Tag: Badlands

Convergence: Love & a passing of the flag

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Station 1 (Santini): Traditional Pain Platoon

Just your basic beat the hell out of your legs exercises of lunges, squats, and burpees intermixed with meditation and box breathing exercises. Sprint to the top of the hill, recover, and do more exercises including Moroccan night clubs and Carolina dry docks.

NMM: Anxiety and gratitude are not able to occupy the same space.

Station 2 (Shady / Maximus)

Warmup (Shady) – 21 SSH, 5 burpees, 18 SSH, 5 burpees, 12 SSH, someone whined about burpees so we did 10 diamonds merkins…then did 5 burpees
Group 1
  • partnered up and Dora style started out with 100 pull-ups.  Partner 1 on the pull-up bar, partner 2 did a lap around the playgroud
  • Stayed on playground, stayed with partner, Partner 1 AMRAP merkins while partner 2 ran the length of the playground and back to AMRAP merkins
  • Stayed on the AMRAP theme with flutters, then back to merkins, then back to flutters…then (I think) time was called

Group 2

  • Partnered up and Dora style, but this time 50 pull-ups with the run around the playground (Q modification given time and we aren’t cyborgs)
  • AMRAPs were just 1 round of merkins and flutters (again, I think…may need a lifeline here from Max)
  • We made our way to the hill with the statue where Maximus laid down the NUR up the hill and at the top 10 bomb jacks and ran to the bottom where we did 20 American hammers..we did this twice
  • W/ time to spare we ran to the top for 10 diamond merkins and ran to the bottom for 10 V-ups
  • In buzzer beater fashion, we ran to the top again for 10 ranger merkins and ran to the bottom for a partner 1 lay on the ground and grab partner 2s ankles where partner 2 would throw partner 1s feet down 10 times as you straight leg lifted them to his face

Group 3

  • Dora style 50 pull-ups with the run around the playground
  • We made our way to the hill with the statue where Maximus laid down the NUR up the hill and at the top 10 bomb jacks and ran to the bottom where we did 20 american hammers..we did this twice
  • Running low on time ran to the top for 10 diamond merkins and ran to the bottom for the ankle grabbing / feet throwing core exercise 10 times
NMM: After each of the groups had done their pull-ups, Maximus and Shady shared their thoughts and experiences on LOVE.
  • Shady – areas of focus were loving your brother and being your brothers keeper.  Sending a text or reaching out to someone to just say “hey, thinking of you” could change their day.  Realizing that the ones you love are watching you, emulating you, picking up on good and bad habits.  Realizing we don’t know it all, especially to the ones we love, is a sign of humility and a factor of growth and development.  For those of us with children, we have never been parents before so we honestly have no idea what we’re doing.  Love starts with servant leadership and personally for YHC, this usually progresses when the mouth is shut and ears are open.
  • Maximus – For my discussion on love, it begins with being intentional as love is a decision. We must make the decision to be intentional with our actions. Whether it be in our faith, marriage, parenting of our kids, with friends and yes, even with work relationships, we must be intentional. Think about how easy it is to get distracted, whether at dinner with your wife or even on a Zoom call for work. We often allow our minds to wander or even start doing something else while the other person is talking, looking for our engagement. Stop. Be the person who is present in the moment. Put the shoe on the other foot. Love that person as your relationship to them allows.

Station 3 (Pusher & Cakeboss): Love Edition

COP
  • SSHs
  • Windmills
  • Squats
  • Mtn Climbers
  • Merkins
  • IWs
Cake Boss spells love “B-U-R-P-E-E”
The Thang
  • Jacobs Ladder with Derkins and Monkey Humpers
  • Plank/Dip sequence
  • Bear crawl to top with burpees
NMM:
  • Cord of 3 strands cannot be broken. Having God in your marriage is the 3rd string. Adding communication to the marriage strengthens it. – CB
  • Gifts vs Gaps. Focus on the gifts that your wife or significant other bring vs what she is missing. Seeing her this way builds love. – Pusher
  • Much love was on display with all of the mumblechatter and fellowship. The relationships formed through F3 has increased our love internally and is reflected outward to our Ms, 2.0s, PAX and community… #morethanaworkout

Shovel Flag hand off for two leadership positions in the Fort:

Shady handed off the Nantan role to Double D
Esso handed off the Weasel Shaker role to YHC

Awesome work by the PAX today. Hard to put into words how much improved my disposition on life is since moving back to Fort Mill because of F3. Grateful for an opportunity to serve the PAX of The Fort.

NMM: Double D was the site-Q at Block Party when I started posting. If it wasn’t for his steady presence with a commitment to the integrating 2nd F and 3rd F elements into each workout, I doubt I’d have kept posting. Double D is a genuine human, I’m a better dude for knowing him, and I’m excited for his leadership.

—
Band Camp dismissed

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Growing Up @ Varsity

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A steady rain fell as 7 PAX exited their vehicles at about 0514 and a quick disclaimer as we moseyed to find cover near high school entrance.

 

Sasquatch led us through 15 minutes of contortion that can best be described as pain pretzels.  Sasquatch nailed the balance poses, the rest of us sure tried hard.
At 0530, the reigns were turned over and the premise for the bootcamp was shared with the PAX.  My 3rd (and final) 2.0 turned 5yo this past week, so this beatdown was brought to us by the number 5 and inspired by the progression of his life thus far.
– Newborn:  feeding then pat the back until you get a nice BURPee…
5 quick burpees to get the blood flowing
– 6 months:  things get real interesting once they start crawling…
5 bear crawl laps around awning pillars at school entrance (after 3/4 of first lap i realized 5 may have been a little aggressive but we made it through)
-9 months: they are gaining balance and they start sitting…
Wall sit w/ MNC x10 (IC)
Wall sit w/ alternating heal raise x10 (IC)
Mosey (out into the rain) to pullup bars
-12 months: they are gaining arm and leg strength.  They push/pull/struggle to stand up on own…
5 rounds
5 pullups, 10 merkins, 15 air squats, run down to stop sign and back
Mosey back to covered high school entrance
-2 to 3 years: terrible 2s lead to laying on ground, flailing, and lots of grunting….
5 minutes of Mary. 5ish exercises. LBCs, peter parkers, nap time (Fishsticks knew we needed a break), Leg Lifts, V ups
End at 0600.
CoT under awning.  video-less Name-o-Rama/Announcements/prayers/praises
NMM
Pretty sure i heard a couple “this sucks” and at least one “cant wait to see what is next now that my arms, shoulders and legs are toast” so I think that means it was a good workout?  Bear crawls and pullups are not exercises I excel at, but I chose to put them in today to challenge myself and get better and hopefully that was the same for the other PAX (Sasquatch may have broke a sweat?).
Each year my 2.0s get older, I stress about whether or not I am raising them right and question if I should be doing things differently or if I am being too hard on the older ones or too easy on the younger ones.  Who knows.  Raising kids is tough. So, let’s all take time to cherish the special moments as they come because time flies and they get old quick!
SYITG
-Badlands
PS- my geography teacher lied – I guess it does actually rain in the Badlands.
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Shoulders and Sandbags at Currahee

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It’s February 1st, it’s cold(ish), GTE season is about to kick off and we’re at Currahee. I asked the PAX to bring a few sandbags so we had kettle bells and bags ranging from 20lbs – 80lbs which was perfect to welcome Badlands to his virgin ruck workout.

Disclaimer & ground your rucks

Jog around the parking lot
Grab your rucks and shuffle around the parking lot
Grab all the coupons and ruck around the parking lot

Good morning. I love you. Now do 20 Man Makers.

To the soccer fields:
Bear crawl (rucks only) 1/2 way across the field (shorter distance) then bear crawl ruck drag the remaining distance.
Go to one end of the field and set your eyes on the other end. Now we’re looking at the field via the long way.
Shuffle 1/2 way, 10 tricep extensions, shuffle the rest, 10 tricep extensions
NUR 1/2 way, 20 upright rows, NUR the rest, 20 upright rows
I promise I love you. Bear crawl 1/2 way (again, we’re talking about the long way), 10 merkins, bear crawl ruck drag the rest, 10 slick merkins.

Back to the coupons in the lot .
With rucks and all coupons, we’d ruck the big drop off loop with stops at each of the 4 corners for 3 exercises at each:
10 Ruck Thrusters
15 Overhead Press
20 Ruck Curls (this turned out to be the worst especially for Mainframe and his 45lb’er)

Rucks only and make our way to the flags
On your back, legs straight up and rucks overhead, LBC’s in cadence
Flutters in cadence
Rucks on your feet then modified LBC’s in cadence

On your feet.
PAX hold their ruck with arms bent at 90 degrees. Each PAX take their turn at performing 5 good ruck curls while the rest hold the 90.

Overhead ruck carry back to COT.

Hey Divac…GO PACK (Wolfpack, that is)
Maximus

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(Un)Bear-AB-le Ladder

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Kermit originally was the substitute-Q for this week but was battling a sore knee the last couple days, so I accepted the opportunity to take the Q on short notice the day before.  My plan was to come do a site visit later that evening since I have only posted at Laces In a couple times and am not too familiar with the FMHS campus.  Well life got in the way of that plan as my M was rear ended pretty much immediately after I clicked accept on the worship planner invitation (her and 2.0s are fine).  So my site visit didn’t come to fruition and I was gonna have to wing it….

The mid 20s temps weren’t going to deter the 5 PAX from getting better this morning and so at 0515 the standard disclaimer was given as an army of headlamps descended on the parking lot like a band of wild hooligans {Soul to Sole).

Moseyed past some sort of Soul to Sole mating ritual  (Maximus moseyed through them) over to the pavement football field where we warmed up with a brief CoP (all in cadence) – 20 SSH, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Hillbilly Walkers, 10 Merkins

Thang Part 1 – (Un)Bear-ab-le Ladder

Bear Crawl to each ladder rung and complete Ab exercise – Crawl Bear back to Goal Line

10 yard line – 10 American Hammers

20 yard line – 20 Shoulder Taps

30 yard line – 30 Flutters

40 yard line – 40 LBCs

50 yard line – 50 Plank Jacks

Al Gore for the 6 at each goal line return with a couple 10 counts to keep the group together

Totals:

150 Yards of Bear Crawls, 150 Yards of Crawl Bears, 50 American Hammers, 80 Shoulder Taps, 90 Flutters, 80 LBCs,  and 50 Plank Jacks

I was a little unsure how that bear crawl combined with ab work would play out – definitely tough but I think I will keep it in the back pocket for future Q’s.

 

Mosey to St Phillip Neri Parking Lot for Part 2.

Thang Part 2-  Half-DORA – Partner 1 Runs to end of Parking Lot and Back while Partner 2 completes exercises – switch and repeat

50 – Jump Squats

100 – Merkins

150 – Calf Raises

We probably had time for the full DORA but there was mumblechatter about hills early in the workout so I wanted to make sure and get some hill sprints in to reward the PAX for coming out.

Mosey to hill entrance where we had time for  2 sets of 5 Burpees/hill sprint and a set of 5 burpees followed by a sprint back to COT.  More solid mumblechatter around Cuban food and the need for Cohiba to host a dinner party.

Finished at 0600 – Name-o-rama, announcements, prayers, and praises

I suppose one should expect unpredictability when you kick it with Laces In –  However, the last minute audibles all panned out this morning and we definitely didn’t have any Ray Finkles in the group.  Thanks for the opportunity!

-Badlands

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Fort Mill Tour – No Charge

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We had 20 men show up this morning at Block Party.  Alot more than I anticipated, but it’s good to have a big crowd.  After a quick disclaimer, we did the typical warm-up exercises (SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Windmills).

I explained to the Pax, we would be on the move this morning, touring Fort Mill.  Our first stop was the Hardee’s parking lot.  Once everyone arrived, we did the following exercises:

20 Squats

15 Merkins

10 LBCs

5 Burpees

Next stop was Unity Church on Tom Hall, instead of taking the shortest route, we ran down Spring Street to Leroy and met at the front of the church.  The same exercises were done by the Pax.  We continue our tour around town to the Church of God parking lot on Academy Street.   Once exercises were complete, we moved to the next stop, the parking lot across from the gas station on Spratt Street.

Our fifth stop was the Fort Mill Church of Nazarene on Harris Street.  We took the longer route up hilly Massey Street to Harris Street.  Again, another round of exercises.  Our last stop was Walter Elisha Park.

We then made our way back to COT for one last round of exercises. Total distance was a little over 3 miles. The continued theme from Monday’s Q, “No Shortcuts”.  We took the longer route to each location.  The routes were hilly and more difficult, but we are better than when we started this morning.  Keep getting after it.

Great job everyone!

 

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Laces In randomness

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11 Pax showed up at Laces In in some relatively balmy weather (45ish degrees).  Gave the disclaimer at 0515 and after a short warm-up with 20 SSH in cadence and 6 or 7 windmills (my count is a bit blurry from 5 hours ago) we were off.

 

From COT we moseyed over to the first parking lot for a riddle.  How do 17 merkins + 14 jump squats equal 6 burpees?  The PAX were very astute to the Buffalo Bills numbers and quickly figured out that 17 (Josh Allen) + 14 (Stefon Diggs) = 6 (Touchdown!!).  It was corny, but it was fun for YHC.  Since the group figured it out so quickly, we only did this once.

 

After this we moseyed again; this time over to the hill/entrance to the school.  From here we did 11’s with hand-release merkins at the bottom and ran to the top of the hill to do Freddie Mercury’s (nuring up the hill on one round).  I asked the pax to stay together to encourage both each other and mumble chatter…

 

Lastly we moseyed over to the band lot.  At this location we would do laps around the ‘field’ and do a corresponding exercise at the end of each lap.  The laps/exercises were:

Lap 1: 10yd to 10yd line with 10 Catalina wine mixers

Lap 2: 20 to 20 with 20 LBCs

Lap 3: 30 to 30 with 30 CDDs

Lap 4: 40 to 40 with 40 squats – cut this short due to time.

 

Headed back to COT.  Shared announcements and prayers/praises.

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Slippery day at the Schoolhouse

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Finally back to normal after the snow and ice storm this weekend.  The drive to The Colosseum was a little slick.  I arrived a little early to check out the track in the back lot.  Part of it was covered with ice so we would need to modify the running portion.

After the arrival of the Pax, we carefully moseyed to back of the school for the typical warm-ups.

SSHs x 20

Imperial Walkers x 16

Windmills x 10

Next, we walked over to the benches where I had stacked 15 cards with exercise written on each.   I explained the benefit of writing Backblast.  You have a library of past workouts to assist with your Q.  Today’s workout was similar to one I had Q’d five years ago.  Complete the exercise written on the card and run a lap.

Here are the exercises:

100 Merkins

80 Moroccan Nightclubs

100 LBCs

100 Carolina Dry Docks

100 Squats

80 Plank Jacks

100 Flutter Kicks

50 Lunges

20 Burpees

80 Side Straddle Hops

60 American Hammers

80 Plank Punches

100 Calf Raises

80 Freddie Mercury

80 Mountain Climbers

We got through all but the last three exercises (take home assignment).  We had a great time discussing marriage, 2.0s, Alabama, and work.

Thanks for the opportunity, Shower Curtain.

 

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The Swamp: reps, laps, and a forgotten message

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7 PAX – 1 FNG
Full disclaimer was read (at least the high points)

Little Mosey
Some dynamic warmups
Some in-cadence warmups
-IW
-HW
Little Mosey
Some more dynamic warmups

Thang w/ Laps around Target
25 burpees – in cadence
lap
50 merkins – stopped at 25 to let the PAX gather their resolve
lap
75 lunges
lap
100 monkey humpers – in cadence
lap
75 lunges
“lap” – modified with a mosey back towards COT
50 merkins – no stopping
mosey back towards COT
– Airwolf wanted to sprint it back in. YHC obliged
25 burpees – 10 EMOM for 2.5 minutes
40 seconds of flutters in cadence to hit 0600

NMM:

Workout stolen from a Hello Kitty tweet. As the Russian master, Igor Stravinsky said: “good composers borrow, great composers steal.”

I blame Badlands and Tesla for pushing the pace. So much push that I forgot the message I’d planned on how Jesus called Peter to be a “fisher of men,” but told another follower to “go home.” (Luke 8) It’s alright we don’t all get the same callings.

Guess I’ll save it for another Q!

Welcome FNG: Spector

—
Band Camp dismissed

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Bushwood Leg Hangover

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So….  The science says Badlands Q doesn’t bring the best weather.  Dry but cold morning – didn’t catch exact temp but mid 20s at best.  The cold appears to have kept the turnout fairly low across The Fort this morning, but we had 6 strong HIM come to get better at Bushwood.

 

Joint disclaimer with Snake Pit and we moseyed (@7:30 pace – Oops, I was amped I guess) down the backside of the school to a field across from the tennis courts.

 

CoP:

20x SSH (IC)

20x MNC (IC)

20x IW (IC)

10x Merkin (IC)

20x Goofballs (IC)

 

Main Workout:

4 Round OYO circuit utilizing the parking lot and the 4 tiers of stadium seating at the Tennis Courts

Round 1: Run lap around parking lot (0.3mi), 5x Box Jumps at 1st Tier, 5x Bulgarian Split Squats (each leg) at 2nd Tier, 5x Derkins at 3rd Tier, and 5x Step Ups (each leg) at 4th Tier

Round 2: Run lap – 10x reps

Round 3: Run lap – 15x reps

Round 4: Run lap – 20x reps

 

Solid mumblechatter along the way – Work, Covid, Life, etc

 

Calves were feeling neglected so we finished off the Main Workout with about 20x calf raises

 

The Encore:

During the mosey back toward CoT, 10x Diamond Merkins were completed at every light pole we passed to the right of the road and 10x Wide Arm Merkins for each light pole we passed to the left of the road, around 5 light poles each side.  Arrived back to CoT with about 3 minutes left for Mary which included Flutters, Speed Flutters, LBCs, and American Hammers.

Totals for the day include: 2.5 miles, 50 Box Jumps, 50 Bulgarian Split Squats, 50 Derkins, 50 Step Ups, 20 Calf Raises, 20 Merkins, 50 Diamond Merkins, 50 Wide Arm Merkins, 4 Minutes of Ab work @ Mary

Joint Name-o-rama, Announcement, Praises, Prayers with SnakePit…

 

Thanks to L-Train for giving me the opportunity to Q!  Never skip Leg Day fellas!

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Badlands Wet and Wild VQ

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After my first post in late October 2021, I managed a solid 2 months of free-loading.  Then, this morning came time for my VQ…

 

Text Exchange (as sideways rain whipped through the EarthFare parking lot, getting worse by the minute):

05:05 – Badlands – This should be fun.

05:06 – Kermit – This is a little much.

05:07 – Badlands – No lightning at least.

05:07 – Kermit – I don’t know if I’m this hardcore.  But I’ve never had to make this decision.

05:08 – Badlands – This is the worst.  I’ve never been to one that’s got canceled

05:08 – Kermit – This is insane. It’s because of your name.

05:09 – Badlands – It’s gonna break right in time to start.

05:12 – Badlands – Told you.  Skies clearing right in time.

05:12 – Kermit – It’s still raining, just not coming down in sheets now.

 

And with the calming of the rain – 7 PAX exited their vehicles and entered the gloom.

 

Disclaimer and a brief overview of the workout then we were off…

 

Moseyed onto 160 towards Baxter until we found an extra soggy spot ¼ mile in.  We circled up (kind of) and I stumbled through COP as the rain ceased:

20x Goofballs (IC)  *w/BandCamp doing his best to make my life difficult*

15x MNC (IC)

20x IW (IC)

 

Moseyed further down 160 with R/T onto Front St, down to the Berkshire Heights loop.

 

Main Workout:

OYO CCW running of Berkshire Heights loop (~.9 miles) x2 with pain stations at each stop sign (5/loop = 10 total)

10x Merkins

10x Big Boy Situps

10x Squats

 

After second loop, returned to EarthFare parking lot to earn extra credit as temperatures noticeably dipped and winds picked up.

Main Workout Totals:  3 miles, 100 merkins, 100 big boys, and 100 squats.

 

Extra credit back at the parking lot consisted of 4 corners style workout with running in between:

Corner #1 – 10x Left Leg Lunge

Corner #2 – 10x Right Leg Lunge

Corner #3 – 10x Shoulder Taps

Corner #4 – 10x Mountain Climbers

All PAX earned some extra credit on the day – some getting another .5 miles and 30 more reps of each exercise.

 

Name-o-rama, Announcement, Praises, Prayers..

 

As we scattered toward the vehicles, the rain started again…  If you didn’t know, it rarely rains in the Badlands.

 

Thanks to Vuvuzela for the opportunity to lead, and for the conversation while driving to get his spare keys after getting locked out of his vehicle 😉

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