Tag: Bonsai

#LacesIn. 0515. It Pays To Be A Winner.

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We played a little bit of “It pays to be a winner” this AM at Laces In in honor of GoRuck Team Selection which starts today.
If you aren’t familiar, this is a common phrase spoken in Selection, and it’s a great tool they use to get into guys heads to make guys feel pressure and push themselves.

Here’s what it looked like… The Thang:

We moseyed to the back parking lot behind the baseball field (the Band Practice Lot) for a little warm up. Some Mountain Climbers, Windmills, SSH… the usual fare.

Then we moseyed to the front of the school for some CDDs, lunges, and flutters. Spiderman made a comment at one point about losing guys because of the pace. I thought about that… With a crowd as large as we had this am, I wanted to get a sense of where their heads were. Who’s pushing, who’s trailing, who’s struggling…? Am I struggling? Am I trailing? Can anyone even really know these things…?

Anyhow, then we moseyed back the lot from whence we had just come, where we began every Pax’s favorite game show: “It Pays to Be a Winner” (at this point, the Pax didn’t know we were playing). We lined up at one end of the lot and got underway.

Round 1: Bear Crawl to the other end. Alchemy won this round. Because he’s 17. And quite fit. Since he won, he got to choose the method by which we traveled back to the other end. He chose Bear Crawl. He was disqualified from choosing anymore. Because he’s 17. And quite fit.

Round 2. Bear Crawl to the other end. Alchemy won again. Shock. So his prize was that he got to pick who chose the next method. He chose Moab. I don’t remember what he chose, but it was no fun.

We continued to play a few more rounds with Pax choosing sprints, Bernie Sanders (Nur, Backwards Run, whatever you want to call it), Power Skips, and finally Broad Jumps. J-WOW won that round and so he got to set the pace back to the bottom of the hill by the stadium (the driveway in). We made a stop at one point to let everyone catch up and did an exercise there… No recollection what it was… anyway, we finished our mosey to the bottom of the hill and partnered up. SIZE ALWAYS MATTERS. #TWSS

Bonsai won the sprint to the bottom of the hill, despite my best efforts to cheat, and so he picked the partner method of travel to the top of the hill. He chose wheelbarrow. Because he hates happiness. Funhouse and Jekyll tried to cheat to get ahead and despite my best efforts to pull them back and make it “fair” (which meant making them go back to the start so I could cheat instead), they still won. So we moseyed back to the bottom of the hill and since they were the winners, they chose the method of travel to the top of the hill. They chose Partner Carries. Because they hate Bonsai.

The winners this time were the come from behind, dark horse team of Zima and Dirty Harry. Turns out Harry runs faster under weight. Which confirms our suspicion that he’s not actually from this planet. One more trip up running backwards and that was pretty much it for us…

The party bus came, saw, and spread the love…

-DH

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Block Party Beat Down

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I was excited to Q Block Party after the co-Q at The Fort on Sat.  I arrived early and saw 7 runners take off at 5:00 sharp with Bird Cage leading the way down the back trail.  Cars began to file in and the cars kept coming.  I wasn’t expecting a large crowd and then I heard that CSPAN was still in town and was coming to Block Party so I knew there would be a big and rowdy crowd on hand.

Once we hit 5:15, no FNG’s were present so a short disclaimer and off we moseyed.  Since the park has several obstacles littering the grass from the festival, I was going outside of the park.  We moseyed to the first parking lot up front and circled up.

  • Imperial Walkers
  • SSH
  • Arm circles front and back
  • arm stretch across body
  • mountain climber
  • slow merkin – 3 count down, 3 count hold, 3 count up

Mosey over to the sidewalk and wall near Springs Global.  3 exercises , 3 sets, decreasing reps each set.

  • Dips – Reps –  25/20/15
  • Derkins –         20/15/10
  • Step-UPS –     30/20/10

Mosey to the big hill and meet at the top parking lot.  3 excercises, 15 reps each, then run to bottom of the hill and come back up the hill backwards.

  • Squats/Monkey Humpers/Calf Raises
  • Slow Merkin/MNN/O/H Clap
  • Flutter/ Big Boy Sit-up/Hello Dolly

Mosey back to the sidewalk and wall where we started and do one more set of  dips and derkins 20 & 15.  Mosey back to the park. Since we had a few minutes left I decided to take a lap around the park on the path for an added bonus.  We ended back at the parking lot for set of LBC’s.

This was a great morning and I enjoyed the chatter and hard work.  Through the Q Source, I have been motivated to look for ways to continue to accelerate  in all areas.  I shared with the group that I have been successful in accelerating in King, Queen and Jester control, but the last 4 weeks the QSource was focused on Faith.  I was convicted that I am not accelerating in study and recognize the need to have my shield locks there to hold me accountable and provide the push I need.  I asked everyone to think of where they need to accelerate and who are they going to have beside them to hold them accountable.

Thanks Esso for the opportunity to Q and lead the Pax.

Rebel

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Just a Mere Tune-Up

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How in the world did I get the honor of Qing one of the most popular ruck workouts of the year? I don’t know but I didn’t want to disappoint. Usually, that last comment means it’s time to absolutely BRING IT. But the trick this AM was to find that balance of bringing it but not killing it since we’re dangerously close to being short on GRH/GRT/GRL PAX.

Alright, I’ve got my head right, Weinke written and little sleep. Yup, par for the course so let’s roll. 24 brothers joined me at the Fire Ant this morning which for those who’ve not attended, is building quite the strong brotherhood. Again, here’s my plug to try rucking for a month and see if you set the ruck down.

After we disclaimed and talked about the upcoming event this weekend, we made our way to the sidewalk to get in two lines with rucks opened on the ground for a mock inspection. Once complete, zip up, ruck up and fall into 2 lines for a ruck lap around the loop.

Once the lap was complete, stay in 2 lines and lay the rucks on the ground on the outside of the lines. In formation, Side-Straddle Hops, Imperial Walkers, Sumo Squats & Moroccan Night Clubs. Now for a little BEEP BEEP, I’M A JEEP!!

In formation, drop to a squat, hold the ruck out front and duck walk for a bit. Then some ruck curls. Then, drop to a squat, hold the ruck out front and reverse duck walk for a bit back to the starting point. Guess what? More ruck curls.

Now, rotate 90deg so you’re facing the outside, away from the other line for shoulder presses, upright rows and bent over rows. Then a nice set of flutters WITH the needed presses.

Line up on the left side of the 2 long straight-aways for an exercise with the ruck, leave your ruck and run to the far end, do an exercise then run back to your ruck. Here’s the set list:

10 Ruck Thrusters, leave the ruck and run to the other end

5 8ct Burpees then run back

20 Ruck Curls (great on paper), leave the ruck and run to the other end

10 8ct Burpees then run back

Back in our 2 lines of formation for:

12ct Merkins…sans Ruck

Flutters w/ the Press

LBC’s w/ the Rucks up

Box Cutters w/ the Rucks up

More Beep Beep, I’m a Jeep stuff

THAT’S IT!!!

See, not so bad. Just another Tuesday in The Fort.

HYDRATE HYDRATE HYDRATE

SYITG

Maximus

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The Ranch -pre spring break

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Pulling into the parking lot I was thinking man we are going to have a solid crowd today. Then I remembered how many guys are prepping for the custom ruck in May. There ARE SOME OPEN SPOTS IF ANYONE WANTS ONE!!!!
We started with a solid six, 1 FNG from Pittsburg. Welcome.
Disclaimer was given and off we went.
Mosey with some karaoke, high knees, butt kickers etc.
Circle up SSHs, Mtn. Climbers, Moroccan night clubs, little arm circles forward/back.

Mosey around school to playground. 5 pullups/ 20 feet to fence, 4 pullups/ 20 knee to fence go down to 1.

go to swings feet on swings knees to chest/ 10 derkins.

Mosey to car loop bear crawl 15 feet 5 merkins keep going for about 7 times.

Wall sits while Pax bunny hops by. X 3

partner up 100 bomb jacks while partner runs loop get to 100 you done. Mosey to picnic benches 3 sets of 10 dips, derkins, step ups.
Mary for 4 minutes.

COT- prayers and praises, announcements.
Welcome Chicken Catchatore- thanks for bringing FNG out Pappy

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Return to the Gloom

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15 PAX Strong posted to the Fort on Saturday. It seemed fitting that my return to the Gloom would be where it all started back in October of 2012. The Fort! I started that workout  an FNG and finished it almost spilling merlot! Got a “cool” name. I also found a brotherhood of guys who aren’t that much different than me. Found something I never knew I needed too. I went all in, with a small hiatus of a hernia repair surgery, brought on by all this new activity. Fast Forward several years and several CSAUPs later. Life happens. New job. Life challenges. Deceleration. I went full #kotter there for quite some time. Sure I went to an occasional workout here and there but in my heart I knew I was decelerating.

So I recently moved to a neighborhood that is populated with quite a few F3 brothers. They really laid into me strong and got me back out to the gloom. I can’t even remember why or when the deceleration started, but this is what makes F3 great! Your proximity to other men. They’ll get in the weeds with you and stay on you and won’t leave you behind. All this to say, if you haven’t seen a guy around in a while, reach out to them. Call them out on twitter. Chances are it’s what they need!

Now onto the 1 hour CSAUP that I crammed down their throats:

Prior to the beatdown Dirty Harry and Punchlist did the 12 Mile Time Hack #weirdos #rucking #330starttime. A couple of us pre-rucked, which was nice.

0630 Time to Roll, this was referenced as a ruck “friendly” workout. So some had rucks, others did not, it was difficult either way.

THANG
-Mosey around the park, stop for some SSH, Merkins and Windmills
-Mosey some more and stop for some Mtn Climbers and a few others I forgot
-Mosey to the…wait for it…

RING OF FIRE
Large Circle comprised of 8 cones. Each cone has an exercise and count. There’s also a cone in the middle.
-Start in the middle and do 5 burpees
-Walk to first cone, do the exercise
-Bear Crawl to the center cone, do 5 burpees
-Walk to the next cone, Repeat
-After completing the ring, run around the playground, return and start over…see how many times you can complete the ring

Here were the exercises and counts (memory is fuzzy):
1. 15 Merkins
2. 20 Lunges (10 each leg)
3. 30 Flutter Kicks (2-count)
4. 15 GTOs (Ground to Overhead) w/ 40# sandbags
5. 20 Squats (either w/ Ruck or Block)
6. 30 Big Boy Situps
7. 20 CDD
8. 30 Mtn Climbers

Half the PAX did it with Rucks on. It was equally difficult for all though. If you had a ruck on you probably got 2 rounds in. No ruck probably got 3 or close to it.

Some notable take-aways:
-Pax get punch-drunk when the workout gets rough
-Apparently noon is not the time to go to a certain type of club
-Tesh kept his shirt on
-Geronimo took his shirt off 😐
-Each round represented 40 burpees and 2-3 rounds were completed…do the math #ouch

I think we were all glad when this one was over.

COT
Announcements
Prayers and Praise
BOM

Thanks to Bonsai for the opportunity. And thanks to my brothers for encouraging me to get back after it. Glad to be back in the Gloom!

Aye!
Zima

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Fire Ant 4/2/19

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I have been running too much… but now it’s time to get ready for May’s GoRuck Heavy.  No better way that to lead the men at our rucking AO the Fire Ant. Cool morning in April, they are expecting SNOW today (and it came). But for 5:15am we were good to go.

12 other  men rucked up and many brought extra sandbags so we put them to good use.  After the normal disclaimer, and Admiral’s 2nd post (1st ruck) we lined up 2×2.  Man to the left had a sandbag, man right would be his partner.  We took a nice stroll around the drop off loop, switched sandbag half way through.

COP rucks off

SSHs – Windmill – Daisy Pickers – IWs – Merkins – Mountain Climbers

To Tiered Hill

Bear Crawl to each Tier –  do exercise – then crawl bear down from top stopping to do exercise again at each tier

10 Merkins

10 Squats

10 Lunges

Mosey with bags 2×2 to back of school parking lot

Switch bags every 2 minutes

COP with Ruck off

  1. Curls      2. Overhead Press     3. Swings     4. Tricep Extensions

5. Man Makers      6. Flutters w Press           7. Bent over Rows

Mosey to the front of the school again carrying sandbags 2×2.  Switched partners once

Finished with Ab Lab: America Hammers and Big Boy situps.

COT

Announcements – 2nd F Lunch today, several ruck events coming up this week to get your miles and muscles in!

Prayers

For healing, surgery, getting along with family.

Thanks for the opportunity to Lead!

~Royale

 

 

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March Madness, with a hill

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The PAX were blessed with a brisk, dry morning at The Fort.  Everyone was decked out in nice sweat shirts, hats and gloves and then Tesh showed up with his son’s short sleeve shirt on to show us all who was boss.  No one attempted to match his lack of clothing, so we were off.  YHC had the first half of the Q, Shady was soon to follow.

The Thang:

Lap around WEP into the COP:

SSH X I don’t know, the PAX sort of trailed off after 30 so we stopped regained composure…..

SSH attempt #2 X 25, Imperial Walkers X 20 (this was too meet with consternation as many PAX were grumbling that 20 was too many),  Mountain Climbers X 20, Windmill X 20 (finally the PAX stopped complaining understanding that it wasn’t helping their situation), Merkins X 10 (slow count, form matters), 6 count Burpees with overhead hand clap X 10 (crowd pleaser, reminder to do more of these in the future).

Jacob’s ladder at small hill – 1 burpee to 7 bomb jacks

Back to second COP: SSH X 25, and some other things that I can’t remember as my groove was thrown off by all the “mumblechatter” from the first COP.  (My planned weinke was 30 minutes but actually only 23…)

Hand it over to Shaddy – This turned out to be a bad idea….

Mosey to the playground for words of encouragement for the word of the month, Growth.  To be intentional and support Operation Sweet Tooth.  Then Shady went beast mode for some March Madness “fun”:

Round #1:

4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

8 diamond merkins, 4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

16 knee jumps, 8 diamond merkins, 4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

32 dips, 16 knee jumps, 8 diamond merkins, 4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

64 squats, 32 dips, 16 knee jumps, 8 diamond merkins, 4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

Round #2:

4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

8 leg lifts hanging from bar, 4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

16 jump lunges, 8 leg lifts hanging from bar, 4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

32 derkins, 16 jump lunges, 8 leg lifts hanging from bar, 4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

64 calf raises, 32 derkins, 16 jump lunges, 8 leg lifts hanging from bar, 4 pull ups, run up big hill and back

Done – COT

Prayers lifted for P200 runners, for those PAX injured and cannot post, for those PAX that have not come out.

FH

 

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Shovel flag hand off at LacesIn

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15 Pax sounded the call and hit LacesIn on this brisk morning while 4 Pax hit the track for LacesOut.

The Thang

YHC ran through the disclaimer and then handed off Cyclops to get the party started.  I think Cyclops may have said Mosey, but it was basically a sprint from the stadium parking lot to the band parking lot.

COP – all in cadence.  Moroccan Night Clubs x 16, Baby Arm Circles foward and backwards x 16, SSH x 32, windmills x 16, Merkins x 8

Mosey back to The Hive’s parking lot and start at first light pole for 64 squats, mosey to light pole across parking lot for 32 walking lunges.  Mosey to next light pole for 16 calf raises regular, 16 calf raises with toes pointed in and 16 with toes pointed out.  Mosey back across parking lot to light pole for 8 box cutters, 4 bomb jacks and 2 burpees.  Do same exercises in reverse starting with the 2 burpees and working back up.

Hand off back to YHC.  I had planned on some NCAA march madness trivia and life got in the way, so just settled for one question.  Who has won the most titles and how many?  Bonsai and Offset combined for correct answer of UCLA with 11.  In honor of UCLA’s 11 titles we did 11’s with burpees and squat jumps.  Lined up on curb to start with 10 burpees ran to 2nd light pole for 1 squat jump, back to curb for 9 burpees then back to light pole for 2 squat jumps.  Continue until you are 1 burpee and 10 squat jumps.

Mosey back to stadium parking lot for 6 minutes of mary all exercises in cadence to 10.  LBCs with feet on the ground, lbcs with feet raised (normal), lbcs with right leg straight, lbcs with left leg extend, and dying cockroaches.

Announcements

Christina Latini Memorial 8k in Huntersville on 3/30.  If you cannot make that they are doing a virtual 8k at Alcatraz.

T-claps to Cyclops as he takes over as site Q of LacesIn.  Very excited to see what he will do as new site Q!  Also, much appreciated to everyone that has come out or Q’d at LacesIn the past couple of years.  You have made posting each Thursday enjoyable.

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4

The Black Diamond “Webb Jiffy”

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This semi-warm morning started with YHC running up to the eager PAX at about 5:14 and 30 seconds.  Bonsai and YHC took a nice little detour on our way as we were engaged in conversation and your truly was on autopilot driving to WEP.  After dropping off the giant wienke and the tune machine, Bonsai and YHC hustled over.  After a very quick disclaimer, we jumped right into the warmup where we stood.

Warmup included: SSH x25, Windmill x8, low slow squats x10, merkins x10, big arm circles forward and backwards 5x / arm, Moroccan night clubs x20, downward dog and honeymooner, and last but not least mountain climbers x20.  We also did some shoulder stretches and you’re about to see why if you keep reading…

Medium paced mosey to the back of the school where the fun was about to begin.  As we gathered at the playground, we circled around the giant cardboard wienke which laid out a board of pain of sorts “Jack Webb” style…but with a “Webb Jiffy” black diamond twist (named Webb Jiffy b/c of Jiffy’s creation of the Dick Webb)!  I think this was my first (maybe second) black diamond Q, so I was excited to see how this played out.  I think it delivered once the reading ensued and was followed by groans and “you’ve got to be kidding me”.  There was no kidding, but there was music so that’s worth something!  Music got cranked on, we partnered up, and off we went!

The Thang – “Webb Jiffy” black diamond

This workout was “Jack Webb” inspired, and more notably Jiffy inspired for the comments noted above.  For anyone saying, “what is a Jack Webb”?  A Jack Webb is 1 merkin, 4 overhead claps; then 2 merkins, 8 overhead claps; 3 merk, 12 OC…all the way up to 10 merk, 40 OC.  So you get the idea…

Exercise 1 (again, Jack Webb based) – Name “Dick Webb” (black diamond version)

  • 1 chin up
  • 1 diamond merkin
  • 4 overhead claps
  • Repeat all the way to 10 chin up, 10 diamond, 40 overhead claps

Exercise 2 – named “Crack Webb”

  • 1 cracken burpee (1 burpee + 3 hand release merkins for the pushup part of the burpee)
  • 4 squats
  • Repeat all the way up to 10 cracken and 40 squats

Exercise 3 – name “Plank You Webb”

  • 1 merkin
  • 1 mak tar jai
  • 4 plank partner hand slaps
  • 4 plank jacks
  • Repeat all the way to 10 merkins, 10 MTJ, 40 hand slaps, 40 planks

PAX made it to “Plank You Webb” but we ran out of time.  Looking back to the workout, there was no stopping, no 10 counts, no stop for a message from the Q (which YHC should have done something).  From a positive light, this workout was very 1st F focused so there was mumblechatter during times of taking personal breaks and YHC considers that a win.

Mosey’d back to COT, took a quick pic for evidence, counted off with the Pennywise crew and name-o-rama followed by announcements, prayers and praises.  In the end, we pushed ourselves past what YHC would be close to categorizing as “looked good on paper”, but where you’re planning for black diamond and trying to #accelerate, no one quit and the partners ensured accountability.

Thanks to Jiffy for the opportunity and the push for YHC to challenge myself for this idea. Had a great time and actually still feeling the aftereffects…which may also be coming from Deacon’s Q at The Hive or the beating YHC just took from Band Camp and Flat Tire at The Fort.  Either way, I’m beat as I’m writing this!

Shady

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Being Vulnerable is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength

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P.S.A attendance is highly recommended. March 27th mark your calendars. F3 St. Louis very own Miyagi and Aerobie has brought light to a sensitive subject that’s right Suicide-mental health awareness. A subject we try and avoid talking about at all or till it’s to late. YHC will be on Q at the Panethon if you can’t make it to the west side of town Stang is on Q at Tomahawk and will also discussing the subject.

I am encouraging you to step up and share your experience. Whether it be about yourself or family member or even a friend. YHC will testify how this subject has effected my life. Please remember what we talk about in COT stays in COT it’s okay to be vulnerable. We are stronger together rather than alone.

Quotes
Don’t be ashamed of your story it will inspire others. Author Unknown

“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.”

”I hide all my scars with an I’m fine.”

The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die. – Juliette Lewis

The world is a better place with you in it.

Suicide doesn’t end the chances of life getting worse, it eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better. – unknown

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