9 of my best friends (they just don’t know it yet) came out to Skunkworks this morning and followed me into the well-lit gloom.
The Seniors of Covenant Day were working on some sort of prank so the lot was especially busy this morning.
Smokey continues to confirm the “ages like wine” analogy and opted for Hoover’s 53lb monstrosity (remember to edit this out later so it doesn’t sound weird) & killed the workout.
The THANG – doesn’t matter buuuut…..
Warmup with swings & good mornings
Hill workout – Station 1, Station 2 (bottom of hill), Station3 (top of hill)
Fishbowl strength work
Partner catch me if you can back to home
MOLESKINE
Lot’s of mumble chatter at the beginning which eventually faded. Schmedium was talking “horse racing” for a solid 5 minutes, which is really hard for anyone to do. Unless your name is Bob Baffert and you’re on the phone with your horse’s….uhhh….pharmacist.
Cage came rolling in late but was certainly a fan favorite as a hoard of raucous school boys cheered when he skipped part of the workout and went over to greet them. I thought he was going to lay down the law because they were on school grounds off-hours…… Hops asked “Do you think he’s a cool teacher?” and I said “Apparently not”, but as he approached the kids he definitely received a warm welcome. By the way, Cage crushed the workout today…
The Lois/Hoover non-running combo worked out really well and they both modified but hung with the group the whole time. Both have stress fractures in their foots. They didn’t have enough fiberglass at the hospital to wrap Hoover’s foot so they gave him what looked to be a rear bumper from a 1996 Honda Civic for a few weeks which he took off since the last time I saw him.
The aforementioned Smokey was weighing which bell to use this morning (literally and figuratively) and opted for the jumbo. He didn’t complain once and destroyed that workout. I was going to warn him that we would be working pretty hard today but I wanted to see if he could do it. I think a new 53lb $180 KB (Covid prices) is in his future. I just bought my 53lb on the black market in Voodoo’s garage for a killer deal about 2 months ago…it’s old and beat-up but that’s the way I like it.
I can tell people fake stories of all of the times I’ve picked it up, and put it back down again, then picked it back up and so on.
Stone Cold stopped me a few times mid-cadence as we were moving toward some high reps at the end. With that tank top and those guns you really don’t want Stone Cold to have to tell you anything twice. I’ve heard stories of this guy laying out young bucks on the frisbee pitch who were wandering around the end zone trying to score a touchdown (???)
Chicken Wing was the winner today as far as speed, endurance go – he never stopped. Horsehead was also steadily keeping a nice pace although I heard him say something at the top of the hill that he did “10ish” burpees. Pretty sure that only earns him 2 apple pies today.
Beer Drinking Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 530pm at SEABOARD – HOOVER is Q and A51 drinking champion
Functional Fitness Challenge – 0700 on Saturday at Old Providence Elementary. Just come and find out how strong you are.
Perfect morning for running yet again as the Charlotte spring has been undefeated for two straight years.
Benny had to reschedule this Q for me about 5 times but it was time to make the Tuesday morning 1 hour workout happen and I was glad I did.
The Thang
We ran from the ABC Store to Lowes at the Promenade and back – slow merkins and fast merkins at the end, some reverse running to kill the final 2 mins.
Moleskine
I was not feeling creative last night and heard some pretty easy Qs come out of Fast Twitch as in “run here and back” and took advantage of this cheat code.
Monday nights are my garage band jam nights which go late into the night (with IPAs & whiskey) so Tuesdays are always a sleep in day. I was able to round up my bandmate Rhapsody to come run with us and he was out in front the whole time.
I told him I was out of running shape and he said he would run with me anyway. Not sure his heart rate went over 100 as he carried on a normal conversation for 60 minutes. People have been known to call us “Ace & Gary” from the old SNL cartoon which we’ve become accustomed to. We’ve never ridden on a motorcycle facing each other though – but never say never.
I always forget how early Cheese Curd’s mouth gets started. At 5:10am it seems like the guy has been up for 4 hours and just did a presentation to his board of directors. It’s almost as if he wants to rumble. I like it though. Nothing worse than Q’ing a silent PAX that doesn’t mess with you – and he gets on you early. He insults how long you stretch, how poorly you explain the workout and he’ll even get you on how fast you pray. But I still love the guy because he can take it back in return.
Bobby Fisher was too good for us and split sometime in the middle of the workout. We found him back at launch stealing things out of our cars (my opinion). Ever wonder if there’s that one F3 guy out there that is actually scamming all of us pretending that he likes to workout in the morning? He watches where we hide our keys, listens when we’re going on vacation and just acts interested in our personal lives – meanwhile he’s swiping change from the glovebox, ransacking your home when you’re gone and installing cameras in your shower…..
I’m 76% sure that guy is Bobby Fisher. But again, it’s just speculation.
Christmas & TL kept a strong pace all up and down the hills through Raintree.
If you haven’t seen Christmas play soccer you should buy tickets next Sunday and get good seats. Guy is an athlete and a half and you can’t score on him. He goes about 70% at normal F3 because I thought I was as fast as him and I’m not.
Turkey Leg had a better tan than all of us after spring break – most of us went to the beach – TL went to Breckenridge. I need to get the model of those ski goggles cause the dudes entire dome was golden brown. Dad4Boys has got the skin of a greek God.
Shout out to my fellow Clevelander Retread who is at every running workout I ever go to. This guy is as dedicated as they come and pushes hard the entire time.
49er who I barely recognized after working out with him a few times at Sparta was flying and came in hot at the Lowes parking lot at the Promenade.
Benny has been recovering from injury and making a great push back as the full time site Q. Apparently Haze has been filling in nicely for him. Hoping he comes back out to Sparta soon as he gets his legs back under him.
Lex Luthor might be my favorite F3 guy out there. Dude has the best attitude of anyone I know. He’ll Q any workout (like he would Q 5 days a week if you asked him to), do any challenge and would give you the shirt off his back. The first time I ran the BRR he dropped off some Hoka’s he didn’t like on my front porch so that’s not just a figure of speech. He’s also a great dad who loves being one. Be friends with this guy if you can.
OH – and it’s Lex’s birthday today and he didn’t say anything about it. Would have loved to hoist him over our shoulders and sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” during COT – I’ve always thought that song is way better than “Happy Birthday to you”. Seriously, terrible lyrics. The Beatles did it a bit better, except you have to have the same birthday as the person you’re singing it to it or it doesn’t make any sense.
According to Curd my prayer was almost too fast for God to hear so I said another prayer (mostly for him) when I got home to make sure the message got through.
That’s all folks.
Did you hear? Backblasts are required again. It feels like 2015 and it’s great. Waxhaw isn’t gonna know what hit them once A51 takes back our lands. Our forefathers didn’t build AOs across S. Charlotte, indoctrinate middle aged men with beer guts and destroy morning coffee routines with their wives for a town named Wax-Haw to become the premier region in North Carolina. This BS has got to stop RIGHT NOW!!!
By the way, “post workout selfies” are reserved for Orange Theory, Lifetime Fitness pilates classes, and co-ed Cross Fit gyms…which is really just in-person Tinder, but with loud grunting…on that note, maybe they’re exactly the same.
On to the BB….
10 fools got to Seaboard at 0515 and didn’t get back until 0618 after wrapping up exactly 6.2 miles.
A rare Sparta disclaimer was given and we headed out into the cool dark morning.
THE THANG
Ran to my favorite place in Charlotte – Matthews Sportsplex
MOLESKINE
Excellent group out there today. Love when Sparta gets to 10+ guys as it used to have 2-4 when Gypsy first willed the workout into existence. Also love doing COT with Peak 51 because it’s always a 20+ guy group.
Sportsplex is like heaven to me and I can’t believe it’s free to use. You go out there on a sunny day with a football and some sandwhiches and you are good to go.
Mile High was a site-FNG and has posted the past 2 days – I’m pushing for a 3 peat tomorrow morning. He loved the reverse run up the hill so much I’m pretty sure he’s hooked.
Cage, 61 years young, was killing it today and seems to move even faster on cool mornings.
Thankfully Smokey, who Q’d Peak 51, was also running behind and made it back 3 minutes late as well so we could all pray together (thanks to Tweetsie for the take out).
Lex Luthor will do any random challenge you put in front of him. If you tell him that there’s a challenge where guys carry a dog over their shoulders, climb up a mountain in flip flops and can only drink Stawberry Fanta he will sign up. He heard Joker was doing the 4x4x48 or something like that. You run 4 miles, every 4 hours, until you get to 48 miles. He was recruiting HARD this morning for it and if anyone asked a question about it he counted them in. Pretty sure Funky & Christmas got looped into it.
Christmas, Full House and Funky led the charge this morning with most of the group keeping an excellent pace and staying very close together. No one was far behind today.
BRR prep is starting soon so it’s time to get some miles in. Full House expressed some interest in joining a team and can definitely keep a good pace. Keep an eye out for a rookie of the year award if he decides to sign up.
Cage gave us some gardening tips as it’s getting below 30 tonight. Renfrow Hardware has a sweet strategy that has caught me off guard many times. They get a full greenhouse of plants on March 15th and get you pumped up to plant your crops.
I’m a sucker for gardening (it’s a man’s sport, you just don’t know it yet) and I can’t wait to put stuff in the ground. Then, as sure as the dawn, the frost arrives around April 1st and kills everything and you have to buy it all over again. Double revenue.
For those of you who came here for gardening advice, when I moved to Charlotte in 1995 we were zone 7, now we are zone 8 so things do change. Global warming is good news for gardeners, also good news if you have a 2nd row beach house.
Very good pace from top to bottom today. Pleasure leading.
Madison takes a break from frisbee and takes the Q at Kevlar tomorrow. Bundle up!
Sup homies.
Wednesday morning came and went and 9 dudes came out to the gnarliest Wednesday workout that is only as bad as you want it to be – called WAMRAP.
Lots of the regulars plus the triumphant return of Mile High & the tapering Turkey Leg who is allowing his legs to come back to life after a marathon – where he always kicks ass.
My biggest challenge in planning WAMRAP isn’t coming up with ideas, it’s deciding which ideas are stupid to do. And being a stupid man it takes me longer than it should to plan it out.
After a terrible beatdown from Flipper last week that actually wasn’t very hard to understand (but incredibly hard to recover from) I wanted to keep the pace moving forward so laid down last night and pictured the concrete structure in my head and came up with the following plan:
The Thang
Molëskîne
Glass was everywhere today. I have no idea how no one had ripped up a digit doing merkins but it’s gonna happen.
Pretty sure Alf and McGee take bottles of Colt 45 to the top deck, drink 2 each then roll them down the stairs on Tuesday night to add excitement to the workout….but not before talking about how they should have been the starting QB in high school and how Rick Reynolds couldn’t even throw a screen pass and had no business being the starter.
Word is on the street, back in ’89, McGee could throw a pigskin a quarter mile. He actually wasn’t even there today but he’s still getting some recognition – after we played telephone talking about his skiing injury, the jury declared that he broke his coccyx. No idea if that’s true. Could just be a bruise.
Back to Alf tho – I typically stay right on his tail but could not today. He was flying through the route with ease and once I lost him I definitely dialed it back a bit. He shared his strategy which he learned back in college during an Arby’s Roast Beef eating contest. So the story goes, his friend would crush a few of them down quickly and then he could slow down once the field realized they were 2 sandwhiches behind.
Flipper took the workout seriously and was killing it as well. You could tell by his speed but I could tell by him being the first guy to go sleeveless in 2021 which is always a brave move. Who’s next? I’ve got a great lineup of tanks that I’m really eager to pull out of the closet. By mid-June you can find a trail of shirts slewn across the top deck sitting in a pool of sweat. Add that to the glass, gum, throw up, bags of 3 day old food and you really have one of the best AOs out there. It feels like working out on a church mission trip to Bolivia.
Mile High has been speeding up every week at Sunday Soccer and making F3 a regular thing again. He’s a big/tall dude but don’t underestimate the breakaway speed. Good to see him back out there.
At the 6:10 roundup, Christmas and Iron Sides were knocking out lap 5 or 6 and I found a large group running together talking about David Goggins and probably considering doing one of his crazy challenges. F3 guys have a weakness for guys like this and have moved from Jocko to Goggins as they become more radicalized to try and find a way to workout 8 days a week.
These guys use intense words, 4am twitter posts and crazy stupid workouts to make you think that you’re only giving 40% when you are literally puking over the edge of a parking deck in South Charlotte wondering what you’ve done with your life.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read several of their books and love these guys but for me, the workout hero who doesn’t get enough credit?? Richard Simmons. Dude worked out with ten thousand women in neon spandex throughout the 80’s, and what was the result? Zero sex scandals. Exercise hero.
Shared some personal news about another baby on the way and got lots of advice on how to NOT make a woman pregnant. Alf gave me his vasectomy doctor and said he does really great work, and in his multiple visits has never cut off anything he wasn’t supposed to. Pop Tart recommended abstinence. He must have Richard Simmons type skills.
Super fun morning – F3 is a blessing and I’m grateful you guys were willing to follow me into the gloom.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUIP0KuMjTUGMhfkeolnObt8eYjUFrvnFc3zXvIKniv27JsA/viewform?usp=send_form&usp=embed_facebook
Copied from Flipper’s backblast last week…..
One of the foundational A51 F3 locations, The Matrix on Mondays, has been creeping back up in the ratings as many F3 vets have rallied behind the iconic AO to see if they can save it.
A great group of 8 randos showed up today. I can say, I have rarely seen these guys all post together in any normal cadence but today it all came together.
Promising low mileage and more strength building we did just that….
The Thang
Run around the school to lower parking lot for SSH, Low Slow Wide Leg Squats, Merkins
Starfish in parking lot (short run)
Lifting Rocks
Shoulder Press/Curl combos – 10, 10, 9, 9, 8, 8, 7, etc.
Other exercises in cadence with final overhead rock hold for a 10 count by all 8 PAX
Playground
Partner work
P1 – Pullups (10, 8, 6, 4, 2)
P2 – Big boy sit ups (waits for P1 & flapjack)
Wall work
Partner 1 holds feet on wall, Partner 2 bear crawls to line and does 5 merkins & walks back and taps Partner 1 (3 rounds
ABstacles
5 minutes of various ab exercises to wrap things up
Moleskine
Announcements/Prayer Requests:
Paper Jam’s mom sadly passed away unexpectedly over the weekend, please keep them in your prayers
A51 Q School November 21st at the Panera at the Arboretum – 7am workout followed by instruction – contact me for more details juliusmilani@gmail.com or Slack
After a crazy wind storm last night our Metro Q, Pepe, was without power and asked me (LATE) if I could cover for him. Pepe was a professional male model in Italy at one point – no not the George Costanza hand modeling type – the kind where they take pictures of your face…..allegedly. Knowing this would draw in some guys I posted Pepe’s modeling prowess to the Slack channel and pulled Joker right into the trap. Sadly for him, he had to look at me the whole workout.
The Thang
Run to Aldi for warmup, SSH, LSS, BLC (Big League Chew – new exercise), merkins – run back
Rocks – grab a lifting rock
Fish Bowl
Parking Lot – merkin parking space descend
Finale: do 1 burpee + 3 jump squats, 2nd light do 1 burpee + 3 jump squats twice, continue to end of road
Various abstacles and we were done….
Moleskine
Fairly light Fun Friday and a nice morning all around.
Announcements
Thanks – Whip
We keep pushing the goals back as we again broke the Sunday record with 13, even with several regulars out.
The Thang
We played soccer
Moleskine
Reminders:
XOXOXO
-Whip
The rain was falling but for some reason 8 dumb guys came out and got a full dose of jumping puddles and lifting rocks. Wormwood (would have been 9) pulled into the parking lot and pulled back out when he saw us running away – whaaaa??
The Thang
Round1 – 20 Step ups – 20 merkins X5
50 squats
Round 2 – 20 Rock Curls – 20 merkins X5
50 squats
Round 3 – 20 bent over rows – 10 merkins X5
50 squats
Round 4 – 20 rock thrusters – 10 merkins x5
50 squats
Series of Abstacles in a round the circle format, 20 more merkins to make sure no one cheated, and 20 SSH for Horsehead’s viewing pleasure….
Mole-McMole
The rain was pouring hard all morning. For some reason tarps were set up at the field so we actually had a place to stay dry until everyone arrived.
Future reference, if you Q Kevlar, we are parking at the pavilion, not running to it.
Inspired by the IPC the past few weeks I decided to give the strength training one more try and we knocked out 300 merkins, 100 step ups, 100 curls, 100 bent over rows, 100 thrusters and over 200 squats.
Announcements
I forgot to pray or ask someone to pray and asked that everyone say a prayer in their heart on the run back through the rain. Everyone did except for one person.
-Whip