Drizzling rain was refreshing this morning. Before starting comments/questions of “will there be a lot of running” and “with the rain it looks like we are sweating so instead we could just hang out” – all know we really all showed to work, and we did.
disclaimer given, immediately jogged toward top of Murderhorn (pit-stopped twice for warm ups)
Run down stopping at each light post (do 10 squats, 10 diamond merkins). Meet at rocks…
Pick rock, follow me toward pond/woods. Circle up. Each guy calls excercise with rock. After each excercise put rock down and rotate one space right (change up rock weights). Curls, squats, press, etc. After first 6 guys went, pick up rock, head up to lot and circle up. Remaining guys take turns calling out excercises and rotate.
Head to lower lot – do 12 Diamond Merk on rock, 12 wide Merk on rock (x2 rounds). Ouch! Head back toss rocks back.
Back up Murderhorn stopping at each light (do 10 Carolina Dry Docks, 10 Jump Squats). Back to theater.
grab some wall- People’s Chair. Leg up 12 counts, flap jack. 20 Donkey Kicks (2 rounds)
base for Mary…again several guys called exercises.
take out, and many hung out
———–
Moleskin:
Hopefully a change of Pace today with how we used rocks, group participation in making the calls, and location. Bonus “Toy Soldier” with rocks complements of Big Tuna (“I should keep my mouth shut”…great having you back bro!) Cheese Curd- good suggestion to set rocks down and rotate instead of pass them! Heartbreaker always good speed, push, but also herding the Pax. Fredo has picked up speed since starting F3! Welcome back Linus! Mary Kay, Arsenal getting the wheels turning to Q soon. J-Wow definitely improving big time. Billy Goat almost to fighting weight and fitness and great push. Doc Mc is a beast- the rock he picked was officially classified as a boulder – all were lamenting that during rock rotations. Tumbleweed – wow what a medical recovery story you have and great talking afterwards. Thanks all! Honor to lead!
Announcements:
-Isabella Santos run 9/30 (F3 convergence of DaVinci, Stonehenge, Blackhawk)
-Fredo on Q at DaVinci saturday
– Church On The Street needed Sunday
7 pax posted for the promised Simple & Sinister beatdown, to include the beloved Turkish Getups. Despite not everyone seeing the promise, the offer was extended to all, in the kitty litter.
The Thang
#disclaimer
COP
Not as much a circle of pain as a march of pain, courtesy of the Cook Drill. Walking to the playground – via the parking lot to sidewalk and along the track – begin with a Waiter Carry as long as you can maintain good form, then drop to a Racked Carry, again for as long as you can maintain good form, then drop to a Suitcase Carry. When you can no longer maintain good form on that arm/side (or when Q calls it at the halfway mark), switch sides and continue.
Warm enough, we continue the program…
Simple & Sinister:
2, 3, 5 Superset 1:
Good Mornings & Deadlifts (the ultimate combo):
2, 3, 5 Superset 2:
Mosey back to cars
COT
Announcements:
Naked Moleskinne:
Light, misty rain this morning kept us from overheating. Lots of work done today, whether as prescribed or modified as desired. Well done!
TGUs aren’t the favorite of many (besides YHC), so they aren’t offered very often, despite the fact that they are generally regarded as one of the best exercises you can do. Because of that, YHC does feel obligated to put them on the menu occasionally (not to do so would be dereliction of duty, akin to no merkins at a bootcamp!), but never without warning via Twitter & (now) Slack. T-claps to those trying them, if your ACL allowed (sorry, Bulldog). IMHO, it is a worthy pursuit to build up to the Simple goal.
All in all, good mumblechatter and 2nd F, throughout the hard work and damp conditions, mostly in the kitty litter (mulch).
Thanks, as always, for the honor to lead today.
Aye!
AYE. Just 9 gathered in the not-so-gloomy-actually-kind-of-nice Gloom for the weekly Anvil beatdown. YHC was figuring that this post would be the last for a little while since my 2.1 McCoy was planning his escape, but he is apparently still waiting to execute his plan and therefore I have time to write a BB. Here’s more or less what transpired.
THE THANG
2 burpees in honor of McCoy
Mosey to COP – some basic warmup stuff, you know, NBD
Mosey to new COP – 15 minutes of Mary, feet elevated the entire time (that was the goal, at least)
End it with 50 Mountain Climbers
With our cores fully smoked, it was time to destroy other body parts
Mosey to hotbox for lots of People’s Chair and leg exercises
At about this point, I could feel Raquel begging for some running, so I thought I’d oblige him.
5 Merkins to start
Run down the parking lot row parallel to the Aisle of Trees, do 10 Merkins
Run down the Aisle of Trees, do 15 Merkins
Run down the other parking lot row parallel to the Aisle of Trees, do 15 Merkins
Snake your way back doing 20, then 25, then 30 Merkins
And then do it again with Jump Squats
AYG race to the end of the parking lot then mosey to cars
10 burpees to finish
YE OLDE MOLESKINE
1. Y’all, Rachel is so fast. It’s not even right. The dude flies.
2. Lots of groans during the 15 Minutes of Mary, but I think everyone appreciated having their cores crushed. Even the folks who let their feet drop. #youagainstyou. Pretty sure at least Merman and Brills kept their feet up the whole time. Merman kept his feet up because he’s #dutybound and Brills is just sneaky strong.
3. Solid effort during the switchbacks. It was not fun for anyone, but the spread between the front and the 6 was actually pretty small. T claps to all.
4. During the People’s Chair, I asked for each member of the PAX to count to 10 before we recovered. Freaking Thunder Road must love People’s Chair because he took his sweet, sweet time. Very painful.
Another successful Anvil without using Entrance 4. #horseneck OUT
Warm-up
Side straddle hops x 15
Imperial walkers x 15
Low, slow squats
Bull riders (mountain climber with one hand high) x 10
‘Mericans x 10
Bull riders x 10
From the school, we ran down Woodfox to Rising Meadow Ln for a Triple Nickel. Despite the fact that Cheese Curd tried to persuade me that jump squats and burpees were too similar we went with the original call five at the bottom and five at the top. It wasn’t a race, but I finished first. Good push Floor Slapper! Next, we ran back to SCMS for some wall work.
Wall Work
People’s chair w/ air press x 20 IC
7 Donkey kicks
People’s chair w/ Y press x 10 IC
14 Donkey kicks
People’s chair with T press x 10 IC
21 Donkey kicks
Partner Party
P1 Runs down the parking lot backwards and back to P2 running forward
P2 ‘Mericans
Switch & repeat until total = 100s
P1 Runs down the parking lot backwards and back to P2 running forward
P2 LBCs
Switch & repeat until total = 200s
6MOM + ‘Mericans
LBC x 20
5 ‘Mericans
Regular crunch x 20
4 ‘Mericans
Side crunch R x 20
3 ‘Mericans
Side crunch L x 20
2 ‘Mericans
Chippy cross x 20
1 ‘Merican
Moleskine
Welcome back Bananas! Glad you are healthy!
Announcements
F3 Golf
Speed for Need – Isabella Santos Run on Sept 30
Despite, the dark, the drizzle and NCDOT road closures, 13 PAX assembled at Thrive for a pre-BRR, leg-heavy workout and sweaty fellowship.
The THANG:
Disclaimer given we set off for a mosey around the parking lot to awaken any muscles that interpreted the darkness as a hint to remain asleep.
COP:
SSH X 25
IW X 20
Mountain Climbers X 15
CDD X 10
Mosey to side road: 4-island suicides followed by progressive LBCs (run to first island and do 5 LBC, run to 2nd island and do 15, add 10 more at each remaining island and finishing at far Stop sign with 45 (total of 125 LBCs). Short mosey to the favorite hill at Thrive for a round of 9s – bomb jacks at the top and squats at the bottom. Mosey back to the Stop sign for progressive merkins: start with 5 and then add 5 more at each of the 4 islands resulting in a total of 75 merkins. Mosey to the wall for several rounds of sitting in the People’s Chair with air presses (50, 100 and 150). An additional round of sitting in the Chair and just holding your arms straight out was begun and then ditched by the Q (more on that later). A quick stop at the picnic tables for 20 derkins and 20 dips. Rinse and repeat. Return to the parking lot for Mary:
Flutters X 30, Freddie Mercury’s X 25, Dollys X 20, American Hammers X 25 and a round of the Protractor. Finished up with leg stretches.
My watch had us logging 2.31 miles.
Moleskin:
A little different feel at this edition of Thrive: first it remained dark through the end of the workout (aided by heavy cloud cover) and the lack of oppressive heat and humidity was welcome. Autumn is certainly getting closer. My response to that is “thank you God!’ Also different was the lack of #mumblechatter. I noticed it right away but when we got to the 4-island suicides and the usual chirping about whether the correct geographical term is island, peninsula, isthmus or something else didn’t erupt, I knew today would be different. Even a shot across the bow at Glass Joe (#mumblechattererinchief) about Merkins requiring more movement than a head bob didn’t elicit much of a response. Strange times indeed!
While enjoying a rest in the People’s Chair and doing air presses, I had a flashback to Marine Corps boot camp and how the D.I.s loved to make us extend our arms straight out and hold them there and how quickly that became very painful. So I thought I’d throw that in as a bonus for the PAX. After a short time I realized this was going nowhere and there was no pain anywhere on the horizon. Then it came back to me – we were holding our M-16’s at the time (#O2dep). Without that weight we would be there forever before the pain set in. So I dropped it and moved on. I’m sure this could be effective with kettlebells, but I’m not a kb guy, so I’ll have to take your word for it.
We missed Woody who is in Houston dealing with the recent death of a family member and had the worst flood in US history added on as a bonus. Thankful to God for his family and he remaining safe throughout #Harvey. Also missed Hairband (out of town) and Mindcrime ( injured) – prayers also extended for you gentlemen. Always a joy to lead this group – they bring the strong effort every time and are an encouragement to me! Thanks to Shepherd for taking us out with our focus rightly on Jesus.
It’s been nearly four (4) weeks since the beatdown, and YHC could offer up any number of reasons (excuses) why a backblast hasn’t been posted before now. But, really, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the work the eight (8) pax put in deserves to be written up. So, here it is, with my apologies for the delay.
The Thang
#disclaimer
Catch-me-if-you-can:
COP:
Partner Hobgoblins (double bells):
Cook drill:
Partner Hobgoblins (double bells) (part 2):
Mary w/ a side of Yoga:
COT
Announcements:
none
Naked Moleskinne:
Wow, in 4+ years of writing backblasts, YHC has never been this tardy. It reached a point that I even said, “eh, why bother now?” But, the truth hit me that, these guys deserve it. If they’re gonna show up, work hard, and follow me around for an hour, they deserve to be committed a backblast to commemorate their time & effort. So, with T-apologizes, I humbly submit this delinquent recap.
A great group of guys – veterans, an FNG, and new-ish guys – providing great 2nd F to go along with our collective sweat.
Thanks, as always, for the opportunity to lead.
Aye.
9 pax posted, little did they know, to give dry-runs of several post-BRR run cool-down mobility sequences. Aaaand, they got a little mobility work in for themselves while playing Name That Tune with movie scores. Best of all, they didn’t even have to run or pre-run. Not a bad start to the day…
The Thang
#disclaimer
Savasana – aka Corpse Pose
Devotional – What does it mean to “fear God”?
COP:
Lunge Series:
Lower-leg stretches
Pigeon Series:
Gentle stretches:
Reclining Twists:
Savasana – Corpse pose
COT
Announcements:
Naked Moleskinne:
It’d been too long since YHC had posted at Gumby (4, 5, 6 weeks?), so it felt great to get back in the ol’ Scout Hut. All this running junk has created a real need for some limbering of the limbs, not to mention the 2nd F opportunity.
YHC had been putting together some short stretching routines for post-runs on the BRR, so the opportunity was taken to try them out on the pax, despite the fact they weren’t coming off a run this morning (no pre-runners). So, we had a slightly more active warm-up this morning, before jumping into the stretches. Overall, these routines should work, although the Gentle Stretch sequence may be modified or replaced.
Today’s tunes were courtesy of a Hans Zimmer-seeded station on Slacker. Mostly movie tunes (Inception, Black Knight, Star Wars, Skyfall, etc) but a few non-theatrical scores slipped in, which were quickly dismissed.
Thanks, as always, for the opportunity to lead and for playing along.
Aye!
Despite the NC DOT’s efforts to thwart our 1st F, Union County’s only ‘moderate’ workout happened without incident….almost. Despite warnings earlier in the week that roads were closed all over the Stallings/Indian Trail/Union County area, YHC decided they didn’t pertain to him and set out to Q the toughest ‘moderate’ workout in the area. As YHC approached the only major highway between him and the AO, 2 of Union County’s finest met him with flashing lights and traffic batons indicating that “thou shall not pass this way”. Crap! Plan B is activated. Still 10 minutes before launch. YHC quickly takes a left only to find that the detour signs were not properly placed and the ‘detour’ only took him to a dead end (.75 miles later). Crap! Crap! Plan C. There is no plan C at this point, but I’m on Q and still have approx 5 minutes to get there, give the disclaimer and lead the PAX. Plan C was being created on the spot. Thank God for GPS. It at least identified where I needed to go and only showed that I was 10 minutes away….. As I made my way through the dark county roads, I began to contemplate aborting my mission and returning home, but decided to give it a few more minutes. Siri announces, “Your destination is on the right”. Thank God (again) because I had no idea where I had just come from or how I got there, but I was there and 4 studs were already hard at work. Time on the clock = 5:38
The PAX were in the midst of a series of karaokes & burpees and I think they may have been happy to see me show because nothing about what Shake n’ Bake had them doing looked moderate to me. Bullwinkle turned over the Q to (tardy) YHC and we were off for the regularly scheduled workout.
Quick disclaimer (disclaimer #2 for the PAX)
Track Work
Back to Start
Infield Work
There are 11 vacant bus parking spaces – too good to pass up
We find ourselves at the far end of the lot. Have to get back….
Partner Work
Mosey to playground.
Playground Work
Mosey to wall & line up for People’s Chair
Mosey back to cars for 2 MOM
Finis
Moleskin
Today was a stressful Q for YHC. Not because of the weinke, but because it may be the only time in the history of F3UC that the Q was late to his own workout. Funny thing is, the roads were opened up and the usual route was available by the time we finished the workout. The most impressive part of the morning is that the PAX did not let the lack of a Q stop them. When I arrived, they were already hard at work. That screams of leadership and fortitude. Thanks for stepping up and forging ahead instead of making excuses. Once again, the effort did not disappoint. I see these guys getting stronger every week. It was my first time meeting Gypsy in the Gloom and he was killing the workout. Shake n’ Bake, Bullwinkle & eHarmony are inspirations for their determination, strength, and dedication. Conviction is advertised as a ‘Moderate’ workout, but these guys bring their A game and showed that the only thing ‘moderate’ in today was the name. It’s a pleaseure to lead such a great group of strong men, and I’m honored to call them friends.
THE MERGER
This is the official pre-blast of the Foxhole & Fat Camp unification in SOBland. Starting on Monday, 9/11, Foxhole and Fat Camp will join forces combining as a Monday workout and no we will not be renaming this Fox Camp or Fat Hole. Foxhole will remain in tact and as a Kettle bell/GEAR workout at the same great time and the same great place. Argonaut and Fire Marshall Bill will remain as site Q’s and General will join as the 3rd Leg on this site Q tri-pod. Fat Camp will be removed from the schedule until future notice.
9/11 TRIBUTE WORKOUT
The 9/11 launch will feature a joint Q between Argonaut (Foxhole Site Q) and YHC (Fat Camp Site Q) and will pay tribute to the anniversary of 9/11 while providing an America strong beatdown. Pre-run will launch at 5:00 with the main event following at 5:30. Our brothers from The Big House AO in Pineville will be converging with Foxhole for this special event! To address a few questions that you may have:
Q: Do I need a kettlebell to attend Foxhole?
A: No. We have several extra kettlebells that can be utilized by those that do not have them. But, if you have a kettlebell, bring it.
Q: Will Fat Camp resume at any time in the future?
A: Fat Camp is merging with Foxhole, however, there may be plans in the future to utilize it for CSAUP events/competitions similar to the world famous “Fat Boy” series.
Come sweat with your brothers and pay tribute to 9/11, starting the week out with a bang! Any additional questions can be sent over to either of us.
-Argonaut & General
46 PAX, including 4 FNGs and some kotters/2NGs made their way out to Bagpipe on this cool, misty morning for SOB’s latest FNG Convergence. Earlier in the morning, 2 pickup trucks (one larger than the other) had been unloaded into the fields to set the stage for what followed.
Thang
Moleskin
46 men on a rainy Tuesday morning is a pretty good showing for our SOBs. The mumble chatter was in full effect for some groups. Other groups were quiet and focused on the work at hand. Kirby was focused only on holding in the merlot.
A few observations MT and I found worth sharing….
Unfortunately, we missed out on what went down in the other groups during the stations this AM. If you were there and have an observation to share, please note it below in the comments. Thanks to MT for the majority of the gear and workout planning. Thank you to Hops for the takeout and to Bucky and Morning After for turning over Bagpipe this morning for the convergence.
Big welcome to our 4 FNGs:
Looking forward to seeing you all out again.
Announcements