Category: Backblast (Page 404 of 904)

Welcome to Gastonia’s best running AO.

The Pledge

We all ran – the most familiar route to Martha and back.

COT

• Announcements
• Prayer Request

YHC closed us out in prayer

Birthday Q? Who in the world came up with such an idea any way? It’s my 50th, so the idea is simple … do as many things as possible in reps of … 50!

The Warmup
5 – SSH IC = 10
5 – MNC IC = 10
5 – Gravel Pickers IC = 10
5 – Imperial Walkers = 10
5 – Abe Vagoda’s = 10
For a total of … you guessed it, 50 reps

The Thang
Let’s Start … at Mt Holly Middle
10 – Burpees … Run a Lap
10 – Squats … Run a Lap
10 – Kick Backs … Run a Lap
10 – Merkins … Run a Lap
10 – Jump Squats … Run a Lap
25 – American Hammers IC = 50

Let’s Mosey … to Ida Rankin
Rinse & Repeat the 5 Exercises & 5 Laps
25 – Freddy Mercury’s IC = 50

Let’s Mosey … to Wells Fargo
Rinse & Repeat the 5 Exercises & 5 Laps
25 – Flutter Kicks IC = 50

Let’s Mosey … to BB&T
Rinse & Repeat the 5 Exercises
No time for the Lap at this stop
25 – Dying Cockroaches IC = 50

Let’s Mosey … to the Library
Rinse & Repeat the 5 Exercises & only 3 Laps
50 – LBC’s

Psalm 150 … Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord!

In the midst of the chaos that is the world that we live in … let’s not get caught up in all the complaining. Let’s be men who make a difference and set the standard … and what better way, than praising the Lord always in all ways!

Let’s Mosey … back to Mt Holly Middle
We closed out with the Pledge, Praise Reports and Prayer led by Dirt!

If you’re keeping score at home … that was:
50 Warmup Reps
50 Burpees
50 Squats
50 Kick Backs
50 Merkins
50 Jump Squats
50 American Hammers
50 Freddy Mercury’s
50 Flutter Kicks
50 Dying Cockroaches
50 LBC’s
And right at 50 .05 mile laps!

As always … what a blessing and privilege it is to be a part of F3 and be able to lead. You men have continued to push me to be a better man always in all ways!

8 of us on a blistering afternoon at the Premier AO of Gaston County. Where boys become men and some men are scared to come by and there is no numbers in the vocabulary. With the heat turned up and the clock on time, we began.

Warm up!

Arm Stretches

SSH x 10

Arm Circles

Leg Stretches

Cherry Pickers x 10

Mosey to the parking lot by the playground and do a route 66.

Burpees

60% of our Burpees done for the day lets mosey to the parking lot up by the soccer fields to find that the parking lot had some chalk marks on it.  

9 AB exercises and Burpees. 3 rounds. Each exercise is wrote in a parking space. Perform 2 Burpee‘s and the ab exercise in each parking space. Then move onto the next. Burpees for 2 rounds. We moved over to the shade for the last round of Ab work. 

AB exercises are.

Sit-up twist.

Flutter Kicks.

LBC.

Freddie Mercury.

Leg Raises.

American Hammers.

Plank Jacks.

Mnt. Climbers.

Turtle Crunch.

Return to start.

Ab and Burpee challenges complete for the day!!!

A lot of complaining today. But the PAX are stronger for it!! Next time I’ve got a fun one planned!!

Freight service project

Thanks guys!!

9 men showed on nice morning for a nice start to the day!

Warm up!

Arm Stretches

SSH x 10

Arm Circles

Leg Stretches

Cherry Pickers x 10

The Thang

Mosey to the church parking lot next door to find the parking lot had some chalk marks on it.  

9 AB exercises and Burpees. 2 rounds. Each exercise is wrote in a parking space. Perform five Burpee‘s and the ab exercise in each parking space. Then move onto the next. Pause after each round for some stretching. on the second round do 6 Burpees. 

AB exercises are.

Sit-up twist.

Flutter Kicks.

LBC.

Freddie Mercury.

Leg Raises.

American Hammers.

Plank Jacks.

Mnt. Climbers.

Turtle Crunch.

To complete the July AB challenge, we must do a third round of the AB exercises only.

Return to start.

Ab and Burpee challenges complete for the day!!!

Freight service project

Thanks guys!!

The Beer Workout, Part Deux at least for 2021. Officially this is maybe the 5th rendition of The Beer Workout. And like Bill Gates with Microsoft, I’ll just keep thinking of improvements. For this round, I upped the ante, adding empty kegs for the coupons, reaching a new level. A recent test run on Thursday at Midoriyama where it was past working hours, so a few PAX imbibed the challenge quite literally. A few regular guys were absent so with my first ever Q at Old School, let’s go for another round (in Def Leppard’s case, literally). Luckily I have a friend at Standard Distributors and placed the request for empty kegs. He shared anecdotally he gets hit up for free beer multiple times a day. Evidently most folks feel the word ‘distributor’ in their company name means to give it away freely. So my request for empty kegs was a welcome reprieve and he offered as many as I’d like. Next time, I’ll ask for a box truck packed full of them – PAX beware. While chatting Friday morning, I tried another EH on him but he stated he belongs to a non-exercise group called “F-that!” Touche, my friend, and thank you kindly for the coupons. Another trip to the store to replenish supplies and I was prepared for the Old School Q.

The final day of July didn’t offer much reprieve of the humidity despite my car reading 72 degrees. Old School is only a few months old but has a steady following. When I arrived at 0655, there were 7 other men waiting, many had completed extra credit. I really needed groups of 3 to make the Weinke work. The three empty kegs had begun to generate the chatter, increasing the challenge to get the warm-up circle started. I offered a brief disclaimer – “this workout will be different and you should modify as needed – the exercis’in and the drink’in. Then as fate would have it, Def Leppard comes rolling in to give us 9 for The Beer Workout. To quote a rednecks last words: “hey y’all, watch ‘chis!”

Warm-up:

IC x 10: Toy Soldier, Imperial Walker, Side to Side Lunge, Merkins, Hillbillies, and Cotton Pickers

Pledge:

Grab the kegs and head over to the track. To save myself 5 minutes of confusion, I counted the guys into groups of 3 and nudged them to form a line behind their keg. Now – more instructions. Each man would take a turn with the coupon doing roughly 10 reps of the called exercise. The other two PAX without the coupon would perform 10 reps of two different exercises continuously, only breaking until it was their turn with the coupon or the team had finished the set. With me so far? Let’s go:

1. P1: Bear hug the keg and travel across the field and back; P2 & P3: 10 flutters & 10 CDD’s
2. P1: 10 Avalanche (Overhead Pull) the keg then 10 bench press; P2 & P3: 10 leg lifts & 10 merkins
3. P1: 10 Supine Hamstring Curls & 10 Derkins; P2 & P3: 10 Diamonds &10 Squats
4. P1: 10 Plank rollouts & 10 Incline merkins; P2 & P3: 10 SSH & 10 Imperial Walkers
5. P1: 10 Squat + Press & 10 curls; P2 & P3: 10 Burpees & 10 Mtn. Climbers

The group at Old School contains some of the heaviest mumble chatterers among our region (and that’s with Tool Time relocated). So explaining and attempting to do the workout with the keg only intensified the commentary. Round 1, unsurprisingly Seuss runs with a keg that weighs half as much as he does – the man is a beast. Round 2 – I’ve done Avalanches with a block – but a 35 lb keg at it’s size was a bit awkward – we did the best we could. Round 3 – for all you runners out there, the Supine Hamstring Curl is the same as what many of the ladies do with a physio ball. It is more manly to boast “I did them with a keg” so we have that going for us. The movement can greatly strengthen your hamstrings and glutes (hey Sargento – you might want to try this…). Now after the demonstration was properly executed by YHC, Slaw goes into reverse air humps much to his own delight. It’s a mental image the rest of us will work tirelessly the next few days and weeks to remove from our minds. That only spurred on additional COT-esq confessions among the group for the lack of production in certain aspects of our respective Concentrica’s. Unfortunately none of those issues were resolved, only commiserated (we should grab a beer and discuss sometime). Round 4 – the ground dew and forearm sweat increased the challenge of plank roll-outs. Hey – they looked great on YouTube – an area of opportunity. And finally Round 5 – proper form for holding the keg overhead and pressing was yet another challenge. Still, the kegs were a fantastic coupon – one that generated as much 2nd F as 1st F.

Moving on to the substantive portion of the day’s event. I’ll repeat the directions in case we have any newcomers listening in. The cooler contains 11 different beers – each having a label with 2 different exercises on them. As the old field trip song goes: “99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer; take one down, pass it around 99 bottles of beer on the wall…” So put 1:39 seconds on the clock and we’ll decrease by one second each round. Similar to the deck of death workout, each PAX opens the cooler and selects a beer of choice and then they have a decision: opt for the exercises in the allotted time or drink it. If exercise is chosen, the PAX will perform AMRAP of the first exercise until form breaks or they grow tired of it, then begin AMRAPs of the second exercise, going back and forth until the time is called but moving the whole time. Now, the other option, and this is what makes this workout one to remember, the holder of the beer can choose to drink the beer and while drinking, the remaining PAX will run the length of the parking lot. If the drinker doesn’t finish the contents by the time the PAX get back, the exercises are performed. The odds of Splashing Merlot are greatly increased.

With the instructions explained, now we’re into performance. Here are the highlights:

1. Stogie selects Old Tuffy (the NC State Wolfpack beer) – it’s a heavier lager and he wastes no time opening the can and the PAX take off. Beverage is easily drained. Stogie missed Thursday and I believe had every intention of making this move.
2. Def Leppard – fresh off his first beer of the year at Midoriyama trots up to the cooler amid catcalls like an slut  delivering lunch at a construction site. Leppard hesitates briefly and selects his new favorite beverage – the Lime White Claw. He cracks the top and the PAX are sprinting to invoke the penalty on Leppard but he has no trouble finishing. This marks the second drinking event for Leppard in a few days, we may need an intervention – anyone want to sponsor DL for AA?
3. Slaw grabs a Corona – Q fail forgetting the bottle opener, but this is Dallas and when it comes to drinking, they’re creative, smashing the cap off the brick and Slaw drinks like he air humps – fast and furious.
4. Freight – by now he knows the drill and pulls the Fat Tire. As the Q I briefly think, surely he’s not going to pound this, so we’d finally do an exercise (would have been diamond merkins and American Hammers). Freight proves me wrong and rips off the lid and begins chugging – we run again, shortening the distance attempting to invoke the penalty. Freight boasts this isn’t his first rodeo but does admit to the slow digestion of the thick brew.
5. Sister Act – I knew he was disappointed Leppard drank his White Claw, so he grabs the 16 oz Miller Lite – he starts gulping and we run again but finally, the extra 4 ounces proved too much and the penalty was in play. YHC changes the rule for all PAX to join SA with the exercise of merkins and mtn. climbers. Part of my reasoning was to extend the time b/c I didn’t have anything else planned.
6. Pizza Man – opts for the Bud Light, opens it and enjoys it. We run and find upon return he was parched and enjoyed the refreshment. We did Bobby Hurleys and Decline Peter Parkers for 1:38. Pizza Man continues sipping periodically the remainder of the workout.
7. My turn – I pick up the double deuce Natty Ice – I had no intention of drinking that – those days are long passed. We exercised with Big Boys and Flutter Kicks for 1:37.
8. Dr. Seuss – now had I provided a choice of Starbucks or other coffee, Seuss would have been all in on the challenge. Curiously, Seuss picks up the 8 Ball, yes you’re correct, the 40 ounce big daddy Olde English. Last time I was forced to drink that was 1990. No chance Seuss opens it so the timer is 1:36 for 8 count body builders and Ski Abs – as ruthless of a combination as it would to drink that toilet water.
9. Blart took a long neck King of Beers and began chugging – we ran, again.
10. With all the PAX having made choices, now it was time to finish the cooler. No drinking, just the exercises because again, I had time to fill.
    1. Ice House tall boy – Burpees and Mike Tysons – as nasty as the drink itself – 1:35 time on those.
    2. Elysian Space Dust 9% IPA – this was in the cooler in case Huck posted – he didn’t so we did planks and cdds for 1:34

We had about 5 minutes of time – I thought about calling it but Pizza Man jumped in counting in cadence with Big Boys so we finished with a few rounds of PAX choice of ab exercises for time.

Announcements – August 7th Tubing – tell Broke; Freight’s Service Project. Prayers for our PAX with mental battles, Turtleman for fighting through remission with one more treatment; Stogie’s M and friends at a Spartan Race.

Moleskin – If you check your scorecard, that was 11 rounds of choices in which 7 rounds the PAX chose to drink the beer or at least attempt to (recall 2 didn’t finish). Apparently I underestimated the PAX love alcohol more than exercise. I hope this isn’t a problem. Ironically, the Old School AO is at a park across from the Police station. But as several of the PAX grew up in the town of Dallas, NC, they suggested this was not abnormal as there were occasions of the past where the party had continued through the night with the sun rising. Maybe The Beer Workout 6.0 I’ll opt for some nastier beer flavors that may encourage a little more exercising to quell the drinking. But then again, Leppard does seem to enjoy his White Claws. Hmm, maybe bourbon or airplane bottles? We’ll see. Regardless, the goal of the workout was to  offer fitness along with fun mumble chatter.  Ultimately that objective was achieved. Unfortunately no one splashed merlot (at least not in front of the PAX).  With Leppard off the wagon, there is a rumor of a keg party at his place – if you don’t like the claw, you may want to BYOB; stay tuned for more details.

10 HIM showed for a humid bonanza of awesomeness at The Storm today. YHC was questioned about what the playlist would be today because everybody loves the jams. Too bad though, only straight work was planned today. This is what happened…

Warm Up: Goofballs IC, Don Quixote IC, the patented Right Over Left IC, Grass Pluggers IC

Pledge of Allegiance

Mosey, stopping soon after to get a headcount, then kept moseying around until we got to the small roundabout near the front of the school so YHC could splain The Thang.

Sprint to the first road hump, do 30 WWI situps, sprint to the next, do 30 Merkins, sprint to the next and do 40 Squats then sprint to the stop sign.

From there, Nur up the hill to the artwork. Bear crawl around the inner circle. Then mosey back down to the start.

On the next cycle we did all the same exercises and reps except we karaoked from hump to hump.

The final cycle was the same as before except we skipped from hump to hump. Time was running out so we stopped after the exercises and skipping then moseyed back to the start.

It was a great group of guys this morning with awesome effort by all. Thanks for the opportunity to lead men! Aye!

Announcements: Work day at TRB on August 11th, tubing on the Green river next weekend, F3 dads coming soon

Prayer Requests: Uranus and family, Turtleman, Tiger, Clampett is marrying a couple,  MECA and the loss of Amway

The numbers were a little light today at the Gashouse/PainLab this morning. Oompa and I decided to keep the group together.

We worked our way up the the track with the Pain Lab group rucking and the Boot Camp moseying with burpees at each tree.

At the track, we started the Olympic march as Bedpan ran in with the torch and Watts Up with the USA flag.

Time to get to work.

We did abs exercises at one end of the track and shoulder exercises on the other. Boot Camp moseyed around the track with burpees at the bleachers at each side. Pain Lab pax rucked to each side.

We moseyed back to flag, conducted closing ceremonies, and presented medals.

Prayer Request

• Termite
• Clavin
• Sarlacc
• Volt
• Gumby
• Kotters/Injured/Pax
• PAX traveling
• I forgot a few others and I apologize

Big Pappy/Oompa Loompa

Matt Urban is a Medal of Honor recipient and American hero. At Folsom we honored him with a leg work out and lots of burpees.

CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty: Lieutenant Colonel (then Captain) Matt Urban, 112-22-2414, United States Army, distinguished himself by a series of bold, heroic actions, exemplified by singularly outstanding combat leadership, personal bravery, and tenacious devotion to duty, during the period 14 June to 3 September 1944 while assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. On 14 June, Captain Urban’s company, attacking at Renouf, France, encountered heavy enemy small arms and tank fire. The enemy tanks were unmercifully raking his unit’s positions and inflicting heavy casualties. Captain Urban, realizing that his company was in imminent danger of being decimated, armed himself with a bazooka. He worked his way with an ammo carrier through hedgerows, under a continuing barrage of fire, to a point near the tanks. He brazenly exposed himself to the enemy fire and, firing the bazooka, destroyed both tanks. Responding to Captain Urban’s action, his company moved forward and routed the enemy. Later that same day, still in the attack near Orglandes, Captain Urban was wounded in the leg by direct fire from a 37mm tank-gun. He refused evacuation and continued to lead his company until they moved into defensive positions for the night. At 0500 hours the next day, Captain Urban, though badly wounded, directed his company in another attack. One hour later he was again wounded. Suffering from two wounds, one serious, he was evacuated to England.

In mid-July, while recovering from his wounds, he learned of his unit’s severe losses in the hedgerows of Normandy. Realizing his unit’s need for battle-tested leaders, he voluntarily left the hospital and hitchhiked his way back to his unit near St. Lo, France. Arriving at the 2d Battalion Command Post at 1130 hours, 25 July, he found that his unit had jumped-off at 1100 hours in the first attack of “Operation Cobra”. Still limping from his leg wound, Captain Urban made his way forward to retake command of his company. He found his company held up by strong enemy opposition. Two supporting tanks had been destroyed and another, intact but with no tank commander or gunner, was not moving. He located a lieutenant in charge of the support tanks and directed a plan of attack to eliminate the enemy strong-point. The lieutenant and a sergeant were immediately killed by the heavy enemy fire when they tried to mount the tank. Captain Urban, though physically hampered by his leg wound and knowing quick action had to be taken, dashed through the scathing fire and mounted the tank. With enemy bullets ricocheting from the tank, Captain Urban ordered the tank forward and, completely exposed to the enemy fire, manned the machine gun and placed devastating fire on the enemy. His action, in the face of enemy fire, galvanized the battalion into action and they attacked and destroyed the enemy position. On 2 August, Captain Urban was wounded in the chest by shell fragments and, disregarding the recommendation of the Battalion Surgeon, again refused evacuation. On 6 August, Captain Urban became the commander of the 2d Battalion. On 15 August, he was again wounded but remained with his unit.

On 3 September, the 2d Battalion was given the mission of establishing a crossing-point on the Meuse River near Heer, Belgium. The enemy planned to stop the advance of the allied Army by concentrating heavy forces at the Meuse. The 2d Battalion, attacking toward the crossing-point, encountered fierce enemy artillery, small arms and mortar fire which stopped the attack. Captain Urban quickly moved from his command post to the lead position of the battalion. Reorganizing the attacking elements, he personally led a charge toward the enemy’s strong-point. As the charge moved across the open terrain, Captain Urban was seriously wounded in the neck. Although unable to talk above a whisper from the paralyzing neck wound, and in danger of losing his life, he refused to be evacuated until the enemy was routed and his battalion had secured the crossing-point on the Meuse River. Captain Urban’s personal leadership, limitless bravery, and repeated extraordinary exposure to enemy fire served as an inspiration to his entire battalion. His valorous and intrepid actions reflect the utmost credit on him and uphold the noble traditions of the United States Army.

• Sarlacc
• Volt
• Sister Act
• Gumby
• All the prayer spoken and unspoken

Big Pappy

Hacksaw shared a good word about his time help with VBS.  We also got in a little work in.