When Friendship Hurts

When Friendship Hurts

5 of Area 51’s finest respects (and 17 other guys) showed up to Centurion on Friday to fit 60 minutes of pain into a 45 minute workout. The dripping mess, also known as a Ball of Man, at the end of the workout was testament to their success.

Thang

• Mosey up Little to the Sparx parking lot
• Disclaimer then COP
  • 10 8-count body-builders IC, LSS x10 IC, Windmill x10 IC, 5 body-builders OYO, Arm circles x10 IC (Forward small, back small, back big, front big), 5 body-builders OYO, Merkin x5 IC, Mtn Climber x5 IC, Merkin x5 IC, Mtn Climber x5 IC
• Mosey to the Moe’s building and grab a partner on your way, you will stay with your partner for this set, stay to the right at all times
  • 10 handslap merkins
  • Run with your partner to one of the staircases (6 groups of 2 will go right, 5 will go left)
  • Wheelbarrow your partner up the steps
  • Run across the upper landing and down the other flight of steps
  • Rinse & repeat (flapjack who is the wheel barrow) until each partner has been the wheel barrow twice
• Mary for the 6
• Mosey back down Little to the Charlotte Catholic Parking Deck and pick a new partner on the way
• Round 1:
  • 10 handslap merkins
  • Partners run opposite directions around the stadium
  • 10 burpees each when you meet
  • Run back the direction you came
  • Flapjack direction around the stadium and repeat once
• Plank-o-rama / Mary
• Round 2:
  • Do the same thing as before (handslaps, 2 rounds)
  • But, instead of the stadium run to opposite staircases at the ends of the lot, up to the top, meet your partner in the middle at the top
  • 10 patty-cake situps instead of burpees
• Round 3:
  • Time (kind of) to put it all together. One round.
  • 10 handslap merkins, around stadium, burpees, back to stairs, 10 handslap merkins, up opposite stairs, 10 pattycake situps, back to launch
  • Only one pair was fast enough to make it through all the situps, everyone else was called off to stop wherever they were and head back to launch
• 1 minute overtime by the time the 6 was collected
• Names, Announcements, Rock Thrill with a great take-out

Moleskin

Someone wondered if Tony Horton had stepped in to Q when we were doing the arm circles. Admittedly, P90X is the first thing YHC did when he got off the couch about 3 years ago and, while it is cheesy, it is still a damn fine workout for guys who haven’t found F3 yet. While the Plyometrics DVD still gives me nightmares (Double Airborne Heisman at the next COP?), those shoulder warmup circles are still one of my favorites and seemed appropriate for the wheel barrows on tap this morning.

Teamwork / divide and conquer was the plan for the day. In this case it was about anticipating a big crowd at Centurion which is the standard as of late, but spending the whole workout in teams of 2 made for some great fellowship as well. Wheel barrow up a turning flight of steps definitely took a little practice to get used to. More than one smacked a shoulder, rib or hip in the corners but everyone had it together by the 4th trip. Some dismay at being separated from our newfound friends so soon after the wheel barrows. There was also some discussion as to what base was reached with our partners during that first round of wheel barrows before we broke up, but that got uncomfortable pretty quickly and was thankfully forgotten (until now).

Checkpoint was the first to complain at the sudden split from his first partner, but he quickly forgot him (what was his name again?) when he partnered with the speedy Lorax to crush everyone in the partner work by the stadium. They were so far ahead in fact that they missed 30% of the instructions on round 2 (“do the same thing as before”) and ran an extra lap of the stairs. Having to run back the way you came after meeting your partner made sure the faster guys got to run a little more. This helped keep the teams together but had the added benefit of discouraging any slacking off which would result in your partner having to pick up your slack. In every day life, I run into plenty of people who are willing to let me pick up their slack. At Centurion (and in my experience in F3 as a whole), there is none of that. Each and every man was seen pushing himself to his limit, and then pushing beyond that limit (along with some mumblechatter) when subsequent rounds were called, to make sure he carried as much of the burden as he possibly could.

Bout Time, Rachel, Checkpoint, Lorax and Brilleaux were regularly out front and calling Mary or Plank-o-rama until YHC could arrive to take back over (thanks, guys). Too many other strong efforts out there (and too much weekend fog clouding YHC’s brain) to name them all. Also typical of Centurion, we had a mean collection of Respects all tearing it up. If full-contact basketball with a height cap of 6’2″ was a thing, these guys would make an intimidating team. Can’t really think of anywhere else a team of 5 makes sense. Still, impressive stuff.

Udder, although he did not show up, got his Site Q points reaching out to me the night before and asking me to remind the PAX to bring reflective gear and lighting if we were going to be off-campus on busy streets. YHC let him know we would only leave campus briefly and would stick to the sidewalk (most of us) on our way there and back. Definitely appreciate him reaching out and think it sets a great example for what us as Site Qs and Qs need to be doing. We know from the disclaimer that we are not officially responsible for the safety of those at our workouts. However, if you are the leader of a workout or a site at which an accident occurs that may have been prevented by a simple Tweet or Slack message, I can guarantee that you are going to at least feel somewhat responsible. No one wants that. If people decide not to pay attention or to listen, that’s on them, but please remember to take that minute to send out a reminder if your weinke calls for it.

Announcements

• The Brave converges at Centurion on 8/4. Launch from Centurion AO (Charlotte Catholic) at 0515 for a 60 minute workout.
• Monthly Anvil/Death Valley Convergence is this Wednesday, 7/19. 0530-0615 at Calvary Church. Coffee after with Hops speaking in the pavilion by the soccer fields.
• The Stand (3rd F) continues to meet on Fridays at Panera on 51 after Centurion (0630)
• 24 hours of Booty is 7/28-7/29 and F3 will have a large presence. Please come out to support. A51 has a number of participants including Margo, Mermaid and Lorax (and surely more that I don’t know of). Check out the pre-blast here and bring yourselves (and your families) out to Flood the Zone next weekend.