On The Fly

2015-05-18Leave a comment

QIC: Bounty Hunter
When: 05/18/2015
Pax: Ringer, Spitz, Pebbles, C3PO, Rebel, Cake-Boss, Barry Banilow, FNG "Lucy"
Posted In: The Fort, The Snake Pit

Nine faithful posted on this semi-cool muggy morning ready to sweat the week off right! Unbeknownst to YHC as is waited for the Q I asked what time it was and who was leading the show, Ringer stated it’s time to start and you’re Q. Needless to say I was prepared…. Sort of!

Warm-Up:
Warmup was a little different in which we mosey’d some ways in between each exercise.
SSH – 20
Mountain Climbers – 15
Tuck Jumps – 10 OYO
Burpees – 10 OYO
Front Lunge
Back Lunge
Side Lunge
Bear Crawl
Power Skips
Imperial squat walkers – 15

The Thang:
Nine light poles, 3 exercises, one at each light pole. Exercises as follows: 5 Burpees, 20 sit ups, 10 merkins. Total of 15 Burpees, 60 sit-ups and 30 merkins. Once complete go back and pick out the 6.

Mosey a ways.

Inch worm 20 yards (20 yards sounded easier before we started.

Mosey to the courtyard area. 20 dips, 10 box jumps (rinse and repeat 2x)

Mosey to the kettle bells.
Clean, press, squat – 10 each arm
Kettle bell swing – 10 each arm
Chest press – 15 each arm
Bent over rows – 10 each arm

Mosey to the parking lot with the kettle bells.
Next exercise is the clean and press Suicide. Kettle bell stays at start line while everyone runs suicide with the parking lines as their guide. Once you get back to the start line perform 1 clean and press with each arm. Total of 20 lines.

Get on your 6:
LBC – 10
Freddie mercury -10
Protractor
Mine Sweeper
COT

Moleskin:
First welcome the 20 year old FNG “Lucy”, always good to see young guys post in the gloom. Plenty going on in the fort region so be sure to check twitter and the plethora of pre-blast with those events. Wanted to call out a praise to C3P0 as he’s lost 5lbs since he started with F3 3ish or so weeks ago. Only thing to add to that now is the time to keep pushing forward, never let complacency set in. Continue to grow and better yourself. If you get stuck, your F3 brothers will be there!

Bounty Hunter over and out!

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There’s always a little more…

2015-05-16Leave a comment

QIC: Red Banjo and Dark Helmet
When: 05/16/15
Pax: MacGyver, Utah, Catfish, Solid State, Sugar Daddy, Jeter (2.0), Flat Tire, Corruption, Bubba Gump, Lad, Hasselhoff, Boeheim, Stang, Assassin, Blackjack, Barry Manilow, Mainframe, High Life, Seacrest, Anchorman, Dogpound, Red Banjo, Dark Helmet
Posted In: The Fort

So, this morning we had a case of what I am now fond of calling an “ImpromptQ”, meaning that the scheduled Q didn’t show (for whatever reason), and so someone had to jump in last minute. (Red Banjo called it c-spanning…) As the time ticked down, 23 men showed up, but still no Q, Red Banjo and YHC shared a couple of sideways glances and decided on the spot that we could probably handle things, so off we went… (I won’t remember everything, but I’ll give it a go)

Red Banjo took us for a quick lap around the park and then we circled up for a little warming up which included several rounds of 5 burpees OYO.
There were 20 each of SSH, Mountain Climbers, IW, and a few other things I can’t remember, all broken up by 5 burpees OYO. Then we moseyed to the playground where we partnered up and did three rounds of Partner 1 doing dips and pullups while Partner 2 ran to the path and back. (I feel like there is something else that happened here, but probable lack of oxygen then and passage of time makes me not recall)
Mosey to the soccer goals that were set up for some sprints and (shocker) burpees OYO… Then walk back. Sprint to the other side and do something else horrible, walk back. Then it was some sort of skipping/jumping exercise over and back. Then we bear crawled and did something else awful… There were some flying squirrels in there… It’s all blurring together now. Let’s just agree that it was sucking, fair?

Hand off the Q to YHC, and we pulled in close to ask the question, “Why did we come here today?” Jeter (Boeheim’s 2.0) had the best answer, “Because my dad made me.” We all agreed we are here to get better. Partner up (size matters). Partner carry to the top of the hill, run down, flapjack. Wheelbarrow to the top of the hill, run down, flapjack. Partner 1 planks on hands, Partner 2 holds feet and does 15 curls, flapjack. Loved that? Do it again. Then Partner 1 planks while Partner 2 does derkins off of his back, flapjack. Loved that too? Great! Do it again. Bearcrawl up the hill, run down. Sprint up, run down. Who thinks they have a little left in the tank?
Mosey to the playground, Partner 1 does dips while Partner 2 does a lap around the playground, flapjack to 100. Partner 1 does Incline Merkins while Partner 2 runs a lap, flapjack to 100. Got any left? Great! Mosey to do a little Mary and finish where we started with 5 burpees in cadence, because there is almost always a little left in the tank…

I know I left some things out, but we were making it up on the fly and I didn’t write it down immediately… Meh… What’s a girl to do…?

Moleskine:
Red Banjo is fast. And fit. He can’t weigh more than about 165, the dude wears a hat and sweatshirt and ski gloves in the summer, outruns most all of us, and he carried my 205 up that hill like I was barely there. Mad respect… Which brings me to a thought that lots of PAX have said lots of times. You want to get faster? Run with faster guys. Same applies across the board. You want to be a better husband? Hang out with guys who have good marriages. You want to be a better dad? Hang out with guys that are great dads. Don’t know who those guys are? Start having some 2nd F interaction. It will be obvious in no time if these are the guys to push you and help you get where you want to be.

As always, an honor to serve.

Helmet, out…

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The Hive launches 6-5-15 @ FMHS- Preblast

2015-05-15Leave a comment

QIC: Longshanks
Posted In: Uncategorized

The Fort has added a new workout called “The Hive” that will make its debut on Friday June 5th @ 5:15 at Fort Mill High School. It will be a kettlebell/weight workout in the student parking lot. As to not interfere with construction and other things going on at the high school, we will limit our use of FMHS to the student parking lot, the practice fields, and the football parking lot. YHC is the site Q. I will be putting a list of Q’s together. If interested in Q’ing please email me some dates you can do it at ryanpesa@yahoo.com or message me on twitter. See you Fridays at The Hive. Aye!!!!!!!!

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Slow Burn with Bucket-O-Pain

2015-05-15Leave a comment

QIC: Old Bay
When: 05/15/2015
Pax: CSPAN, Pappy, Blue Grass (FNG), Change Order, Black Jack, TPS, Solid Sate, Backdraft, Nirvana, WWL, Destiny, Deacon, Catfish, Barry Manilow, Waldo, Car Bomb, Seacrest, Blackout, Photobomb, Marky Mark, Wheelz, Zima, Flashdance, C3PO, Rocky Top, Longshanks, Grid Lock, Cerano, Sharknado, Duggar, Old Bay
Posted In: Slow Burn

Another pleasant morning at the Chic-Fil-A near Baxter, and 31 men chose to finish the work-week off with a moderately intense workout that hopefully was somewhat educational for the newer pax.

The Thang

Mosey to the back of Lowe’s for a little warm up.

SSH x15 IC
Low Slow Squats x15 IC
Dips on the guard rail x20 OYO

Mosey around to the side parking lot and lunge walk back until 6 caught up. Continue mosey around to parking lot in front of Lowe’s and quick switzer to explain the next exercise.

Bucket-o-pain (a name given by one of the pax after the work-out) was of a bucket containing 30 or so cards with 50 various exercises specifically selected from the Exercise List. Each card listed an exercise for the group to do in cadence, along with the number of reps, and a type of moving exercise. The moving exercises was done toward cones placed about 15 yards out, flanking the circle we had formed. Another 15 yards beyond the first cones were a second set of cones that pax were simply to run to after reaching the first cone. Here is an example of one of the cards in the bucket:

—————————————
| 15 Hello Dolly (IC) |
| => High Knee |
—————————————

Pax took turns randomly selecting a folded card from the bucket and announcing the exercises to be done. We got through the following cards before having to cut a little short to allow for travel time to the 3rdF event at 6am:

10 Low Slow Squats (IC) => Backward Lunges
10 Squat Jacks (IC) => Jog
10 Monkey Humpers (IC) => High Knee
10 Mtn Climbers (IC) => Shuffle
Guantanamo
15 Calf Raises (IC) => Lunge Walk
15 Hello Dolly (IC) => High Knee
15 Merkins (IC) => Bunny Hops
10 Alt. Shoulder Taps (IC) => Sprint
10 Wide Arm Merkins (IC) => Lunge Walk
15 Moroccan Nightclub (IC) => Broad Jump Burpee

Out of time – Run back to virtual shovel flag for COT.

Moleskin

As I explained to the pax in the switzer, the second time I posted to F3 was to a Slow Burn lead by Cornhole. He did a similar type of workout that had a halloween “trick-or-treat” theme. As a new pax, I found the workout to be a great intro to a variety of exercises. My hope in this workout was that some of the newer pax posting today might have learned about a few exercises that were new to them. In retrospect, I probably should have taken a little more time to demo each one prior to jumping right in. On the other hand, we only got through 11 of the 30 cards, which surprised me (I even had a few exercises “in the bank” in case we blazed through those cards). Definitely still have lots to learn when it comes to being on Q. And I’ll just keep that bucket and the remaining cards around for another another day.

Thanks to all the pax this morning. I’m humbled beyond words to have the opportunity to Q.

AYE!
-old bay

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Hey soccer mom “don’t judge us”

2015-05-142017-06-16Leave a comment

QIC: CSPAN
When: 05/13/15
Pax: Maximus, Flat Tire, Package, & Crab Cakes
Posted In: Run 'n Gun

5 strong men enjoyed a perfect spring afternoon for an F3 workout (Recess for Men)

Here are the details:

Crab Cakes took a tumble on the trail run portion – heal up brother
Flat Tire showed us his rope swing abilities, obviously that was entertaining to watch, both rope and tree were stronger than they looked…
Package gave us a full evaluation on the correct form of wind mills and several other exercises. He also never seemed to sweat…and he also smelled excellent during our people’s chair portion #brute? #datenight
Maximus is still waiting for the exercise portion or running portion of the workout to begin (sorry brother, I’ll give you a better Q soon… aka Saturday at Patriot with Audit)

Moleskin:

Great AO and such an awesome group of men, epic #mubblechatter throughout, we got about 3 miles in and 7 pain stations.

If you have not tried working out in the evenings it is definitely a different experience

So I had the Q at #F3TheCoop with Chaser in the morning (who by the way we saw along our route, he dresses up well #lawyerswearnicesuits) and the with Q at #run&gunF3…and had to take Thursday off…not ready for #BRR…excuse the “ramble” here as I am more tired than I look…Thursday I missed Fun House and two larger-than-life VQ in Catfish & General…all = #HIM

So in summary, on several occasions #baxtersoccermoms “applauded” our efforts, the only one that got weird was the lady that while we were doing flutter kicks drove up and proceeded to “hoot at us” while we were in cadence…#weird #notameatmarket #notinterested #inappropriate #don’tlookupmyshortslady

+ I managed to keep us in the shade during almost the entire workout #failedtowearsunscreen

Great time and appreciate Flat Tire’s leadership at this AO and all the fellowship last night,

Be a better man today than you were yesterday,

AYE!

CSPAN

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Getting the VQ out of the way!

2015-05-14Leave a comment

QIC: Catfish
When: 05/14/2015
Pax: Mayhem, Bogey, Grid Lock, Geppetto, Italian Job, Mailman, Schrute, Apache, Popeye, Tinker Toy, Burgundy, Dark Helmet, Spiderman, Solid State, Padre, Old Bay, Bottom Dweller, Swamp Fox
Posted In: Uncategorized

17 (+1 late arrival) posted this morning for my VQ. What an honor to lead these strong, driven men!

It’s amazing how much energy we put into these workouts, as Dark Helmet has coined, the Qdrenaline really kicks in the night before. I’m pretty sure I woke up every hour on the hour because I didn’t want to oversleep!

The Thang ….

COP
SSH x 15
Imperial Walkers x 15
Merkins x 15
Ballerina Squats x 15

Mosey to big parking lots next door and partner up.

Aggregate totals between partners

50 Burpees – Run to first set of parking spots
100 Curb Dips – Run to second set of parking spots
100 Merkins – Run to third set of parking spots
200 LBC’s – Run to fourth set of parking spots
100 Makhtar N’Diayes – Run to third set of parking spots
100 CDD’s – Run to second set of parking spots
50 Bombjacks – Run to first set of parking spots

10 Count

100 Squats – Run to the third set of parking spots
200 Monkey Humpers – Run to the fourth set of parking spots
100 Donkey Kicks – Run to third set of parking spots

Circle up for two rounds of the ring of fire with 10 counts of LBC’s and flutter kicks followed by some boat and canoes.

Quick mosey around the parking lot and back to the COT.

Naked Moleskin …

This was the first chance for me to be the center of the circle, it was both humbling and empowering. This thing called F3 is an awesome beast, transforming men in often unexpected ways! I am proud and honored to be a part of it!

Announcements included the nun run, the hog and coyote, Chicken Hawks 3rd F convergence on marriages tomorrow, the new Rock Hill AO “The Eagles Nest”, and CAH’s AO.

Catfish … OUT!

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The CLYDESDALE!!!!

2015-05-13Leave a comment

QIC: McGruff
Pax: All are welcome.
Posted In: Uncategorized

Attn. all Fort Mill Pax. Divide and Conquer. We have a new running A.O. that has spurned up because of the most recent mud run. It is called the CLYDESDALE! We launch every Wednesday at 5:15 from the Baxter Starbucks. It is a moderate run with moderate paces. All are welcome so see you in the Gloom. AYE

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Two-headed Chickens

2015-05-13Leave a comment

QIC: CSPAN & Chaser
When: 05/13/15
Pax: Cornhole, Huckleberry, MacGyver, Mr. Clean, Stang, Funhouse, Pebbles, Trucker, Hasselhoff, Man-O-War, Dark Helmet, Blackjack, Spitz, Sharpshooter, Barry Manilow, & Corruption
Posted In: Ring of Fire

I had the honor to once again co-lead a workout with CSPAN. We started off with a little warm-up as we waited for Funhouse to complete his foot-commute from Tega Cay. SSH, IW, Squats and Moroccan Nightclubs. As soon as Funhouse touched down, CSPAN decided to “bully” by taking off to the other side of the parking lot for some Carolina drydocks. Off again to the Grinder.

The Grinder – toe the line for the following:

bear crawl 5 yrds, lunge walk 5 yrds – full length of the field;
crab walk 5 yrds, lunge walk 5 yrds – full length of the field;
bear crawl 15 yrds, lunge walk 15 yrds – full length of the field;
backwards run 30 yards, turn and sprint 70 yrds;
backwards run 30 yards, turn and sprint 70 yrds;
backwards run 30 yards, turn and sprint 70 yrds;
backwards run 30 yards, turn and sprint 70 yrds;
Jog 25 yards, sprint 75 yrds.

Prayer for Tatanka and a smoother transition. Hand off to YHC;

Mosey to the ROTC building and bottom of the hill.

Hill Work

Burpee, 5 lunge walks, burpee, rinse and repeat to the top of the hill;
Burpee, 3 lunge walks, burpee, rinse and repeat to bottom of the hill;

At this point, the mumble chatter was getting a bit too much and Stang commented that the back of the pack sounded like a bunch of women chatting it up….we’ll solve that problem.

15 burpees, OYO

15 Maktar Kneejis (I always botch that spelling), OYO

15 of the plank to elbows thingies, OYO (Maktar Ninjis?)

Mosey back up to middle of the hill then: Burpee, 1 lunge walk, burpee – rinse and repeat to the top of the hill.

Split into groups of two quickly (counting is hard…) Group 1 – 15 pull-ups, Group 2 – Wide-arm Merkins OYO. Flapjack.

Wall sit for a painfully slow Trucker 10 count. Mosey to COT and stick the landing right at 6:00.

Announcements included: 3rdF with Chicken hawk, The Murph, Winnsboro clown car, Cannoli Run. Prayers/Praises: Stang’s family, Trucker and his family’s transition, Tatanka and his move, Flat Tire and his family.

Always an honor to lead, especially alongside a true #HIM like CSPAN. Humbling to watch everyone get after it and make themselves better. F3 really is a blessing on so many levels. Praises for the ability for us all to get up and make each other better in all aspects of life. It starts with the 1st F but carries through the entire day with the 2nd and 3rd. #ISI

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FLIPIN’ TIRE D

2015-05-12Leave a comment

Posted In: Uncategorized

Aquaman wanted something a little different today as twas noted that the workouts have been getting a little more challenging due to the warm weather, smack talkin’, and of course “speedo season” just around the corner…..

Thanks to my 2.0’s help the night before, we dug up some old tractor tires from behind the Gold Hill Y, ransacked a nearby construction site for some bricks, and sweet talked the Harris Teeter aka “Golden Corral” manager into letting us borrow some organic compost for a good ol fashion beat down. So at 05:15 it began…..

Run from GC parking lot across Tega Cay drive to secondary street and down to the field behind the YMCA. At the American Flag we had a very short COP:

SSH, CDD, Squats

Today’s circuit went a little something like this:

1) 200 yard sprint from flag pole towards dunkin donuts. About half way re-leave the men on the grassy knoll.

2) Grassy knoll conduct countless decline merkins and or CDD. After this, sprint back to the soccer fields for tire flip

3) 6 Tractor tires await. Men were to conduct 7 tire flips then grasp -n- drag all the way back to the end line. While waiting, conduct dips. After their relief came the moved to the next circuit, The russian twist.

4) Last section was Russian twist with bricks. Conduct the Russian twist untlil re-leaved.

We conducted 3 full circuts, then mosey’d back to GC

Grab a curb and a wall at the entrance of GC for 100 calf raises, them moved to the pallet of organic mulch.

With two lines formed, men were made to stand curling the bag of mulch and we conducted 4 relays to the second island and back. The mulch was then placed neater than we found it, then off to the starting point for ABLAB.

25 Freddie Merks, 25 LBC, V ups with 6″ moving to the Protractor then right into hello dollies, elbows out and shoulder blades off the ground….thanks Gecko for correcting my elbows from my shoulders! I was beat and becoming weary at this point.

Prayers went out to the people in Nepal. Family, friends and loved ones who are hurting were also mentioned in prayer as we connected and closed out a great workout! Glad to be a part of such an amazing movement. Aquaman out!

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The New FORT AO…THE COLOSSEUM

2015-05-12Leave a comment

QIC: Maximus, Cake Boss, DD
When: 05/12/15
Pax: Chaser, White Lightning, Cake Boss, Zima, Zoro, Funhouse, Axle, Double Check, Package, Jeckyl, Dark Helmet, Full Count, McGyver, DD, Cerrano, Spider Man, CSPAN
Posted In: Block Party, Golden Corral, The Fort

Several years ago, THE FORT started with only 1 workout on a Tuesday, and as of 0514 today, there were 3. These 3 have consistently entered the problematic stage which only means one thing, it is time to recon. So a recon team led by Cake Boss and DD decided to explore Gold Hill Middle School as a potential AO. And they needed a Q that lives close by. That’s where YHC comes into the conversation. When you are called to step up by the likes of these guys, one doesn’t turn it down.

So at 0515 today, May 12, 2015 the recon began and we quickly learned this AO has nothing but potential. Whether it be hills, playgrounds, walls, long straightaways, base-paths, soccer fields or curbs, they can be found. It also helps that we have an “in.” THANKS ROONEY. I did start off by breaking one of the rules, I forgot the disclaimer. Off we go with Maximus on the warm up Q:

Disjointed jog through some of the parking lots and circle up for the warm up
SSH
Wide-Arm Merkin
Slow Windmill – hopefully CSPAN did these right and realized the benefit
Low Slow Squat
Carolina Dry Docks (CDD)

Hand off to Cake Boss for a mosey to one of the several playgrounds
Split up in threes: 1’s=10 Pull Ups 2’s=10 CDDs 3’s=Swing Merkin-Crunches (Rotate through 3x’s)
Mosey to the baseball diamond and remember your number
1’s on first 2’s on second 3’s on third (Bear crawl to the next base and run to the next for two laps around)
Mosey to the hill and remember your number
1’s Run up the stairs and around the sidewalk back down to the starting location. 2’s Bear Crawl up the hill and jog down until the 1’s come in. 3’s Freddie Mercury until the 1’s come in. Everyone does this once.

Hand off to DD for the cardio portion (still a little foggy from this one so the details are spotty)
Suicides with a twist: Starting on the sideline, run across the field and up the hill then back down to the light post then back up the hill and back to the upright then back up the hill and back to the starting line. Plank for the six for a mix of sloooooow and fast counts.
Run to midfield for 10 Burpees OYO
Run to one corner for 20 Bomb Jacks
Run to another corner for something…can’t remember
Run back to midfield for something else…can’t remember that either
Run to the snack stand for a nice relaxing wall sit

Hand off to Maximus for a little ab work
Chop Sticks & Flutters and one more round of 10 Bomb Jacks

COT
I was a little uneasy about taking this on after having 12hrs to think about it. Between impending work travel and wanting to keep my nomadic lifestyle of checking out the various Fort AO’s on Tuesdays, I liked my comfortable life. On the flip side, how could anyone but me be the site Q here; I live right here. We’re not called to be comfortable, we’re called to serve and lead. With that said, there really was no option, I’m in.

Some of us forgot how quick-witted our own Funhouse can be but he showed up this morning. Usually there are a few conversations, tweets and emails when deciding on the name for a new AO. We were maybe 10 seconds in and Funhouse throws out THE COLOSSEUM for obvious reasons. There were no second guesses, the AO has been launched.

So from now on, you can add The Colosseum to the list of Tuesday AO’s at The Fort. If you’re interested in Qing, let me know.

Announcements: 3rd F Convergence on Friday at the Eternal Church offices, Cannoli Run Saturday 0900, Winnsboro launch 5/23, MURPH at COOP 5/25 following normal workout – $10 donation, 6/20 CSAUP-read the email, F3 Dads on Saturdays in June 9:30-10:30

Prayer Requests: Jeckyl will be helping to launch F3 in Wilson, NC back in his hometown, Flat Tire’s M, Chicken Hawk’s leadership, Maximus’ conversations with men of his neighborhood with the launch of this new AO.

Honored and Humbled.
AYE!

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