Author: ric02002

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(1.7.22) Battle Buddies


AO: >Lightning Rod

QIC: > Walkman

PAX: > Herbie, Danish, Kiwi, Samurai, Bob Evans, Lumbergh, Slash, Steamy Nix



CONDITIONS

Thank the lord it was 50 degrees because it was WET. Poured on us the whole time but the liquid sunshine provided some great cooling for the beatdown.

Warm Up (Circle of Pain)

Warm up

  • Mosy to the track with our coupons, set the coupons on the goal line. Pax lined up for a six man run with one coupon. The coupon starts at the front, and is passed down the line until the last man has it, then the last man runs it to the front. Completed 2 laps then circled up for: Windmill, Third Grade Exercise, hammy stretch, Halo’s all x10.

The Thang

Partnered up and lined up on the goal line with one coupon per team. The team was responsible for moving the coupon to the other goal line.

Round 1: Lunge walk with coupon handoff every 5 yards. Every 20 yards stopped and the team completed 10 merkin squats (wheelbarrow position as a team, one member is doing merkins and the other is doing squats)

Round 2: Murder bunny (partner doing broad jumps) with coupon handoff every 5 yards. Every 20 yards, stopped and completed 10 merkin squats.

Round 3: Rifle carry (partner just walking) with coupon handoff every 5 yards. Every 20 yards, stopped and completed 10 Thrusters or squats. Raised the stakes – if a team missed a handoff, walked passed a line, or forgot to switch, they owed 5 penalty merkins. This increased communication on the teams and we only had 1 set of penalty merkins across all teams.

Round 4: Bear crawl with coupon drag, coupon switched every 5 yards. Every 20 yards, completed 10 big bois with coupon handoff. Penalty merkins in effect but the pax did great and nobody earned any.

We were tight for time, so started COT on the mosy, sorry everyone.

COT

YHC shared the adventures at The Grizzly – detailing the physical and mental challenges of the event and talking through the teamwork, external focus, and grit required to push through. Bob Evans and his physical preparation helped carry a lot of people, and Samurai’s attitude and mental toughness shined throughout the night. Great event that taught us a lot and I encourage everyone to consider one, and to prep for it accordingly.

Great work Men!

Walkman

Posted on

So Long, and thanks for all the Merlot!


AO: >The Gauntlet

QIC: > Walkman

PAX: > Stray Cat



CONDITIONS

mid 20’s but dry snow on the ground!

Warm Up (Circle of Pain)

  • Mosy two laps and circle up for Halo’s x 10, Squat x 10, Third Grade Exercise x 10, Imperial Walker x 10, mosy to the playground.
  • Pull up x 5, Swing extensions (stand in front the swing, hold it with your arms, push it out as far as you can, supporting yourself with it and your core) x 10. repeato x 2. Mosy to the stairs.

The Thang

5 rounds: 5 burpees, 5 step up high knees (HC), run top of stairs, 5 decline merkins on the benches.

Mosy to the bike racks and stairs.

3 rounds: Sprint down one lane of bike racks (length wise), 5 squats, spring back, 5 squats, repeato down each lane, run down the stairs, 5 decline merkins, run up the stairs.

Mosy to the football field. Lunge walk 20 yards, broad jump 20 yards, repeato till end zone. Mosy back to starting spot.

6MoM

  • Penguins x 25, LBC’s x 25, Frozen Freddies x 25.

COT

We talked about the end of the year, closing of things and the opportunity to reset and declare new purposes, and intentions for the new year. YHC also shared how critical the fellowship is in my life. I’ve been injured, sick, or out of town largely for the last 8 weeks, and though I kept up my workouts, even my M commented on me being off. I need the group. This has been the best week of the last 8 because of it. Thanks!

Great work men!

Walkman

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Battle Buddy


AO: >The Gauntlet

QIC: > Walkman

PAX: > Walkman



CONDITIONS

34 and damp! Quarter inch of ice greeted me on the car windows. But clear skies lead to a great workout. Solo was a great mental exercise!

Warm Up (Circle of Pain)

Running solo, YHC jogged a lap, completed scissor arms x 10, neck rolls x 10, windmill x10, Third Grade Exercise x 10, hammy stretch x 10.

The THANG

Ran 2.5 miles doing one lap, 10 merkins, 10 GT Squats, and side leg lifts x 20 with 20 second hold on each side, reapeato.

Plank x 60, side plank x 30 ea till time.

Moleskin

Don’t worry, I saved the real battle buddy beatdown for my next Q, and I’ll share my CoT about year end at that time too 🙂

Walkman

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Title

A0: The Gauntlet

QIC: Walkman

PAX: Herbie, Houdini

Conditions

39 and chilly, but dry!

Warm up

All exercises x 12. Scissor Arms, Grady Corns, Third Grade Exercise, Imperial Walkers, Monkey Humpers, Hammy Stretch.

Light jog to the playground.

The Thang

Six man run (one lap, one lead per peson)

Pyramid workout.

Round 1: 10 burpees, 10 GT Squats, 5 pull ups, 10 hanging leg raises

10 merkins

Round 2: 9 burpees, 9 GT Squats, 4 pull ups, 9 hanging leg raises

10 merkins.

Repeato with 10 merkins between each round, descending to 8, 7,6,5 and then back up 5,6,7,8,9 and we ran out of time before completing the final round.

Mosey back to the track.

6MOM

Each x 25: Plank, Penguin, LBX, Frozen Freddie, Core Rocker (x15).

COT

YHC shared that being injured over the last 3 weeks made me realize how much the 2nd F is critical to what we do. I was doing my workouts at home – not nearly the same intensity for multiple reasons, but still physically challenging, but my M made the comment that she could tell I was missing something. The workouts themselves were not having the same impact on my patience, presence, attitude, joy, etc. I missed the gloom, struggling with other men in the same direction. I missed the fellowship piece, and it cannot be decoupled from fitness without limiting the impact. The need for fellowship is real.

The conversation expanded into what motivates/demotivates us and what we could do to be more inclusive and inviting to F3 for current and prospective participants.

Great work today Men!

Walkman

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When you’re in charge, take charge

A0: The Gauntlet

QIC: Walkman

PAX:  Free Lunch

Conditions

51 and clear. Nice quiet morning in the gloom.

Warm up

Windmill x 10, Third Grade Exercise x 10, Scissor Arms x 10, Slow High Knees x 10, Hammy stretch x10

The Thang

TABATA – 45 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest.

Rounds 1-3: Thrusters, HR Merkins, Flutter Kicks, Frozen Freddies, Side leg lifts (alternating sides each round)

Rounds 4-6: Squat holds (squat and hold for 3 count), Hot Paw Merkins, Prestige Worldwides, American Hammers, Side Leg Lifts

Rounds 7 &8: Squat pulse (squat and pulse for 3 count), OHP, Flutter Jack, Plank with knee to elbow, Side leg lifts

COT

During the workout YHC shared the story of “The Grizzly” – it takes about 30 minutes to really tell it and it carried into the CoT. The primary message was focused around one of the leadership lessons from Q school, which was

“when you’re in charge, take charge.”

This became very apparent as our Platoon Leaders and Associate Platoon Leaders tried to herd ~30 men who were exhausted, beat down, stressed, and operating with limited visibility throughout the night of The Grizzly.

Additionally, there’s an interesting corrolary that comes out of this lesson. That is

“when you’re not in charge, be a good follower”

Being a good leader, even when you’re not in the leadership position, means you follow well. This can be challenging, particularly when most of the team is used to being leaders. In that environment, it’s even more critical to follow well. There were several instances in the Grizzly where individuals taking initiative undercut the systems the PL & APL were working on to keep us moving. We sorted them out, but it was a great lesson to learn in real life.

This applies to our life as partners, fathers, friends, employees, bosses, etc.

When you’re in charge, take charge. When you’re not, be a good follower.

Great work today men!

Walkman

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Soaked

A0: The Gauntlet

QIC: Walkman

PAX:  Free Lunch, Kiwi

Conditions

50 degrees and absolutely pouring. Tons of water on the ground. We all walked up at the last minute and promptly decided to head to the covered area.

Warm up

Jogged to the covered area in the back of the park to start a Deck of Death. On the way, YHC stepped in a giant puddle and soaked his shoes, and realized that any efforts to stay dry were Futile, so we may as well lean into being soaked. So we stopped in the parking lot and completed scissor arms x 10, halo’s x 10, windmill x 10, third grade exercise x 10, and a 10 count of a hamstring stretch requested by Free Lunch (thanks bob evans!).

Used the parking space lines. Broad jumped to the first line, completed 5 merkins, jogged back, completed 5 GT squats. Completed the same sequence to the next parking spot line, adding 5 of each movement. Repeato until the 5th line – doing 25 merkins and 25 GT squats.

The Thang

Modified from the D.O.D and did a 3 man Dora instead. Used the near and far curbs for distance.

Round 1: Team did 350 GT Squats, one person bear crawling to the nearest curb, one holding plank, the other doing the squats.

Round 2: Team did 100 burpees, one person jogging to the second curb, one holding plank, the other doing burpees.

Mosied to the tennis courts – they were too slippery – so moved down to field.

Round 3: Team did 150 American Hammers (HC). One ran to the far side of the field, one held plank, one did the Hammers.

6MOM

Penguins x 20

Frozen Freddies x 20

COT

Short and Simple COT, inspired by NAS. “Say what you do, do what you say, be ultra-about it.”

Kiwi probed into what ‘ultra’ means to us and prompted some good convo.

We all agreed that Michelob Ultra’s were going to show up at Free Lunch’s Q tomorrow!

Great work getting soaked today men!

Walkman

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Accountability

A0: The Gauntlet

QIC: Walkman

PAX: Herbie, Free Lunch, FNG (Platypus), Kiwi

Conditions

45ish and drizzly. Thoroughly expected to get drenched but we were mostly dry other than ground work today!

Warm up

Monkey Humpers x 10, Third Grade Exercise x 10, Side Lunges x 16, Arm Scissors x 10, Imperial Squawkers x 10, Imperial Door Kicks x 10, Mosied a lap as a six man run.

The Thang

Six man run (one lap, one lead per peson)

Merkins x 25

Six Man Run with 3 merkins

Squat Jumps x 25

Six Man Run with 3 Squat Jumps

Burpees x 20

Six Man Run with 3 burpees

Bonnie Blairs x 15 (HC)

Six Man Run with 3 Bonnie Blairs (HC)

Lined up on the goal line for Pinwheels. A pinwheel is a 20 yard sprint with a movement done in a complete circle, repeato to the endzone. Completed Plank walks, Big Boy Pivots (big boy, swivel one direction without your hands or feet, repeato until you’ve made the whole circle). Dead Bugs – circles in both directions each 20 yards, and Peter Parkers.

6MOM

Penguins x 15, Frozen Freddies x 15, Side plank reach x 10 w/ side star x 5 – each side. Big Bois x 2.

COT

YHC shared that most of the successes and challenges I see people having in their lives come back to accountability. The people are embrace it, are good at it, and keep trying to be accountable continue to find success in those areas of their lives. People who avoid it, are bad at it, or don’t try it struggle more. It’s impossible to be fully accountable, especially given all the different aspects of our lives – relationships, kids, work, etc. But growing in accountability in each one of these aspects will yield benefits. In order to sharpen our aim, I shared the four things that an accountable person does:

  1. An accountable person does what they say they are going to do.
  2. When they can’t do 1, for any reason, they proactively communicate it to the stakeholders.
  3. They then own diagnosis of their own failure/shortcoming – they have to identify ‘why’ they missed. This includes asking for help if they can’t identify it themselves.
  4. they own taking corrective action – skilling up, better planning, etc. This includes asking for help if they don’t know how to correct it.

Great work today men!

Walkman

Posted on

Balance

A0: The Gauntlet

QIC: Walkman

PAX: Kiwi, Whitney!

Conditions

nearly 60 degrees and dry. Beautiful morning in the gloom!

Warm up

Monkey Humpers x 15, Side lunges x 15, third grade exercise x 15, imperial squawkers x 15, scissor arms x 15. Mosied a lap and carried our coupons to the lunch area stairs.

The Thang

Mirrored the workout on the ‘500 Kettlebell swing’ challenge that Stray Cat posted earlier in the week. We took a 10 count after each round of 25. Mosied to the endzone for the last round including Murder Bunnies. All in completed 250 Coupon swings.

10 kb swings

Sprint up stairs

10 dips

Run down stairs

15kb swings

Sprint up stairs

15 dips

Run down stairs

25 kb swings

Sprint up stairs

25 dips

Run down stairs

10 kb swings

Sprint up stairs

10 jump squats

Run down stairs

15kb swings

Sprint up stairs

15 jump squats

Run down stairs

25 kb swings

Sprint up stairs

25 jump squats

Run down stairs

10 kb swings

Step up 

10 ohp

Rifle carry down

15kb swings

Step up 

15 ohp

Rifle carry down

25 kb swings

Step up 

25 ohp

Rifle carry down

10 kb swings

Step up

5 blockees

15kb swings

Step up

5 blockees

25 kb swings

Step up

5 blockees

Mosy to field

10 kb swings

10 yard murder bunnies

10 merkins

15kb swings

15 yard murder bunny

15 merkins

25 kb swings

25 yard murder bunny

25 merkins

6MOM

LBC x 37

COT

Kiwi had to bounce early but Whitney and I had a conversation about Balance. We talked about how, when you’re balanced, things feel smooth and easy. If that gives you anxiety, then it’s worth examining the thing that makes you feel that way. The visual of riding a bike helps. When you’re riding smoothly, effortless, you’re balanced. But you can’t do that while standing still – balance requires velocity, but not acceleration. What we’re all seeking is balance – between work, family, friends, fitness, spritual, etc.

Great work men!

Walkman

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20-10’s

AO: The Gauntlet

QIC: Walkman

PAX: Kiwi, Bob Evans, Free Lunch

Conditions

53 and dry! Fully expected some rain but it was a beautiful morning.

Warm up

Mosied a lap around the track. Circled up for Windmill x 10, Squat x 10, Third Grade Exercise x 10, Squat x 10, Grady Corns x 10. Mosied to the play structure

The Thang

The Pax completed a series of exercise in a format I called 20-10’s. there would be an initial exercise, then a total of 20 movement split up in 5-15, 10-10, and 5-15 counts, and then a final exercise of 10. All done OYO.

First round:

3 Pull ups, 15 Squats, 5 box jumps, 10 calf raises (each leg)

3 pull ups, 10 squats, 10 box jumps, 10 calf raises (each leg)

3 pull ups, 5 squats, 15 box jumps, 10 calf raises (each leg)

Mosied to the picnic tables

10 decline merkins, 15 split squats (each leg), 5 box jumps, 10 calf raises (legs together)

10 decline merkins, 10 split squats (each leg), 10 box jumps, 10 calf raises (legs together)

10 decline merkins, 5 split squats (each leg), 15 box jumps, 10 calf raises (legs together)

Mosied to the turf below the bike racks

5 burpees, 15 Real Peter Parkers, 5 Pistol Squats (each leg), 10 calf raises (legs together)

5 burpees, 10 Real Peter Parkers, 10 Pistol Squats (each leg), 10 calf raises (legs together)

5 burpees, 5 Real Peter Parkers, 15 Pistol Squats (each leg), 10 calf raises (legs together)

Mosied back to the field

6MOM

Side stars x 5 each leg (HC). Plank x 15.

CoT

I shared some personal victories in my life and the impact they are having. Not going to put them in writing, but I appreciated being able to share something intimate with the PAX and getting their insight and feedback on it.

Great work Men!

Walkman

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Meaning

AO: The Gauntlet

QIC: Walkman

PAX: Herbie, Danish, Free Lunch, Kiwi, Bob Evans

Conditions

48 and wet ground but no falling water. YHC was extremely pleased to see 5 pax in the gloom this morning! So pleasantly surprised it altered my workout and CoT.

Warm up

Mosy lap

Circle up and Mary Poopins x 10, Imperial Walkers x 10, Third Graders x 10, arm scissors x 10.

Mosy Lap

Pull up at the Shipping containers and grab a piece of wall – wall sits with Seal claps x 10, OHP x 12, Cherry Pickers x 12, Forward Arm Circles x 12, Reverse Arm Circles x 12. Mosy to the end zone.

The Thang

Line up on the end zone.

5 burpees, run to 10 yard line, 10 squats, run back.

5 burpees, run to 20 yard line, 20 squats.

Repeato to the 50.

Free lunch reminded us all that, to him, the fourth F is Fsquats.

Mosy to the bike rack stairs.

11’s – burpees at the bottom of stairs, merkins at the top. Start with 10 burpees, run up the stairs, 1 merkin, run down. 9 burpees, 2 merkins, repeato until 1 burpees and 10 merkins. YHC struggled mightily with the merkins! Danish found the dog poop (with his hand) right away, demonstrating great leadership by showing his team where the obstacles were and tackling them first. Great work Danish! Also – how ridiculous for someone to take their dog to the completely fake grass a few minute walk from real grass.

Bob Evans shared that the 3rd F is Faith, and for him it’s why he lives every day the way he does.

Mosied to the tennis courts and completed two sets of fish bones.

Kiwi shared that the second F is fellowship, and that anything in the world worth doing is worth doing with people. Real relationships are required for that to be the case.

Mosied to the starting point.

Penguins x 10, Frozen Freddies x 10, Side plank reaches L & R x 10, big bois x 10.

Danish shared that the first F is fitness, and that for him, fitness sets the stage for the rest of his day. It’s necessary for all the other things to go well.

COT

I had a different CoT planned for today, but when I showed up and saw 5 men were joining me I had to change course. I realized a frustrating internal perspective that I needed to put on the table and share with the group. I’d expected maybe 1 other guy, and as such was somewhat demotivated. Mind you, that’s only happened a few times, and each time it does, it’s great – the intimacy has value too. But the energy of more men is different. I felt I owed the group an apology for doubting them – for the negative expectation I had. How dare I lean into the negative expectation and doubt the value our time together has in the lives of each of you?

I was encouraged not to apologize and that none was necessary, and there’s some truth to that – we all do this for the value it brings to our lives. But there’s more than that. Herbie shared that he feels the same – it’s more motivating to see a larger group, and its also less motivating if you’re battling the fart sack and think it might just be you or only 1 or 2 guys. The importance of this probably varies person to person, but I enjoyed the conversation and appreciated everyones insight into that feeling and how we can think through it.

Thanks for the great start to the day!

Walkman