Tag: Archive

6.24.21 — The Usual Suspects

by f3captcrunch

As a beautiful sunrise lit up the clouds over MASTODON, 14 PAX (Archive, Aloha, Jolly, Sparrow, Whittler, BOGO, Jailbreak, Cookies, Bloomer, Banks, Beaker, Katniss, Captain Crunch) wandered their way into some pleasant weather and some odd muscle groups.

Warm-o-rama

Motivators IC x 7
Mountain Man Poopers IC x 15
Abe Vigoda IC x 7
Michael Phelps OYO

Squat Form (90 or bust!)

40 Certified Squats – no one goes up until everyone is at 90

MOM-E:

5 Bonnie Blairs (each side)
5 Derkins
5 Dips
Plank for remainder
(then 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, then descend back to 5)

Work Like an Animal

Around the BASE of Hoffa – Bear Crawl 1st half / Crab Walk 2nd half
Dutch Skate while the fireman watches on
Broad Jump(Frog) / Duck Walk to the parking lot

6MOM

Curb Stomp your partner
Crunchy Frogs (aka Dutch Bazookas) IC x 40

COR/NOR/COT: prayers for traveling PAX — praise for DBC’s safe return — for Archive’s return to the Gloom — for our eyes to see and our ears to hear those who need us this week.

BACKBLAST: Thursday, May 6, 2021 “Sands of Time” 5:30AM @ AO Mastodon

by backblasts

We did PT with sandbags. Pretty simple stuff.

WOR:

20 Bat Wings

20 Goofballs

40 Slow Merkins lifting alternate leg (the moaning started here)

THANG 1:

PAX take turns with Sandbags going from lantern to lantern around the AO Path

At each lantern:

PAX with the Fat Man (120lb sandbag) calls an exercise from the pool of suggestions or comes up with something of their own and all the PAX do that exercise.

  • Fat Man does 10 reps

  • Small Bags do 20 reps

  • Bagless do 40 reps

Once complete do the holding exercise for the 6

Drop the bags and someone else carries it.

Sandbag

Bagless

Holding Exercise

Chest press

Merkins

People’s Chair

Side Lunges

Plank

Bent over Rows

Tricep Dips

Boat

Squat-press

Air Squats

Reverse Plank

Curls

Leg curls

Canoe

Good Morning

Al Gore

Overhead squat

No Surrenders

Side Plank

Split Squat

Low squat

We had enough sandbags and PAX that everyone had one turn with Fat Man, and had a small bag about every 2nd or 3rd lantern.

THANG 2:

Man Rise up Hoffa, sandbags included, Sandees/Burpees at the top. Shiplap did his sandies with the Fat Man followed by Nantan Banks getting in his own 10 bonus reps. YHC tried one with the Fat Man and found it could barely be lifted overhead, so the workout ended abruptly.

Mosey back to the flags was definitely slow today.

NOR: Aloha, Archive, Banks, Beaker, Big Mac, BOGO (FNG), Cookies (Q), Dress Code (FNG), Gummi Bear, Hotbox, Jolly, Katniss, Picasso, Shiplap, Sparrow, T-Bone ¡Respect!, Tortuga ¡Respect!, Wet Burrito ¡Welcome Back!

Capture the Bag

by Sparrow

A fast paced, high-heart-rate role playing game with dedicated roles for runners and ruckers. 


If future pax are reading through backblasts looking for ideas, I recommend skipping this one. It was a lot of fun to plan, but would have worked better with a smaller field of play or about 20 more PAX. Regular capture the flag might be fun to try. If you need a visual cue to recognize who is one what team, I thought “hats vs heads” worked well.

For natural and healthy reasons, our Mondays are divided between ruckers and runners. But there is much that unites us, not the least of which is sweating with friends before the sun comes up.

A game was designed with the following goals

  1. Ruckers carry heavy things
  2. Runners gonna run
  3. Everyone sweats 

Before the game starts, each pax will choose a running or rucking role, and maintain that role for the entire game. 

Runners will be running throughout the game, unimpeded by weight or pain stations. 

Ruckers will be carrying their rucks and occasionally a sandbag. Runners cannot carry. 

The entire pax will be divided evenly into two teams, with the runners and ruckers split evenly between the teams. 

The AO is divided into two even halves, four bridges divide the territory. Islands belong to the Northern team.

All of our available sandbags will be divided evenly between the two teams, let’s say team had 2×60 pound sandbags. 

At the start of the game, the ruckers on each team will carry their sandbags away from the starting bridge all the way to the other end of the park. If all pax reach the other end, they earn one point (In hindsight, this was probably unneccessary. It did create a more traditional ruck feel, but used up most of the time that could have been spent playing the strategy game).

The ruckers are trying to defend their sandbags by moving them around  constantly or by stashing with partial visibility them within 12 feet of the outer track.  Each sandbag was given a “certificate of visibility,” which had to be visible. (in hindsight, we had more daylight than expected and slightly less visible sandbags would have been fine.)

When ruckers are on their home turf, they will be referred to as “defensive ruckers”.

When a Rucker leaves his home turf and crosses a bridge in search of the other team’s sand bags, he is acting as an offensive Rucker. 

The runners primary job is to gather intelligence for their team. Runners should be able to spot the location of stashed or moving sandbags and report it to their Rucker teammates. Stashed sandbags must always be visible from the outer track. Runners also have the ability to send an offensive pax to jail when he is discovered out of his home territory. Finally, runners can empty their own jail by running past and tagging it. (in hindsight, the runners mostly just ran.)

In order to steal a bag, the offensive team has to challenge the defensive team to an exercise. If there are more than 2 pax involved, the challenges take place man-to-man. If one team is outnumbered, their pax have to compete more than once. For this reason, numbers are an advantage.

In the end, Archive’s team was a strong contender, both in strategy and exercises. Sparrows team (hats), proved a competent defender. Each team stole one bag, defended one bag, and made it across the park, for a tie score of 3:3.

Welcome FNG “Babysitter”
Welcome back Kotter, “Picasso”

4/23/21 Town & Country Run Club

by Ridgeway Burns
Be kind every man is fighting a hard battle aphorism.

10 Pax for a Town & Country run (Archive QIC, Banks, Shiplap, Tortuga, Whittler, Shamu, Dr. Phil, Hotbox, Panhandle, TBone). Route was as follows: Town: east on Prairie Path to Parking Garage. To the top of the garage. North past library. West on Lincoln to Prairie Path. North on Prairie Path. West through the Marsh to overpass. East on Childs to startex.

COR NOR BOM: Prayers for Boomer and Cooper, giving thanks for wonderful surroundings to run in.

Moleskine: “Be kind for every man is fighting a hard battle”

Distance Dora

by Tortuga

Backblast, 4/10/21, AO Tarpit, 5:30 AM

Twelve brave PAX came out on an overcast warm morning for a beatdown at AO Tarpit.  After a quick WOR of walking arm circles and Michael Phelps, high knees skips, grapevines and a short mosey, we partnered up at the track.

Thang one: Distance Dora

B.I.B.L.E.

Broad Jump Burpees

Inchworm

Bear Crawl

Lunges

Ephesians 2:8

Partner one ran a lap around the track while partner two made his way around the track doing Broad jump Burpees.  Flapjack: partner two ran, partner one did broad jump burpees.

We repeated this pattern with Inchworm, Bear crawl, and then Lunges.  Once partner two finished his run after his lunges, both partners walked together while reciting Ephesians 2:8 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.”

Repeated as time allowed.

Thang two

  1. Round 1: Using three pull up options at the playground we split into three teams.  One person completed six side pull ups while the rest of the PAX completed slow merkins IC. We rotated through the pull ups twice.
  2. Round 2: Just four pull ups, first person at your station to get 50 merkins OYO ended the round.

Mary

Back at the flag.  We completed 25 flutter kicks IC, then 22 more with PAX calling out the verse, Eph 2:8, in place of the count.  One, two, three, By, one, two, three, grace, One, two, three, you, One, two, three, have, One, two, three, been, One, two, three, saved, etc.

NOR: Archive, Banks, Big Mac, DaVinci, Jolly, Katniss, Noodles, Panhandle, Saga, Shiplap, Tortuga (Q), Whittler.

COT: We lifted up Whittler who has an exam on Monday that he is continuing to study for this weekend, Noodles and his continued job search, and Saga who has some training today and a difficult classroom situation that will be coming to a head soon.

Moleskin: One way to think about grace is as God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  By grace we have been saved.  We have been adopted as God’s sons and been made co-heirs with Christ through nothing more than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It was given freely, at a great cost.  And it was not plan B.  Earlier in Ephesians it says that we were “chosen in him before the foundation of the world.”  Christ’s sacrifice to purchase our salvation was Plan A.  This is the God we serve.  Let’s live into that reality.

Good work on the verse, fellas.  Keep it up.

Nerf 2: Electric Boogalo – The Hunt for Wet Burrito.

by Sparrow

Warm 0 Rama

Warmup involving high rep block thrusters to surprise everyone who thought this would be easy.


Dodge Ball

Pax split into two teams. To start the game, everyone completes 20 Merkins before making a run for the dodge balls. 3 Squats are required before each throw. When you get out you have to run the perimeter of the tennis courts and then plank till that game ends.
Tortuga suprised us by having a vast knowledge of obscure dodgeball variants. We tried several of his variations.

Bears Vs Crabs

Pax are divide into uneven teams based on their preference for crab walking or bear crawling. Slightly more pax prefer bear crawls. The bears dominate every game, despite a number of rule variations designed to give the crabs an equal opportunity (no hands, hands, goalie rules, etc).

Nerf 2: Electric Boogalo – The Hunt for Wet Burrito.

David and Goliath, with nerf guns. Pax split into two teams. A challenger steps out from his team and challenges the other team to an exercise, naming his rep count (Let’s say, 50 squats). A defender steps out from his team and accepts the challenge on behalf of the whole team. Although the two pax are engaging in representative combat, all PAX present will do the exercise stated. When the first representative warrior reaches the target rep count, he picks up a nerf gun and fires on the other team. When the second representative reaches the target rep count, he also picks up a nerf gun and tries to shoot the attacker. The fighting ceases when either of two things happen: The attacker gets shot, or one of the other pax finishes the reps and runs to the top of the hill, proclaiming freedom for the captives.

Moleskin

Life doesn’t always go the way you planned, but when I shot that guy in the neck, life was good.

Prayer Ruck for Wheaton 02/15/2021 @ AO Mastodon

by backblasts

Ruck day does not always have to be hard, but it will always be work!

Another Shackleton, eight PAX accepted the challenge to lift up our community in prayer: @Archive, @Banks, @Crack, @Cookies, @Da Vinci, @Katniss, @Shiplap, @Sparrow.

Warmorama inspired by @Jolly’s VR boxing video, we worked the (imaginary) small bag, took down our virtual opponents on both sides.

The Q hoped in vain for clear sidewalks, instead we made our way the best we could in and out around the perimeter of the AO, praying for the community as we traveled. We prayed for:
– Our neighbors, and the PAX
– Our local churches
– Our local government
– Disadvantaged, refugees, and the poor among our community
– First responders
– Healthcare workers
– Veterans and active military
– Schools and educators
– Our families

Arriving back at the #AO-Mastodon-flag and #OG-Wheaton-flag, we had some extra time so we knocked out some quick warm-down of Mary and Merkins.

Moleskin: It can be easy to get distracted when we pray, wanting to reach out to someone that comes to mind or check up on something. There is nothing wrong with that, but we can’t let that keep us from returning to prayer, for that is where the difference is made.

COT: We have many folks among the PAX that need prayer, keep lifting them up.

Choose Your Own Adventure: Treasure Hunt Remix

by Sparrow

Story: Through a strange twist of fate, you find yourself stuck inside a library of surprisingly morbid 1980’s “Choose your own adventure” books. Jumping from book to book, you are threatened on all sides. Zombies, cowboys, rival workout gangs, everyone is out to get you. There is only one way to survive: keep moving.

An oddly appropriate theme for a beatdown during life-threatening environmental conditions. 3° temperature, -14° wind chill, unplowed roads, cars stuck in snowbanks, duct tape giving up due to cold,  frozen coupons, back-to-back workouts in the same morning. Why did 12 PAX brave these obstacles? Were they driven by a simple treasure lust? Learn the truth at the end of this post.

The following story segments were stationed around the AO. Each workout accomplished earned PAX one of 6 puzzle pieces, which assembled would reveal the location of real, actual, buried treasure.

Choose your own adventure F3 Q treasure hunt
Your school is on a field trip to the zoo, and you’re trying to catch the attention of your new crush. With your friend holding on to you shirt, you lean way over the gorilla pit and smack the largest gorilla on the back of the head. Your friend loses his grip, and now you’re eye to eye with an angry gorilla, who is trying to decide if you are another gorilla, a snack, or his long lost girlfriend.
You’ll have to do your best gorilla impression if you want to survive until the zoo keepers arrive.
Do 75 total reps in any combination of these:
Overhand Pull ups Underhand Chin ups. Toe to bar.
You’ve aroused the anger of time traveling cowboys. They decide to teach you a lesson by “making you dance”. With pistol shots at your head and feet. You’ll be ducking and jumping to survive.
To dodge the bullets perform 150 reps total of any combination of:
Bench dips
Box Jumps
Step ups


You’ve fallen into the hands of several elderly zombies. They will eat your brains, unless you can blend in with them.
To blend in, you must perform 400 reps on 4 of the permanent workout machines in this area. Choose 4 machines. Bodyweight chest press, inclined sit-up, elliptical movement, etc.
Any machine, any rep count, until your team gets to 400 reps total.

A rival workout gang claims Northside Park as their exclusive territory, unless you can beat them at their own game.
To prove you’re the strongest, you need to do 150 reps in any combination of:
Merkins,
Burpees,
Star Jumps,
Squat jumps

Out of innocent curiosity, you wandered behind the bathhouse. You walked right into a secret meeting of bully’s club called Rodney and the Rathbones.
They’ll let you go free, but only after you do 150 of these (total reps in any combination):
Bent over rows,
Kettle bell swings,
Coupon lunges
You drank something, and it wasn’t Kool-aid™. You can’t tell if someone laced your drink with PCP, Speed, or just the heady power rush that accompanies becoming commander in chief.

Work off your power rush and prove you’re the best by performing 150 Total Reps in any combination of:
Coupon Bicep Curls,
Overhead Press,
Scull Crushers.

Download the Full PDF of this Workout with Pictures, Story, and Exercises Download
Pre Workout: Treasure is buried under snow in the middle of a frozen lake.
Story segments and workout options were positioned around the AO.

Pretty good snow camouflage for the treasure
Thermal imaging makes the treasure spot more visible
This was enough to lead Tortuga and Jazz hands to the treasure.
The Real Treasure map
Approaching the winners
The Victor’s circle
The Treasure

Archive and Captain crunch showed off by getting to the treasure 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Getting tired of counting and re-counting their treasure, they then returned to the workout to “wave their beef sticks in our faces.”

This workout was nobody’s first rodeo, but it was still a wild ride. Why did we do it? Because we know these things to be truth:

  1. Adversity brings us together.
  2. Working hard makes us stronger.
  3. Friendship is the real treasure. Friendship, and toe-warmers.

    Thanks for the memories.
    -Sparrow

Monday Ruck Club – January 25, 2021

by backblasts

Backblast: Monday Ruck Club – January 25, 2021

15 PAX in attendance including an FNG!

WOR:
10 Abe Vigodas
10 Tappy Taps
OYO Quad Stretches
10 Burpees

Q decided to ease into this week’s beatdowns with an easy Ruck around Mastodon. The PAX took turns leading the way and stopping to call out an exercise of their choice. The only caveat was that it couldn’t be more than 10 reps. Not surprisingly, a couple of PAX (I’m looking at you @Banks and @SAGA!) got around the 10 rep max by calling exercises with several steps built into each rep.

@Jolly – 10 air squats
@Big Mac – 10 burpees
@Panhandle – 10 Merkins
@Katniss – 10 Ruck Pulls
@Banks – 10 Dan Taylors!
@Shiplap – cross bridge without feet touching the ground
@Da Vinci – 10 burpees
@SAGA – 10 Birthbees!
@Sparrow – trek up Hoffa
@Jolly – 10 burpees

Prayers for several job openings as they seek the right candidates. Welcome @Rainbow Bright! (edited)

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Backblast: 1/21/2021 – Year in Review

by backblasts

Warm-o-rama (Snapshot 1)

5 Motivators: Chuck Norris breaths air – 5 times a day

Tappy-taps: Chuck Norris got Coronavirus. Now the Coronavirus is in isolation.

Arm Circles: Chuck Norris was once run over by a tank. He refused to pay for it.

5 mountain climbers w/a merkin: Chuck Norris doesn’t do push-ups, he pushes the earth down.

We circled the crib to hear the tale of the newborn among us: The Birthbee. A demonstration of its beautiful cry was beheld by all in the shape of 2 Dollys + 2 Big Boy Sit-ups (here’s to cramping) + 2 “nursing” nipple scrappers (cause you need to give attention to both sides) + 1 burpee jump + 1 squat = 1. Thus a salute to our mothers who went into double-time pain that we might have breath. (SAGA)

(Saga)

Snapshot 2

Everyone look at the sky, what don’t you see? The Great Conjunction…Still (Crack)

Snapshot 3

In honor of the 3 years we were in Augusta, GA, we each did three trips up Hoffa while the other did LBCs and BBSs (Panhandle)

Snapshot 4

· Do 5 curls, 5 overhead press, 5 rows, 5 grave diggers, 5 skull cruchers, 5 goblet squats, 5 monkey humpers, 5 bernie sanders, 5 BBSU (Jolly’s Santa Delivery)

Snapshot 5

Da Vinci brought us the arts, visual, musical and written but perhaps most memorable are quotes of the Desert Fathers, (Da Vinci) Would you motivate us with one of your favorites? Or perhaps just anything you want?

Snapshot 6

What’s you’re favorite exercise shiplap? Do 40 if you don’t beat shiplap you have to run the hill, for every person who beats Shiplap he has to run the hill. If you win, you can do burpees or whatever for the six. (Shiplap)

Snapshot 7

1. What is the most expensive home in the world? Buckingham Palace (Mose got it correct!) 50 overhead presses (Bigmac)

Snapshot 8

Theme was James 1:2. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds.”

(Everyone does 20 Bonnie Blairs) (Tortuga)

Snapshot 9

Howling Monkeys/Gorillas (Cap’n Crunch)

Snapshot 10

Everyone partner off, we’ll run to the baseball field and tell your partner your favorite memory of 2020 and your favorite F3 memory of 2020 (Sparrow)

Snapshot 11

“Make each day a masterpiece”

Have Archive demonstrate perfect IC exercise call of exercise and reps of choice (Archive)

Snapshot 12

The second law of thermodynamics say that during any process, the entropy of the universe increases. In plain language, chemical reactions happen because they increase the randomness and disorder in the universe. You can also say that entropy is the tendency for things to mix. I cannot think of a more random, disordered mix of exercises than the birthbee.

In between sets 2 and 3 (above) we explored the second law by doing and Indian run around the AO, stopping to perform 5 birthbees in the ice at 3 bridges, for a total of 15 birthbees. (Beaker)

Snapshot 13

As many situps as you can in 2 minutes, timed. (You would have a partner counting) (Banks)

Snapshot 14

“Remain in 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 4 reps each, you’ve covered 30-50 feet, or until your arms fall off – whichever comes first.” (Jazz Hands)

Snapshot 15

Nolan Ryan and One Arm Coupon Rows. (Cookies)

Snapshot 16

Load Eroica Symphony (Beethoven) and do a whole bunch of burpees then shout I FEEL OUTSTANDING!x (Hotbox)

Circle of Trust, Moleskin & Prayer

Reviewing the year, it’s quite clear, F3 was the best part. Thanks to everyone for contributing towards that. We’re better together.

In attendance: (Going from memory…late, sorry if I forgot anyone)