Author: Shaw-Shank

  • Triple Check right in the Goyne

    Three hard chargers met in the early, wet morning, for a good of fashioned beat down.

    The Warm up Side Straddle Hops, Cherry Pickers, Helicopters.

    Triple Checks, galore:

    The first: 35 lbs kettlebell swings, 45 lbs goblet squat (I did call out State Farm for doing dead lifts instead of goblet squats, and he played the UNO reverse card on me, and pointed out that I did not initially say goblet squats. Touché, State Farm, Touché), 50 lbs medicine ball carry (50 yards)

    The second: Tricep dip, 50 lbs medicine ball slammers, 35 x2 kettlebell farmers carry (50 yards)

    The third: 50 lbs Medicine ball alternating merkins, 35 x2 kettlebell step ups, Super Mario jumps

    A kind of indigenous run where we also passed the 50 lbs medicine ball to the front.

    FINISH HIM!!!

    The last 8 minutes were a compilation of blood, sweat and tears, brought on compliments of State Farm. There were some accordion merkins (I believe that’s what they’re called), renegade rows, kettlebell curls, backwards bear, leg lifts, Bulgarian stand ups, more accordion merkins, and a bunch of other fun things.

    It lasted supposedly 8 minutes… I saw my watch, I know it was eight minutes, but damned if it didn’t feel like it lasted as long as the previous work out.

    COT

    No announcements/No prayer requests

    Thankfulness to be able to able to get up in the morning and do what we do, to watch over us, and great thanks for letting up on the rain just before we started the workout.

    It was great to get back at it again. It was great to see State Farm and Poolboy. As life starts going back to normal… er, chaotic normal, I hope to start doing more OTB’s on Thursdays.

  • Make it work.

    With the new addition to my family, sometimes you just have to go off the books.

    Three hard chargers gather in the early mornings to get some work in

    The warm up: Mosey to the tennis courts, Slide Straddle Hops, Cherry pickers, Imperial Walker, Arm circles.

    Mosey to the basketball court.

    NASCAR (Indigenous circle run) Round 1 Merkins, WWII, Lunges once all three hard chargers completed a lap, repeat, x4 rounds

    Mosey back to parking lot

    Blue Falcon Merkins, top secret merkin workout. Want in? Stop over.

    10 minutes left, Strong finish

    Triple Check: Heals to Heave, Squat Jumps, Run around the parking lot

    No announcements, No prayer requests.

    It was great to get a chance to Q again at what I consider my home post. Due to work scheduling around my daughter, it isn’t possible for me to workout on Tuesdays. Hope to get a Saturday off one of the weekends, and get some sweat and pain in at Rock n’ Roll, also. Miss you guys.

  • TTFN

    16 hard chargers gathered in the brisk morning for a fun fueled time.

    The warm up: Mosey to the basketball court. Side-Straddle Hops, Helicopter, Cherry Pickers, Super Mario Jumps, Karaoke

    The work: Suicides with Merkins at each interval—5 at the free throw, 10 at half court, 15 at opposite free throw, 20 at other end of court—with Bernie back.

    Run to tennis court. Break into groups of five. Indigenous Canoe. Each group sits in a straight line doing American Hammers while hard charger in the back does lunges to the front of the line. Indigenous Canoe went from one end of the tennis court to the other end.

    Run to the begining of the baseball fields. Triple check One hard charger doing donkey kicks, second doing tricep dips, third running down the stairs, around the bleachers and back up.

    Next triple check, One hard charger doing flutter kicks, second doing wall sit, third running down the stairs and back up other set of stairs.

    Run to parking lot. Four Corners, Prostitute style. First corner, 5 burpees, second, 10 Merkins, third, 20 WWII, fourth, 50 squats.

    Run back to the basketball court. NASCAR (essentially an indigenous run in a circle): All hard charges line up along the line. Hard charger in back runs a complete lap around the basketball court and positions himself in the front of the line. While hard chargers are doing their run around the basketball court, everyone else in line is doing a group workout while waiting for their turn to run. LBCs, Heels to heaven, Alabama Prom dates, Squats, Monkey humpers.

    Crunch Time, 5 minutes left: Run back to parking lot. Form circle. Merkins on my cadence. Down—hold—up—hold—down—hold—up…

    Time.

    COT

    Announcements: No bootcamp at Rock n’ Roll next week (February 10) for CSUP at Dogpile. Growruck the weekend of May 5th.

    I had a blast Q’ing for the second time at Rock n’ Roll! We met two new FNG’s, Duplo and Appllo. WELCOME! Showing up is the hardest part, but the fun begins shortly after. It’s crazy to think that Posh dragged me out to Rock n’ Roll nearly a year and a half ago. I hope both friendly new guys become regulars.

    For the purposes of making child care easier, I’ll begin working weekends for more than likely, the next couple of years. I’m not saying good bye to F3 by any means, I plan on showing up to different AO’s during weekdays, and hopefully some appearances at Rock n’ Roll, albeit much fewer than I would like to.

    As always, if you have yet to do a Q at Rock n’ Roll, I recommend you get on that saddle and take the reins. Don’t worry, you’ll make mistakes and blunders, but you’ll enjoy every minute of it.

    No prayer requests: A general prayer of thanks and appreciation for being able to get together in the early mornings, and do these workouts together. To never forget that this is a privilege, and to watch over us and our families, and to help those in need and/or going through a difficult time.

  • Back in the Saddle

    After taking it easy for a couple months, watching my new born daughter, it was time to step back into the role of the Q. Four hard chargers gathered in the early morning to get the work on.

    The Warm-Up: Side Straddle Hops, Don Quixotes, Imperial Walkers, Cherry Pickers, Super Mario jumps, and Bernie Sanders.

    The Work: Best I can describe as a NASCAR version of an indigenous run. Bear with me, on the basketball court, all four of us align on the corner. Person in the back runs a lap around the basketball court as fast as he can and repositions in the front. While the hard charger is running around the court the other three are doing a work out on the line. Once the hard charger repositions himself in the front, the next person in the back takes off running around the court. As soon as all four hard chargers complete one lap, the workout changes and the laps continue. The order, Merkins, WWII, Flutter Kicks, LBCs, Merkins, Lunges/Squats, American Hammer, Monkey Humpers, Alabama Prom dates. If it sounds confusing, come out next time I have the Q.

    Next up: Broad Jump suicides, with a Bernie Sanders back to the line. Just how it sounds. Regular suicides except instead of running, Broad Jumps

    Next: Line up at one end of Basketball court in high Merkin position. Hard charger on the right sprints to one end to the basketball court and sprints back, gets back on the line. Switch to low Merkin position and hold, next hard charger sprints from one end of the court and back, switch back to high Merkin position. This kept up until all hard chargers did three sprints a piece.

    Since I hadn’t shown up to a whole lot workouts past couple of months, I thought it would be a fun time to get in some of Chaplain’s World Famous Indigenous Pole Smokers. We all know what those are by now.

    Sprint to the finish: All hard chargers doing burpees while one hard charger ran around the entire parking lot. Exercise was complete when each person ran the parking lot once.

    One minute left: Merkin Ring of Fire

    COT

    There were no prayer requests (just a general thanks for being able to get together, and to workout in the crisp morning air. And to watch over all of us and our families.)

    Frozen Triangle is set for February 10.

    I want to say thanks to everyone who reached out to me when my daughter, Sophia was born. It’s been an exciting couple of months, and I don’t think I’ve had this lack of sleep since the military, but it’s easily been the best months of my life, so far. I am also thankful that I decided to have a child well into the 21st century where men also get Parental Leave.

    It was good to get back into the role of being Q.

  • A renovated bathroom is uncharted territory.

    I woke up this morning motivated to take the Q at the Triangle.  I climbed out of bed feeling chipper, and ready to cause some hate and discontent.  Now all I had to do was get ready, I walked into my newly renovated bathroom without turning on the light because I didn’t want to wake up the Misses.  This turned out to be a fatal mistake as I walked full force into our newly placed bathtub, stubbing my toe in the most painful way imaginable.  I immediately fell to the floor and began crying in agony as if I was a boy who had just been punched and had his milk money stolen.  As I lay on the floor in fetal position, I considered throwing in the towel, and giving up on the morning Q, but I realized that I had motivated brothers who depended on me to lead a great workout.  I immediately stood up with the adrenaline of a bull on red bull, wiped the manly tears from my face, put my big boy pants on, and sprang into action.  These are the events that followed. 

    Five hard chargers gathered for some morning work

    The Warm Up: side straddle hops, Ukrainian soldiers, Imperial walkers, Don Quixote’s, arm circles, Super Mario jumps, Karaoke, Bernie Sanders.

    The Work: Elevens, Merkins on one side, sprint the length of the basketball court, squat jacks on the other side.  

    Suicides with Bernie Sanders.  Sprint to free throw line, 1 burpee, Bernie back, Sprint to the half court, 2 burpees, Bernie back.  Keep this same fashion to the end of the court.

    Mosey to the parking lot.  Stop on the way to do 10 monkey bumpers… just cause.

    Next up, Chaplain’s world famous indigenous pole smokers, hard charger in the rear either had to bear crawl, lunge, or crab walk to the front. 

    Next, The Viking ship (formerly known as indigenous canoe) everyone in a single file doing American hammers, hard charger in the rear does five Merkins and lunges to the front. 

    Mosey to the football field.  Stop on the way to do 20 Alabama prom dates… just cause.

    Four corners, Corner 1, 10 burpees, Corner 2, 20 Merkins, Corner 3, 30 WWII, Corner 4, 40 Lt. Dans.  (It is important to note that my original plan was to do 40 flutter kicks, but for the life of me, I could not think of the two words “flutter” and “kicks”.  Not wanting to sound stupid in front of my peers, I asked someone have a good work out to which Big Rig responded Lt. Dans.  This is a perfect example of why you should keep a winkie on hand.)

    Mosey back to parking lot with three minutes to spare.  Merkin ring of fire. 10 hand release Merkins, 10 Ranger Merkins, 10 Wide Merkins.

    COT

    No announcements.  

    Prayer request:  Florence’s wife had an Aunt pass away, prayers for the whole family

    Big Rig’s mother requires a surgery, prayers for a safe recovery.  

    It was good to jump in the Q spot again, it’s been a while.  GO VIKINGS!! Looking at you State Farm, the Chiefs are going down.  They may as well not even bother coming to the Twin Cities as the Vikes are going to row all over them.  Maybe they should go see Taylor Swift live in concert instead.  

  • Bear Down Under

    Five hard chargers including one visitor (Chunda from Maryland) gathered to get their sweat on.

    The warm-up: Mosey to the basketball court. The Side straddle hops, imperial walkers, Don Quixotes, Ukrainian soldiers, LBCs, super Mario jumps, Karaoke, Bernie Sanders.

    The Workout: Mosey to the football field. Four Corners Prostitute style. Corner one 5 burpees, Corner two 10 Merkins (not push-ups, thank you Chunda), Corner three 30 jump squats, Corner four 50 side straddle hops. Total: 35 Burpees, 60 Merkins, 60 Squat Jumps

    Mosey to the parking lot. The OG, always emulated, but never duplicated, CHAPLAIN’S Indigenous pole smokers.

    Circle up for the MERKIN WAVE. All but one hard charger in the down position of the Merkin, with chest 4-6 inches of the ground, alternating everyone in the up position and back down.

    Finish with a TTC, curb kickers, mountain climbers, 100 yard run. (I once again ran short on my workout with five minutes to go. Thank you, Mudslide, for suggesting the TTC for the final five minutes.)

    After a couple weeks of decent (for Virginia) weather, I really felt the humidity this morning, and the sweat was flowing before the warmup even started.

    Glad to have a visitor grace the Bermuda Triangle.

    Prayer requests. Pray for Big Rig’s Mother who is dealing with health issues, safe travels for Chunda and his group when they travel back to Maryland.

  • In a pinch and a broken shovel flag.

    Got to the AO, last minute audible on who’s gonna be the Q.

    Went to insert my shovel flag into the ground, and with all my mighty strength, I snapped my shovel flag in half… either that or I bought the cheapest shovel I could find.

    3 hard chargers showed up for a make it up as you go Q session.

    Mosey to the basketball court.

    Warm up:Side straddle hops, Don Quixote’s, imperial walkers, super Mario jumps, karaoke

    Mosey to the football field.

    Four Corners: 10 burpees, 20 Merkins, 30 jump squats, 40 flutter kicks, no prostitute style, there was a preacher with us, didn’t seem appropriate.

    Florence’s Black Jack, Choose your own adventure style:

    Black Jack, Still 1 rep on one side run 40 yards 20 rep on the other side, run back to the other side, working your way up to 20 on one side, and down to 1 on the other. The choose your own adventure part, each of us had the freedom to choose what workout we did when we got to each side. This work out is a great filler if you don’t have an extensive game plan.

    Mosey back to the parking lot: few extra minutes left.

    Ring of fire, 10 of our favorite Merkins

    COT: No prayer requests

    Special Thanks to State Farm and Preach with suggestions during this Q.

    Looking forward to the summer, hoping the weather stays the way it is, and that I can hit as many AO’s as possible this summer.

  • A new parking lot can’t stop us

    5 hard charges gathered at the Bermuda Triangle to find that the parking lot was closed because of a repave. No worries, one benefit of being there at 5:30 in the morning is there is no one around to worry about where we park.

    Mosey to the basketball court.

    Imperial Walkers, Ukranian Soldiers, Cherry Pickers, Super Mario Jumps, Karaoke, Mercans, and WWII’s

    Mosey to the football field.

    4 work out stations,

    Station 1 Side straddle hops

    Station 2 Plank hand walk up to bench (I’m not sure what the name of the exercise it, but really works out the chest and back

    Station 3 Tri-Cep dips

    Station 5 20 squat jacks, and then run to station 1. Everybody rotates. X3

    Intermission, Blue Falcon Mercans (this is a super top secret workout still in the Alpha phase. It has a few rough edges, but I think I got it ironed out for the next time I Q. So, if you’re interested in doing some blue falcon mercans, keep your eye out for my next Q)

    Four Corners around the football field (No Prostitue style…)

    Corner 1 10 Burpees

    Corner 2 20 Mercans

    Corner 3 30 WWII’s

    Corner 4 50 Smurff Jacks

    Moving on

    Paddling the Canoe:
    Indigenous American Hammers, with the hard charger in the rear doing lunges to the front.

    Mosey back to where the cars were parked

    extra few minutes, closed out with plank position, low plank position, Mercans, and WWII’s

    COT

    Drinks at Diamond Billard’s starting @ 5:30 pm on Friday June 10th

    Prayer Requests:
    Please keep Florences Father in your prayers as he is dealing with health issues

    and Bigriggs Mother-in-Law who is having personal issues.

    I haven’t done a Q for a while now, I forgot how much I enjoy doing it. My goal this summer is to visit more AO’s and work out with new groups/meet people I’ve only seen at CSUP/Convergence, and maybe do a few Q’s at different locations. If you haven’t done a Q yet, give some thought about doing it. I promise your first one will be messy, but you’ll get through it, learn from it, and have a great time doing it. Take care.

  • The Merkin Wave!

    14 Hard chargers (including an FNG) met at Rockwood Park to test their limits and do the Merkin wave.

    Mosey to the Basketball court. The Warm-Up:
    Side Straddle-Hops, Ukrainian Soldiers, Don Quixotes, Imperial Soldiers, Cherry Pickers, Super Mario Jumps, Karaoke.

    THE MERKIN WAVE!

    What is a Merkin wave? Good question; here goes my best: It starts with the group getting into a circle and setting up in a good Merkin position.
    Starting from the down position of the Merkin, with your chest 1 to 2 inches off the ground, the First Hard Charger pushes up, and holds the position, and the person to the immediate left does a Merkin and holds, and it continues in a circl…… Have you either seen the wave done while watching a sporting event, and/or performed the wave while you were at a live sporting event? Well, that’s what we did. Imagine instead of people doing the wave around the stadium, we were doing Merkins in lieu of the wave. I don’t have a number of Merkins we did, but it was an amount that is making it difficult to type right now.

    Next up, Mosey to the baseball fields. Partner up in twos. Everyone does the wall sit, while the first two run down steps, complete 10 Bo-Ya (spelling) Merkins, run back up the steps, and begin doing tri-cep dips. While first two are doing tri-cep dips, next two come off the wall, go down the steps and complete 10 high-five Merkins, run back up the steps, and begin doing dips. The two that were doing dips return to wall sit. Rinse and repeat until everyone had a chance to gets some more Merkins in.

    Next up, indigenous line, everyone in the line doing American Hammers. Hard Charger in the back runs down and around the steps, comes back up, sets up in the front of the indigenous line, begins doing American Hammers, and person in back runs. Rinse and repeat until the everyone had the opportunity to run two laps. An Audible was called halfway through to transition from American Hammers to Word War 2s.

    Last, and certainly not least, Blackjack. Two workouts with a run in the middle, both workouts equaling 21. The first exercise, 1 hand release Merkin, run 40 yards, 20 jump squats, run 40 yards back, 2 hand release Merkins, run 40 yards, 19 jump squats, etc. etc. in total, 210 hand release Merkins and 210 jump squats.

    Mosey back to the parking lot.

    COT: There were no announcements or prayer requests. We welcomed the Friendly New Guy, and he received the name of Gaston.

    Note: This was my first time being the Q for a big group/an area that wasn’t Bermuda Triangle, and I have to say it is a blast. I came in confident that I had everything I needed to get the job done. I found out, like many sound plans, that a few audibles needed to be called, and some prior plans sound much better in your head/on paper than they do in action. I look forward to being the Q again someday in the future and encourage anyone that has never been a Q before to sign up!

  • Goyne Strong

    Four hard charges got together this morning to get another early morning workout in. As I was pulling in early to set up cones for the workout, I saw Big Rig already at the park getting his own workout in. Motivating.

    The Thing:
    Mossey to the Basketball Court

    side-straddle hops, Ukranian Soldiers, Don Quote’s, Imperial Walkers, Super Mario Jumps Karaoke

    Mossey to the Football Field

    Four Cones laid out along the corners of each endzone.

    Cone 1 10 burpees, run 100 yards to Cone 2

    Cone 2 20 Mercans run back to Cone 1

    Cone 1 10 burpees, run back to Cone 2 20 Mercans, run 40 yards to Cone 3

    Cone 3 30 World War 2s, run back to Cone 2

    Cone 2 20 Mercans run to Cone 1

    Cone 1 10 burpees run back to Cone 2 20 Mercans run to Cone 3 30 Word War 2 Run to Cone 4 40 Squat Jumps.

    Total: 50 burpees 120 Mercans 120 World War 2 80 squat jumps

    Run one lap around the outside of the football field.

    40 pole smokers

    Finally Bring Sally up. A sadistic song in which you follow the lyrics “Bring Sally Up” equals Stand, “Bring Sally Down” equals squat and hold in position until you hear “Bring Sally Up”. The song goes on for what seems like and endless loop and possibly on repeat. The first minute seems quite easy, but by the end of the song, your quads are on fire.

    Five minutes to go, finish with 30 yard run around gazebo 20 Mercans, 30 yard run back 30 leg lifts.

    COT, Names, Numbers, Prayers.