Tag: Vuvuzela

Take no fish/prisoner

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22 showed up to get better….22 left better (more tired like YHC, but they took the red pill today).  Pledge of allegiance was properly performed, very short disclaimer (I think) but 5 core principles were done for the FNG…YHC tried to wait for what he was told about 2 PAX coming in HOT only to realized they were already there.  Upon that notification, we were off at a 7 min pace.

We ran down Academy street to the open parking lot by the top of the hill before we got to all the churches…did some planking while we waited for the 6…counted off to make sure we started and left with the same number.  At this point, YHC explained the drill and early route.

  • 10 – hand release merkins
  • 20 – squats
  • 30 – American (no, not russian twists) hammers

We did these in the parking lot, ran down the hill, were greeted from the Footloose PAX (welcome FNG) with some proper form (I guess) monkey humpers.  Very nice call Trucker – brownie points…  We ran to the corner of Tom Hall where we did our 10, 20, 30 – then ran to Hardees for another 10, 20, 30.  Waiting for the 6 we planked…as we should.  Once all PAX were in attendence, YHC instructed the PAX to run up Spring St and cross over to Unity where we would do 10, 20, 30.  At each “up and over” (basically creating an L), we would perform the exercises at either Unity or Spring depending on the up and over…always doing the exercise at the “over” cross street.  Once we reached Summersby (all the way in the back of the neighborhood), we ran back to Hardees.  Due to bad time management by YHC, this caused everyone to run all the way back to COT so you’re welcome for the non-rest.  Sorry, not sorry.

At COT, we named our FNG – Trickle (welcome!!).  D2D race for announcements which sold out in about 5 hours to the surprise of everyone.  Prayers and praises – we had a little of both.  Overall, just the right amount of suck but we got better and that’s the goal.

Shady out (thanks Shanks for the gap in schedule!)

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7

HIIT or Treat

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Six pax came out to observe Harry Carry’s 46th birthday and get a good beating via HIIT.

Warmup
Mosey run (with butt kickers, high knees, toy soldiers)
SSH (10x I/C)
Windmills (10x I/C)
Imperial Walkers (12x I/C)
Morrocan N/C (10x I/C)
Low Slow Squats (10x I/C)
Arm Circles (12x I/C)
Peter Parkers (10x I/C)
Plank Stretches (Downward dog/honeymooner)

Thang 1
At Pull up bars: interval routine, 20 seconds on exercise followed by 20 seconds rest. Exercises are below:
Pull-ups
Big Boy Situps
Chin-ups
Merkins
Squats (with cinder block)
Repeat for a total of three sets.

Run to school entrance

Thang 2
At the benches: interval routine, 35 seconds on exercise followed by 15 seconds rest. Exercises are below:
Dips
Imperial Walkers
Step ups
Incline merkins
Calf raises
Repeat for a total of three sets.

Run to COT area

Mary: Freddies, leg raises, box cutters, LBC, gas pumpers, cross-over toe touches,

Fini, COT

Prayers/Praises: Cash and his family; teachers and all school personnel with the upcoming school year.

NMM: HIIT keeps it simple but tough, and the time flies by as mentioned by more than one pax.  the tunes help too.

Water and cookies distributed after COT…I’m sure there will be some happy kids this morning.

Playlist:
The man, Killers
Got Nuffin, Spoon
Weapon of choice, fat boy slim
mountain song, Jane’s addiction
Date w/ the night, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Seether, veruca salt
Give it away, RHCP
Every 1’s a winner, Hot Chocolate
Royals, Lorde
Every day is Halloween, ministry

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1

RPG-Varsity July Combo

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Twenty three PAX converged at NaFo for the RPG-Varsity Combo (July 2020 edition).  Meteorological note: there was actually an occasional breeze blowing!

Started promptly at 0515 with Sasquatch leading the Broga portion.

Sasquatch leading us in some Broga

The peaceful warrior  pose was shattered by the breaking of wind by some Pax.

Next, the pax had their choice of what to do from 0530 to COT/0600:

Boot camp: Kaiser on Q

Pax did:  Stage 1 = bench workouts including derkins, dips, incline merkins.
Stage 2 = bear crawl around circle.
Stage 3 = broad jumps across parking lot mixed in with burpees.
Stage 4 = cinderblock curls and step ups on bench
Stage 5 = flutters/ab workout to wait for the six
Stage 6 = 10 pull ups 10 chin ups 10 reverse grip pull ups 3 burpees pull ups with wall sit between intervals
Stage 7 = short Mary with Freddie mercuries and hello dolly.

Run: Harry Carry on Q
Four pax ran a 3 mile loop at about a 8:10 pace.

run route

Ruck: Cake Boss on Q
Seven pax for the ruck, covering about 1.5 miles.  Topic: Matthew chapter 24 “Be ready”.

Fini, COT

Kaiser noted James 1:19; “…be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”   It can be a struggle to those in the right order.

Prayers for Cash.

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9

Hill Suicides at STL

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Late night, 1-3 AM 2.0 cuddles. Lack of sleep. Sure to be a strong showing at STL. Roll up to find Gears with that smile he always has on when he knows he is about to put in work. Solid crew to start, into 0514 the cars keep appearing.

 

YHC tried to explain the warm up lap, but it just didn’t make sense verbally (see below). Only way to ensure we followed the right path was to lead the way.

Warm Up Lap – 1 Mile

Start in Parking Lot

End at bottom of Brayden Pkwy Hill

Arrived in the 6:45 pace range… plank it up for the six to explain the meat and potatoes. Right arm high, left arm high, six inches. And we’re ready.

Weinke – Hill Suicides – 1 Mile Each

From bottom of Brayden Hill there are three breaks in the median. First break, 10 reps, back down the hill. Second break, 20 reps, back down the hill. Third break (top of hill), 30 reps, back down the hill. One full suicide was 1.08 miles.

Round 1 – Merkins/LBC’s

Round 2 – Curb Dips/Flutters

Round 3 – CDD’s/Hello Dollies

Round 4 (few made it into this round) – Squats/Rosalitas

After Bones and Vuvuzela decided to kick this weinke in the teeth, we made a break for COT with 5 minutes left.

Get to COT with time for Mary. 15 Reps WWI sit ups, plus a few Fifer Scissors before the clock struck 0600. Elevation gain was 364 ft.

Bones, B.O.B, and Vuvuzela were top three.

 

COT

Announcements

Sweati 8/15

Blood Drive Tomorrow

Read your newsletter!

 

Prayers/Praises

MOAB’s father rung the bell for Chemo and is prepared to take the next step

Cake Boss’ 2.0 (Owen) had and MRI for his knee. Prayers for a good report and that his degenerative tissue be healed. 

Band Camp’s friends going through a divorce – prayers for their reconciliation. We are only a few poor decisions away from that same situation. Be vigilant.

Pray for families and the leadership of fathers – without strong leadership for our families, everybody is bound to fail.

 

Gears, that was fun. Please put YHC on the Q list again soon.

 

Punch List out. 

 

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8

Snowman suicide at Sweep The Leg

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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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5

Quality Questions

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12 PAX gathered, brief disclaimer and we’re off at what was collectively determined as “not mosey” pace.

Each stop:
5 burpees
10 Carolina Dry Docks
15 Jump Squats
20 Hello Dollys (some in cadence, some not)

At the Harris Street Park basketball court, we bear crawled cupcakes (line touches). FYI, baseline to baseline is a long way.

6 stops total.

Visited the monument to state sovereignty and the “faithful” slave. Talked about the kinds of questions we ask. YHC grew up in this town and never thought to ask why these monuments were here. Minnow Pond meets at “Veteran’s Park,” but “Confederate Park” is just up the hill… a monument to separatists that fought against the armed services honored at Veteran’s Park. Longshanks typically leads the pledge of allegiance before a workout, yet there are monuments to those who flew a different flag designed to replace the “stars and stripes” just across the railroad tracks. Interesting…

YHC is reading, because that is how academics solve problems. Recommended for non-academics as well. #accelerate

Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“None of us were promised to end the fight on our feet, fists raised to the sky. We could not control our enemies’ number, strength, nor weaponry. Sometimes you just caught a bad one. But whether you fought or ran, you did it together, because that is the part that was in our control.”

How are the questions we ask reinforcing togetherness or keeping us divided? Can we ask better questions?

Welcome FNG from West Charlotte: “Chimay”
May have broken his back, good thing I was also the one who EHed him.

—
Band Camp dismissed

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1

The Herd at Sweep The Leg

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Week 3 of Sweep The Leg was not about to be a letdown. Apparently, 24 other PAX posted to hold me accountable in ensuring they got the return on their investment, too. Gears started this AO a few weeks ago to present the PAX with an opportunity to push themselves harder and faster than currently offered at another AO, at least on a Monday. It is so easy to come out of the gates hot but the hard work is in consistency. Hard work was what we did for 40 of the 45mins this morning which concluded with some up hills and a jail break to ensure we finished as strong as we started.

Lots and lots of headlights kept rolling into the lot and as we were about to start the disclaimer, 4 more cars rolled in. So…
Sweeper identified…check (Thank you Cake Boss)
Overview  of Sweep The Leg for the rookies…check
Count off…25, are you serious?
Disclaimer…check

Warm up mosey out of the lot, L/T Len Patterson, L/T 160, L/T Dave Gibson Blvd and circle up at intersection with Ben Casey Dr.

Warm Up
Wind Mills
Imperial Walkers
Moroccan Night Clubs
5 Burpees

Overview of the pace. When I say “Get It”, it’s your fast pace or All You Got to get to the next stop. If you’re in the first wave of runners to get to the destination, we’ll be starting the exercises and doing them until the 6 got in.

Get It: To parking lot in front of GHES
Box Cutters
Dying Cockroaches
10 Burpees

Get It: End of straight way in front of the schools to the lot for Colosseum
5 Merkins

Get it: Run the GHMS drop-off loop then 1/2 the GHES loop taking us to the benches near the basketball hoops
20 Derkins
20 Dips
10 Carolina Dry Docks

Get it: Run to the end of the bus parking lot, run back, run to the end of the lot again and stop

Get it: Run up the long, never-ending bus entrance hill to just before Dam Rd and back to the start.
Mountain Climbers (keep the merlot down)
Peter Parker
Parker Peter

Get it: Run the remaining loop in front of GHES to the bottom of the hill on Dave Gibson Blvd.
5 Burpees

Get it: Run to 160, back to Patricia Ln (almost all the way back to the bottom of the hill), then back up to Ben Casey and thanks to Vuvuzela, circle up in the bank parking lot.
Merkins
Diamonds
Wide-Arm
American Hammer

Now really get it: Run down the straightaway back to COT.

Gears, I appreciate what you’re doing here. Thank You.
If anyone is still reading this, please wear black on Wednesday but something reflective if you’re running.

SYITG,
Maximus

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5

Negative Splits

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23 was the number to launch The Fort’s newest AO: Sweep The Leg.  The goal of any AO should be acceleration of overall fitness of the Pax, and I believe we delivered this morning.

The workout was simple.  3 miles, half mile segments with pain stations.  The goal was negative splits with 3 minute pain stations between segments.  Something like the following:

  • .5 miles at 8:15 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 8:00 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 7:45 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 7:30 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 7:15 pace, 3 min pain station
  • .5 miles at 7:00 pace, 3 min pain station

Pain stations included crowd favorites such as:

  • Burpees
  • Bombjacks
  • Squats
  • Hillybilly Squats
  • Flutter
  • Freddy Mercury’s
  • Merkins
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter
  • Monkey Humpers

The leaders of the pack did the full pain station, those bringing up the six may or may not get to do the exercises at the pain station, but it kept the pax mostly together and pushed guys to keep up since the overall pace continued to speed up.

Hit this link for the route and some deets.

The #Kings this week were Pointer, Maximus, and Shady, who will be added to the Q list for an upcoming workout.

Ready your newsletter and pray for our country and the unrest going on right now due to racial injustice.

Honor to Serve.

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23

Kettle Bells & Stuff at the Snake Pit (sort of)

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I know it has been  said by many but man, it feels good to be in the gloom with the guys again. Once I got my logistics figured out and blew the dust off the ol’ rusty kettle bell, Fire Marshal Bill & I made our way to the relocated Snake Pit AO. Hopefully, all these temporary relocations will be behind us soon.
17 others joined us for a total of 19 socially-distant PAX in the gloom this morning. We had one of the original Redwoods (Santini), one of the youngest guys in the PAX (Lil’ John), our resident story teller (Spitz) and a whole bunch of other faces I like seeing in the gloom.
Once 3D finished his struggle-fest with planting the Shovel-Flag into the ground and I did an oh-so-brief disclaimer, we took off for our warm-up mosey. A few minutes later, we returned to our Kettle Bell and began the instructional portion of the workout, more of the modified high-intensity variety.

2min of Burpees
5min Kettle Bell with 20ea: Curls, Low Rows, Upright Rows (repeat until 5mins is over)
5min Run at a “go get-it” pace: 1/2mi route is out to light at Banks St and back. So interesting why my first 200 yards of this run was brisk yet the rest wasn’t so.
5min Kettle Bell with 20ea: Overhead Press, Chest Press, Tricep Extensions (repeat until 5mins is over)
2min of Burpees
5min Run at a “go get it” pace to Banks St and back.
5min Kettle Bell with 10ea: 4ct Flutters with the press or the KB in the air, V-Ups, Big Boy Sit Ups (repeat until 5mins is over)
2min of Burpees
4min Kettle Bell with 2 forward lunges, 2 reverse lunges, 1 left lunge, 1 right lunge, 1 deep squat (repeat until 4mins is over)

And just like that, we were already standing at COT, how convenient.
Announcements: Guys are clearly looking to slowly start posting again so please pay attention to Slack (and possibly Twitter) or text/call another PAX to find out where the AO’s are now if they used to be at a school or park. Those grounds are still off limits but hopefully not for much longer.

Prayers/Praises: Mental health right now (and always), health for a spouse. PAX on the road to recovery and joining us back in the gloom, for a friend battling illness and getting the care he needs, MARRIAGES, physical health of other PAX, , upcoming moves, kids taking big tests, small businesses during this time and many more.

Until next time,
Maximus

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6

Varsity: Keeping up the pace

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I have to be honest…..I’m so late with this back blast all I remember is I could not straighten my arm for 4 days. The pullups and curls with the cinder blocks killed me…..lol

5 of us came to The Varsity for some serious work. I was recovering from The Bear run and a pulled muscle in my hip so it was an all strength day at Varsity…..Ginsu’s favorite AO even though Ballroom is better.

The Thang:

Mosey to Band Lot

3 rounds – 25reps, 20 reps, 15 reps

  • Merkins
  • CDDs
  • Squats
  • Lunges
  • Leg raises
  • LBCs

Mosey to School entrance

3 rounds – 25reps, 20 reps, 15 reps

  • Dips
  • Derkins
  • Step Ups

Mosey to Pull up Bars

10 Excercies on the ground – 20 reps

Then do 10 pullups

  • merkins
  • sumo squats
  • Bunch of others

Was a great fellowship day as we had 5 and so we really pushed each other. Great mumble chatter and getting to know the PAX.

Thanks for the Q Harry Carry!

Cake Boss

 

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