Tag: Sherlock

VQ For Bowser At Milkshake!

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Today the sun came up again.  The birds  were back and singing.  The world continued to turn.  And then Milkshake was back as well.

Despite the unrest this week due to the Corona Virus, F3 was on and Milkshake was no exception.  I received a text from Shady yesterday asking if I wanted to reopen Milkshake, and I said absolutely.

What I didn’t know is that this morning would be a special one.  Overnight Uhaul told me he had been coaching his 2.0 Bowser to call cadence on his own.   So I planned to let Bowser lead his first exercise, in cadence.

First time I offered, no dice.  Second, the same. Third time was the charm and after some prodding all the Pax counted cadence with Bowser until he got his footing.

Well done Bowser!  You did something that many grown men refuse to do!  I’m expecting great things from you in the future!  Keep EHing your friends and keep posting buddy.

So besides the VQ of sorts, we roamed around the peach fields (on the sidewalk) and did a few exercises and some walking and some more exercises.  We didn’t touch each other (probably always wise) or benches or whatever, just in case but we still got a decent workout in at low impact/intensity.

Thanks for coming out for an impromptu Q as Milkshake was closed until the Mike Doty race was postponed.

Keep calm and carry on.

The Thrill is gone!

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A Copperhead Christmas (5lbs of Gummies too)

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My first time Q’ing and it was a lot of fun (except counting in cadence). A very sincere thanks to the Pax for helping me thru my maiden voyage and braving the weather on a chilly December morning. Happy Holidays to all.

The Snake Pit Parking Lot, Dec 4th 2019

Warm up in Cadence

20 x SSH, 10 x Chain Breakers, 10 x Cherry Pickers, 15 x Mountain Climbers, 10 x Moroccan Nightclubs

12 Days of Christmas (main workout)

Day 1x: Parking Lot Run (on Day 7 switch to Bear Crawls)

Day 2x: Squat Jumps + previous day

Day 3x: Big Boy Sit Ups + previous days

Day 4x: Merkin with hand release + previous days

Day 5x: U-Haul’s + previous days

Day 6x: Leg Flutters + previous days

Day 7x: Freddy Mercury’s (Bicycle Sit-up) + previous days

Day 8x: Bicep Curls + previous days

Day 9x: Skull Crushers or overhead triceps curls + previous days

Day 10x: Apollo Ohno (speed skaters) + previous days

Day 11x: Kettle Bell Swings + previous days

Day 12x: American Hammers + previous days

Burpee Challenge

1x Burpee in 1 minute,  2x Burpees in 1 minute, 3x Burpees in 1 minute, 4x Burpees in 1 minute, 5x Burpees in 1 minute, 6x Burpees in 1 minute, 7x Burpees in 1 minute, 8x Burpees in 1 Minute

Announcements, Prayers and Praises

Circle of Trust

 

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Snake Bite At Snake Pit

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Five years ago my mom passed away after six months of hell, dealing with kidney failure and all that entails.  She had mental health issues, that meant she had to take some strong medicines that basically eventually killed her kidneys.  Ironically my mom retired as a kidney dialysis nurse.

So with today’s anniversary coming up, I thought it was a good opportunity to remember mom, and talk about mental health.  I shared some facts, and the facts decided our numbers for each exercises after COP.

Mom was a huge fan of Elvis and Ricky Nelson. Facts about the two artists:

Elvis – Born 1935
Elvis – Death at age 42
Elvis – 33 #1 singles
Ricky Nelson – Born 1940
Ricky Nelson – Death at age 45
Ricky Nelson – 14 top 10 singles

35 – KB swings
42 – goblet squats
33 – curls
40 – skull (Helmet) crushers (face for radio)
45 – flutters
14 – Turkish getups (pax favorite)

A few facts about my Mom’s life:

Mom – Born 1945  Death – 2014
Mom – Married 49 years to my father
Mom – 69 years old at death

49 – American hammers
14 – cleans
49 – merkins
69 – flutters  

Then we went on to some facts about suicide and mental health among men:

20 US veterans commit suicide daily.
77% of deaths in the US by suicide are male.
10% of men experience depression and anxiety.
Only 36% of psychological referrals are for men.

20 – Lawnmowers
77 – Rosa Litas
10 – Burpees
36 – LBCs

Finally some lighter facts, about Christmas and New Year’s Eve:

14 days till Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas starts on Christmas, not before.
The Twelve Days of Christmas ends 1/5/2020.
12/31 – In the Catholic faith, NYE is the Feast of Pope Sylvester.

I had the pax pick an exercise for the above numbers.  There was much rejoicing.

And we were done!

Thanks 3D for rearranging some schedules to allow me to Q today. Thanks to Bird Cage for all the whining.  Love you brother! Just payback for the Coors Light board of pain!

Brothers your presence today is testimony of what F3 can do.  Five years ago I found out about Mom’s passing about 2:00 am and didn’t make it back to bed that night.  So I posted at Peak 51 in Area 51 (South Charlotte) and was glad I did.  I needed the pax to be around me and pray for me and our family.

Your continued prayers for my father who is 78 and plugging right along are appreciated.  He definitely misses Mom.

Remember: Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him.

DT out!

 

 

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Block Party Beat Down

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I was excited to Q Block Party after the co-Q at The Fort on Sat.  I arrived early and saw 7 runners take off at 5:00 sharp with Bird Cage leading the way down the back trail.  Cars began to file in and the cars kept coming.  I wasn’t expecting a large crowd and then I heard that CSPAN was still in town and was coming to Block Party so I knew there would be a big and rowdy crowd on hand.

Once we hit 5:15, no FNG’s were present so a short disclaimer and off we moseyed.  Since the park has several obstacles littering the grass from the festival, I was going outside of the park.  We moseyed to the first parking lot up front and circled up.

  • Imperial Walkers
  • SSH
  • Arm circles front and back
  • arm stretch across body
  • mountain climber
  • slow merkin – 3 count down, 3 count hold, 3 count up

Mosey over to the sidewalk and wall near Springs Global.  3 exercises , 3 sets, decreasing reps each set.

  • Dips – Reps –  25/20/15
  • Derkins –         20/15/10
  • Step-UPS –     30/20/10

Mosey to the big hill and meet at the top parking lot.  3 excercises, 15 reps each, then run to bottom of the hill and come back up the hill backwards.

  • Squats/Monkey Humpers/Calf Raises
  • Slow Merkin/MNN/O/H Clap
  • Flutter/ Big Boy Sit-up/Hello Dolly

Mosey back to the sidewalk and wall where we started and do one more set of  dips and derkins 20 & 15.  Mosey back to the park. Since we had a few minutes left I decided to take a lap around the park on the path for an added bonus.  We ended back at the parking lot for set of LBC’s.

This was a great morning and I enjoyed the chatter and hard work.  Through the Q Source, I have been motivated to look for ways to continue to accelerate  in all areas.  I shared with the group that I have been successful in accelerating in King, Queen and Jester control, but the last 4 weeks the QSource was focused on Faith.  I was convicted that I am not accelerating in study and recognize the need to have my shield locks there to hold me accountable and provide the push I need.  I asked everyone to think of where they need to accelerate and who are they going to have beside them to hold them accountable.

Thanks Esso for the opportunity to Q and lead the Pax.

Rebel

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Frying Pan Fun

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Sometime in the last couple of weeks, YHC’s youngest 2.0 wanted to watch a Disney movie that I never wanted to see.  I did my best to pick apart the plot holes and inconsistencies to keep myself entertained, and the thing that stuck out the most was the fact that the main character, some lady with absurdly long hair, could wield a cast iron frying pan as if were a hair brush or whiffle ball bat..  I walked into my kitchen and picked up my iron skillet and noticed that swinging it around would require someone to be JACKED…

The Setup

The night of the 23rd, a plyometric box, 3 bells (20, 25, and 30), as well as a cast iron skillet (with lid) were loaded into the back of YHC’s suv.  The M was very confused.  The morning of the workout, I arrived around 0505 and had to navigate through half a dozen runners who answered Polaroid’s call for a pre run.  It’s alway encouraging to see such bad-assery so early in the morning.  Today would be a good day to Q.

During setup PAX continued to arrive in droves. I plunked down the plyo box in a parking space and held onto the cards I made to deploy depending on group size. Thankfully, Polaroid threw his slam ball into the COT, so I grabbed it and threw it into the plyo box space so everyone would be able to have fun

Overall, 20 PAX appeared in the gloom at The Tomahawk.  A lot of faces were new to YHC, and so we quickly talked about the 5 core principals and disclaimed.

The warmup

Started with a quick mosey around the parking lot to warm up those whom had not already accumulated a couple miles, circling up on the east side (more of an ellipse).
2 sets of single-leg stretches (one leg bent, six close to the earth, other leg straight with toes up) Lots of mumble chatter already
Hands down into plank
10 werewolf merkins – The chatter continues
Back into plank

The workout

Mosey to pick up the bells and count off by 5’s.

Four stations were created including that of the plyo box.

PAX worked on their station exercise while the timer group grabbed the cast iron skillet and walked to the other end of the lot and back. The skillet was to be held with arm at a 90 degree angle, holding the handle with the skillet extended (in theory but not often in practice). At 15lbs it’s not that heavy, but holding just the handle makes for a sneaky bit o pain. The other PAX of the group would distribute the remaining bells and walk with the skillet holder, trading off as necessary. Optionally, the PAX could do lunges at the station.

Genuinely cannot recall the ORDER of the exercises, but below is what was available to the non plyo spots.
Snatch and squat
Plank Row
American Hammer
Goblet Squat
Upright Row
Man Maker
Plank Pass Through
Lawn Mower Pulls
Swings

One station was dedicated to the plyometric box (20x24x30) and the slam ball.

After each group visited each station the PAX were pulled aside for some group exercises.
Between sets 1-2
10x Imperial Walker
10x Merkin

Sets 2-3
10x Imperial Walker
10x Hillbilly Walker
10x Straight leg kicks (each leg)

One station short of a full third set and it was time to hit COT. Name-o-rama revealed the presence of an FNG, now named Tricycle (WELCOME!!!).

Polaroid got the former site Qs together and handed off the shovel flag to 3D.

Announcements were announced and the COT ended with a prayer. Great work by all the PAX. YHC is truly humbled and honored to have gotten to Q this day.

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Tomahawk 2019.05

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I’m posting this a little late because I have been lacking in the discipline department lately.  It’s my One Word because for some reason, I knew it was going to be a hard year to stay motivated…

This workout was a JackWeb-o-thon.

Warmup (nothing special)

Small dora to ramp up heart rate (100 merkins, 200 LBCs while partner farmer carries 2 KBs 40 yds and back)

Snatch and Tricep Ext x10 each
Jack Web – up to 7
Snatch and Tricep Ext x10 each

Squats and single leg deadlift x10 each
Jekyll Web – (squats and jump lunges)
Squats and single leg deadlift x10 each

Russian twist and dying cockroach (w KBs) x20 each
Tesh Web? – (leg lifts and heals to heaven)
Russian twist and dying cockroach (w KBs) x20 each

Some more exercises to finish up time.

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It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere

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5 HIMs showed up at the NaFo “bar” this morning, and by bar I mean the pull up bars.

We started off with a mosey around the parking lot, with some buttkickers and high knees mixed in for good measure.  At the top of the bus loop we circled up for some warm-ups and completed SSH, windmills, imperial walkers, cherry pickers, hillbilly walkers, and seal jacks.

From there, we continued the mosey down to the pull-up bars, behind the JROTC building.

The thang:

Pyramids consisting of 1 pull-up, 2 chin-ups, 3 merkins, 4 alt lunges, 5 squats, 4 alt lunges, 3 carolina dry docks, 2 chin-ups, 1 pull-up, followed by either jog to the bottom of the hill near Sugar Creek Elementary School or sprint to the stop sign in front of the JROTC building and back, on your 6 for Mary (led by the PAX – protractor, dying cockroach, front and side LBCs, hello dolly, plank jacks, v-ups) and then back to the bar.  Rinse and repeat until COT.  Completed a plank waterfall with 1 min left before COT.

We spoke of the importance of good form, challenging yourself (UvU), and encouraging one another other (ISI).

Count-o-Rama, Name-o-Rama, Announcments, Prayers/Praises,

Prayed for teachers and unspoken prayers.

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A Sunny Saturday Afternoon at CAH

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20 posted for a Saturday afternoon game day at the Children’s attention home.  The boys were already playing basketball before we got started, but they still had some energy to burn.  So, we did a slow mosey/walk to the field up the street from CAH and got to it.  Here is what we did:

The Thang:

Mini- COP

SSH x 20, merkin x 10,   windmill x 10, squat x 10, mountain climber x 10

We split the group up and played a friendly, but competitive game of kickball.  There were some good plays, some not-so-good plays, but we all had a lot of fun on a beautiful, late afternoon spring day.  I think the score was 8-7, but it wasn’t important who won the game.  The time we spent together, getting to know each other better and learning from each other, was what it was about.

Welcome FNG/Trek Star who is a friend of  Man of Steel (my son), and also, who we found out today, a neighbor of NASA’s.  He said that he enjoyed himself today and wants to come again.  I was very happy to hear that and hope that he can join us any time we come to CAH.

I told the boys about a news story I saw this week about a high school boy named Gerald Hodges who swam for his high school swim team in Texas.   It’s an amazing story about a young athlete, who could have easily played for just about any sport team at his school.  But instead, chose to join the school swim team.  Gerald could barely swim, but decided to join the swim team because he wanted to learn how to handle failure if it happened (it didn’t).   Being able to handle failures and learn from them, Gerald thought, would make him successful.  This to me, was an incredibly mature thing for an 18 year old to do, and was a powerful message for anyone.  The link to this story is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0tjVEncJyg

My thanks to NASA for the invitation to Q.  I have been absent from the CAH for too long and plan on getting there more regularly this year.

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Unrealistic Expectations at BEYOND

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We’ve all ages and abilities come to BEYOND since launching in January and while there have been some struggles along the way, I think the feeling is unanimous; we’re getting pushed physically and being challenged mentally, emotionally and spiritually. For those that are upcoming Q’s, the hardest part seems to be how to deliver a meaningful message and a good down inside of 45mins.

Well, it was now my time to pick the topic for the latest rendition. The launch was set for Varsity (NaFO) and the topic was one I’ve dealt with for years but didn’t know it was a problem until the last few weeks. You see, it wasn’t until some adversity and personal challenges that I realized my trends or perhaps more importantly, my tendencies. So what happens? I have these expectations of what I need to be and who I need to be which are of course, often times unrealistically high. When I fall short, which happens more often than not; I feel like I don’t measure up and reside on the line boarding failure. It’s a vicious cycle that leads to me being a less-than-desirable person to be around.

After the welcoming of a zealous FNG (Abscess) who was EH’d by Mr. FNG himself, Ginsu, I took a minute to walk through the disclaimer, what BEYOND is all about followed by the F3 CREDO: Leave no man behind and leave no man where we found him. This was done for me years ago and it is my promise to make every effort to pass it on. We then took off for a short mosey through the lot and circled up:

Plank Jacks x 10

Ski Abs x 10

Carolina Dry Docks x 10

Squat Calf Raises x 10

Forward Arm Circles x 10

Reverse Arm Circles x 10

Mak Tar Jahs x 10

This is where I let the PAX rest for a few minutes as I walked through my above challenges and what it turns into. It was also a good time to talk about how this life is not meant to be walked alone; queue the WHETSTONE relaunch coming up this Saturday 4/21. The feeling this leads to is what Scripture explains in Luke 22:31 where Jesus says, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.” These last few years have been a test, almost a sifting process that I have now begun to realize.

What we also realized was the neatly placed cones 50 yards apart in the parking lot. With all 20 of us lined up on one side, we sprinted to the other end and back at the following levels of effort:

50%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 25%

Mosey to the pull-up bars where 1/2 the PAX did 20 pull-ups (1 for each man that posted) while the other 1/2 did ankle grabs with their legs straight up against the wall. Each man cycled through 2 sets of each exercise and we made our way out to the adjacent roadway for:

4×4’s: Drop to a plank, 4 merkins, 4 full mountain climbers, jump up = 1 set. We did 10 sets.

With PAX on opposite sides of the road, we dropped to a plank with our hands in the road and our feet on the curb. We plank-walked down the hill about 25 yards to the cone then bear crawled back to the start. We switched sides and did it again, this time about 20yds down and bear crawled up.

It was now time for the ATM’s:

(10) 4ct Alternating shoulder taps

(10) Tempo Merkins: 3ct down and 1ct up

(10) Fast Merkins

We did 3 sets of this.

We then moseyed back to the cones for another sprint series that looked like this:

100%, 100%, 50%, 100%, 25%.

COT for a reminder of Whetstone and our FNG naming.

Loved every minute of it and thanks for the platform to share a piece of my story. I hope you learned a little tidbit and that I fulfilled my promise to not leave you where we found you.

Until Next Time,

Maximus

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We played with blocks at Varsity. You know, like men do…

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I was super proud of myself for figuring out how to make my bluetooth speaker work. Then I didn’t realize the stupid timer app won’t let you stream music while it’s on. The music has to be downloaded to your phone. So, sadly, Pax had to endure my a capella renditions of 80’s hits while we worked out. Next time, Karaoke for sure…
It’s a HIIT workout. So I decided we would do a 60-40-20 workout. 60 seconds of work (AMRAP), 10 second rest, 40 seconds of work, 10 second rest… and so on. The same exercise is performed for each set of 60-40-20. In between sets, we ran down the hill to the Elementary School and back. Which is to say, we all watched Straight Up run way ahead of us while we thought, “how do we get faster…? Oh yeah, chase that guy… but his name is Straight Up… does that mean there is no Chaser? Hey, where IS Chaser? I haven’t seen him in a while… I wonder… oh… I’m at the top of the hill, I better get to work…”

Round 1: Curls
Round 2: Overhead Press
Round 3: Squats
Round 4: Flutter with Press
Round 5: Swings
Round 6: Lunges
Round 7: Standing Straight Out Chest Press
After the last set/round, we ran to the bottom of the hill and AYGed it to the top.

I feel like there was another round in there, but it was dark, so I couldn’t see…

Helmet, out.

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