Tag: Okwata

Don’t give up.  Don’t ever give up.

YHC was cooking dinner last night (Crispy Parmesan Chicken, for those of you at home wondering) with an NCAA basketball game turned on.  Turns out that this week is the start of the 9th annual “Jimmy V Week” on ESPN.  And I turned on the tube just in time to catch a replay of Jimmy Valvano’s stirring speech from the inaugural ESPY awards on March 3rd, 1993.  And just like that, I had a theme for this mornings Okwata work out – words of wisdom and numbers from the life of Jimmy V.

The Wind: A PAX of 9 held their ground against the blowing east wind.  Belloq had planted the lost shovel flag deep in the ground, so it held firm against the gale.  After a disclaimer, and brief F3 intro for our FNG from Champaign, IL, we were off.

The Fountain: Mosey around the fountain with the usual butt kicks, karaoke and high knees before settling into the marsh grass.

Be enthusiastic every day, and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm,” to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have

Jimmy Valvano died on April 28th, 1993 at age of 47.  So we opened with SSH x47.  Then plank position for MC x47 and PJ x47.

The Levee: Mosey to the Levee.

Don’t give up.  Don’t ever give up.

Words to live by as we stare at the Levee.  Variation on traditional 11s – we are going to do 12s. Start with 10 burpees (other side of the levee) and 2 Dr. Ws this side.  Back over for 9/3.  8/4.  Each pair adds up to 12.  (And yes – Dr. W because JIMMY V IS A WINNER).

OYO.  Go.  PAX starts grumbling and questioning.  “Why 12s?”  YHC challenges them to figure it out.  Shortly, JV observes “Well, that’s a total of 54 reps – that’s my age.”  Then Hawg gets it – “Wait, that’s how many points NC State had when they won the NCAA in 1983.”  Bingo.

(YHC had a plan to do 13s as well – 10/3, 9/4, ….  The rep total for that?  52 – how many points Houston scored.  But time prevented….)

The Shack:  Mosey to the shack.  Actually, YHC tried to turn it into a hands-in-the-air Sprint to the shack, to mimic Jimmy V’s wild run around the court.  Didn’t go over well.

Partner up in 4 groups.  We’ll have 4 stations: Pull Ups (AMRAP), Dips (AMRAP), Murcans (AMRAP) and Legs (the counters)

What’s the count?  25 – Dereck Whittenburg who heaved the wild airball at the end of the game wore number 25.

There are three things we all should do every day. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think and you cry, that’s a full day.

We’ll do 3 full rotations (each pax hitting each station is 1 rotation).

Rotation 1: Laughter.  Our count is 25x Squats

Rotation 2: Think.  Our count is 25x Lunge

Rotation 3: Moved to Tears.  Our count is 25x Monkey Humpers

The Flag: Return to the flag for a round of Mary.

I will thank God for the day and the moment I have

Who reeled in Dereck’s errant shot (or on-the-money pass)?  Lorenzo Charles, wearing number 43. So we finish with Sweat Angels x43, LBC x43, and Putins x20 (YHC is not JV.  I totally ran out of steam….)

(Sweat Angels are from the F3 site: think making a snow angel, but keeping legs, arms up off the ground.  Hello Dolly with arm motions)

The Finish: Finish with count-off, name-o-rama (dubbing FNG “Axe Man” after a game of word association starting with Cheap Trick, his hometown band), and prayers.  Prayer for people in Tennessee and Ohio State University.  Please remember all people through the holiday season: travellers, family, people struggling with depression.  YHC finished by asking for strength and comfort for those who have lost loved ones to cancer, and for guidance and wisdom for those looking to find a cure and providing care to those suffering.

Thank you, gentleman, for giving me the opportunity to lead.

With promises from Shorty to post at Okwata before the Turkey Trot, YHC knew the PAX would be thin. Yep, with crisp air and a slight breeze, a mighty PAX of three set forth in the Gloom.

After a reverse trot around the fountain, the PAX circled up for a quick warm-up: SSH 25xIC, Hillbillies 25xIC, Low slow squats 25xIC and Mountain Climbers 25xIC.

Mosey down the road (almost to Canal) to the levee for some 25s. In honor of YHC’s thinking that today was the 25th and November having 30 days, we trotted up the levee for 5 merkins and then back down for 25 lunges, then up for 10 merkins, then down for 20 lunges, then up for 15 merkins, then down for 15 lunges, then up for 20 merkins, then down for 10 lunges, then up for 25 merkins, then down for 25 lunges.

Gratis Merlin, we did a quick rotisserie chicken (high plank, then left plank, then can-can, then right plank, each for about a minute) before round two of the 25s (a more brutal version): the PAX trotted up the levee for 5 Real Freddy Mercuries, then down for 25 jump squats, then up for 10 RFMs, then down for 20 jump squats (mumblechatter starts increasing), then up for 15 RFMs (thank God, for rest), then down for 15 jump squats, then up for 20 RFMs, then down for 10 jump squats, then up for 25 RFMs, and then down for the last 5 jump squats.

Mosey back up the levee for another caress of the thighs: duck walk towards Tool’s Cabana. The PAX petered out about 2/3 of the way there: much father than YHC thought we’d get. Tclaps.

With dead quads, time for the guns. Dips 25xIC, pull ups 10 (IC, just kidding), derkins 15xIC.

Mosey towards the virtual flag for a closing Circle of Mary: LBCs 50xIC, Flutter Kicks 25xIC, American Hammers 25xIC, Dying Cockroaches 25xIC, WWIIs 25xIC, Monkey Humpers 25xIC (Heisenberg sounded sad that stopped so soon, his quads were only just being to burn), so Monkey another 25xIC, Hello Dollys 25xIC, and then an elbow plank for a minute. Close it out with 25 burpees (five sets of five).

Back to the virtual flag for countoff and namorama. Ever astute, Heisenberg commented that today’s PAX was probably the oldest post on record. By YHC’s computation, we had the VERY RESPECTABLE average age of 50. So you young fartsackers, don’t think you get a free hall pass for Thanksgiving. After thanks to the Sky Q for more than we could possibly count, the PAX headed homeward for a fine Thanksgiving.

Gobble, gobble, gobble

YHC hasn’t posted in more or less 2 weeks due to IR and personal obligations, so when I saw the gloom this morning; it….was….beautiful. Met by a record number of Okwata pax, I knew my VQ was going to be a good one.  There was nothing more to do than offer up a disclaimer and get to the thang….

Mosey around fountain (rather quickly) and circle up in the lawn

COP – all 22 count

1. Side Straddle Hop
2. Don Quixote’s (23 b/c YHC lost count)
3. Arm Circles (11 forward, 11 backward)
4. Mountain Climbers

Mosey around the fountain, up & over the levee, around the old oak tree, and back….PARTNER UP!

• 1 Partner will run around the fountain, up & over the levee, around the old oak tree, and back while the other partner performs exercise (4 different exercises will be performed)

1. Plank Jacks
2. Tempo Merkins (2 count up, 2 count down)
3. Step Ups
4. Dips

At this point, YHC had to report to baby duty b/c LOML got called out to work last minute. I gave my VQ message.

• In 2012, the VA realized a Suicide Data Report that an average of 22 veterans are killed by suicide every day. The COP and COQ count was set at 22 to honor every victim and let them know that they are not forgotten.
• The 4 exercises chosen were PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) to remind us that when our partner was away from us, we were suffering. It wasn’t until our partner came back that we got a break. This serves as a reminder to reach out to any friend or family (especially vets) who suffer from PTSD and let them know that we are with them.

YHC gave the final instructions to the pax, and just like that he disappeared in to the sunrise, never to be seen again…(*sounds of the Second Bell)

Final Exercise

• COQ (Circle of Q) – Each Pax will choose an exercise and lead in cadence. Count is 22

1. Tool – Russian Twist
2. Hawg- Peter Parkers
3. Rudy – Hold It!….Parker Peters
4. Triple Shift – Flutter Kicks
5. Heisenberg – Hold it! Flutter Kicks again.
6. Surge – Nolan Ryans (switch sides at 11)
7. JV – Dr. Ws (This was a world record for Dr. W reps.  Form was out the window for me after 10.  We thought we could sense JV getting tired at 22, but we it was probably wishful thinking on our part)
8. Fracsac – Freddie Mercurys
9. Maverick – Wife Pleasers
10. Sunspot – WWII sit-ups
11. Cowbell – Squat Pulses (in honor of everyone’s favorite Fart Sacker)
12. Woz – Carolina Drydocks
13. Tool – Burbees (OYO)
14. Hawg – Calf Raises on the Sea Wall.

GBA S2T

 

On a crisp windy morning at the lakefront, YHC pondered a pivot from his plans to instead hit the boardwalk and run the workout amid the crashing waves spit forth from the angry lake.  But that looked kinda cold and wet, so instead he decided to stick with the plans: celebrating America with rounds of Muricans.

COP 1: mosey to the soggy grounds in front of the fountain, with some butt kicks and karaokes through the fountain mist.  Do our best to find something resembling high ground and settle in.  Oh look – its Hawg!  Right on time.  SSH x30 then Plank up for Peter Parker, Mountain Climber, Parker Peter x30 each.  Back to your feet for ISW x15.  Wrap up with Plank Walks x15.  (Somewhere in that sequence, YHC finally remembered to issue the disclaimer.)

COP 2: Found a reasonably dry path to get to the foot of the levee.  Oh look – its Nip/Tuck!  Nice of you to join us.  10 OYO Burpees for the PAX.

The Thing: Double 11 over the levee.  Far side Lunges, Near side Muricans.  Start with 2 Lunges (each leg) and 20 Muricans.  Then 4/18, 6/16.  Hopefully PAX would figure out the pattern.  10 more Burpees OYO for FracSac pulling a Rudy (asking too many questions).

COP 3: Mosey 50 feet to the shelter house.  Pair up for 4 stations: Pull Ups, Burpees, Dips and Muricans.  20 Muricans was the timer, other stations AMRAP.  Repeat for 3 cycles.  YHCs arms feeling a bit like jello at this point.

Back to the Flag: Quick round of Mary: Putins, Bicycles and Cockroaches roughly x20 each.

Count-off and Name-o-Rama.

#Tclaps for Hawg showing up in advance of tomorrow’s GoRuck.  YHC wonders what happened to the other Ruckers?  Especially JV – did this finally end the streak?

YHC offered prayer of thanks for the gift of a day, for wisdom to see and follow God’s will, and for God to provide his guidance to our newly elected leaders.  YHC humbly asks all of the F3 nation to show patience and leadership with our fellow humans as we begin a long healing process that our nation desperately needs.

Finish (#Tclaps forSurge’s much needed help) with St. Ignatius’ Prayer for Generosity.

Lord, Teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve you as you deserve.

To give, and not to count the cost.

To fight, and not to heed the wounds

To toil, and not to seek for rest.

To labor, and not ask for reward

except for that of knowing I am doing your will.

“Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Woody Allen
Where was Bellocq? Bubba? Cowbell? Frac Sac? Serge? Shorty? Tool? Triple Shift? Oh the list could go on and on. [We actually know where Shorty was, he was obviously fartsacking: has he been in a cushy bed all week?] The end of the Cubs’ 108-year curse is not a good excuse. I hate to remind you, but apparently I must: it’s no one’s job to hand out Daily Red Pills to anyone else; while your PAX can cheer you on, you gotta decide yourself to take ’em. But an intrepid PAX of three were not to be deterred by such sloth and excuselessness. So after a disclaimer, THE THANG.

Mosey around the Mardi Gras fountain for a first COP of SSHs (25xIC), Low Slow Squats (25xIC), Hillbillies (25xIC), Mountain Climbers (25xIC), and an exercise or two more QHC can’t recall.

Mosey to the levee for some animal parades. Bear crawl up the levee, five burpees on top, run down the back side and up again, five more burpees, and then run to the beginning. Repeat with Frog Hops, etc.; Duck Walks, etc.; and then Crab Walks, etc. So that was a total of just 40 burpees. Waz lost his phone during the Crab Walks, so cries of Hey Siri were heard throughout the land (but sadly with no echo in reply).

Mosey on the levee to Canal Boulevard, then down and back to the pull-up shelter for a rotation of 25 dips, 25 merkins and 25 big boi (Hawg spelling) situps. Rinse and repeat.

John Doe had to split early (to get his Shorty, not be be confused with fartsacking Shorty, to school by 6:30). But he announced he had a task first. Taking a flashlight from his car, he led the PAX back to the levee site of COP1 to scour for Waz’s errant phone. Et voila, there it was. T-Claps to John Doe, and thanks again to St. Anthony.

Mosey back to virtual flag to release John Doe to his patrial duties, while the remaining PAX of two end with a Circle of Mary: LBCs (25xIC), Flutter Kicks (25xIC), Rosalitas (25xIC), Russian Twists (25xIC), Hello Dollys (25xIC), Ys (25xIC), Ts (25xIC), Ws (25xIC), Walking Plank (25xIC) and end with a minute of elbow plank.

With an 80% failure rate per Woody’s scale, the COT was smaller than YHC would prefer. Let’s just say the Namorama didn’t talk long. Prayers for showing up, finding things and giving thanks. YHC expects to see more PAX in the Gloom next week.

10 eager gloomers met at the beautiful Okwata shores this morning.

side note- Shorty signed up YHC to Q and he fartsacked, shocker…

YHC was informed that today was yet another R & R day for Ruck training. Really? Nah, we’ll post.

Disclaimer.

THE THANG

COP #1) Warm Up:

SSH x 20
Plank Jack x 20
Hillbillies x 20
Mountain Climbers x 20
Low Slow Squats x 20

Mosey to pavilion for…
Circuit Course:

All OYO.

Pull Ups x 10
Burpees x 20
Merkins x 30
Dips x 40
LBC x 50
Squats x 60
Bear crawl up levee, run to canal, down canal, run on sidewalk back to pavilion.

Rinse & Repeat x 3

Mosey to flag

COP #2) Merkin O Rama

Merkin circle until we collectively reach 120.

Stay in circle for COT.

t claps to FNG’s- Papa Bear & Rain Man

Convergence this Saturday at 0630!!! Be there or be lame.

Thanks for letting me lead.

For the GORuck folks, it was R&R day.  So I decided to lead our Pax of 11 through an R&R workout the way YHC recovers. Let’s see what happened, but first….

DISCLAIMER

The Thang

Mosey around the lit up fountain and over to a grassy area.

COP#1: Warmup

30x SSH IC
15x Peter Parkers IC
15x Mountain Climbers IC
15x Parker Peters IC
20x Low Slow Squats
10x Low Squat Pulses

Mosey to the levee and line up at the bottom.

Jacob’s Ladder: Run up the levee, 1 Burpee at the top, then run down.  Keep increasing the Burpee count by 1 until you hit 10 Burpees.  Plank and wait at the bottom.

Enough of that, mosey over to a random grassy area and circle up.

COP#2: Chestorama

10x Werkins
10x Merkins
15x Putins
10x R. Staggered Merkins
10x L. Staggered Merkins
15x Hello Dolly
10x Diamond Merks
10x Carolina Dry Docks
15x Flutter Kicks

Mosey over to Canal.

Animal Parade: four laps using the makeshift track on the levee.  Up-Across-Down-Back to start. At the Across section, Pax did one of each in any order:

• Bear Crawl
• Frog Hop
• Crab Walk
• Duck Walk

Mosey back to the flag area…3 minutes left….now it’s time for R&R.

3 Vinyasas

Held the COT, which included Countoff, Nameorama, and Prayer.  Good job men! Thanks for letting me lead.

Naked Man Moleskin

Oktoberfest 2 miler is Saturday.  Race gets you in free for all weekends and 2 beers on race day..if anything, do it for the beer…dont we all?

Tclaps to Rudy for helping me train my mental toughness.  Check out this article: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/10/03/you-may-be-strong-but-are-you-tough/

GORuck Pax is into week one of training.  There is still time to join us in training. #CSAUP

 

“You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.”  -George Burns

Those were the first words of wisdom shared with the PAX this fine morning which happened to be YHC’s 40th Birthday.  Since all of the cool people have been signing up to Q on their birthdays, YHC felt obliged to do the same.  Needless to say, 40 would be our number of the day with some lagniappe thrown in.  Here’s what we did:

Mosey over and out to the large paved area near the seawall for a warmup COP:

SSH x40IC, Arm Circles x40IC, 10 Burpess, 19 Squat Jumps OYO, re-position near concrete post to balance for 76 Calf Raises OYO.

Meander to the concrete planters for:

Hip Slappers x20IC, RL Step Ups x20IC, Hip Slappers x20IC, LL Step Ups x20IC

Quick breather then a mosey to the shelter for some quality time with the F3/Mitch Landrieu sponsors pull up bars.  Started with a few rounds of this circuit:

Pull Ups AMRAP/Hanging Knee Ups x10 total, Low Slow Dips x10, Alt Lunges x10R X10L

After 2 rounds we switched gears by gathering at the base of the levee where YHC explained the fuzzy definition of what “over the hill” means.  According to Google, it could be 30, 40, 50, or 60.  With that being said, it was determined that none of us are officially over the hill in age but instead we would traverse over the hill and back with Burpess x10 on each side.  Once complete, realign at the shelter for 2 more rounds of:

Pull Ups AMRAP/Hanging Knee Ups x10 total, Low Slow Dips x10, Alt Lunges x10R X10L

A mosey westbound on top of the levee brought us near Canal Blvd where we lined up for round 1 of Mary:

Russian Twist x20IC, Flutter Kicks x20IC, LBC x20IC.  These were done in solid fashion despite the PAX being distracted by a vine ripened tomato moseying by.

Indian Run the Canal Blvd loop/hill from amethyst to Lakeshore Dr (approx 1/3 mile) and hit the levee again for round 2 of Mary:

Russian Twist x20IC, Flutter Kicks x20IC, LBC x20IC.  YHC proceeded to quiz the PAX on Burpee count of the morning to see who was paying attention.  Cowbell guessed right which meant we needed to crank out Burpees x10 to top off our 40.  Mosey to the flag with no time left for plankorama.

Recap of the total rep count for the am:  40 each (some IC):  SSH, Arm Circ, Burpess, Step Ups, Hip Slappers, LS Dips, Pull Ups/Knee Ups, R Lunges, L Lunges, Russian Twists, Flutter Kicks, LBC, (plus lagniappe SJx19, CRx76)

Solid workout by all.  I’m out of time typing this (birthday dinner awaits) and may later add the COT details along with the other COT insprational age quotes by Muhammed Ali and Plato.

Tool