With a little help from my friends
THE SCENE:
Chilly, breezy and dark… but by the time we were done, it was chilly, breezy and getting a little lighter- In the middle of things, though, no one was particularly cold!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
I had to drive quickly back to my home and gather up the coffee I made, jugged, and then left sitting on the counter. Too cold and breezy to do without it. So, I believe Alter Boy welcomed and disclaimed everyone, as he agreed to lead Warm-O-Rama while I made the coffee retrieval.
WARM-O-RAMA:
By the time I got back, everyone was doing arm circles. I said, “Now that you’re warmed up, we’ll…” and there was a disparaging comment about the chill in the air.
THA-THANG:
The aforementioned (over mentioned) chill was utterly dispelled when I brought out my three 12-sided big foam dice with Duct tape sections for writing exercises and we began exercising. (I didn’t like the exercises on the dice as they came in the mail) One of them is now Arm work, another is Leg work, and the other is Core work. We moseyed to the restroom area where the lights are on a motion sensor, tossed the dice, and did Core work (15 reps of whatever rolls up). At ‘all in’, we moseyed to a streetlight in an adjoining parking lot, tossed down a die that said to do Arm work for 15 reps. Then we moseyed back to Startex (under another streetlight) and did the Arm work that rolled up for us. I can’t recall each thing that rolled up in the order that they came up, but it’s been pointed out that Burpees and Walkdowns only came up once each, so the dice were kind to us. We kept this up ’til Time, collecting the dice until we were back at Startex, and rolled all three, inviting all PAX to pick the one they’d obey for the last set.
MARY:
There was no Mary, unless you count that last dice roll of all three dice, and PAX chose which one to end on for themselves.
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA:
7 PAX. Altar Boy, Bam Bam, Climate Control, Scarecrow, Costello, Teacher’s Pet, Barnum
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Rely on friends. It helps everyone involved. I like being around to help, and I like being able to ask for help.
MOLESKIN:
I admit to being less than properly prepared this time, and not just because of the coffee snafu. In my head, each PAX would complete 15 reps of whatever On Their Own, then hold plank or run in place or Al Gore until All In, then we’d mosey, and do it all again. Some of the PAX seemed more comfortable with doing the exercises In Cadence, which I had thought would irritate people. Now I know better. Even on the Dice workout (a very simple, effective, and entertainingly random workout that takes little prep) it’s good to call Cadence. What worked out especially well was that different PAX started stepping in to call Cadence, including a new-ish guy whom we warned we were preparing for his first Q by having him call Cadence. That’s actually a pretty good idea, I think. It’ll be far easier for him to feel comfortable doing his first Q if he’s taken the lead in smaller ways previously. So- this workout is deceptively simple, to the point where I missed a fairly basic element. It’s engaging, and keeps a proper pace- but needs more structure than I supposed.
Side note- This workout works with PAX broken up into smaller groups. At larger workouts, there’ve been three groups of PAX rotating through the dice and working out logistics and cadence as they go. That’s seemed to work well, too, now that I’ve modified the dice to keep types of exercises separated. My advice to anyone who has the dice as they originally come from the manufacturer is to carefully cut five-sided shapes out of duct tape and re-write your dice to suit F3 better.
