Pre-blast: The Splinter

Pre-blast: The Splinter

The “what and why” for starting this workout are at the bottom, if you want to take the time, otherwise here is the plan for tomorrow:

The Thang:

Partner up – size matters

Take a right out of OP onto Rea and run to HT, loop around the first pillar, and back to OP (+/- 1 mile).  Run behind the school, past the play ground and concession stand, to the football field.

Partner 1 – runs back past the concession area to the playground for 10 pull-ups and then runs back to the concession area for 20 dips and 20 derkins.  P1 runs back to the football field.  Sumo squats while waiting for your partner.

Partner 2 – runs out the trail to Foxworth and up the hill.  At the top (intersection with Bedfordshire), P2 does 40 LBCs, runs down the hill for 40 Freddy Mercury (single count, i.e. 20 each side), and runs back on the trail to the football field.  Sumo squats while waiting for your partner.

When partners meet at the football field, partner carry to midfield and back (switch as needed).  Partners flapjack – P1 heads to Foxworth, P2 heads to the playground – and that’s one set.

Stop at 0606 and run the HT mile again with a left into OP for COT.

Should be +/- 3.2 miles depending on number of sets including stops that target upper body, lower body, and core.

Workout named for the newest featherweight member of F3 Columbia that I carried up McDowell Street a few times at Muthaship Monday.  (Choose your partner wisely)

SOFA WIB (which needs a new name):  What is it and Why start it?

We’ve all got a story about our involvement with F3, and since mine plays a part in wanting to start this workout, I’ll share it.  I started with F3 a little over two years ago.  I’m one of those former high school athletes that came “straight off the couch” because someone EH’ed me.  I knew I needed to get in shape.  I showed up at Core on a Saturday morning, and some Respects were running circles around me (at a non-running workout).  I almost passed out.  Literally.

A few weeks later, a friend heard I’d started F3 and invited me out to WIB (Workout In a Bag) on Tuesdays at Freedom Park.  After a few excuses (“5:30 is too early”, “I hate running”, etc.), he eventually cajoled me into coming out.  The first workout was “The Escalator” – basically a partner version of The Murph broken down into smaller parts (spoiler alert: that’s coming next week).  I was fortunately in a paincave for most of that experience with only three remaining memories:  1) hating him for convincing me to go, 2) laughing at the incessant mumblechatter, and 3) walking part of the mile back as the six.  The leaders that day finished it in +/- 37 minutes, something I couldn’t imagine.  I was dead last.

That did not sit well with me.  Walking during the last mile was the worst.  I was pretty much determined to keep coming out to get better, so I did.  One week I showed up, and my buddy didn’t.  I got partnered up with Sauerkraut, who I’d never met.   By the end, I couldn’t even plank for partner derkins, and he’s not only “not complaining” but encouraging me to keep going and do what I could.  I didn’t realize it while just trying to survive, but that was iron sharpening iron.  WIB became my regular post – the one I wouldn’t miss.

Months later, I had gotten a little stronger and a little faster, completed my first mud run, etc.  Guys from my mud run team used WIB as our team training, where we would race and challenge each other.  During a standard boot camp, everyone follows the Q, but with a set circuit , it was a giant competition.

That’s the plan for this workout:  there will be a pre-blast announcing the workout, which will often involve partners.  It will be non-stop, typically a continuous circuit, that will accomodate FNGs struggling to finish (like I was) and challenge F3 badasses – because you set your own pace.  Need a push?  Find someone faster and try to keep up.

When I moved south of Fairview, I immediately saw that A51 lacked this type of workout.  Not long after that, Team Southbeach won the Busted Paw, somehow (inexplicably) giving Cindy the creative license to write this:

Diary of the Busted Paw – entry 2

Despite all the ballwashing BS, there is a valuable truthnugget in there:  Competition will drive you to work harder than you will on your own.

That’s the what and why, and what I hope this workout will become.  There will be running – at least two miles, but it’s not a “running workout”.  It may even, eventually, incorporate kettle bells or plates.  There will be partner work.  It will never be easy, but I expect there will be encouragement amongst the trash talk, as the goal is to push each other to get better.

I’ll see you in the gloom.

Kirk