Author Archive MadDog

Start Your Engines…..

19 Pax came out for a good beat down today at Flash. Seeing as I failed to write a backblast for the Nesbit 300, I figured I would fire up the Cuthbertson 300 and get everyone tuned up, so to speak, for their week.

The Thang

Gave the DICCS. No warm up. We warm up on the move. Let’s get after it. Paula Abdul down the backroad to Transporters Shed. 10 Merkins at each 2nd light, run back one, then advance two. Wash, rinse, repeat until you make it to the Shed. Plank it up and wait for the six.

Pair up with something resembling a Gazelle (slim pickings in this crowd 🙂 Grab a lifting rock and prepare to fire up your engines for the Cuthbertson 300. Partner one runs to the top of Bus Hill to the portico and runs back down. Partner two does the exercises. 100 curls, 200 overhead press and 300 supine bench presses.

Next up on the docket – Lieutenant Dan’s. Tupperware was next to me and let me know he had just done these at Commitment on Saturday. Even better. 1 Squat and 4 Backward Lunges. We went around the circle up to 10/40…took a 10 count pause…then back down from 10/40 to 1/4. For those of you that want the math…you did 110 squats and 440 backward lunges.

Mosey back up the back road to the start, stopping at each light for 10 single count flutters. Circle up at the start where Shake and Bake led us in heels to heaven for the remaining 1.5 minutes.

Moleskin

Well the lack of a proper circle warm up was not a fan favorite. I caught some mild grumbling. I’m totally okay with that. The only Marine you have to worry about is the one who isn’t complaining. I think everyone had a good workout. Goodfella had both 2.0’s with him which was nice to see. Flash is 3 foot tall beast.

Announcements

  • Annual Nali family father’s day 3 on 3 basketball/cookout this Saturday. Sharpen up your elbows, make a dish to serve BBQ style, and BYOB.
  • Fix it for Christ – happens next week. The event runs from Wed June 19th to Saturday June 22nd.www.FixingItForChrist.com
  • Adding a new twist to future workouts. After workout post parties to allow some of us old guys to stretch out a bit after the regular beat down. 10-15 minutes of stretching

Blimps & Bombs over the Asylum

Well, YHC had a lot of work to do today. Never one to cower when I failed at something, I had some redeeming to do for missing my last Asylum Q. What better way than to hit the Q with some Blimps and Bombs. So, lets get going……

Warm Up:

  1. Quick lap
  2. SSH x 30
  3. Imperial Walkers x 20
  4. Merkins x 15

The Thang:

B.L.I.M.P.S.

Run to each of the four corners of the PetSmart parking lot – # @ each corner. Individual exercise, civilian count and stop at the end of each lap to begin the next as a group.


B – burpees 10x

L – lunges 20x

I – imperial walkers 30x

M – merkins 20x

P – plank jacks 25x

S – squats 30x

10 Count breather

B.O.M.B.S. – consisted of Burpees (25x), Overhead Press (50x), Merkins (75x), Big Boy Sit-ups(100x), and Squats (200x). Partner up. PAX 1 does exercise while PAX 2 runs. Continue alternating until all exercises are complete.

Those little gems ate up the entire 45 minutes. I picked these up from a workout in Sarasota a week or so ago. Based on the grumbling it appeared to hit the spot. Thanks for ShopDawg for taking us out. Prayer for Goodfella’s upcoming international trip.

Lieutenant Damn

Warm Up:

Started with a nice mosey up to the rock pile at the entrance.  Partner up and one partner grabs a lifting rock. Mosey back to the circle in Nesbit Park.  Quick Disclaimer and welcome to our new FNG.  On to a little warm-up time.

  • Side straddle hops
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Slow squats
  • Merkins
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Hold – Calf Stretch
  • Potato pickers
  • Arm in Front Stretch

The Thang:

So,  the funny thing is I had my virtual weinke in Evernote which included TWO Lieutenant Dan’s and an additional exercise on the stairs.  However, as you’ll learn the first LD took quite some time.  Okay, on to the fun.

  1. Partner One runs to the entrance of Nesbit while the other works. The morning’s mission was 200 Curls, 200 Tricep Extensions, 200 Curl to Press, 200 Front Raises.  This was just about as tough as I thought it would be.  The run to the entrance helped account for covering about 3.5 miles in total.  At least that’s what the Crapple Watch said on the HIIT setting.
  2. Lieutenant Dan – These are always a total smoke show.  By the time you get to the end of the circle, the numbers are borderline asinine.  Today we had 18 Pax, so you can do the math.  Finishing at 72 backward lunges….ugh.
  3. Well the rocks had to go back…so 1/2 of each pair ran the rocks back on rubbery legs while the other partner finished the last two sets in the LD circle.

Moleskin:

COT and announcements.  We had an FNG today, brought up by Deadwood.  This was Deadwood’s father-in-law who wound up with a pretty ballin’ F3 name of Chainsaw.  Welcome Chainsaw!  Nice job being a bringer Deadwood.  We had a marked lack of announcements today.  Posse brought up the blue plate special pricing on next March’s Joe Davis run if you sign-up early.  Also, there was mention of the 11/9 Great Wolf Lodge F3 event, if you want to sign up.  Of course we can’t forget to mention the Bone Frog Challenge on 11/10 (our beloved Marine Corps Birthday as well).  Goodfella took us out with a prayer.

 

“Finish Him”

The Warm Up:

Okay, there really was no warm-up.  I was ready to get down to business.

  • Disclaimer
  • Quick lap around the parking lot.
  • Circle up – SSH, Merkins and Mountain Climbers

Enough foreplay….let’s go.

The Thang:
  1. Backroad blues – run to Transporters house while stopping at every light to alternate between 10 merkins and 5 burpees (I mean just the start here seemed to have Pax lagging…it was obviously the lack of foreplay)
  2. Transporters house – 25 donkey kicks, People’s Chair w/jabs, People’s Chair with leg lifts
  3. Grab rocks – Circle up – 25x each (Curls, Triceps extensions, Curl-to-press) Quick pause in the narrative…I have to admit that I was shocked when I looked at my watch and we had done all of the above in only 15 minutes.  
  4. Run to back of school roundabout.  Partner up.  One runs while the other does 150 Merkins, 150 calf raises and 150 heels to heaven.  This was was the Mortal Kombat “Finish Him” death blow.  At one point I glance over and FuseBox was literally face down on the concrete, with his face resting on the ground in his towel, totally immobilized.  Rudy is in the grass dry heaving in an unproductive attempt to splash merlot.  I will admit to the world, that is a thing of beauty when you’re the Q.  
  5. Mosey to hill for 7’s –  6 burpees up and 1 merkin down
  6. Mosey to front of MS – as a group – Dips in cadence
  7. Mosey to star to finish

Moleskine

I was really proud of everyone today.  We pushed hard and you all made a sound deposit in the beer calorie bank account for this weekend.  Shout out to Rudy who keeps showing up and pushing himself.  I lied to you this morning Rudy.  It never gets easier.  However, you will get better!

Announcements

  1. Q school tomorrow at Cuthbertson.  Sign up.
  2. Pray for Terrance (Moneyball’s cousin with testicular cancer)
  3. Service opportunity at CMS – Career Day 8/19 – See Bottlecap
  4. Chiseled gear workout starts next Wednesday at Five Stones @ 5:30
  5. Order your badass Indian Land F3 Shirt…we need a couple more to get them done
  6. 7-8 Sunday a.m. bible study at Five Stones with Bottlecap

Peace…I have a Sales Region to run!

 

Bear Crawl Bridge

Bear Crawl Bridge

Twelve pax braved the unseasonably cold morning to face Bear Crawl Bridge.  While Watchtower isn’t a new AO, we’ve been discovering new pleasantries to entertain the Pax with.  Today was no exception.  Variety is the spice of life as they say.

Warm up:

  • Mosey around the parking lot
  • 20 Side Straddle Hop
  • 20 Imperial Walkers
  • 20 Merkins
  • 15 Mountain Climbers
  • 10 Low Slow Squats

Thang:

Today was about new beginnings. This is a tough crowd that demands fresh F3 experiences.  I mean let’s face it, the Pax in this group fixate on discussions about “man touching” and insist that if it has nipples “it can be milked”.  You don’t leave Pax like that idle to their own devices.  Am I right or am I right?  A good Q recognizes the peril in that and quickly seeks to begin the beat down.  Taking a page from the AMRAP, we played with a trial run of an AMRAP”ish” solo course.

  • Station 1: 20 Incline Merkins…run to the next station;
  • Station 2: 20 Supine Pull-ups…run to the bridge;
  • Station 3: Bear Crawl across the bridge (or if you chose to modify you could lunge walk across with a 5 burpee tax at both ends of the bridge)…run to the low wall by the stadium;
  • Station 4: 20 Dips;
  • Repeat the process in reverse;
  • Complete 3 Times

So, note to self at the conclusion of this experiment was that we should have repeated 4-5 times instead of 3.  However, that left time to play.

  • Grab a lifting rock;
  • 20x Curls;
  • Lunge walk back across the bridge with your rock;
  • 20x Overhead Press at the far end of the bridge;
  • Lunge walk back across the bridge with your rock;
  • 20x Curls

Still some time left on the clock!

  • Mosey back to the starting parking lot;
  • 2x Suicides to the first speed bump and then the far lights

Finally, we burned up the remaining minutes and circled up for some brief Mary

  • 20 American Hammers
  • 10 Box Cutters

 

Moleskin:

  • Well, the barometer I use to determine whether a good Q has been executed on is the amount of mumblechatter throughout.  If they can speak, they can breath, and that means they aren’t working hard enough. Today was light on mumblechatter.  Furthermore, I saw a lot of jello arms trying to push out the rock curls at the end.  Great group today and great effort by all.  Huckleberry and Harry Cary hung in there.  Moneyball (I think) was crying about his calf again.  I think Moneyball asked Frack an anatomy question about muscles around the knee.  Of course the extent of Frack’s anatomical knowledge begins and ends with pecs, biceps, triceps, lats, and muscles of the vaginal region.  As one would expect Fracks’ answer to Moneyball included something about a vaginal muscle that looked like an Arby’s sandwich.  Personally, I didn’t seek further explanation (as I may never be able to unsee that mental imagery) and simply mentioned I hadn’t had Arby’s in 20 years (and may never again).

Announcements:

  • Continued prayer for the unnamed brother whose wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
  • Sign up for the F3 Lawson Craft Fair booth.  Bottlecap is crocheting F3 hot plate mats that we will be giving away while attempting to EH unsuspecting attendees into posting.  I mean maybe I’m crazy for being the only one to think this….but do we really think any dude’s are going to show up to this event?  I don’t know……just me maybe. 
  • Sign up for the Operation Sweet Tooth 5k Virtual Run at Commitment on Saturday – https://latinimemorial8k.racesonline.com/

Delta’s VQ

COP

Good muscle warm up by running all the way around the school.  Disclaimer. Then 25 Side Shuttle hops, 10 potatoe pickers, 20 civilian count merkins, 20 side shuttle hops, 20 mountain climbers and then old school 10 8-count body builders thanks to the fighting men of the United States Navy.

THE THANG

Paired up for 40 burpees and 80 squats with partner running. Then moved to the parking lot for the Serpentine of Doom. 10 speed bumps in sperpentine pattern doing 6 incremental single count mountain climbers on each one up to 60 on the last. Moved to next location for a little laydown rest of 11’s supines and flutter kicks. Moved to next station for 50 & 100 of jump ups and deps. Then up the hill for a good old fashion brick workout followed by a run through the woods. Then modified parking lot suicides and push ups. Ran back to the front and with a little bit of time left Good Fella helped out with some Jack Webs which crushed those mortles among us. Then one more lap around the parking lot to much grumbling and crossed the finish line exactly at 0730.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sign up for Brolympics on 2/24

SNF Run Jen Run race on 3/3

 

*Posted for Delta

 

The Waterfall Workout

The Waterfall Workout

Ten pax showed up for the debut of the waterfall even with a threat of rain in the forecast.  For those that never played this wonderful drinking game in college, you get in a circle, all start drinking at the same time, and then one by one stop.  As you can imagine, the last person gets screwed.  I adapted this game to today’s workout.

 

Warm up:

  • Mosey around the parking lot, around the buses and mary under cover. Noticed a late arriving pax coming in on two wheels.
  • 25 Side Straddle Hop (had planned only 20 but Beltway came limping in so I extended to allow him to catch up)
  • 20 Merkins
  • 20 cross Mountain Climbers
  • 20 Army T Merkins – I heard this mentioned a couple months back that the Army no longer does regular pushups and does T pushups. I found it a great alternative as it worked my back more and I felt I got a better full range of motion on the push up.  Much harder to cheat on so these may become a staple for me).
  • 10 Potato Pickers – Sorry Frack, but I had some decent leg work built in and we needed the stretch.

 

Thang:

Debut of waterfall.  Station work being relieved in a slow rotation.  Rotate by 10 partner clap Merkins.  Rest of stations continue work until relieved by the group in front.

  • Station 1: Heavy Rock Squat/Curt/Press
  • Station 2: Bench up and overs
  • Station 3: Wolfpack Ab Work (Spell Wolfpack with your feet) I did this just to piss off any Carolina fans in the group, though it appeared they all fat sacked.
  • Station 4: Burpees
  • Station 5: Run the buses

Half way through I decided 10 partner claps merkins was aggressive (since it actually turned out to be 20 – 10 to be relieved and then 10 to relieve the next group) so I dropped to 5 partner clap merkins.

 

Once station work was done we moseyed to the bridge for walking lunge followed by jail break to the wall for more waterfall station work.  This time we rotated each group by telling a joke, funny or embarrassing story. That lasted two rounds before I decided it was taking too long to rotate (or in reality that none of the pax were really funny….with the exception of Bread Bowl: why do sea gulls not fly in the bay.  Because they would be called Bagels).  Solid work young man.

  • Station 1: Burpee Box Jump
  • Station 2: Dips
  • Station 3: Heels to Heaven
  • Station 4: Preacher seat T Claps
  • Station 5: Run to Bridge and do 20 Deep Squat Jumps holding railing

Final Round was one group Partner Push & Pulls (of course we are going to do this when I Q, it’s a guaranteed exercise combo) while the other 4 groups did a called out exercise.  I forget all the exercises we did, but it included a lot of abs, squats, merkins, and burpees.  Towards the end I did start yelling out Wolfpack instead of the count number.  Hollywood said “that’s not a thing” yet I still managed to get a few pax to join in.  Surprisingly Bread Bowl jumped in with some “Wolfpack” yelling.  I did get a kick out of seeing Dough Boy cringe with every “Wolfpack” being hollered by his boy.  If we could have only had Swamp there to harmonize- it would have been glorious.

By this time, many pax were begging for it to end – yet we still had 10 minutes.  Mosey back to bridge, walking lunch with T Claps while we waited on the 6.  Mosey back to school side entrance and more T Claps while we waited on the 6.  Finished out with a Jailbreak to the front entrance right as the sky’s opened up with a down pour – just as I had planned!

Moleskin:

  • A great group showed up today. Always love the support we give each other as this was only my third Q.  I get a little better each time and also work in some new exercises that I don’t see us doing each time.  Part of my love for F3 is that that every workout is different because every workout is Q’ed by someone new.  Keeps us out of the rut and on our toes.  Looking forward to seeing what Delta has next Saturday for his VQ.
  • The waterfall concept was something I had thought of a couple weeks ago. Glad the pax in attendance let me try it out on them.  As usual, it sounded better in my head than in person.  Sorry for the extra pain the first couple of rounds on the transition.
  • Great seeing Radar out again. His Santa Q is still talked about and has become legendary.  Always a great attitude and works hard.
  • Loved hearing a few pax jab Hollywood on his long distance Q’s (at the expense of my short distance Q today). I think us Clydesdales do need a long distance workout every now and then to kick us in the rear and take us out of our comfort zone.

 

Announcements:

  • Sign up for events or to volunteer.  It goes down two Saturdays from today (Calendar check – that would be Feb 24) from 6:00-9:00.
  • Delta on VQ next Saturday at Commitment.
  • Coffeteria – If there were other announcements, I forgot them. I was pretty gassed at this point and many of the pax were mumbling about chicken mini’s.
  • Fuze Box (that’s me!) took us out.

It takes 8° mornings to make you appreciate 28° mornings…..

9 PAX posted at Watchtower on a beautiful, balmy, 28° morning.  Sometimes in life all you need is a little context to help you put things in perspective.  For us it was the recognition we could be sucking wind in single digit weather with a 10 mph breeze.  There was a little extra spring in everyone’s step and they were happy to be out from the oppressive cold.

COP:

The usual..nothing real creative here –

  • Side Straddles
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Potato Pickers
  • Merkins
  • Something else here…but its been a long day and the Elijah Craig has me relaxed and not really caring what the last warm up exercise was.

The Thang:

After the warmup lap, disclaimer and COP warmup we moseyed to the alcove on the side of WHS.  There we paired up and each duo completed the following while the non-working partner ran a full parking lot lap:

  1. 125 Merkins
  2. 100 Squats
  3. 75 Incline Merkins

Next up we moseyed to the stairs at the back of the school for 4 sets of alternating calf raises (heels out, heels in and regular) with a lap around the sidewalk circle to start each set anew.

The next mosey brought us to the low wall outside of the stadium for:

  1. 50 Step-ups on the wall
  2. 75 Dips
  3. 25 Decline Merkins

Mosey on to the visitor side bleachers for the obligatory bleacher run……..up and down every aisle.

On to the brick outhouse behind the bleachers for some wall work:

  1. 25 squat thrusts
  2. 15 squat, jump, touches
  3. 25 Mike Tysons

Start the mosey back to the COP area….short break at the bridge for a lunge walk across.  Moseyed on to the left side of the school covered area for 25 dips on the benches and……..

….back to the start for 3 minutes of Mary.  I know Posse had us do box cutters and from there the last two exercises are blurry.

Moleskine:

The turnout was light, but given there were a lot of Dawg’s licking there wounds from staying up to late to see Bama Roll over Georgia…it was to be expected.  Any and all GroupMe users woke up to 897 unread postings from PAX half-in-the-bag commenting on the game.  The shots fired at Dirty Bird were enough to break his #Unoffendable bone and cause him to disavow the GroupMe Playhouse.  We all know though that he’ll be back.  No one can stay away indefinitely.   That’s all for now…peace out.

 

– Mad Dog

‘Twas the Friday before Christmas…..

Summary

17 Pax posted for a good old fashioned Merkin heavy beatdown. Clearly favoring my personal likes and dislikes this workout was heavy on upper body exercises and short fast runs. Any time the Pax were gathered in close proximity there was the distinct smell of Fox’s Pizza Den and Dreamcatchers wafting about. Clearly many of the Pax parents didn’t warn them about posting pics while they’ve been drinking as the #playhouse holds evidence of a late evening for many. However, in true F3 fashion Dreamwreckers was not able to claim any victims and keep them away. With a quick warm up and the usual legal disclaimers out the way we moseyed to the start of Cutty’s service road to the back fields.

The Thang

1. Ran the back service road, stopping at each light to do 5 burpees. Ended at Transporters office for some wall work.
2. Grabbed wall for 30x wall squat air press, 15x squat jump’s and 15x donkey kicks.
3. On to the rock pile to grab a lifting rock. Partnered up for each pair to do 100x curls, 100x military presses, 50x front raises and a bonus round of 50x curls. Partner sprinted to end of fence line when not working the rock.
4. Ran to the “stairs” for a side Merkin climb. At the top we re-paired to do 75x Merkins, 100x LBC’s…one partner worked while the other ran to the bottom of the stairs to knock out 5 burpees each time before heading back up.
5. Quick run to the covered lap area for some split sprint/recovery alternating laps.
6. Moseyed to the front of the school to grab some bench for 50x dips and 50x incline Merkins.
7. Back to the start for rotating ab work.

Moleskine

Asked at the eleventh hour to sub-Q for this workout, I just couldn’t get one of Frack’s favorite thoughts out of my mind, as frankly he put into words what I’ve thought my entire life. “If a chick with muscles looks like a guy, then what does a guy with no muscles look like?” Deep thought by Frack Handy. That thought also turned out to be apropos toward the end as the FNG was named. More on that in a minute. Everyone hung well…good mumblechatter told me we were getting the job done. To steal an old adage from the Corps that is certainly appropriate for F3, “the only Marine (or F3er) that you worry about is the one who isn’t bitching.” After the ab work, countarama and namearma we moved on to naming our FNG. He started by sharing his life story with us. A word cloud of it would include these words, “Air Force, entrepreneur, smoking hot wife (too which Goodfella asked what his name was), runner…”. Somehow, as things usually do, the offering of names quickly focused on hot wife, runner and Goodfellas lingering question of her gender…which unfortunately for Justin aka FNG, earned him the name Jenner. At least Bruce was left off. The dejected look on Jenner’s face only affirmed for the Pax that they had chosen wisely.

Announcements

• Joe Davis run (see newsletter)
• Start time next Friday is one hour later at 6:30
• Push to get people to show for commitment tomorrow a.m.