Bidding IronPax 2019 a Fond Farewell

Conditions: Tinge of Fall in the early morning air

Pax: BnB, Crablegs, Crawlspace, Cub Cadet, Drago, Harvey Updyke (QIC), Hi Viz, High Flyer, Preacher Man, Reveille, Salpal, Slim Jim, T Cell, Vector

14 pax finished off the 2019 edition of the IronPax challenge, with “Sugar’s Pick Your Poison”. After 4 weeks of beat downs, the pax expressed their simultaneous gratitude and disdain for our brothers in Greenwood through 45(+) minutes of dealer’s choice pain on the WEMS football field.

Disclaimer

Warm-o-rama

Run from meeting point (side note: hoping to have the official Westeros shovel flag up and running soon…) around the park, behind the school. Grab a regulation-sized coupon from the back of YHC’s truck, carry it down to one of the gridiron goal lines.

Thang

IronPax Week 4: “Sugar’s Pick Your Poison”

    • 3 ROUNDS FOR TIME OF THE FOLLOWING:
      • 100 cumulative: merkins and/or squats
      • 100 yard out, 100 yard back coupon carry
      • 100  cumulative: coupon swings and/or bonnie blairs
      • 100 yard out, 100 yard back coupon carry
      • 100  cumulative: coupon thrusters and/or traveling lunge steps
      • 100 yard out, 100 yard back coupon carry

Even starting the Main Event at 5:37, the above was more than enough to carry the majority of the pax beyond the 6:15 mark. We understandably lost a few pax around that point, but the majority pressed on until all 3 rounds were complete, and took pride in our collective accomplishment.

Mary

Toted the bricks back up the bleachers to the truck, and rode Beverley Hillbillies style back to the starting point for CoT.

COT/Announcements:

    • 09/27 – Bourbon & Bacon Fest – contact Crablegs for details.
    • 10/29 – Libeery at Fat Bottom Brewery in The Nations. Time TBD. Book is “The Three Big Questions for Frantic Families” by Patrick Lencioni. AoM podcast interview is a good cliff notes.

Pleasure to lead each of you this morning, and to bid a fond farewell to our Greenwood-curated workouts for the next 11 months or so.

-Harvey

The Committee-Q

Conditions: mid-70s and huuuumid

Pax: Bicentennial Man (QIC), Blue Mule (QIC), Harvey Updyke (QIC), Hi Viz (QIC)

…you read that right. When YHC pulled in at 5:28, the other three pax were ready and waiting. Blue Mule threw out the idea that in the absence of anyone stepping up to the Q-plate, we all split the Q duties, each taking roughly 11:15 of leading the pax through their paces. And so began the Committee-Q…

Hi Viz’s Part 1: Disclaimer to remind us all that none of us are professionals, then mosey from shovel flag, around western edge of Elmington, to just behind home plate of the baseball diamond. Warm-ups including SSH, LBAC, Air Press, Reverse LBAC, WMH, and Good Mornings. Lined up on the nearby bleachers for some 10-15-20 DIDs, followed by Monkey Humpers. Rinse and repeat, reversing the numbering (20-15-10) on the DIDs.

Blue Mule’s Part 2: Mosey to the playground, pair up. One partner runs to a destination point (cycled through the southwest corner of the park, the steps in front of WEMS, and the nearby book birdhouse), while the other gets in AMRAP of the called exercises, which rotated after both partners had completed the run. Exercises included merkins, overhead claps, burpees, and manmakers.

Harvey Updyke’s Part 3: Mosey to the tennis court for some 4-corners action. At the first corner, 25 merkins. Crab walk to second corner, for 50 Carolina dry docks. Bear crawl to third corner, for 75 monkey humpers. Lt Dans to fourth corner, for partner curls (one partner is down in wheelbarrow position, other partner grabs their ankles and performs a bicep curl).

Bicentennial Man’s Part 4: Mosey back to the playground for Elevens with pull-ups and decline merkins. Time was called with 3 minutes to spare, and the pax moseyed back to the shovel flag, for a quick Mary consisting of J-Lo’s, flutter kicks, and box cutters.

COT/Announcements:

Leadership lunch this Friday at Thistle Farms cafe, coordinated by Vector. The topic will be dealing with difficult people, with words of wisdom from a senior leader in Vanderbilt’s Compliance organization.

Great creativity and flexibility by our small group this morning. Pleasure to lead – and be lead by – each of you.

-Harvey

A Stroll at Titan

Pax: Bad Boy, Blue Mule, Centipete, Crab Legs, Cunning Linguist, G String, Halpert (WL from Memphis), Harvey Updyke (QIC), Hi-Viz, Porcelain, Reveille, Trapper Keeper, Vector

Conditions: 35ish and dry, gloom factor medium

Disclaimer

WoR: Moseyed from statue of JT to southern end of the main field. Circled up for:

  • SSH x20
  • Good Mornings x10 oyo
  • WMH x10
  • Imperial Walkers x20

Thang: The sidewalk monster at Westeros sent YHC for a tumble Monday morning, leaving me with a bruised palm heel and tweaky wrist. As such, my Q plan was modified to stay off the hands as much as possible, which naturally led to lots of running. Altogether the pax clocked around 3.4 miles, stopping every 1/3 of a mile or so for a dealer’s choice exercise, of which 10 reps were performed. Choices included jump squats, dips, burpees, regular squats, Freddie Mercuries, scissor kicks, and some other stuff I’ve now forgotten. The last leg involved an all-you-got sprint up the hill west of the Parthenon, before convening back at JT’s statue for a quick Mary consisting of 25 Crunchy Happy Frogs.

CoT: Great to have Halpert (a paper salesman) join us as a guest from Memphis. Heard a little more from G String, our sixth man. Prayers for Bad Boy and family as they look to welcome a 2.0 in 4 weeks, give or take.

Moleskine: The leadership lesson today is that restraints, while sometimes frustrating, can provide clarity and focus. A minor injury limited my options this morning, but simple was still effective. Self-imposing restraints, even when all is well, may help with cutting through the noise and focusing on the outcome. Thanks for the opportunity, men. A pleasure as always.

Harvey

Westeros? More like Winterfell, amirite

PAX: APGAR (FNG), Autotune, Blue Mule, Crab Legs, Crawlspace, En Fuego, Harvey Updyke (QIC), Hi Viz, Porcelain, Pumpkin Spice, Right Said, T-Cell, Trapper Keeper, Vector

Conditions: 18° and still frozen-over after the weekend snow

14 pax braved the cold this morning to earn their IronClad stripes. Pumpkin Spice and Porcelain showed up early for the pre-party, and the rest of the crew rolled in just in time for a brief disclaimer before setting off. Quick mosey around the west side of the park, halting in front of the school’s main steps.

WOR: Comprised of the exercises that would follow in the Thang, so as to give the Pax a memory cue when the inevitable “wait, what does the second B stand for again?” question arose:

  • SSH x20
  • Burpee x5
  • Overhead Press x10
  • Merkin x10
  • Big Boy Sit Ups x10
  • Squat x10

The Thang: Stink B.O.M.B.S.

Take the traditional BOMBS model (like Dora, just different exercises) and add some complexity with a hub-and-spoke model. Pax would start at the end of spoke #1 with one partner performing Burpees, while the other ran to the center of the Hub (the school steps), performed 40 SSHs, and ran back. Flapjack until the required cumulative reps at spoke #1 were complete, then move to spoke #2, and so on. Spokes would be the traditional BOMBS selection, but ambitiously doubled:

  • Burpee x100 (small lit parking lot behind western wing of school)
  • Overhead Press x200 (2nd base on the baseball diamond)
  • Merkin x300 (playground)
  • Big Boy Sit Ups x400 (small lit parking lot behind the eastern wing of the school)
  • Squat x500 (front of gymnasium)

After YHC explained the routine and fielded several follow up questions, the pax collectively moseyed to spoke #1 and began. Mumblechatter ensued, primarily revolving around how far the pax would actually get in the ambitious scheme. Some shaky handoffs followed, with some pax completing their burpees and passing their returning partner in the dark. However, after a spoke or two, the pax found their rhythm, traded their mumblechatter for grunting, and ground out all of spokes 1-3, and varying degrees of spoke 4 (albeit in the wrong location, but all’s well that ends well). With three minutes to spare, YHC called it and led the pax in a mosey back to the starting point. All 14 participants cranked out a quick 35 reps on squats (Pumpkin Spice nobly took an extra 10), allowing us to at least collectively make good on our goal of 500.

COT:

  • West Park will officially make its AO debut this Thursday, after a one week delay. It will be given a fancy name, so don’t miss out!
  • Welcomed FNG APGAR, a fellow resident with Crab Legs and church-goer with Pumpkin Spice.
  • Today we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who struggled peacefully to bring racial equality and justice to this great country. More than 50 years after his untimely death, we’re still not fully there, but my hope is that the men of F3 will be a shining example to our communities for what true brotherhood and unity look like.

Much love,

Harvey

Bombs on The Hill

14 pax broke a sweat at Titan this morning, in the gloom that with each passing day lingers just a bit more. Hambone and Porcelain got Centennial ready for us with a two mile run before the main event.

Pax: T-Cell, Huggie, DaVinci, Hi-Viz, Keep the Change, Softwood, Hambone, BnB, Bicentennial Man, Porcelain, Right Said, Tiny Dancer, Crab Legs, Harvey Updyke (QIC)

Warm-O-Rama:

Disclaimer followed by a mosey to the southern end of the main field, where the pax circled up for some limbering. Got things started with:

  • SSH x 25
  • WMH x 20
  • LBAC x 20
  • Reverse LBAC x 20
  • Good Mornings x 10

Thang:

At the request of DaVinci, the pax ramped up the intensity level with an Indian Run that took us counterclockwise around the lake, ending at The Hill west of the Parthenon. Distance: 0.7 miles.

At the base of The Hill, we regrouped for an explanation of the next ~23 minutes. The pax partnered up, and did B.O.M.B.S. (a distant cousin of Dora) on The Hill. One partner stayed at the base and worked on the reps while the other partner ran up and back down The Hill. Partners worked together to cumulatively perform:

  • Burpees x 50
  • Overhead Press x 100
  • Merkins x 150
  • Big Boy Sit-Ups x 200
  • Squats x 250

Per MapMyRun, The Hill appears to be exactly 0.1 miles round trip, so depending on how many times each pair swapped out, everyone ran another 1.0-1.2 miles up and down the hill in addition to their share of the above reps.

Back to the sidewalk near the JT statue for…

Mary:

Pax lined up on their sixes and starting at the southern end, called out an exercise and counted us off for 15 reps each. Worked our way up the line, skipping every other pax in the exercise choice. Choices included (might be missing one):

  • LBCs
  • Flutter kicks
  • Freddie Mercuries
  • Box cutters
  • Big boy sit-ups
  • J-Los

CoT:

  • First Friday lunch this Friday, 11:30am at The Cookery
  • Grow School coming up in September, more details coming soon
  • Prayers for Tiny Dancer’s colleagues Ben & Jeff, who are recovering from injury and dealing with the loss of a loved one.

Five for coffee and CFB @ Three Bros.

Honor to lead you men this morning, thanks for kicking off your Wednesday with me.

No trees were harmed in the making of this workout.

Birthday @ Bomber: Third Saturday in October Edition

PAX:

Keep the Change, Blue Mule, Hambone, Firefox, Frequency, Crab Legs, Right Said, Lunch Lady, Hi-Viz, Trapper Keeper, The Baptist, Reveille, En Fuego, Tiny Dancer, Dewey Decimal (FNG), Porcelain, Bad Boy, Vector, Lemon, Crawl Space

CO-QIC:

T-Cell and YHC Harvey Updyke (VQ)

22 (including 1 FNG) gathered together in the early dawn, commenting on the beautiful cool morning; by some unexplainable mystery of nature, the temperature seemed to rise by 15-20 degrees over the course of just a few minutes…

Co-QICs T-Cell and Harvey Updyke educated the pax on the history of the University of Tennessee and University of Alabama football programs, two of the most storied and successful SEC schools in history. T-Cell got things started with the disclaimer and led the first 15-20 minutes.

WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Mosey to the small parking lot near the McCabe roundabout on the golf course side
  • SSH x25
  • WMH x20
  • Merkins x10

THANG, PART 1:

Mosey down the greenway past the driving range, 3-4 minutes or so to a fairway with a hill. T-Cell proceeded to commemorate the “Voice of the Vols”, Tennessee sportscasting great John Ward, one month to the day since  his passing. Ward was widely known for his trademark touchdown call “GIVE…HIM…SIX!” As such, we honored his memory with Sixes: 1 Merkin at the bottom, run up the hill, 5 Jump Squats at the top, back down the hill – each round, adding one Merkin and removing one Jump Squat from the count until we fully inverted to 5 & 1.

T-Cell brought the tunes along, blasting Rocky Top at the bottom of the hill. Counterintuitively, the pax were noticeably faster running up the hill away from the music than they were running back down. T-Cell also reminded the pax that the goal line at the bottom of the hill was the speaker; some mumble chatter may have arisen about purposely stopping a little shy, as this was the UT portion of the workout, after all.

THANG, PART 2:

T-Cell turned over the ball (hehe) to Harvey Updyke to take the pax home. Wise decision, as you never want to count on UT in the second half. YHC led the pax in a mosey back to McCabe community center, and took them on a quick history lesson: the day was October 21, 2006, and YHC was a freshman at the fine University of Alabama. Head Coach Mike Shula was in his final season at Bama, and unfortunately the Tide could not get it done against Phil Fulmer’s Vols in Knoxville. Fortunately, this was one of the final straws that led to Coach Shula’s dismissal, and as most of us know, his replacement turned out aight. So aight, in fact, that that sad day was the last time that UT downed Bama. It’s been 4,290 days since the Vols have found success against the Tide.

As such, we completed a total of 42 Burpees, along with 90 second intervals around an 8-station Ring of Fire, in the following order:

  • 21 Burpee buy-in
  • Ring of Fire, 90 seconds AMRAP at each:
    • Ranger Merkins
    • One-Legged Calf Raises
    • Lt. Dans
    • Low Country Crab
    • Travoltas
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Dips
    • E2Ks
  • 21 Burpee buy-out

MARY:

Back in the parking lot, we celebrated each of Bama’s National Championships with a rep in a pax-determined core exercise – so 17 of each:

  • Freddie Mercuries – YHC
  • Scissor Kicks – Vector
  • Crunchy Frogs – honestly don’t remember who called this one, the pain was too great and my glasses are usually fogged at this point

COT:

Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama, and welcomed FNG Carlos Shivers aka Dewey Decimal (he’s a librarian). Great to have you out with us man, be sure to come back! Reminders about TN Can Ruck – meet at Fat Bottom Brewery at 1:45 tomorrow – ruck starts at 2 sharp. Prayers for:

  • TK’s wife’s grandmother Marie is in the ICU, prayers for healing and peace among the family
  • Reveille’s cousin continues her recovery process
  • Reveille’s dad and brother both ship out soon, prayers for safety
  • Right Said’s friend getting the ole’ wisdom teeth yanked. Prayers for no dry sockets but maybe some YouTube-worthy pain med vids

It was an honor to co-Q with T-Cell, take on my VQ, and celebrate my 30th birthday with such excellent men. Thank you for the opportunity.