All Legs at The Deep

YHC arrived a little early for the workout since I haven’t been out to the Deep in a while. Been doing a little running this year so did a little pre-run myself while Q-Bert and Olaf did some rucking with some heavy tire pieces. Looked nasty and heavy.

It was a cool morning and gave us a break from the week of rain so it was a perfect day for a workout. The Pax rolled in a little before 0700. No FNG’s were present but a brief disclaimer was given and off we went.

Warm-Up

Mosey around to the back of the school with butt kickers, knees to chest, side shuffle, etc…

In Cadence

15 – SSH
15 – IW
15 – WM
15 – Low Slow Squat
25 – Moroccan Night Clubs

Mosey to circle

Brief Discussion on Vulnerability. YHC used the analogy of a baseball game where the outfielder calls “I got it” when a fly ball is hit. Being vulnerable is admitting to God and to your brothers that you “Don’t Got It”. When we admit that we need help with whatever we “Don’t Got”, growth can happen. The challenge was to think of the thing or things that we need where we need to ask for help.

The Thang

150 Lunges (Single Count)
250 Squats
350 LBC’s

Run a lap around in the inside circle after every 50 count of exercises.

Finish early – Find someone to help finish

Lt. Dan’s to the speed bump, run back
Bear Crawl to the speed bump, run back

Run to the speed bump and do burpees on the odd numbers back to the arrow for donkey kicks on the evens to 10.

Walls Sits- Each person count to 10 while holding the wall with one leg out
Shake it out
Switch legs for another 10 count

Total running mileage – 3.26

Mosey back for COT

Prayers

Lutefisk – Loss of his mother
Soprano – Loss of his brother
Olaf’s grandfather
Peg-Internal Interview
Costanza-Interview

Coffeeteria at DD

Great job by the Pax and always great to see the 2.0’s out there. Mine were lazy Saturday.

Always an honor to lead. Thanks Shakespeare for the opportunity. Cobains to Wolverine for trying to age you a couple of years!

Until next time,

Hauschka

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Eight Face the Balls of Doom at Crow’s Nest

YHC was less than enthusiastic about the chilly drizzle that greeted me on on my front porch in the gloom; hesitation gave way to excitement when I hit the driveway in anticipation of a hard workout and a strong showing from the Pax.  Here’s how it went down:

Warm-o-Rama:

Started with a slow mosey from the front of the school to the back, about 400 yards, with a decent cold drizzle smacking the faces of the men we ran and wondered if it would keep up, stop or get worse.  Most of us thought for a moment once again that the fartsack is where we’d rather be, but we shook it off as we circled up for the warmup:

  • 15 Windmills IC (at this point Nemo joined having arrived two minutes late, Pax gave him the requisite crap; he accepted it gracefully)
  • 20 SSH, IC
  • 15 Cherry Pickers, IC
  • 15 Imperial Walkers, IC
  • 15 LSS, IC

My mind having gone blank, YHC decide we were warm enough and we moseyed 400 more yards to the back of the school to begin Part 1 of the Thang:

The Thang, Part 1:

  • 5 rounds: 5 pull ups on the playground, 10 yard mosey to the side walk for 10 Merkins
  • Mosey back to the area where we warmed up for The Thang, Part 2

The Thang, Part 2: Balls of Doom:

YHC has two grab bags, one with 10 ping pong balls, upon which are written numbers from 5 to 25, plus the letter “Q” (puller gets to choose the number of reps); The second bag contains 15 plastic golf balls with excercises on them.  Pax took turns pulling one of each and this is about what we got:

  • Burpees – 25 (Flux of course!)
  • Big boy sit-ups – 10
  • Bomb jacks  – 10
  • Merkins – 20
  • Dips – 10 IC
  • CDD – 15
  • Derkins – 20
  • Crunch frog  – 20 IC
  • SSH – 25 IC
  • Triangle merkins – 20
  • Bomb jacks – 20
  • Run a lap (about 200M)
  • Lt. Dans – 25! (Flux again!)

Frankly there were a few more in there…that’s what happens with the Balls of Doom, fate decides!  Moseyed back to COT where we mentioned the F3 Christmas party, thanked the Lord for everything, lifted our brothers and loved ones in prayers for mercy and healing.  As always, I am grateful for F3 and the for the opportunity to lead.

Wolverine

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Bad Cousin

4 PAX including YHC rolled in before the 5AM start time at Bermuda Triangle this morning.  It was wet, balmy, and almost felt like a summer morning.  At 5, I gave the quick disclaimer and we took a mosey around the 1/4 mile dirt track that circles the encompasses the playground.  Along the way we did some shuffles and toy soldiers before circling up.

Warm-a-rama

  • Windmills
  • SSH
  • Low Slow Squat
  • Merkins
  • Moroccan Night Clubs

I then announced that since I already went to the trouble of getting out a bunch of cinderblocks for “My Deep Q” this past Saturday, I wanted to get some more use out of them and that the rest of the workout would use them, everyone grumbled…

As a quick block warm-up, I had everyone circle up again after grabbing 1 block and hold the cinderblocks out in front of them.  One at a time I had 1 PAX drop out of the circle and run/walk around the circle holding the block high overhead while the other PAX continued to hold their blocks out in front.  We cycled through all 4 PAX before getting to the big routine and telling the PAX to grab a 2nd block, which they all did reluctantly.

I got the idea from the Exicon, Greta 1-2-3 was the name, Dora’s cousin, however, there wasn’t a lot of detail there other than it was basically a Dora with blocks.  This sounded like a great idea!

We would pair up and perform the following exercises in typical Dora 1-2-3…4 fashion:

  • 100 Blockees (crowd-pleaser)
  • 150 Abyss Merkins (between two Cindy’s)
  • 200 Sumo/Cindy Squats (Block had to touch the ground)
  • 250 American Hammers (holding the block)

Each PAX would do as many as possible while his partner carries two cinderblocks across the soccer field and back.  All in all, this worked out great, but there were a couple Omaha’s here.  1st, the Abyss Merkins were supposed to be “Mindy’s” which is a name I just came up with that consisted of a Merkin with a cinderblock on your back.  While this is a pretty cool idea, it didn’t work well in this format since you needed your partner to get the block on your back so I switched them quickly to Abyss Merkins.  The 2nd Omaha was carrying the additional cindy across the field & back.  It’s a BIG field and instead of shortening the distance, I chose to lessen the weight after everyone had a chance to do it at least once, which BURNED.

The Omaha’s were necessary in the end because even though I had A LOT more planned, this routine took about 30 minutes to work through and we finished up right on time.  I’m certain I’m going to feel the soreness from this one tomorrow.  Strong group of PAX today and we all finished.  Olaf was pretty chatty about the whole thing though…

Announcements, Praises, Prayers

  • Christmas Party
  • Deep 7AM start time
  • Character Band-Aids
  • Prayers for SAT testing tomorrow
  • Prayers for Olaf’s Mother-in-law who is losing a final battle with cancer
  • Prayers for Two Ferns wife, who has been battling digestive issues

Thanks for the privilege to Q Homebrew!

Until next time,

-Flux-

 

 

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VQ At the Abyss

The Abyss has been around, what, 2 years or so?  YHC has never made it down there, and that’s a shame.  Not only is it a great, well-lit AO, but the pax there represent Lake Wylie very well! Sure wish Siri hadn’t been lying to me all this time on how long it takes to get there.  At 4:45am, it seems every AO in TheFort can be reached in 15 minutes or less.

This cool halloween morning, the count was 14 pax.  The mumblechatter level made it feel more like 25. Excellent! YHC knew most of the pax there, but the hats and my historically bad memory for names threw me off (cobains Wolverine for calling you “Moreen”).

Disclaimer was issued as Flux was coming in hot.  We moseyed the opposite direction from where he parked, but made a loop for him to catch up.  Stopped in the same front lot for some warm-up:

  • SSH (IC) x25
  • Imperial Walker (IC) x20
  • Mountain Climbers (IC) x20
  • Flutters (IC) x20
  • Windmills (IC) x20

Moseyed around to the back lot to find 4 cones set up, one in front of each basketball goal (along long side of track).  Time for some Webb-o-Rama.  The exercises at each cone were to be done in a Jack Webb style, (1:4 ratio).

Cone 1: Burpees and Side Straddle Hops, then Bear Crawl to cone 2

Cone 2: Big Boy Sit-ups and American Hammers, then wheelbarrow to cone 3

Cone 3: Knee Tar N’Diayes and Run-Stance Switches, then wheelbarrow to cone 4

Cone 4: Traditional Jack Webb (merkins and overhead claps), then run around track back to cone 1

We did a total of 3 loops of the circuit.

Round 1: 1-5

Round 2: 6-8

Round 3: 10 (didn’t have time for 9)

Moseyed back to COT.

NMMS

I took just a few minutes after round 1 to share how my kids are at an age that I’m really proud of them.  But as a father, it is very important we don’t give them the impression that our love and pride for them is based on winning or achieving a certain status.  It should be based on them showing a good work ethic, passion, and self-motivation to try and use the gifts God has given them.  And shifting the perspective a little, I am incredibly grateful that God’s love for me is not based on how much I “win” or am “successful”.  Thank God for His GRACE that keeps me from having to accomplish things in order to earn His love.

 

Excellent effort by LW’s finest this morning.  Thanks for making me feel so welcome.  And thanks to Bones for the opportunity to lead.

Keep it spicy.
-old bay

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Forties for 40

Well today was the day… turning 40…why not take the Q today?  I asked Bones for it months ago.  There’s nothing better than leading a group of men and friends at an F3 workout, especially on a birthday.  I was really happy to see 17 other men here, including a few faces that don’t usually travel to the Abyss.

We started up with a mosey around the parking lot.  Nemo and Flux were pulling in right at 5:15 so we did a lap and let them catch up.  Standard dynamic warmup stuff on the lap.

It was cold so the warmup had some more cardio items than usual.

-SSHs – Ab Vagota – Seal Jacks – Squats – IWs – Mountain Climbers

We ended with the Merkin Circle

6 rounds around the circle.  1 merkin each for the 18 guys while in plank.

We moved over to the Hill.  I found an exercise in the lexicon called “Forties”.  I figured if we added the hill we could call it the “Over the Hill Forties”.  That got some laughs, and some groans…

It’s a ladder with higher reps.  An Exercise at the Top of the Hill, one at the bottom.  Take 30 reps at the top 10 at the bottom, then subtract 5 and add 5 until you’ve flipped to 10-30.

1st round : Top = CDDs Bottom = Flutters

2nd Round : Top = American Hammers Bottom = Calf Raises

We took a break and I shared a little message about reflections.  How these men and F3 have helped change me to be a better person and on a better path in life.  I reflected on who I might have been at 40 with out these men… it wasn’t so pretty.

We moseyed next to the front of the school.  I split the group into 2 teams.

Team 1 would stay for wall sits while Team 2 bear crawled around the circle

Flipped it

Next round BTTW as long as you can, then wall sits while Team 2 Crab Walked the circle

Finally we head back to COT for a very special circle.  For my birthday we we’re going to play a game.  The group had to answer questions about me.  If correct 10 SSHs.  If wrong… 10 burpees!

The Questions were:

  1. How many siblings do I have? right
  2. What is my favorite professional sports team? right
  3. What High School did I attend?  Bonus, what was the mascot? right with bonus!
  4. What was my favorite children’s toy in 1985? wrong
  5. Where do I work? right
  6. Where did I go to college? right

To my surprise these men got 5 of 6 right…and to Iced-T’s credit he was saying He-Man for #4…but the group out voted him!

Announcements

Thanksgiving Convergence

Christmas Party

Fast 5 postponed

Prayers

For Soprano and the passing of his brother

Hurricane victims still in need

Grateful for all the people in our lives

If you’ve read this far the answers were

  1. 1 sister = Rachel
  2. Green Bay Packers
  3. South Meck = Sabres
  4. He-Man
  5. Merrill Lynch
  6. UNCC

An Honor to Lead!

-Royale

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Weinke-less Deck of Doom

Got the chance to pick up a last minute Q spot at Bermuda Triangle and I let every know we would be doing some heacvy lifting.

Moseying around the parking lot and did some shoulder heavy warm up

rotate without leaving some form of plank
10 merkins
10 Mountain climbers
right arm high
10 nolan ryans to reverse plank
10 crab cakes
10 dips
left arm high
10 nolan ryans to regular plank
10 plank jacks

back to the cars for some Cindy and we carried Cindy overhead around the track to the basketball nets where I pulled out the official F3 workout deck and we went around picking cards and using the Cindy as much as possible. Lunge around the pavement? Bring the Cindy. Burpees? With the Cindy!

F3 Workout Deck – Waterproof Beatdown Box Card Deck

Went through about 30 minutes of that and walked back to CoT performing curls and tricep hammers along the way.

Quick 5 8-count bodybuilders to finish strong for CoT

Prayers for Austin Powers’s recent surgery on his back to remove a cancerous mass
Sign up for the Christmas Party if you will be in town!

Aye!

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A Few Words on Encouragement at The Deep

8 PAX assembled in the gloom at The Deep to push themselves and each other in the theme of the month encouragement.

A brief disclaimer was given while Royale and The Lorax came in hot. The PAX took a quick mosey from the Middle School over to Elementary School and on the way stretched out with some Toy Soldiers and Knees to the chest.

Circle up in the parking lot of Elementary School for a brief CoP including: SSH, Imperial Walkers, Hillbilly Walkers, Morrocan Nightclubs, Windmills, and a little Broga to loosen us up.

The theme for the workout was set up to mirror the theme of the month, encouragement. YHC asked the PAX who knew the word of the month and who had read the accompanying 3rd F document. Few knew the word of the month and no one had read the 3rd F piece. If you haven’t read it at this point, STOP READING THIS and take a few moments to pull up your newsletter and read it.

The document was briefly summarized and the first evolution was laid out. The PAX were to move as a team and complete all the exercises before moving on, ENCOURAGING each other along the way. The evolution went like this:
2 laps around the school
25 Pull Ups
50 Dips
100 Squats (done together with each PAX taking a turn counting)
200 Flutter kicks (100 4 count in cadence)
1 Lap the school and back mosey to the back of the Middle School

The second evolution was a twist on an old favorite. Starting from the brick pillars on the practice field side of school each PAX would pick up Sandy (40lb sand bag) and run to the next brick pillars just past the first basketball goal (about 40ish yards). The remaining PAX would through the exercises below:
Kracken Burpees
Jump Squats
Merkins
LBC
Flutters
American Hammer
CDD
Bear Crawl/Crawl bear

Sufficiently smoked the PAX meandered back to COT. Thank you Shakespeare for the opportunity to lead this great group of men.

Moleskin:

This month’s 3rd F Theme really struck home with me. To think that a 35 year old wife, mother, and school teacher couldn’t find enough encouragement in her life that she thought nobody would miss her if she was gone seems almost impossible to imagine for most people. I unfortunately am not most people. As a teenager this was a recurring thought of mine as I would sit at home on Friday nights by myself wondering if any of my friends would call, or how I could invite myself to the party or hangout. I spent those nights wondering if I didn’t show up on Monday, or if I were gone would anyone miss me. Those thoughts can be irrational, but the feeling is real. Years later I found myself on the other end of a phone call informing me that one of my best friends had died of an overdose. He was in his early twenties and was the poster child for what someone would want in a US Marine. I would get two more similar phone calls from back home about other friends who didn’t think they would be missed when they were gone, so they took their own lives. Can this be prevented? Who knows. I know this though, a few words of encouragement can change someone’s life. Letting a person know that their presence in your life matters more than you can possibly know. Never assume. Encourage those in your life to live their lives to the fullest. Make sure that they know they would be missed if they weren’t around. Each of you reading this means something to me, even if we have never met. If you get to this point or have these thoughts I encourage you to reach out to me, or one of your brothers. I can tell you that you make an impact on someones life and would be missed if you were gone.

Wild Thing out!!

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Pre-Michael Showdown at the Abyss

YHC didn’t look at the weather forecast last night so it was a bit of a surprise walking outside this morning to the pouring rain. No big deal but had to audible a couple of things on the weinke.

One thing I love about F3 is the dedication of the PAX to show up rain, shine, freezing rain, snow, single-digit temps, etc…to get to a workout. Today was no exception and 16 men (2 of whom were runners) showed up in the pouring rain to get better. One FNG was present so an F3 certified disclaimer was given and off we went.

Mosey to Bus Circle

Butt Kickers, High Knees, Side shuffle facing the school, Side shuffle away

Warm up (In Cadence)

15 – SSH
15 – IW
15 – WM
15 – Mountain Climbers
25 – Moroccan Night Clubs

Mosey to the covered sidewalk for some partner work. Some grunge music seemed apropos so it accompanied our work.

Brief Discussion on Encouragement – YHC asked the PAX to thing of someone in their life who has been a big encouragement as we completed the exercises.

Partner up – Size doesn’t matter

Partner 1 – Run the circle
Partner 2 – Work on the exercises
Flapjack

150 Carolina Dry Docks
250 Squats
350 LBC’s

Everyone completed one round and a few Pax made it through the CDD’s for the 2nd round.

Mosey to the paved hill at the exit of the school. No partners for this part.

Lt Dans to the first set of rocks, backwards lunge to the second set, sprint to the top, and slow mosey to the bottom
Rinse and Repeat (Mumble chatter)
5 burpees OYO
Bear crawl to the first set of rocks, backwards Lt. Dans to the second set, sprint to the top, 5 burpees OYO and slow mosey to the bottom

Mosey to the wall for wall sits

Round 1
Each PAX counted to 10 while holding the wall with one leg out
Shake it out, Rinse and Repeat (Mumble chatter)
Round 2
Hold the wall while each Pax ran to the sidewalk, 2 burpees and back to the wall
Shake it out, Rinse and Repeat (Mumble chatter)

Mosey back for COT

Announcements

Read your newsletter. Christmas Party, Bourbon Chase, etc…

Prayer Requests

Moab and his wife are foster parents and are receiving a newborn today. Prayers for them and for the mom.
Unspoken prayers that are heavy on our hearts
Having the strength to encourage others in our circles

Great job by the Pax and great job by the FNG Matt (F3 Aztec). He did a great job keeping us with us and did a lot better than I did on my first post. Keep up the good work!

Always an honor to lead. Thanks Bones for the opportunity.

Until next time…

Hauschka

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Deep Deeping in the Deepest of Deeps at the Deep

I enjoy Q’ing during a CSAUP, it makes me try and push the PAX as hard as the CSAUP would be, but I have to cram it into an hour 🙂

After a disclaimer, I let the PAX know that I had ZERO idea what we would be doing. That brought some groans from Nemo and Wolverine who know me well hehehe

So we started with a mosey that ended up being a warm up run around the whole lot using just about every part of the body already. The real warm up was

SSH x 23 IC
Imperial Low Squat Walker x 13 IC
Then we did something that I think would be a good rinse and repeat as you increase the reps

10 Mountain Climbers
10 Merkins
10 Peter Parkers
Right arm high
10 Nolan Ryans, end in reverse plank
10 crab cakes
10 dips
Left arm high
10 Nolan Ryans, end in regular plank

we moseyed over and found a nice wall to sit on by the right side of the school
arms up for a count
toes up for a count
Balls to the Wall for 10 shoulder taps

sit on the wall while waiting for every PAX to do 5 burpees

Balls to the Wall for 5 push ups

We then ran down the sidewalk in front of the school and did 5 dips on every bench
Ran back and did 5 derkins on the benches

This landed us in front of a side door to the school so we lunged to the door and back

We then got to mosey over to the football field across the street for some “I’m Up, he sees me, I’m down” over 100 yards
2 Kraken Burpees then repeat back down the field

Ran back to the playground for one of my favorite Doras – Ski abs, dips, pull ups. We did one round of this because of time.

Then we did 2 minutes AMRAP of something new I am calling the beached whale ( verbal diarrhea run required to learn )

I have been waiting for months to do this next item, but it got pushed back because of the hurricane and I have had to watch it several times in the car rider line at school and long for this day.

The giant hill on the backside of the football field is super intimidating. So we bear crawled down and back up!!!

Moseyed back to CoT for 5 8-count bodybuilders OYO

CoT Annoucements
we couldn’t really think of anything so READ YOUR NEWSLETTER
Prayers for the Ragnar PAX continuing to run through the day and Wolverine’s family member finishing chemo and waiting for next steps

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A Darth Visor Backblast

I came across this backblast while trying to find something to say about Darth Visor’s passing.  After reading it, I figured what better way to learn a small something about the man he was, than to “participate” in his VQ.

Other than not having an outhouse or a baseball field (we used road by the playground and the track), I kept the Weinke as close to the original as I could.  It was surprisingly easy to tie the IR race.

After finishing, I let the PAX know who was responsible for the Q, and had some time left for ab lab.

COT

We finished up with some good discussion and prayers for Darth Visor and his family.

Thanks Bones for the opportuNITY.

The original backblast:

Virgin Q – Darth Visor – It’s about time Back Blast – 6.23.15

  • When: 06/23/15Where:

    The Pax: Hickory Stick, Trojan, Light Bulb, Sketch, Green Bean(@F3ATL), Gear(@F3theFort), Boomer, Foghorn, Def Con 2, Nacho Libre

    QIC: Darth Visor

11 PAX joined the party at THE RUBICON for a VIRGIN Q by Wardaddy in charge. Great to have @greenbean from F3Atlanta and @Gears from The Fort join in the GLOOM.

What had happened was…

7:00 sharp we mosey to the slice of heaven between the diamonds for a little warm up

Starting Position…Move….In Cadence….Exercise

SSH

Squats “really missed GRITS” was going to have him demonstrate proper technique

EW

Cotton Pickers

Feeling loose – we mosey

The Thang

1-2-3 ‘s lovely learn’t this’n up thar in fort mill region.

Partner Up and head for the outhouse…partner sprint around outhouse while other partner commenced to exercising!

100- step ups

200- dips

300 – LBCs’

Whew 10 count needed.

Let’s mosey to the ole ball field for a slight twist on our old favorite IR. PAX you got’s to sprint….not jog when its your turn. So we turned up the heat with a little team race – IR around the ballpark. Losers get to enjoy OYO 15 Burpees.

Trojan takes early lead for left side, then Boomer hits high gear to pad the lead, Hickory Stick notches one for the right side, and someone hit the speed switch for Light Bulb and it looks like left side is going to “run away” with it BUT amazing speed from Nacho Libre, Sketchy, and Gears even things up by the time we pass home plate.

Strong Showing by both teams BUT WE TIE AND EVERYONES a LOSER.

15 burpees for all and all for the PAX

Outfield Fence for little Wall Squat to catch our breath.

Let’s Mosey to THE HILL

Merkin Ladder 10 down run up hill 9 at top back down 8 back to top 7…all the way to 1 MERKIN.

COT and BOM

Much to be thankful for…GBABY arrives for WD,  remembering Foghorns wife – expecting, Mufasa’s back.

Moleskin

There was some more Beatdown but who can really remember it was soooo long ago.

Pleasure to have led you men, inspiring, fun, makes me feel good at 6:15 AM on beautiful 2sday AM

Sorry CRACK, MUFASA, Grits, Peanut, Stang, and other faithful had to miss…we’ll get you next time.

NEXT DARTH VISOR Q coming soon to the Gloom near you F3Alpha.

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