Complacency leads to failure
YHC has been doing F3 for a long time (don’t ask how long) and learned a lesson this morning in becoming complacent. The Q is supposed be prepared, give concise directions to entire pax and make sure they understand. YHC allowed complacency to creep up that hopefully will not jeopardize our ability to work out at Calgary.
A Q should be prepared for all possible outcomes and plan accordingly. Cars driving thru a dark parking lot at 5:45 is one of those potential outcomes. As such, the Q should make sure the PAX understands that this might happen and give directions to avoid an incident. YHC briefly instructed PAX, all of whom likely were not even within ear shot distance, to place rocks off the road when not in use. As a result, a few rocks were placed in a parking spot and in a lane. Next thing we know, a car drives over one or two of said rocks and thus Lorax will be called to the principal’s office (well, preacher).
Lesson is that YHC needs to remember that planning and clear directions are necessary no matter how long one has Q’d. This one is on me and I hope others will learn from my mistake.
The Thang – 15 men gathered not withstanding the pending rain – even Spackler didn’t refusnik this one.
Warm up with 10 8 count burpees, 10 mtn climbers, 10 merkins, and 10 peter parkers.
Mosey over to middle parking lot for four corners with sprint to each corner and 10 of called exercise at each corner.
- Squats
- Merkins
- LBC’s
- Imperial walkers
- Flutter kicks
- Burpees (5 each corner)
Mosey to rock pile and grab a mid size rock. This was the point at which the Q should have made sure all PAX were listening clearly and acknowledged the instructions. Lunge walk with push press down to 2nd island. Sprint to 2nd light post and back. Walk to middle aisle and perform skull crushers with your rock. Sprint to 2nd basketball goal and back. Lunge walk with push press to next island and sprint to 2nd basketball goal and back. Walk to next island while doing curls and then bear crawl to first light and sprint to 2nd light and back. Walk to pavilion while doing curls.
Modified Jacobs ladder with burpees at top and squats with rock presses at the bottom. 1 to 7 (7 trips up and down) . Six minutes of mary at the end to let the heart rate come down a tad.
Carry rock back to pile with curls and lunge walks on the way. Finish with 20 sumo squats.
Run back to starting point and finish with some more mary and 1 minute of burpees.
NM
I’m still pissed that I didn’t give better instructions. Don’t let this happen to you.
Margo is now up for rename. He tried to poke the bear with a tweet about how easy the workout would be and then didn’t get his lame ass out of bed. I think Fartsack is a good new name for him – that’s what I will call him regardless.
Strong work although the respects were out front for the most part. Young guys need more pride (and learn to get a jump start like YHC). Call Snooka or Magoo if you need some help keeping your wife/girl friend satisfied.
Announcement
Coat drive ends early tomorrow (delivery at 9am) so contact me for any last minute deliveries.
Humbled to lead such a great group and learned from my failure this am
Bring your slightly worn coats to a workout
We are collecting used coats/jackets for West Blvd Ministry’s coat drive with delivery on 11/2 (men’s, women’s, and kids). Several guys helping collect (Hops, Mermaid, Lorax) or contact me at pchepul@gmail.com for pick up.
We have several more weeks so let’s amp up the chatter and knock it out. Shoe is in the lead with 6 (3 delivered and 3 on back-order) and I can tell you it will not be pretty if he wins the most coats delivered competition (for which the winner will get a 6 pack of beer) so help a brother out.
Where is the Accountability
YHC is going to hold the PAX accountable for not holding YHC accountable. After jumping on the Horsehead band wagon about writing timely BB’s, YHC has delayed 3 days to write the Centurion BB. Yet I have not received one ounce of criticism (heck – I didn’t even send out a tweet about being late and that’s easy). The little things matter and we all need to hold each other accountable to do what the job requires. Being Q means you write a BB. We are all fallible and need to hold each other accountable on all things – big and small.
The Thang:
Quick COT with SSH, Merkins, Mt Climbers, Parker Petters and Squats
Jog up to shopping center for a ladder with odds on 2nd level being burpees and even’s on bottom being squat jumps (24 burpees and 30 squat jumps – Q got the order right)
Jog over to Palantine hill and modifying due to construction at the office building (poor recon). Partner up for another ladder with burpees on top of hill and partner hand slap merkins after jogging in opposite directions to opposite side of parking lot. Three rounds (9 burpees and 12 hand slap merkins). Mary while we waited on the six.
Jog back to school for two sets of balls to the wall walk, bear crawl and lunges. Over to brick benches for 10, 15, 10 dips, incline merkins, and step ups.
Over to back side of football field for a suicide run down and back to the three speed bumps. Back to lot for a few minutes of COP.
NM – Small but highly effective group out this am. We mixed up just for Margo and he failed to show. Hops “recruited” Dreyfuss to Centurion and then failed to show. Would have been nice to get pax count to 10 so it’s on those two that we fell short.
Pretty sure that’s the first workout in a long time (probably ever) where neither Champagne nor Mermaid criticized my form. Must be improving in my old age (or not cheating as much).
Announcements – Collecting coats for Westside Ministry on November 2. Please help me gather at different AO’s. Dreyfus moved down from Ohio and indicated he had a trailer full so it was a good start.
Please consider helping out on Saturday with various third F opportunities in West Charlotte, Revolution at 7 at Revolution Park, workout at Men’s Shelter at 9 and Revolution 2.0 at Stratford YMCA at 11. Lot’s of men and teens in our community that could use our encouragement and guidance.
Strong take out by Lorax.
First time for everything – thank goodness
PAX – Chelms (WD), One Eye, Mr Brady (R), Brady Bunch, Chalet, About Time, Heart Breaker, Pop Tart, Crawfish
Mr Brady made thru the workout and COT with his wife beater still on and the rest of the PAX were pleasantly surprised (several were facing the other way in COT until YHC noted it was safe to look). I guess the cool wet grass down on the lacrosse field kept the temperature low enough. It would have been nice to have a pool instead of the field as carrying rocks under water would have been much easier. Between the humidity and the rocks, YHC got my monies worth but the Hate’s may have been looking for more.
The Thang:
COP – SSH, Mtn Climbers, Merkins, Squats, 5 burpees
Mosey across the street and head down to Carmel Middle – stopping at each speed bump for 5 burpees. Plank at school waiting for the six and then run around to back of school – passing Gladiator crew setting up (why would a man ever pay to workout at 5:30).
COP – Merkins, Diamonds, CDD, Boone (L and R)
Grab a rock and find a partner (don’t grab a partner and find a rock like One Eye tried to do – never ends well). Head over to Lacross field where we alternated sprints down the field and called exercise at the line. We did curls, push presses, squats, merkins, dolly, flutter, etc. etc and we ran full field sprints, karaoke, rock carries, bear crawls, and backward runs (YHC was smoked after this set).
Mosey over to behind the school after dropping of coupon for a minute or so of wall sit and then over to benches in front of school for dips and incline merkins – rinse and repeat.
Run back to launch point with 5 burpees at each speed bump (One Eye and Mr Brady were Refusniks at this point but YHC dutifully performed what I called even if my form was, well, typical).
COP – with LBC (One Eye) and heels to heaven (Mr Brady) before finishing the last 1 1/2 minutes with burpees (longest 1 1/2 of the morning by far).
NM – Great group as teams larger than 12 are hard to lead and even harder to remember everyone’s name. I like to force myself to recall names instead of using a phone as it forces me to go around and meet the guys I don’t know (Brady Bunch, Heart Breaker, Crawfish this am).
Can someone tell me the secret sauce to the gladiator camp? Do they give out free stuff with your fee or have an awesome DJ to keep the tunes rolling? Strippers? Happy Hour at 6:16am (I might go for that)? Just don’t get why a man would pay someone for an orchestrated workout when he can experience a complete cluster of a workout that I lead. Probably better marketing
Announcements – I urge men to look around and see a problem in our society they can attack. If you look at the health and skills of our teens you can see they lack a lot. We can always use more help with teen engagement, especially from guys who have a practical skill like wood working, engine repair, carpentry, cooking or anything of real value (no lawyers, financial consultants, or salesmen need apply – just kidding).
One Eye took us out – thanks for praying for our kids as they go back to school. May they find their purpose much earlier in life than YHC did. As an addition, let’s continue to pray for About Time’s 2.0. He doing great but has a ways to go before the chance of recurrence goes away.
The Count is 100 (thankfully we had Ti81 calculator with us)
A few days ago I lost my weapon of Math instruction… my trusty pocket calculator.
Ten men did the right thing and took the DRP to Get Right on Friday. It was a good day starting with a grand entrance by Blueberry Mint and ending with debate on whether it was better to see boobs on a slide ruler or a Ti81. After a thorough disclaimer by YHC, we got after it
The Thang:
COP with SSH x4 (Purple Haze refusnik caused me to shut it down quickly), Mtn Climbers X14, Squats X11, Appollo Ono’s X10, and Merkins X10 with a few burpees thrown in for good measure.
Grab 2 pavers and take off on Centurion mile (up to Carmel, right to 51, back down to school, and up short ramps to level 4). Merkins until the 6 gets in and does 20 Merkins.
With pavers, run down to level 1, up the long ramp to level 3, down to other end, up short ramp to level 4. Wall sits with push presses waiting on the six.
Without pavers, down to level 1 and then take short ramps back up to level 4. Plank while we wait on the six.
6MOM while holding pavers behind your head – flutter, dolly, box cutters, and LBC’s
Mosey down to level 1 for ramp sprints up to level 3 and mosey back to 1. Goal is to elevate heart rate on sprint up and then recover (walk or slow mosey) on the way down. We ran it 3 times (not 100 as I threatened).
Mosey out to fence around football field. Four corners sans pavers with 10 dragon kicks at first corner, 10 pull ups at 2nd, 10 merkins at 3rd and 10 burpees at 4th.
With pavers, run around football field and back to the parking lot to finish with a few minutes of Mary
NM
Exciting start as Brilleuax was on time and Blueberry Mint (ie vape flavor) comes rolling in on an powered scooter. Purple Haze knew what was coming and he posted anyway. I use the pavers in attempt to slow the rabbits down but it didn’t work as they still beat me on the 1 mile run. The pavers make the run both mentally and physically challenging.
Several times I encouraged the PAX to expect the count to be 100. I got 9 blank stares each time I said this so had to explain in COT why I was saying it. The idea is that you should always expect the count to be 100 so you push hard until the Q calls halt instead of trying to anticipate the count and slacking off early.
Mistakenly thought PH was criticizing my form on one exercise (no one ever does that) but it was actually a self critique.
Long discussion on the evolution of calculators from counting on 10 fingers to abacus, to slide rule, and then eventually Ti81 Inspire (Why didn’t the PAX include Inspire when they named him Ti81). As usual, Prohibition added thought provoking dialogue by noting he figured out how to spell “boob” on his calculator in high school (or was that last week at work?).
Good mix of young and old out this week from several Hate Hates to WD Snooka.
Announcements:
YHC recommended the PAX read the Q Source (
https://f3nation.com/q-source-index/ ) as it is great source of information for personal development. The four quadrants are Get Right, Live Right, Lead Right, and Leave Right. Very practical with good examples and thought provoking discussion.
Revolution and Revolution 2.0 on Saturday morning are great opportunities for 3rd F. Revolution 2.0 is at 11am on Saturday at Stratford YMCA on West Blvd and information on Revolution is at 7am at Revolution Park
Thanks to Margo for taking us out
“Area 51 workouts are much harder than SOB” – Anonymous
This AO is by far the hardest workout of any Wednesday site in F3 nation” – Site Q
The Site Q needs to fix the darn stop light at the intersection so PAX don’t arrive late
Chelms upon arriving 1 minute early – which is 4 minutes late in my book
It was a tense beginning with Purple Haze visibly anxious that he was going to have to take the Q but relieved when YHC drove up at 5:29. The rest of the PAX were not so sure. YHC is old but that means I’m more ornery in the early morning.
The Thang:
Mosey to middle of parking lot for COP (all in cadence to 10) – SSH, Mtn Climbers, Merkins, Parker Peters (confused some PAX), and slow squats.
Five hard backward runs down the lot with recovery pace back to start line.
Grab a lifting rock for some suicide ladders. 5, 10, 15, 20 of called exercises between starting point and lines on the lot (carry rock only to first line on first two rounds)
- Round 1 – Curls and merkins
- Round 2 – Squats and CDD
- Round 3 – (carry rock each time but only to first line) Sit ups and push presses
- Round 4 – Lunge walks between two signs with push presses in between and after first and second trip down
Drop off rocks and jog down to other end of campus for six minutes of mary with dolly, rosalita, flutters, and LBC
Over to hot box for three sets of dips, decline merkins, and step ups (5, 10, 15)
Back to parking lot for 6 circuits of karaoke (hard down and recovery back). Then some bear crawl, broad jumps, crab walks, and lunges before heading back to cars. Finished up last few minutes with flutters and LBC
Naked Moleskin:
The anonymous source for the title of the BB is someone that likes to play tag and also just wants everyone to get along. YHC takes it as a compliment and also had to include it so I could gas light the SOB crowd. I’ll now be known in SOB land as Chelms aka Tater Tot aka They Hate Me. Lorax immediately jumped in to support this claim with proof, per him, being that Anvil is the hardest Wednesday workout.
Lorax needs a contact at DOT to get the lights fixed. Other than Hops, the rest of us follow stop light rules and don’t run red lights. Speculation is that Brilleaux hacked into the system so he would have an excuse every week for being late (he says I left early today and his protest has been registered with the F3 Area 51 rules committee)
Purple Haze was heard grumbling early on since we didn’t start immediately with COP but he got over it. He even listened to my directions once (first time ever). Based on his suggestion, a one armed plank with weight on right hand is now done with left arm down since only right should be held up in the air (#MAGA)
I learned this am that they found He Hate Me after he had gone missing. Per Lorax, he was found somewhere in SC with some derogatory remark that PH was not able to reply too. Of course, it’s hard to reply to a derogatory remark about S.C. because, well, it’s SC.
YHC heard a few PAX silently ask for reminder as to what a Parker Peter is. I’ll have to admit I meant to call Peter Parker but Parker Peter is a real exercise.
The Respects were in full force this morning with 4 of the 10 over 50. Strong work but I still content that Snooka could not pass a drug test if he had too.
Announcements:
Pool party hosted by our anonymous source that likes playing tag after the Crane Relays. $10 if you are in SOB land but free if you live in Area 51 because we’re better and they just want us to show up to make the party cool and fun.
Please consider posting one Saturday morning at 11am for teen workout at the Stratford Robinson YMCA on West Blvd. – 2.0 friendly
Snowflake took us out in prayer – AYE
Get me off this F’n Roller Coaster
6 PAX posted for a Roller Coaster ride at Horsey (The Mouth may have barfed before the train pulled into the parking lot at 6:15 while YHC was fine since I ran on a virtually empty stomach – seasoned veteran).
The Thang – Run down to bottom of Blue Ridge for instructions. Route is up to Mountain View and take a right, wind around to Wilby and take all the way down to Sardis. Turnaround to head back up Wilby and then veer right onto Mountain View before taking right back down Blue Ridge. We then continued this loop but adding hill repeats on the three steep hills with 2 rounds the 2nd time and 3 rounds the third time. Run as hard as you can up the hill and then mosey/walk back down to get heart rate back down. The third time around was awful and only Sea World and Full House wanted to continue riding the coaster past 6:00am. The other four did some recovery exercises at the flag pole until the two over achievers made it back before a resounding Pledge of Allegiance at 6:10. We then sprinted/limped/Ubered back to the parking lot for COT. Mileage was in the 5 to 6.5 mile range is my guess (YHC was on the low end of the range)
NM – The guy who stated “Everyone likes a roller coaster” has never posted to Horsey (much like most of F3 Area 51 and Metro this year). This roller coaster not only can make you hurl but also causes dizziness, shortness or complete lack of breath, black-outs, insulting of friendly guys next to you and general hate for early morning. But otherwise, it’s great.
Don’t know if good or bad but I think Chester may have been kicked out of the nest by his parents. Have yet to see anyone outside in their bath robe smoking cigarettes but the dad continues to leave at 5:30. This may be why Prohibition stopped posting #bromance.
Mr. Belding didn’t realize what he was getting into (I gave him a kick ass sales pitch as follows: Me – “You want to run some hills in the am” Mr B – “Sure” Me – “Great – pick you up at 5) but he did come to recognize the value of a good Horsey workout. He even offered me free fire wood when I dropped him off.
I’d say there were not 6 men in F3 nation that got in a harder workout this am. Hill repeats after 4 miles of running are no joke. The few minutes of Mary/plank work at 6:05 were pure bliss compared to running the hills.
Egypt has the Q next week and I’ve been told it involves whips and chains. Luckily, I”ll be DR in Wilmington next week.
No Rain but Plenty of Pain
Nine men didn’t have to bring out the rain slickers as the weather was quite nice even if a little humid. YHC decided to make the morning uncomfortable even if we stayed dry. But first, a few quotes to think about:
One Man with conviction will overwhelm 100 men who have only opinions
Winston Churchill
The last thing I want to do is hurt you…. but it is on my list
Runstopper on set of 11 burpees
A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall
Frank Leahy – Notre Dame
The thang:
COP – with burpee ladder up to 6 with a called exercise in between each set. We did SSH’s, IW’s, Slow Squats, Jumping Lunges, Rosalita, and Merkins
Mosey across 51 for COP in front of Amalies – knee ups and then continue burpee ladder with 7.
Mosey over to base of Palentine for Bermuda Triangle set. Up to top of Palentine for 1 burpee, run down lane and around building for 10 decline merkins, then down to road for 10 jump squats and back to start. Increase burpee count by 1 each time and we finished 4 laps. A few minutes of mary waiting on the six. Two rounds up Palentine to continue our ladder with 8 and then 9 burpees
Mosey back to the school parking deck for some gasers. Sprint as fast as you can from level 1 to level 3 up the ramp and then walk/mosey back down for recovery. 4 sprints and then plank for six
Two sets of Dips in cadence and then back to parking lot for last few minutes. We continued up the burpee ladder with 10 and 11 and then back to 1 with called exercise in between.
NM
We finished with 77 burpees for the morning and a surprising lack of moaning about how many we did. Next time I’ll call for a set of 77 burpees at once.
Ranger is heading to Fort Knox soon for training so praying for him
Runstopper was actually early today – first time that has happened as far as I know.
Clover keeps forgetting that Dook gear is not allowed on the campus. Penalty will be metted out next offense.
The Respects almost out numbered the non-respects as we had 4. Plus, Snooka was out front most of the morning with RS (almost Respect) right with him. I’d say the young guys need to step up their game – it was close to embarrassing (and would have been if Checkpoint had posted).
No announcements other than Runstopper reminding us to sign up for the Christmas Party (he doesn’t know it but that joke just got him nominated as the Chairman of the party).
The South (led by a Yankee) Rises Again
Wegmans, who is from up north, brought 5 rebels up from Fort Mill for a guest appearance at Centurion. Wegmans wrote the following:
Let’s call this a mini Peruvian Reunion. YHC was joined by Chicken, Chelms, and TML at Charlotte Catholic. The Fort brought a couple of cars up and all in all, there were 28 of us.
Next we took a short mosey to the parking deck for the warmup because the burpees just couldn’t take the chill off. Don’t remember exactly what all the exercises were but I do know that we can thank CSPAN for the idea of calling flutter kicks repeatedly. I believe I heard someone say, doesn’t he know any other exercises?
I did take some inspiration from a few other PAX when designing my Weinke. Started off with 20 Burpees OYO (Slaughter Starter).
After the PAX were properly warmed up we ran backwards up the inclines of the parking deck, 5 squats, lunge walked the flat part and increased our squats by 5 as we got to the top. Now this deck was longer than I anticipated but once something is written in, it stays there. After a short victory lap around the football field we found a nice spot to do sprints. And more sprints. And eventually we circled back around for more at the end. We also did some bear crawls, and more lunge walks. Ran to the top of the deck by way of the stairs for some ab work. Came back down for a few more sprints and then COT.
Appreciate the opportunity from South Charlotte/Area 51 to Q in their neck of the woods. Just gotta bring some of you down to the lower MacDougal.
Wegmans
Funny Book Keeping
Commish was either trying to pull a fast one or is a brilliant book keeper. We had the normal 8 or 9 regulars plus 10 or so Rebel Yell men who joined us for a “convergence”. I thought workouts only converged on special occasions but apparently Commish found a loop hole in the rules and ran right thru them like Hershel Walker running thru the Auburn defense (had to take that shot since War Eagle’s “football” school just beat my Heels in basketball – what is the world coming too). However, YHC was happy as it allows me to claim Q’ing the largest PAX in TFH history (as far as I know) and, even more important, being able to claim that I Q’d a larger number than when OBT visited #Royalty.
The Thang – PAX knows what we did but the cliff notes are warm up with a bunch of burpees and other exercises. Mosey over to aquatic center lot for some “I go, you go” work alternating between called movement up the lot and called exercise (merkins, LBC, etc). Mosey over to rock pile by practice field for more “I go, you go” alternating the rock to do curls, push presses, and flutters while partner holds a squat (and a few let loose during said squat). Next mosey to parking deck for more “I go, you go” with partner 1 doing called exercise while partner 2 runs up stairs to level 4 and back down (we did dragon flies, dolly, and 2 rounds of one legged squats). Mosey to brick yard for some dips and then back to launch site to finish our burpees and a few minutes of mary.
Naked MS
Great group out this am although I only remembered 17 out of 18 names due to the number of large number of guys visiting from Rebel Yell. I think using a smart phone to remember names is lazy and trying to remember names forces you to learn new guys names. I only missed one to not to bad – Shoe can’t even remember 17 of 18 with a smart phone.
Cobains to Tag Along since I told him we didn’t need gloves for bear crawls and then quickly proceeded to call out some ground work in the aquatic pool lot. At least I picked the smoothest paved lot in Charlotte (maybe all of NC).
The Rebel Yell pax helped to lower our average age today by like 20 years (I think Happy Meal still gets the kids menu when he goes out to eat). However, Olaf was usually out front even though he is of the appropriate age for TFH.
War Eagle is lucky I did not know his name before the workout or I would have cooked up some revenge for last Thursday night. I would pull for them this weekend except I picked Va to win in my pool and winning some dough is higher on my priority list.
There apparently was some decent mumble chatter based on the chuckles but I couldn’t hear so not sure what was going on. I think Old Cooter was using the Joe Biden method to convey his cat calls and was hugging nearby pax and whispering in their ear. I bet the DNC/National Media could take out a guy named Old Cooter in one episode of Rachel Maddow (#whowatchesthatcrap)
Announcements:
Please consider signing up for Church on the Streets, including this Sunday. Meet at the Star Bucks at Stonehenge at 5:45 for clown car or meet downtown around 6am under the 277 bridge that crosses over N Tyron. It’s a great experience and will make you appreciate your blessings even more than you already do.
Tolkein asking everyone to sign up for just one Speed For Need race this year. You can’t miss his advertising if you try a little.
Shoe asked that we pray for a young man at CCHS who has been diagnosed with cancer. He then led us in saying The Lord’s Prayer to close out.