7 pax ventured out into the Cold Gloom for a straight 4 or 6 miles this morning
The Thang:
6 miles for some. 4 for others. About 5 for Ray Charles.
Moleskin:
Today was supposed to be a time trial day, but I know at least YHC was too cold and stiff to completely push my limits. On the other hand, Ray Charles has consistantly been out pushing his limits. I’m sure he gets stronger every week!
Bratwurst has always been fast I suspect. 2:51 in the Marine Corp Marathon. That’s a 6:35 minute mile for 26 miles for those of you mentally challenged. And that’s fast for those of you that have never been out on the trail timing yourself.
All the animals out on the greenway must now be hibernating as they’ve all disappeared the last few weeks. We did all get to run under the freight train heading into Charlotte at about 5:45.
Next month at the Devil’s Turn we all get to play Santa and his Elves, GoRuck style. We’ll give you a taste of the challenge whether or not you had the guts to actually commit to the real thing.
25 PAX posted this morning. Clearly they didn’t know that YHC (Short Sale) was posted for his inaugural run as QIC. Thanks for your support men.
THE THANG:
Warm-up
· Jog to lower football field
· SSH x 20
· Imperial Walkers x 20
· Merkins x 20
· Mountain climbers x 20
· Some exercise the QIC can’t remember
Partner Mini-Murph
· 10 Merkins
· 20 LBC’s
· 20 Squats
· 1 lap around track – staying with your partner
Rinse & Repeat x3
· Jog to bathroom building
· Peoples Chair 90 sec
· Merkins x20
· Peoples Chair 60 secs
· Merkins x20 (I think)
· Peoples Chair x60
Jog to baseball fields & divide into two groups
· First group Dips x20
· Second group Australian (supine) Pull-ups x15
· Rotate
· Rinse & Repeat
Jog to bottom of hill and find partner from the mini-murph
· Partner Carries up the Hill
· Rinse & Repeat
Jog to parking lot for 10 MOM
· LBC
· Slow Count Flutter
· Bicycle
· Dolly
· Rosalita in Spanish
· Merkins x20
· Burpees x5
COT for 30 seconds of more burpees
Moleskin
Plenty of headlamps kept the Pax running in the right direction this morning. YHC heard lots of heavy breathing at the end of the Partner Mini-Murph and lots of “ughs” during the Peoples’ Chair – mission accomplished.
While the railings for the Australian pull-ups were too low to the ground for full-range of motion for most of the PAX, Header reminded YHC that those who are more vertically challenged found the railing height quite suitable. YHC was scolded by one member of the PAX after the workout for not announcing that the PAX should have picked partners of similar size which would have come in handy during the Partner Carries. YHC did notice that Wanker and Header were struggling a little with their partner choices as they each made their way up the hill.
Triple claps to our 2 site FNG’s: Field of Dreams and Stagecoach. Stagecoach ran a lengthy and detailed cost/benefit analysis in Excel and determined that a workout at Death Valley is more advantageous than working out with his personal trainer in a room full of ferns and Muzak.
Twenty three #AnarchistSkunks pushed down old ladies, torched Peugeots, and fomented discontent. Yet the Segway never came….
WARM UP
THE THANG
Walk of the Bone Stackers, Alt L/R, Back to Lot
2MOM
COT
MOLESKIN
“One good deed is more worth than a thousand brilliant theories. Let us not wait for large opportunities, or for a different kind of work, but do just the things we ‘find to do’ day by day. We have no other time in which to live. The past is gone; the future has not arrived; we never shall have any time but time present. Then do not wait until your experience has ripened into maturity before you attempt to serve God. Endeavour now to bring forth fruit. Serve God now, but be careful as to the way in which you perform what you find to do—’do it with thy might.’ Do it promptly; do not fritter away your life in thinking of what you intend to do to-morrow as if that could recompense for the idleness of today. No man ever served God by doing things to-morrow. If we honour Christ and are blessed, it is by the things which we do today. ” – Charles Spurgeon
17 of South Charlotte’s Finest returned to The Matrix’s icy gloom this morning for another dose of…
THE RED PILL
Moleskin
YHC’s first full QIC. #Tclaps to all you gentlemen for not lynching me. It was a privilege to lead, and I look forward to the next opportunity. Strong, strong work by all.
Quite nippy for a Monday morning. The Bolshoi were out in force, everyone had gloves, and when I rolled into the parking lot there sat 5 vehicles with Pax on the INside rather than the OUTside who probably were not at all hiding out from the cold (#fartmobiling) but that’s the first time I’ve witnessed that phenomenon. Buck up, Campers, it only goes down from here.
Pax chatter went to zero during legs&laps. Just the sounds of lots of gloom-sucking. Joker reports that Cheese Curd allegedly took a dive on the pavement during legs&laps… “I didn’t see it, but it was loud enough that I heard it!” Glad you’re OK, brother, you’re Qing next Monday.
The partner squats were a crowd pleaser, and likely a violation of some CMS policy regarding what grown men should be doing on school grounds.
And finally, in remembrance of Freddie Mercury who passed away 21 years ago this past Saturday, we did 6 Minutes For Freddie with lots of bicycles and extra bicycles after that.
Dora out.
RIP FREDDIE (5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991)
19 men gathered in the Area 51 gloom.
The Thang – McGee
20xSSH
10xMerkin
10xImperial Walker
10xMountain Climber
10xDiamond
5 Burpees
10xSquat
10xBaryshnikov
10xa few other things
Century Club:
Four light posts and 25 each stop
First – Merkins, Mountain Clumbers, Squats, Burpees
Second – Jumping squats, Jackknifes, forgotten, Spartan Burpees
Third – can’t remember anything but the Burpees. Too. Much. Pain.
The Thang – Countertop
Peoples Chair
Balls to the wall
Peoples Chair
Balls to the Wall
Track:
Front Playground:
Partner Carry
Run
Crab crawl downhill – Trail Run – Bear Crawl uphill
Run
Back Playground:
Partner Carry
run
Track
High Crawl across center of track
Mary at track
LBC x15
Bicycles x15
Back-scratchers x 15
Side-crunches (x10 each side)
Leg-lowers x 15
Dolly x15
Moleskin
Dora 2.0 cruised through without a problem. He needs to bring a ruck next time.
McGee put the official stamp of Leatherneck approval on Counter Top’s half – pain like a mudrun, for sure.
13 Pax and 3 2.0’s attacked The Rock this morning on a chilly Saturday.
The Thang:
Jog 1/4 mile down dead end cemetery service lane. 180 degree turn – 1/4 mile back to baseball field
COP:
SSH’s x 25
Imperial Walkers x 25
Merkins x 15
Mountain Climbers x 15
Pick up a good size rock and jog with rock in right hand over head, then overhead in left
To playground:
20 feet in swing – pull knees to chest (need a name for this exercise!) x 3
25 LBCs x3
Pick rock back up
Jog to sand volleyball pit with rock overhead
Bear Crawl (clawless bear a good idea from TR in the sandpit) length of volleyball court
Crab Walk (clawless crab a good idea, too) length of volleyball court
Jog to pavilion with rock overhead
People’s Chair: holding rock straight out, overhead press with rock x 15, hold rock out with right arm, hold rock out with left arm
Man Makers with rock x 10 with Right Arm
Man Makers with rock x 10 with Left Arm
Mason Twist with rock x 20
Jog to the Foothill (aka steep hill entrance #4 to Calvary Church)
Run Hill @ 50%, jog down
Backwards run hill, jog down
Karaoke hill (left), jog down
Karaoke hill (right), jog down
Run hill @ 50%, jog down
Run hill @ 75%, jog down
Run hill @ 100%, jog down
Repeat 50/75/100% set x 2
Run hill @ 100%, mosey down
Run hill @ 100%, mosey down
Run hill @ 100%, mosey down, sprint to tree (100 yards total)
Backwards run hill @ 50%, jog down
Backwards run hill @ 85%, jog down
Backwards run hill @ 85%, jog down
Karaoke hill (1/2 left, 1/2 right), jog down. Repeat x 2
Super set, as fast as possible:
Run hill @ 50%, run down
Run hill @ 75%, run down
Run hill @ 100%, grab knees, puke gravy
Little baby jog back for 3 MOM
One legged dolly (hold left, move right) x 10
Flapjack x 10
Hold ’em 6″
One legged flutter (hold left, move right) x 10
Flapjack x 10
Hold ’em 6″
COT
MoleSkin:
Philosophical discussion of Mosey between The Shore and TR this morning. The Shore understands it to be walking, whereas TR understands it to be a little baby jog. The F3 Lexicon is silent on the issue so in the spirit of the Starfish, we decided it would be “not running”.
Three 2.#s joined the Pax this morning. Sickle (Ice Hole’s 2.#, Buzz Kill (The Shore 2.0) and Sandbar (The Shore 2.1). Whether they wanted to tag along with their respective Pops or were sentenced to F3/Juvie is unknown….however, Buzz Kill and Sandbar will be joining the Shore and perhaps? the rest of his family for the Spartan Sprint in the Spring. They hung tough, but alas, the young ‘uns succumbed to TR’s never-ending hill sprints. TR thought of dialing it back for the Juvies but did what #TheWorldsToughestPediatrician would do: took it up a notch. If you wanna be the man….
And I hope other Pax across F3 Nation read this because YHC is fairly certain there was a Titan sighting jogging on Rea Road with what appeared to be a poodle.
Language Barrier: When told by Hops to grab a “smallish stone” – Wanker and Haggis (England and Scotland, respectively) grab stones as big as their heads. Regrettable choice for man maker merkins. Maybe you guys could go in together and purchase Rosetta Stone?
Ray Charles looking freakish in the UA shirt and camo pants. #toughhombre
Has Stage Coach or Short Sale missed a post since starting? #morecowbell
And further – Stage Coach was faster on the hill sprints than YHC is on a straightaway. #DieselSmoke
One final note — most of the Moleskin content provided by TR with a few small additives from YHC (Hops).
Great work fellas. Proud to help lead a great group of guys this morning. Aye!
28 (new SW record) strong eager faithful posted in the gloom on this fine morning to explore the latest edition of the Skunk Works.
The Thang:
Jog to lower parking lot
COP
Imperial Walker x 25
SSH x 25
Squat x 20
Squat Jack or Jack Squat, no Richard Simmons x 17
Merkin Jack x 10
Bear Crawl up the hill, Merkins x 10, Backward Bear Crawl down hill X 3
Circuit Stations (3 men per rotating exercise every 45sec)
COT- Not yet!- Poke the Skunk–> Merkin Jacks x 10
COT
Moleskin:
Perhaps too many toys to play with this morning, tough to manage. So many YHC can’t even remember. SW management will work on that.
McGee poking the skunk. You poke the skunk, he will lift the tail.
Introduction of a new thang we’ll call the Richard Simmons- looks funny, feels weird but it works! Jazz hands optional.
Baby Boomer at 62 did a good job in my group. #grandpastrong
Shout out to Uncle for making the trip from Metro. “Hope you enjoyed the trinkets.”
Strong post by TR this am after taking on Thunder Road Sat with a 4:10 first marathon time. Very Strong and congrats!
Doruck—named Dora because he joined F3 to train for the GoRuck. We got all the coupons you need at Skunk Works.
The Bolshoi Ballet Company: Callaway, Countertop and …..??
Wanka! on tap for his first Q tomorrow at DV…be prepared.
Thanksgiving Day Convergence at AG at 7 am THU.
Black Friday Bowl: F3/Dads 10 am at AG Friday.
14 men gathered in the South Charlotte gloom on Monday morning for the official launch of The Matrix.
The Thang
Run around school
Imperial Walker X 32
SSH X 32
Squats X 32
Incline merkin X 24
100M run
Decline merkin X 24
100M run
Dips X 30 / Squats X 30
200M run
Squats X 30 Dips X 30
100M backpedal run
Pull Ups X 10 / Dips X 20 – 3 sets of each
100M backpedal run
Something X 30 [I can’t remember what… PAX, anyone remember?]
100M karaoke
Plank
Run around school
People’s Chair
Lung walk X 25 yards / 20 merkins / lunge walk X 25 yards
3 minutes of Mary [Dolly / Flutter/ LBC]
Merkins X 20
LBC X 30
Moleskin
-Belated shout out to Dora for the use of the digital weinke on Saturday during his time as the QIC. We would expect nothing less from our Regional IT Q.
-Hops was looking quite grizzly this morning with all the facial hair… not just a stache, but a full on beard… very cropped and professional looking of course.
-Mall Cop had the look of man whose team just jumped two spots in the BCS rankings.
-Triple claps for Young Love… making his third straight post at McKee Road Elementary
18 brave souls posted in the frosty gloom to take on The Rock
The Thang:
Mall Cop Lead:
Jog to soccer pitch for warm-up COP
SSH x 25
Imperial Walker x 25
Shores shoulders (in a deep 90 degree squat – small arm circles forward, small circles backward, large circles forward, large circles backward)
Carolina Dry Dock x 15.
Merkin / Arm Up Ladder – start w/1 Merkin and 4 Arm Ups, then increase to 2 Merkins & 8 Arm Ups, increasing each set by 1 / 4 to last set of 10 Merkins, 40 Arm Ups.
Jacobs Ladder up hill with CDD at top 1 to 7, and Squats at bottom 2 to 14.
COP – Football Drill: run in place with high knees and drop on command and pop back up for 90 seconds
Flutter Kick x 20
LBC x 20
Peter Parker x 20
Indian Run with 10 Merkin Chaser (turned into Indian Lung Walk w/ 10 merkin chaser).
Stone Cold Lead:
Jog to pic-nic table benches for dips x 20, jump ups x 20.
Rinse and Repeat – total of 3 sets.
400 meter run to side of church
Peoples Chair 90 – seconds
Peoples Chair – 90 seconds
Balls to the Wall – 45 seconds
Peoples Chair – 90 seconds
Jog to fields at front of church for:
Set 1) Bear Crawl 25 yards, Rolling Merkins 25 yards, Crab Walk 25 yards, Sprint 25 Yards
Partner up:
Set 2) Partner Carry 25 yards, wheel barrow 25 yards, partner pull / drag 25 yards, Sprint 25 yards
Set 3) Flapjack
Set 4) Partner 1 Planks while Partner 2 does decline Merkins x 10, Flapjack – Total of 3 sets.
Jog over to and down North Face to dry creek bed to pick out pet rock.
North Face Jacobs Ladder while holding pet rock with rock burpees at top 1 to 5, and 10 squat rock presses at bottom (crowd pleaser)
400 meter backwards run, kareoke, run back to shovel flag
Finish with merkin jumping jacks x 15
COT
Naked Moleskin:
Great work by all today and a couple of “Unsavory” (BS) calls by the pax for the Merkin / Arm up Ladder and for the rock hold Jacobs Ladder up North Face. Both were difficult and YHCs shoulders and arms are sore! That is the slowest we’ve run up North Face by hauling those rocks = smoker!
It was great to have 2 FNGs out today Screwdriver (Rob Phillips) and Ice Sickle (Ice Hole 2.0). Sorry Sickle as YHC was trying so hard to remember your name when we met but I was so smoked by the end of the workout that the swirly snakes just weren’t very active at that point. Scredriver did a great job for his first post and YHC can tell he will be an F3 Beast in no time flat! Looking forward to seeing back out in the Gloom soon!
As we were finishing up the COP at the beginning the Pax saw Bug Eater, Skinner, and Dirt Track racing from the parking lot to catch up. As a joke YHC yelled out for them to commence their penalty of 15 Burpees and was about to laugh it off and call out the next exercise until Bug Eater started whinning like my 6 year old 2.0. And then the 15 Burpee penalty began as the Pax finished our CDD. We kid because we love fellas! Just remember for next time we start promptly at 7:00 at the Rock!
In honor of our brother Dora’s virgin Q at Area 51 YHC decided to pull one of Dora’s tricks out of his backpack that he told YHC about a couple of days ago and have the pax run a 2 line Indian Run with a 10 Merkin chaser. The pax immediately started yelling to turn the Indian Run into an Indian Lunge Walk with 10 Merkin chaser. For some reason YHC complied with the request, but YHC assures you there will be no modification the next time for this one.
Special thanks to Hops for letting YHC borrow his spare pair of gloves as I drove the M’s SUV to the workout while all my gear was in my car.
Remember – Monday launch of The Matrix at McKee Rd Elementry, 5:30 to 6:15, Joker will be your Q. We had a soft launch earlier this week and the nice thing fellas is there’s plenty of auxilary and parking lot lights so you won’t need the head lamp like we do in the Black Hole called Death Valley.
28 men posted for an Area 51 painfest.
The Thang [early crew]
Jog to track for 1 lap
SSH x 25
Imperial Walker x 20
Mountain Climber x 20
6 man Indian run with dumbbell around soccer field to back parking lot
4 corners – round 1: 1 leg burpee (R), karaoke to 2nd station, 1 leg burpee (L), backpedal to 3rd station, 1 leg burpee (R), karaoke to 4th station, 1 leg burpee (L), backpedal back to 1st station
Round 2: 10 regular merkins, lunge walk to 2nd station, 10 diamond merkins, backward lunge walk to 3rd station, 10 staggers arm merkins (R), lunge walk to 4th station, 10 stagger arm merkins (L), backward lunge walk back to 1st station
Mosey to upper parking lot
Circle of 6: 30 seconds each station – lbc, merkins, bicycle, KB squats, merkins walk, mtn climbers
2 laps around track – 1 lap jog, 1 lap sprint straights and jog turns
Plank work
People’s chair x 60 sec
Merkins x 20
People’s chair x 90sec
6 min of Mary
The Thang [7AM crew]
COP x20 in cadence (ssh/iw/merk/lbc/pparker)
Indian Run w/a 5 Merkin Chaser around the entire field 2x
Visit rick pile, Get a rock buddy, mosey to nearest soccer pitch
Upper Rock Ciabatta — 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, 8 sets, AMRAP
◦ Pass rock to your brother, 8x curls
◦ 8x merkins (vary: normal/diamond/wide/stagger on your rock)
◦ Pass rock to your brother, 8x shoulder press
◦ 4x no-rock CDD
◦ Mosey to rock pile, put rock to bed
Jog to field
Squats X 30
Jog to back of school
Squats X 30
Dips X 30 / Peoples Chair – 3 sets of each
Jog to playground
Pull Ups X 10 and Jump Ups X 20 – 3 sets of each
Jog to soccer field
800 Meter Race
Plank
Jog to school
23 merkins
Moleskin
– Strong work by the “early crew” [Short Sale, Header, Stage Coach, Salt Lick, Bratwurst and Countertop], posting for a 6AM workout prior to soccer games, etc. – Triple claps for Countertop doing a double down, posting for both the 6AM and 7AM workouts
– The “merkin chasers” during the Indian Run proved to be confusing at 715am. Some pax tried doing them IN FRONT of the line. And an Indian run with 26 guys in one line is an Indian MARATHON. Next time, two lines.
– Upper Body Rock Ciabatta brought out the best from the Pax, including a signature McGee ‘Unsavory’ call
– Passing your rock to your brother keeps a pax honest about how hard he plans to work out that day, doesn’t it?
– LOTS of mid-exercise illicit black market rock-swapping happening mid-Ciabatta
– The ungloved pax learned just how cold granite can get this morning. Expect to see a run on handwear at your local hardware store this afternoon
-Strong showing from McGee and Lobster Roll in the 800 Meter Race [which is actually about 950 Meters]
-Cowboy was catching a lot of grief this morning – as usual – when he barked out, “I can just stay home and get this treatment from my wife”
-APK wore a hideous shirt today — he claims it is “wind proof”… just sayin