Early Risers at the Swamp

When I pulled into the parking lot near Best Buy, there were several cars already parked near the AO.  Based on the mumble chatter on social media, several of the PAX were getting in some early training for upcoming events.  There were 23 men at the work out, 13 for ruck, 8 for BC, and 2 runners.

After the disclaimer, we jogged to the front of Best Buy.  We started with a few warm up exercises (Butt Kickers, Toy Solders) before we moseyed over to the back of Just Fresh.

COP

SSH  x 20

Imperial Walker x 20

Windmill x 10

Plank Stretches

 

Next, we moseyed to the front of Home Depot for a round of Dora 1-2-3

100 Lat Pull-ups on the bicycle rack

200 Squats

300 LBCs

Next, we moseyed back to Just Fresh near the staircase for a round of Arod 3-2-1 (reverse Dora). Instead of running around the parking lot, we ran up and down the stairs.

300 Calf Raises

200 Lunges

100 Jump Squats

Next, we headed back to COT for one last exercise, the Merkin Gauntlet.  The Pax lined up in a plank position.  Each person performed 4 merkins in front of each person.

COT

Special prayers for Twister as he recovers from his eye surgery

 

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Shovel Flag Handoff @ The Deep

What a day!

This morning was a beautiful sight to see.  30 men came out to see the passing of the shovel flag from YHC to O’Reilly.  I have been lucky enough to call myself Site Q of The Deep since March(?) 2018 and have loved every minute of it.  When I was first asked to take over by Royale, I said yes without hesitation.  I didn’t know it at the time, but running this site was going to instrumental to my growth as a leader within our F3 region and in my personal life.  I remember when I first took over as Site-Q, there were Saturday’s that I wouldn’t make it out and just chalked it up to work the night before.  But it wasn’t long before I got my mindset on being present and taking on my leadership role.  When Royale asked me to take on being Site-Q, he didn’t want someone to just make a schedule and be absent.  So I changed work schedules accordingly and even if for some reason I had to work the night before; I still made it out the next morning.

Thanks to everyone that stepped up to Q during my tenure.  Without you, The Deep wouldn’t be where it is today.

The Thang:

Disclaimer for our 4 FNGs and the PAX.  Mosey across to the Elementary School.  COP exercises included: SSHs, Windmills, Moroccan Night Clubs, Merkins, Flutters and Mountain Climbers.  Maybe some other stuff but I forgot.

Shakespeare’s Q- Playground Dora

PAX partnered up.  100 pull ups, 200 Squats, 300 Freddie Mercury.  1 PAX work and other made a run around the playground area.  Swap on return.

O’Reilly’s Q- Track Work

PAX got into 4 groups and lined up on the track.  Each group took off and ran approx. 100M.  After the run, PAX completed various amounts of exercises as a group and then lined up for the next run/exercise.  It started as a slow mosey for 100M but it soon turned into a sprinting race between Witch Hunt and Two Ferns.  Which then turned into Witch Hunt, Two Ferns, Flux, Shakespeare, John Wick, and Wolverine… and some others… but they were behind me so I wouldn’t know.

Exercises after the run included (in no particular order): 50 Merkins, 50 Lunges, 50 Bomb Jacks, 50 squat jumps… and stuff like that.  You’d have to ask O’Reilly what he wrote on his Weinke.  I don’t remember.  I just remember doing all the exercises and reps.

NameORama and Ball of Man at the end.

Announcements (all in the past now)

Prayers- For our brother Riverboat who passed the night before.  He was Godly man who ministered the Word until his last moment.  Fighting a brain tumor and multiple recurrences of this over the years; he never wavered in his Belief.  We were lucky to have him come towards the end of a workout at The Deep and give him his name.  He prayed over us that day.  Riverboat will be missed on Earth; but we all know where he is and there is absolutely no doubt about it.

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High Intensity Poop

The Gloom was dark and full of terror.  12 bad a@# High Impact Males rolled up to PoopDeck to get some, and some they got.  A disclaimer was given and off we mosey’d on over to the Papa Dock parking lot where they have a fishing pier.  Early morning fishermen looked on with furrowed brows at a motley crew of 12 guys dressed in dark clothing running at them, wondering what in the world was going on.  We did not care, we know we are crazy.

As practice for my first High Intensity Q next Wednesday at the yet to be determined AO name, I did a high intensity COP consisting of 3 rounds of Circle Burps(High Knees with each Pax calling out “down” and doing a burpee for a total of 36 Burpees).

We then did a Dora consisting of 100 Donkey Kicks/150 Curb Dips/200 Single count Lunges.

The sweat was dripping and heart rates were pounding as we mosey’d on over to one of the big parking lot walls where we did Balls To The Wall Walks(Pax hand walked a certain distance while the other Pax did Burpees till all Pax did the Wall Walk). Then we mosey’d on over to one of the parking lots and did Cha Ching parking lot agility drills(you have to be there).

Our grand finally with 10 minutes left on the clock was a Fia inspired exercise called the pancake.  You do 1 merkin, flip over and then do a big boy.  We finished in a 1/1,2/2,3/3+ rep range till we hit time.  A real crowd pleaser. 

Prayers for kids growing up in broken homes and using athletics to get out of a bad situation. Prayers for violent deaths, upcoming surgeries and the overall state of the world. Tune in next time for more pain and suffering! Peace!

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Productive little day at the office

It’s not often that I get asked to Q all the way out in Clover, so knowing those guys and always trying to make the most of everyone’s time, I made it my personal goal to have the most productive little Monday they’ve ever had out at the Crows Nest.

Was pleasantly surprised to see two faces I wasn’t expecting – Maximus making the trek all the way out from Tega Cay (much thanks for the long commute!) and then Witch Hunt who we’ve been missing in the gloom for a couple months now (welcome back brother!).  I’m not one for warm-ups as many of you know, so at 5:12a I warned the pax to start stretching on their own.  At 5:15a ,the disclaimer was said and we then went on a burpee mile warm-up to see the AO since it had been a while since I was last there and wasn’t sure of where we’d be doing the exercises I had lined up.

  • Burpee Mile – starting w/ 5 burpees OYO at COT, we then ran 1 mile stopping every 1/4 mile to do 5 burpees.  25 burpees in total, 1 mile under our belt.

Second half of the warm-up was on the parking lot lines near the playground.  Starting at the first parking space, do the following:

  • Sprint up one side, side shuffle to the right, back pedal down the next line, side shuffle to the right, sprint up, shuffle, back pedal and so on and so on.  Once you get to the end of the spots (about 8 spots), side shuffle around the bend and do the same thing on the other side.
  • We then moseyed over to the next parking lot that was equivalent to the one we just left and did a similar drill, only do a quasi skip (one leg in front, one leg in back) back and forth down the full parking lot lines, back pedal to the line behind you and bunny hop over and back going left back down the line.  Do for all spots and then mosey back to the start.

With the warm-up and heart rate spike complete, we hit the playground for some 11’s.  Not your standard 11’s, but a play on the 21’s that Zima and Anchorman had us suffer through at the Sweati 2 days prior.

11’s = I give two exercises, you do 1 rep of the first, and 1 rep of the second.  Then do 2 reps of each, then 3 of each, then 4, then 5….then 11 reps each.  Ends w/ you doing 66 reps of each exercise in a short period of time.  We did the following:

  • Dips / Burpees…brought the cumulative burpee count to 91 (25 from warm up mile + 66 here)
  • Jump lunges / diamond merkins
  • Sprints / big boy sit-ups…yes, the runs, ughhh.  So we started on one cross walk and then had to sprint to the next one about 30 yards up (that’s 1 sprint) and do 1 big boy sit up.  You then sprint back to the original cross walk and then back to the one you started at (that’s 2 sprints) and do 2 big boys…you work that up to 11.  This one took the remainder of the time with having to sprint 30 yards back and forth 5 times in a row, then 6 times, then 7….ugh.  A few got to 10 sprints in a row before we had to call it.

Survey Says mumbled something about making the burpee count an even 100 at some point during the workout so I thought it was a very valid suggestion.  We got back to COT and everyone knocked out 9 more.

Final totals = 2.7 miles, 100 burpees, 66 dips, 66 jump lunges (1 = both legs so really 132 jumps), 66 diamonds, 66 (or close to) big boys and 66 (almost there) sprints.  Not a bad day at the office right there.  We didn’t really break, we didn’t really warm-up, and the pax didn’t really complain one bit.  Just came to work as they knew we would.

Prayers were shared for those suffering from cancer (Alex in particular, who is 22 yo), our kids safety / independence away at camp, job interviews and for those who find themselves living homeless – White Snake shared a really cool story about a guy he ran into Uptown who was rocking a F3 tshirt and offered to give it to him.

Thanks Iced T for the call to lead – looking forward to the next time.

Cha Ching

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Me Hearties Take on the Poopdeck, argh!

Sixteen of the roughest, toughest Pax, along with an experienced FNG (Coach Steve, now and forever known as “Trench”) joined YHC on a steamy morning at the Poopdeck.  Here is how it went down:

Warm – o- rama

  • Short mosey around the Bowl-n-Bounce, peppered with Toy Soldiers, Butt Kickers & High Knees
  • 10 Wind Mills IC
  • 20 SSH, IC
  • 10 LSS IC
  • 10 Sungods forward, IC, 10 backwards

The Thang, Part 1

We divided in to 3 groups for a three stage beat down; each group completes all of the exercises in the stage together, then takes a short lap to the next stage.  Each group completes all three stages twice:

Stage 1

  • 10 Jump squats
  • 10 single count curls/arm (25 lb dumbell)
  • 20 Nolan Ryan’s (10/side)
  • 25 LBCs (single count)

Stage 2

  • 10 Lunges per leg
  • 10 WWII Sit ups
  • 10 Tricep hammers/ arm (20 lb dumbell)
  • 10 Diamond merkins

Stage 3

  • 25 SSH
  • 20 Flutters (per leg)
  • 15 Derkins
  • 25 CDDs

The Thang, Part deaux

Partner up to knock out this list, one exercising, one taking a parking lot mosey:

  • 100 Lunges
  • 75 Ranger Merkins
  • 75 Bobby Hurley Squats
  • 75 Carolina Dry docks
  • 75 Crab Cakes
  • 75 Werkins
  • 75 Monkey Humpers
  • 100 LBCs
  • 40 Flying Squirrels

I don’t think anyone made it past the dry docks before we called Omaha for some Mary (flutters, Freddy Mercuries, American Hammers, all IC)

COT:

Reminder of the Sweati set to take place this Saturday; 3rd F prayers at the local schools in the planning stage; Q-School at Bermuda Triangle continues on Friday.

Wolverine took us out.  As ever, I’m grateful for this group of men, and the chance to lead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Virtuous Leadership at Crows Nest

15 men made it out to Crow’s Nest.  Here’s what they did.  Sorry to hear that Survey Says had to leave because he rolled his ankle during the pre-run.

COP

IWs – CDDs – SSHs – Ranger Merkins – Broga – MNCs – Mountain Climbers

Evolution #1

Mosey to brink columns that fence in the front playground

Partner Up

5 Muscle Ups

Partner does Merkins AMRAP

Rotate through 6 rounds. Those muscle ups got sketchy towards 25-30…

Next we planked in the front parking lot to Review the 5 Cs of Virtuous Leadership that we went over in Q Source Saturday.

The universal Essentials for a Shared Leadership Team’s (SLT) F3’s Leadership Virtues:

  • Candor: graciously telling the hard Truth and demanding to hear it from others
  • Commitment: unwavering loyalty to the Group and unflinching determination to accomplish its Mission
  • Consistency: to be unchanging in nature, Standard or effect over time
  • Contentment: stability of emotion engendered by the Consistent pursuit of Joy rather than Happiness
  • Courage: setting aside fear to turn hardship into grace

Hopefully, not much needs to be said in explanation of why the Leadership Virtues are Essential to every SLT. Just imagine trying to share Leadership with a man who does not tell the Truth, is constantly changing his Standards or is emotionally unstable. It simply cannot be done.

Mosey to back of school

Evolution #2

Round 1

Run to loading dock, jump up, complete 5 Squats

Partner Lunges AMRAP

Completed 4 rounds

Round 2

Run to Loading Dock, jump up, 5 Merkins

Partner doing Pull ups at playground

Sucked too bad so were only  completed 2 rounds

Round 3

Run to Loading Dock, jump up, 5 Merkins

Partner America Hammers

Completed 2 Rounds

Checked with the group on the 5 Cs of Virtuous Leadership

They got all 5 as a group – Saved themselves from a severe burpee penalty

Mosey towards front of school

Evolution #3

Wall sits with 25 overhead press in cadence

BTTW 30 secs counted by 3x random PAX

Wall sits with 25 overhead press in cadence

BTTW 30 secs counted by 3x random PAX

Mosey to COT right on time!

Announcements

The Sweati this weekend

Discussed the great FiA launch in Lake Wylie from the previous weekend. Guys are already getting FiA’d from this…what have we done?!?!

Prayers:

For PAX healing, two injuries today from Costanza’s pulled quad to Survey Says ankle. Got to be careful out here men!

An Honor to Lead,

Royale

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Escape From McDowell Nature Preserve

So I have been doing more running than usual lately in preparation for the Ragnar and on a  hot muggy July 3 I decided to bring the rest of the PAX along for some of my training, much to the chagrin of some of my F3 brothers. Disclaimer was given and we were off to the back basketball courts where we circled up for…

COP-SSHx20/Reach to Sky/Touch Toes/Down Dog/Honeymooner/merkinsx10/Down Dog/Honeymooner/Touch Toes/Reach to Sky/Sun Gods x11 fwd/rvrse. Circle Burp-High Knees while each PAX calls down and we all do a Burpee on the down.

Main Event

We ran to the back of the McDowell Nature Preserve where there is a lake and a circular parking lot. The run is about a mile back with a bunch of hills and there were a few PAX who were not exactly happy bout that. Sorry not sorry. Once we did get to the lake parking lot we Burpee Broad jumped around in a circle which was another crowd pleaser. At this point we were all around 50 or so Burpees which is another training goal of mine as I prepare for a Spartan Race(50 Burpees a day/100 if I do not post). We then had to escape the preserve. As most of us were winded I had us start back by lunge walking up hill to catch our breath, then we bear crawled for a bit before running back to COT.

We still had a few minutes before COT. Thank you Royale for leading some Flutter Kicks until the 6 was in.  We finished off with a few Sprints until the end.

Thoughts And Prayers

Leading a mostly running workout is a challenge as everyone is not in running shape and there was some separation. Overall it worked, but just barely. Prayers for travel, disease, losing loved ones, dealing with family and a big praise for ‘Merica on its 243 birthday since the Deceleration Of Independence from Britain in 1776. Thanks also to Jiminy Cricket and Crux from F3 Lake Norman for coming out. Peace!

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Webs at Bermuda Triangle for anniversary celebrations

First time out at the Bermuda Triangle, longer drive than usual but it was totally worth it, good to see new faces out in the gloom.

Today marks my 2nd anniversary with F3 Nation and it’s also the first anniversary of the Bermuda Triangle AO, TCLAPS to Homebrew for leading this AO during this year so what better way but to combine the celebrations; 15 PAX decided to get better and were ready to start the party at 0500, some where disappointed to know that no utensils were in the menu but later found out that it was better that I left the utensils out.

After a short disclaimer, we moseyed to the front of the school for the warm up in cadence:

Windmills

Moroccan Night Clubs

Low slow squats

Low slow merkins

I’ve been nursing a pulled hamstring all week so I decided to keep the running part to a minimum; I had 4 cards in my pocket with predetermined webs, we circled up on a “grassy” area, even though most of it was dirt with patches of grass, time to start our webs series, first web LEGS:

1 Knee Tar Jie – 4 squats, progressive to 10 KTJ and 40 squats (55 KTJ and 220 squats total)

Some questions arose when the second card was pulled out of my pocket but you don’t get up at 4 am to to the easy thing, second web CHEST/SHOULDERS:

1 Worst Merkin Ever (wide, regular, diamond) – 4 Carolina Dry Docks, progressive to 10 WME – 40 CDD, after the 8th WME I decided to switch the 9th and 10th round to regular merkins only and the CDD stayed the same. Flux was a champ and decided to do WME on the 9th and 10th as well so some of us joined him in the action. (+-150 merkins and 220 CDD)

we moseyed back to the soccer field for a softer grassy area and on the way there the site Q asked me about the legendary Captain Thor web, well, that was our third web ABS:

Captain Thor
1 Big Boy Sit Up – 4 American Hammersogressive to 10 BBSU and 40 AH (55 BBSU and 220 AH total)

With about 7 minutes left in the clock, I pulled my last card for the fourth web series CARDIO:

1 burpee – 4 goof balls, progressive to 10 burpees – 40 GB (most of us finished the 8th round for 36 burpees and 144 GB) I learned about goof balls last weekend at Hog and Coyote and this exercise really gets your heart pumping,  yes you guessed, you look like a goof ball!!

My plan was to include all groups of muscles into one workout and we did it, great job pushing yourselves out of the comfort zone gentlemen!!

We finished with announcements about Q School at Bermuda Triangle, we included our injured AX, families and kids on our prayers.

Thank you Homebrew for the opportunity to lead!!

Tinsel out…

 

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‘Twas another beautiful Saturday morning at the deep, 21 pax including FNG Bobby Boucher came out to put in work.
COP
Produce pickers
Moroccan night clubs
Sun gods
SSH of varying speeds
Mosey to the picnic tables

11’s
partner Abyss Merkins and Dips
Mosey to playground
Partner pull ups and Makhtar N’Diayes
(Lots of mumble here, whining about forearms and such)

Main event
1/4 mile track mosey until Q says red light perform exercise until Q says green light.
Merkins
Monkey humpers
Lunge walk
Big boys
Squats
Burpees
Alternating arm planks
Dying cockroaches
I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.
Ended up with close to 3 miles for the morning
Rounded it out with some ultimate football and a brief 4 minute Ab lab.

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