Posted on behalf of Troylette. Before you read his words, read these:
There is no off position on Troylette’s HIM switch. First off, no one EH’ed him; he just shows up one morning like a badass. Then he just keeps getting better. I know that’s the point, but not everyone’s trajectory is so straight. When he Q’s, you can count on 30 – 187% will be stuff we haven’t done before (as you will see below). He’s fairly quiet on site (or more likely, he’s so far ahead of me I can’t hear him), but seems to have encyclopedic access to phenomenal memes for off site smack talk. I lack that skill, so all I can do is be his hype man.
He’s a regular for the 3rd F (Sanctuary), and has taken on a huge piece of this project mentioned in the Moleskin below. He’s just put the sandbag on his shoulders and ran with it. And brought stunning results, just coming out of the gate!
Oh, he also crafted a weight loss challenge whose structure is part fantasy football, part Roberts Rules of Order. It’s heady, but 3 themes abide – show up, lead us, weigh less.
I’m so glad Troylette is part of F3. He is sharpening all of us.
OK, back to Troylette’s BB:
Warm Up:
Quick Mosey to start of walkway behind school
Walking Lunges
Knee Up w/ hip rotation (Opening & Closing the Gates)
Straight Leg Kick (Toy Soldiers?)
Thang:
Partner Up and rotate between Dot Drill & Ground Exercise 35 seconds on & 10 seconds rest, and flapjack
| Round | Dot Drill | Ground Exercise |
| 1 | 2-1-2 front/back | Merkins |
| 2 | Right Foot Hops | Diamond Merkins |
| 3 | Left Foot Hops | Flutters |
| 4 | 2 Ft Slalom | Merkins |
| 5 | 2-1-2 rotate | Diamond Merkins |
Posse here again – Troylette had put 5 pieces of tape in a checkerboard pattern on each sidewalk square. It felt like we were practicing for the Hop Scotch / Double Dutch Winter Nationals. I kid because I sucked at it.
Mirror Drill (35 seconds work, 10 seconds rest, flapjack)
Mirror Lean Drill (35 seconds work, 10 seconds rest, flapjack)
Mosey to end of walkway
People Bag Drill
Spread out across walkway and begin working way up with person on end going through people bag x2
Troylette never gave the disclaimer, then stepped on my elbow during this drill. #SueTheQ
People’s Chair w/ rock Pass
Round 1 Left Side start w/ 5 rock raises & Right Side start w/ 5 steering wheels
Round 2 Left Side start w/ 5 chest press & Right Side start w/ 5 overhead press
Duck Walk back across sidewalk to main walkway and mosey to start of walkway
End with Partner Resistance Sled Work including 10 up downs
Moleskin:
Great work by the Pax and embracing something a little different this morning. Had chance to bring out some of the old Football O-Line drills and modify with a F3 twist.
Had the opportunity to learn what old man strength was when going against Shop Dog at end when he was not giving any ground.
Got to hear a little chatter about upcoming game this weekend with BottleCap and Damascus leading way on Pats end, and Dirty Bird holding down for the Falcons with a whole bunch of bandwagon fans coming on to support the Falcons. Rumor still has it that if Falcons win that in the following weeks days, Dirty Bird will be on Q.
Announcements:
More details about Debbie’s house project and opportunity to assist. Below is link to gofundme page for donations, and further details will come out early next week on opportunity to provide assistance with project. Tentative date is for President’s day weekend Feb 18-19.
https://www.gofundme.com/debbies-house-improvement
Sign up Genius for manpower coming next week.
Thank you Bottlecap for taking us out.
When I sent out the preblast last night, it was met with crickets. Not a good sign. A few of them read it, but others openly declared that they never read preblasts, for fear of getting syched out and not going. There’s some good logic in there.
My plan was to hand off the Q to everyone in the group, having them do the hard work of Q’ing. The sheet I came up with was going to help give some guidance if needed. Basically, I signed up to cheat my way out of Q’ing. To say I Q’ed without actually Q’ing. But my efforts to abdicate my leadership responsibilities were thwarted by my own tendency to overcomplicate matters.
We started with a mosey to the bus parking lot, led by Ranger, my 2.0. Line up across the lot and race to the 2nd speed bump. The order you come in was going to determine the order of who would Q when. This turned out to be a red herring, as I already realized passing the Q wasn’t going to work. Still, it got us in the area for Ranger to lead…
The Warm Up
The Thang
Grab a rock. Find one who can stick by you to the end.
People’s chair – air presses with your rock
Hold that rock out there…
People’s chair – air presses with your rock
Head down to the front of the bridge. Diamond merkins while we wait for the 6.
Sevens – mountain climbers at the bottom, step ups / box jumps on the tables at the top of the stairs. No rocks here.
Fast finisher? Then do curl to presses with your rock while you wait for the 6.
High knees with rock overhead while you go across the bridge. “He said heiney…”, said half the Pax. No, that joke never gets old.
Small field just past the bridge was a perfect place for Lt. Dan to salute us. The Jack Webb of legs = 1 squat to 4 lunges up to 10 squats & 40 lunges. This seemed to be the most unhappy I had seen the Pax in a while. Thankfully, Bottle Cap channeled the spirit of Kevorkian with his gutteral, mega-machismo counts that he normally does on a Jack Webb. However, the lunges force you to go slower than you can on air presses. Popeye wants to put Lt. Dan in front of a firing squad.
Pinball (with your rock) up to the knee wall in front of the track. Dips (rock optional) & Derkins
On the track, partner up for a little Catch Me If You Can. You only need 1 rock between the 2 of you, so each guy was eyeing and fondling each other’s stones to pick a winner. This adolescent humor was being led by the adults, and not the 2.0’s.
Partner 1 does 30 American Hammers while Partner 2 takes off with a rock around the track. Partner 1 chases him down and they flapjack.
The title was awkwardly appropriate for YHC. I was P1, but I never caught my P2, Comacho. Not even close. Like Katie Ledecky 800 m not even close. I think I saw him finish up ‘War & Peace’ when I strolled up to him. Good thing we only did it for 1 lap.
SSH until the 6 came in.
Mosey to the small grassy field on the other side of the concession stands.
Hot Potato – Partners face each other on their 6, locking legs together. P1 does a WWII sit up with the rock and passes it to P2. Flapjack.
Apparently, I do have a talent to incorporate an exercise in every workout that instantly reminds everyone of the Ambiguously Gay Duo. Uh, what’s everyone looking at?
Mosey to the top of the home stands with your rock. Let’s run the stadium steps, rock optional. With Transporter first in the gauntlet, he effectively rock-shamed others into running the stairs with their rocks.
While waiting on the other side of the stands, Shop Dog led with people’s chair rock air presses until everyone finished.
Mosey back to the low wall for Scorpion Dry Docks. New to some, pleasure for all.
Karaoke with your rock down the sidewalk, showing some WMS football teams how it’s done. The way they huddled together, you could tell they were impressed.
Lunge walk across the bridge. Jump squats while you wait for the 6.
We gotta drop our friends back off at the rock pile, but not before we take a suicide pact to each corner of the school. That was the slowest suicide I had seen in F3. Might this be a proper beatdown?
Rosalitas in the bus parking lot while everyone says good bye to Rocky.
Jailbreak to the front parking lot.
One minute left, so we leave it like we start it; Ranger introduces us to the Merkin Jack (a plank jack with a merkin combo). He came up with it on his own and wanted to make sure it got into his VQ. Unfortunately, a car was pulling through our circle just before we started this. Technically, it was time. Fortunately, we all have seen enough soccer now to know that extra time can be added at the end in circumstances like these. Thanks for being flexible.
Between the count-o-rama and the name-o-rama, I told a too long story.
A few weeks back was my 1 year anniversary in F3. With that has come a lot of losses:
This is all a credit to F3. I had not been able to achieve ANY of that on my own. The proof is the 3 YEARS of YMCA dues paid without once stepping foot onto a single property. I failed trying to do this on my own.
With friends and neighbors who consistently encouraged me to do F3 (and it took months of EH’ing), they deserve the credit for those results. They should also get the credit for these that occurred in the same year:
So as I went around on the name-o-rama, I gave each person a choice of how to be thanked for their time, efforts, and encouragement – full on bro-hug, hand slap one-armed hug, or fist bump. Everyone chose the bro-hug. Even the 2.0’s without their Dads present. It wasn’t creepy in the least.
Moleskin
Seriously, you’re still reading this?
The title came from my plan of yesterday spectacularly failing on reaching the cold light of the Twittersphere. The wheels were falling off. I thought sure this was going to be a horrible time. I was pre-embarrassed. I was taking that embarrassment out on my family, especially Ranger.
The closer to 0630 we got, the more I realized I was going to have to Omaha the whole workout, with the exception of Ranger’s parts. But I did it, much to my surprise. I was barely 1 exercise in front of the Pax in my head. Even leading from behind, I kept the 12’s busy so they didn’t have to plank on their own.
I got the time management thing right. Got us all back to the start so we had the opportunity to end on the minute. Normally, I’d attribute it to luck, but I actually knew what I was doing.
But my biggest surprise when it came time for me to do cadence counts of these exercises. I’ve avoided it every Q I did prior, knowing full well that I didn’t have the cardio available to do the exercise and talk through 3/4’s of it. But I was wrong. I could do it. I DID do it.
When I thought the wheels were falling off, it turned out to just be training wheels. Sometimes the Sky Q does that. Sometimes you are too locked into your own habits and thoughts that you fail to consider that you just may be ready, already.
Most sign off with “thanks for the opportunity to lead”. I learned today to say, thanks for the expectation to lead. Our F3 culture is such that I’m not allowed to stay under the radar. I can’t just show up and take the efforts and thoughts of another without giving something in return. While my giving may not be much now, I can feel my capacity to give growing each week. And with that comes the expectation to give. I couldn’t be more proud to be in the gloom with you brothers.
Announcements
F3 Sanctuary – Thursday’s at Brooklyn Pizza in Wesley Chapel – 1930
Spartan Sprint – Sept. 10 – Fort Bragg
Spartan Beast & Sprint – Oct. 29 & 30 – Winnsboro, SC
C2 Survival (obstacle course) Race – Saturday, Sept. 17 – Camp Thunderbird (Lake Wylie)
A VERY family friendly OCR:
1 mile loop for kids 5 – 14
5k loop for ages 11+
There is an F3 / FiA group already in place.
If you’ve been wanting to share this gift of outdoor exercise with your family, this is the perfect event.
Price increase on 8/17!
When YHC Q’s, I throw out cadence counts. Otherwise, we would likely get 1 exercise done in the 45 minutes while I try to catch my breath. So my modification is to play music the whole time and let the songs dictate the exercises and tempo. I try to sell it as “work on your form” or “it’s just you against you today”. I don’t know if anyone bought it. If they did, they can still return it for a full refund when they Q.
Forgot to give the disclaimer, especially since there were 2 FNG’s, but I’m sure the rest of the PAX watched over them.
The template below is “Song” (Artist) <Time>: Exercises
The Warm Up:
“Devil Went Down to Georgia” (Charlie Daniels Band) <3:35>: Cotton Pickers / SSH / Mountain Climbers / SSH / Hillbilly Walkers / Moroccan Night Club /
The Mountain Climbers came for when the band of demons join in, because I always feel Mountain Climbers are the Devil’s work.
The Thang:
“Olympic Theme” (London Orchestra) <04:07>: Run to the buses.
Since I’m a perennial 6 with some blazing fast 12’s, I tried to diversify throughout to keep us together. In this one, I told the 6’s to take the direct route, while the 12’s took the long way, so we would all arrive at the same time. Because there were 30+ buses in the lot, I probably should have been more specific.
“School’s Out” (Alice Cooper) <3:30> AND
“Yakkity Sax [the Benny Hill theme song]” (Boots Randolph) <2:02>: Cheddar Jack weave with Carolina Dry Docks
About every 5 buses, there was a cone to do 5 Carolina Dry Docks. I know there are some fast men here, but the likes of Dasher and Doc set a blistering pace through these buses. They were done and crushing some LBC’s before the end of the first song!
“Till the Love Runs Out” (One Republic) <3:44> Run to the globe, slingshot back to the 6 (me), repeat.
“All Over the World” (ELO) <4:03> Helicopters / Lap around the Globe
Option 1 for the runners in the group – 1 Helicopter, 1 lap; 2 Helicopters, 2 laps…
Option 2 for the non-runners – 2 Helicopters, 1 lap; 4 Helicopters, 1 lap…
Helicopter = find a curb to do an incline merkin, rotate 90 for an offset merkin, rotate 90 for a derkin, rotate 90 for another offset merkin.
“Baby I’m a Star” (Prince) <4:24> run to the second alcove. While you wait for me, do some Balls to the Wall, maybe mix in some Hip Slappers or Peter Wall Parkers. Nothing is stopping this crew! No complaints (at least none that I can hear). I’m carrying the speaker, so I can’t hear much of anything but the music.
“Off the Wall” (Michael Jackson) <4:05> People’s chair with air presses (or punches) on the verses / Donkey kicks on the chorus
Now, I could finally start to see some people slowing down. I was wondering if this was going to challenge anyone other than myself.
“Band on the Run” (Foo Fighters [cover]) <2:51 [edited]> Run to the front of the school. Partner Hand Slap Merkins while you wait for me.
“Shout” (Isley Brothers) <4:28> Burpees on chorus / Supermans (verse 1) / Plank Jacks (verse 2) / Peter Parkers (verse 3) / Squats (“little bit softer now”) / Jump Squats (“little bit louder now”) / Lunge Jumps (“hey hey hey hey”) / Tuck Jumps (“jump up & shout it now”)
I did this one at my last Q, but I messed up the exercises & timing then. I wanted to do it again for #PersonalRedemption.
At the end, Bottle Cap says, “I used to love ‘Animal House’!” The tone was not nostalgic, but that I had somehow ruined a great melodic memory of his.
“Instant Karma” (John Lennon) <3:21> Run to the pain station in the front corner of the parking lot.
“Far From Over” (Frank Stallone) <3:28> Bear crawl slalom / Paint the Parking Lot / Merkin Ladder / Bunny Hops front to back & side to side
John Travolta is Doc’s favorite actor, so this one was for him. Of course you remember him in the blockbuster “Stayin’ Alive”, the better-than-the-original-sequel to “Saturday Night Fever”. Maybe you don’t.
Or maybe you remember the song from SNL? This was the only full skit I could find that wasn’t coming from Russia.
“Too Legit 2 Quit” (MC Hammer) <5:33> Heels to Heaven / Freddie Mercurys / Boat-Canoe / Rosalitas / Dying Cockroach / Dolly / LBC / Box Cutters / American Hammer / Flutters
Every time the song changed, we changed to the next exercise. A glance around saw some had taken on a more restful pose (me included). It was supposed to be 7 minutes of Mary, but even this felt like 2 minutes too long. And this song is now on my Never Playlist. But I’m keeping the pants.
One minute left to jailbreak back to the cars.
Moleskin:
It felt like a better time management Q than my first one. #smallvictories
It also felt like I was on a chariot ride with all these freakishly fast Pax, but I had no reins; it was just point and go.
#WyldStallyns #leadingfromtheback
I was also grateful to the Pax for suspending the 2 visit rule for my best friend and FNG, Brantley, now named DOS. He lives about 45 minutes away from Dromedary, so a second visit was unlikely. We are now working on finding a site near him. #MissionaryFields
There was another FNG who DOES live near by and will be returning, so he gets his name next time. Thanks to Bottle Cap for bringing him out!
Announcements:
I should have recorded these, but here’s what I remember. Please flesh these out more in the comments section.
Posted on Behalf of Posse:
I have cheated/modified virtually every exercise since starting F3 (7? months ago), and today would be no different as VQ.
First, there would be no cadence count, as I can barely answer the Q in a cadence count as a Pax. In exchange for that allowance, I asked the Pax to repeat the exercise name as I said them, as we would be working out to music the whole time. Oh, did I forget to mention that I was in band from 6th grade through college? And the only formal athletic training I have done is being the lone male in the YMCA step aerobics classes. So, with a few exceptions, here are songs I either played or listened to on the band bus.
Four minutes ahead of the start, began with “Top Gun Theme” (Harold Faltermeyer), just to set the stage of uncomfortable 80’s machismo. Mumble chatter of Goose & Maverick let me know I hit a soft spot.
Warmup
+ “Imperial March (Darth Vader theme)” (John Williams) 3:00
– Imperial Walkers / (Death) Starfish / Imperial Squat Walkers
+ “Stars & Stripes Forever” (John Phillip Sousa) 3:28
– SSH / flutters / merkins / LBC’s / merkins / SSH
+ “Rocky theme” 4:50
– American hammers / running 1 – 2 laps in teacher parking lot / P1 – WWII sit-ups while P2 holds P1’s feet; P2 does merkins simultaneously; flapjack / step ups or Rocky Balboa’s fake jump roping on the curb
> One time, at Commitment, Snowflake did this same P1 / P2 work <
The uncomfortability hit fast with this partner work. There was some modification with P2 stepping on P1’s feet to avoid impropriety.
+ William Tell Overture 3:50 [Edited]
– mosey to front of school with benches; 12’s take the long way so we all arrive together (if other Q’s see me as a 6, I can see them [whom I greatly admire] as 12’s). Find a bench.
+ “Toreadors” (from the opera Carmen) 2:14
– Derkins / Dips / Derkins / Step Ups / Derkins
The Thang
+ “Wake Me Up Inside” (Evanescence) 3:00 [Edited]
– pinball running to basketball court (pinball = if you get to a location before the last Pax does, turn around and run back to the last Pax; repeat until all are in)
> One time, at Commitment, Ice9 was my first Pinball Wizard <
+ “Flower” (Moby) 3:25
– from the Lexicon: ‘Start with your chest on the ground, and enjoy it because your chest shouldn’t touch the ground again until the song is over. When the song says “Bring Sally Up” the Pax will be in the ‘Merican up position, and “Bring Sally Down” the Pax will be in the ‘Merican down position. Pax will hold the down position until the next rep. It’s only 31 little reps in 3:25. Scale this workout to your fitness level: If you are fatigued, modify the ‘mericans by either doing chest to ground at the bottom, or take no shame and use your knees.’
> One time, at House of Pain (in Durham), Chachi introduced me to this song. <
> A couple of times, at Commitment, Popeye & Transporter did the same exercise to “Roxanne” (The Police). I can no longer tell who I hate more. <
+ “Bitter Tears” (INXS) 3:51
– run to stone pile, pick a stone, get to sidewalk & do bench presses until all Pax are in.
‘Why does he keep calling it stone? Aren’t these just rocks? Must be foreshadowing something…’
> One time, at Flash, Dasher did these; one of the few exercises I enjoy. <
+ “In the Stone” (Earth Wind & Fire) 4:25 ohhh…
– When it’s not muddy, we run the hill. This time, its sidewalk time for squats on one end, run to the other end for curl to press. Hold your stone, cause…
+ “Stone in Love” (Journey) 4:25 might be overdoing the theme here…
– bucket brigade reverse lunge / LBC’s with a stone on your chest / stone overhead forward lunge / rock-right row / triceps extensions / bucket brigade reverse lunge
~ ironic that both stone songs are the exact same length
~ return stones to their families
+ Mosey to T intersection at sidewalk (too short of a distance for any music appreciation class)
+ “Shout” (Isley Brothers) 4:28
– burpees on chorus /
1st verse = supermans /
‘I want you to know’ = plank jacks /
‘Now waaaaaaiiiiiiiiit a minute’ = Peter Parker’s /
‘Little bit softer now’ = squats /
‘Little bit louder now’ = jump squats /
‘Hey hey hey’ = lunge jumps /
At this point, Frack pointed out that we were out of time. I still had at least 10 more minutes of songs to spin, but I mismanaged the time. And that’s a shame, because Doc was mocking me with John Travolta taunts. Two songs from now, I would have had the last laugh (probably not).
So we had to make a jail break back to the parking lot.
+ “Shoot to Thrill” (AC-DC) 4:16 [edited]
We were close to the back of the school at this point. Running is my kryptonite, so this didn’t end as I had hoped.
I have a Spartan quote on my vision board that says, “If it excites you and scares the crap out of you at the same time, it probably means you should do it.” When Dasher asked for someone to Q today, that quote immediately came to mind. I responded first before I could reason myself out of it.
I appreciate the opportunity to lead an outstanding group of men, if only for 45 minutes.