9 Strong for some Hills with 3 stops each round
Hit Kuester parking lot
15 Merkins and 15 CDD
HIT GHES teacher lot
20 LBC AND 20 Hello Dollies
Hit GHMS teacher lot
20 Squats and 20 lunges
REPEAT AND REPEAT
22 Men got better today:
Run to Office Parking lot: 15 Merkins and 15 CDD
Run to Gold Hill Elementary teacher parking lot: 20 LBC and 20 Hello Dolly
Run to Gold Hill Middle teacher lot: 15 squats and 15 Lunges
Mileage ranged from 3-5. Great job.
On a toasty morning in the gloom @ MinnowPond everyone got in between 3-4 miles with three pain stations. For most 4 rounds were completed with pain stations of…
It was a glorious morning! 1% better.
Thirty-five of Fort Mill’s finest gathered at Springfield Elementary to honor a brother who left us too early: Matt Giesler, aka Badger. Matt was originally from Wisconsin but made his home in SC with his wife Becky and his three children Brayden, Ashlyn, and Carsten. Badger was a neighbor and friend to me, Decibel, Trucker, and Jiffy, and this morning, his fellow brothers of The Fort joined us for a brisk morning workout. Here is what we did:
The Thang:
Senator Tressel led the pax on a short lap around the drop-off lane of Springfield Elementary before ending up in the adjacent field for COP.
All in double count cadence:
SSH x 25, IW x 25, merkin x 10, windmill x 15, mountain climber x 25, Freddie Merc x 25, hello dolly x 25, squat x 25
Line up next to the set of cones:
Round 1: Lungewalk to 1st cone, 5 squats, continue to 2nd cone, 10 squats, continue to 3rd cone, 15 squats, run backwards to the start.
Round 2: Bear crawl to 1st cone, 5 squats, ….., run backward to the start
Round 3: Run to the last cone, 10 burpees, and run backward to the start
Handoff to Decibel:
Do the following exercises with a lap around the field between each:
MERKINS X25
ALTERNATING LUNGES X25
TOE TAPS X25
TONY HAWK BURPEE X15
GORILLA HUMPER X20
IMPERIAL WALKER X20
EMPTY WHEELBARROW
SQUATS X20
LBCs X39
E2K X20 EACH SIDE
ROSALITA X25
Heals to Heaven x25
COT
Naked Man Moleskin
ST’s comments:
I was truly touched by the number of men who showed up today to honor Badger. I know that many of the men did not know him, but it meant a lot to us to have such a large group together as we remembered Badger. It was another reminder to me of what a special thing we have at F3 here in Fort Mill and how much my F3 brothers mean to me.
Decibel’s thoughts:
It is hard to believe that it has been 4 years since Badger went to be in heaven. I
was blessed to spend time with him prior to his passing. We talked about him
being saved and how important that was to him. He let me know that his M was a
big reason he was saved but also saw my family’s reaction to losing our
daughter and son and our dependence on God at that time. I am saying this to let
you know as Christians people watch our actions and want to make sure our
actions match our words. I encourage every Christian brother in F3 to live out
your faith and in times of need lean on God just like Badger did in his time.
My M and I received a letter from Badger. In that letter he mentioned F3 and the
support he and his family received after the diagnosis. I remember him just being
in awe of all the people that were praying for him. He was so touched by this
community that he asked that I make sure that his boys get involved in F3. They
would have been there today, but his youngest wasn’t feeling well. To have 35
men in our community support Badger is amazing.
Badger was a man I respected to the utmost. He was not a guy that sought
attention or glory, but he was always there when you needed him. He loved his
family and was a loyal friend. I am still in awe of how he bravely prepared to walk
into heaven. It was so comforting to know he was going to see Jesus. He told
me many times that he would take care of our babies (Elizabeth Grace and
Garrett) until we met up with him. Badger was a great Father and I know he is
having a blast with my kids in heaven.
Let us all take this time to pour into, support, love on and encourage our F3
brothers. Then take that momentum and turn it to our families. Then take that
momentum and pour it out on the least and the lost in our community. Badger
knew that God had a purpose for him and that purpose was to spread the word of
God’s Grace and Love. Let’s make that happen for him.
Prayers and Praises – as spoken during COT
Announcements: F3 The Fort 10 year anniversary starts this week. Check Slack for the schedule of events.
Your previous Site Q was called upon to bring back #BAOPS Pain to Alcatraz. Sadly the current Site Q conveniently scheduled YHC when he was away…hmmmm. All week YHC was planning a weinke so that his entire Bourbon Chase team would post and support their driver. Well, only 2 posted, so the remaining team members will be walking or running between transition locations. What is Tega Cay known for? Well Fishsticks created a weinke “one time” that allows all PAX to experience all the HILLS of Tega Cay, so I figured why not use that as a platform. We also welcomed a FNG!!
The Thang:
During COP discussed the weinke as staying on the parking for full hour. HA! after a short COP, mossy to pull-up bars (shocking). Each PAX held plank while each did 5 pull-ups. The FNG was the second best performing pull-ups! Mossy along the path to the intersection of Tega Cay DR and Woodhaven Dr. That is base camp. From there, there are 6 legs (hills) to explore. Run to end of Woodhaven, Timberlake, Catamaran, to the lower fire station parking lot, to the bridge, and to the bottom of the infamous hill. Do 10 merkins, then back to base for 15 LBCs. Some got 4+ miles, others 3+ miles…..it was glorious!
As for FNG, grew up in Iowa and a Hawkeyes fan…..Hayden Frye is their head coach for those non-Big10 fans. YEs Big10 is THE college football conference!
Trucker out
There was a time when the world whispered. When quiet blanketed the meadows, and branches parted. When we hiked in wordless wonder and the birds regaled us once more with song. It was this morning at The Hive.
Warmup:
The Thang:
Partnered up because accountability matters. Cones were lined up with a plethora of KB exercises. The timer was an experiment of mine that was a cross between a human horse and buggy with battle ropes. The idea was to run across the parking lot with resistance. It was teeeeerible!! All of the pax would rotate through the cones onto the resistance run.
After a few rounds the timer switched up to bear crawls and waiter carries (aka The Tesh).
Six o’clock arrive fast. Back to COT for prayers and praises.
Prayers for mental health, cancer, and marriages.
JWOW
When I arrived this morning to check the road conditions around the AO, Grass Knoll and Slapshot had already started their prework activities. It’s always great to see guys pushing themselves to get better. Once 38 Special arrived, we began the workout with a jog to the far side of Home Depot. Warm up exercises: SSHs x20, Imperial Walkers x15, Windmills x10.
We continued our journey to the front of Kohls. We started with a lunge walk to the next cross walk. At the crosswalk, we did 15 merkins and 10 squats. We continued forward with butt kickers and toy soldiers stopping at each crosswalk for merkins and squats.
Next, we moseyed to the fountain. Two guys ran a half lap around the parking lot while the other two men did the below exercises. The groups flip flopped after the lap.
Exercises:
Dips
Derkins
Step-ups
Burpees
On our way back to COT, we did the sidewalk shuffle (sideways bear crawl) along the store fronts. We arrived at COT a couple minutes early for some LBCs and burpees.
During the workout, I shared a story about my childhood. I enjoyed going to the arcade and playing videos games. Back in the day, the ongoing joke was “Is that a roll of quarters in your pocket or are you happy to see me?” We may need to explain this joke to some of the younger guys. I wanted to buy an Atari but my parents were not willing to spend the money to buy one. I was able to find a few jobs like shoveling snow and coal around the neighborhood. Each week I would accumulate a little more money until I finally had enough money to pay for the gaming system. I felt proud when I made my big purchase.
The story is similar to your physical health. It takes time to become stronger, run faster and longer. Consistently attending workouts each day and even adding pre-workout activities will help improve your physical health. “Each day” was emphasized since I am a firm believer that you should train your body to recover from a workout within a 24 hour period. There are obvious exceptions like running races and participating in ruck events.
If you are struggling to get on track, please reach out to me. We’ll put a plan together.
Fishstix
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
13 PAX met in the gloom on a cool Monday morning after the long Christmas weekend. YHC wasn’t sure how many would take the DRP, but was happy to see a strong turnout.
Disclaimer was given and then the plan for the morning was given so that the runners could get after it.
Warm up:
25 SSH IC
15 Tappy Taps IC
15 LSS IC
The Thang
Run to the west exit of the parking lot (Dave Gibson) and cross 160 into Brayden at the traffic light. Run down Emory Lane and turn left on Brayden Pkwy. Run to dead end and turn left on Afton Way. Afton Way will take you to the back of Brayden. Some mumblechatter on the longer route, but this route got us 1 mile out of the gate.
At the back of Brayden, there are two “loops.” Afton Way forms a 1/2 mile loop, and Lizzie Lane is a cut through for 1/4 mile loop. The plan was to alternate loops and do exercises between each loop. PAX were encouraged to run the 1/4 mile loop at a faster pace, and run the larger loop at their normal pace.
Between each loop we completed the following:
10 Merkins
10 Big Boys
10 Peter Parkers
At 0550hrs we began the run back to COT and got 3 minutes of Mary in. PAX got between 3.5 and 4.5 miles in for a solid morning in the gloom.
We discussed the importance of the Queen (Q1.3) and that even though we all took the DRP and were taking care of our fitness, we could not outwork our Queen. This time of year can be very challenging, and may take little more discipline and accountability.
Announcements, prayers and praises.
And the PAX eventually reminded me to do Name-O-Rama.
Thanks Vuvuzela for the opportunity to lead, and the new challenge of leading a group of runners.