11 men gathered in a church parking lot this morning. ‘Twas cold but not bad – about 75% hats, 100% gloves and sleeves, maybe 25% tights. We did some stuff, including:
– An active warmup in the library parking lot. Renovations are coming along nicely.
– Partner work at the picnic tables near church entrance where Hammer has been known to enter to use the facilities on Saturday mornings at RockZero.
– AYG runs across the parking lot, including a return of the Angry Black Sedan that ran over the rocks a few weeks back. He did not engage with the PAX this time.
– Rock suicides in the island parking lot. Good times.
Other notes:
– Hammer and Lorax were shame-exercising this morning after overdoing it over Thanksgiving.
– This was Gerber’s first time back to Anvil since the sedan/rock incident. He said he wasn’t sure we’d still be there.
– Ickey was super salty about Alabama’s #12 ranking. Finebaum is hosting a support group call-in show, meeting every Tuesday night between now and the Poulan Weedeater Bowl.
– HIPAA and Clover put off a strong “Dumb and Dumber” vibe when they got out of Clover’s car.
– Snuka and Brilleaux were out ahead this morning with Gerber and Lorax. Maybe I’d be faster if I talked less.
Announcements:
– 2020 Holiday party – it’ll be in October next year at the Wendy’s in Wadesboro.
– Check on your friends. I have a few (non-F3) friends going through stuff. I’m going through some stuff. Ask people how they are doing – connections and relationships make life better.
What a great way to get your 1st invite to Q at Watchtower, Recalculating’s inability to perform as committed. 19 eager PAX overcame the call of the FartSack to meet me a in a frozen Elementary parking lot. If that didn’t warm my heart, a PAX saying that he would have FartSacked if it wasn’t for me being on Q. Everyone came dressed for the cold, but my goal was to keep everyone sweating. DiCCS given, let’s get started.
WARM UP
Let’s Mosey! 2 laps around the parking lot and back to where I shared my DiCCS.
THE THANG
Let’s Mosey! 2 more laps around the parking. Here is when the threats against my safety began. Tripping and kicking seemed to be the beating of choice. Circle up at the starting point.
Moleskin
Great job by everyone. My main goal today was to keep everyone working hard enough to stay warm. Zin got in my head yesterday about keeping everyone’s HR up, so I hope there was enough running and work to keep everyone interested. Getting an opportunity to lead a group like this even for 45minutes is such a great honor. This added pressure is exactly what I needed after being a Slug over the past couple weeks. Thanks again to all.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The longest part of this Backblast was watching the video and tagging everyone that came out this morning. It was really great to see 37 guys at our combined Ignition/Flash COT. There must have been some major eating getting done over Turkey Day to see such a great turnout this morning or maybe the Pax just needed a good old fashion Banjo beatdown.
As the Pax kept arriving and the numbers kept getting higher and higher I soon realized the Weinke would needed to be changed on the fly. DICCS given and it was time to lead this Mob.
Warm Up:
15x ssh, 10 LSS, stretch, 10 reg Merkins, calf stretch, 10 Wide arm Merkins, 10 6 inch Plank Jacks(blood was officially flowing)
That Thang:
Mosey back to parking lot. Tried a new type of circle back for the 6 this morning. Instead of jumping in and picking up wherever the 6 was at in the exercises and staying with him, simply run to him then back to the finish. Rinse and repeat until 6 is completely finished. Idea was that the Gazelles could get the miles in and you don’t have 30 guys on top of the 6 causing too much of a log jam and this seemed to keep everyone moving at their own pace.
Every light pole alternate 10 merkins, then 10 Bobby Hurley’s all the way to Rudy’s Fecal Fort. Grab some wall for air presses x20 and 10 Mike Tysons.
Mosey to top traffic circle by stadium, lunge walk the circle until the 6 is in. Partner up and complete 5 burpees up top, 10 Dry Docks at bottom with 5 hand slap Merkins when you meet up. Complete 2 rounds.
Mosey back towards steps at complete 5 big boy sit-ups at intersection, run to steps and complete 2 burpees before going up, bear crawl to wall, then 5 Mike Tyson’s. Rinse and Repeat 2 times before Moseying back to Rudy’s Poop Palace. On the way back every other light for 5 Burpees. Merry with some ab work and Done!
Moleskin:
Bread Bowl broke wind, then he had to go for real, Zin had to help him get cleaned up, they were both late for COT. Just wanted to see if anyone is still reading at this point.
Announcements: Effies this Saturday, Crest of the Briars come get your feelings hurt.
14th is Zin Man’s Beer exchange, downtown cleanup that morning.
Some Q’s just stick with you. Some because they are hard, others because they are impactful. One in particular led by Jingles over a year ago has stuck with me. While at Weddington for Watchtower, Jingles took us near the track and pulled out a deck of cards. One at at time he turned over a card that corresponded with a certain exercise. I don’t remember the all the exercises, but it was something like Hearts are Pushups, Spades are Squats…and so on. The one thing I do remember is Aces were a lap around the track and I hated them. We also got delt a Jack, 9, and Queen back to back to back that resulted in 29 straight push ups. After the workout was over, I was spent…..and we didn’t move from a single spot with the exception of the aces lap around the track.
I found it to be a great Q. Simple, yet effective. And its been nagging at me ever since, how could I take that great idea, and build upon it. Make it better. Make it competitive. What if the Q didn’t deal, but the pax did. What if the pax were competing against each other…..and then it struck me while playing the card game War with my daughter…..we need to play WAR!
So with that in mind, I split the pax into two teams. Ability, size, strength; none of that mattered. Each person on the team was given a role. One was the dealer, one was the winning card collector, and the rest of the pax were given “running pax” titles. It was their job to determine if their team won, where the group was running to next.
Here are the rules and what each card exercises were:
| Hearts | Exercise | Diamonds | Exercise | Clubs | Exercise | Spades | Exercise |
| 2 | Merkins | 2 | Jump Squats | 2 | Dry Docks | 2 | Burpees |
| 3 | Merkins | 3 | Jump Squats | 3 | Dry Docks | 3 | Burpees |
| 4 | Merkins | 4 | Jump Squats | 4 | Dry Docks | 4 | Burpees |
| 5 | Merkins | 5 | Jump Squats | 5 | Dry Docks | 5 | Burpees |
| 6 | Merkins | 6 | Jump Squats | 6 | Dry Docks | 6 | Burpees |
| 7 | Merkins | 7 | Jump Squats | 7 | Dry Docks | 7 | Burpees |
| 8 | Merkins | 8 | Jump Squats | 8 | Dry Docks | 8 | Burpees |
| 9 | Merkins | 9 | Jump Squats | 9 | Dry Docks | 9 | Burpees |
| 10 | Merkins | 10 | Jump Squats | 10 | Dry Docks | 10 | Burpees |
| J | 30 Gas Pumpers + 30 LBC’s | J | 30 Gas Pumpers + 30 LBC’s | J | 30 Gas Pumpers + 30 LBC’s | J | 30 Gas Pumpers + 30 LBC’s |
| Q | Four 50 Yard Sprints | Q | Four 50 Yard Sprints | Q | Four 50 Yard Sprints | Q | Four 50 Yard Sprints |
| K | 20 In/Outs | K | 20 In/Outs | K | 20 In/Outs | K | 20 In/Outs |
| A | Run 1/4 Mile | A | Run 1/4 Mile | A | Run 1/4 Mile | A | Run 1/4 Mile |
| Joker | Partner Push & Pulls | Joker | Partner Push & Pulls | Joker | Partner Push & Pulls | Joker | Partner Push & Pulls |
| RULES: | |||||||
| Same card number, you do both excercises as a triple nickel. | |||||||
| Same card suit, you double the reps of the higher card. | |||||||
| Same color card, you do both excercises. | |||||||
| 1/8 mile run in between cards. | |||||||
| Team with most cards at end decides fate of losing team. Exercise count not to exceed 20 reps. |
Moleskin:
Lots of lessons learned today. I thought adding a competitive flair would spice things up. But there was really no competition. As Chipolte pointed out several times.
Speaking of Chipolte, he seemed extra ornery today. Several times asking if it mattered that we turned over cards – lets just do some exercises and run. Perhaps not the best person to ask to deal for our team.
Another lesson learned – maybe best to have waited to do this Q when it was warmer. The gloves slowed the dealing down.
I expected more exercises, but it ended up being run heavy. Jingles Q left me sore. This Q just left me tired. Perhaps the next pax can take off from this and improve upon it some more.
The triple nickel sounded good on paper, but the only two times we had “war” (Same card dealt), it was running cards (Aces and Jokers). I had to modify to add some body weight moves in.
Posse showed up 15 minutes late (as usual for Asylum). I’m beginning to think his alarm clock doesn’t have the ability to set an alarm before 5:15.
Thanks to the pax that showed up today and stuck with me. I wanted to try something new and often times new means lots of explanation (not my strong suit) and bugs to be worked out.
Also, thanks to Jingles for that first Q over a year ago that got my wheels spinning.
I’ve got another workout in my head I’ve been wanting to try that combines can jam and ultimate frisbee with cinderblocks (goalee). Anyone with a can jam set want to co-Q with me?
I had the intention for my first Q and being after Thanksgiving to create a little Turkey Burn, which may have caused too much burn.
The Warm Up
Mosey to the bridge at Nesbit and back to the circle for a few exercises.
20 Merkins, Calf stretches, 20 Imperial Walkers and 10 Abe Vigoda’s.
The Thang
Mosey to the rock pile and pick a sizeable rock for low repetitions.
25 curls, run to the end of the parking lot and back
25 triceps over head, run to the end of the parking lot and back
25 squat overhead press, run to the end of the parking lot and back
25 standing chest press
Run the long way around the school to the far basketball court for our next set of exercises.
25 big boy sit ups, run to the jungle gym, 10 pullups, run back
25 lbc’s, run to the jungle gym, 10 pullups, run back
25 heels to heaven, run to the jungle gym, 10 pullups, run back
25 flutter kicks, run to the jungle gym, 10 pullups, run back
Two minute plank
Mosey to the main entrance of millbridge and wait for all pax
Mosey to parking lot on the right, this is where I heard a fellow pax was having a hard time holding in his bowels and it helped me alter the next set of exercises
25 Squats 🙂
25 Squat pulses
25 Burpo’s – Burpees without coming all the way up.
Repeat all three exercises, not that I was really looking forward for something to be pushed out, but thought it would be good on the legs.
Mosey to the pool area of millbridge for some more fun
I was asked by our pax who was fighting their bowel movement after the squats what was next and shared the next item, only to hear him say I will meet you back at the finish area. More to come on this…
The goal was 5 laps around the parking lot, running the straightaways, while doing a bear crawl at the corners.
I was really looking forward to this, but cut it back to 3 when I noticed most looking a bit tired. However, since we pulled back the last two laps, we finished nicely with 25 Mike Tysons to the joy of everyone.
The Moleskine
I enjoyed sharing some exercises with the pax and wanted to make sure I was able to challenge everyone. Turnbuckle did great pushing himself and it’s impressive how everyone rally’s around to make sure no one is excluded.
OK, the elephant in the room: Unfortunately Rudy tried his best to make it to hit the restroom, first trying at the millbridge gym only to have folks look at him and probably wanted to call the cops. The next stop was the port a john, only if it was 10 feet closer. We are sorry that Rudy was not able to make the COT and picture, but glad he is doing well.
Upcoming events:
Fusebox – Effies coming up on 12/7, looks to be a blast, BYOB
Shop Dawg – Tried to get something out of him, only would say a new F3 site coming.
11 for a tour de Five Knolls Rd.
Short COP in lot to await any last min pax. Everyone is present so let’s get this started.
Mosey to five knolls neighborhood. Light pole intervals to the bottom of the hill. 5k pace with recovery each set.
The beast on Five Knolls hill. Exercise x 6 each manhole for 6 times up the hill. Recovery mosey back down. We did Merkins, Squats, CDDs, Lunges, Calf Raises and Monkey Humpers.
Mosey to bottom for one more trip up. This time no stops, just one steady state run up the hill to finish. Lots of Mary and plank in between hill sets.
Mosey to Calvary rock pile out front. 3 sets of 6 x curl, press and tricep extension with lifting rock. Mosey to hot box. Donkey kick Webb to 6. Mosey to start via outer driveway to get the full 4 miles. 6 burpees to finish.
Fully dressed eating breakfast moleskin. Tks to the pax for going along with me to five knolls. If Gummy were here we’d have to stay on campus. #grinchy Not to much mumblechatter as we kept moving. Geraldo was showing us how it’s done out there. The pax were nipping at his heels like a pack of wild dogs. Everyone else were trading places regularly. The final push up the hill was met with TBQ and almost a merlot sighting.
Thankful for all the pax this holiday season.
Lots of PAX wanted to fartsack at home and get fat with their families, but 3 PAX at #F3Outland came out to visit the new stadium.
The Warmup
Started by the cars. Ran across street to the rockpile. Grabbed 2 small rocks each that can be held in each hand.
The Thang
Moleskine
Madison commented about how he didn’t know he was supposed to wear pants. That got us off to a great start.
We were all very surprised to find a chalkboard over at the stadium bleachers. Okay, maybe not everybody.
The fake wolf out in the softball field wasn’t there this time, so maybe it was a real wolf after all.
At the end of Mary, our hips all just about died with the side scissors, proving Madison’s point that we don’t do many lateral workouts.
El fin.
Announcements:
Clearly many had it in mind that the day after Thanksgiving would be less attended as many were traveling…… So I took the q as an opportunity to redeem my last convergence and it was a success…almost.
Personally, I like q’s that are hard, the instructions are clear and everyone gets a solid work out. Those are my goals,simple. So here is “the thang”
The Thang; Disclaimer, mosey to the mattress parking lot for some mumble chatter about the strong desire to take advantage of a black Friday mattress sales. The creepy guy in the parking lot quickly takes off as we start. 20 SSH, 20 MC, 10 Merkins and a little stretching. Adding to a strong warm up with some burpees, a little groaning as those that were there for the first time we did a 12 by 12 there (12 burpees a minute for 12 minutes) you want to smoke a pax out out the gate, give that one a try, but not today. 12, 11, 10, 9 then mosey to “the main thang”
Empty parking deck was the location today, didn’t want to get run over by a blurred eyed grandma seeing a $2 black Friday deal, so what better place than a empty parking deck to spend the hour. The first exercise was simple (so i thought) Donkey kicks at one end, burpees at the other. At the the top run down the stairs and run back up the deck where Shop would be leading mary… Somehow that got lost in translation. Oh well, clearly still room for communication improvement. Next we did “The RUDY” partner up. Burpee jump to your partner, 5 hand slap merkins, bear crawl to opposite starting line, run the loop meet up for 5 more hand slap merkins and finish the loop, repeat 5 times. KILLER, meet up at end for mike tysons and air presses till Alf takes the q.
Alf finishes with a 3 rounds of deck abs, 5,10,20 up the deck. 5 Big boy situps at the bottom, 10 heels to heaven in the middle, and 20 dragon flys at the top. 3 times for a burner. Run to the bottom of the deck with 3 rounds of bobby hurley touches at one end and burpees at the other. Finish with running back to the launch and 15 burpees.
Moleskin: My guess is everyone got a minimum of 100 burpees. most of the time I feel they are lazy q work but the problem is they are so damn effective in wearing you out so I love them. Over all most got 3.6 miles in a deck today which is always good for a solid calorie burn. Mumble chatter was to minimum today but we did hear some bat flipper comments, which are always welcome for those that appreciate good form. Bottlecap earned the “Gerber” award as he flew by Alf and myself on one of the ab rotations. Hops was a bit ornery to the holiday hours claiming Thanksgiving was yesterday but finally warmed up at coffeteria. I know we appreciated our guests from F3 Raleigh Grady and Coco Crisps for the visit and showing a no quit attitude. All in all beautiful morning, everyone gave the solid effort and hopefully can avoid the meat sweat’s tonight (I know I was up all night rolling around on my pregnant belly,,,Not a shot a Good fella…..who HC’d on Tuesday and I didn’t see him this morning😊
Written by Big 10; posted courtesy of Chastain
With Thanksgiving in the books, and Black Friday here this was the perfect time to flip the script to Spring. Well, at least for Legal Zoom who showed up looking like a hippie from Boulder, CO with socks and sandals. After this initial shock, the rest of the PAX put down the pipes and tie-dye shirts and decided to get some of the gravy and stuffing out of their systems. Won’t lie, this was not easy and kudos to the boys who set down the pie for 45 minutes of weirdness for 14 dudes.
The Thang:
DiCCS was given, although Brutus was too full of jokes to listen. But he’s done this before so he gets a pass. Quick tutelage of the course and off we went paired in twos.
A series of stations to run through. Timer was fat tire (not the beer) flips back and forth on a short course.
-Jump rope (to satisfy Zinfandel and his cardio bias)
-Take your Pick. 12 pound dumb bell punches or fly extensions
-Rubber band pulls
-Coupon shoulder lifts
-Take your Pick: Big boys with slam balls or squats.
-Bent over rows with coupons
-10 pound bicep curls
3 full rounds of this with a Black Friday special speed round. Hey, let’s circle up to kick this workout in the can.
-Circle plank with 2 push ups each X 2.
-30 Flutters
-26 Carolina Dry Docks
-15ish SSH for 13 PAX, one abstained. I don’t want to call this person out.
Moleskin:
Great group today that helped me get over my postpartum of the Great DD Goose incident a couple years back. Also thanks to Chastain and Brutus for coaching me up and to all the fellas that helped load and unload the gear. Appreciate you boys! Thank you to Mad Dog for taking us out.
-Weddington HS still needs volunteers for concessions. Contact Posse if you want to lend a hand.
-Homecoming Site tomorrow at Weddington Middle School tomorrow at 6:30am. Do NOT park at the High School.
-Volunteers for Diesel always in demand. Good way to get some Q experience. Even I could do it. Bar is low.
Firstly as I write I just discovered there’s another Drop around A51 now… Drop Clothe! Sweet!
But I digress…
Last week Bernanke was desperate for a Q for Thrive, so I obliged.
So I pulled out a classic, The 12 Days of Christmas workout. It goes a little something like the song. You repeat every exercise each time and the numbers keep going up.
1 – Run a lap
2- Turkish get ups (Pax favorite)
3- Jump squats
4- LBC’s
5- Diamond merkins (couldn’t think of anything golden)
6- Imperial walkers
7- Rosalitas
8- Slow flutters
9- Low slow squats
10- Lunges (each leg)
11- Merkins
12- Burpees (Shephard was happy)
We made it through the twelve days, then I threw in an unlucky 13 for fun.
We stretched. We laughed at Bernanke’s awkward jokes and we called it a day.