Author: Whoopee (Page 16 of 25)

OK, so I am re-writing this as I have made errors on prior attempts-hopefully this will work. Apparently, I am no Monk….

I have been dreading writing this pre-blast. Monk will be leaving us to move to Washington, D.C this summer. He will be missed and we need to send him off with a good farewell. I don’t think this will be the last we will see or hear from him, but he has been a good friend to me and given me inspiration during both workouts and (especially) during runs. He knows I don’t really like to run-that is no secret. However, I do enjoy running with Monk. I have to really pay attention to what he is saying. I know there are pearls there just waiting to give me guidance if not now, definitely in the future. By focusing on him, I forget how much I hate running….almost.

We are going to have a Monkish CSAUP-meet at Station in Belmont on Friday, 5/31/19 from 5-7pm (or later if those guys from Folsom have anything to say about it). Come have a meal, a drink, or just stop by to wish him well. You will be better for it, and I know you know that is true.

Friday, May 31, 2019

Station

4 N Main Street

Belmont, NC 28012

Today at Coconut Horse we ran. There is your backblast.

More importantly, we had Q Source and the topic was Whetstone. Stroganoff, with his quiet leadership, or I, in my lack of foresight, or God, in his infinite wisdom (or possibly all 3) placed me in charge of Q Source this am at Coconut Horse. I don’t really know if I volunteered before realizing what the topic was, or because I knew what the topic was. Then I had to back out due to a 2.0 commitment. Then the commitment was cancelled and I jumped back in. I think I knew it was Whetstone, but I just didn’t think about it-kind of like suggesting EC the night before it is supposed to rain and be really cold (which I have done more times than I care to remember).

I knew this was going to be a struggle as my experience with Whetstone was not ideal. OK, that is an understatement. It was really bad. I made mistakes due to poor insight on my part (sorry PizzaMan). As the stone, I should have done things differently. I have had time to think about this and really felt Whetstone was just not right for me. I convinced myself that this was ok and that Whetstone was just not “necessary” for me. Today changed my mind. It did not really sink in until HIPAA asked me at the very end if I had thought about trying Whetstone again. Before today that answer would have been no, not for me. For you, absolutely-it’s beneficial and you should do it.

As with all things with F3, there is value and benefit for all involved, however it takes commitment to see those benefits. Posting in the morning (or afternoon) doesn’t just happen. It takes planning, dedication, commitment, and motivation. It takes getting out of the fartsack when you don’t want to. Especially when you don’t want to. When you realize this is a mutually beneficial issue, the “getting up out of the fartsack” is really not that hard. When you realize the guy struggling next to you needs you, I mean REALLY needs you, getting out of bed is not a factor. You do it. That’s it-plain and simple. I think that is how the Whetstone thing works-putting in the time to make the process happen and working the system how it is supposed to work benefits both men. Once you realize this, great things will happen. I realize many days when I get out of bed to post and I think I am helping the guy next to me, the real person benefitting is looking at me in the mirror.

As I am writing this, I looked at something on Twitter about Jocko and his latest podcast summary by Leif Babin: he talks about “how much you learn by teaching others. You learn so much when you’re instructing. Not only because you have to think about what you say, and you have to be able to articulate why, and that makes you dig deep into the reason why. And then you get to detach, and actually watch it unfold and watch these little minor mistakes happen.” This is exactly what happened this morning for me. Although we have a Q for the Q Source discussions, I think we all teach each other with discussions like this morning. Thanks for keeping this F3 thing going guys. It really has meant a lot to me over the last 4 years.

Proverbs 27:17

thanks-Whoopee

We had a good morning at Diablo Sammich. Voodoo met me early for EC in HIM fashion-showing because he did not want me to be alone. We pushed it hard with a Defib Special-you will find out what this is next time I Q. Thanks Voodoo. The pax kept rolling in and we started at 0530 with the Pledge then took off with rucks in tow. We went up Gastone’s Hill, did some core work at the top with flutter kicks and ruck presses. On the way down we did squats at the mailboxes. We kept rolling around towards the elementary school. Half the group had a quick mosey across the stress dodging cars then we all headed back to Pelican’s in time to quit right at 0615.

Along the way we talked about BRRuck among other things. I have said it before but the 2nd F on the Ruck workouts can really be great. I do think it is a different approach though-you get to make it as hard as you want and it is really not as dependent on the Q. You can make it easier with a light ruck or load it up and really push yourself. Carrying objects like sandbags or telephone poles are definitely something we should work towards once we get some more experience. If you haven’t been to Diablo, come check it out, and remember: Food is better than drink on Thursdays.

3 of Gastonia’s finest assembled for another helping of Diablo Sammich. We were in a hurry, so we started with the pledge then took off like…..well we got out of there on time and started to ruck. All had packs and the fellowship was epic. Every 3 minutes we did an exercise ranging from squats, Merkins, low slow squats, upright rows, flutter kicks, overhead presses, and a new exercise we made up on the fly called ROAD KILL. This is a GasHouse original as far as I can tell. Basically it is similar to a burpee but slower. The exercise starts in the standing position with ruck on, pax drop to the ground like a dead animal (choose your own position, preferably on the side and not in the middle of the road), then get back up. We went up Gastone’s hill, out to Union, back up Gastone’s hill again, then back to start for a quick round of exercises to finish up on time.

I have heard some chatter about more ruckers planning to come out after P200-looking forward to that. We’ve got a good solid group coming out here and would love to see it grow. It’s a great leg burn that can involve upper body as much or as little as the Q wants. I will have some 6-8 foot telephone poles out there for fun sometime soon.

SYITG-Whoopee

There was some chatter on Twitter…Rudolph started talking junk and being the bone head that I am, I fired right back and we went back and forth a few times with threatening comments and gifs. In the end, we all won. Iron sharpening iron was at its finest and I will be sleeping well tonight. Eighteen men showed, 1 of them being an FNG thanks to TSquare. I started with the disclaimer and the FNG just stared me down with no fear in his eyes at all. He is married after all and there is very little that scares a married man.

We started with the Pledge then the Disclaimer. Once the disclaimer was completed, I started  with my FAVORITE PART, the warmup. After being warned about an FNG, I decided to use the warmup as a “teachable moment.” We went over the 5 core principles of F3 as part of the warmup with a new exercise called Burp-Threes. I asked for one of the principles: all I heard was ” It’s three!” so we started with 3 burpees.  They later corrected me with core principle #1 which is “it is free.” I asked for another: “It’s outdoors, rain or shine” so we then then did 6 burpees. I asked for another and heard “It’s men only” so we did 9 burpees. I asked for another, and TSquare said there were only 3 core principles……no, no, no, that is not right. Someone said “it is peer led in rotating fashion” so we did 12 burpees….DID I MENTION HOW MUCH I LOVE WARMUPS??? There were some (not so) under the breath comments and the Q was getting a bit out of breath so we semi-Omaha’d (for the sake of the FNG to show him how to count F3-style) and did 15 SSH after someone said principle #5: We end with a COT.

At this point, we split into BootCampers and PainLabbers. See Montross’ backblast done earlier today. Nice work-thanks for stepping up to Q and stepping out of Folsom to push your brothers in GasHouse.

I told the group we would head to the football field but we would climb the hill and jump the fence. All of us made it without any bloodshed or falls that I am aware of. I explained the first exercise as we lined up near the goal line: BEAR BITCH-thanks for poking the bear Rudolph. I had something else planned but it was not hard enough….Here is what BEAR BITCH is: split into groups of 3. P1 and P2 do exercises (flutter kicks or squats) while P3 bear crawls as far as he wants, keeping in mind his partners will be exercising then bear crawling to catch up. Once P3 stops, he gets up and starts doing one of the exercises (flutter kicks or squats) and one of other partners (P1 or P2) drops down and bear crawls to P3 then starts doing one of the exercises. The last man bear crawls to his partners and starts back doing exercises while P3 starts bear crawling again. The only way to move across the field is to bear crawl. When you are not bear crawling you are doing one of the exercises. My plan was more than one trip and use other exercises, however I don’t think it would have ended well, and I had plenty more planned. FYI, there is a pax whose name rhymes with Spanchorman that you do not want as your partner if you have to bear crawl. He was our first man to bear crawl and he made it across with only 1 stop.

To cool off, we did a Bojangles biscuit-run around the track with all you’ve got on the straight part then mosey or walk on the turns. Stroganoff pulled a “slow and steady” and easily cruised around in first place without looking like it was much trouble at all.

We moseyed from the field over to Sherwood Elementary School making 2 alma maters for Stroganoff. He suggested we hit one of the high schools to make it a trifecta for him but I had other plans. On the way we hit 3 speed bumps and did 3 burpees at each speed bump. We took a trip or 2 up and down the steps before getting to the field. Once at the field, we did another Bojangles (run the straights and jog/mosey the turns). We finished at the end with the hill and I told the pax we would be doing “Hillevens.” This would be similar to “Elevens” with a few modifications. Start at bottom of the hill with 1 Merkin. Run up the hill, bear crawl across the hill (probably 30 yards), run down the hill, and 10 Burpees. Each lap we go up on merkins and down on the Burpees. The bear crawl was too much for everyone except the Q (I was really barely breathing hard at all and could have done this all day without a problem at all) so I Omaha’d to just do odd number counting after the 3rd lap. This was pretty tough and the bear crawl stuff was a battery drainer for sure. Once we finished this, I gave TopHat a choice: exercise A or exercise B. I am really not sure what he picked as it made no difference to me….think he picked B and we moseyed back to the steps. Partner up and P1 does either Squats or Burpees while P2 runs up steps, at the top he does 2 burpees, then runs back down. Partners swap positions. We did not have much time so we only did a couple rounds of this and to the best of my recollection, NONE OF US DID SQUATS-WE ONLY DID BURPEES, RIGHT? #showtoknowthetruth

We moseyed to the back of the church to the newly paved parking lot for another new exercise/game called “Lunge, Lunge, Lunge, Lunge, Burpee.” We made it across the parking lot with about 5 minutes to spare….turn around and let’s do that again. An un-named pax named Stroganoff gave me a not-so-nice look but he kept on going. We reached the other end then moseyed back to start in time for a few LBCs then the bells rang and we were finished. I think I laid on the ground for a few minutes to recover.

During our bootcamp, I talked about David Goggins book called Can’t Hurt Me. From the title, I thought it was about how tough this guy is and how he can’t be physically hurt. After reading the first 2 chapters, I think it is more about how he grew up in a broken home with a broken father and suffered mental and physical torture that no young man should ever have to go through. He also has a podcast I got from PizzaMan recently where he talks about “outworking the chart” among other things. Look it up and also read his book if you have a chance-it will be time well spent.

Once I got my tired but up off the ground, we did our COT and named our FNG Clark Lee: Honey Bee. Seems like our kind of man and I will be surprised if he is not back really soon.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead and for pushing me harder than I can push myself.

Whoopee

5 men with rucks gathered this am for some Diablo Sammich-good turnout especially for the predicted weather. We started with a disclaimer-do what you can do- then got into the warmup:

3 Burpees, 6 Burpees, 9 Burpees with 1 minute of rest between sets, and yes, with your ruck on. I had other plans but felt the Weinke was not right for this morning so I scrapped my plans and modified to something still challenging but different. We moseyed to Gastone’s Hill and on the way we talked about David Goggins podcast I watched recently compliments of Pizza Man. Look him up, but basically he is a bad MF’er (yes, that was for you fellers who just traveled to New Orleans for marathon or half marathon) who wrote at least one book (Can’t Hurt Me) and did some tough stuff. In his podcast he said he tried to “outwork the list.” His idea of “the list” is the list of accomplishments each of us individually is capable of doing that you will be accountable for when you get to heaven. Did you reach your potential? Were you a good father? Did you physically do the things, accomplish the goals, or run the races you were capable of doing? Topics that make up this “list” goes on and you get the idea. So I was watching this between 0530 and 0630 on the day I was running the half marathon in New Orleans…the same race I have been whining and bitching about for the last few months…..the race that I said was going to be my last EVER long run. So after watching this I decided this race was not going to be that bad and I would need to run another with better goals. I needed to OUTWORK THE LIST. In order to do that, I need to be accountable to those around me (F3 and others) and I need to quit my bitching. I also needed to have a different perspective about some things. I think one of the good things about being a Q is you get to do a backblast and remind yourself of things that are important or that you learned recently, whether it happened at the workout or just came in your head while writing the BB is really not the point. Anyway…….where was I?

Oh yeah, we just finished the warmup and were walking/rucking to Gastone’s Hill talking about ONE. BAD. MF’er. We got to the hill and marching orders were thrown out there: go to top of hill and do 5 squats at each mailbox on the right. Voodoo told us about his goal for daily squats, Merkins, and LBC’s. He has a trip coming up and I know he WILL MAKE HIS GOALS on the trip. This is a great idea for all of us and a lot harder than is sounds, especially on about day 15.

We rucked to the bottom (did we do more squats at mailboxes on the way down?) and reminisced about the previous workouts on the hill. We all gave our recollection of how many mailboxes there were on the right and could not come to a definitive answer, so we went back up again and did escalating Upright Rows using our rucks at the mailboxes on the way up. Just for the record there are 13 mailboxes to the top of the hill on the right including the one at the end of the cul de sac. On the way down we did several merkins (with ruck on) at each mailbox on our left. Some were uphill merkins, some were downhill merkins-they were pretty tough for me as I have been working on developing soccer arms for the last few months.  SPRING BREAK IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER SO……sun’s out/gun’s out is my new motto. I’ll be breaking out the sleeveless red F3 shirt before too long.

We hustled back to start and arrived right at 0615 so no one would turn into a pumpkin. We did our COT and closed with prayer. I believe I forgot the pledge so I owe all of you an extra pledge of allegiance next time I am Q.

Thanks for the opportunity-Whoopee

Diablo Sammich was pretty cold this am. We had 4 ruckers out there-I was likely to make it but needed backup just in case so Gastone was prepared to take over. Thankfully it was a quiet night in GasVegas and I made it there for the 2nd week of Diablo Sammich. Voodoo and Pedal were ready to go so the four of us started with the pledge then took off like greased lightning…..well, we took off like……hmmm, like……well, we started on time and we were walking. Yeah, we were walking, not too fast but not too slow…..kind of like……..walking…..with rucks and some weight. We talked about GoRuck and what they have done to elevate the popularity of rucking with equipment (all made in USA) and events. If you haven’t done so, look them up. Great quality stuff and the events are true endurance testers-ask Boudin or Freight about the GoRuck Tough event or any of the others that did the GoRuck Light event (I was not at the light event but a few of the Folsom regulars and I think JK2 were there). Before I knew it we were at Harris Teeter for the beatdown.

Circle up in the parking lot, strip down naked, then dump buckets of cold water on each other and see who can stand there the longest. Gastone cheated and peed on himself. It was great. After about 35 minutes Pedal’s nose fell off and Voodoo passed out. We took him inside Harris Teeter and poured some hot coffee on him. Pretty soon he was ok. We duck taped the nose back on Pedal and we were set.

We went back outside and continued with the workout. We circled up again and started back into the workout. We did about 15 minutes of AMRAP-turned out to be 4 rounds of the following: 50 flutter kicks while holding ruck in front over your head, 25 squats holding ruck over your head, then 10 Merkins with ruck on back. After each round, we swapped rucks so everyone had a chance with each other’s rucks. Gastone won the contest with the least-easy-to-hold ruck with his weighted vest. It actually was a good thing-it was uncomfortable and that is almost always a good thing. We saw some of the Pub-runners come by and yelled at a few of them but don’t think they heard us. Once we got back to rucking we passed a few-only one I could tell was Anthrax since I was not wearing my glasses and my eyes were cloudy from the cold water we had dumped on each other.

We rucked back to start for COT.

One of the side effects of F3 is you tend to pick up habits from the guys you hang around with. Probably the one habit I have picked up has been reading more regularly. I am currently reading a book that Jocko talks about often-About Face. It is written by Col David Hackworth (US army retired) and although it is very long, it has kept my attention so far. There is a quote from Shakespeare in the most recent chapter and it reminded me of F3 so I read the quote to the guys at COT. Here is the (slightly paraphrased) quote from Henry V:

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day who rucks with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition and the ruck shall strengthen his back;

And gentlemen now in GasHouse in their fartsacks

Shall think themselves accursed were they not here,

And hold their justifiers cheap whiles any speaks or reads thy backblasts

To those that rucked with us upon Diablo Sammich.”

We closed with announcements and quick prayer. Hope you can make it next week for Diablo Sammich. Don’t forget the hike up Mt. Mitchell on ? May 2 and look for some info coming soon on BRR and BRR-Ruck.

Whoopee

Today was the launch for Diablo Sammich, the premier (and only) rucking AO in Gastonia. I got there just a few minutes early and saw HIPAA unpacking his trunk with his ruck and shovel flag ready to go. A few others were under the overhang thing at Snoballs trying to avoid the rain for just a few minutes. When 0530 hit, we started with the pledge (no disclaimer but no FNGs so minor Q fail). I explained my general plan and we took off with our packs on a fellowship mosey-this is, in my opinion, one of the best parts of rucking-getting to know the guys around you and what is on their mind. The pace is very comfortable and you can adjust how hard you want to work by loading more weight or carrying things. First time, we are just going with the rucks and no extra weight…..for now….this will change in the future. We went up Gastone’s hill and reminisced about doing burpees at each mailbox-none today. We continued on past Food Dog (the name mine and Dr. Feelgood’s kids called Food Lion years ago) then back to start. On the way we saw a few neon flashes go by-they sounded like Diva, ToolTime, and Defib but not really sure who it was. We got back to start and everyone gloved up.

I introduced the group to “BEAR WITH ME”  from GoRuck. This involves a lot of bear crawling with exercises using the ruck. We started with bear crawl X 20 yards and went back and forth with the following exercises on each end: Squats X 20 (bear crawl) + Merkins X 20 (bear crawl) + Ruck Curls X 20 (bear crawl) + Flutter Kicks holding ruck above head X 50 (bear crawl) + Mountain Climbers X 20 (bear crawl). This was a good shoulder burner and I think I actually enjoyed the bear crawls-first time EVER for me and I can promise you the bear crawls will be part of future diablo sammich workouts for me. We still had some time so I pulled out the sandbag and we did a few rounds around Snoballs in groups of 3. Either (PAX 1) carry the sandbag or (PAX 2 and 3) carry 2 ruck sacks and do a lap around Snoballs or plank (PAX 4 and 5) while the other 3 PAX do the lap. This was actually not too bad and could benefit from more weight in the future. I have plenty of options and will improve this in the future. We were almost out of time so we loaded up our rucks for 1 final lap around Snoballs with the last third of the lap in a bear crawl which finished in Lake Whoopeegonnagetcha in the parking lot.

BIG THANKS to those who showed. I really think this can be a great introduction to F3 for those who are uncomfortable coming to a boot camp or a running AO. By adding weight and carrying heavy coupons during the hiking part, you can push yourself as hard as you want. I promise you it will be as easy or hard as you are willing to try. Like all other workouts we do here, it won’t get easier but you will get better. Bring an FNG so they can see what F3 is all about. We have some great guys here in GasHouse. Rucking is an easy way to get to know the guy in the dark you work out with. Giving this a try might even get you bold enough to try a GoRuck event-at least one of these should be required for every GasHouse PAX in my opinion. It is incredibly hard but a huge team-building experience that will push you farther than you think is possible. Check out their website when you have a chance.

We finished with announcements, namorama, and quick prayer. Come check us out next week. Bring a (durable) ruck or weight vest or whatever weighted object you want and try some Diablo Sammich.

Whoopee

OK, you have been waiting patiently and now the wait is over. It’s coming….it’s almost here….can you feel the excitement? Next week, starting on Thursday, January 24, 2019 we will start another AO in GASHOUSE. It’s going to be a…………..

RUCKING AO!!!!!!

Come be a part of this momentous occasion. We will start at 0530 and meet at Snoballs, near Martha Rivers Park. The plan is low impact (come on you PainLabbers) hiking with weight lifting mixed in during the workout. I’ll need some help with the lifting ideas PainLabbers. Running with your ruck is generally discouraged so that will not be part of my plan. Although it will coincide (that means happen at the same time Stroganoff) with The Pub, this should help grow F3Gastonia by allowing those men not ready for a running AO to ease into F3 with less apprehension (that means they won’t be skeered Stroganoff). Hopefully this will lead to more PAX who can run and join the bootcamps also.

Please help spread the word. All are welcome. Bring a ruck or weight vest (or not) and put as much weight as you want to start with then hopefully grow this amount over time. Some have used store-bought weights, other have used bricks, frying pans, water bottles, cat litter, fruit, small animals, siblings, furniture, and other various objects to show off their talents. Come be a part of DIABLO SAMMICH, the newest AO in GasHouse starting Thursday, January 24 at 0530 at Snoballs by Martha Rivers.

see you then-Whoopee

Last night I Tweeted that I had something different planned for The Pub this morning. I knew that would not be popular with everyone, but that’s ok. We had a reasonable number of Pax this am and as I have learned in the past, QUALITY trumps QUANTITY every single time.

Before we started, ToolTime mentioned the SLACKBOT issue with SA and particular phrase that followed SA’s name recently on Slack. Just ask a Folsom feller if you don’t know about this. Since ToolTime was (completely) responsible for this, he announced the issue was taken care of and would go away. Pizza Man apparently felt this was inappropriate (no judgement about the SLACKBOT phrase either way on my part, but I appreciate Pizza Man stepping up and speaking his mind) and suggested it go away. In reality, it was extremely funny and inappropriate. One of the Pax (can’t remember exactly who) suggested he do the same with Pizza Man so that every time someone says “Pizza Man,” the slackbot asks “Do you mean Pizza Canoe?” It got a hearty laugh from a few, but clearly TT was not interested. I won’t expect that to show up anytime soon….

So then I called time to start and a few guys started to mosey….wait a minute, I’m the Q and we will start with the Disclaimer then SSH X ? many followed by a gentle lap around part of the parking lot….with a lot of bitching and moaning about why are we doing this???? Enter LARGE GRIN ON MY FACE……Stop back where we start for some squats….again with the bitching and moaning……………………….

When I could stand it no more, I gave the instructions:run max speed to the Firehouse towards Panera. It is just over 1 mile so push yourself accordingly. For those looking for a light mosey and injury prevention, feel free to mosey as per usual routine. I have been told if I want to improve my long distance time, I need to do speed work with interval training with short distances and mile repeats. ToolTime got to the firehouse first with Gastone hot on his tail. SA and I arrived a little while later and while we recovered briefly, the others moseyed past us with smiles on their faces and kept going on a usual Pub Pace. Once we had recovered enough, we did the same thing back to start. I was definitely different but not necessarily better or even something I will do again at The Pub……maybe. After we arrived back to start, ToolTime took off for a run to get his miles in and Gastone, SA, and I did the same with a moderate pace until we had to turn around due to time. We got just under 4 miles I think. ToolTime got about 18 miles in the same amount of time. Pushing the pace was different and I think provided enough pain to make me at least see the benefit.

We got back for COT and shared some things going on in our families, friends, and other F3 guys. I have been guilty of not posting lately. Work, family, and life in general has been busy but not so busy that I couldn’t make it out. I just chose to do other stuff-I have been exercising but not posting. I’ve got to get back on track. I will be out of town for a few days but plan to start getting back out into the gloom. For those of you reading this, keep in mind your brothers out here need you to keep them on track. If they are not posting, reach out to them and let them know they are missed. No one should feel alone-NONE OF US. EVER. Thanks to the guys there this am for reminding me of that.

Whoopee