Monthly Archive July 2017

Goats Love Donuts Too

17 Pax gathered and galloped at this week’s edition of Mountain Goat. After a couple of warm-up laps around the SCMS parking lot with butt kickers and high knees thrown in for good measure, we set our sights on one of F3 SCLT’s most hallowed and revered landmarks – the Dunkin Donuts at Colony and Rea. Instructions were to run to Dunkin by way of 51 and Rea and back. If time permits, add a repeat or two on the Danger Zone.

Goatskin

  • Welcome to site FNGs Lorenzo and Adobe. Great work! Hope to see you next time.
  • Great to see wily vets Alf and High Tide at Mountain Goat. Strong running guys, you are #BRRready.
  • BRR 9-man teammate Benny logged 30+ miles this past week, successfully running the gauntlet of Horsey-McHorseArse, Fast Twitch, and Donut Run before adding MG on Friday. That’s a fantastic week Benny, but don’t forget to take a day off.
  • Goonie’s dedication and disciplined approach is paying off. He’s getting stronger and faster each week.
  • Tweetsie continues to impress and always brings a positive attitude to the AO.
  • Slim Fast and YHC appreciate all of you coming out and putting forth your best effort each week.
  • Thanks to Insomniac for the takeout. You have an awesome ability to deliver words of wisdom.

Announcements

  • Keep the M of a recent FNG to The Charge in your thoughts and prayers as she underwent surgery for colon cancer and now faces chemotherapy.
  • Thoughts and prayers for Insomniac’s M following her colonoscopy.
  • Drivers needed for BRR teams – Mountain Goat needs one driver, as does Goonie’s team.

 

PreBlast – BRR Countdown – 6 SWIFTs to Go

It’s close enough to the BRR that an official Countdown can begin at Swift.  At 0515 on Tuesday morning, we’ll start the countdown with 6 more workouts to go.  Meet at the Vine at 0515 to light the fuse.

Training for the BRR has brought us a lot so far.  We’ve worked a lot on Interval Pace to maximize our aerobic power (how much blood can we get to the running muscles and how much of the oxygen can we convert into every) – those have been everything from the 5/4/3/2/1/1/2/3, 800m Repeats, and 2/1/:30.  We’ve worked on Repetition Pace to improve our speed and economy (how efficient is your effort & form at translating into speed) – those workouts are the Hill Repeats, 200m, 400m and occasional 600m.  And Finally, we’ve worked on Threshold Pace to maximize our endurance for racing – those are the 5min/1min recovery, 10min/2min recovery, etc.  And you also should have bookmarked (or downloaded) the running calculator to help you target these I, R, and T Paces from http://runsmartproject.com/calculator

I see us needing to work on a little of all 3 (I, R, and T) in the last 6 weeks before the BRR, so here’s a quick calendar.  I’ll still be sending this in a PreBlast each week:

  1. 8/1 – Threshold Pace refresher = 6min Intervals, 1min Rest – go ahead and program your watches since we’ll be a little separated for part of the time.
  2. 8/8 – Hill Repeats (R-pace effort) – potpourri around Ballantyne area
  3. 8/15 – Threshold Pace extended = 12min Intervals, 2min Rest
  4. 8/22 – Repetition and Interval Pace Mixer = 4x200m R-pace with 200m jog recovery, 3x1000m I-pace with 2min jog, 2x400m R-pace with 400m jog
  5. 8/29 – 800m Repeats at the Track
  6. 9/5 – RACE WEEK – Taper workout of 4x1200m at T-pace with 2minute Rest between each.

 

Timeline for 8/1:

  • 0500 – Pre-run at 2nd F pace.
  • 0515 – Leave the Vine parking lot for 2nd F pace over to North Community House behind MetLife building.  2 options on route: #1 – through the resort hotel parking lot.  #2 – through the fitness trail and past SPX.
  • 0525 – Warm-up Drills
  • 0530 –
    • Start 6min Threshold Pace “North” on N. Community House towards I-485 bridge.  1 min rest to slightly regroup and cross over median to other side of N. Community House.  WATCH FOR TRAFFIC!
    • 6min Threshold Pace “South” on N. Community House towards Ballantyne Commons.  1 min rest to slightly regroup and cross over median.
    • Intervals #3 & 4 will proceed same way.
    • Interval #5 will be done as OUT 3, BACK 3.  If you choose to, BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT CROSSING MEDIAN AND TRAFFIC!  Otherwise, stay on Sidewalk.
    • Interval #6 will be done on way back to COT the same way you came using Option #1 or #2.
  • 0615 – Regroup at COT

Condemned

9 men showed up to witness my VQ. We were all thrown off as we learned that the Pineville Fire Department had been condemned, and that we must find somewhere else to park. With Lieutenant Dan guiding the PAX all the way to the back of the park parking lot, we gathered in the darkness as our colleagues at Camp Gladiator began warming up.

After a quick but sufficient disclaimer, the moseying began with a quarter mile of extra mosey provided to us by the Pineville FD.

Warm-Up 

  • .5 Mile Mosey to behind Pintville
  • Side Straddle Hops x 20
  • Imperial Walkers x 20
  • Merkins x 10
  • Carolina Dry Docks (called by Shrink Wrap) x 10

From there we moseyed another .5 mile where a choice was given of 5 Burpees or 10 Jump Squats. No one chose Burpees. After this, a final .5 mile was run where we met at the pond at the Belle Johnson Community Center. There was women’s group also using the park, and Lieutenant Dan was approached about the two groups joining forces in the future. He told them they needed to ask the “guy in the red bandanna.”

The PAX was advised to be cautious of goose poop and snakes and to reach in the pond to retrieve a rock for both running and lifting, where three rounds of 20 X Curls, 20 X Overhead press, and 20 x Tricep Extensions were completed with a sprint and 10 merkins in between.

Following this, the men partnered up and did a round of Catch Me If You Can around the .5 mile loop of the pond, with one carrying a rock while the other did 5 merkins before catching, if they could.

Upon completion we lined circled up for some mary before the daunting 1 mile+ “downhill” mosey back to the start.

 

Moleskin:

I wanted to make sure we ran 3 miles for my VQ, as I hate running but am trying to improve on it. I’m grateful to all who came out for my first and hope to improve my time management skills for the future. Also notably, we ended without being taken out then re-circled to be taken out by YHQ, which I thought was sort of funny.

 

 

You’re not serious about that running stuff, are you?

On a steamy Saturday morning following an evening down pour, a white Range Rover pulled into the parking lot which signaled Escobar was up to the running challenge YHC posted on Slack.  Apparently Escobar does not troll Slack as much as the rest of us and he he questioned the Q’s commitment to a run heavy workout. That idea drew some chuckles from Mighty Mite, a look of disbelief from Arsenal, and despair from Twinkle Toes who has been missing out on all the fun lately.  After a quick disclaimer, 7 PAX were off.

I broke from F3 tradition and skipped the COP and opted for a Bratwurst style warmup for the ensuing running.  Just as we found a spot in between Bank of America and Best Buy to start some warm ups, here comes Fredo, a late arrival to the party, joining  us for: toy soldier, hop the fence, and some quad stretches to warm up the legs.

Once done with the warm up, we began our adventure up Rae Rd towards Stone Crest Shopping Center. We took a quick detour into a little grassy area for a delayed COP: SSH x 10, IW x 10, Merkins x 10.  Conveniently located next to the grassy area were some flimsy park benches which led to questioning by Bucky and Might Mite if they would hold. 2 Rounds of 15 dips, 15 derkins and 15 step ups (or squats).

From there instead of going back out to Rae, we took a quick detour towards my hood for our run.  The rule: at every street corner stop and perform 25 toe tap crunches and another set of Mary waiting on the six.  There were stops at Alexander Martin Ave., Eudora Ln, Alma Blount Blvd., Darcy Hopkins Drive, Treat Woods Dr., Beaver Brook Way, Bay Tree Way, Totterridge Rd, Parkchester, before stopping in my driveway to do a set of merkins.

YHC ignored requests for food, water, and use of the bathroom and we went over to Parks Farm Lane via the cut through to arrive at the neighborhood park for field of plank.  Line up on the near side of the field, five lunge walks towards the far side of the field and perform the called plank. Regular plank, elbow plank ,Makhtar N’Diaye, right arm high, left arm high and that was enough.

Mosey to the parking lot for some squats and to watch Mighty Mite attempt to dunk a basketball, miss a jump shot and layup (he looked like a true NC State player) and back to running.  Stops on Parks Farm Lane and Fieldgate Drive for some more mary were in order before we went back to Rae Rd. to head back towards Blakeney.

We paused at Bellegarde Drive, Southbrook Drive and Alexander Martin Dr. for more core work before we crossed over to run towards the playground at the shopping center.

Upon arriving at the playground the promise of pull ups and stretching was fulfilled. First, 10 pull ups and 15 dips.  Then loosen up the hamstrings, hip flexors, IT band and calves  with some broga moves (come to Gumby on Wednsday for the extended version) and back to the AO and the appearance of Paper Clip running out of the Chick-Fil-A to give his daddy a big hug.

MOLESKIN:

Since I am not a runner I cannot tell you exactly how many miles we covered, my guess was about 3. But we did close to 400 ab exercises, so I know we should be feeling that tomorrow. It was fun to take the daVinci faithful of a tour thru my hood. We did not have any announcements, so YHC led the takeout and we were done. I am always grateful to have the opportunity to lead a great group of men.

Into the Mist

Runner in the Mist

20 Runners parted the mist at an alternate Swift site on Tuesday, July 25th.  The goal was to repeat a workout performed twice so far over the last couple of months, but this time get some precision and predictability.  Pretty sure all were successful, and we had no head on collisions on a crowded track for the morning.

The THANG:

  • Read the PreBlast at https://f3southcharlotte.com/2017/07/24/preblast-measure-yourself-more-exactly/
  • Disclaimer in the parking lot
  • Run the warm-up as a Preview of the course on the cones that followed cones marking Start, flashing cones marking Stop, and other cones marking turnaround for the recovery.
  • Run Odd Interval in Lane 1 going normal direction.  Recover 200m in Lane 3/4.  Start next 800m in Lane 5 going opposite direction.  Recover 200m in Lane 3/4.
  • If you see other runners arriving at the track, let them know that Lanes 1/2 are normal direction, runners will be jogging in 3/4 both directions, and Lanes 5/6 will have running in the backwards direction.
  • Don’t start another interval after 0610.
  • Meet in the parking lot at 0615 for COT

The Moleskin:

  • PAX accomplished the goal of running 800m intervals on the track, but how consistently they were done is up to the individual.  Looking at results from Strava (must look at the Web version to see manual Laps), several PAX actually got faster as the intervals accumulated: Gumbo (dropped 10+ seconds from 1st 3 to the last 3), FireHazard (dropped about 5 seconds), OneNiner (dropped about 4 seconds).
  • What everyone had to deal with the same was the ever-present humidity.  Weather reports had us at 73 degrees, 94% Humidity, and a 3mph breeze.  As we rolled around to the starting line around 0530, the fog / mist was getting so thick that you could actually taste it.  At times, it was hard to see the other side of the track or around the corner.  The slight 3mph breeze on one (short) segment on the track was welcomed, but the rest of the air felt dead and heavy as you tried to breathe it in.  Thankfully, all PAX followed the directions about direction and start/stop, so there wasn’t anyone running into each other.
  • Many PAX got in 8 intervals based on posting their workout results or YHC recalling who was there in some packs: Frasier, Haggis, Gumbo, Woodson, DepthCharge.  Not sure about Rebar because he doesn’t post his workouts, but he was looking pretty strong out there.
  • One thing to try to follow is YHC’s suggestion of running with another PAX.  Even if it just means starting an interval together, so you may have to drop back to recover with someone slightly slower, or have to shorten recovery and move up to catch someone faster, it helps to push you.  If about the same speed, it allows you to take turns leading the interval to get an idea for pacing, to help you workout the mental difficulty of following, or be pulled along when you don’t think you can keep up anymore.  Just to have someone suffering with you is much better than suffering by yourself.  #ISI
  • At COT, only 3 PAX raised their hands that they were NOT participating in the Blue Ridge Relay.  Someone needs to reach out to them ASAP to pick them up as a runner (not only as a driver).
  • Thanks to Gumbo (voluntold) for taking us out.

Fun Facts

Ten men showed up in the rain to experience Rock Zero ‘light’ with no weights, rocks, or medicine balls.  Properly disclaimed, off we went and here is what happened:

Run to the front of the church and circle up for COP:

  • SSH x 10
  • IW x 10
  • Low, slow squat x 10

From there, run to the front parking lot.  During the mosey, find a partner and share a fun fact about yourself.  The Pax was a little confused by this, but it will come into play later on during the workout.

At the front parking lot, line up abreast.  There were three flags planted at three different medians.  At each flag perform the following:

  • 20 hand release merkins
  • 20 diamonds merkins
  • 20 wide are merkins
  • After each set of merkins, return to start and perform 10, 4-count peter parkers

Repeat a second time with the following:

  • 20 LBCs
  • 20 CCDs
  • 20 squats
  • After each set return back to start and perform 10, 4-count parker peters

Next, run to playground for three rounds of the following:

  • 5 pull ups
  • 25 donkey kicks
  • After each round run to first basketball goal

Mandatory water break….

Now that everyone is fully hydrated, grab some wall for people’s chair.  Remember the fun fact???  While the group was holding the chair, each individual pax came before the group and performed the following:

  • hold six-inch plank, tell Pax who your partner was and their fun fact, then do 10 merkins

Next, off the the finest fields in all of A51 for some four corners.

  • Run to fence on far side of field and do 10 merkins
  • Run along side fence until it runs out and do 10 merkins, 10 regular sit-ups
  • Run parallel to highway 51 to backstop and perform 10 merkins, 10 regular sit-ups, 10 CCDs
  • Run back to start and perform 10 merkins, 10 regular sit-ups, 10 CCDs and 10 LBCs
  • Repeat, but in reverse order

Mosey back to parking lot for 10 rounds of 30-yard sprints.

Return to start for 4 minutes of Mary: Rosalita, Russian Twist, Fredy Mercury x 2, Protractor, Merkins, Protractor.

Mercy.

Moleskine:

Great veteran group this AM.  YHC thought 24-hours of booty might keep the numbers low, but as it turned the numbers were perfect. A lot of chatter about the rain, and this being a “light” workout. However, Flipper will tell you that ‘light’ doesn’t mean easy. Many fun facts were leaned, some were a little disturbing.   Hope everyone got their money’s worth.  Thanks to McGee for taking us out.

Announcements: 

Nemo, Marlin, McGee are starting a new Friday workout at Kohl’s. More details to follow.

Personal Responsibility

A small but strong group of wily veterans gathered in the CDS high school middle school parking lot for their daily dose of fitness. Given the expert crew, and the fact that they all knew I’ve never been an expert in much, I gave what might generously be described as a woeful (at best) disclaimer and took off running. Risky move, I know, exposing myself and all the other F3 shareholders to so much potential liability. Oh wait, there are no shareholders?  Ok, all the board members and me? Or, all the members? Or…? Ok, so no good answer to that one. Good thing no one tripped, got lost or fell on an ant bed.

 

Thanks to Curd’s ribbing, I proceeded to remedy the deficiency when we circled up for actual exercise by giving a thoroughly sound and complete disclaimer, finishing with the legally precise catch-all clause: “Remember, if anything happens out here, it’s your own [darn] fault!”

 

For those who care, here’s what we did:

 

The THANG

 

COP: SSH, Merkins, Squats, 8-count body builders, LBCs, Mountain Climbers and maybe something else.

 

Using rocks we found in a ditch, we proceeded to the main parking lot for some running/lifting partner combos that went something like this:

  • Run to end of median/curls
  • Run around median/squats
  • Run to end of 2 medians/press
  • Run around 2 medians/lunge
  • Run down entry lane, banging out 5 merkins at each break/squat-press (repeato)
  • Run around church/curls, squats, lunges, press

 

Having returned the rocks, we proceeded to the high school middle school picnic tables for a little more partner work:

  • People’s chair on wall/derkins and dips on tables
  • flapjack and repeat x3

 

Circle up on the concrete slab for a quick session with Jack Webb.

 

COT (on the slab)

 

NMM

Cobains for no Imperial Walkers today. I personally hate it when the Q doesn’t include those. Feels like the workout is just a tad short-changed and I missed out on something. Not sure what benefit that exercise provides have, they look kinda stupid and most folks half-ass them while chatting with their buddies, but they’re still an F3 staple. But, I forgot them. Oh well. You’ll just have to bang ‘em out on your own if you missed them like I did.

 

“If anything happens out here, it’s your own [darn] fault.” I’ve been thinking about that statement a little more today, and I really think it rings true. For more than just any potential injury. You want to get faster? It’s on you. Stronger? You. Community? You. You have none of the above? Uh yeah, you. As we shared (ok, I pontificated a bit) in COT, F3 can be a very good thing, helping some of us get in a bit better shape, but more importantly providing a community of men actually getting to know and care about one another. Tough to find in this world. It should be easier to find elsewhere, but for so many it isn’t. Many if not most do find this community at F3 (when they show up semi-consistently, invest in others, etc. – again, it’s on you) and the remarkable thing is that when they find it at F3 they tend to take it with them back into their other work, family, churches and neighborhood.

 

Announcements

  • #Haywoodstock and the 24HOB is tonight! Great event for a great cause. Check twitter/slack for details.
  • Redrink the koolaid: Dredd/OBT and F3 were interviewed by Brett McKay and the story of F3 is now available for all to hear. It’s worth a listen whether you are brand new to F3 and never heard the story of why guys do pushups in a parking lot at 5:30 am, or whether you’re an OG who just needs a bit of encouragement. Available at www.artofmanliness.com (and links are floating around on twitter/slack). Don’t worry, Pop Tart, it’ll be available in audio cassette format soon.
  • Bulldog and his M are opening a fitness studio in South Park. Sounds like it’ll be a top notch endeavor. Reach out to him for more info.

AMRAP – 4th month w/ 400% humidity

Not sure if it’s Impromptu, the intrigue of an AMRAP challenge, the opportunity to wear Red on a Friday, or the strong EHing going on by the local PAX, but a lot of new PAX took to the best AMRAP course in the Cuthbertson school district.  The nice weather surely wasn’t the draw as it was tough to even see the PAX through the thick air this morning.  Cue the boombox (but no Amy Grant today).

WARMUP

Mosey to front of school.  Disclaimer given.  SSH x 20, Merkin x 10, MC x 20, Flutter x 20.  Mosey to the back of the high school for the action.

THE THANG

AMRAP challenge. Consists of about a 1/2 mile lap with 7 exercise stations along the route. 30 minutes to complete as many laps as possible. Stations included:

  • Merkins x 20
  • Dips x 20
  • Box Jumps x 20
  • WWII sit-ups x 20
  • Curl to Press x 20
  • Suppines x 20
  • Burpees x # of laps completed

After 30 mins, we gathered up the PAX and slogged back to COT

MOLESKINE

Impressive effort by the PAX with the humidity being HORRIBLE; every PAX got at least 3 laps in.  Nice work.  It was great to have 8 new PAX taking on the AMRAP course including 2 new FNGs.  Welcome Chunky Soup (Campbell the 2.0) and Rooney (Brian the Principal).  At least one PAX was not happy about how “easy” we went with Rooney’s nickname (not calling anybody out though Longhorn).  Solid effort by Brexit, OutOfOrder, Hooch, Longhorn, Toast, and Bookworm on their first time on the course.  Great job by Dasher leading the way; couldn’t quite catch the course record although he does have the “warmup lap” excuse.  Kudos to Rockwell for being the only 4-time PAX participant.  Here are the results:

PAX April May June July Stations
Popeye 3.1 3.1 1 Merkins
Bookworm 3.2 2 Dips
Posse 2.5 3.3 3.2 3 Box Jumps
Brexit 3.3 4 Sit-Ups
Hooch 3.3 5 Rocks
Longhorn 3.3 6 Supines
Rooney 3.3 7 Burpees
Xerox 3.0 3.3
Gator Cub 3 laps 3.4
Jingles 3.3 3.4 3.4
Recalculating 3.3 3.4
Toast 3.4
Chunky Soup 3.6
OutOfOrder 3.6
Rockwell 3.2 4.1 4.1 4.0
Bottlecap 3.5 4.6 4.4
Foundation 3.4 4.4 4.4
Dasher 4.5 4.6
Baby Bell 2.3
Damascus 4.3
Das Boot 4.0
Delta 3.2 3.4
Dirty Bird 2.1 3.0
Doc McStuffins 3.4
Duck Dad 3.3
Foley 3.3 4.1
Frack 4.3
Goodfella 3.5 5.2 5.2
Hollywood 3.5 4.6 4.5
Kielbasa 3.6
Lamar 2.5
Maple Syrup 3.5
Moneyball 3.1 3.3 3.3
Segue 3.1
Shampoodle 3.1
Shop Dawg 3.1
Shriver 4.0
Striker 3.5
The Hoff 3.2
Transporter 2.6
Yeast 2.5

 

Announcements:

Bookworm says a big THANKS for all who donated Scooby Doo DVDs to his son . . . Praise that he is doing better

Autism AMRAP:  August 12th; Recalculating and Dasher have more details

Commitment:  Saturday 0630 at Weddington High School.  Popeye on Q

Flash:  Monday 0530 at Cuthbertson Middle.  Return of Ice9 as Q

24 Hours of Booty:  Starts Friday evening downtown.  Great event for families to come out and support as well as F3 workouts going on

It’s Getting Crowded In Here

Nine pax chose to start their Monday in the DMZ, without regard for the consequences. Here’s what happened:

Circle up where you are, SSH x15 IC

Mosey across Carmel

Speed bump #1 – Merkins x15 IC, Low Slow Squats x15 IC

Speed bump #2 – Merkins x15 IC, Low Slow Squats x15 IC

Fastish mosey across the CMS tarmac buzzing Mr. Gladiator

Stop at the coupon place and select a coupon. Pax questions: running or lifting with the coupons? (A: both)

Head to the track. Poor scouting, legit entrance gate is flooded. Step/jump carefully around.

Lap#1: Carry the coupon and stop for 10,15,20,25 coupon thrusters on the corners. Mary on the 6.

Lap#2: Drop it for 1,3,5,7 Megaburpees on the corners. Mary on the 6.

Lap#3: Pick ’em back up. Wide Arms touching chest to coupon. 10 on each corner.  Mary on the 6.

Lap#4: Partner up and 5 Dumbocrats on each corner, alternating partner positions on each corner. Mary on the 6.

Hop the fence or look for some other way out, mosey back to the pile and re-deposit.

Fast mosey back across the tarmac and past Gladiator training.

Up the stairs and Elbow Plank by the CMS front wall.

15 Mike Tysons IC

B2W

Mosey to the base of Camilla. There are nine segments of road between here and the top driveway….

Lunge 1st segment, Sprint 2nd Segment, Bear Crawl 3rd Segment

Repeato all of the above 2x to get back close to home. Not so precise instructions resulted in the out-front pax heading back to the launch point, but we still had a sliver of time to use.

Elbow Plank top of CoC parking lot.

AYG bottom of lot.

Head back home, but stop for 10 Merkins OYO at each island. YHC intended each island on the left but someone suggested all the islands, so there you go.

Audible after ~60 Merkins, out of time, back to the launch for real this time.

COT

Announcements – 24 Hours of Booty Race/Party etc.

I am pretty sure Kirk took us out, it was good in any case.

NMM

Always a pleasure to post and now lead in this hard-to-beat AO. Thanks to One Eye, and to Egypt for giving up the Q. (I suspect to rest for his #smokebootsmile performance on Tuesday. Nice job Egypt)

We got in something like 275 Merkin variations for those keeping count, plus a fair amount of leg work.

The DMZ used to be about covert operations, but lately it is quite the social scene. An exerciser and two German Shepherds on the tennis courts, the Romanesque trainees at CMS, and now a new group on the basketball court (peer-led? clipboard?). Plenty of room for all but it would be good to see a show of strength from the faithful.