Turnbuckle’s Push
Did you ever think Turnbuckle would push you to work harder? Me neither, but he did today. Here’s that story….
I put out a call last night for the men of Waxhaw to try something new. All but 1 decided to stay with their same ole, comfy workout. Thanks TB for making it a workout of 2 instead of 1.
5:14. TB and I start to accept the fact that it will be just him and I. He suggests relocating to Cuthbertson but I know that is damn near a knock out blow to a newly opened site so I hold firm in keeping the workout here. I ask if we need to do DiCCS and TB laughs. “No, I think I go it” says TB. I make it known that I’ve got a cell phone and CPR. Watch for cars. Lets go.
WARM UP
Mosey towards bad idea. Stop at the Cemetery for stretches with merkins mixed in to keep us on our toes.
THE THANG
Jogged to the bottom of Bad Idea and then back up to the stop sign. Rest if needed then back to the bottom for round 2. I saw TB pushing hard up the hill so I decided to run with him. We got to the top and TB was a mixture of relived and proud. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he had to do it again so I audibled and we ran back to the school. Along the way TB commenting that he was struggling with the running today. More than last week. He had apparently never done a boot camp after giving blood.
We get to the back side of the school where I had developed a hybrid AMRAP course. It was only 0.12 miles around with four exercises. Merkins, Fence Squat Jumps, Walking Lunges, and Foot Release Squats. The difficult part was a decent set of stairs and a progressive count. Round 1 started with 5 of each. Round 2: 10 reps. Round 3: 15. We made it to Round 5 before I decided that was enough.
While at the bottom of the stairs, Foundation drifted into my head (Why, I do not know. But I often see Deflated day dreaming and I suppose that’s what he’s thinking of as well) and I decided that before heading to our next destination, we should do 5 calf raises on each step. TB now hates me.
Mosey to the side of the school for 10 Merkins and 10 Donkey kicks. Continue on your own down to 1 and 1.
About 3 minutes left so we mosey to the parking lot and I ask for one final jail break to the cars to empty our tanks. We get there and there is 1 minute left and we are at 1.95 miles. C’est ne pas bon (That’s no good). So I tell TB lets go walk the last minute to roll us to 2 miles. We arrive back to COT on time and at 2.01 miles. I’m about to start name-o-rama when TB hits me with a question I wasn’t prepared for. “Want to go get in another half mile?” Uh….yeah?! So off we go. The first quarter mile was at a jog. The second quarter mile was a mix of jogging and walking, and the last quarter mile (yes, we went over) was all walking. So today, The Lycan was an hour long workout. Thanks for the push TB!
MOLESKIN
- Great push from TB today. Even more so when you realize he gave blood on Saturday. I think most of us know the toll that puts on the body that first workout.
- I will take this time to raise up TB. He’s one of the highest of High Impact Men in our group, yet his work often goes unnoticed and unrecognized. For those not aware, let me share all the things TB does to lift himself, his family, and this group up. I didn’t intend for this BB to be all about TB, but quite frankly I feel he needs to be recognized for all his hard work (plus he was the only pax in attendance so who else am I going to talk about?).
- TB’s runs are getting further and faster. For those that haven’t noticed, he’s hitting more boot camps lately and keeping up with the clydesdales. He is pushing as hard as he can to be able to stay with the group and be a part of the group.
- TB continues to push himself on his weight loss journey. He’s lost 70 pounds with a goal of being down 100 pounds later this year.
- Many thanks to those that have helped him on his weight loss journey. Several have encouraged him. A few have gotten down and dirty to push him at workouts, go rucking with him, or talk through his diet. Thanks to those men that have gone the extra mile to help another man.
- He recently took on the role of Co Site Q at Diesel. A role I know he is very proud of. Reach out to TB to Q Diesel (before he reaches out to you!).
- TB is active in several 3rd F events.
- He helps to manage Christ Closet folding events, give aways, and furniture pick ups.
- He has run the last four blood drives which have accounted for 4/5 of all blood F3 Waxhaw has donated.
- He and his family are active participants with Rice and Beans in up town Charlotte.
- When help is requested, he is one of the first men to step up.
- If you haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know TB, I highly suggest you reach out to him after a workout. His attitude and drive is infectious. If only he wasn’t a damn Yankees fan….
- This was the third Q this year that I had 3 or less pax in attendance. Its getting harder and harder to tell my ego that its the site and not me. Please show up to The Lycan in full force next week so I can stop wondering and finally confirm that its me.
Three’s Company
I saw a family photo of Homecoming two weeks ago with just Honeycomb and another pax and felt sad. Three sites on a Saturday. Over 100 active pax, and we could only get two people to this site…the original commitment site….the location that started F3 Waxhaw. I knew I had to do something. So against my better judgement, I attended the next Homecoming with Chastain on Q. Despite my warnings that I had a man cold and bad back and would be modifying, Chastain decided to eviscerate me publicly at the workout and in the back blast (In fairness, I probably deserved it as I was in a bad mood from the aforementioned ailments). But I digress….So during COT Honeycomb begs for upcoming Q’s and I get chosen first…great. So here we are today. I arrive 15 minute early to stretch out the back (and legs…damn you Shriver!!!). Maple Syrup arrives and comes hobbling out of the car. “Shriver?” I ask. “Yup” replied Maple. Honeycomb breaths a sigh of relief as I joke that burpees are out due to my back and legs are out due to Shriver. As 6:30 began approaching it became evident that it was just going to be us three. I guess that’s better than 2 from two weeks ago. I warn the pax that we will hit all three campuses but will spend the majority of our time at the high school. I expected groans but actually got excitement in return. 6:30, lets go.
WARM UP
Mosey towards the middle school trail. Stop for Jimmy Duggans. Take that trail to the high school practice fields for a hot second then on to the high school trail. Stop at the bridge for hamstring and quad stretches. Continue the trail to the high school (Damn I hate that trail hill). Final calf stretch in the middle school parking lot to end the warm up.
THE THANG
The plan was to tip the cap to some great past workouts at the high school. First up is Delta’s Serpentine of Doom. Increasing atomic Merkins at each speed bump. There are 10. I won’t lie, at around 7 I suggested perhaps we cut it off at 8. Maple was hearing none of it. At 9 I lamented that our Q was an asshole. I think all pax in attendance agreed (and maybe even a few that weren’t there).
At the far stairway rock hill grab two small rocks that you can hold in each hand. Put them down for now. Mosey to the other stairway and grab one big rock. 20 Curls with the big rock then run to the small rocks for 20 curls (2 is 1). Repeat 3 times. Round 2 the burn really turned up. Round three was full on lactic acid burn…just what I was going for. Small rocks up. Leave the big rocks out.
At the stairway closet to the school, pick the biggest of the three rocks (good job Honeycomb) then put the other two up. Divide up into teams of three (I don’t think the pax in attendance got the joke). I think F3 calls this a grinder so I will go with it. Exercises on the ends with a runner in between. P1 does tricep extensions with the bigger rock. P2 Runs. P3 does dips at the benches. Repeat 3 times. Mucho burno.
I had not intended to do legs, but these benches where where I came up with the up and overs so we did station work. P1: Wall Sit. P2: Foot Release Squats. P3: Up and overs were our timer. I asked Honeycomb for a number between 10 and 15 and it couldn’t be 10 or 15….he went with 14. So 14 up and overs. We did two rounds and Maple was begging for mercy. I was in agreement…2 rounds was enough.
Mosey behind the school to the hand rails for a Dough Boy special. Supine ladder. 10 down to 1. It burnt. Seamed to be the theme today.
Mosey past the big hill (where Doc left my soul on workout number two) over to the cross country trail. Enjoyed the peace, calm, and serenity of the babbling brook underneath the wooden bridge but it was short lived. I forgot how bad that hill leading up to the brick pile is…holy hell. All pax breathing hard now so I took a minute for Al Gore’s to recover.
Grab Bricks (Frack special, though he did make us grab pallets one time). P1 Front raises. P2 Side Raises. P3: Run to the gate and back. The gate run proved to be longer and tougher than I thought and I really wanted to focus on the lifting so I cut it out for round 2 and 3 and we lifted together.
Quick mosey out and back to keep the heart rate up and back to the bricks for 50 reverse fly’s broken up into the weirdest count possible. 25 round 1. 15 round 2. 10 round 3. Bricks up.
All you got up hill towards the gate. Ice 9 would be proud as all three pax were near dry heavying heart rates. Called for a back stretch on the fence but Maple quickly sniffed out that it was my way of catching my breath and he thanked me.
Slow mosey back to the middle school entrance via Deal Road.
Asked for an exercise that we would do at each tree increase counts. Apparently they still wanted more legs as Bobby Hurly’s were called. We made it to 10 tree’s (not even half way) before YHC decided that was enough. Mosey to the bottom of the hill for 50 LBC’s used only for active recovery purposes.
5 minutes left. Leap Frog Sprints back up the hill. P1 Runs up 3 trees and waits. P2 runs 3 trees past P1. P3 runs three trees past P2. And so on until we were all at the top. Maple asking why that was harder than just running it all at once. I think its the high intensity part…sprint, rest, sprint. It pushes the cardio more than just a jog, but I’m not a professional.
2 minutes left, recovery jog back to COT. I thought that would finish us out but we had a minute left so we did gas pumpers until 7:30.
MOLE SKIN
- Thanks to Maple for coming to make it 3 instead of 2 today. Your reward is that you get to be the new co site Q at homecoming. You apparently went on too long about how much you loved this site which allowed Honeycomb to awkwardly ask on one knee if you would join him. I’m disappointed there was no exchanging of rings. Looking forward to what plans you have with the site. Project 1, get more pax to attend.
- Both Honeycomb and Maple pushed hard today, and thus pushed me harder. They were not hearing the audibles when I jokingly threw them out there.
- The goal was to get over to the high school to do some of the old school beat downs from original Commitment. I think I succeeded on that goal.
- In my winkie planning I had expected we would get about 4 miles. I was disappointed when we finished and I only saw 3.29 on the watch. I will say we earned every bit of the 3.29 and those cross country trail hills (both of them) are the devil.
- I made sure to make mention of Juneteenth during announcements and prayer. Its an important part of our American history that I only recently learned about last year. I do question why we celebrate when the last of the slaves found out about their freedom instead of the actual 13th amendment ratification itself.
- This talked snowballed into a discussion on racism in America today. Its a topic I’ve wanted to cover in Q bites, but have yet to have the courage…because it is such a difficult topic…..and because I really want to cover it from two angles with multiple opinions and I haven’t had a chance to talk to two particular people about coming that I want there for that topic.
- The question was asked is America more racist today than ever before. The consensus was no. My opinion was the media and some politicians are stoking racial flames for their gains. But I’m a middle class white guy who leans right which is why I’d love to get opinions from different pax who may have differing view points and life experiences.
- Good luck to those donating blood today. Thank you for your continued efforts to push this thing along Turn Buckle and Radar.
Death By Man Cold
I’ve been fighting a pretty hard fight this week. Its known as the Man Cold. While its symptoms often mimic the common cold, even when our wives get it first, they often multiply in us guys to a level never seen before (at least not in our wives). It also increases the urge to complain and look for sympathy from your M’s. Unfortunately for me, and probably many of you, I get no sympathy from the M for the common Man Cold. Well I found a new symptom yesterday. I sat down to write the winkie and stared at a blank screen for thirty seconds. Apparently the Man Cold zaps all creativity from you as well. I knew what I didn’t want to do – use a coupon. We have been relegated to non sharing coupons for a year now. Mash does coupon work daily. I wanted something different…but what?
I arrived at what I thought was an early time only to find Drive By and Chastain already there (20 minutes before launch). They both graciously helped me set out the gear and grab some more from the bin. (No snakes in the bin again so its a win already – but there are tree frogs). Pax begin filtering in and by habit start unloading their coupons…NOPE, you don’t need them. The look of confusion shows hard on their faces.
An FNG approaches and asks if we are with F3. Nope, we are just a bunch of guys that come here in the morning to talk trash about each other. We get the FNG settled in. He comes prepared with gloves (good job Bottle Cap). Turnbuckle arrives on two wheels blaring music….oh but he brings a friend – snowball. We quickly get snowball gloved up and I announce the DiCCS. New guy seems half amused and half shell shocked.
WARM UP
Circle up for the following:
- 2o Side Straddle Hops
- 15 Peter Parkers
- Calf Stretch
- 10 Parker Peters
- Downward Dog
- 10 Merkins
- Jimmy Duggans
Drug the warm up out longer than intended, but with the such a short winkie (but hey, its girthy), I felt the need to add a couple inches minutes. (God I love a good wienkie joke/double entendre).
THE THANG
Partner up for station work. There are two exercises per station. The intent was for one of them to be gear focuses while the other to be a mix of cardio/body weight work. The stations were:
- Front & Side Raise with 10 lb dumbells. LBC’s
- Lawn Mower Pulls with 35 lb keddle. Foot release squats
- Bench Press with 30 lb dumbells. Merkins
- Bobby Hurleys using a 20 lb slam ball. Turkish Get Ups.
- Overhead Tricep extension with 25 lb dubmell & Bent Over tricep extensions with 10 lb dumbells. Curb Dips
- Curls with 27lb bar. Toe Taps.
- TIMER: Hair burner with a 35lb plate with a 25lb dumbell on top. Riffle Carry (Audibled to a Riffle Lunge Walk later).
We did three rounds of this with Atomic Merkins in between rounds.
2 minutes left and AC/DC Thunderstruck on the speaker. Audible. Recover and circle up to do Thunderstruck workout to the end. Merkins when you hear Thunder. Mountain climbers in between. I believe we got 17 merkins in before time hit, though I still think Chastain was a little early on the time call.
MOLESKIN
- Great job today. Everyone pushed hard.
- Chastain and Recalc got to racing on the hair burners. What an awful thing to race at.
- Candidly the 25lb dumbell got added to the hairburner to slow Chastain down. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. He was still fast. So fast in fact that I couldn’t let the hair burner/riffle carry continue to be the timer. So I audibled to make the riffle carry a lunge walk and that seemed to slow things down enough.
- Snow Ball and Turn Buckle were pushing each other to work harder today. I love seeing that.
- Sledge and Ex would have just assumed to have used the plate for a discus throw than a hair burner, but both pushed hard to the end.
- Ghosted telling pax that I was the first person he met on his first day out and that I called him Steve the entire workout (I thought he told me his name was Steve….it is not…and in an hour long workout he never corrected me).
- Drive By there for his first Diesel workout. Looking to lessen the stress on his calves to allow them to heal (I’m not sure that was achieved doing hair burners though).
- I called out Mayhem and Penalty Box for throwing the slam ball back and forth. For a guy as old like Mayhem, it looked like a back breaker was about to happen. (Someone whispers in my ear, Penalty Box is 73). Oh, yeah, and for someone as old as penalty box as well. They didn’t seem to be amused at my suggestion that what they were doing was unsafe.
- Spitz is looking for help from Walnut Creek pax in getting a video that was posted on their facebook page of an altercation between a member and his son who is a life guard. That’s the second incident with an F3 pax 2.0 lifeguard there. What is going on in Walnut Creek??? I blame Hollywood. As soon as he left it all went down hill (pun intended for Rockwells off the chain workout which launches Wednesday’s from Walnut Creek – free marketing, you’re welcome).
- Beaver put in some good work on his first day out. He asked twice if there was running at the workout so the second time I told him not much, we would probably keep it just short of 5 miles today. Chastain quickly swooped in to tell him about Diesel and Mash.
- Beaver gets his name after telling us he turns wood on a lathe. Because he was born, raised, and went to college here in Charlotte, some pax wanted to go Oregon Trail or traveler. Wood Chuck was also suggested but Beaver was too good to pass up (and way better than Falcon). Welcome Beaver!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- There are
1210 spots left to fill up for the blood drive. Have you signed up? If not, sign up at the link below. If you have, push the link out to friends, family, and neighbors to get us to that final goal. Have a neighborhood facebook page? Post the link there today please. https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=f3 - There are lots of opportunities (and needs) on the F3 Service Channel. If you are able, please step up to lead or help in the coming weeks.
- Sandbox family moving to the Waxhaw area. Area 51 pax are going to load the truck/trailer. They need help unloading here in Waxhaw.
- Chopper is moving. Two pax and a truck needed.
- Christ Closet opportunities coming up with a large furniture donation pick up.
“Give It All You Got” – Chop Choo
14 poor souls brave men came out to Waxhaw Express today to run for an hour. A couple new pax saw a fat guy was Q’ing and decided to venture out. Sugar, Dasher, and Gerber didn’t trust the Clydesdale would get them enough mileage so they got there early for a pre-run (though I think Sugar has a valid excuse). 5:14 – DiCCS. 5:15 – Lets go.
WARM UP
Mosey to the football parking lot. Clydesdales have the option to cut through the parking lot for a shorter run. Circle up for various stretches.
Mosey to the middle of the two round-a-bouts.
THE THANG
In teams of three for a relay race, there will be 1 partner on each end recovery running (or walking) the loop while the third partner sprints the straight away. You must get at least one lap around the loop before you can run (I didn’t think that would be a problem but my team of Sugar and Inspector were fast). Once all 3 partners have run the straight away 6 times, you meet back in the middle. I asked who the winner was and got “It was a tie” from Glidah. I guess he was expecting a penalty??? Any who…
Mosey back to the football parking lot for 4 straightaway’s (??? I’ve done this enough I guess I need to give it a name and it sounds less confusing than 4 corners without exercises). Course set up in a square. Slow mosey 1st straight away, 70% the 2nd straight away, all you got the third, and recover jog (or walk) the last one. Wait until the 6 is in before we repeato. After the third quarter I felt we needed to change directions to give our ankles a break. Ended up going to double over time (6 times around). Somewhere in here we lost Mad Dog to a previously scheduled flight to the god forsaken city known as Rochester, NY.
Short mosey to the bottom of the main HS entrance hill. As a group we would run to the island where the middle school road intersects. Once the first person reached it he would turn around and come back to start. As he passed pax on the way back, those pax would turn and head back. In theory if everyone was pushing, only one (maybe 2) people would reach the outward spot. The hope was that it would give gazelles something to push for while still keeping the Clydesdales close. Repeato except this time to the rock. Repeato a third time except all the way to the main road. This time the Gazelles decided to be be dicks and stayed at the main road forcing us Clydesdales to run all the way to the top. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know its for my own good….but when you are huffing and puffing for air, you just want to throw hot dogs at their face for making you run further.
Short mosey to the road that connects the two schools where we did a 5k pace to the middle school stop sign. On the way there I was told by Glidah that there were two strava segments along this route. Hmm, ok…noted.
Once we all recovered at the stop sign, I informed the Gazelles I would give them a chance to break a Strava segment record as we would do the 400 back…All you got to the crack. It was then that Dasher pointed out that if we were going for records, we should have opened with that, not waited until 50 minutes into the workout to attempt it.
Hmmm, good point….ALL YOU GOT!
Apparently Swimmers was confused by which crack and stopped several times. Inspector Gaget wasn’t quite sure what Strava was so I told him it was a secret cult inside of the F3 cult. I think he believed me.
Once we caught our breaths we returned back to the middle school stop sign at a slow mosey pace. I happened to be near Swimmers who was dubbed “The Tour Guide” by Bottle Cap as he was pointing out all the cracks along the way back.
One last all you got 400 around the middle school lot. Gerber jumps into to correct start and finish location.
About 1:30 left and we are 50 yards from COT. I allow pax that minute to themselves. Whatever you want to do for a minute, do it. Continue running, walk, or stretch. I did ask that if they were going to be using a hand, to do it out of site of pax and cameras….
And….Done.
MOLESKIN
- Leading Express is checked off the list. I now only have to Q Bushwood, Swarm, Lycan, Afternoon Delight, Off the Chain, Cow Belle (spelled wrong intentionally), and Last Call (Damn it quit adding AO’s!!!) to have Q’ed every Waxhaw site at least once. There was a time where it was only Bushwood and then sites started getting added and my list grew.
- Thanks to the non regulars that joined today. Great push out of Ex Lax and Dough Boy. I think it was Inspector Gadgets first Express visit as well.
- Bottle Cap’s 2.0 Crouton was there getting in shape for track (I think). At what point to we allow for a 2.0 rename – 18th birthday? Crouton is trying to enjoy the flowing hair while he can as he had the original Justin Bieber hair style going.
- Wolverine told me he was going to be hearing “All You Got!” in his sleep.
- My kryptonite is long runs, but I do enjoy runs/sprints with some recovery built in. I guess that’s why I have somewhat gravitated to Express recently. They do a good job of keeping the pax somewhat together and allow for some recovery (its not 1 hour of straight running…usually). Somehow we did over 5 miles today with lots of recovery time built in (though Ex-Lax may argue that last point).
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Blood Drive – June 19th at Five Stones. Sign up here: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=f3
- Wolverine is putting a trail race team together for Thursday’s White Water Center Festival. See him if you are interested.
Ultimate Kam Jam (Round 2)
The reviews are in:
“The most fun I’ve had with my clothes on” – Blue Screen
“That was awesome!” – Schneider (In a heavy New York Accent)
“______________” – Chatter Box and Baio
12 guys decided the wanted to join me in throwing a frisbee around this morning.
WARM UP
Run out to the course (Field?) at the football parking lot. Stop twice for stretching.
THE THANG
Split up into two teams. Each team gets their own frisbee and their own goal to defend. Goalie has a 25 lb slam ball to use for different exercises – 25 each curl, press, tricep extension, and slam squat. While defending the goal, the goalie must hold the ball over his head (cant use hands to defend – only body). Dropped Frisbees = 5 merkins for everyone on the team except the goalie. An interception = 5 burpees for everyone on the team except the goalie and the other team gets to chuck the frisbee in whatever direction they want. No running with the frisbee. Scoring: 2 points for putting it in the can and 1 point for hitting the can. I think that just about covers it.
Teams: I chose captains – Double Stuffed vs Schnieder (They were the closest to me). Right out of the gate Schnieder decided to go Briarcrest heavy. His second pick was Dana who comes in around 6’3″ and has a natural height advantage. Teams were as follows:
Double Stuff, Chatter Box, Baio, Blue Screen, Ex Lax, 0-69
Schnieder, Ricky Bobby, Dana, Shop Dawg, Fuse Box, Chainsaw
Details of the game in the Moleskin.
5 Minutes left. Mosey to Traffic Circle and squat jump waiting on the 6. Rudy’s shed and wall sit airpress for the 6. 2 minutes left, all you got back to COT. Came in 1 minute late and Swarm made sure to tell us about it. I’m all for finishing through the echo of the whistle, but I admit…I was on Hooch time today – sorry boys. And speaking of Hooch, when is that sorry, no good, lazy, mind always on sex jokes guy going to come out again???!!! Here is your call out Hooch…see you tomorrow at a workout!!!
MOLE SKIN
- Thanks to everyone for giving this a chance. I think often we hear frisbee game and we think it won’t be tough. What I have found in F3 that any type of competition pushes us harder. My team did over 100 merkins today and close to 30 Burpees (Damn you Baio!!!). We got in 2.5 miles of which 1.8 of it was sprints during the game. Heart rates where high and the sweat was a flowin’.
- My team took an early 5-1 lead and never took our foot off the gas. I know we finished with 13. The other team somehow couldn’t remember what they scored but I had them around 9 goals.
- My team took an early strategy of not settling for the 1 point goals and going for the dunk.
- Baio is a stone cold killer on defense. He had several interceptions that caused my team burpees.
- Blue Screen was trying to get cardio in while being goalie and took a short run away from the goal. We pounced on the open goal opportunity and scored.
- The form police came out strong as the competition grew more fierce. I heard things like “That’s not a pushup!”, “Wait, yall have to do Burpees”, and “Fuse Box, that’s as far as you can throw??!”. I loved it.
- I nailed double stuff in the double stuffing while he was playing goalie. I didn’t take into account that with the ball over your head, it leaves you wide open and exposed. My bad.
- Double stuff got us back with an elbow to shop dawg’s jaw. Shop laughed and said “Is that all you got?!”
- Ricky Bobby pounced on a dropped frisbee like it was a football fumble. He has the knees to prove it. He later told me “I wasn’t doing burpees again so I had to get that Fisbee”.
- Schneider can trash talk with the best of them. And that continued on into COT where he got into it with Swarm for prematurely naming the FNG without us.
- The longer the competition went, the more physical it got. At one point I had Double Stuff and Exlax leaning on me near their goal. Some how I broke free for a dunk score but not before being accused by Baio of dragging my pivot foot. “I was pushed!” haha.
- There were some good battles down at our goal as well.
- On his final interception near the goal, Baio tried to throw our frisbee in a nearby tree. Thank god it came down.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Blood Drive. June 19th at Five Stones Church. 9:00 to 1:30. Sign up here: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=f3
Watchtower is relocating to Weddington Middle School starting this Tuesday due to round-a-bout construction new New Town Elementary.
Memorial Day Murph and Popeye Memorial Bootcamp happening on Memorial Day.
Where’s Xerox?
After several attempts to reach out to Xerox yesterday with no response back, I was worried we may have a no show Q. As 5:30 approached, my fears slowly turned into reality. The though crossed my mind that I should throw this last second burden on one of the new Site Q’s (check the moleskin for details), but decided that would be super funny mean and took it on.
Extra long DiCCS for the FNG.
WARM UP (???)
Rifle carry coupon to curb near the gravel lot.
Mosey to the other end and grab a rock.
THE THANG
Teams of 3. On the ends, 400 curls with the coupon and 500 tricep extensions with the rock. Runner in between.
Recover back to the rocks. As we slowly walk to put the rocks away we do 11’s with the rock. 10 Rock presses and 1 second hold down to 1 rock press with a 10 second hold. Rocks up.
Mosey back to our coupons. Keeping groups from before for station work. Stations were:
- 30 tire flips (timer)
- Side straddle block hops
- Rows
- Chest Press
Did this for two rounds.
Gathered the pax back up near their coupons for 30 coupon presses, crawl bear, 10 Carolina Dry Docks. Not enough time for round 2.
Mosey to COT. Get there at 6:14 (no second timer on my watch so no clue if we had 5 seconds or 55 seconds). Called burpees until 6:15. We apparently had 35 seconds left – enough for about 6-8 burpees.
MOLESKIN
- Thanks for the patience and grace this morning as I made stuff up on the fly. Good work by all.
- Great to see Mute back out again.
- Yellen becoming a regular as well. Watch out boys, Briarcrest is taking over again!
- Bunyan apparently took it to the pax at Mash today (according the the Mash Channel).
- New Site Q Announcement. Rudy will be rolling off next week after almost 2 years at Chiseled. Come out next week for his going away party. I can’t wait to see what he has next in store inside F3.
- Ex Lax and Loafer are both coming on board to be site Q’s at Chiseled. They will looking to fill out June and July so get with them if you would like to Q Chiseled.
- (Flanders with the shortest site Q reign ever with a quick last minute flip between him and Loafer at Asylum and Chiseled).
- Ex Lax and Loafer are both coming on board to be site Q’s at Chiseled. They will looking to fill out June and July so get with them if you would like to Q Chiseled.
- Rockwell yelling at Schnider “Lets go Schnider” as we walks to the tire flip. Apparently Schnider mistook this for encouragement and thanked Rockwell. Rockwell corrected him yelling again “Schnider, Lets go as it move your butt!” Haha. Get em Rockwell!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- F3 Blood Drive. June 19th. 9:00 to 1:30 at Five Stones Church. We need sign ups! Sign your self up, your wife, your neighbor, and your friend. Post the sign up link in your neighborhood facebook page group. We are officially a month out. Sign up here: https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=f3
- I wish I had a video of 0-69’s announcement because he was able to make a hard subject some what comical. Here is my best attempt to recreate it – paraphrased of course.
- I want to talk to you about a difficult topic that no one likes talking about. As we went around name-o-rama I heard a lot of respects but also a lot of mid 40’s guys. We had a friend close to us that got a recent scare and I want his scare to be a wake up call to those of us 45 and older…..get your colon checked. Yes, no one likes taking a finger up the butt, or worse a camera…..but the good news is that they have advanced detection so all you have to do is take a dump in a box and mail it off. Yes thats right. Its no longer a prank (apparently 0-69 took dumps in boxes and mailed it to his friends for fun????), you can get screened for colon cancer just by crapping into a box. So shake of the stigma, and go get it done. Well said O.
Hills, Hills, and more Hills
12 came out to Pursuit to see if a Clydesdale would spill Merlot at his own Q. Sorry to disappoint. The goal today was to do the exact opposite of the handful of Pursuit Q’s I’ve been to (sorry for those that Q’ed those workouts). In the past there is a route, and they go running that route until its time to come back to COT. The gazelles take off and the six is often left behind to fend for themselves unless a random gazelle or site Q is gracious enough to turn back for them. Today I wanted to keep the pax tight and together. More sprints and less long distance. Ok, enough talk, lets go.
WARM UP
YoYo mosey past the bridge to the first street on the right. When you get there turn back around to the six and go back to the road. Repeat until the 6 arrives. Quick Jimmy Dugan and then yoyo mosey to the end of the road towards the school. Another quick mosey and we are all at the front of the Elementary school.
THE THANG
4 corner runs. 50% for one straight away, 80% for another, all you got on the third, and a recover walk or jog for the last one. We did 4 rounds (quarters). I asked the pax if they needed overtime. Apparently Smithers did so we did a 5th. Double OT? The pax apparently are catching on as no one asked for more.
Mosey back to the school entrance road and regroup there. There is a fairly steep hill leading from there up to the main road. OYO 3 Hill sprints. All you got to the top with a recover mosey (or walk) back to the bottom.
The long distance runners were getting antsy. I could fill a mutiny in the air. I better let these skinny F$(&$’s stretch their legs out. Long (for me) Mosey back to Millbridge pool. There was some confusion about finding Brat who slipped/stumbled into a port a poty but I reassured the group that he knew where we were going. Found Brat before we arrived to the pool and continued our mosey to the large boulders flanking the nesbit trail.
80% mosey up the hill to the round a bout. Go back for the 6 (catching a theme?).
Quick calf stretch. Somewhat of a race to the next round about and back to the current round about. I say somewhat of a race as once the leader reached the end, turned around, and met back up with pax, those pax would turn back. So in theory only 1 guy make sit to the round about. Confusing? Yeah, but the pax made it work.
Regroup at the first round about and decided to repeat that with one exception, sprint up three trees and recovery walk/jog one tree. Collected everyone at the second round about and then had another race back to the first…all you got without having to stop to walk.
Regrouped again before a final yoyo run down to the boulders and back for the 6.
Short mosey towards the pool stopping at the circular road across the street. Sprint the straight away on the main road and recovery jog the circle. 4 minutes left, see if you can get in three sprints. I think a handful of pax were able to get the third in although a couple that I thought could make 3 peeled off early.
Back at COT right at 6:15.
MOLESKIN
- Thanks to Ghosted for allowing me to lead. I never expected to be asked to lead a running workout but I appreciate the confidence. Perhaps allowing some non traditional runners lead these workouts would draw some other non traditional runners out to them? Just a thought.
- Was hoping for a few more Clydesdales to join me today but regardless we had a great group.
- Smithers killing the sprints all day, but let it be known I did beat him on the final downhill sprint (I may have started early).
- Posse out scoping territory for next weeks Pursuit Q.
- TB and Red Light out getting their Ruck on (everybody get your ruck on, everybody get your mother loving ruck on, what!).
- Goodfella in his usual good spirit as always.
- Flip Phone is a name, F3 Name, Age kinda guy. I love reciting their age back to them when they do that. I always repeat 49 to Ice in COT. Yes, I’m a dick and I do realize it and realizing it is half the battle.
- Don’t know some of the other guys as well but they all worked hard.
Shhhh!!! Kids Are Sleeping!
Gear is back at Chiseled! What better way to celebrate than doing a mini CSAUP with gear. The plan was in my head for quite some time, but I was waiting for the ability to share gear again before busting it out. Who knew I’d have to wait almost a year. Like with most of my planning, there was room for improvement. Arrived early to start setting up. At around 5:05 I saw the beautiful site of headlights entering the parking lot. Sweet, another sucker pax that can help me get gear set up (Thank you Chastain). DiCCS given with extra emphasis on cars coming in and form on the tire flips (I guess we will have to add noise level at Chiseled from now on???).
WARM UP
YoYo run around the sign and back to pick up the six. Apparently several guys including our Nantan don’t follow directions well. Got the guys grouped back up near the entrance for walking toy soldiers. Sprint up one light and jog back for the 6. Skips with a knee grab at the top for an extra stretch. Mosey to near the rock pile. Gave instructions that we would draft teams after the run around Mt. Chiseled and back to COT. Line up upon arrival to COT and I will draft. I start counting off and some (Schneider) didn’t quite get the counting. 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2…. Its called a snake draft for those that have never played fantasy football. Several sandbag runners may have made the teams a little uneven, but its what we had so lets go with it.
THE THANG
Both teams had equal amounts of gear and equal pax on the team. They were to start moving that gear from one side of the parking to to the other side (long ways). If you didn’t have gear (two pax), you were a runner to the curb and back. The catch was that you couldn’t pass the hair burner (fail # 1). Gear was:
- Tire Flip (Fail #2)
- Hair Burner
- Curls with 27lb bar
- Hammer Curl with 25 lb dumbbell
- Tricep extension with 30 lb dumbbell
- Front and lateral raises with 10 lb dumbbells
- 20 lb slam ball
- Farmer carry with two cinder blocks
So right off the bat team 1 had an advantage in that the parking lot curves and they were on the inside. I knew that so the plan was to switch sides at the other end. But team 1 (who must have been made up of the same guys that didn’t listen in warm ups) decided to go down and back. I attempted to correct them 3 times before they finally understood. Once we met at the curb (with Schneider claiming victory even though team 1 had already hit the curb) we switched sides.
Being on the inside lane proved to be a huge advantage as team 2 was in the lead until…….CAR!!! (Kinda early for Bible study to arrive but ok…) the car stops near Shop Dawg (huh, I guess they know each other from church?). All of a sudden Shop sprints over to me as I’m flipping the tire “Stop flipping the tire! We woke this guy up and his kids and he’s pissed!”. Really? Tire flips in the middle of a wooded campus woke this guy up? I mean, I guess its true, who gets out of bed on the own and drives over unless they really aren’t happy. Audibled to roll the tires back in while everyone else finished the CSAUP. Team 2 by a mile here.
Needed to regroup after the no tire change up and the fact that the down and back went way quicker than I expected. Lap around Mt. Chiseled and back to the gear.
Team back up for the gear relay again, except this time no tire flips and we are only going half way due to bible study traffic likely picking up. Bottle Cap questions if the hair burners might be too loud. 
Lets keep it.
I honestly can’t remember which team won here, but if you really want to know, ask Chastain and Schneider together at the same time.
That round was way too quick and didn’t feel very CSAUPish. What can I do to make it harder. 
. Oh I know….1000 merkins split per team…..Picture of my idea coming to shape and the pax’s reaction….
Finished with 2 minutes left…mosey to COT. Tried to sneak in a jack webb of Turkish get ups and dips but only got to 3 and 12 before time was called.
MOLESKIN
- So many lessons learned on this one.
- Tires are loud when flipped and they land perfectly flat. Chiseled site Q’s to regroup and test methods of how to tire flip without being so loud. Options include spinning the tire on the flip, flipping it in grass, and getting the neighbor’s kids headphones.
- Chastain ruined the CSAUP by hairburning so fast. His opening hairburner was about 80 yards in 1 minute. I was counting on tire flipping and hair burners to be the slowest….boy was I wrong.
- Ask Mad Dog to demonstrate a hairburner for you next time. His demonstration took up about 50 yards. He was severely gassed after it. I was ready to pounce on top of him and start singing staying alive but he gave me a look like “I’m alright” since he couldn’t talk through his heavy breathing.
- Shriver developed a secret weapon for us and started tossing the weighted ball. It quickly became the ball toss on our team. Not sure team 1 figured that out.
- Popeye is a monster at tire flipping and weighted ball throwing. Hairburning…not so much.
- Rudy pushed through a bad back to flip some tires (to my repeated concern and attempted take over from him).
- Good to see Spitz back out regularly. I needed another Carolina guy to get on as I think Paper Jam and Gerber were tired of catching the full brunt of my Carolina hate.
- Did another double take on Draper and Schneider’s resemblance.
- It was good to see Drive By at a morning workout for once. We got on a regular rotation when my daughter got interested in the afternoon workouts but with softball and tee ball season in full swing, I hadn’t been to an afternoon workout in awhile.
- The rest of the guys were on the other team so I didn’t getting any good nuggets on them.
Saturday’s are for….Coffeteria?
13 guys at Commitment – 10 for the bootcamp and 3 mother ruckers. 1 FNG so I attempted to scare him by offering to show him my DiCCS.
WARM UP
Mosey to the school, quick audible for a longer run and mosey around the cul de sac and then up to the school. Circle up for Jimmy Duggans to catch our breath.
Short mosey to the paved hill for 50 crawl bears on your own.
Mosey to the bus lot.
THE THANG
I asked J Woww the most important question he would be asked all day. So important that I got down on one knee to ask it but left him absolutely no context. “JWoww, mini or full?”. To my surprise, he answered mini. (I thought he was loose experienced enough to take a full one). Mini Murph it was. Partner up. Partners split 150 Merkins and 200 Squats (as opposed to the full of 200 Merkins and 300 squats) while one partner runs across the parking lot to do 10 pull ups. I somewhat stole this idea from JWoww on his last Q as he had us doing pull ups and I was sore for 3 days after.
Mosey to front of the school for “four corner” sprints. 50% run one straight away. 70% the next. All you got the 3rd, and walk/recovery jog the 4th. I told the group we would do this twice. I asked after the second one if anyone wanted to do it again. Both Popeye and Mad Dog wanted a third. After the third I asked if anyone wanted to do it again. Popeye decided he did so we did a 4th one. I asked again and the pax figured out a way to shut Popeye up.
Partner up groups of 3 for Grinder (learned that at Q school). Here’s what the three partners would do in rotation:
- Split 50 Turkish Get Ups, 100 Sister Mary Katherines (2 is 1), and 200 Speed Skaters (2 is 1).
- Runner
- Chest Press and Row round 1. Curls and triceps round 2. Keep alternating until we are done with the leg heavy reps.
Rocks up. 10 minutes left and I’m out of wienkie. 10 Aussie Burpees a minute for 5 minutes. Thank you Bottle cap who provided the timer.
Split up gazelles and Clydesdales for a race to the cul de sac. Clydesdales got a 3 “tree” lead. We needed every bit of it. Thanks to Popeye for some phenomenal offensive line blocking, we tied. So instead of one group doing burpees….we all did Mary. 20 Gas Pumpers followed by 20 LBC’s.
Less than a minute so all you got back to COT.
MOLESKIN
- Another great group at Commitment.
- Welcome Dead Head who gets his name by way of being a pilot for United (and your based out of Charlotte???). Paul was brought out by his neighbor bottle cap and gave it all he had today. I thought there was a couple almost melot spills, but he held it in. Great job on the last sprint.
- Tanyatine (Tonyatine?) out there expounding about the proper way to do speed skaters again. I think he is trying to make a move to get deputized by the form police.
- Bottle Cap wondering what was beneath all of Ghosted’s clothing today (weird). He suspected he was covering up a rock hard physic and he cant wait to see what Ghosted looks like in summer time clothing (again, weird). You will always be Steve to me Ghosted.
- Good to see Deep Dish finding ways to stay active and a part of the group even with his injuries. Great Job Turn Buckle and Jingles getting him out.
- Freon scared me at the end complaining about his heart beating. I was there and waiting with freshly brushed teeth in case he dropped. Good push on the final run and it was good getting to know you at Coffeteria.
- Speaking of Coffeteria, we had one of our larger showings today. I enjoy getting together with all three workouts afterwards and hearing how tough the other workouts were, how the week was, and having some deeper conversation. Who am I kidding, I like hearing the locker room joking and ball busting that goes on at Coffeteria. Some highlights:
- Popeye letting us know he likes his coffee California girl style – blonde, sweet, and artificial.
- A small amount of finance channel talk at one end. Bit Coin apparently way down this week has a few feeling kicked in the gut.
- Xerox arrived wrapped in a towel like an old lady.
- Ghosted wondering why we don’t do 1 Q per month challenge every month.
- People still talking about Dough Boy’s Ralph episode from Commitment like 6 weeks ago.
- And so much more…
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- WTF sponsored by WTH
- Blood Drive is June 19th
A Ghost Written BB
I don’t see Atlas as the backblast writing type. I hope I’m wrong, but just in case I’m not…here is what we did at Blackhawk today. If nothing else, perhaps he writes one too and I get double credit which will send Zinfandel (Zinfendell, Zinfindel, Zanfendelli?) into a tail spin of angry gifs which should make for a fun afternoon of beer drinking and catching up on GroupMe. Now that I have that paragraph long run on sentence out of the way…here is what Atlas made us do.
WARM UP
Run. We kept running. I look down at my watch and we have gone .7 miles on this opening mosey with no end in site. I let out the proverbial “Dad, are we there yet”, but all I got back was “No, quiet down back there”. We finally reach 521 for some stretching, Merkins, the the worthless exercise known as imperial walkers (which offers no stretch, cardio, or muscle building movement, but I digress).
Another mosey towards the pickle ball courts enjoying the wonderful sky as we went (really, I’m a sucker for morning sunrises with pink, purple, and orange colors and we were treated to all three this morning).
THE THANG
21’s. Really? 13’s are boring enough but he called 21’s. Ok. Merkins starting the 1, run to other end of court for 20 squats and run backwards back to start. We went until we got to 11 Merkins and 10 squats and he thankfully called it. I was starting to lose my mind (I’m mentally weak).
Mosey to rock pile for rock work with runs in between. Curls, tricep, presses were first round. American Hammer, flutters, and chest presses were round two (yes with the rock). I found my rock too big for the American hammers so I simply split it in two with my bare hands (true story – apparently my large granite rock was ready to split).
Mosey to what naturally looks like the launch point (yet they don’t launch from there?) for 10 each of dips, irkins, and dirkins followed by a lap. Repeato 3 times.
Bigger lap to get us back to the naturally looking launch point that they don’t launch from for 6 minutes of Mary. LBC’s, Windshield Wipers, Jack Hammers, Boat Canoe, and In/Outs were called.
30 seconds left and Atlas called have a nice day. I was repeatedly reminded by Shop that Have a Nice Day is for internal reflection and you have to close your mouth for that.
MOLE SKIN
- Lots of mumble chatter today – probably because I was there. Started with Softball talk (Atlas and I’s daughters have played together before so we were comparing notes on this season), followed by the sky, into a quick electricity talk as we crossed under the 230kv line, quick mention of the humor that porta poty guys have when we noticed the name of the porta potty on site “Liquid Munn-E”, and finished up the mumble chatter talking pool install quotes and the price of lumber. If you weren’t there, you missed out on a lot.
- Gotta go coach Tee Ball. Atlas write a BB too please and I will delete this one when you do.