On Frozen Pond

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I arrived a little before 5am to prepare for my Q since it was my first at the Minnow Pond.  As it got closer to 5:10 am, I was worried I would be running solo since no one was around and the temperature was below 30 degrees.  I was thinking about what I would write for the backblast..Lost fish at Minnow Pond, Finding Nemo, Frozen Fishstick.  No need to worry, soon there were several cars pulling into the parking lot.  Now I just needed to focus on the Q.

Due to the cold weather, short disclaimer and no warm-ups.  The six of us ran a one mile warm up around the neighborhood surrounding Walter Elisha Park.  We stopped in the parking lot for the next portion of the workout.

I designed a mini cross country course (a bit over a half a mile) in honor of the Fort Mill XC team reaching the State Finals this weekend.  Sharkbait, my 2.0, is part of the team.  I mentioned how proud it is to see your children reach milestones and accomplishments.  A year ago, it was alot different story.  My son struggled and had lots of excuses for why he was not performing at his potential.  I tried my best to balance being supportive and tough love.  He had to be responsible for taking ownership of his training if he wanted to get better.  This summer, he trained almost everyday with some of the top runners in the area.  The hot summer heat and even the rain did not stop him.  The results were great, he started every varsity race this year and had a 5K PR last week of 17:20.

My reason for mentioning this is obvious I am proud of my son, but also the old adage is true.  You have to work for the things you want.  The easy example is posting to workouts in the gloom, the more frequently you do it, the better you will be physically.  It works the same way with our relationships (M and 2.0s).  Put the time in and its almost guaranteed to be positive.

Ok, back to the workout.  Each lap began with 10 leg lunges, 10 monkey humpers, and 10 calf raises.

Half mile XC course:  Run up to the top of the hill beside the soccer field, lap around the parking lot, down Self Street to the corner of the park, back down to the WEP parking lot.

Reverse direction each time.

We each did this course 3 to 4 times before we headed back.  Before COT, we ran over to the staircase across the street and did a few sets are stair repeats.

Great job by everyone today!

We keep Kenyan and his family in our prayers during this difficult time.

 

 

 

 

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Veterans Day beat down at the Badger

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Started with a light run and warm up routine.

Partner pull ups X 40

Discussed the importance of thanking a Veteran today for their service to our country.

Facts about Veteran’s Day
– Veteran’s Day originated as “Armistice Day” signaling the end of World War I on Nov 11, 1919 paying tribute to all soldiers fallen or living.
– There are 18.2 million living veterans that have served in at least 1 war as of 2018
– 9% of veterans are women
– of the 16 million Americans who served during World War II, about 496,000 are still alive as of 2018
– Random fact, the top 3 states with the highest percentage of Veterans were Alaska, Maine, and Montana.

The Thang

Rd 1 = 30 merkins, 30 squats, 20 BB situps, 1 lap
Rd 2 = 15 burpees, 20 lunges, 30 LBCs, 1 lap
Rd 3 = 25 Mac-tar-jies, 25 monkey humpers, 20 bomb jacks, 1 backwards lap

Rinse and Repeat

Finished with Mary

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Golden Corral vs Fire Ant – 11/26/2019

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  • QIC: Lutefisk, Router, and others
  • When: 11/26/2019
  • Posted In: Pre-Blast

ATTENTION!!!!  Men of The Fort, prepare thyself for a site vs site beatdown Thanksgiving week!  Now that Fire Ant has moved back in with it’s daddy (Golden Corral), we must know who has the nastiest Q’s out there.  Special launch time 0500 at Golden Corral’s location.  SIX (that’s right, 6) Q’s at ten minutes a piece will battle it out to earn your votes for the nastiest site beatdown.  It’ll look something like this: as a group, first Q (maybe Boot Camp, maybe Ruck) lays the smack down for 10 mins. Next 10 mins the group will get the opposing site’s beatdown from another Q.  Flapjack until 0600.  Show up to find out who the other Q’s are and cast your votes.  The Fort must know… who has the beatdown kings?!?!?  #showtoknow

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Shoulder Work at Quagmire

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13 men arrived at Quagmire Monday morning.  After a quick disclaimer and some leg stretches, we ran over to Kohls.

COP

SSH x 25

Imperial Walker x 15

Windmill x 10

Plank Stretches

Next, we began the meat of the workout.  We partnered up for burpee broad jumps.  Partner 1 started with the burpees while Partner 2 ran to the end of the parking lot near Ulta and back to Partner 1 to switch out. The total distance was around 320 yards (20 less than the Bills had in total offense).

I took a few minutes to talk about my grandfather who served in the Navy. He was someone I greatly admired growing up.  He had a strong work ethic and never let his age define him.  When he was in his eighties, he asked my brother and I to come to his house to help him dig a trench.  When we arrived, he was already actively digging the hole himself.  He was a loving and caring husband, father and friend. He passed away at the age of 99, less than six month from the century mark.

Back to the workout, we began a shoulder shuffle from Ulta back to Kohls.  I issued a challenge to push go as far as the pain would allow.  Once exhausted, get up, run to the next store front, and return to the back of the shuffle line.  Cha Ching and Slapshot killed it, they shuffled the full distance 320 yards without a break!

Once complete, we ran back to COT.

 

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Not really a merkinfest…more a don’t stop movingfest

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20 PAX gathered for a Jedi inspired chilly morning at the Swamp.  This Friday AO is a great place to run around, see lots of parking lots, check out stairs and look at the water feature fountain…hard to pass up and a good place to be if you’ve never been.  Quick disclaimer and YHC was shot out of a cannon.  With the first mosey stop at Petsmart, the PAX followed the leader for some parking lot shuffles, karaokes, high knees, and butt kickers before progressing to the previously mentioned fountain.

Prior to getting to the fountain, we stopped in the back parking lot for some warm-ups which included: low slow squats, slow windmills, merkins (all counts of 10).  Given this is a Cha Ching AO, what better way to get the PAX warmed up than a Cha Ching inspired 60 seconds of blood pumping 33 SSH and 7 burpee – rinse and repeat for a 2nd min.  This was followed by some up/down dog stretching and then on to The Thang!

Mosey over to the fountain where it was time to get our merkin on…(not that kind of merkin so calm down).

  • 20 regular merkins
  • 20 wide arm
  • 20 diamond
  • 20 decline
  • 20 ranger
  • 20 incline
  • 20 hand release

After every round of merkins, PAX were instructed to run to the stairs – up, down, back up, then back down and back to the fountain…for the next set of merkins.

Since this was not enough fun, we partnered up and did some Dora with our new partner.

  • 100 bombjacks
  • 200 CDD
  • 300 American Hammers (double count…well, because)

As partner 1 did exercise in the “warm-up” parking lot by the stairs, partner 2 took off to the fountain and did 20 dips before returning and relieving their partner.  This took a good amount of time but the PAX finished American Hammer’s with the 6.

PAX took off towards COT but with 5 or so minutes remaining, MARY was calling our name so we answered the call.  PAX went around clockwise with ab exercises until the bell was rung.

Normal mix at COT, but the highlight of the morning was welcoming FNG, now Chicken Noodle, to the party to join the lineage of other “chicken” inspired PAX.  Thoughts and prayers to all prayers and praises raised.  Thanks as always to Cha Ching for the call…enjoyed every minute of it!

Shady

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Disco inferno with DJ Twister

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Twister was up to getting the group awake this am with some 70s TV trivia which is good for the respect crowd but very challenging for those of us born in the late 70s…and even an 80s in there.  Since YHC controlled the weinke but not the jams, all was good.  Disclaimer was given as the sweet melodies of 80s rock played in the background, and a brisk mosey ensued to the track.

Warmup of SSH, windmills, imperial and hillbilly walkers, merkins, low slow squats for counts ranging from 10-25 got the blood flowing.

Boss Hogg took off for loops on the track given the nursing on the shoulder while the rest of us counted off in 2 splitting into groups.  Here’s the game: name the 70s TV show tune played by DJ Twister and avoid the 5 burpee penalty.  While you’re thinking of the song, do the name of the exercise called off by Shady below with a minimum and maximum number associated (this was adjusted very quickly b/c some people watched a lot of TV growing up!)

  • 10 hand release merkins
  • 20 squats (10 min)
  • 25 CDD (10 min)
  • 30 lunges (10 min)
  • 50 plank shoulder taps (20 min)
  • 40 ski jumps (20 min)
  • 60 calve raises (30 min) – out/reg/in
  • 20 diamonds (10 min)
  • 50 SSH (25 min)
  • 25 merkins (10 min)
  • 40 mountain climbers (20 min)
  • 30 American hammers (20 min)
  • 30 plank jacks (15 min)
  • 50 LBC (25 min)

We rinse and repeated through most of the list but the minimums were removed a second time through.  With about 15 min left, we ran around the track stopping at each 100 yard corner where we did some core (for the most part).  1st corner was 50 LBC, 2nd corner was 20 big boy (and some monkey humpers for our our track walkers passing by), 3rd corner was 30 American hammers, and 4th and final was 30 flutters.

With about 5-10 min remaining, we took our last bit of time to the football field.  Lining up on the goal line, we ran back and forth from the goal line to the 10 yard, back to goal then to 20…all the way to 40 yard line.  At each 10-40 yard line, we did 1 burpee for 10 yard up to 4 burpee at 40 (so a total of 10 burpees + the running for those of you who struggle with quick math!).  Once back on the line, there was time for a 10 count along with a message about being intentional.  Be intentional with the exercise, be intentional with your kids at home and at their activities, be intentional with your wife – pay attention to them!

Once everyone caught their breath, we rinse and repeated the lines and burpees – crowd favorite!  Once said and done, we did a mosey back to COT for closing ceremonies.  All in all, great morning and great push from the PAX.  Enjoyed it as usual and thanks to Manziel for the opportunity!!

Shady

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Bataan Death March at Minnow Pond

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12 Pax. 45 degrees. 1 EC’er (Longshanks).

Shanks is the only one who shows up 15 minutes early to a workout and runs hill repeats on Massey St. I’ll have to try that amount of crazy soon. Goodness!

The PAX arrived and 5:13 hit, we walked over to the Flag at Veteran’s Park to say the Pledge. I led the Pledge of Allegiance, and off we were.

Warm Up on Loop 1
Run up Main Street, right on 160, right on Monroe-White, right on Watson, right on Railroad Ave, back to Parking Lot

1 Mile Complete

COP –

Static Stretching –
Tappy Taps x 10
Groin Stretch
Runners Lunge L/R w/Arm Raise

Movements –
SSH x 10
Merkins x 5

Loop 2.

Bataan Death March – 5x Burpee CMIYC Indian Run
Up Massey St, Right on Harris St, Right on Ardrey, Right on White St, back to Parking lot. We had 12 Pax, so for the one mile loop, we all did one round of burpees. Needless to say I was thinking it felt easier than it looked on paper.

2 Miles Complete

Repeat Bataan Death March
Break into two groups to increase Burpee count – 6 & 6… and it’s a race!

This time on Loop 1. It pleased me to see some suck while PAX were doing burpees. It meant the workout was actually serving a purpose… making us better!

3 Miles Complete

Final Iteration
Partner Up
Run to base of Main Street.
Partner Carry up Main Street, switch at half way.
Jog Down to bottom.
Run to the bottom of Massey Street. Partner up with another PAX. Do the same thing.
Jog down.

Get back to the parking lot with a few minutes to spare.

Al Gore hold x 1.5 minutes
30 squat pulses after the 1.5 minutes.

Hold low lunge x 1 minute
10 pulses after the 1 minute.
Flapjack, other leg in front, same thing.

1 minute left! So we did a variation of the protractor.

Time up! 12 PAX for COT and some announcements. Shout out to Hardwood and Rex for fighting hard and earning those miles!

Read your newsletter.
Prayers for family traveling, friends/family who have recently been diagnosed with or are fighting cancer.
Prayers for a family member who was found passed away after falling in their home.
Prayers for families battling Hand, Foot, and Mouth. And flu, and all sorts of other virus floating around.
Praise for being able to use our bodies in the gloom every day.
Praise for the community that is F3.

Thanks for the opportunity, Longshanks. Sorry for the late BB!

Punch List out.

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Footloose – Lesson Learned

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It was good to get out to footloose and see some familiar faces and meet some new PAX.  Since Rebel was on his entertainment tour for the week  so Fogerty and YHC stepped up to try to fill his shoes.  Did a brief intro and disclaimer and headed out for a brief mosey down to the COG lot.

I did a quick circle back to pick up the six while Fogerty kicked off the warm-up.  We started out with some SSH, IW, a few other things and then into… yep you guessed it a little broga.  That’s becoming a nice little change up move for me.  Upward/Downward dogs, pigeon stretches, warrior 1,2 etc.

Moved into the meat and potatoes with some 4 corners. Counted off into 4’s then went to our corner with a lunge walk between corners.  They looked like this:

Round 1 10 Reps

Corner1 Squats, Calf Raises, Monkey Humpers; Corner 2 Merkins, Mtn. Climbers, Shoulder Taps Corner 3 LBCs, Flutters, American Hammers Corner 4 SSH, Imperial Walkers, Overhead Claps then back to the center for burpees

Rinse repeat with sets of 15 and toy soldiers between corners.  Fogerty took the last 15 minutes for a quick DORA up the hill with some LBC’s, Squats and whatever else he was thinking.  Quick mosey back to COT for 5 min of Mary.

Mole Skin – Not much was shared during the workout, but I did have some time to reflect on the way home.  As I was turning off of Confederate street onto main street my impatience got the best of me and I wiped out a cross-walk sign with my truck.  I pulled over like any honest PAX would have and had a brief conversation with the Fort Mill City guy who witnessed it all.  We move the sign out of the way and assessed the damage to my truck (not good btw) and went on with our day.

Nobody was hurt or anyone else involved which was good.  Several emotions could have come up during the ride home but the one I landed on was disappointment.  In years past I probably would have threw a fit and tried to blame the City for putting the sign there.  Yes, Rebel we talked about this on our run, but I sincerely am owning the fault.  Had I been more patient and waited could it have been avoided?  Hard to say.  I’m looking at it as an opportunity to exercise control and use it as a teachable moment.  As discussed in Q source sometimes a failure comes with consequences.  This one is going to be a little $$$.  Moving on and looking forward.

Thanks for the opportunity to Lead and share.

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WOW!!! 26 for the Ballroom.  25 BCers and 1 IR’d walker.

Workout – Blast from the Past.

 

As if last week’s focus on 70 TV themes wasn’t enough, YHC went in for a return to the early exercon with BLIMPS.

The workout –

Brief warm up of 20 SSH, 10 Windmills and a run around the school to the far side and the “wall.”   At said wall, the PAX executed a round of wall sits whilst the PAX from each end executed two burpess and we worked our way inward.  Followed by BTW.

Afterwards we ran to the field with one lap around the track and divided into four teams at the goal line.  For the remainder of our time here we did four rounds, maybe five, of BLIMPS.  Every 10 yards the pax moved themselves by running, bear crawling, broad jumping and duck walking after the BLIMP was finished the pax ran to the opposite end zone.  What are BLIMPS?

  • Burpees 5
  • Lunges 20
  • Imperial Walkers 15
  • Merkins 20
  • Plankjack 25
  • Squats 30

What was the moleskin?  There wasn’t one . . . YHC was so taken by the 26 pax at at AO he couldn’t think.  However, if there is one it should be this – men, savor every moment with you children if you have them.  Do not complain.  It is amazing and the time is so short when they are little that you cannot comprehend it until they are older.  SAVOR IT!!

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2019 Q4 PFT at The Coop

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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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