Accountability?

YHC knew it was going to be hard to compete against Maximus and GInsu at the Coop for a QvsQ, but I figured there would be some hearty PAX willing to step up and post; the rain though didn’t help. It didn’t matter, 3 PAX held each other accountable for a little of this and a little of that. YHC had some terrible ideas lined up (like running the stairs 5 times for a jacobs ladder) and bringing out the basketball for a little hoop challenge, however the rain required YHC to audible the weinke – and create one on the fly.

COP included windmills (shocker), Side Straddle Hops (even more shocking), slow squats, merkins, Moroccan nightclubs, Imperial Walkers.

Line up at end of pillars, bear crawl to each pillar and do 5 squats….there must have been 16 pillars…nice burn to start things off. Lunge walk to every other pillar and complete 10 LBCs. Run the big drop off loop.

Peoples chair, flutters, run the loop

Peoples chair, flutters with legs over curb, and heels to heaven, run the loop

Mossy to benches for 15 step ups, 10 erkins, 10 derkins

Run the loop, and finish with 20 merkins

Thanks Fishsticks for the opportunity. Thanks Wegmans for scheduling the QvsQ at the coop 🙂

Prayers to Never Never’s M, those traveling, and for patience in the home. Solid WO by the PAX!

Trucker

TClap |
1

A little movin’ & rollin’ with Florence

I’ve been chompin’ at the bit to Q this new official Ruck AO, the Fire Ant, and this morning was the perfect time. Over the last few years, it’s developed a standard consistent with harder AO’s and I was not about to drop the ball today.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to post up at my folk’s house in Wilmington, NC where they recently had Hurricane Florence followed by 1-2 tornadoes pass through. It’s always different seeing storm aftermath in person; the images, the smells, the sounds of cleanup and water pumps getting rid of standing water. I’m not quite sure how I was going to be impacted but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. After all, neighbors are still unable to get in their houses. Perspective teaches me I need to keep my mouth shut and stay hydrated as I chip in to do a small part. After tree #4 came down and got hauled off, I had a revelation. What if I cut this next tree into the perfect lengths that would compliment my upcoming Fire Ant Q? Couple that with a previously-prepared Weinke and there you have it, we were set.

With a truck bed holding (8) 40-50lb logs, 18 of us converged on the Golden Corral/Fire Ant parking lot at HT. After Change Order laid down the disclaimer, us 12 Ruckers moved over for our warm-up jog around the lot.

After that, we kept the rucks on the ground and did our warm up:

Wind Mills

Moroccan Night Clubs

10 Forward & Reverse Arm Circles

Slow Squats

SSH

Grab a partner and meet at the rucks.

Catch me if you can with your partner and 3 Hand-Release Merkins. We went around the big loop once then a smaller loop after that for 2 loops total.

Head over to grab the logs. A brief explanation on where they came from and how they’d be used. We had to move both the rucks and the log and we’d work as a team to do it, looking to relieve the men with the logs.

Line up 2×2 with logs in the front. If you had a log, carry it overhead at the front and the rest of us would look to relive you en route. We made our way to the start of the Harris Teeter wall.

Lunge walk with a log press the length of the wall.

Bear crawl while rolling the log back to the starting position.

2×2 in formation with logs overhead to the 9-round parking lot & circle up.

If you have a log, hold it at 90 degrees and if you don’t hold your Ruck at 90 degrees. Each PAX does 3 curls going around the circle. If you’re not curling, you’re holding at 90.

On your back with legs straight and feet at 6″. Doing a log or ruck press for quite a few reps.

Get in 1 line, shoulder to shoulder. Seal team sit-ups with the rucks on front and keeping your head off the ground.

Same formation, flutter kicks with heads off the ground.

Back in 2×2 formation with logs overhead and offering relief, we made our way back to the original starting position. But before we finished, we got back in the seal-team line, on our backs and did bicycles with the rucks on front, both forward and reverse.

And so…that was it.

Announcements: Fire Ant AO moving to TCES in 3wks. Follow Spiderman for further details. Sign up for Paradise Reading Center: check with Copay and Deacon.

Prayers/Praises: Safety for all the PAX doing races (Bourbon Chase, CLT Marathon, Ragnar, Rucks), wedding anniversaries, Prayers for Half-Shell’s buddy who lost his son recently in a very sad event. We do not understand but we need to have faith in our Creator that he’ll somehow have something positive come from this. Prayers for his family and for all the scouts injured, those who witnessed and for their families.

Enjoy your day & make an impact.

Maximus.

TClap |
4

PAINtheon Games 3.0 (The Time I Posted the Scores)

This morning 9 Pax woke up and chose to do the harder thing. It’s not like they didn’t know what was coming (they did). It’s not like they had never done this before (most had). They just chose to get better.

PAINtheon Games was born out of doing something stupid (see: CSAUP) to celebrate the anniversary of Pantheon. We then decided annually wasn’t enough and we hold the “half anniversary” at the Coop (I digress). So Pax showed up to celebrate the 3 year anniversary of Pantheon. This is how it went down…

Warmup: SSH, Windmills and Mountain Climbers

Mosey to front of school. PAINtheon games begin:

  • 2 Minute AMRAP Merkins
  • 2 Minute AMRAP Sit-ups
  • 2 Minute AMRAP Burpees
  • 100 Yard “Bear Crawl” Dash
  • 1 Mile AYG
  • Timed BTTW (as long as you can hold it)
  • Timed 6” Hold (as long as you can hold it)
  • Burpee Chase (Race the Carpool Lane .33 mile and do 5 Burpees at each corner 20 total)

Scores are listed below:

PAX Name Merkins Sit-Ups Burpees 100 Yd BC Dash 1 Mile BTTW Time 6 Inch Time Burpee Chase
Never Never 35 55 28 2:11 8:50 0:50 0:45 4:10
Sugar Daddy 68 72 28 1:29 7:06 1:03 1:00 2:35
Olaf 52 61 28 1:14 7:30 2:03 0:57 3:34
Wild Thing 67 49 31 1:19 8:06 0:44 0:52 3:38
Bolt 74 69 37 1:17 6:44 2:10 1:00 3:33
BMT 45 52 25 1:29 8:22 0:40 1:10 2:35
Fishsticks 82 58 30 2:05 7:00 0:55 0:55 3:17
Atlas 85 70 30 1:40 7:22 1:02 1:30 3:25
Cornhole 50 50 25 2:09 9:10 1:00 1:00 4:16

NMM:

Huge Tclaps to the Pax that showed up. They really got after it and didn’t hold back. I apologize to the Pax from PAINtheon 2.5 at the Coop, the time I didn’t post the scores. I will look for them and see if I can get it out in a BB (no promises). I’m inspired by the guys I see in the gloom. We’re all just ordinary guys doing some pretty extraordinary things before 6 AM (thanks for pointing that out Anchorman). Keep getting better.

Prayers and Praise: Did the #oldschool CSPAN round the horn #praise&prayers

Announcements: H&C this weekend, Sweati in July, Read your newsletter

BOM on Anchorman

Aye,

Zima & Anchorman

TClap |
6

Full body pain dished out at Alcatraz

Begin with disclaimer and went around the roadway circle for a “quick slow” mosey.

Circle up for warmup
-10x windmills
-10x low slow squats
– 15x peter parker
-15x parker peter
-downward dog / honeymooner
-10x plank jacks, recover
-10x cherry pickers

Mosey to other side of parking lot where the real pain began early:
-Merkin ladder: drop for 20 merkins, run 10 yards and drop for 19 merkins, run back 18 merkins, run back 17 merkins…. rinse and repeat until 10 merkins for a quick 165 merkin beatdown.  WOW

Mosey to baseball field where we completed the field of dreams: count off by 4’s, each base had 3 PAX. The 4’s started at home plate for 15 burpees – they are the timekeepers. When done, each base moved onto the next base until the cycle was completed by all.  1st base was AMRAP squats, 2nd base was SSH’s, and 3rd base was LBC’s.

Circle up around the pitcher’s mound so we can finish off our arms with Jack Webb’s.

It is now 0700 and time for Senator Tressel to take over with:

Mosey from the ball  field and head down to Tara Tea Dr (steep hill).  Form two groups and face the hill:
1.  Round 1:  run to the top off the hill and back, plank at the bottom until everyone is back, recover.   Slow squats on Q’s count with a few holds mixed in.
2.  Round 2:  run backwards to the  top and back, plank at the bottom, recover..  Slow, alternating  lunges on the Q’s count with a few holds mixed in.
3.  Round 3:  run to the top and back, plank at the bottom, recover.  Slow monkey humpers on the Q’s count with a few holds mixed in.
4.  Round 4:  run backwards to the top and back, plank at the bottom, recover.   Calf raises for an unspecified time while the Pax cacthes their breath.
5.  Round 5:  run to the top, run back down, then run back to the top, do 5 burpees at the top, plank until the 6 is finished.
Mosey back to the baseball field for tunnel of love.  The Pax attempted 2 rounds, but it was a bit of a cluster.    Lutefisk’s merkin fest was too taxing on the upper body, and sustaining a tunnel for 16 to pass through was ill advised at that point.
Circle up for 6 MOM (all in cadence)
Freddie Merc x 20, Hello Dolly x 15, American Hammer x 20.  Superman hold x 2.  End with the Body Destroyer (one of YHC’s personal favorites).
COT – prayers for sicknesses to be healed among PAX and their families and mother’s day with special shoutout to Mr Clean’s children and all children who have lost their mothers.
It is now 38 hours since the completion of this, and I still hurt. Everywhere.  Which is awesome. Thanks for the opportunity to lead!  -Lutefisk
TClap |
0

All The Jacks

Alcatraz has so many options for doling out the pain. With the recent snow there was still areas of ice so decided to stay on campus and use those resources.

Warm ups: SSW (Jumping Jacks), Hillbilly Walkers, Imperial Walkers, Seal Jacks, Merkins, Squats, Plank Jacks, Mountain Climbers, Squat Jacks, LBC, Flutter Kicks

Four Corners on Field:
Wind Up
1st Corner 20 – SSH
2nd Corner 20 – SSH, 15 – Squats
3rd Corner 20 – SSH, 15 – Squats, 10 – Merkins
4th Corner 20 – SSH, 15 – Squats, 10 – Merkins, 5 – Burpees
Unwind
1st Corner 20 – SSH, 15 – Squats, 10 – Merkins, 5 – Burpees
2nd Corner 15 – Squats, 10 – Merkins, 5 – Burpees
3rd Corner 10 – Merkins, 5 – Burpees
4th Corner 5 – Burpees

Partner Up
Wall: P1 – Wall sit, P2-Bear Crawl, Flap jack – Crab Walk, Run to Fence
Playground: P1-20 Dips, P2-step ups, Flap Jack 3x
Benches: P1-Derkins, P2-Run to end of parking lot Flap Jack

COP2: SSH, Loungers, Big Boy Sit-ups, Box Cutters, Peter Parkers, Saved the best Jack for last – Jack Webs

COT

Always honored and appreciate the support.

Cornhole
Out

TClap |
1

Going Primal at Pantheon

At 0514, Pusher learned that YHC had the Q for Pantheon this morning and acknowledged that he needs to check Twitter more often. But, he stayed, along with six other PAX who didn’t know what they were getting themselves into.

At 0515, the disclaimer was given, and a promise was made that there would be no levitating, as apparently that was a concern to some.

Took a long, slow mosey around the back of the school with high knees, lunge walks, knees-to-chest, and toy soldiers thrown in before circling up in the side/hidden parking lot for COP.

COP

10 Slow windmills IC

15 Hillbilly walkers IC

20 Moroccan night clubs IC

Wrist and elbow mobility (wrist circles, elbow circles, wrist lock, wrist stretch)

10 Merkins IC

Quick downward dog to honeymooner combo for good measure

Mosey back around to the front of the school for the real fun.

The Thang, Part 1

I am a huge fan of exploring mobility and building flexibility and athleticism at the same time. This morning, we did a series of different animal “walks” or “crawls” in front of the pillars, as there’s a nice, straight, flat area to work with. We didn’t get through all of them, but this was the plan:

Bear crawl (2 lengths)

Crawl bear (1 length)

Anteater walk (1 length; Tesh complained about this a lot, so you know it burned)

Crab walk (forward 1 length, backward 1 length; Never Never is a king crab walker)

Fiddler crab (lateral crab walk, facing the school for 2 lengths; Shady modified with some sort of flipping breakdancer spin move, while Pusher, Sugar Daddy, and some others modified with what ultimately turned into a butt scoot)

Monkey/gorilla crawl (facing the school for 2 lengths; Lutefisk demonstrated good form with pointed toes and everything)

Sneaky gorilla (1 length, lots of knuckle dragging, i.e., glove destroying)

Low bunny hops (1 length)

We didn’t get to komodo dragon crawl, chameleon walk (this one would be a real crowd pleaser), frog jumps, and one or two equally horrible others. But, with time running short-ish, I wanted to make good on my promise to alleviate the pain and bring back the inverted burpee. So up we went to the soccer field for

The Thang, Part Deux

Burpee 11’s just sounds bad. Add in a bear crawl and LBCs and it’s even better. Cones were lined up 30 yards apart with a row at the halfway point. PAX started with 10 burpees, bear crawl to the middle cones for 20 10 LBCs, then bear crawl to the far cones for 1 inverted burpee. Bear crawl back to the middle, 20 10 more LBCs, and bear crawl to the start. Rinse and repeat, 11’s style (9 burpees, 2 inverted burpees, 8 burpees, 3 inverted burpees, etc., but always 10 LBCs).

We got maybe halfway through this last part before time ran out and we moseyed walked to COT to wrap up.

Announcements

  • Fish Sticks needs a Q for next week, but YHC is apparently not invited. Pusher and Shady both indicated they were possibilities.
  • Yeti is coming up February 24. Do it, or make a relay team, or pass out water, or something.
  • Read your newsletter.

Prayers and Praises

  • Pusher mentioned Cesspool (PAX in Columbia) is in a hard place, as his wife is having health issues that came to a head over the holidays. Prayers for her, and for him and their kids.
  • Shady has a friend at work dealing with infertility
  • Shady is also looking at pursuing another job within his organization
  • Praise that Tesh’s job is going well, even if it means he has to work to make money

Thanks to Fish Sticks for the opportunity to lead these men, and for the PAX who put up with this nonsense. You don’t get better if you don’t push yourself to do new things, and I think we did a few new things, and had some fun in the process.

-Jedi

TClap |
2

Christmas Movie Trivia Loop

When Pusher and YHC realized we were co-q’ing Alcatraz, and the weather was predicted to be quite winter-like, we decided a Christmas theme was in order.  But we wanted something a little unique.  So, we landed on Christmas Movie Trivia.

The wintry weather showed up on cue, though more cold and wet than snowy and Christmas-like.  “No matter” said the 12 pax that posted ready for the physical and mental challenges.

Pusher started us off with a jog intentionally avoiding the path around the ball fields.  We moseyed to a few different intersections near the park for various warm-up exercises, including SSHs, merkins, peter parkers, and a few others, while playing a little frogger.

We then moseyed to the bottom of a steep hill and partnered up (size no matter).  Partner 1 took the hill, while partner 2 held a squat.  Flapjack.  Repeat 2 additional times.

We then moseyed up the hill half way, and lunged the rest of the way.  Pusher then took us back to the parking lot where we started and turned it over to YHC.

We moseyed around the parking lot, then to the path that circles the park, where the first of about 30 cones was sitting (each about 10-20 yards apart, all along the path).  And so began the Christmas Movie trivia challenge.  Here’s how it worked:

  • On each cone was a trivia question.  Upon arrival to the cone, the question was read aloud.
  • While pax pondered and discussed the question, an exercise was performed, which was dependent on the movie.  Here were the exercises (some of which we didn’t get to):
    • A Christmas Carol – 10 high jumps
    • A Christmas Story – 10 Plank Jacks
    • Christmas Vacation – 10 Mountain Climbers
    • Christmas With The Kranks – 10 Bombjacks
    • Deck The Halls – 10 Plank Punches
    • Four Christmases – 10 Sumo Squats
    • Elf (My Favorite!) – 10 Squat Jacks
    • Ernest Saves Christmas – 15 Hillbilly Walkers
    • Holiday Inn – 10 Morning Wood
    • How The Grinch Stole Christmas – 10 Russian Twists
    • It’s A Wonderful Life – 10 Dry Docks
    • Jingle All The Way – 10 Run Stance Switch
    • Nightmare Before Xmas – 10 Crab Cakes
    • Miracle On 34th Street – 10 Merkins
    • The Polar Express – Bearcrawl to next cone
    • Scrooged – 10 Monkey Humpers
    • The Santa Clause – 10 Chop Sticks
    • Santa Claus: The Movie – 10 Speed Skaters
    • White Christmas – 10 Donkey Kicks
  • Once the exercise was done, pax had to agree on an answer.
    • If the answer was correct, pax moved on to the next cone
    • If the answer was not correct, pax had to do one or more penalty exercises.  Here’s how the penalties worked:
      • 1st incorrect answer – 10 burpees
      • 2nd consecutive incorrect answer (i.e. at next cone) – 10 burpees AND 100 yard run
      • 3rd (or more) consecutive incorrect answer (3 cones in a row)- 10 burpees AND 100 yard run AND 10 merkins
      • After the penalty was served, pax moved on to the next cone

We got through about 25 cones (with a score of about 50%) before running out of time.  The questions were tough, and thus we clocked in over 100 burpees.  I won’t post the questions/answers here in case any pax want to reuse this weinke, or a variant thereof (contact me on twitter if you’d like the questions and answers).

Moleskin

It was a privilege for Pusher and YHC to lead the workout at Alcatraz.  Pusher talked about how thankful we are for F3 and the amazing HIMs that make it so great, including and especially the pax posting to Alcatraz.  For me, what has made F3 so life changing isn’t the organization, or structure, or exercises or cool gear; it is the men of F3 that invested their time into “FNGs”, long after their first post.

If you are a man that a fellow F3 pax has invested time into, my encouragement to you (and to me) is to find a pax in F3 that could benefit from you pouring into them.

 

TClap |
3

Diapers or Depends, Same Purpose

When I was putting my Wienke together I decided to put something together that would allow for a lot of mumble chatter.  A lot of my Q’s tend to have a lot of counting and wanted something that little thought was needed by everyone to allow for the conversations to flow, and flow they did.

Warm up – COP – Typical Exercises.  SSH, Imperial Walkers, Windmills. Merkins, Mountain Climbers

Tabata – 20 Sec on, 10 Sec Rest, alternating exercises, 2 min rest (slow mosey around parking lot)
Burpees – Mountain Climber Merkin
Ski Abs – Plank Jacks
Lunge jumps – Lunge Chop
Freddie Mercury – Box Cutters
Merkins-Wide-Diamond (rotated through the 3)
20s-High Knees 10s-Mountain Climbers  (No Rest)

Covered a lot of topics but with Cable Guy in attendance and expelling his “usual sounds” conversation quickly went to the use of Depends.  Main Frame added some details about his college years.  Oh what fun.  With Falcon Crest’s approaching birth of his first we all felt that we needed to get him up to speed those first couple months.  This all made for some great color commentary.

8 Boot Campers, 4 Ruckers

Announcements:
Family Ruck 11/18 3pm
Christmas Party 12/1
Baxter Turkey Trot 11/23
Joe Davis Run 1/6/18

Prayers Praises
Falcon Crest – Pending birth of first child
Everest – Pregnancy
Senator Tressell – IR
Wives and Families

Always an honor and appreciate the call.

Cornhole
Out

TClap |
0

Old School Ruck Workout

The workout was actually pretty simple

Right at 5:15 and maybe a minute before I gave a very quick and brief typical disclosure except I say not to go at your own pace because you will be left behind.  Then the pax all grab their gear and 4 sandbags and headed out.

The Thang:
Ruck approx 1 mile down to Tega Cay Elementary while rotating coupons.  It was important that we complete this in 15 mins to ensure we could get some PT in before needing to head back.

After reaching the school in a little under 15 mins we did the following with partners:
went down the pavilon like area where Pax 1 would start with the sand bag and push it up to the first concrete pad.  Pax 2 would do 5 merkins and bear crawl up to pad and wait on Pax 1.  Switch and go to next pad.  Once at top both pax did 10 Man makers  (Rinse and Repeat)

Next round pax ran up the hill stopping at all 3 pads doing the following:
Flutter press
Squats
Partner merkins with sandbag (10)
– start in plank position shoulder to shoulder
– pull sand bag from one side to the other and do a merkin once the bag crossed all the way to the other side of paxs shoulders.  Rinse and repeat except only did 10 merkins at top so that we could get back to COT

Worked our way back to COT and once we got to the parking lot we partnered up and and both grabbed one end of the sand bags and ran the rest of the way in.  Finished with 1 minute to spare.  Good word this morning men.

Thanks for letting me lead.

Bonsai

TClap |
1

2017 Board of Pain at The Abyss – 7/19/2017

17 brave souls showed up for everyone’s favorite summer tradition- the Board of Pain.   With the majority being first-timers I knew this was going to be fun.  There is not better representation of ‘You vs You’ than the #BoardOfPain.

The Thang: perform each exercise and the associated rep count.  You can not move on to next exercise until previous exercise is complete.  In between each exercise is a recovery run of 1/4 mile.  Below are the stats on the day.  Come back next week to compete against the others and yourself.

An amazing effort from all the Pax today, especially first timers.  The Board of Pain tests you both physically and mentally.  Below are resutls:

Prayers
Went around the circle and everyone Pax was asked to give a pray or praise. Too many to remember but they were heard.

TClap |
2