Tag: Jolly

Backblast – 5.17.2021 – Today was a Good Day

by backblasts, posted in Uncategorized

As we continue our FNG/Kotter drive, today proved to be another successful drive and PAX brought in 3 more FNGs. Per usual Ruckers remained and Runners ran like the wind.

WoR: Motivators x7, Abe Vigodas, x16, Tappy Taps x15

The Thang: Ruck/Shuffle/PT

PAX went on a ruck around the AO and stopped for the following PT stations:

Station #1 – Bolt 45s (15 squats down to halfway position and return. 15 squats from halfway down position to full squat position and return up to halfway position. 15 full squats or jump squats.
Station #2 – Dan Taylors x7 (1 squat, 4 lunges, 2 squats, 8 lunges, etc.)
Station #3 – 1 Round of ATMs (15 shoulder taps,
Station #4 – Bear Crawl Snake up Hoffa

Plank for the 6.

Got a nice lather in for the day and encouraged some of the running PAX along the way.

NoR – .

CoT – Praise for Whittler’s recent engagement. May God continue to bless his relationship and plans for marriage. Praising God for F3 and the recent growth. Allow old and new PAX to recognize the benefits of this group. Allow us to continue planting seeds with other man that need F3 but don’t know it yet.

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

by backblasts, posted in Uncategorized

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, posted in Uncategorized

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”

Backblast: Rucking and Running With Cookies 04/19/2021 5:30AM at AO MASTODON

by backblasts, posted in Uncategorized

We Rucked, we ran. Ruckers got in 3.33 miles which is a personal best for 45 minutes for at least one PAX. Some of the runners came early for a “warm up mile” EC and logged north of 6 miles.

NOR:

Archive, Babe, Captain Crunch, Crack and Doolie Dog, Cookies (Q), Da Vinci, Dr Phil, Jolly, Panhandle, SAGA, Shiplap, Tortuga

Distance Dora

by Tortuga, posted in Uncategorized

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, posted in Uncategorized

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.

Run Club

by Tortuga, posted in Uncategorized

Backblast, 4/2/21, 5:30AM, AO Ground Zero

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.

NOR: (in alphabetical order) Beaker, Cheese, Cookies, Crack, DaVinci, Jolly, Katniss, Shiplap, Sparrow, T-Bone, Tortuga (Q)

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.”

Backblast: Revised SuperDora 03/23/2021 5:30AM @ AO MASTODON

by backblasts, posted in Uncategorized

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!

3.20.21 — The Vanilla* Spartan

by f3captcrunch, posted in Uncategorized

In the early dawn 12 PAX (Banks, Jolly, Panhandle, DaVinci, HotBox, Katniss, Beaker, Bloomer, Saga, Gummi Bear, Tortuga, Capn Crunch(QIC)) found themselves at a frost covered TAR PIT where YHC was eager to start the clock. After a quick warm-up of usual exercises, and some mumbled comments about leg-work. They shouldered the available sandbags and ruck (120/65/65/30, respectively) and did a recon mosey of the south football field, ultimately deciding to make due with the IronPAX field despite its tarp cover.

Having attempted a full Spartan at the Mastodon without success on multiple occasions, the Q had his eye set on the full 30 rounds today, with ample time available if they didn’t mess around. He had full faith in the PAX.

Warm-o-Rama:

  • Motivators x 7
  • Mountain Man Poopers IC x 10
  • Abe Vigodas IC x 10
  • Sandbag recon mosey

The Spartan:

Having attempted something like a Spartan a few times, always with heavy modification, this would be the first time the F3-Wheaton crowd had done it vanilla (i.e., flat ground, 100 yards, no coupons), and the routine was new to many of the PAX. Thankfully it was incredibly easy to explain. But that didn’t stop the Q from failing to fill in all the details, opting instead to start the PAX off with just the first third having been verbalized.

Rounds 1-10: The Time Hack

  • Run 100 yards, 10 Merkins, mosey back, EMOM — This was vanilla enough. However, our mosey was timed, and an aggressive benchmark of EMOM Spartans was thrown down by the Q, while still waiting for the return of the 6 before starting each round. We were close, but averaged about 1min 12 seconds overall, for a 12 minute finish time on this third. The Q decided a quicker pace was needed to ensure victory.

Rounds 11-20: The Millennial Mosey

  • Run 100 yards, 10 Merkins, 30 LBCs(Millennial style) — To shorten the cycle time without killing the 6, we dropped the mosey, and instead “rested” for the length of time it took for the first PAX to reach 30 LBCs. At that point all PAX jumped to the line for the next run.

Rounds 21-30: No Bag Left Behind

  • Run 100 yards, 10 Merkins, mosey back (+sandbags) —With the time gained by the Millennial cheat on the middle third, we had 20 minutes left in the Q to finish the final 10 rounds. We could afford an actual mosey. The group was fairly close together on pace, so the Q explained that the sandbags were there in case someone was too far ahead of the group and needed more resistance in their workout. The PAX took this as an invitation and for most of the remaining rounds all bags were shouldered for the first half of the run (dropping them at the 50 yard and finishing the sprint).

Finishing with a few minutes left on the clock, they rounded out with some Mary, and appreciated just how much hip-flexors are involved in our favorite “ab” exercises.

3MoM:

  • Ol’ Ironsides: (Boat/Canoe + American Hammer IC x 10) x 2
  • Oblique LBCs — Right IC x 10, Left IC x 10
  • LBCs IC x 10

MOLESKIN: Break your tasks into small chunks and keep chipping away. Achieve what you set out to do.

COR/NOR/COT: Prayers for Jazz Hands’ friends Bryan and Lauren — Wisdom for Hot Box and M as they seek to navigate family conversations — For Tortuga’s M and Saga’s M — for all the brothers, that they would lean into life / work / family as well as they do their workouts, and that we would both have and give support in those spheres.

Glad to hang with the TAR PIT boys after a long time away, seeing faces old and new and appreciating just how much is going on across F3 Wheaton in a given week. Not captured on film, but seared in my memory of this morning: The glory of Gummi Bear’s tireless flying across a field of frosted grass yards ahead of the pack. DaVinci’s dogged grip on his bag for the full 100 yards plus the merkins and the return. Bloomer cleaning 120 pounds just like everyone imagines themselves doing in the moment before their first attempt.

The TAR PIT HIMs and their weight
Post-Spartan Mood

Monday 3/15/2021 Ruck club – First Q after DST change – Sparrow

by backblasts, posted in Uncategorized

It takes a special kind of PAX to attend the first workout after daylight savings ends.
Most PAX will be in bed enjoying a well-earned rest —with my blessing!

But there will be a few, just one or two, who know that F3 improves the rest of their day, every day. They know that daylight savings isn’t getting easier tomorrow, and they want to start getting better today. They know that friendships formed in the gloom are priceless, and they want to be there when it happens. That’s the PAX I want to ruck with.
I’m not looking for numbers this Monday. I’m looking for a few good men.

Backblast:

We warmed up with an emphasis on avoiding injury.

Sparrow suggested “What are you good at?” as a topic of discussion while we rucked/ran.

The Ruckers circled the park, passing around a sandbag as desired. We finished by climbing hoffa hill about 5 times while continuing to hand off the sandbag.

Ruckers: Babe, TBTF, Noodles, Saga, Sparrow, Cookies.
Runners: Shiplap, Tortuga, Jolly, Banks, Crack, Beaker.

Saga shared a Moleskin about being present in the moment.

We then did COT without a camera, as a way to be present in the moment.

Coffeeteria with a beautiful red-sky background. It was dreamlike. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. 7 hours later, with snow and sleet pelting my office window I’m thinking “That escalated quickly.”

Although we might have been short an hour of sleep, today has felt like waking up after a really satisfying dream.