Tag: Wild Thing

RUCK – GC – RUCKICIDES

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Well it was my turn to Q again and was digging through my twisted mind as to what to do and I started thinking about something with Suicides.  Then the lovely thought came to mind about doing RUCKICIDES, and from there the workout took shape.

Router put out for a pre-run so of course the usuals showed up to do it, but was excited when OLAF wasn’t really feeling it.  So Jedi, Cha Ching, and Router took off for 3 miles and Olaf and I grabbed an 80 and 60lb sandbag, plus rucks and did a little under two miles in 30 minutes.  Those got heavy!!

On to the Ruck, was pumped to see 9 PAX out today!

Warm up

Indian run where last person does some cleans with the sandbag – well that turned out to be way to easy for everyone else and confusing so about 15 seconds in I yell “Screw this, RUCKS overhead”.  So then we run three laps around the parking lot alternating exercises while still running.

Rucks Overhead

Overhead Press

Away from Chest Carry

Curls

Farmer Carry

Overhead

Again all while running.

WOD:

Grab 7 Sandbags and the two person carry cement pipe and start moving.  We carry it to the church parking lot where RUCKICIDES commence.

First:

Bear Crawl – 5 merkins – Crawl Bear back – Bear Crawl – 5 Merkins Crawl bear back (length of parking lot)

Lil E is a bear literally, he beat Cha Ching if that tells you anything.

Second:

Walking Lunge – 10 Squats – Duck walk back – repeat (length of parking lot)

My butt is still sore…

Grab weight and move – This time whatever weight we were carrying beyond our rucks had to be overhead for a certain amount of time.  Sorry Cha-Ching that 80lb bag sucks!

Next we did timed bag toss relay up the hill to the fire station:

We set a time hack of 1.5 minutes and did the first round with the 60lb bag in 1minute 3 seconds.

We cleaned it up and did it in 46 seconds

Next we jumped up to the 80lb bag and knocked it out in under a minute.

At this point we had 6 minutes to make it back to COT and some distance to cover, so we grabbed all the weight and double timed it back!

Pumped for the turnout and to see NASA out there again!

I’ve got a full Q schedule so you won’t see me Q’ing for a bit but come out and support.

Until later,

RAD

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Bucket-o-Pain – New and Improved With More Awfulness!!!

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9 bootcampers and 7 ruckers landed at Golden Corral for a buffet of painful options.  Drummond brought an FNG (later named “Manifold”) to partake in the meal.  Don’t know about any of the other bootcampers, but YHC was thankful not to be part of the rucking group when Rad rolled the giant tractor tire out of the back of his truck. No bueno.

5:15 arrived, and after a disclaimer was offered, the bootcampers took off for a mosey around Rite-Aid, down to the auto-repair place, and back to the front of Harris Teeter.  Stops were made along the way for various warm up exercises, including:

  • SSH
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Sumo Squats
  • Peter Parkers
  • Dips
  • Windmills

38 Special came in hot, and caught up with us after our second stop on the warm-up run.

The Thang

At the stopping point in front of HT was the bucket of pain.  But this time the instructions were different than previous BoP appearances.  Here’s how it went:

  1. First exercise was drawn from the bucket.  Pax did 5 reps.
  2. Second exercise was drawn.  Pax did 10 reps of it, then repeated the 5 reps of the first exercise
  3. Third exercise was drawn.  Pax did 15 reps of it, then 10 of the second exercise, then 5 of the first.

Routine continued until 5 exercises were drawn (which had 25 reps).  Once completed, pax took a run around the entire front parking lot of the shopping center.  We had time to do this twice.  Here were the exercises.

  1. Round 1:
    1. 5 merkins
    2. 10 burpees
    3. 15 squat jacks
    4. 20 POGO (10 each leg)
    5. 25 plank punches
  2. Round 2:
    1. 5 jumping lunges
    2. 10 low, slow squats
    3. 15 moroccan night clubs
    4. 20 flying squirrels
    5. 25 Crab Cakes

After our second round (and run around the parking lot) we had time for a few minutes of Mary:

  • Flutters
  • LBCs
  • Chopsticks
  • Alphabet Soup
  • American Hammer

Time was up, and we headed back to COT.

Excellent work by all men.  T-Claps to Mainfold for his first post, and to 38 Special for his second post (in as many days). Thanks to Decibel for the privilege of Q’ing.

 

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Gambling in the Abyss

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What happens when you’re granted the honor of Qing at an AO you’ve not been to much and therefore, not to familiar with? Why, you scout it on Sunday with your kids after Church of course. Completely normal, right? For this group, you’re expected to “bring it” so you’d better know the turf. For those Ft. Mill’ers who’ve not frequented The Abyss, put it on your short-term bucket list. I didn’t explore much of it due to our card playing but this place is a gem.

Once the 16 of us rolled in on this beautiful Wednesday morning, I quickly noticed the footwear NASA was sporting and got a little concerned…for him. He let me know that he and a few other PAX would be breaking off to do a busted-foot-friendly-workout so I felt a little better about what we were getting into. The people-pleasing side of me wanted to make sure I had a little something for everyone so after typical butchered disclaimer, we took off for the basketball courts for our warm up:

Windmills

Side Straddle Hops of course

Super mans

Hand-Release Merkins

Jump Squats

Mosey back to the main lot and I had to grab the deck of cards I slipped under the cone. As many but not all were familiar with, each suit is a different exercise and the number on the card represents how many reps. Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13 and the Ace = 14 (not 1).

Hearts = Wide Arm Merkins

Clubs = Carolina Dry Docks

Diamonds = Jumping Lunges

Spades = BURPEES (Yup, we did that)

After we recognized the deck must have been front-loaded with Wide-Arm Merkins and Jumping Lunges, it wasn’t long until we started getting smoked and a few 10-counts were necessary. In the end, we completed it all which totaled 104 of each, that’s right, 104 Burpees.

There was still a little left in the tank and on the clock so we had to round it out with Dying Cockroaches, descending 10ct leg lifts and the finisher…Lt. Dan’s. The latter was a lesson I would remember the rest of the week.

Bones, I appreciate the opportunity and I look forward to the next time.

Leave no man behind but leave no man where you found him.

Maximus

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Beyond – how selfish are you

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The message for Beyond was around being selfish

 

Humans we are naturally selfish people.  As a child you grow up thinking everything should be centered around

you.  Even as I moved into adulthood I still didn’t completely understand what it meant to put others first. 

Because I never had anyone who was dependent upon me.  When I got married I was quickly called out that it is now “we”

and not “I” which was initially hard for me to understand at first.  Then several years later reality smacked me in the face

when we had our first child.  Now there was someone in my life that was 100% reliant upon me.  I quickly had to figure

out as all parents do how to adjust and make things happen.

 

In my life I am the most selfish with my time.  I don’t like to spend “my” time on things that “I” feel are not as important

as other things. 

 

There are 24 hours in a day

1440 minutes

 

Average person sleeps 7 hours

                       works 9 hours

                       spends 2 hours in a car

 

This leaves 8 hours for everything else (Wife, kids, Quite time, F3, Whetstone, etc)

 

How do you manage your time?  Is is the smartest way?

 

As I was preparing for this Q I kept going back to how do I manage my time and how I think I should be.  I will be

the first to say I am nowhere near the model, but I desire to be able to say that I will one day get there.

 

Time Priority:

1. God

2. Wife

3. Family

4. Friends

 

One of the most important things that I hope the Pax take from the workout is Kids spell LOVE – TIME.  The more time you

spend with them the more love they feel.  Think about that next time when one of your kids ask you to do something and you

would rather be doing something else.  They won’t always be around so enjoy the time you have with them now.

 

 

 

 

Warmup:

SSH 20 IC

Hand release merkins 10 IC

LBC 20 IC

–With being a beyond workout figured since it just rained we needed to embrace the suck and get on the ground

 

 

 

The thang:

 

Partner up

P1 – runs to end of parking lot and back

P2 – works on burpee / sandbag thruster (1 burpee / 1 thruster, 2 burpees, 2 thrusters, etc until 10)

 

Each partner does their own until they reach 10 of each

 

Next

P1 – runs to end of parking lot

P2 – pick up sandbag on shoulder and toss backward until P1 returns

 

rinse and repeat x 3

 

Exercises done holding either ruck, sandbag or cinderblock:

Squats 20 IC

Squat pulses 10 IC

Flutters 20 IC

 Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

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WHETSTONE…Relaunches at THE FORT

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Several weeks ago, it was announced that our region, THE FORT, would be closing all Saturday AO’s and holding a convergence at FMHS to get the PAX together as we thank Rebel for his leadership of Whetstone and relaunch it under Repeat and World Wide Leader (WWL). I was excited to hear we’d be getting many of the region together but I wasn’t expecting what came next. It was a text asking if I’d Q the workout.

Q, like part of it, half of it or …? The response was, THE WHOLE THING. I love to Q every chance I get but to do so on a day like this, well, I better make sure it includes a little something for everyone. Or, almost everyone.

————————————————————————————————————–

And this is where I let life get the better of me. I try to follow the 48hr rule on posting a BACKBLAST, especially when they’re significant but I let life and travel get in the way. It is now Saturday, one week later, and I’m just finishing this BB. Life can get challenging, it can get stressful, it can get you riding the highs or down in the lows. And this past week, our family has experienced some of each. Maybe this was the week where I really came to realize how valuable having a Whetstone partner can be. Someone that I can share the highs with and someone to help get me out of the lows; or to keep me honest when it’s my own doing that has me on the outside looking in on the joys of life.

That said, I’ll take you back to last Saturday, April 21 where we had a a few pre-ruckers and a total of 58 PAX converge to re-kick off this critical program.

We got ourselves into an odd-shaped kidney-like shape for the disclaimer, the announcement of why we were there this beautiful morning and to acknowledge our 2 FNG’s in the PAX. We counted off in 4’s then took off toward the big parking lot for a warm up jog in 4 lines. This jog included some karaoke’s and 4 lines doing an indian run which was way harder than it appeared on paper.

In these last 2 years, Whetstone has brought together some extremely HIM. One of those men has gone through a tough 18mos and he was gracious enough to share some of his story to include the impact Whetstone had on his life as we circled up to hear his words. I know he wouldn’t endorse this comment but anytime Mr. Clean wants to share experience or wisdom, the PAX listens. And listen we did.

After backing the group back out to a circle-like shape, I was giddy to honor Santini in the only way I knew how…with a deck of cards. However, on this day we utilized 1/2 the deck and considered it our warm up:

Hearts = Side Straddle Hops

Diamonds = Carolina Dry Docks

Spades = Squats

Clubs = Merkins

Then a little action from the Burp-Merk: Standing, we then dropped to a plank, did 5 merkins then jumped up. That equals 1 and we did 5 total.

This was when we got to listen to our very own Nantaan, Cake Boss, as he shared the impact Whetstone has had on him. Yet again, another powerful testimony.

Then off to do 4 corners in the lot with:

Corner 1 = Dancing Crabs x 15ea and Dips x 20

Corner 2 = Dying Cockroach x 15ea and Flutters x 20ea

Corner 3 = Burpees x 10 and Jump Squats x 10

Corner 4 = American Hammers x 25 and Freddie Mercury x 20ea

Mosey over to the wall for B2W while doing 5 “push ups” followed by 15 calf raises. We did this 3 times.

To close out our testimonies, my man Chicken Hawk laid it down for us. He shared the impact Whetstone has had on him, his marriage, his family…his life. Life isn’t meant to be traveled alone. Well said brother.

6ct Burpee which I needed a little help from the Helmet of Darkness to remind me the steps. Remember the line, “If you can’t Q it, don’t do it?” Yeah, me too but I obviously didn’t follow that too closely here.

This is where the cat-herding became evident. The PAX exhibited patience with me as we attempted a modified DORA series consisting of:

50 Flying Squirrels, 50 Diamond Merkins and 50+ Flutters

We then took off for the main entrance to the football stadium and lined up in 4 lines facing down the hill. Once everyone readjusted, it was 15 American Hammers, 15 Flutters and 15 Hello Dollies. This was done several more times.

Well, that put a bow on the workout portion of this convergence and after the COT, FNG naming of RBG and Whiskers, we then handed it off to World Wide Leader and Repeat to lead the Whetstone discussion.

Announcements: The relaunch of Whetstone. Thanks to Rebel for getting this off the ground 2 years ago and to Repeat / World Wide Leader for taking the reigns.

Prayer Requests: Badger. Camp Care 5K. Jennings Palmer’s transplant. Olive’s 8K in memory of Sweet Tooth. Elmer.

Honored and appreciative of your patience.

Maximus

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More Than a Workout at “The Creek??”

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I was wondering whether or not to post a backblast, since this was an unofficial gathering. But the 5 core principles were met, there was a shovelflag, and more importantly – this is exactly what F3 is all about.

One of our dear PAX, Witch Hunt, who – I found out after a long time digging through his entire Twitter feed to find his VQ date – is one of the original core reasons we have any AOs on this side of the bridge, has been unable to post almost at all since the birth of his 2.2 (his third kid, still not sure how counting them works, wouldn’t the first be 2.1 and so on and collectively they are your 2.0s?). It had been decided at recent CoTs that we were going to try and bring the workout to him. So we got some guys together and found a time that Witch Hunt could go for a run and Royale met up with him and they ran over to the clubhouse to find several of us waiting for him. Surprise!!

Why did I need to find Witch Hunt’s VQ date though? Since this was a surprise mainly to get him back to a workout, I went and found his first BackBlast on the website so we could do the same Thang. May 14, 2016. I didn’t have much time to do recon in my neighborhood to see exactly how we could replicate this workout but I had some vague ideas of what was around.

After some hellos and virtually no disclaimer…, sorry lots going on in my head at the time and no one was listening to me anyways since it was so informal, we did a long mosey through the neighborhood trail and found a deep, steep hill to attempt some hills with Krakens at the top. This was a quick Omaha since the hill was not “flat” at all….. and you could barely find any footing. So instead we did laps around the gazebo and did 5 Krakens, then 4, 3, 2, and finally 1. This was simply labeled ‘The Deep’

Next we ran all the way back to the clubhouse for some ‘F3 Baseball’. Seems I have not spent much time, if any, on a baseball diamond so our diamond was much much larger than I’m told it’s supposed to be. One pair of PAX would run a lap around the clubhouse and pool while the rest did an exercise at the current “plate”. All pairs had to finish a lap before moving on to the next “plate”. This was a lot of merkins…

Home – Merkins
First – Squats
Second – LBCs
Third – SSHs

Something I added in to the mix, my neighborhood is redoing the mulch on the playground so I offered to move a couple of pallets of mulch from the parking lot =)

We then did a few hundred feet or bear crawl to get back to home plate.

Last thing on the original backblast ‘Walk the Plank’. This needed some modifying because I’m not sure what a front plank is, when there was also a pushup plank and a forearm plank on the list. Either way, we started in plank for :30 rotated up on one side for :30 rotated to the back for :30, other side for :30, then forearm for :30. This was definitely pushing the limit, which means it was the perfect time for 5 burpees to finish things off.

Name-o-rama
Announcements
Prayers/Praises and a super long 2nd F in the parking lot afterwards. YHC had a blast on this one everyone. This is the real reason I keep posting.

P.S. Jedi could not stop laughing the whole night. Also, be warned if you ever ask him about a Doctor in Paraguay.

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Tires, sledgehammers, dumbbells and ropes

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I saw that Royale was on Q once again so I decided to step up and steal the Q from him, great opportunity to lead a group of 19 PAX that decided to get better. Jedi, Olaf and Cha-Ching went for a pre run unaware of the beat down that was planned staring at 5:15.

Quick disclaimer  and welcomed one FNG (Hawkeye)

We started the warm up with a 2 minute run around the parking lot and then circled up for the following:

20 Windmills

20 LBC’s

20 side straddle hops

10 worst merkin ever, non stop from werkin to merkin to derkin

We moseyed to the boat-trailer parking lot  for the real thing, quick explanation of the workout, we had 4 station/corner setup,  we split into groups 1 to 4 and one group went to each corner, from station  1 to 2 and 3 to 4 we run, from station 2 to 3 and 4 to 1 we bear crawled, exercises were listed as follow:

STATION 1

-> 15 big boy sit ups

-> 20 rosalitas

-> 30 Sledgehammer swings (15 each side)

-> 30 Heel Touches SC

-> 30 Dying Cockroach SC

STATION 2

-> 10 two hand triceps ext

-> 15 two hand biceps curls

-> 25 dumbbell swing

-> 30 Makhtar N’Diayes

-> 50 Carolina drydocks

STATION 3

-> 10  Tire flips

-> 15  Low slow squats IC

-> 20 lateral lunges  (10 each side)

-> 30 jump squats

-> 50 calf raises

STATION 4

-> 10 diamond merkins

-> 15 wide arm merkins

-> 20 regular merkins

-> 30 battle rope wave SC

-> 40 plank jacks

-> 50 Shoulder taps

Each group was able to complete 7 stations (one full round of all 4 station plus 3 stations depending on the order each group started), timing was of the essence, first full round was completed in about 17 minutes (26 minutes into the workout) but exhaustion sat in and second round took longer, everyone pushed themselves hard and that “extra 40%” effort was burned during the second round.

With 2 minutes to spare we sprint back to COT for announcements, prayers and praises.

Welcome back Brickhouse and FNG Hawkeye!!

Tinsel out…

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Where is Spring??

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18 Men showed up on a very chilly April morning. The pre-ruck was very well attended, and the ruck portion was being Q’ed by Olaf and there seemed to be several implements of torcher that were assembled for the rucking PAX to carry around.  5:15 came and the disclaimer was given(in spirit if not actually) and the entire group was challenged to begin thinking of prayers that needed to be shared at COT. No prayers for your neighbors sick cat, what do YOU need your brothers to know and pray for in your life?  With that the Ruckers were dismissed and the rest of us circled up for some COP.  SSH, IW, Squats, on your side for some hip flexing and strengthening – Jane Fonda – Leg Circles forward and reverse, back kicks.  All on your side 5 count then flip sides. Strong loose hips are key to injury prevention.  Mosey to lay out the cones for a 5 corner workout tour around the Golden Corral. 1st cone at the bottom of the hill(10 Bomb Jacks) Cone #2 at the top of the hill(20 LBC) Cone 3 around Auto Parts and Oil change(10 CDD) 4th cone at COT(15 Squats) Cone 5 at Dominos(15 Merkins) You vs You workout, you choose how fast you want to push it, how hard you want to work.  The PAX did awesome, everyone finished at least 4 full laps and a few did 4 plus, Mileage count was over 3 miles, pretty strong for a 45 minute boot camp.  Final mosey to COT

Announcements – Strawberry Fields, Guidance & CAH, Bonsai has Beyond next Tuesday at GC

Prayers & Praises – Continued prayers for Badger – Prayers for patience and wisdom with young kids(especially boys), Prayers for healing for the young kids in our community growing up in dysfunctional or non-existent homes, prayers for patience and energy to continue dealing with the racial injustices that many of us don’t want to admit exist.  I appreciated the hearts of the men who shared this morning, and challenge the PAX to press into being vulnerable with our real struggles and needs so that we can properly car for each other.

 

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Our 2 Year Celebration for F3 in Lake Wylie @ the Deep!

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I was privileged to get the opportunity to lead (with Dark Helmet) the 1st workout at the Deep, and on this Celebration Day to get the opportunity to lead once again! We’ve seen a lot of new and consistent faces over that 2 years and I truly feel there is something special about the guys that come from the west side of Lake Wylie.  It was really great to show up 10 minutes before the 7am launch and see so many of the tenured Fort Mill PAX already there to support us at this celebration!

I used that opportunity to open with a little message.  3 of the PAX were FNGs, so I gave the long disclaimer, but then I asked for a show of hands for how many years each PAX had been posting at F3.  It was awesome to see guys like Cornhole, Sen Tressel, Maximus and Spitz who have been posting 4-5 YEARS now.  All of those guys have had a direct impact on my life so I was really honored that they came out to support our Lake Wylie PAX.

The Thang

Quick mosey around the parking lot for a dynamic warmup

Made it over to the soccer field for our COP

SSHs – Imperial Squat Walkers – Windmills – MNCs – Merkins – Mountain Climbers – Yoga – Plank Jacks

Before we got into the next evolution, I shared several messages about the foundation of F3.  Started with the Mission, T-Claps to NASA for knowing it by heart! Then I shared one of my favorite Q Source Posts, the Daily Red Pill.  (Link Below)

The Daily Red Pill Feb 2017

1st Exercise Evolution

4 corners – PAX counted off by 4s

There were 4 cones set up at the corners of the field.  1 in the center. What would a Lake Wylie celebration be without the original exercise FOUNDED AT THE 1ST WORKOUT? That’s right, 5 Kraken Burpees (check the lexicon if you do not know this favorite).  That was our center cone.  The groups would split up and run to their assigned number, complete the exercise, run back and do 5 Kraken Burpees

1st corner = 20  Worst Merkin Ever (Wide Arm Merkin, Regular Merkin then Diamond Merkin = 1 rep)

2nd corner = 40 Flutter Kicks double count

3rd corner = 30 Jump Squats

4th Corner = 30 Imperial Squat Walkers

Took a break and shared some more about Sad Clowns, and how F3 is the antidote to Sad Clown Syndrome from the DRP post.

2nd Evolution = Mosey over to the big hill

Partner Up

1 partner down and up the hill, 2nd partner says and does the exercise I call until I’m tired of it.

They were: CCDs – Burpees – SSHs : This lasted a lot longer than 2 sentences gives credit.

More discussion around DRP

3rd Evolution = Mosey to the back of the school

Lt Dangers to the 1st basketball goal That’s a lunge – lunge – squat – merkin (crowd pleaser)

Bear Crawl to the 2nd BB goal

Lt Dangers back to the end of the school

That’s like 200 yards, little Link (Bones 9 year old 2.0) crushed us all – including his Dad!

4th Evolution = Mosey to the front of the school

Time was running short, I had two boards with 5 exercises set up, audibled to just 1 board.  We did the five exercises in cadence.

5th Evolution = Saved 6 minutes for my last favorite – Captain Thors!

1 big boy sit up to 4 America Hammers, go to 10…we ran out of time at the 9 rotation.  It hurt anyways!

COT was great with 3 new FNGS, two were 2.0 of regular PAX and they held their own!

Cross Check (Peg’s 2.0 Logan) for his lacrosse skills

FIFA (Flux’s 2.0 Evan) for his soccer skills

Wesley our 29 year old previous college pole vaulter so his F3 name forever shall be Bubka!

It was really a great time with great friends and great mubblechatter.  I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did.

(and we got 16 out to Coffeeteria, our best part of Saturdays)

An Honor to Lead

-Royale

 

 

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