Tag: Downtown (Page 20 of 21)

Six faithful posted Downtown.  Here is what happened.

Warm up

• SSH
• Toy Soldier
• Don Quioxte
• Merkins
• Mountain Climbers

The Thang

Mosey to outside parking lot at the Gastonia Conference Center garage.

Elevens w/ Merkins and LBCs with 40 yard sprints across parking lot.

Mosey to find Spiderman and Whoopee (who had an uncontrollable uneasy feeling that someone was bird-dogging our unprotected cars awaiting an opportunity to take advantage).

Eleven’s w/ Burpee’s and LBC’s with 75 yard sprints from Pavilion to W.Main Ave.

Pledge (thanks for the reminder Whoopee)

Seven Minutes of Mary (well kind of) – People’s Choice

• Dying Cockroach (Bandit)
• Flutter kicks (Stroganoff)
• Sprint to top fire escape (Outhouse)
• Mountain Climbers (Spiderman)
• LBC (Linus)
• Merkins (Whoopee)

Don’t recall all the details, but we started another round and definitely hit the fire escape one last time.

We wrapped up with Name-O-Rama, COT and BOM.

Announcements

• YETI is February 20.  Come route on Defib, Brownstreak, Whoopee and Dolph!
• Lincolnton launching in spring. Gastonia has offered to help lead workouts and post to support.
• Happy Hour is February 23.  Last Tuesday at Mayworth’s
• Spiderman’s hat is the hot new fashion!  Not yet available at MudGear.com, but maybe one day.

Prayers

• Dustin’s test results came back again – all clean!
• Outhouse’s mom for her cancer treatments.

NMM

As we circled up for 7MOM Friday morning, I mentioned that the logo we surrounded reminds us that we are all cogs in the gears that drive the Big Ball.  I am not a Rotarian (nor a mechanical engineer) and must admit I was unaware of the history or meaning of the Rotary Wheel emblem which is the centerpiece of the Rotary Centennial Pavilion where we workout in downtown Gastonia each Friday.  Stroganoff (an actual Rotarian) suggested I should write that idea down.  So with a little more thought and research, here it is…

First, a little history… A quick search on the Google machine revealed that a wheel has been the symbol of Rotary since their earliest days, early on as a simple wagon wheel.  The Rotary Wheel is said to illustrate “Civilization and Movement”.  In 1922, it was decided that all Rotary clubs should adopt a single design. So in the early 1920s, the present gear wheel, with 24 cogs and six spokes was adopted.  However, a group of engineers advised that the geared wheel was mechanically unsound and would not work without a “keyway” in the center of the gear to attach it to a power shaft. So, in 1923 the keyway was added and was formally adopted as the official Rotary International emblem.

In mechanical engineering, a gear is a rotating machine part having cogs which mesh with another toothed part (often other gears) to transmit torque. Like a clock or other complex machine, many gears may work together to produce some desired outcome (maybe to invigorate male leadership is our communities). If the cogs are worn or broken, the machine may run poorly or perhaps stop altogether, sometimes damaging other cogs.

But by itself, a gear does nothing. It requires Movement. In our lives, Movement occurs through Individual Initiative. It takes a man saying, “today I am going to do something to be better” and then to follow through and actually do that thing.  It might be posting to a workout to physically challenge yourself.  It might be volunteering to serve others in your community.  It might be making a hard decision at work.  It might be reaching out to someone in trouble or in need, or holding others accountable.  It might be putting work aside to spend time with your family.

Now just as the engineers noted with the Rotary Wheel, the gear which has no keyway to lock it to the shaft will not spin. This gear cannot be transfer the torque to other areas of the machine and provides no benefit to the machine.  F3 provides us with a key to lock our individual initiative together with other men for a common purpose.

The interactions we have with others in our daily lives resemble how the cogs come together between the gears and drive the machine.  If we are worn or broken cogs, we have limited or no capacity to impact others around us. In severe cases, we can break other parts of the machine. By surrounding ourselves with other HIM, we continuously sharpen and hone ourselves (and our brothers) to keep the cogs in good working order.  Only then can we use the machine to invigorate male leadership in our community.

As always, I appreciate the opportunity to lead and be led by my brothers… to sharpen my skills… to help one small gear drive The Machine.

Aye!

The forecast called for snowflakes but YHC didn’t see any coming out of the sky, only about 9 snowflakes that showed up mumbling about the cold wind and wanting to start the workout early.  Defib was named timekeeper for today’s workout.  After the Gashouse planning meeting, we were all asked what we were going to do to make the Gashouse stronger.  (Accountability) One of my action items was to check on the site Q of downtown, E4.  I did that and got a commitment that E4 would post at 0530, although he would be up since 0430 stretching his bum knee.  The original Weinke that I had planned out using Google Earth and measuring distances between pain stations was internally audibled to a more reasonable workout for someone with a bad knee.  Thanks goes to CSpan and Swiper’s Q-School for that tip.  I even had two extra pairs of gloves in case anyone showed up without.

Here we go with the warm up:

SSH x 32

Squats x 20

Don Quixote x 15

LBC x15

Merkins x 10

A fast paced mosey around the Pavilion approximately 4 times and then regrouped for the Thang:

Bear Crawl along the back side of the Pavilion and then sprint around to where we started.  Repeado x4 then:

15 Squats, 10 Merkins, 15 flutter kicks

Lunge walk across the back side of the Pavilion and sprint around to start Repeado x 4

15 Squats, 10 Merkins, 15 flutter kicks

One burpee on each pad of concrete on back side of Pavilion x3  (Crowd pleaser)

15 squats, 10 Merkins, 15 flutter kicks

Mosey to the public “art” and hit the wall for the People’s Chair

People’s March IC

Air Presses IC

Peoples March IC

Ring around the art

Merkins, LBC’s, 50 calf raises, squats

Slow merkins, flutter kicks, 50 pigeon toed calf raises, 50 squats

Fast merkins, Flutter kicks, 50 Duck footed calf raises, 50 squats

Merkin holds, half way down, all the way down, etc.  5 OYO merkins

Mosey to Pavilion for pledge and to retrieve the phone for the nameorama.

Announcements:  Buy your Backwoods Brawl t-shirt by February 10th.  Do it now!

Gastonia Rotary Club will host the Founders, Dredd and OBT on March 3.  Stroganoff and Dr. Feelgood are buying lunch for any PAX that attend.  I am a HC.  Community Foundation Run (formerly Run for the Money April 16, 2016)  A good time to show up and run for your favorite charity in a Backwoods Brawl t-shirt.  The soreness should be gone by then, hopefully.  Take your survey for the 2nd F activity from Godfather, aka El Padrino.  F3 Luncheon Jason’s Deli at the Epicenter today at 1130.

Prayer Requests:  A somber morning today for some serious concerns among the PAX. Prayers needed for Outhouse’s mother, who is diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer.  Feelgood’s 2.0’s lost a young friend (Tomas) to childhood Leukemia.  Dolph’s father who will undergo a hip replacement; Amelia lost his father.  E4’s former coworker in remission recently diagnosed with aggressive tumors.  E4 also shared a personal story…the moral is…make sure your family is trained on what to do in an emergency.  Have a safety plan and train on it.

It was great to Q this morning as I have to miss tomorrow for a 2.0 event.  Be intentional about reaching out to those that need F3 and follow through with your commitments from the Planning meeting.

Roscoe

It was a very comfortable 33 degrees this morning at the downtown Rotary Pavilion where 8 PAX gathered for another beat down on the run.  Great to see some of the regulars back for more.  Oh… I’ll get to the whole “cliffhanger…” thing in a minute.

Warm Up

• Don Quioxte – IC x10
• Seal Jacks IC x20
• Mountain Climbers IC x20
• LBC IC x20
• Merkins IC x10
• (hmmmm, there was something else we were going to do, but I forgot)

Pledge

Mosey – On the way to the parking deck I remembered the last warmup exercise, so we stopped at the corner of the parking lot to finish warm up…

• BOYO x5

Burpee Escalator – Staring at lower level run to top of parking deck, do 1 burpee, then run back down.  Rinse and repeat x10, increasing the number of burpees +1 each round.  On round 10 you will run up, do 10 burpees, run down and plank and wait for the six.

Four Floor Escalator – Starting at bottom level, complete 10 reps of the first exercise then run up one level (run the parking deck, not the stairs), complete 20 reps of next exercise and up to next level, complete 30 reps and up, 40 reps then down he stairs to the starting position.  Throughout we kept the PAX together.

• Jump Ups x10 OYO
• Merkins x20 OYO
• LBCs x30 OYO
• Squats x40 OYO

Rinse and Repeat x2

Mosey – Run to Pavilion

Mary – We had enough time to get a round of people’s choice MOM exercises.

• Freddie Mercury x10 IC – Richard Simmons
• Heals to Heaven x12 IC – Dr. Feelgood
• Peter Parkers x10 IC – Spider Man
• ?Mountain Climbers x10 IC – Linus
• ? x10 IC – Monk
• Some Kind of Space Invader Squat Thingy x10 IC – Boss Hogg
• ?LBC x10 IC – Defib

And to finish with a bang (or not), Bandit lead us in…..

If you weren’t there you will have to get to the sequel to find out.  What a cliffhanger.

COT – Announcements/Prayer Requests

• Regionalization planning on Sunday.  Contact Bandit
• Backyard Brawl Shirts on Sale. Must order by Feb 10.
• Can still sign up for the Yeti. Some PAX are riding bikes before workout on Saturday.
• Can still buy tickets for Dancing For The Stars to see Dr. Feelgood.
• Richard Simmons looking for volunteers for Night To Shine fundraiser.
• Family of Marty D’Amore who passed away 1 year ago.
• Outhouse’s Mom with concerns from recent tests.

NMM

Today we talked about leadership – The act of influencing other men to and through movement. Remember that leadership is neither good nor bad.  The outcome of leadership depends, in part, on the purpose of the leader.  The purpose of F3 is the reinvigoration of male community leadership.  What is your purpose?

We also talked about pushing each other. I’m grateful for all my brothers in the gloom that push me – whether it’s encouraging words during the WO, mumble chatter on the Twitter machine, or just posting.  My Jester only allows me to push myself so far. T-claps to the PAX for pushing me today.

Oh year… and what does Burt Reynolds head on steamed crab have to do with today’s workout?  Absolutely nothing!  But now I know what kind of cake I want for my birthday.  Thanks BA – strong work on all the Twitter machine preblast pics!

As always, pleasure to lead this great group of men.  Aye!

Bandit

Forecast for 0530 Friday morning was 31 deg with a mixture of wintry precipitation throughout the morning.  So they pretty much nailed it.  Got up a little bit earlier than usual to give extra time to drive in the slush/snow.  Thankful it was not ice.  Wasn’t really sure if anyone else was stupid enough to post in this weather.

• 0510 – no one else here yet, white stuff coming down pretty good…
• 0515 – get out and scrape rest of windows on the mom van – still no one.  I was starting to wonder what a solo F3 workout would look like. I guess kinda what I used to do working out with Fern, just outdoors.
• 0520 – Get a call from Roscoe..”you posting today?”.  Told him “Aye!.  Already here… waiting for the rest of the idiots.”  Roscoe says to expect one more idiot coming in hot!  Told him to meet us at the Parking Deck.
• 0525 – headlights coming… not Roscoe….must be critical city workers required to work in this crap…. WAIT… sweet, its Spiderman!
• 0530 – Lets go!

Mosey – Run to Parking Deck (we pass Roscoe on the way)

Warm Up – Roscoe arrives after parking back at Pavilion with the rest of us to make sure when we are done, we leave no man behind. See… he’s always thinking.

• Don Quioxte – IC x10
• Seal Jacks IC x20
• Mountain Climbers IC x20
• LBC IC x10 (slow count)
• Tempo Merkins IC x10
• BOYO x5

Stairway Suicides – The plan was to start at bottom level ascend stairs one level and back down, then two levels and down, then three levels and down, etc…  finish back at bottom and plank.  This is where a good Q would have gone and done this on site rather than on paper.  Turns out their is not much distance between levels and if you go two levels (because one is not really worth the effort), you only have like 2 actual levels.  So in order to achieve the same affect, we just ran up and down the stairs for a while.

Four Floor Escalator – Starting at bottom level, complete 10 reps of the first exercise then run up one level (run the parking deck, not the stairs), complete 20 reps of next exercise and up to next level, complete 30 reps and up, 40 reps then down he stairs to the starting position.  With only 3 PAX today we kept this thing together, so exercises were all together IC.  Roscoe told us about the Queensryche concert this week.  We traded stories about best concerts, heavy metal chick drummer in LA (Roscoe… please post the YouTube link).

• Jump Ups x10
• Merkins x20
• LBCs x30
• Squats x40

Rinse and Repeat x4

Mosey – Run to Pavillion

Pledge

Announcements

• Backyard Brawl Shirt Preorder open thru 2/10
• Happy Hour @ Hickory Tavern – January 26
• Regionalization Meeting – Wed 27th, Sun 31st, or Tue 2nd.  Will confirm this weekend.
• Yeti
• Wednesday Basketball FUMC

Prayer Requests

• Outhouse’s Mom
• Daughter/Family of Stuart Cramer’s AD
• F3 guys on the DL…Antrhax, Squeeker, Stroganoff..
• All those travelling today

We finished up with BOM and group photo.

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

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. 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!
2. Scandal (Patrick Walker) from Raleigh/Durham invited us to a CSAUP in Durham called the Bull. January 23^rd 0600 hours.
3. 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!

12 PAX posted #Downtown. Most of them were there before we started.

Warmup

SSH IC x20
Monkey Humpers IC x10 (to salute those that came in hot)
Merkins IC x10
MC IC x10
Toy Soldiers IC (that’s a 4 count guys) x20 (to bad Dolph didn’t post – he loves doing these on a 3.23452 count)

The Smurph

So this was supposed to be the following…

• 3 laps around the parking lot (1 mile)
• 10 sets of the following
  • 10 Merkins
  • 20 LBCs
  • 30 Squats
• 3 laps around the parking lot (1 mile)

Well the fact of the matter is YHC changed the plan before we even started, he doesn’t count so well, and he is easily influenced by the PAX (goal for 2016 is lead better – no matter what T-Square says). Before we even started, YHC calls “Oklahoma” (that’s not a typo) and changes “sets of 10” to “sets of 12” just because we had 12 PAX post, I like 12 days of Christmas, and T-Square said we should keep it at 10. So this is what we ended up doing…

• 3 laps (total 1.314773148 miles) around the parking lot to the incessant squeak of my Nike’s (probably need to fix that)
• 10 sets of the following
  • 12 Merkins IC (first one was 4 count, the we switched to up/down)
  • 12 LBCs
  • 12 Squats
• 3 laps around the parking lot (another 1.314773148 miles, except for Spiderman who pulled the Irish Goodbye again and disappeared into the gloom)

In the end this was 136 merks, 120 LBCs, 120 Squats and 2.629546296 miles. Whether or not we actually did 10 sets is still a bit of a mystery. As I mentioned, YHC can’t count real good. While this was no Murph, I hope everyone enjoyed this vaguely similar version. It fit in 45 minutes quite nicely and my glutes still don’t work.

Please keep Dr. Feelgood, his family, and his office in your prayers.

As always, a pleasure and honor to lead you men!

Bandit

The warmup consisted of SSH, LBC, Merkins, Prayer Squats, Windmills

We began to Mosey when Monk wanted to get his gloves. This meant we needed to lap around the lot to pick him up. Then he said he wanted his vest that he left at Martha’s House, which I then retrieved from my car. It kind of made for a two man Indian run but I digress.

Mosey to the rail bridge and go across doing walking lunges…collect at the end and mosey to the “wall”.

At the wall do 4-5 wall walkers. Start on your belly with feet against the wall. Push up and walk your legs up the wall while pushing to get vertical. It is a real pleaser.

A quick mosey back to the bridge and bearcrawl all the way across and collect at the end.

Back to the wall for People’s Chair with overhead air presses, front punches, and marching in cadence. Mosey to the Parking Deck.

Colonel Troutman. I couldn’t think of the name of this since I forgot my Weinke. Partner up and one PAX completes 5 Merkins and holds the plank until his partner completes three pull-ups on the bars and returns for the switch. This was done until “Recover” was called by YHC. Then we ran to the top of the deck for a few minutes of ab work to include 6”, 45degree holds, WW Sit-ups.

Mosey to the “art” sculpture and completed one leg lunges on the benches, 10 cts each leg, followed by 20 3 ct Prayer Squats. This was then followed by the Wave of Merkins one to five and five to one. A quick mosey back to the Pavilion for a countarama revealed we went from 8 to7. Spiderman is adept at leaving the scene without anyone noticing towards the end of the workouts. Superhero stuff…you wouldn’t understand. Some plank stretch, more ab work on the stairs, Homer/Marge, until the designated timekeeper (Linus) called time.

A quick Name-O-Rama and COT and we ended the day. More prayers for San Bernadino victims.

A quick word to encourage all to get on Twitter. It is great to follow the workouts that you can’t make and also relive what you did while you attend a workout. You also miss the banter and the silliness that goes along with it, like saying there were ten PAX that showed up and quickly being called out that there were only 8. You don’t want to be out of the loop with the communication from F3 Nation and our fellow F3’ers who share information and amazing stories of service to others. (Mission trips, outreach, etc). See you all in the gloom. Roscoe

Warm Up

• SSH IC x20
• Don Quixote IC x20
• Merkins IC x20
• CH Squats IC x20
• LBC IC x20

First up was quick series of Burpee Hot Laps…  starting at pavilion, PAX took a quick sprint through parking lot to stop sign at North York Street for 10 BOYO.  Sprint back to pavilion for 10 more BOYO.   Sprint to stop sign at North Marietta St for 10 BOYO,  And then back to pavilion for last 10 BOYO.

Next was Dora 1,2,3 from pavilion to main street and back. Partner A would run, Partner B would perform AMRAP of the following excercises to the total number of reps.  Partners flapjack and continue until the total number of reps were completed.

• Merkins x100
• LBC x 200
• Squats x 300

Next were 11s OYO.  PAX does 1 of the exercise A at pavilion (Dying Cockroach) then sprints to main street for 10 of exercise B (Jump Squats).  Then rinse and repeat while increasing reps for exercise A by one up to 10, and decreaseing reps for excercise B by 1 until down to 1.

With one minute remaining (and since we already did Dying Cockroach) Q call for 1 minute of homer and marge.

Honored to lead you brothers!

– Bandit

Being the morning before Halloween, YHC was going to put some fright into the workout. He did some recon in the parking deck to set up some displays prior to the workout. However, upon the ascent in the deck he saw four of Gastonia’s finest staging for an op (with lots of pistachio’s) a floor from the top of the deck. Worried about being “FI’d” (field interview), he scaled back his plans and just posted an inspirational verse and the workout on the top deck with scotch tape and brought the scary pumpkin to the Pavilion and waited for the PAX to arrive.

Eleven strong showed up on time and Brown Streak was appointed the official timekeeper since my watch broke.

A quick warm up included SSH x 27, Merkins x 20, Don Quixote’s x 10, LBC’s x 20. The scary pumpkin made spooky sounds during the LBC’s and got everyone afraid of what was to come.
A quick jog to the parking deck and up the stairs to the top of the deck with 5.0 still lurking, just below our spot. A few curious PAX looked at the sheet on the wall that indicated what we were about to do. Here is what it said…

The THANG
10 burpees
10 Carolina Dry Docks
20 Squat Jumps (a crowd pleaser…worse than burpees?)
20 Merkins
20 LBC’s
20 Sprinter Lunges
REPEATO x 5 or until time.

The first round was done together with instructions to do the rest OYO.  Brown Streak was instructed to tell YHC when it was 6:05 but we decided to hit snooze and go until 6:10. T-Claps to Dolph for setting the pace and along with Brown Streak getting it all in and watching the clock.

We recovered for 30 seconds and then performed:

• 15 IC shoulder touches in plank position, then
• 10 IC slow tempo merkins, then
• OYO 10 fast tempo merkins.

The PAX were instructed to make their way back to the Pavilion. Some chose the stairs, and others ran down the deck again. The scary pumpkin appeared again and was now on noise activation mode in the middle of the COT making scary noise the entire time, up until the prayer. Very spooky.

Moleskin:
A few PAX looking for work and/or interviewing…prayers offered. (use the F3 network!)
YHC reflected upon lots of FNG’s from the F3 inaugural launch last year that we don’t see anymore. Invite them back or invite a new FNG to experience F3 in the Gas House.
Dr. Feelgood invited us to attend his downtown Gastonia Rotary Club on March 3, 2016 when OBT and Dredd are scheduled to speak at the downtown Rotary club.
Tomorrow is the Airport 5K. Notify Bandit if you are going.

2nd F Opportunity….Saturday, November 7th at Martha Rivers, Whoopie and others are going to host an F3 2.0 workout followed by a cookout at shelter #1. Workout start time TBD but shelter is rented in Roscoe’s name from 1500-1900 hours. (3PM-7PM)

Brainstorming the Gas House 1 year Anniversary workout/event for March 2016. If you have ideas, send them to Roscoe. Initial ideas involve an extended beat down, pork, and Boss Hog (No coincidence there).

We are looking for a permanent site Q for Gashouse venue on Saturdays. You would arrange Q’s for each Saturday and fill in when none are available. Step up and lead!

Closed with a prayer.

I am humbled by the turnout and the effort this morning. Always a pleasure!