Tag: Jedi

Dogs Pissing on Black Friday

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After a Q swap followed by a BEYOND takeover, YHC was due to actually Q at the Swamp in November. When the Black Friday slot came available, I jumped on the opportunity and started to put together some bad ideas. The problem was, each idea was only about a 5-10 minute circuit, not a full workout. I couldn’t seem to get a full workout put together.

So, I sent a message to ChaChing warning him up the forthcoming shi….er, Elvis Explosion, made a couple notes, and hoped for the best.

Friday morning rolled around, and more PAX showed up than Black Friday shoppers, which is unfortunate for the stores, since we only had 6 PAX, including 2 visitors from Bluffton (welcome Joker and Snowflake). It should also be noted that there is a Bluffton in SC, which came as news to YHC, who up to now was only familiar with the small Mennonite hamlet of the same name in western Ohio. Disclaimer disclaimed, and off we moseyed.

In order to change up from the norm, we ran past Chick-fil-A and out to 49 to head toward 160. We added in a stretch of high knees, butt kickers, turned the corner at 160 and did some toy soldiers, then the ever popular forward moving hillbilly squat walkers.

We rallied at the top of the hill by the bank for the first round: 11s. Squats at the top, burpees at the bottom, starting with 1 burpee at the bottom and 10 squats at the top. I wanted to end at the top of the hill, so we started by running down and doing the burpee, then went from there.

Once all PAX were done, we moseyed to the far entrance by Ulta, then cut in and headed straight for Kohl’s to honor the Site-Q’s request to stick it to the discount department store.

Next up, 3 rounds of:

30 second balls to the wall

20 tuck jumps (or jump tucks, since you jump before you tuck)

10 Mike Tysons (“sneaky hard,” according to a few PAX)

10 lateral squat leg raises, lovingly called “pissing dogs” by the heavy-laden backpackers gathering in a line waiting to go into Kohl’s

With that out of the way, short mosey to the red balls. Short and sweet: 5 donkey kicks at each ball with a bear crawl in between balls. Lots of modifying here, but good push by all.

Mosey up to Old Navy. Next up: burpee broad jumps down to the parking lot crossing between the shops. It was going to be the roundabout, but PAX agreed that those extra 15 feet were just too far.

Mosey the short way around the roundabout and back out to 49, down to McDonald’s, and back to COT for the last bit of fun. It had been a while, so we ended with the currently unnamed dips/crap cakes combo ala Jack Webb style (1 dip:4 crab cakes). This brought us to 0600 on the dot. It was noted that the heavy-laden backpackers gave up their spots in line at Kohl’s to end their wandering at 0558.

There were announcements and prayer requests, but I can’t remember them.

Thanks to ChaChing for the opportunity to lead and for putting up with my disorganized dumbness.

Jedi

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Four Corners of Heck at the Abyss

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Twas a nip in the air this morning but nothing that would bother the mighty lads of F3.  We gathered and at 5:15 sharp disclaimer was given and we moseyed.   Here is how it went down:

Warm-o-Rama

  • 400 Meter Mosey with side shuffles and toy soldiers thrown in
  • 20 SSH IC
  • 10 Imperial Walkers IC
  • 10 Hillbilly Walkers IC
  • 10 Wind Mills IC
  • 10 Merkins IC

The Thang, Part I

YHC asked Captain Jack to pick a number between 39 & 41.  With that we settled on the number of pull-ups each Pax was to complete.  Each was instructed to do as many as possible then at failure, run to the top of the inclined road behind the school, execute 5 merkins,  run back down and pick up the pull-ups where he left off.  Repeat until reaching 40 pull-ups or 5 trips up the road, whichever came first.  As we waited for the six, the Q regaled the team with an amusing tale about forgotten reading glasses and a Portobello Steak sandwich minus the steak.

The Thang, Part II “Four Corners of Heck”

  • Bear crawl to the middle, execute 5 burpees and lunge out between stations

Station #1

  • 10 Medicine Ball Jump squats
  • 10 single count curls/arm; 25lb or 20lb dumbbell, Pax choice
  • 20 Nolan Ryan’s (10/side)
  • 25 LBCs (single count)

Station #2

  • 10 Lunges per leg
  • 10 WWI Sit ups
  • 10 Tricep hammers/ arm with 20lb or 15lb dumbbell, Pax choice
  • 10 Diamond merkins

Station #3

  • 30 SSH – Single Count
  • 20 Flutters – Double Count
  • 15 Derkins
  • 15 CDDs

Station #4

  • 20 Ranger Merkins
  • 20 Monkey Humpers
  • 10 Lt. Dans
  • 15 Crab Cakes IC

Repeat one station

The Thang part III

These Pax are finely tuned boot camp machines and as such, finished parts I & II with time to spare.  YHC, not wanting to cheat them, ad-libbed:

  • People’s chair during which Pax on each end ran 5 yards out and executed 5 squats
  • Repeat with balls to the wall

Mosey to COT with 2 min to spare; 10 crunchy frogs IC; 10 Freddie Mercuries IC; 10 American Hammers IC

Ended the session with a reminder about the F3 Christmas party, praise for family gatherings, prayers for travelers and those dealing with loss.  Gentlemen, being part of the F3 brotherhood brings me great joy.  It was an honor to lead this morning.

Wolverine out.

 

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Hills, Hills, Hills

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We ran.

Mile and a half-ish warm up around the parking lot, up the back hill, around the front on 49, back into the parking lot, around towards the back of the school, around the track, and back out to the front entrance near the metal barrier.

Ran the hill from the barrier to the stop light on 49 x 5 at a 3-5K pace with a light jog back down and a 30 sec – 1 min rest between.  Note: some people’s 3-5K was more like a sprint.

Indian Run from the stop light to the back bus parking lot hill.

Hill sprints from the 2nd light pole to the gate x 6.

After final sprint, we took a run up 49 in front of the school again back down to the main parking lot .  With a few minutes to spare, we were able to get in one final Indian Run around the parking lot before COT.

Announcements: Turkey Day Convergence, Band Aids, F3 Christmas Party…

Prayers: Travels for Turkey Day and Royale for patience as he continues the journey of Fatherhood (which we all can use).

 

Thanks for the Q opp. Hauschka!  Put me back on more often to keep me accountable for getting out and keeping me honest in my runs!

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Cold Blooded at the Swamp

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So it was the coldest day of November (so far) but at least there was no rain.  A balmy 33 degrees to start the workout.  My goal was to keep the energy level high to keep the blood flowing!  Only 3 of the 15 men planned on rucking this morning, so I gave the disclaimer and the other 12 of us were off.

Mosey with a dynamic warmup to the Home Depot parking lot.

COP with IWs – Windmills – SSHs – MNCs – Mountain Climbers – CDDs – Plank Jacks – Merkins?

These days whatever keeps me moving is what I call.  I like to take Pushers guidance and change the count for each…which always gets the PAX talking! It’s almost impossible to get Jedi and Witch Hunt to stop chattering nowadays… which always adds a fun playful air to the warmup.

Enough of that stuff… moving on!  I like to find new routines in the Lexicon that we might not have done before.  I found these:

“The Dab”  (I was immediately asked why it’s called that…not idea just from the workout)

10 burpees in 1 minute

Run a quarter mile lap around the parking lot

Do this 4 times

It went pretty well…and it kept us warm unfortunately Half Shell “popped” his calf muscle… that’s not good for running! No man will be left behind so I tried to modify a little.  I’m sorry if it was not enough Half Shell…

Slow walk towards Target, but a bear crawl for good measure to keep everyone together for about 50 yards.

“Triple Check”

Teams of 3

1st PAX wall sit

2nd PAX Plank

3rd PAX run 50 yards and back.

Rotate through your team and complete this 3 times.

This took longer than expected so item #3 of the evolutions was left off and we moseyed back to COT.  With 2 minutes to spare more burpees were completed.

Namorama

Announcements & Prayers

An Honor to Lead,

Royale

 

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The Right Kind of Sacrifice

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14 men awoke to not so bright/wet conditions and converged in the gloom of the hallowed ground at The Swamp for a Beyond message from YHC.  Here’s what went down

Warmup:      20 SSH IC, 20 Imperial Walkers, 15 windmills (wonderfully executed), 10 Mtn Climbers.    Let’s mosey

The Thang:      Mosey to the alley behind Home Depot for a perfect location to perform the BLIMPS workout and grab some wall for 1-min wall-sits in between each as their active rest, allowing YHC to convey the message for today.  At each 1-min sit, YHC shared what has been on his heart about sacrifice.   This is defined as something that is a loss or something  you give up for the sake of a better cause.    Approximately 1-year ago, my wife and I were celebrating her completion of treatment for Breast Cancer.  Surgery, radiation, DNA testing, doctors, etc…pronounced her as Cancer Free and we returned to our routine.  Our faith had been a anchor throughout and continued to grow thru prayer and my F3 brothers and Journey group, yet I had one main question.  How did this trial change us and by us I mean, me and my role as a husband, father and leader of my home.  I realized how consumed I was with my martial arts training, races, Goruck events, etc..that I was actually not IN my home very much.  That which I thought was making me healthier, stronger and better for my family had me gone for large amounts of time from them.

Time for a sacrifice! I am going on year of stepping away from all those things that took me away from her and the kids to activities to do together and that were important to her!  She never once asked for this and struggled with me giving it up after so long but it’s been the best decision of my life.  God has changed my path for the better by sacrificing what I thought was important to what is truly important.

Sacrifice will lead you to make significant choices. But being a husband and father is a significant experience!

B  5 Burpees OYO, followed by 10 SSH IC
1-min wall sit
L 10 Lunges each leg OYO, followed by 10 SSH IC
1-min wall sit
I 15 Imperial Walkers IC, followed by 10 SSH IC
1-min wall sit
M 20 Merkins OYO, followed by 10 SSH IC
1-min wall sit
P 25 Plank Jacks, followed by 10 SSH IC
1-min wall sit
S 30 Squats, followed by 10 SSH IC

Mosey to the large parking lot for some 4-corners of Blimps!  Total of 6 laps around the parking lot stopping at each corner to perform the exercise.  First (1) lap: 5 burpees @ ea corner (2) lunges (3) 15 IW (4) 20 merkins (5) 25 plank jacks (6) 30 squats (stop at end of each full lap to wait on the 6 with planks; modified the M, P, & S

Return for COT and some last words:  Identify that thing in your life that you may be placing your identity in that may be causing you to miss the mark of your Concentrica Bullseye!

Good work, men.  It was an honor to lead you this morning.

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Forties for 40

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Well today was the day… turning 40…why not take the Q today?  I asked Bones for it months ago.  There’s nothing better than leading a group of men and friends at an F3 workout, especially on a birthday.  I was really happy to see 17 other men here, including a few faces that don’t usually travel to the Abyss.

We started up with a mosey around the parking lot.  Nemo and Flux were pulling in right at 5:15 so we did a lap and let them catch up.  Standard dynamic warmup stuff on the lap.

It was cold so the warmup had some more cardio items than usual.

-SSHs – Ab Vagota – Seal Jacks – Squats – IWs – Mountain Climbers

We ended with the Merkin Circle

6 rounds around the circle.  1 merkin each for the 18 guys while in plank.

We moved over to the Hill.  I found an exercise in the lexicon called “Forties”.  I figured if we added the hill we could call it the “Over the Hill Forties”.  That got some laughs, and some groans…

It’s a ladder with higher reps.  An Exercise at the Top of the Hill, one at the bottom.  Take 30 reps at the top 10 at the bottom, then subtract 5 and add 5 until you’ve flipped to 10-30.

1st round : Top = CDDs Bottom = Flutters

2nd Round : Top = American Hammers Bottom = Calf Raises

We took a break and I shared a little message about reflections.  How these men and F3 have helped change me to be a better person and on a better path in life.  I reflected on who I might have been at 40 with out these men… it wasn’t so pretty.

We moseyed next to the front of the school.  I split the group into 2 teams.

Team 1 would stay for wall sits while Team 2 bear crawled around the circle

Flipped it

Next round BTTW as long as you can, then wall sits while Team 2 Crab Walked the circle

Finally we head back to COT for a very special circle.  For my birthday we we’re going to play a game.  The group had to answer questions about me.  If correct 10 SSHs.  If wrong… 10 burpees!

The Questions were:

  1. How many siblings do I have? right
  2. What is my favorite professional sports team? right
  3. What High School did I attend?  Bonus, what was the mascot? right with bonus!
  4. What was my favorite children’s toy in 1985? wrong
  5. Where do I work? right
  6. Where did I go to college? right

To my surprise these men got 5 of 6 right…and to Iced-T’s credit he was saying He-Man for #4…but the group out voted him!

Announcements

Thanksgiving Convergence

Christmas Party

Fast 5 postponed

Prayers

For Soprano and the passing of his brother

Hurricane victims still in need

Grateful for all the people in our lives

If you’ve read this far the answers were

  1. 1 sister = Rachel
  2. Green Bay Packers
  3. South Meck = Sabres
  4. He-Man
  5. Merrill Lynch
  6. UNCC

An Honor to Lead!

-Royale

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Basically Beyond at Poopdeck

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Once again, I got to take a last minute opening in the Q schedule. I love this because of my wife’s work schedule being so erratic I haven’t been able to commit to some Q opportunities lately. I had a remarkably terrible idea to go to the Backblasts here at f3thefort.com and I filtered by ‘BEYOND’ which, for the uninitiated, is a weekly traveling Black Diamond ultra hard AO we have in The Fort.

I found a favorite of mind that I have wonderful memories of from Jedi’s 2 part series back in March.

Post-disclaimer mosey to begin so we could establish the lap we would be using for the rest of the workout. run forward, bear crawl, side shuffle, NUR, crawl bear, side shuffle so you are always facing the same direction.

Quick exercises IC and some stretching but we had to get going on the Thang in order to have time

The basic idea was to do 4 sets of an exercise with a ‘rest’ exercise in between sets. Then we would take a lap and change up the exercises for 4 rounds.
The sets were reps of 20-16-12-8
Round 1: Breakdancer merkins (each side…. so yea… 40, went back to single count after set 1) / Rockette’s chair
Round 2: Mike Tyson merkins / Balls to the Wall
Round 3: Inchworm Merkins / Crab Cakes
Round 4: Elbow to knee crunches (or horizontal imperial walker, or 6 inches Freddie Mercury) / LBCs

I love using the idea of a rest exercise to just mean resting the muscles we just destroyed, no need to stop working for only a 45 minute workout.

We had a few spare minutes left so we started out 10 SSH, 1 burpee -> 10 SSH, 2 Burpee, then I let the PAX go at their own pace as far as they could go increasing burpees by one each time.

1 minute left? 8- count bodybuilders to Endex 0600

CoT
Announcements
– Christmas Party sign up, available in newsletter and twitter
– F3 custom GoRuck event for 5/4/2019 ready for registration. there are Heavy, Tough and Light options. I can’t wait for the end on this one with so many F3 brothers getting their 2nd F on!
– read your email newsletter for more!
– Collecting character bandaids at AOs!

Prayers
– Continuing encouragement for taking risks in marriages, be more vulnerable, say whats in your heart, speak up about your struggles, work it out
– Jedi is working on more missionary training this week!!!!

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A Ring of Fire to Keep Jedi Warm

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Oh man would it have been awesome to stay nice and cozy and warm in the fartsack this ‘chilly’ morning. And to think that in a month or so we would look back and say this was warm. But myself and four others decided to shake off the Monday chill and get better. Jedi shows up in shorts and was shivering a bit, waiting to get going. He claims to own no mandex to keep his legs warm. Poor guy, we need a fundraiser to fix that.

Unfortunately no FNGs. The disclaimer was disclaimed and off we went for a warmup run…..but not too far.

COP at the parking lot at the water fountain by Just Fresh:

  • SSH x 15
  • WM x 15
  • IW x 15
  • MNC x 30

Then a very short mosey to the parking lot behind Just Fresh, near Home Depot, for the thang

Tabata Ring of Fire

YHC had placed 9 cones marked with fun stuff in a rather large diameter circle around a central light pole, with each cone about 10 yards or so apart. Each cone had an exercise and a transition movement. The idea is to perform the exercise AMRAP for 1min 45 sec nonstop, then you were given 20 seconds to transition to the next cone by the means noted.  All of the transitions and cone spacing gave no rest time once you got to the next cone. I had everything timed down to exactly 45 minutes total, COP and all.

Cone # / Exercise / Transition Movement:
1. Merkin / bear crawl
2. LBC / crab walk
3. Jump lunges / bear crawl
4. CDD / crab walk
5. Flutter / crawl bear
6. Monkey humper / side crab
7. Plank jack / long jump
8. American hammer / bear crawl
9. Squat hillbilly walker / crab walk

Each PAX picked a cone to start off at and away we went. I used a tabata timer app on my phone combined with a bluetooth speaker to audible a whistle when to start an exercise, an air horn when to transition to the next cone, and clapping when we finished a set. We did a complete set nonstop until we got back to where we started, then we had a 2 minute break where I spoke on encouragement, then we got back at it for another nonstop second round. We did 2 rounds / sets total. With the timing given and abilities of the PAX there, it was safe to say that each PAX probably did at least 100 of each exercise both rounds combined. Everyone did quite well, hammering it all out to my Pandora workout station tunes – even through the commercials. I do not have time to download music and make playlists, sorry.

Then a quick AYG run back to COT for announcements, P&P:

  • Read your newletter
  • Fast 5 – POSTPONED
  • SIGN UP FOR THE CHRISTMAS PARTY!! JUST DO IT!!
  • Prayers for Repeat’s mother who was quite recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We are here for you brother!!
  • Get involved in making a difference in your community

NMM on Encouragement:

I did not have long to speak, I’ve been trying to cut back on my jibber-jabbering when I Q. I spoke a little on this month’s theme is on encouragement. As a leader, that is something you should be giving out all the time, but do we? I noted that we as men and leaders tend to give out encouragement to our kids, and other kids, rather easily, openly, and freely. If you don’t, then you should. But do we give out encouragement as easily, openly, and freely to our peers, coworkers, subordinates, friends, and/or to our M? Today’s society, especially in the workplace, is very results oriented, goal driven. It is VERY easy to completely focus on the results and goals and lose track of the most important resource that makes it happen – the people. It is very easy to hammer people on lack of results, how things can be better, how, in a nutshell, we are not achieving to our expectations. How often do folks in those situations go into a meeting where the person holding it just hammers on results, goals, and how they are not being met, then leave the meeting feeling unsatisfied? A little encouragement offsets alot of negativity if done in the right time and place. If you end a meeting pointing out inefficiencies, lack of achievement, or suggestions for improvements, that is not very motivating. Meeting agendas still have to cover those things, it is what it is. But if you end a meeting, or a personal conversation for that matter, on a positive note of encouragement and/or praise, that ends things on a totally different perspective. Always end an encounter on a high note of positivity. Rule #1 in my opinion for sustained positive interpersonal relationships. I challenge everyone out there to try it, and live by it, and you will see how people respond. Encouragement is a powerful thing simply because everyone wants to feel valued, respected, loved, needed, and that they belong. Those are simple human needs and desires. So no matter how bad things are, ALWAYS END ON A HIGH NOTE.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
– NASA

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beatdown summary

Warm Hugs For Everyone…….that survives

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In celebration of the cooler weather that was exactly one weekend later than requested for a perfect Ragner Carolinas Trail race YHC got the nod to do my thing this past Monday morning at the most proper bootcamp workout west of I77 in Fort Mill. Warmup was handled by my main partner in crime ChaChing so you know by the time YHC took over the upper body was already smoked.
Choose the harder option I’ve been told so we performed some Circle of (insert painfull exercise here).
Circle of Merkins, hold plank and critique all possible things that can be critiqued and even some that cant is expected by the PAX while observing the victim complete 10 merkins. Pass the pain to the right and let the critiques rip. One round was good so we went straight into the Circle of Hump. Same theory just more inappropriate comments from the PAX while each participant performs his best monkey humper. Two rounds of hump were performed because a true HIM never wants to deny her an encore if requested. Next on the docket was the Ring of Fire. That finally ended after two rounds or approximately not a second before everyone had red indicating fluid leaking from some area of skin directly covering a pointy joint. Sorry guys but just chalk it up as mental toughness. Could always be worse, think fire ant infested grass outside of Winthrop basketball gym. Thanks Packman for the memories and mental toughness.
Mosey to the wall beside BestBuy for some BTW, shoulder tap BTW, and some burpees before heading to the Home Depot parking lot.
Get your crawl on ladies. Each PAX perform one loop around the greenspace before running to the Lawn and Garden entrance and back. Methods of transportation around the loop were as follows: Bear crawls, crab walks, crawl bears, inchworm, then one last loop of bear crawls. Mosey back towards Pets Mart and perform some team staggered sprints from crosswalk to crosswalk. Great job guys pushing each other and encouraging until the end. Finally make it back to COT for a quick round of Cha-Cha Merkins since all snowmen love to dance before the Count-A-Rama, Name-A-Rama, P&P, Anouncements and closing prayers by YHC. Thanks for the opportunity Jedi and to the PAX for hummoring YHC with my requests. Warm Hugs for Everyone

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Charter Band-aids for Little Warriors – PreBlast

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As most of the PAX in the Fort and Rock regions knows my 5 year old daughter (Emma) is a leukemia survivor. We still make a trip every 4 weeks to get blood drawn to check her counts at Levine Children’s Hospital. We also stepped up and raised money last year (Christmas time) for a fellow brother bout-time out of Area 51 son Jennings who has leukemia also.

It has come to my attention that the budgets have been cut in some of the pediatric departments and the first thing to go is usually the character band aids. You say how important is to have these band-aids? Well as far as the cancer kids go every time the have their PORT’s (Port is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein) which for some kids is traumatic they get a band-aid over it. For others that are done with treatment such as my daughter Emma has to go back for the next 21 years to get checked (mainly blood counts). This not always easy for instance this past Wednesday she was poked 3 times. Well at the end the band aid can put a smile on a child’s face. This also goes for those kiddos that have to constantly get blood work done not just cancer kids.

So what I am challenging you to do is every week you go grocery shopping buy at least one box or more of character band-aids girls or boys. Also Spread the word in every COT. I will tweet out what AO’s I will be at and if anyone wants to step up and help me collect that would be awesome.

I also challenge others in different regions to pull together and do the same thing. My goal is to gather as much as possible and split it between Levine Children’s Hospital and Novant Health Hemby Children’s Hospital (St. Jude Affiliate Clinic) before Christmas.

Let a simple act of kindness put a smile on a little fighters face.

AYE. Lets do this.

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