Tag: Fishsticks

“Backblasting” sans Trucker with a few Zimamiles

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10 gathered on a chilly morning.  YHC and JWOW were the first to arrive.  After JWOW got his passport stamped and was granted entry into Tega Cay, a pre-emptive stroll took place around the grounds before PAX began to trickle in.  At 1 minute before launch, a Zima sighting took place.  Once it was confirmed that no FNGs were present (there weren’t).  Disclaimers were given and off we moseyed around the ballfield to circle up.

COP – SSH x 10, Windmills x 10, Cherry Pickers x 10, Merkins x 10, Mountain Climbers x 10, Down Dog, Up Dog and a quick recovery followed by a short mosey to the First base line.

JWOW decided it would be a good idea to partner for a DORA 1-2-3 where partner #1 runs up a hill (aka Mt. Mulch) while partner #2 exercises.  The 100 was burpees (this was met with little to no approval), 200 squats (YHC’s form was subtly corrected by Geronimo – thank you, guardrail) and 300 flutters.  The climb was steep and the mulch made for fun later.

Following the DORA, PAX went to the base of Mt. Mulch where JWOW called for partner pushes – one pushing the other up the hill while the other leaned downhill against the other.  YHC was displeased when Gears decided to be especially difficult on this, but we persisted and reached the top along with all other PAX.  A lunge walk back down (carefully) Mt. Mulch and we switched positions.  After a successful round 2 of partner pushes and lunge walks, JWOW decided to call time and hand off to YHC for the second half.

We moseyed on the running path around Runde Park stopping at 4 spots along the way.

Stop #1 – Circle up for 5 burpees (because we had not done enough already), followed by a people’s chair with arms out.  While holding the people’s chair, we did 10 double count Moroccan night clubs and 10 shoulder taps in cadence. Mosey to:

Stop #2 – 4 burpees OYO

Stop #3 – 3 burpees OYO

Stops #4 & #5 – 2 burpees OYO and 1 burpee OYO

A quick 10 count was called and a mosey back to the ballfield to go “around the horn” for the main event of the second half.

YHC called for a change in partners so PAX switched up and we began a 4 corner beatdown that earned many not so subtle comments from PAX.

At each cone, PAX were to partner up and do the following:

Round 1 – 10 burpees, 20 hand slap merkins, 30 sumo squats (hands touch the ground) – rinse and repeat at cones 2, 3 & 4 for a sum total for 40 burpees, 80 hand slap merkins and 120 sumo squats.  PAX were pleased…..sort of.

Round 2 – 10 hand release hand slap merkins, 20 jumping lunges, 30 big boy sit ups – rinse and repeat at each of the 4 cones for a sum total of 40 hand release hand slap merkins, 80 jumping lunges and 120 big boy sit ups.

YHC and Cornhole strategically moved to a different cone from other PAX as “backblasting” had commenced prior to the workout ending.  Before round 2 was completed,  Zima eloquently observed that the exercises addressed opportunities for improvement: #truestory

Unfortunately, round 3 would have to be saved for another time as PAX completed round 2 at 0726.  We moseyed to the parking lot for 5 more burpess OYO and 2 minutes of Abs:

15 boxcutters in cadence

Protractor at different degrees (0 degrees was the crowd favorite)

In honor of Zima, a 30 second body destroyer was called.  0730 and COT was upon us.

Announcements – Read your newsletter – lots happening including the Yeti next weekend.

Prayers were offered for Fishstick’s Dad battling cancer, JWOW’s friend Anthony battling addictions and keeping his jesters at bay, for safe travels for Bonsai and his M this week and for families and our patience.

NMM – YHC (Q #2) was to lead a Q Source discussion following the workout and it reinforced the very thing that we must keep top of mind as to why we post.  We are, as PAX, one another’s guardrails.  We keep one another on the right path toward living 3rd and being better for those around us.  Regardless of where you are in your journey – 1st, 2nd or 3rd F’s.  Get out, post often, and plug into this great group of #HIMs.  Acceleration can not be achieved in isolation.  We go through nothing alone when we choose.

Thanks to JWOW for splitting this morning’s Q and to Smuggler for the opportunity.  YHC’s first post ever was at Alcatraz.  It was great to get back out with a fantastic group of #HIMs.

Honored,

Cyclops & JWOW

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4

Late Night Q Takeover

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A quick Friday night Slack-scrolling showed me who was Qing at Milkshake & The Fort but I didn’t see any name or listing for Alcatraz. So, this led me to ask the region the question of, “Yo, who’s at Alcatraz?” After some cricket banter and off-channel comz with last week’s co-Q, Bonsai, we decided it’ll be us to Q at the sometimes forgotten AO.

With Bonsai on the front half of the 60mins, we were welcomed and disclaimed. Next, we moseyed around the path at the park and did a little warming up with 50xSSH (angry fella), Stretching, Cherry Pickers (even a little left to right action) and Hillbilly Walkers.

As plagiarism is the most sincere form of flattery, Bonsai took a page out of Pusher’s playbook for a series of 1min AMRAP with a mosey to each station. Remember, 1min of each:

Merkins then run to the Fire Station boat for LBC’s then run to Fire Station parking lot for Carolina Dry Docks then run back just past the Fire Station boat for Monkey Humpers then to the basketball court for Flutters. We then repeated it for a second round but added at least 1 rep to each of your previous numbers at each station.

Then the hand off to Maximus.

Mosey off campus to the bottom of the hill at the front end of the neighborhood. Run up the hill, wait for the 6, jog down and get ~5-10sec to catch your breath. Repeat 4 more times for a total of 5 trips up the hill. Once the heart rates were peaked, we went back on campus to the parking lot which we wouldn’t leave again.

Round 1: Captain Thor (evidently this was popular yesterday) with 1 Big Boy situp & 4 American Hammers. Continue in that sequence to 10:40.

Round 2: Jack Webb (also popular) with 1 Push Up & 4 Overhead Claps. Continue in that sequence to 10:40.

Round 3: Lt. Dans (definitely not a crowd pleaser) with 1 Squat (which was the breather) and 4 Jumping Lunges. Continue in that sequence to 10:40.

That was it. For the 8 of us that posted at Alcatraz yesterday, we’re better for it. Sore yes…but better.

Make it count.

Bonsai & Maximus

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Blue Light Special

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Nine men showed up this chilly morning expecting a mosey around the Harris Teeter parking lot.  Little did they know that I coordinated with Bobber to converge with the Coliseum Pax at Walmart.  After a quick disclaimer, I gave the Pax a general idea of what was in store.  We would be running, 1.3 miles to be exact.  Halfway there, Senator Tressell guessed we were on our way to Walmart.

We ran at a good pace and arrived before the Coliseum Pax.  We had enough time to circle up for some exercises (in cadence):

SSHs

Imperial Walkers

Moraccan Night Clubs

Hillbilly Walkers

Merkins

The Coliseum Pax arrived and we exchanged high fives and fish pumps.  Tesh was in his usually 20 degree shirtless attire.  Bobber called out the next set of exercises, Will Chamberlians. 100 sets of each exercise, running between the light poles:

LBCs, Flutters, American Hammers, Freddie Mercury.

We finished up with inch worm merkins and broad jump burpees between the two parking rows.

Our group headed back to HT for COT.

Great work everyone!

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Hills and More Hills

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Nine men showed up this chilly morning to get better.  It was nice to see Walker venture up from Rock Hill to show us how things are done.  After the disclaimer, Senator Tressell kicked us off.

Mosey out of the parking lot, take the path to the back of the park, down the big hill, hang a left and go up to the cul-de-sac on Mariner’s Court for COP. All in cadence:

SSH x 30, Merkin x 10, Squat x 20, IW x 20, Freddie Mercury x 20, Carolina Dry Dock x 20, Mountain Climber x 25, Jumping lunge x 15, Moroccan Night Club x 40 and begin walking toward the bottom of the hill.

Mosey back up the hill to the pull-up bars along the path park. Split into 4 groups:

Group 1: 5 burpee pull-ups
Group 2: Big Boy Sit-ups
Group 3: Merkins
Group 4: Step-ups

Rinse/repeat until time runs out

Hand off to Fish Sticks

Mosey to the bottom of short hill, backwards run up the hill to the top.  Back down to the bottom, lunge walk up to the top and back down to the bottom.

Ran down the side street and up the hill to the corner.  One set of dips (15) on the landscape timbers.

Mosey back to the park for some boulder exercises:  Overhead press (15) and curls (15).

Ran to the baseball field, split up into two groups.  The first group ran to the outfield fence, jumped over the fence, and did 5 bomb jacks (no jump over the fence, 15 bomb jacks). The second group planked until the first group returned.

Round two:  5 burpees at the top of the hill (no jump over the fence, 20 burpees).  Olaf chose to take the 20 burpees option (great example of choosing to do difficult things to make you better).

Round three:  bomb jack option.

Mosey back to the basketball court for six minutes of Mary.

COT

Prays for all who are battling cancer along with their families supporting them.

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2

Block Building at Pantheon

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Eight men showed up on a cold morning at Tega Cay Elementary school for the workout.  After a quick disclaimer, we ran around the carpool lane and stopped in front of the school for the following warm-up exercises:

SSHs

Imperial Walkers

Plank Stretches

Next, we each grabbed a cinder block along with a ruck and weight vest.  We partnered up for a Dora-like workout.  Partner 1 had a choice to either run to the end of the parking lot or briskly walk with a weight vest, ruck, or cinder block to the end of the pillars and back.  Partner 2 started with the cinder block exercises and switched out once Partner 1 returned.

Round 1 (100 Reps each):

Swing

Press

Calf Raise

Flutter

Merkin

Box Cutter

 

Once complete, we play catch me if you can around the carpool lane.  Partner 1 carried two of the cinder blocks around the circle while Partner 2 ran (fast) in the opposite direction to switch out with Partner 1.  It turned out to be a better idea on paper.

Next we finished out with round two.  We only got through a few exercises.

Round 1 (100 Reps each):

Curls

Squat Thrusters

Chest Press

Hello Dolly

Lunge

Row

 

COT

Great job by everyone this morning!

 

 

 

 

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2

Pastor of Pain makes a visit in the Armory

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YHC was asked to Q at the Armory by a HIM named JWOW and I jumped at the request. I am use to Kettlebells and love Qing them. Today I brought with me a WO that was recently Q’d at my home AO #Cannonball by Survey Says! and I named it the Pastor of Pain after him.

We started with a basic COP with some SSH, Sun Gods and Cherry Pickers. We then headed to the cones I had set up but stopped briefly before them to get in some curls, Tri extensions, Bell Jax and big boys with a bell push over the knees. Nobody like the bell jax. We then eventually made it to where I had a few cones set up about 4 parking space’s apart from each other and began:

The Thang was basically a ladder:
Begin at Cone 1 with 10 Man Makers then Broad Jump with the Bell in hand to the second Cone and do 10 Snatches then Broad Jump to the third cone and do 10 Turkish Getups then overhead bell mosey all the way back to the first cone.
Start at Cone 1 again with 20 Wood Choppers Lunge to the second cone and do 20 overhead bell Presses Lunge to the third cone and do 20 Bell Swings then overhead bell mosey all the way back to the first cone.
Start at Cone 1 again with 30 Goblet Squats Bear Crawl to the second cone and do 30 Curls then Bear Crawl to the third cone and do 30 Bell Merkins then overhead bell carry mosey all the way back to the first cone.

Repeat the Thang again in Backwards order starting with the 30 reps segment.

We had a little time still left over so we knocked out some more Curls, Triceps extensions and big boys with a bell push over the knees. We left off the bell jax fortunately. They suck.

Got to meet a few new PAX and that is why I always like Qing and different AO’s. Found the HIM that bought my breakfast last Christmas (Spitz) and thanked him again.

Finished up with a COT (announcements, a few prayers -Apache and Cash and Kenyan-and praises and all thankful for another day).

Thanks for the opportunity to lead JWOW

I am enjoying this ride I am on and am not sure where it is taking me but all we can do is prepare and train.

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4

Halloween Kettlebells at the Hive

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So admittedly this just a tad late but I’m thankful I have both written and video evidence to reference for my first Kettlebell Q at the Hive.

As I recall It was a relatively cool and damp morning for the day after Halloween but 9 sturdy and resilient PAX plus  one FNG braved their (candy) hangovers to partake in an iron pax inspired beat down courtesy of YHC.

A “professional” disclaimer was provided and we took a quick mosey around the parking lot.  Once we completed a lap we circled up and began a quick warm up.

IW x 20
HW x 20
MC x 15
MNCx 20

After the warmup we grabbed our bells and moseyed over to a portion of the parking lot where I had chalked out the next 30 minutes of pain.

The Thang

The bulk of the workout was divided into 3 sets where the Pax would have 10 minutes to get through each set as many times as possible. Each of these sets were inspired by weeks 2-4 of the Ironpax challenge.

Set 1

10 Merkins (5 each side w/bell)
15 Thrusters
20 Curls (10 each side)
25 Goblet Squats
Once through those exercises you would then complete 1 lap around the parking lot.

After 10 minutes were up we moved right into the next stage of pain.

Set 2

10 Lawnmowers (5 each side)
15 Burpee Jumps (Burpee then jump over the bell and do another burpee)
20 Tricep Extensions
25 Chest Presses
30 Flutters with Bell raised
Followed by another Lap

10 more minutes flew by and we didn’t waste anytime moving onto Set 3

Set 3

This set was pick your poison. Meaning that you needed to do the number of reps cumulatively but you got to pick the method of your pain.

50 Merkins OR Squats
Followed by carrying your bell to a predetermined distance and back.
50 Thrusts OR Lunges
Followed by the same bell carrying lap
75 Curls/Extensions/Flutters
Followed by the same bell carrying lap

After the third set was complete we did a 10 count and then finished with thrusts, squats, and….. I think burpees because we had 30 seconds left.

Back at COT we had the privilege of naming a new FNG who happened to be from Chicago. I suggested Windy City but after that was dubbed as “too nice” we settled on Wrigley (he’s a White Sox Fan)

All told it was a great way to work off the 100 Twix I had the night before. Great work by all who showed. Also, big thanks to Bandcamp for the opportunity!!

 

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4

On Frozen Pond

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I arrived a little before 5am to prepare for my Q since it was my first at the Minnow Pond.  As it got closer to 5:10 am, I was worried I would be running solo since no one was around and the temperature was below 30 degrees.  I was thinking about what I would write for the backblast..Lost fish at Minnow Pond, Finding Nemo, Frozen Fishstick.  No need to worry, soon there were several cars pulling into the parking lot.  Now I just needed to focus on the Q.

Due to the cold weather, short disclaimer and no warm-ups.  The six of us ran a one mile warm up around the neighborhood surrounding Walter Elisha Park.  We stopped in the parking lot for the next portion of the workout.

I designed a mini cross country course (a bit over a half a mile) in honor of the Fort Mill XC team reaching the State Finals this weekend.  Sharkbait, my 2.0, is part of the team.  I mentioned how proud it is to see your children reach milestones and accomplishments.  A year ago, it was alot different story.  My son struggled and had lots of excuses for why he was not performing at his potential.  I tried my best to balance being supportive and tough love.  He had to be responsible for taking ownership of his training if he wanted to get better.  This summer, he trained almost everyday with some of the top runners in the area.  The hot summer heat and even the rain did not stop him.  The results were great, he started every varsity race this year and had a 5K PR last week of 17:20.

My reason for mentioning this is obvious I am proud of my son, but also the old adage is true.  You have to work for the things you want.  The easy example is posting to workouts in the gloom, the more frequently you do it, the better you will be physically.  It works the same way with our relationships (M and 2.0s).  Put the time in and its almost guaranteed to be positive.

Ok, back to the workout.  Each lap began with 10 leg lunges, 10 monkey humpers, and 10 calf raises.

Half mile XC course:  Run up to the top of the hill beside the soccer field, lap around the parking lot, down Self Street to the corner of the park, back down to the WEP parking lot.

Reverse direction each time.

We each did this course 3 to 4 times before we headed back.  Before COT, we ran over to the staircase across the street and did a few sets are stair repeats.

Great job by everyone today!

We keep Kenyan and his family in our prayers during this difficult time.

 

 

 

 

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4

Video Bootcamp

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11 men showed up for the workout at WEP.  After a quick disclaimer, we began with some light stretching before we jogged up the path leading to the soccer field.  Once we reached the top, we jogged back down for some additional warm-up exercises (SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, and plank stretches).

Next, we moseyed to the playground for a modified Dora.  Once we arrived, there were two men doing pull-ups.  We asked if they would like to join..they declined and disappeared into the gloom.  It kind of felt like a scene from the movie The Outsiders.  Anyway..we began with 100 pull-ups.  Partner 1 – pull-ups;  Partner 2 – run across the field and back to switch out with Partner 1.

Once all teams were done, we ran a lap around the park and stopped near the statue.  Next exercise 200 merkins.  Partner 1 – merkins;  Partner 2 – run up to the top of the hill and back down for switch out.  The area was dark and unfortunately Offset found one of the holes and hurt his leg. Everyone did a great job making sure he was ok.  After a few minutes, he was up and back exercising with the group.

Next, we headed to the parking lot for the last part of Dora.

Exercise: 300 squats

Partner 1 – squats;  Partner 2 – run to the third lit lamppost, 5 burpees, and run back down the hill.

We finished with a shoulder shuffle around the parking circle, clockwise and counter clockwise.

Great job by all.

Thanks for the patience with the video!

 

 

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5

Hill Street Blues

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YHC was tagged as the Q for one of the baddest Saturday AO south of MacDougal where a downpainment is expected and typically is given. Smuggler (Site Q) tagged me with a partner but things went awry with that HIM so I tagged Double D to join me and a plan was made.

Late Friday, DD got the opportunity to choose a #Concentrica based choice. We face these all of the time. It usually goes something like this “Well honey, I already promised (insert male friends name here) that I would be there for (insert something relatively important although not really here).” However, Double D is an accelerating HIM who contacted me and said “I’ve got a bigger name on the other side of this choice!” It was the right call and YHC is confident it paid dividends with his M and 2.0.

Interestingly enough, I received a text from Gears at exactly the same moment. Gears, a longtime Pax of the Fort, has been a leader in many different areas over the past 7 years. More importantly, we don’t get to see each other enough. Expansion created many different options at the Fort and our paths just don’t cross enough. I quickly tagged him and his response was “I have a plan, it will probably suck”. Boom!

The Thang

Weather: high 50’s. Had to choose between short vs long sleeve. Short sleeve was chosen

Disclaimer

Mosey around the park

IW x 15

Windmills x 10

Merkins x 12

Men Climbers x 20

Squats x 20

Mosey to parking lot

Dirty McDeuce (4 rounds – IC – 12 reps)

WAM

Flutters

Monkey Humpers

Full lap around the park

CDD

Big Boy sit ups

Squats

Full lap

Diamond Merkins

Hello Dolly

Lunges

Full Lap

Merkins

LBC

One legged stretch (for me basically)

Indian Run full lap

Handoff to Gears

Crazy 8s on hill (this did suck FYI)

CDDs x 8 and LBCs x 8 at the bottom

Bombjacks x 8 and Some Squat Sequence that Gears just learned x 4 at the top

Rinse and repeat for 25 minutes (I said it sucked)

Mosey home

 

Moleskin

  • Prayers for marriages
  • Fishsticks turns 50 on Thursday
  • Prayers for the Pax dealing with injury, pain and suffering
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