Well, this has happened to me twice. A Pax had the Q and while talking with another Pax on Saturday, it was confirmed. However, when time was close, they were a no-show. A few people started asking and all I had up my sleeve for a backup was the blockbuster. Sargento manned up and said how about the ABC where you do an exercise based on the letter as long as I would do the backblast. It was set and away we went. Apparently when put on chopping block, you cant think of an exercise beginning with that letter. Of course, B was for burpees, but thinking three ahead, when L popped up, YHC said lunges. That was to some shagrin because LBCs were right there. X came around and an extra lap was noted. It was a fun disaster.

Lessons to learn:
1. Always have a spare Q should this happen.
2. If you are on the list and know, SHOW UP. People depend on you. If not, let someone know ahead of time.
3. Follow up with your Qs, regardless if you have heard they are good. I didn’t learn the first time, but I have the second. It wont happen again men and I apologize for the lack of leadership on the part of the Site Q.
4. Its getting hot…..Wear deodorant you smelly rascals!!!! This is not amusing.

Announcements: Convergences this Saturday at Midoriyama at 0700, hike up Grandfather on June 23 (get with hot for teacher), 2nd F next weekend.

Prayers: Coworker losing his mother, Abbas shoulder, Flush’s knee, Lynn Hamm, BBs uncle aneurism and stroke, Graduates

As the pax began to gather for another Monday morning beatdown the air became thick with anticipation.  With the dawn of 5:30 and no FNGs the disclaimer was made  “This will not be fun”.  Lots of disgruntled mumblechatter was sensed in the background but YHC was on a mission – wake this pack of men up and get them a good workout in to start the week – so without further delay…

Warm up:

SSH x20IC

Merkins x 20IC

LBC x 20 IC

Don Q x 20IC

Warm-up continued:  Mosey to the KFC rock quarry for some coupons.  Mumble chatter was overhead about size mattering and I reminded them that size always matters unfortunately I’m not sure all pax took this to heart as rocks were selected.

Then across the street for 11s – Overhead press and Merkins – a real crowd pleaser

With the pax starting to sweat it was time to mosey to old Harris Teeter parking lot for some wall sits with coupon – overhead press and straight out presses x2

The quads were really burning so it was time to shake them out with some Dora but with a twist – “Descending Dora” – 300 squats (with rock) 200 Merkins and 100 “Rockies” (Burpee with Rock).  This was quite ambitious and YHC was humbled by the rock – so time to Omaha after 50-70.  I felt it was quite the accomplishment so why not take a victory lap around the parking lot before heading back to return rock to its home and mosey back to pelicans. But wait whats this – a lonely little wall – how about some attention for this wall with 2 sets of dips x20 IC.  Astonishingly we still made it back for some Mary with Freddy Mercury, flutters and WWII sit ups.  At this point time was called and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Announcements: – convergence at Midoriyama 7am this Saturday

Prayer requests: T-square’s friend who recently lost her battle with pancreatic cancer

As always it was my pleasure to serve – Until next time

Defib

I was excited to Q on this beautiful Friday morning and had what I thought was going to be a fun set of exercises…definitely going to be an arm day! I was running a little behind and got there later than normal but still had a few minutes to spare. The Pax didn’t disappoint and we had a nice crowd with 2 FNG’s for the fun I had planned.

I did a quick disclaimer and the pledge along with the usual SSH’s, some mercans and some LBC’s…let’s mosey.

The Thang

We arrived at the roundabout and did 3 sets of dips and mercans…15 of each, 10 of each and 5 of each. Let’s mosey to the parking deck.

Here is where the math lesson began. We did 2 exercises and then we squared the level we were on for the amount of burpees we had to do.

Level 1 – 25 LBC’s and WW II sit ups….only level 1 so 1 burpee

Level 2 – 20 regular mercans and diamond mercans…4 burpees

Level 3 – Bear crawl the length of the parking deck…9 burpees

Level 4 – 30 SSH and Imperial Walkers…now it starts to get real fun, 16 burpees

Level 5 – 20 calf raises and squats…25 burpees

Level 6 – only forgot what we did here as we did not do what was on my list…but the main thing is we did 36 burpees!

As we were coming down the parking deck Whoopee came up with a name for squaring the exercises we do as you go up the deck…Squaravator.  So, feel free to use this on any workouts going forward using the deck. The Pax loved the burpees…might have to become a regular; thanks Whoopee!

We ran down to the bottom level and in honor of the beatdown Sister Act  put on me Sat we did 2 sets of hipslappers. Mosey back to the roundabout for 2 more sets of dips. Our arms were shot and we were about out of time; so back to the Pavilion we went for a few minutes of Mary.

Not sure what all was done other then Whoopee calling out for 5 Wolverine burpees which brought our count to 96 burpees overall.  After we finished our round of Mary we did 4 more burpees to get us to an even 100.

We had our time of closing and named our FNG’s. Welcome to the group Round-up and Serena (found out we already have one of these, so it was mentioned to possibly rename Serena. I’ll leave that to the Pax.)

It was an honor and a privilege to lead and workout beside you men…keep pushing that rock!

16 warriors ventured out into the humid Saturday morning rain forest that south Gaston County has become of late. There was a beatdown awaiting and it went like this as Quiche and Sargento rolled in late from a run to join us.

Mosey up the street to a secluded parking lot to see if Sargento and Quiche could find us for a COP and other activities;

SSH X 20

IW X20

Cherry Pickers X 20

Merkins X15

Peter Parker X 20

Mountain Climbers X 20

Burpee suicides in parking lot to end (run two spaces, back one, do a burpee)

Squat suicides in parking lot to end (run two spaces, back one, 5 squats)

Mosey on up to the first corner where Sargento and Quiche found us. YHC had an over/under on how long it would take them.

At corner:

Wall squats, jump squats, Mike Tysons, 3 sets 10X, 15X, 20X

Mosey on to the Middle School.

Partner up

P1 – Run one way to the end of the school walk, 10 hand release merkins

P2 – Run the opposite way to the Corner of knowledge, 20 American hammers.

10 handslap merkins each partner when they meet back at the start. Flapjack and repeat

Steups, inclined merkins, dips X 10 each

Burpee broad jumps to the first set of steps. Frog hop to the next. This was hard.

Return to where this started, the Corner of Knowledge

Line up for our signature event – Bear Crawl slalom. YHC decided with large number of pax to do this in the front of the middle school. Gave everybody one crawl which was a long crawl, then we did an agility run. then we did a simple hop over the rest of the planked pax.

10 SSH

10 regular squats

Mosey back to the Corner. Then mosey down to Heart Break Hill to finish off!

Set 1:

10 SSH

Run the hill

10 hand release merkins

Set 2:

10 SSH

Run the Hill

10 merkins

Set 3:

10 SSH

Run the hill

20 LBTC (LBCs with a twist)

Done, mosey to the Yank.

NMM:

This was a pretty sold beat down. Everybody got their money’s worth for sure! YHC wanted it like that today. Dedicated the workout to my uncle Roy Fortner over in Huntersville who at 94 appears headed for a nursing home and I expect the end of his life on Earth, Just his WW II exploits alone are incredible. As a P-38 pilot he flew @ 20 escort missions with the 15th Air Force including the high level Ploesti missions in late summer 1944. Was promoted into an elite squadron doing Recon/BDA/OSS missions under direct command of the Operational Officer of the 15th (General Born). Flew a lot up the Danube and got shot at by the Russians as much as the Germans. Shot down three times, was MIA for about a week hiding out in Italian barns before a US I&R platoon rescued him. Led the 15th Air Force mission over Berlin March 24, 1945. Went on to an even bigger life from there. We’ll talk about that next week and we’ll do it because it is all about impact. He had it. We need to see what that really looks like to know what the words mean.

I hope he doesn’t linger in that damn home. If he can thrive OK. But his life is complete. We still have a lot to do. He is the standard for that in my world.

Tesla