Author: Fireman Ed

8 mature warriors braved the rain to make it out to Gridiron. For whatever reason, it rains 2/3 of the time that Fireman Ed Q’s at Gridiron (or about 4 times as often as the Jets win). A PAX called me the Weatherman so I made it the title of todays backblast.

After checking to see if White Deer was going to make it (and to Attila’s dismay he did not), the workout went like this: COP: 10 Russian Soldiers, 7 DQs, 10 Helicopters and 10 merkins.

Mosey to the bus loop (one of the very few covered areas in the AO). Pull a deck of cards. Ace of Spades – 15 burpees, other spades – 1 to 13 merkins, hearts – heels to heaven, clubs – Lt. Dans, diamonds – 2 count mountain climbers. It took us awhile to get through this so we split the cards with a yog around the school. There was a lot of pent up excitement for the Ace of Spades (who knew that old people like burpees). After going through the deck, we went on another yog and met back at the bus loop.

Next was a triple check with groups of 2. PAX 1 went around the triangle while PAX 2 did pickle pounders, then flutter kicks and then pole smokers.

Mosey to pavilion near cars. Elevens with derkins and dips.

Finish with American hammers and arm circles.

Closed in prayer. Please sign up for Breaking Bread as there is availability for May and beyond. I believe you can sign up on the Q sheet. Details should be on the website; reach out to Upchuck with questions. I plan to take a shift this summer; feel free to join me.

13 able bodied middle aged dudes (maybe upper middle age for several) showed up in the cold morning for a beat down. After being amazed at another high attendance morning, the Fireman Ed’s Q went like this:

COP: Two laps with some jogging, karaoke and Bernie Sanders. Honeydo was a casualty of the severely fast pace of the old folks and took a slight tumble. DQs, 3 punitive burpees, CP, ACs, Fred Mercuries

Exercise 1: Start with 10 merkins, then 10 merkins, 20 WWIIs, then 10 merkins, 20 WWIIs, 30 jump squats, then 10 merkins, 20 WWIIs, 30 jump squats, 40 2 count mountain climbers, then add in 50 2 count flutters. Finish with 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 of the above assigned exercise.

Mosey to drop off loop for a Tabata style routine with 45 seconds on and 15 seconds off of the following exercises:

Burpees, Heels to heaven, elbow plank, HRMs, LBCs, Plank jack, Carolina DDs, 6 inches (read as Qinches to one person), SSHs, wide grip merkins, APDs, Crab cakes, Suzanne Somers, helix squats. After completing the sets we moseyed around the school to the front.

Next exercise was 10 donkey kicks, then 15 DKs, then 20 DKs, then 25 DKs.

Mosey to parking lot. 20 American hammers, merkin ring of fire, 3 punitive burpees, DQs and CPs, sorry PAx no SSHs:(

Closed in prayer with no announcements (none of us could remember what was going on – the beauty of getting old).

Considering the difficulties that this world, nation and locality are experiencing it is good to have a group that can come together and do something positive. Let’s help someone else this week.

God bless,

Fireman Ed (Robert Saleh’s older thinner brother).

9 noble warriors braved the mean streets of the Far West End for a coupon-aided beatdown. It went like this:

COP: Dead man hangs, cherry pickers, DQs, merkins (20 merkins) and Freddie Mercuries. 5 punitive burpees. Sorry no SSHs.

Exercise 1: Run and do 10 merkins at each stop. One person gets to carry the coupon. Total 50 merkins.

Exercise 2: 4 corners with 10 burpees, 20 WWIIs (feel that cool ground), 30 2 count pickle pounders, 40 jump squats

Exercise 3: Elevens with HRMs and flutter kicks – 55 merkins

Exercise 4: 10 donkey kicks, 30 seconds wall sit and 20 seconds balls to the wall, Followed by 15, 45 and 30 and then followed by 20, 60 and 40. After chum bucket made a special ed comment 5 more punitive burpees.

Exercise 5: Curb bear crawl and crawl bear with 1 merkin up to 8 merkins – 36 merkins

Mosey to chin up bars sans coupon – 9 chinups, 18 dips, 7 chin ups, 14 dips and 5 chin ups with 10 dips. The odd numbers threw the PAX off. Do one minute elbow plank.

Finish with merkin ring of fire – 10 merkins, American Hammers, dead man hang, cherry pickers and DQs and 5 punitive burpees.

Closed in prayer. Good luck to Blue Moon and his pacer Gypsy. Prayers are with a teammate of mine who is COVID positive and for civility in politics post election.

Total merkins (including burpees) – 191, not too shabby for the geriatric ward. The Special Ed comes from a name that the PAX gave me due to someone stating they thought today was going to be a special guest Q and I said yeah I am the special guest Q. And somehow that led to the name Special Ed. Even though the Jets su$k, I am sticking with Fireman Ed and yes my mama does think I am special:). Have a great weekend.

8 warriors braved the mighty drizzle of Short Pump to brave a workout from Fireman Ed. The workout went something like this:

COP: 15 SSHs (for some reason my body went faster than my cadence causing a near uproar from the geriatrics who prefer predictability and order), 10 DQs, 20 FMs, 15 ACs (each direction) and 13 Cherry pickers. Mosey to curb near track

Exercise 1: Curb Bear Crawl and Crawl Bear up to 5 merkins. Rest and go 6 to 9 merkins. Mosey around track (with Jville splashing in the puddles like a good country boy).

Exercise 2: With the theme being 9 26 (cause that’s what today is) we did 9 donkey kicks followed by 26 WWIIs, then 9 chicken peckers and 26 2 count LBCs, then 9 donkey kicks and 26 2 count flutter kicks. Mosey around school to get some cardio.

Exercise 3: 1 burpee at each pole, 13 poles; then 2 burpees at each pole for 13 poles. Mosey around school to benches near swampy field.

Exercise 4: 9 merkins then 26 bench kicks (probably wrong term), 9 HRMs then 26 2 count steps, and 9 diamond merkins then 26 calf raises on the bleacher steps (with two of us almost falling). Mosey to pavilion

Exercise 5: 9 derkins 26 squats, 9 derkins 26 jump squats, 9 derkins 26 2 count mountain climbers. Mosey to famous Gainesville chin up bars.

Exercise 6: 9 chin ups, 26 dips, 7 chin ups, 13 dips, 5 chin ups, 13 dips. Mosey to parking lot after 2 rounds around the parking lot

26 2 count American hammer, round of Mary with merkins, DQs and rotten cherry pickers.

Closed in prayer.

Announcements: There is a gently used shoe collection for an organization called Homeward. The POCs are Gypsy, Honeydo (West End), Spit (Daville) and TryHard (SOJ). Please give the shoes that you no longer wear.

Field Event in Amelia on 10/3 (next Saturday). I am guessing other backblasts will have more details.

I am glad to entertain with the uneven SSH cadence. It proves some of you were paying attention.

Help those in need.

Fireman Ed

10 able bodied and mature warriors descended on Gridiron on a humid and slightly rainy day. Before we commenced the beatdown, it was noticed that J’ville was wearing “Scott” brand sneakers. Who knew that a diversification strategy of turf treatment and footwear could work?

The workout went like this:

COP: 11 SSHs, 11 DQs, 11 Freddie Mercuries, 11 arm circles and 11 cherry pickers.

Elevens:

First 11 (White Deer version): HRMs move five feet so WWIIs

Second 11 (Tater version): Plank Jacks go 30 yards do Lt. Dans

Third 11 (Lighthouse version): Carolina Dry docks go 70 yards do 2 count flutter kicks

Mosey to chin up bars – do 3 sets of 11 chin ups, 11 dips and 11 heels to heaven

Mosey to parking lot – 2 11 burpees divided into 2 sets, 11 2 count AHs, 11 2 count mountain climbers, 22 LBCs, merkin round of fire, 11 DQs, 11 cherry pickers (us old folks have to stretch) and finish with 2 laps around parking lot of normal jogging, karaoke and Bernie Sanders.

Announcements: Labor Day Convergence at Gridiron at 7 a.m. with coffee and breakfast sandwiches served for those who make it. Sorry no Bloody Marys. 10/3 2nd F in Amelia

Closed in prayer. Make sure to help those in need during these challenging times. In god’s name we pray. Amen.

13 men ranging from one Gen Z to a couple of Baby Boomerish age got together to partake in a Fireman Ed led workout. Our War Daddy, White Deer is on his 7th knee so I tried to ensure he wasn’t running too much. Every time I asked him if it was OK if we relocate, he responded with “Don’t worry about me.”

The workout went like this:

COP: Don Quixotes, Side straddle hops, Merkins, Arm Circles and Freddie Mercuries ending with 3 punitive burpees

Mosey to soccer field and do 4 sets of 4 corners (after a bunch of confusion about where to start and which direction to go).

1. 10 HRMs, 20 WWIIs, 30 jump squats, 40 2 count flutter kicks
2. 10 Carolina DDs, 20 Lt. Dans, 30 2 count mt. climbers and 40 heels to heaven
3. 10 burpees, 20 plank jacks, 30 superman reps and 40 pickle pounders
4. 10 squats followed by bear crawl, 20 squats, 30 squats followed by crawl bear, 40 squats

Mosey to UF Gators jungle gym, Elbow plank for one minute

Do 3 sets of 7 chin up, 11 dips, lunge to top of hill and run around pickleball courts.

Mosey to near children’s playground (that sounds creepy but no one was using the playground). Elbow plank for one minute. Then end with 30 2 count American hammers in cadence (this one had comments of disapproval), LBCs. arm circles and Don Quixotes.

Ended in prayer. Announcement is that By product and Johnsonville are biking at Pocohontas State Park on Sunday mornings. Reach out to them if you want to join them.

Even though it was not the smoothest Q, I did enjoy myself.

Fireman Ed

10 manly studs and 1 non-manly Pax (welcome Buffy) enjoyed a good workout on a late June like humd morning at Gridiron. We also enjoyed the return of Tater from his 14th or so knee surgery. And actually Tater had more bounce than half the PAX. I also have to commend Johnsonville on his Julius Caesar like haircut. Of course I haven’t had a haircut since 2008 so what do I know?.

Anyway, the workout went like this:

Run around school (except for Tater) – COP: 25 SSH, 10 DQ, 25 Freddie Mercuries, and 15 arm circles

Perform the baker’s dozen (45 seconds on an exercise, 15 seconds off). Exercises include:

Merkins, Squats, Flutter Kicks, Hand release merkins, Lt. Dans, six inches, wide grip merkins, side lunges, heels to heaven, burpees, crabcakes, plank and WWIIs.

We did this twice with a run around the school in between.

Then we moseyed around the school to the new Florida Gator pull up bars. We partook in 7 chin ups down to 5 chin ups with a run around the pickleball court in between the three sets.

We finished with a long set of American hammers, a stretch and arm circles.

Announcements include:

Monday 7 a.m. Murph style exercise at Gridiron. We will do 1/4 mile increments with a set of pull ups. This will replace Batteau and Punisher (please confirm/deny).

We closed in prayer. Welcome to our FNG Buffy who somehow knows Johnsonville, just finished her junior year, dances a lot and stays up all night looking for vampires (OK maybe we made the vampire part up). Either way, we called her Buffy. Please put those in the front lines in your prayers.

God bless.

Fireman Ed