Tag: (respectable) Olaf

Neither Rain Nor Snow Nor Gloom Of Night…

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IcedT ghost writing for Clavin.

13 Pax (2 from Gastonia) came out this morning in support of a Gastonia Pax who I personally work with.  With Gastonia being close by it only makes sense that every once and a while we should have a guest Q from that region to shake things up and find out how different regions operate.

Clavin opened with the pledge of allegiance and did a disclaimer and he started the COP right away with 5 Burpees/SSHx10/4 Burpees/Imperial Walkersx11/3 Burpees/Moroccan NightClubx12/2Burpees/LBC’sx10/1 Burpee

We then mosey’d on over to the side of the building where Clavin said his region was in a bit of a first F rut with every workout seeming to be the same so he had us do 5 Burpees/25 Big Boy’s/25 ‘merkins/25 Scorpion Dry Docks(both feet). Then we went to the Green Monster.

We continued the same bunch of exercises(however he Omaha’d 50 Scorpion CDD’s to just 25) on top of the hill, in the middle of the hill, on bottom of the hill, middle of the hill, top of the hill. With the Pax being smoked we mosey’d on over to the back parking lot where we did rugby sprints.  One Pax calls out an exercise and once he is satisfied we all run to first cone, run back, then sprint to far cone and walk back where another Pax calls a different exercise.  The Gastonia boys were introduced to the Kraken Burpee(thanks Royale) and other general F3 exercise’s.  We then mosey’d on back for COT.

Prayers for the mass shooting victims and all victims of violence.  We all must admit we live in a violent world but rejoice in the fact that there is strength in numbers and that is where F3 comes in. Traveling prayers and family prayers also. Thanks Clavin for coming on down to lead. Peace!

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Something to Crow About

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14 PAX held down the fort while site Q iced T was DR doing a Spartan race.

Q-drenaline was strong with YHC, as the M is DR the next couple days, followed by a family vacation, so limited posting the next couple weeks.

Started off with a mosey (aka sprint) to the upper courtyard for COP
MNC x 20
2 burpees
LSS x 10
4 burpees
Windmills x 10
8 burpees
Peter Parkers x 10
16 burpees

Mosey back to front rock pile
Grab heavy Rock for three rounds of:
15 OHP, 15 Bent over rows, 15 goblet squats
After each round/crab walk to road closed sign, bear crawl/overhead carry w/ overhead hold while waiting for the six

Mosey down to jungle gym
2 pull ups, monkey bar around the loop, 2 pull ups, down

Mosey to lower courtyard for Dora 123
100 Derkins
200 Dips
300 Step ups (didnt quite get to 200)
Partner 1 did exercise while 2 ran down the hill and nured back up.

Two lines of Indian run back to COT
Got back early, so decided to get in as much Merkin around the world (1 merkin rotate, 2 merkins, rotate, etc) as we could, made it to about 10 before calling time.

COT
New Wednesday AO for Lake Wylie
Read your newsletter

Thanks iced T for the opportunity to lead and great push from the PAX.

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Q School 201 – The Weinke at Bermuda Triangle

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I was the privileged Q that was able to lead week #2 of Q school following behind Wild Thing.  I got to the AO 10 minutes early to set up, guys were already pre-running… nobody ever seems to sleep in Lake Wylie!  By the 5am start we had 18 PAX with us.  Uber all the way from Tega Cay, one PAX, Crabby Cabbie – only on his second post to F3! I opened by sharing some of this message below.  Being the Q starts with being prepared.

Preparedness

There are four quadrants of preparedness: get right, live right, lead right and leave right “G3L” 

F3 is an Organization of leaders rather than an Organization with leaders. As such, every Member of F3 is asked and expected to be a leader both within F3 and in the other Groups in which he is a Member. This ethic arises from our Mission , which is to plant, serve and grow men’s small workout groups in order to invigorate male community leadership.

Within F3 a leader is called the Q, which we define as a leader who takes responsibility for the Outcome in the Groups of which he is a Member.

Some Outcomes are envisioned beforehand by the Q while others are thrust upon him by unexpected and sudden circumstance. For envisioned Outcomes, the Q can anticipate and get prepared for what will be expected of him to be Effective. But the Q cannot do that for unexpected Outcomes because they come upon him suddenly—for those Outcomes he must already be prepared to be Effective.

How do you prepare?

“The Weinke” – named after Panther QB, Chris Weinke (Carolina QB from 2001-2006) where he would have every play in a giant playbook on his arm.

Scout the AO – Check the Weather report – Check previous Backblasts for regular PAX in attendance

PREPARE! Doras, Ladders, partner work, stations, coupons

My 1st few Qs I wrote the COP exercises in permanent marker on my arm…

Write it down, keep it handy but try not to use it.

Create Evolutions!  Have more than you will use. 3-5 depending on complexity

Make it Tough, but a balance is needed for all level PAX.  Have an adaption plan in place.  Guys failing to work hard, get them back in line or adjust.

Adapt = tell a PAX what is OK to modify to.  Can’t sprint?  Jog ½ way and turn around.

Give the PAX a choice! Option #1 or #2

BE CONFIDENT – SPEAK LOUD – DON’T GIVE UP YOUR CONTROL – YOUR TIME TO LEAD!

 

WEINKE FOR BERMUDA TRIANGLE 7/19/2019 Q SCHOOL 201 (Full example)

Welcome each PAX

Disclaimer

Dynamic Warmup High Knees – Butt Kickers – Toy Soldiers – Soccer Legs out & In

COP

SSHs – IWs – CDDs – Merkins – LS Squats – Seal Jacks – Peter Parkers – MNCs – Broga

 

Evolution #1  BB Court

Partners modified LAZY DORA size does not matter

100 Swing Crunches – Partner Elbow Planks (in grass)

To BB Court

150 Merkins by 10s  – Partner Planks

200 Squats 25x – partner hold Al Gore

Alternative under picnic area

Dips and Derkins with Step Ups

 

Evolution #2

Speed Work

Field Sprints 4 cones plank when complete repeat 3x

Alternative

Bear Crawl to #2 or Jog to #3

 

Evolution #3 (Ran out of Time – Did not do, but had at the ready)

Bear Crawls and burpees between cones 5 burpees each cone

Alternative Lunges and Wide Arm Merkins or CDDs

 

Evolution #4 Ab Lab

Give all Pax another opportunity to count cadence

COT with Count, Namorama, Announcements, Prayers

I think the guys enjoyed the time together, maybe learned a little something to take to their next Q, and definitely worked hard!

A honor to lead,

Royale

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Productive little day at the office

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It’s not often that I get asked to Q all the way out in Clover, so knowing those guys and always trying to make the most of everyone’s time, I made it my personal goal to have the most productive little Monday they’ve ever had out at the Crows Nest.

Was pleasantly surprised to see two faces I wasn’t expecting – Maximus making the trek all the way out from Tega Cay (much thanks for the long commute!) and then Witch Hunt who we’ve been missing in the gloom for a couple months now (welcome back brother!).  I’m not one for warm-ups as many of you know, so at 5:12a I warned the pax to start stretching on their own.  At 5:15a ,the disclaimer was said and we then went on a burpee mile warm-up to see the AO since it had been a while since I was last there and wasn’t sure of where we’d be doing the exercises I had lined up.

  • Burpee Mile – starting w/ 5 burpees OYO at COT, we then ran 1 mile stopping every 1/4 mile to do 5 burpees.  25 burpees in total, 1 mile under our belt.

Second half of the warm-up was on the parking lot lines near the playground.  Starting at the first parking space, do the following:

  • Sprint up one side, side shuffle to the right, back pedal down the next line, side shuffle to the right, sprint up, shuffle, back pedal and so on and so on.  Once you get to the end of the spots (about 8 spots), side shuffle around the bend and do the same thing on the other side.
  • We then moseyed over to the next parking lot that was equivalent to the one we just left and did a similar drill, only do a quasi skip (one leg in front, one leg in back) back and forth down the full parking lot lines, back pedal to the line behind you and bunny hop over and back going left back down the line.  Do for all spots and then mosey back to the start.

With the warm-up and heart rate spike complete, we hit the playground for some 11’s.  Not your standard 11’s, but a play on the 21’s that Zima and Anchorman had us suffer through at the Sweati 2 days prior.

11’s = I give two exercises, you do 1 rep of the first, and 1 rep of the second.  Then do 2 reps of each, then 3 of each, then 4, then 5….then 11 reps each.  Ends w/ you doing 66 reps of each exercise in a short period of time.  We did the following:

  • Dips / Burpees…brought the cumulative burpee count to 91 (25 from warm up mile + 66 here)
  • Jump lunges / diamond merkins
  • Sprints / big boy sit-ups…yes, the runs, ughhh.  So we started on one cross walk and then had to sprint to the next one about 30 yards up (that’s 1 sprint) and do 1 big boy sit up.  You then sprint back to the original cross walk and then back to the one you started at (that’s 2 sprints) and do 2 big boys…you work that up to 11.  This one took the remainder of the time with having to sprint 30 yards back and forth 5 times in a row, then 6 times, then 7….ugh.  A few got to 10 sprints in a row before we had to call it.

Survey Says mumbled something about making the burpee count an even 100 at some point during the workout so I thought it was a very valid suggestion.  We got back to COT and everyone knocked out 9 more.

Final totals = 2.7 miles, 100 burpees, 66 dips, 66 jump lunges (1 = both legs so really 132 jumps), 66 diamonds, 66 (or close to) big boys and 66 (almost there) sprints.  Not a bad day at the office right there.  We didn’t really break, we didn’t really warm-up, and the pax didn’t really complain one bit.  Just came to work as they knew we would.

Prayers were shared for those suffering from cancer (Alex in particular, who is 22 yo), our kids safety / independence away at camp, job interviews and for those who find themselves living homeless – White Snake shared a really cool story about a guy he ran into Uptown who was rocking a F3 tshirt and offered to give it to him.

Thanks Iced T for the call to lead – looking forward to the next time.

Cha Ching

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Virtuous Leadership at Crows Nest

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15 men made it out to Crow’s Nest.  Here’s what they did.  Sorry to hear that Survey Says had to leave because he rolled his ankle during the pre-run.

COP

IWs – CDDs – SSHs – Ranger Merkins – Broga – MNCs – Mountain Climbers

Evolution #1

Mosey to brink columns that fence in the front playground

Partner Up

5 Muscle Ups

Partner does Merkins AMRAP

Rotate through 6 rounds. Those muscle ups got sketchy towards 25-30…

Next we planked in the front parking lot to Review the 5 Cs of Virtuous Leadership that we went over in Q Source Saturday.

The universal Essentials for a Shared Leadership Team’s (SLT) F3’s Leadership Virtues:

  • Candor: graciously telling the hard Truth and demanding to hear it from others
  • Commitment: unwavering loyalty to the Group and unflinching determination to accomplish its Mission
  • Consistency: to be unchanging in nature, Standard or effect over time
  • Contentment: stability of emotion engendered by the Consistent pursuit of Joy rather than Happiness
  • Courage: setting aside fear to turn hardship into grace

Hopefully, not much needs to be said in explanation of why the Leadership Virtues are Essential to every SLT. Just imagine trying to share Leadership with a man who does not tell the Truth, is constantly changing his Standards or is emotionally unstable. It simply cannot be done.

Mosey to back of school

Evolution #2

Round 1

Run to loading dock, jump up, complete 5 Squats

Partner Lunges AMRAP

Completed 4 rounds

Round 2

Run to Loading Dock, jump up, 5 Merkins

Partner doing Pull ups at playground

Sucked too bad so were only  completed 2 rounds

Round 3

Run to Loading Dock, jump up, 5 Merkins

Partner America Hammers

Completed 2 Rounds

Checked with the group on the 5 Cs of Virtuous Leadership

They got all 5 as a group – Saved themselves from a severe burpee penalty

Mosey towards front of school

Evolution #3

Wall sits with 25 overhead press in cadence

BTTW 30 secs counted by 3x random PAX

Wall sits with 25 overhead press in cadence

BTTW 30 secs counted by 3x random PAX

Mosey to COT right on time!

Announcements

The Sweati this weekend

Discussed the great FiA launch in Lake Wylie from the previous weekend. Guys are already getting FiA’d from this…what have we done?!?!

Prayers:

For PAX healing, two injuries today from Costanza’s pulled quad to Survey Says ankle. Got to be careful out here men!

An Honor to Lead,

Royale

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4 Basic Exercises, Indian Runs, Achievement Recognitions and Pop Quizzes

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3 “Peg Leggers”, Me. Whitesnake and O’Reilly, met to get better (Cannonball Pre-run Staple to Peg’s house and back) before any other Pax showed up.

15 men Circle up on a muggy day and the disclaimer was given. I recently posted in Myrtle Beach and they added the Phrase “I do not know your injuries” to their disclaimer and I liked that so I added that.

We then moseyed to the far corner of the parking lot for my usual and now retired COP
Basically a Deconstructive “Worse Ever Merkin”
30 SSH in cadence – Because u should always do 30
20 Werkins in cadence
30 Seal Jax in Cadence
20 Merkins in Cadence
15 Smurf Jax in cadence
10 Diamond Merkins in cadence

A couple Kettle bell Indian Runs back and forth to the 2 parking lots with The “Thang” worked into them.

Also did 102 kettlebell burpees in recognition of O’Reilly loosing 102 pounds. My math was 102lbs divided by 15 pax = 10 each rounded up
Also recognized Costnaza and his weight lose and running achievements

3 rounds of The “Thang” in between the Indian Runs:
Kettlebell curls on my count till my arms hurt
Kettlebe Tricep ext. on my count till my triceps hurt
Goblet Squats with a kettlebell overhead press on my count till my legs hurt
Big boys with a kettlebell push over knees on my count till my gut hurt

Quiz with Kettle bell hold away from body until the new Pax told me F3 Mission Statement and 5 Core Principles (they did ok)
Quiz on Me – I asked a few personal questions about me and the Pax seemed to know me pretty well. Questions were pretty easy or I talk about myself to much.

A little time for some Wall sits and burpees and merkins sprinkled in.

My take on the whole thing, we all got better and very wet. So wet that I had to hang my clothes on my brush guard all day and they still didn’t dry by the time I went home. I guess that is what happens in 100% humidity and a lot of work getting done. Also, I told these guys again I didn’t want any new friends when I started this thing but crap now I do and I can’t see to shake them.

Till next time
Forever – I will be TWO FERNS!

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Destroyed Chest and Triceps plus 2 miles

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Warm Up

5 – burpees OYO
10 – Windmills IC
15 – Cherry Pickers IC
20 – Imperial Walkers IC

Run to half wal for 10 – Muscle Ups

The Thing

Mosey behind the school follow the berm
To a hill at the bottom there is a hidden trail
We started at the top with
10 merkins run the trail to the benches and do 10 dips then run back up the hill. All don IC single count on down.

Increase by 10 reps each time 10,20,40,50

At 10, 20, 30 reps when we got back to the hill we bear crawled up

At 40 reps we split it up 20 single count Merkins then flip over for 20 LBC IC then 20 more single count Merkins, ran down the trail to the benches 20 single count Dips then 10 – Low Slow Squats, 10 – Monkey Humpers, 20 single count Dips. Run back to the hill then we NURed up the hill

Relfected a little bit on how awesome God is while we stared at the amazing sunrise.

At 50 we split it up 25 single count Merkins then flip over for 25 LBC IC then 20 more single count Merkins, ran down the trail to the benches 25 single count Dips then 10 – Low Slow Squats, 10 – Monkey Humpers, 25 single count Dips. Run back to the hill then we ran up the hill.

We walked for 200 yards and we did announcements and prayers while everyone catched their breath. Half way back we did ran back to COT.

Prayers
Patience, wisdom, knowledge and to be the light in this world.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead the leaders.

If you have not Q’ed at this AO you need to make the trip this site has alot to offer.

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Where’s The P?

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On a rather comfortable June morning myself and 15 other PAX decided to get very uncomfortable at CannonBall. Last night as I was thinking up my weinke I was deciding between Kettle Dora’s or Escalating BLIMPS and I decided on the BLIMPS.  However, I noticed on the F3 Exercise page that the P in the BLIMPS are Mountain Climbers and one of the PAX rightly pointed out what was the P exercise so I changed the P to another M and we now have BLIMMS.

Started with a disclaimer and we did a mosey down the church driveway while holding our kettlebells overhead, then went into ketllebearcrawls then back to regular mosey up the other church driveway while also holding the kettlebell overhead till we circled up for some COP.

COP-KettleSSHx10/HALO’s clockwise/counter-clockwisex10/Hot Potatoesx10/Figure 8’sx10/Hold Kettlebell in front shoulder height and did 3 rounds of 10 counts

Main Event

BLIMMS-5 Burpees/10 Lunges/15 Imperial Walkers/20 Merkins/25 Mountain Climbers/30 Squats.  We started with 5 burpees then ran around parking lot with kettlebell then did 5 burpees/10 lunges in an escalating fashion till we finished with the squats.  The running with the kettlebell was the biggest challenge however as everyone was breathing heavy(even Flux!) You know the workout was good when Flux tells you that he hates you mid way through the workout.

With 8 minutes left on the clock I had us do 3 Turkish Get-Ups(each arm) then we grabbed some wall for some people’s chair. End Pax went out to do 3 burpees while the rest passed their kettlebells down towards the church shed where we store the bells. Our final exercise was putting the bells back in the shed.

Welcome FNG Dreadnought(real name Dave Redding-for real).  Hog and Coyote this weekend, Q school at Bermuda Triangle coming in July and other cool events happening around the region.  Prayers for Shakespeare and family moving to my hood and for those suffering with heart disease.  Thanks 2 Ferns for the opportunity to lead. Peace!

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Speed & Stamina Tested at Crow’s Nest

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Fourteen joined YHC in the damp and steamy gloom at Crow’s Nest.   Happy to see and FNG among the usual Pax, YHC gave the disclaimer (push yourself but modify as necessary, etc.)  Here is how it went down:

Warm – o – rama

Indian run passing a 10lb medicine ball from front to back, about 3/4 of a mile toward the back of the school.  From there we circled up for some warm up work:

  • 10 windmills IC
  • 15 Imperial walkers IC
  • 12 Hillbilly walkers IC
  • 20 Mountain climbers IC
  • Downward dog and honeymooner for a moment or two
  • 10 diamond merkins IC

The Thang Part I

Pax proceed to a series of 8 cones set up 10 yards apart, with intermediate cones running parallel in between about 5 yards away:

  • diagonal shuffle in a line, 100 yards
  • diagonal run, in a line 100 yards
  • alternating lunge walk & bear crawl, with 5 jump squats or 5 merkins a each cone, 80 yards
  • Gassers (formerly called suicides) at the tall cones, with all you got on the last 80 yards up the slight incline

By this time, everyone seemed to be warmed up so on to:

The Thang Part II

Pax partnered up to knock off the list below; partner one began the exercises while partner two ran a loop around the parking lot, about 75 yards.  Most of us made it through the merkins before Omaha with 7 minutes left, (Awesome Wolverine Fist art work courtesy of the M).

The Thang Part III

  • Wall sit passing the 10lb medicine ball while pax alternated doing 3 super duper all you got reach for the stars jump squats.  I think we did this twice?
  • Mosey back to COT for a set of American Hammers

Moleskin

We welcomed Chop Block’s big brother, the FNG forever to be know as Mogul for his Real Estate and the ventures.   Hog and Coyote – Olaf (R) looking for a partner to run & bike with.  Prayers for Qbert this week as he counsels kids at church youth camp; prayers for a local family that lost dad too soon to and unexpected heart attack.  Praise for our FNG and for the great initial response to possible Lake Wylie FIA!.  Absolutely an honor to be part of the Pax & to lead a workout.

Aye, Wolverine

 

 

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Time to Get Some at Bermuda Triangle

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It was only a matter of time until I was called to the deep uncharted territories of Lake Wylie, somewhere they call the Bermuda Triangle.

Olaf was nice enough to keep me company and take the 25 min ride from Lake Ridge this am, so wheels up at 4:20a got us to the AO by 4:45 w/ 15 min to set up some cones before the early 5a start time.  Was glad to see two Olaf’s participating at the same AO and a couple newbies I hadn’t met.

Warm-ups you know are optional for me – so we moseyed 15 feet and did some sun gods, windmills and then started the real warm-up:

  1. Every Minute on the Minute (EMOM) we do 30 SSH + 8 burpees for 5 minutes.  After knocking out a quick 5 minute 150 SSH and 40 burpees to the sweet sweet sounds of Dropkick Murphy’s, Buck Cherry and Motley Crue, we took it over to the field for some reverse Dora’s.
  2. Partner up and do the following Dora:
    • 200 jump squats – partner not doing jump squats was doing a 3 cone suicide (Duck Dynasty’s evil idea…I didn’t make them do burpees at each turn)
    • 100 mak tar jais – partner not doing MTJ’s was side shuffling down to the last cone and back
    • 50 burpees – partner not doing burps bear crawled to middle cone and back
  3. I had two more things on deck, but judging by the lack of bear crawling enthusiasm, I decided to start w/ the last thing we were supposed to do and hope there was time for the third.  Told the pax we’d start running the dirt track around the field (a little over a 1/4 mile) and stop 4 times per lap and do ascending reps:
    • 1st lap:  10 diamond merkins / 15 wide arm / 20 rangers / 25 merkins
    • 2nd lap:  10 jump lunges (10 per side) / 15 low low squats (hands need to touch ground) / 20 knee tucks / 25 high knees (25 per knee)
    • 3rd lap:  10 x-crunches (thank you ab workout app) / 15 big boys / 20 american hammers (20 per side) / 25 fast-slow freddie mercuries in cadence (equates to 50 per side)
      [I’ll save the 3rd thing I was supposed to do for next time I Q at BT]

From there, we only had 1 minute, so we hit COT and quickly knocked out 10 merkins / 8 diamonds / 6 merkins / 4 diamonds / 2 merkins no break before it being 5:45a on the dot.

Always a pleasure to lead these pax.  They don’t complain a whole lot (except White Snake and O’Reilly lol) and always bust their a$$ on every exercise.  Prayers for graduating seniors, kids on summer breaks (and the moms) and Flux’s M.  Had a great time guys – can’t wait to get back out there w/ you!

ChaChing

 

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