YHC was pleased to have the Q at the Epicenter this morning and was admittedly a little dejected on my pre-boot camp run when there appeared to be a lack of cars in the parking lot. Not because I am so special, but this workout would be a special one, fraught with some very recent lessons learned in my life and a workout theme to go with it. Alas, 14 other brave souls – including 2 FNGs and a 2.0 – raced in on two wheels just in time to take a little journey.
The disclaimer was given (Woodpecker considered heading back out, but YHC’s future mud run partner has absolutely zero quit in him) and off we moseyed to a far away land where babies are inspected for any sign of weakness and taken from their mothers at age 7 to learn to be a man and a warrior. YHC is forever grateful that this modern day warrior was unshackled and freed from #SadClownSyndrome. Which is the reason for the big celebration in Charlotte later this evening. Better believe YHC will be there. #ImNoFool
Welcome to the 300, gentlemen. We did 302 merkins during the workout and instructed the FNGs to NOT google the term “merkin.” Which is probably what they will do as soon as they get a free moment today. Gig mistake, fellas. Huge.
We mixed in some burpees, LBCs, flutter kicks and even hit a few swerkins (thanks LiteBrite) when YHC’s ADHD took over upon seeing the lonely swings just hanging out on the playground.
The best part of the workout – especially since we were introducing this crazy, cult-like F3 thang to some FNGs – was mixing in some talk of Sparta and how Spartan men were tender enough to love their wives deeply, but strong enough to kill another man for her. More on that later.
BluBall, of course, made an appearance. He likes to pop in for YHC’s Qs and usually picks the day I decide to pull out an old favorite at the gazebo – 50-40-30-20-10 complex of box jumps, merkins and dips. YHC assured that wouldn’t happen, but it is really tough to run past the gazebo without hitting a few box jumps. So we did.
As we moseyed over toward the hill, YHC remembered Splinter from Cola saying that the best way to plan a workout is to think of the exercise you hate the most and do it. So we bear crawled up the hill and crawled bear back down. YHC hates bear crawls. A lot. There was a lesson about Rudy working all that time to get into one meaningless play in a game. But we did bear crawls anyway. And they sucked. May need some lessons from Plunger on this…
And since YHC doesn’t get enough hill work in (the pull of #REDFriday is just too strong), we did a little lap-de-lap of sprinting up that stupid little hill near where it all started in Greenwood.
With all merkins completed and no death threats uttered, we counted and named everyone. Welcome FNGs SqueezeBall, Waylon and Waterbug (OnGuard’s 2.0).
The workout is called the 300 because of the merkins and was crafted by Chaser, a very sick individual who likes a lot of pain. But the PAX always #GetBetter so it’s never a bad thing to borrow and modify some of his workouts. Except that 300 burpee workout. MR. Bean (and others) was ready to literally kill YHC after that one. YHC should probably refrain from reading #Battle backblasts within 72 hours of a Q…
It was pretty neat to Q a workout with so many faces that YHC was not super familiar with. Also neat to see Bojangles and DrumStick, but only briefly because they dipped out about half way through to go to work. 30 minutes is better than 0 minutes though. Aye, boys. Come back often.
YHC has had a tough year with the family, starting with the very introduction of F3 to my life last year. YHC’s oldest 2.0 was in a pretty bad crash on a golf cart and his ankle was crushed. Got that on the road to recovery and the younger boy decided chicks dig crutches and ended up with Sever’s Syndrome which causes severe pain and inflammation in the growth plate on the heel. The M was diagnosed with lupus and put on chemo treatments to fight it. Then the oldest 2.0 was struck again with vocal cord dysfunction. It’s pretty scary to watch your kid not be able to breathe. Daily trips to the ER, visits to specialists – no answers. We finally got in to MUSC (thanks to UncleJesse and the aforementioned Mr.Bean who thankfully let me live after the burpee incident) and got answers and a solution.
The problem is YHC forgot to focus on the marriage. And it got bad. Really bad.
300 just so happens to be the name of a movie about Sparta. There is a scene in 300 where the Persian messenger comes to tell Leonidis to bow down to Xerxes, the god/king of Persia. Leonidis’ M has the audacity (in the eyes of the Persian) to speak and insults her. Shortly thereafter, said messenger tosses that messenger into a very deep pit. It was significant because you didn’t kill messengers in those days. But the man insulted Leonidis’ bride. Big mistake, dude. Huge.
There is no question that YHC would kill for his M and die for his M, but what if the man who must be killed to protect her is…me?
In the midst of one of the toughest years of my life, I lost focus and became a selfish little butt when it came to my marriage. Why isn’t she meeting my needs? Why am I always the one having to pick up the slack? Why can’t she just get it in gear? There are some other underlying issues that lie just behind all that stuff. A few years ago she lost her grandmother, step-father and sister to cancer in a 9-month span. But I was too busy focusing on my needs and what I needed.
It’s telling that men are commanded to love their wives. Love is a choice. It’s not that little feeling in the pit of my stomach that make my heart flutter when I see her. It’s that moment when she is the least lovable that she needs the most love and it is my privilege to give that love to her. And that just royally screws up all of my self-centric plans.
So the challenge is to make your wife your centerpiece, the apple in your eye. Today – YHC especially – let’s be strong enough to kill for her. But, more importantly, let’s be tender enough to love her deeply.
Aye.
Jug out.