Run, exercise, rinse, repeat

Simple but effective is the kick I’m on right now. I’m notorious for overcomplicating things so I want to avoid that in the gloom. Fortunately, 13 men joined me at Sweep The Leg and we were going to keep it simple with a count of 10 for each of 4 exercises, with an estimated .5mi run between each set.

I stared with the disclaimer and began to give the overview of exercise and the course but I was losing attention spans.
Our exercises were:
10 Grave Diggers on the right side
10 Wide-Arm Merkins
10 Grave Diggers on the left side
10 Dips

Here’s the course:
Around the back of Earth Fare then L/T down the side access road and L/T onto Dave Gibson to Patricia Ln.
Do the exercises

Run to GHMS, around the drop-off lane and to the front door
Do the exercises

Run out and back up to Ben Casey Drive
Do the exercises

Run across 160 and onto Emory and wrap around to the intersection with Brayden Pkwy
Do the exercises

Take a L/T onto Brayden then L/T onto Afton and take that all the way back to the left bend in the road
Do the exercises

Continue running on Afton around the loop then R/T and run out to Galbreath.
Do the exercises

Run back to COT
Do the exercises

Add on as necessary.

A learning for next time would be to ensure all crossing of 160 is done at the stop light. No need to add risk in the gloom. It was my pleasure.

SYITG
Maximus

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Thanksgiving Convergence 2021

68 PAX in attendance for a pre-thanksgiving beatdown and some fellowship on a brisk morning Thursday 11/25/2021.

 

With the anticipation of fried turkey, oreos and coffee brought by @Change Order, @Smuggler and @RubySlippers, mumble-chatter abounded,  until @Hardwood took the center and called attention at 0600 hours. Disclaimer was disclaimed and the call for new FNG’s was made, no new FNG’s was the lone blemish on the otherwise fantastic morning in my humble opinion.

Run options led by @Gekko and a Moderate group led by @TripleLindy set off as the rest of the PAX moseyed towards back of Springfield Elementary. First Destination was in parking lot way back by the Middle School.

Circled up and @Hardwood called out the following exercises:

SSH- 40

Windmills

Downward Dogs and Honeymooners

Low & Slow Squats

Cyclops: Stay in Squat Position and complete Moroccan Nightclubs

 

The Thing

Series of Webs

Starting with Merkins and Overhead Claps

1×4 for 10 rounds of excruciating shoulder pain, mumble-chatter becoming more focused on the task at hand

more SSH 🤮

Next we completed ANOTHER WEB, worse than the last,

Shoulder Taps and Moroccan Nightclubs

1×4 for 10 more rounds that was never ever going to end

Lots of requests for Burpees strangely or anything other then arm workouts!

 

YHC began the 2nd half of the workout with more SSH

Mosey around to front of Middle School with 3 stops for 5 Burpees OYO, at the request of the PAX

Line up at bottom of small hill in front of school and explain the workout, AMRAP LEG CIRCUIT

Teams of 4 ish men cycle through three exercises at bottom of hill individually:

2 Squats

2 Split Lunges

2 Bomb Jacks

Next Broad Jump up Hill to top and complete the following:

2 V-ups

Bear Crawl to bench

2 Step Ups

Run around and down to bottom of hill stopping at cones for 2 burpees (two stops per lap)

Meet back at bottom of hill and repeat, only this time DOUBLE ALL REPS TO 4X

Goal is to complete 5 rounds or AMRAP, almost completed but just short of time before we had to get back to COT

YHC shared a article on Gratitude, and then @Shady shared the heart of the Fort, the success of @Seamstress initiative with the help of the PAX, @Seamstress shared his excitement and appreciation for the success of the event! Great job by all T-claps!

Finally we had a shovel hand-off YHC taking the Ranch from a long line of great site Q’s which I hope to make proud.

Then we were finally able to enjoy the fried delicacies and coffee! Cheers!

 

 

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Q School at Footloose

10 pax decided to post at Footloose this morning for a little bootcamp Q School. YHC endeavored to create a WO this morning that would provide a few reminders/tips to seasoned PAX while focusing on some key fundamentals for newer PAX.

Pre-Disclaimer: I had all the PAX hold plank while I talked a bit about what goes into Quing a workout before 5:15. In short, 80% of a great Q happens before 5:15. Some best practices that were mentioned:

  • Write the Weinke down
  • Over prepare ( always have more than you need)
  • Make the workout scalable both in types of exercises and difficulty
  • Be site aware ( how to best utilize the AO)
  • Try and keep the group together as much as you can
  • Start on time

Remember, PAX are getting up early to drive to a Workout you are running. If anything you owe them the time and effort to make their time and effort worth it.

Disclaimer: We talked about the key components of a good disclaimer.

  • Announce who you are, you are not an expert
  • Ask for anyone new (I prefer to ask for new ppl as opposed to “FNG” in the event someone shows up not knowing what a FNG is)
  • If we have a FNG make sure there is someone (Site Q or person who EH’d him) that will stick with him and encourage him. Also be sure to mention our 5 core principles and welcome them to the WO.
  • Make clear that all exercises are suggestions and participants in the workout are assuming all risk. As a result, modify as needed to avoid injury
  • Highlight potential risks during the workout (going off campus, traffic, wet surfaces, poor footing etc….)
  • If you are going off campus count how many PAX you have before you break COT. If you leave with 10…end with 10.
  • Start the workout.

The Warmup:  Maintaining our position at the Shovel Flag but before the actual exercises I mentioned how important it is to show proper form during this portion of the workout. Often times all eyes will be on you and as a result you will need to set the example. If you cannot maintain good form (or cadence) during an exercise then just don’t’ do it. ( If you can’t do it …..don’ t Q it)

Next YHC went into the fundamentals of cadence calling. Announcing the exercise, telling pax to “move” into position, declaring if this next exercise will be in cadence(or OYO) and then to “begin”.  The key is to practice and to be mindful of “setting a pace”. I executed a set of SSH’s both at a slow place to demonstrate the cadence and then speeding it up to demonstrate how to pace the exercise. The next exercise was the Windmill. Which I was very careful to ensure that a proper pace was maintained.

One other tip to mention with warmups. Be mindful that it’s a “warm-up” As the Q don’t blow yourself up on the warmup…you have at least another 40-35 minutes to go.

 

The Thang:  As we begun the main portion of the workout I mentioned to the PAX that one thing I like to do with my workouts is “time box” my Wienke. In short, I like to keep to a schedule to ensure we get plenty of work in the 45 minutes while guaranteeing that we get all PAX back to COT at 6:00. For example a  Weinke of mine is laid out like this:

5:15-5:17 Disclaimer

5:17-5:18 Mosey to Warmup

5:18-5:23 Actual Warmup

5:23-5:25 Mosey to Thang Part 1.

5:25-5:40 Thang Part 1

5:40-5:42 Mosey to Thang Part 2

5:42-5:58 Thang Part 2

5:58-6:00 Run to COT

Through experience you’ll be able to determine how much time certain types of exercises or routines take  so be prepared to audible if needed or modify a workout up or down depending on the time allotted.

Specific to todays Q School I wanted to share with the Pax some basic exercise routines we leverage in F3 that are great ways to structure a workout and enable the opportunity to both scale up and down if needed. The routines we did were:

  • Pearls on a String ( 15 Merkins, Squats, Plank Jacks, LBC’s)
  • 7’s ( Carolina Dry Docks and Hello Dolly’s)
  • DORA (28 HR Merkins, 56 Squats, 112 LBC’s and 1 Kraken Burpee Each per Partner) In honor of Veterans Day I arranged the rep counts of this Dora to reflect the different Regiments, Brigades, and Divisions my father (CSM Pysher) served in during his career.

A couple things I mentioned during this portion of Q School:

  1. Don’t be afraid to modify up or down during these types of routines by changing reps, modes of transportation or by adding or subtracting exercises. Notice if the Pax are struggling or if they are blowing through it. You want to keep ppl moving and not have anyone standing around or getting discouraged.
  2. An easy way to do so is to carry chalk with you during your Q. For example I had written out the Dora in the parking lot before we started. At the conclusion of the Dora I simply added with chalk 50 SSH OYO. It’s an easy simple, effective way to modify the workout as you go.
  3. Keep things as simple as possible. The routines highlighted in today’s Q School are very simple yet very effective in that they provide a structure that will enable all pax to participate in a workout. Remember, if you are explaining……you are losing.

After the conclusion of the Dora we had roughly 10 minutes left which gave me the opportunity to go over a couple “time killing” routines that I have used in the past couple years.

Going back to what I had mentioned earlier about being over prepared it’s always a good idea to have in your back pocket a couple things (not just 5 minutes of Mary) that you can execute either on the way to COT or at COT that will keep PAX engaged.

  • Last Man Planking: all Pax in a circle. Essentially the last person maintaining good plank form “wins”. At the Q’s discretion he will call out an exercise like merkins  to “weed out” the herd. If and when someone taps out they will then do an exercise AMRAMP until a winner is declared.

 

  • EMOM Series: Utilizing your phone (and the SMARTWOD app) you can fill the remaining time by calling a series of exercises with a certain number of reps to be completed each minute on the minutes. What’s great about this is you can set the total time of the workout but modify the rep count to either increase or decrease the intensity of the workout.

 

 

  • 5 Burpees OYO :  This is always a crowd pleaser. You can leverage this throughout any workout to help quite out of control mumble chatter or to give you a few moments to think on your next piece of the workout.

COT: I have two alarms on my phone set for my workouts. One at 5:58 to remind me to get moving towards COT and the second one right at 6:00am

We discussed doing the count, namearama, the video and leading into announcements and prayers. At todays Q School there were specific prayers for our veterans and all they do, have done and continue to deal with. Additional prayers for health and guidance.

Final thoughts on Q School:

  1. Preparation is key to leading a successful Q. practice cadence, write your workout down, scout the site, and time box the workout to ensure everyone gets their money’s worth.
  2. As the Q you are the example if you can’t do it…don’t Q it.
  3. While leading the workout is 1st F. Remember to ensure that 2nd F is covered as well and keep ppl together.
  4. Leverage the Site Q for ideas and for counsel if you are concerned about a certain type of exercise or course. (if you are around houses you may want to be quite or if there’s a fence that’s locked…don’t jump it)
  5. Always have your phone on you (or ensure the site Q has theirs). It helps with the workout but from a safety perspective it’s good to have on your person.
  6. Look at F3Nation for additional workout ideas. Your brothers from across the country are constantly putting together innovative ways to lead workouts in the gloom. Feel free to “leverage” their input and ideas.

 

Hope you all find this helpful! Be on the lookout for more Q School in the coming months! SYITG

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Pantheon – the Gam Guillotine Part 3

Another last minute Q request, this time from 38 Special and Gears. I jumped on this opportunity. Pantheon was were it all started for me on 6/26/16. F3 workout #1 was right here at Pantheon, back when it had a much stronger following because there were fewer Wednesday options. The workout I led today was the same workout presented that day, led by Jekyll. It was just as ugly today as it was back then.

Only 3 of us on this chilly morning, almost 30 degrees out. No FNGs, just beasts ready to hit it. Disclaimer was disclaimed, and off we went.

Nice run to Memorial Gardens and Veterans Park. Triangle up around the flag.

COP:
15-20 of the following
SSH, WM, IW, MNC, and STRAWBERRY pickers (cherries are on trees fellas)

The Thang:

Mosey to the grass field park near Trailhead park, to the trail that leads up to the dreaded power lines and Heart Attack Hill. At the end of the field is a nice little trail hill that leads up to Cascading Pines Dr. At the base of that hill is the north end turnaround. Then we ran up the hill, crossed the road, and continued up to the top of the hill next to a power line. That is the south end starting point. Between the two is what’s known as the camelback. The hills are short, maybe 100-120yds total, but quite steep. There is a little flat area when they cross over the road, but otherwise they’re nonstop.

Run the Camelback.  5 squat on southend, run downhill, 5 jump squat on Northend, run uphill back to start.  1 round is down and back up. 5 rounds total.

Afterwards we did some body destroyers while discussing what we are thankful for and why.

Run Camelback: 5 side squat (2-ct), run downhill, 5 Mary Catherines – essentially a jump lunge w arms overhead (2-ct), run uphill back to start, 5 rounds total.

Altogether that was 10 rounds of that hill, about 1.5 miles. Ugly.

Back to the Memorial Gardens. More exercises and ab lab.

Pledge of Allegiance

Back for COT, announcements, P&P.
* READ YOUR NEWSLETTER
* Prayers for those who may not be as joyful over the holidays for various reasons. Reach out and let them know you are there for them
* Prayers for those traveling.
* Prayers for health, healing, patience
* Praises for the blessings we have, including everyone in our lives
* Praises for F3 and what it has done for everyone, both PAX and community

Thank you for the opportunity to lead. Have a happy Thanksgiving. God bless.
– NASA

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Noisy Frog

Alcatraz 11/20/21
Disclaimer
Mosey around to fire station driveway for
10 windmills IC
20 SSH IC
Then mosey back around to bracket all courts for
8 cherry pickers IC
15 low slow squats IC
15 MNC ICBuy in:
Apple Turnover: bear crawl/crab walk across B-ball court (baselline-key-half court-key-baseline) with 5 merkins at each stop. Then CrawlBear/Walk Crab back with same merkin count.The Thang:
Partner up.
Partner 1 does 20 squats, 10 merkins and LBCs until partner 2 returns.
Partner 2 runs to pull up bars, 5 pull ups and returns.I think we got 7 rounds in:
70 merkins
35 pull ups and countless LBCs.Hand off to Decibel.

Start things off right with:

SALLY- Merkin style

Mosey to the wall at the baseball field and partner up

P1- Peoples Chair P2-Run to Fence, 20 Bomb Jacks and run back- Flip Flop

P1- Bear Crawl to 2nd Base Line- 5 burpees-NUR back- Flip Flop

P1- BTW P2- run to Fence, 20 Apollo Ohon and run back- Flip Flop

P1- Bear Crawl to 2nd Base Line- 5 burpees-NUR back- Flip Flop

Circle Up for 7 minutes of Mary:  15- Boats-Canoe,15- Missionary Planks, 15- X-O’s and 20 Hello Dolly.

Mosey to Parking lot for a round of Burpecides.

Circle up on the Cement Pad (Old School) for COT

Great Group of guys out there today.  Always a blessing to lead!

Prayers for Families and Senators buddy Joe.

 

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Dora, not Dora

Earlier in the week, Mainframe lead a DORA without running.  I thought I would try the same at the Hive.  No running. well maybe just a little.

Warm-ups (No KB):  SSHs, Windmills, Imperial Walkers,  Plank Stretches

DORA #1:

  • 100 Overhead Presses (Alternate 10 reps while other partner holds bell overhead)
  • 200 Squats  (Alternate 20 reps while other partner holds Al Gore)
  • 300 LBCs (Alternate 25 reps while other partner holds bell above chest)

ok, we needed a break some we ran around the parking lot.

DORA #2:

  • 100 Curls (Alternate 10 reps while other partner holds bell in front of chest)
  • 200 KB Swings  (Alternate 20 reps while other partner holds Al Gore)
  • 300 Flutters (Alternate 25 reps while other partner holds bell above chest)

Next, we carried the KB overhead to the end of the parking lot, turned around and lunge walked back to the first light post.

Great work guys.  Lots of encouragement and mumble chatter.

Senior moment, forgot to change phone to video mode so I’ve got a cute picture of Airborne if anyone is interested.

 

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Clydesdales: Training like a Boss!

24 PAX arrived for a pre Charlotte Marathon run.
The disclaimer was given but no FNGs this day

The route was simple but flexible so PAX could push as hard as desired

we crossed over to Kingsley and down to back traffic circle ⭕️

we did laps between the circles which have slight hills on both ends

some PAX took the full around the block of Kingsley as an option as well

Of 24 PAX 11 were respectable

was great mumble chatter and some encouragement by running in close proximity of each other

thanks Greenwave for the opportunity 👏🏻💥👍🏻

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Big Book of Pain

Six pax posted at Footloose.  I was expecting rain, but none was to be had.  This was part of the Q swap event for October…I was filling for Ruby Slippers.  Disclaimer given (twice) and then proceeded to:
Warm Up
Mosey run
SSH (IC 10x)
Windmill (IC 9x)
Imperial Walker (IC 10x)
Low Slow Squats (IC10x)
Mountain Climbers (IC 12X)
Plank stretches, up dog, down dog
Headed towards the benches area under the awning in front of the church.

Thang 1: HIIT Routine (Harry Carry’s “Big Book of Pain”)
Chapter 1: Do the below 32 seconds on, 10 sec standing rest in between
Merkins
monkey humpers
Squats
Dips
Bobby Hurley’s

Mosey run as a group around the church.

Chapter 2: Do the below 40 seconds on, 20 sec rest in between (rest is a Low Plank)
Mountain Climbers
LBC
CDD
Amer Hammers
plank jacks

Mosey run as a group around the church.

Chapter 3: Do the below 45 seconds on, 15 sec standing rest in between
burpees
Imp Walkers
Squat Jumps
step ups
SSH
Mosey run as a group around the church.
Re-read chapter 1…make sure it sinks in.

Run back to COT area.
Thang 2: music routine
Sally routine: leg lifts, sally up = legs all way to 90°, sally down = 6″ off the deck.

Fini

Close out COT with ShopVac’s prayer.

Since Footloose is a ‘moderate’ work out, the Q should include some extra ’10 counts’.
But: I used Olaf’s suggestion from the podcast “Stuff worth trying” and asked a pax why they do F3 as a replacement for 10 counts.
This was a good application of the technique since this morning’s group was a mix of 4 veteran pax and 2 relatively new pax.

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One more beach body workout

This week’s Q was constructed under a very sobering atmosphere. With the news of the passing of ShopVac, YHC tried to find a way to honor him with our actions this morning. However I’d only worked out with him a handful of times and hadn’t been able to attend any of his Qs. So the only way I know how to honor a HIM like that is to sweat it.

The gloom

7 appeared in the gloom at Pantheon, including Scalp, whom I had been trying to recruit to Q for some time. Guess I’ll have to pester him some more

warmup

A quick mosey down to the west side of the parking lot and over to the crosswalk for:

10x SSH
10x Cherry Picker
10x Imperial Walker

The thang

Today’s workout is a derivative of Slapshot’s “pendulum” workout, but with a simpler twist. Rather than keeping track of separate counts, just start at 15 each side and only subtract one each round. Less confusing and more painful, really.

PAX started at the crosswalk and ran east to the end of the sidewalk. Down on the six for 15 BBSUs. Back to the crosswalk, pausing for 3 burpees, and then running around the bend to the bike racks for 15 4-count flutters. Back to the crosswalk for another 3 burpees. Do this again with 14 reps, then 13, you get the idea.

With about eight minutes left Senator Tressel was able to get down to 4 reps, having lapped most of us TWICE. (He may be wearing a knee brace, but he doesn’t perform like it). Scalp was on 5 reps, and the rest of us on 6.  At this point I asked the PAX to let me know when we had five minutes left, to which they replied “we have two minutes left”.

“LOL, sure we do, guys. It’s a tough workout <changes watch screens>… oh, crap. Let’s get back to COT!”

Original plan was to use the last five minutes to do Lutefisk’s delightful “vacuum cleaner” routine in ShopVac’s honor. But it just wasn’t meant to be.

cot

Name-o-rama with all PAX opting to say “ShopVac, 56, Sean Kelley”.  YHC asked all present to speak any words they may have about ShopVac, followed by a brief discussion about being seen in the dark (in no way referring to our brother’s circumstances, of which none of us are cognizant). And prayers for the family and all involved…

nmm

Use your time well…

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Soggy games at the Corral

The day before the Q, Lutefisk sent me a message wondering if I was still available to Q. Well, I never wasn’t available to Q, just hadn’t planned on it. Good ole WP being finicky again, I supposed.

The gloom

I arrived a few minutes early to plot our eventual course. Driving ’round back of the old Express Lube to chalk up some instructions nobody really wants to read is always fun. When I got to CoT, there were a few cars idling in the rain.

warm up

Mosey to the top of the hill by Express Lube. Warmup over!!

the thang

Part one

On paper, and in my mind, I wanted to call 11’s on the hill by the apartments, but I knew that the chosen activity at the bottom of the hill was a bit more involved, so 7’s were called instead.

The original plan for the top of the hill was BBSU’s, but because of the rain and complete lack of lighting, YHC called an audible to some low slow squats to make sure eyes were always up and we could move if a driver wasn’t paying attention.

The bottom of the hill is well-lit and so PAX will compete in the requisite rounds of Rochamburpees. Now, YHC has looked through the lexicons and found no definition of “chillcut” so I have to assume that it’s plank position. If not, well, probably should be.  Each PAX will pick a partner (or 3 man free for all).  In plank using right/left alternating counting “one, two, three, shoot”. The loser does a burpee starting with the pushup, the winner a single merkin. In the case of a draw, everyone does a burpee.

Part two

From the last game of rochamburpee, we all moseyed up to the SE corner of the Teeter where YHC had placed some scrawling that managed to stay dry and legible in the rain, and we continued our way around the course, which would be done until time ran out.

SE Corner: 10x V-ups
Behind Express Lube: 5x stepups (each)
Bear crawl from EL lot to crosswalk in front of auto parts store: 15x plank jacks
Run to the end of the strip mall and back to start

With 5 PAX there, we managed to stay together with YCH lagging behind and completed four loops of the .4 mile loop before heading back to COT with enough time for 10 windmills.

cot

Some announcing happened. Prayers were offered. Everyone talked a bit about their 2.0s. Sky-Q knows our needs.

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