{"id":27179,"date":"2026-07-29T08:13:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/?p=27179"},"modified":"2026-07-29T08:35:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:35:46","slug":"the-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/2026\/07\/the-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Backblast \u2013 The Challenge<\/p>\n<p>AO: Mayhem<br \/>\nDate: July 29, 2026<br \/>\nQIC: Rollback<\/p>\n<p>PAX: Van Gogh, Tonka, Bootsie (WB), Huckleberry, Zima, Subfloor, Draftee, Rubber Ducky, Headhunter, Green Acres (WD), Ziffel, Zephyr, Slow Pitch, and Rollback (QiC)<\/p>\n<p>EC: Four brave (or questionably intelligent) souls knocked out a Murph beforehand: Van Gogh, Headhunter, Slow Pitch, and Zima. Their reward? More work.<\/p>\n<p>The morning began with a brief Warm-O-Rama followed by a mosey of just over a half mile to the pull-up bars. Once everyone arrived, the rules of The Challenge were explained. Every PAX would choose their own pull-up and merkin numbers, then complete four sets consisting of different pull-up grips and merkin variations.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as the built-in 90-second recovery periods were mentioned, several PAX questioned whether that was really necessary.<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, when every set leaves your arms and chest progressively more useless, those 90 seconds suddenly don\u2019t feel nearly as generous. Funny how that works.<\/p>\n<p>Only one PAX immediately recognized the workout. Credit where it\u2019s due\u2014Zima called out Tony Horton before most realized what was happening.<\/p>\n<p>The work:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Set 1: Wide-grip pull-ups + standard merkins<\/li>\n<li>Set 2: Chin-ups + Ranger merkins<\/li>\n<li>Set 3: Narrow-grip pull-ups + wide merkins<\/li>\n<li>Set 4: Switch-grip pull-ups + staggered merkins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each set included two rounds with alternating sides where appropriate, with every PAX selecting their own pull-up\/merkin target numbers and grinding through the challenge at their own pace.<\/p>\n<p>To close things out, everyone completed one final round of dealer\u2019s choice pull-ups followed by three Huckleberry Merkins. The PAX seemed to especially enjoy the final Huckleberry Merkin, featuring an exceptionally slow count on both the descent and ascent\u2026with a completely unnecessary pause in low plank, purely for educational purposes.<\/p>\n<p>A mosey back to the AO included several rounds of burpees and squats while waiting on the six, followed by one final one-minute burnout of merkins to empty whatever was left in the tank.<\/p>\n<p>NMM<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Upon hearing there would be 90 seconds of rest between sets:\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThat\u2019s way too long.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Approximately 20 minutes later: \u201cCan we make it two minutes?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Zima earned today\u2019s obscure fitness trivia award by immediately recognizing Tony Horton\u2019s The Challenge. The rest of the PAX apparently spent the P90X era doing literally anything else.<\/li>\n<li>The switch-grip pull-ups and staggered merkins generated plenty of discussion. Several PAX had never tried one or both before. Draftee admitted they were new to him\u2026which is mildly concerning considering he literally just wrapped up Tour de Draftee. We\u2019ll chalk that one up to selective memory.<\/li>\n<li>Subfloor was in peak form this morning, generously providing commentary throughout the beatdown:\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cRollback, this workout is terrible.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cFunny\u2026I don\u2019t remember asking for Yelp reviews.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Later: \u201cHow many more sets?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cEnough that you\u2019ll remember today.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Bootsie joined us while downrange from Winston-Salem Central. We were glad to have him despite his questionable choice of home AO.<\/li>\n<li>After handing off the Title Belt yesterday, your Q managed to get a less than stellar nights sleep. Since I officially handed it off for the year anyway, we\u2019ll just assume Pele is taking good care of it\u2026and definitely not wearing it to the grocery store. It\u2019s like missing an old friend<\/li>\n<li>Green Acres once again inspired an outpouring of generosity as the PAX volunteered to donate spare AA batteries to help get his Smart Car restarted after the workout.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s amazing how quickly \u201cI\u2019ll do the higher number\u201d becomes \u201cI\u2019m going to be a little more strategic on this next set.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Announcements<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Several upcoming Q opportunities\u2014check the calendar.<\/li>\n<li>Q School is August 8 and will be held jointly with our brothers from Samaritan Ministries at Project Cornerstone. If you\u2019ve ever thought about stepping up to lead, this is a great opportunity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Prayer Requests<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Green Acres\u2019 friend, Jonah.<\/li>\n<li>The family, friends, and F3 brothers of a PAX in Katy, Texas, who passed away from a heart attack following a recent beatdown.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cIron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.\u201d \u2014 Proverbs 27:17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Backblast \u2013 The Challenge AO: Mayhem Date: July 29, 2026 QIC: Rollback PAX: Van Gogh, Tonka, Bootsie (WB), Huckleberry, Zima, Subfloor, Draftee, Rubber Ducky, Headhunter, Green Acres (WD), Ziffel, Zephyr, Slow Pitch, and Rollback (QiC) EC: Four brave (or questionably intelligent) souls knocked out a Murph beforehand: Van Gogh, Headhunter, Slow Pitch, and Zima. Their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mayhem"],"acf":{"q":"Rollback","date":"7\/29\/26","pax":"Van Gogh, Tonka, Bootsie (WB), Huckleberry, Zima, Subfloor, Draftee, Rubber Ducky, Headhunter, Green Acres (WD), Ziffel, Zephyr, Slow Pitch, and Rollback"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27181,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27179\/revisions\/27181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f3winstonsalem.com\/f3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}