The Bunky

In the gloom this morning, YHC Q’ed the “Bunky” WOD. In honor of my recently passed paternal grandfather, William “Bunky” Williams, IV. He led a good life with three children, five grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. He lived to be 94 years. Below is the WOD that YHC wrote up to show him respect. He was an avid water sportsman, a fisherman, a merchant marine, and a baseball fanatic. Among other things, he taught YHC how to throw a knuckleball, took myself and my cousins crabbing on his pontoon boat, and taught me many things about the water.

Beyond what he did and didn’t do, and for aside from the obvious reason he is passing, YHC is feeling sad. I miss him, and will miss him for a long time. I also know that a window of mine into the past has closed. Grandparents span at least six generations. They are literally a time machine of knowledge of 100 + years. His grandfather, and potential great grandfather were alive when he was a child. My great, great, great grandfather and I could be connected via his memories. Take advantage if you still have those family members in your life. Their memories die with them if not shared with us.

During the WOD YHC would take short breaks and tell stories of his life – good and not so good. 

 

WEINKE

Lead off with 94 4-count Ruck SSH IC. 

Born 06/27/1927 – Died 02/06/2021

Rep Count of 6-27-19-27

Sandbag OH Press

Sandbag Squats

Sandbag Good Mornings

Crab Walk w/Ruck out and back

 

Midway Point

94 Single Count Flutter Kicks

3 children, 5 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren

3 sandbag get ups

5 Manmakers w/SB

6 sandbag over the shoulder

 

Second Half

Rep Count of 2-6-20-22

Sandbag Bent Over Row

Sandbag Clean and Toss

Sandbag Side Bends

Ruck Duck Walk out and ruck back

We made it to 20, and then hit 0600.

 

NMM

I mentioned my grandfathers’ struggle with alcohol and other things throughout the weinke. Divac mentioned in COT something very profound and true. Too often we spend our time thinking about what our fathers owe us, or what they did wrong. We are not perfect, and we know it. Neither were they. They have a story just like us and have reasons for why they did what they did – right or wrong. They don’t owe us anything – let’s flip the script here. We owe our fathers and grandfathers way more for giving us life, providing for us, loving us (to whatever degree), and creating opportunity. As long as we take what was given us and take it one step further for our children – that’s forward progress.

 

Solid showing today by some solid men. All of which I am glad to have in my corner.

 

Punch List out.

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Shoulders and Sandbags at Currahee

It’s February 1st, it’s cold(ish), GTE season is about to kick off and we’re at Currahee. I asked the PAX to bring a few sandbags so we had kettle bells and bags ranging from 20lbs – 80lbs which was perfect to welcome Badlands to his virgin ruck workout.

Disclaimer & ground your rucks

Jog around the parking lot
Grab your rucks and shuffle around the parking lot
Grab all the coupons and ruck around the parking lot

Good morning. I love you. Now do 20 Man Makers.

To the soccer fields:
Bear crawl (rucks only) 1/2 way across the field (shorter distance) then bear crawl ruck drag the remaining distance.
Go to one end of the field and set your eyes on the other end. Now we’re looking at the field via the long way.
Shuffle 1/2 way, 10 tricep extensions, shuffle the rest, 10 tricep extensions
NUR 1/2 way, 20 upright rows, NUR the rest, 20 upright rows
I promise I love you. Bear crawl 1/2 way (again, we’re talking about the long way), 10 merkins, bear crawl ruck drag the rest, 10 slick merkins.

Back to the coupons in the lot .
With rucks and all coupons, we’d ruck the big drop off loop with stops at each of the 4 corners for 3 exercises at each:
10 Ruck Thrusters
15 Overhead Press
20 Ruck Curls (this turned out to be the worst especially for Mainframe and his 45lb’er)

Rucks only and make our way to the flags
On your back, legs straight up and rucks overhead, LBC’s in cadence
Flutters in cadence
Rucks on your feet then modified LBC’s in cadence

On your feet.
PAX hold their ruck with arms bent at 90 degrees. Each PAX take their turn at performing 5 good ruck curls while the rest hold the 90.

Overhead ruck carry back to COT.

Hey Divac…GO PACK (Wolfpack, that is)
Maximus

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Changing of the Guard

28 PAX joined in the gloom for a brisk morning at Block Party. Though the temps were in the high-40s, the wind cut and made it feel much colder. Most were ready to get started and warmed up.

Bobber led off with the disclaimer, then we moseyed to the bank parking lot and circled up for 25 SSH IC. Moseyed to the Hobo’s parking lot for:
15 IW IC
10 Windmills IC
10 Cherry Pickers IC
10 Merkins IC
10 LSS IC
Held low squat for 10 MNC IC

Bobber, fighting back tears, then let go of his beloved BlockParty and passed the shovel flag to YHC. It was quiet as a mouse, absolutely no chatter was mumbled. So we did 5 burpees OYO to get back into it. 

The Thang
I explained to the PAX that I started F3 on a Monday at STL, where Pusher (in attendance) led a great workout, and I was encouraged enough to return the next day. The next day happened to be BlockParty, with CakeBoss on Q. It was a brutal morning, full of pain, so I thought we would do it again. 

3 lanes of bear crawls
5 burpees to exit the low side of the parking lot onto Main Street
Run up Main Street, back to the parking lot entrance on Clebourne Street.
5 burpees to enter the parking lot.
Plank for the 6.
This circuit continued, but the lanes changed to:
3 lanes Burpee Broad Jumps (a whole lot of mumblechatter and requests for a suggestion box)
3 lanes Duck Walk
3 lanes Toy Soldiers

Jogged back to Cot for 3 minutes of Mary.

Name-O-Rama, Announcements, Prayers & Praises. 

Thanks to Bobber for his leadership while Site Q, and providing the opportunity for YHC to continue the tradition at BlockParty. 

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Currahee Shoulder Smoke

Three rolled in to the parking lot ready and were ready by 0458 for the 0500 start.  At 0459:52 we saw a grey Subaru coming in on two wheels.  MainFrame  emerged, took the disclaimer as it was yelled to him from across the parking lot and it was on with a total of FOUR in attendance.

Warm-up:

  • SSH x30 in cadence
  • Merkin x10 in cadence

Still not warm it was time to warm up.  The PAX moved down to the elementary school drop off line.  Partner up, time to warm up with some Catch Me If You Can.  One partner runs with two rucks (45lbs in the ruck) while the other partner completes five burpees and then chases down their partner.  We did this around the big loop in front of the school.

Rucked around the drop off line, back to the cars, collected the sandbags and headed to the field.  We have two 60lb bags and two 40lb bags.

From the long end of the field and with your ruck on, throw the sand bag as far as you can, move to the bag, complete an 8ct body builder, pick it up, throw it again, and continue until you reach the other side of the field.

After completing a length of the field, we rucked to the end and back.  Then if you had 60lb bag last time, switch for a 40lb and vice versa.  Complete the throws and 8ct body builders again.

Ruck to the end of the field and back again.  Collect the sandbag, move to the gate and face the short length of the field.

Two lines of cones in the distance. for the Dora.

Dora:

  1. 100 Merkins
  2. 200 Curls
  3. 300 pull thrus (only completed one movement per PAX due to time)

Movement:

  1. Bear crawl while dragging the 60lb sandbag to the first cone line.  Pick up the bag, run to the second cone, turn around and head back to your partner.
  2. Sandbag throw with the 40lb bag to the the end then run back to your partner
  3. Overhead Carry

It was a smoker and another example of things we do when surrounded by strong men that we likely would not complete if we were on our own.

Prayers:

  • Grassy Knoll’s brother as he goes into surgery
  • Divac and his wife as they continue to seek ways to help their son

Thank you Divac for the opportunity to lead.  Currahee is one of my favorite AOs!!!!

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B is for Bushwood

Big crowd over at CRHS this morning, but most stayed behind for UHaul and the Avett Brothers.  This is what the bootcampers did for Bushwood.  Simple but effective.

The Thang

Bone the Fish across the parking lot.  Some Karaoke and Side Shuffles.

Butt Kickers up to the other parking lot past the round about

Bearpees to 10.  That’s a 1:4 ratio of Burpees and Bear Crawls.  So we ended with 10 Burpees and 40 Bear Crawls, which is 55 Burpees and 220 Bear Crawl steps.

Blackjack across the lot with a 20:1 ratio of Merkins to LBCs till we got to 1:20 (210 of each).  Mosey around to the bottom of the hill that leads back to COT.

Bernie Sanders up the hill to the Shovel Flag.

NMM

Highlights today:

  1. When planning the workout, I started scrolling through the Exicon and realized there are a ton of B exercises.  Thus the outcome.
  2. Italian Job complained about being winded on Bone the Fish.  Then crushed the rest of the Workout.
  3. 10 Bearpees is alot.  Especially when that is your “warm up”.
  4. I thought Blackjack would take less time…. It didn’t and it sucked.  IJ commented that I knew it would take that long and suck in my heart of hearts.  There may be a #TruthNugget there.
  5. I planned for a Burpee mile before Bernie Sanders, but we ran out of time.  You are welcome.

Read your Newsletter.

Honor to Serve.

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You good with a shoulder workout…good

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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Taste of Fort Mill

This past weekend Fort Mill hosted an annual event called The Taste of Fort Mill.  It is an awesome event where restaurants from all over Fort Mill bring tasting samples of some of their most popular dishes.  In honor of that event, we held the Taste of Fort Mill prepared the way F3 men prefer it.

Quick warm up with SSH, Merkins, Peter Parkers and Parker Peters.  Then a short Mosey to Armor Artis where my truck was parked and loaded down with the “hell pavers.”

7 stations for 7 places of greatness at or near Main St, Fort Mill:

  1. Armor Artis Brewery:  Curls “21’s” (7 halfway down, 7 all the way down and half way up, 7 full)
  2. The Improper Pig:  Overhead Press X21
  3. Hobos:  Bentover Row X21 (Run up Main Street to Pucker Butt.)
  4. Pucker Butt:  “Heartburn” Hand Release Merkins (5 wide, 5 regular, 5 diamond)  (Run down Main Street to Local Dish)
  5. Local Dish:  Jump Squats X10 & 15 Big Boy Situps  (Run to Z Bakery)
  6. Z Bakery: Burpees X10  (Run back towards Main St and through the back parking lot to the hill next to FM Animal Hospital)
  7. Towne Tavern:  Bear Crawl down the hill and Bear Crawl back up

Everyone pushed themselves with Maximus and Band Camp were WAY out front!

Prayers:

  • Prayers for the Page family
  • Prayers for a speedy recovery for Chris Weidman

Thank you very much Bobber for the opportunity to Q a great AO.  It was a lot of fun!

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Finding Cindy

The cars really poured in this morning….

25 PAX Present

Changed my plans a bit….Modify as necessary, right?

Warm-up
SSH in cadence….had to part the waters for River Rat’s arrival
Burpees in cadence. I think we hit 18
Imperial Walkers in cadence 15ish

Brisk Mosey to the Church of God

COP
SSH
Hillbilly Walkers
Some Yoga
Mountain Climbers
Slow Count Merkins (always a crowd pleaser)
A few burpees in cadence

Mosey through all the brick stairs at the Church of God
Plank it up in First Baptist Parking Lot
Some More Yoga (squats)

Thang:
Bear Crawl with additive Merkins at each parking line
1-2-3-4-5-6 (total 21)
distance – a long way to bear crawl
Al Gore
Cossack Squats

Brisk Mosey up to the Rug factory

COP:
More Yoga? Yep
33 Monkey Humpers in cadence (nobody liked this)
Some burpees in cadence

Brisk Mosey to Sisk Memorial Parking Lot to find Cinder Blocks
(There’s a reason it’s called Block Party)
Thang:- divided into groups of 3
– Three Stations: Manmakers, plank, run to bottom of Massey hill and back
Had time for everyone to do one rotation (probably 15-20ish manmakers)

7 Additional Burpees in cadence
11 Bomb Jacks

Mosey with the blocks back to COT

NMM:

Quote for the day from Thoreau’s Journal August 5 1891 ““The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

A word on today’s naming: the Q takes responsibility for the outcome. That was me today. On naming an FNG, I went with “Dude Wipes” as a suggestion thrown out. Not the worst name, but was not right for this FNG.

It didn’t feel right. I did a poor job reading his body language. I should have vetoed it. Not my best moment as Q. We’ll rename this FNG.

When we’re on Q, we are charged to take responsibility. In this moment, I accepted responsibility for the outcome of the naming. In the future, I’ll take responsibility fearlessly when convicted. Even (especially?) when that conviction appears as a still small voice. If that means going against the flow of the PAX, so be it. After all, that’s a leader’s job: influencing movement towards advantage. Sometimes we gotta row upstream. I should have rowed harder today, and that’s on nobody but me.

Besides, none of the PAX wanted to do that many burpees or monkey humpers anyway. So if I go with a name they’re not happy with, it’s just more of the same from the 1st F side of the morning.

Welcome – unnamed FNG, It’ll be good to post with you again soon.
Welcome – Barrel Age, I think you brought out a lot of PAX to support you today!

Prayers for the kids, teachers, and parents of the FMSD as they plan for a return to school 5 days a week at all levels.


Band Camp Dismissed

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Cupid’s Cup 5k at Minnow Pond

The date on Thursday marked 6 years since YHC found himself in a non-siren, precautionary ambulance ride to Atrium Pineville with some annoying chest pain. Turns out my LAD needed 3 stents and I needed some cardiac rehab. Ever since then, about this time every year, I support that program by running in The Cupid’s Cup 5K put on by Atrium Health. The donations and support from F3 have always been overwhelming.

Well, 2020-2021 being what it is, the event was virtual this year. Not only that, but the cardiac rehab program added another Pax to its list of graduates. Bonsai, as you know, had a hiccup in his LAD this past summer. While both of us know that program is awesome, the F3 brotherhood plays an even more important role.

And it was on full display Thursday 2/11/2021. 25 of you came out to support us. You ran hard with us. You prayed with us and you supported the cause with you donations. It was truly humbling to be surrounded by so many Pax giving so much of themselves.

Congrats to Scalp for 1st overall and Long Duck for 1st of the respectables.

And please remember, if you’re experiencing any sort of chest discomfort, arm pain or unexplained nausea/vomiting, don’t brush it off. Get to the doctor/ER/Urgent Care. Time is precious when it comes to treatment and care. The time afterwards when you’re surrounded by the love and support of F3 is priceless.

Aye!

Boeheim

P.S. – Still time to donate/run virtually through Sunday 2/14

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Pain posting at BAOPS

Alcatraz eventually became a prison on an island in the cold waters off the Northern California coast. It was known to be difficult to escape for the inmates that called Alcatraz home. The waters surrounding it were cold and rough, much like its residents.

When Trucker took over Alcatraz, he had a vision for our own little AO on the island, well, it’s really a peninsula but just go with me here. He wanted those that posted at Alcatraz to experience their hardest (or close to their hardest) workout of the week. The idea of coasting into the weekend wasn’t exactly his cup of tea. That said, for those of us that Q Alcatraz now, we have the Trucker-created acronym, BAOPS, in our minds when planning our pain. BAOPS stands for the Best AO for Pain on Saturday. You get the idea now?

For Ruby Slippers and I on this brisk morning, we knew we had to answer the call. The planning began earlier in the week when Ruby said he was incorporating cinder blocks. That’s when I knew this would be top-shelf. Ya see, when a man named after fancy footwear says he’s bringing pain like that, it’s time for the rest of us to bring our big-boy shoes. He shared his plan with me on Friday night and I had to chuckle; it was all I could do to keep from splashing at the thought.

To kick off this adventure, Fish Sticks, Trucker, Geronimo and I decided we needed to get to the AO early for a few rounds of pull-ups which has become quite the nice addition. At 0630, we had 17 of us gathered in the parking lot to embark on this journey.  While not swimming cold, choppy waters, we did see all the cinder blocks lined up and knew we were in for something special.

Ruby took control, disclaimed us and warmed us up with Wind Mills, Tappy Taps, Burpees, SSH, Merkins, Burpees and a few other things. Who does burpees in a warm up? We then all grabbed a cinder block, made our way to the field and counted off in 4’s for the 4-corner beat down. He had set up 4 stations in the corners about 15yds apart from each other.
Station 1: 10 Man Makers, 20 Cinder Block Swings, 30 Overhead Presses
Walk to station 2 with the cinder block in the rifle carry position, overhead.
Station 2: 10 Man Makers, 20 Cinder Block Swings, 30 Bent Over Rows.
Lunge walk to station 3 while holding the cinder block.
Station 3: 10 Man Makers, 20 Cinder Block Swings, 30 Derkins w/ your feet up on the block.
Walk to station 4 with the cinder block in the rifle carry position, overhead.
Station 4: 10 Man Makers, 20 Cinder Block Swings, 30 Curls
Lunge walk back to station 1 while holding the cinder block.

We continued on this circuit until our never-ending 30mins had expired. It felt like 30 days and holy smokes, the collective groan from the PAX almost woke the neighbors. We were all on the struggle bus after this and guess what, we were only 1/2 way through this wonderful nonsense.

Gee, THANKS TRUCKER!!! Now we’ll hand off to Maximus for what was intended to be the tour de hills of our lovely AO. Once I told the PAX about the 3 hills we were to be visiting, you could hear it again. That collective groan, yeah, it voiced itself again. Anywho….

Mosey to Hill 1 at the front of the neighborhood by the Fire Station:
Run down without busting your tail for 5 burpees and 10 Flutters I/C
Run up the hill for 2 squat burpees and 10 Flutters I/C
Complete this 4 times

Mosey to the next hill, Hill 2 down by the circle:
Run down the hill for (5) 8ct burpees and 10 Freddy Mercury’s
Run up the hill for (2) 8ct burpees and 10 Freddy Mercury’s
Complete this 3 times

C’MON MAN!!!! REALLY???? Did our time really expire before we can complete Hill 3? Yes, yes indeed. Fortunately, we got back to the AO in time do complete a few rounds of Mary.

Aaaannnndddd, there you have it. BAOPS lives on!!!

Announcements: FM Study Hall volunteers needed. D2DB reminder. Do yourself and your concentrica a favor by engaging in everything F3 has to offer. Spiderman cemented this by a call to action for the PAX to GET IN A SHIELDLOCK. There were more announcements but I apologize, my stenographer failed to show.

Prayers/Praises: Some serious things on the hearts of our PAX and if you want to know what they are, you should’ve posted. Praise for our boy, Skipper, now 1wk into this new chapter of his life with us in F3. Welcome.

Until we SYITG,
Ruby Slippers & Maximus

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