Category: The Swamp

On the Fly Tour of The Swamp

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12  Pax made it out to The Swamp and Chupacabra in the Gloom of the Morning. 7 bootcampers, 3 Ruckers, and 2 runners that started super early. Beautiful low humidity morning was a welcome surprise from the rest of the week. Big ups to the SkyQ for that blessing.

YHC was tapped by our friend Witch Hunt to cover his Q on short notice. Something about scoring and his M. At least that is what came over the Twitterverse. Few details might have been missed. But Glad to step up.

Short Notice so nothing Fancy this morning just grind it out and tour the Swamp.

Quick Disclaimer w/ no FNGs on hand and off we go.

Mosey to Old Navy parking lot for COP. Been testing out new COP areas. Home Depot is great and all but the Swamp is huge, so Why Not.

COP- After my Monday Q @ Quagmire and the mumble chatter about COP exercise and cadence calls  I added extra emphasis to ensure no confusion.

All IC

Moroccan Nite Clubs x 20    Windmills x 20   Weed Pickers x 20

SSH x 20   Box Cutters x 20   American Hammers x 20

Recover and Mosey over to Fountain  between American Burger and Just Fresh.

Shifted to other side of fountain to be somewhat respectful to the guy asleep on the bench.

Drop in 2 sets 30 reps per– Incline Merkins and dips. OYO

Dora 1-2-3  100 Merkins– 200 LBCs– 300 Squats partner not exercising made lap around parking lot fountain.  Plank to the 6 which was not a long plank. The PAX tore through this Dora.

Quick Time check since YHC left his watch at home and Mosey across to the long wall between Target and Great Clips.

Wall Work

Peoples chair. Hold 30-45 seconds. IC Arm Flutters x 20

Bear Crawl Down Line while holding peoples chair 2x.

10 sec recovery

Very quite #beatdown to this point- Next Exercise BTTW- That got the PAX talking.

Hit BTTW and add in 20 single count BTTW MTN CLIMBERS. More chatter.

10 Sec Recovery

Back to BTTW with 10x shoulder taps OYO More mumble chatter

10 sec recovery

Back to peoples chair w/ 20 more IC Arm Flutters

In PC 1st Pax hits the deck for 4 merkins and Crab Walks down the line.  Apparently NOONE likes the Crab Walk.

Time Check and walk to end of buildings to let the quads cool down and mosey back to COT for 6 mins of Mary.

Peoples Mary

Slow/Fast/Slow/Fast Freddy Mercuries IC- Nice one Bones!- Noone was ready for that.

20 OYO BBS–   20x IC Hello Dollies– 30some IC rapid leg flutters– 60 sec plank to end the work out.

I’m sure our rucking/running Friends had fun as they all rolled in as we completed the session.

Great Work this Morning Men! Honor to lead.

Duck out!

 

 

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BackA$$Wards at the Swamp

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10 #HIM came out to the Swamp on what was supposed to be a rainy Friday in the Gloom. The weatherman missed on that call and we got a warm and muggy morning.

2 Pax, Pothole and MileHigh knocked out a pre-run of 3 miles prior to the #Beatdown. Awesome job guys way to Accelerate.

No FNGs so a quick disclaimer and at 0515 we set off.

Q’drenaline is real and firmly took hold. Mosey might have been more of a slight sprint. Surprised myself as I typically lean to the slower side of mosey. But hey it worked.

Circle Up in the HD lot for COP.

All IC even though I may have forgotten to tell the group, but they figured it out.

15x Cherry/ Weed Pickers

15x Old Man WindMills

15x Imperial Walkers

15x Hillbilly Walkers

On the Fly Switch from Bat Wings to 20x SSH- (There was a reason, I’ll get to it momentarily.)Form up in a line for an Indian Run from the HD lot all the way over to the Tuesday Morning Lot. Considerable mumble chatter down line about the rather quick pace of said Indian Run. Q’drenaline is a Helluva Drug.

The Thang ” BackA$$Ward Doraside

Simply put, a Reverse Dora 4-3-2-1. With a slight change. Instead of a mosey around the parking lot, I had laid out 3 sets of cones w/ cone 3 being 50ish yards from the start.  So, while one PAX exercised the other ran suicides. Being backa$$wards the pax ran the suicide in reverse order. 3-2-1 Here’s the kicker, upon arrival to the cone the Pax did burpees before the return. 3x @ cone 3, 2x@ cone 2, 1x @ cone 1. Not sure why nobody was really excited about that.

Exercises included.

400 Squats-

300 Dips on the curb- The dips on the curb promoted the switch at COP. Legs last longer than shoulders IMHO. I did make up for the change.

200 LBCs

100 Merkins

Each Team Slogged it out. There was some Madonna, and Hottie playing in the background somewhere that must have greatly motivated the group. We finished it up with about 15 minutes to spare.

Super highlight of the morning- As Teams finished up they, took minimal rest and jumped straight in to pickup the teams still putting in work. I saw  PAX run additional suicides/burpees and do additional merkins to push each other to Get it Done and be better. That is what F3 is All About.  Love’d every minute of it.  Thanks MileHile for banging out an add’l 50 Merkins with me to keep the pace going while Corn Syrup pulled the last leg of our suicides/burpees. True Motivator- True #HIM

With Time still on the clock we collected the cones / exercise board and moseyed over to the wall long wall behind Just Fresh. Hold People Chair for 10-20sec then add Seal Claps and OH claps 15-20 IC. Kept the PAX in the PC for 2 rounds of Bear Crawls up the line. Mosey back to COT in perfect time to invite  our brothers w/ rucks to join us for 5 minutes of Mary. They gladly accepted.

On our 6 for PAX Choice Mary.

MileHigh was 1st up and lead some ungodly amount of leg flutters IC. To many to recall and the moans-n-groans around the circle as the count escalated told the tale.

Gets a little hazy after that.  Maybe some of the Q’drenaline had worn off at this point.

Russian Twists/ American Hammers

Freddy Mercuries and at least other 2 ab rippers to bring us to 0600.

Announcements.

F3 Dads Saturday

Prayers and Praises

CornSyrup- Prayers for some personal issues going on in his life. Not OYO Bro! Lutefisk tore his groin on Thursday and will be out a couple weeks. Milehigh Traveling with the fam to the Great White North- Might be smuggling back large quantities of Syrup. Prayers for M’s as school is now completely out across the region. Praise for the accomplishments of DaVinci’s 2.0s this school year.

Ball of Man

Thanks Cha-Ching for the opportunity to wrap up the week with these great Men.

🦆 Out

 

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Bucket Tour Stop 2

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After I partook in a little Broga led by Cobra Kai I made my way over to the area where the fellas were congregating. A few of the Pax thought I was gonna be a no show since The “Two Ferns Tahoe” was not in plain eyesight (they did not know I parked over by “Books a Million” for a reason later to be visited). At 5:15 I gave the disclaimer which included the announcement that I could not administer a Tourniquet since I could not find my belt this morning.

We moseyed over to the Home Depot Parking lot where I led the COP with:
SSH (30 in Cadence)
Mt. Climbers (15 in Cadence followed by a Right arm High then Left arm High and then a 6″ hold)
Squat Jacks or Smurf Jacks (15 in Cadence)
Plank Jacks (15 in Cadence followed by a Right arm High then Left arm High and then a 6″ hold)
Low Slow Squats (15 in Cadence)
Ranger Merkins (which are correct Merkins) (15 in Cadence followed by a Right arm High then Left arm High and then a 6″ hold)
Some Mumbling about going to COT now!

The Thang Part 1:
After making our way over to the Stairs by “Just Fresh” I instructed the Pax that we would line up in two lines and at the bottom of the stairs and hold an Al Gore. The two front Pax in the line would drop and do a Flying Squirrel and make their way up the stairs to the top landing (the next Pax would go at this time and so forth giving time to those in front to complete the said task). At the top of the stairs on the landing they would perform a Burpee and then make their way down the other side of the stairs and perform a Kraken Burpee. The instruction to hold plank was given until the 6 completed the Kraken Burpee. We then did this again with 2 reps of each then 3 reps of each.

The Thang Part 2: ”
After making our way over towards the old “Books a Million”, now “Tuesday Morning”, the Pax saw the Tahoe and trailer with a crap load of buckets full of Ziplock bags of soils (not dirt). I then took a minute to talk about it is usually this point in my workout that my head becomes clear and the thought of my day to come starts haunting me. I begin to think about my problems, my issues, my stress what ever it may be. Another words……what am I carrying around in my bucket today. The thought here is that we all are carrying around something and how can you help your fellow PAX with their bucket. Is that a phone call one afternoon to see how things are going with that prayer request he had last week? Or is that an extra fist bump when it looks like he is trying to say something but ends up keeping it to himself. We all know our buckets get heavy and fill up faster than they empty. So we picked up our buckets and made our way over to the small hill behind the Oil Change place. Last time the buckets showed up it was the “Green Monster” at The Crows Nest. Today we did 11’s with Monkey Humpers at the bottom and Bomb Jacks up top. I was smoked but were not done. I instructed them to assume the Body Destroyer Position and grab a breathe and I briefly talked about how we then get thru our day and lay down and then start all over again the next day so we jumped up and moved towards the trailer but FIRST we got some “gassers” in not Suicides anymore. I challenged the guys to grab another bucket if they would like and push themselves. Most did! We mixed in some Ab work during the intervals between the gassers.

After putting the buckets back on the trailer we made our way over to COT where the Ruckers joined us. A few Prayers request (particularly Gears’ Dad who has returned home from overseas where he suffered a Stroke. God bless him and thank God that his Son I believe (Gears’ brother) was there and was able to help since he is a nurse. I didn’t know this story and later found out and was completely blown away by the story. God is GOOD!

Hog and Coyote coming up Father’s Day Saturday….Read your new Letter…….

SYITG
I AM Two Ferns

Thanks for the chance to Lead Cha-Ching!!!!

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A buffalo saucy WO

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  • QIC: Trucker
  • When: 05/17/2019
  • Posted In: The Swamp

It’s been a while since I posted, as well as Q’d the Swamp and since the Site Q is a transplant from Buffalo and I just flew home from my work assignment in Buffalo, I couldn’t disappoint the PAX. Taking a bite out of the recent GoRuck DSM HTL event, I figured we would challenge each other to a saucy WO. Plus, I needed to workoff all the great craft beers from Buffalo (bypassed wings this time).

The Thang:

mossy to waterfountain: COP consisted of SSH, Windmills, IW, squats, Moroccan nightclubs, and merkins.

Partnered up for a 50/50 WO x5 rounds. For the DSM we used rucks, for the Swamp, we changed it up some. Each partner was to do 50 reps each of the exercise (if one PAX was stronger in one they could do more while the other did less). There was 3 exercises, 50 reps each, then ran the length of the parking lot and repeated 5xs.

50 merkins, 50 squats, 50 CCD

After the fourth round, the Q realized that we wouldn’t get through the weinke so  called for a switzer and mossy over to CVS to the railings. At that point realized the railings had multiple horizontal bars that would prohibit reverse pull ups 🙁

So finished the 5th round of the 50/50. Conducted a 5 minute round of Abs, mossy to AO for another 3 minutes of Abs.  At the end, 250 reps of each….good luck washing your hair!

T-Claps to Cha-Ching for allowing me to Q!

Lost video of PAX…sorry!!!

Trucker

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That was a lot of sit-ups

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My 2nd of 3 Q’s in 3 days. Always a pleasure to Q The Swamp!  Now that I am Ruck free and with no big race on the schedule I’m free to just do regular old Bootcamps. My favorite workouts combine a good amount of running(big surprise) with a bunch of other stuff so that is what we did today and  was glad to have a bunch of guys to share it with.

Started off with s nice mosey warm-up with some dynamic warm-ups of butt kicks, high knees, shuffles and some karaoke.

Circle up in the HD parking lot for COP consisting of SSH, IW, Carolina Dry Dock, Peter Parker, Mountain Climbers, then a series of Downward dog to Honeymooner. Back on our feet for Windmills, Apollo Ono(look out for the car), and just for fun some Monkey Humpers.

Mosey to the bike racks at HD for the main thing. Partner up for a nice BOMBS routine. One partner does the exercise the other does a lap around Home Depot.  There  were some complaints that the lap was a little long even though I assured them it was only about 1/4 mile  I was accused of measuring Zima miles.

50 Burpees, 100 Overhead claps, 150 Merkins, 200 Big Boy Sit-ups(crowd favorite), 250 Supine Pull-Ups(only because I hate squats and I needed an S).  We did not make through all the pull-ups, headed back to COT for a few minutes of Mary, ending with a Body Destroyer.

Announcements – Convergence 5/24, Honor Badger at Golden Corral 5/21 wear Red, Read your newsletter

Praises for Lutifisk daughter, Dungaree’s 1 year anniversary, prayers for kids cancer relapse.

Challenged the PAX to take the role as the leader in their home.  We are called to lead, do not be a passive bystander or even worse do not take or accept the role as another child in the house.  Be the man/leader you are called to be.

Thanks as always for the opportunity to lead this great group!!

 

 

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Short Circuit at the Swamp

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Time seems to be something YHC lacks nowadays. Thank goodness Cha-Ching asked me to Q at the Swamp a month ago, because I probably would have declined had I known what my schedule would be like. Nevertheless, I made good on my commitment and kept the Q. Taking all of my recent Qs and smashing them together, I came up with today’s workout in about 5 minutes and hoped that it would go well.

At 0515, the five brave PAX for today’s bootcamp (seems many are “resting” for a heavy backpack thing) were debriefed and off we went on a mosey “the wrong way” out toward 49. We kept a moderate pace, but needed to get all the way to ULTA and still have a couple minutes to warm up, so it wasn’t slow.

Quick warm up of 10 windmills, 20 Moroccan night clubs, and 10 thigh masters (per leg…crowd pleaser). Then came the explanation.

Five minutes to complete the circuit of five exercises. One minute to run to the next place. One minute rest. Repeat for five full circuits.

Exercises:

  • 50 American Hammers (per side, so double count)
  • 40 merkins (just normal merkins)
  • 30 squats
  • 20 bomb jacks
  • 10 burpees

Runs were roughly 400 m each. We started in the parking lot in front of ULTA. Ran to the bank. Then back out to Walker Branch to wrap around the long way to Target. Then up and around the other side of Old Navy. Then back to Target and over to Just Fresh. Then finally out to the road, around to PetsMart, and back to COT.

Totals:

  • 2.15 miles run
  • 250 American hammers
  • 200 merkins
  • 150 squats
  • 100 bomb jacks
  • 50 burpees

Every circuit got done with 1-2 minutes to spare of the five minutes, so we usually grabbed 30-45 seconds before running, as the runs took more than a minute each time. Still got our minute rest between circuits, which was definitely appreciated in the end.

Met up with ruckers at COT. Announcements are in the newsletter (upcoming convergence on the 24th, so keep your eyes open for that). Prayer requests. Pray and go (some bounced out quickly).

NMM

Nothing substantive to say here. The theory behind this was, I know high-intensity intervals are effective, as are EMOM workouts. I didn’t want some people to get big breaks and some to get no breaks, so I smashed these ideas together. Five EMOMs became a five-minute cap for a circuit. Quick run. Then the rest (which is important, as it allows you to push hard during the circuit). Repeato. So often we leave out the rest to keep pushing, but the rest time is actually beneficial to pushing harder during the working portions and building cardiovascular capacity. I’m not big on “taking 10s” because we’re tired, but planning rest intervals into the workout: good idea.

Thanks for the opportunity, Cha-Ching, and great push everybody.

Jedi

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TABATA FRIDAY

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14 men kicked off their Friday morning with a good sweat at The Swamp.  About 1/2 left with their rucks, and the rest of them did this:

The Thang:

Short mosey up and around one of the  large parking lots,  and stop in the front of the Sprint store for COP:

SSHx25,merkin x 10,  IW x 20, windmill x 15, squat x 20, small arm circles (20 F/20R), large arm circle (10F/10R).

Take a lap around the parking lot and stop at the same spot for Tabata:  8 exercises, 8 sets of each exercise, 20 secs per set, and 10 secs rest in between each set.  The exercises were:

  1.  Carolina Dry Dock
  2. Flutters
  3. Squats
  4. Mountain climbers
  5. Freddie Mercury
  6. Jumping Lunges
  7. Merkins
  8. LBC’s

COT

This is my ‘go to’ workout when I have no time to plan a workout.   I accepted the Q invitation from Cha Ching last week, and I didn’t look at the date.  When the reminder came through on Tuesday, I thought,’ oh crap, not this week!’  Work and family obligations have been especially challenging lately,  and I was not planning on squeezing in anything else this week.  But, I canceled on Cha Ching the last time he scheduled me, and I didn’t want to do it a 2nd time.  So, the Tabata fit the bill.  You can make this workout as hard as you like depending on which exercises you pick.  Today’s workout was about in the middle of the tough scale and I designed it to suit my current fitness level and my sore knee.

There was very little mumble chatter today, save for one moment when one of the Pax let out a rather loud release of gas  (not sure who).  Someone said, ‘dude, you may want to check that’,  and the response was ‘no, I’m good.’  That made me laugh.  Not sure why fart humor still makes mature men crack up.

We had a good crowd today and it was nice to see some new and familiar faces, and also a banged up face (hope you are feeling better Jedi).    I’m glad I was able to fit in this Q and, as always,  it was a privilege to lead such a fine group of men.

Announcements/prayers and praises:

This month is Mental Health Awareness month.

Prayers for Twister’s niece who committed suicide, Cornerstones daughter, and Senator T’s mother.

 

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Splash

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When I was driving to The Swamp and saw the rain coming in sideways, I thought “well it may just be Cha-Ching and me at the AO today.” I was surprised to see 18 Pax in attendance. The rain did not scare them away. To ensure they weren’t scared, we started the workout with Box Cutters in the largest puddle. Jedi loved it (kidding). That was the soggiest workout in my seven years with F3. However, it sure was fun. Would I do it all again? YES!

Mosey to the Cold Stone’s parking lot.

COP: SSH (20x), IW (20x), WM (15x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (20x) and Box Cutters (15x)

Mosey to Bath & Body Works parking lot.

Circle up, count by 4, each group goes to a corner

Pyramid Drill: At each station/corner, do Burpees, LBCs, Jumping Squats in increments of 5 until we hit 15 repetitions then countdown to 5 as a group. Jog to each station.

Mosey to the Penn Station Subs’ parking lot.

Partner up. Partner Wheel Barrels to each side of the parking lot (2x), Partner Carries (2x), Partner Big Boy Sit Ups (15x for 2 rounds), Partner Ski Jumps (15x), Partners Push Ups (15x for 2 rounds), Partner Leg Lifts (15x for 2 rounds)     

Mosey to the parking lot behind Just Fresh

COP: LBCs (20x), Superman (10 second counts), Pepper Grinders (15x), Merkins (40x)

Moleskin

Wisdom starts with a respect for God. Read the B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) for insight regarding what you ought to do. Don’t seek counsel from people who only tell you what you want to hear. Our wants and desires often lean toward our sinful nature.

The best counsel comes from wise men who tell you what you ought to hear. They challenge you to do and be better. You’ll want to ignore their advice that may inconvenience to your selfish motives. However, instead of dismissing what you don’t want to hear, lean in.

Also, be that man who helps others understand what they ought to do from a righteous and moral perspective.

#Wisdom #ISI #OughtTo

Peace,

Deacon

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What….Gecko has a Ruck on?

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20 PAX came to the Swamp this morning to push themselves physically, bond socially, and encourage each other into the weekend.  8 men chose the boot camp option and 12 chose an option to Ruck.  After the initial shock that Gecko was standing there with a Ruck sack on we divided up and began the workout.

Boot Camp

Warm up

Mosey to (future) Tuesday Morning Parking lot

  • Windmills
  • Sumo Squats
  • Moroccan Night Clubs
  • Weed Pickers
  • Seal Jacks
  • Plank
  • Downward Dog….Honeymooner

The Thang

Using the red balls of Target I had placed a piece of paper with two exercises on them. The top exercise was done at the ball and the second was the mode of transportation to the next ball.

Ball One

  • Merkins
  • Bear Crawl

Ball Two

  • Squats
  • Lunge

Ball Three

  • Peter Parker
  • Crab Walk

Ball Four

  • Reverse Lunge
  • Broad Jump

Ball Five

  • Carolina Dry Docks
  • Crawl Bear

Ball Six

  • Sumo Squat
  • Reverse Lunge

Ball Seven

  • Wide Arm Merkins
  • Side Shuffle

Ball Eight

  • Squat Jump
  • Side Shuffle (flap jack)

Ball Nine

  • Hello Dolly
  • Mosey (back to beginning)

3 Burpees

We repeated this cycle three times with increasing reps.

  • Round 1: 10 reps
  • Round 2: 20 reps
  • Round 3: 30 reps

Mosey back to COT for 4 minutes of Mary.

Joined by the ruckers and did Nameorama, Announcements, Prayers/Praises.

I appreciate the opportunity to lead!

Bones

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FTW – Forget The Winkie

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I had prepared a coin flip workout 5 weeks ago where we flipped a coin to see if we would use the right hand side or left hand side of the winkie for each exercise.  This week was to be the “other” side that didn’t get selected.  After seeing no FNG’s and giving a disclaimer, the ruckers (led by Maximus) took off and so did we.  Since our numbers were low (good luck p200-ers), Mile High suggested I ditch the winkie and see what happens.  So knowing nothing about what to do, I found us a nice little parking area to get warmed up.

WARM – O – RAMA:
– 15 x imperial walkers
– 15 x hillbilly walkers
– 10 x tempo merkins
– 10 count 6″ plank hold
– Back up for a 10 count: right hand and right foot high
– Flapjack
– 15 x LBC
– 10 Crunchy Frogs, OYO

Mosey to the wall hall between HD and Target:
– Hands on the wall, 10 x shoulder taps, dc
– Run to opposite wall, feet on wall, 10 x shoulder taps, dc, run back
– Wall sit, add on, one PAX at a time as follows:
(PAX 1) –> run to other wall, 10 x derkins, run back
(PAX 2) –> same, add 10 x SSH after the derkins
(PAX 3) –> same, add bear crawl instead of run to other wall
(PAX 4) –> same, add high knees instead of run back
(PAX 5) –> same, add 10 x merkins
Now reverse, so PAX 1 does them all, PAX 2 removes first exercise, PAX 3 removes first and second, and so on.  If you’re confused, just stop trying to figure it out.  It was so that we all ended up doing the same amount of work.

Mosey to water fountain for the thang:
YHC has either a 1 or 2 behind his back. Get it right, do the exercise and run a lap without the islands. Get it wrong, the lap is with the islands. YHC calls out the PAX one by one to guess, and they also get to call the exercise. First up, (1) #wrong 5 burpees + long lap. Second up (1) #wrong 15LBCs but HOLD UP.  We’re going to add on again.  5 burpees plus 15 LBCs + long lap.  Third (2) #correct 5 burpees + 15 LBCs + 10 double count heel touches + short lap. Fourth (1) #wrong 5 burpees + 15 LBCs + 10 DC heel touches + 7 merkins + long lap.  Last (2) #correct 5 burpees + 15 LBCs + 10 DC heel touches + 7 merkins + 30 dips + short lap.

Mosey to Office Max parking lot close to COT. Shuffle back and forth for about 15 parking lot lines. Jailbreak to COT.

All in all we hit 2 miles and did some great exercises and got to build on each other’s ideas.  Not a bad start to a Friday considering there was no plan.  Sometimes, no plans are the best plans.  I had a blast being able to lead for a moment today.  Mainframe had to take off to more bigly importanter things but we ended with a strong COT.  Announcements included a F3/crossfit event at WEP and operation sweettooth. TAP’s to the P200 PAX and all racers for health and safety.

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