Month: March 2022 (Page 7 of 12)

Grabbed a chance to Q across town at The Labyrinth.  It was YHC’s first time to The Labyrinth.  It was dark, but it looked strangely similar to that other AO called the The Sandlot.

It was a comfortable 50 degrees, and the rain held off.

Up until about 5:28am, Dirt was concerned that it would just be him and YHC.  (If that had been the case, YHC was thinking to abandon the ‘ol Weinke completely and just make it a running workout.)

Well, the clock kept ticking, and a few more PAX rolled in by 5:30.   At about 5:32, the 7th and final PAX made his grand entrance.

YHC was glad to see 4 new faces from the Gastonia crew in the Gloom.

DISCLAIMER:

Adjust and Modify as necessary.   Push yourself!  …but that doesn’t mean push yourself to the point of injury, especially if you already have a known issue.

YHC re-iterated the disclaimer:  I’m not a professional and I definitely don’t know what kinds of issues you PAX have!

WARMUP:

• SSH (because who knows what kinds of strange things would happen in the Gloom if you don’t start out with SSHs)
• Imperial Walkers
• Good-Morning-Burpees   (combo of Alarm Clock + Burpee.   -Sorry you missed them, Radar)

THE THANG

Mosey to Martha, stopping every once in a while for 10 reps of various exercises

Dirty 11’s :  w/ Hammers and Merkins, Burpee in the middle

Mosey to fieldhouse

The mumblechatter topics included US legislation that is in the works to do away with Daylight Savings Time.   The PAX wondered what the implications would be for the Gloom.  More importantly, if DST went away, how would anyone know when to replace batteries in their smoke detectors?

Partner B.O.M.B.S:   Burpees (25x), Overhead Press (50x), Merkins (75x), Big Boy Sit-ups(100x), and Squats (125x)   Partner runs around fieldhouse

A dessert-like smell was emanating out of the Fieldhouse.   The PAX were trying to determine what it was.  Most PAX thought it was “some kind of Banana” dessert.  it smelled great.

Then there were others smells that started right about the time that the PAX were doing Big Boy Sit-Ups and Squats.  Those smells did not smell great.

Mosey a little to the bleachers for Dips, then Dirty Calves (in honor of Dirt)

Mosey, stopping every once in a while for a PAX-called exercise.  Some PAX counted cadence for their pick.

Indian Run back to StartEx, stopping for some reps of various exercises.

6MOM

Time!

COT

Pledge

Announcements

• 2ndF Lunch today at Pita Wheel in Dallas, noon  (if you’re just now learning about this in this Backblast, you’re late for lunch.)
• This Friday at Downtown – The F3 Nation’s Nan’tan, Slaughter, will Q      2ndF and 3rdF to follow.

Name-O-Rama

Prayer Requests

• Hush Puppy and his M:  Job-searching, possible Relo
• Rebar’s Plantar Fascia – likely an upcoming surgery
• Stinky Bird’s family
• People of Ukraine, and those otherwise affected
• Turtleman

Dirt took us out…..

Glad to join the Labyrinth crew!

YHC was surprised that there was a considerably-sized group of ladies who walk in the Gloom at around 5:20-ish.   As YHC drove away, it looked like they were doing a Circle-Up or Disclaimer or something.  They probably should have a name for their group, maybe with a Letter-Number combination.

Glad to lead this group of PAX today!

—Bubba Sparxxx

Prison Break. Hump Day. YAY! YHC gets to pinch hit for Montross (channeling his inner fartsacker) and who didn’t bring the flag as promised.

Eleven of the finest humans (yes I included Sister Act) YHC ever met ran, rucked, or mall walked with a some running thrown in once the legs got loose. All got better.

It didn’t even rain!

Prayer requests:
Roscoe’s & Swimmer’s family with the losses of loved ones. Turtleman. Tesla. Big Pappy. Gumby. Def Leppard. Wichita. Sparky. Westside. Stiper. Those I didn’t get on paper.

Announcements:
Pita Wheel at noon today at the original brick and mortar location in Lil D
The big F3 NANTAN Slaughter at Downtown the day after tomorrow
P200 next weekend
Convergence April 2
Speed for Need April 9
SMR end of April

YHC took us out. Thanks for allowing me the privilege to lead this morning.

12 HIM beat the fartsack to get their week started off right. This is what happened…

Several of the PAX split off to do the Ruck/Walk option. Those that stayed with YHC would be doing cardio today.

Warmup – Don Quixote’s for Whoopee, something else

Mosey toward Martha’s House, Whoopee left us to mosey by himself somewhere else.

We ended up at the center part of the baseball fields. For some reason I, me myself called 5 burpees. Maybe I was psyching myself up for the fun that was about to happen. Karaoke to the left all the way til we were even with the outfield wall. Plank for the 6. Karaoke back to the start. 18 Merkins. Bear crawl around the center building. Nur down the other path all the way to the end like before, being sure to move the caution barracade out of the way before we nurred into it. Nur back. Bear crawl the building. 20 Squats. Karaoke down the other path and back. You guessed it, bear crawl the building. 24 LBCs in cadence. I think we got the blood pumping pretty good with this stuff!

Mosey around half of the outside of the fields until we arrived at the lowest parking are where there is good light.

22’s – like 11’s, just bigger reps

On one end do 20 Freddy Mercury’s, at the other end do 2 Hand Release Merkins. Switch back and forth until you’ve flip flopped the numbers. Feel that chest burn!!!

Mosey back to the start for a quick ab exercise that I forget and that’s time!

Announcements – 2nd F lunch this Wednesday at the Dallas Pita Wheel, Nantan of the Nation Slaughter will Q Downtown Friday including 2nd & 3rd F, F3 Shirt design contest due soon

Prayer Requests – Roscoe’s family on the passing of his FIL, Big Pappy’s family, Turtleman, Newnan’s shoulder, Tesla

Thank you for the opportunity to lead today men. It’s always an honor and what better way to get your week started off right than to do it with each other! AYE!!!

Time hits.  Pledge.  A word about the mission of F3 and a reminder of why we do what we do.  Not about the workout, about being prepared and being vulnerable.  Got to put in the work to reap a benefit.

Warmup: SSH, Burpees, IW, gravel pickers, some stretching

Mosey to parking lot behind the buses.  Partner up for boo-yah merkins and bear crawl opposite directions, meet back in middle.  Five rounds.  Mosey to other side.

Four corner escalator with merkins, lil baby flutter crunch, bobby hurley, flying squirrels, 25 reps, start with merkins and add next exercise at subsequent corner.  Come back down in reverse with 20 reps.  Mosey to school.

25 step ups each leg.  Grab some wall and hold plank with feet 12 to 18 inches on wall.  Hold.  Finish with 10 merkins.

Back to flag.

Nice work men.

Announcements: 2nd F lunch on Wednesday, Honey Hunters game 4/24, Rice n Beans on Tuesday

Prayer requests: Pilgrim’s neighbors getting separated, Pilgrim’s family mourning loss, Pilgrim M having surgery, Bos M, Tooth Fairy daughter, Tiger M and step sons, Tesla and family, Orangeman M

Prayer

Always an honor

Tiger

At 2am I awake to the sound of pelting rain and wind in the big town of High shoals, I said to myself it will be gone by 530…i hope!  I got up and headed to Folsom to do 6-mile EC run@ 530, Wichita and SA had agreed to meet up and run with me( I do this alone most Saturdays…I know how you feel Wirenut!). Wichita had the Q, so i figured we should get some legs in before he made us do 1000 merkins or whatever!  Wichita sent me his standard text at 5 so i knew he was up and ready…I start getting text from SA talking about “Surly your not running in this crap”, and telling me how Hes going to punch me in the face when he gets to Folsom🤷‍♂️.  During our lovely run in the rain , Wichita hurt his foot and had to cut it short, I told SA as we ran along we may have to Q this one…and we did:

Warm up:  SSH then a burpee, Gravel Pickers then a burpee, Abe V’s and a Burpee, MNC’s and a burpee, left over right/right over left stretch…then a BURPEE

The Thang:  Cooper was called to get us to the Flag at the Top.  Every light pole starting at this one. 10 burpees 10 squats 10 merkins, next pole 9, then 8 etc.  If you stop and the triangle along the way you get 10 spots so it works out.

Pledge at the flag

Mosey to the concrete bleacher/steps at the horse arena.  20 derkins at the bottom, box jump to the top, 20 dips.  We did that 5 times. Mumble Chatter was high! Talking about how stupid this was…what ever just get it done!

After a 10 count from the Mayor I let SA take the reigns and we Mosey’d to the top parking lot for Dirty 11s…Mike Tysons and Jump Lunges..dont forget the Burpee in the middle!

Mosey down to the first shelter for some abs.  it was dryish in there we did a ring of fire w/Bear crawly. Everyone had a turn to call an exercise and crawl. After that we did 50 step ups, and to finish it out a round of Iron Hulks. Mosey back to shovel flag and TIME!

Announcements:

2nd F Lunch Pita Wheel in Dallas

Kotter List set up and volunteers to call—see DR. Suess

Rice & Beans every Tues at the old Honda store downtown

Convergence April 2nd @ Yank

Community Foundation Run and Speed for Need April 9th

Prayers:

Wichita foot and his Dad/family

Gumbys Mom, cousin, and back

Sparky’s Hand and M

Westside Grandma and M’s Grandma

Striper’s Brother

Big Pappys Mom and 2.0

I Took us out in prayer.

Honor to lead today, I hate Wichita got hurt, always be ready to jump in when you are needed!

Ball Joint

It was a cold, blustery day on the frozen tundra.  Pax were sleep deprived, but overcame the odds and came out better for it. Had a kotter show who doesn’t know his name, Is it Bogey or is it Slice?  Bogey Slice it is.  A least for now.  Three ran, five rucked.  Everybody stuck around to discuss “Queen”.

Announcements:  2nd F lunch Wedensday, Relays upcoming with drivers needed.  Go Ruck events need some Pax to step up.  Initiative to contact Kotters, sign up to be stone/blade

Prayer requests: Orangeman manager at work, Pilgrim family with two deaths, Tiger M and stepsons, Tesla and his family, people of Ukraine and Russia, domestic political decisions

Tiger took us out

Always an honor

Tiger

8 PAX showed up to get in a mosey this morning.

For the word I used a couple of pages from my Daily Devotion titled “Radical Wisdom”

Verse:

Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we not see.”

The opposite of faith is fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Choose Faith

4 truths to lean into when you feel fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

1. God is real- Paul answers this with Romans 1:20
2. God loves me- When I have no where else to turn, I set aside my doubt, pride, ego and know He loves me.
3. God can be trusted- I trust Him with every outcome.
4. There is a life after this one.  Jesus proved it with His death, resurrection, and ascension.

Life happens. Our circumstances often cause us to question what we believe, creating doubt in our hearts about everything we thought was true.  It happens to all of us. But what matters most is how we respond to doubt when it arises

Pledge

Annoucements:

2nd F at Pita Wheel in Dallas this Wednesday.  See Slack for details.

Convergence at The Yank on April 2nd.

Prayers:

Turtleman

Tesla’s Family

Big Pappy Family

Wichita Family and foot

Stiper’s Brother

Bedpan Family

I took us out in Prayer.

Thank you for the opportunity to share and be pushed by you men. I hope everyone has a great week. SYITG.

It’s Friday night I’m here at the Rusty Rabbit drinking all by myself once again. This is the second week that I was the only one who showed for 2nd F. I’m hitting up Slack and GroupMe saw that err body is standing me up and staying home. While scanning through all the mumblechatter I see that Tiger has posted that he needs someone to pickup his Q tomorrow so I said what the heck I’ll take it. I’ve been working on a few different things and I’m wanting to try them out so I’ll do it. It’s now Sat. morning it’s pouring rain and I’m having a hard time getting motivated to do anything let alone go workout but it’s what we do so off I go.  As I pull up I noticed no cars in the parking lot and I think hell I wouldn’t be running no EC today either it’s cold and raining cats and dogs out here I can’t blame anyone for not getting in a little extra in out here in this crap. Then a few minutes later my phone is buzzing that means it’s 0659 1 min. till and still no one, nothing, nada dang soul. I’ll give it a few more min. as I’m thinking maybe a few of these guys realize that I’ve now got the Q and I’m pretty much running @ 2 -3 min. late every morning. Clock now strikes 0705 still no one. Now I’m thinking WTF maybe it’s just me who else gets stood up for drinks and a workout within the same 24 hours. Well be danged if I’m going to miss out on a good time just because nobody wants to show. Just like last night I’m flying solo. I grab a block out of the ol’ F150 and get to work. I hit up a circuit of 5 rounds 20 reps each as follows.

Thrusters

Curls

OH Extensions

Good Mornings

High Pulls

I ended each round with a lap around the track. Pretty JV so far I know. At this point I’m really ready to throw in the towel and just head out for breakfast a little early. I’m finishing the last lap of my circuit when I see Mayor pulling in from Folsom he realizes no one was here to pull, push, or kick my whining ass across the so called finish line he jumps out of the truck restarts his watch and says he wants to finish the workout with me. With no real plans on what to do since I was ready to call it quits. Mayor says we’ll just run till 0800 so we head out towards the OG Courthouse. We then headed up to Ingles then back down to the park for 1 final push around the track for a total of 1.5 mi. and we’re finished.

TIME

Thanks Mayor for that final push I needed that.

COT

No Real Need for Name-o-Rama

Pledge

Prayers

Well I guess this went as good as it could have being it was short notice. Also once I saw no one  was going to show I guess I could have just went on home. If I went home I would have just told myself no one will know if I was here or not but Mayor was there so someone would have known. I’d rather do the work than pretend I did it any day. It’s not always the things we do when when others are watching that matter. Often times it’s what we do when we think we’re all alone or no one is looking. What will you do when no one is looking. Just food for thought.

I’m not bagging on anyone and I hope it doesn’t look that way. I know that there were a lot of F3 events today. Good luck with Q School today and Great Work to those of you who ran The Rooster today.

I’M OUT

I’m trying hard not to buy into climate change. Yesterday (Saturday) was an anomaly, with a cold and rainy start in the 40’s that got progressively colder in the 7-8 am hour. Cold and Rainy is not a great combination for an F3 workout but as one of our core principals says: “Held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold.” In most cases, there is likely some other idiot dumb enough to suit up in the gloom and post. It’s been a while since I last Q’ed at The Fighting Yank, so good to make the trip over for a Saturday morning despite the conditions. As I arrive at 6:50, our Nantan awaits me at the curb as Sargento has the Bunker. We quickly assess the situation and decide attendance will be light at best, so we should combine our efforts and give the PAX a Two for One special. Sarge informs he has an FNG coming (“Always be EHing”) and he did in fact show (bonus points for posting in the nastiness). Only Dirt was out for EC so as we counted down to 0700, cars began rolling in. The disclaimer and warm-up are brief with the rain pelting us.

Warm-Up: Don Quixotes and SSH’s – grab some gear out of Sargento’s trunk and head up the hill to the upper picnic shelter. The Bunker portion would be first as Sargento planned 10 stations. With 11 PAX, we modified to a merkin station – except Flintstone is working around an elbow issue – so he ran most of this time. The others worked our way through a circuit of:

• Standing straight arm raises w/ bricks
• Curls with 250 pound weights on curl bar (not really – no idea of the weight)
• Standing kettle bell extensions (3 lb kettlebell)
• Flutter kicks
• Shoulder shrugs with paint cans containing exactly 78 oz and 104 oz of paint left in the gallon buckets
• Standing front shoulder raises with paint cans containing exactly 93.5 oz and 77.3 oz in the gallon buckets
• Bent over rows with full concrete block
• Standing triceps extensions with 22.5 lb kettlebell
• LBCs
• Bent-over flys with bricks
• Merkins (except Flintstone)

Sargento brought his mega JBL speaker which his phone and the Tabata timer was connected. Each exercise went 1 minute with a 3 second rest. Music was supposed to play but we were sparred (briefly). I tried the Roscoe move to hijack the bluetooth speaker but it turned into a co-Q fail not only not playing the music on my phone, but no longer announcing the time of the exercise. The rain had subsided at this point but the concrete under the cover had plenty of puddles leaving only a few dry spots for the flutters and lbcs. We found a  way to persevere. With 11 exercises and a few seconds of rest, everyone completed a full circuit plus a few extra rounds to exhaust The Bunker’s first half hour of the Twofer.

With the gloom and doom forecast, I had planned to keep the PAX under the shelter but exact a cardio beatdown unlike no other experience. But what does a Q do when plans change on a dime? Adjust, Omaha, call it whatever you want but I spent most of the time contemplating my adjusted workout. I also was trying to workaround our FNG’s knee injury but there is only so much you can do and still give the PAX their money’s worth. Instead of multiple rounds, I sped through these circuits one time:

1. Squats x 25, R Lunge x 15, L Lunge x 15, R Side Lunge x 15, L Side Lunge x 15, Bench Jumps x 20 (butt to the bench and jumps up off the bench)
2. Calf Raises x 30 (had salute Dirt’s favorite), Bonnie Blairs x 20, Imperial Walker Squats x 20 (count the squat), Bench Jumps x 20
3. Merkins x 15, Shoulder Taps x 30 (ct each tap), Merkins x 15, Peter Parker x 30 (total), Burps x 15
4. Dips x 15, Derkins x 15, Dips x 15, Crab Cakes x 15
5. Glute Bridges x 25, Bulgarian Squat 30 (15 R/15 L), High Knees x 30 (Total)

Partner work: P1 does counting exercise to 25 reps; P2 does AMRAP exercise to maintain the cardio. Two sets for each exercise so the counting equals 100.

1. P1 – SSH’s x 25; P2 – Burpees AMRAP
2. P1 – Mtn Climbers x 25; P2 – Hand Release Merkins AMRAP
3. P1 – LBCs x 25; P2 – Plank Jacks AMRAP
4. P1 – Squats x 25; P2 – Ski Abs AMRAP

Of course I had to introduce some bit of complication but the PAX picked it up and really embraced the activity, especially the AMRAP portion. I had done some parts of this before but as with any new weinke – the timing is the one variable that you can’t always account. So I had about 8 minutes left to burn and we jumped into some core work to finish out the event.

Announcements: Q school and burgers – yesterday – hope you attended and learned something. Community Foundation Run April 9th – have you registered yet?; Prayer Requests: Tesla, Roscoe’s FIL/M – there are others that I missed.

COT – Sargento had been working to EH David Hamilton for a few years. The 1989 Ashbrook Greenwave was a dominant small forward in the Southeastern 4A has since migrated to Belmont to live with his family that his kids attended or currently attend South Point. As our FNG explained some things about himself, Sargento said he had the biggest set of hands he’d ever shaken – hence we’ll now call him The Glove – welcome. For a cold and wet day, we survived it. Doodles, who works for US Air said it best: “I can work in the cold or I can work in the rain, but I don’t like working in both.” As the kids text, TBH, I don’t like working out in the rain or the cold either. I’m ready for Spring.  But the chatter was pretty steady today during both sessions of the combined workout. And getting in a workout with the PAX is better than going at it alone.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

6 PAX descended on Lake Murray for some relay miles, in the Dam to Dam Relay.  Here’s the highlights:

Team Name:

• Burly Sebastians

Team Roster:

• Go Greene Go (F3 Shelby) – Got us out to a fast start, as he was the first runner from our heat to reach Exchange Zone #2.  GGG scoffed at all the newfangled gadgetry, conquering his legs and the weekend with no watch and a flip phone.  His group texts showed his perseverance to finishing a task using only T9.
• Latte (F3 Shelby) (R) – The captain of our ship, and the only rookie on the team.  Latte’s van got the job done.  With over 250,000 miles, that sucker had seen a lot, but it hadn’t chauffeured a relay team through the back roads of South Carolina, and it got stamped with it’s very own F3 sticker for its efforts.  Latte’s legs were strong too, coming in under his predicted times and running farther than he ever had in one day before.
• EZ Rider – Part of the Respect Twin Towers that anchored the Burly Sebastians, EZ just crushed the first of three 7+mile legs on the course. With 12+ miles in 2 legs, EZ stepped up his training and his game on race day.  No quit in EZ.
• Flintstone (Q) – The guy who pulled the team together, Flintstone made sure that 6 guys made it to the start line (even though there were only 4 at the start).  He also had a streak of trying to drop one in the stalls at 3 Exchange Zones in a row.  Probably hit up 90% of the restrooms on the course.  Ran a 7+ mile leg, too.  Caught by Sargento.
• BOS – The second of two Respect Twin Towers, BOS finished with the most miles on the course.  Ran strong and fast, like the competitor he is, and found whatever was left and emptied the tank when it got tough.  A pro.
• Gavel – The most clutch member of the team.  Gavel was a late addition to the team, and the pilot of our second ship.  Stepped in when needed and crushed his runs.  Got the Glory Leg for his efforts.  Accelerating.

Results:

• Total Time:  9:21:33
• Place: 56 of 102
• Team Average Pace: 8:51
• Beat predicted time by 10 minutes

Moleskin:

• What a great day for racing.  The weather couldn’t have been better, and it was a Saturday in February.  Plenty of sun and plenty warm.  The legs were well designed.  The Exchange Zones were all churches, but the people and facilities were nice.  The burgers and doughnuts at the finish line were top notch.  The view at the end also couldn’t be beat.  It’s really a well run race and a great experience.
• That said, there’s always still meat left on the bone, and always a reason to get out and do it again.  Lookin forward to the next one.

Thanks to all who took part and all who supported us running with us in training and throwing some encouragement our way.

Yabba Dabba Doo