Disclaimer:
Pledge:
Warm Up:
SSH/Squats IC
Mosey to Martha’s
The Thang:
Dora 1-2-3
Merkins/Squats/Flutters

I left us a little short on Flutters so we did 20 more IC

Mosey to picnic shelter.

1/2 count Lindsey’s (15 Derkins/5 Dips) – Mosey to pole and back
Rinse and repeat until complete

50 heel raises/20 Big Boys – Rinse/repeat 3 times
Modified Dora:
Each partner runs twice
Heels to Heaven or Homer Marge
LBC’s

Time to mosey back

One long minute to spare once back

Time:
Announcements:
2nd F Lunch for July:  Done

Prayers:
Turtleman

Honored, aye.

Linus

Dr. Seuss joined us on a journey as he commanded the Q at The Pub.  He’ll be counted there.
Announcements/Concerns addressed on Pub bb.

Though I have posted in the afternoons more often than not on Tuesdays and Thursdays over the past few months, Folsom is where I first drank the F3 Kool-Aid and I still consider it my F3 home, so to speak. As I drove by the gazebo, I saw an ol’ Pole Cat making his way across the street. Fortunately he kept his funk to himself but I got to thinking back to the time at Folsom years ago when I had the Q and we were running on the path behind the small pond. A small skunk stopped us dead in our tracks and I yelled out “Retreat! Retreat!”. We may never see a group of men run so fast again! PRs were set! Back to today, I made it to the circle with about 30 seconds to spare (had no idea I was cutting it that close). There was a great crowd out this morning. Get those legs good and loose fellas!

We warmed up with 25 Side Straddle Hops IC, 10 Gravel Pickers IC, and short mosey to the tennis court.

Next up – grab the fence for some leg swings. 10 swings each leg in front of the leg your standing on, then 10 swings each leg behind your standing leg, then 10 each leg front to back. Then, we assume the plank position for some more stretching and some movement between high and low plank.

Everyone on the line, each movement goes across 4 tennis courts to the 2nd light pole.
– High Knees 2x, recovery walk back to start
– Butt Kickers 2x, recovery walk back to start
– Hesitation Skips 2x, recovery walk back to start
– Karaokee down and back 2x (by request from Kapowski – good call!)
– Basketball Slide down and back 2x
– Lunge Walk 1x, recovery walk back to start

We shorten the course slightly to 3 tennis courts now – about 40 yards.
– Half speed sprint, roll into full speed 2x, recovery walk back to start
– Sprint 2x recovery walk back to start
– Sprint down, sprint half-way back (I think we did that 1x)

This workout was intended to truly sprint and give it all you have. You get a moment to catch your breath during the recovery walk. I saw a lot of hustle out there! Quick Recovery and circle up for some additional leg work.
– 10 Jump Lunges x3
– 10 Jump Squats x3 (short squats and jump/land on the balls of your feet)
– 5 Tuck Jumps X 3 (originally I called 10 but changed to 5 to encourage quick ‘back to back’ like Ponyboy was doing)
– 5 – 5 count SSH Tuck Jumps (use quick feet)
– 5 – single leg bounces each leg 3x
– 5 – 5 count Single Leg Tuck Jumps 3x

My legs were about toast and it looked like most others were in the same boat. On your 6 for some Iron Cross stretches and 2 sets of 10 Penguins in cadence. We had time for a little more cardio upper body work. 5 burpees, 10 Merkins, 15 LBCs. Recover. 4 burpees, 8 Merkins, 12 LBCs. Omaha. I have about 2 minutes left and quickly walked through some Mobility stuff Wojo had us try at Midoriyama last week. A lot of that stuff is mental but we seem to forget it as we get older. A few guys gave it a shot and I encourage all of you to work on some of those type of movements at home, whether it’s with the kids or the wife, or just on your own. I’m not a doctor, but I am a firm believer that flexibility and mobility can help prevent injury. My last piece of “wisdom” for the guys is that it is a really good idea to get out and run tomorrow morning to keep soreness down after a workout like this. If you don’t run tomorrow, Thursday will be rough!

COT – Prayers for Ball Joint’s aunt, Brillo and Schattner’s 2.0 as they go off to boot camp, my mom, Huck, Hacksaw, Norwood, and Turtleman. 2nd F lunch is at Pita Wheel in Dallas tomorrow!

Slaw had a long conversation with an officer from the Sherriff’s Dept this morning. Not sure what it was all about, but he missed half of the COT. Fortunately, Slaw was released into our custody and all is well.

As for the workout, guys ran and a few rucked. I see Ball Joint is now logging miles with Gold Digger and Westside made an appearance after a few weeks on the injured list. Broke says he ran at a 9 minute pace.

Welcome to the tropics!  Plenty humidity on otherwise nice morning.  Three plus a canine showed to ruck at 0615.  Two more showed to ruck at 0630.  They went the opposite way on the route to meet up with first group.  First time out for Hot Corner, welcome!

Two ran.

Everybody back on time.  Pledge

Announcements:  2nd F lunch in Dallas 7/19 original Pita Wheel

Prayer requests:  Turtleman, Norwood, Ratchet son, Anchorman sis-in-law, Tiger mom, Boudin travel, Jane Fonda travel, Hacksaw, Eh Yall mother-in-law, Slaw family member

YHC took us out

Always an honor

Tiger

Seven pax came together for July edition of annihilation.  Start with the mission of F3 – to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men, for the invigoration of male community leadership.  We gave Tooth Fairy the chance to lobby for votes as he is running for mayor of Belmont.

Warm up of side straddle hops, imperial walkers, gravel pickers, arm circles and some stretching.  Breaker Breaker was kind of enough to lend some blocks in support of the workout.  Grab one and head to the bunker.

Four corners escalator.  Begin with 40 mountain climbers.  Murder bunny to next corner for 40 MC and 30 burpees.  Murder bunny to next corner.  40 MC 30 burpees add 20 big boys.  Murder bunny to next corner, 40MC 30 burpees, 20bb, 10 hand release merkins.  Murder bunny to next corner.

Everybody pretty smoked but still have 25 mins to go.  40 swings with block.  Rifle carry to next corner.  40 swings, 30 squat thruster.  Rifle carry to next corner for 40 swings, 30 thrusters, 20 merkins one hand on block, other on ground.  Rifle carry to next corner.

Only three minutes remain, head back.

Pledge at the Yank.

Told the pax that heard in podcast earlier in the week that being disciplined, allows for being un-disciplined.  In other words, staying on workouts and being disciplined in consumption allows us the freedom to indulge on occasion.

Announcements:  2nd F lunch in Dallas 7/19 original Pita Wheel, Q source opportunities on Sundays

Prayer requests:  Turtleman, Norwood, Ratchet son, Anchorman sis-in-law, Tiger mom, Boudin travel

YHC took us out

Always an honor

Tiger

2 FNGs actually showed up for Balljoint and joined 9 other familiar faces to grind through a burner.  Here’s what I remember:

Proper Disclaimer with FNGs present. Been a while since YHC got to name an FNG, much less 2.  No merlot was splashed.

The Thang:

• 10 x Don Quixotes (IC)
• 10 x Gravel Pickers (IC)
• Tesla Stretches
• 10 x Mike Tysons (IC)

Mosey to the entrance to the Parking Deck.

Rules are we do 5 burpees every time we reach the bottom and the top, so we start with:

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

Next we got partners.  The partners were to help the PAX push, but also to help the FNGs know what was going on.  Balljoint took both FNGs and we did an ascending (literally) stack of exercises.  Think 4 corners, with parking deck levels as corners:

• Level 1: 10 x CDDs (OYO)
• Level 2: 10 x CDDs (OYO), 20 x Bonnie Blairs (OYO – count each jump)
• Level 3: 10 x CDDs (OYO), 20 x Bonnie Blairs (OYO – count each jump), 30 x Monkey Humpers (OYO)
• Level 4: 10 x CDDs (OYO), 20 x Bonnie Blairs (OYO – count each jump), 30 x Monkey Humpers (OYO), 40 x Merkins (OYO)

YHC started the levels wrong, so we ended up a little confused, but it didn’t matter.  We were climbing to the top and doing all those things along the way, and that’s what we did.  At the top, time for:

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

Next up, take the stairs down…

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

Run with your partner all the way to the top…

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

And wait for the Six.  At this point, there was a single FNG on his own, with Balljoint and the other finding a quicker way to the top than the ramps.  Hopes rose for a merlot sighting.  We got back together, headed down to the bottom for…

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

And went up again, with the exercises, except this time due to time constraints and more work still to do, no stacking.

• Level 1: 10 x CDDs (OYO)
• Level 2: 20 x Bonnie Blairs (OYO – count each jump)
• Level 3: 30 x Monkey Humpers (OYO)
• Level 4: 40 x Merkins (OYO)

And again…

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

Take the stairs down…

• 5 x Burpees (OYO)

So one more thing to finish up before we leave the deck.

YHC had pulled this one once before at Tequila Sunrise a while back, and thought to give it another run.  Basically, partners synchronize mountain climbers alternating between regular and Australian.  Looked like this:

Stupid Synchronous Mountain Climbers:

• 10 x Mountain Climbers (count left only)
• 10 x Australian Mountain Climbers (count left only)
• Repeato for 3 total rounds

3 was enough, as the burn kicked in by then.  Leaving as little rest as possible between rounds was good too.

Still plenty of time for plenty of work, so we left the garage, crossed the street to the church and kept the partners for a little Cora

• Partner 1: Bear crawl around the drop off area
• Partner 2: Exercises
  • 50 x Reverse Crunches
  • 100 x American Hammers
  • 150 x LBCs

Always a grumble when bear crawls are mentioned.  Not sure why.  YHC assumed that meant the PAX craved more running, so we finished fast on our feet, taking the long way back, covering a little over 0.5 mile, stopping 3 times for

• 15 x Jungle Boy Squats (OYO)

YHC was introduced to the Jungle Boy at QvQ Downtown when Balljoint called them, and we’re all better off for it.

We wrapped up right at 0615, so that was the end of the beating.

As we started COT, there was an ambulance off in the distance, and one of our FNGs mentioned that his Life Alert must have gone off and it was coming for him.  One name down, one to go.  As for the other, we didn’t have to go too far as Kelly Brown didn’t get too far past stating his name before “Kapowski” came out.  The Weasel Shaker attempted to veto it, as our PAX, while solid backblast writers, are not the best at spelling.  Also, YHC was stunned that such a solid group of non-respect PAX didn’t know who Kelly Kapowski was.  The FNG did, as did about half the group, and it was enough for the name to stick.  A quick tutorial on the spelling.  Think “Kapow” and add a “-ski” to it.  It’s easy.  Kapowski.  Let’s hope we’re listing Life Alert and Kapowski frequently in future backblasts.  Both are great additions to the group.

Downtown never disappoints.  Great group of PAX that pushed hard today.  Grateful for the opportunity to lead.

Yabba Dabba Doo

Stroganoff reminded me I have the Q this week on Friday-check! I’m on it-thanks for the accountability.

Breaker Breaker texted me the night before about riding bikes-check! I’m in-thanks for the accountability.

Show up, no shoes but I’m a few minutes early and BB gives me some time to get home quickly and we are off at 0542. Back in time for Roscoe to handle the announcements, prayer, and namorama. Hmmmm, someone is possibly mistaken about the schedule but I’m gonna roll with it.

We get inside, small talk, then Roscoe jumps in and starts to lead the discussion then all hell breaks loose. Stroganoff, the site Q tells him to shut up and sit down because it’s Whoopee’s Q. Well Roscoe doesn’t take that well and throws his M’s coffee on Stroganoff who ducks and the coffee goes all over ShortSale who has only slept about 2 hours since he went to the Brittany Spears concert last night and didn’t get enough sleep. Well ShortSale just couldn’t handle this and jumps off the table and lands on top of Roscoe then Flintstone tries to break it up and ends up tripping and eventually falls on top of the barista, and in the process touches a part of her body he shouldn’t then we get thrown out. Next week, Coconut Horse will be at Publix-come join us.

I really envy you guys that hear your alarm and that’s it. Your day begins. The covers come off and your feet hit the floor. Better yet, you guys that wake ahead of your alarm – even better. But me, I have a process that in this iPhone age and time, no longer with the old clock/radio, I set 2 alarms. One is the pre-wake that I punch off. Then I rely on the 2nd alarm to rev the engine – warm the car if you will. Now I don’t officially get out of the bed. This is my struggle. If I was not posting, I will push the limits of exiting the bed. This often becomes my demise where 5 or 10 minutes of lying half-awake when I’m not falling asleep but I’m not doing anything much other than scanning random thoughts. In these moments, the idea of doing my own workout, stretching, or something useful and productive get smashed. This painful bad habit grabbed me again yesterday, throwing me off the pre-workout routine of getting on workout clothes, shoes, walking my dog, and feeding her medicine which rivals a 90-year-old geriatric. I sped toward the AO monitoring the various time/clocks in my car, realizing time was not on my side. Not good for an F3 workout, especially when I’m the Q. I arrive to see 4 men already into the warm-up (Thanks to Broke for covering). I’m sure those guys wondered if the Q would be a no-show, which I’ve done 1 time before in my career. The phrase better late than never could be said, but that just an excuse, kind of like the ones that dance through my brain after my alarm that keep me in the fartsack.

Picking up from Broke:

• Toy Soldier, Side to Side Lunge IC x 10
• Plank – press heels toward the ground for a calf stretch
• Plank – right foot by right hand, hold, left arm up, right arm up, regular
• Plank – left foot by left hand, hold, left arm up, right arm up, regular
• Inchworm into downward dog, hold, stretch
• Pledge

I had a brief thought when creating the weinke that I might do 20 minutes of deep stretching. If you’ve not been to Snooze, the parking lot is old gravel – so maybe the finale we’ll try that finding some smooth pavement. Alas, today would be something else I cooked up, we traveled west out of the lot and across Main Street to the McAdenville sign, turned down Poplar Street and found the larger parking lot behind the Main Street row of buildings. A little “walk the plank” action using the larger parking lines.

• Begin w/ 10 HR Merkins, Bear Crawl along the parking line
• 10 Diamond Merkins, side plank walk along the top of the parking line
• 10 Peter Parker Merkins, Joe Hendricks along the parking line
• 10 Plank Jack Merkins (down at the same time legs spread out), plank walk left to start
• Repeat 1x

This was a grinder with 80 merkins out of the gate and shoulder work to boot. I recall I normally call 5 reps, might do that the next time. We learned Leppard’s old ATM was in this lot years ago – he’d stop by on a Friday to drain the bank account so he could go out drinking that night. (Some parts of that are true, others are fictional to improve the story). Conveniently, this parking lot adjoins the McAdenville Greenway – we’ve not used this end of the Greenway, so let’s take a mosey. We stroll along the path and arrive at the base of Academy Street and mosey past a few houses to the base of the hill. For those that have run the Christmas Town 5k and had the pleasure of pushing the Speed for Need chariot, this is a nice climb. Recall you let it fly down Academy Circle then take a sharp turn and get this nice hill in your face. This is about 2.5 miles in at this point and often when I take over for my turn to push. This is also the point where I curse the speed groups that attempt to set PRs and I’m usually spent at this point only to have to suck up some courage to push the cart. Those aren’t bad challenges, but we love to whine about them.

OK – back to the workout – DORA – 100 Crunchy Frogs, 200 American Hammers (ct 1 side) and 300 Mtn Climbers (ct 1 side). Partner 2 ran up the hill and back. Still more time on the watch, let’s mosey up the hill some more and leave some space of elevation for the Triple Nickle: 5 LBCs, 5 Penguins, 5x. Broke busted out and led this one. About 8 minutes Q (paraphrasing Gumby), at every house on the left, do 5 squats, that burned up some time as we headed down the hill, past the fire station, past the coffee shops, and returned to base.

Announcements: 2nd F Lunch this coming week in Dallas at the Pita Wheel, Slaw Challenge. Prayers: Wirenut’s mother, Turtleman, Norwood, others I can’t recall.

Sorry to the guys for being tardy, but thanks for allowing me to jump in and guide you through a beatdown.

Until the next one.

Short Sale

It would be the first bootcamp Q that YHC has attempted since the latest surgery in April. After a doctor imposed IR session of 7+ weeks, the fitness level is slowly coming back. 10 HIM posted to witness the carnage. This is what happened…

Pledge of Allegiance

Disclaimer – Once upon a time I was a professional

Warmup – Goofballs x10 IC, Merkins x10 IC – Yeah, you read that right!!!, 10 Don Quixotes IC

Mosey toward the back parking lot for The Thang

The Fibonacci Sequence: This guy was a mathmatician and thinker way back in the day, like the 1100’s. He noticed a sort of exponential spiral in nature and determined that there must be a mathmatical way to understand it, hence, his Sequence. The way it goes is you add the two previous numbers to arrive at the next number, and so on and so on.

1 – Burpee then run to the other side of the parking lot and back. We actually did 2 burpees just for the fun of it.

1 (1+0) – forgot this rep

2 (1+1) – Merkins – run there and back again

3 (2+1) – CDDs and run

5 (3+2) – Big Boys and run

8 (5+3) – Bobby Hurleys and run

13 (8+5) – Lunges and run

21 (13+8) – Mountain Climbers and run

34 (21+13) – Flutter Kicks and run. Somebody asked how to count and I about punched them but I didn’t.

55 (34+21) – Squats and run

89 (55+34) – Side Straddle Hops and run

144 (89+55) – LBCs and run

233 (144+89) – Air Presses

377 (233+144) – Merkins we knew only Defib would be able to achieve this level so we skipped it and quit.

Mosey to the front of the school for some finishing work.

Hurricane Hoedown – with local celebrity Luke Combs playing two shows at Bank of America stadium this weekend and one of his best songs being named Hurricane, YHC figured it was appropriate.

Round 1 – 7 IC reps of Seated Flutters with Hand Raised, then a set with hands behind, Reclined Flutters, Normal Flutters, LBFCs (5 exercises in all)

Round 2 – 6 IC reps of the above

Round 3 – 5 IC reps

Round 4 – 4 IC reps

This was enough core torture so YHC pivoted to some Mary, of which I don’t remember exactly what was done but rest assured that it was awesome.

Finish with COT

Announcements: 2nd F lunch at Pita Wheel Dallas next Wednesday, Dads & Annihilation this Saturday, 5k trail running at Daniel Stowe Garden Thursdays at 6:30, encourage your M’s to attend FIA in Belmont

Prayers: Radar’s sister’s treatment, Tesla’s sister, Sargento’s uncle chemo

YHC took us out with prayer.

Thank you for the opportunity to lead today men. It’s great to be back and I look forward to continued improvement with consistent encouragement from the PAX. AYE!