18 guys didn’t heed the warning that Leg Day was coming to Flash. I had hoped my warning marketing would have sent a few pax over to support Chatter Box for his VQ, but apparently only Mad Dog’s heart strings were tugged. The rest of you are cold heartless bastards (I’m joking).
FNG introduced. Neither of his EH’ers decided to post with him (though Glidah was leading Ignition so he gets a pass. Where were you Catfish?!!).
DICCS discussed. A couple headlamps atop heads. Lets go.
WARM UP
Hot lap around the parking lot over to the middle school.
THE THING
Groups of 3. Partner 1 does up an over’s on the benches. Partner 2 is the runner (half lap to partner 3). Partner 3 does Russian Get Ups on the far Curb. Runner reliefs Russian Get Up and that person then finished the other half of the lap to take over for the up and overs. Had originally called go until team has done 100 up and over’s, but we have some fast guys this morning so we went until everyone completed two rounds. The Russian Get Up’s were too much for 1 Star’s lower half and he rushed off to Rudy’s Poop Palace.
Mosey to the road pausing to do backwards lunge walks while waiting for a bus to clear the road.
30 Speed Skaters at each light heading towards/past the high school (360 total for those keeping track). Chicken led mary waiting on the 6.
Mosey towards the football field. Pausing at the corner for squats waiting on the 6.
Backwards run towards the traffic circle. Heard a couple guys compliment my choice of exercises here tell me these suck.
Back to your team of 3 at the traffic circle. Partner 1 grabs fence for deep jump squats. Partner 2 runs. Partner three at the bottom circle for dry docks with feed on the curb. Two rounds each.
Mosey to high school steps for 5 calf raises on each step. Not enough time, audible.
Mosey to Rudy’s Palace. 3 minutes left. 2 burpees at each light all the way to COT. At COT we continued burpees until the 6 arrived. Mash and Ignition looked on in relief that they were not a part of Flash and didn’t have burpees to finish out.
MOLE SKIN
ANNOUNCEMENTS
(Thanks to Posse for the title). IPC came out on Sunday and after 1 look I decided it was time to pull the rip cord. As my shield lock knows, I despise CSUP’s. When the risk outweighs the reward, I’m out. I was on the fence with last weeks shoulder heavy workout, but I did it anyway. But 300 Merkins reached the risk to high point for me (Or as Rudy so eloquently said on twitter as he was giving Greenwood two middle fingers “IPC has jumped the shark. Why not make it 1000 merkins.”). Having completed 250 merkins once at a Hooch q (where we split 500 merkins with a partner) which caused me to miss 8 weeks of upper body work as my shoulder recovered, I knew 300 couldn’t happen for me. So with that I reached out to Blackhawk Q’s to have a valid reason not to do IPC (because I know my personality and the Fomo would eventually get to me Friday night and I would end up trying IPC against my better judgement).
So with that I decided….what can I do that will suck as much as the IPC, but will be safer and less injury prone. That’s when I decided it was time to dust off the ole’ 1000 rep challenge Q. I stole this from my wife a couple years ago and end up running it occasionally. Rudy has done it a couple times as well with much success. It’s fairly easy to explain….1000 reps broke out into 10 different exercises with 3 miles in between. Ok, lets go.
WARM UP
Lap around the parking lot. Then a second lap around the parking lot stopping at all four corners for 25 Side Straddle Hops in cadence and 12 3-6-9’s (a variance of in/outs). By the time we were done we completed 100 SSH’s (or 200 according to Wrigley) and 48 3-6-9’s. Because the 3-6-9 include a hop up on the 3 and the 9, we counted that as 96 reps. Posse took exception when I went past 12 on our 4th corner to 14, but I reminded him that 12×4 doesn’t equal 100. He gave me a funny look and I remembered I forgot to tell them we were doubling those reps…..anyways, a lot of words to say we are now 200 reps in.
THE THANG
Another lap around the parking lot (got to get 3 miles in too!) and I ask the pax to find a line. Paula Abdul’s. Bear Crawl up two parking spaces for 10 merkins, Crawl Bear back one space for 10 Mountain climbers. From doing this previously I knew getting to 100 of each would be too taxing on the shoulders and my math had us reaching 100 bear crawls around the 60 mark. Once everyone reached 60 Merkins, 60 Mountain climbers, and 100 bear crawl/crawl bears, we ran another lap.
To finish out our 40 merkins/mountain climbers we went back to the four corners with 10 at each. For those keeping count, we are now at 500 reps and about 1 mile in. Ahead on reps, behind on mileage….lets go fix that.
Mosey through the traffic circle pausing for a quick stretch to let a car clear the round-a-bout (Wrigley took issue with what he thought was too fast of a stretch break). Instructed pax to stop at each intersection for 12 Dry Docks, 12 right leg pistol LBC’s and 12 left leg pistol LBC’s. It would be 8 stops in total and about half a mile. We returned to were we started for a 9th round of 12’s to put us over 100 each. Now at 1.5 miles and slightly over 800 reps.
Watch check and I see we have 25 minutes left. I need to get some more mileage in before we move on to more reps. I thought about parking lot sprints up and down the hill, but at the last minute I decided to go 4 corners with sprints on two sides and recovery jogs (or walk) the other two sides. I called out that we would do this 4 times total or 8 sprints. About halfway into our first lap, I decided we needed something to hold us accountable so I decided to make it a beat the Q challenge with 5 burpees per pax I beat on the line. Wrigley apparently took issue with me changing the rules mid run…too bad, its for your own good. I ended up beating 1 pax, while on the heels of two more by cheating sprinting the entire last lap in an attempt to catch up. This made them sprint as well and we all were out of breath at the end. I’m pretty sure Wrigley was looking for a rock to throw at me when I said we had 5 aussie burpees to complete. I then made each of us do two more to take the 4th pax burpees while we waited on him to join us.
Mosey to Rock Pile. 2.4 miles at that point and still slightly over 800 reps. Only 15 minutes to go. I knew we would do Rock work, but I had to figure out some way to get some running in. I had pax grab rocks while I was still working on that running part. Ok…..100 reps each of curls, overhead press, and tricep extension. When you stop or need a break, you must run to the shed and back (about .2 miles). 40 reps into my curls I saw the other pax were smarter than me. Instead of taking a break between exercises and going for a run as I had planned, they were switching right into the other exercises without a break. So instead of doing 40 curls and then running, they were doing 30 curls into 30 overhead presses, into 30 tricep extensions (slick bastards). Nope, that ain’t gonna work. We need more miles to hit 3. Added a new rule….you can only do one exercise at a time. When you get tired, rock has to go down and you go run…you can’t switch and no taking breaks…you have to go run. Wrigley took issue with me changing the rules again (and made sure to let me know it). This meant more running, and more pushing through the lactic acid burn to avoid extra running. We finished all 300 reps (to get us to 1100) and my watch had me at 3.4 miles. Short mosey back to COT. With a minute left we did LBC’s to bank some extra reps just incase my counting was off. Time. I proudly announce our 1100 reps and 3.4 miles only to be met by two pax who’s fancy watches say we only got in 2.89 miles. Well guess what, lets go run boys. Another lap around the parking lot got us back to COT about 1 minute past and over 3 miles for them and over 3.5 for me. (Either my watch is inaccurate or I ran more than Atlas and Posse – which I highly doubt).
MOLE SKIN
We will save the blame game for another time. Regardless, use today as a reminder: If you are asked to Q, put it on your calendar. If you are a site q, check in with your scheduled q to make sure they remember and are good to go.
So at 5:14 we are standing around…no Nails. I look around, no site q’s either. As we progress through the check downs, I start looking around the circle and lock eyes with Transporter. He looks hungry to Q – Oh hell no. 5:15 I jump in before he has a chance and start leading DICCS. 5:16 Lets Go (yes a minute late as we were holding out hope our Q would arrive on two wheels).
WARM UP
Mosey around back side of parking lot doing a quick fly by of COT to see if the Q arrrived. Nope, but there is at least 1 site Q…Damascus limping over to the mashers with a cinder block.
Continue on with Transporter flying by me. Through my huffing and puffing I attempt to tell him to circle up in Pet Smart parking lot. After his second time asking me what I said again I decided it would be best to show him. I went from a 10 minute mile to an 8 minute mile (don’t worry, it only lasted 30 seconds ((that’s what she said)) and here’s that final).
THE THANG
Short mosey (literally 20 feet) to the middle of pet smart parking lot where we partnered up to get 100 Merkins and 100 Supines combined. Good eyes from Transporter getting Radar to avoid the dip plug left near the cart corral. Apparently you get bit once by fire ants and you develop eagle eyes.
Posse asking if I need an idea – Nah, I got this.
Mosey to hill entering the neighborhood. 10 Jump Squats at the top of the hill, 10 in/outs at bottom of the hill. Do it 5 times. It was here that Transporter reminded everyone this is called a Triple Nickel. Thank you Master Yoda. Circle back for the 6 which allowed most of us to get 6 laps in.
Mosey to bottom cul de sac where I learned along the way that Blue Screen doesn’t have an early morning whisper voice. 40 Speed Skaters at each light going to the other Cul-De-Sac. Oh dear god this sucks. Audible – make that 30 speed skaters (instant sigh of relief from the pax). LBC’s while waiting on the 6.
Strategically placed headlamps at front, middle, and back of the back as we navigated our way through the wilderness of Wesley Oaks until we reached light again near BB&T. If the pax hadn’t figured it out yet, yes I’m making this up all on the fly. Keep moseying to the wall, no not that wall, yes this wall.
Partner up with different partners for 100 Donkey Kicks and 100 Dry Docks. After Sugar Daddy knocked out 50 Donkey’s in the first round, I thought perhaps my count was too low. Quick look around, nope…other pax are struggling we are still good.
Split up into two groups and Indian run back to COT. Fast group took off too fast and it was all I could do to catch up to put on the breaks. Once again Sugar Daddy is to blame. We did Burpees waiting on the 6.
Watch check, 3 minutes. Well we are already doing Burpees so lets just keep doing that.
1:30 left. Burpees suck. On your 6 for Heels to Heaven. Got to 30 and decided that was enough. No second hand on the watch but felt like we only had seconds left so I called have a nice day. Ended up being about 20 seconds.
MOLE SKIN
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Commitment @ Weddington HS was my first post almost 3 years ago. I can’t tell you the exact time but I’m pretty sure it was in September. Unlike most pax, I brought myself to F3. Snowflake was the Q that day and it was just hard enough of a beat down to want me to come back for more. Unfortunately Doc McStuffins was my second Q and he almost broke me…but I digress….
Saturday workouts was where I met my fellow Clydesdale bretheren of Posse, Popeye, Run Flat, Finch, Dough Boy, Jingles and a host of other good dudes. Its where I also learned to hate seeing certain gazelle names on Q (Transporter, Hollywood, Doc, and Dasher just to name a few). The call came from Posse during a Q Swap conversation that he would finally allow me to come out to lead (after several pokes and hints that I had never Q’ed there and would love to).
I had a great plan in the works for months, but it was tamped down when Posse told me the gate by the bricks had been locked for some time. I arrive early and decide to dart down the gravel path in hopes that someone forgot to lock the gate, and much to my delight, I see it wide open. Much like a kid in a candy store, I’m beaming with delight as I text Posse “Gates Open!” with a huge gif grin. Posse arrives and we start worrying that it may be all for not. Its just he and I in the parking lot with 5 minutes to go….then the cavalry arrives…car after car starts streaming in. Wait, is that Yella?! Heck yeah! Wait, if Yellah is here then Radar must be coming (because apparently neither can post without the other one?!). Yup, here comes Radar! SANTA! for those that were lucky enough to be there at the original watchtower that crisp winter day before Christmas for his VQ.
Alright, enough reminiscing, DiCCS given, lets go.
THE WARM UP
Run up the hill to the top of the street.
Mosey back down to the front entrance parking lot.
THE THANG
Paula Abduls (Sorry Posse and Chastain who got round two of these from yesterday). I changed it up slightly with 10 Merkins forward, 10 In/Outs backwards up to 50 total for less bear crawls. Apparently Chastain would rather do less reps and more bear crawls to get to 50. I got to 40 and saw almost everyone on their knees and Chastain chirping in my ear that this sucks so I decided that was enough.
Mosey by the football fields (Posse chirping that this would be the last homecoming since I was going to get us thrown off campus) towards the practice fields only to find the gate lock. Posse jumped in with “I thought you scouted and said the gates were open”. No, I said THE gate was open. Had no idea they closed off the practice field too. What the hell? Audible to a longer run to a different cross country trail that would get us to where we needed. Pop out by the High School parking lot. Stop along the way for collector squats to allow the 6 to catch up. Posse starts giving me a hard time that this is basically a ten count. (I will use that against him later).
On Monday Mad Dog did a tip of the hat to OG Delta and his serpentine of Doom. I decided to one up him and take the pax back to the original serpentine of Doom. Alternating 10 dry docks and 10 in/outs at every speed bump. I “think” there were 10 speed bumps. It might have been 8.
We ended up down by the rock pile (but can you really call it a rock pile when there is 100 yards worth of rocks). Pick out a heavy lifting rock for 20 curls. Rocks down, run 50 yards to other staircase where we picked up another rock for 20 overhead presses (where apparently I wasn’t getting my rock down low enough according to posse? – are you catching a theme here? Posse was a gnat in my ear all morning). I then advised the pax that that was just practice, and we would repeat that set of 20 curls, run, 20 presses 3 times. Chastain protested that we had already done a round. Damn, am I going to have 2 gnats today? Overruled. 3 rounds + practice round = 80 curls and 80 presses. Rocks up. By the way, this was a tip of the cap to a Dough Boy workout there about 2 years ago that included a lot more curls than 80 with runs in between and left my biceps sore for a week.
Mosey to benches under the cover by the buses. Posse already knows whats coming as he calls it “My specialty” and starts complaining. Partner up. P1 does up and overs on the benches. P2 runs the bus loop. Do that 2 rounds.
While we are there – 50 dips (More chirping from Posse).
Run to the front of the school and grab curb for 50 toe taps. Take in all that is the original Commitment COT. The air really feels fresher right there. Ok, back to the workout…
Mosey down to the side of the high school for 50 more toe taps. Then off through the cross country trail, over the creek, and up to the brick pile. I ask Posse for a collector 10 count and you would think I just told him I backed his car into a river – with the windows open. Chastain saved him and suggested squats and started counting them.
Over at the bricks, the chirping continued when I found we had two options on bricks – one that was too small (roughly 5 lbs) and one that was too big (roughly 15 lbs). Of course Posse had something to say. Grab the small brick for 25 rear flies, 25 tricep kick backs. Repeat those two again. Bricks down, pick up the big bricks for 25 Rows. Had thought we may do some more presses here but a lady walking her dog spooked me….that and I wasn’t sure how much longer it would take us to get back.
Mosey to back of the baseball fields where the gravel road starts (confirm gate is still open). Ask pax “Would you rather do something that is really going to suck. Like, your going to hate me for making you do it and hate yourselves for choosing it….or run back to COT for Mary exercises. Posse – “The sucky one”. Anyone else? Please! Radar what do you want? Radar – “I guess the one that sucks?”. Damn it. Ok. Run down the hill and back up around each tree. There are 7 trees. Lets go. I slip going down the first time and decide this is stupid and someone is going to get hurt. Audible. Run to the gate, collector squats. Run to the front road. Collector Squats. Run to the entrance of the school. Indian Run to the entrance of the school. Collector squats. 10 Wide Arm Merkins. That was fun, lets do some more. 10 Ranger Merkins (with more chipping from Posse). Mosey back to front parking lot with about 5 minutes left.
4 Corner Sprints. Walk short stretches on the end. Sprint the long stretches on the sides. 2 rounds which equaled 4 sprints.
About 2 minutes left. Would you rather, do more merkins or do dry docks. “Dry Docks”. 15 Dry docks, 10 Dry docks, 5 slow count dry docks.
About 30 Seconds. T claps while we walk to the Mashers about 40 yards away. I can faintly hear Posse still chirping something about T Claps not being allowed. Reach Mashers right on time as they are finishing dips.
MOLE SKIN
ANNOUNCEMENTS
So I reached out to Chastain to see if we wanted to Q Chiseled and he said sure, if we did a swap Q and I Q’ed Diesel. Deal. I decided after hearing Thursday that Mash outnumbered the Body Shop Pax that perhaps the Mash numbers were getting too high and we needed to remind the pax that Diesel isn’t Mash. Having said that, I may not be asked back to lead Diesel. Here’s how bad it sucked…
WARM UP
THE THANG
Mosey fast walk while doing T Claps over head just so we are doing something more than walking to the first island for Paula Abdules. Bear Crawl up 2 parking spaces for 5 Merkins and Crawl Bear back 1 parking space for 5 In/Outs. The plan was to do this 10 parking spaces up for a total of 50 Merkins. Based on how much I was sweating after 5 spaces and the complaining I was hearing, I wasn’t sure we would make it….but I was determined to push forward so we did.
Circle back up for 11’s with your Coupon. 10 Presses and 1 hold down to 1 press and 10 hold (Yes, I just did this at Commitment…there is a news clip with video proof).
Grab Dumbbells for 4 Corners. Walk between corners with dumbbells held over your head.
Lots of pax complaining about the amount of shoulder work. Got it. I will cross the 100 Dry Docks off the list (kidding, or am I?).
25 coupon curls followed by 25 dumbbell curls. Had planned to repeat but was running out of time and had a few more tricks up my sleeve and it seems like the go to at gear sites is Curls so if I’m going to skip something, lets skip curls.
3 sets of 20 dumbbell tricep kick backs & 20 dips
Line up on curb with block on the curb. Pax did foot release squats on the coupons while taking turns doing wheelbarrow walk with feet on two 10 pound plates. This was a crowd favorite. Saw some pax standing around, thought they were board so I threw in some 1 legged lunges to break up the monotony.
100 Coupon Chest Presses and 50 Side Straddle Block Jump Squats broken out into 3 sets (how ever many reps you wanted to break it). Yes, I realize 3 doesn’t go into 100 and 50 evenly. That was by design and it started some lively conversation of how many reps each pax was going to do each set. Showing the wizardry of a business degree from NC State, I indicated I would be doing 25, 20, and what ever was left of the jumps. Site Q’s Chastain and Brutus were quick to pile on.
5 minutes left…what to do, what to do….lets do the wheelbarrow thing again, lots of complaints on that earlier. 1 Pax wheelbarrows while the rest do the following:
Coupon overhead press
Dumbbell curls
Tricep kick back
Brutus begging for 6:15 to get here and is gleeful when it hits…except 2 pax hadn’t completed the wheelbarrow. KEEP GOING! I wish I captured the disappointment in Brutus’ eyes. Finished out at 6:15:35 (I don’t have a second counter on my watch so no clue, but it was definitely not 6:16 – take that Hooch!).
MOLE SKIN
ANNOUNCEMENTS
10 guys at Commitment with a teaser of a local news guy getting some film of us for a video blog. Apparently chickens don’t like being on video as our resident chicken scurries over the boarder to Black Hawk. No Mashers so Turn Buckle joined us. FNG present so made sure to give the full DICCS at 6:29. 6:30 lets role.
WARM UP
Mosey around parking lot, towards the school, and back down to the circle for a game of would you rather. Would you rather……
Much to my surprise, two pax quickly spoke up and said they would rather do Merkins and Mountain Climbers.
Broken in to 5 sets of 10 Merkins and 20 Mountain Climbers. Variation of Merkins along the way.
Quick Jimmy Duggan round to catch my breath loosen up the Hammy’s. And were off.
THE THANG
Yo Yo Mosey to the bridge and back circling behind the 6 and returning to the bridge (thus the yo yo part).
Lunge Walk Bridge then Yo Yo mosey to Mill Bridge Pool and Back.
Squats at bottom of pool hill while one at a time takes turn backwards running up the hill and then doing squats in the parking lot. That was fun….lets do it some more. Head to the hill behind the playground for 5 sets of 5 burpees at bottom of hill, backwards run, and 10 squats up top…..Audible…Hill too wet.
Meet back in the Parking lot for Four Corner Suicides. On the out, 10 Merkins. On the back, Four count of Jump Lunge, Jump Squat, Jump Lunge, Jump Squat (thats 1). Do this 5 times. This proved to be a cardio killer for me. Shout out to Sprinkles and Tanyatine for killing it here.
Grab a parking spot and Inch Worm Dry Docks from curb to curb.
Recover with 50 overhead claps
Two lines for Indian Runs past the covered bridge to the first road (Gazelles struggled with where to go here).
Partner up for leap frogs. P1 Reverse Walking Lunges with P2 runs to mailbox. P1 then “leap frogs” and runs to next mailbox. Continue for about 1/4 mile. Return for the 6. Quick 10 count…nope, too slow lets go.
Grab a lifting rock for 11’s. 10 overhead press and 1 overhead hold. Down to 1 press and 10 holds. Had to stop halfway as my rock was rather large (thats what she said). Rocks up and mosey to Elementary School.
In a square, Slow mosey one side, fast mosey 2nd side, sprint third side, and recover/walk the last side of the square. We did this four times (apologies to those that actually believed me when I said we would only do it 3 times).
Back to the Rock Pile grabbing your same Rock for slow four count curls. We did 20, 15, another 15 (who knows, I just did it until it burned). Mad Dog giving me a hard time about my counting not matching my curling. Touche. I was worn out – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
Watch check, about 3 minutes to kill. Finish with 5 more curls, 15 tricep extensions. Another 15 ticep extensions followed by curb dips. How many curb dips? Well that’s a point of debate. In an effort to get a little Gazelle Clydesdale competition, I said we would go until the fastest guy got 50 dips or our slowest guy got 30 dips. Sprinkles hit 50 around the time I was at 35…looks like we are stopping.
Less than a Minute, lets Jail Break and return for the 6. Brick asks what a jail break is – “Imagine you broke out of jail and are running from the cops…Run that fast”. Brick “But I don’t want to run from the Cops, I’d rather just wait for them to catch me”. Haha, ok.
Everyone reached COT right before we turned over to 7:31…lets call it 7:30:58.
MOLE SKIN
ANNOUNCEMENTS
I’m not big on birthdays. I tend to keep it simple with a small celebration with the family. But this year, I saw The Body Shop had an opening on my birthday and I thought “Why not make some guys miserable on my birthday”. And so here it is:
WARM UP
Mosey 10 Aussie Burpees where you stand.
Mosey about 100 yards for another 10 Aussie Burpees.
Mosey about another 100 yards for another 10 Aussie Burpees.
THE THANG
After a short mosey around the parking lot, we circled up for:
Quick mosey to parking spaces to avoid Covid sweat pile crossing. Jack Web of Carolina Dry Docks and Crawl Bear. Somewhere around 4 and 16 I screwed up the counting. Being the idiot that I am, I decided we needed to start over (Bad Idea). Some pax groaned…others laughed. Several suggested I needed to go back to Q School – touche. Approaching the last round I had intentionally planned on ending at 37 since perhaps the pax didn’t quite register why we did 37 merkins earlier….but Posse decided it was his turn to Q Jack the count. Nope! I just kept repeating 37 over top of his 38, 39, and 40.
Quick Mosey to the rock pile for rocks. Partner up. Partner 1 Jail breaks 100 yards, takes a 10 second walking recovery, and jail breaks back 100 yards. Partner 2 does a lifting exercises. Keep rotating through.
It was at this point I noticed I was getting lapped and the angry elf in me called for those fast bastards to keep going until I was done. Once the 6 finished (me) we joined back together for 37 sumo squats accompanied by Form Police Posse reminding us to keep our backs straight (mine wasn’t straight and almost never is during squats so feel free to call me out – it takes me back 20 years ago to my football coach yelling the same thing at me – I’ve never had good squat form).
Lunge Walk back towards the rock pile. Apparently some pax heard mosey…I quickly nipped that one in the bud and had everyone lunging. Rocks up and circle up for a final 7 Aussie Burpees (Haha, I made y’all do my birthday burpees with me…suckers). It was at this point that the first light headed moment took place. Very quick and passing. (Serves me right for making yall do my birthday burpees with me I guess) Lets mosey to the speaker near COT.
5 minutes left, just enough time for Thunder Struck….damn it, black out coming again. This one a little stronger. Faked a music hick up to give myself a little extra recover time (I’m not sure we covered that at Q School – “What to do when your passing out”)….there we go, I’m back. Ok, AC/DC Thunderstruck…Mountain Climbers until you hear Thunder then do a Merkin. During instrumentals we stood up and did air presses. It’s a fan favorite. Every pax wishes we did this more often. Ended right on time depending on your definition of “On Time”. I’m never on Hooch time (a guy that use to do F3 (shots fired) in Waxhaw that typically ended his workouts 3 minutes past time), but sometimes I do like to apply Clemson Football Coach Danny Ford’s famous quote “Hit through the echo of the whistle” to F3 (Posse is grinning from ear to ear seeing that I mentioned Clemson Football). We ended at 6:45:35 instead of 6:45:00 as some pax apparently feel is required.
MOLESKIN
ANNOUNCEMENTS
A huge thank you to everyone that came out today yesterday to give blood. Another thank you to those that brought kid friendly food items for Ackbar’s church. An even bigger thank you to those that donated your time as well today. What a full day of Third F, but also quite a lot of Second F. 76 donors showed up with a final unofficial total of 72 pints of blood. I say unofficial because those that gave Power Red actually gave more than a pint so the totals will be calculated later today. Lets guesstimate an even 80 pints.
WARM UP
So about 4 weeks ago, I saw something on Slack in passing about F3 wanting to donate 10,000 pints of blood by their 10 year anniversary. Again, it was in passing and didn’t really stick to me. Then while driving to one of the few customer call’s I’ve had since COVID, there was an ad on the radio that the Red Cross was desperate for blood during these pandemic times. Normally I would have said “Somebody needs to do something”. But thanks to Q Source (and F3) I’ve mentally turned that corner that “No, I need to do something”. The wheels started spinning. I reached out to the Red Cross through their general website (the special link and contacts for F3 had not been developed yet). I received a call from a Red Cross rep with the minimum qualifications:
Sounds easy enough. So off I went. I had decided that I wanted to find a location first, then I would lock down a date. After a few swings and misses I contacted my church, Weddington UMC, who graciously let us use their facility.
Lets lock down a date. I would need time to recruit folks to donate….but how long would I need. (Licks finger, holds it in the air to test the wind. Grabs some dirt and sifts it through fingers). How about 3 weeks. After conferring with both the Church and Red Cross, it was settled….July 23rd. I received a link to a donor page that afternoon and we were off and running trying to recruit donors.
Recruiting was by and far the hardest part of this. Early on I had a lofty goal of 100 pints that had to be tamped down by the Red Cross. They didn’t have the staff to support 100 pints (and apologies to those that donated towards the end today, it showed as we were running behind – It also didn’t help that I almost passed out and took up a table for 20 minutes recovering). Three days into recruiting and I didn’t have the 20 pax needed to even make this happen. I quickly went from asking to begging (and it worked!). So now that we have enough to have it, how do I get to 100 (I wasn’t told I was going to be capped at 75 until the end). I reached out to Posse for ideas. He suggested traveling to other regions to spread the word and fold them in to our drive. So I did. Off to Hawks Nest in Area 51 and Rebel Yell in SOB (Both had 5:30 start times – which really sucks when your use to 6:00 and you’re a 25 min drive from both sites). The pax were really welcoming and several were willing to step up. Awesome. Before I knew it, 23 grew to 37, and then 45. But then I hit a road block. Donors quit signing up. The repeated announcements after workouts were starting to sound like Bone Frog. Back to Posse for Possevice (new lexicon?). Posse “You need a co site Q for this, and its not me”. So out went the call (threat) asking for a co site Q for the blood drive. The original call for help got me some volunteers, but not a Co Site Q. Then Chastain reached out “Still needs some help?”. “Yes I do; Congratulations you are now Co Site Q”. I told Chastain in our opening discussion “I’m stuck at 45. I don’t see a path to 100”. We developed a plan to broaden our reach into the neighborhoods of Waxhaw through Neighborhood Facebook posts and the next door app. Donors started pouring in again. 52, 67, 72. We would market late afternoon/evening and I’d check our portal the next morning to find we were full. We were constantly requesting more donor slots from the Red Cross (adding slots means adding staff so they had to get that approved/scheduled which took time. It wasn’t an automatic add). We made a final push inside F3 for pax to individually reach out (not mass market) to draw in our final numbers. Then word came back from the Red Cross….”I think we are close to being full. I will see if I can get you one final group of slots, but we need to cap you at 79”. And there it was, the first time I realized I wasn’t going to get a chance to hit my original goal. I was bummed, but I was quickly reminded by Chastain what an accomplishment 79 was. I then received an email from some higher up red cross folks as well as F3 Metro guys stating how excited they were with our drive and how much of a big deal that large of a drive is. Ok, got my head back right. Lets do this thing thang.
THE THANG
The thing thang about F3, is that when a brother asks for help, people show up. Hard commits. People you can count on. I was amazed at how many people arrived early to help, asked me what they could do, brought tons of food for donations, or just showed up to give blood.
I won’t bore you with the details, but about an hour before the first donation slot, 4-5 guys where there helping to move tables, redirect traffic to the right door, learning the scan in system, and helping the Red Cross unload (when they would let us).
About an hour in, a higher up Red Cross person arrives and starts telling us that F3 Metro made it a competition at their drive and kept track of how long it took to fill the pint bag. Before she could finish, Chastain had a marker in his hand going around collecting times and keeping track on the white board. Loafer with an early 3:27 jumped out to the lead and tamped Bottle Cap’s bragging down quickly. Deadwood arrived and heard competition only to light up with joy. (I swear you could set up a dog turd eating contest and he would try and win it. The guy thrives on competition). In the end, no one could catch Loafer. Congrats on being the one that would bleed out the fastest if you were ever stabbed.
The guys just kept pouring in. Tons of Waxhaw guys, but I was surprised how many Area 51 and SOB guys came too (when hospital names are used to register, its hard to know if they are F3 until day of). We also used this as an opportunity to EH some new folks. 20 pamphlets were printed telling people about F3 (all three F’s) as well as a schedule of all three F’s. I thought I would be taking extra pamphlets home…nope. We ran out with over an hour left in donations.
Final tally was 76 donors showed up. Four were deferred (meaning they wouldn’t take their blood that day for various reasons) for a total of 72 pints (Wow). The final tally will happen in a few days and will only grow as the Power Red that was donated by some actually counts more than a pint. We are likely close to 80 pints.
MOLESKIN
There is a lot to say here, and I will attempt to keep the back patting and soap boxing to a minimum.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
A call was put out Tuesday that Five Stones sites would need to be relocated this week due to a Day Camp there. (Insert Gif of me balling up the Winkie and throwing it in the trash). A quick decision to relocate to Cuthbertson (I mean we only use it for 5 workouts a week and multiple convergences, whats one more day). I struggled with what to do to keep it a gear bootcamp – something different that what is always done at Cutty. What’s a gear bootcamp you ask? Well its purposefully using gear to increase strength, while still getting the heart rate up through either running or cardio exercises.
I went to bed last night with a plan to do an Amrap. I woke up early and decided to throw it out (2nd workout I scrapped for those counting). Amrap’s have been done at Cuthbertson before. There isn’t enough rocks spaced out to do a good Amrap. So what to do….what to do. I decided to pull my first winkie out of the trash and give it my best go. It would require some rock running (which I hate), but its a better Chiseled Winkie (more lifting) than the Amrap I had planned. 90’s alternative playlist on…..lets go!
WARM UP
THE THANG
Mosey down the path and grab a rock from the rock pile about 3 lights in. Circle up for 30 curls (counted on my up just for Posse). Rocks down. Go grab another rock from the secondary rock pile closer to the fence/pond. Run with your second rock down to the double light/sidewalk jut off to softball fields. Circle up for 30 overhead tricep extensions (on my up). Rocks down. Repeat for 2 more rounds: 30 curls, 30 tricep extensions, with a run in between. Finish once you’ve completed 90 curls and 90 tri’s. Mary waiting on the 6 (Wrigley led Am Ham’s).
Round 2: 30 chest presses, run, and 10 staggered rock merkins. Repeat until you’ve completed 90 chest presses and 30 Rock Merkins. Mary for 6 (LBC’s and Gas Pumpers).
Round 3: 30 Overhead Presses, run, 30 Rows. Repeat 3 times for 90 and 90. Mary waiting on the 6 (Dough Boy led big boy sit ups)
Round 4: Partner Up. Partner 1 Lunge Walks about 20 yards (down sidewalk towards fields) and run backwards back up the hill. Partner 2 does Sumo Squats (or goblet squats if you prefer your rock in a different location). Repeat until everyone has completed both 3 times each.
Watch check – running out of time. Had planed to do Rounds 1-3 (just once, not three times) again back-to-back-to-back as a grand finale. Oh well.
Sent half the group towards the shed to redistribute rocks (that pile has been looking thin lately) while the other half went back to put there rocks back at the original location. Meet back up at your other rock to do 30 curls and put that rock up.
Some Pax got a little antsy being that there was only 1 minute left and started taking off to COT. I called everyone back. Ricky Bobby time checked me again being ever so concerned that we might be 1 minute late. “Its cool, I got this. I’m no Hooch”. Jailbreak to COT. Give it all you got. As I reached COT the watch said 6:45 (since I don’t have a seconds counter, I have no clue how long it had been 6:45….).
MOLESKIN
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Via Tool Time (for his VQ):
Had the honor to VQ today thanks to @Glidah, @Fusebox, and @Brutus for
marketing such a large group. What better way to have your first VQ then with such a
big group!
Warm up time:
Started with a light mosey to warm the body up.
20 x Side Straddle Hops
Then 20 x Imperial Walkers
Then 20 x Toy soldiers
Then Calf stretch
Followed by Back stretch
Following our lite warm up we would mosey to our first stage out of 3 stages, on the
way to Stage one the heat started with @Brutus and @Glidah talking smack about
my counting, sure we may have missed 1,2,3 a few times but we got the job done.
Continuing our Mosey @Brutus kept talking so I decided we had to pick up the
pace/workout reps to keep him quiet. 😉
And the sweat begins:
Each PAX grabbed a medium weight rock (what a medium weight rock now I think to
myself?)
5 x sets of the Following: Working from 10 reps each down to 5
Each set consisted of 10x Curls, 10x shoulder press, 10x triceps (working each round
down from 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, and 5)
Each set was followed with a faster than jog pace up and down the Five Stones
entrance (if I had to guess a ¼ mile maybe)
After complete, rocks were put back in the rock pile and a “slow mosey” (@Ice9
doesn’t know what slow is so we moved at a good pace to the next stage). The next
stage (Stage 2) was at the backside corner lot of the church/school. Each of the
PAX would start at one side of the parking spacing working head on to the next
parking space.
3 x sets of the Following:
30 x squats
The PAX would then move to the opposite parking spot doing a Bear crawl/ Merkin
Thanks to @Ice 9 we now call this the “Bearkin” (If this has been named already
please call me out on it and its all yours!)
Once on the opposite side the PAX did the following
20 x Bombjacks
So now that we have completed Stage 2 it was onto Stage 3 for the finish line, the
PAX now would Mosey to about where we all parked in the main parking lot for the
final push.
The following were completed at stage 3
Run at a quicker than job pace to the first island (about 30 yards out)
Then 5 x burpies and run back to start
5 x big boy situps and run to second island (about 40 yards out)
Then 10 x burpies and run back to start
10 x big boy situps and run to third island (about 60 yards out)
Then 15 x burpies and run back to start
Finish with 15 Big boy situps
And….we were just about done but we still have 4 min on the clock.
The following was done to cool down
Mosey around Mt. Chiseled.
Last two minutes consisted of planks with the PAX!
This completed our workout, everyone was soaking wet by the end with no rain in
sight! Good job everyone keep up the hard work!
Announcements:
Q School – July 25 th (sign up if you have not done so already)
Blood Drive – Fuse Box has enough people now to get the drive going but will need
volunteers to setup and run the drive. Two 2 hour shifts with 2 men at each shift (He needs 4 volunteers)
Pax Challenge- About 8K raised, raffle going on for Laz-Boy Furniture don’t miss your
opportunity for a new couch for the man cave!
1776 Challenge this Sat at Black Hawk. All other Saturday AO’s will be closed to converge at Walnut Creek Park.
Men’s group meeting Monday night to start a new series meeting at Ackbar’s church
(Pizza and Beer)