11 Pax defied #cantore and the #fartsack by showing up to the buffet of pain at Golden Corral.  @Whitelightning went down and I readily agreed to come out of the bullpen

Dynamic warm up- 50 yard dash in between

• SSH, Squat, Mountain Climber, Merkin, Monkey Humper, IW

The Thang

The THANG

• Curb toe touch step ups. 50, 30, 10.  10 merkins in between sets
• Burpee suicides.  5 squats at home, 5 burpees at each of the 5 touch points. Rinse/Repeat x3.  Rabbits were greeted with a plank series at the end of each round unitl the #six was in
• wall sit/balls to wall series x3
• 6 minutes of mary- LBC, hello dolly, rosalita, heels to heaven, homer to marge (hip thrusters) #crowdpleaser, protractor
• sprint series

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

Short words on wisdom prior to the THANG.  A key phrase from @Chickenhawk’s monthly word document is “Knowledge comes from learning, Wisdom comes from living”.  Being with this group of men has taught me to “take a breath” before I speak or act.  As a man, I am not always successful but I try and am now more times than not.

Impressive show by post P200ers and all pax.

Jekyll

Twelve men were met with some cool spring temps this morning at the Golden Corral.  Once we were all disclaimed, six of the ruckers split off to do their ruck thing, and the other six followed me for another bootcamp adventure.  Here is what we did:

The Thang:

Short mosey up and around the HT parking lot to COP:

All in double count cadence:

SSH x 50, windmill x 15, merkin x 10, squat x 20, Morrocan night club x 40, start walking to the front of the Harris Teeter and line up for some high intensity training:

Perform each exercise, and then run a 40 yard spring (20 out/back).  The exercises were:

All in double count cadence

Merkin x 10

Squat x 10,

Peter Parker x 10

Diamond merkin x 15

Jumping lunge x 15

Peoples chair x 90 sec

Carolina dry dock x 15

Monkey humper x 15

Wide arm merkin x 15

Dips x 20

Derkins x 15

Circle up for 7 Minutes of Mary (all in double count cadence)

LBC x 20, Hello Dolly x 20, Pretzel Crunch (10L/10R), American Hammer x 20, Superman hold x 3, Box cutter x 20, Boat and canoe x 3

Indian run around the whole parking lot and finish to COT

Naked Man Moleskine

It was another great morning at the Corral with a good mix of Ruckers and Bootcampers.  I had a strong group with me today and they powered through the exercises and sprints with gusto.  I ‘bonked’ about half-way through the workout and had to modify a few of the exercises.  But, Q-dreniline is real, and that carried me through the rest of the morning.

It’s cool to have the ruck group with us and we crossed paths twice with them today.  All we did was exchange pleasantries, but I think it would be cool to join together for part of the workout at some point.  Food for thought for those who are reading this.

Great to have Yat Yaz with us for his second workout.  He survived the Jekyll beatdown at Alcatraz on Saturday and we hope he becomes a regular at F3 The Fort.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

1. It’s not too late to bring in more eggs.  Over 3,500 collected so far.  April 1 egg hunt at the Paradise neighborhood for those that can attend.
2. Brew Ruck, also on April 1.  Using canned goods for the Fort Mill Care Center as weights.
3. More – read your newsletter!

Prayers for the son of an F3 member battling depression. Prayers for those participating in P200.

Twister encouraged those to reach out to your F3 brothers when you need help with a problem.  It’s much easier than going it alone.

It was a privilege to lead the group this morning and I look forward to my next Tuesday at the Corral.

The weekly convergence at Golden Corral did not disappoint again this week.  The craziness that we head lock each other into (GoRuck Tough, P200, and just generally getting stronger and better) is the catalyst for these weekly convergences.  It is why 4 PAX went out at 4:40 to log an extra 3 miles before the “official F3” start only to find a lone Deacon logging some ruck miles after starting at 4:10!  Golden Corral’s new normal is hosting PAX heading out for 5-6 mile runs, ruckers making mistakes like following Zima into a dark corner for some suggestions of ladders involving bear crawls and burpees (which he did TWICE), and then there is the boot camp where this all began for most of us.

Millions of PAX (33 to be exact) and they start to disperse.  6 remain for the bootcamp which just happens to be perfect for some of the spacing needs on cart corrals.  YHC has been reading a book titled “Living with a Seal.”  This book is the real life account of Jesse Itzler who hired a retired navy seal to move in with his family for a month and train him.  He happened to pick David Goggins after watching him complete a 100 mile team relay race on his own.  In the book we Jesse details out their daily workouts which generally include double digit mileages on the runs and growing triple digit numbers for everything else.  High repetition and high intensity…..always.  I decided to use this as the inspiration for today’s workout.

Warm up:

• SSH X 30ish – who knows, PAX mumble chatter combined led to a lost count.
• Merkins X11
• Mountain Climbers X 15
• Windmills X10

The Thang:

Mosey to the front of Harris Teeter for the start.

• Run to the two cart corrals that are half the length of the parking lot
• 10 pull ups
• Run to the end of the parking lot for 15 merkins
• Run back to the front of the HT
• 15 Big Boy Situps

At about lap six, Aquaman found another gear and was gone.  He finished the entire series half a lap ahead of the rest of the PAX.

We completed the series 15 times.  Merkin form was starting to get a little ugly on the 9th lap so we made an adjustment and went to 10 hand release merkins.

The end result was 150 pull ups, 200 merkins, 225 big boy situps, that were completed while running 2 miles.

With only 7 minutes remaining the PAX made a quick mosey over to the side of HT and took a seat in the people’s chair against the O’Reilly Auto Center.  While the PAX stayed seated each PAX would take turns bear crawling to the HT wall for 10 donkey kicks and then bear crawl back.  We started with the two PAX on each end and worked our way in.

Mosey to the wall on the far side of the parking lot for 15 dips and then a duck walk to the second parking lot row.  Mosey back for COT.

Announcements:

• The Forging Ruck and Camping Trip to Mt. Mitchell – See Repeat Twitter for details.
• Slowburn closed for ruck convergence on NAFO
• April 1 – Brew Ruck
• April 1 – Easter Party at Paradise.  Deliver stuffed eggs to AOs on 3/18 for collection

Prayer Requests:

• Dream House – upcoming surgery
• Marriages both strong and struggling

Welcome to FNG FaceTime who started his journey as a Rucker!

Always a pleasure!

Spider-Man

I really didn’t have a plan…And then I did. It was one of those weinkes you look at and go, “Huh! I wonder what that’s going to look like.” Turns out it looks awful. And I may have lost a few friends today. Spirits were high and mumblechatter was in full effect. 0515 came and we disassociated with the runners and bootcampers (#antiestablishment), rucked up and moseyed.

Mosey in formation to the Oil Change side of Harris Teeter

COP
25 SSH IC
10 Bombjacks OYO
25 SSH IC
10 Bombjacks OYO
10 Windmills IC
20 Squats IC

Line up on the HT Wall and face new auto parts store.

Ascending Burpees 1-7 w/ Bear Crawls (Ruck On)
Bear Crawl to Auto Store 1 Burpee
Bear Crawl to HT Wall 2 Burpees
Continue until you get to 7 Burpees

Mosey in Formation to Back of Harris Teeter and line up

Ascending Squats 1-11 w/ OH Carries
OH Carry about 30 yards 1 Squat (Ruck Front)
OH Carry about 30 yards 2 Squats
Continue until you get to 11 Squats

Mosey in formation to the other side of Harris Teeter for an #Omaha

Repeat Ascending Burpees 1-7 w/ Bear Crawls (Ruck On) – Crowd pleaser

Mosey in formation to the front of Fort Mill BBQ (New AO for 2ndF)

B.O.M.B.S.
10 Burpees
20 OH Presses
30 Merkins
40 Big Boy Situps
50 Squats until 0600 (about 1 minute)

COT

NMM
-This was a stupid workout but I had a lot of “fun”
-Tclaps to everyone for pushing through
-Thanks to Geronimo for reminding us that it’s only 45 minutes
-I need Ibuprofen and a nap
-Tclaps to FNG “FaceTime” who I heard went to the gym after 😐
-That’s all I got, I’m spent

Praise and Prayers
-Prayers for Dreamhouse’s (RH Pax) kidney surgery
-Pray for marriages
-Pray for families

Honor to lead!
Zima

“Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray
from the straight road and woke to find myself
alone in a dark wood.”
– Danté

The lines above describe us all in some measure or other as we have scraped and scratched along our journey out of the Kingdom of the Sad Clowns and attempt to make ourselves into something of use to our Creator, our families, and our fellow man… I thought it fitting (because my snakes have been swirling more than usual as of late) that we celebrate this trip through life with a nod to the 9 circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno poem… No, I don’t know entirely why. Yes, it is fruitless to ask. Here’s what it looked like:

Warm up:
Ruck around the parking lot and over to the new O’Reilly Auto Parts building
Windmills x 10 (IC)
Moroccan Nightclubs x 15 (IC)
Merkins x 10 (IC)
MC x 20 (IC)

Now begins Dante’s Inferno – 9 circles of Hell
Partner up, size matters…

Circle 1: Walk around the building

• 3 curls
• 3 overhead press
• 3 flutter kick presses (double count)
• 3 dips
• 3 sumo squats

Circle 2: Double time around the building

• 6 of each exercise

Circle 3: Overhead hold around the building

• 9 of each exercise

Circle 4: Catch me if you can around the building

• 12 of each

Circle 5: Lunge Walk around the building

• 15 of each

Circle 6: Crab walk around the building

• 18 of each

Circle 7: Bear crawl around the building

• 21 of each

Circle 8: Partner 1 Fireman’s Carry around the building

• 24 of each

Circle 9: Partner 2 Fireman’s Carry around the building

• 27 of each

Hustle back for COT…

========================

It’s impossible to say where the journey ends, but we know the final destination. It’s nearly impossible to put into words how good F3 been for me and for my family, so I won’t try.
But it has been good… Really good. Even if this workout sucked… 🙂

Helmet, out.

As a massive number of PAX rolled in for GC, I noticed that nearly all had on reflective gear or a Ruck.  Light crowd for the Boot Camp portion, but it only takes 2 PAX (and we had 7).  There was all kinds of Running and Rucking going on, but here’s what we did for the Boot Camp:

The Thang

Known as the Running Escalator at WIB in Metro.

Warm Up Lap around the outside of the GC lot (~ half mile).

Form up in Pairs (with one triple due to odd numbers) and do the following:

• 1 Pull Up
• 2 Merkins
• 3 LBC

While the other PAX is doing Mountain Climbers.  Then flapjack and the second PAX multiplies x2:

• 2 Pull Ups
• 4 Merkins
• 6 LBC

The flapjacking and multiplication continues up to 11x and then descends down to 1x, replacing the Mountain Climbers with Prison Squats.

At increments of 5, we took a lap around the lot along with a special lap at 11s, so it looked like this:

Lap, 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, Lap, 6x, 7x, 8x, 9x, 10x, Lap, 11x, Lap, 10x, 9x, 8x, 7x, 6x, Lap, 5x, 4x, 3x, 2x, 1x, Lap

In the end, this turned out to be totaled per team at:

• 121 Pull Ups
• 242 Merkins
• 363 LBCs

NMM

Not much to report on this one.  My 3rd Q of the week and was looking for something fresh, so I turned to other regions for inspiration. Overall a keeper I think.

Announcements

• Yeti
• CAH this Saturday and Next, NASA is Site Q
• 3rd F Convergence 2/25 0530 @ Eternal
• The Forging rescheduled for 3/11

Prayers

• Tater’s wife has an optional surgery coming up.  Prayers for peace about what decision to take on that.
• WWL’s college friend is having a planned C-Section Today.  Prayers for safe delivery.
• Bojangles wife lost her job.  Prayers for guidance and peace to find a new one (Pharma sales).
• Olive is struggling, please lift him up in this difficult time (#Cobains that omitted from BOM Prayer).

Honor to Serve.

26 pax saddled up at the Golden Corral for a cornucopia of workout options (old school boot campers, rucking mules, and running gazelles) in another unseasonably warm January morning. The groups split off fairly evenly, as YHC took the boot campers (about 7 total) for a warm-up mosey around the shopping center parking lot before landing in the CVS lot for warm-up.

Warm-up O Rama

• SSH (IC) x30
• Cherry Pickers (IC) x15
• Plank Jacks (IC) x20
• Mountain Climbers (IC) x20
• Moroccan Squats (IC) x20

Mosey to the Grace Presby Church

The Thang
Two stations were set up at extreme ends of the parking lot. Pax all gathered at station 1 and partnered up (size not mattering). Partner 1 performed first exercise (listed on a paper at station 1) while partner 2 ran to station 2, did the first exercise (listed on paper at station 2, with the number of reps). Partner 2 then ran back to station 1 and flapjacked. Once partner 1 returned, repeato with next exercises on the lists. Here were the lists at each station.

Station 1:

1. Burpees
2. Jump Squats
3. Merkins
4. Carolina Dry Docks
5. Bomb Jacks
6. Calf Raises
7. Monkey Humpers

Station 2:

1. 20 LBCs
2. 10 Morning Wood
3. 20 Superman
4. 15 Mahktar Ndiayes
5. 20 Sumo Squats
6. 20 Heels to Heaven
7. 15 American Hammers

These exercises took us right up to 6am and we headed back to COT. But about mid-way through the list, pax took a recovery and discussed the tendency to get bitter as we get older. Why does this seem to happen? Perhaps it’s a reaction to youth not respecting the wisdom that comes with age. Perhaps it is because older folks just have more time to watch FoxNews. No matter the reason, as I age I find it easier to be bitter about things. My dad had bitter tendencies before a brain tumor took his life a few years ago. The doctors said the tumor was affecting his judgement and likely the cause for his attitude. But that got me thinking: for most people, bitterness is a choice. So, when my 10 year old proudly shows me a creative drawing she did, instead of getting ready for bed like I asked, I have a choice on how I react. When a long-time customer tells me he is leaving for my competition, I have a choice on how I react. When the Q says we need to do 5 minutes of burpees to finish up the workout, I have a choice on how I react. We are presented with choices on how we react hundreds of times a day. For each of those, we should pause for a moment and determine if our knee-jerk reaction is one that will speak life into the other person, or beat others down. As I pause to contemplate my response, I try to keep in mind that assuming the best in others will usually keep my heart out of trouble.

Thanks Decibel and fellow pax for the opportunity to serve by lending the workout. Fine group of pax that worked hard and provided great encouragement. Special welcome to FNGs Scrapple and Yoga Pants (both ruckers).

Golden Corral has always been a great AO and it is no different for the ruck option.  With ten ruckers in attendance it is clear that this “ruck thing” has taken hold.  Those that have not tried it need to.  It comes with the excellent opportunity for some 2nd F disguised as 1st F for those long rucks.  The ruck workouts are another thing.  Think boot camp and a gear workout wrapped up in one.  Cardio exercises are greatly intensified buy the extra weight.  Strength exercises, like a merkin, are taken to another level.  As much as it sounds like an infomercial promising faster results in the middle of the night, it is true!!

Warm-Up – With the ruck on

• Windmills X10
• Plank then raise right arm and left foot, then reverse
• Merkins X10
• Mountain Climbers X15

Mosey over to the strip mall in front of Fort Mill BBQ.  Time for the main course….12 Days of Christmas, ruck style.

• 1 100 Yard Dash
• 2 Standing Lunges
• 3 Maktar N’Diayes
• 4 Sumo Squats
• 5 Golden Burpees
• 6 Merkins
• 7 Dips
• 8 Ruck Swings
• 9 Flutter Kicks
• 10 Bicep Curls
• 11 Tricep Extensions
• 12 Ruck Thrusters (Ruck held at neck level, drop to a squat, stand and press the ruck up to full extension)

We started out with the 100 yard dash without the rucks.  As the workout went on PAX started to leave the ruck on for the 100 yard dash.  Whether this was out of purely being lazy or wanting the extra push, nobody said, but it happened.  WWL pioneered the idea and Maximus picked up on the very next rotation.  By the end about half of the PAX were in on the fun.

The seventh, sixth, and fifth days of Christmas are apparently a rough time for everyone.  At least that true when you there is a string of dips, merkins, and burpees.  Painful on every pass.

Once the PAX all completed the days, we marched it 2X2 to the wall next to State Farm.  Here we took a seat in the People’s Chair with our rucks on our laps.  Hung out here for a while and then started walking toward the Red Bowl.  Rucks off, and held over our heads from State Farm to the front of Teeter.  Shoulders spent, we rucked our way over to the parked cars and completed some Mary while we waited for the boot camper to arrive.

Huge shout out to FNG Bridge Gate for making his F3 debut with a ruck workout!  Moving from the couch to post is a big enough step, doing it with a ruck is another level.  Way to wash that red pill down with Tabasco!

As always, a true honor to lead PAX as strong as these.  I look forward to the next opportunity.

Announcements:

• Joe Davis Run – We have 5K, 10K, and ruck options.  We have coffee from Forte Legato.  And the best part, it is an amazing cause.  You have no reason not to sign up.

Prayers:

• Royal’s father
• Sgt York and family as they travel back from China
• Olaf and his family

Eight men met at the Harris Teeter lot for another Tuesday morning beatdown at the Golden Corral.  Here is what they did:

The Thang:

Dynamic warmup:  knees to chest, ankles to waist, lunge/arm extension, toy soldiers,    Start the mosey to the COP, but wait, someone else is pulling in – it’s Sir Topham Hat!   So, we picked him up and circled back to the COP:

All in cadence:  SSH x 40, merkin x 10, cotton picker x 10, diamond merkin x 10, squat x 20, LBC x 20, mountain climber x 40, hillbilly walker x 20, staggered merkin (10L/10R)

Mosey to the hill by the old driving range and meet at the bottom.  Run up the hill and back to the bottom. . At the bottom, pair up for Jacob’s Ladder.   Stay together for the whole routine and start at 3 burpees and work up to 10 burpees.

Mosey back to the original spot on the HT lot, line up and face the retaining wall.  Plank it up while one guy runs to the wall, box jumps it, does a bombjack and returns to the line.  The next person in line takes off to do the same while the guys waiting drop to 6″.  Alternate between a regular plank and a 6″ plank until all the Pax have run to the wall and back.

Circle up for ABLAB (all medium/slow counts – crowd pleaser!)

Freddie Merc x 20, American hammer x 20, alternate left hand to right leg extension x 10, Superman hold x 2,

COT

Moleskin

We had a total of 17 Pax this morning including the 9 others who were rucking with Witch Hunt.   Having the ‘ruck crew’ at Golden Corral is a regular thing now,  and it’s a good thing.  There is always more chatter with a larger group, and it’s fun to start and end together.    When we did Jacob’s Ladder today, I had the guys pair up and stay together to encourage one guy to push the other guy to go faster.   I hope that had the desired effect.  Toward the end of the workout, we did box jumps on the retaining wall which, the last time we did this, the wall was not quite as tall. Hmmm….must have been at a different spot at the parking lot – sorry about that men!

Lately, I’ve noticed that the guys are sticking around longer after workout to hang out and catch up with one another.   A lot of us have known each other for a couple years or longer,  and the friendships we’ve developed are growing stronger.  That’s great to see and gives you another reason to climb out of bed and meet at 5:15 am!

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

Turkey collection this week and through Saturday for Paradise neighborhood.  Xmas party on Saturday, Paintheon games tomorrow.  Read your newsletter!

Praise for the birth of Olaf’s child, prayers for a troubled father,  prayers for the injured Pax