Month: March 2018 (Page 2 of 7)

As my beloved Duke Blue Devils were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament Sunday, I was browsing Twitter and I saw a post of the Q schedule this week. “Oh, I have the Q at Folsom Tuesday!” I had totally forgotten! So I started to put together some thoughts for the workout and had a flashback to January 11, 2018 – a day permanently etched into my memory! It was only my 2nd time posting and I was still sore from Medicine Woman’s Bobby Hurleys on the 9th (I didn’t workout before F3 – total Sad Clown!). Hank had the Q issued a BEAT-DOWN where we basically ran and did 5 burpees at every light pole in the park. Why? Allegedly, it was payback to those who talked trash about his Panthers losing in the playoffs a week or so earlier. I drew the parallel and, frankly, I appreciate that Hank’s workouts are typically tough. I now had some direction. I teased it on Twitter with the GIF of a guy b@&!h-slapping Hank…the real meaning was of course, I wanted to do my best impersonation of a Hank beat-down.

Warm-a-rama:

SSH – 10 IC
Toy Soldiers – 10 IC (we were lookin’ all kinds of sexy out there)
Plank Jacks – 10 IC
I didn’t say get up! (I like that move Whoopee!)
Nolan Ryans
Makhtar Vincent N’Diayes
OK, now you can get up!

Thang:

• We will start off with a sample of that dreadful January day. Mosey to the flag pole with 5 burpees at each light. As we approach the first light pole – we spot a white GMC coming in hot! You know who that is! That new F3 license plate is going to be epic – it has been decided his plate must say LATE!

• Morrocan Nightclubs (aka, Sparkys) until he catches up. Hank suggests we tell Sparky we’re doing 10 at each light. YHC loves this idea! Sparky begins his 10 LOL!

• Train, that’ll be 5 OYO boys. Now, I let Sparky know it’s only 5 at each light. We finish the mission, pledge, and hit a few more light poles on our way to the horse arena. We ran past the entrance for an extra light pole, then YHC has trouble finding the gate but Site Q has my back.

• Triple Nickels – quickly becoming one of YHC’s favorites. 5 Merkins, leap frog jump up the bleachers, 5 squats up top, rinse and repeat for a total of 5 sets. Hank took us on a similar adventure a few weeks ago so that’s track 2 on the Hank mixtape.

• Mosey! The mumble chatter has picked up so I hear a Train. 5 more OYO – there is a ongoing dispute whether I heard an actual train or not. It was hard to tell over the mumble chatter though, maybe it was a piece-of-junk car 🙂 Anyway, more mosey. We travel down and around the backside of the pond because we need to stretch those legs and we move to the tennis courts. Lots of mosey – Hank would approve, for sure.

• Partner up, 100 each LBCs, Flutter Kicks (each leg), Big Boys – 1 HIM runs down and back while the 2nd HIM does reps and we switch after each trip down and back. Medicine Woman caught me slippin’! Man, he got me. #gag-reflexes #showtoknow #suretobediscussedongrouptext

• We stay on our 6s for 20 Freddie Mercuries IC and 20 American Hammers IC (Roadie’s request)

• On the line, lunge across a tennis court, 2 Bobby Hurleys, lunge across the next, 4 Hurleys, continue increasing to 12. Mosey to the shovel Flag.

Time!

Announcements and COT:

The Forge on Wednesday nights at Grits & Greens, Community Run and CSAUP relay. YHC took us out in prayer.

Moleskin:

-edited-
This was mentioned in our announcements today and it really got me excited. Sparky announced a 3rd F event at Parkwood Baptist on April 13th. This message will be for MEN ONLY and won’t be 2.0 or M friendly. I originally thought Sparky was speaking, but it will actually be Def Leppard and Blart. I originally said all kinds of nice things in this post about Sparky and, while those still ring true, I’m quite sure Leppard and Blart have something great in store as well. It’s a cool event to have men sharing with men. Iron sharpening iron!

Minus 2, makes it the magical 6.

What may seemingly have lacked in numbers, definitely did not lack in effort, brawn, determination, and fortitude. We scoured downtown to find a suitable location, person, place or thing to challenge the fire that burned in each one of us.  We tried with a mighty zest to find a formidable foe, but conquer them all, we did.

WARM UP – Didn’t need one.

THANG – Destroyed, but remember with fondness as recounted below.

Side Straddle Hops – IC x 15
Imperial Walkers – IC x 10
Merkins – IC x 10
LBCs – IC x 15
Flutterkicks – IC x 15
Squats – IC x 10

The big adventure continues with a mosey several blocks south, down to the empty parking lot with 2 steeply sloped entrances. We slayed them.

Partner up.
200 Merkins (50 max at a time) – Other partner bear crawls up one entrance, runs to the other, bear crawls down. TAG – 2 rounds

Partner up.
200 Squats (50 max at a time) – Other partner crab walks up one entrance, runs to the other, bear crawls down. TAG – 2 rounds

We did something else, it was fun, not fun enough to remember an write about it.

MOSEY – to the street.

10 Merkins on the right side of the road, run to the other side and hit 10 squats. – Repeat x 4 rounds.

Next block, the great Lunge Walk, Monkey Humper stroll.  10 Lungers per leg, 10 Monkey Humper – and repeat until we make it to the traffic light.

Imperial Squats – 10

Dips – 15 IC

Mosey to the Pavillion for 4 minutes of MARY.

AND RECOVER.

Main scripture was 2 Sam. 23:8-39

Down through the ages God has worked through a band of committed people! God doesn’t work through lukewarm! Only through those who are fervent in there love for Christ and his kingdom!

2 Sam 23 David had a group of mighty men, who were committed to him and his kingdom! What characterized these men? 2 things, they were attracted to David’s person ( because good leaders attract people) and they were committed to his cause!

similarly, the church needs mighty men who are attracted to the person of Christ and committed to his kingdom!

David Livingston was a missionary in Africa, and some friends wrote him; “we would like to send other men to you. Have you found a good road into your area yet?” Livingston wrote back, “ if you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don’t need them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

We may not know what God has planned for us? But if we are about his kingdom we want worry about the road!

If you haven’t made it out to The Forge on Wednesday evening, you are missing out on something special! Come on out, all are welcome!

Announcements- 3rd F event, April 13th don’t miss it! Also my son “madden” gave his life to Christ this past Saturday! God is good!

prayer request: the lady that is our waitress at the Forge asked if we would pray for her and her grandson!

Thanks men for allowing the opportunity to lead!

BackBlast from Custom GoRuck Tough 3/16/18
Cadre: Chuy and TJ
Organized by F3-MECA

Start Time 930pm, Friday night
End Time 930am, Saturday am
GasHouse Pax: Freight, Woody, Boudin, Whoopee
Total Pax for event: 31

Required Gear: ruck with 30# weight, 2 liter hydration bladder, 1 liter Nalgene bottle, reflector bands on ruck, headlamp with extra batteries, photo ID, quitter cash ($20) in case you cannot complete

Extra Gear: snacks, food, windbreaker, gloves, extra clothes/socks/gloves, boots vs running shoes

After the event we thought it would be helpful to share notes about how we trained, what seemed to work, what did not work, what we brought, and basically anything we learned about this event and a few things we wish we had done differently. This is a summary with input from all 4 of us. You can also find a lot of ideas on the internet/GoRuck website. This is written by Whoopee (my perspective) with a lot of input from the other guys. In retrospect, we really approached this as a team-we tried to do EC together, pushed each other to do extra stuff, and shared things that worked and didn’t work as well as talked a lot about gear and packing while we were training. Overall, I REALLY ENJOYED THIS (both the event and the training). Hope this helps you.

TRAINING:
We all did F3 workouts as much as we could knowing this would serve us well. I think that was the single most important part of training for this. That being said, it is NOT ENOUGH. We all did some extra training-running, rucking, and even swimming. We all agreed we should have spent more time rucking with weight and carrying heavy things. Rucking 5-10 miles with > #50 repeatedly would be my suggestion. During the event we carried jerry cans and stretchers with heavy things on them. The jerry cans were carried individually but the stretchers required 6 people to work together so practicing this would have been helpful. I think we all agreed this was probably the toughest part. Having a #45 ruck on becomes an afterthought-you really don’t realize you have it on after awhile.
I thought the swimming helped me a lot as far as cardio preparation-I don’t remember being short of breath for the event except during the 2 mile run for time on the Army PT test. I think I should have spent more time running also. I think 5 miles runs 3 times per week would have been fine. We did not really go long distances all at once during the event, but it would have helped with leg strength and endurance. We logged somewhere around 20 miles over the event.
Again, rucking while carrying things would have been helpful and should be part of your training. Suggestions included doing exercises to improve grip strength while rucking: pull ups, hanging from the pull up bar, deadlifts, kettle bell swings, and farmers carry.
Wrapping hot spots on feet with leukotape was a life-saver for all of us: thanks Woody. Look this up if you have never used it. Some of us used body glide to prevent chafing-I did not and did fine but would suggest trying before the day of the event if you are going to use it. I wore a Jocko rash guard, exercise short sleeve t shirt, spandex shorts, ruck pants from GoRuck website, Salomon trail shoes, and Mechanix gloves. I did not change anything and put on a windbreaker immediately whenever we stopped and were not exercising-see below. I believe the temperature was 45-55 degrees.

PREPARING BEFORE:
Chuy sent out some info for us to review beforehand. I don’t think any of us really took this serious enough. A tough part of this event is thinking after you are physically exhausted and functioning on little sleep over the last 24 hours. I think there would have been more fun and less pain if we had known the answers to more of the questions related to what he sent us. We all made mistakes and this led to more exercise.

PACKING:
We went to a meeting a month or so before the event and heard from 3 experienced F3 guys who all had different opinions on gear, however the most experienced guy (>75 events) gave us the best advice which was “less is more” when it comes to packing. We did a 12 hour event so besides required gear, I needed a windbreaker to put on when we stopped to do some teaching plus some food-that is all. The food for me was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and 3 Kind bars. I had half a sandwich and a Kind bar at the end. Pack your ruck before and get a dry bag (or 2) to keep things in. You may not need the “dry” part but having things in your ruck that are easy to find in the dark and then get back into your ruck so you are ready to go quickly. I left my windbreaker in the large section (not in dry bag) and only put my food, extra batteries, and license/quitter cash in the dry bag. My sandwich was in a ziplock bag and the kind bars were individually wrapped when I bought them. My batteries, license, and cash were in a ziplock bag. I put gatorade in the Nalgene bottle and preferred that during the event instead of water. I brought an extra set of gloves but had no need for them.

ATTITUDE:
Remember you signed up for this, you trained hard for this, and it is “fun” so enjoy it. As Woody put it, it is all a game. Play it all the way to the end. It is over when they say it is so no matter what, keep going until it is clear that it is over. Chuy was our lead cadre and it was clear he put a lot of time into planning our event. He wanted to work us hard but also learn a lot and have fun. These guys are all patriots and have been through a lot so we can learn a lot from them.

That is about all I’ve got. All 4 of us had a great time, were exhausted after the event, I said I would never do again, and then within 24 hours had basically planned to do another one in a few months.

Top 5 things I would do differently:

1. Run more
2. carry more while rucking more frequently
3. prepare for Army PT more (specifically MANY more sit-ups and push-ups)
4. study info sent by Chuy before event
5. be more assertive during event-speak up, lead, be more verbal

So YHC shows up to lead The Goat and it is by admission a little cold. Like 30 degree cold. Not Thule Greenland cold. But cold enough for the pax to complain about it, especially with spring on the calendar. So we get into a COP as everybody that is anybody gathers for a varsity style beat down in the gloom Q hears somebody say “we need to get moving and it won’t feel so cold”. Q aims to please. Went like this:

COP:

SSH X 20

IW X 20

Merkins X 20

Mountain Climbers X 20

Mosey down to the basketball court via the steps in the alley up to the bridge.

Court work:

Crab walk to the three line, midcourt, three line, end line. 5 hand release merkins each stop

Broad jump back to other endline.

Bear crawl to center court and end line. 5 burpees each stop

Burpee broadjump back to otehr end line.

Mosey back to the bridge.

People’s chair.

airpresses X 20

Hip slap 5 each side

People’s chair,  M. Alis x 20

Rinse and repeat

Time to mosey again (remember, got to keep moving)

Take the long way to the gazebo.

10 pullups

10 dips

10 dirkins

Rinse and repeat for 3X

Triple nickel over the South Fork.

CCDDs X 5

Run

Copperhead squats X 5

Mosey back to the flag for Mary including SSHs, Dolly, Rosalita, and oblique crunches.

Done.

NMM:

Great work by all the guys today. We stayed in motion. That is the key to a good workout. Oh, and on a “cold” morning it makes it even better. Got to give a big shout out to Breaker, Breaker who just keeps on pushing the rock! Been with us a few months but you can already see and feel the impact. Its contagious. Keep it up brother.

Always a pleasure to lead this group. Mornings in Cramerton are hard to beat with them!

Tesla

The pub was filled Thursday morning with veteran runner looking for a new route.  Luckily YHC was ready with a challenging route.  In order to train for the BRR you need to think like the BRR. Unfortunately one nantan was not quite feeling it with lots of “I Can’ts” being  heard as we headed out.  However with grit an determination all PAX were able to complete a run characterized by significant hill repeats as we meandered through Gastone’s neighborhood before returning to the pub.  Runners chalked up approximately 600 feet of elevation gain.  When all was said and done no one was saying “I can’t” anymore.

Good Job men!!

15 including YHC came out Thursday afternoon , YHC was asked to take the Q and I accepted

The warm up

15 SSH IC

15LBC’S IC

10 MERKINS IC

15 HILLBILLIES IC

THE THANG….

First mosey to playground for 3 sets of 6, pull ups @ 20 squats

Then to soccer feild for main event a version of tabbata , Blart style I know I seem to do this one a lot but I like the fact that you can really push yourself and everyone can stay together good for the new guys..

For this one I had several exercises laid out on sidewalk. And we would rotate and do each while one person would run across soccer feild and nur back when done would fall in and then next person would run across.

Various exercises included: overhead press, curls, spidermans, flutterkicks, jumprope, diamond merkins, plankjacks,  bbsitups, boat to canoe, regular merkins , cdd’s,

After one round of this short mosey to next parking lot  to do some Incline merkins and rocky b’s   then over to bleachers for a few minutes of step up then lundges across soccer feild and then some more lundges, during this set YHC was called out that I should do them from back side because I was so tall if it was not Roadie I would probably just keep right on like I did not here it but being the  beast he is,  I could not ignore challenge accepted , and the step ups soon stopped as YHC was getting gassed. .

Final back over to curb for 1 mike Tyson yep just one …that was very hard I love those things…

I gave Freight a 10 lb weight at beginning and it was given away through out work out I have been reminded lately that this free thing we enjoy so much was given to us . So don’t forget to #GIVE IT AWAY

announcements:

CSAUP COMMING UP

COMMUNITY FUN RUN WITH SPEED FOR NEED

prayer requests :

Those on IR , Def leopard  son Logan , several others mentioned,  and those waiting on us to #GIVE IT AWAY…..

COT

YHC took us out in prayer

Thank for opportunity to lead, if you have not taken that opportunity yet what the heck are you waiting on step up men and #GIVE IT AWAY….