So Horsehead said I took the foot of the gas pedal today. “It was good, but not as hard as your other Q’s” My apologies to the 18 men of Kevlar if it was too light for you today, see Horsehead and Bulldog for your money back. Apparently it’s tough to get a good workout in without a bunch of added weight, so maybe next time the sandbags and plates will come back out like the DZ Massacre 2 weeks ago. Then again, maybe not. I like to keep it unpredictable.
The Thang:
Extra long circle of pain around the campus. Mosey with stops for Merkins, Wide Arm Merkins, Plank Jacks, Mountain Climbers, Ski Abs, and Diamond Merkins. Pretty much all planking things to get the shoulders ready.
Grab a rock by the school entrance. A crappy lightweight selection of rocks for sure. All the good rocks in the woods have been replaced by the shell of a new school. This is a travesty, I mean really, what is better contribution to society? A school to teach the children of our community or a pile of big drainage rocks we can lift once a week? Hands down its the rocks.
Take the rock to the top of the hill by the church perform called exercise, run to the church, perform another called exercise and back to the top of the hill for another exercise. We also took a trip over to the Tennis Pagoda or whatever that building is.
Things we did – Curls, overhead presses, tricep extensions, chest presses (a bunch because the rocks were light), Flutter with rock, Louganis with rock, jump squats, calf raises, lunges, peoples chair, suicides sprints along cones with merkins, dips, derkins, and maybe some other stuff.
Return rocks and finish the last minute with Dolly’s.
Moleskine:
Pretty simple weinke today. Run up and down the hill with exercises at top and bottom keeping the heart rate high the whole time. My original plan was to cadence count the whole thing to keep everyone honest, but I’ve been fighting a bit of a cold which made breathing and counting too much after 25 minutes. OYO counts were set for the 2nd half of the workout.
Also planned on making more trips to the Pagoda than just one, but some combination of Spackler, Puddin Pop, and others turned the Pagoda into one of Hitler’s Third Reich gas chambers. Immediate evacuation was required in the face of eminent death.
Rhapsody and Orange Whip were out in front all morning with a solid pace up the hills. Young blood must help, plus a lot of the veteran’s were nursing some injuries. Bulldog had knee problems, Simba’s getting over a busted paw, Spackler’s back is so bad he is already considering shutting it down for the year, Horsehead has god-awful socks, Floor Slapper is stuck with his wife’s headband, and Brown’s got a nasty case of the man-boobs.
Pop-tart gets extra credit for either carrying his rock back and forth up the hill or finding a new, larger rock somewhere on the course. Who really knows where it came from.
Thanks to Squid for the send off.
That was fun, let’s do it again next week.
Alf
So I had to skip out on my scheduled DZ Q back in December. Probably had to take my kids somewhere, or cut the grass, or rearrange the sock drawer. Who knows. But none of those excuses were as lame as Radar’s excuse of Yoga and Soccer practice.
Prohibition asked me on Monday to make up my Q this week which I was happy to oblige. The weinke called for multiples of 4 men. We had exactly 16. Sort of a good thing Radar had Yoga I guess.
Disclaimer – quite necessary this morning.
COP – No time for that.
The Thang –
Break into 4 groups of 4 men. Each group grabs one stone from the pile, one 50# sandbag from the trunk and one 45# plate for the trunk. Except for Prohibition who fished around to the bottom of the pile for the 35# plate. Way to step up. Teddy, Cheese Curd, and Turkey Leg were also the beneficiaries of Prohibition’s veteran choice.
As a team, get your sandbag, your rock, and your plate to the staircase of the Charlotte Catholic Parking deck as fast as you can. Pays to be a winner. For those doing the math at home that’s 1.5ish miles away.
Plank while receiving instructions:
At the deck, P1 & P2 take plate and do CMIYC Hariburners up to the set of cones half way and back around to the stairs at level 2. P3 does fireman’s carry with the sandbag up to the top of the stairs and back down. P4 does thrusters with a rock. P3 & P4 flapjack. When all 4 team members return do 20 Handclap Merkins. And Rotate. P3 & P4 do Hairburners to level 3 of the deck, while P1 & P2 do Fireman’s carry and thrusters. Finish with 20 Handclap Merkins.
Repeat the whole thing except come down the ramps and replace Thrusters with Louganis with a rock.
When all are done each team takes their sandbag, rock, and plate and heads back to McAlpine.
A little Plank work while we wait on the six.
Done.
Dead Cat Skin:
So unfortunately Mittens the cat didn’t make it across the street last night and lay dead on the sidewalk along 51 between Charlotte Catholic and McAlpine. As sad as this is, all would agree everything else in the workout sucked way worse.
McGee had the idea for the shortcut through the back field of the school to grab and hold the lead with his team all the way to CCHS. I think he secretly wished he took the long route to get a little more work in. Witch Dr’s 2.0, Rad, was crushing it out there too. The 14 year old was lugging a sandbag that nearly weighed as much as him and had to keep up with his partners Mermaid and Margo. Although he may or may not have taken the elevator down the parking deck on the fireman’s carry.
McGee, Flipper, Fault Line, and Dear Abby took the lead on both the out and back. Congratulations. I’ll get your prize to you next time I see you. You’ll each receive losing lottery tickets from last weeks Powerball. Just think how you’ll be able to tell your grandkids about the framed lotto ticket from the first ever $1B+ jackpot!!! Very special indeed.
Good work from my team of Hairball, Bounce and Spackler moving up and down 51. Big props to everyone for grinding through this one. As much mental as it was physical. No, no, it was physically more awful.
Chew on some ibuprofen today. Your going to need it.
Thanks to McGee for the send off.
-Alf
Announcements – none. Everyone was in too much discomfort to think of one.
Clearly the CEO never makes a mistake. So with Turkey Leg on the Q Schedule and DR it can only mean that the FT site administrative assistant screwed up. First thing yesterday morning I get a message from Haze to see if I would cover for his mistake while the boss was out. A check of the weather said high 60 temps and low chance of rain – I’m in.
Then Hairball tweets out to see how hard TL was going to make the workout, you know, for a friend. When I let him know I was at the helm, he had to come. Probably because TL was out, Brady’s still on the IR, and Fletch is now admin assistant over at Kevlar. All he had to do was hope this was Fraiser’s week to be at Swift and he had a solid shot for the top of the podium at the last FT of the year. Plus I called him a sissy if he didn’t post.
Well the weather man had it half right. Temps were still insane for December but the rain was pretty heavy at the start. We press on.
Disclaimer given to sue Haze should anything go awry. He offered his 2003 Corolla with the newly repaired tail light and 2 new tires as insurance.
Off for a Mosey down to Arbo. A few deep puddles along the way where apparently Prohibition loses and entire shoe, and maybe a sock. I don’t know.
COP with some traditional SSH and IW. Mixed it up with some added Romanian Dead Lifts to get the hammies going. Back up the hill to Rea and over to Raintree Ln.
The Raintree Lane 5K Joe Davis run prep. Run Raintree Lane from Rea to Providence and back. Right on the money 5K.
When done perform 3 sets of ab exercises x 30. You pick ’em. Then head back to circle up with the six.
Mosey over to the cleaners for a little stair work. Line up in a plank row in parking lot. Motion was made to move the plank row under the shelter. Motion DENIED. It’s 68 degrees for crying out loud! First man takes off up the stairs, across the top and down the other side, rejoining the plank on the other side. Next man does 5 merkins and follows chase. Continue cycle of planking, merikns and running for 4 trips each.
Finish with some Plank-o-rama, right side, left side, 6 inches, hand release to get the chest nice and soaked.
Head back towards Rounding Run to head home. At intersection – all you got down and back up to the top of the hill. Mosey to Rising Meadow. AYG to Woodfox. Mosey to Burning Tree, AYG to Strawberry. Head into school, one AYG lap around parking lot to finish the time and get the watch to 6+ miles.
Moleskine:
Gerber gave all he had to keep Hairball off the top of the podium for the 5K but had to pull up with a quarter mile left due to some intestinal distress. Somewhere in the bowels of the internet (yeah, pun intended) are pictures* of men who didn’t give up, who chose to keep going to the finish, and who are completely covered in their own filth when they cross the finish line. Thankfully Gerber is not one of those men. Public Service Announcement: don’t go walking barefoot behind the Raintree dry cleaner any time soon.
*See Tiger Rag or Spackler if you want these photo’s.
Good to see Iron Sides and Flutie Flakes making up ground on the PAX on the back half of the 5K. Finish strong!
On the way back to SCMS we had a nice light display. Thought it was lightning but seemed to go away quickly. Turns out to be a transformer blowing outside Pro’s house. Apparently his M likes to plug in the hair dryer, toaster and microwave all at the same time. Hope it’s fixed soon, going to need that air conditioning on in December.
Other stuff probably happened, but it was wet and dark, so I missed it.
Thanks to Haze for the send off.
Area 51 Convergence on 1/1 at Kevlar is canceled. Go to the Big F3 Convergence at AG middle school on Friday AM.
-Alf
Posted on behalf of Squid
Warm Up:
Off to the Races:
Partner 1 runs a lap on the track; Partner 2, Burpie’s then switch for 3 Rounds. In between each round Partner 1, 25 full Sit Ups, Partner 2 holds partner while in a plank position then switch.
Circle Curb Work:
Three Rounds;
20 Incline Merken’s then 20 Low Dips.
Rock and Block Time:
Three Rounds
Round One
Hold on top of your head for 20 seconds, hold straight out for 10 seconds, hold against your check for 20 seconds while in a People’s Chair position, then 20 Squats, then 20 Chest Presses.
Round Two
Hold on top of your head for 20 seconds, hold straight out for 10 seconds, hold against your check for 20 seconds while in a People’s Chair position, then 15 Squats, then 15 Chest Presses.
Round Three
Hold on top of your head for 20 seconds, hold straight out for 10 seconds, hold against your check for 20 seconds while in a People’s Chair position, then 10 Squats, then 10 Chest Presses.
Ab Time:
Merken Time:
Running Out the Clock:
Two Rounds of Sprinting from the beginning of the Black Top to the end of the Black Top
I hope everyone had a good sweat t and time. Thanks for letting me Q.
Squid
Bulldog was the first man out in the parking lot this morning. He was ready to shakedown every man as he came to the circle to follow his daughter’s elephant charity on instagram. The consensus seemed to be that everyone below the age of 30, and Freedom, had instagram. Sign up now, follow elephants4elephants and help Bulldog’s daughter save some elephants (and I think he said rhinoceros too.)
By the time that all settled in 16 men, including 3 Respects, made it to the parking lot. Circle up and do 2-handed swings OYO while we wait for Freedom and Fletch to stroll in 1 minute late. While swinging the KB, find a partner with similar sized bell.
Catch me if you can down to the cones in front of the church. P1 does 10 Merkins while P2 Farmer Carries both bells.
Once at the church, P1 runs lap around medians. P2 Farmer Carries both bells up the emergency stairs and back down. Flapjack and repeat for 3 rounds each. Flutter Presses in cadence while we wait for all to complete.
Head to the hills for sets of 11’s
Round 1: Standing push press at bottom, merkins at the top. Plank when done
Round 2: Goblet squat at bottom, squat jumps at the top. Plank when done
Round 3: Thrusters at the bottom, burpees at the top.
Fast mosey back to cars. 2-handed swings while you wait on the six.
Time.
Moleskine:
Really strong work by everyone today. With various bell sizes, and the ability to choose how much hill you wanted to take on, all the PAX got as much as they wanted out of the workout. The last set of 11’s with thrusters and burpees should have pushed the heart rate right to the top. 3 Respects powered through this one, Freedom, Destiny, and Hacker. All strong work. Hacker was a little lost on the first run, post farmer’s carry as he just sort of ran across the parking lot instead of around. Bulldog and Fletch took the big bell’s and the big hill side of the hill, solid effort and they looked gassed at the end.
Thanks to Harley and Fletch for the invitation to Q Skunk. Always a great crowd. Thanks to Bulldog for the send-off this morning.
-Alf
Announcements:
Alexander Youth Network Toy Drive – See details on website. Joker is overall lead and many sites have Toy Collection Q’s. Your site Q’s can help as well. Let’s show these kids how a strong group of community leaders cares about them and their future.
Area 51 Christmas Party on Saturday. Bring canned food for Calvary Church food pantry.
Posted on behalf of Smokey.
With bellies full of leftover turkey and the sky raining down cats and dogs, seven helped to kick of the Christmas season, which had a strange, festive twist of multiples of twelve.
The purge went like this:
Mosey Lap
24 SSH
24 Imperial Walkers
12 Merkins
Mosey to side parking lot for ladder
12 Merkins to 1 Burpie
Mosey to front play ground where we partnered up.
First partner did:
12 Pull ups
24 dips
24 squats
while partner 2 ran to the far end of the parking lot, touched the bushes and ran back
Rinse and repeat 3 times
Mosey to awning to find some dry ground for some Mary
24 LBCs
24 arm raises while sitting on the wall
24 Fluttas
24 arm raises while sitting on the wall
Mosey over to the front parking lot for a suicide followed by a jail break.
Mosey back to cars for COP
Announcements:
Many Area 51 sites will be collecting toys for Alexander Youth Network. More information to come.
-Smokey
Posted on behalf of Madison:
15 men rolled out of the Fartsack on a tepid 36 degree Monday morning looking for a beat down to get their week started off in proper fashion. YHC (on his V.Q) was honored to do his best in providing what they were looking for. The Shovel Flag was planted and we were off at 05:30.
The Thang:
Warm Up = 2 laps around lower lot & circle up to watch Floor Slapper zip into the parking lot and join us (to bring the total to 16) for:
SSH X 20IC
IW X 20IC
Arm Circles X 20 (front) X 20 (reverse) IC
Mosey to playground & partner up for “Triple Nickels”
Set 1 – Upper Body (OYO)
P1:
Burpees x 5
Pull ups X 10
Carolina Dry Docks X 15
Merkins x20
Dips X 25
Plank until P2 returns
P2: Run to far end of bus lot & return. Flap Jack
Rinse & Repeat 3X
Plank until PAX has regrouped back at playground
Set 2: – Lower Body (OYO)
P1:
Side lunge X 5 each leg
Balance lunge X 10 each leg
Step up X 15 total (don’t slip on the icy benches)
Squats X 20
Calf raises X 25
People’s chair until P2 returns (don’t think anyone finished that quickly)
P2: Run to far end of bus lot & return. Flap Jack
Rinse & Repeat 3X
Head over to wall for People’s Chair while PAX regroups (60 seconds)
Mary until time is up:
LBC x 25
Freddie Mercury x 25
Flutter x 20
Dolly x 20
Name-O-Rama & COT
Announcements: Christmas party is December 12. Check website for details.
Props to Squid for taking us out.
-Madison
At 5:25 the parking lot was filling up nicely. At 5:28 it was getting almost out of hand. 5:29 the disclaimer was given (2 FNG’s) and a disappointed look across all the PAX when I let them know there would be no Side Straddle Hops. I’m not even sure if it counts as a workout without them? 5:30 off we went before even more PAX could show up. It’s likely Brady and an 1 or 2 more snuck in the back of the group shortly after. Ended up with a big group of 32 PAX.
Mosey out to the track, which I am pretty sure is made of fluffy clouds and goose down. Thanks to the parents and alumni of Charlotte Christian for their hefty contributions to the schools facilities.
COP – None
The Thang:
Burpees – 5 OYO at the turn by the gate.
Merkins – 5 OYO at next turn
Heels to Heaven – 5 OYO at far turn
Run up Grandma Mt
Squats – 5 OYO
Pull-Ups – 5 OYO
Run to concession stand and down to base of bleachers
Step-Ups – 5 OYO (each leg)
Run Up steps, around concession stand, and down steps on the other side
Dips – 5 OYO
Back to 1st Turn by the gate.
That’s one round. Complete 4 more rounds OYO adding 5 reps to each exercise each round (10, 15, 20, and 25 reps) Modify as needed.
Early finishers started with some planking and then head to the field for 10 yard suicide runs. Join in the suicides as you finish. Pays to be a winner!
Round up and mosey back to launch
Flutters x 25 IC
Moleskine:
This was my first Q at Joust and I was too excited and needed to use as much of the campus as I could. Grandma Mt. was too wet to run down safely so all you got was trips up. Maybe next time we’ll just run down it, but that’s unlikely.
It’s hard to keep tabs on 32 guys running around all over the campus so shout out in the comments with relevant insights.
Skywalker seemed concerned that it would take him until 8:00 to finish the workout. Not sure when he finished, but all pushed hard and were done and ready for the mosey back to the launch by 6:10 or so.
Mr. Brady has some sort of abdominal strain that apparently is OK as long as he sticks to running and Carolina Dry Docks. He seemed to be doing a lot of modifying to CDD’s this morning. Hope it gets better.
Cotton Tail, Brady, Lobster Roll, Header, and Smokey all pushing the pace at the front. Strong work guys. Semi-Gloss also up there most of the time, but heavy modifications on the burpees because he didn’t want to mess up his afternoon round of golf?
Dollywood brought out his younger brother, FNG Cecil (see: Lion Tattoo) and Duct Work brought out his good friend from Houston, FNG Boiler (facilities manager). Both guys visiting from out of town and get woken up at 5am for a beat down!
Thanks to Squid for the send off
-Alf
Announcements
Friday Compass – Arboretum Chik-fil-a – 3rd F
Wednesday’s Aftermath – Book of Romans – Starbucks Piper Glen – 3rd F
Kevlar planning a restart in January
Park on the low side of the parking lot to leave room for the teachers and staff at Charlotte Christian
13 men showed up at The Matrix this morning despite the rain that has been coming down steadily for nearly 24 hours. YHC properly(ish) disclaimed the group. First exercise – go grab a rock and head back to the overhang shelter by the front of the school.
COP, or more of a row of pain this time.
SSH x 29 IC
Merkins x 25 OYO
IW x 25 IC
Staggered Merkins (right hand on rock) x 25 OYO
LBC’s x 25 IC
Staggered Merkins (left hand on rock) x 25 OYO
Flutters x 25 IC
Rock bench press x 25 OYO
Partner up.
Round 1: P1 Runs to playground for 10 pull ups and back, P2 (w/ rock) does 20 overhead press, 20 curls and repeat until P1 returns. Flap jack. Plank-o-rama
Round 2: P1 Runs to playground for 10 hanging knee raises and back, P2 (w/ rock) does 20 tricep presses, 20 goblet squats and repeat until P1 returns. Flap jack. Plank-o-rama
Peoples chair with air press, and rock front extensions? x 15 IC
Round 3: P1 Runs to playground for 10 pull ups and back, P2 (w/ rock) does 15 bent over rows, 15 tea bag squats and repeat until P1 returns. Flap jack. Plank-o-rama
Peoples chair with rock overhead press with front extension x 15 IC
Round 4: P1 Runs to playground for 10 hanging knee raises and back, P2 (w/ rock) does 15 russion twists, 15 flutters with press and repeat until P1 returns. Flap jack. Plank-o-rama
Peoples chair x 75 air presses IC
Return rock and circle up at cars for 25 merkins OYO
Soggy, dripping, and pruned moleskine:
The Men of F3 Area 51 never cease to amaze. A cool dozen of you showed up to join me on a morning that most other rational human beings would have spent in bed. Or maybe at the Y next to a fern. Nope, you chose to get wet first thing on a Monday morning. Just be thankful Uncle Leo wasn’t leading this charge. He very well may have had you doing log rolls across the field.
Started out the morning letting the PAX know that I spent too much time running in the rain yesterday and had little interest in either one of these this morning. So, not much of a head fake or secret plan. Just grab a rock and head for shelter.
Strong work by all. The team of Lobster Roll and Fire Hazard seemed to be leading the charge. No one was far back. Good to see Prohibition back on the circuit after a strong showing at the Chicago Marathon. I proclaimed my jealousy for him being done with his 26.2 while Back Office and I commiserated over continued training regimens. Pop Tart also back in the regular rotation after busting up his toe in a Spartan Race a month or so back. I think Smokey got the “biggest rock/poor decision making” award for the morning.
I appreciate all of you being out there and giving me the honor of leading. Thanks to Smokey for the send off.
No announcements in the rain.
-Alf