With both co-site Q’s out on IR, the keys to Base Camp were handed over to YHC. Whether that was a smart decision remains to be seen. Seven men fought off the Easter-induced glucose fog, rolled out of the fartsack and into the gloom to break a sweat.
The THANG
Proper disclosure given, the PAX mosied around the front parking lot of SMMS and settled in for the COP:
SSH, Imperial Walker and Mountain Climbers each in cadence and X 20
Then to the benches for 15 each dips and step ups along with 10 derkins. Rinse and repeat.
Back into the parking lot and partner up for modified Dora 1-2-3. Each team to do 50 merkins, 100 squats and 150 LBC’s. Partner 1 starts with merkins while partner 2 runs a pre-set lap in the parking lot. After completing the run partner 2 picks up with merkins where partner 1 left off. Partner 1 runs. Partners keep flap-jacking until they have cycled through the requisite numbers of the 3 exercises.
Mosey to the basketball goals in the side parking lot. Run a cycle of suicides using the 4 goals as turn-arounds.
Then time to enjoy the animal kingdom: first up the Stafish: bombjacks, diamond merkins, Carolina dry docks and Sister Mary Katherine’s in the 4 corners. 15 each with 5 burpees in the middle after each corner.
Then the PAX lined up in the bus lot and bear crawled the width of about 6 bus parking spots. Crab walk back.
Mosey to the rear of the parking lot for some rest and relaxation in the People’s Chair. Three evolutions with the following number of sllllooooowwwww arm raises: 25, 30 and 35. Then an old friend made an unscheduled appearance to the delight of all – Jack Webb. We cycled up through round 7 of Jack’s torture before the we heard the call of Mary thus ending the frivolity of Mr. Webb.
In Mary’s Easter basket we found the following presents: flutters and dollys X 20 each and the American hammer X 25.
Moleskin: great effort expended by the PAX today. Perhaps it’s because it’s Monday or perhaps because it was post-holiday that may have included extra eating, but the mumblechatter and joking seemed at a low level. But the PAX put their collective noses to the grindstone and put in good work today. Thanks for the opportunity to lead and for your strong effort.
Good luck to Gooney and Bennie and their respective recoveries. Thanks also to Marvel for taking us out this morning.
With our lead goat Slim Fast indisposed, a call was made to the Q bullpen to ride herd on our beloved goats on this not-quite spring morning. The bullpen must have been pretty sparse as YHC got the call. Slim Fast claims to have been running on a 4-man team in the Palmetto Relay. That would mean each team member would run in the vicinity of 50 miles (or nearly 2 marathons) in about 32 or so hours. Obviously that’s crazy; no one would voluntarily do that. Maybe if a Russian infantry division was chasing them… or IRS agents. But nobody would do that ‘for fun’. Would they? Do you know Slim Fast?
Proper disclaimer given, at 0515 the herd set off on a warm up run down Wood Fox to the Stop sign at Rounding Run and back. Regathering on Strawberry the normal dynamic stretching regimen was executed: walking on toes straight, in and out, walking on heels straight, in and out, honey-bee skips, high knees and butt kickers.
The THANG
Gathering on the speed bump at the base of Mount Strawberry the devilishly simple Weinke was revealed: 30-30-30-1’s. I think the proper cycle is 30-30-1’s but with our leader jogging lazily on flat/mild downhill legs, we were going to go all-out with uphill intervals. Thirty seconds up Mount Strawberry at I-pace, recover down to the start line. When everyone was back, immediately do another 30 seconds uphill at I-pace and recover back down. I presume you know where this is going at this point. One more cycle of 30 seconds and then the glorious 1 minute interval uphill at I-pace and recover back down. That constitutes one complete cycle. Two more complete cycles were finished. A nice cool down run down and back up Strawberry followed by stretching back at SMMS. Done.
MOLESKIN
Great effort by everyone today; especially Chin Music who appeared to be the pacesetter throughout. Great to see Daisy and Jello out hoofing around with us. The core MG were out in force: The Mouth teamed up with Sensei, the Bobbsey Twins Lois and Tweetsie; Retread, Pele and Gullah were strong as ever. And Costanza has now run MG enough times that he is auto-commit to the BRR this fall. Congrats Costanza!
The goal with these intervals is push hard and then get back to about the same spot on each iteration. It gets continually more difficult after each successive iteration. The PAX engaged in some #mumblechatter because Q had all the running uphill and recovering downhill whereas Slim Fast usually reverses it towards the end. Other #mumblechatter was heard about ‘only’ having a couple of 10-counts. Whatever; no slacking off just because we have a substitute today. Embrace the Suck. Q’s Garmin logged 4.2 mile with no pre-run.
I appreciate the opportunity to lead these awesome men. They never fail to encourage me and make me laugh no matter how miserable/tough the conditions or the running.
Set Up
In the days leading up today I often looked at the Weather app for Thursday morning and was greeted with predictions of rain. Not 10% or 20% chances, mind you. More like 80% plus. Harkening back to the great American philosopher, Alfred E. Nueman, I thought, “What? Me worry?” No way was I going to worry…I KNEW Peak51 was safe from rain. Because I have access to a far greater weather predictor than Weather.com. Way better than the Farmer’s Almanac. Better than NOAA or even the National Weather Service. I had learned from the master himself – Slim Fast! He has said on many occasions (in your best redneck Texas accent) “I don’t know what it is. I can’t explain it…but every time its raining in Matthews before Peak51 it stops just in time.” I’ve seen it happen several times myself. No matter how dire the predictions are for a total washout. Explaining the Bermuda Triangle or Nessie would be easier than this phenomenon.
I dutifully arrived at 0445 in a substantial downpour for the pre-run and spent the next several minutes praying no one else would show up. 5 minutes later two things became abundantly clear: 1. My prayers were answered, and 2. Every other F3 participant in the area is smarter than me. At 5:10 the rain grew in intensity and I was about to part ways with Mr. Nueman and start worrying. Cars began to roll in and 5:27 the rain dwindled to an occasional sprinkle. Slim Fast had waved his magic wand again.
Introductions made and disclaimer given – we set off to mosey around Matthews Elementary.
The THANG
Circle up on the bus lot for COP:
SSH X 20
IW X 20
LSS X 17
Mosey to bottom of hill behind the church. Partner up for suicides/called exercise. Partner 1 does suicides uphill (texas drawl: shorten ur stride, shorten ur stride, lean in to the hill) while partner 2 does mountain climbers. Flap jack. Round 2 substitute bomb jacks for mountain climbers. Round 3: squats.
Mosey up to the covered stage at Stumptown Park. Keeping with same partners…partners 1 on end of stage and partners 2 on other end. Partners 1 bear crawls to their partners as a relay race. Once tagged, partner 2 crab walks to other end. Taking advantage of the dry floor YHC moved Mary up to this point in the workout: Dollys, Freddie Mercury’s, American Hammers, LBCs each X 20. Two rounds of protractor with each pax calling out an angle. Merkins X 20 just because. The Q being the observant one that he is, noticed the PAX really enjoyed the bear crawl/crab walk relay race and were disappointed we only did it once. So…round two! And there was much rejoicing.
Mosey back to the AO to the entrance of the city building for circuit work on the benches and stairs. Step-ups X 20, dips X 20 and derkins X 10. Rinse and repeat. Mosey to the big church wall for two rounds of sitting in the people’s chair with 50 and then 100 air presses.
Snake mosey back through the ‘suicide’ parking lot and then back to our cars. One or more of our directionally-gifted PAX noted in a somewhat frustrated tone that the mosey was the ‘wrong’ direction to get us back to the beginning. He/they were correct so YHC rewarded them by picking up the pace of the mosey. Garmin says we did 1.95 miles (Q honestly expected that to be higher. Guess we will have to run more next time to make up). Time = 6:15 Done!
MOLESKIN
Great to have 3 returning PAX from days gone by: Triple D, Blue Hen and Blender. Hope you all make Peak51 a regular part of your week going forward. Great effort from all the PAX which has become the norm for Peak51. The dynamic duo Sensei and Slim Fast were strong as always; the ‘other’ dynamic duo/Siamese twins Tweetsie and Lois again added sweat and humor to the workout; Lumberjack again performed at a high level belieing his ‘respect’ status. T-claps to Sensei and Lois for their excellent leadership of Peak51 and for giving YHC the opportunity to lead these awesome men. Hearing the ‘wrong way’ comment mentioned earlier and a PAX comment that he won’t be able to lift his arms later in the day was almost enough to bring a tear to the eye of YHC. BTW – as we broke the circle of trust…you guessed it. Rain slowly started picking up and wipers were required for the drive home. Unreal.
T-claps to Tweetsie for taking us out by giving thanks to our Heavenly Father and encouraging us to be salt and light to a hurting and dark world. Additional T-claps to Tweetsie for being here this morning – with the passing of Billy Graham I’m sure work for him this week has been off the charts.
Twas five thirty in the morning
at Carolina Courts’ Thrive,
the Pax were still waiting
For the Q to arrive.
Alas, now it was clear Madison had fart-sacked.
So co-site Qs took charge of the Pax,
On Hoffa, on Gypsy and Hairband, and even Glass Joe
Time to get to work, including some bomb jacks.
While the Q was all snuggled, warm in his bed
and visions of sugar plums danced in his head,
The Pax did suicides, flutters and many burpees,
plus Merkins, 7s, bicycles, even LBCs.
The moral of the story
Everyone should now know,
Don’t brag on your Weinke
If you’re going to no-show.
Background:
Monday evening Madison tweeted and posted on Union County F3 FB page dire warnings of how devastating Thrive would be the following morning with him as Q. His Weinke supposedly would make grown men cry and blow away any ‘moderate’ limitations of Thrive. Or something like that. Good thing Madison is a stand-up guy and can ‘take it’ because as you now know by the awesome poetry above, he fartsacked. Several “explanations” (excuses) followed concerning the alarm on his iPhone being set to the wrong day or something. But he summed it up well when he said “I’m never going to hear the end of this”. He’s right.
The Thang:
So at 0530 Bernanke (co-site Q) said “let’s mosey!” As we mosied around the parking lot, Bernanke asked Nomad (other co-site Q) how do you want handle this? I suggested he lead the COP, meanwhile I would plan and lead the next evolution. We would flap-jack evolutions until time expired. Sometimes you have the luxury of time and can develop detailed, intricate plans that actually work like General Schwartzkopf and the ‘Left Hook’ and the ‘Shock and Awe’ air campaign in Desert Storm. And sometimes you have to ad-lib on the fly and adhere to KISS.
COP
Hillbillies X 21
Windmills X 14
5 Burpees (OYO)
Arm circles (10 each direction)
Hand release Merkins X 10
Mosey to the road for Island Suicides: run to each island/archipelago/isthmus/geological feature and back. At each island, stop for in order, 20 each LBCs, dollys, flutters and bicycles.
Over to the frost-covered hill for a round of 7s: bomb-jacks and squats. But regular running would be too easy – uphill portion was run backwards.
Mosey down to the soccer field to cross it length-wise. 1/3 via bear-crawl, 1/3 via lunges and the final 1/3 via crab walk.
Mosey up to the road. At each succeeding Hairband (short) light pole do the following number of merkins: 25, 20, 15, 10 and 5.
Extended mosey around the building back to the shelter area of the park interspersed with karaoke left and right, butt kickers and running backwards. At the picnic tables do 20 step ups (10 leading each leg) and 15 dips. I meant to say dips but inadvertently said merkins. Given the earlier merkin-fest, there was loud #mumblechatter and groaning by the PAX. I corrected myself but the thought did cross my mind to let the merkins order stand. But I succumbed to a rare moment of charity. I felt kinda dirty about it. The over to the wall to relax in the people’s chair. While there, two rounds of air presses, 50 and 100.
The Pax seemed relieved when I turned the Q back to Bernanke assuming we were done with the (evil) wall. But Bernanke had other plans: 2 rounds of balls to the wall (including a non-sequential 10-count by Shake N Bake while we were inverted), 20 donkey kicks and 5 burpees just for giggles.
Mosey back to the parking lot for Mary:
backscratchers
dying cockroach
rosalita
America hammer
Moleskin:
I know 15 PAX were present. But I am remembering only 14 of the 15. So apologies to ever’s name is escaping me at the moment. Actually, for a #Respect, I am kinda proud I got 14. The 3 sure signs of getting older: 1. memory loss, and what were the other two again? (Edit: #15 has been added!)
TClaps to Hairband for taking us out. Comments began to fly immediately about the grief that was to be dished out to Madison. And then a lone voice of wisdom reminded us we should first ensure that Madison is OK before we assume he just fartsacked. Gypsy had his phone out and established contact with Madison. Madison responded which was a mistake. He was OK. Open season.
TClaps also to Shake N Bake and Glass Joe for joining me on a pleasant 3.6 mile pre-run before the frivolity ensued.
Thrive is a great group of men and it’s an honor to be a part of them/us. But we are men – the jokes/comments are often (almost always?) sophomoric. There is much #mumblechatter directed at everyone. You better have thick skin because everyone gets their share of incoming fire. You gotta take it as well as dish it out. Good thing Madison can take it.
Madison has requested to Q Thrive next week. That’s great. But Bernanke and I will have a back-up Weinke prepared this time. Just in case. Ya know, those iPhone alarms can be tricky.
Glass Joe, Shake-n-Bake and Nomad ensured their warmth with a pre-run. At least SnB and Nomad had sense enough not to wear shorts! The rest of the crowd just wanted to get started as soon as possible in hopes of getting warm. Glass Joe provided periodic warmth reports which validated the workout was the correct intensity.
The Thang:
Mosey to warm up
Disclaimer
Mosey to the street
The beauty of being Q is, you make the rules!
Karaoke to the shelter
Pax you are welcome for each running lap. My way to ensure you stayed warm as desiredJ
Move trash cans
50 Air presses – great we have time for more R&R
Move trash cans back (Leave NO trace)
Mosey to the starting parking lot
20 Rosalita in Espanol
Time’s up
COT
Announcements
The Moleskin
Thrive is simply a great workout due to the regulars that attend. If nothing else, your gut will be sore from laughing at the mumble chatter. We are saddened by the loss of Gremlin, but appreciate his modeling of consistency and dependability. Characteristics we each strive for.
…Nobody’s worth it… who knew a 70’s-80’s rock band knew so much about F3? Despite the chilly temp, the gloom and a warning to bring running shoes given in the pre-blast, 9 PAX showed up to Thrive. It went down like this…
The Thang:
A proper and heartfelt disclaimer was given and we were off on a mosey around the parking lot. Some karaoke left, right and backwards running was inserted to ensure the PAX was alert, i.e. awake.
COP
Side Straddle Hops X 20
Low Slow Squats X 20
Imperial Walkers X 20
Mountain climbers X 20
…Nobody cares…. Mosey to the playground as Hairband came screaming into the parking lot up on two wheels. A member of the PAX accused Q of going to the playground in an effort to hide from HB. Even though the evolution at the playground was on the Weinke, Q didn’t feel he could ethically deny the allegation so it remained unaddressed. At the playground we tackled the ’80 Ds’. And no, the title of this evolution has no connection to Q’s college transcript. 20 each of derkins, dips, diamond merkins and donkey kicks, OYO. Plank exercises until everyone finished. Then 5 burpees in celebration of HB’s successful imitation of Bullwinkle – who was missed today.
….Ya just gonna hate it …. Mosey over to the road with the islands/peninsulas/archipelagoes/etc. Straight run down this road with a stop at each ‘land mass intrusion’. Do 20 Dolly’s at the first and add 5 at each succeeding stop. I believe that totaled 150 Dolly’s. Mosey to the hill for a series of 9s: jump squats and bomb jacks. And just to ensure the quads were on fire each trip up the hill was run backwards.
…Nobody gives a damn…. Returning to the intersection at the back right of the AO, we ran suicides with an evil twist along the back road using 5 light poles as turn-around points. The twist being start each lap with 10 merkins and do 2 burpees at the 1st light pole, 4 at the second light pole, etc. Total of 50 merkins + 30 burpees. Back at the intersection, LBC’s until the six was in. Then more suicides! Now down the road with land mass intrusions, bouncing back at each such intrusion. No merkins or burpees – just running. And some say Q doesn’t have a heart! Freddie Merqs at the end till six was done. Mosey back through the parking lot and time mercifully expired.
Moleskin
Great group of men who put the work in. Glass Joe and Shake n Bake spent a lot of time out front as usual. eHarmony and Arsenel – do you have any idea how far you’ve come? You both were busting it today – this Weinke would have smoked you just a few months ago. Great job. Solid work as always from HB, Bonhoffer, Gypsy and Shepherd.
Thanks to GJ who spoke about the effect of F3 in his life. 5 years ago today he lost his mother to cancer. She made him promise that he would take care of his wife and daughters. The reality was he was out of shape, overweight and on his way to high blood pressure and whatever else. So he started running and then being a regular at F3. He lost a lot of weight, his blood pressure is way down; his health is way up. His example has rubbed off on his family as his middle school aged daughter is running cross country. That’s real life change. That’s a wife who in all likelihood has had widowhood pushed much farther out. That’s daughters having daddy able to play in the park with them or perhaps be there one day to walk them down the aisle. This is why when our clock still says 4-something and sane people are still sleeping, we are rolling out into the gloom to moderately torture ourselves. Thanks for the testimonial GJ.
Announcements… sign ups for Joe Davis 5k/10k run are open )early Jan race)…new moderate running workout started Thursday mornings at Socrates Academy on Weddington Road, 0515 start….Area 51 Christmas party signups are posted.
Putting out a call for Qs to sign up on Sign Up Genius. If you post here, you need to Q here. After next week it is VERY open. Missed a number of regulars today: Lamont, kiloWatt, Playoffs, Bernanke, Bullwinkle, Hoffa to name a few. We prayed for ya….thanks to HB for taking us out!
Firmly relying on the old adage ‘better late than never’ here is the blackblast for Conviction.
Disclaimer given a quick mosey around the front parking lot led us straight to the COP:
SSH, Imperial Walkers, Mountain Climbers and Low Slow Squats each X 20.
Mosey to the playground where the fun and games began in earnest. Round 1 consisted of 20 each: dips, decline merkins and donkey kicks OYO. Rinse and repeat. Mumblechatter started during this time about Conviction supposedly being a ‘moderate’ workout. As he was finishing his second round Shake and Bake made the big mistake of asking if that was it or would there be another round. Now I had only planned 2 rounds but of course I could not risk being seen as going easy on the PAX, so I responded, ‘yes, another round.’ Rinse and repeat. Audible groans were heard from the PAX – music to my ears. 60 decline merkins, dips and donkey kicks will do that.
Mosey to the back bus lot. Do 20 Merkins and 20 Freddie Mercury’s (aka Merks and Freddie Mercs) OYO and run two laps around the painted track. Rinse and repeat. After completing 2nd round continue to run to bring in the six. Rinse and repeat but with only one lap. More mumblechatter about ‘moderate’ workout. I noted that I had called for a couple of ’10 counts’…that makes it moderate doesn’t it??
Next evolution…on the bus parking stalls bear crawl for 2 lines, crab walk for 2 and lunge walk for 2 lines. Turn 180 degrees and repeat. Mosey over to the hill for a round of 7s: burpees on the bottom and bomb jacks on top. More mumblechatter. But the PAX did attack the hill with gusto.
Time to mosey to the front lot. A couple stops on the way for Mary preview and to keep the PAX together: first stop was 20 flutters with 20 Dolly’s at the second stop. Continued mosey got us back to the starting point. Continue on with Mary: American Hammer X 30 and a round of Protractor. Finished up with stretching.
Moleskin:
TClaps to Gypsy for bringing his FNG 2.0 – now known as Choppa! Not sure how you did it because when I was 15 just about the LAST thing in the world I would have wanted to do was get up at 5:00 and workout with my dad and guys his age. Great to have them there and he definitely had some jet in his step when we were running the laps!
Thanks for the opportunity to lead – always an honor. One of the wonderful things – and challenges – in leading F3 workouts is the wide range of physical abilities of the PAX. I strive to provide a challenging and engaging workout for everyone. I want the PAX to feel they got their money’s worth for getting up early and rolling out into the gloom. There were several comments about Conviction supposedly being a ‘moderate’ workout. Some was surely good-natured ribbing but its highly likely that some was also heart-felt expiration that I was over-doing it. I heard you. I also appreciate how some of the PAX did indeed modify as the disclaimer encourages. Everyone kept working hard throughout the workout – great job gentlemen!
Despite, the dark, the drizzle and NCDOT road closures, 13 PAX assembled at Thrive for a pre-BRR, leg-heavy workout and sweaty fellowship.
The THANG:
Disclaimer given we set off for a mosey around the parking lot to awaken any muscles that interpreted the darkness as a hint to remain asleep.
COP:
SSH X 25
IW X 20
Mountain Climbers X 15
CDD X 10
Mosey to side road: 4-island suicides followed by progressive LBCs (run to first island and do 5 LBC, run to 2nd island and do 15, add 10 more at each remaining island and finishing at far Stop sign with 45 (total of 125 LBCs). Short mosey to the favorite hill at Thrive for a round of 9s – bomb jacks at the top and squats at the bottom. Mosey back to the Stop sign for progressive merkins: start with 5 and then add 5 more at each of the 4 islands resulting in a total of 75 merkins. Mosey to the wall for several rounds of sitting in the People’s Chair with air presses (50, 100 and 150). An additional round of sitting in the Chair and just holding your arms straight out was begun and then ditched by the Q (more on that later). A quick stop at the picnic tables for 20 derkins and 20 dips. Rinse and repeat. Return to the parking lot for Mary:
Flutters X 30, Freddie Mercury’s X 25, Dollys X 20, American Hammers X 25 and a round of the Protractor. Finished up with leg stretches.
My watch had us logging 2.31 miles.
Moleskin:
A little different feel at this edition of Thrive: first it remained dark through the end of the workout (aided by heavy cloud cover) and the lack of oppressive heat and humidity was welcome. Autumn is certainly getting closer. My response to that is “thank you God!’ Also different was the lack of #mumblechatter. I noticed it right away but when we got to the 4-island suicides and the usual chirping about whether the correct geographical term is island, peninsula, isthmus or something else didn’t erupt, I knew today would be different. Even a shot across the bow at Glass Joe (#mumblechattererinchief) about Merkins requiring more movement than a head bob didn’t elicit much of a response. Strange times indeed!
While enjoying a rest in the People’s Chair and doing air presses, I had a flashback to Marine Corps boot camp and how the D.I.s loved to make us extend our arms straight out and hold them there and how quickly that became very painful. So I thought I’d throw that in as a bonus for the PAX. After a short time I realized this was going nowhere and there was no pain anywhere on the horizon. Then it came back to me – we were holding our M-16’s at the time (#O2dep). Without that weight we would be there forever before the pain set in. So I dropped it and moved on. I’m sure this could be effective with kettlebells, but I’m not a kb guy, so I’ll have to take your word for it.
We missed Woody who is in Houston dealing with the recent death of a family member and had the worst flood in US history added on as a bonus. Thankful to God for his family and he remaining safe throughout #Harvey. Also missed Hairband (out of town) and Mindcrime ( injured) – prayers also extended for you gentlemen. Always a joy to lead this group – they bring the strong effort every time and are an encouragement to me! Thanks to Shepherd for taking us out with our focus rightly on Jesus.
The THANG:
Disclaimer given
Mosey around parking lot to front of SCMS for COP:
SSH X 25
Imperial Walker X 20
Windmills X 15
Mountain Climbers X 25
Mosey down Woodfox to find a hill that can dish out the pain. Along the way we sprinkled in butt kickers, high knees, karaoke left then right. Stopped for a stint of bear crawl and lunge walks allowing the PAX to regroup and stay together. The hill on Rising Meadow may sound gentle and soft but it’s a real wake up call. Perfect place for a round of 7s: squats at the bottom and bomb jacks on top. To allow the PAX to catch their breath after completing the 7s we rested by laying our backs. And doing flutters X 20 and dolly’s X 20. The PAX having recovered was delighted to do another round of 7s; this time with merkins and Carolina dry docks. In the interest of time, the Q cut this short to begin the mosey back to campus. Stopped partway back for a round of Freddie Mercury’s and LBCs (X 25 each). Returning to campus we grabbed some wall and rested in the people’s chair with a few rounds of air presses (X 50, 100 and 125). After a quick mosey to the back lot, the PAX again laid down on the ground for the final couple of minutes. While there 25 American Hammers were banged out and a round of the protractor.
Moleskin:
As it has been the past few weeks, the gloom was very thick this morning. Add to it, it was a Monday morning. The energy and motivation felt low at the beginning – or maybe it was just my interpretation. #TClaps to Insomniac who faithfully called out the repetitions in the COP.
I’m not a regular at Basecamp so it was great to meet a few new guys and see some guys again I have met only a few times before: Jello, Balk, Floor Slapper, Thunder Road, Adobe, Jet Fuel and Slum Dog. Solid effort turned in by all. Always great to see Fireman Ed, Gooney, Drano, Costanza and Insomniac as our paths tend to cross frequently. Thanks for the opportunity to lead and I’m glad to Q anytime you’ll have me. Also I am thankful for the grace extended by the Pax. Especially those not participating in the BRR – as this workout was designed to focus on legs and hills in preparation for BRR. Thanks too to Insomniac for taking us out in humility and recognition of how great is our God!
Apologies for the late BB – comz/access issues prevented me from posting this in a timely fashion. Thankfully, those have been resolved.
Another glorious Carolina summer morning! Well actually with it being June 22, it was the second Carolina summer morning – the kind of morning where one breaks a sweat just walking from the front door to the car. Time to dial back the weinke and take it easy on the Pax, right? Ha ha, you funny.
The Thang
Disclaimer given, QIC and the pax mosied up to Trade Street, over to and down Sadie to begin a fun field trip through downtown Matthews. Stop behind BB&T for the COP:
SSH X 25
IW X 20
Windmills X 15
Hillbilly X 20
Word had spread overnight of the devastating accident the previous day involving Cheetah in Lexington, SC. Booyah (co-site Q) advised the PAX and re-iterated the importance of safety when out exercising. Whether solo or with F3. High visibility clothing/gear and lights coupled with constant vigilance are a must.
Mosey to the front of BB&T. The PAX lined up on the south side of the lot – bear crawl for 2 parking spaces and pause for 2 Merkins. Bear Crawl 2 more spaces and do 4 Merkins; 2 more and do 6 and 2 more and finish with 8 Merkins. Mosey across John Street to the Post Office to see what kind of pain could be delivered. The PAX was split into two groups: group 1 followed QIC to the hill and did a round of 9s. Bomb jacks on the bottom and squats on top. Group 2 followed Booyah to the Pita shop. Booyah led group 2 through two sets of the People’s Chair (with 50 & 70 air presses), a lap around the building and a session of Balls to the Wall. The groups then flapjacked. Once back together, we mosied to the grass field behind the pita shop. Sprint to far end and when Q shouts ‘drop’ drop and do Mountain Climbers. When Q shouts ‘up’ resume sprint until the next shout of ‘drop’. Continue to far end of grass field. Same idea on return except do Merkins on command of ‘drop’. Re-form PAX and mosey back to BB&T lot. The PAX dropped to their 6’s for Dolly X 25 and Flutters X 25. Then the PAX mosied back on campus behind the First Baptist Church. Back on the 6s for Freddie Mercurys X 25 and American Hammers X 25 while the PAX reformed. With a few minutes of valuable time remaining and not wanting anyone to be deprived, we crab-walked 1/2 way down the parking lot and lunge walked the rest, Karaoke left back up the parking lot. Karaoke right back down. Jog to sprint back up the parking lot. It looked the PAX wanted to lie down at that time so I happily obliged. On your 6 and we did a round of protractor with each of 19 men calling out an angle. A short mosey back to the start and we circled up for Name-o-rama. Mindcrime took us out with special prayers offered for Cheetah, his family and loved ones.
Moleskin
I am thankful for the opportunity to lead this group. Peak 51 was my first F3 post (October ’15) and it’s grown under great leadership of Sensei and Booyah. Great core of men post regularly including Slim Fast, Snoopy, Sensei, Lumberjack, Winger, Cocktail, Tweetsie, Lois, Shake n Bake, Booyah, Costanza, et. al. Great to have Zombie, Dora and Kawpowski visit us again – please come back as often as possible. Hairband, Drano and The Mouth often drop in and Thurston and Mindcrime have also become regulars. Great group of men and they always put out 100% effort. My honor to be associated with you.
Special thanks to Booyah for helping in the Q. With the growth of Peak 51, I knew we could not all be on the hill simultaneously. And that hill is an under-utilized asset that I definitely wanted to incorporate. The obvious solution was to break into two groups and Booyah happily agreed to lead that group. Thanks brother!