A 4 PAX showed up for the workout at Watchtower today. Based on previous day scouting, tried to utilize some of the great site options to diversify the workout.
Warmup:
Decided to skip the SSH and circle up warmup – instead did
The Thang:
Mosey to side of school
Mosey to Loading Dock back of School
Mosey to Playground
Mosey to Swingset
Moleskin:
Group stayed together and hopefully enjoyed my attempt to use some different obstacles today.
WatchTower an AO started by Frack/Turtle and now has the best hype man of Union County involved Posse has plenty of potential and different offerings available to break up the normal routine. Looking for an AO that has access to bleachers, playground equipment, track, benches, hills, rocks, trails, etc. then come out to WatchTower. This is a site that we need to get more UC guys to attend on a regular basis as it is still a hidden gem. Based on mileage report from Hollywood WatchTower is 0.1 miles further then Dromedary for Lawson Crew, so we should have no excuses for fart sacking.
9 PAX got out of the fartsack and posted for the latest edition of Hydra. Veteran crew, so short disclaimer and off we went:
Mosey to far side of school for warmup COP:
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Merkins x 15 IC
Low Slow Squat x 15 IC
Mtn climber x 20 IC
Mosey across Rea to the church. Partner up, grab a decent rock.
Catch me if you can around the church — P1 runs with rock overhead, P2 does 5 hand release Merkins and runs to catch P1. Plank and wait for six.
Rock work- P1 runs while P2 does exercise, flapjack
1-curls
2-squats
3-tricep extensions
Put the rocks back and mosey back across Rea and over to Windy Rush. Continue to Foxworth, stopping for 5 hand-release Merkins at each streetlight.
7’s on the Foxworth hill with Merkins at the top and jump squats at the bottom. Mary until everyone finished (Freddy Mercury and LBC’s).
Follow Puddin’s lead back thru trail to football field.
15 lemon squeezers OYO.
2 AYG 100 yard sprints
Mosey to concession area, 2 sets of 15 dips, 10 derkins.
Mosey to playground, running out of time so 10 quick pullups.
Back to launch for COT.
Moleskin:
Good work by veteran crew this morning. T-claps to MAD for rucking the workout. Good luck in a few weeks brother. Tried to trick the pax into grabbing a big rock, thinking we weren’t running with it. Marge was having none of it. Always an honor to lead the men of Hydra.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Welcome to the 2 new co-site Q’s, Marge and Queen! Thanks for stepping up to lead this great site, men. I know you guys will continue to make it even better. Thanks to Puddin Pop for his leadership over the last 2 years and for bringing me on as co-site Q. It was an honor to lead with you brother. And thanks to the faithful Hydra pax for supporting the site. We’re leaving it in good hands (pun intended) with Queen and Marge.
-Good Hands
19 #PR swayed through the course with the grace of an African Gazelle. We ran the reverse course. Hannibal is on day 3 of the Whole 30. I thought I was going to have to carry him back to Dunkin Donuts. Good thing I had that extra donut in my pocket that I could give him for sustenance #DoubleChocolate. Horsehead was really down in the dumps at mile 4. I gave him the “you are some body talk” and he perked up just enough to not finish last. Gummy pulled in a little late and started complaining immediately (which I admit is his wheelhouse). Next time, just fill out a comment card and send to management. Tolkein and Bunker got weird on Strava and are hence banned from running together. Kirk employed the group hopping technique for his run (fast, hangout with group, fast, hangout, etc.). Turkey Leg just dropped the deuce hammer on everyone.
Lots of guys stayed for donuts. We even got yelled at for being too loud by the employees. Come on, we are the reason you are successful from 6:15-6:30am on Wednesday mornings.
Great to see so many out enjoying the perfect running weather!
15 of Anvil’s finest gathered in the stobe light lit gloom for YHC’s first “real” Q.
Thang
COP consisting of Merkins x 10 / Wide Arm Merkins x 10 / Diamond Merkins x 9 / Low Slow Squat x 10 / Mountain Climbers x 10 / Peter Parker x 10 / Parker Peter x 10 all done IC. Finished the COP with the Howling Monkey.
Mosey to the top of North Face. Run the long loop around to the bottom of North Face. Do 5 Turk n Burps. Run to the top of North Face and do 5 Jump Squats. Complete this 3 times through.
Quick plank to wait for the six. Mosey over to the street that has the red curbs on both sides. Complete 2 full rotations of the Wheel of Merkin.
Mosey over to the rock pile near the baseball field. Grab a lifting/running rock. Continue the mosey over to the playground for the main event. A broken Murph Rock Ladder. Complete 1 Pull-Up, 2 Merkins, 3 Rock Squats, and then run to the nearest basketball goal and back with the rock. Keep ascending the ladder next doing 2 Pull-Ups, 4 Merkins, 6 Rock Squats. Continue adding 1, 2, and 3 to each until time expires. Return rocks and run back to the launch for COT.
Moleskin
As mentioned earlier, this was YHC’s first real Q. Real meaning that there was cadence and a lot of instruction given. There were a couple of Q fails. One in the first 2 minutes. YHC got a little over zealous with the Merkins to start. I think the Howling Monkey was a hit with the PAX. Although watching another man do Monkey Humpers was not great. Maybe a point of view modification is necessary in the future. This is also YHC’s first BB so hopefully I covered everything. Thanks to everyone for coming out. I hope everyone got something out of it.
Announcements
Hops mentioned a couple of 3rd F opportunities available, but YHC wasn’t able to gather them. Maybe Hops can comment to give a little more information on these.
Nine Gents gathered in the Scout Hut at Matthews UMC only to begin with a Q Fail. Once again, I forgot to look up a devotional bible verse to set the mood. Please allow me to add that here ..
3 Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus
Good words to live by even when you’re not going through regular suffering.
The Thang
Started with some simple breathing and hamstring stretches that eventually led into a fast paced set of sun salutations and warrior poses meant to warm the muscles for deeper stretching.
Wide legged forward folds followed by dual leg isolation stretches(I made that term up.) We then did a quick triangle on both sides.
My hip mobility is not super which leads to many things, poor running form among them, so we did three different variations of runner’s lunge then held pigeon on each side for ninety seconds. Those were a bit of a bear I must admit.
Moleskin:
A man pulled up in the parking lot asking, “Is this the right place for F3?” I thought it was for sure a FNG but it was Reuttiger who moved to Matthews recently from Indian Land and hasn’t posted in a while. Reuttiger, it was great to have you and we hope to see more of you.
It’s always great to be back at Gumby. I’m terribly sorry about that horrendous playlist.
Announcements:
Gumby needs Qs! Specifically one for April 12th. Get on it, fellas. Sign up HERE.
Richard Sheltra 5k/10k in Pineville April 29th. Dumpster Fire is the event Q.
Madison sent me a text message last night about a schedule mix up and he would not be able to Q Thrive. I said Thrive will be my only beatdown this week and I need a good one so everyone will suffer with me and it went something like this…
Follow me for a #HairBandMile
COP
Side Straddle Hops x 15 In Cadence
Oh here comes the late crew, 10 burpees OYO! And an early start to the Horsehead refusenik show.
Imperial Walkers x 15 IC… Some Horse/GJ mumble chatter about the Q spin going on about this time
Low Slow Squats x 20 IC… I gave Horse & GJ a spin and a lengthy view of the Q’s backyard.
Merkins x 10 IC
The Thang
Starfish – Start with the center exercise, go to corner 1 and do exercise, back to center exercise, corner 2, back to center, etc.
Round 1
Center 5 burpees
Corner/station 1 15 Merkins
Corner 2 15 Carolina Dry Docks
Corner 3 15 Wide Arm Merkins
Corner 4 15 Diamond Merkins
Plank work while waiting for PAX
Round 2
Center 10 Jump Squats
Corner 1 20 Squats
Corner 2 20 Lunges
Corner 3 20 Mountain Climbers
Corner 4 20 Monkey Humpers
Plank work while waiting for PAX
Round 3
Center 25 Rock Hoppers
Corner 1 25 LBCs
Corner 2 25 Freddie Mercury
Corner 3 25 Flutter
Corner 4 25 Rosalita
squats while waiting for PAX
Over to the wall for Peoples Chair w/ 50 air presses, quick recovery
back on the wall for 100 air presses… Hmm this gives me an idea!
We have had some new PAX over the past few months that have never met my friend Jack Webb!
Here is the deal, 1 Merkin/4 air presses, then 2 Merkins/8 air presses up to 10 Merkins and 40 air presses.
#crowdpleaser
Over to the tables to stay dry by Shepherd’s request… even though it wasn’t raining.
20 dips, 20 stepups x 3 rounds
Wait, why is GJ over at the volleyball court? And where did the FNG go? (more on that later)
whatever do the work and then out to the parking lot!
5MOM
Dolly x 20 IC
Flutter x 25 IC
Superman Banana a few times back and forth #Horsehead was refusing again I think. You can thank Schedule C of Harrisburg for that one.
Rosalita x 20 IC
DONE!
Moleskine
Thankful that the rain I heard when I woke up stopped just before I left the house. Although #Cantore wouldn’t have stopped us.
They say women speak 20k words a day… Get GJ and Horse together and we may need to question if there is a Y chromosome between the two of them, but it is usually entertaining either way.
Great work by everyone out there, I set up the starfish to really beat down a body section per round and fortunately they were already in my trunk for this Substi-Q, adding Jack Webb just took the pain to another level.
As we we moved over to the tables we noticed Kilowatt’s FNG had disappeared. Horse mentioned never seeing someone #SplashMerlot from Jack Webb but I think it was just a culmination of not hydrated enough and a bunch of tough stuff he wasn’t used to.
He is now forever known as Houdini for his mid-beatdown disappearing act. (For what it’s worth since you showed up late #NotAProfessional Modify as needed.)
Announcements
NO convergence Saturday, all UC AOs are open with a push to bring some FNGs. Winning AO hosts the next convergence, losers will be doing burpees.
Q School probably in April, TBD.
2nd F event just to get guys together outside of the gloom also TBD but probably April.
As always it was an honor to lead.
Aye!
Hair Band
Fresh off of a a leg smashing weekend at the P200, YHC turned down the pre-run option and invitation from Fire Hazard for this morning. Anticipating to show up early, set up and then knock out some pull-ups/merkins YHC arrived to see the chariot belonging to Paper Jam sitting in the parking lot. He was itching to pre-run so we took off for a quick mile arriving back right in time to start up the main event + pissing off Fire Hazard as I had shot him down the night before only to be swayed by Paper Jam. 8 normal PAX + 1 overachiever ruck sack wearing PAX (Bounty Hunter) hit the start button on a short mosey around the parking lot before circling up:
Warm-Up
The Thang
Moleskin
Perfect morning for a workout and appreciative to all of the bros that made it out of the fartsack for Fat Camp this morning. Since YHC is no longer able to bring buckets aka props to The Brave they needed to find purpose elsewhere and that place was Fat Camp this morning. As a reminder to all future Q’s, any GEAR is welcome whether it be buckets, plates, ropes, KB’s etc. feel free to mix it up and get on the Q schedule. Just make sure that you know the difference between your Cleans and Jerks and your Snatches and Presses to avoid uttering the name of an “at home only” style workout. Q SLOTS OPEN NEXT WEEK & BEYOND
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c4ca9af29a6f85-f3fatcamp
Over and Out – General
Inspired by the Weinkes of some other esteemed pax (MT, Wild Turkey), YHC decided to switch it up a bit and see what would happen. This was either going to be a fun, thorough beatdown or an unmitigated disaster. Let’s be honest, though, the pax of F3 enjoy both (there’s a reason CSAUP is a thing).
YHC arrived around 5:00 to get everything set up: 11 signs posted throughout the AO with different exercises on each. Pax broke up into 4 teams (speed mattered – partner with pax who will go at a similar pace as you). Each team was given two dice and a list of locations around the AO. Simple instructions: roll the dice, find the number on the map, mosey to that place, find the sign, complete the exercise. Tried to make it as idiot-proof as possible. Exercises were:
Hair burners
Double-merkin burpees (15)
Hand release burpees (10)
Down Murderhorn and AYG back up (more on this later)
Up and down Stone Mountain hill 3x
25 Derkins and 25 incline merkins
Run speed bump alley, 10 merkins at each speed bump
Jack Webb: start with 1/4 and go up to 5/20
50 LBCs
10 prairie-fire Mary
25 pistol crunch, each leg
Get to as many as you can, meet back at launch at 6:15. Done.
The goal was to switch it up and keep pax moving at a comfortable pace. YHC’s team had an unfortunate habit of rolling the Murderhorn, so we had the “pleasure” of hitting that three times. After that, the burpees were a breeze. We got in over 4 miles, another team had 2.75.
Milton (re-named FNG) is a beast. Watch out for him at your next workout. He was killing the MH and taking no prisoners. Sound off below on observations from your different teams.
Hope you guys enjoyed the change of pace. It was an honor to lead you fine men.
Thanks to Tiny Dancer for the takeout.
please launch on time and everyone will be happy and eat lots of donuts. Boom. This week, we will run the REVERSE route: https://www.strava.com/routes/7470827
Everybody knows the rules:
515: 815-8:30 pace
520: 730-7:45 pace
530: 645-7:00 pace
BW
All of us stood around looking at each other and asking “is Brat coming?” Evidently Brat had a change of heart on the way to the AO after realizing he had just run thirty something miles in a short amount of time two days ago. Brat is an example of what to do in running and most things in life.
There was a brief discussion of what was on tap as I did not pay close attention. A plan was formed and off we went. Minus the disclaimer. All veterans so they understood what was on tap.
We did a slow mosey to the bull ring via the back way. Of course did some dynamic/Brat inspired stretching of toe taps, B skips and such. After the warm up we set out to perform the described plan in the preblast.
I evidentially did not hear One Niner or there was a translation issue between South Carolina and North Carolina English. I thought he said do five rounds of thirty second jog, twenty second run and ten second sprint followed by two minutes of recovery. I think the intention was just do five rounds. Instead we did twenty five rounds total. I think it worked out well and everyone seemed happy based upon the tip money they left in my jar.
Moleskin: One Niner, Depth Charge, Enron fresh off a half marathon trail race and Tuck were way out front. Everyone else found their pace and settled in. I held the six down keeping a steady nine mile pace. It is not easy to call out the start/stop times like Brat does. One more reason we should all be thankful for his leadership.
There were no other participants from the P200 so I think the twenty five rounds worked out well for the rest of the Pax.
Have a great day!