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

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Productive little day at the office

It’s not often that I get asked to Q all the way out in Clover, so knowing those guys and always trying to make the most of everyone’s time, I made it my personal goal to have the most productive little Monday they’ve ever had out at the Crows Nest.

Was pleasantly surprised to see two faces I wasn’t expecting – Maximus making the trek all the way out from Tega Cay (much thanks for the long commute!) and then Witch Hunt who we’ve been missing in the gloom for a couple months now (welcome back brother!).  I’m not one for warm-ups as many of you know, so at 5:12a I warned the pax to start stretching on their own.  At 5:15a ,the disclaimer was said and we then went on a burpee mile warm-up to see the AO since it had been a while since I was last there and wasn’t sure of where we’d be doing the exercises I had lined up.

  • Burpee Mile – starting w/ 5 burpees OYO at COT, we then ran 1 mile stopping every 1/4 mile to do 5 burpees.  25 burpees in total, 1 mile under our belt.

Second half of the warm-up was on the parking lot lines near the playground.  Starting at the first parking space, do the following:

  • Sprint up one side, side shuffle to the right, back pedal down the next line, side shuffle to the right, sprint up, shuffle, back pedal and so on and so on.  Once you get to the end of the spots (about 8 spots), side shuffle around the bend and do the same thing on the other side.
  • We then moseyed over to the next parking lot that was equivalent to the one we just left and did a similar drill, only do a quasi skip (one leg in front, one leg in back) back and forth down the full parking lot lines, back pedal to the line behind you and bunny hop over and back going left back down the line.  Do for all spots and then mosey back to the start.

With the warm-up and heart rate spike complete, we hit the playground for some 11’s.  Not your standard 11’s, but a play on the 21’s that Zima and Anchorman had us suffer through at the Sweati 2 days prior.

11’s = I give two exercises, you do 1 rep of the first, and 1 rep of the second.  Then do 2 reps of each, then 3 of each, then 4, then 5….then 11 reps each.  Ends w/ you doing 66 reps of each exercise in a short period of time.  We did the following:

  • Dips / Burpees…brought the cumulative burpee count to 91 (25 from warm up mile + 66 here)
  • Jump lunges / diamond merkins
  • Sprints / big boy sit-ups…yes, the runs, ughhh.  So we started on one cross walk and then had to sprint to the next one about 30 yards up (that’s 1 sprint) and do 1 big boy sit up.  You then sprint back to the original cross walk and then back to the one you started at (that’s 2 sprints) and do 2 big boys…you work that up to 11.  This one took the remainder of the time with having to sprint 30 yards back and forth 5 times in a row, then 6 times, then 7….ugh.  A few got to 10 sprints in a row before we had to call it.

Survey Says mumbled something about making the burpee count an even 100 at some point during the workout so I thought it was a very valid suggestion.  We got back to COT and everyone knocked out 9 more.

Final totals = 2.7 miles, 100 burpees, 66 dips, 66 jump lunges (1 = both legs so really 132 jumps), 66 diamonds, 66 (or close to) big boys and 66 (almost there) sprints.  Not a bad day at the office right there.  We didn’t really break, we didn’t really warm-up, and the pax didn’t really complain one bit.  Just came to work as they knew we would.

Prayers were shared for those suffering from cancer (Alex in particular, who is 22 yo), our kids safety / independence away at camp, job interviews and for those who find themselves living homeless – White Snake shared a really cool story about a guy he ran into Uptown who was rocking a F3 tshirt and offered to give it to him.

Thanks Iced T for the call to lead – looking forward to the next time.

Cha Ching

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Beach Ants

6 PAX made it out for the GORUCK beach challenge at the Tega Cay beach club’s volleyball court.

The challenge:
20 Flutters (with press for EC)
30 meter bear crawl w/ ruck drag (about x1.5 length of court)
20 Russian twists
…for six rounds of sandy fun.

Finished up with a mosey up the road and back to COT.

Talked about the new AOs coming to the region. The 3 mile+ bootcamp sounds fun. Read your newsletter.

Thanks Router for the opportunity to lead and shame on me for taking so long to write up a really short backblast.

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Donkeys, Monkeys and Scorpions

15 fit dudes and on the other end of the spectrum … YHC on Q

This will hurt me more than it hurts you …

Mosey and circle up
Imperial Walker x 15 IC
LBC x 15 IC
Side SH x 15 IC
Shoulder Taps x 15 IC
HB Walker x 15 IC
Dying Cockroach x 15 IC
Overhead Claps x 30 or so IC
Travolta x 15 IC
Low SS x 15
Freddie x 15 IC
Windmill x 10 IC
HR Merkins x 10

Mosey to the grass
Makhtar N Diayes x 10 IC
Kneetar N Diayes x 10 IC

Mosey back to the big lot for suicides
Donkey K x 10
Donkey K x 10, Monkey H x 10
Donkey K x 10, Monkey H x 10, Scorpion DD x 10
then
Hand Touch Squats x 10
Hand Touch Squats x 10, HR Merkins x 10
Hand Touch Squats x 10, HR Merkins x 10, OH Claps x 10 IC

Line up on the end of the lot, exercise across the lot, stationary exercise, across and back
Squat Walkers, Carolina DD x 10 IC
Windmill Walkers, OH Claps x 20 or so IC
Karaoke L, Scorpion DD x 10 IC
Karaoke R, Morrocan NC x 15 or so IC
Toy Soldier, Shoulder Tap x 10 IC
Soccer Knees Out, OH Claps x 20 IC
Power Skip, Travolta x 10 IC
Bear Crawl, Morroccan NC x 15 or so IC

This again … suicides
Donkey K x 10
Donkey K x 10, Monkey H x 10
Donkey K x 10, Monkey H x 10, 10 x Scorpion DD

Calf Raises, 15 forward, 15 toes in, 15 toes out

To the grass for Jack Webb to 7 x 28

Back to COT

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

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Mountain trip to Dupont State Forest on August 3rd with Trail Running, Rucking and Biking options – there will be a 2nd F afterwords

3rd F

Alright we are 2 years ago we did a mountain trip to Roan Mtn. it was one of the best trips I have made with my fellow F3 brothers. After 10-16 miles we went to Daniel Boone Inn to refuel.

With this in mind I wanted to continue to do this hopefully every year. So on August 3rd we are going to do another mountain trip. This time it will be Trail Running, Biking and Rucking options.

Our destination will be DuPont State Forest. We will leave from the Newport Walmart at 6 am it is a 2 1/2 hr trip. we will either go to the Hooker Falls Access or the Lake Imaging Access. For runners we will try and get 12-18 miles in for Mountain bikers Vuvuzela has about 20-30 mile rout lined up.

 

2nd F

Afterwords will will go to Daddy D’s and refuel.

 

Make sure you bring water and something for energy do not come unprepared you will regret it. I did exactly that last time. This will be an unforgettable trip that we will try and do every year. we need to clown car to get there since there are no rental vans available.

Reach out to me if you have any questions.  I have attached links below.

Dupont State Forest Trail Map-1

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g49206-d2069003-Reviews-Daddy_D_s_Suber_Soulfood-Hendersonville_North_Carolina.html

www.Dupontforest.com

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Sweati or Not, #CSAUP is Saturday

0515 on a crisp…wait! This is not the Yeti preview!

0515 on a gloom-filled morning, moisture in the air, 22 Pax rolled in to get a little preview of #TheSweati. A lot of familiar faces. Nantan, Lakeridge Clowncars, Dirty, WWL, Senator, Double D…even the Weginator was there. There were more. I’ll tag them in the BB. Several came to get a little peek of the Sweati. I gave some “details”. Some true. Some false. All will be revealed this Saturday. Get your head right. Hydrate! Be Safe! Don’t Die! We did some exercises that may or may not happen this Saturday. They probably will…over a 3 hour period, not 45 minutes. So here we go:

THANG
Mosey around the parking lot and circle up for an abbreviated COP
-SSH
-10 Burpees OYO
-Imperial Walkers
-10 Bombjacks
-Mountain Climbers

Head to the curb for a short circuit (Part 1)
-25 Dips / Run across parking lot and back
-50 Merkins / Run across parking lot and back
-75 Squats / Run across parking lot and back

Mosey to the freshly repaved and striped Hive Parking Lot (Part 2)
-Burpee Broad Jump the entire length of the parking lot*
-Run Back
-Lunge Walk the entire length of the parking lot
-Run Back
*This is starting to become a thing. It should be stopped!

Mosey Back to Laces In parking lot for Reverse Pyramid (Part 3)
(Run across the parking lot and back between sets)
-40 LBCs
-30 Mtn Climbers
-20 Peter Parkers
-10 Burpees
-20 Parker Peters
-30 4-Ct Flutter Kicks
-40 Side Straddle Hops**
**Tclaps to Maximus for leading the pax in some Mary while waiting for the 6

In the interest of time, we stayed put and completed the next series of exercises in the LI parking lot versus the Hive (about 1/2 the distance planned) #yourwelcome
Bear Time (Part 4)
-Bear Crawl Across the parking lot
-NUR back
-Crawl Bear across the parking lot
-RUN back

I blew off Part 5, which would have been a repeat of Part 1, for some Mary. Thanks to the PAX that lead the last few sets of core.

0600 Arrived and YHC was #smoked

Appreciate all the PAX that came out to one of my quarterly Qs. I hope you gained some insight on what is to come this Saturday morning at the #Sweati

No NMM means no more details for the PAX. See you Sat.

Announcements
-Sweati this Saturday at the Armory (Forest Hill Church): 0530 Ruckers/0600 Runners, Q-Source to follow at Forest Hill (Charis Room)
-Stuff the Bus at Tega Cay Walmart (Look for details from Wegmans)
-A couple of 2ndF options at Carolina Beer Temple and Amor Artis
-Read your Newsletter

Prayers & Praises
-Prayers for Rock Thrill’s Father-in-Law who is having several medical issues
-Prayers for a friend of the Pax who’s marriage is struggling
-Prayers for Nasa’s wife who is struggling with some severe headaches
-Prayers for Repeat’s mom who is fighting cancer
-Prayers for discipline in the 3 F’s and to continually make sure our Concentrica is in order (something I struggle with)

Gentlemen, it’s been a lot of fun and an honor to serve you. Hope to see you at the Sweati!

Aye!
Zima

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The Never Ending Mile – Ranch

Workout was performed on the quarter mile loop in front of the Springfield Middle School drop off loop.  Many pax attempted to finish the mile, but no one was able to within the time allotted.

This is a very tough workout and will challenge to you push yourself.  If you plan to use this I suggest you plan for a full hour or no warm-up.

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Big B, little b, what begins with B?

Buddies, Burpees, Bearcrawls, Bodybuilders, Booyah! Merkins and B.O.M.B.S. all start with that letter B, that’s what.

18 attended the Swamp today, half rucked, the other have joined YHC for a little schooling on the letter B.

I decided a couple weeks ago that I was going to work my way through the Exicon one letter at a time.  This was my 2nd Q since making that decision so the 8 unlucky PAX that got stuck with me and B today were thoroughly beat-down.

I gave the quick usual disclaimer an off we went.  I immediately heard grumbling about the speed so I slowed it down a bit and we did some karaoke’s and toy soldiers before circling up for a quick warm-up, which consisted of 9 Windmills and 15 Merkins (IC) followed by a couple 10 counts holding a 6″ plank.  A quick stretch and off to the 1st routine.

Routine 1:

Burpee, Bearcrawl, Booyah! Merkin…Chase

Buddy up and partner 1 does 5 burpees and then chases down his partner who is bearcrawling around the 2 roundabouts (about .25 miles).  Tags his partner and then they each do 5 Booyah! Merkins and switch/repeat until getting back to the starting point.  A real shoulder burner!

Routine 2:

For routine 2 we moseyed to the parking lot next to the fountain and did some B.O.M.B.S.  This is basically a DORA with more exercises and the suggestion to pick an exercise that matches each letter in BOMBS.

  • 50 Bodybuilders
  • 100 Overhead presses (with cinderblocks)
  • 150 Monkey Humpers
  • 200 Big-Boy sit-ups
  • 250 Smurf Jacks (suuuuuucked)

In typical DORA fashion, 1 partner does the exercise while the other (in this case) sprints to the 2nd island, bear crawls around the island, and then sprints back and picks up where his partner left off while his partner does the sprinting.

I think only  Cha-Ching, Duck Dynasty, and I finished, but that was probably because we were the odd group and we took the higher of the 2 reps.  I’m not sure if we would have made it otherwise since it came down to the last few seconds before heading back to CoP.

Everyone did awesome and pushed for the entire 45 minutes.

We made it back to CoP at exactly 6:00AM with the Ruckers about a minute behind.

Maximus announced a couple of new AO’s coming to Fort Mill, including a “Bruisers” workout for injured PAX, what a great idea.  As well as a bootcamp AO with a mandatory pre-run, sounds harsh!  In any case, not a lot of PAX spoke up with Prayers except for Maximus again so we prayed for family and everything that was on our hearts.

Thank you for the Q Cha-Ching it was a pleasure to lead these men today.  Nice work everyone!

Until next time,

-FLUX-

 

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Honoring SEALS with a Watering Can

We completed on of the GORUCK workouts of the month honoring the Navy SEALS.  Not sure that grown men pouring water over each other at 5:00AM is what the SEALS have in mind when thinking of honors they would like to receive, but it certainly will catch the eye of any administration at the school if they are reviewing security footage.

-Step 1: Pour uncomfortably tepid water over each other to try to make it a little more suck-filled…

-Step 2: 1 mile ruck (AFAP)

Step 3: 100 Ruck Squats, 70 Ruck Merkins, 33 Ruck Swings

Step 4: 1 mile ruck (AFAP)

Step 5: Killed the last few minutes with a combination of Flutters, Toes to Ruck, and me trying to figure out how my new watch works

 

As always it was an honor to lead. Thank you for the opportunity

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A Return To The Corral Which Is Golden

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

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

Warm-up:

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

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

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

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

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

More details were shared but you had to be there.

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

10 exercises were:

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

We made it through 4 rounds.

HEY, welcome to Fish Sticks.

Until Next Time,

Maximus

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