Tag: Shady

Way-Backblast – Pushing Through at Laces In

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It’s been a long time coming, but finally stepped into the ring at Laces In and handled my VQ. 14 other PAX joined in the gloom for a little of everything, including an FNG.

Disclaimer

With one fresh face in the crowd, we went over the disclaimer, the Five Core Principles of F3 and the Credo. There was absolutely no mumblechatter during this disclaimer and the message was clear and concise.

Warm Up

We moseyed over to the band practice lot for 15 Low Slow Squats IC and 15 Cherry Pickers IC. Then began to mosey back to the student parking lot, but mixed in some Toy Soldiers, High Knees and Butt Kickers. Once in the student lot, CoP for 21 SSH IC and 10 Merkins IC.

The Thang

Utilizing the very large student parking lot, we did a modified 4-corners. The modification was to return to the center for 5 burpees between each corner. The 4 corners consisted of:

  1. Jump Squats & Fredie Mercury
  2. Derkins & Flutter Kicks
  3. Alternating Side Squats & Mtn Climbers
  4. Diamonds & Hello Dollys

We began with 20 reps, and increased the rep count by 10 each time around (round 2 was 30 reps of each exercise and round 3 was 40 reps).

After 2.5 laps, we circled up for one last set of burpees and moseyed across the parking lot to the hill. Since coming off a nagging injury, I have noticed “plateaus” during workouts even more. I reminded the PAX that when we’re faced with difficulty or plateaus in life, whether it’s our health, our relationships with our M and/or our 2.0s, or even at work, that’s when we should focus more and “push harder.” Here at the at the end of the workout, push yourself to sprint up the hill and get better.

After 3 trips up the hill, we moseyed back to CoT (merlot may or may not have been splashed by yours truly) for Name-o-rama, welcomed Battle Bot, announcements, prayers & praises.

Thanks for the VQ support, gentlemen.

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11

eating our way through the air

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19 PAX Gathered and it was so humid we had to “eat our way through the air.” (-Slash)

We started with a quick warmup
SSH – 19 to the number of PAX

Mosey towards the old Church of God parking lot
IW
HW
Moroccan Night Clubs
Merkins – slow count (everybody’s favorite)

Brief mosey to the other Church of God parking lot
Burpee Square (thanks Naperville)
Start in one corner
10 Burpees – bear crawl to next corner
9 Burpees – lunge walk to next corner
8 Burpees – crawl bear to the next corner
7 Burpees – reverse lunge walk back to the first corner
6 Burpees – bear crawl to next corner
5 Burpees – lunge walk to next corner
4 Burpees – crawl bear to the next corner
3 Burpees – reverse lunge walk back to the first corner
2 Burpees – bear crawl to next corner
1 Burpee

View the retaining wall and consider how it works…not by specific acceleration, but by staying put at the ground falls around it revealing all the bricks supporting the top layer

Mosey to the old middle school (banks st. community gym)
Some Yoga for the 6
10 Squats
10 lunge steps
10 Jump Squats
10 lunge steps back
Repeat

Mosey Back – I got gassed on the mosey back. Once your belly is full, eating your way back through the air is really difficult.

Flutters to 0600

NMM:

Sometimes, as the flux hits us all, we lack the motivation to accelerate of our own accord. But if we can call on discipline to continue moving, we can see ourselves rising even though we feel like we’re staying put–just like the top level of that retaining wall. I’ve been feeling that flux for a little while leading up to the big 4-0. And honestly didn’t know how to convey that message until I looked up at the end of too many burpees and too many bear crawls and saw that wall.

Grateful for the opportunity to lead and the support of all the PAX. Y’all help hold me up whether you know it or not. Thank you.

—
Band Camp Dismissed

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Coupons & Rucks…and a surprise

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About 1.5wks out from the CLT GTE, we had most of the guys bring sandbags for Currahee. Here’s what we did last week:

Slick: Mosey the loop, Wind Mills, Freddy Mercury’s, Flutters

Rucks overhead movement for ~ 200yds, then rucks on for a shuffle back to the starting point.

Rucks on and grab all the coupons for a .25mi ruck. Drop the coupons.
Bear Crawl a bit then Crawl Bear a bit, back
Overhead Press / Ruck Swings / Flutters w/ a press

Rucks on and grab all the coupons for a .25mi ruck. Drop the coupons.
Duck Walk a bit then Walk Duck a bit, back
Curls / Upright Rows / Bent over rows

Rucks on and grab all the coupons for another movement. Drop the coupons.
Al Gore w/ Cherry Pickers / Tricep Extensions / OH Press / Plank

Rucks on and grab all the coupons for another movement. Drop the coupons.
Merkins / Peter Parkers / Mountain Climbers / Mike Tysons

Then out came the deck of cards. This time, it was modified and only included cards 7-10 so the eventual count was 34 of these…#moderate:

Clubs: Slow Flutters
Hearts: Curls
Diamonds: Mountain Climbers
Spades: Merkins

COT with us all offering a prayer request.
It was a good one.

Maximus

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Old Glory and Burpees

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13 PAX gathered in the almost gloom
That 0600 start time does feel friendlier on my legs…just saying

NMM:
Honestly as a FM native, I love Baxter and all the folks that have migrated to Fort Mill. The diversity of backgrounds and influx of culture has made Fort Mill a better place on many levels. Traffic is rougher, but c’est la vie. Every time I drive through Baxter, I notice the inordinate amount of American flags hanging, and there was some recent controversy over someone flying a Trump flag as well (which, as someone who doesn’t live in the neighborhood, is quite funny). When I see the American Flag, I have a lot of different thoughts. I want my country’s to flag to be a symbol of hope that truly represents for liberty and justice FOR ALL. But in reality, I know that’s not what the flag represents to everyone.

Thinking specifically about the “Soiling of Old Glory” by Stanley Foreman
By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24874670.

Look at this photo (1976). It’s pretty clear the American flag might mean different things to you based on where you grew up, the color of your skin, the country of your birth (or your parents’ birth…), etc. Something we should all be mindful of when so many flags are flying on a quaint southern street.

To make the workout mindful of the flags, we did a burpee for every American flag we passed. (it was a good amount of burpees)

Warm-up:
SSH
IW
HW
Squat
Split Squat
Merkin (slow count)
Yoga
Peter Parker

Mosey through Baxter:
stopped along the way and called some exercises in cadence for the 6 to catch up
Hit the clubhouse/swimming pool lawn
Started Jack Webbs w/ merkins and overhead claps went to 9 and 36
– bear crawled the entire lawn
– finished the 10 merkins and 40 overhead claps on the other side of the lawn
Keep Moseying
Sprinted the Lower Assembly hill up to Sutton (monkey humpers for the 6 on Sutton)
Regrouped in the Urgent Care parking lot
Did some Mike Tysons –> lunge walk –> burpees across the parking lot
Mosey back towards COT
– did not stop for burpees at each flag, but YHC kept count. We had 12 burpees at COT counting the shovel flag. I chose a judicious path; it could have been MUCH worse.

Prayers:
Cooter’s mother-in-law
Remembrance of family members that have passed on

Thanks Sugar Daddy for the opportunity to lead!

—
Band Camp dismissed

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Bushwood – Black Diamond(ish)

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L-Train originally asked me to Q a black diamond because he was working on an EH that did a lot of gym work. Wanted to show a pretty fit FNG what an outdoor workout is like. FNG dropped out, but we pressed on anyway. Hardwood allegedly got his heart rate up to 200bpm….that’s pretty high buddy; might want to keep an eye on that.


We ran around a bit.

Mile buy-in at a pretty fast pace
SSH x39
IW x10
HW x10
Some downdog/updog…..black diamond or not, warmups matter
Kraken Burpees in cadence…..that’s a 16 count
Toy Soldiers

Run up to lot at the front of the school
Bear crawl through the lot to the stop sign
add a Kraken burpee at each island…there were 4 islands

Run down to end of the sidewalk
Mountain Climbers for the 6

Run on the by-pass until we could get to the sidewalk leading to the elementary school
Front lot of the school
Bear crawl through the lot to the stop sign
add a Kraken burpee at each island…there were 4 islands

Front of the elementary school
1 squat
lunge walk to next pillar
2 squats
lunge walk to next pillar
etc.
stopped at 10 for time
Run back to CRHS the way we came…traffic was heavier

Bear Crawl/Crawl Bear up and down the hill to the band practice field in a zig-zag for the 6

Run down to drainage hill…bear crawl down and through
BTTW – Shoulder taps

Run to edge where there were some support for hands (signs, fire hydrant, guard rail, etc.)
Called pistol squats in cadence, but gave an option to modify to regular squats….apparently YHC was the only one doing pistol squats. So, we wrapped that up.

Run to lot near football field
Dying Cockroach
Hello Dolly

Run up the hill to COT
0600

NMM

What’s a black diamond to me, may not be a black diamond to someone else. But I felt we were challenged today. The real black diamonds for me are keeping my temper in check around my kids. I can bear crawl with you as far as you want an 0530, but I need to find more kind words with my family at 5:30pm.

Let’s not shy away from what are the real black diamonds in our lives.

—
Band Camp dismissed

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You good with a shoulder workout…good

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Man, it’s a good day when I get to Q with Spiderman and our full Shieldlock posts. It was steamy, the bugs were active, we worked a lot, struggled to breathe a little and I have to believe, we’re all better for it. I’m writing from memory and that means the details are fuzzy. If you feel slighted, you should’ve been there.

More or less, it went like this…

Spiderman on Q with a few warmup exercises.
Run out the back of WEP, down the never-ending path to the bottom of Harris St…you know what’s coming. Spiderman marked chalk lines up the major hill to our left.

At the bottom, 2 alternating V-Ups (like a killer dying cockroach)
Run up to the first chalk line, 2 Spiderman Merkins…how fitting
Run down to the bottom, for 4 alternating V-Ups

Run up to the second chalk line, 4 Spiderman Merkins
Run down to the first chalk line, 2 Spiderman Merkins
Run down to the bottom for 8 alternating V-Ups

Run up to the third chalk line, 6 Spiderman Merkins
Run down to the second chalk line, 4 Spiderman Merkins
Run down to the first chalk line, 2 Spiderman Merkins
Run down to the bottom for 12 alternating V-Ups

Run up to the fourth chalk line, 8 Spiderman Merkins
Run down to the third chalk line, 6 Spiderman Merkins
Run down to the second chalk line, 4 Spiderman Merkins
Run down to the first chalk line, 2 Spiderman Merkins
Run down to the bottom for 16 alternating V-Ups

Yeah, that was a smoker which covered about 2miles total. Hand off to Maximus:

Make our way back on the trail with a few stops for exercises as a group, along the way.
Line up on one end of the park.
Bear crawl until I call out Carolina Dry Docks or someone takes a break from the bear crawl, at which point we’d do a burpee (so much better).
After a few stops, we made it almost 1/2 way across the park then circled up in the grass.

Full set of Jack Webb using the traditional exercises. You know, since we didn’t do much with shoulders.

Afterward, we made our way to the playground.
Grab a spot to do pull-ups and do 1 burpee into 5 pull-ups, starting from a dead hang. Do this set 3 times.

A few ab exercises then COT.

Read your newsletter & check in on Tinsel.

Spiderman & Maximus

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BlockParty: M and being the right guy

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New day everyday to start new!!

19 PAX came to BlockParty to wrap up “M” month and have a slice of cake 🍰

we moseyed and did some warm up

3 corners of 5 burpees each

3 lanes of bear crawls

3 lanes of broad jump burpees

3 lanes of lunge walk Merkins

1.5mi running

As for the “M”

💥Continue to Honor her, court her and love her like it’s day 1

💥Need to stop trying to change her and be the change and right guy

💥Best thing for your kids is to love their mother more than a self

peace out ✌🏻

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June FNG Jamboree

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Prepare yourself to get uncomfortable for the greater good of the community. We always brag about how tough we are and how we are not afraid to do “Hard Things” with our bodies to strengthen our 1stF; but how about we challenge ourselves to get uncomfortable by asking dudes to come out and join us in the gloom. Official rules and scoring will be presented in the near future.

In summary, we are challenged with the task of giving this thing we call F3 away in order to invigorate male community leadership. We need to get guys out and in shape, so they can help other men to better our community.

WHO: All Pax

WHAT: FNG drive!

WHEN: Month of June 2021

WHERE: We will be competing between AO’s located within the Fort region to see who can bring out the most FNG’s in the month of June.

WHY: What we have in F3 is amazing and there is a pandemic of sad clowns that need to be unshackled. We will not get to 250,000 men by 2025 if we don’t add them one at a time starting now.

Again Official rules and scoring will be presented in the near future.

UPDATED RULES AND SCORING BELOW:
YHC has gotten his matrix on and made a fancy little workbook to keep track of the points per AO and it should even give a visual plot if everything works out as planned. But as Iron Mike says the plan is probably going to change once someone punches me in the face. So the format is simple. Every AO for himself. This makes the siteQ’s in charge of their site’s performance. I know some of you know that it’s not fair that some locations have more pax than others. Well, that’s true and life ain’t fair princess so get over it. But in an effort to encourage more participation we will have two winners, the outright winner, and the normalized winner. The normalized winner will be the site that has the highest point total after being normalized for the average attendance compared to the average attendance for an AO for that day of the week. Don’t worry Trucker its just math for all of us to try and catch up to you.

So here is the point breakdown:
FNG 1st time posting: 1000 points
FNG 2nd time posting: 1500 points
Cotter : 500 points
VQ : 250 points
Downrange Post : 200 points

To start this party off I will post the spreadsheet on google drive and share the link but if we run into issues I am prepared to put the data into the sheet myself for the first week. If the site Q’s will make sure I am informed of the FNG’s that will help get you credit for your site.
Sample worksheet and chart shown below, hopefully.

JuneFNGJamboree_TheFort2021

*New Kids for F3 dads don’t count for the F3 FNG but its a great introduction to getting them to post kidless later on in the week. Spam the crap out of those classroom email lists before the school year ends fellas. Whats the worst that can happen….don’t answer that.

I will be challenging siteQ’s to encourage PAX to get outside that bubble of friends you normally hang with and give this gift away. Imagine where you would be if you were still a sad clown.

Stay frosty my friends,
Olaf
Build those guardrails out of bricks!

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Marriage isn’t Chuck E. Cheese

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YHC had the privilege to lead 24 other men through a stations workout with a discussion on the transformational relationship with our Ms. Conditions were perfect – 62 degrees and a slight breeze. The Disclaimer was disclaimed and we were off. Here’s what we did:

The Thang

  • 20 SSHs (IC)
  • 15 Imperial Walkers (IC)
  • 10 Low Slow Squats (IC)

Mosey to Top of Main

  • 20 Alternating Shoulder Taps (IC)
  • 15 Mountain Climbers (IC)
  • 10 Merkins (IC)

Mosey to First Baptist Parking Lot

  • 2 Burpees at 10 stations

Mosey to behind the Police Station

  • 20 Squats
  • 15 Calf Raises
  • 10 Turkish Getups

Mosey to Top of Main

  • 20 LBCs
  • 15 Bomb Jacks
  • 10 Tempo Merkins

Mosey to the corner of Tom Hall and Monroe White

  • 20 Alternating Shoulder Taps (IC)
  • 15 Mountain Climbers (IC)
  • 10 Merkins (IC)

Mosey to Academy and Monroe

  • 20 Squats
  • 15 Calf Raises
  • 10 Turkish Getups

Mosey to Mosey to behind the Police Station

  • 20 LBCs
  • 15 Bomb Jacks
  • 10 Tempo Merkins

Mosey back to COT

  • 20 SSHs (IC)
  • 15 Imperial Walkers (IC)
  • 10 Low Slow Squats (IC)

Total Mileage – 2.20

NMM

We call our wives “M” because she is the Most important relationship we have. That relationship is transformational. Before marriage it was “me” and “her.” Once married, “we” became an “us.” It is no longer solely about you. You are to serve your M. You are to pursue joy with her – even when things are tough. Its not a game. There is no scoreboard. There are no winners and losers and no one gets a participation trophy. We are to love her as Christ loves the Church.

Society tells us that marriage is 50/50. Let me assure you that is a farce. There are times it is 80/20. There are times it is 20/80. As John Michael Montgomery once said, “Life’s a dance you learn as you go. Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow.” Marriage isn’t about keeping tally of who has done what. This isn’t Chuck E. Cheese – you can’t trade in your emptied dishwasher tickets for a guy’s weekend. That’s not how it works. You empty the dishwasher so she doesn’t have to. You set the example for your children so they know how to be a good husband one day or what to look for in a future husband. They are watching, so make your actions count.

It was my pleasure this morning to have the opportunity to lead today. I was encouraged by the push from the guys and the mumblechatter at the stops. Today personified why F3 matters so much to me. But remember, if your focus becomes more about the fitness and fellowship with your friends and less about loving your wife, your concentrica is out of alignment. Keep each other accountable and pursue your wife. Let her know she matters. Don’t seek relationship maintenance. Instead, keep accelerating. Don’t meet in the middle, go the distance and serve her.

Aye!

Italian Job

 

 

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Crowded Colosseum

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As I caught my breath after a two mile pre-run with Straight-Up and Shady, I noticed the line of headlights from the cars arriving.  I wasn’t expecting to have as many Pax this morning, but this was a good problem.  In addition, we had an FNG, Jorge, dressed with cut-off sleeves and ready to roll.

After the disclaimer, We moseyed to the elementary school parking lot for the standard warm-up exercises (SSH, Windmills, Imperial Walkers, Moroccan Night Clubs, and Planks Stretches).  Lots of chatter so it was time to step it up a notch.  We ran down to the bottom of the hill on Dave Gibson Blvd.  The next exercise I borrowed from Spiderman’s Q at Alcatraz.  We partnered up and wheel barrowed up to Patricia Lane.  Each time the partners switched up, they had to perform five burpees.  Extra credit Ab work for those who completed early.  We were not done yet, we finished up the wheel barrow exercise at the end of Patricia Lane.

Next, we jogged over to the office building for a round of Dora 1-2-3.  Same partners, one partner would run around the parking lot while the other started on the list of exercises ( 100 Hand-Released Merkins, 200 Dips, 300 Squats).  Mumble chatter died down, men were focused.  Once complete, we had enough time to jog back to COT.  I mentioned to stay with your partner and find out something new about him.  I think it is good for us to make those personal connection to reinforce F3 is more than a workout group.

Great job by all!

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