Author: Whoopee (Page 17 of 25)

I missed my scheduled Q a few weeks ago and today was my redemption Q-sorry for the mistake-it was all my fault and BreakerBreaker was kind enough to let me back in for a Redemption Q. It was very clear that the Pax would be expecting something worth getting out of the fartsack….I believe the work BreakerBreaker used was “epic.” While in my mind I often, scratch that, SOMETIMES think I have done something epic, I do realize that this is a relative term and my opinion of myself and my so-called accomplishments are not often described as “epic.” My kids are  essentially teenagers and the mystique of “dad” has turned into some old guy with stupid jokes that (I often find) I am the only one laughing at while my wife just shakes her head and my kids roll their eyes and try to ignore me……………where was I? Oh yeah, the backblast, the EPIC workout backblast that is.

I rolled in and quickly realized there was going to be a crowd-this is GREAT!!!!!-I remember posting at the STORM a while back in the rain and there were only 4 of us-one of the best workouts ever believe it or not. At that time I still wondered if this AO would be around for long. Great work out here by the veterans-you know who you are and so do the others so no need to call out names.

We started at 0530-I gave a quick rundown of the fact that I have been accused of ALLEGEDLY listening to bad music and having quick/nonexistent warmups. I thought I could combine these 2 rumors into a nice…..long……warmup. I cranked up my semi-waterproof speaker (my gift from the hospital after 10 years of service??!!!) with some Johnny Cash: It Ain’t Me, Babe. We would do SSH until hearing the word “Babe” at which time we would drop into a burpee then resume the SSH. This lasted for about 2 stanzas and even I couldn’t handle it after that. Where are Stroganoff and Shortsale when I need to torture someone with my music-I really do think if either or especially both of them were there, I could have played that song at least once completely, possibly twice. There were a few comments (I think) but I couldn’t hear them over the most excellent music. I saw a few pax stop doing SSH and I am not sure if it was a cue to cut the music or that they were just in awe of the epic music….we will never know.

Enough of that, mosey to the wall for (you asked for it Monk), some hip-slapper type of stuff. Get on the wall for some Crazy Indian Run thing-not in the F3 official exercises-it’s a Whoopee original. All pax on the wall in BTTW position, first guy drops down and moseys to the other end of the line and gets back into BTTW. As he gets past the guy next to him, that next pax drops down and runs to the end of the line and back into BTTW. We repeated this for all 21 pax to perform this twice-that was a good starter. We made it across most of the front of the school. We quickly moseyed to the back of the school near the loading dock for some partner work. P1 does exercise, P2 runs to loading dock, jumps up on it, runs back to P1 and swaps. This was a bit of a Q fail but the pax did not complain much. We finished this then moseyed around to the small Eye of the Storm at the bottom of the hill-we did some moseying and lunging but all got in place around the circle for a quick review of the 5 rules of F3 and some “Whoopee Says.” Basically one pax yells out an exercise, all other pax perform this exercise while first pax runs around the circle. At some point, Whoopee yells next. The timing of this is mainly due to how much I want to do your exercise and how much I like you, and possibly how hard your exercise is to me. We did a lot of things including burpees X 3 or 4 times, flutter kicks, merkins, sandy v’s, protractor, squats, Bobby Hurleys, dying cockroaches, MNCs, diamond merkin (I did 1 DM then called for next person) and maybe a few others that I cannot remember.

We then moseyed up the hill to the larger Eye of the Storm. Sargento carried the speaker while I played some “Cliffhanger” yodeling from the old Price is Right with Bob Barker more than once. Once we got to the top I talked quickly about the Alcatraz book I am reading-a repeat discussion but not sure anyone today was present for previous talk. Basically it was about how F3 has the potential to keep us on the right path and lack of F3-type of stuff allows us to wander off the path with a really hard time to get back on the path-that type of inertia is hard to correct.

Enough of that, I had a couple things in mind so I gave the pax an option: A or B? Cannot remember what was picked, didn’t matter-both options were 25 Mountain Climbers. After we finished, I again asked the pax: Option A or B? Again, does not matter, run down the hill in front of the school and plank for the 6. Again, Option A or B? At this point, Sister Act accuses me of some type of duplicitous behavior. Me???? I was in no way being deceitful. There were 2 options: A or B. Just because they both had the same answer was irrelevant at the time. We then did 25 more Mountain Climbers and moseyed back up the hill where we came from. I think we did some more Mountain Climbers at the top then moseyed back to the bottom. There was a quick headcount on how many pax made it to C-SPAN’s send-off. There were 3 so we moseyed back to start with (initially) 3 burpees per speed bump. There were a few derogatory remarks by some cheesy guy that will go un-named that rhymes with Fart-gen-toe….so we changed to 4 burpees at each speed bump. I had to defend my (little that I have) honor. In retrospect, I wish I had picked a larger number (like maybe 237) but I am sure I would have regretted that. We got back to start with time for a few rounds of Mary then the Pledge.

COT: HIPAA gave us a quick run down of all the events (see recent newsletter) and a warning of upcoming pre-blast type of thing for the Burpeethon on October 6 (I think). If you are able, get to one or more of the upcoming events and remember, even if you cannot be there, you can financially support. Like in the movie Grease, if you cannot be an athlete, you can be an athletic supporter (prime example of a “dad joke” around our house.)

I closed us out with quick prayer then we all took off.

Thanks again for the “redemption” Q opportunity. It is great to see so many pax out here. Kudos to those pax who have stuck out the thinner times and kept this AO going. Also, I would encourage those pax who have not been routinely posting out here to make the short trip and post. This and Goat Island are great AOs with a lot of good stuff for our type of workout. I will say the acoustics at the STORM could be little better. Johnny Cash was not getting me going like it usually does.

Keep up the great work.

Whoopee

I saw ShortSale at church Sunday morning and he mentioned Gastone was Q on Monday and possibly also Wednesday this week so I gave it some thought and by the end of the day I had wrestled the Q from Gastone-usually not a difficult task-he Qs enough so he is more than willing to give them up when asked. I started thinking and came up with the Weinke but then did a few Omahas (unbeknownst to the Pax) due to Q-fatigue, which for me today was 100% due to Saturday’s Q by SisterAct which is still causing some problems but I will just keep that to myself (sort of).

Gastone and I did a little EC and came in hot to find about 10 guys ready to get going. There were no FNGs so I gave a quick disclaimer and we started into it.

WU: SSH, Merkins, Plank stuff, 5 wolverine burpees (enough of those).

Thang: Mosey to AutoZone for 20 BB situps.

Mosey to old HT parking lot and meander to the far wall for some Hip Slappers X 10 then quick count off (12 of us) then another 12 Hip Slappers. Mosey to the school dodging traffic along the way and go to the breezeway thing. 4 pax were volunteered to remember a specific exercise and we did 1 min of the first 2 then rinse/repeated (Set Ups/Derkins). We then moved on the to second set (Sit Ups/Squats) which is when the WHEELS FELL OFF. Someone let some gas slip out (not me) and like a bunch of 3rd graders we all erupted in laughter and made a few comments that had us all on our back a little longer. I think we had to skip the second set of Sit Ups/Squats and moseyed around the back to do some stair work with a coupon we “borrowed” on the way. On the stairs we all walked up and down the steps with 20 squats at each end. While the pax were stair-walking, we took turns with the coupon on the stairs and did 20 Merkins when we got to the top or bottom. This took longer than I expected but achieved a desired burn with time for chatter. We moseyed back to start (Spiderman had enough gas in the tank to come blazing past me and come close to catching Gastone back at the start). We had just enough time for the Pledge and a quick cup of chocolate milk then COT. I closed us out with a prayer.

While at the fart-hall, I mean breezeway, I took a couple minutes to briefly discuss my recent trip to San Francisco and tour of Alcatraz. I picked up a book written by an ex-inmate named James Quillen. I am about 50 pages into it and he has not arrived at Alcatraz yet-he is giving background for how he ended up there-basically a really crummy home life which led him to make bad decisions. He took the blame for making the choices, however he also pointed out the situation he was in when he made those poor choices. He talked about how when he was younger, he knew what was right and wrong, but once he started down the wrong path, it was really hard to get back on track and the “easy way” was clearly the wrong way. At the time he did not have the insight and strength to do what needed to be done. Clearly, if he had something like F3, he would have had a better chance to end up somewhere other than Alcatraz.

Reading this book is helping me re-remember how lucky I have been to be surrounded by a loving family who encouraged me early on to make smart choices, ultimately leading me to where I am now-posting at a frozen icee place at dark-thirty in the morning surrounded by some great guys who can’t stop laughing at a fart. IT REALLY DOES NOT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!!!!!

Hope you all had a great day and thanks for being there this morning and all the other mornings.

Whoopee

I have been in a “Q slump” lately. One of my Q’s recently was a disappointment for me. I made a concerted effort to work on what I thought would be a good workout-one that was challenging and allowed for mumble chatter, kept the group together without too much abuse on any new guys, and had a little something extra to keep people interested. Today was good for me-hoope it was for the others who posted. I thought it was challenging and although the mumble chatter was not intense, it was sort of like an old pair of Chuck Taylors-it got the job done but was nothing fancy. I met someone at church this week and mentioned our workout. Immediately I realized this guy was going to be all in-he was a big time runner in the past, has a lot of self motivation, and has a bit of sharp and witty humor that fits right in with our group. Also, he did not flinch when I mentioned 530am….I have been wrong before so I was relieved when I saw John Robinson, AKA RaRaRa get out of the car (with gloves!!!) just before we started-you will have to ask him what his name means…#showtoknow.

0530 rolled around and I gave a quick disclaimer, we said the pledge, then we started with a quick warmup: 5-6 SSH, Merkins, Squats, then a few burpees to get us going.

Mosey to Martha’s…..hold up, there’s a trash truck in our way….salute him with some Monkey Humpers until he moves then mosey on again. Along the way we stopped for some Sumo Squats at a few lights then got to the hill by the baseball field. I had Pax get in 2 lines, turn toward each other and there is your partner-A) plank, B) run up the short hill for 5 burpees then back down, flapjack, rinse and repeat for total of (I think) 5 sets. Quick recover then mosey to the Turd Shack. We stopped along the way for some flutter kicks (stay as a group, listed the 5 CORE principals of F3 for our FNG’s benefit mainly). On the way, some un-named pax named Gastone or Defib mentioned something about a wall at the turd shack and asked if we could do some Hip Slappers. Well call me Sally and smack me on the butt, no way I’m gonna turn down that request. Get on the wall britches and let’s do some Hip Slappers!!!! We did some Hip Slappers then I think LBCs then some more Hip Slappers. I was watching the clock-the “meaty” part of my Q was still to come. There was some complaining, I mean mumble chatter on the wall but I was not deterred. We kept slapping until I thought the pax had been sufficiently slapped.  Recover quickly then mosey to the soccer field. It is still pretty dark at this point but we made it without any real issues.

At his point I asked the FNG a very important question…one that would determine whether we, scratch that, whether I would ever invite him back to be part of our inner circle or even speak with him….and the question was something like “Have you heard of the song by Rush called Red Barchetta?” And his response (sorry Stroganoff, ShortSale, and Roscoe, I REALLY wish you were here for this one) was “Who is Rush??”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost hugged this guy. If I was smart enough, I would have planned this the day before.  At this point I got a bit giggly like one of my teen-aged daughters. I might have peed or sharted on myself as well but I’m not really sure. Yeah, pretty sure I peed on myself but really, so what. I could have sharted on myself and I would not have cared AT ALL. I gained what little bit of composure I could and quickly reminded the Pax what the Red Barchetta workout involves. Then I told them that was NOT what we would be doing. We would be doing the Red Whoopetta. Basically it is the same thing but instead of counting reps, we would continue doing the exercises until I got tired and then mosey back to start and plank. The routine went sort of like this: Run 100 yards, SSH until Whoopee gets tired and run back then plank. Recover, run 75 yards then Mtn Climber until Whoopee gets tired, mosey back, plank. Recover, run 50 yards, flutter until Whoopee gets tired/bored, mosey back then plank. Recover, run 25 yards, then 25 merkins OYO, then mosey back, plank. Recover, run 10 yards, 10 Burpees OYO then back to start. I wanted the opportunity for mumble chatter for the Pax so I took the counting out of the equation. I believe we did some Jack Webb’s (set of 10) somewhere in here but I am not sure when.

We moseyed back to the wall, re-partnered back up and P1 did LBCs while P2 did balls to the wall. I think we each did 2 sets of 15 and Sister Act helped with the counting on this. Honestly, I was a bit gassed at this point. We did some chair also but I cannot remember when.

We then started the mosey back to start-we stopped along the way for some Sumo Squats and other stuff that I cannot remember. I do remember Defib telling a funny joke about cellophane and a patient he recently saw in the office…can’t remember it now, maybe later. Where was JK2 or Squirt with his 2 boys full of endless jokes???

Once we got to the road someone (maybe me?) yelled jailbreak and out of nowhere this blue streak came by me-It was Linus making a bee-line for finish at top speed. Again, Linus is busting his butt. I said it before and I will say it again-Linus has stepped up his game since becoming site Q at Schiele/GasHouse. Nice work.

We got back to home base for a quick little bit of Mary then the bell rang to finish us up. Quick announcements, prayer requests, then named our FNG-John Robinson-RaRaRa-great guy, says he will be back on Wednesday but I will be out the rest of the week. I will be surprised if he is not there. I think he smiled the whole time. Continue to make him feel welcome and direct him towards those Cramer Mountain guys-he just moved in over there and suspect he will be looking for more workouts soon.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

On Saturday night, I got a Twitter message from HushPuppy asking if we were doing the Murph so I responded like I thought I should, maybe not like I really wanted at the time…..YES, I WILL BE DOING THE MURPH-WHO IS WITH ME????

I got a quick HC from Roscoe so I knew it was on. Sunday morning rolled around and I showed up with Defib ready to go and ShortSale not far behind. Roscoe was right on time so we got started. I brought my 10th anniversary of work gift from the hospital for entertainment-a sweet semi-water proof bluetooth speaker (probably $10) so I could pump up the George Strait…

Roscoe took off like he was after the Duke boys on a Saturday night in Hazard County and the rest of us tried to keep up. We got to Martha’s and the work started. The other 3 stuck to the plan, but I did Australian pull ups-last month I could not use my arms for about 5 days after the Murhph so I made the executive decision to go with a lighter version this time and make a better effort at doing some pull-ups during the month of August. I played some Van Halen, Eric Church, then settled in with Blues Traveler and got too tired to mess with it after that.

We made good time then moseyed back to start. I did my best to catch up with Defib on the way back to no avail. He did mention he heard footsteps the whole time so at least I know he was pushed a little on the running. I will catch him someday……

I really enjoy the Murph-it has a lot of emotion attached to it and really pushes me. I need to spend more time with the pull-up bar on a regular basis so I don’t have to do the Australian ones-l won’t mind if anyone harasses me a little with this…..except ShortSale, he already has enough ammo for harassing me.

Thanks for the push HushPuppy (and the 3 others that posted), even though you were not there. I expect you there next month, and I will do a better job with the publicity before the August Murph.

Whoopee

OK guys, today I messed up. I messed up so bad, some of you may not have ever noticed if I did not point it out. And then there are others who may have noticed but thought, I’m not gonna say anything. It’s Whoopee. He has been here for a long time. He’s an old guy. Not RESPECT-kind-of old yet, but old as in…well, just old. Some grey hair, a few F3 shirts…heck, he even wears those funny sock things that don’t even get down into his shoes. He knows what he is doing and I’m gonna just keep my mouth shut.

Today the Weinke was about me. I wanted to bring a workout that was tough and wore everyone out. I wanted to see some merlot or at least hear some whining about how it was too much. I don’t even think I accomplished that but that is not the point.

I got a message from Mayor this morning asking if I made it to the STORM this morning-there was a chance I was going to have to miss my Q due to work and Mayor was my backup. Mayor was tied up last night with his 2.0 in the ED (not his ED, but the Emergency Department, HIPAA!!!) so he was likely going to be a no-show. My response to Mayor: “I made it. There was not a lot of mumble chatter. There was a Q-fail probably because I have not Q’d in awhile.”

I thought about it today. My workout was tough (I think) at least in parts. A lot of us got worn down and probably got a little bit stronger. However, without much mumble chatter, we might as well have all been doing this workout separately at different times during the day. My Weinke was not really designed to allow much interaction with each other, despite my attempt to make it “partner friendly” with a few partner workouts, partner carries, and everyone’s favorite partner disease “Hurpees.” My Weinke was not really set up for mumble chatter. There were enough exercises to keep us busy, but all of them involved counting reps which made the entire workout monotonous, quiet, and overall not very fun. We went quickly from 1 exercise to the next in an attempt to gas everyone. Again, we could all have done the same workout today with each of us rotating in every 45 minutes to tag up and let another guy do the workout. Other than getting hotter during the day, it really would have been about the same as all of us doing it together.

Lesson learned AGAIN-I know I have made this mistake before. I will promise to keep this in mind in the future and hope those of you reading this will learn from my mistake. Set up your Weinke however you want, but if you want some chatter and interaction with the PAX-really, this is what makes the fitness part of F3 different from working out in the YMCA, then make sure there are at least some exercises that are done without counting reps and with a bit of a break for recovering so that the six guy can get back his air and participate without feeling like an anchor. Again, my bad.

I will be Q’ing again at the STORM next month so all I ask is that you give me one more shot before putting me out to pasture with the rest of the old farts.

Here is what we did:

WU, exercises, Mary, Pledge, COT with prayers for lot of PAX and family members.

Whoopee

Coconut Horse is about running, not necessarily where you run. Roscoe and I had talked about running the trails at the YMCA and the time was right. We started at 0630 and took the “backwards” route out of the Harris Teeter. We made it to the Y and started for the trails. If you did not know, the trails are in the far back right of the parking lot and has about 3 miles of trails in a couple loops. It was tougher than I thought it would be-elevation changes, switchbacks, and all the time watching for the Squatches. Diva, Defib, and ToolTime led the way with the rest of us pushing but not quite the same speed. Overall I think it was a great route and definitely something we should do again. By the time we finished, we had gone just over 5 miles. A few of us went for coffeteeria, or in my case, chocolatemilketeeria. As much as I dislike running, I really enjoy being out there with the rest of you boneheads.

At the end, we made sure to include Sargento, Quiche, and Stroganoff in our prayer as they were well into the half marathon in the Boston area. We found out later on they all did well with no major injuries-congrats guys.

Whoopee

I won’t say I was nervous about being the Q today, but I wanted it to be good. I wanted it to be memorable. I wanted to say something that would be worthy of the reasons we gathered today for The Murph. I realized during my preparation, nothing I could say would be worthy of the lives of those we would be remembering today. I could, however, make sure it was worthy of your time getting up and coming out on a rainy morning to honor those men and women who gave everything so I could live in a country where I could put on a pair of clean socks this morning, stop by the Harris Teeter and get some water for this workout, and park my car in a parking lot with 30 + men who got out of the fartsack to bust their butts with me. A country where I can complain about having to wait in line for a drink and that is the worst part of my day, and hopefully I realize that waiting in line for a drink is really not worth complaining about. We have it pretty darn good here in the USA and every once in awhile we need something like The Murph to remind us of that.

I started by calling on Roadie to clarify the difference in Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day-look it up if you were not there. Roadie nailed it and I am sure there were others out there like me that maybe a week ago, may not have been able to tell you the difference. I talked a little about who Murph was, but really wanted the guys out there to look that up and learn on your own-there is plenty of info out there on the internet to fill you in on the details. I wanted to share the end of a book I got from Stroganoff called With The Old Breed. This book by E.B. Sledge describes his experience in the Pacific Theater during part of WWII. This book helped form the basis for the HBO mini-series “The Pacific.” Reading this book will open your eyes to a small part of what the military went through on Peleliu and Okinawa. To quote an article I found on the internet, “On Okinawa, Sledge and his fellow Marines fought in mud-mud that gave them trench foot and was often thick with maggots, rotting bodies, flies, and feces. Each battle was an ordeal, a fight against a fanatical enemy that was dug in and determined to fight to the last man.”

I read the last few paragraphs of the book this morning then gave the book to Roadie for him to read so I can’t quote everything I read. I did find part of what I read online: “War is brutish, inglorious and a terrible waste. Combat leaves an indelible mark on those who are forced to endure it. The only redeeming factors were my comrades’ incredible bravery and their devotion to each other.”

As a non-military man over age 25, I don’t know that I will ever fully understand what the above paragraph means. I can, however, appreciate that it truly sucked worse that anything that I have ever gone through (including BRR). I can make sure I am appreciative of the sacrifice that others have made, and I can make sure my kids do the same. I was able to do this with my kids (thanks Mayor) this past week watching the Honor Flight return at the airport. If I can help some of my brothers down this road also, I will be satisfied.

We said the pledge. We did a (sort of) disclaimer. We did NOT do a warmup, then we did The Murph. We then joined the 6 on his final mile as a group, which was my favorite part. It was not planned-it just happened that way. Great way to end the workout guys-together.

We then named our 3 FNGs and went for coffeteeria after a quick prayer. Later this morning I taught my youngest 2.0 the difference in Veterans’ Day and Memorial Day while I waited in line for some food with a smile on my face.

thanks for being my brother and keeping me on track-Whoopee

OK guys, you have probably heard of it, but just in case…

This Memorial Day (Monday, May 28, 2018) we will be doing The Murph at Martha Rivers Park. We will meet at 0700 and start shortly thereafter. It is a workout that honors Lieutenant (SEAL) Michael P. Murphy and other fallen heroes. Keep in mind it will be tough and you will be sore for a few days after,  however, if you understand what this is about, that really does not matter and you will be there anyway. Here is The Murph:

1 mile run

100 pull-ups

200 push-ups

300 squats

1 mile run

Basically, you will do multiple sets of exercises (for instance, 20 sets of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats) with a mile run before and after. I will have some history on the event, but feel free to bring a fact or 2 to teach others.

Keep in mind, we often modify the pull-ups if needed (Australian pull-ups, jump up pull-ups, or heck, how about some Rocky Top Burpees).

Make sure you bring something to drink. We will do coffeteeria after for anyone that is able.

Obviously this will be less painful if you do some training before. You have 3 weeks to prepare. My challenge to you reading this is to alternate daily pushups and squats with a total of 200 per day between now and then (starting today with 200 push-ups today then 200 squats tomorrow…). You might want to get some running in as well and a pull-up or 2 between now and then wouldn’t hurt…..

Great work today with the VQ from Island. He stepped up in a strong way. We briefly discussed how to prepare the Weinke and I was ready to jump in whenever he needed me, but…….I never got called in from the bullpen. I was the warmer-upper, handed over to Island, then just tried not to be the 6 until the very end.

We started with a welcome to our FNG, disclaimer, briefly reviewed the 5 core principles of F3, hit the pledge, then started into the WU after warning the pax of our impending VQ beatdown.

WU was longer than usual and noticed by a few of the Pax. We did SSH X 48 since I turned 48 today. JK2 asked for “bet you can’t do a hunderd” but I was on a mission.  We got 48, no more, no less. Then we did some merkins, squats, think we also did some flutter kicks then finished with 5 burpees.

Island took over-we moseyed to the soccer field the long way. Not sure if he got lost or just wanted to run for awhile……finally got to the soccer field and he unloaded the instructions. Partner up, P1 does exercise while P2 does a lap. Exercises were AMRAP: Merkins, Squats, Crunchy Frogs. I think we had a few double up on exercise and miss their last round of running but not sure that was any easier.

Next, mosey to the other side of soccer field for round 2-we did 4 exercises X 4 rounds: Bearcrawl up the grassy hill, 3 pull-ups, 20 Merkins, and 25 dips-we did these in any order OYO.

We moseyed to the parking lot for some more pain: It involved burpees and some other stuff but since it has been more than 5 minutes, I have already forgotten-sorry Island. We did some more moseying and ended up back at Snoball’s right…on….time.

I closed us out with quick COT and namorama with FNG Brad Joyce (Durden). Hopefully none of you know him on a professional level, wait, maybe that would not be such a bad idea. He works in mental health in some capacity. Make sure to look for him and make him feel welcome.

Moleskin:

I shared with everyone that I went to my nephew’s confirmation this weekend. The minister talked about the leadership that is missing in our country. I was smiling on the inside because I knew it was not as bad as it could be because of F3 and what we are trying to do within F3 across the whole country, not only in Gas-Vegas (heard that at the run with Stroganoff at Latini Memorial Run last week). Island took his leadership role seriously and kicked some serious butt-it was great to see. Keep pushing each other and pushing the rock. Be a leader in your world as much as you can and keep your brothers accountable.

thanks for the leadership Island-great work.

Whoopee