Tag: Downtown (Page 14 of 21)

In yet another attempt to avoid Gastone running us to a distant location and performing a mix of sumo squats on the return, I employed my Weasel Shaker power and put my name on the schedule to Q Downtown. Thankfully Spiderman appreciated the preemptive gesture. A few months ago, January 13^th to be exact, I Q’ed the “Tower of Torment” at this AO, using the parking deck to escalate the exercises among small groups. It didn’t go so well. The only way that format would work is if I nominated a team leader and even then the plan could suffer in execution. I began planning the strategy earlier this week, to keep everyone together to perform four exercises in a Tabata format (30 seconds of exercise/10 seconds of rest between) then running all levels of the deck before returning to the level and to then perform a quick set amid a rest period before moving up. That was the plan at least.

This morning was a mild 70 degrees. I pulled into the parking lot at 05:27, early by my standards. Whoopee was just ahead of me in his pristine F3 red muscle t-shirt. This was one of those sleeveless versions, circa 1980’s model where the arm openings were actually hemmed, unlike our boy Huck that usually rips them out by hand. Lately I’ve noticed Whoopee not wearing a shirt very much and now this full bicep exposure. He could use a bit more time in the sun or tanning bed but he is getting quite comfortable in the gloom. We meander over to a full gathering of men, stretching and exchanging pleasantries. I attempt to do the same but my mind is racing with Q responsibilities like ‘remember the disclaimer, say the pledge, what is my first exercise, and why won’t my blue tooth connect my phone to mini-speaker for a great soundtrack?’ Opps, 05:31, a minute behind already. “Hey, let’s get started…I’m not a professional, I’m suggesting some exercises, do them if you want to or don’t, maybe just stand and watch…”

Pledge

Warm-up

• Moroccan Night Clubs IC x 5
• Toy Soldier IC x 10
• Side to Side Lunge IC x 10

Mosey to the parking deck. Q-pleasure – Gastone typically hustles to the front of the pack on the moseys. So knowing where we were going, I let him go by me just enough that I cut a hard left inside toward the deck that he would have to circle around. I’m sure I’ll pay for that but it brought a brief smile. As fate would have it, a train was heard and that required 5 burpees per man. Slaw’s appetite was moist but not satisfied. There would be more to come. The PAX gathered on the entrance to the parking deck where my blue tooth still failed to connect. I had a great set list planned of 80’s classics (no hair metal if you believe that). Next time I’ll try to get my technology organized: Q Fail #1, it wouldn’t be the last of them.  Once the circle was formed, I shared the plan which was met with mocking chatter, customary among this group. The plan was to complete four exercises for 30 seconds then run to the top of the deck; return to the bottom by stairs then we’ll pair off and each do an exercise “like SSH” for 10 single count reps while the other men get their rest in. Then we’ll move to the next level. Trying to explain in a backblast is actually worse than what I attempted in person. Puzzled looks stared back at me as I demoed a few of the newer exercises that I stole from my Insanity videos. The hell with it, “follow me,” I called hitting the timer app on my phone.

Thang:

So the plan kind of caught on after the PAX went through the first cycle. I used my Q authority to tell people when they had to perform the speed set and they graciously complied while some over complied like Roscoe and Whoopie on Level 3’s Flutter Kicks. Fortunately I released an arse bubble as I rose from their sweaty man sandwich. Unfortunately the Gastonia PAX have not learned the difference between single counting a simple exercise like Flutter Kicks. Our 1^st F Q needs to get on that, maybe produce a “How To Video.” Counting reps extends to counting parking deck levels as well. I can’t help the City of Gastonia identifies the parking levels as 2 A and 2 B. On my Weinke it was Level 2 and Level 3. I suggest we make new signs. We’re probably the only ones using that deck on a regular basis anyway. So the PAX were moving along nicely until Level 5 where I asked Roscoe to demonstrate his newly created exercise: Slurpees to which he rebuked, saying “those will be demonstrated tomorrow at my Q.” I affirmed that it was my Q today and I’ll order any exercise I want in my jurisdiction. It reminded me of dialogue from a popular movie:

• Justice: This is Sheriff Buford T. Justice of Texas!
• Officer: Texas? You know, of course, that you’re out of your jurisdiction. I suggest that you let my department handle the situation.
• Justice: That’s very comfortin’, but I’m in a high-speed pursuit.
• Officer: Don’t you hear good?
• Justice: I hear perfectly.
• Officer: The fact that you are a sheriff is not germane to the situation.
• Justice: The ‘G-damn’ Germans got nothin’ to do with itl
• Junior: What?
• Justice: Shut upl One shit at a timel

I’m sure Slaw got this one pretty quick and if you didn’t, do a search for Smokey and The Bandit. It’s probably playing on your television at some point this weekend. In fact, Buford T. Justice may be a big influence why Roscoe decided on a career in law enforcement. Sorry to have digressed. This morning, for my Q, I had Slurpees scheduled. We went with 10 skier lunges (that is 5 per leg if your keeping up with this diatribe) followed by one burpee. Per Roscoe, his official version to be unveiled tomorrow at GasHouse will be 10 skier lunges followed by 10 burpees. You have been forewarned. We arrived at Level 6 for the final round but had less than 2 minutes to go. At this point I had one more forceful squeeze of the toothpaste tube extracting thirty seconds of Mike Tysons and thirty seconds of Groiners (wide pike ups) before Gastone called “Jailbreak” and the PAX bolted to the AO arriving at 06:17. Q Fail again – they seem to keep mounting, but I consider us even for T-Square having ended last week’s Shark Week theme a few minutes early.

COT

Over time, I quickly elicited prayer requests of the following: Hushpuppy – safe travels and recuperation of his ailing knee; Stonecold church family member with a daughter (Reagan) suffering from seizures; Easy Rider’s brother’s upcoming neck surgery; Pockets tweaked something at workout – healing and recovery; Tool Time and his daughter getting married this weekend. Announcements: Whoopee asking PAX to contribute to F3 Nation Give 2 Give campaign. This was shared in the recent newsletter about the expansion efforts. Expanding into other areas requires funding for travel and marketing. F3 is free and consider donating any amount so others in different parts of our country can enjoy the same opportunities as we have since March 2015. If you are posting this weekend, bring cash or follow this link to donate online.

Moleskin

Back to the drawing board: skip the warm-up next time and get right to the Thang. Figure out a way to provide a rest period before moving on (slow mosey to the next level maybe?). Check on technology to get it working earlier and not just before the workout. Check with Roscoe for approval of new exercises he created. A few good things that happened (IMHO): Staying together as a group keeps more mumble chatter going for the benefit of all. Tabata style allows men to push the rock at their pace, while shoulder to shoulder with everyone. Lots of guys shared turns at the front (Easy Rider, Gastone, Slaw, Roscoe, Monk, among others). Stonecold continues to sport the weight vest – so far no one has dared to copy him, yet. Whoopee is a follower and he is into sleeveless garments. Expect him to go shirtless underneath. Today’s workout left little idle time, so the heart rate remained up and more calories were burned, giving Slaw more room for Krispy Kreme’s newest flavor: Reese’s Peanut Butter Doughnuts. I’ll keep working on the blueprints for the Tabata Tower. Hopefully in the near future it can be a staple workout for downtown. Thanks for the opportunity to provide some sort of direction.

We found ourselves with 16 men at 5:29am and we had no Q for the workout. At that point everyone cheered and said “Everybody loves Gastone, why don’t you take the Q”. I quickly obliged all the requests, it would have been hard to turn down.

The Thang:

5:30am Pledge to start the day off with America.

50 SSH

25 Imperial Walkers

10 Merkins

Follow me for a little mosey.  Quick stop at Mcquitter Wall for 15 Dips.

Mosey some more down to Rite Aid on Garrison.

Plank, Plank Right arm, Plank Right arm right leg. then switch sides while we gather the pax for the short mosey.

Elbow plank 45 seconds.

Mosey to Marietta and Garrison intersection.

10 Burpees

Mosey to power pole, 10 Sumo Squats

Mosey to power pole, 10 Sumo Squats

Mosey to power pole, 10 Sumo Squats

10 Burpee’s at Intersection.

Mosey to power pole, 10 Sumo Squats

Skipped 3 power poles because of crazy pack of attack Yorkshire Terrier’s. The neighborhood would have been awake.

Mosey to power pole, 10 Sumo Squats

Mosey to power pole, 10 Sumo Squats

Mosey to Power pole, 20 Monkey Humpers

10 Burpee’s at Intersection.

Mosey to power pole, 20 Monkey Humpers

Mosey to power pole, 20 Monkey Humpers

Mosey to power pole, 20 Sumo Squats

Mosey to power pole, 20 Monkey Humpers

10 Merkins at intersection

Mosey to power pole, 20 Sumo Squats

Run Backwards to 3rd

Plank (I waited for everyone to catch up and then I waited for everyone to get into a plank) Stroganoff caught on before Turtle Man.

Elbow plank for 30. This was more of a rest.

Mosey down 3rd over to South Street.

10 Diamond Merkins

Lunge to Power pole up hill

Run backwards to Franklin.

At this point I let a couple people do 10 counts.

50 wall jumps, OYO on McQuitter Wall. (Right before we started this workout Spiderman jumped out of a bush that he was hiding in at the church to join the pax. He tried to just blend into the crowd without anybody noticing. Almost worked)

Frogger across Franklin and then Mosey to Code Enforcement Parking lot for some Mary. (Almost lost Easy Rider and Bulldog to a sprint but as they started they happened to hear me say everyone to the parking lot for 6 minutes of Mary).

6 Minutes of Mary

15 LBC’s

15 Flutters

15 Freddy Mercury

10  LBC’s

10 Flutters

10 Freddy Mercury

5 LBC’s

30 Flutters (The head fake at this point was really enjoyed by Gastone. Strognoff dropped his 47 year old feet to the ground for the last 10 as I counted louder in his direction)

Mosey back to the start.

The Moleskin:

I am sure Spiderman had a plan for us but his alarm clock was on the fritz. It was 5:30 so someone had to take the Q so I jumped in with cheers from the crowd as I did this one. Some of my favorite comments were “We are only 20 minutes in”, “I won’t be able to walk today”, “I plan on sitting all day so I don’t need to walk”. These just give me energy to even make the workouts more fun. Whoopeee tried to knock me off with the crazy count but it was like rain on a windshield bouncing off after a good wax job. We had an FNG and he was a warrior and handled the workout like a champ, welcome  Reed Jentsch will now be known as Malfunction.

Prayer Request’s: Hunter Stubbs and Helen Hayes passed this week, please keep them and there family’s in your prayers. Prayer request for Bob from Whoopee and Pray for Easy Rider’s friend having surgery.

Ball of Man: Executed by the Q walking to the middle of the circle and all men trying to get a hand on him and someone else. The a prayer is completed by the Q or the person of his choice. This is also done while standing but your head in a prayer position. All hats would be removed or you would be reminded to remove them.

Thanks everyone, it is always an honor to Q. You guys are all great and I could not be luckier to know all of you,

Gastone Out!

I had it, then I lost it. Halfway though the beat down I felt light headed and dizzy. Took a minute while the rest of the PAX finished the lap and hit some burpies. They checked on me, I felt better, we kept going at a strong pace. It’s good to have support and brothers to lean on. One of the best parts of the day is the fist pumps and words of encouragement. It doesn’t happen too much at work, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t so keep it going strong throughout the day brothers!

WARMUP
Side Straddle Hops – 40 IC
Merkins – 10 IC
LBCs – 10 IC
Side Straddle Hops – 40 IC
Merkins – 10 IC
LBCs – 10 IC

PLEDGE

Mosey on down 3 Blocks to the Construction Zone! Grab a mighty cinder block and build some muscles.
Grab some concrete-
10 IC – Squat & Shoulder Press
10 IC – Squat & Curl
10 IC – Plank Jack

The Dab – 10 burpees per minute for 5 minutes, run 1/4 mile.

Back around to the construction zone and 5 Burpies – The Train salute!

10 IC – Squat & Shoulder Press
10 IC – Squat & Curl
10 IC – Plank Jack

Mosey around the block.

In the abandon haunted parking lot:

Up the road we go!
10 Lunges, 10 Monkey Humpers
10 Lunges, 20 Monkey Humpers
10 Lunges, 30 Monkey Humpers
10 Lunges, 20 Monkey Humpers
10 Lunges, 10 Monkey Humpers

I got me some light-headedness halfway through the beat down, and probably forgot half of what we did.

COT: Easy Rider-Family, Bulldog-Interview coming up, Gastone-Mother-In-Law

9 Men arrived with not one FNG so the choice was made….

The Thang:

40 SSH, this was a good enough warm up and I got some looks when I went past 30.

Mosey down Marietta Street all the way down to 2nd Avenue.

From the bottom everyone pick a partner except for Q.

One partner runs to the top of 3rd and the other runs to the Franklin up the hill. Once at the top do 10 Jack Webb’s. Run back to bottom to meet and do 1 Partner Derkin. Repeat but switching hills after meeting until you have completed the 11’s. (Whoopee had picked Bulldog as a partner and he got worked so hard that Whoopee all the sudden said I can’t handle this anymore and he left)

This took up most of the time for workout and the hills built into the workout added to the pain inflicted.

Next follow me back up to the top of 3rd take a right and head down to South Street.

We did Lunges, Run backwards, Sumo Squats, Run backwards until we got to Franklin to gather everyone. Mosey back to Main Street and then Bear crawl to the steps. Normally the crawl would have been good with me but today a left leg cramp hampered me a little.

The Moleskin:

Though we might get some rain this morning but we might have just received a little sprinkle and that is about it. We went to work fast so not to much Mumble Chatter.

Prayer request for all of our brother’s and the people in need around them.

Mt. Mitchell is tentative for August 20th. Clown car up in the morning early to base camp. Jog/hike to the top and back but mainly stay together. I will bring First Aid in my bag plus snacks and water. Take a group picture at the top. Get to the bottom and jump in the swimming hole not to far away.

Thanks to all for coming out today. I am pushing to bring in more people for the next few months and would like to see us double in size and get some of these Sad Clowns to join us. It is always an honor and until the next time.

Gastone Out!

If that wasn’t some humid air, then I must’ve been jumped in a pool at some point during this beat down. Not a shirt remained dry, not did anyone escape the lovely swamp ass.(That’s what I was told) Good mumble chatter throughout the 45 minutes. Good Friday start, great to see Outhouse.

WARMUP
Side Straddle Hops – 40 IC Whoopie showed up on 20, so we made sure he got his in.
Merkins – 10 IC
LBCs – 10 IC

PLEDGE

THE THANG
Mosey for 5 minutes around downtown, ending up at the Great Steps of Fargo.

10 IC Derkins during which an unnamed PAX named Whoopie yelled, “Get your foot out of my CRACK.” If you can’t do merkins with a foot in your crack, maybe you shouldn’t be out here. It happens quite often to be honest.
10 IC Freddie Mercury’s
10 IC Monkey Humpers
10 IC Dips

Mosey for 5 minutes around lower downtown, ending up in the staff perking lot of Piedmont Community Charter.
Plank, Recover
10 IC Mountain Climbers
10 IC Merkins
Burpie Broad Jumps up the entire row. 10-12 rows
10 IC American Hammers
10 IC LBCs

Mosey for 3.5 minutes several blocks down to another empty parking lot.
Burpie Broad Jumps 7 rows

Mosey around the block and to everyone’s surprise, a majestic pile of super heavy cinder blocks right in the middle of the road.
15 IC Squat Press w/ cinder block
10 IC Curls w/ cinder block
10 IC Dips w/ cinder block
10 IC Mountain Climbers w/ cinder block

Replace the biggest cinder blocks she’d ever seen.

Back to the main side road, South St. and Sprint the full block uphill.

Next Block
Zombie Walk half way up the road.
Run backwards the remainder of the hill.
5 Burpies compliments of the train
10 Dips IC

Mosey to the Pavilion
10 IC Peter Parkers
3 Steps of Deep Sea Divers

COT: Cheech and his family, Bulldog praise with Face to Face interview in a few weeks.

11 showed for a Gastone Friday finish with Spiderman down road some place.

The Thang:

Pledge

Train which caused Burpee’s

25 SSH

Then we started our journey straight to Garrison. Along the way we did a burpee at each intersection adding 1 every time we stopped. I believe Garrison was 9 when we arrived.

On the way back we started with 20 Sumo Squats and reduced by 2 at each intersection. Along the way we ran backwards between a few intersection. We backward lunged, and forward lunged. Once we arrived at the church on Franklin Squirt mentioned he was ready to do upper body so we did.

On the wall. 15 Dips, 10 Carolina Dry Dock, 10 Incline Merkins, and 10 Derkins. Followed by 2 10 counts which on the second the person just said 10 so we started back. 20 Dips, 10 Carolina Dry Docks, 10 Incline Merkins, and with all effort we did 5 Derkins.

Mosey walk around the corner to the consistent wall that lines the church facing Franklin.

Facing the wall we did 50 2 feet at a time wall jumps. OYO. (Whoopee came around me to go to a step instead to do some of his when he noticed on the wall beside him the names written into the block were Hazel & Richard McQuitter. Quickly he moved back to the regular wall to knock out the remaining wall jumps.)

Continuing our journey back with Sumo Squats we stopped almost back for 6 Minutes of Mary.

20 LBC’s, 20 Flutter Kicks, then partner up. One guy on the ground holding standing partners leg. Keeping your legs off the ground kick your legs up towards partner and the partner throws your legs in different directions down. 20 For each person and then switch and let the other person go. 20 LBC’s, 20 Flutters.

Mosey back to Pavilion and against the railing for incline Merkins 20. With last minute I let Bulldog finish everyone off with American Hammers.

Time’s Up.

The Moleskin:

As normal a great group of guys out for stating the day off with a bang. Now we can all spend the rest of the day recovering.

Several Prayer request for Swimmer’s quick recovery. Marie McFarland my wife’s mother is approaching the end, and for safe travels as people start to travel to go on some vacations.

As a note to everyone. “Always be headlocking”. We need to grow Gastonia and make it double what it is now and we are going to make that happen.

Gastone Out!

Friday morning, 9 guys and an 80lb heavy bag. We share the weight, we share the burden, it becomes easier for all of us. I look forward to Friday mornings Downtown, sharing the weight, grinding the teeth, taxing the lungs.

Here’s to Ron Ownbey, I shake my fist at you for being so damn cool, making it hard for the rest of us. I shake my other fist because you never kept any of it a secret. You freely gave everything, leaving us with no excuses.

WARMUP
Side Straddle Hops – 20 IC
Squats – 20 IC
LBCs – 20 IC
Merkins – 20 IC
Flutterkicks – 20 IC
5 Burpies – OYO

PLEDGE

THE THANG
Grab the 80lb heavy bag and off we go.

Wall sits, 2 PAX holding the bag, rando 10 count.
Pass the bag down 2 spots, 10 count and repeat until everyone snuggles with the bag.

Mosey to the garage.

Starting on the bottom level –
Backwards bear crawl (Bobby Hendrick, right?) up the ramp
20 LBCs IC
10 Merkins IC
Karaokee to next ramp
Backwards bear crawl up the ramp
20 LBCs IC
10 Merkins IC
Take the stairs to the bottom

Meanwhile back at the ranch
2 PAX are doing these –
6 Pull Ups
11 Dying Cockroach – IC
19 Bobby Hurleys – Single Count
25 punches to the bag – IC
51 Flutterkicks – count each foot
REPEAT

2 PAX out, 2 PAX in and REPEAT.

There we enough PAX to get 4 switches in.
Each PAX did the Bobby Hendrick/Karaoke shuffle 3x, heavy bag/pull ups 1x

Mosey to the silver art tree of Moldor.
15 Dips IC
15 Squats IC
10 Don Quixote IC
15 Dips IC
15 Squats IC

Mosey to the Pavilion
10 Burpies OYO
10 Merkin Peter Parker thing IC

Convergence June 10th Downtown
June 10th Christmas Party

COT: Trinity, Slaughter, Brown family , the Ownbey family

Red paint.

Really great weather this morning for the Downtown crew to shake off cobwebs from a rough Wednesday/Thursday beatdown(s). We aimed for competition form with a nice mixture of running and heavy lifting, some burpies, bear crawls and deep sea divers.

Warm Up:
15 Seal Jacks – F3 rule #1 – free of charge
10 Merkins – F3 rule #2 – open to all men
10 LBCs – F3 rule #3 – held outdoors — rain or shine, heat or cold
10 Squats – F3 rule #4 – Men who participate also lead the workout
8 Don Quixotes – F3 rule #5 – workouts end with a Circle of Trust

What do you call a bear that is cold? A: A burr.

Mosey around a few city blocks, then back to the pavilion.

PLEDGE

The THANG

4 corners: Bear Crawl staight aways, 10 Dying Cockroaches on the corner.
2 laps = 80 Dying Cockroaches & 8 Bear Crawls

kid comes home from his first day at school.
His Mother asks, “Well, what did you learn today?”
The kid replies, “Not enough. They want me to come back tomorrow.”

Mosey down to the Wells steps for some,
Deep Sea Divers – 5 steps, 5 reps, IC
Monkey Humpers: 10 IC
Dips: 10 IC

Mosey to the Pavillion

5 burpies

12 exercise stations: 4 PAX using cinder blocks: 4 PAX using half cinder blocks: 4 PAX using bricks

50 seconds on, 10ish seconds recover
Squat Press, Merkin, Dying Cockroaches, Lunge Curls (using the bricks/cinder blocks)

3 Rounds so each PAX can use a different brick/cinder block.

5 burpies

A police officer jumps into his squad car and calls the station.
“I have an interesting case here,” he says. “A woman shot her husband for
stepping on the floor she just mopped.”
“Have you arrested her?” asks the sergeant.
“No, not yet. The floor’s still wet.”

COT: Great time today, we look forward to friends & family this weekend and wish everyone safe travels and good vibes.

YHC has tried to mix up his posting rotation over the last few weeks instead of staying close to home. One way to ensure showing at the other AO’s is to commit to Q myself so that there’s no backing out when the fartsack calls my name. Since starting this variety tactic I’ve had the chance to lay down sweat with some great guys I didn’t know as well beforehand. F3 Gashouse region rocks!

To start off, since there were no FNGs a short disclaimer was given and we hit the warmup for the 10 of us in attendance, the Slaughter Starter!

Pledge

Mosey past the fountain down the street to start Route 66. At each streetlight the PAX would perform a Merkin. At each following light add a rep until the rep count gets to 11 for a total of 66. This was chest blaster indeed for YHC!

A quick walk across the street to the park sculpture is where YHC had the first chance to use his new toy, a portable stereo (they say it’s water proof and floats)! Circle up around the shiny sculpture and hit your six for Bring Mary Up which I ripped off of Gastone’s workout at Martha’s on Wednesday. “Rest” position is 6-inches and when he says bring Mary up you lift your feet to 90 degrees. Good ab burn.

Mosey through town to an as of yet unexplored site, 1st ARP Church where YHC and others worship our Lord Jesus. As a side note, if you’re looking for a thriving, energy filled church where you’ll hear the Gospel, we’d love to have you and your family visit. We found the courtyard area and partnered up for a round of Dora 123. The sequence would be 100 lunges (single count), 200 dips and 300 seal jacks. While partner 1 exercises, partner 2 runs up the steps, down the other side and back to switch off. This one really got the blood pumping.

After visitation, we moseyed back toward the pavilion but stopped at the BB&T parking lot to use my toy again. Gastone cursed us Wednesday by implanting the Ghostbuster’s theme which I couldn’t get out of my head all day. I figured he’d show today so I planned a good turn for his. The classic “Can’t Touch This” was on the playlist today, hopefully some of the guys were singing along for a while. Each time he says can’t touch this, we did a jump squat. We tried holding the squat position in between but that sucked so we just stood there when not jumping until the song started the part (you remember the video) where he was dancing back and forth. We did quick feet running in place while this was going on.

Mosey back to the start for the last song on the playlist, “Lovely Day” by Bill Wither. Hold plank position and every time they say lovely day, you do a mountain climber. I read a listing of the most repetitive songs and they say this one holds the mark at 96 times they say lovely day. Unfortunately, time ran up about halfway through, so I’ll make sure to plug this one in another time.

Prayer Requests: Honestly 59 hours afterward as I write this, it’s hard to remember exactly what was said but there were several requests, so keep everyone in our PAX on your prayer list. Sorry guys.

Announcements: Mudrun was yesterday (Awesome!!!), advisory meeting tonight at 7, skeet shooting Saturday (ask Whoopee), need Q’s at the Yank for the next several weeks.

It was fantastic leading you men today at an AO I haven’t Q’ed in probably 6 months at least. It was good to be back! You guys are awesome and it’s an honor to lead you.

AYE!!!