3 Miles and a Cloud of Dust

Best way to fight off Old Man Winter isconstant movement with some pain thrown in.  Today’s edition borrowed from old skool #GoldenCorral.

After a roaming warm up showing the course we got started:

  • Start at GHMS- run down school road to bottom of hill (light pole).  10 merkins.  Up hill with 10 bombjacks at top.  Run to front door GHES- lunge walk to breezeway.  10 Carolina Dry Docks.  Run to wall with 6 muscle up and overs.  Run to GHMS Breezeway and bear crawl to entrance.  10 LBCs.  That’s 1 lap.  Rinse/repeat until 0600.

3 ish miles and approx. 40 of each exercise.  Good stuff.

Should be noted that we paired up naturally and due to that:fellowship, motivation, encouragement and good conversation flowed.  All while getting smoked.  MacGyver drug me along (without breaking a sweat).  he does have new gloves for the year so that’s nice.  Pusher and Gekko decided who’s got raising teenagers down the best.  (no clear winner here- both doing outstanding because they stay involved and engaged.  JWOW and ‘Bug mostly discussed how the Jersey Shore cast must have good dental hygiene routines.

Great take out from Gekko.  Qsource in full motion but good to note, you can pick it up at any time.  If you feel you have missed or its too far down the road, don’t listen to that voice. Its a big tent and all are welcome.

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The 2018 Fort Clave Boss 5k & Christmas Convergence

0545 – Arrive at Palisades Elementary School AKA The Abyss where Bear Grylis is tailgating like its the Summer Concert tour and he’s at FORT-A_PALOOZA.

Ruckers and Runners were gathering and getting ready for a full morning of all 3 F’s. The Pre-Ruck led by Bonsai (as Worldwide Leader was MIA) got together and away they went.

YHC gathered all of the Clave Boss 5k runners and gave the instructions for the course. Signs were posted however it was still difficult for some to follow (Royale, Funhouse and some others) and they got 3.5mi surprise.

0605 – The 4th Annual Clave Boss 5k launched and 32 runners hit the hills of Palisades. This year we awarded Bundt Cakes to the first runner at various paces.

  1. MacGyver flew in at 20:47 6:60/mi and then went back to encourage other runners – True #HIM
  2. Sharkbait came in at 24:43 7.88/mi
  3. Islander rolled in at 27:10 8.74/mi
  4. Twister with a 31:25 10.08/mi
  5. Smuggler wrapped it up with a solid 34:11 11:00/mi

Appreciate all the participants. Next Year’s 5th Annual will be a special event for sure!!

0700 – Preruck has returned, Clave Boss has wrapped up and now more cars have entered the parking lot with PAX gathering all around. It was time to launch the convergence. YHC ask if there were FNGs, and we had 4 in attendance, gave the disclaimer. YHC then gave RUCK crew green light to jet with a 0750 COT. The remaining 75 or so PAX had YHC and Maximus for the next 50minutes

The Thang:

Mosey parking lot….20 SSHs, Go to other end of lot, Merkins, go to other end of lot for squats, back to other end of parking lot for LBCs

Line up in 6 lines, each line goes to a cone and each cone has exercise on it

  1. Merkins
    1. Bearcrawl
  2. Leg Lifts
    1. Lunge walk
  3. Wide Arm Merkins
    1. Run
  4. Donkey Kicks
    1. Bearcrawl
  5. Spider-man Merkins
    1. Lunge walk
  6. Sumo Squats
    1. Run

3 rounds of above, 5 reps, then 10 reps, then 15 reps

The mumble chatter was classic and the fellowship as always enjoyable

Handoff to Maximus

Mosey to back of School and line up in 6 lines for Pain Platoon

  1. Santini led squat routine that is always a crowd pleaser
    1. Burpees
  2. Pusher led Lunges
    1. Burpees
  3. Double D led Mc-tar-Ny ??
    1. Burpees
  4. Bubba Gump led SSHs
    1. Burpees
  5. 4 lines – turn to face one another – then Seal Team Sit ups–always a big crowd pleaser

Mosey to front of school for COT:

Plank while waiting on RUCK crew and 6 inches with Walker…..always fun!!

  • 93 was the count with 4 FNGs
    • Bo Knows
    • Ferris
    • Gaylord
    • Doubtfire

 

  • We Switzered to gather around and listing to Mr. Clean give a message and challenge to the PAX
    • I’m honored to speak with you today;
      Tomorrow (Christmas night) is the 1 year anniversary of me and the kids finding Cindy (my wife) unconscious. She was immediately put on life support
      Cindy died 3 days later from complications of MS and an addiction to alcohol
      I thought our life was on cruise control. I was being non -purposeful and non intentional. Being a single parent and grieving thru the tragic death of a spouse has been unreal.A few things I have learned from this that I would like to share.

      1. I have a much deeper awareness of emotional health. I have been humbled. Being humble creates avenue for change and growth. My question to you is…are you vulnerable and humble enough to let brothers in to help you?? Are you humble enough to ask for him if you are escaping reality w addictions? Alcohol, porn, etc
      2. I have a more real relationship w Christ.At a time when I doubted Christ care for me and my children and his desire to help our family Christ stepped in and answered a very exact prayer request. If you have doubts about Christ, speak to me please. I would love to share with you what He alone has done.
      3. I am thankful for the suffering. It has brought our family closer together. Even though I and the kids are miss Cindy everyday, we have so much to be thankful. I am thankful for the life that we had w Cindy. I am thankful that she is suffering no more. I am thankful that Cindy is made as new. Most importantly, am thankful for the birth of Christ. He gives us HOPE for a better day.
    • My Challenge to you is Love Deeper and Speak Sweeter. — too often people speak disrespectfully of their spouses and children and parents. Words matter and we all need to choose them wisely. We need to hold each other accountable and “get our heads out of our asses” as you never know when that person will be taken from you.

YHC can’t thank Mr Clean enough for this message and his friendship. over the last 2 years we have grown together to be better Christ followers, better husbands and fathers. He is such a great leader and I’m blessed to have him in my life.

If you need someone like this in your life, reach out to me and we’ll get you set up as there are a boatload of HIMs in the PAX

********ALERT***********ALERT**********ALERT*********ALERT***********ALERT****************

It was time for some major announcements in leadership. YHC has led as NANTAN for The Fort region for about 15months. Prior to that I was Weasel Shaker and prior to that 3rdF Q and in-between Site Qs of Ranch, Ballroom, Crossroads,, ChicknWizdim, and led CSAUP teams at P200, Kiawah and others.

It was time to hand over the keys to this well oiled machine to a new leader. A man I’ve watched grow and lead in all 3 F’s and lead well. First got to know him well on the 2014 BRR 9 man team. I was asked to attend Colombia mission with with him in 2015 that he led. Have Qd many times with him and attended a retreat in Boone with him in 2017 and saw his heart for God, Family and the PAX of The Fort. In 2018 he led BEYOND and pushed men to not only dig deep physically but to stretch themselves emotionally and spiritually. This sealed it for me that this man understood leadership and that men needed to be Freed to Lead.

MAXIMUS is the new NANTAN of The Fort!

I personally am excited for this next chapter and look forward to more men being Freed to Lead by his example and inspiration. With this change, some other leaders have stepped up as well.

  • Weasel Shaker = Funhouse
  • 1stFQ = Royale
  • 2ndFQ = Wegmans
  • 3rdFQ = Gecko

I personally want to thank Old Bay for years of leadership and more importantly friendship. I true HIM who makes so much happen behind the scenes that there is no way The FORT would be where it is today without him.

Also, want to thank Anchorman for 2nd F Q during my time as Nantan, as well as all his leadership at Footloose, encouraging guys to push themselves and the many great ideas and ways to challenge the PAX. Appreciate you brother!

BOM – Gecko had great words to close out this convergence. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus and all of the Holidays, I pray we find JOY in everything and not take anything for granted. I appreciate all the PAX and my brothers of THE GLOOM.

Cake Boss

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Honoring Special Agent Forrest Leamon at HoneyBadger – 8/13/18

24 #HIM joined YHC (25 total) to honor Special Agent Forrest Leamon at the 8-13-18 edition of HoneyBadger.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Forrest Nelson Leamon, 37, assigned to the Foreign-deployed Advisory and Support Team (FAST) Echo was killed October 26th, 2009, while on a counternarcotics mission in Western Afghanistan when the helicopter he was in crashed. He is survived by his wife Ana, his son Luke, his parents, Sue and Richard Leamon, and his sister Heather.

Warmup:

  • Mosey around the parking lot 1 lap
  • 50 Side straddle hops
  • 21 double count windmills
  • Downward dog to honey mooner x3
  • Small arm circles
  • Big arm cirles
  • Reverse small arm circles
  • Reverse big arm circles

Mosey to the pull up bars.

The “Forrest” WOD:

3 rounds for time:

  • 20 L Pull-ups
  • 30 toes to bar
  • 40 burpees
  • 800M run

COT

Announcements:

  • Weekend events honoring #HIMs CSPAN & Rooney
  • #218in18
  • SiteQ Meeting this Wednesday

Prayers:

  • Parents
  • Kids back to school

– Ginsu

 

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The Coop 2018.10

Happy PI day! (As in 3.14, 3/14, March 14… ok, nevermind)

I keep all my Q’s simple these days.  I came in on two wheels, because anything outside of 1.5 miles of Baxter is downrange for me these days and I did not compensate for a commute.

Warmup
Taken care of by CSPAN.

Mosey to pullup bars and partner up.
1 man deadhang while other balls2wall.  Either man may call mercy and swap at any point.  5 rounds for my which was close to 10 minutes.

Mosey to bottom of the hill for some slow Moroccan night clubs while I encourage everyone to stretch their full range of motion.  Only one way to get better….
Next is a Dora. 100 bombjacks, 200 merkins, 300 jump squats (yeah this was all quads, the merkins are there for rest)

Mosey to the side to avoid traffic for abs.  snapcracklepops, freddy mercuries, dying cockroach, superman with Moroccan night clubs… sprint up hill to COT.

Next up, go eat some PI.

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It was a Dark and Drizzly Morning…

It was a dark and stormy morning in the gloom… well actually it was dark and rather drizzly more than anything, but apparently the forecast rain was enough to keep many a PAX in the fart sack.  Wegmans and Senator Tressel manned up and were ready to go at 5:15

 

Warm-up consisted of a lap in the car rider loop with some butt kickers, high knees and toy soldiers.  we then triangled up for 20 SSH, 20 Moroccan Nightclub, 12 Imperial Walker and 12 Hill Billy Walker

 

Warm-up completed we mosey over to the front of the middle school for some cover just in case it actually does rain.

 

Once there the action consisted of 4 sets of

40 double count toe taps on the curb

20 derkins from the bench

20 squats

40 LBC’s

Lap around the middle school car loop

 

Once this was completed we mosey back to the front of the elementary school to find some decent wall space and finished up the fun with

1 minute wall sit

20 Freddie Mercury (in cadence)

20 Flutter (in cadence)

Wall Plank Series (Flat, 45, BTW) – 10 count each

20 Dying Cockroach (in cadence)

20 Hello Dolly (in cadence)

Airborne’s Hip Destroyer

 

COT and Prayer

 

Thanks for the opportunity to lead, its always fun to Q and while large groups are great it is refreshing occasionally to have a small group.  We were able to chatter a bit and get to know each other much better which is always fun.

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Coop- clock from H&^%…

Valentines day 2018- To prep you for taking out your M this wonderful night we will take a trip around the clock.

Warm up with Mosey high knees, butt kickers, knee to chest, and ankle to chest.

circle up SShs, Imperial Walkers, windmills.

Mosey to pull up bars- 5-4-3-2-1

Mosey to band lot give disclaimer on the clock. start in center work  around the clock at each station always coming back to center in between. In middle 15 burpees stations consisted of squats, LBCs, Mtn. Climbers, CDDs, Apollo Onos, American Hammers, Merkins, Flutter Kicks. You do 50 of each.

great job by all who attended.

read your newsletter.

Prayers and Praises…

 

 

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Running the Lights with Classic Rock

I haven’t Q’d at the Ranch in quite a while so I thought it would be fun to use the field and light poles in a circuit training of sorts.  It is always a decent change in pace when I can carry around a phone and speaker to add a little life to the party.

Started with a mosey to the back of the school and began with a warm-up of SSH, Moroccan Night Clubs, Imperial Walkers, Hillbilly Walkers and Windmills. We then mosey back to the front light poles along the field.  There are 8 poles so I planned on 2 exercises per pole 50 seconds on and 10 second rest with 10 seconds after them to travel to the next pole.  I hoped to make 2 circuits of the field.  It all hit the fan right off the bat when I actually started on a light pole from the parking lot not the field.  Thankfully in my incredibly observant nature I realized this 9 light poles later and since I’m easily adaptable I was able to handle this wrinkle of an extra pole like the champion I am… The action went like this

-Merkins

-Squats

MOVE

LBS’c

Donkey Kicks

MOVE

-Dips

-Mountain Climbers

MOVE

-Side Straddle Hops

-Nolan Ryan

MOVE

-Box Cutter

-Plank Jack

MOVE

-Lunges

-Peter Parker Merkins

MOVE

-Dry Docks

-Bobby Hurley

MOVE

-American Hammers

-High Knees

Confusion about how an extra pole appeared, Then just MOVE anyway

 

After 2 cycles we mosey to the lot for COT, announcements and prayer.  Always and excellent AO and appreciate the opportunity.

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HIT at the Hive

Following up my tremendously successful initial kettlebell Q at Tomahawk last week I was asked to Q the Hive this week… That or they just needed someone to do it… I chose to believe it was because I excelled at my previous attempt…

Being Friday I thought maybe I could combine the HIT philosophy of Varsity with the Kettlebell workout of the Hive.  Sitting in the living room the night before googling “high intensity kettlebell circuits” I was smart enough to realize that 50 seconds on and 10 seconds off for 4 minutes per excercise sounded a bit too “high intensity” so I decided to cut it to 30 on with 10 seconds for 2 minutes each.  I was worried that the 10 seconds would be too much but decided to leave it there (spoiler alert… 10 seconds or rest goes MUCH faster than the same 10 seconds working out… its an odd law of time…)

So following a brief lap around the lot with some high knees and butt kickers and a quick warm-up with some SSH, windmill, imperial walkers and hillbilly walkers we turned on the little app with our nice coach and some classic rock to motivate us.  Each exercise consisted of 4 sets of 30 seconds on and 10 second rest

-Dead Lift

-Goblet Squat

-Row

-Russian Twist

-Triceps

-Lunge

-Curl

-Calf Raises

-Wood Chop

-Shoulder Press

-LBC

-Kettle Bell Swing

 

Following these sets we had Airborne lead us in a round of his hip exercises to close out the morning.  The we formed into COT with announcements and prayer requests

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Working on the Bum-Bum

This was my first kettlebell Q so truth be told I googled “kettlebell circuit workout” and the bulk of the decent sites were ladies teaching how to firm up you “bum-bum’s”… Seemed like we all could use a little help in that department so I plagiarized heavily from these sites…

The disclaimer was disclaimed and we began with a short mosey around the lot with some butt kickers, high knees, side shuffles, and toy soldiers.

We circled up for warm up consisting of:

-25 Side Straddle Hops

-25 Moroccan Night Clubs

-12 Windmill

-12 Imperial Walker

-12 Hillbilly Walker

-12 Goofball (for Geronimo)

 

We mosey over to the pick-up line curb for the beginning of toning our “Bum-Bum’s”

We completed 2 circuits each consisting of 15 reps of 15 exercises with a lap around the parking lot between every 5 exercises.

-15 Kettlebell Swing

-15 Sumo Squat

-15 Lunge Pass Though (each side)

-15 Calf Raises (I actually raised this to 20 on accident but Dark Helmet kindly reminded me that I had committed to 15 earlier in the description)

-15 Split Squat (squat in a lunge position) – each side

LAP

-15 Bent Row (each side)

-15 Shoulder Press (each side)

-15 Curl (each side)

-15 Halo (each direction)

-Drive the Bus for 3 10 counts (bell extended 10 straight, 10 turned to the right, 10 turned to the left)

LAP

-15 LBC’s

-15 Flutter

-15 Hello Dolly

-15 Freddy Murcury

-15 Box Cutter

LAP

 

after about 2 cycles we mosey to COT for announcements and prayers

 

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#218in18 Kick-off Convergence BackBlast

76 PAX (including 4 FNGs) met in the gloom at Harris Teeter this morning to kick the year off the right way.

Group 1 – Jedi

Start with 60 seconds of plank tutorial, then a fairly lame attempt to explain the exercise “routine” for the upper body station. The routine, to be done in increasing AMRAP style:
· Incline Merkins
· Low Country Crab Boil (One leg, one hand dips)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Left hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Left hand on curb)
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Pseudo Planche Merkins
· Donkey Kicks
· 90° Turn clockwise
· Staggered/Uneven Break Dancer Merkins (Right hand on curb)
· Staggered/Uneven Carolina Dry Docks (Right hand on curb)
· 90° Turn to starting position

Start with 10 reps for each exercise, then add 2 reps each round after that (10, 12, 14, 16, …). Only the elite few made it past the round of 12.

Group 2 – Peabody

An absolute honor to lead a convergence and had so much fun working with all the guys. Here’s the fun of the cardio Q.

SPRINT Relays!!!  

3 team

60 Yard sprint

Team members are doing Seal Jacks, side straddle hops, or flutters while teammate runs.

Winning team selects penalty exercise for 2 losing teams. (Unknown is losing team has to do the penalty exercise too but only half the reps).

Rinse and repeat the sprint relay races once teams are mixed up.

Mary to follow:

  • 50 LBCs
  • 25 Flutters
  • 10 Freddie Mercury’s

Lists of fun to hear the encouragement of other Pax and see the competition bring out the most in guys.  Saw lots of guys really push hard to win for their team.

Group 3 – Jekyll

Motley Crue and 80’s hairband soundtrack

  • COP: SSH, IW, Squat
  • 5 Burpee OYO, 4 OYO, 3 OYO
  • Lt Dan: squat and jumping , 1:4 ration
    • 1 squat: 4 jumping lunge, 2 squat: 8 Jumping lunge…10 squat: 40 jumping lunge
  • 5 burpee OYO
  • Calf Raises 25 each: Straight, Toes Out, Toes In
  • Donkey Kicks

COT

Welcome FNGs Iron City, Humps, Hillary, and Juliet

Prayers by CakeBoss for leadership.

– Ginsu

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