Memory is fading so I am throwing this up there. Probably forgot a couple PAX and certainly don’t remember the exercises, but…
The playlist never forgets.
Aye!
After hearing the news yesterday of the passing via helicopter crash of one of the GOAT’s Kobe Bryant, YHC felt the need to honor him AND the lives of the other 8 individuals with a beatdown full of 8 and 24, his jersey #s.
Standard disclaimer preceded by the following message: Friends, let us not become fearful when confronted with life’s impending expiration. Rather, let us live with a fullness and an intentionality that recognizes the value of each breath given.
Mosey for warm-o-rama:
– At each crosswalk, burpee jump shot (just a regular burpee, but instead of both hands up on the jump, it’s one hand up to drain the 3). Accumulator burpees at each crosswalk (we did 5 crosswalks to total 21) then circle up for the last 3 = 24 burpee jump shots.
– 24 SSH in cadence
– 12 imperial walkers + 12 hillbilly walkers, in cadence = 24
– 24 single count merkins
– 24 toe touches on the curb
Mosey to distant parking lot and partner up with someone similar in speed. Not your partner, your opponent. 2 cones are 24 parking paces apart. Partners will start at opposite ends and complete 8’s (similar to 11’s, but #Kobe). One end is squats, the other end is merkins. After you complete the first exercise, bear crawl to the other end. Complete that exercise then mosey back. Repeat until you flapjack and complete the 8’s. That’s right, that’s 7x bear crawl 24 parking spaces. Doesn’t seem like much? #try it. To encourage PAX, YHC reminded them that I’d rather be doing this than losing family members. Our pain is nothing compared to their pain.
Mosey back to Best Buy wall for 24 seconds BTTW, 24 dips (ouch), and 8 jump shot burpees. Repeato. YHC then reminds PAX of a famous quote: we’re not guaranteed tomorrow. While true, we’re also not guaranteed the rest of today. So what are we going to do about that? Hop into plank to go around the circle and mention something they’re grateful for and/or something they’re going to do different TODAY to make an impact. Unfortunately, 38 felt the need to grace us with his inner smells. Fairly certain he ate something that was not real food the night before… I digress.
Lack of creativity? Potentially. Simple yet effective? Undoubtedly. That could be how I describe several stages of my life.
Yesterday at the JOC, we did round 1 of the Deck of Cards. Whenever you have a round 1, you have to have a round 2. Taking yesterday’s learnings on clock management, I modified the warm-up, flapped the gums a little less and up’d the tempo. That would ensure we get through the deck this time.
We had a total of 20 at Laces, with 2 of those being Road Runners. The other 17 joined me as we circled up.
River Rat got to hear this twice but I shared what Billy Bob said on the Roundtable podcast recently about modifications. You can always modify as needed BUT do not use that as an excuse to not push yourself. It’s appropriate in so many areas of life and it was appropriate for the PAX & I this morning.
So, we jogged over to the start line for our abbreviated warm up consisting of (2) 50yd runs at 50% pace and 75% pace. We followed that up with windmills in cadence and butt kickers in place, also in cadence. And that was it for our warm up.
For the 1st-timers, the deck goes like this, your rep count is the number on the card, 2-10 are obvious, Jacks=11, Queens=12, Kings=13, Aces=14. Suits represent the following exercises:
Hearts: 8ct Burpee (It’s a burpee with a plank jack & the push up)
Diamonds: 4ct Mountain Climbers
Clubs: Jump Squats
Spades: Diamond Merkins
Jokers: (25) 4ct Flutters
In total, we did:
(104) 8ct Burpees
(104) 4ct Mountain Climbers
(104) Jump Squats
(104) Diamond Merkins
We had 3 Jokers in the deck so that is (75) Flutters, of the 4ct variety
We finished the deck at 0551 so we had 9mins left on the clock which was filled with:
(30) Flutters
(12) Hand-Release Merkins
(15) American Hammers
4 more 50yd runs at 50%, 75%, 100%, 75%
Moseyed back to COT for:
Heels to Heavens
Freddy Mercury
COT today was pretty powerful for me. We had men that brought some real stuff today that they are walking through life with. As we say, you are not meant to carry this on your own; that would crumble any man. You have been called and designed to lead but the best leaders have a group they work with. In F3, we call that group a Shield Lock.
Remember, sometimes you need to modify the game plan. However, DO NOT use that modification as an excuse to not give it your all.
It’s been my honor.
Maximus
disclaimer
dynamic warmup into static warmup.
Mosey to pull up bar (a longer ways away than Tesh made it sound)
pull ups 5-4-3-2-1 with 10 bagboy sit-ups in-between.
pull out the cards
spade= squat
club= merkin
heart= LBC
diamond= Burpee A=14, K=13, Q=12, J= 11 and etc.
After everyone got to pick a card we all did another set of 5 pull ups
Mosey to band lot.
Lunge 15 yards sprint 85
bear crawl 15 yards sprint 85
pick another card for the PAX at the end the Q picked all aces that had not been pulled.
jail break to COT.
announcements- Calve Boss 5K, 10K on Christmas eve. Look for pre-blast from Stang on giving gift cards for the teenagers at Levine Children’s hospital for Christmas.
Prayers- went around the circle. praise or prayer
7 boot campers and 3 runners posted at Laces In/Out this morning. The cool temperature was perfect for a hideous beat down. We did hill repeats because today’s message was focused on overcoming inertia.
The Thang:
COP: SSH (30x), IW (20x), WM (15x), Sumo Squats (15x), MC (20x), and LBCs (15x)
Mosey to the hill near the stadium to add inertia and do the following exercises.
Moleskin:
Why do we sometimes struggle to answer God’s calling and purpose for our lives? Does our own inertia stop us from making a breakthrough?
The bible shows us that Paul initially hesitated when he was called to God’s mission field. In the Acts of the Apostles 22, Jesus needed to encourage Paul to overcome his inertia. He kept telling Paul “Go,” “Get up,” “What are you waiting for?”
Paul eventually pushed through his inertia and fulfilled his mission. Paul’s story is a great illustration of how it’s sometimes tough to start your mission but you must finish strong.
Peace,
Deacon
15 PAX checked the weather report this morning and found that the pending rain storm was fiction.
The Thang
Mosey around the HT lot to the back side of the auto supply store for COP.
Mosey up to lot beside Walgreens for “The Rollercoaster”. Simple routine for the PAX:
Then we repeat… basically so it looks something like this:
90 # # # # 60 # # # # # # # # 30 # # # # #
| Exercise | Duration |
|---|---|
| BTTW | 00:00:30 |
| Flutter | 00:01:00 |
| LBC | 00:01:30 |
| Squats | 00:01:00 |
| Burpees | 00:00:30 |
| American Hammer | 00:01:00 |
| SSH | 00:01:30 |
| Merkins | 00:01:00 |
| Bombjacks | 00:00:30 |
| Peter Parker | 00:01:00 |
| MNC | 00:01:30 |
| Parker Peter | 00:01:00 |
| Mountain Climber | 00:00:30 |
Mosey back to COT for around 2 minutes of Mary.
NMM
The goal of today’s workout was to have all the PAX pushing together. Often when we get into “routines”, we have some pax finish and others who do not. Today’s goal was to keep it all together, so instead of reps, we essentially did AMRAP for time.
Announcements:
Prayers up for Marriages, Kids, and Sickness and Suffering.
Honor To Serve.
YHC had a busy weekend and no time for winkie writing. So, just show up and inflict random pain! Noticed an f3 shirt-wearing HIM but unrecognized. Eighty Eight is the name, from California. Said PAX lived in Lake Wylie/FM area for a while and moved to CA and mustard seed’ed an AO! Leadership, AYE!
Quick yet proper disclaimer was given, and a mosey began. Wait, is that Duck Dynasty pulling in? Guess we’ll make a quick lap. Duck joins, and wait, is that Olaf pulling in? Might as well grab him too! Off we go for a decent run to an unnamed parking lot. COP had windmills, mountain climbers, produce pickers, werkins, imperial walkers, and a slow lbc with hands & feet touching the ground after each rep. Mosey to the wall between target and home depot.
Split up into two teams. Wall sit while PAX one at a time ran to the other wall, jumped and slapped the wall as high as they could, dropped for 5 merkins, and ran back. YHC’s team was in an early slump but somehow caught back up FTW. Moseyed to target where we lined up the winners. Each winner chose a partner from the losing team for 2 sets of vacuum cleaners. If you don’t know what they are, you’re lucky. #exicon. Then, kept partner and grouped up about 40 yards apart facing each other. Method of transportation changed, but we met our partner in the middle and knocked out some exercises. Don’t remember exactly what they were but it was cool. Crab walks, bear crawls, crawl bears, burpee broad jumps. Yay.
Next mosey back to the walls for some wall work. Incline on the wall for 10x shoulder taps, followed by feet on the wall for 10x shoulder taps. Wall sit for an apache 10-count for our CA friend eighty eight. BTTW position for 10x double count peter parkers. #crowdpleaser
Mosey to random parking lot for some Captain Thor (thanks Tinsel). Mosey to mattress firm for Jack Webbs. Mosey to Best Buy parking lot for the finale which was 4 lines, bear crawl one at a time to the other end and sprint back for a relay race. Waiting PAX are to do SSH or squats or something to make them better. A little competition never hurt, right?
COT, read newsletter (duh), nessie, prayers for travel, kids, marriages, praise for eighty eight accelerating on vacation (it was like 1-2 am his time). 16 HIM got better on a Monday!
9 PAX showed up this morning to push their limits and start their week off right. After the disclaimer and verifying that no injuries would prevent “full” participation we started with a Mosey.
Mosey took us around Home Depot to the far corner of the Target Store.
Warm Up
Using the Red Balls of Target we worked our way down warming up our muscles.
Mosey to Tuesday Morning’s parking lot.
PAX lined up across parking lot.
Using next two parking rows ran “suicides”. (80% effort)
Mosey to Fountain
Using bench completed following exercises
10 Flying Squirrels
Mosey to grass outside Mattress Firm
Jack Webb’s……to 11.
Mosey to COT for 5 minutes of Mary.
Prayers included injured PAX and those struggling to be consistent with posting. Encouraged to reach out to guys and encourage them to post.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead…..
Bones
This is simply one PAX’s IronPax story.
Of course you can see who is posting this backblast, but that is really not relevant.
You can review the PAX in attendance and know which region and which AO this was held, but that is irrelevant, too.
IronPax was created by F3Greenwood for the Nation to step out of their comfort zone, to be tested and stressed physically. to organize a little competition, to see where you stand with your peers. Throwing in a little competition to the Nation is a good thing; competition (much like running times in races) is definitely a driving force to maintain, build upon and evaluate individual’s fitness levels.
But ultimately it is about 2 things:
1) You vs. You. How far, hard and/or fast can YOU push yourself? Where does YOUR fitness level stand? Do YOU need to post more to maintain YOUR desired fitness level? Are YOU taking advantage of the F1 opportunities in your region?
2) PAX supporting PAX. When you are out there doing a weekly IronPax challenge, you are out there WITH OTHER PAX DOING IT. You will not be left behind, and you will not leave others behind. Use your fellow PAX for inspiration. They are with you doing it.
After having done IronPax in the past, my goal this year was to simply finish each week’s workout. Week 2’s “Meatloaf Massacre” challenge was a super hard arm workout challenge. For this runner’s skinny arms, adding in I have not been posting as much as I should recently, I knew I was going to have a tough time.
Cinder blocks were brought by a PAX. 12 men had taken the challenge on this day.
By round 2, I knew I was in trouble. This was going to be a struggle. I was ready to quit then knowing I was not going to finish. I kept going simply by the fact that other PAX kept going. Through round 3, into round 4, I had fallen way behind as my arms were nearly dead. I was watching the clock as we got closer and closer to 0600.
After 30 of 50 merkins in the last round (with one running lap to finish), I announced I was done. I didn’t want to hold anyone up. But my quitting was not an option for 2 of my fellow PAX (who these PAX were is also irrelevant, but WE know who they were). “How many more Bolt?” was asked. It did not matter to them. I was getting 20 more done. “Ok, 5 at a time. We’re doing it with you. Let’s get it done.” Back on my knees in front of my cinder block with 2 PAX to my right. 5 merkins, rest. “5 more Bolt.” So 5 more, rest. Then 5 more, rest. And the last 5. “Go get your last lap done, Bolt.” Before I knew it I was done.
I certainly was not expecting to be the six, but now I had an IronPax time to submit.
And that’s all that really mattered on this day.
I’m expecting I will need PAX support in the final 2 weeks of IronPax. And I know I will get it.