Going into today my goal was to just keep moving and keep moving we did! Most pax clocked at least 3.5 miles some (Gerber) clocked closer to 5, nice work. Weinke was thoughtless but when the goal is the mileage you gotta keep the reps low and keep moving.
Warmup:
We ran down the sidewalk in front of the school to the back of the bus lot, circle up. YHC decided to prerun with ski gloves on which kept my hands super warm, so warm in fact that when I took off one of the gloves it was nearly impossible to get it back on.
SSH x 10 or was it 20? IC
LSS x 10 IC
IW x 10 IC
Hand release Merkin and pause at top x 10 IC
Calf stretch – flapjack
I honestly have no clue of the rep numbers but we did do those moves.
The Thang:
Mosey to the neighborhood and stop at first intersection for the 6 – Al gore
Starting at stop sign run up the hill to the next intersection on the left x 3 – down and back is one.
10 merkins at the start and 10 duck walks at the intersection. End back at the start
Next, starting at the stop sign run down the other street to the first light pole do 10 Carolina Dry Docks, run back to the start 50 LBC’s. Continue suicide with the same rep count to each light pole and back. Time expired before we all made it to the cul da sac but two pax pushed hard. Gerber and Carbload great work!
Mosey back to the school and pause for the six at the entrance – Al Gore while we wait. Mosey long way around the back of the school back to COT. Gerber led 1 min of Marry. Done!
The Moleskine:
25 degrees on a Tuesday morning and 22 guys showed up! Well done men! To all the Pax that think they cant do Ignition/The Swarm…guess what, we basically did it today and you crushed it. To all Pax that are capable of running and walked today…lock it up! Thanks for letting me lead and Ill see you all at Clyent Dinner on Thursday where we will get the miles in again!
Announcements:
Going away party for Wedding Singer this Saturday @ Queens South from 3-5. 0.0 Heineken on the menu. Thanks Schneider!
11 men ventured out this morning with temps in the 20s not knowing what was in store today. But this specific group of men that came to workout, did not hesitate or complain even when it was time to start moving. I can not say enough as to how hard everyone worked. The only slight delay in this BB creation has created a storm of chaos. Now the question is out there. What is more important? A tough quality workout or a simple BackBlast for credit? There are some different opinions out there. Anyway, here is Monday’s breakdown.
Disclaimer/DICCs
Long loop to HS lot w/karaokes, butt kickers
Head to the track
Quick stop – SSH, JDs, Calf Stretch
The Thang
Grab some bench for Derkin Buster – 10 Crab Derkins/20 Derkins ×2
Mini Murph – Total 10 – 400s between each lap 5 pull-ups, 10 merkins, 15 squats
Head to the rocks for a starburst/3 corners
25 curls, 25 presses hitting the 3 corners in between and 5 monkey humpers each corner
Long Indian Burpee run back to the start
Moleskine
Good group of guys that pushed hard in the cold. Limited complaining and just minor modifications happening. Once on the track, no one complained about the cold. Good to see Ice9 today going hard from start to finish.
Best part of the morning was watching Goodfella try to jump and grab the pullup bar to no avail.
Announcements
Refer to Flash
Ice 9 took us out.
13 grizzled PAX broke into the Asylum this cold and windy morning. A little surprised at turnout since last week we had temps in the 60s and numbers were low and this morning with the air feeling like 20° the guys were pouring in. I’ll take it!
DiCCS provided and we’re off
Warm Up:
Mosey to the traffic circle then switch to a burpee run down the front of the Target building taking a left at the retaining wall. It took that long for everyone to get one burpee in so YHC called for another round as we slowly circled the parking lot. YHC finishes the last burpee and we circle up for:
Mosey to Hickory Tavern for some toys
The Thang:
YHC has been dealing with shin splints for a while and with the doc strongly suggesting to cut back on the running I was looking for ways to lower the mileage but still make sure everyone got a good workout. Enter: The Hose. Rubbermaid (and Tupperware?) acquired a lengthy piece of fire hose, maybe 25 feet long, and around 80 lbs that we put to good use
Partner up! One pair grabs the hose and drags it the full circle down to the Brooklyn Pizza and around the top parking spaces back to the Hickory Tavern. Remaining PAX work their way through the following, switching exercises each loop:
Boy, that hose was no joke. Shop Dawg and I go 2nd with the hose and while the first half didn’t seem so bad, man that return trip was killer. Get back to the Tavern and everyone’s doing LBCs. Some Q Jacking going on I guess? Nobody wanted to do the Step Ups? Too bad, Step Ups are next. Everyone finished the hose loop and suddenly Deadwood is here? Apparently he forgot Asylum has a 0515 start, not 0530.
Setting the hose aside (for now) YHC grabs a few more items out of the truck. Two 50 lb weights and three 40 lb concrete buckets. With the same partners as before:
A few finished early and did a little repeato. Once the last team finished up we did a little more hose work. New partner do the following exercises in between:
Out of time. COT. Announcements. Group pic.
Announcements:
Site Q School – Saturday 2/1 at Cuthbertson Middle School – Sign ups going out soon or see Posse
Q School – Saturday 2/8 at Cuthbertson Middle School – Sign ups going out soon or see Posse
In prepping for this morning work-out I had one goal, which was to warm up as fast as possible. Below freezing temps and a pretty good breeze made the morning less than ideal, but then again it could be colder…or raining…or just whatever. So yeah, try to get warmed up quick (and also avoid putting hands to payment until we could actually feel our hands again). So with that as my guide I thought quickly about what might meet this criteria, and the answer that came was Light pole suicides with a progressively increasing number of squats. That’ll suck…and it kinda did, but it also took a lot longer than expected. By the time we wrapped that up it was 6 am. I think everyone was pretty warm by then though, so I’ll give it a 6 out of 10. Anyways, that left me with way too much planned and not enough time to do it, so the last 15 minutes was mostly an audible. Still, we worked and pretty hard at that. And that’s the goal, right?
Here’s how it all went down.
Warm-up:
The Thang:
Announcements:
Ice 9 took us out.
Have a great day fellas. I hope to see everyone at the next stop of my going away tour this Wednesday at Chiseled. We will hold a bunch of really cold bricks, and we’ll like it.
Jan 18, 2020 – Gremlin @ UNCC
Happy Saturday and good morning! Nothing says conquering the weekend like waking up at 4am to go get your ass handed to you at a CSAUP at UNCC. I remember a couple of our brothers doing it last year and complaining about how brutal it was. This time last year I was only a few months into my F3 journey and not physically prepared for an event like that.
But 2020 is a new year and after reading the preblast about the Gremlin I thought, “what other stupid bros can I get to join me for this thang??!!?” Posted to The Playhouse as FISH ON!! Mad Dog is the first HC, then Brutus and then the smoke signals finally reached Blue Screen. Let’s meet at 5am at Target to start our journey.
To no one’s surprise Brutus is high (on life) as a kite! That dude’s energy is palpable and I internally hoped he would conserve because today is the day you don’t want to blow your load to early. Blue Screen has his duffle in hand and shares that he only went to the gym 3 times yesterday which is basically a cheat day. Our full body suburban with all the fixin’s pulls up and I’m disappointed to find Mad Dog is not wearing a chauffeur’s cap.
THE THANG
We arrive, sign in, start on a roof deck and look down to the stadium scoreboard where Gremlin’s photo is being shown. The realty of just what the Gremlin actually is hits home. We lost a brother 2 years ago and this event is a remembrance of sorts to talk about the type of HIM he was. More on that later…
100+ mosey, circle up for some basic warm up and then break up into 3 groups. I won’t get into every single exercise but will at a high level. It was a long day consisting of a lot of mosey and four separate Qs essentially. It was sold as 8mi but only time would tell…
Q#1 – Station work consisting of some Billy Blanks Tae Bo stuff, a bunch pull ups and then ab work. Mosey to a set of stairs a grassy knoll for Fire Merkins. Brutal and absolutely bringing them to a Q near you. Mosey to a big hill for some Paula Abduls of burpees and WW2s. Meet up with everyone for a water break. The 4 of us were separated by the groups so we broke the rules and joined back up.
Q#2 – over to a massive parking deck. 5 floors of torture. A smattering of exercises in part one that involved running backwards of each ramp for every floor. Up to the top, rinse & repeat 4 times. Then we had a yoga/stretching for the next part. It basically consisted of the Waxhaw fellas making poop and eye contact jokes. It was well received as everyone was happy to laugh while on the top deck with tornado winds at 37 degrees. It was at this point MD and BS’s cycles were in sync and they were “prairie dogging”. Back to the last 20 minutes and it was back to stair and on your 6 work. F stairs. Another water break and the 2 fellas were crowning and jumped into a truck to find a hole. It was at this point I think Brutus’ excitement levels were much, much quieter. Could I convince him to eat a gel or a bar after turning me down the first few hours? We were now 7 miles in in like 2.5 hours. The 8mi preblast was BS….
Q#3 – long mosey across campus to where we said a prayer at the site Riley Howell tackled the shooter at UNCC last year. Brutal to think about but what a selfless hero at 21 years old. Back into 3 groups and 3 more beat downs. It’s irrelevant what we did at this point but the two fellas joined us again and looked a collective 10lbs lighter. Blue Screen actually exclaimed that it was a top 10 dump of his life, special moment and I’m glad i could be there to share that memory. I met a guy name Mogwai at this point who was an FNG at the the Gremlin last year. He was one of Gremlin’s close buddies and they were training for a marathon at his unfortunate passing. Really great group of guys.
Q#4 – another long mosey to another part of campus for 4 separate group workouts but at this point we were just mentally drained. Brutus was actually silent, hand on the Bible. Crazy and hard to believe. We learned what I think was called “Scottish Dragon” but I could be totally making that up. I will be unveiling at my Gladiator Q in March. The 2nd to last station we met a young man, Chicken Strip, that told us a wonderful story about his experience after participating after the Gremlin last year. He never met Gremlin but had an amazing story of the impact he has had on some of his personal lowest days. I got a little verklempt. Another hour had passed and I couldn’t tell you where we were in the campus. Watch said 10.5 miles by now but I was just happy to be done…..
Or so I thought. 3 trucks in neutral awaited us on the 1st floor of a 6 floor parking lot. Those cars stood between us, food and this damn thing being completed. Broke up into groups of 3 and we took shifts pushing each truck up 12 different ramps. Yikes. Gassed. Dead. Complete.
Rick aka Gremlin’s family awaited us at the end for our COT. I’m not sure of the final count but over 100 participated in this celebration of life. Rick’s wife and 3 daughters were so appreciative of what everyone had done yesterday to share the memories of the type of things their father and her husband loved so dearly. Very special moment.
MOLESKIN
It was a cold, long beatdown. 4Qs, 11.3mi and 5hrs, 21mins long. Great job to the 3 men that pushed through our comfort zones together. My only complaint with the whole day was it being held during Dryuary. Ugh, Heinekin 0.0s don’t quite quench the thirst like you hope. But as we found out and/or convinced ourselves….you can drink and drive with them. Right???
One thing that was discussed in the car was how hard being reminded of Gremlin’s passing for his family might feel. While I agree on some level it’s hard to do, it’s also extremely important to not bury the memories and find closure by remembering the good. As we all know we are all in F3 for different reasons but those reasons are all very fluid. It might be physical “things” but it also could be different forms of depression brought on by who knows what someone is going through. The collective camaraderie that comes from posting at any and all of the Fs we have is so important.
You are feeding your own personal soul, which is so important. Then that feeling you have while you transform pushes you to recognize other people in your life that could benefit from joining us in the gloom. The stories shared each morning are all reminders of the effort outside of F3 you need to put energy into to locate more of us. While I worked out yesterday morning with 3 brothers, I also knew and was motivated by the men on the trail run, Commitment and Homecoming.
Seeing yesterday that 4 FNGs joined us was just like shoveling a ton of coal in my internal engine. I’m sore and I’m tired but you can bet I will be posting on Monday. Stay motivated boys and push through the pain. Whether mental or physical issues we are all dealing with, keep posting because it’s with each other we can accomplish so much.
Happy Sunday fellas. Enjoy the day.
*Q Preface:
F3 means so many things to so many Pax on a day-to-day basis. Some come for great workouts and that brings them back. Some enjoy the fellowship/banter and that keeps them coming back. Others want to be around men of faith and that keeps them coming back.
Whatever your “thing” is that keeps you coming back, there was also some”thing”/someone that brought you out in the first place. Maybe it was a horrible fitness level, peer-pressure/Emotional Headlock, a friendship, guilt, desperation, or just curiosity when you saw all these F3 Bumper Stickers around town. Today was a reminder for YHC and other Pax in attendance that we need to be more open and intentional about reaching out to men to join F3 for one main reason: We are ALL just Sad Clowns looking for support/encouragement to be the men, leaders, warriors God created us to be! Here we go…
4 men showed up early for a Homecoming pre-run around the Weddington MS campus, including our brother from Indian Land (Happy Meal) and his FNG (Brent), Bottle Cap, and YHC. Happy Meal let us know ahead of time he was coming so it was great to chat with Brent during the run. Little did we know, our brother Haggis from Ft. Mill/SOB would show up with an FNG as well. All-in, we would be (11) Pax today.
With this Q’s standard 80’s Rock Playlist, Bluetooth speaker, some Coupons and a Whiteboard planted, it was time to execute on the Plan. YHC’s Plan, but clearly not God’s Plan!
Mosey around the front of the Middle School for various exercises, with running between each exercise consisting of SSH, IW, Low Slow Squat, Mountain Climbers. Stop in front of the Elementary School for a few quick stretches (for this old man!) consisting of Standing Quad and Glute Stretches, Bend at the Waist and Hang to stretch the Back and Hamstrings, quick Upward Dog & Downward Dog plus calf stretch. All this knowing what was coming during the next 50+ minutes.
The Thang:
At each of the (5) light poles down the school driveway, complete (10) Walking Lunges then circle back for the Six. Once complete, run to the back entrance/driveway and complete (5) Jump Squats per light until you get to the back parking lot. Once arrived, the “Whiteboard of Pain” was waiting for the Pax. A quick explanation by YHC of how this would go down.
There were (10) separate exercises listed on the Whiteboard with (10) reps/exercise. After completing each set, run a full lap around the outside of the lot then start back at exercise #1, but add one additional exercise every lap (1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4…you get the picture). The list of exercises were as follows, in an order that allowed Pax to get some Strength + Core, followed by Speed:
All-in, the Pax completed (100) Derkins + (90) LBC’s + (80) Step-ups + (70) Flutters + (60) Dips + (50) H2H + (40) Jump Tucks + (30) BB Sit-ups + (20) Peter Parkers + (10) Burpees. Pax who completed early got a prize and some Extra Credit of finding a Pax who had not yet completed and got to stick with them. This took up the majority of our time today. Done.
Mosey to the gravel lot and hill next to the school where some beautiful Cinder Blocks were waiting for the Pax. Partner up, grab a cinder for:
Done. Some Pax mentioned that these must be “Lowe’s Cinder Blocks” since they felt heavier than normal. That’s how we roll in The Haw!
Mosey to the parking lot for the final 4 minutes and the “Cube of Pain” (the cool little cube with different exercises and counts). Roll the cube to see where it lands. We completed:
Moleskin:
This was YHC’s first Q at the new Homecoming, which only happened since our brother, Frack, couldn’t take the Q as he is up in NY celebrating the life of his Grandfather (a Korean War veteran!). Please keep Frack and his family in your prayers.
Great work by all 11 of us who attended while many of our brothers were doing CSAUP’s, Trail Races, and Commitment. I hope you all felt it was challenging. We kept moving and did plenty of Core + Strength + Speed work, which makes for an ideal F3 Workout.
Like was mentioned earlier, the “Plan” was to lead a solid workout today, expecting only one FNG along with Happy Meal. God’s Plan was MUCH bigger than this, as brother Haggis showed up with another FNG named Clive (both from Scotland!). Little did we know, Clive is going through a lot of challenges right now in his life as he revealed in the FNG-naming portion of COT.
Like many of us before and now, he is experiencing challenges in his marriage and in his work. He had to shut down his construction business recently, and this has put a burden on him, his family, his self-worth, finances, etc. A position none of us ever plan to be in, but one that requires support from others to get through.
The Enemy uses these things to crush our spirit and self-worth as a leader, provider, and as a man! We thank the Lord that Clive showed up today, had the courage to share his struggles with us, and allowed us to minister to him and support him at this time of need. None of this would have happened, though, had Haggis not reached out to Clive, EH’d him, and made a commitment to help him through this.
Clive got the name “Rebuild”, as Transporter immediately called it. Perfect! Rebuild represents the transformation Clive and we all need to go through (by our own doing or forced into it) at many times in our lives. We All Rebuild! We Rebuild our Finances. We Rebuild our Marriages. We Rebuild our Families. We Rebuild our Homes. We Rebuild our Careers. We Rebuild our Personal Brand. We Rebuild our Faith. We Rebuild our Health/Fitness. We Rebuild our Purpose!
Our new F3 brother, Rebuild, will come out on the other side of this stronger, wiser, better, and with an awesome opportunity to “Make his Misery his Ministry” to other men who will go through similar challenges. We all have our “stuff”, but it’s what we do with our stuff that makes an impact on lives.
God clearly set this up today in order to do His work through Haggis when he invited Rebuild to Homecoming (an AO he doesn’t live near, with Pax he doesn’t really know). If any Pax still questions the impact F3 has on the lives of us Sad Clowns, or those we haven’t invited yet, I encourage you to think about our brother Haggis and his FNG/Friend, Rebuild. F3 Waxhaw had (4) FNG’s workout with us today…keep inviting!
To God Be The Glory! Iron Sharpens Iron!
Fraternally,
Goodfella
Announcements:
YHC took us out with the Ball of Man around Rebuild. Powerful moment for all as we pray for our brother in this tough time.
I will end this BB with my Family’s Life Verse, which was given to me by a buddy on the day I was part of a major layoff on 10/25/12:
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose”
Romans 8:28
I confirmed a 7:45am meeting time with Recalculating last night but as I was driving I noticed a missed call from Dasher and the Recalculating. Did I have mittens on my hands when I was texting him, was I late or did the Respect have another forgetful moment? Please enter your response in the PH. I rolled into Lowes parking lot at 7:44 with the Pax eager to go. We were off! As we were heading down Providence Rd. Dasher makes a quick stop at the gas station at 84/providence…was he afraid of a porta jon?
We merge onto 485 and about 5 secs later Dasher passes up like we are sitting still! We arrive at the race, get our packet and have around 40 minutes to kill and it was chilly. Recalculating has a brilliant idea…Let’s sit in the car for 30 and then head to the start line, say no more, I’m in!! Time is up. We get out of the car and we both need to take a leak. The Respect, with no shame, whips it out right beside his car (See video) and nearly scares multiple kids and spectators…lock it up Recalc!
The horn sounds and we are off! Forrest (Carson, which is Hooches son) takes off and I decide to try and keep up…not wise. Around mile 2 I hear “on your left” from what sounded like a couple of 12 yr old girls…I WAS PASSED BY A COUPLE OF 12 YR OLD GIRLS! Oh well…I guess I need to work harder!!
We cross the finish line and I’m gassed! As Recalc and Hooch are approaching the finish line Recalc may or may not have grabbed Hooches shirt to take the lead and win the race by seconds…Rules don’t apply to Jersey guys we all know that! haha.
Dasher 2nd place AG – Deadwood 7th – Rubbermaid 3rd (13 miler) – Wolverine 2nd (13 miler) – Forest 1st – Recalculating 1oth – Hooch 13th
Great job everyone! Be on the lookout for other races and events… No announcements!
A lucky 13 were in attendance today, 12 of whom expected Sprockets to Q this week’s episode of Rock Zero. Unfortunately, Sprokcets was ill and had to cancel. So being the responsible site-Q (and the one in town this particular weekend) YHC stepped in to fill the void.
Thang, Moleskine:
At 20:15 on Friday, YHC got a text from Sprockets that he had a fever that wouldn’t quit and was not confident in delivering a beat down to the pax. Since Geraldo was DR, your favorite site-Q, YHC, stepped up.
2 pre-runners, Flipper and YHC, at 0631, grabbed about 2.5 miles. Pax started to trickle in about 4 minutes to start time, O Tannenbaum arrived at 0702 and we could officially start. Disclaimer was given (hopefully Mermaid approved), commented on by McGee, and we were off.
YHC had a loose idea of what to do, the execution wasn’t ironed out but these things tend to work themselves out, right? Run to the back entrance of Rea (with the hill), hook a right and run along the back parking lot to the first speed bump. 1 merkin, 1 jump squat, 1 merkin. Second speed bump, 2 of each in that order. Third speed bump, 3 of each, fourth speed bump, 4 of each. Run to the adjacent parking lot for a COP. 20 IW (IC), 30 second plank, 10 merkins, 20 low slow squats. Run to the grassy knoll. Partner up, P1 lunge walks along the columns to the light post, P2 bear crawls the outer edge of the grassy knoll. Meet at the other end and switch. Do this twice.
** Full disclosure: YHC was not able to complete the full Bear Crawl, Spackler was witness and followed my example with his first official refusenik of the workout.**
Mosey to the Rock Pile, grab a medium to high rep rock and walk it to the parking lot. Line up abreast for 15 shoulder presses, 15 curls, 15 squats, and 15 good mornings. Run about 1/3 of the parking lot to the first entrance and come back. Do this 4 times, reversing the exercise order for the last two sets. Return rocks and mosey to the hot box. People’s chair start to a Jack Webb, 4:1, air presses and burpees. At 5 stop (that was terrible). Go in the hot box and do 20 dips, 10 step-ups on each leg, then run to the last trash can and back. Do this 3 times. Run back through the parking lot to the street with the trees. At each tree 5 CCDs, 10 Sister Mary Catherine’s, mosey to the next parking lot for some Mary. After this YHC’s weinke was spent and we still had about 12 minutes on the clock. Time to improvise.
McGee had the unfortunate sense to call for more burpees during the Mary. So YHC obliged. Moseyed the pax down to some road cones that were currently not in use. Grabbed 4. Mr Magoo (YHC’s silent partner, seriously, I don’t think he got a word in but kept putting the work in non-stop #t-claps) placed one about 25 yards out and the other 3 were placed 5 parking spaces apart leading back to the pax. Burpee suicides. Run to the first parking cone and do 3 burpees, run back. Second parking cone etc. 3 burpees each time. Round two was reverse order with (last cone first) 3 merkins and 3 squats. Return the parking cones and mosey to the cars. 2 gassers up and down the parking lot got us to 0800.
Mumble chatter was strong this AM. Maybe YHC wasn’t at 100% and the on-the-fly weinke was light, or maybe there was alot of modifying and refusniking but the range of topics covered was interesting and plentiful. Clemson’s loss (Marge wasn’t too depressed, unlike how those whiny Alabama snowflakes get when they lose and Nick Saban throws a hissy fit), Insurance sales (it all started when Alf called out my current / his former employer and someone had a story about … you know what it’s not that interesting but Spackler and McGee wouldn’t shut up about it), and then the royal family (Fun fact: 12 out of 13 pax prefer talking about the royal family over playing Flipper’s shirts and skins freeze tag).
Other notable items:
No announcements, YHC had the take-out.
Total mileage was close to 3. Great work today, men. Whatever else I missed, sound off in the comments below.
I was thankful that it didn’t rain with the temperature hovering a crisp 34 degrees. It was great to see 15 eager PAX waiting for what was
to come. The goal today was to keep everyone moving, but allow us to stay close so no one was feeling far behind.
Warm-up
The Thang
Moleskine
I was honored to lead everyone through today’s commitment. Being one of the older PAX and leading a group of leaders through an hour of fun you always want to make sure you are challenging everyone to do their best and making sure you have enough gas to lead everyone. I am blessed each day that I am able to push myself and more blessed that I was able to push everyone today.
Announcements
Shop Dawg – 2nd and 4th Thursday evenings new site opening up to Christ Closet. Every piece of clothes last weekend were put away. Excellent Job everyone.
Wrigley – Ontime was not able to make it, as him and his wife were in the hospital giving birth to baby number two.
Great Job fellas.