Author Archive Fuse Box

A Backblast for F3 Dads?!

Sure, why not.  Lets create a little FOMO.  Lets spread the word.  Lets build some excitement.

10 pax showed up this morning at 9:00 am at Newtown Elementary for the weekly F3 Waxhaw Dad’s.  Its open to kids and their dads roughly age 4-14 but the prime ages are 5-12.

So what do we typically do at F3 Dad’s?  We’ve done obstacle courses, relay races, played soccer, treasure hunted, capture the flag, and water gun tag.  Sound fun?  Well it is.  My 2.0’s love it.  Its 45 min to an hour of them getting to do what Dad does every morning, build comradere with other kids, and see their Dad taking an interest in his and their fitness.

So what did we do today?  I’m glad you asked.

WARM UP

Funky Mosey.  (Whats a funky mosey?)  Well its where the Q runs randomly all over the place.  Grass, trees, left, right, change direction.  You name it.

Circle up in what little bit of shade New Town offers.  Handed the keys to the Q to the kids to let them decide what warm up exercises we did:

Little Biker Girl: 15 Side Straddle Hops

Spinnach: 10 Big Boy Sit Ups

The Great Bambino: 10 Dad Merkins (kids ride dad’s back while dad does push ups.  A kids favorite….Dads, not so much).

The Meg: 50 Merkins (yes you read that right).  I attempted to audible but the Meg was having none of it.  With a little help, he knocked out all 50.  Great job.  (The rest of us just watched after we did 10).

Cheddar: Toy Soldiers

Flat Foot: Butt Kickers (with a snicker from some of the 2.0’s)

Little Biker Girl: Kereoke Right

Little Biker Girl: Kereoke Left

 

THE THANG

Find the hill at the back of the school.  Section off into family groups.  As a family, you have to go up and down the hill 10 times (Up and Down is 1).  But the catch is that you could only go down and up the same way once.  So if you ran down the hill once, you couldn’t run back down the hill a second time, you had to be creative.  Some of the creative ways to traverse the hill were:

  • Dad carry you
  • walk hill backwards
  • Bunny Hop Hill
  • Bear Crawl
  • Dad Bear crawl with 2.0 on back.
  • Wheel Barrow
  • Slide
  • Flip
  • Roll
  • Moon walk
  • Shopping Cart Dance
  • Frog Hop.

 

Short Mosey to Track for a relay race.  Stay in Families.  One person at a time run across the field to the other side of the track.  Once entire family is there, one at a time run back.  We found some competitive juices in Olive Oil on this one.

Oh look, there’s a half deflated soccer ball in the middle of two goals.  Lets audible and play soccer…kids vs parents.   Kids won 1-0, but parents had two shots on goal with wide open misses from Olive Oil (shes fired).  I’m pretty sure she stiffed armed her youngest in order to get the open net shots.

Kids starting to complain about the heat.  So lets head towards the cars to take a water break.  Lunge walk up side walk.  Frog hop in each sidewalk square.  Mosey toward school stopping at the wall for 50 jabs and 25 presses.

WATER BREAK

Next was capture the flag water tag.  Bailey’s vs everyone else (Fuse & Drive By + 2.0’s).  There is a cone at each end of the parking lot along with a cooler full of soap water to use to refill (and kill corona germs).  Object is to shoot the other teams cone with water.  If they shoot you with water, you had the option to do one of these 4 things to be unfrozen: 5 Burpees, 10 Merkins, 10 Squats, or run back to your base.

Team Fuse & Drive by took an early lead employing a “goalie” and four attackers strategy. But the Bailey’s came storming back once they started implementing their diversion strategy.  Final score was 4-2 (I think?) good guys win.

Finish off with a quick game of dueling water guns.  Any one can challenge anyone to a dual.  Parents vs parents, kids vs kids, or kids vs parents.  Line up head to head in opposite parking spaces, on go, jump up and start shooting.  Lots of fun here. Too many good battles to recount, just know everyone was soaked afterwards and loving it.

Return to car for one final WATER BREAK, COT, Prayer, and DOUGHNUTS!  Oh, I didn’t go the easy route this week.  Oh no.  I passed two Dunkin’ Doughnuts on my way to the glory of all doughnut shops – Krispy Kreme.  2 Dozen original glazed and a dozen patriot doughnuts (highly recommend a box of patriots for your 4th of July celebration…they were awesome).   Lots of fun had by all.  If you haven’t tried F3 Dad’s and you have a 2.o aged 3-13, come give it a shot.  Its a great way to spend the Saturday morning with your kids.

 

Crazy 8’s

8 Watchtower’s and 6 Masher’s (including a Kotters welcome for Beltway), met in a parking lot to do weird stuff together.  After seeing a steady weight decline (and by steady I mean I lose 2-4 pounds during the week and gain 1-3 pounds over the weekend) over quarantine, my family decided they really liked the old me and fed me pizza for fathers day lunch, BBQ for dinner, and 3 helpings of peach cobbler and ice cream in between.  To say I felt sluggish during yesterday’s workout was an understatement…and the dreaded scale and FUPA measurement confirmed my suspicion, I was dangerously close to heading towards fat boy territory again.  The good news (or perhaps bad news if you were a Watchtower pax today) is that I could do something about it being on Q today…so with that…DICCS, lets go.

 

WARM UP

Fairly fast opening mosey pace towards the bus lot.  Turn around to find a much smaller group than we left out with (8 in total).

  • 20 Moroccan Night Clubs
  • 20 Back Scratchers (I think that was the name, maybe tick pullers????)  Arms out wide and attempt to scratch your opposite trap.  Try it, its not easy if you have been going to chiseled, diesel, or a mash workout.  (In my best Arnold voice) For the rest of you puny men, perhaps not so hard.
  • 15 dry docks
  • Calf Stretch
  • Jimmy Duggan

THE THANG

Mosey to neighborhood stopping once to let the 6 catch up.  While trying to figure out what to do I did a satellite view of the campus and found that the neighborhood streets make an “8”.  So I decided we would take advantage of the 8.  At each corner we will do a called exercise then run at a faster pace than a mosey to the next corner.  Mountain Climbers waiting on the 6.

  • First Intersection: 10 Ranger Merkins on my down  (Some guys got some extras in as they started merkins before I finished explaining what we were doing)
  • Second Intersection: 10 Diamond Merkins on my down
  • Third Intersection: 10 Wide Arm Merkins on my down (starting to get tired of counting)
  • Forth Intersection after that nasty hill: 5 T Delts and 1 Merkin up to 10 Merkins.  On Your Own (sorry posse – who wasn’t there to chastise me).
  • Fifth Intersection: 10 Superman Merkins
  • Sixth Intersection: 10 Ranger Merkins
  • Seventh Intersection (swap over to speed skaters waiting on the six since we have double back through the middle of the 8 and don’t want to cross contaminate sweat piles).  10 Mary Katherines (2 is 1).
  • 8th Intersection: 20 Jump Squats
  • 9th and final Intersection: 12 Berishnicoffs each leg.

Mosey to the cul-de-sac near the front entrance for a Triple Nickle.  10 Dry Docks at the top, Run, 10 Jump Squats at the bottom (first light post).  Do those three exercises 5 times for the triple nickle.  (Yes, we had a OG try to tell me I was doing a Triple dime – Come on Foundation….you know better!). A quick watch check and I get wide eyed to see I have much more time left than I thought.  Some days time moves so fast but today it just crawled.

Quick sprints back towards the school   First spring to front of neighborhood.  Second sprint to school bus entrance.  Third Sprint to School wall.  Smithers, Mad Dog, and Foundation all pushed hard here trying to beat each other.

On the wall waiting for the 6.

  • 50 Air Presses on my up.
  • 15 wall slaps in cadence (you welcome posse).
  • 15 over head claps in cadence.

Continuing our springs until time was up.   Sprint to other end of the school.  Lunge waiting on the 6.  Sprint each of the 4 corners of the parking lot again waiting on 6 before starting off to the next corner.  Reached final corner and hurried over to COT.  A few pax kept moving to get their even (odd) number of 3 miles in.  Finitto.

MOLESKIN

  • A little bit of mumble chatter about that one being an ass kicker.  It hurt me, but I figured it was just the cobbler talking.  I love hearing the complaints….that means it sucked…which means you got your money’s worth.
  • Happy to announce the weight is headed back in the right direction after this mornings workout….I may also be ready to pass out from Dehydration so I guess I better go take Goodfella’s advice and hydrate up after that sweat fest.  Sorry to the pax that had to endure today’s pain in order to get me back on track.
  • Foundation and Smithers have apparently dropped Deflated out of the threesome as they both pre-ran together this morning and were seen holding hands and skipping during the triple nickel.
  • Ackbar came about as close as I’ve ever seen him to cussing someone out today.  He shot some very angry looks my direction during the workout.  Sorry bud! (I’m kidding of course – I’m not sure that guys has had an angry thought ever….well except for when cars pass school buses)
  • Chainsaw was out there kicking ass and taking names as usual.  Great work from a double respect.
  • Mad Dog and Smithers constantly circling back for the 6.  Thanks guys!
  • Foundation doing what was actually called instead of circling (Mountain Climbers or Speed Skaters).  Thanks for sticking to what was called out and setting an example for us slower guys that were coming in later and forcing us unknowingly to fall in line.
  • Schneider out front most of the morning and chirping the entire time.
  • Popeye may slash my tires over night after that one.  Thanks for sticking with it. Lots of talk from him about vaginitis after the workout.  Looking forward to you poping a Viagra and busting ass at Chiseled tomorrow (wait, that came out wrong).
  • Great seeing Beltway out again (Kotters).  Mash unit continues to grow and get some guys out of the bed that would normally fart sack.  Great leadership by the Mashers to keep it going and growing.
  • Mentioned posse a few times in the BB without him actually being at the workout.  He was in my head during today’s workout as I reached out to him to see if he learned anything new from his Atlanta F3 workout and what feedback he had as it compared to Waxhaw.  One of the things he said is that they did a lot of On Your Own counting which apparently Posse hates.  So today, I decided I would not OYO as much as possible.  That lasted about 5 intersections in before I could hardly catch my breath long enough to lead a count.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • F3 Spartan this Saturday at Cuthbertson at 7:00 am.  Park near buses/Rudy’s Poop Palace (I think).  All other Saturday sites will be closed so converge on Spartan.
  • F3 Dads is this Saturday at Newtown Elementary at 9:00 am.  Bring a cardboard box for the kids to slide down a hill on and a water gun if you have one.
  • 100 for 100 Pax Challenge just over $8200.  In order to push us over the finish line, the 100 for 100 team are working on a raffle.  Lazy Boy (the pax, not the store) is donating a leather recliner to be auctioned off.  Second prize is a $100 amazon gift card donated by Nails (who knew he had extra $ to spend after all the recent tattoo work).  More details to be sent out by the 100 for 100 team.

 

“Is This Loud Enough?!!”

Via email from High Hat:

 

DICCS out got the fun started with I nice 1/2 mile Mosey to the entrance of 5 Stones then to the Warm-UP
Warm-up
25 SSH
25 Squats
25 Merkins
25 Big Boys
20 Mtn Climbers

Thing (2parts) Asked thte PAX to partner up and get married to a rock, both will be with you the entire AM.

Part1 Rock n Mosey
1 partner mosey to keep clock, other partner dances with Rock
Dance Moves
Curls
Tricep
Keetle Swings
Squats

Part2 Climb Mt Chilsed
1 partner Climbs Mt Chilsed w/Rock to keep clock, other partner dances with Rock
Dance Moves
Man Makers
Big Boy
Lunges
COT out
Annoucements
Saturday 6/27, 7am Spartan Course, come get some..
Out with Prayer, Please God give everyone compassion and understanding, THE WORLD NEEDS..
Always a Pleasure, God Bless..
Fuse Box additions:
  • No one can ever accuse High Hat of being quiet or not projecting.  I think both Champion Forest and Lawson heard his cadence counting in the opening warm up.
  • I had asked him a few times to come lead us at Chiseled and had always been met with a no.  Much to my surprise, when I saw he put himself our there to Q, I contacted him right away.
  • A great workout.  Thanks High Hat.

Double Tap (Asylum and Q Source BB)

Five, no six, no make that 7 guys came out to Asylum this beautiful morning.  While we launched with 5, we finished with 7.  I was doing some GroupMe marketing for my Q Source Q on Sunday afternoon when I received a text from Damascus saying he was in a pinch and needed a Q for Asylum; No Problem, I will perform my first two Q’s in a day (Deadwood is jealous now – I can hear phones already pinging at Floater and Clyent Dinner).

Hence forth to be referred to as double tap instead of double q (which has a much different meaning in zombie movies), here is back-to-back backblasts for Asylum and Q Source (You won’t run out of reading material on the john today).

Beautiful morning – DICCS given (More on that later in the Q Source BB).  Lets Go!  Wait on shop to get out of his car, ok now lets go!

WARM UP

Mosey to rock pile where I stole borrowed from both Nails and Smokey.  Rocks to warm up?  Why yes, yes indeed.

  • 40’s Curls.  10 regular, 10 bottom half, 10 top half, 10 regular.
  • Use rock for Jimmy Duggan Center, right, left.
  • 30 tricep extensions followed by 30 curb dips.
  • 30 Chest Press, Run 50 yards for 15 Merkins.  Repeat for three rounds (chest feeling extra tight after this one and a repeat from a recent Chiseled).

Rocks up and form a line for lunge walk Indian run.  Went approximately 50 yards before I called it and we mosey’ed to Pet Smart.

 

THE THANG

Progressive 4 5 Corners with Deconstructive Burpees.  Doing exercises on the out 1 round at a time and coming back to the start (burpees).

  • Corner 1: 5 Burpees
  • Corner 2: 10 Squats
  • Corner 3: 15 Merkins
  • Corner 4: 20 In/Outs
  • Corner 5: 25 Bobby Hurley’s

 

Grab shopping cart corral railing for Supine Ladders 10 to 1.  Finished with a 10 second hold.

(Check watch, 10 minutes left).  Lets go to Hickory Tavern like we always do and so something there to close out.  Lets line up on the curb of pet smart to repeat a previous Q.  Parking Space Suicides.  20 T Delts on the in and 5 Dry Docks on the out.  Shop Dawg with the obvious quote “Oh, is today shoulders day?”.

2 minutes left.  Jail Break to Hickory Tavern.  Then final Jailbreak to COT with Clydesdales getting a 5 second head start.  Burpees for everyone if a Gazelle beats a Clydesdale – and one did.  So we did 1 burpee as we already hit 6:45.

 

MOLESKIN

  • Posse trying out the broken toe for the first time today.  I expected to see him in the back of the pack but he beat me on a couple of the runs.  I still don’t understand how you don’t run for 6 weeks and then come right back out to push to the front like he did.  Mind over Matter I guess.
  • Shop Dawg still chugging along trying to prove a point.  We talked about it today in Q Source – you can’t give away what you don’t possess; and Shop has taken on a new attitude this year blazing past the Clydesdales into Gazelle territory in an effort to walk the walk.  Great job and leadership.
  • Blue Screen arrived 2 minutes late, but it took him 11 minutes to find us so he enjoyed a nice 32 minute workout today.
  • Loafer attempted to EH someone, but the times tripped him up and he couldn’t make it.  Plenty of more opportunities to get him out Loafer!  Hopefully he wont spill merlot like your son.
  • TB getting in his morning walk joined us afterwards for Q Source.
  • Swimmers left us all behind much of the morning with a short SOS call from home being the only thing to slow him down briefly.
  • To no one’s surprise, Damascus showed up at the wrong site to Mash and quickly high tailed it over to Cuthbertson only to return back to Brooklyn Pizza later for Q Source.  (Thanks for asking me to lead).

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Shop thanked everyone for all the help this weekend in getting shelving built for the new Christ Closet Building.
  • Prayers for Loafers Dad who is struggling with three huge health set backs.  A stroke last year.  Pneumonia this year which then caused him to contract COVID.  Prayers for him.

 

 

Q SOURCE BB

Thanks to those that attended.  Today we discussed Positive Habit Transfer, but before we jumped in, we finished on Shops homework from last week. Identifying your dolphin (unique gift or skill) and daffodil (the people are drawn to help) in order to help you better answer the question: What ultimate life problem are you uniquely qualified to solve?  That last question hit me like a load of bricks when I heard it last year at Q source.  Up until then I had dabbled in Q source.  Attending a couple times, but not a regular.  But when asked a life changing question that I couldn’t answer, I felt it was time to take Q source more seriously.  To attend more, listen deeper, get vulnerable, and ask questions.  To make it a positive habit that would eventually turn into a brick for me.  After assembling a few of these bricks together, now I’m developing a guardrail to keep me on the road and out of the ditch.  (If any of this sounds foreign, like another part of the secret F3 language you’ve never heard, and it interest you –  please join us.  Mondays at Brooklyn Pizza or Fridays at Cuthbertson.  There is a lot to be learned from F3 and like Bottle Cap said in his Saturday back blast, if all you are getting is the first F, you are missing out.  We have a free (virtuous) leadership course at our disposal that corporations would pay thousands of dollars for their employees to attend….again FOR FREE.)

And in case that wasn’t enough soap box for you, I will share this last thing.  We discussed today this passage: Through Positive Habit Transfer we stand on the shoulders of giants.  The example was given that a flight check list was developed to correct deadly mistakes other pilots had made.  That example didn’t resonate with me so I attempted to shift it to driving as an example: seat belts, turn signals, ect.  And much like Shop does at Q Source, he hit me with a sledge hammer out of left field when he took it even closer to home.  DICCS.  F3 has developed its pre-launch safety message because we have had brothers to die while working out.  We ask that at least one cell phone be carried with you at the workout so that if someone was to drop 2 miles from the cars, it wouldn’t take 15 minutes for someone to run get their phone and call for help.  We ask for head lamps, reflective gear, and caution while crossing the street because we have had a FIA member die while crossing in a crosswalk.   We often gloss over DICCS, who has a cell phone, who knows CPR, and other site safety elements; but remember we do it for a reason.  Positive Habit Transfer.  We stand on the shoulders of giants.

For those that made it this far, thank you.  I’m sorry if it was too much soap box.  I’ve tried to be better about limiting those moments.  Come join us at Q Source sometime.  And stay safe out there.

An Impromptu Impromptu

13 guys joined me today for a tour of Cutty (I’m trying to make that the cool way to say Cuthbertson, mostly because Cuthbertson trips me up 8 of 10 times and makes me feel like I’ve suddenly developed a lisp to go along with my poor spelling).  Ackbar reached out Wednesday to see if I would lead today.  Its not quite the shortest window I’ve been given to lead – that distinction goes to Glydah at a Chiseled workout where we decided to split the group 30 seconds before launch; but it is the second shortest.  Two days to get PREPARED (also the discussion today at Q Source), lets do this.  Disclaimer given and promised to keep pax out of each others sweat piles.  This lead to some foreshadowing from Mad Dog – “Oh great, I guess that means lots of mosey”

WARM UP (kinda)

Mosey to parking lot behind Rudy’s poop palace.  Jimmy Duggan when you arrive.  20 jump squats.

Mosey to traffic circle.  Calf stretch waiting on 6.

5 rounds of 5 different merkin exercises broken up by 20 mountain climbers in between:

  • 10 Diamond Merkins/20 Mountain Climbers
  • 10 Ranger Merkins/20 Mountain Climbers
  • 10 Wide Arm Merkins/20 Mountain Climbers
  • 10 T Merkins/20 Mountain Climbers
  • 10 Superman Merkins/20 Mountain climbers

Much respect to the guys that made it all the way through without going to their knees.  I’m still working to get there.

THE THANG

Grab some near by fence for 30 deep jump squats then mosey to bottom traffic circle cul-de-sac.  Find some curb for 20 scorpion dry docks.

Mosey up the hill back to traffic circle for 15 berishnicoffs each leg.

Mosey to Football parking lot and find your own parking space next to the curb.   Parking space suicides (no not lines Bottle cap).  On the out to 10 T delts and 5 Merkins.  On the back to 20 curb dips.  For those counting there were 9 parking spots heading out.  I had thoughts of audibling 3/4 the way through, especially when my shoulders were starting to ache, but figured we were close and I didn’t hear enough complaining so we pushed through.

Mosey to one of the corners for 4 corners (no, not progressive four corners Mad Dog….you can breathe a sign of relief).

  • Corner 1: 20 Soccer Heels (at least that’s what the M calls them).  Think of a standing Parker Peter where you jump and touch your opposite hand to opposite heel.  Mixed reaction on these – oh well, nice to try something new every now and then.
  • Corner 2: 20 Side Straddle Hops
  • Corner 3: 20 Jump Squats (Bottle Cap lobbied for Bobby Hurly’s but since Duke is currently fighting with UNC to see which is the dirtiest basketball program in the state ((Zion)), I said no).
  • Corner 4: 20 Mary Catherines.

Checked the watch, had more time than I thought….lets do that again.  Repeato.

Mosey up the hill towards the middle school road.  Divide into two teams – Clydesdale’s and Gazelles for Indian Runs.  I had to regroup a couple guys (cough cough: Ackbar and One Star).  Gazelles started out slow, much to the Clydesdales surprise, but quickly gained ground on us.

Bottle Cap with a slight Q Jack with sprints for the gazelles before I could get everyone circled up at COT for Abs.  Dough Boy let LBC’s until there was no time left.

MOLESKIN

  • A much more pleasant day today as the front pushed some of the humidity out.
  • Thanks for asking me to lead Ackbar.  Always a pleasure.
  • Great work from everyone today.
  • Bottle Cap slept in and decided to join Impromptu instead of chasing down Swarm.  Hopefully he felt he got his money’s worth.
  • Blue Screen going out of his way to help pick up the 6.  He also threatened me with a hug when Covid was over….I hate man hugs.
  • The respects and double respects of JWoww, Shop Dawg, Chainsaw, and Blue Screen kicked our asses today.  Boys were consistently towards the front.  I hope I’m still in that good a shape when I’m THAT old (shots fired/backhanded complement).
  • Mad Dog with some awkward moving SSH’s.  He looked like a baby bird flapping his wings for the first time trying to take the leap out of the nest.
  • We finished with 2.8 miles which was surprising to me – I thought my wienke had a solid 3 in it.
  • I missed the fact that Gerber was taking the family photo so I can be seen squatted butt towards the camera trying to set my camera up in the family photo.  Make sure you like, share, and blast away the marketing post to further embarrass me.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Christ Closet looking for help in building shelves this Saturday at the new red building on corner of Byrum and New town.  Bring tools to build shelves (powered drill/screw driver, tape measure, ect.).  Meet after workouts (so roughly 8:15).
  • F3 Dads Waxhaw is launching again this Saturday.  New location of New Town Elementary.  Bring your 2.0’s for a fun field workout geared towards keeping kids active while still having fun.  Roughly 3-15 years of age both boys and girls.   Juice box and doughnuts afterwards provided by Gerber.
  • F3 Dads SOB doing a 5 mile hike with 2.0’s on Saturday as well.  I didn’t catch the details other than they were meeting at a Harris Teeter (no clue which one).  Check F3Dads channel on Slack or get with One Star if you want more info.
  • F3 Mint Hill Converging to celebrate their 5 year anniversary this Saturday.  Meet at the Veterans park in Mint Hill at 7:00.  (Homecoming, Commitment, and Black Hawk all staying open, but some F3 Waxhaw guys are going to Mint Hill to return the favor of them joining us for our anniversary).

Rock n Run

Eleven Twelve souls woke up early enough and looked outside to find no rain for the first time in 24 hours.  8 for Chiseled and 4 Mashers.  Diccs given.  Late 90’s early 2000’s hip hop playlist going (clean versions since we are in a church parking lot).  Here is what Chiseled did….

WARM UP

Mosey towards the entran….HOLLY CAR CAR CAR!!!!  Around a corner doing what felt like 40 mph was Centerfold coming in hot.  I didn’t have time to turn the music down so I shielded it behind my body as I yelled back to pax to watch out.  Pax scattered to the sides of the road.  First crisis averted.  Continue to entrance stopping at the top for toy soldiers.  Continue the mosey towards Mt. Chiseled.  Stop for 20 SSH.  Mosey to the next Corner for 20 Merkins.  Mosey again and stop for 20 mountain climbers.  Mosey again past the Mashers to give them a taste of Bone Thugs N Harmony and stop for 20 Dry Docks.  Mosey one last time and stop for 20 In/Outs.  That concluded the 1 mile warm up (and I felt every bit of it).

THE THANG

Mosey to rock pile and avoid snakes and mud to pick up a lifting rock.  Circle up.  We will perform called exercise with a 100 yard run out and back in between each.

  • 40’s.  10 full curls, 10 bottom half curls, 10 top half curls, and finally 10 full curls again.   Rocks down, Run.
  • 40 tricep extensions and 40 curb dips.  Run.
  • 40 Military Marine Presses and 40 T Claps.  Run.
  • 40 Gobblet Squats.  40 (20 each leg) reverse lunges with back foot on curb (no one opted to hold their rock and I don’t blame them).  Run.
  • 40 Good mornings and 40 curl presses (mumble chatter started getting high about the rep count being too much so I obliged and audibled the 40 curl presses to only 35 – You’re welcome).  Run.
  • 40 Chest Presses and 40 rock weighted LBC’s.  Run.
  • 40 Tricep extensions and 40 curb dips (No run).
  • Curl rock as you go put it back in the pile.

Mosey around mount chiseled and meet in the middle parking lot for a chest burnout.

  • 10 diamond merkins followed by 20 mountain climbers
  • 10 ranger merkins and 20 mountain climbers
  • 10 wide arm merkins and 20 mountain climbers
  • 10 T Merkins and 20 mountain climbers
  • 10 Superman Merkins and 20 mountain climbers.

15 seconds left.  Mosey Walk Crawl towards COT.

MOLESKIN

  • Great work from everyone today.  I was worried 35 minutes of rock work with high reps might be repetitive and boring but according to Chastain it was good. (He’s really good at lying straight to your face I guess).
  • Smokey is a beast at Asylum.  I was hoping the rock work would slow him down.  I was wrong.
  • Glydah, Smokey, and Tool Time pushing the pace most of the day.  They traded out taking the lead from each other.
  • Nails with a party foul of throwing the rock down in the grass only to see it roll into a mud puddle (Muddy Puddles for you peppa pig fans out there…sorry, I have a 3 year old).
  • Chastain and Smokey calling for a rep count audible.  I almost went with 39, but figured that was too much of an asshole move so I went 35.
  • Recalc came out to ensure no waffling occurred.  I think we made him proud.
  • Rudy pushed hard the whole time.  Having the honor of seeing my winkie in advance, he knew what was coming next and prepared nicely.
  • We finish off the three site Q Q’s at Chiseled next week with Glidah.  After that, Chiseled is needing Q’s in June and July.  Please reach out to Rudy, Glidah, or myself if you have interest in Q’ing.
  • Several pax hung around afterwards for an impromptu coffeteria minus the coffee.  We learned about each others life insurance policies (If Rudy ever goes missing, check his wife for an alibi), Covid Phase 2 talk, and that 84% of statistics are made up on the spot.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • $100 for 100.  Up to $3,000.  That’s 30 pax.  Not bad, but I figured by now we would be close to 5K.  Get those donations into @F3Waxhaw through Venmo.
  • Q Source – 2 times to choose from.  Friday at Cuthbertson from 7:00 to 7:30.  Shop Dawg leading and they are starting the second chapter this Friday.  I highly recommend going.  A pax that attended this Monday had a profound impact from the discussion and is opening up to do more third F outreach.
  • Christ Closet still accepting furniture.  No clothes currently.
  • Thats it!  Short and Sweet.  Have a good rest of the week guys.

You want me to show him my what?!

Our new pandemic protocols require us to split up into groups 10 or less.  Which means the Q1 has the pleasure uneasyness of sharing his Winkie ahead of time with another man Q2.  All these feelings started to overcome me earlier in the week when JWoww reached out asking what I had in mind.  Would it be long enough?  Would it be hard enough?  Would he laugh when he saw it?  What if he was expecting 4 and I only gave him 3.0 (miles)?  Ok, enough double entendres.

I arrive early to see a group of gazelles heading out.  Damn it, did I screw up the start time?   Nope, they are off to 521 with a circle back from Rubbermaid – wait what?  521?  What the hell?!  Get the music going (and start catching hell from Rubbermaid…checks group me….and still catching hell from Rubbermaid).  See JWoww and inform him that I have audibled the exercise for the second time (first time to make it harder, second time to adjust it slightly softer easier but still harder that originally planned.)  JWoww asks what I was planning to do as the warm up as it looked to him I was going straight into exercises…oh no, there is a warm up, yup that’s it.  Turnbuckle walks up out of nowhere already sweaty and breathing hard.  “TB, where the hell did you come from?”.   “Oh, I’ve already got 1.5 miles in this morning.  Had planned to do three before joining you guys” – TB.  Well ok then, good job.  Other pax started sprinkling in, but it was apparent as we got closer and closer to start that we wouldn’t hit the 10 pax needed to split.  JWoww reluctantly put his phone away and I gave the DICCS1010 speech.  Off we go.

 

WARM UP

Run to school and Yo-Yo back to the 6 until everyone is at the school.  Circle up for deconstructed burpees (along with audible groans from Popeye – he may have done a few of these with me during our quarantine workouts).  10 Squats, 10 Merkins, 10 In/outs, and 10 Bobby Hurleys.  I then passed it to my left to Rubbermaid for 9 each.  Around we went 8, 7, 6.  We get to 5 and TB attempts to pass it on to Popeye.  Oh no.  I stopped that idea right in its tracks.  TB – do 5, and he did.  Quite well I might add.  With 9 in the group we got down to 2 and then I asked everyone to do one final burpee on there own to close us out.

 

THE THANG

Mosey towards school entrance for a slight modification (two times apparently if you refer to earlier in the BB) of progressive 4 corners (5 corners for JWoww cause he’s fast).  At Corner 1 do 10 Baryshnikov right leg and 10 Baryshnikov left leg (yes I had to google how to spell his name).  For those wondering, that is a front lunge, then hop into a back lunge keeping one foot planted (so not a Mary Catherine).  Once Corner 1 is done run to Corner 2 and repeat.  Run back to Corner 1 again for Baryshnikov’s then out to Corner 3.  Keep that pace doing the exercise at the next corner and then again at the starting point (corner 1).  Everyone got in 4 corners except JWoww.  He was so far ahead I told him to do Corner 5, but I saved him the long run back.

Mosey to bus lot and line up on the curb for Suicides (I hate this name, isn’t there a better name for this?).  At the curb do 10 T Merkins.  At the different points to 10 In/Outs.  The 4 points were the 3 basketball goals and the light at the end of the parking lot.  JWoww once again killing it so I made him do an extra.

Quick recovery lap around the parking lot and find your sweat pile again for another suicide.  This time with 20 T Delts on the curb and 10 superman’s on the out.  T Delt is the bottom half of a T Merkin.  Lay on the ground, hands out and pinch shoulder blades together.  This one got the rear delts burning…mission accomplished.

Mosey to Rock Pile and grab lifting rock.

  • 30’s 40’s.  10 bottom half curls, 10 top half curls, 10 full curls….and another 10 full curls as I wasn’t quite burning yet.
  • Run to the school curb (about 1/8 mile) and back.
  • 11’s.  Military Press for 10, hold for 1 down to a 1 press and 10 hold.  (Having previously worked out with Popeye and having to hear him say he never did presses in the Navy so they couldn’t be called Military Presses, I now rename them Marine Presses – just to piss Popeye off :).
  • Run to school.
  • Tricep extension until you burn out then curb dips until you burn out.  (Chainsaw beat us all.  Yes, you read that right).  I won’t mention who put his rock down first but I will tell you he’s an asshole that writes way too long back blasts.)
  • Run to school.
  • 11’s with Rows and a hold.
  • Curls while you walk to put your rock up.

Meet on the curb.  Rubbermaid reminds me we have less than 2 minutes (yes I know, I have a watch too).  With only 1.5 gazelles in our midst, I had to reassign Gazelles today.  I had the Clydesdales sprint back to Cot with about a 5 second head start.  If Rudy, JWoww, Rubbermaid, or myself caught anyone, we all had 10 burpees to do.  It came down to me and Chainsaw.  I was on his heels the entire time and let off the gas as Cot was in site because I was beat and didn’t want to do burpees he found an extra gear to beat me.

MOLESKIN

  • Great work by everyone today.  The plan was to get at least 3 miles in for the Clydesdales and allow the Gazelles to get over 3.5.  Both were achieved.
  • Was it the new found heat and humidity or was that workout that hard?  I got back to cot drenched in sweat and breathing hard.
  • Turn Buckle turning up the heat on his workouts lately.  Over 9 miles in the last 24 hours.  He has a goal to hit of losing 50 total pounds by the end of May and he has about 7 pounds to go to do it.  If you see him walking in Mill Bridge cheer him on, or better yet, grab your shoes and go join him and push him to walk faster.  Don’t worry, there is another goal of 100 pounds by the end of the year that he has his sights on as well so we have more work to do.  Good push today TB!
  • Chainsaw claimed he had a knee problem and would be in the back of the pack.  In my best Maury Povich impression “We determined that was a lie!”.  I had to find extra gears to catch up with him on the Baryshnikov’s.  Great work.
  • Rubbermaid apparently hates Tedeski Trucks Band.  I would expect as much from a Buckeye.  You damn yankees didn’t grow up listening to southern rock like us natives.
  • Rudy pushing hard today as well.  Got ahead of me on the suicides which made me work harder to catch up to him.
  • Popeye working through a nagging knee injury pushed hard today.  Can’t wait until your back to true form and I can start giving you hell again (and he now asks him self “Wait, you stopped?”).
  • Sledge has been pushing hard lately at the workouts.  I’m seeing an improvement on speed and endurance.  Keep it up big guy!  (And perhaps you need to hone your singer song writer skills at the next happy hour since all the bars are closed?)
  • Deep Dish has left the leg/calf issues in the dust and was working hard today.  So hard that he lost grip of his coffee cup during Coffeteria.  (Thanks Rubbermaid for the coffee and drinks….when is your Co Site Q going to show up and help out…((Cough cough Run Flat)))

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • 100 for 100 to raise a million dollars and retire funds for local charities is underway.  Donations can be maid to F3Waxhaw Venmo or paper checks for you double respects (I thought Chainsaw was going to punch me when I looked at him).
  • Shop Dawg starting a new Q Source on Friday’s after the Cutty workouts.  I highly recommend.

A VQ during Quarantine?

I haven’t been posting back blasts for my daily solo workouts in order to stay near the top of a fictitious post count challenge (cough cough Gerber), but felt like a VQ needed a back blast.  Wild Thing has been off and on F3 for almost 2 years.  His last stint saw him going hot and heavy for two weeks before a slight torn calf muscle (initially believed to be a blown Achilles) at Commitment sidelined him (I was Qing that day, whoops!).  He’s a guy that likes the comradere and workout style that F3 brings but hates the form policing and negativity.  Which generally leads him back to working out at the YMCA having been burned out of F3 a couple times.

He reached out over the weekend about getting together for a workout.  We met on Sunday for what I called mailbox hell.  It ended up being close to 3.5 miles (would have been 2 miles in Lawson) and a burner having used the hill near my house.  We both retreated to running on our own due to conference call conflicts on Monday.  With two big back to back running days (and 4 miles on Saturday from Legalized Nuclear Hell), I was glad to see some weights when I met him at the club house (and Clorox wipes).

 

WARM UP

Mosey 1/4 mile and return to basketball courts where a speaker was awaiting us.  He asked if I’ve ever done Roxanne.  The look on my face apparently answered the question.  I said “ok, what are we doing on Roxanne and what are we doing on red light”.   His eyes got big.  “Yall do something on red light too?!”  Damn it.  Stop giving him bad ideas……”No, no, no, we don’t”.     Roxanne warm up with Merkins.

THE THANG

1/4 Mile Mosey returning to Basketball Courts.

Weighted Walking Lunge length of the court and back.

Bear Crawl length of court and crawl bear back (he originally called crab walk but Omaha’ed due to a lingering shoulder issue – hey, we have something in common!).

Using 30 lb dumbbell we did 30 curls each arm switching hands only to relieve the lactic acid burn out.

Alternating squat/clean/press for 30 total (15 each arm)

Short mosey to tables for 10 jump ups, 30 step ups, 15 each leg 1 legged step up, 50 dips, 15 derkins, 15 each leg step ups again, and 15 derkins.

1/4 mile mosey to hill near Wild Thing’s house.  3 Mailboxes.  Mailbox 1 = 1 burpee.  Mailbox 2 = 3 burpees.   Mailbox 3 = 5 Burpees.

Mosey back to basketball courts for distance partner work.  P1 runs suicides while P2 does curls up to a total of 200 100 (Used separate dumbbells).

Round 2.  P1 Runs suicides while P2 does presses.  150 total.

50 calf Raises.  15 more 1 legged step ups.  15 more derkins.

Mosey back to basketball courts for ab work to close out remaining 3 minutes.  50 flutters.  20 heels to heaven.  50 LBC’s.

 

MOLESKIN

I greatly appreciated the low mileage.  Watch said we did just shy of 2 miles, but still managed a 600 calorie burn (which is about average for me for a 45 min workout).  Doug killed it today for his “VQ”.  Kept us moving, had more planned than we could get to, and gave us a good sweat.

Everyone stay safe out there.  Glad to see small groups forming while still staying at safe distances.  The large groups scare me.  I know they say we can do under 10, but more than 4 feels like we are crossing paths too many times….just my opinion.

I’m hoping Gerber doesn’t leave a cinderblock in my window after that opening sentence (all in good fun).

 

A Backblast For F’s Sake

As most know, workouts are closed.  Daily workouts are being published and groups of under 10 are getting together (mostly neighborhoods) at yelling distance to still get what little bit of second F we can get in.  It felt good to be standing on a curb and greeted by cars arriving this morning.  While it had only been Monday since my last official F3 post to a workout, in this environment, Monday felt like forever ago.

The Chicken and Schnieder (who arrived together) stayed in their car a minute too long for my taste – comparing winkies perhaps (the joke never gets old).  Chicken pops out with a paper being the smartest of the group and realizing there is no way in hell any of us could remember 12 exercises without it written down.  Since he came prepared, and already scoped out a half mile loop, looks like he is in charge.  Ricky Bobby pulls up right before time to launch.  Looks like it will be just us four.  Quick warm up lap and exercises and then we get after it under the direction of Chicken Man.

7 minutes into the workout here comes Deadwood.  5 it is.

I wont bore you with the workout.  Honestly it was tough and got me sweating hard, but I can sweat by myself.  Call me one of the rare ones that enjoys F3 the most for the second and third F.

The reason I felt moved to write this BB wasn’t for the first F, (though I did want to be counted) it was due to Chicken Little opening up in COT about his absence the last 3 weeks.  While its not my story to share, I do want to share what I walked away this morning thinking.  Don lost his best friend recently at the hands of Alcohol.  A HIM in the truest definition.  FBI, counter terrorism, sounded like a real bad ass.  But an on the job injury derailed him.  In today’s climate of opioid addiction, he decided to skip the pills for pain and found refuge in a bottle.  And thus started the tail spin.  He hid the pain, the drinking, the feelings away from friends and family.  The dreaded sad clown crept up on him.  The thing that scared me most about the story this morning was how well his life was going, and then boom; its off the rails.

Don went above and beyond for his best friend.  Again, its not my story to share, but as I heard what Don has been doing these last three weeks I couldn’t help but to think what a great man he is.  His friend was lucky to have him.  I pray I never need another man to look out for me in the way Don did with his friend, but if I do – I hope they react the way Don did.  You’re a really good dude Chicken.

We’ve talked a lot in Q Source the past few weeks about getting right.  Getting your boat heading in the right direction.  Getting your guard rails built.  Shield locking with other men.  You never know what is coming for you; what could derail you and send you into a tail spin.  A job loss, car wreck, unexpected health issue, you name it.  Will you be ready?  Do you have a support system in place to weather the storm, will you open up to those around you that you need help, or will it be your knock out blow?

What I truly love about F3 isn’t the workouts.  Its the second and third F that act as the guard rails.  The guys around me that keep me straight on life’s path.

Keep hunkering down out there boys.  We will get through this virus.  Until then, keep your heads down and keep plowing forward.

Oh Hill’s Yeah!

So many workout titles to choose from.  Two Wolfpack ACC championships yesterday (Women’s Basketball and Wrestling -or raslin’ for us back woods folks) coupled with a full moon had “Howling at the Moon” as a close second title.  Another consideration was “Why the hell did I sign up to Q a 5:15 workout the day after Daylight Savings Time”; but alas the title was too long.

10 Brave souls showed up having already won the hardest battle of the day with their pillow.    Diccs given, and quick heads up that we will be hitting four unique hills and we will knock out the first one with our opening mosey.  A perfect number 9 for what I had planned.  We head out on our opening Mosey and, damn it Chastain!  Rolling in late and screwing up my perfect number.  Oh well, lets keep going.  He’s a Gazelle, he will catch us.

WARM UP

Mosey towards Hickory Tavern, left towards 84, left back towards Chick Fil A so that we can take full advantage of the hill heading towards Wesley Oaks.  Peel off at the last minute to the back of the Target parking lot.  Circle up – I join the circle.  Chastain keeps trying to keep me in the middle and I explain I’m going to be part of the circle on purpose.  Posse doesn’t get the explanation (or doesn’t care) and proceeds to continue to get behind me to ensure I’m in the circle.  I back up and Posse is right on my 6.  Ok, this is just getting weird.

Deconstructed Burpees.  Starting at 10 then passing them off (9, 8, 7…) until we get to 1 rep.  So here we go….10 Squats, 10 Merkins, 10 In/outs, and finally 10 Bobby Hurley’s.  Chastain for 9, ect…    At around the 6 mark I realized this was taking longer than expected.  I had a long winkie and with each passing tick of the clock it was getting cut off (ouch).  I had a thought of cutting it short, but my heart rate was high and I was reminded of what a great opening warm up this is so we kept going.  Finished on Posse’s 1 deconstructed burpee in which he fought the temptation of just calling out a burpee and kept the deconstructed party going.

 

THE THANG

Mosey to our second hill in Wesley Oaks.  Berishnicoffs right leg on the bottom of the hill, run backwards up the hill, berishnicoffs left leg on the top of the hill, and run back down.  Repeat for five 3 times due to time.  Legs are burning now, lets go run some more!

At the bottom of that hill, take a left and head down to the cul de sac.  Due to time, I changed the count to 20 merkins at bottom, run up the hill and 20 merkins at the top.  I had planned for 10 and 10 for 3 rounds, but again time was limited.  When your finished find the 6 and get them up the hill.  Group stayed together so no 6 pushin’ needed.

Fourth Hill – we are at it.  No need to mosey to it.  Split the group in half – 5 and 5.  (This is where the original perfect number came into play of three groups of three).  Light pole suicides.  10 dry docks at the light poles.  Two rounds of 10 rep Galley’s at the start.  Lots of confused looks on this one so I demonstrated.  Its basically a row with two guys holding you up – or in this case three guys holding two.  Two rounds so that at least 4 guys row each trip up….ok enough explaining, lets go.  Down to first light pole and back up.  Wait, we only have 4.  Damn it Nails!  Get over here.  Ok, smooth sailing from here on out.  Wait, that third light sure is awfully far away.  Nails to the rescue….”Guys, there’s a pole here, the light is just burnt out”.   Good recovery sir.  You are welcomed back with open arms after that save.  Our time was quickly running out.  After our 4th light pole and galley’s, I told my group to mary while we waited on the other group to get in.  Having asked Posse to lead Mary, I let him get two reps into American Hammers before jumping up and proclaiming “This sucks, lets go”.  This left most in my group stunned.  As I turn around at the bottom of the hill, I’m not sure whether I will be greeted by pax or by nothing.  (I mean lets be honest, I was just a complete ass to Posse even though I didn’t intend it to come out that way – see Moleskin for apology).  To my surprise, we have a slow trickle of pax behind me.  I start to hold Al Gore waiting on them to arrive and then we “take the hill” once more just as the second group is finishing Galley’s.

4 minutes left….need to kill time….looks like I’m going to have to break a promise.  I said 4 unique hills.  Looks like it will be 5 hills with only 4 being unique….to the short second hill.   10 Crawl Bears and 20 reverse lunge walks.  After two rounds changed the third round count to 20 crawl bears and 10 reverse lunge walks.  Recover to the top of the hill.

Gazelles on the fence (Damn, did Nails just line up with the Gazelles…hell yeah brother), Clydesdales 15 yard head start.  Jailbreak to the start.  At least one gazelle must beat a clydesdale and at least one clydesdale must beat a gazelle (thank god for Big Tuna).   Reach Cot just in time and all breathing heavy.

 

MOLESKIN

  • Thanks to those that joined this morning.  5:15 after losing an hour of sleep isn’t easy.
  • I EH’ed a guy on Saturday to come today.  I felt like his “yeah, I will come” wasn’t strong enough so I tightened the grip of that headlock on Sunday evening with a text.  I was glad to see him out there this morning.  He’s a good dude whose travel schedule keeps him away from us most weekdays.
  • Pax found out Zin and I have something in common this morning.  We both vote Republican.  Deadwood is our best friend.  We both hate Mary.
    • Apologies to Posse for cutting his Am Ham’s short.  I could feel the heart rate coming down and thought we could use out time more wisely.  Like most things I do, I have good intentions behind them….they just don’t always come out the best way.  I felt the public apology was necessary because we all know Posse likes to bottle up his emotions and carry grudges.  (I’m still looking over my shoulder expecting a club to the knee for choosing the site name “Chiseled” over “Not Today Satan”)  All jokes aside, I didn’t mean to come off as an ass today and if you felt I did, my bad.
  • Chipotle and Floppy Disk still playing tricks on Asylum pax minds.  Several pax have referred to Floppy as Chipolte the past few weeks.  It hasn’t helped that neither of those guys decide to show up on the same day which only strengthens the myth that they are in fact one in the same guy.
  • Thank you Big Tuna for the all out sprint at the end.  Chastain and Swimmers were coming hard after you and you were able to keep them at bay.
  • Shop with another strong effort today.  For those that haven’t worked out with him in the last couple weeks, he has found another gear.  Actually, he and Posse both have.  I’ve accused both of them of having rockets shoved….well, never mind.
  • Ackbar was quiet today.  Perhaps it was the stagecoach robbery mask drowning out the preacher cuss words towards me or perhaps he was day dreaming of catching another driver passing a school bus and starting another $**t storm on “Whats up Waxhaw”.  Either way, its always great having him out.
  • Mentioned it COT today that a Briarcrest family lost their teenage son over the weekend.  Another unfortunate reminder of how precious life is and how quickly it can be taken away.  Prayers to his family during this very difficult time.
  • We failed at COT to protect against the Coronivirus.  Perhaps we can do better tomorrow.  Habits die hard I guess.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Christ Closet folding party this Thursday.  See Third F guys for times/locations (I think its 7:30 at Ackbar’s church but I may be wrong).

Another Q source starting up on Fridays at McDonalds in Curenton.  First launch will be first Friday in May (May 1).