RPG: Broga & Run on this nice mild morning in November

10 for Broga and 9.5 for run

It was a great morning of mumble chatter especially Rebel and Fogerty jabbing about wearing tights in 50 degree weather and using the M’s yoga mats.

Sasquatch led us in Broga and we don’t know our Right and Left but we know where the Waffle House is and where the Bank is so we were able to follow instructions.

YHC gave a simple tapper run for the crew down Regent Parkway to apartments and up Pikeview to back gate through Keswick neighborhood back to Regent Parkway straight back to COT for a 3mi fellowship run

Good coffeteria chat and quality time with the PAX

Thanks for the Q and Sasquatch and Bassomatic’s leadership at this AO……strong!!

Cake Boss

 

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No Fear = No EnCOURAGEment

22 boot campers (including 1 FNG) and 5 runners posted to THE Ballroom this week looking for some #Encouragement along the pothole-filled road of life.  YHC offered a full Disclaimer for the benefit of our FNG (T-claps to Barney Fife on the EH) tipped the cap to Sir Topham Hat, who passed the Q baton to YHC due to work travel.  The word of the month (Encouragement) served as the inspiration for today’s adventures in the gloom, so thanks also to Chicken Hawk for his continued wisdom with that program.

Encouragement:  root word = Courage

Courage (noun): strength in the face of fear

With this backdrop, the workout unfolded with the objective of getting pax in touch with their own sense of #Fear to illustrate the experience of #Courage and the need/ability/practice of exercising it and #Encouragement of their brothers.

The Thang

warm up run to the football field

COP — SSH, IWs, Hillbilly walkers, Bombjacks, merkins, burpees

Line up along sideline, 3/4 pace sprints — to near hash/back, then far hash/back, lastly far sideline/back

Circle up for the Main Event (Fear or Favorite)

Pax were asked to identify the exercise they most #Fear when they hear the Q say “The next exercise is ___________.”  They were also asked to imagine their #Favorite exercise they like to call when they are Q.  Then we launched into 30 mins of Pax-suggested/Q-chosen exercises.

Plank jacks (Fogerty), Gravedigger (Culture Club), Partner Carry (Bass-o-Matic), V-up Roll-up (Polaroid), Sprints (FNG!), Moroccan Night Clubs (Assassin), Jack Webb (Magnum), Squats (Strawberry), Burpees (Pinup), Merkin (Rebel), Knee Tar N’Dyae (Rebel), Tunnel of Love (Twister)

Mosey home

Final ab work — American Hammer, Flutter

COT

Moleskin

T-claps to the pax for the enthusiastic participation, mumblechatter and #Encouragement throughout.  Apologies to those pax whose exercise I missed and those who I mismatched in the list above.  I know we started with Fogerty catching much flak for a stuttering proclamation of “Plank Jacks” to get us rolling.  Bass-o-matic challenged himself and all the pax in the early going with the Partner Carry call-out.  Yes, YHC quickly claimed FNG/Half Dome as partner (purely for teamwork purposes, I can assure you…it had nothing to do with his svelte frame).  Pinup threw down the gauntlet, claiming Burpees as both his Fear and his Favorite (1500 in September seems to prove the point — well done!).  Strawberry (on only his 2nd post!) showed he knows the proper rhythm of a workout by calling for Squats immediately after Jack Webb (get this man into Q school ASAP!).  And Twister had his mic drop moment with Tunnel of Love to cap it all off.  Fun times throughout!

Welcome to FNG/Half Dome, who posted at the behest of Barney Fife (kudos to both)!

Finally, just a recap on the theme to reinforce the message.  YHC, in my prideful youth and throughout a very long stretch of adulthood, deluded myself that I was purely self-motivated, and no outside influence, inspiration or good words could make a difference to my spirit or performance.  While my M openly claimed her need for affirmation and #Encouragement, I laughed those things off, as though those who needed them were weak, meek and timid.  I also claimed to have few worries or fears throughout these periods.  A-ha!!!   There it is — the smoking gun.  Since #Courage can only exist in the midst of #Fear, I must’ve needed nor displayed any #Courage throughout these years.   And in the absence of feeling #Fear and gathering up #Courage, I had no recognition of the need or value of #Encouragement.  And, so it follows sadly, that in the absence of my personal experience of these, I fumbled and floundered in expressing #Encouragement to those around me who longed for it.  This shortcoming became a significant blind spot and weakness in leading others, including my family.  Yes, sad.  Yes, true.

While I still have plenty of room for growth in the area of #Encouragement of others, my ship turned around when I became more sensitized to my own fears, and I felt the power of #Encouragement from others, and I demonstrated the #Courage that was somewhat dormant inside me.  So, the lesson here — soften your heart, look yourself in the mirror, get in touch with your #Fear.  From that point, you may find immense personal growth opportunity and the ability to better relate and #Impact those around you through #Encouragement.

Thank you to Short Sale for the Q opportunity and to all the pax for making the experience real!

 

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Burpees, Bearcrawls, and Barf!

A great crowd this morning at The Abyss.  We had a bunch of runners and a bunch of bootcampers and 1 FNG.  Those that stayed for the bootcamp probably wish the would have joined the runners, I know I did.  This workout was hard and we didn’t complete it, but there is always next time…

We started with the typical mosey to get the blood flowing a bit, we circled around the parking lot and did some shuffle steps, NUR, and back to mosey before circling up for warm-a-rama around the basketball hoops.  I decided prior that the warm-up was going to set the precedence for the workout (hard) and warm-up the muscles we’d be using a lot (shoulders, core, arms).

Warm-a-Rama

  • 10 Windmills
  • Elbow plank (called on random PAX for 10 counts, at least 2 rounds)
  • Back to regular plank – 10 Merkins
  • 9 Diamond Merkins (Q-Shame, I didn’t have one more in me)
  • Recover with 25 SSH IC
  • Back to Plank – 10 Peter Parkers
  • 10 Parker Peters
  • 6″ hold – Called on Random Pax for 10 counts (at least 2 rounds)
  • 25 Moroccan Nightclubs IC

We then moseyed to the grass hill for the next exercise.

For the first routine we paired up and started at the bottom of the hill on the sidewalk.  PAX A was to do Burpees while PAX B went backwards up the hill (NUR) and forwards down the hill x4.  After 4, we switched and PAX B continued the Burpees while PAX A ran backwards up/forwards down x4.  We did this until we reached 120 Burpees… a few of the PAX finished, most were over a 100 when I called it for time (I had another routine I wanted to get to).  Our Friendly New Guy thought this was a great time to splash merlot, so he did, but he kept on trucking right after.  He definitely brought the GRIT!

Congratulations and welcome Doubtfire! No better way to start F3, it’s all uphill from here!

We then took the short mosey to the paved hill the leads up to the rear gate to the school.  For the 2nd routine I brought back Paula Abduls, I’ve never done them on a hill so I thought that would be a nice (painful) new twist.  Paula’s aren’t really an exercise, its just a movement, 2 forward, 1 back, which is a nice metaphor on life.  Life isn’t a consistent line straight up, we all have setbacks, we all get knocked down, but it is how we respond to those set backs that contribute to our success.  We all know that through failure we become better, this is a nice way to build an exercise around that idea.  I didn’t have the energy to hammer that point home during the workout so I thought I would take the opportunity to point that out here.  In any case, back to the routine…

6 Cones were placed up the hill about 25 paces (50ft. or so) apart. We would always move in this order, 2 (cones) forward, 1 back until we reached the 6th cone and then we would work our way back. If you ever plan do this keep in mind cones will be hit multiple times depending on where they are placed, so plan accordingly.  Each cone had an exercise on it:

  1. True Americans x10 (hand release merkin & a plank jack =1)
  2. Donkey Kicks x10
  3. Squats x25 (this was meant to be a break)
  4. Crab Jacks (think plank jack, but in crab position) x10
  5. Diamond Merkins x10
  6. Absolution x10 – I haven’t done these before, but they will be back.  They were awesome and it was also a bit humorous watching the PAX get the coordination down for these.  It’s an 8-count exercise that goes a little something like this:
    • Start in plank position and perform a single Groiner (cadence “1” jump feet forward, “2” jump feet back), then Mahktar N’ Diayes to Chillcut position (cadence “3” & “4” with drop to each elbow), then Chilly Jack (cadence “5” feet out, “6” feet together), and finally Mahktar N’ Diayes to plank starting position (cadence “7” and “ONE, TWO, etc.” with rise on each hand).

Oh and I almost forgot to mention… we always went forward 2 by way of the Bear Crawl and backwards 1 by way of the Crawl Bear.  Brutal.

None of us made it back down, but we did all make it to the top, so I called it with about 5 minutes to spare to head back to CoT.

With only about 2 minutes left we did a couple of Ab exercises, I called LBC’s x 25 IC and called on Bones who did another 20-25 Flutters IC until we hit 6:00AM.

Announcements, praises, prayers

Read your newsletter!

Prayers for school teachers and our children as they head back to school.  Prayers for injured PAX and those with nagging injuries.

See ya’ll Monday at the Quagmire 🙂

-Flux

 

 

 

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Iron PAX Challenge – Week 2

This morning workout was the week 2 of the Iron PAX Challenge.  In addition, the RYAOA (Run your ass off August) crew was geared up for a run day.  The PAX was equally split, 10 for the challenge, 10 for the run.

Straight-up took the lead again with a warm-up stretch routine focusing on the muscle groups that we were going to be testing later in the workout.  After briefing the group on the routine, we began the challenge:

  1.  Thrusters
  2.  Curls
  3. KB Swings
  4. Man Makers
  • 8 minutes of each exercise
  • After every 25 reps run 25 yards out and back
  • 2 minute rest between each exercise

Here are the results for week 2:

  Number of Reps  
F3 Name Thrusters Curls KB Swings Man Makers Total
Straight up 166 243 137 45 591
Cha-Ching 172 247 200 58 677
Sugar Daddy 163 103 119 31 416
Bodywash 140 175 135 50 500
Maximus 170 215 207 56 648
Quack Attack 150 198 187 25 560
Mile High 125 175 142 30 472
On The Rocks 120 150 95 50 415
Soprano 110 135 90 32 367
Fishsticks 150 174 135 49 508

 

Great push and encouragement by both groups!  I know I am going to have difficulty raising my arms above my shoulders today.

 

Announcements:

Rooney Roast – This Friday

CSPAN Convergence – This Saturday

Straight Up workout – Sept 15th WEP

F3 – The Fort  Anniversary, Sept 21st

Let Me Run Fundraiser – 1,000 burpees in September

 

Prayers/Praises:

Relationships with 2.0s

Quality time with Parents

Teachers, Parents, and 2.0s going back to school

 

 

 

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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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Light Pole Work

For what looked to be a rainy morning the night before, I was pleased to see we would have a dry morning, except for the sweat from the less than moderate work I had planned.  Ballroom is a great AO and is also moderate.  The workout allowed everyone the opportunity to push themselves.  As cars rolled in a great group of 25 PAX assembled and the mumble-chatter started immediately.  After a short disclaimer we moseyed around the parking lot and stopped at the far side for warm-up

  • SSH
  • Windmill
  • Imperial Walker
  • Low Slow Squat
  • Merkin
  • Mountain Climber
  • MNC – correct arm movement

Mosey to the entrance road for the light pole work to begin.  Begin at 1st light pole with exercise, run to the 2nd and complete exercise.  Come back to 1st and complete exercise and go to 2nd then 3rd and then back to 1st.  Continue this until complete all 5 light poles. (Mumble-chatter had dropped to a low level), catching your breath was more important.  Light poles were spaced out along front entrance and every other pole had designated exercise.  Exercises:

  1. 10 Merkins
  2. 15 CDD
  3. 20 Dips
  4. 25 Monkey Humpers
  5. 30 Squats

Once completed and six was in we moseyed to the grass/mud hill on the side of the school.  Set out for a series of 12’s.  Bottom of hill dips and the top of the hill squats. 1 at bottom & 11 at top of hill – 2/10, 3/9…..

Moseyed back to front parking lot for a little Mary.  Opportunity for some of the Pax that had not Q’d before to lead an exercise of Mary.  Good job Arrowhead, Dungaree and Wide Right.

Moleskin:

We have almost completed 60 days of focus on impact.  I shared with the group that as I have thought about impact in my life, I have thought about the people in my life that have impacted me.  Most of the time they probably didn’t know the impact they made but more importantly their impact was made by how they lived their life.  As I shared that in our family, work, social and community, it may not be the words we speak but the daily actions we live that can impact someone.  I also shared Dabo’s response he had at the ACC media day, when asked about his faith.  “If there is hope in the future, there is power in the present”.  Take 3 minutes and watch the video of his response.  We are all blessed and have different opportunities in the present.  Let your actions speak loudly!!

Thanks Short Sale for the opportunity to Q.

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Find accountability in your life

YHC was called out of the bullpen to assist the originally scheduled Q – Crab Cakes since he was bi-coastal. Leading up to the morning WO, YHC struggled to figure out what to include in the weinke. The only thing that was a requirement was rugby sprints in honor of Crab Cakes. As I was pulling out the garage,  it dawned on me that each of the student parking rows at FMHS had numbers at the beginning identifying the row number. I couldn’t recall a WO utilizing those row numbers, so grabbed some chalk on the way out. However, as I was sitting in the car at the AO formulating the weinke, I found a deck of cards in the console and thought of Maximus’s infamous WOs. But I realized I should stick to the plan and be accountable for what I planned for. As we were all gathering around for the start, someone mentioned the pull up bars on site and Deacon said “there’s pulll up bars here?” Of course this peaked my interest (Shocker) and so I had to show the newbies the location. Even though the weinke was modified, accountability had a theme for today since it is the last day of the month and the monthly word (read end of backblast for more on this theme)

Mossy to the band field for some warm ups. Mossy towards location of pull ups, halfway there, stop for 20 squats. At pull ups, max out on pull ups, then do 25 LBCs; rinse and repeat 3xs.

Mossy back to band field for 4x4s. 1 burpee with 4 merkins. 10 OYO.

Line up at goal line, conduct 4 rounds of Rugby Sprints.

Mossy to parking lot:

Row 1: 1 Burpee – run to other end of parking lot and back to next odd number row

Row 3: 3 CCD – rinse repeat run through 13 rows

Row 5: 5 Squats

Row 7: 7 merkins

Row 9: SSH

Row 11: LBCs

Row 13: Flutters

Mossy to COT for 3 minutes of Abs: Big Boy Sit Ups, Big Boy Sit Ups with one leg extended out 6 inches from ground – switch legs, flutters, american hammers, dying cockroach.

COT: Today is the last day for May’s word of the month theme of accountability, with June’s word of the month being Impact. As Chickenhawk wrapped up discussing accountability with a Whetstone partner, I wanted to piggy back on that. Yesterday was a hard and sad day for my M. 1 year ago she lost her mom. As I come home from work she was sitting on the couch with teary eyes and a sad look. Before I could ask whats wrong she said “do you know what today is?” Of course I’m thinking “Crap, its not her birthday, its not our anniversary, what am I missing??” She then responds that her mom passed away 1 year ago that day. I of course being a selfish husband said “I’m sorry” and didnt even go over and give her a hug and kiss, nor comfort her. My response was “I need to get my 2.0 to baseball practice” When we got home, I failed again as we sat quietly on the couches watching meaningless TV. As we went to bed, all I did was give her a hug and said stay strong. As I write this, I sure look like a loser! So be accountable to your M each and every day. Show her love and be impactful to her. Support her without being asked to, love her, comfort her, don’t be ignorant and selfish, be accountable in her life by being her rock. We don’t have many days on this life, we need to make the best of every single day as a husband, father, leader…this has been a tough month, one that has shown the importance of being accountable to your family and friends, to be impactful to them as well. Let’s not forget this each and every day.

Trucker

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Pantheon Tribute to Mr. Clean and His Bride

Warmup:  Indian Run with High Knees, Lunges, Karaoke, Side Shuffle

The Thang:

Split Soccer Field – one side = plyometric exercises and other side weight exercises for 9 reps each side to celebrate 2018:

Station 1:  Side Straddle hops to summersault to Station 2:  Pullups on Fence,

Station 3:  Bombjacks to Lunge to Station 4:  30lb kettlebell swing,

Station 5:  Burpees to Crabwalk to Station 6:  50lb Ruck Press,

Station 7:  High Knees to Bear Crawl to Station 8:  20 lb Sandbag American Hammer,

Station 9:  Squat Jumps to 1/2 Suicide to Station 10:  40lb Sandbag Slam,

Station 11:  Goofballs to Bear Crawl to Station 12:  20lb Ruck Upright Rows,

Station 13:  Roll Merkin to Gorilla Walkers to Station 14:  10lb KettleBell Mace

Men rotated to parking lot run when done to circle of power for superman pumps to merkins in Jack Webb Fashion.

Rinse and repeat.

Prayers:  For Mr. Cleans Family and his Bride Cindy for strenght and wisdom as they celebrate her life.  For Lutefisks mother to be cured of cancer.

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If in Tega Cay you utilize hills and RUN

YHC took the message from Maxims at Tuesday’s Beyond WO to heart. We all find reasons to not push through difficult times; if thats a workout, raising kids, marriage, we tend to find a reason to give up or divert what really needs to be done. Your mind will convince you to stop or divert, but your body can go beyond what you think you can’t do. This resonated with me as I feel that I have been finding excuses for not being a better man, father and husband. What better way to start changing my mentality by locking shields with my F3 brothers and as the TV show Survivor states “expect the unexpected”. This starts with something that YHC needs to do more of to get better – RUNNING (and yes no Pull-ups today – shocker)

The Thang:

Nice mossy warm up run around the entire TCES

COP at front doors for 15 Windmills, squats, Moroccan nightclubs, IW, LBCs, merkins.

Line up at crosswalk for suicides:

Round 1: to first drop off sign then to second drop off sign (didn’t realize how long a run that was) then 5 merkins at end

Round 2: to end of sidewalk, to first drop off sign, to fire hydrant, then 10 merkins

Round 3 rinse and repeat round 2 but run backwards out and then forward back in, then 10 merkins

Round 4: rinse and repeat round 2 but run backwards both directions, then 10 merkins

Round 5: rinse and repeat round 1

Mossy to intersection near baseball field and circle up for:

Flutters, Bridge (raising each leg for 5 seconds each), LBCs

Mossy to intersection of Tega Cay Drive and Hubert Graham Way

Run to bottom of hill (about 0.25 miles down) and do 10 squats, run back up to intersection and 5 merkins – Rinse and Repeat for 3 times

Mossy back to school intersection at baseball field and circle up for another round of bridges and hammy stretches

Suicides for 2 rounds to fire hydrant and first drop off sign

3 minutes of Mary called out by each PAX

COT

Now, can we all fight through difficulties and go Beyond what we think we can’t do? I sure hope that I can embrace Maximus words everyday and push beyond my boundaries in all aspects of life. Funny, as I write this backblast I recall something I said when I co-hosted the the Fort invergence this past fall I challenged each PAX to do something new and different….here it is and what a great challenge! Go Beyond my mental abilities.

Prayers to our good pal Mr. Clean as he and his family go through the loss of a loved one and allow them to see love, faith, and the LORD. Prayers to YHC friend Sherry who is in ICU recovering from intestinal surgery. Always a honor to Q, thanks Fishsticks!

Trucker

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BB – Tempo – 12/28

See BB for runs do exist.

7 showed for a fun filled morning of running.

Originally had two routes planned a 7min group and an over 8 minute group.  As the cold hit us I think we all agreed lets just do the over 8 group.

So we knocked out 5 on a hilly cold windjammer, but hey as Nasa says, the view of the lake at the end was all worth it.

Came back and circled up and talked about all the great things coming, aka read your newsletter.

Prayers:

Traveling Families

Mr. Clean

Injured PAX

 

As always great time and thanks for the chance to lead!

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