Monthly Archive July 2015

Preblast: July 4th Convergence at The Rock

I’ll get right to it. There will be a drone flying overhead with a GoPro. A drone. Thanks to Spielberg for bringing the fancy toys – he’ll be taking shots throughout the workout, including a sweet overhead of the COT. Should be cool.

For the workout, we’re going to take advantage of the space this AO has to offer and keep the PAX together rather than splitting up into smaller groups. It will be cool to have such a big group and get to see everyone – and it will provide some cool action for the drone.

We have a few guys lined up to Q in a few places around campus:

I (Gummy) will start us off with something on the field in front of the church at the intersection (gotta look good for the traffic).
Mermaid will take us on a tour of the vast Calvary parking lots.
The Day Zero guys (Prohibition and Hairball) have something easy planned for us from their normal repertoire over on the big soccer fields. It’ll be a nice cool down.

Follow the Leader

Union County men are tough. They tend to squint and spit. This comes from a hard-bit life under the deep Southern Sun, and rage at the McMansions taking over our land. So it can be scary to lead. Each man squinting and spitting in the Q’s general direction had obviously been in his share of cow fights (uncharitably called “tipping”), and was not afraid of a ginger on two legs.  So we got to it.  This is what we did:

Follow the Leader. Run around the big parking lot until the man in front calls “halt” and leads the pax in an excercise of his choosing. Repeat until every man has cried (out loud) “halt.”

Twenties.  Perform 20 supines, 20 dry docks, 20 merkins, and 20 knee-ups. Then 19 of each, then 18, all the way down to 1.

We also did some other stuff as we traveled between these stations, and back home.

MOLESKIN

  • MopTop sprints like the Tasmanian Devil, all swirls and speed until he stops, and then ends up on the ground, bloodly and slobbering. My bad brother. Hope you didn’t discover any wounds beyond the surface after the adrenaline died down.
  • Transporter apparently got lost on the way to the 20s. This was suprising since he is the Transporter, after all, and the Transporter in real life film always seems to know where he was going. One difference is that this Transporter wears a parka on top of seven other layers when working out in the summer; apparently it helps his inner zen. But when you stop to take them off you can get dropped, being that the parka has to cover your eyes when you pull it off your head. Glad you found us brother.
  • Bear Naked is a beast. Dude seemed to be at the front all morning, and was knocking out knee-ups like he had done it on a stage in New York. I’d say he is a BRR top free agent, but sounded like our German Site Q already laid claim to him.
  • I had never met Mr. Bean before, and had not heard that he was controlling and evil, so was a little surprised when he called a set of 11s during follow the leader. But then i realized he used a fake accent, and that took some effort, plus it made him sound smart, so i let it go. Luckily, he realized he was Q-jacking and cut it short on his own about halfway, showing that he is truly good.
  • Nutter Butter is coming along.  Watch out for him — the speed is there.
  • Bananas was some kind of refusenik this morning. Something about not feeling safe doing swinging supines under a triangular bar. Weak fruit. You were only a few feet off the ground, man!
  • Bratwurst, on the other hand, was strong meat. He pulled a couple leads during Follow the Leader (though he should have had them all), and was manufacturing supines in some kind of weird yoga move that made them look much harder.
  • I always wondered why Soft Pretzel had that name, because he isn’t soft at all, but now i know.  He bends well around metal, and when you unloop him he is tasty, as in tasty fast, okay, maybe there is another reason.
  • Abacus was pretty quiet this morning. In the dark, he looks a lot like a killer I saw on a movie once. Kinda creepy.  Don’t let him sneak up on you.
  • I’ve worked out with Crabcake a bunch, but don’t think i realized how strong he was until we did the 20s today. Worse, he was smiling the whole time.  Strong brother.
  • Grease Monkey is showing that he is more than just transportation for enormous biceps. The guy is moving at about double-time from where he was a couple months ago, and he never quits. Watch out. When i jumped on his back for a partner carry, though, he laughed, which made me feel insubstantial. I didn’t like that.
  • Snowflake, my dear friend, just turned 54.  Wish him a happy birthday.  And no, since you are not as strong or fast as him now, you will not be as strong or fast as him when you are his age, no matter how often you say, “I want to be like Snowflake when I am his age.” Sorry.
  • In all seriousness, one of the many blessings I received during my wife’s chemotherapy was to develop this family each Wednesday.  Thank you.  I am blessed to have you as my brothers.  Hope to see you more on Saturdays at #Commitment, and look forward to other opportunities.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • DREDD and OBT will be leading a workout July 27th at Stonehenge, followed by a free botox cafeteria.  Come to Commitment instead to keep it real and get 30 minutes more sleep.
  • New Workout #Flash starts Monday, July 13th, 5:30 at Nesbit Park (near Kensington Elementary).  Dasher will be Site Q.

OUT

All those derkins were brutal

26 PAX decided today would be a good day to go post at Anvil. They could have chosen tomorrow, or yesterday, but they picked today.  So the Q rolls in at 5:27 with Mermaid looking a bit nervous as if he was going to have to audible this one, at 5:29 the disclaimer was given to modify if necessary or if you are afraid of heights and off we went.

Mosey to 51 and out to the front lawn of the church for COP.

Some SSH, IW, and a few low slow squats.  All exercises were led while Q was slowly rotating to look at all the PAX #VeteranMove

During COP and ambulance flew down 51 with lights and sirens.  Some may regret not jumping on that ambulance figuring that was a better alternative than what was about to go down.

The Thing

Run over to the picnic tables close to the North Face church entrance for instructions which were:

  • Run around trees to base of North Face
  • 10 Jump Squats at the base
  • Run up North Face
  • 10 Sister Mary Catherine’s (Each leg) at the top
  • Run up the hill to picnic table area for the following:
    • 10 Split leg squats on benches (each leg)
    • 10 derkins
    • Hairburners from one island to the next and back.
    • (The order of these last 3 was up to you based on availability of one of the plates for hairburners)
  • Repeat this little beauty for a total of 5 cycles
  • Some mary work until all are done.
  • CMIYC farmer carry the plates back to the cars, or more specifically, my car, with 10 merkins then chase.
  • Circle up and hold squat position until all PAX arrive
  • Dolly, LBC’s, Flutter
  • Finish with 20 Jump Squats.

Moleskine musings:

So that sucked.  My legs felt like jelly halfway through round 2, but 5 cycles were already called.  Too late to back out now.

I don’t think TR likes me anymore.  And not sure if its me with the plates or short people in general?  See at one time he was the primary controller of all things hairburner.  So he either brought the plates, or generously loaned them to others who would use them.  Either way, he knew when and where hairburner’s were going down.  Now there are surprises!  And who really likes to be surprised with hairburners?  On the other hand, it may be that he just hates short people.  Like Donald Trump’s plan to put up a fence to “keep out Mexico,” TR may campaign to build a fence to keep out short people.  And he will sell it as inexpensive, you know, because you won’t really have to build it very high.

One of these days I will plan a workout that will actually slow Lobster Roll down.  Today wasn’t that day, but the reality is if I did, every other PAX may merlot and/or die before it’s over.  LR was smoking it and Hops wasn’t too far behind.

O’Tannenbaum and Mermaid were keeping a steady pace as was Cane.  I just tried to keep up with them.  All the PAX were really hustling.

2 New FNG’s – Kris Kross had his hat cocked to the side after it was all over, not sure if it was his style or just exhausted and couldn’t get it back on straight.  We’ll assume it was his style.

Thunder Road leaves with a strong handle as he is White Lightning’s brother and apparently those are the 2 original Carowinds roller-coasters.  And Drop Thrill wasn’t even there to bring up that little fact nugget!

Thanks to Young Love and Mermaid for the invite to Q.  It was fun.  And thanks to Champagne for the take out.

-Alf

Announcements – All (except Stonehenge) converge at The Rock on Saturday.  Centurion converges at The Brave on Friday.

Preblast: Devil’s Turn is Headed for Hills

If you like patterns, you may not like this…We are headed to Piper Glen tomorrow which is out of our typical order.  It’s a holiday week and we need to get some work in before the apple pies and Budweiser starts to flow.

The plan is simple.  Meet at the Greenway parking lot at the corner of Rea Rd. and Bevington Place for a 5:15 launch.  We will have a 5 minute running form tutorial (and yes Hops, the terms hips and nips will be used at least twice).

We will then start a 1 mile warmup 2nd F run around the apartment loop then south on Rea Rd.  We then enter Piper Glen on Old Course and proceed on the typical route.  For those new to the route (and those who still have no idea how or why Seton House intersects Seton House), chalk arrows will be placed on the road on the left side (against traffic) at each turn.

The prescribed speed after the warmup is comfortably hard.  This should roughly correspond to “Marathon” training pace in the following calculator: http://runsmartproject.com/calculator/ Look it up and try to average out to this pace (or a little slower) through the hills of Piper Glen.  It will be hard, but that is why we are going to be up at 5:15 in the morning right?

There will be an option for 4 and 6 miles.  Choose your poison.

Safety Note: The sidewalks are uneven and jagged in places and it will be dark for the first 1/2 of the run.  Consider wearing a headlamp.  Also, the run in Piper Glen is on public neighborhood roads and they do not believe in streetlights.  A blinking light is recommended to allow cars to see you.  Take care of yourself.  That concludes the safety message.

F3 Southern Discomfort – Saturday, August 1st

F3 Southern Discomfort

What could be more CSAUP than a 14+ mile jaunt in the hottest month of the year?  Ok, probably lots of events but nevertheless, Area51 will host the 3-option Southern Discomfort on Saturday, August 1st.

RSVP & T-Shirt order Here: http://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/20f0545aba62ba7fd0-southern/927364

 

1) RSVP for hydration purposes – Site Q’s of the AO’s we visit will provide water, G2, etc.

2) T-shirt order

Here’s the skinny:

Option 1: “Roshambo” – 14.1 Miles, 7 pain stations – launch from Stonehenge (The Vine – Ballantyne) at 5:00am

Option 2: “Swift Kick” – 10.8 miles, 6 pain stations – launch from Centurion (Charlotte Catholic HS) at 6:00am

Option 3: “Sack Tap” – 6.0 miles, 4 pain stations – launch from Centurion as well at 6am; finish at Arboretum

While this will be a 1st F challenge for sure — the idea will be to keep the pax together with the shovel flag carriers leading the way.  Will be great 2nd F for those not too deep in the pain cave.  The 3 options hopefully will encourage pax of different fitness levels to come out for the appropriate level of discomfort.

Go ahead and put it on your calendars.  Aye!

Preblast: Centurion Converges at The Brave 7/3

YHC and Brushback will Q a convergence of Centurion and The Brave on Friday 07/03/2015.  0515 launch from The Vine restaurant at the Ballantyne AO.

The Brave is a run/boot camp workout that was introduced by Madame Tussauds as an Obstacle Course Race (OCR) training option to prepare F3 pax for the Ultimate Mud Run Challenge and other races of similar setup.  The concept stuck and it has become a regular Friday workout.  4-6 miles and pain stations are typically involved.

The goal for 7/3 will be to  keep the pax together, regardless of speed.  Sets will be completed in defined areas.  There will be separation of pax within the defined areas, which is typical for this style workout, but no pax will be left behind.  Though a day early, Independence Day will likely be the theme of the day.  YHC and Brushback will deliver a tough workout that will challenge all levels. Come and join us to get your July 4 weekend started right.  Get your Mud Run teammates together and run with them if possible.