Tag: Mothership

A toasty 40 degree morning.  Great day for a workout

Amnesty was right – it had the makings of a day to separate the men (JV wearing his usual short sleeve t-shirt) from the boys (Amnesty in hat, gloves, sweatshirt, sweatpants, thermal undies, foot warmers and scarf).  And don’t get me started on the regulars who stayed home curled up under their covers (looking at you, Hawg).  Uptowners?  Nowhere to be seen.  Typical.

Shivering disclaimer issued, then off to the lawn.

COP 1: Try to stay warm with SSH x25, IW x25, then Plank up for Peter Parker, Mountain Climber, Parker Peter and Shoulder Taps each x25.  PAX was first stunned as Bubba mysteriously and silently turned and fled the circle, leaving YHC to wonder how he had offended.  But lo-and-behold, 1 Bubba left the circle, 1 Bubba + 1 Awesome returned to the circle.  Bogey attempted the same trick to create a PAX out of thin air, but failed as he returned to the circle alone.

COP 2: Mosey to the track.  Partner-up for a double count round of BLIMPS.  Parter 1 runs one direction, Partner 2 the other.  Whereever you meet your partner on the track, do the next exercise.  Then run again.  Burpees x10, Lunges x20, IW x30, Murican x40, Plank Jack x50, Squats x60.  Nothing like the inspiring sight of Mr. Awesome’s usual giant grin as he laps the PAX.

COP 3: Looks, Bears!  Partner up at the end of the infield.  Partner 1 start bear crawling.  Partner 2 does 5 burpees then chases down the bear.  Switch roles and continue to the end of the field (120 yards or so).  That was so much fun, lets do it again to get back to the starting line.  Are we having fun yet?  No?  Ok, lets repeat – this time with 10x Muricans and Crab Walks.  That was fun, right gang?

COP 4: Mosey to the Baby Foundry.  PAX partnered up at 5 stations: Pull Ups, Box Jumps, Dips, Hanging Knee Raises and Burpees (x10 – the timer).  Go.  Complete 2 full rotations, despite Amnesty’s best attempts to convince YHC that it was now 730 and time to go home.

COP 5: Mosey to the Tool Wall.  Grab a spot on the ledge – Calf Raise x20 (YHC struggled with the unusual “1 2 3” cadence…..)  Hop off for Monkey Humper x20.  Repeat.  Repeat again.  Much grumbling was heard.  Mostly from JV who apparently was disappointed that we stopped at 20 on the Monkey Humpers.

Mosey back to the flag.  “Mosey” feels like a strong word for that, more like a “Struggle to move the limbs attached to my lower body that no longer respond to messaging from my brain”.  Monkey Humpers prior to a mosey – interest concept, YHC may continue to explore that in future Qs.

COT: Countoff and Name-o-rama.  Gather for our circle.  YHC asked for blessings on this group of men that continue to inspire him, for blessings on those homeless and hungry in our community, especially in the face of the cold weather, and for blessings on those facing isolation and loneliness through the holidays.

Moleskin: This week, YHC was in Oklahoma City for a work trip.  Several different thoughts that I’d like to share:

1. I try to do workouts on my own.  I fail.  I may force myself out of bed in the hotel, or I may sleep.  When I hit the gym, I may push myself for one more set of reps, but most likely I will not.  This group of men that I work out with constantly challenges me to push further than I thought I could.  I feel like I am a better man as a result of knowing you, and I know I am in better shape.  Thank you.
2. Our company spent Thursday working volunteer shifts at a food bank in Oklahoma City, making lunches for school kids.  This food bank distributes 18,000 backpacks of healthy food and snacks each and every Friday for kids who otherwise do not have enough to eat on the weekend.  Stop and think about that – 18,000 of our precious children in this one city do not have enough food to eat – each and every weekend.  YHC knows these numbers, has heard them countless times before, has volunteered at food banks on occasion before.  But something about this visit felt different.  Please remember the needy, the hungry.  They are all around us, whether we recognize it or not.
3. We take the cold weather as an inspiring challenge – completing a workout is a small feather in my cap, and YHC enjoys the chance to mock those of us wearing multiple layers of protective gear.  But today as you drive through the city and see the homeless person with his cardboard sign sitting at the intersection – remember that he or she is living in this weather.  This is not a challenge to conquer, but an unavoidable fact of life.  I take for granted so much in life – the knowledge that as I left City Park this am, I’d get to warm up when I walked in the door at home to type this.  Please find whatever ways you can (donations, volunteering, prayers) to help those with so much less.

Thank you all again for the chance to lead.  I hope in some small way I’m able to inspire any one of you in ways as you have all inspired me.

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8 pax met up near the Peristyle in City Park on a cool, beautiful morning in New Orleans. After introducing myself, delivering a brief disclaimer, and waiting for Mr. Awesome to tie his shoes, we headed over to the Great Lawn for a warm up loop and COP:

COP:

• SSH x 20 IC
• IW x 10 IC
• Merkins x 10 IC
• Mountain Climbers x 20 IC
• Peter Parkers x 15 IC
• Low slow squat x 10 IC

The Main Thang:

Head to the Peristyle for:

• Broad jump to other end, mosey back
• Lunge walk to other end, mosey back
• Bear crawl to other end, mosey back

Run back across the Great Lawn and over to the start of Roosevelt Mall Street, a wide avenue with beautiful oak trees. Partner up by speed for the Sphinx™:

• P1 runs one way, P2 the other. Meet at first intersection for 20 hand slap merkins, return to start via the same direction, and plank for the six.
• Repeato, switching directions and continuing to the second intersection for 15 hand slap merkins.
• Repeato, switching directions and continuing to the third intersection for 10 hand slap merkins.
• Repeato, switching directions and continuing to the fourth intersection for 5 hand slap merkins.

By now, the pax were on to me, so it was time to change venues. Mosey over to the fountain in front of NOMA for some circuits:

• 20 dips, 15 bench squats, 10 derkins, run to the first full column (dodging the clipboarder and her crew).
• Repeato, with incline merkins instead of derkins, run to the second full column.
• Repeato, with derkins, run to the third full column.
• Repeato, with incline merkins, run to the fourth full column.

Mosey back to the Great Lawn for four rounds of AYG gassers from plank, six inches, and belly.

Mosey to the benches in front of the Peristyle for flutters and Rosalita.

Mosey to the Peristyle for pax-led exercises, which went approximately like this:

• Dolly
• Freddie Mercury
• Wife pleasers (a/k/a hip bridges) – Mr. Awesome
• Dr. W (a/k/a rest time for YHC) – Jingle Vader
• Parker Peters – Reluctant Yankee
• Dollies
• Missing one and some names #cobains

Circle up for the awkward take out by YHC (there’s a reason I don’t volunteer often).

Announcements:

• Operation Sweet Tooth – RY is collecting toys for Children’s Hospital.
• Christmas Workout/2nd F – levee then Cooter Brown’s
• Gear – Connect with Hawgcycle if you want to get in on a winter shirt order.

NMM:

• Thanks to RY for suggesting I Q this past Saturday. Although I’ve posted once before in NOLA, it was great to lead the pax and check out a great AO. Leading the workout is also a great way to prevent fartsacking.
• It was great to see some pax I met last year and meet others. It was a strong crew out there this morning, unfazed by a fair amount of running (over 3.5 miles) and merkins.
• YHC was introduced to the Dr. W. After attempting 1 or 2 reps, I had to lay there in awe as Jingle Vader demonstrated perfect, speedy form on possibly the most complex ab exercise ever devised. I’ll be bringing that back to Area 51 with me.
• Please chime in below with anything that I’ve missed. I look forward to posting again in February during Mardi Gras!

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Tclaps to all of our Vets.
Tclaps to our Ruckers. Due to the missing Ruckers I assumed we would be a small crew. Once the cars started rolling in – I was pleasantly surprised.

A rare cool morning (59 degrees) by NOLA standards.

Rudy showed up with the FLAG – so we planted and then disclaimer – and then we mosey’d over the “Great” Lawn. Lawn was looking a little rough when we got there.

1st Circle – SSH x 25, IW Squats x 25, Mtn Climbers x 25, Short mosey over to columns.
People’s Chair. PC with right leg and 10 arm lifts. (A Wapner – as in the Judge from People’s COurt?) Then PC with a left leg and 10 arm lifts. Then we did this 3 more times.

Mr Awesome joined us during the legbreakers.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG mosey to the Track. At the track we lined up on the Football field for Burpee suicides. 5 burpees at the 10, 4 burpees at the 20, 3 at 30, 2 at 40, and 1 at 50. Rudy needed a lot of personal instruction here.

Then a short mosey over the Track. NOTC was out there preparing for the Corporate Cup. We did a modified dirty MacDeuce – the Sweet 16.

ALL exercises to 16.
COP – Crab Toe Touch, Mat Jumps, Lateral lunge, Slow Squat
Run a Lap. Finish last 250 backwards run

COP – Crab Toe Touch, Surfer jumps, Merks, Dying Roach
Run a Lap. Finish last 250 with a side shuffle.

COP – Crab Toe Touch, Wide Merks, Side Crunch Left, Side Crunch Right. At this point we were offered a Yoga instructor courtesy of State Farm and the NOTC. I thought about calling her in just to see what would happen. But we passed although there was a bunch of mumblechatter about please let us have the yoga instructor. She definitely was a more attractive option that YHC.
Run a Lap. Finish last 250 with a side shuffle facing the other direction.

COP – Crab toe touch, Pylo Push Ups, Peter Parkers, V-Ups.
Final Lap. Run backwards last 250.

After the track we mosey’d back to the football field. We did burpee suicides again. This time adding 10 Peter Parkers at each 10 yard line and burpees every time you returned to the goal line.

We had 6 minutes to get back to the FLAG. Hustled home and passed by the FIA launch at the Great Lawn in City Park.
We were hoping to see our RUCKERS finish but they were in front of the museum. Ran into Maverick as we approached the FLAG. He couldn’t find us.

Good AM workout – Thanks for the opportunity to Q.

Reluctant Yankee

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Cool crisp and dark morning in NOLA.  PAX gathered in front of the shovel flags to await the Out for Justice VQ.  Nervous pacing.  What would Detective Gino Felino have in store for us?

After his disclaimer, we were off.

The Thang: Off to the great lawn for opening exercises.  SSH xWhoWasCounting? followed by Peter Parker, Imperial Walkers, Parker Peter, Hillbillies.  Then line up on the side of the lawn for an animal parade: Bear Crawl across the lawn, Duck Walk back.  JV lets loose with critique about everyone else’s form; apparently JV is now the resident expert on Duck Walking.

Scupture Garden: Justice leads us to our favorite ledge near the sculpture garden.  Box Jumps, Incline Merkins, Left Leg Step Ups, Incline Merkins, Right Leg Step Ups, Decline Merkins.  Feeling the burn…

The Museum: Over to the fountain in front of the museum and partner up.  PAX 1 dips to their hearts content.  PAX 2 Frog Jumps across the street and up the stairs.  FlapJack.  Repeat x3.  Head to the lawn for a round of Mary with Putins and Cockroaches.

Tag Team: Rudy takes over the Q.

Start with the ‘Murican Indian run.  Every 4th (or 6th) pax to make it to the front – group stops and does ‘murican in cadence.  12x, 12x, 10x, 10x.  Finish with Mosey to the baby foundry.

Baby Foundry: Pair up on 4 stations: Burpees, BoxJumps, Pull Ups, Hanging Knee Raises.  3 cycles through, with burpees being the timer.  Mosey back to the Great Lawn to finish up.

BUT WAIT: Q sees Tool’s calf raise wall – quick audible.  Everyone up on the wall.  Calf Raise x25.  Shake them out, repeat x30.  Then continue the mosey back to the Great Lawn.  Finish with Monkey Humpers x25 and LBC x49.

Justice wraps up with Count Off, Name-o-rama and Prayer, including especially prayers for togetherness and unity during a contentious election cycle.

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11 men gathered around the flag at the Mothership this gloom, while 4 others gathered around the Lafayette Square statue downtown for the Jazz Half Marathon.  YHC got to post to both AOs, so we will call this a Pax of 15.

DISCLAIMER

The Thang

Mothership:

Quick mosey over to the great lawn and circle up.

COP #1: Warmup

20x SSH IC
20x Peter Parkers IC

It was a quick warmup, but we had lots to do.  We stayed in our COP while I explained the first thing.

EMOM: An EMOM is Every Minute On (the) Minute, which means to perform a list of exercises at the start of every minute.  Exercises are OYO.  Once you finish the list within the minute, the remaining time in the minute is for rest.

EMOM #1:  10 minutes
10x Squat Jumps
5x Burpees
In total, we did 100 Squat Jumps and 50 Burpees.  Yikes….but at least we weren’t running a half marathon!

After this, Pax partnered up and lined up about midway on the great lawn near the spooky, light-flickering tree as YHC explains:

Circuit #1:  Animal Hunting

The Bear Hunt:  Pax 1 bear crawls North.  Pax 2 sprints South to a “tombstone” (about 40 yards away), and then sprints back to the bear (Pax 1).  Once caught, both Pax walk back to the flickering tree.  Flapjack roles.  That’s 1.

We did the Bear Hunt 4 times, then:

The Frog Hunt:  Pax 1 frog hops North.  Pax 2 does 20x Merkins, then sprints to catch the frog.  Once caught, both Pax walk back to the flickering tree.  Flapjack roles.  That’s 1.

We did the Frog Hunt 2 times, then did the Bear Hunt 2 more times.  I hate animals!

Walk over to the first COP, and circle up again.

COP #2:  Balance Movements

10x Low Slow Single Leg Squats (R)
10x Low Slow Single Leg Squats (L)
10x Slow Single Leg Tabletops (R)
10x Slow Single Leg Tabletops (L)

EMOM #2:  Exactly 6MOM  – 6 minutes

10x Hello Dolly
10x Flutterkicks
10x LBCs
10x Putins
For a total of 240 ab exercises.

Mosey back to the flag, where we held the COT.  Thanks for letting me lead.

Moleskin

Tclaps to the 4 for finishing the half marathon.  Great day for a 13.1 mile run, and we had some personal best at the race as well.  Must be all the beatdowns from the F3NOLA Pax… speaking of which, go sign up to Q if you haven’t already!

Tclaps to Amnesty and Jingle Vader doing a 7 mile ruck after the Spooktacular.  You guys have no limits!

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A crisp cool morning – at last the heat wave has broken.  In the morning gloom, the PAX started arriving, clad in the black F3 tshirts.  Apparently, someone must have established a uniform for today – at least until Amnesty appeared in his home-game Purple.  Certain PAX showed their toughness by choosing to don layers to fend off the chill generated by the brisk breeze.  Strong?  Or Tough?

Disclaimer, then off to the lawn.

COP 1: Burpee Play Time: How long does it take a gang of 14 men to arrange in alphabetical order?  Apparently 24 seconds.  But since they got it right, YHC decided to cut that number in half, so we started with 12 Burpees OYO.

Then in celebration of Notre Dame’s 2-5 record, together we went through warmup – all exercises 25x: SSH, Peter Parker, Parker Peter, Left-side Nolan Ryan, Right-side Nolan Ryan, Monkey Humpers.

Mosey to the Enchanted Forest.

COP 2: Animal Parade.  Partner up, and as a pair animal walk to the next Oak tree.  At the tree, PAX 1 does 25 ‘murican, PAX 2 planks.  On to the next tree and flapjack.  Repeat till each pax has hit 100 Muricans.  Animal walk between trees – Bears, Ducks, Crabs, Frogs.  OYO.  Go.

YHC apparently overestimated the collective ability of the PAX to understand this relatively simple exercise.  YHC was impressed, however, with the group’s creativity: Gazelles, Cheetahs, and Penguins all made appearances.

PAX suggested that perhaps “overthinking it” was a flaw not only of the ND football team, but also of YHC.  Whatever.

COP 3: Burpee Play Time: How long does it take a gang of 14 to arrange in alphabetical order based on M’s name?  38 seconds.  OK, maybe it would’ve been faster with better instructions from YHC.  Conceding the point, YHC reduced the penalty to 15 burpees OYO.

Partner up.  PAX 1 runs to bench near the fountain and does 25 dips and returns.  Meanwhile, PAX 2 does ab work.  Flapjack.  Repeat x4.  Putins, Cockroaches, Box Cutters and Freddy Mercury.

Mosey to the Museum

COP 4: Visit the Tooth Fairy.  Wait, is that Maverick?  Yes it is!  Better late than never!  Group 1: Incline Murkin’s up the stairs, increasing reps by 1 on each step.  14 steps, 105 total Irkins.  Groups 2 and 3: People’s chair and Lunges while waiting on the Irkins.  Cycle through each station.

COP 5: Burpee Play Time: On museum lawn, PAX sprint about 200 yards.  Repeat.  1 burpee penalty for every PAX that doesn’t hit their first sprint time.  That worked out to 15 burpees – as no one hit their time.  Nice work, PAX (seriously)!  This showed that everyone was busting their butt on the first sprint.

Mosey back to the flag with 2 minutes to spare.  Plank and hold for 2 mins.

The Finish: Count off, Name o Rama.  Announcements – Go Ruck and Jazz Half coming up.  Impressive to see the Ruckers pull out the Rucks after the workout in prep for their 6 mile hike.  Nice work, guys.

Finish with prayer of thanks, and asking for the inspiration to use the gift of today wisely.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead you all.  I promise that next time, the Animal Parade in the Enchanted Forest will be better organized!

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