Prison Yard Beatdown

10  Pax converged at the rock on a cool Saturday morning 0630 for a full body beatdown led by Sasquatch and YHC.

*pre-pull-ups were completed by Skipper, Maximus, Sasquatch and YHC. All of them.

Sasquatch kicked the sesh off with a brief disclaimer and  a unique and effective warm-up that included:

SSH

5+ minute plank with upward dog, downward dog (with multiple variations)

Peter Parker

Parker Peter

Plank jacks

Merkins

Wide-arm merkins

Now that the upper body and core were fired up we moseyed over to the playground where we completed:

3 sets of 5 pullups

5 toes to bar

10 partner clap pushups

wheelbarrow ~20 yards

2 sets of 5 curb merkins

5 curb burpees

5 curb sit-up-getups

1 set of 5 windmill merkins

YHC took over right at 0700 and brought the PAX back to the parking lot where we split into two groups, first group (A)  runs lap around park, stopping at all park benches to complete a number of exercises, return to parking lot and switch with group (B) who is completing exercises in cadence with good form (AMRAP):

1st lap, Group B- Deep squats (AMRAP), Group A – Runs with 10 dips each bench (20 total)

2nd Lap, Burpees (AMRAP) and Step-ups (20 total)

3rd lap, Monkey Humpers (AMRAP) and Derkins (total)

After much grumbling and some counting methods no better than our last few elections we switched it up and moved to front of parking lot for some more partner work.

First partner sprints to far end of parking lot, 2nd partner holds plank. We did 3 or 4 rounds

Finally we did some Mary for 3 minutes, flutter kicks in cadence and american hammers to get us to 0730 and COT.

Thanks for the opportunity Skipper!

 

 

 

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St. Patrick’s Day WOD

Today is St. Patty’s Day…so I came up with a Irish, St. Patty’s themed WOD. We had 3 for the workout ,3 runners and 1 dog walker.

Our warmup consisted of windmills, Morrocan nightclubs, Imperial walkers and Hillbilly walkers. We ran down the hill and began our workout

We did each exercise 17 and after every three exercises we ran up and down the stairs.

LEPRACHAUN LUNGES

LORD OF THE DANCE SSH

GREEN MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

DROPKICK MURPHYS SHOULDER TAPS

IRISH TWISTS

POT O’ GOLD SQUATS

PATTY O’ PUSHUPS W/PLANKJACKS

KISS ME I’M IRISH SITUPS

DARBY O’GILL CALF RAISES

WE DID FOUR ROUNDS OF EACH

We jogged back up the hill to COT where Reverend Ruby Slippers took us out

Thanks Small World for the opportunity to lead

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No Arrival

40-some pax posted to the region’s Ground Zero at WEP for a smorgasbord of pain, from 6@6 to Millkshake to a tried and true BC beatdown.  A very explicit and thorough Disclaimer was pronounced by Dark Helmet for the benefit of our FNG, and then the pax blasted off.

The Thang

The recitation of the 5 Core Principles quickly failed to meet DOAH’s standard, leading to some burpees.

Mosey around the parking lot with some toy soldiers and knee lifts mixed in, with the pax following onto the bandshell stage.

COP proceeded including more core principles along with some Merkins and DOAH’s proclamation that maybe the FNG’s fitness surpassed that of many of the pax present.  {Yes, he’s good at stirring the pot whether he’s poking at the Q or Qing himself.}

More mosey and more warm up exercises until the pax reach the far side of the WEP.

Enter stage left — the BAOPS boys via Clown Car — Trucker, Smuggler, Change Order & Longshanks, who just couldn’t stand the thought  of missing out on the best 1st, 2nd & 3rd F in The Fort on this given Saturday.  {Pro move by whoever made that call!}

Partner up for wheel barrow…to the playground…Yes…to the playground!…where the fun really starts.  {Fishsticks promptly cruised 85% of the way there to prove to his FNG that no matter what DOAH says, the FNG’s fitness had room for improvement.}

At the playground, each partner does 50 (yes, Five-O!) pull ups.  {Jiffy cranked out 30 in rapid fire.}

Some core work followed including LBCs and Rosalitas among others.

Handoff to Double D

Run to the bottom of the hill

Jacob’s Ladder with Donkey Kicks at the bottom and Sumo Squats at the top.  Traverse to the top via Bear Crawl and run to the bottom.

Mosey back to the parking lot with some Mary led by Jekyll

Climb the Stairway to Heaven via lunge walks, pausing for Carolina Dry Docks at each lamp post, starting with 5 reps and adding 5 more at each successive post.

Mosey down to the monuments with some Mary led by Longshanks

Circle up for an FNG introduction to Jack Webb by Change Order

Run home for final 2 mins of Mary by Longshanks

COT

NMM

A spirited pax at The Fort on this pleasant late winter morning!   Back to back weeks with a convergence at The Fort — thanks to the Alcatraz boys for adding their zeal to the day!

Maximus delivered the tailgate coffeeteria in the parking lot afterward and our FNG (EHed by Fishsticks) hung around long enough to learn the backstory of his name (Roy Kent) and to fill his rolodex with roofing customer prospects.

Welcome to Roy Kent!  Barry Manilow was quite vocal about the quality of the name and the importance of RK living up to it.  Well, if he doesn’t meet the mark, we can always default to what RK thought we named him — Rockette!

It was great to have Car Bomb among the pax today, fresh off his return trip from New Zealand, prior to his resettlement in another adventure.

The theme for the day was geared around the notion of life being an endless series of mountain climbs, peak after peak, with no arrival to the top in sight — ever.  Depressing, huh?  No, not for the HIMs of F3 and The Fort.  Give us the hard stuff.  We’re playing the long game and we know you can’t play it alone.  So keep posting, stay engaged with your brothers.  Together we’ll keep accelerating.

It was a treat to Q with DOAH for the first time.  We all look at him as just another member of The Fort, which of course he is.  At the same time, he also invests a huge amount of his life leading the 43 feet for the Nation.  Not only is it not easy being Frank {imagine how hard it must be for Traci his wife}, it’s also lonely at the top of any organization {how about leading one with 50,000 type A men?}, and it’s incredibly challenging to serve as the successor to any founder {would you want to try one Dredd’s shoes}.  Despite the small jabs, I say this with all seriousness — DOAH has taken on an extremely difficult challenge, one that he executes well with tremendous energy and virtue and that we all benefit from.  We’re fortunate that he calls The Fort “home” and that we get to take his crap on a regular cadence.  Thank you, DOAH!

Thanks to Grinder for the opportunity!  Always an honor to lead the men of this brotherhood!

SYITG

 

 

 

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Convergence: Love & a passing of the flag

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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Celebrities, Cinder Blocks, Disney…a perfect morning at BAOPS

The threat of snow did not intimidate as a total of 14 PAX converged on the Rock, er BAOPS, er Alcatraz. In addition to the Nation representation, we were graced with the dulcet(er) tones of Funny Bonz, er…Hello Kitty. Man, if only we had CSPAN, Repeato, Tommy Boy and Bones in attendance, we would’ve had all the Podcasting staff present. Next time.
Right from the jump, the chatter was strong, exactly how it should be. We had snow jokes, road jokes, hugs, rookie jokes, Q-Source jokes, age jokes and a whole bunch of things not made for print. A morning that will live in infamy, or, maybe not.

With the first half of this morning’s installment brought to you by Maximus (3rd person), I (1st person) did give the disclaimer. You could imagine how that went. Something to note, I did advise the PAX who got there early, they should stretch and warm up as necessary ‘cuz ain’t no side straddle hops, imperial walkers or windmills were to be had.

So, we made our way to the top of the park to the pull up bars. Every member of the PAX had to complete 10 pull ups and while you weren’t pulling yourself up, you were completing your best rendition of the American Hammer. Go until completion.
Next, run to the bottom of “the hill”; don’t worry, I scouted for slick roads ahead of time.
At the bottom of the hill, 10 Burpees and 10 Carolina Dry Docks
Run up for 5 more pull ups
Run back to the bottom for 10 Burpees and 20 Merkins.
NUR back to the top for flutter kicks until the 6 rolled in.

To the parking lot and grab a cindy out of my truck bed (or a KB)
10 Overhead Press
20 Staggered Merkins (10ea side)
30 Curls
40sec count while holding legs out at 6″ and cindy overhead

40 Overhead Press
30 Merkins (15ea side)
20 Curls
10sec count as done above

50 Bent over rows
10 Thrusters

My job is done…time for Italian Job

Short mosey to the field for:
11’s from foul pole to foul pole with the exercises consisting of
Mickey Mouse Merkins (Walt Disney World Merkins) at one end and squats at the other.
No doubt at this point, the PAX had a severely confused puppy dog look on their face because IJ was all like, “Ya know, Disney…WDW, Wide-Arm, Diamond, Wide Arm.”
And all of us were like, “Oh yeah…of course”…eye roll.
This my friends, is a sure-fire way to make a statement. It became very clear that unless your name is Italian Job, Senator Tressel, Trucker, Olaf and perhaps Mainframe, your form was garbage come about Disney Merkin #6.

Carry on

Now, run around the entire field then 25 Calf Raises.
Next up, run another lap then 25 Freddy Mercury’s.
Finally, another lap.

NMM (In the words of Italian Job):
“Always a pleasure to share the gloom with you men. A question for you, What’s holding you back? Is it time, energy, money, expertise – all of these? Excuses only sound good to the person making them. Whatever you desire is on the other side of effort. If it was easy, everyone would do it. If you want it, go get it. Dominate the day!”

And like that, we’re out. Until next time…
Italian Job & Maximus

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We did the Slow Burn thing at Empire Pizza this morning. Jogged across 160 to Baxter Village Circle.

SSH

Windmills

Tunnel Touches

Imperial Walkers

Merkins

Moroccan Night Clubs

Then rann to McAlisters Deli

Partnered up for stair climbing across the street

Partner runs the staircases while other does the following:

Squats

Plank

CDDocks

Grave diggers (alternate sides)

Jump squats

Shoulder taps

Lunges

Imperial walkers

Peter Parkers

 

The fellowship was ripe.

Back to COT where we lifted up prayer concerns and praises (including Owen’s 18th Bday)

Weezer has done a great job with SlowBurn. Appreciate the opportunity.

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Dog (Dawg) Years

A band of 7 met at  Runde for the second Alcatraz workout of 2022.  After a fine disclaimer from Copay,  and a late, ‘comin’ in hot’ arrival by Divac, the workout commenced.  Here is what we did:

The Thang:

Copay on Q:

Form a quick circle for COP:

Do a standing stretch starting from the toes and reaching up to the sky with a calf raise (18 reps in cadence – cool!)  From there we went to side straddle hops at various speeds in cadence up to 80 (160 total)- crowd pleaser.

Mosey to the back of the parking lot near the basketball hoops.  Split into pairs and do the following:

Round 1:

Parter 1 does 42 squats while partner  2 lunge walks the length of the lot.  When the count is reached, partner 1 runs to catch partner 2 and flapjack.   Return to the start with more squats and lunge walks.

Round 2 – same as round 1?

Round 3

Partner 1 does 42 jump squats while partner 2 broad jumps along the parking lot.  When the count is reached, partner 1 runs to catch partner 2 and flapjack.

Circle back up and do 33  Superman back exercises (lie flat on stomach, raise legs and arms)

To finish his half of the workout, Copay gathered us for a Switzer (or maybe a Smart).   He talked more about this season’s Bulldogs and how they improved their fitness through ‘gassing’.  See reference below.  The Pax let out a collective sigh of relief.

Handoff to Senator Tressel

Form a line for an extended indian run along Windward drive.  Run about  2 laps between Tega Cay Drive and the circle at the end of Windward,  and then head back to the baseball fields of Runde.

Circle up for Tabata.  5 rounds:  20 sec work, 10 sec rest, rinse and repeat for 4 minutes per exercise, 20 minutes total.   Do the following exercises:

  1.  Merkins
  2. Freddie Mercury
  3. Carolina dry dock
  4. V-ups
  5. Burpees

End with the body destroyer for 60 sec

COT

NMM:

What a pleasure to share a Q with Copay!  I don’t see him very often, but he’s a good guy to be around – always smiling and positive.  Copay is a HUGE Georgia Bulldogs fan and he was still riding the high from Monday night’s championship win.   His portion of today’s workout was centered around Bulldog stats – years since last championship (42), the score (33-18), others I can’t recall.  Toward the end of his portion, he talked about how the Bulldogs improved their fitness through ‘gassing’.  I could sense the tension mounting with the Pax (YHC included), about what was going to happen next.  He never did tell us exactly what it was, but it didn’t sound pleasant.  Thankfully (or mercifully), Copy said that we were not going to do any gassing today and he handed the lead over to me (whew!)

My half of the workout included one of my favorites – the Tabata.  I learned this from F3 brother Chicken Wing several years ago at a workout.  It’s simple and requires very little planning, but it’s intense and always a tough one – the soreness in my upper body and abs are reminding me of that as I write this.

I was very pleased to see Photobomb and Smuggler out yesterday.  I saw Smuggler at Golden Corral on Tuesday and hope he and Photobomb continue to come back regularly.  We miss you, brothers!  It was a privilege to Q with Copay and lead the group today as always.  Copay’s tribute to the GA Bulldogs provided the perfect opportunity for me to use another Rush song title in my backblast ( huge fan – RIP Neil Peart).

Announcements,/prayers/praises

  1.  Dam to Dam Bar on Jan 29, Yeti coming soon, check your newsletter as always.
  2. Prayers for the Duffy family, Divac friend Sharon recovering from cancer and brain surgery, ST friend Joe with Cancer and co-worker on a ventilator (Covid).

 

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2112

Eleven of Ft. Mill’s finest met at the corner of route 160 and Gold Hill Road for another edition of the Golden Corral.    Here is what they did:

The Thang:

Before the workout began, there was some discussion about the exact time of day and apparently, my watch was about 2 mins slow.  So the Pax were disclaimed at 5:17 rather than the designated start time of 5:15. Today, though, that worked out for the best as we found one straggler rolling into the parking lot as I was finishing the disclaimer,  and that guy turned out to be an FNG!  After some minor ribbing for being tardy, we moseyed over to the ‘alley’ between Harris Teeter an O’Reilly Auto Parts for COP.

COP (all in cadence):

SSH x 40, windmill x 15, IW x 40, merkin x 10, LBC x 20, Mountain climber x 35, low, slow squat x 20, Morrocan night club x 40 while walking to the front of Harris Teeter.

Split into two groups for suicides using the 3 light posts as the stopping points.  We did 4 rounds and it was a crowd pleaser:

Round 1:  Group 1 run, while group 2 does merkins

Round 2:  Group 2 run, while group 2 does LBC’s

Round 3:  Group 3 run, while group 2 does monkey humpers

Round 4:  Group 4 run, while group does dips

Mosey back to the alley between Harris Teeter and O’Reilly.  All Pax in people’s chair and one by one bear crawl from one end to the other until we cycle through all the pax.  Shake ‘em out.  Now all pax in balls to the wall and then one by one, jog from one end to the other.

Mosey back to the main lot for a true 6 minutes of Mary:

Freddie Mercury x 20, Pretzel crunch x 10L/10R, Hello Dolly x 20, Superman hold x 3

COT

I was a last-minute sub for Decibel last night so just pulled an old Q from the archives.  This one was from September 29, 2014 and we had 20 guys back then.  Here is a little bit of F3 The Fort history:  Golden Corral was THE Tuesday workout in Fort Mill and we used to get 15 plus pax week after week so it wasn’t long before we needed to add the other Tuesday workouts (Colosseum, Ballroom).  Funhouses was the original site Q.

Big fun from the group today and plenty of mumble chatter.  Leading the charge (no surprise) was Jekyll and Twister.  At one point during COP, I could hear my own cadence count, but could not make out the count from the Pax because only 1/3 of the group was counting the other 2/3 were discussing how the beverage industry is changing (among other topics).    Everyone seemed to have a comment about something.  My favorite came from Airwolf who recognized that with our latest FNG Tailwind, F3 The Fort has met our EEOC requirement for 2022 – hahahaha.  All in jest of, course!

This morning exemplified what we all know and love about F3.  And that is, despite all that is going wrong in our communities (the death of a son, a local teacher robbed and shot, a worsening pandemic, and the huge political divide in our country), getting together to break a good sweat and have some laughs can keep all the bad stuff from getting to us.  Our bodies are stronger, we feel better physically and emotionally, and we know we have guys to lean on when we need them.

It was truly a pleasure to lead the group today and I look forward to next time. And BTW, the title of the backblast is a continuation of my effort to work Rush song titles into this website (RIP Neil Peart).

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

  1. Dam to Dam 10K bar (check your newsletter)
  2. Prayers for Aquaman’s family, Covid victims, cancer victims, local teacher in hospital.
  3. I neglected to get Tailwind’s contact info this morning. If anyone reads this (which will be a very small number I think), please reach out to him if you happen to see him or hear that name at a workout.

 

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FORE!

Balmy 32 degrees, clear skies.

Great to start the year off with a proper #runningwithpushups beatdown.  Was a little nervous on the who would show as the emoji bucket for my preblast was near empty.  I need my dopamine hit of likes, hearts, and high fives.  14 (corrected to 13 via video) posted for a jaunt to Fort Mill Golf Club.

5:13: “one minute to pledge” and also “hurry up birdcage, lets go”

5:14: Pledge of Allegiance.  There was no Bandcamp to throw me off my 40  year vocal cadence.  We are all #proudtobeanamerican

5:15: concise layout of the plan and  half assed disclaimer.

The Thang:

AYG to parking lot of Fort Mill Golf Club,(1 mile) plank wait for #six and confirm plan.  Run Front 9 cart path.  At every Tee and every Green: 5 Merkins and 5 squats. Head back to COT 0550. Fishsticks and Badlands were super strong this morning, lead the way and got all 9 in.  Middle and back groups got 7-8 holes.  Full round gets 4 miles and 90 each of the #painmakers.

Naked Man Moleskin

Maximus and Shady tried to talk to me while I was running.  Hope they could hear my muttering over my heavy breathing.  Not sure what was going on in the other running packs but if anybody ran with Pusher- can you let me know what questions he asked today?   Always great to see men push themselves at this workout.

Want to give a praise to Olaf for including me a bible plan this week.  Havent done one of those in a while and realized how impactful they are to setting up my day and my heart for the day.  My challenge to you- If you are a “habitual first thing I do when I wake up is grab my phone and scroll Instagram, twitter, slack, Linked In, News Feed, texts, emails” guy- take a break from that for a day, 3 days, 5 days.  Grab your coffee or water and for 5 minutes: sit “in it”.  Silence.  be still.  Meditate, bible verse, Q source, thought for the day, reflection, journal.  Start the day without the noise that leads to anxiety, worry, comparison.  Would love for you to find me next week, let me know how it went.

Aye!

Jekyll

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Constant Movement at Colosseum

Welcome and Disclaimer
10 start/ 10 finish
Mosey and do a lil warmup (SSH, IWs, Cherry pickers, Mtn Climbers, Plank Jacks, 6 inch hold)
Mosey to the starting lightpole
5 poles- start with 5 burpees/10 merkins/15 squats lunge to next light pole repeat exercise than bear crawl to next light pole repeat sequence until you arrive at last pole. When 6 in we mosey down the road to rip rap pile, 3 sets 10 reps of following exercises chest press, curls, overhead press. We than run to top of hill at 80%. and back.
Indian run to school, balls to wall 30 seconds come down 5 merkins, 10 squats, 15 LBCs repeat Xs 3. Mosey to COT 20 flutter kicks and 10 grave diggers each side. COT…
Announcements- Dam 2 Dam relay fundraising.
Prayers

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