Tag: Router

Should I see stars in the daylight

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As new pain was looming in the air, there was a quiet murmur across the 15 PAX.  Shady jumped in to provide the quick disclaimer, was on point of the 1st half of fun, and began the mosey over to the path where a drill bit warm-up ensued.  Drill bit warm-up included: SSH, merkins, squats (ghost bit got some love), windmills (with some cherry pickers), then finally toy soldiers with stretching and skipped the last drill bit (I just realized this!!)

Ran over to the small wall parking lot where we lined up to attempt sets of 10, then 9, then 8…you get it.  At the bottom we did side squat into a 180 jump side squat = 1 rep (so we did this 10x), then ran and jumped over the small brick wall where we did 10 each leg jumping lunges.  Then back down over the wall for 9, back up for 9….  We made it to about 3 before time expired for round 2.  Shady ran the PAX back to the WEP parking lot, down the back path as if you were going to Harris Street park, then stopped in front of the dreaded monster grassy hill.

A short message from Shady consisted of: do the difficult thing, push the extra 1 degree or percent for the next 30 min.  Yes it will be hard, but…get….over….it.  Then turned it over to Gandalf!

Gandalf loved the hill so much we stayed there where at the top and bottom we did the following:

  • 5 burpees
  • 10 Russian Twists + the 5 burpees
  • 15 merkins + 10 + 5…
  • 20 flutters + 15 + 10 + 5
  • 25 (I think we made it this far but here’s where I’m drawing a blank from exhaustion)

Once Gandalf had enough fun here, he took us to the playground where we partnered up and 1 partner plank walked around the playground while the other partner did 5 pull ups.  Then swap until we made it around the playground.  THEN we lined up across the field for a quick 100-200 yard jailbreak where we were lucky enough to do 30 wide arm merkins.  Since the bell had sounded, we made our way back to COT.

COT took over for the normal counting, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayers and praises.  Enjoyed getting better with everyone and special thanks to Slash for the invite and special pairing of Shady / Gandalf!

Shady

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Four Corner Rooney

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A last-minute-at-a-social-gathering Q request from the site Q FINALLY got me out of my doldrums of fartsacking and moping around for the past 3-4 weeks. I put on almost 4 pounds from my DSM weight, not watching what I ate, not working out. I needed this. Thanks Router.

Funny thing. I showed up early, around 5am, to site. NOBODY there. No lights in the parking lot. Pretty dark. I see some dude with a flashlight walking around. No other cars, just a dude in a hoodie (not racial profiling – I saw the person was white). Did not have my glasses on so I had no idea who it was. Then it seemed the dude started walking towards where I parked. I locked my doors and wondered if I should leave. I’ve been in these situations before and had someone try to carjack me once when I lived in Norfolk VA, also when I lived in Los Angeles, and also when I was in Miami visiting friends. I’m done with that stuff. My spidey senses were tingling!! My heart rate was elevating so I started backing out, then I saw a familiar face. I asked and it was Pothole. WHEW!! Man that was messed up.

After my BP lowered I got out and PAX started rolling in. No new FNGs. Light but solid group of PAX, some of whom I’ve spent ALOT of quality battle buddy time with under a ruck. Awesome to see them. Since the custom GORUCK DSM event the numbers at ruck AOs have significantly dropped. Not surprised. Anyhoo, disclaimer was disclaimed and off we went.

Light jog w ruck on around the parking lot, about 1/3 mile or so. Then COP. 20 or so each of the following:

  • SSH
  • Windmills
  • Imperial Walker
  • Hillbilly Walker
  • Moroccan night club

Then off to the field. Electric candles marked the 4 corners of a rough football field size area. A typical 4 corners workout setup. Start at one, exercise, transition to next, exercise, transition, and so on. I used the GORUCK Rooney WOD s my guide. I’ve done it at 2 GORUCK events and it sucks. But time made me trim down the number of rounds, and I modified it (mod-up) a little. Google it if you want to know what the real one is. But here’s mine for today:

Cone / Exercise / Transition Mode (ALL with ruck):

  1. 75 Mountain climber (double count), then bear crawl to next
  2. 75 LSS then Lt Dan to next
  3. 75 Flutter (double count) w ruck overhead, then bear crawl to next
  4. Plank w 75 ruck drag side to side (double count), then Lt Dan back to start

Note to self: Make each one 100 instead of 75. This alone took about 25 minutes to complete. I had about 10 minutes left. 100 of each would have put me with a few minutes left to COT. I am not much into talking anymore so we grabbed a 60 out of Routers truck and put in about a mile rucking around the school, then to COT.

COT / Announcements / P&P
* Read the newsletter – QSource convergence, Invergence, etc
* Router’s M going into surgery. Prayers for safe surgery and quick recovery
* Kids, parents, teachers – school is LESS THAN 3 WEEKS AWAY!! What happened to summer??
* My M – she’s been having headaches off and on for several months now. Got an MRI last week, then recently found the MRI found something. Waiting to see a neurologist next.

I have not been talking much at my Qs lately. I may divulge why some other time. No change today. Just lay out the work and get it done. Everyone did great. We had some great conversations when we could. It was great to be back out with the homies. Get the hear rate up, sweat, feel some pain, chatter a little, goof off a little. See a GREAT sunrise with a waning crescent moon. God is GREAT. I needed that. We needed that. We are blessed more than we know sometimes. Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

God bless,
– NASA

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The Armory Anniversary

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10 PAX showed up for my one year anniversary of F3.  I appreciate all of the PAX who have pushed me and motivated me over the past year!

We started out with some routine exercises:

  • SSH
  • LS Squats
  • Windmill
  • Cherry Picker
  • MNC
  • Arm Circles
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter
  • Down Dog
  • Honey Mooner

After the warm up we got into the first routine:

6 exercises, 10 reps, times 10 sets – Pretty sure this was 100 each

  • Kettle Bell Swings
  • Goblet Squats
  • Curls
  • Bear Crawl 10 yards
  • 10 Merkins
  • Crawl Bear back 10 yards

I realized we forgot to mosey so we did a quick lap when all PAX were finished

Second routine:

4 exercises, 8 reps, times 8 sets

  • Clean and press
  • Tricep Extension
  • Squat and Press
  • American Hammers
  • Run a figure 8 around two light poles

We and about two minutes left over for some Flutters and Protractors.

Pretty much some standard announcements.

Prayers for Routers M who is having surgery this week.  Prayers for Cyclops Dad who is having some back pain.  Prayers for parents and children as we wind down summer vacation.

Thank you to JWOW for inviting me to lead, timing was good for the missing the DH beat down at the Honey Badger!

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Big B, little b, what begins with B?

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Buddies, Burpees, Bearcrawls, Bodybuilders, Booyah! Merkins and B.O.M.B.S. all start with that letter B, that’s what.

18 attended the Swamp today, half rucked, the other have joined YHC for a little schooling on the letter B.

I decided a couple weeks ago that I was going to work my way through the Exicon one letter at a time.  This was my 2nd Q since making that decision so the 8 unlucky PAX that got stuck with me and B today were thoroughly beat-down.

I gave the quick usual disclaimer an off we went.  I immediately heard grumbling about the speed so I slowed it down a bit and we did some karaoke’s and toy soldiers before circling up for a quick warm-up, which consisted of 9 Windmills and 15 Merkins (IC) followed by a couple 10 counts holding a 6″ plank.  A quick stretch and off to the 1st routine.

Routine 1:

Burpee, Bearcrawl, Booyah! Merkin…Chase

Buddy up and partner 1 does 5 burpees and then chases down his partner who is bearcrawling around the 2 roundabouts (about .25 miles).  Tags his partner and then they each do 5 Booyah! Merkins and switch/repeat until getting back to the starting point.  A real shoulder burner!

Routine 2:

For routine 2 we moseyed to the parking lot next to the fountain and did some B.O.M.B.S.  This is basically a DORA with more exercises and the suggestion to pick an exercise that matches each letter in BOMBS.

  • 50 Bodybuilders
  • 100 Overhead presses (with cinderblocks)
  • 150 Monkey Humpers
  • 200 Big-Boy sit-ups
  • 250 Smurf Jacks (suuuuuucked)

In typical DORA fashion, 1 partner does the exercise while the other (in this case) sprints to the 2nd island, bear crawls around the island, and then sprints back and picks up where his partner left off while his partner does the sprinting.

I think only  Cha-Ching, Duck Dynasty, and I finished, but that was probably because we were the odd group and we took the higher of the 2 reps.  I’m not sure if we would have made it otherwise since it came down to the last few seconds before heading back to CoP.

Everyone did awesome and pushed for the entire 45 minutes.

We made it back to CoP at exactly 6:00AM with the Ruckers about a minute behind.

Maximus announced a couple of new AO’s coming to Fort Mill, including a “Bruisers” workout for injured PAX, what a great idea.  As well as a bootcamp AO with a mandatory pre-run, sounds harsh!  In any case, not a lot of PAX spoke up with Prayers except for Maximus again so we prayed for family and everything that was on our hearts.

Thank you for the Q Cha-Ching it was a pleasure to lead these men today.  Nice work everyone!

Until next time,

-FLUX-

 

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Double duty and bring up the big guns

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Slightly delayed due to PTO, but better late than never.

As the disclaimer was given, Jekyll rolled up in the rental truck and distracted us all with his manly vehicle.  Divac, fresh from moving from Hartsville, led us through warm-ups and then took us to the monster hill where we took on 11s.

Burpees at the top and big boys at the bottom.  Run down the hill and then backwards run up the hill.  It wasn’t fun but it was a nice warm up in the heat!

Next up was some 4 corners and partner work.

  • With your partner, 10 derkins using your partners back while they were in plank
  • 10 dips each off your partners back
  • 10 squats with an opposite foot touch
  • 10 big boys with your feet locked with partner
  • Rinse and repeat….for a total of 3x

Then we moved over to the playground.

  • 30 pull ups
  • 60 step ups
  • 100 flutters
  • Short mosey to end of parking lot with a short message below (and then the following)
  • 25 pull ups
  • 50 step ups
  • 80 flutters

For short breather we talked about being intentional either with ourselves or with those around us.  Less phone / screen time for Shady #DontBePhony per my 3 year old niece.

Wrapped up with COT and all things that go with that…went around the circle with what we were going to be intentional about for the weekend and upcoming week.

Great work and leading Divac….I think this guy has something going on!

Shady out…

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Honoring SEALS with a Watering Can

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We completed on of the GORUCK workouts of the month honoring the Navy SEALS.  Not sure that grown men pouring water over each other at 5:00AM is what the SEALS have in mind when thinking of honors they would like to receive, but it certainly will catch the eye of any administration at the school if they are reviewing security footage.

-Step 1: Pour uncomfortably tepid water over each other to try to make it a little more suck-filled…

-Step 2: 1 mile ruck (AFAP)

Step 3: 100 Ruck Squats, 70 Ruck Merkins, 33 Ruck Swings

Step 4: 1 mile ruck (AFAP)

Step 5: Killed the last few minutes with a combination of Flutters, Toes to Ruck, and me trying to figure out how my new watch works

 

As always it was an honor to lead. Thank you for the opportunity

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Can I get a taxi, Uber, or Lyft?

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17 men and 1 2.0 came prepared for the workout. Lots of smiling faces, not knowing what was in store for the next hour. After the disclaimer, we jogged down to the fire station and back to the parking lot.

COP
SSHs x 20
Imperial Walkers x 15
Wind Mills x 10
Plank Stretches
Merkins x 5
Plank Jacks x 10
Peter Parker x 10
Parker Peter x 10

Next, we moseyed to the field for partner exercises called Hora(Dora’s evil cousin) 2-3-4. Similar to Dora 1-2-3 except the count for each exercise was 200, 300, 400 and the movements would be a bit more complicated that simply running back and forth.

Exercise 1: 200 Merkins
Movement: Lunges to the lightpole and run back
Exercise 2: 300 Squats
Movement: Burpee broad jumps to lightpole and back
Exercise 3: 400 LBCs
Movement: Inch worm merkins to lightpole and back

Lots of grumbling and mumble chatter. The first half was complete. The baton was passed to Maximus. Good luck everyone.

In the outfield, we circled up for two sets of exercises:

10 J-Lo’s (A generational reference was made by substituting J-Lo with Barbara Streisand. I had to google her…No compare to Jenny from the block)
10 very slow flutters

Next, we partnered up with like speed for 7’s on “the Hill”. We began with Jumping Lunges (6) at the top and Caroline Dry Docks (1) at the bottom. NUR (backwards run) back up the hill and jogged to the outfield. We lined up on the chalk line for the following exercises:

5 Staggered Merkins on each side followed by a sprint to the other end of the field.
10 Jump Squats and sprint back.
10 J-Lo’s and sprint back

End of workout, mosey to COT.

Great job by all. Uber brought his 2.0 to the workout. Likes to ski, dad is Uber. We named him Lyft. He was full of energy and smiled the whole time.

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That was a lot of sit-ups

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My 2nd of 3 Q’s in 3 days. Always a pleasure to Q The Swamp!  Now that I am Ruck free and with no big race on the schedule I’m free to just do regular old Bootcamps. My favorite workouts combine a good amount of running(big surprise) with a bunch of other stuff so that is what we did today and  was glad to have a bunch of guys to share it with.

Started off with s nice mosey warm-up with some dynamic warm-ups of butt kicks, high knees, shuffles and some karaoke.

Circle up in the HD parking lot for COP consisting of SSH, IW, Carolina Dry Dock, Peter Parker, Mountain Climbers, then a series of Downward dog to Honeymooner. Back on our feet for Windmills, Apollo Ono(look out for the car), and just for fun some Monkey Humpers.

Mosey to the bike racks at HD for the main thing. Partner up for a nice BOMBS routine. One partner does the exercise the other does a lap around Home Depot.  There  were some complaints that the lap was a little long even though I assured them it was only about 1/4 mile  I was accused of measuring Zima miles.

50 Burpees, 100 Overhead claps, 150 Merkins, 200 Big Boy Sit-ups(crowd favorite), 250 Supine Pull-Ups(only because I hate squats and I needed an S).  We did not make through all the pull-ups, headed back to COT for a few minutes of Mary, ending with a Body Destroyer.

Announcements – Convergence 5/24, Honor Badger at Golden Corral 5/21 wear Red, Read your newsletter

Praises for Lutifisk daughter, Dungaree’s 1 year anniversary, prayers for kids cancer relapse.

Challenged the PAX to take the role as the leader in their home.  We are called to lead, do not be a passive bystander or even worse do not take or accept the role as another child in the house.  Be the man/leader you are called to be.

Thanks as always for the opportunity to lead this great group!!

 

 

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Just a Mere Tune-Up

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How in the world did I get the honor of Qing one of the most popular ruck workouts of the year? I don’t know but I didn’t want to disappoint. Usually, that last comment means it’s time to absolutely BRING IT. But the trick this AM was to find that balance of bringing it but not killing it since we’re dangerously close to being short on GRH/GRT/GRL PAX.

Alright, I’ve got my head right, Weinke written and little sleep. Yup, par for the course so let’s roll. 24 brothers joined me at the Fire Ant this morning which for those who’ve not attended, is building quite the strong brotherhood. Again, here’s my plug to try rucking for a month and see if you set the ruck down.

After we disclaimed and talked about the upcoming event this weekend, we made our way to the sidewalk to get in two lines with rucks opened on the ground for a mock inspection. Once complete, zip up, ruck up and fall into 2 lines for a ruck lap around the loop.

Once the lap was complete, stay in 2 lines and lay the rucks on the ground on the outside of the lines. In formation, Side-Straddle Hops, Imperial Walkers, Sumo Squats & Moroccan Night Clubs. Now for a little BEEP BEEP, I’M A JEEP!!

In formation, drop to a squat, hold the ruck out front and duck walk for a bit. Then some ruck curls. Then, drop to a squat, hold the ruck out front and reverse duck walk for a bit back to the starting point. Guess what? More ruck curls.

Now, rotate 90deg so you’re facing the outside, away from the other line for shoulder presses, upright rows and bent over rows. Then a nice set of flutters WITH the needed presses.

Line up on the left side of the 2 long straight-aways for an exercise with the ruck, leave your ruck and run to the far end, do an exercise then run back to your ruck. Here’s the set list:

10 Ruck Thrusters, leave the ruck and run to the other end

5 8ct Burpees then run back

20 Ruck Curls (great on paper), leave the ruck and run to the other end

10 8ct Burpees then run back

Back in our 2 lines of formation for:

12ct Merkins…sans Ruck

Flutters w/ the Press

LBC’s w/ the Rucks up

Box Cutters w/ the Rucks up

More Beep Beep, I’m a Jeep stuff

THAT’S IT!!!

See, not so bad. Just another Tuesday in The Fort.

HYDRATE HYDRATE HYDRATE

SYITG

Maximus

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Form Matters…And So Does A Belly Button

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I put the pre-blast out a few days ago saying this edition of Slow Burn would be a bit different. No speed work this time, it’s all about good form and controlling the core. The core is essential to balance, stability and strength. You don’t need to do 1000 LBC’s, its different than that. We welcomed a man that was an FNG but is now known as Body Glove (San Diego transplant) which is an EH from Router. We disclaimed and explained F3 then got into why today would be different.

So, why does the title include “belly button.” Here’s why…

  1. Not worried about speed today because for today’s workout, if you go fast you’re likely doing it wrong. We’re going to focus on form and the education of good (or better) form.
  2.  A (long) statement on the importance of your CORE. Using F3’s 5 CORE principles as a foundation for the importance of a strong core, I explained the benefits of having a strong(er) physical core.

Warm Up jog to the long wall on the opposite side of Lowe’s and create some space between you and your chair-sitting neighbor. The explanation of “Tighten Your Core” is to try to move your belly button back to your spine while tucking it down into your pelvis. If you’re not used to this, it feels unnatural until your core strengthens then you realize the stability and strength benefits. So whenever we’d say Core or Tighten Your Core or Tighten Up, this is what we’re meaning…Tuck It In.

While TIGHT and in the people’s chair, we did Overhead Claps

Then fall forward into a plank with your hands on the parking space stops for Slow Mountain Climbers aiming to get your knees up to your elbows.

Back to sitting against the wall and doing Moroccan Night Clubs.

Back to the Slow Mountain Climbers.

Run to the car mechanic’s lot for a little more core/form explanation and having Walker in attendance was awesome. Talk about applicable Pro-Tips, he nailed it.

COP for 12ct exercises: 4 down, 4 hold at the bottom, 4 up

12ct Merkins, 12ct Planking Calf Raise (4 up to toes extended, 4 squeeze in that position, 4 coming back to starting position), 12ct Sumo Squats

Mak Tar Jah’s

Peter Parkers (slow, knees up as far as you can)

J-Lo’s

Parker Peters (slow, knees as close to opposite elbow as you can)

8ct Burpees: My biggest learning of the day was that for a true burpee, you squat down first then pop into the plank. Don’t bend at the waist and essentially fall down to the plank. Look out for my next Q for a lesson on this…thank you Walker.

Minnesota Mike Tysons: Why Minnesota? No good reason other than that is what they called them in MN when I was there earlier this week. Explanation, get in a plank with your toes on the ground and the soles of your feet against a curb or wall (curb in our case today). Squat back against the curb like you’re getting ready to shoot out of a cannon, return back to the plank position, then perform a controlled merkin. That is 1.

A few slow lunges…COT.

Be intentional on your form, don’t go through the motions. You’re only hurting yourself and those around you. Welcome Body Glove!! Thanks Hootie.

Until Next Time,

Maximus

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