Tag: Peg

Build Your Own Beatdown at the Abyss

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After being called out on Twitter for being too brutal (still not a denial), I decided to let the PAX create their own board of pain so they were to blame

3 runners jogged off right before the disclaimer, short disclaimer since we were all veterans.

After a quick warm-up with super necessary stretching, we moseyed over to the back lot to create our Board of pain. While the PAX were doing various plank/reverse plank/one arm high, one man would grab a few cards out of the bag and post them up on the board in any random location. If a number was pulled it was placed at the top of the section as the rep count (NOTE: no 25s were pulled…. stack the deck next time)

After the board, we rotated through some Al Gore and plank while everyone gave a specific worry about this day – Wednesday, Feb 14 – and left it in God’s hands to handle the tiny stressors of the day as to not let them pile up and bring us down slowly. Everyone has big struggles and worries that can take weeks or months to pray through, but don’t forget the small tiny interruptions and distractions the Enemy will throw at you to just keep you enough off balance so you are not ready for the big storms.

Everyone successfully completed the board with enough time to spare for about 200 various AbLab reps ( 100 ish in cadence ) and dropped for 5 OYO burpees with 20 seconds left on the clock.

COT (Annoucements, Prayers, Praises, BoM)

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Burpee Bonanza at the Swamp

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Tuesday morning at Golden Corral, Cable Guy (in typical Cable Guy fashion) looks over at YHC (who is conveniently located across the parking lot, because, well, Cable Guy in the morning…) and says, “So, you’ll Q Friday at the Swamp.” It wasn’t really a question; it was more a statement of fact.

“I’ll what now?”

“Yeah, you’ll Q.”

Before I could raise any objections to protect my fellow PAX from what would become my fifth bootcamp Q in just over 2 weeks, word started to spread, and my fate was sealed.

No Twitter announcement was made to prepare the PAX for today, so when 0515 rolled over on my watch, I stepped into the circle to make the disclaimer. It was a C-Span-approved disclaimer, so I’m getting better there. Disclaimer disclaimed, the 7 ruckers walked off one way and the 8 bootcampers moseyed the other.

COP, Part 1

Short mosey to the parking lot behind Cold Stone for

20 SSH IC

10 hillbilly walkers IC

Moving on…

COP, Part 2

Following a mosey with a few side shuffles thrown in, we circled up outside Books A Million for

10 windmills IC

10 low slow squats IC

20 Moroccan night clubs IC

That’s it for the warm up; I wanted to leave plenty of time for the main event. So we moseyed over to the Sun Trust Bank parking lot for the fun to start.

The Thang

The bank is a good size to run around, and it conveniently has 11 parking spaces in a nice, flat, straight row, making it perfect for a lineup of stations. For today’s fun, we had ten burpee stations and a “rest” station of 100 LBCs. Exercises were all OYO, with a lap around the bank after each station, resulting in 11 laps. The burpee stations, in no particular order:

20 Burpees (plain old burpees)

10 Prison cell burpees

10 Kraken burpees

15 Walmart burpees (“Walmart” because you roll back; these were the focus of much mumblechatter)

15 Bodybuilder burpees

15 Inverted burpees

20 One-arm burpees (10 per arm)

20 One-leg burpees (10 per leg)

15 Tuck jump burpees (jump knees to chest)

20 Jump ½ turn burpees (ideally 10 per direction)

For those counting, that makes for 160 wonderfully fun burpees. I think we ended up running over two miles, too, but I’m not sure on that one.

T-claps to all the bootcampers, as everybody completed the entire circuit, and nobody really got far ahead of anybody else. LBCs were completed by some as we waited for the six. With five minutes to spare, we moseyed back to Chick-Fil-A for a couple minutes of stretching our now very tight shoulders and hips.

Announcements

  • GoRuck Light tomorrow. Good luck and have fun to those guys going. Make sure you’re prepared, as the list on the website is not suggestions.
  • Post somewhere tomorrow if you’re not rucking.
  • Yeti in two weeks.
  • Read your newsletter.

Prayers and Praises

  • Wild Thing’s sister-in-law is being induced today to deliver their still-born child. Please pray for this entire family as they deal with this.
  • C-Span’s son (and the whole family really) eagerly anticipating the birth of their baby. (I think I understood that right.)
  • World Wide Leader had to return to work after six weeks of paternity leave, and now their son is starting into daycare, so tons of transitions for all of that family.
  • Rad’s daughter is still in the hospital after a high fever and numerous seizures. The fever is down, but other tests are being done, so pray for her and the whole family.
  • YHC is dealing with some difficult situations at work, including a family returning from overseas early, which may lead to marital issues. Pray for them, and for those who are caring for them.
  • DaVinci’s business has gained some new clients with potentially more on the way, which is great and also daunting.

Even with limited notice (which seems to be the only way I end up Qing), it’s an honor to get to lead and serve these men. Thanks to Cable Guy for the Q-portunity. Kotters to Photobomb.

Ask the ruckers what they did. I only ever saw them walking.

-Jedi

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Ballet and Bear Crawls at Abyss

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YHC was already planning to post to the Abyss and suffer the wrath of Wolverine, so when the flu knocked out the regenerating superhuman, it only made sense for a Jedi to step in and help. Plus, there were already several HCs and a friendly reminder to bring gloves, so we were well prepared for a mid-week beat down.

Eight PAX posted to the Palisades Park parking area in the pleasantly warm pre-dawn (with precipitation predicted), the standard disclaimer was given at 0515, and we jumped right in with 25 side straddle hops. This was followed by a long mosey around the parking lot, out the entrance, in the exit, and back around to circle up by the gate to the back of the school.

COP

To keep things interesting, we did the following exercises while standing on our toes:

20 Moroccan night clubs IC

15 imperial walkers IC

15 hillbilly walkers IC

10 low slow squats IC

10 merkins IC (conveniently, these are almost always done on our toes anyway)

This was followed by some downward dogs (with reach across), honeymooner, and wrist stretches.

Warm up Addendum

Not quite satisfied with the warm up, we lined up on the curb for some dips/crab-cake fun a la last week’s Golden Corral Q. Pretty simple, it’s dips and crab-cakes (with hands on curb) done in a 1:4 ratio (aka Jack Webb style). By round 8, the PAX were singing my praises feeling the burn, but they toughed it out and we made it all the way through.

Quick mosey around to the grassy hill for the real fun.

As I was “planning” for this morning, I realized we have a steep, grassy hill next to a road (with a curb on either side), some more grass, and a nice flat wall. There’s a lot we can do in that small area. It took a few minutes to explain, but here’s what we did for

The Thang

Starting at the bottom of the hill, perform 20 squats. Run up the hill and do 10 derkins off the curb. Bear crawl across the street and do 10 incline merkins on the curb. Crab walk to the wall, walk up to a balls to the wall and back down. Crab walk back to the curb, 10 more derkins, bear crawl across the road, 10 more incline merkins, then run down the hill. Rinse and repeat, dropping 2 squats and 1 derkin/incline merkin per round (so, 18 squats, 9 derkins, 9 incline merkins, 9 more derkins, and 9 more incline merkins). Goal was to get all the way down to 0.

PAX begrudgingly acknowledged their understanding, then proceeded to tell the workout what was up. Bart missed a memo somewhere along the way and never decreased the number of derkins/incline merkins, an error he only discovered with 2 minutes remaining. Everybody did an awesome job getting through almost the entire workout before time was called, and it was great hearing them encouraging each other along the way.

For those counting, completing the entire workout as planned would result in 110 squats, 110 derkins, and 110 incline merkins. With the bear crawls, crab walks, and balls to the walls (and the dips/crab-cakes from the warm up), we couldn’t lift our arms anymore, but you don’t need your arms to quickly run back to COT and recover.

Announcements

  • Go Ruck Light this weekend. Should be fun for those going. For those not going, Q-Bert is planning to destroy you on Saturday at the Deep.
  • Yeti coming up February 24. Bike, run, ruck, relay, walk, crawl….be there.
  • More events coming up in March

Praises and Prayers

  • DaVinci’s business has a new client, which is awesome, but could potentially be a LOT of work if the client decides to do everything they’re thinking of doing. They also are looking to hire a new graphic designer.
  • Cornerstone’s daughter is wrapping up treatment in three weeks!! He’s also applying for a job at a few different places and has already received at least one job offer.
  • Bones is going to be on tv promoting the consumption of loose fats…or, maybe it was the foods to eat to lose fat…
  • Moab has been jobless for a couple months, which is actually a praise because of the way God has provided during what could be a very hard time. Plus, he’s had great time with family these past couple months. But, he does need a job…

It’s always an honor to get to serve a great group of PAX. I’m coming to realize that Qing is a lot like preaching: given less time to prepare usually produces rougher results, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be effective. It definitely pays to be prepared and keep something in your back pocket for the days when the flu brings down the best of us.

-Jedi

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Speed work @ Sea Legs

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Many guys still working on P200 prep.  I got the call to Q late on Monday night, figured I’d mix it up a little bit. Showed up on a cold morning about 33° but it didn’t take long for us to warm up!

Our  goal is to get in some speed work today. I created a Strava segment on the back road towards Palisades called Langston Road which has a nice uphill grade for about 0.4 miles. We would run down that hill about 70% and then push it as hard as we can back up the hill for the 0.4 miles. The pax did this four times – pushed each other really hard.  Once that was done we had about five minutes back in the parking lot. Phase 2 was a small loop  where I had marked a straightaway of about 75 yards set up cones to cones.  For that 75 yards you were to sprint- the remainder was a light jog circling back to sprint.  Looks like we did that four or five times.

As usual Hauschka and Witch Hunt were at the front, Qbert was a speedster, and Tater was the steady-Eddy that just kept going all day.  I think Shakespeare, Peg, Cha-Ching and I really improved our speed.

Here’s how it looked.

Great way to start your day!

An honor to lead,

Royale

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Size Matters at The Deep

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I was definitely excited to lead the PAX this morning after getting FiA’d out of the Beyond workout at Poopdeck this week. Had a pre-run at 6:15 with long laps around both schools so Wild Thing could hang out and get in some exercise before work. 6 HIMs put in 4 miles.

Kicked off at 7 with a mosey behind the middle school and did some muble chatter heavy warm ups, which let me sneak in some extra counts since no one was really paying full attention. Lots of stretching worked in to the warm up. I usually enjoy when other Qs work that in, so I try to as well.

Then we started the push to be better! There are some brick columns to use for suicide runs. So I led the group through a Bear Crawl -icide with NURs to return to start.

Mosey’d around to one of the wooden octagons at the AO (we are still trying to figure out how the school uses them) 30 vaults over the wooden fence is a great quick exercise and keeps the heart rate up

Since Tater was doing his normal run, we actually had 9 for boot camp, split into groups of 3 and cycled through a few exercises. While one partner was doing the exercise the other 2 were pushing out a rough forearm plank. Each team did 2 rounds of 5 seal jacks, 10 monkey humpers, 15 Carolina Dry Docks.

Circled back to the cars and everyone grabbed a landscaping Cindy from my car and we went to the soccer field for a York favorite the Filthy Fifty!!!

Each PAX worked through 50 of each exercise

SSH
Squat Jump
Cindy Bent Rows
Cindy Swings
Lunge Step
Cindy Floor Wiper
Cindy Overhead Press
Cindy Thrusters
Burpees

After this we took a “break” to talk about Beginning and what everyone was starting this year so we could hold others accountable. Each HIM took time to express places in their lives where they wanted to specfically be pushed for growth while we rotated through

plank, one arm up, reverse plank, one arm up

and kept rotating around every 10-15 seconds.

We ended with some great mumble chatter while taking a lap around the school carrying the Cindy overhead which definitely filled time and started to really hurt since we were just walking.

The mumble chatter at The Deep is some of the most amazing ridiculous conversations ever heard at F3. And today ‘Size Matters’ was the theme, make sure you Post this week and ask about it…… or be smart.. and don’t.

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Fun times with Cable Guy

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9 Strong Men braved the cool weather and a Cable Guy Q

Brief disclaimer given and a nice warm-up mosey to the middle of he track

COP

20 Seal Jacks

20 Plank Jacks

20 SSH

20 Mountain Climbers

20 IW

20 Peter Parkers

20 Slow Squats with a calf raise

20 Parker Peters

20 Moroccan Night Clubs

Mosey over to the side of the track closest to the school

do 10 dips and run a lap

repeat 10 times

Bonus round for those who finished early!

Mosey over to the wall for some Peoples Chair and Burpees (wouldn’t be a Cable Guy Q without Burpees!)

Start from one en and do one Burpee each and back to the wall

Round 2 was 2 Burpees each

Round 3 was 3 Burpees each

Proper technique was suggested!!

Round 4 was a changeup of Ball to the Wall and 1 Burpee down the line

Mosey back to COT

Spoke about the tragedy at The Peach Stand yesterday. Prayed for both the victims family and the suspect for forgiveness. Also spoke about school shootings and Det. Doty. Prayed for peace!

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Feeling the Need, the Need for Speed

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Chilly, clear, dry. New Sea Legs locale (same locale as Abyss). 7 PAX showed up to get better. 2 other PAX were already out there doing so.

5:15 hit, no FNGs. Brief warmup right at COT start of the following:

  • SSH x 20
  • WM x 20
  • IW x 20
  • HW x 20
  • Stretch the hammys

Then mosey to the back of the school while doing one-legged bunny hops and high knee skips for height to further loosen/prep the legs.

Farleks:
Small ‘track’ out back of the school, less than 400m around (maybe 200-300m). Used a whistle to trigger when we run/cool down. We did a Farlek circuit in the following intervals (minutes at ~85-90% full-go / minutes of cool down run) :

  • 1/2
  • 2/2
  • 3/2
  • 2/2
  • 1/2
  • Rinse and repeat

Pax did 2 complete circuits. GREAT push!! Next time the full-go times will be longer.

Slow jog to COT to meet up with the mileage runners already out there (Witch Hunt and Jedi)  for announcements, Prayers, and Praises.

If you are a runner – beginner with aspirations or seasoned veteran – speed work is essential to becoming a better, stronger, faster, longer runner. It conditions your body in many ways – muscle strength and endurance, lactic tolerance, lung capacity, and oxygen transfer/use. Plus when you start seeing your body improve, it has a positive mental impact as well.

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

 

 

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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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#14DaysTillChristmas Quagmire Style

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12 Men showed up in sub-freezing temperatures at Quagmire just to prove that cold weather means absolutely nothing.  Especially when you get moving.  5:15 came and we took a nice mosey over to the Home Depot parking lot while doing some side steps, high knees, and butt kickers.

Warm Up-

Windmill x 10

Imperial Walker x 10

Hillbilly Walker x 10

SSH x 20

Seal Jack x 20

Plank/Honeymooner/Downward Dog

 

The Thang-

A Dirty McDeuce (or as DaVinci said, McFourteens?) of sorts.  3 excercises, constant movement, supersets, in all its glory to keep us warm.

Home Depot- Squats x 14, Merkins x 14, LBCs x 14… x 2

Run to Target parking lot through back delivery entrance

Target – Jump Lunges x 14, Carolina Dry Docks x 14, Freddie Mercury x 14…. x 2

Run to around Target parking lot to BAM

BAM- Jump Squats x 14, Wide Arm Merkins x 14, American Hammers x 14…. x 2

Run to Just Fresh parking lot

Just Fresh- People’s Chair (hold for… a long time?), into Donkey Kicks x 14, into BTTW (hold for… a long time… again?)…. x 2.  On last BTTW, PAX held through all 12 taking turns at 5 Merkins.

Mosey around the corner to the Fountain

Fountain- Find a bench… Box Jumps/Step Ups x 14, Tricep Dips x 14, Derkins x 14… x 3 (added an extra set for fun)

Indian Run Back to COT for many (10 minutes) of Mary (Q altered schedule thinking that time would run short… too much overthinking).  Completed 3 Mary exercises, into Diamond Merkins, 3 more Mary exercises, into Diver Bombers, and 3 more Mary exercises with time running out.

Name-O-Rama, Announcements, Prayers

Significance of 14….

All exercises were completed with 14 reps.  Monday, December 11.  14 Days until Christmas.  14 Days until the greatest gift the world has received.  With the focus on Gifts this month, I used the exercise to countdown to my favorite day of the year.  Christmas has meant a lot to me, not just through the greatest gift of all time, but through the significance to my family.  I am excited to continue my family’s Christmas traditions with my children as they start to understand the significance of this time of year.

 

Until next time,

Shakespeare. Out.

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