Tag: Nasa

#218in18 Kick-off Convergence BackBlast

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76 PAX (including 4 FNGs) met in the gloom at Harris Teeter this morning to kick the year off the right way.

Group 1 – Jedi

Start with 60 seconds of plank tutorial, then a fairly lame attempt to explain the exercise “routine” for the upper body station. The routine, to be done in increasing AMRAP style:
· Incline Merkins
· Low Country Crab Boil (One leg, one hand dips)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Left hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Left hand on curb)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Pseudo Planche Merkins
· Donkey Kicks
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Right hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Right hand on curb)
· 90° Turn to starting position

Start with 10 reps for each exercise, then add 2 reps each round after that (10, 12, 14, 16, …). Only the elite few made it past the round of 12.

Group 2 – Peabody

An absolute honor to lead a convergence and had so much fun working with all the guys. Here’s the fun of the cardio Q.

SPRINT Relays!!!  

3 team

60 Yard sprint

Team members are doing Seal Jacks, side straddle hops, or flutters while teammate runs.

Winning team selects penalty exercise for 2 losing teams. (Unknown is losing team has to do the penalty exercise too but only half the reps).

Rinse and repeat the sprint relay races once teams are mixed up.

Mary to follow:

  • 50 LBCs
  • 25 Flutters
  • 10 Freddie Mercury’s

Lists of fun to hear the encouragement of other Pax and see the competition bring out the most in guys.  Saw lots of guys really push hard to win for their team.

Group 3 – Jekyll

Motley Crue and 80’s hairband soundtrack

  • COP: SSH, IW, Squat
  • 5 Burpee OYO, 4 OYO, 3 OYO
  • Lt Dan: squat and jumping , 1:4 ration
    • 1 squat: 4 jumping lunge, 2 squat: 8 Jumping lunge…10 squat: 40 jumping lunge
  • 5 burpee OYO
  • Calf Raises 25 each: Straight, Toes Out, Toes In
  • Donkey Kicks

COT

Welcome FNGs Iron City, Humps, Hillary, and Juliet

Prayers by CakeBoss for leadership.

– Ginsu

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A Real Ball Buster at Quagmire

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I was going to name this “Playing with NASA’s Balls at Quagmire”, but I won’t go there….

GREAT morning! Chilly, crisp, with clear skies. NASA-Q loves starry mornings. Quite a few PAX showed up ready to give Monday the boot in the booty. The night before a few PAX were Twitter-chatting about a post run after the workout, since they were fortunate to have the day off of work.  I did not intentionally plan on ruining that, but hey, stuff happens. It was a complement when they said I did. Thank you and you’re welcome.

5:15 hit the mark. No FNGs unfortunately. Disclaimer was disclaimed. Off we went……

Short mosey from Chick Fil A lot to the lot near the fountains. Good mumblechatter about the playoff games the day before. No funky stretchy stuff while running, just running. Circle up for the COP:

  • SSH x 20
  • WM x 20
  • IW x 20
  • MNC x 20

Just enough to loosen and warm up a little. I wanted to save our energy for the real deal. Short mosey over to Target.

All along the store front there are the large red concrete balls (bollards) Target is known for. At each ball, there was an exercise. Complete it, transition to next ball to the next exercise (anywhere between 10-25 yds apart). When all the balls are completed, run a lap around the outer perimeter roads enclosing the parking lot (about .25 – .33 mile). This is done HIIT style, non-stop start to finish, you rest while you run back to the start. Each PAX was on their own, you vs you, to see how many circuits you can get through.

Exercises (each is 30 reps) and transitions:
1. Merkins
> bear crawl (BC) transition
2. Jump squats
> crab walk (CW) transition
3. LBC
> BC
4. CDD
> CW
5. Jump Lunges
> BC
6. Freddie Mercury
> CW
7. Wide-arm Merkins
> BC
8. Monkey humpers
> CW
9. American hammers
> Run lap back to start #1
>> Rinse and repeat

That was a real ball bustin burner! The entire group cranked out 3 complete circuits. Some over-achievers completed another 2/3 circuit on top. Warning – next time each exercise will be 40-50 reps. Some PAX – Jedi, Cha-Ching, and Bones – are not human, rather they are complete beasts! And they are motivation for others. But I tell you what, the rest of the PAX were not far behind. Witch Hunt, Royale, BtB, Whopper, Homebrew, and Copyright ALL did GREAT. And special Kudos to Dark Helmet for performing all this while rucking heavy with 40lbs on his back. DAMN!! There was alot of encouraging push/pull from the group. No chatter or NMM ramblings from the Q (believe it). We just ground it out, finishing just in time to get back to the COT.

Announcements, Prayers, and Praises:

  • READ YOUR NEWSLETTER, GET OUT THERE AND MAKE AN IMPACT!!
  • The Rooster is this weekend!! WOO HOO!!
  • Yeti not far behind. JUST DO IT!!! JUST SIGN UP!! It will be awesome, I promise
  • P200 in March. If you’re interested, let folks know. Injury bugs bite and sometimes teams need replacements.
  • Prayers for Short Sale and his family in the loss of his brother
  • Prayers for the family and friends of Mint Hill’s Gremlin
  • Prayers for injured / sick PAX
  • Prayers for PAX going through marriage/relationship/family issues

Get out there and make a difference, make a positive impact. On the day honoring the great Martin Luther King Jr, take his intentions and run with them. We have alot of work to do as a country regarding racial relations and equality. We can – and should – do better. Be the change we all want to see in this world. Conquer the hate and ignorance with your love and intentionality. All it takes is the decision to do so and follow through.

God Bless and Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
– NASA

 

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What’s that Smell, C’MON Man

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6 Ruckers
5 Bootcampers
1 Runner

Moving Dynamic Warm-up

COP – The Usual exercises

Partner Up

Ab/Arm Combo’s thrown in throughout the beatdown

Partner Up

P1 – Exercise, P2 – Run around Chick-Fil-A, Flapjack

Dips

Squats

Mt. climbers

Ab arm Combo

Evacuation movement #1 Short mosey Mattress firm to compounding 4 corners

Wind Up

1st Corner 20 – SSH

2nd Corner 20 – SSH, 15 – Squats

3rd Corner 20 – SSH, 15 – Squats, 10 – Merkins

Merkins were performed at a faster than normal pace in order to evade the crisp morning air.

4th Corner 20 – SSH, 15 – Squats, 10 – Merkins, 5 – Burpees

Unwind

1st Corner 20 – SSH, 15 – Squats, 10 – Merkins, 5 – Burpees

2nd Corner 15 – Squats, 10 – Merkins, 5 – Burpees

3rd Corner 10 – Merkins, 5 – Burpees

4th Corner 5 – Burpees

Mosey to Best Buy wall

Wall Sit

Run to Middle Island

AB/Arm combos

Evacuate to a new wall section, you guessed it, Cable Guy!

Repeat wall sit further down the wall

Mosey to COT

Another evacuation order was given and COT was moved about 40 feet from the usually designated area.

Many Prayers this morning both spoken and not.

Always an honor to lead and appreciate the opportunity Cable Guy.

Cornhole
Out

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BB – Swamp Ruck – Miles and Smiles

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Here we go, new year, new workout.

Miles and Smiles

The six of us showed up with our Rucks ready to move it.  Grabbed a cement pipe, and a couple sand bags and got in a little under 3 miles.

Great times and great practice for all of our events coming up.

Glad to have Shakespeare joining us with his new shiny Ruck (yeah I’ll take care of that on Tuesday).  Nasa talked about old man farts coming from ahead of us, I’ll let you guess who the supplier was.  And good times.

If you are new to rucking and want an intro come on out.  Post up and let us know and we can source a ruck for you to borrow.  If you are a expert Rucker come out and log some miles and have a great time with us.

COME OUT TUESDAY TO GC

Rad

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New Year’s at #SwampMire

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First off, I’ll let you in on a little secret that you may already know:
If I’m promoting something on Twitter (especially my Q), you should only believe about 60% of the content of the tweet. Problem is, you just don’t know which 60%, so my hope is you’ll show up to find out… That said, the Sodium Borohydride (NaBH4) tweet was ridiculous. If you didn’t see it, trust me, you didn’t miss anything much. In that same tweet, though, I mistakenly referred to Quagmire as The Swamp. Both workouts launch from the same parking lot, so I’d love to blame it on that, but it was IN THE TWEET I REPLIED TO. Meh…Details…

I did make a vague attempt to tie the chemistry to the “One Word” convergence coming up on the 12th. NaBH4 is used as a reducing agent for aldehydes and ketones, and one of the words I’m trying on right now for 2018 is “Reduce” or “Simplify”… I know… a long stretch and an obscure reference… you’ll live.
I was a Chemistry minor in Undergraduate… Despite Crash’s Dad failing me in Chem 102 my Sophomore year. But, that’s a long story, best shared on the road in a white van whilst running a 200 mile relay or something… What were we talking about…? Oh yeah… the workout…

We’ve all heard of Dora 1-2-3… No good to start a New Year, so, I modified it to a Dora “Oh-Why-Me?” Here’s how it went:

Warm up:
Mosey to larger traffic circle
Windmills x 10
IW x 10
Mosey to next traffic circle:
Weed Pullers x 10
Moroccan Nightclubs x 10
MC x 15
Mosey to front of Books-A-Million:
Parker Peters x 10
SSH x 15

Then on to the “Dora, oh why me?” – A Pyramid of hate

You and your partner:
Partner 1 runs (roughly 75 yards down, then back)
Partner 2 does the exercises:
100 Burpees
200 Jump Squats
300 Merkins
400 Flutters
300 CDD
200 Squats
100 Makthar N’Diayes
Mosey back to the flag for some Mary
COT
——————
NMM:
We didn’t make it all the way through the exercises. It was cold… Also, that was a lot of freaking exercises. QBert and Geronimo were the Kings of the day and they managed to get through most (actually, I think all?) of the squats. The rest of us petered out in Carolina Dry Dock Land… which is a lovely place… I think Jedi has a Summer home there…

Helmet, Out.

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Bring Back the Donkey Kicks

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9 Pax and 2 Runners showed up in freezing temps and were ready to get after it. The runners were already off to the races so the rest of us needed to move to warm up.

There was no disclaimer given as there were no FNG’s present, but after NASA pointed it out, YHC relented and gave a brief one while we moseyed (knees to chest, toy soldiers, butt kickers) to the back of the school.

Warm-Up (IC)

15 – SSH
15 – IW
15 – WM
15 – MC
15 – Peter Parkers
15 – Parker Peters

The Thang

We moseyed to the paved hill behind the bus circle for some partner work (size did not matter).

Partner 1 – Lunge walk to the first rock pile. Backward lunge walk to the second pile and run it out the rest of the way up and back down.

Partner 2 – Work on the exercises until partner 1 is back down the hill and flapjack.

Exercises – (50) Burpees, (100) Big boy situps, (200) Squats and (300) LBC’s

We finished up the last 50 LBC’s as a group and then moseyed to the wall for some People’s Chair.

Hold the wall while each Pax counted down from 10.
Hold the wall on one leg while each Pax counted down from 5, switch legs for another countdown.

Mosey to the grass hill for more hill work with 11’s.

**Now the reason for the title of this backblast**. When I started in F3 in September of 2015 it seemed like every bootcamp contained at least 50 donkey kicks. No real thought here but they are terrible and we should do more of them! And so we did…

We started at the bottom with 1 donkey kick and ran up the hill for 10 monkey humpers. 2-9, 3-8, etc…It was as terrible as it sounds and a lot of mumble chatter accompanied our second round of hill work. With time up we slow moseyed back to COT.

Great job by all the Pax. I know my quads were successfully shredded by the time we finished up.

Announcements
Joe Davis – 1/6
CAH workouts – NASA encouraged everyone to step up and get involved
Read newsletter for upcoming events. Lots of them.

Prayer Requests
Qbert and M are dealing with where God wants them to serve for a church home
Mr. Clean is dealing with some struggles right now and needs to be lifted up
Cerrano has a friend that is expecting and dealing with her husband’s recent passing (30 yrs. old)
Lutefisk’s Mom isn’t doing well and he is traveling to be with her in MN
Unmentioned prayers
Parenting (continue to lift one another up in this important, yet difficult at times, task with which we have been entrusted)

Thanks Bones for the opportunity to lead. Always honored.

Until next time…
Hauschka

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BB – Tempo – 12/28

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See BB for runs do exist.

7 showed for a fun filled morning of running.

Originally had two routes planned a 7min group and an over 8 minute group.  As the cold hit us I think we all agreed lets just do the over 8 group.

So we knocked out 5 on a hilly cold windjammer, but hey as Nasa says, the view of the lake at the end was all worth it.

Came back and circled up and talked about all the great things coming, aka read your newsletter.

Prayers:

Traveling Families

Mr. Clean

Injured PAX

 

As always great time and thanks for the chance to lead!

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2017 Clave Boss 5k/10k & Christmas Convergence

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Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more——Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!!

The largest turn out by far for the Clave Boss 5k/10k was a success. We started on time and as far as I know nobody died. Thank you to all the PAX that ran and had a fun time and fellowship.

For the 5k, here were are winners of Bundt Cakes

  1. MacGyver
  2. Harry Carry

For the 10k, here were are winners of Bundt Cakes

  1. Sir Topham Hat
  2. mix of PAX coming from all directions—no idea

For the Ruck, here were are winners of Bundt Cakes

  1. Dark Helmet for 11min pace 5k ruck…..nice work!

Honorable Mention for Anchorman completing the 5k and Barry Manilow being his wingman!

The Convergence kicked off on time and we had Gecko open us up in prayer. We split the groups up and away we went with COT at 0750. Click on links to see the pain that was delivered…..Merry Christmas!

Black Diamond – Longshanks Q – https://t.co/odVJHWCBPS

Bootcamp – Cha Ching Q – https://f3thefort.com/2017/12/23/christmas-convergence-boot-camp-mixed-w-some-bd/

Noderate – Barry Manilow Q – https://f3thefort.com/2017/12/23/your-moderate-option-at-the-convergence/

COT came together and we had 83 men attend this year.

Welcome FNG – Lake Effect, who is 41 not the 50 that he just shouted out. Classic!

Many announcements:

  • Thank you Site Qs for all your work, dedication and leadership!
  • Serve Saturdays ….reach out to Deacon, Bolt, NASA for info…..HIMs!!
  • Joe Davis Run Jan 6
  • Friday Convergence with 3rdF post beat down Jan 12
  • Rooster CSAUP Jan 20
  • Yeti – February
  • P200 – March

More than a workout!!

Prayers/Praises

  • Dark Helmet shared his sister is in need of prayer. Please remember DH and his family each day in prayer
  • Family visiting is fun and sometimes no so fun. BE HIMs!!
  • Prayers for all the PAX traveling and for peace this week!

Challenge:

I spoke to the PAX about how 2000 years ago Sky Q sent his son into the world in the form of a baby. When looking for a place to come in from the cold there WAS NO ROOM AT THE INN. I believe we all fall into this trap and put so much busy into our lives that we don’t have ROOM AT THE INN for Sky Q in our lives. We fill our hearts and minds with so much and when it come to his word and being in relationship, we DON”T HAVE ROOM AT THE INN (in our hearts).

I challenge myself and the PAX to make room for SKY Q and see how it changes your life in 2018 and beyond.

Honored to lead this PAX. I am blessed and grateful for each of you!

Cake Boss

 

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The 12 Pains of Christmas at The Poop Deck – Redux

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Thursday before Christmas in 2016, I Q’d this same workout up at The Poopdeck. We had a great time then, and I was asked to bring it back again to The Poopdeck this year. That’s quite a complement to redux a Q. Thanks Wild Thing for the request and opportunity to lead.

Ho ho ho! Santa Q was out and ready to receive the PAX of HIMs this morning when they rolled in to the Poodeck. It was a great day, balmy for December. What a treat in itself. Everyone was in a great mood. Alot of mumblechatter. It is always great to start your day with a group of HIMs like this,
No FNGs unfortunately. After the disclaimer was disclaimed, off we moseyed around the parking lot a to get the heart rate up. After the warmup run, we circled up for the COP, 20 or so of each:

 

  • Side-straddle hops
  • Imperial walkers
  • Windmills
  • Moroccan night clubs
  • Cherry/Strawberry/Weed Pickers

We were all nice and warmed up. A brief run over to the large parking lot at the boat ramp for NASA’s follies…..

The 12 Days of Christmas…. Pain:
NASA Claus came prepared with a red bag full of goodies for each and every PAX, whether naughty or nice they have been. In Santa Q’s sack was 12 ‘presents’, complete with bows even. With warmth from his heart Santa Q gave each PAX a present. The joy and excitement each PAX had of receiving these wonderful, yet unknown gifts was an incredible sight to see. I wish I had my camera at the ready! The PAX were excited to reach in NASA Claus’ sack to see what they got, but NASA Claus had to remind him to be gentle with it, for it is VERY old.
After a gift was opened, the group had to partake in the pain it presented. Not only that, the HIM who opened the gift got to lead the exercise it outlined. They were gifts that kept on giving. Each PAX took turns opening their gifts from NASA Claus to find the following pains:
Gift # / Pain:

 

  1. 15 Burpees OYO
  2. 25 Monkey Humpers, cadence (c)
  3. 40 Merkins (c)
  4. Run, run Rudolph! (Run a loop around the entire boat ramp parking lot, about 1/4 mile loop)
  5. 50 Plank Jacks (c)
  6. 50 LBCs (c)
  7. 40 CDD (c)
  8. Grin and Bear it!! (Bear Crawl loop the circle of HIMs –  had to open the circle a little for this one)
  9. 40 LSS (c)
  10. 30 Hello Dollys (c)
  11. 50 Calf raises (c)
  12. Don’t be Crabby (Crab walk loop the circle of HIMs)

 

I wanted cadence to slow the exercise down, focus on form rather than speed. Even with not much rest between ‘gifting’, that took a good chunk of the 45 minutes. We still had around 10 minutes or so left, so we started another round. Due to tough economic times, we had to regift and Santa Q redistributed the presents for round 2, letting each PAX reach into Santa Q’s sack AGAIN to grab a gift of goodness. Unfortunately due to time we cut short round 2 to only 4-5 presents. Even so, it was alot of pain combined with alot of fun. Each and every PAX had alot of laughs.
Run to the COT for Announcements, Prayers, and Praises.
Brief discussion on Gifts: My opinion the most precious Gifts we are blessed with is Christ and time. Without those, all other Gifts we have been blessed with we would never be able to be thankful for.  Do not take either for granted. Use every moment of time you have to utilize the Gifts you have been blessed with in a positive way. In doing so, maybe you will bestow a Gift upon someone else.
Thank you for the opportunity to lead.
Merry Christmas and God Bless,
-NASA
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The DaVinci Cones® Redux

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Forecast called for a warmish start for December, but a high chance of rain, so I wasn’t sure if we’d have a crowd or just a few. Very glad to see a bunch of cars when I pulled up. We ended up with 14 including YHC.

The Thang

Ran around the parking lot to warm up the legs, with a little side shuffle then circled up for some COP:

SSH x 15
Low, slow squats x 15
Slow, old-man windmills (just 10, since I was reminded it’s just a 45 minute workout
Merkins x 10
A little downward dog and honeymooner to stretch out
Mountain Climbers x 15

Then a short mosey to the traffic circle in front of school. I spoke briefly about our theme of the month, which is “Gifts.” At other workouts, the Qs have spoken about Gifts, be they tangible, material things that we give and receive, or intangible, like the gifts of time and support and love.

My message was about the holiday phenomenon of the REGIFT.

Today, I decided to reuse a workout I led earlier this year at the Abyss. It worked pretty good then, and worked well today, too.

Here’s what we did:

Partner 1 acts as a timer, going halfway around circle drive to the Cone using the prescribed means of conveyance (bear crawl, crab walk, etc), then runs the second half while Partner 2 does the prescribed exercise (squat jumps, merkins, etc); then switch

1. Bear Crawl | Squat Jumps
2. Lunge Walk | Merkins
3. Crab Walk | LBCs
4. Lt. Dangers | Plank Punches

Then a mosey around to the side of the school for some Wall Sits.

Have a seat, won’t you? A PAX from either end of the row runs out to the center stripe in the driveway, does 3 burpees, then runs back to the wall.

Finally, a mosey around to the track behind the school.

This is one of the set-it-and-forget-it workouts I like to uses. It’s self-paced and allows for some cardio as well as a variety of body-weight exercises. Plus, if someone finishes and there’s still time on the clock, we can always rinse and repeat.

Start at Cone #1 at one end of the track, do the exercise and prescribed reps, run to the other end of the track, do #1 on Cone 2 at  that end, and so on.

Cone #1
1. Slow Squats (20)
2. Curb Dips (20)
3. Mtn. Climbers (20 d.c.)
4. Curb Derkins (20)
5. CDD’s (20)

Cone #2
1. Imperial Wlkrs (20 d.c.)
2. Jump Lunges (10/leg)
3. Freddy Mercurys (20 d.c.)
4. Flying Squirrels (10)
5. Peter Parkers (10 d.c.)

NMM

All jokes aside about gifts and regifts, at COT I shared my feelings about what a gift F3 is to me. I was able to thank DarkHelmet again for EH-ing me for weeks, finally convincing me to post at the Deep on a warm Saturday in April of 2016.

I was hooked from the very first workout.

Mind you: it nearly killed me (curse you, Jack Webb!), but the remarkable thing to me was how I felt welcomed from the moment I got out of my car. I was supported and encouraged during that first workout, and that encouragement and support has continued to this day.

I challenge each of us to continue offering support and encouragement to FNGs and long-time PAX alike.

The world may beat us down. This group can help build us back up.

So during this time of giving, I want to thank all of my brothers for their gift of friendship and support and encouragement.

I feel blessed to be a part of this group.

DaVinci

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