On Saturday, approximately 50 Dads and 2.0’s took to the fields and playgrounds of Harrisburg Elementary school just southeast of Ballantyne. This week was a different meeting place for the #SOB’s but all seemed to find it ok.
One could ask why the location was changed from the picturesque and fun field of the bulls. The reason became evident about half way through the workout. Read on…
The thang:
First, there was a quick disclaimer telling the kids they don’t have to do what a guy named Honey Bee says. In fact, it is probably better if they didn’t. Then we circled up on the basketball court for a quick warmup. Side straddle hop, toy soldiers, mtn climbers, and the crowd favorite daddy elevators got the blood pumping.
Then we moved just off the pavement and lined up shortest to tallest for leapfrog. The ground was surprisingly rocky here and the kids didn’t want to stay down low. Leap frog sounded much better in YHC’s head than it went down. Oh well. Off to the next idea.
After everyone was through, we ran over to the little kid’s fenced in playground and handed out 3 pool noodles to play freeze tag. After two rule iterations, we still had a hard time getting everyone frozen. There were some fast folks out there!
Next up was the main event, the Ninja Warrior course which has just been installed here at Harrisburg Elementary. Why did my school never have anything this cool? It is a legit ninja style obstacle coarse next to an already very cool playground. Just awesome. We had the 2.0’s go through once to get used to it and then the dads timed them for a few rounds. Everyone was fast but Spidey came in first with 0:33 seconds followed by a tie for second by Chase and Wolfpack at 0:36 seconds. A few dads couldn’t resist giving the course a run too. It was seriously challenging even for the dads.
Once everyone had given the course a few tries, we moved over to a grassy knoll where there was a conspicuous cooler sitting in the middle. There were a lot of guesses what may be inside. Bottled waters? Gatorade? Juice boxes? Nope. All that was in there was a big cup and a bunch of ice cold water. We then circled up for some drip, drip, drop to cool off. Played like duck duck goose except with dripping water for ducks and a gush of freezing water on the head for goose. It was a lot of fun. The kids got the biggest kick out of dousing the dads with cold water and it actually felt good after the initial shock wore off. One niner almost caught Favra in a foot race with a child in hand. Impressive!
Due to poor timing by YHC, we were officially out of time at the end of the drip, drip, drop, however, everyone decided to stay around for one more event that had been set up. In the grassy area across the driveway, someone had sprinkled a bunch of trinkets (dollar store toys left over from the winter F3 Dads event). The kids were allowed to search the area until all the trinkets were collected. We then had a BOP (ball of people) before telling everyone goodbye.
Sorry that we were over time and there was not an official name gathering (or official count). #bigQfail Everyone had a good time though and that is what counts.
Thank you for letting YHC lead. On this Father’s Day weekend, it means a lot for you men to be spending this quality time with your kids. F3 has many good parts, but F3 Dads is one of the most meaningful to me. The kids simply love having fun with their dads. We get to have this fun while showing them some leadership in action. That is good stuff.
For this week’s F3 Dads SOB Edition, we will meet on Saturday (6/17) 9:00 am at Harrisburg Elementary School (10251 Harrisburg Rd, Fort Mill, SC 29707). Enter the south side parking lot and park near the back (basketball court).
If you have not been there, our neighbors to the south have installed a ninja warrior style obstacle course on an already awesome playground area. The plan is to do our standard warmups and activities before doing a few time trials on the course. We will likely do something at the end involving some ice cold water to cool off a bit.
Check the map, bring your 2.0’s, get some towels, and let’s have some fun!
At 5:00 am, 5 men stood in the bushes at the greenway (not sure why the bushes were chosen instead of the parking lot). One said let’s run and off they went down Bevington and back for a quick prerun.
At 5:14 am, 21 additional men were mulling about the parking lot hoping the preblast was just some kind of joke. Many had on the official shirt color of DT (day glow yellow) but less had the official hairstyle (bald).
The preblast was a true blast from the past (Mar 27, 2014 to be exact). Read more about that here (PREBLAST) . It basically consisted of a 1.25 mi run out to the Old Course double trouble hill, 6 – 8 repeats on the hill, and 1.25 mi back to COT. By the looks on the faces of the PAX at COT, it was rough.
The naked moleskine:
– This type of workout really should not be completed 2 days after difficult I-pace intervals at Swift. It is not wise (maybe even stupid), but when you only have one Q left, you have to go big. And this workout was the worst that could be remembered.
– No one attacked the segment on the way in from Rea Rd. on Old Course today. Smart move, but it looks like YHC (wait, really?) will share that record with Bratwurst a while longer.
– Today was definitely not the day to put a move on Frasier’s record on the way out on Old Course. The 6 – 8 trips up the double trouble hill saw to that.
– Someone really should make a segment on the double trouble hill itself. It could be interesting to see how fast Frasier really was out there today. He nearly lapped everyone with Fletch close behind.
– Fluty Flakes left it all out on the hills today (maybe even more than he planned). Last night’s meal didn’t agree with the ridiculous plan of the day. Not sure if any meal would necessarily agree with this absurdity though… Nice effort!
– Midway into the 6th repeat, Alf made a grand proclamation that he would be doing 8 laps instead of the mere 7 which were preblasted. At the end of the 7th after a long look at the PAX gathering at the start, Alf headed off to his grand 8th lap and did it with style. Way to push past where others were intending to go.
– Spurred on by Alf’s brazened challenge, several others like Frasier, Fletch, Haggis, Turkey Leg, (others too?) also completed 8 laps of the hill. Kudos to you guys. Serious kudos.
– As mentioned above, everyone looked spent in the COT. The hills on the way out on Old Course took the last energy most of us had. You know it was a good DT when everyone has that look.
Final word (I am going to break the rules and use “I” – it’s a personal message though so the backblast police will have to deal):
Guys, I can’t say enough what F3 and, specifically you guys that I post with the most, mean to me. My second post was the first F3 Stonehenge workout and since that time, I have known my home was with the SOB’s. I don’t have a cool physical transformation story (I have always been pencil armed just like now), but I have still been changed significantly by my daily and weekly interaction with you High Impact Men (#HIM). I can’t thank you enough for the iron sharpening that has happened at the butt crack of dawn for the last 4.5 years. You are true role models.
It was hard on Tuesday and today to look around the COT without getting a bit sad that these sharpening sessions will be less frequent. Fluty Flakes literally saved my shite by taking us out in prayer at the end. It would have been embarrassing.
So, enough of the blubbering. You guys are awesome and I will try to come back as much as I can. You are in good hands with Bunker and Gumbo. #mileagekings
It could be said that some things are best left in the past. The plan for tomorrow’s Devil’s Turn is definitely one of those things. However, tomorrow is YHC’s last Q of Devil’s Turn so we will make it something to remember.
It was over 3 years ago (Mar 27, 2014) this workout was last attempted with 8 brave souls in attendance. This workout was before the days of Swift when DT was not primarily a tempo/easy run format. This workout may have even been the reason for Swift’s existence. It is likely Bratwurst decided to launch Swift one month later to ensure this type of thing never occurred again.
Needless to say, this workout has never been repeated…until now.
Read the original preblast here (back when there were maps included in the preblasts): Preblast
5:00 am optional extra miles
5:15 am meet in greenway parking lot (corner of Rea Rd. and Bevington Pl.)
6:15 am arrive back at greenway parking lot for COT
19 men decided to post to another non-Bratwurst led Swift workout. Bratwurst must be continuing to nurture speed work in other neighboring counties. #runninghumanitarian
10 showed up for the pre-run…run which followed the standard route. Tiger Rag paced himself such that in the last 100 meters he pulled ahead in a dramatic fashion. He must know “it is all won in the pre-run.”
There was a detailed preblast posted which allowed all PAX ample warning of what was to unfold. The general plan was a warmup jog, various dynamic stretching exercises, a Strava segment challenge, then some 3 and 5 min I-pace intervals, followed by a mosey back to COT.
It sounds easy when it is written in one sentence. Well, it was not. Here are some notes:
1) When Qing a Bratwurst workout, do nothing out of sequence. High knees were completed before heel/toe walks and there was a near mutiny.
2) There is no love for the B-skip/flapping arm combo. YHC was completely left alone to do this exercise proudly for a good 30 ft before anyone joined. What happened to iron sharpening (while flapping your arms and skipping) guys?
3) The segment challenge was enthusiastically embraced. Haggis had grand plans to claim the crown on the Bagpipe hill. However, he did not factor that Favra was in attendance and ended up with 3rd after Frasier whose record still stands from March 2016.
4) Haggis also EH’ed Charlie the FNG (now Woodson) who made his first appearance at the pre-run at 5:00 am. Even though he was not properly introduced (Q-fail), he joined in the pre-run and later dominated the segment and intervals. Watch out Gumbo and Bunker, there may be a new mileage king in town. Word on the street is that Woodson runs 60 – 70 mi per week. Boom.
5) The timed runs out and back were as bad as the memories entailed. The out was good since it is slightly downhill, however, to make it back to the start in the same amount of time takes a serious push. That will leave a mark…
Thanks to Brat’ for letting me lead today and thanks to you guys for following (except on the skipping, that does not get any thanks…).
COT was rough guys. I’m going to miss Ballantyne. This 4.5 yrs has been awesome. I’ll save the rest of the sentimentalism for #F3DevilsTurn on Thursday. It is going to be the second worst Devil’s Turn ever (come and see what’s in store).
Announcements:
– Fredo VQ at DaVinci
– Tuck has a beer run this weekend and wants you to join
– Speed for Need – get on social media and check it out – great cause
– Fight Club is now at Elon Park Elementary
– May 24 is FNG day at The Maul – bring your pals and come out!
As many of you know, YHC is leaving at the end of the month to head for the north side. It is going to be difficult to leave you SOB’s. However, one silver lining is Bratwurst feels bad enough to hand over the reigns of Swift for one more round of mayhem before I go. #lapseinjudgment
We will keep it real this week complete with moderate hills and elements of danger. There is another chance at Strava greatness if you are so inclined.
5:00 am optional pre-run action
5:15 am main event
6:15 am meet up with our Bagpipe bros for COT
The Main Event (for watch programming purposes):
– Warmup
– Can-can, arm flaps, B-skips, butt-kickers, etc.
– Optional sprint up Bagpipe hill for Strava record
– Arrive at Ballantyne Corp. bridge over 521
– I-Pace: Run 1:30 out toward Premiere deck turn and run 1:30 back to bridge – jog recovery 2:00 (watch for cars!)
– I-Pace: Run 1:30 out toward Premiere deck turn and run 1:30 back to bridge – jog recovery 2:00 (watch for cars!)
– I-Pace: Run 2:30 out toward Premiere deck turn and run 2:30 back to bridge – jog recovery 4:00 (watch for cars!)
– Repeat cycle again for good measure
– Easy run, I-Pace, or sprint back to COT
– Optional elbow plank until everyone arrives
Yes, it is a lot to fit in an hour, but that is what she said. Bring your stamina, bro.
16 men deciphered the vague Slack/Twitter messaging about the location of today’s Devil’s Turn and came anyway.
The location is known as the #LaurenConrad due to her role in the MTV show “The Hills.” The place we visited today has hills, so badabing badaboom, Hairball called it the #LaurenConrad and that is that.
If you ever want to reach the #LaurenConrad, you would go north on Rea Rd past 51 looking for a neighborhood and road of the name Five Knolls. You would then turn left and run to the end of that road and back to Rea Rd repeatedly. That is what we did today.
Due to pushing too far on the last loop, YHC was late to COT and did not have a phone handy to catch all PAX names. However, there are a few notes on the run below.
– Haggis prefers F3 to filing police reports. After hopping in his car this morning with a robber who immediately exited the vehicle, Haggis determined it better to get in a quick workout with the boys before doing the tedious police reporting. We are glad about the choice and the robber is lucky Haggis didn’t say “c’mon” and chase his arse down.
– Everyone was pushing hard today and the people at the front seemed to keep switching places. Must have been some friendly competition going on there.
– I am sure there were other memorable events. Chime in below to share.
Enjoyed the run today guys! Always a good time (when its over)!
9 men braved the ominous weather forecast and assembled for hill day at #F3DevilsTurn. Since there was water still on the roadways, chalk was not an option.
The PAX were given rough instructions to find someone that knows the route and latch onto them for the duration of the workout. Piper Glen can be a dark and scary place and it would not be the first time someone was lost to the hills. Luckily it was determined that everyone was looking to just cruise today and not push the pace so grouping up for safety shouldn’t be an issue.
Once the workout was underway, it became clear that Alf had different plans. During the warmup apartment loop, the pace was quick but manageable, but once the main event came, it was off to the races. A group of 5 and a group of 4 formed and remained through to the end of the workout.
Notable items:
1) Thin Mint is a great scout Q and kept close tabs on the movements of the PAX at every turn to ensure none was lost.
2) Van Pelt is experienced in the hills of Piper Glen and only needed rough guidance of the route. He even ended early and jetted out to Raleigh.
3) Depth Charge is looking fit and is making some significant gains in speed. I would pity the fool who decides to play any contact sport with him. #ouch
4) Rebar is just plain consistent now at running workouts. Seems like he is officially hooked. However, he came incognito this morning in a different ride. Sly.
5) Baracus came to Devils Turn on his birthday. It made us feel special. Wisely, he neglected to let us know this fact until the end of the workout so that we could not come up with some celebration ritual.
6) Gumbo is back from injury and Germany. It seems like a good time to get him in the Q rotation as the third in this Tri-Site-Q situation until my departure in late May. Even though he has too much hair, YHC knows DT is in good hands.
7) Bunker was smooth sailing as always on the hills pushing the pace the whole way. He even had the official DT shirt on today. #style.
8) As said in the intro, Alf did not get the memo that this was easy day. From the start, he was on it. However, in his own words, the wheels fell off on the last hill. The blame is clearly on Fraiser for this. Luckily Fraiser was not there to run up the hill backwards and shaming us all. Great push out there Alf, thanks!
Announcements:
– bring F3 shirts to JRR Tolkien for Mission I’m Possible donation
– F3 Dads camping trip on April 29, join #f3dads slack channel for info
2 PAX ventured on a pre-run at 5:00 down Bevington Place and back before meeting the main group of 13 PAX at 5:15 for an out and back on the greenway. During the pre-run, there was a #F3DevilsTurn bald board meeting (BBM) to discuss succession planning for YHC due to a planned move in May to the Lake Norman area. After several non-binding resolutions and objections from the floor, it was decided that it would be announced during COT.
Upon reaching the parking lot, several PAX were already taking part in mull-o-rama with Cheddar and Fletch dragging arse getting out of their cars. Cheddar joined as we took off down the greenway and we just left Fletch. He can catch up we said, and that he did…
About 1 mile into the run, Fletch and Bushwood decided they needed to stretch their legs and took off at a sub-7 minute pace. Graffiti and YHC tried to give chase but after about 100 feet, came back to our senses and settled into a more reasonable pace. We just watched as Fletch’s red blinky light got further and further away through the woods.
Due to the format of #F3DevilsTurn where the PAX tend to get spaced out, this condition remained constant for the next 22 minutes until it was time to turn around. At first Bushwood came screaming past. It may be that he jumped the gun and turned back early. However, Fletch made up for this by not turning back until way late. Perhaps he needs to take notes from Wild Turkey and wear another watch or two (the man likes information).
Once everyone turned around, the conditions again remained relatively constant for another 30 minutes except for the occasional tomato pace bump (TPB) and verbal high five while passing fellow PAX on the way back to the parking lot.
Overall, it was a great Devil’s Turn.
Announcements:
– During COT, Gumbo agreed to take over co-Site-Q responsibilities from YHC upon my relocation in May. Until then, Gumbo may keep his hair and we will work on the transition plan although he may kick me out prematurely due to late backblast posting…
– F3 Dads camping trip has been cancelled due to the snowstorm coming on Sunday
It may be the dead of winter with soccer and cub scouts in full swing, but we won’t let that stop us from planning an outdoor F3 Dads event anyway. It will be partly cloudy in the 40’s on Saturday morning right? That should be ok even for the 2.0’s.
Here are the key details:
When: Saturday February 4 at 9:00 am
Where: The Field of Bulls, 13950 Ballantyne Corporate Pl, Charlotte, NC
What: 10 challenges led by dads, tickets given for challenge completion, trinket store to redeem tickets
Schedule: 9:00 – 9:15 setup, 9:15 – 10:15 challenges, 10:15 – 10:30 redeem tickets for trinkets
Prior to the event, each dad will need to go to the dollar store and purchase 20 – 30 cheap toys by spending no more than $10 total (think the cheap section of Chuck-E-Cheese). Suggestions are stickers, rubber finger puppets, bouncy balls, etc. No candy! Bring them on Saturday.
Each dad should also come prepared to lead the kids in a pain station and/or challenge. Unless we have tons of kids, we will go around as a group to each dad’s station. We will have 60 minutes to workout so we should limit each station to 5 minutes and have 10 stations which will allow for time to transition. After successful completion of the challenge, tickets will be awarded to the kids (one ticket per challenge per kid).
After all the challenges are complete, each kid should have at least 10 tickets to then use to purchase the trinkets the dads bring. We will set up a store in the back of one of our trucks for the kids to browse and buy.
That’s the plan. Will it be chaos? Probably. But we will have fun and that’s what it’s about.
See #f3dads channel on SOB Slack or email jlevins9@hotmail.com if you have questions.