Taste of Fort Mill

This past weekend Fort Mill hosted an annual event called The Taste of Fort Mill.  It is an awesome event where restaurants from all over Fort Mill bring tasting samples of some of their most popular dishes.  In honor of that event, we held the Taste of Fort Mill prepared the way F3 men prefer it.

Quick warm up with SSH, Merkins, Peter Parkers and Parker Peters.  Then a short Mosey to Armor Artis where my truck was parked and loaded down with the “hell pavers.”

7 stations for 7 places of greatness at or near Main St, Fort Mill:

  1. Armor Artis Brewery:  Curls “21’s” (7 halfway down, 7 all the way down and half way up, 7 full)
  2. The Improper Pig:  Overhead Press X21
  3. Hobos:  Bentover Row X21 (Run up Main Street to Pucker Butt.)
  4. Pucker Butt:  “Heartburn” Hand Release Merkins (5 wide, 5 regular, 5 diamond)  (Run down Main Street to Local Dish)
  5. Local Dish:  Jump Squats X10 & 15 Big Boy Situps  (Run to Z Bakery)
  6. Z Bakery: Burpees X10  (Run back towards Main St and through the back parking lot to the hill next to FM Animal Hospital)
  7. Towne Tavern:  Bear Crawl down the hill and Bear Crawl back up

Everyone pushed themselves with Maximus and Band Camp were WAY out front!

Prayers:

  • Prayers for the Page family
  • Prayers for a speedy recovery for Chris Weidman

Thank you very much Bobber for the opportunity to Q a great AO.  It was a lot of fun!

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RPG – Road to Perdition 1

9 PAX for 15 min of Broga

Sequence starting with some yoga core work on the ground and finishing with a vinyasa flow
–Cake Boss felt YHC was tricking everyone into doing burpees (maybe….?)

5 split off for work in preparation for Ville to Ville
4 ran a 5k along the Road to Perdition
https://www.strava.com/activities/5135550667
The old golf cart paths are fun…if a little treacherous in the dark

Thanks to Bodywash for the opportunity to lead.

NMM:
Saw this picture yesterday:

Meyer is one of my fellow trombone professor’s son. He’s hugging his sister here. Meyer will go through THREE chemo and radiation treatments that will last 3-4 weeks EACH. He won’t be able to hug his sister again for a long time because his immune system will be so compromised during the treatments. Love your family today and be grateful for the time we’ve been given. We aren’t guaranteed anything, and we’re lucky to have this moment.

Nota Bene: I’m speaking to myself as much as I am to anyone else. That’s why writing the backblasts are important. We need to work the words out to ourselves.

Prayers for Meyer

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Block Party 4.6.2021

Catch up BB 4/5

Warm up

Arm/Leg ballistic stretching

SSH/Burpee Pyramid

 

Topic: Accelerating Fitness

Why are we here?

Why do we “take it easy” when it comes to fitness some times? We have the opportunity to be in the gloom. That’s right – an opportunity to be here. We aren’t forced here. It isn’t something that a judge or authority figures ordered us to do. We choose to do this. We get to do this. 

So why, then, is the temptation to “mail it in” so great, even when we go through the trouble to wake up at zero dark thirty? In the famous words of Youts: “We don’t wake up early to half-ass it.”

Mosey down Confederate Street to Withers, turn right to 4 way stop signs

ISI DORA

Partner up and challenge each other. DORA style but keep your reps secret from each other. After both PAX do a round of the movement, reveal the number of reps completed. Loser does the difference in a harder exercise while the winner gets a less difficult movement.

Legs – Run up Withers to Meachem & Back

Loser – Bomb Jacks

Winner – Squats

Bonnie Blairs

Monkey Humpers

Apollo Ono’s

 

Abs – Run down Academy to Forrest & Back

Loser – In & Outs

Winner – LBCs

Big Boys

American Hammers

Flutters

 

Arms – Nur up Withers to Confederate; run back

Loser – Diamonds

Winner – Wide Arms

Merkins

CDD’s

Dips

 

Putting somebody into your corner. 

The use of a brother (or several brothers) to motivate and push you. We are only as strong as we tell ourselves we are. And… spoiler… when we’re in the the thick of it – we’ll try to convince our own bodies to quit. Why?

Maximus quote: “I would have never completed, much less attempted, the GORUCK HTL without these men by my side. They knew the headspace I was in. Physically, I knew I could do it, but mentally, that is where I lacked confidence. These men saw to it that I wouldn’t train alone and each of them had their own motivation.”

There’s power in surrounding yourselves with like minded individuals. 

Mosey back toward Veteran’s Park for COT.

 

Punch List out.

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The Hive 3.26.2021

YHC has been slacking lately and hadn’t posted any backblasts for recent Q’s. So… here is # one of five.

 

Thunder was rolling early the morning of the 26th, which indicated we would be under cover with our bells. The humidity was high and the PAX were scared. Only four strong HIM showed up to the workout.

Call today’s workout a PT test as it was a repeat of a COVID related beatdown from Band Camp. YHC struggled last year (3/25/2020) through the WOD and wanted to see if acceleration or deceleration had happened since. Luckily, acceleration occurred and YHC felt much better on the second iteration of the Bandcamp WOD.

 

See below screenshots for the deets. Instead of 20 normal burpees at the end we did 10 Mountain Climber Burpees (Flying Squirrel w/4-count mountain climber) and 10 double burpees (two push ups, two squats).

 

Punch List out.

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Q & Co-Q (VQ) with Skipper

The guy has been on a strong trajectory, we call it acceleration, since coming onto the F3 scene a few months ago. After some advertising and excitement, 13 additional PAX joined SKIPPER and YHC, 15 total, for a Block Party throw down.

Announcement of the Qs…check
Disclaimer…check
I surely hope they got their money’s worth. If not, don’t do the following.
Skipper took the PAX on the warmup run to FMCOG for
SSH
Low Slow Squats
Moroccan Night Clubs

Maximus on Q for the DECK OF CARDS!
Diamonds = Diamond Merkins
Hearts = Carolina Dry Docks
Clubs = V-Ups
Spades = Merkins
Jokers, of which there were 4 = 20 Sumo Squats

We didn’t make it all the way through the deck but here’s what we completed:
90 Diamond Merkins
104 Carolina Dry Docks
96 V-Ups
93 Merkins

Hand off to Skipper!!
From the corner of Withers and Academy, run hill repeats up Withers to Watson Street, yes, that hill. It was a ladder with squats at the top and burpees at the top. He’s a sick, sick man.

Mosey back to COT for the final round(s) of Mary.

Great morning to have these guys supporting Skipper’s VQ. Careful, his official, full 45min VQ is on March 30 at Golden Corral!

This COT stuck out to me due to the vulnerability by the guys. This was a true representation of what we have here and man, was it good. So blessed we are.

SYITG
Skipper & Maximus

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Foosball @ Varsity – It’s more than a workout

YHC was informed this was a HIIT AO, did some Googling night before, and drafted up a weinke that I believe would meet the requirement. Hard to avoid a football field or pull up bars, so decided to say yes to both.

Quick disclaimer and we’re off to the track.

Warmup
  • Run 200 meters & stop – following in so so cadence form:
    • Monkey Humpers – a Hardwood favorite BTW
    • Imperial Walkers –
    • Hill Billy Walkers
    • Cherry Pickers
    • Peter Parkers
    • Parker Peters – Shady was kind enough to call out I did Peter Parkers twice
    • Downward dog
    • Honey Mooner
    • Band Camp Stretches

Mosey 200 meters to end zone

The Thang(s)

Intent was to have sprints of varied distances followed by exercises as a “rest” period, followed by more sprints.

Quarter Pounder

Sprint to marker, do exercise, sprint back to end zone, then sprint to next marker. Increments of 25.

  • Sprint to 25 – 25 Vups & sprint back rinse and repeat…
  • 50 – Monkey Humpers
  • 75 – Mountain Climbers
  • 100 – Calf Raises

Red Barchetta

Very similar yet you start by sprinting 100 yards, conduct exercise, sprint back to end zone and plank for 6. Rinse and repeat down in 25s. Intent was to keep the group together.

  • 100 – SSHs
  • 75 – Should Taps
  • 50 – LBCs
  • 25 – Merkins
  • Bonus – sprint 10 yards, 10 burpees and sprint back

DMC

  • Duck walk to 10 yard line, 10 merkins, crawl bear back.
  • Duck walk to 20 yard line, 20 merkins, crawl bear back.
  • Duck walk to 30 yard line, 30 merkins, crawl bear back.

Human Hurdling

Read this in exicon and had to try. Break up into 2 teams, a race of sorts.

Starting in plank, 1 man sprints to 10 yard line and plank. Man #2 sprints to 20 yard line, hurdles man at 10 yard line and planks. Man #3 sprints to 30 yard line hurdling man #1 and man #2 along the way and planks. Rinse and repeat to the end zone followed by another rinse and repeat back to end zone.

About 15 minutes left and it was time for pull ups. Had a hill sprints w/ pullups at top and exercise on bottom for 5 rounds but decided to prioritize the burpee pull ups due to time constraints.

Burpee Pullups

Consulted w/ Johnny Utah night before and thought, this would be marvelous. After attempting to articulate and failing, turned it over to Johnny U to articulate much clearer.

  • 1 burpee followed by 1 pull-up or chin up
  • 1 burpee followed by 2 pull-ups or chin ups
  • Rinse and repeat staying w/ 1 burpee to 6 pull-ups or chin ups

Then reverse

  • 1 pullup/chin up 6 burpees
  • 1 pullup/chin up 5 burpees
  • etc…

4 minutes left, headed to COT for some Mary.

Announcements

Most announcements at a COT ever!

  • Rooster
  • Grow Ruck
  • Bacon Run
  • Waxhaw Trail run
  • Metro CSAUP

And probably others

Prayers for guidance on life decisions and selflessness, mental health, and enduring a season of lots of change.

NMM

It’s admittedly been a really tough week for my family and I, after some very long weeks, the last thing I want to do is draft up a weinke and Q the next morning. That’s me being honest.

Normally, I’m excited and enjoy creatively bringing the pain , but there’s not much gas in the tank, and my mind is elsewhere.

But you have an obligation and owe it to the PAX who decide to do the harder thing; there are expectations to be met.

As I rolled into the parking lot and saw the cars, my worries sort of vanished and the excitement crept in. For 45 minutes, we’re going to work hard, bust balls, and set aside our worries or share them knowing you have a brother there to support. We’ll all get better together and you’re not alone.

I took a look around at the very respectable HIM that posted this morning and was grateful because, whether or not they know it, they’ve taught me something and they push me to be better.

Embracing the suck in the gloom builds the character and durability to endure the challenges we face daily. It’s more than a workout.

 

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Ripple Effect

15 PAX gathered to defeat the fartsack on a chilly but hospitable Thursday AM in the gloom.

Here’s what we did:

PAX were disclaimed and moseying commenced to the top of the hill at the high school entrance.  We did the following exercises in varying quantities in cadence:

Low slow squats, Moroccan night clubs in the people’s chair, 5 burpees OYO, imperial walkers, hillbilly walkers, windmills (Trucker approved), merkins, a few down dog and up dog stretches and we commenced/moseyed  to the Main Event – part one

1 – Jacob’s Ladder – 7’s were called – Kracken Burpees at the bottom and a run to the top for squats.  PAX finished at the top of the hill, planked and, when the 6 arrived, recovered and moseyed to Main Event – Part 2

2 – East or West – PAX were divided in teams of 2 and Bobber was given the choice to take his team (1) to the east field or the west field.  Choosing West, team 1 moseyed to the end zone and team 2 to the East end zone.

PAX performed the following exercises at each yard line in a head to head competition.  PAX ran to the specified yard line, did the exercise and nur’d back to the goal line each time

Team East – 10 diamond merkins, 20 burpees, 30 lunges, 40 squats, 50 SSH’s, 40 shoulder taps, 30 flutters, 20 burpees, 10 werkins.  Team leaders reached the red zone, but not the end zone

Team West – 10 kracken burpees, 20 bombjacks, 30 SSH’s, 40 Hello Dolly’s, 50 flutters, 40 Rosalitas, 30 burpees, 20 boxcutters, 10 kracken burpees.  Team leaders reached the red zone here too.

Time was called at 0556 to allow for mosey time to COT at 0600.

Announcements were made about this thing called the Yeti and a blood drive on 3-10.

Prayers were offered up and praises as well.

NMM – Ripple Effect – In our lives we encounter opportunities to make an impact numerous times a day.  Yet an “ordinary” moment to us could be an opportunity to make a moment extraordinary for someone else.  Holding a door for someone else, paying for a cup of coffee for the person behind you in a drive thru.  If you’ve ever been an a position to do for someone else, the feeling of doing so can bring about a joy to us and a lift the other person could be desperately needing.  Or, better yet, it may inspire the person you helped to do the same for another, and another, and another.  Our ripple effect can be an inspiring light to others if we allow it to be.  So let it.  YHC thanks Slap Shot for the call to the bullpen.  It’s always an honor to lead and a privilege to serve.

Cascade your influence well, men.  It makes a difference.  And greater than we’ll likely ever realize.

With Gratitude,

Cyclops

 

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Bushwood Board of Bother

Six men joined YHC for a “Bushwood Board of Bother” on this cool Wednesday morning. Here’s what we did:

The Thang

  • Short Mosey
  • 10 SSHs (IC)
  • 10 Imperial Walkers (IC)
  • 10 Windmills (IC)

BoB Round 1

  • 50 Squats
  • 40 Big Boy Situps
  • 30 Ranger Merkins
  • 20 Maktar Jais
  • 10 Burpees
  • Run

Round 2

  • 3 Minute Plank
  • 30 Second Rest
  • 2 Minute Plank
  • 30 Second Rest
  • 1 Minute Plank
  • Run

Round 3

  • 50 SSHs
  • 40 Flutters
  • 30 Overhead Claps
  • 20 Seal Jacks
  • 10 Diamond Merkins
  • Run

Round 4

  • 50 LBCs
  • 40 American Hammers
  • 30 Alternating Shoulder Taps
  • 20 Carolina Dry Docks
  • 10 Merkins
  • Run

Round 5

  • 50 Little Baby Arm Circles
  • 40 Mountain Climbers
  • 30 Freddie Mercurys
  • 20 Bomb Jacks
  • 10 Burpees
  • Run

Stretching

  • Butterfly
  • Left Leg Out
  • Right Leg Out
  • Left Leg Back
  • Right Leg Back
  • 10 Burpees
  • Run

Total mileage: 1.5 miles

NMM

It as an honor to share the Gloom with you men. Thank you for the opportunity, L-Train. I shared this morning that my wife spent the last seven days in the hospital for severe inflammation associated with her Crohn’s Disease. As such, I was at the hospital for the majority of the days. Had it not been for friends, family, and loved ones (including many F3 brothers), it would have been difficult to cope with the extra responsibilities of being both mom and dad. Every day, a new meal was waiting for me when I got home. It was one less thing I had to worry about. It reminded me that its okay to accept an outstretched hand. Don’t think of it as charity, instead, think of it as someone extending their love for you. There will be times you will be down, that’s when your brother is there to pick you up. There will be times when you will be up, that’s when you lift up a brother. Don’t be too proud to accept the love and care from others. And when you have the chance to return the favor, do it.

Aye!
Italian Job

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Finding Cindy

The cars really poured in this morning….

25 PAX Present

Changed my plans a bit….Modify as necessary, right?

Warm-up
SSH in cadence….had to part the waters for River Rat’s arrival
Burpees in cadence. I think we hit 18
Imperial Walkers in cadence 15ish

Brisk Mosey to the Church of God

COP
SSH
Hillbilly Walkers
Some Yoga
Mountain Climbers
Slow Count Merkins (always a crowd pleaser)
A few burpees in cadence

Mosey through all the brick stairs at the Church of God
Plank it up in First Baptist Parking Lot
Some More Yoga (squats)

Thang:
Bear Crawl with additive Merkins at each parking line
1-2-3-4-5-6 (total 21)
distance – a long way to bear crawl
Al Gore
Cossack Squats

Brisk Mosey up to the Rug factory

COP:
More Yoga? Yep
33 Monkey Humpers in cadence (nobody liked this)
Some burpees in cadence

Brisk Mosey to Sisk Memorial Parking Lot to find Cinder Blocks
(There’s a reason it’s called Block Party)
Thang:- divided into groups of 3
– Three Stations: Manmakers, plank, run to bottom of Massey hill and back
Had time for everyone to do one rotation (probably 15-20ish manmakers)

7 Additional Burpees in cadence
11 Bomb Jacks

Mosey with the blocks back to COT

NMM:

Quote for the day from Thoreau’s Journal August 5 1891 ““The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

A word on today’s naming: the Q takes responsibility for the outcome. That was me today. On naming an FNG, I went with “Dude Wipes” as a suggestion thrown out. Not the worst name, but was not right for this FNG.

It didn’t feel right. I did a poor job reading his body language. I should have vetoed it. Not my best moment as Q. We’ll rename this FNG.

When we’re on Q, we are charged to take responsibility. In this moment, I accepted responsibility for the outcome of the naming. In the future, I’ll take responsibility fearlessly when convicted. Even (especially?) when that conviction appears as a still small voice. If that means going against the flow of the PAX, so be it. After all, that’s a leader’s job: influencing movement towards advantage. Sometimes we gotta row upstream. I should have rowed harder today, and that’s on nobody but me.

Besides, none of the PAX wanted to do that many burpees or monkey humpers anyway. So if I go with a name they’re not happy with, it’s just more of the same from the 1st F side of the morning.

Welcome – unnamed FNG, It’ll be good to post with you again soon.
Welcome – Barrel Age, I think you brought out a lot of PAX to support you today!

Prayers for the kids, teachers, and parents of the FMSD as they plan for a return to school 5 days a week at all levels.


Band Camp Dismissed

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Uncomfortable

7 PAX for the Gears Edition of Tune Up Tuesdays at Block Party.  We kept it nice and simple, but simple doesn’t mean easy.

The Thang:

No warm up, STL style.

Launched down White, around Kanawah, and down Massey at a sub-8 pace.  3 Pain Stations on the route:

  • Little Ceasers
  • Wolfe Funeral Home
  • Sisk Memorial

10-20-30 Merkins-Dry Docks-Mountain Climbers

Headed up Springs Street and took a right on Confederate (5 Burpees OYO for the 6) to the intersection with Monroe White.  Next routine was a variation on Burp-Back Mountain.

  • Ran up to Fort Mill Town Hall Parking Lot, 5 Burpees, then back down the hill and
  • Ran up to the other Hilltop at Williamson and Watson, 5 Burpees

Repeat 6 times total (3 per side).

Meet at the FMCOG lot for some COP while waiting for the 6.  Proceeded to Nur back lot, then some lateral shuffles across the lot.  Ran back up Academy to the Shovel Flag for some Mary before closing out in COT.

NMM

Band Camp especially enjoyed Burp Back mountain… enough said.

3.8 Miles covered, proof here

 

Read your newsletter.

Honor to Serve.

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