“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil 3:13-14

We are all training and working hard for different goals. Sometimes it gets hard and we quit or complain, but we are called to “Press on” toward the goal and attain the Prize. My question for the PAX…..what is your prize??

25 PAX came to Slow Burn, some runners most boot camp, but we all came to get better with our brothers.

The Thang:

We went off campus and crossed 160 over to Philiadelphia (Brotherly Love) Methodist Church. HIt COP for some warm Up

• SSHs
• Merkins
• Hillybilly Walkers
• Parker Peters
• Squats
• Peter Parkers
• LBCs
• Wide Arm Merkins
• Freddy Mercurys
• SSHs

Mosey to back of Church and through carport to corner of Cemetery

My son loves 4 square so we played my version. 4 rounds of 4 exercises at 4 corners
The number of each was 24 for being the 24th of Feb except Chest….it was 15.
Legs
-squats
-calf raises
-lunges
-monkey humpers

This was about the time Pusher showed up out of the blue, but apparently was running 2 miles looking for us. He made a few stops along the way but PRESSED ON and found us….which was amazing!
Shoulders
-CDD
-maktarjais
-overhead claps
-shoulder presses

Chest
-merkins
-wide arm
-derkins
-diamonds

Abs
-flutters
-Big boy sit up
-leg raises
-LBCs

YHC talked to the PAX about attaining the prize after training hard and pressing on. Sometimes our prize is something like our career, kids, titles or status. We go to school we build careers and we attain “success”. All of this is fine but when it defines us and we idolize it, we will lose ourselves in it. I offered the prize of Jesus. He is who I press on for and towards so that I can be the best worker, leader, husband and father. As the worldly things blow up HE is always constant and giving me peace in this crazy life!

Thanks Barry and Rebel for the Q opportunity.

Peace!

Cake Boss

Let’s just get this out there in the open….I was late for my Q, which I excitedly accepted from Cheddah & Trucker. Fortunately, as you would expect, my no show at 5:15 didn’t stop Trucker from running the ruck.

I don’t know if the disclaimer was given or not but given the show of the non-fng HIM that were there to ruck, I doubt it was needed.

By the time I showed, rolling in hot all the way around the Lowes building, Trucker had the pax in peoples chair passing their rucks from left to right and back. What a horrible idea, Trucker, and I’m glad I showed up when I did.

Trucker finished up his horribles and we rucked back, without my influence, to the toothpicks. These toothpicks, if I had to guess, weigh about 300lbs. Maybe more. I don’t know but I do know they are not easy to carry. With that in mind…

For the next 30 minutes our objective was to not let these toothpicks tough the ground. While that goal may sound easy for 300lb rail road ties, we had to complete 4 stations around Lowes. So, with pax divided in three, height did matter, we ventured out. Toothpicks on our shoulders we rucked to corner one and:

5 burpees & 10 squats with railroad tie. repeat until all three finished their burpees.

Ruck to next corner w/ railroad tie and perform 10 merkins and 10 squat shoulder thrust press with railroad ties. This one hurt! Repeat until all 3 did the merkins.

Ruck to next corner w/ railroad tie and perform 10 sumo squats and 10 railroad ties swings (left to right like a hammock). Repeat until all three did the sumo squats.

Ruck back to the pile of toothpicks, which put as at about .5 miles with these coupons, and before we   sit them down, we did 10 curls as a team of three with them. As I type this, 24 hours later, my forearms are still sore from this one.

With about 10 minutes to go, we rucked through the parking lot back to COT looking for new coupons for the next workout.

Back at COT ChickHawk took us out in the typical Chicken Hawk HIMship way.

NMM:

• Showing up late is never good, especially when on Q. But I’d rather show up late, I’d rather have everyman show up late, than never show up at all.
• Many thanks to Trucker for leading the pax like he always does.
• What you put on paper is sometimes best left on paper and not executed. For today, I think the pax did well with these beyond heavy railroad ties.

Announcements: Sign up for the Pathfinder and get ready for GRT!

Always an honor to lead.

WhatDid….OUT!

Thank you Cobra Kai! Thank you for introducing me to the “Hawk Workout”. This is probably one of my favorite ruck workouts. It combines two of my favorite things. Running and Pain. And a Ruck. So three of my favorite things. Heads up from What Did that there would be an FNG but that he’s ex-Military, so he’d be good to go! Large crowd at Slowburn this morning and I was busy counting backpacks. Looks like we had 9 ruckers this morning. While the bootcamp would be moderate, the rucking was not. I give you, the Hawk Workout (named after AJ Hawk)

Mosey from Chick fil-A to the side of Baxter’s Bunch (man my kids miss that place). Warm up with a few SSH and Windmills, and then…

The Hawk Workout
Run 1 Mile (w/o ruck, two wide laps around Lowes)
Put Ruck On (Everything done with the ruck moving forward)
15 Burpees
50 Lunges (25 each leg)
25 Squats (Ruck Back)
30 GTOs (Ground to Overhead w/ Ruck)
25 Merkins
25 Squats (Ruck Front)
15 Burpees
Take Ruck Off
Run 1 Mile

This is an awesome workout and even though there were varying degrees of fitness, I requested that we do everything as a team. Because that’s what you do when you’re rucking. We moseyed to the street, cut left up to BP and then a quick left back to COT. We had 2 minutes left so we finished with 15 more ruck burpees while the bootcampers came rolling in.

NMM
-Again, thanks to Cobra Kai for introducing me to this workout
-Tclaps to Repeat for carrying 30# when he’s only required to carry #20 (#petite)
-Big Toe’s military training was showing on how well he knocked out the merkins #perfectform
-One Third the group was #respect Always honored to lead Spitz, Lugnut and Twister
-Deacon, take that laminated workout and distribute to the PAX
-TPS, way to take initiative and rig your own rucksack
-What Did brings an FNG to a ruck workout. That is all!

Check Barry Manilow’s BB for today’s Praise, Prayers and Announcements! Honestly, I was a little light-headed and spent! And thanks to Trucker for the opportunity!

Aye!
Zima

I wanted to set a record for attendance and for FNGs at Slow Burn last Friday. We got neither one… What we did get were a few leadership lessons and a lot of mumblechatter…

The Thang:
Warm it up, Chris:
A typical set of warmy-uppy things… Windmills, Merkins, Side Straddle Hops, that sort of thing.

First, 10 burpee penalty for no FNGs. Then we split into four groups for a little Four Corners. After each round we planked for the six and for a little inspiration about being #ThatSomebody. We did 15 of each exercise – AMRAP until time is up.

• Round 1
  • Merkins
  • Squats
  • LBCs
  • CDDs
• Round 2
  • Wide Arm Merkins
  • Sumo Squats
  • Rosalitas
  • Moroccan Nightclubs
• Round 3
  • Diamond Merkins
  • Ballerina Squats
  • Double leg lifts
  • Overhead Claps
• Round 4
  • Left hand forward Stagger Merkins
  • Monkey Humpers
  • Freddie Mercury
  • Supine pull-ups
• Round 5
  • Right hand forward Stagger Merkins
  • Jump squats
  • American Hammers
  • Supine pull-ups
• REPEATO

Here are some of the thoughts shared between rounds:

• Horror vacui – Nature abhors a vacuum. – Aristotle / You don’t have to fill it with noise – Dark Helmet
  • In the absence of leadership, somebody will step up. Be that somebody. When I was younger, I thought you needed to talk a lot or be the loudest in order to be heard and to be a leader. Attention whores aren’t leaders…
• A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t want to go, but where they ought to be.
• Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat. – Jean-Paul Sartre
• No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it. – Andrew Carnegie
• People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. – John C. Maxwell
• If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right. – Henry Ford

NMM:
Of all the things shared, or thoughts that discussed, the one that seemed to hit home the most was when I asked the group, “What was the name of the last guy you EHed?” Let that one sink in a little. Either you believe in why we are here or you don’t. Either way, you are welcome here, but if you believe in the mission, then we all had best get to work…

Helmet, out.

My three and a half year streak of not Qing a boot camp came to a happy end this morning! As a true slow Clydesdale, I usually do my Qing at the different running locations. There’s just a lost less to plan. I usually just say “go”!

So, leading the fine men of Slow Burn took a lot more time and fretting to think through. Thanks Barry Manilow for the opportunity! Hopefully we had enough “burn” today to live up to the Slow Burn reputation.

The Thang:
We did a controlled mosey to Empire parking lot to circle up. Little did the PAX know, another run was coming up. I know those are popular with this crowd.

• Side Straddle Hops IC x 20
• Imperial Walker IC x 20
• Moroccan Nightclub IC x 40
• Windmill IC x 25
• Merkins IC x 10

• Normal mosey
• Karaoke left
• Karaoke right
• Butt Kickers as we went around the back of Lowes
• Shuffle left
• Shuffle right
• Normal mosey around the hotel.
• Slowed the mosey down to bring in the 6 – Finished at the I-77 side of Lowes.

• Noise was bad from the road so Trucker suggested a little more running to behind the Lowes. More grumbling.
• We did OYO Calf Raises while the Q rambled on about not having any cardio when first starting F3. Heavy marketing to the PAX for Wednesday Clydesdales with anyone wanting to improve cardio. Click this link to read up on why I heavily believe in running or some sort of cardio building exercising like Rucking: http://f3nation.com/2016/03/23/its-clydesdale-story-time-boys/

• 10  Merkins
• 20  Bobby Hurleys – When one does a squat and slaps the ground with both hands like a Duke basketball player, then jumps up and raising arms as if taking a jump shot.
• 10  Burpees
• 10  X and Os
• 20  Rosalita
• 20  LBCs
• 30  Calf Raises
• 20  Flutter Kicks
• 20  Carolina Drydocks
• 20 Hello Dollys
• 10  Hydraulic Squats
• 20  Imperial Walkers
• 20  Overhead presses
• 10  Turkish getups – These things sux
• 15  Seconds Honey Mooner
• Sprint to Empire Pizza parking lot where we started the warm-up. Then, we assumed the same Al Gore position. No spinning this time.
• 10  Big Boy Situps
• 20  Windmills
• 10  Imperial Walkers
• 10 Hello Dollys
• A little work on our 6 with Trucker leading the count. Protractor for a little more than a minute.

What a week for being a baseball fan. One of the best 7 game series for a world series. It doesn’t matter if you are/aren’t a fan of the Cubs or Indians. But who isn’t a Harry Carry or Bill Murray or Eddie Vedder fan? It was an amazing ride for the Cubs to exorcises The Curse of the Billy Goat. More importantly, what a game of strategy by both coaches. As a coach to my sons coach pitch and mnior league teams, the Majors is a whole different ball game. But since the baseball season is over, there has to be a way to celebrate the Cubs win and the end of baseball till spring training. So what better way to incorprate baseball into the workout!

The Thang:
A little COP in front of Chick-Fil-A and then mossy to Empire Pizza parking lot. Circle up at the homeplate cone. Everyone performs the first inning excersise at home, then follows the direction on how to get to first base and compete the first inning excersis, then onto second base, then third, then back to home to begin the second inning, and so forth until we finish 5 innings of baseball. Each rep relates to a statistic from Game 7 (and as I didnt realize, should have found more statsistics since the game only took 15 minutes to play – and lots of Omaha’s had to occur aferwards).

Homeplate
1 inning = 7 monkey humpers for 7 Indian runs
2 inning = 2 burpees for 2 steals
3 inning = 13 left leg scorpion merkin for 13 RBIs
4 inning = 39 merkins for 39 total Cubs at-bats
5 inning = 108 LBC for 108 year drought – FINALLY OVER

Sprint to First Base
First Base
1 inning = 4 burpees for 4 errors
2 inning = 7 big boy sit ups for 7 walks
3 inning = 24 lunges for 24 total hits
4 inning = 26 flutters for 26 total OFF Players used
5 inning = 14 Carolina dry docks for 14 strikeouts

Side shuffle to Second Base
 
Second Base
1 inning = 8 Carolina dry docks for 8 Cub runs
2 inning = 10 squats for 10 innings
3 inning = 14 right leg scorpion merkin for 14 runners left on base
4 inning = 36 Russian twists for 36 total players played
5 inning = 40 hello dolly for 40 total Indian at-bats

Sprint to Third Base
 
Third Base
1 inning = 4 diamond merkins for 4 homeruns
2 inning = 10 Moroccan night clubs for 10 pitchers used
3 inning = 17 merkins for 17 players in scoring position
4 inning = 17 wide arm merkin for 17 minute delay
5 inning = 68 squats for 68 yr drought for Indians – STILL

Side shuffle to Home

So know for the second half of a no-weinke:
Circle up for 49 (3 exercises, 7 times each, 7 rounds) with no rest between:
– 7 burpees
– 7 merkins
– 7 LBCs
 
split into two teams for bases relay:
-Team 1 runs around the bases while Team 2 runs the opposite direction in a relay fashion (this is a fun skill we use for my coach pitch and minor league teams and is a fun competitive skill) – these PAX sure are competitive as well!

Line up along frontage road of Empire Pizza
Just as with playing defense and side shuffling to a ground ball and getting your glove down in between your legs, we ran side shuffles between cross walks, flapjacking direction, then sprinting to final crosswalk. Rinse and repeat.

20 count for wall sits

Repeat side shuffle run

Mossy to COT

As we circled up for COT, I read the statistics one last time. What a series, what a game 7. Even though I am not a huge Ohio/Cleveland fan, you had to feel that neither team should have lost. They both never gave up. That is a lesson that we PAX need to always instill in ourselves, as well as our 2.0’s, kids we coach, co-workers, marriage, faith, etc.. Giving up is not how the Sky Q intended us to live. In troubled times, and good times, prayers and accountability with our PAX and M is the only thing that will allow us to feel alive.

Read the newsletter! Yeti had been announced…..scary!

Trucker

A lively group of 20 pax posted to SlowBurn for the infamously moderate, end of the week workout. Thanks to high-quality #mumblechatter, Twister helped all pax get up to speed on how Senator Tressel’s washing machine is doing (nothing bombjack-worthy to see here). It’s the unpredictability of mumblechatter that makes Slowburn, and all F3 workouts, worth getting up for at 0430.

Warm-up
Mosey down around the lower parking lots, landing in the parking lot for one of the new-ish buildings just behind Jimmy John’s for warm-up exercises.

– SSH x20
– Windmills x15
– Tunnel touches x 15
– IW x15
– Merkins x10
– Mountain Climbers x10
– Low Slow Squats x 10

Mosey over to another parking lot closer toward Pleasant Road.

The Thang

Slow Dirty McDeuce – 12x, slow 4 count for each exercise

Set 1
– Wide arm Merkins
– Squats
– Clockwork LBCs
>> lap around one of the medical buildings with shuffle left/right and karaoke left/right

Set 2
– Curb Dry Docks
– Calf Raises
– Chop Sticks
>> lap around one of the medical buildings with shuffle left/right and karaoke left/right

Set 3
– Dip
– Step lunges
– Weezy Jefferson
>> lap around one of the medical buildings with shuffle left/right and karaoke left/right

Set 4 – Progressive
Jack Web (1-5)
– Merkins
– 4 overhead claps
– 4 squats
>> lap around one of the medical buildings with shuffle left/right and karaoke left/right

We had a little time left, so the pax were treated to a bonus exercise of 10 slow-motion bombjacks. This was down by pax holding starting position of bombjacks (squatting) until the Q called “up” to do the bomb jack.

Time’s up. Mosey back to COT.

Molesking
During the workout, we talked about how fear often shapes so much in our lives. Fear is not necessarily a bad thing, but it depends on what you are fearing, and what your response to it is. So much of our lives are spent reacting to social fears. This can not only cause us to do things displeasing to God, but in many cases those actions can be downright sinful. A fearful respect of God is the kind of fear that should move us toward action in the right direction. Social fears are an instrument of the devil to turn us away from God. And I think with just a few minutes of reflection, we’d all admit it is a powerful weapon. Even if you don’t see it in yourself, the Bible is full of examples where very Godly people make bad choices based on fearing man more than fearfully respecting the Lord. Take a few moments to see how fear is shaping your life, every week, every day, every moment.

Great work today, pax. Thanks for the opportunity to lead, and the encouraging words throughout (especially those from Twister in COT). And thanks to Barry Manilow for scheduling me to Q at this AO, where I posted as an FNG almost exactly 2 years ago.

(BTW, I missed a couple pax b/c my phone didn’t record correctly. Sound off (or ping me on the twitter) if missed and I’ll update the post. #cobains

Fifteen men enjoyed a stroll around the unnamed home improvement store.  With some stretches, 10 counts, mosey and a burning sensation that just wouldn’t stop.

Message:

Mercy/grace are born out of Empathy, Empathy is born out of trials /experience and relationships.  What experiences, trials and relationships are God using to mold you any how are you responding?

COP

• Dynamic stretching 
• Slow exercises
•   Imperial Walkers
•   Windmills
•   Mountain climbers

Suicides from line to line x3

Mosey behind lower (15, 10, 5)… nice and slow

 – slow dips

 – slow derkins

 Continue to mosey to wall (rotating with bear crawl, nice and slow)

 – slow wall sit

 – slow squat

Mosey to front of Baxter bunch (four corners) group split in two

Pick exercise and in each corner do 20,15,10 of that exercise

Mary

COP

Moleskin:

• Prayers for Olaf and his wife and unborn child as they continue to fight to leave the baby in the “oven” as long as possible.
• Prayers for Newman and his upcoming nuptials on Nov. 5th
• Twister is loud even when he isn’t trying