Run, run, run. Do some things. And then run some more. Grass is wet.

The Thang:

 

Mosey up Munn Street to the other side of the school.

A few warm up exercises in the parking lot.

Partner up for accountability and run the LARGE half circle stopping three times to do 10 burpees, 20 merkins, 40 lbcs at each stop.

The complaining..errr…mumblechatter started.

Nice soft grass was found on the lacrosse field along with 2 tires.  Two groups lined up.  One line ran carrying the smaller tire while the other line rolled the tractor tire the length of the field.  The remaining Pax did a series of exercises until their turn.

Complaining.

A nice lil mosey o a wall for some sits and BTTW.

Another run and then 150 calf raises (50 regular/50 toes in/50 toes out)

Lots of complaining.

Ran back to COT for a quick round of Mary.

The End.

My message was short but hopefully is remembered when life happens – there is opportunity in change.  Look for the good side and embrace what that can mean for you.

As always an honor to lead the men of The Fort, esp on the day we honored Dark Visor who passed away yesterday in Alpharetta at a workout.

Until next time….

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The Fort 6 year Anniversary – Making Getting Better a Priority!

September 29, 2012 the landscape of Fort Mill changed dramatically. Some men from north of the border grabbed the attention of a few men south of the boarder and said we may have something for you. Double D, Santini, Senator Tressel, World Wide Leader, Red Banjo, Assassin, Peach and maybe others made the commitment to come to a “workout” on that Saturday morning. It was very skeptical, but I am sure each of them will say it changed their lives.

Here we are 6 years later, meeting in the same park with more than 200 regular participants (800+ over the years) at 37 workouts across The Fort/Lake Wylie area. Thank you to those that gave it away and thank you to those that said yes!! I think it is safe to say, IT’S MORE THAN A WORKOUT!!!

Today we recognize the 6 years with 6 Qs leading a beat down in 1st F style. On September 21st, Jekyll led us in our Invergence, which reminds us of the 3rdF and that there is something bigger than ourselves. Serving, Praying and Worshiping together happened then. On this day, we are getting better physically and having some fellowship with 70 of our PAX,

Format was a rapid fire approach where each Q has 10mins to lay it on the PAX. Old Bay would keep time and blow the air horn (maybe tweet the horn??), and then the next Q jumps in.

YHC asked for FNGS, (none) and explained the plan of attack, and then the Horn Sounded

The Thang:

  • Wegmans for COP
    • Mosey down path out to grass
    • Circle up and some traditional and not so traditional exercise moves.
    • We did notice another “Boot camp” group in the gloom. T-clapps to them, however also saw 2 holding clip boards…..not F3!!
    • Horm Blows
  • Funhouse on Q
    • Mosey to the hill for Jacobs ladder
      • Burpees
      • Squats
      • Some mary to fill time
      • Horn Blows
  • Jwow on Q
    • Mosey to top of hill for partner work
    • step ups/lunge walk up and down hill
    • squat jumps/lunge walk up and down hill
    • Plank hand slap with partner
    • Horn Blow
  • Twister on Q
    • Mosey to tree line
    • Army Crawl to tree /SSHs
    • Sprint to tree/Merkins
    • Army Crawl to Tree/SSHs
    • Sprint to tree/merkins
    • 2 rounds
    • Run Path until Horm
    • Horn Blows
  • FLUX on Q
    • Mosey back to hill
    • 6s – do following 6 times
      • bear crawl up hill
      • diamond merkins
      • bear crawl back down hill
      • Some filler in there of something aweful
      • Horn Blows
  • Assassin On Q
    • Mosey to play grownd
      • Dips
      • Derkins
      • Burpees
      • multiple rounds with running around the playground until…..
      • Horn Blows

The PAX was dripping wet from rolling in grass but also from the humid beat down that just occurred. Thanks to all the Qs for bringing it and having fun out there.

I brought up to the PAX “WHY”? Why F3 versus the many other options we have even outside of fitness and self help books. Why do we get up early and why do we do CSAUPS and why do we attend 3rdF and give away our time at various community organizations???

Pockets, Spud and Assassin all shared their Why. Thank you! I’m sure there were many more that would undoubtedly impactful.

I mentioned my why was straightforward for me. I want to continue to challenge myself physically, surround myself with like minded guys heading in the same direction and reach more guys for Sky Q and HIS purpose. I feel F3 has positively impacted my life in all 3 Fs and why would I not give it away??

See you in the GLOOM!

Cake Boss

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Always Ready

Maximus at a “Moderate?” I mean, c’mon, Slow Burn isn’t always moderate. That said, I appreciate the opportunity to Q no matter the AO so thank you Smithers for thinking of me. I tried to honor the AO by pushing the PAX and keeping everyone together.

So here it is:

Warm up jog to the lot next to Lowe’s for a warm-up circle of:

SSH (Only for Trucker), Imperial walkers, Wide-Arm Merkins, Donkey Kicks and 10 Burpees (more to come)

Line up shoulder to shoulder on the wall in the peoples’ chair position

Starting at one end, we’d lunge walk to the other end of the peoples’ chair wall.

Next series, PAX line up shoulder to shoulder in a plank position with their feet on the all. Starting at one end, the PAX would bear crawl to the other end.

Jog around the back of Lowe’s heading toward the ever-changing car repair shop. The interesting thing here is that while finishing the jog, I heard a conversation between Chicken Hawk and Wide-Right where the latter mentioned he hasn’t Q’d yet and was interested in getting on a Q schedule. So, I did an about face, confirmed what I thought I heard and gave him the opportunity as soon as we circled up in the repair lot. After a brief mention to the PAX regarding the Q change for the next several minutes, I think he led us in the following:

LBC’s, Mountain Climbers, 10 Burpees Dips, Derkins Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, SSH and 5 Burpees…he then handed it back to me.

Now, jog to the large lot on the other side and circle up:

Flutter kicks w/ a press

Box Cutters then reverse box cutters

A short 3-tier suicide series with jump squats as you return to the starting line.

So that was in; we keep the group together, encourage the chatter and give a man his opportunity to lead us. Just another day in THE FORT.

Leave no man behind but leave no man as you found him.

Maximus

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Hit the Threshold

Lucky Seven Stallions showed up for a long overdue track session.

My personal opinion is that we don’t do enough structured running workouts… my goal is to try to remedy that.  Here’s what we did:

  • Very easy warm up for 5 min
  • Easy Run for 8 min
  • Repeat the following 3x:
    • Recovery Run/Walk for 2 min
    • Threshold Pace for 9 min
  • Cool Down for 8 min

See here to determine target paces: https://runsmartproject.com/calculator/

 

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10 bootcampers appeared in the gloom 15 minutes after 7 runners took off for parts unknown in the greater Fort Mill area.

Began with a disclaimer followed by a short mosey to the band practice parking lot for a predictable count warm-up:

Squat x10
Windmill x10
Cherry Picker x10
Imperial Walker x10
Hillbilly Walker x10

With a call for “on me,” YHC sprinted erratically and planked up waiting on the PAX. Once all the PAX had planked up, the call for “on me” was immediately repeated and followed by another erratic sprint. Repeated this sequence a few times until the mumble chatter began.

Planked up and discussed how we respond when our expectations (mosey–>circle up–>cadence exercises, etc.) are challenged or directly defied.

The Thang (see  photo w/ working thoughts as well)

Exercises:
Burpees, Merkins, LBCs, Squats, Carolina Dry Docks, American Hammers, Mountain Climbers, People’s Chair+Moroccan Night Club

As the exercises became predictable in count and repetition, YHC challenged the PAX to notice if the consistency and expectation made the workout any easier. How does our response change knowing or not knowing every detail of what lies in the 43 feet ahead? How is that response helpful, hurtful, instructive, or destructive.

Added 5 more burpees at COT for what was initially suggested as hitting 60 burpees. Upon further review it was only 45. #1000burpees in September for Double D’s fundraiser supporting Let Me Run.

NMM:

This workout was inspired by a backblast from Lake Norman: https://f3lakenorman.com/backblast/a-good-f3-workout in an effort to keep the PAX together and create  opportunities for as much 2nd F and 1st F. Personally I find it amazing in my own life that I’ll show up at 5:15am and do whatever the Q (F3 makes no representations with regard to the skill level of workout leaders) has in mind (or makes up in that moment) without a problem. But if something goes awry during my workday or home life, my emotions and specifically my patience seems immediately depleted. As we work to grow and train physically, it is important to remember the DRP (Daily Red Pill: The Q’s daily Commitment to Accelerate his Fitness, Fellowship and Faith) includes our spiritual, emotional and mental health as well.

If any PAX know the Professor in Lake Norman, please relay to him YHC’s appreciation of his Back Blast.

Announcements:

Invergence 9/21
Additional runner need for relay: see Hasselhoff

Band Camp dismissed

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CSPAN Send off Convergence

141 Men came to show the Respectable**CSPAN** some Respect!!

He leaves The Fort and heads north or as Dredd refers to Yankee land. Not gone forever but just up the road 600 miles to start a new chapter in life and in F3 as he will launch F3Philly.

I am not the most eloquent with my back-blasts and I am usually to the point with posting the workout, add some words and being done, however since I can’t get Italian Job to write this up and Double D challenged the PAX to think of one word to represent CSAPN, I think that is the best way to document this convergence.

Thank you CSPAN for being all of these things and more to you r brothers in the PAX. As posted on Twitter and many of these were repeated multiple times:

brother
camaraderie
commitment
confidence
connected
consistent
courageous
dedicated
empathetic
example
genuine
handsome
HIM
honorable
humble
humility
impact
influence
influencer
insightful
inspiration
integrity
investor
legend
magnanimous
model
respect
selfless
servant
shepherd
solid
squaredaway
steadfast
steady
wise

The Workout looked like this:

WWL at the Q:

  • Mosey around the lot
  • Line up; karaoke, side shuffle, high knees, butt kickers, toy solders, lungewalk, power skips
  • COP
    • SSH, squat, merkin, moroccan night club, 10 Flying squirrels
Double D at the Q:
  • Run to practice field
  • Plank sequence
  • Split into 2 groups on each sideline
  • Sprint to center and back to sideline
  • Monkey humpers x25
  • Rinse + repeat with Merkins x 25
  • CDDs x25
  • Burpees x25
Longshanks at the Q:
  • Burpees
  • Lunges
  • Inch worm Merkins
  • Maktar Ndiayes
  • Plank Jacks
  • Squats.

Dredd at the Q:

  • Prayer for CSPAN
  • Merkin/Ab Lab series
  • Truth Nuggets and Leadership development with Major Payne, Wegmans, & Drop Thrill
  • Mosey to hill behind Bob Jones Stadium
  • Prayer for CSPAN heading to F3Philly…..”CSPAN Coming”
  • More Merkin/Ab lab series

COT:

141 Count, Name O’rama, 2 FNGs (Bikini & Manzel), Skinny Jeans pray out over CSPAN and his IMPACT on men and for Sky Q’s kingdom.

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“The Seven” workout is back

Thank you Jekyll for the opportunity to lead.

We started our great morning with a mosey around the drop off lane followed by some warm up exercises, windmills, moroccan night clubs, low slow squats, merkins and lunges, we run another lap around the drop off lane for some high knees, butt kickers and toy soldiers followed by a short mosey to the back of the school where I had previously setup the pain stations.

The sevens is a workout that consists of 7 exercises with 7 reps each, these are the exercises:

7 Carolina Dry Docks

7 dumbbell swings

7 sledgehammer swing each side

7 worst merkin ever

7 squat jumps

7 biceps curls each arm

7 tire flips

after completing one circuit we took a lap around the parking lot, rinse and repeat; after the second time we took a break for some captain thor (1 big boy sit up and 4 american hammers; 2 big boy sit ups and 8 american hammers, all the way to 10 BBSU and 40 AH) we had to take another brake after the 8th time to stretch our backs with some superman exercises, then back to finish up captain thor. Lots of mumble chatter about tail bones and glutes but we went back to our sevens.

One more circuit and we finished strong with some additional LBC’s, more mumblu chatting about tail bones and glutes at this point. Thank you everyone for helping to load the props in my truck.

Everyone did a great job, this is the first time that my timing with the props doesn’t work for everyone, we had to do some planks and SSH while waiting to flip the tire; I’m definitely fixing that for my next Q.

We went back to COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

We talked about F3 dads camp and lifted prayers for our families and our fellow PAX Brainiac in Lexington SC who’s having a knee surgery this week.

Tinsel OUT!

 

 

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Ring of Fire and World Cup PKs at TheYard

Seems like soupy weather is quite the norm these days, and the gloom at TheYard was no different.  11 pax posted, with one an FNG soon to be named “Airsoft”.  Following in the pattern of TheYards previous workout with Chickhawk and his 2.0 Shinguard (who were MIA this week), Hurler was tasked to take the warm-up, and also helped plan the weinke for the rest of the workout.

The Thang

Disclaimer was issued and Hurler grabbed the reins for a mosey toward the west side of the middle school.  Landing in the far parking lot on that end, he lead us through warm-up.

  • Side Straddle Hops x15 (IC)
  • Imperial Walkers x15 (IC)
  • Mountain Climbers x15 (IC)
  • LBCs x10 (IC)
  • Merkins x10 (IC)
  • Run Stance Switch x10 (IC)
  • Crab Cakes x5 (IC)

Hand-off to OldBay

Main Event

Luck for us, the gates to the football field were unlocked.  We moseyed there to find 15 cones set up in a large ring around the center (about 40 yards in diameter).  Yep, all pax were about to fall into a burning ring of 🔥fire🔥.  At each cone was an exercise (with number of reps).  Each pax picked a cone (Twister was voluntold to pair with our FNG) as the starting point.  Process was as follows:

  1. Do the exercise at that cone
  2. Run all the way directly across the ring around the opposing cone, then back to the center.
  3. Plank at center for 10 seconds, then do 5 plank jacks.
  4. Proceed to next cone (clockwise).
  5. Repeat until all 15 cones where done.

The exercises were as follows:

  1. 10 Monkey Humpers (4 count)
  2. 10 Hello Dollys (4 count)
  3. 5 Burpees
  4. 10 Merkins (single count)
  5. 20 SSH (4 count)
  6. 10 Run Stance Switch (left+right = 1)
  7. 10 Bombjacks
  8. 10 LBCs (4 count)
  9. 10 Peter Parkers (4 count)
  10. 6 Morning Woods (turkish get-up w/o the bell)
  11. 10 Box Cutters
  12. Bear crawl to center and back
  13. 10 Flutters (4 count)
  14. 10 Crab Cakes
  15. 10 Speed Skaters (left+right=1)

Mid-way through, we took a quick recovery break to talk about why we say “Yes” or “No” to our friends, co-works, wives, and kids.  We also talked about fighting BOMS (bitter old man syndrome).

Next we slow-moseyed to another configuration of cones.  Pax were split into two groups, each representing an unspecified World Cup team.  Time for some PKs.  Here’s how it worked:

  1. First pax in team 1 randomly drew an exercise from the Bucket o’ Pain.
  2. Pax then attempted to kick a soccer ball between a narrow goal (1 yard) about 10 yards away.
  3. If the pax missed, his own team had to do the exercise.  If the pax scored, the other team had to do the exercise.
  4. First pax in team 2 then took a turn
  5. Repeat, alternating teams until app pax had a chance.

Mosey back to COT

Great work by all packs!  Special welcome to Airsoft, who did awesome (and special thanks to Twister for taking good care of him!).

 

 

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The Honey Badger with Schmalls and CSPAN

Disclaimer

Hot thick and extra humid (extremely poor conditions)

warmup-o-rama

mosey

shirts optional

hero review

workout review (slightly modified WOD)

  • Run 800 meters
  • 50 burpees
  • 40 pull-ups
  • 30 one-legged squat (each leg)
  • 20 squats
  • 10 handstand pushups
  • Run 800 meters
  • Repeato

COT / Prayer or Praise / BOM

NMM

U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Justin E. Schmalstieg, 28, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, assigned to the 1st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, 7th Engineer Support Battalion, 1st Marine Logistics Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, California, died on December 15, 2010 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He is survived by his wife Ann Schneider, parents John and Deborah Gilkey, and brother John.

The “Schmalls” Hero WOD was first posted on crossfit.com as the workout of the day for Tuesday, April 23, 2013 (130423).

 

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The Coop: Mixed Meters

24 PAX gathered in the gloom. The summer numbers bump is upon us. Can we stick with it when it is 10° again??

The Thang: Lots of mixed (non-4) counts

Mosey around the main parking lot covering as much ground there as possible in a zigzag pattern. Alternating High Knees, Butt Kickers, and Karaoke.

Mosey to the band practice lot
SSH x30
1 Burpee
Windmill x10
2 Burpees
Imperial Walker x15
3 Burpees
Hillbilly Walker x15
4 Burpees
LSS x15
5 Burpees
(It took until the Hillbilly Walkers for Longshanks to realize I was copying one of his warmups. Imitation is the highest form of flattery…..why fix it if it ain’t broken?)

Mosey to traffic circle COP
Alternating:
Down Dog and Honeymooner
Plank
Shoulder Taps x10
Yogi Squats

Mosey to Pull Up Bars at ROTC Building
Split into groups of 3s (CSPAN made a French joke and the PAX did 9 Burpees in cadence)
Rotate partners through Derkins, Pull ups, and Wall Sits. Called up and down for each exercises. Did about 6 slow pull ups per PAC.

Mosey to Elementary School parking lot
Partner up for alternating Mike Tysons and Bear Crawls from island to island through the parking lot.

Mosey back towards COT with a lap around the basketball court.

At COT:
Around the Worlds (12 count lunges) x6
Flutters x15
LBC x15
Catalina Wine Mixer x2 (hit 6 o’clock)

NMM:

As PAX, we regularly challenge ourselves physically in the gloom. Leaving the comfort of the fart sack to push ourselves and get better. But how often do we challenge ourselves mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. Often with these challenges we don’t have to wake up and head to the gloom; they come our way without us seeking.

How do we respond to emotional challenges presented in the form of a four-year-old trying to situate their sock perfectly when it is time to go? Or mentally when there’s a civic challenge that needs to be addressed? Or spiritually when were faced with our own demons?

Addressing and improving physically is a wonderful thing, but we as PAX must strive to better ourselves emotionally, mentally, and spiritually as well. Otherwise we are always out of balance.

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