Minnow Pond-Triangle of Pain

21 men cane to minnow pond from all directions and walks of life

the plan was simple

run, exercise, run, exercise, run, exercise

starting at memorial park across from launch point

💥10 Donkey Kicks

run up Massey

💥10 Merkins

run down Spratt

💥 10 leg raises

run back to memorial park

5-7 Rounds

60-75 reps of exercises as each round we increased by 1 rep

3.5-4.0 miles🙌🏻🔥💪🏻🥓

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Bass chasing minnows

11 PAX were challenged with the mission to avoid being caught by the bass.  Pretty much accomplished by all who attended.  A special shout out to a couple of first posters to the pond Barry Manilow and Anchorman.  Nice work pushing yourselves.

We started out with the Pledge of Allegiance something that is always a humbling experience for me.  A brief warmup with SSH, Windmills, Imperial Walkers and Merkins.  Instructions to the route were not well received since YHC could remember the street names so we just took off.

I took a few minutes to figure it out after the fact.  Run up Main Street to Hwy. 160 Turn Right to our first stop at the Methodist Church Parking lot.  We did 3 exercises 25 reps of Merkins, Mtn. Climbers and Shoulder taps.  Back to running turning right on Monroe White Street.  Going past FBC and then the COG turned right on Watson street stopping at the old Springs parking lot for 2nd round of exercises.  Off to the parking lot by the Southern Sugar (did you know they are closed?).  Shouldn’t have moved Q source.  Just sayin.  Repeat the round with exercise being squats, lunges and calf raises 25 reps.  One final lap with LBC’s and flutters.  Back to COT.

Nice work by the PAX.  Thanks for the opportunity Longshanks.

 

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Inertia at The Ballroom

19 PAX at The Ballroom

Above is the insight into my mind……

Here’s a more legible list of what we did:
Mosey in a circle to catch Renaissance
– SSH – used to count the PAX present….
– IW x a few
– HW x the same amount
– Peter Parker until dissent
– Down Dog – Up Dog
– Shoulder Tap until dissent

Mosey to basketball court
– Toy Solders a sufficient distance to garner griping about this being a “Moderate” workout
– Butt Kickers
– Side Shuffles

Mosey down the hill
Split into 3 groups to do a Leg-O-Rama (one PAX does the reps, other PAX hold the pose until all have completed the reps)
– Squats
– Calf Raises
– Monkey Humpers
– 5 reps
– Run up the hill do 10 reps of each
– Run down do 15 reps of each

Mosey to Basketball court
– some burpees in cadence
– a round of Howling Monkeys to 10

Mosey back
– did some step ups when YHC found a plethora of benches

COT

NMM:
How often do we let the inertia of what we are or have been prevent us from realizing our potential?

Thanks to Manziel for the opportunity to lead
Band Camp dismissed.
 

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Footloose – Lesson Learned

It was good to get out to footloose and see some familiar faces and meet some new PAX.  Since Rebel was on his entertainment tour for the week  so Fogerty and YHC stepped up to try to fill his shoes.  Did a brief intro and disclaimer and headed out for a brief mosey down to the COG lot.

I did a quick circle back to pick up the six while Fogerty kicked off the warm-up.  We started out with some SSH, IW, a few other things and then into… yep you guessed it a little broga.  That’s becoming a nice little change up move for me.  Upward/Downward dogs, pigeon stretches, warrior 1,2 etc.

Moved into the meat and potatoes with some 4 corners. Counted off into 4’s then went to our corner with a lunge walk between corners.  They looked like this:

Round 1 10 Reps

Corner1 Squats, Calf Raises, Monkey Humpers; Corner 2 Merkins, Mtn. Climbers, Shoulder Taps Corner 3 LBCs, Flutters, American Hammers Corner 4 SSH, Imperial Walkers, Overhead Claps then back to the center for burpees

Rinse repeat with sets of 15 and toy soldiers between corners.  Fogerty took the last 15 minutes for a quick DORA up the hill with some LBC’s, Squats and whatever else he was thinking.  Quick mosey back to COT for 5 min of Mary.

Mole Skin – Not much was shared during the workout, but I did have some time to reflect on the way home.  As I was turning off of Confederate street onto main street my impatience got the best of me and I wiped out a cross-walk sign with my truck.  I pulled over like any honest PAX would have and had a brief conversation with the Fort Mill City guy who witnessed it all.  We move the sign out of the way and assessed the damage to my truck (not good btw) and went on with our day.

Nobody was hurt or anyone else involved which was good.  Several emotions could have come up during the ride home but the one I landed on was disappointment.  In years past I probably would have threw a fit and tried to blame the City for putting the sign there.  Yes, Rebel we talked about this on our run, but I sincerely am owning the fault.  Had I been more patient and waited could it have been avoided?  Hard to say.  I’m looking at it as an opportunity to exercise control and use it as a teachable moment.  As discussed in Q source sometimes a failure comes with consequences.  This one is going to be a little $$$.  Moving on and looking forward.

Thanks for the opportunity to Lead and share.

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Postal Route

With the opportunity to Q Minnow Pond I knew I  needed to bring the pain and increase the intensity.  With everyone gathered and watch at 5:14, I gave the disclosure and at 5:15 we were off.

Ran from Confederate Park to the FM Post Office, meet in the parking lot and do burpees until the six is in.  The plan is running the roads behind the post office with exercises each corner.  The roads make a square and 1 exercise 10 reps at each corner.

1st lap – Elliott Street – merkins

2nd lap – Leroy St – Wide arm merkins

3rd lap – Hill St – Monkey Humpers

4th lap – Oak St – CDD

5th lap – Elliott st and back to COT

Not a lot of talking with the official 4.36 miles.  Everyone was accelerating and the AO is the type of site that will push you but also offer a lot of encouragement.  We are all at different paces in our acceleration, but doing a little more than you did the day before is showing acceleration.

Don’t let the site and distance scare you away.  Push yourself to try something new and just like every site, there are always Pax to push, encourage and pick you up.  Just like in life, we are all in different places and phases, and we can encourage one another to be better in our house than we were the day before.

Thanks Shady for the opportunity to Q.

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VQ at the Millstone with a Guillermo 1-2-3 Routine and the Presidential Wall of NoN-sEnSe

The hype was huge, the turnout was moderate for Boss Hogg’s VQ at the Millstone. All 8 PAX in attendance got to enjoy the first day of cooler temperatures. 3 PAX went for a walk…2 with rucksacks and 1 with his arm in a sling. Huge T-Claps to Smithers for showing up while on the IR. The remaining 4 PAX followed the most Boss of all Hoggs on his VQ journey.

The Thang:

Mosey’d from Veteran’s Park to the parking lot across from Puckerbutt Pepper Company
• Stretched arms and legs
• 15 – Gas Pumpers (for my buddy Twister…Respect!)

Mosey’d to the St. John’s United Methodist Church parking lot
• Toy Soldiers across the parking lot – jogged back to starting side
• High Knees across the parking lot – jogged back to starting side
• Lunge Walks across the parking lot – jogged back to starting side
• Butt Kickers across the parking lot – jogged back to starting side
• Carioca across the parking lot and back in the opposite direction
• Shuffled across the parking lot and back in the opposite direction

Mosey’d to First Baptist Church of FM parking lot (home of Footloose!)
Circled up…
• 15 SSH
• 15 Windmills
• 15 Cherry Pickers
• 15 Imperial Walkers
• 15 Hillbilly Walkers

Mosey’d to FM Church of God parking lot
Next up was a Guillermo 1-2-3 routine. For those of you know don’t know (and I would be shocked if any of you didn’t already know this), Guillermo is Dora’s infant brother who does not fully grasp the concept of pairing PAX in 2’s and progressively moving from chest, to core, to legs. Guillermo likes to divide the entire population into two groups. The goal being that the exercising group works out together with focus on form, not speed. In concept, this was a great idea. Given that there were only 5 PAX participating in the Guillermo 1-2-3, one group included 3 PAX and the other included 2 PAX. The routine included:
• 100 Squats
• 200 LBCs
• 300 Overhead Claps
The group not performing exercises got to snake the stairs across the street.

Next up, was the Presidential Wall of Non-Sense! Don’t worry, there is nothing political behind this. The non-sense had to do with the exercise itself. PAX formed a line to begin the border wall. PAX were instructed to hold a tree via the Al Gore or by planking to form the wall. The HIM at beginning of the wall was instructed to run to the imaginary forest to gather more trees for the wall. Trees were knocked down via 1 burpee, 2 donkey kicks, or 3 Bobby Hurleys. Once the HIM obtained another tree from the imaginary forest, he returned to the end of the wall and held it in place via the Al Gore or by planking. The exercise continued until the wall crossed the parking lot.

Finally, with time running out, the PAX mall walked back to COT. The leader of the group dropped out of line to perform 1 burpee, 2 donkey kicks, or 3 Bobby Hurleys. Once completed, they rejoined the group at the back of the line. The process was repeated until COT was reached.

At the end of the workout, Boss Hogg was asked about his VQ experience.  He responded in the words of the great scholar Borat Sagdiyev, “Great Success!”.

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Dance Naked

14 Men took the F3 plunge this morning and posted at the Ballroom on a perfect South Carolina morning.  Here is what they did:

Mosey out of the parking lot to the cement pad at the back of the school for COP:

All in cadence:

SSHX20, Windmill x10, Merkin x 7, IW x 15, Little/big arm circles backwards/forwards x 20, Squat x 15, Mountain Climber x 15/hold 6″/down dog/honeymooner/6″/right arm and leg high/left arm and leg high/6″/regular, LBC x 20

Mosey to the adjacent parking lot and line up.  From a 20 yard distance, do the following:

  1.  Bearcrawl, then 10 merkins at the stopping point.  Walk back to starting point.
  2. Lungewalk, then 10 squats, walk back.
  3. Crabwalk, then 10 dips, walk back
  4. Inchworm, then 10 diamond merkins, walk back
  5. Frog jump, then 10 burpees, walk back
  6. Walk to the destination, pick someone you don’t know, introduce yourself and learn something about that person.

Mosey to the hill near the steel bridge for Jacob’s ladder.  Hill repeats starting with 1 burpee and continue to 5 burpees.  Plank at the bottom when finished.

Mosey to the side of the school for people’s chair.  60 sec hold x 3 times, one with overhead handclaps.  YHC encouraged the Pax to sit with knees at a 90-degree angle.  People’s chair should be strenuous!

Mosey to the front of the school and recite the pledge of allegiance at the flag.

Everyone on their 6 for 6 minutes of Mary (and it really was 6 minutes):  Freddie Merc x 15, Box cutter x 10, Flutter x 10, LBC x 20

End the workout with the Body Destroyer

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

After several months on/off/on IR, it was good to be back on Q at the Ballroom with a large group of Pax.  T-claps to Boogiedown for getting both of his sons out at 5:15am for a workout.   We were all in Cub Scouts together years ago when the kids were young and my, how everyone has up!  Sorry for not using your F3 names on this backblast, boys.  I didn’t get the video on Tuesday and couldn’t remember them.

There was constant chatter from Anchorman and some of the other Pax.  It started during the disclaimer and pretty much continued for the duration of the workout.  Nothing wrong with that of course, and maybe it’s expected from someone who makes their living talking a lot.

Short Sale asked me to please do a backblast for this workout because the Q’s here have not been doing them consistently.   I said something like, ‘I always do my backblasts ” and then I didn’t get this out until two days later.   Better late than never, but I always try to get them out the same day or next day at the latest.  The interest in the backblast decreases dramatically as each day passes.  Sorry, my friend!

As far as the title, Dance Naked, no one was (thankfully) naked on Tuesday.  This is a reference to an album by John Mellencamp, one of my favorite artists.  I’ve had music on the brain lately because someone on Twitter started tagging people to post 7 album covers of albums they love and to tag someone else to do the same.  I’ve been a rock music fan for as long as I can remember and have really enjoyed seeing what the Pax have posted for their favorite albums.

it was a pleasure to lead the Pax today and I look forward to my next visit to the Ballroom.  Thanks for the Q spot, Short Sale!

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Prayers/praises

  1.  Family of a husband and father who committed suicide.
  2. Young girl with a serious illness

 

 

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Kettle Bell VQ for this Guy

8 Pax started the week off right with the DRP and came to an unknown KettleBell VQ from YHC. Rule 1: Running at a Minimum.  Ok, but leg day will not be skipped!

The Thang – 4 exercises, 45 seconds Go, 15 seconds stop, repeat 3 times. We have 3 sets…

Set 1 – Left arm bent over rows, left arm overhead press, right arm bent over rows, right arm overhead press

Set 2 – Squat, Squat with a curl at bottom and press at top, Tricep Press, Merkin with row (alternate arms on row)

Set 3 – KB swing, Squat with an upright row, Mountain Climber, Skull Crusher

That’s all.  Finished right at 0600.  COT

FH out

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R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A!

Seven men (and one canine) met at NAFO for a mini-convergence of RPG/Broga and Varsity.
Started at 0500 with Sasquatch leading us in yoga stretches for about 20 mins.
then we split up with three running where Crawdaddy was the Q, and four went with the boot camp/Tabata workout.

For the Runners: the did a 4 mile loop through Regal Manor neighborhood.
For the boot camp/Tabata, we did:

Thang:
Tabata Style workout, Each exercise is 35 seconds, with 10 seconds of rest in between.
A round consists of a set each of: legs, cardio, core, and Arms.
LEGS: Step Ups, Calf Raises, Squats, Bobby hurleys, Lunges
CARDIO: Imaginary jump ropes, Seal jacks/SSH, Mountain climber,s Burpees, Cherry pickers
CORE: LBCs, Freddie mercurys, Flutters, Box cutters, Plank hold (low plank)
ARMS: Derkins, Dips, CDDs, Mak tar jai, Incline merkins
In between rounds we did a short one minute run.

COT

NMM:
Songs of freedom were playing during the tabata rounds.
A couple songs in the playlist could be considered critical of America (i.e. Rockin’ in the free world by Neil Young), so why include them in a patriotic playlist? Answer: America has faults and problems, but the reality is we are still the best thing going on this planet, and we should be proud of that. We are truly blessed in this country.

Music Playlist
Star spangled banner – KISS
We’re an American bad – Grand Funk
R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. – Mellencamp
Rockin’ in the free world – Neil Young
Fast Cars and Freedom – Rascal Flatts
Born in the USA – Springsteen
Living in the USA – Steve Miller Band
American Woman – The Guess Who

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Remember your #

Another saucy morning for the PAX at footloose.  Slight mumble chatter as YHC assessed the group.  I had a plan but could I pull it off was the question.  Gave a brief intro and disclaimer and we were off for our 5 second mosey which caught everyone off guard.  Mental preparedness is key.  We started out with…yep you guessed it Broga.  Thanks to Sasquatches excellent training I learned a few things over the last couple of years on Broga.  Threw in a few other warmup items like windmills, SSH, blah blah blah.

On to the meat and potatoes.  First order of business was to assign a number to each PAX and an exercise which went fairly well considering a bunch of dudes early in the gloom.  Kicker was if they forgot their number or exercise we’d do burpees.  I don’t think we did any surprisingly enough.

Off to our first location down by Ft. Mill COG.  Plan was to start at #1 and go through 13.  PAX with number would run up and down the stairs while rest of PAX did exercise.  Simple enough.

Imperial Walkers, Cherry Pickers, Merkins, LBC’s, Calf Raises, Carolina Dry Docks, Flutters, Squats,
Shoulder Taps, Mountain Climbers, American Hammers, Seal Jacks, Freddy Mercury.

Off to another set of stairs where we rinsed and repeated again.  Ran back to Shovel Flag for 1 more round to finish up with COT.

Thanks Beacon for the opportunity.

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