Tag: Martha’s House (Page 11 of 21)

The Gloom was a bit more Gloomy than usual. No rain for months, and finally 3 days of rain brought in a layer of fog over Martha’s house that did not lend itself to road running.  I arrived to find 5 Pax waiting for the DRP With #6 sliding in at 5:30. I wanted to fartsack.  My stomach was upset and I knew counting would be the most challenging part of my morning.

Disclaimer: I’m an idiot, i’m not a professional, if you follow me your an idiot and if you get hurt there is no one to sue.  Modify as needed.  I feel like crap and I hope when we are done you feel like crap too. . .In a good way.

Warmup: Mosey to the bank parking lot for some Plank-o-rama: Peter parker x 20ic, right arm/left arm up, Shoulder taps x 20ic, recover.  Then some Hillbilly’s x 20ic.  I shared with the pax my memories of some high impact folks from the greatest generation that really impacted me.  Loyd and Lila Emmonds. Met in the Navy during WW2.  She was a nurse and he a chaplain and a SeaBee.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabee).  When I met Loyd he was nearly 86 years old and still had the energy of someone half his age.  He went to the gym, taught the children’s church classes and they would both work in the yard on church clean-up days with the best of us.  He picked up the food for the church food ministry and helped on distribution days.  His nickname was “Mr. Wonderful” and for good reason, he was always full of life and happiness.  I shared with the Pax that the most memorable thing I noticed about Loyd and Lila, and especially Loyd, is that the older he got, the more dependence he had in Christ’s love for him.  He did not grow old telling folks of himself, or of what he did for the Lord, or what you should do, but what Christ had done for him. With a tear in his eye, Christ love for all of us was evident in every tale he shared.

Tha thang: Mosey to the chicken bucket to pick up some Q-pons (rip rap from the hillside) and then to the old Teeter parking lot. I thought about doing BOMBs with rocks but thought that might be in bad taste considering the date so I called on some Dora 123. 100 overhead presses with the rock, 200 curls with 2 rocks, 300 squats holding rocks, in aggregate while partner runs to mid point of lot and back.  Once completed we moseyed to the wall for some more fun.

On the wall: Peoples Chair with rock on the lap while pax counted to 10, then out in front for 10, then overhead for 10, then press for 10, then recover. on your 6, flutter kicks, then LBC’s while pax counted to high numbers like 40, then Merkins in cadence X 10.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  We mixed in some Dying cockroaches and box cutters, then repeato for a 3rd time.

Mosey back to the Dora point and piled up the rocks, and with 7 minutes to go, YHC called something he regretted.  Lunch walk the short straight away of the lot, jog the long straightaway, then lunge the short, mosey the back.  Mumble chatter was starting to pick up at this point. With 1 full lap around and 4 minutes to go, what was left to do but repeato? As I lunged the straightaway I heard some mumble about burnt hushpuppy’s, out for vengeance, or something. Not sure what all that was about.

Return the rocks to the chicken bucket and back to the start for COT.

Announcements: Convergence on the 17th, prayer requests not many mentioned but many prayers needed around the Gashouse.  Honored to be with these men in the gloom.

5 showed at Martha’s for a Monday morning beat down.

The Thang:

Warm Up: 25 SSH, 20 Imperial Walkers, 10 3 count Merkins.

Mosey to the bottom of “The Hill of Village Ridge”

Plank, Raise right arm and leg hold for 20, Raise left arm and leg hold for 20, plank 6 inches held for 30.

10 3 count Diamond Merkins

Mosey up a little then 5 Burpee’s

Mosey up a little then 10 Burpee’s

Mosey Up a little then 10 Wide Arms,

Mosey to the top then 15 3 count Sumo Squats

Mosey to the bottom of the little hill.

15 3 count Carolina Dry Dock

Mosey to the corner of Riverwood and Union. 10 Merkins

Mosey to Robinwood School to the wall. 15 3 count dips

Mosey to the light behind the school for a little Mary. 25 3 count flutter, hold em 6 inches, 15 3 count flutter, 25 3 count LBC’s, 20 3 count Flutter.

Mosey back to the wall, 15 Derkins, 15 Dips.

Mosey back to Riverwood road and around to Park Sterling parking lot. Jack Webb to 7 and back down.

Mosey back to the beginning.

The Moleskin:

Great job to everyone that showed and decided not to Fartsack. Temperature was perfect and it was a great group of men. Keep on seeking more to join us and let’s double the size of F3 Gastonia. 17th convergence at the Schiele Musuem bring a toy.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead. It is always and honor.

Gastone

Post Thanksgiving Weekend workout might require some calorie burning as the food intake over the previous four days exceeded even my own expectations. It was fantastic.

Seven strong men showed up in the Monday morning gloom for a early week beatdown. 5:29 am and we still had a car in the parking lot with a missing driver…..I guess we will start without him (JK2).

Warm Up In Cadence
SSH X 10
LBC’s X 10
Imperial Walkers X 10

Pledge

We’re Ready

The Thang

Mosey to the main park and over to the ‘Center of the Wheel’ in the middle of the baseball fields for a Modified Martha Grinder.

Squats IC X 12
Run one loop (pie piece as I like to call it) around one of the baseball fields and back to the center
25 Merkins OYO
Plank for the 6

Squats IC X 13
Run one loop (as above)
40 Flutter Kicks OYO
Plank for the 6

Squats IC X 14
Run one loop
25 Merkins OYO
Plank for the 6

Squats IC X 15
Run one loop
40 Flutter Kicks OYO
Plank for the 6

Recover with very short discussion about the new week being full of opportunities to make a positive impact on the persons you interact with on a daily basis. Aye!

Mosey to Field #4 for some Ladder 4 Corners (OYO):

1st Corner: 10 Merkins
2nd Corner: 10 Merkins – 20 Flutter Kicks
3rd Corner: 10 Merkins – 20 Flutter Kicks – 30 Squats
4th Corner: 10 Merkins – 20 Flutter Kicks – 30 Squats – 40 Mountain Climbers
Plank for the 6

Plenty of time left – Rinse & Repeat the Ladder 4 Corners One Time.

Mosey to the covered shed while yelling at the group of teenagers who the Q thought he knew. Turns out he did not so those kids might have been creeped out a little by the old(er) men running around in the dark yelling at them. They might not be back.

Find a spot on the picnic tables for some In Cadence work:

Dips X 15
Step Ups X 15
Dips X 15
Step Ups X 15

Work done. Mosey back to Pelican’s and there he is, JK2 waiting on some Mary work after running. The Q timed it perfectly so there was no Mary time available. Nice timing JK2. Good work on your run.

Announcements – Prayer Requests – Name-O-Rama

As always, it was an honor to lead this morning and start our week off well.

Good work men.

Until the next one. Aye!

The Thang:

Warm Up

SSH 40, Imperial Walker 30, Mountain Climber 30.

Mosey down Riverwood Parkway

Plank, Right Arm, Left Arm, so on. 5 Burpee’s

Mosey a little farther (Whoopee indicated that a fire had happened down this street so we should not go down this way.

Plank 6 inches, 10 Burpee’s.

Mosey to “The Hill of Village Ridge” bottom

10 Diamonds.

Mosey halfway up the hill. 30 Squats (good job with the whisper count)

Mosey the rest of the way to the top. Some exercise but I don’t remember.

Mosey down to the bottom, 10 Wide Arm Merkins.

Lunges up to the first drive of the Hill, then Back down.

Backward up to the first drive of the Hill, mumble chatter caused Sumo Squats.

Lunges up, Backwards up, Lunges up, Backwards up.

Plank at the bottom.

Follow me for a little more Mosey back to parking lot for the old Harris Teeter.

Mary joined us for Flutter, High Flutter, High, Medium, Low Flutter, LBC’s, and 6 inches.

Mosey to the half wall on the way back for 15 Wall Derkins, 15 lunges.

The back to the start right on time.

Moleskin:

Always a great group of guys in Gastonia, good that everyone likes hills as much as I do for training. I would like to encourage everyone to headlock someone you know and get them off the sofa and out to one of the workouts. For the month of December I will do 10 Burpee’s for every FNG we add to the PAX all on the last day of the year. Also, if your neighborhood is using Nextdoor maybe you post a welcoming note to encourage neighbors.

Good job to everyone that came out and remember that you are already way ahead of others because you just got out of the Fartsack. Thanks for letting me Q and for letting me be the site Q for Monday’s and Wednesdays.

Gastone, Aye!

In preparation to Q the workout before Thanksgiving, I read the average American consumes 4,500 calories at the traditional Thanksgiving feast. That doesn’t include the snacking and round II that comes a few hours later. To burn that off, you would have to do burpees for nearly 8 hours. That’s a lot of damn burpees – even for Dolph. Maybe I could build a Weinke that can at least allow a few extra bites of tasty food. After all, this only comes once a year.

I missed my 4:50 am wake-up call. I could blame technology or the programmer of said alarm clock. Many thanks to my lovely M for the wake-up call at 5:07 am when she nudged me (no, not in the good way) to say “aren’t you leading that work-out thing this morning?” Faster than Clark Kent could enter a phone booth, I began to add the layers necessary for the 31 degree temperature that awaited outside my door. Thankfully I had enough sense to load the coupons into my car the night before. Up, up and away, I went, arriving hot to see five other idiots leapt from their fart-sacks for a three course meal of calorie burn – as had been advertised in the pre-tweet. No FNG’s but the quick disclaimer was stated – you’re an idiot for being here, let’s all be idiots together…

Warm-up

• Toy Soldier IC x 10
• Don Quixote IC x 10
• Grass Picker IC x 10 (Whoopee gets an F for not participating)
• Merkin IC x 10

 Pledge

Thang

                 Taking a right out of the parking lot, we lined up for an Indian Run. You might think that theme links in with Thanksgiving but there was another attempted symbolism that you can read below. So, the Indian Run instructions were “line up behind me and as you arrive at the front of the line, take the flashlight from the leader. Various forms of ‘leadership’ were observed. Stroganoff got all “Whoopee-like”, in my face, Gastone quickened the pace, and Whoopee ran in unique patterns, daring us to chase him. We lasted a few rounds before we took a break of “7’s” using the curb for Derkins and Dips. Plank for the 6…start Indian Run up the hill to arrive at the Dollar Store parking lot. Need to complete another round of 7’s sticking with Derkins and Dips.

Once complete – group mosey toward our vacant grocery store for the Second Course. Tucked within the old shopping cart vestibule, the coupon fairy had made a few deposits among four stations.

• Station A:

• High Plank – rotate lifting water jugs to a bench (20 total)
• Rocky Balboa – extend arms and hold sand filled pvc pipe (20 each leg)
• Plank to Squat (15)
• Bobby Hurley – with 10 lb medicine ball (15)
• Run 50 yards to end of parking lot and return to station B
• Station B
• Block Webbs – Merkin, then press a half block (10)
• Squats – hold half block (20)
• Curls -big boy cinder block (20)
• Moroccan Night Clubs – hold 10 lb dumbbell (20)
• Run 50 yards to end of parking lot and return to station C

• Station C
• Hip Slappers (10 each side)
• Blockies – big boy block (5)
• Lunge – hold water jugs (20 each side)
• Merkins (20)
• Run 50 yards to end of parking lot and return to station D

• Station D
• Flutter Kicks – hold sand filled pvc pipe to keep the arms engaged (20 each leg)
• Donkey Kicks (20)
• Dying Cockroach – with bricks (20)
• Crunchy Frog – with bricks (20)
• Run 50 yards to end of parking lot and return to station A

During one of the first stations, Whoopee injured his calf muscle. I thought he was going to head home, I believe he was headed that way too. But after a few stretches and walking off the pain, he was back in the ring – to fight through the end. Those are the kind of nagging things that would have a single man workout hitting the power button and turning the lights off. We would have understood had that been the case, but I believe the effort of the group caused another swell for Whoopee to ride out the wave. Everyone was giving their best effort. Great job by all the PAX.

The third course was going to be a fun task of suicides and side-straddle-hops but to avoid further injury and with less than 10 minutes to go, YHC decided to save that for a future Q. With the time, I dug back to a work-out from a few months ago led by CSPAN where he said “go pick your least favorite exercise and give it your best effort to conquer it…” or something like that. The six of us spread among the various exercises and went after it getting a few more rounds and one more run before it was time to return to the AO. Where we had a little more than a minute. I could see Mary’s fat ass standing at the sno-cone counter with her arms folded. I shut her up with LBC’s and Freddie Mercury.

Moleskin

As the PAX heart rate’s cooled down I shared a mini Third-F which had been jingling in my mind after Monk’s lesson Saturday where he was reading from the book of 1st John. One of the verses we discussed stated “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.” As I wrestled with the message, something sparked for the Indian Run to begin our workout. As each leader of the line held the flashlight, handing it off to the next man, the symbolism is sometimes we carry the light – God’s light – to shine it before others and to lead them. But then quickly we are out of control and we are in the middle of the pack, sometimes falling to the back, but in this instance, we are always following the light (even when Whoopee is running in circles). The run from the back to the front is the most challenging task and takes the most effort to become the leader, even for a short time. The hope is we all stick with the task to follow the light, weather out in front or trying to get there.

With that said, I shared more of God’s word. 2 Corinthians 4:6 – ‘For God who said “Let your light shine out of darkness,” he made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ And another passage from Matthew 5:16 – ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven.’

We lifted prayers for Dr. Feelgood’s mother and some friends of Easy Rider as well as the little girl that lost her young life, giving in to the grips of suicide. At a time where we are thankful for many blessings that we have families and friends within warm places and tables of food. We can also be thankful for the gloom where F3 brothers gather to push the rock another day. Fortunate to lead and be with a fun group of men.

It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving and I just knew the PAX was thinking of how they could show their thankfulness. What better way to do that than to use the gifts the good Lord has given us? In my opinion, the best way to show this is to …. RUN!

A short disclaimer, a couple of Sun Gods to get good and warmed up, then the Pledge and we’re off.

A long mosey across the street and through the bank parking lot all the way up Union Rd. to Christ Church parking lot. I reminded everyone that all good things come from the Lord and that a church parking lot is a perfect place to show our thanks.

Our routine would go like this, at the first stop we’d do ATMs (15 Alternating shoulder taps IC, 10 Tempo merkins IC, 10 fast Merkins).

Once we finished we moseyed directly across the street to the other church for a routine of 25 Peter Parkers IC, ABCs, and 20 WW1 Sit-ups. Feel the burn!

Mosey back down the road to First Baptist for the ATM routine.

Mosey again to Providence ARP Church for the ab roundup.

Last mosey down to the corner drug store (not a church) for the ATMs (I think).

A careful fellowship mosey across the street with a stop at the knee wall at the bank for 15 dips IC. Mosey home.

Wrap up with a set of a new exercise that I’ve never used in one of my Q’s, the Daniel Son, which if you remember is the crane kick used to destroy Johnny and the Cobra Kai in The Karate Kid. 5 or so of those in cadence and we’re done!

Good work hanging in there during my unannounced running workout men, especially Oompa Loompa. Aye!

Prayer requests: Dr. Feelgood’s mom and dad, those on IR. Can’t remember the others.

Moleskin: I wanted to try to work in an acronym of Thanksgiving or something really creative like many of you guys do to remind us of how thankful we really should be when you think about it and I just ran out of time. I hope my herky jerky, random talk and completely unrelated exercises didn’t keep you from enjoying the time out this morning. The iron sharpening iron that is F3 is enough for me!

Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving and Aye!!!

As a matter of fact, it was Wednesday…at Martha’s House!!!

Ok, the regulars were there so no need for much of a disclaimer other than I’m an idiot.

Warm-Up – Arm Raises, Don Quixotes, Imperial Walkers, Goof Balls

Recite the Pledge of Allegiance

Mosey to the abandoned grocery store parking lot where we found a perfectly good wall that wasn’t being used enough. The only way to fix that is to do 10 Australian Mountain Climbers IC. That’s better.

The Thang

In honor of Tool Time who’s on the IR, Jimmy is a song by Tool that says the word Eleven throughout. So there you go, Elevens! On one end do CDDs, go a few speed humps and perform Peter Parkers. Aye! Nothing gets the blood pumpin like Elevens.

Back to the wall for Hip Slappers x10 IC. Everybody’s favorite.

Slow mosey to the middle of the parking lot for a routine of modified suicides.

5 Star Jacks, run to next set of lines and back. 5 Scorpion Dry Docks, run to the next set of lines past the last and back. 5 Gorilla Humpers, run to the next furthest lines and back. 5 Burpees, run to the lines past the last and back. Recover (for Stroganoff cause he says no one calls that anymore). Repeato the same sequence but increase reps to 10 each. Recover. I think Whoopee had to evacuate about now. Repeato again but increase to 15 reps each. Recover. Aye!!!

Circle up around the nearest light pole for the Bear Crawl Ring of Fire. Bear crawl around the pole for one rotation. Everyone hold the plank position while one PAX does 10 merkins, moving counter-clockwise til everyone does theirs. Recover

Mosey back to Pelican’s for a round of Mary to finish up. Bacon called for Mountain Climbers x25 IC. Hushpuppy called for Neckies forward and to each side x10 IC while holding feet at 6 inches. Spiderman called for Canoes x8 IC. JK2 called for Sandy V’s x10 IC.

Prayer Requests- Stroganoff’s M’s mother, Bandit, T-Square’s family. Everyone on IR. Our Country.

COT- It was a pleasure again men. You’re the reason I keep coming out here and I appreciate each of you!

9 posted for some pain promised by Whoopee. I was fresh off the plane from a pheasant hunting trip with Feelgood, Bumgardner, Boss Hogg (remember him????) where I did my best to reduce the pheasant population and EH some unsuspecting sad clowns. Don’t worry, the pheasants were never in any danger from me.

We started with a disclaimer about being stupid and how the pain is felt by others then did a real-live warm up with SSH X 40 followed by squats, LBCs, Mountain Goats (someone shoot me and revoke my Q privileges if I try that one again), flutter kicks, and imperial walkers. Next we did a mobile warmup with slow high knees, lunge walk, karaoke and shuffle slide.

Pledge of Allegiance (standing, UP YOURS Kaepernick. We stand and show respect)
Mosey to the parking lot in Martha’s
Introduction to Jack Webb-Escalator from 10 down to 1 Merkins alternating with Escalator Air Presses from 1 up to 10. Short discussion on who Jack Webb was-thanks Spiderman for the unintentional reminder by mentioning something about Friday and shaking loose the cobwebs in my head that Jack Webb was the actor who played Sgt. Joe Friday on TV show Dragnet.
Mosey to parking lot in front of playground near picnic tables for the main event: in honor of Stroganoff (WHO I WON’T MENTION FARTSACKED TODAY) we did 22’s. The plan was 2 man teams but we had 9 present so (thankfully) we had teams of 3. Start on one end of lot and do 20 Burps then escalator down to 2 (by 2 each time) alternating with 2 Squats with escalator up to 20 (by 2 each time) on the other end of the lot. The painful part of this involved piggy back riding your partner from 1 side to the other. With 3 man teams, 1 Pax could walk/mosey each trip while the other 2 Pax became better acquainted during the piggy back ride. Sorry SledgeOMatic, the Queen did not accompany me to South Dakota and I ate and drank more than my share and probably put on a few pounds. This was the part of the workout that really kicked in with the weight loss. I was carrying TSquare on each of my trips and on about the 5th trip, he suddenly became a few pounds lighter. When I turned around to see what was going on, all I saw was Defib. Before he could jump off I took off like a …..well it was not really that fast however in my mind I was moving like Kimberly “Sweet Brown” Wilkins running for my life. I ran out and didn’t grab no shoes or nothing. AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bFEoMO1pc7k

I ran for my life all the way to the other side where I quickly deposited Defib before TSquare could trade places.
Next we moved on to the picnic tables for some dips: reps of 15 then 20 then 15 I think. The Turd Shack was calling (in a good way) so we went there for some hip slappers and donkey kicks. Time was running low so we moseyed back to Pelican’s but stopped along the way for front-of-the-pack-led Mary led by Defib then Billy Madison then Whoopee.
We arrived a little too soon so we had some more Mary then called it quits.
Namorama, Announcements, Prayers:
At the time we mentioned Bandit and his family going through some tough times with Bandit’s mother  (and some other Pax) and the need to be able to lean on each other and occasionally be carried or help carry each other when we are going through rough times. #shieldlock. The partner carry part of 22s above was meant to remind us of that-thanks for posting T Square-your presence is mutually beneficial and I know you know that.
Earlier today I received word from Bandit that his mother had passed away peacefully during the night. Although death will always be a part of our lives, I don’t think I will ever get used to it. I am sad for my F3 brothers when they are sad and I know things will be tough for Bandit for awhile. Take some time today to let those you care about know how you feel today. After reading this, please also pause for a few minutes to say a prayer for our brother Bandit and his family. We will be here for you when you are ready to come back. I am thankful for each one of you-we all have an impact on those around us, especially in the gloom-remember that and let that motivate you to get better and hold your brothers accountable.
Whoopee