Whether it was the cold weather, the ominous pre-tweet, or just general holiday #fartsacking, the parking lot was empty except for 3 OG’s, ready to closeout 2016 with a #downPAINment on 2017.
The Thang
COP:
Strength Circuit – declining ladder (5-4-3-3):
100 heavy Swings – mix of one & two-handed – use a bell 1-2 sizes heavier than earlier
Sprinting Mary:
Done
COT
Announcements:
Finale 2016 Moleskine:
Pele and Mall Cop were sitting in their cars, wondering whether YHC would appear in time, but never fear. YHC was behind the school stealthly dropping off a load of kettlebells for an unknown number of pax. Despite the initial surprise of the low turnout, it was a great day of 2nd F (and some solid work) with Pele and Mall Cop. We had so much fun chatting, we lost track of time later in the workout and had to put in 3-4 minutes of overtime to make up for it.
YHC wanted a mix of strength and cardio, and the #weinke delivered IMHO. Swings always fit the bill to get the heart rate up, while developing the posterior chain. Pullups, presses, and derkins work the upper body, and sprints round it out. Simple but not easy (as long as you choose an appropriate bell size).
All in all, a great day and a great workout to close out 2016. Here’s to a great, safe, & healthy 2017!!
Aye.
How do we finish the last Overdrive of the year? #F3Strong
Partner up with like size bells for catch me if you can around the parking lot.
P1 Farmer Carry
P2 10 Merkins
Flapjack until back to the starting point.
COP
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Manmaker Merkins x 10
Low Slow Squats x 10
The Thang
Stations have been set and they include the following:
1. Overhead press (with ruck/sandbag) lunge walk up side walk to 2nd tree and back about 50 yards.
2. Plank sandbag pull throughs x 10
3. KB Swings x 40
4. Step ups x 40
5. KB Snatches (turn those watches around!) x 10L 10R
6. KB Clean and Press x 10L 10R
7. Run a #HairBandMile
Repeato until time called. We got through 3 rounds, Madison may have started his 4th.
6MOM
Flutter press w/ bell x 20
Dolly x 25
Rosalita x 20
DONE!
Moleskine
Strong work out there by everyone! Looking forward to 2017 and we all need to make an effort to kick up our EHing levels to get some FNGs out to all the workouts.
Always and honor to lead.
Aye!
HB
I’m a fan of tracking activity, clean slates, fresh starts, etc., so with much anticipation, I was excited to lead on the last day of the year. Buttermaker had me scheduled well in advance so I had time to prepare. And with that knowledge I wanted to come up with something memorable. So one by one, 11 PAX reluctantly left the comfort of heated seats to end the year right. And with a standard disclaimer…we took off.
The Thang: YHC led 10 PAX out of Calvary Church down Rea Rd. into the Trader Joe’s parking lot for COP. SSH, IW and Romanian Deadlifts x 20 with 5 burpees OYO after each. We continued right on Bevington up to Elm Lane north back up to Hwy 51 and back to Calvary Church next to hot box/field. Quick plank to let the six catch up then moved on.
Five pain stations with gear were set up with the PAX paired up at each. P1 uses the gear while P2 does a different exercise, flapjack until rotation to next station.
Station 1 (Timer): P1 has 10 foot slosh pipe, zercher carry (jog, walk) out and back approx. 100 yards total while P2 does jump squats.
Station 2: P1 runs parking lot around light post carrying a 10 lb. dumb bell in each hand while P2 does merkins.
Station 3: P1 does two hand kettle bell swings while P2 does step ups in hot box.
Station 4: P1 runs down sidewalk and back uphill carrying sand bag while P2 does LBC (any mary)
Station 5: Both P1 and P2 do squat thrusters with sandbags.
Following two rounds at each station we mosey’d to the “suicide lot” to do just that, burpee suicides at each island. Mosey’s back to cars for a few minutes of mary: flutters, Freddy Mecury, LBC. Done.
Moleskin: I felt a little more at ease with this Q knowing we have a huge AO, a full hour and a group that is typically up for anything…including some decent running. I’m sure the sub freezing temps kept a few people home but I was hoping for a solid group to break in the slosh pipe…and I got my wish. It’s clearly more difficult than anyone expects, supposed to really work the core along with your back and pretty much every other muscle in your body. Maybe the best part was how the other four stations would watch the PAX carrying the slosh pipe to find an “easier” way. Nope. Size, strength and technique all matter. I think McGee found a new favorite toy and is probably at Home Depot right now gathering the materials. Hops manned up with the shoulder carry. I was impressed with Nemo toughing it out. Everyone was struggling the second round but all succeeded. Chatter was light, we covered 3.4 miles approx., lots of reps, awkward loads to carry and enough burpees for most, although Alf challenged McGee to finish his December Burpee pledge which some others joined in as we wrapped up. Hard work by everyone. Thanks to Hops for the takeout. Happy New Year everyone!!
Announcements: Joe Davis run next Saturday, convergence on Monday at Matrix and another convergence somewhere else, watch twitter or ask a friend where to go on Monday.
AYE. This year has been a challenging one for me and my family. I’ve been posting at F3 several days a week since July of 2011 but these last few months I’ve struggled to get out of the #fartsack at 5AM on a regular basis. Sleep has just seemed like a much better choice. As many of you in F3 Nation and your Ms in FiA nation know, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer in May and the prognosis isn’t great. A couple of months ago, my best friend was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. My wife and I are struggling with prolonged infertility issues after our first son. And to top it all off, at work I went from managing 8 people to 80 people and taking over a product line I knew virtually nothing about in the middle of a planned spinoff for my division of the company. I’ve never doubted that God is using all of this for His glory and I can already see how much good coming even from things that seem dark. But that doesn’t mean my 6 is up and out of the #fartsack before dawn these days because, as a few of you have mentioned, it usually ain’t.
So I decided to do something a little bit different for the month of December and live up to my given title as the King of Burpees #flyingsquirrels even if I’m not posting quite as often.
THE THANG
100 Burpees a day for 31 days
Burpees can be done consecutively or sprinkled like sacred salt throughout a workout
YE OLDE MOLESKINE
I’m not going to make this super philosophical, but I did learn a few things along the way. Some of them were just simple reminders of some truths that I often forget.
So what now? I think I’m going to take tomorrow off and then go back at it – 100 burpees a day for 100 days. I still need it. And I don’t think I’m the only one. Who’s with me?
Ten men took a tour of the grounds in and around the Kevlar AO this morning.
THE THANG
Jog to the Aldi parking lot at corner of John St and Pineville Matthews Blvd
SSH x 15
IW x 15
Merkin x 15
Herschel Walker
Situps x 20
Merkins x 20
Sprint the length of the parking lot and jog back
Bear Crawl and Duck Walk the Parking Lot
Repeato of Hershel Walker
Mosey to the Tennis Pavilion
100x Steps (4 sets of 25)
100x Carolina Drydock (4 sets of 25)
100x Flutter (4 sets of 25)
Mosey to hill by the Church
Round of 11’s with Burpee’s and Jump Squats
The fastest guys were able to get to 5 Burpee’s and 6 Jump Squats before the Q made an audible to move back to the AO.
Mosey to the field
10x Shoulder Press with tire (3 sets)
10x Merkins with tire (3 sets)
COT
MOLESKINE
Chilly end to the week after seeing Tues and Wed in the 60s. The jog to the Aldi parking lot got us warmed up and ready to get after it.
There was not a lot of chatter from the PAX this morning as everyone seemed to be getting in one more workout before the festivities on the 31st. We all were warmed up at the end but apparently MASH was overheated as he shed all of his layers by the end and was walking around without a shirt in 35 degree weather (wish I had been faster on the draw and gotten a pic of that posed to twitter). Great work by Beaver and the always steady Big League Chew – Respect is earned not given and you both earned it.
The thang:
Disclaimer was given and the PAX set out on a cool morning to the upper parking lot for a little COP.
COP– 20 SSH, 20 IW, 20 LSS, 20 merkins, 20 mountain climbers, 5 burpees
Mosey down to bleachers where the PAX eagerly awaited their first exercise.
Exercise # 1– Follow the leader as we went up and down the entire set of bleachers 3 times. First time through–every step, Second time–every other step, Third time–Frog hop every other step.
Mosey to jungle gym at top of bleachers.
Exercise #2–OYO, each man completed 50 pull-ups, 100 merkins, 100 squats, and 100 dips. The suggestion was to do them in five rounds of 10,20,20,20 but OYO was completely acceptable.
Mosey to end zone line of football field.
Exercise #3– OYO, bear crawl to 10 yard line, jog to opposite goal line. Bear crawl to 20 yard line, jog to opposite goal line. Bear crawl to 30 yard line, jog to opposite goal line.
Repeat pattern with walking lunges and crab crawls.
AYG one final time of 2016, then mosey to top of bleachers for 2 rounds of people’s chair.
Mosey back. Done.
Moleskin:
Great group of devoted Joust men. It was a pleasure taking the PAX out for its final 2016 workout. Guys were getting after it and not much encouragement was needed.
Thank you to Yeti and Header for their continued leadership of Joust! And thank you to Smokey for the take-out. Happy New Year to everybody.
Announcements:
Joe Davis run next week
Convergence at Matrix next Monday, Jan. 2.
14 Goats, including 2 2.0’s courtesy of The Mouth, said So Long to 2016 with a final installment of F3 Mountain Goat. We had several first-timers to MG… so having disclaimed, we set out to Strawberry Ln for the following:
Great to have a good mix of regulars and some new/non-regular faces! As everyone should know by now, I often use Dr. Bratwurst’s Swift program for our MG workout. This week, Swift did 400m repeats. After reviewing the list of PAX, I was 100% sure that no one would get the same workout twice… The first person I see… Bratwurst!! Luckily he was the only duel PAX… but apologies that he didn’t get his money’s worth!
Stump Hugger drove Brat, and as always great to see one of the early founders of Mountain Goat! SH has been battling some nagging injuries, but he is finishing up a great year having completed a Half Marathon. We know what that means for 2017!
Great to have Strawberry, Beaker, Heartbreaker and Alf. I think all of you guys have been at MG at some point in time… welcome back! You boys are welcome anytime! Beaker used the workout as a final tune-up for the 17K Trail Run on Sunday… best of luck!
The Mouth brought his 2.0’s Phelps and Jackie Chan. Great to have them join us during their holiday! Excellent job out there… they will be going back to school with a slight edge over their peers that slept-in today!
Tweetsie, Nomad, Insomniac and Drano…. always great stuff! You guys are finishing the Year strong! It has been a pleasure running with you boys each week!
I’m excited about 2017… going to start off with a great Joe Davis run, then will feature several opportunities for the Goats to push themselves to bigger and better… including expanded BRR teams!
Happy New Year!! — Slim Fast
Announcements
1. Final week of sign-ups for the Joe Davis Run next Saturday 1/7. http://joedavisrun.racesonline.com/
2. We will no longer use the F3 Area 51 Run twitter account. Brat said to go to the SOB Slack account and go to the running channel. Let myself or Bratwurst know if you need access.
3. Tweetsie took us out in prayer.
15 PAX made sure to finish FY16 strong
The Thang:
SSH X20 and Mountain Climbers X20
Grab 2 pavers and jog over to Palatine Hill for the Bermuda Triangle. Run up Palatine Hill and do 5 squats, run around office building and do 5 push presses, run down to end of drive and do 5 jumping lunges (two movements = 1count). Increase the exercises by 5 each lap completing 25 of each exercise on the 5th circuit. Mary until the 6 comes in #sucked
Jog pack to parking lot in front of Amelies for Man Maker Merkins x10 and then back to CCHS parking deck for some partner work. Partner 1 runs to end of deck and back while partner 1 does called exercise until partner 1 returns and then switch. Curls, Peoples Chair, and Mary for 3 rounds.
Jog up the ramps to level 4 and then down stairs and back to launch point.
NMS
Surviving the Bermuda Triangle is hard enough without pavers. With pavers it just sucked. Everyone pushed hard this am but Rachel and Swiper were way out front #hates. YHC going to check the video tape to make sure their counts on the jumping lunges were correct (2 movements = 1). Next time I’ll remember to assign partners to even the odds (i.e. Rachel will be my partner)
Hairball and Cauliflower were so elated after VT comeback last night that they couldn’t sleep and had to come out to Centurion #bestArea51Fridayworkout. Strong work after night on the town.
Toolbox brought out his friend from Clemson so we named him Screw Driver (didn’t ask if he likes Vodka). Not an easy workout to cut your teeth but he pushed hard.
This crew was younger than normal with most under 40 and Drago and Bestie not even 20. Average age of under 35 I suspect versus normally in the mid 40’s. I’m rarely the WD here but all the really old guys must have been resting up for tomorrow night.
Swiper took us out with prayer.
As always, it was an honor to lead such an awesome group. I am thankful for the men that show up every week at Centurion.
Announcements
I could not find posting of an Area 51 New Years convergence but Metro Convergence at AG Middle School on January 2 at 7 am –Metro New Year Convergence This will probably be HUUUGGGGEEE so I suggest making it.
I’ll be honest, when I agreed to cover the Q for this day, I forgot that it was Christmas Eve Eve. You know, that most merry of pseudo holidays that only occurs once every real holiday. To top it off, I was soon to find out that I’d be leading a convergence, bringing the old #Jevlar band back together, and we’d be meeting at 7 am instead of the usual safe time of 0530. Why is 0530 safe you ask? Well…. let’s just say that when monkey humpers are on the menu the less light the better…
18 dudes — average crowd for a Friday, but a huge crowd for a psuedo holiday — were properly disclaimed and still decided to follow me around anyway. Following a theme I came up with on my own (stole from Twitter), we started off with burpees and proceeded to sprinkle them throughout the workout to make sure we got in our full allotment. Workout went something like as follows:
Moleskine
1 man answered the call this morning and posted at Meathead. Or 1 man missed the call/tweet overnight and posted at Meathead anyway. For those snug in their warm, dry fartsacks, this is what you missed:
THE THANG
5:28 YHC rolls in to an empty lot. 5:30 lot still empty but YHC is prepared to work. No Q. No site Q. No other Pax. 5:32 exercise commences. Grab the heaviest bell around and get moving. No disclaimer needed.
50 Swings
Merkins x 10
50 Swings
Lawnmower X 10 per side
50 Swings
Racked Squat x 10
50 Swings
Diamond Merkins X 10
50 Swings
Cleans X 10 per side
50 Swings
Goblet Squat x 10
50 Swings
Lawnmower x 10 per side
50 Swings
Deadlifts x 10
50 Swings
Flutter Press x 10
Chaser: Wide Arm Merkins x 10
Total: 450 swings + some other exercises
Time: 6:12. Good enough. Done.
No name-o-rama. Take out done quietly.
MOLESKINE:
Waking up at 0300 to thunder, lightening, and heavy rain, YHC thought, “Great! I can sleep 2 extra hours!” That thought was immediately followed by, “Man, this sucks for the Q. Nobody will show up. I will go and support him” and then 2 hours of restless sleep as YHC waited for 0500 to roll around. Memories of my VQ, which happened to be a Meathead, came to me. A similar thunderstorm rolled in overnight and the crowd was small. YHC still appreciates those who posted that day (Brown, HT, TR, Spack, Paper Jam). Sure enough, the rain stopped on the drive over this morning and the conditions were perfect, standing on a dry covered side walk.
YHC kept seeing headlights and taillights coming and going on Hwy 51, hoping that at least someone would pull in to join in the pain/fun. After 10 minutes, that hope was gone. However, YHC got lost in the work. At first, the music was good company: The Baseball Project – Vol 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails. You may have missed a little dancing during the recovery breaks between sets, but you’ll never know. Then the phone battery died so 95.7 fm, The Riiiiiiiiide, was utilized. YHC started thinking that the 1st F was clearly being met. In fact, solo kettle bell work outs at home are usually not met with as much determination as those with the other pax of F3. Funny thing happened though, YHC found himself working harder than usual today, as if not wanting to let him self down by modifying the impromptu weinke or taking long recovery breaks. Surely there was no 2nd F, right? Well, this 45 minutes gave YHC a great chance to focus inward and check-in with self and recognize feelings and re-balance priorities a little. Eh, kinda close. Fellowship with self. Anyway, 3rd F? You bet! This all led to reflection upon those things for which YHC is grateful – list of which is too numerous to list. Pertinent points for this BB include being thankful for F3 – for a group of guys willing to meet 7 days a week close to my house and put in the work and opportunities for 2nd and 3rd F which YHC often misses out on. Thankful that YHC has the freedom and safety to exercise alone at 0530 in public and not worry – thanks to our country’s founding fathers, our military, our police force. Thankful for this school where teachers come everyday to shape the lives of our next generation at meager pay. Thankful for a loving God that does provide all that I need and who desires an intimate relationship with me.
This workout had many chances to not happen. The weather was the most obvious reason. Then, scrambling to get out the door, YHC discovered the garage door was broken – busted spring – unable to open manually (maybe YHC needs more deadlifting experience). Fortunately, there was a car parked outside. This required Kettle bell and gloves and water and protein bar and keys and towel to all be carried from garage through house out front door and around to the car. Only grabbed one KB – my heaviest (45 lb.). Coulda easily stopped here. Then, empty lot at ELE. Coulda listened to music for 5 minutes then headed back to bed. Thankful for this hard work-out – grip strength is shot and typing is hard!
Considered posting a short BB with no details or not posting one at all. Felt right to do it as it was done, so here you go.
In full disclosure, giving credit where credit is due, while this weinke was spontaneous in many ways, it was influenced by a 3 year old article by Dan John suggesting 500 swings a day for a month.
https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/10000-swing-kettlebell-workout
Although they did not show, YHC greatly appreciates the site Q’s who keep this AO going week in and week out. YHC is much better for it!
See you in the gloom…AYE!