10 Year Convergence

Ten year celebration came to a close this morning with a convergence at WEP. 12 men came earlier for a run to support Operation Sweet Tooth. 84 men attended the main event with three great HIM leading the workout: CSPAN, Maximum, and WWL. No warm-ups this morning. CSPAN took his group around the block with various stops along the way. Seven reps of Flying Squirrels, Merkins, and Sit-ups. WWL had playtime at the playground. Burpees and Pull-ups along with running fast around the playground. Did I mention Power Skips? Maximum had a simple plan. Run backwards up the hill many times and destroy your abs with American Hammers.
We closed the chapter on the first 10 years.
Monday begin the next.
The future is bright.
How will you contribute to the next 10 years?
Make an impact.

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Multitasking is not a thing……

As we all know we live in an overstimulated world…We are constantly bombarded with demands, tasks, responsibilities, fake news :), and distractions. There is more information and access available at our fingertips than ever before yet we are more drained and burned out as a society. We struggle to live in the present moment and to stay focused on things that matter. We get sucked into playing whack a mole on a daily basis. Work, chores, errands, kids, wife, family, etc. etc. Our phones beep and buzz about every 30 seconds and the email inbox is constantly filling up.  There is no more margin…

We discussed at COT how multitasking is somewhat glorified in our culture today.  I heard someone speak the other day about a term called “monotasking” and it captured my attention.  Actually learning to focus on doing one thing at a time.  Why the hell is that so hard?  What would actually happen if we were to focus on one task at a time, one conversation at a time, one project at a time.  Like actually eating your lunch at work without reading email or working, actually paying attention to the person speaking on your zoom call, shutting down your inbox and silencing your phone to work on a project.  I think that is where we can learn to actually find life in the present.  Reading the Gospels this is exactly what Jesus did.  He was never in a hurry, took time for prayer when the world was screaming for his attention (including his posse), was extremely present in the moment, and focused on doing one thing at a time.  Food for thought.   

Oh yeah…we did a workout.  Here it is.

Warm up – Side straddle hops, quad stretches, imperial walkers, overhead claps

The Thang – 

Suicides on the football field 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and then run 100 yards.  Nurr back to goal line.

Ring of Fire (or Rectangle of Fire). Start center field with 5 burpees.  Run diagonal to each 20 yard line and do 20 reps of an exercise.  Run back to center and do 5 burpees at each transition.  Exercises include Merkins, Bobby Hurleys, V ups, CDDs.  Round 2 included wide arm merkins, squats, flutters, and overhead claps.

We then went back to the goal line and repeated suicides.

There was time remaining so we ran to the pull up bars for some fun.  20 dips, 20 curls with cindy, 5 pull ups, some wall sits, 25 dips, 25 curls with cindy, wall sits, finish with 5 more pull ups

Closed at COT

Prayers for Aquaman and his family, Prayers for Sawdust and his support of his fellow soldiers, Prayers for my wife Elizabeth’s Deviated Septum surgery and recovery.

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March 11 at The Coop

Super creative? Absolutely not?
Wordy? Definitely not?
Recap of the work done? Absolutely

GQ on warm up for his first ever crack at Qing. He ran us to a spot, performed some warm up exercises, adapted to the feedback and received the AAR in true fashion. That’s how we all get better; if we could all get an AAR after completing objectives.

YHC now on Q and we rant to the football field.

.5mi around the track at a good/heavy-breathing pace.
36 Mak Tar Jah’s
.25mi at a “get after it” pace
35 Mak Tar Jah’s

Planks & abs & stuff

Line up on the goal line
71 Carolina Dry Docks
Bear crawl to the 50yd line
71 Merkins
Crawl bear to the goal line

Mosey to the pull-up bars

20 Pull-Ups
Run down the hill to the stop sign
Nur back up the hill

COT

SYITG

GQ & Maximus

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Honor CMPD’s Fallen

Police Officer Clark and Police Officer Jeffrey Shelton were shot and killed after responding to a disturbance call.

At approximately 11:30 pm, the two officers responded to a disturbance call in an east Charlotte housing complex on Barrington Drive. They had resolved the disturbance and were walking away when they engaged in a conversation with a man who had nothing to do with the call. As they turned to walk away from the man, he produced a gun and shot both officers in the back.

Both officers were transported to the Carolinas Medical Center where they died from their injuries.

The shooter fled the scene, but was later arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The suspect has five prior convictions for resisting arrest and assaulting a government official. On September 30, 2010, he was convicted of two counts of first degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

 

Police Officer Sean Robert Clark

Officer Clark was a U.S Air Force veteran and had served with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for one year and was assigned to the North Tryon Division. He is survived by his expectant wife and 2-year-old son.

DOB:  11/22/1972 (run to the bottom of the hill after each exercise)

11 pull ups
22 burpees
19 hand release merkins
72 single count flutters


Badge #:  3769

37 pull ups
69 shoulder taps

Police Officer Jeff Shelton

Officer Shelton had served with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for six years and was assigned to the North Tryon Division. He is survived by his wife.

DOB:  9/9/1971 (football field)

Jacob’s Ladder:  9 wide arm merkins, run across field 1 Bobby Hurley
19 – Diamond Merkins
71 – Mountain Climbers

 

Badge #:  2884

28Big Boy Sit-ups
84 – Heel touches

 

4/1/2007

4 laps for 1 mile
20 reps – 7 exercises
o Bomb jacks
o CDD
o Donkey Kicks
o Mak Tar Jai
o Dying Cockroach
o Lunge
o 8ct Body Builder

Sean Clark – age = 34 Yard Bear Crawl

Jeff Shelton – age = 35 Yard Crawl Bear

 

Strong work by everyone that attended today. Thank you Dirty Harry for the opportunity.

Heavy encouragement to attend the Mike Doty run this Saturday!!

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Wegmans and Repeat at the Coop

Since this was Repeat’s 2nd VQ, YHC led the warmup. Nothing fancy. Nothing special.

Partnered up near JROTC building. P1 runs to the top of the loop, 25 Merkins whiles P2 is doing LBCs. Switch once P1 returns. Next is 25 bomb jacks and flutters. Last is 25 monkey humpers and Rosalitas. Hand off to Repeat.

Repeat ran us up near the band field. There is a covered walkway with lights. At the first light we did 5 Merkins and 5 LBCs. At the next light we added 5 to each exercise so 10 and so on and so forth. Repeat estimates we did roughly 280 reps of each exercise.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead Punchlist.

Wegmans

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2019 Q4 PFT at The Coop

Here are the results of the 2019 Q4 PFT

1 Minute of pull ups, sit ups, push ups and a 1 mile run

Results from Today.  No order.  Bold are the top numbers for a sections.

 

Results from this year.  Order is how many PFT’s posted.  Bold are leaders.

 

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15 Runners at Honey Badger

Warmup: 28 SSH – I usually begin every workout this way; looking at each pax as we count off a couple rounds.
The Thang: A mosey to the track for some hard work.

800m Indian Run
100yd Indian Bear Crawl
600m Indian Run
100yd Domino Broad Jumps
600m Indian Run
100 Partner Plank Claps
Rinse & Repeat

We got through 1 full round and the 2nd round of Broad Jumps. Before leaving the track we stretched a bit and the mosey’d to C.O.T. 10 LBC’s and 10 Flutters got us to 6am.

We totaled 3.3 miles and we all got better. Except for DH, he may have injured his back trying to jump further than Punch List. I hope it’s not serious.

Prayers for pax on IR and Offspring’s health, praise for Straight Up’s family having a great weekend.

READ YOUR NEWSLETTER – changes to Saturday’s AO’s and be watching for a convergence preblast.

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QvQ 19.1 – Jiffy vs. Sasquatch

21 PAX showed up to the first round of QvQ 2019. This first round is the classic match up from last year, which was decided by ONE point! That’s right, the reigning champ versus his challenger.

Jiffy versus Sasquatch

Brief history: Sasquatch lost to Jiffy last year by one point. ONE point! It was necessary for the match up to be repeated given the level of intensity at which both of these #HIM operate.

The clock struck 0515 and I directed everyone’s attention to the championship prize. A custom F3 shovel flag curated by YHC.

The intent of this shovel flag is to be much like a championship belt. I hope that it passes hands over the years, and we write the name of each years’ reigning champ on the back of the handle. It shall be brought to CSAUPs as well at any time the champion posts and desires to gloat. See below for a glimpse of the trophy.

0515.

I had five minutes to lead a quick warm up to get the PAX ready for what was to come.
Once we got our Tappy Taps out of the way, it was time to get down to business.

The rule of order is the competitor who is earliest to arrive will get to decide who goes first. Jiffy arrived at about 0435, so he was the clear winner. He chose to receive and go on the offense first.

0520.

Coupon Roulette

We came upon a sinister circle with 20+ cinder blocks, 50/60lb dumbbells, and retaining wall blocks! He had us circle around the coupons and choose one.

With your selected coupon you will complete in cadence called by Jiffy:

Shoulder press x 10
Curls x 10
Squats x 10
4 Count Flutters x 10

Jiffy then rolls three dice. One determines the direction we rotate. Two determine how many coupons in that direction we shift.

Get to your next coupon, repeat. Roll again.

Next coupon, do equal amount of burpees to number of coupons we rotated. Repeat four movements.

Roll again. Next coupon, do equal amount of partner clap push ups to number of coupons rotated. Repeat movements.

We hit round four and I was praying for a miracle, because my arms were already smoked.

0530.

Sasquatch takes the reigns and moves us to the pull up bars for a very creative assembly line of face kicks.

Nine PAX line up at pull up bars. The rest at various nearby stations. Do one pull up, shift one bar to the left. Once you reach the end you then BTTW crawl back to the other side of the pull up bars. Then head out to the street.

The remaining PAX are either doing burpees at either curb on the street nearby or run/nur down and up the hill (AKA Quadzilla!). Once you finish your respective station, move to the next and tap somebody at that station to proceed.

That was super original, and also tclaps to Jedi for doing a full handstand walk with no wall support both times through.

0540.

Jiffy gets his second opportunity to remind us why he is the champ.

We remain at the pull up bars and count off by threes.

Group 1: four rounds of 5 burpees/10 squats and then end with 10 partner clap push ups.

Group 2: four rounds of 5 pull ups/10 Merkins and end with 10 partner clap push ups.

Group 3: run to bottom of hill a dm bearcrawl up. At each cone do 10 Carolina Dry Docks.

We made it through 2.5 stations before running out of time. A great use of the AO. I wondered how Sasquatch was going to answer this painful segment.

0550.

Sasquatch has us count off by fours. He then leads us on a brisk mosey to the turf field. As we approach, we see two sleds at the closest end zone, and two at the far end zone. He sets one group up at each sled and has us complete the following exercises as a group on repeat:

Seal Sit-Ups x 10
Jump Squats x 10

Meanwhile, one PAX from each group pushes the sled 100 yards across the field to the opposite end zone. Once they reach the end, swap with someone in that group and they then push the sled back to your original group. Continue that snake like move until time is called. Woof.

0600 couldn’t come soon enough. Those sled pushes were terrible.

We hit 0600 and head back to COT to vote. The votes were cast, the points were tallied, and a winner was decided upon.

The winner of week one of QvQ is:

Sasquatch

It was close, but this time it was decided by 7 points. Sasquatch was awarded a patch since he will be advancing to the championship on 10/30.

A great showing by both of our competing Q’s. I think I speak for everyone when I say that was one of the more difficult workouts as of late at The Coop. And we’ve had some tough ones!

I’m looking forward to week two. We’ve got the Airborne Bad Assery of Geronimo lined up to take on our very own 1st F Q – Shady!

Announcements

Broga at The Ranch tomorrow! A special recovery focused workout for those running Ragnar this weekend.
QvQ next week: Geronimo vs Shady!

Prayers/Praises

Wegmans’ father in law has prostate cancer. It’s slow moving, but it’s cancer. Pray that it can be eradicated without much detriment to his M’s father.
Pray for the multiple PAX with pregnant M’s. It’s a transitional time but it’s well worth it. Pray we can as husbands love our wives like Christ loves the church while they are going through so many changes.

Thanks for the great beatdown, men.

Punch List out.

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Honoring 5 heroes from 9/11 at the Honey Badger

16 PAX joined me to honor our fallen heroes, this time I went off the book and decided to do my own version and honor some of the heroes from the tragedy of 9/11.

-During the September 11 of 2001 attacks, 2,977 people were killed (excluding the 19 hijackers) and more than 6,000 others injured

-The immediate deaths included 265 on the four planes (including the terrorists), 2,606 in the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area, and 125 at the Pentagon

-Of those who perished during the initial attacks and the subsequent collapses of the towers, 343 were New York City firefighters, 23 were New York City police officers and 37 were officers at the Port Authority.

We had hundreds of heroes that day but I decided to honor 5 that made a great impact, they are not in any specific order but here are their names:

  1. NYPD Officer Moira Smith was the first officer to report the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 when she saw the first plane strike the first tower of the World Trade Center. Smith, a 13-year veteran, ran into the towers and began assisting in the evacuation. Officer Smith is credited with saving hundreds of lives that day, giving her own in the process. She was the only female NYPD officer to die on 9/11.
    She was survived by her 2-year-old daughter and her husband.
  1. Welles Crowther was an investment banker working on the 104th floor of 2 World Trade Center (the south tower). When United Airlines Flight 175 struck the south tower, Crowther remained calm. Just minutes after the plane hit, Crowther called his mother to let her know he was okay. He then began assisting others in evacuating, at one point carrying a woman down 17 flights of stairs, only to return to the 78th floor to continue helping others.
    Crowther had made it out of the building and was running back into it with a “Jaws of Life” tool when the tower collapsed. He was 24 years old.
  1. Mark Bingham ark owned a public relations firm, the Bingham Group. He was a passenger on board United Airlines Flight 93. Bingham was among the passengers who, along with Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick, formed the plan to retake the plane from the hijackers, and led the effort that resulted in the crash of the plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, thwarting the hijackers’ plan to crash the plane into a building in Washington, D.C., most likely either the U.S. Capitol Building or the White House. Before their final mission, Mark called his mother and told her that he loved her very much. His mother, Alice Hoagland, is a former flight attendant. Since Mark’s death, she has become a world-renowned expert on airline safety as well as an activist for LGBTQ issues in memory of her heroic son.
  2. Ronald Paul Bucca was a Fire Marshal with 23 years on the job with FDNY. An Army Special Forces reservist, Bucca was known as “The Flying Fireman” after a spectacular fall from a tenement fire escape. Bucca, a marathon runner, died responding to the 78th floor of the south tower moments before it collapsed.
    He was the only FDNY Fire Marshal to be killed on 9/11.
  1. Retired United States Army Officer Rick Rescorla was working as the head of security at Morgan Stanley on the 44th floor when tragedy struck. Rick was there during the bombing at the Trade Center in 1993 and believe that the Towers were still a target for terrorists. He even predicted that a plane might be flown into them one day. He implemented security procedures for Morgan Stanley, including having practice evacuations every three months.
    On 9/11, Rick systematically helped the firm’s 1,000 employees out by ordering them through the stairways. He sang a Cornish battle song to boost morale, as he had done for his troops in Vietnam. After someone told him that he also needed to evacuate Rick said, “As soon as I make sure everyone else is out”. He was last seen heading up the tenth floor when the Tower collapsed.

WARM UP

We started with a slow mossey around the parking lot with some toy soldiers in between runs.

Back to COP for warm up exercises:

Windmill

Moroccan night clubs

Low Slow Squats (crowd favorites)

Cherry pickers

THE THANG

Mosseyed to the pull up bars area were some utensils had been setup for the following 9-11 format WO, 9 exercises with 11 reps each and then RUN down the hill to the stop sign and NUR back up, RINSE AND REPEAT, the plan was to do this 5 times, one for each hero but due to time restriction we completed 4 circuits with just enough time to run back to COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

11 pull ups BAR

11 big boy situps

11 toes to BAR

11 sledgehammer swing

11 knee raises BAR

11 merkins

11 slam ball to ground

11 Carolina dry docks

11 tire flips

It was a tough workout but it’s totally worth it when honoring our heroes; everyone pushed themselves through it with lots of mumble chatter but at the end we left better men!!

I was honored to Q the Honey Badger this week, thank you Dirty Harry for the opportunity to lead. #NeverForget

TINSEL out…

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September 11 Memorial Stair Climb

Today I was honored to lead 39 men of the Fort in my version of a 9/11 Stair Climb…. I asked these gentlemen to bring rucks or sandbags and headlamps. This was to simulate the equipment worn by the first responder’s who entered the World Trade Center to do their jobs. We also had Charetta appear courtesy of Dirty Harry…she was our victim that needed to be  carried up and down the NaFo bleachers ….everyman carried their fare share of weight.

The workout was simple!!!!  There was no warmup….we didn’t need one….

The object was to climb the bleachers 27.5 times up and down carrying a ruck or sandbag….the goal 1980 steps or 110 stories….NaFo bleachers are 36 steps up and down…the men of the Fort  conquered this simple request but there was a catch…..when they came back down they had to do 9 inclined merkins and 11 squats… I think most did more than the required amount and for that I’m in awe…. I love being part of this great nation

Before the climb I shared a little about my experience that day 18 years ago as an NYPD officer and I asked each man to reflect between the hours of 8:46 am to 10:28 am these were the hours that changed my life and change the world as we knew it….I also wanted to remember my friends who gave their lives to save as many people as they could that morning :

NYPD PO MARK ELLIS TRANSIT DISTRICT 4

NYPD PO RAMON SUAREZ TRANSIT DISTRICT 4

PAPD PO ANTONIO RODRIGUES PORT AUTHORITY BUS DEPOT

I worked with these gentleman and they will never be forgotten…

Thank you Punchlist for letting me.lead these great men .

We had one FNG Lassie….welcome

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