Posted on behalf of Dancing Bear. Enjoy!
It was a VQ this morning for Dancing Bear and my heart was overflowing with joy when half of the PAX showed up in white t-shirts to work-out in honor of the Q. With 26 PAX on site, there was talk of this being an attendance record for this AO. I had to live up to the hype of delivering a solid VQ.
The Warm up:
Mosey from the Water Tower to the corner of the Bridge and Dreamchasers for a cirlcle up.
20-Imperial Walkers
20-Mountain Climbers
20-heals to heaven
The Thang:
After and exchange of Good mornings and a good warm up that didn’t include any SSH’s, we started with a light pole run starting at dreamchasers and ending at the of other end of the street. One light pole was 10 merkins and next light pole was 10 squats. When done some went back for the six while the rest of the PAX grabbed some wall to do dips. The Q then realized he lost his weinke during the exercise. I felt my backside pucker as I didn’t want to forget any part of the workout. How was this to turn out? Only 1 way to find out. Keep pressing the group forward.
Once the six was in we moseyed back to the water tower to get set for 4 laps of 4 corners. First corner was holding squat while giving 20 jab punches. Damascus’s ears perked up when the Q said it will be 20 for each arm and the rest of the PAX knew they were in for a treat based off facial expressions. Second corner was 20 dry docks. Then after running up the hill to the third corner, you did 20 plyometric hand slap jumps. Judging by the groans at the end this was the majorities favorite. The final corner was 20 plank jacks. There was no catching your breath with SSH’s on this rotation. The PAX did a great job finishing the set and the six was not far behind the pack. This wore everyone out. The Q was feeling good at this point about the workout.
With 15 minutes left and the PAX looking for a break we took a 10 count. After that it was to the bottom of the hill!! I knew the PAX was winded when I could hear faint gripes in the wind. At the bottom of the hill we partnered up with a lifting rock. First set, one ran the hill while the partner did curls until he returned. The next set was the hill while the partner did triceps. This set off Recalculating to yell in a whining tone, “We did this yesterday!” With a quick reply from the Q, “Deal with it!!” The Q felt this banter energized the PAX and we finished strong with one last set of hill-runs mixed with squat thrusters.
By this time, everyone was spent. We moseyed or in some cases walked (Moneyball) back to the water tower for circle. The day was capped by a picture of the white t-shirt crew. In the excitement of a very successful VQ, the Q left his phone on the back of Southern Belles truck which fell of half way home on the side of the road. The Q used the kids Ipad and the find my Iphone function to locate the phone.
Announcements:
Happy Hour tonight 7pm at East Coast Wings. Come, Eat, Drink, and be Merry so Briarcrest can win the weight loss challenge
Q school is this Saturday from 630-830 at Cuthbertson Middle. It will comprise of a light 1-hour workout followed by a review of Q documentation. If you are thinking of Q-ing or only Q’ed a couple times this class is for you.
Remember to collect hotel toiletries for the “Shampoo Crew”
Finally, let’s remember to exercise patience today at work and at home as we never know where others journey is taking them from day to day.
Heavy sweating, heavy breathing, poor clock management, and Frack made this morning a wonderful experience. The Floater requires a backblast. It’s just what we do. Here’s the backblast:
Warm up:
Long lap around the backside of the church and circle up
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Potato Pickers x 10
Merkins x 20
Stretch calves IYO / Enough. Mosey to bottom of #keithjonghill
The Thang:
Floater prides itself as being the most complete AO in WUC. We work hard, we laugh, we honor the burpee train, and we DO BACKBLASTS AT ALL COSTS (substitute BB poster took license on all caps portion). Since the AMRAP at Impromptu has apparently gone the way of Cool Runnings, YHC thought it wise to bring it back…and incorporate the Floater’s benevolent mascot, #keithjonghill into the equation. Run to bottom and find lifting rock.
At bottom do 20 curl to presses run up hill and do:
10 merkins
10 plank jacks
20 lbcs
10 plank rotations
10 dry docks
20 squats
1 burpee at the top (do a burpee more for each time you make it to the top of #keithjonghill).
We did this for “25” minutes. Admittedly, YHC can’t tell time and has no concept of how long an activity may take. It is possible we went over the “25” minute mark, but YHC (subti-BB’er) digresses.
All finished, discarded lifting rocks, and met at the stop sign at the top of #keithjonghill
50% to the speed bump at the bottom and then AYG back to the top
Quick mosey to next stop sign. And then again to last. Circle up for some Mary. Done.
Circle Time:
Great work out and great guys. No announcement substi-BB’er can remember other than a chance to serve Longos and help them move this Saturday. Hopefully a 5 Stoner will have more info on that front. Substi-BB’er is really sorry if he omitted any announcements or key items…I tried to remember it.
Also Open Door Bible Study at 5 Stones office this Sunday at 7am.
Substi-BB’er took us out.
Nobody and nothing could live up to the hype that surrounded yesterday and Big 10’s VQ. By midday yesterday, the high of being led around campus by Big 10 was replaced by soreness in the chest, arms, and shoulders. He sneakily put a whoopin’ on us and did so without a single SSH…at least none that he called out!
Today’s festivities were to be decidedly different. 16 men showed up for a little #HeartRateExplosion. P.S. – NO GRASS, NO BURPEES, and NO MERKINS were involved. Here’s how it happened:
Warm-up:
Casual mosey around the front of school. Jingles’ punctuality has really improved as he was able to enter the parking lot under 50mph, on all 4 wheels and still join us at the opening mosey. Well done, Jingles. Good to see you again, too!
Circle up by Cars:
SSH x 20
Bottlecap was still in playground mode from yesterday and attempted a Q Jacking with a game of Duck, Duck, Goose. Fortunately for the remnant Briarcrest survivors, the game didn’t take flight. It did however, deliver a great laugh!!!
Low Slow Squats x 20
Old Man Stretch
Mountain Climbers x 20
Jimmy Dugans
Calf Stretches
Mosey towards the bridge
The Thang:
Lunge walk across the length of the bridge and then mosey to the track.
To the surprise and chagrin of the pax this morning, we were using the track. There were gasps and promises uttered in hushed tones that our use this morning would never be spoken of publicly.
Four Corners – Basically run a quarter of the way around the track and do 25 squats. 4 stops = 100 squats
When complete, discretely exit track and head to short wall. Partner up for step ups. Partner 1 does step ups on the short wall while Partner 2 runs to bridge and back. Do this 2x
Mosey towards the stadium. At this point, YHC asked if the pax were familiar with the “3 S’s”. Some were under the impression it was referring to S#*+, Shower, and Shave. Not today.
3 S’s- 3 S’s included Squats, Stadium Stairs, and Speed Skaters.
Pax did 30 Squats, ran all Stadium Stairs, and did 30 Speed Skaters on the other side. The goal was to do this 3x but time was not on our side so we audibled to 2 for the lead pack and finish your last flight of Steps and Speed Skaters for the trail pack. Then mosey back over to short wall. People’s Chair against concession stand until pax arrived. Courtesy 10 count. We then did the unthinkable…went back on the track.
Low Squatting, Hand Slapping, Track Running Thing- Admittedly, YHC made this one up on the fly. Partner up arms length apart facing one another. Get in deep squat position and hold it. Then, alternate smacking hands until you reached 50 smacks. Partners run opposite direction on track until the meet again. Repeat. Partners run back towards where they started for one final set of 50 slaps. 150 total slaps whilst squatting.
Sidebar- YHC had the privilege of partnering with Shake N Bake. The glove situation on that man is nothing short of appalling. Keep him in and the rest of us in your thoughts as he chooses to wear those bacteria traps to our workouts! He did kindly remove them, but only after we were 20 smacks in and YHC had been coated in the hazardous sludge oozing from the palms of those well-worn mitts. Wish I could say the palm feel was better, but the glove funk was indeed fully transferable. Digression over.
Mosey towards front of school where we had 1 minute left. We SSH’ed for 1 full minute and that was that.
Circle Time:
Jingles, Dough Boy, and Shake N Bake continue to struggle in the glove department but crushed the workout today. Dancing Bear has YHC convinced he’s a seasoned wet t-shirt contest participant. Seeing way too clear an outline of those nips post workout, bro. If you’re not careful, you’re gonna wind up in a bloody nip meme like Foundation (OG story…pics exist and they’re awesome). E-Harmony’s recommendation of a shirt (and glove) order from F3 site could NOT have been better timed. Rubbermaid needs either contacts or windshield wipers on those glasses. Hard work really fogs up the windows, though. Great job, man. Deflated continues to get faster and we can’t wait for his finished t-shirt design- destined to be his second smash hit!
Awesome effort by all today. Good to see some old faces along with all you new guys. Everybody pushed hard. As mentioned, we did NO GRASS, NO BURPEES, and NO MERKINS. Some would call that a missed opportunity. YHC calls it 3.5 miles of fun with friends who are destined to have wobbly legs by noon today!
Announcements:
Please keep Snoop (Dean Longo), his wife Lynnmarie, and their family in your prayers as she’s battling cancer. Cancer sucks and she’s a wonderful lady.
Shirt order for UC mentioned earlier by E-Harmony. Haven’t seen him in the Playhouse, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t #lurk. Somebody can get to him for you if interested.
Thank you, Dough Boy, for taking us out.
YHC was running a tad behind this morning but needed to confirm a couple locales for this morning’s festivities. Pulled into the lot at my former normal #528 time slot, ducked in amongst the pax, and shouted a 1 minute warning. Friendly banter, a couple jokes, and off we go.
Warmup:
Mosey across railroad tracks to the other side of Waxhaw across from Dreamchasers and circle up.
SSH x 20
Merkins x 10
Calf-stretches, Hamstring stretches, Old Man stretches
Complaints about Yoga class breaking out
Moneyball being rendered speechless by a Doughboy comment. First time for everything, I guess. Enough of the pleasantries, let’s begin.
The Thang:
Mosey on to the school on the other side of the tracks. It was about .25 mile in when we stopped for a quick 10 count to let all catch up. Bread Bowl counted us down a bit too quickly and off we went again. Bread Bowl was not pleased. “Moneyball, you’re really getting on my nerves with all this running.” YHC thinks he’s been going to Big 10 tutoring sessions or something. We got a chuckle and kept running on to Thin Mint’s hill aka Bad Idea aka Father of Keith Jong Hill aka a long steep hill for a little Jackie Robinson.
Truth be told, I have no idea if that’s an authorized workout name, but it made it easy to remember. Like a Triple Nickel, only 4 and 2. 4 exercises 2x.
Run to first light and do 25 squats
Run to second light do 25 merkins
Run to top and do 10 burpees
Back to Bottom and 50 LBCs
Rinse and repeat. Jackie Robinson. 42
Under the watchful eye of Big 10, Bread Bowl delivered a far more measured 15 count. Off we went again – mosey back up the hill towards Waxhaw for a little game of “Would You Rather”.
At the Railroad Bridge Pax had 2 choices:
At the Half-Wall Pax had 2 choices:
Mosey to Full Wall across from church:
Mosey to bottom of Keith Jong Hill:
30 seconds remained. Back to COT for a AYG to stop sign and back. Finished!
Moleskin:
Awesome effort by the Pax today. Rubbermaid said we covered right around 3 miles.
Really proud of Bread Bowl and how hard we worked. From what Dough Boy told us, he had a bit of a let down in sports a couple days prior. Really good to see him out there busting his butt at 5:30 in the morning. Great job, Bread Bowl! Seems like the entire group is getting faster. Damascus killed it and the Briarcrest crew is really coming on nicely. Great job Fuse Box on all the EHs. We left Posse behind again. Either we need to start waiting a bit longer or he needs to get there a bit earlier. Not sure which…Big 10 stayed until the end. He dodged a bullet today as we decided not to collect dues this morning.
Announcements:
Longos are moving. Dough Boy will circulate details
Keep Longo family in your prayers. Lynnmarie is battling Stage 4 cancer. A miracle is needed
Thanks Damascus for taking us out.
18 pax came out for what was advertised to be a little competition. Q Fail and a bad weinke had other ideas. Ever heard the expression “A Monkey Humping a Football”? That’s what today seemed like to me. In fact, the inclusion of Monkey Humpers in the weinke might have been the only thing that could have saved the day.
Monkey – meet football. Football, here’s your monkey.
Due to self-sabotage (lost watch and keys), YHC rolled in at 5:28.30. I attempted (and failed) to assign each of the pax a number 1-5 based upon my impression of their speed, attempted (and failed) to group them in competitive teams, received observation from Hollywood it might have been prudent for YHC to have arrived a few minutes earlier (thanks, Captain Obvious), and braced for the chaos ahead. Only 45 minutes until this is over!
Warm-up: Ever get tired of running a lap and getting in a circle? YHC does. Today, we did it differently (and failed). Ran down the long path and stopped for a few warm up exercises as we went.
Jog to First light give disclaimer, allow Pax to complain about the lack of a circle- SSH x 20
Jog to Second light- Merkins x 20 (while waiting on rock gathering volunteers)
Third light- Hamstring stretches (clap when needed or when pax simply couldn’t contain themselves)
Gather at Transporter’s office for 1st failed attempt at a race
The Thang:
Group in your assigned teams. No Damascus, no problem…right? Wrong, Two teams had 5 members while the other two had 4 members. First landmine planted.
Round 1: 1s run to second street sign up the hill, do 25 squats and return. 2s go, 3s go, etc…While runners are running, everybody else is in wall-sits doing jabs. Audibled out of that after YHC realized it would wind up being 5 minutes of wall-sits and 5,000,000 jabs (fail). Al Gore until team finishes..nope, too long there too (fail again) everybody plank and don’t complain! Everybody finishes, off to the bus hill we went.
Round 2: 1s run up the bus hill to the awning by the steps. Waiting pax do merkins. (Fail #2- that’s a lot of merkins while waiting). Audible to Mary Katherines.
Round 3: Long mosey back to rock pile. 4 teams grab rocks. Indian run back to Transporter’s office. (Fail #3 – should have put rocks in hands of 5s and not 1s). Dasher took off like he’d stolen something. Everybody else scurried to catch up. Looked as if YHC had the only functioning team on the Indian Run. At Transporter’s office, we planked until everybody arrived. Flip-flopped and put rocks in 5s hands. 1s did 5 burpees to give headstart, 2s did 3 burpees, and 3s waited 3 seconds. No matter- Indian Run disaster. Rocks put away.
Round 4: It was at this point, teams were done away with and personal accountability was chosen in its stead. To the lunch tables:
50 dips
40 merkins
30 LBCs
20 Step-ups
10…I forgot. Oh yeah, I remember, 10 burpees
Pistol LBCs while waiting on 6.
Most completed the set. We moseyed to front of school for some ring runs.
Ring Runs: Starting at flag pole, run clockwise around circle until you meet the flag pole. 10 Bonnie Blairs and return counterclockwise to beginning for 10 more. Once finished, run back clockwise ALL the way around the parking lot for 10 Bonnie Blairs. When you complete those, run counterclockwise ALL the way around the parking lot in the opposite direction until you reach flag pole for…you guessed it, 10 Bonnie Blairs.
A few completed this. Once all were gathered back at the starting point, YHC decided to request a “AYG” back to the starting place. Apparently most tanks were depleted. Freddy Mercury’s and then hold legs at 30 degrees until time expired. The End.
Moleskin:
My apologies for the “Charlie Foxtrot” of a weinke this morning. It was definitely a disheveled mess. Like most bad ideas, it looked really good on paper! Hopefully the pax got a good workout in in spite of my best efforts. I believe one of the Crapple watches reported us covering 2.65 miles or so. In referencing the Q, Dasher said, “You had good intentions.” In Southern parlance, that’s akin to saying “Bless your heart.” At least we didn’t hand out participation trophies at the end!!!
No announcements. Thanks, Doughboy for taking us out.
Humid, but all-in-all nice morning at Watchtower. YHC volunteered in yesterday’s COT to Q today. I love Watchtower. So much to see and do. Today, the plan was to see it and do it in quarter mile increments.
Mumblechatter:
The calorie burn title belt definitely came up. Consensus among Watchtower pax is that it is possible we’ll need to explore a more sophisticated measuring device. In Recalc’s words, “the whole thing is based on a 50 year-old man with a bum hip and a crapple watch who may or may not be feeling it that day.” He may be on to something. 🙂
Warm-up:
Quarter mile lap around the parking area while waiting for Jingles Xerox to arrive.
SSH: 25 IC with pace
Clover Pickers: Hamstring stretch
Old Man Stretch
Merkins: 10 IC
The Thang:
.25 mile mosey towards upper parking lot. Under school portico, do 10 burpees on your own. Head over to upper parking area.
As mentioned before, Watchtower AO is IMO the 2nd best site in WUC. The Site Q, on the other hand, is the best in the land. After a brief text exchange Monday night, Posse sent an image of a loop that would suit our needs perfectly. But he didn’t stop there. He decided to arrive early and actually coned off a course for us around the upper parking lot. Thank you for doing that, Posse. I’m quite certain you’re the glue that holds this whole thing together. Sappy shout out over.
Here we go- Run lap and double back for 6. As a group, perform exercise.
Lap 1: 25 Squats
Lap 2: 25 Merkins (or pulse merkins to finish first)
Lap 3: 25 Jump Squats – then grab lifting rock. 1 set of 21s (bicep curls)
Lap 4: 25 bicep curls. Replace rocks.
Upon conclusion, we did LBC, American Hammer, H2H, and Freddy Mercury’s all IC x 25.
.25 mile mosey over the bridge for 10 burpees on your own.
Mosey to stadium bleachers and run each of the sets of stairs. At this point, YHC watched Hollywood torch the steps and yielded to Foundation and Deflated who both made short work of those stadiums.
25 LBCs while waiting for 6.
Mosey to short wall. 50 dips (2 quarters?). On the mosey to the short wall, Hollywood pointed out a freshly lined GRASS field. He seemed to indicate the ground would be both flat and dry with the exception of dew. And so, since Damascus so unexpectedly deprived us all of Man Touching on Monday, and Mad Dog regaled us with tales of going “Through Tunnels” and “Nuts to Butts”, YHC decided to do the unexpected and throw the ultimate curve ball- We hit the grass!
Reverse Suicide. Run to Far End Zone and back, Far 10 and back, Far 20 etc…Run with and until 6 finishes.
Mosey back to start
3 Minutes remained.
25 SSH with pace
30 seconds high knees
5 Burpees
Stopped EXACTLY on time. Q’s watch is always right…unless you’re Hooch. His runs 3-5 minutes late. 🙂
Moleskin:
Awesome effort today by all PAX. Thanks as always for the chance to lead. We clocked 2.75 miles and hopefully got in a pretty decent workout.
Based upon early returns out of GroupMe, it would appear Recalculating burned 5,426 calories. We’re waiting for confirmation. I believe the official crapple number to be closer to 527.
Runkeeper on my phone said I only got 441 out of the deal, so it’s possible the whole thing is a sham. The world may never know.
No announcements (Frack would have loved that part). YHC took us out.
YHC volunteered to take the reins late yesterday. Watchtower is hands-down the second best AO in all the land…behind the Floater, of course. YHC relapsed into #528 mode this morning and barely made it on time. Nonetheless, we got there, exchanged brief pleasantries and were off.
Warmup:
Long-ish mosey behind school up Posse’s virtual run loop and back around the front. YHC had a suspicion there may be a straggler…there he was, Xerox in the flesh. #533.
We grabbed Xerox and headed over to the first portico.
SSH x 20
No Frack, No problem- 2 Stretches from the Moneyball’s Originals collection (slight angst from the Pax of what was perceived to be a yoga workout in the making)
Old Man Stretch – no explanation needed- except for Halfback. He was perplexed and definitely didn’t feel any of it
Clover Pickers – YHC just made it up. It’s like a Potato/Cherry/Cotton Picker without the time-wasting clap…most commonly referred to as a hamstring stretch
Hands flat on ground, walk hands over to Right Foot, then Left, then walk out to a Plank
Merkins x 15
The Thang:
“Warmup Part 2” (At this point, Frack would have been doing abs).
Partner up. Two wall exercises. Partner 1 runs to far curb, Partner 2 does exercise
Long Mosey around front of school towards the back lot. At this point, the MapMeister (Recalculating) and Mr. DelFrisco (Fuse Box) both claimed my weinke was being made up on the fly. They quickly learned different. Rule of the Road, never mock a man’s weinke.
BurpWalk: Follow sidewalk to top of parking lot (going straight up the lot). -Mary til the 6.
At each road section, do 5 burpees. Once you’ve made it to the top do 5 burpees all the way back. I believe it wound up being 40 burpees
SquatLap: At Each light pole around the perimeter of the backlot, do 5 jump squats. I believe it tallied somewhere around 100 jump squats -Mary til the 6.
CPB (CleanPressBurp): Grab a rock Frack would not make fun of you for choosing. Partner 1 runs to last tree towards end of parking lot and returns. Partner 2 Cleans, Presses, and Burps lifting rock until they return. 40 as a team. -Mary til the 6
Long Mosey to the Football Field- Disclaimer, we stayed off the track and only used the bleachers. When YHC said AYG to the shortwall after the steps, MadDog redirected and said run behind the bleachers just in case.
Bleachers: Run up and down all flights. Upon completion, wait for 6 with some Fence Sitting (Halfback’s idea). Quick mosey to short wall.
CheekSlappers: Partner 1 presses butt cheeks to wall (basically sitting down and standing up), Partner 2 runs to bridge and back. Audible midstream after Partner 1. Sent Partner 2 all the way to the barn with a courtesy yell when they’d reached the bridge.
Mr. DelFrisco was not pleased with this turn of events, but meat-sweated it all the way to the COT.
The End.
Moleskin:
After a bit of early consternation by a few of the Pax, YHC is hopeful this morning’s version of Jazzercize hit the spot. Legal Zoom and Halfback pushed it the whole day with Recalc and Mad Dog not far behind. In spite of the meat sweats for having consumed an entire baby calf yesterday evening at DelFrisco, Fuse Box pushed hard…and didn’t spill the beef.
What can be said for Jingles and Beltway? Both travel non-stop for work and show up when they can and bust their butts. Great job you guys. Xerox, you continue to inspire. Doughboy keeps getting faster and faster. 280 is only a number…unless it is riding on Damascus’ or Fuse Box’s back up #keithjonghill in which case, it is more than only a number!
Posse took his own advice and chose not to be the 6 today. Way to go, man- knew you had it in you. Chipotle was running like he’d just polished off a burrito, and I believe Deflated said he’s ready for his VQ. Of course, nobody could really hear him so we’ll just have to wait and see on that one!
Announcements:
Lift our brothers in prayer – Transporter and Abacus’ wife.
Mad Dog- Final interview later this week
Open Door- Bible Study Sunday 7am @ 5 Stones
Family F3- Starts May 12th at Cuthbertson at 9. Will be something for everybody
Thanks to Doughboy for taking us out.