Hey gents,

Ive been talking this up a little bit at the workouts, but here is the official information.

A while back, this was brought up at church. What it simply is, is a flight from Charlotte NC to Washington DC for all veterans so they get a chance to visit all the memorials and see the capital for the country they fought to preserve. Its been a while since this has happened in Charlotte so I spoke to the M and 2.0s about not missing this. We will get to the airport and get our passes from the TSA to be a part of the welcoming committee. I am doing this mainly becuase of my Dad and his service. The last time I went to DC, he asked me to look at the veitnam memorial wall for some names of Marines he had lost touch with throughout his service and TOD.

Out of the 10 names he gave me, only one came up and I remember the feeling I had when I saw that name. That was one man who didn’t make it home. With the welcome home some the the vets got after the country turned its tide against soldiers returning from war, this is a second chance for them. It’s also a chance for the greatest generation and those from the forgotten war and all other conflicts between to be recognized as the heroes they are. If you know someone who is still around and wants to visit, sign them up. Last I read, they are still looking.

This unfortunately conflicts with the 2nd F River Jam that Sargento is putting together, but I am optimistic we can welcome some folks home and still make it out there.

The website is qchonorflight.org.

I have attached some pictures and labelled them if anyone is interested.

1. So… a month or so back, we thought it would be a good idea to try to do a 2.0 friendly workout once a month, through the summer months! Today neing the first, It went better then i could have imagined!

I wanted to get the HIMs involved in leading these workouts, and they stepped up, and did an awesome job!

Whoopi kicked things off this morning, explaining to the 2.0s why we do what we do, why we push the ROCK! To better each other, to help one another to step up and be better men, dads, husbands, to push each other to follow Christ, and to be physically stronger! Then he led into a few warmup exercises, then mosey !

At this point Bedpan took over, stopping on our way to the Flag at the fork in the road. We did some crab walking, imperial walkers, seal jacks, then mosey to the flag!

Time for Montross! Hats off for the pledge! 22 for the vets, then some burpees! Mory back to the fork!

YHC found a hill near the fork, 10 spuats at the top of the hill then go down the hill, but you had to do it some other way then up right! Roll, crawl, flip, however you wanted, when you get to the bottom, sprit back to the top, x3! Then starting at the bottom, 10 lbcs, this time while going up, crawl/ crab walk, no walking or running going up! Spint back down the hill, repeat x3! Time to mosey!

Gumby took to the small lot that i hate! With a soccer ball in hand, he started us off! He threw the ball and everyone run for it, first one to get to it calls an exercise, then throws the ball for the next person to get, and call an exercise, repeating for 4 or so different exercises! Mosey!

Medicine Woman takes the lead ! Kids Vs Dads! Inch worm, kids lined up on one side, grown ups on the other! Lots of mumble chatter, there was a water hole right under myself and Whoopi, and Dolph wanted a favor from us when the mayor comes through, we gladly obliged, when Mayor got us, haystack! I think he returned the favor to Dolph later! Mosey!

Swimmer had our final stop, at the bottom parking lot ! We were running a little short on time, but he still got a few things in, rocky balboa’s, and lbcs? Time to mosey back to the start!

HIPAA and his 2.0 ran the pain lab this morning, looks like they put a beating on some of the pax, while Slaw led the way with 4 or 5 pax, running 4 miles and getting some exercises along the way!

We circled up, having to name so many new 2.0s and one Fng dad! We decided to split up into 2 groups to get this done! Then came together for the name o Rama! 56 total today, with the majority of that being 2.0s!

Announcements- Memorial Day 5k, Murph on Memorial also!

Prayer request- I’m like Huck on this one, God knows the spoken ones and the unspoken!

My son Madden took us out! Im a proud dad!

Sorry I didn’t post the names of all of those who were there today! YHC can not remember them all?

Today the pax came together to make this a success, and I am thankful! I personally know my boys looked forward to this all week! They had a blast, and so did the boy that came with us! Thank you all for leading and being the HIMs that the good Lord has called you to be! We will do this next month! I challenge all pax to invite someone to come and bring their 2.0s, or if you know a 2.0 that doesn’t have a HIM in there life, step up! and bring them along, be a mentor for someone else!

See you next time!

Proverbs 22:6

Today was fun.  A whole lot of HIMs posted downtown for burpeemania.  This was my first Q downtown, and I must admit, I was rather nervous.  At 0530 it was time to clock in.

Warmups: SSH, LBC, Toy Soldiers all x 10IC

Mosey to the parking garage

Level one: double merkin burpees.  Sprint to level 2. Level two: mountain climber burpees. Sprint to level 3.  Level three: one leg burpees.  Sprint to level 4.  Level four: 8ct body builders.  Sprint to the top. At the top it was announced that we would do 10 burpees per minute for 10 minutes.  Around 41 YHC decoded to Omaha this crap.  We stopped at 50.  Run back to the bottom floor and partner up.  P1 does Australian mountain climbers while P2 runs to the top of the garage and back and then switch.  If you come off the wall. that’s 10 burpees for you and your partner.  Then P1 does a wall hold while P2 does 50 lbcs IC and then switch.  Then P1 does donkey kicks while P2 does 30 merkins and switch.

Circle up.  YHC asked some PAX to give us their least favorite exercises.  I don’t remember them all, but we had: burpees, wolverine burpees, squats, copperhead squats, lbcs, etc.

Time is running low so we lunge, nur, bear crawl and run back to the launching point.  Gastone led some flutter kicks while YHC grabbed his phone.

TIME.

Announcement: Memorial Day Murph and Patriot 5k.

Prayer request: bad need, I don’t remember them all. Good news: God does.

BOM: YHC took us out in prayer.

Men: I truly appreciate the opportunity to Q today.  This was definitely out of my comfort zone.  I have, before today, only had the Q at folsom, midoriyama and asheville.  This was new and exciting. Thank you to the men that were there, and we missed the men that didn’t make it.

Also, Medicine Woman got cussed out for running through the fountain.  You can take the PAX out of Folsom but you can’t take the Folsom out of the PAX

Philippians 4:13

Huckleberry

16 Showed up at Midoriyama

No FNG’s so a quick disclaimer was given.

Warmup:

SSHx10 IC

Don Q’s x 5 IC

Then we did some leg stretches

Pledge

Mosey to the small soccer field

Butt kicks to 1/4 field then High Knees to Half Field

Carioca Half Field repeat Opposite Direction

Skips to Half Field

Goose Steps

Lunge Walks to Half Field

Butt Kicks Back

YHC called upon a few Pax for some exercises. (forgive me I do not remember exactly what they were)

The Thang:

Before the workout YHC measured off a 400m stretch for some sprint work.

We began at the Turd Shack near the soccer fields.

200m sprint to Playground

Walk 200m to Recover

Flutter Kicks 10 IC and some stretching

200m sprint from the speed bump at beginning of parking lots to playground

Walk 200m to recover

Stretches

200m Sprint to Playground

Walk 200m

Stretches

Sprint 100m +/- , Walk 100m, Sprint 100m, Walk 100m

Circle up YHC called pac for a few more exercises

Mosey back to the flag

COT

Had a quick word about coming up on my 1 yr. anniversary of F3 and how it and all of you guys have positively affected my life in every aspect. Thankful for yall everyday.

Annoucements

Prayer Requests

YHC took us out in Prayer

Nameorama

5 men rolled into Grits N Greens for a meal and a short study on self-control. Proverbs 25:28 says Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” I asked each man  what would they do if someone came into the restaurant and slapped them across the face. How would you handle that when you were 20? How would you handle that if your family was sitting there? How would you handle that if you were sitting in a church service? Would you have any self-control to “turn the other cheek” as the scriptures ask us to do. I am sure most of us aren’t where we need to be as far as 100% self-control but we should be striving to get better each day. Self-Control is a very broad subject but a very personal one. We each are faced daily with decisions that test our self-control. A Focus on The Family article said this, Self-Control is the discipline of saying “no” for the sake of a bigger and better “yes”. We discussed a few of the areas that require self-control. Overeating, greed, gossip, lust, anger, materialistic and pride. We discussed what we gain when we have self-control, not what we lose for each item on this list

How do we improve our self-control? The end of Galatians 5:25 says “let us keep in step with the Spirit”. I believe attending church regularly is one of the best ways to “keep in step with the Spirit” as I have seen this work many times in my own life when I was straying away from areas of self-control. We can improve self-control also by keeping company with people who exhibit it. I remember what Moses (our F3 Moses, not the Old Testament one) said when he began coming to Forge. He said he thought he needed some better friends. That is an excellent recognition of someone striving to be better. Do you need better friends? Are you improving your friends or are they influencing you in a negative way? I told of a friend of mine who I have seen in several situations keep his mouth shut and his anger inside when I would’ve not been so inclined. He knew to “keep in step with the Spirit” in a way that amazed me. We should all be striving to have that kind of self-control in all situations. You don’t want to be known for the one time in your life when you lost control. Our F3 brothers can help inspire us and help us keep in step with our self-control  if we stay plugged in to the group and keep posting.

Thanks to the men who came out and if you don’t have a place to be each Wednesday at 6:30 pm, give Forge a try. We will begin next week studying different men from the Bible. Our F3 Moses will discuss Gideon. Freight wanted me to tell everyone (especially Roscoe) that Sparky had strawberry cobbler with ice cream.

It’s been a while since YHC has Q’d a workout, and it showed…there were multiple Q fails.  When Stroganoff posted the opening for Gashouse, I knew it was time to knock off the rust (shake off the Sad Clown) and get back after it.  I’ve had great excuses for slowly drifting into a Sad Clown (knee injury, coaching soccer for the 2.0s, moving to a new home, preparing the old home to be sold, etc.); however, these are still excuses.

At 0700 the Pax circled up (both bootcamp & pain lab). We identified an FNG (Asher Greer, Dolf’s 2.0…forever more to be known as Dijon) and I gave a quick disclaimer before jumping into the warm up & pledge:

SSH x 25

Don Quixotes x 20

Morocan Nightclub x 20

PLEDGE

After the warm up, the PAX divided into two group: bootcamp & pain lab.  YHC was the QIC for the bootcamp & Hipaa was the QIC for pain lab. 12 HIMS participated in the bootcamp workout, and the PAX was given a quick overview of the WEINKE and introduced to the figurative Sad Clown (a 6” x 6” x 8 ‘ pressure treated timber decorated as a Sad Clown thanks to my 2.0, Monet) that we planned to carry around.  I thanked the PAX for following up with me over the last several months…literally, many of them came along side me to help shoulder my Sad Clown burdens.

The Thang.

The PAX ran 0.25 miles while carrying the figurative Sad Clown then stopped for some exercises (30 seconds per exercise) through 12 pain stations.  The PAX carried the Sad Clown (approx. 65 lbs) in groups of 2 and alternated frequently to shoulder the weight.

Station #1 – Mercans, Lunges

Station #2 – CDDs (Def push ups), LBCs

Station #3 – Hillbillies, Monkey Humpers

Station #4 – Time for some Dora: 100 Freddy Mercuries, 200 Alternating Shoulder Taps, 300 Flutter Kicks

Station #5 – Imperial Walkers, Broad Jump Burpees

Station #6 – American Hammers, Bear Crawl

Station #7 – Rocky Balboas (in honor of Stage Coach’s Philadelphia roots), Mike Tyson Pushups

Station #8 – Donkey Kicks, People’s Chair, Hip Slappers

Station #9 – Joe Hendrix

Station #10 – Crabwalk

Station #11 – Mtn Climbers

Station #12 – skipped the exercise because low on time

Bootcamp & Pain Lab finished with some Mary (WWI sit ups, Dying Cockroches) before the bells rang.

After the bells, Linus confirmed the PAX covered +3.2 miles (including the Dora run). Who says you can’t complete a 5k run with Speed for Need?

Hippa shared announcements, took prayer requests, and named our FNG (Asher Greer). Welcome Dijon!!!

YHC thanked the PAX again for “not leaving me behind” the past several months and encouraged the PAX to continue to be intentional to reach out to our other MIA brothers….it makes a difference knowing that someone cares. We concluded our time in a COT in prayer.