15 men prepared themselves for Halloween consumption. Here is what they did.
Warm-up
Side straddle hops x100
Mountain climbers x75
Low flutters x50
Main Event
We mosey’d around both schools, with periodic stops for exercises: chest (merkins, diamonds, wide-arms, staggers, dips), shoulders (dry-docks, donkey kicks, people’s chair), legs (squats, sumo squats, jumping lunges, one-legged squats), and abs (heels2heaven, bicycle, dying cockroach, flutters, protractor, knee-ups, mountain climbers). All in all, it was a good day.
Moleskin
Love me some Union County. I’m on vacation through Thanksgiving, so looking forward to hitting it with you guys all month.
Great to have FNG Goodfella out with us this morning. Although a New Jersey native, and tough guy on the outside, there is no friend you would rather have. Always friendly, welcoming, and opening, this is the guy you know instantly, when you meet him, that you could call at 3am when you need to bury a body. (Figuratively speaking, of course.) And the man has some fitness! Most new guys would have been sucking wind out there today, but this wasn’t nuthin’ for Goodfella.
Dirty Bird is flat-out inspiring. Let me say it again: inspiring. We kept a decent pace today, and Dirty Bird never let us, despite carrying some extra baggage that he is soon going to shed. Feeling tired? Tempted to pass on those next few reps? Take a look back at Dirty Bird, who never quits, and think again.
And how about Posse? The dude is modeling underwear these days, and reports that he is down 45 pounds! That is some work. Work!
Lots of motors out there today, but sad to say I am still getting to know many of you. Look forward to it.
Announcements
Keep Transporter in your prayers, whose dad passed over the weekend.
We are starting a new book for our 3rd F group, #F3Sanctuary, which is moving to Monday nights at 7:30pm at Brooklyn Pizza. This is a group of badasses, looking to get to the next level with the Lord. I can barely make it through a week without time with these men, and hope you will join us. Our tentative start date is a week from today, 11/7, but that is tentative since Transporter is our leader. Stay tuned on the website and twitter.
A bunch of guys did the Spartan Beast this weekend. Dasher was too tired to post this morning after it. Posse was not.
I love the F3 #wasnow stories. Judge Hairy went from 365 pounds to flat-sexy. The Judge knew he was dead in 15 years if he didn’t do something. His knees hit the dirt, and he asked God for help. God gave him F3. Floppy disk lost 48 pounds and started being able to focus on others. Columbo was a 265 pound cop, moonlighting at a school during an F3 workout. Now the guy has logged 225 workouts in one year, and is closer to his wife and kids. No Help was struggling with purpose after leaving the Marine Corps, in a dark place, and even lost his faith. Yet with F3’s brotherhood, he regained his purpose, and his faith. In describing the difference it makes, he rightly notes that “Brotherhood is love, and YHC loves this brotherhood. Truly a blessing.” Kato was suffering dizzy spells in his 40s, and easily winded at any attempt to play with his kids. Kato reminds us that a leader needs to kick a new guy’s butt to show the new guy esteem. In each story, with new brothers, each man achieved what he could not alone. There is a lot of hurt in the world. As Cindy points out in 10 minutes, F3 is part of the solution.
At #Horsey today, 45 men shredded their legs. I needed that. But what really drove me was the men at my side. Stinger, my partner, was running his guts out. How could I do less? Posse, who had trouble running any distance a year ago, arrived from Union County with a full head of steam and never stopped. Stickbug, Mr. Brady, the Leg, Alf, Belly, Swiper, McStuffins – all killing it. And what can you say about my brother Fishwrap? The man has gone from awesome to inspirational.
Great to be with you all this morning.
God bless.
Sanctuary’s mid-summer break is over. Tomorrow, we resume with Transporter as your Q, studying “Act Like Men” by James McDonald. We will continue to look at God’s purpose for men, and how we can support each other in achieving this purpose — all while eating pizza and drinking beer (if you wish). A no brainer.
Every Thursday from 7:30pm – 8:30pm at Brooklyn Pizza in Wesley Chapel, on Weddington Road. See you there brother.
God made us in His image with a warrior’s heart to fight for what’s right.
F3Sanctuary, starting this week, will meet every Thursday, at 7:30pm at Brooklyn Pizza in Wesley Chapel. We will study who we are as men, the fight we face, and overcoming.
Sanctuary provides safety and brotherhood for men to gather spiritual strength, wisdom, and resolve. Join us.
Many of the Commitment faithful are running the Spartan Beast this morning, so I figured it might be a small turnout. Not so much. 13 steely faces stared back at me in the gloom, unflinching against the cold. Time to get to work.
Warm Up
Main Event
End Game
COT. Great take out by Snowflake.
Moleskin
An absolute pleasure to be with you all this morning.
11 men got down to business at Commitment this morning. It went down like this:
Rough start
Settling In. Mosey with pinball for the leaders to the concession area.
Track Work. 400 meters with sprints for the straightaways and burpee broad jumps around the curves.
Stone Work. Mosey to cinderblocks and bricks with lunges on the way (front and backwards). First, cinderblocks, but then bricks for most (except Camacho, Transporter, Red Rocks – I think) who kept the cinderblocks. We did the following but the Q does not remember the counts.
Wet Hill Work. 7-8 times up the big wet hill behind the middle school, with ascending burpees at the top.
Journey Home. Pinball and backwards run back to base, with a few burpees in cadence at punctuated periods. Few burpees in cadence to finish us off.
Moleskin (Written entirely, unedited, by FNG Crisco)
FNG Crisco here, in town for one session only–visiting Ice Nine for the weekend. Never done F3 or anything similar (read: burpees were a painful revelation). The previous night Ice Nine typically downplayed the realities I knew were in store: “We’ll just go out and have some fun,” he said. LIAR!
I’m in decent shape–put in weekly miles on road bike, cardio in gym, push ups, some weights–so was very surprised/ashamed to find myself losing breath while counting… THE JUMPING JACKS. Yeah, the jumping jacks, are you kidding me!, 60 seconds in, a child’s exercise. Well, there were 100 of them. There were 100 of everything at first, I couldn’t believe it–that and the size of the sweat stain I’d left on the asphalt parking lot within minutes.
Quick notes: Heels to Heaven, Bicycle, Russian Twist got me pretty good; laid facedown on ground a few times during planking. Burpees on the track were mental, glad I didn’t eat anything beforehand. Cinderblocks, a terrible idea, respect to those who kept them. Backwards lunges take balance.
But Ice Nine was not lying: it was fun, a lot of fun (this mostly came to me when reflecting in the car heading to breakfast). Of course the work was difficult and Ice Nine was a beast (I don’t care how much he downplays it), but you are a great group of guys–everyone was very friendly and welcoming to an FNG. Busting ass early in the morning in potentially bad weather, it’s better than coffee.
Thank you everyone for the experience and the handle FNG Crisco. Respect! Great to meet you all. I’d join you guys if we lived down here–probably just weekends haha.
Post note: It’s 11:28; as I type this Ice Nine is nodding out in chair in front of cartoons.
Thanks again,
FNG Crisco
In January, my wife Heather was diagnosed with a nasty version of breast cancer with frightening statistics. Six months of chemotherapy, a mastectomy, and a second surgery to remove the remainder of the impacted lymph nodes followed. It has been a trial unlike anything imagined. Heather is the toughest person I know by far (she gave birth to two of our children, standing up, without so much as an aspirin). Yet chemo and cancer at a point reduced her to crying in the fetal position. Still, I have been amazed at the blessings God has provided through this trial: our marriage has never been stronger, our faith has grown, Heather has been forged like steel, and we have become more fixed on the permanent. But I do not write today about those blessings.
I write today about you. You have prayed for Heather. Many of you every day. You have asked how she is — sincerely and without pretense. I cannot describe what your support has been like. Many go through life relatively alone. They have friends through work, or church, or their hometown. Yet those friends are there when convenient or pleasurable, and often want something. They are friends of expedience.
You are not like that. Today proved it. Heather had a team called “Heather’s Heroes” to run the Komen Race for the Cure. Yesterday, Komen cancelled the race because of Hurricane Joaquin. NC was in a state of emergency. But Heather was having none of it. She organized her own race to meet at AG Middle School in Charlotte — the home of an F3 workout nearly every day of the week. Notice went out 18 hours before the race. All night long my phone buzzed with emergency warnings; lightning and heavy rain never ceased.
Yet at 8am, 54 runners and over 60 supporters — unflinching against the downpour — stood as witnesses to true friendship. They were there for love. God offers us life through sacrificial love. Today was all about love, and sacrifice for Heather.
F3 offers something special. We offer each other adversity. Daily. Through adversity, we sharpen and assist each man in mortifying his flesh so that it is ready to offer powerful love when the time comes. One such time was today, when my wife needed to make a statement against her cancer, supported by friends, her heroes. I am overcome with gratitude. Thank you.
Pictures of the Heroes can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7a5ag7sb88nd6c4/AAAi7ogAu1yYSzMJNOmD4GiVa?dl=0.
They cancelled the Race for the Cure because of a mere Hurricane. But my wife Heather is made of sterner stuff. God blessed Heather with fortitude from birth, and has used cancer to forge her will into one that is now indomitable.
Accordingly, her Race for the Cure team, “Heather’s Heroes,” will not be deterred by a little rain. The Heroes will be racing tomorrow starting at 8am at AG Middle School. There will be a 5k for grown-ups followed by a 1 mile race on the track for kids and anyone else who wants to join. The Heroes who signed up will be wearing pink; anyone else is welcome to join. I would love to see you out there.