When I sent out the preblast last night, it was met with crickets. Not a good sign. A few of them read it, but others openly declared that they never read preblasts, for fear of getting syched out and not going. There’s some good logic in there.
My plan was to hand off the Q to everyone in the group, having them do the hard work of Q’ing. The sheet I came up with was going to help give some guidance if needed. Basically, I signed up to cheat my way out of Q’ing. To say I Q’ed without actually Q’ing. But my efforts to abdicate my leadership responsibilities were thwarted by my own tendency to overcomplicate matters.
We started with a mosey to the bus parking lot, led by Ranger, my 2.0. Line up across the lot and race to the 2nd speed bump. The order you come in was going to determine the order of who would Q when. This turned out to be a red herring, as I already realized passing the Q wasn’t going to work. Still, it got us in the area for Ranger to lead…
The Warm Up
The Thang
Grab a rock. Find one who can stick by you to the end.
People’s chair – air presses with your rock
Hold that rock out there…
People’s chair – air presses with your rock
Head down to the front of the bridge. Diamond merkins while we wait for the 6.
Sevens – mountain climbers at the bottom, step ups / box jumps on the tables at the top of the stairs. No rocks here.
Fast finisher? Then do curl to presses with your rock while you wait for the 6.
High knees with rock overhead while you go across the bridge. “He said heiney…”, said half the Pax. No, that joke never gets old.
Small field just past the bridge was a perfect place for Lt. Dan to salute us. The Jack Webb of legs = 1 squat to 4 lunges up to 10 squats & 40 lunges. This seemed to be the most unhappy I had seen the Pax in a while. Thankfully, Bottle Cap channeled the spirit of Kevorkian with his gutteral, mega-machismo counts that he normally does on a Jack Webb. However, the lunges force you to go slower than you can on air presses. Popeye wants to put Lt. Dan in front of a firing squad.
Pinball (with your rock) up to the knee wall in front of the track. Dips (rock optional) & Derkins
On the track, partner up for a little Catch Me If You Can. You only need 1 rock between the 2 of you, so each guy was eyeing and fondling each other’s stones to pick a winner. This adolescent humor was being led by the adults, and not the 2.0’s.
Partner 1 does 30 American Hammers while Partner 2 takes off with a rock around the track. Partner 1 chases him down and they flapjack.
The title was awkwardly appropriate for YHC. I was P1, but I never caught my P2, Comacho. Not even close. Like Katie Ledecky 800 m not even close. I think I saw him finish up ‘War & Peace’ when I strolled up to him. Good thing we only did it for 1 lap.
SSH until the 6 came in.
Mosey to the small grassy field on the other side of the concession stands.
Hot Potato – Partners face each other on their 6, locking legs together. P1 does a WWII sit up with the rock and passes it to P2. Flapjack.
Apparently, I do have a talent to incorporate an exercise in every workout that instantly reminds everyone of the Ambiguously Gay Duo. Uh, what’s everyone looking at?
Mosey to the top of the home stands with your rock. Let’s run the stadium steps, rock optional. With Transporter first in the gauntlet, he effectively rock-shamed others into running the stairs with their rocks.
While waiting on the other side of the stands, Shop Dog led with people’s chair rock air presses until everyone finished.
Mosey back to the low wall for Scorpion Dry Docks. New to some, pleasure for all.
Karaoke with your rock down the sidewalk, showing some WMS football teams how it’s done. The way they huddled together, you could tell they were impressed.
Lunge walk across the bridge. Jump squats while you wait for the 6.
We gotta drop our friends back off at the rock pile, but not before we take a suicide pact to each corner of the school. That was the slowest suicide I had seen in F3. Might this be a proper beatdown?
Rosalitas in the bus parking lot while everyone says good bye to Rocky.
Jailbreak to the front parking lot.
One minute left, so we leave it like we start it; Ranger introduces us to the Merkin Jack (a plank jack with a merkin combo). He came up with it on his own and wanted to make sure it got into his VQ. Unfortunately, a car was pulling through our circle just before we started this. Technically, it was time. Fortunately, we all have seen enough soccer now to know that extra time can be added at the end in circumstances like these. Thanks for being flexible.
Between the count-o-rama and the name-o-rama, I told a too long story.
A few weeks back was my 1 year anniversary in F3. With that has come a lot of losses:
This is all a credit to F3. I had not been able to achieve ANY of that on my own. The proof is the 3 YEARS of YMCA dues paid without once stepping foot onto a single property. I failed trying to do this on my own.
With friends and neighbors who consistently encouraged me to do F3 (and it took months of EH’ing), they deserve the credit for those results. They should also get the credit for these that occurred in the same year:
So as I went around on the name-o-rama, I gave each person a choice of how to be thanked for their time, efforts, and encouragement – full on bro-hug, hand slap one-armed hug, or fist bump. Everyone chose the bro-hug. Even the 2.0’s without their Dads present. It wasn’t creepy in the least.
Moleskin
Seriously, you’re still reading this?
The title came from my plan of yesterday spectacularly failing on reaching the cold light of the Twittersphere. The wheels were falling off. I thought sure this was going to be a horrible time. I was pre-embarrassed. I was taking that embarrassment out on my family, especially Ranger.
The closer to 0630 we got, the more I realized I was going to have to Omaha the whole workout, with the exception of Ranger’s parts. But I did it, much to my surprise. I was barely 1 exercise in front of the Pax in my head. Even leading from behind, I kept the 12’s busy so they didn’t have to plank on their own.
I got the time management thing right. Got us all back to the start so we had the opportunity to end on the minute. Normally, I’d attribute it to luck, but I actually knew what I was doing.
But my biggest surprise when it came time for me to do cadence counts of these exercises. I’ve avoided it every Q I did prior, knowing full well that I didn’t have the cardio available to do the exercise and talk through 3/4’s of it. But I was wrong. I could do it. I DID do it.
When I thought the wheels were falling off, it turned out to just be training wheels. Sometimes the Sky Q does that. Sometimes you are too locked into your own habits and thoughts that you fail to consider that you just may be ready, already.
Most sign off with “thanks for the opportunity to lead”. I learned today to say, thanks for the expectation to lead. Our F3 culture is such that I’m not allowed to stay under the radar. I can’t just show up and take the efforts and thoughts of another without giving something in return. While my giving may not be much now, I can feel my capacity to give growing each week. And with that comes the expectation to give. I couldn’t be more proud to be in the gloom with you brothers.
Announcements
F3 Sanctuary – Thursday’s at Brooklyn Pizza in Wesley Chapel – 1930
Spartan Sprint – Sept. 10 – Fort Bragg
Spartan Beast & Sprint – Oct. 29 & 30 – Winnsboro, SC
C2 Survival (obstacle course) Race – Saturday, Sept. 17 – Camp Thunderbird (Lake Wylie)
A VERY family friendly OCR:
1 mile loop for kids 5 – 14
5k loop for ages 11+
There is an F3 / FiA group already in place.
If you’ve been wanting to share this gift of outdoor exercise with your family, this is the perfect event.
Price increase on 8/17!
Once the Pax got used to the musical musings of YHC’s Q’ing, it almost seemed appreciated and fun. Well, we can’t have that! F3 is about pain, glorious pain!
If you’ve seen the intro clip on the F3 site, it says that there’ll be no “…meathead with a clipboard counting reps…”. Yep, I’m gonna be that meathead with a clipboard. Rep counting will be optional.
“So…you’re bringing a clipboard? Way to twist things up, Posse!” (looks at others to see if they are ready for an early start of Coffeeteria at Chick-fil-a…)
Immediately after circling up at 0630, we’ll mosey to the upper side parking lot. You will pick your own number, 2 – X. Then we will pick a rock to be our friend for the day.
Ranger (2.0) will be the first to lead the workout. Then we go in order, from #2 on. How do you know what to do? Why, using this handy, dandy Alphabetical Workout™!
https://1drv.ms/b/s!AvSLSuraQsuNgQHgFlD37PtVwymd
Don’t worry about printing out your own copy; I’ll have 2 of them – on clipboards.
Say #2 is Transporter. He’ll be able to pick from any of the exercises in the T row, R row, A row, etc.
The sheet is broken up into columns of:
Yes, it is every exercise we’ve ever done.
Yes, I did have to turn off spell checker for some exercises to work in certain places. #GreatIdeaPoorlyDone
Sure, there may be some exercise duplication; think of it as rounds of work.
Let’s see how this struggle between randomness and restrictions play out in the gloom.
Sunday night; 11:15pm YHC checks his twitter feed before bed. Message from BushWood: “Snoop, you got the Q tomorrow at DMZ correct?” YHC responds with; “Hell yea boy, come get some!” YHC spends the next 30 minutes planning an old school beatDown. Thanks for the reminder yo! Here is what went down in #thaGloom…
0530 Warm Up – Casual burpees – Lap around the parking lot
0532 Mosey over to church parking lot, take a lap around
==== Mix in some backwards run, stop for bear crawls, dips and derkins
0535 Another lap around parking lot
==== Mix in some backwards run, bear crawls, dips and derkins
0540 Mosey back over to playground, bear crawl over bridge
==== COP on basketball court: SSH x 20, Merkins x 12, Low Flutters x 20, Wide arms x 12
==== LBC’s x 20, CarolinaDryDock x 12, High Flutters x 20
==== Gather on baseline for: Partner carry down; switch; Partner carry back
==== Gather on baseline for: wheelBarrow down; switch; wheelBarrow back
0552 Mosey to down Camilla, first speed bump – burpees x 5,
==== second speed bump – CrossFit merkins x 10
==== third speed bump – burpees x 5
==== COP at bottom: SSH x 20, JumpSquats x 12, LBC x 20, Low Flutters x 20
0600 Partner up and mosey up Camilla; stop at each drive on left for:
==== Partner Hand Slaps x 20, Partner derkins x 10
==== Mixed in Squats, LBCs, Flutters along the way
0613 Mosey back to parking lot for backwards run across
==== finish with burpees x 10
0615 COT
Inside the ropes:
Great pax this am for an ‘old school’ beatdown. Thanks to everyone who showed and worked hard. Honored as always to lead DMZ…
Snoop
Parking lot started filling up and I confirmed I was the Q for Cottontail and off we went. Mosey around the track for a quick warm up lap and circle back up in parking lot.
COP:
22 x SSH
22 x IW
11 x Merkins
The Thang:
Start off running a lap as a group around the AO with several stops for some pain stations. Start with a plank walk down the curb in front of the high school then head down Pleasant Hill Drive. Halfway down perform 22 squats. Over to the tennis shelter for 44 dips. Run down to the front of the church for 11 V-ups, then follow the parking lot around the church. Once on the backside 22 monkey humpers, then down the road on the back of the church. First round attempt 22 merkins at each of the speed humps, then audible to 11 the following rounds. Once you get back to Covenant Church Lane perform 44 LBCs. This is one lap. Each PAX repeat 2 more laps on their own.
Once 3 laps completed head back to the cars and circle up.
COM:
11 x right can opener
11 x left can opener
22 x rosalita
11 x V-ups
Moleskin:
We did multiples of 22 for each exercise in honor of Michael Phelps’ record 22 gold medals. And it kept the back blast easier to write so I could remember the numbers. Spackler wanted me to make the point that Semi-Gloss didn’t do the exercises, but I actually heard SG was up until at least 1 am drinking bourbon and sexting Spackler, so I’m impressed that he even made it out. And I am thinking he was deflecting the write up from himself. I was disappointed Semi didn’t wear a speedo like Hairball wanted him to. Orange Whip ran an extra lap to make the rest of us feel old and slow, and thanks Marlin for volunteering to go look for him. Or were you trying to avoid Mary? We got in 2.64 miles, which is a little less than I planned. Spackler, WD and Semi were all worried we were going to run, but they finished before me so I assume it wasn’t too far. As usual a lot of mumble chatter so Orange Whip helped keep count for me. I am thinking most of the men have ADD. And it was interesting the run down Pleasant Hill Drive got shorter every time, and I heard that was Spackler’s doing. I am not surprised. I hope everyone enjoyed and thanks Horsehead for letting me lead.
Announcements:
Rock is converging tomorrow at Randolph Middle to help get tuition down for Gummy and Hopper’s kids.
14 pax decided soccer arms aren’t sexy (cough….. Devil’s Turn…… cough) and therefore showed up to Stonecrest for this week’s episode of Rebel Yell. Pain was distributed as follows:
The Thang
Mosey to parking lot in front of Smoke for COP:
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Merkins x 15
Supermans x 25
4 Corners – at each corner do:
5 squats
5 merkins
5 lunges each leg
10 LBCs
3 rounds of this. Fahvra and Rachel overachieved for 4 rounds.
Mosey down the Murderhorn to the rockpile. Pick a nice, friendly-looking rock that you don’t mind moseying with. Head up to the covered area next to the pool. Partner up. P1 does 20 step-ups with the rock pressed over his head, P2 does LBCs. 2 rounds of this. Several pax regretted their choice of rock around this time. Mosey to the bottom of the pool parking lot.
Round 1: P1 runs to playground and does 10 pull-ups. P2 does squats with rock.
Round 2: P1 bear crawls to end of parking lot. P2 does curls.
Round 3: P1 lunge walks to end of lot. P2 does overhead presses.
Round 4: Didn’t have time. Was going to be backwards bear crawl. Pax not unhappy.
Mosey back up the ‘horn and back to launch. El finito.
Skinny
Everyone pushed hard this morning. Fahvra, Rachel, and Heartbreaker set the pace on the 4 corners. Great job, also, by Torpedo. Big man is getting faster. He’s looking for a BRR team if anyone has a spot. 777’s was smart enough not to wear his Michigan hat this go-round #dontangertheQ. Good to see Tuna join us from Club Wed #slummin’. T-claps to Van Pelt for running in.
Thanks to HB and Strawberry for giving me the honor to lead.
Pool party August 20th
Convergence this Saturday with a service angle – check the email
Convergence on September 13th for Bounty Hunter’s brother who is about to be deployed
Christmas party December 2nd at Firestone CC.
13 mostly regulars gathered at CCHS for some work. Madam Tussuad had contacted YHC about meeting half-way and doing a mini-convergence. Since it was his party, the men of Centurion had to bring a gift (more below).
The Thang:
COP – SSH x10, Mtn Climbers X10, Slow Squat X10, Merkins X10
Mosey over to edge of parking lot and each man grab one of our prized pavers. Jog the 1.5 miles to the greenway entrance to meet up with the PAX from the Brave. I was sure they had twenty men but must have been double vision – MT reported 10 showed up.
COP (converged) – A member of each PAX meets in the center and each calls out an exercise
YHC/MT – Merkins/Stagger R and L and Partner balls to the wall X5 each
Margo/ (??) – Burpees and Partner decline merkins
Abacus/?? – Partner sit-ups X10 and Protractor
Hops/?? – Slow flutter and ??
Pulp Fiction/Cold Cuts (??) – Peter Parkers and 6 inch hold as long as you can (I think Bout Time and Mighty Might were only two to outlast the Q)
Sorry Brave PAX leaders – I couldn’t hear MT when he called out your name and it was too dark to see
Ball of man of the two PAX and then jog 1.5 miles back to CCHS with a stop for some Mary while the six catches up. Jail break from front of school to starting point for COT.
Naked Moleskin
This was an easy Q – jog a few miles and make other guys call cadence. I sent out a tweet to warn everyone we would run more than usual so complaints were limited. It was no fun carrying the pavers over to the greenway but at least our friends from the Brave had to carry them home #yourwelcome
Since MT called for this party, I figured the least we could do was bring gifts. I’m sure running up hill back to Ballantyne with a paver was fun. Let us know who carried two as I know you guys got all 13 pavers back safely. The workout flew by so I’d say a success. Great cadence by all the PAX, including Abacus who calls cadence better than almost anyone. Trained the younger brother well.
Paper Jam didn’t realize we would catch him as a traitor since he probably didn’t know about the convergence. Your welcome back anytime – 10 burpee penalty will absolve you of the sin.
I also notice Frasier has changed allegiances, at least for some weeks. I think we are too old and slow at Centurion and he needs a full hour workout. Margo and I are going to have to revisit our recruiting and workout plan – need to reinstitute more pre-runs.
Announcements – Rock converging at Randolph MS tomorrow and Area 51 pool party next week.
Thanks to Brillo for the great takeout.
Posted by Baracus on behalf of Lobsta Roll…
QIC arrived early as this was his virgin stop at the Charge. With no one in the lot until 5:27, QIC’s nerves were on edge….Was I at the right stop? Finally Baracus pulled in and all was good
Disclaimer given and we were off to the track.
After a ½ mile run, the PAX circled up on the field for this:
All while holding plank
Recover on your 6
After the warm up (lobsta roll style) we partnered up for a few sets of…well…read for yourself:
Round 1 –
Round 2 –
Round 3 –
Round 4 –
Round 5 –
What else do we have time for ?
Abs and awful – this is a trademarked phrase BTW
Star fish concept with 50 abs of choice at each corner of the end zone (abs) and a burpee ladder (20, 15, 10 & 5) in the middle (the awful)
What else do we have time for ?
Mosey to the stairs heading back towards the launch for 25 IC calf raises and 10 incline merkins
Repeat
What else do we have time for ?
Nothing!! Return to the launch
I was perplexed this morning as I pulled up and our parking lot was roped off, felt like someone had taken my seat at the lunch table, I cant park somewhere else, I thought this was assigned seeing. Anyway, the morning was muggy and we started off promptly at 530 with a hot lap around the lot to head over to our normal work out area, thank goodness:)
WU: 40SSH, 30 MC, 20 LBC’s, 10Merkins, 15 cotton pickers,
The thang: Run down the main sidewalk at a 9 min pace, stop 20 LBC (IC) Run/ 10 Diamond merkins, Run (30 American Hammers)
THE MAIN THANG: So staged in the far parking lot was 6 stations, 1 PLATE, 1 Kettle bell, 1 smash ball. Simple work in groups of 3, one runs the plate, one on the smash ball and one on the kettle bell.
Round 1: 120 Smash Balls and 120 Swings
Round 2: 50 Smash and Swings
Round 3: 30
Timing was tight so we had a brisk run to the front.
Moleskin: Morning was awesome, I believe we all got a good work out in judging by the sweat on everyone’s tee shirts, which would have made excellent rags. I think Damasucs and Gator shirts were holding about a gallon of sweat. I was impressed that Ole Macdonald was there this morning even though he worked till 1 am, NICE WORK! Flipper and landshark as always pushed the frond end of the pax. Dirty Bird, Rockwell, Flow and Biff continue to push themselves and show heart. Watching some of the longer timers bump up their levels, maybe they don’t realize it but the weights we are working are getting heavier so kudo’s to Shop and Posse. Das Boot and Stuffed Crust your just beasts. Popeye held back and supported my brother Doobie as he was working through some calf issues. That being said, I wanted to hand the computer to him so that he can give you some of his thoughts from someone who visits:
Doobie- This was my first time attending F3 . . . I was honestly nervous that I would make a total fool of myself. My health has degraded over the past year and I didn’t want to look bad in front of my friend that invited me (and was the leader today). As expected, I fell way behind almost immediately. The real shocker was when Popeye decided to fall back with me. To say that Popeye was an encouragement would be an understatement! He wouldn’t let me be negative about my poor performance. Instead he pushed me and designed exercises that I could do without hurting myself more than I already had! As someone who grew up without any strong male role models , I was super impressed with this group of guys who reminded me of exactly what Christ wanted the Church to do. . . bear one another’s burdens! Awesome!
Announcements:
F3 Sanctuary- Act Like Men by James Mcdonald 7:30 Wesley Chapel Thursdays @7:30
Another fine morning on the campus of Charlotte Christian. Yeti and Dollywood arrived fired up over some pod cast they listened to this morning about the rich schools getting richer while the medium class folks can’t afford college. Too early in the morning for politics…
Off we went. Mosey up the parking lot between the buildings for 20 derkins on the railing. Mosey around the track one time and do some COP. 20 SSH, 10 Merkins, 10 Peter Parker, 10 Parker Peter, 10 count 6″. line up on the goal line. Partner up – first two guys run to other goal line while everyone remaining does Merkins, two pax return and then two more run while everyone does sit-ups. Go down the line repeating Merkins then sit-ups, etc… Repeato twice.
Mosey down to bottom of grandma mtn. Keep partners. Partner one runs to playground for 10 pull-ups, 15 CDD, 20 lbc. P2 does squats until p1 returns. Flap jack. Repeat.
Mosey around track.
Mosey up stadium steps to press box. P1 does wall sits w air presses while P2 runs to playground for 10 pull-ups, 15 CDD, 20 lbcs. Flapjack, repeat.
Mosey back to parking lot for Mary.
Great morning gents! Off we went in the gloom when Ductwork came in hot as he continues to prep for the BRR. Everything was normal until we partnered up and ran to the other goal line. Stone Cold immediately pulled up lame. Thinking it was a hamstring – he started talking about his sac. Quickly clarifying something about a bursitis sac… Still not sure where that is! Normal dominance by Dollywood and the clicking ankle of Square Root this morning. Although pairing up w Puddin’ Pop was no joke. Overheard stone cold trying to EH Floaty for the BRR. Dude has only been coming to F3 a few weeks and already getting the hard sale from stone cold! Hammer and Smokey might be quiet on the course but they bring it every week! Great work everyone! Thankful to lead.
Sign up for pool party and see Joker or Puddin’ pop if you want to invest in kids once a month.
10 brave men got out of the fart sac this morning to get stronger.
The work went like this:
COP
30 SSH IC
15 Merkins IC
30 Mountain Climbers IC
30 Imperial Walkers IC
30 LBC IC
Mosey around the media at the front of the school. This time we stayed right at the front of the school for some sled work. We divided in two teams per sled of five. Sleds were loaded with 100 pounds.
First round 2 loops around the media, first guy started running/walking dragging the sled and the rest did 10 Merkins the ran to catch up with the sled guy and flip, repeat until the sled was dragged twice around the media.
Second round repeated the two loops but this time doing 15 Carolina Dry Docks.
Third round, two loops again but this time PAX did 5 Diamond Merkins before swapping.
Put the sleds away, partnered up in teams of 2, grabbed one 50 pound bag per team. Partner 1 ran with sand bag, partner 2 mosey with partner, never dropping the sand bag, at the first stop we did 20 Squats IC, switch sand bag carriers and resume mosey, second stop 20 Squats IC the switched again, Mosey again then 20 Alternating lunges IC switched carriers, mosey again 20 more alternating Lunges IC.
Mosey to the hill behind the baseball field, dropped the sand bags at the top of the hill, mosey to the bottom of the hill.
First exercise 100 Merkins per team, while partner one stays at the bottom of the hill partner two ran to the top and back to the bottom, the swap.
Second exercise 50 diamond merkins per team, Partner one stayed at the bottom while partner two ran to the top of the hill and did one sand bag burpee, then ran to the bottom and switch.
Grab bags and continue mosey to the hill behind the high school, lined up at the bottom of the hill with the sand bags and took turns doing bear crawls to the top of the hill and back down dragging the sand bag while partner two did some burpees.
Mosey with our sand bags back to the front of the school.
Did some Mary and then done
Moleskin:
Thank you for the opportunity to lead this great group of men, everyone worked out hard and walked away a little better than they were, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger they said.