Yup – it’s still awful

Yup – it’s still awful

In the aftermath of the Heavy 5K about a year ago I was fairly certain no one liked me, no one would come to one of my Q’s again (if anyone would let me Q their site) and certainly no one would want to repeat this nonsense.  Not the men of F3.  To my surprise I actually had people ASKING to do this again.  Some who did it the first time and other’s who missed it and wanted to give it a try.  So enter the idea of the Mini-CSAUP.  Admittedly and purposefully not a standard bootcamp, gear or running workout.  So with a pre-blast 10 days ago, we had 17 show up for a redo of the following:

COP – No time for that.

The Thang –

Break into 4 groups of 4 men (one group of 5).  Each group grabs one stone from the pile cinder block (padded for comfort of course), one 50# sandbag and one 45# plate for the trunk.  Still someone came away with the 35# plate again.  I need to hide that better.  We also through an extra 25# plate at the team of 5 and as a group we added a shovel flag this year.

As a team, get your sandbag, block, and your plate to the staircase of the Charlotte Catholic Parking deck as fast as you can.  Pays to be a winner.  For those doing the math at home that’s 1.5ish miles away.

Plank while receiving instructions:  See this is where I messed up.  Forgot to plank.  Guys tend to shut up and listen to get out of the plank.  No plank = lots of mumble chatter = a bit of confusion.  Either way, work got done.

At the deck, P1 & P2 take plate and do CMIYC Hariburners (10 merkins and chase) up to the set of cones half way and back around to the stairs at level 2.  P3 does fireman’s carry with the sandbag up to the top of the stairs and back down.  P4 does thrusters with a rock.  P3 & P4 flapjack.  When all 4 team members return do 20 Handclap Merkins.  And Rotate.  P3 & P4 do Hairburners to level 3 of the deck, while P1 & P2 do Fireman’s carry and thrusters.  Finish with 20 Handclap Merkins.  P5 in the group with 1 extra did some things too.  Not sure what.

Repeat the whole thing except come down the ramps and replace Thrusters with Louganis with a rock.

When all are done each team takes their sandbag, rock, and plate and heads back to McAlpine.

Finish with 60 seconds left and 20 partner hand slap merkins.

Done.

Moleskin (sorry, no dead cat this time)

A mix of last minute in’s and out’s left us with a healthy crowd of 17 this morning.

It started off rough when for some reason I thought we had 5 groups instead of 4 and spent I don’t know, what felt like 30 minutes breaking everyone into teams.  Disclaimer, necessary and given. Off we went at a fast pace.  Right around 11 minutes for mile 1 with the gear.

Chelms had a late Friday warning that some testing would be going on at the Catholic High campus at 8am.  I knew we would be rolling out by 7:40 and hoped to miss most of the traffic.  Not so much.  at about 7:35 I see Chelms keeping the peace with a female and male representative of the school who were strongly concerned that strange men were scaring students and throwing cinder blocks off the parking deck?  This conversation went on far too long, but gave us enough time to finish the work and ski-daddle (as they say down south).  Off we went back to the launch.

A few items of note:

Icky Shuffle hates, I mean loathes my sandbags.  Every time I make him carry them, one ends up busted open.  Without fail.  Anger management may be necessary.

Ickey, Rachael, and Mermaid suffered through 3 of my Q’s in 4 days this week.  T-claps men, thanks for the support.  Your prize is forthcoming.

Big props to:  Witch Doctor, Bounce, Spackler, Mermaid, and Turkey Leg for doing this 2 years in a row.  Frasier likely has open appointments, you should see him for counseling.  #F3Discounts.

Rachael still moves fast with a 45# weight.  I am thinking we challenge Rachael and McGee to a 1-mile race – with plate.  It would be legit fast.

It seemed like a bit of chaos out there this AM and I wasn’t able to keep track of all the teams.  On the way back it felt more like all one team as guys were just grabbing and carrying.

Thanks to all who joined in the first A51 Mini-CSAUP.  Mermaid has something planned for the next one, look forward this spring.  Be nervous.  I am.

Thanks to Squid for the takeout.

-Alf