BackA$$Wards at the Swamp

10 #HIM came out to the Swamp on what was supposed to be a rainy Friday in the Gloom. The weatherman missed on that call and we got a warm and muggy morning.

2 Pax, Pothole and MileHigh knocked out a pre-run of 3 miles prior to the #Beatdown. Awesome job guys way to Accelerate.

No FNGs so a quick disclaimer and at 0515 we set off.

Q’drenaline is real and firmly took hold. Mosey might have been more of a slight sprint. Surprised myself as I typically lean to the slower side of mosey. But hey it worked.

Circle Up in the HD lot for COP.

All IC even though I may have forgotten to tell the group, but they figured it out.

15x Cherry/ Weed Pickers

15x Old Man WindMills

15x Imperial Walkers

15x Hillbilly Walkers

On the Fly Switch from Bat Wings to 20x SSH- (There was a reason, I’ll get to it momentarily.)Form up in a line for an Indian Run from the HD lot all the way over to the Tuesday Morning Lot. Considerable mumble chatter down line about the rather quick pace of said Indian Run. Q’drenaline is a Helluva Drug.

The Thang ” BackA$$Ward Doraside

Simply put, a Reverse Dora 4-3-2-1. With a slight change. Instead of a mosey around the parking lot, I had laid out 3 sets of cones w/ cone 3 being 50ish yards from the start.  So, while one PAX exercised the other ran suicides. Being backa$$wards the pax ran the suicide in reverse order. 3-2-1 Here’s the kicker, upon arrival to the cone the Pax did burpees before the return. 3x @ cone 3, 2x@ cone 2, 1x @ cone 1. Not sure why nobody was really excited about that.

Exercises included.

400 Squats-

300 Dips on the curb- The dips on the curb promoted the switch at COP. Legs last longer than shoulders IMHO. I did make up for the change.

200 LBCs

100 Merkins

Each Team Slogged it out. There was some Madonna, and Hottie playing in the background somewhere that must have greatly motivated the group. We finished it up with about 15 minutes to spare.

Super highlight of the morning- As Teams finished up they, took minimal rest and jumped straight in to pickup the teams still putting in work. I saw  PAX run additional suicides/burpees and do additional merkins to push each other to Get it Done and be better. That is what F3 is All About.  Love’d every minute of it.  Thanks MileHile for banging out an add’l 50 Merkins with me to keep the pace going while Corn Syrup pulled the last leg of our suicides/burpees. True Motivator- True #HIM

With Time still on the clock we collected the cones / exercise board and moseyed over to the wall long wall behind Just Fresh. Hold People Chair for 10-20sec then add Seal Claps and OH claps 15-20 IC. Kept the PAX in the PC for 2 rounds of Bear Crawls up the line. Mosey back to COT in perfect time to invite  our brothers w/ rucks to join us for 5 minutes of Mary. They gladly accepted.

On our 6 for PAX Choice Mary.

MileHigh was 1st up and lead some ungodly amount of leg flutters IC. To many to recall and the moans-n-groans around the circle as the count escalated told the tale.

Gets a little hazy after that.  Maybe some of the Q’drenaline had worn off at this point.

Russian Twists/ American Hammers

Freddy Mercuries and at least other 2 ab rippers to bring us to 0600.

Announcements.

F3 Dads Saturday

Prayers and Praises

CornSyrup- Prayers for some personal issues going on in his life. Not OYO Bro! Lutefisk tore his groin on Thursday and will be out a couple weeks. Milehigh Traveling with the fam to the Great White North- Might be smuggling back large quantities of Syrup. Prayers for M’s as school is now completely out across the region. Praise for the accomplishments of DaVinci’s 2.0s this school year.

Ball of Man

Thanks Cha-Ching for the opportunity to wrap up the week with these great Men.

🦆 Out

 

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Gemini Birthday Bash

The Thang:

Mosey to the parking lot near the tennis courts

COP: Hillbilly Walkers(20x), Imperial Walkers (15x), 1 min of 7 burpees and 33 SSH, 3x

Mosey to the band’s practice parking lot

Jack Webb Style with Crackin Burpees for the 1 and Bobby Hurley for the 4 with 3-4 partners for encouragement

Bomb Jacks (100x), Overhead Claps (200x), Merkins (100x), Big Boy Sit Ups (100x), Squats (200x)

Moleskin:

On this glorious day, we followed our own advice of not “going it alone.” So we decided to lock shields to celebrate the 40th birthday of two Geminis that were born two days apart. We are humbled and honored by the love and support of our F3 brothers for our birthday bash. We can’t thank you enough.

As we turn 40 years old, we understand that we are progressing into the next season of life. Age 0 to 20 is the spring season where we identify who we are. Age 20 to 40 is the summer season where we learn and grow. Age 40 to 60 is the fall season where we influence others. Age 60+ is the winter season where we share wisdom with others.

What season of life are you in? Own it. Celebrate life and your season daily.

Peace,

Deacon & Shady

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Olaf is evil

Snowman Celebrates America

22 Mericans joined YHC at #Abyss for some stars and stripes work.
Disclaimer was disclaimed very well and everyone was clear on my style of “fun” so to get the party started we counted off by twos but since nobody remembers their number we did stars and stripes. Then YHC’s paintrain was opened up and each PAX that was a star was asked to carry a tire carcass and the stripes had to pick logs.

Mosey over to back track and get artistic by making a flag with coupons from paintrain. Wish YHC would have taken a picture of the magnificently heavy flag.

Circle up for some COP/warmup
SSH x 13
Circle of hump x 13

Everyone grab a partner and grab something heavy and make a lap around the track AFAP.

Circle back up for more COP
Suicide squats x 17
Hip slap x 50 (crowd pleaser)

Everyone grab a partner and grab something heavy again and make a lap around the track AFAP.

Last little bit of COP
13 Bropees with high five at the top of the jump.

Now we storm the beaches and charge the back hill in memory of all the great men and women that have died protecting our great country.

One partner grabs a machine gun, aka log, while the other partner grabs a ring of belt ammo for the partner’s machine gun, aka tire carcass, and charge up the hill AFAP.

Starting at the top of the hill, lunge walk down to the middle light then backward lunge walk to the bottom. Then crab walk back up the hill to the middle light then bear crawl up to the top.

Grab all the coupons and rumble down the hill back to the track circle for some ring toss fun.

Broke PAX into 7 fire team columns of 3-4 men each. Starting at the end by the playground first pax up will ring toss tire carcass towards other end of parking lot, then run to where the ring stopped and perform 3 Kraken Burpees. Next man up grabs ring and tosses then chasses and performs krakens and so on until the team reaches the other side. Nobody was seriously injured so we ramp up the difficulty and with it comes more excitement and maybe more danger, remember the disclaimer….Same rules as first trip down but now ring has to be tossed overhead. Now as you can imagine the level of chaos and confusion got pretty intense. I can’t imagine the horror of being in a firefight with my fellow men getting dropped and scattered from a rain of machine gun fire from a superior position. Guys were ducking from other tires being heaved and jumping over their teammates and even jumping over other guys that were not even on their team but somehow there tire rolled into their path so they had to jump over them too, It was mayhem. Nobody died and there were some pretty good laughs so we continued.
All the coupons and logs were then distributed around the oval track for the final exercise. Deep squat expedition was about to start. Everyone started at a coupon around the track. Every time you encountered a coupon in your path you had to stop and perform three deep squats. If there were two coupons side by side, you guessed it, six deep squats for the double coupon. continue around the track until one minute to Endex then jailbreak to COT leaving coupons at the track.

Count-A-Rama,
Name-A-Rama,
Announcements before ball of man for COT with an open moment for PAX to lift up prayers and praises.

Great job by all the men gutting out a physical fast paced good old fashioned American beatdown in celebration of our wonderful nation.

Thanks for the opportunity Copyright to lead and Funhouse for the accountability to get it blasted.

NMM
If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations or comments on how I can offer a better beatdown please let me know. DM me or hit me in the gloom, I would love to discuss. I know that we are very fortunate to be AO rich and have multiple options on where we post each day so I want to make sure I am delivering a beatdown that is worth you unfartsacking yourself for. I don’t think I am alone in striving to serve up a beatdown that checks all of the 3S2T and if anyone has any feedback good or bad let me have it brother. Hit me with the hard truth, I demand it, because we can’t get better unless we get truthful. Here is your chance to work on your Candor, deliver a hard truth to me and let’s discuss like men how to make it better for everyone. I want to represent this region right when I have the opportunity to guest Q downrange so help me make us look good. Get out of your comfort zone and put yourself out there to become a better leader, be vulnerable and learn from the mistakes and analyze the feedback. I can’t wait until next time and I hope you feel the same way.

Stay frosty my friends,
OLAF

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DORA Got Lost at Quagmire

While driving the clown car with 5 deep there is no better site then coming around the corner and seeing Jedi posting up the #Quagmire Shovel Flag. 13 PAX arrived to hit it hard with the worst merican ever dora.

Disclaimer was given and moseyed off to the Home Depot parking lot for a little warm up. Once warm up was complete off to the Target parking lot to get that blood flowing and a little more stretching. Then comes the pain.

With the help of Jedi (trying to utilize the whole area/not get lost) we made our way to the fountain. Partner up. Dora time. Start out with 100 worst mericans ever (wide push up, normal push up, diamond push up=1), 200 clapping crunches (thanks six pack abs in 30 days), 300 irkins, and 400 LBC’s. One partner would run around the fountain while the other pushed pavers or worked those abs. Then once around the fountain trade spots. We were all able to get the 1st 3 exercises done before having to mosey back to COT. Once back at COT with a little time to spare we crunched out 100 LBC’s together. We were able to get in 2.25 miles and about 600 different variations of pushups.

These guys took the pain and kept on going. Proud to be part of this Pax and this community. Thanks Jedi for making me a better man. Until next time.

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Challenged to “Bring It”

A few months ago, Dark Helmet and I were challenged to “bring it” to The Deep. I’m not sure how I got roped into the conversation as I no longer provide the top-tier workouts I used to. You see, it’s not because I’ve gotten soft (well, maybe a little), it’s more due to the physical acceleration of the PAX, which is evident when I cross the water and see the brothers in Lake Wylie. My workouts aren’t as hard as they used to be for some.

That said, I’ve become known for 2 things: the deck of cards and cinder blocks. I couldn’t disappoint the fellas. Dark Helmet on the other hand, is known for many things (not including many leather-bound books, rich mahogany, a perfect quaff or starbuck-y hands). And, with these many things, he brought his level of creative, pain-inducing exercises to the first half of the morning’s Q.

Once DH signed a few autographs, gave a very clear disclaimer, he took off for the warm up mosey. Then did a few warm-up-type exercises which included all the regulars and plenty of chatter.

Grab a partner and since when does size not matter…in Wheelbarrow racing?

You and your partner will alternate wheelbarrow’ing around the circle which I swear, grew as we were encircling it.

Next, grab the cinder blocks from Maximus’ truck for a little DORA activity.

Partner 1 (P1) would run around the main lot while Partner 2 (P2) would do the exercise then flapjack for:

200 Bicep Curls

300 Overhead Press

400 Bent-Over Rows (modified the count for timing and inserted chest press)

Hand off to Maximus for more partner work

P1: Ski Abs

P2: Toe Taps on the block (25ea side)

Flapjack

P1: Burpee Broad Jump ~50yds & NUR back

P2: Mountain Climbers with your hands on the block

Flapjack

P1: Beep Beep I’m a Jeep for 25yds & Lunge Walk back

P2: Bomb Jacks

Flapjack

Now with both partners at one end and the block at the other:

P1: Sprint to the block, 10 Man Makers with the block, Sprint Back

P2: Flutters from the V-up position

Next up, partner big-boy sit-ups while passing the block back and forth

I can’t fully recall if we did a few 8ct burpees to finish it off but it’d be a lot cooler if we did…so let’s assume we did.

Hey PAX, wherever you call home, go somewhere different. Organize a clown car with a few other locals and go see a different AO on a Saturday and attend their Q-Source. You never know what you’ll learn. Dark Helmet and I appreciate the opportunity to put ourselves through misery in the spirit of Qing for a great group of F3’s finest PAX.

Until Next Time.

DH & MAX

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Dora for Days

So with a Q assignment fail, Lutefisk made up a Dora that was a bad idea. Started w/disclaimer and mosey. Stopped after a short mosey for 1 burpee OYO “WitchHunt Style.”  Ran some more, 2 burpoees OYO.  Mosey, 3, Mosey, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  You get the idea.  That was the warm-up.  For the Thang, break out JBL speaker to jam to some music cuz we’re not going far.  Partner up for Dora 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 near the new Green Olive, which is mighty tasty by the way.  Run the short lap whilst your partner climbs the rep ladder.  I only revealed through 6:

100 Merkins
200 Squats
300 Dry Docks
400 Mountain Climbers
500 Flutters
600 LBC’s

After PAX were smoked, revealed 700 burpees (just kidding). Mosey to COT for 3x Ab Lounge which brought us to 0600.  It was simple, but effective.  SYITG fellas.

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Burpagedon

A disclaimer was given and PAX ran a warm-up lap for COP.

COP
SSH x 15
IW x 10
Squats x 10
Bonsai Cherry Tree Pickers x 10
Windmills x 10
MNC x 10
Sun God’s x 20
Merkins x 8 IC
MTN Climbers x 10

YHC had thoughts of bear crawls after burpees, but threw an audible and we did those first.

Bear crawls to every other HT post x 5 Merkins, crab walk to next second post x 10 crab cakes. On the way back we did x 5 CDD and 10 LBCs.

YHC had asked my 2.0 what to do for the Q, and after showing him his options, he adamantly decided on “a lot” of burpees, and further stipulated 100 was not “a lot.”

With that in mind:
Round 1: x 10 reg. Burpees x 10 sea monkey Burpees (2 hand release and a monkey have before jump) with one extra sea monkey to make it 101
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 2: x 10 left legged Burpees x 10 right legged Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 3: x 10 knee tuck Burpees x 10 squat Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 4: x 10 plank jack Burpees x 10 spiderman Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 5: x 10 reg. Burpees x 10 kraken Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Wall sits while PAX did OHP while we went down the line and did x 10 Squats. Finally ended with a round of Mary.

COT
Read your newsletter

Thanks Lutefisk for the opportunity to lead, and the PAX for sticking with it today.

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Mental Health Awareness at the Pantheon

Mosey around the side of the school.

quick word about what mental health means to you

Warm up
15 – Windmills
15 – Imperial Walkers
20 – Moroccan Nightclubs
10 cherry pickers

5 burpees OYO

30 count people’s chair  with arm flutters
Balls to the wall 10 count

30 count people’s chair with
Balls to the wall 10 count
30 count people’s chair
Balls to the wall 10 count

5 burpees OYO

Mosey to the back of the School

discuss that there is more to mental health than depression

20 Merkins
20 CDD
20 Hand Release Merkins

5 burpees OYO

Lunge walk half way down flip to LT. Dan’s

5 burpees

mosey to the side of the school

Plank
Plank shoulder taps
Seal Team Sit-ups

20 American Hammers

Mosey to the front of the School

Global warming with 30 Monkey Humpers each Pax one at a time while Every one held al-gore, imagine 25 pax  = sore legs

Maximus Shared his struggles  and YHC spoke about my struggles in the past due.

It was awesome to hear so many Pax open up and being vulnerable. T-Claps to all that attended this is not a easy subject to discuss.

Prayers sent up for those that are struggling and have struggled with this topic.

 

 

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Mile High at The Fort

First off- Cobains to Bonsai for this trady BB.  The beatdown was on point.

A hearty crew began strolling in around 6:20 with headlamps both running and car with much excitement and anticipation.  Plenty of jokes going around as I brought my 2.0 that now towers over me by about 5 inches.  Par for the course.  Dont know if this was Milehigh’s first Q at the Fort but he easily stepped up to the plate.  There were a handful of pre rucks and pre runs from PAX accelerating their #King.  Fishsticks ran all the way from Tom Brady’s back yard which was about 7 miles.

Milehigh took the reigns first and led the PAX on a mosey run around the park and then off campus for a circle of pain with standard issue but equally difficult warm ups.  DORA was the name of his game and MH extended to 4 rounds of 100 merkins, 200 Carolina Dry Docks, 300 Squats, 400 LBC aggregate between your partner.  P1 runs up the grassy cliff, bangs out 5 more merkins and tries not to be a rolling wheel of cheese on the way down.  Festifun (from Rock Hill) came in guns blazing and was big on the #pickupthesix encouragement that #teamHYDE had fallen to #DFL.

Handoff to YHC and with no words really planned have been struck and moved by the acceleration of Mile High in fitness, fellowship and his faith.  7 months in and he’s running the yeti, leading workouts, understanding accountability and seeing the virtues of shield lock.  AYE!

AYG up the hill for a partner series of wheelbarrow, carries then toe lunges and burpee broadjumps #crowdpleaser.

Finished out with 2 teams of tunnel of love and finally seal team situps.  Indian run back to home.

  • Geronimo is F3.  King is locked in, always welcoming and a magnet for anybody
  • No one knows exactly why DOAH wore his reflector vest during the workout.  but he stayed safe, so goal attained.
  • Kernel(14 yo 2.0) took it on the chin well and kept up with his old man despite YHC being able to fit in his pocket
  • Lutifisk is looking lean and mean- aye brother keep up the King/Queen
  • When did we start naming ppl after the bad roads in Fort Mill- Pothole and Asphalt?
  • Tesh kept his shirt on but he was conflicted
  • Finally- those who played in the grass the second half, truly get the original Fort. Skin fungi be damned.

AYE!

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Relays at Abyss

Been trying to come up w/ ideas that force guys to naturally push themselves harder than they would normally.  What better way than to do some team relays w/ punishments and a time hack that forces us to push it to be under the time challenge.

Took the pax on a quick mosey to the back of the school, one lap around the track and then a warm-up in order of merkins, downward dog, honeymooner, peter parkers, wind mills, squats and moroccan nightclubs.  Relay time.  On the long hill in way back of Palisades Elementary.

Instructed the pax to count off by 2 (we had 14) so we had two teams of 7 – Team 1 vs. Team 2.  I then asked the pax to count off by 2 again within their teams.  This apparently was too much counting  for these particular guys at 5:20a.  Lots of grumbles from the crowd, but they finally got it.  My intent was to “evenly” (we had 7 per team) split each of the teams so that half would be at the bottom of the hill and the other half would be at the top of the hill.  Half of each of the teams ran to the top of the hill and the half at the bottom started each relay:

  • Relay 1 – first guy in line on each of the teams sprints up the hill and tags their teammate at the top of the hill, who then sprints down the hill and tags the next guy up.  This particular relay lasts as long as it takes all team members to sprint 4 times (two uphill, two downhill).  While all the sprinting is happening, the rest of the team is doing 3 exercises (you switch exercises once a runner finishes at your end of the hill).
      1. 6 inch holds
      2. Jump knee tucks
      3. Big boy sit ups

WINNER – Team 1.  Team 2 does 6 KRAKEN BURPEES while Team 1 does 6 normal burpees

  • Relay 2 – wheel barrows.  First TWO guys in line on each of the teams (at the bottom of the hill) wheel barrows half way up the hill (it’s a solid stretch) and then switches w/ the guy holding his legs.  Once they get to the end, they tag their teammates on the other side and they wheel barrow down the hill switching midpoint.  Same idea – entire relay lasts for all pax to do one wheel barrow hill.  Exercises done for this relay, with a switch in exercise taking place each time a partner changes on the wheel barrow was as follows:
      1. Diamond merkins
      2. Lunge jumps
      3. American hammers

WINNER – Team 2.  Team 1 does 8 KRAKEN BURPEES while Team 2 does 8 normal  burpees

  • Relay 3 – ruck run.  First guy in line on each of the teams has a ruck that they carry and they sprint up the hill, tag their teammate on the other side by throwing a ruck sack at their face, who then runs down the hill.  This relay lasts as long as it takes all pax to complete 2 full hill sprints w/ the ruck sack.  Exercises during this relay that are cycled through were:
      1. Carolina dry docks
      2. Side straddle hops
      3. Plank on elbows

(HIGHLIGHT – DUCK DYNASTY FOUND HIS CALLING.  THIS DUDE THREW A RUCK SACK ON HIS SHOULDER AND SPRINTED LIKE HIS LIFE DEPENDED ON IT, PICKING UP MAJOR GROUND FOR TEAM 2 ON HIS LEGS!)

WINNER – Team 2.  Team 1 does 5 KRAKEN BURPEES while Team 2 does 5 normal burpees

From there, we only had 7 minutes, so it was time for a quick Time Hack.  I started the timer on my phone that is as bright as the sun, and as a team, we did one lap on the track w/ a stop in the middle for 15 merkins.  We did it in 1 minute, 10 seconds (clock stops upon last guy finishing).

  • Time Hack Challenge – do two laps on the track, stopping once during each of the laps at midpoint to do 15 merkins in 2:35.  We did it in 2:50, a 15 second party foul.  That meant 15 burpee penalty…wa wa.  If I had more time I wanted to do a 3 lap time and a 4 lap time hack w/ the same burpee penalty.  Would have been fun.

Flew back to COT, did our burpee penalty and ended 1 minute past 6am (shame on me).  Prayers were shared for kids, travel mercies for Witch Hunt and family, new beginnings at work, and healing.  Thanks Copyright for the chance to lead this awesome group of Lake Wylie pax.  Crazy to see the explosive growth out here.  Had a blast!

Cha Ching

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