A Day of Celebrations

AO: bomber
Q: Firefox , Pole Dancer
PAX: Vector, Black Lung, Tim the Toolman, CubCadet, DintyMoore, Puzzlah, Pep, Poppa Lock
FNGs: None
COUNT: 10
CONDITIONS: Arctic

WARMUP: Pole Dancer led us in some active warm-ups:
– 50 SSH
– A skips
– B skips
– Zombie walks

THE THANG: Pole Dancer and YHC could not decide which Feb. 21 national day to celebrate; so, we celebrated all of them.

Thang 1: Sticky Buns Day
To celebrate National Sticky Buns Day, YHC had us do a bit of leg and bun work. PAX did the following circuit as many times as they could within our allotted celebration time. Everyone finished 2, some were about done with their 3rd when we called time.
– Iron Mikes (20x/side)
– Bulgarian Split Squats (20x/side)
– Jump Squats (20x)
– Raised Alabama Prom Dates (20x, with feet elevated on a bench)
– Bear crawl around the circle behind McCabe

Thang 2: Grain-Free Day
To celebrate National Grain-Free Day, Pole Dancer had us do a number of exercises that looked familiar but were ultimately worse. After each set, we ran a bernie around the circle
– Navy Seal Burpees (merkin, knee tuck, merkin, knee tuck, merkin) – 25x (but many shortened to 20 because, wtf)
– Deep Squat Star Jumps – 25x
– Something else, I forget

Thang 3: Caregiver’s Day
To celebrate National Caregiver’s Day, YHC had us partner up. First 1 PAX did sit-ups while the other held feet in a high plank position. We did this for 50s and then swapped. We did 2 rotations of this and then switched to Partner Decline Merkins. 1 PAX held the feet of the other who did merkins for 50s and then swapped. 50s is a long time, y’all.

Thang 4: Boiled Peanuts Day
Pole Dancer was unfamiliar with boiled peanuts and other things we eat here in the South (if we’re not allergic to peanuts). He led us in a number of Southern-themed exercises, with a short jog to the parking lot in-between.
– Carolina Dry Docks
– Alabama Prom Dates
– Hello Dolly’s
– Ragin’ Cajuns (elbow-to-opposite knee crunches)

MOLESKINE:
– Definitely was fun collaborating with Pole Dancer on this!
– Much discussion of the Tomb Raider-esque amalgamation of YHC and Pole Dancer. Vector called it pornography.
– So cold.
– If you want to do a Co-Q mash-up with another of our respected brethren, send me a DM! We’ve got a couple others lined up for the spring.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– Saturday Breakfast Q at Focker’s
– Game night next Friday
– Other things that are on the calendar

COT:
– Much gratitude

We Ran to Love Circles (+Burpees)

AO: westeros
Q: Michelin Man
PAX: Pep, Young and Restless, Red Skull, Michelin Man, Bull Chutes, BTU, Grape, bluemule, Tim the Toolman, Vector, Go Green Go, Merch
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
CONDITIONS: NOT cold (after a minute)

WARMUP: pre 5:30am warmup to “Lean On” by Major Lazer. No time to warm up during my Q.

THE THANG:

The Pax love to run in circles after today. And we’ll do burpees. Q also called for Constant Movement (TM) meaning if we stopped, we did “resting” exercises.

Music: 1st: Pink Pony Club by Chappel Roan. Then hits from 1998… the year Chapel Roan was born. Feel old yet Vector?

Thangs 1: We ran a circle around the park 3x, performing a running burpee apocalypse along the way. Sprinkled in copious Side Straddle Hops, Plank Jacks, and Indian Runs along the way to wait for various 6s. bluemule fell down.

Thang 2: We then ran to the school loop and did timed runs around the circle. Each time we had to beat our time to decrease the burpee counter. First run was 38 seconds/5 burpees around and we made it all the way down to 27 seconds/1 burpee before failure to beat time. We then did 5x burpees since we didn’t beat time. Pep completed some of the circle runs… creatively.

We returned to startex to do plank jacks and Side Straddle Hops and Mountain Climbers.

Then we let our heart rates come down. Constant Movement (TM) completed. We live to run in circles.

Fin.

MOLESKINE:

For President’s Day:

“For his fellow-citizens, if their prayers could have been answered, he would have been immortal. For me, his departure is at a most unfortunate moment. … His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read.”

— John Adams, second President of the United States, in a Dec. 23, 1799 reply to Congress following the death of George Washington nine days earlier.

We Ran to Love Circles (+Burpees)

AO: westeros
Q: Michelin Man
PAX: Pep, Young and Restless, Red Skull, Michelin Man, Bull Chutes, BTU, Grape, bluemule, Tim the Toolman, Vector, Go Green Go, Merch
FNGs: None
COUNT: 12
CONDITIONS: NOT cold (after a minute)

WARMUP: pre 5:30am warmup to “Lean On” by Major Lazer. No time to warm up during my Q.

THE THANG:

The Pax love to run in circles after today. And we’ll do burpees. Q also called for Constant Movement (TM) meaning if we stopped, we did “resting” exercises.

Music: 1st: Pink Pony Club by Chappel Roan. Then hits from 1998… the year Chapel Roan was born. Feel old yet Vector?

Thangs 1: We ran a circle around the park 3x, performing a running burpee apocalypse along the way. Sprinkled in copious Side Straddle Hops, Plank Jacks, and Indian Runs along the way to wait for various 6s. bluemule fell down.

Thang 2: We then ran to the school loop and did timed runs around the circle. Each time we had to beat our time to decrease the burpee counter. First run was 38 seconds/5 burpees around and we made it all the way down to 27 seconds/1 burpee before failure to beat time. We then did 5x burpees since we didn’t beat time. Pep completed some of the circle runs… creatively.

We returned to startex to do plank jacks and Side Straddle Hops and Mountain Climbers.

Then we let our heart rates come down. Constant Movement (TM) completed. We live to run in circles.

Fin.

MOLESKINE:

For President’s Day:

“For his fellow-citizens, if their prayers could have been answered, he would have been immortal. For me, his departure is at a most unfortunate moment. … His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations, as long as our history shall be read.”

— John Adams, second President of the United States, in a Dec. 23, 1799 reply to Congress following the death of George Washington nine days earlier.

That-workout-from-Friday redux

AO: westeros
Q: CubCadet
PAX: DintyMoore, Vector, bluemule, Pep, SalPal, Spinal Tap, Michelin Man
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
CONDITIONS: Brisk 32 but manageable

WARMUP: 25 SSH, WMH / GM OYO, mosey around the big field (on the pavement)

THE THANG: Yeah, I stole my own workout from Friday / Bomber. Modified it slightly to make it less confusing (based on anonymous feedback)

– Endzone: 5 SSH
– 10 yard line: 10 burpees
– 20 yard line: 20 WW1
– 30 yard line: 30 mountain climbers
– 40 yard line: 40 merkins
– 50 yard line: 50 squats
– 40 yard line: 40 ski jumpers
– 30 yard line: 30 American Hammers
– 20 yard line: 20 box jumps
– 10 yard line: 10 wide arm merkins
– Endzone: 5 SSH

Rinse / repeat in reverse order

Travel between yard lines as a group was half bear crawl / half lunge worms (lunge, lunge, inchworm forward, 2 merkins, inchworm back up)

Sprint length of the “field” – 1x

Mary – round robin, 25 reps each exercise for 8 minutes

Playlist as also a recycle: Super Bowl Halftime songs.

MOLESKINE: Things I learned today:

– DintyMoore is alive
– SalPal was 12 in 2011
– Prince was the greatest SB halftime act. Ever.
– Coffee at Dose is pretty cool (#lovingmysabbatical)

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Congrats to those who finished Leanpax. Check slack for details on Brewruck and Night Moves coming up.

COT: Prayers for:
– People and critical care / research institutions impacted by government budget cuts, and struggling with uncertainty.
– Vector and family over his Mother’s passing
– Michelin Man dealing with some back issues (and our gratitude that he came to hang with us)
– SalPal dealing with some leadership challenges / change at work
– Intentions in our hearts.

Grateful for the opportunity to lead.

Someday We’ll All Enjoy Running, But Not Today

AO: westeros
Q: Hair Band
PAX: Chunks, Grape, Tim the Toolman, DintyMoore, Michelin Man, Pep, SalPal, Son of Red Skull, Red Skull, Young and Restless, bluemule, CubCadet, Sherlock, Vector
FNGs: None
COUNT: 14
CONDITIONS: a bit chilly, a bit damp

WARMUP:
Good mornings
Cherry pickers
Willie mays hayes
Cowboy hip rotations (fwd & bck)
50 SSHs
High knees
Butt kicks

THE THANG:
Mosey to parking lot hill
2x 50% sprint up hill, jog down
2x 75% sprint up hill, jog down
2x 90% sprint up hill, jog down

3 Sets
20 Squat jump with knee tuck (40 drop squats as modification)
50 Iron mikes (25e)
15 merkins
Hard sprint up hill (85% effort), jog down (30-40% effort)

In cadence squats on Hair Band count

Mosey to jungle gym for as many rounds of
25 pull ups and running a lap around the drop off circle as possible

MOLESKINE:
A thought I had during the beatdown: how we, as individuals, approach a workout together is often a reflection of how we live our lives in relationship with others.

Another thing I learned today: if I see people shorting themselves in an exercise, it fires me up. I have more to say on this matter but it’s probably better I don’t.

Shoutout to DintyMoore for being a monster and raising his lactaid threshold this morning.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– AOQ Grow School coming to a saturday soon near you
– Spring CSAUP in the works
– Spring fling led by Natural Ice – CBO
– 4:13 Strong Dinner fundraiser April 24th

COT:
– health and wellness for friends & family, prayers & praises for employment

Rock on and don’t cheat yourself out of getting better,

Hair Band

Filipino Friday

AO: bomber
Q: Firefox
PAX: Vector, Tim the Toolman, Crawlspace, CubCadet, Sherlock, Wet Wipes, Puzzlah, Pep, DintyMoore, Right Said
FNGs: None
COUNT: 11
CONDITIONS: Calm before the Snow

Having returned from 2.5 weeks in the Philippines, YHC queued up a playlist of Filipino/Filipino-American artists, equipped the PAX with 25lb bags of rice and led the mosey to the upper parking lot.

WARMUP:
20x SSH
15x FLBAC
15x RLBAC
15x Air Presses
15x Filipino Night Clubs

THE THANG:
Part 1: PAX split up into 2 groups of 5, each with a bag of rice. Groups did an indigenous peoples’ run around the parking lot, passing the bag of rice back to the last person, who would run it back to the front. In my group’s case, the pass was more of a toss. 2 laps around the lot.

Part 2: PAX split up into 4 groups of 2 or 3. Laying on the ground, PAX did a WWI to grab the bag of rice in front of them and then pass it back to partner, then getting up to reposition on the ground behind their partner to receive the bag of rice again. We did this down half the length of the parking lot and then did the reverse back to the starting point.

Part 3: In the same groups, 1 PAX held a plank while the other run the length of the parking lot, holding the bag of rice over their head. Second time through, we run half the length of the parking lot.

Part 4: Mosey down to the playground. PAX had to answer questions about the Philippines. We did reps of an exercise related to the answer. If anyone in the group could answer within a specified margin of error, 5 penalty burpees would be waived.

– 117 mountain climbers for the ~117 million people who live in the Philippines (+ five penalty burpees)
– 76 flutter kicks for the over 7600 islands in the Philippines (+ five penalty burpees)
– 124 plank jacks for the 124 islands in the Hundred Islands (at low tide) (+ five penalty burpees)
– 15 pull-ups (times 2 sets) for the 15 million people that live in Metro Manila
– 16 hanging leg lifts for the 16 Tennessees it would take to make up the population of the Philippines (+ five penalty burpees)
– 64 fire hydrants for the 64″ average height of Filipino men
– 61 dips for the 61 foot length of the longest recorded whale shark (+ five penalty burpees)
– 48 kick throughs for the differential between today’s low temperature and the low temperature in Manila

MOLESKINE: No bags of rice were harmed during this Q.
Also, YHC introduced “One More Thing” after Count-o-rama and Name-o-rama. Each PAX shared a word or sentence of gratitude to kick the day off on a positive and thankful note.

Also, also, our tunes were highjacked when my younger decided that 6am was a great time to be playing Chappell Roan on my Spotify account. Actual playlist below.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Leanpax

COT:
– Safety for all those traveling and/or affected by fires and winter weather
– Many thanks to DintyMoore for his leadership as AOQ for the last year and change

It was an honor and pleasure leading y’all today!

Start leanpax

AO: westeros
Q: Pep
PAX: Vector, CubCadet, Hair Band, Grape, Young and Restless, Puzzlah, Salami, Black Lung, SalPal, Michelin Man, The Merchant, Tim the Toolman, DintyMoore, Blueprint, sooner, bluemule, Sherlock, Boomerang
FNGs: None
COUNT: 19
CONDITIONS:
Cold.
Did I already say cold?

WARMUP:
– imperial walkers
– Hillbillies
– Good mornings

THE THANG:
-trivia pep guardiola theme
– hold plank till right answer is called
– pax with right answer tells us how many burpees to do

– Dora:
– Timer : run the circle at the school drop off
– 100: pull ups
– 200: windshield wipers
– 300: fire hydrants

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
– JUICE day (?in place of brews day)
– Leanpax (bagels are processed food)
– Aoq bootcamp (coming quarterly)

New Year, New You

AO: titan
Q: Grape
PAX: bluemule, Natural Ice – CBO, Right Said, Pep, Vector, The Merchant, hambone, Canned Heat, sooner, Spinal Tap, Shingles (F3 Wichita), Esposa, Tim the Toolman, Papa Bear, DintyMoore
FNGs: None
COUNT: 16
CONDITIONS: perfect for new beginnings

WARMUP: 25 SSH
25 LBAC F
25 LBAC R
20 L&S Merkins
20 L&S Squats

THE THANG: slow mosey around the park, stopping every so often to do merkins until we had completed 2025 (ish) as a group

Partner up, one partner runs the walking trail as a timer as the other partner completes one set of:

Navy seal burpees
Elevated merkins (incline)
WW1
iYt
Elevated merkins (decline)
Ab thrusters
Regular squats

Mosey to the ellipse

Change partners, timer is running lap around the ellipse

Navy seal burpees
Elevated merkins (incline)
WW1
iYt
Original burpees
Ulgarian split squats

Back to startex to do like 3 more merkins each to make sure we hit our number

MOLESKINE: Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Leanpax 1/6

COT: sooner’s dog
Vector’s brother
Natural Ice – CBO’s courage
Pep’s project
Spinal Tap in his new role as AOQ of titan

:grapes:

Christmas Light Alert

AO: westeros
Q: Natural Ice – CBO
PAX: Wolfpack, Spinal Tap, Grape, DintyMoore, Pep, CubCadet, Vector, Young and Restless, Red Skull, Shingles (F3 Wichita), Tim the Toolman, Natural Ice – CBO, Steampunk, Tops
FNGs: None
COUNT: 14
CONDITIONS: Wonderful

WARMUP: The usual warmups with a few extra stretches

THE THANG: PAX embarked on the 3rd Annual Christmas Light Alert, exploring the festive streets of Westeros under YHC’s lead. This 2.6-mile mosey combined holiday spirit with heart-pumping fitness, as we stopped to honor neighborhood decorations with exercises:
– White Christmas Lights = 5 Iron Mikes (each leg counts as 1/2)
– Multicolored Lights = 5 Merkins
– Inflatable Deer or Standing Statues = 5 Burpees
The neighborhood showed up in force with decorations, and so did we. PAX powered through countless lights, racking up reps and burning 590 calories in the process.
Bonus Challenge: A festive bear crawl across the neighborhood bridge, adding some extra grit to the evening.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Lean Pax is almost here!

COT: Prayers for Courage in the New Year

Adaptive TABATA

AO: bomber
Q: DintyMoore
PAX: Tim the Toolman, CubCadet, Papa Bear, Vector, Bottle Cap (F3 Cincinnati), Swivel Hips (new to Nashville)
FNGs: None
COUNT: 7
CONDITIONS: Rain

WARMUP: Mosey to clubhouse, SSHs, Toe Touches, Cherry Pickers, Inchworm Merkins

THE THANG:
TABATA – 45 work / 15 rest
45/15 @ 5 rounds
Reverse Burpees
Surfer Lunges
Kickstand Deads
Bear squat merkins
Burpees over Blocks

Mosey to Start X
3×10
Seated Jump Squats
Julgarian Split Squat Jumps
Single Leg Side Hops

MOLESKINE: Welcome 2025 – it’s time to start making some new connections and bringing them into F3.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence NYD at #titan from tel:0600-0700

leanpax starts on 1/6

JuiceDay – 1/7

COT: keep an eye on slack for our fellow pax members Hedwig and Pop-A-Lock who will become new dads this week.