23 men converged on the Chik-fi-la on a cool SC morning for a smooth start to the Memorial Day Weekend.  Here is what they did:

The Thang::

Easy jog to the Lowes contractor canopy for COP:

SSH x 25, windmill x 15, merkin x 10/hold/mountain cliimber x 10/hold for 6″, squat x 20, IW x 20, diamond merk x 10/hold/stagger merkin L/R hold fofr 6″, LBC x 20

Mosey to road in front of Lowes, break into 4 goups:

Each group does the following along the hedge line (approx 60 yds).  Short recovery in between reps

Karoake down and back

Power skip down and back

50% sprint down and back

75% sprint down and back

Bear crawl/crab walk down, jog back

10 burpees OYO

Mosey to hand rail in front of plaza, back to four groups:

Station 1:  10 donkey kicks

Station 2:  Arm walk along rail left

Station 3:  Arm walk along rail right

Station 4:  10 bomb jacks

Lunge walk in between each station in a figure 8 (thanks. Longshanks!) , each group does 3 circuits of each side.

Mosey to  grassy  patch for ab lab:

Hello Dolly x 20, LBC x 20, Freddie Merc x 20, Russian Twist x 20, Boat and Canoe x 5

COT

I remarked at the start of the workout that I was happy to see 23 guys show up to Slow Burn.  Hard Drive’s tweet yesterday, announcing my Q, was met with just 1 favorite – my own.  The Pax were greeted with cool temps and a light breeze this morning which felt great, and we had a fine group out there.  The growth of F3 in the Fort Mill area has been awesome to see, and the number of 50+ year olds posting at workouts also continutes to grow (we had 4 today).  Way to go men – it’s just a number anyway.   F3 brings out your best and it’s a privilege to be a member and lead this group.

Announcements:  Children’s Attn Home bike ride tomorrow, 4pm.  F3 Winsborro (clown cars leaving Ft MIll, check twitter),  Memorial Day Murph workout at NAFO (6:45a)  following the normal Monday workouts.  Hog/Coyote June 20 and Pusher Qing at Alcatraz tomorrow

Prayers/praises:  Sucessful round of chemo for Pax member’s wife.   Tumors shrinking!

Another pleasant morning at the Chic-Fil-A near Baxter, and 31 men chose to finish the work-week off with a moderately intense workout that hopefully was somewhat educational for the newer pax.

The Thang

Mosey to the back of Lowe’s for a little warm up.

• SSH x15 IC
• Low Slow Squats x15 IC
• Dips on the guard rail x20 OYO

Mosey around to the side parking lot and lunge walk back until 6 caught up.  Continue mosey around to parking lot in front of Lowe’s and quick switzer to explain the next exercise.

Bucket-o-pain (a name given by one of the pax after the work-out) was of a bucket containing 30 or so cards with 50 various exercises specifically selected from the Exercise List.  Each card listed an exercise for the group to do in cadence, along with the number of reps, and a type of moving exercise.  The moving exercises was done toward cones placed about 15 yards out, flanking the circle we had formed.  Another 15 yards beyond the first cones were a second set of cones that pax were simply to run to after reaching the first cone.  Here is an example of one of the cards in the bucket:

—————————————
|  15 Hello Dolly (IC)             |
|       => High Knee                |
—————————————

Pax took turns randomly selecting a folded card from the bucket and announcing the exercises to be done.  We got through the following cards before having to cut a little short to allow for travel time to the 3rdF event at 6am:

• 10 Low Slow Squats (IC)  => Backward Lunges
• 10 Squat Jacks (IC)  => Jog
• 10 Monkey Humpers (IC)  => High Knee
• 10 Mtn Climbers (IC)  => Shuffle
• Guantanamo
• 15 Calf Raises (IC)  => Lunge Walk
• 15 Hello Dolly (IC)  => High Knee
• 15 Merkins (IC)  => Bunny Hops
• 10 Alt. Shoulder Taps (IC) => Sprint
• 10 Wide Arm Merkins (IC)   => Lunge Walk
• 15 Moroccan Nightclub (IC)  => Broad Jump Burpee

Out of time – Run back to virtual shovel flag for COT.

Moleskin

As I explained to the pax in the switzer, the second time I posted to F3 was to a Slow Burn lead by Cornhole.  He did a similar type of workout that had a halloween “trick-or-treat” theme.  As a new pax, I found the workout to be a great intro to a variety of exercises.  My hope in this workout was that some of the newer pax posting today might have learned about a few exercises that were new to them.  In retrospect, I probably should have taken a little more time to demo each one prior to jumping right in.  On the other hand, we only got through 11 of the 30 cards, which surprised me (I even had a few exercises “in the bank” in case we blazed through those cards).  Definitely still have lots to learn when it comes to being on Q.  And I’ll just keep that bucket and the remaining cards around for another another day.

Thanks to all the pax this morning.  I’m humbled beyond words to have the opportunity to Q.

AYE!
-old bay

Last week at Slow Burn, Dark Helmet Qed the workout and set the bar very high for pain and attendance. With 30 Pax joining him, he earned the record for this AO. Nice work! Not only that, he welcomed several new FNGs with the 5 core beliefs of F3.

So in pure F3 fashion, I wanted to exceed the # of Pax for this week at Slow Burn. Of course, I did some Twitter Marketing (is that a term now?) but had no idea of what to expect. 33 Pax later, the bar has been reset….BOOM!

The Thang

Mosey around Lowes with (3) Burpee (or is that a flying squirrel, I am confused) stops along the way. Lots of mumble chatter here from Opie, Chicken Hawk and CSPAN which only made it worse.

Circle Up

SSH x 20

IW x 15

Windmills x 15

Merkins x 15

Dry Docks x 12

Mtn Climbers x 20

Night Clubs x 20

Mosey to Baxters Playhouse – Partner Up

Its time to break out those Abs! Lots of mumble chatter here (mostly by YHC) about Speedos, Banana hammocks, etc.

Old School Partner Sit Ups x 25 – Rinse and Repeat

Green Mile (See the Patriot)  300 Partner LBCs – Partner 1 runs/Partner 2 does LBCs, then switch (You get the idea)

Partner Heels to Heaven x 15 – Rinse and Repeat

Green Mile 300 Partner Flutters – See above

Partner wheel barrel – Flapjack

Green Mile  100 Donkey Kicks – See above

3 Burpees at each crosswalk  back to COT

There was consistent mumble chatter throughout the workout so I know it was good. If guys are complaining, then you are doing something right!

Moleskin

Prayers and Praise for Paige (Flat Tire’s M) – had 3rd chemo on Wednesday and the tumor is shrinking

Prayers for Wendy from First Baptist diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

Prayers to Philadelphia UMC as they search for another pastor

5/15 Convergence on Marriage at Eternal after Slow Burn – You need to show up!

Memorial Day Murph on 5/25

Asheville on 5/30

Hog and Coyote on 6/20

For all others, check the weekly email.

Lastly, do not forget the M’s and Mothers this weekend!

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why did 30 (no, not a typo) men show up this morning to a cool, dark parking lot at an unheavenly hour? Because someone gave us the gift, and now we are hooked… So here’s The Thang:

Some FNGs in the crowd so Disclaimer was disclaimed in more detail than it sometimes is, and we also did a quick review of the 5 core principles of every F3 workout:
1. Free
2. Men Only
3. Outside (Rain or Shine)
4. Peer led
5. End with a Circle of Trust
With that, we mosey to the parking lot in front of the strip mall and circle up.

Vince Lombardi once said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Today, we chase perfection, in that we will try and do each exercise with “perfect” form in the hopes that we will attain a more “excellent” form.

First we stretched a bit to get us loose:
– Toe touches x 5 with a 10 count
– On your 6 and open hip stretch (feet together and pull them close) x 3 with a 10 count
– On 6 – one leg over other and twist and stretch outer hip x 1 each leg for a 10 count
– Plank on hands and stretch calves and Achilles tendon

Then we warmed up a bit:
– SSH x 20 (IC)
– High Knees with a sprawl at command of Q (sprawls x 10 – basically just a drop to a push up)
– Ludicrous Speed SSH x 10 (IC)

1 forward lap around the small lot (OYO)
1 backwards half lap around the small lot (OYO)
Plank for the 6

Grab a partner (speed matters, so does size a little):
Partner 1 planks on hands and Partner 2 takes his feet and does 20 curls then flapjack.

Then your partner will keep you accountable to “perfect” form (each exercise demonstrated by YHC) for the following exercises:
– Perfect Merkin x 15 (arms around shoulder placement, elbows in, head up, body straight)
– Perfect Squat x 20 (back straight, head up, weight more on heels)
– Perfect Plank x :30 seconds (just counted around the circle – core tight, abs doing the heavy work – not your back)
– Perfect Burpee x 10 (squat down – don’t bend down, feet shoulder width apart, strong plank when you kick out your feet, perfect merkin, jump nice and high at the end)
– Perfect Bombjack x 0 (The only perfect Bombjack, is NO Bombjack… so we didn’t do any of those)

Mosey over to the big Lowe’s parking lot and move to triple partners instead of doubles (seriously, there are 30 guys here…). There, YHC had placed some cinderblock coupons (10 to be exact) with P-E-R-F-E-C-T-I-O-N spelled out on them. So we lined up for a Devin Hester. We literally are going to “chase perfection” now… Partner 1 takes a coupon and gets a (roughly) 30 yard headstart then the other 2 partners try and catch him before he reaches the end of the parking lot (100 yards away). Then flapjack through the other two partners. Then 10 guys who didn’t get caught, grab the bricks and do one more run against the remaining PAX. (Hey, I had to get all those blocks back down toward my car somehow…)

Circle up for Ring of Fire:
All Pax plank and wait while each PAX in turn does the following:
– LBC x 10
– Flutter Kick x 10

Time’s up! Head back up the hill to the COT and Name-o-rama where 4 men (Barry Manilow, Flashdance, Blackjack, and Rocky Top) got their new names.

Announcements:
– Convergence (all other AOs closed) – LET’S BREAK 100 PAX!!!
– Hog and Coyote: 13 mile run with 5 workouts along the way – do it OYO or as a 2 man relay

Prayers/Praises:
– Prayers for Destiny and his emerging company that the highs and lows will even out and things will continue to go well
– Prayers for Flat Tire and his M and family
– F3 Golf was successful, and reminds us to give it away
– Praises for Stang’s Dad, as he got the “all clear” on his medical issues

==========

Moleskine:
As I snapped awake today at 4AM, my thoughts turned to the impending #gloom, and a smile spread across my face. Today, I get to give it away…
See, just under 6 months ago I posted at my first F3 workout at WEP. Pusher (in attendance this AM) and Jekyll split the Q that Saturday morning. Here’s how it went (briefly). I didn’t know what I was in for. I didn’t tell the guy who EHed me (Whitesnake – who was at this workout this AM) that I was going, so I knew no one and vice versa. Within a few minutes, Package notices that I have no gloves… In November… and so he runs and gets me some out of his car. I’m thinking, “hey, that was decent of him.” I was certainly the 6 more than once and guys ran back to finish with me. I remember thinking, “hey, this is pretty cool.” Then Pusher brings us in and says something inspirational, and I thought, “hey, that was a good workout, I am beat!”. Then he said, “Now I’ll hand it off to Jekyll for the cardio portion of our workout.” I thought he was kidding, then realized, oh no… We ARE only halfway through… ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME? How do I go home unseen…? Bear crawls up hills? Partner carries (sorry WWL, you got the crappy end of that one)? But I finished. And I got it. And I was hooked.
So, I thank Whitesnake for giving it away to me. I thank all the men of F3 Nation for being willing to chase perfection. To keep motivating their brothers. To keep EHing SadClowns to get them out of their life ruts… To keep pushing me to chase perfection and hopefully, one day, land somewhere near excellence in every single aspect of my life. Because for me, the real “First F” that F3 has given me, is Freedom. Freedom from wimping out on myself and my family. Freedom from saying “can’t”. Freedom from all the bullsh*t reasons that I tell myself about why I am not living the life that God planned for me. Freedom from excuses for not giving it away…

Helmet out…
#GoBeAwesome

20 men posted this morning for a light workout in preparation for a great weekend.

The Thang:

Mosey to parking area between bouncy houses and Lowes and circle up for Side Straddle Hop x 20, Merkins x 10, Imperial Walkers x 10, Windmills x10 then head over to the wall for some people’s chair.  Two rotations of chair with a break of some Morracan Night Clubs.  Paired up (no man goes alone) for two laps around the strip mall using the four corners as follows:  14 Merkins, 28 LBC, 14 Diamond or Wide arm Merkins, and 14 Burpies (rinse and repeat) and the third lap with 14 Pullups and Wide Arm Merkins. Mosey over to P Lot for some PAX choice X 10.  Times up and head to COT.

Moleskin

We all have a testimony (or should have) and we should all be working towards building relationships with others to share our testimony.  Keep It Simple Stupid and keep it short and to the point.  Follow the Great Commission and realize that our biggest focus should not be exercise but focused on investing into others lives.

Announcements

Clown Car to Gastonia on 4/25?, Children’s Attention Deficit Home 4/25 at 1600 HRS, Convergence on 5/2 Patriot led by Dredd, 5/25 regular workouts and Murph at Coop.

Prayers

Family, marriages, Flat Tire’s M.,  spoken and unspoken requests

The gloom rain broke for 20 PAX as they explored some not-typically-traveled territory for a dose of Slowburn.  As promised, not too much running was required for this “moderate intensity” workout.  Rather, focus was set on slowing the exercise speed way down to give muscles a chance to dwell on the burn.

The Thang:

Warm up

• SSH x20
• Windmills x15
• Tunnel Touches x 15
• IW x15
• Merkins x15
• Peter Parkers x15
• Low Slow Squats x15
• Monkey Humpers x10

• Wide arm Merkins
• Squats
• LBC

• Dry Docks
• Flutter Kicks
• Calf Raises

• Dips
• Step Lunges
• Weezy Jeffersons

• Merkins
• 4x slow air presses
• 4x squats

Lucky 11 showed up for an Easter Egg Hunt Marathon

Mosey down to Empire parking for the warmup. Included with the basics was a 50yd stretch of long jumps.  These were demonstrated in the bunny hop style by CSPAN.

CSPAN finished early? <TWSS> Time for bomb-jacks…

Next up, split into teams and find out what we signed up for.

We are literally on an Easter egg hunt.  Spread throughout the parking lot and behind Lowes were balloons with exercises written on them.  At the base of the balloons (and hidden nearby) were Easter eggs of various sizes.  Perform the exercise, take home the egg.  Simple enough…

Exercises included: burpees, derkins, bear crawls, bomb-jacks, SSH, pull-ups/calf raises, BTTW/wall sits, lunge walks, dips and more…

Small eggs were 25 reps

Medium eggs cost you a 50 count of pain

Large eggs were the full-monty – 100 reps and were only found at burpee and bomb-jack stations

We had one team turn in a 100 point egg – BOOM!

Wrap up with LBCs x15, Rosalitas x15 and Freddy Mercuries x15.

Mosey / Sprint up to the COT to wrap.

A good time with a great pax this morning. Always an honor.

Prayers for the recent loss of a great human being, wife and mother in the Isotope region.  May those in morning be comforted.  Prayers for F3 families taking on medical treatment in the coming week (we want to be there for you, don’t hesitate to call on us).  Prayers for families travelling.  And especially, praises for the season.

YHC posted on the twittermachine that we would be doing a modified “moderate” version of the famous (infamous) Murph workout.  Real question is; Is there such a thing as a “moderate” Murph workout.  Guess we will find out.  Possible answer at the end.  Also, the term “moderate” has different meanings to different people.  What may be moderate for one person may be hard, easy, or impossible to another.

The Thang

Mosey from CFA down to the parking lot in front of Empire Pizza (notice Pizza theme from last 2 days as we were next to Little Caesers on Thursday).  Give PAX the disclaimer, then:

SSH x 20 IC, IW x 20, Windmills x 15.  Mosey over to the railing.  Explain today’s modified Murph.  In a regular Murph you run a mile, then 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, then run another mile (2 miles total).  Modified today to do with a partner, but since 2 people are doing it, the amounts are double, 200 modified pullups, 400 pushups, 600 squats.  Partner A works on the exercise, while Partner B runs to the lightpole and back.  Once B returns, B picks up the exercise, A runs to the lightpole.  Rinse and repeat over and over until goals are met.  PAX allowed to modify as needed to complete all 200, 400, 600.  Once done with 600 squats, PAX did LBC’s or ran.  PAX choice.  Once 6 is in, mosey back to Empire Pizza for some abs and words of inspiration.  Zima notes that we ran 2.02 miles making YHC look like even more of a genius.  What was not genius was picking the guy that had shoulder surgery as your partner.  Great work anyways Package.  This guys a Beast.

Flutter kick X 10, Rosalitas X 10, Dying cockroach X 10.  Someone makes note of Luke 6:28.  Got home and looked it up.  Here is what it says: Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  Makes sense now.  Can already feel the prayers.

Circle up for words of inspiration – Many times in life we show up for something with expectations that it may be easy or moderate, but then someones else’s expectations or plans make it more difficult than we thought it would be.  There are many option in these scenarios, but the 2 most common are quit/leave/go find something easier or suck it up and do it.  All 15 PAX today chose to suck it up and do it.  Usually in this scenario there is a lot of grumbling and complaining at first.  About halfway, people are exhausted and ready to quit, but usually less complaining, and by the time you complete the task there is a sense of achievement.  Great job by all 15 today pushing through and achieving.

Jailbreak to COT/BOM – CSPAN tries again to beat YHC to the Virtual Shovel Flag.  Once again he fails.  When will he learn.  2.19 miles total (thanks Zima)

Announcements – Gladiator games 3/28, Races 4/11 and 4/12, 4/18 and 4/25 (gastonia?), 5/2 Dredd at Rock Hill for 1 year anniversary, F3 Golf outing, check email

Prayers – Pappy for loss of father-in-law, Flattire and his M as she goes through Breast Cancer treatments, Safe travels over spring break, injured PAX. Praise the return of Boehiem tomorrow at Rock Hill.

Moleskin

As always, I’m honored to get to lead this outstanding group of gentlemen.  Seeing you push through todays workout was inspiring.  Lots of groaning and grumbling, but not a single ounce of quit.  It’s what makes us better men, fathers, husbands, and leaders.  You haven’t failed at anything until you quit.  To answer my question above: Is there such a thing as a moderate Murph? I think the answer is no.  It may exist somewhere, but it doesn’t exist in F3.  The reason you show up is because you want to get pushed.  You want to get better.  If you didn’t, you would head out to your sadclown workout by yourself and do it halfway, claiming something is better than nothing.  I did this for years. Because of the DRP I’m in the best shape of my life and I also notice the improvements the rest of the PAX are making too.  Keep pushing each other to get better and use that EH to get someone involved or back out.  Iron sharpens Iron!!  See you in the gloom.  And still proud to be Dark Helmet’s Hero.  Original American Bad A…..

While many PAX were preparing to suffer the P200 Columbia to Charleston Run, YHC brought out some old favorites today including some new favorites that I am sure will be shared in future SlowBurn Workouts. Since many took a vaction day to run P200 I thought we would create our own vacation day at Slow Burn and actually do a moderate workout and after a little mumblechatter on the twittersphere, YHC was trying to get the PAX to go to the Swamp but the PAX are relentless and apparently like to #embracethemoderatesuck. So 16 PAX (includes DD and a Doo-Rag wearing Thug-Runner AKA Santini) stormed into the gloom going the opposite of wear it would end.

Warm Up:

Mosey to Lowes Side lot:

• 15 merkins
• 10 Diamond Merkins
• 25 Morracan Night Clubs
• 25 Squats
• 25 SSH

Line up and Sprint to wall

• Wall sits
• BTW + 5 Merkins
• Wall sits
• BTW + 5 merkins
• Wall Sits/Raise the Roof x 50

Mosey over to Baxter where we found ourselves at the Roundabout for a quick 50 Dips then mosey’d on over to the local stair climb – not sure what building this is but they have stairs so we were there.

Grab a partner:

Round 1:

• Whellbarrow up the stairs
• Sprint short length on second floor
• Bear Crawl
• Sprint to opposite staircase
• Grab Partner and Wheelbarrow downstairs
• Sprint to starting point and complete 10 Burpees

Round 2

• Bear Crawl up the stairs
• Sprint
• 5 Burpees at corner
• Lung Walk
• 5 Burpees at corner
• Down the stairs bearcrawl fail/audible to run down the stairs
• 5 Burpees at the bottom
• Sprint to starting point and complete 5 burpees

Round 3:

• Run 5 Laps up stairs and around opposite side

Mosey back to stoplight

Run back down hill to roundabout, line up and SPRINT back to light

COP for some Ab lab

• Plank Ab Over/Unders – Not sure what this is called but it works
• Superman for last minute

COT

Announcements:

• Hartsville 3/21
• Gladiator Games at #TheReservation 3/28
• 4/11 MudRun
• 4/12 Spartan Sprint – Concord
• 4/25 – Gastonia
• 5/2 – Rock Hill Convergance: Dredd/OBT Q

Probably missed a few…

Lift up all prayers that were spoken/unspoken today. Great work today men and thanks for letting me back on SlowBurn ground. Started to feel like I was never going to be allowed back after my last Q.