With YHC being a 2nd time poster, 1st time Q to the mysterious Ground Zero Run-club, he figured he should have some semblance of a plan, but otherwise not bring too many expectations to burden the PAX with. At the same time, he had a reputation to maintain for bringing too much of a good thing and today would be no exception. With the rain looming, and an otherwise breezy cool morning, 14 PAX posted in the Gloom for leg-day #2, hot on the heels of Shamu’s Thursday lunges.
The mission was basic, go somewhere, run stairs, go somewhere else, run more stairs. With two good parking garages in downtown Wheaton, the PAX only had so many options, but they set in with their usual enthusiasm.
After an unorthodox run-club warm-up, with something that almost counted as stretching(!?), they were free to accomplish the mission as they saw fit.
COT: Prayers for the group to lean in to life as we lean in to workouts, choosing action, even imperfect action, done with good motivation.
MOLESKIN: Confession on YHCs part to having thought ill of a brother even during that workout, and exhortation to the PAX to consider someone they think ill of and choose today to think well of them, reject cynicism, and embrace goodwill and a generous heart.
Thanks for turning up for this friendly little competition around Mastodon! It was a bit lunge-heavy, but I enjoyed doing it as much as planning it. Shout outs to @Archive@Bloomer@T-bone and @Panhandle for their prayer requests. Enjoy the day!
ONLY THANG: Partner WOD on track with a bit of 80s music for support—each PAX did both exercises in the list below before moving on.One PAX at end zone doing exercise while the partner PAX went 50 yards and back as follows:
1. squats + farmer’s carry both coupons to 50 yard & back: switch 2. merkins + rifle carry to 50 yard & back: switch 3. blockees + sprints to 100 yard & back: switch 4. curls & rows + lunges to 25 yard & back: switch 5. overhead press (50) + LBCs (both at end zone): switch 6. mosey 2 laps (1st lap w/1 coupon to pass back-and-forth // 2nd lap run/race)
REPEATED all above until time ran out (a few PAX completed a full two rounds of all reps).
Ended with a victory lap 400 sprint!
CoR/NoR/Cot: 14 PAX in attendance: @Banks @Da Vinci @Dr Phil @Hotbox @Jolly @Katniss @Noodles @Panhandle @SAGA (Q) @Shiplap @T-Bone (respect) @Tortuga (respect) @Whittler + we welcomed an FNG: @Milkdud (respect)
MOLESKIN: remember #sword-swallowers
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” – Eph 2:8
The story you tell yourself is the story you live in.
Guard from the life too simply summarized, live the epic as it unfolds.
Goofballs, Slow Merkins, Michael Phelps, Slow Squats, Abe Vigodas, Mosey to Cooties – to the never gets old “Rhinestone Cowboy” by Glen Campbell
The Thang:
Partner up to perform a double Murph (4 loops running – short (.75mile) or long (.95mile)), 200 Pull-Ups, 400 Merkins, 600 Air squats – one runs while the other knocks out calisthenics.
Moleskin: Respect is earned – be worthy of respect in your home – treat your M like a queen, model healthy relationships, spend time with your kids. Don’t assume you will lose your teens – stay engaged – don’t create a self-fulfilling prophecy
COT: Prayers for Babe and family in the loss of his Grandfather – particularly his Grandmother who is alone after 67 years of marriage.
11 PAX (TBTF QIC, Cookies, Sparrow, SAGA, DaVinci, Tortuga, Jolly, Beaker, Dr. Phil, Big Mac, Archive)
The runners started early, circled back to the flag at 530AM to exchange Sparrow for Dr. Phil and were off again for a nice 6+ mile run (estimated)
The Ruckers did a quick WoR and made our way to Hoffa for some bear crawling, squats at the top, and lunging back down. We then proceeded to make 2 laps around the AO (the Archive mile followed by the Captain Crunch mile). Due to some poor time management by yours truly the last half of the Captain Crunch mile was largely a shuffle.
CoT – Prayers for SAGAs M for better sleep and general good health as well as Bloomers son
Spring Training has finished, opening day had some goofy events:
first home run of the season was hit in the snow and the batter thought was a double
home run bouncing out of the fielder’s glove and yielding an out instead of 2 runs based on a base running rule
the Cubs had more runs than they had hits (and still lost)
But F3 has no off season. We have been getting out beatdowns all winter! The PAX came out in force and three FNGs (who will be posting mostly at other AOs, but we got to name them!)
WOR was a baseball classic to get us going:
High Knees
Butt Kicks
Karaoke
Frankensteins
Toe Touches
Lunge Twist
Arm Circles (with 2 baseballs in each hand) Palms Down Forward, Palms Up Backward
THANG:
5 stations on the baseball field. 9 innings, 5 minutes each, Q kept time and called out at the top of each inning. PAX distributed to the stations and did the exercise that goes with the active inning until fatigue. Then they would take a chance to throw a baseball to the net at home plate. If they hit the sides they would go to the station displayed, if they got it into the strike zone they would call Merkins (or Burpees if your name is SAGA) and everyone would stop to do 5 and go to the station of their choice.
1st Base
2nd Base
3rd Base
Left Field
Right Field
1
Squats
Side Lunges
BBSU
Flutter Kicks
One arm Rows
2
Star Jumps
Calf Raises
Crunchy Frogs
Supermans
Chest Press
3
Bonnie Blairs
Bear Crawl
100s
Am Hammers
Plank Pull Thru
4
Side Strad Hops
Burpees
Outlaws
Shoulder Taps
Curls
5
No Surrenders
Seal Jacks
Leg Raises
Manatees
Coupon Swings
6
Rev Lunges
MM Poopers
LBC
Plank Jacks
Skull Crushers
7
OH Clap Jacks
Pickle Pounders
Plank
Oblique LBC
High Pull
8
Monkey Hmprs
Walking Lunges
Mountain Climb
Reverse Plank
Overhead Press
9
Arm Circles
Imperial Walker
Plank High/Low
Supermans
Bent Over Rows
Before the 7th inning we took a stretch with a JOLLY for a double ten count.
We finished up with 20 penalty merkins for the 4 who never threw a strike.
NOR:
Captain Crunch, Crack, Crash, Cohiba, Cookies (Q), 3xFNG (Bob the Builder, Trout, Roxxy sp?), Jailbreak, Jazz Handz, SAGA, TBTF
Warmorama: Arm circles in cadence, Abe Vagoda in cadence, leg stretches OYO
Springsteen, “I’m going down” (Side straddle hops during song, merkens when The Boss says “I’m going down.”)
The thang: Around the school at each stairway climb 3x with a burpee at the top each time. At bottom do the listed exercise. 40 reps to signify the 40 days of Lent. (40 curls, coupon lunges, LBCs, overhead press, BBSU, derkens, tricep dips, bent rows, American haammers, crunchie frogs, thrusters, skull crushers). Reps are actually 4000 each (Christ did 3960, we do 40).
COT: Prayers for @noodles job, for our M’s
Moleskin:
“In the mysteries of Isis, the Mysteries at Samothrace, the Mysteries at Eleusis, in all of those you had the descent into the underworld. The descent was both symbolic and real. Christ descended as well. What did Christ bring into the underworld that was different than what the earlier Mysteries had been able to do? It’s really quite a central question because something changed in the very nature of the underworld. Christ’s descent was not like an Orpheus or or others who have descended and then came back – Christ overcame. That reality is often not considered at all. It wasn’t just a pivot to the underworld, it was an overcoming and a changing of its nature forever.” -Robert J. Faas
Hence, as men we need not be afraid of our depths.
Eleven PAX posted for this morning’s festivities. @Cookies, @DaVinci, and @Sparrow modified as needed and rucked to spare their knees and/or ankles.
The rest of us warmed up with a 1.4 mile jog over to the Blanchard Road hill, located next to Crossway Books. We ran the hill slowly the first time, made the return trip back down and did it again, increasing our speed each rep so that by the fifth ascent we were at an all out sprint.
Once hills were finished we sprinted the length of the island on Crescent Street that starts just east of the College Ave train station and goes to the end of the block. @Shiplap crushed us. (I think he might need to gain some of that weight back to slow him down a bit.)
The return trip got us back to the AO just after 6:15. We ended up just shy of 5 miles for the run.
COT: We prayed for T-Bone working to finish a deal with work, Crack and his work trip out east next week, for new believers Sparrow and his team witnessed to from Iran last week – for the strengthening of their faith, Sparrow whose feeling were hurt (not by @Jolly or anyone from F3, surprisingly).
Moleskin: Keep working on our verse of the week, and don’t leave the six behind: check in with your team and encourage/ push the stragglers to finish off the first part of Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” Next week we add the next chunk, “and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
After some pre-blast un-HCing among the PAX and thinking some tom foollery was going on behind his back (which indeed it was), SAGA waited in the shadows to make sure he would win as the ultimate fool. Seeing the PAX all gathered, he appeared as a light in the gloom and entered the AO as the Mastodon Jester dressed for April 1st. He cued up the beatdown soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3m2kQ-tOEk) and with a nod to it also being Maundy Thursday in Holy Week he invited the PAX to lay down their lives for their brothers (Maundy comes from the Latin word “command” & refers to Jesus’ commandment to the disciples to “Love one another as I have loved you”).
Two team relay: 1 PAX does 2 pull-ups while rest of PAX does squats and cycled through the team for 3 rounds to see which team won
50 shoulder taps to make sure the PAX are vaccinated (1-is-1)
50 merkins to make sure the vaccine worked
Mosey to…
THANG TWO: Carousel of Foolishness
Timed Challenge @ ball diamond—1st round: tried to beat other team / 2nd round: tried to beat their own team record + other team. Winning team time through the following was 3min 26sec…
1st = 25 merkins / 2nd = 25 burpees / 3rd = 25 squats / Home = 25 star jumps
Team in dugout switched between dips & planks (or whatever miscommunication SAGA had determined was appropriate in the moment).
When you want to get off but the carousel won’t stop: 25 merkins to remind you of your foolishness. Then, mosey to…
THANG THREE: “Remember, Philip, you’re going to die!” (legend has it that this is what King Philip’s jester told him every day he entered the court)
Teams started at lamppost at the base of Hoffa and ran over the bridge stopping at each lamppost until they reached the 8th lamppost: 5 burpees at first lamppost & then 10 squats at next lamppost – repeated same reps at following lampposts in same order. PAX were instructed to pick up the six on their team if they had completed everything (helped with reps to get them to the finish line)—first team to 8th lamppost won, except that we all die and so 25 more merkins + 50 LBCs + 25 burpees + race Tortuga back to the flags.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith” – Eph 2:8
This famous quote from Jim Elliot’s October 28, 1949 journal entry, written the autumn after he graduated from Wheaton: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
Whimsy will save the world—make sure in the seriousness you are also quick to play. The world needs laughter alongside the sorrow. Be good air for others to breathe...
Partly because he wasn’t feeling very clever, and partly because he enjoyed it so much the first time around, Crash decided that we would revisit a beatdown from last November on this bright morning. As the creator of the workout (and the Q’s father), YHC was excited to see what my 2.0 would do. 8 HIMs showed up, at least one of whom had just come from the “morning” beatdown at AO Tar Pit.
Warm-O-Rama: Goofballs IC – 10 Tappy Taps IC – 10 Bat Wings IC – forward arm circles, backward arm circles, seal claps, OH claps 10ea. Michael Phelps OYO while the Q described the “thang”
The ABC’s 1. Alligator Merkins across the base of Hoffa 2. Broad Jump Burpees back to starting position 3. Colt 45 – coupon curls, lower half, upper half, full – 15 reps of each, 45 total 4. Derkins – 25 5. El Capitan – Deep lunges up Hoffa, touching hands to ground 6. Foxholes at top of Hoffa – WWI sit up, roll to plank position, merkin, flapjack, repeato 25x
mosey back down to the base of Hoffa
7. Grave Diggers – coupon between legs, lift up to shoulder (like shoveling dirt), back to btw legs, flapjack, repeato 20x 8. Hand-release merkins – 25 9. Inch-worm bear crawl across the base of Hoffa 10. Jackhammers – jump squats 11. Knerkins – Chuck Norris merkins – 25 12. LBCs – 50
return to coupons at start position
13. Murder Bunnies – 25yds 14. No Surrenders – 25 15. Outlaws – leg circles – 25 each direction 16. Plank Jack’s – 50 17. Quiet – silent low plank 30 sec. 18. Ranger Merkins – 25 19. Star Jumps – 25 20. Thrusters – 25 21. Upright Rows – 25 22. V-Up Roll Ups – 25 23. Windshield Wipers – 25 24. X-Cross Sit Ups – 25 25. Yul Brynners – each rep consists of 1 of each of the following: Carolina Dry Dock, Wide Merkin, Merkin, Ranger Merkin, Diamond Merkin, Crucible Merkin, Knerkins – 5 total reps
Sadly, we ran out of time before reaching Z, so no zombie crawl up Hoffa like the first time.
COT: Crack, Rainbow Bright, Tortuga (respect), Double Beef ‘n’ Cheddar (hate), Cap’n Crunch, Too Big To Fail, Cheese, Crash (hate, Q)
