Mount St. Hell

Preamble:

On Friday May 14th Hasslehoff and I climbed Mount St. Helens in Washington state.  Best described as climbing the stairs in your office building with a couple of feet of snow plus a 20mph headwind – for 5 hours.

I wanted to bring a bit of that experience to the Rubicon upon my return, so the “Mount St. Hell” workout was invented.

Also, this Sunday is my 48th birthday so – 48 will be the magic number.

Warm-O-Rama:

Classic warm-up in the parking lot:  SSH, Imp Walkers, and Weed Pickers.

Then run to Ferrari Hill, aka “The Mountain” today.  Upon arrival – 12 more burpees.

The Thang:

After a bit of good-natured kidding Hasslehoff about misadventures on our trip, the work began:

1. Everything is 48 and Alpha count
2. Hill Repeats
   1. 48 Lunges then return to the bottom for 48 mountain climbers
   2. 48 Step-squats then Derkins
   3. Run to the top, then Flutter Kicks
   4. 48 Bear Crawls then Dips
   5. 48 Lunges (or top of the hill) then 12 more burpees
3. Return to the flag for … final 12 burpees (48 total)!

COT:

New AO coming 6/1!  

RAPTOR at Alpharetta Elementary School

Tues/Thurs @5:30

This location is between Rubicon and Norseman.  Happy to have any PAX and FNGs in that area!

Apologies to the other announcements and prayer requests that I forgot.  I really have to improve on this part,

Naked-Man Moleskin:

I’m about to turn 48 and have been in F3 for 3 years.  Why do I continue to wake up earlier and earlier, more and more frequently for this?

For vitality.

def vitality:

1. The capacity to live, grow, or develop.
2. The characteristic, principle, or force that distinguishes living things from nonliving things.

We sometimes use vitality to mean “youthfulness”, which is close but not perfect.  Think about the inverse of the previous definitions though – “lacking the capacity to live, grow, or develop.  [being a] nonliving thing.”  That’s what we fear about getting old – losing the ability to live or grow or develop.  Becoming useless and incapable.  Playing with the kids or grandkids one day, and then being so sore and “stove up” that you can barely move the next day.  Complaining about having to walk up a hill or a staircase.  Growing up, this was the typical behavior that I saw from adults  – adults in their 30s and 40s!

We know that F3 combats this by providing exercise and camaraderie.  When we can confidently play ball with the kids, go on an impromptu run or hike, lift a heavy box or open a stuck jar – it’s such a different mindset than “I can’t do that” or “I’m too old for that” or “that’s just stupid” or worse – the silent fear that you can’t do it anymore.  Those phrases are poison to the soul, and I don’t want any part of them.

And vitality opens the door to even more.  In Washington we camped at the base of Mount St. Helens with a big crowd of folks who were there to do the same thing.  They slept in their cars, tents or campers and started rising at 3am to make the summit before sunrise.  A bunch of otherwise ordinary folks for whom this is normal life.  Or better yet, it is their designed life.  They have architected their work week to enable themselves to adventure year-round:  skiing in the winter, and climbing in the summer, plus mountain biking, watersports and more.

They have vitality and life with purpose and intentionality.  I am working towards living intentionally, and know that maintaining vitality is one of the biggest keys to making it happen.  And so my alarm will continue to go off before 5am, and I will SYITG.