Pantheon – 5 at 5

5 PAX took the DRP and came to Pantheon for a 3rd Q in 5 days from YHC.  It was a hot and humid morning, who would have thought that of Tega Cay in July?  Needless to say, YHC brought a Weinke and a speaker.  That’s all that is needed.  And we’re off….

The Thang

Big Lap around parking lot to COP

SSH X 30, Windmills X 10, Squats X 15, Merkins X 10, Mountain Climbers X 15, SSH X 30

Mosey to WalMart Way, bottom of the hill.  Hill repeats with 5 Flying Squirrels at top and 10 Squats at bottom.  Rinse and repeat X 3.

Mosey back to Shovel Flag.  Turn on the tunes and get ready for the 10 minutes of burpees.  6 burpees in 1 minute X 10 sets.  Crowd pleaser.

Mosey to the Pillars.  Wall sits while one PAX sprints to end of sidewalk and back.

Done

COT – Prayers for travels, returns, in route babies, patience for parents with kids during summer break, prayers for stop being an asshole to the M (that’s mine).

FunHouse

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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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Alcatraz has rocks and hills – Who knew?

4 Pax showed up for a humid Saturday in Tega Cay.  YHC had been pretty lazy this week after returning from BonAire.  Look it up!  Fantastic windsurfing!  So, the beatdown commenced with a run, what else.

The Thang

Run to the tennis courts for COP

SSH X 30, Windmill X 15, Squats X 20, Merkins X 10, IW X 20, Mountain Climbers X 20, SSH X 30

Run to the Hill, get a rock

Run up the hill to the split, come back get your rock

All X 20, after set go run again…

Curls, Triceps, Overhead Press, Bent row

Mosey to the tee box for 10 minutes of Merkins : 1 minute do 10 Merkins, rinse repeat for 10 minutes….

Mosey back to tennis courts for some wind sprints – Hit every white line (there was like 10 of them) – Only 1 round

Back to Runde for 3 minutes of Mary

COT

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Pillars of Pantheon – PreBlast

Pax:

We’ve all joined F3 for various reasons; however the common theme is acceleration in each of the 3 F’s.  In the spirit of QSource, 43Feet, Roundtable and others we are launching a new and insightful discussion:  Pillars of Pantheon.

Pillars of Pantheon will be a quick two minute interview with the Pantheon Q of the Day to expand on these questions:

> Tell us about your own EH experience and induction into F3?

> How has F3 helped you accelerate your 3 F’s?

> What is one idea that you will spearhead to take F3 into the future?

The Pillars of Pantheon discussion will occur after COT and the Gloom Crue in attendance are welcomed to listen in and discuss with that day’s Q post recording.  The intent is to strengthen our 2nd F, tighten our Shield-lock and of course, sharpen each other.

AYE!

-BearGrylls

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A Return To The Corral Which Is Golden

Man, it’s been a long time. It’s been a long time since coming to the Golden Corral, or as it was often referred, the Buffet of Pain but it’s also been too long since my last post. No better way to knock the rust off than by saying yes to Lutefisk’s (just rolls off the tongue) invite and Qing Golden Corral yesterday. Trying not to lower the bar that has been established, I had to ensure the Weinke was full of all your favorite buffet options. After all, we’re not mailing this one in.

24 (23 really since Fish Sticks joined us at the end after getting his brisk miles) other hard-chargers, including feisty “Shin-Guard” joined me at 0515 to review the disclaimer and conduct a little warm up jog around the parking lot, ending up at the top, furthest from HT.

Warm-up:

Wind Mills, Jump Squats, Merkins, Diamond Merkins, Side-Straddle Hops, Carolina Dry Docks

Line up facing the Teeter. Run down to the store and Nur back to our starting point. REPEAT.

2 PAX at a time, run 1/2 way to Teeter then run back. We’d get through all 24 of us but the catch is that while you’re not running, you’re doing your best Flying Squirrels. See CSPAN, we still love you.

Reminder of 2 points (which is hard to stay accountable to when you don’t post for a while):

  1. C.O.T. Integrity – Don’t be a hypocrite. Be the same man outside the C.O.T. as you are inside it.
  2. Kotters – Bring ’em back. They’ll fight you but they want to be back AND we want them back.

More details were shared but you had to be there.

The Entree: 10 reps of 10 exercises and we’re cycling through 10 times (lofty desire). After each round, we’d run 1 set of 2-tiered suicides.

10 exercises were:

Burpees, Wide-Arm Merkins, Jump Squats, Mak Tar Jai’s, Knee Tar Jai’s (modified at the sight of bloodied knees to just doubling the yet to-be mentioned Jumping Lunges), Dips, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, Jumping Lunges, Carolina Dry Docks.

We made it through 4 rounds.

HEY, welcome to Fish Sticks.

Until Next Time,

Maximus

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Pantheon of Pain – The “Gam Guillotine” – Redux

This BB is going to be easy, at least for the workout part for in honor the Q of my first workout – Jekyll – I decided to recreate his Q nearly verbatim. With the help of Gears I was able to find his original back blast. This is yet ANOTHER reason to do these things!! (You’re welcome Funhouse)

Pantheon of Pain- the “Gam Guillotine”

COP:
15-20 of the following
SSH, Squat, Calf Raise, lunge, Apolo Oh- No, Good Mornings, IW, and some other leg stuff.

The Thang:

Mosey to the grass field park near Trailhead park, to the trail that leads up to the dreaded power lines and Heart Attack Hill.

Run the Camelback.  5 squat on southend , 5 jump squat on Northend.  1 round is up and back. 5 rounds total.

Lungewalked 1/2 way, crabwalk 1/2 way.  backward  walk up hill.

Run Camelback: 5 air squat, 5 Mary Catherines, 5 rounds (includes extra hill)

To Memorial Gardens. Bearcrawls and lungewalks around the flag

Pledge of Allegiance

Back for COT.

>> It was just as horrible today as it was 3 years ago, even though I am in much better shape now. As we were progressing through it, myself, Mr T, and Fishsticks started to remember some of the details of that day. It was just as humid, but slightly hotter. Mumblechatter was epic. And it hurt ALOT back then. I remember almost passing out on round 8 of the hill.


Wednesday June 29, 2016

That was the day my F3 journey all began. That’s the day I started transforming into a better person, in many ways, than what I was before.

My good friends Mr T and Qwerty were working on me for a few months to come out to try this thing they called F3. I just got over a major surgery where I was out of action for a while, which really put me in a bad place mentally and physically. They knew I was down and out. They were there for me. It’s awesome they said. You are very active, and it’s a great FREE workout they said. You’ll meet some great people they said, maybe even develop more friendships they said. And it will help you become a better man they said. Seriously? All this I thought was just another phony sales pitch from another Ponzi scheme, another get ripped quick scheme or something. for usually if it sounds too good to be true then usually it is.  I kept making excuse after excuse, but they were consistent in trying to motivate me to try it. Just once they said, and we will stop.

After a lot of constant yet polite and respectful nagging from them, I decided to throw caution to the wind and say WTF. One super hot and muggy summer morning Mr T came by and picked me up in that awful-WTF-early time, and off we went. (btw – I committed to do this a week or so earlier but had trouble waking that dang early). I met up with a bunch of fellas I had no idea who they were, what kind of people they were. Then one of them asked us to do all kinds of weirdly painful exercises. Running up a stupidly steep hill in the dark, no lights. Walking on my hands and feet (??!!). Introducing me to this God-awful exercise called a Good Morning (burpee). After a while I was expecting some frat house hazing to be honest, so I was a little on guard. But I kept going along, for the conversations during this was pretty dang good. Rather I was just listening, I could not talk – no breath to do so. Then we circle around an American flag in a park and say the Pledge of Allegiance. That was flat out inspiring. Next thing I knew it was over and I was on a rush. Then we sealed it with some open conversation and then a prayer. Wow.

The rest is now prologue to a wonderful set of chapters added to the ongoing book of my life that everyone I’ve met through F3 has helped write, the solid foundation that my future can build upon.  Looking back now, boy were they right. I cannot thank Mr T, as well as Qwerty who was assistant EH, ever enough. I can only keep trying to do for them what they have done for me.

Thanks to everyone I’ve met along the way. Your push, pull, inspiration, support, wisdom, accountability, leadership, motivation, and more has been truly transformational for me.

Love y’all. God bless.
-NASA

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Q Group at Pantheon

6 PAX took the DRP and headed to Pantheon, unknowingly that the Q was non-existent.  No worries, 3 of us said we go it and Group Q was made.

YHC had the warm up. The Thang:

Big Lap to COP

SSH X 25

Merkins X 10

IW X 20

Moroccan Night Clubs X 20

Squats X 20

Mountain Climbers X 20

6 count Burpees X 10

Hand off the FishSticks, run to back of school to bb court.

Bear Crawl 5, 5 merkins – length of the court

Lunges 5, 10 Squats – length of the court

Crab Walk 5, 10 LBCs –  length of court

Crawl Bear 5, 5 Carolina Dry Docks – length of court

Wall sits with over head hand claps to 40

Hand Off to Corn Hole for last 15 minutes, mosey to play ground

Swing Crunches X 20, step ups each leg X 20, 5 pull ups or 10 modified

Swing Crunches X 10, step ups each leg X 10, 5 pull ups or 10 modified

Run back to COT, had 4 minutes of Mary

COT

Naked Moleskin – Welcome Dennis the Menace FNG.  Prayers for safe travels this week for M’s and 2.0 travelling alone. Prayers for sleep, less anxiety for the PAX.

FunHouse

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Leaving Home

It was a Thursday morning gloom at Laces In…a Thursday in May when the temp was already higher than it should be…a Thursday when our Site Q was DR but his predecessor provided strong support…a Thursday after The Murph when mumblechatter still reflected stories from the experience…a Thursday after YHC (aka, Dan from Dallas) returned to The Fort following a long weekend trip to the land of his origins…a Thursday without any FNGs.  So, the Disclaimer was brief and the pax were off.

The Thang

Mosey to parking lot near tennis courts

Pause at first light pole — SSHs

Mosey to next light pole — Mtn climbers

Mosey to next light pole — Low slow squat

Mosey to next light pole — Imperial Walker

Mosey to next light pole — Hillbilly walker

Mosey to next light pole — Merkin

Mosey to next light pole — Peter Parker & Parker Peter

Mosey to baseball field, pick partner & muster on opposite sides of home plate for 60 second intervals

Cycle 1: Partner 1 runs to 1st base for Burpees AMRAP while Partner 2 runs to 3rd base for Bombjacks AMRAP (flapjack)
Cycle 2: Partner 1 runs to 1st for Merkins AMRAP while Partner 2 runs to 3rd for CDDs AMRAP (flapjack)
Cycle 3: Partner 1 runs to 1st for Sumo squats AMRAP while Partner 2 runs to 3rd for Monkey Humpers AMRAP (flapjack)

Plank + Al Gore sequence at home plate

Rinse & repeat 3 cycles 2 more times

Muster at home plate for some Mary — Hello dollies, LBCs, American Hammers, Superman

Mosey home

Plank it up for final 2 mins — shoulder taps, plank jacks

COT

NMM

Thank you to Cyclops for the invite to Q.  I can’t recall my last BC Q in The Fort, so it was a treat to be leading the pax.  Also a pleasure to connect with a handful of new faces.  It’s great to see pax of The Fort continue to #giveitaway!

The word from Funhouse (who posted to LO) after COT was that the LI pax returning to Shovel Flag looked gassed.  Music to any Q’s ears, for sure.  T-claps to the pax for pushing intensity throughout, especially to those who went to bed at Zero Dark Thirty and still posted (ahem…Slash).  The work was hard but the grass was soft and weed-free.

The workout on the ball field was built around the theme of “leaving home.”  Dallas is my place of birth but it’s no longer my home, physically or emotionally.  While my weekend trip for a nephew’s graduation proved to be fruitful on many fronts, I felt no nostalgia for the place.  I don’t say that with any disgust or anguish…it’s just a fact.  This was the first time in the 13 years since I moved to FM that I felt no emotional pull westward.  The realization prompted further reflection on whether I’d left behind certain habits and vices from my adolescence and young adulthood in Dallas — petty grievances with siblings and old friends, disrespecting parents, excessive drinking (and occasionally driving), strip joints and the list goes on.  Yes, I’ve turned a page since moving eastward, far from perfect, but further down the path of maturity.  How about you?  Are you still clinging to the past?  Whether your origins are in CLT/FM or elsewhere, might there be elements of the past, baggage from “home” or an earlier stage of life that you need to leave behind?  Marinate on that a bit as you recover and allow the sweat to evaporate.  And make a choice, take a step toward maturity and #Acceleration.

Thanks for being part of this Thursday.

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Laces Out – WEP loop is actually 0.6 miles. Who knew?

6 Pax decided to run in Laces out today.

The Thang – Choose your own Adventure

Basic Loop: FMHS, Munn Road, left on Harris, left on path to WEP, up 160, left on Munn to FMHS = 3.91 miles

Add Old Kingsley Business Loop = 4.28

Add 1 Loop of WEP = 4.88

Add 1 more Loop of WEP = 5.48

Add 1 more Loop of WEP = 6.08

Stretched and met up with Laces in with Double D at the Q.

FunHouse

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