Month: December 2023 (Page 1 of 12)

Some say it’s the most CSAUP of all. Some say it’s the best day of the year. Undoubtedly, it was a beautiful day and set up to be the greatest .85 miles ever.

The gathering started at 10:30 although YHC noted that the PAX was to muster at 11. I guess they were super excited get it on!

Once everyone was at the house, we explained most of the rules, said the Pledge of Allegiance and then clown car’ed to the AO. Tables were set up at the transition area. Nantan to be Flintstone would keep the time and make sure all PAX obeyed the rules for drinking their beers and such. Oompa and JJ volunteered to be proctors for the turnaround at the far end of the route. There was even a snaggle toothed neighbor who was curious what all the commotion was in the culdesac. No worries, mister, we’re just here for a quick competition.

The spectators were in position and fanfare was at a fever pitch. Once all the runners were accounted for and the rules were given, Flintstone started the countdown, and the race was on!

Beers were cracked and guzzled then the PAX started a-running! They were pretty close to begin with and thanks to Leppard’s play-by-play commentary, we were all up on the happenings. Lap 1 went by without too much of a problem except a couple or the PAX decided they couldn’t carry on (you hate to see it) but the rest kept on pushing. Beer and lap 2, then 3 and finally 4 were finished with lots of swillin’, cussin’ and even a little merlot from the Freight. It was awesome! Sure we may have only run .85 miles but we all did the same distance and maybe next year we’ll get the mileage right.

The race was finished, and the throng headed to YHC’s house for some well deserved rest and relaxation with plenty of 2nd F to go around. In the end, some came and conquered but everyone agreed, this is THE CSAUP event of the year. Mark your calendar for next year’s edition.

Started with mission of F3, to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.  Warm up of SSH, IW, gravel Pickers, arm circles and some stretches.  Pledge.

Time to make some major decisions.  Pax had a choice of easy or hard.  Easy and hard qualified by saying the easy doesn’t necessarily mean easy, it means more opportunity to adjust to own level of difficulty, but hard means hard.

Being the HIM’s they are, all but one dissenter (won’t mention Cheesesteak) chose hard.  Let’s go.  Head up Nichols Hill but take a left on Poplar.  All the way to the end. 20 squats once all arrive.  Cross Keaner.  Orangeman casually mentions “hope we aren’t headed to North Street”.  Me too, but we are.

First time this a workout has come to this spot.  The reason hard is hard is because this is a steep hill.  Starts steep and continues.  Fortunately it’s only about 200 yards.  Triple nickel is the call – hand release merkins at bottom and perfect form merkins at top.

After all had completed, took moment to talk about the fact that a decision is the first step.  If your life has something that it shouldn’t, or doesn’t have something it should then the first step to change is to make the decision.  We then talked for a moment about the 8 block.  This is a tool that can be utilized in forming a plan to better yourself.  But it helps, when you have someone to help with accountability.  Shield lock and Whetstone are great for this.

One last thing. 2023 for some has been a hard year.  Many look forward to brighter days to come.  We went up the hill one more time with all the gas in the tank.  Hill was symbolic of 2023, but everyone made it to the top.

Head back downtown, stopping periodically for jungle boy squats, 20 per stop, 5 stops.  Got back to park with time left so stopped at the corner for some dips and derkins.  Start at 20.  Orangeman M comes by, we ask her to call the round of 15.  Big mistake.  Women from! Ecuador are firey!  She thankfully moves along,  10 more and head to the Yank.

Time for a little Mary.

Good work for the last bootcamp of the year.   We discussed the 8 block just a bit more.  YHC printed several copies to hand out.  Use it men!  Don’t just complete it and stash it somewhere.  Re-visit and adjust frequently.

Announcements:  beer mile,  convergence  New Year’s morning. ruck and run at 0600, bring coupon.  Virus collecting adult clothing.

Prayer requests:  Pax traveling, Jackson Hall, Jackson Curti did not get good result from recent testing, Turtleman, Huck, Jane Fonda, Montana, safety and prospertiy in new year

YHC took us out

Always an honor.

Happy new year

Tiger

Warm up x 15

SSH
Low- Slow Squats
Imperial Walkers
WW1
Flutter kicks
CDD

Mosey down to the town square. Here we will run four corners around the Square. Each corner is a new exercise and each round is a different muscle group.
Exercises are 25 reps.
Round 1
Corner number one SSH
Corner number two Squats
Corner number three Bonnie Blair
Corner number four Toy Soldiers

Round 2
Corner number one Merkin
Corner number two CDD
Corner number three Wide Arm, Merkin
Corner number four Hand Release Merkin

Round 3
Corner number one WW1
Corner number two LBC
Corner number three imperial walkers
Corner number four LBFC

Round 4
For one SSH
Corner number two Merkin
Corner number three WW1
Corner number four Bonnie Blair’s

Mosey over to the parking lot at Gaston and Trade. Here we perform triple nickels.
Flutter Kicks, run length and WW1
Merkins, run length and Dips
Squats, run length and Bonnie Blair
SSH, Hillbillies and Imperial Walkers

Mosey back to the field at the start.
Bear Crawl Slalom across the field 3 times.
11’s across the field.
LBC x Merlin

Prayer requests
Freights mom flu
Wire nuts family
SA knee surgery
Pockets Dad
Montana tubes removed

Took a Q on short notice at Folsom this week. It was the day after Christmas so I figured I’d spread a little more Christmas Joy. I’m pulling in and Pony Boy was already warming errbody up. I knew I was cutting it close but I ended up being about 3 min. late sorry guys. But with the warmup out of the way I can put em straight to werk. We mosey down to the lower lot for a quick round of Tripple Nickel with Mike Tyson’s at bottom of the hill and Burpee Squat Holds at the top. If that sounds like a mouthful well it is and it’s way worse feeling than it sounds. Once finished with that we went into the lower Gazebo for 5 rounds 20 reps each of the following.

• Derkins
• Bulgurian Split Squats
• Dips
• Leg Lifts
• SSH

We finished each round with some active recovery and stretching.

Once finished with the final round we headed back to the Flag stopping at each light pole on the way back to a random exercise at each.

10 Shoulder Taps at the 1st. 20 Heels on the Curb Sissy Squats at the 2nd. 30 Mountain Climbers at the 3rd. All exercises at the 4th.
Head to the flag for the Pledge and COT.

TIME

Thanks for the Hard Work Men

Pledge, Prayers, COT

Well I warned everyone that we were going to do some tough shit out here this week and people showed up anyway. This brought joy to my heart as this time of year it’s very easy to stay in the bed due to the cold and rain that we’ve had recently. Once I got everything set up I noticed several heading in from an EC run/ruck and a few more pulling in to the parking lot looking ready for action. With that we got after it with a quick warmup and some stretching. With the 1st part of the Warmup out of the way we’re heading around the corner for a little Triple Nickel on one of our little hilly back roads here in D-Town. Mike Tyson’s on the bottom of the hill and Jungle Boy’s on the top. All finished with Part 2 of the Warmup on to the Track back at the park for the actual workout. This was an AMARP style circuit workout with10 stations setup for 50 sec. of work and 10 sec. of rest/rotation to the next station. Exercises were.

• Heavy Sandbag Deadlift 90lbs
• Farmers Carry 2 – 55lb. Sandbags
• Merkins
• Riffle Carry 50lb. Block or 55lb. Sandbag
• Curls 2 – 20lb. Kettlebell Bags
• Sissy Squats
• Heavy Sandbag Drag 90lbs.
• Battle Rope Swings
• Thrusters 2 – 20lb. Kettlebell Bags
• Sandbag Rope Pull 55lb. Sandbag

It took a little over 10 min. to complete the circuit one time we got in 4 rounds of it. Well all of us except Leppard. He broke loose to finish a couple of laps around the park with Broke who’s running today in lieu of boot camping.

Everyone who was still around and didn’t bail on the workout helped throw everything back in my truck and we headed back to the parking lot for some final cooldown stretching and the COT. This is when Freight asked Dr. Seuss where He, Oompa and Leppard got their Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh from back in the day. Then as we turned to the Old Dallas High School now turned Old Dallas Old Folks Home for the pledge Def saw some of his old friends and soon to be hallway neighbors looking out the barred windows at us. He gave a nod of solitude towards them as if to say I’ll be back soon guys and that was the Q for the pledge so I let Dr. Seuss lead the way with that.

TIME

COT

Great Job  Guys. Thanks for showing.

5 of us got out for a Pre-Beer Run warm-up bootcamp.  Mixed in some new with the standard, and went back to pick up the Six as they were saving their legs to run 1 mile later in the day.  Here’s what I remember:

The Thang:

No new faces, so a disclaimer, then time for work

• 10 x Don Quixotes (IC)
• 10 x Hillbillies (IC)
• Tesla Stretches
• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

Split off, but bootcampers didn’t leave the parking lot just yet.  Time for some double dutch.

Recycled from Tuesday at Bulldog, but just a short sequence today with the jump ropes.  Partner up, and 1 PAX does the exercises while the other jumps rope.  Switch and do the same exercises.  Then switch back for the next exercises and continue on until all exercises are done by all PAX.

The exercises:

• 10 x Mike Tysons
• 20 x Bulgarian Split Squats (10 x each leg)
• 30 x Dips

Wrapped that up, then moved on to Burtonwood in front of First Presbyterian for the next call, stopping twice for:

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

Also during the stops today, instead of a 10 count, we went with reflections of gratitude for 2023.

So once to Burtonwood, we modified the Zombie Apocalypse from YHC’s Thanksgiving Q.  This time, instead of working in groups, the whole group would Zombie Walk to the Stop sign way far in the distance.  1 PAX at a time would break off from the group, run to the Stop sign, and then run back.  We did this until Roscoe got caught up in conversation and didn’t run.  Truth be told, it didn’t change things.  The lunges were the worst of it.

Next we moseyed to uncharted territory, the Kindercare on Dixon across from Sherwood.  After scouting out Sherwood’s parking lot and finding it unfavorable and a potential source of Sandy V, YHC made the call to go to the day care.  There were at least 8 parking spots at the front, perfect for stations, and we had blocks, bricks, dumbbells and the like out there to put in work.  50 seconds of work, 10 seconds to switch stations.  Exercises were:

• Squeezes (Half Block)
  • Standing, press the block in front of you while squeezing it to keep it stable
• Plank Flys (Bricks)
• Curls (Double Bricks)
• Flutter Kicks
• Thrusters (Block)
• Double Crunches (2 x 5 pound dumbbells)
• 1-armed Rows (Block)
• Star Boys
  • Big Boys, but cross over and touch left toe with right hand and flapjack)

Next, we moseyed down to the Sherwood track for some modified Lightning action.

• Run 1 Lap
• 10 x Jump Squats (OYO)
• 20 x Merkins (OYO)
• 30 x LBCs (OYO)
• Sprint across the field
• 10 x SSH (IC)
• Run 2 Laps
• 10 x Jump Squats (OYO)
• 20 x Merkins (OYO)
• 30 x LBCs (OYO)
• Sprint across the field

YHC realized that he planned for probably 2 hours, as we weren’t close to finished with the Weinke and we were cutting everything short.  We headed back up to the stations at Kindercare and each PAX picked 5 of the stations to work through for a second round.  Then we loaded up the blocks and headed back to the Schiele, stopping along the way for:

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

And somehow that was it.  We lunged a lot, and ran a little, lifted some things and put them down, and gave it a good solid 75% out there today.  At least one of the PAX went on to place in the Beer Mile.  So yeah.

Haze finished with COT after PainLab.

Moleskin:

So I took the Q, only because I realized I was just a couple Qs away from Qing at every F3 Gastonia AO in 2023.  Might as well finish the Bingo card, so I took Bulldog Tuesday and Gashouse today.  With 52 Qs available each year at every AO, it’s certainly reasonable to take one of them.  Looking forward to doing it again next year.

Gratitude today was given for time with the M, health, new opportunities, and growth in our 2.0s, among other things.  I must admit that it’s been a good year with a lot to be thankful for.

But the grind don’t stop.  Bring on 2024 and a chance to do it all again.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Yabba Dabba Doo

Couple early, few runners, few ruckers, and a nut sniffer started out the last day of the year right. Roscoe covered the COT because John Brown showed up and was calling, scratch that, SCREAMING my name.

We covered the 8 block this morning with input from all pax. We ran over time which was my fault-didn’t even look at the clock and got caught up in the discussion. If you haven’t done 8 block in the past, now is a good time-you can google 8 block and F3 then listen to CSPAN’s podcast or read any of the summaries of this. It’s a great way to plan your year and help you accelerate in a lot of areas. Feel free to ask anyone that was there this am if you have questions.

Whoopee