Like the quadrennial lighting of the Olympic flame, the relighting of the Antlers chandelier brought in 8 pax like stiff moths to a flame, eager to loosen things up a bit. With a few of the pax just returned from a pre-run, we were ready to go.
The Thang
Disclaimer
Savasanna – corpse pose
Devotional
Relying on God’s Grace
1 Peter 2:21 (HCSB) – 21 For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (HCSB) – 16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
What began as a call to humble willingness to suffer [in Jesus’ name, as He did, may become] an insidious tool for self-righteousness.
Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform is to rely on God’s grace and God’s grace alone for our salvation. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people—for beggars. We don’t want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We like to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there.
All the suffering I could possibly endure could not earn me a place in heaven. Nor can I merit the merit of Christ through suffering. I am altogether an unprofitable servant who must rely on someone else’s merit to be saved.
With Paul we can rejoice in our sufferings if they enhance the glory of Christ. We can rejoice in our persecutions and look forward to the promised blessing of Christ. But the blessing Christ promised, the blessing of great reward, is a reward of grace. The blessing is promised even though it is not earned.
Augustine said it this way: “Our rewards in heaven are a result of God’s crowning His own gifts. Sola gratia.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 (HCSB) – 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Adapted from Dr. R.C.Sproul at https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/avoiding-false-theology-suffering/
Warm-up:
Chair & Tree series:
Standing Balance flow:
Vigorous flow:
Lunge series:
Pigeon – right then left
Devotional encore
Ephesians 2:8-9 (HCSB) – 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Time
COT
Limber Moleskinne:
Apologies for the delayed backblast. It seems YHC has gotten out of the habit, but that’s no excuse. #cobains
Great group today. YHC has missed the group, with varied reasons week to week (sleep in day, running, etc), and the stretching. It is vital, and this is a great option to have within F3.
Hopefully you all left more limber than you arrived. If not, at least we had some fun with old TV and movie theme songs – Knight Rider, The Munsters, Mission Impossible, among them.
Thanks for the opportunity to Q and for your leadership of the site, Swiss Miss & Tweetsie!
Aye!
5 Pax joined together on a unseasonably mild morning. Disclaimer given. Mosey out to 51 and towards the sprawling downtown Pineville area. We circled up within eyesight of Kit’s and Pintville, unfortunately it was not time for a cold one.
COP
Cherry Pickers, Shoulder Circles, Ave Bigodas, Mountain Climbers?
THANG
Mosey towards the Park, brief stop at the GraceLife Church to plank and wait for six….we then continued to Belle Johnston Park
Grab a lifting rock by the shelter, Private Benjamin picked a boulder
20*curls, 20*overhead presses, 20*tri-curls….leave lifting rock for later
Partner up, take a lap around the lake (much further than YHC realized), partner 1 does 10*merkins and then catches up with partner 2, who then does 10*merkins….alternate until 1 lap is complete
Retrieve lifting rock
20*curls, 20*overhead presses, 20*tri-curls
On your own, take a lap around the lake stopping at alternating street lights to complete 10*mountain climbers?…halfway through YHC called an audible and we began doing 10*squats at alternating street lights lung walking to each…once we made it back to the shelter
Retrieve lifting rock
20*curls, 20*squats
Placed lifting rock precisely where we found them
Moseyed back towards launch. Stopped at GraceLife Church for some Mary. Planked near 51 waiting for the six. Sprint all you have back to launch.
MOLESKIN
Enjoyed leading the group and trying to keep up with Yomo-Chunder on the partner run. Always good to start out the week with a great group of men.
Brolympics – Feb 24
Richard Sheltra 5k/10k – April 28
Teen Wolf (1985 movie, not the millennial trash tv show) – Coach Finstock: There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese.
Well, I certainly broke the first rule, as I was awakened at 0430 by the blinding light of the Full Blue Blood Supermoon beaming through my window. I thought that an enthusiastic Gypsy (pax, but a real gypsy would be a better story) had set off my motion lights out back, anxious to get an early start on the workout. Apparently he likes to start his twitter wrestler feed on Saturday night for this Wednesday workout, which is when he began soliciting me for information. Well, he wasn’t there. Good thing, because I would have totally tased him with the taser that my sister-in-law gave my wife for Christmas two year ago. True story. Let’s just say that I sleep with one eye open and my massive eyebrow slightly raised.
Thang:
4 corners to this property, established during the warmup with a traveling COP, to which we assigned 4 exercises. Added in a #candyland shortcut for those so inclined to modify the running distance because #moderate.
Run the 1/2 mile loop AMRAP and drop an exercise of your choosing with each subsequent trip. Nice try Shake and Bake, but you cannot drop the running. By the way, TClaps for posting solo on the prerun in the 20deg weather. I was (not even) there in spirit.
We ran this jewel until 6AM and then moved on to the next thing.
Modified Beast – using the big arrows in the parking lot. After some discussion and significant distrust at my perfectly engineered plan to do exercises at the 6 sets of arrows we eventually got it done. Guys argued that there were only 5 sets instead of 6, which in actually there were 7 #bonus. The last set was extra-credit and skipped by most.
Cut that short for Mary, which was unremarkable except for the Q’s interesting version of Crunchy Frog at the end with uncontrollable accompanying sound effects.
Skin:
That SuperMoon was bright. It was a little eerie out there in the countryside. I came out for a pre-scout to see if the big field was in play, but it was booby trapped with ice puddles. I think I found the Shrieking Shack in the woods, but I got back in my truck before Professor Lupin found me.
Apparently, we had some sort of Family Dollar / Dollar Tree convention going on with folks traveling in from Georgia to post. I think this involved Drumstick, Scratch and Sniff, and Homeboy somehow, but I missed the connection. Keep selling that Chinese product boys, it’s what makes the world go round. If I can’t buy it for a buck and throw it away that same night, I probably don’t need it.
Bullwinkle took off like a Quick Trip sushi shart during the 1st round of the beast. Shenanigans indeed.
I never know if things are moderate enough or not. I figure that if I can reasonably keep the group together than it’s a success. I know one thing, I hate standing around in the cold – hence the continuous running today. Hopefully it was in tune with the spirit of the site. If not, I may be in trouble. Not as bad as as the kind of trouble you get in from picking out someones wedgie in church unsolicited, but some sort.
Posting here reminds me of when Area51 used to be more into the whole F3 thing. Back in the day, guys used to actually count during COP and wanted to do things like run around with shovel flags and crawl through the mud. The edge has rounded a bit, but the workouts and fellowship are still good. I think it’s just a natural progression of how people progress through this experience. Still, it’s refreshing to go back in time a little every once in a while.
Probably some announcements somewhere . . . Check the shack.
AAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOO!
– Horsehead
24 PAX voted with their clicks on Monday to determine the venue for Tuesday’s Swift. It was left up to the Q to prepare the spot of finely tuned distance intervals with paint and cones – just what the Ballantyne Corporate Park cops want – graffiti and litter.
The THANG:
Moleskin:
Open date on the Q calendar so the apolitical site Q took the reigns. Disclaimer given. Mosey out to 51 and then up Jack Hughes park entrance, around the ball fields, bear crawl across footbridge (except for Toolbag, no explanation given) and circle up in back parking lot for some old man exercises.
COP
SSH, IW, Merks, Abe Vigodas (YHCs Fav) Cherry Pickers, and Shoulder Circles (Thankfully)
THANG
Mosey over to the brick dugout wall (very nice for a muni field btw) for some shoulder/chest/leg work.
Wall plank (10count), wall plank merkin (x5), balls to wall (prob a 5 count) and then took a lap around parking lot
Back to wall for peoples chair for roughly 60 secs, air presses in cadence x20 and then took a lap
Did slight variations of this pattern for 3 round total, threw in some donkey kicks, variations on the air presses, and such
Added 2 rounds of work on the concrete planters with laps in between; step-ups x20, derkins x10, and dips x30
Back to the dugout wall for one last wall plank, wall plank merkins, and BTTW set. Lots of mumble chatter here…
Mosey over to park entrance/exit road to begin the progression back to launch. Sprint 2 light poles (roughly 75 yards), walk 1 all the way to 51. Probably a third of a mile or so.
Mosey back to Pineville’s Finest parking lot for about 4 minutes of PAX-call-it Mary to close it out.
MOLESKIN
Welcome FNG Old Yeller and thanks to Yomo (Chunder) for bringin him out. Another youngin to help the demographics. Those guys are ready are rarin to go and YHC appreciates that as it keeps him feeling young, at least for a fleeting moment during the workout.
Brolympics – Feb 24
Sporting Clays – Next Saturday
Richard Sheltra 5k/10k – April 28
Honestly, last Friday was basically 3 weeks ago so this is gonna be short and sweet to recap a cold, heart pounding Kevlar.
Once again I got Cottontail’s e-mail wrong and he had no idea he was set to Q. I kind of knew this and planned out a workout just in case. If anyone needs to get a hold of Cottontail his e-mail is “mgmcarolinas@gmail.com”. Dumbest e-mail address ever. AmIright? Also just get on Twitter.
Quick disclaimer telling everyone to be safe and that I’ll now be carrying a phone on me at all times, also I gave everyone out my phone passcode. If you weren’t there you don’t get to know it.
The Thang
Long warmup run to new townhomes across from Fullwood. Circle up – SSH, LSS, Merkins
Area 1
Run through neighborhood to Plantation Estates Rd. which is one of the smoothest and best lit roads you can find.
Run down the street and do 10 jump squats at each lampost. Partner up at the end
P1 – Reverse Run (watch out for Puddin Pop)
p2 – 3 burpees and catch
Horsehead led some Mary then we ran back to the home grounds doing 10 merkins at each lampost.
Area 2 – Rock Pile
We kept running right to the rock pile – grab a lifting rock
10 curls, 10 shoulder presses, 9 curls, 9 shoulder presses, 8….etc. (This was too easy so we moved to the field)
Area 3 – Field
On your stomach – 10 merkins and AYG across
On your back – 9 sit ups and AYG across
On your stomach – 8 merkins and AYG across
On your back – 7 sit ups s and AYG across
On your stomach – 6 merkins and AYG across
On your back – 5 situps an AYG across
Done here…
Area 4 – Parking Lot
I stole this one from Prohibition from Monday – quick glance around telling me that no one was at Matrix, it was safe to use.
Partner 1 – Runs to end of lot and back
Partner 2 – (moving forward) Burpee Broad Jumps Forward – Partner 1 picks up where Partner 2 left off
“Flap Jack”
Partner 1- Runs to end of lot and back
Partner 2 – Bear Crawl (moving the line forward)
“Flap Jack”
Area 5 – Back to the main lot
On the wall –
Done.
Moleskine
Kevlar is getting young fast and it’s good to get competitive out there with Sunshine, Archie and Hannie. They had a 4th guy come out a few weeks (FNG – Christopher Robbin) ago but Hannie let me know that he doesn’t have his license so he has to pick him up for F3. Is he even legal to post w/o a license?
Tackling Dummy was able to swiftly carry his 6’5″ frame to the front of the PAX all morning. He also didn’t cheat on pushups, something that I grade very very carefully.
Tebow showed up about 20 minutes late after looking for us everywhere. He wouldn’t have found us as we charted some new territory today.
Floor Slapper showed up on time. Something that I haven’t seen happen in quite some time.
Puddin Pop took Cottontail out hard during the reverse runs, and I mean worse case scenario reverse run situation. Cottontail doing burpees and Puddin falls on him running in reverse. Luckily both men got up and kept moving.
Cotton Tail gets a chance to make up his Q next week.
Great work done by all – Aye!
9 men came to Fast Twitch and got some standard fare. Lots of running with just enough exercises to call it a boot camp. YHC rolled in with a plan, but no gloves on a cool, wet morning. A call went out for extra gloves.
The Thang
Today we would venture to Five Knolls. Head out of the SCMS lot. Left on 51. Right on Rea. Left onto Five Knolls. Keep going down Five Knolls until you get to Whisperwood. Circle up there for a quick COP of SSH x 10 in cadence. Find a partner. One partner runs to the end of Five Knolls at Rea, the other runs to the opposite end of Five Knolls. At the ends do 10 Jump Squats. Run back to the start point to meet your partner for 10 partner Derkins each. Flap Jack directions. Repeat. YHC called for 2 rounds in each direction, but time constraints led to only two in one direction and one in the other direction. Head back to the launch.
Naked Moleskin
Great work today men and apologies for the overtime. YHC miscalculated the total mileage somewhere. We got ~0.6 more miles than expected. YHC will measure twice next time. Thanks to Alf for keeping an extra eye on the clock and advising cancelling the last round. Thanks to Purple Haze for the take out. And since YHC was a DA and forgot my gloves, a big thanks to Pop Tart for his extra gloves. They were nice to have.
So a Gumby VQ which sort of feels like a VQ when YHC finds out 4 min prior to kick off that a devo is part of the Q…good thing YHC has that handy dandy Theology degree to fall back on…if memory serves…
The Thang:
Devo: Psalm 46:10, anyone know it? Yeah “Be still and know that I am God”…umm yeah, that’s the first part, now tell me the rest…hmmm that’s what I thought, don’t know the rest, not to worry, common problem, the rest goes something like this…”so that I will be honoured amongst all the nations, so that I will be honoured amongst all the world”, wait…does that mean I’m not just soaking God in but rather connecting with Him so that I can go out into the world so that His name is honoured and made known? An interesting take on a common verse by reading the entire verse, just food for thought…and now onto the mobility work.
Since YHC doesn’t do yoga, yes I’ve tried, no I don’t get it, if all those animals were around I’d probably just go hunting so today we’re going to do run oriented mobility work. Why? Because YHC needs it…ok, so what is mobility? It is increasing a bodies range of motion in critical areas which is different from stretching which is focused on prep for use, but does not usually hold long enough for an increase in range of motion. Oh and mobility work can be just that…work…we’re holding for 2-3 minutes per position.
First off, let’s warm up a bit, 20 IC split jacks (YHC has decided to refusnik ssh due to the lateral stress), 20 IW and 1 min of running in place, great, blood is flowing, then it’s onto the real work:
Squat hold, see where we are when we start
2 min per side of lunge twist
3 min per side of couch sit, some had more “fun” than others with this
2 min dorsiflexion hold
2 min per side sprinter roll
2 min per side couch sit again (boooo)
10 GHD Activation Bridge hold x 3 sec
Squat hold, feel any better or able to drop lower into it?
So good results and feedback all around and YHC learned a lot about a Gumby Q and is ready for next time around, different pax found different movements more difficult than others and one side more tight than the other, totally normal and we’ll work on more of this type of work next time around, YHC is humbled by the opportunity to Q Gumby especially on such a lousy weather day but had a blast and mobility is something I’ve worked on for a number of months and have seen good improvements but still know I have a lot of work left to go, so if you attend a Strange Brew boot camp Q, just be ready for squat holds and the requisite crap
[POSTED FOR Brew by Swiss Miss, who is also not a professional and in no way takes responsibility for Brew’s workout or BackBlast.]