Sometimes you have to shake things up in order to keep them fresh. People tend to appreciate variety. The Silicon Valley douche-nerds call it “creative destruction”. Twelve PAX gathered in the hundred acre wood known as Anvil to try something new, and see if it was possible to make it through an entire bootcamp workout while toting a rock. After a fair to middling disclaimer we set out on a vision quest to do what has probably not been done before, and if our venerable site Qs get their way, will probably not be done again.
Warmup: Mosey to the rock pile and select a rock to spend some quality time with. YHC warned the PAX not to go crazy. Some listened, some did not. Circle up for CORP (Circle of Rock Pain) consisting of 10 Imperial Rockers IC, 10 Rock Squats IC, 10 Merkins with Right Hand on the Rock IC, 10 Merkins with Left Hand on the Rock IC, and 5 Diamond Rock Merkins IC.
Tote the Rock to the AstroTurf Pavilion: Perform 100 curls, 100 triceps extensions, and 100 presses. Mumblechatter was light save for a few stray comments about what an innovative concept the Q had brought and how much the format was appreciated. When finished, weighted crunches until the group is done.
Tote the Rock to the Hot Box: Perform 100 single leg squats on the left leg while holding the rock, 100 single leg squats on the right leg while holding the rock, and 100 dips with the rock held in the lap. Mumblechatter picked up a bit here, with McGee expressing gratitude and admiration to the Q. When finished, weighted crunches until the group is done.
Tote the Rock to the light pole: Frankenstein walk to the next light pole, perform 5 rockees (burpees with the rock), and overhead lunge walk back to the first light pole. Repeat for a total of three rounds. In between rounds two and three, Lobsta Roll, he of the Cyborg-American persuasion requested a ten count. The world briefly spun backwards but after regaining our bearings, we pressed on. After round three, YHC graciously allowed Lobsta Roll to lead the group in a ten count, and the cagey veteran delivered in tremendous fashion.
Tote the Rock to the parking lot adjacent to the rock pile: Circle up for Rock Webb with sets up to 5 and 20. At this point, YHC worried that the PAX would confuse their enthusiasm for the workout format with anger and mutiny due to the overload of endorphins they were surely experiencing and that the situation would devolve into a scene from the semi-famous 1990s made for TV movie starring former MTV personality Dan Cortese “The Lottery”. After having visions of rocks smashing into my skull, YHC decided to wrap up the last few minutes with outsourced weighted Mary. The PAX were instructed to take turns leading core exercises incorporating the rock. The choices included Rosalita, flutter, WWII situps, Freddie Mercury, and plain non-rock inclusive burpees. One guess as to which maverick broke ranks and called those.
Return the Rock and get back to the cars, and that’s a wrap. Once the thunderous applause faded to a dull roar we proceeded with announcements. Rachel is leading a convergence on July 4th at 5:30 am at the greenway. Later in the morning he, along with several of our Area 51 and Metro brethren will be participating in the American Four Miler while pushing the new racing chariots. Keeping with the Independence Day topic, YHC would like to extend a thank you to the founding fathers of this great nation for saving us from 240 years and counting of British humor and horrible cuisine. Do your part this week to celebrate all things American such as enjoying a glass of fine Kentucky bourbon on the tailgate of a Detroit (pronounced Dee-Troit of course) made Ford F-150 while firing off explosives made somewhere in China by a six year old. Roll Tide, Roll Bourbon, Roll America.
Today, we had 14 brocefs who ran the north course. Hairball and Bunker opted for the Bow Tie Donut course of 9 miles. Today’s group was ambitious. I was just looking for an easy run with the group but they left me in the dust. Seriously, everyone seems to be rounding into BRR shape. I finally caught Seaworld on the Sharonview climb and we conversed the rest of the way home.
8 stayed for donuts/coffee where we discussed Bunker’s ridiculous (dumb?) idea to run 2 marathons just 2 weeks apart. Next week, we will take bets on what mile his legs fail on the 2nd marathon. The opening over/under line will be set at mile 9.
Gummy was not there today. Horsehead mapped out a munchkin route of 4 miles but then decided to be sick.
Thanks to Hannibal for the takeout!
26 PAX at the Wednesday Hump Day Bootcamp in Waxhaw, NC at Marvin Ridge MS/HS campus known as Dromedary were Thunderstruck! by Rockwell and his Daily Red [Beats] Pill [of music].
– Posted on behalf of Rockwell
WARM UP
THE THANG
MOLESKIN
I hinted via GroupMe the day before that the 80’s playlist may make it’s return but that didn’t stop 26 fellow F3’ers from showing up and working hard. We have consistently been averaging 20+ at Dromedary. Awesome! After a quick warmup lap and some basic exercises to get the blood pumping we went to work with some motivation from Van Halen,. It was all downhill from there. The fellas of F3 continue to inspire me in more ways than you know. During the workouts you hear conversations about work, family, church, encouragement, etc… The conversations tend to change to out of breath, heavy breathing as the minutes tick by! But, as we all know this group is much more than just a bunch of guys trying to get in shape. I always enjoy the camaraderie and working out with such a great group!
Great job to everyone for pushing through during “Thunderstruck” at the end of the workout. I thought that song would NEVER end! Geez, brutal!
Thank you Shop Dawg for taking us out with the prayer!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Six of Area 51’s stretchiest PAX descended upon the Scout Hut for this week’s installation of Gumby. Here’s what it looked like:
First, we had to get the mood lighting set. So, it was a Bambi Lamp morning.
Start, as usual, in shavasana. Devotional came from Swanson’s tribute to Cheech that is floating around the F3 social-media space. We concentrated on the aspect of wearing our faith on our sleeve — we want to live our lives in the way described in 1 John 4:13-15 so that at the end of our own lives, we might reflect 2 Timothy 4:7-8.
From corpse, stretch out, arms above head, start moving hands, feet, fingers, toes.
Knees up for a series of windshield wipers, followed by a series of bridge stretches.
Then, sit up, feet together, knees out for some butterfly stretching. We did about 50 “flaps” of our knees, then, brought our feet closer in and pressed knees close to the floor, using our elbows to try and press. This brought back memories of joy and pain from YHC’s time as a teenaged Tae Kwon Do prodigy student.
Stretch legs straight out and touch your toes.
Move to table top for some cat/cow, followed by side bends.
Sit back on your feet, stretch hands out into child’s pose, moving over to the left and right.
Back to table top for broga’s version of the burpee — sun salutations! We did 5 — first one led by YHC, then the next 4 OYO.
Then came some chair work —
Sit back into chair, arms up. YHC decided to bring an aspect of the people’s chair to Gumby, leading 5 slow air presses. After that, arms out straight, then back up.
Recover. 1 burp, er, sun salutation OYO.
Back into chair:
Arms up, 5 air presses, arms up, arms out — now, leave your left arm out, grab your right leg, and move into dancer. Standard advice of “find something to concentrate on” given, YHC still stumbled around. Apparently talking, balancing and concentrating is too difficult.
Leg down, arms out, arms up. Recover. Salutation OYO.
Repeato, flapjacking with left leg back into dancer.
Final set: arms up, 5 air presses, arms up, arms out, right leg back into dancer, then tip forward onto your block/water bottle/whatever into High Tide’s favorite: Half moon. Back to dancer, leg down, arms out, arms up. Recover. Salutation OYO.
Repeato, flapjacking with right leg back.
Now it’s time for some war face with warrior!
Right leg back into Warrior 1, Warrior 2, lean in with your FORWARD foot (thanks to Swiss Miss for helping YHC when he was confused about left/right), back to Warrior 2, turn and face to the right.
Arms out, slow descent into good ol’ leg stretches. Walk your hands back, then to the left and right. Ascend. Warrior 2, Warrior 1. Mountain. Yoga burpee OYO.
Left leg back into Warrior 1, Warrior 2, lean in, back to Warrior 2, turn to the left, 5-count windmill. Warrior 2, Warrior 1, Mountain, Saluburp OYO, meeting in plank.
From plank, swing right leg back and forward into pigeon, really leaning in to get down onto the elbows. Unwind, move back to plank and flapjack.
Unwind, back to plank, then back to corpse, devotional review and finitio.
Count off, name-o-rama, announcements, lock shields and Tweetsie took us out.
-30-
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Kinetic Heights field trip on Friday. Pre-run at 0500, workout at 0530. See the Kinetic Trips channel on Slack for more details.
Convergence at the American 4 Miler on Tuesday — this will also be the debut of the Speed for Need chairs. Skunk Works should be on as scheduled, but, as of right now, there is no Q, so, get with Harley if you feel so moved to lead. Otherwise, I guess the regulars will just show up and do a bunch of swings.
Paper Jam on the Q next week!
GREENSKINE
The morning got off to a great start — I fartsacked through my own pre-run alarm, leaving Tweetsie to explore the mean streets of downtown Matthews on his own. This also resulted in his first Site Q panic attack as Tweetsie didn’t know if I was awake and was planning to actually show up. You’re welcome.
I hope everyone enjoyed the workout. I tried to mix it up a tiny bit with different poses in different flows (like the dancer-to-half-moon bit) and add some new wrinkles, like the air presses. I also tried to concentrate on the lower body, as most of my upper body is still on fire after Skunk Works yesterday, but that’s another story.
Now to the most important part of any Gumby BB — THE MUSIC. I had a complicated setup that was the envy of the PAX. This also helped me keep track of time, since (1) the Q can’t see the clock in the hut (2) the clock has been dead for the last couple of weeks … maybe as an act of service we should bring some fresh batteries?
Oh, and hey, speaking of BATTERY …
So, once the music started, some gentle cellos filled the Bambi Lamp-lit room and all was well. Then Swiss Miss asked the million-dollar question:
“Is this ……. Metallica?”
YOU BET IT IS. Today’s soundtrack was provided by Apocalyptica, a Swedish cello quartet that plays Metallica covers (and other metal type tunes). I referred to it as “oddly soothing.” Not sure what the other PAX thought of it. Some were probably horrified not so much by the music, but that I knew about this group.
The official set list was:
This is all off the aptly titled album “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos.”
As always, this is one of my favorite groups, and this workout is essential for me just as a way to keep myself fresh as the wear and tear of other workouts builds up. Thanks to Swiss Miss and Tweetsie — it was an honor to lead, and I hope to do it again as soon as Sept. 13!
Sometimes we get caught up with trying to move as fast as we can; we (I) can power through a movement without regard for proper form. Which is counterintuitive with why we get up so early. It’s to work out! So proper form is quite necessary. We always need someone to help remind us nowadays.
Quick Disclaimer – Welcome FNG John Wood. …And we’re off to the Murderhorn. No warm up; no hi-fives. Mosey down the ‘Horn to the playground/pool. Plank for the six; avoid the garbage truck.
Circle for warm up.
– Little baby arm circles front/back.
– Overhead claps/front claps.
Super 21 17 – (we only got 15 here).
Partner up at park entrance. Partner 1 runs up to the top of the Murderhorn. Partner 2 runs the other way down Elmstone to the cul-de-sac. Each pax does 10 bonnie blairs at their respective end, and runs back to meet partner for 20 hand slap merkins. Flap jack routes, and copy/paste.
After one revolution, we all ran to the bottom of The ‘Horn for # 16, and 17 of Super 21. Back up to the top and over to the cars.
M’Skin:
– YHC got called out for my merkin form on Super 21 by Haggis. “Those aren’t Merkins Mate”. I’m sure they were terrible.
– Welcome John Wood from Avon, PA – now known as Mary K.
– Not much else to report in an almost week late BB. Another form fail! Sorry Mate.
Announcements:
– Does it matter. I’m a week late. Cobains.
SInce YHC likes to stay current with today’s hot topics, what better way than to go with a Tennis theme with all the McEnroe/Serena banter. What? PAX don’t pay attention to tennis? YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!
WARMUP
With 2 FNGs in YHC’s clown car, FULL disclaimer given after the lecture on the ride over. Cue the bad music and let’s roll
1st SET
2nd SET
3rd SET
POST MATCH ANALYSIS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
After a night of excessive tweeting and “uncomfortable chatter” from Alf, 24 PAX showed up for another session of Fast Twitch. After a 3:30 wake up call (#dadlife), I decided to surprise the PAX 10 minutes early. Van Pelt arrived at 4:15 and was catching up on his #TweetBox and re-runs of Golden Girls on Netflix. When I got out of the car, I heard Purple Gaze asking if I’d show up on time. [Editorial Note: Empirical researchers, aka Purple Haze, predicted my BB execution at a whopping .33% probability rate…]
El Thang:
Run to first pseudo major intersection for merkins, interrupted by multiple vehicles. Millennial impatience overtook Rachel and we left.
Run toward Arboretum in Raintree with lunge walks somewhere in there. Attempted dips on wooden fencing (ill advised), so we left. Attempted dips on steel structure (advised) X 30.
Run to the nasty hill north of Raintree CC with nastiness on either side for an A51 Matterhorn.
Main Entree: 5 burpees on one side of the mtn., run to the summit for 5 burpees, run to the other side for 5 burpees, run all the way back for 20 over/unders (4 count), repeat X4. [Editorial Note: Gummy noted 3-4 ghost vehicles with “car up” before slowing down personally. Hops and Hannibal didn’t buy it.]
Mosey back to said steel structure for dips X 20, derkins X 12.
Mosey to bottom of some street in Raintree for Mosey: insert exercises.
Mosey back to AO.
Naked Moleskin:
When did S. Charlotte Middle become a Run 4 Yo Life signup center? There were more .036 oz. belly canisters and gel pouches than I could shake a stick at when we got back to COT.
More happened on Twitter before, (possibly) during, and after this workout.
Gummy called out more actual, real vehicles than fake vehicles even with 3-4 assists.
Hairball was an active participant on the Tweetbox but nowhere to be found. Sightings of his Miami Dolphin tattoo (signed by Dan Marino), shirtless were reported in NoDa this morning.
Rachel was his normal, polite self. After lap 2, he finished reading me Chapter 2 of his favorite fiction novel and took off.
Hops was Mr. Brady-wet when he arrive at COT. It was gross.
Mr. Brady was Mr. Brady-wet. Gross.
Semi Gloss wasn’t there. #sigh#
One Eye tried to rekindle SOFAWIB on yet another Tuesday morning, to no avail.
Strawberry wore his customary Fast Twitch F3 camo-red sweatervest which is an effective wardrobe choice during reenactments of Red Tornado. In all seriousness, I have sweater-envy.
I expected a lot more out of Alf today. Minor, uncomfortable chatter for the first 50 feet and then he went silent. I hope things are okay.
Joker’s legit dudes. Crushed it per usual. He’s 45 and beats me on the Matterhorn. His claim is that he’s in better shape at 45 than his 31 year old self. Amazing. He talked a lot…I listened.
Hops crushed the takeout per usual. Solid send out.
Thanks for the chance to bring the heat this morning. Customer satisfaction surveys are in and we have an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars. Only Mermaid dinged me for not providing a state-compliant disclaimer before leaving. Next time…
27 PAX thought better of a cool morning in Summer than to waste it in the Fart Sack, so they descended on Swift to meet the Escalator.
The PreBlast: http://f3nation.com/2017/06/26/preblast-escalator-what-goes-down-must-come-up
The Moleskin:
Announcements:
A solid 23 accepted the challenge of putting on the big boy pants and showed up for the toughest workout in the S. CLT area. YHC is always trying to bring something a little different and new to the pax at Skunk. So, if you google tough kettlebell workout, you get something like this:
The Thang:
Two handed swings x 20
Good mornings x 15
Low slow KB squat x 10
KB suit case carry x 40 steps (~30 sec)
20 swings
Repeat as we mosey down our normal Farmer’s carry route
“Omaha” called as we were too slow and we had lots to do.
15 mins later we were at the bottom of the hill by the church doors
Teams of 4 spread out with KBs:
PT 1- (timer) AYG up to the top of the hill
PT 2- KB squats at top time 1 tags you to go to PT 3
PT 3- mid way back doing KB snatches til PT 2 tags you to go to PT 4
PT 4- at church doing 2 KB swings til PT 3 tags you then you run up the hill
Repeat for another 15 or so mins (maybe 4-5 rounds)
Mosey back to parking lot for Circuit work
Circuit work: 20 sec on; 10 sec rest x 3 sets for each exercise
KB Halo
Mt. Climbers
KB Swings
Squat Jacks
Merkins
High Knees
Burpees
COT
Moleskin (Naked):
Comment for feedback: good, bad, etc. YHC wants to hear from you.
Good work by all on the Suit case carry with swings: forearm burner, ouch!
Relays were a little hard to explain but I think they did the trick. Solid work by each group.
Circuits: YHC sometimes does this workout in my garage with a few more additions. It’s a good one and maybe one you’ll see again.
We going North Donut route tomorrow morning. Here is a map.
Turns:
-Run down Rea (just like you are running the Reverse route)
-Left onto Providence Lane West
-Right onto Lancer
-Left onto Old Providence
-Left onto Sharonview (at light)
-Left onto Carmel (at light)
-Left onto Colony (at light) and back to start
The weather will be nice (62*!) so there is no excuse. Afterwards, we shall all devour donuts and watch Tiger Rag roll out every part of his legs.