Author: Whoopee (Page 15 of 25)

Seven real men gathered at the best Thursday AO in GasHouse this am. The others either fartsacked or ran around at a less-than-ideal AO somewhere else in Gastonia, likely all wearing the same color shirt, possibly even holding hands…..possibly. But that is for another BB and another story. We, however, got down to bidness and busted out some serious work. There was a Kotter. There was a busted knee back on the mend. There were some regulars. Basically….it was a bunch of bad Mfers looking for an ass to whoop. Period. But the story does not end there. It ends after 45 minutes of gut-wrenching, ball-busting, sweat-dripping, moanin’ and groanin’ like a bunch of 10-and-a-half-month-pregnant-women-in-their-17th-hour-of-labor-pushing-out-the-old-12.5-pound-baby-at-3-am-screaming-banshee-ruckers did there business like some studly SEALs home on a 24 hour pass from deployment in a house of ill repute. Well, it was tough. Probably not as much fun, but tough anyway.

We started with the pledge, no disclaimer because I did not really care if you did or did not know if I was an idiot-it goes without saying, right Stroganoff? We then took off for the park. On the way, I ‘splained what the plan was for today: GoRuck has a monthly challenge and this month is inspired by the SEALs and their origins. A few of us are participating in the challenge. The challenge involves rucking a bunch of miles and completing 3 workouts before the end of July. We did one of the workouts this am. This one was the “Boat Carry Workout.” It is 10 rounds of 60 second plank wearing your ruck followed by 30 lunges with the ruck over your head. In my opinion (and those I polled this am participating in this monthly challenge) this is the easiest of the 3 workouts. We added some rucking/walking as well as some ruck-on Merkins to fill in the time. I won’t tell you what the other 2 workouts are, but believe me they are worse. Stay tuned for an opportunity to participate. It will likely be short notice, not ideal timing, very painful, lots of fun and sometime before end of July.

We got back in time to close out with a COT then all took off for the day knowing we had already worked out harder than any other man in Gastonia this am. Period. And we all wore different shirts.

Whoopee

OK HIMS, it’s time to get your stair climb on. There is a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb in Charlotte that honors FDNY firefighters, police, and EMS who gave their lives so that others might live. This is scheduled for September 14, 2019 at the Duke Energy Building at 550 South Tryon Street in Charlotte. Registration is $25 (that is current price and website says it will change if you wait too long to register). You will get a shirt and get to climb 110 flights of stairs so what are you waiting for? Registration is limited so if you can make it, get on board soon. Roscoe and I have already registered so get your butt in gear and join us.

I registered as a team called F3GasHouse. Not sure if you need it, but the username is F3GasHouse and password is Whoopee.

http://events.firehero.org/site/TR?fr_id=2092&pg=entry

Hope you can make it-Whoopee

July 4 in GasHouse-multiple options for F3 workouts but given the holiday, I felt a Murph was in order. I knew there would be no shortage of Merica, but I did not know how much Merica would be there. I was not disappointed.

A few of us put in some EC with some ruck action. I believe there was also running done by 1 or more as well. At 0700 we gave a quick summary of what was on the menu and got started with the mile then jumped right into the workout-100 pull-ups, 200 Merkins, 300 squats. Get them done however you want. There was music, there was some grunting, there were some flags, there was a lot of sweat, and there was a heckuva lotta Merica. A few of the guys that posted at Folsom brought the Merica galore. Tater Hole, Bedpan, and Montross brought a big flag with some music and poured out the inspiration that kept us going. There were comments by non-F3ers about how impressed they were. It was cool to be a part of this. Once the exercises were completed, we got the other mile done then convened with a quick back story on who Michael Murphy was (thanks Roscoe) and how the Murph came to be. If you are not familiar with it, read a little about him. It won’t take long and is well worth your time. We finished with the Pledge and a got in a quick COT.

The flag, the smiles, the friendly faces and “good morning” smiles from the non-F3ers, the effort by the PAX-all of it was great and made this another great workout for me. Thanks for coming out today and pushing the rock again.

Whoopee

There was some serious chatter this week on Twitter-not that I am complaining, but of the chatter I recall, none of those “chatterers” we present for the bootcamp. I’ll start with Freight. Granted, his hair is better than mine ever was or ever will be, he was not present to receive the proper “thank you” for his comments-in his defense, he was at Folsom delivering likely an impressive beatdown that will likely induce several naps sometime later in the day. I’ll move on to Short Sale….known for his complicated workouts and impressive ability to do things like jump lunges and various torture maneuvers disguised as ab exercises, he made several comment on the recent Gaston County poll that awarded me the “sexiest cardiologist alive” (SCA) title. It is a crown I wear with pride and (just a tough of) humility. Just think if my hair was half of Frieght’s……. Tooltime and I need to talk soon. Short Sale “reportedly” (those are fingers-in-the-air quotes) was at Folsom also and was no where in site this am at GasHouse. And then there is Clavin……also present with plenty of chatter on twitter this week. He posted at GasHouse but stayed at PainLab……dang. In (sort of) his defense, he had to go to work and you know the saying…no matter rain, snow, sleet, or shine the mail will be delivered right on time…..well, he had bigger fish this am.

And so back to the BB….

We had a pretty big crowd at GasHouse this am-good crowd for Sledge’s VQ with PainLab and 9 for boot camp. We started a quick re-hash of the twitter comments and then I made sure everyone knew the boot camp Q was recently voted the SCA. There was a lot of applause, falling on knees with adoration, paparazzi pictures being taken, and autographs being signed. I believe a few proposals from several of the wives (ShortSale and Freight’s wives may or may not have been there but I will neither confirm or deny that rumor that I just started). We moved on with a WU (yes, ShortSale, we had a WU with SEVERAL exercises). I did a quick head fake with only 2 SSH, then came back hard with a few merkins, squats, and then…..10 burpees OYO. We started to break off and I heard a quiet little comment from Clavin’s direction….kind of like a sneaky fart while you are laying in bed and not sure if your M is awake yet….I turned to Clavin and said…..10 more Burpees OYO and the mumble chatter got going again.

After the WU, we split off in different directions. We moseyed to the flag for the Pledge then moseyed to the steps at the PAD at FPC. At the steps we started with 11’s. 10 jump squats at the bottom and 1 hip slapper at the top. Monk informed me that HS’ers are his favorite exercise of all. Maybe Monk and I were separated at birth because those are MY FAVORITE EXERCISE TOO!!!. We moved to the track at Sherwood for some more 11’s. This time it was hanging from the bars with a partner doing burpees. 11 burpees while partner hangs then swap it up. When we got to around 6 we changed the hanging to people’s chair. For better or worse, my partner has a busted paw and did jump squats instead. At first I thought this was good, then I realized he finished quicker which gave me less time to recover. Oh well, it hurt sufficiently. We sat for a quick talk about David Goggin’s book called Can’t Hurt Me. He talks about “outworking the chart.” The chart is the list of things you are able to do vs what you actually do with your life. Over work what you can do and set your goals high.

We moseyed back to the church to the back parking lot for some more work.We started on one end with exercises at each end and worked our way through the parking lot for a total of 5 stations. We did monkey humpers in an escalator pattern-5 seconds at station 1, 10 seconds at station 2, and so on to the end. On our way back we did partner hip slappers (your welcome, Monk) with 1 partner holding legs high while other partner did sets of 5 hip slappers at each station back to start. At the start, we considered long jumping across the lot……maybe not-let’s lunge instead then once we got to the end, mosey back to Schiele for some Mary with the PainLabbers.

Mary started with “who wants to start…….all quiet for too long so I called 5 burpees OYO. When I finished, HIPAA jumped in quickly with some LBCs then JJ killed us with American Hammers. I think that was all the Mary we did but honestly, the American Hammers sucked the life out of me proving again that I need to be doing more gut work at home. Time was called and we circled up for COT. I gave a quick run down of the “outwork the chart” topic from above for the benefit of the PainLabbers.

Great work at GasHouse this am by all (except ShortSale, Clavin, and Freight). I think Clavin may have been present for the PainLab workout, but I could not say for sure. He was there for the warmup but not at COT so as far as I know he was only present for the warmup…..not the beat down or the COT. But hey, 1 out of 3 is not bad, right?

thanks-Whoopee

6 Showed for the real Thursday workout in GasHouse. Remember, Food is better than Drink. Once you go Diablo, you never go back, or at least maybe you will come here again….hopefully?

We started with the pledge then did a few Road Kills (ruck on, drop on ground and play dead, then get back up). We started the mosey towards the park and at the entrance did some Merkins and Squats. On the way in we did some more at some of the lights then moseyed on to the pull up bar. At the bar we took turns with a few exercises in pairs. 2 hung from the bars for as long as possible while the other pairs either did squats or merkins then rotated from 1 station to the next for a couple rounds each. Goal of this is to strengthen grip for pull up type stuff-something I really need to work on. We moseyed on through the park, into the cut-through woods to the neighborhood. We attacked Gastone’s hill with gusto and fervor as no other men have ever done. At the top we did some exercises including upright rows with the ruck and a few others I don’t remember-all for “a little while” instead of a specific number of reps. We came down the hill and headed back to start for our COT. We have talked about some EC in the afternoons-trying to get over the Gastone’s Half Pipe to ruck for an hour or so-be on the lookout for a twitter call for anyone interested.

Bedpan with the Q next week-show to know-Whoopee

It was the same day as the Mt. Mitchell hike so we expected low numbers. Turns out we had 3. There were 6 for Mt. Mitchell so there may have been a few fartsackers????? Monk and I had a good run while Breaker Breaker took on some hills. Monk was kind and stayed with me until the gut check then he took off. He opened up to me while we were running and said he really hated to run. He said it hurt his ankles and he has some sort of inherited ankle-itis issue that skips every 3rd generation. At night he has to soak his feet/ankles in warm milk and wrap them in feminine napkins soaked in vinegar to help relieve the pain. For whatever reason, rucking does not bother him so plans to ruck full time in DC. At least that is what I remember him saying during the run….

Whatever works Monk-good luck.

HushPuppy came for Q Source and Breaker Breaker left to go to church right after run.

Good work men and hope those ankles get better soon Monk. Send us your address so we can send you supplies for your ankles…

Whoopee

Stroganoff showed this am for some EC and we ran-good start to the day but…..it left me wanting more. Running is…..I don’t know……meh. It’s kind of like vanilla ice cream. It’s ok, but really, there is a whole lot more out there and if you think vanilla is as good as it can get, well, you are probably the kind of person who eats very little bacon and drives a beige car.

We got back to start and got our rucks for the real thing. Several others had gathered with rucks and we started.

Pledge

Head to picnic shelter. I wanted to get things started with some variety so we got through the gate and did 5 Merkins (ruck on) then went to the next light. At the next light I said “Watts Up, call out an exercise”-before he could say anything I said “great, 5 more Merkins.” We continues the “5 Merkins” at each light. This was a crowd pleaser for sure. Along the way an un-named pax stated this was hurting his “supple” hands…..plenty of mumble chatter ensued. We got to the picnic tables for some step ups for “awhile” because I would rather not count. Next we moved to the lot for some American Hammers while holding the rucks-hated these because I don’t like ab stuff but that is why I wanted to do them. The rest of the morning was kind of blur. We did a bunch of squats and Merkins with 11’s through the parking lot using the lights as our stopping points. This was tough with the rucks on-probably too tough for our fellow F3ers who have soccer arms and like to drink instead of eating…..we may see one day….

I don’t really remember everything we did. I do remember the shoulder burns with upright rows with the rucks as our weights in cadence. Yikes, we will definitely need to do this again. We got back in time with other exercises on the way including squats in sets of 10 at each of the lights. I am feeling that today (or was it the running EC before????).

COT then we got outta there quick. It was a great morning. thanks for posting this am.

Today 5 men with purses got after it with a modified Cadre Roony WOD. I knew I was Q this am for Diablo, but did not plan anything. Fortunately while I was doing some early morning thinking, and by thinking I mean sitting on the can at 0500, I came across the Cadre Roony Workout of the Day (WOD). This WOD was created when Cadre Roony was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He passed away April 3, 2019. If you get a chance, read about him. He had a habit of routinely making his groups at events he was the cadre for do “one more rep for the Ranger in the sky.” So if he called for 10 pushups, you would do 10 then 1 more (11) for the Ranger in the sky. I failed to mention this part to our pax this am, so hopefully someone will read this and remember it at some point in the future. The idea with this WOD is to remember Roony with the “one more rep for the Ranger in the sky.” Look up Cadre Roony if you are interested-there are some pictures there so even the guys from the Pub can get something out of this. The complete Roony WOD is to do 5 rounds, however due to time constraints we did 2 rounds with a little more rucking distance. It achieved the desired affect. Here is what we did:

We started with the Pledge then I ‘splained what was gonna happen. Due to poor short term memory and to keep everyone in the game, I assigned 1 exercise for each pax to remember. This little form of trickery allows me to turn my brain off and go into cruise control for the next 45 minutes.

Ruck from start to bottom of Gastone’s Hill.

75 Mountain Climbers then 75 Squats (with purses)

Mosey up to top of Gastone’s Hill

75 Flutter Kicks with ruck above head then 75 Overhead Claps

Ruck to bottom of Gastone’s Hill then repeat above. Round 2 intensified the burn. Total of 5 rounds would be interesting.

We Rucked back to start then did some Burpees, Merkins, and Squats to finish up.

Good workout this am, could be modified with less distance and more reps….maybe next week.

COT: Lot of folks hurting in our region and in need of support-if it is not you now, your time is coming. Keep posting and strengthening your shield lock. We especially mentioned Gastone and Sargento with the loss of family members. Thanks for coming out to push the rock with me. I needed it this morning a little more than usual.

Whoopee

We had a great crowd this am. I did not have much planned which is sort of the idea with Diablo Sammich. We can ruck, get the 2nd F cranked up, and before you know it, its almost over. We started with the pledge then moseyed to the Harris Teeter-needed a time count to make plans for the future. As we approached, Defib ran by us and said something. I will count that as another Pax at Diablo. Before we finished our exercises in the parking lot, about 6 more ran by-CHA-CHING! A few more Pax posting at Diablo. There was a truck driver that came through driving an 18 wheeler. He said thanks to us as we let him roll in front of us around the back side of the building. CHA-CHING!! There’s another. Before heading back to start we did some exercises in the parking lot including lunges, flutter kicks with press exercises with the ruck, and some merkins with ruck-on. I think about 46 people walked into Harris Teeter while we were there. At this point, I believe we were up to 67 “official” pax who posted at Diablo. Since we are having a contest on Thursday’s, these numbers are important and I think it is my duty to make sure we are both equitable in our reporting as well as forthright. Good thing I am reporting these numbers. I would not want any funny business being attempted….

We rucked back to start for a single round of Defib Special: 5 burpees, 5 squat-thrusts, 5 squats, 5 merkin rows from hell, and 5 side lunges.

We talked about a lot of things….#showtoknow.

COT then outta here.

thanks for posting….all 67 of you. Keep it up-Whoopee

Today at Diablo Sammich I wanted to try something new. We had the usual guys there so I knew they could handle it. We started with the Pledge then off we went with my sandbag-Dry Rub carried the bag and when we go to the old Harris Teeter, we started in with the sandbag toss. One pax picked up the bag and threw it (without carrying it any steps) across the parking lot and back. The rest of the pax did laps in the lot with exercises at each light pole. We each took turns throwing the bag. Exercises were either Merkins or Squats depending on which lap.

Next we moved over to the loading dock. We did 5 laps of walking to the dock, jumping/crawling up the dock then mosey x 1 lap/bear crawl X 2 laps/lunge X 2 laps (total 5 laps) down the walkway.

We saw a few Pub Runners come by. A few obscenities were exchanged then we kept on going. We moved on to the other side of the lot and repeated the sand bag tossing process again. I think we all agreed this was not Dry Rub’s first time doing something like this. He threw that sandbag around like it really was not that heavy. Then all of a sudden, a Pub Runner busted out of the road, grabbed the sandbag and ran amongst us……no words were exchanged, just a funny grin then he dropped the bag and took off. Roscoe gets double credit for this am-glad you stopped by. You are welcome anytime. We continued on. Once we finished, we Indian-run-with-the-sandbag-tossed our way back to start dodging cars along the way.

Great morning men. Sand bag toss was more fun than you would think and will be making a return in the future. If you have not been to Diablo yet, come out and try it. These guys are pushing the rock and working their butts off.

Whoopee