F3 Gastonia

Fitness, Fellowship, Faith

Page 472 of 917

On the ruck again

05:30 so we started with pledge; 4 pax left Sno-balls and went to Gastone’s Hill

Thang:

On our way up the hill we stopped at each mailbox on the right and did 5 squats (pack on); once we reached the top it was packs off for round of 20 chest presses (pressing the pack) and 25 flutters (holding pack in pressed position).  Pack on and back down the hill. On to Dollar General and through Food Lion parking lot where we did a few rounds of 10 squats/10 monkey humpers; on to 7/11 and back to entrance to Martha Rivers stopping for additional rounds of 10 squats/10 monkey humpers; finally returned to Sno-balls just in time for some Mary…Tube started us off with 20 reverse crunches; Hermie led us in 25 flutters; Les Nessman ordered oblique crunches (15 each side); Dry Rub suggested 20 heels to heaven; back to Tube for 10 boxcutters and finally Hermie let us off the hook with 10 shoulder taps (count one arm).  Time!

No announcements

Prayers for :

Les Nessman’s wife

Les Nessman’s father in law

Hermie’s family friend

Short prayer by Dry Rub and we’re off to work!

The Secret to Success…

Following Saturday’s Q at the GasHouse and having DREDD among the PAX, I got to follow up that event with yet another Q – this time at The Sandlot. It wasn’t intentional, just the way it worked out on the schedule. As First FQ, I plan to get around and Q as much as I can. It’s not a requirement of “the job” but something I’ve adopted from past leaders. I tapped the creative vault for Saturday’s Weinke and during NFL divisional championships contemplated what I would do for the gloom that was fast approaching? Some wise old Nantan posted yet more Mumble Chatter on Twitter (as if he didn’t exhaust himself Saturday morning), about the “push/pull” approach of a workout. That can work but I shared at The Convergence “Dare to Fail,” so let’s take this show to The Sandlot. My watch was still a minute off this morning (shut up Freight – I’ve since adjusted my smart watch to smarter time – 1 minute ahead), arriving at the circle with mere seconds to spare. I stumbled through a disclaimer of modify and follow suggestions. My warm-up was not scripted and if you don’t already know, I don’t like to begin with everyone’s favorite so here ’tis:

  • Imperial Walkers IC x 10 (though I think I may have said Hillbillies – can’t remember, the PAX will correct me)
  • Seal Jacks IC x 10 (just as good as SSH but it’s not SSH)
  • Moroccan Night Clubs IC x 10 (it’s an exercise when you’re warming up for plank work)
  • Jingle Balls IC x 10 (not just for December…)
  • Pledge

Thang:

From the Snoballs parking lot, we slow moseyed out across the street to the old bank that closed. We circled the parking lot and then I went for one more lap…PAX were puzzled. We stopped after the second trip under the awning of the drive-up/ATM. I announced that would be all the running we’d do this morning. Not sure if all thought that would be a good thing, ’cause it means a hurricane of cardio is rising. I had another idea but upon checking the forecast which called for rain, I checked to this plan, even though the rain held off. I turned on the playlist, an old one but with some good stuff ranging from Rush, Van Halen, Journey, The Who and Led Zeppelin. We had 9 total men, so a modified Dora was up first, I joined Watt’s Up (#legend) and Folgers (#nomerlottoday). Wait – he said no running. You dang skippy I said no running. Well how, but what, I mean how does Dora work without running? Grab some paper and pen to take notes:

  • 100 Plank Jack + Shoulder Tap
  • 200 Parker Peter
  • 300 Mtn Climbers
  • While Pax 1 exercises, Pax 2 does sets of 25 SSH (see, we can all agree to meet in the middle #healing); once the 25 are complete, switch positions

JJ provided a 10 second count off, ironic because his Heels beat my Wolfpack by 10 on Saturday, congrats. Next thing, staying under the awning. Start the clock for 5 minutes of AMRAP. We took a 45 second rest between sets and did this a total of 3 times.

  • 10 HR Merkins
  • 20 LBCs
  • 30 (total) Reverse Lunge

Damn, sounds simple. It is! Without the pressure to chase bat flippers, this is UvsU of nothing but head-down hard work. The focus is on form, plenty of time to get a few sets in. Upon completion Flintstone gave a 10 count. Time was ticking so the third set would need to be brief. Sticking with the 5 minute time we went to one round of core:

  • 10 Plank to Pike, alternate toe touch (not as complicated as it sounds – think Def Leppard merkin, opposite hand/toe, back to plank, and then pike with other hand/toe combo)
  • 10 Heels2Heaven Crunch (kept this from Saturday)
  • 10 American Hammer
  • 10 Ski Abs

With a minute to spare, we moseyed across the street the “long way” around the building. Time!

Announcements – Extinction Run from Bottoms UP (Primal Brewery) 2/13 at 0900. See pre-blast. The Mortimer is March 19-20 (same weekend as P200) and Watts Up is leading a ruck team. If you’re up for an adventure, reach out to him. Prayer requests – our nation. YHC took us out.

Moleskin – If you’ve stuck with me, you’re probably hanging on for The Secret to Success. Well I don’t have an answer that suits everyone, but I did learn this morning how one of the PAX achieved it. From my Q on Saturday, if you read the BB, you’d learn about DREDD needing some talk. Like many of our circles and workouts, there is friendly banter among the PAX at various times. But there are times when we’re focused and trying to bust out some reps. From my view we’ve got to know each other and so we ask about family and work and other guy stuff. We poke a bit of fun but we’re not too hard on each other (I know you Folsom and Midoriyama are tougher in throwing shade). But however the mumble chatter comes, it’s why we post, for accountability, getting some work in with fellowship too. So while Led Zeppelin’s “In the Evening” played, Flintstone shared that song was the key to his success in school – that would play it prior to every test he took and he did pretty well. Now for those that don’t know the new Site Q too well, he’s a mathematical genius. He’s forgotten more quadratic equations than the Midoriyama boys could count on their bare toes. Not that Flintstone will brag on himself – that’s not his thing. Rumor is that Good Will Hunting is dumber than Flintstone – but that’s just a rumor that I’m starting. Wonder what ole Will Hunting’s song is? Probably not by Tool, that’s for sure.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Short Sale

 

1 Corinthians 12:17-20

A few weeks ago Big Pappy asked me to Q at the sword and the discussion would be about groups.
I wasn’t sure if he meant group therapy or the group of people you are around. Either way its about the same.
I focused the word this morning on 1 Corinthians 12:17-20 If the whole body were and eye, where would the sense of smell be. But in fact God has placed the part in the body, everyone of them just as He wanted them to be. if they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts but one Body.

I felt these verses hit close to home, we are all very unique with similar common goals/values. Some listen some friends talk, you get the point. This lead to talks of loving others that you may not want to, and some how the New deal and Joel Olsteen wrapped up the conversation.

Prayer Request: I took this time to pray for all those in need and to lift us up with Gods eternal Love and Light to help us all through these challenging times.

The Bed Pan is Full..

Barely Made It..

Well I got there early did a couple miles and the next thing I know it has to be an 8 min. pace to get back at exactly 7.00 am. The great statement comes lets Mosey… we ran for 10 minutes doing some exercises to keep loose. 10 min. later had over a mile and headed to the Pit for some Figure 8

2 exercises at each corner 8x do each one 8 sets. Each time you cross diagonal you add a burpee. Everyone had two bricks to carry on all exercises.

  • Corners: Merkins and Werkins 8x each
  • Corner: Freddy Merks and LBC
  • Corner: Shoulder Press and Rocking Knights
  • Corner: Starjacks and Little Gumby in the woods
  • Lots of Burpees.

We finished this and went to Hawthorne Hill did 50 in cadence leg flutters ran to the top and tiger called 30 leg flutters. Then we basically Mosied some back to the yank. Ended up with over 4 miles and a lot of people saying dang termite! Must have done my job… out

These Bricks are Cold…

Started out a brisk morning and 5.30 came. As always lets Mosey a good solid mile… or more… with brick in each hand. Stopped at several points and did:

LBC – 50

Merkins 25

then made it to the island in center road and began 11’s down to the next island back up with bricks did I mention. ( lot of whining about my bricks are cold so I told them to put them in their pants but that was a little rough on the … anyway. Continued after 11’s stopping at many intersections ending with pipes and team work. Each time someone dropped the pipe we did 5 burpees.. needless to say we did a lot of burpees.

Ended with pledge and prayer mostly for our country. God bless America and you guy!

As easy as 1/23

As easy as 1/23…

We began with 1 rep each of Merkins, squats, dips, imperial walkers and LBC’s. We then journeyed 123 feet and returned for sets of the same in the enumeration of 7 reps, 15, 20, 20 and finally 50….for a total of 123 reps of each exercise.

Se moved on to Kettle Bells with 1 rep each of curls, presses, swings and triceps extensions. We did 7, 15 and 20 reps of each. We moved on to some flutter kicks, Iron man, lateral crunches and superman.

Voodoo finished us out with 8 minutes of stretching.

 

Les Nessman, Tube, Hermie, El Toro, Dry Rub, Handcuff, Hunchback, Pizza the Hut and an FNG who was later dubbed, DWB (Dirty White Boy)

How about that mumble chatter?

GasHouse Site Q Linus put out a request for Q’s and I accepted the challenge. I had an idea that was brewing so I wanted to try it out. Problem is, I couldn’t get it to work the way I wanted. There are such things as “simple Q’s” (read Sister Act’s backblast when he writes it next month). I’ve done a few of those, but I pride myself to push the creative limits (see 2020 Best Q of the Year award – #justsayin). So, I went to work on a Weinke that would challenge the PAX’s body and mind. The parking lot at GasHouse was full. This was like the old days 4 or 5 years ago when the GasHouse was the Saturday AO. Now, with two other options on the calendar, attendance has spread – and that is a good thing. Lots of EC for rucks and runs so the circle gathered around. Freight was kind of to remind me that it was 0700. But I go by the Q’s watch which was a minute slower, compared to Freights at least. Scanning the circle – we had some Nantans present. New Nantan Broke, then former ones in Freight and Tool Time aka the Mumble Chatter Twins. But then we also had THE Nantan, he was until recently, …welcome to DREDD. If you thought ‘Oh Shit’ don’t think YHC didn’t either. I work for Bank of America and that is like Hugh McColl sitting at the table while I lead a presentation. Here we go:

Warm-up:

  • Toy Soldier IC x 10
  • Seal Jack IC x 10
  • Imperial Walker Squat IC x 10
  • Bulldog Jacks (what? Get on all 4’s, hover knees just off the ground, arms go out and back in) these aren’t easy. The scheduled 10 was Omaha’ed to 5 but not because of the PAX complaining, because they’re hard).
  • Side to Side Lunge IC x 10
  • Pledge – split up: Pain Lab with Les Nessman, Bootcamp follow me

Thang:

With musical accompaniment (my playlist, not Sargentos) we moseyed to the First Presbyterian Church back parking lot…Freight commented it was the first time he’d seen people there…I don’t disagree but that is another problem F3 cannot solve. Find a curb to begin some Tabata: 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off.

  • Rocky Balboa 4 count + 1 Burp
  • Bobby Hurley x 2, side shuffle across the parking space, Bobby Hurley x 2
  • Mike Tyson x 2 + Donkey Kicks x 2
  • Rinse & Repeat

I then asked PAX to spread out into their own parking space for the mini-4 corners

  • Bottom left corner: 10 Merkins, Bear Crawl forward to the top
  • 10 Mtn Climbers (count right leg), plank walk right
  • 10 Shoulder Taps (count 1 side), Joe Hendricks to the bottom corner
  • 10 Plank Jacks, plank walk left to the start
  • 2-line suicide x 10
  • Brief rest, repeat

I was ahead of schedule…what to do? I offered the PAX options. Repeat the two things we did or Option C. Hmm, PAX shouted “C” therefore YHC reached into the bag of tricks and pulled out “Walk the Plank.” Start on the left side of the parking space for 6 Merkins, plank-walk right to perform 1 Burp, plank-walk left for 5…you get the idea. Think 7’s instead of 11’s, why? Because I had more shoulder/arm work to come. Once complete, mosey across the street to Grier Middle School. This time for 11’s, the traditional way with Freddie Mercury and LBC’s. Freight said LBC’s weren’t challenging him. So, I threw out Rocket Burpees…Rocket Burpees you say? Only Pizza Man bought in so after a demo round or two, I went back to LBC’s. Don’t worry – I’ll find a way to get you some Rocket Burpees.

Next was the main event. You know the idea I mentioned that I had to replace – yeah that one. So, we moseyed to the football field and split 16 men into four teams of four. I had four sets of exercises. One of the groups would be on the track to run a lap as the “timer” while the other three completed the work. The groups repeated each set until all of the running group returned.

  • Set 1
    • 10 Squat Jumps + 10 Burps + 10 Merkins + 1 Burpee
  • Set 2
    • 10 SSH + Sgl Arm Tricep Merkin 10 Left then 10 Right + 10 LBCs
  • Set 3
    • 5 Snowboard Ski Abs (have to demo it for you) + 10 Forearm Merkins + 10 Am Hammers
  • Set 4
    • 5 Mahktar Merkins (correct, combine the two together – it’s not as hard as it sounds) + 10 Goofballs (because Sargento posted and it’s his favorite) + 10 Mtn Climber

Because the runners missed a set while on the track, I combined Groups 1 & 3 to run while Groups 2 & 4 exercised then flipped that. The final set was to keep everyone together for some core work.

  • Legs at 90 degrees, 10 crunches
  • Dolly’s IC x 10
  • Freddie Mercury IC x 10
  • Ski Abs in high plank IC x 5
  • Ski Abs in low plank IC x 5
  • Elbow plank rollovers – maybe 10 – it was out of control at this point.

We returned to base with a few minutes to spare. Flutter Kicks in streamline position IC x 20, Suitcase Crunches until time. TIME!

Announcements:

  • Extinction Run February 13th at Primal Brewing in Belmont at 9 am. See pre-blast
  • Support Today – Round-Up and Hacksaw running 1 mile every hour (goes until 4:30 am Sunday)
  • New AO on Fridays in Belmont is a GO! Great job to those organizing and Orangeman to be Site Q

Prayer requests:

  • Tik-tok in Race City losing his wife suddenly
  • Roscoe – passing of an CMPD officer (natural causes)
  • Flintstone – family friends grieving over suicide
  • Those with addictions
  • YHC took us out

We had an FNG with us attend Pain Lab. Tube had been EH’ing him. Jay Jarrell was in the Navy (Slaw – you have a friend) but plays Foreigner tunes in a cover band. Welcome Dirty White Boy. Today was a fun morning, at least for me. Of course, I tried to create a workout that would be challenging and interesting. I had a playlist to pump some volume into the group. I intentionally kept the group together without long moseys and sets on time rather than total reps. A great opportunity for discussion and chatter. Only it was more friendly talk among the PAX. Unbeknownst to me was a challenge to see if Tool Time could rattle me to the point of me telling him to “F-off.” I never got to that point, at least not to use those exact words, (thankfully?). But it wasn’t for lack of trying between TT and Freight. It was too quiet for DREDD’s liking as he erupted 40 minutes in to generate lively banter among the PAX. It’s the environment he’s accustomed. We’re a product of his creation but as we approach 6 years of life, we still have a lot to learn. So, we can take that to heart as we post in the gloom (or afternoon) and provide some Candor to the Q and our fellow PAX. Create the furious chaos to elevate the disruption.

Always room for improvement. Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Did we go to the Parking Deck?

A strong mix of regions at Downtown, with 9 men putting in strong work.  Burpees were done for trains that weren’t there, and the distance from the parking lot to the flag got a whole lot longer.  No frogs were squished in the execution of this bootcamp.

The Thang:

  • 10 x SSH (IC)

At this time, Purple Haze and Wirenut joined us, so we blessed them with

  • 10 x Monkey Hummers (IC)

Then on to

  • 10 x Hillbilly Walkers (IC)
  • 10 x Freddie Mercuries (IC)
  • 10 x Mountain Climbers (IC)
  • 10 x Mike Tysons (IC)

Pledge and Mosey to South & Second for

  • 5 Burpees (OYO)

Since the Sizzle Suicide is such a hit at The Goat, YHC brought it to a new crowd at a different AO.  We ran suicides up South with between Second and Franklin with telephone poles as the mark, stopping for LBC’s along the way as follows:

  • Run 1 pole – 10 LBCs
  • Run back – 10 LBCs
  • Run 2 poles – 20 LBCs
  • Run back – 20 LBCs
  • Run 3 poles – 30 LBCs
  • Run Back – 30 LBCs
  • Run 4 poles – 40 LBCs

During the last run, a truck turned down South and our game of Frogger got a little dicey, but a countoff afterwards confirmed that we were all accounted for.

We moseyed from Franklin back to the parking lot side of the Gaston County Administration Building, where a train inspired another round of

  • 5 Burpees (OYO)

And then we started a workout that probably already has a name, but YHC doesn’t know it, so we called it the Cyclone Stacker.  It went something like this:

  • 5 Burpees
  • Run a lap around the building
  • 10 Squats, 5 Burpees
  • Run a lap around the building
  • 15 Crunchy Frogs, 10 Squats, 5 Burpees
  • Run a lap
  • 20 Pseudo Planche Merkins, 15 Crunchy Frogs, 10 Squats, 5 Burpees
  • Run a lap
  • 15 Crunchy Frogs, 10 Squats, 5 Burpees
  • Lap
  • 10 Squats, 5 Burpees
  • Lap
  • 5 Burpees
  • Lap

HIPAA told me about the Pseudo Planche Merkins while I was prepping for a different Q a while back and I thought this was a good spot to bring them out.  The PAX disagreed, and there was a good amount of modifying.  They’re really not as bad as you’d think.  They’ll probably make a return to the Weinke in the near future.

Inside of 10 minutes to go, and looking for for some lunge work without a lot of instructions, YHC omahaed to a simple instruction

  • Lunge Walk back to the flags

On a Downtown post years ago, Whoopee had us lunging all over that parking lot, so I knew it’d been done before, and then some.  In the end, it seemed like the right amount – exhausting with the need to shake the legs out a couple times, but not impossible.

We were back at the flag with a couple minutes to spare, so it was time for some Mary that went down like this:

  • 20 x Mountain Climbers (IC – Wirenut)
  • 20 x Flutter Kicks with Arms Back (IC – EZ Rider)
  • 20 x American Hammers (IC – Purple Haze)
  • 10 x Crab Crunches (IC – Linus)
  • 20 x SSH (IC – Folgers)

Folgers wrapped up the SSH and the clock ticked 6:15.

Announcements:

  • P200 & Mortimer upcoming
  • Doodles put out a call for runners to join the P70 which is the last 70 miles of the P200.  Still need 1 more as of these announcements
  • Round Up and Hacksaw running 50 miles in 24 hours
  • Sparky is working on registrations for a Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters conference March 19-21 (same week as Mortimer & P200)
  • Linus has the Q next week at Downtown

Prayer Requests:

  • F3 Tick Tock’s family
  • Sister Act’s family
  • The Burr family (from EZ Rider’s church)
  • Gold Digger, Broke, Lil Nugget and family
  • Healing for our country
  • Blart’s M with some medical tests
  • Cougar’s grandma
  • Westside’s grandma

Moleskin:

Keep up the daily push to be better men, husbands, fathers and community leaders.  Proud to be a part of the PAX.

Yabba Dabba Doo

Oh crap!

So on Tuesday Breaker Breaker asked for a fill in Q for TRB due to worn outedness. Time Frame gladly answered the call. YHC has been posting or running a lot lately and contemplated not posting at his own AO but the Lord roused him from the fartsack to get going this morning. It’s a good thing too, Time Frame notified YHC that he couldn’t make the Q on account of some rot gut he’d come into. YHC saw the notice at 5:15 and had to act fast…no problemo! This is what happened.

10 was the number of HIM at TRB this day.  Time to get it on!

Disclaimer

Warmup: Don Quixote, Goofballs

No mosey, stay put and break out the Deck of Death. It’s a Q’s best friend when you don’t have time to put together a weinke. We did one exercise per suit and it went like this.

Clubs – American Hammers

Diamonds – Merkins

Hearts – Side Straddle Hops

Spades – Squats

We got through them all and then started on another round but I can’t remember what those were.

Time! We had a good time and pushed some rock.

Prayer requests: Tic Toc and his family, Sweetheart’s mom Kay, Nutria’s friend, Shell Shock’s company

Jaunt to Martha’s

10 HIMs posted for lovely jaunt to Martha’s and back. Several got EC. No one got lost (Not even Seuss)  Hushpuppy graced us with his presence!  It was truly a great morning for a fellowship mosey.

 

Announcements

Join Roundup and Hacksaw for 50 miles of running fun Saturday in Dallas – Starting at 5:30 – 2 miles each hour!

Extinction Run CSAUP – 2/13 – at Primal Brewery – Beat the clock – Drink one beer in 13 min then another in 12:45… No wait that’s not right….run a mile in 13min then 12:45 then 12:30 counting down by 15 seconds each mile until you cannot make the time !  Charity $10.00 towards Holy Angels.

 

Prayers:

For our country

Stroganoff’s co-worker who had a stroke

 

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 F3 Gastonia

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑