*Q Preface:
F3 means so many things to so many Pax on a day-to-day basis. Some come for great workouts and that brings them back. Some enjoy the fellowship/banter and that keeps them coming back. Others want to be around men of faith and that keeps them coming back.
Whatever your “thing” is that keeps you coming back, there was also some”thing”/someone that brought you out in the first place. Maybe it was a horrible fitness level, peer-pressure/Emotional Headlock, a friendship, guilt, desperation, or just curiosity when you saw all these F3 Bumper Stickers around town. Today was a reminder for YHC and other Pax in attendance that we need to be more open and intentional about reaching out to men to join F3 for one main reason: We are ALL just Sad Clowns looking for support/encouragement to be the men, leaders, warriors God created us to be! Here we go…
4 men showed up early for a Homecoming pre-run around the Weddington MS campus, including our brother from Indian Land (Happy Meal) and his FNG (Brent), Bottle Cap, and YHC. Happy Meal let us know ahead of time he was coming so it was great to chat with Brent during the run. Little did we know, our brother Haggis from Ft. Mill/SOB would show up with an FNG as well. All-in, we would be (11) Pax today.
With this Q’s standard 80’s Rock Playlist, Bluetooth speaker, some Coupons and a Whiteboard planted, it was time to execute on the Plan. YHC’s Plan, but clearly not God’s Plan!
Mosey around the front of the Middle School for various exercises, with running between each exercise consisting of SSH, IW, Low Slow Squat, Mountain Climbers. Stop in front of the Elementary School for a few quick stretches (for this old man!) consisting of Standing Quad and Glute Stretches, Bend at the Waist and Hang to stretch the Back and Hamstrings, quick Upward Dog & Downward Dog plus calf stretch. All this knowing what was coming during the next 50+ minutes.
The Thang:
At each of the (5) light poles down the school driveway, complete (10) Walking Lunges then circle back for the Six. Once complete, run to the back entrance/driveway and complete (5) Jump Squats per light until you get to the back parking lot. Once arrived, the “Whiteboard of Pain” was waiting for the Pax. A quick explanation by YHC of how this would go down.
There were (10) separate exercises listed on the Whiteboard with (10) reps/exercise. After completing each set, run a full lap around the outside of the lot then start back at exercise #1, but add one additional exercise every lap (1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4…you get the picture). The list of exercises were as follows, in an order that allowed Pax to get some Strength + Core, followed by Speed:
All-in, the Pax completed (100) Derkins + (90) LBC’s + (80) Step-ups + (70) Flutters + (60) Dips + (50) H2H + (40) Jump Tucks + (30) BB Sit-ups + (20) Peter Parkers + (10) Burpees. Pax who completed early got a prize and some Extra Credit of finding a Pax who had not yet completed and got to stick with them. This took up the majority of our time today. Done.
Mosey to the gravel lot and hill next to the school where some beautiful Cinder Blocks were waiting for the Pax. Partner up, grab a cinder for:
Done. Some Pax mentioned that these must be “Lowe’s Cinder Blocks” since they felt heavier than normal. That’s how we roll in The Haw!
Mosey to the parking lot for the final 4 minutes and the “Cube of Pain” (the cool little cube with different exercises and counts). Roll the cube to see where it lands. We completed:
Moleskin:
This was YHC’s first Q at the new Homecoming, which only happened since our brother, Frack, couldn’t take the Q as he is up in NY celebrating the life of his Grandfather (a Korean War veteran!). Please keep Frack and his family in your prayers.
Great work by all 11 of us who attended while many of our brothers were doing CSAUP’s, Trail Races, and Commitment. I hope you all felt it was challenging. We kept moving and did plenty of Core + Strength + Speed work, which makes for an ideal F3 Workout.
Like was mentioned earlier, the “Plan” was to lead a solid workout today, expecting only one FNG along with Happy Meal. God’s Plan was MUCH bigger than this, as brother Haggis showed up with another FNG named Clive (both from Scotland!). Little did we know, Clive is going through a lot of challenges right now in his life as he revealed in the FNG-naming portion of COT.
Like many of us before and now, he is experiencing challenges in his marriage and in his work. He had to shut down his construction business recently, and this has put a burden on him, his family, his self-worth, finances, etc. A position none of us ever plan to be in, but one that requires support from others to get through.
The Enemy uses these things to crush our spirit and self-worth as a leader, provider, and as a man! We thank the Lord that Clive showed up today, had the courage to share his struggles with us, and allowed us to minister to him and support him at this time of need. None of this would have happened, though, had Haggis not reached out to Clive, EH’d him, and made a commitment to help him through this.
Clive got the name “Rebuild”, as Transporter immediately called it. Perfect! Rebuild represents the transformation Clive and we all need to go through (by our own doing or forced into it) at many times in our lives. We All Rebuild! We Rebuild our Finances. We Rebuild our Marriages. We Rebuild our Families. We Rebuild our Homes. We Rebuild our Careers. We Rebuild our Personal Brand. We Rebuild our Faith. We Rebuild our Health/Fitness. We Rebuild our Purpose!
Our new F3 brother, Rebuild, will come out on the other side of this stronger, wiser, better, and with an awesome opportunity to “Make his Misery his Ministry” to other men who will go through similar challenges. We all have our “stuff”, but it’s what we do with our stuff that makes an impact on lives.
God clearly set this up today in order to do His work through Haggis when he invited Rebuild to Homecoming (an AO he doesn’t live near, with Pax he doesn’t really know). If any Pax still questions the impact F3 has on the lives of us Sad Clowns, or those we haven’t invited yet, I encourage you to think about our brother Haggis and his FNG/Friend, Rebuild. F3 Waxhaw had (4) FNG’s workout with us today…keep inviting!
To God Be The Glory! Iron Sharpens Iron!
Fraternally,
Goodfella
Announcements:
YHC took us out with the Ball of Man around Rebuild. Powerful moment for all as we pray for our brother in this tough time.
I will end this BB with my Family’s Life Verse, which was given to me by a buddy on the day I was part of a major layoff on 10/25/12:
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose”
Romans 8:28
I confirmed a 7:45am meeting time with Recalculating last night but as I was driving I noticed a missed call from Dasher and the Recalculating. Did I have mittens on my hands when I was texting him, was I late or did the Respect have another forgetful moment? Please enter your response in the PH. I rolled into Lowes parking lot at 7:44 with the Pax eager to go. We were off! As we were heading down Providence Rd. Dasher makes a quick stop at the gas station at 84/providence…was he afraid of a porta jon?
We merge onto 485 and about 5 secs later Dasher passes up like we are sitting still! We arrive at the race, get our packet and have around 40 minutes to kill and it was chilly. Recalculating has a brilliant idea…Let’s sit in the car for 30 and then head to the start line, say no more, I’m in!! Time is up. We get out of the car and we both need to take a leak. The Respect, with no shame, whips it out right beside his car (See video) and nearly scares multiple kids and spectators…lock it up Recalc!
The horn sounds and we are off! Forrest (Carson, which is Hooches son) takes off and I decide to try and keep up…not wise. Around mile 2 I hear “on your left” from what sounded like a couple of 12 yr old girls…I WAS PASSED BY A COUPLE OF 12 YR OLD GIRLS! Oh well…I guess I need to work harder!!
We cross the finish line and I’m gassed! As Recalc and Hooch are approaching the finish line Recalc may or may not have grabbed Hooches shirt to take the lead and win the race by seconds…Rules don’t apply to Jersey guys we all know that! haha.
Dasher 2nd place AG – Deadwood 7th – Rubbermaid 3rd (13 miler) – Wolverine 2nd (13 miler) – Forest 1st – Recalculating 1oth – Hooch 13th
Great job everyone! Be on the lookout for other races and events… No announcements!
A lucky 13 were in attendance today, 12 of whom expected Sprockets to Q this week’s episode of Rock Zero. Unfortunately, Sprokcets was ill and had to cancel. So being the responsible site-Q (and the one in town this particular weekend) YHC stepped in to fill the void.
Thang, Moleskine:
At 20:15 on Friday, YHC got a text from Sprockets that he had a fever that wouldn’t quit and was not confident in delivering a beat down to the pax. Since Geraldo was DR, your favorite site-Q, YHC, stepped up.
2 pre-runners, Flipper and YHC, at 0631, grabbed about 2.5 miles. Pax started to trickle in about 4 minutes to start time, O Tannenbaum arrived at 0702 and we could officially start. Disclaimer was given (hopefully Mermaid approved), commented on by McGee, and we were off.
YHC had a loose idea of what to do, the execution wasn’t ironed out but these things tend to work themselves out, right? Run to the back entrance of Rea (with the hill), hook a right and run along the back parking lot to the first speed bump. 1 merkin, 1 jump squat, 1 merkin. Second speed bump, 2 of each in that order. Third speed bump, 3 of each, fourth speed bump, 4 of each. Run to the adjacent parking lot for a COP. 20 IW (IC), 30 second plank, 10 merkins, 20 low slow squats. Run to the grassy knoll. Partner up, P1 lunge walks along the columns to the light post, P2 bear crawls the outer edge of the grassy knoll. Meet at the other end and switch. Do this twice.
** Full disclosure: YHC was not able to complete the full Bear Crawl, Spackler was witness and followed my example with his first official refusenik of the workout.**
Mosey to the Rock Pile, grab a medium to high rep rock and walk it to the parking lot. Line up abreast for 15 shoulder presses, 15 curls, 15 squats, and 15 good mornings. Run about 1/3 of the parking lot to the first entrance and come back. Do this 4 times, reversing the exercise order for the last two sets. Return rocks and mosey to the hot box. People’s chair start to a Jack Webb, 4:1, air presses and burpees. At 5 stop (that was terrible). Go in the hot box and do 20 dips, 10 step-ups on each leg, then run to the last trash can and back. Do this 3 times. Run back through the parking lot to the street with the trees. At each tree 5 CCDs, 10 Sister Mary Catherine’s, mosey to the next parking lot for some Mary. After this YHC’s weinke was spent and we still had about 12 minutes on the clock. Time to improvise.
McGee had the unfortunate sense to call for more burpees during the Mary. So YHC obliged. Moseyed the pax down to some road cones that were currently not in use. Grabbed 4. Mr Magoo (YHC’s silent partner, seriously, I don’t think he got a word in but kept putting the work in non-stop #t-claps) placed one about 25 yards out and the other 3 were placed 5 parking spaces apart leading back to the pax. Burpee suicides. Run to the first parking cone and do 3 burpees, run back. Second parking cone etc. 3 burpees each time. Round two was reverse order with (last cone first) 3 merkins and 3 squats. Return the parking cones and mosey to the cars. 2 gassers up and down the parking lot got us to 0800.
Mumble chatter was strong this AM. Maybe YHC wasn’t at 100% and the on-the-fly weinke was light, or maybe there was alot of modifying and refusniking but the range of topics covered was interesting and plentiful. Clemson’s loss (Marge wasn’t too depressed, unlike how those whiny Alabama snowflakes get when they lose and Nick Saban throws a hissy fit), Insurance sales (it all started when Alf called out my current / his former employer and someone had a story about … you know what it’s not that interesting but Spackler and McGee wouldn’t shut up about it), and then the royal family (Fun fact: 12 out of 13 pax prefer talking about the royal family over playing Flipper’s shirts and skins freeze tag).
Other notable items:
No announcements, YHC had the take-out.
Total mileage was close to 3. Great work today, men. Whatever else I missed, sound off in the comments below.
I was thankful that it didn’t rain with the temperature hovering a crisp 34 degrees. It was great to see 15 eager PAX waiting for what was
to come. The goal today was to keep everyone moving, but allow us to stay close so no one was feeling far behind.
Warm-up
The Thang
Moleskine
I was honored to lead everyone through today’s commitment. Being one of the older PAX and leading a group of leaders through an hour of fun you always want to make sure you are challenging everyone to do their best and making sure you have enough gas to lead everyone. I am blessed each day that I am able to push myself and more blessed that I was able to push everyone today.
Announcements
Shop Dawg – 2nd and 4th Thursday evenings new site opening up to Christ Closet. Every piece of clothes last weekend were put away. Excellent Job everyone.
Wrigley – Ontime was not able to make it, as him and his wife were in the hospital giving birth to baby number two.
Great Job fellas.
Or, if I had gotten this BB out before our 2nd F lunch, it would’ve been “Smoked Shoulders for a Pig Pickin'”.
Warmup
Got Gloves? DiCCS?
For the S, I did make a special shoutout to the Form Police. Normally regarded as nitpicky, jealous types watching from the back, here at Diesel & Chiseled, they are protectors of backs, knees, & shoulders. I called forth the Form Police to be your Brothers’ Keeper. If you see bad form, gently, lovingly, helpfully, correct that behavior. These kinds of workouts are so great to build true functional fitness. There were no counts to any reps on purpose. Full incentive to do full extension of every exercise. Also a great mental assessment; with only one person at each station, could you push yourself to keep going the whole time?
The Thang
Stations
1 – Tire flip from light pole to light pole (timer)
2 – Moroccan Night Clubs with Bricks
3 – Dips (or bonus Crab Dips)
4 – Bench Press with Coupon
5 – Big Boy Situps with Slamball
6 – Halo’s with Rocks
7 – American Hammers with Dumbells
8 – Abyss Merkins / Dry Docks
Round 2
1 – Broken Farmer Carry from sidewalk to trees and back (what makes it broken is two different objects, of different sizes & weights, so your core has to engage) <timer>
2 – Front / Side Flys with Bricks
3 – 21’s with Coupon (7 curls halfway up; 7 curls from halfway to top; 7 curls full extension)
4 – Skullcrushers with Coupon
5 – Slamball Lunge Bucket Brigade
6 – Thrusters with Rocks
7 – Romanian Dead Lifts with Dumbells
8 – Shoulder Taps on Coupons
Round 3
1 – Tire Flip (timer)
2 – Full Extension Brick Hold from the top
3 – Bent Over Rows with Coupon
4 – Lunges Around the World (with coupon, do front, side, & back lunges)
5 – Paint the Alphabet with Slamball (on your back, holding up slamball, hold your feet together; pretend you’re holding a paintbrush between your feet & trace the alphabet)
6 – Military Press with Rock
7 – Tricep Kick Backs with Dumbells
8 – Negatives with Coupon
More important than the workout at Diesel is the playlist. As Chastain & Goodfella figured out, it was a tribute to Neil Peart, the drummer from Rush who passed away from brain cancer last Friday. It appears only Chastain & I could tolerate 45 minutes of Rush, so I dropped in a second theme. Been a tough week at work (culminating in the anger of not being able to attend 2nd F lunch today) so I threw in some passive-aggressive tunes about working for The Man.
Tom Sawyer – Rush
Couple Days Off – Huey Lewis & The News
Limelight – Rush
Takin’ Care of Business – Bachman Turner Overdrive
Driven – Rush
Bang the Drum All Day – Todd Rundgren
Freewill – Rush
Workin’ for a Livin’ – Huey Lewis & The News
Fly by Night – Rush
Working for the Weekend – Loverboy
Spirit of Radio – Rush
Workin’ Day and Night – Michael Jackson
Closer to the Heart – Rush
A Hard Day’s Night – Beatles
Rhythm Method – Rush
If you never understood how a person could be considered the greatest drummer ever, since all they do is just keep the beat, I encourage you to watch this video.
https://youtu.be/4zhFbi_t4c8
Yes, it’s an 8-minute drum solo. You’ll thank me the next time you see me. This is the final song of the playlist as we were putting all the gear away.
Moleskine
Turnbuckle’s already posted about this on his Facebook page, which has substantially more eyeballs than this will ever get.
The tire flip was a little much today for TB. That’s OK, cause I saw everyone had at least one exercise that was a little too much for them. That’s a good sign of being on the other side of your comfort zone. That’s where progress is made.
It wasn’t that long ago when he would see a similar event as a failure. Now, it’s become a new goal. He’s already learned so many of the things he thought he couldn’t do were simply lies believed for so long. A switch has flipped for him and I’m excited to see his progress. I know we all are.
Announcements
Wedding Singer’s Sayonara Saturday, Jan 25, from 3 – 5 PM at Queens South
Plant the seeds & spread the word – Site Q School Saturday Feb 1;
Q School Saturday Feb 8
Hurry up & wipe, Goodfella is on Q at Homecoming; J-Wow at Commitment; Pax are running trails at the WhiteWater Center; still more Pax heading to the Gremlin CSAUP
And check out the Rooster: https://www.f3rockhill.com/2020/01/10/preblast-rooster-iii-the-rooster-crows-again/ I did it 2 years ago & had a blast!
Eleven men joined up Centurion, they were disclaimed and away we went.
COP – at the base of the garage entrance. IW, LSS, Cotton Picker & Merkin x 15ish. Lots of mumble chatter not a lot of counting – but that is fine.
Next we took off and ran the short ramps to the top of the garage stopping at each turn to do 10 merkins and 10 dry docks at alternating turns. Go to the bottom of the steps by the elevator.
From here we ran to the far stairwell and go up to the next level where we did 10 squats at each stairwell. The same pattern was repeated for the remaining two levels. Exercises were heels to heaven and wide arm merkins (x 10 at each stairwell). Mosey to the rock pile at the corner of Little and McMahon.
Partner up with 1 lifting rock. Partner 1 runs around the traffic circle. Partner 2 does the called exercise (curls, triceps, press and squats). Each partner gets to do the exercise and run. Mosey to Charlotte Aquatics.
Partner drag up the incline for a good quad burner. Rinse and repeat. Mosey to the back of the school.
Partner 1 does dips while Partner 2 bear crawls up the ramp and runs down the steps. Repeat twice. Mosey to Launch site for a minimal amount of Mary before time is called.
The eleven were: Mermaid, Hops, Point Break, Snooka, Chelms, Lorax, Prohibition, Hopper, Cheese Curd, Purple Haze and Thunder Road. (The tag feature on the website doesn’t work all that well – or it’s user error. Probably both)
Observations:
Prior to launch, Prohibition pulls in with several minutes to spare. Being that there are only 11 cars in the lot, there are plenty of places to park. Prohibition locates the space right next to Purple Haze in the corner. When I say ‘right next’ to his car – you probably could have gotten a nickel and two dimes between the two cars. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not.
Cheese Curd had a full Northern Experience back at the rock pile. Not sure what team he was on or what that was all about.
So when we were leaving Charlotte Aquatics after doing the Partner Drag up the hill, I couldn’t help but overhear someone talking about a Partner tip pull. This is not F3 San Francisco and we’re not doing Partner tip pulls. Maybe that’s why Prohibition parked so close to Purple Haze in the lot? I’m starting to think the parking job was intentional.
Had a great time this morning with the men from Centurion. Everyone pushed it hard and we all stayed fairly close together. Thanks to Margo and Mermaid for the opportunity to lead!
Don’t forget to check out Slack for the 30 for 30 benefit for Red Rocks
8 men showed up to walk the talk and brave The Brave. The near freezing temps were much appreciated after several days of oppressive heat and humidity. Oppressive is a relative term, but when you sweat as much as YHC does, anything over 60 degrees is obnoxious.
Thang
Mosey to circular park / traffic circle in between the 1st two office buildings on N. Community House.
Mosey to traffic circle next to Wells Fargo building
Mosey North on Comm House, stopping at corner of Endhaven for 10 merkins IC. Continue to SpringHill Suites parking lot, stopping for 20 MC IC. Right on Johnston to McAlpine Creek Greenway parking lot, stopping for 20 flutter IC. Enter Greenway and bang a right to go under Johnston, then eventually exit left on the path that spits you out next to Pike Nurseries. 20 dolly IC in Pike parking lot. Mosey on path behind large pond just South of Pike. Find way to large traffic circle at the center of Atkins Circle apartment complex.
3-pronged Starfish
Cross Johnston at crosswalk and mosey all the way home on N. Comm House. In total we got in somewhere between 5.5 and 6 miles.
Moleskin
Pro tip: read backblasts. YHC had that self-righteous feeling that comes with talking a workout to new territory, only to find out after-the-fact that Frasier Q’d basically the same route once. And by once I mean three weeks ago. What are the CHANCES. Had I only read the backblast… It gets worse; Wild Turkey, YHC’s creative kindred spirit, and the only member of the PAX to post at both workouts, was surely thinking the entire time that YHC was a hack. YHC now needs to redeem himself with a future Q on new territory (an increasingly difficult task in SOB Land) with an innovative premise and questionable decision making.
Great job by all PAX. We had a tight formation and there was hardly any time spent waiting for the 6. Cobains for getting us back to launch 2 minutes late. It was a direct result of taking a wrong turn into Tagalong’s beard and spending several minutes trying to find our way out. That thing is like the wardrobe from Narnia.
TUCKOUT
Pax: Fault Line, Lex, Cottontail, Spack, Puddin, Christmas, Horsehead (Q)
Where is my John Wayne
Where is my prairie song
Where is my happy ending
Where have all the cowboys gone
7 for Kevlar, beating the Gummy over/under odds from last night. The count did not include Gummy, however, who had more important things to do.
THANG:
Run around
Warm up COP
Giant Starfish with 5 burpee center.
Repeato a few times
7s on the big hill – Merkins and Jump Squats
Mary while ½ the pax run to the big rock and back.
MOLESKIN:
As I mentioned earlier, this workout appears to be hanging on for dear life.
Anyway, I think you get the point. It’s still hanging around. What’s different between Kevlar and the list above? Kevlar can be awesome again. With apologies to Puddin’s shirt, none of that other stuff has a chance. Attendance is actually trending upward, but we haven’t even hit the worst winter weather yet. Let’s hope for a turnaround. Show up.
From this morning, just a few observations:
The Total Body Fitness Circuit was rehashed from a previous workout that only had 3 in attendance. It was too good for that, so we revived it. Cottontail has already mailed out a handwritten thank you letter, although with baby #14 on the way I’m not sure how he has time to do anything else.
Puddin Pop always brings the fun. Sometimes it’s hard to decipher what he’s saying through the miasma that he is enveloped in, but I believe that most of his comments were about pre, post, and during bowel movement activities. I tried to take notes, but ran out of toilet paper.
Spackler admitted that he considered Header’s workout at Joust but posted Kevlar for the commentary and the backblast. We all know what really happened that time Header tried to use the FBC Lottie Moon collection plate as a Frisbee over there – total disaster.
Did you know that James Best was in several Andy Griffith episodes before he went on to play Roscoe on the Dukes of Hazzard? He played rising country music star Jim Lindsey, who somehow managed to get a screaming electric guitar sound out of an unplugged acoustic that he barely touched. Guess what his real first name is? Jewel. He was also a black belt in karate, which helps with a first name like that. Denver Pyle (Uncle Jesse) was also in Mayberry for a while as the Darling family Patriarch.
This backblast is going to make the Hangers On list soon, so we’ll end it here.
Post Kevlar in 2020. Make Kevlar Great Again
Horsehead