As our F3 brethren braved the mountains of the Blue Ridge, six men met at The Rock for a starfish that was less than symmetrically designed. It had one long leg and three short legs, but it still whipped us all the same. After a quick disclaimer, we headed out:
Warm-Up:
Mosey to the basketball courts for the following:
The starfish was explained. The basketball courts were the “center” of the starfish. After running to the end of each leg, come back to the center for 10 merkins. Here were the four legs of the beast:
When we got back to the center, we had some resting recovery via 20 Freddy Mercury and 20 Rosalita.
Surprise!….run the starfish again!!
Upon the completion of the second starfish, we ran into brothers from DayZero who decided to come to the best AO in Area51……great to see you boys!! We jumped into a couple of rounds of Mary with them.
After our neighbors took off, we ran some Here and There:
Between light posts (100 yards?), we did the following:
The above was followed by two more rounds, with reps of 15, then 10.
Jog back to the cars for some Mary including flutter, LBC’s, parker peter and peter parker.
That’s a wrap!
I had fun today boys! Thanks for coming out and for putting up with my crazy starfish design. I know it was ridiculously uneven, but I know I am dragging already today, so I hope you got something good out of it, too! Great group of guys today, by the way!!
By my count, here is what we tackled, and this is only partial:
Sweet work!
Announcements:
E Trade, thanks for the great take-out prayer!
Have a great weekend! Take time to Remember 9/11.
Hopper
The following is posted (quite late, unfortunately) on behalf of co-Q’s Safelite and Boerewors:
The Thang
Warmup: Run to the far side of Calvary for some SSH, merkins and Imperial walkers.
3x Northface loops consisted of some lbcs, jump squats and Russian twists. Slight detour on the first loop to picking up Hoover as he came in late after HighT.
From Nothface we took a nice scenic perimeter run down Rea to Pineville Matthews where we stopped at every lamppost to do merkins. Started with 20 and worked down by 2 at every post. We got a bit more than half way before the pax were complaining too much so we switched to lbc to finish the run to entrance 1.
Head over the Grassy Knoll, 20 lbcs at top (working down by 2 every loop), and 2 jump squats at the bottom (working up to 20). eTrade was showing us how it is done, and was most likely the only one to complete this activity.
Quick water break on the way to the rocks.
Do loops around baseball field while watching and explaining the rules of Cricket being played on the baseball field. 20 curls, 20 overhead press, 20 tricep ext.
Head over to hotbox for another water break before some trashcan loops, including: dips, donkey kicks, step ups.
Mosey back to start for 5 minutes of mary.
The Moleskin:
Good work guys, total distance of 3.5 miles. Next week is my 1 year anniversary of joining F3, so was fun to Q again, especially since it turns out the whole pax today happen to be people I roped into F3, haha. Great work by co-Q safelite too.
Thanks eTrade for taking us out.
Announcements:
Convergence for labor day
It has been too long since YHC had posted (or led) at The Rock. Thank heavens I have a phenomenal co-site Q. That said, I pulled out a favorite workout plan of mine I affectionately call “No Outlet Hell”. We gathered for a quick disclaimer (both legal and admittance that I gained 5 pounds on vacation last week and it would show it in my performance) and headed toward the front lawn of Calvary.
Warm-Up:
I explained to the men the premise of No Outlet Hell. We will run along Cary Ridge and Bevington and back up Rea Rd. to Calvary. That stretch equals about 3.25 miles. At each cul-de-sac (there are 8) we will stop for 20 of the stated exercise. Here’s what we did:
As we waited on the six back at Calvary (I was part of the six by the way), extra LBC’s and planking.
Mosey to the hot box:
During hot box time, Marlin mentioned he volunteers at Calvary and is responsible for soccer field management, including moving all of the soccer goals (there are about 18?) to the side of the field so he can chalk line the fields. Time for an audible….
Mosey to the soccer fields. Pair up and each pair runs to a soccer goal and carries it to the far left of the soccer fields near the sidewalk. Once you put down the goal, run to the next one and repeat.
Mosey back to the cars
COT:
We covered 4.25 miles and got in a lot of good work along the way. We also got a chance to help out Calvary, a great partner for us all in F3! Thanks to Marlin for the idea. I forgot to mentioned we had some youth with us today…..Drago, Nemo and Rapper’s Delight are all in their teens. A few of us got dusted by them during anything sprint related. E Trade, on the other hand, hung with them and sometimes led them….awesome work you four! You’d be even more impressed by E Trade’s speed if you saw the shoes he was wearing. Let’s just say my father (who is 74) has a similar pair.
Thanks men! It was a pleasure!
Announcements:
Area 51 pool party tonight at Candlewyck
Gummy, thanks for the great take-out!
On this hot, humid morn, seven men and one 2.0 descended upon The Rock campus. Originally, due to my busted foot, I wanted to keep mileage low. Boerewors had a brace on his knee so he looked like he needed the same game plan. I didn’t abide, however, and once Gummy took over mid way through the workout, the running only ramped up. We covered just shy of 3.5 miles and man, it was steamy! Here’s what we got into:
Hopper on Q:
Warm-Up:
Mosey to the center parking lot.
Mosey to the volleyball court/picnic table area to visit with the meatheads who just finished a soft launch of High T. The boys looked wiped out from some serious grunt work, but they managed to smile (some of them) as we said hey. We left ’em and headed to North Face.
Partner up at NF. Partner #1 runs the NF loop while Partner #2 does 10 plank jacks then runs the distance to Entry #3 and back. Flapjack. Repeat.
Resting recovery with LBCs
Mosey to the front lot on 51 for The Beast (6 sets of 6 reps):
Nemo and/or ETrade led the way for each of these phases. Witch Doctor looked pretty fast on a few, too.
Resting recovery with 20 Rosolita.
Gummy on Q:
Mosey to the hotbox:
Repeat all of above.
Mosey to hill above soccer fields for Jacob’s Ladder up to 11’s
Mosey further into soccer fields. 10 50 yard sprints. Last man to finish completes a ten count (yours truly had to count 7 times).
Back to the hotbox. Two rounds of wall sitting and balls to the wall.
Mosey back to the cars. Finish up with 25 LBCs.
Moleskin:
Great sunny morning today. Even thought the heat was a killer, the blue sky was incredible and set a great tone for the hour. Great group of dudes stepped up, too! Being 15 helps, but Nemo was a stud out there and smoked us all on most everything. E Trade, Gummy and Witch Doctor were never far behind him. Thanks for letting Gummy and I lead this morning boys. When I take these extended absences from The Rock (not by choice), I come back and realize how much I really miss it. Fun times!!
Announcements:
Originally 7, but ultimately 8, men gathered for an off campus workout at The Rock. The site Q’s (yes, we actually try to attend our workouts) took the helm this morning. We thought it was the right day to run some since recent workouts had a lot of coupon and lifting associated. After a quick disclaimer and notification that we would not see much of The Rock campus this day, we headed out. Warm-up would come in phases in between legs of running:
The Thang:
Hopper on Q:
Run from Calvary Church to Davies Park with stops in between for 20 reps of:
Once we arrived at Davies, we ran the stretch from the park gate back to the dog park (about .25 miles) stopping at each street lamp for 10 merkins (I think there were 5 or 6 lamps). Plank up for the six.
Partner up at the circular parking lot beyond the dog park. Partner #1 runs the “parking lot track” while Partner #2 does stated exercise. Flapjack upon lap return:
Head back to the park gate stopping at each street lamp again for 5 Sister Mary Catherine (Gummy ragged on my form, but I think he is just jealous of my long slender legs).
Mosey to the playground. Sticking with the partner theme, Partner #1 runs the “parking lot track” while Partner #2 does stated exercise. Flapjack upon lap return:
Working recovery with 20 LBCs and a handover to Gummy.
Gummy on Q:
Mosey to soccer field and line up abreast (remember, this is Gummy now) at one sideline. 10 gassers from one sideline to the other with 10 second rests between each one. It is safe to say E Trade won EVERY one of the ten gassers….like Sea Biscuit won them!!
Time for the four point Starfish. 5 burpees in the middle of the soccer field in between each corner. At the four corners, we endured:
Mosey back to Calvary with the following working mary recovery every so often:
Moleskin:
We covered 3.84 miles today and did a lot of stuff in between. It was a more humid morning than any of us expected so we had a team of slimy looking dudes when we got back to the AO. Wolfman provided the highest level of humor this morning when he used the sniglet “Moobs”. I don’t want to steal his thunder on the meaning so ask him the next time you see him!
While every dude present worked his tail off and killed the workout, the stud prize needs to go to Squid, who was barely even with us. As we jogged (Gummy sashayed) into the Calvary parking lot, Squid appeared from behind some trees like Paul Bunyan. Turns out he tried to go to another AO which was closed down, but made it to The Rock at 7:07. We had already moved on to Davies so he missed us. The man stuck around and did his own workout. I can tell you I have NEVER done that. I would have headed straight to Dunkin Donuts and would have no qualms over it. You’re a beast Squid!
Squid also offered an excellent take-out prayer. Double beast!!
No announcements!
The following is posted on behalf of Boerewors:
First time Q (VQ) for YHC just before my 6 month F3 anniversary. Thanks to Gummy and Hopper for making it happen, and can’t ask for a better AO. Even the weather played along, allowing us to run with some rocks without losing any fingers.
The Thang
Warmup: Disclaimer and nice scenic run around the Calvary church to scope out the AO, back to start for some SSH, IW, merkins and slow squats.
Run to get a nice size running rock and head straight to the hotbox and people’s chair with our rocks:
Run to hill on the field and do modified 7s:
Head back to hotbox for some people’s chairs before trying to do 5 count Rock-a-bye baby:
Mosey to front (back?) of church switching exercises at each median:
Circle up at front of church:
Mosey to North Face (working our way around the church for a 2nd time):
Work our way back to rock return:
Quick run back for short Mary as we were out of time:
The Moleskin:
The PAX kept me on my toes, but no attempts were made at stealing my notes sheet. There was some questionable cadence counting (who doesn’t enjoy a good variable speed cadence count?), and I probably should’ve mentioned we were doing slow squats, but the guys picked it up after a couple. Interpretation of the correct size for a running rock varied nicely, between pebbles and head sized, but everyone managed to keep up pretty well. There was a lot of chatter especially during the rock merkins, the pax might need some balance work. By my calculations we did about 2.5 miles with our rocks, and 3.1 miles total, so we gave those rocks a good tour. Burpees were kept to a minimum.
Thanks for the Q guys, looking forward to my next one!
Announcements:
Welcome to our FNG Teacher’s Pet!
Remember to sign up for the F3 5 years anniversary celebration party on March 5, see link at top of the page.
Thanks to Runstopper for the take-out prayer.
9 strong pax showed up on a 27 degree morning to cover most of what the Calvary campus has to offer. We didn’t cover every inch, but we came close. In our exploration, we covered over 3.5 miles and never left the address. After a shovel flag plant (not easy when the ground doesn’t want to give), and a quick disclaimer we headed to the basketball court lot for:
Warm Up:
Game Plan:
We headed to the pine trees at the entrance to North Face, we partnered up and Partner 1 ran the NF hill/circle with 10 merkins thrown in at the top of NF. Partner #2 ran to the huge rock at the #4 entrance. Partner #2 did 10 merkins at the rock before running back. When partners met back up at the pine trees, 10 hand slap merkins. Flapjack and repeato.
We ran a second circuit with 10 heals to heaven, followed by 30 leg throws at the meet-up point at pine trees.
One more run as pax up NF for good measure and then mosey to the front parking lot with all of the islands. But, before you get to the islands, pick up a “man sized rock” and head to the first island. Man sized rock meant something more subtle to 7 of us. We all picked something challenging, but nothing that would trigger a hernia. Squid and Pop Tart on the other hand had to practically roll their rocks to island #1 and I think Pop Tart’s was the same boulder that almost squashed Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom.
Once we dropped our rocks at Island #1, YHC provided the plan. 10 curls for each pax, but as a working recovery, run stair-stepped suicides to each island. That resulted in sixty curls and suicides to six islands and back. Repeato with squats, but we only ran to four island for suicides.
After dropping the rocks back, we huddled up for a merkin circle. All men plank together in a circle. Shuffle in sequence five paces to the left while still planking, do 5 merkins, shuffle five paces to the right, do 5 merkins, shuffle 5 paces to the left, do 5 wide arm merkins, shuffle 5 steps to the right. Take a break. Get back down, shuffle 5 paces to the right, do 5 diamond merkins, shuffle 5 paces to the left, do 5 diamond merkins. Recover.
Mosey to the soccer fields. Ten 75 yard sprints with 10 counts between each one. E Trade was like the Road Runner out there and below through everyone. Pop Tart and Squid were close behind.
Mosey to the hotbox and partner up again. Partner #1 runs to #2 light post while Partner #2 does dips. Flapjack. Repeato with derkins and flapjack.
Mosey back to vehicles and finish up with mary:
That’s a wrap!
Great work men! It was a real pleasure as there was plenty of good banter and convo! There was a little something for everyone today with running (sprints and some distance), strength training, core, etc. The pax never let up! World Tour and Corkage, great to meet you both and strong showing!
Announcements:
Keep coming out to The Rock and bring a friend. We have a tremendous AO and have built a strong set of guest Q’s, including Hops next week. We have tremendous choices (which is a great thing and part of what we all love about F3) on a Saturday morning, but The Rock is a flagship AO for A51 and we want to pump more constant energy into the attendance and workouts!!
F3’s five year anniversary party will be at NC Music Factory in March. Look for more info on website.
Look for a sweet workout from Hops next week! He always brings it!!
Thanks to Squid for an awesome take-out prayer.
Go Panthers!!
Hopper
8 brave pax showed up for some off campus running and working recovery through Piper Glen. This was a recycled workout, but one I really enjoy……and that’s the beauty of Qing, right? A quick disclaimer was provided along with notice that the wheels would be in use today for sure. And away we go….
Warm-Up/COP:
Properly warmed up, we headed out of entrance #3 and crossed Rea Rd to make our way to Carrington Swim & Racquet Club on Cary Ridge. We stopped and did an unbalanced right arm/right leg high plank before a club member pulled into the lot and broke up our momentum….no sweat, we will balance out the left side of the plank later. I took the interruption as a chance to explain our workout….No Outlet Hell. There are 8 cul-de-sacs between where we were standing and the intersection of Bevington/Rea Roads. At each cul-de-sac we will stop for 20 of the called exercise. Here is how it went down:
…..the intersection of Rea and Bevington. We headed right on Rea and made our way back to entrance #4 at Calvary. We made two trips up and down the ramp of entrance #4. Run down forwards and run up backwards….unsavory!
Mosey to the hotbox. 15 reps of dips, incline merkins and jump-ups. 10 count then 10 reps of repeato. Two CMPD officers (and a German Shepherd) who were hanging out near the pavilion heckled us and told us to run faster. We would have yelled something back, but you know….they have weapons. Truth told, they were very cool. We appreciate the heightened security!!
Mosey to one of the many lots of Calvary for recovery mary, including:
Mosey back to the vehicles…..that’s a wrap!
Moleskin:
Great work men! The 8 pax stuck together the entire way so it ended up being a very evenly fit group….impressive! There was a lot of good 2nd F as we ran from cul de sac to cul de sac. Good to meet Green Bean who was visiting from Atlanta (parents live in Piper Glen so a good guy to have along if you want to grab a glass of water during the workout). E Trade smoked us all on the AYG sprints on Pembry Links! Great group of dudes and great momentum the entire hour! We covered 3.9 miles total. In hindsight, I should have thrown in a couple of 100 yard dashes at the end to get us to 4, but I did not have much left in the tank, frankly!
Announcements:
Hopper, out!
It had been a LOOONNNNGGGGG time since I had Qd at The Rock. Between training and bronchitis it had been a few months anyway. I was excited to be back and even more excited to have my brother-in-law, Jeff, come join us while he is visiting from Ohio. I told him where to meet us and expected him to come pulling in at 6:55, but instead he jogged it in from his hotel….3 miles. Impressive!! Has any FNG ever jogged in 3 miles before their first post?……check the record books, but I think we have a winner!!
Once FNG Jeff settled in and quick intros were made, we were off. The workout went like this:
COP/Warm-Up:
Mosey to the front of the church for:
Mosey to the front parking lot for The Beast (6 exercises, 6 reps, 6 times), including:
During the above we were interrupted by 10 lost 2.0’s searching for a better AO. It’s Christmas so we were happy to share our turf. It’s all about giving, right?
Mosey to entrance #1 (I think) of Calvary on Pineville-Matthews Rd. Time for speed bump mania. Partner up and flapjack with partner #1 doing 10 merkins while partner #2 does 10 jump squats. Keep running to entrance #4 (the hill off of Rea Rd):
7’s on the hill with CDD’s at the top and lunges at the bottom.
Mosey to the baseball field and grab a man size rock. Keep your partner and alternate said exercise while your partner runs to chosen lightpost and back. Flapjack:
Mosey to the hotbox for 15 reps, then 10 reps each of:
Mosey to original parking lot for Mary, including:
That’s a wrap!
Moleskin:
We covered over 3 miles! FNG GMO (by the way, he works for Monsanto, hence GMO seemed like the proper dubbing) covered close to 9 miles between run to, workout, and run from AO (yes, I offered him a ride back but he declined)…..again, check the record books!
The small group allowed for some great 2nd F as well. I learned Fragile is a rock climber (also impressive) and Boerewors was headed off to in-law paradise post workout in Maryland….good luck man! Gummy inserted his typical satire when needed, which is always appreciated!
Great work men! Thanks for letting me take the helm in this final Saturday of 2015! As always, it was an honor!!
Hopper, out!
Gummy, thanks for the great take-out.
About five minutes before the rain started, 19 pax showed up for another edition of Fast Twitch. These men were ready to run. A disclaimer was provided, and off we went!
Warm-Up:
The pax were asked to split into teams of four and then find a partner within their foursome. Off we moseyed to the Rounding Run loop.
Mosey to Rising Meadow. Triple Nickel with Sister Mary Catherine at top of hill and squats at the bottom. Oh yeah, run backward up the hill. LBCs while waiting on the six.
Mosey to Smokerise Hill. Run the 0.5 mile distance of Smokerise, stopping at the valley, cul-de-sac, valley and end of street for 15 heels-to-heaven at each stop. Repeato with 10 monkey humpers at stops.
Indian run (sort of) back to SCMS.
That’s a wrap!
Moleskin:
We covered 5.25 miles today…some backward, some chasing each other and most of it in the rain! There were a few moments waiting on the six, but not for long. The pax stayed together pretty tight! Nice work! Great group of regulars and some fresher faces….all looking strong.
Thanks for letting me lead today PH and TL! It’s always a privilege!
Gummy, thanks for great take-out!
Announcements:
PH and Simba are starting a new 3rd F offering. More details to come!