Final Shopping Days at the Swamp

After setting up some fun cones I made it to the AO to see the large group of PAX ready for the day. We had a special guest return of Jerry Lewis back on leave from his military training. Great to have him out! We also got an FNG that several men EH’d from our monthly 2nd F beer social.  He received the name “Wingman”for the old barhopping days with your boys…

With an FNG I gave a long disclaimer and the ruckers started on their way out…the campers followed me.

Mosey down the streets with a run and dynamic warmup.

Made it to COP where we completed to following:

24 SSHs

24 MNCs

19 Squats

11 Windmills (by now the mumble chatter has  started on my sporadic stops)

12 Merkins

11 Ski Abs (I was just being lazy, no other  rhyme to my counts)

Mosey over to the Rivergate Fountain for some speed shopping!

I set up 8 cones in front of eight different stores around the area, or goal was to split into groups of four  and make our speedy stops at the shop and do the two exercises listed at that stop.  Once you completed the two exercises your group ran around the large circle and moved to the next store in front of your previous cone.

The  exercises at each cone consisted of :

#1 25 Carolina Dry docks

#1 20 burpees

#2 40 LBCs

#2 40 Squats

#3 20 bombjacks

#3 30  moroccan night clubs

#4 20 merkins

#4 25  squat jumps

#5 30  Freddie mercury’s

#5 20  wide arm Merkins

#6 40  Side straddle hops

#6 30 Ski Abs

#7 20  dying cockroaches (my fav)

#7 20 diamond Merkins

#8 25  Imperial walkers

#8 40  calf raises

Most of these exercises were in double counts – and in cadence.  The laps were long and the reps were high!  Everyone broke a good sweat and we ran out of time for our last 4 extra shop stops of the day…  so we  trucked it back to COT two minutes late.  Each group completed all eight stops!

At COT I got to share the story of my recent experience with my nine-year-old son. Seems the kids at school have been telling him that Santa is not real so he came home and ask my wife the truth about Santa Claus. Luckily for me she was prepared and had a wonderful two page note that she shared with him about the spirit of Santa and giving and God during Christmas.  I shared that note with the PAX.

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The DaVinci Cones® Redux

Forecast called for a warmish start for December, but a high chance of rain, so I wasn’t sure if we’d have a crowd or just a few. Very glad to see a bunch of cars when I pulled up. We ended up with 14 including YHC.

The Thang

Ran around the parking lot to warm up the legs, with a little side shuffle then circled up for some COP:

SSH x 15
Low, slow squats x 15
Slow, old-man windmills (just 10, since I was reminded it’s just a 45 minute workout
Merkins x 10
A little downward dog and honeymooner to stretch out
Mountain Climbers x 15

Then a short mosey to the traffic circle in front of school. I spoke briefly about our theme of the month, which is “Gifts.” At other workouts, the Qs have spoken about Gifts, be they tangible, material things that we give and receive, or intangible, like the gifts of time and support and love.

My message was about the holiday phenomenon of the REGIFT.

Today, I decided to reuse a workout I led earlier this year at the Abyss. It worked pretty good then, and worked well today, too.

Here’s what we did:

Partner 1 acts as a timer, going halfway around circle drive to the Cone using the prescribed means of conveyance (bear crawl, crab walk, etc), then runs the second half while Partner 2 does the prescribed exercise (squat jumps, merkins, etc); then switch

1. Bear Crawl | Squat Jumps
2. Lunge Walk | Merkins
3. Crab Walk | LBCs
4. Lt. Dangers | Plank Punches

Then a mosey around to the side of the school for some Wall Sits.

Have a seat, won’t you? A PAX from either end of the row runs out to the center stripe in the driveway, does 3 burpees, then runs back to the wall.

Finally, a mosey around to the track behind the school.

This is one of the set-it-and-forget-it workouts I like to uses. It’s self-paced and allows for some cardio as well as a variety of body-weight exercises. Plus, if someone finishes and there’s still time on the clock, we can always rinse and repeat.

Start at Cone #1 at one end of the track, do the exercise and prescribed reps, run to the other end of the track, do #1 on Cone 2 at  that end, and so on.

Cone #1
1. Slow Squats (20)
2. Curb Dips (20)
3. Mtn. Climbers (20 d.c.)
4. Curb Derkins (20)
5. CDD’s (20)

Cone #2
1. Imperial Wlkrs (20 d.c.)
2. Jump Lunges (10/leg)
3. Freddy Mercurys (20 d.c.)
4. Flying Squirrels (10)
5. Peter Parkers (10 d.c.)

NMM

All jokes aside about gifts and regifts, at COT I shared my feelings about what a gift F3 is to me. I was able to thank DarkHelmet again for EH-ing me for weeks, finally convincing me to post at the Deep on a warm Saturday in April of 2016.

I was hooked from the very first workout.

Mind you: it nearly killed me (curse you, Jack Webb!), but the remarkable thing to me was how I felt welcomed from the moment I got out of my car. I was supported and encouraged during that first workout, and that encouragement and support has continued to this day.

I challenge each of us to continue offering support and encouragement to FNGs and long-time PAX alike.

The world may beat us down. This group can help build us back up.

So during this time of giving, I want to thank all of my brothers for their gift of friendship and support and encouragement.

I feel blessed to be a part of this group.

DaVinci

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#14DaysTillChristmas Quagmire Style

12 Men showed up in sub-freezing temperatures at Quagmire just to prove that cold weather means absolutely nothing.  Especially when you get moving.  5:15 came and we took a nice mosey over to the Home Depot parking lot while doing some side steps, high knees, and butt kickers.

Warm Up-

Windmill x 10

Imperial Walker x 10

Hillbilly Walker x 10

SSH x 20

Seal Jack x 20

Plank/Honeymooner/Downward Dog

 

The Thang-

A Dirty McDeuce (or as DaVinci said, McFourteens?) of sorts.  3 excercises, constant movement, supersets, in all its glory to keep us warm.

Home Depot- Squats x 14, Merkins x 14, LBCs x 14… x 2

Run to Target parking lot through back delivery entrance

Target – Jump Lunges x 14, Carolina Dry Docks x 14, Freddie Mercury x 14…. x 2

Run to around Target parking lot to BAM

BAM- Jump Squats x 14, Wide Arm Merkins x 14, American Hammers x 14…. x 2

Run to Just Fresh parking lot

Just Fresh- People’s Chair (hold for… a long time?), into Donkey Kicks x 14, into BTTW (hold for… a long time… again?)…. x 2.  On last BTTW, PAX held through all 12 taking turns at 5 Merkins.

Mosey around the corner to the Fountain

Fountain- Find a bench… Box Jumps/Step Ups x 14, Tricep Dips x 14, Derkins x 14… x 3 (added an extra set for fun)

Indian Run Back to COT for many (10 minutes) of Mary (Q altered schedule thinking that time would run short… too much overthinking).  Completed 3 Mary exercises, into Diamond Merkins, 3 more Mary exercises, into Diver Bombers, and 3 more Mary exercises with time running out.

Name-O-Rama, Announcements, Prayers

Significance of 14….

All exercises were completed with 14 reps.  Monday, December 11.  14 Days until Christmas.  14 Days until the greatest gift the world has received.  With the focus on Gifts this month, I used the exercise to countdown to my favorite day of the year.  Christmas has meant a lot to me, not just through the greatest gift of all time, but through the significance to my family.  I am excited to continue my family’s Christmas traditions with my children as they start to understand the significance of this time of year.

 

Until next time,

Shakespeare. Out.

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THE PAX OF FORT PLEDGES TO HELP ANOTHER BROTHER AND HIS FAMILY OUT

Its Christmas time and the word of the month is giving so I am asking if you would take moments pray about giving to help a fellow pax. Last year Stang got the Fort and the Rock pax to donate gift cards, cash and presents for me and my family.  This was huge for me and my family, with that  being said I feel the need to help a fellow pax and give back. I have been in touch with our pax of the Fort looking for someone to help out. This morning in COT it was mentioned by Destiny that a fellow pax’s son has just been diagnosed with leukemia and his wife is pregnant with twins. Then again Ginsu and Rock thrill had a tweet about it and come to find out it is an Area51  pax named Bout time his sons name is Jennings. This hits close to home and just knew this is who we need to help this year. a few

If I have never had the pleasure of posting with you in the Gloom I would like to take a second and share my story, Dec 2015 on Christmas eve my 2.5 year old daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia ALL Type B, on Christmas day she had surgery to have a port installed and her first 3 rounds of chemo. We spent Christmas in the hospital and I broke down never cried so hard in my life. I reached out to God prayed that everything will be okay and about 10 min later after the took my daughter back for surgery he answered my pray because a peace just came over me and heard the words its going to be okay.  The last 2 years have been a hard 2 years with ups and downs but also have enlightened me, allowed me to get closer to God.  It also allowed me to become apart of F3 with out the men of this group not sure where I would be mentally and physically today. I like to thank you for the push the words of encouragement.

 

I am asking pax to give what your heart tells you. Prayers gift cards, cash etc. I have seen what awesome pax you can be when challenged to give you all always go above and beyond.

See your site Q’s for collections and or Dark helmet , Stang, Witch hunt, Royale and Cornerstone, we want to wrap it up by 12/22/17

 

2 Corinthians 9:7

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Proverbs 18:16

A gift opens the way
and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.

Luke 6:38

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

 

Thanks Again HIMS

Cornerstone

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The Fort pledge to help another Pax out

Its Christmas time and the word of the month is giving so I am asking if you would take moments pray about giving to help a fellow pax. Last year Stang got the Fort and the Rock pax to donate gift cards, cash and presents for me and my family.  This was huge for me and my family, with that  being said I feel the need to help a fellow pax and give back. I have been in touch with our pax of the Fort looking for someone to help out. This morning in COT it was mentioned by Destiny that a fellow pax’s son has just been diagnosed with leukemia and his wife is pregnant with twins. Then again Ginsu and Rock thrill had a tweet about it and come to find out it is an Area51  pax named Bout time his sons name is Jennings. This hits close to home and just knew this is who we need to help this year. a few

If I have never had the pleasure of posting with you in the Gloom I would like to take a second and share my story, Dec 2015 on Christmas eve my 2.5 year old daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia ALL Type B, on Christmas day she had surgery to have a port installed and her first 3 rounds of chemo. We spent Christmas in the hospital and I broke down never cried so hard in my life. I reached out to God prayed that everything will be okay and about 10 min later after the took my daughter back for surgery he answered my pray because a peace just came over me and heard the words its going to be okay.  The last 2 years have been a hard 2 years with ups and downs but also have enlightened me, allowed me to get closer to God.  It also allowed me to become apart of F3 with out the men of this group not sure where I would be mentally and physically today. I like to thank you for the push the words of encouragement.

 

I am asking pax to give what your heart tells you. Prayers gift cards, cash etc. I have seen what awesome pax you can be when challenged to give you all always go above and beyond.

See your site Q’s for collections and or Dark helmet , Stang, Witch hunt, Royale and Cornerstone

 

2 Corinthians 9:7

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Proverbs 18:16

A gift opens the way
and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.

Luke 6:38

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

 

Thanks Again HIMS

Cornerstone

 

 

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Pick a card at Quagmire

It was a non-winter Monday morning and a great group of PAX showed up to get the week started. No FNGs but disclaimer was given and off we went.

  • Mosey to Home Depot lot with high-knees, butt-kickers, & karaoke’s along the way. Circle up for normal stretchy things, grunting, and other pleasantries.
  • Mosey to alley behind Home Depot. PAX line up on one side and start with flutters. PAX run to wall and do BTW walk down the wall, crab walk to end of next wall, run to end of alley, 20 squats, run back to PAX. When PAX ahead of you is 1/4 way down wall next PAX start. Large group so it took a while to cycle through everyone.
  • Mosey over to fountain and break into 2 groups. Each group had a cone at down at round-about with 8 cards. Each card had an exercise for the group to do together and then another exercise for group to do while next PAX ran to get next card. Each group had same cards but order was random.
    • Run full lap outside round-abouts / LBCs
    • 20 jump squats / plank punches
    • 10 Lt Dans (lunge-lunge-squat) / plank jacks
    • 20 dips / flutters
    • Run full lap outside round-abouts / Freddie mercs
    • 15 diamond merkins / SSHs
    • 20 derkins / step-ups
    • 10 burpees / MNCs
  • Mosey back to COT for a few minutes of Mary

I’ve been doing my normal routine of running on Mondays so it was good to shake things up and get back out to Quagmire. Always a great group of PAX with lots of mumble-chatter (DH was there). Thanks DaVinci for the opportunity!

-Mainframe

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Bombs and Blimps at the Swamp

It was an especially gloomy morning but it didn’t stop several PAX from posting to the Swamp. Disclaimer was given and we split up into bootcampers, ruckers, and runners. BCs moseyed over to the Home Depot overhang with some high-knees, butt-kickers, and karaoke along the way.

  • 1st stop – 5 burpees, wind-mills, hillbilly walkers, 5 burpees
  • Mosey to failed restaurant overhang – 5 burpees, 25 SSHs, 10 merkins, 5 burpees
  • Mosey to lot in front of Books-a-Million – 5 burpees, something else, squats, 5 burpess
  • Line up across parking spaces. Bear-crawl across 1 merkin, backward bear-crawl to start 1 merkin – Repeat for a total of 5 trips
  • Mosey to bank drive-thru and partner up for Bombs. Partner 1 does the exercise while partner 2 runs a lap around bank, then flip flop. No set amount, just keep doing exercise and hope partner runs fast. B=Burpee, O=O’s (tiny circles), M=Monkey Humpers, B=Bombjacks, S=Squats
  • Mosey back to BAM overhang. Blimps with same partners. P1 does the exercise while P2 runs to building across lot and back, then flip-flop. B=Burpees, L=Lunges, I=Imperial Squat Walkers, M=Merkins, P=Plank Jacks, S=Seal Jacks. The slight uphill run on the way back each time added to the suck.
  • Mosey back to failed restaurant overhang for some Mary. 15 LBCs, 15 Flutters, 15 Freddie Mercs.
  • Mosey back to overhangs at mattress store. Not so great imitation of Lt Dan. 1 squat, 4 jumps touching overhang. Went from 1/4 up to 6/24 before time was up.
  • Mosey back to COT to meet up with rest of PAX.

I tried to use several of the overhangs to keep the PAX somewhat dry and keep us moving. But I don’t think it would’ve mattered, These guys would’ve been just as great out in the rain pushing each other. Thanks for all those that showed up and encouraged each other on this cold rainy morning. Always an honor to lead this group.

 

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Red Ball 1000 Challenge

Quick disclaimer – No FNG’s

Rucker’s went North.  Boot Campers headed south.

Warm up mosey to Target Red Balls – Stopped in route for a quick COP.  Lots of mumble chatter.  I let them have there fun, I knew it wouldn’t last.

10 red balls, different exercise at each one.
Run to 1st ball perform exercise, run back to start.
Run to 1st ball perform exercise, Run to 2nd ball, run back to start.
Continue this until you make it through all 10 balls or time runs out.
Breakdown of exercises and cumulative total based on number of rounds completed.

Rounds 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Exercise Reps
1-Burpee’s 10 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
2-LBC’s 20 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
3-Merkins 20 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
4-Squats 20 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
5-Freddy Mercury’s 20 20 40 60 80 100 120
6-SSH 30 30 60 90 120 150
7-Hello Dollies 20 20 40 60 80
8-Monkey Humpers 10 10 20 30
9-Carolina Dry Docks 15 15 30
10-Bomb Jacks 10 10
Total Reps 10 40 90 160 250 370 510 660 825 1000

Everyone was really excited until they saw that the first cone was burpee’s.  After a much longer than need explanation we are off.  Solid performance by all.  T-Claps to Bones and Wolverine for completing all stations.

We passed the Rucker’s on the way back to the COT.  All I heard was this thing sucks.  I’m sure they were referencing one or several of the coupons that RAD carries with him everywhere he goes.

Announcements

Christmas Party – Things to bring
CAH – 36″ or larger Duffle Bag, Alarm Clock, Umbrella
Operation Sweet Tooth – Toy any age – Unwrapped
Regal Manor clubhouse
BYOB
Deep AO – Change of Time to 7AM – Pusher and Double D on Q
WEP – Main Frame on Q

Prayers/Praises

Challenges in country – Falls from Grace – me Culture
Logan – struggles of being a teenager
Wild Thing – Prayers for M.  Struggles with sleeping
Casey – Still very pregnant
Gears – Podiatrist appointment

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Modify “only” if Necessary

11 men converged on the Abyss to experience an opportunity to push their limits (and legs).  After the initial “surprise” that there was a Q change due to sickness the mumble chatter began on why staying bed that morning may have been a better option.

A short disclaimer and “sermon” was given about why we get up at 4:30 to exercise and how it is our choice how we leave the workout.  Better than when we arrived…. or the same.  I reminded the men that they always had the choice to modify but that to use it “only” when necessary not just because it is an option.

Warm up (typical stretches and shenanigans)

Pavement Hill Work

  • Lunges to top (mosey down)
  • Basketball shuffle
  • One direction halfway- Switch other half
  • High knees and butt kickers on way down
  • Reverse lunges halfway- sprint second half
  • High knees and Butt Kickers on way down
  • Sprint to top and do 3 Burpees
  • Mosey down

Move over to Parking lot

Bear Crawls to each goal (4)

  • 1st goal- 20 squats
  • 2nd goal- 20 LBCs
  • 3rd goal- 5 Burpees

Broad Jump to each goal (3)

  • 1st goal- 10 merkins
  • 2nd goal- 10 wide merkins
  • 3rd goal- 10 diamond merkins

Over to benches

  • 30 dips
  • 10 steps ups each leg

Grassy Hill

11’s

  • Jump lunges/merkins
  • Go up hill (backwards)
  • Finish with 50 Merkins and final accent up hill to COT.

Every man pushed themselves and  finished strong.  May struggle with stairs and sitting on the throne for a couple of days but left stronger than they arrived.

Shared announcements and Prayers.

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The under appreciated ruck & boot camp combo pack

Conditions clear and very cold…around 33 degrees at kickoff

Disclaimer

Quick discussion on the combo workout and modify as needed

and walk off…about half had rucks…make large pile of rucks…near Office depot

Warmup-O-Rama

Partner up

Partner 1 run .33 mile, partner 2 does exercises…and then flapjack

Round one ruck curls, ruck upright rows, ruck curls, ruck upright rows…each partner got 4 turns at running…mumblechatter stalled…it started to suck…so as a good Q, I made bad into worse…

Partner 1 run .33 with ruck (crowd pleaser) while other partner exercises…and then flapjack

Round two squats, LBC, squats, LBC

Mumblechatter quickly turned into “bitching”…

Same partner, smaller lap, flying squirrels for each

Mosey to COT area

60 seconds of flying squirrels

COT/ Prayer or praise/ BOM

14 #HIM went inside for Romans 13

AYE!

CSPAN

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