Never Forget

9/11 Tribute WOD – Focus on the Passenger

Imagine you’ve woken up on a seemingly normal day, getting ready for a work trip, and then heading to the airport. The traffic isn’t as heavy as you would think, in fact you think maybe today will be a good day based on that. You arrive at the airport, get your ticket, and go to the security line. Security wasn’t so bad, it only took 5 minutes. This could be a pretty nice business trip. You arrive at your gate and then the plane starts to board. You board, sit down in your seat and pull out a book you’ve just started and are excited to read it on this forced 5 hour break. The plane takes off and everything seems fine.

Then it isn’t.

A group of men some how gain control of the plane and it changes course. The next thing you know, you have no clue where you’re heading and there is an air of fear growing in the cabin. You look out of your window and you see a city that you should be very far from at that point in the flight and wonder what comes next.

That’s it. That’s how 246 passengers/crew on four planes lost their lives on 9/11/01. They weren’t warned, told, or able to make the last decisions about their lives. Some weren’t able to tell their loved ones that they loved them for the last time. Life ended for them on that fateful day.

Today we honored them.

Mosey around the entire church and then circled up for a warm up stretch.

COP

30 SSH

10 Tappy Taps

30 Moroccan Night Clubs

10 Little Baby Arm Circles – both directions

Al Gores w/4 count pulse

High Plank, Side Plank, Side Plank

Yoga Flow and Stretch

Mosey to the concrete bench area.

Four Flights – 246 Victims in the air.

Flight 11
87 Total
76 Passengers
11 Crew

Flight 77
59 Total
53 Passengers
6 Crew

Flight 93
40 Total
33 Passengers
7 Crew

Flight 175
60 Total
51 Passengers
9 Crew

Weinke

Flight 11 – North Tower
76 – Step Ups (Count Each Leg)
11 – Turkish Get Ups (11 Each Arm)
Run Lap

Flight 175 – South Tower
51 – KB Swings
9 – Curls (9 each arm)
Run Lap

Flight 77 – Pentagon
53 – Straight Leg Deadlifts (1 Leg at a time)
6 – Clean & Press (6 each arm)
Run Lap

Flight 93 – Field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania
33 – Goblet Squats
7 – Halo’s (7 each way)
Run Lap

Mary – Total Per Flight
87 – LBC’s (2 Count)
60 – Pickle Pointers @ Bench Area (KB on Hips)
59 – Flutters w/Press (2 Count)
40 – American Hammers w/KB (count each side)

We ran short and had three minutes to spare. We took time to pass the Dutchie left and right one revolution.

JWOWW made a great point while we were running our fourth lap – you don’t come to realize how many people actually lost their lives until you start counting them out one by one, rep by rep, and the pain grows with each rep. Just remember this when you’re thinking about giving up when honoring those who lost their lives.

We had 12 PAX, each of which struggled through this unique weinke.

We headed back to COT and I gave one last word with regard to those who lost their lives:

NMM

In total, 2,996 people lost their lives on that fateful day of 9/11/2001. At this time 18 years ago, none of them knew their time would come to leave this earth. They had plans, families, loved ones, futures, goals, dreams. Don’t take what you have for granted. Live the life you have with those you’re surrounded in the best way possible. Give all of yourself to God and let Him use you. Don’t hold back. You never know when something might happen and put an end to all of it.

Prayers/Praises

Flat Tire’s son is going to take his on the road drivers test – prayer and praise!

Pray for marriages – and don’t take for granted the fact that you have an amazing M.

Pray for Winnie – my 2.3 – who is the last of our family to catch our little illness going around.

Praise for our newest Region, Lake Wylie! And for our new leadership in The Fort.

Announcements 

Christmas party coming up! Get your sweaters!

Punch List out.

TClap |
17

Bleachers of Pain

Going to start off saying this is Punch List’s fault. I talked to him earlier and asked him 2 muscle groups he wanted to hit during todays workout. His choices were quads and back.

We had 2 FNG’s at The Coop ready to hit it. I started promptly with opening credits and a disclaimer, and ran to the football field bleachers for a quick warm up and examples of exercises.

The THANG:

I had the PAX partner up and I explained the WO. There where 8 exercises. 1 partner did the exercise while the other would do a lap up one side of the bleachers and down another then back to swap out with their partner. The rep count for each exercise was 100 reps.

The Exercises:

1: Dolphin Kick/Reverse Crunch (100 reps). They had a choice. The Dolphin Kick is done while lying belly down on the bleachers. Keeping belly and chest down you lift feet up together as high as you can to get a nice burn in the lower back area.

2: 1 foot on bench Lunge (50 reps each leg). With one foot stationed on the bleacher the other extended out and basically do a Lunge/squat using just that one leg.

3: Superman (100 reps). While lying face down on the bleacher putting arms straight out over your head. You lift feet/legs and arms up leaving belly on bleachers.

4: Sit Down Feet up Squat (100 reps). This is just performing a squat but lowering yourself onto the bleacher. You then while seated lift your feet off the ground for a brief second then raise yourself up into the standing position.

5: Wide Merican (100 reps). Self explanatory.

6: Step Up Knee Up (50 reps each leg). Step up on the bleacher with one leg. While up on the bleacher use other leg and lift it up 90 degree.

7: W Superman (100 reps). While lying face down on the bleacher you take your arms and bend them forming a W with your arms and head. While keeping your waist and legs on the bleacher you lift chest and arms up. Bring your arm back to try and touch your elbows keeping the W form. Working both lower back and between the shoulder blades.

8: Kneel Down to Stand Up (100 reps). From a standing position go down to your knees one at a time into a kneeling position. Then stand up one leg at a time. Alternating which leg goes first.

The results: This was a beast of a work out. While doing the exercises and going up and down stairs the movement kept everything loose and moving. Fatigued yes but mobile. Once leaving the site and making it home to go back to those stairs is when you felt the pain. To those having to go up flights of stairs or siting at a desk and getting up several times (me today) just remember this is Punch List’s fault. Thank you guys for coming out and supporting and pushing each other. This is what I look forward to and why I keep coming back.

TClap |
2

Iron Paradise

Since becoming the Site Q at The Coop YHC has been missing The Tomahawk. Luckily, 3D was gracious enough to swap AO’s for a day. Needless to say I was pretty excited.

10 PAX showed up 10 minutes early so we had some good mumble chatter in the darkness that is The Tomahawk parking lot. A few PAX snuck in as the clock struck 0515 and the disclaimer was disclaimed.

Mosey 400M without gear.

COP
SSH x 42 at different tempos
Tappy Taps x 10
Low slow squat x 15
Al gores hold 30 seconds

While holding Al Gore discussed isolation and how it is terrible for men like us. Explained the shield lock and how being surrounded by like minded men who want to accelerate will hold you to a higher standard.

Merkins x 15
Downward dog
Honey mooner
Side plank left arm/leg high
Flap jack
Low six inch hold

Discussed isolation further in depth and explained how when we are alone we are more prone to attacks from the enemy.

Mosey to back side of school to discover a beautiful piece of 1×12 with fresh weinke written all over it.

Weinke

Partner BOP w Light Pole Suicides

Partners will work toward the below exercises together. While one pumps the iron the other runs out and back to one of the five light poles down the backside of DBES. Partner one hits pole 1, swap, partner 2 hits pole 2, and so forth out to the farthest pole and back. Repeat until completing the BOP.

100 curls each arm
200 Swings
200 Tri Extensions
200 Goblet Squats
200 American Hammers
200 LBC’s

(This BOP may or may not have come from a prior workout at The Tomahawk).

We made it to the American Hammers as a group… then had to head back to COT. YHC had a BONUS on the backside of the board. That will have to happen another day. Maybe at The Armory on September 9… maybe…

In all, we got about 2.5 miles of running in. Not bad for a gear workout!

Got back to COT and had one minute to knock out some flutters with press x 16 (4 count).

Name a Rama

Announcements:

Shovel flag hand off at Footloose tomorrow.
Invergence is 9/6 at Rush Pavilion @ 1800. Sign up to bring some deliciousness.
Convergence is 9/7 at WEP @ 0630.
Bobber on VQ at WEP this Saturday @ 0630.

Prayers/Praises
PAX in isolation, either on IR or in a dark place. Reach out to them.
Cancer. It’s seemingly everywhere.
New ventures for Training Wheels.
Family members with mental illness, and those who care so much about them.

Thanks 3D for the creative opportunity to lead at a different AO than my own site. Had a blast meeting some of the newer PAX.

Punch List out.

TClap |
2

Q on Cue

A strong group of 17 PAX appeared in the midst of a cool late-august gloom.

– Mosey to Springs parking lot
– Carioca one direction
– Carioca the other
– Mosey to the lot blocked off by the chain
Warm Up:
– SSH (until I heard grumbling)
– Windmill (slowly, until I felt better about life)
– Cherry Picker (stopped corrected some form)
– Cherry Picker with better form
– Merkin x12 (cause you were expecting 10)
– Shoulder Taps
– Mountain Climbers
– Downdog –> Honeymooner, repeat
– added a little runners lunge with some twisting (because yoga)
– sprinkled in a burpee

Thang:
– Mosey to Pike Electric front lot
– two burpees
– Circled up – Howling Monkeys
– Dirty Hookups on the wall
– Howling Monkeys
– Dirty Hookups
– Threw in 10 burpees because no PAX could quickly identify where in the bible the store of David and Goliath is located (1st Samuel)
– Threw in 20 bomb jacks for a “That’s what she said” about David being small……..not that kind of group.
– Mosey to MillStone
– Wall sit for the 6
– Mosey to Millstone playground
– Happy Jacks x4
– Divided up in to 4 groups at each little hill:
– Start at the top of the hill
– Standing forward bend (aka: touch your toes)
– Inch-worm down into merkin position
– 10 Derkins
– Inch-wormed back
– Bear Crawl to the next hill
– (total of just 40 derkins)
– COP on the little neglected concrete slab there
– Tammy Wynettes for a while (most groups hit 3 reps)
– Mosey back to COT with some stops to let everyone catch up
– Wallsit at Millstone
– Sprint up Massey Hill
– BTTW at Springs Corporate

NMM:

David and Goliath is a story about faith, but may also be a story about a smaller more agile advisory taking on a big, lumbering giant. This begins to sound like a “lizard” vs a “bullfrog” from the Q-source. Just like David, we sometimes need the faith to trust a lizard or believe that as a lizard we can succeed.

Announcements:
– 9/6 Invergence
– 9/7 Convergence

A privileged to lead.

-Band Camp Dismissed

TClap |
5

Running, Hills, Sand Bags…Complete

No glitz, just guts. (Similar to the writing of this BB.) That’s all we needed today to get some mileage, some drill bits, some hills and a couple of sand bag exercises. Now for the evidence it actually happened this morning at Block Party:

Long mosey to the Massey St hill and back to the upper corner of WEP.

Warm Up exercises consisting of things like Wind Mills, Squats, Merkins and Mountain Climbers

Explanation of the Drill Bit Tour: The path around WEP has these white posts. In our world, we call them Drill Bits and at each of of these Drill Bits, you’ll perform the following exercises:

20 American Hammers (20 ea side)

10 Lunges (10 ea side)

20 Dips

We then made our way to the base of the big grass hill for an explanation of the first sand bag exercise:

With your partner, you will suitcase carry either the 80lb or 60lb sand bag up to the top of the hill and back down. While the partner teams are waiting for their turn on the bag, the PAX did:

10 Burpees, 20 Jump Squats, 30 4-ct Flutters

The next sand bag exercise was for you and your partner to bear crawl-drag the bag out to a tree about 20yds away. Meanwhile, the PAX did the following:

10 Flying Squirrels, 10 Peter Parkers, 10 Parker Peters

Then, as a group, we NUR’d up the hill and Jogged down the hill for 4mins.

COT.

Maximus

TClap |
3

Extortion 17 – CPO Mills

Fourteen men came out Honey Badger for a Hero-based workout.

Disclaimer
Short Mosey
Warmup:
SSH (IC 12x)
Windmill (IC 12x)
Imperial Walker (IC 12x)
Cherry pickers (IC 12x)
Low Slow Squats (IC12x)
Merkin (IC 12x)
Peter Parker (IC 12x)
Plank stretches
Downward dog
Honeymooner
Run to ROTC building,
Read Extortion 17 page 152 of Hero book, text is copied at end of BB.

Thang 1 Honoring Extortion 17
Pax count off by three’s and report to their station.
Each station has three exercises; Pax do exercise for 1 minute, then get a 8 second rest/transition. Go through all three and then repeat that cycle one more time (used a timer app on the cell phone to prompt transitions).
Station 1 (6 mins)
1 Curls, block
2 squats, block
3 KB swings, block

Station 2 (6 min)
1 LBC
2 dips
3 American Hammers

Station 3 (6 min)
1 Knees to chest
2 Mtn Climbers
3 Low plank

After first six-minute set, all pax run to parking spot #31 (approx. 950’ one way)
Do 17 burpees
Run back to ROTC building
Pax rotate to next station

After second six-minute set, all pax run to parking spot 17
Bear Crawl to spot 31
Do 6 burpees
All Run back to ROTC building
Pax rotate to next station

After completion of third set: pax wall sit. Read CPO Stephen Matt Mills bio (was on Extortion 17), text is copied at end of BB.

Thang 2 Honoring CPO Mills
Wall sit and all pax hand over 15 lb slam ball. Back and forth for 6 loops.
Short mosey run
Do global warming routine for a few rounds.  End with 8 burpees OYO.

Then 5 min of mary.

Fini, COT

NMM
I last Q’d Honey Badger in May and honored Extortion 17 back then, with a secondary Thang honoring SCPO Kraig Vickers (also on Extortion 17).

Today’s routine was slightly confusing for the first round, but all pax got the hang of it for the remainder.

Had an FNG, last name spinner and he got “Fidget” as his nickname. I forgot to reiterate the five core principles of F3 for the FNG…should have done that at the beginning of the workout.

Prayers for school starting peacefully and with patience.

Extortion 17

On August 6, 2011, a U.S. Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter approached a landing zone in Afghanistan 40 miles southwest of Kabul. The helicopter, call sign Extortion 17, was on a mission to reinforce American and coalition special operations troops. Insurgents fired at the Chinook, severed one of its rear rotor blades, and brought it crashing to the ground. All 38 onboard perished instantly in the single greatest moment of sacrifice for Americans in the war in Afghanistan. Those killed were some of the U.S.’s most highly trained and battle-honed commandos.  31 US service personnel, one canine, and 7 Afghans were on the flight.

CPO Stephen “Matt” Mills
Chief Petty Officer Stephen Matthew “Matt” Mills, was born Oct. 25, 1975 in Austin, Texas.
Shortly after his high school graduation, Matt enlisted and reported to the Great Lakes Naval Training center in Illinois in January 1997. Upon completion of basic training he was stationed aboard the USS KINCAID and served for three years.
Very early on, Matt knew he wanted to be wanted to be Navy SEAL and in June 2000 he entered Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training.
Upon completion, the Navy commissioned Matt Mills as a SEAL reporting to SEAL team Three on Sept. 11, 2001. Mills later completed the process that it takes to become a member of the elite Team 6.
Matt Mills completed numerous deployments around the world in support of the Global War on Terror and was a highly decorated combat veteran, having served in Iraq and Afghanistan and earned numerous awards including:
Two Bronze Stars Medal with Valor
Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Valor
Presidential Unit Citation
Purple Heart

Chief Mills was an avid hunter and enjoyed anything outdoors. Matt is survived by his widow Keri, sons Cash and Bryce, daughter Zoe, his parents Steve and Cheryl, and siblings Michael and Ashley.

TClap |
3

Caution: The Minnow Pond may contain hills

Man, that sucked…I mean, that was awesome. Pardon me as oxygen is still hard to come by this morning. It was in the 70’s with 4,000% humidy, we averaged 7:45/mi for 3.25ish miles, did some low-rep exercises along the way and I tried really hard to keep the merlot in the tank. Jedi was disappointed we didn’t hit every single hill in Fort Mill but Dirty Harry enjoyed the gun shop hill repeats.

For further detail that is both short on eloquence & wit, see below…

Disclaimer & welcome to Pet Sounds from the sun-blotting region of CARPEX…YOOOOOOOOOO

Took off out of the parking lot for an estimated .5mi loop around Main St, ending up back at the lot for:

Windmills

Jump Squats

Carolina Dry Docks

SSH

Jump Squats

Wide-Arm Merkins

Moroccan Night Clubs

Jump Squats

Diamond Merkins

Made our way to the base of the gun shop hill (Massey St)

Run up the hill to the Church then back down to the base of the hill. Repeat 2 more times for 3 total round trips then mosey to the steps by the stop light.

50 Calf Raises then a lengthy explanation of how to get to our next destination: Harris Street Park by way of Spratt St then Harris St.

At the Park’s parking  lot: Dips, Mountain Climbers, Peter Parkers, Merkins

This is where it began to look much better on paper. It was very simple, run up Jackson St to Hwy 160. You see, the problem with this single-road route is that it consists of roughly a 3/4mi gradual uphill climb that in the gloom, gives you the mirage of never ending. Right about that .5mi mark is where Punch List almost witnessed the splash, but hey, I’m the Q, I can’t splash. So I started walking then met the PAX at the stop sign where I see Shady is already leading the next exercise…show-off. #gazelle

Once we collected the 6, we made our way back to the AO for 5min of Mary.

And at this point, I’ll thank Shady for the chance to Q the Minnow Pond, thank the Lord I didn’t die, ask the PAX to consider pushing themselves at something a little different, and spend part of the day looking for oxygen.

Maximus

TClap |
10

A whole lot of stuff

11 pax joined in on this muggy morning. Dew point was almost the same as the temperature, which meant we were in for a sweat bath. I got there a bit early to scope out the AO. Harry Carry went off for a solo pre-run (he’s nuts). Then it was 0515, disclaimer was given, pax was reminded of mission/purpose of F3, and we were off towards the back of Nation Ford.

Warmup: SSH, LSS, Windmill, IW, Neck Rolls

Thang 1: Moseyed to front of NaFo and partnered up. We met up with Sasquatch. He was 90 seconds late, but was able to spot us in the dark. P1 grabbed a lifting rock and we walked to the front parking lot. P1 did an exercise with the rock (curls, SQTS, overhead press, tricep ext, bent row) while P2 ran/bear crawled/NUR, side shuffle/ran to the end to complete an exercise (CDD, jump SQT, flutter, merkin, LBC) and then came back to flap jack. A lot of grumbling with the bear crawl from pax, which I expected. But holy cow Sasquatch was like a freaking horse trotting up the parking lot doing his bear crawl.

Enough of this nonsense, rocks were put back where we found them. We got in a single file line for a fellowship paced Native American run to the pull up bars. One catch, the six had to complete a burpee before jogging to the front. Everyone loved that, NOT!

Thang 2: At the pull-up bars, with same partners, P1 did 5 pull-ups and amwrap knee ups while P2 completed 25 SQTS. 3 rounds. Not as easy as I thought it’d be.

Mosey back home for some Mary, which included the Pickle Pounder. Note to self, don’t do PP at this NaFo. Ended with Have a Nice Day, where we star gazed or meditated for 30 seconds on how we can impact someone’s life today.

I don’t get out to F3 on Weds, since the M posts at FIA. I encourage her to go as much as possible, and I feel as though she has benefited as much as I have from F3. Today’s workout was focused on a whole lot of stuff. I have ADHD, I get bored easily, and I don’t have very good memory. So I wanted to challenge myself, to try and lead a workout with multiple exercises to keep us stimulated. Also, a lot of the exercises were not cadence led or partner reliant. It was you versus you, modifying as needed to make it more or less challenging. Everyone did a great job!

Announcements: Invergence, Convergence, Q School in September. Check the weekly newsletter

Lots of prayer requests. Praying for you all.

Thank you for the opportunity to lead!

 

TClap |
2

Donkeys, Monkeys and Scorpions

15 fit dudes and on the other end of the spectrum … YHC on Q

This will hurt me more than it hurts you …

Mosey and circle up
Imperial Walker x 15 IC
LBC x 15 IC
Side SH x 15 IC
Shoulder Taps x 15 IC
HB Walker x 15 IC
Dying Cockroach x 15 IC
Overhead Claps x 30 or so IC
Travolta x 15 IC
Low SS x 15
Freddie x 15 IC
Windmill x 10 IC
HR Merkins x 10

Mosey to the grass
Makhtar N Diayes x 10 IC
Kneetar N Diayes x 10 IC

Mosey back to the big lot for suicides
Donkey K x 10
Donkey K x 10, Monkey H x 10
Donkey K x 10, Monkey H x 10, Scorpion DD x 10
then
Hand Touch Squats x 10
Hand Touch Squats x 10, HR Merkins x 10
Hand Touch Squats x 10, HR Merkins x 10, OH Claps x 10 IC

Line up on the end of the lot, exercise across the lot, stationary exercise, across and back
Squat Walkers, Carolina DD x 10 IC
Windmill Walkers, OH Claps x 20 or so IC
Karaoke L, Scorpion DD x 10 IC
Karaoke R, Morrocan NC x 15 or so IC
Toy Soldier, Shoulder Tap x 10 IC
Soccer Knees Out, OH Claps x 20 IC
Power Skip, Travolta x 10 IC
Bear Crawl, Morroccan NC x 15 or so IC

This again … suicides
Donkey K x 10
Donkey K x 10, Monkey H x 10
Donkey K x 10, Monkey H x 10, 10 x Scorpion DD

Calf Raises, 15 forward, 15 toes in, 15 toes out

To the grass for Jack Webb to 7 x 28

Back to COT

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

TClap |
1

Sweati or Not, #CSAUP is Saturday

0515 on a crisp…wait! This is not the Yeti preview!

0515 on a gloom-filled morning, moisture in the air, 22 Pax rolled in to get a little preview of #TheSweati. A lot of familiar faces. Nantan, Lakeridge Clowncars, Dirty, WWL, Senator, Double D…even the Weginator was there. There were more. I’ll tag them in the BB. Several came to get a little peek of the Sweati. I gave some “details”. Some true. Some false. All will be revealed this Saturday. Get your head right. Hydrate! Be Safe! Don’t Die! We did some exercises that may or may not happen this Saturday. They probably will…over a 3 hour period, not 45 minutes. So here we go:

THANG
Mosey around the parking lot and circle up for an abbreviated COP
-SSH
-10 Burpees OYO
-Imperial Walkers
-10 Bombjacks
-Mountain Climbers

Head to the curb for a short circuit (Part 1)
-25 Dips / Run across parking lot and back
-50 Merkins / Run across parking lot and back
-75 Squats / Run across parking lot and back

Mosey to the freshly repaved and striped Hive Parking Lot (Part 2)
-Burpee Broad Jump the entire length of the parking lot*
-Run Back
-Lunge Walk the entire length of the parking lot
-Run Back
*This is starting to become a thing. It should be stopped!

Mosey Back to Laces In parking lot for Reverse Pyramid (Part 3)
(Run across the parking lot and back between sets)
-40 LBCs
-30 Mtn Climbers
-20 Peter Parkers
-10 Burpees
-20 Parker Peters
-30 4-Ct Flutter Kicks
-40 Side Straddle Hops**
**Tclaps to Maximus for leading the pax in some Mary while waiting for the 6

In the interest of time, we stayed put and completed the next series of exercises in the LI parking lot versus the Hive (about 1/2 the distance planned) #yourwelcome
Bear Time (Part 4)
-Bear Crawl Across the parking lot
-NUR back
-Crawl Bear across the parking lot
-RUN back

I blew off Part 5, which would have been a repeat of Part 1, for some Mary. Thanks to the PAX that lead the last few sets of core.

0600 Arrived and YHC was #smoked

Appreciate all the PAX that came out to one of my quarterly Qs. I hope you gained some insight on what is to come this Saturday morning at the #Sweati

No NMM means no more details for the PAX. See you Sat.

Announcements
-Sweati this Saturday at the Armory (Forest Hill Church): 0530 Ruckers/0600 Runners, Q-Source to follow at Forest Hill (Charis Room)
-Stuff the Bus at Tega Cay Walmart (Look for details from Wegmans)
-A couple of 2ndF options at Carolina Beer Temple and Amor Artis
-Read your Newsletter

Prayers & Praises
-Prayers for Rock Thrill’s Father-in-Law who is having several medical issues
-Prayers for a friend of the Pax who’s marriage is struggling
-Prayers for Nasa’s wife who is struggling with some severe headaches
-Prayers for Repeat’s mom who is fighting cancer
-Prayers for discipline in the 3 F’s and to continually make sure our Concentrica is in order (something I struggle with)

Gentlemen, it’s been a lot of fun and an honor to serve you. Hope to see you at the Sweati!

Aye!
Zima

TClap |
1