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Nimbus’ Favorite Thangs

7 PAX out this morning in the low 20s for Nimbus’ list of Favorite Thangs!

PAX: Stats, Altidore, Tebow, Ragdoll, Sterno, Creeper & Nimbus1500

Warm-Up:

  • SSH x25
  • Tempo Squats x20
  • Big Arm Circles OYO (definitely needed before the sequence below)
  • Toy Soliders x10ish each leg OYO

The List

Thang Combo #1

Quick Mosey to the swing set for our partner swap Burpups (Prairie Grass Pullups for those of you who took the journey on the Oregon Trail pt. 2) and HipDips.  With 5 sets of 5, each PAX completed 25 Burpups and as many HipDips they could squeeze in while their partner was on the pull up bar.

Thang Combo #2

Mosey to the Snack Shack for some wall work.  In pairs, one PAX would run to the trees and back while the other PAX would do the wall exercise until the runner returned.  We did three rounds, 1st Wall Walkups, 2nd Balls to the Wall (lotta balls in my workouts lately?), 3rd Donkey Kicks.

Thang #3

Indian run from the snack shack to the bridge, where we did one lap of partner carries.  Each PAX rotated in as needed to complete the lap.

Thang #4

Since we were there and we hadn’t had enough shoulders yet, we Crawl Bear’d the bridge and Bear Crawled back.

Mosey back to launch

Mary:

Quick mary with 3 mins remaining, but we got in some new flavors of planks I’ve been experimenting with…from my wife’s Barre classes:).  They have dumb names at Barre, so I’ll call the first one, “The Hillbilly Plank”.  We completed 20ish of those and then knocked out 10 “Push Planks” (name is in review).

Like most of my Qs, I had a lot more favorites to share, but didn’t have enough time.  A sequel is likely…

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Playground Noah’s Ark

40F clear with plenty of near new moon gloom.  Pumpkin Spice joined YHC Porcelain for a 445 pre-hustle run down Broadway.  Made it to the courthouse this time.  Look out Bridgestone and Lower Broadway drunks here we come.  4.1 miles 7:50 pace.  Topic of discussion was Q source.  Got back with about 7-8 minutes to spare.  Grabbed speaker and some water.  Good convoy coming in at 0529.  Disclaimer delivered after meeting our FNG Eric now to be known as Captain Crunch, EH’d by Crab Legs.  16 total PAX for the main event: Q-Porcelain,  FNG-Captain Crunch, Harvey Updike, Right Said, Preacher Man, Bicenntenial Man, Bad Boy, Reveille, Studio 42, Brothers-at-law, Trapper Keeper, Hot Route, Crab Legs, Vector, Crawl Space, Blue Mule.

Not really much running for the main event.  Started with slow mosey with the Shovel Flag to the playground as promised to Brother-at-law.

COP-sshx20, wmhx10, 6 count burpees x11 (moleskin: cadence call became difficult at the end.  It’s really the only good way to get good form out of people.  Unashamedly stolen from the F3 Nation 43 feet podcast.), little baby arm circles forward and reverse x10each.

The Thang:

Elevens: optional which to start 1 or 10.

1: balls to the wall handstand push-ups on the side of the art center then bear crawl to other station

2: pull-up on playground bars then lunge walk to other station

Tree wall sits waiting for the six.  Definitely took more time then I expected so I audibled away from Dora around the 6am pull-up completion.

Everyone picked a partner and had to rotate through 3 stations.  Timer for partner exercise was the other partner animal walking ~30 feet to the shovel flag and back.  Each partner did both activities once then moved on to another station.

Station 1: inch worm animal walk while partner did swerkins.

Station 2: crab animal walk while partner did picnic table step ups.

Station 3: duck walk while partner did bar hanging knees to shoulders.

Slow mosey return to the kindly gentleman statue.  One minute of flutter kicks for Mary.

Announcements that I almost forgot.  Friendly Friday this Friday at Bomber.  Bad boy heading up a sure to be excellent Leadership luncheon coming up January 18th at Richland Country Club.  Brother at law leading the charge on Angelman’s disease fundraiser at Smith and Lentz February 7th at 7pm.  Burritos!

Prayer: Been working my way through the F3 Q source leadership framework (google it).  Had everyone place right hand on their brother’s shoulder then turn around and face out to cover each other’s six.  Today was a red pill day but I can struggle with the blue pill too.  Like Neo coming to reality in the matrix movie being referred to, Reality is tough. Taking the blue pill browsing a smart phone is easy.  Come out to guard the six of the men to your left and your right.  Thanks for helping make me better and I hope I am doing the same for y’all.  Closed with a short excerpt from the Our Daily Bread app this morning because I thought it was timely looking at the 3rd F of the get right.

Jesus still doesn’t always meet our expectations of Him. Yet He is so much more than we can imagine. He’s the provider of eternal life (vv. 47–48). He is good and wise; and He loves, forgives, stays close, and brings us comfort. May we find rest in Jesus as He is and keep following Him.

Great 3 bros coffeeteria turn out: right said, crawl space, bicentennial man, vector, Harvey Updike, bad boy, brother-at-law, Porcelain, crab legs, TK.

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Who doesn’t like lunges?

PAX: Umbrella, Joey Freshwater (Kotter), Black Widow, Boone’s Farm, Tampa Libra, Funyuns, Toga (QIC), Venus, Tiny Dancer, Double Check, Razorback, Offshore, Pop a lock

13 lucky contestants didn’t skip leg day at The Racetrack.  Here’s how it went down:

Quick disclaimer then mosey to parking lot beside the parking deck.  Warmup COP: SSH, imperial walkers, hillbillies, T-Ups, cotton pickers.  10 burpees for Tampa Libra being late.

Mosey to stairwell for a quick ascent to the top of the deck.  In honor of the great American songwriter Paula Abdul, we began “one step forward and two steps back”= run down the ramp, backpedal back up, complete 10 merkins, run down to the flat and lunge the flat to the next down ramp.  Repeato till the bottom floor then execute pole smokers till the six arrived.  Mosey to the wall outside Holler and Dash, dream of biscuits then execute 1 rd of DID (Incline merkins, dips, decline merkins), and complete 10 step-ups for each leg.

Mosey to stair well.  Attempt to beat previous time for PAX to ascend stairs, fail, and get better with 10 burpees.

Mosey to monkey bars back at the park.  Execute 6 pull-up pyramid then get in formation for old school football ground drills.  Mosey back to the flag.

COT and Joey FW took us out.

Announcements:

  • Prayers for those dealing with illness and loss
  • Warpath this Saturday
  • Leadership Lunch next Friday, 1/18.  See post and RSVP
  • We’re back at 4:13 next Thursday.  Get back out there to support these young men entering the program.
  • The Standard week 2 happens tomorrow!

NMM:  The Racetrack has a lot to offer.  You’ve got the parking deck, the park, and Umbrella’s tiny flag.  Everyone worked hard this morning, and it’s great to have Mr Freshwater back in the mix.

Stay Classy,

Toga

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1/3/19 Winter Hillympics Week 5

PAX: Frugal Macdoogal (QIC), Money Shot, Pop-A-Lock, Black Lung, Venus, Cathy, Lifechamp, Red Skull, Hot N Ready, Razorback, Tampa Libra, Yard Sale, FNG Toto, Too Tall, Prevac

15 came out to compete in Week 5 of the Winter Hillympics.  It was 42 degrees, but felt colder than that.  Here’s what happened:

Disclaimer, broke into our teams (Red, White and Blue), then mosey to the amphitheater.

WOR:

SSH x 15, GM x 15, WMH x 15, FBAC x 15, RBAC x 15, Overhead Claps x 15, Seal Claps x 15, Squats x 15

Competition #1: Amphitheater Jumps

  • First team to complete 50 sets of AJs.  Only one person could jump at a time (one set is all 5 jumps to the top).  One person from each team also had to be running the quad loop.  All others were wall sitting and waiting.
    • 1st: White (2 pts)
    • 2nd: Red (1 pt)
    • 3rd: Blue

After that, went to get one set of 55lb. weights per team from the weight room then moseyed out front to the library loop.

Competition #2: Leap Frog and Deadlift

  • Team leap frog to the end of the island/first cone (about 65 meters) then sprint back and each person had to do 10 reps of dumbbell deadlift.
    • 1st: Blue (2 pts)
    • 2nd: White (1 pt)
    • 3rd: Red

Competition #3: Sprint Shuttle and Shrugs

  • One person from each team would sprint to the first cone and do 5 dumbbell shrugs then backpedal back to the start.  Then, the same person would sprint to the 2nd cone (about 130 meters) and back, stopping for 5 dumbbell shrugs speed bump both ways.  Rinse and repeat until whole team had gone once.  All others were rotating between merkins, squats, and abs OYO.
    • 1st: White (2 pts)
    • 2nd: Blue (1 pt)
    • 3rd: Red

Returned weights then mosey up to the top lot for 10 burpees then COT.

All teams received a point for attendance.  White team got an additional point for the flag.  Red team got a point because they’re so far behind (and brought an FNG).

Here’s the points awarded for the week:

White: 7, Blue: 4, Red: 3

Point Total Heading Into Final Week of Team Competition:

1st: White – 38

2nd: Blue – 33

3rd: Red – 25

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12/27/18 Winter Hillympics led by Red Skull

Hillympics Week 4: Field Work

4 PAX showed up for some post-Christmas Hillympics. The thermometer claimed 50 degrees, but the 20 MPH winds and light drizzle made the 50 feel a lot more like 30, at least until we started.

PAX: Hot ‘n Ready, Old Hickory, Turncoat (Willy Loman) and YHC Red Skull.

We started with a mosey to the east end of the football field and circled up for WOR. During WOR it was decided that points would be awarded before we started working out. The points were awarded as follows:

  • White Team: 2 points (1 for attendance, 1 for flag)
  • Red Team: 1 point (for attendance)
  • Blue Team: 0 points

WOR: SSH, Good Mornings, Baby Arm Circles forwards and backwards, Air Press, Windmills, Hillbilly Walkers and Squats.

Thang: We spent the rest of the time on the football field working our way from end zone to end zone with some fun exercises added in just for fun.

On a 2:00 minute interval:

  1. Sprint to the end of the field and finish the interval with as many World War IIs as possible.
  2. Bear Crawl to the 50-yard line and finish the interval with as many Merkins as possible.
  3. Lunge from the 50 to the end zone and finish the interval with as many deep squats as possible.

Increased the interval to 3:00 minutes and worked backwards:

  1. Back Pedal to the length of the field and finish interval with as many WWII’s as possible
  2. Crawl Bear to the 50-yard line and finish the interval with as many Merkins as possible
  3. Reverse Lunge from the 50 to the end zone and finish the interval with as many deep squats as possible

Back to a 2:00 minute interval:

  1. Power Skip 100 yards and finish the interval with as many burpees as possible.
  2. Crab Walk to the 50-yard line and finish the interval with American Hammers.
  3. 10-yard Suicides from the 50 to the end zone, plank for the remainder of the interval.
  4. Grab a partner and Wheel Barrell to the 50, switch and finish the final 50.

Slow mosey back to the parking lot for COT.

Total Points for the week:       White: 2          Blue: 0             Red: 1

4-week total:                           White: 31        Blue 30            Red 23

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8 January 2019 Adam Brown WOD

Temp: Unseasonably Warm
Gloom Factor: High
PAX: Brother at Law, CCR, Big Stick, Floppy Disk, CAPSLOCK, Black Lung, Boy Band, Red Skull (Respect), Too Tall, Venus, PreVac, Bagger Vance
QIC: BV

Today’s Q was in honor of Chief Adam Brown, US Navy Seal Team 6. While the Crossfit Hero WOD calls for more lifting and no running, as we do in F3, we modified. Brown was killed on 17 March 2010 while on a mission to capture or kill objective Lake James, a Taliban fighter that had more kills under his tunic than almost any other Taliban other than Bin Laden. Brown’s death was the direct result of his actions to protect his teammates and to take out two insurgents, one of which was Lake James. Brown’s team ended up being the one that killed Bin Laden and have become legendary. While Brown’s heroics in the Navy are awe inspiring, his overcoming a chronic addiction to crack cocaine is to me just as unbelievable. So, anyway, check out the biography on his life…Fearless. Amazing story.

Long mosey up Manley, right on Rochelle, right on Hogan and right on Marchant for

WOR:
SSH x 24 IC, IW x 13 IC, HB x 13 IC

THANG:

Pair up 1s and 2s. P1 is the runner w sight, P2 is the blind runner. (Brown was blinded in his right eye by an air soft bullet in a training exercise)

Worksets X 10 (year of his death 2010)

Work x 3 exercises (month of his death)
Reps x 17 (day of his death)

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Objective I – corner of Hogan and Rochelle

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Flap Jack runners

Objective II – corner of Rochelle and Brentlawn

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Sighted run to Manley and Cochran

Objective III – Manley and Cochran

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Objective IV – 1/2 up Cochran Blind runner P1, sighted runner P2

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Objective V – Oakley and Cochran
Flap Jack runners

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Objective VI – 1/2 way down Cochran
Flap Jack Runner

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Objective VII – Manley and Cochran
Flap jack runner

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Objective VII – CHUM school bus, sighted run by all

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Objective IX – rope in parking lot
P2 runs blind and backwards, P1 guides to rope

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Objective X – end of lot, flap jack runners

Merkins x 17
Squats x 17
Plank Thrusters x 17

Finish running portion of 2.4 miles. 24 was Brown’s number in high school football and became his favorite number hence the 2.4 miles.

Circle up for 3 MOM:

Plank progression

Time

NMM: as most of yall can figure out, YHC is getting more in tuned w the HERO WOD concept from Crossfit and the guys in F3Greenwood. So intrigued by Adam Brown’s story and his family. One of the most compelling pieces of his story and his life was that he had a team, family and wife that never gave up on him. Even when he was figuratively blinded by crack or literally blinded by the air soft gun, he had a fellowship there to protect him, drive him on and help him accomplish his objectives. That was the driver for our blind partner runs and is such a telling part of F3 for me, that there are HIM that want the best for me.

Bullhorn:
Pray for the family friends of Funyuns who are both struggling with cancer.
Pray for Tampa’s friends who lost their daughter this past weekend to a rare genetic disease.
Leadership lunch at Richland CC, Bad Boy on Q. Cost is $20 and the buffet there is so worth it…not to mention the speaker, Clay Stouffer from Woodmont Christian Church.

Thank yall for posting, leading is only worth it when those who are led are willing and are looking to get better.

YHC,
Bagger Vance

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Special After Holiday Coupon Sale

PAX: Boone’s Farm, Black Widow, Toga (QIC), Leatherneck (Kotter), Umbrella, Offshore

Six redwoods decided to apply some special after holiday coupons at the Purple Cow.  Here’s how it went down:

Warmup COP: Perform forward, backwards, and side to side mosey then circle up.  Execute Imperial Walkers, Cotton pickers, Russian soldiers, T-Ups, and scorpion stretch.  Gather YHC’s collection of coupons and head to the bottom of the hill/hillock at the base of the parking lot.

Coupon application = Position 1 merkins, Position 2= dumbbell tricep extensions, Position 3= dumbbell curls, 4= kb swing, 5= kb press, and 6 = sandbag row.  Each member of the PAX performs the exercise then carries the  coupon up the hill to rinse and repeat.  Repeato for a total of 4 sets with ab fun at the completion of each rotation then rotate to the next position.

Mosey back to flag for “ring of coupon” squats and lunges.

COT

NMM:  It was great to see Leatherneck back in the PAX.  Apparently we are hard to find in the back parking lot, so Leatherneck opted to sit in his car and watch another group in another lot to see if they were ever going to get out of their cars.  It’s probably for the best he decided to search for us one more time!

Stay Classy,

Toga

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We Must Climb, We Must Climb!! @ BrokenWheel

As Gollum said, “We must climb, we must climb.” We took his advice and took it to heart with some hill work, along with some fun speed bumps along the way. Sorry guys we ran a LOT this morning.

PAX: Sterno, 3rd Degree, Nimbus 1500, Creeper, Stats, Altidore, Tap Out, Aby, Barney Fievel, Show Me, Mic Drop, Tebow, Staples, Netflix, NumbTucks (QIC)

We did 10 burpees and then took off on a 1-mile jog to Countryside (the dreaded hill). This hill was introduced on my first half marathon I trained for, I HATED THIS HILL.

Along the way:
Speed bump 1: 50 Dips on benches
Speed bump 2: 50 Merkins
Speed bump 3: 50 American Hammers

THE HILL:
nine total driveways up the hill. At each driveway, each PAX performs burpees and WW1s. Both must add up to 10. Begin with nine burpees and one WW1. Decrease burpees and increase WW1s until you end up at the top with one burpee and nine WW1s

The way back:
Speed bump 1: Flutterkicks
We finally reached THE BRIDGE for one bear crawl across as we waited for others to show up. Staples hurt his ankle, some walked with him, while the others did some MARY.

Workout Notes:
– Warpath is this Saturday 5am at the Concord YMCA (feel free to show up for part or whole) Contact Third Degree for more details
– Ironclad sign up has past, but reach out to Princess Aurora if you want to sign up. He will have mercy
– Nimbus needs to stop revealing what he ate the night before by letting the gas flow freely while running in the front. (The smell is still haunting me)
– Show Me was on point with much yelling this morning. I heard a lot about Dabo Swinney.
– Hit up Tebow with some cash for coffee (venmo: @Nathan-Wright-34)

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The Boys Are Back In Town

18 of the most handsome men in Nashville turned out to celebrate an unseasonably warm January day in Crieve Hall.  Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys are Back in Town” played on repeat, except for Jeff Rosenstock’s “Festival Song” (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5qjTzPeA1E) in the middle.  After all, the boys were back in town.

When: 01.07.2018

PAX: Floppy D; Black Lung; Dilly Dilly; Dr. Smartt; A/R; Tampa Libra; Pop a Lock; Stirrups; CCR; Dine and Dash; Boy Band; Too Tall; Ludwig; Reefer; Edible Arrangements; Juan Valdez; Bagger Vance; Brother-at-Law (QIC)

Warm Up: We did three mosey laps around the bus loop: 1) a brisk jog; 2) a side shuffle up the loop; 3) then a side shuffle facing the other way around the loop.  Much grumbling.  Then we did a walking lunge and reach to engage our core.  Thin Lizzy engaged our ears.

The Thang:  Split into two lines.  Too Tall Loop American Indian Run.  We lost Juan Valdez, who went to poop without telling anybody (he texted me).  So after the run there was some brief confusion.  BV had already gone to find Valdez by the time I saw the text.  It was all very confusing.   CCR had folks doing what appeared to be rows and pullups down at the playground.  Thank you CCR.

After order was restored, we split back up into two groups at the playground for the following:

Group 1: 10 minutes AMRAP Cindy (5 pullups, 10 merkins, 15 squats).

Group 2: 10 minutes AMRAP of the following super-set: 10 swirkins; 10 bunsen burners (bulgarian split squats with a foot in the swing) each leg); 10 ASTs.

Switch after 10 minutes.

Mosey back up to the lot for a series of sprints, plank jacks, planks/side planks, American hammers, and cash out with 5 burpees for notorious burpee lover Juan Valdez.  That’s all she wrote.

Announcements: Leadership lunch next Friday 1/18 organized by Bad Boy and put on at Richland Country Club (apparently excellent catering?).  See Slack for details.

Ironclad signup closes tonight I think.  Good way to stay accountable during the dreary months.

4:13 Strong AO opens back up next Thursday.  An awesome program, AO, and group.  Make it out there for a few workouts this session if you can.

Prayers for the Santos and McCauley (spelling, sorry) families.

Loved seeing so many guys kicking off the post-holiday period off right.  2019 will be a good one.  I feel it.

Brother-at-law

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What my 4-year old has taught me about leadership

What my 4-year old has taught me about leadership

My wife and I have a very active 4-year old son. Anyone who has spent a lot of time with children knows they often don’t have a filter. At times this can be bad, but sometimes it is very thought-provoking. I’ve read many great articles over the years on leadership from high-profile CEO’s, High-ranking Military officers, and inspirational leaders. I have learned a lot from these various sources however, I am finding some of the core foundations of leadership can come right from our children.

Below are few candid comments that have been shared by my son over the last several months that have made me stop and reflect on leadership.

“It’s dark upstairs, will you hold my hand?”

As a leader, we sometimes lead our teams into the “unknown”. It can be a change within the organization, a big meeting we are preparing for, a customer-facing event that could go in many different directions, you name it. We need to instill the confidence and trust within our team to let them know it will be alright and we will be with them every step of the way. It’s important they know we are there for them and will we go at it together. Prior to being in leadership myself, I had the misconception that good leaders had all the answers. I now know from personal experience that isn’t always the case. Although, I often don’t have all the immediate answers I have found that people always appreciate the presence and support of knowing they aren’t facing a situation alone.

“Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t, but it’s okay.”

Everyone in some capacity whether in sports, work, or your occasional Monopoly game is competitive (in my son’s case, any game involving hockey). We won’t win all the time, but it’s how we react to our losses that tell us a story about ourselves. I have found that in leadership it takes emotional intelligence to not have a bad attitude after a loss. It is important to quickly assess and analyze where we went wrong and learn from it.

“Sharing is Caring”

If there is one word that we say the most when we are with our son and other kids, it’s “share”. I love to learn. I want to read books and articles about leadership successes and how to replicate them, but I also enjoying reading about challenges and failures. In leadership (and personally), I feel it’s equally important that we share where we have had success and where we have struggled. I have found that I have learned more from conversations with others sharing experiences than any other avenue of learning.

In our four years with our son, we have had some humbling conversations. Sometimes it’s a laughable moment, sometimes not. I believe that leadership principles happen around us daily, however, it all depends on how we look at them. I am still learning every day on how to be a better leader. I look forward to all the additional things he will teach me as he grows.

-Michael Jobe (Bad Boy)