Author: Bubba Sparxxx (Page 5 of 8)

The warmer weather brought 21 PAX out of their fartsacks and into the heavy fog of the Gloom at the Goat.   It’s awesome to see how much energy, camaraderie, and mumblechatter there is, when there are that many PAX out in the Gloom together.

YHC dragged two FNGs out of their comfy domestic surroundings, after 6+ months of EH’ing them both.  They will now be known in the Gloom as ‘Vegemite’ and ‘Radiohead’.   There were a few Kotters, too, notably Clampett.  He has been MIA since possibly September2021, so we all weren’t sure if we needed to re-name him or not.

Fannie Mae ventured back down Cramer Mountain for Post #2, after his Tuesday FNG-debut at The Storm.

It was a great spread of PAX ages, too.  There were at least 2 PAX from every decade of life, with a 21-yo and a 62-yo,  To put that in perspective, for those keeping score at home, that likely translates to birthyears of 2001 and 1960 respectively.  I believe Tesla has underwear older than that 21-yo PAX, possibly even twice as old.

Very strangely, I  don’t believe I heard a Train this morning.  The PAX definitely weren’t going to point it out to YHC, if he had somehow missed it.

The PAX all put in some solid work today.   Seemed like about 10 grabbed coffee afterwards at Floyd and Blackie’s.

Here’s how it all went down:

WARM-UP

•  Lawnmowers, Side-Straddle-Hops, “Good-Morning-Burpees” (YHC learned this combo from F3-Katy,Texas,  and gladly added the Burpee to YHC’s signature Alarm Clocks)
• Mosey

THE THANG

• Mosey, through town, across the Goat island bridges, to the far-side parking lot.
• We made a few stops along the way for:  Merkins, Big Boys, and probably some other exercise(s) that YHC can’t remember…
• Once the PAX arrived at the parking lot of the far-side of Goat Island, they lined up for:
• Suicides – Hard Run to each of the three cones and back
• Suicides – Hard Run, adding 5 Reps;  Cone1-Bonnie Blairs, Cone2-Bobby Hurleys, Cone3-Side-Straddle-Hops
• Suicide Stacker:  Hard Run, adding Cone1(10 Burpees); Cone2 (10 Burpees + 10 Bonnie Blairs)  Cone3 (10 Burpees + 10 Bonnie Blairs + 10 Bobby Hurleys)
• Mosey back towards StartEx. We stopped for a Wall-Sit (technically it was a Bridge-Sit), later stopped for some American Hammers.
• Mosey continued, when YHC called for the PAX to “Triangle Up” around the Goat Island Triangle (It’s not a Circle, so we couldn’t “Circle Up”).  There, we did:
• MerkinJax Mountain, IC:  1Merkin-4 PlankJacks, building up to 5 Merkins-20PlankJacks, then back down the Mountain to 1Merkin-4PlankJacks
• Jacob’s Ladder on the 9th Street hill.    Run up, 1 Burpee at the top, Run back down.  Repeato until you get to 7 Burpees.   Most PAX finished before it was…

TIME!

COT

Pledge

Announcements

• This weekend’s retreat in Flat Rock still has availability spots
• Happy Hour on Friday at Primal

Prayer Requests

• Families DownEast with friends/family affected by a plane crash
• Pillar’s dad’s cancer treatment
• Orangeman’s mom’s heart
• Pilgrims’ M’s upcoming surgery
• Tesla and Family
• For the country, and the world – to quote a PAX:  “There’s too much goofy stuff going on!”

Doodles took us out in prayer.

Name-o-Rama on Twitter

As always, I consider myself very lucky to be able to lead and to strive alongside the PAX in the Gloom.

—-Bubba Sparxxx

WARM UP———-

THE THANG————

The Cooper (IC)  10/10/10 to 1/1/1  reps.   Run parking lot loop.  (Burpees/Hammers/Merkins)

Frog Hops up the hill

Escalator 10,15,20,25,30 reps.    (Tuck Jumps, Dips, Touch’n’Go,  Rocky Balboas, Step-Ups)  Run small parking lot loop

Hill Sprint

Lil’ bit of Mary

———————

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Retreat Feb 18-20
Grow Ruck 25-27
Rice n beans Gastonia – Tue
F3 Rooster – March?
Guest Q at the Storm.  Slaughter – March 8, Nation’s Nan’tan

PRAYER REQUESTS

Pillagers dad’ treatment
Pax on IR
Hufstetler Family –  30’s lady paralysis
Red Ribbon’s friend cancer and Former Co-worker.
YHC’s  friend’s family suffering multiple COVID deaths.

Glad for the opportunity to lead these men .

—-Bubba Sparxxx

There were PAX running and PAX rucking.

At QSource, the PAX covered ‘Group’.

Mixed it up with a low-run workout…

Glad to see 17 PAX post at Tequila Sunrise.  (That’s nearly double the typical TeqSun turnout according to YHC’s memory.)

btw:  As usual, it was not too dark at the Tequila Sunrise AO for a good beatdown.

WARMUP:  Side Straddle Hops, Alarm Clocks, Air Presses, Mosey

THE THANG (in no particular order, compared to what actually happened)

• Ring of Fire  – Circle Up – Chopping Wood, One by one, each PAX calls “Down” for 1 burpee, 
• 11’s  –  CDDs, Amer Hammers  w/NUR back
• Ring of Fire 2 – Circle Up, holdPlank.   One by one, each PAX knocks out 10 Merkins around circle, then returns to holding plank
• Ring of Fire 3 –  Circle Up “Global Warming” – .  PAX hold Al Gore.  PAX take turns calling 10 reps, exercise of their choice
• “Febreze”  – 2 BigBoys;  Stay Up for 10 Air Presses, w/ legs 6” in the air;   2BB:20AP, 4BB:40AP,  6BB, 60 40 Air Presses  (Note to self:  Next time, either skip the leg raise part, or lower the air-press reps.  This was fatiguing and required an Omaha at the last of 40 AirPresses by YHC, since “If you can’t do it, you can’t Q it.”)
• Merkin JAX Mountain –  1Merkin:4PlankJax,   2Merkin:8PlankJax, up to 5Merkins:20PlankJax, back down to 1Merkin:4PlankJax
• Four Corners 10 each corner, run to next corner, 10 reps  Six Shooters
• 6MOMary

Note:  Circle Exercises where all PAX hold a position (plank, Al Gore, etc) while only one PAX does an exercise result in a lot of mumblechatter around the circle.

Note2:  Giving the PAX an opportunity to do any exercise (not just the Mary ones) is a good way to surface some new exercise ideas, obscure exercises, and some oldies-but-goodies. (Thanks, BOS for showing us “Homer and Marge”)

Announcements
Growruck Mar 25,26,27  YHC looking for some PAX to step up and travel with him to Greenville NC
Happy hour at Primal
Feb 18-20 retreat at Flat Rock
Q school Jan 22nd at Gashouse, after beatdown 8:20
R U smarter than 5th grader. Stuart Cramer. 6pm. Thu Feb 10
2ndF lunch – Buffalo Wild Wings Jan 19. Noon

Prayer Requests
PAX – IR
GUMBY’s back issues
Kids teachers back to school

—Bubba Sparxxx

Freon (SiteQ) and YHC arrived early in the rainy Gloom, and parked next to each other.  The parking lot was otherwise empty.  We rolled down our windows to discuss whether anyone else would show today.

Well, on this first Monday of 2022, the rain could not deter the core group of stalwarts from the Mt Hollywood AO. They woke up, jumped out of their fartsacks, and made their way out into the Gloom, just like they do every single Monday.

These HIMs were so focused and ready to work, that YHC doesn’t think they even realized that the rain was going sideways, and that a hurricane was about to kick up.

YHC promised on Slack the night before, that we would workout out under a canopy, and that there would be treats for the PAX. YHC came through on those promises.

We immediately Mosey’d across the street to the canopies at Ida Rankin Elem.  On the way, we made sure that we stepped in EVERY SINGLE deep puddle and raging river we could find.

With our socks and shoes fully rinsed, the PAX arrived at Ida Rankin to find the “treats” that YHC had promised the night before – cinderblocks.

WarmUp
-SSH
-Air Presses
-Squats

The THANG

“CinderDora”
Partner1 – Do 25 Curls
Partner2 – Do LBCs until Partner1 finishes his 25 reps
Then, both partners, together, do
High-Knees to the other end of the canopy (~30yds)
Buttkickers on the way back
Then, continue exercise reps in sets of 25, as a Dora-pair until you reach the target number.
We did 200 cinderblock curls.

CinderDora was set to continue for about 8 additional exercises, but YHC called Omaha.

YHC Omaha’d to the workout found below, b/c YHC felt that the HIMs from Mt. HW weren’t getting their money’s worth from the CinderDora, in the  the particular way I had planned it. (I really like the CinderDora idea, but YHC plans to adjust it a little for another Q, so it works better for the PAX.

Here’s what we did after the Omaha was called:

25 Overhead presses w/ Cinderblock (IC)
Run 25yd, do 2 burpees, Run back
25 Kettlebell Swings w/ Cinderblock (IC)
Run 25yd, do 2 burpees, Run back
25 Thrusters w/ Cinderblock (IC)
Run 25yd, do 2 burpees, Run back
25 Kettlebell Swings w/ Cinderblock (IC)
Run 25yd, do 2 burpees, Run back
25 Kettlebell Sit and Press w/ Cinderblock (IC)
Run 25yd, do 2 burpees, Run back
25 Kettlebell Swings w/ Cinderblock (IC)
Run 25yd, do 2 burpees, Run back
25 Kettlebell Sit and Press w/ Cinderblock (IC)
25 Bonnie Blairs (count one leg) (IC)

TIME!

Pledge

Announcements
GrowRuck GTE 26 – YHC is looking for another HIM to go. https://growruck.com/growruck/growruck-26-eastern-fleet/
Half-Marathon in Biloxi https://www.harleyhalf.com/
Smoky Mtn Relay Thu, Apr 28, 2022 – Fri, Apr 29, 2022 https://smokymountainrelay.com/

Prayer Requests
Maria Hufstetler (paralyzed)

Red Ribbon took us out.

—-Bubba Sparxxx

Although forecasted, there was no rain at the Goat this morning.  So, there was no “free shower” as previously advertised on Slack.

Prior to Start, Fruity Pebbles, a frequent downranger from F3-Raleigh, showed up, mentioned how he had been fartsacking while on vacation here on beautiful Lake Wylie in Belmont,NC, but wanted to get out and post again with the Gastonia crew.

Fruity Pebbles said, “I’m not looking  for too tough of a workout today.”

YHC replied, “Sorry”    (for what YHC knew was about to happen)

Fruity Pebbles:   “Are you the Q today?”

YHC:  “Yes”

The local PAX concurred, “Yeah, you came to the wrong workout today, then.”

At that moment, it was time to get to work, so we did.

Fruity Pebbles held his own, as he always does.  He got his money’s worth today at The Goat.

WarmUp (IC), incl a Mosey around the block

THE THANG

Jacob’s Ladder:  1 burpee, then Run down and back up the hill.  repeating, adding one burpee, until you finish 7 burpees.

Merkin Jacks Mountain:  (IC),   1 Merkin/4PlankJacks, gradually up to 5 Merkins/20 PlankJacks, gradually back down to One Merkin/4 PlankJacks

11’s –  Big Boys and CDDs.  Run along Center Street past the restaurants, etc

Partner Run “Catch Me”  –    YHC paired up the PAX, matching them up by general running speeds.  Partner1 runs at a good pace, Partner2 does 3 Merkins, then runs hard to catch Partner1;  Partner1, once caught, drops for 3 Merkins,  Partner2 runs.   Alternate/Repeato.      “Don’t cheat your partner out of a good workout  by jogging slowly.”    We probably ran 8 minutes or so, according to YHC’s estimate.    (Special thanks to Gator for running extra hard and making his partner, YHC, have to work to catch him. )

Mary

TIME !

According to Watts Up, the PAX ran ran over 2.5mi today during the workout.

Announcements:

Midoriyama  Sat. 7am.  Convergence   All other AOs closed.
Smokey Mtn relay
Biloxi Half Marathon
Grow Ruck in March, Greenville, NC

Prayer Requests

PAX Traveling
Family members in need
Positive attitude for the New Year

Tesla took us out.

At least 6 showed for coffee afterwards at Floyd and Blackies, included 3 runners from The Pub.

Thanks for the chance to lead !

—Bubba Sparxxx

In the darkness and heavy rain, a group of about 80-90 PAX, M’s, and a couple 3.0’s descended upon Lewis Farms to celebrate Christmas, and another successful, productive, and fun year for F3 Gastonia.

Here’s how it all went down:

The crowd had some drinks, bumped fists, hugged, hi-five’d, and introduced their M’s to the strange PAX from the Gloom.

Santa Claus and his Pink Bunny sidekick grabbed the mic and started the party off.

Dinner was served at 7PM!  Broke, Huckleberry, and Allan Tate smoked butts from early on in the morning.  Itwas tasty.    PAX and M’s showed up with a plethora of mac’n’cheese, green beans, enchiladas, potatoes, ravioli, and too many more items to list.   Another table was full of desserts!

After everyone had their fill:

Broke, the current Nan’tan,  took center stage and reminded us all of the many successful events, community service efforts, and significant accomplishments that the PAX of F3 Gastonia achieved over the past year.  These included:

• Highest number of posts ever in a month this March:  1,173 posts and also had 154 distinct PAX post in that same month.
• 4 new AO’s, up to 26 total workouts each week
• Multiple CSAUP’s this year:
  • 2 Extinction runs
  • PT test
  • Strides of March
  • Starfish Ruck event
  • Grow Ruck, P200, P70, Ville 2 Ville, Dam 2 Dam, Mortimer, Bourbon Chase
• Added over 10 Whetstone pairings this year
• Multiple Service projects
  • Year long collection of items for bags for the needy. Handed out at Salvation Army.
  • Raised money and did yard work at Holy Angels
  • Breakfast for GSM
  • Rice and Beans volunteers
  • Service project for a lady in Dallas
  • Water at Downtown Alive
  • Salvation Army ringers

Next, Shot Sale announced the PAX who posted more than 200 times this year.  These HIMs joined the “Top of the Rock” club.

Next, the 2021 PAX Award Winners were announced:   (1st Place, 2nd Place, and 3rd Place)

Mumble Chatter Award

• • 1st –  Freight
  • 2nd – Purple Haze
  • 3rd – Sargento

Form Police Award

• • 1st – Sister Act
  • 2nd – Roscoe
  • 3rd – Mayor

Fartsacker of the Year

• • 1st – Sparky
  • 2nd – Huck
  • 3rd – Allen Tate

Best EH’er

• • 1st – Sargento
  • 2nd – Ball Joint
  • 3rd – Spackle

Most Supportive 

• • 1st – Sarlaac
  • 2nd – Dr. Seuss
  • 3rd – Def Leppard / Purple Haze (tie)

Most Improved

• • 1st – Ball Joint
  • 2nd – Wichita
  • 3rd – Bubba Sparxxx

Rookie of the Year

• • 1st – Bubba Sparxxx
  • 2nd – Ball Joint
  • 3rd – Spackle

Site Q of the Year

• • 1st – Wichita
  • 2nd – Slaw
  • 3rd – BOS / Flintstone (tie)

Best Q

• • 1st – Big Pappy
  • 2nd – Short Sale
  • 3rd – Round Up / Sister Act (tie)

1st F MVP

• • 1st – Dr. Seuss
  • 2nd – Flintstone
  • 3rd – Ball Joint

2nd F MVP

• • 1st – BOS
  • 2nd – Bubba Sparxxx
  • 3rd – Mayor

3rd F MVP

• • 1st – Sarlaac
  • 2nd – Tiger
  • 3rd – Big Pappy

PAX of the Year

• • 1st – Freight
  • 2nd – Ball Joint
  • 3rd – Whoopee

The Nan’tan then announced the new Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

Senior Leadership Team (SLT)

• NAN’TAN – Sargento
• 1st F – Roscoe
• 2nd F – BOS
• 3rd F – Breaker Breaker doing a 2nd term
• WHETSTONE – Dr. Seuss
• F3 DADS – Mayor continuing
• WEASEL SHAKER – Flintstone
• COMZ Q – Bedpan
• QSOURCE Q – Bubba Sparxxx

Broke got some special gifts or being an awesome Nan’tan.

Party Time:

Microphones were grabbed.   Karaoke ensued.   There was Guns’n’Roses, there was Elvis, there was Vanilla Ice, among other selections that night.  Lots of people sang.  Results varied.

Dancing took place.

The Folsom crew shut the party down.  At the time that YHC left, there was some 1990’s rapping going on on the Karoake microphone.

Fun was had by all.

Thanks for all those who organized & prepared for the event, spent their day smoking butts, provided DJ equipment, smokers, brought food, and donated.

Merry Christmas to the PAX and their families!

—-Bubba Sparxxx

It was raining, and lots of PAX fartsacked.

YHC was all alone under the canopy of New Hope Elem.  Then, at the last possible minute, Tesla rolled in.

We got started on the warm-up, and then Dr. Seuss showed up.

The workout was a DoD (Deck-of-Death) type, with runs in-between exercises.  YHC decided to do the DoD where you pick two cards:  one card to tell the exercise, then the second card to tell you the # of reps to do.

Even with lots of shuffling of this brand-new deck the night before, the deck was somehow sequenced so that some type of Merkin was slotted in-between every other card.  Merkins came up nearly every time we drew cards.   We did a LOT of Merkins of all types.

We stayed dry under that canopy.   (The PAX should know that most AO’s have a canopy or roof of some sort, and that rain is not really a good reason to miss out on a solid workout.

Announcements

Christmas Party

PAX Awards

Prayer Request

Tesla’s business partner’ situation

YHC’s brother’s eye injury

Pledge

Name-O-Rama

Dr. Seuss took us out.

—-Bubba Sparxxx

WARM-UP

• SmurfJacks, FlutterKicks, Air Presses, Burpees, Tesla-Leg-Stretchy-Yoga-Thing

Painlab guys (Tube, Hermie, Sledge) went and did Painlab things.

Bootcampers (Sargento, JJ, Dr. Seuss, Linus) stayed with YHC and did our version of:

THE THANG

• The Cooper
  • 10 Burpees, 10 American Hammers, 10 Merkins, Run parking lot loop.  Repeato, dropping to 9/9/9/Run, 8/8/8/Run, down to 1/1/1/Run.

• Escalator
  • Do 1st Exercise, Run;   Do 1st & 2nd exercise, Run,   and so on, until all exercises have been added on.
  • Exercises:  10 TuckJumps,  15 Dips,  20 TouchNGo’s, 25 Rocky B’s, 30 LBCs)
  • Touch’N’Go  =  Full Squat, Jump and reach hands high, tap wall

• Ring of Fire
  • Circle Up.  All PAX do high steps (“choppin’ wood”).  Go around the circle, PAX-by-PAX.  When the next PAX calls “Down”, all PAX drop and do 1 burpee, then all PAX back up and resume high steps, Alternate to next PAX for “down” call.  We did this circle 3 times.

• Mary
  • There were normal core exercises done, like flutterkicks, reverse plank, LBC’s, and Big Boys, but there was also Spatchcock.

TIME!

COT

Pledge

Announcements

• Christmas Party
• PAX Awards
  Half marathon – Biloxi, MS-  See Broke, Sargento, etc
• “Holidays on the Farm” at Schiele Museum,   Dec 10th & 11th, 5 – 7 PM
• Salvation Army (see Sargento or his Slack post)
• Gastonia Christmas parade – downtown  with Sledge, 4pm Sunday
• Sandlot AO … “is turning down the running for December and January for FNGs, Kotters, and those who don’t normally run. All 3 Fs will be featured in the workouts. If it’s been a while and you’re looking for a place to get going again, we’ve got just the place. Runners get in EC with a strong and consistent group at 0500.”

Prayer Requests

• Sargento having a procedure
• Bubba Sparxxx’s brother – eye accident/injury and vision loss in one eye (hopefully only temporary and improving)
• Tube’s friend struggling w/dependency and death in that same family

Dr. Seuss took us out in prayer.

Name-o-Rama on Twitter

YHC was so happy to be back out in the Gloom with these HIMs.  YHC’s new job has had him on the road during weekdays since mid-Nov.  For YHC, it is WAY too easy to fartsack while away from the PAX, on the road.

The very strange form of accountability that F3 provides is so key to continually overcoming the fartsack and accerelating.  Just knowing that there will be HIMs circling up at 5:30am in the Gloom is such an effective motivator to get up and post.

With that said:   We can all do more to go and EH “That Guy” that we know, and help him by getting him hooked/motivated/disciplined on this type of accountability, so he can accelerate with us, and shed his sad-clowniness.   YHC has a guy like this in mind and hopes to get him to post this week.

YHC is so grateful to be able to work hard alongside all you PAX in the Gloom, and is always grateful to Q.

—-Bubba Sparxxx

2021 PAX Awards – Let the Voting Begin!

It’s time to recognize those F3-Gastonia PAX who set examples for us all and demonstrated what excellence truly is.

Sometimes, that excellence was demonstrated in leadership, and other times it was in things like community service, personal drive, or fitness.  Sometimes, you were witness to that special PAX who was just supernaturally gifted in fartsacking.

The region needs your help to identify and recognize these notable PAX in the following categories:

• PAX of the Year
• 1st F MVP
• 2nd F MVP
• 3rd F MVP
• Best Q
• Most Supportive
• Best EH’er
• Rookie of the Year
• Site Q of the Year
• Mumblechatter Award
• Form Police Award
• Fartsacker of the Year
• Most Improved

Let the voting begin!  

Polls will be open from Nov. 23rd until Nov. 30th at midnight.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Click the link below.
2. Vote by writing in the PAX’s F3 nickname in the space provided in each respective category.
3. Click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page to cast your votes.

Click Here to Cast Your Votes

Winners will be announced at the Christmas party on Dec 11th.

A big shout out to Big Pappy for setting up this voting webpage, and for his creativity in selecting images for each category.

—-Bubba Sparxxx

2021 FNGs: