Month: September 2019 (Page 8 of 10)

Last weekend was the BRR.  It was one of the most challenging, but most rewarding experiences that I have had the honor of being a part of.  It also showed my some areas that I need to improve on, especially endurance.   With all that said, I am going to tailor my Qs to address some the weaknesses that I have recently been made aware of.   When I was coming up with this workout I had to alter my plans due to an accident with my new puppy.  FYI don’t throw dog toys when the dog is still attached to it (not knowingly)  Their teeth are very sharp and it proceeded to rip a deep gash in my tiny little pinky.  It sucked.   So…Legs and abs were on tap.  Here is how it went.

Warm-up:

SSH x 15 IC

Baby Makers x 15 IC

LBC x 20 IC

The beat down:

First part I called Chicken legs:  20 Low slow weighted squats, Lateral lunges to the pole (approx 20 yrds) with a duck walk back, followed by 50 calf raised…Repeat

Second: Upper body…50 Overhead claps, 20 overhead press each arm, 15 Lateral Cleans each arm, 25 upright rows…Repeat.   Repeat the lunge walk and duck walk between sets.

The last set I called ABsurdity…50 Flutter kicks (count R only), 25 Oblique crunches each side, 50 LBC, and finally 50 American Hammers…Repeat.  Repeat Lateral lunge and duck walk between once again in between.

Finally to finish the time we did some Pax choice Mary.  Thanks for the opportunity and all the hard work men.  It is always a honor.

COT:  Announcements:  JJ 5 K,  Suicide 5K, and 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb.

YHC took us out with prayer.

14 men at Mt Hollywood this morning.  1 FNG, so a disclaimer was given.

Pledge

Warm-Up:

10 Burpees

The Thang:

Mosey to the South State Bank on S Main St.  First exercise called here is BLIMPS, which a lot of you know by now is a  favorite of mine.  Start off with 5 Burpees, then run a lap around the bank.  Next do 5 Burpees, 10 LBCs, run a lap.  Then 5 Burpees, 10 LBCs, 15 Imperial Walker Squats, run a lap.  Next do 5 Burpees, 10 LBCs, 15 IW Squats, 20 Merkins, run a lap.  Then 5 Burpees, 10 LBCs, 15 IW Squats, 20 Merkins, 25 Peter Parkers, run a lap.  Finally, 5 Burpees, 10 LBCs, 15 IW Squats, 20 Merkins, 25 Peter Parkers, 30 Smurf Jacks, run a lap.

After a short recovery, mosey to the wall behind BB&T.  Exercise called here is 11’s, which is also a favorite of mine.  The two exercises used here for 11’s were Hip Slappers and Mike Tyson’s.  Start with 10 Hip Slappers on wall, mosey to other side of parking lot for 1 Mike Tyson.  Then back to wall for 9 Hip Slappers, and on other side 2 Mike Tyson’s.  Continue this until the numbers are flipped and you end with 1 Hip Slapper and 10 Mike Tyson’s.

Next we made our way to the short wall beside Ida Rankin Elementary.  We still had some time left for a few more exercises.  Here we did 2 rounds of 10 Dips (IC), 10 Step-Ups.  Then mosey back to flag.

Annoucements:

9/14 – 9/11 remembrance stair climb

9/21 – Stop Soldier Suicide 5k/10k in Belmont

9/28  – JJ5K trail run in Stanley

Prayer Request

Nameorama

Always an honor to lead.  Turned another year older today, and grateful I got to spend the morning leading you men and pushing each other.  Awesome to have FNG-Mullet with us today!

Sister Act

10 men showed at Midoriyama today.  No FNGs, no disclaimer.

Warm-Up:

Moroccan Nightclubs while Def Leppard slowly made his way to COT

Grass Pickers

The Thang:

Today would be one of those workouts where you can’t wait until it ends.  I knew what I wanted to do, but I wanted it to be a surprise for the lucky pax who decided to show today.  This so happens to be the first week of the 2019 Iron Pax Challenge.  A few pax in our region signed up for this and had already completed the week 1 challenge, but I hadn’t found an opportunity to complete the first challenge yet, so today would be it.  A lot of men in our region for some reason are turned off by this challenge.  With over 2000 pax participating in the event,  each man is responsible for recording their score.  Obviously I’m a pretty competitive guy, but this challenge is supposed to be more than that.  It is designed for a reason to be very difficult.  The Iron Pax Challenge is just that, a challenge, to push yourself to the limit and give it everything you got.  So after a quick warm-up, we mosey to the smaller soccer field.  I already had the field ready, with cones placed on the field.  An explanation was given on what was about to go down.  Several pax that have been battling injuries, decided it would be in their best interest to just get in a run.  This Iron Pax Challenge is called the “Killer B’s”, and yes it was awful.  The workout went as follows:

5 Rounds for Time:

*Broad jump 10 yards

*10 Burpees, 10 Bonnie Blaires(jump lunges), 10 Big Boys

*Broad jump 10 yards

*10 Burpees, 10 Bonnie Blaires, 10 Big Boys

*Broad jump 10 yards

*10 Burpees, 10 Bonnie Blaires, 10 Big Boys

*Bearcrawl 30 yards back to Starting Line

This was a very challenging workout.  The afternoon heat at Midoriyama in the summer sucks, then you throw this type of workout in makes it awful.  I appreciate everyone giving it everything you had.  Doesn’t matter if you had to modify the workout or not.  We all pushed each other and never stopped.  After a brief recovery, we slowly made our way back to the COT.  Finished it out with 22 Merkins for the Vets.

Announcements:

9/14 – 9/11 Remembrance stair climb

9/21 – Stop Soldier Suicide 5k/10k Belmont

9/28 – JJ5K trail run in Stanley

Prayer Request

Nameorama

Honor to lead today.  Appreciate the men of F3 Gastonia.

Sister Act

Beautiful morning at Folsom to get in some work.  We started off with a bang. YHC couldn’t count,  MW ran from a skunk, and Bedpan reminded us all that he thinks it is skunk mating season. “Be on the look out” he said. YHC does not think it is, but it doesn’t matter in Folsom. We make up our own science. Only at Folsom, do we have the in depth conversations about nature that may or may not be true.  Marty Stouffer’s Wild America has nothing on us.

Warm Up:

• 10 Don Q’s
• 10 Cherry Pickers

The Thang

• Mosey to Tennis Courts  – Break up the follow quantities in any amount of set you wish.
  • 100 Big Boys
    • mosey to third court
  • 100 Merkins
    • mosey to first court
  • 200 Flutter Kicks
    • mosey to third court
  • 200 Mountain Climbers
    • mosey to first court
  • 300 Hillbillies
    • mosey to third court
  • 300 Imperial Walkers
    • Mosey to first court
• Time to mosey to the flag for the pledge
  • Stop a each street light for 10 squats
•  Mosey back to start and time is up.

Welcome FNG Mimosa!! He pushed hard out there today.  He is a rock pusher we hope to see again on Thursday.

It is always an honor.  Big Pappy

Ecclesiastes 9:10 “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”

11 PAX did work at Crossroads.  Some ran 8, some ran 5, one did 10, and one rode his bike.  Great work by all!!

Announcement:

Stop Solider Suicide SFN Event-Sept. 21st.

JJ5K-Sept. 28th.

Ragnar

Proverbs 3:5-6

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

YHC is a regular at Folsom and I also make my way to Downtown, Painlab, Gashouse, and Midoriyama from time to time. Getting to Storm, Goat, Mt. Hollywood, etc is a bit more difficult for me because I have to get back home to take my kids to school. That being said, I set a personal goal join an elite group (HIPAA, Sargento, possibly a few others) who have Q’d every F3 Gastonia workout. I’d like to get at least 75% of those locations taken care of by the end of the year and anytime the kids are out of school, it’s a good opportunity for me to head out to one of the more distant locations. That being said, I found myself in the ‘vaguely familiar’ confines of Mount Holly at 5:10 am on my day off, making final weinke plans as I eagerly anticipated the arrival of HIMs! 12 were present for a simple, yet effective beatdown to finish off Labor Day weekend!

Warm-a-rama:
SSH, Gravel Pickers (that parking lot is worse than Folsom’s), and Toy Soldiers.

Thang:
I looked through some Area 51 backblasts and found a circuit workout that was used in August that looked like a pretty solid workout. The backblast was littered with complaints from the PAX, which sounds like the kind of thing I want to bring. The lay of the land in Mt Holly did force me to make 2 adjustments but it worked out.

There were 7 stations around the Middle School parking lot and each station represented an exercise (marked with very fancy hand written tags). Go from station to station and complete as many laps as you can until I call time. The stations were:
– Merkins 20 single count
– Dips 20 single count
– Dirty Hookups 20 in cadence (Broke seemed to think this was a bad idea. He may have been right)
– Big Boys 20 single count
– Mountain Climbers 20 each leg
– Squats 20 single count
– Burpees 1x for every lap completed (2 on the 2nd lap, 4 on the 4th, etc)

We ran the circuit for about 35 minutes. Some got 6 laps in, a few got in 5, we all finished up together with 6 burpees.

I stopped us with about 10 minutes left so we could get in a little circuit work together.
– Rosalitas 10-ish IC
– LBCs 20 IC
– Divebombers 5 on my count

Repeat a 2nd time with 7 Divebombers.

We mosey back to start and I have about 2 minutes left. I don’t want to short-change these men so we finished off with Jacked Up!
– SSH – 25 IC
– Seal Jacks – 20 IC
– Plank Jacks – 15 IC
– Crossover Jacks – 10 IC
– Smurf Jacks aka Little Gumby in the Woods – 5 IC

Pledge. Time! We went over by a few minutes but there weren’t any real complaints because these are REAL HIMs!

We reviewed announcements, YHC took us out in prayer. Show to know!

Sorry this BB is a bit later than usual for me. I prefer to get them in within a day so I can remember things more easily. As Oompa was so eager to point out, my memory is terrible. That’s ok, I still love ya Ooompa! It was good to spend some time in the gloom with a few guys I don’t see often and 1 or 2 I’d never met. Mt. Hollywood has a good thing going on out there. You are welcome at Folsom anytime! Sign up for a Q while you’re at it!

• Montross

This was supposed to be “officially” part of BRR, however the BRR was not ready for ruckers just yet…..so being the HIMs that we think we are, we decided to go ahead and do our thing. We had several planning meetings and a pretty good game plan, but nothing could have prepared me for this trip. Just know there is no way I can convey how much fun this trip was. Like prior relay races, I knew there was going to be some pain and some joy, but this was a really good trip.

This trip provided us with a break from the usual beatdowns at the GasHouse AOs along with several sleepless (except for AT) nights that amplified our personalities. Having run BRR twice, I really think this was harder for me. The leg fatigue was worse despite getting enough sleep during the trip. We went out in pairs for most of the legs and this was the “golden part” of this trip. Getting to spend somewhere between 1 and 3 hours with one of your brothers pretty much one on one is nothing short of excellent. Combining that with the time spent in the van as a larger group was outstanding. I can honestly say this is probably the best way to do BRR for guys in F3-you really need to think about this rucking thing for BRR next year. We made some good planning decisions but also learned a lot about how to improve this for future years.

We named our van Packin’ Heat for obvious reasons. I think we had 6 handguns, 8 knives, a hatchet, and a can of mace. We were a force to be reckoned with before leaving GasHouse. We got dinner on the way up to Linville compliments of Allen Tate-what the heck were you and the waitress doing back there???? We started our legs just after 8pm and motored through them like champs. Along the way we saw a ton of snakes (mostly, but not all dead), a bald eagle, a bear (yes, you read that correctly, an F’ing B-E-A-R), more dogs than Allen Tate could count, and several truck-stealing-at-midnight-escaped-convicts-who-are-still-following-me-at-this-time rednecks. We ate the best hamburgers in the world for lunch followed by some ice cream/custard thing called “concrete” that was good enough to go back next year just for the chance to eat it again. We finished it off with some fine dining and BudLights at 0830 this am at one of the oldest breweries in Asheville waiting for the SECOND team to finish BRR.

Along the way I learned a few things:

I learned Watts Up should have been a truck driver. The man can flat out drive a van-if he hadn’t lost so much weight, I would say we should rename him Large Marge (PeeWee’s Big Adventure from the 1980’s-look it up you damn millennials). He also does not complain…at all. He is solid and dependable and someone I know I can count on to do what he says 100%. He was meant for F3 and F3 was meant for him. He underestimates his level of fitness also-the man killed his mountain goat leg at the end of the race in the dark going solo then (I think) jumped in the van and drove us to the next leg. WTF?????!!!!!

Roadie snores. He also loves our country enough to search out a tattoo artist with similar vision and is working on a tattoo of the American Flag for his left arm. This is time consuming and expensive. But he loves our country and tattoos, and that is why he is having this done. Respect from me, Roadie. You have given me a new perspective on tattoos-thanks.

Freight is a dedicated father and friend. He works hard to be a great provider for his family and cares about the people who work under him. He may have an opportunity to change positions at work if someone retires soon, however it would require traveling quite a bit-this would take him away from his wife and daughter and I just don’t see that happening, at least not unless it is necessary. He also grew up fishing and hunting with family despite not necessarily having a love for those activities, but more a love for his family.

Voodoo loves his family, his job, and how he can help people. He values his partner and the relationship they have to both work towards the same goal-getting people better and providing a good living for their respective families. He also has plenty of fast-twitch muscles-the type that help you walk fast but not necessarily for a long time. I had to work to keep up with him on our leg we did together. And that damn green light needs to go-HOLY NUTS that thing was crazy annoying but kept us safe-no way a car would not be able to see that thing. He also has a daughter that adores him. They talked/facetimed several times-she facetimed him at 0615 to let him know she was getting beignets at Disney World-THAT WAS AWESOME! Enjoy that Voodoo, the day is coming when she will be grabbing the car keys and disappearing for several hours without facetiming you.

HIPAA is an animal-I knew this already, but this trip reminded me. He jumped in on more legs than he needed to. He kept us on track with directions and “leg data.” He CRUSHED the mountain goat leg and finished an hour ahead of predicted time and (I think) kicked a bear’s ass on his way up the MG leg. All I know is we never saw the bear again after HIPAA got to the top. HIPAA is another “meant for F3” guy from top to bottom. His focus is on not only pushing the rock, but also how can he help those around him push the rock. We all say this, but he practices this constantly. He is one of those guys who “gets it.”

Allen Tate…..wow. Where to start? The guy can go to sleep in seconds in a van. He can sleep through just about anything. He is probably one of the most generous and thoughtful guys I know. The only thing bigger than AT’s heart I think is his sense of humor. He kept us rolling just about from the start. I walked with him on an early leg and realized quickly how much this man respects his family and friends. From the time he spent with his grandmother in her later years up to his dedication to his father now (almost missing this trip because of Hurricane Dorian) this guy is impressive. He has a way of looking at a situation and finding the silver lining and purpose for why he is there and doing what he is doing.

As far as our backblast goes, we did a lot of rucking, we got more sleep than we needed, and we ate some food along the way. Other than that, no big deal. Really, just a boring trip to the mountains. Consider this next year. You will not regret it. I guarantee that 100%.

Whoopee