F3 Gastonia

Fitness, Fellowship, Faith

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F3 Backblast for Mount Hollywood

After attending for approximately 2 months, I conducted my first Q.  Unfortunately the site Q was unable to attend having to quarantine due to a family member who contracted Covid.  As such, I prepared a shovelflag of my own for the pledge.

With the intent to make the lungs burn with this workout, we warmed up the body and amped up the heart rate with some aerobic exercises to include side straddle hops and arm circles, among others.

We ran to another site approximately 1/2 mile away for the main calisthenics portion where we did a circuit of the following:

  1. Soccer run, counting every other foot to 50
  2. Triple Bear, counting every middle step, to 40
  3. Catchers, single count to 20
  4. Plyo Lunge, counting every other foot to 10

That sequence was repeated three times.  Between each circuit, the breather for the men was a build up of merkins, to include:

  1. 20 close grip (ranger) merkins
  2. 20 diamond merkins
  3. 10 plyo merkins, with or without the clap

Upon completion of the circuit and the final merkins breather, we ran another 1/2 mile + to the ball field behind the Middle School for core exercises at each base, to include:

  1. 20 crunchy frog
  2. 20 heels to heaven
  3. 20 Peter Parkers
  4. 20 airplane cobras
  5. 50 American hammers

Concluding the session was a run returning to the lot, and 30 bench dips.

PainLab – 8/6/2022

We had a awesome warmup with the visiting Q for Gashouse ,Wire Nut . Then after the warmup we headed out for a 2 mile ruck with some stops on the way. At each stop we did 10 merkins, 10 squats, and 10 box cutters.  We keep the packs on for most of the exercises. Finished up with the Plague and circle of trust

Kotter Avenue

Roscoe had a great idea a few weeks ago when we were talking-do a Q swap to let guys see other AOs. I put something on Slack and Wirenut jumped on it. He took over GasHouse and I got the opportunity to Q at Old School. I’ve been on IR for awhile and honestly was a bit unsure of how it would go because I really had not pushed it since Luigi was set free.

I got there a little early and as I drove up, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Last time I was here we did Murder Bunnies for part of Iron Pax challenge. No worries, I’m not afraid of some Merlot….

Stogie was there waiting and Freight pulled up shortly before 0700. We started with the Pledge then a quick warmup and moved on to the thang.

We started on the track and did 4 Bojangles Biscuits: sprint(-ish) the straights then mosey/walk the sides. On each end throw in 5 burpees (10 per lap). Next was the parking lot-start on one end and move to the other side (longer than I remembered) ((that’s what she said-NOT!!!)). You can hop, bear crawl, or lunge but can’t do the same thing 2 times in a row. Every 5 parking space lines, do 2 burpees. Go to the end then mosey back to start. Quick word while we catch our breath then mosey to Kotter Corner for some Hip Slappers. I can’t remember the last time I did these so I was a little excited on the inside. We did a set of 10 IC then 25 squats and 10 Big Boys. After 2 sets of this, I saw that look in Freight’s eyes that say “surely he won’t do a 3rd set.” I’ve given that look more times than I care to admit and maybe I am just projecting, but he did say he was hoping I was not going to say 3rd set….One more set. On rep #9, I made it clear we would keep going past 10 but this was met with much disdain so it did’t last very long. As Shortsale has said in the past, Hip Slappers are my love language. I don’t really have a reason. I think it’s because they are painful and I really hated doing them early on but found, like most things, doing them more often really makes them less painful.

We moseyed over to the town square for some 4 corners with escalator stuff: 10 Merkins at corner 1, repeat at corner 2 and add 20 Monkey Humpers, repeat at corner 3 and add 30 LBCs, repeat at corner 4 and add 40 SSH. Second round was 10 Flying Squirrels, 20 Shoulder Taps, 30 Squats, and 40 Freddie Mercuries. Final round of 4 corners was just SSH with 25, 50, 75, and 100 SSH at the corners. The shirt came off part way through this but not sure it really helped me at all.

We moseyed back to start and along the way Freight said he was going to petition to change Kotter’s Corner to Kotter Avenue and find a way to insert that into the song Electric Avenue. It was a lot funnier to me at the time than it is now as I write this…probably because I was a low on the oxygen and sweating my ball$ off.

We got back in time for some Mary then quick COT with some good discussion.

I mentioned that I was reading a book now given to me by Strogi a few months ago called Sea Stories. It is written by William McRaven-he’s the SEAL who is known for his graduation speech about “making your bed.” The book is outstanding. It is easy to pick up and read for a few minutes then put down and read later: < 10 pages per chapter for the most part and stories about his life in the military. Sorry Boudin, no pictures in this book. One of the underlying themes is about (not) ringing the bell, or quitting during BUDs training. The training and especially Hell Week weeds out the guys who can’t fight the desire to quit, or ring the bell. All through training, the SEAL candidates are pushed to exhaustion and the Cadre offer them a break to end the suffering by ringing the bell and quitting. The guys who stick through it often say they don’t quit because of the man on their left and their right-their brothers who are depending on them to stay in the fight and keep pushing. I know what we are doing does’t compare with SEAL training, however I think this concept of being there for your brother is no less important for us. Think about this. How have you done lately with this? Is it enough to just post and say “at least I am showing up?” There are guys in our region who are struggling. You know some of them, but I am certain there are some that we don’t know how much they are struggling. Check on your brothers. Check on the one’s you don’t see. Stay involved in the ones you do see and make sure to hold them accountable for what we all know is important: Don’t ring the bell. No matter what, don’t ring the bell.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead. It really felt good to get back out there today.

Whoopee

Tequila Sunrise – August 5, 2022

Only five PAX braved my workout this morning. However, we did have a Buckeye and Quiche sighting prior to the workout. Great seeing those two get some miles in.

Seeing no FNG’s I gave a brief disclaimer and we went ahead and said the Pledge of Allegiance.

We took a lap in the parking lot and circled up for the warm up.

WARM UP:
SSH x 20 IC
Windmill x 10 IC
Seal Jacks x 20 IC
MNC x 10 IC
Squat x 10 IC
Merkin x 10

The THANG:
There are six lights on Park Street.

First Light = 5 squats
Second Light = 5 squats, 5 merkins
Third Light = 5 squats, 5 merkins, 5 big boy sit ups
Fourth Light = 5 squats, 5 merkins, 5 big boy sit ups, 5 lunges (10 total)
Fifth Light = 5 squats, 5 merkins, 5 big boy sit ups, 5 lunges (10 total), 5 plank jacks
Sixth Light = 5 squats, 5 merkins, 5 big boy sit ups, 5 lunges (10 total), 5 plank jacks, 5 burpees

We then headed to the hill on Park Street. There are three light poles.

First Light Pole  = 5 Jump Squats > run to second pole and do 5 Hand Release Merkins > run to third pole and do 5 American Hammers (IC)> run back down to first light pole.
Rinse and Repeat five times.

Staying the park we did 40’s (30 dips / 10 step ups until it was 10 dips and 30 step ups)

We had about nine minutes remaining and made our to the tennis courts for an escalator.

Corner 1 = 10 merkins
Corner 2 = 10 merkins, 20 squats,
Corner 3 = 10 merkins, 20 squats, 30 mountain climbers (IC)
Corner 4 = 10 merkins, 20 squats, 30 mountain climbers (IC), 40 MNC.

We headed back to COT where the our time ended.

Announcements:
Second F tonight at Sammy’s (Belmont) and Rusty Rabbit (Dallas)
Blood Drive is August 10. See information on Slack to sign up.
F3 Dad’s at the Yank is August 20.
F3 Dad’s event at Camp Thunderbird

Prayers and Praises
My father turned 76 today and my 2.0 returned safely from his 23 day trip on Sunday
Prayers for the woman who was clipped by a vehicle on Eagle Road earlier this week.
Prayers for Tesla and his family.

Aye,
Radar

Three Amigos

Let’s roll

Pledge

Warm up

Off to Gastone’s Hill

We ran, nurred, LBC’s, Merkins, Flutters, SSH, ETC – should have been there

Announcements

Many Prayer request

Prayed use out

EZ out!!

Then there were 5

The gloom was a little muggier than the day before but that didn’t change the fact that there were rocks to be pushed this day. This is what happened…

Pledge of Allegiance

No disclaimer, all veteran pushers here.

Warm Up, stuff

Mosey into the street, being careful not to get run over by cars. We ended up at the track in front of the bleachers for The Thang

The Wolfpack Grinder – rarely seen outside of its usual Saturday location!

20 Prayer Squats IC & 20 Merkins OYO – 1/2 lap

20 Prayer Sqauts IC & 20 Mountain Climbers OYO – 1/2 lap

20 Prayer Squats IC & 20 Merkins OYO – 1/2 lap

20 Prayer Squats IC & 20 Mountain Climbers OYO – 1/2 lap

Countoff

20 Monkey Humpers IC & 40 LBCs OYO – 1/2 lap

20 Monkey Humpers IC & 20 Plank Jacks OYO – 1/2 lap

20 Monkey Humpers IC & 40 LBCs OYO – 1/2 lap

20 Monkey Humpers IC & 20 Mountain Climbers OYO, scratch that, I messed up, supposed to be Plank Jacks – 1/2 lap

Countoff and talking

20 SSH IC & 20 Dips OYO – 1/2 lap

20 SSH IC & 10 Lunges each leg – 1/2 lap

20 SSH IC & 20 Dips OYO – 1/2 lap

20 SSH IC & 10 Lunges each leg -1/2 lap

In rolls Flintstone from a training run. He kept his distance.

Mosey from here to the front of the school for some Maryorama. We did Dying Cockroaches, Heels to Heaven, American Hammers, Freddy Mercurys, Nolan Ryans and a plank. Time!

Thanks for the push this morning men, we’re all better for having posted!

Annoucements – CSAUP at Freight’s 8/13, F3 Dads 8/20, Skating lessons with Mayor 9/20?, 50 mile in September

Prayer requests – Huck, Tesla

Men in Yellow

4 ran and 1 rucked at the Pub today. We all wore yellow as we ran from Parkwood and back.. a route I haven’t taken in quite awhile.

Pledge

Announcements:

Blood Drive 8/10

Freight’s moving day 8/13

F3 Dads at Yank 8/20

Dads Skate 9/17

JJ5k 9/24

Prayer Request:

Huck

Word:

Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy! Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.  Psalm 55:1‭, ‬22 ESV

“Failure need never be final. Those words have often echoed in my mind. I have shared Peter’s immaturity, his misunderstanding, his lack of knowledge, his failure in courage. You have too. But these failures need never be final if Peter’s Savior is our Savior too.” Sinclair Ferguson

YHC took us out, Nice work, guys!

Seuss

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