Category: Block Party

The Cornerstone – Challenge ( One Year Long )

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To all the Pax of F3 Nation

Are you prepared to challenge your self for 2019? I am challenging all Pax’s to join me for 2019 we will take on one exercise for January (merkins single count) 100 reps every day. Then in February we will add another exercise which will be done every day on top of the 100 merkins and so on and so on. We will increase by adding one exercise each month.  These exercises will be above and beyond when you post. So by the end of the year there will be 12 exercises that need to be done everyday at the reps set.

Do you accept the challenge? Do you want to get better?

I will set the next month exercise and reps the week before to keep you on your toes

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20

Something About Mary

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7 Pax posted in a gloom that turned out a bit frostier than forecast.  The Senator T Thermostat proved that it wasn’t too cold for shorts, but YHC wasted little time with Disclaimer, etc so we could get moving without delay.

The Thang

COP in parking lot — SSH, Hillbilly Walker, Peter Parker, Mtn Climber, run to stop sign and back
(For the record, Offset pulled an Elvis somewhere amid this set and we picked him up on the run portion)

Mosey to the path and launch into Drillbits (all exercises OYO and cumulative, meaning the sequence is repeated adding the new exercise at each successive Drillbit)

1/6: 5 Burpees
2/6: 10 Moroccan Nightclubs
3/6: 15 Squats
4/6: 20 Merkins
5/6: 25 Jumping lunges
6/6: 30 LBCs

Mosey to the playground

10 Pull-ups OYO
10 Plank punches IC
10 Shoulder taps IC
10 Hip slappers IC
10 Pull-ups OYO
Al Gore
10 Monkey humpers

Line up along playground boundary facing the path away from the White Street

Bear crawl to path, sprint back
Sprint to path and back (rinse and repeat)

AYG back home

Mary — Low slow flutters, Slow Freddie Mercurys, Superman

COT

NMM

Thanks to the pax for their energetic effort on a cold morning.  And their investment in the message of the season shared at points throughout the workout.

At launch I referenced my Fartsacking on two days in the past week after making HCs the evening prior.  Excuses abound but they’re all just that.  My personal disappointment in these failures contrasts with one of the most inspiring HCs ever — that of Mary through her response to the angel announcing her pending pregnancy.

In Christmas seasons past, I’ve often used my Q opportunities in 1st and 2nd F to highlight Joseph, a #HIM in all ways who mostly receives limited attention.  This year, however, I’ve found myself contemplating Mary.  Perhaps my focus on Joseph in the past reflected my usual self-centered, masculine mindset. Regardless of the reason, I’ve been concentrating on Mary more this Advent than in the past.  Joseph made exemplary choices, no doubt.  From one perspective though, he could be seen as taking the steps that he should take as a God-fearing adult man.  On the other hand, Mary was a teenager.  Plus, she was the first to be challenged with a twist in her tidy life plans.  Had Mary not HC’d to the angel, Joseph’s opportunity would never have arisen.  Impressive for anyone, and especially for a teenager.

Even beyond Mary’s initial commitment (“Let it be done to me according to your word”), Mary remained true to her mission over time.  The gospels refer to her pondering and reflecting on the developments of the Christmas story and Jesus’ upbringing.  She cultivated and reaffirmed her commitment by recognizing moments, storing them away and contemplating their significance in the fulfillment of her mission.  How often do I slow down enough in my own life to recognize the ties between life’s events and a plan God may have for me?  Could making a habit of slowing down and building in more time for reflection actually yield more experiences of Wonder, Joy, Hope and Peace during this Christmas season and beyond?

Thanks to Shady for the opportunity to Q and to the pax for helping me get back on track with my DRP.

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas on Main Street

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Chilly morning started out with war stories from the GORUCK weekend with three of the PAX in attendance coming home with a Tough patch.  Congrats to Bonsai on his first GORUCK Tough!

Clock struck 5:15, a disclaimer was provided and we took off on a mosey in the direction of Main Street.  We stopped halfway there for windmills and again at the bottom of the hill on Main Street for some merkins.  We reached our ultimate destination at the Fort Mill Animal Clinic parking lot.  YHC is the site Q for the Fire Ant, ruck AO, which meets on Tuesday’s.  Being a visiting Q on the same day as the standard ruck workout, it only made sense that some version of a ruck workout had to come with me.  This is what led the PAX to the back of Maximus’ truck that was stationed in the parking lot.  We pulled out 3 60lb sandbags, 1 40lb sandbag, 1 40lb ruck, and 1 30 lb filler bag to be used in the 12 Days of Christmas.  Given the theme of the workout, I was really hoping the millions of Christmas lights up in the area would be on, but they must not burn all night.

12 Days of Christmas

  1. Run down the hill on Main Street and back (~0.2 miles)
  2. Glow stick bear crawl – bear crawl from one glow stick to the other (down hill) and crawl bear back (up hill) (~20 yards out and 20 yards back)
  3. Jumping Lunges
  4. Bomb Jacks with a Donkey Kick
  5. Man Makers (sand bag)
  6. 4 Count Flutters
  7. Jump Squats
  8. Shoulder Press (sand bag)
  9. Bent Over Rows (sand bag)
  10. Merkins
  11. Curls (sand bag)
  12. Broad Jump Burpees

We didn’t make it all the way to strength items since most only made it 8 before time ran out.  The bear crawls and crawl bears definitely made their presence known and the cardio was evident by the 2.7 miles covered.

With time running out we tossed the sandbags back in the truck and took a quick mosey back to the start point with one stop for some merkins.

Great job by the strong PAX in attendance.  Definitely want a shot at completing this whole series since the first half was a burner.  Thank you to Shady for the opportunity at this great AO.

Announcements:

  • Fort Convergence on Christmas Eve – this is a MUST ATTEND

Prayer Request:

  • Prayers for Skate or Die’s friend as he and his family mourn the early passing of his sister
  • Prayers for the congregation of Unity Presbyterian Church as they recover from the fire
  • Prayers for those fighting cancer
  • Prayers for patience and poise during the holiday season and 2.0s are a little more ramped up than normal.
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Aces UP for a blockparty beat DOWN

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After a quick disclaimer, we took off for the track around to park to make pit stops at each of the posts for some warmup exercises.  At each post, we started with the following exercise and then 2 burpees after each one…for a bonus.

  • SSH x25
  • Imperial and Hillbilly walkers x10
  • Moroccan night club x30
  • Squats x20, Cherry pickers x10

After warmup, we moseyed over to the playground for the Thang:

  • Merkins: 10 diamonds, 10 military, 10 regular, 10 wide arm, 10 derkins
  • Run lap around playground
  • 20 chin-ups
  • Run lap around playground
  • 50 flutters
  • Run lap around playground

Rinse and repeat…during one of the laps, we had two men down due to uneven concrete slabs during the run.  Note to self – be careful out there for the uneven terrain!

Next we found some benches for the next set of fun.

  • 40 dips
  • Run lap around playground
  • 20 step-ups (10/leg)
  • Run lap around playground

Rinse and repeat.  As time was winding down, we had time for one last circuit.  Similar to round 1, we gave this another shot with some modifications.

  • Merkins: 5 diamonds, 5 military, 5 regular, 5 wide arm, 5 derkins
  • 20 LBCs
  • 20 step-ups (10 each leg)
  • 20 LBCs
  • 50 flutters
  • 20 LBCs

Quick run back to COT to wrap up the morning for name-o-rama, announcements, prayers and praises (CSPAN style), and closed out with our prayer!  Great work men and we missed you Fire Marshall Bill…get better my friend!

Shady

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Too cold for a TOGA at Block Party

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There was quite the bite in the air on this Fall morning.  A little different than the balmy 55-degree weather the day before. PAX rolled in and everyone looked very excited to get rolling. Quick disclaimer for the Vets and off we went (might have been a little less stretching than initially forecasted).

 

Mosey up the hill to the smaller parking taking a left and heading to the right parking lot for the warm-up. As we were getting to the top of the hill a late arrival came in hot (not really it just sounds better). JWOW joined shortly after we started the warm-up and I must say there had to have been some hustle by him to get there that quickly. I appreciated the effort.

 

Warm-up

Toy soldiers to stretch the legs

Shuffle left and then switch sides working around the lot

High Knee stretches

Carioca to finish

Mosey to circle up

Imperial Walker- x30

Overhead claps- x30

SSH- x30

Seal Jax- x25

Squat (mumble chatter indicated my delivery was confusing) x15

Windmill- x15

Parker Peter- x15- hold

Honeymooner stretch to Downward dog and repeat

Recover

Mosey across to next parking lot of the business I can’t recall.

Informed the PAX that DORA was the call. Partner up. Initially I had planned these to be individual with laps in between sets. I think this was a better option.

Partner One runs the not so small loop while Partner 2 completes the following. Switching until completion.

100- Merkins

200- Squats

300- Flutters

Quick chat about the word of the month- Vulnerability. I appreciate the PAX sharing and making themselves “vulnerable” to the group with their personal challenges. We all have them.

Mosey took us next to the knee size wall in front of the building just across the street. PAX all found a spot to work through the Three rounds of the following:

Step ups- step to the top of the wall, 10 each leg

Derkins- 10

Dips- 20

 

Mosey back down back where we did DORA to the taller wall space.

Each PAX grabbed small wall and sat in a squat position while each PAX counted backwards from ten.

With a little time to spare, next up was a sprint to the other side of the parking lot and back. Perform 5 burpees. We did this a total of 2 times.

 

Mosey back to COT

 

With 2 minutes left, we did some American Hammers, Hello Dolly, holding it six inches, 90,45,90, six inches.

 

Announcements

CHRISTMAS PARTY! Sign-up- Someone said Ugly Sweater- T or F?

Xmas Eve Convergence

Joe Davis

 

Praises/Prayers

Safe returns from Holiday week

Family

Health to get out and post

 

Our kids (Chicken Hawk’s son)

Strength/Wisdom

State of our Country

 

Thanks for the opportunity to lead Shady and for the PAX who were there to support.

 

Frat Boy

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Wotan in disguise

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5 PAX gathered in the gloom for the 47th Block Party of 2018

Disclaimer

Mosey to the chained-off parking lot next to Springs Corporate for a warm up
Warm up:
30 SSH
10 IW
10 HW
10 Shoulder Taps
10 Mountain Climbers
10 Peter Parkers
Downdog–>Honeymooner

Mosey to Pike Engineering parking lot

2 rounds of Howling Monkeys (look it up)

Mosey to the Millstone playground parking lot

Numerous rounds of Happy Jacks (look it up)
– a pretty good exercises for staying in one place, encouraging dissent among the ranks, and allowing all PAX to modify as needed without getting left behind
Divided up on the little hills/mounds on the playground:
– Start at the top of the hill
– Standing forward bend (aka: touch your toes)
– Inch-worm down into merkin position
– 10 Derkins
– Inch-wormed back
– mosey to next hill until we hit all 4
– Rinse and Repeat, but changed to Bear Crawl between each hill
– (total of 80 derkins……this was a lot)

Back to Millstone parking lot for a few more rounds of Happy Jacks. YHC referenced Happy Jack by The Who, but no one else knew the tune.

Mosey back towards WEP playground

Called round of pull-ups. Like Six Minutes of Uncle (look it up), but the Q calls up and down:
– Pull ups
– Toe Touches
– Chin ups

Sat in progressively sinking Al Gore for a moment of message

Mosey back to COT

10 Merkins in cadence
37 Flutters (almost made it to 40, but if you can’t Q it, don’t do it!)
9 LBC (Q was trying to continue flutters until 6am, but see early comment about making it to 37…)

NMM

Being vulnerable is the theme for the month. I shared that I struggle with my tone of voice when talking to my 2.0s. I often resort to yelling as much as talking. It is something that I work on, but often not with the diligence I approach an F3 workout. Finding the line of discipline vs. direction is a challenge for me as a parent. I don’t want my boys to grow up in a house where their dad just yells and barks commands (or where they don’t feel heard unless they also yell…).

In planning, I considered planking up and holding plank until each PAX shared something vulnerable. But decided that while it is the Qs place to push the PAX, each PAX needs to decide for themselves on their own vulnerability. Forced vulnerability is very different than actually being vulnerable.

Welcome to FNG: “Wotan” (Vot-an) https://sfopera.com/ring/story/dasrheingold/wotan/

Announcements:
Christmas Party signups need to be done

Prayers:
– wisdom in parenting
– for those who have a difficult (or absent) home situation over a holiday like Thanksgiving
– safe travels during the holiday

Band Camp dismissed

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1+1=Terrible Downpainment

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19 Pax descended on Block Party including 3 for Pathfinder for an old school beatdown by YHC and Mash. Little did YHC know when I suggested to Mash that he co-Q with me that it would be his 50th Birthday at Block Party #Respect.

Mash and I have been friends for many years and I already had tons of respect for him. He is a good Christian, Husband and Father coupled with being a military veteran. Our children are the same age so we have lots in common. More importantly, he has demonstrated being a true #HIM since joining the Fort several years ago.

The Thang

Full Disclaimer

Mash on Q – Mosey out

COP – lots of chatter here…I may have been contributing

SSH

Moroccan Night Clubs

Windmills

Merkins x 15 (YEAH!)

Mosey to gravel lot and partner up

Dora 1,2,3

100 Merkins

200 Flutters

300 SSHs

Pusher on Q – Mosey to hill

Bear crawl up hill – #turrible

Dirty McDeuce powered by Halloween Candy

Side Note: Avg American eats 3.4 pounds of candy on Halloween; Candy has calories (duh!); 1 minute of Burpees equals approximately 10 calories;

All exercises IC x 12; Calories are based on “Fun Size” portions

Starburst (40 cals) – Squats

Skittles (63 cals) – LBCs

M&Ms (73 cals) – Wide Arm

Take a lap

Kit Kat (70 cals) – Jumping Lunge

Snickers (80 cals) – Flutters

Twix (80 cals) – Carolina Dry Docks

Take a lap

Reeses Cup (90 cals) – Bomb Jacks

Baby Ruth ( 85 cals) – Freddy Mercury

Butterfinger ( 85 cals) – Diamond Merkins

Take a lap

York Patty ( 50 cals) – Burpees

Crunch ( 60 cals) – Rosalita

Hershey ( 63 cals) – Burpees

Mosey Home

 

Moleskin:

  • Happy #Respect Birthday to Mash
  • Christmas Party on 12/1/18
  • Pre Christmas Drop In on 11/2/18 with Shady at Armor Artis
  • Be a HIM in your community…lots of examples were shared
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Charter Band-aids for Little Warriors – PreBlast

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As most of the PAX in the Fort and Rock regions knows my 5 year old daughter (Emma) is a leukemia survivor. We still make a trip every 4 weeks to get blood drawn to check her counts at Levine Children’s Hospital. We also stepped up and raised money last year (Christmas time) for a fellow brother bout-time out of Area 51 son Jennings who has leukemia also.

It has come to my attention that the budgets have been cut in some of the pediatric departments and the first thing to go is usually the character band aids. You say how important is to have these band-aids? Well as far as the cancer kids go every time the have their PORT’s (Port is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein) which for some kids is traumatic they get a band-aid over it. For others that are done with treatment such as my daughter Emma has to go back for the next 21 years to get checked (mainly blood counts). This not always easy for instance this past Wednesday she was poked 3 times. Well at the end the band aid can put a smile on a child’s face. This also goes for those kiddos that have to constantly get blood work done not just cancer kids.

So what I am challenging you to do is every week you go grocery shopping buy at least one box or more of character band-aids girls or boys. Also Spread the word in every COT. I will tweet out what AO’s I will be at and if anyone wants to step up and help me collect that would be awesome.

I also challenge others in different regions to pull together and do the same thing. My goal is to gather as much as possible and split it between Levine Children’s Hospital and Novant Health Hemby Children’s Hospital (St. Jude Affiliate Clinic) before Christmas.

Let a simple act of kindness put a smile on a little fighters face.

AYE. Lets do this.

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Block Party Beast Beatdown

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YHC was excited to get the reminder of my pending Q at Block Party. You see, it’s been a bit since I’ve Q’d and I haven’t been as committed to my First F as I should. Would I be dying trying to call cadence? What exercises should we do? Would anybody even show up? After a restless night of sleep, I got up, picked up my boy Atticus, and cruised to the spot where it all started in The Fort…WEP! One of my questions was answered right away as cars started rolling in the parking lot. And they kept coming. Seeing all the PAX (18 in total!) definitely humbled me and got my Qdrenaline flowing. After a quick disclaimer, we took off.

THE THANG

Mosey to the first mile marker with some high knees and butt kickers thrown in. Plank series at the marker, flip to crab for some dips (crab dip?), and back for more planks. Merkins and then back to moseying.

We stopped at each marker and did more stuff including but not limited to squats, LBC’s, wide arm merkins, mountain climbers, Peter Parkers, etc.

After completing the circle, we headed over to the brick wall at the UC Synergetic visitor parking lot on 160. Everybody grabbed a seat on the wall and watched while the guy on the end burpee broad jumped his way to the other end of the group and took a seat. Everybody got a turn and great fun was had critiquing form and jumping ability.
Next up was a bear crawl race up the big grassy hill to the main parking lot. While catching our breath, YHC talked about the word of the month, Encouragement. I shared that Barnabus was one of my favorite men of the Bible. Acts 4:36 tells us his name means “son of encouragement”. That’s exactly what he was during his missionary journeys with Paul. I want to be an encourager and our kids certainly need that from us. Some of the best words you can say to your kids: You got what it takes! I believe in you! The challenge to encourage someone that day was issued.
Next up was the meat of the workout, THE BEAST.
The Beast = 6 stations, 6 exercises at each station, 6 rounds. After each round, plank up and wait for the 6.
1st round – jumping lunges
2 – Freddy Mercury
3 – Low Country Crabs
4 – American Hammers
5 – Flutter Kicks? I can’t really remember?
6 – Burpees (crowd pleaser)
A quick look at the watch indicated 3 minutes till 6 so jailbreak to COT

Announcements
We had a lot. Christmas Party, upcoming workout, CAH volunteer opportunities, etc. As they say, read your newsletter
Prayers and praises were shared and Chicken Hawk closed up out.
Thanks Shady for giving me the opportunity to Q! I needed the kick in the pants to get back out there and I loved every minute of it.
AYE!
Flat Tire

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What was that?

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What a beautiful, yet dark morning at Block Party (WEP). Great spirits this morning from the “Oceans 7” crew. Subtheme: “Do your best and forget the rest.”

Everyone did a truly great job for a workout that kept one on his toes. It started right at 5:15am with a disclosure while moving. Then working directly into your standard Straight Up “Ya never know what u are gonna get but it will always be a full body” warm-up for 10 minutes. Crowd favorites were Ab Vigoda and the Rolling Crucifix.

The Thang:

We practically sprinted over to the visitor parking lot in front of the business building a few blocks away and proceeded with plenty of Bear Crawls, Muscle ups (lots), Backwards Bear Crawls, Low Frog Hops, Alternating Side Shuffles, Sprints, Burpees, Merkins, and X-Jumps just to name a few. 5 second count between 2-3 back-to-back exercises. Lots of heavy breathing. Crowd favorite for this part was “The Absolute Worst Ever Berkin” (wide merkin, standard merkin, diamond merkin, Burpee up, Burpee down, diamond merkin, standard merkin, wide merkin – all jumping “push-ups”) – and that was the first rep . . . we won’t tell you how many we did . . . I can tell you it was not 1.

We moseyed over to the WEP playground where we proceeded to do some lunge walks. Then we entered into something that I did not see a lot of smiles about:

“P is for Pink Mini-Workout” (Yes, I brought out the white board but only had a PINK marker borrowed from my wife). Subcaption: “What R U Thinkin’?” setting this workout up inside of a workout?

  • Walk on 5 “Balance Beams” without falling over
  • 10 Derkins
  • 15 Full hands in-the-air Burpees (these were Band Camp’s favorite; they had his name written all over it)
  • 20 Full extension Chin-ups
  • 25 Deep Dips
  • 30 Seconds Balls to the Wall (or playround equipment)

We then proceeded to run toward COT but we were not done. A little surprise, or maybe yet another surprise, for the group this morning: up the hill Indian Bear Crawls while rotating thrusting and then throwing a 72 lb sandbag. We moved/threw the sandbag up the hill as a group and then down the hill. Plank position held while the bear crawler and the sandbag thrower did there thang. A “yukky” exercise.

We ended with 90 seconds of kick-through burpees in cadence minus the last 20 seconds where we pushed it OYO.

I can’t believe we got all that done in 35 minutes after a 10 minute warm-up.

Thanks again, Shady, for the opportunity!

COT: General Announcements, Praises, Prayers, Gave thanks to God who gives us so many things

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