A-Team (6 Years Later)

The title of this backblast is a tip of the cap to Nabisco’s original backblast title “A-Team” six years ago. Just like his Q then, my Q today was flawlessly executed.

16 pax 6 years ago, 26 today (27 pax at COT having McCants join us - which is perfect as he was there 6 years ago with 75%) showed up to help YHC celebrate. I enjoy recreating this beatdown each year but with some modifications. This year I knew if there was a big crowd there’s no way we can be on the basketball courts so I had some ideas.

One of those ideas was to use the baseball field so upon my early arrival I ran to the fields to see if they were open. They were…and they were SOAKED so I had to adapt.

Here was the original backblast for reference: https://f3raleigh.com/a-team

  • Pledge and mission statement

  • Run to the nearest pickle for warmup: GM, HB, Merkins, SSHs

  • Split the large group into 1s and 2s: 1s tell 2s what exercise to do then run the pickle. Flapjack and 2s tell 1s what to do. One group did burpees…

  • Get in groups of 4 for a catch me if you can to the far roundabout in the back of the park and end at the rock pile. 5 monkey humpers was the exercise.

  • Head to the tennis courts and partner with your humper partner.

  • Exercises went like this:

    • 1 BTTW / 2 Bear crawl across / flapjack
    • 1 BTTW / 2 Lunge walk 1 net / flapjack
    • 1 People’s Chair / 2 Broad jump burpee 1 net / flapjack
    • 1 PC / 2 Interval run 1 net then 2 net / flapjack
    • 1 PC / 2 run full length, 10 star jumps / flapjack

  • Now back to the rock pile. Rocks are too wet, small, and muddy so we won’t use them…. instead we’ll do a Jacob’s ladder - where the exercise count keeps going up 1.

    • 8-count man makers at the top, sumo jump squats at the bottom (bridge)
      • Mid-Moleskin…
      • The rails began to fall off here. Guys couldn’t understand YHC’s instructions, or they couldn’t hear, or they were talking over the Q, or they just wanted Angry Shut-In…all acceptable answers :)
      • After the 7th pax asked YHC what number they were on a regroup was necessary. We halted and went over the instructions again. Start with 1 rep, then do 2 reps next, then do 3 reps.
      • I think we made it to 7 before time expired. We apparently don’t do Jacob or Essau ladders enough anymore for guys to know with minimal instruction.
      • YHC takes the blame…….for Qs not calling it enough.
      • For you newer guys I hope you know Angry Shut-In isn’t mad at you……but he is disappointed. He just wants you to get stronger and better…..at listening.
      • Also on the tennis courts YHC had to threaten the group that they were going to be put on silent bus.
      • Oh and Chipper got put in timeout for influencing Kitty to cuss.
      • Other than that Your Humble Correspondent was cheerful and a delight to be around.
      • OK back to the finish of the backblast

  • We then got back in our groups and repeated the CMIYC to the warm up location for COT. On the way there is where McCants stumbled upon the group while out on his quarantine run! Great to see him as he joined us for COT. It was then McCants idea to remind me he was late to the workout and therefore we owed burpees…so we did 6 in honor of the anniversary.

  • Workout concluded at 0629:30.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

I’m so thankful for my 6 years. Getting to know so many quality guys has definitely strengthened me physically and spiritually. Sometimes F3 has felt like a job but most of the time it’s been a passion. My favorite part of F3 is every man reading this. It’s the fellowship during workouts and all of the time in between. Thank you men for being such quality guys who make me a better man.

I encourage you to bottle the passion you have for F3 and find ways to pass it on to others. Let all of the men in your life know they are missing something they don’t know they are missing - fellowship with other men. It’s a game changer.

Here’s to the next 6 years (and many more angry Qs)!

See also