Pants are for work
16 PAX broke through the gloom on a 23 degree morning to head into a 12 round prize fight beat down. Everyone except YHC showed up in full pants. It isn’t THAT cold. Pants are for work, not working out. My wife and her friends wear pants working out.
COP:
A quick mosey followed by 25x each SSH, IW, and Mountain Climbers.
Run down the field to grab the Birthday presents. (cinder blocks brought for #TheMatrix one year party). Run with blocks to the track on the other side of campus. Where the 12 rounds of beating were posted on the lamp post. Partner up.
The Thang:
Round 1: 100 Merkins, between partners. Each run 2 laps on track (short ~200m track)
Round 2: 100 Shoulder presses, between partners. Each run 2 laps with the block.
Round 3: 100 Monkey Humpers, between partners. (side by side, not back to front please). Each shuffle 2 laps around track. 1 lap facing inside, 1 lap facing outside.
Round 4: 100 CDD, between partners. Each run 1 lap backwards
Round 5: 100 Squats, between partners. 1 lap partner carry around track
Round 6: 100 Decline merkins, between partners. Each run 2 laps around track
Round 7: 100 Curls with block, between partners. Each sprint 1 lap around track
Round 8: 200 LBC’s, between partners. Each run 2 laps around track
Round 9: 100 Incline merkins, between partners. Each hop 1 lap around track
Round 10: 100 Dolly with block press, between partners. Each run 2 laps around track
Round 11: 100 Bent over rows, between partners. Each sprint 1 lap around track
Round 12: 100 Triceps extensions with block, between partners. Each run 2 laps around track.
Plank-o-Rama
Carry the blocks back to the tree line. Jail break back to cars for COT.
Moleskine:
12 rounds turned out to be an aggressive goal and the PAX got TKO’ed by the clock after Round 8. We did sneak in the Dolly Block presses on the way back to the trees to drop of the presents. OT and Lobster Roll led the charge the whole way.
I’ll have pull this out for a Saturday when we have the full hour to complete it. It was great work out there, everyone pushed hard, and the format gave everyone a chance to keep moving in the cold, and the short track and central pain station kept the group tight. Always an honor to plan for and lead a great group of men. Thank for the opportunity.
Great send off by Dolphin.
Announcements:
Most of the usual. Look for details on a Go Ruck Heavy event in March near Asheville.
-Alf
Hair Band’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Pain Train
12 PAX had front row seats as Hair Band rocked Outland this week during his inaugural QIC. Thanks for stepping up and great job leading the workout brother. Kid Rock’s got nothing on the Pain Train you delivered.
The Thang
-Mosey to SF
COP
SSH x20 – IW x 20 – Manmakers x10 – Slow Squat x10
-Mosey back to Middle school
Ooh a wall!
Partner up quickly, size doesn’t matter
Round 1
Partner 1 – calf raises on the curb x 40 – The curb was to offer more range of motion, didn’t think about balance though. We are not gymnasts or ballerinas so, audible! Move off the curb.
Partner 2 – People chair + air presses until P1 done
flapjack
Round 2
P1 – Squat in the lot x 30
P2 – BTWs until P1 done – *Bonus move if you’re man enough, add some presses.
flapjack
Round 3
P1 – Carolina Dry Docks x 30
P2 – Donkey kicks
flapjack
Plank when done
-Mosey to the cheese!
Incline merkin x20
Decline merkin x20
Cheese (bus)weave – Whoa! More buses than I remember. Picked a # and only weaved to that one. (About 8-10 buses in)
Incline wide arm merkin x20
Decline diamond merkin x10
Cheese weave
Dips x 20
jump ups x10
Cheese weave
Lbc x20
Plank til all pax are done.
Jack Webb!
Merkins/airpresses 1:4 to 10:40 in honor of Zip.
CT picks up the Q
Mosey to Baseball Field
Plank @ home plate
Bear Crawl to first base hollow rock and wait for all PAX to arrive
Squats x20
Lunge Walk to second base
Sister Mary Catherine x20
Backward lunge walk to third base
Dancing Crab until all PAX Arrive
Crab Walk to Home Plate plank and wait for all PAX to finish
Mosey to Soccer field for some Core work
6 MoM extended
LBC x20
Freddy Mercury x20
Reverse Plank
Back Scratchersx20
Side Crunch Right x14
Side Crunch Left x16
Jack Knife x15 (and hold)
Dolly x15
Plank x1min
“Rock & Roll” in honor of Hair Band’s inaugural Q. Mosey to rockpile, pick good size rock and line up on the practice FB field w/ partner
Round 1
Partner 1 curl your rock
Partner 2 sprint to tackle dummy and back
repeato
Round 2
Partner 1 overhead triceps extensions with your rock
Partner 2 sprint to tackle dummy and back
repeato
Round 3
Partner 1 Squat Press your rock
Partner 2 sprint to tackle dummy and back
repeato
Mosey to Obstacle Course
5 pull-ups
Over the wall #1
Over and unders
Over the wall #2
Balance beams
High knees through the tires
10 incline crunches
Plank and wait for all PAX to finish
Mosey to base of hill @ disc golf course
On your bellies and… jail break to the shovel flag
COT
Moleskin: Hairband delivered a first rate beat down this week and all PAX stood strong through the pain. Chicken dance was back after fully recovering from dominating the Spartan Beast a couple week’s ago. We even considered renaming balls-to-the wall this week in honor of Chicken Dances “unique” form, which looked more like a turkey ready to be stuffed.
Kudos to Horse Head who apparently pushed himself to the point of spilling Merlot this week during burpees. “Chunky Burps” as he affectionately named them still count… Did we do burpees? This was passed on from Hair Band… YHC doesn’t remember the burpees, or the Merlot, probably too gassed to think straight at the time.
Announcement: Next week (November 30th) Outland will be converging with Area 51 for a post Turkey Day beatdown. Spread the word for all who weren’t at this week’s workout.
Ruck like an SOB
12 of Ballantyne’s brave stepped out into the balmy gloom for something a little different at Stonehenge. Today’s Stonehenge was promised to be limited running which made it perfect for trying out the ruck or for FNG’s to post for the first time. We didn’t have any FNG’s but 4 rucks out there for their maiden voyage.
A 5:30 pre-workout run was planned, but an audible was called when Snowflake and Fireman Ed showed up and peer pressured YHC into some kettlebell work instead. Knowing what was in store for the main event, YHC knew better but couldn’t say no to some KB action.
The Thang:
Warmup in Wells Fargo lot (confusing a hapless ATM customer with our presence)
– All with no rucks
– SSH x 30
– Forward Lunge x 10
– Imperial Walkers x 20
– Manmaker Merkins x 20
ATM Madness – with Rucks
– Line up in front of the bank drive thru
– All exercises in cadence and together – team
– Squats x 30
– Lunge Walk x 25 yards
– Merkins x 30
– Bear Crawl x 25 yards
– Squats x 25
– Lunge Walk x 25 yards
– Merkins x 30
– Bear Crawl x 25 yards
Mosey to Lock Ness wall #1
– Dips with ruck reversed x 30
– Squat Thrusts (Presidential Fitness Style) x 10
– Dips with ruck reversed x 30
– Squat Thrusts (Presidential Fitness Style) x 10
Mosey to next wall on Lock Ness
– Incline merkins x 30
– Step-ups (together) x 20
– Incline merkins x 30 (KB work began to catch up with us at this point)
– Step-ups (together) x 20
Mosey around field down to the bridge – Surprise! There was a pile of concrete rocks conveniently placed there just for our needs.
– PAX divide into 4 groups of 3, grab a rock, and bring it to the field
– Person 1: Flutter w/ Ruck Press
– Person 2: Rock Carry 50 yards
– Person 3: LBC w/ Ruck above head
– Repeato ~ 4x through
– Editorial note: About this time, Mic Check was voicing his desire to punch YHC in the gut for talking him into carrying a ruck to this party. This was also about the time that Fireman Ed noticed that YHC had conveniently “lost” his ruck at one end and was letting his team enjoy it for the flutter/press combo. Mumblechatter ensued.
Deposit rocks in a pile and form a Tunnel of Love
– Everyone cycle through tunnel twice
It was time to move, 4 lucky PAX grabbed the rocks and we were off
– We rucked / carried the rocks around Loch Ness and out onto the street.
– Stopped for 20x Dolly and 20x Rosalita
– Recover, load up, and continue to the back of the medical building for some people’s chair
– Wait, there’s a mobile MRI trailer in our spot, proceed to the front of the building
– Oops, there is too much shrubbery for people’s chair
– Fireman Ed then noticed the perfect brick wall across the street – perfect!
People’s Chair commenced:
– 1 minute with ruck on chest
– Silent 10 count and mumble chatter to catch our breath
– 1 minute with ruck / rock above head with presses in second half
– Some more mumble chatter to recover
– 1 minute with ruck / rock held out in front
Head back to start for COT (Jailbreak called by Udder but not fulfilled by anyone else – heavy load)
Moleskin:
It was a great day in the gloom. The promise of limited running was fulfilled and when we moved from place to place, the pace was a true mosey. Even still, YHC was officially smoked at the end and hopefully the PAX shared this outcome.
The rucks we came up with for this challenge were definitely not the GR1, however, they were effective and raised the bar on the pain level. Most creative ruck content goes to Mic Check with a high school backpack filled with dumb bells. It seemed like it worked fine though. YHC is glad the promise of a gut punch was not fulfilled after COT.
Doing all the exercises in unison and focusing on teamwork was nice. It was good to see people passing the rocks and helping each other out during the movement to different locations. The GORUCK challenge is still a long way off, but YHC hopes to join the other SOB and experience it together in March. Based on how this workout went, I think we have a good start.
The Rock
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.
Beastly Knerkins
5 pax took on the Beast and other assorted trials as a warm-up to their weekend.
The Thang:
Jog around concession stand and baseball field and back to front field
COP:
- SSH – 20
- IW – 20
- Arm Circles – 10
The Beast:
- 6 reps at 6 stations, every 20 yrds along the front field:
- Jump Squats; Merkins on your knuckles (Knerkins?); Flutter; Speed Skater; Situps; Knerkins
Playground:
- Pullups or Supine Rows – AMRAP
- Lunges – 10
- Good Mornings – 10
- Rinse & Repeat – 4x total
Baseball field:
- Karaoke; Back Peddle; Side Shuffle; Back Peddle; Karaoke
Concession Stand:
- Box Jumps or Step-ups – 15, 15, 10
- CDD – 15, 15, 10
- LBC – 15, 15, 10
Playground:
- Knees-to-Elbows – AMRAP
- Jump-overs – 10
- Derkins – 10
- Rinse & Repeat – 3x total
Switch over to Low Tide as Q
- Jack Webb – to 5/20
Mary:
- Protractor for 2 min (#crowdpleaser)
Time’s Up
COT
Moleskin:
The small number of pax didn’t lend itself to lots of mubblechatter, or maybe it was the Beast that suppressed it. YHC has got to remember to build in more opportunities to catch our breath, but we made due with several 10 counts.
Merkins on our knuckles were introduced, and we decided they needed an appropriate name – Knerkins seemed to fit.
Also introduced were knees-to-elbows, where we learned Bubbles does them all the time when visiting the Fern and shared his tips with the pax (control your swing).
No new announcements.
Challenge Accepted
The #F3DayZero Challenge was issued and 17 men accepted.
The Thang
We did the exercise outlined on the giant weinke and then ran a lap around the 1/3 mile track after each exercise. The goal is to push yourself and get as far as you can (and past your point from the previous Challenge). These are the exercises of the Challenge:
- 100 Burpees
- 150 Calf Raises (50 in, 50 straight, 50 out)
- 100 Ski Abs
- 100 Merkins (25 diamonds, 25 narrow, 25 regular, 25 wide-arm)
- 100 Deep Squats
- 200 LBCs
- 100 CDDs
- 100 Knee Jumps
- 100 Russian Twists
- 100 Nipplers
- 100 Jump Squats
- 100 Mountain Climbers
- 200 Shoulder Raises
- 100 Jumping Lunges
- 200 Dollies
- 100 Hindu Merkins
- 100 Squat Jacks
- 100 Groiners
- 100 Burpees
Moleskine
The Challenge is tough. It is all about you versus you. But you are not alone…you have all the other guys pushing through the same Challenge and encouraging one another throughout.
When comparing the results of this Challenge to those of the prior two, the Pax have improved. Until today, the farthest anyone had gotten in the hour was a 3/4 lap after Jump Squats. Today, 2 pax made a full lap after the Shoulder Raises. That’s a lot of reps and over 4 miles of running…in one hour.
2 pax stayed overtime to finish the list above and log in excess of 6 miles of running.
Announcements
We all know them by now.
Killer B’s on a Swarm…
16 nasty beasts showed up for a Killer B’s led beatdown. The weather was gloomalicious with 50’s and a mist, so we made sure that nobody could enjoy it.
COP: (Baracus)
SSH x 25
IW x 25
Mountain Climbers x 25
Mosey to the track
Farmer Carry KB Chasers:
Partner up – KB size matters
Partner 1 does 10 merkins then sprints to catch partner 2. Continue until 100 merkins completed. (50 each)
100s: Stay with parnter, 1 partner performs exercise while other partner runs around track. Keep going until cumulative repetitions reaches 100.
– Bicep Curls
– Upright Rows
– Overhead Press
– Overhead tricep extensions
Mosey to playground (Bananas)
5 rounds as fast as you can of:
20 pullups
30 merkins
40 LBC’s
50 squats
Audible at round 3, Lawn mower rows for pullups
Audible at round 4 calf raises for squats
COT
20 two handed swings (in cadence)
20 (10 each arm) snatches with professional demonstration from Byron.
20 flutter press w/ bell (in cadence)
15 dolly press w/ bell (in cadence)
Recover
Moleskin:
Beautiful morning for our workout. Baracus dipped us right into the pain with farmers carries and merkins which generated about 3 laps of sprints, unless you were with the Q in the remedial class, (Crab Cake/Baracus) who managed 4 laps #slerkins. Our Queen City DJ’s showed that they are in their prime in the music industry as The Hoff and Wolfman spent about 10 minutes each fixing the tape that was eaten by the jambox or angling the broken antenna to make sure Michael Bolton was coming through clearly. I’ll be honest with you, I love his music, I do, I’m a Michael Bolton fan. For my money, it doesn’t get any better than when he sings “When a Man Loves a Woman.” #officespace. Bad music, red clay, and kettlebells, no better way to start a Saturday. Thank you men for letting us lead. Have a great weekend.
Announcements: Don’t forget to get your canned goods to Calvary for Thanksgiving, Crab Cake and Hops are on point for this if you have any questions. Also, Busch and Tiger Rag will be leading some pre-game KB work on Wednesdays and Fridays. Follow them on Twitter to find out where the fun will be.
Centurion takes on the Murph – Ready for Round 2
33 men gathered in the gloom around the virtual shovel flag to pay respects to Lt Micheal Murphy and the workout named after him.
The Thang:
COP
SSH X40
Mtn Climbers X20
IW X20
Run 1 mile
Perform the following (most did 10 sets of 10/20/30)
100 Pull ups (assisted or Australian – as necessary)
200 Merkins
300 Air Squats
Run 1 mile back starting point for some Mary led by Hops
COT
Naked Moleskin
This is a you versus you. Can be timed but in 45 minutes much of the PAX had to settle for getting in as many sets as they could. The run may have been slightly over 1 mile and the warm up COP required precious minutes but the goal is to do the best you can and get better each time.
Great crew and I love the age difference (two Doubles Hates at 27 all the way up to WD of 60+). Foot wedge was new to Centurion and picked a good one as the murph always pleases.
Anyone looking for a Christmas gift for Philmont can buy him a new joke book. Some of the PAX were complaining about reuse of old material.
Long Distance stepped up to Q on Black Friday and Run Stopper quickly jumped in to co-Q, reminding everyone that it was “Black Friday”. Luckily that PAX will not have to wait in line for a beat down and all the “gifts” at Centurion only require sweat.
Announcements:
Convergence at the Rock on Turkey Day.
Tutoring continues and you are encouraged to invite others including high school age kids and older, wives, girl friends (not on the same day), neighbors, grand parents. F3 has Thursday but the programs can use more help Monday thru Thursday.
Preblast: Stonehenge 11/23
If you missed the pre-preblast, check it out here http://f3nation.com/2013/11/19/pre-preblast-stonehenge-nov-23/
If you are distraught over the limited running format for Stonehenge tomorrow, come at 5:30 for a fellowship run before the “Ruck and FNG fiesta”. The pace will really be fellowship and no man will be left behind.
Tomorrow’s workout is going to be a painfest so a kettlebell warmup session is not suggested. Feel free if you want, but YHC is not doing it.
The plan for the main event is locked and loaded. We will be covering between 0.5 and 1 mile tomorrow so this is not bad at all for rucking it. Finalize those budget rucks and bring them out. The more creative the better.
See you in the Gloom!
The Dawn of The Liquor Cycle
8 PAX posted at SPEARHEAD today and were lead through a routine that would have even given a GRT Cadre heartburn…
Extra Credit: 04:45 1.5 Mile Ruck with 80lbs Coupon
05:15 1 Mile Run with Ruck (11 Minutes)
The Thang:
SS5 x 35
Slow Squat x 25
Selection Test:
– Selection Style Push-ups for 2 minutes (target 55)
– Selection Style Sit-ups for 2 minutes (target 55)
Mosey to End Zone – Every 10 yards perform new exercise
End Zone: Monkey Humpers x 25 / Bear Crawl to 10 Yard Line
10 Yard Line: Imperial Walker x 25 / Low Crawl to 20 Yard Line – Packs off, move pack on ground
20 Yard Line: Flutter with Chest Press x x25 / Duck Walk to 30 Yard Line – Packs on
30 Yard Line: Parker Peter x 25 / Bear Crawl to 40 Yard Line
40 Yard Line: Belly, Back, Feet x 15 / Low Crawl to 50 Yard Line
50 Yard Line: Peter Parker x 25 / Duck Walk to 40 Yard Line
40 Yard Line: Jack Webb x 8 / Bear Crawl – Packs off, move on ground to 30 Yard Line
30 Yard Line: Ruck Curls x 25 / Low Crawl to 20 Yard Line
20 Yard Line: 8 Count Body Builders x 10 / Duck Walk to the 10 Yard Line
10 Yard Line: Mason Twists w. Ruck x 25 / Bear Crawl to End Zone
Partner Carry to 50 Yard Line / Flapjack Partners / P2 Carry to End Zone
Ruck Carry Ladder:
All Pax Plank at the End Zone
PAX 1 Carry all Rucks to 10 Yard Line. 1 by 1 next person sprints to 10 yard line and back to retrieve 3 Rucks. Once 3 Rucks are on the 10 Yard line, the next person goes and 1 by 1 carries 3 more rucks to the 10 Yard Line. Once all Rucks are on 10 Yard Line, PAX 1 moves 3 Rucks to 20 Yard Line. Rinse and Repeat until all Rucks are moved down the Football Field
Rest of PAX Plank Up and perform Merkins until all PAX move Rucks
LBC until the rest of the Rucks are back
Strong work as always from the PAX today. I named this post The Dawn of the Liquor Cycle for a reason. Watching him come along as a site Q has been a wonderful thing to see. LS- you killed it out there today. That routine that tested us in every way possible and it was very well thought out…However your audible at the end (on the fly) was amazing. You created a cool and challenging routine with the Pack Carries that I know we are going to use/modify over time!
Additionally, Liquor Cycle carried me (The Hoff) for 50 yards. I had a 47 lbs pack, weighing in at a hefty 235 and his pack at 40lbs, he shouldered 322 pounds #superhuman!
As for the PAX there were times when I looked over and saw everyone moving as a group and going through the Suck together as a team. As a result, SH is making us a well oiled machine!
On Behalf of Liquor Cycle, thank you for training with us this morning and please sound off below if you have comments about this workout.
Respectfully,
The Hoff (On Behalf of Liquor Cycle)