Truth be told, this is not a backblast in the purest sense, yet YHC hopes these words fulfill the intent of the ‘blast in conveying the actions, the emotions and the motivations of a merry few PAX. The following words share but one perspective of an event witnessed by hundreds of PAX from across the nation, yet the words in this heart need be shared, so here goes…
To provide full context of this past race weekend and the impact it had on YHC, we have to go back nearly 4 months. 2018 has been less than kind to YHC, especially in the 3rd quarter. Much of the travails would be non-sequitur and have more business in a 3rd F event than in these pages, yet suffice it to say I went into the weekend at emotional, spiritual, and physical low points. This year was supposed to be the year of the 3:30 marathon, the 1:30 half and the sub 30 BRR. 2018 was to be the year of personal and professional successes unmatched by prior pinnacles. YHC had decided to make this 18th year of the century an unprecedented confluence of prowess and success, yet the big man had different thoughts…
The dominoes began to fall ~6 months ago and have been falling ever since. Motivation has evaded me with mornings becoming chores left undone, then changes at the office resulting in long days and labors often going unnoticed. Ten weeks ago my right achilles tendon started plaguing me, tightening during runs and often hobbling me the day after. The following week the left calf started to misbehave as well. Mileage flagged, and motivation sunk even deeper. YHC told his team he couldn’t take on a Mtn. Goat position and stepped into the #2 spot… still high miles but without the extreme challenges presented by Grandfather and “The Nipple.” Then six weeks ago the hardest challenge I’ve ever had as a father and husband began, sleepless nights and emotional challenges abounded. As if all this wasn’t enough a chest cold set in 4 weeks back which has yet to abate. More than once I considered dropping from the team, giving in to the pile of troubles… yet for some reason I didn’t.
Entering this weekend I was undertrained, under the weather, and wholly depleted of spirit. Yet I arrived ready to bring what I could to the mountains, a gasp of defiance daring the world to keep me down. I was joined by eight men of indomitable spirits and questionable decision making. Together we would take on the highways and byways of southern Virginia and western North Carolina with the long standing bogey of a sub 30 hour BRR in our sights. In the back of my mind I knew how much of a challenge that would be, even if I ran the race of my life… for that is one hell of an achievement (talking to you Minions, great job!). Yet we believed if we willed it, we could rise to the challenge and so we set forth.
Over the next day and a half I watched those men stretch themselves mentally in physically in an event designed to break you. The lack of sleep, the exhausted muscles, the questionable nutrition and many other factors which strain the mind and body were same as ever, but for YHC something was different. I began to realize the support, the camaraderie, and the common belief that spirit and brotherhood can overcome the worst of obstacles was filling a void in my soul. Where there was heartache and suffering before, the shield lock of my team and the drive to defeat the mountains together where a healing salve on so many open wounds.
This weekend I had genuine laughter (both with and at the expense of myself and my team mates). In the middle of the night I had conversations of deep moral standing, and insignificant banter. In the heat and the bugs I experience solidarity and profound peace. I didn’t realize how depleted I was, until I wrung myself out upon that course and was replenished by the strength of others.
At the end of it all, we came in to Asheville at 31 hours, almost to the minute. We missed our target again, but at least for YHC, the completion of the task was a profound victory. I am so grateful for my brothers from both this year’s Up ‘N Over squad and the years before. I cannot say how moved I am writing these words, how appreciative I am for their love and support. As I wipe some dust out of the corner of my eye, I swear thats what it is, I am humbled by their acceptance and by the opportunity I’ve had to be part of this team.
For the PAX who swear they’ll never run, YHC encourages you to consider my story. Its not about the miles, or the hills, or the vans or the pancakes. Its about what each man brings into the weekend, and the wealth which can be brought away. The Blue Ridge Relay is what F3 is all about. Its about strength, its about community, its about fellowship and the faith in each other and something which is beyond all of us. This is why we post, this is why we labor, this is why we CSAUP and this is why we are all F3rd.
To the start Gentlemen, See You In The Gloom…
My slack notification goes off on Wednesday night, its my beardless bro Tuck saying he forgot to correctly operate a calendar and get Qs scheduled more than 2 days in advance. I said no problem, I had an evil plan I was already concocting which I would try out on the unwitting PAX of TheBrave because its the best damn AO south of 485 as everyone knows.
The Thang:
Mosey up to the stoplight by N. Community and Ballantyne Commons then head west on ye olde commons up the hill to Ballantyne Forest Drive, circle up in the first parking deck for COP:
IW: 0 in cadence cause this is a real workout 🙂
Merkins: 10 IC
Mountain Climbers: 15 IC
Slow Merkins: 10 IC
Peter Parker: 10 IC
6 Inch Plank: Hold for 10ish
Mosey along to the 2nd parking structure and assume peoples chair. Conduct various versions of the chair and other calisthenics including donkey kick merkins while Pax conducted a running lap around the bottom of the structure (including Thin Mint’s general wandering… something about a bruised breast.)
Mosey over to the 3rd parking deck and run upstairs, around the top and gather on the wall in chair for air presses. Mario found it necessary to advise there were more stairs available at the next garage down, very well…
Mosey to the final garage and run the stairs to the top. Proceed to run down the ramps with 5 burpees at every other turn all the way to the bottom. Back up the stairs and mosey back to the launch for….
Sandbag “tug – o – war”
We divided the group into two teams approximately related to speed so we didn’t have all the “fast guys” on one team. 5 coupons were procured and cones placed on the parking lot. The plan was to run a lap around BOTH medians (Mario can’t listen to instructions and broke the game out of the gate… well broke it more anyways) keeping the teams together. Upon returning to the start ONE member of the team can move any coupon 4 times towards their end of the “game board.” Each move requires a bag-over burpee and then progress to the next cone with a “win” coming when all 5 bags reach one end or the other. While one player moves bags, the rest of his team conducts merkins (or other moves deemed necessary) Clearly YHC did not do a good job conveying the concept because the whole thing devolved into chaos within 30 seconds of starting… But burpees happened, laps were run, bags got moved and there was plenty of good natured ribbing (although I think Madam might still be pissed…) After about 1.5 miles worth of laps we called the silliness off for Jack Webb to 7/28 and scene.
Ye Olde Moleskin: Today was a stretch to be sure, an idea which sounded great on paper, but was too complex for a 5:15 start time it seems. YHC enjoyed the fun, and the mumble chatter it caused however I believe the PAX went home underworked… I’ll make up for it next time.
Paper Jam posted TheBrave for the first time because Commish promised to meet him there, which Commish did about 45 minutes into the workout… Something about a plumbing issue. Great to see you today PJ and come again, however I warn you that “carrying heavy things” occurs often in addition to all the running.
Bunker and Frasier were very vocal about how the Crossfitters must be making fun of our free workout as we ran about the parking lot. Its cool bro’s, you too can pay 150 a month to cause irreversible damage to your knees and back if you want!
Mario never change my friend
Thanks for letting me lead my friends, see you in the gloom again soon.
-Flipper
YHC hates, no loathes, the cold. Its a simple fact that, much like the mighty bear, the irreverent porpoise prefers to hibernate during the winter and save his posts for the warmer months. As such, it was good he had to Q TheBrave today, else it would have been fartsack central in light of the 27 degrees. Also, thankfully, the downpainment was accelerator AMRAP style, so getting and staying warm wouldn’t be an issue…
The Thang:
-Mosey from launch point around to the circle past Duckworths and then to the courtyard parking lot for COP:
-IW x20, Low Slow Merkin x15, Low Slow Squat x20
Mosey to the path around the pond, find party favors thoughtfully staged for use prior to launch. Commence Team AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in groups of 3 as follows:
-1st lap around the pound, hoist a sandbag (weighing between 50 and 100 pounds) and run the circuit stopping at the first patio for 5 step ups each leg, the second patio for squat thrusters, and by the picnic tables for row burpees.
-2nd lap, team CMIYC with 40# slam balls
-3rd lap, 8 cones, stop and do burpees at each in a climbing then declining count of 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1
-4th lap was just run the circuit
Due to a light turnout, multiple trips for party favor clean up were needed, so we called it after the teams achieved 2 full rounds (8 laps) then carried the favors back to the vine in 2 trips.
With 7 minutes remaining (and only 3.9 miles covered) split the group and half, first 3 run to the stop sign across from Stone Mtn. then back while 2nd three elbow plank-a-rama, flapjack
having run the requisite 4 miles to satisfy the site Qs we completed some Mary and a late 10 burpees (thanks ThinMint for that suggestions) before calling it.
Ye Olde Moleskin:
It really was very cold as we waited for launch, and that showed in the 6 PAX including YHC who posted. As Mario later twittered about, the ratio of Site Qs to PAX was 1:1. Thankfully the coldness lasted about 4 minutes before everyone was working hard through the circuit, which proved more challenging than planned as we had enough sandbags that we didn’t need to split carries amongst the teams… legs are KILLING me. That being said, the PAX of TheBrave, as always, killed it. While YHC is not in top shape, I’m also not used to being the 6 which I clearly was throughout this workout. While Mario kept our trio out in front with his strong CMIYC runs, I was clearly outclassed in this one. Just inspiration to work harder! Hysterically, the fastest of the group also did the least work due to… ahem… intestinal issues. Some things never change. Every time I post TheBrave I say to myself I should post more frequently, something I aspire to do in 2018 for sure. I did, however, notice YHC is getting a reputation at TheBrave as Wild Turkey commented before launch that he wanted to run with something heavy in the cold… apparently I am getting predictable and we just cannot have that. Something to ponder.
Thank you again to Mario, Fire Hazard, and the rising ManTan Thin Mint for trusting me with their site (and their lives,) as always a great place to Q. YHC is already planning his next downpainment for the PAX of TheBrave.
-SYITG
Flipper
In The Big Apple, every year Radio City Music Hall hosts a show called Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and what a spectacle it is. With a splendor and gravitas which can only be achieved on Broadway, every commercial element of the holidays is trotted out accompanied by music, dance and the delighted applause of thousands of fans. YHC alongside co-site Qs Boerewors and Hoover hoped to bring every bit of the holiday cheer to RockZero but with less glitter and fewer kick-lines…
The Thang:
Mosey from the launch point over to the fake grassy knoll, accompanied by only the best Christmas soundtrack curated by yours truly, a joy which continued throughout the following 60 minutes. Upon arrival at the knoll circle up for a Hoover led COP:
SSH x2
Merkin x20
LSS x20
Mosey to the hotbox and assume peoples chair for slam ball overhead presses (both 20# slammers down to the end and back.) After handing off the 2nd slammer PAX ran into the parking lot for a 5 line merkin suicide run then over to the sidewalk where party favors await. Line up and perform “ball-over” merkins, walking hand over hand down the line sideways (2 40 pound slammers and 6 sandbags, so 10-15 merkins depending on how you did them.)
Upon completing the circuit return to the wall and repeato.
After completing the 2nd circuit the PAX divided into groups and played some catch me if you can with the sandbags (ranging from 50-100#). First circuit, 10x merkins, Pax ran out to the church along the road parallel to 51, across to the road which terminates near the kitty litter and back to the wall. Assume the chair, this time slam then press each of the 4 slammers (plenty of whining about the 40 pounders).
Repeat CMIYC this time with jump squats.
Mosey to the field where the weights (plus a couple 35# plates courtesy of Hoover) were loaded into the waiting wagon. Turns out one of the wheels was very flat, just make the next part harder. In teams of three the PAX pulled the wagon around an equal sided triangle (with one PAX riding, the other two pulling using the affixed battle rope). Those not participating in the sleigh ride completed team 15s on the hill (jump squats at the bottom, merkins at the top), with the team element meaning only one of the 3 was running at once, the other two waiting in plank at the bottom of the hill for their turn. After all the teams completed their sleigh ride we proceeded to Boerewors delight.
PAX line up abreast, perform a called exercise, then AYG for about 15 yards, line up again and repeat. 5 burpees, 10 diamond merkins, 10 LBCs then for the last run to the fence and return.
PAX gathered all the weights and returned to the cars for some Mary of various types for about 5 minutes until time.
YE NAKED MOLESKIN:
YHC, Hoover and Boerewors felt festive and wore various seasonal attire, including a fearsome representation of the wild South African Reindeer. A disturbing number of antler jokes were made but thats this group.
Hightide clearly had no clue what was in store as he was seen completing TGUs and pull-ups in the parking lot for a significant period prior to launch… T-Claps sir.
The great McGee actually appeared for the first time in a bit and resumed with equal strength of mumble as the last time he graced us with his presence. Nice to know a second mini-mcgee hasn’t dampened his spirit at all…
While many RockZero regulars were missing, it was great to share the suffering with some no often seen faces. Purell and Squid Twin (Costanza) did a great job despite hailing from a “moderate” home AO, Sony would have been proud.
Kotters to Dora, don’t think we’ve seen him since this AO was known as TheRock, evidenced by his attempt to park his big red truck in the wrong parking lot. Also falling into the Kotters category was DropThrill, great to see them both despite the long absence.
As always, its an honor to lead, to suffer and to celebrate with this great group of High Impact Men. Thanks to Iron Horse for the send off and Merry Christmas to all!
PS- There was almost a Purple Haze sighting, a rare thing indeed, but it was across the street from coffeteria as he stretched for an apparent run with a mystery fellow nobody recognized. Mumblechatter shouting occurred and off he went… c’est la vie.
YHC hadn’t Q’ed in a a while, hell I haven’t done much but run since before BRR. #SoccerArms. I knew I wanted to Q in November, but today was a light day… so what to do?
The Thang:
-Mosey from Launch point to the parking lot across from the hotbox where somebody had thoughtfully placed cones for suicides. Divide into two groups.
-Group 1 Mosey back in front of the church to the launch point, then down to the big rocks, past the bball field and the playground to return to the suicide line. Meanwhile group 2 assumes high plank while 1 member at a time completes merkin suicides (run to each cone and back in succession, completing a chest to ground merkins at each cone. Add one Merkin to count at each cone so 1 at first, 2 at second etc…) Return to plank after completing your suicide circuit.
-Group 1 takes their turn on suicides while Group 2 does the ~1/2 mile mosey. Repeat above but this time elbow plank and start at 2 merkins at cone 1.
-Upon Group 2’s 2nd Mosey, AYG to to cones staged in parking lot near family life center for Heels to Heaven and American Hammer X20 in Cadence. Then AYG to cones under basketball goals for Rosalita and Dolly X20 in cadence then return to suicide line.
-2 more circuits with Peoples Chair and Donkey Kick Plank.
-AYG to cones for Mountain Climber and Low Fast Flutter X20 in cadence, AYG to other cones for High Slow Flutter X20
-Mosey back to the bottom of the launch point parking lot and line up abreast. All out sprint to cars and done
Ye Naked Moleskin:
It was GREAT to be back out in the cold doing something other than running. The Merkins hurt, as did the sprints, yet I got a lot of grumbles when I set mosey pace. It was awesome to have Runstopper and TheShore join us today. RockZero tends to have a “younger” group of PAX so when true OGs join us, its a treat. Abba graced us with his 2nd to last Saturday in CLT before he heads to missionary training in the ATL before engaging in missions work in THAILAND with his SIX KIDS?!?! Bold man, very bold. Also I’ve never had a PAX run out on one of my workouts until today… allegedly Hammer had a wrestling tournament to get to. Although Cheese Curd attempted to use the same excuse so…
Announcements:
-A51 Christmas Party 12/8 and SOB party on 12/16 (as a hybrid I would resent the separate parties but for the fact my schedule prevents me from attending either.)
-Sign up for Joe Davis 5k or 10k, RockZero will be CLOSED 1/6 in support of pushing Pax to go be part of this amazing event.
-Prayers for Abba and family as they embark on their new adventures.
YHC had never been to DaVinci… Its not that I didn’t have time to scout the AO, I’ve known about this Q for months, but as ever life got in the way and on Thursday when Fredo sent the reminder I realized I was hosed. As a result I scouted the AO via google maps and realized exactly where the space I need lay, but more on that later.
YHC ran into the parking lot at about 0627 to witness a solid 4 PAX waiting to get started. Having planned for 8-12 an on the spot audible was necessary, such is the joy of the Q.
THE THANG:
Mosey out of the parking lot and crossed Rea to the office complex where party favors awaited. The gear was shortly laid out per YHC direction and the circuit was defined. With classic rock blaring on the bluetooth speak we did 5X each of:
Plate Burpees (45 lbs) Chest to plate standard style arms during the merkin, press plate over head
Bumper Plate Burpees (20 KG) Chest to plate, military arms during merkins (elbows tucked), press plate over head
Ball Over Slamball Burpees (20 lbs ball) Press with right hand on ball, left hand on ball then over head slam at the top of the burpee
Military Slamball Burpees (40 lbs ball) Military style press with chest to ball, overhead slam at the top of the burpee
Sandbag Clean Burpee (60 lbs sandbag) Press chest to bag, clean bag to overhead during burpee
After the above 5 sets PAX hit the agility ladder for side-to-side directly followed by corner to corner runs (cones set in top of the lot)
Lap on the sidewalk down to Rea then around and back to the gear
Repeat above set
2 foot in and outs up and back down the agility ladder then 2x suicides on the cones
lap around the buildings
Repeat the burpee set but with two (or 4) merkins per burpee
Two foot in and outs up and down the agility ladder
Burpee suicides ran at the cones then another lap of the buildings was completed
A couple rounds of tug-o-war (cause YHC had brought the rope when anticipating a larger group but gotta use it!)
Gear Stowed in the Jeep, had a quick tour o’ blakney and an Indian run back to the BB&T lot for circle of Mary
HALT
Ye Naked Moleskin:
Being of A51, YHC doesn’t know the the Sons of Ballantyne as well as he might like, the DaVinci Q was aiming to fix that, I’ll have to give it another go! That being said Fredo, Bucky, No Show and Jerry MGuire made a SOLID showing. This was no easy workout and we covered a lot more ground than I had originally planned given the burpee heavy format. Despite the audible, we had plenty of sweat equity invested this AM. It was an honor to work with you men, I look forward to doing it again.
SYITG
Announcements:
SOB Christmas Party and Balrog II (see pre-blasts)
YHC aint gonna lie, I mailed this one in. Over the proceeding weekend I had participated in the most gruesome endurance event of my life, and my legs were still noodles on Wednesday. Thursday evening no inspiration had struck and YHC was left digging through old back-blasts to find something to work off of, then it happened. Wanting to make sure BRR runners had some incline to deal with I’d looked to former parking garage weinke’s and I saw the typo… catch me if you can’t….
The THANG:
Mosey towards the roundabout from the vine, circle back to pick up Mario who failed to remind Leo to set his alarm, resume mosey and pull in next to Duckworths for COP
-25 X SSH
-25 X Low Slow Jump Squats
Resume mosey to the bottom of the hill, hang a left and cross over Ballantyne commons into the neighborhood next to The Village. Proceed through neighborhood and into the village next to Ye Olde Parking Structure. 5s on the hill down to the basement (Burpees at the top, hand release merkins at the bottom.)
Resume Mosey up to the top of the structure to find the party favors. Split in two teams, 6 Pax each. 3 Pax stay with the party favors, 3 run to the bottom of the structure and run back up. Meanwhile those who stay behind performed:
15 Straight leg deadlifts w/ 60 lbs sandbag
-or-
5 Squat/Curl/Press/Slam with 40 lbs. slam ball
-or-
10 (each leg) lunges with 20 kg bumper plate
Commence walking towards the bottom of the structure until runners return, Runners take party favors and commence exercises, those who just lifted heavy things run to the bottom and back up. Each switch the PAX grabbed a different party favor and once we got two close to the bottom we started running to the top and back. 6 rounds were had.
Arriving back at the ground level, assume peoples chair on the square pillars (3 groups of four) and pass party favor (slam ball or plate) around in a clockwise manor 5X. Take a break then resume for another 5X.
Mosey back across Ballantyne Commons arriving at the roundabout. 6 Pax mosey to the stop sign at the bottom of the hill and AYG back while the other 6 perform burpees. Flapjack. Repeato but with high-low plank jacks.
Mosey to cars – LBCs, Rosalitas, Heals to Heaven
DONE
Moleskin: For a half-conceived reversed version of a tried and true format, this one worked out pretty well. YHC continues to be amazed how hard it is to follow his directions (first group did all three exercises… maybe YHC should slow down when McSplaining things.) Several PAX opened the morning saying they wouldn’t run with weights, worrying about their precious BRR legs… so they walked with them while performing weighted exercises and then ran hills… big difference there?!?
Its always a pleasure to Q TheBrave and thanks to ThinMint, FireHazard, and Mario for having me out. the PAX always throw down hard and are gluttons for funishment.
For the first time ever, YHC was given the highest honor any Q can receive. Haggis looks over and grunts “that was a good one.” Never been prouder… EVER
In a couple days we’re headed off into the mountains to do something stupid and awesome and dangerous, I cannot wait.
SYITG
-Flipper
YHC doesn’t post centurion often enough. That fact was abundantly clear when I knew less than 35% of the names circling up at 0529 at CHS this AM. A great AO with HUGE growth in recent history, clearly there is a need for diversification in my posting habits. Nonetheless YHC had a plan in play and a whole bunch of PAX who had no clue what evil plan they were in for.
THE THANG:
Divided into 4 even(ish) groups… bad instruction point #1… more on that later
Demonstrate staggard Ball-Over Merkin Line (slam ball merkins alternating hands and pass diagonal to the next PAX) w/ 40 lbs. ball
Demonstrate Chest Pass Burpee drill with 20 Lbs. Ball
Mosey west up little Ave to the first cross street, out to 51 and back down to the parking garage via CHS entrance. Give instructions for plate carry lunge walk CMIYC and realize YHC left the sandbags in the car.
Provide instructions for carrying sandbags up and down stairs (60 lbs.) while balance of group sits in boat (not the best design addmittedly.)
Run east to Walsh, turn the corner at Little and return to launch point. Groups 2 &4 head to Garage for plates and bags (carrying forgotten bags in the process). In order each group completed exercise and then ran Walsh to little to launch or from launch up and little and around to garage. Each group did each station 1X with some nominal confusion.
Sweaty mary back at Launch (thanks Chelms for Substi-Q)
Out
MOLESKIN:
YHC likes to make things harder than they need to be. Its obvious, in an attempt to avoid boring or derivative weinkes, I tend towards the complicated. Probably need to get better at providing instruction to grumpy PAX at 0530… moving on…
Centurion really has a lot going for it and the PAX here are STRONG. The fact we had 5 respects who doggedly kept after a pretty gnarly work out is huge commentary to the grit of this crew.
28 is a lot of Pax to try and create a workout for. Trying to get timing down for 4 large groups rotating through stations with sufficient gear to boot doubles the challenge, thanks for that men. I had a lot of fun cooking this one up, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And yes my legs are already sore from the lunge walks.
Announcements
-Convergence with TheBrave on 8/4 starts at 0515
-Private Benjamin has his VQ at Bighouse this Monday 7/10… Show up big in support.
SYITG
Flipper.
It began in the gloom, it will probably die there… and that’s ok because all good things must end in time. Today, however, is not that time! The legacy of the greatest darn AO in all of southland began almost 4 years ago when MallCop, Hops and Runstopper began this thing we called “TheRock.” Back then the godfather was known as to be the forge in which men were smelted to strengthened steel from the unformed iron of complacency. YHC was one of those PAX, forever changed by the brotherhood and hardships of this place. Welcomed by the brotherhood with open arms, the course of my personal life has been supported and channeled by my experience as part of this crew… and now I am honored to be among its leadership.
Leadership, what does that mean? YHC believes it signifies final responsibility, total accountability, and the struggle of making the “right” decisions on a day in, day out basis. At some point in the past few months I’ve realized that I’ve not made the best decisions as site Q of our dear RockZero. By having no guidelines, we’ve begun to lose our identity. When our fearless leader posted on Slack about making your site memorable, it struck home… HARD. To that YHC worked with his co-site Qs (Boerwors and the newly minted Hooooooooover) to develop the criteria which will define RockZero 2.0. Qs will be asked to follow the following: Drum roll please…………
The formerly planned High-T convergence this weekend will officially kick off RockZero 2.0 with Hoover, Boerwors, Ickey Shuffle and Rachael will be your ringmasters.
THE THANG:
COP – TBD
Split into two groups for-
HEAVY: 5 weight stations to make you stronger, 25 minutes of grunting and lifting essentially
LIGHT: Running some laps, some hill suicides and other runny type stuffs
Finish with TUG O’ WAR!!!!!
-See you in the gloom
Flipper
As YHC rolled back into the AO after a quick pre-run and a full 5 minutes before official launch, a comment was made “surely all those cars cannot be for F3…” Wow was that wrong. By the bell of 0700 24 PAX had assembled to aid YHC in acknowledging the end of the 3rd years of gloom, humbling to say the least when RockZero has been averaging 12-14.
THE THANG
Mosey from launch point around the outside of the parking lot passed the ball fields up to the parking lot across from the hotbox where YHC had staged party favors. While Runstopper made a cameo for COP leadership, YHC and Hoover set the table. As such, no recount of COP will be available in this particular missive.
For the main event, weight plates had been set out on the lines of the lot in the below order:
45,35,35,25,25,10,10… The suicide was set to run out, grab a plate and stack it in order smallest to largest, then in reverse order returning plates to the designated line. Due to size, PAX were divided into 2 groups. While one group of 12 ran back to the launch and then out and around past the ballfields and back (around .75 miles), the other group began. Once a pax either retrieved a plate, 4 stations were completed:
5 inside to outside merkins (using bumper plates to elevate for the “out” rep)
10 ball touch squats with 20 pound slam ball
10 over-shoulder ball throws with 40 pound slam ball
10 squats with 60 pound sandbag.
Upon return of the running group flapjack for a lap. After both groups ran 1 lap, mosey to the hotbox for peoples chair passing slam balls in various forms. Repeat cycle above and then line up in two lines facing each other to throw the 20 and 40 pound balls back and forth up the line (with burpee after throw.)
One final round then carrying the party favors back to the launch. With 15 minutes left we moseyed to the far end of the lot for some elevator merkins with an AYG back to the cars. Finally circle of Mary and 3 minutes of burpees (target 40 reps) due to the 8 mens worth of missing rice (rough estimate on that one I’ll admit.)
MOLESKIN:
Despite the mumble chatter complaining about the complexity of the weinke, there was plenty of sweat and maybe a few tears shed over the ~3.5 miles and 60 minutes. Here in the dog days of summer its hard to gauge difficulty from sweat volume, but we were all winded at the end of the hour. Incredibly solid effort from all in attendance including 2 of 3 OG Rock site Qs (where was Hops?!?) Kotters to MallCop, good seeing you out there. We also had a guest appearance from Fragile who has been terrorizing Charleston for the last year after being a Rock regular prior to that.
Once we got to COP YHC had a chance to talk for a few minutes, including a retelling of the wheelbarrow and the Dolphin (yes Runstopper we know you won that particular race!) The opportunity to tell 23 PAX about the privilege it has been to be part of TheRock(zero) for the past 3 years and the honor it is to be a siteQ at the greatest darn AO in all of southtown was humbling. I have never been prouder to be part of a group than I am of A51 F3. The value of brotherhood, the examples of leadership, the personal growth both physical and otherwise have all been formative in my development to the man who I am today (good, bad or indifferent.)
Here is to another 3 years and beyond brothers, its a pleasure to lead.
AYE!
Flipper