Celebrating 56 Years Young

Date: 2026-03-13 AO: bomber Q: Vector PAX: Pep, Firefox, Tim the Toolman, Squatter, Sherlock, Title Max FNGs: None COUNT: 7 A tradition unlike any other . . . no, not the Masters. A Vector Birthday Q. This was the 9th one, which is crazy. I can’t seem to get rid of you HIMs.
For the theme, after some careful, thoughtful feedback (?criticism) from Michelin Man about branching out my playlists to, I don’t know< decades other than the 1980s, I opted to go with a playlist so new, you're afraid to park it in a downtown Nashville parking garage for fear of that first door dent. Despite what Natural Ice might say . . .
CONDITIONS: Cool (like the playlist)
WARMUP: For the 9th year in a row, SSH x my new age. (Some looks on the PAX faces of "Damn, why's he gotta be so old." LBAC x 11 (i.e. 5+6), Overhead Presses x 11, Seal Claps (complete with the porcelain bark c/o Title Max) x 11, RLBAC x 11, WMH and GM OHO, and Imperial Walkers x 11
THE THANG: After a side mosey to pay our respects to the now demolished McCabe playground (RIP pull up bars), back to the hill for
#1 5+6s (aka 11s) — squats at bottom; merkins at top
Then mosey to upper lot for #2 6 stations – do 56 reps of exercises (Mountain Climbers, Iron Mikes, BB sit-ups, Star Jumps, Shoulder Taps, and as a party gift, an exercise of your choice). Then 5 burpees just 'cause.
Mosey to startex for #3 DIDs (28 dips, 14 incline merkins, 14 decline merkins) x 2
Mary with Flutter Kicks, Hello Dollys, Leg Raises, and ending with 56 LBCs
ANNOUNCEMENTS: – Murder Mystery Party tomorrow – Holy Smokers — check Slack
COT: – Prayers for Title Max’s little girl, my kids traveling abroad, and all of the PAX coming and going for Spring Break – Thankful for all of the PAX for making me better each time I am out. Apologies Tim the Toolman for the profanity in the songs – you know the kids these days and their cursing.
PLAYLIST: – Private – The Neigbourhood – Dracula – Tame Impala – As Alive As You Need Me to Be – NIN – Glide – Neiked and Portugal, the Man – Basic Being Basic – Djo – Sex, Drugs, Etc. – Beach Weather – Opalite – Taylor Swift – Ready, Steady, Go! – Harry Styles – Your Direction – Goose – Distorted Light Beam – Bastille – Lost in Space – Foster the People – mangetout – Wet Leg

Block Party

Date: 2026-03-13 AO: thestronghold Q: tampalibra PAX: Shocker (Mark Holmes), Pearl (Jonathan Halter), Young and Restless, Decaf, Chunks, Red Skull, Tinkertoy, Ginger, Barney, Winger (Bill Diebenow), hambone, Groot, Mater, Grimes, Angry Bird, Turkey, Puff Puff, Holy Water, Hot Topic, T-bone, Cheez Whiz FNGs: None COUNT: 22 CONDITIONS: Windy
WARMUP: SSH x 50, Squat x 10, LBACF x 10, LBACR x 10, Air Press x 50
THE THANG: Rep scheme: 10 + mosey, 10 + 20 + mosey, 10 + 20 + 30 + mosey…up to 50 and then start dropping reps from the bottom
10: We’re not worthy 20: Thruster 30: 4-count flutter 40: HR Merkin 50: Block curls
Mode of transpo -> Burpee broad jump Mode of transp <- Lt. Dan
MOLESKINE: Prayers for strength and perseverance, shut out the negative voices (internal and external), court dates, etc. Stay focused!
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Chunks 50k Struggle: Endure
PLAYLIST: Heavy breathing

3 Dudes Having a Good Time

Date: 2026-03-12 AO: the-knoll Q: Pebbles PAX: Juicy J, Half Lyfe FNGs: None COUNT: 3 CONDITIONS: Shockingly Cold and Windy
WARMUP: Side Straddle Hops Don Quixote’s Cherry Pickers Slow Squats
THE THANG: Circle up for station work. Rotated thru stations while one pax ran for appox 1min as the timer. Sandbag was available to level up. Exercises completed: Pull Ups WWIIs Squats Merkins WWIs Step Ups Mike Tyson’s Iron Mike’s Dips
MOLESKINE: 3 brave men showed up in the dark and cold. Humbled that they did.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Check Slack.
COT: We talked about moderation. As men we are wired to push and persevere. Our challenge is to practice the virtue of temperance and moderate our efforts so we’re effective and don’t burn out.
The season of Lent in the Church is a great way to practice this virtue.
PLAYLIST: Pop music

Make Sandbags Great Again

Date: 2026-03-11 AO: titan Q: Natural Ice PAX: Pep, Tim the Toolman, Sherlock, Title Max, Papa Bear, Natural Ice, Radish FNGs: None COUNT: 7 CONDITIONS: Soggy but not too soggy
WARMUP: SSH for my man Pep we did 30, because I am mean. Some Stretching some Hill Billies, Some Merkins
THE THANG: Make Sandbags Great Again! Pax formed a circle and performed Merkins until the timer ran out. The timer consisted of each member of the Pax performing 5 sandbag burpees. Once all of the burpees had been paid we ran a little loop.
Rinse and Repeat, but Pax could swap out the 5 sandbag burpees with 10 goblet squats. The resting exercises also rotated with varies forms of mery as well as incline merkins.
MOLESKINE: Do Hard Things!
ANNOUNCEMENTS: So many! The Merchant Murder Mystery this saturday!
COT: Praying for Title Maxs family and his new born daughter to have a speedy and safe recovery!
PLAYLIST: David Bowies hits in his various forms

Spring 2026

Date: 2026-03-12 AO: atlantis Q: Esposa PAX: Oatmeal, SalPal, Title Max, sooner, Subway, Pole Dancer FNGs: None COUNT: 7 the perfect number CONDITIONS: Windy
WARMUP: Broga/dynamic movement
THE THANG: 4 Corners Mental Health Lap MHL Corner 1 Thursters Corner 2 25 Merkins Corner 3 50 American Hammers Corner 4 25 drop squats
MHL 2 1 25 Tricep extension 2 25 Merkins 3 50 Freddy Mercs 4 25 Walk Lunge ?
MHL 3 Oatmeal can’t shoot 1 25 curls for the girls 2 25 merkins 3 25 V ups 4 25 iron Mike/ Apollo onos
MHL 2 1 Man Makers 25 2 25 merkins 3 50 moutain climbers 4 sumo squats 50
Those who brought block did not do 5 merkins. 5 more just for fun and 10 merkins to end it. #merkin madness complete 120 friends
MOLESKINE: Title Max reversed engineered alien power steering go a rocket. Seville has Morrish architecture
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Grow School 6am Bellevue, The Merchant murder mystery. Impossible mile Focker , plank April Grape
COT: SalPal travels and prayers for baby Aurora Title Max
PLAYLIST: mumble Chatter

Capital tour

Date: 2026-03-10 AO: after-hours Q: Strutter PAX: Horizon, Chunks, Strutter FNGs: None COUNT: 3 CONDITIONS: A beating evening.
WARMUP: A short mosey to the top of the Capital steps….
THE THANG:
MOLESKINE:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
COT:
PLAYLIST:

Run #1

Date: 2026-03-10 AO: tortoise-and-hare Q: Red Skull PAX: Right Said, Crawlspace, Chunks, Pearl (Jonathan Halter), SalPal, Barney, Young and Restless, Decaf, Angry Bird, FNG 1, FNG 2, FNG 3, FNG 4, FNG 5, FNG 6, FNG 7, FNG 8 FNGs: 8 FNG 1, FNG 2, FNG 3, FNG 4, FNG 5, FNG 6, FNG 7, FNG 8 COUNT: 18 CONDITIONS: Dark, damp and perfect running temps
WARMUP: Standard pre-run warm-up: SSH, Squats, IWs, Stretches, WMHs
THE THANG: Find a partner who knows the course and RUN!!! This is one of the faster classes that we have seen in a while. The fastest time was 24:30 and the slowest time was 37:40. It looks like we will have a lot of time for post-run burpees with this class!
ANNOUNCEMENTS: The annual 4:13 Strong fundraising dinner will be on Thursday, April 9, 6p-8p. There is an F3 tables so if you would like to attend, let me know and I will get you registered.
COT: Prayers for focus and the ability to identify and overcome distractions and obstacles.

Move, then rope; repeat.

Date: 2026-03-10 AO: the-knoll Q: morning stār PAX: AAA, Juicy J, Papa Bear, Sparrow, Bumble bee (2.0) FNGs: None COUNT: 6 CONDITIONS: quite lovely; just darker than before.
WARMUP: YHC was late so thanks to the PAX for starting the warm up with SSH, arm cricles, etc.
THE THANG: partner up; one partner moves to the tree and back the other ropes
round 1: backwards moving imperial walkers to tree, mosey back round 2: baby crawl with accentuated shoulder drop, politician back round 3: murder bunny/slow frogger to tree and mosey back
Mosey to backstop in between.
MOLESKINE: not much better for invigoration than intentional movement for45 minutes with some other men.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: check slack
COT: YHC shared about being triggered/dysregulated/hurt this week and how just thinking through it didn’t really work. Once I paused and took time to forgive each person involved, release the situation and open up to bring my core need to God things shifted substantially. Could tell my body relaxed and I was able to dig deeper into what my heart needed.
Encouraged PAX to get back to the basics. One of the basics of the inner life is forgiveness. I’ve been using a helpful model rooted in Christian tradition lately: 1. Count (name) the debt (hurt or what you wanted) 2. Cancel it (forgive because you’ve been forgiven) 3. Pass it to Jesus (he’ll do something with it; ask him to show you what it is) 4. Relinquish the right to be the other person’s judge (only God can really see everything and judge rightly) 5. Bless or pray for that person (you’ve done those same things too) 6. Ask Jesus what the one core need was that you didn’t get met in that situation/by that person (what you long for is good) 7. Ask God to meet that need directly (only he truly can anyway)
Stay childlike my brothers, -m*

40 years of Ladders

Date: 2026-03-09 AO: toratoratora Q: Giving Tree PAX: Hot Route, Ultratecht, Third Coast, Giving Tree FNGs: None COUNT: 4 CONDITIONS: Foggy, but generally have no idea how to dress for a workout this month.
WARMUP: Mosey put to track and back with standard fare.
THE THANG:
Ladders in the following format:
– 10 seconds of workout 1 – 10 second rest – 20 seconds of workout 2, 20 seconds of workout 2 – 20 second rest – 30 seconds of workout 3, 30 seconds of workout 2, 30 seconds of workout 3 – 30 second rest – 40 seconds of workout 4, 40 seconds of workout 3, 40 seconds of workout 2, 40 seconds of workout 1 – 30 second rest – 50 seconds of workout 5, … – 30 second rest – 60 seconds of workout 6, …
Ladder 1: Core (low and slow)
– Workout 1: marches with arms up mimicking a shoulder hold – Workout 2: inchworm with a pause in high plank – Workout 3: cross-body mountain climbers – Workout 4: dead bugs – Workout 5: shoulder taps – Workout 6: wall sit
Ladder 2: Plyo (HIIT)
– Workout 1: power jacks – Workout 2: alternating front kicks from squat – Workout 3: side shuffle to side lunge – Workout 4: speed skaters – Workout 5: ski downs – Workout 6: burpees
MOLESKINE:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
COT:
PLAYLIST: Songs from albums released in March 1986

4 co-workateers

Date: 2026-03-09 AO: coworking Q: Juicy J PAX: morning stār, Natural Ice, FLO FNGs: None COUNT: 4 Working and walking happened to the daily Panera sound track.
We concluded that AI is like a teenager/20 year old … sometimes it doesn’t do what it says it did and yet it’s always confident. Providing context is important. Opportunities to have some extra grace and repeating oneself are also bound to happen.