Backblasts

Date: 2026-07-29
AO: Tar Pit
Q: LouGee ,
PAX: Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Panhandle, The wet burrito, Portage, Sparrow, T-bone, LouGee FNGs: None
COUNT: 7
Conditions:
58 degrees, 97% humidity, 7 mph winds from the North, fair skies WOR:
15x Arm Circles (f/b), 10x Tin Man, 21x SSH, 60 sec Plank
The Thang:
Cosey to the playground for 10 pull-up & Mary
Cosey to random spots around the lake. Pax picked 1 of 4 cards with 5 exercises (10 reps first round, 12 reps second round) Card 1: Blockees, Deadlift, American Hammer, V-ups, Curls
Card 2: Coupon Swings, Military press, Skull Crushers, Around the World, Bulgarian Split Squat
Card 3: Goblet Squats, Calf Raises (3 directions), Heavy flutters, BBSU, Front Raises Card 4: Back Rows, Chest Press, Frog Squats, Shrugs, Tucks
Moleskine:
Traits of a strong man: “A strong man is defined by character traits like integrity, emotional resilience, accountability, rather than physical size. He stands firm in his values, handles adversity with calm focus, and uplifts the people around him.” Also added by the COT, he cannot be afraid of strong women.

Tags: Tar Pit, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Panhandle, The wet burrito, Portage, Sparrow, T-bone, LouGee

Date: 2026-07-29
AO: Ground Zero
Q: Mr. Bean ,
PAX: Mr. Bean, Dumpster, Stock boy, Cheap Shot, Audible, Tenderfoot FNGs:
COUNT: 6
Conditions: sun out, 60 degrees

WOR: 20 SSH picking daisies, Oyo

The Thang: ruck east to Washington North to franklin West making it under the prairie path bridge and back up to AO

Moleskine:Proverbs 22:1, 3, 13 ESV
[1] A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.
[3] The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.
[13] The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!”

1. The Excuses We Make (Proverbs 22:13)
“The lazy man says, ‘There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!’”
Solomon calls out the absurdity of human excuses. The lazy man invents a totally ridiculous scenario—a lion roaming the neighborhood—just to justify staying in his warm, comfortable bed.
Every morning at 0515 when the alarm goes off, that same “lion” roars in our heads: “It’s too cold out.”
“My knees hurt.”
“I worked late yesterday, I deserve to sleep in.”
F3 exists because we refuse to listen to the lion. Getting out to the gloom isn’t just about burpees and sweat—it’s about killing the habit of self-deception and excuses before the sun even comes up. 2. The Prudent Man Foresees Danger (Proverbs 22:3)
“A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.”
A High-Impact Man doesn’t drift through life passive and oblivious. He looks down the road. He sees where isolation, bad health, neglected marriages, or unchecked anger lead—and he takes action before the crash.
The gloom is our proving ground to stay sharp, physically and spiritually, so when life’s real storms hit our families or communities, we aren’t caught flat-footed. 3. What We’re Actually Building (Proverbs 22:1)
“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.”
At the end of the day, no one remembers your paycheck or your 401k. What lasts is your character and your name—how you led your home, how you stood by your brothers, and how you showed up when things got hard.
Takeaway: Stop letting imaginary lions keep you on the couch. Be the prudent man who prepares today for tomorrow’s battles, and guard your character above all else. Aye!
— YHC

Tags: Ground Zero, Mr. Bean, Dumpster, Stock boy, Cheap Shot, Audible, Tenderfoot

Date: 2026-07-28
AO: Dark Room
Q: LouGee ,
PAX: Beaker, Framed, Manhole, Portage, Lakers, perculator, LouGee, Body Double FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
Conditions:
69 degrees, 90% humidity, 13 mph winds from the north, mostly cloudy WOR:
10x Arm Circles (f/b), 10x Tin Man, 21x SSH
The Thang:
One Pax transported a heavy object to a station and then took over the count of the exercise. 10 stations:
100x Mtn Climbers/200x Leg Lifts
100x Squats/100x Alt. Side Squats
100x Flutter Kicks/200x BBSU
100x Side lunges/100x Reverse lunge
100x Alt. Shoulder Taps/200x Pickle Pounders
100x Spider-Man Crawls/100x Inch Work Merkins
100x Zebra Butt Kicks/200x Back Widow
100x Hand Release Merkins/100x Burpees
200x Alt. Leg Lifts/100x Single Leg RDL
100x Superman’s/200x Good Mornings

Moleskine:
Introvert qualities vs. Extrovert qualities. We all some of these qualities at any given time in our life experiences.

Tags: Dark Room, Beaker, Framed, Manhole, Portage, Lakers, perculator, LouGee, Body Double

Date: 2026-07-28
AO: Mastodon
Q: Da Vinci ,
PAX: Mr Roboto, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Dumpster, Stock boy, The wet burrito, LeMond, Da Vinci, Tenderfoot (Oak Park) FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
Conditions: muggy

WOR: follow the leader to Journey Don’t Stop Believing

The Thang:

Santiago de Compostella
Soundtrack from Journey of course
WOR: stretch to Don’t Stop Believing

The Thang:

Start at Cluny monastery in France (soundtrack Faithfully)
Merkens and American Hammers with Coupon

Take Coupons to Moissac, you see the beautiful https://www.wga.hu/html_m/zgothic/1romanes/po-12c11/05f_1100.html of Jeremiah on the south portal (on grass) Skull crushers and BBSU with coupons to Who’s Crying Now

Take Coupons to base of Hill
Curls to exhaustion then up the hill to Wheel in the Sky
Leave the coupons

Meseta is 220 kms – scout run, Any Way You Want It and Ask the Lonely

We arrive at Santiago de Compostela
Burpee until everyone makes a foul shot (keep burpeeing after your make it) (with time remaning)

44 flutters for St. James dying in AD 44, additional ab exercises

Moleskine
I gave a moleskin from this book and tried to relate is to St. James on Saturday and Santiago de Compostela. Then I finished it since than and realized to my surprise it ends with exactly that! Here is the passage:

“In 2019, at the not so young age of 55, I had a burning meaning question on my mind for which I couldn’t find an answer. I had just resigned from a chief executive job that had totally consumed me for the past eleven years. I was completely bunred out and had no idea what the future had in store, but deeply craved something more meaningful in my work than I had ever done before.
To find an answer I turned to the Camino de Santiago,… for more than a thousand years, people have done it when searching for life’s meaning and purpose. Ester my wife came with me. Each day on the Camino was like the last… New walked 20 miles, thought, and prayed,. No devices. When pilgrims met, they greeted each other simply with Buen camino.

May people say the Camino has mystical properties. They say that if you make the pilgrimage with an intention, you will find what you seek as you finish at the cathedral .. and indeed I found what I was seeking., resting deep in my right hemisphere.

On reflection over the subsequent months and years, I realized that I had it backward. I thought I was seeking my life’s meaning… but in truth, I realized I had been sought all along by my life’s meaning, and the pilgrimage had simply allowed me to see it by stripping away the barriers of my complicated, distracting, messy life, and living in an old-fashioned way: without technology, in nature, with my soulmate, asking big questions, and suffering and plenty of physical pain.
If you want to find meaning of your life, you must treat life like the Camin0 – a pilgrimage that opens your mind and heart. That’s when your meaning will find you. Buen Camino”
(Arthur Brooks, https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593545427?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback, 244-245).

COT for parents, PAX affected by storms, Gigolo and family

Tags: Mastodon, Mr Roboto, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Dumpster, Stock boy, The wet burrito, LeMond, Da Vinci, Tenderfoot (Oak Park)

Date: 2026-07-28
AO: Flat Earth
Q: White Noise ,
PAX: Spielberg, Oompa, Pine tar, Panda Express, Swish, White Noise, Lib, Dewey FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
Conditions: slight wind; grey skies

WOR: 15xSSH; d n b

The Thang: 4 v 4 frisbee

Moleskine: show up when it gets hard, that’s when the benefit comes

Tags: Flat Earth, Spielberg, Oompa, Pine tar, Panda Express, Swish, White Noise, Lib, Dewey

Date: 2026-07-25
AO: 2nd-F
Q: Lakers ,
PAX: Beaker, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Panhandle, Lakers, LeMond, Brainfog, Crack, Flower Boy FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
Beer was consumed. Conversation was had.

Tags: 2nd-F, Beaker, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Panhandle, Lakers, LeMond, Brainfog, Crack, Flower Boy

Date: 2026-07-27
AO: Downrange
Q: Beaker ,
PAX: Beaker, Stock boy, Noodles, Lakers, Manhole, Dumpster, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Brainfog FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
Conditions: In the middle of a 74 ˚F cloud. IMHO, much better than the frigid, dry tundra that YHC woke up to in his house this morning.

WOR:
Motivators, ic, from 7
Raggedy Andys, ic, x15
Abe Vigodas, ic, x10
Sandbag good mornings, x10, onQ
Pickle pointers, x20, ic

Thang 1:
Dora-style exercises. PAX partner up. One PAX carries his sandbag in the back rack position down the length of the kids soccer field, around the goal and back. The other PAX works on the following exercises: 25 Cleans
50 Romanian deadlifts
75 Bent over rows
100 Sandbag shoulder shrugs

Thang 2:
Mosey to Plymouth Rock. In the same pairs, one PAX completes 3 sandbag get ups while the other PAX moves down the path with alternating L-R Rugby throws. After completing the get ups, this PAX moseys with the sand bag to their partner. Flap jack and repeato. Al Gore for the 6 at the end of the path.

Thang 3:
One PAX farmer carries the sandbags back on the other path while their partner does three burpees and then runs to catch up with the first PAX. Flap jack, repeato.

Moleskine:
James 4:14b-15 “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.'”

Our control very is limited and our impact is fleeting. To make a lasting impact we must first connect to a higher, eternal power and story. For Christians, this is finding our life and purpose in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and realizing that we are but playing a small part in His work on earth. (Look at that. The crypto-Lutheran finding some value in the “epistle of straw”.)

Tags: Downrange, Beaker, Stock boy, Noodles, Lakers, Manhole, Dumpster, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Brainfog

Date: 2026-07-27
AO: Ground Zero
Q: LouGee ,
PAX: Mr. Bean, Mr Roboto, LouGee
FNGs: None
COUNT: 3
Conditions:
77 degrees, 100% humidity, 6 mph winds from the south, and fog WOR:
OYO- 10x Arm circles (f/b), 10x Abe Vogodas, and leg movement of choice The Thang:
Ruck the path-north and then south
Moleskine:
William Arthur Ward: “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”

Tags: Ground Zero, Mr. Bean, Mr Roboto, LouGee

Date: 2026-07-27
AO: Tar Pit
Q: T-bone ,
PAX: Big Mac, T-bone, The wet burrito, Panhandle, Chuck, Da Vinci FNGs: None
COUNT: 6
Conditions: humid

WOR: SSH, triceps and shoulders, AVs, runners stretch, jog loop

The Thang: 3 x 5 minute EMOM (thrusters, blockees, curls). In between run down ramp or stairs and hold plank for 2 minutes.

Stretch cooldown

Moleskine: Helen Keller, “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet”

COT: Cookies, Giggles, Panhandle (James’ trip)

Tags: Tar Pit, Big Mac, T-bone, The wet burrito, Panhandle, Chuck, Da Vinci

Date: 2026-07-25
AO: Mastodon
Q: Stock boy ,
PAX: Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Short Circuit, The wet burrito, Bloomer, Dumpster, Falsetto, Jailbreak, Stock boy, Noodles, Cheap Shot, Mr Roboto FNGs:
COUNT: 11
Conditions:
Cool, slightly cloudy, beautiful

WOR:
SSH, Abe Vigodas, bat wings

The Thang:
With metal music covers playing, we moved between 7 stations of 20 reps each of merkins, Carolina dry docks, BBSUs, squats, shoulder taps, American hammers, and lunges. If you arrived at a station and found a hot potato there (half coupon, full coupon, or sandbag), you had to run it 4 stations ahead, drop it, and loop back to where you found it. Whenever music stopped and a fire alarm bell sounded for 30 seconds, everyone had to stop where they were and do 4 burpees. If the pax had a coupon, they had to do 4 blockees, and if they had a sandbag they had to do 4 sandees.

Moleskine:
Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today.

Tags: Mastodon, Too Big To Fail (TBTF), Short Circuit, The wet burrito, Bloomer, Dumpster, Falsetto, Jailbreak, Stock boy, Noodles, Cheap Shot, Mr Roboto