Archive for month: March, 2018

St. Patrick’s Day Convergence Ruck 3/17/18 Backblast

PAX: Jimmy Dean, Sipe, The Mickey, El Chapo, Woodstock, Ticket, Jennay, Stark, Shakira, Brute, Ollie, Splinter, Wake, The Hoff, Tupac, Sunshine, Brita, The Colonel, Stamper, FNG-Mark Bueller (Socrates), Ozzie, Bourbon, Raven, Jingle Bells, Hedgehog, Mater, Danica, Cooter, John Henry, Valdez, Worm, Bambi, The Mayor, Modell, Gap, Cogsworth
Q: Klinger

Total Distance: 8.67 miles
Total Time: 2 hrs 45 min

The Thang: 37 brave men posted at Promenade Park in Downtown Toledo on this fine St. Patrick’s Day morning for a convergence ruck. The weather was perfect. A bit cold (mid 20’s) but no wind so seemed pretty ideal for some hard work. As PAX strolled up to the start point, they were greeted by 4 – 9 foot long logs.

At precisely 0400 hrs, YHC gathered the PAX together and welcomed them all. We had one FNG – Mark Bueller, and he was brought into the circle and the 5 core principles of F3 were explained. A disclaimer was also discussed. With those admin details out of the way, YHC proceeded by explaining the details of the ruck. First, PAX were instructed to line up by height. Next, teams of 4 PAX were made with all members approximately the same height. Then, 2 teams were joined together to form a squad. In total, there were 4 squads with approximately 8-9 PAX per squad. YHC chose a squad leader for each squad and briefed them on their mission. Simply, the mission was to choose one of the 4 logs and carry it along the route. Squad leaders were responsible for coming up with a plan of how they wanted to handle rotation of PAX on the log. After allowing a couple minutes for them to develop their plan, we formed up into 2 columns and headed out.

Since the logs were of varying weights (some heavy, some lighter), at each mile the logs were shuffled between the squads, so that equal time was had on the heavy ones and light ones. Squad leaders were changed out every 2 miles. We moved along at a decent pace and PAX did a great job of rotating on and off the logs.

Points of Interest along the route: St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Central Catholic High School (home of the Fighting Irish), Rosary Cathedral, Scott High School, The Toledo Art Museum (stopped for a quick photo), and Historic St. Patrick’s Church.

Once we got to St. Patrick’s Church, we put the logs down and took a 5 minute break to refit, refuel, and hydrate. YHC prepared a brief history lesson on the Irish in Toledo, as well as some info about St. Patrick’s Church. Then, we loaded back up and continued along the route. YHC knew that we were starting to get short on time and was looking for a spot to stash the logs so we could pick up the pace. Finally, once we hit Summit Street, there was a nice grassy area. YHC made a deal with the PAX that we could drop the logs if we could stay together and do some speedrucking! They were happy to oblige and we formed up and headed out. We proceeded down Summit towards the High Level Bridge, crossed over it, made our way through International Park, crossed over the river again on the Cherry Street Bridge, and then proceeded on Summit St. back towards Promenade Park.

YHC realizes that he bit off more than he could chew with respect to time and distance of the planned route. Apologies to all the PAX for not making it back to the start point before the start time for the beatdown. It was pretty cool that the PAX that had arrived for the beatdown only made their way down Summit St. to greet us as we approached our Endex. Since we were running late, YHC completed a Nameorama as we were rucking. COT and naming of the FNG were deferred to the end of the beatdown.

YHC was impressed with all PAX on this adventure. Everyone did their part and the teamwork was great. The goal was to put in a longer distance and do some training for GrowRuck, and YHC believes this was accomplished! The leadership and determination in this group of men continues to amaze me. Keep on getting better!

Oh, and if you’re curious, YHC did secure the dropped logs and transported them back to Sylvania. May or may not have stashed them in a spot that would be convenient for use on future Tuesday rucks!

AYE!!

Reply

QIC: Colonel and Splinter
PAX: Wake, Trinity, Froman, Friday, Nails, Balco, Mailman, Mercy, Bluto, Mr. Belding, Oral-B, Goose, Scrooge, El Chapo, Colonel, Mater, Mickey, Splinter

18 PAX gathered at the peak of Mt. Doom ready to put in work on a crisp Saturday morning. The temperatures were cool but the sun was on the horizon ready to greet us. There were no FNG’s so we went right into 5 core principles and extensive disclaimer that surely made everyone aware of the risks at hand.

Warm-Up:
SSH x 25 IC
Mosey down the driveway, around the wildcat (which got the PAX mumbling that YHC was confused on the loop…however it was all part of the plan on the fly), and continued back through the grass to the precipice of Mt. Doom.

The Thang:
YHC asked the PAX to partner up and get ready for a little competition this morning.

Partner Race:
Partner 1: Run 3 Hill Sprints (all the way to parking lot curb)
Partner 2: Crawl Bear up Mt. Doom to the curb and sprint back down.

Switch and Repeato.

YHC was quickly asked for a demo of the crawl bears up Mt. Doom however had in fact practiced it before as to not break the unwritten rule of (if you can’t Q it, don’t do it). The PAX seemed VERY excited to get started on these so we got to work.

Mercy joined up after the switch as there was an emergency nature calls situation at the start of the beatdown. He did however attack that crawl bear up Mt. Doom and pushed through to the top!

After the switch we mosey’d back up in a serpentine fashion and back around the wildcat to the parking lot for Colonel to lead us in a circle of pain.

Colonel COP:

50 seconds on with 10 seconds to rotate and start next exercise
Stations as follows:
Manmakers with 15 lb dumbbells (burpee with dumbbells)
American hammers next on rotation
Manmakers with 20 lb dumbbells
Plank jacks on rotation
Slam balls – 25 lb slamball – ball above head and throw down catch it on bounce in full squat and repeat as fast as possible
Plank on rotation
Slam balls – 15 lb slamball
American hammers
60 lb sandbag squats
Plank jacks
60 lb sandbag squats
Plank
40 lb rucksack overhead doing Klinger kicks
American hammers
40 lb sandbag Klinger kicks
Plank jacks
40 lb sandbag Klinger kicks
Plank

After 1 round pax complained there was too many core exercises. So YHC switched it to burpees in b/w each weighted exercise. Thus ab corner turned immediately into burpee corner with manmakers. Careful what you complain about…

Made it all the way around two times (abs in b/w, then burpees in b/w)

On 3rd time around pax whines about excessive burpees – jump squats in b/w became the new exercise allowing for their to be a squat corner with the 60 lb sandbags. We only made into a few of the jump squats before we mosey’d back down to the bottom of Mt. Doom to close out the beatdown with a favorite of YHC and now the PAX:

Partner Merkin/Suicides switching every minute.

1 Minute:
Partner 1: Run’s suicides (20 yards)
Partner 2: 20 Merkins

We switched every minute for 10 minutes so each PAX ran 5 minutes of suicides and did 100 merkins.

We circled back up to the parking lot for COT, Count-o-rama, Name-o-rama, Get to know the 6. Balco was the 6 and shared with us his F3 journey and how Bluto got him to come out his first F3 workout.

Prayer Intentions for Android’s wife, for the troops, and for any other intentions we may have missed.

Moleskin:
-Colonel had a late de-committ on the pre-ruck so there was some concern he wouldn’t show for the beatdown however the fellow co-q, while cutting it close, was there on time and prepared.
-PAX were also fans of pre and post partner competition moseys…lots of “Q doesn’t know where he’s going!” and “What the hell are we doing??”…feeling the love for sure.
-COP produced some excellent mumble chatter which is always a plus. Lots of form tips and suggestions passed back and forth across the circle. The best transition that YHC witnessed was Mater rolling for about 4-5 stations…never having to get off the ground. Efficiency at its finest.
-Colonel stated that his balls “might not slam very well.” which no one really understood until we saw Wake figure it out with some solid slam and catch on the bounce action!
-There was some merciless gas being spread throughout the circle…wondering if there is a lexicon term for this, T-claps for anyone that A.) figures it out or B.) comes up with a good name.
-Colonel’s BB also states that the rest was 10 seconds on the rounds of COP which YHC believes many of the PAX would challenge the rest was that long. Froman said he thought there was too much downtime.
-THE Mickey and Mater experienced some injuries during Partner Merkin/Suicides but recovered quickly and pushed through the pain.

Thanks for the opportunity men, an honor and a pleasure as always.

Splinter and Colonel

GORUCK Selection PT Test in Reverse order with slight modifications:

Date: 03/03/2018
Time: 7:00 – 8:00 AM
Location: Fortress Ruckus – AKA…Woodland Park

Q: Bambi

PAX: 14 total – Raven, Bourbon, Rooster, Shakira, Tupac, Sipe, Buttermaker, Jennay, Bambi, Spaulding, Coal, Mr. Bean, Venom, Virus

F3 Mission: Fitness, Fellowship, Faith; to plant, serve and grow men’s small workout groups, in order to reinvigorate male community leadership

Principles of F3:
• It must be free of charge
• It must be open to all men
• It must be help outdoor, rain or shine, hot or cold
• It must be peer led in a rotating fashion by men who participate in the workout, with no training or certification necessary
• It must end with a Circle of Trust (COT)

Part 2

The GoRuck Selection PT test is: 55 Pushups in 2 minutes, 65 Situps in 2 minutes, a 5 mile Run in 40 minutes and then a 12 mile ruck with 45 lbs of steel in 3 hours and 30 minutes.

In order to fit in the selection PT test into our typical Saturday workout the order was reversed and completed in two parts.

This Backblast is Part 2:

45 minute run, 5 Laps were completed on a closed loop in Downtown Perrysburg, most PAX completed 4 laps and some even tackled another quarter lap to get in a full 5 miles completed as each lap left the mileage trackers just short on mileage.

55 push ups in 2 minutes

65 sit-ups in 2 minutes – this was performed with a partner who provided support and held down our toes.

*All PAX put in tons of effort and this Q is extremely proud to have worked hard for these 4 hours alongside some gifted athletes who continued to push themselves for 4 straight hours. Much Respect.

Ended in a COT with Count-o-Rama and Name-o-Rama.

Bambi Led the Prayer; PAX were thankful for completing the workout, prayers offered for Spaulding’s wife to heal quickly and for Spaulding 2.0 as well as for the several PAX and their M’s with new babies on the way.

QIC: Modell

8 PAX: Rocko, Gap, Meatloaf, Worm, Mayor, Gadget, Glitch, Modell

After finishing up with Rocko’s strong VQ Ruck at the Oasis with him and Gap, we met the rest of the PAX in the parking lot of the Oasis to commence my Birthday Beatdown!

Opened up with the five F3 principles and the F3 mission. Performed a few group stretches and took a half lap around the park. Once back, we engaged in the party in the park!

Merk-sanity: at the starting line, perform 20 Merkins, run 20 yards and perform 19 Merkins; run back to the starting line and perform 18 Merkins; run 20 yards and perform 17 Merkins; run back to the starting line and perform 16 Merkins. The PAX completed this pattern until only one Merkin was performed.

Captain Thor: The PAX performed a ratio of 1 Big Boy Sit Up to 4 American Hammers until we reached 10 Big Boy Sit Ups and 40 American Hammers.

Colt 45: PAX split up in pairs. While one partner performed Colt 45 cinder block curls (15 bottom to 90°, 15 90° to top, 15 full bottom to top curls), the other partner performed Copperhead Squats (hands behind head, 3 count down, up on 4) until their partner was done. Partners switched exercises once complete.

LBCs: The PAX performed 100 LBCs in cadence. This was hard on the and after those Captain Thor’s, but gave our legs a rest to gear up for the next exercise.

Aiken Legs and Dips: The PAX moseyed to the concrete stoops and performed 20 Copperhead Squats, 20 box jumps, 20 lunges (ea. leg) and 20 split jacks (ea. leg). The PAX stayed at the stoop and performed 34 dips in honor of Modell’s 34th birthday.

PAX took 1 full lap around the park.

Gift Sharing: With 5 minutes left at the party, each PAX shared his generous gift of a 5-10 rep exercise. Modell closed it out with 5 reps of Absolutions.

COT:
– Count-o-rama.
– Focus on the 6 – Meatloaf shared his appreciation of F3 and that it came at a time in his life when he was looking for ways to improve his physical fitness, build relationships with other men and a closer relationship with God. He could barely get in 1 pull up when he started in Sept. and now is 30lbs down and looking at being able to knock out 100 straight by end of the year! Got his F3 name b/c he still lives w his parents and eats all their food.
– Name-o-rama
– Ball-of-Man: prayers for friends and family dealing with illness and recovery, those involved in Central Michigan University campus ciolence, thanksgiving for the PAX and life.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead!
– Modell

Q: Jimmy Dean

It was my honor to lead Ticket, John Henry, Raven, and Gap this evening. We covered just over 7.5 miles with some PT thrown in along the way for a little over 2.5 hrs. Had a great time sharing some of the story of our flag along the way. Enjoyed the conversations and fellowship! We began with the mission and core principles and ended with a COT. Good living; embraced the suck! Aye!