Monthly Archive December 2020

New skunk place but same skunk.

First time I posted or Q’ed at Skunk in a long time hence the runner arms I brought out this morning.  It’s been so long I remember when Skunk used to park over at the school and not by the field.  Man, how long has that been?

Anyhow, Horsehead asked if I would come out of Skunktirement and lead the PAX on a day he “Couldn’t make it”.  So I did.

12 strong men showed up to heckle each other, gossip like school girls, and on occasion lift a bell.  We also did some ’round the church runs (without the KB’s) just to keep it warm.

Exercises include snatch, swing, merkin, clean and press, good morning, RDL, thrusters, sumo-deadlift high pull, OH lat pulls and burpees.  At least 14% of the group completed some of the burpees.  Maybe.

Things I witnessed.

  • I think the move over to the parking lot by the lacrosse field is just really a half step to full on transition to Ultimate on Tuesdays at the Skunk across field.
  • Lois has an uncanny amount of Myrtle Beach related trivia.  And not the kind of trivia you normally find on the tourist brochures.
  • Cage might take more piss breaks than a dog on a street lined with fire hydrants
  • Tebow, was concerned someone was stealing his #13 Short Bus.  We also learned he likes to shop at Costco during senior citizen hour and he was asking Stone Cold for help moving a “package”
  • I think it was Header that let out a “fart” early on.  Who knows though.  It sounded like a little squeaker like the car horn on a Ford Festiva.  Funky Cold soon followed it with a full on F150 dually crew cab man fart, that might have left an oil slick.  Stone Cold quickly social distanced.
  • There was a lot of conversation about who’s college football team sucks the most.  Heavy competition there.

Tebow delivered a strong takeout.

-Alf

Truman Gates comes to Hawks Nest

A Trio of Area51 “begatten” Waxhaw pax (Fuse Box, Posse & Chastain) posted with passports in hand at Hawks Nest.  Among many other unsavory things, they were treated to a Puddin’ Pop disclaimer that included a John Dalton (Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse) quote about “watching backs” and “taking out the trash”.

A solid crew of 22, indeed, helped Puddin’ and site Q’s Hopper & Deep Dish take out the trash.  Since Puddin’ is neither on Slack nor post backblasts; and because Posse asked for a backblast at 8:14am – YHC is your Huckleberry.  But don’t expect 2 or 3 backblasts for the same workout as is the custom in the Land of the Waxhaws.

What follows below is very little Thang and as much Moleskine as I can recall.  But don’t worry, Clover promised to fill in all the blanks as well as make up some stuff.

So here goes —

COP consisted of your basic stuff.  Though at one point, I thought Puddin’ was going to call Makthar N’Djaiye’s but instead went with the H-R merkins.  Mildly disappointing.

Slingshot had already worked up a sweat on his run in from the heart of Olde Providence, so he was ready to go.  Not sure which of the OP denizens joined him – perhaps IHOP, Salt-N-Pepa and Huddle House?  T-claps

We then ran down to Abbotswood for what would be a long 1/2 pipe beatdown in groups of 3.  On the run, I was thankful I am vertically challenged so not to potentially clotheslined a la Geraldo, Hopper, Gloss, etc.  My triumvirate included Marge & IHOP, both of whom were likely hating it as they weighted for me to unhook the plow as they did many more called exercises than I.

Ickey was already complaining about the running, at this point.

Brandi and Chastain were there, even running together at one point.  Chastain should have broken out his tripod (true story) right then for that photo op, but Brandi likely would have taken off his shirt prior to the snapshot.

Chastain was circling back for the six on a few occasions as well.  Good man.

Posse’s headlamp was mistaken for a car on a few occasions…don’t see those things much in these parts….headlamps, that is.

Hammer has resurfaced lately, and it warmed my heart to see the behooded grappler.

Buc-ee’s was sporting the Buc-ee’s brand t-shirt this morning, which from a distance in the gloom resembled an old school Aquaman or some other dorky DC comic hero, but we’ll go with Aquaman.

Sable was getting after it while lamenting Yosef’s misfortune with Puddin’ and Gloss.  Motorboat was mocking the lot of them.  It’s the Sun Belt, fellas.  The Sun Belt.  Ooh-La-La…

On the way back, sort of, to Colony Place – we did more merkins at each Clark Griswold on Summerlin.   After which Puddin’ called Buc-ee’s for a 10-count but took off running again when Buc-ee’s got to 2.5 in his count…or was it 8.5?

Spackler bolted from COT, certainly not out of disinterest in filling his passport, rather nature’s calling or because it was too cold for him….or because he checks out of any announcements lasting more than 37 seconds.

Someone said we got 2.6’ish miles?  I don’t know.  Who cares except runners on Strava and Rucktards.

New workout starting at Porter Ridge HS in January.  Consult your globe to find that one, and pack a lunch…and your passport.  Pretty sure Horsehead lives in that neck of the backwoods.

Wasn’t mentioned in the announcements, but for those of you inclined to pray — please remember Bout Time’s son Jennings.  At 5 years old, he is battling leukemia for the second time – and they have a steep hill to climb; but Jennings and his parents Lauren & Joel are good climbers.  More importantly, they trust in their Lord & Savior Jesus Christ and their God who never leaves them nor forsakes them.

Bout Time shared the following in his latest CaringBridge post — it is from Paul’s letter to the Christ-followers in Rome: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”  HOPE, men.  HOPE.

 

 

 

 

Time for some discipline

A fast team at Ignition did nearly 6 miles with mind erasers, leg and ab exercises, staggered races, and Indian runs to please Rubbermaid. Not everybody finished at 6:15, but all had fun. Really. They did. Special kudos to Sugardaddy, who is 2x as fast as a few months ago, and Tool Time, who admittedly benefited from Hurry #rainsacking.

Meanwhile, I thought you’d be interested in observations from tonight’s reading at #F3Sanctuary. We are studying the Christian disciplines, such as meditation, prayer, study, solitude, guidance, and celebration. Our author contends there are 2 main reasons to practice the disciplines:

  1. Spiritual competence. Being competent at anything requires practice and discipline. Think about your fitness and your job. Why would spirituality be different?
  2. Jesus did. And he is God. Jesus practiced the disciplines. Why would his divine self need them but we don’t?

This week’s discipline is #service. It is found in a lifestyle in relationship with God. True service loves hiddenness, doing small things, being indiscriminate, and meeting needs. I found particularly powerful the truth that service is one of the best ways to gain humility, especially hidden service. By choosing to serve, we achieve freedom: from pride, from needing to feel important, from the need to insist on our rights. And I found particularly insightful the observation that allowing others to serve us is a discipline itself: by submitting to allow others to serve us, we recognize their “kingdom authority” over us, receiving a spiritual gift that need not be repaid.

Thanks to Shake n’ Bake for his testimony at COT. In serving his community this morning, he was rebuked. But he gladly paid that price to do the right thing. I am thankful Shake is in my community.

Out.

The Loaded D&D Die of Fun………

  • Do work at home over the weekend(check)
  • Work until 11:30 Sunday night(check)
  • Realize at 11:45 after shower, I’m on Q the next morning(Check + panic)
  • Complete(ish) plan for Q at 12am(check)
  • Wake up at 4:15am(f@%#ing check)

With all that said, I was really excited to Q, it has been awhile. Decided to combine a couple of Q’s together in an attempt to make something challenging or at least feel  it the next day. I hope I did not disappoint.

The Thang:

Provided the usual disclaimer along with my own mix. After admitting only having 4 hours of sleep, let’s mosey.

Took a longer than usual mosey(needed to wake up and loosen up). Made a complete lap around the middle school(I do not think too many were pleased with this).

Circle up:

  • SSH X 20
  • IW X 15
  • Cherry pickers X 20
  • Low slow squats X 20

Let’s mosey:

Run to parking lot in front of middle school’s front door.

Park lot combos:

  • Lunges X 5
  • Inchworm Merkins, then 5 merkins
  • Bearcrawl X 10
  • Repeat until to the end of parking lot

Next combo:

  • Backwards Lung X 10
  • Crawlbear X 10
  • Five Broad Jumps into a Burpee
  • Repeat to the end of parking lot

Third Combo:

  • Deep side-step to the right X 10
  • Deep side-step to the left X 10
  • Lung X 10
  • Repeat to the end of parking lot

Mosey to covering by buses:

  • Laps using the covering and sidewalk
  • Under covering on first lap, side-step right
  • Under covering on 2nd lap, side-step left
  • Under covering on 3rd lap, back pedal

Mosey to Front door of Middle school, what is this? Someone left a Dungeons and Dragons Die here and it has a bunch of exercises on it. Should be fun/suck, let’s call it……………….well you know what to call it.

  • Rolled the Die a total of three times
    • Performed each exercise rolled
    • Take a lap around parking lot
    • 4 rounds worth completed
    • Insert claims of loaded Die by Pax for too many Jump Lunges

Times up:

  • Strong mosey back to COT
  • Brief Mary before time runs out

MOLESKINE:

This weekend no matter how short it felt taught me something. Stay mentally ready for more things. I was faced with something this weekend that I never mentally prepared myself for, I will now. Though my Q was not the best, it was not the worst either. At times I mentally prepare myself for those mornings I find myself on Q and not remember it, what will I do and how will I do it. Or do I need to fill in for a fartsacking Q? Short rant to an end, stay mentally ready for whatever may come your way. Take your time every once and awhile and think of other things outside of your usual bubble to prepare for. Not just reactions, but actual actions. Whether it be community service, something for your spouse or child, a stranger, or yourself. A weird rant I know, but that is what is on my mind at this moment. What do you expect, I’m operating off of 4 hours of sleep and trying not to let my supervisor see me type this out instead of working. Thank you for following and pushing yourself this morning.

Announcements:

I apologize in advance, I accidentally stopped recording when announcements took place. I believe Bottlecap mentioned community service for clearing a path for a cross country team. And Glidah mentioned a community service opportunity. I apologize again for dropping the ball on this.

Foundation was the 6th man today. This is his 2nd F3 name due to work done at a community service project about 2 years ago. There you are fellas, the mythical renaming I heard of so much………it does exist.

Ardrey Karen HS

4 intellectually curious PAX and 1 Karen went back to school on a beautiful Monday morning at Firestarter.

Thang

Muscle-up an onto retaining wall next to Blakeney entrance at Blakeney Heath Rd – 10 times

Mosey to rock pile behind the Lash Studio

  • Curls – 20 OYO
  • Triceps extensions – 20 OYO
  • Walking lunges w/ rock held overhead – roughly 10 lunges each leg
  • Repeato

Mosey to rock pile next to Self Storage place

  • Thrusters w/ rock – 15 IC
  • Merkin w/ 1 hand on rock, alternating hands – 10 each side
  • Repeato

Mosey to benches behind Ardrey Kell HS

  • Dips – 20 IC
  • Bulgarian split squats – 10 each leg
  • Hip slappers – 15 each side

Mosey back to rock pile behind the Lash Studio

  • Flutters w/ rock held over chest – 20 IC
  • American hammer while holding rock – 15 IC

Moleskine

It was an honor to lead at Firestarter for the first time.  Thank you, Teddy and Mark Kay, for the opportunity and for your support.  YHC could feel the positive vibes you were sending from your fartsacks.  YHC’s guess for the low turnout this AM is a combination of the threat of rain and PAX posting elsewhere for Passport.  Lucky for those in attendance, the rain held off and we had perfect weather.  Small numbers and strong PAX allowed us to cover a lot of ground.  Really strong work by One Star, Sweetwater and Wingman.  In total we got in 3.1 miles aka 5k.  Not too shabby for a 45 minute bootcamp.

The final destination was Ardrey Kell High School.  YHC can’t remember ever going there during a workout, so it was high on the list to check out.  We were only there for a short time, but long enough for a faculty member to see us on her walk into school and then decide to come out and check on us a bit later.  Relax Karen!  Nothing to see here, other than One Star’s Ho Ho Ho socks and Sweetwater’s chiseled physique.  On second thought, who could blame her for wanting a second look at all that.  AKHS has a lot to offer, bootcamp wise, including a plethora of parking lots, bountiful benches and frequent fields.  The only issue is it’s a stretch to reach from Blakeney.  Side note: perhaps Community House MS would be a solid future AO since it has easy access to both AKHS and the Morrison Y.  Not to mention it has it’s own track w/ tires to flip.  Side side note: it was nice to discover that there is a rock pile next to the Self Storage place.

You know how some PAX are freakishly good at 1 specific thing?  Like Market Timer w/ running backwards, Doc McStuffins with dead hanging or Mary Kay with not showing up to Firestarter?  Well as it turns out, Wingman is that way w/ muscle-ups.  He was done well before anyone else even though we were all pushing hard.  Wingman also helped Sweetwater get access to The Brave calendar after the workout.  The issue was resolved by asking Sweetwater “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”  It was so successful that going forward, Wingman will be offering free technology assistance hours to all PAX after weekday SOB workouts.  So bring your broken Palm Pilots, BlackBerrys, Microsoft Zunes and Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s and watch Wingman work his genius.

One Star described a brutal workout that he barely survived once upon a time in Hilton Head, involving a ladder of exercises and bricks.  Hopefully he will bring it to a workout near you.

Sweetwater, safe travels to Atlanta.  This is for you: https://www.f3atlanta.com/workout-locations/

Mucho Leg-O

15 came out today, a light drizzle sprinkled with some heavy legs.

 

Warm Up:

A quick jog on the sidewalk and somehow we ended up at target parking lot. Did light work of side-straddle hops, slow merkens and stretch out the calves.

The Thang:

Started with 4 corners, 2 laps of 20 reps each of squats, merkens, bonnie blair and dry dogs.

We did a makeshift indian run to the bank, apparently, pushing a little faster is out of the question. The Q had to make a pit stop since he reminded everyone to bring gloves but forgot his in the car.

At the bank, everyone grabbed the heaviest rock possible for:

Mucho Leg-O- 10 reps
Tricep ext- 20 reps
curl- 20 reps
Merken- 20 reps
Side Squat- 20 reps
grounder pounder- 20 reps
Rock burpee- 20 reps
With sprints in between to the far light and back

Moleskin:

A great leg day and the drizzle wasn’t a factor.  A big thanks to Loafer for looking over the design of my workout and everyone that helped me out today. Thanks for Smokey sharing as a 6th, Chastain for 2020 passport challenge and Shop Dawg taking us out!

Making new friends and honoring one

Glass joe was out of town, I noticed the odd silence in the atmosphere.
So I messaged him asking who was on Q, it was offered to YHC and I gladly accepted also knowing my daughter’s boyfriend would be an FNG in the gloom.

Disclaimer given and while my CPR certification has expired I did state that because of our friendship and brotherhood I would kick you guys in the chest a few times if required.

Let’s mosey!

COP
Side Straddle Hops  in cadence x 20
Imperial Walkers IC x 15
Low Slow Squats IC x 15
Mountain Climers IC x 20

The THANG
Let’s mosey! And off we went around the trail at the park, stopping along the way for various exercises which also helped keep the PAX together.

First stop, 10 burpees! And so begin the groans, except Shepherd who had a smile on his face.
other stops as follows…
Flutter kicks in cadence x 23
Hand release Merkins x 20
10 more burpees
23 more flutter kicks

When we got to the rock pile at the bridge I told everyone it was time to make a new best friend, a lifting rock , not a running rock and partner up.
Partner 1 does called exercise, Partner 2 runs to the parking lot (about 100 yards) and back, flapjack and repeato, so 2 rounds of each…
Round 1 curls
Round 2 overhead presses
Round 3 tricep extensions
Various plank work mixed in between rounds.

Deposit your rock and lets mosey to finish out the track!
Stop at parking lot for the 6 and 20 jump squats while waiting…
Ok 20 more jump squats! #Crowdpleaser
and mosey back to the start, pick up the 6 then off to the small parking lot for 7s,
Run to the opposite end for 6 Carolina Dry Docks (GJ Merkins) and back for 1 squat, then 5 CDD, and back for 2 squats, you get the idea.

Next up, head to the building and find some wall for Peoples Chair with 25 air presses, recover, back on the wall for 50 air presses… Hmm, air presses? I HAVE A GREAT IDEA!

Let me introduce everyone to my friend Jack Webb!
Circle up and lets do this!
1 merkin, 4 air presses, 2 merkins, 8 air presses all the way up to 10/40.

I don’t think anyone liked my friend Jack Webb, he doesn’t care though so we said good bye to him and headed around the corner to the benches.
20 step ups, 20, dips, then 15 of each, 10 of each and 5 of each.
Back to the small parking lot because we need to work our way back of course.
bear crawl and do 5 merkins at every other line because we may as well completely burn out our chest after Jack Webb.

6 Minutes of Mary (Change order threatened to call me a professional because it was exactly 6 minutes.)
Flutter IC x 20
Pretzel Crunch IC x 10 left, 10 right
Freddie Mercury IC x 10
Protractor for the last minute or 2

Recover! We are done!

Announcements
Bonhoeffer on Q at Thrive and Pinto on Q at Overdrive this week.

Ye Olde Moleskin
A few people asked about the 23 count for flutter kicks and I honestly almost forgot to tell them #O2Dep
About a month ago one of my daughter’s best friends from H.S. who was in the Coast Guard was killed in a training situation.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article246722846.html

She had a favorite workout that I took pieces of for today’s beatdown to honor her.
600 meter run
followed by 2 rounds of the following
10 burpees
23 v-ups, I had us do flutter kicks. She was 23 years old but actually had a birthday the day before she passed.
20 jump squats
20 hand release merkins.

Solid work by everyone this morning! Always an honor to lead, AYE!
Hair Band
Short and to the point but BB, fini.

 

The 80s had the best music

After a solo mission last week, YHC was hopeful to have some company for this week’s edition of Olympus. I had 3 hard commits, so the odds were good. After a double pre-run (gotta hit the 2020 mileage goal), I rolled up to the AO (a minute late) and found Swiss Miss and High Tide in the parking lot. After my Mr. Rogers routine (changing out of running shoes and into lifting shoes, we got started.

Appetizer: SSH, Sharon Towers, Prying Squat

Main Course:

  • Set 1: 25 swings (32), 10 deep merkins on bells, 8 goblet squats (28)
  • Set 2: 25 swings (32), 5 double clean and press (24s)
  • Set 3: 25 swings (32), 10 deep merkins on bells, 8 deadlifts (double 24s) – this is when Frehley’s Comet pulled in, after posting at Stonehenge already
  • Set 4: 25 swings (32), 5 double clean and press (24s)

Repeat 4 times for 400 swings, 80 merkins, 32 goblet squats, 32 deadlifts, 40 clean and press.

Mary: 60 second hard style elbow plank and hollow body hold

COT: Circle up with the RockZero pax

Announcements:

  • Please keep Bout Time and his family in your prayers as his son, Jennings, battles leukemia for the second time. Please see Slack for a sign-up genius if you’re able to help out.
  • Please be mindful of the Governor’s executive order regarding social distancing and masking. While it makes 2nd F more challenging, cases are trending in the wrong direction.

Moleskine:

  • Thanks to the pax for posting and following my lead this morning. I was definitely feeling the swings toward the end, even with the recovery time. Sorry for the recycled weinke, but I was the only one that did it last week, so it was new to you.
  • It was good to have High Tide back out after recovering from something he had tweaked a few weeks ago. It was also good to have Swiss Miss back out there with us this morning. He still posts elsewhere in F3, but it had been a while since we had him join us for some bells. Hopefully he can use some of this workout when posting in Kernersville. Frehley’s continues to impress. Cranking out a ton of swings after completing an hour bootcamp is a solid Saturday morning. Hopefully he got a well-earned nap later in the day.
  • The music today was provided by Van Halen Radio on Spotify. The mix was a bit eclectic, but generally solid. High Tide mentioned that the 80s were still one of the most popular decades of music, which got Frehley’s talking about the spectrum of music that decade included. Swiss Miss also mentioned White Squirrel radio (you can find it on TuneIn radio), where they play old Casey Kasem Top 40 shows – he listened to one from 1970 recently!

The Ramp

Weinke planning the night before and decided to pull out one from back in April when F3 shut down for bit. Used it for the WOD but never got the chance to personally inflict it on some unsuspecting PAX. Today was that day.

DiCCS provided then we moseyed towards the soccer fields and our ultimate destination: the pond loop.

A quick loop with a couple warmup exercises on the way was really just a chance to show the PAX the stations we’d be hitting along the way.

The Thang

The Ramp is, as the name implies, designed to start on the easier side and slowly increase the intensity. We started by doing the shorter loop and 10 reps each of Dry Docks, LBCs, and Squats. Repeato with 15 reps each.

Round 2 upgrades to the longer loop with 10 then 15 reps of Merkins, Big Bois, and Bobby Hurleys.

Round 3 is the longer outside loop and 10 then 15 reps of Mike Tysons, American Hammers, and Bomb Jacks.

Sensing the need for a bit of a reprieve we took a short break for some Mary, including Flutters, Box Cutters, and American Knockouts.

Back at it with the Final Round; a big figure eight with all reps done on the sidewalk between the ponds. For the finale we did Diamond Merkins, Jump Squats, and Burpees. 10 reps then 15.

With about 10ish minutes remaining I pulled out my handy dandy phone app with a random number generator. Setting it to dice mode I let the PAX choose the exercises as we made our way back to COT, stopping at various intersections to exercise. The PAX call cadence and the app chooses the total reps.

Back at COT we finished the remaining few minutes with some bear crawls, Lunges, broad jumps, and suicide runs.

Moleskin

Carb Load – Not only is he a Site Q for the Floater AND Blackhawk, but he’s constantly pushing me the whole time.

Rockwell – Apparently Rockwell showing up in Saturday is out of the norm (haha get it? You know, cause his name is Norm… Nevermind). You wouldn’t know it though cause he’s working hard and then went and ran the neighborhood 5k right after. Finally hit 50 but it isn’t slowing him down

Chatterbox – what a transformation! Started F3 back in July and now he’s leading 4+ mile Qs and running with Ignition. Way to go buddy!

Paper Jam – Moving down to Millbridge from SOB in the next month. It was good to meet him in person. Hopefully an announcement in the making. I’ll leave it at that as a teaser and provide details in the future

Chopper – Another SOB-land guy, Chopper was making the journey to get his Passport stamped. He’s currently in 2md place in the leaderboard and really racking up the unique AOs. If anyone is gonna catch Das Boot it’s him

YHC took us out

3 X 1000

DICCS given.

The plan is to run 3 miles while executing 1000 exercise reps.  I stole borrowed this from Fuse Box from Blackhawk in April sometime. As this was my first Saturday (60 minute) Q, I wanted to ensure its validity.  I learned the hard way when asking a fellow Q-Site coordinator to Q my site, it comes with a, “sure, if you Q mine.”

The Warm Up and The Thang all run together.  Warm up, stretching, exercises, stretching…

Having only posted Homecoming once, I wanted to ensure I knew the layout so I drove to the school at lunch Wednesday.  I drove around the school multiple times to fully map our my plan.  Did you know there is an officer in car securing the school during school days?   I guess he didn’t like the older model all white car canvasing the school and escorted me off the campus.   It was funny.

Technically the Warm Up – Mosey for a bit – 26 SSH, 24 Emp Walk, Calf Stretch.  26 Plank Jacks, 24 Dolly Parton’s, Jimmy Dugans.  (100)

Get After It:

  • Run around the .30 mile loop stopping 5 times – 10 merkins and big boys each at each stop.  X2 with extra running in between. (200)
  • Run around 1st parking lot then execute a 4 corner – 25 Mnt Clmbrs, Flutters, Mnt Clmbrs, Flutters.  (100)
  • Pause and do more static stretching
  • Run to and around next parking lot then execute another 4 corner – 25 squats, dry docs, squats, dry docs.  (100)
  • Run around same parking lot and stop at the front of school – wall time – donkey kicks and LBC’s, 20, 15, 10, and 5.  (100)
  • Run a bit to a further gravel area, lot, …???  4 corners – 25 each – SSH, Air Presses, Mor NC, Punches  (100)
  • Run back down the road to entrance of school (the same .3 loop) – each end is a stopping point – repeat of Mnt Clm & Flutters (100)
  • Paus for Dynamic stretches
  • From here I was focused on time and completing the 3 miles and reps, so I decided to not waste more time by stopping and reading the winke, so I modified and led mostly running but stopped frequently for random exercises to ensure we completed 1000 and hit the 3 mile mark.

Shout out to Das Boot for keeping me honest with the time and the mileage.

Shout out to Damascus for showing up and getting after it even though he did not plan on coming out at all.

Then there’s Posse.  Thanks for talking the whole time and especially for wearing those Richard Simmons borrowed tights.  Gave the rest of us something to talk about…and really appreciate the leadership today.