Month: August 2022 (Page 10 of 12)

We’re about 4 exercises into the warm-up. Nine veteran PAX were circled around me. The circle did not include Sister Act who apparently improvised a Q that even he couldn’t recover. That was okay, despite his lack of attendance, he received the same abuse as if he’d showed. In the midst of trying to lead the cadence, I see a talk figure in a neon shirt exit his vehicle and look around reluctantly. From the distance, he looks like Time Frame but he’s walking slowly whereas any veteran PAX would hustle toward us since we were about 0534 at this point. The fella finally joins us. I greet him: “Good morning; are you here for F3?” Guys says: “Yes, Reid Jentsch invited me.” He looks around the circle. “I don’t see him here.” I respond: “I know Reid Jentsch, his F3 name is Malfunction and he most definitely is not here…but you are so welcome.” Purple Haze calls him out – “that boy is a Lineberger.” We quickly learn John Lineberger is from Dallas. I wouldn’t have known that since our FNG is clean shaven and didn’t drive a truck. But he is in training to be a Police Officer where he met Malfunction. Hopefully this wasn’t a pledge prank of sorts. In either way, let’s get back to it. I share an elevator speech on what were doing and since FNG John joined us, I add a few more warm-up exercises than my typical set. We said the pledge and time to mosey.

We go a short distance to the benches on South Street in the middle of the block. We needed them to do:

• Circuit 1: 15 Derkins + 30 Decline Peter Parkers + 15 Derkins + 15 Dips + 30 SSH
• Circuit 2: 15 Bulgarian Squats R + 15 Bulgarian Squats L + 30 Squats
• Repeat both circuits

Mosey down the street to the open parking lot across from the church. I should have found one with smooth asphalt but it will have to do for us. A new routine called 60 where I give out an exercise and you do that until failure or you’re tired of it or 60 reps, whichever comes first. When you stop doing the exercise, you finish with LBCs until 60 reps. Exercises were: merkins, mtn climbers, imperial walker squats, reverse lunges, SSH’s, Burpees. After 60 reps were complete, run to the end of the parking and back to get a little cardio. For the record, none of the PAX did LBCs on the side-straddle-hops. So I impromptu added burpees – some PAX then did 60 LBCs. Q wins.

Running out of time so let’s mosey over to the parking deck. Roscoe was the only repeat PAX from my Q at the Goat the previous day. I asked him to demo the eccentric tricep dip on the parking deck rail. Like the day before, we’ll begin with 10 on one side and 1 diamond merkins on the other for 11’s. Like the day before, we got a little more than halfway through before it was time.

Annoucements: Blood Drive Aug 10th; CSAUP 50 mile relay coming up. Prayers: Melina White, Wirenut & family, Courtney (lady jogger in Belmont that was hit, Huck, Turtleman).

The FNG John Linerberger hung with us pretty good. As he is in training for the Police Department, we quickly named him Tackleberry. He actually claimed to have seen the movie. As for the other PAX, some of them modified because they had attended SA’s beatdown the afternoon before. Good on them for posting. There was good chatter among the guys and hopefully they got their money’s worth. Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

I had a horrible end to July – wasn’t feeling great waking each morning with a clogged head. In normal times we’d call that a head cold. Take some over the counter meds and push through. Fauci calls that Armageddon part III. I never got tested – just kept to myself. Who really knows any more. Regardless, I didn’t feel like working out. I felt better on the weekend and committed to getting after it in August. Bubba Sparxx needed a Q and that was a sign to get my ass out of bed. That I did and shared a few new things with the PAX that beat the fart-sack that morning at The Goat.

Warm-up – Toy Soldier, Side to Side Lunge, Imperial Walkers, Don Q’s, Chest Openers – all IC x 10 – Pledge

Since hill and parking lot in the Cramerton circle are still blown up, we’ll mosey around the building to get the blood flowing. The house on the corner has a dog outside at that time that went crazy. There goes part of the plan to run around the buildings. Improvise it will be.

Thang:

• Round 1: 50 SSH’s, 40, LBC, 30 Squats, 20 HR Merkins, 10 Burpees – run to end of the street and return
• Round 2: 40 SSH’s, 30, LBC, 20 Squats, 10 HR Merkins, 5 Burpees – run to end of the street and return
• Round 3: 30 SSH’s, 20, LBC, 10 Squats, 5 HR Merkins – run to end of the street and return
• Round 4: 20 SSH’s, 10, LBC, 5 Squats – run to end of the street and return
• Round 5: 10 SSH’s, 5, LBC – run to end of the street and return
• Round 6: 5 SSH’s – run to end of the street and return

Next up is the Red Reaper which I found on Darebee.com. Check it out for ideas to use in your Q or when you need inspiration at home. I modified it into my own version so the PAX would get crushed on their upper body. Today’s version was:

• Circuit 1: 15 Merkins + 30 Shoulder Taps + 15 Merkins + 30 American Hammers + 30 Freddie Mercs
• Circuit 2: 15 Derkins + 30 Decline Peter Parkers + 15 Derkins + 30 American Hammers + 30 Freddie Mercs
• Repeat both circuits

Mosey to the upper parking lot below the railroad tracks. Use the rail for a new treat: eccentric plank dips. I demoed this by putting my hands on the rail and holding by body steady in an incline position. Start by bending your elbows toward the rail, lowering your body; then straighten your arms to starting position. I learned this from F3 Fonda the tricep has three muscles: Longhead, Lateral Head and Medial Head. This routine was focused on the longhead but would work all three well. The routine would be 11’s with 10 eccentric plank dips on the rail, run to other end of the parking lot for 1 diamond merkin. As time was running short, we got to about the halfway point. But hearing the PAX chatter, their arms were pretty smoked and they were glad to Omaha.

Announcements: Blood Drive Aug 10

Prayer Requests: Courtney (female jogger hit in Belmont – she is making positive progress last I heard); Huck, Tesla/family.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

6 HIM showed for another opportunity to improve today. 3 rucked, 3 ran. It was humid. Change is a coming!

4 stayed for a Q Source conversation on Trust. The world was made better by the conversation and ideas brought forth.

Announcements: Blood Drive 8/10, Freight is moving next Saturday at 9ish, SLT meeting next Saturday at 8:30, F3 Dads 8/20, F3 Dads Camp 8/20, CSAUP in September

Prayers: Huckleberry, Tesla

Work was done.  It could’ve been worse.

We ran some laps and put in work at the picnic shelter.  Other stuff too.

5 including myself made it out for a Father’s Day mosey

All stayed for discussion on the King

After attending for approximately 2 months, I conducted my first Q.  Unfortunately the site Q was unable to attend having to quarantine due to a family member who contracted Covid.  As such, I prepared a shovelflag of my own for the pledge.

With the intent to make the lungs burn with this workout, we warmed up the body and amped up the heart rate with some aerobic exercises to include side straddle hops and arm circles, among others.

We ran to another site approximately 1/2 mile away for the main calisthenics portion where we did a circuit of the following:

1. Soccer run, counting every other foot to 50
2. Triple Bear, counting every middle step, to 40
3. Catchers, single count to 20
4. Plyo Lunge, counting every other foot to 10

That sequence was repeated three times.  Between each circuit, the breather for the men was a build up of merkins, to include:

1. 20 close grip (ranger) merkins
2. 20 diamond merkins
3. 10 plyo merkins, with or without the clap

Upon completion of the circuit and the final merkins breather, we ran another 1/2 mile + to the ball field behind the Middle School for core exercises at each base, to include:

1. 20 crunchy frog
2. 20 heels to heaven
3. 20 Peter Parkers
4. 20 airplane cobras
5. 50 American hammers

Concluding the session was a run returning to the lot, and 30 bench dips.

We had a awesome warmup with the visiting Q for Gashouse ,Wire Nut . Then after the warmup we headed out for a 2 mile ruck with some stops on the way. At each stop we did 10 merkins, 10 squats, and 10 box cutters.  We keep the packs on for most of the exercises. Finished up with the Plague and circle of trust

Roscoe had a great idea a few weeks ago when we were talking-do a Q swap to let guys see other AOs. I put something on Slack and Wirenut jumped on it. He took over GasHouse and I got the opportunity to Q at Old School. I’ve been on IR for awhile and honestly was a bit unsure of how it would go because I really had not pushed it since Luigi was set free.

I got there a little early and as I drove up, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Last time I was here we did Murder Bunnies for part of Iron Pax challenge. No worries, I’m not afraid of some Merlot….

Stogie was there waiting and Freight pulled up shortly before 0700. We started with the Pledge then a quick warmup and moved on to the thang.

We started on the track and did 4 Bojangles Biscuits: sprint(-ish) the straights then mosey/walk the sides. On each end throw in 5 burpees (10 per lap). Next was the parking lot-start on one end and move to the other side (longer than I remembered) ((that’s what she said-NOT!!!)). You can hop, bear crawl, or lunge but can’t do the same thing 2 times in a row. Every 5 parking space lines, do 2 burpees. Go to the end then mosey back to start. Quick word while we catch our breath then mosey to Kotter Corner for some Hip Slappers. I can’t remember the last time I did these so I was a little excited on the inside. We did a set of 10 IC then 25 squats and 10 Big Boys. After 2 sets of this, I saw that look in Freight’s eyes that say “surely he won’t do a 3rd set.” I’ve given that look more times than I care to admit and maybe I am just projecting, but he did say he was hoping I was not going to say 3rd set….One more set. On rep #9, I made it clear we would keep going past 10 but this was met with much disdain so it did’t last very long. As Shortsale has said in the past, Hip Slappers are my love language. I don’t really have a reason. I think it’s because they are painful and I really hated doing them early on but found, like most things, doing them more often really makes them less painful.

We moseyed over to the town square for some 4 corners with escalator stuff: 10 Merkins at corner 1, repeat at corner 2 and add 20 Monkey Humpers, repeat at corner 3 and add 30 LBCs, repeat at corner 4 and add 40 SSH. Second round was 10 Flying Squirrels, 20 Shoulder Taps, 30 Squats, and 40 Freddie Mercuries. Final round of 4 corners was just SSH with 25, 50, 75, and 100 SSH at the corners. The shirt came off part way through this but not sure it really helped me at all.

We moseyed back to start and along the way Freight said he was going to petition to change Kotter’s Corner to Kotter Avenue and find a way to insert that into the song Electric Avenue. It was a lot funnier to me at the time than it is now as I write this…probably because I was a low on the oxygen and sweating my ball$ off.

We got back in time for some Mary then quick COT with some good discussion.

I mentioned that I was reading a book now given to me by Strogi a few months ago called Sea Stories. It is written by William McRaven-he’s the SEAL who is known for his graduation speech about “making your bed.” The book is outstanding. It is easy to pick up and read for a few minutes then put down and read later: < 10 pages per chapter for the most part and stories about his life in the military. Sorry Boudin, no pictures in this book. One of the underlying themes is about (not) ringing the bell, or quitting during BUDs training. The training and especially Hell Week weeds out the guys who can’t fight the desire to quit, or ring the bell. All through training, the SEAL candidates are pushed to exhaustion and the Cadre offer them a break to end the suffering by ringing the bell and quitting. The guys who stick through it often say they don’t quit because of the man on their left and their right-their brothers who are depending on them to stay in the fight and keep pushing. I know what we are doing does’t compare with SEAL training, however I think this concept of being there for your brother is no less important for us. Think about this. How have you done lately with this? Is it enough to just post and say “at least I am showing up?” There are guys in our region who are struggling. You know some of them, but I am certain there are some that we don’t know how much they are struggling. Check on your brothers. Check on the one’s you don’t see. Stay involved in the ones you do see and make sure to hold them accountable for what we all know is important: Don’t ring the bell. No matter what, don’t ring the bell.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead. It really felt good to get back out there today.

Whoopee