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.

I started getting ready Thursday afternoon to Q at Varsity. I’d been thinking about this a lot this week (more about that at the end) and I had come up with some cool routines that would really bring it, that would push my limits, and be a serious challenge to the PAX that regularly post at Varsity on Friday. Not that I needed to (home field), but I made a drive through of the whole AO looking for some further inspiration. What I came home with ended up going a different direction entirely. Finally, 15 minutes before start time, I had several different plans that I could have used, the weather was a bit unclear and my plans kind of depended if it was going to be in pouring rain or not. Rain stopped, so I moved forward with the “no pouring rain” option. Of course some of these things might require some explanation to be clear in writing. In the gloom, it was more like “nevermind the explanation, just follow me!”.

Here goes.

The Thang

Typical Geronimo style disclaimer (sort of rambling, a bit weird, if you die, we’ll drop you off in front of the hospital, but only after the workout is over).

Mosey on over to the hill to Sugar Creek ES.

Played pinball off the curbs

Started at the bottom of the hill at one curb, side shuffle at an angle across the street to the other curb heading up hill. Ricochet off the curb and continue at an angle up the hill back across the street. Continue zig-zagging up the hill changing directions at each curb, progressively up the hill. Mosey to the stop sign, u-turn and back to the bottom of the hill.
Repeat with karoke. Then repeat again with side shuffle.

Mosey to the parking lot for a short COP.
Little arm circles to the front
Big arm circles to the front
Big arm circles to the back
Windmills
Merkins
-NO Goofballs, ‘cause this isn’t the Coop and Kielbasa is out of town anyway (polish dance club eets, eets, eets).
Where is Chicken Wing anyway?

Mosey to the pull up bars.

Each evolution consisted of a bar exercise followed by a ground exercise until the 6 was done (plus a few more, don’t want to leave the 6 guy out). Minimal time between sets.

5 x toes to the bar
Squats
Repeat 4 times

5 x burpee pull-ups (instead of jump at the end, jump and do a pull-up)
Alternating back lunges
Repeat 3 times (burpee pull-ups really suck!)

5 x Knee raises
Flutter kicks
Repeat 3 times

Mosey to the road in front of the JROTC building.

I decided to call this one, High Speed Masonry
Open the back of Geronimo’s Turbo-Stank-Wagon(TSW) to see the pile of mini bricks.
The street had many cones down the middle (too many, so a few intermediate ones had to be taken out)

Break into two teams. 7 PAX, so the executive decision was made to run 4 against 3, with YHC and Senator as team leaders. Senator’s team got four PAX, but YHC’s team got Skate-or-Die (he’s fast). This is a relay race with approximately 10-ish yards between legs. The team leader takes a brick from the TSW, runs as fast as possible to the next cone and PAX waiting there, hands it off and then returns for another brick. The second runs as fast as possible to the next cone/PAX, passing the brick down the line, until the last, who runs to the last cone and stacks the bricks up. YHC realized his team was in trouble when Senator started lapping him about halfway in. By the end of 6 minutes, team Senator was up by 2 bricks. Turns out YHC was the rate limiter on his team. Next time there will be Burpee pull-ups for the losing team, maybe that will make YHC dig a little deeper.

Mosey to the awning by NAFO

Run as fast as possible (maybe not so fast by this point) forward 2 posts, then do a lateral lunge to the side to the other side of the posts, alternating sides every 2 posts to the other end of the awning. Circle back to the start. Repeat 4-ish times.

Circle back up for 4 minutes of group led Mary.
Hello Dollies
X’s & O’s
American Hammers
LBC alternating ankle touches
V-ups

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

I’ve been posting for about 18 months now. In that time I’ve posted LOTS, participated in many CSAUPs, gone out to many 2nd F activities, and even some 3rd F’s. I’ve done MANY things that pushed me physically, but I think more importantly, socially. I’ve developed an appreciation for what the mission of F3 means and seen first-hand some of the differences it’s had in other men’s lives and in my own. This week I (finally) decided I’d go ahead and get a copy of Freed to Lead, which if you Kindle you can have it about 30 seconds after you decide to get it. I read it this week, and it brought to home many of the things we talk about every morning. I got Fern before, but now I really get Fern (it’s a plant).

About 4 months or so before my first post, Dark Helmet mentioned that he liked working out with this group (F3). He knew that I like dragging unknowing co-workers and associated family members along for mud runs or road races or what have you. He also knew that I liked to go out on Saturday mornings and throw down 10 miles or so because that was my thing. I wasn’t really out of shape. The US Army taught me pretty well how to take care of that part. I’m pretty active with my church. Guess what though, the only person that I could call a new friend since I left undergrad almost 15 years ago, was a guy that at first I mentored at work, then started having him over for holidays and stuff, then his family. Then he took a transfer and moved to Cali. We’re still friends, but proximity counts for a heck of a lot. I said, “Hey, this ain’t my first rodeo”, I’ve still got my wife (best friend) and family. I kept on trucking for a while then something made me ask DH if it would be OK if I came along with him some morning. That’s when I found out that just because you’re an old guy like me, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have (positive) male friends. It’s crazy, but yes I did make new friends that I can talk to about man stuff and not get eye-rolls in response, that understand and share many of the life things that I go through, and more importantly, have got my back when maybe things aren’t so good. That wasn’t really what I was expecting when I first posted to this “work-out group”.

Now to the part that really came home this week. I’m reading FTL and it dawns on me that I’ve been posting for these 18 months and I didn’t totally get it. I can roll out there and bring it every morning of the week (well, most mornings). I can pick up the six and do my best imitation of a 5 YO with Tourette’s and try to keep the guy next to me talking about his kids baseball game instead of thinking how much his thighs are burning. I can feel like I’m doing awesome as a site Q, because we consistently get 12-18 PAX at NAFO every Wednesday. What I didn’t realize is that it’s not turning into a Problematic Workout. I didn’t even think about this until this week. It didn’t occur to me that this is an aspect that I had missed. I enjoy the daily fellowship. I enjoy pushing myself. I like the fact that I’ve had to take my belt up a couple notches. However, in that 18 months I’ve EH’d maybe 1 or 2 guys (that I can take credit for). That said, I took to heart the idea that while this F3 thing really isn’t for everyone, if I don’t EH the SadClowns in my sphere, they won’t even know what they’re missing. If I’m not trying be a source of accountability, those guys that I did EH might turn into permanent Kotters. This week I figured out that I have a mission to grow and serve the groups I Q. In particular the Grow part by the serve part.

At this point you may be saying “Gee whiz Geronimo, it took you this long to realize this?”. If that’s you, then I ask you to hold me accountable, because a bonfire can’t burn all the time unless someone else throws more fuel on. I don’t think I can handle being a bonfire all the time, but it wouldn’t be bad if someone were to kick the embers and throw some pine logs on every now and then. Might just take the kicking part.

If that’s not you and you’ve read this far, then I’m going to ask you a couple things. Have you ever read Freed to Lead? It’s a super easy read. Dredd and OBT are laying things out there, all you have to do is pick them up and run. Who do you know that may be a SadClown? When was the last time you EH’d a guy? How about for a 2nd F get together? 3rd F? I think you see where I’m going. How are you making your group into a Problematic Workout? I know that the asking part is difficult for some people. Let Dark Helmet know and he’ll ask them. On second thought, maybe someone else would be a better choice. Maybe they post once and it’s not for them. Maybe they do and it makes a world of difference.

I’m not usually one to write a huge long thing like this, and it took me a couple extra days to make it happen. I don’t think I’ve conveyed anything that you probably haven’t already heard, but perhaps my strange way of putting things down in writing will inspire you to take action where you hesitated before. If so, then I think it was worth it.

Geronimo!

After a restless night of sleep thinking YHC would sleep through the Q, I kept telling myself to trust my alarm, but it did not work! 🙁 May be the wienke was born through the restlessness or the prior evening while on a ruck, it seemed to be a decent plan going in, but may have quickly become a fight with “Tyson” in the first round.

5 of the faithful gathered, stretched a bit, and we did a collective disclaimer. The clock struck 5:15 and bells where ringing somewhere.

Warm Up
Dynamic stretching and running in a snaking fashion through the parking lot. Circled up at a very nice street light and did some COP.

Squats x 15 IC
Seal Jacks (Charleston style) x 20 IC
Seak Jacks (Landlubber style) x 15 IC

Mosied to the pull up bars, PAX grabbed two blocks, YHC grabbed a phone and a speaker and we where ready for the HIIT.

The Thang

4 rounds, 45s on, 15s rest, 7 stations. Sounds simple. You should try it.

Exercises –
1 – Pullups
2 – Burpees
3 – Block Overhead Press
4 – CDDs
5 – Block Swing
6 – Merkins
7 – People’s Chair

Time could not come soon enough. When the bell rung, STP was still playing and the blocks were tucked back into their resting spot and we mosied to COP.

Had 3 minutes for Xs & Os and In and Outs.

COT

Prayers to the PAX, Skate or Die for getting over the sniffles.

There were just two of us until 5:15 on the dot when 4 additional HIMs speedily pulled up for some HIITs before the weekend.

Disclaimer – Modify as needed

Mosey – knees to chest – ankles to waist – high knees – butt kicks – regular

Circle up – SSHs, windmills, MNCs, merkins, LSSs

Mosey to pull up bar, Partner Up

5 pull ups, 5 one leg jump taps – switch legs repeat – Partner 2 Wall sit – Switch when partner 1 is done

4 pull ups, 4 one leg jump taps – switch legs repeat – Wall sit

3 pull ups, 3 one leg jump taps – switch legs repeat – Wall sit

2 pull ups, 2 one leg jump taps – switch legs repeat – Wall sit

1 pull up, 1 one leg jump tap – switch legs repeat – Wall sit

Mosey to Basketball Court – Same partner

HIITs – 1 minute on, 30 second rest, 2 sets each exercise

Station 1 – Merkins / Plank (pace yourself)

Station 2 – Jump rope / Broad Jumps (Equipment malfunction – jump rope broke – modified both HIMs broad jump)

Station 3 – Arm Curls, 30 and 24 lbs

Station 4 – Suicides

Station 5 – Medicine ball Oblique Throws (this sounds a lot cooler than it is, had to modify to increase intensity)

Station 6 – 1 lap with 20lb Ruck or 20lb kettlebell then plank

Repeat

Mosey back to pull up bar, same partner, (Reverse Grip)

5 Pull ups, 5 jump taps – Partner 2 LBCs, Switch when partner 1 is done

4 pull ups, 4 jump taps – LBCs

3 pull ups, 3 jump taps – LBCs

2 pull ups, 2 jump taps – LBCs

1 pull up, 1 jump tap – LBCs

Mosey to COT

1 Minute of Freddie Mercury’s

Namarama

Announcements – Joe Davis, Baxter Trail Run, Prep for Yeti

Prayors for Chicken Wing’s buddy (Chris Farley) and the Father of Patton’s buddy in ATL

5 Men showed up on a brisk December morning looking to earn their letter and indulge in a little more pain before the holiday festivities begin. YHC was in the holiday mood, thus planned a themed workout for this morning to warm the fellas up. YHC having the penmanship of a hoofed animal, managed to scrawl out the 12 Days of Christmas workout on a white board while driving into the AO and off we were.

Warm-up

• Brisk mosey around the lot
• Circle up for:
  • SSH x 20
  • Moroccan Night Club x 15
  • Low Slow Squat x 10

The Thang

12 Days of Christmas 2016 Varsity Edition:

1. Burpees (1 Set, 12 reps = 12 TL reps)
2. Bombjacks (2 Sets, 11 reps = 22 TL reps)
3. Curb Dips (3 Sets, 10 reps = 30 TL reps)
4. Mountain Climbers – Double Ct (4 Sets, 9 reps = 36 TL reps)
5. Merkins – (5 Sets, 8 reps = 40 TL reps)
6. Peter Parker – (6 Sets, 7 reps = 42 TL reps)
7. CDD – (7 Sets, 6 reps = 42 TL reps)
8. Pull-Ups (8 Sets, 5 reps = 40 TL reps)
9. Diamond Merkins (9 Sets, 4 reps = 36 TL reps)
10. WWII Sit-up (10 Sets, 3 reps = 30 TL reps)
11. Toes to Bar (11 Sets, 2 reps = 22 TL reps)
12. Burpees (12 Sets, 1 rep = 12 TL reps)

At the half-way point, we gave the muscles a break for a mosey down to the bottom of the hill….In F3 Physics class I learned what goes down must come up and from there:

• Hill Sprint 20 yds (recover down)
• Hill Sprint 40 yds (recover down)
• Hill Sprint back to the summit and back to Christmas themed workout

*So-Crates so accurately described this portion as the realization that not only are there presents to open, but we also have stockings….filled with turd nuggets

YHC was blessed with strong PAX today and we finished up with time to spare, which was dedicated to the core:

• 15 LBC
• 10 Reverse LBC
• 5 6inch LBC
• Pistol Crunches (10x each side)
• 1 minute forearm plank

Moleskin

• Big Thank You to Skate or Die for having me out to Q Varsity this week. NAFO is at the top of my list of AO’s to Q, sooo much to do. Skate or Die was the War Daddy today but had the best wheels on the uphill sprint
• Always great to have Ringer at a workout to push you. I’m glad he owed me money and thus had to show up, pay the debt and pad the numbers for this 43 degree felt like 33 degree morning. Ringer also spotted multiple creatures lurking in the night which we determined were too small to be deer and too large to be house cats.
• Patton, this kid MAN is unbelievable and I truly mean it. At his age to wake up early, take on the elements and crush all of us on pull-ups is truly commendable. Keep up the great work brother via F3 and CrossFit.
• So-Crates was the only one brave enough to show off the vocals this morning getting us into the Christmas spirit. So-Crates also thought he saw something hiding in the shed behind the ROTC barracks…not sure if he was just trying to distract YHC for a breather or if him and Ringer took the same drugs this morning that made them see things in the dark.

Thanks again for posting and everyone have a Safe and Merry Christmas!

Over and Out – General

I rolled into Varsity extra early this morning to make sure I setup my HIIT workout and that my digital weinke was ready to go. As the hour turns past 0500, finally one car rolled in. It was longshanks. Then, as I finish setting up, a second car rolls in, Chicken Wing. Will there be more? Is it only us 3? I was a little concerned because these two HIM are two of the most consistent PAX among us and both of them push themselves to another level. Longshanks is prepping for an Ultra Beast (30 Miles up a ski mountain) and Chicken Wing has a bum hip and still sprints faster than most. I’m really going to have to be on point. …..as it was us three.

After a brief disclaimer for these vets, we started our workout.

We moseyed around the parking lot with some butt kickers, high knees and found ourselves down by the road to pick up some coupons. We each picked up two rocks and moseyed up to JROTC building with coupons above our heads. Once there we went down and picked up the cindy coupons. Two each and brought them back to our workout location. Now that the workout was setup we….

-25 SSH IC
– 12 Windmills IC
-20 Moroccans Night Climbs

With the warm up over, the fun began. I had my music list setup and the digital weinkie via my car, we did 3 sets of:

1 Min: High Knees with Rocks held above our head
20 Seconds off
1 Min: 20 Yard Sprints to 5 Merkins, then back 20 yard sprint into 5 merkins
20 Seconds off
1 Min: Squat Curls with the rocks
20 Seconds off
1 Min: Suicides
20 Seconds off
1 Min: Merkin Walk across the cindy’s
20 Seconds off
1 Min: Left Knee Down right knee down, up then jump squat
20 Seconds off
1 Min: Plank Shifts
20 Seconds off
1 Min: Mountain Climbers
20 Seconds off

After three rounds we were pretty spent. We put the coupons back and headed over to the COT.

Namearoma was quick. After an extended session of announcements/fellowship, we gave praise and rolled out.

As we head out with family and friends this weekend, enjoy and be safe.

Always an honor to lead. WhatDid out.