Doracide at the Abyss

Gave the disclaimer then started with a much needed warm up.

3 sets of Downward dog and honey mooner

10 SSH

10 Moroccan night clubs

10 Low slow squats

After the warm up, led the group in a partial mosey around school 

For the main event I let the Pax know my MO for Qs is Dora.  To mix things up I planned a nice long Doracide for this beautiful morning.  It consisted of:

Partnering up (group of 2 and 3) and while the first partner ran suicides of 250’ with 1 burpe, 500’ with 2 burpees and 750’ with 3 burpees; the other partner worked to knock out the :

100 lunges (each leg)

200 Carolina dry docks

300 Bobby Hurlys

400 hello dollies

After we finished this terribleness we didn’t have much time left so I had the pax get in a line in plank position. 1 by 1 we crab walked about 100’, then the next pax went and stayed in plank until the 6 was in.  Finally we moseyed back to COT.

Announcements: reminder of upcoming events (dam to damn bar, Lake Wylie convergence)

Closed with a prayer and we were out!

Thanks for the opportunity to lead!

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The tougher the practice, the more fun the game.

10 PAX gathered at the Abyss to close out 2020 the right way – by taking the DRP.  YHC got some help from the 2.2 the night before so the weinke was spelled out on the pavement for all to see.   Preparedness (and checking the weather forecast) helped set the tone for all to get their money’s worth.  Here’s what we did:

Mosey to the back of the school, a lap on the track at increasing speed up to AYG on the final straightaway and a circle up for COP.

COP – Various exercises in cadence, including low slow squats, people’s chairs, Moroccan night clubs while in the people’s chair, Imperial Walkers and Hillbilly Walkers and SSH’s – all in cadence.  A quick mosey to the basketball courts where more fun was on tap.

At the top of each key (there were 4 total), exercises were specified.  PAX completed the first exercise, ran to the second court, did the exercise there, ran back to the start and repeated this sequence until the 4th and final top of the key was reached:

Top of the Key #1 – 5 burpees (this was done 4 times total – 1 for the start and 1 for each of the 3 return trips)

Top of the Key #2 – 10 bobby hurleys

To of the Key #3 – 15 bombjacks

Top of the Key #4 – 20 boxcutters

Successful completion and the opening act was complete.  A quick 10 count was voiced and off we went for 12’s, 30’s and 20’s.

PAX were assigned 12’s in lane 1, 30’s in lane 2 and 20’s in lane 3’s.  Exercises were as follows – always adding up to the number between both sets

12’s

Set 1 = 10 burpees, run to other side of lot 2 squats, nur back to the start line

Set 2 – 8 burpees, run, 4 squats, nur

Set 3 – 6 burpees, run, 6 squats, nur

Set 4 – 4 burpees, run, 8 squats, nur

Set 5 – 2 burpees, run, 10 squats, nur

On to the 30’s in lane 2

Set 1 – 25 standing lunges, run, 5 merkins, nur back to start line

Set 2 – 20 lunges, run, 10 merkins, nur back to start line

Set 3 – 15 lunges, run, 15 merkins, nur back to start line

Set 4 – 10 lunges, run, 20 merkins, nur back to the start line

Set 5 – 5 lunges, run, 25 merkins, nur back to the start line

And finally…..we closed out 2020 in lane 3 with, of course, 20’s:

Set 1 – 16 bonnie blairs, run, 4 kraken burpees, nur back to start line

Set 2 – 12 hand release merkins, run, 8 kraken burpees, nur back to the start line

Set 3 – 8 Wide arm merkins, run, 12 burpees, nur back to the start line

Set 4 – 4 diamond merkins, run, 16 shoulder taps (double count), nur back to the start line

PAX finished strong and we moseyed to COT promptly at 0600.

NMM: The tougher the practice, the more fun the game.  Our lives will have difficult moments that we must navigate both gracefully and with patience.  As we lead our families and others, this phrase reminded YHC why the DRP and choosing difficult is ALWAYS the better thing.  Consider your ripple effect.  Consider the man who needs to see you out there but has not told you.  We don’t often realize our impact on others until after the fact.  By practicing hard, practicing difficult, pushing through adversity, we come through those moments to reach the realization that they sharpen us.  They improve us.  They strengthen us.  As we turn the page on a calendar year, it is my sincere hope for all of us that we embrace the lessons of 2020.  That we remember what we endured, and as importantly, remember how we finished: stronger than we started.  May the advantageous habits we form create the ripple effect needed in our world – as leaders, husbands, fathers, brothers and any other role we are called to serve.  Choose tougher.  And be better prepared for it.  The tougher the practice, the more fun the game.  Thanks to Grassy Knoll for the call to the bullpen.  To a stronger year ahead.

In Gratitude,

Cyclops

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Christmas Dora

Seven men + 1 late snowman (Olaf) showed up for the workout this morning.  We started off with a slow mosey to the back of Just Fresh.

Warm-ups

SSHs x10

Imperial Walkers x10

Windmills x 10

Gun Slingers x10

Next, we partnered up for a few rounds of stair climbs and exercises.  Partner 1 climbed the stairs across from Just Fresh while Partner 2 did the exercises (Carolina Dry Docks, Lunges).

We did two rounds of each exercise and modified the stair climb due to safety reasons.  Some of the steps were covered with water.

Next, we ran to Old Navy and back down the hill to the traffic circle.  The tree in the middle of the circle is decorated with Christmas lights so it was a fitting stop for our Dora exercise.  Partner 1 ran to the top of the parking lot near Old Navy while Partner 2 performed the exercises.  I asked the Pax to think about this week, the holiday, and what it means to each of them while they returned down the hill looking at the Christmas Tree.  Since we had some time, I adjusted the numbers a bit on the Dora.

150  Hand Release Merkins

250  Squats

350  LBCs

Next, we ran to the fountain for a set of step-ups and dips.  We had another time to bear crawl around the half traffic circle with some grumbling from the Pax.

Back to COT.

Great job Everyone!

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Bodywash cleanup at Footloose

Started off with a disclaimer, then Twister headed off on a solo run to avoid the pain that was about to descend.  Began with a Mosey around the parking lot stopping at corners to warm up with:

21 SSH 

10 Imperial Walkers

10 Burpees (OYO)

10 Peter Parkers

Moseyed over to the Fort Mill Church of God Activity Center Parking lot.

We started with a backwards partner Dora

300 merkins, 200 squats, 100 LBC

While one PAX was doing exercises the other had to Sprint from activity center across lot and nur run back

After that was done we Moseyed back up to the Church of God entrance (across the street from COT) to circle at church.

Took a minute to share some stuff going on in my home with fear that has popped up and how God has answered that in a neat way – it was a nice break to catch our breath as well!

The Wienke called for 21’s, but due to time I knew it needed to be cut short so we tried for 15’s with lunges then dips at the top of stairs (waited on the 6 to go to the next exercise).  We got about 3/4’s of the way through – my time estimation was still off.

At 6 we headed back to COT.  Announcements: read your newsletter

Prayers: generally families and those who are struggling with things during this time.

Thanks to Boss Hogg for the opportunity to lead this awesome group of HIM

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Laces IN 12.03.20

It was a cold morning, a bit warmer than yesterday but not much.  Ten men braved the cold weather most bundled up in their winter gear.  After the disclaimer, we made our way over to the band parking lot.

We began warm-ups with a different twist.  Cadence exercises (SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Plank Stretches) in the end zone, jog to the other end zone for the next exercise.  Next, we did a series of exercises at each 10 yard mark between the end zones.

Movement                                            Exercise

Lunge walk                                         Squat (10)

Bear Crawl                                          Merkin (5)

             Crab Walk                                           LBCs (10)

NUR (Run Backwards)                   Flutters (10)

Backwards Bear Crawl                  Carolina Dry Docks (5)

 

After we completed the main event, I had a little fun with the Pax asking a few of them to guess a number between 1 – 10.  A wrong guess, required burpees.  Similar to the Casino that Clark and Cousin Eddie went to in Vegas Vacation, there was no right answer.  We ended up with 20 burpees.

We headed back to COT, sprinting between the light poles in the main parking lot.

Great job..I appreciate the crowd on a cold morning.

 

 

 

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Know before you show…

Tuesday’s are a treat here in The Fort so why should Tuesday, November 24 be any different? In an effort to ensure the PAX got their money’s worth, I decided to post the Weinke on Slack ahead of time. This gave them the choice of whether or not they wanted to make a run at it. That said, 14 PAX joined me at the Colosseum to give it a run.

Warm-up run around the drop off lanes for both schools, taking us back to the basketball hoops.
50ea I/C: SSH, Merkins (harder to actually do this than write this), Flutters

Line it up for sprints down/back: 50%, 75%, AYG

Mosey to the 1/2 wall: 25 Muscle Ups, 25 Mike Tysons, 15 get over the wall

Mosey to the back bus road. Nur up the road to the top. Run down but stop at each light pole for 10 Hand-Release Merkins, 20 Jump Squats, 30 Freddy Mercury’s (count how you wish since I tend to change my mind)

More was on the Weinke so it’ll have to wait for another day.

Loads of prayer requests and praises to be grateful for. Safe travels and for those not traveling, see you at the Convergence, Thursday at the Ranch.

Maximus

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Spoon Feeding Instructions

Learning to give clear instructions and the power of commanders intent.

Gekko was supposed to have the Q this morning but life called and he had to answer. Prayers for him.
5:15 struck and SlowJams brought out an FNG so the disclaimer was disclaimed and an overview of F3 was made.
YHC called his own number and grabbed some cones and headed towards the Home Depot for the warm-up.
Luckily I have been fortunate to get to spend some time with Tesla during the few times I show up for a PreRun at Quagmire so I learned that he had not led his VQ workout yet. So I gave him a heads up that today was his chance to practice leading a few exercises in cadence during the workout so we could all give some feedback before his big day.

YHC started the warm-up off with some SSH and some windmills then passed it over to Tesla to lead some SSH and some merkins. He did pretty well after a few corrections and will be ringing that second bell in no time.
Passed the baton over to Console to lead a few other exercises since he is fairly fresh to the game and I have missed his first couple of Q’s because of scheduling conflicts. As expected he shined like the stud he is. Way to live up to the hype and not be frightened by the thought of being compared to Tesla.

On to the Thang.
Mosey over behind Home Depot on the way to Target and get in a few seconds of peoples chair while waiting on the 6 to join.

Continue over to the Kohls parking lot for the meat and potatoes portion.
This part was supposed to be a lesson in preparation and the chaos that is unavoidable when a leader fails to convey the message clearly.
So YHC started out with no clear instructions to the PAX rather giving them just a single instruction meer moments before they needed it. The PAX were stumbling over each other because my instructions were not delivered in a clear and confident manner and there seemed to be no method to the madness. We started at one end of the parking lot and were moseying to the first street light pole performing the exercise then coming back to the starting line to perform some burpees before going to another light pole but sometimes we would come back to the starting line and other times we would just move on to the next light pole and exercise. The objective was to show how failing to communicate a plan, even a bad plan, was ineffective in achieving the mission (the current mission that I always try to achieve when leading a beatdown is to push every member of the PAX outside of their physical comfort zone while keeping everyone together as well as possible and allowing each member to not feel like a burden to the group or that they should have stayed in the fartsack).
When there is poor leadership the entire group is at the mercy of the commands of the Q. The Q is forced to either abandon the guys at the 6 or handicap the guys at the 12 in order to keep everyone on the same page. Just as in life each one of us men is at different places along our journey and therefore has different needs.

Once we finally got down to the end of the parking lot I let the PAX know my intended message for the workout and apologized for the intentional poor leadership.
Gave the PAX new clear instructions on how to proceed on the way back across the parking lot and turned them loose to go at their own pace. We spent the remainder of the time working through the exercise and encouraging each other to push ourselves to get better.

Finally, it was time to jailbreak back to the COT for Count-A-Rama, Name-A-Rama, FNG naming (welcome GuyTai), announcements, and prayers& praises.

Thank you to the men that showed up and pushed yourselves to get better. Hopefully, I was able to challenge you to look at the people that you lead and reevaluate how well you are communicating instructions to your team. Are you spoon-feeding them one bite at a time or are you laying out the buffet and letting them get after it?

Remember that those you lead are faced with many decisions every day and you want them to have the knowledge and confidence that they can make the decision without having to go into a holding pattern while they run it up the chain of command and await a response.
Set clear expectations, communicate them often, and allow your people to react and overcome.

Garrett Purvis 36
Build your guardrails out of bricks!
Olaf

Stay frosty my friends

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Balls of Pain to start your Thanksgiving week off right

Because of technical difficulties by YHC I had no idea who had the Q this morning so as we waited for 5:15 to roll around I was frantically planning a backup beatdown just in case.
So 5:15 is when we start so without any more suspense I gave a steller disclaimer and led the 7 other gents towards Homedepot.
Warmup:
SSH
Merkins
Windmill
Peter Parkers
Parker Peters
Burpees (In Cadence)
At some point, Flounder joined the party so we had a solid 9 HIM ready to get better.

Mosey over to the front of Target for some Balls Of Pain
Suicide style. 10 reps each
Squats,
Merkins,
LBC,
Jump Lunges,
Regular Lunges,
Diamond Merkins,
Bomb Jacks,
Jump Squats,
Wide Arm Merkins,
Burpees,
Flutter Kicks,

Pick up the six then head over in front of Old Navy for some four corners.
Starting out with 25 SSH at each corner with NUR and sprint on the long sides with bearcrawls on the short sides.
Then move to the next round of 5 merkins, 10 merkins, 15 merkins, then 20 merkins at each corner.
Power Skip the short sides sprint the long sides.
Finally last round was a sprint round. 1 burpee, 2 burpees, 3 burpees, and 4 burpees with a sprint from each corner to the next.
Stopped to get in some dips at the fountain which must have been dirty because someone recently soaped it up and it was full of bubbles a plenty.
Ended with a jailbreak to the COT flag with staggard starts for those that wanted a head start so we could all be pushing until the finish.
A little bit of mary and count-A-rama, name-A-rama announcements and prayers and praises before our WarDaddy Flounder took us out with some touching words.
Great work by all. Tclaps to Tesla for crushing a preRun and still finishing out front for the main thing.

Garrett Purvis 36
Build your guardrails out of bricks!
Olaf

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Honoring Those Who Impact Us

This week, on Wednesday, we honor all veterans who have served and continue to serve our nation.  As part of that theme, YHC decided to get a little jump start by assigning a workout where PAX would honor a veteran of their choosing and, based on the name(s) of those veterans, complete as many rounds as possible of exercises associated with the letters of their name.

We gathered as 5 to start and, by the time we moseyed roughly 1/4 mile for some COP, Olaf and Flounder joined in.

COP – 11 windmills D/C I/C, 5 burpees, 11 Imperial Walkers D/C I/C, 5 burpees, 11 Hillbilly Walkers D/C I/C, 5 burpees, mosey further up the lot because YHC did not like the smell of trash, continuing with… 11 low slow squats D/C I/C, holding the last rep and remaining in the peoples chair for 9 Moroccan night clubs and 9 shoulder taps – both D/C and I/C.  Legs were warm and off we moseyed to the board of the alphabet.

The main event was designed to be between 2 & 5 rounds and all PAX worked hard, likely did more wall sits than they would in most workouts and it seemed a lot of leg work was done, but the beauty of these workouts was the simple fact that PAX were doing these to honor someone who impacted them – someone who made them better in their life.  May we be so fortunate to do the same for others as a matter of everyday practice.

YHC called time with 3 minutes to spare and we moseyed back to COT for geometry class with a few positions on the protractor before 0600 hit and time was called.

Announcements – Read your newsletter, XMas Party coming up and Thanksgiving convergence at the Ranch with a little football in Lake Wylie afterwards.  Travis Manion WOD on 11-20 at the Swamp.

Prayers – for families, for Olaf’s Mom as she relocates and his step dad struggling with an addiction.  For DaVinici and discernment on the path forward.

Praise for Jekyll’s Dad who served in Vietnam and is spending a weekend with his family coming up and for all veterans who have served us all selflessly and have sacrificed so that we might enjoy the freedoms and blessings of this nation.

NMM –  Q-ing is an honor.  Leading is a privilege and serving is our greatest form of impacting others.  YHC is grateful to the men of F3 who continue to serve as visible reminders each day of what impact and positive ripple effect can look like.  I am humbled to be in your company and thankful that all of you keep me on a better path with you than without.  My thanks to Olaf for the opportunity.

With Gratitude,

Cyclops

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APFT Oct 2020

NAME                    Merkins              BBSU               RUN                 AVE

Lutefisk                  81                          78                   75                      78
Uber                        99                          82                   74                     85
Slow Jamz            79                           54                  57                     63.33

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