Tag: 38 Special

Gaming at the Swamp

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When I arrived this morning to check the road conditions around the AO, Grass Knoll and Slapshot had already started their prework activities.  It’s always great to see guys pushing themselves to get better. Once 38 Special arrived, we began the workout with a jog to the far side of Home Depot.  Warm up exercises:  SSHs x20, Imperial Walkers x15, Windmills x10.

We continued our journey to the front of Kohls.  We started with a lunge walk to the next cross walk.  At the crosswalk, we did 15 merkins and 10 squats.  We continued forward with butt kickers and toy soldiers stopping at each crosswalk for merkins and squats.

Next, we moseyed to the fountain.  Two guys ran a half lap around the parking lot while the other two men did the below exercises.  The groups flip flopped after the lap.

Exercises:

Dips

Derkins

Step-ups

Burpees

On our way back to COT, we did the sidewalk shuffle (sideways bear crawl) along the store fronts. We arrived at COT a couple minutes early for some LBCs and burpees.

During the workout, I shared a story about my childhood.  I enjoyed going to the arcade and playing videos games.  Back in the day, the ongoing joke was “Is that a roll of quarters in your pocket or are you happy to see me?”  We may need to explain this joke to some of the younger guys.  I wanted to buy an Atari but my parents were not willing to spend the money to buy one.  I was able to find a few jobs like shoveling snow and coal around the neighborhood.  Each week I would accumulate a little more money until I finally had enough money to pay for the gaming system. I felt proud when I made my big purchase.

The story is similar to your physical health.  It takes time to become stronger, run faster and longer.  Consistently attending workouts each day and even adding pre-workout activities will help improve your physical health.  “Each day” was emphasized since I am a firm believer that you should train your body to recover from a workout within a 24 hour period.  There are obvious exceptions like running races and participating in ruck events.

If you are struggling to get on track, please reach out to me.  We’ll put a plan together.

Fishstix

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Pantheon Party of 4

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YHC rolled into Pantheon about 10 till 5:15 to find Slapshot cooling down from doing what he does at ungodly hours of the morning. Shortly after 38 Special pulled up and there was some mumblechatter until 5:14 and we could see Flounder rolling up on a bicycle to make 4 PAX

We promptly began, YHC disclaimed the bunch and we started a warmup right there with the following:

Windmills

Cherry Pickers

Plank Position- Honeymooners and Downward Dogs, stretched out the dogs considerably

SSH

Low and Slow Squats

Moroccan Night Clubs

Cyclops

After warm up we moseyed over to the bike racks and I told the PAX the plan

DORA

We broke up into two teams, plan would have been to break up into two teams regardless of PAX showing. Point is to keep the group together in cadence to ensure proper form, picked that up from Boss Hog a couple weeks ago and loved the idea

Job was to complete the following:

100 Merkins

200 Dips

300 Squats

Team 1 PAX began on the Merkins and Team 2 went off to run a lap (Small lap around parking lot)

When Team 2 returned we picked up where team 1 left off and continued through the progression.

Once completed we Moseyed back to the front of the parking lot where a series of cones were set up for a series of exercises making our way across the parking lot.

At first cone 5 burpees OYO then we jogged to 2nd cone where we did 5 more burpees, then we lung walked to 3rd cone where we did 5 more burpees, next we bear crawled to the next cone did 5 more burpees and finally broad jump burpeed to the final cone where we finished with 5 more burpees

Last challenge was at the Ampitheatre, quick mosey over to the base and YHC explained the challenge.

Starting at bottom of hill we did 3 Worst Merkins Ever

Moving up to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th levels of Ampitheatre we did 10 big boys at each level and then finally did 30 monkey humpers

Mosey back to shovel flag for 2 minutes of Mary

Hello Dollies and the lowest hurdle ever (stretch)

Fishsticks joined us then, he was running the streets of TC for the fun of it and we think using Drones to spy on us 🙂 j/k

YHC shared a message I have picked up from David Goggins “Can’t Hurt Me” about hardening our bodies and minds to prepare for the next inevitable obstacle, challenge, trial etc. To do this we need Discipline not Motivation, which is fleeting.

Flounder shared a new year challenge to re-engage, re-commit to being the best men we can be and getting back into good habits like spending time in the Word.

Prayers, Praises and Announcements were said and then YHC worked in the namorama I had temporarily forgotten.

Great Morning, Aye

 

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Chills, Thrills, and Hills at Sweep the Leg

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Chilly morning. Could be worse ….at least it wasn’t raining. No FNGs. Disclaimer disclaimed and off we went.

Quick run around the lot to find a dark road for COP warmups. 15-20 of each:
* SSH
* WM
* IW
*MNC

Then to the top of the hill at Dave Gibson Blvd. Noted this to the PAX as the top point of our journey. Then down the hill to where the cell phone access area is near the creek. This is the bottom point of our workout.

Hills of Thrills
* Start at the bottom of the hill. Do 5 reps each of merkins and plank jacks.
* Run to the top of the hill and then do 5 reps each of flying monkeys (jumping monkey humpers) and LBCs.
* Back to the bottom to repeat.
* Each round the reps of each exercise increased in increments of 5.
* So it was 5 reps of merkins and PJs. Run the hill. 5 reps of flying monkeys and LBCs. Run down the hill. Then 10-10, run up, 10-10, run down, 15-15, run up, and so on. Stopped at 25 reps of each at both points.
* In total we did approx 3 miles and 75 reps of each exercise.

Back to the parking lot for a loop around the lot. Short ends we did LT Dans. Long ends we sprinted.

Back to COT/endex.

Announcements, P&P:
* A LOT going on, read your newsletter
* Santa Boss, Christmas Eve convergence on 12/24. If you run AND do the convergence, an anonymous donor will give up to $75 for D2D causes.
* Prayers/praises for the coming of our Lord!
* Prayers/praises for Vuvu as he meets up with his boss after a long time apart
* Prayers for Yard Sale as he breaks away from a bad work situation and starts off on a newer more positive one
* Prayers for healing, patience, and support for those in need

Golden Nugget quote of the day…..heck the decade…..from Quack Attack:
Remember that every day we wake up is like Christmas, every evening is like Thanksgiving, and every night before bed is like New Year’s Eve. We are blessed to wake up every day and start over.

Man that one really puts things into perspective. Each day we are truly blessed to be here, each day is a blessed gift. As the day ends we should be thankful we were here for it, and as it ends we should celebrate being a part of it and look forward to the new beginning of tomorrow.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead. God bless.
– NASA

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My pain, your gain

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When given the option to Q on the 11th or the 18th, YHC made the right choice. Last week I was not sick, now I am.  I wanted to make sure that whatever I did would prepare me for Sugar Daddy’s mountain party, and thereby make everyone a bit stronger for the experience.

I asked OTG if he would be so kind as to bring along a truckload of cinder blocks, and he obliged. This also gave me the ability to truthfully say I was not bringing cinder blocks, with the hope that it might attract a few more PAX.

The warmup

Quick mozey to the big parking lot for some SSH, squats, imperial walkers, and windmills. Then back to OTG’s truck.

The thang

Very simply, grab a block and follow me to the base of the hill. What’s that? The gate is open to the stadium? YHC called an audible and we took our cinder blocks to the bottom of the road.

The workout was simple. 21s.  Start with 20 murder bunnies at the bottom, run up to and around the traffic circle, 1 squat.  There was not enough time to finish this big bowl of stupid but, as expected, the PAX were easily able to overtake me.

COT

Some prayer requests went out and we talked announcements. There’s a lot going on

NMM

I overheard a good deal of mumblechatter during the workout as Yard Sale, JWoww and BattleBot easily lapped me. OTG hung back to help me feel better about the sorry state I’m in. LOL

But it’s never bothered me to be in the six. When I Q I try to make sure that all levels can work against themselves and get something out of it.  And since there was Q school going on and 2 of the PAX were relatively new to F3, I felt it was worth expounding a bit on that in CoT.

The best workouts aren’t always defined by an insurmountable burpee count, but by the fellowship experienced under that load.

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Two Minute Drill

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Six runners met at Earthfare for some early morning speedwork at Brayden.  Here is what they did:

The Thang:

After watches were set, the pax were disclaimed as we did a warm-up mosey along Len Patterson drive into the Brayden neighborhood.   We took a left at Emory Lane, off of Brayden Parkway,  and paused at the intersection of Emory and Helton Lane.    The plan for this morning was  to run the loop formed by these two roads and alternate between 5K pace and a recovery jog,  every 2 minutes.

The Pax completed 7 or 8 intervals and then ran a cool-down jog back to COT.  As this AO is listed as running with pain stations, we finished with 30 merkins, 30 Freddie Mercury’s, and 3 Superman holds (20 sec ea).

COT

NMM

This is one of my ‘go-to’ running workouts that I’ve done for years to break up the monotony of running at the same pace, day after day.  It’s similar to a track workout, but to me is more fun on the road because of the addition of hills, and things to look at along the way.  Not as fun in the dark at 5:15, but still a good day on the roads!

Announcements, Prayers, Praises:

Memorial convergence and service for our brother, Shop Vac , this Saturday at the Armory  (Palmetto Funeral Home).

Senator Tressel’s frend, Joe with cancer;  Cornerstone (kidney stone), marriages

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One more beach body workout

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This week’s Q was constructed under a very sobering atmosphere. With the news of the passing of ShopVac, YHC tried to find a way to honor him with our actions this morning. However I’d only worked out with him a handful of times and hadn’t been able to attend any of his Qs. So the only way I know how to honor a HIM like that is to sweat it.

The gloom

7 appeared in the gloom at Pantheon, including Scalp, whom I had been trying to recruit to Q for some time. Guess I’ll have to pester him some more

warmup

A quick mosey down to the west side of the parking lot and over to the crosswalk for:

10x SSH
10x Cherry Picker
10x Imperial Walker

The thang

Today’s workout is a derivative of Slapshot’s “pendulum” workout, but with a simpler twist. Rather than keeping track of separate counts, just start at 15 each side and only subtract one each round. Less confusing and more painful, really.

PAX started at the crosswalk and ran east to the end of the sidewalk. Down on the six for 15 BBSUs. Back to the crosswalk, pausing for 3 burpees, and then running around the bend to the bike racks for 15 4-count flutters. Back to the crosswalk for another 3 burpees. Do this again with 14 reps, then 13, you get the idea.

With about eight minutes left Senator Tressel was able to get down to 4 reps, having lapped most of us TWICE. (He may be wearing a knee brace, but he doesn’t perform like it). Scalp was on 5 reps, and the rest of us on 6.  At this point I asked the PAX to let me know when we had five minutes left, to which they replied “we have two minutes left”.

“LOL, sure we do, guys. It’s a tough workout <changes watch screens>… oh, crap. Let’s get back to COT!”

Original plan was to use the last five minutes to do Lutefisk’s delightful “vacuum cleaner” routine in ShopVac’s honor. But it just wasn’t meant to be.

cot

Name-o-rama with all PAX opting to say “ShopVac, 56, Sean Kelley”.  YHC asked all present to speak any words they may have about ShopVac, followed by a brief discussion about being seen in the dark (in no way referring to our brother’s circumstances, of which none of us are cognizant). And prayers for the family and all involved…

nmm

Use your time well…

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Soggy games at the Corral

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The day before the Q, Lutefisk sent me a message wondering if I was still available to Q. Well, I never wasn’t available to Q, just hadn’t planned on it. Good ole WP being finicky again, I supposed.

The gloom

I arrived a few minutes early to plot our eventual course. Driving ’round back of the old Express Lube to chalk up some instructions nobody really wants to read is always fun. When I got to CoT, there were a few cars idling in the rain.

warm up

Mosey to the top of the hill by Express Lube. Warmup over!!

the thang

Part one

On paper, and in my mind, I wanted to call 11’s on the hill by the apartments, but I knew that the chosen activity at the bottom of the hill was a bit more involved, so 7’s were called instead.

The original plan for the top of the hill was BBSU’s, but because of the rain and complete lack of lighting, YHC called an audible to some low slow squats to make sure eyes were always up and we could move if a driver wasn’t paying attention.

The bottom of the hill is well-lit and so PAX will compete in the requisite rounds of Rochamburpees. Now, YHC has looked through the lexicons and found no definition of “chillcut” so I have to assume that it’s plank position. If not, well, probably should be.  Each PAX will pick a partner (or 3 man free for all).  In plank using right/left alternating counting “one, two, three, shoot”. The loser does a burpee starting with the pushup, the winner a single merkin. In the case of a draw, everyone does a burpee.

Part two

From the last game of rochamburpee, we all moseyed up to the SE corner of the Teeter where YHC had placed some scrawling that managed to stay dry and legible in the rain, and we continued our way around the course, which would be done until time ran out.

SE Corner: 10x V-ups
Behind Express Lube: 5x stepups (each)
Bear crawl from EL lot to crosswalk in front of auto parts store: 15x plank jacks
Run to the end of the strip mall and back to start

With 5 PAX there, we managed to stay together with YCH lagging behind and completed four loops of the .4 mile loop before heading back to COT with enough time for 10 windmills.

cot

Some announcing happened. Prayers were offered. Everyone talked a bit about their 2.0s. Sky-Q knows our needs.

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Bells. Apparently at Abercrombie and Fitch…

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I forgot how fun it is to Q gear workouts. I haven’t actually participated in a gear workout in (checks notes) a long time.  I was excited to have 3D’s invitation, but it took a few tries to get a date that would actually work.  I mean, it’s east of the Peach Stand. Foreign territory. Almost its own region.  I’ve never even seen the high school where this AO is located…

So when the date came, I found a sitter for Pantheon, loaded up the car, and started on the long journey to the Snake Pit.

the gloom

I needed time for setup so I arrived at 0500 with a list of bad ideas, my just under 100lb sandbag,  and sidewalk chalk my 2.0’s probably won’t know is missing.

U Haul was already in the parking lot. I could tell because when I got within ten yards of his car I suddenly felt a waive of acrimoniousness wash over me. (I kid, I kid… mostly). He was leaning on his trunk, or tailgate or whatever the heck you call the back of an SUV, listening to music that I imagine is generally best-suited for a night of Aldi wine, a can of nacho cheese, a bathtub, and 90’s teen drama on Netflix.

Really, though, it would do any PAX good to spend a few minutes in conversation with U Haul. He’ll help you understand what it’s like in a world without diplomacy, and you’ll be thankful for it. Especially if you don’t agree with him.

So anyways, I threw my sandbag on my back and hauled it over to the other part of the parking lot and started writing down all the bad ideas.

Upon my return to the flag area, U Haul was still busting out tunes that reminded me of all the times in high school all the kids I knew thought that Nickleback, The Verve Pipe and Green Day were writing music specifically for their sooouuuuul.

Lots of other PAX showed up and we found that there was an FNG in our midst. After a quick review of the five core principals and a disclaimer, the Bootcampers ran off with Sugar Daddy and…

warmup

A quick mosey around the parking lot by CoT, which was cut short by Tesh arriving a few minutes late and driving responsibly and predictably through my intended path. We also spotted one of those Jeep things pull in, which ended up being Pudge who ran laps solo without showing up to CoT. You do you, Pudge.

the thang

Pick up the bells and head to the other side of the parking lot where I have 8 parking spaces with fun activities. But there are 11 of us, and so we wrote down two extras. Do I remember the order? No. I do not, but they were:

  1. Bag Carry
  2. Farmer Carry
  3. Swings
  4. Curls
  5. Upright Row
  6. Bent over row
  7. Chest Press
  8. Swings (yes, a second swings slot, because they’re awesome)
  9. Goblet Squat
  10. Tricep Extensions
  11. Wood choppers (some people called them hay bailers)

The carry slot had the sandbag, Henry**, in it. I’d known that not a lot of people would be all that keen on lifting this beast up on their back to carry it around the parking lot, so I figured whomever was next to the bag could assist in loading the carrier, or could simply do a shared carry (also a beast of task, considering how shifty the weight is in that bag).  We had more people than I was expecting, and it was odd, so I made the call to just have one PAX carry the bag, and the other farmer carry the bells. Or they can co-carry. So long as every PAX carried twice.

After the instructions were explained, I started playing some music that I knew full well only I really liked. But after years of hearing music I don’t like, I figure now we’re even.  For the record, I don’t even remember which playlist it was that I was on… but it was probably something called “Shuffle Syndrom” from Spotify.  Or similar.

After a full rotation we dropped the weight and lined up by the sidewalk for two sets of suicides.

Suicides were simple enough. Three stopping points. At the end of each run, drop for 5 merkins and run back to start (no merkins at the start). Here I changed up the music to Project 86 to fit the mood for running.  The second suicide traded pushups for squats.

We had about 5 minutes left, and I took the now somewhat winded PAX back over to the weights where we did 30s sessions with 10s breaks until time. (with the carry subbed out for deadlift of the bells or bag, whichever you prefer).

**The bag is named Henry because you’re supposed to name them, and I used to work for this dude who was an absolute slave driver, but without that job I’d never be where I am today.

COT

Took roll call and had our FNG hang out in the middle to talk about himself. Being from Albequreckey(?)… I’m sure you can spell it if you live there, people had a lot of fun finding things unique to the state and we settled on “Tumbleweed”… before the really bad stuff came out.

Lots of announcements and things to do coming up and some prayers offered up.

NMM

First off, I’m thankful to have been able to get out of bed (very early) in order to Q this morning so far away from home, so thanks 3D for making time for me to Q.

Today I learned that there are different rules east of the Peach Stand.  For instance, when a TWSS was dropped people were genuinely surprised at the 5 burpee penalty/reward. Also, you can’t use big words like “caprices”.

And, now, I’ve never spent any time in an Ambercroby and Finch before, but I have walked by it, so when one of the PAX commented on the music that he felt like he was shopping there, I thought, “yeah, I look like those models. I get why you said that” (cannot recall which PAX said this, but I’m certain that’s what they were thinking).

If you plan to make people farmer carry someone else’s bell, make sure you’re going to be carrying Tesh’s bell.  Which I did… by chance. But I don’t mind appearing magnanimous. I mean, “nice”.

SYITG

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FieldDay at Paintheon

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My shorty was really excited about having a field day at school so I thought I would bring back some elementary school memories and lead the PAX in some old school field day activities.
I don’t usually put this much effort into a Q because there is a lot of stuff to figure out and prep beforehand. Luckily I have been riding the good vibes of June FNG Jamboree so I was willing to put in the extra effort in hopes the PAX have fun while still getting a workout in.

Started the PAX off with some standard exercises then moved right into the games.

The following games were played. If you want to know more then you need to show up next time. Thank you to Lutefisk for joining us while on IR and for capturing some incredible footage of the games.

Sharks and minnows and bears. The bear crawl is the only mode of transportation. then around with only being able to NUR which turned out to be way more dangerous than expected.

The next field day game was the egg toss.
Wanting to continue to have access to the facilities of the elementary school the eggs were swapped out for golfballs. Eggs smashed baking in the sun while the kids stand in the car rider pickup line would not be great for fulfilling the mission of F3.
Golf ball egg toss rules. If you drop the golf ball you and your partner must perform 3 burpees before moving back to the next cone. Note that golf balls were also dangerous. Especially with the limited photons present in the gloom.

On to the second to final field day game. The famous water relay. Everyone is split into two teams. Each team member will perform exercises while the first person in line will fill the holy cup,(it’s a cup with holes in it to let the water leak out thereby encouraging running) and run down around the farthest cone then back to a second cup that is to be filled. Exercises are merkins, squats, plank for the guys not running with the leaking water jug.
This was one of my favorite parts to watch as PAX had different theories and strategy was definitely a factor in the outcome. There were some cheaters so the rules had to be adjusted to only carrying the jug with one hand. Great job fellas pushing yourselves to win for your team. (IT especially was running fast)

Last but not least was the “nobody is watching my six” dodgeball.
Pax around the circle perform seal jacks while trying to hit the person in the middle. If you hit the person you then go into the middle and take a turn dodging while they take your spot around the circle. At first, it was only one person and one dodgeball which was pretty elementary so we had to add more excitement by adding a second person in the middle and a second dodgeball. So now there are two people in the middle and two dodgeballs in play. It became much more chaotic which I enjoyed and many more guys were getting into the dodging action. The game also added some chaos because with only two out of 4 dodgeballs in play at a single time everyone had to be aware of the sequence at which the dodgeballs were allowed to enter the game. To make it as easy to remember as possible we established that the order of balls that could be in play was green, yellow, red, and finally blue. So the game starts with the green and yellow balls in play and if one of the green or yellow balls ends up outside the circle then the next ball which is red becomes active.

Kudos to Uber for his world-class dodgeball skills.

Hope you guys enjoyed it and it was great to see Tinsel back out in the gloom after his rabdo scare.

Thanks for the opportunity 38 to lead. Stay frosty my friends,
Olaf

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Some light running and form

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It’s been a while since YHC has gone all the way to Footloose, so how could I say no to the early morning drive east of the Peach Stand?

The car said it was 60º F, and I couldn’t have asked for a better morning for working off a slight hangover.

the gloom

YHC arrived not at 0515, but my watch still said 0515 when I got out of my car so I was basically sorta, not really, but kinda on time.  Barry Manilow and Anchroman had meandered off already and so I asked Assassin and Small World how they felt about taking “moderate” up a half a notch.  With their permission, we set off toward main street.

the thang

My original plan was to take the crowd down to FMCoG’s lower parking lot for some stairs and Dora fun. Works great for crowds because there’s always someone to complain at, but with 3 people, you can’t dora properly.

We immediately started off towards main street. Pulled into the lot behind Amor and Improper for:
20x SSH
10x low slow squat
10x Merkins

Every time we stopped after that it was the same thing:
10x lunges (each leg)
20x monkey humpers
10x BBSU

Stops were made:
By that animal hospital
The post office
The steps of United Presbyterian
Parking lot for 1873
The town hall
Back at the animal hospital
Across from the police station on Academy where we ran into quite a few Minnows
The lower lot for FMCoG

Then we ran up the stairs, realized we were SO CLOSE to 2 miles that we overshot COT, wrapped through the parking lot and back to hit that sweet, sweet 2.0 mark.

cot

Anchorman and Barry Manilow were waiting for us at CoT where we talked about the various upcoming events, such as “The Barry”, and others.  Did you know that there are going to be prizes at The Barry? I didn’t.

Everyone had a prayer, and they were prayed.

nmm

It was a good day to be in the gloom. We had great weather that was just cool enough to keep what was in my stomach where it belongs. I’ve known Assassin for a while and it was good to hear his take on things again. I’d met Small World a while ago when he first started posting, but didn’t get a chance to know him, so I am quite thankful for the easy pace and good mumblechatter from this morning.

Thanks to Small World for inviting me out. SYITG

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