I Don’t Give a F, I Actually Give Three
Hello fall! What are these things on my arms?… Oh, that’s right, sleeves. I forgot what they were like as this has been quite the extended year of staying at home and unforgiving heat and humidity. Not going to lie but I recycled a portion of a previous Weinke today mainly because I knew I could Q it better than last time and we needed to keep moving to stay warm. Yes, 50 degrees is cold for me… Anyway it didn’t take long for a nice crew of 10ish to appear out of the gloom and it was time. DiCCS were executed perfectly and we had a ton of safety gear present so we looked like a string of Christmas lights when we ran in a single line. You’re “encouragement” is working Mad Dog!
WARM UP
Mosey to front of high school after 1 full circle around lot
Imp Walkers Squawkers x 15 IC
Plank hold x 30sec
P parkers x10 IC
Mtn climbers x15 IC
Calf stretch
Chest / shoulder stretch on the ground – (You would have thought I asked the PAX to put their ankles behind their head and walk around on their hands…. Come on boys, work some yoga in your routine!)
THE THANG
Burpee Indian run to side entrance on Cuthbertson
Follow trail to Lawson entrance
Run down to T section stopping at each side st
Complete 5 burpees
10 BBs
15 Mtn Clmbr
Mosey down Great Rd to cul-de-sac – Time to smoke the “This is Ignition” Strava segment
AYG up “This is Ignition” segment ( Our group now holds the top 7 spots )
Mosey to 5 forks pool parking lot
220 Run to Lawson entrance.
2mi run – ea cul-de-sac and intersection Q picks the exercise x 20 reps ( upper, lower, abs )
PAX HOLD PLANK OR AL GORE UNTIL 6 IS IN
- At Paw Paw ln – alternating bear crawl x 20 Then walk lunge x 10 until top
Mosey back down hill to cont run
Several exercises were done and most PAX were called upon to contribute – roughly 12 stops I think
Follow trail back to Cuthbertson side entrance
Mosey back to middle school entrance where welcome sign is – 10 mins left so audible time
1 mile loop around Cutty campus for time – Now forever known as “The Glidah Mile” thanks to Gerber
Back to COT for Am Hams and words of wisdom
MOLESKIN
So there was a lot of stopping and starting today during our adventure but got in a variety of exercises, an ars kicking sprint and finally a longer gallop to finish things off. We had a fast group, faster than usual I think, because everyone really stayed together the whole time and pushed each other. There were several changes to the leader/s of the pack as we went along which is awesome. I remember when some of these “fast” guys started encouraging me to post at the longer distance / hour long workouts and now I get to be a co-site Q at one of them. Ignition. And how cute is it that the dude that EH’d me into joining F3 is the other site Q. Thanks Hollywood xoxoxo – I mentioned a couple things up top regarding F’s and seasons so I guess I should tie all that in somehow. Here goes; With about a minute left I opened up to the group that we are going through a change of seasons and by now I think most know that I have been as well. It has been an incredibly mixed ride of ups and downs, emotions, confusion and stress. But with all of that there has also been so many incredible and amazing other things that have been revealed on this journey of mine. One of the biggest and most important is I’ve been able to invest in the other two F’s of F3; the Fellowship and Faith components. I don’t think I can put into words the impact that tying all three together has made in my life in such a very short period of time. The bond and community that I have with many PAX today rivals those of immediate family and close friends I’ve had for 20 years… They’ve got my back. They pray for me – like for real pray, not just send the 🙏 emoji or post it in GM. They have offered me a room to stay if I need it. Coffee and an ear to listen. Encouragement. Accountability. And honestly just offering their time in a world where there never seems like there is enough to even get the most basic tasks accomplished that come with the defaults of life. I’m more engaged and connected with God than I have been in years. When you’re put into an environment where you know you just can’t do it alone you start to look for support ( hello 2nd and 3rd F’s ) and support is what I have found. I am more clear headed and in tune with the environment and world around me than maybe I have ever been before. And guess what, when that happens you start seeing even more amazing and beautiful things around you. Some, that have been there the whole time. I could go on but I’ll save some for my next BB. Here’s the bottom line; we have a FREE opportunity to take advantage of right now to help us grow in any area of our life. You just have to get uncomfortable enough to take the next step and act on the thought or emotion that you’ve been carrying around for however long. It’s there for a reason and so is F3. Grateful for each and every one of you. ✌
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Last week of IPC – get your coupons and backs ready #murderbunnies
We still have over 90 spots to fill for the next blood drive in October. Remember when it was still like 8 weeks away?…
Welcome FNG “TikTok”.
Leg Day At Flash
18 guys didn’t heed the warning that Leg Day was coming to Flash. I had hoped my warning marketing would have sent a few pax over to support Chatter Box for his VQ, but apparently only Mad Dog’s heart strings were tugged. The rest of you are cold heartless bastards (I’m joking).
FNG introduced. Neither of his EH’ers decided to post with him (though Glidah was leading Ignition so he gets a pass. Where were you Catfish?!!).
DICCS discussed. A couple headlamps atop heads. Lets go.
WARM UP
Hot lap around the parking lot over to the middle school.
- 20 Mountain Climbers
- 15 Peter Parkers
- 10 Parker Peters
- Calf Stretch
- Downward Dog
- Walk hands up into Jimmy Duggan.
THE THING
Groups of 3. Partner 1 does up an over’s on the benches. Partner 2 is the runner (half lap to partner 3). Partner 3 does Russian Get Ups on the far Curb. Runner reliefs Russian Get Up and that person then finished the other half of the lap to take over for the up and overs. Had originally called go until team has done 100 up and over’s, but we have some fast guys this morning so we went until everyone completed two rounds. The Russian Get Up’s were too much for 1 Star’s lower half and he rushed off to Rudy’s Poop Palace.
Mosey to the road pausing to do backwards lunge walks while waiting for a bus to clear the road.
30 Speed Skaters at each light heading towards/past the high school (360 total for those keeping track). Chicken led mary waiting on the 6.
Mosey towards the football field. Pausing at the corner for squats waiting on the 6.
Backwards run towards the traffic circle. Heard a couple guys compliment my choice of exercises here tell me these suck.
Back to your team of 3 at the traffic circle. Partner 1 grabs fence for deep jump squats. Partner 2 runs. Partner three at the bottom circle for dry docks with feed on the curb. Two rounds each.
Mosey to high school steps for 5 calf raises on each step. Not enough time, audible.
Mosey to Rudy’s Palace. 3 minutes left. 2 burpees at each light all the way to COT. At COT we continued burpees until the 6 arrived. Mash and Ignition looked on in relief that they were not a part of Flash and didn’t have burpees to finish out.
MOLE SKIN
- Great job by everyone. I thought a leg heavy day coming off of 300 merkins for some of you would be just the thing you needed. I was then reminded by Popeye that there was also 250 squats in the IPC workout….oh yeah, my bad.
- FNG Tik Tok named because he is in IT and gave us some sort of dance move while telling us about himself. A close second was glitch. Welcome Tik Tok. If you post again this week it will be 2 more times than I’ve seen Catfish all summer. Tik Tok proclaims while doing deep jump squats on the fence that this was his first time doing legs in 5 years….yeah, your going to be hurting tomorrow. I suggest you go to Watchtower to help get the soreness out.
- Magnolia, Chicken Little, and I had about a minute before the workout started to lament about a Wolfpack win. They don’t happen often so we better take advantage of them while we can boys.
- Magnolia telling me he’s going to feel those speed skaters tomorrow to which I replied I’m looking forward to getting cussed at each time a pax goes in for the bathroom squat.
- Rockwell and Chicken doing a great job at their site Q roles picking up the 6. Thank goodness for Covid (you don’t hear that too often) because I was ready to grab bread bowl and throw him over my shoulder. I will be glad when he finally pushes through the mental side of the workout. He has the ability to keep up, but his mind isn’t allowing him to try. Continue to push him to help him break that mental barrier.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Bottle Cap gave a sappy speech about Goodfella’s leadership along with a ugly colored shirt. Goodfella responded by warning about too much 4th F keeping you from workouts.
- Blood Drive is less than 3 weeks away (Oct. 17th). It is time to get signed up. Less than 30 are currently signed up and the Red Cross gave us 94 slots. This is M friendly. 2.0’s can donate as long as they are 16. This is not relegated to just F3. Please push this in your neighborhood facebook pages, next door app, and continue spreading the work via word of mouth. Lets push to get to 50 by end of this week. Go sign up and sign people up. Sign up here: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=f3
- Christ Closet folding parting this Thursday. Not sure the time, but if I had to guess I’d say 7:00.
The Ambitious Cycle
Roll in with 2 minutes before launch. Time for SPORTS and a FULL BODY BEATDOWN. What better way to pregame?
Warmup
- 15 side straddles
- 15 hillbillies
- 15 mountain climbers
- 15 low slow squats
- 20 LBC’s
- Mosey to fountain across the street
DODGEBALL (The 4 D’s): Partner work. 1 partner runs short loop while other partner completes called exercise in AMRAP fashion
- Dodge the puddle
- Dips
- Derkins
- Dodge the puddle
- Step Ups
- Plank until all are finished
Mosey to “Field of Dreams”
- Start out by counting off by fours
- 1s start at First Base (1st cone) do AMRAP Squats until relieved
- 2s at Second Base (2nd cone) do AMRAP Shoulder taps until relieved
- 3s at Third Base (3rd cone) do AMRAP LBC’s until relieved
- 4s at Home Plate (4th cone) perform 10 Burpees then run to First, relieving the Pax there
- Kevin Costner was proud
Mosey to “Swim Lanes”
- Perform exercise at each of 9 islands in the parking lot
- Broad jump from island 1 to island 2
- 20 supermans at island 2
- 20 big boy situps at island 3
- Repeato until arriving at island 9
- Ferocious grunting from One Star between islands 7 and 8
- Soft Pretzel closes with Mary
Mosey to “Football”
- Start on the goal line.
-
Run to the 10 yard line: 10 Merkins. Bear crawl back
-
Run to the 20 yard line: 20 Jump Squats. Bear crawl back
-
Run to the 30 yard line: 30 Merkins. Bear crawl back
-
Run to the 40 yard line: 40 Jump Squats. Bear crawl back
- Sprint from 50 yard line back to goal line
Mosey back to “Field of Dreams” for the Vicious Cycle. Given the complex instructions and difficulty following them, Mighty Mite aptly renames this to Ambitious Cycle
- PAX travel single file around the bases of a baseball field (jog 3 rounds, lunge walk 1 round, crab walk/bear crawl 1 round)
- Last 2 men peel off, runs to pitcher mound and performs 5 of an exercise, then rejoins PAX at the front. Repeato for all PAX
- 5 merkins
- 5 burpees
- 5 derkins
- 5 star jumps
- 5 heels to heaven
Mosey back to launch. End with Gilbert, Swine Flu, Point Break and Mighty Mite calling Mary. Chopper, One Niner and Wingman join after logging their miles.
Moleskin
- Loving the cooler weather. With breeze barely felt like we sweat this morning!
- Sign up for the blood drive. Took me 5 minutes yesterday to do online
- Soft Pretzel mentioned that Dark Helmet will be Q’ing Arsenal in a few weeks. Come check it out
- Thanks Olaf for closing in prayer for our country’s leadership, as well as peace and unity during these politically divided times.
- May we find common ground with our brothers that don’t see eye-to-eye.
- May we be known first by the grace and love that we show rather than the things we detest
Follow The Panda
“11 for Centurion @jrr_tolkien tour of never been places. Ton of ab work, and we made a video.: Fun, hard morning.” – thanks Mermaid for effectively writing the backblast on Slack for YHC!
THANG
In a nutshell, we went old school bootcamp. 2.5 miles of grinding exercises. Plank jacks, makhtar ndiaye, lots of big-boy situps, decline situps, dragon flags, a
$$ to the curb squats, merkin ladder (regular, wide, diamond, leg raised), wall sits, air presses, boat/canoe, burpees, reverse burpees, sprints, proper lunges (forwards and back) and some hard running. It was beautiful.
MOLESKINE
Well, YHC tried finding somewhere hidden, cool, and never explored by the men in black but it was tough. Centurion is surrounded by busy roads, not much elevation, and oh yes… the Charlotte Catholic deck, which is a workout favorite. But we gave the deck today. Rain held off, and the ground wasn’t overly wet. We visited the “Hearing and Balance Center” … two things PAX don’t do well, in our newfound location off Johnston Road. #supportlocal A bit underwhelming of a location, but new nonetheless.
YHC was busy trying not to pass out calling cadence, so the observations from the morning looked like Snuka and Point Break out front, Madison mildly complaining (as usual), and the rest of us pushing pretty dang hard as we all were grouped together the whole time. Honestly, it’s been a long while since YHC has Q’d as solid a group as this one, who came and flat out put in the work. It was appreciated and encouraged me to see. As always it was an honor to lead, and thank you Margo for the invite.
We finished off the COT with a impromptu little video for F3 and F3 Foundation with a short video selfie message of what F3 means to us, as support for the Give 2 Give campaign coming up. Encouraging all men to spend some time reflecting on what F3 has meant to them, who we’d be without it, and what the impact on the people surrounding us has been. If you feel like it, post your own video testimony on Twitter. There are so many amazing stories of change and impact … 11 of them at Centurion today in fact.
Have a great weekend all…. and oh, my abs are sore to the touch today!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Keep Kai, 2.0 of Fallout in your prayers as he recovers from surgury.
- If you’re interested be on the lookout for thte F3 ski trip out West which is still on.
IPC Week 3 at Cutty
IPC Week 3
The THANG:
Start
Run 400m
100 merkins
Run 400m
90 squats
Run 400m
80 merkins
Run 400m
70 squats
Run 400m
60 merkins
Run 400m
50 squats
Run 400m
40 merkins
Run 400m
30 squats
Run 400m
20 merkins
Run 400m
10 squats
***Run 800m***
End
Times:
Dasher: 34:35
Tanyatine: 38:36
Bottlecap: 41:44
Doughboy: 44:23
Premature: 46:19
Chicken Little: 48:41
Recalculating: 49:16
Deep Dish: 51:05
Mad Dog: 51:17
Popeye: 53:13
Bread Bowl: 55:21
Ghosted: 57:26
C3PO: 57:57
Turnbuckle: 1:20:55
Moleskine:
Pretty good work out there of the most part today. Dasher has the merkin form down to the most compact fluid movement possible, well done.
Chicken and Recalc were great accountability partners and did a great job pushing each other. Recalc also yelled out at will to “get down” and other various things throughout the workout.
Ghosted picked the perfect time to start posting. All his posts have been IronPax and the convergence 5k. Way to start on top.
Great resolve by TB, keep up the great work
I Got 99 Problems, But The IPC Ain’t One
(Thanks to Posse for the title). IPC came out on Sunday and after 1 look I decided it was time to pull the rip cord. As my shield lock knows, I despise CSUP’s. When the risk outweighs the reward, I’m out. I was on the fence with last weeks shoulder heavy workout, but I did it anyway. But 300 Merkins reached the risk to high point for me (Or as Rudy so eloquently said on twitter as he was giving Greenwood two middle fingers “IPC has jumped the shark. Why not make it 1000 merkins.”). Having completed 250 merkins once at a Hooch q (where we split 500 merkins with a partner) which caused me to miss 8 weeks of upper body work as my shoulder recovered, I knew 300 couldn’t happen for me. So with that I reached out to Blackhawk Q’s to have a valid reason not to do IPC (because I know my personality and the Fomo would eventually get to me Friday night and I would end up trying IPC against my better judgement).
So with that I decided….what can I do that will suck as much as the IPC, but will be safer and less injury prone. That’s when I decided it was time to dust off the ole’ 1000 rep challenge Q. I stole this from my wife a couple years ago and end up running it occasionally. Rudy has done it a couple times as well with much success. It’s fairly easy to explain….1000 reps broke out into 10 different exercises with 3 miles in between. Ok, lets go.
WARM UP
Lap around the parking lot. Then a second lap around the parking lot stopping at all four corners for 25 Side Straddle Hops in cadence and 12 3-6-9’s (a variance of in/outs). By the time we were done we completed 100 SSH’s (or 200 according to Wrigley) and 48 3-6-9’s. Because the 3-6-9 include a hop up on the 3 and the 9, we counted that as 96 reps. Posse took exception when I went past 12 on our 4th corner to 14, but I reminded him that 12×4 doesn’t equal 100. He gave me a funny look and I remembered I forgot to tell them we were doubling those reps…..anyways, a lot of words to say we are now 200 reps in.
THE THANG
Another lap around the parking lot (got to get 3 miles in too!) and I ask the pax to find a line. Paula Abdul’s. Bear Crawl up two parking spaces for 10 merkins, Crawl Bear back one space for 10 Mountain climbers. From doing this previously I knew getting to 100 of each would be too taxing on the shoulders and my math had us reaching 100 bear crawls around the 60 mark. Once everyone reached 60 Merkins, 60 Mountain climbers, and 100 bear crawl/crawl bears, we ran another lap.
To finish out our 40 merkins/mountain climbers we went back to the four corners with 10 at each. For those keeping count, we are now at 500 reps and about 1 mile in. Ahead on reps, behind on mileage….lets go fix that.
Mosey through the traffic circle pausing for a quick stretch to let a car clear the round-a-bout (Wrigley took issue with what he thought was too fast of a stretch break). Instructed pax to stop at each intersection for 12 Dry Docks, 12 right leg pistol LBC’s and 12 left leg pistol LBC’s. It would be 8 stops in total and about half a mile. We returned to were we started for a 9th round of 12’s to put us over 100 each. Now at 1.5 miles and slightly over 800 reps.
Watch check and I see we have 25 minutes left. I need to get some more mileage in before we move on to more reps. I thought about parking lot sprints up and down the hill, but at the last minute I decided to go 4 corners with sprints on two sides and recovery jogs (or walk) the other two sides. I called out that we would do this 4 times total or 8 sprints. About halfway into our first lap, I decided we needed something to hold us accountable so I decided to make it a beat the Q challenge with 5 burpees per pax I beat on the line. Wrigley apparently took issue with me changing the rules mid run…too bad, its for your own good. I ended up beating 1 pax, while on the heels of two more by cheating sprinting the entire last lap in an attempt to catch up. This made them sprint as well and we all were out of breath at the end. I’m pretty sure Wrigley was looking for a rock to throw at me when I said we had 5 aussie burpees to complete. I then made each of us do two more to take the 4th pax burpees while we waited on him to join us.
Mosey to Rock Pile. 2.4 miles at that point and still slightly over 800 reps. Only 15 minutes to go. I knew we would do Rock work, but I had to figure out some way to get some running in. I had pax grab rocks while I was still working on that running part. Ok…..100 reps each of curls, overhead press, and tricep extension. When you stop or need a break, you must run to the shed and back (about .2 miles). 40 reps into my curls I saw the other pax were smarter than me. Instead of taking a break between exercises and going for a run as I had planned, they were switching right into the other exercises without a break. So instead of doing 40 curls and then running, they were doing 30 curls into 30 overhead presses, into 30 tricep extensions (slick bastards). Nope, that ain’t gonna work. We need more miles to hit 3. Added a new rule….you can only do one exercise at a time. When you get tired, rock has to go down and you go run…you can’t switch and no taking breaks…you have to go run. Wrigley took issue with me changing the rules again (and made sure to let me know it). This meant more running, and more pushing through the lactic acid burn to avoid extra running. We finished all 300 reps (to get us to 1100) and my watch had me at 3.4 miles. Short mosey back to COT. With a minute left we did LBC’s to bank some extra reps just incase my counting was off. Time. I proudly announce our 1100 reps and 3.4 miles only to be met by two pax who’s fancy watches say we only got in 2.89 miles. Well guess what, lets go run boys. Another lap around the parking lot got us back to COT about 1 minute past and over 3 miles for them and over 3.5 for me. (Either my watch is inaccurate or I ran more than Atlas and Posse – which I highly doubt).
MOLE SKIN
- Thanks to those that showed up today. Smaller groups allow a bit more mumble chatter and there was plenty of it today. From Posse once again questioning several parts of the Q to Wrigley threatening me due to my rule changes to Atlas…well Atlas didn’t really say much other than to call me a sadistic SOB.
- I’m pretty sure I’m on Wrigley’s sh!t list now. Sorry bud. IPC week 2 gave him some shoulder issues (as I suspected it would for some – I had feared possibly me) and today’s upper body workout didn’t help. He’s also not a fan of the rules being changed to make the workout more challenging halfway through. He apparently also had issue with my SSH rep count. All in all I did a pretty good job of pissing him off today.
- Posse continued to work hard and be the safety accountability person (and rep accountability person). Headlamp and lit vest wore throughout the workout. Good push today.
- I’ve gotten to know Atlas through our daughters playing softball together so I wanted to make sure today was hard enough for when I saw him again he would say good job (or your an asshole which I also take as a complement).
- For those that did the IPC today, I hope you didn’t get hurt. It looked like a workout that would lend itself to some hurt shoulders or pulled pec muscles. I really hope I’m wrong.
- Quick shout out to Carb Load for getting the Waxhaw Softball fields playable for today’s games. Great HIM leading by example on a Friday night. Awesome job.
- According to the calendar I’m leading Flash on Monday. I didn’t realize that until this morning. The calendar also says Chatterbox has his VQ at Asylum so I would like to take this time to ask the regulars of Flash to actually skip Flash and to attend Chatter Box’s VQ (Sorry Flash site Q’s). Chatter has put forth an incredible amount of work in a short period of time. He has stepped out at Q source and revealed some vulnerabilities about his personal life and his struggle to meet friends here in Waxhaw. Please go support him Monday at 5:15 at Brooklyn Pizza. If you have time, stay for Q source. If you stay for flash I will make sure it will suck (take that as it will be really hard if you hate hard or be really easy if you hate easy).
Your boy Chub really came through last night…
9 men posted for a Kevlar workout and the quote in the title. After the quote we did a quick disclaimer and headed out.
Down to church lot for standard COT type things.
Run over to backroad. First light 1 burpee, 2nd light 2x double merkin burpees, 3rd light 3x triple merkin burpees, …. 5th light 5x quintuple merkin burpees. Jog it out to the end.
Go back with jump squats at each light. Add a jump squat at each light.
Back down road with 1, 2, 3, 4 then 5 Get-Ups or Deck Squats at the first 5 lights then jog it out.
Mosey to hotbox for Lil Hazes, Derkins, and dips.
Mosey to hill across the street. Triple Nickel with burpees and Mike Tysons.
Head back to launch for quick Mary and done.
Moleskine:
Early on the short jokes started with Tiger Rag and his irritated groin stating that I resembled a marauding, sex fiend, dwarf on Game of Thrones. I’d suggest that’s half true.
Horsehead peeled out on the Triple Nickel. He said he had an errand to run. Not sure if that was code for taking a dump, but TR said he had to pick up biscuits.
Orange Whip was out in front all morning even if he was complaining about the Merkins.
Big League Chew was disappointed that Triple Nickel was 5 rounds. He’s lobbying for it to be 3.
Thanks to Orange Whip on the takeout.
-Alf
Announcements – Sign up for Blood Drive and Makeshift Marathon, Half Marathon, and 10K.
Diesel Backblast
Warm Up
25 SSH IC, 25 toe taps, 25 SSH IC,25 toe taps, 25 MC’s IC, 25 Moroccan Nightclubs IC, 25 MC’s IC, 15 Moroccan Nightclubs. Stretching
The Thang
50 Curls in Cadence
50 Coupon Swings in Cadence
25 Coupon Squats in Cadence
15 Merkins on Coupon
25 Coupon Squats in Cadence
15 Merkins on Coupon
Rifle Carry Coupon to Pit of Misery. On your own, 20 Derkins, 20 Step Ups, 20 Dips. 2X.
Rifle Carry Coupon back to COT.
15 Blockees
50 LBC’s in Cadence
15 Blockees
50 LBC’s in Cadence
Rifle Carry Coupon 50 yards, 25 Squats with Coupons, repeat 4X’s
Back to COT
25 Alpo’s, 2X, 15 Military Presses, 2X’s, Bunch of Flutters and Heels to heaven thrown in between.
Moleskin
Good work by all.
Announcements:
Sign up for the blood drive, only 25 guys, last time we had 75. Sign up or I’ll be reading aloud a list of Pax who have not signed up at every COT moving forward. Also, by signing up, Turbuckle has to walk a ton of miles and do other csaup activities.
Prayers for Fusebox’s Dad today
Prayers for Mayhem’s friend
See Posse and Turnbuckle for Sunday stalking walking activities
Thursdays – Christ Closet folding party and distribution – see Group me for details
Thankful 36’s
Thankful 36’s
As it seems to happen every year when approaching another birthday, it inherently becomes a time of reflection on the past year: the wins, the losses, the growth, or sometimes lack thereof. When YHC began thinking about this morning’s Q, the time of reflection took over the focus from a planning session for a workout. 2020 has no doubt been a hell of a strange year, and for YHC’s family, this year has shined a spotlight on just how much our life has changed over the last few years.
Five years ago today, YHC was catering a weekend long bachelor party (I used to cook BBQ for a living believe it or not) and had igniter fail in my cooker and took a stout propane explosion right to the face. That marked the beginning of the end of a three-year run trying to get a company off the ground my wife and I had poured everything we had into…literally everything. We put all our eggs, and a lot of other people’s eggs into one basket, the company born as the result of our wedding favors (another story for another day). Our company started struggling financially, and when it crashed, it took everything we owned with it. Then I burned my face off. The next week we had both my truck and my wife’s van repossessed. By the end of the year, our company had sunk, and it took everything we owned to Davy Jones’ Locker.
There are two good things I’ve learned about being at rock bottom:
- It is a hell of a strong foundation from which to build
- There is no where to go but up
So what does this have to do with a Q for The Brave on a Friday morning you might ask?
For YHC, this morning’s Q was a reminder of the power of F3 and the men who it is comprised of. My involvement in F3 is approaching 2 consistent years, and the impact it has made on mine, and thus my family’s life is worth reflecting on. Looking at where I was physically, mentally, spiritually when I re-discovered F3 in October of 2018 is not where I am today. We were still feeling the residual effects that tend to linger long after the explosion of failed venture, and I can honestly say I probably was not in the best head space – definitely not in the best physical shape. Enter the High Impact Men of F3: you have the option to accelerate or quit coming. The speed at which I chase you fools around SCLT has not improved much, but then again, it is not a race against everyone else. It becomes a race against yourself. You get out what you put in. I am thankful for the leadership, the banter, and the community this group of men has given me. Days like today put the many blessings of my life into perspective as we comfortably now celebrate another birthday. So, for everyone who has talked shit, circled back to pick me up on long run, pushed me to the point of throwing up, THANK YOU.
In honor of YHC’s 36th trip around the sun, I dedicated this workout to Thankful 36’s:
WARM-UP
Right at 5:30 I was on the verge of a disclaimer (that I now realize I never properly delivered), Soft Pretzel came in on 2 wheels just in time to justify waiting around for him. Light mosey past AAA and circled up in the office parking lot.
-15 SSH
-15 Imperial Walkers
-5 LSS (figured we would be doing enough of these in the workout)
Active warm-up as we threw in some high-knees and butt kicks as we made our way across Community house behind Cabo Fish Taco to the Wells Building
THE THANG
Starting in front of the Wells building behind the parking desk, we pushed hard up parking lot road in front of the 4 Ballantyne buildings stopping at each of the 6 crosswalks/speed bumps for 6 squats. Plank at the top to wait for the 6, giving the pax a dose of one more thing Taco Stand is thankful for on this birthday. Inquired to fellow Pax to join in. At the top of the entrance to the sidewalk leading behind the buildings, we would start a series of 6 reps to then be completed in at each building and also at the end of the sidewalk, equaling to a total of 36 reps.
Lap 1: Derkins
Lap 2: Step-ups
Lap 3: Big Boy Sit-ups
Lap 4: Burpees (ladder down counting from 6 down to 1)
Upon completion of the 4th Lap, we made our way to the parking deck for a 3 sets of incline sprints. Gruden’s college legs made an appearance and smoked us on the 3rd and final sprint.
Mosey back to launch where I’m going to claim we hit the 4 mile minimum off fellow pax device. Wild Tukey, Kirby and others all clocked 4+ miles while YHC only hit 3.9. It’s my birthday, I’m going of their watches today.
Moleskin: Honored to lead today’s workout. It has taken a few years to get comfortable being able to verbalize my past life and thankful for this group of men with whom I can be raw and honest with. It’s not the easiest thing to find a group such as F3. Pax pushed hard this morning. Solid showing by all. Sweetwater and Soft Pretzel absolutely crushed it this morning. Teddy claims he’s had surgery in the last few weeks, but I’m calling bullshit based on how quickly he’s been moving the last couple workouts. Gruden looked bright-eyed despite taking the reins of the 4:00am feeding. Wild turkey and Kirby are consistently accelerating.
In closing – my boss happened to send out some words found in an old journal of his father’s and have become a great message to hold close. YHC is committing to these words daily as I navigate through this next year.
THE OPTIMIST
Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come to life
To think only of the best, to work for only the best, and to expect only the best
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble
3 Men vs a girl — who will win?!
YHC is a huge fan of old school stuff — but not the movie, hasn’t seen it. Little Debbie, sausage-and-egg biscuits, old school wrestling (or wrasslin’) and old school, big-group workouts. For the last one, YHC has often seen backblasts where the PAX count was 2-4, but he started out with the big Dromedary and Cuthbertson workouts of 20-30 PAX and has often been leery of any turnout fewer than 10.
With the high potential for rain and storms, YHC knew today might be one of those days. He rolled into Rea View about 5:15 (or so he claims) and sat in an empty parking lot watching the rain from Hurricane Sally dot the windshield. About 5:27 headlights shine down the road, and a minute later there’s another pair. Neither was the Q, but there was a quorum.
Some of the best wrestling of the 1980s were the 6-man tag team matches. The Fabulous Freebirds, the Von Erichs, Road Warriors and Dusty Rhodes. This mighty trio teamed up in the gloom for a 3-on-1 match versus Sally.
The PAX quickly decided to split the Q and make the most of the morning.
THE THANG
Das Boot with the warm-o-rama
Midriff offered up some rock work with running
Chopper took the leg work with lunges, squats then running.
Midriff tagged back in for some merkins and forward-then-backward running
Das Boot came back into the squared circle for some Mary to finish it up.
MOLESKINE
Just as opponents trembled when Hawk, Animal and The American Dream strolled into the ring, Sally ran with her tail between her legs. For 45 minutes, it barely rained and the time flew. The workout was a solid one and no one melted from the little precipitation that fell.
More than that, though, YHC has heard many times lately the refrains of “more than a workout” and accountability. YHC may have been looking forward to a nap in the car with the falling rain or not being out and running around on the wet pavement solo. But Chopper and Midriff showed up and held him in accountable and again proved that you might be out there for others, not just for yourself. Who do you need to be present for in the near future?
(YHC is also grateful that the Road Warriors from Mecklenburg County didn’t go full Legion of Doom on him and gouge his eye with a spike.)
