Monthly Archive July 2021

Time Management

The night before a Q, for me, is much like the night before a football game.  So much excitement, a little butterflies, and always a little doubt.  Excitement because I enjoy all 3 F’s.  Butterflies, are just the nerves settling.  The doubt is always related to not having enough planned for the boot camp.  Well gotta tell ya, after 4 camps under my belt, that usually I have more than enough.  Now just have to manage old father time!

Warm-up:

No need to mosey, we held warm-up @ launch.  Began with some nice easy movement to get the blood circulating.  Air jump ropes, Heisman’s, and jump squats.

The thang:

mosey over to the wall performed a border jump, named by @rousey, and began 11’s.  The 11’s started with 1 – 4×4 merkins and mountain climbers a short dash to store front 10 – LBC’s dashed back over to the wall for another border jump until we reached 10 – 4×4’s and 1 – LBC.  If anyone is interested, @Olaf, total of 220 merkins performed during this 25 minute ground and pound.  While waiting for the 6, me, @war_eagle led a mary of flutter kicks.

I felt at this point that I would still have enough time to get in the other 3 workouts I had planned for the Pax, boy was I wrong.  Anyhow, we mosey’d on down to the fountain, I call it that because I am not sure what that area is called, for some mini border jumpers.  10 times up over and back afterwards run downhill and back up.  Once complete wait for the 6 while in the peoples chair against the wall.  Once the 6 were in we began a civilian count of arm presses x51.

Now, I began to get a little anxious, because time, as it so often does, is slipping through my fingers.  As we are moseying along I glance at my watch and we are down to 15 minutes till we need to be back.  The decision was made to leave the long hill sprint till my next Q @ the bagpipe, if they allow me back!  We dropped for some crunchy frogs, better known as in and outs and then mosey’d back to launch.

Upon arrival we circled up for a dose of AC/DC Thunderstruck.  The goal of this 4.5 minute song is to perform SSH’s until you hear the word “THUNDER” @ which point you would sprawl and then go back to the SSH.  Who knew the word thunder could be used some many times in a song!

Announcements:

@war_eagle – Crane relay need more to sign up

@cooter2 – Official change of the guard to @rousey as co-site leader for the bagpipe

Gettin’ Froggy with it

On your mark, ready, set, let’s go
Parking lot pro, I know you know
I go psycho when 5:30 hits
Just can’t sit
Gotta get Froggy with it

OK, I’ll spare you the rest. 15 dudes. 5:30. DiCCS. You know the drill. No rain during the workout for the second day. I gotta admit, I was a little disappointed. No worries though, there’s plenty of humidity and I’ll get you wet either way (yeah baby!)

Warmup

Mosey to the north east lot for some standard stuff. SSH, Imperial Walkers, Moroccan Night Clubs, Calf Stretch, Glidah Stretch, 6 inches, 6 inch Plank Jacks

The Thang

Not sure what you wanna call it: 4 corners, 5 corners, Starfish, Pirate’s Booty…As long as you do it, I don’t care: 5 burpees in the middle, then 20 reps each of Merkins, Squats, Big Bois, Step Ups, and Dips at different “corners” and coming back for 5 burpees after each. On that sweet, sweet Weddington asphalt, who could ask for more?

With that out of the way, mosey onward past the bus lot to the road leading off campus. Quick anecdote: putting together the weinke last night I had it in my head that we were still meeting at New Town Elementary, so the next few exercises were put together with that AO in mind. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your opinion of today’s Q, I remembered the move to Weddington and was able to adapt it to the new AO and actually showed up at the right location.

So at each light pole heading down the road – 1 burpee and 5 jump squats. Swimmers thinks jump squats need a fancier name but didn’t offer one up so we’re stuck with what we’ve got. All that jumping must’ve been some foreshadowing for what was next.

A quick mosey down Twelve Mile Creek Road and back to the “safety” of the school campus road. Pretty quickly discovered we’re just target practice for incoming teachers/faculty. Look out!

Here’s the bulk of the pain right here with the Mark of the Beast: 6 light poles. 6 exercises. 6 reps.

  • Merkins
  • Big Bois
  • Squats
  • Mike Tysons
  • Heels to Heaven
  • Bomb Jacks

Run to the first pole and do the Merkins then back to the start. Run to the first pole and do Merkins then the second pole and do Big Bois. Repeato in this fashion until all 6 light poles have been reached.

Somewhere along the line Zinfandel and Swimmers learned about the birds and the bees (and the frogs) when we encountered a couple amphibians gettin’ froggy with it. A few pax wanted to stop and stare but we had exercises to do and it didn’t seem polite.

Finally done with that garbage we continued around to the car loop at the middle school and partnered up for the final set of exercises. Partner 1 runs the loop and partner 2 does the exercises, shared of course: 100 wall sit air presses and 100 In and Outs (like the burger joint but less appetizing)

A little more than 2 minutes remaining I considered having us run up the hill on the entrance road but Swimmers suggested heading back to COT and saved me from a (likely) mutiny. Instead we finished with American Hammers and American Knock Outs which was a far better choice.

Moleskin

I’m not sure what the learning curriculum is at Weddington area schools, but some pax got a different sort of “physical education” this morning with the aforementioned frogs. Good ol’ Union County edumacation at it’s finest

Announcements

  • F3 Dad’s Camp is coming up. There are still a few spots left
  • Aspen – Hard launch tomorrow Thursday at Antioch Elementary – 5:30 start with Swimmers on Q
  • The Lycan – Waxhaw Elementary – 5:45 start time

One-year anniversaries can creep up on you!

Last week I was at Asylum again after a few weeks of an Asylum-break and Flanders hit me up with “hey – we need a Q for next week, I’ll put you on the calendar!”. Thanks, Flanders! I was camping last weekend – and as you all know, this comes along with a little bit of too less sleep combined with bad sleep quality and one or two beers (per hour, as we count them in Germany ;-)). So – late last night I threw a Weinkey together and was hoping to get it behind me. Then, this morning, I realized that it was raining! I did not check the weather yesterday – and for those who know Asylum, you know that there is almost no shelter from rain. Well… rain or shine… bla, bla… On top of this, I also realized – Thanks for bringing this up as well, Transporter – that it is my 1 year anniversary with F3! How time flies, when you have fun! DiCSS were given and off we went!

Warmup

Mosey around the parking lot to Novant, circle up and: All the classics:  15x in cadence: Side Straddle Hops, Maroccon Night Clubs, Imperial Walker, Mountain Climbers – then calf and runners stretch, 6 in plank, half way plank, upward dog and downward dog.

The Thang

Mosey to the bank on the east. Or so I thought it was a bank the entire time… Transporter was kind enough to correct it – most likely it is a kind of a town hall? I still don’t know it. And Google Maps does not help either, that’s almost impossible! Partner up and grab a lifting rock. While one is doing the exercises, the other one is running to the end of the parking lot and back. Exercises were: Curls, Trizeps, overhead presses and… well, I forgot the name again… the ones where you bend over and pull the rock up… Rinse and repeat, until I said stop. I think it was almost two round for everybody…

Mosey to PetSmart parking lot. Starfish: 3 Burpees in the middle, one corner (where PetSmart is) 20 donkey kicks, second corner 10 Big Boys, third corner 10 Mike Tysons, fourth corner 20 Freddie Mercuries. I was very kind to the Pax and asked, if we should replace the Big Boys and Freddie Mercuries due to the wet conditions, but: only iron sharpens iron! We are not melting when it is wet out there! I think it did not matter anyways at this point, as everybody was soaked in sweat already… Rinse and repeat – we accomplished two rounds. Marry till the 6 is in with American Hammers, Floaters and Shoulder Taps.

Mosey to the top of the Hill, down into the neighborhood. 7’s. Starting on top of the hill with 1 Bobby Hurley, then at the bottom of the hill 6 Speed Skaters (2 is 1)…

Mosey back to PetSmart – I realized I had more time to cover, than anticipated. 4 Corners, deconstructed burpee: first, 5 Merkins, then 10 ins-and-outs, then 10 Squats, then 5 full Burpees.

And still, there was time left… the Pax were too fast and strong today! So: mosey back into direction of COT, do some step-ups and Dips in front of Brooklyn Pizza and then go back to COT. Done!

Moleskin

Not much mumbling or chatting going on – or I just did not hear it… But: I always take this as a good sign, because then everybody is too much out of breath to actually complain!

Shop Dawg (my then next door neighbor) Eh’ed my on the first day when I arrived (7/3) with the moving truck, while he helped me getting the sofa in the house. But since I had to go back to WI, clarify some stuff up there and come down to beautiful NC again, it took me another ~2 weeks to get out for the first time (07/15/2020). Man – I’m glad I can write this here now, as I really thought I had to die! Tanyatine was Q’ing Dromedary at 100% humidity and I was almost throwing up the entire rest of the day! But I managed to hold everything in… I am really glad to be part of F3 Waxhaw, that I was able to improve my physique and overall form, meet great people, have the opportunity to lead and become a better person over-all! A big thank you , to all of you out there!

Besides that: it is Bypass 38’s birthday today! Happy Birthday!!! If I would have know it, I would have baked 38 burpees in there… Actually, we needed only 3 more… deng it!

Announcements

  • Blackhawk needs more people – especially from Walnut Creek. If you know anybody, EH them! (Saturdays at 6:30am)
  • Qsource: we need more people to step up and lead!
  • Bypass stepped up to be Co-Site-Q at Asylum (Thanks, Bypass!), since Swimmers opened Aspen as a new site!
  • Asylum needs more Q’s in August: now is the time to shine!

Shop Dawg took us out – thank you!

Rock Paper Scissors SQUAT

Anyone who has been to one of my rainy day Qs knows I’m not afraid to get people wet. That said, today I was hoping the rain would hold off cause I had a plan that would be hampered by a constant deluge. Still, I had a backup weinke in my pocket just in case.

Fortunately, since the rain appeared to be on the way out I was able to go with plan A. Here’s how it unfolded:

 

Warmup

I needed us to get to the high school parking lot, so I opted for a moving warmup. Mosey, circle up, Side Straddle Hops. Mosey, circle up, SSH, Imperial Walkers. Mosey, circle up, SSH, Calf Stretch, Glidah Stretch. Mosey, circle up, SSH, Merkins. Mosey, circle up, oh good we’re here.

The Thang

Move to the middle of the parking lot under the big street lights. The following exercises are written in chalk (hence the need for no precipitation) on the sidewalk, each spaced out about 15 feet:

  • 30 Toes Raises (apparently this should have been Calf Raises or something…wah wah wah figure it out)
  • 15 Big Bois
  • 15 Mike Tysons
  • RUN! (Down to the opposite curb and back)
  • 15 Derkins
  • 4 4x4s (4 Merkins then 4 Mountain Climbers IC)
  • 15 Curl to Presses (pick a rock, any rock)
  • 15 Plank Jacks
  • 15 Bomb Jacks
  • 15 American Hammers (2=1)

Hopefully everyone knows the rules to Rock, Paper, Scissors. This is a slightly modifed version where you squat each time you count. So it looks like “Rock” (squat) “Paper” (squat) “Scissors” (squat) “SQUAT!” (squat and throw your choice of weaponry). The loser runs to the sidewalk and completes one of the above exercises then returns to the center. The “winner” stays and plays again against whomever else remains. I put “winner” in quotes because if you “win” several times in a row you start to regret it with all the squats you’re doing. The game continues until all pax have completed all the above exercises. The law of averages prevailed and we all finished at roughly the same time. Whew!

Next, form two single file lines. Everyone knows what’s coming but they’re powerless to resist. Indian Run to the loop in front of the high school. Simple as this exercise may be, it’s regularly flubbed, so I was sure to explain it clearly. Slow jog in the front. SPRINT from the back to the front. Slow jog. Repeato.

In front of the high school, partner up. P1 runs the short lap. P2 does exercises. Switch.

  • 50 Merkins
  • 50 Step Ups
  • 50 Dips
  • 50 Big Bois
  • 50 American Hammers (2=1)

5 minutes remaining. Mosey down the front road to COT. Watch out for the bus. All you got from the stop sign to COT. Heels to Heaven and American Hammers for the remaining 2 minutes

Moleskin

It’s fun to mix things up sometimes. We still got in a good workout but it was just something different to try. There really weren’t any winners with the game because you had to do all 10 exercises anyways. Thanks all for humoring me. I’ll put that one back in the weinke box and bring it out again when you’re least expecting it.

Announcements

  • Crane Relay coming up on August 13th – Similar to the WTF except it’s overnight. Paper Jam has more details maybe
  • The Lycan is back up and running and this time it’s at 5:45. Looking for an excuse to fart sack a little longer but not miss out completely? Try it out. Waxhaw Elementary has some great options
  • Aspen – Official launch is this Thursday at Antioch Elementary School. 5:30 launch time. Come support a new AO

 

YHC took us out

Feeling Sick

Showed up in commitment 2 weeks ago and j-wow got me to Q commitment. I was excited and was ready. Was there early and drove around the route I had planned. Was pumped.

DICCS given, let’s mossey.

Mossey to millbridge skin pool. Warm up with ssh / imperial squats / Merkins / Moroccan night clubs and stretch.

Return to Kensington Elementary school. Every other driveway switch between 15 jump squats and 20 speed skaters. By the end thighs were stiff. Mossey to school parking lot. 20 Big boi’s, 40 LBC’s and 20 Heals to heaven. 

20 mike Tyson and run around the parking lot. Fuse led us on the longest route. Repeat it again. This time took the shorter route.

10 Burpees in a minute. Repeat 3 times. By this time I felt totally gassed out. Felt weird. Decided to step down as the Q of the morning. Thanks to all the pax for stepping in. Did some exercise with rock and ran to the entrance to the park. 

Announcement:

Lycan launching again with new start time. 5:45 am. Maddog leads the workout.

Neighborhood Watch

We walked for an hour.  Though not as far as usual.  We blame NC, Brexit’s dog, who decided to mark her spot every third mail box.  Brexit was beast mode pushing three kids in a stroller with a ruck pack on.  Posse got tears thinking of the good ole days (kids in strollers).  I made walking a dog with a pink leash look good (no surprises there).  Radar was ever free of the early morning cow lick.  Lots of second F.  I kept my inappropriate jokes to a minimum around the kids, even as brexit kept unknowingly lobbing softball after softball at me (who describes their trails as thin and lacking, seriously).   Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Just like riding a bike, except the back blast part….

I haven’t Q’d a boot camp for quite some time as I’ve been mashing for so long given my knee surgery.  I’m finally back to full time running as Chicken Little keenly observed and suckered me into asked me to Q flash sometime.  I obliged and put together some thoughts for the Monday morning weinke.  After 2 1/2 years of F3 and a ton of Q’s at mash, its not too hard to come up with plenty of exercises to keep the group going for 45 min.  I do like to try to pull in some new exercises so that the same old things aren’t done every time but we’ll save that weinke for another Q when all the rust is worn off.  Dicc’s were a little rusty but we got those covered and off we go–

 

The thang-

Mosey to the front of the elementary school for some warmups

  • imperial walkers
  • side straddle hops
  • mountain climbers
  • calf stretches
  • upward/downward dog

Grab a partner, one does reps while the other runs around the circle and then switch.

  • 100 merkins, 150 big boys, 200 dips

Mosey to high school gym entrance area

  • bottom of the steps 10 squats, run up to top by wall and do Mike Tysons 10x, run back repeat, 10 squats while lowering Tysons to 8x,6x,4x,2x

Mosey to back side of high school by wooden benches

  • 3 rounds  use wooden benches for 20 incline merkins, run to tables/benches and do 20 step ups

Mosey to Rudys shack, run the path back up to parking lot, getting short on time

  • alternate light poles- 3 burpees, then next pole 10 LBCs, keep repeating till we get back to parking lot, times up.

 

Moleskin-

 

As the title says, Q’ing its like riding a bike.  You never forget how to do it, maybe its a little harder to get creative with exercises if you haven’t done anything in a while or haven’t pulled out the exicon to find some new stuff.  The backblast is a little different story- I kinda forgot where to login, my password, how to put all the information in, and mostly its a bit of just being lazy on my part.  Well the backblast certainly wasn’t posted in a Flash like the name of the site!  Anyway, all you pax that are counting your workouts for the year should now have credit for July 12th.   Always a honor to get out in the early morning gloom and lead a fine group of F3 pax, and looking forward to the next time…..

 

 

Testing out the new speaker

I rolled into Calvary this morning unsure what I’d find. Summer is always tough with travel and the hot/humid weather. Fortunately, Mighty Mite was there when I showed up and Frehley’s pulled in as I did. I busted out a few kettlebells and a new speaker I’d picked up on Amazon and we got to work.

Warm up:

  • SSH x 20 IC
  • Prying squat x 2
  • Windmills x 10 IC
  • Halos x 5 each way
  • Merkins x 10 on your bells

Main Thang:

  • 100 swing set – 10 swings, 1+1 press, 15 swings, 2+2 presses, 25 swings, 3+3 presses, 50 swings, 4+4 presses
  • Complex – The Eagle/Goshawk – 8 squats, 20 meter carry x 8 sets. Use doubles or singles.
  • Easy Strength – 4 sets x 5 reps of each of the following exercises:
    • Single leg deadlifts (per leg)
    • Floor presses
    • Lawnmowers
    • Double cleans
  • Static holds – :20 double overhead/:20 double racked/:20 farmer holds. 4 sets with 1:00 rest between each round.
  • Snatches – 10 snatches per minute for 10:00

Mary (1:00 each):

  • Hollow body hold
  • Glute bridge
  • Hard-style elbow plank

COT – RockZero mixed things up by joining us for COT this morning.

Announcements:

  • HDHH on Wednesday at Stumptown Station, probably at 5:30, but keep an eye on Slack for more details.
  • Crane Relay – October 13th at 9pm. Teams take turns running 3, 4, and 5 mile loops.
  • F3 Foundation survey – If you’re on the F3 Nation mailing list, you should have received an invitation to a survey for the F3 Foundation. The survey is intended to provide direction for the Foundation’s efforts. It’s very short, so please fill it out if you’ve received it. If you’re not on the mailing list, please go to F3Nation.com and click the F3 Newsletter Signup button on the left.
  • F3 10 year anniversary – F3 Cape Fear (Wilmington, NC) is hosting the 10-year celebration October 8-10. Originally scheduled for January, the event was postponed due to COVID. Visit the website for more information.

Moleskine:

  • I decided to upgrade my speaker to get a little more range out of the Bluetooth. It can be hard to hear the mumblechatter while keeping the music loud enough for the pax to hear. Unfortunately, the new speaker’s range wasn’t quite as long as hoped. On the bright side, it did seem a little louder.
  • Today’s playlist was provided by Spotify’s Van Halen radio, which received 2 thumbs up from the pax. It can be hard to find music that spans the decades, but this one worked pretty well. I’ll have to file it away for the future.
  • Everyone was pushing hard out there. Between the Goshawk complex and the snatches, this workout was full of unsavory exercises. Thanks for coming out and pushing moving some iron with me this morning.

Zebra Cakes & Rocks

11 Manly Men at Rock Zero for stories that included ‘zebra cakes’, ‘babies in Vegas’, and ‘broken noses’. 3.4 miles and running with rocks–celebrate 10 years with McGee Mary…good times!!  Joker was NOT there. Hoover was NOT there. Tiger Rag was NOT there.
Here are participants: Mr. Magoo, Crockett, Big League Chew, Floor Slapper, Alf, Boondock, Horsehead, Emoji, Geraldo, McGee, O’Tannenbaum (Q)
COP:
Warm up–SSH, Merkins, IW, Squats, Seal Jacks
The Thang:
  • Mosey to Turf for McGee 6 minutes of Mary
  • 7’s with Burpees and Merkins between Turf and HotBox
  • Mosey to Rock Pile–4 Corners
  • 1) Run with Rocks for Squats x 20, jump Squats x 20, one leg deadlifts right x 10, one leg dead lifts left x 10  (2 ROUNDS)
  • 2) Run with Rocks for front lifts with rocks x 10, Triceps x 20, presses x 20, curls x 20 (2 ROUNDS)
  • Return rocks–Mosey around Church building to finish
MoleSkine:
Good times this morning. Humid, but there was a nice breeze at the end and shade was found throughout the campus. Zebra Cakes make you stronger (and regular) was the summary from the HH/BD family, and they fit into the vacation budget. Who would take their baby to Vegas? A question to be pondered by sweaty immature men all around F3.  And when you break your nose—Do you you get it fixed?  or just do more merkins?  Merkins build character. Strong work by all this morning. Thanks for showing up and for following my lead!
Announcements:
Happy Hour Wednesday at Stumptown Station–see slack for time.
Crane Relay 8/13
OT

12 days of Christmas

It was a hot and sweaty morning in Union County as I crossed the state line on my way to Diesel to Q.

The foolish mortals had asked me to Q and I brought along Christmas… in July!

After we warmed up a bit, we started on The Thang:

Just like the song, you repeat each exercise just like the song.  The exercises are:

1 – Walk/Run
2- Makhtar N’Diayes (Pronounced Mac tar Jie)
3- Goblet squats
4- LBCs
5- Diamond merkins
6- Chest press
7- American hammers
8- Calf raises
9- Sumo Goblets
10- Lunges (each leg)
11- Lawn mowers
12- Dead lifts

Great time out there this morning.  Thanks Turnbuckle for asking me to Q!  Keep up your awesome work, you’re truly a different man than you were a year ago.  Keep giving it away!

Loved the mumble chatter this morning and I appreciate the opportunity to lead this morning.

Credo of F3: Leave no man behind but leave no man where you find him.