Tag: Maximus

Your Q is Not Complete Until You Write a Backblast

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“Your Q is not complete until you write a backblast.”

Our 1st F Q is cracking down on backblasts… and YHC has put this one off for a week.  One week late is better than never.

 

L Train hit up YHC late Monday night to lead some Broga and Miles at Bushwood. Always happy to oblige some deep muscle therapy.

 

Started the BC off with our usual disclaimer + the five core principles of F3. Then we moseyed away from the music and warmth of UHAUL.

 

Circuit 1: Broga

15 min Yoga Flow after 1 mile warmup

Deep stretch positions including runners pose, lizard pose, modified pigeon, chair (w/prayer twist), etc. The PAX were not pleased to be done.

Finish off with 5 dead hang pull ups.

 

Circuit 2: Deep Burn

Mosey back up the hill and across Whites Rd to Forest Creek Middle bus loop.

Plank in wait for the six.

Low Slow Squats x 20

60 Second Al Gore Hold at end of 20th squat.

20 Squat pulses to finish.

Lunges x 10

60 Second Hold at end of last lunge

10 Lunge Pulses to finish.

Flap Jack to the other side.

Mosey back to COT for a little bit of Mary to finish off.

 

Apparently the boys at Snake Pit likes to listen to “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M. on repeat. You do you, UHAUL.

 

‘Twas a good time at Bushwood. L Train – thank you for asking YHC to lead.

 

Punch List out.

 

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2

STL – Just Keep Going

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9 PAX at Sweep the Leg

3.75 mile route through Baxter, some got a little extra at the end.

Every stop we did the following exercises for the 6 to arrive. When the 6 was in, YHC called either one more exercise or we went back to moseying
Exercises:
5 burpees
10 merkins
15 squats
20 flutters
25 lbcs
Mostly we continued on after squats or flutters

When we arrived at Alison Park everyone had 5 pull-ups, but they called the up and down. Other PAX were doing merkins because there’s only one pull-up bar in all of Baxter. 40 merkins and 5 pull-ups for everyone at Alison. From there we continued our route

NMM:
The workout was designed to model the following scenario. Sometimes things are rough and you want them to change. But you find the change is just as rough or worse. So, you go back and forth. The point is: you don’t stop.

An honor to lead such a fast group.

—
Band Camp Dismissed

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5

No Arrival

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40-some pax posted to the region’s Ground Zero at WEP for a smorgasbord of pain, from 6@6 to Millkshake to a tried and true BC beatdown.  A very explicit and thorough Disclaimer was pronounced by Dark Helmet for the benefit of our FNG, and then the pax blasted off.

The Thang

The recitation of the 5 Core Principles quickly failed to meet DOAH’s standard, leading to some burpees.

Mosey around the parking lot with some toy soldiers and knee lifts mixed in, with the pax following onto the bandshell stage.

COP proceeded including more core principles along with some Merkins and DOAH’s proclamation that maybe the FNG’s fitness surpassed that of many of the pax present.  {Yes, he’s good at stirring the pot whether he’s poking at the Q or Qing himself.}

More mosey and more warm up exercises until the pax reach the far side of the WEP.

Enter stage left — the BAOPS boys via Clown Car — Trucker, Smuggler, Change Order & Longshanks, who just couldn’t stand the thought  of missing out on the best 1st, 2nd & 3rd F in The Fort on this given Saturday.  {Pro move by whoever made that call!}

Partner up for wheel barrow…to the playground…Yes…to the playground!…where the fun really starts.  {Fishsticks promptly cruised 85% of the way there to prove to his FNG that no matter what DOAH says, the FNG’s fitness had room for improvement.}

At the playground, each partner does 50 (yes, Five-O!) pull ups.  {Jiffy cranked out 30 in rapid fire.}

Some core work followed including LBCs and Rosalitas among others.

Handoff to Double D

Run to the bottom of the hill

Jacob’s Ladder with Donkey Kicks at the bottom and Sumo Squats at the top.  Traverse to the top via Bear Crawl and run to the bottom.

Mosey back to the parking lot with some Mary led by Jekyll

Climb the Stairway to Heaven via lunge walks, pausing for Carolina Dry Docks at each lamp post, starting with 5 reps and adding 5 more at each successive post.

Mosey down to the monuments with some Mary led by Longshanks

Circle up for an FNG introduction to Jack Webb by Change Order

Run home for final 2 mins of Mary by Longshanks

COT

NMM

A spirited pax at The Fort on this pleasant late winter morning!   Back to back weeks with a convergence at The Fort — thanks to the Alcatraz boys for adding their zeal to the day!

Maximus delivered the tailgate coffeeteria in the parking lot afterward and our FNG (EHed by Fishsticks) hung around long enough to learn the backstory of his name (Roy Kent) and to fill his rolodex with roofing customer prospects.

Welcome to Roy Kent!  Barry Manilow was quite vocal about the quality of the name and the importance of RK living up to it.  Well, if he doesn’t meet the mark, we can always default to what RK thought we named him — Rockette!

It was great to have Car Bomb among the pax today, fresh off his return trip from New Zealand, prior to his resettlement in another adventure.

The theme for the day was geared around the notion of life being an endless series of mountain climbs, peak after peak, with no arrival to the top in sight — ever.  Depressing, huh?  No, not for the HIMs of F3 and The Fort.  Give us the hard stuff.  We’re playing the long game and we know you can’t play it alone.  So keep posting, stay engaged with your brothers.  Together we’ll keep accelerating.

It was a treat to Q with DOAH for the first time.  We all look at him as just another member of The Fort, which of course he is.  At the same time, he also invests a huge amount of his life leading the 43 feet for the Nation.  Not only is it not easy being Frank {imagine how hard it must be for Traci his wife}, it’s also lonely at the top of any organization {how about leading one with 50,000 type A men?}, and it’s incredibly challenging to serve as the successor to any founder {would you want to try one Dredd’s shoes}.  Despite the small jabs, I say this with all seriousness — DOAH has taken on an extremely difficult challenge, one that he executes well with tremendous energy and virtue and that we all benefit from.  We’re fortunate that he calls The Fort “home” and that we get to take his crap on a regular cadence.  Thank you, DOAH!

Thanks to Grinder for the opportunity!  Always an honor to lead the men of this brotherhood!

SYITG

 

 

 

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4

Convergence: Love & a passing of the flag

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Station 1 (Santini): Traditional Pain Platoon

Just your basic beat the hell out of your legs exercises of lunges, squats, and burpees intermixed with meditation and box breathing exercises. Sprint to the top of the hill, recover, and do more exercises including Moroccan night clubs and Carolina dry docks.

NMM: Anxiety and gratitude are not able to occupy the same space.

Station 2 (Shady / Maximus)

Warmup (Shady) – 21 SSH, 5 burpees, 18 SSH, 5 burpees, 12 SSH, someone whined about burpees so we did 10 diamonds merkins…then did 5 burpees
Group 1
  • partnered up and Dora style started out with 100 pull-ups.  Partner 1 on the pull-up bar, partner 2 did a lap around the playgroud
  • Stayed on playground, stayed with partner, Partner 1 AMRAP merkins while partner 2 ran the length of the playground and back to AMRAP merkins
  • Stayed on the AMRAP theme with flutters, then back to merkins, then back to flutters…then (I think) time was called

Group 2

  • Partnered up and Dora style, but this time 50 pull-ups with the run around the playground (Q modification given time and we aren’t cyborgs)
  • AMRAPs were just 1 round of merkins and flutters (again, I think…may need a lifeline here from Max)
  • We made our way to the hill with the statue where Maximus laid down the NUR up the hill and at the top 10 bomb jacks and ran to the bottom where we did 20 American hammers..we did this twice
  • W/ time to spare we ran to the top for 10 diamond merkins and ran to the bottom for 10 V-ups
  • In buzzer beater fashion, we ran to the top again for 10 ranger merkins and ran to the bottom for a partner 1 lay on the ground and grab partner 2s ankles where partner 2 would throw partner 1s feet down 10 times as you straight leg lifted them to his face

Group 3

  • Dora style 50 pull-ups with the run around the playground
  • We made our way to the hill with the statue where Maximus laid down the NUR up the hill and at the top 10 bomb jacks and ran to the bottom where we did 20 american hammers..we did this twice
  • Running low on time ran to the top for 10 diamond merkins and ran to the bottom for the ankle grabbing / feet throwing core exercise 10 times
NMM: After each of the groups had done their pull-ups, Maximus and Shady shared their thoughts and experiences on LOVE.
  • Shady – areas of focus were loving your brother and being your brothers keeper.  Sending a text or reaching out to someone to just say “hey, thinking of you” could change their day.  Realizing that the ones you love are watching you, emulating you, picking up on good and bad habits.  Realizing we don’t know it all, especially to the ones we love, is a sign of humility and a factor of growth and development.  For those of us with children, we have never been parents before so we honestly have no idea what we’re doing.  Love starts with servant leadership and personally for YHC, this usually progresses when the mouth is shut and ears are open.
  • Maximus – For my discussion on love, it begins with being intentional as love is a decision. We must make the decision to be intentional with our actions. Whether it be in our faith, marriage, parenting of our kids, with friends and yes, even with work relationships, we must be intentional. Think about how easy it is to get distracted, whether at dinner with your wife or even on a Zoom call for work. We often allow our minds to wander or even start doing something else while the other person is talking, looking for our engagement. Stop. Be the person who is present in the moment. Put the shoe on the other foot. Love that person as your relationship to them allows.

Station 3 (Pusher & Cakeboss): Love Edition

COP
  • SSHs
  • Windmills
  • Squats
  • Mtn Climbers
  • Merkins
  • IWs
Cake Boss spells love “B-U-R-P-E-E”
The Thang
  • Jacobs Ladder with Derkins and Monkey Humpers
  • Plank/Dip sequence
  • Bear crawl to top with burpees
NMM:
  • Cord of 3 strands cannot be broken. Having God in your marriage is the 3rd string. Adding communication to the marriage strengthens it. – CB
  • Gifts vs Gaps. Focus on the gifts that your wife or significant other bring vs what she is missing. Seeing her this way builds love. – Pusher
  • Much love was on display with all of the mumblechatter and fellowship. The relationships formed through F3 has increased our love internally and is reflected outward to our Ms, 2.0s, PAX and community… #morethanaworkout

Shovel Flag hand off for two leadership positions in the Fort:

Shady handed off the Nantan role to Double D
Esso handed off the Weasel Shaker role to YHC

Awesome work by the PAX today. Hard to put into words how much improved my disposition on life is since moving back to Fort Mill because of F3. Grateful for an opportunity to serve the PAX of The Fort.

NMM: Double D was the site-Q at Block Party when I started posting. If it wasn’t for his steady presence with a commitment to the integrating 2nd F and 3rd F elements into each workout, I doubt I’d have kept posting. Double D is a genuine human, I’m a better dude for knowing him, and I’m excited for his leadership.

—
Band Camp dismissed

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8

Valentine’s Day Massacre – STL Edition

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Vuvuzela reached out about Q’ing a few weeks back. Luckily a top three finish for YHC happened circa Summer 2020 so eligibility had not yet expired. It was a seemingly warm 27 degrees as the PAX rolled out of the vehicles this morning. Hadn’t seen Slap Shot or Skipper in quite some time – so the smiles were a plenty. 0515. Time to work.

Warm Up

Disclaimer disclaimed. Mentioned all the necessary stuffs that one would say before running off into the dark. That feeling of warmth that I mentioned around the cars? That quickly changed as we descended into the depths of Dave Gibson Blvd for our warm up lap. Maximus and YHC started in front and felt the temps drop at least five degrees as we reached the bottom of the hill. We hit the bottom and headed back up to our vehicles for a quick mile to get the blood pumping.

YHC then took the PAX across 160 and down to the bottom of Brayden Pkwy. Pointed out the median breaks on the way to familiarize the PAX with the area. Plank up at the bottom and wait for direction.

WEINKE

Hill suicides (gassers for Band Camps’ sake).

Run to Median Break One, 10 reps of prescribed exercise, run back to bottom.

Run to Median Break Two, 20 reps of prescribed exercise, run back to bottom.

Run to Median Break Three, 30 reps of prescribed exercise, run back to bottom.

Movements for rounds of suicides were:

Suicide 1: Merkins/Flutter Kicks

Suicide 2: Curb Dips/LBC’s

Suicide 3: CDD’s/Hello Dollies

After 3 suicides and 42 flights of stairs climbed later… it was 5 minutes to 0600. So we high tailed it back to Earth Fare and ran a lap around the lot, finishing our work with 10/20/30 Squats/American Hammers along the way.

4.3 miles and 400 feet of elevation gain in 45 minutes. Not bad for a Monday morning.

NMM

Maximus high tailed it out of the quickly after we numbered off and did the namearama. His reasoning: cooking breakfast for Valentine’s Day. He’s got four lovely ladies at home and the man knows how to prioritize. That’s something we the PAX tend to neglect in our F3 world from time to time. Along the way Slap Shot and I discussed future events/races and in the midst of the conversation it came up that it’s necessary to be aware that overextending ourselves in our fitness journey tends to leave our M’s feeling a bit neglected from time to time. Be aware of that. While F3 is a good thing – our marriages deserve much more focus.

 

Prayers/Praises – 

Pray for YHC’s family. A lot going on these past few weeks.

Pray for our minds and our abilities to keep from self isolating when going through hard things as men.

 

Thanks, Vuvu, for the tap. Enjoyed the lead today.

 

Punch List out.

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8

The Bunky

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In the gloom this morning, YHC Q’ed the “Bunky” WOD. In honor of my recently passed paternal grandfather, William “Bunky” Williams, IV. He led a good life with three children, five grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. He lived to be 94 years. Below is the WOD that YHC wrote up to show him respect. He was an avid water sportsman, a fisherman, a merchant marine, and a baseball fanatic. Among other things, he taught YHC how to throw a knuckleball, took myself and my cousins crabbing on his pontoon boat, and taught me many things about the water.

Beyond what he did and didn’t do, and for aside from the obvious reason he is passing, YHC is feeling sad. I miss him, and will miss him for a long time. I also know that a window of mine into the past has closed. Grandparents span at least six generations. They are literally a time machine of knowledge of 100 + years. His grandfather, and potential great grandfather were alive when he was a child. My great, great, great grandfather and I could be connected via his memories. Take advantage if you still have those family members in your life. Their memories die with them if not shared with us.

During the WOD YHC would take short breaks and tell stories of his life – good and not so good. 

 

WEINKE

Lead off with 94 4-count Ruck SSH IC. 

Born 06/27/1927 – Died 02/06/2021

Rep Count of 6-27-19-27

Sandbag OH Press

Sandbag Squats

Sandbag Good Mornings

Crab Walk w/Ruck out and back

 

Midway Point

94 Single Count Flutter Kicks

3 children, 5 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren

3 sandbag get ups

5 Manmakers w/SB

6 sandbag over the shoulder

 

Second Half

Rep Count of 2-6-20-22

Sandbag Bent Over Row

Sandbag Clean and Toss

Sandbag Side Bends

Ruck Duck Walk out and ruck back

We made it to 20, and then hit 0600.

 

NMM

I mentioned my grandfathers’ struggle with alcohol and other things throughout the weinke. Divac mentioned in COT something very profound and true. Too often we spend our time thinking about what our fathers owe us, or what they did wrong. We are not perfect, and we know it. Neither were they. They have a story just like us and have reasons for why they did what they did – right or wrong. They don’t owe us anything – let’s flip the script here. We owe our fathers and grandfathers way more for giving us life, providing for us, loving us (to whatever degree), and creating opportunity. As long as we take what was given us and take it one step further for our children – that’s forward progress.

 

Solid showing today by some solid men. All of which I am glad to have in my corner.

 

Punch List out.

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3

3 Stations on Repeat

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Ring of Fire welcomed 10 PAX with one having to modify due to injury.
It’s Groundhog Day for anyone attending to those matters so rather than just going through the motions, be focused and intentional with your actions, starting with today’s workout.

Head over to the band parking lot for a few warmup exercises.
Run to the 50, 2 burpees, run to the other end, 2 burpees
Nur to the 50, 2 burpees, nur back to the start, 2 burpees

Explanation of our 3 stations to be executed with a partner

Station 1 at the band lot
10 Jump Squats and 20 Calf Raises

Run to station 2 at the pull up bars
10 Pull Ups and 20 Diamond Merkins

Run to station 3 at the elementary school parking lot at the bottom of the hill
10 X’s & O’s and 20 American Hammers

When you finish with station 3, nur up the hill back to station 2, to complete station 2 then run back to station 1. Repeat until time expires.

Hey Kaiser, we missed you.
SYITG
Maximus

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2

Shoulders and Sandbags at Currahee

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It’s February 1st, it’s cold(ish), GTE season is about to kick off and we’re at Currahee. I asked the PAX to bring a few sandbags so we had kettle bells and bags ranging from 20lbs – 80lbs which was perfect to welcome Badlands to his virgin ruck workout.

Disclaimer & ground your rucks

Jog around the parking lot
Grab your rucks and shuffle around the parking lot
Grab all the coupons and ruck around the parking lot

Good morning. I love you. Now do 20 Man Makers.

To the soccer fields:
Bear crawl (rucks only) 1/2 way across the field (shorter distance) then bear crawl ruck drag the remaining distance.
Go to one end of the field and set your eyes on the other end. Now we’re looking at the field via the long way.
Shuffle 1/2 way, 10 tricep extensions, shuffle the rest, 10 tricep extensions
NUR 1/2 way, 20 upright rows, NUR the rest, 20 upright rows
I promise I love you. Bear crawl 1/2 way (again, we’re talking about the long way), 10 merkins, bear crawl ruck drag the rest, 10 slick merkins.

Back to the coupons in the lot .
With rucks and all coupons, we’d ruck the big drop off loop with stops at each of the 4 corners for 3 exercises at each:
10 Ruck Thrusters
15 Overhead Press
20 Ruck Curls (this turned out to be the worst especially for Mainframe and his 45lb’er)

Rucks only and make our way to the flags
On your back, legs straight up and rucks overhead, LBC’s in cadence
Flutters in cadence
Rucks on your feet then modified LBC’s in cadence

On your feet.
PAX hold their ruck with arms bent at 90 degrees. Each PAX take their turn at performing 5 good ruck curls while the rest hold the 90.

Overhead ruck carry back to COT.

Hey Divac…GO PACK (Wolfpack, that is)
Maximus

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3

Celebrities, Cinder Blocks, Disney…a perfect morning at BAOPS

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The threat of snow did not intimidate as a total of 14 PAX converged on the Rock, er BAOPS, er Alcatraz. In addition to the Nation representation, we were graced with the dulcet(er) tones of Funny Bonz, er…Hello Kitty. Man, if only we had CSPAN, Repeato, Tommy Boy and Bones in attendance, we would’ve had all the Podcasting staff present. Next time.
Right from the jump, the chatter was strong, exactly how it should be. We had snow jokes, road jokes, hugs, rookie jokes, Q-Source jokes, age jokes and a whole bunch of things not made for print. A morning that will live in infamy, or, maybe not.

With the first half of this morning’s installment brought to you by Maximus (3rd person), I (1st person) did give the disclaimer. You could imagine how that went. Something to note, I did advise the PAX who got there early, they should stretch and warm up as necessary ‘cuz ain’t no side straddle hops, imperial walkers or windmills were to be had.

So, we made our way to the top of the park to the pull up bars. Every member of the PAX had to complete 10 pull ups and while you weren’t pulling yourself up, you were completing your best rendition of the American Hammer. Go until completion.
Next, run to the bottom of “the hill”; don’t worry, I scouted for slick roads ahead of time.
At the bottom of the hill, 10 Burpees and 10 Carolina Dry Docks
Run up for 5 more pull ups
Run back to the bottom for 10 Burpees and 20 Merkins.
NUR back to the top for flutter kicks until the 6 rolled in.

To the parking lot and grab a cindy out of my truck bed (or a KB)
10 Overhead Press
20 Staggered Merkins (10ea side)
30 Curls
40sec count while holding legs out at 6″ and cindy overhead

40 Overhead Press
30 Merkins (15ea side)
20 Curls
10sec count as done above

50 Bent over rows
10 Thrusters

My job is done…time for Italian Job

Short mosey to the field for:
11’s from foul pole to foul pole with the exercises consisting of
Mickey Mouse Merkins (Walt Disney World Merkins) at one end and squats at the other.
No doubt at this point, the PAX had a severely confused puppy dog look on their face because IJ was all like, “Ya know, Disney…WDW, Wide-Arm, Diamond, Wide Arm.”
And all of us were like, “Oh yeah…of course”…eye roll.
This my friends, is a sure-fire way to make a statement. It became very clear that unless your name is Italian Job, Senator Tressel, Trucker, Olaf and perhaps Mainframe, your form was garbage come about Disney Merkin #6.

Carry on

Now, run around the entire field then 25 Calf Raises.
Next up, run another lap then 25 Freddy Mercury’s.
Finally, another lap.

NMM (In the words of Italian Job):
“Always a pleasure to share the gloom with you men. A question for you, What’s holding you back? Is it time, energy, money, expertise – all of these? Excuses only sound good to the person making them. Whatever you desire is on the other side of effort. If it was easy, everyone would do it. If you want it, go get it. Dominate the day!”

And like that, we’re out. Until next time…
Italian Job & Maximus

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6

(Un)Bear-AB-le Ladder

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Kermit originally was the substitute-Q for this week but was battling a sore knee the last couple days, so I accepted the opportunity to take the Q on short notice the day before.  My plan was to come do a site visit later that evening since I have only posted at Laces In a couple times and am not too familiar with the FMHS campus.  Well life got in the way of that plan as my M was rear ended pretty much immediately after I clicked accept on the worship planner invitation (her and 2.0s are fine).  So my site visit didn’t come to fruition and I was gonna have to wing it….

The mid 20s temps weren’t going to deter the 5 PAX from getting better this morning and so at 0515 the standard disclaimer was given as an army of headlamps descended on the parking lot like a band of wild hooligans {Soul to Sole).

Moseyed past some sort of Soul to Sole mating ritual  (Maximus moseyed through them) over to the pavement football field where we warmed up with a brief CoP (all in cadence) – 20 SSH, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Hillbilly Walkers, 10 Merkins

Thang Part 1 – (Un)Bear-ab-le Ladder

Bear Crawl to each ladder rung and complete Ab exercise – Crawl Bear back to Goal Line

10 yard line – 10 American Hammers

20 yard line – 20 Shoulder Taps

30 yard line – 30 Flutters

40 yard line – 40 LBCs

50 yard line – 50 Plank Jacks

Al Gore for the 6 at each goal line return with a couple 10 counts to keep the group together

Totals:

150 Yards of Bear Crawls, 150 Yards of Crawl Bears, 50 American Hammers, 80 Shoulder Taps, 90 Flutters, 80 LBCs,  and 50 Plank Jacks

I was a little unsure how that bear crawl combined with ab work would play out – definitely tough but I think I will keep it in the back pocket for future Q’s.

 

Mosey to St Phillip Neri Parking Lot for Part 2.

Thang Part 2-  Half-DORA – Partner 1 Runs to end of Parking Lot and Back while Partner 2 completes exercises – switch and repeat

50 – Jump Squats

100 – Merkins

150 – Calf Raises

We probably had time for the full DORA but there was mumblechatter about hills early in the workout so I wanted to make sure and get some hill sprints in to reward the PAX for coming out.

Mosey to hill entrance where we had time for  2 sets of 5 Burpees/hill sprint and a set of 5 burpees followed by a sprint back to COT.  More solid mumblechatter around Cuban food and the need for Cohiba to host a dinner party.

Finished at 0600 – Name-o-rama, announcements, prayers, and praises

I suppose one should expect unpredictability when you kick it with Laces In –  However, the last minute audibles all panned out this morning and we definitely didn’t have any Ray Finkles in the group.  Thanks for the opportunity!

-Badlands

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