8.10.19 – Jäzz Händz VQ: “Game of Life: Introduction of the ‘Death Die’ “

Official Backblast for previous Saturday, August 10, 2019 with YHC @Jäzz Händz VQ-ing it up! It’s about time, right fellas?

I like to call this one:

“Game of Life: Introduction of the ‘Death Die'”

🎲🔥

5 PAX (@Captain Crunch (AJ), @Archive, @F3Banks, @TBTF, and @Jäzz Händz) posted at MASTO-CON for some fun and games on this cool yet humid morning. As VQIC, yours truly lead the workout in true @Jäzz Händz fashion as a *co-op board game* with a twist: the introduction of a new way of manipulating the punishments at random—the “Death Die.” This new tool to be used at will by any future PAX on Q is a half-coupon adorned with dice pips, and makes for an interesting dynamic to beat down the PAX, or *perhaps* offer some occasional relief…maybe.

*WOR* in the parking lot, in cadence:

• 7x Motivators

• 25 Mountain Man Poopers (sped up)

*Thang 1: “Double Trouble”* _(Co-op Strategy, “House Rules” Edition)_

♟♟♟♟♟

Starting on the west end of Mastodon, we prepared to do the short circuit around the board (the park path) heading north + east,following the lamp posts as our “spaces” for each successive Double Trouble exercise. We grabbed a token (full sized coupon) to carry around the board as a team, rotating who carried at each lamp post. There were 20 spaces total, each space doubling the exercise from the space before. Objective is to complete circuit around board and bring the token back to its home.

_Breakdown of each spaces exercises:_

• Spaces 1-4: Burpees (1x, 2x, 4x, 8x)

• Spaces 5-8: Monkey Humpers (2x, 4x, 8x, 16x)

• Spaces 9-12: Lunges: (3x, 6x, 12x, 24x)

• Spaces 13-16: Imperial Walkers: (4x, 8x, 16x, 32x)

• Spaces 17-20: LBCs: (5x, 10x, 20x, 40x)

Prior to embarking, however, we rolled the Death Die. @F3Banks rolled a *2* for the group, which meant every _human_ we passed along the way caused the group to *_go back 2 spaces_* and repeat that space’s exercise, then continue on as normal. If the humans were accompanied by an *odd* number of dogs, PAX had to *_double_* the amount of spaces to double back on. *Even* number of dogs: _skip ahead one space._ (This never happened).

*Summary of Rules* (per @F3Banks’ “2” roll):

• 1 human: back 2 spaces.

• 2 humans: back 4 spaces.

• 3 humans: back 6 spaces.

• 1 human + 1 or 3 dogs: back 4 spaces.

• 1 human + 2 or 4 dogs, BONUS: skip the next space.

PAX counted off, and the token and death die passed around the group in numerical order at each lamp post. Since YHC hadn’t play tested this particular game of horrors prior to his actual introduction to the other PAX, we had a bit of *“trouble”* keeping up with the rules as we encountered more humans and dogs than expected. Math and Monkey Humpers don’t always go well together, either—despite the blood rush to the head.

After getting caught in a particularly nasty death loop in spaces 9-12 due to every human in the park and their little dogs too converging at our exact location all at once, @Captain Crunch (AJ) suggested a set of *House Rules*: roll the Death Die when you pass a human: *1-3*=PAX don’t do the penalty of going back X spaces, while *4-6*=we do the penalty. After roughly 90 lunges without relief (prior to induction of house rules), we finally made it to the Walkers and LBCs, only stumbling upon 1 or 2 penalty humans for the remaining duration.

The beauty of the Death Die and Double Trouble is, if you’ve got a handful of different exercises planned (abs, legs, upper, lower, etc), this randomness can turn a sample selection of exercises into a full out LUNGE FEST and YHC hasn’t been able to walk up stairs for the past 3 days thanks to this factor.

🏃‍♂️ YHC/VQIC: “I’ll have a little of everything please.”

🦹‍♂️ 🎲 Death Die and passers-by: “YOUR LEGS WON’T LAST THE HOUR!”

Upon reaching the 20th space, we grabbed the token and completed its journey around the board back to its starting location, via moseying to the bottom of the hill for a quick water break and on to our next game.

*Thang 2: “Dungeons and Dragons”*

🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉

A short but potentially bitter “game.” In this instance, the Death Die was moderately kind to us.

*The Rules:*

• PAX roll *_2D6 + 4 with advantage,_* and do that many *Welsh Dragons* (a real F3 exercise! See below) across the field OYO.

    – (laymen terms: roll 2 death dice, take the lower of the two numbers, and add 4 for your rep count.)

@F3Banks and @Captain Crunch (AJ) each happened to roll a *3*, so with no decision-making necessary, we got on our hands and toes and Welsh Dragon crawled across the field for 7 reps.

Here’s the F3 definition of a Welsh Dragon:

Remain in _[high]_ plank position the whole time. Bear crawl forward 4 steps, do 1 merkin, 1 plank jack, and tap the back of each shoulder 1 time. Repeat, adding 1 rep to each exercise each time – bear crawl forward 4 steps, do 2 merkins, 2 plank jacks, 2 sets of back of shoulder taps… etc. Go until you get to 10 reps each, you’ve covered 30-50 feet, or until your arms fall off – whichever comes first.

Our Death Die dictated a rep count of 7, which is right around the time it really started to burn. Next time YHC will tweak the rules so PAX have to push through the burn instead of ending it there.

*Thang 3: Death Deck a la Fire Drill*

🃏🔥🚨🧯🃏

Each PAX drew 2 cards from the F3 exercise death deck (thanks to @Captain Crunch (AJ) for bringing it along). First card: your exercise. Second card: the rep count. Stood in a circle and did high knees (fire drill style) between each PAX calling their exercise for the group. Can’t remember exactly what was drawn and called, but it involved a DIY version of heels to the sky, butt kicks, a lap around the hill, and 100x high knees millennial style to wrap it up.

*6MoM:*

• Side planks

• Guantanamo (2x)

PAX stashed the newly forged Death Die in a secure location (is it secret? Is it safe?), and did an AYG sprint to the flag for COT, followed by victory cinnamon rolls and coffee, and strange and enlightening discussion of the origins of the work “merkins.” Warning: NSFW.

NOR COR COT

• Crunch recovering health

• Archive job hunt

• Jazz hands M’s job hunt

I was humbled and honored to serve as Q for first time! Surprisingly sore despite feeling like the pain wasn’t brought as hard as usual (all those lunges!). I know I’ll Q again soon, and I’ll hopefully give @F3Banks something to complain about eventually 😉

8.8.19 4 Simple Things

4 Pax (Banks, Triple XXX, Noodles, Archive QIC) had a simple morning in the gloom.
WOR
7x Motivators
Thang 1-
Route 121
Escalating and descending burpees at the lampposts- up to 11 and back down.
Thang 2-
Flora 123
100 Merkins, 200 LBCs, 300 Squats all w/ coupons
6MOM
Ring of Fire
NOR COR COT
Prayers for @Captain Crunch (AJ) out with the rat flu, and a good end to the week at work.

8.5.19 – Bank & Yarborough

6 Monday Ruckers (Gummi Bear, To Big to Fail, Triple XXX Family Restaurant, Noodles, Archive, Captain Crunch (QIC))

With August upon us and the new Goruck Challenge dropping for the month, it was definitely time for a “Get After It” Monday Ruckday. So why not grab the longest workout and ask the PAX to show up 15min earlier? The Gloom was still thick on arrival but the same squad from last week rolled out of the Fartsack and chose the harder thing.

We decided to sprint first and ruck later, just in case some PAX didn’t get the 5:15 memo. The PAX paired off and ran sprints:

3 Rounds:

  • #1 PAX 50m sprint, #2 PAX Overhand ruck hold
  • #2 PAX 50m sprint, #1 PAX Overhand ruck hold
  • #1 PAX 100m sprint, #2 PAX Overhand ruck hold
  • #2 PAX 100m sprint, #1 PAX Overhand ruck hold

(on the third round, take a sandbag for the sprint part)

After the PAX were thoroughly winded with that as a warm-up, we set off on a 3 mile loop. One 55# Sandbag and one 32# sand-sack were employed as “shareable” weight and passed around to everyone by the time we got back.

After all my solo-rucking, today was a big pleasant surprise of non-stop conversation. Good conversations with folks and a steady 15 min pace on a beautiful morning. Really couldn’t have gotten much more pleasant. Might need to add weight or up the pace next time, but it was a good, solid day with some fine brothers.

COR/NOR/COT: continued prayers for Good Hands’ family and nephew — wisdom as Archive’s work is in hiring process — Triple XXX’s eldest is starting her first job out of college

(Commz note: I think my instagram filter was set to “Monet” on the first half of the workout… got it fixed when the sun rose…)

8.3.19 – Dip City Grand Tour

With Urkel and F3 Chicago Converging on Ohio Beach, the F3 Wheaton boys swallowed their FOMO and made the best of it back home. To ease their suffering the Q planned a full Chicago-themed workout:

Warm-O-Rama:

  • Motivators ICx7 (+ a set of 8 just because)
  • “Deep Dish” toe touches (Chicago-Style Mountain Man Poopers)

Dip City (round 1): (The PAX were required to complete 2,706 total, divided by the 6 that showed up, that was 451 dips per person)

  • 200 Dips per PAX

The “Bean Cloud”: (not a lot of “bean” or “cloud” based F3 exercises…)

  • Blackjack: 20 Hill runs (the best view in the AO) with Monkey Humpers at the bottom (1, 2, …, 20) and Gas Pumps (the bean cloud part) (20, 19, … , 1) at the top.
    • “Creative Accounting” – PAX that completed their 20th set first came back and took some sets from the guys bringing up the Six.

Dip City (reprise):

  • 251 Dips per PAX (Millennial style, it’s Millennium Park after all, see Creative Accounting above)

Denari selected Cooldown:

  • Doomsday Clock (PAX circle up in high plank, taking turns doing 1 merkin. As PAX drop out, they perform one penalty burpee and another for each person still in the circle.)

COR/NOR/COT: Prayers for Jaime as she recovers from birth complications — for Jazz Hands mom going in for another round of brain stimulation for Parkinsons — for Noodles to have good morale at work and be able to properly and helpfully navigate some toxic situations going on — Archives application to director at a new library

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I don’t know who lets this clown run any workouts…

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But everyone except Gummi Bear survived to the Coffeeteria!

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8.1 Hoffa Returns!

5 PAX for a misty and cool morning beatdown.

WOR- Capri Lap
In lieu of Motivators, lap around AO near flag. Stop at corners for 50x SSH 20x Ballerina Toe Squats 50x Arm Circles.

Failure to Launch
Hold Al Gore for 10 seconds, Tuck Jump on 1. Back down to Al Gore- Repeato

Mosey to Pull up bars
3 min AMRAP Pull Ups, Merkins, LBCs

Mosey to Hill
7th Heaven
3x to top of Hoffa:
Sprints
Bernie
Bear Crawl

At top 30x:
Squats
Mountain Climbers
Merkins

Finished with 5 Burpees OYO and 5 Burpees in cadence.

NOR COT- Prayers for Noodles job and Archive’s application to Itasca. 20190801_053106_HDR20190801_060629_HDR20190801_055505_HDR20190801_054258_HDR

7.29.19 – Triple XXX Family Restaurant Returns!

6 PAX — Count’em! — (Archive, Gummi Bear, Noodles, To Big To Fail, Captain Crunch, and Triple XXX Family Restaurant <– returning from December!) posted in “Gloom adjacent” conditions for what was supposed to be a “buffet” ruck offering PAX their choice of Speed Ruck, Pain Ruck, or Ruck PT. But everyone said “Pain Ruck, that sounds terrible…” and went for a 2mi speed ruck course. So what’s a Q to do but drag their sandbag along anyway and try to keep up with the group?

WarmORama:

  • Ruck Motivators ICx5
  • Abe Vigoda ICx20

The Thang:

We all rucked the 2 miles to the far side of Lawson field and back in the beginnings of a steady drizzle. YHC failed to get anything but one blurry photo out of the ruck, and the rain messed up his phone’s responsiveness on the NameORama so no video either. But outside of tech issues, the group had a glorious hike out and back and got to share our new sandbag around for a Pain Ruck / Speed Ruck combo.

Once back we filled out the remainder with some standard Ruck PT:

  • Thrusters x 20
  • Ruck Swings x 20
  • American Hammer IC x 15

COR / NOR (not pictured) / COT: prayers for job applications going out — health and steady recovery for Hoser and Good Hands’ nephew — prayers for the brothers

7.27 Dog Days of Summer

11 PAX (Archive QIC, Jazz Hands, Captain Crunch, Too Big To Fail, Noodles, Urkel, Apples, Elway, Ken Doll, FNG (Welcome Diva)) do not like dogs.

WOR- 7x Motivators

21x Ballerina Toe Squats

21x Mountain Climbers

Morning Salute- Moseyed along AO, each time a person crossed our path- 10 burpees, each time a dog crossed our path- 20 burpees. There were several dogs.

Thang 1-

Fire Drill at Wheaton North: On football field, circle up. High knees until pax calls out “fire”. Drop to ground, roll right, merkin, roll left, merkin. Back to high knees. Go until all PAX have called “fire”.

Millennial on Bleachers-

Run up to top of bleachers, run down again. 100 reps of the following: 1. Star Jumps 2. Lunges 3. Hand Release Merkins 4. LBCs 5. Flutters

Mosey back to flag. Ring of Fire.

NOR COT- Prayers for Good Hands’ nephew who was hit by a car, health and healing,  job search for Archive, upcoming 2.0 for Noodles.

7.25.19 – “Love” & Basketball

It was a cool 62 degrees. The gloom was back! Met for another day led by yours truly, Noodles. There was nothing “Lovely” about this workout. Broke in the basketball courts at AO-Mastedon. Welcomed back a couple of HIMs ready to be put to the test!

WoR: Motivators x8, Abe Vigodas x8. We moseyed over to grab our coupons and it was off to the courts.

Thang #1: Suicides for Wannabe Ballers

Round 1 – Start at Baseline (BL) to Free Throw (FT) and back to BL – Starjumps x8

Round 2 – Start at BL to Half Court (HC) and back to BL – Starjumps x8

Round 3 – Start at BL to Opposite FT and back to BL – Starjumps x8

Round 4 – Start at BL to Opposite BL and back to BL – Starjumps x8

Thang #2: Shaq-Diesel

Round 1 – Merkins to forearms x25

Round 2 – Merkins, R arm on coupon x25

Round 3 – Merkins, L arm on coupon x25

Round 4 – Coupon Lunges (in-place) x50

Round 5 – Air Squats w/ Coupon x100

MoM: Supermans x10, Side Plank position hold – R leg up x10, Side Plank position hold – L leg up x10

CoR/NoR: Captain Crunch, Gaucho (HATE/HATE), CATS, Skirt Chaser, Archive, Noodles (QIC)

CoT: Noodles – Prayers for Good Hands’ nephew recovering from being struck by car. Multiple body parts affected and in need of prayer for recovery. Bring his family peace and strength during this difficult season. Archive – Prayers for job search to bring clear and new opportunity that is best for him and his family. May it not be a stressful job search period. Skirt Chaser – Praise report for his sister in Peru, doing well. Prayers for his wife who is having difficulty sleeping. May sleeping come naturally to bring her plenty of rest. Captain Crunch – Prayers for GrowRuck in September and training period leading up to event. Push HIMs to show up and test their limits regardless of their decision to participate or not in the event. Use it as an opportunity to get stronger.

7.22.19 – Intro to Pain Rucking

After the heatwave of the weekend, we got a nice cool 66 degrees this morning and 5 PAX (Archive, Banks, Crunch, Noodles, TBTF) showed up for Monday’s Pain Ruck with some bonus weight on-hand. After our sand and surf heavy week, the promise was no shenanigans, just straight up work. Specifically, 170 lbs of Ruck, 100+# of concrete, 50+# of water, and 67# of sand. We rotated as we went and everyone got a turn with the sandbag and the jerry can.

The Opener:

  • Ruck Motivators IC x 5
  • Abe Vigodas IC x 20

The Pain Ruck:

  • The Burpee Mile: The Long Mile – 12 Burpees OYO every quarter mile (Combined Ruck Weight = 170 lbs., Bonus Team Weight = 220 lbs.)
  • The Overtime: Extra .5 mile, dropped the coupons off, dropped the jerry can at the half-way mark (Rucks = 170#, Team Weight = 93#)

Total Combined Ruck Work = 607

COR/NOR/COT: Prayers for job travel, recovery from workouts, continued health.

Short and Sweet, but a heck of a workout. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was (am) still sore from Saturday. We’ll see how recovery time goes before Thursday’s workout.