Monthly Archive August 2012

The Cowboy Merkin

19 Pax venturend into the gloom for the weekly Death Valley beatdown.

The Thang…

SSH x25

Shoulder warm-up

Merkins x20

Imperial Walker x25

Diamonds x20

Squat jumps x20

Wide arm merkins x20

Lunge jump x20

Carolina dry docks x20

Onto the football field…

High knees / Butt kickers then repeat

5 burpees

 

Karaoke down and back

5 burpees

 

Leg shuffle down and back

5 burpees

 

Back peddle / 80% run then repeat

5 burpees

 

Two sets

Donkey Kicks x20

Dips x25

Carolina dry docks x25

 

Two minutes of Jack

Two sets of carolina dry docks x15

 

LBC x20

Flutter Kicks x20

Dolly x20

Plankerama

Scissor Crunch x20

Peter Parker x15

Parker Peter x10

Naked Moleskin –

There was much chatter regarding Cowboy and his merkin style. What is a Cowboy Merkin? Basically a Carolina Dry Dock. What is a Cowboy Carolina Dry Dock? Basically a squat. We tease only because we love….

QIC Slapshot emerged from the Providence Plantation clown car with orange cones in hand and placed them strategically aroud the football field….then did not use them at all during the workout. Was he going for the imitidation factor?

Reminder of the southland convergence on Sept 8 at Calvery Church – “The Rock”. The Charlotte South F3’ers invite all metro and north guys to join us that day to help launch this new site.

Shoutout to some of the new guys who continue to post – Pinstripes, Coal Miners Daughter and others. Good work men!

 

PR’s all around

The Thang:

12 Pax met at 5:15 or 5:30 to run 3-6 miles. This being the end of our first month at the Devil’s Turn, we timed ourselves to gauge our progress. Of course, since we hadn’t timed ourselves before, we all set personnal records. Here are the official times. Presumably, there’s plenty of room for improvement:

The Shore (6 mi) 46:08, Jetski (6) 47:08, Ray Charles (4) 36:14, Stone Cold (4 miles) 29:22, Joker (4) 29:15, Donkey Kong (4) 30:16, Pretty Boy QB (4) 31:39, Hops (4) 32:50, Deep Dish (4) 33:17, Dora (4) 42:22, Thin Crust (3 miles?) 41:26, Mall Cop (3) 33:15

Naked Moleskin:

We have survived the first month and have a strong core of Pax who make the journey most Thursday mornings. Strong work by all.

Dora went exploring this morning and found himself straight out into the wilderness of the Greenway. His headlamp was flailing about looking for the right path when he was directed toward the 2 mile marker. With the help of his mental mapa he did make it back to the start, though he might have actually run 4.2 miles.

Our first month ended with today’s time trials. Our second month, next week, begins with woods and hills. Bring your headlamp!

Today is the last day to sign up for the group discount for the March Spartan Sprint through F3. The entire Shore clan is signed up. From what I saw this morning, so should be all from the Devil’s Turn grounds. Get on it!

Leg-O-Rama

Twelve men posted and voluntarily fed their lower extremities into the virtual wood chipper.

 

Warm Up

  • Fellowship jog to church parking lot
  • Run up and down stairs
  • Bunny hop up and down stairs x 2
  • Fingertip Merkins x 10
  • Slow Groiners x 10
  • Squats, Low and Slow, x 20
  • Bunny hop up and down stairs x 2
  • Fellowship jog to hill

 

The Thang

PART 1:  The Hill

  • Lunge walk up hill, run back down
  • Backwards lunge walk up hill, run back down
  • Side lunge walk up hill (left), run back down
  • Side lunge walk up hill (right), run back down
  • Peter Parker lunge walk up hill (right elbow to left knee, left elbow to right knee), run back down
  • Backward Peter Parker lunge walk up hill (Crowd Pleaser)
  • Mosey to school drop off lane for something entirely different:  lunge walk x 50 yards (arms overhead)
  • Plank, wait for stragglers
  • Mosey to Plates

PART 2:  The Plates, a Tire and Misc.

  • Plate/Tire Inch Worms x 30 yards
  • Hairburners back to start
  • Plate/Tire Inch Worms x 30 yards
  • Hairburners back to start
  • Plate/Tire Inch Worms x 30 yards
  • Hairburners back to start
  • Speed Skaters x 10 ea leg
  • Warrior 3 x 30 sec ea leg

Mary

  • Dolly x 25 (hold ’em)
  • Flutter x 25
  • Glute Bridge x 60 sec
  • Greatest American Hero x 30 sec.  (Repeat)
COT
MOLESKIN
  • An under-the-radar Spartan training regimen focusing on legs today.  Hear that Google?  SPARTAN, SPARTAN, SPARTAN.  Send traffic here.  Now go sign up for the Spartan Beast and Sprint at www.f3nation.com
  • Skunk Works attracts the beef-eating, horse-necked Pax, with a few ectomorphs wandering in from time to time.  But with all the BRR training dominating the F3 New Cycle and Twitter chatter,  there was no choice but for the Skunk Pax to go after the legs and lungs today.  Put the grab bars in the loo, gents.
  • Any Qs looking to spice up a workout, YHC offers a nugget of wisdom:  do the same things, only backwards.  The anteriorally-developed Pax is only half the man he could be and leading with the six is a great way to confuse the muscles.
  • What’s a Plate Inch Worm, you ask?  Like a hairburner but suckier.  Plank with feet on a weight plate (ranging today from 45 lbs to 10lbs) or a tire if you are last in (looking at you Donkey Kong).  Next, pull knees to chest, dragging the plate/tire along the asphalt with your feet.  Repeat for 30 yards or so.  No sparks or smell of burnt hair but a full body smoker nonetheless.
  • Unfortunate timing for Devil’s Turn time trials coming this Thursday.  Foam roll, gents.
  • NEW FELLOWSHIP WORKOUT COMING THIS SUNDAY:  After tossing McGee’s “football” in the parking lot a few weeks ago, YHC’s Ultimate (Frisbee) cravings have been reawakened.  Details to follow on the website and through the Qs in the COTs this week.  Quick look:  3 pm at Olde Providence Elementary on Rea.  It will be a Pax-only game but shorties can play on adjacent fields and playgrounds.
  • New CLT South Workout, The Rock, to launch from Calvary (Rea and 51) on Saturday, Sept. 8.  This is our first step towards westward expansion into Ballantyne.  Start headlocking your friends in the S. CLT / Ballantyne area join us.

 

Scouting Run – Wet Behind the Ears @ 40

13 Pax gathered in the Gloom for a downPAINment at The Rock for a final scouting trip, and to help Hops celebrate his 40th Birthday!

The Thang:

We’re not going to give a whole lot away in specifics of the workout as today was a dry run of just some of the pain for The Rock prior to our Sept. 8th Big Bang launch.  Well for most of us it was a dry run, but more on that in a minute.  We once again smoked ourselves running through only about 25% of the campus here at Calvary Church.  This is a great campus to hold an F3 workout and we are blessed the Leadership of the church has allowed us to hold our new Sat. morning Charlotte South boot camp here.  We once again tackled North Face, did a lot of running and pain stations, and had to get the sand out of our shoes!

Great job by all the Pax this morning including our FNG Michael Axelson (from here forth known as C. Everett Koop).  It does get easier, as I am surely living proof of that.  Looking forward to having you back out in the Gloom at all the Charlotte South Workouts! 

T-Claps to Ray Charles pushing through the workout with a tweaked groin.  One of us mentioned we were putting Icey Hot on our lower leg/calf while RC was talking about his #23 style dunk yesterday and slightly pulling his groin.  One mistaken Pax merged the 2 conversations and immediately grabed his crotch and buckled his knees at the thought of Icey Hot.  Slow down there brother, Ray Charles isn’t about to go there!  Also T-Claps to Ray Charles for his volunteer work with the Johnson C. Smith Football team.  He would like some support from the Pax throughout the football season at some of the games and practices to help support and mentor some of these young men as 95% of them have grown up without a father in the picture.  It would be a great way for us to use the 2nd F while serving our community.  You never no how you are going to affect another persons life!

And now to the final exercise of the day as one of us gets wet behind the ears.  We transversed the parking lot over towards a smaller hill next to the pond to get ready for the last exercise.  This time Run Stopper was taking the Q to lead us as he yelled out “Next Exercise is, The Bum Rush” as he tackles Hops and throws him into the pond!  It was one of the biggest surprises and was great fun.  Hops took it like a gentleman and was able to laugh it off with us as we all sang happy birthday.  Happy 40th brother!  After Mrs. Hops said your hair still smelled like pond algae after washing it 2 times I hope you showered off for a third!  If you’re on Twitter check out the video that Tiger Rag posted of the festivities.  If your not on Twitter then shame on you and join using your F3 nickname as your handle.  We will be pushing a good bit of information out via Twitter as well as the website.  Here is a link if you have a Twitter log-in: http://twitvid.com/YFVTN

 

F3 Dads was a blast as about 12 of us from Charlotte South headed to Freedom Park with the 2.0s after our downPAINment in the Gloom.  My kids can’t wait till next year to do it again.

 

Announcements: 

Next week everyone will all be at Area 51 at McKee Rd Elementary.  Then the following week, Sept. 8th, will be the  Big Bang Charlotte South Convergence at The Rock.  We want every Area 51 Pax that has ever posted to be there to get smoked and have a great time!  Begin EH’ing your friends by letting them know this will be a great first F3 workout to start.  Beginning Saturday Sept. 15th both Charlotte South boot camp workouts will be held simultaneously at each respective site.

If you haven’t already signed up for the Spartan Sprint Race in March what are you waiting for?  Area 51 and The Rock need to represent!  Sign up by August 30th through the website to get in on the F3 discount.

100 = 105

26 men gathered in the Area 51 swamp land this morning.

The Thang – McGee QIC

The Burpee Warm-Up:

Side Straddle Hop x 10 / 1 Burpee

Side Straddle Hop x 10 / 2 Burpees

Merkins x 10 / 3 Burpees

Imperial Walker x 10 / 4 Burpees

Knee-Ups x 10 / 5 Burpees

Diamonds x 10 / 6 Burpees

SSH x 10 / 7 Burpees

Mountain Climbers x 10 / 8 Burpees

Slow Bicycle (The Bootlegger) x 10 / 9 Burpees

2 Minutes of People’s Chair / 10 Burpees

Subtotal Burpees = 55

 

The Devil’s Workout

Widearms/Diamonds/Merkins

Squats/Burpees/Jumping Lunges

Knee-ups/Jackknives/Bicycle

Burpees/Turkish Getups/Burpees

Turkish Getups/Burpeesx7/Turkish Getups

Subtotal Burpees = 50

 

Total Burpees = 105

The Thang – Slapshot QIC

Run to rock pile Squats with rock x50 Jump ups x25
Run through neighborhood to back field Peter parker x15 Parker peter x15 Walking lunge 1/2 field Bear crawl 1/2 field
Run to trail Dips x25 Run trail Dips x25
Run to playground Pull-ups x10 Scissor crunch x20 Pull-ups x10 Scissor crunch x20
Flutter kicks x20 LBCs x10 Dolly x20 Knee-ups x10
Run to parking lot

Nakedman Moleskin

-McGee may be good with numbers, but the oxygen deprivation resulted in a few unintented extra burpees this morning.  100, 105… what does it really matter… once you cross the century mark you know it’s gonna hurt.

-Turkish get-ups were introduced to Area 51 this morning… a real crowd pleaser.  Thankfully, today was without bricks… maybe next time.

-Today’s age range for the PAX… 26 [Donkey Kong] and 58 [Boss Tweed]… proof that F3 fits for all ages.  We know for certain that Donkey Kong will still be out in gloom 32 years from now… showing FNGs in 2044 proper form for burpees.

 

 

Headlamps required…..

The Thang:

Eleven Pax posted for The Devil’s Turn; 2 for the 6 mile run and 9 for the 4 mile.

Moleskin:

The lack of a moon this morning made running the greenway even more interesting.  It was practically pitch black without the use of a headlamp and the trail was not visible in the shaded areas.  Sparky (headlampless..) encountered a lone aged tomato (headlampless as well)  and both parties suffered mild heart attacks, however this encountered did provide Sparky with a new finishing PR!  Way to push it!  Next week will be the first time trial and all will set their new PR (maybe with the exception of Sparky!) to improve upon in the coming weeks.  Nice job Mall Cop and Thin Crust… already showing improvement. Welcome back Cowboy. Aye!

Dirty Laundry

23 men gathered in the gloom for a Death Valley party. 

The Thang

-Run to track

-Warm up: SSH, Imperial Walker, Squats [each X20]

-Track work, in partner format:

  • 1/4 mile run, 100 merkins [in aggregate, with partner]
  • 1/4 mile run, 150 squats [in aggregate, with partner]
  • 1/4 mile run, 50 burpees [in aggregate, with partner… F3 style of course]
  • 1/4 mile run, bear crawl [50 yards], crab crawl [50 yards]

-Short Mary

-Plank-o-rama

-Other stuff… just riffing it… merkins, mountain climbers, etc. 

-Run up hill to Circle of Trust [COT]

Nakedman Moleskin

  • Today was the high water mark for a Death Valley workout… 23 men… triple claps
  • We started today by picking partners.  Your humble correspondent [YHC] asked that men pair up with someone they don’t know that well.  Needless to say, chaos ensued.  For a casual observer, it must have looked like a Sadie Hawkins dance or a speed dating event in the gloom.  I even overheard a few rejections among the PAX… Man #1 says to Man #2: “Hey you got a partner?”… Man #2 replies back to Man #1: “Um, sorry, but I’m already spoken for.”  It was a scary scene, never to be repeated.  I’m scarred for life. 
  • Much chatter among the PAX today regarding what us men do with our dirty laundry when we return to our nice suburban homes in the wonderful land of Charlotte South.  Many bad ideas surfaced, but YHC may have set the bar at new lows, acknowledging a recent decision to place my post-workout shorts on a hanger in the master bedroom.  Let’s just say that MJoker was not pleased.  “Kick ’em when they’re up, kick up when they’re down… we love dirty laundry.”
  • Many headlamps were donned this morning… and may be a valuable addition to future Death Valley workouts.
  • Far side showed today that his speed on four limbs rivals his speed on two. 
  • Lost Weekend… welcome back to the gloom… if you had stayed away much longer we might have renamed you to Lost Summer.
  • Nickname-o-rama today in the COT was a pleasure to behold.  On the turn of a dime someone can go from Boudreaux to Dora.. harsh brothers, very harsh.
  • The Rock… September 8… Calvary Church… come out for a good time.       

 

 

 

40 is the new 30…Bring it!

The Shovel Flag was planted and 14 of my F3 brothers helped YHC celebrate my 40th b-day in style with some pain management!

The Thang:

Run with dumbbells to lower lot, some lunges to warm it up.

SSH x 40

Imperial Walker x 40

Spartan Merkin x 10

Wide-arm Merkin x 10

Diamond Merkin x 10

Jacob’s Ladder with dumbbells- Spartan Burpee at top with dumb bells, of course

Run back to CDS for Wall work

People’s Chair- 40 sec

Wall Plank- 40 sec

People’s Chair- 40 sec

Balls to Wall- 40 sec

Dumb Bell work-

Shoulder press x 10

Curls x 10

Tricep extension x 10

Rinse, repeat

Teamwork- 40 yard station DASH (Burpees while you wait on your teammates)

Station 1- Hairburners

Station 2- Hariburners (Yep, Why not?)

Station 3- Tire Pulls

Station 4- Sled Pull

Station 5- Tire Flips

Mason Twist with Dumbbell – (20ish count)

Nakedman Moleskin:

Gotta love the Nibbla, calling YHC out on the 40 theme after the SSH’s. 

Strong work on the hill, men….noticed Harley, Countertop, and Joker leading the way there.

Donkey Kong- totally vertical on Balls to the Walls, impressive!

Inaugural launch of Tiger Rag’s new toy, the SLED!  Crowd pleaser for sure….key, stay low.  Run Stopper killed it.

Hops turns the big 4-0 on Saturday, come help him celebrate at ARea 51.

Hope you boys enjoyed the variety today.

F3/Dads- this Sat at 0930-1030 -meet near the Train, bring the 2.0’s

Sept. 8th- Launch of  The Rock at Calvary..according to Run Stopper, “The Rock will break you”.  There some hill there that may be named Everest…come find out what it is all about.

 

 

 

 

The Rock… T-minus 19 Days…

26 men gathered in the gloom for a Saturday morning dose of pain and suffering. 

The Thang

 Countertop – QIC

COP

  • SSH x 30
  • Imperial Walkers x 20
  • Merkins x 20
  • LBC x 20
  • Arm Circles/stretches

Sprints, crawls and burpees

  • sprint to mid field / High Crawl back / 30 Spartan Race Burpees
  • sprint to mid field / High Crawl back / 20 Spartan Race Burpees
  • sprint to mid field / High Crawl back / 10 Spartan Race Burpees

 Mary 

  • 20x dolly (and hold)
  • 15x flutter
  • 15x rosalita (and hold)
  • 15x flutter
  • 15x freddy mercury (raised)
  • 8x knee up

Ochocinco – QIC

  • Lap around campus
  • Playground… alternating pull ups and jump squats
  • Field work… high knees, sprints, etc.
  • Merkins

Nakedman Moleskin

-The QICs were forced to improvise, adapt and overcome… well, actually it was just a girls soccer tournament that posed the challenge… but, with the large field overtaken by some of Charlotte’s finest young soccer players, the Area 51 PAX bounced around the campus fringes to find suitable space for a proper beatdown.

-After a nine month hiatus, Special K made an appearance in the gloom.   Welcome Back!

-Feats of strenght and speed:  Donkey Kong tapped into his inner primate, demonstrating tremendous knuckle-walking speed in the bear crawl.  Ochocinco and Far Side turned on the jets in the 50 yard dash. 

-Five members of the PAX conducted a scouting mission at the new Charlotte South workout site — The Rock — that will officially launch on Saturday September 8th at Calvary Church.  Indications are that this site will have much to offer, including a hill that may leave you running home for momma.        

 

65 degrees and dark

12 Pax set out for an early morning jog on the McAlpine Greenway.

The Thang:

6 miles for those who set out at 5:15. 4 miles for those leaving at 5:30. Or anywhere in between for those who felt like doing their own thang.

Moleskin:

Bratwurst was kind enough to show up down south this morning and take it easy on us novices. Our comfortable pace brought some us in at a 7:30 pace.

It’s nice to see more pax showing up even if they are not completely comfortable with the running thang. Guys were scattered all over the greenway at different distances and paces. The more the merrier. And it all beats dreaming about your sub-spartan effort in the fartsac!

Then there are the regulars, along with your QIC’s, Ray Charles, Joker, Callaway, and Donkey Kong have made all the rounds so far. Strong work men.