***Ghostwritten for Alf as he is “too busy” to write backblasts. Come on man, its not like you just entered the world of self employment… oh wait.***
As per usual, the 8 PAX who showed up in the darkish Waverly parking lot had no idea what was in store for them. In truth, who was Qing was decided somewhere between 0528 and “lets mosey.” Alf had the worst idea, so thats what we did.
The Thang:
Run towards and then past the parking garage, up past the office building and to the big roundabout. 10 Shoulder-Tap Merkins
Run back towards the townhouses but turn right up the hill to the apartments for 10 lunges each leg at the top of the hill
Run back down the hill and turn right towards the townhouse construction at the north end of the parking garage, run into the alley behind them and complete 10 double-merkin burpees
Run up the near stairs in the parking garage to the top for 10 dragon flags. Run across the top and down the far stairs and back to the roundabout
-Repeat until you puke… er… till 0612
Ye Olde Moleskinny:
YHC hates WAMRAP. Its hard, it makes my arms hurt, and try as I might I CANNOT catch Alf. Today was run heavy so co-short arm advantage beneficiary Turkey Leg stayed on the lead lap with the great short one himself. So, I got to chase two PAX of diminutive stature around the course. TL sure got rid of his “rusty arms” from two weeks ago pretty quickly, must have been all that Rocky Mountain air.
Speaking of chasing Alf, I’m not entirely sure his “I made double merkin burpees to force full range of motion” logic applies. Men with 12 inch arms shouldn’t be permitted to force those of us who are of average stature to endure good form… head bobs are exercises too dangit!
PopTart showed at WAMRAP again this week, if he keeps this up he may develop a reputation for posting with consistency… Darn strong performance today and we may have a ‘Rap regular on our hands.
EE and Horsehead may have had the most country sounding greeting in the gloom I’ve heard in some time. Not exactly sure what they were talking about but I’m pretty sure it was in a foreign dialect. Speaking of the equine headman, somebody needs to remind him that dayglo yellow is good for running, but at WAMRAP we get on the ground and so your shirt may get dirty…
Spare Parts continues to grind it out week in and week out. While he may have been at the back early, by the end of the workout he and OT had pulled even with the main pack where they were 5 strong. They also were doing MARY in a rough circle when the leaders plus my tired ass stumbled in at 06:15:30. #overacheivers
Next week, rumor has it, Transporter will set his alarm and actually show up. I’ll plan something exceptionally devious for him.
-SYITG
Flipper
Announcements
-4/17 South Mountain CSAUP. Somebody, ANYBODY, ppppuuuuuhlease go run the mountains with Midriff. I’m almost tempted to skip Ville to Ville so he won’t do it alone, but then Hoover would eat me.
-5/1 WTF relay CSAUP down on the Carolina Thread Trail. The Waxhaw guys have put together a good one here boys, go on down and spend a day running in the woods with some buddies and enjoying good food with your 2nd F.
-5/22 F3 Functional Strength Challenge: Pick things up and put them down with Hightide and the other meatheads. Great format for a quick test of how strong you aren’t. Will probably result in a significant swelling in the number of MeatOlympSwollians… or not… its a pretty exclusive crowd.
I wish I was making this up, but I’m not… but more on that later. YHC arrived at RZ a little early and while I was sitting in my truck I felt almost like Mr. Burns developing a conniving plan of dastardly deeds. You see, I hadn’t Q’d (or posted for that matter) at Rock Zero in months and it was important I effectively reminded the PAX just how twisted and dark my imagination truly could be… little did I know I wouldn’t even take 3rd place for darkness on this day… but more on that later. At precisely 0700, YHC delivered a half hearted disclaimer to 11 other PAX and commenced our shuffle towards COP.
The THANG:
SSH, 1 burpee OYO, IW, 2 Burpee OYO, LSS, 3 Burpee OYO, Mtn Climber, 10 merkins, Peter Parker, 10 Merkins, Parker Peter, 4 Burpees OYO
At some point OT showed up to make our number 13, and off we went to the hot box.
Peoples chair w/ Alternating Knee Lifts IC, Balls to the Wall, People’s chair w/ right then left static hold, Balls to the Wall, People’s Chair w/ Air Presses, Balls to the Wall.
5 Burpees OYO
Mosey around to the picnic tables for table sets of Lil Hazes, Dips and Derkins of various amounts alternating with running to trash cans in sequence for matching number of burpees (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.)
Mosey to grassy knoll, 6 Burpees OYO, Elevator – Bear Crawl Merkin series
Mosey to rock pile, 7 burpees OYO, pick a partner and a rock then walk to nearby parking lot.
Catch me if you can with one partner doing sets of 40, 30, 20 and then 10 merkins while other partner Lungester Walked (lunge each leg then thruster w/ rock).
8 Burpees OYO. Catch me if you can with 20, 15, 10, 5 jump squats while other partner counter-rotation lunge walks w/ rock.
Return rocks, mosey back to grassy knoll for more elevator-bear
Mosey back to hot box for 20 step ups, 20 dips, 20 incline merkins & then peoples chair and B2W
Mosey back to launch for lil bit o Mary and then 10 burpees to seal the deal
Finished
Mooooooleskinny:
For those paying attention, its MarchMadness, and therefore Flipper Qs merkins. The idea for today was to make lifting anything at or above shoulder height for the remainder of the weekend nearly impossible. Sound off below if YHC failed his goal.
During one of the HotBox sets YHC overheard a conversation regarding crappy harbor freight power tools which included “remember when I threw the flaming grinder out the window?” And “You can put a cat through a wet saw”. I wish I was kidding but… #horsehead
Apparently YHC has an intimidating cadence count voice as several PAX seemed driven to provide color commentary which was borderline degrading to my gorgeous baritone, nice try fellas, I will not be swayed.
Alf seemed to object to the shoulder focused weinke. In part this was due to his REALLY REALLY STRENUOUS self inflicted sandbag workout from Friday. I suppose the other part was the 420 merkins I “made him” do at WAMRAP on Wednesday. #you’rewelcome
It was awesome to see BLC, Hammer, Floorslapper, Slingshot and other RZ regulars again, especially as “certain people” modified their way through the second half of the workout. Horsehead was also there. He clearly has inspired Boonedock to be more inane than he is. #winningatlife
In all seriousness I was incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to lead these fine men into the gloom this morning, thank you as always to Hoover and Geraldo for their leadership, and their willingness to allow my shenanigans at their site. #oldmanagement
5 Meatheads joined us for COT and the takeout.
Announcements:
-5/22: Hightide’s F3 Functional Fitness Challenge
-5/1: WTF (Waxhaw Trail Fest)
-4/17: South Mountain CSAUP
-RutbreakerSeries, seriously people, join the slack channel!
Yeah yeah yeah, I know, WAMRAP doesn’t do backblasts. The south-lands most reputable “off the books” workout has enjoyed its time in the shadows much too long. Don’t worry, this won’t be long, as it is hard to write much about a workout which consists of the the same things over and over and over again. So, I’ll keep it brief.
The Thang:
Mosey to the deck (of course)
Circuit:
1st floor, 1 burpee, up the stairs
2nd floor, 2 jump squats, up the opposite stairs
3rd floor, 3 6 inch plank jacks, up the original stairs
4th floor, 4 LBCs, run to top of ramps
Down the ramps w/ 10 merkins at the top and bottom of every ramp (60 in total each round)
Repeat the above but escalating the reps on each floor times the number of the round (IE 2,4,6,8 for round 2, 3,6,9,12 for round 3 etc). Merkin count stayed the same.
Everyone completed at least 5 rounds with the leaders getting through most of the first half of round 8
Mosey back to the start for Fluttah, Protractor, H2H
Done
Moleskinny:
When pulling into the lot thought it was odd to see Turkeyleg’s dad-mobile. While he has been a frequenter of WAMRAP in the past, a marathon in his very near future seemed to be a counter-indicator for redline exertion. Then Garcia, Tigerrag, and Frasier showed up to complete the picture that this was a run meetup site since those 3 NEVER touch the ground anymore. Good luck to TR and TL as they head north for the Chesapeake Strider’s Marathon this weekend. #bostonorbust
Alf and Orange Whip are not human, that is a fact. Though I think I give the edge to O Dub given Alf’s short arm advantage. Dasher hung with them through 5 and still was starting round 8 when we called it. Dude is Burly.
EE was chasing YHC the entire time and was rarely more then a merkin set behind, kept me motivated throughout, thanks for the push brother!
Christmas, Spare Parts, Ironsides, The illustrious Poptart, and Beetlejuice all threw down and were silenced by the effort from round 3 on. Sign of doing some strong work.
The thing I love about WAMRAP is it truly is You vs. You. A PAX can make the workout as hard as they want, or need, on any given day. My man Beetlejuice showed up at YHC’s request, having no idea what he was in for. Even coming off bilateral shoulder injuries, he found a way to make the circuit work for him, and was wrung out by the end of the 45 minutes. He may have given me the side eye, but I think he’ll be back.
I miss the days with Purrel and Rachael were WAMRAP regulars, they would put Alf and the one time WAMRAP great McGee in their rearview and never look back. Just goes to show even the strong have something to aspire to. We all need somebody to chase, ISI and all that.
Final thought, it is great to be back to bootcamps. After 6 months of non-stop run training, YHC is tired of the endless miles. Yes, there is another Marathon training block in my future, but until then Wednesdays at the ‘RAP are on repeat.
SYITG
-Flipper
Announcements:
-WTF Ragnar style trail relay on 5/1 (see Dasher)
-South Mountain CSAUP on 4/17 (see Midriff)
-Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement for a Stonhenge-Davinci CSAUP thingy (see War Eagle)
-Functional Fitness Challenge (https://f3southcharlotte.com/?p=418671)
-Rutbreaker Series Details coming soon (see slack channel or Flipper)
Its been too long since YHC has regularly posted non-running workouts. After what feels like a year of focused run training, I was incredibly excited to be getting back to boot-camps. The Board-vergence on Saturday past only whetted my appetite and I was psyched to serve up a truly burly beatdown at Bagpipe as my first Q in nearly 6 months. Thus invigorated, I took to the slack waves with no small amount of snark in order to advertise the magnificent magnitude of my manly machinations. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when my bluster was met with a tepid response as only Tagalong and myself were present in the lot at 0525. “Clearly you overdid it on slack man” was the quotation I believe. Thankfully timely arrivals from Midriff, Rousey, Frehley’s Comet and War Eagle prevented Taggy from having to endure my company solo for 45 minutes, and at the stroke of 0530 we were off!
The Thang:
Mosey down hill to one of the lots across B-tyne Corporate and circle up for COP. SSH, IW, LSS, Merkins, Mtn Climber, Parker Peter and Peter Parker were had in sequence.
Mosey to Loch Ness to the top to where the the sidewalk to the fitness trail diverges. Split into 3 groups of 2. 2 groups stay at the divergence for while 1 group runs as “the timer.” While group 1 ran around Loch Ness stopping at the porches and next to the picnic table for 3 sets of 20 squats and 5 burpees (wall jumps at the porches and standard by the table) the other two groups took turns between pull-ups and merkins. 1 partner ran down for 5 pull ups while the other completed max count merkins, flapjack, repeato. When the “timer” group returned, the 2nd set of two took off on the timer loop, etc. etc. etc.
By the end 2 groups ran the loop 2X and one group only 1X. Midriff and YHC are completing the MarchMadness challenge and thus paid attention to the counts. We were able to notch 40 pull-ups and 250+ merkins. #marchmadnesscompliant
Ye olde moleskinny:
The inspiration for todays workout came from reading a preblast out of the Waxhaw region (where else?!?) regarding an upcoming Murph CSAUP on Memorial Day (when else?). A murph structured workout was a ringer for MarchMadness completion AND who doesn’t love a good murph??? But that also got me thinking about the idea of what The Murph stands for, and why we do it. Lt. Murphy gave everything in support of his nation, and thusly is worthy of our remembrance… but there is more two it. As men, we raise up our heroes and celebrate their accomplishments because of the values they embody. The strength, the valor, the perseverance even in the face of innumerable odds. Today was a mental struggle as well as physical as the weinke did. not. let. up. There was no where to hide. As Midriff mentioned later, the burpees were the rest break. For YHC, I don’t aspire to stand in front of the bristling arms of the enemy, I wasn’t born to be that kind of warrior. But I take from the example of Lt. Murphy and thousands of other heroes like him the example of grit and fervor. The indomitable spirit defying the world to take from him what it would, but that he would not be beaten. What an amazing example of leading despite the cost being absolutely everything.
The PAX went along gamely of course, and I thank them for their willingness to put up with my musings and the corresponding down painment. I hope I was able to help them grow in their own personal struggle, even if just a little bit. To say they showed up strong would be the understatement of the decade, and I am proud to be of their number. That said, I have never heard sound effects which rival those of Rousey when he is getting after it. War Eagle and I could hear his burpees from across the pond. #doingworktheloudway.
Also, has anyone seen Tagalong recently? His beard showed up but no sign of the man anywhere, I hope he is ok.
WarEagle just showed up and got after it. I was opposite him in the Merkin/Pullup rotation and got to enjoy his company for a while. Great attitude despite the suffering, a true Nantan.
Frehly’s…. well the man just keeps doing work. He talks about the being “the old guy” and then throws down with the best of us during a truly challenging workout. I hope I look that good when I’m 60… I mean 57 of course.
And of course Midriff, the dude just straight up gets after it. Newish to F3 with a fire in his belly, SOB is lucky to have his leadership and energy. Maybe if he keeps working like today he’ll eventually earn the right to wear shirts matching his namesake…. but for the sake of the PAX I hope he choses not to. Keep your clothes on man!
In all seriousness, thank you for letting me lead today and I hope you’ll have me back despite my tendency to scare away half the regulars.
SYITG
Flipper.
Announcements:
-South Mountain CSAUP on 4/17 (See Midriff)
-Stonehenge/DaVinci CSAUP 4/24 (See War Eagle)
-Functional Fitness Challenge 5/22 (See High Tide)
-TheRutbreaker Challenge May-Sept (See Flipper, join #rutbreakerchallenge on slack)
-Timekeeper directly following Bagpipe/Swift every Tuesday 0630 at Einstein Bagels. Commencing a new book (12 somethings… see Brat)
-SOB Clothing order is open
-Welcome FNG Right Turn
***After much deliberation and in consultation with the A51 board, the idea previously known as Rutbreaker will be mothballed in favor of smaller, stand-alone challenges and events throughout the summer. Lesson learned here is smaller and more focused efforts may fit the Nation a bit better than the larger and more grandiose ideas.***
Version / As of Date: 2 / 3.22.2020
RUT:
The world is in a pandemic induced rut, grinding in place and getting nowhere fast. While the vaccine promises to remove some impediments to forward motion, accelerators will be required to upend the status-quo and restore healthy motion to the people of earth.
Much as art imitates life, the nation imitates the world and many of us have been forced into ruts in the past months (or years). When YHC was tasked to offer up activities of the pointless nature to entertain and challenge the PAX of Area51, it was obvious things were going to be more than a little different than years past. Thinking about creative ways to bring the PAX back together in competition when the world has been taught to avoid any kind of unity sparked an idea… through which all of the PAX of the regions now get to suffer.
The idea behind this competition is to get each of us out of our comfort zones, out of our patterns, out of our Ruts. We will be asked to disrupt the status-quo of our accepted routines and do things differently. We will meet new PAX, try new workouts, help other men find acceleration, and compete with each other, and ourselves, to be more diverse and less rutted by the time the summer is out. This is The Rut-Breaker series…
The Thang:
PAX will form teams (minimum of 4, maximum of 10) and compete individually and as teams across a series of categories. There will be opportunities to accumulate score OYO and at sponsored group activities. Full scoring details will be explained below. The series will kick off 4/1/2021 and run through 9/30/2021 and be open to teams from any of the regions reasonably adjacent to the Charlotte, NC area. There will be no less than five CSAUP events from May-Sept (hopefully one a month) which will offer a chance for teams to come together and vie for event supremacy. Scoring will be tallied once a month for individual month end titles and then again at the end for an overall series champion. There will also be awards for the winning team(s) and leading individuals across categories and events. Speaking of Categories and Events:
Scoring Categories:
Scoring Modifiers: Scoring will be conducted as an AVERAGE of scores for the PAX on the team. So if you have 5 PAX on your team and 4 get 25 points but 1 gets 0, your team nets 20 points total. Take this into account when forming teams, big teams can be a ton of fun, but if a few members aren’t getting after it, it can cost you. There will be opportunities to earn scoring modifiers all summer long, which will be % modifiers applied to your teams score AFTER averaging.
CSAP Schedule:
Registration, Scoring and Tracking will be completed via this google sheet. The link will be provided here once it is available. Category and event instructions will be embedded in the sheet. PAX will be responsible for logging and tracking their own scores in the google sheet.
Have an idea for a CSAUP but never wanted to tackle it on your own? Here is a great opportunity to be part of the RutBreaker team. Reach out to me (Flipper) via comment on the pre-blast or via slack (I’m on the nation slack as Flipper (F3 SCLT)) and we’ll see about getting your bad idea into one of the open slots.
General Feedback? Sound off in the comments below or hit up YHC directly. This is work in progress so would love to hear your thoughts.
YHC has been watching the numbers at H&H (Hawksnest & Hydra) all year with a certain degree of incredulity if I am being honest. Sustaining 20+ PAX on a week in, week out basis is quite the feet, and after making comment regarding the same to the Deepest of Dishes, YHC was invited to Q a workout and experience the revolution first hand. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but more on that after…
THE THANG:
Ye Olde Moleskinny:
It’s par for the course to get a little bit of mumblechatter at a workout, especially for YHC who is oft derided for high complexity weinkes. That said, I’ve never encountered mumblechatter to the level of the HN PAX. True, the trifusenik effect is present, but there seems to be a bit of a talk-then-work subculture which has taken root. Clearly the chatter brings all the PAX to the yard, so not gonna knock a working formula either. YHC pulled every dirty trick in the book to bring the gift of quiet through pain and succeeded only in moderation… I’ll take a small win. It was no small victory, however, to have more than 2 or 3 PAX count cadence out loud, which happened a solid one or two times during the 45 minutes.
All joking aside, this a tight knit crew and everyone got after what was designed to be a smokefest for the arms, chest, and shoulders #nosoccerarmshere. Impressively, the refuseniking which did occur was often during the planking portions #inactiverecovery. Solid work up and down the ranks. Grateful as always to Hopper and Deep Dish for the opportunity to lead, once Marathon training is done, I’ll have to make a point to get out to the H&H neck of the woods more frequently. Maybe next time I can be part of the chatter instead of swimming upstream.
Announcements:
Final thought for the day, as you gather to celebrate the season, be safe and take care of each other. The world is a challenging place for so many right now and it can be hard to be thankful. Find space where you can to help those who are struggling this week, the world will be a brighter place because of your generosity.
-SYITG
Flipper
YHC has been doing a lot of the same things recently… wake up, figure out what to do with my day, read news about stupid politicians (yes, all of them), read headlines about covid spiking, deal with realities of unemployment in the a time of economic uncertainty… to say life has been challenging of late is a gross understatement. Yet I have an amazing outlet for my frustration, a safe place of solidarity where I can vent both physically and emotionally and so I am leaning in. F3 is saving my life on a daily basis, even on days I don’t post, which has been a bit more frequent this week. So when Prohibition took to slack looking for a substi-Q for this weekend, YHC jumped on it because I knew it would get me out of the Fartsack and with my brothers on a Saturday morning, something I desperately needed. Ironically, as Hoover observed, the last time I Q’d RZ was a subset-Q for… you got it… Prohibition. So as things in my life, the country, and the [F3]Nation go round and round in a time loop, I set out to bring forward a “greatest hits” style workout for the PAX, they’ll tell you how I did.
THE THANG:
Mosey to grassy knoll court and circle up for COP
-10 SSH IC, 1 Burpee, 10 IW IC, 2 Burpees, 10 LSS IC, 3 Burpees, 10 LSM IC, 4 Burpees, 10 Peter Parkers IC, 5 Burpees.
-Mosey to rock pile by the rotunda, grab a shmedium rock, mosey to rotunda. 10 Triple-Lindys, run around far median (by 51) and back to your rock. YHC originally planned a “pass the rock” type circuit forgetting about shared coupon moratoriums but several PAX gently reminded me of the need for social consciousness and I obliged. As such we completed a circuit of 10 curl, 10 press and 10 crusher combinations involving runs around the rotunda after 10 of each, then 20 of combinations of them, then 10 10 10. After running the rotunda and returning to your rock, 5 burpees (after each set). There was much grumbling about burpees. Finally wrap up with 10 more Triple-Lindys and round the median by 51 again.
-After returning our rocks, back over to the ‘knoll for some elevator merkins with forward-backward ‘crawls mixed in… always a crowd pleaser
-Mosey to hill by the fields for 11s of Sister Mary Katherines and Jump Squats
-Mosey to outside wall of Hotbox for peoples chair sets intermixed with Balls to the Wall Walks. sets of left leg up hold, right leg up hold, alternating leg lifts and air presses in between BTWs.
-Move to interior of the Hotbox for Little Hazes, Dips and Incline Merkins. We did 25 of each, then 15, then 5.
-Mosey up to rocks by the baseball diamond. Grab a Shmedium rock and line up abreast at the close light pole. 5 Triple Lindys, AYG to the second tree, AYG back, 4 Triple Lindys and so on… AKA “Chase Alf”
-Indian run around the outside and over to the Olympus Lot, circle up for Mary. LBCs, Freddy Mercuries and thats that.
MOLESKIN and Other Sundries:
-Lots to say about a strong group of PAX today, but you guys know the drill. Proehl’s 20 years are an unfair advantage in well… everything. YHC is salty about losing a footrace, but we’ll not get into those details. Alf continues to benefit from shorter ranges of motion in most exercises, but Kudos to Joker for beating him out in last OYO sets of the morning. Glad to see Horsehead back in the gloom after dealing with a bit of an injury. Boondocks just got it done. Hoover and Geraldo are the strongest big men on the block, no questions asked. Runstopper wore tights on a 60 degree morning… why??? YHC was blessed by strong efforts, and even stronger mumblechatter, from the PAX today which reminds me I need to get back to RockZero more frequently.
-During COT I shared my heart relating to the state of the world today. As I shared a bit of my journey in the preamble today, those around us in our every day lives are living their own struggles. There are dark days ahead of us as Covid flares, the election results will undoubtedly upset half the nation, and our economy teeters on the brink of another potential disaster heading into the holidays. If you are reading this message, you are blessed with a support structure which most of the world doesn’t access. The way we support and prop each other up makes us stronger, which is a gift we can leverage to support our communities in turn. The SkyQ guided Dread and OBT to make F3 for moments just like this, so that we can lead as servants while the world burns around us. I need you guys every day, so that I can lead and support my family, and I am so damn grateful I can continue to draw on your strength else I might not be able to get out of bed some mornings. I challenge you all to be the change you want to see in the world, give of yourself with wreckless abandon, and serve as a light house in troubled waters. We were made for this boys. Aye!
-SYITG
Flipper
So… apparently YHC has a reputation for turning unsuspecting PAX’s hands into hamburger when I Q at Waverly. There was quite the debate, gloves or no gloves this morning while we gathered around 0525, most opted in and off we went.
THE THANG:
Mosey to the faux turf for COP
-25 SSH, 1 Burpee, 25 IW, 2 Burpees, 15 Low Slow Squats, 3 Burpees, 15 Low Slow Merkins, 4 Burpees
-Mosey to nearby benches, partner up. Partner runs round the building and does 10 merkins while partner 2 does little hazes, flapjack, repeato. Next Partner 1 runs round the turf rectangle while partner 2 swaps between 10 dips, 10 derkins, flapjack. Grab some wall for peoples chair, leg lift L for 30 seconds, Leg lift R for 30 seconds. 5 burpees
-Mosey to parking deck, head to the 3rd floor, grab some wall for more peoples chair, then balls to the wall. Still with the same partner, Partner 1 runs down the stairs to 2 and then across to the 2nd staircase and back up while partner 1 alternates between 5 exploding merkins and 5 palm slap jump squats, flapjack. 6 Burpees
-Head to the bottom of the ramp to 3. Alternating forward and backward lunge walks with 5 merkins every time Q calls to change directions. 7 Burpees
-Elevator Merkins on the ramp, with forward and backward bearcrawl mixed in. Mosey to top of the ramp afterwards. 8 burpees
-Peoples chair at the top of the deck intermixed with wall-tar-jai, donkey kicks, wall touch merkins. 9 Burpees
-Mosey to the bottom of the ramps and proceed to Indian run up the deck, only passing on the up ramps. 10 Burpees at the top of the deck.
-Return to launch for ~3 minutes of plank-o-rama and Mary, done.
Ye Olde Moleskinny
When Joker through out he needed a substitute-Q for Cerberus this week, YHC took it knowing it would drag me from the fartsack on a Friday, which isn’t always my strongest posting day. I’ve spent plenty of gloom time at Waverly for WAMRAP, but rarely have I gotten out to the AO on other days… as such the parking deck is the only part of the AO I know particularly well. I’ll have to get out more often to learn what else is available on campus. Additionally, its amazing to get out with different PAX, and having not boot camped much this year, there are new faces for me just about everywhere.
The crew at Cerberus seemed a serious lot, except maybe for One-star I think. I’m a bit more accustomed to mumble chatter filled workouts, so the quiet grind this morning was an adjustment. Thankfully Alf was there to throw the occasional barb else I would have thought we were at a FIA workout. Speaking of the great cat-a-tarian, I gotta figure out what his M is feeding him #fastANDstrong. Speaking of physical specimens, does anyone else hope they can perform like Snowflake as the approach double-respect?
Don’t really know Rousey that well, but the dude has an awesome attitude. He was so excited to be in the gloom he was the first to start almost every exercise, even to the point of trying to repeat circuits which weren’t intended to repeat… dude gets after it.
Thanks to the PAX for putting up with a weird one today, a couple ideas didn’t pan out the way I wanted but still think we’ll be feeling that one later. Although, now that I think about it, the weinke wasn’t nearly as weird as Alf’s solution to solve Trick-or-Treat in a socially distant world… ask him about it, it will haunt your dreams.
SYITG
-Flipper
0515 was the time, still 15 minutes earlier than necessary in YHC’s opinion, but more on that later. The least hospitable asphalt in all of A51, the SCMS bus lot, was the place. Back where it all began for me, and the birthplace of the regions youngest AO, SACS. CheeseCurd has created a special thing here, even it would be better at 45 minutes, and made the mistake of asking YHC to Q. So here I was, with sandbag in tow, ready to dish out the downpainment. Little did I know, today was to be a record day setting the high water mark thus far for this young AO at 7. Grizzled veterans and new guys alike arrived just in time to shoulder their bags and head off into the gloom.
THE THANG:
-Walk somewhat adroitly down the hill to the track for 4 corners. Corner 1, 5 “baggies” (merkin on top of the bag/ruck, jump up, lift bag/ruck up to a press position, press, return bag/ruck to ground, repeat). Corner 2, 5 Baggies / 5 Squats. Corner 3, 5 Baggies/ 5 Squats / 5 2-count lunges. Corner 4, 5 Baggies/ 5 Squats / 5 2-count lunges / 5 Counter-rotation reverse lunges.
-Walk with purpose back to parking lot for suicide ladder. Starting with 2 each of squats, baggies & counter-rotates (we gotta come up with a better name for this one guys), complete reps and run out 2 parking spots for 10 merkins, run back. Next set 4 of the 3 exercises, run out 4 spots for 10 merkins, run back. Continue through 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2.
-Shoulder bags for a jaunt around the bus lot and assume a seated position on the edge of the sidewalk. With bag on knees, stand unassisted from the seated position, using the bag as a lever, return to seated. This move is very challenge as the bag is resistance for your quads and hip flexors, but is also the source of your balance as you move through the movements. We did 25. Flutter press X20 OYO. LBC with bag on Knees X20 OYO
-Shoulder bags, walk back down to the track and lunge walk from start to stands. 50 calf raises. Walk back to the bus lot, 20 H2H in cadence, done.
Ye Ole Moleskinny:
-YHC struggles to find an hour worth of ruck PT to fill a weinke, but I think that mostly has to do with the feeling of antipathy for walking around carrying a sandbag or ruck. I know its walking under load… but its still walking. After years of boot camping and running, it just feels wrong to walk during a workout. I’ll get over it, but in the mean time I’ll continue to bust on CC about this being a 60 minute workout… just what I do. All of that said, today kicked my butt. #workingfromhomemeansPAXcannap
-T-claps to CC’s neighbor Bubblewrap who posted for the very first time at Swole on Monday, and today was his 3rd workout (Hawksnest yesterday). My man hung strong throughout this challenging workout and handled the #40 sandbag quite easily. Next time I’ll bring him a #60. Clearly he’s been bitten by the F3 bug, welcome to the movement.
-Geraldo CRUSHED the ladder exercise. YHC was hard pressed to catch him in the final two sets. Big man is strong, though maybe more than 40 lbs. next time? Just sayin that was too easy for you bro.
-Speaking of crushing, clearly CC was aware his limitation (both mental and the walking boot he is wearing) would keep him off the podium for most of the workout, so we killed the walking segments. By the time we got to the next “station” CC had arrived, had a sip of tea and was waiting impatiently for the party to resume. I gotta say, I was duly impressed with the work done by a man who, for all intents and purposes, should be on IR.
-It was great to work out with Jazz Hands and Brexit, who I’ve met before, but I rarely see given their southerly nature. Its nice to see SOBs venture north of 485 for something other than a running workout. If this keeps up, I may have to post SACs more often, just so I can get to know more of our southern brothers (you know the SOBs who don’t run…)
-Having Dora present was great, the man has been doing ruck work since the Spearhead days, and that probably was why he and Geraldo were able to spend the entire workout talking about things the rest of us had never heard of. I know Goruck is a thing, maybe I should learn more about it one day…
Announcements:
-Give to Give campaign: we all have a little something we can contribute back to the organization which gives us so much every day we post, and on the days we don’t. F3 foundation is how this thing we love so much grows year over year, so pay it forward with whatever you can spare, even if it’s only $5.
-Bloodrive, this Friday, with HH to follow
2020, a year for the history books in a lot of ways, has brought a new flavor of CSAUP to the greatest region(s) in all of F3dom. With larger gatherings of any meaningful size being complete verboten by the talking heads on Capitol Hill, the PAX have had to find other ways to wile out and act the fool. First we had March Madness, a staple of spring for the last few years. Then it was April VAO, urging PAX to be consistent despite lockdown and suspended in-person posting options. Finally we saw the Maycelleration challenge push the PAX to prepare to burst from quarantine with strength and fervor, while also earning bragging rights of 60+ straight days of exertion (90 if you include the perfect records from March Madness).
As YHC considered a fall CSAUP, it became clear that community leadership continues to dissuade large in0-person gatherings. If all of South CLT is unable to attend… well maybe we keep our CSAUP events virtual. To that end, I bring you… drum roll please… the first annual HOLIDAY KNOCKOUT CHALLENGE
This is the playoffs boys, a full summer of sweat and tears culminates in the ultimate knock down, drag out you vs. you vs. them challenge. The playing field is your garage, your living room, your favorite AO, and your nemesis’s front yard. Two and a half months (give or take) of daily effort will crown the King of Consistency, the Sultan of Sweat, the Poobah of Persistence. Accessible and approachable by all PAX, this challenge will tell us once and for all, who is winning 2020???
The Thang:
From 10/15/2020 through 10/31/2020 PAX will log daily reps for up to three distinct exercises. The exercise is up to you, the reps are up to you (mostly, more on that later), but whatever your daily average is on 11/01/2020 will be your target for 11/01/2020 through 12/31/2020. There will be several “consistency hacks” throughout the contest which will result in PAX missing the requirement to be “knocked out” and removed from the field. At the end of the year, the PAX who has survived all the cuts AND has the fewest number of days “missed” for ALL THREE exercises, will be awarded the title of 2020 Knockout Champion!!!
*Cuts:
-Any PAX who miss any 3 consecutive days OR 8+ days total from 11/1/2020-11/15/2020 will be “cut” on 11/16/2020
-Any PAX who miss any 2 consecutive days OR 6+ days total from 11/15/2020-11/30/2020 will be “cut” on 12/01/2020
-Any PAX who miss any 2 consecutive days OR 4+ days total from 12/01/2020-12/15/2020 will be “cut” on 12/16/2020
-Any PAX who miss ANY DAYS other than 12/25/2020 (free day) from 12/16/2020-12/31/2020 will be “cut”
*Final Scoring
-In the event of a Tie in the number of TOTAL MISSED DAYS for the remaining PAX on 01/01/2021 will be settled average of all three exercises actual average as a percentage of target. So if your average actual reps are 105%, 110% and 120% respectively, your tie break score would be 111.67%. So, during the entire contest, the number of reps by which you exceed your daily target will be a factor in your final scoring. I strongly suspect several PAX will go perfect 100% for days, so I strongly expect this metric will declare the winner. I know that this could be gamed by sandbagging the first 15 days of the contest to make your target easy… but we would never do that right?
*Other Rules
–There are going to be rep minimums as follows:
-Merkins/Dips/Other Arm or Chest focused exercises minimum of 50 daily reps
-Pull-Ups/ Heavy Rows/ High-Pulls or other Shoulder or Back focused exercises are a minimum of 20 daily reps
-LBCs/H2H/Freddy Mercury/American Hammer or other ab focused exercises are a minimum of 80 daily reps
-Air Squats/Lunges/ Other unweighted Leg Focused exercises minimum of 60 daily reps
-Plyometric versions of any of the above (IE explosive merkins, jump squats, sister Mary Katherines) would get a 50% moidfier (so 25 explosive merkins etc.) Additionally, if you want to add flavor to your life, you could sub out dynamic movement for static (ie jump squats for air squats) and use a 2X multiplier for that day. For example, if I did 50 exploding merkins instead of 100 standard merkins, I would record 100 merkins in the sheet effectively matching my target.
-Running is an option, minimum daily mileage is 2 miles. That said you distance runners better pick something you’re NOT good at.
-You have until the end of each consistency hack to enter your reps, but when I open the spreadsheet on the first day of the next wave, if you haven’t recorded it doesn’t count.
-If you’re not sure how many reps your minimum should be, ask the group. Consensus wins.
-You don’t have to do all three exercises, but you should because then you’ll get stronger.
-If you miss your reps for one exercise, but you get your reps on the other two, it still counts as a missed day. YOU MUST HIT YOUR REPS ON ALL EXERCISES FOR A DAY TO COUNT
Remember boys, this is you vs. you vs. everyone else. First and foremost you should be focused on leveraging spirited competition as a way of helping you focus on an area where you want to improve. Can’t do 5 pull-ups in a row? This will fix that. Hate Burpees… well so does everyone else but you could be a sicko and set those as your target (you’ll still hate them, but you’ll be better at them while the hate boils). Everyone who participates wins, except for the guy who does best and he’ll win just a little bit more.
SYITG
-Flipper