Tag: Wild Thing

Mostly Legs at the Poopdeck

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4 today stayed behind for the bootcamp, others went out for a run to get some miles on their legs for the upcoming Ragnar relay.

The bootcampers put in some stretching and then went out to the marina for some laps. It was a good strong pace and we kept it up for 5 laps

I decided to throw in some sprints so we used the lightpoles as All You Got markers and pushed through a shorter length each time, all in all doing 4 sprints.

As we headed back towards the shovelflag we lunged the entire length of the shopping center and it’s unclear if Cat Lady was seen or if they were YMCA goers

Over at the field next to the flag I had set up a short cone distance of about 20 yards and we partnered up for some….
Buddy BearCrawl (thanks 9/11 GRT)
Partner Wheelbarrow
Partner Carry x2
Partner…. Standing? Idk what this is called but you lay down and are assisted in standing up by gripping with one hand only, keeping your feet planted the whole time is the key. Standing up 20 times without being able to push off the ground with your off hand is tough. So we did it 20 times for both arms.

Dora 1-2-3 is one of my favorites but instead of 100/200/300 we did a Lazy Dora of 1-2-3 sets of 25 reps. “resting” partner was to plank while waiting
1 set of 25 burpees ( I had forgotten what I wrote down first and later remembered it was LBCs because I was going to do rinse and repeat )
2 sets of 25 flutters (each leg)
3 sets of squats

Nothing fancy, kept it simple so people could push their bodies today.

Announcements
There is an invergence/convergence coming up, read your newsletter!!
Ragnar training is hitting its peak momentum, if you are interested in running up to 20 miles in October at the greenway, ask

Please pray for those in the path of the hurricane, damage will be done, its just a matter of how much and will the PAX and surrounding community be there to help.
Keep our injured brothers in prayer, we do some stupid stuff and we get physically injured but make sure to keep in contact so the Shieldlock is not lost.

Aye!

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2

The Abyss – Pushing the Perimeter!

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Put this one together fairly quickly the night before my Q while laying in bed w/ my 2.0.  Those tend to not work out so well for the Pax as it’s super easy to write down everything that is awful and hard and then ask the Pax to make it happen.  Well, that’s what I did.  It felt lazy.  It felt last minute.  It was both of those things.  And I was happy about it.

Had a solid crew of 18 boot campers – gave them the general theme of what this would be about, quick disclaimer, just enough to scare them a bit, and then we were off for a very quick warmup – something I am known for.

Warm-up:  seal jacks, merkins, plank punches, shoulder taps, superman coupled w/ Moroccan night club, slow as day windmills and we were done.

I didn’t know how long this next part would take, so I had a few extra things to do if we had time, but I was a bit uncertain from the get-go.  If you’ve been to Abyss (Palisades Elementary School), you know the front of the school is a standard school set up – a long road in w/ some turns, making its way to the parking lot, a roundabout for the drop off, etc, etc.  My goal was for us to do the outer perimeter with exercises as our mode of transportation – for the entire thing.  Starting at the loop at the front doors of the school:

– Lunge Walk (90 yards / 80ish meters) to the first turn
– Burpee Broad Jump (175 yards / 160 meters) to the next turn that then goes uphill to 49
– Crab walk up the hill (230 yards / 200 meters)
– Bear Crawl down the side walk parallel to 49 and then down the stairs (140 yards / 130 meters)
– Grand Finale:  Burpee Bounces around the loop / circle back to your starting point…you make ground by doing one burpee and as you push-up, you explode up and throw yourself forward 3 times on all fours.  Pop up, jump, that’s one burpee.  Keep it moving.

After the last of the pax finished the full loop, we had about 10 minutes, which we leveraged for partner carry work.  Thanks GRT from Friday night.  Felt inspired.  Partner up –
– Partner 1 does Spiderman Merkins while Partner 2 runs the length of the parking lot.  When they get to the end, they call for Partner 1 who starts to run to their Partner 2 (while Partner 1 is catching up, Partner 2 does Spiderman Merkins).  When they meet up, they partner carry each other the full length of the parking lot back to the starting point.  Did that 2 more times so everyone carried their partner 3 separate times.  The other exercises while one partner was running were squat touches (squat low enough to touch the ground w/ your fingers) and crunchy frogs.

2 minutes left – good old fashioned sprints.  Everyone back pedal 1/2 the length of the parking lot, all you got, and then turn and sprint the second half.  Did that 2 times and then it was time for COT.

Praises – new jobs / promising job interviews
Prayers – marriages, big flo barreling our way

Thanks to Bones for giving me the chance to lead these great men.  Big thanks to all the guys who made it out today – was awesome to bust a$$ together and get after it.

ChaChing

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8

Board of Pain at the Fire Ant

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It was an honor to again be placed on the Q list of the long list of candidates for The Fire Ant. After Spiderman renewed the mission of this AO, I knew I needed to make it worthwhile for the 14 others who decided to remove themselves from the fartsack this gloom.

THE THANG

So we began with the following: We took a quick ruck march around the building to the front of the Harris Teeter where YHC had previously placed the BOP. At this point YHC gave the F3 Disclaimer. YHC requested that everyone partner up. I then explained the Board: Partner 1 was to perform the first exercise and partner 2 was to perform the movement timing mechanism/then flapjack. The the pair was to go to the second exercise and timing mechanism. The exercises and timing mechanisms are listed below:

Exercises: Merkins, Low Slow Squats, CDD’s, Lunges, Flutters w/Press, Ruck Thrusts, Curls, Tricep Extensions, Lateral Lunges, American Hammers, Overhead Presses, Ruck Swings, and Man Makers.

Timing Mechanisms: Shuffle, Karaoke, Butt Kickers, High Knees, Ruck Run.

After much mumblechatter was had and we made it through the list YCH led us into the following word. Once the message was given the group headed back to the COT and held our Rucks overhead until 0600.

NMM

This was a morning surrounded with many HIMs in whom YHC is intrigued by. Men who wake up at 0345-0445 to get to a workout at 0500 or 0515 almost every day of the week. Most of the PAX in attendance this gloom are planning on taking what they do with fellow F3 brothers each day and taking it into the world this coming weekend. These PAX will be participating in a Goruck event in Charlotte in remembrance of 9/11 and the men and women who sacrificed their lives on that horrific day. 9/11 is a day, if you were alive, that all will remember no matter what you were doing on that dreadful morning. However, our country came through the struggle united and closer than I had ever seen before.

This morning I challenged all PAX to remember who and what they represent when they leave the workout each morning. First they represent the one who they place their faith in. Second, they represent their families. Then they represent F3 Nation (an event is a great place to EH Sad Clowns into the brotherhood). Finally, they represent the communities they are a part of from where they live to where they work.

The challenge was to represent well no matter where or what they are doing. And trust me, I write this to remind myself of this challenge.

Announcements, Prayers, & Praises were given with the whole group.

Longshanks led the COT.

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4

The mid-40’s Dynamic Duo Q

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Thanks to Smuggler for letting two crazy mid-40’s team up like never before into the Dynamic Duo. Lots of fun and wetness out there in the gloom. We focused today on encouraging one another and pushing through (the pain). Over 50% of this workout was aimed at strengthening your core with some endurance training to finish things off.  Speaking for Old Bay and myself – we had a blast (and this was no easy workout)! We hung around for some “coffeeteria” as well afterwards. I counted the total number of burpees and it was between 65-72 depending on what you went for. Special thanks to Wild Thing for making the trip to Tega Cay and demonstrating superb burpee form.

Warm-up:

DYNAMIC STRETCHING:

Jog – 1 Min

High Knees – 30 Seconds

Butt Kickers – 30 Seconds

Toy Soldiers – 30 Seconds

Lateral Shuffles – 30 Seconds (each side)

Lateral Lunges – 10 (5 each side)

Low semi-slow Squats – 12

Alternating Forward Lunges  – 10 (5 each side)- We rotated our torsos towards the side of the leg that is in front for each movement.

Low diamond Merkins – 15 single set

Single Leg Toe touches with other leg going back – 10 (5 each side)

Peter Pointers – 10

Rolling Crucifix – 5X each side

Table Twists – 5X each side

 

THE THANG:

I talked about the Nasty 7s that I had done with Sasquatch before and at an impromptu Q at The Ranch, but decided not to do them because of wetness from the night before so I gave the option. Most decided to do a jog to each corner in the basketball court and 4 burpees at each corner. Total was 20 here. I will have to formally teach the Nasty 7 at another time.

Stacked Feet/Staggered Hands Merkin (switch every 4) – 60 secs

Banana Rolls – 120 secs – Did with coupon for 60 of those secs

Leaning Crescent Lunges with coupon – 1 min with and 1 min without

Sphinx Merkin – 60 secs max reps

Bow to Boat – 120 secs – I was nice and we did not do with a coupon 

Side Lunge and raise coupon to put on the imaginary “shelf” – 45 secs each direction

Prison Cell Burpee (boy these were fun!)- 60 secs

Side Hip Raise – 30 secs each side

High Plank to 6 inches Run (this one really stunk)- 60 secs

Superman Banana – 60 secs

Yellow rope hoppers – 60 secs

Hillbilly Walkers – 30 secs

Imperial Walkers – 30 secs

300 Secs of Abs:

Upper Circle LBCs – 30 secs each direction; 5 sec rest between each

Twisting Pistons – 30 secs

Alligator Walks  (on forearms) 60 secs;

Canoe Crunch – 30 secs

Slow LBC and Twist (Crunch and Twist) – 60 secs

Regular Plank to the end – 60 secs

Immediate transition into my partner in crime’s Q, the infamous Old Bay:

1) Bent ladder with Morning Wood on the field and Burpees at the entrance to the parking lot. Run between a burpee and the field was backwards and a side shuffle left/right to a distant cone where Morning Wood (Turkish getup) occurred and repeat. This was taxing!

2) Catch-me-if-you-can on path around fields. Exercise was Merkins/Butt-kickers.

3) 7 extra burpees

4) SSH – 15

COT: Key items: Prayers for the Ms and praise for Delta’s great news.

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BEYOND the JOY

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I’m sitting down to write this BB and literally can’t do what I challenged the PAX with at this morning’s BEYOND workout. Eliminate the distractions. Oh, what’s this text say, how about this tweet mention (can’t miss that), work email really needs my immediate response, man those kids left their cereal bowls on the counter, what time are we leaving today, etc, etc, etc. At times it can be funny but others, it can be really frustrating. I allow myself to continuously chase progress and other tasks rather than finding joy in where I am. It then leads to what you’ll read about later…burnout.

So there you have it, this BEYOND post will be focused on a struggle many of us face and that is running from joy, not finding joy where we are or honestly, not being a joy to spend time with. That latter one has been my challenge over these last several years because of those first two.

On to it. Car after car after car rolled into the Hive parking lot and you know the feeling, the feeling of way more cars than you were expecting. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it gives you that kick in the pants, that extra motivation, that reminder of why you put your feet on the floor in the 4 o’clock hour. That’s what I was blessed to experience this beautiful morning as 33 other men, men that have pushed me over the years, men I’ve looked up to over the years, men who are about to bust it right along side me as we embark on something that typically looks better on paper. But that’s the idea, to push ourselves BEYOND our sense of normalcy both physically and mentally.

Funhouse escorted a group of 5 PAX for his killer initiative of RYAOA (T-claps on keeping that going) and the rest of us, 29 to be exact, circled up. After a quick explanation of BEYOND for the rookies and the search for any FNG’s, we discussed the plan with the weight, either Kettle Bell or Ruck…your choice. What I just realized, and to which nobody held be accountable, was that I forgot the all-important disclaimer. Men, never do that again. DO NOT START A WORKOUT WITHOUT A DISCLAIMER. You don’t have to be an attorney but verbalize the basics.

Starting on the curb nearest the tennis courts, run to the other side of the parking lot at 50% then 25% back. 10 Squats, 5 Burpee Broad Jumps then run to the other side at 75% then 25% back. 15 Diamond Merkins, 5 Burpee Broad Jumps then 100% to the other side followed by 100% back.

Switzer up for the first part of the discussion. I read the following definition: “Feeling of great pleasure & happiness.” After a few likely words were tossed out when I asked what word that defines, we got to the word of the day, JOY. I’m sure guys were wondering why in the world we’re talking about joy at an F3 workout, what kind of soft, starbucky-hands nonsense is this? That exact reason is the reason we’re discussing this word. It’s a word and feeling we don’t allow ourselves to enjoy often enough. There are people I enjoy being around and things I like doing but do I truly find joy in those situations? Said differently, do I enjoy being around those people or being in those moments and perhaps more importantly, do people find joy in being around me? Over these last few years, I’ve been operating like a hard-ass, focusing on task completion and moving from one thing to another. I can tell you, I’ve not been a joy to be around. While I was in it, I didn’t even realize it. How did I get here? Really, how do I get out of it?

That said, we split up into 4 groups, 1 for each corner of the large parking lot. In each corner, we did 10 Man Makers with your weight of choice. What varies is your mode of transportation between the corners.

  1. Lunge walks with the weight overhead.
  2. Bear crawl and transport the weight by any means necessary.
  3. Reverse lunge walks with weight overhead or held out front. (This was definitely better on paper as many of us had to modify to a bear hugging of the weight.)
  4. 4 Kettle Bell swings or Ruck swings followed by 4 walking steps.

After 3 of these 4, time got away from me and I had to audible and bring the group back to the center of the lot. As mentioned before, us task-completers run from one half-baked focus to another and we rob ourselves of contentment and joy in the moment. After weeks, months or years of doing this, we inevitably get burned out. Very rarely does something positive come after this stage. However, here in the gloom of our Hive AO here, burn out means something different. I was hoping to have 15mins left at this point but as it was, we had 6 and only got part of the way (you see, I tried to fill the schedule with too much and didn’t complete what I intended). See the irony?

  1. 21 Curls in cadence (3ct down, 1 up)
  2. 21 Flutter Presses in cadence
  3. 21 LBC in cadence
  4. 15 Overhead presses in cadence (b/c I didn’t have what it took to get to 21)

Closeout: We have a hard time refocusing once something bad happens or if it’s not bad, just something that temporarily knocks us off our trajectory. Oddly enough, our kids do a better job of getting back on track than we do. If something negative happens to you during the course of the day, how quickly are you able to course-correct? Are you able to move on from a less-than-positive comment made about you and not let it affect the rest of your day? Watch your kids and take note. Watch them get in a disagreement with a sibling, maybe pout, then start playing or hanging out with them 1-2hrs later. Could you imagine what it’d be like if we dusted ourselves off and went back at it? There’s joy in overcoming.

Listening to a podcast yesterday where Rob O’Neill was being interviewed, he briefly touched on this by saying something that hit me like a 50lb Kettle Bell across the bridge of the nose. A little background, Mr. O’Neill is the Operator on Seal Team 6 who fired the shot that killed the most wanted terrorist of all time, OBL. I’ve been fascinated by our military and specifically, SF, for years and imagine how quickly they need to pivot on a decision and adjust to chart a new course. His comment was this when discussing attitudes, “Are you having a bad day or did you have a bad moment that you’re milking into a bad day.” Don’t shake that off, marinate on that for a while and it might just change how you respond in that next bad moment.

Tesh, I appreciate your willingness to let me run BEYOND at the Hive.

Men of F3, I’m humbled by your company this morning and every morning you allow me to state my hospital name, age and F3 name.

No man left behind but leave no man where you found him.

Maximus

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10

Burpees, Bearcrawls, and Barf!

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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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2

CSPAN Send off Convergence

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141 Men came to show the Respectable**CSPAN** some Respect!!

He leaves The Fort and heads north or as Dredd refers to Yankee land. Not gone forever but just up the road 600 miles to start a new chapter in life and in F3 as he will launch F3Philly.

I am not the most eloquent with my back-blasts and I am usually to the point with posting the workout, add some words and being done, however since I can’t get Italian Job to write this up and Double D challenged the PAX to think of one word to represent CSAPN, I think that is the best way to document this convergence.

Thank you CSPAN for being all of these things and more to you r brothers in the PAX. As posted on Twitter and many of these were repeated multiple times:

brother
camaraderie
commitment
confidence
connected
consistent
courageous
dedicated
empathetic
example
genuine
handsome
HIM
honorable
humble
humility
impact
influence
influencer
insightful
inspiration
integrity
investor
legend
magnanimous
model
respect
selfless
servant
shepherd
solid
squaredaway
steadfast
steady
wise

The Workout looked like this:

WWL at the Q:

  • Mosey around the lot
  • Line up; karaoke, side shuffle, high knees, butt kickers, toy solders, lungewalk, power skips
  • COP
    • SSH, squat, merkin, moroccan night club, 10 Flying squirrels
Double D at the Q:
  • Run to practice field
  • Plank sequence
  • Split into 2 groups on each sideline
  • Sprint to center and back to sideline
  • Monkey humpers x25
  • Rinse + repeat with Merkins x 25
  • CDDs x25
  • Burpees x25
Longshanks at the Q:
  • Burpees
  • Lunges
  • Inch worm Merkins
  • Maktar Ndiayes
  • Plank Jacks
  • Squats.

Dredd at the Q:

  • Prayer for CSPAN
  • Merkin/Ab Lab series
  • Truth Nuggets and Leadership development with Major Payne, Wegmans, & Drop Thrill
  • Mosey to hill behind Bob Jones Stadium
  • Prayer for CSPAN heading to F3Philly…..”CSPAN Coming”
  • More Merkin/Ab lab series

COT:

141 Count, Name O’rama, 2 FNGs (Bikini & Manzel), Skinny Jeans pray out over CSPAN and his IMPACT on men and for Sky Q’s kingdom.

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104

Stairway to Burpees

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11 Pax came out to Quagmire. YHC managed to catch the prerun on their second lap after setting up some cones.

There was a full disclaimer given and we mosied in front of BB down to HD.
COP
Imperial walkers x 20
MNC x 20
Squats x 20
Peters Parkers x 20
Hill Billy walkers x 20
The thang
An oldie but a goodie.  YHC had 12 cones set up, and pax picked ast cone did the exercise listed and then ran a lap around the parking lot, including the stairs, and on to the next station.  Every stair climb a burpee was added at the top landing.
Cones: Merkins x 20, CCD x 20, jump squats x 30, LBCs x 30, OHP w/CB x 20, curls w/ CB x 25, Bent over rows x 20, Freddy Mercuries x 30, calf raises x 30, lunges x 30, Peter Parker’s x 30, crab cakes x 30… And another I can’t remember.
Managed to get back to COT in time with the CBs.
Thanks Jedi for the opportunity to lead.
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Sea Legs 7/31/18

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The route was simple: Langston -> Oleander -> Grand Palisades Pkwy around the traffic circle -> Rt on 49 back to COT.

It was muggy, it was hilly and we got it done.

Praises for life and the realization of how quickly it can be taken away
Praise for faith
Prayers for those seeking employment
Prayer for a friend meeting with Dr’s about a cardiovascular issue.

Until next time,

Wild Thing Out!

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Still in Abyssness

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I seem to keep having my last Q in the Carolinas at least once a week now. Gonna need to stop calling it that until I got a final date for when I leave. Bones gave me the Q for abyss at sea legs, came up with something on the spot that went more or less like this today-

Mosey to basketball court, COP

Mosey to the back road. At top of back road, tried having us do rugby sprints, learned its kinda hard to do it coming downhill, didn’t realize the angle was as steep as it was when trying to stop suddenly for six inches. Did this all the back to basketball courts

WIth a partner, each man does 30 pullups  altogether, switching off to run to give breaks between sets. I love my pullups, and 30 is ambitious I think for most people.

After this went on to main event. Tried explaining the whole routine before starting, but learned it was alot easier to just go round by round and have the PAX follow along till the habit picked up.

ISLAND HOPPING

4 islands nearest us in parking lot, do a set of an exercise and run to next. then,Far away islands, run to each and do 15 LBCs.  last island near middle by COT, 10 burpees before moving on to next round. rounds were as follows:

1.10 merkins

2.20 squats

3.20 monkey humpers

after going through one cycle of this, PAX had it down pat. 10 minutes, left, started over with intention that everyone do as much as they could before time. Pax in lead got to monkey humpers again before COT called.  As usual, Jedi was beast mode and in the lead and never looks like he’s dying haha.

Had lunch with Qbert today who was present, I asked him what the general impression was of ” a whopper Q”, if it had any general characteristics . He answered that it was that nobody ever knew what it was going to be or what to expect. Really, Really glad to hear that because honestly, my biggest thing that I want to avoid at all costs, is to be too predictable or cliche when I lead the beatdown. So its good to know.

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