Tag: Flux

Mountain trip to Dupont State Forest on August 3rd with Trail Running, Rucking and Biking options – there will be a 2nd F afterwords

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3rd F

Alright we are 2 years ago we did a mountain trip to Roan Mtn. it was one of the best trips I have made with my fellow F3 brothers. After 10-16 miles we went to Daniel Boone Inn to refuel.

With this in mind I wanted to continue to do this hopefully every year. So on August 3rd we are going to do another mountain trip. This time it will be Trail Running, Biking and Rucking options.

Our destination will be DuPont State Forest. We will leave from the Newport Walmart at 6 am it is a 2 1/2 hr trip. we will either go to the Hooker Falls Access or the Lake Imaging Access. For runners we will try and get 12-18 miles in for Mountain bikers Vuvuzela has about 20-30 mile rout lined up.

 

2nd F

Afterwords will will go to Daddy D’s and refuel.

 

Make sure you bring water and something for energy do not come unprepared you will regret it. I did exactly that last time. This will be an unforgettable trip that we will try and do every year. we need to clown car to get there since there are no rental vans available.

Reach out to me if you have any questions.  I have attached links below.

Dupont State Forest Trail Map-1

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g49206-d2069003-Reviews-Daddy_D_s_Suber_Soulfood-Hendersonville_North_Carolina.html

www.Dupontforest.com

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Me Hearties Take on the Poopdeck, argh!

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Sixteen of the roughest, toughest Pax, along with an experienced FNG (Coach Steve, now and forever known as “Trench”) joined YHC on a steamy morning at the Poopdeck.  Here is how it went down:

Warm – o- rama

  • Short mosey around the Bowl-n-Bounce, peppered with Toy Soldiers, Butt Kickers & High Knees
  • 10 Wind Mills IC
  • 20 SSH, IC
  • 10 LSS IC
  • 10 Sungods forward, IC, 10 backwards

The Thang, Part 1

We divided in to 3 groups for a three stage beat down; each group completes all of the exercises in the stage together, then takes a short lap to the next stage.  Each group completes all three stages twice:

Stage 1

  • 10 Jump squats
  • 10 single count curls/arm (25 lb dumbell)
  • 20 Nolan Ryan’s (10/side)
  • 25 LBCs (single count)

Stage 2

  • 10 Lunges per leg
  • 10 WWII Sit ups
  • 10 Tricep hammers/ arm (20 lb dumbell)
  • 10 Diamond merkins

Stage 3

  • 25 SSH
  • 20 Flutters (per leg)
  • 15 Derkins
  • 25 CDDs

The Thang, Part deaux

Partner up to knock out this list, one exercising, one taking a parking lot mosey:

  • 100 Lunges
  • 75 Ranger Merkins
  • 75 Bobby Hurley Squats
  • 75 Carolina Dry docks
  • 75 Crab Cakes
  • 75 Werkins
  • 75 Monkey Humpers
  • 100 LBCs
  • 40 Flying Squirrels

I don’t think anyone made it past the dry docks before we called Omaha for some Mary (flutters, Freddy Mercuries, American Hammers, all IC)

COT:

Reminder of the Sweati set to take place this Saturday; 3rd F prayers at the local schools in the planning stage; Q-School at Bermuda Triangle continues on Friday.

Wolverine took us out.  As ever, I’m grateful for this group of men, and the chance to lead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Virtuous Leadership at Crows Nest

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15 men made it out to Crow’s Nest.  Here’s what they did.  Sorry to hear that Survey Says had to leave because he rolled his ankle during the pre-run.

COP

IWs – CDDs – SSHs – Ranger Merkins – Broga – MNCs – Mountain Climbers

Evolution #1

Mosey to brink columns that fence in the front playground

Partner Up

5 Muscle Ups

Partner does Merkins AMRAP

Rotate through 6 rounds. Those muscle ups got sketchy towards 25-30…

Next we planked in the front parking lot to Review the 5 Cs of Virtuous Leadership that we went over in Q Source Saturday.

The universal Essentials for a Shared Leadership Team’s (SLT) F3’s Leadership Virtues:

  • Candor: graciously telling the hard Truth and demanding to hear it from others
  • Commitment: unwavering loyalty to the Group and unflinching determination to accomplish its Mission
  • Consistency: to be unchanging in nature, Standard or effect over time
  • Contentment: stability of emotion engendered by the Consistent pursuit of Joy rather than Happiness
  • Courage: setting aside fear to turn hardship into grace

Hopefully, not much needs to be said in explanation of why the Leadership Virtues are Essential to every SLT. Just imagine trying to share Leadership with a man who does not tell the Truth, is constantly changing his Standards or is emotionally unstable. It simply cannot be done.

Mosey to back of school

Evolution #2

Round 1

Run to loading dock, jump up, complete 5 Squats

Partner Lunges AMRAP

Completed 4 rounds

Round 2

Run to Loading Dock, jump up, 5 Merkins

Partner doing Pull ups at playground

Sucked too bad so were only  completed 2 rounds

Round 3

Run to Loading Dock, jump up, 5 Merkins

Partner America Hammers

Completed 2 Rounds

Checked with the group on the 5 Cs of Virtuous Leadership

They got all 5 as a group – Saved themselves from a severe burpee penalty

Mosey towards front of school

Evolution #3

Wall sits with 25 overhead press in cadence

BTTW 30 secs counted by 3x random PAX

Wall sits with 25 overhead press in cadence

BTTW 30 secs counted by 3x random PAX

Mosey to COT right on time!

Announcements

The Sweati this weekend

Discussed the great FiA launch in Lake Wylie from the previous weekend. Guys are already getting FiA’d from this…what have we done?!?!

Prayers:

For PAX healing, two injuries today from Costanza’s pulled quad to Survey Says ankle. Got to be careful out here men!

An Honor to Lead,

Royale

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Big B, little b, what begins with B?

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Buddies, Burpees, Bearcrawls, Bodybuilders, Booyah! Merkins and B.O.M.B.S. all start with that letter B, that’s what.

18 attended the Swamp today, half rucked, the other have joined YHC for a little schooling on the letter B.

I decided a couple weeks ago that I was going to work my way through the Exicon one letter at a time.  This was my 2nd Q since making that decision so the 8 unlucky PAX that got stuck with me and B today were thoroughly beat-down.

I gave the quick usual disclaimer an off we went.  I immediately heard grumbling about the speed so I slowed it down a bit and we did some karaoke’s and toy soldiers before circling up for a quick warm-up, which consisted of 9 Windmills and 15 Merkins (IC) followed by a couple 10 counts holding a 6″ plank.  A quick stretch and off to the 1st routine.

Routine 1:

Burpee, Bearcrawl, Booyah! Merkin…Chase

Buddy up and partner 1 does 5 burpees and then chases down his partner who is bearcrawling around the 2 roundabouts (about .25 miles).  Tags his partner and then they each do 5 Booyah! Merkins and switch/repeat until getting back to the starting point.  A real shoulder burner!

Routine 2:

For routine 2 we moseyed to the parking lot next to the fountain and did some B.O.M.B.S.  This is basically a DORA with more exercises and the suggestion to pick an exercise that matches each letter in BOMBS.

  • 50 Bodybuilders
  • 100 Overhead presses (with cinderblocks)
  • 150 Monkey Humpers
  • 200 Big-Boy sit-ups
  • 250 Smurf Jacks (suuuuuucked)

In typical DORA fashion, 1 partner does the exercise while the other (in this case) sprints to the 2nd island, bear crawls around the island, and then sprints back and picks up where his partner left off while his partner does the sprinting.

I think only  Cha-Ching, Duck Dynasty, and I finished, but that was probably because we were the odd group and we took the higher of the 2 reps.  I’m not sure if we would have made it otherwise since it came down to the last few seconds before heading back to CoP.

Everyone did awesome and pushed for the entire 45 minutes.

We made it back to CoP at exactly 6:00AM with the Ruckers about a minute behind.

Maximus announced a couple of new AO’s coming to Fort Mill, including a “Bruisers” workout for injured PAX, what a great idea.  As well as a bootcamp AO with a mandatory pre-run, sounds harsh!  In any case, not a lot of PAX spoke up with Prayers except for Maximus again so we prayed for family and everything that was on our hearts.

Thank you for the Q Cha-Ching it was a pleasure to lead these men today.  Nice work everyone!

Until next time,

-FLUX-

 

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Life Skills with kettle bell babies at the Cannonball

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Disclaimer disclaimed while in plank.
Start the party with an Indian run complete failure on my part.
Circle up with kettlebells for some suicide squats, Merkins, and circle of kettlebell rows.
Bring your kettlebells and make a lap around half parking lot. a crowd pleaser for sure.

Then time for life skills. Again a failure on my part of explaining the difference between two rows or columns and two lines.
For the record, a line is what you learned how to stand in back in Kindergarten. You find the back of someone’s head and stare at it. That’s a line.

A row is where you are standing shoulder to shoulder with a fellow PAX facing in the same direction. If anyone wants to correct me I welcome the discussion.

Sadly in today’s broken world, there are some terrible, evil individuals out there they want to cause harm to innocent people. This mornings life training was an attempt to prepare fellow men for such a situation.
The first row of PAX dropped down to a plank with head up facing the church with the kettlebells in front of them. These PAX are going to be jumping up from plank, grabbing two kettlebells, their own along with kettlebell belonging to pax opposite them in row 2, and sprinting away from the starting point as if an active shooter attach was taking place and the kettlebells were their shorties. Use your imagination people! This could save someone’s life.
The row 2 PAX were instructed to also start in the plank position but facing the woods. When YHC says “go” the row 1 PAX jump up, grab kettlebells, and take off towards the woods. PAX in row 2 perform 3 hand release merkins before jumping up and giving chase to PAX in row 1 that just kidnapped PAX 2 shorties. Think of it as a modified “catch me if you can” exercise set.

Finish it up with a more successful attempt at the fuel tank farmer carry Indian run.
I had plenty more planned, let this be a lesson to newer Q’s: always plan at least double the amount of exercises than you think you have time to complete, but given the rapid growth of the @F3_LakeWylie region I wanted to get some future Q’s in the spotlight. Let us not forget that we are challenged to invogorate male community leadership. Great job to those men for going along with being voluntold.

Finish up with Count-A-Rama, then Name-A-Rama, praises and prayers before BOM.
Thanks for the opportunity TwoFerns to lead such a strong group of HIMs.
Until next time “Stay Frosty My Friends”
OLAF.

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Joint Operation Command – The JOC – time for revival and invigoration of leadership!

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34 Men at the JOC

Was so cool to see two regions come together as originally planned for The JOC. Kenyan has been working hard to attract the PAX from both regions to this awesome AO and today it happened.

I want to thank Kenyan for the opportunity to Q and I am humbled for the call. I want to thank Pusher and DOuble D for accepting the invite to Co-Q with me and making the 3 headed monster complete. The compliants about it being a moderate site were outstanding…..Thank you! I want to thank all the PAX for posting this morning and you all have choices and I don’t take it lightly that you chose to post at The JOC. T-clapps to Lake Wylie PAX for posting and making the trek….much appreciated. Way to go FNG Steve – aka Bluto for posting. That was no easy task for 1st Timer and you did awesome!!

The Thang:

Cake Boss intro and disclaimer and them off to Soccer field lot

  • COP
    • Plank
    • Merkins
    • SIde Straddle HOps
    • LBCs
    • Plank
    • Wide Arm Merkins
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Freddy Murcurys
    • Plank
    • Peter Parkers
    • Moracan Night CLubs
    • Squats
    • Hello Dollys
    • Plank
    • Parker Peters
  • Mosey to end of lot
    • High Knees half way then mosey to end
    • BUtt kickers half way then mosey to end

Hand off to Pusher

  • 5 Burpees
  • Mosey 100 yards or so
  • 4 Burpees
  • Mosey 100 yards or so
  • 3 burpees
  • Mosey 100 yards or so
  • 2 burpees
  • Mosey 100 yards or so
  • 1 burpees
  • I think we did exercises after running but who knows…..people we dying and I pulled my hip flexor, but it was all getting us better!!!

Hand off to Double D

  • 6 Burpees
  • Bearcrawl/backward bearcrawl at each light change
  • 7 Burpees
  • lunge/backward lunge at each light change
  • 8 burpees
  • Mosey
  • 9 burpees
  • Sprint
  • 10 burpees
  • Again  we did exercises after running but who knows…i was seeing the Saints in the clouds

COT

Great time was had by all. Kenyan has solid Q list of guys to pull into the JOC Q rotation. Read your newsletters!!

Steve FNG – Bluto owns or runs the Amor Artis brewery on main street n Ft Mill. Go hit him up but more importantly……get him to post and get better each day!

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Escape From McDowell Nature Preserve

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So I have been doing more running than usual lately in preparation for the Ragnar and on a  hot muggy July 3 I decided to bring the rest of the PAX along for some of my training, much to the chagrin of some of my F3 brothers. Disclaimer was given and we were off to the back basketball courts where we circled up for…

COP-SSHx20/Reach to Sky/Touch Toes/Down Dog/Honeymooner/merkinsx10/Down Dog/Honeymooner/Touch Toes/Reach to Sky/Sun Gods x11 fwd/rvrse. Circle Burp-High Knees while each PAX calls down and we all do a Burpee on the down.

Main Event

We ran to the back of the McDowell Nature Preserve where there is a lake and a circular parking lot. The run is about a mile back with a bunch of hills and there were a few PAX who were not exactly happy bout that. Sorry not sorry. Once we did get to the lake parking lot we Burpee Broad jumped around in a circle which was another crowd pleaser. At this point we were all around 50 or so Burpees which is another training goal of mine as I prepare for a Spartan Race(50 Burpees a day/100 if I do not post). We then had to escape the preserve. As most of us were winded I had us start back by lunge walking up hill to catch our breath, then we bear crawled for a bit before running back to COT.

We still had a few minutes before COT. Thank you Royale for leading some Flutter Kicks until the 6 was in.  We finished off with a few Sprints until the end.

Thoughts And Prayers

Leading a mostly running workout is a challenge as everyone is not in running shape and there was some separation. Overall it worked, but just barely. Prayers for travel, disease, losing loved ones, dealing with family and a big praise for ‘Merica on its 243 birthday since the Deceleration Of Independence from Britain in 1776. Thanks also to Jiminy Cricket and Crux from F3 Lake Norman for coming out. Peace!

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Keep it Simple

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This will probably be the easiest backblast I ever write and it just goes to show, sometimes SIMPLER equals HARDER.

Got the text Sunday following church that we needed a substi-Q for Quagmire and I felt like I really wanted to just run Monday, but miss when I don’t do the boot camps, so what better way than to combine the two.

Let’s get to it:

Dynamic warm-up consisted of a quick mosey to Best Buy where we then lined up and did:

  • power skips half way down the building and then jogged to the end of petsmart
  • side shuffle half way, flip, side shuffle rest of the way
  • karaoke half way, switch, the same
  • back pedaled half way down then jogged to the end end

Did a quick 20 merkins, 20 big boys, 20 peter parker planks (on elbows) and 20 diamond merkins and then we started the real thang.

The balance was something like this:

  • Run a 1/3 of a mile, then do 10 bomb jacks, 15 burpees and 20 pulsating jump squats (half squat, full squat into jump squat = 1), then run another 1/3 mile and do the same 3 exercises / reps and keep doing it until time lol.  We did 4 of those back to back and then took a break to do the following:
  • Partner up at the Verizon by Target – partner 1 runs to rack room shoes (about 1/4 of a mile down) and back while partner 2 does non stop x-crunches (thank you ab app).  The jog was longer than I thought.  1/2 a mile kind of sucked right there.  Sorry not sorry.  65 x-crunches later we switched and partner 2 jogs.
  • From there, we went back to the every 1/3 mile do the 10/15/20 bomb jacks/burpees/pulsating/jump squats until we got back closer to COT.

Ended w/ an all out sprint the length of pet smart / office depot / best buy back to COT.  Props to Pot Hole for saving some in the tank and blowing by everybody.

Final #’s – 3 miles ran, 60 bomb jacks, 90 burpees, 120 pulsating jump squats and about 50-70 x crunches per person.  Not a bad day for a Monday.  Heard heart rates were excessively high which is always a good sign.  Thanks for hanging in there fellas – had a great time leading the pax.  Until next time.

Cha Ching

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Destroyed Chest and Triceps plus 2 miles

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Warm Up

5 – burpees OYO
10 – Windmills IC
15 – Cherry Pickers IC
20 – Imperial Walkers IC

Run to half wal for 10 – Muscle Ups

The Thing

Mosey behind the school follow the berm
To a hill at the bottom there is a hidden trail
We started at the top with
10 merkins run the trail to the benches and do 10 dips then run back up the hill. All don IC single count on down.

Increase by 10 reps each time 10,20,40,50

At 10, 20, 30 reps when we got back to the hill we bear crawled up

At 40 reps we split it up 20 single count Merkins then flip over for 20 LBC IC then 20 more single count Merkins, ran down the trail to the benches 20 single count Dips then 10 – Low Slow Squats, 10 – Monkey Humpers, 20 single count Dips. Run back to the hill then we NURed up the hill

Relfected a little bit on how awesome God is while we stared at the amazing sunrise.

At 50 we split it up 25 single count Merkins then flip over for 25 LBC IC then 20 more single count Merkins, ran down the trail to the benches 25 single count Dips then 10 – Low Slow Squats, 10 – Monkey Humpers, 25 single count Dips. Run back to the hill then we ran up the hill.

We walked for 200 yards and we did announcements and prayers while everyone catched their breath. Half way back we did ran back to COT.

Prayers
Patience, wisdom, knowledge and to be the light in this world.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead the leaders.

If you have not Q’ed at this AO you need to make the trip this site has alot to offer.

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A

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12 attended the Poopdeck this morning and came ready to work.  I gave the usual disclaimer  and then informed the PAX that it has been awhile since I’ve been on the Exicon and decided to work my way through the whole thing.  Today of course, were exercises that began with A.  So we took off for a fast mosey along the “backside” of the Poopdeck.  Along the way we did some side steps, NUR, and Toy Soldiers before circling up for a quick warm up back at the starting point.

The Warm-up consisted of “ATM’s” so we held plank and performed the next 3 exercises in cadence.

  1. Alternating Shoulder Taps
  2. Tempo Merkins
  3. Merkins

Our next stop was at the front of the parking lot on the road between the Bowl n’ Bounce and Gas Station for some Ascending Curb Crawls w/Absolutions. I chose this spot specifically because there was some grassy area just past the curb that saved our elbows.

Starting at one side of the street/curb we would bear crawl across and perform 1 Absolution.  Bear Crawl back for 2 Absolution and continue onward until we reached 9 Absolution.

From there another fast mosey to the nice parking lot and a quick stop on the side building wall for some Ascending Testicles.  15/45/ degree Derkins in plank position with feet on the wall.  I didin’t make the PAX go full BTTW because there was quite a bit of grumbling.  OH YEAH!  The cat lady was spotted here as well so 5 Burpees for all!

Off to the main course for some A.L.A.R.M.S.  The Exicon says they are kinda like B.O.M.B.S. (which are kinda like Dora’s) so I planned this to be a partner routine, but had a backup plan if the PAX were odd numbered.

I had some cones set out to at the starting line and then another set 10 yards out and another set about 30 yards out from the starting line.

For the routine 1 partner would perform the exercise while the other PAX would Crab Walk to the 1st cone (10 yards) and then Apple Turnover and Bear Crawl to the 2nd set of cones (about 20 yards), and then finally sprint “AYG” to the finish (which was a tree about 30 yards out from the last set of cones).  Mosey back and switch.

The Exercises were:

  • Angle Grinders (50) – These were new and fun.  Start in plank, then go to downward dog, touch hand to opposite knee, back to plank and Merkin, then repeat with other knee, that’s ONE.
  • Lunges (100) – 2x Count
  • Alternating Shoulder Taps (200) – 2x Count
  • Russian Twists (300) – Single count (because time was running low).
  • M – This was the “Movement” by the other PAX not doing the exercise.

After finishing up we slowly moseyed back to COT and had enough time for some Hello Dolly’s and Freddy Mercury’s.

Today was a lot of fun and I think I’m going to enjoy working my way through the Exicon, there are a lot of great ideas in there and it has grown SO much since the last time I’ve looked at it.

COT – Consisted of the usual, Praises for Baby Snowball, and PAX travelling on vacations with their families.  Not many spoke up today so Prayers all around for the ones that were left unsaid.  Also, the YETI is coming sometime in July……..

Thanks for the Q Peg, it was a lot of fun and you were missed!

Until next time,

-FLUX-

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