And, yes, we ran

The Thing:

We had 4 or 5 in prep for Ragnar head out on the trails. Most everyone else headed to Wally  World. Flat Tire reminded the Pax to pickup relief supplies while at Walmart for the team headed to Florida. Our prayers are with them and the people they will touch while helping out in the disaster area.

COT:

We finished up with a ball of man.

Prayers and Praises – All kinds of praises and prayers today. Family, marriage, health, Irma, the F3 Columbia mission team diverted to Florida, kids in school, etc…

It was a pleasure running with these guys!

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Boo Boo Bears and Other Things

The downpour 30 minutes before start time didn’t deter 9 PAX from posting for a soggy morning at Golden Corral. At 0515, four split off to do what ruckers do (see that backblast below), while five stuck with YHC for a disclaimer that they all knew the disclaimer. Once that was cleared up, we went for a mosey around to the back of Red Bowl for a quick warm-a-rama.

15X windmills, in cadence

12X hillbilly walkers, in cadence

12X merkins, in cadence

Moved over and lined up with the end of the building for side shuffles and jump squats. Three side shuffles facing the building (going left), then jump squat, half turn, jump squat, half turn, squat, then three more side shuffles, the length of the building.

At the other end, we dropped to plank for some clockwork merkins – one merkin for each hour on the clock, turning in the plank like the hour hand. On odd hours (1, 3, 5,…), we did normal merkins. On even hours (2, 4, 6,…), we did pseudo-planche merkins, because why not? Once that was done (with a fair bit of “my wrist doesn’t do that” mumble chatter), we returned from whence we came…more side shuffles and jump squat turns, this time to the right. Gather together and mosey on around Harris Teeter to the front parking lot (near an awning, in case the skies opened up).

Gave the (ever encouraging) announcement that we would do “three or four rounds, we’ll see” of what was to follow. What followed?

The Thang

At the first island, 10 burpees

Bear crawl to the next island

At the next island, 10 jump squats

Bunny hop to the next island

At the next island, 10 breakdancer merkins

Bear crawl to the last island

At the last island, 10 step back lunges

Wrap up with 25 calf raises on the curb

Mosey back to the starting point to rinse and repeat

For round 2, take out the right leg. So…

10 one-legged burpees

Boo Boo Bear Crawl (it’s a thing, check the Exicon)

10 one-legged jump squats

One-legged bunny hop (Boo Boo Bunny Hop? Unlucky Bunny? No clue here)

10 one-legged merkins, flip to one-legged crab

More Boo Boo Bear Crawl

10 Step back lunge with knee lift (lunges are already one-legged, so no change there really)

25 one-legged calf raises

Mosey back (rejoice in using both legs for the mosey) to the start to flapjack, rinse and repeat, this time with left leg up.

After round three, we had six minutes left – not enough time for another round, but enough time for some weird squat lunge walk things. We discussed name options but didn’t settle on anything. Basically, hands stay in contact with the ground, and you duck walk. Really, you fully extend a leg to the side, slide across from a deep lunge, through a squat, to a deep lunge, then swing the now straight leg around to the front and slide back across. Continue in this manner to the end point (in this case, Papa Murphy’s). It’s fun. Especially after spending 20 minutes working legs.

With 90 seconds left, we did a quick mosey around the parking lot before reconnecting with the ruckers for COT.

 

Announcements

Nun Run. Sign up. Do it.

Invergence September 29. Convergence September 30. Be there (unless you’re on an airplane, like YHC).

 

Prayers

Continued prayers for those affected by the recent hurricanes. Pray too for the Colombia team that is now focusing on bringing supplies and assistance to communities around Tampa.

I will be traveling to Egypt and Kenya for meetings – not a mission trip, but a trip for the mission. Prayers for my M and 2.0s while I’m around the world for two weeks.

 

And that’s that for my third Q in ten days. Unilateral work is fun, but I’m glad I didn’t do it the day before traveling around the world. Thanks to Decibel for the opportunity, and to Senator Tressel for voluntelling me (and then backing out of coming altogether).

Jedi

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Tubthumping at Slowburn

I was very happy to see 28 PAX report to Slowburn for my VQ! As promised via Twitter the day before, I did my 28 Merkins during a count-o-rama. No FNG’s. Gave the disclosure and we formed 2 lines for an Indian Run to the warmup at Empire.

Warmup

Cherry Pickers x10
Slow Windmills x10
Low Slow Squat x10
SSH x10
Goofballs x10 – Dang, y’all looked goofy!

We counted off by 5’s and the 5 teams did an Indian Run to the far side of Lowes for…

The Thang – 5 Stations

  1. Core
    1. Forearm Plank 10 count IC
    2. Captain Morgans 5 each side IC
  2. Legs
    1. Monkey Humpers x10 IC
    2. Tree Huggers 10 count IC
  3. Pecks
    1. Werkins x10 IC
    2. Derkins x10 IC
  4. Arms – Dumbbells Provided
    1. Left Arm Curls x15 IC
    2. Right Arm Curls x15 IC
  5. Abs
    1. Flutter Kicks x10 IC
    2. Sweat Angels x5 IC

Rinse & Repeat

Teams then moseyed, again Indian Style, to Baxter’s Playhouse for some “Tubthumping”. I had the loudspeaker set up to play Chumbawumba’s Tubthumping.
Lady singing = MNC
Guy singing = SSH
“I get knocked down…” = BURPEES! Did you do all 28 burpees?

OYO mosey back to Empire for some stretching and then a mosey back to Chick-fil-A for COT.

Announcements: 9/11 @ Tomahawk Birdcage is requesting PAX to show up for a special Remembrance Workout, Invergence/Convergence last Friday/Saturday in September, Donate underwear for victims of Hurricane Harvey, SpeedforNeed!

Prayers for our Brothers going to Columbia, M’s and 2.0’s, Weather, and all the unspoken requests.

I had a blast.  It’s an honor working out with you guys!  Big Thanks to Barry Manilow for allowing me this VQ opportunity. 

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Clydesdales – Value Run

Not much to add.  We had 3 options Value loop to Walmart, a trail run through Baxter and a pineapple run through Baxter.  All were safe and returned without any skid marks. Peace out!

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Prisoners over the Wall

11 men arrived at the park, with 1 FNG in tow.  Change Order and Copperfield had an alternate plan to run the Tega Cay hills.

Fishsticks began the workout with a warm-up jog around the neighborhood.

Circled up for COP

Plank Stretches

SSH x 20

Imperial Walker x  20

Windmill x10

Hello Dolly x 10

Moroccan Night Club  x 20

Mosey to the field for some partner exercises at each corner of the field

  1.  Elevated push-ups x10 – feet on partner’s back
  2.  Single arm lifts x10  – Lift partner up from ground with one hand
  3. Dips x 10 – Partner 1 in plank position while partner 2 dips
  4. Merkin claps x 20

Rinse and repeat two more times OYO

Jekyll takes the Q-

Mosey around backside of Alcatraz with a head fake to “the hill”.  Stopped for some seal jacks and plank jacks before having Sparkplug lead the pax to the coupons.

Taking our brick we pick it up and put it down several times in the form of curls, squats, lunges, shoulder press, tricep extensions.  Bonsai looked like he was lifting cobble stone.  That dude big.

Split off to team 1 and 2.  Team 1 on wall for sits and team 2 race across field, scale the outfield fence, run up the mulch hill and do 5 bombjacks- race back to wall.  Flapjack.  2 more rounds throwing in BTTWs and Wall sits.  Sparkplug continues to be a no quit leader.  #inspiration.  Falcon Crest almost had nonscheduled reassignment surgery getting up and over the fence.

Putting coupons back at home base we moseyed to the field for Jack Webbs and Lt. Dan’s.  Crowd favorite here- especially the LT. Dans.

Great effort by all.  Triple Hate- FNG Baywatch was a welcome surprise.  Nice job Router.  If you are still wondering- Shady has firm backside that provided a great bench for YHC.

 

Excellent work men!

 

Announcements:

F3 Chicago – Launching soon

The Fort Invergence – Sept 29

Paradise workout – Friday night at 7:00pm

Prayers:

Shaddy’s M interview

Change Order’s M turns 40

Jekyll’s 2.0 away on camping trip

 

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4 Corners of Body Destruction

No, we did not do the Body Destroyer for 45 minutes, Birdcage! However, there was consistent feedback that this was a brutally different workout. Welcome to “ya never know what ur gonna get with Straight Up!”

A big shout out to all the men that joined me. I was very, very proud of them, and especially proud of Short Sale, Nomad and Sparky. Seriously, this was not an easy workout. A special thanks to Crawdaddy who helped with the group activities and leading his team. Here is what we did. If you decide to copy it for one of your Q’s, feel free to but you have to invite me because I want to do it again!

I. Beginning: Disclosure mentioned; No FNGs

Theme: First thought on Discipline today:  “It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.” (Zig Zigler)

A head’s up that we will have teams. Divided into teams. Advised we will be competing against each other’s team.

2 running lines to warmup. During warmup, ask person you are running next to:

1, If you had unlimited time, what would you consider to be your favorite thing to do with your time?

2. If you had unlimited money, what would you do?

II. Running Warm-up: 2 line Groups 

Gradually moseying around The Ranch/school doing toy soldiers, butt kickers, high knees fast,  one leg hops, side straddles.  

Another thought: “Discipline, for the Christian, begins with the body. We have only one. It is this body that is the primary material given to us for sacrifice. We cannot give our hearts to God and keep our bodies for ourselves.” (Elisabeth Elliot)

III. 2 Circle up Warm-ups around school

First Circle in front of school: 8 merkins, 9 squats, 11 toe raises, 10 second Shoulder Stretch

Second Circle in back of school: 8 SSHs, 8 Ab Bigodas, 10 second Partner hamstring stretch

Meant to read this one to the guys: “The battle of prayer is against two things in the earthlies: wandering thoughts and lack of intimacy with God’s character as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline.” (Oswald Chambers)

IV. Workout Segment: (Entire Soccer) Field challenges

Team Straight Up vs. Team Crawdaddy

**Reminder that if someone on your team is not finished with the exercise and you are, then join in and do it with them to help them succeed and be a teammate! Do all exercises together as a group; push your team; form is crucial; your captain will make you do it again if you do not do it correctly!

Start in the middle of the field and race to your corner

Corner #1:

7 bropees

20 Parnerkins (Partner Derkins) (each partner has their turn)

(Similar to parts of a 1 legged Hail Mary without the bench) 13 Single leg in the air dips each side; after you go down one, then give the other partner a high five, then go on the the next dip, then a high five, . . . so you want to sit next to each other but in opposite directions

8 Squerkins each

15 Deep Squat creating an X on the way up

Leap frog to the half field line

Plank position crawl (keep your back flat, abs tight) from half field line to the next corner to Corner #2.

Corner #2:

7 bropees

9 Dive bombers (“Under the hedge/fence” and clap one of your partners hand once “under the fence”)

14 Skull Crushers doing at same time with your partner/team

17 alternating lunges each side

Tunnel of Love with your entire Team (no coupon); 2 pass throughs per person

65 imaginary towel hops in unison as a team

Wheelbarrow with partner to next corner cone (switch half way); go to Corner #3 (or back to the mid-field cone if we are out of time)

Corner #3:

7 bropees

19 Canoe Crunches (like Boats to Canoe but no boat and rather row your canoe back “through the water”; doing both sides is one)

14 total Walking merkins – 2 left, then 2 right equals 4; face your partner, do not go the same way. Pass each other every time.

18 Boxing puncher planks (one PAX fist to another PAX’s fist; no pushup)

Plank (10 sec hold) to 6 inches (10 sec hold) – 2X each

Partner carry (Fireman’s carry) to half field line (Parter up on your team and whichever partner has enough in him to do it!). Then switch to . . .

Alternating Broad jumps with partner (pass the other partner on each jump) until corner cone #4

Corner #4:

7 bropees

13 Pattycake (single) Merkins

4 Burpee Squat next to your partner; do at same time

36 Squats

18 Frog crunches (on the ground in standard crunch position, legs bent at 90 degrees in air with insides to feet touching each other only; then with hands in prayer position, reach to the connection point of your feet)

Lunge and reach (10 each side pretending you are picking up a can from a shelf and putting it way up high)

Weekend at Bernie’s to middle of field; switch half way

WOWWY! There were a lot of exercises! Did we make it all the way through all 4 Corners of Body Destruction? Well, . . . almost. I would say both teams had about 2-3 exercises left. It was a close race to the end to see who would finish first. To hard to tell. Until next time, Team Crawdaddy!

V. Mosey back to COT

I encouraged the PAX to focus on being disciplined in all aspects of life, especially their time with God.

“God does not discipline us to subdue us, but to condition us for a life of usefulness and blessedness.” (Billy Graham)

Announcements

Whetstone – consider getting involved; see Rebel (newsletter) if you have questions about it

Praises

Prayer requests.

Sending out into Thursday’s work day and special prayers for the children starting school and for dad’s to be encouraging to their kids for the year.

Thanks for the opportunity, Backdraft! Aye!

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It Was Sooooo Humid Today…

23 men gathered in the sultry SC gloom for another round of F3 at  Golden Corral.  Some rucked while others boot camped, but we all got a good sweat on this morning.  Here is what we did:

The Thang:

YHC  took the boot campers aside and stated their obligations for the next 45 minutes (don’t get hurt and  if you do, it’s your own fault).  We then moseyed for a dynamic warm up of knee pulls, ankle pulls, toy soldiers, arm circles, and lunge twists.  After we woke up our bodies, we mosey around the lot and found a good spot in front of the Piedmont Family practice for COP:

All in cadence:

SSH x 40, merkin x 10, windmill x 15, crab tags x 20, squat x 20, Peter Parker Peter x 20, diamond merkin x 20, side lunges x 15, wide arm merkin x 15, LBC x 20

Mosey to the corner of the lot for suicide repeats.  Run out and back to the first, second and third concrete islands.  Plank up when finished and wait for the six.  We did five rounds today with the following exercises in cadence between each round:

Round 1:  Carolina dry dock x 20

Round 2:  Diamond merkins x 10

Round 3:  Morrocan night clubs x 30

Round 4:  Can’t remember?

Round 5:  Burpees (10 OYO)

Mosey back to the start point for 5 minutes of Mary:

Hello Dolly x 20, Freddie Merc  x 20, Pretzel crunch x 10L/10R, Superman hold x 2

COT

Big group today – more than I expected.   It’s been a while since I’ve been here,  and even longer since I had the Q so was happy to get the call last night from Decibel.   I think we had about 15 boot campers and 8 ruckers.  Don’t know what the ruckers did, but they looked pretty tired at COT so it must have been good.    There was a lot of chatter today from Decibel and Falcon Crest, as well as from the usual suspects (Pusher, Funhouse, Change Order).  The humidity was in full swing and the heavy air made everything harder today.     The pax did a great job, though, and no one complained, when YHC called for the next round of suicides.   Well done, men!

It was nice to have F3 The Fort’s official historian couple (Lugnut and Spitz) in attendance as well as many, many new pax.   My hope for the new guys is that they take full advantage of all that F3 has to offer and that they become stronger men and leaders.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

Read your weekly newsletter.  If you are not receiving the newsletter, reach out to Old Bay.

Prayers for the death of a brother-in-law, brother-in-law with cancer, a member of our NC pax struggling with addiction,  children going back to school and heading off to college

Funhouse  made a call for our local F3 pax to be leaders and mentors for young boys in our community.   Deacon called out the Pax to be men of action and not those who stand and watch injustices.

 

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10 Pax at Alcatraz worked Barefoot on the dirt on Speed, Balance and Agility to strengthen Tendons, Ligaments and Joints.

Warmup by CakeBoss – lined up in Runde Outfield for Alternate Cardio and Body Weight Exercises.  Multi-Speed Running, High Knees Shuffles, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, Hillbilly Imperial Walkers, Wall Sits w/Arm Presses.

The Thang by BearGrylls – moved to Runde Infield and partnered up.  REMOVED SHOES.  Moved Pax to each base for an exercise performed barefoot alternately in slow/fast speed by partners at each base.

  1. – Jump Knee Tucks – Plyo Merkin – Dynamic Lunge – Wrestler Sit Out – CROC CRAWL TO NEXT BASE – 5 One Arm Burpees/L – 8 BURPEES – one arm/one leg.
  2. – 180 Squat Jumps – Bug Jumpers – 1 Leg Squats – Crab Walkers – IMPERIAL WALKER JOG TO NEXT BASE– 5 One Arm Burpees/R – 8 BURPEES – one arm/one leg.
  3. Dynamic Lunge – Plank Kickout – Side Squat Jump – Donkey Kick – INCHWORM TO NEXT BASE – 8 BURPEES – one arm/one leg.
  4. Plank Side Thrust – Side Straddle Hops – Plank Arm Circles – Peter Parker Merkin – BEAR CRAWL – 8 BURPEES – one arm/one leg.

Discussed the themes of Freedom and Discipline.

Prayers:  Cakebosses Sister In Law Cancer Remission and for wisdom for his and my relationships with our brothers.  Prayers for wisdom and guidance for our principals and parents as the kids are starting school.

AYE!

Ring around the Rosie

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