The SF was planted and a dozen of the Southlands pax closed out November in style with another assault on The Rock.
Thang:
Gummy’s Q:
Warmup
Jog around parking lot
3 or 4 shovel flags from Area51 were planted through the frosty ground, and 60 Turkey-craving warriors (incl 12 FNGs) set out following Crabcake for a Thanksgiving beatdown.
Thang:
Crabcake Q:
Jog to field and circle up
Hops Q:
Plankorama
Karaoke Left 1/2 way across pitch, Karaoke Right other 1/2
Count off by 2’s to form two relay teams
Ninja Turtle respectfully retrieved 4 shopping bags filled with 4.7lbs (approx.) of canned goods. See Moleskine for a bit of elaboration.
Each team member would run with one bag in each hand to midfield then back while rest of team did various plank, pushes or Mary work.
Can’t remember all the exercises nor the # of reps we did, but definitely included the following:
CDDs, Flutters, Dollys, Christian Laettner’s and other sundry and unsavory plankwork, squats, 6-count cadence burpees.
McGee, by no means a total stranger to Area51, stepped up to lead a couple painful exercises. One was called Barishnikovs and can’t remember the other. T-claps to McGee for helping YHC out. Good to see you in the southlands again brother.
Forgot to penalize the losing squad, but frankly didn’t even pay attention to who won.
Mosey to parking lot.
Backwards run, Lungewalks, High Knees, Bear Crawl and then AYG run back to starting lot.
CCVs x 13R and 13L
Hand-release merkins x 20
COT
Moleskine:
Crabcake put the shtank on the pax with too many merkins to count. He was going for 390ish so to equal the number of years since the Pilgrims scaled the first rock in what would be America one day. YHC did not do his part to get us to the number. Sorry Crabcake, but YHC was both smoked and forgetful.
The 4.7lbs in each bag is the average amount of food an American eats every day. Thought that would be a good reminder of how God meets our every need….every day. We are blessed to live and work where we do men. But it was also a reminder that on many days, especially Thanksgiving, that we eat more than we need. Proverbs 30: 8-9 reads: “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”
Loud T-claps to the pax who brought food for Calvary Church’s pantry for low-income families. And special recognition to Chelms, Leroy & Deep Dish who contributed prior to today as they couldn’t post this morning. M. Deep Dish actually drove to YHC’s home to drop off their contribution – strong!#gratitudebegetsgenerosity
Some of the best new nicknames were doled out this morning. Special recognition to Dolphin for his obscure knowledge of random things. And whoever came up with “Amelia Earhart” — that was gold brother. Great to have 12 FNGs with us – and for those of you out-of-towners – come back soon…and start an F3 group in your town!
At the risk of being too wordy (YHC often guilty of that) – I will simply say I am thankful the Lord has brought many new friends and brothers into my life through F3. I honestly didn’t think I was lacking for 2nd F or 3rd F in my life (knew full well I needed 1st F); but I was lacking — so thanks to all of you guys for the encouragement, fellowship, friendship and accountability.
Let’s give thanks today for the Giver of all good gifts, not just for the gifts themselves. Aye!
The shovel flag was planted at 0645 while The Shore completed a solo gear pre-workout and Bratwurst limbered up for the assault on The Rock.
The pax rolled in through the foggy gloom, and 18 brave souls were on their way.
YHC decided to make this workout a bit of a break from the norm, a pattern interrupt, if you will.
Thang:
COP started with 25 Rockhoppers followed by 15 Groiners. The pax was confused and a bit testy that we did not start with the obligatory SSHs or IWs. And in full honesty, the Q pert near smoked himself with that start. Not smart…yet will certainly be repeated a beatdown in the near future.
This Thang will be as close to accurate as YHC can remember. The fact that I ad-libbed all but the tennis ball segment coupled with this BB coming many hours after the workout –) means the events and counts will be approximations. My apologies in advance, and do correct YHC below in the comments.
After the Rockhoppers and Groiners, I think we did 25 hand-release merkins, 25 squats, 25 SSHs (all is right with the world….and F3 Nation).
Mosey to the church wall for some People’s Chair including 20ish overhead presses and BTWs.
Mosey to the huge field in front of Calvary. Supersonic grabbed the tennis racket (what?) and YHC grabbed the bag of numbered tennis balls.
The next 25ish minutes consisted of Supersonic picking a numbered tennis ball from the bag and one of the pax then smacked the tennis ball with the aforementioned racket. The pax would sprint AYG to the tennis ball and YHC would then call out an exercise with the reps corresponding to the number on the ball. We would then sprint back to the start point. Rinse & Repeat several times with (I think) Cottonmouth, Chopsaw, Lost Weekend, YHC, MallCop, Supersonic, Cadillac, and Intel taking a turn at launching one of the felt-covered orbs.
The numbers on the balls were: 27, 25, 13 (2 or 3 of these – YHC’s favorite number), 81 (unsavory and our final exercise of LBCs. Q again smoked himself and had to split this one in two parts.) Other numbers were 37, 15, 28….can’t remember the rest.
Exercises were: CDDs, Burpees, Makhtar Ndijaye’s, Widearm Merkins, Freddie Mercury’s, Flutter Kicks?, Stop motion squats – cadence was unorthodox and staccato — mixing it up to the simultaneous amusement and frustration of the pax.).
After the tennis ball silliness – we lined up for 2 lines of Indian Run and ran from front of church to back of church.
We then did backwards run, Karaoke about 400 yards.
Plankorama, then over to picnic tables in the woods for 3 sets of 20 dips and 20 decline merkins. YHC again smoked himself with this one.
We moseyed down the hill to the sand volleyball courts for the following:
Lunge Walk, Backwards lunge walks, Bear crawl (Harley is an inhuman beast at this, btw), partner wheelbarrow (flapjack 1/2 way), one-legged wounded bear crawl (switching L to R 1/2 way), broad jumps. Think that was it.
Mosey over to concession stand pavilion for some more people’s chair followed by wall planks with 5 merkins.
Jog back to starting parking lot. We still have about 4 minutes……so Supersonic grabs a couple more balls out of the bag for a corresponding 13 more burpees. Then 15 was drawn from the bag, so we did a minute of protractor at 15 degree angle.
COT
Moleskine:
Had a lot of fun leading this morning. Great to have Funky Bunch back out. And Hacksaw continues to impress by pushing himself. T-claps for signing up for the USMC spring mud run brother. Great group of men this morning. I’m not overstating but perhaps am a bit of sentimentalist when I say: I love F3.
By the way, Chopsaw had a nice whiff on his first attempt at launching the tennis ball. Thanks also to the pax for offering some solid suggestions for exercises as YHC was ad-libbing the beat down.
Announcements:
Pretty much the normal stuff. Thanksgiving convergence at The Rock from 7am-8am Q’d by CrabCake and Hops. Normal schedule Friday and Saturday.
Check the website and don’t forget the Christmas Party at TR’s crib on Saturday, Dec. 7th.
The SF was planted by Escargot, who’s off the DL and back at it; and 17 men including a surprisingly punctual Wolfman set out for another Friday assault on Centurion.
Thang:
Quick jog around the CCHS Cougar football stadium and to the far parking lot for COP.
Seal Jacks x 25
Hand-release Merkins x 25
Squats x 25
Lunge walks up hill to road
High knees then butt-kickers to the aquatic center lot
Partner up (size matters – apparently not to Frasier – see Moleskine)
Mosey to bottom of lot
Wheelbarrow with partner to top; Plankorama; Mosey to bottom and Flapjack
Partner carry to top; Plankorama; Mosey to bottom and Flapjack
Mosey to bottom
Backwards bear crawl to top of lot; plankorama
Hops hands off the Q to Udder
The shovel flag was planted, and after waiting on late-comers Lost Weekend and Red Card – 14 men set out on another humpday Anvil excursion.
The Thang:
Jog 1/4 mile to the far end of campus for COP
COP:
Peter Parkers x20
Hand Release Merkins x20 (tired of seeing head-bobbin’ 1/2 merkins)
Seal Jacks x 20
Parker Peters x 20
Squats x 20
Jog through the gloom to the bottom of North Face.
Run up NF as quickly as possible.
Plankorama at top
Run back down/around to bottom of NF again. 14 pax bravely stared up the steep ascent again, and only YHC and PH knew what was to come…..
Backwards Bear Crawl up NF — 14 pax not so bravely staring down NF, arse-first up the monster hill (more to come in Moleskine)
Plankorama at top
CDDs x 20 (apparently this is to be a shoulder-smokin’ workout)
Jog to wall in front of gym
People’s Chair with 25 push presses
Wall Walks (BTW) 1/2 way down the wall
Dragon Walk Merkins down the prescription turf hill
People’s Chair with hands extended overhead and out front
Mosey to parking lot
Plank challenge for 5ish minutes: plankorama with 10 hand-release merkins on the minute
Sprint 50 yards down & Sprint 50 yards back – 4.5x with following Mary exercises afters sprints 2, 4, 6 & 8:
Dolly x 13
Slow Flutter x 13
Freddy Mercury x 13
Windshield Wipers x 10
Jog to entrance road
Lunge Walks, High Knees, Karaoke L & R, Backwards Run back to launch point
10 burpees OYO to finish
Moleskine:
Pretty confident saying the pax got their money’s worth this morning. The backwards bear crawl up NorthFace was as unsavory as it sounds. Must credit Purple Haze with planting that seed in YHC’s mind the day before. Planned to do it 2x, but audibled instead…but we’ll do this one again.
Didn’t really intend to do a shoulder-heavy workout, but that’s what happened.
Gummy and PH were their normal witty selves as we traversed the campus. Strong work by all the pax today. Hacksaw getting stronger and stronger – T-claps & keep it up brother. Agony & Fletch were flying on the sprint work.
Must admit I struggled with Red Card’s name in name-o-rama….but figured it out without the help of everyone’s favorite British interpreter – Bulldog.
Great prayer by Baracus to close things out.
Always love Q’ing fellas. Thankful for the opportunity given by Baracus & Young Love. Thankful, too, for the real brotherhood that’s formed amongst the Pax.
Announcements:
Praise God & congratulations to Radar and M. Radar on the birth of their 3rd child – Molly Jane Conder — “MJ”. Word is she favors her mother….and YHC can confidently speak for all the pax in saying we’re all grateful for that!
Sign-up for USMC Mud Run – April 12, 2014 – Nov. 13 deadline – don’t need a team – we’ll find you one.
3rd F workouts – check email and website. All are welcome at any of the 4 A51 workouts – Aftermath (W), The Yardstick (Th), Compass (F) & The Stand (F).
Joe Davis Memorial Resolution 5k Run – Sat. Jan. 4, 2014 – signup! Convergence at The Fort, then coffeteria, then 5k. This is to honor the memory of Rock Thrill’s brother and raise money for Keystone Substance Abuse Services in York County. Discount for F3 – only $20.
In honor of the 187th meeting between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears, the Pax gathered in the north-woods of Wisconsin for an F3 nomad workout on Sunday, November 3. In attendance were:
Out of the 20 degree fog, the pax assembled.
The Thang:
COP in the garage:
SSH x 25, IW x 20
“Brett Favre” Slow run ¾ mile to park.
3 rounds of the following exercises:
“Dick Butkus” Body Builders (Burpee + dead hang pullup + knees to elbows) x 10 reps
“Clay Matthews” Bench Step Ups – 10 reps each leg
“Gale Sayers” Flutter kicks – 20 reps military count
“Donald Driver” Decline Merkins – 10 reps
“Jim McMahon” Lunges – 10 reps each leg
“”Aaron Rodgers” Dolly’s – 20 reps military count
“Mike Ditka” Dips – 10 reps
“Brian Urlacher” Squats – 20 reps
“Vince Lombardi” LBC’s – 20 reps military count
1 mile “Super Bowl Shuffle” after 1st and 2nd rounds.
“Refrigerator Perry” slow ¼ mile run home after 3rd round.
Total workout time: 58 minutes. 2 minutes of staring at the lake rounded us up to a full hour.
Moleskine:
Taking F3 on the road was very satisfying. Having been over-served at the previous night’s visit to the Central Waters Brewery and the following dinner, the pax (all F3 members) agreed that some F3 discipline was much needed in order to get back in the groove prior to the visit to Lambeau Field the next night for MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL! Great aspect of the F3 experience is combining the 1st and 2nd F’s for some roadtrip exercise. A few dog walkers called out to the pax to question who we were and why we were hanging around the city park in the early morning frost and fog – also commenting that what we were doing would wreck their knees. Invitations to join in the fun were not accepted.
Post workout the pax went out for some more cheese before attacking the day.
MC planted the shovel flag after winning the battle with the fartsack, and 14 weekend warriors attacked The Rock on the last day of summer.
Thang:
Jog to lot near baseball field for COP.
SSHs x 25
IWs x 25
Merkins x 15
Mtn Climbers x 25
Squats x 25
LBCs x 25
Widearm Merkins x 15
Mosey to left field for some Tennis Ball Lottery
Sickle with the assist on drawing out the #’d tennis balls
Not sure of the order or how many of each exercise we did but it was something akin to the following:
Burpees x 21 (DK with the call on this one)
Flutters x 29 (Stone Cold w/cadence)
CDDs x 27
Arm presses in squat position x 33 (Mall Cop w/cadence)
Freddie Mercury’s x 54
J Lo’s x 13
Plankorama for 2.5 minutes
Makthar Ndjiaye’s x 13 (Slimfast w/cadence)
Diamond Merkins x 25
Mosey to rocks, and grab one
Frankenstein run (w/rock held straight out in front) to hill at entrance 4
Down the hill with overhead press w/rock
Lunge walk up hill with overhead press
1/2 the pax squats w/rock while other 1/2 runs down hill & bear crawls up; Flapjack
Jog back to baseball field w/rock held overhead
Indian run for 5 minutes through the parking lots
20 Dips + 10 Decline Merkins at the picnic tables; Rinse & repeat
Mosey down to the sand volleyball courts for some beach time on the last day of summer:
High Knees down & back
Lunge walk
Gorilla walk
Backwards run down & back
Partner up – Wheelbarrow down and back; flapjack w/partner 1/2 way
CCVs x 13R/13L
Mosey to pavilion
People’s Chair w/arms at side, overhead and straight out
25 Donkey Kicks
Jog back to starting lot
13 Burpees
COT
Moleskine:
Strong work by the pax this morning. Thanks for putting up with YHC with the audibled/ad lib workout; but it delivered a sufficient dosage of pain. I think the rock work will lead to the requisite aches in the arms and shoulders later today and tomorrow. YHC ignored the mumblechatter about getting in the sand, thus, leading to the CCVs, which are more painful in the sand than asphalt or grass #manyhappyreturns.
Great sendoff prayer by Ice Hole. Good to have you back among the pax brother.
Announcements:
New Friday workout at 0530 at Charlotte Christian – “Joust” – bootcamp style
MallCop still has unclaimed Area51 t-shirts
Late March 2014 – Palmetto 200 – flat/downhill relay race (similar format to BRR) – more info to come from F3 Columbia – check website for details.
Susan G Komen race/walk – Saturday, Oct. 5th – connect with DK for more details
3rd F workouts – W, Th and F (2) in Area51
The SF was planted by SC (albeit painfully in the parched terrain) at CDHS & 40 of Area51’s finest (actually McGee was a welcome guest from Metro) hit the pavement running…
Thang:
Grab your KB and jog to the 2nd ring of the church lot. Leave the KB and quick jog exactly 400m around the church.
Abbreviated COP:
SSHs x 25
Merkins x 15
Round 1:
40 2-handed Swings
30 High Pulls (15R/15L)
30 Clean & Press (15R/15L)
AYG 400m run around church
Round 2:
25 Decline Merkins (legs on partner’s back); Flapjack
40 Renegade Rows (20R/20L)
40 Upright Rows
AYG 400m run around church
Round 3:
40 Push Press (20R/20L)
30 Seated Bicep Curls (Sumo Squat position) – some of the pax alternated arms, others incl. YHC did 2 hand curls
26 Stagger Merkins w/KB (13R/13L)
AYG 400m run around church
Round 4:
30 2-handed Tricep Extensions
20 Goblet Squats (form police in full effect on this)
20 Spartan Burpees
AYG 400m run around church
Plankorama for a couple minutes
6MoM w/KBs:
Dolly x 13 w/KB press
Russian Twist x 10
Flutter x 13 holding KB w/arms extended
LBC (no KB) x 20 (I think?)
Jog to HS lawn
COT
Moleskine:
At the 0530 call to launch, Spielberg, apparently not prepared for this particular production of SW, asks YHC – “Can I borrow a KB?” YoYoMa to the rescue.
The mumblechatter started early on the quick 400m warmup lap. 49er, after a several month hiatus from SW (kotters, btw) – grumbled about how he chose SW to get a break from the running at Fast Twitch. Sorry YHC didn’t fully oblige…but the men only ran 5 laps (1.25 miles), so the pax mumblechatter fell on deaf ears….frankly think YHC is actually going deaf since turning 40. If that comes to full fruition, that would make me immune to Tiger Rag’s verbal assaults. #silverlining In fairness to Tiger Rag – he did help YHC with the mapping of the 400m route and the form for the high pulls….since YHC is not exactly adept at throwing the KB around as you all saw.
Bananas finally “peeled” himself from the fartsack and joined the pax a few minutes late (couldn’t resist the dig or the bad joke). Rumor has it he was heard whimpering throughout the workout about missing his beloved clown car.
Bugeater and a couple of other pax who donned the smokeboots for the AYG 400m runs clearly paid no attention to the warm-up lap route as they only ran about 337m on the 1st lap. The rest of you stand-up and be called out.
Semi-gloss, who was FNG to SW – hope you’ll make SW a regular part of your weekly downpainments…and YHC speaks for all the pax when saying: “Thank you for keeping your shirt on.”
Speaking of shirts…..welcome also to FNG Ike, an EH by YHC. His sleeves were much shorter than those typically worn by Stone Cold and Brown. Nevertheless, Tina’s got some stanky laundry to tend to.
All joking sort of aside, the pax did well. Mixing the AYG runs in with the KBs is no easy task — but you men got after it. Thanks for waiting for YHC to finish some of the KB exercises before heading out on the runs.
Announcements:
New workout – Joust – launches this Friday, Sept. 20th at Charlotte Christian School at 0530. Boot camp format. Park to the far right (when facing school from Sardis) of the property and look for the SF. Stone Cold is your Site Q. He officially handed the Site Q responsibility of SW to Harley.
Mission I’m Possible – F3 workout every Saturday at 0900 at Charlotte Rescue Mission on Cedar St (behind BofA stadium). Community outreach to these men trying to restore their lives and looking for purpose as we all are. 1st, 2nd and 3rd F element all in one. Hope you men will join the pax there soon.
HDHH at Vintners-Arbo and The Lodge-Colony Place at 1800h on Wednesday.
Area 51 3rd F workouts W, Th and F. Check website, twitter and/or weekly email for details.
The VSF was planted again after DMZ took last Monday off for Labor Day Convergences; and 25 pax mustered for another week-starting assault on DMZ.
Thang:
Mosey to school parking lot (10 merkins at both speed bumps).
SSH/Squat Thrust Combo x15
Prisoner Squat x21
IW x21
Merkins x15
Tighten Circle, alternate Pax holding each other up- Reverse Row x10
10×10 – 10 Burpees every minute for 10 minutes
Count off & head to large parking lot & divide into two sides:
Sprint
Backward Sprint
Shuffle Right
Shuffle Left
Karaoke Right
Karaoke Left
Backward Sprint
Sprint
Wall Time
60 sec People’s Chair
40 sec People’s Chair
Last 20 sec alternating Right Leg/Left Leg Raised
People’s Choice Mary Session:
My Sharona- LBC x50
Dick Clark – Protractor (with all due respect to Charles P. Reinhart of Pesotum, IL)
Agent – Flutter x30
Abba – J-Lo x10
Mosey to Track
400M backwards run
Pair back up in lines
Mosey to main road and Indian Sprint home
COT
Moleskine:
YHC posting this on behalf of Abba. T-claps to Abba for a well-organized, pain-infused beatdown on his first Q. The SSH/Squat thrust combo was a bit unorthodox yet a good change of pace. The 10 minutes of burpees was neither unorthodox nor good, rather unsavory!
Good work by the pax this morning. Guys were pushing themselves even with some fighting through injuries. Rather quiet crowd….still sulking over yet another underwhelming Panthers performance?
People’s Chair followed by People’s Choice Mary was painful as well. #powertothepeople
Announcements
Boomer will take the pax through another personal fitness test at Governator Wednesday – aye!
Area 51 special 9/11 convergence of DV, The Maul & Anvil at Calvary Church this Wednesday.
New 3rd F workout – The Stand – launching this Friday, 9/13 at Panera Carmel Village at 0630 immediately after Centurion at Charlotte Catholic. Purple Haze & Champagne are your Qs.
The shovel flag was planted, and 40 pax including 1 FNG congregated for a birthday celebration at The Rock. The men of DayZero were welcomed guests as well – Aye!
Thang:
Runstopper hosted the COParty and it was brutal.
SSH x 25
Burpees x 5
Wide arm Merkins x 25
Burpees x 10
LBC x 25
Burpees x 15
Reg Merkins x 25
Burpees x 20
LBC x 25
Mountain Climbers x 25
Diamond Merkins 1st set x 10, 2nd set x 10
Hops’ Q:
Partner up
Jog to bottom of North Face (NF)
Up NF
Partner 1 does Wide Arm Merkins while Partner 2 runs about a 1/3 mile loop that includes scaling NF
Flapjack
Partner 1 does Reg. Merkins while partner 2 does loop, Flapjack
Partner 1 does Narrow Merkins while partner 2 does loop, Flapjack
Partner 1 does CDDs while partner 2 does loop, Flapjack
3 Indian Run lines to the baseball field
4 or 5 pax start at each of the 9 positions on the baseball field.
Do # of merkins at each position that correspond to that position (i.e. Catcher=#2 position, CF=#8 position)
Bearcrawl in between each position/merkin set
Mosey to left field for Mary Session
Dolly x 13 – hold ’em at end while pax sings “Happy Birthday” to The Rock
Makthar Ndjiaye’s x 13
Slow Flutter x 13 – hold ’em while pax sings “Happy Birthday” again to The Rock. First effort was weak…incidentally, so was the 2nd.
Cumberland County Viaducts x 13 R; flapjack; CCVs x 13 L
Protractor – various degrees – State, Duke, UNC, South Carolina and Clemson folks all struggled with their angles
Re-enter Runstopper accompanied by Jack Webb
Jack Webb 1 Merkin + 4 Arm raises; continue to 10 Merkins + 40 arm raises.
Moleskine:
T-claps to all 40 men who posted for the birthday party at The Rock. We certainly did more than 365 Merkins – which was the goal for the celebratory painfest.
Thanks to the men of DayZero and several from Area51 who came to celebrate with us.
Must point out that Ninja Turtle, Ocho Cinco, Joker, Pretty Boy QB…among others were flying on the loop runs that included NorthFace – nice work gents.
Strong work from Dora, Culkin and The Hoff who were sporting the rucks. 45 lbs. in The Hoff’s ruck = unsavory, inhuman and impressive!
Radar also is a bear-crawlin’ fool.
YHC for the 3rd workout in a row (Anvil & Centurion earlier in the week) said his age as 40 yet turned 41 two weeks ago. #memoryfailing? #denyingreality
Great send off from Champagne to wrap up the festivities.
Thankful for F3 and how it’s impacted my life, and my family’s for that matter. The Rock and all the other workouts are daily/weekly reminders that we need to take care of the bodies the Lord gave us, sharpen one another with encouragement and accountability, and serve our families, workplaces & communities.
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13