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:
Disclaimer: If you eat cinderblock today, that’s on you. I told you not to hold it above your mouth.
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WOR: National Aerobic championship theme. About 50 Side Straddle Hops, along with Mountain Man Poopers, Block Kicks, Side Lunges, Arm Circles.
Repeat each exercise until they song names the next number.
Comparable to the basketball game HORSE, but on the Monkey Bars. Done to the tune of “My Shot” from Hamilton.
You and a partner spread out around the playground. Weaker PAX issues the first challenge, i.e. “traverse this section of monkey bars backwards without touching the ground.”
If the challenger succeeds and the second pax fails, he gets the letter M, and so on until one pax spells MONK or MONKEY and the game is over. Loser does burpees until the other pax finish.
(Note, we played this game for quite a while, since PAX were evenly matched and the challenges kept coming.)
Once one of each, anytime Julie Andrews says it.
Do – Burpee
Re – Starjump
Mi – Squat
Fa – Bonnie Blaire
Sol – D Bombers
La – Bird dog
Ti – Mtn Climbers
Do – Burpee
I think She sings these words at least 10 times. Near the end of the song, it got pretty absurd.
Divide into two groups. The “American Colonies” group runs while “The British Empire” group does burpees. It’s up to the revolutionaries to decide if or when they return and let the British stop burpeeing and run. The only required parameter is that the Americans be back before the 3.5 minute song is over.
In a brilliant twist of genius, Benedict Arnold Saga reset the song, thereby giving 1.5 minutes of Burpees to the Americans. This is what games were made for.
Moleskin: Say no to dueling.
COT
NOR
Welcome 8 Track.
Having missed out on the previous three weeks of nonsense, YHC was eager to dive back in, and SAGA had provided the perfect opportunity, a chance to Q a musical-themed beatdown. 14 unsuspecting PAX (Beaker, Katniss, Hot Box, Sparrow, SAGA, Crack, Jolly, Tortuga, Big Mac, Cookies, Panhandle, Shiplap, DaVinci, Noodles, Captain Crunch (QIC)) posted with me to start the week in style.
Warm-o-Rama
No One Mourns the Wicked (6:40) / The Wizard and I (5:09)
Intro to Rivalry: green team vs white team. Best team in each category earns one point
What is this feeling? (3:33)
Popular (3:45)
Defying Gravity (5:54)
Penalty Time: No Good Deed goes unpunished!
No Good Deed (3:32)
For Good (5:07)
Despite having planned to be done with time to spare, too much time adding up scores to determine which team won made transitions larger than budgeted. Even dropping a song, we ran overtime.
COR/NOR/COT: Prayers in celebration of Cookies’ housing situation being sorted for the near future — prayers for the PAX traveling
MOLESKIN:
Planning this Q, it was really fun remembering how much I loved this musical when it came out.
The bulk of the play is messing with the ideas of who is good and who is wicked, and who gets labelled or judged as good or wicked.
As a literature major, let me be the first to say that there is plenty of hogwash in Postmodernism, but one of the goods it provides is a wealth of opportunities for gaining a new perspective. It’s an opportunity to maybe judge people a little less, to see them (hopefully) a little closer to how God sees them.
Listening through it again for this Q, I was reminded by the harsh, foolish and ill-informed words of the crowds that we should be slow to judge others. Jesus tells us twice in the Gospel of Matthew that what we bind on earth is bound in heaven and what we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. In a very real sense, what judgements we render upon our neighbor are damnation or salvation to them. May we be slow to judge others, and abounding in mercy, even as God has shown us mercy.
PAX:
Heist, Sparrow, Cookies, Shiplap, Hotbox, Tortuga, Katniss, Jolly, Gummi Bear
WOR:
– air squats
– merkins
– bent over rows
– curls for the girls (and for the arms race)
– arm circles
THANG:
– Murph. Only Murph.
MOLESKIN:
July 4th provides an opportunity to celebrate our country and the freedom’s we enjoy. What is freedom? Freedom is the capacity to choose wisely and to act well as a matter of habit (and virtue). When considering how to be free, we should remember the weaknesses and vices we must first conquer. St. Thomas Aquinas defines effeminacy (not to be confused with femininity) as an unwillingness to put aside pleasure in order to pursue what is difficult, and sloth as an aversion to what is difficult. In other words, the effeminate man skips the Murph because he enjoys sleeping in. The slothful man skips the Murph because he loathes the hard work of the Murph. We must conquer both of these weaknesses if we want to be properly free and choose the Murph (or any other good). So let’s be grateful for F3 for teaching us the discipline necessary to conquer weaknesses that limit our freedom, let’s be grateful for the freedoms we have inherited as citizens of this country, and let’s strive to be men that deserve what we have been given.
COT:
Prayers for . . .
– the Armenians that have recently encountered Sparrow and the Gospel for the first time,
– Cookie’s entering his last week of work,
– Tortuga’s wedding anniversary is today,
– Hotbox 2.0 has a birthday today,
– Heist is expecting a baby Sept 20.
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.
Backblast
AO Mastodon, 5/18/21, 5:30AM
Twenty-eight PAX posted for a friendly beatdown this beautiful morning. After a quick WOR of 5 count motivators, OYO arm circles and Michael Phelps, and 10 copperhead merkins IC, we moseyed over to Dan Taylor alley for Thang One.
Thang One: KUBB 1
With way more men than I anticipated, I made some modifications to my plan as we moseyed to Dan Taylor. KUBB was set up between two soccer goals. Men partnered up. I sent seven pairs to one side of the pitch and seven to the other side. In each partnership, one HIM ran around a marked route while the other earned tosses and tossing. A toss was earned with 30 merkins, 30 lunges, or 30 squats. When a team knocked a block down, the PAX present on that team ran a short lap around their soccer goal before continuing. When the runner of the pair returned, partners switched roles.
Instead of tossing a baton at the blocks, PAX could choose to take a frisbee and attempt to hit a set target. A successful hit resulted in a free block knock down.
Once a team knocked down all the blocks they did ten burpees before attempting the king.
Team 1 was victorious in round one.
Thang Two: KUBB 2
Same as round one with shorter running route, 15 reps each: hand release merkins, Bonnie Blairs, jump squats.
Team 2 won this round.
Mary/ tie breaker
Back at the flags teams circled up for a plank-off to determine the winner. After a few minutes of planking, merkins were mixed in. With six or seven PAX left we went to plank with arms bent to 90 degrees. It came down to Waterboy and BigMac with Waterboy pulling off the win. Go team 2!
NOR: Gummi Bear, Wet Burrito, Doublemint, Panda Express, Ralphie, Achtung, BOGO, Captain Crunch, Shiplap, Saga, Binford, T-Bone (respect), Hot Box, Cookies, Cheese (respect), Bloomer, Panhandle, Jolly, Crack, Sparrow, Getaway, BigMac, DaVinci, Waterboy, Watson (respect, respect, FNG), Beaker, Heist (FNG), Tortuga Q
COT: Prayers for Crack’s M with a doctor’s appointment for a long term problem on Friday, Crack’s family as K-Pop graduates, his oldest comes back home from her internship, and all the changes coming their way, Tortuga and his M go to a new psychologist this Friday for some intensive therapy for her anxiety.
Praise for bodies that work and men to push us on.
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, 15 slow tempo merkins, 15 fast tempo merkins)
Station #4 – Bear Crawl Snake up Hoffa (Snake up Hoffa, PAX at the end weaves in and out to the top of the line, next PAX at end of the line begins crawl).
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.
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.
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”
F3 Wheaton 