It was a warm dark morning, rain heavy as I drove to The Ranch. One of my personal favorite AOs in The Fort. Maybe becouse it is where I was the site Q for awhile or maybe just becouse there are lots of areas to torture people when I am on the Q.
I was first to arrive and wondered how many would join me in the rainy gloom. Couple cars roll in just before zero dark start time.
Disclaimer. Mosey around parking lot and get a quick warmup. SSHs, LBACs, windmills, IWs.
Mosey to front of middle school- partner up by benches- 20 derkins, 20 alternating stepups, 20 dips.
Partner wheel barrow to end of side walk and back. repeat x’s 3.
Mosey to back of school- chair sits in cadence- Balls to wall incadence- bearcrawl out to edge of parking lot and back- 3 sets.
Mosey to play ground- 3 sets 5 pullups, 10 merkins, 15 squats.
Mosey to bus loop- duck walks 10 diamond merkins, bunny hops 10 wide arm merkins, 1 leg jumps 5 pistol squats, switch to other leg repeat.
Mosey to COT.
announcements, prayers and praises.
Backdraft out.
Tag: Harry Carry
September 11 Memorial Stair Climb
- QIC: Shield
- When: 09/11/2019
- Pax: Airborne, Cha Ching, Cheddah, Chicken Hawk, Cyclops, Dennis the Menace, Dirty Harry, Esso, Fidget, Floppy Disk, Funhouse, Glow, Half Shell, Hardwood, Harry Carry, Jedi, Jekyll, JWOW, Kielbasa, Lassie, Long Duck, Maximus, Mr Clean, Nasa, Piston, Polaroid, Punch List, Router, Ruby Slippers, Shady, Shield, Slash, Spiderman, Squid, Sugar Bug, Tinsel, Wegmans, What Did, Youts
- Posted In: Ring of Fire
Today I was honored to lead 39 men of the Fort in my version of a 9/11 Stair Climb…. I asked these gentlemen to bring rucks or sandbags and headlamps. This was to simulate the equipment worn by the first responder’s who entered the World Trade Center to do their jobs. We also had Charetta appear courtesy of Dirty Harry…she was our victim that needed to be carried up and down the NaFo bleachers ….everyman carried their fare share of weight.
The workout was simple!!!! There was no warmup….we didn’t need one….
The object was to climb the bleachers 27.5 times up and down carrying a ruck or sandbag….the goal 1980 steps or 110 stories….NaFo bleachers are 36 steps up and down…the men of the Fort conquered this simple request but there was a catch…..when they came back down they had to do 9 inclined merkins and 11 squats… I think most did more than the required amount and for that I’m in awe…. I love being part of this great nation
Before the climb I shared a little about my experience that day 18 years ago as an NYPD officer and I asked each man to reflect between the hours of 8:46 am to 10:28 am these were the hours that changed my life and change the world as we knew it….I also wanted to remember my friends who gave their lives to save as many people as they could that morning :
NYPD PO MARK ELLIS TRANSIT DISTRICT 4
NYPD PO RAMON SUAREZ TRANSIT DISTRICT 4
PAPD PO ANTONIO RODRIGUES PORT AUTHORITY BUS DEPOT
I worked with these gentleman and they will never be forgotten…
Thank you Punchlist for letting me.lead these great men .
We had one FNG Lassie….welcome
7th Year Convergence for The Fort
- QIC: CakeBoss, Maximus, FunHouse, Pusher
- When: 09/07/2019
- Pax: Back Draft, Barry Manilow, Bobber, Boss Hogg, Burgandy, CableGuy, Cakeboss, Cash, Cha Ching, Cheddah, Cornerstone, Culture Club, Cyclops, DaVinci, Drop Thrill, Festifun, Flattire, Fratboy, Friar Tuck, Funhouse, Gears, Gecko, Geronimo, Harry Carry, Home Brew, Italian Job, Jedi, Jekyll, Kenyan, Little John, Longshanks, Mainframe, Maximus, moonshine, Myrtle, O'Reilly, Pusher, Quack Attack, Rebel, River Rat, roadmaster, Royale, Ruby Slippers, Sasquatch, Short Sale, Smuggler, Spider Man, Steegles, Sugar Daddy, Tesh, Tesla, Two Ferns, Uhaul, Vanilla Ice, Wegmans, Wildthing, Wolverine, World Wide Leader, Youts
- Posted In: The Fort
The 7th Year Convergence for The Fort followed an exhilarating Invergence from the night before. Hoping to continue that acceleration, the 4 Q’s had a plan to talk about the 4 Skills needed for Virtuous Leadership: Vision, Articulation, Persuasion, Exhortation.
CakeBoss to start us out with Vision: Recognizing advantage and the movement required to achieve it.
Disclaimer and welcome
“Go Hard or Go Home!”
Take off for 100 yard mosey up path, Get in 3 lines – Indian Run across WEP
Break into 4 lines, 2 groups of seal teams -20 seal team sit ups in cadence
Back into 2 lines , Everyone plank – Tunnel of Love (25 guys per line) – Plank series while guys army crawling under
Crowd pleaser for sure!
7 Burpees for 7 Years!
Vision is what I spoke about and the men that saw the advantage of F3 and planted it (moved towards it) in Charlotte, the The Fort and we continued to give it away in Rock Hill & Lake Wylie.
Hand off to Maximus
Articulation: Describing vision to others in a clear manner. Being able to tell others where we’re going and being able to describe that vision to others.
So, with that said, we’re going over to the top of the big hill to start with drill bits:
½ the group goes one direction while the other goes the opposite way
At each white post (drill bit), 10 Jumping Lunges (10 each leg)
10 Jump Squats
Mosey to the base of the other hill, the one with the statue on it:
NUR (backwards run) up the hill
3 Burpees at the top
Bear Crawl down
5 Burpees at the bottom
Hand off to Fun House for the “P”.
Persuasion – The initiation of first Movement. Convincing people to move in the direction of advantage, abandoning their Status Quo,
YHC gave an awesome yet forgettable speech about Persuasion. Then the Thang:
Circle Up – Duck, Duck, Goose – One guy runs around the circle the rest of us plank, the next guy goes when the running guy finishes. Planking excercises were called out: High Plank, Low plank, Mountain Climbers….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/2 a lap around the circle of Pax….. Peter Parker, Parker Peters….. Audible called to get the next guy running after 1/3 lap around….. Mak-Tar-Jai, Left Hand High, Right hand high…..Done. That took 10 minutes! 60 guys is a lot of guys to be running around in circles.
Stay in circle, 5 minutes left, Jack Webb: 1 Merkin to 4 Overhead hand claps. We got to 8!
Hand off to Pusher for Exhortation!
Exhortation – Incentivizing The Breach Of Obstacles.
19 That Didn’t Mail In Their Saturday
So there was this Saturday in Ft. Mill, SC that 17 men joined 2 Q’s to have a little fun in the city park, talk about the impact F3 & others have had on us and the community, and do some crazy exercises that would make others shake their head. That Saturday was yesterday and I must say that Router and I thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity granted us by Slash.
3 years ago, Router began his journey with F3 and as he said, the life change has been great and there’s no looking back. As we all know, it’s much more about the 2nd & 3rd F’s but the magnet of the 1st F is what attracts us and propels us to that life change F3 is know for.
That said, Router lit the torch with a disclaimer and a brisk mosey around the WEP path stopping along the way for 20 SSH, 20 Moroccan Night Clubs, 10 Merkins and 10 Peter Parkers; a great opportunity to stretch the PAX out and bring them back together.
Router brought us to the middle of the grass field for the start of the Worlds Longest Lasting, Most Disputed, Loudly Criticized, Not At All Controversial, exercise in The Fort. Sorry, the Pullman got the best of me (which has nothing to do with what we did). This is where he introduced us to a modified Catch Me If You Can. However, there were no rucks, no running, no monkey humpers, just a lot of Tesh-chasing which, for me as Tesh’s partner, made for a quick rendition of this terrible idea. Partner 1 is doing inch-worm merkins while Partner 2 does 20 Flutters, 10 Merkins, 20 American Hammers and 10 Carolina Dry Docks then bear crawls to his inch-worming partner. We did this for what seemed like the entire Saturday morning but in all reality, it was about 100yds (go ahead and try it…I dare you).
Oh, that wasn’t bad enough? How about Router bringing us back to the starting point for a round of Jack friggin’ Webbs. Yup, you just read that. And yes, we went to the 10:40 mark with merkins & overhead claps.. Say hello to your Jell-O arms. Good thing none of our resident hair models were in attendance because hair-washing would’ve been a challenge later that morning.
Then Router topped it off with an explanation of his growth over the last 3yrs since joining F3. Thanks to the fellas like DD (in attendance), Santini, Senator Tressel, Assassin and others, there are hundreds of men who share a similar story to Router, each one unique and powerful in their own right.
Hand off to Maximus.
Mosey to “The Hill” and line up at the base. Identify the tree at the top, about face and reverse lunge walk all the way up the hill to the tree. At the top, drop to your six and crab walk back down.
Mosey back to the field and in true Jack friggin’ Webb fashion, take that to the legs for Lieutenant Dan’s. Just like before, we went to the 10:40 mark with squats & jumping lunges.
Lined up the cones about 30yds apart, PAX line up at one end then the explanation. WWII situps into a burpee broad jump. Repeat until you get to the other cone.
2 lines facing each other for Knee Tar Jah’s or Prisoner Lunges or whatever we’ve decided to call these things.
SSH x 21
Back to the cones. Run from cone 1 to cone 2, 20 Plank Jacks, NUR back to cone 1, 15 WWII situps, back to cone 2, 10 Plank Jacks, then NUR back to cone 1, 5 WWII situps.
PAX back together for:
SLOW Peter Parkers x 21
Flutters x 21
Squats x 21
Jail break to COT for a short set of LBCs.
So that was it. Great time I hope for all. Didn’t get a lot of miles but my body 24hrs later tells me that wasn’t needed. Remember what’s been done for you as you have the opportunity to do something positive and impactful for others.
**ONE REMINDER**: September 6 is our Annual Invergence followed by our regional Convergence September 7 back at WEP.
Until Next Time,
Router & Maximus
Back on the Ranch
- QIC: Fishsticks
- When: 08/08/2019
- Pax: Fishsticks, Harry Carry, Jiffy, JWOW, Sasquatch
- Posted In: The Ranch
Its been a while since I’ve ventured across town to the Ranch for a workout. Five men and a dog showed up for the workout this morning. After chatting for a little while, we launched with a jog around the parking lot. Next, we circled up for the following warm-up exercises:
SSH x 20
Imperial Walker x 15
Windmill x15
Plank Stretches
Next, we moseyed to the school boulder to “Push the Rock”. Each person had 10 seconds to see if he could push over the rock while the others planked. No success in moving the rock.
Next, we ran over to the front of the school for a series of exercises:
- Burpee broad jumps
- Inch worm merkins
- Bear crawl / merkins
- Crabwalk / LBCs
- Backwards bear crawl / Carolina dry docks
After each exercise, we took a lap around the parking lot.
We had seven minutes left for a series of AB exercises (LBCs, Freddie Mercury, Superman, Rosalita, Hello Dolly)
Back to COT
Prayers
Teachers/admin/students/parents preparing for school year
Family Travels
Family Illnesses
Steadfast
- QIC: Deacon
- When: 07/24/2019
- Pax: Deacon, Dirty Harry, Double Mint, Esso, Geronimo, Haggis, Harry Carry, Love Handle, Manzel, punchlist, Ruby Slippers, Sasquatch, Shield, Skate or Die, Slash, Spiderman, Wegmans, yutes
- Posted In: Ring of Fire
18 Pax posted at the Coop in full representation of 3 solid regions today (Richmond, Fort Mill and Ballantyne). The temperature dropped and it felt like spring again. Wegmans, Skate or Die, Sasquatch and Cici did a pre-run for extra credit. Double Mint put up a strong post as his downpainment before spending the day at Carowinds. T-Claps to all 18 high impact men that challenged themselves both mentally and physically today.
The Thang:
Mosey to Sugar Creek Elementary’s Bus Loop
COP: SSH (30x), IW (20x), HillBilly Walkers (15x), WM (15x), Moroccan Night Clubs (15x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (15x), Peter Parkers (15x)
Mosey to the pull up bars: Jacobs Ladder with burpees at the bottom, pull ups at the top 8x
Mosey to Sugar Creek Elementary’s Parking Lot: Windsprints (2x)
Mosey to the wall: Wall Merkins 3x, People’s Chair 3x
Moleskin:
We are constantly feeling good and bad vibes during our journey of life. Life is filled with valleys and peaks. Like a train on parallel tracks, we continually find ourselves between the good track and the bad track. When things go well in life, we are soon challenged with a tragedy or a loss. Remain steadfast. Be aware of when you become unbalanced between pride and humility, right and wrong, etc. Remain steadfast and in balance.
Stairway to Heaven??
- QIC: Kaiser
- When: 05/13/2019
- Pax: Bounty Hunter, Dark Helmet, Dirty Harry, Geronimo, Harry Carry, Manziel, Punch List, Sasquatch, Shield, Skate or Date, Youts
- Posted In: Honey Badger
I’ve been fart sacking a bit so it was good DirtyHarry called me out to lead the Badger. There’s nothing like getting back in the groove than Qing the Badger. I wanted to make it a special one so I did some reconnaissance work the day prior and found some good accessories for the workout. We honored fallen soldier and Officer Timothy Brenton.
Warmup with Imperial Walkers, Side straddle hops, Tappy Taps, Windmills, Honeymooner, Downward dog
The thang
Took a short mosey to the band practice field at the top of the hill. In honor of Timothy Brenton we started with a 100’ (or so) bear crawl and back across the field with standing broad jumps.
Station 1 = 39 squats, Station 2 = 39 dips on benches, Station 3 = 39 merkins, Station 4 (Stairway to Heaven) – some may argue whether it was a true stairway to heaven. PAX lifted heavy concrete blocks to the top of the stairway for 10 overhead presses, with a nice view of downtown Charlotte to ease the pain. Rinse and repeat X4
PAX Carried the blocks a few hundred feet around the corner of the school and laid them to rest. Found a nice long wall to continue to blast our quads with wall sits. Moved down to the cafeteria, found some nice benches, and continued working the chest with decline and incline merkins in unison.
Mosey down to the pull up bars to get a set of 10 in then made our way to COT. Finished off with crunchy frogs, hello dollies, LBCs, and a stargazer pose.
Prayers for health amongst the PAX, family, and coworkers and praises for new promotions.
Announcements – Cannoli Run this weekend
Block Party Beat Down
- QIC: Rebel
- When: 05/07/2019
- Pax: alchemy, Band Camp, Bass-o-matic, Bird Cage, Bonsai, Cake Boss, Cashflow, Cobra Kai, Corn Hole, CSPAN, Dark Helmet, DD, Deacon, Dirty Harry, Dungaree, Fogerty, Gecko, Geronimo, Harry Carry, Offset, Polaroid, Pusher, Rebel, Shady, Sherlock, Skate or Date, Slash, Sugar Daddy, WWL
- Posted In: Block Party
I was excited to Q Block Party after the co-Q at The Fort on Sat. I arrived early and saw 7 runners take off at 5:00 sharp with Bird Cage leading the way down the back trail. Cars began to file in and the cars kept coming. I wasn’t expecting a large crowd and then I heard that CSPAN was still in town and was coming to Block Party so I knew there would be a big and rowdy crowd on hand.
Once we hit 5:15, no FNG’s were present so a short disclaimer and off we moseyed. Since the park has several obstacles littering the grass from the festival, I was going outside of the park. We moseyed to the first parking lot up front and circled up.
- Imperial Walkers
- SSH
- Arm circles front and back
- arm stretch across body
- mountain climber
- slow merkin – 3 count down, 3 count hold, 3 count up
Mosey over to the sidewalk and wall near Springs Global. 3 exercises , 3 sets, decreasing reps each set.
- Dips – Reps – 25/20/15
- Derkins – 20/15/10
- Step-UPS – 30/20/10
Mosey to the big hill and meet at the top parking lot. 3 excercises, 15 reps each, then run to bottom of the hill and come back up the hill backwards.
- Squats/Monkey Humpers/Calf Raises
- Slow Merkin/MNN/O/H Clap
- Flutter/ Big Boy Sit-up/Hello Dolly
Mosey back to the sidewalk and wall where we started and do one more set of dips and derkins 20 & 15. Mosey back to the park. Since we had a few minutes left I decided to take a lap around the park on the path for an added bonus. We ended back at the parking lot for set of LBC’s.
This was a great morning and I enjoyed the chatter and hard work. Through the Q Source, I have been motivated to look for ways to continue to accelerate in all areas. I shared with the group that I have been successful in accelerating in King, Queen and Jester control, but the last 4 weeks the QSource was focused on Faith. I was convicted that I am not accelerating in study and recognize the need to have my shield locks there to hold me accountable and provide the push I need. I asked everyone to think of where they need to accelerate and who are they going to have beside them to hold them accountable.
Thanks Esso for the opportunity to Q and lead the Pax.
Rebel
Start of May at the Coop…the Murph, partner style
- QIC: Ginsu
- When: 05/01/2019
- Pax: Backdraft, Band Camp, Dirty Harry, Harry Carry, Kielbasa, Longshanks, Old Bay, Punch List, Sasquatch, Shield, Skate or Die, Slash, Tube Sock, Youts
- Posted In: Ring of Fire
15 men joined YHC to make 16 total at the Coop this morning. Simple weinkie…important concept.
Mosey to football field.
Warmup
- 20 side straddle hops
- 5 burpees OYO
- 10 windmills
- 5 burpees OYO
- 15 big arm circles
- 5 burpees OYO
Kept it short…we would need the time.
The Thang
Simple…partner Murph. Straightforward exercise, but the key was to stick with your partner and encourage/push him along the way.
- 1 mile run
- 100 pull ups
- 200 push up
- 300 air squats
- 1 mile run
COT
Announcements – Memorial Day CSAUP, Ruck Heavy this weekend.
Prayers for travelers, UNCC school shooting, teachers in general.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead Punch List.
MOLESKIN
The partner theme was appropriate this morning. During the course of the morning with the PAX, I learned about a member of The Fort that has had marital troubles and subsequently split from his wife and another whose marriage is in a difficult patch as well.
It may or may not have been the case with these men in particular, but as sinners, we are incapable of living up to the standard that Christ set for us and as a result, we make poor decisions that often lead to terrible consequences. The funny thing is that often times, these decisions are made at times in our lives where we think we are at our best (pride comes before the fall). Our pride and self-righteousness blinds us to the efforts of the enemy that is constantly looking for ANY opportunity to tear down, separate, and destroy.
One of the best ways to fight this lifelong battle is to find a partner to do battle with. Someone that will push you, lift you up, and most importantly, hold you accountable (just like you will do for them). Someone that will recognize your pride and the small poor decisions that always lead to big poor decisions and check you before they tear you down. Someone that will constantly encourage you to put yourself 3rd, serving Christ first and your wife and family second. This is what we are called to do for each other.
If you don’t have a partner that believes in the same set of values and has similar goals as you do, do yourself and your family a favor and find one. We are not designed to go through our lives alone and unchecked.
– Ginsu
Q2 2019 PFT @ The Coop!
- QIC: FunHouse
- When: 04/24/2019
- Pax: Anchorman, Barry Manilow, Dark Helmet, DD, Dirty Harry, Esso, Fishsticks, Funhouse, Geronimo, Hardwood, Harry Carry, Nasa, Punch List, Shady, Slash, Tinsel, Youts
- Posted In: Ring of Fire
2019 quarterly PFT at the Coop was on schedule for day 21 of Ass Kickin’ April! 17 PAX came out to see progress that has been made since Q1 of 2019. We had 8 repeats and 9 new comers.
The Thang
Warm up – Lap, COP with SSH, Squats, IW, Moroccan Night Clubs, 6 count burpees. Mosey to Pull Up bars.
PFT – 1 minute: Pull Up, Big Boy Sit Ups, Merkins. The 1 mile run. We did this. Here is the output.
2019-Q1 | 2019-Q2 | |||||||
Name | Pull Ups | Sit Ups | Push Ups | 1 Mile Run | Pull Ups | Sit Ups | Push Ups | 1 Mile Run |
FunHouse | 5 | 45 | 37 | 6:40 | 6 | 41 | 45 | 6:04 |
Sk8orDie | 5 | 39 | 37 | DNP | ||||
DarkHelmet | 22 | 42 | 64 | 7:21 | 26 | 44 | 63 | 7:10 |
Kaiser | 15 | 22 | 61 | 7:38 | ||||
SugarBug | 3 | 29 | 36 | 8:41 | ||||
Esso | 12 | 38 | 43 | 8:25 | 14 | 42 | 53 | 7:28 |
Sasquatch | 24 | 54 | 64 | DNP | ||||
ChickenHawk | 25 | 43 | 60 | 7:37 | ||||
Wegmans | 1 | 26 | 24 | 8:54 | ||||
Husky | 13 | 45 | 52 | 7:34 | ||||
PunchList | 12 | 39 | 33 | 6:48 | 17 | 46 | 48 | 6:33 |
DirtyHarry | 5 | 50 | 50 | 7:28 | 12 | 53 | 61 | DNP |
Youts | 18 | 44 | 51 | 8:49 | 26 | 48 | 64 | 8:34 |
Slash | 8 | 26 | 31 | 8:45 | 9 | 27 | 44 | 7:42 |
Xray | 3 | 12 | 25 | 9:15 | ||||
Chunck | 2 | 32 | 20 | 8:32 | ||||
Tinsel | 22 | 38 | 36 | 8:43 | 25 | 43 | 45 | DNP |
DD | 18 | 25 | 54 | 6:35 | ||||
Nasa | 14 | 42 | 41 | 7:12 | ||||
Harry Carey | 12 | 32 | 37 | 5:58 | ||||
Geronimo | 23 | 43 | 40 | 6:45 | ||||
Shady | 37 | 44 | 44 | 7:03 | ||||
Hardwood | 19 | 26 | 51 | 9:17 | ||||
FishSticks | 11 | 56 | 52 | 6:22 | ||||
Barry Manilow | Present |
FunHouseNaked Moleskin: Looking at the 8 repeat PAX, all got BETTER! Imagine that. Continue to take the DRP, you get better. Either if is all running, Bootcamping, Rucking, etc. Keep posting and you get better! I have data and a spreadsheet to prove it! #WesaelShakerDolphin?