Perfect morning for running yet again as the Charlotte spring has been undefeated for two straight years.
Benny had to reschedule this Q for me about 5 times but it was time to make the Tuesday morning 1 hour workout happen and I was glad I did.
The Thang
We ran from the ABC Store to Lowes at the Promenade and back – slow merkins and fast merkins at the end, some reverse running to kill the final 2 mins.
Moleskine
I was not feeling creative last night and heard some pretty easy Qs come out of Fast Twitch as in “run here and back” and took advantage of this cheat code.
Monday nights are my garage band jam nights which go late into the night (with IPAs & whiskey) so Tuesdays are always a sleep in day. I was able to round up my bandmate Rhapsody to come run with us and he was out in front the whole time.
I told him I was out of running shape and he said he would run with me anyway. Not sure his heart rate went over 100 as he carried on a normal conversation for 60 minutes. People have been known to call us “Ace & Gary” from the old SNL cartoon which we’ve become accustomed to. We’ve never ridden on a motorcycle facing each other though – but never say never.
I always forget how early Cheese Curd’s mouth gets started. At 5:10am it seems like the guy has been up for 4 hours and just did a presentation to his board of directors. It’s almost as if he wants to rumble. I like it though. Nothing worse than Q’ing a silent PAX that doesn’t mess with you – and he gets on you early. He insults how long you stretch, how poorly you explain the workout and he’ll even get you on how fast you pray. But I still love the guy because he can take it back in return.
Bobby Fisher was too good for us and split sometime in the middle of the workout. We found him back at launch stealing things out of our cars (my opinion). Ever wonder if there’s that one F3 guy out there that is actually scamming all of us pretending that he likes to workout in the morning? He watches where we hide our keys, listens when we’re going on vacation and just acts interested in our personal lives – meanwhile he’s swiping change from the glovebox, ransacking your home when you’re gone and installing cameras in your shower…..
I’m 76% sure that guy is Bobby Fisher. But again, it’s just speculation.
Christmas & TL kept a strong pace all up and down the hills through Raintree.
If you haven’t seen Christmas play soccer you should buy tickets next Sunday and get good seats. Guy is an athlete and a half and you can’t score on him. He goes about 70% at normal F3 because I thought I was as fast as him and I’m not.
Turkey Leg had a better tan than all of us after spring break – most of us went to the beach – TL went to Breckenridge. I need to get the model of those ski goggles cause the dudes entire dome was golden brown. Dad4Boys has got the skin of a greek God.
Shout out to my fellow Clevelander Retread who is at every running workout I ever go to. This guy is as dedicated as they come and pushes hard the entire time.
49er who I barely recognized after working out with him a few times at Sparta was flying and came in hot at the Lowes parking lot at the Promenade.
Benny has been recovering from injury and making a great push back as the full time site Q. Apparently Haze has been filling in nicely for him. Hoping he comes back out to Sparta soon as he gets his legs back under him.
Lex Luthor might be my favorite F3 guy out there. Dude has the best attitude of anyone I know. He’ll Q any workout (like he would Q 5 days a week if you asked him to), do any challenge and would give you the shirt off his back. The first time I ran the BRR he dropped off some Hoka’s he didn’t like on my front porch so that’s not just a figure of speech. He’s also a great dad who loves being one. Be friends with this guy if you can.
OH – and it’s Lex’s birthday today and he didn’t say anything about it. Would have loved to hoist him over our shoulders and sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” during COT – I’ve always thought that song is way better than “Happy Birthday to you”. Seriously, terrible lyrics. The Beatles did it a bit better, except you have to have the same birthday as the person you’re singing it to it or it doesn’t make any sense.
According to Curd my prayer was almost too fast for God to hear so I said another prayer (mostly for him) when I got home to make sure the message got through.
That’s all folks.
Did you hear? Backblasts are required again. It feels like 2015 and it’s great. Waxhaw isn’t gonna know what hit them once A51 takes back our lands. Our forefathers didn’t build AOs across S. Charlotte, indoctrinate middle aged men with beer guts and destroy morning coffee routines with their wives for a town named Wax-Haw to become the premier region in North Carolina. This BS has got to stop RIGHT NOW!!!
By the way, “post workout selfies” are reserved for Orange Theory, Lifetime Fitness pilates classes, and co-ed Cross Fit gyms…which is really just in-person Tinder, but with loud grunting…on that note, maybe they’re exactly the same.
On to the BB….
10 fools got to Seaboard at 0515 and didn’t get back until 0618 after wrapping up exactly 6.2 miles.
A rare Sparta disclaimer was given and we headed out into the cool dark morning.
THE THANG
Ran to my favorite place in Charlotte – Matthews Sportsplex
MOLESKINE
Excellent group out there today. Love when Sparta gets to 10+ guys as it used to have 2-4 when Gypsy first willed the workout into existence. Also love doing COT with Peak 51 because it’s always a 20+ guy group.
Sportsplex is like heaven to me and I can’t believe it’s free to use. You go out there on a sunny day with a football and some sandwhiches and you are good to go.
Mile High was a site-FNG and has posted the past 2 days – I’m pushing for a 3 peat tomorrow morning. He loved the reverse run up the hill so much I’m pretty sure he’s hooked.
Cage, 61 years young, was killing it today and seems to move even faster on cool mornings.
Thankfully Smokey, who Q’d Peak 51, was also running behind and made it back 3 minutes late as well so we could all pray together (thanks to Tweetsie for the take out).
Lex Luthor will do any random challenge you put in front of him. If you tell him that there’s a challenge where guys carry a dog over their shoulders, climb up a mountain in flip flops and can only drink Stawberry Fanta he will sign up. He heard Joker was doing the 4x4x48 or something like that. You run 4 miles, every 4 hours, until you get to 48 miles. He was recruiting HARD this morning for it and if anyone asked a question about it he counted them in. Pretty sure Funky & Christmas got looped into it.
Christmas, Full House and Funky led the charge this morning with most of the group keeping an excellent pace and staying very close together. No one was far behind today.
BRR prep is starting soon so it’s time to get some miles in. Full House expressed some interest in joining a team and can definitely keep a good pace. Keep an eye out for a rookie of the year award if he decides to sign up.
Cage gave us some gardening tips as it’s getting below 30 tonight. Renfrow Hardware has a sweet strategy that has caught me off guard many times. They get a full greenhouse of plants on March 15th and get you pumped up to plant your crops.
I’m a sucker for gardening (it’s a man’s sport, you just don’t know it yet) and I can’t wait to put stuff in the ground. Then, as sure as the dawn, the frost arrives around April 1st and kills everything and you have to buy it all over again. Double revenue.
For those of you who came here for gardening advice, when I moved to Charlotte in 1995 we were zone 7, now we are zone 8 so things do change. Global warming is good news for gardeners, also good news if you have a 2nd row beach house.
Very good pace from top to bottom today. Pleasure leading.
Madison takes a break from frisbee and takes the Q at Kevlar tomorrow. Bundle up!
Sup homies.
Wednesday morning came and went and 9 dudes came out to the gnarliest Wednesday workout that is only as bad as you want it to be – called WAMRAP.
Lots of the regulars plus the triumphant return of Mile High & the tapering Turkey Leg who is allowing his legs to come back to life after a marathon – where he always kicks ass.
My biggest challenge in planning WAMRAP isn’t coming up with ideas, it’s deciding which ideas are stupid to do. And being a stupid man it takes me longer than it should to plan it out.
After a terrible beatdown from Flipper last week that actually wasn’t very hard to understand (but incredibly hard to recover from) I wanted to keep the pace moving forward so laid down last night and pictured the concrete structure in my head and came up with the following plan:
The Thang
Molëskîne
Glass was everywhere today. I have no idea how no one had ripped up a digit doing merkins but it’s gonna happen.
Pretty sure Alf and McGee take bottles of Colt 45 to the top deck, drink 2 each then roll them down the stairs on Tuesday night to add excitement to the workout….but not before talking about how they should have been the starting QB in high school and how Rick Reynolds couldn’t even throw a screen pass and had no business being the starter.
Word is on the street, back in ’89, McGee could throw a pigskin a quarter mile. He actually wasn’t even there today but he’s still getting some recognition – after we played telephone talking about his skiing injury, the jury declared that he broke his coccyx. No idea if that’s true. Could just be a bruise.
Back to Alf tho – I typically stay right on his tail but could not today. He was flying through the route with ease and once I lost him I definitely dialed it back a bit. He shared his strategy which he learned back in college during an Arby’s Roast Beef eating contest. So the story goes, his friend would crush a few of them down quickly and then he could slow down once the field realized they were 2 sandwhiches behind.
Flipper took the workout seriously and was killing it as well. You could tell by his speed but I could tell by him being the first guy to go sleeveless in 2021 which is always a brave move. Who’s next? I’ve got a great lineup of tanks that I’m really eager to pull out of the closet. By mid-June you can find a trail of shirts slewn across the top deck sitting in a pool of sweat. Add that to the glass, gum, throw up, bags of 3 day old food and you really have one of the best AOs out there. It feels like working out on a church mission trip to Bolivia.
Mile High has been speeding up every week at Sunday Soccer and making F3 a regular thing again. He’s a big/tall dude but don’t underestimate the breakaway speed. Good to see him back out there.
At the 6:10 roundup, Christmas and Iron Sides were knocking out lap 5 or 6 and I found a large group running together talking about David Goggins and probably considering doing one of his crazy challenges. F3 guys have a weakness for guys like this and have moved from Jocko to Goggins as they become more radicalized to try and find a way to workout 8 days a week.
These guys use intense words, 4am twitter posts and crazy stupid workouts to make you think that you’re only giving 40% when you are literally puking over the edge of a parking deck in South Charlotte wondering what you’ve done with your life.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read several of their books and love these guys but for me, the workout hero who doesn’t get enough credit?? Richard Simmons. Dude worked out with ten thousand women in neon spandex throughout the 80’s, and what was the result? Zero sex scandals. Exercise hero.
Shared some personal news about another baby on the way and got lots of advice on how to NOT make a woman pregnant. Alf gave me his vasectomy doctor and said he does really great work, and in his multiple visits has never cut off anything he wasn’t supposed to. Pop Tart recommended abstinence. He must have Richard Simmons type skills.
Super fun morning – F3 is a blessing and I’m grateful you guys were willing to follow me into the gloom.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUIP0KuMjTUGMhfkeolnObt8eYjUFrvnFc3zXvIKniv27JsA/viewform?usp=send_form&usp=embed_facebook
Copied from Flipper’s backblast last week…..
One of the foundational A51 F3 locations, The Matrix on Mondays, has been creeping back up in the ratings as many F3 vets have rallied behind the iconic AO to see if they can save it.
A great group of 8 randos showed up today. I can say, I have rarely seen these guys all post together in any normal cadence but today it all came together.
Promising low mileage and more strength building we did just that….
The Thang
Run around the school to lower parking lot for SSH, Low Slow Wide Leg Squats, Merkins
Starfish in parking lot (short run)
Lifting Rocks
Shoulder Press/Curl combos – 10, 10, 9, 9, 8, 8, 7, etc.
Other exercises in cadence with final overhead rock hold for a 10 count by all 8 PAX
Playground
Partner work
P1 – Pullups (10, 8, 6, 4, 2)
P2 – Big boy sit ups (waits for P1 & flapjack)
Wall work
Partner 1 holds feet on wall, Partner 2 bear crawls to line and does 5 merkins & walks back and taps Partner 1 (3 rounds
ABstacles
5 minutes of various ab exercises to wrap things up
Moleskine
Announcements/Prayer Requests:
Paper Jam’s mom sadly passed away unexpectedly over the weekend, please keep them in your prayers
A51 Q School November 21st at the Panera at the Arboretum – 7am workout followed by instruction – contact me for more details juliusmilani@gmail.com or Slack
After a crazy wind storm last night our Metro Q, Pepe, was without power and asked me (LATE) if I could cover for him. Pepe was a professional male model in Italy at one point – no not the George Costanza hand modeling type – the kind where they take pictures of your face…..allegedly. Knowing this would draw in some guys I posted Pepe’s modeling prowess to the Slack channel and pulled Joker right into the trap. Sadly for him, he had to look at me the whole workout.
The Thang
Run to Aldi for warmup, SSH, LSS, BLC (Big League Chew – new exercise), merkins – run back
Rocks – grab a lifting rock
Fish Bowl
Parking Lot – merkin parking space descend
Finale: do 1 burpee + 3 jump squats, 2nd light do 1 burpee + 3 jump squats twice, continue to end of road
Various abstacles and we were done….
Moleskine
Fairly light Fun Friday and a nice morning all around.
Announcements
Thanks – Whip
We keep pushing the goals back as we again broke the Sunday record with 13, even with several regulars out.
The Thang
We played soccer
Moleskine
Reminders:
XOXOXO
-Whip
The rain was falling but for some reason 8 dumb guys came out and got a full dose of jumping puddles and lifting rocks. Wormwood (would have been 9) pulled into the parking lot and pulled back out when he saw us running away – whaaaa??
The Thang
Round1 – 20 Step ups – 20 merkins X5
50 squats
Round 2 – 20 Rock Curls – 20 merkins X5
50 squats
Round 3 – 20 bent over rows – 10 merkins X5
50 squats
Round 4 – 20 rock thrusters – 10 merkins x5
50 squats
Series of Abstacles in a round the circle format, 20 more merkins to make sure no one cheated, and 20 SSH for Horsehead’s viewing pleasure….
Mole-McMole
The rain was pouring hard all morning. For some reason tarps were set up at the field so we actually had a place to stay dry until everyone arrived.
Future reference, if you Q Kevlar, we are parking at the pavilion, not running to it.
Inspired by the IPC the past few weeks I decided to give the strength training one more try and we knocked out 300 merkins, 100 step ups, 100 curls, 100 bent over rows, 100 thrusters and over 200 squats.
Announcements
I forgot to pray or ask someone to pray and asked that everyone say a prayer in their heart on the run back through the rain. Everyone did except for one person.
-Whip
Wife-pleaser is what Bulldog calls any exercise when we're in a questionable position or focusing on a specific bulging muscle group. This workout lacked the questionable positions we know and love but our muscles were bulging all over the place... Author: Bulldog Kevlar 14 fine gents assembled at Kevlar for an old school Friday beat down! THE THANG Disclaimer Run to rock pile and grab a boulder SSH, IW etc Partner up: Partner Runs while other works the rock. Flapjack Curls/Press/Tri combo x 2 Lunge R/Lunge L/ Squat combo x 2 Stagger merkin R/Diamond/Stagger merkin L combo x 1 Return rocks. Head to gazebo. Partner runs as other partner does 10 x decline merkins/10 x tri dips/10 x step ups. Repeat. Run to back road. Suicides with burpees increasing from 1 to 5. Diamond merkin ladder to each street light from 1 to finish with 10. Back to launch for some Mary. Backscratchers, etc COT YE OLDE MOLESKIN An honor to lead today lads and to see some familiar faces again. It’s been a weird time and schedules off but good to get out and get an early sweat. I’ve gone soft relying on the Peloton bike and smoking hot instructors to get me motivated. Who needs that? Especially when I see the gorgeous faces of Horsehead under the gazebo lights and the flowing mane of Deepdish it makes me crave the gold old days!
F3 Backblast for VQ
Title: Run with endurance the race set before us…
Date: 8/21/2020
Kevlar PAX: Good numbers for Kevlar lately. 12 guys showed up for my VQ – the more the merrier
Orange Whip wrote a backblast in June and it gave me a whole new perspective on him, his faith, and F3 – so I’ll try to shed some light on my story as well.
Since I am relatively new to the F3 fam, I’ll give a little run down of how I got here. Graduated UF (Go Gators) with a Construction Management Degree in Dec 2019. Married my beautiful wife Jan 2020. Relocated to Charlotte for a new project in Feb 2020. COVID hit hard in Mar 2020.
A lot of changes happened in those few months, and it was difficult to keep my bearings as a new husband with a new wife, new job, and a new city to call home with no great way to meet new people. That’s where Spyglass comes in who I’ve known for years – he and his wife moved to Charlotte in May and he soon asked me to go with him to a group called F3 at 5:30am (fyi Spyglass previously joined F3 when he lived in Asheville). I went, and I’ll admit Skunk Works was painful but great – shoutout to Horsehead for the name that stuck.
F3 has been a great way for me run the race with men who also want to see God’s Kingdom established. In this regard, Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by a so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” I love how the author of Hebrews relates our faith journey to a race of endurance. No matter the time, weight, sin, injury, or pain – we must run the race set before us and look to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith. The grit that it takes to finish each F3 workout is an example of how much focus and effort we are to put in our daily walk with the Lord.
Now to Kevlar: 12 guys showed up this morning.
I arrived early for my first Q – I have never had to use the bathroom before a workout, but this morning hit different. No porta john in sight, so onward…
The Thang:
Ye Mole:
See you guys next Friday.
-Chubbs
13 men posted at Kevlar this morning…but before I get to that…..
I nearly forgot all about writing backblasts then after seeing some new FNGs recently I remembered how much I loved reading them when I first started F3. I would wait check often to see when they were posted and loved remembering the humor that comes out of each workout. So, here’s my first one in a long time and I’ll plan to keep making time for them going forward because at one point they were pretty important to me….
Psalm 30:5
“…sorrow may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning”
This verse kept popping in my head the past year….
Thanks to my F3 brothers
I was out of F3 for the past 12 months and made it back out about a month and a half ago. I’ve shared the story too many times recently but I was getting terrible hives all over my body whenever I worked out or got hot (even 5 mins in the sun) until the hives spread to my throat and cut off my breathing (seen Hitch? yea that). After a couple of ER visits and a dozen doctor appointments it was determined that I had mold toxins in my body. Once it was diagnosed I was able to take medicine and slowly I was able to work out again. I was told things by traditional doctors like “This is a lifelong thing” and “it’s going to take at least 3-5 years to run it’s course”. If anyone knows anyone dealing with this let me know because it’s debilitating and I’d love to help them. P.S. you need a naturopathic doctor to help you.
I could go to the air conditioned Y to lift but had to take it really slow. That’s often where I saw other F3 guys. I’d see them running in to the Y together, see guys running on the street early in the morning. I almost hit the Sparta runners in a crosswalk one morning. It was really hard to see guys working out because a big part of my life was taken away. I did not have cancer or a terminal illness but taking F3 away from me (and many other things I love to do) was just depressing. My wife couldn’t handle it because I would sit on the couch on a Saturday and just sit…I couldn’t exert myself at all or I would be miserable.
One amazing thing about being away of F3 were the brothers who reached out over the year to check in. I even had guys drop by my house just to see how I was doing. I know I’ll miss someone here but I’m extremely grateful to the following guys who took time out to see how I was doing: Squid, Joker, Spackler (after 5 whiskeys at a party he heard the full emotional story and maybe a weird hug), Hops, Alf, Tolkien, Horsehead, Purell, Gypsy, FaultLine, Manziel, Hopper, Witch Doctor, Funky Cold, Cheese Curd, Rhapsody & Wormwood (and many more). You have NO IDEA what it meant to have you all touch base and see how things were going. It was very lonely year and it helped to know that I wasn’t forgotten. So, THANK YOU
I started running again slowly before coming back to F3 and one particular morning I was running through Kevlar AO and past the rock pile that we use and the sun was coming up over the trees and I was just so happy to be running. I raised my hands to the sky and praised God and remembered “though sorrow may last through the night, His joy comes with the morning”. His mercies are new each morning and He has promised that if we believe in Him, no matter how sorrowful our lives may get, He will deliver us.
He taught me a lot in the past year about pride, selfishness, anger and so many other things that were sinful in my life. It was a long year but I grew in other ways outside of the firm quads I used to have from all the Monkey Humpers. Now I’m back and I’ll just say to you all, please don’t take it for granted. Wake up early and push hard because it can all be taken away…
On to Kevlar:
13 guys came out this morning including 3 pre-runners (Horsehead, Rhapsody and myself)
Not sure how far we ran but Horsehead explained to me the beauty of being able to make fun of people to their face at F3 (instead of social media) and the risk of getting punched in the face is what makes is so much fun. That’s all I remember about the run.
The Thang:
Ye Mole:
July 3rd CONVERGENCE at Kevlar (with Joust). 6am launch time for a 1hr long workout. Hops & Ductwork will lead.
-Orange Whip