Author: Matthew Gilbert

PAX:  Blue Mule (Q), En Fuego

Conditions:  Not ideal.  Rainy and cold.  Very rainy.  Did I say rainy?

Wet Warm Up:  Mosey for a few minutes, some with a 25# coupon.  Arm circles and seal claps and squats.

Soggy Calisthenics:  Pull ups, coupon thrusters, squat jumps.  20 seconds on, 10 seconds off.  After we did that until we were sick of it, then we did 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of the same exercises.

Deluge Buddy Drags:  Two laps around the ~1/4 mile track.  First lap switch roles every 20 steps.  Next leo switch every ten.  Tclaps to En Fuego — I think I weigh twice what he does and not a complaint out of him.

Life Lesson:  The life lesson here is obvious.  Sometimes the world throws rain at you.  And a lot of it.  And then sometimes life makes you run around with bricks and thrust them.  And sometimes you have to carry someone through it.  But, through faith, through fitness, through fellowship, and through preparation, these life obstacles can be overcome… And can make you smile.

Pleasure to be part of this community.

See you in the gloom.

Blue Mule OUT.

Life Lessons @ Titan 06 FEB 2019

PAX: Blue Mule (Q), Vegemite, Right Aid, G String, Reveille, CCR, IE (FNG), Hi-Viz, Centipete (FNG), porcelain crab legs, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Crawl Space

Conditions: Muggy and 60 some degrees. Gloomy. Ideal F3 situation.

Life Lesson Challenge: Princess Aurora challenged area PAX to sign up to involve life lessons in their Qs for a month. I signed up for this task February. The life lesson today was three-fold. First, when handed a tough task – like carrying over 130 pounds of bricks for a mile – teamwork is critically important. Second, when performing an important and challenging task – like 55 decline pushups and 110 overhead arm claps – you must perform the task to standard because cheating the reps is only cheating yourself.

Warm-Up: 1/3 mile run, arm circles forward and back, squats, Wilie Mayes Hayes.

Coupon Mile Run: Life Lessons #1: 5 coupons. 130 pounds total. 1 mile. Start running. PAX switch out coupons early and often. Do the math, that ain’t easy, and you don’t need me writing a paragraph to explain that, and you don’t need me writing a paragraph to explain switching off makes that easier.

Merkins and Overhead Armclaps: Life Lessons #2: 1 merkin, 1 four-count overhead arm clap. Rinse and repeat and increase number of reps until reaching 10. Life lesson is to keep the items up to standard. As the reps get tougher and more numerous, resist the temptation to slack on form.

Mosey from amphitheater with coupons to starting location.

Sprints and Coupons: Life Lesson #3: Pair up. One PAX does a coupon exercise – either thruster or curl or row – while one PAX springs ~200 yards and back. Rinse and repeat for ten minutes. That’s quite a bit of sprinting, and that’s the life lesson – dig deep to get that done.

Mary: Flutterkicks, homer to marge, big boy sit ups, American hammers, crunchy frogs, flutterkicks, two burpees.

Welcome two new FNGs Centipete and Indecent Exposure abbreviated as IE.

An excellent workout. An excellent morning. An excellent group of men.

See you in the gloom.

Blue Mule OUT

PAX: Blue Mule (Q), Boy Band, Red Skull, Floppy Disk, PSL, Edible Arrangment, Umbrella, Dr. Smart, Too Tall, Dupree, Razor, Calf Killer, CAPSLOCK, Pre Vac, Black Lung

Conditions: Humid and 60s and gloomy. Unseasonably warm. Very good weather to post in.

Life Lesson Challenge: Princess Aurora challenged area PAX to sign up to involve life lessons in their Qs for a month. I signed up for this task February. The life lesson today was three-fold. First, when challenged – such as with manmakers and coupon carries – step up to the plate and work hard to get the task completed. Second, keep to the standard – such as depth for squats – because deviating from the standard only hurts in the long run. Finally, third, when presented with trivial but important tasks – like countless jane fondas – link up with your team and crush the job no matter how big or small.

Warm-O-Rama: Jog around the church. Arm circles forward and backward and Willie Mayes Hayes.

Coupon Mosey: Five coupons 25-30 pounds. Mosey from church to stables, approximately ½ mile. All PAX swap turns carrying the coupons. Plenty of opportunities to be under the weight.

The Thang: Partner up. One partner sprints ~40 yards there and back while another partner does calisthenics, repeat until both PAX sprint twice and calisthenic twice. Seven rounds. Exercises included hand release pushups, pause squats, flutter kicks, overhead arm claps, squat jumps, homer to marge, and burpees. PAX were huffing and puffing after this.

The Thang with the Life Lesson: First Round: Same concept. However, all PAX must take turns using coupons for sprinting. Also, double the reps. Calisthenics replaced with manmakers and squat jumps. Rinse and repeat until all PAX sprint four times with the coupons. That’s a fair amount of manmakers.

The Than with the Life Lesson: Second Round: Same concept. All PAX must complete 10 rounds of sprints and 10 rounds of jane fondas. That’s a lot of jane fondas.

Repeat coupon mosey home.

Mary: Flutter kicks in cadence for 50x four count, plank for 60 seconds.

An excellent workout. An excellent morning. An excellent group of men.

See you in the gloom.

Blue Mule OUT

PAX:  Blue Mule (Q), Foxtrot, Black Lung, Big Stick, Hustler, Wall Ball, Electron (FNG)

Very humid and hot conditions.  Unpleasant.  Gloomy at the start.  The type of weather conditions you’re really only going to work out at 0600 on a Saturday morning if there are PAX waiting for you.

MOSEY:  @ 0600 three PAX took off…. then another PAX arrived at 0602 … then another three PAX at 0605… resulting in a 10 minute long warm up mosey.

WARM UP:  Stretches and arm circles and other boring stuff.

THE THANG:  Split up into two groups by birthdays which changed randomly during the three waves of the exercise.  One group runs from playground to corner of park and back, approximately ~4 minutes to run there and back.  Other group performs stationary exercise.

-Round One:  Three rounds of there and backs with pull ups in between.  That’s ~15 minutes of pull ups.

-Round Two:  Three rounds of there and backs with push ups in between.  That’s ~15 minutes of pushups.

-Round Three:  Three rounds of there and backs with gorilla humpers in between.  That’s ~15 minutes of gorilla humpers.

MARY:  20 count hillbillies, 20 count imperial walkers, 7 burpees.

Apologies for the delay in the backblast — YHC wasn’t scheduled for Q, so I didn’t schedule time during the weekend to do the BB — had to wait until Monday after work.

Welcome FNG Electron, who jumped in head first and held his own like someone who’s been posting for years.

Love,

Blue Mule

Westeros 27 AUG 2018: Sprinting and Merkins

PAX: Blue Mule (Q), Crab Legs, Megatron, Studio 42, Da Vinci, Reveille, Vital Signs

7 PAX. Gloomy conditions. 0530, GO.

(Basically all we did was run and do merkins – this will be the easiest backblast ever).

Mosey to area close to football field. Boring things like arm circles and stretches to warm up.

SPRINTS AND MERKINS: PHASE ONE: ELEVENS: Mosey to the football field. Team up. Portion of team sprints field, does merkins, then sprints back. Other portion does straddle hop until it’s their turn. Rinse and repeat for ~10 minutes. Plenty of sprints and merkins.

SPRINTS AND MERKINS: PHASE TWO: TELEPHONE POLE: Mosey to the playground. Stay teamed up. Portion of team runs to telephone pole, ~150 yards away. Other teammates stay and do merkins until it is their turn to run. That’s about two minutes doing merkins.

SPRINTS AND MERKINS: PHASE THREE: HILL SPRINTS: Mosey to hill near starting area. Sprint up the hill. Ten merkins. Mosey back to bottom of hill. Rinse and repeat four times. Perform fifth sprint, but sprint to start and do twenty merkins.

MARY: Flutterkicks for 60 seconds.

Simple. Effective. Basically 45 minutes of running and pushups.

SYITG

Blue Mule

12 PAX at Titan 09 May 2018

PAX: Blue Mule on Q, Crawfish, Right Said, Hawkeye, Drone, Brother-In-Law, Third Degree, Princess Aurora, T-Cell, Porcelain, Reveille, Hacker (welcome from Jacksonville)

Nice weather. Sun is up. It’s the start of sweat season rather than gloom season.

Long mosey around the park over to the pavilion.

Warm-o-rama: Squats, good mornings, Willie Mayes Hayes, baby arm circles.

DIDs: Decline pushups, incline pushups, dips. Rep scheme: 3, 6, 9, 12, 3, 6, 9, 12, 3, 30 seconds match on each.

Mosey over to the large Greek pavilion.

11s: In front of the large steps. Burpee box jumps and decline pushups. Start with 10 burpee box jumps and move down from there. Got the PAX all huffin’ and puffin’.

Mosey over to the large parking lot.

Wind sprints – sprint across parking lot, do 10 merkins, sprint back across parking lot, do 10 merkins, rinse and repeat and change merkin count to 8, rinse and repeat and change merkin count to 6.

Mosey over to the parking area for mary.

Mary: Flutterkicks x50, Freddie Mercuries x20, American hammers x20, LBCs x20, mountain climbers x 30.

That’s all she wrote gentlemen. Simple but effective. That was a lot of moseying, sprinting, and merkins.

SYITG

Blue Mule out.

PAX:  Blue Mule (Q), Caps Lock, Vegemite, Foxtrot, Frugal McDougal, Dr. Smart, Prevac, Yardsale, Black Lung, Tampa Libra, Spider Bite, Skidmark

Conditions were gloomy — 32 degrees and dark for 2/3 of the workout.  12 PAX were not deterred.  This completes Blue Mule’s week of coupons to celebrate my 31st birthday.

Four coupons used in each exercise.  Coupons were sets of wrapped bricks weighing ~30 pounds.

Coupon mosey around school and parking lot, ~1/3 of a mile, PAX trading coupons to distribute the load.

Warm-o-rama:  Squats, Willie Mayes Hayes, good mornings, baby arm circles forward and back.

Coupon Event 1:  All PAX divide into 4 teams of three.  Each PAX takes a turn around the ~1/3 mile loop.  Other two PAX do alternating squat jumps and overhead arm claps.

Coupon mosey to the auditorium.

Coupon Event 2:  All PAX stay in teams.  One PAX does coupon mosey around the atrium, one PAX does wall sit, one PAX does burpee box jumps, all PAX alternate once lap around atrium complete, continue until each PAX has done each station.

Coupon mosey back up to the parking lot.

Coupon Event 3:  All PAX stay in teams.  One PAX does thrusters with coupon while other two PAX run out ~100 yards, do 1 burpee, and run ~100 yards back.  PAX switch when returns finish the ~200 yards running.  Rinse and repeat until each PAX has had 6 200s and 3 rounds of thrusters.

25 Burpees (that totals 31 burpees to celebrate my 31st birthday!)

Mary:  30 count flutter kicks, 40 seconds American Hammers

Moleskin:  Those bricks get heavy quick.  Even though they did, all PAX kept pushing hard for the full 45 minutes.   It was a pleasure leading you gentlemen.  I’ve enjoyed doing F3 for the last three or four years, and I look forward to doing it for many more years to come.  SYITG.

Blue Mule out.