Soggy games at the Corral

The day before the Q, Lutefisk sent me a message wondering if I was still available to Q. Well, I never wasn’t available to Q, just hadn’t planned on it. Good ole WP being finicky again, I supposed.

The gloom

I arrived a few minutes early to plot our eventual course. Driving ’round back of the old Express Lube to chalk up some instructions nobody really wants to read is always fun. When I got to CoT, there were a few cars idling in the rain.

warm up

Mosey to the top of the hill by Express Lube. Warmup over!!

the thang

Part one

On paper, and in my mind, I wanted to call 11’s on the hill by the apartments, but I knew that the chosen activity at the bottom of the hill was a bit more involved, so 7’s were called instead.

The original plan for the top of the hill was BBSU’s, but because of the rain and complete lack of lighting, YHC called an audible to some low slow squats to make sure eyes were always up and we could move if a driver wasn’t paying attention.

The bottom of the hill is well-lit and so PAX will compete in the requisite rounds of Rochamburpees. Now, YHC has looked through the lexicons and found no definition of “chillcut” so I have to assume that it’s plank position. If not, well, probably should be.  Each PAX will pick a partner (or 3 man free for all).  In plank using right/left alternating counting “one, two, three, shoot”. The loser does a burpee starting with the pushup, the winner a single merkin. In the case of a draw, everyone does a burpee.

Part two

From the last game of rochamburpee, we all moseyed up to the SE corner of the Teeter where YHC had placed some scrawling that managed to stay dry and legible in the rain, and we continued our way around the course, which would be done until time ran out.

SE Corner: 10x V-ups
Behind Express Lube: 5x stepups (each)
Bear crawl from EL lot to crosswalk in front of auto parts store: 15x plank jacks
Run to the end of the strip mall and back to start

With 5 PAX there, we managed to stay together with YCH lagging behind and completed four loops of the .4 mile loop before heading back to COT with enough time for 10 windmills.

cot

Some announcing happened. Prayers were offered. Everyone talked a bit about their 2.0s. Sky-Q knows our needs.

TClap |
1

F3 The Fort Anniversary Party

Get ready to celebrate the Anniversary of The Fort. Location will be next to The Springfield neighborhood pool under the pavilion. but the date is set Sept. 17th, 2021. 1830-2130 or 630pm- 930pm for anyone that dosn’t know how to do military time. Cant wait to see you all. It will be the same as last year and bring your own dinner and drinks. We will have a few people speaking.

Look forward to seeing everyone.

location- Springfield Neighborhood Pavilion, next to pool

time- 630pm- 930pm

what to bring- whatever you want to eat and drink.

TClap |
8

Converge with Colosseum

12 men showed up this morning at Golden Corral (with their man cards) including Geek Squad who was in town from Tennessee.  We began the workout with a trek down 160 to Brewsters.  Unfortunately, no ice cream, just a couple scoops of merkins, squats, and LBCs until the six arrived.

Next, we headed to the garden center at Walmart, a little over a mile from our starting point. We had time to complete another round of merkins, squats, and LBCs before Shady arrived with the Colosseum Pax.

Shady called out the instruction for a Dora, 100 wide arm merkins, 200 squats, 300 flutters.  Partner 1 did the exercises while Partner 2 ran across the parking lot to the front of the garden center and back.

We had just enough time to complete all of the exercises before running back to COT.

Great job by everyone this morning.  We covered 3 miles which is alot for some of the men who showed up this morning.  This is how we get better, do the hard things, push ourselves, and keep coming back.

 

TClap |
3

Tour de Golden Corral

2020 was a bad year. COVID, death, etc. I am a creature of routine and nearly ALL of them were interrupted or flat out stopped. My cheese was moved big time. I was also in a big time headspace rut. Down on myself. Coming off an injury filled 2nd half of 2019. Body and mind tapped out. No motivation at all to get out and post. This was my 2020. Lutefisk, among others, knew that and kept at me to get out. Then he triple dog dared me with a Q request. A few of them. After turning a couple down I finally said enough is enough and I am going to get the heck out and try to put together a Q that is somewhat respectable. Thank you Lutefisk for keeping after me!! You are much appreciated!

Great morning. Great crowd gathered and the mumblechatter was wonderful. I admit I was nervous. I had not Q’d in a year or so. I made a few disclaimers and off we went. No warmups. Right into it.

The deal was pretty simple. We ran a loop of about 1.8miles, with stops for fun time at the following locations: frontside of Walgreens near Burn Boot Camp; across Gold Hill, down Lake Vista Rd to its end near the Y; back across Gold Hill to the side wall of Harris Teeters; behind the shopping center to our favorite dumpster behind Red Bowl; across Stockbridge and up the cell tower hill; to the far corner of the parking lot of Grace Presbyterian Church; then back to COT. At each of these stops, 8 total including starting at the COT and finishing at the COT, we did the following:

* 25 SSH
* 15-25 Merkin
* 25 Reverse LBC
* 25 LSS
* All were 4-count, in cadence (rather rapid)
* Plank ~2min for discussion time

Everyone did great. Shop Vac hung in there, he made it to every stop except one, and he did all the exercises!! Keep pushing it SV!! The mublechatter was great, and the group did real well watching their form. YHC had the enjoyment of nearly going face-first into some deer poop in the grass near the cell tower. Lovely. We all got a kick out of that!

COT, P&P:
* READ YOUR NEWSLETTER. Get involved. Invigorate the leader in you.
* A lot going on in everyone’s lives. I made it a point to stop by each of the PAX and have them offer a prayer and a praise, a la CSPAN.  We lifted up quite a lot to our Lord!

NMM – Foundations:
At each stop I pieced together the following. All around us in Fort Mill, Charlotte, etc. we see development, improvement, building, “progress” and such. You can’t go anywhere without seeing it.  The first thing builders do is prep the ground to handle the foundation, then build the foundation solid and strong. That takes some time to do, then they continue from there. They know that without a solid, strong foundation that is securely connected to the structure, whatever it is they’re building will NOT last long, nor will it be able to withstand stresses, etc, from storms or whatever it is exposed to.

When we are drawn to F3, as well as throughout our F3 journey, we are set out to improve ourselves in many ways – physically, mentally, socially, spiritually, etc. We strive to become better, stronger, faster. We start slow then progress as we become better and better. Each day we move ahead in our progress, we lay a brick in our structure of becoming a better person.

My challenge to the PAX was for them to gauge their foundation. What are we building on, and what is the basis on why we are trying to get better? Your foundation should be your relationship with the Lord, and it needs to be as strong, solid, and connected as you can possibly get it. Most people reach out to the Lord when they are in need. There is nothing wrong with that at all, better then than never. But that does not always yield a solid foundation that can endure even the most strongest of storms.  The best way to build a strong relationship with the Lord is to abide in Him every day. Become a son to Him, and let Him be your Father. Let His word marinate in your mind, heart, and soul to where it becomes a guiding force in your life, helping steer you to good decisions, words, and actions. Trust in him completely, with personal abandonment. When you do that with dedication, discipline, and consistency, your foundation will be one which can handle anything life throws at you, at any given time.

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” – Psalm 119:105

Stay connected and trust that the Lord will guide you.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead. SYITG
-NASA

TClap |
0

SHAKING OFF THE RUST

Sixteen strong hit the Golden Corral this morning and worked together under a full moon and a perfect 54 degrees.  Here is what they did:

The Thang:

Mosey to the back of the Harris Teeter plaza for COP:

All in Cadence:  SSH x 40, Windmill x 15, Merkin x 10, Squat x 20, Mountain Climber x 25, LBC x 25, Wide Arm Merkin x 15, Jumping Lunge x 20

Mosey behind the Express Oil Building and head down hill entering the Evolve Apt complex.   Break into two groups for a modified Jacob’s Ladder – Up/Down the hill and build to 7 burpees at the top.

Mosey back to the drive between the HT building and O-Reilly Auto Parts.

Peoples chair against the HT building for 90 secs, lungewalk to auto parts building and do BTTW for 45 sec.    Rinse and repeat two more times.

Mosey back to COT for 2 minutes of Mary;  Freddie Mercury x 20, Flutter x 20.

Naked Man Moleskin:

This was my first Q in about 16 months after a self-imposed ‘exile’ from F3 due to Covid-19.  About 3 weeks ago, I started posting again and was happy to see the Q request pop up from Lutefisk last week (‘time to get back on the horse, ‘ I told him).  The last Q  in 2019 was , coincidentally,  at the Golden Corral.  My intention was to come up with workout from scratch, but my schedule didn’t allow that so I disclosed to the Pax that this workout was a repeat of one from 2014, (I think). To prepare for today, I went to the The Fort’s F3 website and there they were:  all my masterpieces from 8 plus years in F3. All my backblasts since 2013 were neatly stored and easily accessible.    There were over 100 total and about 15 from the Golden Corral which has always been one of my favorite AO’s.  I found one that looked good and bam – weinke complete.

I am typically hard on myself when I plan a workout and either part of it doesn’t go well, or the whole thing comes off a ‘flat’ to me.  Today, was one of those days.   I love a good Jacob’s Ladder and today, I screwed mine up by not adjusting for the size of the group and modifying how we did it.  It took too long and we didn’t complete all the hill repeats continuously (that makes it such a good exercise).   We also had a lot of law enforcement traffic coming up that hill and had to keep clearing the way which was annoying.  (Back in 2014 that hill was dirt road lined with trees – no traffic).  But, I didn’t feel bad about that for too long.  I was back Qing a morning workout with a group that I love, and with friends who I appreciate so much.   It doesn’t get much better than that!

Announcements, Prayers and Praises:

Short Sale and his wife celebrating 19 years together  – yes!

Praise/prayers for my daughter Claire who is graduating from college in 2 weeks.  Happy to be done, but what is next?

Prayers for Trucker’s wife and  those struggling with anxiety and depression, and for one with cancer

TClap |
8

Circuits in the dark

YHC picked up this Q during spring break. I’m told it’s spring break… but with the kids home 24/7, it just doesn’t SEEM like spring break. Normally we’d do something with this time but this year we decided to save the vacation days for some other activities.

The gloom

YHC rolled up to the HT parking lot (which has yet to change the timer on the lot lights, so it’s still quite dark) to what looked like an empty lot. Lights on in one car.  Turned out to be Coumo. Looks like it’s a 2 PAX Q.

Warmup

Mosey to the SE corner of HT. Warmup over

the thang

The entire time was dedicated to the circuit, which is just under half a mile per lap. I remember doing something like this with Jekyll on Q ages ago but didn’t want to doomscroll all the way through the BBs.

Start at the SE corner of HT.
20x LBC
Karaoke half way down the wall, flapjack for the rest.
Run to the backside of the tire place
10x step ups each leg
Run around to the front of the parts shop for
20x flutter (double count)
Then out of the parking lot, around the corner and down the hill for
6 burpees
Back up the hill to the SE corner of HT

We completed 5 circuits, and with 5 minutes left nixed the exercises for a final lap of just running.

cot

Some prayers for Coumo’s coworker and for my M who is thinking about making a career move.

nmm

When I got out of my car I exclaimed to no one in general “I guess I’m wildly unpopular!”.  But, really, small attendance Q’s are generally very good ones. 2-3 PAX can really egg each other on and can lay a good foundation for relationships.

Thanks for the push Cuomo.

TClap |
1

Take that, treats!

IIRC, the last and only time YHC has Qed at Golden Corral was partnering with Slapshot over a year ago, so when Lutefisk said there was an opening, it was time to step up. I had quite a few devious plans built up for Q-vengence over the years of getting my arse handed to me by HIM left and right and had a hard time settling on just one, but then, it came to me in a vision… The PAX were forewarned to bring lights.

the gloom

I pulled into the Corral just in time and saw Skipper, Half Shell, Lutefisk, Geronimo, Fire Marshall Bill, and Nasa waiting to see what awful nastiness would ensue. The disclaimer was disclaimed after I verified Skipper’s identity, because I’m bad with names.

Warm up

LOL, wut?

The thang

Run to the light (okay, no traffic, let’s cross at Burn) and head to Dunkin. Circle up for 15 SSH and 15 Monkey Humpers (faces facing away from Dunkin). This is where Olaf caught up with us.

The next leg was supposed to stop at Brewsters, but a couple of female runners were stretching in front of the building, and I don’t like looking like a creeper, so we just kept going until we got to Abbot’s (YHC was reminded a few times that we were doing a Bootcamp during this leg). 10x merkins and 10x monkey humpers.

Last leg, run to the Model A parking lot and look for any PAX from Colosseum (I talked to Slapshot and he said they’d make their way there if possible).

Quick DORA to wait and see if Colo shows up, only got past the first round but this is what was called:
100 BBSU, 100 Leg Lift, 200 LBC
Partners would run around the parking lot islands or bear crawl to the middle island and back (an option that was picked only twice!)

YHC kept a close watch on the time to ensure we’d get back in time, and with 20 min left, we retraced our steps. The first leg ended in the Gamestonks parking lot (at the top of the hill) for 10x Peter Parker and 10x Parker Peter.

The next leg, YHC began slowing down, but the PAX waited for me at Brewsters and were doing some very nice looking flutters. When YHC arrived we added 10x Low Slow Squat and 10x Imperial Walkers.

Next leg back to Dunkin, where I was smoked by the rest of the PAX, who were doing overhead clap when I arrived, and we busted out more monkey humpers before using the crosswalk.

Finally we converged on the S wall of HT for people’s chair with bear crawl chain. Then BTTW chain with a run (PAX really ran fast here). About 90 seconds left, we took our one and only ten count before a 45s BTTW (countdown by YHC) and back to COT.

COT

Hyped the Yeti and prayed for a Geronimo’s new job and some PAX who were hoping to find something new to do.  Wives were also mentioned (context omitted).

nmm

I generally try to find some kind of message for my Qs, but today was all about stupid fun. My original plan was a bit more ambitious than my body is prepared to pull off, and far more running than a BC should be (this idea will be a thing in the future, though).

Seriously, though. Fun is what I needed.  Fun has been in short supply over the last 11 months.  The kind of fun where you’re laughing, gasping and wheezing because you choose to do something a bit too ambitious and everyone smoked you, but it doesn’t matter because you’re all part of one big stupid group of fun.  And my Garmin says I burned 731 calories during this fun.

Monkey Humpers facing away from Dunkin and the ice cream shops were part of that fun. I hope security personnel get a hearty laugh or a “WTH” look on their faces if we were on camera, too.

TClap |
1

Golden Corral…GOTTA GO

It was raining and the temps were dropping throughout the morning but as discussed with several PAX, it’s mornings like this when memories are made and durability is built.

In the end, 22 PAX posted this morning with 13 for this final Golden Corral of edition in January. It started a little something like this…

Disclaimer
50 Fast SSH
10 Jump Squats
10 Merkins
10 Burpees

Run to TCES: ~1.2mi
Jack Webb: 1 Merkin : 4 Overhead Claps (Total of 10:40)
10 Burpees

Run to TC Baptist Church: ~.8mi
Wide Arm Merkins
1 V-Up : 4 Flutters I/C (Total of 5:20)

Run back to Teeter:
Al Gore’s followed by baby squats
15 Mike Tysons
5 Burpees

Run to the end of the center
More Mike Tysons & SSH

Move to another storefront
Dips

COT

Until next time…Maximus

TClap |
4

Golden Corral 1.12.21

Nine men showed up on a cold, rainy morning at the old Corral.  After the disclaimer, I told the Pax we would be running most of the time in order to keep warm.

Here is what we did this am:

  • Mosey to the front of O’Reilly – 10 SSHs
  • Run to the back of Express Lube – 10 Step-ups, 10 derkins
  • Run to HT side wall – Wall sits w/calf raises
  • Run to back of HT – Lunge walk between light poles, 20 squats
  • Run to traffic circle near Apts –  Partner exercises (2 rounds)
        • Partner 1 ran up to the cell tower, 10 bomb jacks, and ran back to Partner 2
        • Partner 2 did 5 burpees, 10 hand release merkins, and 10 diamond merkins
  • Run to the water fountain on the opposite side of the Apt complex – 10 dips, 10 erkins (3 sets)
  • Nur up the hill to the first light pole, run up to the Fire station parking lot-  Cadence abs work: LBCs, Flutters, and Hello Dollies
  • Run to KrK parking lot – Plank taps in cadence
  • Back down the hill (run) to the fire station – 20 squats
  • Back to the water fountain – Bear crawl around the fountain
  • Mosey back to HT side wall –  Wall sits, Balls to the wall, Balls to the wall w/ shoulder tap, and Balls to the wall w/hip tap.
  • Back to COT

We cover two hilly miles with alot of shoulder work and great job everyone!

 

 

TClap |
3

Final APFT

4 HIM showed up for the final exam.

Tesla                      57 merkins, 62 BBSU, 14:02 run AVE 88.33
Grassy Knoll        72 merkins, 47 BBSU, 17:34 run AVE 81.33
Lutefisk                60 merkins, 59 BBSU, 15:54 run AVE 80.33
Crop Duster        43 merkins, 62 BBSU, 14:53 run AVE 78.67

We got done a little early so we did some curb work and watched Cha Ching talk the ruckers into “bear crawl until fail” which was fun to watch…  oof

TClap |
1