F3 The Fort Thanksgiving Convergence 2017

70 Men came today to burn calories so they can eat whatever they want the rest of the day. Ok, maybe that was my reasoning, but most came because the know in order to get better, even in being Gratful, it is best when being challenged by your brothers. We all came to get better and realize this great thing we have called F3 and give thanks!
Santini Opening with warm up both physically and mentally with some leadership principles
Split off into the various groups!
4 went for for a Run
  • Drile (F3-Wapner)
    Mozy to the front of SFES, high knees, toy soldiers, Butt kickers, and Knees to chest.
    Mozy to front of SFMS, circled up…Side straddle hop, Merkins, Cherry Pickers, and Moroccan Nightclub
    Mozy to SFMS bus loop …high knees, toy soldiers, Butt kickers, and Knees to chest.
    Circled up.. Flutter Kicks and Low Slow Squats, America Hammer and Low Slow Squats, Merkins and Windmills, mountain climbers and windmills
    Mozy to back of SFES, circled up…Peter Parker’s and Side Straddle Hop, Plank and windmill, shoulder taps and Low Slow Squats, LBCs and Moroccan Nightclub
    Then rinse and repeated the above sequence…before joining the other groups at COT
    Lil E—Bootcamp Q
    Mosey to the parking lot in the rear of school and circle up. SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Squats
  • The thang
    • 10 cones set up in a line spaced about 10 paces apart. Each cone had an exercise and rep count on them. Do exercises on the first cone and run a lap of the parking lot. Once you complete the lap do the first cone and the second cone and then run a lap. Repeat this adding the next cone until all 10 are complete. Here were the exercises in order from first to last:
    • Burpees x 10
    • Bombjacks x 10
    • LBCs x 25
    • Merkins x 20
    • Jump Squats x 10
    • Flutter kicks x 40
    • CDDs x 20
    • Lunges x 20
    • Mtn Climbers x 20
    • Monkey Humpers x 20

Majority of the pax finished in the Lunges lap with a few speedsters out in front on the mtn climbers. Mosey back to the front of the school for some Freddy Mercury’s and Rosalitas.

After that met up with the Moderate and Black diamond groups for COT.

Everyone put out great effort today and really pushed themselves.

 

Witch Hunt—Black Diamond Q

Not even a trip to the hospital the night before with a pregnant wife could keep me away from this Thanksgiving workout. Shout out to Royale and Cha Ching for stepping up to help me out. Luckily I made it and we put in work.
We stared by counting off by 4 creating 4 teams.
Each team will compete to complete as many burpees as possible in 2-minutes with a catch. You can only do 10 at a time before you most complete 20 reps of ab exercise. 2 rounds:
1.) Burpees with LBCs (Somehow Bounce House was able to do 50 burpees. That dude is not human.)
2.) Burpees with Knee Tuck with crunchy frogs
Winners plank while losers perform 10 Kraken Burpees.
Blood was flowing so we moseyed to the hill by the middle school for some broken down burpees. Catch was that we had 20 minutes for everyone to complete. If everyone doesnt finish within the time then group does 25 Burpees.
Here was the setup:
Run Hill 10 times. (1 Hill Run = Up & Down)

5 Squat Jumps
5  Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
5 Merkins
5 Froggers
5 Squat Jumps

Run Hill 8 times.

10 Squat Jumps
10 Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
10 Merkins
10 Froggers
10 Squat jumps

Run Hill 6 times.

15 Squat Jumps
15 Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
15 Merkins
15 Froggers
15 Squat jumps

Run Hill 4 time.

20 Squat Jumps
20 Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
20 Merkins
20 Froggers
20 Squat jumps

Run Hill 2 time

25 Squat Jumps
25 Plank w\ Shoulder Taps
25 Merkins
25 Froggers
25 Squat jumps

With some great teamwork by the Pax everyone completed within the 20 minutes so no penalty was given.

I attempted to have Backdraft give us a 10-count however  he responded “There are no 10 counts during the Black Diamond.” So no 10 count and a quick mosey back to the parking lot for the 10 Minute 100 Burpee Challenge:

Complete 10 1-minute rounds of burpees in the following set scheme. Any time left over in the round is yours for rest. (typically PAX finish the set between 25 and 40 seconds)

Rd1- 8

Rd2- 9

Rd3- 10

Rd4- 11

Rd5-12

Rd6-12

Rd7-11

Rd8-10

Rd9- 9

Rd10- 8

Total – 100

Amazing work by all the Pax. I didn’t pull any punches with this setup for the Black Diamond and the Pax took it on without hesitation. We all survived and are better for it.

Thanks to Ginsu and Cake Boss for the opportunity to lead.

Pusher with closing remarks and finding #Victory 

Prayers & Praises

Thank you F3 The Fort

Cake Boss

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BackBlast from Tomahawk – 11-13-17

10 men joined YHC this Monday morning in the gloom to kick of a fantastic week.

Mosey to the back of the school

Warmup

  • 25 side straddle hops
  • 5 burpees OYO
  • 10 4 count windmills
  • 5 burpees OYO
  • 10 4 count merkins
  • 5 burpees OYO
  • 20 4 count mountain climbers
  • 5 burpees OYO

Mosey back to the front of the school and grab your bells

Line up at the top of the parking lot

The Thang:

  • 10 4 count goblin squats
  • 10 4 count KB merkins, switch arms, 10 4 count KB merkins
  • 15 4 count flutters (KB over chest)
  • Run to bottom of parking lot, 5 burpees OYO, run back to top
  • 10 4 count lunges, switch legs, 10 4 count lunges
  • 10 4 count diamond merkins
  • 10 4 count LBC (KBs on chest)
  • Run to bottom of parking lot, 5 burpees OYO, run back to top
  • 10 4 count side lunges, switch legs, 10 4 count side lunges
  • 10 4 count wide arm merkins
  • protractor in cadence w/ KB over chest
  • Run to bottom of parking lot, 5 burpees OYO, run back to top
  • 10 clean & press, switch arms, 10 clean & press
  • 20 4 count Freddie Mercury
  • Run to bottom of parking lot, 5 burpees OYO, run back to top
  • 10 4 count goblin squats
  • 10 4 count KB merkins, switch arms, 10 4 count KB merkins
  • 15 4 count flutters (KB over chest)
  • Run to bottom of parking lot, 5 burpees OYO, run back to top
  • 5 4 count lunges, switch legs, 5 4 count lunges
  • 10 4 count diamond merkins
  • 10 4 count LBC (KBs on chest)
  • Run to bottom of parking lot, 5 burpees OYO, run back to top
  • 5 4 count side lunges, switch legs, 5 4 count side lunges
  • 10 4 count wide arm merkins
  • protractor in cadence w/ KB over chest
  • Run to bottom of parking lot, 5 burpees OYO, run back to top
  • Run to bottom of parking lot, 5 burpees OYO, run back to top
  • Captain Thor up to 5×20

COT

Announcements:

  • Turkey drive for Paradise – bring turkeys on the 18th
  • Christmas party on the 1st
  • Turkey Day Convergence

Prayers/Praises:

Today, we went around the circle with a praises to focus on how grateful we are for what we’ve been given.

Great time, today. Thanks for the opportunity, Sauerkraut!

Ginsu

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Mary Go Round at the Colosseum

Warm up:

20 x -SSH

20 x MNC

15 x Windmill

10 x Merkins

Plank

Honeymooner

Downward Dog

15 x Mountain Climber

15 x Squats

The Thang:

So after some short sprints and side shuffles through the parking lot, we partnered off.  Then a word on leadership.

Leadership doesnt have to happen alone!  Just like your partner during the workout a partner in life can help you be the leader you are meant to be.

And the Mary-go-round begins…..

Each round consists of doing one exercise followed by a lap around the parking lot.  Since one round of each set of exercises wasnt enough, we decided to rinse and repeat each round.  Between rounds as we waited for the six (usually me) we did wall sits for round 1 followed by planks for round 2.

Round 1:

10 x Freddy Mercury

10 x Rosalita

10 x Protractors

Round 2:

10 x Crab Humpers

10 x Carolina Dry Docks

10 x Flutters

Meet back at COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

Thanks for all the support PAX for my VQ!

A great time was had by all!

Announcements:

-Invergence Friday

-Convergence Saturday

Prayers of PAX:

-Family who lost father due to fire ants

-Missionary family resolving paperwork stateside to return to Asia.

 

 

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Trucker Strong

Its been awhile since I had an opportunity to Q the Ranch, so dug into my bucket of go-byes to find something that I haven’t done or other Q’s haven’t done in a while. Sometimes it is just as fun to bypass pull-ups and just focus on merkins. So as the PAX arrived, mumble chatter revolved around the assumption of doing 1,000 pull-ups….ha!

COP consisted of 15 to 20 reps of: good mornings, windmills, Russian twists, Moroccan nightclubs, squats, LBCs, and Hip-leg thrusters. Mossy to Middle School drop off circle for 4 corners.

A cone was placed at each end of the circle and in the middle. Start at first cone and do 15 right leg scorpion merkins, run to second cone for 15 regular merkins, run to third cone for 15 left leg scorpion merkins, run to fourth cone for 15 wide arm merkins, run back to first cone. Rinse and repeat two more times.

Plank and LBCs until 6 is in.

Bear crawl up hill and do 10 squats, run down: rinse and repeat by dropping 2 squats each time

Mossy to benchs for:

15 dips/15 step ups per leg; 15/dips/15 squat sits; 15 merkins/15 LBCs; 15 derkins/15 Russian twists; 15 merkins/ 15 step ups; 15 irkins

Mossy to COT

Great work by all, 240 merkins during an AO is Trucker Strong!!

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Special Appearance by Thin Mint and Some SOB’s at The Coop!

Thank you to Thin Mint for pushing himself (and all of us) out of our comfort zones this morning at the Coop.  Great to see the SOB’s present and we need to get together again soon.  Below is the Backblast from Thin Mint. – SugarBug

12 indistinguishable blobs showed up in the 0515 darkness of Nation Ford HS for this SOB’s first Q in The Fort. The next 45 minutes went a little something like this.

The Warm-Up
-Disclaimer
-Imperial Walker x10 IC
-Low Slow Squat x15 IC
-Arm Circles IC (5 small fwd, 5 small back, 5 big back, 5 big fwd)
-Low Slow Merkin x10 IC
-Alternating Leg Lift (from 6 inches) x10 IC

The Thang
Mosey over to the band lot and line up at the goal line for:
-Bear Crawl Burpees – start your burpee (drop, do the pushup), at the top of the pushup bear crawl 5 yards to the next line, finish your burpee (stand up, jump), repeat for 50 yards, sprint to the end
-Return by Lunge Walk 10 yards, Broad Jump 5 yards, repeat to the end

Mosey down to the launch lot and grab a partner for partner suicides:
-5 partner derkins each
-Sprint opposite directions to end of lot, round 1 island, meet back near the middle 1 row from where we started
-10 handslap merkins
-Run back the way you came to the start
-Repeat but go up 2 islands to the 2 nd row, repeat to 3 rd row, 4 th row, 5 th row (for some)

Head to the JROTC building and form groups of 3 for grinders:
-P1 at pull-up bars –1 pull up, 4 hand position changes (if possible, just pull ups if not), repeat
-P2 at bottom of hill – double merkin burpees
-P3 runs from bottom of hill to the top, relieves P1 who runs down to relieve P2, etc.
-Continue until each person has done pull-ups 3 times

Couple minutes of Mary
Plank abreast facing up the hill
Low slow merkins x10 IC
On your belly, wait for GO
AYG uphill to Stop sign, mosey back to launch for COT

Announcements

-Invergence on September 29 th . https://f3thefort.com/2017/08/30/pre-blast- f3-the- fort-5th- year-invergence/
-Convergence on September 30 th , 0700, Nation Ford HS. All other AOs will be closed on the 30 th . https://f3thefort.com/2017/08/29/5-year- convergence-fng- challenge-preblast/
-Following the convergence, help needed to install pull-up bars at Children’s Attention Home. A few more PAX needed to help dig holes and put up the posts and bars. Contact Chicken Wing for more info or to HC. https://f3thefort.com/2017/09/11/childrens-attention- home-workday/

Prayer Requests
-Forgot to do this — not a regular thing for us SOBs but maybe it should be.

Moleskin
YHC tried not to get lost or to faceplant as we moseyed up towards the band practice lot. Nation Ford HS is pretty dark first thing in the morning. I tried to take out Photo Bomb twice by making unannounced sharp turns, but he was too quick on his feet so we warmed up instead. Thankfully the lights came on in the parking lot for the partner suicides or things could have gotten ugly. Have only visited this AO twice (last week and this week), but I can confirm that everyone comes to work hard. Heard your typical mumblechatter this morning, especially on the call for double merkin burpees, but saw every man in attendance pushing hard and getting uncomfortable. Dark Helmet summed things up pretty nicely before the workout when he stated that he knows he CAN modify, but then he looks around at everyone else pushing through and would rather puke today than let up. Beauty of F3 right there. Don’t get me wrong – modify to avoid injury, but not to avoid discomfort. On the other side of uncomfortable things is where each and every one of us finds a better version of ourselves. It’s obvious when you say it (get outside your comfort zone, duh) — but it’s far too easy to forget in the moment. The more we can learn to embrace uncomfortable situations in the gloom with a push from our brothers the more we will find ourselves embracing (or even running headlong at) the everyday discomforts (making that call, having that talk with your M, punishing your 2.0 even when they make the puppy dog eyes) that threaten to force us all into complacency. Or, maybe Dark Helmet was just regretting his choice of a Gordita Supreme at Taco Bell last night. Really enjoyed working out with the men of The Fort this morning and getting pushed by some new faces (especially Backdraft who is one sneaky fast dude). Thanks to Haggis, Fahvra and Fallout for leaving their usual routines to come out to The Coop. Haggis is soon to be a Springfield resident so keep an eye out for him at an AO near you (if he can drag himself off the trails of Anne Springs that is). Very much appreciate the invite from Sugar Bug to lead. YHC definitely plans to visit more often.

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Getting Old-School, Around The School

While YHC has posted to TheRanch a number of times, it’s been a while, and this was possibly the first time Q’ing there (according to my Evernote Weinke folder).  I arrived a bit earlier than usual to confirm a few geographic details that Google Maps and my memory were shaky on.  Already there was Straight Up, getting some stretches in, and What-Did’s empty car, as he was out for a pre-run.

Shortly after, What-Did and the rest of the pax rolled in, and at 0515 the disclaimer was given.

  • 25 SSH
  • Mosey clockwise around school, 1/4 of the way
  • Variety of warm-up exercises (in no particular order)
    • Mountain climbers
    • Butt Kickers
    • High-Knees
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Shuffle Left/Right
    • Windmills
    • Karaoke
    • Run-stance-switch squats
    • Run Backwards
    • Mountain Climbers

Found a wall for People’s chair.  Pax, one at a time, bear crawled “down the line”.
Repeat with crab-walks

Ran around back of middle school to car-rider drop-off driveway.  Found some grass for under-over railroad tracks (until we ran out of grass).

Ran around the driveway to the bottom of the hill (that leads up to the upper part of the driveway) for a Jacob’s Ladder (7) – Morning Wood at the top, Burpees at the bottom.

Continue mosey around the school to a nice piece of grass not far from the shovel flag for traditional Jack Webb (1:4 ratio, to 10).

Finish with some Mary:

  • Flutters
  • American Hammers
  • Chop-sticks

TIme’s up.  Head to COT.

Thanks to Backdraft for allowing me to Q.  I look forward to hopefully being a regular on the schedule.  Great work by all pax this morning for a pretty traditional beating.  Until next time…

-old bay

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BackBlast 7-25-17: That One Big Thing @ #Colosseum

Humidity was at an all time high in the swamp they call the Colosseum on Tuesday morning. 22 men showed up ready for some action and they got what they came for.

Mosey to the parking lot.

WARMUP:

  • 30 Side Straddle Hops
  • 12 Windmills
  • 10 4-count Merkins
  • 10 4-count Mountain Climbers
  • 10 4-count Peter Parkers
  • 20 Moroccan Night Clubs

Mosey to the first light post (you know what’s coming next).

The Thang (Light Post Workout – $1 to Jekyll):

  • 10 LBCs/post
  • Mosey back to start
  • Plank for the six
  • 5 Burpees/post
  • 6 Inches for six at top
  • 20 LBCs in cadence
  • Mosey back to the bottom
  • Plank for the six
  • 10 Diamond Merkins/post
  • 6 Inches for the six
  • 20 4-count Flutter

Mosey back to COT

  • Captain Thors to 5×20

Announcements

  • New Thursday 3rd F led by ChickenHawk
  • Last QSchool next Tuesday the 1st led by Funhouse & Senator Tressel

Prayer Requests

  • Lutefisk’s Mom
  • Cornerstone’s Daughter
  • Ginsu’s Adoption

Maximus took us out in prayer.

Moleskin

For years, adoption has been something that I’ve thought of doing, but it seemed too big. I have a heart (as most people do) for the less fortunate, especially children, but didn’t think that we could handle bringing home another child to live with us. It was my one big thing that I new I was being called to do, but I couldn’t do it. It was too hard, too much, made me too uncomfortable. Fortunately for me, my M has a bigger heart and far more faith than I do and over a series of months, convinced me that this is what God was leading us to do and that we should trust the He would give us everything we need along the way. Also, fortunately for us, we had others around us (e.g. Maximus & his M) who been through it before and provided all the support and advice we could ever need.

That was my one, big thing. The thing that I knew that God was telling me to do, but I didn’t have the faith or courage to pursue it…until now. I’m still scared of what is around that corner, but I know that God will be with us every step of the way.

What is your one, big thing? That thing that has been tugging at your heart for weeks, months, years, or even decades? For us it was adoption, but for you it may be bigger, require more sacrifice, more faith, and more courage.

I encourage you to pray about it. Trust that God will take you through whatever He is calling you to do. Do that one big thing, whatever it is.

Ginsu

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