Author: Quiche

We ran.  Still great conversations and fellowship after 15 years of running together.  Thanks, Sargento!

It’s been at least 4 years since I Q’d a workout, but since we’ve had this AO in place for over a year (unofficially) , I figured it was time for me to write a backblast again.

The Thang: Early Friday morning, 7 HIMs showed up hoping to dodge the impending rain.  3 ruckers, not knowing the area, rucked 20 minutes out somewhere and then returned.  4 runners meandered through Belmont. Rain did not come, and Scheesch was back in bed by 540 for a nap.

Announcements: Q school 3/2/24 at Gashouse

Prayer Requests: Jackson Hall, Stogies vision

Good to have a couple of ruckers come join us this morning, it was good to see you guys!!

A couple of weeks ago, Tesla had hit up yours truly and Sargento about assisting with the Q at some workouts over the Holiday season. Given that I will very quickly harass the QIC during a work-out, I figured that it was my turn to step up and be harassed.

After some EC with Boudin (Sargento, where were you!!), I arrived at the Yank about 10 minutes til 7 with a couple of cars already waiting a beatdown.  Over the next 10 minutes, people gradually tricked in until we reached our final number of 13. At 700, we started:

Disclaimer- it was a weak one, TBH, but there were no FNGs

Pledge

Warm-up- Mosey to the Field of Dreams (grumbling ensued from Top Hat)

The Thang- 12 Days of Christmas- and yes, there was singing involved

First Day- A plank for abs of steel like Whoopee (couldn’t think of other names that ended in “-ee”)

Second Day- Werkins + Previous day

Third Day- LBCs + Previous days

Fourth Day- CDDs + previous days

Fifth Day- BURPEES (great minds think alike, Strogie-Wogie) + previous days

Sixth Day- Supermans (on stomach, arms and legs elevated, back arched) + previous days

Seventh Day- Bobby Hurleys + previous days

Eighth Day- Flutter Kicks + previous days

Ninth Day- Groiners (plank to feet outside of hands, almost a frog position, then back) + previous days

Tenth Day- Neckies!!! (hadn’t done them in a while) + previous days

Eleventh Day- Tempo Mericans (1-2-3 down, 4 up) + previous days

Twelfth Day- Monkey Humpers + previous days

Each of the PAX had a number 1-12.  On the day of their exercise, each one had to sing his exercise. Each exercise was done for 30 seconds. At the end of each “day,” Q decided to have “Christmas trivia,” where the person who sung that day had to answer a trivia question. If the question was answered incorrectly, we ran a lap as punishment.  Correct answers allowed for quick movement to the next day.

The exercises went well other than the fact that the PAX knowledge of the Christmas Story was not nearly as good as they thought. On day 12, we had to shorten the exercises to 15 seconds each so we could end on time.

Announcements

Name-o-rama

Prayer Requests

COT

All in all, a good work-out from my perspective. There was an appropriate amount of mumble chatter and  laughter. We also learned a little about each other.  Tool Time’s anniversary is today, I believe, and I might have ruined it for him due to the shoulder work we did. Freight knows more about Kama Sutra than the rest of us. When Boudin sprints, he does it using very small steps (probably from his Soccer playing days). Abba, although having attended a very well thought of church also attended by the Quik, apparently does not know what a manger is. Quiche chooses his exercises not to get a good workout, but to create pain and injury so he can line his pockets with co-pays. Pockets is definitely the best singer in the PAX. Your typical manger scene or church play just might have a couple of things in it that may not be completely be Biblically or historically accurate. And last but not least, we learned that &ui(he can plan and survive (barely) a work-out where running is not the primary activity.

Good work men!

Hebrews 12:1-2

It was a cold but clear Sunday morning at Coconut Horse. 12 hours earlier, The Pax could be found doing work of a higher calling, “pushing the rock” at SPEED FOR NEED during the McAdenville 5K (GREAT job, by the way, TOOL TIME!!!), so I wasn’t expecting too many to show for the early morning hour. Thankfully, Sargento and I had talked Saturday and committed to the run. Defib had  given me a soft commit at Speed for Need, so I was hoping to be able to endure the gloom with someone in addition to Sargento, with whom I have spent hundreds of mornings of gloom.

I showed up about 7 minutes early, almost hitting a darkly clad gentleman walking down S. New Hope Road at 613 AM wearing white “Beats.”   Sargento rolled in about 5 minutes later, looking fresh and ready after the previous nights jaunt at Christmastown USA. He mentioned that he saw the gentleman as well, but didn’t come as close to hitting him. At least he was walking against traffic instead of with traffic and had white “Beats” on, would have been harder to see otherwise. Much to my chagrin, Defib left us hanging. I tried to put on a good face for Sargento. He, in usual fashion, was in a good mood, trying to tell corny jokes.

Warm up: None. When you run, the first 1/2-1 mile is the warm up; trying to do something before running  is just wasted energy that could have been used for running.

The Thang: We set out at 631 for a 5.1 mile run. Where we went, you will never know, but Sargento and I have a rule that you always try to run a road that you have never run before, so needless today, the DOG and GOD run were modified. We also tend to talk about whatever comes to our minds. This can make for interesting conversations, as “runners brain” often takes over. For those of you who cannot relate to this, I would recommend that you go run 2 miles as fast as you can and then try to have a conversation about something deeper than what time you woke up that day.  It can be challenging!

Despite this runners brain, I couple of things stood out from our conversation today:

1. Sargento has a gift of EH’ing anything and everything within earshot. At one point, I think he EH’d a light post, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was yelling at an inanimate object.
2. Did you guys know that one of the most popular songs on the radio right now is a song that tries to convince people to NOT commit suicide? So many thoughts come to my mind when I hear things like this and I could probably go on hours about the root causes these situations, but I think a good deal of it boils down to this: make sure you have a proper view of who you are in relationship to God, your Creator. My former pastor used to say “cheer up, your’e a lot worse than you think.” This comment would then be followed up by a comment about how despite this, we have a God who loved us so much that he was willing to sacrifice his Son for us. If  we all saw ourselves this way, understood the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, and understood even a sliver of the love that God has for us, it would be much more difficult would feel the loneliness and isolation that is so prevalent among many people who contemplate suicide.
3.  In a society where sexual deviance and sexual abuse seem so prevalent, we MEN need to be setting proper role models for our sons and setting expectations that they will be and act different from the way that  many of our leaders and celebrities act. We MEN need to be modeling to our daughters how they should be treated so that they have appropriate expectations about how others should treat them.  Talking about it is helpful, but acting it out in our relationships with our wives and significant will have much more impact, I believe (I have found that my children are much more likely to imitate my actions much more than my words, unfortunately, given that I am a very imperfect person).
4.  If you guys don’t have a man in your life like Sargento, go find one and cultivate the relationship. After running with him for 8+ years, I definitely am the better man for it.

What a great way to spend a cold Sunday morning, running with a good friend. Wouldn’t have it any other way!

Aye!

In an effort to “one up” all previous F3 workouts, Quike decided to take a road trip to Sahiwal, PAKISTAN, 10 time zones away (yes, it is a real place)! For the southerners in the group, both of the “A”s in Pakistan are soft, like the “a” in America, not like the “A” in America. Pakistan is about the size of the most of the Southeast (VA, NC, SC, GA, AL, FL)) with 200,000, 000 people (thats a lot, by the way)!

I had been EH’ing a FNG for a while to attend workouts in Greenville (where he lives), but he had resisted to this point. Given that were were stuck at Bahr Manzah (the AO) together for a couple of days, a true compound (with 10 ft high walls and armed guards carrying automatic weapons ) for the week, I felt like I could get him to a workout.

I was a little nervous about the workout because FNG is an extremely good athlete who has completed half-triathlons and run several marathons in the past. I wasn’t sure if my weinke  would be up to par. Additionally, it is illegal to show a Weinke in public in Pakistan, with castration as the punishment). I  make every attempt possible to not stress my upper body, but you can do only so much lower body work (and the AO was pretty small). FinalIy,  also haven’t done a ‘merican in about a month (due to the Tuna), so I knew that any upper body exercise with more than  5 reps was likely to cause rhabdomyolysis (for the people who live north of I-85, it’s a fancy work for severe muscle damage).  As a runner, it is my firm belief that exercising and working out upper body muscles only serves to add weight and slow you down.

Because I was 100% confident there were going to be no other Pax or FNG there, our start time was flexible. I woke at 600. He was up walking on the treadmill for about 15 minutes prior to my waking, as he couldn’t sleep. Multiple time zone changes are tough on the body. We started the work-out at 620.  There was a general gloomy fog over the area, which is pretty common in Pakistan due to pollution. Prior to the work-out, a Great Dane (compound dog) the armed guard did come over to check us out and make sure neither of us was UBL (were were about 5 hours from Abbatabad, and he’s dead already).

DISCLAIMER

WARM-UP (IC)

15 Kastans (in a different country, these are referred to as “mericans”)

20 SSH

15 Don Quixotes-n I always think of Tool Time and smile

20 LBC

Mosey (there was a loop in the driveway of the compound, about 40 meters, we ran 4 laps)

Dora-Dora-Dora

100 Kstans (if you do “mericans” here, you get shot)

200 monkey jumpers (had to face the building/housing compound; it we would have done this towards any person, we would have been either beheaded or immediately from the country)

300 LBC

Mosey another 2 laps

4 corners- Dips, Inkstans, Prayer Squats (we did these to God, no Allah), and Moroccan night clubs (not really a real thing in Morocco, I have been as well). Did 3 sets, with 5, 10, and 15 reps of each

Next was ab work, 45 seconds of workout with 15 seconds of rest (I hate ab work)

Plank, flutter kicks, Freddie Mercury, low plank, and WWI sit ups (did I state that I had ab work!)

Recover (I hate ab work)

Mosey for about 3 minutes (got dizzy because the laps were so small), which took us until about 705.

We did not have a flag present, so we did not pledge the flag (plus the guards were watching, didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize our chances of going back next year)

Announcements (none)

Namorama- Urdugan is a true HIM. He is a the director of a multi-continent missions agency who lives in Greer, SC and he has a faith that is evident in every aspect of his life. There are truly few people that I am in awe of, and he is one of them.

Prayer requests- I was spending a week at Christian Hospital System in Sahiwal, it is part of the Nancy Fullwood Hospital System. This is a 100% Christian hospital in the middle of a 95% Muslim Pakistan. God has allowed it to find favor in the eyes of the Pakistan authorities (see Joseph in the Bible and his relationship with pharaoh) and is blessing the ministry of this endeavor. Pray that God will continue to bless this ministry and provide for more Christian doctors (there aren’t too many in Pakistan) to work there.

Although you guys weren’t with me in body this week, I am thankful that many of you were there in spirit, praying for me and my time there. Your prayers were heard (thanks, Fighting Yank) and I did feel them during the week, The fellowship and fitness are great, but for me, it is the FAITH that makes it all worth it. It would be empty actions without that.  AYE!!!

The morning started out beautifully, as Sargento and I met for a short mosey prior to the workout, which is our usual custom. After finishing at about 645, we took a few minutes to prepare for my a solo Q. As we recovered, 8 idiots decided to joint us for what I hoped would be a fun Saturday morning beat down at the Yank

As most of you know, I have a general predilection towards workouts that involve running. Not today, however, as, unfortunately for me and the group, ToolTime (who will be referred to from this point forward as Mr. Time) and I had gone on a mosey the week before and had a long discussion about suffering well. In order to suffer well, I reviewed all 17 pages of exercises on the F3 website in order to find the workouts that would cause me the most suffering (basically, I tried to choose exercises that Dolph would like

Disclaimer

Warm-up (IC)  (not really suffering, but I needed something a little less difficult to start)

SSH x 15

LBC x 15

Don Quixote x 10 (suffering for Mr. Time, who was Fartsacking, apparently)

Squat x 10

Short jog up to the Track

The THANG- In my attempt to suffer as much as possible, “The DAB” was chosen from the work-up, The work-out was supposed to be 10 burpees in 1 minute x 5, then mosey around the track. Repeat for a total of 20 minutes of burpees  and approximately 1 mile of running.

3 minutes in, FNG Nightcap appeared as if he needed to Merlot and was laying flat on his back. I suspect FNG Norwood was wondering what he had gotten into. Yours truly was already starting to get nauseated. Mumble chatter was at a minimum (Paging Mr. Time!!!).

Seeing that this was not going to work well, I decided to OMAHA and intersperse the Burpees with Squats. Not sure if it was actually better, but it made me feel better.  We ended up doing 130 burpees in a period of about 30 minutes (good work, men!)

After a short Mosey back down the hill to the fountain, we spread out and engaged in several exercises for 1 minute (OYO) with 30 seconds of rest in-between. The exercises were as follows: Slow squats, Merkins, Flutter Kicks, Crunchy Frog (my back cracked in places that I didn’t even know could crack), and Monkey Humpers.  Thankfully, we did not get thru the entire list of exercises that I had prepared (guess I’ll have to bring them back later)

Short mosey back to the flag

Pledge

Announcement-CASUP

Namorama- welcome to Nightcap and Norwood!

COT- prayer for officer in Belmont

Boudin and Sargento then joined me for breakfast afterwards at Cherubs.

It was a pleasure to exercise with all you men and suffer with you this Saturday morning

Its always great to have a VQ at F3. But a Co-VQ… JACKPOT!!!!

9 men came out to DeRecho on a Monday morning to brave the experience of a co-VQ from Radar and Quicke. Given that neither of us had done this before, we started about 1 minute late.  Sorry guys, we’ll get better next time

With one FNG, we went thru the disclamer, noting that we were all idiots, but even greater idiots for showing up in the day of a Co-VQ. Thankfully, no one walked out at this point.

WARM UP (IC)-  (Radar)

• SSHx20
• Imperial Walkers x 20
• LBC x 15
• Mountain Climbers x 15
• Squats x 10
• Merkins x 10

THE THANG (Qiuiche)

Given a Monday morning work-out and the upcoming BRR for several of us, we engaged in the work-out that has allowed me (Quische) to maintain my sanity for the past several years: WE RAN (oops, I mean MOSEYED)!!!!  Starting at DeRecho, and trying to simulate the BRR on a mini scale, we attempted to create the hilliest route we could for about 35 minutes thru Cramerton. In the middle, we even “sprinted” up a 10% grade hill for about a tenth of a mile (great work by the PAX to gut this out!!). With no break after the sprint, we moseyed back to DeRecho, and by the end of the run, we had gone right about 4 miles at around an 8:30-8:40 pace (again, great work by the PAX). I think the best part about it was that with the pace we were keeping, there was little room for mumble chatter from Tool Time as it was much more efficient for him to breathe rather than talk (Keep this in mind, for anyone who is Qing in the future).

THE PLEDGE

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Advisory meeting pushed back to this next Sunday, BRR meeting tonight at Gaston Sheet Metal at 7

NAM-O-RAMA

Posi-Traction (FNG) joined the group this morning due to an unfortunate friendship with Tool TIme (I feel like I am piling on Tool Time at this point, but I’m just going to go with it). I think the name has something to do with My Cousin Vinny, When it was brought up, mumble chatter about “utes” appropriately ensued. If you have any other questions about the origins, ask Whoopee.

COT

Whoppee’s friends daughter was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer, in her 20s. Prayer for wisdom and healing as the family goes through this difficult time

PRAYER

Lest we forget the most important minute we spent during the 45 minutes together

Radar, thanks for working with me on this one. It was an honor to serve you guys this morning, and I can only hope that we will continue to make each other better- Kuich