So this morning I wanted to share with the PAX posting at the Deep a little taste of all the fun and exciting things we did during the Go Ruck Tough #2259 about a week ago. This was my 1st Go Ruck event and it was even tougher than I imagined. For the 12 hours we rucked, carried logs, carried people, did burpees, ran, and many other awesome & painful things. No time to waste! No rucks with extra weight for the PAX, but we’d be fine without them.

The Thang

Quick warmup lap around the parking lot with:
High Knees – Butt Kickers – Side shuffles – Karaokes

Mosey to the Field – Circle Up!

I started with a common theme we received from the Cadres at the Go Ruck Tough. I told the PAX they were moving too slow on our warm-up lap.
Your penalty = 5 burpees!

COP
25 SSHs – 20 MNCs – 10 Windmills – 15 IWs – 10 Merkins – 20 Mountain Climbers

Time to mosey to the first of four cones set up on the field. I shared with the men our welcome party from Friday night. We were given our first assignment and assigned a Team Lead and Assistant Team Lead. For the first hour at the Tough we had to cover four corners, do the exercises listed on the cue cards, and then in 2 line formation hump it around the track for a lap to the next card. At the tough there were 5 exercises, all while wearing your ruck sack. Today we’d do the following, without a ruck.

3 exercises each corner, run around the full field to the next cone. Keep the PAX together!

Corner 1
5 burpees
10 Squats
20 LBCs
run a lap

Corner 2
5 burpees
10 Merkins
30 American Hammers
run a lap

Corner 3
5 Burpees
20 Carolina Dry Docks
40 SSHs
run a lap

Corner 4
5 Burpees
20 Lunges
30 Mountain Climbers

We took a small walk and discussed how much “humping” we had to do during the Go Ruck Tough. We totaled around 13 miles with our rucks for the full 12 hours. Doesn’t seem like much for that amount of time, but trust me…it sucked!

We took off for the other school and headed to the Track
Witch Hunt and I shared the next phase was some learning around military recon, movement and army tactics from Cadre Flash and Cadre Daniel. Really interesting, and the only time we really got our breath all night at the Tough.

So for today, we would do our cover and move in pairs 100 yards down the field.
Cover & Move = 1st partner lays down – other jumps up, moves 5 feet ahead and lays down – partner 1 jumps up and leaps frogs ahead of partner 2

Once we finished we moved over to the track for my FAVORITE part of the Tough – PT!
So the only time we got to ground our rucks for the night was during PT. Cadre Daniel says for PT we’re going to do 100 burpees then run a 1.1 mile track, then do 50 more burpees and run that 1.1 lap again – all within 32 minutes or you will performance out of the GRT! This was terrible around 3am…by the end guys were dry heaving and I almost passed out. I finished with Witch Hunt at 35 minutes and change…lucky for us Cadre Daniel added a little time due to the track having hills. So the cut was 37 minutes. He didn’t actually send anyone packing Friday night, but he did pull about 60% of the guys that didn’t make the 37 minute time and gave them a dressing down before we moved on.

At the Deep we paired it back but it still sucked; we did:
30 burpees then 2 laps around the track for a 1/2 mile
20 burpees then another 2 laps
The men finished around 12-14 minutes (gassed)

Another fun part of the Go Ruck, Cadre Daniel told us we left a mess at the start and we were going to have to pay a penalty. 2 minutes of flutter kicks, if ANYONE drops he’s going to start the time over…I hated this, so I cut our time down to 1 1/2 minutes…which was still terrible on Saturday! Lots of groans by the time we hit 90 seconds.

We moseyed back to the Middle School, this next part came from our 10th hour as we joined the Patriot F3 PAX for their Saturday morning workout. The first thing Incoming had us do, 6s up a hill. Start at bottom with 5 Merkins – bear crawl up the hill 1 Monkey Humper walk backwards down the hill.

This Saturday we did something very similar, but our hill started at the top. 5 merkins – run down – 1 Monkey humper – Bear crawl up
Repeat this until you’ve reached 1 Merkins and 5 Monkey Humpers

We finished up and headed back to COT

Announcements:
Next Week the Deep will start at 6:30am for summer time hours!
Savage Race and Mud Run coming up

Prayers for Patience and Love

Always a honor to lead, amazed that all 59 F3 men made it through last weeks GRT #2259!

Royale, survivor of #GRT2259

No matter how much marketing and selling and promoting like a WWE showdown there was nothing to draw the crowds out on an Easter Saturday. We probably should have converged like at Christmas and this will be on the Calendar for next year, however it did not stop the The Deep from happening. YHC and two faithful showed up to take our daily red pill an put the work in to get better. Speaking of “work”, I asked the men if they have ever had a big project that took commitment, passion, planning and boatload of effort to “git errrr done”. Of course as men we always have a project but I’m talking about a Mac Daddy that when it was completed….you stood back, had a beverage and said…..Dang…..I did it!! Well YHC and the PAX shared our projects and work during the beat down…..more to come.

The Thang:

Mosey to back of school farthest point possible where if a lone PAX member showed up late, they were not finding us. Might have been half mile mosey, but Witch Hung can keep me honest.

COP: In honor of Senator Tressel

• SSHs
• Squats
• Merkins
• LBCs
• Parker Peters
• Freddy Mercury’s
• Carolina Dry Docks
• Peter Parkers
• Flutter Kicks
• Imperial Walkers
• Wide Arm Merkins
• Sumo Squats

Dripping wet at this point and thinking…..we are warmed up.

Mosey to top of steps and YHC shares my big project. I had built a 100ft retaining wall in my back yard, so stone work, back fill, drainage pipes, plants, sod and the rest of landscape. Took 2 months of chipping away at it each night after work and weekends. When it was complete and the grass was gorgeous agaisnt the stone wall background and the hollys and other plans around the yard, I stood back and said….wow….that came together nicely….and I’m done!

Next…..Jacobs Ladder on the steps with

• 6 LBCs at top
• 1 Bombjack at bottom

Once complete, Mosey to the baseball/softball diamond

Nemo shared his project of buying a “fixer upper” and planning on 4 months of work. 4 years later he was complete ( I think we all can relate). The project was gutting entire house and replacing with all new interior and the highlight was the master bath with all new guts, pipes, tiles and the works. It was gorgeous when it was complete and Nemo stood back and said….its compete and its NIIIIIICE!!!

3 Rounds around the bases.

1. Round 1
   1. Lunge walk to 1st
   2. Bear crawl to 2nd
   3. Lunge walk to 3rd
   4. Bear crawl to Home
2. Round 2
   1. Lunge walk to 1st
   2. Broad jump Burpee to 2nd
   3. Lunge walk to 3rd
   4. Broad jump Burpee to Home
3. Round 3 – In honor of WWL
   1. Lunge walk to 1st
   2. Power Skip to 2nd
   3. Lunge walk to 3rd
   4. Power Skip to Home

Mosey to top of steps again…..Witch Hunt talked about himself. No really his major project was himself. He was holding his child and grew weary and tired and came to the conclusion he was weak and out of shape and it was time to do something about it. He spent months getting in shape and became the beast that we all know called Witch Hunt. Its an ongoing project as we can all relate, but he can now hold up that baby like the Lion King that he is!!

Mosey to back of school

People’s Chair

• One man bear crawls to fence and sprints back….work though until each has gone 3 times

I talk to the PAX about Christ’s words from the Cross on Friday “Its Finished” and how his suffering and death was over, but the bigger plan and work that God had put in place was finished. Like our big project, God had a plan from the beginning and to came to a close when Christ took all of our sin and mess away on that cross. Now we need to accept this free gift and the rest of the plan comes to life in HIM. Resurrection of life here and life eternal because of the project God started in the garden with Jesus coming to us and dying our death. It was Finished there. Nothing more for us to do. Sit back and see the beauty Christ has given us all!

Finish Strong

• One man does ball to the wall
• One man does Step Ups
• One man runs 100 yards and back
• All rotate through until complete
• Rosalitas
• Hello Dollys
• Protractor

Mosey to COT

Thanks for the Q and appreciate the PAX!

Cake Boss

Act I – DaVinci Cones: Merkin Mile Edition

When 7 a.m. rolled around and the workout was properly disclaimed, we moseyed around the parking lot and across the street to the front of the school for a little Circle Of Pain:

• SSH x 20
• Moroccan Nightclubs x 20
• Windmills (NICE N SLOW for the Q)
• Low, Slow Squats x 20
• Merkins x 10 (DC)
• Hold, Downward Dog and Honeymooner to stretch (for the Q)
• Peter Parkers x 10 (DC) – repeat stretches
• Freddy Mercurys x 10

Then we moseyed to the incredible track for the Merkin-in-in Mile-ile-ile…

Pretty simple “set-it-and-forget-it” workout for which I am notorious:

I set out two lil cones on opposite sides of the ¼-mile track.

• First lap: 10 merkins at each cone
• Second lap: 7 merkins at each cone
• Third lap: 5 merkins at each cone
• Fourth lap: 3 merkins at each cone

Then it was time to hand it off to my friend Royale.

Act II – Royale’s Merkins and BLIMPS

“Merkin Mania” at the playground

• 20 Swing set Derkins / 20 Swing set Crunches
• 20 Hand-release Merkins / 20 Plank Jacks
• 20 Ranger Merkins / 20 shoulder Taps
• 20 Wide-arm Merkins / 1 minute Elbow Plank

Mosey back across the street to Oakridge for BLIMPS

• 5 Burpees
• 10 Lunges
• 15 Imperial Walkers
• Blanked on the “M” and the PAX graciously called Merkins, so we did 20
• 25 Plank Jacks
• 30 Squats

We finished this so a quick lap in the parking lot.  Rinse and repeated with M becoming Mountain Climbers.

Finished a hard hour of work with some stretching…

###

Moleskine

Royale spoke from the heart for a few moments about what it means to be a part of F3, framing his talk by highlighting each of the Three Fs. While I don’t remember his exact words, I hope I’ve captured the essence. And since we co-Q’d this one, I offer my take as well.

Of course we all know the First F: Fitness. It’s the Magnet. It’s what got us out at 0-Dark-15 to begin with. We all know the importance of moving our bodies and keeping ourselves strong physically as we get older. But as Royale reminded us, that’s just the beginning.

The Second F of Fellowship is the Glue that keeps us coming out in the cold, the rain — even the remains of a hurricane as it passed over the QC. It’s the Shield Lock with our Brothers in Arms. It’s a community of like-minded men who are there to pull us and push us and catch us and lift us. At the very least, it is a group of friendlies to sweat along side of; at its deepest, it is finding brothers from other mothers. It is what you bring with you and what you make of it.

But it’s the Third F that can be truly transformative. It’s what’s described as the Dynamite in Freed to Lead * by F3 founders OBT and Dredd. We all have heard or read the mission of F3: “…To plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership.” I’ll admit that when I first began posting nearly a year ago, I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, or how burpees and bearcrawls were connected to leadership.

And then I Q-ed my first workout. I was scared, but I wanted to push myself to do something that scared me.

And then I was talking to Vinny one morning about getting a group of us together for a beer. So we started a happy hour which I Q the second Tuesday of each month.

And then I found myself on a diversity and community outreach committee, which organized a turkey giveaway before Thanksgiving, and an Easter Party just last weekend.

And suddenly, I saw the connection: When you have your life priorities in the right order, and when you seek, find and acknowledge a power greater than yourself, you feel compelled to do something to affect change in your sphere of influence. I see it all around me in F3 with men donating time talent and treasure to a greater good. Children’s Attention Home. Operation: Sweet Tooth. Mission trips to Colombia. The list goes and grows with each passing month.

Thanks, Royale for the opportunity to Q with you, brother. The Deep is where I first posted, and that A.O. and the PAX who post there mean a lot to me.

Honored to serve. ~ DaVinci

* If anyone reading this has not already read this book, I strongly encourage you do so. It’s available for purchase on Amazon (Pro Tip: if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can download it as part of your membership). If you’re like me, it will resonate profoundly.

Nothing like great weather and great Pax for a VQ. This one was particularly exciting for me because Snooki and I both started our F3 journey at the Deep on the same day. So I was very excited to be able to be a part of his VQ.

7 Pax completed a 4-mile pre-run and joined the other 6 Pax in the parking to start the festivities. Snooki gave the disclaimer, along with a warning for Dark Helmet, “I’m gonna go hard on you.” So that happened. Then we were off.

We moseyed over to the track and circled up on the football field for the warmup, which included:

• SSH x25
• Imperial Walkers x15
• Windmill x10
• Merkins x10
• Squats x10

The Thang

With us good and warm it was time to get started. We moseyed over to the far goal post for some Dora 1-2-3. Pax paired up and performed 100 Merkins, 200 Squats and 300 LBCs while their partner ran suicides stopping at the 10, 30 and 50 yard line. Snooki came out swinging for his VQ.

When finished Snooki, allowed a quick 10 count before moving onto the next thing. (The VQ-drenaline was strong)

We moseyed over to the track where Snooki had setup 4 cones stations along the track. The Pax were to complete 4 laps (1-mile) around the track stopping at each station and performing the exercise. Unfortunately I do not remember all the stations, however the list of horribles included:

• Burpees
• Flutter Kicks
• Merkins
• CDD
• Kraken Burpees (Crowd Pleaser)

With all that done and almost 3 miles in the books, Snooki passed it over to YHC for the remaining 15 minutes. I gave a quick Switzer on Col. William Reeder Jr, a Vietnam POW, in order to allow the Pax to recover.

From there we moseyed to the goal post in the end zone for a CSPAN special, Cover and Move. I had the Pax pair up and move as a pair. With one partner down, the other partner would move a few steps ahead then get down, allowing the other partner to get up and move a few steps ahead and so on and so on. We did this across the whole football field.

For added fun and because we had some extra time, we rinsed and repeated back across the field. While YHC wanted to go for a third, we were out of time and had to return to COT.

T-Claps to Snooki on his VQ. Gave the Pax all they could handle. Also,great to see some new faces at the Deep. This AO continues to grow and with Pax leading like Snooki the future is bright.

Also, thanks to Bolt, Mainframe and Dark Helmet for making the trip to support Snooki.

Until next time, back to the hunt…

3 Pre-ruckers and 1 Pre-runner headed to the Deep this morning to get a little extra credit in before the main event. 3 more joined in (including 1 FNG that Reborn EH’ed) after all the pre-fun. Standard FNG Disclaimer given and off we went.

The Thang

Mosey over to the other side of campus with some high knees, butt kicks, and toy soldiers added in. Circle for some COP:
25 x SSH
10 x Windmills
10 x Imperial Walkers
10 x Hillbilly Walkers
10 x Plank Jacks
10 x Slow Merkins
10 Count Honeymooner
25 x Mountain Climbers

Mosey to the back of the school.
People Chair for 30 count
20 Dips (OYO)
10 Step ups each leg (OYO)
People’s chair with shoulder press x 20 (IC)
20 Dips (OYO)
10 Step Ups each leg (OYO)
10 wide arm merkins (OYO)

Mosey to the side of the building near the football practice field.
Lucky 7 using the basketball poles.
7 Carolina Dry Docks at the first pole
7 Squats at second pole
7 LBC’s at third pole
Run back to the first pole and repeat until 7 rounds are complete
30 Hip Slappers just for fun after the lucky 7.

Mosey to the main strip at the front of the school. Start at the first cone (cones are 10 yards apart) #burpeebearcrawl100
10 Burpees, bear crawl to next cone
9 Burpees, bear crawl to next cone
8 Burpees, bear crawl to next cone
7 Burpees, bear crawl to next cone
6 Burpees, bear crawl to next cone
5 Burpees, bear crawl to next cone
4 Burpees, bear crawl to next cone
3 Burpees, bear crawl to next cone
2 Burpees, bear crawl to next cone
1 Burpees, run back to the first cone

(YHC really wanted to rinse and repeat this bad boy, but the FNG wasn’t having it)

Once back at the first cone, YHC let each of the PAX know that each cone had an exercise and rep count and for the next 15 minutes we would be going through the cones AMRAP style.
No exercise on first cone, just the starting point (everyone got 3 rounds in).
1. 25 LBC’s
2. 20 CDD
3. 5 Burpees
4. 20 Flutters
5. 30 Hip Slappers
6. 40 SSH
7. 10 Wide Arm Merkins
8. 25 Squats
9. 10 Diamond Merkins

Mosey to the cars and drop the cones off. 20 monkey humpers OYO just because someone mentioned monkey humpers.
Indian Run to the shovel flag (taking the longest possible route) for the Pledge of Allegiance. Mosey back to the cars for COT.

Announcements – CAH starts tonight at 4:00, YETI on Feb 18th, Savage Race Mudrun on May 13th (pre blast here – http://f3nation.com/2017/01/27/preblast-a-savage-departure-into-the-unknown-aka-spring-mud-run/ )

Prayers – Witch Hunt and his family at the loss of his father-in-law, Royale and his dad dealing with addiction.

Moleskin
1. Welcome FNG Nemo. Great having you out this morning. Thanks to Reborn for coming up from RH to give him that EH.
2. Pretty Sure Wild Thing won the Burpee Bear Crawl 100.
3. Thanks Royale for having me out to The Deep. Love coming out to Q this AO.
4. If you get the chance, go out and see some other regions and see some of the things they are doing not only in their workouts but also in their community. It may give you some new ideas for things to do during your Q, whether it be new exercises or a new format of presenting exercises. Plus a great chance to make some new friends.

Longshanks out!!

Our young F3 brother Whopper has been posting with us on the regular for a few months now and was days away from leaving town for several months for work. What do we do in situations like this? Accelerate his opportunity to Q! I spoke to him the week before and he was excited and ready to take on the challenge. Here are his words for this BB.

Whopper’s Thang:

My VQ got off to a rocky start as I was late a couple minutes (the traffic light, I protested), but I caught up to the PAX and we moseyed down to the center of the middle school track in heavy fog.

Warm-up was as follows:
15x SSH, imperial Walkers, windmills
2x ten count plank
1x ten count elbow plank

Main event kicked off half the PAX splitting off on either end of the track. Idea was to play an intense game of tag against the men on the other side. 3 PAX on one end with the other 4 half way around. We chased each other down until you could tag one PAX of the other group. Underestimated how painful that was going to be. 2 fast laps around the 400m track.

Staying in two groups we did an Indian run variant in which one group would stop and do 15 reps of an exercise of Q’s choice, catch up to the other group, and switch off. Exercises as follows:
15
Merkins
Jump squats
LBCs
Groans were heard all around as we circled back up and ensued pain till the 30 min mark –
Ascending pyramid of burpees, oyo to 5
15x Rosalita
15x hello dollies
15x flutter kicks
10 4 count merkins

The added cardio is what really made the difference for my half of the Beatdown, cross country background came in clutch.

Hand off to Royale.

I asked for a few ten counts to stop sucking wind, then we moseyed to a new part of the elementary school that Wild Thing and I found during our 1 hour pre ruck. It was a nice playground!

We kept the PAX split into two groups. One group would use the swings for a exercise while the other did the following.

25 Swing Crunches – Wide Arm Merkins
20 Derkins – American Hammers
20 Dips – Elbow Planks (Wild Things complained his arms were to short to do these swing dips…lazy!)

Mosey to the middle of the playground for this lovely green turf. I told the PAX this looks like great space for our favorite = Jack Webbs! (It wasn’t, like sandpaper on the knees)

1 Merkin to 4 over head claps –> repeat the cycle all the way to 10-40. Awful

10 count then flipped to our backs for a little Ab Lab break. I asked Bart how his sports hernia was doing, then made him do ab workout anyway…(I can be a real Jerk)

mosey back over to the road leading out of school, we had about 100 yards to cover so…

30 yards of lunges – plank for the 6
35 yards Lt. Dans – plank for the 6
35 yards Lt. Dangers – plank for the 6

Mosey back to our Middle school side of the street, hit a wall for the final segment.

People’s Chair last guy bear crawls to the other side
BTTW
Peoples Chair 30 count
Peeters on the Wall (thanks Mr. T, check lexicon)

Mosey back to start for a small ab lab final…and TIME!

Moleskin

One of the many things I’ve enjoyed in my own personal growth with F3 over the last two years has been the relationships I’ve gained with true HIMs, and the opportunity to try and do the same for other new PAX that come into our group. I’ve had great mentors, role models, and new REAL friends from some the hundreds of men I’ve been able to meet through F3. So what I’ve been trying to do is give back to the newer PAX and pay it forward like the men before me. I have been privileged to see Whopper in his own growth in the last few months, and truly get to know and learn more about him. He’s one of the guys I personally EH’d, just from a FLYER at a food truck event Witch Hunt, Dark Helmet and I attended in Lake Wylie. You know, one of those awkward, “He you look like you work out” kind of EHs! But the man showed up one Saturday morning, jumped out of his car and asked, “Is this F3?” and then kept coming around! The guy is wise beyond his years and has been a great addition to the Lake Wylie group. He’s jumped in for CSAUPS, helping me cut my 10K time at the Joe Davis run by over 2 minutes, and he’s come to 3rd F bible studies’ on Fridays with us to grow even more. It was an honor to co Q with him on his VQ and I wish him well as his work take him to Texas for 4 months. Glad he could experience what the men of F3 provide to their communities! So much more than a workout…

Royale

So we’re ready to get out in the 28 degree cold on a Saturday morning. At that temp…you never know who will show up…We gathered at the Deep 10 minutes before 7am and 7 men were ready to push their bodies. I warned them get ready to run today, some of us need to get more miles in for P200 prep!

We had an out of towner, McNabb with us on his 2nd post, so the real disclaimer given and we took off.

The Thang
Mosey around the back side of the school with some High Knees – Butt Kickers – Toy Soldiers – Kareoke – Side Shuffles
Once at the front of the school we did some lunges to stretch the legs out some more.

Mosey across the street to the front of the Elementary School for COP
15 IWs
25 MNCs
20 SSHs
10 Windmills
10 Merkins
20 Mountain Climbers
15 Flutter Kicks

Time to mosey to the track for the rest of the day…

I partnered the PAX up, 1 odd man out formed a group of 3. Stay with your partners during this portion. We had 12 cones set up with 12 exercises listed. Run a full lap, do the exercise. 12 laps by the time we’re done. I little chatter from the PAX on this one!

1. 30 Merkins
Lap
2. 50 American Hammers
Lap
3. 40 SSHs
Lap
4. 30 CDDs
Lap
5. 50 LBCs
Lap
6. 10 Burpees
Lap
7. 20 Partner Plank Merkins
Lap
8. 30 Freddy Mercury’s
Lap
9. 30 Monkey Humpers
Lap
10. 40 Morrocan Night Clubs
Lap
11. 40 Flutter Kicks
Lap
12. 5 Kraken Burpees

I ran out of cones at the house…so #11 was taped to a pink pail from my daughter’s beach toys…and #12 was just flipped on the ground until we got to the last round. Wild Thing and Witch Hunt bothed guessed the exercise easily…I guess I’ve become too predictable! But the fun came in how many reps… I told them 50, Witch Hunt told me anything over 10 I should just keep running!

By the time we were done, Strava said we’d gone 4.1 miles today. That was more running than I had planned for, but the PAX did great as always.

I shared our final message on Hope and what it means to me for this month/year. I mentioned for many 2016 seemed to be a not so good a year. In my own life we’ve had a lot of turmoil and challenges… but looking back you can focus on the negatives, or make sure to find the positives. Having hope, guided through the knowledge that God has a plan for all of us, can change your outlook on EVERYTHING in life. I shared about my father and his struggles with addiction and failures in life, and giving his care to God really changed my internal struggles with trying to fix my father.

We finished up the last two minutes running back to the Middle School and had time for 10 dying cockroaches and 10 Hello Dolly’s.

Announcements

Joe Davis Run next Saturday 1/7. The Deep will be closed!

Prayers
Safe travels for Witch Hunt’s parents traveling back from Indonesia
My Father
Davinci and the closure of 2016 with a renewed Focus in 2017

Always an Honor to Lead,

Royale