17 men ventured out into the gloom to try their hands (and shoulders and legs) on the Week 0 IronPax workout. Shout-outs especially to [tag Hotbox] and [tag Katniss] for breaking the 30-minute mark.
Workout:
100 Merkins
800 meter run
75 Merkins
1,200 meter run
50 Merkins
1,600 meter run
25 Merkins
2,000 meter run
Who showed up:
Ode to a decade when cars were fast, rock was king, and a slide ruler was a calculator.
Musical Bears made its debut.
Shredtember Day 2
WOR:
50 Side Straddle Hops
Butterfly stretches. Arms Circles. Toe touches.
Rock Around the clock.
Clock merkins, 1 per hour, forward and back. (24 merkins)
Clock Burpees, 1 per hour, forward, and if you can make it, back.
Jailhouse rock
Any combination of Grave diggers, Kettle bell swings, and bent over rows
The Twist
Any combination of American hammers, Block weighted American hammers, and the twist dance move.
(Workout, Crawl, Find a spot)
Setup: Arrange coupons in a tight circle, 1 per pax. Remove 1 coupon and pax from the circle and move them to the center of the circle.
Action: Call out an exercise (i.e. big boy situps to 50) everyone in the circle begins the exercise. Whenever the first Pax gets to 50, he begins to bear crawl around the outside of the circle clockwise. The pax who was in the middle of the circle immediately jumps out to fill in the open spot vacated by the first PAX. This means that now there is one spot too few, like musical chairs. After the first PAX completes a full trip around the circle, he looks for an open spot to land (signified by an unoccupied coupon).
Finish: As each PAX finishes the rep count, he begins to bear crawl clockwise around the circle. Everyone must go their original spot, or if it is occupied, past it until they find a new spot. The last PAX will not be able to find a spot. He ends up in the middle of the circle. It’s his job to call out the next exercise, with either 25 or 50 reps.
We did a lot of rounds of Musical Bears. Most Pax agreed that this workout was harder than expected.
Sparrow, Panhandle, Davinci, Aloha, Wet burrito, Bad Debt, Bloomer, 8-Track, BOGO, Panda Express, Big Mac, Beaker, Saga, Jolly, Crack, Banks, Cookies, Cheese, Tortuga, Y2K, Katniss, Gummi Bear
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.
After a surprisingly eventful night of severe weather, the midsummer dawn arrived serenely as 14 PAX (Banks, Big Mac, Shiplap, Da Vinci, Jolly, Panhandle, Dr. Phil, SAGA, Noodles, Cookies, Getaway/Babysitter(disambiguation?), Reels, Babe, Captain Crunch(QIC)) arrived groggy but ready for their weekly dose of monday. 2 Runners, 5 Ruckers, and 7 Murphers.
After a warm-up:
– 10 Mountain Man Poopers
– 10 Goofballs
– 10 Abe Vigodas
– Arm Circles OYO
Ruck Crew got a treated to a classic Crunch prayer-walk:
– Merkin Mile (Mile Loop, 25 Ruck Merkins on the quarters)
– A brief stop at Rucker Point to lift up those who will find there way to F3 Wheaton in the future.
– Thruster Mile (Mile Loop, 10 Thrusters on the quarters)
COR/NOR/COT: prayers for Banks’ son, heading to camp for the first time — for Panhandle’s son off to the Dominican Republic on a missions trip — for Tortuga, DBC and other PAX travelling or soon to be travelling — for Cookies’ M’s friend and her many struggles — for those who walk alone and need F3 in their life
MOLESKIN: It was easy to see and feel the difference of time from 2018 to now. I am grateful for the impulse to pray for unknown PAX during those months, and overjoyed at the current form of Mondays.
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!
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
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”
Backblast, 4/24/21, 7am, AO Mastodon
Throw and Go
Eight PAX gathered in the gloom for this morning’s beatdown.
WOR: Michael Phelps OYO, arm circles, copperhead merkins (slow count down IC), copperhead squats, tappy taps IC.
Thang One: Partners shared a frisbee. The goal was to hit each lamppost in order from the west bridge to the north westernmost lamppost. Throws were earned by reps. 10 hand release merkins, 20 flutter kicks (4 count), or 30 squats. Rep order was not mandated, but all three had to be completed before repeating any reps. Frisbees were advanced frisbee golf style: each throw was attempted from the landing spot of the previous throw. Tap-ins were allowed but still counted as a throw and had to be earned.
Thang Two: Same reps and rules from north westernmost lamppost to the monkey bars. Winners of round one started at the first lamppost. Second place at the second, etc. At the monkey bars each PAX went down and back. Only one frisbee made it into the pond. (I’m looking at you, Banks.)
Thang Three: In Dan Taylor alley. New reps. 10 Bonnie Blairs (1=1), 20 shoulder taps (2=1), 30 lunges (1=1). Goals – baseball field backstop followed by the four soccer goals.
Thang four: No reps. To travel to the frisbee you had to bear crawl for the first two goals, lunge the next, crab walk the fourth, and mix and match to the final goal. Throws must alternate between partners. If you arrived at the frisbee before your partner and it wasn’t your throw, you could double back to them. Once you reach them, both PAX can mosey to their disc. (Saga arrived in the middle of this round.)
Thang five: mosey back to Hoffa, zombie crawl up, first to the top called out “Manrise!” The rest of the PAX moseyed up to hold an Al Gore. We did have a couple on a picnic blanket for the sunrise at the top of Hoffa, so it had to be done.
BigMac and Loafers had to go, so we did NOR before Mary, thus the seated NOR video.
NOR: Banks, BigMac, Captain Crunch, Jailbreak, Jäzz Händz, Loafers (respect, respect!), TBTF, and Tortuga (Q)
Mary: flutter kicks with PAX reciting the verse in place of the count made it through the first chunk of our passage before running into multiple versions being recited. “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”
COT: prayers were lifted up for Cooper, Bloomer and their family, BigMac’s church as they will be presented with their pastoral candidate Sunday, Brian as he will be moving to rehab soon, Saga’s M, who is having some brain scans to try to figure out what’s going on. Praise for bodies that work and men to push us on.
Donuts were consumed (Thanks Jäzz Händz!), directions to Tortuga’s church were shared, and after a brief coffeteria, most PAX headed out to move some mulch.
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”
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
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.
One month ago YHC attempted to create something Super, but as has been observed lately, this PAX never does anything half-assed. In this case it was not only too complicated, but also an insane quantity of reps that even the valiant baker’s dozen HIMs could not complete. Now, with the warmer weather, a new version of the SuperDora has emerged, and the PAX of F3-Wheaton were ready to meet the challenge: Banks, Beaker, Big Mac, Cookies (Q), Da Vinci, Hotbox, Jolly, Katniss, Panhandle, Saga, Shiplap, T-bone, Tortuga, Whittler
WOR: Daisy pickers and some leg stretching, Arm circles and some arm stretching.
THANG: SuperDora, revised version
Instead of pairs, the entire PAX was challenged to complete exercise reps including both cardio exercises and PT. Carry your coupon with you everywhere you go, and don’t linger at any one station too long. Exercise completion tracked by moving tokens from one bucket to another at 4 stations:
Station 1 – Hoffa: 50 tokens
1 Redrum up and down Hoffa per token
Station 2 – Cooties: 100 tokens
5 Pull ups or 10 Inverted rows or 10 Kettlebell swings or 10 Derkins per token
Station 3 – SHOP: 150 tokens
10 Curls or 10 Chest press or 10 Overhead press or 10 Tricep Extensions or 20 One arm rows or 5 Picnic table press per token
Station 4 – lamppost: 200 ‘tokens’
10 BBSUs or 10 Outlaws or 10 American Hammers or 5 Hodors per token
The PAX split up and got to work. It turns out that the Cooties and SHOP were very popular and all reps were finished before 6am, but there were plenty of Mary and Redrums still on the board to keep the PAX going to the end. With one Redrum token remaining and less than a minute left a beautiful Manrise rounded things out and the Q deemed the SuperDora complete!
F3 Wheaton 