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The Monday Night Seagull

January 19, 2016 / Mayor / 0 Comments

Some things in an F3 work out are predictable. Some of the predictability is nice when you know someone will be running or is not a runner. When BA Qs, you know exposure to the elements is limited, especially when its cold or raining. However, when a Monday night seagull flies over and drops something on you due to an illness and asks you to swap….you know you’re going to be out in the cold and you onion up and do it.

Disclaimer
Everyone pulls up and STAYS in their cars until 5:25 not wanting to risk unnecessary frost bite. We start with the disclaimer, however, it is unsaid that if you are out here, you are clearly an idiot and not to be trusted.

Warm Up
SSH x25 IC (Q moves around circle so PAX gets some one on one), Merkins x10 IC, Don Quixote’s x10 IC

Pledge

The Thang
Thanks to Jobu for unlocking the gate, we all mosey down to the steps into the dark gloom and frozen tundra of the field and line up on the goal line. The Pax advance to each 10 yard line to do an exercise of their choice (must do burpees, squats, mountain climbers, merkins)with the number on the yard line. The rest can be a Pax choice. i.e 10 burpees at the 10 yard line, 20 merkins at the 20 yard line and so on.
At the other goal line when complete, we circle up for some abs. French fries x10 IC, LBCs x 10 IC, Flutter kicks x10 IC and windshield wipers x10 IC.
Run a lap – – Rinse and repeat going the other way. That’s a total of 500 reps of exercises on the goal line and 80 ab exercises. Some of the cadence counts were difficult due to lack of breath by the Q, but the Pax perseveres.

Due to the cold temperature, I keep having to reach in my pants to find my Weinke, but it is always there folded up in my pocket for reference.

After running another lap, the Pax is informed that thanks to a post from Dr. Feelgood congratulating the Q on his re-election and notes the next exercise is celebratory burpees = to % of vote. Q had 90% of the votes, so everyone starts doing burpees until one of us gets 90. Dolph was the first one to get there (Tclaps) after 15 minutes of straight up burpees, however, half way through the Pax grows rowdy and start some serious mumble chatter (or GRUMBLE CHATTER – I may see if I can get this added to the Lexicon) about their current situation and mutiny was suggested. Several others were in the 80s and 70s. Tclaps to everyone for sticking with it because no Omaha was being called. With time running out, we mosey back to the flag for the Name-O-Rama.

Announcements
F3 Gastonia is collecting canned food for CAM (Crisis Assistance Ministry) by 1/30/16. Roscoe has additional information and wants to get some Pax together to deliver and strike up a relationship. Please bring the items to your site Qs.

BOM

Gentlemen – it was a pleasure to lead and I am grateful you showed up.

Q101 & Q201 @GASHOUSE

January 17, 2016 / CSPAN / 0 Comments

Conditions were better than expected with overcast and cold at 40 degrees

Started with a BOM and Disclaimer = I am not a professional

Quick discussion on the momentum built @F3Gastonia and how quickly they are building from “Nomad” to “Region”

Q101 (disclosure- this doc is plagiarized with all credit going to others):

PHILOSOPHY

Q – Pax Relationship: The unspoken social contract between the Pax and a Q: “We will follow until you give us a reason not to”. The Pax are very forgiving toward a new Q. Most have been through it and understand the anxiety.

PREPARATION

Considerations for the first few Qs:

Launch a quick grenade over twitter, let local Pax know that this is your VQ, most F3 vets enjoy being part of a VQ Pax.
Simplicity/Complexity and Originality
1. Keep the Weinke simple. The fewer moving parts the better. Many first-time Q Weinke’s are too complicated.
2. Keep it familiar. New exercises or sets that require more than the briefest of explanations usually lead to confusion.
3. Don’t be shy about stealing a Weinke, or parts of a Weinke, from another more-experienced Q.

Go with strengths: “Don’t Q it if you can’t do it.”

Cadence Counting – PRACTICE THIS, OUT LOUD, BEFORE FIRST Q
1. Next exercise is [brief pause], the merkin.

The Pax then repeats the exercise called.
Speak loudly so all Pax can hear. You are in charge.
1. Start(ing) position [brief pause],
Not “exercise” position. Start position.
The “Move” is to get the Pax to the position required to begin exercise. The “Move” is not a command to begin exercising.
1. In cadence [brief pause],
In cadence simply means the Q counts the movements (1-2-3) and the Pax calls out the repetitions in unison (“One!”).
The Q counts should correspond to a distinct movement in the exercise. It is in rhythm. For example, for a merkin: “1” is the movement to the down position, “2” is the movement to the plank position, “3” is the movement back to the down position, the Pax call of “One!” is the move back to plank position.
The Q indicates the completion of an exercise by a higher inflection on his last repetition.

See OBT & Dredd’s excellent tutorial on the how and why of cadence counting: http://f3nation.com/2012/02/22/f3-tv-how-to-count/

NOTE: When a Q does not lead an exercise in cadence that would normally be done that way, he is giving away his authority to lead the Pax. He is implicitly telling the Pax that he not able to count in cadence or is not willing to learn.

Weinke review with Site Q or experienced Q. Not required, but a good idea for a vet to check for potential issues.

Too long, too short: It takes a few times go get a good feel for how long your Weinke will take to execute. Be flexible if running too long and have a couple of stand-by ideas in mind in case you run long. Think through transitions from one set to another. Minimize dead time, standing around.

Tap a vet – if you need time to get unsmoked or burned through Weinke in 30 minutes, there’s no shame in asking a vet to lead Mary or the next section of the workout.

EXECUTION

FNG inquiry and Disclaimer – every workout should start with an FNG Inquiry and Disclaimer
1. Disclaimer:
  1. Why: We want to disclaimer in front of Pax because having witnesses adds a layer of protection above asking if they’ve read it on the website.
  2. What: Main points in your own words:
    1. I am not a professional
    2. This is self-policing: Stop or modify the exercises as required

Take control—be the leader. Be assertive, don’t mumble. If something doesn’t work and you have to audible, acknowledge it and move on to the next exercise. Don’t apologize, just move on.

Observation – Do your best to keep an eye on the pax during the workout to see if you are losing people, either from it being too easy, too confusing, or too hard. During your first few Qs, it is hard enough just to make it through the workout. Ask your Site Q or another experienced Q to keep an eye on things and whisper in your ear if needed.

FOLLOW UP

Twitter counts – check with Site Q on whether he or the Q will tweet the count. Remember to use workout tag (i.e., #TheArmoryF3 also include @F3Gastonia) and the #F3Counts

Backblast –
1. Part of the workout Qs responsibility to post the Backblast, not the Site Q. The Site Q may volunteer to post the Qs first workout on his behalf but that is at his discretion .
2. Get backblast credentials BEFORE first Q so that you are prepared to write up BB when it’s done. The website interface is not difficult and will take only a few minutes to learn. Here again, your Site Q will be an invaluable aid in assisting you to post your first BB.
3. Get login credentials from Bandit

Post Mortem – follow up with your Site Q about what went right, what could be improved, what was a disaster, etc. Seek out honest feedback from other veteran Q and Pax. The best way to improve is to address your weaknesses head on.

0700-0800 #Gashouse did a workout and felt like we did enough flying squirrels and broad jumps, “The Swiper” took it easy on us, @F3Gastonia has quality #mumblechatter and as we discussed Second F creates the workout comradery. It was great to see to see Gastonia leaders jumping into the ring to Q. Fun morning… and I always recommend gloves

Q201 was a scaled back for @F3Gastonia

Get more FNG’s (#sadclowns need friends)
Get more men involved with Q (F3 = developing male leadership)
Develop your regional leadership group (all men can support)
Rotate Q’s often (this keeps the PAX interested)
Change your location at each AO (get them running)
Warmup and cooldown are essential to reducing injuries
Q’ing improves your leadership
Enjoy your Q, let your personality show, thi sis part of the fellowship

NMM

Thank you for the invite for Q-School Q and the great attendance

@F3Gastonia has got the momentum, keep posting

Appreciate Swiper for getting involved and helping out, and providing commentary #HIM

Get on twitter (yea BA, you guys have potential with the pictures, keep up the good work)

AYE!

CSPAN

I said no running

January 15, 2016 / Whoopee / 0 Comments

Our kitchen is being painted so our entire downstairs has been turned upside down this week and the smell is almost overwhelming. “Why does that matter to me?” you might ask….Well, ironically I had a hard time finding my running shoes to make it this am for the NO RUNNING workout. I actually made it there ON TIME ( and about 3 seconds before Dr. Feelgood) but not early enough to stretch so my WU again turned into a true WU instead of my usual speed WU. I got to the PAX and looked at my phone and it was exactly 0530…then along comes the FNG I have been EHing for many months. The purpose of the NO RUNNING workout was to be inclusive of a friend with a bad back-the same guy a few of us have done some mud runs with in the past who is now confined to exercises that don’t hurt his back. He still manages to sweat it out at the YMCA between quarterly injections in his back. He is the type that you would want with you in a foxhole (just an expression, never actually been in a foxhole myself, keep your comments to yourself-I said foxhole, not fox’s hole). He would definitely be leading the pax if he was out here regularly. Hot for Teacher, if you are reading this, I’ll say it again…you made my week posting this morning-glad you were there and hope you got enough kool aid to bring you back again in the future.

Here’s what I remember…

WU: 10 reps IC of the following: SSH, Squat, Flutter, Merkins, Don Quixote, Gorilla Humpers, Scorpion Dry Docks, SSH (short round #2 just because I like them so much).

Pledge of Allegiance

The NO RUNNING Thang:

Lunge to the Bridge…..wow, that is longer than I remember….are we there yet???…..I hate Whoopee…..OKLAHOMA. Stop half way at entrance to the Gov’t Building and do sets of Drop Down’s (R leg on bench/wall behind and stationary front lunge/squat on L leg) X 10 each leg then Derkin X 10. We did 2 rounds of this.

Continue lunge toward bridge……OKLAHOMA-turn right before bridge and go to wall for Donkey Kicks (aka BB&Ts) X 10 (or was it 20?) then 20 Squats followed by Hip Slappers (my new fav) X 10 (or was it 20?) then 20 squats. Think we did 2 sets of this with unreliable counting by Whoopee, sorry guys. Halfway thru, I needed some air so I polled the Pax for a joke (hip slapper…..joke….sorry). Hot for Teacher thankfully provided a (moderately long) joke about a rich guy, a naked woman, and a bunch of quarters. I laughed but not sure I could tell you if it was funny to be honest. I was just glad to catch my breath for a bit. Think there was a wardrobe malfunction somewhere along here and I was accused of impersonating Daisy Duke……real or just a fantasy of mine…….who knows? My eyes are up here!!!

I am just now realizing that I misread my Weinke (probably during the Daisy Duke hiatus) and left out a few minutes of Mary with a trip to the ATM that was designed to provide a core beating…..will save that for next time.

We then ran…scratch that…lunged to the center part of the parking lot and partnered up. I introduced the Pax to the “Slowjangle Biscuit with Blueberries.” This is not to be confused with the Bojangle Biscuit. Each partner lunged around the lot in different directions and did 10 Merkins midway then upon meeting said partner on back side of the loop proceeded with 10 Burpees (slapping double high 5’s was optional and encouraged-thanks Roscoe) then continued with the lunge around the circle and back to the start. We got crazy on the first half and added a little Chinook for the inbound lunge but ran out of fuel for the second half. I was not too hungry so 1 Slowjangle Biscuit was plenty for me this morning.

Time was running short so we lunged back to the Gov’t Building for some Dips and Derkins (X ? 2 sets of 20 each, I think). This was followed by (or preceded by?) 6 minutes of pain: 1 minute of Merkins, 2 minutes of Lunges, 3 minutes of Flutters (AMRAP during that amount of time). I OKLAHOMA’d so much this morning, I cannot remember the order. We then lunged back to start for about 45 seconds of plank until time was up.

Mission Accomplished…no running and FNG Hot For Teacher was present.

I have been thinking about the holiday posts by other F3 pax, specifically about the “word” for the year…a word to keep in mind that will help guide decisions and actions this year. Many words have been considered, however the image that kept creeping back into my mind was a bowling ball. Not sure if that is from my tendency to be a “disrupter” or from going bowling recently with Dr. Feelgood and our combined 7 kids during the holidays. I know, really sounds strange but what I got from this is IMPACT. That is the word that I have finally chosen for 2016. Never done this before, so will probably need some pax to keep me accountable. My goal is to have more of an impact on my family, my friends, my coworkers (sorry Defib) and those who spend time in my general vicinity during 2016. Hot for Teacher, you are the first victim of my impact for 2016. Hope to see you out here again soon. I’ll lunge instead of running during any workout we are here together.

Not sorry for the long post, had to get this out. It’s my therapy when the house is quiet and I have been smelling paint fumes for the past 2 hours. Looking forward to how F3 Gastonia grows in 2016 and proud to be a part of this group of great guys.

Whoopee

Becoming Daisy Duke

January 14, 2016 / Roscoe / 0 Comments

I misplaced my Weinke before leaving work yesterday and had to recreate one late last night. Fortunately, I was inspired because our infamous Twitter Q’s preblast picture of Daisy Duke and a threat that YHC would sport some short demin shorts in the cold gloom was an inspiration and a new Weinke was generated in short order. The threat was not to be after I unsuccessfully scoured my closet for some old faded 501’s that I could take the scissor’s to prior to the 0530 start time.

We started right on time with a series of SSH, Imperial Walker, Prayer Squat (or put your hands in your sweatshirt pockets squat), and the Pledge of Allegiance.

We moseyed quickly to the parking lot above the BB&T. The second Weinke tried to disappear but was recovered on the cold ground by Dolph who graciously returned it. He was given a reduction of one rep in one of the below exercises.

You can’t tie your shirt above your navel like Daisy if you don’t have ripped abs, so the ABORAMA began:

Good morning darlings 50
LBC 20
V Hold 25 seconds
Flutter kick 45
Mountain Climbers 20
Superman hold 25 seconds
6 inches and overhead hold on your six 25 seconds
Side plank dips both sides 10 IC
Side oblique crunches 10 OYO each side
Backstroke 10 IC
WW1 sit-ups 15 IC
Mountain Climbers 20 IC
Homer/Marge
Superman hold 25 sec
Plank for one minute

Now that we were ripped with no love handles and ready for the half shirts, we moseyed to the Goat Pavilion. Partner up. P1 does 2 pull ups and runs to P2 who is doing ten merkins and holding a plank at the parking lot. Switch.
Then 4 pull ups, then 6 pull ups, then 8 pull ups then 6 pull ups, then 4 pull ups, then 2 pull ups. The roof of the Pavilion serves as a really good pull up station with one flaw….it is freezing cold and takes the warmth from your fingers on the first rep. Wahh.

After the upper body work, we needed to work on the glutes. You don’t look good in jean shorts without nice glutes. Mosey to the top of the driveway near City hall. Lunge walk two light poles and back one light pole. We began squats in cadence while waiting for the alarm to go off, signaling two minutes to go. We did fifty squats which seemed like forever before we heard the alarm and returned to the parking lot for a final round of Flutter kicks until YHC called time at 0615.

A few prayer requests and announcements before the COT and closing prayer.

A pleasure to lead again this morning after not much sleep. Thanks for tolerating it. Now that you have the Daisy Bod, you need to remind people that “your eyes are up here”.

Roscoe

Mercury Rising… well just a little.

January 13, 2016 / Bandit / 0 Comments

As the Q arrives, Defib and Outhouse are just finishing up their EC 4 mile run. Studs! As others arrive, 12 in total, there was some discussion that 34 degrees was feeling a bit balmy with the deep freeze experienced at our weekday AO’s recently. Thanks to Outhouse for keeping time this morning (really need to find that watch again). Ok… time to start.

Warmup this morning consisted of…

SSH IC x20
Toy Soldier IC x20
Don Quioxte IC x20
Merkins IC x10
LBC IC x20

Pledge

Mosey to baseball pavillion at Martha Rivers. Inspired by(certainly not modelled after) the Murph, the plan today was to complete 100, 200 and 300 reps of some excercises (Merkins, LBCs and Squats in this case) in 10 sets with some short sprints in between. We could definately tell that the mercury was rising as evidenced by the pile of dirty laundry accumulating in the center of the COP. Glad we got that under control quickly… was getting worried.

We completed…

Merkins IC x10
LBC IC x 20
Squats IC x 30
Sprint, Run, Mosey, or Crawl down sidewalk and back
Rinse & Repeat x5

This took quite a while longer than expected, and at the current rate did not seem like we would finish the full 10 sets promised. To be fair, since we did all exercises with a 4-count cadence, ends up we reached the same goal (in spite of YHC chronic counting issues). At the gleeful satisfaction of the pax, YHC calls “Oklahoma”. Only to disappoint the pax with a bear crawl around the pavillion. Not sure about anyone else, but at this point, my legs were spent from the squats. All looks good on paper, does’t it?

With 15 minutes to go, we mosey back to Brewsters for about 9 minutes of Mary with some portions brought to you directly from the pax. It went something like this…

LBC
WWII Sit Ups
Dying Cockroach
Freddie Mercuries
Flutter Kicks
Homer & Marge
Mountain Climbers
Heels to the Heavens

At 6:15 we wrap up with announcements (see email blast for details), Name-o-rama (including induction ceremony for Drone) and BOM.

As always, appreciate everyone I get to do this with. One year ago, would have never considered that I would be leading a bunch of fit guys in workouts before the sun comes up. Keep pushing the rock!

Aye!

– Bandit

#BB THE Storm

January 12, 2016 / Dolph_Gashouse / 0 Comments

11 Pax appeared on the chilly gloom to run the Storm.
Warmup: 10 IC; SSH, TS, MERKINS, IW, TSS, TGU
TS- toysoldier
IW- imperial walker
TSS- trunk side stretch
TGU- turkish get up
After the warmup the pax grabbed a partner and dumbell or kettlebell courtesy of the SCHS weightroom and BA, mosey to the field and drop weight on goal line. Pledge

The Thang:
Run one lap and include the home side stairs gather back at goal line. With partner aggregate counts
50 TGU with weight/ run to 50yd line 5 burpees; omaha 35
50 Plyo Crawly Merkins/ run to 40yd line 10 squats with weight
100 CDD/ run to 30yd line 20 single count sitting flutter kicks
Run one lap include home side stairs; collect weight return to weight room

Little bit a Mary:
Tricep pushups 10 IC
Side Plank Updowns 8 IC R/L
LBC 15 IC
Joboo’s 10 IC
French Fries 10 IC

Moleskin:
Nice way to start the day! Thanks guys for the opportunity to lead, always a pleasure. TGU’s harder than I thought, hince the Omaha. Defib thanks for the #Push. Nice work by all Pax! TSquare, thanks for the Prayer. Till the next one.

#PB; The Storm is Coming

January 11, 2016 / Dolph_Gashouse / 0 Comments

See you in the Gloom.

Blockamania 2016

January 11, 2016 / Godfather / 0 Comments

Introducing first, at a combined weight of five-hundred ninety-five pounds, hailing from Vandalia, Ohio and Southern Pines, North Carolina, your Q’s for this morning’s beat down: BA and Godfather!

Introducing second, at a combined weight of (approximately) 3600 pounds: the rest of the PAX who showed up for a guaranteed no-running, cinder-block beatdown.

Godfather began the match with a mosey to the back-country farm at the entrance to the Schiele Museum’s nature trail. The Warm-Up consisted of 20 Side-Straddle Hops, 50 Moroccan Night Clubs, 20 Flutter Kicks, 20 Freddie Mercury’s, and 20 Low Slow Squats all in cadence.

Godfather made his way to the corner and tagged in BA for the next part of the beatdown. The PAX moseyed back to the parking lot, partnered up, and took one cinder-block to the bottom of the big hill on the nature trail. Counting on aggregate, the group would complete 50 Berkins, 100 Blockies, 150 French Curls, 200 Bicep Curls, and 300 Overhead Press using the cinder-blocks while the other partner runs up the hill and completed a random exercise to a count of five and returned to the bottom to switch out with their partner.

With most of the PAX reeling, BA decided to stay in the match and continue the beat down with an original exercise. The group moseyed to the bridge and split into two groups. One half of the group would complete 5 Merkins on one side of the bridge while the other half completed 5 Carolina Dry Docks. Between each exercise, the group would either run over the bridge or through the stream to get to the next exercise. This exercise ended after five rounds.

BA made his way to the ropes and tagged Godfather back into the match and he would stay in until the end of the match. Making their way to the benches that circled the gazebo, the PAX completed 50 Dips on their own. Next, they made their way to the stone wall and completed 10 Inverted Merkins aka Balls to the Wall aka BTTW in cadence.

Moseying back to the cinder-blocks that had been resting at the bottom of the hill, the PAX got back with their partner and completed a Duck Walk up the hill with the cinder-block hanging between their legs while the other partner lunged up the hill. When one partner got tired, the other partner would tag in.

Back in the parking lot, the PAX circled up for some continuous Mary, which included Hello Dolly, Rosalita, Homer to Marge, World War sit-ups and French Fries.

With time expiring and no clear winner, the referee was forced to call the match a draw. There was no clear winner, but the PAX were certain to have a painful reminder of the beatdown for next few days.

2016 Word – Sacrifice

January 9, 2016 / Longshanks / 6 Comments

The past couple of years, Santini has challenged our F3 brothers to choose one word to focus on that year to help make a meaningful impact in their life and the people closest to them. See here – http://f3nation.com/2015/12/28/your-one-word-for-2016/

Some intial words I came up withe were GOALS, PLANS, and SERVE with each being an acronym for something else. I saw Santini at church last week and told him my word would be PLANS. He asked me to search deeper. So deeper I would search and spend some time in prayer trying to decide on a word. The word Sacrifice kept coming to mind (it was part of the S in each of the acronyms above). So I decided that Sacrifice would be my word for the year.

Definition of sacrifice

: the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone
destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else
: something given up or lost <the sacrifices made by parents>

Hebrews 13:16

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

So I started looking at my life and searching for areas where I could make some sacrifices for the betterment of my family. I looked at finances, family, work, and other areas of my life and made a list of sacrifices.

Would give up on always trying to prove I was right when having a disagreement with my wife and stepkids. Sometimes keeping the peace is is better than having an argument over something stupid just to prove that you are right. In the end nobody wins.
Sacrifice having the newest running shoes or running gear, or more F3 shirts, etc. so I can pay off all of my credit card debt by the end of the year (hold me to this guys #accountability)
Giving up what I want to do everyday after work, so I can spend more quality time with my family and actually plan things to do with the family.
Sacrifice my wants to line up with what God wants of me.

So this morning before the Joe Davis Memorial Run, I saw Santini and told him word. His response “that’s a dangerous a word.” It is a dangerous word, but a word I know that will challenge me throughout the year. I didn’t know at the time what this word would truly mean, until about 45 minutes later and 1.25 miles into Joe Davis 10k. At that point, my arrhythmia started to flare up. I made the decision to stop running and DNF the race (I know not very F3 like to quit). But I could tell even before the race that something wasn’t right. F3 brother after F3 brother slowed down as they passed me to ask if I was okay. Told them to continue on (as I know how hard most of them trained for this race). As I was coming up one of the hills to walk back to WEP, I saw Double D come back to get me. No man left behind was his response. In short, he sacrificed his time (which I know was going to be pretty good), to make sure that I got back to WEP and that I was medically taken care of. It hammered home a point to me that Sacrifice goes 2 ways. We often think about what we must give up and seldom realize what others give up for us. It really hammered home that my word for the year is two fold. Not only to recognize what I need to give up but what others have given up for me, with the ultimate sacrifice being Jesus laying down his life for the forgiveness of not only my sins but all of yours as well.

MOLESKIN – WHY F3 WORKS

There I was, Disappointed!! First race of 2016 and my first DNF ever. I was bummed not only for me, but for Double D as well. After being cleared by Medics, I told Double D we should go towards the Finish Line to cheer everyone on as they finished. I know it would bring me some joy (and also some hurt) to see my F3 brothers finish. One by one they came across the line asking what happened to me. And I told them. And this is why F3 works. It wasn’t a bunch of guys calling you a p*ssy for quitting or telling you that you should have just sucked it up and finished. It was a group of guys that were sincerely concerned with how I was doing and feeling. Where else will a group of guys do that? And it really doesn’t matter if its a 5k/10k/half marathon or something else going on in your home life, work life, etc. These guys are always here for you. It’s why F3 works!! Thank you Double D for helping to reinforce my word for 2016.

John 15:13 – Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends

Gashouse Downtown

January 8, 2016 / Roscoe / 0 Comments

Our first downtown workout of 2016 since we went to the awesome 5^th Year convergence on New Year’s Day.

Our Twitter Q sent a pre-blast that may have been threatening to some, which may be why the PAX were slow to arrive in the Gloom or not show at all. To paraphrase Neil Peart (my apologies Neil) “If you choose not to decide to post, you still have made a choice…to fartsack #Freewill.

It felt balmy compared to the last several days with temps this morning around 39 degrees. We had an F3 guest (Scandal) from the Raleigh/Durham area and after some welcomes Defib informed us it was time to begin.

We started with SSH as three sets of headlights entered the lot. By the time we hit 30 IC, two more had joined with an additional walking in making ten PAX for the morning glory. Slow squats x10, Merkins x10, LBC’s x10, CDD’s x10, and Imperial Walkers x10 followed by the Pledge of Allegiance

A quick mosey west around the parking lot and back east past the Pavilion to the Wall of Pain.

Wall sits to recover briefly and then

Wallwalkers: The PAX lie flat with heels on the wall and push up to walk up the wall to vertical and back down 5 OYO

Wall sits with overhead presses IC

Balls to the Wall/Verkins: Walk up the wall as before but at the top do presses OYO to failure. A disclaimer was made prior to the exercise warning of the possibility of busting your skull on the concrete. When the PAX reached failure, it was a quick collapse to the ground in a crumpled mess, or maybe that was just me.

Wall sits with front raises IC

Derkins on the wall: The PAX walked up the wall to 30 degrees and completed 10 IC

This is where we were supposed to do some BB&T’s (formerly Donkey Kicks thanks to Whoopee) but I didn’t consult the Weinke. Q fail!

We moseyed around again to the “art” sculpture and circled up. There we completed:

Ten single leg lunges each leg with the rear leg on a bench. We learned that Defib can’t count in sequence and Dr. Feelgood has a premature calculation problem. Mumblechatter about the squats being a ski exercise so that spawned an idea to plan a ski trip for a 2^nd F when the snow runs deep. Sugar Mountain in the next couple months for sure.

Next was a wave of merkins for maybe 10-15 until some fell out.

Transition to the six and did some ab work. I can’t remember but I know we did 20 WW1 sit-ups followed by a V Up and hold, followed by the backstroke 10 IC. We then walked out a plank very far and at some point something starting hurting in my hip so we moseyed again, running to the parking deck and up the floors to the top.

A set of 10 CDD’s and 30 Flutter kicks and then ran back down the deck to the bridge.

We partnered up. P1 would bear crawl to the fourth light pole while P2 would do minimum 25 squats. Switch. This was supposed to be an aggregate to 100, meaning each Pax would complete two sets of each but first the P 2’s went all EC to the 5^th light pole and then made another Bear Crawl so it ended up being 3 rounds with 150 Squats. Good work!

Mosey back to the Pavilion for some curb walkers, 360 pushups on the curb, and a 7 count burp and merk in honor of Whoopee.

YHC totally screwed up the Nameorama by forgetting to do it, (2nd Q fail) but we hit some announcements and prayer requests which are:

Announcements:

1^st Anniversary CSAUP April 9^th. Will need RSVP ASAP for t-shirt orders. Will be Mudgear and good quality which is what you would expect from the Gashouse but the timeline will be tight! Let me know if you are a hard commit and want a shirt!
Scandal (Patrick Walker) from Raleigh/Durham invited us to a CSAUP in Durham called the Bull. January 23^rd 0600 hours.
Dolph is looking to take a clown car to seize the Ghost Flag in Denver I believe. This will be Saturday morning. DM Dolph for instructions:

Prayers for Outhouse’s mom on a pending scan and for Stroganoff’s cousin and family.
A pleasure to lead again and enjoy the benefits of this great group of men!

F3 Gastonia