Tag: The Black Knight (Page 2 of 3)

My family vacation this summer was a trip to the west coast, starting in LA and finishing in San Diego, checking out the left coast for a change of scenery. It was beautiful, well parts were at least. LA is a zoo and you can keep the traffic. Imagine Franklin Street during Christmas, 8 lanes wide all going at least 60 to 90 miles an hour. Then throw in a few Evil Knievals weaving in and out and splitting the lanes when they have to. I enjoyed seeing Mike Love’s current tour of the Beach Boys live, some good food, and a few other things, but it is good to be home. Where I thankfully checked the Q schedule as I was doing my month end Weasel Shaker duties to learn Turtle Man had me listed as Q of The Black Knight this morning. Actually it didn’t bother me – kind of got me excited to design a new workout.

I decided to use my sandbags and bricks for a portion so that required me to get up early. That wasn’t a problem as my body clock is all to heck at the moment. I woke up about 0200 for some reason and doubt I slept much until the alarm at 0500. Good news is I arrived early to the AO for a change; second one in the parking lot behind the freshly shaved Island. If he didn’t have the purple Hornets shirt on, I’d have thought we had an 20 year old FNG. Don’t worry, Island said “the beard” will return one day. Whoopee and Stone Cold declare they were going to run instead of attend my boot camp. I was a little hurt because Whoopee and I already traded barbs via twitter – not over our musical interest but over the workout. But he’s got the BRR upcoming that requires dedicated miles. Now – my man Gastone – he got up early for EC to log his miles and then posted for the extra pain. He had the sweaty knuckles to prove it. Others began to roll in and it was time to clock in. Veterans abound so only the brief disclaimer was stated: “modify as necessary.”

Warm-up:

• 4×4 (4 merkins, 4 mtn climbers) x 5
• Butt Kickers IC x 10
• Squat Jack Twits IC x 10
• Burpees 5 OYO

Pledge

Mosey via the gravel road to the first picnic shelter at Martha Rivers, careful to avoid the large dumpster truck. Upon arrival I explained Round 1: mini Insanity. The circuit had 4 exercises at 30 seconds each with no rest until after all had been completed. We did 3 rounds of AMRAP during each 30 set:

• Knee crunches (rest back of calves on picnic bench)
• Dips
• Box Jumps
• Decline Peter Parkers

This was a grueling set that immediately brought the sweat, except for Gastone – he was already moist. Odd word “moist:” but guys find it funny while women seem to hate it unless it is mentioned in baking – is it time to digress? On the knee crunches I reiterated to give yourself some headroom between the picnic benches and quickly referenced the fabled Michael Scott joke “that’s what she said…” It took a second before the chuckles occurred. It was dark and I think it was Pedal that nearly broke the table on one of the moves – he said he was fine. Gastone tried to bring the mumble chatter but he seemed to be the only one. A peanut gallery of one is tough; time to mosey to Phase II – along the upper track and through the back entrance to Riverwood we ran until reaching the entrance. We dropped for LBC’s for a period of time until the 6 arrived and all had done at least 30 seconds of crunches. Let’s get to the office building for 11’s. I’ve not done these in a while but recalled Island doing an entire workout of this exercise and it being tough. My version was to begin with 10 merkins on the south end, run to the opposite side near the wall for 1 flying squirrel. You know the drill from there. All the guys pushed hard through that one. Other than the huffs for breath, it was quiet.

The final Thang only required a fellowship mosey to the front of the old HT. I did this a Midoriyama a few weeks ago and it was a crowd pleaser. Learning from that lesson we divided into groups of 3. P1 would remain at the parking line and perform Moroccan Night Clubs with bricks in each hand. P2 would lunge walk to the next parking line with sand bags in each hand or over their shoulder. P3 was waiting while performing flutter kicks. P2 set the timer for the exchange meaning P1 and P3 had +/- a minute of the exercises. Most of the time MNC’s are docile but do them for a minute with resistance and the shoulders will burn. More time was needed as we only made it two rounds before a sprint was required back to the AO.

COT: The announcements have been posted in other BB’s so take  a look. Throw some school supplies in your car as Hush Puppy and Squirt are collecting for Least of These kids. We lifted prayers for the newest AO Mt. Hollywood, all the guys traveling, and all the thoughts in our hearts and minds.

Today was a grinder but one that everyone pushed through. We really could have used two more really strong men to make the teams of three work, oh that’s right, they were running. I’ll still count them since they did break a sweat during their 5 mile mosey. To the others, it was good to see TimeFrame back along with many of the regulars. Thanks to our fearless leader Turtle Man that put me as the Q. Even though he was spooning this morning and missed his ride to the workout, he made sure his PAX were taken care of – you’re welcome. Until the next one, thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Another typical morning in the gloom expecting a Gastone beat down, who had sent a pre-blast something to the effect of a surprise announcement or Q.   There was a big turn out.  More on that later.  There was 1 FNG, welcome Cow Bell.    Gastone provided the standard disclosures and hit on the 5 principles of F3.  He seemed to be focused and determined at this point and jumped right in to warm up.

The thang:

SSH x 25 ic

Merkins x15 ic

Mosey to the park taking the scenic view along the fields

Partner up for elevens- start with hand slap merkins, move up the hill for partner derkins, then back

Rinse and repeat till complete

40 lbs’s while waiting on the six

At this point, Gastone gathered the Pax for an announcement.  Started talking about change and how it was time to hand off the baton after about 18 months for the dark knight Monday AO.   At this point, I noticed a number of tears from the Pax.  Maybe that was the sweat or perhaps sadness.  Gastone shared that YHC was taking over.   Feeling the love, YHC immediately called the next exercise, none other than  tunnel of love.  Form a line, get in a plank position  with the beginning of the line completing a military crawl.  Continue till the end of the line.

Turtle walk – like an Indian Run, except with a bear crawl.  Key learning, this doesn’t work with so many men after so many merkins.

Mosey to play ground

Partner up

Partner A completes.10 pull ups while partner B completes 20 squats

Rinse and repeat

Mosey towards snoballs

Stop for 20 big boy sit ups

Mosey to the start

End with the pledge

The mole skin

A pretty big Q fail on my part.  Video did not record during namerama.   If you were there and don’t see your name let me know.

A big shout out to all AO leads for ensuring Q’s go off without a hitch.  For those recently relinquishing, thank you for your leadership and for setting the bar high.

It’s always a honor to lead.  Till next time – Turtleman

That little dogs name was Toto. But, don’t be fooled when looking at the little dog because it had great strength. The strength of a lion.

The Thang:

We warmed up.

He killed our arms, we tried a few new things.

We did pull ups.

Overall pretty nasty Q but I don’t remember all.

The Moleskin:

Toto has jumped in and is learning the whole thing around taking on a Q.  He will learn to write BB’s soon but for now I have him covered.

Pledge and the Prayers,

Toto Signing Off for today.

19 For a Hippa then supposed to be Toto and then it was a Gastone Q. Prayers for Hippa with a death in the family and for Toto who had a hospital visit and should be back to us in a couple days.

Now that it is Gastone of course all were excited about all the possibilities. I pulled from my Wienke brain and made up a workout real fast.

The Thang:

SSH 20

Merkins 10

Imperial Walker 20

Diamond Merkins 10

Mosey to middle of the soccer fields.

100 yard Lunges

Mosey to bottom of the hill at the back of the soccer fields.

30 Monkey Humpers, Backwards up the hill, 30 Squats, then back down.

30 Monkey Humpers, 20 Lunges each leg, Backwards up the hill, 30 Squats, Then back down.

30 Monkey Humpers, 20 Lunges each leg, 30 Gorilla Humpers, Backwards up the hill, 30 Squats, Then back down.

Mosey to the back of the park to exit.

Plank on your elbows as we gather the 6.

Mosey out of the park the back way and to Riverwood PLWY.

Plank

Mosey to the bottom of Gastone’s Hill

Every mailbox on the right 5 Merkins all the way to the top.

40 LBC’s, 40 American Hammers, 40 Flutter’s count the right foot

Back down the hill, every mailbox on the left do 5 Merkins. Seemed more like Derkins.

40 LBC’s

Mosey the way back and stop for…

Jack Webb’s to 7 and back down.

Jail break to the starting line.

The Moleskin:

Great work and a new guy that says he will be back on Wednesday. Strong group of men making each other stronger and not just with the workout.

Prayer requests for you brother’s and family members,

Gastone Out

22 came out for a Gastone inspired beat down. T-Bone and Bandit joined the mix for some unfamiliar faces that we are glad to have back (Cotter’s).

The Thang:

FNG present Ryan Morrow so gave him a quick disclaimer that he heard but everyone else was talking.

Pledge

Start off with Mosey down Riverwood Pkwy

Stop at first light pole and do 1 Burpee

Mosey to next and do 2 Burpee all the way to 7 Burpees at the last pole before taking a right on Plantation Trail.

Mosey down to the back entrance of Martha’s Park and do 40 LBC’s while collecting the 6.

Mosey into the park and then to the middle of the soccer fields.

Lunge walk the long straight away.

Then back we did Lunge with each foot then a Burpee then repeat all the way to the other side.

Mosey to the far end of the soccer field onto the grass.

Partner Up, Size Matters.

Partner Carry to the other side of the field if you both on the ground you cannot advance.

Wheelbarrow back down 75% of the field with partner.

Plank on elbows for 6.

Plank from elbow that your raise up with your right and then left and then back down, on a 3 count. 25 done.

Mosey to the bottom of the hill looking at Picnic area.

Backwards to the Picnic area.

11’s, 1 Dip at the top then 10 Merkin’s at the bottom. Rinse and repeat until you flip the numbers.

40 LBC’s while we wait.

Walk up the path then Mosey to the bathroom wall.

25 Marching soldier with our hands in the air while enjoying the Sunrise.

30 Second Balls to the Wall

Mosey up the hill to a grassy patch.

Jack Webb up to 7 and then back down.

Jailbreak to base. Defib took off fast and Island floated to catch up. Some serious speed starting to show.

The Moleskin:

FNG Ryan Morrow works in the Cath Lab and came out for his first. While doing dips he made the comment “I thought I was in shape”. Many of us have had that experience that we thought we were to a level and then we get that wake up call. He has now been named “Peffercorn” which is the lifeguard in Sandlot which came to him for 2 reasons. 1st he played baseball and 2nd he used to be a Lifeguard. Welcome Peffercorn to F3 and we all look forward to you being out the next time.

Kiwi, welcome back. You pushed hard and we look forward to having you back out regularly. Just keep on doing what you can do it will take some time but it will happen.

Bandit, its about time.

Great numbers today and all put in a great effort. Keep pushing each other and stay with it and you will all be beasts.

Prayers for anybody traveling, prayers for Toto’s Mother in law who lost her life, and for Breaker Breakers person that seems to be getting some good news on a cancer battle.

Gastone Out!

It was a beautiful morning in the gloom (May 23rd) at the dark knight (aka snowballs… or pelicans).  As our Uber driver picked us up, I mentioned the idea of repeating YHC’s Q from two weeks ago or trying something new down in the park.  My previous Q was when the weasel wanker took the bull by the horns and posted the back blast.  I figured a rinse and repeat would be good with the Murph upcoming and to set the record straight.  Anyway, I decided to take option B and into the park instead.

The Thang:

No FNG’s, let’s jump in

The Pledge

40 SSH’s IC

20 DQ’s aka wind mills:  used to loosen core and yes technically an exercise

Mosey to the park

Find the first hill and complete

25 incline LBC’s  (mumble chatter was saying the hill made LBC’s easier…. hmmm, let’s see what happens)

25 monkey humpers OYO

Rinse and repeat x 4 :  the chatter quickly dissipated

Mosey to the wheel spoke for 10 burpees

Mosey to lower field for Black Jack:  WW III sit ups (chatter about what those are  – for the millennial’s aka WWI) and plank jacks.   Started with 20 sit ups ran across the field and then one plank jack, rinse and repeat, each time going down or up by 1.  The key is that you always make 21 – black jack….. Sounded good in concept.  Until we got to 18 and it was going to take forever.   Omaha’d to reduce by 2 each rotation.

Planks waiting on the six

Quick count off – 14 strong

Slow meander to playground

Modified Cindy – 5 pull ups, 10 merkins and 15 squats x 5 OYO

Quick mosey to the field by the turd shack for the crowd pleaser.   My version of a turtle run, renamed live action, thanks Whoopee.  It’s an Indian Run modified with bear crawls instead of running.   Last person in line raced to the front while the line moved.  Made it through all 14 and time was about up.  Will incorporate this one for sure in future posts.

Mosey back to Dark Knight.

Gastone took us out with flutters.  TIME up

The Moleskin

A great push by the Pax.   I am continuously amazed and in awe of how everyone continues to raise their game.  Everyone is hammering away and pushing the rock.   It shows.   Shout out to Island, who is absolutely killing it.  Thanks for the privilege to Q.  Good work men.

Also, I appreciate the weasel wanker holding me accountable on posting the back blasts.

Have a great week.  Till next time

Turtle Man

I’m sure most of us have always had a sock drawer and depending on the time period you were growing up you had tube socks with stripes that pulled all the way up to your knees before giving way to the mid-calves and then the low cuts.  In my drawer, there were always a few blue or black pair that were the “Sunday socks.” to be worn with clothes our moms bought and we wore to church or dress up occasions. Now as an adult and wearing my Sunday attire nearly 5 days a week for work, I seem to wear my Sunday socks on a daily basis. In the early morning hours of my darkened bedroom, I grabbed my dark work socks to wear to the workout. I didn’t notice until I was in the garage searching for my shoes but there was no time to correct the mistake. Now I don’t have a “sock game” like Island (check out his Batman socks) and I’m not a millennial that buys pants a size too tight and 2 inches short to show of brightly colored socks that cost as much as case of beer. But none of the PAX called me out on it so I survived. But you didn’t pull open this backblast to read about socks. You want to know about the workout.

I grabbed the Q from Gastone as I had a few new things to try, at least they were new to me and something not performed at the Dark Snoball or the Black Snow or whatever our old Martha’s House playground is now called. The circle formed and Roadie was the lone representative from Folsom on this occasion. My man is making the rounds and putting in a lot of work which the results are noticeable. Don’t be surprised if he is standing beside you one morning. 0530 hit and we had an FNG among us. Jeff Martin was EH’ed by Defib. A former soccer player at Belmont Abbey (he’s younger than you Boudin) and police officer in Belmont. I knew what was planned and briefly considered a revision. I decided I would add a bit to the disclaimer instead – “you verses you, stop if you get dizzy, it’s okay to merlot, blah, blah, blah.” It was a good thing we had an experienced and trained medical professional among us – no, not the guy that won most beautiful cardiologist in Gastonia – he didn’t show – probably “heart-sacking with his M. No the Doc that posted is the one that can knock out nearly 100 push-ups in a minute; the one that craps his pants on mile 20 because he’s ahead of a PR at Big Sur; yeah – that one. We said the pledge and then I decided an extended warm-up was needed. It went like this:

• 5 Burpees OYO
• SSH – IC x 10
• Squats – IC x 10
• Imperial Walker – IC x 10

Mosey to the old Harris Teeter. I got to spend some time Saturday with Slaw during the workout at Folsom. A month or so ago he hit those boys with an insane routine of his favorite exercise – yes you guessed it – the burpee. He had an hour to expend and I was limited in our 45 minutes. I decided to modify a bit. So once arriving in the parking lot I shared with the PAX the four corners that would be employed: approximately 30 yards apart, nearly a square shape. At corner #1, we’d begin with 16 burpees. Run to corner #2, decrease by one to 15; Corner #3 – 14 burpees and then Corner #4 – 13 burpees. We made it two rounds before I called Omaha. Partly because the PAX had these dumbfounded looks on their face and Roadie asked to be placed on the prayer list. Plus I had other stuff to do. I thought maybe we’d come back to it if we had time. This was a tough one for sure and designed to keep the mumble chatter at a minimum which it certainly did. The problem was JK2, Whoopee, or Turtleman didn’t post. So it was eerily quite, almost too quiet except for the idiot in his car yelling “run harder!” I never said our hometown was full of the world’s brightest bulbs. The pre-tweet promised 100 burpees and we eclipsed that mark so one mission was accomplished.

Phase II of the workout was a new routine with partners. Partner 1 would get in plank and perform shoulder taps at corners 1 and 3. Partner 2 would face the opposite direction in a plank and perform 10 side hops over his partner’s extended legs. If you can’t visualize it, hopefully you’ll post the next time I Q and you can perform it yourself. At corners 2 and 4 the partners flipped positions with Partner 1 doing side to side hops and Partner 2 shoulder tapping. We went 3 rounds. The partner doing the shoulder taps did AMRAP while the one side hopping 10 times was the count.

To the long wall for something I read about in Spiderman’s backblast: the dirty hook-up. We did 10 of those in cadence against the wall, then turned around for 10 Donkey kicks in cadence before finishing with 10 hip slappers.

We formed a circle for the next routine. Stroganoff likes to name his routines so I came up with Diamonds are Forever. I don’t know about you but diamond merkins can suck, actually they suck a lot. But you gotta do some things you don’t like to get better. So we began with 10 diamond merkins. Not so bad, now for the hard part. Low diamond holds. Put your hands in position and lower down where your forearms are about an inch off the ground and your bicep almost folds on top of your forearm – hold that position for 25 seconds. All was quiet until about 10 seconds in and the moaning began and lasted until time was called. Nice work by the PAX. A brief rest before the last segment: diamond pulses. Same principal applies – lower down and then pulse your arms up and down to increase the burn for another 25 seconds.

We had a little bit of time so let’s get some Mary in while were here.

• Flutter kicks IC x 20
• Leg lifts SC x 20
• American Hammer IC x 20
• X Crunch SC x 20

We headed back to the AO for the standard close. Prayers were lifted for Roadie’s niece worried about end of grade tests and his brother whom he is trying to EH off the sad clown couch. Announcements: Folsom this Saturday is having a 2.0 friendly workout, something they plan to do monthly over the summer. HIPPA will take the Pain Lab on the road to be there as well. Start time will be 0700 instead of their normal time – make a note if you plan to attend.  Look for the newsletter with information about 2nd F coming up next week at the White Water Center’s River Jam. In June Freight will host a 3rd F event on a Friday evening – date to be confirmed.

Moleskin: For his first day out, Jeff Martin pushed himself pretty good. With his soccer and police background we named him “Shooter.” This was a hard workout for all fitness levels. Burpees are a full body exercise that exert about every muscle. But to think we did over 100 – that was strong work that elevated our heart rates and started the calorie burn. I’ll bring that one back out and hopefully we can get through the four rounds. The guys all worked hard and we all got better. Thanks to Gastone and Squirt for grabbling the six. I enjoyed the opportunity to lead the workout. Until the next one.

There was some serious chatter going on Twitter before this morning-who would post, who would wear a vest, how much you gonna put in it, what kind of music….I felt the pressure but did not let it get to me too much. Even before starting, the mumble chatter was hot-I pulled up some classic George Strait: Amarillo By Morning on my phone and out of nowhere, ShortSale yells “What??? No speaker???”but….I….was…..not……distracted. Well, maybe just a little so keep on reading.

WU: SSH X4 then 10 burpees OYO.  Pledge then let’s go-mosey to the turd shack with 10 squats at the lights (most of them). We did some run-ing and nur-ing along the way. There was some blah, blah, blah along the way I think. But, we kept moving and got to the shack.

ON THE WALL: new exercise (no, it’s not in the lexicon-piss off!!!) called Crazy Indian-everyone against the wall in Balls to the Wall. First guy drops down and runs to end then gets back on the wall into BTTW position. As he passes by, the next guy drops down and runs behind him. I think we just did one lap-more of this in the future….

20 LBCs then back ON THE WALL: Hip Slappers X 20 IC. I still love these.

20 LBCs

20 Australian Mountain Climbers

20 LBCs?

Mosey to Playground while I cue up some “Rocky Top” on the old phone. Lean in close ShortSale. If I play this backwards you can hear Youseff Osborne saying “Rush sucks, Rush sucks, Rush sucks”. While we listened to the Osborne Brothers sing Rocky Top, we each did 10 Rocky Top Burpees (burpee with a pull-up instead of overhead clap-original from TSquare-nice one-thanks for the demo). We finished just as Rocky Top was ending then moseyed to the outer part of the (imaginary) wheel spoke of the baseball fields……someone please make sure Gastone is not still looking for a bike-did he ever make it home? I was planning for lunges to the center but some unnamed pax that rhymes with Portpale wouldn’t stop with the mumble chatter so I changed to burpee long jumps thinking, surely he’s got to catch his breath and stop chattering. Did it work???? Heck no. I think he is part fish and was breathing through gills behind his ears-the chatter kept going until…..until…………….until…………………………….

“Shut-up! I’m the Q dammit! Do what I say!”

I think I blacked out for about 10 seconds and woke up with everyone quiet and smiling. Think I heard some kumbayas and smelled some incense burning. Gastone and Squirt were skipping around in circles with a basket of flowers in their hands. Hushpuppy floated above all of us with some butterfly wings barely moving but he was still flying???? How did he do that? And when did he get here? TSquare was chugging a Mountain Dew in a glass with a big frufru umbrella and a flower stuck in it. Then there was Spiderman….when did he…oh yeah, he was here earlier. He was hugging Hipaa-yes, hugging Hipaa and Hipaa was ok with that…not only ok with it, he even took off his vest and gave it to Turtleman who put it on like a skirt and started two step dancing with Squirt. Captain Stuebing was standing one foot on Linus and and one foot on DDC’s back and screaming at the top of his lungs “I am KING OF THE WORLD.” JK2 and EasyRider were arguing over who was hotter: CatWoman or Ginger from Giligan’s Island. WTF????

About this time I woke up and we were in the center of the bicycle wheel. Someone said I yelled “Shut-up! I’m the Q dammit! Do what I say!” I cannot deny it, but not sure I remember it happening.

I looked around and everything was suddenly back to normal-and then it started again….ShortSale…..with the mumble chatter….so I did the only thing I could think of, I got back to the weinke.

1 min AMRAP sit-ups

1 min AMRAP Merkins

We moseyed to the parking lot (end of other spoke) for some 22’s (I believe this is a Stroganoff original but not sure: like 11’s but different). Partner Derkins on 1 end (both partners do the exercise) and Overhead Claps on the other end. We had a request for Village People singing YMCA so I cranked it up really loud on my phone and we got down to business. We started and only dropping reps by 2’s on the Partner Derkin side but ran out of time and started counting down numbers on both sides and eventually finished. We then moseyed back to Snoballs with some Squats, run-ing, and nur-ing along the way. We got back right…..on….. time.

Finished with COT and I took us out with a quick prayer.

Great work this am guys. I was pushed by each of you and hope it was mutual. The vest (thanks Hipaa and Boudin) definitely adds to the pain. The mumble chatter (holy nuts, ShortSale and others) was spot on and definitely made me try to amp things up as much as possible. Don’t forget about the Memorial Day events (SFN in Charlotte and Murph at Martha’s). Get your work in-200 squats daily alternating with 200 Merkins the next day then keep alternating. Need to keep running. Those Folsom Boys are making some serious progress. They need to know they are not alone in this running thing.

Mornings like this make me really happy to be alive-sounds corny but it is true.

thanks for the push-Whoopee