Author: millinerd

19 PAX (including an FNG) enjoyed a warm spike on October 6th as we achieved 10,000 reps together under the moon between an unusually bright Mars and Venus.

Warmorama: Motivators, Batwings, and then leg stretch as we broke through to Zeta in the Greek alphabet as we make our way through the alphabetized sayings of the Desert Fathers (I’m using this edition but there’s a free PDF version here).

“A brother asked Abba Euprepius about life and he said, ‘Eat hay, wear hay, sleep on hay, and acquire a heart of steel.” Yes, the desert fathers go a good bit overboard, but if you showed up today, sleep is but hay to you.

10 burpees (x20 pax, rounded up for mathematical ease) = 200

Burpee Road (5 stations of 10 burpees) = 1000

Abba Euprepius got robbed and chased down the thieves to offer his staff that they forgot: Lesson is radical generosity.

Baseball BOMBS (home: 20 burpees; 1st base: 30 outlaws; 2nd base: 40 merkens; 3rd base: 50 BBSU; pitcher’s mound: 60 squats) = 4000

Rinse and repeat = 4000 (we were a bit short but we made it up with LBCs)

Total count was (about) 10,000

Our FNG is now Jolly (short for Jolly Good Fellow as he is a fellow in the accounting world). Prayers for schools, for a family struggling with cancer, for baby Archive. We concluded with Abba Zeno’s counsel to pray for one’s enemies with all your heart. That’ll burn more than a thousand burpees.

Inspired by @Jäzz Händz “good things come in threes,” the @Da Vinci code was revealed on Thursday Shredtember 24th as simply “3” to celebrate the third anniversary week of F3. Workout commenced with 3 count Motivators (which sort of worked) followed by 3 count imperial walkers (which did not work but 2Q @Noodles saved them). During the stretch more desert fathers lore was unfurled (full text downloadable here), with quotes (up through the third letter of the Greek alphabet) dispatched between exercises. We ran the short loop with 3 merkens at each light. Then the Q attempted to light three sparklers, a stunt that was not completed until the double barrel fire pit that night hosted fest that evening chez @Captain Crunch (thanks again to the whole crunch family for the hospitality).

Coupon exercises were clock derkens in 3s, Alpo/rows in 3s (the dud of the set), BBSU/LBC in 3s (a nice burn), chest press dollies in 3s (which improved with simultaneity). We closed with Heartbreak 123. 100 merkens, 200 BBSU, 300 squats with 3 hilltop merkens, and (unlike my first Q) this time we actually finished. COT kicked off with the dying words of Abba Bessarion from I Thessalonians 5:16,17,18:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks.

Easy to rejoice with the company of what @SAGA has dubbed (if I recall the charred poem correctly) these mighty merken men.

17 PAX showed up for Da Vinci’s VQ. Beautiful morning.

Warmorama: Goofballs x 20, Motivators x 7, Windmills (large & small); leg stretches during speech about Joseph Campbell, George Lucas and the neglected Christian Yodas, a.k.a. the Desert Fathers, whose sayings were interspersed (nice free edition of the sayings in PDF form available here. Though I drew from this book which is alphabetical – today was from Antony).

11s (Burpees and Merkens) around the short loop (stopping at 11 lights). Mary for early finishers.

4 Corners (Coupon Merkens, Curls, Coupon Squats, Shoulder Press). 40/30/20/10. We quit early (starting at 40 was too ambitious). Next time 30/20/10 will work better.

Merken Mountain (Merken then bear crawl to where your hands were for another Merken, make it to the fence). No time for a planned Jacob’s Ladder, but will do it next time.

Ring of Fire (but without Bear Crawls, so wasn’t really a Ring of Fire). 6 guys named Mary exercises.

Circle of Trust: Welcome to FNG, Abraham, a.k.a. DBC (Double Beef n’ Cheddar). Da Vinci dropped the flag with 15 Merken penalty. Prayers for the start of school, and for pushing through with other daily exercises (diligence in work, love of family, neighbor, etc.).

Thanks for showing for my VQ, crew.

Abba Antony said, “I have seen all the snares of the devil spread out on earth and I said with a sigh, ‘Who can pass these by?’ and I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Humble-mindedness.'”