Monthly Archive August 2022

Swamp Cooler Days?

DATE: 2022-08-29 AO: _Sob Q: wingman PAX: picasso, one star, das_boot, Yard Tool, Franky, Odd Job, Watergate, wingman, Noonan FNGs: None COUNT: 9
Mosey across the street to Novant 20 SSH IC 20 Imperial Walker IC 10 Potato Pickers IC 10 Mountain Climber IC Calf Stretch
Suicide in the parking lot 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 out bound: squats return: merkins
Fountain Work, 3 Rounds 10 Jump-Ups OR 5 step-ups per leg 10 Dips
Mosey over to Ryan Foot Grab a partner for 3 rounds A: run a lap B: called excercise Leg Lifts, LBC, Bicycle
Mosey to YOGA studio Partner A: Lap up and 5 burpees Partner B: Called Excercise Jump-Squats, Merkins, Flutter
Move over one lot Suicides Run Forward Backward Run Back
Mosey to Hair Studio Wall Squats with 50 Arm Raises Wall Squats with 100 Arm Raises
Back to Launch right on time.
Moleskine YHC Came in Wheels Squeelin for the the Q. Quick disclaimer and we were off. Hard work by everyone out there.
Stay tuned for news on Holiday Party

Do you like my concert t-shirt?

Quick Moleskinny from this morning’s “Respect Q” for YHC at Hydra.

One of the first to greet and notice my F3 “Respect” t-shirt (Snowflake gave it to me yesterday) was Site Q Jet Fuel.  The quick-witted Respect himself said: “I see you’ve already got the t-shirt.  That’s like wearing a concert t-shirt at the concert itself.”  Hilarious and true.

So we worked out.  Nobody sang happy birthday or brought cake.  M. Hops threatened to do that several years ago.  Cupcakes actually…but I feared a re-name.

Did 50 burpees.  Well, I think about 10-12 of the 26 pax did 50 burpees.  Did some partner rock work & runs; and some other standard fare for a bootcamp.  No SSH’s, of course.

1.65 miles according to Geraldo.  I’ll do better next time…which is to say less mileage.

Spackler was nice enough to not pull a group of pax out to go for a run.

Foghorn & Veg-O-Matic were flying on the runs.  Runstopper did his 50 burpees in 1 minute and 13 seconds.

Cobains to Huddle House for calling him Waffle House…to which he replied, “I’m his uglier, nastier cousin”.

Semi-Gloss rubbed his schweaty self up against YHC at one point….oh the humanity!

Clover was exactly right on the 1972 price of gas per gallon:  $0.36  #rainman

Pop Tart tore up the asphalt at OPES when pulling out in his hotrod.  Thank you very little.

Some other stuff happened I suppose.

Thank you, men, for posting.  Grateful for the friends the Lord has put in my life.   Grateful for the F3 fellowship we have.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t encourage all of you again (as I did in COT) to make the 3rd F a priority in your lives.  We all know we’re on this Earth for a limited time.  Do you have peace in your life?

Not sure who will read this obviously, but I mentioned my mom’s passing from cancer in 1995 as the event that triggered the 3rd F importance in my life.  After hanging up the phone with my dad who gave me the news, I went and found an old, barely-used, dusty Bible, and randomly flipped it open.  The page that I “landed” on were words from a man named Jesus of Nazareth, as recorded by one of his top lieutenants named John.  These very words, as I read them through blurry eyes, rescued me and give me great peace and assurance; and I know they always will:

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.”

“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”  John 14:1-6

Old Boys with Dirty Toys at Body Shop

6 old dues (5 respects) showed up at the Body Shop

This is what went down:

Warm Up: The Usual aka SSH, IW, LSS, slow mosey with dynamic running to scope out the AO (YHC’s virgin post at this awesome AO), plank-o-rama while waiting for the final member of the team.

 

It’s Your Thang: Welcome to the Curb of Pain where we had 10 stations set up with gear.  Time keeper ran around the parking lot loop while the other 5 did strength training.  After all had run we moved to the next 5 stations.

Time for recess on the playground: 1000 (ish) team reps of bench dips and air squats

Back for round 3 with the gear, pax choice – we got rid of the sand bags and jump rope.

Carry gear back to launch.  Time for some sprints (no time for Mary).  Done.

 

Gear stations included: kettle bells, ruck plates, sand bags and the following exercises:

chest press, curls, tri extensions, lawn mower rows

goblet squats, step ups, jump rope

sandbag thrusters (clean, squat, press), sandbag bear crawl drags (pax favorite)

maybe a few more, that was hours ago

 

Music playlist included songs from: Twister Sister, Beastie Boys, Bodeans, Funktown America, Quiet Riot, Tom Petty, Guns N Roses, and a few others

 

Mumble Chatter: Didn’t catch much due to the above but apparently Twister Sister (or was it Quiet Riot) has a Christmas version of their hit single, nobody wanted their jump rope form video’d, in fact the jump ropes were told to go back to good will, that’s all I caught.

 

Everyone worked hard this am and we covered a surprising 1.5 miles just running in between sets and back and forth from launch to the playground.

“twas an honor and privilege to celebrate YHC’s B’day with these new friends and was worth the early alarm and long drive.  It you haven’t posted down here before it’s a great AO and a great group of pax.

Take Out: Gratitude:  Get some.  Share some.

Announcements: Iron PAX Challenge starts this weekend and there are several AOs around Waxhaw that will be participating if you don’t want to do the work outs alone; a cool event I didn’t catch the details of that includes brews and BBQ and biking or running?  Carolina Thread Trail from one of the pax’s home – ask around, sounds great; CPR RUCK 11/5/22 – look for the pre blast in the BB section or on slack – good livin’ while learning CPR.

Franky’s 45 BAM!

DATE: 2022-08-23 AO: _Sob Q: Franky PAX: Yard Tool, Cooter2, Spitball, war_eagle, ToeJam, Rousey, picasso, kirby FNGs: None COUNT: 9 8 PAX showed up for Franky’s 45 BAM! Workout (TM). The warmup introduced the PAX to BAM with 15 Burpees, 15 American hammers, and 15 Merkins. Light run to the fountain area for the main event. 9 rounds of running to the building and back – counting down burpees from 9 to zero – 45 in total! Light run to the pond for two laps and 5 American hammers at each bench – 60 in total. The PAX did so well they earned a bonus of an additional lap with air presses at each bench. Light run from the pond back to launch with stop at nine street light poles and merkins at each. Stating with 9 and working down to zero. 45 in total! The pax pushed hard and arrived to launch ahead of schedule for a few more favorite exercises.

the other direction

southern 4 mile loop… counterclockwise warmup: ssh, imperial walkers, hillbilly’s
thang: at the y for two rounds of: dips, step-ups, derkins big tire flips.
fire station for some Mary
rock pile at church for two rounds of: trifecta, holy Trinity of culs, presses, tricep extension.
a stop for Mary, rock pile at the gym for 2 rounds of: squats, bent over rows
22 minutes left. cruise towards @wingman house for some Mary and a visit by one pax to the woods.
10minutes left. plenty of time for a triple nickel at the entrance to yhc neighborhood: 5 squats, run up hill, 5 merkins. repeat 5 times.
back to lunch for 20 dying cockroach 🪳 and a minute of plank.
thine only.. thanks for the opportunity to lead. hard work by everyone.
fire hazard stepping up as site q to replace Taco 🌮.
yhc took Olaf’s challenge and awkwardly took us out giving thanks for our ability to be out and run 4 miles. reach out to someone you haven’t heard from in a while. they are waiting on your call or txt.

Mike Tomczak comes to Falcon Nest

Q:  Who did Paul Bear Bryant defeat in his last game as head coach of Alabama in the 1982 Liberty Bowl?

What does that have to do with this morning’s events at Falcon Nest (née Hawks Nest, née Falcon Crest)?  You had to show to know, but because you’re wasting unrecoverable time in order to read this…I’ll tell you.

YHC threw out some 1980’s Big Ten Football trivia (more specifically 1983-84).  What do Jim Everett, Jim Harbaugh, Chuck Long, Jack Trudeau and Mike Tomczak have in common?

They were all Big 10 quarterbacks (Purdue, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio State) in 1983…though Harbaugh didn’t start until 1984.

Some fact and fiction about these illustrious pigskin slingers from the heartland (actually Trudeau grew up in California and Everett in Albuquerque….but I digress as usual).

Fiction: Jack Trudeau is related to famous cartoonist Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury fame.   Siri & Clover were wrong.  Garry is married to Jane Pauley, however.

Fact: Jim Everett remains the only quarterback to defeat Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame in the same season.

Fiction: Jim Harbaugh owns non-pleated khakis.

Fact: Michigan leads all Big 10 schools with 9 football national championships, Ohio State has 8, Minnesota (yes, Minnesota) has 6 and Illinois has 5 (2 more than Clemson).

Fiction: Alabama leads the nation in football national championships with 16.

Fact:  Yale leads the nation in football national championships with 18.

So we did some exercises, and some of the pax, of course, didn’t do many of the called exercises.  Spackler, STOP TRAFFIC, did 5 burpees, which were the first he’s done in 4+ years #augustmiracle

Runstopper took his shirt off before the workout.  One of the pax asked YHC after teaming with the Stopper for the rock work if I was sufficiently shamed by my shirtless partner and the fact I couldn’t do tricep extensions with the rock Stopper chose.  I was, indeed.

Emoji begged for LBC’s, so YHC obliged at 6:12am.

Jet Fuel knows his college football.  He asked the question at the top of this backblast.  The Answer:  Bear Bryant defeated the Fighting Illini of Illinois by a score of 21-15 in the 1982 Liberty Bowl.  Bryant died less than 4 weeks later.

T-claps and praise God for Veg-O-Matic’s newest 2.0.

Floor Slapper was on time, and was also getting legal advice from Brokovich during the 6 minutes of Mary.  He returned the favor of free expert advice by giving Erin a “turn your head & cough” test prior to Brokovich’s doughnut run for the family.

Brokovich is also a geographical genius.  The capital city of Bulgaria is Sofia, and he answered it in a “Rainman-like” 0.87 seconds.  Impressive…and also a bit frightening.

Motorboat suggest monkey humper’s in front of the windows at the newly opened gym next to the Lodge.  We did a drive-by but no humpers.  Next week, perhaps.

T-claps to Slingshot & Bootlegger for running in.  Huddle House did not join the OP posse this morning.

War Daddy Snuka put in the work as usual and his olfactory toughness was on display during 6 MoM as the only pax within 15 feet of the rotting refuse in the dumpster.

Grits took us out with prayer after COT; he also was doing a myriad of his own exercises throughout the workout. #trifusenikwannabe

Clemson alums & devotees Deep Dish and Marge kept mumbling something to the effect that they thought the only team in the Big Ten was Ohio State.  #erroneous

According to Puddin’ Pop, we went a “legit” 1.65 miles.  You’re welcome, boot campers.

We did work in some burpees, some Makthar D’Jaiye’s (did you catch when we did them?), and his brother Walthar.  No CCV’s though I did give Erin a demo after the workout.  We’ll do them at Hydra on 8/25.

Have a great week, fellas.  Go encourage someone as you’ll likely be the only person who does so today for that person.

“encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone” – Saul of Tarsus in a letter to the pax in Thessalonica (modern day Thessaloniki, Greece)

 

 

 

 

Blowing Rock or Blowing Chunks-F3Dads Camping Trip

12PAX and 16 2.0s (at least to start), left the city life behind and went west, found a little rain, no cell service, and perhaps one serial killer.

THE THANG:

Roll in on Friday, set up tents, communal area, figure out who is camping where, and get a fire started.  The rain moved thru about 1pm and soaked everything for several hours. It did not dissuade the PAX from pushing forward (we had already paid for the campsites and the food) and by late afternoon the rain subsided, most PAX arrived, and the 2.0s were already running around the campsite.

Little did we know that on the way to God’s Country, a wrong turn was taken at a Lowe’s and a new name for one of the PAX was being born.

Upon his arrival, Chuck Wagon FKA Zinfandel, unloaded the food, then promptly informed us that one of his 2.0s did not fare too well and got sick on the ride up. Nonetheless, the promise of good times and sugar was the antidote for a quick recovery. So as the night wore on, with beer and Doritos consumed with reckless abandon, all seemed well…..

As daylight broke, Chastian’s truck was mysteriously parked in Chuck Wagon’s parking space, CW’s tent was gone, his minivan was parked in a different spot, and one stained covered sleeping mat was laying on the ground. As I walked closer to investigate, the minivan started and off it went, into the fog, never to be seen again. Upon closer examination of the crime scene, the stain on the sleeping mat was Dorito’s red, and one could easy surmise that we were down 1 PAX and three 2.0s for the remainder of the trip.

Chastain, as our Nantan, stepped up and took over the food duties. However, he quickly discovered, much to our chagrin, that Chuck Wagon stole the mac and cheese that was planned for dinner. We had 2 options, goto the FoodLion that was 10 minutes away and buy some, or gut it out. We chose the latter.

Saturday morning it was hiking trails for some while others decided to go kayaking.  As the hikers were able to witness the clear skies roll out and the rain clouds roll in from the top, the kayakers were able to experience the torrential downpour in the middle of a lake. After hiking, it was lunch at Woodland’s BBQ for most and the coin operated laundry in Boone for the remainder.

After lunch it was more hiking, but this time to the swimming hole and then rock climbing up a waterfall.

With night time settling in, time for hot dogs, brats, and beans, followed by s’mores.

As the sun woke up Sunday morning, time to get rid of all the food, pack up, and go back to civilization.

All children were returned to their Dads without any broken bones.

MOLESKIN

Official rename: Zinfandel to Chuck Wagon, if you can’t figure out the reason, read this backblast again.

Surge made friends with our serial killer, camping neighbor, who we counted as a FNG and gave him the name Dahmer or Manson. We left him a gift of blueberry muffins as a thank you for not cutting our heads off during the night.

I have figured out why they call him Chatterbox, the guy would not stop talking the entire time.

Happy Meal is our professional fire starter and wood finder but he cannot be left in charge of the six.

We are renaming OneNiner’s son as well, it is now Romeo.

Thank goodness for Marta who brought the camping gear that CW was tasked to bring, assign, yet somehow the stuff did not make it.

We discovered that Mad Dog enjoys a good bag of chips a hoy (and so do raccoons).

We all have chair envy over Mad Dogs rocking camper chair, but he will spend most of the week doing an internet search on my Toto.

Sad Puppy provided eye candy for a young hikers (and her mom) at the top of rough ridge.

Hazmat’s wife is going to kill him when she finds out he let Uncle PJ sugar up the kids.

Thank you all for allowing me to organize this chaos and being foolish enough to join me in the adventure.

Loogie Loves Running

YHC arrived to find FNG Kyle waiting. As other PAX arrived YHC gave the standard disclaimer and we were bolted faster than airport Bojangles through intestines. Oh, wait, is that Mic Check coming in hot? We circled back for him and then it was game on for real this time.

 

The Thing:

Moseyed to 131 for warm up. SSH, IW, low arm circles, and merkins. 

Moseyed to the lot behind the nail salon, stopping on the way for some Mary at the bank. Once at the lot, partner up, each partnership grabbed a rock. One partner ran, one did reps. Each partnership did 50 combined reps of thruster, burpee over rock, curls, and rock merkins (one hand on rock, other on ground, switching sides each rep). 

Moseyed back to the bank for some mary and the first in a humorous series of Loogie expressing his deep appreciation for all the running in today’s programming.

Moseyed back to Blakeney for a series of 10 merkins alternating with 10 LBC at each storefront until reaching Target. 

Next, a short jog over to the stairwells behind the fountain. Hey, those guys look familiar – Kirby, C3PO, and T1000 found us after running around the AO for the preceding 40 minutes. We did a 10 minute AMRAP of 10 supine pull ups at the bottom, 10 hand release burpees at the top of the stairs, then 10 wall climbs (balls 2 wall) at the bottom. 

Finally back to base for a quick round of Killer B’s (broad jump, burpees, bear crawl), then Mary to time.

 

Moleskin:

FNG Kyle, now named Coxswain, smiled through the beatdown and said he will be back next week. Happy birthday Franky! Kelly has been coming out regularly and doing great – keep it up man. As usual the veterans killed it. Honestly, I was breathing pretty hard trying to keep it challenging for everyone today. Really great 2nd F during the workout and after. 

Kirby mentioned to the group that the SOB 3rd F lead (Olaf) is a tremendous resource for those of us looking for guidance in this area. Olaf followed that with a wonderful take out about risk and the importance of being vulnerable. 

 

Announcements:

If you haven’t Q’d at da Vinci recently we’d be grateful if you’d reach out to YHC to get on the schedule.

Haggis’ return to the Brave

12 men stepped up to the plate to kick ass at the Brave.

Pretty simple layout.

Run a bit, Warm up, then run to Endhaven Elementary with some exercises on the way.

Once we are at Endhaven we went to the playground. Do 10 pull-ups.

Then go to the other end of the school parking lot and do 20 jump squats.

Run all the way to the bottom of Rougemont St. It is about .4 miles. At the bottom, do 15 Burpees.

Head back up to the to the playground for pull ups and repeat that circuit.

 

Moleskin:

The great Haggis returned today and killed it. He got three full laps and caught us on the way home.

Everyone seemed to love the format today. Lots of burpees, running and humidity. Everyone pushed hard today. Frehley’s pushed a little too hard and had a code brown and left his 5th towel out in the wild today. Mic Check and Midriff weren’t far behind Haggis, but Mic Check did almost spill Merlot as he sprinted towards the finish. Seems he mis-calculated the distance. Teddy and Wingy also pushed hard the entire time. Teddy has his patented “smoked Teddy” face on for most of the day. Franky showed up to the Brave for the second hard week in a row. Thank you Olaf for leading some of the Mary throughout. Picasso came up with a big push at the end and passed Mic Check as he started his Merlot heaving. Of course War Eagle had the Phone on hand in case any of us passed out, thank you sir for looking out for us, and likely yourself. Kirby pushed the wholesome and kept running until the end.

 

Thanks for letting me lead another “old School” Brave.

 

SYITG Fire Hazard

Now Brothers, go fight for the ones you love

Three ways of the warrior:

  1. A warrior knows what and who he is fighting for
  2. A warrior never fights alone
  3. A warrior sharpens other warriors

Workout adapted from Darebee’s 3-minute Warrior WOD: https://darebee.com/pdf/workouts/3minute-warrior-workout.pdf

HIIT Workout

  • 4 exercises: punches, kicks, pushups, jump squats
  • 3 intervals
  • 3 sets each, 1 minute rest in between sets
  • Added a hill sprint, bear crawl and 2 called ab exercises
  • Daft Punk’s Discovery album on speaker

Moleskine

  • Lots of pre-runners today (Circuit, Hops, Happy Meal)
  • Thanks Wild Turkey for bringing the shovel flag and reinvigorating this site
  • Thanks Happy Meal for making the drive from Mint Hill
  • Mic Check questioned the Daft Punk music selection when the playlist hit Digital Love but kept us going throughout this beatdown
  • Hops and Mic Check were throwing out names for our Joey, our Friendly New Guy (FNG), basically the minute the workout started. Hops gets so giddy when throwing out names, but it was Mic Check’s recommendation that stuck
  • Welcome Joey to F3! Ali with an “i” because of all the Karate Kid chatter
  • Wild Turkey is going to crush his GrowRuck event tomorrow!
  • Thanks Wingman for the photo and your tremendous selfie skills (way #4 of the warrior)

Announcements

  • Christmas Party at Patent Pending’s house
  • Ruck-CPR event in November
  • Pool Party 8/27 at Kirby’s crib
  • Patent Pending is hosting an FNG day at The Maul in the next month with prizes for FNG’s and whoever EH’s the most FNG’s

Truth Nuggets

  • Jesus answered them, “Do you finally believe? In fact, you’re about to make a run for it—saving your own skins and abandoning me. But I’m not abandoned. The Father is with me. I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.”
  • “There will be days, usually after a dry season of discontent, when you will find yourself standing in the sunken road of your life, facing something dangerous coming your way that you can feel but not quite see. Gathered behind you will be the people who have chosen to rely upon you for no other reason than you have told them that you were a man upon whom they could rely. And in that moment, you feel very alone. But it will also be at that moment that the dirty breeze will briefly part the clouds, and for just an instant the sun will cause your battered armor to shine brightly. It is then that a voice will whisper in your ear; you are here in harm’s way because I called forth a warrior, and you said Aye. Now go fight. And with a shove, the owner of that voice will push you forward to fight another day. And as you draw your broadsword, as you knew you would, you will be thankful that you had the help of your Brothers in keeping it sharp, for just as iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another….. Now Brothers, go fight for the ones you love.”