The Witch Doctor came back from a back injury and delivered a heavy beatdown for 14 dudes, including two FNGs.
The Witch always has trick up his sleeve (you should hear about his homeopathic vasectomy methods – it includes a lot of rubber bands)
The Thang
Run to CCS circle and warmup with SSH, Merkins and LSS
Run to neighborhood – 7s on the hill with jump squats and merkins
Run to gazebo. P1 runs to first light at cemetery, P2 does called workout (Step ups, dips, merkins and LBCs)
Run to grass hill on Cov. Church Ln. and do more 7s with full sit ups and burpees
Back to lot for some Mary and done!
Moleskine
Christmas wore a hand knit beanie his mom made for him. Serious props for that bold move. Can she make F3 ones for all of us?
Tackling Dummy made a return to Kevlar and came out of the gates like the starting Quarterback.
Horsehead, Pudding Pop and I did our best Monica Seles impersonations while considering FNG nicknames
Cage (R) and Big League Chew (R) continue to crush father time.
Harley, Tacking Dummy, Horsehead, Spencers (FNG) all have kids at Covenant Day and talked about the challenges of not having free school lunch and how annoying it is that the 75″ smart screens in the class aren’t “touch screens”.
Fault Line brought an FNG of his own (Head Banger) who pushed as hard as anyone out there.
Squid did all of the exercises perfectly, the sun came up this morning and water is wet.
Cottontail found a new business associate in Spencers – always trying to make a buck. 🙂
For some reason the PAX tag box isn’t working so here was the group: Puddin Pop, Cage, Big League Chew, Fault Line, Christmas, Cottontail, Squid, Horsehead, Tacking Dummy, Orange Whip, Witch Doctor (QIC), Harley, Head Banger (FNG), Spencers (FNG)
Nice work homos….Homo-Sapiens.
-Orange Whip (Ghost writer for Witch Doctor)
We decided to celebrate Orange Whip’s Birthday this morning with a 36 special since this was his last workout at 35. We rarely go 36 reps on anything and it really took the wind out of some of us, and we heard it definitely take the wind out of one of us…
In my first Q I managed to keep us under shelter when the rain stopped and out running while it was raining. Fortunately, these men are plenty comfortable in the gloom.
I’ll go ahead and quit now before I make myself sick… again.
The Thang
Ran in the rain over to the shelter to do the following exercise
36 – Side Straddle Hops
6 – Merkins
36 – Mountain Climbers
6 – Merkins
36 – Russian Twists
6 – Merkins
36 – Spider Mans
6 – Merkins
36 – Single Leg Lunges
6 – Merkins
36 – Shoulder Taps
6 – Merkins
Stepped out and found that the rain had stopped, but headed back to the shelter with the rock just in case.
Rock Pile – Get a Rock
Partners – opposites
1 – 36 Curls with Rock
2 – Plank Up Downs – Elbows to hands
1 – 36 Triceps Ext
2 – Dips
1 – 36 Rock Squats
2 – Jump Squats
1 – 36 Sit Ups with Rock Extension
2 – Louganis
1 – 36 press
2 – Flutter Kicks
Left the shelter only to find the rain had picked up but we toughed it out til the end.
Back to Parking Lot
2x
Frog Hops
Side Shuffle – Side Shuffle
Bear Crawl
Bump Lap Parking areas
Down one side of the parking lot and back.
Finish With a loop and a puke…
Moleskine
10 men braved the dicey weather, and I was grateful for their encouragement and perseverance in my VQ. Thanks to all, plus we got to see the Wild Hog that Cottontail shot on his land. The thing had real tusks and everything.
Thanks to Cottontail who took us out, and also for the reminder that the Bible Study happens at Panera at Arboretum post workout, so get on it.
-Wormwood
‘Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue the road was full of mud
I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form
Come in, she said
I’ll give ya shelter from the storm
– Bob Dylan
(BB from Kevlar on Friday). Great song by Dylan. Cold, rainy and miserable is how the morning started. 4 guys had mistakenly pre-committed to come to my Q the day before, one (Big League Chew) just came on his own because he’s BA. Fortunately Kevlar has a lit shelter that we can use on days like this.
I thought I may be running solo and a few guys were texting on the way asking if I was going to cancel the workout. We ended up having an awesome morning.
The Thang
Run around church, warmup with various exercises ending in a “side bear crawl merkin circle” – I’ll use it next time but it was good group to test it on.
Benches – 10 derkins, 10 dips, run to rock and back 3x
Grab a lifting rock, a partner and head to the pavilion
P1 – Did exercise with Rock (timer)
P2 – Did exercise without rock
One guy was the counter (ex. P1 did 20 curls while P2 did SSH)
Basically 20 sets or so of this (step ups, chest presses, louganis’s, shoulder press, etc.) until we ran out of time. Total strength workout with lighted pavilion away from the rain. Somehow it even got a little hot in there.
Moleskine
Mile High came back out after a 6 month-ish hiatus. I met him on an airplane initially and he posted (hence his name) then after not seeing him for a long time I saw him on a cross country flight to Seattle last week. He knew he had to come back out. After that he posted on Saturday (A51) and today (Matrix), 3 times in 4 days!
Solid group of guys did not regret it!
-Out
If you were like myself (or Bulldog) you accepted to Substi-Q a workout without looking at the long-term forecast this week. If you were awake last night and heard the downpour you were hoping no one would show and you could go back home and cuddle up with a warm blanket, a book and some coffee (or if you’re Bulldog, a warm cup of tea, a crumpet and game of chess). One person showed up for his, no one showed up for mine.
Instead of running the .3 miles into Sparta I drove and waited, 5:14 rolled around and I thought I was good to go but then a car rolled in. I checked with him and he was waiting for Peak 51 to start. I couldn’t believe Gypsy wasn’t there as he had hyped up the workout really hard, but whatevs. I was out of my car at 5:15 and thought that I was up and I should put in some mileage. A little angry to be awake and running alone I ran two hard miles and for some reason decided to head back to Peak 51 to work out with them.
When I got back there were 4 PAX waiting on their Q to show up. 5:31 rolled around and no Q – so I offered my revised Weinke and did a little double-Q action. Having never worked out with any of them before and wearing my bright yellow tank they were reluctant, but it was more of an assumptive sale.
The Thang
(Warmup behind Seaboard)
Run to Matthews Building Supply – hill work
3x up and down with 20 merkins at bottom and 20 jump squats at the end
Downtown Matthews
At each lampost – 20 Sister MCs, 20 Carolina Dry docks (alternate at each one)
Freemont Street
Ran to my house, grabbed pavers and did strength work in a circle. At the end everyone got a bottle of water from my garage.
Back to the school. Done.
Moleskine
I told my wife that I Q’d the “moderate” workout instead of Sparta and she said “If it’s the moderate group then why are they the only ones who showed up?”. Deep burn.
Always appreciate the opportunity to lead and am thankful that there are always people to find in the gloom.
Out!
Harley is on at Kevlar tomorrow – do it. Do it.
Today I wore my knee high red socks and also happened to wear a red Adidas shirt and red shoes. I looked like I was trying out for the high school soccer team (with the likelihood of getting cut), which Hops made sure to make fun of, and deservedly so. What’s wrong with looking good and working out? Orange Theory gets to do it, yoga chicks get to do it, Pure Barre gets to do it – why do we have to be the workout junkies? Because that’s the way it’s supposed to be…I won’t make the mistake again Hops.
Thorough Mermaid approved disclaimer given and we took off.
Run around church, quick warmup, and across the street to the neighborhood hill.
1st stop – 10 merkins at the bottom, 9 at the top, 8 at the bottom, etc….it was about a mile distance to get warmed up.
Rock station –Â grab a partner and grab a lifting rock
Parter 1 – 10 reps of given exercise, Partner 2 – 9 reps of given exercise…down to 1 and then run
Before Burpees we dropped the rocks and did reps of curls, shoulder presses, chest presses (2x) and tri-extensions in cadence rotating our rocks to the left twice.
Down to parking lot – plank over parking line
5 merkins, sideways crawl to next parking line, 5 plank jacks, crawl back to original spot 4 merkins, crawl back and do 4 plank jacks, all the way down to 1.
Run back to lot and we were done.
Moleskine
Really random group of guys came today, lots of new guys, regulars and some F3 legends as well. I love it when that happens.
Joker brought out the football at the end of the workout. This should be a regular thing at all workouts.
Night Court recently had his 3rd child, a 3rd daughter (Vivian Renee) congrats brother…and nice knowing you. Cottontail is a financial adviser and he has 13 kids so he knows what he’s doing. Befriend him now.
Racquet came out for his second workout (after being an FNG last week) – he was killing it today. I think his name will stay the same after some initial threats to change it to something….well worse.
Archie came back out. We’ve missed the sub-18 year old presence but he looks as fast as ever…and stronger too now that he plays football and doesn’t run cross country anymore
Wham-O is getting married next week. We offered to be his groomsmen and he didn’t turn down our offer.
Cage showed up to the lot 3 minutes late, he finally found us with 12 minutes to go. I would love to have a video showing him running around looking for us for 30 minutes.
Prayers for Darth Visor and his family. An Alpharetta F3 brother who passed at a workout. This is the worst thing that could happen at a workout, obviously, so let’s be prepared for it. I always carry my phone on my arm when I Q. When a minute or even seconds could mean life or death it’s something we should all consider.
Thank you Hops for taking us out.
Thanks for all who came and for agreeing to follow a bright red, douchly-dressed pretend soccer player into the gloom.
-Orange Whip
7 guys showed up this morning for Sparta – head lamps up, A51 royalty – Joker made a rare appearance, Horse Head made a crack at me and Chin Music telling each other how great of a job we did on the Raintree hills on Tuesday (No, you hang up), disclaimer mumbled, and we were off…
My Thing
Total: 5.34 miles at a 9:19 pace with lots of stops in between.
Moleskine
Chin Music and Joker were at the top of the leader board and everyone else hung on close behind – lots of stops and starts which can put a lot on a man.
Horsehead has been recruiting hard for this site, and for good reason, it’s the balls. Seriously you can make it to Sportsplex, the Greenway, Crestdale Middle, Kevlar/Skunk site, downtown Matthews, etc. and it’s really well lit.
Lots of talking between sets, which Gypsy got pretty angry about. He doesn’t like idle time, but sometimes the girls just need to dish.
I brushed the pavers off last night before making them available to the PAX. I have a bad history with ants and termites in and on my coupons and I want to work on being more considerate.
We’ve been missing Madison who is the site Q, allegedly.
Announcements
Pease pray for Tulip’s daughter who is in the hospital with an infection and pneumonia. She’s been in for a while and hopes are that she won’t need surgery.
SFN in downtown Matthews the weekend of Nov 10th (need volunteers)
My FitBit band recently broke while playing basketball, leaving me with, well, only the middle “bit”. I use the vibrating alarm feature to wake me up so I don’t wake up the whole house.
It’s set to 3 times –Â 4:45am, 4:47am and 4:50am. There is a backup alarm on my phone set for 5am. With only the “bit” I had been putting the piece into my underwear at night and hoping that it would wake me up (where else would it stay close to my body?). This morning it didn’t and my back up phone alarm had to wake me. Either the feeling in my pants was too enjoyable to get up or I’m losing feeling down there – regardless, I’m excited that my new FitBit band is coming in the mail today. My wife is starting to get jealous.
The PAX enjoyed that story when I shared it this morning – also, for some reason no one would shake my hand at the end of the workout.
The Thingy…
7 of us took off and headed for the Library
Warmup – calf raises, lunges on stairs to library
Circle up on concrete bench and partner up Â
P1 – Run around Library
P2- Dips, Derkins and Step ups
Run lap 2 together
Flapjack for lap 3
Round 2 – same thing but P2 does Situps, Incline Merkins and Step Ups.
4 Corners – .5 mile loop from Seaboard, down train tracks, back around to downtown Matthews
Round 1 – 5, 10, 15, 20 jump squats at each corner
Round 2 – run .5 mile loop, no stops
Increasing Merkins at each light post down to John St. – 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 – real burn here.
Over to Freemont St – 10 power planks, 10 mtn. climbers at each light post (5 or 6 total) to stop sign.
Run over to Jefferson St. LoopÂ
P1 – Runs Loop
P2 – Lunges forward until P1 relieves him
Run over to Freemont St. through my garden – had log coupons in my front yard
Choose a heavy log – 20 shoulder presses, run up to the stop sign 3x.
Run to Greenway – on your own run through the greenway, through the wooden trail and meet up with Peak 51 at Matthews Elementary.
4.7 miles and we’re done.Â
MoleskineÂ
Lots of sweat and almost no talking today after we got done with the first 4 corners.
Animals were aplenty this morning as we ran into some deer, rabbit and a very recently dead squirrel.
The entire PAX was within 50Â yards of each other this morning. We had a good pace and a lot of strength stops mixed in – getting 4.7 was pretty good all things considered but I hoped for 5 – next time for sure.
The Jefferson St. loop was not only a great hilly road but also has the oldest kiln in Mecklenburg County residing on it – it’s a huge piece of crap.
Thurston is changing jobs and moving to Durham soon – he’ll surely be doing F3 when he gets there but best wishes to him and his family. He’s been a regular for a while and we’ll definitely miss having him in A51.
Gypsy was touting a new SFN bike race – I was messing with my phone when he was talking so ask him for more details.
Check out the entire route we did on “Relive” which is an app that does an aerial view of the workout. I’ll try to post it to Twitter.
Sparta is turning into one of my favorite AOs and I can’t think of a better place to run – well-lit, small town, almost no traffic, hills a plenty.
After 4 days of running my nipples are turning into raw meat…between that and my vibrating alarm clock in my pants I’m pretty sure this post may get flagged.
Good work today fellas – awesome push on a muggy day.
Out – Whip
I had a pretty bad run of not writing backblasts and my conscious has finally taken over. Typically I’d done them within a few hours but like anything, you start slacking a little then you start slacking a lot. Food, laziness, whatever your vice. I have many. Rhapsody has more.
Last Friday’s Kevlar was a good burn with a better group of guys that deserves to be published.
The Thingy – total mileage 3.4 miles
Aldi warmup – circle up, SSH, Merkins, Squats, etc.
Run to Downtown Matthews to back of Seaboard and do 4 corners (.5 mile loop)
Round 1 – Corner 1 – 20 Merkins, Corner 2 – 20 situps, Corner 3 – 20 Merkins, Corner 2 – 20 situps
Round 2Â – Corner 1 – 10 burpees (do this at each corner)
Run back to campus – on Cov. Church Ln. – Sprint, Mosey, Sprint, Mosey, etc. between each telephone pole until we get to the rock pile.
Grab a lifting rock and 1 partner
P1 – Run 50 yards
P2 – Shoulder Press
300 total – Flapjack
P1 – Run 50 yards
P2 – Chest Press
200 total – Flapjack
P1 – Run 50 yards
P2 – Tri Extensions
150 total – Flapjack
Reverse run back to main lot –Â alternating forward and reverse between the telephone poles.
COT
Moleskine
Busch and Rhapsody talked endlessly – well anyone running with Busch talked endlessly. It took some serious running to wear them out a bit.
Drive By changed jobs and now spends his mornings with us – he always did in the summer as a teacher but it’s good to see him back in the rotation.
Christmas is becoming a Kevlar regular and was moving fast all morning.
I knew Cage had an injury earlier this year and as a Respectful mid-50 year old he always impresses me. He stayed with it even though we had a long run in.
Witch Doctor just got back from Italy and got engaged there – happy for him for the next stage in his life.
4 of us made it to Mancave – led by Busch after the workout.
6 guys showed up for the Madison themed AO that lets us visit the best sights, sounds and even smells of Downtown Matthews.
We encountered neighbors, bus stop people, pizza grease and even a hobo who we affectionately named “Homeless Guy”.
Very experienced, yet clever group so I did a disclaimer just to be sure I didn’t have to use my $1m umbrella policy on a Thursday. I’m saving it for something special – like a freak trampoline accident.
Headlamps up…
The Thang
Run to Brakeman’s coffee shop lot (corner one), and did a long lap over to W. Matthews St. and back up to downtown Matthews, ending back at Brakeman’s to show the route.
Round 1 – Corner 1 – Derkins (20), Corner 2 (Wide Arm), Corner 3 (Tight Grip), Corner 4 (Hand release or Diamond)
Round 2 – Corner 1 – Step ups (20), Corner 2 – Knee Tucks (20), Corner 3 – Sister MC (20), Corner 4 Cross Country Skier (20)
Pizza PeelÂ
Took the PAX on a hot lap around our next route and had to motion to the “Homeless Guy” sleeping in the alleyway. I typically yell “car!”, “curb!”, but things get awkward when you have to let the PAX know not to step on somebody. We realized why he chose this spot, the smell of warm pizza grease from Pizza Peel could nurse anyone to sleep. Unfortunately I had to change my plan due to the infringement.
Partner up – 20 hand slap sit ups, both run stairs, 15 hand slap sit ups – both run stairs, 10 hand slap situps – both run stains
Old Town MatthewsÂ
Went to my house on Freemont St. where I had some coupons (pavers) lined up at the end of my driveway.
40 shoulder raises – run to the stop sign, 40 curls – run to the stop sign, 40 shoulder presses – run to stop sign
GreenwayÂ
Ran down roughly 1 mile – we had 11 minutes to get back so we scrapped most of my plans and ended back to the top lot at 5:14 to meet up with Peak 51.
Moleskine
PAX was strong here all morning with 5.25 miles in 60 minutes with a lot of stops included. Everyone kept pace with Madison leading the charge.
We got into a discussion about Arena’s name and how Wabbit was perfect. HH suggested Warena? This could be the very rare case where we let Arena decide what he wants to be called after 3 name changes. Apparently he was first called some dirty calculator name (?) which made my mind wander for the rest of the workout. TI-69? AlegeBras? Hard Division? XXX? BOOBS (ya know – 80085)?
What the heck was it!?!?
HH texted me the night before to make sure I had incorporated stops for “puke breaks”, he didn’t need it though
Wild Turkey was a Site FNG and pushed hard – especially up the hills – which seemed like most of the workout.
Wild Turkey also stepped on a pot hole that spewed out Pizza Grease – we could smell it the entire time we were running the stairs.
Madison has signed up for every race in the South if you’re looking to get more involved in races. Not sure if he does strength days anymore but he at least looks as strong as I’ve seen him.
Gypsy mentioned something like he wasn’t able to post on Sunday. Slacker. His last day after many years at Windstream is tomorrow – changing his life one event at a time – congrats!
This was my second 5:15am Q in the past two days so tomorrow is going to hurt.
Not only the fact that I can walk here from my house but this AO literally has endless opportunities. As much as I love Meathead, I think it’ll be my new Thursday since summer Meathead typically turns into my hands looking like rotting meat.
Fault Line has the Q at Kevlar tomorrow and he always brings the heat – make sure to come out tomorrow at 5:30 at Christ Covenant Church. Considering to re-start the 5:15 kettle bell warmup at Kevlar – any takers?
Out- Orange Whip
I had 13 pavers left in my Suburban from a Q I did recently and decided to throw in 3 extra concrete blocks as a backup because the Matrix can get strangely crowded depending on the Monday. Got to the AO a few minutes early to set things up and prayed that I had at least 16 guys (so they could help bring all the pavers back to the car) and no more than that, because I didn’t have anything else for people to lift (save a 45lb kettlebell and a car seat).
Thankfully 16 came out this morning – a really good mix of guys from all over the place.
My weinke was long and distinguished so we had to move fast and a short warmup was in order…
The Thang
Run a bit, circle up, warmup in lower lot
At Lower LotÂ
At one end behind the median do 10 merkins, reverse run to other median, 9 burpees, regular run to 1st median, 8 merkins, etc. down to 1
Mosey to playground and partner up
P1 – 10 pullups
P2 – runs to wall
P1 – runs to wall
P2Â – 9 pull ups
….do this until you get to 1
3 rounds of legs with merkins
Round 1 – P1 – 20 jump shuffles (?) over bench, P2 20 merkins – flapjack and run around the median
Round 2 – P1 – Knee tuck jumps over bench, P2 – 20 merkins – flapjack and run the median
Round 3 – P1 – Sister Mary Catherine’s, P2 – 20 merkins – flapjack and run the median
Wall – grab a paver or concrete block
50 shoulder presses and run the track – x 3
Wall sit and shoulder raises in cadence
Get your partner and paverÂ
Double paver chest presses – 300 cumulative (Partner runs to last lightpost and back – flapjack)
Stack pavers – 40 burpee jump overs (Partner runs to last lightpost and back – flapjack)
Grab you paver and line them up at the first lightpost – 2 round suicide
Waiter carry your pavers back – put them in the truck and then some mary.
DONE!
Moleskine
That was a killer PAX this morning. Love seeing the variety of loud mouths, fast dudes, weird dudes, an FNG and one tranny (you know who you are). Hey, I’m not here to judge. Joke.
The big news of the day was that there was a new fence around the track – really people kept talking about it – like 5 times. It really threw Pop Tart off. He gets pissed when his AO gets screwed with. When they removed the logs he called it “the worst day of his life”. For many of you that day will be when they tell you that Bitcoin isn’t worth, well, anything.
Our FNG Akita Shavers (now known as Nair) from Okinawa came out and killed it. I was thoroughly impressed by how hard he pushed all morning with a big mix of running and strength stuff. He took a long time to name, especially with the PAX we had in attendance. I thought it would be a bidding war to claim this guy’s name because he had a pretty interesting story and a slightly risquĂ© surname. I was happy with Nair at the end of the day. Not sure who came up with it.
Some of the resident runners used the track as a good race and I saw Purell, Rachel, Smokey, Alf, Chin Music and McGee at the front all morning (probably others too but it was dark out there). Pop Tart blew past me carrying his paver on the last suicide run so maybe all he needs is a little momentum.
Gummy graciously provided commentary on my Q all morning and gave subtle comments affirming or questioning what we were doing. He doubted we could do 300 chest presses but we did it! I knew you could do it big guy.
Good to see Tebow making his mark in A51 even though he lives up in NoDa. He’s been bringing some super young FNGs out to F3 which is awesome to see.
Rachel and Purell have been given a hard time lately as they seem inseparable. I was telling the guys last week that me and Rhapsody had to stop working out together a few years ago because we almost got our names changed to “Ace and Gary”. Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you two.
Gypsy said he’s posted at a new AO every Saturday for the past several months – this guy first posted at Kevlar about a year ago and had just given up smoking. Now he’s helping with Speed for Need (info below) and he posts every morning. He also helped Nair get acclimated today which was awesome.
Praise God that we are all able to meet every morning and do this. It’s a blessing that many don’t have. It also can be taken away tomorrow so cherish it each day.
Thanks to Squid and Pop Tart for letting me lead.
Here is Gypsy’s info on SFN training:
For any runners interested in getting some chariot pushing practice for this upcoming racing season: we will have 2 chariots at the 3/29 running AO, Sparta (Socrates Academy at 5:15am – Thursdays). For F3 members looking to push during an event, this posting will fulfill the “Received hands’on training with racing chair prior to scheduled race” requirement. To find out more go to: https://speedforneed.org/event-q-handbook/ or post at Sparta on 3/29 at 5:15.