The Battlefield (The Shops At Fallen Timbers)

2 responses to “The Battlefield (The Shops At Fallen Timbers)”

1. 

   Mike “Photon” Bauer

   January 31, 2026

   Backblast: January 31st, 2026

   AO: The Battlefield – The Shops At Fallen Timbers – Maumee, OH

   PAX:
   Photon – Q
   Arcy
   Crawdad
   Doogie
   Fat Amy
   Footloose
   Isosceles
   Norm
   Quick Draw
   Shepherd
   Viper

   Workout: Minus 25

   FNG’s: N/A

   Mission and Principles:
   F3: Fitness, Fellowship, Faith
   Mission: To plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.
   The core principles of F3 are that it is always:
   1. Free of charge
   2. Open to all men
   3. Held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold
   4. Led by men who participate in the workout in a rotating fashion, with no training or certification necessary. You versus you. Modify or stop an exercise if you need to. The most important thing is that nobody gets hurt.
   5. Ends with a Circle of Trust
   Credo: Leave no man behind but leave no man where you find him

   Warm-up: In Cadence

   Windmills (2 is 1): 10
   Arm Circles Forward (4 is 1): 10
   Arm Circles Reverse (4 is 1): 10

   The “Thang”:

   This was a choose your own adventure style beatdown. Goal was to complete 500 burpees, but you could buy down the burpee reps with certain numbers of reps of certain other exercises. Rules were simple. No burpees need to be completed at all, but need to be completed in batches of 25 when performed. Any alternative exercise on the list could be chosen at any time, but the required reps for that exercise HAD to be completed in total before the PAX could choose a new exercise. Performing the same exercise over and over was allowed.

   Below were the buy-down exercises and their respective rep counts. Each completion of the full reps of one of the exercises counted towards 25 of the 500 burpees. If a PAX didn’t want to perform any burpees, they needed to complete one of the exercises and its associated rep counts twenty times.

   Lateral Taps (Single 7m run): 50
   Flying Squirrels (no merkin or jump): 50
   Mt. Climbers (4 is 1): 50
   Plank Jacks (2 is 1): 50
   High Knees (4 is 1): 75
   SSHs (1 is 1): 150

   Ended with:
   Count-O-Rama: 11
   Name-O-Rama

   The Six – Viper

   LDP3

   Ball of Man

   Spreadsheets from the Gloom: Despite what YHCs weather app forecasted for the beatdown when the event was created, 6 days in advance, the “feels like” temperature was not, in fact, minus 25F. It was about -5F. But the beatdown was crafted around the idea, so we went with it anyway. Hey, at least it kept us warm.

   This was another awful one, but PAX were able to choose their awful. Prefer the beating of burpees? Choose burpees, and only burpees, like Shepherd and Viper. Curious as to what 75 4-ct high knees feels like right off the bat? Choose high knees like Doogie. (It was a trap, by the way). Or just rotate as needed like the majority (high knees excluded). Or…if you’re really crazy, just do SSHs…the entire beatdown…all 45 minutes. Figured it was worth a shot, so YHC gave it a go. 3000 consecutive SSHs later and success! The equivalent of 500 burpees was, indeed, possible. (Though certain feet and calves might disagree).

   Still trying to get some feedback on this one, but it seems like most of the equivalent exercises and their reps were pretty accurate and fair for a single round. Apparently the basement practice session the night before had some validity. However, some exercises are far more exhausting than others, making them much more taxing in the long haul. That was the case with the high knees. 75 4-ct did take the same amount of time as 25 burpees, but when an isolated incident. The high knees are not sustainable at that pace like burpees might be. Perhaps they could have been reduced to 50 4-cts like the other exercises. Hopefully some additional PAX feedback can help to tailor the rep counts to be more even for the next run.

   Tracklist was also crafted around the 6-day look-ahead weather report and ended up being fairly accurate, with one exception.

   “25 Degrees Below Zero” – The Blues Mystery
   “Cold Day In The Sun” – Foo Fighters
   “Cold Blooded” – Rick James
   “Out In The Cold” – Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
   “Shiver” – Coldplay
   “Cold Bitch” – Soundgarden
   “Cold Hard Bitch” – Jet: Live 8/7/03
   “Black Ice” – AC/DC
   “Ice Ice Baby” – Vanilla Ice
   “Cold, Cold, Cold” – Little Feat
   “Snow” – Red Hot Chili Peppers: Live

   This was a format that I semi-borrowed from Shepherd and it really fit the theme. If I’m honest, though, I was looking for a way/reason to attempt an entire beatdown of SSHs without forcing the rest of the PAX to do the same. This ended up fitting the bill perfectly. Mission accomplished. And it was a good beatdown to boot. It was a pleasure to lead this one and I hope to lead it again in the future.

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2. 

   Arcy

   February 1, 2026

   This is a great style workout for the variety of PAX (rabbits to dbl respect). A go at your own pace so not to hold others up. But also the challenge of not moving on to next exercise until the required reps. Many times I’ll see guys slowing down and talking during this style. Not this time. Watching Photon go nonstop on those SSH’s was amazing. No one could stop and rest for too long.

   As for rep counts, seemed pretty accurate with the ones I picked based on the ones I thought I could complete the required reps.

   Combine this workout with a swift ruck and you ruined the rest of my day. Had me longing for my pillow all day 👍🏻

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