I woke up a little an anxious before the Q at Pantheon. I thought..do I have enough planned for the workout? Do I have too much? What if no one shows up, do I still count in cadence?  As the questions rolled through my head, I remember a song by the Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime.”  This band had a number of hits in the 80s (I know, this maybe hard for some to relate) .  Their songs were a crossover between rock and funk. Back in the day where you could dance awkwardly and look like you knew what you were doing. This particular song starts out with the following lyrics:

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack

And you may find yourself in another part of the world

And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife

And you may ask yourself

Well…How did I get here?

Once In A Lifetime

So what does it have to do with F3 and/or the workout..I’ll tie it back at the end.

There was a good turnout this morning, 10 PAX, plus 2 runners. I thought the numbers would be lower due to the P200.  Great to see Mash and Wapner out again this week, I think we’ve got them hooked.  Free Bird appeared out of the gloom with another FNG (Blaze) in tow.  He should be a wrestler!  After the disclaimer, we headed to the front of the school.  There was lots of mumble chatter about the amount of running we would do during the workout. I’m not sure where the rumor started about how I like to run.

We began with some dynamic stretching:

Knees to Chest

Knees to Butt

Hip Circles out *otherwise known as the “Stanky Leg”

Hip Circles in  *the “Nae-Nae”

Mosey to the basketball courts in the back of the school

COP

 SSH x 30

Imperial Walker x 15

Windmill x 15

Morrocan Night Clubs x 20

Merkins x 10 (6” hold)

Mountain Climbers x10 (6” hold)

Merkins x 10 (6” hold)   *in honor of Bing since he was out of town unable to make the workout

Next, we split into two groups. One group ran basketball sprints while the other group performed the following exercises until the group was done with their sprints:

Squats

Carolina Dry Docks

Burpees

After a quick ten count, we jogged to the other playground

20 Dips

20 Derkins

Lunge walk to the fence

10 Bomb jacks

Lunge walk back to the school

Rinse and repeat Dips and Derkins

Mosey back to the front of the school for People’s Chair and Balls to the Wall. We had time of one lap around the carpool loop with an LBC accumulator (10 LBCs at first light pole, +5 at each pole).  Total LBCs  –  325, great job!

We finished off with 10 Merkins in honor of Bing.

Back to the song..it can be interpreted in many ways. We sometimes go through life on autopilot and don’t spend the time to enjoy it.  Maybe this was the 80s theme song for the Sad Clown.  I still consider myself relatively new to F3. I find myself still referencing the Lexicon to figure out what people said during the workout. In the short time I’ve been involve with the group, I see the difference it has made in my life.  The struggles and issues will still exist, but I am better prepared to tackle them with the help of this group and Sky Q.  It is always an honor to Q.

Announcements:

P200 – starts Friday

Mud Run – April 30^th

Prayer Requests:

P200 and P70 teams – Good luck, have fun, and be safe!

Royale – M’s health and extended family

Perfect Morning at Pantheon, 60 degrees clear and perfect

Men gathered and watched Rock Thrill navigate a pitch black parking area, lots #chatter about my twitter posts in Latin…I at least got you talking…and no, it was not my spoken language in High School, but I did take Latin in High School…Alter boy advantage…

Disclaimer witnessed by Legal Counsel

Second Disclaimer about that I planned to NOT do an extremely difficult workout today, we have a bunch of guys with big miles for P200, we have several men “dinged” up, and I still want to show that you can get quality 1stF without having to put in 5 miles. So I gave the “this should be the easiest post of your week” speech…

And we did a long looping bus loop dynamic warmup (thank Sasquatch for the advice and injury prevention) and we continued the #chatter throughout…little bit extra because my legs were “heavy”…#yourwelcome…

Mosey to basketball courts…I had a quote and did not use it…

“I’ve always believed in quickness over strength and size.” — Dean Smith

COP with all of my favorites in cadence to ten

Line up the across the short/long side of the basketball court with our toes on line

So we started a series of suicides and dynamic basketball drills and boot camp exercises for 30 minutes…I felt strong, and I got a good sweat on, obviously several fast men in our group, fast races, no ten counts, and some quality short sprints amongst our group. Nobody looked natural in the shooting drills with no basketball…

3 minutes of running back to COT & BOM

NMM

Zima – as always I appreciate the offer to attempt to hang (and Q) with the friendly fellows from Tega Cay.

Lots of fun this morning, and good efforts all around

Thrill -thanks for riding over this morning #HIM

Read your newsletter

Show up to #Varsity on Friday…get outside your comfort zone…Maltz Challenge

Be a better man today than you were yesterday,

AYE!

CSPAN

15 Strong showed up at the Pantheon! Great turn out.

It’s been a long time since I have had the chance to Q with all the marathon training but I have to say I have really missed the opportunity!  Thanks Zima!

The Goal: to keep moving and doing an exercise the entire time. No 10 counts.  So we used the entire campus starting with the pick up circle.

Mosey to pick up circle and complete side shuffles onto the soccer field. 10 burpees OYO to 21 wind mills.  Mosey back to pick up circle for some karaoke.

Amphitheater warm up and exercise:

Cherry pickers X’s 20. Thanks Gears for the sack comment

SSH X 51 in some sort of cadence

Bear Crawl up and down the amphitheater hill X’s 2

Inch worm up and down

Mosey to side of school for 25 yard lunge workout

Mosey to small set of stairs behind school to split into 2 groups. 1st group bear crawled down stairs and then back up hill. The second group completed LBC’s until 1st group completed exercise. The PAX expressed concern for teeth and head. I repeated disclaimer. We completed 2 rounds and all teeth were saved.

Short mosey over to the playground while staying in same 2 groups.  1st group completed 20 swing crunches while second group competed merkins until crunches were completed. Flapjack.  2 rounds completed.

Fast mosey over to the teacher parking lot for broad jumps to middle of parking lot and then lunges to the end.

Crowd pleaser was next for a little walking of balls to the wall. 2 times because once wasn’t enough.

Short jog over to other playground for 30 dips and 20 decline merkins.  Rinse and repeat.

We had enough time for Captain Thor to show up 1:4. 1 big boy sit up to 4 american hammers.  We ended up doing 6 rounds which totaled 21 big boys and 84 american hammers.  Burns a little I would say.

Praise to all the PAX for not fartsacking and joining me, I couldn’t do it on my own.  Thanks all for the continued accountability and fellowship.  I have to say I have grown mentally, and spiritually and I have all of you to thank for it each day.

Prayers to all the families suffering from illness and death of loved ones.  We had a lot of those prayers this morning.

Cerrano

Six strong showed up at TCES on a cool, wet Wednesday for another Pantheon beatdown.  Here is what they did

The Thang:

Easy jog out of the parking lot to the center of the driveway along Tega Cay Drive for COP

SSH x50, Merkin x10, Cherry picker x15, Squat x25, Hill billy x25, LBC x25, Mountain climber x40/hold/6″ hold/regular/walk up on hands/hold/walk down to regular plank/hold/6″ hold (no break)

Mosey to end of straightaway along driveway for some suicides and pushorama:

1.  Suicide to 1st  and 2nd light pole, 20 merkins
2. Repeat suicide, 20 diamond merkins
3. Repeat suicide, 20 wide arm merkins
4. Repeat suicide, 20 Carolina dry docks
5. Repeat suicide, 20 staggered merkins (10L, 10R)

Mosey around curve to the front of the school and line up by the car pool line

Bear crawl to first cross walk, drop on the ground and assume Superman hold. Bear crawl to end of car pool line, drop to ground and assume Superman hold.

Turnaround and lunge walk back to cross walk, do 10 jumping lunges each leg.  Lunge walk to starting point and do 10 more jumping lunges each leg.

Everyone find a brick column for walking balls to the wall. Start on left hand side of the column  and walk around to opposite side on your hands.    Recover and wall sit for a while with arms out, arms up and overhead hand claps.  Recover and shake out your legs.

Rinse and repeat above from the opposite side of the column.

Mosey to the center of the driveway for abs:  Freddie Mercury x20, Hello Dolly x20, American Hammer x20

COT

Moleskin

It was great to be back Qing at the Pantheon.  I was looking foward to playing on the field today, but the grass was too soggy, so we stay on the asphalt (very nice, smooth asphalt, though).  The Pax were motivated and there was some good grunting heard this morning.   Fish Sticks showed his usual speed on the suicides and Zima, fresh off of a marathon on Saturday, showed no signs of fatigue today (or at the Ballroom yesterday – #crazyman).   Flat Tire led the way on the lunge walks, but anyone with a 72″ stride is going to do that.  At Q school, we tell new Q’s not to do anything stupid or dangerous.  Walking around the columns on your hands was a questionable call, but everyone made it around and back (that’s why I always do the disclaimer).  Well done, men!

It was a privilege to lead such a fine group of hard working guys.  Can wait until the next one.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

Countdown to Yeti!  This Saturday, starting at the Pantheon.  Check Twitter for details.

Children’s Attention Home One Year Anniversay, Sunday, Feb 28.  Skyzone in Pineville, 4p-6p

Prayers for sick children and for a Pax wife battling cancer.  Prayers for a fort F3 member in search of a job.

Man I did not want to get out of bed this AM, but I was going to be QIC and I certainly don’t want to let my brothers in the gloom down, so I peeled back those warm covers, geared up and drove out to the Pantheon.  Clear and cold day, 24 degrees.  As the PAX was gathering, I warned them today was NOT going to be fun, no FNGs but a full disclaimer was made nonetheless.  I had something special planned for this morning! So first I shared a Rob Hill Sr Quote that I recently heard around Success (see moleskin)

The Thang

Mosey around the long car line with Dynamic warm-up.  High Knees, Butt Kickers, Karaoke with a switch

COP

12 Side Straddle Hops

12 Imperial Walkers

12 Wind Mills Nice and Slow

12 Wide Arm Merkins

12 Mountain Climbers

12 Plank Jacks

A Little Yoga to stretch out that Back

Here’s my Special Weinke:  This was going to be my final Q before I celebrated my 1 year anniversary of my 1st workout with F3.  The PAX was going to do 1 burpee for every F3 workout I posted to in that time.  Thanks to my Fitbit, I counted 146 F3 workouts since Feb 13, 2015!

So we did this.

16 Burpees

Run a lap around parking lot, modify to small loop if needed (it was for some; including YHC)

10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees; run a lap 10 burpees

Total burpees when complete 146!

Lights came on indicating 6am just as those final burpees were being completed for myself.  I was really impressed with the PAX and how well they did this! T-claps to the leaders of the group: Gears, Senator Tressel and Fish Stix, they all did more than 146

Before the COT Chaser was kind enough to remind me that today should count as #147…so we did ONE more burpee. That was a real crowd pleaser…

COT

Yeti and prayers for healing for both children that are sick and injured PAX.

Moleskin

This was the Rob Hill Sr quote I read to open our day.

It might not make sense right now. It may seem pointless and like nothing is changing, but you can’t give up now.  You’ve given too much.  You’ve put in too much. You’ve sacrificed too much. Don’t stop now, you’ve come too far to quit. It’s not going to be easy, it won’t always be fun, but you have to persevere.  Breakdowns lead to breakthroughs when you’re diligent enough to keep going.  You have to be willing to fall and get up, to fail and try again, to be told “no” but to keep working.

If it’s special it won’t be easy.

You don’t deserve the great if you quit every time things don’t go your way.  Without trials there is no triumph.  You can’t be champion if you run from the challenge.  There are two types of people in life: Conquerors and Complainers. The Conquerors find a way, the Complainers find an excuse. When you want something bad enough and you know you deserve it, you don’t stop until its yours.  Though quitting is at times a thought in my mind, it will never be an option in my life.  I will win…I have to!

I really enjoyed this quote, and I’ve  heard many similar messages in my year with you all during all 3 Fs. I’ve joined with true #HIMs I’ve met and look up to. In this 1 year I’ve learned so much, become so much more than I was, and found the path in life that will make me full.  I truly was a #sadclown just moving through what life gave me, happy enough, but not complete.  YOU ALL HAVE MADE ME BETTER! And now I work on making the lives around me better.  I will focus on home first, put my family first before myself.  I have the energy and strength to keep their needs from me addressed.  This is my plan, and this is what I will DELIVER.

Zima needed a sub at the school and everyone loves when the substitute comes in for the regular teacher because its going to be work on your own or draw a picture or something not as challenging. However this is F3 and when a call for a sub Q is put out there the PAX should be jumping at the opportunity to lead. Leading is freedom to do what you want, say what you want and grow as a leader. I could have ran us down to Duncan Donuts and had a coffee and ran us back, but opted for Swing Crunches and Mtn Climbers instead. Anywho….when faced with an opportunity to lead….I suggest you take that step forward, sub for the regular and grow as a man.

The Thang:

Mountain Climbers, Squats, Imperial Walkers, Mosey to back of school

Partner up: #1 10 Swing Crunches / #2 Sumo Squats 3 rounds each

Mountain Climbers, Squats, Mosey to front field of school

Star of Death (Not really but it sounds cool)

Start in the center (Thin Mints Box) and do 10 V-ups, bear crawl to each cone and perform exercise listed on cone as a team, spint back to center and 10 v-ups again & rotate to next spoke.

Spoke #1=10 Apollo Onos, 15 Ski Hops, 20 wide arm Merkins

Spoke #2=10 Carolina Dry Docks, 15 lunge hops, 20 Donkey Kicks

Spoke #3=10 Inch Worm Merkins, 15 Merkins, 20 sumo squats

Spoke #4=10 Peter Parkers, 15 something, 20 leg lifts

Repeat 1st spoke for Bonus round

Line up on sideline:

Ladder: Do exercise, sprint across field, add next exercise and sprint across field and so on

1-Bombjack

2-Merkins

3-Lung Hops

4-Donkey Kicks

5-Burpees

6-LBCs

Flutter Kicks and COT

Announcements: Check out the weekly email, however this Saturday is Oral Care 5k in Baxter….see BING

Prayers: Injured, Marriages, all the illnesses and struggles in our families. What is weighing heavy on your heart…..make a plan by using the resources Sky Q has given you and deal with what is slowing you down.

Thanks Zima for the Q. Awesome PAX and love the fellowship with my brothers.

CB out!

20 PAX (18 for the Beatdown and 2 runners) descended upon the Pantheon for a beatdown lead by YHC.  Either 1 of 2 things happened prior 10 posting.

1.  You checked Twitter and wanted a good butt whooping by YHC or
2. You didnt’ check Twitter and posted not realizing you were about to get your butt whooped.

Disclaimer was kind of given and off we moseyed around the entire lot with butt kicks, high knees and karoake.

The Thang

Warmarama – all IC, SSH x 20, Windmills x 10, IW x 15, Cotton Pickers x 10, Peter Parkers x 10, Mountain Climbers x 15, Parker Peters x 10

Moseyed to the cones to explain today’s diamond pyramid.  2 sides of the diamond.  Each round bulids per side.  Start with 20 SSH each time, On the left side was 10 Squats, 10 Merkins, 10 LBC’s and Finish with 10 burpees, Right side was 10 Bombjacks, 10 CDD, 10 Flutter Kicks, Finish with 10 burpees.  Once you got to the burpees switch sides.  So in action it looked like this:

20 SSH, then 10 squats. 20 SSH, then 10 squats, then 10 merkins. 20 SSH then 10 squats, 10 merkins, 10 LBC’s. 20 SSH, 10 squats, 10 merkins, 10 LBC’s, 10 burpees back to SSH and then repeat on the other side.  Try to get as many laps in as possible.  Half the PAX started on the right side, half on the left.  After about 35 minutes of this we finished with some stretching.  Most PAX got 2 1/2 -3 full laps in.  Great Job guys!!!!!!!! COT and BOM

Announcements – 1-22 Third F Convergence at Eternal Church Offices, 1-23 Convergence with Easley PAX, Oral Cancer Run on February 6 (YHC is the defending champ, so bring it).  Lots of PAX announcing their upcoming Q.

Prayers – Decibels cousin who lost her life to heart complications, injured PAX.

Moleskin

1.  Unlike my last 2 BB’s and Moleskins I don’t really have much to say/gripe about/ or inspire others with.  Sorry for the disappointment.  But thanks for reading the previous 2.  Feedback from PAX all over has been amazing.
2. Thank you Zima for the opportunity to lead this amazing group.  Was nice to lead a group of double digits again.
3. Amazing job by the PAX today.  Little complaining, moderate mumblechatter, and plenty of hard work.
4. Dark Helmet and Fish Sticks were killing the workout today.
5. Great to see some new PAX out there today.  Don’t think I have ever met Quarty before.  Keep on EH’ing guys to get out here.
6. If you haven’t chosen a word for 2016 yet (or more likely is hasn’t chosen you) spend some time thinking of a word to live by for 2016.  It should be something that scares you a little bit and challenges you at the same time.