7 men gathered in the parking lot of the Harris Teeter, home to the Sunday AO of The Coconut Horse. As the clock struck 0630, a white suburban was coming in hot – no, this is not JJ as he was already present. This would be Maybelline, somewhat early. Four runners took off for the main loop. Maybelline had his ruck vest to join Hunchback and Scrat for the Heatherloch ruck. Flintstone hung back with the Q for a slower mosey of 4 miles. We all reconvened in the parking lot at 0715, right on time. Stroganoff led the way pushing the pace for the primary runners. It was hot and muggy; summer has definitely arrived.

COT: Announcements – July 4th Declaration of Independence special beatdown at the hands of Tesla, followed by the reading of the Declaration (0700-0800); Roscoe has the Q at the Storm that morning. Annihilation with Tiger on 7/15 at the Yank. Prayers: Norwood, Ratchet & 2.0, Maybelline’s cousin, Roscoe’s uncle, Radar’s sister, and Anchorman’s sister-in-law.

Q-Source – the final chapter of The Dichotomy of Leadership covered Focused, But Detached written by Leif Babin. If you’re similar to me, certain phrases get stuck in your vocabulary and used on a regular basis without thought. “I can’t see the forest but for the trees,” is one of those in my lexicon. It was not quoted in the book but summarizes the concept we studied. A leader sometimes will be involved in detail but can’t get too intertwined or else lose some needed vision to guide the team. There are times the leader must detach in order to have perspective on the situation. Consistent with the 12 chapters in this book is the dichotomy of when to apply the focus or the detachment. It can be a struggle to find that balance. One of the quotes in the chapter worth sharing came from Colonel David Hackworth written in About Face which says: “An organization does well only those things the Boss checks.” I found that to be true in my team as my former boss pushed me to thoroughly check on details, even when it was beyond the point of my confidence in knowing the answer. He had me make phone calls or share updates on progress. He was a bit old school in his approach, but his way turned out to be right more than wrong. The lesson is the boss should never become too detached otherwise the team may skip a necessary detail.

Our group enjoyed this study. It stimulated good discussion for us. Until the next time, grateful for the opportunity to lead.

Short Sale

4 PAX, 2 runners & 2 ruckers faced the challenge of driving in the rain to the AO, only to find that the rain mostly let up during the beginning of the journey.  Turned out to be just what we all needed.

Run route was Stowe Point.  Virus ran the last mile like a domesticated jungle cat that’d finally been turned loose.  Ruckers rucked quickly, thanks to the long legs of Anchorman.

Before we launched, the rain was quite present, and the discussion centered around commitment.  Apparently, Seuss and Anchorman committed to each other to be there on this rainy morning, so they weren’t going to leave the other up the proverbial creek.  They asked if Virus and I were committed.  Well, not verbally, but between Virus as Site Q and YHC as the Q for the day, we were pretty committed.

So let the record show that the 4 PAX at Ground Assault on this day should all be committed.

At COT, YHC brought the average age down by about 5-10 years.

A strong bunch today of some of the finest HIMs I’ve grown to know here in F3 Gastonia.  Honored for the opportunity to lead.

Yabba Dabba Doo

We Rucked and mumblechattered. We talked about the likely hood of getting in to a tiny fiberglass submersible, we talked about appreciating the freedom to listen to live music, and we talked about  getting out of town and gathering with a large group of family for fellowship. Good stuff, good work men!

I’ld just like to thank everyone that takes these AO’s seriously by showing up on time, every time.  It shows that you respect the site Q for that  day. But if you’re Maybeline, then we will cut you a break because you’ve been a Juggernaut this year. We might give you a hard time and bust your (@), but you truly have shown grit by stepping up all the time to take an open Q. Good work!

I’d like to welcome Hot Dog to PL for the first time.  Welcome! 

We start with a strong warm up led by Breaker Breaker. He did all of the warm ups exercises that I had planned to do👏

With that said, let’s get to work.  

Set 1:  50 seconds of work, 10 seconds to transition to the next.

LBC’s, flutters, LBC’s, flutters, American hammers, big boys, American hammers, big boys. 1 min rest, Rinse & Repeat

Lets Mosey over to the orange looper cones at the corner of the parking lot. These just showed up today, never seen them before. These cones were spread out probably about 30-35 feet in a straight line with a rope across the top. Let’s bear crawl from one side to the other, then come back and duck under the rope back in forth in a diagonal pattern while shadow boxing. Once completed, let’s nur back to our spot. Is that how you spell it?

Set 2:  50 seconds of work, 10 seconds to transition to the next.

rev-LBC’s, heals to Heaven, rev-LBC’s, heals to Heaven, Freddy Mercury,  star crunches, Freddy Mercury, star crunches. 1 min rest, Rinse & Repeat

Lets Mosey around the parkin lot and come back for one more set.

Set 3:  50 seconds of work, 10 seconds to transition to the next.

squat curl press, lawnmower rows, squat curl press, lawnmower rows, merkins, plank jacks, merkins, plank jacks. 1 min rest, Rinse & Repeat

I love that these guys can’t get enough Core’n More at PainLab. It makes me feel good to hear them talk about how much they love doing LBC’s or Flutters or American hammers, etc. But what really caught me by surprise was when VooDoo said ” I could do Big Boys all day!”, he prefers Big Boys. Now, I’m sure he meant his choice of core exercises, but it was just the way he said it that made us all question…how he said it. You gotta Show to know! 

They loved my workout so much that I got 3 Hims to Q for the month of July. Gotta love teamwork 👊 Good work men

Breaker Breaker led us out with prayers requests 🙏

YHC has set a new standard and it appears to be holding! Standard is if you lead at Snooze, you have to post elsewhere first! Why not? And if you call that a standard you better be prepared to do it and lead by example. Which is the core of all leadership. So with that, YHC posted at Tequila Sunrise and moved right on over to Snooze to lead a beatdown. Went like this:

COP:

SSH X 20

IW X 20

Gravel Picker X 20

Tesla Stretches

MTN. Climbers X 20

Partner Blimps:

P1 – Run the lot around the park and back

P2 – Do the called work.

Flapjack.

1 – Burpees

2- Lunges

3- IWs

5 – Merkins

6 – Plank Jacks

7 – Squats

Bear crawl to the benches in the park.

Bench work as follows:

10 step ups (EL)

10 dips

10 dirkins

Rinse and repeat

Triple nickel on the hill outside the park.

Bottom: Jump squats X 5

Top: 5 American Hammers

Run this 5 times.

Done, time for COT.

NMM:

Really a good push! Helped that YHC ate half a Cliff bar between this and Tequila! Helped a lot. Standard enforced! You want people to follow you and/or take you seriously as a leader – do it and show them you’re real! That ‘s the only way. You might fail but if you try people will follow you and give you credit for getting them off their asses and making something out of nothing.  We need some examples like that now. YHC will be double posting on Friday all summer long. Are you with me?

Tesla

Rain held off.
Warm up.
SSH IC
Mosey to light pole. 22 for the vets.
Mosey to light pole. LBC IC.
Mosey to light pole. Abe Vigodas IC.
Mosey to light pole. Calf raises IC.
Mosey to light pole. Low slow squats IC.
Mosey to center of little soccer field. 5 flying squirrels.
Split up into two teams. One had four players. Other had three.
No injuries were inflicted.
Wikileaks can only be described as “WOW!”. Honorable mention for Broke and Happy Trees as frisbee catching dogs. Least valuable player Gumby’s hat.
Back to flag.

Prayers: Norwood. Huck. Others not mentioned.

Announcements:
Lunch tomorrow Logans Gastonia high noon.
Annihilation Saturday.

Oompa’s signed up for the 2024 Austin TX half.
Okay wusses, don’t make me go solo. Sign up.

YHC took us out.
Thanks for allowing me to Q.

Clock sticks 0630 and a good turn out even with F3 Dads happening.

Freight has always been one to give a great Q and this one, I have used twice now at Folsom.

Warm up:

Gravel pickers IC x 3 …. that’s enough, let’s get to work.

The Thang:

Using light poles and several of my cones, 15 stops were put into play to the entrance to the park.

Grab a block out of YHC truck.

10 curls and 10 kettle bell swings / drop block / run to next light or cone and 10 Vups / run back to block and riffle carry to the next light or cone.

Rinse and repeat at all 15 stops.

Catch the pledge at the flag at entrance

4 rounds of cherry pickers.

Mosey to side parking lot for 4 corners escalated 10 merkins, 20 hand release merkins, 30 werkins, 40 squats

YHC called Omaha at the 3rd corner due to time and needed to head back.

At each 15 stops we changed exercises to 5 chest press and 5 thrusters with block.

Back at COT and time for 4 more rounds of picking cherries and 2 rounds of mary.

COT:

Shared about how important it is to make your Legacy be better than the Heritage you received.

Announcements: 2nd F lunch June 21 Logans

Prayer Request: Many

Broke took us out!

Sarlacc Out

Along with 90% humidity, the lot hit the Bulldog in full killa mode.  Crashing the morning and taking the day by the horns, Hunchback, Watt’s Up, Bubba Sparks, Rebar, Maybelline, and Spiderman washed away the muscle atrophy from the night before and powered through the hit below:

Pledge

Warm Up:
Side Straddle Hops
Squats
LBCs
Merkins
Imperial walkers

THANG:
20 Curls
20 Squats
20 Shoulder Press
20 LBC
20 Lawnmowers – 10 each side
20 Lunge
20 Around the World – 10 each direction
20 Flutter kicks
20 Merkins
20 Halo – 5,5,5,5

We managed to get about 4 rounds in before the bell rang.