13 men came to the Thrive gloom for YHC’s VQ. It was a last chance to get a workout in before heading up to the BRR for some. For others it was a welcome back from a holiday weekend. Others were a no show.
The Thang:
We started with a short mosey around the parking lot and then circled up. Disclaimer was given and since it was a VQ, YHC had to include the line “I am not a professional. In fact, I have never done this at all. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing”
COP:
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Abe Vigoda style windmills x 15
Mosey over to the well lit part of the parking lot. In the center island was a box with different exercises in it. The PAX was broken into 2 teams. One person from each team would run to the box, grab an exercise, bring it back for the team to complete. After completing the exercise another team member would run back to the center to grab another exercise. Repeato until time was called.
The exercises that were in the box were:
After time was called, the teams counted the number of exercises completed. The team with the least amount had to bear crawl to the center island and back. The winning team could choose what they wanted to do. Some moseyed and squatted at the island, one did back scratchers, one (YHC) was cleaning up the parking lot.
Team 1 was Playoffs, Arsenal, Nomad, Gypsy, Shake-n-Bake, Thurston, Espresso (24 exercises completed) and Team 2 was Glass Joe, Shepard, Hoffa, Hair Band, Bonhoffer, eHarmony (26 exercises completed)
Circle up for Mary:
LBC IC x 50
Dolly IC x 35
That’s a wrap!
Announcements:
Moleskin:
YHC definitely murdered the wording/flow during the COP. It is helpful if you tell the PAX “exercise” so they know you are starting. Rookie mistake. I can’t say it won’t happen again. Strong performance by everybody. The fact that it was a little competition stepped up the intensity/speed of the exercises and decreased (at least on our team) the mumble chatter. Later on in the game, the “shopping” strategy started to be used to get exercises that the team preferred instead of randomly picking one. To quote a certain PAX in the respect club “Work harder not smarter”. Somebody on our team noticed Arsenal running to the box and wondered how many winter coats he may need once the weather gets cooler because he is ALWAYS in pants, even when it is 80° out. It was my privilege to lead the men of Union County in my VQ. Hair Band took us out like a champ.
18 PAX who stayed in town for the Labor Day holiday got an extended Special Edition of The Big House, with 60 minutes of solid effort and anywhere from 3.3 – 3.5 miles for a Tour of Pineville.
Many PAX were unfamiliar with The Big House as an AO, so YHC and Private Benjamin, the outstanding Site-Qs that we are, decided to give them a proper welcome with a tour of Jack Hughes Park as well as Pineville Lake Park. A very special welcome to all the men of Basecamp for joining us, and posting their shovel flag alongside ours.
PB gave a thorough and proper disclaimer before we did a quick loop around the rear baseball field for
COP:
SSHx15
Tempo Merks x10
Abe Vigodas x10 (slow windmills)
Cotton Pickers x10
CDDs x15
Then off we went for
THE THANG
First up? Circut Work. Check out the signage conspicuously placed in all sections, including the one in big bold letters saying “ASCENDING TESTICLES”…the kids will love that one when they show up for practice.
1. First Parking lot entrance – 20 Burpees oyo
2. First baseball dugout walls – Ascending testes for 7 derkins at 15 degrees, 7 derkins at 45 degrees, and then 7 derkins with BTTW
3. Pseudo Park Entrance – 40 Merkins
4. Park Walkway Intersection nr apartments – 25 lunges each leg
5. Bridge – 40 Plank Jacks
6. Jump ups & dips near the back concession stand
We were about 20 mins in at that point.
Okay, time for shovel flags to be picked up, hoisted, and get the PAX mobilized for a run back to Pineville Lake Park. Standing Rule: Everyone must carry one of the shovel flags, but you cannot pass it on to someone…they need to step up and take it. #LeadershipTraining #Initiative #Hashtag
Run ~1.0 miles back to Lake Park, everyone grab a curling rock.
10 bicep curls OYO, hold a squat for 30 seconds w/rock in hand
Drop the rock, hold 6 inches for 30 seconds
15 bicep curls OYO, hold a squat for 30 seconds w/rock in hand
Drop the rock, run up to top of Dumpster Hill (sort of like Bunker Hill, but no one dies)
Back down for 20 bicep curls OYO, do 15 squats w/rock in hand
Next up? Get on your six.
All 18 PAX call 10 reps of your favorite ab exercise. Learned what a sandy V is. Thanks, Kid Rock.
Return your rock to the EXACT place you found it, grab a shovel flag if you see it, and let’s mosey back to the launch point.
With 60 seconds to spare, McGee insisted on burpees until you finish it out.
FIN
COT / Moleskin
GREAT WORK, men. To so many of you…welcome to the Big House. We hope you enjoyed your stay this Labor Day weekend.
Great to see so many faces from other AOs.
Costanza – good sport, sir. I never put it together, but thanks to McGee for the suggested plotline for “The Parent Trap, Pt 3”.
It was an honor to lead. PB and DF out.
Announcements
F3 Golf, 10/27. Check for updates but plan on being there.
Speed for Need races coming up:
– Isabella Santos 5k in Ballantyne, September 30th.
– Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k in Uptown CLT, October 7th.
On invite from Good Fella; YHC descended on Marvin Creek to lead the great men of Dromedary. No logs this time, but we all did learn that we could run with a ‘lifting’ rock.
Disclaimer was given, and partners were chosen. Quick Mosey towards rock pile, but stopping for a quick warmup. Circle up for SSH x 50 so the stragglers could catch up (I was going for that count anyway).
One Partner grab a lifting rock. Grab a big one or else. With your partner CMIYC up and down the parking lot lanes to the halfway point. One partner runs with rock. The other 10 hand release merkins and catch your partner.
Mosey to the hill in front of MCHS. Partner 1 does thrusters while partner 2 runs up the hill for 10 LBC. Total per team = 200. However, stop halfway through to pass your rock down to your right for the next team. Finish out your last 100 Thrusters.
CMIYC back up and down the parking lot lanes back to discard your rocks. Same deal as before – 10 hand release merkins and catch your partner running with the rock.
With us running short on time, I decided to change up my plan on the fly – it wasn’t as clean as a result. We did 4 corners/21’s. At each corner of same span we just ran, we will do merkins and squats. At the 1st, 20 merkins/1 Squat; then 19 merkins, 2 squats at the next corner, then 18 merkins/3 squats. So on and so forth until the count for merkins and squats are reversed…or until time.
We had to cut the 4 corners short due to time, but quickly circled for a last second LBC round.
Moleskin:
– It had been a while my last Q here. Thanks goes to Goodfella for bringing me back.
– The SSH were aggressive but we needed a warm up.
– Glad so see some real rocks were picked. I’ve seen quite a few pebbles and YHC wasn’t having that.
– Dromedary consistently has good numbers of Pax. Great leadership guys!
– Many ‘Respect’ members today. You can’t tell as they grind and lead as good as the young bucks.
Announcements:
– Speed for Need races upcoming – Isabella Santos and Susan B. Komen
– COTS is a great organization and I implore you to check it out and sign up to serve.
– F3 Golf is in October
That was the banter this morning as 18 Goats gathered for their final interval training ahead of the 2017 Blue Ridge Relay. Many knew this could be their last time together… for so many have started the BRR, never to have returned… oh wait, that’s climbing Mt. Everest…
BRR… not quite as dramatic… but an awesome accomplishment nonetheless! Some might have gathered thinking this would be a “taper” workout… maybe that we would braid each other’s hair, or rub our butts (pork, that is…) but not to be… BRR is one week out, and there is still work to be done.
This is the work we did:
Excellent job!!
Moleskin
I can’t say enough how proud I am of the guys that have tackled this BRR training! You guys are AWESOME!! When we gather next time for F3 Mountain Goat, we will have stories about road kills, snoring in the van, extended porta-john breaks, and crushing the mountains of North Carolina!! It is going to be incredible!
And then you will be getting the next set of Mountain Goats signed up and ready to run in the 2018 BRR… Mad, Joker, Purell… I’m looking at you guys!!
Yes, Lois rubbed butts yesterday… he said he rubbed them real good… ahead of tailgating for the Gamecock/Wolfpack showdown on Saturday. At least that was his story….
Tweetsie impressed us with his blue light special blinking light. It went well with his outfit, and he mainly wants to be able to standout from all of the blinking red lights on the course. I hear he has a color for each outfit… well-played Mr. Mountaineer!!
I won’t rehash the story, but Tweetsie and I reminisced somewhere around set #3 that 1-year ago, I said he (and Lois) would run BRR with us… and 1-year ago he DID say I was crazy!! But 1-year later… here they both are… BRR-ready!
Great to have Mad back out with us! Please come back anytime! Ask anyone… I’m serious about you running BRR with us! I already have a spot for you!
Joker and Purell were leading the pack… I know everyone is surprised! Purell stopped for some Merkins along the way… mainly to remind me that I’m 50 and he’s not!! 🙂 . I’ve also got both of you down for 2018 BRR spots.
Great to have Beaker and Voodoo join us… best of luck to both of you at the BRR!
Always great to have Jello and Drano join us! Our drivers are in top-shape, ready for anything!
The regulars make this workout great! Early Bird, Nomad, Goonie, Insomniac, Adobe, Retread, The Mouth, Benny… this AO doesn’t happen without you guys!!
Announcements:
Thanks to Adobe for the prayer out!
Under the bright lights of the CCHS campus, 23 men gathered for #F3Centurion. After a disclaimer that hopefully satisfied the Nantan, off we went.
The Thang and Moleskine
Run up the hill on Little Street up the Bonefish Grill parking lot. There was no Bang Bang shrimp, unless you count Runstopper (sorry RS, but I never get to make short jokes. Or bald jokes). We gathered for COP:
IWs x 20 IC, MCs x 20 IC, Squats x 20 IC, Merkins x 10 IC.
Then we moseyed over to the stairs, partnering up along the way. YHC was odd man out.
Partner 1 – Merkins (x5, 4, 3, 2, 1) and Plank Walk between parking lot lines
Partner 2 – Run up the steps, 10 jump squats in the middle up top, down the other steps, 10 jump squats at the bottom.
We did that twice. Then we moseyed down 51 to the front of the school, at the picnic tables. We did 3 rounds of 10s:
10 step ups (each leg), 10 derkins, 10 incline merkins. YHC caught grief here from Hops and Runstopper because they wanted to know how many times to repeat, which YHC failed to announce at the onset. Of course, when it was announced, they missed it due to chatter.
After the 3 picnic table sets, we moseyed to the garage. Oddly enough, had it rained like predicted, we would have stayed away from the garage so we could fully embrace the suck of the downpour. Find your partner.
Partner 1 – Run the length of the garage with 5 burpees at the top of the ramp. Repeat until Partner 2 returns.
Partner 2 – Run the short way up to the top. 10 jump squats. Then down the stairs.
Flapjack. Repeat.
After some Udder-led Air Presses, we moseyed back to base. Arrived with exactly 6 minutes to go…totally planned of course, for 6 minutes of Mary.
LBCs x 15 IC, Straight Leg Lifts x 15 IC, Merkins x 10 IC (Checkpoint correctly noted this wasn’t Mary…but we did them anyway), Flutter Kicks x 15 IC, Dollies x 15 IC, Merkins x 10 IC, Freddy Mercury x 20 IC (5 fast, 5 slow, 5 fast, 5 slow).
Done.
YHC hadn’t Q’d in a while. Thankfully the chatter was low, except for Pro. But he’s always talking and YHC has learned to ignore him. Champagne did talk trash to me about his Wolfpack vs my Gamecocks. For both, preseason is the best time of the year. Great to see a lot of old guys and new faces at Centurion. It is by far the best Friday AO in the South.
Announcements – Isabella Santos Race, F3Golf
One week later I’m still hearing side chatter about the burpee suicide up and back…who new a bunch of runners hated burpees so much. Maybe it was because I fell short of the Brave 4.0 mileage requirement.
Well it all really started when I called two minutes and everyone started chirping that I had more like two seconds. Part of my disclaimer was that I grabbed my wife’s watch (fit bit). Well you would have thought the 15 guys that showed up thought I was wearing her heels. It was a standing joke for the next hour and 3.3457 miles (Or something shy of 4.0 because god forbid I use the reading from my wife’s fit bit.)
The Thang:
Mosey around behind Stone Mountain to building across the street
Mosey around back of Building and pond – to the first patio
Plank wait for 6 (at tables) – Not much waiting around for this crew.
Mosey over bridge turn left to grass Hill
Plank for 6 – Or do a 6th
Mosey to bridge left into parking lot
Plank – Wait for 6
All You’ve Got – Up the hill to the bridge (brief disclaimer to get full out, “we will do this only once”)
People’s Chair at guard rail – Wait for 6 – someone lead air presses
Cross street and mosey down past TIAA to parking lot
Burpee Suicides up the middle at each tree
Mosey around to dock at pond – partner up
Mosey back across street
Time about expired – RUN! to Start
Moleskin:
You guys know the Brave regulars. Fast guys. Hard charging. High expectations. Well, no one added good spirited, cool guys that actually put up with my cluster f@*% last Friday. Nearly starting late but tried to stay un-flustered. I had this all worked out and planned ahead to hit the 4.0 mark. My undoing was the burpees as you’ve all heard by now. It killed too much time and too much spirit…LOL. Several guys actually crushed the 112 burpee suicide ladder…and had the balls to run circles around the rest of us so they could get their miles in. They knew way before me we wouldn’t hit 4.0 (remember the watch fiasco). I squeezed in one more exercise before time expired, well nearly. I think we had 45 seconds to get back to start. Several peeled off and headed to work (or so they said, probably getting in more miles, 0.5 at least.) Listening to my recording, I was a bit out of breath, sounded pretty funny…you guys rock!
Thanks for having me guys – enjoyed the Q. Good luck with the BRR next week.
Squid thanks for the take out.
· With BRR a week away, YHC planned a running heavy workout for the PAX. I mainly wanted for everyone to keep their legs loose and most importantly, not get hurt. The plan was simple.· And then the weather forecast came out which called for heavy rain this morning. I had a Plan B, but fortunately all we got were sprinkles of varying levels so we were fine to stick with Plan A.· After giving a heart felt disclaimer, impressing upon the PAX that if any of them got hurt during my workout Slim Fast would surely leave me on the side of a mountain somewhere next weekend, we took off for the following.Mosey around the front of FBCM to the parking lot across Sadie for COPSSH x 20Burpees x 5 OYOIW x 20Burpees x 5 OYOHillbillies x 20Burpees x 5 OYOWindmills x 10Mosey over to the baseball outfield and line up along one foul linePartner up w/ similar speed if possibleRound 1:You and your partner run from one foul line to the other, each of you then do 10 Hand Slap MerkinsBoth of you run back to the other foul line and do 10 more Hand Slap MerkinsRepeato 5 times for a total of 50 Hand Slap MerkinsRound 2:You and your partner run from one foul line to the other, each of you then do 10 SquatsBoth of you run back to the other foul line and do 10 more SquatsRepeato 5 times for a total of 50 SquatsMosey over to the parking lot and on your 6LBC x 15Flutter x 15Dolly x 15Rosalita x 15Congregate at the track for the followingRun halfway around the track, stop and do 20 Lunges (10 each leg)Complete the lap, stop and do 10 CDDsRepeato 3 timesMosey to side church parking lot for SuicidesThis is a Peak staple of late, though I skipped the partner called exercise and we all just ran. Only time for one (I did not hear any complaints).5 minutes left so we went back to the launch point for some Yoga stretching.Moleskin:· It has been a while since I Q’d, but I had this one in my back pocket for BRR tapering. Given the wet, but not complete washout conditions, I think everyone appreciated staying on their feet as much as we did. It was a little more running than we normally get at Peak, but everyone kept up, even the guys who are not running BRR with us next week. Rest assured Slim Fast took note of this and will be signing each of you up for a team next year. We got in a little over 2 miles.· Thanks to Slim Fast, Early Bird, Nomad, Geraldo and Tweetsie for the company during the pre-run. Though every time we have “pre-run” with Geraldo lately he has left us in the dust. Me thinks he is BRR ready.· The rest of the crew I see at Peak and Mountain Goat every week, so I know they are BRR ready.
It happens to most of us, if not all of us. Always when we least expect and we don’t know why. It is frustrating and hard to understand how something like this could ever happen. I remember the first time it happened to me. I was a young lad at the University of North Carolina walking through campus. And then, BAM! I’ll never forget that feeling. The eyes all staring at me, most of them chicks, good looking ones too. All pointing and giggling. I would have no shot with them now. After it happened, I remember thinking “what do I do now? Should I just get back up and keep walking? Should I go back to my dorm? Just lay here and hope they all go away?” Each person deals with it in their own way. Some turn to anger (why do you think Semi Gloss is angry). Some retreat inwardly never to be the same person again. Some even turn to drugs. “But this nuun will take the pain and suffering go away.” you’ll tell yourself. Also, “I just need a little more!” Maybe you’ll even end up taking the entire bottle all once in hopes that you can just end it. I know it hurts. I’ve been there. After it happened to me, I questioned my entire existence. Why would the good Lord let this happen to me? Does he really love me? Did someone record this on their phones and post it on the internets? Or maybe they’ll just AOL IM it to all their friends. Will I ever find someone who actually loves me for who am I in spite of this “incident”? Will everyone see me as “that guy”?
Well, I want Jello (aka Dance Mom) and Geraldo to know that it will be OK. Your life is not defined by this. At some point in our lives, we have all been there. We are running, with our head held high, thinking the world is ours and we don’t see that crack in the sidewalk. Its amazing that something so little could have such a big impact in our life. But it does. And I am proud of both you. You fell down, tumbling and rolling in agony and despair on the ground, but you picked yourself back up and continued to run! Yes, there were tears and there was pain and there was blood, but don’t ever stop running. You may find yourself in the coming weeks in a dark place, reliving this horrible tragedy over and over in your mind. Thinking no one else has ever struggled like you are. But those are lies the enemy puts in our head. Don’t believe them. We are here to help. Don’t turn to the nuun. It is a short term fix that will have long term implications. Come talk to me about the trip and fall in the spring of 2001. Come talk to Agony and his incident on the Davidson football field that would eventually lead him to the ministry. Come talk to Alf. Actually don’t talk to Alf, he is still living with his pain.
Jello and Geraldo, you are not alone.
Also, JRR Tolkein called me his boo. He doesn’t see me as “that guy”. There is hope for us all.
7 pax got their weekly Hydra fix. Here’s how it went under cloudy, slightly moist skies.
The theme – 14. Why 14? 14 is double of 7, 7 letters in “HOUSTON.” I have spent the past 10 years traveling regularly to Houston. There are many friends there who were directly impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Complete destruction. Heavy hearts to all of those impacted.
So, the WarmUp
1 mile run to the bank. Why continue to warm up in the rain when we can take it to the bank, the teller stations that is.
After some stretching (stretching?…yup), monkey humpers, SSH, etc. we moved on to another parking lot.
The other parking lot:
14 merkins
14 LBCs
14 Free standing squats
Rinse/repeat x2
Move on to another parking lot..
14 jump ups
14 derkins
14 Indians (situps with feet touching each other sitting Indian style)
Rinse/repeat
Move on…back to the bank
14 derkins
14 jump squats
14 LBCs
Move on…to the church..
Grab lifting rock…and..
14 beauty curls
14 overhead press
14 triceps extensions
14 LBCs
Rinse/repeat x2
Move on..back to launch
All in 3.05 miles. Great work by 7 bad ass men.
Announcements – F3 Golf. Hydra to get a team. Count at least RedRocks and Marge in. October 27