Tomahawk – Old Man stops by for a Q

2014-12-29Leave a comment

QIC: CSPAN
When: 12/29/14
Pax: 1-Niner, Beast, Bounty Hunter, Opie, Pebbles, Ringer, & Sharknado.
Posted In: The Snake Pit

The young guns of Indian Land still honor me with keeping me on their Q schedule.

I saw the weather forecast was 100% chance of percipticpation, so I called the audible to the URS parking deck, which is by far the best location to post during rain in our region, my car was dry, and I was dry throughout the workout. Conditions were 57 degrees and a complete downpour. We lost Dark Helmet along the way…get a twitter account buddy.

Pebbles showed up in a day glow yellow shirt…and he appeared as our ball of light in our gloom.

Warmed up in front of our cars, old & slow, Bounty Hunter wondered if this was going to be version #2 of the longest workout ever. Long plank-o-rama series, even for Indian Land standards.

Opie and Sharknado love pull-ups, so we did 2 pull-ups for 12 sets of overhead bars.

Ringer is fast, so we did forward and backward sprints and I through in a couple of long bear crawls and lunge walks to even things up.

Beast always does legs, so we did a long wall sit series, potentially could have been too long. We did some curb dancing as swim suit season is just around the corner.

I am always looking to slow down Pebbles and 1-Niner, so we did Spiderman push-ups up the parking deck ramp. No matter what I come up with both of them seem to enjoy any #CSAUP routine I can come up with. They devoured the push up crawl…made them hold the invisible chair until we finished.

We then had a discussion on #HIM = with a discussion on being a High Impact Man example of Chicken Wing being #HIM both at The Fort F3 and Charleston F3, for the rest of us it is attempting to be a #HIM in all of our life settings.

During one of the breaks we began the discussion about not having your 1^st F right creates a man unable to get his 2^nd F or his 3^rd F correct, conversation quickly transitioned to adjustable waist trousers, which transitioned into no more fat boy britches, that Opie is still wearing, and he knows all the brand names and where to purchase them, and we then settled on #NOFATPANTS & #alignyour1stF, outstanding #mumblechatter, and high quality hashtag discussions. Bounty discussed how good he looks in his skinny jeans…which made us all uncomfortable.

Long ABLAB…maybe too long on a couple of the exercises…

Prayer & Praise, BOM, and a good discussion on the #StarfishF3 model.

Moleskin:

Always an honor for me to be your Q, here is everything in my notes:

Sign Up for Joe Davis Run
2^ndF with Beacon for “Let me run”
Baxter Trail Race – 5K & 15K + Ruck option
Unbroken 2^nd F on Tuesday
North Augusta Clown Car this weekend

Appreciate the enthusiasm, Read your newsletter.

CSPAN – over & out

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Go Long…

2014-12-29Leave a comment

QIC: Pusher, Italian Job
When: 12/27/14
Pax: Peach, Kenny G., Iceman (FNG), Double D, Red Eye, Javert, Italian Job, Pusher
Posted In: Uncategorized

8 men braved the cold to tackle a football themed workout this morning. Pusher started us off with several pain stations around the park. Beatdown included:

Windmill x 10
Monkey Humpers x 10
IW x 10
Moroccan Night Club x 10

Mosey to Playground

Merkins x 10
LBCs x 25
Squats x 25
Donkey Kicks x 25
Dips x 25
60 second plank

Mosey to “Mighty Casey”

Step Ups x 30
Dips x 25
Merkins x 10
SSH x 25
Donkey Kicks x 25
LBCs x 25
60 second plank

Mosey back to Playground

Bear crawl/lunge walk series
Dips x 25
Partner Derkins x 15
Partner Power Merkins x 10

Mosey to Sullivan Middle

Pusher handed off the Q to Italian Job. We started with the people’s chair and balls to the wall.

Mosey to the football field.

Each man took turns tossing or kicking the football. Where it landed was where we ran to in order to do our exercises. Whoever tossed it chose an exercise that was written on the ball. How far it travelled was how many reps we performed.

30 SSHs
35 Merkins
40 Squats
40 Freddy Mercuries
25 Moroccan Night Clubs
30 LBCs
30 Leg lifts (protractor)
20 Mountain Climbers

Next we partnered up for aggregate 50 merkins, 100 LBCs, and 150 squats. Before performing the exercise, partner one tossed the ball to partner two. If caught, partner one continued running the length of the field to the goal post for a TD. If dropped, both QB and WR performed burpees. Only one team had a dropped ball (it’s worth noting that the routes rarely went more than 10 yards for fear of the burpee monster). As the workout progressed, receivers altered running to back pedaling, high knees, and karaokes.

Announcements:

January 1^st – Baxter Trail Race
January 10^th – Joe Davis Run

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#HIM = #NOFATPANTS

2014-12-28Leave a comment

QIC: CSPAN
When: 12/27/14
Pax: Audit, Back Draft, Beacon, Chaser, Chicken Hawk, Chicken Wing, Dark Helmet, Flat Tire, Flipper, Green Wave, Java, Magnum, Mile High, Rooney, Seacrest, Tatanka, Twister, & WWL.
Posted In: The Fort

It was an honor to close out 2014 with a Q at The Fort, I had a bunch #stuff on my mind, so 18 strong men , on a balmy 33 degree day, got a Saturday morning #downpainment to the best of my Q abilities.

Flipper, Chaser, and Beacon played LILO…Chaser said something about the alarm does not work below 40 degrees…

Warmed up in the parking lot, old & slow, and Mickey Mantle would have been proud.

Jog to corner of park, 18 gentlemen that could not close the deal on an EH challenge this week, so we did 18 sidewinder burpees…get your EH deals done, Saturday is the best day to bring somebody out…

We crossed the street, bear crawled a city block, lunge walked a city block, backwards bear and backwards lunge each for a half a city block (crowd pleaser)

The remainder of the workout revolved around:

5 rotations of 20 burps, 20 Americans, 20 Squats, 20 SSH, and a brisk run to the Peach Stand light and back. Chicken Wing, Back Draft, Rooney, Mile High, and Flat Tire took off at a really quick pace.

WWL & Audit are still discussing why my burps have such poor form…

Hawk, Magnum, Seacrest (really nice hair), Dark Helmet (Star Wars reference? Because that was Space Balls?), and Green Wave are still wondering when I decided every workout needed this many exercises.

Twister wanted more bombjacks…which I did zero of.

Tatanka complained about an injury during every exercise…sorry buddy…you are just old…

We then had a discussion on #HIM = with a discussion on being a High Impact Man example of Chicken Wing being #HIM both at The Fort F3 and Charleston F3

Run back to park, last round of above rotation, Java showed up to pass on some Christmas cheer ,and the news that his M is pregnant…big congratulations brother!

Long ABLAB…maybe too long on a couple of the exercises…

Prayer & Praise, BOM, and pat your brother on the back for a job well done (or wipe the grass off his back)

Moleskin:

Always an honor for me to be your Q, here is everything in my notes:

Sign Up for Joe Davis Run
2^ndF with Beacon for “Let me run”
Baxter Trail Race – 5K & 15K + Ruck option
Unbroken 2^nd F on Tuesday

Appreciate the enthusiasm, Read your newsletter.

CSPAN – over & out

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2014 – A Year End Review

2014-12-28Leave a comment

Posted In: Alcatraz, The Fort

As we close out another year on the Big Ball, thoughts turn to next year and all of the possibilities that a new year can bring. Similar to the start of any sports season, teams begin the season undefeated with visions of success and championships in their future. Using that same metaphor, you (as a team) start the year undefeated, untied and definitely untested in all that you can accomplish in 2015. Visions of success in your workplace, in your home and in your personal life abound. Thoughts of being a better Christian, a better father, a better husband, completing some type of physical challenge, losing weight, etc. fill your mind with endless possibilities for next year. You are going to take on the world!

With all of the wondrous ideas for next year, a man does not typically review the previous year for wins/losses in his personal life over the past year. Why not? In most businesses across the country, year end performance reviews are a not so welcome rite of passage that occurs at the end of the year. You have that distinct opportunity to sit down with your boss and get their perspective on your year. This can be good (we hope), bad or indifferent depending on his/her perspective. It doesn’t get any better than this!

Back in January 2014, Santini challenged the men of the Fort to identify one word that would define our year. Mine was “accountable”. It is a popular theme and certainly cliché considering all that I wanted to accomplish this year. Little did I know how this word would define my year in good ways and bad. Certainly, it is easy to highlight those successes that I had in 2014 but I cower at the thought of all the losses that I endured this year. Unfortunately, in retrospect it is easy to see how my team fumbled the ball this year!

As I reflect back this year on the word “accountable”, one thing strikes me…what would others perspective be of my year? How would my boss (wife, family, friends…and most importantly, God) review my performance? What is their perception of my year? I have a simple way to determine what that review might look like.

While we often speak of the ills and downfalls of participating in things such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. there is a clear advantage to these if you want to evaluate your perception in cyberspace…unlimited server space.

A simple way to determine your persona …review all of your tweets and posts from the last year. Don’t have social media? Randomly select 25 personal emails that you sent this year especially those that were group emails. Then simply ask yourself…am I proud of my effort? How would God, my wife or my friends interpret my messages over the last year? Is there an underlying tone or innuendo? Do the messages match what my heart says? Even worse, what would my children think of the messages? Would I be proud to show my children these messages?

As the year comes to a close, before you put together those New Years Resolutions for 2015, I challenge you to conduct your own performance review. Is this the perception you want others to have of you?

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2014 Alcatraz Farewell Tour

2014-12-27Leave a comment

QIC: Cornhole and Decibel
When: 12/27/2014
Pax: Geico, Trucker, Gears, Senator Tressel, Mr. Clean, Lug Nut, Minuteman, Spitz, Jekyl, Package, Aquaman, Honey Pot
Posted In: Alcatraz

Fourteen men came out for a farewell tour of 2014 at Alcatraz. It was a pleasure to be your guide for the last workout at the Alcatraz this year. We could not hit all the favorite obstacles at this AO but hopefully we hit some of your favorites.

Run around park
COP – Multiples of 14 for 2014
COP
28 SSH
28 IW
28 Mtn Climbers
14 Windmills
14 Merkins
28 LBC’s

Suicides – Exercise start when get to line, counts start when six arrives
1st pass
Lunge walk, 14 merkins, Run back, 14 bomb jacks
Karaoke, 14 , Run back, 14 bomb jacks
Run to end, 14 Burpees, run back 14 bomb jacks

2nd pass
Lunge walk, 14 squats, jog back, 14 monkey humpers
Side shuffle, 14 jump lunges, jog back, 14 monkey humpers
Run to end, 14 , run back, 14 Monkey humpers

Mosey to wall
14 dips
14 step ups – ea leg
14 derkins
14 step ups – ea leg

Turned over to Decibel

To the hill

Run half way up backward and then rest of the way forward

14 Wide Arm Merkins and 14 Diamond Merkins

Rinse and repeat

Mosey to right field

Run to center field, 28 monkey humpers, run to left field line 10 walking merkins each way, back to center with alternating lunge x28, back to right field with 14 burpees, back to center with alternating lunges x28, back to left field and 10 walking merkins each way, finally back to center field 14 burpees.

Mosey to playground

partner up

partner 1-hanging knee lifts, partner 2-LBC, switch

Rinse and Repeat

Freddy Mercury

Alternating plank punch and kickx20

Alternating heel touches x14

Windshield wipers x14

X’s and O’sx14

COT

Strive to be better men in 2014

12/27

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Singing in the Rain

2014-12-27Leave a comment

QIC: Jekyll, Cable Guy, Padre
When: 12/24/14
Pax: Cspan, Gears, White Lightning, One Niner, Ringer, Senator Tressel, DD, Twister, Old Bay, Decibel, Mcguyver, Pebbles, Pusher, Santini, Flipper, Minute Man, Tatanka, Cornhole, Mr. Clean, Beast, McGruff, Lil E, Red Eye, Trucker, Hasselhoff, Freebird, Anchor man, Boeheim, Chicken Hawk, Burgundy
Posted In: Convergence, Ring of Fire

33 amphibians manned up and got their Christmas Eve #downPAINment done at the pond, er…#theCoop Wednesday. Surprisingly there was not one mention of being soaked, waterlogged, finding a dry spot(or #wetspot), – our group has really gone #mumblechatter free…back to reality…

After Cable Guy gives the disclaimer and “the reason for the season” – once more into the #Gloom, dear friends, once more:

COP

SSH, MC, IW

Partner in 3’s

hill run, pull ups, superman. Rinse/Repeat

Jekyll

Sumo Walk, MC, Dying Cockroaches

Padre

Terrific words of “obscure service”. Serving for purpose, not recognition. #humbleobscurity The Christ Child born into humble surroundings. Also- Sir Nicholas Winton saving of 669 children from Nazi fate. See video

Bottom of Hill

Partner Burpee, Squats, LBC. 100, 200, 300

COT

NMM

Been a few days since the beatdown. Padre’s words still resonating. Do what is right, when no one is looking. Because it is right to do. AYE!
shout out to One Niner and Tatanka for the Pilot
5kFlipper name change to #shutterfly. All in favor?
Prayers and praises for health, fellowship and the ability to do this everyone morning
My feet are still wet…

Love and Respect each and everyone of my brothers.

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Partner Carry

2014-12-26Leave a comment

Posted In: Uncategorized

25 prayer warriors met this morning to study Luke 5:17 – 37.

This chapter provides divine wisdom and examples of different approaches to bring people to God’s kingdom.

These topics were important thousands of years ago and are still relevant today.

The PAX identified the following takeaways from today’s readings.

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Luke 5:17 – 25 ~ Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man (See the summary provided below)

A few men brought a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat to Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.” And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God.

Takeaway ~ Each of us had a person or a circumstance that carried us to Christ. Our purpose is to carry men to our Savior. We may need to adjust our schedules and budgets in order to seize the opportunity to help others’ journey. Be prepared to make these eternal investments of your time and talent for this meaningful partner carry that is required by each of us.

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Luke 5:27, 28 ~ Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.

Takeaway ~ This is an example of how Jesus works through many types of people to build God’s kingdom. Sometimes self-doubt prevents us from answering to our calling. The truth is that if you hear His calling, then you are already prepared to do what He asks of you. Once you take the initiative, the Holy Spirit will fulfill you with what’s needed to deliver. Continue to lead.

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Luke 5:33 – 35 ~ One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?” Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Takeaway ~ New approaches are sometimes needed in order to reach and bless God’s people. Rigidity prevents us from getting to know and grow with Christ. Be flexible and try new ways to bring others to Christ.

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For more details regarding Luke 5, please visit https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+5&version=NLT

Have a great weekend and prepare your minds/hearts to begin to study Luke 6 next Friday!

~ Deacon

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Low Speed Post-Holiday Slow Burn

2014-12-26Leave a comment

QIC: Hard Drive
When: 12/26/14
Pax: Package, Tatonka, CSPAN, Senator Tressel, Lugnut, Destiny, Opie, Flat Tire, Chicken Hawk, Cornhole, Trucker, Gecko, Boeheim, Dark Helmet, Spitz, Decibel, Jekyll, One-Niner, Cake Boss, 'Stang, Old Bay, Gears, Hard Drive
Posted In: Slow Burn

23 Pax shook off the holiday hangover and ventured out for a low-running quasi-moderate Slow Burn. YHC had some free time and took advantage of the new F3 exercise lexicon which can be found here

The Thang
Dynamic warm-up of windmills in the Chik-fil-a parking lot before moseying down to the Empire lot with some high-knees, butt-kickers, and walking Imperial Walkers along the way.

Circle up and straight into a Dirty MacDeuce (4 sets of 3 exercises, in cadence, with no rest between exercises)
Set 1: Merkin/LBC/Squats
Set 2: Diamond Merkins/Freddie Mercuries/Monkey Humpers
Set 3: Wide Arm Merkins/Hello Dollies/Peter Parkers
Set 4: Knerkins (alternate: Merkins)/Rosalitas/Parker Peters

Mosey to the wall for Peoples’ Chair sequence

Jack Webb Ladder: Run to the first crosswalk for 1 merkin & 4 airpresses. Run to second and third crosswalk and back increasing the number of merkins by 1 and airpresses by 4 at each crosswalk. Return to start for 6 merkins and 24 airpresses.

Dan Taylor (see lexicon): leg version of the Jack Webb. Start at 1 squat and 4 lunges. Increase until 5 squats and 20 lunges. Crowd pleaser so we repeated it back the other way.

Mary time, starting with Guantanamo (again, see lexicon).
LBCs
Russian Twists
Crunchy Frogs
Moroccan Night Club (because, why not?)
Protractor
Freddie Mercuries

Back to the shovelflag @ Chik-fil-a, AYG

1 minute left, so 1 minute of burpees OYO

Moleskin
With CSPAN’s tour of Rt 160 last week, and with Senator Tressel as Q next week, I figured a low-running workout was needed this week or Slow Burn might get a reputation as a running workout. #NotOnMyWatch. To plan the work out I spent some time on the Exercise Lexicon that @AP set-up. There is a lot of great information on there and if you Q any F3 workout I encourage you to spend some time on it.

The Dirty MacDeuce was fun, although judging by the amount of #MumbleChatter I believe I will need to ramp-up the exercises in the sets.

The Dan Taylor was fun, although YHC apparently didn’t explain it correctly judging by the number of Pax that started to sprint on the start. Either that or far too many folks follow CSPAN blindly.

Guantanamo was fun, especially with 23 pax. It was more fun when I figured out it worked better trying to pull down the legs by running inside the circle instead of pushing the legs down from outside. Thankfully no faces were stomped.

The Crunchy Frog looked easier in video. Bad form on the Q’s part not being to execute it well. I punched out after 5 reps b/c #DontQItIfYouCantDoIt. Also don’t threaten to hold the protractor while the mumble chatter persists if @Trucker is posting… he can hold it. And he can chatter.

Great effort by the Pax and I had a blast on Q.

Look for the Q1 2015 Slow Burn Q schedule to be posted in the next couple of days. I’ll plan on rotating in anyone who’s Q’ed Slow Burn so far. Let me know if you want in through email, in the comments below, or on twitter (@jeff_gray)

Announcements:

1/1/15 – Ranch is open. 0630 launch
1/3/15 – Clown car down to N. Augusta. See CSPAN
Joe Davis Run 1/10/15, see preblast

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PRE Blast Christmas Eve Convergence 12/24/14

2014-12-23Leave a comment

Posted In: Convergence, Ring of Fire

With respect given to the secular:

O come all ye faithful(#PAX),

joyful and triumphant….(#mumblechatter)

O Come ye, O come ye to Nation’s Ford…

Come and behold him (#Trucker)

do one hundred Pull Ups

O come let us do merkins

in the gloom

Tomorrow’s convergence across all of our respective AOs: The Fort, Rock Hill, Indian Land will begin 0515 and go for 1 HOUR ending at 6:15. Place is THE COOP (NAFO HS). It will be wet, but not cold. Good chance for an FNG or brother in law to post. EH some of our #kotters and get them back. The more the merrier…

Don’t miss it!

Aye!

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Leg Day at #TheArmoryF3

2014-12-22Leave a comment

QIC: CSPAN
When: 12/22/14
Pax: Car Bomb, Gears, Jeckle, McGruff, & Spitz
Posted In: The Armory

YHC got a last minute call to Q the #TheArmory

High quality disclaimer…read the website…not a professional…read it in Hebrew or Greek…

Conditions were cold, rainy, and miserable.

6 men took the #RedPill as this is the type of morning the #fartsack feels oh so good.

Thang:

Lively mumblechatter, and YHC got quickly into warmups and plankorama…and a parking lot lap.

Spitz and Gears were flying…

COP and started tossing iron for 25 minutes…focusing on curls, Cake Boss calves, and squats.

More mumble chatter with McGruff and Jekyll leading the discussions….Car Bomb and I were trying to keep up…

Mosey to overhang for ABLAB to 250 reps.

Mosey to wall to play pass the iron while sitting in people’s chair (crowd pleaser), fun group that seemed to enjoy the nonsense.

BOM.

Moleskin:

12/23/14 Fitness Test at WEP

12/24/14 Convergence at Coop (normal time = about an hour)

1/1/15 Baxter Trail Race

1/3/15 N. Augusta Road Show

1/10/15 Joe Davis Run

Merry Christmas

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