Author: Whoopee (Page 22 of 25)

Weight Loss with TSquare

October 20, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

9 posted for some pain promised by Whoopee. I was fresh off the plane from a pheasant hunting trip with Feelgood, Bumgardner, Boss Hogg (remember him????) where I did my best to reduce the pheasant population and EH some unsuspecting sad clowns. Don’t worry, the pheasants were never in any danger from me.

We started with a disclaimer about being stupid and how the pain is felt by others then did a real-live warm up with SSH X 40 followed by squats, LBCs, Mountain Goats (someone shoot me and revoke my Q privileges if I try that one again), flutter kicks, and imperial walkers. Next we did a mobile warmup with slow high knees, lunge walk, karaoke and shuffle slide.

Pledge of Allegiance (standing, UP YOURS Kaepernick. We stand and show respect)
Mosey to the parking lot in Martha’s
Introduction to Jack Webb-Escalator from 10 down to 1 Merkins alternating with Escalator Air Presses from 1 up to 10. Short discussion on who Jack Webb was-thanks Spiderman for the unintentional reminder by mentioning something about Friday and shaking loose the cobwebs in my head that Jack Webb was the actor who played Sgt. Joe Friday on TV show Dragnet.
Mosey to parking lot in front of playground near picnic tables for the main event: in honor of Stroganoff (WHO I WON’T MENTION FARTSACKED TODAY) we did 22’s. The plan was 2 man teams but we had 9 present so (thankfully) we had teams of 3. Start on one end of lot and do 20 Burps then escalator down to 2 (by 2 each time) alternating with 2 Squats with escalator up to 20 (by 2 each time) on the other end of the lot. The painful part of this involved piggy back riding your partner from 1 side to the other. With 3 man teams, 1 Pax could walk/mosey each trip while the other 2 Pax became better acquainted during the piggy back ride. Sorry SledgeOMatic, the Queen did not accompany me to South Dakota and I ate and drank more than my share and probably put on a few pounds. This was the part of the workout that really kicked in with the weight loss. I was carrying TSquare on each of my trips and on about the 5th trip, he suddenly became a few pounds lighter. When I turned around to see what was going on, all I saw was Defib. Before he could jump off I took off like a …..well it was not really that fast however in my mind I was moving like Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins running for my life. I ran out and didn’t grab no shoes or nothing. AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bFEoMO1pc7k

I ran for my life all the way to the other side where I quickly deposited Defib before TSquare could trade places.
Next we moved on to the picnic tables for some dips: reps of 15 then 20 then 15 I think. The Turd Shack was calling (in a good way) so we went there for some hip slappers and donkey kicks. Time was running low so we moseyed back to Pelican’s but stopped along the way for front-of-the-pack-led Mary led by Defib then Billy Madison then Whoopee.
We arrived a little too soon so we had some more Mary then called it quits.
Namorama, Announcements, Prayers:
At the time we mentioned Bandit and his family going through some tough times with Bandit’s mother (and some other Pax) and the need to be able to lean on each other and occasionally be carried or help carry each other when we are going through rough times. #shieldlock. The partner carry part of 22s above was meant to remind us of that-thanks for posting T Square-your presence is mutually beneficial and I know you know that.
Earlier today I received word from Bandit that his mother had passed away peacefully during the night. Although death will always be a part of our lives, I don’t think I will ever get used to it. I am sad for my F3 brothers when they are sad and I know things will be tough for Bandit for awhile. Take some time today to let those you care about know how you feel today. After reading this, please also pause for a few minutes to say a prayer for our brother Bandit and his family. We will be here for you when you are ready to come back. I am thankful for each one of you-we all have an impact on those around us, especially in the gloom-remember that and let that motivate you to get better and hold your brothers accountable.
Whoopee

He said cherry

September 26, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

Today was a Monday that I really did not have the energy to push, however, I knew I had the Pax expecting me to lead this morning. I did not sleep well, my legs hurt, I was tired, wahwahwahwah… again, the Pax were expecting me so I was there and really glad after we finished (as usual).

I started with the disclaimer, then gave a Brownstreak WU with what was on the menu and expected reps:

10 reps IC of called exercise then 5 burpees between exercises. There was some mumblechatter but we persevered through 10 SSH, 5 burpees, 10 Squats, 5 burpees, 10 LBC (nice and wet pavement), 5 burpees, 10 Merkins, 5 burpees.

Pledge (standing)

Mosey to parking lot near playground past the high school cross country team and their parents sitting in their cars.

10 woman makers were the called exercise-needed a demo but I think I did them wrong, however, no one objected so I’ll keep that to myself and check the exercise later. Before we started I think it was Bacon (respect) who said something about a cherry-think it was that woman makers were burpees in disguise with a cherry on top?? I got a chuckle out of that so we sat in plank an extra 10-15 seconds. We finished those then lunged part of the way to the soccer field then finished with a short mosey to some Red Barchetta by Rush. I really don’t like Rush, can’t stand their electric type music and whiny voices like someone has crammed their testacles six inches up their 6-I realize this is not a popular opinion of others in F3, but it’s how I feel and since I am writing the backblast, I get to be the only one to comment (for now, anyway). Maybe I’ll bring some real music next time I am Q….still in a grumpy mood from listening to that crap for the 10 seconds I was able to put up with it. I’ll be better soon, maybe.

We got to the dark soccer field for the next exercise which was the main event: Red Barchetta was on: 100 yard run, 100 SSH, then back 100 yards. 75 yard run then 75 Mountain Climbers, then back 75 yards. 50 yard run, 50 LBC, then back 50 yards. 25 yard run, 25 Merkins, then back 25 yards. 10 yard run, 10 Burpees, then back 10 yards. Plank between sets as much as able….once I stopped vomiting we moved on to the Turd Shack….

Mosey to Turd Shack for some wall work: 10 Hip Slappers, once the crying stopped we moved on to 10 Mountain Goats, 11 Donkey Kicks, and then finally 10 more Hip Slappers.

Next we moseyed back to start but paused at the lights for 10 reps of called exercises: can’t remember what all were but think they included Merkins, Squats, ? LBC, dying cockroach, and maybe Mountain Climbers. Finished with 10 Monkey Humpers at the entrance to the park then moseyed to the snocone place and did a few laps of side slide, butt kickers and high knees before several rounds of Mary before I cried Uncle and could not move any more. I sat there in a puddle of sweat with a big grin on my face until I could muster the energy to finish with announcements, namorama, and COT.

THIS MORNING WAS GREAT!!! I needed all of you to push me through this so thanks for coming out. Squirt and Stroganoff-great job pushing through. Those labor-pain screams by Stroganoff always get me moving. Bacon-the cherry comment almost made me fall down and in retrospect not sure why. Bandit and HushPuppy-solid work this morning. The EC by Hushpuppy was impressive, especially on a Monday morning. Squeaker-think you have posted more over the past 10 days than most of us for the past 2 months-keep it up, outstanding. Spiderman and Easy Rider-both of you kept us on track with a steady pace and intermittent mumblechatter.

7 out of 9 of us are registered for the CSAUP-impressive stats.

until next time-Whoopee

Diamonds from sand

September 17, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

We started with 12 for the beatdown, then Hushpuppy sneaked in like Spiderman without me even noticing. There was some concern the night before as I had no Weinke planned-unusual for me but nothing to worry about. I received my Qinspiration from the comments on Twitter (#Roscoe)….BRR training has left my Weinke-making skills a little rusty so I was eager to get back out for a regular beatdown.

Started with the Pledge (standing)

Disclaimer: state the obvious

WU:SSH X 1 (not a typo, this was it for WU-thanks Roscoe, I hate the warmup, let’s get it on!!!)

Mosey to the far parking lot-

First Exercise: Dab-10 burpees per minute for 5 minutes (so I miscounted and we did 6 sets…, never claimed to be good with numbers) then took a lap. Initially planned on 2 of these sets however I had a lot on my Weinke so we moved on. It had nothing to do with how much the first 5 minutes sucked. While doing the Dab, we discussed how the 5 Layers of the Concentrica were related to my recent Sandy V. Basically, these are the 5 layers of relationships in order of importance that we as HIMs need to keep in mind:

1. Our M-the most important layer, the source of my Sandy V, and thus why I needed a reminder about the Concentrica (something I have discussed before at 2 previous workouts, maybe it will stick after the 3rd time)-Stroganoff, thanks for the re-direction the night before-nice to know my Shieldlock will be honest with me even when it is not what I want to hear.

2. Shorties-our relationship with our 2.0s cannot be understated and our relationship with them affects their future relationships with everyone else

3. Shieldlock-look around you, the men you are exercising with are your Shieldlock-noticeably behind our M and Shorties.

4. Blade-mentor and mentee

5. Mammon-work relationship-easiest to measure (paycheck, time clock), easiest to replace-can quit job at moment’s notice. Family and Shieldlock unlikely to let you quit without a fight while Mammon will quickly replace you and not lose a step.

We moseyed to the bridge (Hushpuppy showed up somewhere around here-could have been there during the Dab but I couldn’t say) and then took a left, proceeded across the bridge to the gov’t building across the street with 5 benches out front. We did 2 sets of dips X 36 each (BRR has 36 legs so this sounded good at the time).

We moseyed back towards start across the bridge and took a left into the parking lot where we lined up for some Conveyor Belt-1 pax lined up on every other parking space in a straight line (we had exactly the right number of spaces), each pax did 3 burpees then the front pax runs to back of line and pax in line move forward then repeat the process until all pax move across the belt. Approximately half-way thru we Omaha’d to 5 squats instead of burpees. I heard Roscoe say we had done about 85 or so burpees at this point.

We moseyed across the street for some wall action…Hip Slappers X 15 IC then some Mountain Goats (who knew there was such an exercise???) in honor of our BRR pax. Mountain Goats are a version of Mountain Climbers (on counts 1, 2, and 3) then throw in a donkey kick with both feet on 4. These were pretty tough so I will definitely be seeing these in the future. We did some monkey squats too-basically start in plank then swing legs up into low squat position and do a monkey humper. I was still thinking about the 85ish burpees so I don’t know how many Mountain Goats or Monkey Squats we did-somewhere around 80 of each I think.

At this point, I had already had a sufficient beat down but we still had the main event to go-START THE MUSIC!!! There was no music but if there was I would not have been happy-I am not a fan of Rush. Our next exercise was the Red Barchetta (when you have a Sandy V, music you dislike can really irritate you and that’s how I felt the night before). I also know several of the GasHouse pax regulars are Rush fans so it seemed appropriate. The Red Barchetta goes like this: run 100 yards, do 100 SSH then run back to start (think a train came by so we saluted with 10 burpees then kept on counting). Run 75 yards and do 75 mountain climbers then run back to start. Run 50 yards and do 50 LBCs (we did flutter kicks because it is Stroganoff’s favorite) then run back to start. Next run 25 yards and do 25 Merkins (supposed to be single count, made the mistake of having Roscoe count these and he doesn’t know how to do single count Merkins so we did regular 4 counters #beast). Next we did a 10 yard dash and did 10 burpees then moseyed back to the flag for a few minutes of Mary that I don’t remember.

Namorama, announcements, prayer requests-great work men. This was a tough one but you all busted it out really well. I needed this one to get me back on track.

later-Whoopee

BRR Van 2

September 12, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

Well, I am going to try to do this justice, but if you weren’t there it just is not the same. Van 1 left the day before so I will leave the Van 1 backblast to them. This will be my attempt to summarize our 30+ hours of some serious fun.

So after months of preparation, 7 studdly pax left Gastonia at 530am Friday morning headed for parts unknown to embark on our first BRR challenge. Nervous energy was obvious as The Mayor drove us through the dark. We made 1 stop for a steak, egg and cheese biscuit for Dolph then proceeded onward and eventually reached our destination-LZ1 where we would wait for Van 1 to arrive. I think I made about 5 trips to the port o john while we were waiting. As the sun was coming over the mountains, The Mayor pulled out a special 3rd F prepared by Dr. Feelgood-great words of encouragement that settled my nerves. There were also 3 cards from our M and families-1 for each leg. This was the emotional push I needed at the right time. Shortly afterwards Van 1 came rolling in and we were moving on to the course with Dolph waiting for the handoff from ToolTime. We proceeded to go through our first legs and slowly but surely the confidence grew and the nerves faded away.
After completing our first legs we went on to a local watering hole in Boone to down some grub and a cold beverage. We narrowly avoided major disaster thanks to a disgruntled local man who had his car towed from the space we were parked in. After filling our guts we rolled onward to the next LZ where we set up camp. We put our sleeping bags on a metal trailer in a parking lot and waited for van 1 to arrive. We were entertained by a skipping fairy who seemed to have a deficiency of F3-poor guy. Don’t think it was a choice for him. Some people are programmed differently. I think this is where Pfqueesh tried out the shoe washer-excellent results but probably not to be repeated in 2017. Our shower decided to unload 3-4 gallons of water into his shoes and the trunk of our van. Thankfully he brought a 2nd pair of shoes.
A little while later we were off again leaving Dolph to complete his second leg. The second legs for our van were a bit more eventful. I think this is where Dolph decided his leg was not long enough so he ran part of it twice in the dark. I think his leg had the most banjos and Ned Beatty’s as well as the least teeth per square mile out of the whole race. Pfquietch was chased by multiple dogs all teeming with rabies during his leg. Each of us powered through this leg with determination and fought our own demons along the way. I think the second leg was really a tough leg in a lot of ways. It was hard for me to focus on this leg knowing we had a long night ahead of us and then another run in the early morning hours with little to no sleep. One of us even thought they saw a Sasquatch on his leg. Running in the dark in unfamiliar territory was a bit unnerving. This leg ended at a fire station where van 1 had been resting. As van 1 took off to complete their final legs, we settled in for a quick meal and some much needed quick rest. There were freshly dug potatoes with warm showers waiting for us. After a quick meal and enough time to down a quick drink, we were back in the van and on our way to who the hell knows where???? There was some discussion between The Mayor and his shotgun assistant Dolph however I was in the far back and being an old fart, my bad hearing made me feel like I was underwater listening to 2 sea lions argue over a tuna. Eventually we arrived at the final LZ and quickly laid down in our sleeping bags. I think OutHouse was on a cement basketball court and slept ok. I was serenaded by a chainsaw named Mayor as he snored his way through the early morning hours. JK2 claimed a seat in the van while the rest of us spread out around on the ground somewhere. I woke somewhere around 5 am with Dolph walking around the van checking out his muscles in the mirror. I don’t think the guy slept much that night. Before too long he was hunkered down in front of some pancakes just under 1 hour away from his mountain goat leg. Before I knew it we were back in the van and moving on through the legs. I have to say the mountain goat legs and the “very hard” (I think second) leg for Pfkeitche were some impressive legs that would have literally brought me to my knees. Doing them on little sleep added another layer of pain that I had not anticipated. We all powered through our 3rd legs like champs, each shouting words of encouragement to not only our team but also to other teams. This was an emotional leg for me. The first part of my leg was uphill for just over 1 mile. As I was coming up the hill knowing I had 5+ miles downhill and then we were finished, I thought about a lot of things. I thought about my wife and kids and how they were hoping I would do well. I thought about all the training runs I had done with the other BRR runners-JK2, Stroganoff, OutHouse, Defib pushed me and pulled me to miles I would not have done on my own. I thought about the 3rd F from Feelgood. I thought about the words of encouragement from Feelgood and Roscoe from the day or 2 earlier-Roscoe leading the Downtown workout in honor of all the BRR runners (see his backblast) and something from Feelgood about “Outta my way bitches, two more legs to run!” I thought about where I was a little over 7 and half years ago staring at the walls from a hospital bed wondering if I would see my kids grow up. It took me awhile to get up that 1+ mile so I got a lot of thinking out of the way. When I got to the top I called my M and my brother just to let them know I was thinking about them. I pulled a Pizza Man and took a selfie-video for posterity-I needed to get some things out of my head. Coming over the hill was exhilarating-I could feel the end coming quickly and wanted to soak up every second of it. I sent a text to our team when I was a mile out and shortly after received a bunch of texts of encouragement. The final turn into town with a quarter mile left was amazing. I could see, hear, and feel the GasHouse Pax yelling and waving as I closed the final distance. I know I was running but I really felt like I was floating through the air in some out of body experience as I made the final turn and crossed the finish line headed for the picture area with some of the best men I have ever known. After a quick shower we headed for some food and cold beer while we sat on the grass in some Asheville park enjoying the fact we had all pushed the rock and for a brief moment, to me, felt like it actually moved just a little bit.

This event seemed like something out of the movie “Stand by Me” at the very end. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. The very end of the movie ends with one of the main characters saying “I never had any friends like the ones I had when I was twelve…Jesus, does anyone?” F3 has given me some friends like the ones I had growing up and doing things like BRR lets me relive that feeling over and over again. If you weren’t there, you missed out.

I hear they may be doing this crazy BRR thing again next year……

Merkins, Nana, and a red shirt

September 3, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

We started the morning with a great discussion with Dr. Feelgood about Samuel and Saul (Old Testament). Great insight from a HIM who has a talent for breaking things down to basics then building back up for daily applications for all of us. OUTSTANDING DISCUSSION.

When I volunteered to Q this weekend, it was originally going to be a BRR prep in disguise. Little did I know my RED F3 shirt would arrive and be a youth XL and then my plans changed. I posted that I would be willing to part with this shirt if anyone would offer any money (highest bidder). Roscoe quickly called me out and suggested that this shirt might be too big….because of my BRR prep…..and lack of F3 workouts lately. My immediate response was the Sammy Hagar song, “I Can’t Drive 55” since Roscoe is a policeman. I googled the song and watched the video for inspiration-Sammy driving the race car, yelling at the judge, the band fighting with the cops in court, and Sammy eventually ending up in jail. I was truly inspired….I jumped into my car and next thing I knew I was flying down Franklin Blvd typing my Weinke as I weaved in and out of traffic with my windows down and the music blaring…..thankfully Roscoe does not work in GasHouse so I eventually made it home without a confrontation with the popo.

Here is what we did:

I knew the pax would be expecting a quick WU and I did not want to let them down, however I needed to make sure to emphasize the upper body so there was a quick disclaimer followed by a quick youth XL RED shirt reveal with some cat calls and whistles.

WU: 10 IC of SSH, Merkins, LBC, Merkins, Squats, Merkins, Flutter Kicks, Merkins. Somewhere in there Roscoe took over for a celebrity WU with PRESS PRESS FLING X 10 IC-yes, this IS an exercise and it is done by SEALs as part of their workouts. #unicornsighting

Next we moseyed to the flag for a STANDING pledge.

We moseyed up the hill to Grier Middle School parking lot with a nice wall and curb so we partnered up and P1 did hip slappers X 20 while P2 did Rocky Balboas AMRAP then flapjack and repeat at 10 reps of hip slappers. This was originally going to be wall sits but Rocky 3 was on last night and I had to find somewhere to put them in.

After short recovery we moseyed up the street to Parkwood Baptist Church dodging traffic for some leg work. We lunged across the parking lot and after 5 lunges for each leg we did 5 merkins. On the way back we lunged X 10 for each leg then did 5 merkins.

I didn’t want to leave my home church out so next we moseyed over to First Presbyterian Church to the stairs and did a 3 way partner split. P1 ran up the stairs, did 5 merkins, then ran back down. While P1 did that, P2 held P3’s legs up while P3 did hip slappers AMRAP. This was an attempt to build the Wall of Thermopylae and served as a definite crowd pleaser. We rotated through each spot for 3 cycles (I think).

We moseyed again towards the soccer field that has a baseball field on it (thanks JK2) for some Century Club-10 volunteers stepped up (thanks Messy-12 years old!!!) and took turns leading an exercise of choice X 10 reps (as fast as possible). Messy started us with SSH X 10, then Dolph called out 10 Burpees. I think I passed out after the last burpee and woke with Bandit leading dying cockroaches and DaVinci with Warrior Lunges that were ~~as much~~ more fun to watch than to do (nice work Feelgood). This was followed by a karaoke run around the parking lot (seemed like a long run for me) then headed over to the soccer field (I know, JK2, it has a baseball field on it) for some more partner work. This was called Merkinburpsquat (think Monkeypuppybaby). P1 ran across the soccer field while P2 did AMRAP of exercises which included Merkin, burp, squat. I think we did 1 cycle of this (my brain was pretty much gone at this point).

We were cutting close on time so we moseyed back to the flag for……ring/ring on my phone. Who could that be???? It was my mother (AKA Nana). Roscoe suggested I answer so I did and the pax were kind enough to wish Nana a good morning. I quickly explained I was busy and would call her back. In honor of my mom, we saluted her with 67 Merkins (she is 66 years old now, but will be 67 some day hopefully). As we started this, I heard someone say “Are we really doing this???” I am sure that will make Nana proud when I tell her later. My response was “Be glad it was not my grandmother…” We did a short wall sit waiting on the bells of freedom then jail-breaked to the start-thanks for the push Squirt and Dolph-not as fast as I used to be so all I saw was your backs. I guess I could have run faster if my shirt was not so tight-made it hard to breathe. That is my story anyway.

We finished with the namorama and announcements/prayer requests. BRR coming this week (thankfully) and some health issues in various pax families. Proud to see so many faces out there today-it’s been too long for me and loved getting back out there. Saturday mornings are a great time for me.

Days like today really motivate me starting with the 3rd F discussion and ending with a smelly shirt that I gave to a 12 year old kid who worked his butt off today and led some men through exercises like a champ-Madoff, give Messy an attaboy from me. We all know it takes some guts to get out there and exercise, let alone lead with a bunch of people you really don’t know.

Guys-thanks for making this F3 thing great. It takes all of us in one way or another.

Whoopee

Jack Brown Tribute

August 24, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

I started my week with one weinke, then as the week unfolded and I found out about a funeral I would be attending, my weinke changed. Tuesday night I attended the funeral of a great man-Jack Brown. He was a member of the Coast Guard and served in anti-submarine warfare duties. He was a member of the state highway patrol for 30 years, and was the first face at school that my kids saw for several years. He was always smiling and there rain or shine to welcome them to school. His jokes and warm smile will be with me for a long time. As the 3rd daughter, whoever it was that day, got out of the car and Officer Brown helped them over the curb, he would say, “Saved the prettiest one for last.” It never got old for me or my girls. This morning was about Jack Brown-I thought of him often today and he was my motivation for posting this morning and pushing through the gloom. I shared a little of this just before we started.

Disclaimer

Warmup-the part I really dislike so we moved quickly-don’t blink or you would have missed part of it. We did roughly 10 reps IC of the following: SSH, LBCs, Merkins, Squats, Flutter Kicks, Merkins (again), who cares just follow me….

The Thang-

Mosey to the bank for ATMs X 10, a few reeeaaaalllllyyyy sllloooowww to make it burn

Mosey to KFC for some breakfast, wipe your feet for Hip Slappers X 20-everyone hung pretty good on this round with a little mumble chatter early

Quick mosey over to the dilapidated grocery store parking lot for the “meat and potatoes” part of my weinke. I mentioned at the warmup that Officer Brown was 70 years old and to keep that number in mind. Well, as usual, my weinke was writing checks my body could not cash. I ‘splained to the pax we would do 7 laps around the lot (somewhere around 1/4 mile laps) with 10 Burpees per lap. My burpee total over the last 3 months is probably less than 20-I will blame BRR training on that but if you believe that you are really not that smart. We started with burpees then took off for lap 1-feeling pretty good until 3rd round of burpees when my chest was on fire and felt like I was running in combat boots so…..OKLAHOMA! Keep with the 7 laps but option to do 10 burpees or 35 full flutter kicks per round (cannot repeat same exercise back to back). Quickly a bunch of guys opted for the flutter kicks, but not everyone.

After about 4 rounds, I broke a “soft” F3 rule about scripture during the workout. I felt it was necessary and, honestly, I think it is a dumb rule. For the past few weeks it seems I have been hearing scripture from Hebrews (more in the past 2 weeks than I think combined in the past 5 years). The final straw was at Officer Brown’s funeral. I read parts of Chapter 12, the first few verses…and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…I thought of Officer Brown finishing his race and now resting peacefully.

We continued on with our goal for 70 burpees (with some flutter kick substitutions as needed). Defib had a brief race with his 2.0 Eddie. Fun to watch and good to know the guy who beats me many mornings also at 46 years old can also beat his teen-age son who is in really good shape. Can’t imagine that will last too much longer, Defib. Later I found out Eddie splashed merlot at home. I felt bad for a few minutes when I heard this, then I realized Defib was not only smiling with pride like his son had just gotten accepted to a prestigious college, but had congratulated him after it happened. Attaboy Eddie, good work this morning during your summer break. I don’t imagine many of your classmates were even thinking about getting out of bed at that time of day.

Before finishing this beatdown, I read a little more from Hebrews-this was the part that I think was meant specifically for me as I have had some things happening at work recently and I needed a push in the right direction. Hebrews 12 v14: Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. Made me pause and consider my actions and reactions lately.

We moseyed back to KFC for some more hip slappers-less enjoyable at this point but we pushed through. We moseyed back towards start but took a quick break for 70 dips for Officer Brown-broken up into 3 different sets. This was a crowd pleaser. We then moseyed back to start but passed the start line for a little bit longer mosey then Bandit closed us out with some dying cockroaches.

Pledge (thanks Roscoe for reminder)

Announcements: Cancelled Advisory Board this week.

Prayer Requests: several made, remember them this week

thanks for coming this am-I feel so much better after seeing you all early in the morning-great start to my day-Whoopee

RIP Officer Brown, you are missed by my 3 girls very much

50, 100, Rudolph, and 1 Gomer

August 13, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

So the start time of 630am at Folsom on Saturday was initially not good, however, it turned out better than expected-read on and you will understand. I got there with plenty of time and saw a couple of the Folsom regulars (Huckleberry and Gomer) milling around like some stray cats. Soon Pizza Man and Redskin pulled up and we got things going. I had pre-blasted something about the numbers 50 and 100 which I figured might end up backfiring with me posting solo so I was relieved to see we had a good solid 5 this am. We talked about the benefits of the smaller group workouts and how it really has helped me get to know the Pax in GasHouse better over the last year.

WU: 5 exercises X 20 reps each IC (5X20=100). SSH, Merkins, Flutter Kicks, MTN Climbers, Squats. I made the reference to 50 and 100 which really was designed to keep me in the warmup longer than I like, otherwise I would have stopped midway.

The THANG:

Mosey to bathrooms for 20 reps of 5 different exercises (each pax got to lead an exercise). Hip Slappers, LBC, Donkey Kicks, Merkins, Squats. Quick discussion on CONCENTRICA layer #1: most important relationship is with M.

Mosey again then ATM (Alternating shoulder tap X 30, Tempo merkins X 10, regular Merkins X 10=total of 50 reps). Discussion on CONCENTRICA layer #2: next most important relationship is with shorties (kids).

Mosey again with some short detour up and down the grassy area a few times just to keep Gomer from breaking out too far ahead then on to a short Wolfpack-type Grinder (borrowed idea from Stroganoff whose Downtown workout on Friday with 22’s inspired today’s 50 and 100 reference). Started at speed bump with Jack Webb then mosey to next speed bump for 25 Squats. The plan was 2 cycles of this, however I referenced an unwritten F3 rule, “IF YOU CAN’T DO IT, DON’T Q IT” so I quickly Omaha’d to change the second round of Jack Webb to 25 reps of Freddy Mercury. The Q then broke into the short discussion on CONCENTRICA layer #3: Shield Lock (the men you spend time with in the gloom) as the next most important relationship. Thankfully Pizza Man reeled us back to finish the other round of 25 squats.

Final beatdown was probably the worst (especially for my partner Pizza Man)….we moseyed to another parking lot and paired off for the main event….Partner 50’s, not to be confused with 11’s. P1 and P2 do 45 SSH together, P1 (piggy back) carries P2 to other side of lot, P1 and P2 do 5 Flutter kicks, P2 carries P1 back to start. Each round go down by 5 reps of SSH while going up on 5 reps of flutter kicks with partner carry between exercises. Sorry Pizza Man, I had pizza last night and more ice cream over the last year than I will admit. At the half-way point I was ready to quit and would have if I was exercising on my own. Thanks for the push-Pizza Man and I got a little closer and shared more sweat than I care to admit-again, great work guys!

We then moseyed back to start for the pledge and about 10 minutes of on-the-fly discussion about F3 and what it has done for us individually. Among the things shared, Huckleberry said he has lost approximately 80 pounds since starting (we decided that was equivalent to 1 Gomer in weight). He then went on to tell us about his first post and how one person in particular, RUDOLPH, worked with him and supported him through that painful first workout that we have all had. It was Rudolph’s impact on him that made him come back for more F3. I am sure each of us has some story similar to this in some way that kept us coming back.

Back to why the 630am turned out not so bad….We finished at Folsom and I started heading home and realized I could make it back for the COT at Schiele, hoping I could share with Rudolph the above story. Sure enough, I made it in time to share the story with Rudolph and the other 13 or so guys before heading off for the coffeteeria. It reminded me again how important our interactions with others can be. It may be something as simple as spending a few extra minutes with someone to help them through a rough morning or just listening as they share something good about their week. I think when this happens in the gloom, it hits some common thread we, as men, all have and means that much more.

Keep up the great work guys-I am amazed at how we have grown in the past 1.5 years. It has made a huge difference for me being a part of this.

Whoopee

Who needs a Q

August 5, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

Nine lost souls gathered around the Rotary Pavilion gloom today….staring at each other in silence and wondering what to do…..for 45 minutes straight….waiting on the Q to arrive…..then we got in our cars and went our separate ways…..

If you know the GasHouse regulars, you know this is a lie. We were Q-less and FNG-less, but that did not stop us from intimidating the Pokemon searchers with our physical fitness, aggressive warm-up, and all-around swollen, muscle-riddled arms. We decided to take matters into our own hands and had a group Q workout.

Short Disclaimer just for the heck of it…then started the WU which I really don’t like but know it is necessary especially for some old guys like me who are prone to injuries so…

WU: SSH X15, Merkins X 10, LBC X 15, maybe some squats but I was already daydreaming by now so I just broke out of the circle on about number 6 and yelled mosey.

The Thang:

Short mosey around the lot flexing the chest muscles for the benefit of the 2 pokemon hunters (nice work Breeder and Easy Rider, I could see the fear in their eyes) then continue to the far side road for Sargento’s part of the workout: Route 66 down ? Main Street-escalating number of Merkins at each streetlight with fast mosey between the lights from 1 up to 11. This set the tone for the rest of the workout with a good chest burn. I could see the puzzled look on Short Sale’s face as he was planning some Merkins but (thankfully) let OutHouse take the next round.

OutHouse did not disappoint. We moseyed to the Shrimp Boat for what seemed like about 3-4 miles (was that in South Cackilacky?) for a leg and chest beatdown. We started with a Chair (wall sit) March for unknown number of steps then came the HIP SLAPPERS X 20. I still have not found another exercise that I like more than these. We moved quickly to French Fries and a comment by OutHouse that continues to haunt me as I type this….making someone feel uncomfortable the last time he asked someone to get into this position….so many places to go with this, however I can’t bring myself to type any of them. You can run with that if you want to, but please don’t involve me. I think I mentally checked out for a few minutes then woke up doing wheelbarrow and lunges a few minutes later towards the Rotary Garden. We (thankfully) finished OutHouse’s portion with some Grass (weed) Pickers IC just after Sargento gave props to our own Dr. Feelgood and his pseudo-child (the rotary garden) which he birthed approximately 2-3 years ago.

By this time our chests had semi-recovered from Route 66 so Short Sale led us for a mosey to the parking deck for a final beat down. My advice, before you attend a Short Sale workout in the future, get your core in shape, and by “in shape” I mean order a 6 pack with some Merkin guns on the side. Once in the parking deck, Short Sale told us to walk the plank: we did 11’s using a parking space-escalator merkins up to 11 on one side, then plank walk sideways to the other line for Burps escalator down from 10. I quickly Omaha’s the plank walk to eventually just walk the 3 steps across the parking space (HOLY NUTS that was harder than it sounds). When is Short Sale Q next???!!! Hopefully I am sick or getting a root canal then…. We were getting close to time but Short Sale would have none of that. Next was a mini-Dora with partner: 25 LBCs, 50 Squats, 75 Flutter Kicks with a short loop in the parking lot and down the stairs.

Before we recovered enough to tell Short Sale how much we liked his “Walk the Plank, we moseyed back to start for a short discussion about the F3 Royalty Court (King, Queen, Jester) and how we need to “be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil (read “Jester”) prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” 1 Peter 5:8 (got this from a previous post by Dredd I have been hanging onto for the last 3 months). I couldn’t remember this exactly the same way this morning so I ad libbed but somehow didn’t get the same effect. That’s what you get for on-the-fly Q’s. We said the pledge then did 5 Burpees OYO to close it all out.

COT:

Great work out there today. Da Vinci, I saw you working hard and busting your hump while a few others were right there with you with some genuine encouragement. Keep working. Thanks for the group Q effort-almost seemed rehearsed which is no surprise. We claim to NOT be professionals but I think that may merely be modesty and legal-eze to discourage lawsuits (my opinion, not fact). Easy Rider, don’t forget you were “VOLUNTOLD” for next week at Martha’s-I know you are ready for it-if you are able, better post to see what he has in store and give him some support. Gomer, you should be re-named Tigger the way you mosey without any signs of fatigue. Breeder and Woodstock, you both were solid today. Keep up the good work-your turn to Q is right around the corner.

Prayer requests: Keep in mind OutHouse’s father, Easy Rider’s uncle, GodFather/Stroganoff/T Square’s families, and a friend of a few of us (Greg Sellers and his daughter with recent diagnosis of thyroid cancer). Also, Da Vinci’s wife is leaving early Sat am for trip to ? Dominican Republic and he will be responsible for both his 13 year old and 2 year old-good luck and hopefully safe travels for the wife.

Building a Wall

July 23, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

Today at the Fighting Yank, my plan was to try to survive. Having come off injured reserve a few weeks ago and returning from vacation is not conducive to being in shape for F3. That being said, I was looking forward to this morning all week in anticipation of seeing the Pax of GasHouse and their response to my pre-blasts about the 300 workout. I was not disappointed….relieved but not disappointed. JK2 was there early with (I think) Edison and with a crooked smile I am getting to know all to well, JK2 stated he was planning to wear a pair of his wife’s black briefs (grippers) and nothing else but at the last minute changed his mind. My response was the same as TopHat’s: I believe I would have to leave and skip the workout. JK2’s wife reportedly weighs about 100# and JK2 passed 100# in 3rd grade I think. #JustSayin’

Edison, who needs a pat on the back whenever you see him-the guy’s posted at F’ing Yank since the start (I believe) and thrown in a few at Midoriyama (aka: Hell’s Kitchen in my opinion) as well. He brought in an FNG who I think has secretly been posting at F3 workouts for the past 5 years based on his performance today. The guy was offered gloves and politely declined and quietly (and humbly) said there was nothing we could do to hurt his hands. One look at his hands and I agreed-the guy climbs trees (bare-handed I think) and works for a landscaping business-after posting, he went to work while I went for a nice fruit parfait with some fancy Greek yogurt in a well air-conditioned Belmont establishment.

Enough of that, on to the WU: I tried my best to stick to my Weinke with the WU, but it is just too boring and I was trying to focus on something other than JK2 and the picture of him in REALLY tight grippers that was burned into my eyes-someone get me some chlorox please. Think we did 15 IC of the following:SSH, Merkins, LBC, Gorilla Humpers, Scorpion Dry Docks, Freddy Mercury, and Mountain Climbers. I think I cut a few reps short towards the end. Probably need a higher dose of ritalin-the ADD kicks in after about 3 exercises of the WU.

The Thang-

This was a throwback workout from December around the time of the Gladiator Games in Fort Mill when we did a 300 workout. Idea is 300 reps of some exercises with some running thrown in. Sounds pretty simple, however, even though I reviewed my Weinke and read through it last night and today and made minor changes, I still could not remember the exercises. This is what we did-wait, I think I hear a train-we saluted the train with 5 burpees then we moved on to the thang:

10 reps of each exercise then mosey down the hill and back to start then return to our exercise station. Exercises were as follows: Squats, Booyah Merkins (swap partners each set), LBC, Gorilla Humpers, Scorpion Dry Docks, and lunges. We repeated this routine a total of 4 times with a short set of dips halfway through at the picnic tables by the flag. For the dips we did not count above 20 reps however I believe we counted to 20 several times before stopping just to make sure everyone was paying attention.

After our 4 sets of the above cycle we moseyed back to the starting point where weatarted with our WU and continued with the 300 theme: 300 Moroccan Night Clubs in sets of 30. After each set we took a trip up and down the steps for a total of 10 trips. Think my shoulders will not like me tonight.

After a quick recovery we moved over to the yellow jacket infested grassy area and did an original exercise called Squatmerkinburpee (say it fast, sort of like puppymonkeybaby commercial). I will tweek this in the future and add some more burpees, but basically it goes like this: 5 squats, 5 merkins, and a burpee in rapid sequence then take a quick break to recover then repeat. In the future, I think it should be either 5 burpees or escalator up to 5 burpees-will think about that more.

I was going rogue at this point as my Weinke was almost spent and I needed to fill some time so we moseyed past the train tracks to a nice parking lot with some walls that we did not need. Before we started, we did a quick check to make sure everyone was wearing appropriate undergarments so no parts were going to be exposed-thanks Roscoe and TopHat I think for that quick but very important detail, especially since TopHat was my partner. We partnered up and did a few hip slappers with partners as our walls while we dodged an unusually high volume of traffic (3-4 cars on this obscure driveway/lot in less than 10 minutes????). P1 held up the legs while P2 did 10 hip slappers then we swapped. My own term for this is the Wall of Thermopylae-not sure, but I think that was the wall built by the Spartans that used the Persians as mortar in the movie 300 during the battle at Thermopylae and the so called Hot Gates. Sounds good, so I am going with it. The pax probably thought we were through but no, we had more walls to build. We did another set (round #2) of 10 reps each. Still not through-my motivational speech was short and sweet: “Was it over when the Germans bombed Peal Harbor?” Hell no, said Roscoe. “And it ain’t over now.” You young kids probably don’t know that is a reference from a classic movie from 1978 called Animal House. ToolTime, are you with me? There were some strange looks while Roscoe and I had a good chuckle then realized no one else was really laughing much…..so then we did 2 more sets for a total of 4 which were sufficient for me to feel the wall was adequately built.

Time was running low so we moseyed back to the picnic tables, did a few dips (not many) then hit the pledge and called it a day. We reviewed the 5 Rules of F3 for our FNG then proceeded with the namorama, COT and named the FNG Pot Pie (as in chicken pot pie). Seems like a great guy and look forward to hopefully many more Saturdays with this guy. He has got great potential and seems like a great addition. I saw a lot of the bottom of his shoes while he was in front of me so be prepared for a good workout when he is the Q.

We finished with a true SHIELD LOCK and pic sporting Roscoe’s swords and shields with prayers for several including Shrimpboat (Brownstreak’s son) heading to Romania for a mission trip, Stroganoff’s family after loss of his father-in-law, among others.

Thanks for the motivation this morning-really enjoyed it-Whoopee

About 10 more seconds/Concentrica

July 2, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

It was a muggy morning, but we had 13 Pax show to the Fighting Yank for Edison’s VQ. I have to say before getting started, Freight, Sargento, and Pfquiche put in some extra miles of EC-great work. It was great getting back with the Pax after coming off injured reserve-I had over a week to think about this workout and planned to co-Q with Edison-possibly the earliest co-Q of any GasHouse Pax with the co-Q during his FOURTH week of F3-impressive!!!

We started with a quote from Tooltime’s twitter page which I really like: The devil whispered in my ear, “You’re not strong enough to withstand the storm.” Today, I whispered in the devil’s ear, “I am the storm.”

WU:10 each IC: SSH, Squats, LBC, Merkin, Gorilla Humpers then 10 burpees OYO.

The Thang-

I wanted to put in some time for discussion and quickly realized how I have missed the workouts over the last few weeks (water aerobics just did not keep me in F3 shape, in case you are wondering JK2). I’ve been reading some of the old posts from Dredd and wanted to include some of this discussion during the Thang so we discussed Concentrica-basically your relationships with others in your life. Would be worth going back and reading Dredd’s posts if you have time.

1st Layer of Concentrica-M-The man’s wife, whom he loves, is where a man should focus his energy. This is the most important and first ring. If this is not done right, no point in reading any further.

We started with Jack Webb (escalator Merkin down from 10 alternating with escalator Air Presses up to 10) then I think a train came by so we saluted with 5 burpees.

2nd Layer of Concentrica: Shorties-(kids, 2.0s, rugrats…). The impact of a man on his kids cannot be underestimated. The quality of his relationship with them determines the quality of their relationships with everyone else for the rest of their lives (read this again).

Next, Lincolnton Lunge Walk towards the wall across the street. This was a crowdpleaser for sure. We did 1 burpee, 2 lunges each leg, 3 burpees, 4 lunges each leg, 5 burpees…9 burpees and 10 lunges each leg and then congregated at the wall across the street.

3rd Layer of Concentrica: Shield Lock-THIS WAS FOR YOU TSQUARE. Horizontal relationship with other men in your life. Eyes to front animals that hunt, eyes to side animals that hide. We are men who hunt in complex way and need a pack to help watch our six. WE ARE HERE FOR YOU TSQUARE.

Next, Plank/Squat Webb which consisted of 20 sec plank/50 Squats, 40 sec Plank/40 Squats, 60 sec Plank/30 Squats, 80 sec plank/20 Squats, 100 sec plank/10 squats. The amount of time in plank was really variable as I was enjoying the mumblechatter as well as the comments such as “how much longer” which I happily replied, “about 10 more seconds” while we enjoyed some outstanding humor from Brownstreak-it NEVER gets old.

4th Layer of Concentrica: Blade-your mentor/mentee. Iron Sharpens Iron…

There was a wall so who am I to waste a good wall….so we did some hip slappers followed by wall sits, Australian Mountain Climbers followed by wall sits, Donkey Kicks followed by wall sits. Just for the record, the Australian Mountain Climbers made me mad as a cut snake and might prevent some of you from being able to crack a fat later (look that one up in your Australian slang dictionary). I have access to certain medications so that will not affect me….

5th Layer of Concentrica:Mammon-this is your work/job/place of employment-easiest to maintain, measured with time clock and paycheck (does not apply to any other layer of Concentrica), and YOU CAN QUIT ANYTIME (read this again) which is relatively unique.

We then moseyed back to start and did a couple rounds of She Hate Me then I handed the keys to Edison who was eagerly waiting for his turn. We moseyed up the hill to the picnic tables where we did several rounds of dips and flutterkicks (just for you Stroganoff, hope the ankle is better). Next we moved to the track and did a round of (half) Merkin Mile-run a lap, 25 Merkins, run a lap, 25 Merkins. We were running out of time so we moseyed back to start for some Mary, hit the pledge, then put in our 22 Merkins for the 22 Vets who commit suicide daily-thanks for the motivation Anthrax-this will be a part of my Q for as long as I can remember to do.

We reviewed the 5 rules of F3, named our FNG-Candyman-Sargento has his info. Don’t worry, I did not mention about the Merlot Candyman. That will be our secret….

Ended with COT-prayers for TSquare, JK2’s grandmother-in-law (is there such a thing), Monk and his family traveling, can’t remember whose grandfather with prostate CA, and probably a few others. Great work today and outstanding work for the VQ by Edison-give him an attaboy when you see him.

4 went to Cherubs for breakfast and discussed some upcoming great events for F3 GasHouse.

Until next time-Whoopee-Happy Fourth of July

Author: Whoopee (Page 22 of 25)

Weight Loss with TSquare

He said cherry

Diamonds from sand

BRR Van 2

Merkins, Nana, and a red shirt

Jack Brown Tribute

50, 100, Rudolph, and 1 Gomer

Who needs a Q

Building a Wall

About 10 more seconds/Concentrica

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