Monthly Archive January 2015

Fight Club Preblast

Fight Club is an opportunity to:

a) build character

b) develop some defensive techniques

c) get a good workout.

We will engage in activities which further these goals.  Do they have any interest for you?

Saturday 7:45am.  13515 Ballantyne Corporate Place.  Behind the building.

When you wrestle a skunk, you might get stinky.

24 men ate their Wheaties, girded their loins and brought out their big boy bells to have a go at the roughest, toughest, nastiest workout in the AO. Standard to form, the more you fought this one, the worse it was.

The THANG:

  • Warmup: Partner up and Catch-Me-If-You-Can from high school lot, around outer loop of church, to middle school lot (approx. .66 miles). Partner 1: Farmer Carry run; Partner 2: 10 merkins and chase partner 1. Flapjack as necessary.
  • Plankorama, SSH and IWs for all to regroup.
  • Instructions: Welcome to The Challenge
    • Written in chalk on the pavement so you don’t forget: do these exercises in order, finishing each exercise before moving on to the next. Alternate R/L hand as needed. Move as quickly as you can to complete The Challenge in the allotted time.
  • The Challenge:
    • 50 KB Snatches
    • 10 burpees
    • AYG around parking lot (take shortest line possible — approx .25 miles)
    • 50 Russian Twists (R/L = 1)
    • 10 burpees
    • AYG around lot
    • 100 2-Hand KB Swings
    • 10 burpees
    • AYG around lot
    • 50 KB Squats
    • 10 burpees
    • AYG around lot
    • 100 high pulls
    • 10 burpees
    • AYG around lot
    • 100 merkins
    • 10 burpees
    • AYG around lot
    • Extra Credit (when finished with The Challenge, perform as follows until time is called): 20 Flutter w/KB press, 20 2-Hand KB Swing, 20 KB Push Press, 20 Good Mornings.COT

COT

Moleskine:

  • Yes this was a repeat of a workout I Q’d back in August. It sucked then, it sucked this time. No break, keep going, beat the chalk. Lifting is hard, running is not a break and burpees are awful.
  • Special allowance was made for about 1/3 of the PAX who wanted to bring a couple different bells to the party: partner with yourself and figure it out. Consensus was that this was a bad decision – CMIYC sucks when done solo.
  • Props to the folks who brought out their big boy bells. A couple guys even decided to step it up a notch this week. Let me know how that feels in the morning…
  • Props to Header and Freedom, arriving early to put in some miles.
  • Nice to see Zip-a-dee aka. Zippidee back at Skunk, finally deciding to drive all the way in from the hinterlands to see us. It’s been too long, friend. Hope you come back soon.
  • Not much chatter from what I could hear, but I never felt alone out there. A few encouraging words and helpful grunts kept the pax going after it.
  • Thanks for the opportunity to lead, Harley. Always enjoy it.

Fast Twitch Goat Rodeo

17 mountain goats got a jump on BRR training and torched the hills of Raintree this morning. It was a cool, dry morning – perfect conditions for some hill work and not a peep about deflated balls. Here’s what we did:

The THANG-A-LANG

COP:

  • SSH x25 IC
  • Low Slow Squat x 25 IC
  • Mountain Climber x 20 IC

Fast Mosey to the base of Rising Meadow

-Merkin x15 whisper cadence

Fast Mosey to the base of Windbluff peak for some grinders. Group up in 3’s. Mumblechatter of it being “too early in the year to run Windbluff” was blatantly ignored.

– Round 1- Top: Peter Parkers/Bottom: Bear Squats

– regroup at the base – Merkin x10

– Round 2- Top: Squat/Bottom: Nipplers

– regroup at the base – Merkin x10

– Round 3- Top: LBC/Bottom: Flutter

– regroup at the base – Merkin x10

We bid farewell to one of the finest hills in  Area 51 with a suicide AYG to the peak.

Fast Mosey to the base of Rising Meadow for a set of 7’s. Forward run up the hill on odd number trips up, backward run up on the evens. Start with 1 Turkish Get Up at the bottom and 6 Hand-release Merkins at the top. Continue 2 TGU/5 HR merkins until completing 6 TGU/1 HR merkin.

– Plankorama

– Indian mosey back to campus.

– Head to the track line up for some 100 yd gassers – avoid tomatoes and ice patches

Ye Olde Moleskinne:

– Lots of BRR race jerseys in attendance today.

– Alf and Spackler shared an intimate moment at the base of windbluff that turned some heads. Mixing bear squats with pillow talk is a recipe for disaster. If you missed it, ask someone who was there – the quote ain’t making the backblast – YHC enjoys posting privileges too much. Oh, and #getaroom.

– Clouds of mustard gas were being dropped in the streets of Raintree today. YHC was fortunate to be a few steps ahead, but heard choking/gasping from the fumes. Something about a cleanse diet…

– Winner of most complimented pax goes to Runstopper on wearing shorts over his tights today. TClaps, RS – bear squats in tights would have crossed the line.

– Quick trip to the track for some gassers turned into olympic speed skating. Cheese curd looked graceful in his moon shoes gliding around the curves. #wherewasBOG?

– YHC was conducting the train from the caboose today – Lots of #smokeboots out there today.

-Tclaps to Slim Fast for a meaningful take out today.

– Always an honor to post and lead the toughest workout in A51. Great job, great effort this morning gents.

Announcements/Upcoming Events: Tis the season for CSAUP events. Check the website/twitter and sing up.

  • Charlotte 10-miler 2/21 (Ballantyne)
  • Mud run 4/11 (Columbia, SC) – preblast coming soon
  • Shamrock 4-miler 3/14 (Ballantyne/Stonecrest)
  • Charlotte Brain Tumor Race 3/21 (Marshall Park, CLT) – Team Chepul Hill is currently leading in fundraising (http://events.braintumor.org/charlotte-brain-tumor-race/) – contact Chelms for more info
  • Quarry Crusher Run 4/18 (Columbia, SC) – contact Spackler for clowncar info
  • Battlefrog 4/25 (Winnsboro, SC)
  • Blue Ridge Relay – 9/11-9/12 – contact Turkey Leg with interest

Thank You Haggis. Job Well Done

34 men posted at the Vine for Bagpipe and Swift. 21 men followed YHC for the boot camp style Bagpipe beatdown.  The Swift guys were most likely running.  Here is what the 0530 group did:

Thang

Mosey over to the Premier parking deck (approx .75 mile).  Circle up inside the entrance.

COP

Disclaimer given to PAX

SSH x 10 IC

IW x 10 IC

Mountain Climber x 10 IC (hold plank)

Merkin x 10 IC

Plank/6 inches/10-count

Merkin x 10 IC

Run and Burp

Run from bottom of deck up all the floors with a stop at each floor for 5 burpees OYO.  Plank-o-rama at the top to wait for six.

Mary

Sets to 10 IC (do not drop feet): Flutter/Hells to Heaven/Bicycle/Hold for two 10 counts

Mosey down to the ground level of parking deck.

Triple Nickel

Run up first incline (1/2 level).  5 Jump Squat.  Run back down.  5 HR merkin.  5 reps.

Plank to wait for six.  Merkin Set

Sets to 10 IC: Regular/Crucible/Offset Right/Offset Left

Mosey back toward the Vine launch lot with stops on the way to wait for the six.  Exercises done at stops: Smurf Jacks x 15 IC.  Imperial Squat Walker x 15 IC.  Plankorama

Circle up in launch.  90 seconds to spare.

Merkin x 25 IC

Moleskin

We covered approximately 2.5 miles today for the boot camp workout.  Hard for YHC to resist the pull of the parking decks of the AO, especially when we spent all our time at the lake last week with Madame T.  Soft Pretzel, Outback, Margo, Dear Abby, and several others pushing the pace today in the garage.  All PAX worked hard.  Welcome to our FNG, Super Freak.  He did a great job today.  Hard to believe it when he told the PAX his last name was Safreakis.  Made naming him easy.  Come on back out and join us in the gloom.  You will be glad you did.  Even better, tell all your friends and invite them out too.  T-claps to Outback who went after the six on the way back.

Speaking of Outback, he was named the new site Q, along with Soft Pretzel, at Bagpipe.  Excellent choices for AO leaders.  T-claps to Haggis who started this workout over 2 years ago.  Great job with the site.  All we had to do was look around at the 34 PAX today to see how well the AO has flourished under his leadership.  YHC also happy that the AO continues to have a leader with an accent.  YHC took group out in prayer.

Announcements

Team Chepul Hill.  03/21/2015 5K/10K race to raise money for brain cancer research.  Abacus and Chelms’ brother Bill is suffering from brain cancer and has fought hard for a long time.  Join them to raise money and awareness.  See weekly email for link for sign up.

While you were dreaming of 400m repeats…

11 to 13 men (some disagreement in the count at COT) came to the parking lot of the Vine American Kitchen at 5:15 in the morning with dreams of 400m repeats in their heads.  One PAX remained in bed dreaming of the same.  It turns out that one PAX was our fearless leader Bratwurst.

So at 5:16, Haggis and YHC conspired and then led the PAX out on the warmup route to the Bull Ring.  On the way, Haggis found a fire hydrant to serve as the start point and found it to be exactly 0.25 miles to the entrance to the office complex from said hydrant.  Perfect!  After some various dynamic stretching activities mixed in with some strides, the PAX were ready for action.

Per the preblast, 400m repeats were on tap at 1-mile race pace or R-pace.  After one repeat down the hill, the rest of the repeats were completed going up the hill to the office complex and recovery back down the hill.  After 10 rounds of 400m, the PAX were fully satisfied.  Ouch!

As usual, the Swift PAX were beasts of nature and destroyed the repeats.  It looked like the effort level remained high through to the end of the workout.  As said before the first repeat, the idea is not to burn out after 2 or 3 intervals, but to keep a consistent pace on all of them.  It seemed like this was the case for most.  Great job!

There were some that seemed to have a hitch in their giddy-up toward the end (Cheddar, Spinner, and Stump Hugger).  Hopefully, there are no running injuries looming and it was just a passing tweak.

Welcome POP and Gunny to Swift!  YHC is guilty of talking POP into Swift today and is hoping it was enjoyable (as enjoyable as almost recycling merlot can be).  He killed it out there!  Gunny hails from Metro type workouts like DMZ and SIB.  Much respect is deserved with the speed Gunny showed out there today.  Come out again brother!

It was on week for Brisket at Swift.  Or at least there was a faint resemblance of Brisket out there in the gloom.  It was hard to see with the night camo on.  As usual, he brought the intensity.

Madam T, Voodo, and Abacus are becoming running beasts and are now regulars at the running workouts.  Running is good!  Keep killing it out there!

Haggis, of course, ran at a high rate of speed repeatedly.  That’s just what happens with him though.  Iron sharpens iron my brothers!

As always, YHC enjoyed sharing some gloom with you guys.  Great way to start the day.  Bratwurst will be back next week and all will be in proper order.

 

The Spackler’s Blocks

It was a nice brisk morning, with a little bit of a drizzle as 11 men headed into the gloom for a beat down.  The whole time thanking Spackler for his new toys.

The Thang:

Warm up:

A lap around the parking lot with some high knees and some butt kickers.

Then circle up in front of the school.

25 X SSH, 20 X IW, 20 X squats, 15 X merkins

Next Mosey out to 51 and take a right to get to the hill
Jacob’s ladder with 5 burpees at the top and 1 squat at the bottom, until 5 squats at the bottom and 1 burpee at the top

Mosey back to the side parking lot and grab a cinder block from the woods.
everyone would line up at the first basketball goal with their cinder blocks.
They way it worked. Everyone does the called out exercise with the cinder block then runs to the farthest basket and back. Then does Mary until everyone is back.
Round 1:
20 curls, run and Flutter
R2:
20 squats, run and dolley
R3:
20 high pulls, run and rosalita
R4:
20 bent over rows, run and LBCs
R4:
20 overhead presses, run and flutter
R5:
10 merkins with left hand on block, run, 10 merkins with right hand on block, run and LBCs
R6:
20 clean jerk squat overhead press, run and dolley

Cinder block Break over at the lavatories for some peoples chair
three rounds of peoples chair with 25 air presses, 50 air presses and 25 air presses on your own

Back to the cinder blocks
R1:
20 curls, run and Flutter
R2:
20 squats, run and dolley
R3:
20 high pulls, run and rosalita
R4:
20 bent over rows, run and LBCs
R4:
20 overhead presses, run and flutter
R5:
10 merkins with left hand on block, run, 10 merkins with right hand on block, run and LBCs

The end

Moleskin:

Great job by the pack today, it was hard work moving spackler’s blocks around the lot today. Not a whole lot of mumble chatter out there. I saw a couple new faces out for base camp, hope you enjoyed. Thank you all for coming out and for letting me Q, always an honor. Spackler big thanks for the new toys at base camp. Insomniac thank you for taking us out.  Have great week everyone.

Announcements:

Need a Base Camp Q for next week or cinder blocks could be back on table, some site Q bailed

USMC Mudrun in April

Blue Ridge Relay see Turkey Leg

Foxhole

13 strong posted at Foxhole this morning to enjoy some kettlebells and what may turn out to be the best weather of the week.  Here is what we did.

The Thang:

Warm up lap and circle up for 20 SSH, 15 slow squats, 10 merkins and 20 mountain climbers (all IC).

Mosey to pull-up bars for 1st set of exercises.  5 pull-ups, 10 overhead presses, 15 two hand swings.  Repeat 5 times and run a lap around parking lot.  Plank when finished.

2nd set: 5 burpees, 10 KB squats, 15 curls.  Repeat 5 times with a lap and plank when done.

Mosey back to the parking lot and get in groups of 3.  Partner 1 does weighted sit-ups w/ P2 holding feet in a plank position.  P3 carries 2 KBs and runs to second speed bump and back (~50 yds).  Switch up every time the runner gets back and repeat until Q calls time.  Think we did this about 10 minutes.

Finish with Set 3: 5 2 hand KB merkins, 10 dying cockroaches w/ bell, 15 deadlifts.  Lap and plank.

Moleskin: Plenty of mumblechatter to start things off today but it fell off a cliff when we started alternating the swings, pullups, etc.  Hearty to welcome to our brothers from Indian Land: One Niner and Pebbles.  These guys were smoking it throughout.  Great to have you out pushing all of us.

Great to see everyone out this morning and always a pleasure to lead.

Announcements: They’ll be doing The Murph this Saturday at Indian Land Middle.  Check web site for schedules at all the Indian Land AOs.  They have built out a nice set of workouts – good opportunity for AREA 51 PAX to mix it up a little.

” I’m Back Baby, I’m Back!” ** Wiggler: 5:30 am Launch

“I’m Back Baby, I’m Back!” **

After two weeks off, I am back on the Wiggler trail. Come join us!  Run The Wiggler– 5:30 am Tuesday – corner of Foxcroft and Rothwood – fellowship pace…

 

** George Costanza , Seinfeld

Does this thing go for the full 45 minutes?

A light sprinkle didn’t deter 13 men to embark on my maiden voyage as the ‘Q’.

Warm up Run

COP:

  • 20 – Side straddle hop
  • 20 – Merkin
  • 20 – Mountain climbers
  • 20 – Dolly
  • 20 – Imperial Walkers

The Thang:

  • Indian Run with football
  • Catch me if you can with rocks – 10 of each – Carolina Dry Docks, burpees, merkins, 1 exercise after each catch
  • People’s chair
  • LBC’s
  • Dolly
  • Balls to the wall
  • Lunge walks and sprint
  • Return the rocks
  • 15 Burpees OYO
  • 20 Russian Twists
  • 15 One legged flutters
  • 15 other legged flutters
  • 20 Bicycles
  • 10 Pull-ups
  • 10 Merkins
  • 15 Mak-tar-Jai
  • 20 Hand Release Merkins

…And a bunch of other really cool stuff you didn’t even know about

—Franks (and beans)

Commentary by Alf:

A solid VQ by Franks this morning and happy to have him among the leadership of The Matrix.  While the Q went fairly well, he started off rocky with loudly announcing this would be his first Q.  Let the hazing begin….

Franks spread us out across the AO and had a good variety of exercises.  We pulled up into the car parking lot at about 6:06 and I figured he had one heck of an episode of Mary planned.  But alas, he figured the plan was to be done, counted off and in the cars by 6:15.  A little pitch in by the remaining PAX on Mary and other assorted pain inducing exercises closed us out at full time.

A nice morning and a big crowd.  Happy to see the regulars and a few new faces to the site including Donut Hole, Chanel, and Fire Hazard – keep coming out and start your week off right.

-Alf

Ending at 6:15 is optional, right?

We had a lot of work to do. Ambitious? Yes. Doable? No.

The Thang:
Partner up and run to the middle of Camilla Dr. (halfway between Carmel Rd. and the school)

Partner 1 runs to the school and performs 25 LBC
Partner 2 runs to Carmel Rd. and performs 25 Mountain Climbers
Meet back in the middle for 15 partner derkins
Flapjack and then repeat

Run to the back of the school (Imperial Walkers x 20 waiting for six) for a modified Jack Webb:
1 Merkin and 3 Flutter Kicks (Flutters in cadence)
Audible to LBC’s (in cadence) after set of 7/21.
Went up to 10/30

Run to track for a Burpee mile.
Do 5 Burpees after each distance: 100, 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, and 100
Mary while waiting for six (Freddy Mercury and Russian twist x 15IC)

Run back Carmel Park, stopping twice for merkins (10xIC) and squats (15xIC).
Mary and merkins while waiting for six (Wide Arm, Heels to Heaven (#DookSucks), Knee Up, Merkins, and others I think)
Run back to pick up six.
DONE, just short of 8am.

Moleskin:

We hit 3.65 on the milage according to EZ’s garmin. Speaking of EZ, glad to have you down south. Hopefully, you enjoyed it. Also, sorry for not saying “hey” until after the burpee mile. The whole workout, I kept thinking “that’s gotta be EZ, he even has a running vest on. But what is he doing at DMZ? Nah, must not be him.” #Sneaky

Jack Webb with Flutters (in cadence) is pretty horrible. We hit 84 Flutters and then audibled to LBC’s (still in cadence) and did 81 of those. The goal was to do all of them in Flutters, but that was a pipe dream.

A little confusion on the burpee mile instructions. Chappy thought we were doing 80 burpees. Not sure how you got to that number. I know Steinbrenner was confused. Clearly it wasn’t my fault with the instructions that confused everyone.

Hops said he wanted a “SharkTank” workout. We have no parking decks near us, but we did hit 3.65 and did not have to go off campus. The workout was probably closer to a “BassTank” than the real “SharkTank”.

Planned on doing sprints up the hill on Thornridge at the end, but it would have led to mass mutiny since we were already over time. Next time.

EZ and Bout Time killed the burpee mile.

T-claps to our FNG Chris (Grit). He’s 59 (YES, 59!!) and a graduate of VMI. You survived a tough workout. I almost didn’t survive. Really enjoyed having you and hope you return!

Totals: 3.65 miles, 60 derkins, 50 MC’s, 55 merkins, 84 Flutters, 96 LBC’s, 35 burps, and lots of mary and merkins mixed in between…

Announcements:

Nothing. Probably because it was 8:00am.