Author: Whoopee (Page 2 of 25)

Started on time with Strogi coming in hot from EC straight off the IR. Gastone may have has some EC or could have just taken a long walk around the parking lot….Good to see those 2 faces that I have not seen in awhile.

Started with disclaimer, pledge, then warmup. During the warmup with started with 25 SSH. “Why do you care about how many SSH we did?” you ask yourself….well that is the number of years since I graduated medical school and last night I made my final payment for my medical school loans. I graduated in 1999 and finally paid them off. I’m not complaining about it because that was the only way I was going to go to school. It was just a big relief and something I was happy about. We finished with WU then moseyed to the turd shack for EMOM X 5 minutes: 4 Flying Squirrels, 8 Merkins, 12 Lunges. This was essentially a continuation of the WU with a little extra effort. Next we used the Turd Shack for our next exercise: Whole Lotta Hip Slappas. Wasn’t really a “whole lotta” them but I haven’t done them in awhile so it seemed like a “whole lotta” of them to me. Next we did some tempo running: 1 moderate lap at slow mosey speed for about 1 minute, increase speed to moderate effort for another minute, then give her all she’s got for a final minute. That first minute felt like about a minute…the second felt like about 7 minutes, and the final really felt like about 21 and 3/4 minutes or maybe even longer…..you get the point. We got a quick breather then moseyed back to start with 10 squats at each light on the way back to the main road then moseyed back to start. I had some coupons in the truck and got them out for the final 15-20 minutes. Errbody grabbed a coupon and moseyed around Pelican’s for a lap then we did some ab exercises. Repeat for a few laps then mosey to the wall for some step ups with Derkins while we dodged the cars coming REALLY CLOSE to our heads during the Derkins. Note to self: Middle position is safe. End position, not so much. Still had a few minutes so we moseyed down towards Gastone’s hill and back finishing at 0615.

Good crowd today with some important prayers for some of our pax, especially Turtleman and Easy Rider-we’ve got you both guys. Know you are in our prayers in the morning and thoughts throughout the day. Reach out if we can help. Also for Maybelline as he recovers from his respiratory infection and penile extension surgery.

Thanks for posting today.

Whoopee

PS-that thing about Maybelline up there was just a joke. I put that there just to see if anyone actually reads this. He didn’t really have a respiratory infection.

Couple early, few runners, few ruckers, and a nut sniffer started out the last day of the year right. Roscoe covered the COT because John Brown showed up and was calling, scratch that, SCREAMING my name.

We covered the 8 block this morning with input from all pax. We ran over time which was my fault-didn’t even look at the clock and got caught up in the discussion. If you haven’t done 8 block in the past, now is a good time-you can google 8 block and F3 then listen to CSPAN’s podcast or read any of the summaries of this. It’s a great way to plan your year and help you accelerate in a lot of areas. Feel free to ask anyone that was there this am if you have questions.

Whoopee

Wirenut was indirectly responsible for my Q this am. I sent a message on Slack asking the site Q Maybeline if the Q was open at Labyrinth. Wirenut responded that I should just “go gangsta” and take it so that’s what I told that bitch Maybeline. Labarimf was all mine.

I started 30 seconds early to ‘splain how this Q sichyation came about, but Flintstone was not interested. He sat down on the ground, stretched out like he was about to take a nap or get some sun on the beach, and basically said he was tired of waiting on me. Damn. Game on. We hit the pledge, had a brief disclaimer, then warmup with some SSH, “almost” squats (thanks for the pointers on squats Ballsack), then instructions were given: mosey your stank ass down towards Gastone’s Hill and hit 5 SSH at each light. Strogi tried to scoot around the first light by going thru the parking lot but it was poor planning because he still had to hit the light. We got to the bottom of Gastone’s hill and out came the plan: Suicide run up Gastone’s hill. Go to first mailbox on right, drop and do 10 Merkins, then back to start. Repeat to second mailbox on right, 10 Merkins, back to start, continue all the way up to the top of the cul de sac (total of 17 mailboxes) then we would figure things out depending on the time. Everybody worked their butt off. Ballsack worked especially hard-his back has been an issue when he is running but he can still do a lot of other exercises so he was our marker and slowly made his way up the hill doing a crap-ton of exercises at each mailbox until we all got to the top. We still had some time so we did a short mosey part of the way down to pick up the six, back to the top, then mosey back to the bottom. We had less than 15 minutes at this point so we moseyed back home stopping for more SSH at every other light and pulled in right on time for COT.

Our official mileage from Flintstone was 7.3 miles. He’s the first F Q and what he says is gospel as far as I am concerned. 7.3 miles. Period. End of story.

Strogi called me an asshole twice (that I heard).

JJ was smiling the entire time-dude just clocked a few more miles towards his yearly goal of 1,000,00 miles.

Winehouse, as usual, put in some hard work and had no complaints.

‘dat Bitch Maybeline pushed the rock with Defib and they set the pace for the group.

Ballsack probably did half a million burpees and Merkins.

Hunchback and Clutch grinded it out like pros.

I know this is going to come as a surprise to almost all of you: I have had a bit of sandy V about running. Don’t try to argue with me about this, I know it is true. I would say that is “as of late” but that is also not true. I can’t recall how many times I have said I don’t like running in the last few years. Let’s just say it’s been more than a few. I can remember complaining about running to Monk before he moved to DC (some of you don’t even know Monk he’s been gone so long). The good thing about F3 is you can always start again fresh any time you want. There are guys that like to do just about anything and they are willing to push you and hold you accountable and complain along with you while they push the rock with you. If you are lucky enough to have a good shield lock, this process gets automatic even without trying. When I complain about running, I get “the look” from at least 1 of them and I know I need to HTFU. This running sandy V for me sank in this week after not exercising much for the holiday week so I ran the half pipe with Strogi, JJ, and Roscoe yesterday then did this Labarimf thing today. I knew it was gonna suck balls. I also knew I would be better for it and have some great guys come along and push me, even if it was just to call me an asshole or push me to run a little harder to keep up. On top of all this, I sometimes think about what it would be like to NOT be able to run??? Would I drive across town, at dark-thirty in the morning, so I could walk up a hill busting my butt doing burpees, merkins, mountain climbers, SSH, and a crap-ton of other exercises just to be out there with the guys??? (that is what Mr. Ballsack did this am). How about if I couldn’t do THOSE exercises OR RUN??? Think about that for a few minutes

This reminds me of that saying “It’s not the years in your life that matter, it’s the life in your years.” Make each day count. You’ve got a great opportunity to get up and be “that guy” that you know you should be. Don’t waste it. You can never get the day back.

Whoopee

ps: I’d like to thank that bitch Maybeline for letting me Q this am.

GREAT turnout this am. Got a few OGs out there plus a bunch of faces I had not seen before. Wish I could have spent some time getting to know them, but that will have to wait. I was focused on bringing some pain. I know some of these guys were looking for weakness but I didn’t want to give them any reason to complain any more than usual.

We started with a brief disclaimer and making sure there were no FNGs-start the WU with 1 minute of AMRAP exercises with goal for 5 exercises and 2 rounds of each. Well that went in the turd shack really quick. We started with arm haulers (look it up online if you don’t know what they are) and the complaining started even before we got 30 seconds in so what did I do???? Cut that shite short and move straight to burpees for 1 minute. It got quiet pretty quickly. We did a minute of burpees then moved to SSH for a minute. Sparky showed at this point so we moved to monkey humpers facing his direction. We went back to SSH for about 30-40 seconds to give Sparky at least a little WU. Hugs were exchanged with Sparky-not afraid to express my feelings for Sparky (or SA and a few others who got a hug a little while before that). SA also got a quick leg hump…learned that move from my dog Seymour-he LOVES his blanket every night.

Next, mosey to the (old) turd shack for some 4 Corners: initial plan was 4 different exercises and only 1 exercise at each corner at 10, 20, 30, then 40 reps. When I said “no stacking” you would have thought I ran over SA’s dog, ate his birthday cake, and peed in his bed. The eyes started rolling in his head and the whining was over the top. I really felt bad when he started crying so I Omaha’d to go ahead and stack ’em. We did 10 Mike Tysons, 20 Big Boys, 30 Jump Lunges, and 40 SSH for the 4 corners. Wichita motored thru this like a champ. SA was much better after that. I think he even said “thank you” which made it all worthwhile. Short pause while I look for my phone and thankfully Stogie “found” it for me. I think he picked it up and put in his pocket before starting the 4 corners but I will never know for sure. No penalty thankfully since I was already a bit gassed from the 4 corners.

We rolled down to the turd shack for some hip slappers and mosey stuff. Medicine Woman informed me it was close to his 8 year anniversary when I Q’d his first workout and we did hip slappers and mosey stuff then. We did 10 HS’ers then moseyed across the lot for 5 burpees then moseyed back. That was so much fun we did it a second time. We got back to the turd shack and got a quick count off to pick the next number of HS’ers…..19 hip slappers then mosey across the lot for 5 burpees then back to turd shack. We were a bit ahead of schedule so I added 2 Bojangles biscuits to kill some time-2 laps where you slow mosey the short curves and sprint all out the longer straightaways. It felt like uphill the whole time. This got us closer to the time I needed for the final push. Mosey back to start and line up on far side of parking lot, long jump/hop about 25 yards then 20 reps of called exercise, then mosey back. The exercises were Merkins, jump squats, then I asked Medicine Woman for our 3rd exercise-he said LBCs, I heard burpees, so we compromised and did big boy setups for set 3 then burpees for set 4. That was about all I had in the tank so we finished with some Mary with max of 10 reps/exercise: I started with flutter kicks, SA called burpees, and we did a few other things until Sparky called Iron Hulks and we made it to 4 merkins/16 air presses and I pulled the plug and called it a day.

We hit the pledge then finished with COT.

I said it this morning and I’ll say it again-Folsom has a tight group, continues to bring in new faces and solid guys who stick around and are just really good guys. Every chance I get to Q out here I feel good when it is over-I get a bit pissy the night before (and the morning of if I am being honest) because I have to get up a little early and I know I need to be ready to push it, but it makes be better and I know it even the night before. I guess that is the “Iron Sharpens Iron” thing that I need to remember.

Thanks for the invite Pony Boy. Stay gold.

(I suspect you are too young to know that reference…..)

Whoopee

I did not do a good job promoting this and I wish I had put more effort into it. The Chad1000X event is a pretty cool thing but in my opinion really requires some special training to be ready. If you don’t train, it doesn’t mean you can’t participate, but not many of us can do 1000 step ups with a 50# ruck in under an hour and have a relatively normal day after that without some training. So……..next year I plan to do a little better because I think this is a great event and bringing awareness to military suicide prevention seems like something worth promoting.

I got there a little late due to power outage at my house 3 minutes after I woke up. It was a bit of a cluster#### at my house so I was happy to finally get there. Three guys were into it and I did my best to catch up. Roscoe had the music going strong with lots of George Strait to keep us motivated while staying focused.

About next year-maybe a little AO competition, each AO sends their champion representative plus whoever wants to participate? Maybe there will be prizes for winning the competition? Maybe individual and also 2 or 4 man team event? We will see. I am open to suggestions so hit me up if you have an idea. The main reasons for the backblast were to thank the guys who posted and hopefully challenge some of you to consider participating next year on Veterans’ Day.

Whoopee

Final Coconut Horse session for Wisdom of the Bullfrog.

We did the conclusion chapter which might have been my favorite chapter. Thankfully, Strogi reminded me the day before and I had time to get my stuff ready, otherwise it would have been a very short session.

The chapter started out talking about the book Gates of Fire (the book about the story from the movie 300 and King Leonidas). If that story doesn’t get you fired up, you need to go see your doctor and get your testosterone level checked. I’ll be watching that if I can find it as soon as I finish this BB. McRaven talks about how Xerxes asks the last remaining Spartan what made Leonidas such a great leader. The Spartan’s response was basically that he does not command their loyalty, he earns it by the daily grind of being in the trenches with them and not asking them to do anything he is not already doing or willing to do. He basically describes Leonidas’ behavior (and the complete opposite of the Xerxes’ behavior) throughout the entire movie 300.

McRaven then goes on to describe qualities of a great leader: integrity, competence, swagger, strength/stamina, and the willingness to take (measured) risk and dream big. In the end, great leaders must also share hardships with those that they lead. I couldn’t help thinking about several movies while I was reading this chapter: Band of Brothers, Hoosiers, We Were Soldiers and probably a few others that I can’t remember now. It also made me appreciate the recent trip to one of Jocko’s Musters in Texas. THAT was a great trip worth every penny and hope some of you get a chance to go at some point. Among the leadership lessons from the conference, I learned a couple other things:

1-I have missed out on some really good music: Audioslave can get me a bit fired up and I need to check them out.

2-if you want to hear George Strait, hang out in the bathrooms in hotels that play music in Texas. I probably took the longest bathroom breaks of my life on that trip. #goodmemories

Finally, McRaven finishes the book with some humility. He was in the Navy/SEALs for 40 years, led a major educational institution, and has written several books and finishes the book with the fact that he is STILL LEARNING HOW TO LEAD.

If you have not read the book, you might consider ordering it or borrowing it from someone. The chapters are relatively short, the lessons are memorable, and we all really enjoyed it.

Next week we start The Hero Code also by Admiral McRaven. Hope to see some new faces.

Whoopee

PS: almost forgot, 4 plus a nutsniffer rucked and 3 ran this am. Flintstone posted after running a marathon yesterday with his fastest half marathon time ever….

So if you run your mouth on Slack and then fartsack, what does that make you???? Hint: check the title.

There was a picture on Slack of a certain pax dressed as a gnome. Allegedly, it was someone whose name rhymes with Poopee….comments from multiple comedians followed, however only 1 comedian showed to back up his comments (thanks Roscoe-and BTW, I do know what they say about a man with big ears….). I promised to provide a proper beatdown and did my best despite having no ShortSale or SA show up.

We started with a disclaimer and pledge then got right into it with 1 minute of exercises: AMRAP for 1 minute for the following-BigBoys, Arm Haulers, Squats, Merkins, and Burpees. Slaw was smiling and I do believe I even saw a little bulge down below the belt when I called Burpees. It was dark and I didn’t have my glasses so I may be incorrect.

Next, mosey to the far lot for some 4 corners: 10 Mike Tysons (for you SA, but sadly you were dreaming of milk sammiches at home with your Yoda PJs on), 20 BigBoys, 30 Lunges (each leg???? WTF was I thinking-can’t Omaha, Wirenut is here and that dog won’t hunt if I try to Omaha), then finally 40 SSH. Mosey to the wall for some wall sits, Australian wall sits (BTTW), wall sits, and hip slappers. Man, I LOVE hip slappers. Have I ever told any of you that? The only thing that would have made the HS better this am would be hearing the whiny girly FIA-ish complaining from SS or SA. EZ Rider was a bit mouthy but he still put in the work. I could hear Amazon counting above almost everyone else-it almost made me think that I was the only one who likes Hip Slappers????? Nah, not a chance.

Next we moseyed around the corner for some jump, crawl, lunge. This might be my new favorite….maybe not. Starting at first light, do long jumps to next light. Then bear crawl to next light, then lunge to next light. I started out going pretty fast (I thought) then all of a sudden Slaw’s ass was all I could see as he buzzed by me almost at a sprint. We went a total of 6 lights then stopped at the stop sign (where else would we stop??). Next we moseyed down the street then turned left and found a wall for some Hip Slappers and Dirty Hookups. I don’t remember how many, but it was enough. Now I remember-we did 10 then I let EZ Rider pick the number for round 2. Shoulda been there-that was a joke but most of you did not get it. Did you get it SA? How about you Shortsale, was that funny? No, because YOU WERE NOT THERE THIS AM.

We moseyed back into the parking lot for some “20 yards of hell” that I thought up for SA, but again he was at home…..in his YODA PJs!!!! He’s probably got footies and a button up back side. We hopped 20 yards then did 20 reps of an exercise then moseyed back. The exercises were Merkins, Squats, and BURPEES!!!! I definitely saw a bulge in Slaw’s britches at this point. I believe it’s time for a new name for Slaw….maybe Woody? The Package? Dirk Diggler???? Also, Slaw was doing something illegal to the things we used to mark the 20 yards. I’m still not sure I will get much sleep tonight. It. Was. Not. Natural. At all.

We still had time left but dang, I was just about out of gas and a little queasy. I also was not sure what I would do with the 20 yard markers that Slaw had defiled. We moseyed around to another side of the lot and what was Slaw doing? He was doing Burpees. And smiling about it too. I really didn’t want to do much else but time was almost out so we did some Bojangles biscuits: run the straights and mosey the corners for total of 3 laps then back to start for flutter kicks until the end.

We finished with COT then it was over.

Great morning and outstanding effort by all. Thanks for showing. And by the way, SA and Shortsale were not there this am.

Whoopee

The night before I was talking with my 2.0 and trying to plan my weinke. I had a few ideas but got some input from her on specific exercises…..ones that she would not need to do.

We hit the WU, disclaimer, and Pledge then we were off. Mosey across the street for some step ups. Mosey down the street to the parking lot for 11’s: Burpees and big boys (thanks Madeline). Mosey down to Gastone’s hill. Is it still Gastone’s hill? Up the hill and 5 mountain climbers at each mailbox on the right. Mosey down, back up and 3 Merkins or 3 squats at each mailbox (can’t do squats back to back). Mosey back to bottom. Still got enough time for another trip up so mosey to the top with no exercises then back to bottom. Mosey back to start with some squats along the way. Pick up the six and call it a day.

Good effort by everyone. Don’t remember many details since it was few days ago. I just remember thinking I should post my 2.0’s phone number as the complaint department so you could text her with your comments about the weinke but then thought maybe that was not such a good idea….

Whoopee

a few rucked, a few ran, we finished with more than we started

Great weather, small but high quality crowd this am, started with some EC since the CHAD1000 is right around the corner (shameless plug…..Friday, Nov 10, location TBA, prob Bulldog AO). Linus showed a bit early for some mosey, quick conversation and 17 step ups.

Disclaimer at 0700, Pledge and then an unusually long warmup by my standards. Thanks for noticing Defib and Roscoe. It’s nice to know that people are paying attention and not just going thru the motions. Boot campers with Linus and we are off. Mosey to the wall at the front of GasHouse for some wall work. We did some wall sits between exercises with “enough” reps of donkey kicks, hip slappers, dirty hookups (where were you Spiderman????) and Bulldog Merkins-think derkin in a horizontal position pushing your legs against the wall to stay upright while doing a merkin. I really wanted more hip slappers but didn’t feel that was going to be popular. Guess I am getting soft….gotta work on that.

Mosey across the street for some suicides in the parking lot. Every parking space for about 15-20 spaces we did suicides with a single burpee on the far end. Not too tough but did get some running in with all the back and forth. Next was 11’s with big boys and merkins again in the parking lot. I always lose count and end up doing too many but really couldn’t say if that happened today. Again, lot of steps then moseyed to the hill in the neighborhood. I believe Queensgate is the street name and as we approached, SS reminded me he had to leave so I asked for some suggestions for exercises for a triple nickel on the big hill. He must have had a good night last night. He initially suggested wolverine burpees with an evil grin then softened up and changed to jump squats and mountain climbers. Thanks SS. I really didn’t want to call your M to tell her you had “fallen down some steps” and that you were in the ER with multiple injuries and would be late getting home. The hill was pretty tough and by the time we got back to start, we had logged over 3.6 miles. I’ll have to work on that for next time-we could have gotten 4 miles without too much more of a push. We moseyed back for COT with the pain labbers then hung around for awhile just talking.

During the Triple Nickel, Roscoe, Defib and I discussed the idea of “how are you spending your time?” The Daily Stoic this week briefly discussed this and it’s really been on my mind. We are really careful with how much money we spend on groceries, vacations, things, clothes, fun stuff….whatever, just fill in the blank-money is something that is easy to measure and we are really careful with it, especially when times are a little lean. The reality is, you can always work more and make a little more money, spend a little less….whatever. You can replace money after you spend it. The point is we oftentimes are really careful with money. What else are you really careful with besides money? Are you also careful with how you spend your time? If you think about it, time is the one commodity we have that can never be replaced or increased. You have the same amount of time I have each day. 24 hours, that’s it, no more and no less. How are you spending it? Are you sleeping in and missing a workout? Are you watching some mindless show on TV that really has no chance of making you a better person and while you are doing that, taking time away from your family? I said this earlier this week…what if you only had 5 more days to post and then could never post….EVER AGAIN. What if I only had 5 more posts and then you never saw me again? I know these are somewhat morbid thoughts, but seriously, it could happen. How are you spending your time? Make sure you are deliberate in your decisions about how you are spending your time and how you are taking care of yourself and those around you. This seems like the perfect time for another shameless plug…. this one is for the 40 DAY CHALLENGE. The habits you can establish during this 40 days could be what improves your life and the lives of those around you more than you can imagine. Find a time to spend with your M on a date. Do something she wants to do and be happy doing it.

At some point, time will run out. I am not suggesting you focus on this morbid thought, however it should be something that crosses your mind on a regular basis so that you are making decisions that you will not regret. Now get up off the couch, put your phone/computer away, and spend some time with your family or M making a memory.

Bring on the 40 day challenge, I’m ready.

Whoopee