Category: Uncategorized

PRE-PARTY

A nearly 5-mile pre-party was enjoyed by YHC and Porcelain at an easy 8:02 pace. (There are plans to achieve a 6 mile pre-party in the same 40 minute time frame before a workout before too long) Shovel flags were then planted to prepare for the real action.

THE MAIN EVENT

QIC: Pumpkin Spice

PAX: Badboy, Bicentennial Man, Crablegs, Crawlspace, Cunning Linguist, En Fuego, Firefox, Harvey Updike,  Hi-Viz, Lunchlady, Porcelain, Pop-a-lock, Preacher Man, Ride Along, Shadow, Silver Medal, T-cell,  Tiny Dancer, Trapper Keeper, Vector

THE THANG

After a brief disclaimer, the PAX moseyed and made their way to the top parking lot for some Warmorama. The exercises served as a foreshadowing of the impending Broad Jump Relay pain:

• SSH x 30
• Flutter Kicks x 10
• Merkins x 10
• Squats x 10
• Plank Jacks x 10
• Low Plank Jacks x 10
• American Hammers x 10
• High Knees x 10

The PAX then counted off to identify their parter-in-pain for the Main Event. We moseyed to the top of the main entrance hill for instructions.

One partner is at the top of the hill doing flutter kicks. The other partner runs down and around the traffic circle and then, once they reach the stone wall entrance, broad jumps the 50-or-so meters up the hill until they get back to their partner. They tag each other out with a 5 burpee handshake and trade places. After both partners have run the course, they burpee handshake and then rinse and repeat with the following sets of exercises at the top of the hill AMRAP:

• Flutter Kicks (already done first)
• Merkins
• Squats
• Plank Jacks (alternating 10 high and 10 low)
• American Hammers

Hi-Viz closed out with a final 5 MOM while YHC made an early exit to get to work on time (We’ll call it a FIFO).

MOLESKIN

• YHC was apparently utilizing more of a bunny hop technique rather than a true broad jump for the first round of the relays. Mumblechatter abounded, notably by one T-cell, and YHC’s form slowed down for the subsequent rounds with T-cell’s approval of broad jump execution. 
• Later in the Relay, the broad jump for many PAX seemed to take on the form of what seemed to me more of a walking lunge — but, as evidenced by my bunny hop, who am I to say so. I’m no expert on technique.
• Many questioned the sanity of YHC, finding the Relay to be of a particularly potent degree of pumpkin spiciness

BULLHORN

• Look out for an inaugural (formal) West Park AO Q from the one and only Crablegs this coming Thursday. Details to be posted on Slack.
• Congratulations to Vector on taking the reigns as Bomber AO Q! The West Side’s most highly-attended AO could not be in better hands.

Lower 40’s temps and wet pavement greeted the 17 PAX who chose to end the work week correctly.

Took the bus loop for a warmup lap with some backpedaling up the hill for good measure.

WOR:

20 SSH

10 Slow ‘n Low Squats

10 LBAC (and reverse)

10 Seal Claps

10 Good Mornings

10 WMH

10 Tempo Merks

Thang:

We did 3 rounds of BLIMPS in the parking lot (5 burpees, 10 lunges, 15 imperial walkers, 20 merkins, 25 planjax, 30 sqauts). After each round, PAX instructed to run the capri lap before starting the next round. WWI for the 6.

Partner up and head to the rails with a coupon. P1 performs 10 rows with block on chest while P2 holds his legs. Flapjack, and 3 sets total.

Up next, P1 takes off around the baseball field loop while P2 performs AMRAP of Shoulder Presses with the coupon until P1 gets back. Flapjack.

Round 2 – Curls

Round 3 – Squats

Various Mary exercises were instructed while the rest of the 6 came in.

Returned the coupons and headed back to the parking for 10 burpees.

Time.

Good work today by everyone. And welcome FNG Blue Devil, who went to UNC.

PAX:  Vector, Pumpkin Spice, Bad Boy, HiViz, Porcelain, Cunning Linguist, Harvey Updike, Autotune (FNG), Right Said, Crawlspace, Crablegs, T-Cell

Temp: low 40s, damp and gloomy

12 PAX got the week started off right with a trip to Westeros. The original plan was scrapped when Vector’s Blue Devils schemed themselves open to break the hearts of Nole nation everywhere.  Thanks to this, we worked until Reddish in the face today.

Mosey to the back parking lot for WAR:

SSHx15, WMH x 12, Cherry Pickers x 12, LBAC x 15, Air Presses (air ball for Vector, but really for me) x 15, rLBAC x 15. We picked partners and were thankful for an even 12 PAX prior to mosey to the playground for some modified DORA.

DORA: 100 pullups, 150 merkins, 200 squats. The traveling partner would run to the steps of West End Middle School, bear crawl up the steps, 3 burpees at the top (3 at the top of the key, so to speak), and crawl bear down prior to returning to their partner. This was tough and many thanks to Bad Boy and others who helped ease the squat burden for struggling PAX (YHC included).

This was followed by a quick mosey back to those same steps for 7s: Jump squats at the bottom, burpees up top. PAX were given the opportunity to choose their means of traveling up the stairs. Most ran while Pumpkin Spice went with the crawl bear.

Next up was a mosey to the west edge of the park for an AYG hill spring to the shovel flag and a bit of Mary go round.

We wrapped up with the COT and the welcoming of FNG Autotune who was brought by Pumpkin Spice. He will now claim his ironclad credit and we will hope that Autotune returns.

Announcements:

-RSVP for Leadership luncheon

-4:13 strong starting back up. Incredible opportunity here.

-Be on the lookout for a more consistent F3 Presence at West Park on Thursday mornings, with a new AO coming quite soon. You could even HC for a workout this Thursday if you want. An official name will be chosen on this day.

PAX: Umbrella, Joey Freshwater (Kotter), Black Widow, Boone’s Farm, Tampa Libra, Funyuns, Toga (QIC), Venus, Tiny Dancer, Double Check, Razorback, Offshore, Pop a lock

13 lucky contestants didn’t skip leg day at The Racetrack.  Here’s how it went down:

Quick disclaimer then mosey to parking lot beside the parking deck.  Warmup COP: SSH, imperial walkers, hillbillies, T-Ups, cotton pickers.  10 burpees for Tampa Libra being late.

Mosey to stairwell for a quick ascent to the top of the deck.  In honor of the great American songwriter Paula Abdul, we began “one step forward and two steps back”= run down the ramp, backpedal back up, complete 10 merkins, run down to the flat and lunge the flat to the next down ramp.  Repeato till the bottom floor then execute pole smokers till the six arrived.  Mosey to the wall outside Holler and Dash, dream of biscuits then execute 1 rd of DID (Incline merkins, dips, decline merkins), and complete 10 step-ups for each leg.

Mosey to stair well.  Attempt to beat previous time for PAX to ascend stairs, fail, and get better with 10 burpees.

Mosey to monkey bars back at the park.  Execute 6 pull-up pyramid then get in formation for old school football ground drills.  Mosey back to the flag.

COT and Joey FW took us out.

Announcements:

• Prayers for those dealing with illness and loss
• Warpath this Saturday
• Leadership Lunch next Friday, 1/18.  See post and RSVP
• We’re back at 4:13 next Thursday.  Get back out there to support these young men entering the program.
• The Standard week 2 happens tomorrow!

NMM:  The Racetrack has a lot to offer.  You’ve got the parking deck, the park, and Umbrella’s tiny flag.  Everyone worked hard this morning, and it’s great to have Mr Freshwater back in the mix.

Stay Classy,

Toga

What my 4-year old has taught me about leadership

My wife and I have a very active 4-year old son. Anyone who has spent a lot of time with children knows they often don’t have a filter. At times this can be bad, but sometimes it is very thought-provoking. I’ve read many great articles over the years on leadership from high-profile CEO’s, High-ranking Military officers, and inspirational leaders. I have learned a lot from these various sources however, I am finding some of the core foundations of leadership can come right from our children.

Below are few candid comments that have been shared by my son over the last several months that have made me stop and reflect on leadership.

“It’s dark upstairs, will you hold my hand?”

As a leader, we sometimes lead our teams into the “unknown”. It can be a change within the organization, a big meeting we are preparing for, a customer-facing event that could go in many different directions, you name it. We need to instill the confidence and trust within our team to let them know it will be alright and we will be with them every step of the way. It’s important they know we are there for them and will we go at it together. Prior to being in leadership myself, I had the misconception that good leaders had all the answers. I now know from personal experience that isn’t always the case. Although, I often don’t have all the immediate answers I have found that people always appreciate the presence and support of knowing they aren’t facing a situation alone.

“Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t, but it’s okay.”

Everyone in some capacity whether in sports, work, or your occasional Monopoly game is competitive (in my son’s case, any game involving hockey). We won’t win all the time, but it’s how we react to our losses that tell us a story about ourselves. I have found that in leadership it takes emotional intelligence to not have a bad attitude after a loss. It is important to quickly assess and analyze where we went wrong and learn from it.

“Sharing is Caring”

If there is one word that we say the most when we are with our son and other kids, it’s “share”. I love to learn. I want to read books and articles about leadership successes and how to replicate them, but I also enjoying reading about challenges and failures. In leadership (and personally), I feel it’s equally important that we share where we have had success and where we have struggled. I have found that I have learned more from conversations with others sharing experiences than any other avenue of learning.

In our four years with our son, we have had some humbling conversations. Sometimes it’s a laughable moment, sometimes not. I believe that leadership principles happen around us daily, however, it all depends on how we look at them. I am still learning every day on how to be a better leader. I look forward to all the additional things he will teach me as he grows.

-Michael Jobe (Bad Boy)

In preparing for 2019, this was the punch in the (too soft) gut I needed:  https://f3nation.com/2018/02/07/queen-q1-4/

And especially, this:

“The Queen is an integral Guardrail in the Q’s pursuit of proper personal alignment. As with chess, if the Queen is taken off the board, it is not long before the King finds himself checkmated. No matter how hard and consistently a man may exercise, if his diet is haphazard his Fitness kingdom will not long stand. The Queen cannot be ignored, even by the strongest of Kings.”

One of my goals for 2019 is to improve my health. And for me, that means making strides to improve my diet. Bottom line: Food is fuel. And I cannot expect better performance on a sub-par diet.

Choosing to do the right thing in this area is a struggle I’ve seen myself battle with decreasing success in the past few years. I need accountability, encouragement, and to know I’m not alone in working to improve this part of my life.

With PA’s blessing, I’m going to launch a Fuel channel on Slack and would invite anyone who also wants to improve in this area of their life to join. It’d be great to talk about diet, strategies, successes, failures, and work hold one another accountable.

To kick things off, here are some changes I’m making to my diet, in an effort to improve.

In 2019, for the first 10 days of each month, I will avoid the following:

• Fried Food/Fast Food
• Red Meat
• Breads/White-Flour-Based Products
• Cream-Based Sauces/Dressings
• Chips/Pretzels/Etc.
• Desserts
• Soda
• Sweet Tea
• Alcohol

I’m expecting there will be a carryover effect through the rest of the month and will extend these guidelines if not.

I will also post my weight weekly in the designated Fuel channel on Slack.

A few understandings:

1. Life happens. If I make a mistake, I’ll tell you about it in the Fuel channel and get back to it. 
2. A weekly ‘cheat meal’ is okay. A ‘cheat day’ however, is not.
3. What I’m trying may not work for you. That’s cool. Do your own thing. And tell us about it. 

Here’s to getting better in 2019. See you in the gloom, where hopefully you’ll eventually see less of me.

Viz

PAX: 5 took a Christmas Red Pill and joined St. Nick on the beaches of Titan to work off the milk and cookies. @porcelain @3rd Degree @TK @crawlspace @thejeweler #GoodGroupOfSledDogs

We started off with a 1 mile trot around the park with 3×10 merkins along the way. 5 extra were performed because @3rd Degree didn’t recover correctly. Me thinks the penalty should be upped!

The warmup:
10 x Good Mornings
10 x Baby Arm Circles
10 x Reverse BACs
10 x Air Press
10 x SSH
10 x Willie Mays
10 x forward lunges

To get the blood going we did 100 x overhead press with the picnic table as a group.

Moseyed over to the field for a little Tabatta. The flow was as follows: 20 sec sprint 10 sec rest 20 sec exercise 10 sec rest (do a little math, carry the one then subtract the one and that equals one minute). We did 10 rounds: merkins, SSH, side lunges, LBCs, flutter kicks, kicking the moon, mtn. Climbers, one foot burpees (im missing 2 exercises).

We took a little trot over to the volleyball court to get sandy with Santa while doing partner drags. Your partner lays flat on the ground and locks his hands around your neck and you drag your partner bear crawl style to the opposite end of the court. Everyone went twice… minor speed bump to search for @porcelain’s key in the sand, which was found.

Now back to the action… 10 group burpees in the sand in cadence on a 4 count.

With key in hand and sand in hair, we moseyed back to where we started through the forest of twirly swirly gumdrops to close out with a few SSHs – 100 in cadence to be exact. That’s 200 if you’re counting by ones.

Prayers/Praise @3rd Degree has his 4th little one on the way, a boy I’m thinking we call him AbsoluteZero based in his current age. Keep praying for my parents & grandfather.

And just when you though it was over, @3rd Degree invited the PAX to stick around for the first Titan Post-Q. Of course the boys obliged, and we were introduced to the Yurpiee! A burpee variation with a clap pushup at the bottom and two hand knee tap jumps at end. We did 7 to be exact which was more than enough. This has officially been added to the Lexicon and is in the process of spreading from sea to shining sea! Thanks F3 Nolensville!

3 for coffeeteria. Had to call an audible and divert to Starbucks b/c they don’t respect the 3 days of Christmas as much as the brothers do.

3 braved the early morning chill for a run heavy tabatta

PAX:. Brother-at-law, DeepDish, TheJeweler

Conditions: Cool at 35 deg. No wind, partly cloudy.

Warm-up: We kicked things off with a 1.25 mile run through the hood to the field at Christ the King to stretch things out:
10 x Good Mornings
10 x SSH
10 x Air Press
10 x BACs
10 x Reverse BACs
10 x Willie Mays
10 x Alternating Tasmanian Toe Touches (Note: DeepDish seems to think that “Russian” Toe Touches is over used so I recommend we look south of the Equator for inspiration)

Main Event Part 1: We stick around at the field and get going with the following: Sprint across the field, 25 Merkins, Sprint back and 25 leg raises while holding the fence (we’re going to count down by 5s). When you’re finished with round 1, keep going and sprint back to the other side for 20 Dips – 20 Leg Raises (we switched to dips because more Merkins await the PAX), 15 Dips – 15 Leg Raises, 10 Dips – 10 Leg Raises, 5 Dips – 5 Leg Raises.

Half-Mile-ish run back to the Stonewall parking lot entrance (we stopped at the beginning of the wall on the road) for a little music themed tabatta.

Main Event Part 2 TABATTA: On the playlist: Rocky, Uptown Funk, Kanye, AC/DC, MGMT, and Dr. Dre. Each round is one song, which is exactly 4 minutes, and looks like this:
20 sec Sprint, 10 sec rest (each sprint is as far as you can go or ~100m +/- 10m)
20 sec SSH, 10 sec rest (each exercise is as many as you can do in the allotted time ~20 on average)
20 sec Sprint, 10 sec rest
20 sec Merkins, 10 sec rest
20 sec Sprint, 10 sec rest
20 sec LBCs, 10 sec rest
20 sec Sprint, 10 sec rest
20 sec lunges, 10 sec rest
We did a total of 6 rounds for 24 minutes ~2400m of sprints or 1.5 miles! For future reference, there are 6 more songs on the playlist!

Mary: With everyone a bit gassed, we cooled off with a 3min jog around the park back to the parking lot just in time for 2 mins of Mary abs:
25 Flutter Kicks
10 American hammers
5 WW1s (Slow 4 count up – Slow 4 count down)
Time! On the day 4.4 Miles!

No new prayer request but a few praises on the year: Deep Dish is still going strong and had a great year and is excited for 2019. Brother-At-Law was blessed with a baby girl this past year – definitely plenty to look forward to in 2019!
Announcements: Don’t forget New Year’s convergence at the Hill (FRA). I believe the kick-off time is 0700.

Pleasure to lead men and be lead. Let’s continue to sharpen each other in the coming year.