The Sandbox is Here
F3 Service Opportunities: The Sandbox
What: A partnership formed between two great organizations to give the men of F3 the opportunity to serve and make an impact in the lives of families in need.
When: An ongoing opportunity for at least 12 months where PAX can volunteer as they are able for various tasks and projects.
How: Sign up for new Slack Channel – The Sandbox – to indicate an interest and respond to opportunities as they are presented.
Mission of The Sandbox
When a child is diagnosed with cancer, life-altering, rare or terminal illness, it is our mission is to lock arms with people in our community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs of families at the time of diagnosis or referral. We want to create opportunities for families that encourage friendships, create lasting memories, produce joyful experiences and most importantly, restore hope.
This is where F3 Steps up
Practical Support
Mowing the lawn
Picking up groceries
Help with a simple home project (s)
ETC…
Social Support
Inviting a Dad to a AO
Inviting their 2.0’s to a AO
Taking a family to a 2NDF Event
Helping at the “Prom Event”
Emotional Support
Be there for them
Listen
Just hang out
For individual PAX, the involvement will be very flexible. If a family has a practical need that has been posted on slack you can meet, reply via Slack and take it on. This may be your only involvement. Or, you may see an opportunity to lead further, to form a deeper relationship, and otherwise participate in a family’s life.
This is NOT a “Family Sponsorship” request, Sandbox will continue to “own” these family relationships as they are sourced from hospitals and social workers. The Sandbox will enlist F3 when they need the “horsepower” to meet certain needs and it will be our opportunity to step up in each case with no longer term commitment and generally with flexibility on timing of delivery.
Men, we did our homework, we are a good fit for this organization and it will give you an opportunity to serve a variety of different ways. Life is more important than work, golf, or working out, our lives need to be bigger than us as individuals. What better way to lead by example then to see a need and fill a need as we get our 2.0’s and our M’s involved in what we are doing to serve the community. This partnership will give us that flexibility and opportunity to do just that. Please step up, step out and grab the opportunities as they come, as we know you will.
F3 Q Contacts
Soft Pretzel- Cell 704-534-6411
Transporter- Cell 414-731-3035
Flipper- Cell 704-724-6948
Sandbox History
In 2010, a group of friends saw a need – helping families during Christmas at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, NC. After the holidays, this group wanted to continue to provide support for families. In March of 2011, a social worker at the hospital asked if they could host a prom for patients who would miss their own prom due to treatment or the eventual impact of their illness. They answered “Yes!” and, The Sandbox’s signature event, An Evening of Believing Prom was born.
Today, The Sandbox serves families through the CARRE program – Caring About Real Relationships Empathetically. This phrase is an umbrella to all of the support they offer families whose children suffer from severe illness. The Sandbox has humbly served more than 5,000 families in the greater Charlotte region as well as some parts of South Carolina through a variety of programs and events.
For more, go to: https://gotsandbox.org/
Rain? What Rain Peak51 backblast
Set Up
In the days leading up today I often looked at the Weather app for Thursday morning and was greeted with predictions of rain. Not 10% or 20% chances, mind you. More like 80% plus. Harkening back to the great American philosopher, Alfred E. Nueman, I thought, “What? Me worry?” No way was I going to worry…I KNEW Peak51 was safe from rain. Because I have access to a far greater weather predictor than Weather.com. Way better than the Farmer’s Almanac. Better than NOAA or even the National Weather Service. I had learned from the master himself – Slim Fast! He has said on many occasions (in your best redneck Texas accent) “I don’t know what it is. I can’t explain it…but every time its raining in Matthews before Peak51 it stops just in time.” I’ve seen it happen several times myself. No matter how dire the predictions are for a total washout. Explaining the Bermuda Triangle or Nessie would be easier than this phenomenon.
I dutifully arrived at 0445 in a substantial downpour for the pre-run and spent the next several minutes praying no one else would show up. 5 minutes later two things became abundantly clear: 1. My prayers were answered, and 2. Every other F3 participant in the area is smarter than me. At 5:10 the rain grew in intensity and I was about to part ways with Mr. Nueman and start worrying. Cars began to roll in and 5:27 the rain dwindled to an occasional sprinkle. Slim Fast had waved his magic wand again.
Introductions made and disclaimer given – we set off to mosey around Matthews Elementary.
The THANG
Circle up on the bus lot for COP:
SSH X 20
IW X 20
LSS X 17
Mosey to bottom of hill behind the church. Partner up for suicides/called exercise. Partner 1 does suicides uphill (texas drawl: shorten ur stride, shorten ur stride, lean in to the hill) while partner 2 does mountain climbers. Flap jack. Round 2 substitute bomb jacks for mountain climbers. Round 3: squats.
Mosey up to the covered stage at Stumptown Park. Keeping with same partners…partners 1 on end of stage and partners 2 on other end. Partners 1 bear crawls to their partners as a relay race. Once tagged, partner 2 crab walks to other end. Taking advantage of the dry floor YHC moved Mary up to this point in the workout: Dollys, Freddie Mercury’s, American Hammers, LBCs each X 20. Two rounds of protractor with each pax calling out an angle. Merkins X 20 just because. The Q being the observant one that he is, noticed the PAX really enjoyed the bear crawl/crab walk relay race and were disappointed we only did it once. So…round two! And there was much rejoicing.
Mosey back to the AO to the entrance of the city building for circuit work on the benches and stairs. Step-ups X 20, dips X 20 and derkins X 10. Rinse and repeat. Mosey to the big church wall for two rounds of sitting in the people’s chair with 50 and then 100 air presses.
Snake mosey back through the ‘suicide’ parking lot and then back to our cars. One or more of our directionally-gifted PAX noted in a somewhat frustrated tone that the mosey was the ‘wrong’ direction to get us back to the beginning. He/they were correct so YHC rewarded them by picking up the pace of the mosey. Garmin says we did 1.95 miles (Q honestly expected that to be higher. Guess we will have to run more next time to make up). Time = 6:15 Done!
MOLESKIN
Great to have 3 returning PAX from days gone by: Triple D, Blue Hen and Blender. Hope you all make Peak51 a regular part of your week going forward. Great effort from all the PAX which has become the norm for Peak51. The dynamic duo Sensei and Slim Fast were strong as always; the ‘other’ dynamic duo/Siamese twins Tweetsie and Lois again added sweat and humor to the workout; Lumberjack again performed at a high level belieing his ‘respect’ status. T-claps to Sensei and Lois for their excellent leadership of Peak51 and for giving YHC the opportunity to lead these awesome men. Hearing the ‘wrong way’ comment mentioned earlier and a PAX comment that he won’t be able to lift his arms later in the day was almost enough to bring a tear to the eye of YHC. BTW – as we broke the circle of trust…you guessed it. Rain slowly started picking up and wipers were required for the drive home. Unreal.
T-claps to Tweetsie for taking us out by giving thanks to our Heavenly Father and encouraging us to be salt and light to a hurting and dark world. Additional T-claps to Tweetsie for being here this morning – with the passing of Billy Graham I’m sure work for him this week has been off the charts.
Do what with the Sandbags
The Thang…
Two fine men posted for a double pre-run the first of which was in the rain and on a flat course. Two more showed up for the single pre-run and one man who forgot to set his alarm was waiting on them for the Boot Camp.
The clock hit 5:30 and we were off.
We headed back to the Basketball court for some COP exercises were all done IC:
10 LSS
10 Merkins
10 Windmills
10 6 count Burpees
Next we moseyed over to the playground with the “track” around it. It was flooded so over to the covered benches. 10 6 count burpees and off we go as it was ankle breaking slippery.
Dodge the deepest puddles over to the pull -up and dip Bars.
1st round – 10 Squats, 5 dips, 2 pullups
2nd round – 20 Squats, 10 dips, 4 pullups
3rd round – 10 Squats, 5 dips, 2 pullups
Next over to the Big Boy dip bars:
3 rounds of 10 dips and 5 pullups
Next head toward the covered walkway.
Split into a 2 man and 3 man group. One team does merkins while the other does a long suicide set. then Flapjack.
Then we headed over to the Gym doors for a little peoples chair with alternating legs up.
Then one last sprint all the way down the covered walkway with some flutter to recover.
Head back over to YHC’s pick-em-up Truck to grab some sandbags. There were some 50’s, a 40 and a 60.
Pick the one you want and head to the walls.
First the sandbag goes over the wall and then the Pax follow behind. Repeat for all 11 walls.
Do some more burpees and head back to the launch.
Just enough time was left for a few rounds of curls and bent over rows.
Mole Skin…
It was a hard day to get up for the early rainy pre-prerun, but I knew if I didn’t show up either Erector at General would have to run it alone. So I did what all of us do. I got my lazy ass out of the fartsack so that I didn’t let another man down. Fortunately, Erector did the exact same thing. YHC did convince Erector that we should go with the flat route so that I could investigate how wet is was in all of our normal hangouts. It was ridiculously wet on the hill, fields and parking lots. Luckily YHC had some contingency plans in mind. We circled back around at 5:00 for the pre-run pax. Chedda and Ringer were waiting there for us. So we headed off for the Hilly normal prerun route. For the record NO ONE told Ched that we were interested in the Smoky Mountain relay. Luckily Ringer had his 3 belt mounted lights so that he could lead Chedda, as he did not bring his headlamp.
We made it back to the Launch where Soft Pretzel was waiting for us yelling into the dark about an alarm that was not set correctly and he had already counted for those miles in his training plan.
It was great to have Chedda out today. I believe that this was his first post at The Arsenal. If not it was at least his first pre-run there. Everyone pushed hard today and there was great 2nd F.
Thanks men for giving me a chance to lead.
The Snatch Free Zone
The forecast wasn’t looking good, but 6 men came anyway for YHC’s Meathead VQ. Despite what Cantore said, the rain stopped at 5:30 and we proceeded to get our kettle bell on. And as promised there were no snatches to be found.
The Thang
-The warm up included the following:
15 SSH in cadence. 10 single hand swings each side. 15 two hand swings.
15 Merkins in cadence. 10 single hand swings each side. 15 two hand swings.
15 Low Slow Squats in cadence. 10 single hand swings each side. 15 two hand swings.
10 Halos each direction. 20 two hand swings. 10 Burpees mixed with an American swing.
-Now to the main event:
10 Merkins with right hand on kettle bell. 10 Merkins with left hand on kettle bell. 20 upright rows. Repeat 4 times.
10 Lawn Mowers right hand. 10 Lawn Mowers left hand. 20 Flutter Presses. Repeat 4 times.
10 Tricep Extensions. 10 Curls. 10 Goblet Squats. Repeat 4 times.
Grab the kettle bell with your right hand and walk down to the playground.
10 Pull-Ups. 10 Shoulder Presses. 5 Burpees with American swing. Repeat 4 times.
Grab the kettle bell with your left hand and walk back to the parking lot.
5 Single Arm Thrusters right. 5 Single Arm Thrusters left. 10 two hand Thrusters. 10 Louganis. Repeat 4 Times
10 High Pulls right. 10 High Pulls left. 10 Shoulder Presses right. 10 Shoulder Presses left. 10 American Hammers.
A little bit of Mary was thrown in between a couple of the sets.
Done
Moleskin
Great group of guys todays. Everyone working hard and getting after it. YHC enjoyed the chance to finally lead Meathead. That was…fun. Thanks gentlemen and a special thanks to High Tide for the take out.
P.S. YHC is not as angry as the music may have suggested.
Announcements
A couple of runs coming up.
Run Jen Run is this weekend, https://runjenrun.racesonline.com/register
Get Your Rear in Gear, http://join.coloncancercoalition.org/site/TR/GYRIG/GYRIGEvents-2018?pg=entry&fr_id=3616
Tabata Workout in the dry Copy Room!
In preparation for the rain, the plan was to have our Tabata workout under the shelter of the covered Copy Room where we could stay dry. But with the weather over 55 degrees we were soaked when we finished! 9 guys made it out to our Tabata workout at The Floater with a 5:30 am start.
Warm Up: A quick mosey to a gas station across from the Waxhaw Water Tower that had protective cover for our men. Disclaiimer given (they cant’t sew the gas station). 20 SSH, 20 potato pickers, Imperial Walkers, Michael Phelps (small circles, wider, real big circles).
The Thang: Mosey down the street to a church close by that had a covered area behind the parking lot. This structure was given the name, The Copy Room. The Tabata workout consisted of: Category 1- Cardio – 25 seconds on, 10 second break – 4 exercises per category A. SSH B. High knee kicks C: Side-to-side jumps D: Speed skaters – perform each exercise twice. 60 seconds between concentration.
Category 2 – Chest – Merkins, incline, wide and close hand.
Category 3 – Triceps and shoulders – Dips, Plank moves, plank jack, elbows and hold at 6 inches
Category 4 – Abs – Crunches, Flutter, Leg extensions, American hammers
Category 5 – Legs – Step-up’s, Low slow squat, front lunges, side lunges
Category 6 – Repeat Category 1 for Cardio
There was plenty of moaning and groaning as we learned the meaning of “no pain, no gain!”
Old School Swim Meet
The Thang:
SSH
IW
Merkin
LBC
Flutter
Rosa Lita
Jog to far football field avoiding mud puddles along the way.
Partner up
Partner 1 planks, partner 2 crawls under and jumps over legs of parter 2. flapjack 2x
Wheel barrow 50 yards flapjack and return 2x
OYO burpee broad jump 25 yards 2x
Mosey to benches
Step ups keep one leg planted on bench 10x switch legs 10x, dips 20x, Dirkens 20x repeat for 3 sets.
Surf to the entrance near the bus lot. Squeeze into well lit doorway for wall sits/arm raises in cadence to 100- 5 minute time sucker.
Mosey back to the field next to the
Playground for Jack Webb 1 Morley to 3 arm raises… continue until we reached 10 mirkens and 3O arm raises . yeah that sucked.
Make our way back to the front of the building find another doorway and repeat wall sits, aternsting crossing legs for 5 mins.
Done
Mole Skin
Yeah it was wet. Today was a good old school boot camp. I think Egypt clocked our mileage at 1.1 miles. Not bad for an old guy that likes to yell at people.
LT Training at Pursuit – Wk 1
5 men crushed week 1 of an 8-week Lactate Threshold training series at F3 Pursuit. 2 others arrived a few minutes late and missed out on the fun. And YHC had a mustache.
For more on this training series see the PreBlast.
The course was a fairly flat 1.6 mi road/path loop. We’ll be avoiding the Thread Trail during this series for obvious reasons. We may avoid paths as well going forward because it was challenging to maintain LT pace on some of the twists and turns.
We were relieved when the rain subsided a few minutes into our warm-up lap. After ~13 minutes of easy running we got to work on the assignment for week 1:
- 4 minutes @ LT pace with a 2 minute recovery x 6
We paired off by like speed due to a couple guys missing headlamps (always bring a headlamp to Pursuit). Table Slam and Wahoo (both Millbridge residents) joined forces and YHC and Transporter linked up. Frasier was where Frasier always is: out in front. We circled back for the 6 during the recoveries and stayed together throughout. After the intervals we cooled off for about 10 minutes with a slow mosey.
Lactate Threshold (LT) pace is typically somewhere between 10-mile and half marathon race pace. This first week of the plan was good for dialing in the pace. YHC’s intervals started off too slow and got progressively faster as we went along. Now YHC has a better idea of what pace to target for next week. The goal will be more consistent splits. That is always the goal when running intervals. They should be as consistent as possible.
Rock Thrill and Doc McStuffins posted but arrived a few minutes late, after the group had departed. Since the route was not published ahead of time they had no idea where we might be and never found us. Cobains, fellas. The course will be published from now on.
Tune in next time for week 2 of the LT series. We’ll be extending our intervals a bit as we gradually increase time spent at LT pace through the 8 week plan. We’ll do 5 minutes @ LT pace with 2 minutes of recovery x 6.
-TUCK
Peckers and Elephant Scrotums
6 men ignored the weather forecast for rain and made their way out to Basecamp to discuss, among other things, peckers and elephant scrotums workout.
Thang
- Lap around the lot for the latecomer (Bug Eater) and COP
- Windmill, IW, LSS, Merkin, Mountain Climber
- Head towards the steps down to the ball fields and grab a lifting rock on your way. Line up abreast at the base of the steps.
- 10 Curls, 10 OHP, 10 Merkins – run up the steps, around the sidewalk to the left, and back down to your rock
- Repeat but with 20 Curls, 20 OHP, 10 Merkins
- Repeat with 30 Curls, 30 OHP, 10 Merkins
- Leave your rock and head down the sidewalk to the bleachers by the ball fields
- 20 dips, 20 derkins, 20 supine pull-ups, run down around the sidewalk, up short flight of steps back to bleachers
- Repeat with 15
- Repeat with 10
- Run back to our rocks
- Same as before but with Bent Over Row instead of Curls and Squats instead of OHP
- Head to the dry patch of concrete by the bathrooms for Mary
- LBC, Flutter, High Flutter, Am Hammer
- Head to YHC’s truck and grab a partner and a sandbag
- Sandbags in place
- P1 runs a lap of the lot while P2 picks up bag and throws over alternating shoulders
- Flapjack
- Repeat with bent over rows
- Moving with the sandbags
- P1 sprints to far end of lot and does merkins until P2 arrives running with the sandbag
- Flapjack on the way back
- Repeat with CDD
- Repeat with LBC but do a full lap of the lot instead of just going to the end
- Put the sandbags back and line up for a suicide using basketball goals
- Run to first, 5 merkins, run back to start
- Run to 2nd, 5 merkins, back to start
- After the 4th time you return, run all the way to the end of the lot and plank abreast
- Merkins IC
- AYG back to launch side of lot for COT and take-out
Moleskin
Goonie texted me the night before saying that coupons didn’t make their way out to Basecamp often and thought sandbags might be a fun idea. YHC concurred and quickly loaded up the truck. Had a great plan going into it, but that plan included the track (which I did not realize becomes a lake after even a little bit of rain) and at least 8 PAX (which we didn’t get). Luckily, we got 5 badasses (and 1 Q) ready to work and that is exactly what we did.
The workout started with Fireman Ed regaling us with tales of his trip to D.D. Peckers the night before. If you’ve never been to this local gem, I highly recommend you change that. The wings are ridiculous, the atmosphere is great, and the buffalo chicken wrap is on my Top 10 list. Better yet, it’s practically walking distance from YHC’s house so hit me up if you are heading that way and I will meet you there. Once we finally got Red to quit yapping, we headed out listening to the swish-swish-swish of his raincoat which remained dry as a bone most of the morning (#overPrepared).
Goonie ran a solo pre-run this morning — he then complained the rest of the workout that we weren’t getting enough miles (#overDedicated). He was crushing the sprints though so who can argue with results. Speaking of dedication, Thunder Road is a little bit stronger and a little bit faster every darn time I see him. This guy is the definition of steady progress. We did have one moment where he claimed that the sandbag, which was admittedly quite wet, felt like carrying an elephant scrotum. We almost left it alone, but the question was definitely raised as to how one even imagines what that would feel like. I do know my sandbags will never look the same again (#foreverUnclean). Snoopy is back from winter break and brought his best today. Great meeting you. Appreciate you making your way out on a less than ideal morning (#kotters). What Bug Eater lacks at being on time (#LIFO) and at counting to 30, he makes up for with mumblechatter effort. Pushed the pace all morning.
It was fun, guys. Glad it didn’t rain any harder and appreciate you all lugging around those schweaty elephant balls.
*Side note: if you didn’t recognize the quote “forever unclean,” look it up and then watch The League. You won’t be disappointed.
Announcements
- Benny is home from the hospital and looking at a long recovery. Keep him in your prayers and keep an eye out for ways we can help.
A Good Old Fashioned Mystery at The Maul
Thang
- Mosey to Target lot for COP (windmill, LSS, IW, Low Slow Merkin, Mountain Climbers, Low Slow Merkin)
- Mosey to Saint Matt’s lot and partner up
- P1 goes left, P2 goes right
- 5 merkins at every bump until you meet your partner
- 10 handslap merkins
- Run back the way you came, no merkins
- Flapjack directions and repeat
- Repeat again with jump squats instead of merkins at the bumps
- Flapjack directions and repeat
- Mosey to Cantina 1511
- P1 on the wall 10 dips/10 derkins/10 step ups, keep repeating until partner returns
- P2 run to fountain behind Pearlz, 10 burpees, run back
- Flapjack
- Continue until each partner has done the burpees twice
- Mosey home
- Toolbag led COT, name-o-rama, etc.
Moleskin
Big turnout at The Maul — not something uncommon here at one of SOB’s staple weekly workouts. Found out the night before about an early morning work meeting and had to head straight to the car before COT. Cobains to all who were there for not sticking around and big thank you to Toolbag (Site Q) for finishing out the morning for me.
Doc and Mic Check (unsurprisingly) out front on the partner work. They had some trouble listening to directions, but this is also unsurprising. And, I guess I should say that Doc was out front on the partner work dragging along Mic Check (who has apparently come out of hibernation for this unseasonably warm weather). Wingman has been doing some kind of secret training and has become impressively fast — look out for this guy at P200. Honestly, everyone killed it today and we were able to cover 3+ miles of pretty heavy work in the 45 minutes we had together.
Turns out we had a new(ish?) guy today. Unfortunately, YHC’s mind wasn’t working too well this morning; did the disclaimer but did not ask if new guys were present and so didn’t even realize we had an FNG 2NG? until hearing Toolbag’s recording after. Some ambiguity here I am still trying to get to the bottom of. Good chance it was Olde English, Pleats or Zekeface (all of whom first posted that Monday). Just spoke with Tagalong and he was useless in providing intel. Comments welcome below clearing up this mystery.
Either way, lesson one learned is always, always ask if there are new guys present. Wouldn’t have changed the workout, but definitely would have made a better effort to introduce myself and Tweet a welcome afterwards to my thousands hundreds tens of followers. My apologies, new(ish) guy — look forward to seeing you out again soon and meeting you properly.
Second lesson learned: try not to have to leave early, especially if you are the Q. The 5 rules of F3 exist for a reason, including the last one that it must end with a Circle of Trust. YHC made sure to ask the Site Qs to lead COT, but not actually being there definitely takes something away from it. Feels more like just another workout without those few minutes at the end to come together, recognize each other, and take a moment to pray together. Bonus points for anyone who can list the other 4 of the 5 rules in the comments.
Had a blast leading these men at The Maul and hope everyone got what they came for. Thanks to Toolbag and No Show for the invite to lead.
Announcements
- None on Toolbag’s recording and BROlympics is over now (thanks to all who came and those who helped!)
- RunJenRun 5K is this weekend at Symphony Park. F3 and Speed For Need will be there. Still time to sign up or to come out and cheer. Talk to Frasier for details.
- For anyone interested in OCR, a group of guys will be running Savage Race again this year. This is a great first obstacle race for those who are curious and is extremely well run (and less expensive than Spartan) for anyone looking to test themeselves. You can get 20% through tomorrow (3/1) using code LIBERTY4ALL
Right left confusion
Another glorious day in the MUMC Scout Hut. Ideal temperatures. No rain. Couldn’t get any better could it?
Yes, actually, it could.
How about some deep stretching to the best classic rock from the 60s?
MUCH BETTER!
Here’s how it went down:
Vinyasa – 1X slow to take time to de-kink, then 2X OYO to warm up
Meet @ Table Top
LEFT: Lizard 45s
Hammy stretch 45s
Lizard Quad 45s
Vinyasa 1X OYO
REPEATO RIGHT
Vinyasa 1X OYO
Meet in Table Top
LEFT: Bird dog/Cheetah 5X
Side Split 45s
Twist Side Hip 45s
Vinyasa 1X OYO
REPEATO RIGHT
Vinyasa 1X OYO
Meet in Table Top
Malasana 60s
Vinyasa 1X OYO
Meet in Table Top
LEFT: Pigeon 60s
REPEATO RIGHT
Meet in Table Top
Cat Cow 5X
Seated twist 30s (L/R)
Prone shoulder flip 45s (L/R)
Vinyasa 1X OYO
Meet in Table Top
Shoulder across chest stretch 45s (L/R)
Single knee hug 45s (L/R)
Dead pigeon 45s (L/R)
Supine twist 45s (L/R)
Vinyasa 12X OYO
Happy baby 45s
Bridge 45s
Double knee hug 45s
Announcements
Tweetsie on Q next week.
Moleskin
Playlist was “60’s Rock” from Amazon
This Tabata Weinke was piloted in early February and is now YHC’s go-to (patent pending). If you have add/drop suggestions, please let me know.
Thanks for coming to Gumby and taking time to treat your body right, considering all the pounding/neglect it takes the rest of the week. Thanks also for not giving me grief over my left/right confusion. (I’m a regular member of Dyslexics Anonymous. Our motto: Dyslexics of the World, Untie!)
Devo reminder: don’t switch teams. Romans 6:15-23