PREP: At 5:13, face-melting guitar began emerging from the Bose: Van Halen’s Eruption brought us all to life.  A perfect 1 minute and 42 seconds combination of fury and auditory bliss.  Rewind to that day in 1978 when Ken Land brought VH1 (vinyl) to YHC’s house and (literally) rocked my world.  Hundreds of hours of VH has made its way into YHC’s ear holes over the past 42 years, and I loved every second of it (OK, maybe not the VHIII album where Gary Cherone sang).  Music is the soundtrack to our lives, and Van Halen is playing YHC’s opening scene.  ‘Nuf said.

WEATHER: 77 degrees and a little less humid recently, but it’s been worse.  Were those tears for Eddie’s passing?  No, just sweat.  Okay maybe a little tear.

5:15AM: 5 core principles were recited quickly, along with the F3 credo.  YHC mentioned the passing of F3 Hightower / Jacob Hancher from F3 Grandstand, a police officer who lost his life over the weekend in the line of duty – let’s all keep Hightower’s family and community in mind.  Senseless and frustrating.

MESSAGE: YHC has been reading Q Source; what an awesome read.  F4 in Q Source Foundation is LDP (leadership development process).  The fourth component of LDP is FAILURE. A Forward looking group like F3 “uses its LDP to intentionally court minor disaster in order to fully develop its Leaders, because it is from Failure that Leaders learn the most. Success teaches far less because it does not isolate what works from what does not the way Failure does”.  F3 leadership and YHC encourage the pax to go out of your comfort zone, to the point of failure. Have an uncomfortable conversation with someone.  Say “yes” more often.  Consider other points of view.  Take a different way to work or back home.  LEAD A WORKOUT.

WARM UP: No mosey warm-up, as there would be plenty of running today.  (25) SSH, (10) Windmills, then work down the body with some neck rolls, arm circles (forward and back, big and small), Michael Phelps, agitators, then static leg stretches (left right and center).

THE THANG: YHC has been wanting to explore the area around Publix to pursue some different experiences.  The plan was to run “a while” (2-3 minutes @ fellowship pace), then stop to do some exercises from the waterproof gallon storage bag sheets of pain.  YHC advised that no pax would be left behind, and everyone ran as a group with no need to circle back for the 6.  The security gate at Lake Club foiled YHC’s plan to explore residential areas and perform Monkey Humpers for security cameras; probably best that they have the gate to keep F3 out.  So, we started running and made exercise station stops @ 1) behind Publix, then proceeded out the east side of the parking lot, turned left / north on Covenant Way with a stop @ 2) Fire Station driveway entrance, then north / west on Covenant Way to 3) SMR Inc parking lot, then started the return back to Publix with a final stop @ 4) access street just south of the fire station.  

EXERCISES:

• Stop #1: (40) Jungle Boy Squats, (40) LBC, (40) Shoulder Taps, (40) Box Cutters, (20) Lunges.
• Stop #2: (20) Merkins, (30 seconds) Al Gore, (30) Morning Glorys, (50) Heel Touches, (5) Burpees.
• Stop #3 (we doubled up on the sheet of pain at this stop): (40) Imperial Walkers, (50) Overhead Claps, (50) Flutter Kicks, (20) Decline Merkins, (10) Burpees, (30) Big Boys, (30) Lunges, (30) Evander Holyfields, (40) American Hammers, (20) each side Suzanne Summers.
• Stop #4: (30) CDD, (30) Gas Pumps, (40) Overhead Claps, (30) Leg Lifts, (50) Calf Raises.

PLAYLIST: Van Halen ONLY (and very limited Van Hagar): Eruption, Feel Your Love Tonight, Spanish Fly, Women in Love, And The Cradle WIll Rock, Sinner’s Swing!, Little Guitar (Intro), Cathedral, The Full Bug, Drop Dead Legs, Dreams, Poundcake (just a small piece, as time was running out), Happy Trails.  Oh yeah, and the EVH guitar solo from Michael Jackson’s Beat It took us to 6:00.

SUMMARY: 

• A near-perfect blend of mumble chatter and grunting.  Ripken and someone else (ChiliPepper, I beleive) had a lot to say.  With their butts.  Pudge made an attempt to get profound with the pax as he noticed a “cloud ring around the moon” (that really was pretty cool).  I couldn’t hear exactly what was said within about 2 seconds (and I do NOT want to know), but there was a LOT of loud laughter from “that” side of the circle.  Count was high on some of the exercises, but what won’t kill us WILL make us stronger, and we all left the beatdown intact.(did anyone remember these sheets of pain?  I didn’t think so – they were from YHC’s last beatdown.  Pax just wanna do work.)  Bluetooth signals apparently cannot pass trough YHC’s massive biceps from phone to speaker; lesson learned.
• YHC / pax were respectful at the Fire Station.  One of my goals is to get the first responders at the Fire Station to, at a minimum, acknowledge our presence at a future beatdown, or (stretch goal) get them to participate in beatdowns.
• Pax – we are NOT young, but we KICK A$$.  Goob youngest today @ 39.  5 @ respect, and 7 @ 45-49 YO.  Lovin’ it!!  

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

• Olympus: Why do you like F3 / what brings you back?  Answer: Fellowship and burpees.
• Rowdy’s friend’s house remodel- rip and repair, weekend of Oct 25-26
• Walk to End Alzheimer’s Saturday 21-NOV (Manziel)

PRAISES / PRAYER REQUESTS: 

• Jimmy Dean varicose veins / medicine effects
• QuickDraw surgery
• Injured pax (Lancelot, and many others)
• F3 Hightower family and community
• Nation & world
• For 2020 to be OVER

WRAP-UP: YHC is humbled by the trust given by the pax to lead y’all.  Thanks for the confidence boost again.  I’m pretty comfortable with this now, I just wish I liked burpees more.