title or artist, we’d stop at 2 minutes, but if they could name both, we’d move on immediately.
YHC’s playlist consisted of a lot of 80’s and 90’s stuff that would have been obvious to anyone over 35, so the list was pretty long to take a number of full skips into account. However, the PAX who showed were both uncultured and relatively young-ish, so reps completed were plentiful, but songs completed were not. Some may have been more attainable if the PAX’s brains were less affected by the hill, but they appreciated the creativity, the challenge, and the variety, nonetheless.
Moseyed back up the hill to the flag for COT and naming of the two FNG’s: welcome Paradiddle and Elmer’s!
The gratitude and excitement for the chance to do this regularly with other (more or less) respectable men was palpable, and YHC is filled with gratitude for the way God continues to provide for the deep hunger of men through the gift of F3.
See You in the Gloom,
Goose
