On a humid Saturday, as a start to Memorial Day weekend, 37 (some argued 38) pax converged on Calvary Church’s parking lot to start their weekend off right. With shovel flags planted and the pax chatting, a brief disclaimer was given with a few words on the importance of the weekend and how the workout would run today. Then we were off.
Tha Thang: Nemo, Geraldo, and YHC split the Q with Nemo on COP. After a quick warm-up with our favorite openers, he brought it with a session of up-downs (call them burpee warm-ups) in the parking lot. After one was completed for each pax in attendance, Nemo then quickly departed for his senior trip. Geraldo took the reins and gave us a Go Ruck inspired WOD with lots of laps in the parking lot. A quick trip to the hot box for a water break followed and about 150 air presses while in the people’s chair. YHC was tagged in and we moseyed to the rock pile by the entrance. Partner up, grab a rock (you can be proud of), and P1 runs while P2 does called exercise then flap-jack. Simple but effective. At the appointed 0750, pax returned their rocks and moved to the grassy field in front of the church for 10 minutes of burpees in silence.
Moleskine: First, #cobains for not posting this sooner. A busy weekend for YHC coupled with a work trip on Tuesday morning.
The US Memorial Day was not an official federal holiday until 1971, but it has been honored in some way since 1868. This is the celebration of the lives that were sacrificed to preserve the American way of life and to bring freedom to the oppressed. Somewhere between 2012 and 2018 the first F3 Area 51 Memorial Day weekend convergence was held, historians believe. at the workout formerly known as the Rock.
As the country kicks off the summer season, a moment of pause is called for to remember the lives that were sacrificed so we could enjoy our freedoms today. With the appropriate degree of ceremony, 3 citations of fallen US soldiers were read by the site-Qs during the workout. At the end of the workout, each pax worked in silence for 10:00 minutes. The goal was to complete 100 burpees.
In another life, the service men we honored were someone’s neighbor. Sometimes it strikes me that, if we were alive 75 years ago, some of us would have been drafted or even volunteered to go overseas. How different would our workouts look then? F3, as we know it today, would be vastly different. These men were sons, fathers, cousins, or friends to someone. They all had different jobs, backgrounds, varying degrees of education, families, bills, by all accounts the men we honored were as different as the pax standing next to you in the gloom. Ordinary Americans at home. But because of their courageous actions and by giving their lives, these men became extraordinary, true #HIM.
Thanks to the pax for coming out and letting the Rock Zero site-Qs lead. As always, it’s an honor. Thanks to Flipper for taking us out.
Announcements:
Beer Mile – 06/07 (not an F3 sanctioned event)
Other stuff, check slack.
After giving thanks that I wasn’t running with the Fast Twitcher’s, I pulled into the Hawks Nest AO and the pax were already mustering. Told One Eye he missed the aforementioned runners, to which he replied that it was entirely by design.
We need rain for several reasons, not the least of which is the SF is becoming difficult to plant (and it’s only 1 of 5 still in captivity in Area51). YHC planted it nonetheless, and after a disclaimer that mentioned something about all the veterans reading the website, we were off like a Semi-Gloss t-shirt when the temps are above 63 degrees.
Run up to the lacrosse fields for COP consisting of slow squats, H-R merkins, flutters and IW’s. The birthday boy (39 today – scared to death of 40, aren’t you?) was giving YHC grief about my cadence and form instruction during cadence. As if on queue – Puddin’ expectorated some Puddin’ Gloss during COP but spared getting any on the pax.
Then we headed over to the gym for a circuit of double squat jump-up’s, H-R Merkins and one-legged squats. The first part was an attempt at some deconstructed box jump burpee’s…not sure that’s what took place. Spackler seemed to stay down after the hand-release part of the H-R merkins. Mr. Magoo and Thunder were seemingly hugging the statue on which we were jumping…..easy fellas – the kids are still in school and it’s not as dark at 5:45am right now.
Hope that set was painful, it was for me. Anyhoo, then we ran down and around the track over to the bridge for some rock work – overhead press, thrusters with some Walthar N’Djaiye included. His brother would be along shortly.
With the sun up early now, we ran the path from the soccer field past the softball field and back around to the lacrosse field.
Circle up for some Mary consisting of LBC’s (with some form reminders), Freddy Mercury, Dolly, Makhtar N’Djaiye (someone thanked YHC for calling them on the turf rather than the asphalt – you’re welcome). And much to the surprise of the pax, and YHC – 15 SSH’s were called. WTH? Yep, a weak moment and hopefully not repeated again. Hannibal was asking for them during COP.
We did a few 80 yard gassers, and finished with 5 burpees in the launch lot. Even Runstopper joined YHC on the burpees. Frankly, he might have been the only other one who did burpees. #refuseniksunite
Sprockets and One Eye mercifully didn’t Larry Bird the Q today; but Sprockets did remind YHC of the scheduled Q this Thursday at Hydra. No SSH’s. Little known fact: Tulsa (from where Sprockets sprung) is the jump rope capital of the world.
Some other sundry observations:
Always enjoy Q’ing. It is a privilege. Hope it was sufficiently painful for those wanting a downpainment. Happy Birthday, Spackler. Sprockets on Q next week. Beware the Bonnie Blair’s!
Go encourage someone. I know I need it often, and I’m thankful for you jokers.
I wanted to to create a beatdown for the last Q at this site (Besides Asylum) as well as my 1 year with F3- By the end of the work out I think some of the Pax created a forth F directed towards me.
Knowing that I had to do something big I wanted to incorporate rocks into the workout but Damascus was nice enough to let me borrow his Sandbags. Thanks Damascus it truly helped.
DCCS given
Warmup:
Partner Up
Hot lap around the parking lot to the Sandbags
*Each pair of Partners got one sandbags
Let’s Mosey
Mosey a lap around Petsmart and to the target parking lot
25 SSH’s
15 Imperial Walkers
10 Potato Pickers
Stretch out to each leg for 10 sec
The Thang:
Serpentine in Target parking lot
With the Sandbags Start with 10 Merkins at the First Island then mosey to the next for 15 Speed Skaters at every island for the entire parking lot
Next mosey over to Hickory Tavern
P1 Mosey a lap (With Sandbag) around Hickory Tavern
P2 50 Derkins
100 Step Ups
150 Dips
These got modified a lot as I figured out I would not have enough time for the Final workout that I was killing to do. So we moseyed back over to the car to drop off the sandbags
The final workout was 100 Burpees as that is the same way I ended My first ever F3 workout 1 year ago. About 15 Burpees into my 100, one of the Pax began to ask how many pounds I had lost since joining F3 I responded with 35. They said that we should only do 35. NO that’s not enough I though. But with time coming to an end I compromised by subtracting 35 from 100 and only made everyone do 65 Burpees
COT
Moleskin:
20 Pax joined me today for what I thought was a solid workout as everyone was drenched by the end of the workout. Everyone put forth effort there was a little bit of complaining but I will take care of that on Thursday.
1 New FNG
Swimmers brought out his 2.0. Thoughts were given to the idea of a play on Swimmers name however his son is not into swimming. He is into running and was given the name Gump as in Forest Gump. It sounds like Swimmers 2.0 may still be to young to watch the movie he is named after 🙂
Announcements:
And that’s a wrap for my takeover of Swift for the month of May. Thanks to @bratwurst for allowing me to fill in – Big shoes to fill there, but hopefully everyone enjoyed training at 5k paced effort over the past month. Although “enjoyed” may not be the right word, but I don’t think anyone comes out at 5:15 to take a leisurely stroll around Ballantyne. Plus, as @jello stated after the workout – it wasn’t easy, but it made me faster. And That’s what I like to hear!
The Plan for May: Longer distance and time based intervals to build up endurance base leading up to longer races/relays later this summer – including an optional 5k on Saturday June 1.
May Workout Plan (and backblasts below):
5k Race – On Saturday, June 1, we will test our fitness at King Tiger 5k –
http://runforyourlife.com/king-tiger-5k/ . We will use this month’s workouts to focus on getting prepped for the 5k – with most workouts targeting 5k pace. Plus, they offer free Ice Cream at the finish! April’s 1600 was a big success, great seeing guys push it through the 1600 and 4×400 relay.
Recap of May 7: Great job today by around 25 pax – Big workout with 4x 5 mins and 1x 0.40 mile sprint at the end (ran out of time on the last one!), close to 23 minutes at near 5k pace. Guys were pushing it hard from the front to the 6. Course was a mile loop starting up Haney (uphill), right on Ball. Corp., right on Ball Commons (nice downhill), finishing on Rushmore straighaway. May have heard some grumbling (not mentioning any names Tiger Rag) that we were running it in reverse – but this was intentional to give you that downhill finish.
Recap of May 14: 30 pax hit 3x 1 mile intervals on Ballantyne Corp aka roller coaster hills. Finished off by 1-2 400s. Paces were very strong, great groups were formed and guys pushing each other on some difficult 1 mile stretches. Perfect weather today too. My legs are already feeling this one…
Recap of May 21: 20+ Pax for time based intervals up and down Rushmore Drive – creating a fun game of cat and mouse chase as we turned around 180 at the halfway mark — and sprinted to try to reach the starting line before time elapsed, while trying not to get passed. 4, 6, 8, 2 min repeats with half recovery – 5k pace goal which was a lofty target especially including summer weather, but no guts/no glory.
Recap of May 28: With coming off Memorial Day weekend – I was pretty happy with our numbers, around 20 Pax decided to push through 800 meter repeats with some extra burgers/pizza/beer fuel in the stomach from the long weekend. We took to the Brixham Green for some NASCAR style 800s around the parking lot at 5k pace. Most Pax got 6-7 in. We circle up for 1x last 800 at 6:05, laid down some rubber, and headed back for the Vine.
The difference in weather for May was pretty amazing – the 1st 2 weeks were nice and cool, and the last 2x weeks have been hot and humid — looks like summer is here. Just remember – these workouts in the summer will make the cooler fall temps feel like you’ve been on steroids!
5k pace calculator: Check out a 5k calculator on McMillan running – use this calcuator to help target a 5k goal — and use the next 3 weekouts to target your 5k pace – https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/
Until next time…
At the end of March I had the really stupid idea to challenge the gang to complete The Murph. 80% of the workout seemed manageable but that 20% that consisted of 100 x pull-ups would nearly impossible to complete. Who could I turn to? Only someone that’s been there through other difficult challenging projects (around the house).
You guessed it – PINTEREST!!! A site dedicated to updating a wardrobe, eating like a gerbil and other great/absurd things. I stand by it as one of the greatest apps of all time and over beers I would be happy to show you all the projects I’ve robbed ideas from. But back to those damn pull-ups….
A quick search for “pull-up challenge” and BINGO! Most of them were 30 day challenges but we would have roughly 50ish days cram for this exam. After some procrastination an exclusive channel was created in group me “42 Days to Murph” and two documents I found on Pinterest were combined.
21 members in the GroupMe Channel and I probably posted a daily reminder 90% of the time to keep everyone motivated. I’m pretty sure it worked because 20 guys posted this AM!! Bottlecap snagged 2 FNGs for this thing too…..
THE THANG:
We met at the Kensington Elementary School’s playground with a clock I couldn’t get to work, a cooler of Busch Light and an assortment of chalk…
Wolverine and Deadwood got to the site early to walk the course and to look for places to draft with the idea that reducing wind resistance would allow them to see Hollywood in the distance.
At this point I think everyone is familiar with The Murph but one last time won’t kill anyone to hear. On your own and for time: 1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups, 300 squats and finish with a 1 mile run.
DiCCS given. No man left behind reminder and that we would do as much together as possible while circling back to finish as a unit. Whoops.
THE RESULTS:
1. Hollywood 27:00 **
2. Wolverine 29:00 **
3. Halfback 33:00 **
4. Swimmers 33:00
5. Bottlecap 34:00
6. Deadwood 34:00 **
7. Rubbermaid 35:00
8. Moneyball 37:00
9. Foundation 38:00
10. Damascus 38:00 **
11. Dana 39:00
12. Banjo 40:00
13. Spaceballs (FNG) 42:00
14. Jingles 42:00
15. Snoopy (FNG) 43:00
16. The Knish 43:00
17. Chicken Little 43:00
18. Zinfandel 44:41 **
19. Rudy 47:00
20. Eli 49:20 **
(**Zero Assisted Pull-Ups whether by man or band) If I missed anyone holla at me. I wasn’t paying attention but asked around.
MOLESKIN:
Whoa! Well done everyone, today was a gauntlet and we each fought our own battles. Mentally and physically. Shout out to Hollywood and Wolverine for being sub 30 minutes insane. 1000% chance you all wear vests next year.
Speaking of vests, my two closest bros prepping for all of this via the Pull-Up Challenge – Damascus and Deadwood! Thanks for helping to keep the energy up on the channel and pushing each day. We were unsure if we could get to the point of wearing the vests for the actual Murph but you all were impressive over the weeks rocking vests to post. Last night at 9pm I pinged them and I told them I’m taking my vest out of the package (finally) to wear while running the 2 miles. DW got sunburned and wasn’t excited and Damascus was ok with it. We rocked those miles this morning with 20lbs each (minus DW on 2nd mile, I’m sure he’s beating himself up about it).
Bands, bands and bands. If I never see another band in my life it will never be too soon. I’m taking an easy shot at you guys because I can and it’s what I’m good at. I know most of you guys and know you all have it in you to push (pull?) harder. All jokes aside, way to push through but now is the time when I tell you that we won’t be allowing bands in 2020. Partner assist yes but no bands. You’ve been warned.
This morning was incredible feat to complete whether you have been training for the last 6 weeks or just in great shape and able to knock it out. Let’s continue to think of other events/challenges to throw out there to make each other better. I couldn’t do a single overhand push-up without looking like a fish out of water. Proud to say that I can knock out 7 classy pull-ups like I’m putting on a clinic. I know that others have seen the same type of progress like Gerber and Chicken Little. It’s uncomfortable, some self doubt periodically and a ton of anxiety leading up to this AM but I couldn’t be prouder of what we each accomplished. Let’s keep it going!
Thank you Wolverine for laying out cones for the run this AM and thanks to Deadwood for the assortment of chalks. Sidewalk chalk for tracking rounds and hand chalk to help with grip on the bars. The help was appreciated!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
We are 365 days away from The Murph in 2020. Next year many more pull-up prep via longer term challenges and a lot more vests.
July 27th Spartan Race in Asheville. Deadwood and I are hard commits. Banjo is dipping a toe in. We plan to go a weekend out of it with the Ms. Go up Friday, a well rounded dinner of sorts, Saturday morning race and then brewery hoping the rest of the day.
Ive talked of a GoRuck challenge in the fall and a quick google searched revealed a 50-miler in Nashville, TN on November 1st! Stay tuned….
So have you heard the one about 2 Cooters at The Fishing Hole? Well, here it is. Though most may believe The Fishing Hole maybe secret but at least 4 knew about this spot in which all leave as better men.
COP:
15x Side Straddle Hop, 15X Imperial Walker, 15X Hillbillies, 15X Mountain Climbers, 15X Peter Parkers, 15X Parker Peters.
THE THANG:
Grab cinder blocks out of the back of the truck. Luggage carry to bottom of the parking deck. Round 1 of 5: with cinder blocks 20x Shoulder Press, 20x Curls, 20x Tri-cep Curls, 20x Squats. Run up steps to the top level across the deck to the stairwell on the other side, run down steps and back to the starting point. Do that 4 more times to total 2 miles. Earned the ultimate compliment that every Q seeks; according to Frehley’s Comet, I suck. Kirby reminded me that he needs some core work so 15x LBC, 15x American Hammer, 15x X&O. Carry cinder block overhead to concrete benches; 20x Stepups, 20x Dips, 20x Derkins, 20x Inclines. Luggage Carry cinder blocks back to COT.
Kirby it was great to see you after your recovery hiatus. Frehley as always pushed it hard and made me work harder.
So back to 2 Cooters at The Fishing Hole. Somehow same way two of us were anointed with the same prestigious F3 name. Since I had it first or maybe its because I’m a lot older I’m Old Cooter. So Young Cooter is under medical recovery and it would be really easy just to fart sack but no he doesn’t do that. He shows up when its exercises he can do he does it, when he can’t he modifies. When Q says fast mosey he does slow mosey but he stays the course. Now that’s real inspiration there.
So in South Charlotte a few guys have started a roving AO called MASH. If the PAX is recouping from injury they show up at a fixed AO site and do their own modified workout trying to follow as close as possible the called exercises by the Q. If your leading exercises and MASH shows at your AO you don’t need to change your whole routine but maybe modify so you can loop back to these guys so they feel included. Provide encouragement to them. Its hard when you have had an injury and the easiest thing to do would be fart sack but these guys push ahead and that should inspire the rest of us to work even harder! Thanks Young Cooter, a true HIM!
7 gathered to discuss a few relevant topics from the initial board meeting.
REGION NAME:
IT (Information Technology):
FUNCTIONAL Q UPDATES:
The Board is excited for the next steps for our Region. As you can see, there are a lot of things to think about (who knew?). F3’s mission is about “invigorating male community leadership” and this Region does a great job of sharing in this leadership. If you haven’t had a chance to lead in F3, what is holding you back? Do you just need to be asked? Then consider this the ask, CAN YOU HELP US OUT? Lead a workout, lead a site, lead an event, bring an FNG, volunteer with one of the Functional Qs, etc. Just LEAD and somebody will follow. Let’s do this!
9 PAX showed at The Arsenal for a VQ. YHC rolled up to be welcomed by the AO’s usual suspects. A few PAX had clearly participated in some pre-running and were discussing the contours of the paths. Some more PAX showed up and another came in from a pre-run, disclaimer was given and we’re off.
COP
Quick mosey to the bathrooms area where YHC was given less shit than was expected for his first COP. Shout out to Fire Hazard for the video on how to count. I would have royally screwed it up without that.
– Side Straddle Hop x 15 IC
– Imperial Walker x 15 IC
– Low Slow Squat x 15 IC
– Merkin x 15 IC
– Mountain Climber x 15 IC
The Thang
Mosey over to the playground where PAX partnered up. We had an odd number and Happy Meal joined a group of 3 with YHC and Fire Hazard. Partner 1 takes a lap around the ground while partner 2 worked on a collective
– Pull Ups x 50
– Diamond Merkins x 100
– Box Jumps x 150
Flapjack until collection complete.
Next stop, the football field. This was the part I was looking forward to. YHC identified a post that marked somewhere near the 25-yard line.
– PAX bear crawled to the post, ran the rest of the length of the field to the uprights and back, and crawl bear back to the start.
– A second round of the same, but with duck walks to really stress out that lower half.
– The final round PAX were given the choice of bear crawling or duck walking. There was about a 50/50 split of choice which was good to see.
At this point we were running short on time and couldn’t do the other 3 or 4 routines I had planned, so we headed back to the start for 7 Minutes of Mary, because 6 just wouldn’t be enough.
COT & Announcements
– Convergences
– More Q’s needed
Thanks to Fire Hazard for taking us out.
Moleskine
– I really enjoyed my VQ. After the anticipation during the week leading up to it, it all seemed to feel natural. I am sure there are some things I could improve upon, for example I wasn’t
prepared for what to do with the fast groups that finished the first bit. Happy Meal put on some Mary which covered me, and there wasn’t too big of a gap anyway.
– The duck walks on the football field were a fallback for bear crawls x 3. I’m glad I had that prepared because 25 yards of bear crawl + 25 yards of crawl bears is abusive.
– I wasn’t paying much attention to much mumblechatter, because I was focused on the VQ (some) and breathing (more), so if anyone has anything to add please do in the comments.
On another muggy day in South Charlotte, 5 PAX came to stretch out the kinks. Here’s how it went:
The main thing
Moleskine
So the job is straightforward for a Site Q-make sure someone is leading the workout and (in the case of the Gumby site Q) open and unlock the Scout Hut. I’ve figured out number 1, but this is the second straight time I’ve opened the door (but not unlocked) and left my keys in the scout hut with the door locked.
Thankfully the scouts are trusting, and I was able to find another way to sneak in- and it wasn’t the same way in that I had found the last time. Seriously, if you need somewhere at 2am to learn how to tie a Prusik Hitch (thanks Google), there will probably be a way to get into the scout hut.
Beaver was out here showing us how flexible he is. He looked like some type of circus acrobat the way he was touching his toes.
Madison in particular was feeling the not attending Gumby- mentioning how much flexibility he’s lost. Granted, he also just swam five miles, biked 56 and ran 42 for his triathlon he just completed (distances estimated). Kudos good sir!
Great to see Grave Dancer- the pain I saw in his face reflected the my own creaking joints, which was a comfort. But, when you are prerunning what seemed like 10 miles, that’s bound to happen.
Don’t sleep on ya boy Lois he’s showed up for the pre run, and posted a time showing he’s ready for the 3rd annual (since we started F3) Mountain Goat Timed Mile taking place on Friday. He’s gonna blow away his previous PR, and use the extra time to get some in some ‘Crootin for competitive Depth.
Thanks for coming out- appreciate the opportunity to lead!