Fresh Waters
So, I’ve been meaning to get out of my rut and actually post at a Thursday workout. Perfect excuse came this morning by way of text on Tuesday. Not sure if Brown knew exactly what he was doing when he pegged me to join in the Thursday fun, but couldn’t let him down.
Cool temps, sleeveless shirts, music and meatrunners back on location. Time to begin:
The THANG:
Warmup: mountain climbers, imperial walkers, prying squats, figure eights and some halos
The Main Event:
- Set #1: Pyramid :
- Reps: 2/4/6/8/6/4/2
- Exercises: 1-H Swing, hi-pull, clean, snatch, squat
- Repeat with other hand
- Set #2: Farmer Carry/Burp-n-Merk partner combo x2
- Partner 1 carries 2 heavy bells from here to there and back; Partner 2 performs Burp-n-Merk 1-10
- Flapjack and Repeato
- Set #3: 5×5 Doubles
- Double squat
- Double swing
- Set #4: Cool-down with 3×10 start-stop swings
Moleskine:
- I’m pretty sure I posted at Meathead before, but it’s been awhile. Realized it felt a little like surfing among the locals on some new beach. The internet has advice for this sort of situation (http://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/7558-ten-rules-for-surfing-waves-in-non-local-surf-spots), but I’m pretty sure there is no way this is legit cause surfers don’t read the internet. Meatheads probably don’t either, so I guess we’re back to square one. The only way to be a Meathead is to post at Meathead (well, that’ll get you started, anyway…)
- I’m also pretty sure I violated a couple Meathead rules today by (1) including the farmer’s carry (certainly not 0.0) and burp-n-merk (no KB involved), and (2) ignoring TR when he tried to heckle my mountain climbers.
- Speaking of TR, found out today he has a couple problems with certain songs, maybe even 99 of them. Hey, it could have been worse – I could have made the call for curls to that song.
- Not sure how we got on our sushi conversation this morning, however, I politely declined when my co-workers wanted to go get it for lunch. Not surprisingly, I had no appetite for that.
- Props to everyone who made it out this morning. Folks were lifting heavy, pushing hard and grunting … a lot
- Looking forward to my next time back. Thanks for the invitation to Q, Brown.
- Brushback – hope you feel better soon.
Announcements:
- Turkey Leg will be moving from his garage back into his house next Wednesday. More free beer for those who help. No word yet on if he’s providing slippers and furniture pads to keep those new floors shiny.
No three peat
No site Q’s, no problem. While Strawberry and Heart Breaker were preparing for their mancation, 14 men showed up to Rebel Yell for 45 minutes of fun, and I was not about to miss my third scheduled Q.
Warm Up
Run over to the front of Jersey Mikes 20 SSH and 15 merkins
Headed down Elm Ln to parking lot beside the building beside Wells Fargo. Partner up, partner 1 runs lap in parking lot while partner two does merkins…flapjack until 100 combined merkins completed.
Run over to fountain in fron of the building and partner up again. Partner 1 runs around Well Fargo and back while partner 2 does squats. Rinse and repeat 2x’s
Head over to Stonecrest and did 20 incline merkins on the curb, then 15 derkins. Ran over behind Target for merkin speed bump suicides with 5 good form merkins at each speed bump.
Run back over to the front of Jersey Mikes again for 20 x IW
Head back to launch for 8 minutes of Mary. Done
Great work by all. The smell of bacon while running down Elm was tempting to go explore, but we stayed the course. Everyone was getting after it today.
Today was a reminder for me to always look back to make sure no one is left behind, please all do the same.
Always a pleasure to lead.
Chippy
Grinding it out at Peak 51
14 PAX including 3 FNG’s (courtesy of Happy) braved the threat of the greatest flood since THE FLOOD itself… to push themselves at the workout known as Peak 51. After a heart-felt disclaimer, we proceeded to the FBCM parking lot for something that went approximately like this:
Line of Pain – LOP
Line up on far end of parking lot
SSH x20, then jog to opposite end of parking lot
IW x20, jog to opposite end of parking lot
Merkins x10, jog to opposite end of parking lot
Low-Slow Squat x20, jog to opposite end of parking lot
LBC’s x20, jog to opposite end of parking lot
Peter Parker x20, jog to opposite end of parking lot
Parker Peter x20, jog to opposite end of parking lot
Mountain Climber x20
Split into 3 teams/groups of 4 for a 3-point grinder as follows:
Pax 1: CDD’s
Pax 2: Squats
Pax 3: Merkins
Pax 4: Runner
Pax do exercise AMRAP until runner arrives. We did this 4 times around.
Regroup and mosey to school for People’s Chair. 3 rounds of 1-minute People’s Chair, with each PAX calling out arm presses up to 53. This proved more challenging mentally than physically!
Mosey back to parking lot for some final stretching/cool down… DONE!
Moleskine:
Excellent job out there this morning! We stayed on the dry pavement because YHC hates to be wet and/or cold… criticize all you want… I’m the Q!
Huge welcome to the men Happy EH’d — Big Data (Jim), Lamont (John), Nomad (Mike) You guys did AWESOME, and are more than welcome anytime you can come out!
Strong showing by the remainder of the PAX. We did a lot of reps of a few exercises… namely merkins and CDD’s! Hopefully that helps you feel buff the rest of the weekend!
Note to self… while trying to include the PAX on counting, sequential counting by 1 appears to be not only a challenge… but rather impossible! And then, one of the Matthews Elementary teachers unknowingly mocked us by suggesting we count by two’s, five’s, ten’s, or some multiple… to which we responded with incredulous groans. We demonstrated that we collectively could use some remedial math instruction… I pity our children!!
Extra credit to Booyah and Sensei for 5k pre-run with YHC. Everyone is welcome to join us!
Smokey took us out in prayer.
Announcements:
1. New Tuesday workout starts 10/13 at Carolina Courts/Chestnut Park. See Happy for details.
2. See weekly email for information on EO Thirst this Sunday 10/4.
Multiple Passes – Multiple Paces
Yes, this is the first backblast in a looooong time. Cobains! Besides writing timely backblasts, YHC also commits to learning how to Google calendar on Google docs or something like that. Wing_Man will be so proud.
The 10 PAX at Devil’s Turn today decided the preblast didn’t sound so bad and showed up for a good time. Stump Hugger chose wisely with his 2nd half marathon this weekend to take it easy and taper a bit. We wish you the best on Sunday and hope your foot ailments subside before then.
The remaining 9 picked their way up Rea over jagged pavement, large mud puddles, and downed branches to arrive at the true “Danger Zone” between 51 and Colony. While the sidewalks and ample biking lanes may not seem dangerous, the challenge of the day was.
The idea was 4 minutes hard (interval pace from Brat’s fancy calculator) and 3 minutes jog recovery for 4 to 6 miles (after the 1 mile warmup). Haggis talked us into a dynamic stretching session also.
Once we began, the PAX spread out significantly even though some circling back was attempted. Perhaps next time a different scheme could be used, but as-is it worked alright. Hopefully everyone was within earshot or had the time on their watch to track on and off times.
Haggis decided to do his own thing and attacked his “metrics”. As it sounded, he achieved the 6 mile tempo run metric, so that was nice.
Frasier nonchalantly pulled away on the hard 4 minute durations and graciously circled back during the 3 minute rest periods. The man is fast.
Mr. Brady was in maintenance mode this morning due to his hamstrings having a conversation with him this morning. Not sure what was said, but it seemed angry.
MistaFlex was back this week after a long time off. We found out his wife had a baby and he thought it better for his health to take a break from the running to make the fam happy. This was a good call my friend. Happy wife, happy life. We are glad to have you back though. Marvel also was back out and they matched step for step this morning.
Long Haul and Stone Cold were pushing it hard this morning and looked to be satisfied with the format. Long Haul will be out for the next few weeks due to having surgery next Thursday on his shoulder. We will miss you out there but your swift recovery will be in our prayers.
Huggy Bear is one of the Devil’s Turn faithful now and making huge strides (literally and figuratively). It is awesome to see the transition to a ‘runner’ and I would say he is officially hooked at this point. Great to see you out each week brother.
Due to a late finish, the COT was abbreviated. Great time brothers! Thanks for the good morning.
N * 2Bits-ish
Tuesday morning forecast at the Ballantyne Corp Park – 70 degrees with high humidity and lots of SPEED. No one could predict just how much SPEED would be found on this day.
At 0501, YHC pulled in to the lot with a perfect plan of what to accomplish. Unfortunately, there was a dead Garmin watch in the bag and a parking lot full of PAX ready to go. Wait, is it 0515 already or just a mess full of PAX chomping at the bit? Grab the cones, leave the dead Garmin, grab the Strava app on the phone, and let’s go for a prerun. Laying out the cones in 200m intervals is a challenge when the Strava app only shows tenths of a kilometer (after you change in on the run to show Meters instead of Feet), then when the phone screen goes off every 15sec, then when the rain makes it really hard to enter the unlock code or swipe every time. We’ll have to rely on feel or memory for some of these 200m intervals today. Feel is suspect and memory is getting bad. Q fail.
At 0517, return to the lot from the Prerun and find another mess full of PAX. Ditch the phone, grab the trusty Timex, and follow me. We’re late and have to run.
The THANG:
- Warm-up pace down into the Corporate Park. Let’s stop about 1 mile in (or someone with a watch that records distance tells YHC) and do some drills with walking on the toes, heels, high knees, butt kicks, and just plain strides. Must have been a lot of new guys this day because there sure was a lot of “why do we do this” mumble chatter.
- Let’s get started – 8 x 400m-ish Intervals at 1mile Race Pace (otherwise known as Repetition/ R-pace and the fastest that we run intervals at). Recovery is 400m-ish jog (usually back the way we came for about 200m and then back to finish of previous interval to start the next).
- Some intervals were uphill some of the way, some downhill part of the way, and the last one was full of uphill fun for the last 250m. A really delightful way to finish.
- 5mi cooldown back to COT.
- Total miles about 5.5.
The Moleskin:
- Quite an assembling of PAX on the day. Though we lost at least Outback to Bagpipe from the Pre-run, definitely a record for biggest Prerun ever. Guys that wake up to run at 0500 must just be crazy for the miles, enjoy the extra 2nd F, or appreciate giving tired legs just a tad longer to warm-up before the hard stuff.
- Seeing a parking lot full of PAX for the main event is also a sign that something is going right at Swift. Much of the Indian Land crew is back and they dragged Pebbles along this time, Gerber was back again, ?did both Gumbo and Beaker show up to confuse YHC once again?, and a PAX wearing running garb shouting Geronimo at the start of each interval might have even been there.
- Pretty straightforward workout. Goal to keep the same pace and effort throughout, and it should be easier with the same distance (or at least close) each time. You should feel like you should be able to do more intervals at the end.
- Despite the temps, the rain, and the heavy shirts, only a couple shirtless today. Surely this would change as the workout goes on.
- Once the running started, it was hard to watch (meaning painful) Teddy and Haggis try to run down Frasier (did everyone hear he won the 10K at the Isabella Santos run last Saturday). Let’s just say they may have paid for it later. HoneyBee seems to have more sense these days (and he chased Frasier to 2nd in that 10K) to let the horses run, but never gets too far out of sight.
- Tiger Rag (Kotters) must think all we do is run 400s at Swift. We must have done this one 3 months ago when he last showed up. Welcome back – see you after the new year!
- This group of PAX didn’t spread out that much today, but that’s usually the case isn’t it? Maybe it was the out & back recovery, but it was great to see PAX motivating others as they were finishing intervals. After all, the goal of Swift is to give everyone a workout that challenges them, but keeps everyone part of the workout. No man left behind. If you’re ever not getting that, please challenge YHC to make it better.
- Cobains for the late Backblast. Hopefully you can at least count on a PreBlast that is on time each Monday afternoon!
Pre-Blast: Anson Launch
What do you do for the hometown that gave you so much when you were younger? You give back to it. YHC has little to offer but can personally attest to what F3 has done in his life:
Fitness: Got me in the best shape of my life. The 27 year old me was a 0.0 sadclown. The 37 year old me is a 2-time Blue Ridge Relay, 2-time New River half-marathon, Marine Mud Run anti-sadclown.
Fellowship: Gave me some deep male friendships and I’ve seen those guys make a difference in other guy’s lives and in mine.
Faith: Helped deepen my faith by making me look beyond myself and to those guys to the right and left of me.
Here’s the details for Anson:
– The Launch is on 10/3
– We will meet at Anson Senior
– We start at exactly 7AM
– We will work out for 1 hour and end on time at 8 AM
– Bring a pair of workout gloves
Still the questions remain so let’s answer them.
Q: What is F3 about? A: The mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership.
Q: How much does F3 cost? A: The 4th F is Free. As in $0 free.
Q: I’m out of shape. Can I come once I am in shape? A: You should post this Saturday to get in shape. The way to get into shape is by showing up and keep showing up. Eating a salad with your 20 buffalo wings is not getting in shape. Walking a quarter mile once a week is not getting in shape. Riding a stationary bike for 10 minutes once every three weeks is not getting in shape. You post to a workout to get in shape and you start this Saturday.
Q: #Cantore says it’s going to rain. Should I come if it’s raining? A: Yes. We will meet if it’s raining and you should post in the rain. The #mumblechatter during rain is entertaining.
Q: What if #Cantore is wrong and it’s not raining? A: Post. F3 will meet rain or shine.
Q: What if #Cantore has missed the Polar Vortex and it’s snowing? A: Post anyways. Rain, Snow or Sun. Only lightning will stop us.
Q: Will anyone scream at me? A: If Horsehead does, just ignore him. Otherwise, no.
Q: Why is that kid wearing a backpack? A: That’s actually not a kid. It’s Hairband. And it’s a Rucksack filled with weights and not lucky charms. We will explain more later
Q: I can’t run fast at all so will I get left behind if I post? A: No. Our promise to you is that we do not leave any man behind. We have specifically designed the workout so that the fast runners can push themselves and yet, the group will stay together. We will demonstrate how this works on Saturday.
Q: What if I can’t do all the reps of an exercise or I simply can’t do an exercise? A: No worries. You can modify to the number of reps you can do and we will suggest a modification exercise if you can’t do the one called out.
Q: What if I don’t know how to do an exercise? A: We will demonstrate. Probably poorly. And then The Late Show will correct us on form. Just like what happens in Union County.
Q: I am reading this but I am a female. Can I join as well? A: No. F3 is just for the guys. You should check out fianation.com.
Q: Will I get a nickname? A: All who show up get a nickname. Nicknames might be slightly insulting but will be family friendly.
Last Q: I saw some guy spraying some sort of epoxy on weight plates when I drove up. What’s up with that? A: Oh, that’s just Double E and you’ll have to post again on 10/10 to find out.
In all seriousness, join us this Saturday at 7 AM at Anson Senior and #getbetter. Park at the yellow star:
