Homer’s Donut and a Board of Pain at the Yard

Preamble:

Been a long time since I had been out to Lawrenceville. I think I’ve posted out there 2 times before and decided recently that I really wanted to try and get out for a Saturday beatdown. 5 of us met for a Ruck around Rhodes Jordan Park. Glad to get a few miles under the ruck in before the Star Course 26 miler next Saturday.

The Yard is the furthest EAST AO from the original F3Alpha AO (Rubicon) that meets at Will’s Park. 25 miles via car. Almost 30 miles from Atlas and Bad Apple over in the Roswell area. It’s a whopping 40+ mile drive from The Firehouse in North Alpha. To say they’re out on an island is absolute truth. They’ve been accelerating for a couple years now mostly on their own. We’ve seen a few of their PAX venture into the heart of F3Alpha and as our region grows east toward them, we’re starting to see more of the PAX at other AOs that have popped up in Sugar Hill and Suwanee.

All this to say at the front of the Back Blast, that I can’t believe how much freakin’ growth has happened around the Yard since I posted there last. They’ve got HUGE opportunities to reach men who need the Fitness, Fellowship and Faith that comes from regular posting to F3. It’s going to be really exciting to see what happens in the next couple years around them.

Warm-O-Rama:

As we neared 7am, more cars started swinging in the parking lot and the smaller group quickly needed to move to a more open space to grow the circle some.

With an FNG present, we started with standard disclaimer. Q is not an expert, I’ll recommend some exercises and modify where necessary.

With that, we Mosey’d to end of the ‘lawn’ where there was a perfect opportunity for a Homer’s Donut. Once to the donut, we circled around. Did Side Straddle Hop, Weedpicker, Imperial Walker, Moroccan Night Club (mumble chatter from Squeeky towards his regular PAX, “See I didn’t make it up!” and Copper Head Squat.

Somewhere in there, we had a guy walk up looking to join us, but I wasn’t sure if he knew if he wanted to join us or not. I think… he came this morning to F3, but was running late. If not, he was the ‘most willing to do whatever he was told FNG’ I’ve ever seen. Welcome Double Dribble!

Next, I explained Homer’s Donut. Since we were already spaced out around the donut, all you had to do is bear crawl counter clockwise around and back to your space. Mumble chatter commenced.

With the warm up done, we mosey’d back to the top of the lawn across from the stage where the main course was set up for the morning.

The Thang:

I made a recon trip to the Lawn on Thursday afternoon to get a feel for the area again. There is SO MUCH that can be done at this AO, but the crown jewel of it is a very simple ovalish shaped sidewalk that goes around the main stage lawn. It’s perfect for all kinds of partner work, so I decided to keep it simple and create a Board of Pain for the day.

The Board contained:

• Burpees – 100
• SSH – 150
• PlankJacks – 100
• Merkins – 100
• Squats – 100
• LBC’s – 200
• American Hammers – 100
• Makhtar N’dayes – 100
• Jump Squats – 100
• Mountain Climbers – 100
• Air Presses – 200
• Lunges – 100
• Freddy Mercury – 100
• Star Jumps – 100
• Dolly’s – 100
• Burpees – 100

With a music playlist set, we partnered up and attempted to finish the board. One partner runs a lap while the other partner does exercise. Keep count together. I mentioned you can start at the bottom or start at the top. It wasn’t until about 40 minutes in that we had PAX realizing that Burpees were on twice.

I tracked almost 3.5 miles of running this morning. It was great fun.

With about 10 minutes left, and realizing that we had closeby access to some decent coupons, I called an audible and told everyone to grab a rock.

We met out on the lawn in a big circle.

After a round of 20 curls, I explained we’d each hold our rock out/arms extended in front of us. One PAX would drop their rock, run around the circle and tap each rock before returning to theirs, move to the next PAX around the circle. The F3 Exicon calls this Blocktanamo. It’s intended to be done with a cinderblock. It sounds miserable. Hat Tip to Bulldog for sharing this off the exicon at a Beatdown I attended on Thursday in Downtown Duluth.

Round of skull crushers and with just a few minutes left, we replaced our rocks and hit our 6 for some Flutterkicks and Protractor.

COT:

Namorama – Lots of Respect for these men. More about this in the Naked Man Moleskin. Named our FNGs and thanks to Squeaky for connecting with them this morning afterwards to get their info.

With what I thought was 2-3 FNGs, I reviewed the 5 Core Principles of F3. The last principle being the COT.

• Are free of charge
• Are open to all men
• Are held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
• Are led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary
• End with a Circle of Trust

Motor Mouth opened up the COT and shared Matthew 21:21 this morning:

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.

Deuces mentioned a gunshot death in his neighborhood. Prayers for those around.

I mentioned the simple suggestion I heard this week to set up some alarms that are just text reminders of who we are and who we are meant to be. Think strategically. For, myself, I set up a daily text reminder at 4:30 that I’m ‘daddy.’ That helps set my mind for being present with my family. 1:30pm I have “Stewardship” set in my phone to remind me that my job is a blessing and I need to be a good steward of the time that I have. I also have a few others set in my phone. It’s simple to get a text reminder and it’s pretty impactful what it does when you see it on your phone/watch.

Naked-Man Moleskin:

Double Dribble – 63
Crack – 58
Love – 56
Weed – 57
Motor Mouth – 56
Cheese – 60
Stood Up – 57
AFK – 14
Deuces – 45
Bobby Dodd – 36
Lector – 36
Squeaky – 41
Coconut – 52
Homer – 44

Look at these ages. Lots of Respect and Honor. 14years old and a 63yr old FNG. Love it. Seeing the regulars jump in and do what needed to be done to explain to the FNG’s was great. As a guest Q, it’s good to see they don’t leave anyone behind.

The Yard is a GREAT location. Great group of men. I’m going to try to make it back out more frequently… maybe we need to have a region convergence on this side of town to draw those from the west!