Backblasts

AO:  The Patriot, Sparta, LoCo, and Horizon

QIC: Jenner, Obadiah, Rikers, 3 Mile

PAX: 14 at The Patriot, 10 at Sparta, 10 at Horizon, 14 at LoCo

Once upon a time, I worked out with Obadiah at The Compound, just the two of us. I pitched him the idea of a Hero WOD, particularly Bert, performed at the same time at multiple AOs. He liked it and said he would lead it at Sparta. I promptly signed up on the Q Sign-Up sheet for Patriot and Sparta. I looked at the other AO Friday workouts. Uh-oh. Rikers had Friday at LoCo and Mayberry had Friday at Horizon. I then pitched to Rikers and site Q, Refueler, and got their buy-in. I also was lucky enough to have Mayberry switch his holiday themed workout to Wednesday and have Horizon site Q, 3 Mile, agree to lead. It was on!

The four of us started a side discussion to plan some details. 3 Mile through together an awesome playlist (F3 – AO Challenge – 20201211) that we would all play at our respective AOs. This was not only awesome to workout to, but was a great way to feel connected to the other AOs.

The first Capital region, multi-site, real-time competition to perform the Bert Hero WOD in the fastest time was happening nearly 15 years after Cpl. Albert Gettings, 2nd Marine Division, died fighting heroically in Fallujah, Iraq.

WARM UP: SSH, Hillbillies; Rockettes, Windmills; Cherry Pickers, and Arm Circles

THA-THANG: THE BERT HERO WOD FOR TIME

Here were the designated leaders (or speedsters) per exercise set.

Exercise	Patriot	Sparta	LoCo	Horizon
50 Burpees	McGuire	Nano	Empire	Traveller (The Mercenary)
100 Merkins	Maj. Payne (The Nantan)	Pop Fly	Bobcat/Shute	Brown Bag
150 Lunge Walks	Citrus	El Nino	Refueler/Brisket	Sunshine
200 Air Squats	Fish Fry	Jag	Pre/MicroChip	Mayberry
150 Lunge Walks	Lazlo	Obadiah	Gigawatt/Bolt	Attache
100 Merkins	Elvis	Hightower	TBD/Rikers/Beast	Stiycks
50 Burpees	Jenner	Petro (The Recruit)	Dialtone	3 Mile

Finishing Times and SUPERLATIVES:

LoCo – 23mins, FIRST PLACE GOES TO THE ROOKIE SPEEDSTERS

Patriot – 25 mins, UNSUNG HEROES

Horizon – 30 mins, MOST SPIRITED

Sparta – 36 mins, BEST IN SHOW – Hats off to Sparta with ALL PAX achieving Rx of 75% volume or greater and maintaining proper form throughout.

MARY: Core (time permitting!) such as Penguin Crunches, Gas Pumpers, Flutter Kicks, and Bonnie’s Torture (slow bicycles, 4 count each leg)

ANNOUNCEMENTS: CSAUP Veteran’s Day workout Nov 7 Lincoln Memorial at 0645. See the #CSAUP channel. Let’s remember Hightower of F3GrandStrand/Myrtle Beach and pray for his family.

COT: 

Almost 15 years ago this January, Marine Cpl. Albert Gettings from Pennsylvania, who the Bert WOD is named after, and 10 marines from North Carolina died fighting in Iraq. Let’s remember them.

There was a lot of time and energy put into this event from several people, especially YHC. After a long day of work that bled into prep for this event, I realized my M was eagerly awaiting my return to helping out with the family. I realized that new things, such as a multi-site AO challenge, can be exciting and you can easily put a lot of energy (and time) into it. Try to think of something new that can excite you where you focus on the ones you love. Maybe its starting a grateful journal with your M or starting a project with your 2.0s. Remember the passion and energy that exciting new things bring and target it towards your loved ones and things you care about.

COTs from the other AOs:

Connect to purpose of BERT. Shared the story of Marine Cpl. Albert Gettings – connected the PAX to our blessings by the great HIM to be able move our bodies and freedoms to gather in the gloom due to sacrifices and oath many have taken willing to pay to ultimate cost for our freedoms. We are blessed!!

Life in 2020 and the BERT workout can beat you down but, together, we’ll get through it by challenging and supporting each other. Find creative ways to connect.

AO: LoCo- Wolverine

QIC: Rikers

Naked Moleskin: the LoCo PAX impressed! Between Riblet (2.0) joining the PAX and the designated/assigned lead for each movement segment YHC was impressed. Empire was the quintessential leadoff with the first 50 Burpee round, Bobcat/Shute pushed through the first 100 Merkins- Bobcat repping those out quick, Refueler/Brisket lead 150 walking lunges with Refueler just a lunge machine!, Pre/ MicroChip cadence for 200 air squats- WOW Pre-aka the human Piston, or one trick pony😂, next Gigawatt/Bolt crushing yet another 150 lunges again with a silly fast cadence from Gigawatt in which YHC felt he needed to follow with a bum knee. That stopped fairly quickly for me…don’t ignore the pain my PT’s voice was in my head. Next up was upper body to close it out Beast/YHC for 100 Merkins, and true to his name TBD came unexpectedly out of no where and shouts DONE when the designated leads were still at 80+ respectively- WHAT?!?, and bringing it home with a steady 50 burpees Dialtone blasted it out. We added one more 200m to boot as YHC was so excited to finish and loosen it all out. Each 200m interval between segments was treated with incredible zeal by the PAX. The jutebox was a great call by 3Mile to share across the multi-AO. TClaps to all!!

AO: Virtual.

QIC: Infinity.

The PAX: 2 Percent and Pavarotti

Warm up:

20 SSHs IC

12 Imperial Walkers IC

10 Willy Mays Hayes IC

10 Don Quixotes

12 Itty Bitty Arm Circles IC

30 sec High Knees

The Thang:

Wheel of Time circuit 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off:

Merkins (purpose)

Big Boi Sit-ups (hope)

Squat Jumps (joy)

Coupon Swings (balance)

Lunges (faith)

Coupon Arm Curls (gratitude)

“Say Anything” (hold coupon over head) (patience)

Coupon Rows (love)

Bonnie Blairs (momentum)

Seal Claps (praise)

Burpees (perseverance)

Plank (reflection)

Active Rest: Run in Place and High Knees.

Repeat Wheel of Time Circuit (as shown above).

2x: Run in Place, High Knees, and Butt Kickers.

Mary:

15 American Hammers IC

15 Flutter Kicks IC

16 Dying Cockroach

15 Penguin Crunches IC

Observations: Each PAX put in a good effort. Welcome back Pavarotti! In addition, 2 Percent really rocked the Bonnie Blairs, along with other movements. YHC was so tired at the end of the workout, that he had trouble getting a group photo (apologies). This type of workout will give a good caloric burn for hours afterward—be sure to each very soon after these workouts to avoid zombification.

Announcement: We will continue the virtual workouts on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. Wednesdays we will continue joining Rousey’s Safehouse virtual workout group. Mondays and Friday’s will just be our own small group—there are pros and cons to either (this way, we get all the pros and few of the cons). 2 Percent agreed to take Q for Monday.

CoT:

The PAX reflected on the principles that accompanied the exercises (purpose, hope, joy, balance, faith, gratitude, patience, love, momentum, praise, perseverance, and reflection). Throughout the workout, YHC emphasized proper form over number of reps. Doing lots of reps with bad form is like spending lots of money buying junk bonds—you won’t get the dividends you seek. As in our workout, so in life: we need to pursue that which is meaningful, not what is expedient. As we pursue that which is meaningful, we will be taking the harder path, but it is a path that leads to better results.

AO: Olympus

QIC: Nano

The PAX: Yard Sale, Pop Fly, Hightower, Slyder, Wham-O, Zeus

WarmUp: SSH, Cherry Pickers, Hillbillies, Good Mornings, WMH, CB crossover merkins, CB mountain climbers.

The Thang: With the PAX warm and ready to go they lined up in the parking lot, cinder block in tow. An exercise was called out and the PAX would begin at the Same time. After 2-5 reps, the first man in line would do murder bunnies 5 yards out and continue with the exercise. As soon as he returned, the next man would follow, until everyone made it 5 yards. The process repeated 7x, for 7 different exercises, and for each, the next PAX in line was the first to move.

The exercises included (All with CBs):
1. Curls
2. Calf raises
3. Shoulder Presses
4. Kettle bell swings
5. Air squats
6. Cross over merkins
7. Reverse lunges

At this point it was time to start laying some brick. The PAX lined up down the parking lot with a CB on each side. The man at the end of the line swung his block man, and ran to the front of the line, where he would begin receiving blocks and passing them on. This continued for about 100 yards, until they ran into the fence.

The return trip began with a 20 yd bear-crawl cinder block drag. This was followed by 20 goblet squats IC.

Dying for more, the PAX performed crossover push-up CB drag (moving sides ways) for 10 yards, with 180 def rotation halfway through. This was followed by 25 CB calf raises IC.

The next 40 yards was forward lunge, followed by 20 CB curls.

The final push consisted of all PAX holding plank on their CB. The first man completed 2 merkins then murder bunny for 5 yards, followed by a sprint to the start (5 yd) and back (5yd), then the next PAX went. This was done again, but the sprint was 10yrds.

Mary: Short and simple: Cinderblock flutter kicks IC 25. And from the IPC, leg raises of the cinderblocks.

COT: A nice story from my daughter’s Stoic practices… From the manly book challenge BOTM (book of the month), the author emphasizes a common theme among the Stoics that:

“…If any external thing causing you distress, it’s not the thing itself that troubles you, but your own judgement about it.”

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been saying this to my kids as they become upset with school, or more often, their sibling.

Well it seems like this message was received by my daughter. She was asked in class to evaluate the following statement: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Most of her classmates said it’s wrong and names can cause someone to be hurt mentally. That’s when my daughter chimed in (via chat during her virtual schooling) and said it’s right because “the words can actually hurt you, it’s what you think about the words that makes you upset.” Many classmates still disagreed but she stood her ground and in the end a few of her friends started to agree with her.

The point of this is actually two fold. First, this is a great concept and can really help you stay relaxed especially when lots of things are coming at you. You don’t need to respond, you have the choice to judge things how you want and get upset if you want, you have the full control. Second, our kids (in this case a 9 year old) is able to learn concepts like this and turn around and apply them right away. Be the one to feed your kids minds with empowering ideas to help them grow and develop. If it isn’t you, then who will?

AO: FreeState
QIC: @Deagle
PAX: 4 @Deagle, Winston, CashOnly, @Horshack

Warm Up

· Side Straddle Hop (SSH) x 25 IC

· Imperial Walkers x 15 IC

· Goofball (like mountain climber but standing) x 15 IC

· Merkins (traditional pushups) x 15 IC

· Cherry Pickers x 15 IC

· willie mays hayes x 10 IC

· Arm pushups x 15 IC

· Michael Phelps x 20 IC

· Wind mills x 15 IC

· 2 loops of light jog around blacktop, karaoke on the sides

The Thang:

· Gorilla Complex (with coupons, 5-4-3-2-1 repeats each exercise, 4 cycles)
In between we’ll do mosey around the blacktop

o Curls

o High Pulls

o Overhead Presses

o Drop the coupons and do Merkins

o Wait in Al-Gore until last one finishes

· Mary:

o Flutters x 15 IC

o Heels to Heaven 5 repeats, count up to 10 each direction (starting at 90 degree)

o Regular crunches x 20 IC

o Dying Cockroach x 15 followed by 10 Freddie Mercury IC

o Outlaw x 12 IC rotating side to side

o American Hammer x15 IC

o Rosalita x15 IC finishing with flutters