I believe the joy of every Q is figuring out what kind of different exercise will bring out the complaints within the group or absolutely silence everyone because what you call out is either excruciating or crazy. The goal is to find something hard enough that it pushes us all but not crazy enough that you quit trying. The goal today was to see how many miles we could put in without getting told we run too much while finding ways to bring a smile or grimes out of the PAX. My trusty analog watch said it was time and we were off the explore the Wesley Chapel venue.
Let’s MOSEY:
We started with a warmup run along the normal path around the AO until we reached the island of curbs. Plank walk the length of the island and then Al Gore until the six finished.
We then ran to the Target parking lot and circled up for some exercises.
Insufficient Running has occurred so we ran to the side of Target and performed Burpees until Bread Bowl performed five himself
Run along the path to the corner and perform squats until Breadbowl performed 5 squats
Run back around to the Target parking lot. On a side note, Bread Bowl accused me of lying when I said we would stay in the Target Parking lot. He simply didn’t realize we would be leaving and returning along with some extra pain stations along the journey.
The Thang-
COT
The PAX completed 2.6 miles while forging through a tough Bear Crawl and and a lot of should workout. No one quit so we will have to kick it up a notch next time.
Announcements
20 showed up for a runner’s ‘heavy’ workout, is that an oxymoron?
Warm-up:
Disclaimer given, although the crowd was too rowdy to listen/care. Nothing a few burpees couldn’t fix. Moseyed around the perimeter of the AO, stopping for 5 burpees at each speed of the 4 speed bumps. COP for LSS x15 IC, IW x15 IC, 5 burpees, merkins x15 IC, and plankorama. Continue mosey on inside of parking lot with one more stop for 5 burpees and stumble upon a circle of gear.
The Thang:
12 stations of gear laid out in a circle. Instructions given to perform 20 reps of the exercise then run to one of four stops and complete more work there, then back to the circle moving on the the next piece of gear in a clockwise motion. Continue to cycle through the 12 stations with 4 stops for the remainder of the hour. YHC called it a deformed starfish but it was appropriately renamed the Iron Peacock which couldn’t be more accurate.
Gear stations were:
1 Battle rope
2 45 lb KB 2H swings
3 Sandbag rows
4 35 lb plate OH press
5 Sandbag squats
6 35 lb DB curls
7 Sandbag good mornings
8 35 lb KB alternating 1H swings
9 Sandbag clean and press
10 35 lb plate front raises
11 Sandbag ground to shoulder
12 Sandbag lunges
Stops were:
Crosswalk closest to 51 at NW corner of AO: 20 merkins/20 monkey humpers
Hotbox: 20 dips/20 derkins
Playground: 10 Pull-ups/20 knee ups
Baseball field: 20 CDDs/20 jump squats
2 minutes of mary before regrouping, lugging gear back to launch and 5 more burpees.
Moleskin:
It’s always fun to Q on Saturdays, especially at Rock Zero where things kick off at 7am (or 6am if you are Hoover or Geraldo and want to ruck for an hour beforehand – props to you guys). Also, no pressure to hurry up to get home and the kids ready for school/ready for work, a full hour of workout which is great especially for workouts like this, and coffeeteria afterwards to shoot the breeze with everybody. The cast of characters is always a wild card, too, and this was no exception with a full 20 count of men getting after it in ideal weather. What was even more impressive was nearly all 20 made it to Starbucks. Great to see Mermaid got his better looking brother Slow Roll to make the trek down south for another beatdown. No one had more fun than Gummy (just ask him), don’t think I’ve seen someone smile so much during a workout. Who knew that omitting SSHs had such an effect? Hammer was the only PAX with no gloves, don’t think he wears them all winter. Horsehead and Boondog earned their waffles this morning. Iron Horse and BLC are beasts if they were 25, crazy they are over double that. Jet fuel and Hopper made it look easy. Dora at a bootcamp? Yep as long as there is something heavy to lift. Floor slapper was early. Ductwork’s attendance at Fast Twitch is showing as he is getting fast. Boerewors loved the sandbags. Marge was flying around the site out there. Turkey Leg doesn’t have an off switch, still fresh off the vagabond craziness a week ago. McGee is slow and out of shape so it’s a good thing he is doing WAMRAP on the regular. All in all, a solid group of grisly veterans put in some serious work. Although I get pegged as a runner, I enjoy the gear/weight workout as much as anyone and we still got in 3-4 miles.
Thanks to Mcgee for the takeout, it was the least he could do after peddling WAMRAP more than a handful of times throughout the morning. What’s WAMRAP you ask? Wednesday morning at Viva Chicken at Waverly, 5:30 start. A route with exercises will be given and it is the ultimate you v you workout as you do as many reps as possible. You won’t find a better way to get after it and push yourself on a Wednesday.
Thanks to Hoover and Flipper for not only the opportunity to lead, but also the plentiful gear they contributed.
Announcements:
A51 Christmas party Dec 1 – @ Seaboard with Brown Bag catering
Keep Hannibal’s family in your prayers, his father recently passed away
Convergence at Cerberus on 11/23 for a Tuck led beatdown
A lucky (or unlucky) 13 posted in the gloom at Covenant Day School for this week’s episode of SkunkWorks. A quick observation by Tweetsie that YHC wasn’t waiting in the parking lot with a kettlebell lead some to speculate on the many dangers that may await. YHC proved to be a brief master of suspense when I led everyone across the parking lot to let the madness ensue. A quick disclaimer for the veteran pax and then we were off.
The Thang:
Warm-up:
SSH x 50, Two-handed swing x 30
IW x 20, Two-handed swing x 30
Plank up – mt climbers x 20, Peter Parkers x 10, and Parker Peters x 10, Two-handed swing x 30
Circuit 1:
Goblet Squat, Merkin, Sumo Deadlift, Two-handed Swing
x 20, x 15, x 10, x 5
Circuit 2: (single sided)
Snatch, Reverse lunge, Lawnmower (reverse grip), cleans
x 10 each side, x7 each side, x 5 each side, x 3 each side
Circuit 3:
Curls, Upright row, Overhead Extension, double OH press
X 20, x15, x 10, x 5
Burnout:
40 Two-handed swings, 10 OH presses and 10 Tricep Extensions
30 Two-handed swings, 10 squats and 10 good mornings
20 Two-handed swings, 10 curls and 10 up-right rows
10 Two-handed swings
Moleskine:
If you’ve ever been to a Meathead or Diamondhead (Metro) workout that I’ve Q’d, you’ll recognize the format. Lots of reps designed to burn out the muscles. The only good news is that the rep counts are descending. If the pax did all of their reps then they would have finished 240 swings, 60 curls, 60 up-right rows, 60 squats, 60 deadlifts, 60 OH presses, and 60 tricep extensions. Plus 50 merkins, 50 snatches, 50 lawnmowers, 50 lunges … well you get the point.
As for the pax it was a solid effort. Mumble chatter died off after the first 10 minutes of the workout and YHC had tunes going the whole time. This was a 0.0 workout which is a change-up from the Skunkworks that I remember but some pax felt it necessary to squeeze in a pre-run this morning, so they got to count some mileage at least.
Smokey left at exactly 0615. He didn’t even stick around for COT. Maybe he was hoping not to get credit for the beatdown or he had somewhere more important to be …
Stone Cold said he won’t be washing his hair today after that workout. YHC is betting that’s a regular excuse.
Solid effort this morning by the pax. Thanks to Tulip and Funky Cold for the chance to lead.
Announcements:
Thanks to Chin Music for the take-out.
19 sweet potatoes got mashed Bagpipe.
From Vine American Kitchen we strode to Conlan’s Circle for a standard warm-up – jacks, walkers, ‘mericans, mountain climbers and low-slow squats.
Constigan Park Starfish
Partner up. (Odd numbers, but we’ve got enough injured guys we worked it out.)
Strength exercises on the outer corners, return to center for cardio exercise. Exit the same lane you came in and rotate clockwise to next corner. Repeat until you hit all four corners. After the fourth corner, return to center and continue doing the cardio exercise until the six is in. (Don’t stand around.)
R1 – Partner slap ‘mericans & mountain climbers
R2 – Patty cake sit up & hip slappers
R3 – plank & jump/step-overs & step-ups
R4 – rotating side plank & Freddy Mercury
Partner Wars
Boxing drill
Square up. Each pax tries to tap his opponents shoulder and knees. 1 minute
Plank War
From plank, each pax tries to tap the top of his opponent’s hands while not being tagged.
10 burpees
Little baby jog back to base
‘Merican / LBC descending ladder
10 ‘mericans, 10 LBC
9 ‘mericans, 9 LBC
all the way down to 1 ‘merican & 1 LBC
10 burpees
Donzo.
Turkey ‘skin.
Great to see so many vets and new pax. For those of you heading into your first winter – keep posting. It’s never that cold for long. Buy a pair of running tights, a few long sleeve shirts and decent gloves. You’ll be fine. Winter is when we tend to eat too much and stay indoors too long.
Wild Turkey’s Recipe Sweet Potato Cranberry Pecan Casserole Recipe. Make this on Thursday and wow the in-laws.
Ingredients
4 – 5 sweet potatoes
1 can of cranberry sauce
bag of pecans
.5 cup brown sugar
5 oz condensed milk
half stick of butter
pinch of salt
Directions
Peel and karate chop the sweeties into the size of gravel. Dump into slow cooker.
Mix the condensed milk, salt and brown sugar. Pour over the potatoes.
Open the cranberry and smear over the top of the potatoes.
Top with pecans.
Chop butter and intersperse amongst the nuts.
Set the cooker to low cook for 5 – 6 hours.
If you’re sassy top with cinnamon and/or nutmeg. Enjoy!
8 men made it to South Charlotte Middle School for this week’s edition of Base Camp. YHC was on Q and promised a low(ish) mileage beatdown. YHC kept it simple but effective. So after a brief disclaimer and setting up some tunes, here’s how it went.
Tha Thang:
Run around the parking lot, Circle up x25: SSH, IW, Merkins,
Hold plank for a 10 count, then High knees (in place) x 25, butt kickers (in place) x 25
Mt. Climbers, Peter Parkers and one more loop around the parking lot
5 SLOW burpees (pause at each place in the movement and make the movements slow)
Partner up find someone you know well:
P1 runs the loop, P2 does the exercise
— or —
P1 holds plank, P2 does exercise x 20
Exercises:
Reverse Lunges
High knees
Carolina Dry Docks
Squats
Shoulder Taps
Merkins
LBCs
SLOW Flutter Kicks
Butt Kickers
SLOW Burpees
Mt. Climbers
Freddie Mercury
Reverse Lunges
High knees
Carolina Dry Docks
Squats
Shoulder Taps
Merkins
Outsourced Mary and a plank for the last 20 seconds
Naked Moleskine:
YHC wanted to hit the football field for this workout but with all the rain we had last week, it was probably a muddy mess. So YHC opted for the parking lot. 7 of us started in the lot and Floor-Slapper dropped in during our warmup. Both he and Sardine proceeded to ask when the warmup would be over and the workout would begin. This was while they were catching their breath from the “warmup”.
YHC offered a little choice for the pax, since I was told this was a moderate workout. The optional plank was thrown in for anyone on injury who didn’t need to run as much. There might have been a pax who took the option but most preferred to run.
Welcome to FNG Bunny Ranch (Goonie was stuck on it). Hope to see him in the gloom again soon.
Announcements:
Christmas Party – Next Friday
Joe Davis Run – March
Metro – Turkey Drive: $20 or donate a turkey to CMR
Thanks to Insomniac for the take-out.
5 pax joined me for my first Ignition Q which turned out to be pretty good except for one casualty. Knowing that only the elite choose Ignition, I was a bit intimidated to lead the Pax but the Q juice helped me through it and the fact that Bottle Cap finally slowed down. To quote the Ignition man himself, Hollywood, “We are so badass we don’t need a back blast” – well here you go anyway.
Warmup:
Pretty long Mosey around the school – Circle up
Lets Mosey:
The Thang:
Head out towards the stop light at the top of Money Ball hill. Hooked a right up the grassy/half dirt/filled with ruts and rocks hill. Slowed for all pax and lit the way with my trusty headlamp. Money Ball’s body language led me to believe he was not happy with the detour up the hill but once he saw the light he was good to go.
We crossed Cuthberson Rd and headed down the dark Waynewood Dr.
Every other house:
My directions were cloudy, Bottle Cap wanted extra credit and did both exercises at the first house. Nope, one at each house…alternate. I wanted to clock miles. Once he was clear on the directions we were off to the races! BC led the way all morning.
All pax pushed and at the intersection we caught BC. – Turn around and mosey back to the first house.
Every other house – All the way to the end of Waynewood Dr.
Triple Nickel:
On the third round, someone said is this it, oh yeah we are done. BC, “I thought we were doing a nickel”… sorry, 2 more guys!! Thanks, BC, a real pal. Finished the nickel
During the TN, Chunder injured his knee but being the young man that he is thought it would be wise to run it off. Here he comes up the hill half skipping…we all told him almost in unison to stop and Marry or head back. He took our advice and did some Marry and Merkins as he walked in an attempt to keep up…the dude is a worker!
We started Paula Abduls to stick with Chunder. We continued the 5 burpee/40 jabs back and forth, light pole to light pole. Finally, MB made a great observation, “Hey Chunder, we are about 2 miles away, you might want to just head straight back”. He did. We continued to the stop light at Cuthberson Rd.
I was gassed and asked BC to call the next exercise. SUPERMANS! Following along like good Pax, we all were face down flailing around IC. Chunder limped in and we moseyed to the last intersection where we would make a left and arrive at the stop light.
With Chunder gaining on us, Halfback called flutters, for no one was going to do the superman’s again until a few potholes were found. Let’s just say, the road is rough and grinding on the pavement with thin shorts is like polishing a peach with 20 grit sandpaper.
Chunder now ahead of us, we approached the light. Safely crossing the street we headed slowly back down the eroded mess of a hill. Now named “Sprained Ankle”
At this point, I reminded Chunder that he had 4 minutes to get back… The energetic pax started running and his injured leg looked as if he had it strapped to a board. It flew out to the side with each step, it was kinda funny.
As we approached we heard the cry of Posses theme music. Ignition doesn’t Marry (much), MB – “suicides” We got in two and rolled up the COT.
The pax pushed very hard today, nice work! We cut up a bit but killed it all morning. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to lead you guys. We clocked 5.65 miles, nice work!
Announcements:
To come in Posses BB – HA
15 pax joined me for “modified” workout this morning at commitment. I wanted to limit running as we welcomed back Dancing Bear, who is coming off a calf injury, and was accompanied by his 8yr old 2.0 Gummy Bear. I have participated in a lot of yoga and thought it would be much easier to keep the workout moving for an hour but it was super hard. Moving forward count on the normal Deadwood Q, stretch on your own time!
Warmup:
The disclaimer was given…I think twice.
Slow Mosey to elementary school – Circle up (Little did they know we would be here nearly the entire time)
The Thang:
15 min Deadwood version of a Vinyasa Flow: All the typical Downwards dog, plank, right arm high, warrior 1 & 2, left arm high…. etc etc
The first 15 mins all the pax were ready to revolt and leave the AO. Recalculate (R) was concerned of the low heart rate his crapple was registering. I had to reel this in and fast, a Q jacking was about to take place. (Audible)
Mosey playground and partner up. Half the group runs a lap around the parking lot. The other half start pull-ups.
As I was running the first lap I thought…You know what, I’m going to finish this yoga regardless of massive mumble chatter. I have something that will silence that.
After both groups finished one round we moseyed back to the upper lot to continue the yoga.
The chatting and comments continued momentarily…until “5 burpees OYO” then right back into high plank once completed. The Deadwood version of yoga continued. The poses were held much longer and the “5 burpee OYO” called more often. Quickly the talking ended and the fear of mutiny went away momentarily.
The massive amounts of blood to my brain caused me to forget that this was Saturday this workout was an hr long. With about 15 mins to go, we started a slow mosey back to COT. Doughboy said are we stopping early? Huh?? NO!!… He suggested Lt. Dans and I agreed.
Circle up around cul-de-sac for Lt Dan. 1 squat/4 back lunges progress up. – Yeah no fun
Mosey back for COT
Great work by all Pax today, thanks for sticking it out and allowing me to lead you guys! You will never admit it, but you are sore today! A big shout out to our 8yr old 2.0, Gummy Bear! I think he holds the WUC record as the youngest Pax.
Announcements:
Please continue to gather soap/shampoo for the Shampoo Crew – See Dancing Bear for Details
Briarcrest 5K for swim team fundraiser – More details to come
Spartan Race – Asheville July 27th – 2019
Somehow I posted this backblast late, I would call it laziness except I posted one for someone else and for my Q at Conviction which happened a day later. I guess Willie Wonka’s words hold true, “You have to go forward to go backwards.” #Wisdom
Anyway here is The Thang:
The Thrive Challenge is always a different F3 workout, no cadence, no COP, no Mary.
This is you vs you to set a baseline (If your first time) to compare back to at a future challenge or hopefully crush your last challenge if not your first.
It goes like this…
Perform exercise 1 using whatever time you need to still have the best form you can muster. Once complete you will run, walk or crawl a predefined lap around the perimeter of the parking lot which is about 1/3 of a mile.
Get back and complete exercise 2, do lap, etc.
Get through as much as you can until time is called. If you cheat or cut corners you are only hurting yourself and your baseline. I don’t care if it takes the whole time to get through one or two things, that will be the baseline you will work towards crushing the next time. For example, bend those elbows on a merkin, at the same time do the full rep, don’t race and “bounce” the merkins, etc.
Here is the list:
Mountain Climbers – 100 (count each leg as one, i.e. civilian count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. if you have posted you understand how for some this is the challenge. #SMH)
Lap
Calf Raises – 150 (50 regular, 50 toes pointed in, 50 toes pointed out)
Lap
Merkins – 100 (25 wide, 25 regular, 25 narrow (elbows close, also called “perfect Merkin”), 25 diamond)
Lap
Burpees – 50
Lap
Carolina Dry Docks – 100
Lap
LBCs – 100
Lap
Jump Squats – 100
Lap
Dollies – 200
Lap
Squats – 100
Lap
Rock Hoppers – 100
Lap
Russian Twists (American Hammer) – 100
Lap
Burpees – 100
Lap
Burpees – 200
Apparently too many of the PAX were scared off by #Cantore because there were only 4 of us there, the rest can turn in their man card to the main office.
Results (current in bold, your prior results in italics):
Bonhoeffer – 3/4 lap after dollies – 129 Dollies
Shepherd – 21 Squats – 20 Dollies
Gypsy – 41 American Hammers – 82 Squats
Hair Band – lap after dollies – 3/4 lap after LBCs
Moleskine:
My timing is getting better and of course there is less info to convey with only 3 other PAX who have done this before. I try to get the info out before hand but allow 2 minutes in case there is someone new. There wasn’t today but I want to stay consistent.
As I have said before if you do not beat your last results there can be valid reasons, lack of sleep, not hydrated well, but more importantly as you get stronger you will be able to have better form in many of these things and that could take a little longer.
There is nothing wrong with being a little slower while having better form. Fortunately we all beat our last results and I know Gypsy has that set of 100 burpees in his sights!
While there is not much actual leading at this type of beatdown it is still awesome to see everyone pushing themselves and an honor to be a part of a group of men to always try to excel, AYE!
Hair Band
The Site-Qs failed to pay the power bill, so 15 men gathered in the darkness of the CCHS parking lot in anticipation of this morning’s Centurion. As we launched, we made the U-turn for a late-arriving pax and, now 16 strong, we gathered in the same dark parking lot for COP. Our theme for today was Centurion Century.
COP – 100 Reps (IC)
Then we took off up Little to McMahon and rock pile. Find a lifting rock.
100 Reps (Civilian Count)
Run up McMahon, turn left into an office driveway, run around the traffic circle and then get back to our rocks. Repeat the same set above and return our rocks.
Mosey up to 51 and then into the main entrance to the picnic tables. Find some bench or wall.
100 Reps (Civilian Count)
Run around to the building entrance, up the ramp, lunge walk to the steps, then get back to your bench or wall. Repeat the same set above.
Mosey to Tartarus and find a partner. Partner A runs the back side short ramps to the top and then down the middle staircase. Partner B does burpees. Flapjack until you reach 100 burpees with your partner. Repeat with 100 jump squats.
Mosey back to base for some token flutter kicks to run out the clock. COT.
____
Crisp but beautiful morning after rain of Noah proportions all week. The Centurion pax were eager to do work, save Marconi who came in late and overshot the side school entrance before landing safely. Think he just likes using the backup camera on his Tacoma.
As Mermaid exited his vehicle, he noted that he had just seen a shooting star, as vividly as he had ever seen. Pretty sure he wished for burpees, which happened. Now I’m a believer.
As I noted, the pax were eager to work. So it was unusually quiet, as there was a high degree of intensity. It was refreshing, as I’m used to chatter-filled, refusenik-laced workouts with Gummy.
I’d like to thank my partner Spanx. He volunteered to burpee first, which meant I ran twice while he knocked out 65 of our 100 burpees.
Love it when the weather turns cold…Margo grows his beard really long and Hops breaks out the camo pants.
Next week, Centurion with converge at Cerebus for Black Friday, 0630. After that, on 11/30, Mailman has volunteered for his VQ…way to step up and lead my brother.
____
Turkey Drive for Metro – Mermaid will comment with link.
A51 Winter Gear – High Tide will spam this and every other BB, Twitter posts, and Slack channel with details.
YHC looked and looked and looked for a Q to fill in for this week’s Hydra. No dice. Terrible forecast and a concert on Wednesday night (got home at 11:30 pm) meant that the last thing I wanted to do on Thursday is wake up at 5 am to go run in a 38-degree rainstorm. I was 95% sure that when I showed up it would be just me and Queen. I was just going to tell him to go home and go to bed. I was wrong.
7 knuckleheads showed up to join me on this glorious morning. I am thankful. I totally would’ve packed it up and gone home.
Quick warmup under the canopy by the entrance of school
Mosey to Rea Road and take a left. Immediately hit a puddle that had to be several inches deep. Well at least I’m soaked now. No need to worry about staying dry anymore.
Left on Windyrush then Right on Foxworth. Head to the center of the halfpipe. Partner up. 10 partner hand slap merkins then one partner heads up to the top of one side while the other partner goes to the other side for 10 Carolina Wet Docks (yes, Spackler, it’s Docks not Dogs… I checked the website https://f3nation.com/exercises/). 3 rounds of this nonsense in the pouring down rain.
Desperately in need of some shelter, we high-tailed it to the church. Grab and lifting rock and find your partner. One partner lifts under the awning/shelter/whatever while the other partner runs to the missing Goodwill bin and back. I thought all 8 of us may be able to lift under the shelter but decided it wasn’t worth scaring off the churchgoers that are always there at 5:30 am. 8 soaking wet dudes with rocks right outside the door??? Not good. Curls, overhead press and tricep extension.
Run to the parking lot right across from church where there is also a decent shelter. Grab some wall. 50 civilian arm raises while wall sitting. Did this 3 times.
Since we were nice and dry there, we did Mary there. 6 pax called/led Mary until time was called.
Done.
Thanks to the pax for bearing with me on this one. With the uncertainty with the Q, weather and that late night concert the night before, I pretty much made this one up on the fly. I think it turned out ok though. Of course Spackler, Gummy and Semi-Gloss didn’t show up. Spackler confirmed that OTF was nice, warm, cozy and just a tad bit moist.
Again, thanks for coming out. I totally would’ve bailed.
Hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving next week. I’m very Thankful for F3 and the guys of Hydra. I’m coming up on my 4 year anniversary which is hard to believe because I feel like I was reluctant to come join for so long (my FIA wife and Hairball finally convinced me to give it a try). Can’t imagine not being a part of the group now. Thanks guys!