Two Minute Drill

Six runners met at Earthfare for some early morning speedwork at Brayden.  Here is what they did:

The Thang:

After watches were set, the pax were disclaimed as we did a warm-up mosey along Len Patterson drive into the Brayden neighborhood.   We took a left at Emory Lane, off of Brayden Parkway,  and paused at the intersection of Emory and Helton Lane.    The plan for this morning was  to run the loop formed by these two roads and alternate between 5K pace and a recovery jog,  every 2 minutes.

The Pax completed 7 or 8 intervals and then ran a cool-down jog back to COT.  As this AO is listed as running with pain stations, we finished with 30 merkins, 30 Freddie Mercury’s, and 3 Superman holds (20 sec ea).

COT

NMM

This is one of my ‘go-to’ running workouts that I’ve done for years to break up the monotony of running at the same pace, day after day.  It’s similar to a track workout, but to me is more fun on the road because of the addition of hills, and things to look at along the way.  Not as fun in the dark at 5:15, but still a good day on the roads!

Announcements, Prayers, Praises:

Memorial convergence and service for our brother, Shop Vac , this Saturday at the Armory  (Palmetto Funeral Home).

Senator Tressel’s frend, Joe with cancer;  Cornerstone (kidney stone), marriages

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Covid Vaccine for the Soul Coming in September… Join In

Has Covid frozen your faith Journey as Churches have closed their doors?  Or maybe Covid has you asking bigger question of God and you would like to be in a community of Men to discover the answers.  Are you interested in growing in your faith walk? Discovering a path toward an Intimate, Abiding relationship with Christ through a small group study.

Maybe you have been in the church for your entire life, the last 10 years or you are just now opening your mind to this idea of a higher power… a “Sky Q”.  Regardless of where you are in your faith walk we all have room to grow and mature in our relationship with Christ.

We are all on a faith journey and some of us are more or less equipped to take our faith deeper.  If you have a gap in any of these areas then I have a challenge for you.

  1. Do you feel that you have created a solid foundation of knowing who God is and his desire to be a part of your life?
  2. Are you in a group that is consistently seeking to grow in a relationship with God?
  3. Do you feel that you have an adequate tool kit to help you grow deeper in your faith?

In September, we will be launching into a Journey to build from the ground up a knowledge of who God is and to start to learn how to have an intimate, abiding relationship with him.  Please reach out to any of the Journey alumni to learn more and to get connected.

Aye!

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Snowman suicide at Sweep The Leg

YHC was late to the party placing cones for the beatdown so my man Gears lead the charge from StartEx. YHC was rolling up as the PAX were rolling out so I quickly parked and jail broke it towards the elementary school parking lot untied shoes and all.

Disclaimer was quickly disclaimed, thank you Maximus for providing cues as YHC struggled to be able to talk and tie shoes at the same time.
The Snowman Suicide was on tap for the unsuspecting PAX and boy was it going to be a doozy.

During this trying time, everyone is dealing with something and I wanted to remind everyone that Life is a team sport. And developed a beatdown that allows every single guy an opportunity to jockey for the top spot. This allows for the man out front to be continually pushed so that no one gets to take a break, no matter their individual fitness level.

Just as with anything in life, we are going to have setbacks, and we must remember that during these setbacks we must focus on the path forward and learn from the experience. It is also during these times that we must share that experience with our fellow PAX and those close to us; To allow them to learn without having to make the same mistakes for themselves.
“CLEAR THE PATH”
“LIGHT THE WAY”
The details:
Ten cones are placed along the route from the Elementary school teacher parking lot through the carpool dropoff lane over to the bus lot all the way around to Dam road.
Each cone has an exercise written on it. Every exercise will be performed 10 times.
This is a suicide workout but not just any suicide. It’s a slinky suicide of life so you go up 3 cones then back 2. Meaning that everyone will start by performing the exercise listed at cone#1 then the PAX will sprint past three cones to cone#4 to perform the exercise before coming back two cones to cone#2 to complete the exercise.
Then run to cone#5 to do the exercise, then back to perform the exercise listed on cone#3 and so on and so forth all the way up to cone#10.
So each time the guy in the lead is making progress by one cone but it’s taking him a lot of effort and having to backtrack a ton.

Here comes the kicker:
The kicker is that when the man in first-place finishes the exercise after coming back to cone #2 he then yells “Charge or Onward” and starts to run towards cone#5. Every person that he passes that are still on their way back to cone#2 skips the exercise at cone#2 and joins the leaders heading to cone#5. The leader has already cleared the path and is now lighting the way towards the next cone/challenge of life. Everyone can learn from the leaders experience and head towards the next challenge together. COVID SIDE NOTE: When I say together let me clarify that the distance between cones was large enough that social distancing was easy to maintain along the route (a full-sized road with no traffic) and ample hills to naturally separate the PAX. It is an extremely difficult process that allows every PAX to pick each other up and challenge themself to get better.

Here is the list of exercises
#1: Mack Tar Jighs
#2: Suicide Squats
#3: SSH
#4: Bomb Jacks
#5: ChaCha Merkins
#6: Bobby Hurleys
#7: Hand Release Merkins
#8: Jump Squats
#9: CDD
#10: Burpees

I try to hit all of the 3S2T in all of my Q’s and I feel this one delivered. The speed, strength, and stamina were definitely worked on and the constant switchbacks and hills really focused on the mental and physical toughness aspects. The look on guy’s faces during the beatdown showed the struggle but the encouragement was strong.

I think we made it through the burpees then back down to the Cone # 4 before having to jail brake all the way back to COT.
Great work was put in by all and I think the leaders got in over 4.6 miles and who knows how many exercises.
Count-A-Rama, Name-A-Rama, Announcements and Prayers and Praises before a circle of man.

It was a pleasure to witness the longest shooting star I have ever seen with you gents.

Thank you to Gears for the opportunity to lead these great HIM.
Stay Frosty My Friends!
Olaf

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Like a Tapas Restaurant ?

Long Shanks and Spud did not even break a sweat, and I was spent.

Appearances by Jonah Hill and Matt Foley … and so it goes …

Mosey to Empire Pizza parking lot
Dynamic warm-up back and forth across the lot …
butt kickers, high knees, squat walkers, toy soldier, karaoke R, karaoke L, windmill walkers, knees to chest, soccer knees out, soccer knees in, bear crawl, power skip, 50%, 75%, 100%, Jonah Hill (3 broad jumps then 3 merkins x 7 times)

Circle Up
overhead claps x 25, LBCs x 15 LS squat x 15, travolta x 10, Mor NC x 25, dying cockroach x 15, stationary lunge x 15 each, shoulder tap x 10, overhead claps x 25, freddie x 15, monkey humpers x 15, mahktar n’diayes x 10, Mor NC x 25, HR merkins x 10, imp walker x 15, donkey kick x 10, over head claps x 25, heels to heaven x 10, hillbilly walker x 15, carolina DD x 10, Matt Foley (animated squats/dying cockroach, 1/4, 2/8, 3/12, 4/16, 5/20)

Modified Suicides
round 1: bear crawl to first stop, 5 burpees, bear crawl, 5 burpees, 10 merkins, bear crawl, 5 burpees, 10 merkins, 15 donkey kicks
round 2: 5 bombjacks, 5 bombjacks, 10 double shoulder taps, 5 bombjacks, 10 double shoulder taps, 15 jum squats

Circle Up
richard simmons x 15, LBC x 15, weed pullers x 15, SSH x 10

Thanks for the opportunity to lead Hootie!

Looks like we made it,
Barry Manilow

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Pre-Blast: Deepening your relationship with Christ

Are you interested in growing in your faith walk? Discovering a path toward an Intimate, Abiding relationship with Christ through a small group study during the ’19 – ’20 school year.

Maybe you have been in the church for your entire life, the last 10 years or you are just now opening your mind to this idea of a higher power… a “Sky Q”.  Regardless of where you are in your faith walk we all have room to grow and mature in our relationship with Christ.

We are all on a faith journey and some of us are more or less equipped to take our faith deeper.  If you have a gap in any of these areas then I have a challenge for you.

  1. Do you feel that you have created a solid foundation of knowing who God is and his desire to be a part of your life?
  2. Are you in a group that is consistently seeking to grow in a relationship with God?
  3. Do you feel that you have an adequate tool kit to help you grow deeper in your faith?

On August 22nd, we will be launching into a Journey to build from the ground up a knowledge of who God is and to start to learn how to have an intimate, abiding relationship with him.  Please reach out to any of the following pax to learn more and to get involved.

Orange Crush, Lug Nut, Crawdaddy, Spitz, Chicken Hawk, Free Bird, Spud, Sugar Daddy, ‘Stang, Corn Hole, Gridlock, Gopher, The Professor, Cobra Kai, Smithers, Destiny, Catfish

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Laces Out – The Bear Prep Edition

4 men joined me today for an awesome 6 mile tour of some hills around Fort Mill. Why not with The Bear around the corner?

A disclaimer was given, as well as a safety check. We warmed up around the lot and we were off. Whenever Vuvu shows up, and I am the Q, I know I will be leading from the back. He put it to us on Tuesday and challenged the pace again today, although mainframe was the rabbit, as he usually is.

Great group today, albeit small. What I love about running is you never know who you will be spending time with and  getting to know better.  For me, today it was Spud. A true #HIM. We mostly talked about The Journey. What it has meant to him and what it might could mean for me. We realized there was a reason God had us running together today. I love that. All 3 Fs were hit.

Anchorman and Barry were missed.

This was the route-

left on Munn, right on Harris, right on Sutton, left on Richard’s Xing, right on Front, right on 160, right on Sutton

It is a keeper.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

RT out

 

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River District Run – Clydesdales

21 posted to Clydesdales.  Pretty simple backblast.  We ran.  Here’s what many pax ran, but not all.

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SlowBurning a Ring Of Fire

Great morning for a workout!  13 pax posted (no new guys). The disclaimer was issued and we bolted out of the Chick-fil-a parking lot, Pusher style.

We ran past BP in front of Jimmy John’s for a bit of COP warm-up:

  • SSH
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Merkins
  • Windmills
  • Morning Wood, OYO

The Thang

We then ran down to the parking lot in front of Empire and found 12 cones spread out to a large ring.  Time for a burning ring of fire.  Each pax was to start at a cone, doing the exercise (and count) written on the cone.  Once done, they were to run across the middle, around the cone on the opposite side, then back to the middle and plank up for 10 seconds (the non-modified version does cinderblock burpees – yuck!).  After planking up , the pax runs to the next cone.  Rinse and repeat until all 12 cones completed.  Pax were encouraged to pair up.  YHC struggled to keep up with MOAB.  Here were the exercises, in no particular order:

  • 10 Monkey Humpers (4 count)
  • 10 Hello Dollys (4 count)
  • 7 Burpees
  • 10 Merkins (single count)
  • 10 SSH (4 count)
  • 10 Mtn. Climbers (4 count)
  • 10 Bombjacks
  • 10 LBCs(4 count)
  • 10 Plank Jacks (4 count)
  • 7 Morning Woods (turkish get-up)
  • 10 Box Cutters
  • 10 Seal Jacks (4 count)

Once completed, we moseyed to a nearby wall for a little People’s Chair:

Round 1 – one person at a time jumps out and does 2 burpees
Round 2 – Jack Reachers (10x)

We ended with Jack Webbs.  But wait!  We got to COT with 2 minutes to spare so we did a few ab exercises.

Great work by all!  Thanks to Hootie for the opportunity to lead!

Keep it spicy,
Old Bay

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