VQ At the Abyss

The Abyss has been around, what, 2 years or so?  YHC has never made it down there, and that’s a shame.  Not only is it a great, well-lit AO, but the pax there represent Lake Wylie very well! Sure wish Siri hadn’t been lying to me all this time on how long it takes to get there.  At 4:45am, it seems every AO in TheFort can be reached in 15 minutes or less.

This cool halloween morning, the count was 14 pax.  The mumblechatter level made it feel more like 25. Excellent! YHC knew most of the pax there, but the hats and my historically bad memory for names threw me off (cobains Wolverine for calling you “Moreen”).

Disclaimer was issued as Flux was coming in hot.  We moseyed the opposite direction from where he parked, but made a loop for him to catch up.  Stopped in the same front lot for some warm-up:

  • SSH (IC) x25
  • Imperial Walker (IC) x20
  • Mountain Climbers (IC) x20
  • Flutters (IC) x20
  • Windmills (IC) x20

Moseyed around to the back lot to find 4 cones set up, one in front of each basketball goal (along long side of track).  Time for some Webb-o-Rama.  The exercises at each cone were to be done in a Jack Webb style, (1:4 ratio).

Cone 1: Burpees and Side Straddle Hops, then Bear Crawl to cone 2

Cone 2: Big Boy Sit-ups and American Hammers, then wheelbarrow to cone 3

Cone 3: Knee Tar N’Diayes and Run-Stance Switches, then wheelbarrow to cone 4

Cone 4: Traditional Jack Webb (merkins and overhead claps), then run around track back to cone 1

We did a total of 3 loops of the circuit.

Round 1: 1-5

Round 2: 6-8

Round 3: 10 (didn’t have time for 9)

Moseyed back to COT.

NMMS

I took just a few minutes after round 1 to share how my kids are at an age that I’m really proud of them.  But as a father, it is very important we don’t give them the impression that our love and pride for them is based on winning or achieving a certain status.  It should be based on them showing a good work ethic, passion, and self-motivation to try and use the gifts God has given them.  And shifting the perspective a little, I am incredibly grateful that God’s love for me is not based on how much I “win” or am “successful”.  Thank God for His GRACE that keeps me from having to accomplish things in order to earn His love.

 

Excellent effort by LW’s finest this morning.  Thanks for making me feel so welcome.  And thanks to Bones for the opportunity to lead.

Keep it spicy.
-old bay

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Pre-Michael Showdown at the Abyss

YHC didn’t look at the weather forecast last night so it was a bit of a surprise walking outside this morning to the pouring rain. No big deal but had to audible a couple of things on the weinke.

One thing I love about F3 is the dedication of the PAX to show up rain, shine, freezing rain, snow, single-digit temps, etc…to get to a workout. Today was no exception and 16 men (2 of whom were runners) showed up in the pouring rain to get better. One FNG was present so an F3 certified disclaimer was given and off we went.

Mosey to Bus Circle

Butt Kickers, High Knees, Side shuffle facing the school, Side shuffle away

Warm up (In Cadence)

15 – SSH
15 – IW
15 – WM
15 – Mountain Climbers
25 – Moroccan Night Clubs

Mosey to the covered sidewalk for some partner work. Some grunge music seemed apropos so it accompanied our work.

Brief Discussion on Encouragement – YHC asked the PAX to thing of someone in their life who has been a big encouragement as we completed the exercises.

Partner up – Size doesn’t matter

Partner 1 – Run the circle
Partner 2 – Work on the exercises
Flapjack

150 Carolina Dry Docks
250 Squats
350 LBC’s

Everyone completed one round and a few Pax made it through the CDD’s for the 2nd round.

Mosey to the paved hill at the exit of the school. No partners for this part.

Lt Dans to the first set of rocks, backwards lunge to the second set, sprint to the top, and slow mosey to the bottom
Rinse and Repeat (Mumble chatter)
5 burpees OYO
Bear crawl to the first set of rocks, backwards Lt. Dans to the second set, sprint to the top, 5 burpees OYO and slow mosey to the bottom

Mosey to the wall for wall sits

Round 1
Each PAX counted to 10 while holding the wall with one leg out
Shake it out, Rinse and Repeat (Mumble chatter)
Round 2
Hold the wall while each Pax ran to the sidewalk, 2 burpees and back to the wall
Shake it out, Rinse and Repeat (Mumble chatter)

Mosey back for COT

Announcements

Read your newsletter. Christmas Party, Bourbon Chase, etc…

Prayer Requests

Moab and his wife are foster parents and are receiving a newborn today. Prayers for them and for the mom.
Unspoken prayers that are heavy on our hearts
Having the strength to encourage others in our circles

Great job by the Pax and great job by the FNG Matt (F3 Aztec). He did a great job keeping us with us and did a lot better than I did on my first post. Keep up the good work!

Always an honor to lead. Thanks Bones for the opportunity.

Until next time…

Hauschka

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Homecoming Season

Thanks to Peg for the opportunity to lead!  It was something different today and it was fun while it lasted.

Let’s get to it… shall we?

Mosey to empty-ish parking lot behind Bagel Boat. (Hi, NASA’s twin brother on moving truck!)

Warm-O-Rama:

SSH x 30, Windmill x 10, Hillbilly Walkers x 10, Weed Pickers x 10, Peter Parker x 10, Parker Peter x 10, Mountain Climbers x 10, Honeymooner/Downward Dog x 2

The Thang:

Split into two teams… 4 vs. 4 FOOTBALL in the parking lot (at 5:15 A.M.?… you betcha!).  1 or 2 hand touch.  Witch Hunt as all-time QB due to an odd number (did I say Witch Hunt?… I meant Ryan Leaf).  Parking lot light to handicap signs were end-zones with parking spaces in the middle serving as a first down marker.  If a team scored a TD, 5 Kraken burpees to the defense!

***Crazy Cat Lady Sighting*** ***5 Burpees***

We played with each team getting 3 possessions.  Highlights included: Respectable Olaf with the catch of the day, Shakespeare getting burnt like toast on defense, Shakespeare dropping passes on offense, and no injuries.  I can blame a lot of things on my performance today… the rain, the gloves, lack of sleep, the QB… but it was simply, just me.  Can’t wait for some redemption…

——————————–

After our Homecoming football game, we moseyed back over near COT area because it was time for the Homecoming Dance!  3 songs with exercises in cadence to the beat (not really, but that was the idea).  Songs were a throwback to when I was in high school… why not?  After each “dance” we did a little something in between.

Song 1: Pretty Fly for a White Guy – The Offspring (note: apparently played at Witch Hunt’s wedding)

  • Crabcakes during instrumental/”give it to me…” parts
  • Dying Cockroach during verse
  • LBC’s during the chorus (missed the first one)

Break in between:  People’s Chair near Bowl N’ Bounce, 1 person at a time come off wall and complete 5 sandbags curls, stand up when all have completed.  After which, we did an Indian Run with sandbag starting up front, passed to the back of the line, once it reaches the person at the end they run it to the front and start passing back again.  Came up with this idea a few days ago and wanted to see how it was.  It wasn’t fun.

Song 2: Where The Party At- Jagged Edge

  • Imperial Squat Walkers during instrumental/verse parts
  • Side to side ski jump/strides (something like that) during the chorus
  • Overhead press/raise the roof during the “oh ooooohhh…” parts

Break in between: BTTW, starting at the end one person at a time complete 1 burpee, all come down when everyone has gone.

Song 3: Smooth Criminal- Alien Ant Farm (idea courtesy of Jedi… RIP… errr, thanks I mean)

  • Shoulder taps during instrumental
  • Plank Jacks during verse
  • 1 merkin for every “Okay” in the chorus… it’s a lot

Cut short of the end to start COT on time.

Announcements:

read the newsletter, Ragnar, Fast Five, Convergence, etc.

Prayers:

missing boy and family in Gastonia, continued recovery and support for people affected by Florence.

 

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Making an IMPACT at Poopdeck

Another great morning in Lake Wylie.  I got to the Poopdeck a little early to set up some cones, and still some of the PAX are already there stretching and yapping. By 5:15 we had 10 guys ready to roll out for the bootcamp as Davinci & Shakespeare were leaving for some miles.  Gave the disclaimer and we were off.

We ran over to west parking lot (the best one of three) for COP.  A standard group of warm up exercises to loosen up.  I like using random counts to keep the PAX guessing!  We moved on to the first evolution.

Evolution 1 The Burpee Mile

I set up 3 cones around the lot.  We would run up a lane and back down the one to the right, at the turn where the cone is stop and do 10 burpees.  We did this rotation around the parking lot for 3 cones and then back around again.  Total 60 burpees and about a mile run.

Evolution 2 Merkin Mania

No running in this one. We moseyed over to another cone with a nice list on it.  This was the non stop rotation.  As I was explaining we see our favorite car… Cat Lady sighting! 5 burpees!

20 Diamond Merkins

20 Plank Jacks

20 Ranger Merkins

20 Shoulder Taps (SC)

20 Hand Release Merkins

20 Plank Jacks

20 Ranger Merkins

20 Shoulder Taps (SC)

20 Wide Arm Merkins

20 Plank Jacks

Shared some words about IMPACT. I stole the message from Qsource 2.1.

(Read it HERE https://f3nation.com/2018/04/22/impact-q2-1-2/ )

We discussed the “Survivor <——-> Servant” scale and how my father was an unfortunate example of a survivor during his homelessness last year.  Lucky for all of us in attendance we fall further down the scale towards Servant.  But many men fall right in the middle, and that’s a sad clown.  How do we find these men and move them forward?  Proximity is required to have a strong effect on the life of a sad clown!  At one point I shared a paragraph or two from the Q source directly. No need to make it up when it’s right there for you to share with your brothers!

Evolution 3 Sprints

Back to running.  We moved to the other side of the parking lot where another 4 cones were set up.  We would sprint  to the closest cone and then back to start, second cone and back, etc until the final stop was tapping the building at the end of the lot. After a 10 count  we did it again, cutting off the final stop.  We continued working down the stops. total number of sprints around 10.  That sucked, but everyone pushed hard!

Time for a slow mosey  back to COT.  With 5 minutes to go we circled up.  We have an announcement today, someone was turning 34!  So I asked Birthday Boy Witch Hunt to call an exercise.  He picked his favorite…Crunchy Frogs.  So we did 17 double count Crunch Frogs (34 total).  A few minutes left, so around the horn for some U-Call-It ab lab.

COT

Nameorama

Announcements

Invergence Friday – 6th Anniversary Convergence Saturday 9/29 @ WEP

Iced-T on Q at the Deep – read your newsletter!

Praises and Prayers

Witch Hunt’s 34th Birthday and Davinci’s son Aiden’s upcoming 9th birthday

Ball-o-Man

An Honor to Lead

-Royale

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Mostly Legs at the Poopdeck

4 today stayed behind for the bootcamp, others went out for a run to get some miles on their legs for the upcoming Ragnar relay.

The bootcampers put in some stretching and then went out to the marina for some laps. It was a good strong pace and we kept it up for 5 laps

I decided to throw in some sprints so we used the lightpoles as All You Got markers and pushed through a shorter length each time, all in all doing 4 sprints.

As we headed back towards the shovelflag we lunged the entire length of the shopping center and it’s unclear if Cat Lady was seen or if they were YMCA goers

Over at the field next to the flag I had set up a short cone distance of about 20 yards and we partnered up for some….
Buddy BearCrawl (thanks 9/11 GRT)
Partner Wheelbarrow
Partner Carry x2
Partner…. Standing? Idk what this is called but you lay down and are assisted in standing up by gripping with one hand only, keeping your feet planted the whole time is the key. Standing up 20 times without being able to push off the ground with your off hand is tough. So we did it 20 times for both arms.

Dora 1-2-3 is one of my favorites but instead of 100/200/300 we did a Lazy Dora of 1-2-3 sets of 25 reps. “resting” partner was to plank while waiting
1 set of 25 burpees ( I had forgotten what I wrote down first and later remembered it was LBCs because I was going to do rinse and repeat )
2 sets of 25 flutters (each leg)
3 sets of squats

Nothing fancy, kept it simple so people could push their bodies today.

Announcements
There is an invergence/convergence coming up, read your newsletter!!
Ragnar training is hitting its peak momentum, if you are interested in running up to 20 miles in October at the greenway, ask

Please pray for those in the path of the hurricane, damage will be done, its just a matter of how much and will the PAX and surrounding community be there to help.
Keep our injured brothers in prayer, we do some stupid stuff and we get physically injured but make sure to keep in contact so the Shieldlock is not lost.

Aye!

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The Abyss – Pushing the Perimeter!

Put this one together fairly quickly the night before my Q while laying in bed w/ my 2.0.  Those tend to not work out so well for the Pax as it’s super easy to write down everything that is awful and hard and then ask the Pax to make it happen.  Well, that’s what I did.  It felt lazy.  It felt last minute.  It was both of those things.  And I was happy about it.

Had a solid crew of 18 boot campers – gave them the general theme of what this would be about, quick disclaimer, just enough to scare them a bit, and then we were off for a very quick warmup – something I am known for.

Warm-up:  seal jacks, merkins, plank punches, shoulder taps, superman coupled w/ Moroccan night club, slow as day windmills and we were done.

I didn’t know how long this next part would take, so I had a few extra things to do if we had time, but I was a bit uncertain from the get-go.  If you’ve been to Abyss (Palisades Elementary School), you know the front of the school is a standard school set up – a long road in w/ some turns, making its way to the parking lot, a roundabout for the drop off, etc, etc.  My goal was for us to do the outer perimeter with exercises as our mode of transportation – for the entire thing.  Starting at the loop at the front doors of the school:

– Lunge Walk (90 yards / 80ish meters) to the first turn
– Burpee Broad Jump (175 yards / 160 meters) to the next turn that then goes uphill to 49
– Crab walk up the hill (230 yards / 200 meters)
– Bear Crawl down the side walk parallel to 49 and then down the stairs (140 yards / 130 meters)
– Grand Finale:  Burpee Bounces around the loop / circle back to your starting point…you make ground by doing one burpee and as you push-up, you explode up and throw yourself forward 3 times on all fours.  Pop up, jump, that’s one burpee.  Keep it moving.

After the last of the pax finished the full loop, we had about 10 minutes, which we leveraged for partner carry work.  Thanks GRT from Friday night.  Felt inspired.  Partner up –
– Partner 1 does Spiderman Merkins while Partner 2 runs the length of the parking lot.  When they get to the end, they call for Partner 1 who starts to run to their Partner 2 (while Partner 1 is catching up, Partner 2 does Spiderman Merkins).  When they meet up, they partner carry each other the full length of the parking lot back to the starting point.  Did that 2 more times so everyone carried their partner 3 separate times.  The other exercises while one partner was running were squat touches (squat low enough to touch the ground w/ your fingers) and crunchy frogs.

2 minutes left – good old fashioned sprints.  Everyone back pedal 1/2 the length of the parking lot, all you got, and then turn and sprint the second half.  Did that 2 times and then it was time for COT.

Praises – new jobs / promising job interviews
Prayers – marriages, big flo barreling our way

Thanks to Bones for giving me the chance to lead these great men.  Big thanks to all the guys who made it out today – was awesome to bust a$$ together and get after it.

ChaChing

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Cone Relay and The Cooper

I don’t know what the temperature was this morning, but it was nice. Somewhere in the low 60s if I had to guess – perfect for getting a good running based workout in. 9 PAX for the boot camp, and 1 Tater went for a run.

Disclaimer disclaimed. Then we moseyed across the street to the elementary school.

COP

SSH, Windmills, low slow squat, weed pickers, 5 worst merkins ever OYO, superman

The Thang

Cone Relays

We went down to the football field where YHC had set up the first event for the day. PAX formed 2 teams and were told they would be competing against each other, with the losing team getting a penalty exercise. 17 cones had been setup at the goal line on the far end of the field. On each team 1 PAX would sprint to retrieve a cone and bring it back (200 yard round trip). While P1 was running, the others on the team did an exercise which was determined by the previous cone (we started with SSH for the first round). On the bottom of the cone (so you don’t know what you are choosing) was an exercise and rep count which had to be completed by the entire team before the next PAX could run for the next cone. The “waiting” exercise was written on the top of each cone (clearly visible when the cone was selected) that the non-runners had to do. For example, P1 brings back a cone and everyone on the team does 30 merkins. Then, while P2 is running, P1, P3, and P4 do high knees in place until P2 returns. Repeat until there are no more cones. The team with the most cones at the end wins. Here were the cone pairings:

 

PAX seemed to enjoy this one and there was some good competition. The final score was  a close 9 to 8, with the losing team having selected both the burpee cone, and the lap cone. The winners (YHC, Twitch, Nemo, Royale, and Blocks) had the option of giving 10 burpees to the losers (Wolverine, Lorax, Two Ferns, and Shakespeare) or taking 5 burpees for everyone. We magnanimously chose the 5 burpees for all.

 

The Cooper

The Deep has a great full-sized track, which I was eager to include in my Q. As a track routine, the Cooper is as simple as it is exhausting: PAX do 10 burpees, 10 squats, 10 merkins, and 10 big boy sit-ups then run a lap on the track. Then they do 9 burpees, 9 squats, 9 merkins, and 9 big boy sit-ups and run a lap on the track. Rinse and repeat until you get to 0 reps. When done to completion the Cooper affords 2.5 miles of running and 55 reps of each exercise… unless you are Nemo and accidently do 10 reps for every round. Technically this was a Sheldon Cooper, but whatever. It was good to see the PAX pushing each other through the running – you definitely run faster when you think you have someone trying to pass you. Most PAX made it into round 3 or 4 before we had to start the mosey back to COT.

 

COT then coffeeteria at DD.

It was lots of fun to plan this Q. Thank you Shakespeare for the opportunity to lead.

Stay Classy,

Homebrew

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Kettlebell Tabata + Weighted Indian Runs = Whole Lotta Pain

Started off the morning by unloading some Kettlebells and Dumbbells of various weight onto the ground behind my trunk.  Weights ranged from 10-20 lbs.  Also, a 50 pound sandbag was dropped beside the weights… and, of course, a speaker to blare some heart-pumping music in the Gloom (c’mon peope, bring your music too!… *unless it’s Nickelback/Creed*).

Started off with a Mosey.

Circled up for Warm-O-Rama… 20 SSH, 10 Windmills, 10 Imp. Walker, 10 Hillbilly Walker… We’re warm.

The Thang:

Tabata time!  Everyone grabs 1 weight of their choosing and we complete 8 sets of one exercise.  AMRAP in 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest, again, X 8.  After completing the 8 sets, drop your weight, we pick up the 50lb sandbag, and indian run a distance away and back to our workout area.

Exercises completed were as followed:  Jack Press, Goblet Squat, One Arm Curl, Woodchop (reach up to side, bend turn to other side, lifting/lowering weight), and American Hammers.

End with COT, Name-O-Rama, and Announcements/Prayers.  Prayers for students/teachers on the first day of school and beyond.

Thanks Flux for the opportunity to lead!

 

*Side Note*- It’s Wednesday and my body still aches from this workout.  I must have done something right!

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Dice Dice Baby

After being on IR for a month, YHC was finally back in the game and got to (at last) Q at Bermuda Triangle. We had a couple of late comers, but the final count was 7 PAX.

Disclaimer made.

Jog around the track to the basketball court then circle up for COP.

SSH, MNC, Merkins, Windmills, Crab Cakes… probably forgetting some other stuff.

The Thang

Moseyed to the large traffic circle where PAX

·         Bear crawled around circle, then 7 worst-merkins-ever

·         Crab walked around the circle, then 20 crab cakes

·         Bear crawled around circle, then 7 worst-merkins-ever

Easy to write, hard to do. This traffic circle is no joke.

Die of Doom

I really need a better name for this one. But the night before the Q, Die of Doom was all I could come up with. PAX moseyed to the far side of the school where a whiteboard and novelty foam die had been set up. Reps for each of the 12 rounds were predetermined: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 then 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. The die roll determined the exercise. Each round a PAX would roll the die for the group (resulting in cheers or groans), everyone would do the corresponding exercise for the assigned reps OYO, then run to the end of the parking lot and back. Rinse and repeat until all 12 rounds are complete.

Die values:

1 = LBCs

2 = SSH

3 = Dips

4 = Merkins

5 = Monkey Humpers

6 = Burpees

 

Lady Luck was definitely in a burpee mood that Friday as we rolled burpees on the ascending 50… then rolled burpees on the descending 50 again. At least she stayed away from burpees on the 60 rep rounds. The distribution of the exercises was surprisingly even – not the reps, but the variety in rolled numbers. We ended up having to cut things short in the 8th round as we were quickly approaching 5:45. YHC will have to budget more time for this in the future. Mosey back to COT.

 

Great to be back in the gloom getting sharpened by you men. Being on IR sucks, so don’t forget to reach out to PAX who are injured. The 2nd and 3rd F stuff shouldn’t stop just because you can’t post to a workout.

Stay classy,

Homebrew

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Wonder Twin Powers

13 Pax gathered at the Deep for an unheard of beatdown by YHC and Ginsu. So heres the backstory….YHC was given the honor of Qing the Deep by Shakespeare (Keep up the great leadership!) One of the Pax that YHC wanted to get to know better was Ginsu, our 1st F Q. So, in an unheard of move that was borderline ridiculous, we went for it. Ginsu added a bit of variety by  bringing his speaker to play some tunes throughout the workout. Lots of mumble chatter came from this.

The Pax of Lake Wylie are known for giving it their all and they did not disappoint. Gansu was prepared and YHC brought an old school Dirty McDeuce (courtesy of OBT) to the group.

The discussion was impact which was a carryover from the 3rd F Convergence from the day before. YHC admires the impact that Pax of F3 the Fort are making in the community. However, the best opportunity/need for impact is those who fall into your first 2 circles of Concentrica. The M and 2.0s. Fittingly, Bones posted with Link, his 2.0 who brought it for the workout and clearly Bones is making an impact with this one.

The Thang

Mosey across the street to Oakridge Middle – Pusher in the lead

COP

Windmills

Morrocan Night Clubs

SSH – no less than 30

Mtn Climbers

Merkins

Mosey to track for the Dirty McDeuce – First song is Ice, Ice, Baby by Vanilla Ice – let the mumble chatter begin!

4 sets of exercises, 3 exercises x 12 – IC, followed by a lap

Exercises focused on chest, core, legs

Round 1 – Merkins, LBCs, Low slow squats

Round 2 – Wide arm merkins, Dollies, Lunges

Round 3 – CDD, Rosalitas, Monkey Humpers

Round 4 – Diamond, Flutters, Mtn Climbers

Handoff to Ginsu

A few words on the intentionality of impact

Intention leads to Actions and that leads to Impact

Sprint work

50 yard sprint, 3 hand release burpees, 50 yard mosey x 3

LBC, Big Boy, Flutter x 20 in between

50 yard sprint, 10 merkins, 50 yard mosey x 3

V Ups, Captain Thor, Boats and Canoe x 20

50 yard sprint, 10 jump Squats, 50 yard mosey x 3

Freddy, hello dolly, protractor

Thunderstruck was played…uh oh!

Started with a V Up for every “thunder” based on request by Bones (what was he thinking) we switched to a burpee.

Mosey home

 

Moleskin

  • Thanks to Ginsu for the music. Definitely made the pain feel a little better
  • Thanks to Shakespeare for the opportunity
  • Thanks to Shady for coming over from Tega Cay
  • Ruck options upcoming –  See Royale
  • Training opportunities for Ragnar – See Royale
  • Read your newsletter

Pusher out!

 

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