4 strong posted on a most glorious morning to the “oldest” AO in the region. This is what happened…

The PAX were experienced so no disclaimer. Pledge of Allegiance. Warmup including Don Quixotes, plank jacks and Nolan Ryan’s, all in cadence. Mosey.

We headed toward the designated downtown workout area at the old courthouse. On the way we did a variety of Deep Sea Divers at the rec building and then Monkey Humpers on the corner of the town square. YHC gave a pump fake and headed us from the square toward the Ingles, stopping for some goofballs and later gravel pickers for the passersby.

We kept moseying until we ended up at Carr Elementary where the Thang would be done.

The Carr – due to the excitement of football season being upon us, we had some cool numbers to use too.

Derek Carr – current quarterback of the Las Vegas Raiders. He’s been sacked 237 times in his career. Therefore, we naturally do something using that number. Partner up and do CDDs, LBCs and Side Straddle Hops. Partner one ran around the circle while partner 2 did the work. Lot’s of cardio here!

Fellowship mosey for a bit to catch our breath before the next Thang.

David Carr – older brother of Derek and past quarterback of the Texans, Panthers and others. He really got destroyed in his career. 267 sacks all time before he retired. Ouch! Switch partners and this time, do Alternating Shoulder Taps, Dying Cockroaches and Goofballs. Even more cardio!

Because we were at Carr Elementary got us to talking about other cars. The great 80’s band The Cars came to mind and we had some riveting discussion about their music and what were their best songs. YHC believes it’s Let the Good Times Roll but others said it is Drive. The debate continues…

Mosey toward the start with some karaoke on the way.

The last Thang.

The other Carr we would learn about is the great ML Carr. He’s frome Wallace, NC, played ball at Guilford College and then the NBA for 13 seasons with the Celtics, winning 2 titles in the process.

13s – instead of 11s. Do Bobby Hurley’s at one end and Squats on the other. All while the Cars played on the ‘ole iPhone. Good times.

Time was up and we wrapped up pretty quickly. Thanks for the opportunity to lead men!

Announcements – 2nd F lunch Wednesday at Viva Tequis, F3 Dads 8/20 at The Yank, PT Test 8/27 at Gashouse, 9/10 50+ mile relay

Prayer Requests – Medicine Woman’s family, Big Pappy’s family, Huck, BOS’s dad, Wirenut’s family

Tiger messaged me earlier in the week that he needed to switch Q’s with me and I obliged. Woke up to a nice cool morning and drove to the Yank with a white board in tow. Pulled in to see some getting EC and some high rollers of F3 Gastonia. I was a little nervous but I’d turn that in energy.

Mosey down to the Bunker as a train was leaving, whew! I said in my head no burpees today. Nothing really planned for a warmup but we did Gravel pickers, toy soldiers, SSHs 11x IC. I think there were 11 merkins too, OYO.

We split from the Bunker crew and head to the track. I’m going to hate the day Belmont gets rid of that.

Arrive at the track to see my white board, borrowed from my M. Mayor had a Q at the Goat a few weeks ago and I stole his idea. I switched up the exercises so it wasn’t a complete copy of his. Idea was to perform 10 of each exercise then take a lap, 9x lap, 8x lap all the way to 1 of each exercise and a lap.

Exercises were LBCs, merkins, squats, plank jacks, Freddy mercury’s, shoulder taps, SSHs, big boy sit ups, lunges and CDDs.

Everyone finished and some starting counting back up the ladder. The up and down was bad with the low rep numbers, sorry to everyone’s backs.

Plenty of time left so fellowship mosey to the shelter. Dips and derkins using the tables 20/10, 15/15, 10/20. Mountain climbers and step ups next, same reps. Finish and mosey to The Yank for some Mary. I think we did flutter kicks, American hammers, and crunchy frogs. Pizza man counted 22 push-ups for the vets and we were done.

Great crowd this morning with a few different faces. Thanks men.

Pledge of allegiance.

Announcements:

F3 dads next Saturday 8-20
50 plus mile relay September 10
Iron pax September
skating September 17
JJ 5k September 24

Prayers and praises:

Tesla son new job/travel
Teachers and kids in school
Huck
Turtleman
Courtney, hit while running
Other Runners who were hit. Be careful out there.
M’s with babies
BOS’ Dad
Breaker Breaker’s uncle
Papa Orangeman, daughter with child.
Tooth Fairy’s daughter is showing the doctors who’s boss by pulling up and standing on her own! Awesome news.

YHC prayed us out but forgot name-o-rama. Started to do it but another train came by. You’ll have to believe me in who gets credit 😉

The Gavel out.

YHC was sorting through some of my mother’s items that I had stored in my house. As I sifted through mounds of old papers and documents, I am came across my fathers draft information.

As I read over the document, I thought about the anxiety the nation must have felt that day.  My father was 19 years old on Dec 1, 1969. He was fresh out of trade school had a job as a welder at GM. He had a life plan that changed in an instance.  His number was 125. At first he thought he was good, but every number 195 and under where called to duty.

For the Q today, our work was based of the Vietnam lottery.

If interested the table can be found here:

Vietnam Lotteries | Selective Service System : Selective Service System (sss.gov)

We started with the pledge then went right to work.

The Thang

• 22 for the troops
• A quick mosey to the baseball field.
• First Pax was under 195, we did imperial walkers to that number.
  • Would have been drafted
• Second Pax was under 195, we did LBC’s and bear crawls to that number.
  • Would have been drafted
• Third Pax  was over 195, we did Moroccan night clubs to that number.
  • Would not be drafted
• Fourth PAX was under 195, we did steps up to that number.
  • Would have been drafted
• Fifth PAX was under 195, we did LBC’s to that number.
  • Would have been drafted
• Six PAX was over 195, we did Mike Tysons and CDD’s to that count.
  • Wound not be drafted
• Seventh PAX was over 195, we did a count to recover from the previous exercise.
  • Would  not be drafted
• Eighth PAX was under 195, we did Squats to that count.
  • Would have been drafted

Think about our family’s during that time and our nation. In our group, 5 of the 8 would have been drafted and sent to war.

YHC did not grow up in a pleasant household. We were poor and lived of a steady diet of government cheese, out of date yogurt, and powered milk.  When my father came back from the Vietnam, he was disabled from agent orange exposure.  In those times, the government did not recognize agent orange for disability benefits.  My father lost his job as a welder and was unable to work.

As my brother and I  buried my mother along side my father. We both smiled.  As children we had some different chores than most kids. One of my chores, was rolling Top Tobacco into cigarettes.   60 a day, placed in old Marlboro packs. It had to be done before sports or homework.   Many times as I did this, my mother and father would rant about the VA. They were resentful and angry. My father had that great union job before the draft. That one day on Dec 1, 1969 changed their world  and hundreds of thousands of others forever.

Now here they lay, buried together overlooking the VA administration building they hated years ago.

Prayer Request

• Freight and family
• Huck
• Turtleman
• Sister Act
• BOS’s Dad
• Kids going back to school

Announcements

• 50 Mile relay Sept 10th
• JJ 5K Set 24th
• F3 Dad’s Aug 20th
• 2nd F Lunch Wednesday – Viva Tequis

Thanks to all these HIMS that helped me out after I choked-out myself.  I almost made it.

Big Pappy

A few HIMs got some work in on a humid morning at the Down-Lo. We celebrated my son Eli’s birthday. It is a story that can not be written only told.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Big Pappy

6 HIM posted to the pub – All 6 with EC – Flintstone, Virus and Termite were already gone when YHC arrived to get a warmup 1 mile mosey.  And JJ and Waterboy ran from home – By the time 530 rolled around all were good and sweaty.  Route for the day was to the armory and back.

COT: Prayers and announcements

Prayers for teachers, students, JJ’s youth minister witnessing a severe car accident, Pax having children,  Huck and Turtleman

CSAUP Sept 10 – 50 mile relay

F3 dads Aug 20 at the Yank

JJ5K Sept 24

The IPC takes place every September and I look forward to it every year. The workouts are hard and it pushes me mentally and physically. So to prepare for that I decided to recycle a workout from 2020 the pax had 2 workouts to choose from one involved more running the other a lot of burpees so we voted and almost unanimously they chose burpees.For better or worse here we go.

warm up:ssh,gravel pickers,air presses,squats,merkins,mountain climbers all x10 IC mosey to the original Folsom parking lot for some smooth asphalt. Pax took turns carrying 8’ cross arm during the workout and that man was the form police wich tied in with the word I shared later.

the workout:EMOM 3 burpees at top of every minute while working to complete the following exercises 50 hand release release merkins yes two releases,100 leg raises,150 jungle boy squats,200 big boys,250 lunges count each leg.

this was a tough one I didn’t finish barely made it into the lunges. Props to Tonka he finished one round and made it to the big boys a second time he’s an animal 💪🏻 But I believe all pax were pushed and used better form than normal knowing someone was watching them. We moseyed back to the flag and I shared scripture from Matthew 7:1-4 about judging others and having a plank in your own eye hence the form police carrying the cross arm. We shared announcements took prayer requests and I prayed us out. Great work today men it was a pleasure to lead today like always. I look forward to the next one.

I was on it. I filled in for an empty Q on a Wednesday-got it, no problem, I don’t live far from Labyrinth so I’m gonna post anyway……Weinke all set……the night before I realized I said I would Q at TRB???!!! WTH???? Where is it anyway? Quick consultation with Roscoe and a few others while I was at a baseball game the night before. Whatever, I’ll make it work. It’s a school, there is stuff there to work with.

After arriving a few minutes early I realized I actually had posted there once before. I moseyed around and got a lay of the land so I could finish the final details and almost got hit by a truck filled with 2 FNGs.

We started on time and 2 FNGs walk up, quick introduction/disclaimer and briefly talked about 5 core principles and Roscoe kept the theme going with the credo and mission statements. WU started and somewhere in there was a 5 burpee penalty for something I cannot recall. Mosey after WU to far side of school for some Hip Slappers. Got these FNGs warmed up quickly and heard some whining from the older pax too. The FNGs looked like they were my kids’ age so figured I’d give them some old man pain to start with. Next we did 11’s. I had something else planned but we had more PAX than I had expected so the Weinke kind of went in the dumpster. We did 11’s on the hill. I really wanted burpees but settled for Merkins and Big Boys. I think we had a rehash of the core principles somewhere in there then mosey to the lot for a hop-fest after a train buzzed by with another burpee penalty. We hopped across the lot, bear crawled across the non-bridge to nowhere, then monkey barred up the walkway and duckwalked down. The sweat was starting pretty good at this point. We moseyed to the track for 3 Bojangles biscuits with some burpees on each end. After the Bojangles, we did some 4 corners on the track but modified to 3 corners without the corners: 10 Merkins, 10 Merkins + 20 Squats, 10 Merkins + 20 Squats + 30 SSH.

At this point it was just after 0600 so we called it, hit the pledge, and got to know the FNGs-great guys, lot of potential for F3 both to gain and to offer for both of them. I think they are both pretty squared away guys. Hope to see Fragile and Socrates out soon.

We ended with COT and best part was hearing Orangeman’s daughter is pregnant. He had a HUGE grin as he announced this. Nice to remember the COT is not just for those in need but also for praises. Congrats Orangeman. Hope things go well and maybe we will see pictures before too long.

Good to see everyone at TRB today….

Whoopee

10 HIM were brave enough the face a Defib Q at Midoriyama Tuesday.  Unfortunately for them this time of year reminds me of some of the toughest workouts I’ve ever done as part of IronPax challenge.  So I pulled out a memorable one from last year – yep revenge of the murder bunnies

Warm up

5 burpees

10 Derkins on block

10 squats with block

10 incline merkins

10 of something else

Block carry to baseball field for  a series of :

10 Burpee block jumps murder bunny 25 yards then 25 overhead press and rifle carry back to start

Run a lap

10 Burpee block jumps murder bunny 25 yards then 50 alternating merkins on block and rifle carry back to start

Run a lap

10 Burpee block jumps murder bunny 25 yards then 75 curls and rifle carry back to start

Run a lap

10 Burpee block jumps murder bunny 25 yards then 100 block windshield wipers and rifle carry back to start

Finished with 22 merkins for vets

Announcements:

Sept 10th 50 mile relay – start and end at Ingles with 50 mile run through all the AOs

F3 Dads Aug 20 at the yank

Sept 17 Rollerstaking

Sept 24 JJ 5K

Prayers:

Broke’s friend at work witnessed a man killed in motorcycle accident

Purple Haze’s friend recovering from eye surgery

Huckleberry

Broke’s friend with mental health issues