SwampMerkins and Fartleks

SwampMerkins and Fartleks

17 PAX woke up to a crisp morning with no rain and decided it was better to head out into the gloom instead of catching up on the morning paper and coffee.  After planting the Shovel Flag at Weddington HS at 0630, here’s what went down.

The THANG:

• Opening COP with all exercise In Cadence x 16 = SSH, Windmill, Mountain Climbers (the slow, full extension variety).
• Long mosey to the back of the school, over the bridge, to football practice field #1 (a.k.a. partial swamp).
• Line up on the end line for exercises of 50 yards, then finish out 50 more yards with run. 6x across field with High Knees, Butt Kicks, B-skip, Karaoke right, Karaoke left, Stride.
• Short mosey to track.  Get instructions for the Fartlek (Swedish for Speed play) – 30 seconds easy mosey (regroup to the six within each round), 20 seconds normal run, 10 seconds Sprint.
• Fartlek rounds x 5.
• 2 minute slow mosey.
• Fartlek rounds x 5.
• Mosey to the creek and pick out 2 hand sized running rocks.  Pick a PAX as a partner of equal speed.  Mosey back to Partial Swamp (a.k.a. football practice #1).  Line up on sideline and get four disc cones between each partner.  Perform the following:
  • Complete 5 merkins, 10 curls (with rocks if available – more on that later), 5 deadlifts with rocks.
  • Run with coupon (1st rock) and partner to other sideline.
  • 5 diamond merkins on rock, 10 squat thrusters, 5 tricep extensions.
  • Run back to other side without coupon.
  • 5 merkins, 10 curls, 5 deadlifts
  • Run with coupon (2nd rock) to other side
  • 5 diamond merkins on rock, 10 squat thrusters, 5 tricep extensions
  • Run back to other side without coupon
  • 5 merkins, 10 rockhoppers over cone
  • Run with coupon (1st cone) to other side
  • 5 diamond merkins on rock, 10 squat thrusters, 5 tricep extensions
  • Run back to other side without coupon
  • 5 merkins, 10 rockhoppers over cone
  • Run with coupon (2nd cone) to other side
  • 5 diamond merkins on rock, 10 squat thrusters, 5 tricep extensions
  • Plank for the six.
  • REPEATO back to the top!
• After many PAX complete the second set, find a home for your rocks, and mosey back to front of school, planking to regroup once.
• At the front of the school, not enough time for the full planned “Build your Running Body“, so complete partial by doing the following exercises for 60 seconds each (and not necessarily in this order).  Go to link for more details on the exercises.
  • 1) Inchworm Plank – walk hands out while keeping legs straight into plank, 1 merkin, walk hands back and stand up
  • 2) Burp-Mountain Climbers – Burp (like a burpee but no merkin and no hop), 5 mountain climbers each leg during the plank position, back to standing
  • 3) Curtsy Lunge Hop – right foot diagonally behind left hip, drop to lunge, explode up, 30 sec each side
  • 5) Side Plank with Leg Lifts – 30 sec each side – “Jane Fondas”?
  • 7) Lateral hops into runner position – “Speed skaters”?
  • 9) Plank rotation to side – elbows stacks horizontal, hand on hip
  • 12) Superman Plank – right hand out with left foot up, flapjack every 5 seconds or so
• COT around Shovel Flag!

The Moleskin:

• Goal was to make sure we got in some running today and so glad to hear that ShopDog ran his 1st continuous mile in many years today!  Keep pushing and you’ll be up to a 5K in no time!  Also heard at the Coffeeteria how many PAX successfully started the Couch-to-5K program before finding F3.  ShopDog is definitely ready for that, for I’ve seen him posting many times this week.
• While YHC could have done this whole workout on the dry and bouncy track, a change of scenery to the football practice field seemed like a good idea in planning.  However, after the first high knees across deep puddles, the attempt was made to try and find higher ground on the upper football practice field, but after finding that a minor swim was necessary, we headfaked back to the original field.  Little did we know that the opposite sideline was going to be a similar swim and pax would be doing merkins in inches of water.  YHC saw some PAX finding some drier land high or more towards the middle of the field, but these Commitment PAX, who most hail from the fertile Spartan Race recruiting ground of Lawson, were relatively undeterred and powered through.  Crowbar was literally skipping across the puddles.
• All of the coupon running was really to keep track of the sets.  Next time, we’ll just have laminated weinkes to pass out and the PAX will be happy.  Nice to know that the fields seem to have 24 hour lighting now.  Still didn’t help in showing us the big puddles – until you were right in the middle of them.
• Years of practice have taught YHC to count out 30 seconds, 20 seconds, and 10 seconds with perfectly timed breathing.  OK, not really, just learn with your compatible fitness watch to program a custom workout.  Here’s how to do it with a Garmin – https://youtu.be/U5EyJtgl-MY
• Thanks to StumpHugger for taking us out!
• Really enjoyed COT with a generous coffee donation from one of the PAX for all of the PAX there (found out that some PAX don’t drink coffee!!! what? how else do you get up at 5:00am each day and not fall asleep while eating breakfast?  And the 9 or so PAX at the Wesley Chapel Chick-fil-a had great time learning about the “other side” of Union County from Glass Joe, how hard 100 burpees penalty really felt, and how the January 16th convergence will likely be a replay of this famous scene – https://youtu.be/uVspqShcXSA

Announcements:

• JoeDavisRun next Saturday – http://joedavisrun.racesonline.com
• Commitment running as normal next Saturday
• Convergence with Outland at Weddington HS on 1/16 at 0630 – regular Commitment time and place