Gentlemen, we are leaders, by definition that means we are going somewhere and were doing something, leadership is an action. PAX it is time to get to a site and get there at our scheduled times. If you have a legit reason to stay home then stay home, your a man, make that call. But if your reasoning is guided by fear or laziness its time to man up and get out of that mindset. I’m not talking about caution or wisdom, rather fear. We are called as brothers of F3 to confront fear, to face it and to over come it. These past couple months I have wrestled with it myself so I am not speaking from a position of authority but rather a position of humility and drive to overcome fear.
That said, I know my life is better equipped to handle fear when I get up early see a bunch of men I care about, run around like an idiot and finish with COT. I head home, wake my family up and push them to not get lazy during this time as well. Make no mistake about it, laziness has a cost, I know, I struggled with it for years. So as a brother, as a friend, I am challenging all pax to help lead this nation and drive action. Don’t wait anymore, don’t sleep in anymore, muster up and set that alarm for 5 am again and get out there and get your mind right. Keep what ever distance you are comfortable with as you have complete control over that but don’t, DON’T quit, DON’T hit that snooze and don’t be guided by fear.
You’ll be better for it! See you in the gloom!
Work out: We ran around and pushed ourselves and each other.
Moleskin: Ice is hurt but leaves no excuses out there and works through the pain. Swimmers pushed himself as he usually does.
Great morning after a very fun Friday evening (Not what you think, get your mind out of the gutter). Pulling in to see Goodfella doing his thang with what I thought was pre-run, then hopped out the car eagerly looking to get started as it was cold, and I hate the cold. Give the disclaimer and mosey up to the school.
WU: Typical, SSH, Merkins, some runners stretch and something else.
The Thang: OLE Fashion boot camp. Mosey to the bottom lot. Run the outside poles, burpees 10,9,8,etc. Finish and mosey to the top lot. Partner up, 300, strike that, 200 Air squats, 200 CDD, Strike that 100, followed by 50 mike Tyson. This while P2 runs the lot. Mosey down to the bottom lot, run the poles jump squats 10,9,8 etc around the lot mosey to the top. Partners again, this time 200 forward lunges, 100 Air presses, 50 merkin shredders. Aannnnd we didn’t finish. Mosey back to the beginning finish with some mary for the hour.
Moleskin: Some real call outs today. Mark mosey is not looking so Mark mosey ish any more. He was side by side with me back to the lot the second time. Fuse was killing the air squats, Chainsaw executed proper form on the merkin shredders. All took a shot at my Wisconsin accent on the burpee run der hey. Run Flat and Popeye showed a no quit attitude. Premature and Carb-load showed aggression on on the runs. Doughboy and Mad didn’t waiver, Rubbermaid is truly the energizer bunny. TB is showing his determination and continues to push himself . Dana is a quick first res-ponder because of my inability to see a large rock and took a dive on the turn. It sucked but the pax, showed their support as we do and quickly came around me to assess my injury. Good news is it wasn’t as bad as it looked and Dana didn’t have to gurney me out of there. That said, I truly did feel the brotherly love and concern of which we are all about. With that, it was a frustrating finish to my 3rd Q this week, not sure if it was the spaghetti dinner last night but i felt really good this morning especially after qing the brave yesterday so it sucked to strike out like that. That said, that is what life is about, it will throw you curve balls, how we respond to it will determine who we are, I am grateful to have men of Character in my life that allow me to see and grow through life’s challenges. I’ll be back up to bat soon enough.
Mmmm, there’s more than 12 on the pax list, we had some defectors…. Apparently some them felt that running training was more important than bootcamp when preparing for a 50 miler. WHATEVER (valley girl voice:) For those that hung with us got a real workout.
WU: 1 mile run (8:30 -9 pace) Circle up. Basic. SSH, Merkins, runners stretch, and Moroccan night club things. done
The Thang: Stashed the gear I used earlier in the week. KB’s, Plates, Smash balls and Dumbbells. 4 groups of 3, variations of lung walks and plates back and forth with swings and smash-balls. 4 rounds, fun. Quick worm burners around the lot with two teams each doing two burpees then run to the plate. Mosey back (6:40-9min pace)
Moleskin: Love the Brave, it’s culture brings out the best in me. I don’t always push myself as hard as I should but when you show up on Friday with a bunch of angry bulldogs around you the expectation is that your going to bring it. So for that I really appreciate leading this group. Great to see Fahvra back on this side of town, HazMat had some mumble chatter about running, Fire-hazard was not disappointed with the hidden coupons. Tuck is always smiling and glad he put me on the calendar. Kudos to the pax training for a 50 miler, that is impressive.
Just give it time it always works”
Station work for 16 at MT Chiseled
WU: Mosey, SSH, Merkins, Stretching and something else
The thang: 4 stations, 2 running patterns. 3 stations, 1 min run, 3 more stations 2 min run. did this 2.5 times. Mixing up KB swings and shrugs. Smashball shoulder toss and smash. Dumbbell snatch and row.
Moleskin: Fun group of guys, more than I expected so I had to add worm burners as an extra round. Saw a lot of hear, ChainSaw is a monster, better work hard if your going to be anything like him when your 60. Glider and swimmers led the charge on the runs. Doughboy killed the smashballs. Frack really struggled with the weights, but will get him stronger yet. The mark mosey is picking up pace. Posse always has a encouraging word and the rest of the crew killed it. Thanks for letting me lead.
Transporter
So I have a secret. I’ll get back too that.
WU: Mosey over to the brewery. 2 more days for those of us whom stuck to it! soon we can par take! Any ways, 20 SSH, Squakers (sorry I screwed up the cadence at first) and MC’s
The thang: Run the road 3 burpees for the 10 light poles circle for the 6. Quick feet and burpees. Mosey toward Bojangles, 10 jump squats at each light. Mosey to the tire place some high knees with burpees. Mosey to the parking lot. 4 teams, 1 smash ball, 1 runs the lights, rest run through cycles of Burpees, CDD, Merkins, Forward lunges, back lunges, and a plank until everyone runs twice. Rudy foolishly let us know it was his 42nd birthday so we can break these (burpees) up, 21 here, mosey, 10 at the bank mosey, 6 at the bottom of the hill and 6 at the top 42. Finish with COT and flip flop let us know he turned 45 so we had to finish.
Moleskin: Secret. In order to grow as a human being I find ways to keep accountable to others, I have failed more times than I can count but what keeps me going is progress. Many aspects of life I have failed at but I don’t consider them failure because I don’t give up. In my opinion, that is the key. Some of you know I used to be a pretty big boy (peaked at 252) and the idea of running around and being able to do a mile in under 6 minutes wasn’t even a pipe dream. Now I can, I can do a lot more than I could even in highschool. I don’t say this to brag so here’s the point. The burpees you all had to participate in today was a punishment for failing at a commitment. Any day I eat dairy I have a burpee penalty with my brother. So, sorry brothers you had to participate today but its all good, you don’t have to be there for the rest of them I have to do. It was a the penalty chosen because I hate them!
I knew January was going to be stressful for me and I knew my natural propensity to stress eat (that’s why i was a big boy) and over consume alcohol. So, what do you do about it? Put some guard rails up and use your brothers to help you with them! Join Dryuary with a bunch of Beer connoisseurs and encourage each other on. Get up every freaking morning especially when you don’t want to and get after it, take q’s you don’t have time for, put some punishments in place if you fail, whatever it takes but don’t give up. WE all have excuses, what defines us is our ability to overcome our excuses, learn from our mistakes and push each other to become better men. That is what I saw this morning, thanks for letting me lead.
You will make time for what is important to you. It was clear this morning that pax were committed to making health and connection a priority in their lives as 30 men showed up to push themselves mentally and physically. That said, I didn’t anticipate 30 some pax as I was putting my Weinke together in my head the night before,,, I assumed 12,15….Maybe 18, all of which I was prepared to give a solid beat down, mixing coupons and partner-work for 45 Min. As I dropped off the coupons, bumped into our brother Goodfella on a pre-run and headed back to the launch point. At first, looked like about 11-12 dudes ready for punishment,,, just as i had planned for it, awesome! Then more pax came in, and more, and more. =My plan was looking a bit….shot
Warm UP: Mosey around the lot, get a little jog in so I can come up with a new plan, oh wait, one more comes in on two wheels, keep the mosey going. Head to the front of school, 25 SSH’s, some merkins, Mountain climbers, something else. DANG this is a big crowd, what is this a convergence?? Did I miss something, Nope this is F3 Waxhaw and clearly the plan for this and 9 coupons isn’t going to cut it for this hungry crowd. =Time to improvise.
The Thang: Light poles, simple yet effective. Pick an exercise and we are going to run these 6 lights for 20 min and give these men what they came here for. 1 set 10 Merkins, Second set, 10 lunges, 3 set burpees, 4 set Partner pull ups, 5 set CDD, by the way my partners Nails and Point Break killed it. Everyone worked hard, seemed to be getting their monies worth but there was still….Time. Can we modify some of my plan, yes, two groups, hand the reigns off to Goodfella to take one group to do a lap of Indian run Worm burners with 5 merkins while another group did a round of smash balls merkins and a lap. Worm burner group comes around and flap jack. Just enough time to head back.
Mosey back for a quick…Kinda jail break to the launch point. Goodfella made some pax carry the coupons back so he gave them a little extra challenge:) END
Moleskin: Lot of regulars and a lot of Cotters (i think that is how you spell it) WELCOME BACK. Everyone worked hard, keep coming for those that made it out for the first time in a while. Culbertson Middle has two sites on Fridays 515 and 530 as well a Waverly (Viva Chicken) at 530 for those a little more north.
Announcements:
Christ Closet folding on Saturday morning
Toothbrush and soap collection: I think its Dancing bear and Bottlecap
Clearly many had it in mind that the day after Thanksgiving would be less attended as many were traveling…… So I took the q as an opportunity to redeem my last convergence and it was a success…almost.
Personally, I like q’s that are hard, the instructions are clear and everyone gets a solid work out. Those are my goals,simple. So here is “the thang”
The Thang; Disclaimer, mosey to the mattress parking lot for some mumble chatter about the strong desire to take advantage of a black Friday mattress sales. The creepy guy in the parking lot quickly takes off as we start. 20 SSH, 20 MC, 10 Merkins and a little stretching. Adding to a strong warm up with some burpees, a little groaning as those that were there for the first time we did a 12 by 12 there (12 burpees a minute for 12 minutes) you want to smoke a pax out out the gate, give that one a try, but not today. 12, 11, 10, 9 then mosey to “the main thang”
Empty parking deck was the location today, didn’t want to get run over by a blurred eyed grandma seeing a $2 black Friday deal, so what better place than a empty parking deck to spend the hour. The first exercise was simple (so i thought) Donkey kicks at one end, burpees at the other. At the the top run down the stairs and run back up the deck where Shop would be leading mary… Somehow that got lost in translation. Oh well, clearly still room for communication improvement. Next we did “The RUDY” partner up. Burpee jump to your partner, 5 hand slap merkins, bear crawl to opposite starting line, run the loop meet up for 5 more hand slap merkins and finish the loop, repeat 5 times. KILLER, meet up at end for mike tysons and air presses till Alf takes the q.
Alf finishes with a 3 rounds of deck abs, 5,10,20 up the deck. 5 Big boy situps at the bottom, 10 heels to heaven in the middle, and 20 dragon flys at the top. 3 times for a burner. Run to the bottom of the deck with 3 rounds of bobby hurley touches at one end and burpees at the other. Finish with running back to the launch and 15 burpees.
Moleskin: My guess is everyone got a minimum of 100 burpees. most of the time I feel they are lazy q work but the problem is they are so damn effective in wearing you out so I love them. Over all most got 3.6 miles in a deck today which is always good for a solid calorie burn. Mumble chatter was to minimum today but we did hear some bat flipper comments, which are always welcome for those that appreciate good form. Bottlecap earned the “Gerber” award as he flew by Alf and myself on one of the ab rotations. Hops was a bit ornery to the holiday hours claiming Thanksgiving was yesterday but finally warmed up at coffeteria. I know we appreciated our guests from F3 Raleigh Grady and Coco Crisps for the visit and showing a no quit attitude. All in all beautiful morning, everyone gave the solid effort and hopefully can avoid the meat sweat’s tonight (I know I was up all night rolling around on my pregnant belly,,,Not a shot a Good fella…..who HC’d on Tuesday and I didn’t see him this morning😊
Job was on Q for Cerberus this week and he called me with and injury report so frustratingly he had to make the call to heal up before taking the 3 headed dog on a tour. I hadn’t Q’d in a while so I wanted to offer my services as a fill in Q. Alf made the Job announcement on Slack but redacted as he learned that I was the fill in, he also quickly stated that I lacked youth as well which added a little extra desire of beat down level from me:)
The Thang: 43 straight minutes of up and down our new empty parking deck in Waverly. It’s a low incline so the work is easy at first but then creeps up on you. Mosey to top for WU, basic stuff. Mosey to base for beginning, each workout included the following at each turn. 20 Squats, 20 Forward Lunges (meant walking for Turkey and ALf??) 15 CDD, and finish with 6,5,4,…Burpees. I think it was solid, you have to ask the pax.
Moleskin: Uncle Leo, O Tannebom went to town today saw them out front on the last two rounds. Alf and Turkey led the pax, great to have Doc back, Chipotle, Boytano and Shop never gave up and pushed themselves. Quill! How about this new guy, stepping right in, Iron Pax this week and posting again to the triple dog. Das boot and Figi are steady and always positive have have a smile on their face, much like our brother Astro. Big Tuna posted with me twice this week and is always encouraging as I watch him push himself. Pitchfork also dug in and pushed through the hills as well.
All and all a great morning, fun to work out with this group.
Announcements:
Susan G Komen: Jump in our our team and/or show your support here:
What AN EVENT! For those that don’t know SOB Adopted the Sandbox as Partner organization that has allowed us to help those in need in our communities. Our F3 pax has done amazing things to help families over the last couple years. We have consistently maintained lawns, moved families, cleaned houses, built patio’s, built chairs, even coordinated a hospital visit and brought NBA player as an unexpected surprise for a young man not doing so hot in the hospital.
This year marks the second time we have been apart of their largest event of the year to support the families of Sandbox “The Prom.” Gents , let me tell you, this is not a two bit event, this is has a, pull out all the stops awesome entertainment for these families party. They got a red carpet, acrobats, DC comic characters, dancing, food, professional DJ’s, it no joke.
We get to be who we are, men that want to be servants to those in need. Our job was to help load up the families into the limo’s and buses before they take the hot lap around the Charlotte Motor Speedway before their entrance to the main show where hundreds of people are cheering them on. We, get to be the men that help to kick off the evening right, and we did just that.
Proud to be able to serve with those that could come and hope more can come next year as I think they will be asking for more support from us because we rocked it. We had one of our OWN as a magician this year. For those that don’t know Job is a professional Magician. I had no idea, not only is he good, he’s really good. They loved him! If you ever need entertainment for a Corporate event Job is the man. The rest of us did our thing, Jingles hopped off his flight and headed straight to the event with no hesitation jumped in on the unloading team. Snowflake learned to operate very sophisticated wheel chairs and ran back and forth in the 90 heat. Thin spent his birthday (happy birthday old man) running and coordinating as well. Blue Screen and his M cheered on and help off load. Dasher and I loaded while our NEW Pax member Pabst joined in the loading as well. Kirby texted me at the last minute and was able to join in. He was a life saver as we loaded up the couches with our Moreseville F3 Pax that help tear down (Had no idea they found another F3 Region to help) HOW cool is that!.
Last, we make it a point to write a BB for running around in the morning like a bunch of wild men but I can’t say that we are all that good at BB when it comes to community events. My challenge to all that lead these events is that we should share how awesome it is to do these events as well as being a part of them. I know I was blessed to be part of this event with my family and I am looking forward to the next time I can do it.
The excitement started yesterday, texts came in, Swimmers, Bottlecap. Hey! Spike got his citizenship lets celebrate it and make it an American theme. OK, no doubt, citizenship is a big deal. I personally have always respected it as I find the folks that go through this process take pride in it and typically know more about our government structure and our history than most Americans, or at least more then me. So, I’m game, although I didn’t want to do the Star Spangled Banner music for the entire workout I thought a red, white and blue dress along with some 13 based warm up cadence and a quick 50 american hammers should show the support for Spike that we were celebrating with him. Getting ready for the party was a bit like Super Bowl in 2015, 5:15 I arrived in my red white and blue attire, 525 Bottlecap shows up with his sexy 4th of July socks, a few others certainly were on the theme as well, then Swimmers flies in at 5:28 blaring Neil diamond’s “America” and runs in to line up with the same sexy socks as BC then ……530 start…… and….NO Spike………Deflated (sorry Marc:) but we still made it a win regardless;)
Oh Well, happens, still a theme worth celebrating and we did in honor of him.
WU- mosey, 13 SSH, 13 Merkins, 13 MC’s,
The Thang: 6 stations, curls, staggered merkins, farmers carry, thrusters, reverse row and worm burners. 3 stations short run, 3 stations long run. this three times. Finish with 50 american hammers
Moleskin: Although Spike didn’t make it we are proud of you, we know it is a long process and takes a lot of work, so, we all worked hard on your behalf this morning. 13 Bars 50 Stars, a country born out of “no taxation with out representation”….Everyone gets a voice….Make it count.