Tag: Mile High

Balls of Gloom, Inaugural Edition

Leave a comment

With a new year, YHC wanted to try something new at Quagmire. I’ve been tossing around ideas, and having some sort of benchmark workout – like the Board of Pain – that is straightforward to work through but also a good workout seemed like a good idea. So, for the month of January, we are rolling out the Balls of Gloom using the red balls outside Target. Poorly advertised, but there will be more opportunities.

Ten PAX showed up for the inaugural running of the BOG (get it? Because it’s Quagmire?). Quick explanation, brief disclaimer, and off we went on a quick mosey to the lot in front of what used to be Books a Million (that’s closed now, apparently). Some side shuffles (sorry Shady, there’s a bump there), high knees, butt kickers, and toy soldiers thrown in for good measure.

Warm up with SSH, windmills, Moroccan night clubs, and maybe something else but I can’t remember.

Mosey to Target and get going…

Balls of Gloom

The idea is simple. Workout is AMRAP for 33ish minutes, you v. you. Exercise posted on each of 10 balls, run between balls, and then run a lap from the stop sign, out to the road between Target and Kohls, around behind Verizon, and back to the start. Rinse and repeat. Try to beat your best next time.

Exercises:

  • 10 burpees
  • 20 merkins
  • 20 squats
  • 40 LBCs
  • 20 CDDs
  • 20 jumping lunges per leg
  • 40 Hello Dolly
  • 20 werkins
  • 10 squat jumps
  • 10 burpees

ChaChing and Bones knocked out four complete rounds with the run at the end and got into the burpees for round five. Three more PAX completed the burpees at the end of round 4 but not the run. Remaining five were somewhere else in round 4. All pushed hard and did great.

Quick mosey back to COT, arriving at precisely 0600 (after being stalked through the parking lot but a vehicle that seemed lost).

Looking forward to doing better next week. You should join us, at least for one, and see what you can do.

TClap |
1

12 days (actually 13) to celebrate a shovel flag handoff!

Leave a comment

Big shovel flag hand-off day so hype train was in full effect!  As PAX walked up to the gathering, Bear Grylls had 80s hairband music rocking why he was making preparations for post-workout coffeeteria.  YHC gave the disclaimer and jumped on a quick mosey given this chilly morning.  Mosey’d over to parking lot to the right of the school where we circled up for some warm up exercises and stretching.

Exercises included: SSH, Moroccan night clubs, low slow squats, hillbilly walkers, mountain climbers and then some leg, back and “6” stretches.

Mosey’d over to the playground in the back of the school for The Thang!  In true 12 days (actually 13) days of Christmas fashion, we had a weinke waiting for us and 12 days was explained by YHC.  For anyone reading and unclear on 12 days, start with 1, move on to 2 and back down to 1, go to 3 then 2 then 1, and so on.

As the list was next to the basketball court, since that’s where there was light on this chilly dark morning in the gloom, we started with suicides…

  1. Suicides – mid court, full court
  2. Burpees
  3. Calve raises – 3 out, 3 regular, 3 in
  4. Pull ups
  5. Hand release merkins
  6. Jump Knee tucks
  7. Flutters (double count)
  8. Bear crawl down & crawl bear back – full court
  9. Gorilla squats
  10. B 2 Wall – 10 sec count
  11. Lunge walk down & duck walk back – full court
  12. America Hammer (double) + LBC (double) + big boys
  13. Bomb Jacks (bonus)

The PAX made it to about day 10-11, with I believe Fish Sticks leading everyone possibly to day 12.  The killer in this had to be day 8 but YHC quickly reminded the PAX that Spiderman (yes, he got a shoutout) who had 12 days at #BlockParty the day before crushed the PAX with Bear crawl / crawl bear on day 2….so a quick fix for the mumble chatter.  Once time was called, mosey’d back for COT.

Announcements, prayers and praises (CSPAN style).  YHC shared that as we enter the Christmas season, after just leaving Thanksgiving, giving Thanks has been at the forefront of his mind.  Being grateful for what we have, i.e. families, health, each other, it’s easy to forget how some people are not in the same positions we are in.  As we enter the holiday season, and even after the holidays, keeping a watchful eye for how we can help others less fortunate than us, puts us in a unique position.  How you choose to act in those situations or if you have your eyes and heart open, is something to be mindful of.

Closed out with prayer and the celebration of the great work Fish Sticks brought to Pantheon and the beginning of the Bear Grylls legacy.  The beginning of this legacy kicked off with the Pantheon flag makeover – which was great to see!  I highly recommend checking it out and getting the full breakdown for each detail.  It was a pleasure Q’ing today and am happy to do it anytime!

Shady

TClap |
4

Movement keeps one warm

Leave a comment

21 gathered at Laces Out and Laces In – 8 and 13 respectively – to prove the theory that movement keeps one warm in chilly December temperatures.

YHC had promised site Q for months that I would take a Laces In Q and it was great to finally fulfill that with such a strong group of PAX and make it through with good fellowship, a little mumble chatter and 45 minutes (or an hour for the 8 runners) of getting a little better than we were the day before.

After a disclaimer and delegating the assumption of risk to all gathered, we moseyed to the FMHS Band parking lot for COP:

COP: Moroccan Night Clubs IC x 20, arm circles – forward and backward in varying quantities, SSH IC x 30, Merkins IC x 12, Windmills IC x 15

Mosey back to the Stadium entrance for Jacob’s Ladder.  Since our workout was 12 days before Christmas, it only seemed fitting that the exercises add up to 12 instead of 11.  YHC, therefore, modified the ladder, given the date on the calendar.

Burpees at the bottom – 11, 10, 9, 8, etc.

Lunge Walks uphill to the 2nd lightpole (crowd pleaser )

Carolina Dry Docks at the 2nd lightpole – 1, 2, 3, 4 and mosey back down

Mosey to the main parking lot for a little partner Dora

100 merkins total – Partner 1 starts, partner 2 does a roughly 120 yard shuttle run  – switch until 100 is reached.

200 squats – Partner 1 starts, partner 2 runs, you get the idea

Had a plan for 300 as well, but YHC was compelled to call an audible at 5:57 (time ran short) to head back for a little ab work…..but just a little.

Boxcutters IC x 30, American Hammers IC x 15, and a body destroyer promptly executed at 5:59 AM.

There was much movement, a little chatter, varying amounts of sweat and a few comments in the days that followed relating to the amount of lunge walks – complimentary of course.

Announcements – Christmas Eve convergence – 12-24 at the Abyss – Palisades Park Elementary and Q source begins on Saturday 1-5-19.

Prayers for all traveling for the holidays.

Relatively new to leading workouts, it was great to see some #HIM’s who, years ago, were encouraging of this serial runner guy to get out of his comfort zone and go do something else.  You each know who you are.  Thank you.

My thanks to Lil’ E for the opportunity to lead.  It was a privilege.

Cyclops

 

 

TClap |
1

Constantly Moving Through The Swamp

Leave a comment

It is always a pleasure to get the “call” to the lead the PAX  and this opportunity didn’t disappoint.  The Swamp is my “home” Friday AO so I was well aware of all the nooks and crannies it had to offer.

After a separating ourselves from the droves of men with backpacks (12 of them) I gave the usual disclaimer explaining that these men were there at their own risk and that the only thing I could promise is that they would return “stronger” than they set out.  I also explained that we would be “moving” the entire time so ‘buckle up’ and enjoy the tour.

Quick 3/4 mile mosey around Home Depot to the Khol’s parking lot.  Along the way we did some active stretching including butt kickers and high knees.  Warm up included several exercises to warm the muscles up such as:

  • Windmill
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Potato Pickers
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Right/Left leg over opposite leg with body twist (on our 6)
  • Downward Dog
  • Honeymooner
  • Side Straddle Hops

Quick mosey 100 yards —- 50 Slow Low Squats

Bear Crawl 50 yards

25 yard mosey

Merkins:

  • 30 Regular
  • 20 Wide Arm
  • 15 Ranger
  • 10 Diamond

Crawl Bear 50 yards

Mosey to Verizon: 50 Moroccan Night Club (Jedi wasn’t amused)

Mosey to “alley” behind Home Depot:

Wall sits while one PAX goes out and does 10 Berpees

Lunge Walking (down alleyway)

  • Varying steps (3-10) then exercise:
  • Merkins
  • Squat Jumps
  • Burpees
  • 10 Squat Jumps (to cap it off)

Mosey toward COT

Halfway stop for 10 more Burpees

Almost there……but first one last Suicide to really gas ourselves.

We finished strong and as I promised every man came back to COT stronger than he had left.  We reconnected with our backpack brothers and lifted some prayers and praises up.  In total 19 men got better (12 Ruckers and 7 Bootcampers)

Bones

TClap |
1

#Badgemire

Leave a comment

I thought it would be special for us to have a little taste of Badger in our DRP this morning, so I brought a Hero Workout to Quagmire (now, just to raise Jedi’s ire, we will call it Badgemire)…

We yogged a moment, circled up, and warmed up to the sounds of Wild Thing being late.

Windmills x 10
Cherry/Peanut/Grass/Microcherry Pickers x 10
Merkins x 10
Imperial Walkers x 10

We ran to the parking lot at Tarjay and Jedi read to us, after straining to do so like some kind of elderly person (didn’t know he wore glasses, sorry to hang you out to dangle like that), anyway, he read to us the brief synopsis of U.S. Marine Cpl. Albert Gettings’ life. In his honor, we performed the “Bert”. It went a little something like this…

  • 50 Burpees
  • 400 meter Run
  • 100 Push-Ups
  • 400 meter Run
  • 150 Walking Lunges
  • 400 meter Run
  • 200 Air Squats
  • 400 meter Run
  • 150 Walking Lunges
  • 400 meter Run
  • 100 Push-Ups
  • 400 meter Run
  • 50 burpees

It was a real treat. Cha-Ching, Jedi, and Bones were the kings today, and managed to start that last set of burpees before we ran out of time and Indian Ran the whole way back, minus the last 75 yards or so where we broke the jail…

As noted in the tweet, good times were had by several.

NMM:
U.S. Marine Cpl. Albert Gettings, 27, of New Castle, Pennsylvania, died on Jan. 5, 2009, while conducting counter-sniper operations in Fallujah, Iraq. Cpl. Gettings was serving as a team leader with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, at the time of his death.

Every quarter, Cpl. Gettings’ fellow Marines in Fox Company complete a special workout in his honor as part of the Cpl. Albert P. Gettings Award ceremony.

He is survived by his wife, Stephanie Palimino; parents, David and Juliet; and sister, Cori.

Helmet, out.

TClap |
7

The Cones Return at Laces In

Leave a comment

15 Pax fought off the fartsack and posted to Laces In on this chilly morning.  Seeing 28 degrees is just under my over 30 degrees no tights rule, Tclaps to Stang and Senator Tressel rolling with shorts.  #RealMen   I wanted to keep moving this morning to keep everyone warm.  This is one of my favorite workouts and was excited to bring it back from the vault.  Here is what we did:

Warm Up: Run lap around student parking lot.  COP coming back to stadium which included, SSH, Imperial walkers, Windmills, Peter Parkers, Merkins to Squats.

Main Course: Mosey to hill leaving school.  10 cones.  Perform exercise at first cone then run hill.  Perform exercise at first cone then second cone, run hill.  Perform exercise at first cone then second then third, run hill.  So forth and so on.

  1.  10 Burpees
  2.  20 Merkins
  3.  20 Mtn Climbers (Double count, like you have to ask)
  4.  20 Carolina Dry Docks
  5.  20 Flutter kicks
  6.  10 Lunges (each leg)
  7.  15 Jump Squats
  8.  20 Freddie Mercuries
  9.  20 Dips
  10.  20 Monkey Humpers

Appreciate all the pax telling me how much they were enjoying the workout everytime we started a new lap.  We made it to around Dips.  Bandcamp was king for the morning and made it to the last round.  We had a great group today and appreciate the support.  Without these guys pushing me, I would have been in my comfy, warm bed this morning.  Thanks for the push and accountability.  Aye

Prayers for Rock Thrill’s Mother, Stang’s house, Bonsai’s child care, Bandcamps co worker with cancer.

Until next time, (Which might be a while considering how bad I am at writing these things!)

STH

TClap |
2

Four Corners of Heck at the Abyss

Leave a comment

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.

 

TClap |
4

Cold Blooded at the Swamp

Leave a comment

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

 

TClap |
0

Always a burpee mile at Pantheon

Leave a comment

Not too much creativity was brought to Pantheon on this comfortable, non-raining day. Arrived and set out 4 marker softballs around the larger running loop. YHC started with a message about serving and talked about the Thanksgiving drive in the Paradise neighborhood.

No FNGs, gave disclaimer. Started with a jog around the loop to note location of softballs for future use. Butt kickers, side shuffles, and a run backward high knees with no injuries reported. Followed with a circle of a few warmup exercises which included the always popular scissor one-leg flutters.

Workout consisted of running the large loop, stopping at 4 softballs along the way to do burpees. First loop 5 at each softball, then 4 and we eventually finished the 3rd lap. PAX took turns leading during the laps at the pace they desired. After each lap, we performed a series of exercises focusing on arms or legs. Exercises included, but may not be limited to:

Legs: squats, sumo squats, mountain climbers, people’s chair ( a few times with PAX counting down) , ski jump squats (very difficult to count as Q).

Arms: Balls to the wall 3x?, merkins, 6″ merkins, etc.

Calves: Rocky Balboa toe taps, calf raises, squat jumps focusing on getting off toes.

Finished with 3+ minutes of Mary feet never touching ground.

Gave more info about the food drive for our Thanksgiving efforts in Paradise. Thank you to Pantheon PAX for their pledges and donations which have already started come in just a few hours later!

Sign up for Christmas party.  Cornerstone is accepting character bandaids for the children’s hospital until somewhere around Dec. 20.  Come out to G-fit, our weekly workout in Paradise on Saturdays at 3:00 pm at Steele Street Park with the kids. Volunteer at the Reading Center on Mondays and Wednesdays at 4:00 pm at the Bethlehem Baptist Church, 601 Joe Louis St.

Prayers for Triple Lindy’s son. Prayers for our kids in school and sports. Support each other outside of our workouts. Triple Lindy is seeking employment if any PAX can help. While overlooked in COT, prayers to Lutefisk and family in their time of loss of his mother.

Thank you to Olaf for taking us out.

YHC had a good talk after with Fishsticks and Triple Lindy (first time meeting).

Here is the link to support our Thanksgiving efforts in Paradise. We must move quickly, within the next couple days.  https://f3thefort.com/2018/11/13/support-thanksgiving-food-efforts-in-paradise/

Aye Bolt.

TClap |
1

Pantheon 2018.45

Leave a comment

I’ve been doing breathing exercises for awhile now, but I didn’t consider it an activity worthy to include at an F3 workout.  Then Santini did it, so now I had to do it better.

Warmup, nothing new here, go read a dozen other backblasts

The Thang

So the point of this is to max out your heart rate and then try to control it as best as possible.  So step number one… max out heart rate.
40m sprint then 5 burpees, 40m sprint back, 5 burpees, repeato.
Continue till I call time, which ends up being around the 5-10 minute mark.  I think I got 4 to 5 back and forths in…  I just called time when I maxed my heart rate.  I know I’m at it, cause I could lose control of my bowels at any moment.  There are two kinds of people in the world, those that Merlot and those that crap in the woods.

On to step number two.  Take 5-10 deep breaths (as deep as you can, pushing your abdomen out in every direction you can to put as much air in your lungs).  Exhale and then hold your breath for as long as you can.  When you can’t hold it any longer, take a deep breath in.  Hold it for 15 seconds.

In this interval you should try to oversaturate your blood with oxygen in order to be able to hold your breath with no air in your lungs as long as possible.  This triggers your parasympathetic nervous system, floods your body with CO2 (which will later help oxygen absorption), and slow down your hear rate.

Repeat the max heart rate, repeat breath exercise.

Change heart rate exercise to 40m bear crawls and 5 bomb jacks, repeat breathing.

Wrap up with core and back/shoulders.

Moleskin

Jekyll asked me if I’d ever used this for stress.  I have.  I have also used it for insomnia.  Recently, I used it to get rid of a headache.  Somehow it reduces inflimation as well, because when I do it in the morning, if I’m having sinus pressure, it goes away.  I used to pop Ibuprofen like tic-tacs, but now I haven’t used it in years, and breathing is a player in that equation.  Exercising is great, but it’s only step one in the effort to make yourself a less fragile human.

TClap |
6