Author: backblasts

Date: 2026-06-30
AO: Mastodon
Q: Stock boy ,
PAX: LeMond, Bostaff, Stock boy, Endo, Airpump, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Mr Roboto, Gunga, Green Machine FNGs: None
COUNT: 9
Conditions:
Hot and humid

WOR:
Goofballs, toy soldiers, Abe Vigodas, stretches

The Thang:
16s at the lampposts: derkins and squrls. Murder bunny or bear crawl coupon drag between lampposts for first half, then rifle carry for second half.

Moleskine:
Build good habits, shed bad habits.

Tags: Mastodon, LeMond, Bostaff, Stock boy, Endo, Airpump, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Mr Roboto, Gunga, Green Machine

Date: 2026-06-18
AO: Mastodon
Q: Ankles ,
PAX: Stock boy, Endo, Big Mac, Mr Roboto, Ankles, Da Vinci
FNGs: None
COUNT: 6
Conditions: Partly muggy with a chance of gnats

WOR: SSH, Abe Vigodas, Picking Daisies, etc.

The Thang:

Supersized DORA (shamelessly cribbed-but slightly modified-from F3 Naperville)

PAX Rifle carried coupons to the gym equipment & paired up to do the following exercises flapjack style while the partner PAX moseyed one lap around Cooties:

50 burpees
100 coupon shoulder presses
150 BBSU
200 Merkins
250 Giblet squats
300 Coupon curls

The soundtrack was a series of One Hit Wonder pop songs from the 1950s through 1990s. PAX was quizzed as a group on who the artists were for each song. With each correct answer, the “final challenge” (Jacob’s ladder on Hoffa) reps (initially 10) was reduced by 1. PAX got a total of 7 correct answers, so the final challenge was a 3 rep Jacob’s ladder, to the tune of “Gangnam Style” by Psy:

Manrise + 1 burpee.
Manrise + 2 burpees.
Manrise + 3 burpees.

Moleskine:

People usually disparage One Hit Wonders as if they were failures for only having one hit song. In reality, they had the courage to try, and ended up being WILDLY more successful than most reasonably successful people in the music industry.

Try to emulate Right Said Fred or Chumbawamba. Don’t be afraid to take some risks in your own life. Worst case, you’ll never have to wonder “what if?”

Tags: Mastodon, Stock boy, Endo, Big Mac, Mr Roboto, Ankles, Da Vinci

Date: 2026-06-29
AO: Ground Zero
Q: Endo ,
PAX: Endo, Sub2
FNGs: None
COUNT: 2
Conditions:

WOR:

The Thang:

Moleskine:

Tags: Ground Zero, Endo, Sub2

Date: 2026-06-27
AO: Flat Earth
Q: LouGee ,
PAX: Hypotenuse, Banks, Jolly, LouGee, Shiplap, Panda Express, T.B., Big Mac, Frogger, Arnold FNGs: None
COUNT: 10
Conditions:
62 degrees, 90% humidity, 7mph winds from the NNE, cloudy
WOR:
21x SSH, 1x Down and back (OYO)
The Thang:
5 v 5 Ultimate
Moleskine:
Keep taking leadership opportunity (ie Q-ing) and don’t lose the skill of playing!

Tags: Flat Earth, Hypotenuse, Banks, Jolly, LouGee, Shiplap, Panda Express, T.B., Big Mac, Frogger, Arnold

Date: 2026-06-27
AO: Tar Pit
Q: T-bone ,
PAX: LeMond, Portage, T-bone, Homie, Da Vinci, Wishbone
FNGs: None
COUNT: 6
Conditions:

WOR:

The Thang:

Moleskine:

Tags: Tar Pit, LeMond, Portage, T-bone, Homie, Da Vinci, Wishbone

Date: 2026-06-27
AO: Mastodon
Q: Stock boy ,
PAX: Stock boy, Jailbreak, Noodles, Cheap Shot, Mr Roboto
FNGs: None
COUNT: 5
Conditions:
Cool and overcast

WOR:
Side straddle hops, Abe Vigodas, toy soldiers, copperhead squats, copperhead merkins. Then we did a race to 30 merkins, 20 squats, 10 big boys, then lap around the lot, noting our finishing order.

The Thang:
At COOTEES we had 5 stations:
1. Hammer curls 2 25lb dumbbells
2. Chest press
3. Lat pull-downs
4. Leg press
5. Wildcard: sit-ups, bench press, Bulgarian split squats, or sumo squats with 2 40lb dumbbells

One pax would wheelbarrow or carry a 60lb sandbag around the playground, at which all pax would rotate to the next station, with the pax at station #5 moving to do the sandbag lap.

Moleskine:
Try to create good habits, and break bad habits.

Tags: Mastodon, Stock boy, Jailbreak, Noodles, Cheap Shot, Mr Roboto

Date: 2026-06-26
AO: Flat Earth
Q: DQ ,
PAX: White Noise, DQ, Y2K, Jolly, LouGee, Has Been, Oompa, Airpump, Spielberg, Panda Express, Cyclops, Cutter, Chop Sticks, Guapa FNGs: 1 Guapa
COUNT: 14
Conditions:
Wonderful

WOR:
– SSH
– Down and back

The Thang:
Ultimate

Moleskine:
Leadership is not about you. Shared a story about leading an event for young families where I needed to dress and act silly to set up the event to be fun for all. I was insecure / self conscious about putting myself out there looking / dressing silly, but ultimately decided to take the focus off myself. It’s not about how I might have looked, it was about what I needed to do to lead the event well.

Tags: Flat Earth, White Noise, DQ, Y2K, Jolly, LouGee, Has Been, Oompa, Airpump, Spielberg, Panda Express, Cyclops, Cutter, Chop Sticks, Guapa

Date: 2026-06-26
AO: Ground Zero
Q: Cheap Shot ,
PAX: Ankles, Stock boy, Endo, Noodles, Panhandle, Manhole, Mr. Bean, Cottontail, Cheap Shot, LeMond, Shamwow, T-bone FNGs:
COUNT: 12
Conditions:
Overcast and Cool
WOR:
SSH, Abe Vigodas, Stretching
The Thang:
Run/Ruck East
Moleskine:
Be generous with your time

Tags: Ground Zero, Ankles, Stock boy, Endo, Noodles, Panhandle, Manhole, Mr. Bean, Cottontail, Cheap Shot, LeMond, Shamwow, T-bone

Date: 2026-06-24
AO: Ground Zero
Q: Audible ,
PAX: Stock boy, Crack, Audible, Cheap Shot, Mr Roboto
FNGs: None
COUNT: 5
Conditions:
Calm and clear

WOR:
SSH
Abe V.
Stretch OYO

The Thang:
Ruck

Moleskine:
It’s better to have the sting of honesty than the blindness of flattery

Tags: Ground Zero, Stock boy, Crack, Audible, Cheap Shot, Mr Roboto

Date: 2026-06-25
AO: Mastodon
Q: Mr Roboto ,
PAX: Stock boy, Endo, Falsetto, Homie, Big Mac, Mr Roboto, Archive FNGs:
COUNT: 7
Conditions: Unseasonably cool at 62° but very humid.

WOR:
Abe Vigodas x10
Special warm up to Watermelon Sugar – Do a Merlin every time a fruit is said. Do a star jump every time he says “high.” Plank in between. (Switched to squatting and Al Gore after a while.)

The Thang:
To decide teams, we each did 10 Merkins, 10 BBSUs, 10 squats, and then did a parking lot lap. 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th place formed Team A; the other 3 were Team B. For all relay events, 1 member of Team B had to do an extra lap.

Event, Description, Winning Team
1. Watermelon Relay 1, Each PAX runs to the other cone and back while the next PAX does watermelon thrusters, Team B
2. Watermelon Inch Worm, PAX does 10 thrusters then 3 murder watermelons up Hoffa and gives the melon to the next PAX with the first to the fence at the top winning, Team A
3. Watermelon Circle of BBSUs, Each team gets in a circle and does 100 BBSUs with the watermelon in a spittoon style, Team B
4. Watermelon Relay 2, Same as relay 1 but the runner has the watermelon and everyone does squats by the starting cone, Team B
5. Watermelon Toss Relay 1, Alternate tossing the watermelon to your teammates all the way down to the cone and back, Team A 6. Watermelon Toss Relay 2, Just a repeat because it was so fun, Team B
7. Watermelon Circle of Twists, Same as BBSUs but standing and twisting (100) to hand off the melon, Team A
8. Watermelon Bridge Relay, Hard to describe but planking and rolling the watermelon under us to the next person all the way down to the end, Team A
9. Watermelon Circle of Squats, Same as the other spittoon events but 50 squats, Team A

It was a hard-fought competition. Team A battled back from down 2-4 to get the win, 5-4. Stock boy was named MVP of the team and was given the privilege of smashing a melon with a sledgehammer, Gallagher-style.

Moleskine:
Build habits in small pieces. Those 5-minute increments add up.

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd9-6UQ_YhwA&si=QvzFSpghybaDHOk-: • Watermelon Sugar — Harry Styles
• Eat It — “Weird Al” Yankovic
• Peaches — The Presidents of The United States of America
• Black Horse And The Cherry Tree (Radio Version) — KT Tunstall • Strawberry Fields Forever (Remastered 2009) — The Beatles
• Dreams — The Cranberries
• Limelight — Rush
• Formation — Beyoncé (from Lemonade)
• Criminal — Fiona Apple
• I Heard It Through The Grapevine (Single Version) — Marvin Gaye • Strawberry Swing — Coldplay

Tags: Mastodon, Stock boy, Endo, Falsetto, Homie, Big Mac, Mr Roboto, Archive