11 PAX braved the thick humid morning at Varsity to join YHC for some intervals with the kind lady on my iPhone app and her never ending encouragement… at least this time more than one song played so we didn’t have to listen to 40 minutes of Soundgardens “Jesus Christ Pose”, so that was an immediate improvement from my last interval Q…

The disclaimer was disclaimed and we began with a mosey around the parking lot with some high knees, butt kickers and toy soldiers and then circled up to complete the warm up in cadence: 20 SSH, 20 Moroccan Night Clubs, 10 Peter Parker, 10 Parker Peter, 10 Windmill.  We then mosey over to the band parking lot for the fun to begin

The Thang:

Started with 1 minute action 20 seconds rest and then rinse and repeated with 30 seconds action and 20 seconds rest

1. Merkins

2. Squats

3. LBC’s

4. Donkey Kick

5. Dips

6. Mountain Climbers

7. SSH

8. Nolan Ryan’s

9. Box Cutter

10. Plank Jack

11. Lunges

12. High Knees

13. Dry Docks

14. Bobby Hurleys

15. American Hammers

Then we mosey back to COT for announcements and prayer

Things I learned from this Q

1. 1 minute seems a lot longer while in the middle of the exercise then it did in the kitchen the night before

2. I now have a firm understanding of if Rage Against the Machine what’s to do what you tell them

3. If you have to sit and wait for your car at the dealership after your Q you have more time for the quick BB

It was fun! Thanks for letting me lead!

Nine men joined together today at Nation Ford High School on a fine spring morning for another edition of Varsity.  After a couple of Pax got a jump start with their Burpees, we were disclaimed properly and off we went.  Here is what we did:

The Thang:

Harry Caray at Q:

Warm up mosey with high knees, butt kickers, side shuffles, Karaokes and toy soldiers.  Mosey down to the elementary school lot for COP:

All in cadence:

SSH x 20, Imperial Walker x 15, Low slow squat x 15 (not so slow!), windmill x 15, merkin x 15/mountain climber x 15/peter parker x 15, plank stretch (no break in between).

Burpee x 10 (OYO), crab cakes x 15, Morrocan nightclub x 15

Hand off to Senator Tressel

Mosey back to the high school.  Stop by the white Passat and pick up two bricks.   Head out about 40 yards, drop your bricks and return to the start.  Line up.  One by one, sprint to the brickpile, pick up a brick and sprint back.  Those who are waiting to run do burpees until each member of the Pax has retrieved a brick.  After everyone has retrieved a brick, repeat the cycle to obtain the other brick.  We substituted LBC’s for burpees the second round..

Mosey with your bricks to the drive in front of the football stadium and circle up.

jack Webb (1:4, with a brick in each hand – crowd pleaser)

Stay in the circle for ABLAB:

Flying Hello Dolly x 20, Lounger x 20, Crunch press x 20, X’s and O’s x 7 (audibile!)

Line up and do an indian run back to COT

Naked Man Moleskin

This morning, as I pulled into the parking lot, Crawdaddy and What Did were already getting some burpees in before the workout.  This June burpee challenge stuff is serious business.   They must have not thought we were going to do any today, or they wanted to bank some extras before the weekend indulgences.

Harry Caray (Twitterless as of this writing) made this Q debut this morning and did a fine job warming up the group.  (Q school still recommended for all new Q’s, of course).  This was also my VQ at NAFO despite being an F3 member for almost 5 years.  I don’t make it out to NAFO that often, but started making Varsity a semi-regular stop the last several months.  I really like the high intensity’ workouts put on here.  I had the bricks in my trunk from yesterdays Q at Laces-In,  so I thought I would break them out one more time before hauling them back to my backyard.

Between Harry Cary and YHC,  we did 60-70 today by my estimate (the aforementioned Pax topped that, of course).  Jack Webb’s with the bricks were challenging and we made it to 10 today. A Fort Mill police cruiser came through just after set 9 and we had to take an unscheduled break.  I’d be lying if I said I was not happy to see them and get a little extra rest before that last set.  Based on moans and groans of the pax heard around that time, I believe I was not the only one.  As I write this, my neck and whole upper body is pretty darn sore and hope I lived up to the high bar set by the regular Q’s at Varsity.

It’s always a pleasure and a privilege to lead a strong group, and I look forward to my next visit to this fine AO.  Thanks for the opportunity, Skate or Die!

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

Bowling Tournament (Gutters and Gringos)  for Columbia Mission Trip – June 10, $100 for 4 man teams.  Let’s bowl!

Hog and Coyote and Catawba Tubing trip for CAH on June 17

Paradise workouts at 9 each Saturday.  Reach out to those less fortunate and GET INVOLVED!

Read the newsletter!

Prayers for F3 brother Slaughter with blood clots, and other injured Pax.  Chicken Wing recounted a good message from Cake Boss about the burdens we all carry.  Be conscious of your burdens and let God carry them for you.

What started off with a rather generic proclamation about Sauerkraut being on Q, resulted in PAX coming out of the woodwork for the #VARSITY workout.  Little did they know what was in store.

A disclaimer was disclaimed and then YHC (SkateOrDie) took the reigns for warm-up.  It was a quick-paced mosey back and forth through the parking lot, with a smattering of karaoke, side shuffles, and dynamic stretching that led to warm-ups consisting of 10 double count reps of each (in cadence):

SSH, Hillbilly Walkers, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Merkins, Planks (R|L, Honeymooner, 6 inches). Recover to feet for 50 double count SSH.  The mumblechatter was growing.

Workout was turned over to Sauerkraut for the Thang:

The PAX mosey’d to the track, running to the first cone on the track.  PAX were advised that they would be giving some burpee love to brother Sasquatch!  10 burpees at the cone, run half way around the track to the next cone for 10 LBCs.  Finish the lap back to the first cone and complete 9 burpees, then run to the second cone for 9 LBCs.  Continue on, reducing by 1 each lap, until the PAX reach 1 burpee and 1 LBC for a total of 55 burpees, 55 LBCs, and 2.5 miles of running.

There were 17 PAX at VARSITY (most of which came out of Sugar Bug’s magical clown car) that completed 900ish burpees to #SaveTheSquatch.

As time was up, the PAX mosey’d back to COT for count-o-rama, name-o-rama, announcements, prayers/praise, and BOM.

Some great thoughts were put forth on the topic of maturity.

-SkateOrDie

Wow. A week sure flew by and this BB is way late. Cobains. 7 braved the Merkin and core extravaganza.

Warm Up – Mosey to SCES parking lot.

Usual suspects for warm-up. Planks, SSHs, etc

Mosey to hill. Run backwards 5 rounds up and mosey down. No rest.

Now that we were warm, we went to the station cycle for our theme of the day.

3 rounds 45s on, 15s off, 8 stations.

Station #1 – Merkins
Station #2 – Flutters
Station #3 – Diamond Merkins
Station #4 – Heels to heaven
Station #5 – Hand Release Merkins
Station #6 – Xs and Os
Station #7 – Curb Merkins
Station #8 – Elbow Plank

Arms and core were smoked. Great day.

COT.

455 – 4 PAX (Birdcage, Kielbasa, Skate or Die, YHC) took a dark 2 mile pre-run stroll to get in an extra warm-up leading into the main event.

11 men, most of which suited up in tights for the occasion came to earn their Varsity letter in a regiment that YHC appropriately named “The Hateful 8.”

Warm-up

• Mosey loop around the parking lot mixing in Butt Kickers, High Knees, Toy Soldiers and Lunge Walks

The Thang-a-lang

The Hateful 8 Tabata Rounds (20 sec on/10sec recovery)

It was incredible to see how excited everyone was with Burpees on the list twice…

• Burpees
• Bombjacks
• Plyo Merkins
• Ab Thrusters
• Spartan Merkins
• Flutter
• Broad Jumps
• Burpees

Take a recovery aka 6:30 mile pace lap (Bird cage) around the parking lot

Repeato 4x

Partner Sprint Session

• P1 Sprint to 1st island, recover back to P2 (Freddie Mercury) – Flapjack
• P1 Sprint to 2nd island, recover back to P2 (6inch Plank) – Flapjack

Mosey back to COT for a quick stretch/Urban dictionary session.

Moleskin

• Solid group of men this morning, many pushing the pace on the tabata and others taking the reigns on the recovery loops.
• T-claps to Bird cage for ruining the recover runs by setting a jack rabbit pace of 630; the fella can move. Honestly, great work on motivating YHC and the other PAX to  pick it up and remember that we don’t wake up at 4 something AM every morning to go half speed
• In contrary to popular belief, more hair = more aerodynamic as Sasquatch was the blazer on sprints and creator of another desirable FNG nickname/post workout stretch “Sacksquatch”
• Urban Dictionary lesson brought to you by Kielbasa who also came up with the next FNG name “weasel shaker” which apparently is the equivalent to “horse beater” in polish, “corn husker” and “clown puncher”. I highly recommend not YOUTUBEing any of those words/phrases or looking up the word Merkin in google images…
• Skate or Die, thanks for the invite. Always a pleasure to Q VARSITY

Maltz Challenge next week which looks incredibly brutal…SHOW UP!

Over & Out – General

Disclaimer was disclaimed and off we went to mosey the parking lot, randomly stopping for SSHs and seal jacks.  Along the way, we incorporated high knees, butt kickers, karaoke, side shuffles, and some dynamic stretching.  While the mumble chatter was down significantly from last weeks Birdcage run-fest, a few quips were heard – to the effect of having to run the entire workout and whether the selection of 15 reps was indicative of the Qs age.  NOT NICE!  Running is good for you and the age of the Q should be of no concern.  A beat down is a beat down!

The thang…

For clarity’s sake, on the DRIVE TO THE AO (not before – I will spare the details), the Q (me) realized that today’s workout was the 1 year anniversary of my VQ (give or take a day).  That said, I found it ironic that the workout was dependent on each of the PAX using a Cindy for each exercise in the workout, which was an upgrade from the coupons used in a similar workout last year. As a public service announcement, I suggested that the PAX be careful with their respective Cindy (and use it in the manner instructed by the Q – i.e. DO NOT TRY TO THROW THEM like Dark Helmet did last year!!!).  That was immediately taken out of context (thank you Chicken Wing) and spun into a different story line (again – I will spare the details).  Wait – there was a workout….

Back to The Thang…

PAX using their Cindy performed 2 circuits of 3 sets of 4-5 exercises each, consisting of 45 sec high intensity followed by 15 sec of rest.

Upper Body – Swings, Split Hand Merkins (1on & 1off), O/H Press, O/H Tricep Ext (mod to dips – back to back O/H was D. U. M. B. Dumb), Curls

Lower Body – Squats*, Calf Raises, Lunges, Horizontal Box Jumps

*During the Squats, Kielbasa may have coined the “hugging” of the Cindy while Squatting…. “the Dark Helmet”, giving birth to a new exercise that is loils like an Al Gore hugging a Cindy.

The PAX made their way back to the pull ups bars to do what?  Pull-ups? Nah. AbLab it is.  Each of the PAX led the group in their favorite ab burner.  Oh look – time to go.  Back to COT for countorama, namorma, announcements, prayers/praise, and BOM!

Moleskin

I am thankful to God, thankful for my wife and kids, thankful for F3.  I have had the opportunity to lead and be around a great group of men for over pushing 2 years now.  F3 continues to push me outside my comfort zone and I challenge you to let it do the same for you.  While everyone comes to F3 for different reasons and takes from F3 different things, the commonality for all PAX, in my opinion, is growth; being better tomorrow than you are today.  The most important step to take, is the next one; whether it’s challenging yourself physically/emotionally/spiritually, leading a workout (or even a warm-up)/ a bible study/ a group discussion/ etc. helping another PAX grow, or getting more involved in giving back to the community.  There will be set-backs.  But every step you take outside your comfort zone, no matter how small, will reap dividends.  Just turn around and look how far you’ve come.

SkateOrDie out.