NEW ROUTE: Click here for a map.
I thought it would be good to introduce the North Donut Run. We will do this route primarily during BRR training to get some hills in. I think everyone will love it.
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 total milage is slightly longer than 6 miles, so if you want, you can start a minute or 2 early. Looking forward to seeing all my donut runners!
BW
YHC understands, the only requirement to Q Horsey is to write a inappropriate sick backblast. Ok cool.
SUMMARY
16 Stallions, only one of them Black (Jack), had their @$$ handed to them temperature taken (see video) by the hills of Horsey-McHorseArse. Nothing like a heat check where the sun isn’t shining to wake you up at 0515. Fun Fact: Did you know a horse’s temperature is 38 degrees? If not, you didn’t watch the fine viral educational video long enough. When it was all said and done, each PAX did roughly 22 hill repeats, climbed 1,000+ vertical feet in ~6 miles, while popping the CHAIRy of the new SPEEDFORNEED Racing Chariot in it’s virgin workout. For the third week in a row, there was no sign of Chester, as the PAX were unmolested running up and down the calm streets of Wilby Drive. Speaking of Chester, has someone tried to EH that dude before? Today YHC could have given him the best/worst name in all of F3. Chester the Moles… nevermind. We’d just go second derivative on the naming like Dredd likes to do and call that man ‘Cosby’ to make it sound more politically correct. Kind of like how we renamed ‘Horny’ to ‘Horn‘, only different. Throw that man a puddin pop! Getting off track… here’s what we did…
THE THANG
Itcher nearly caused a revolt last week by running a bootcamp on HoMcHoA which has been advertised as an exclusively running workout. So YHC needed to restore order at 0515, in the form of running hill repeats, 5X up and down each hill of the course, with PAX alternating pushing a #SFN Chariot loaded with 40lbs of weight up and down each hill. 0607 group photo, 0608 pledge of allegiance, 0609 AYG up the first hill 2 last times, 0612 head back to launch, 0615 another group selfie (this time w/ F3’s media model Stinger), FINITO!
NEKKID MOLEY
Plenty of ballerz today at HoMcHoA, but absent were two of the F3’s finest. Foulball didn’t show because he committed to some 45min workout aimed at EH’ing the lap swimmers at the Dowd (referring to the swimming pool, not Pee-Wee’s-Whirlpool in locker room #PWW). Last year’s HoMcHoA 10K champ Fahvra realized more guys are competitive racing to a finish line, but it’s not a race everyone wants to win to be the first to touch a manhole (cover), so he stayed in his new hood Fort Mill.
Everyone today worked like a horse, and Nash was no exception. The dude may look like a quarterhorse, ok, too big…. a miniature Shetland pony (with 8-pack abs), but Nash can push a chariot like a Belgian Draft Horse. Like a horse, Funky Cold hung with the group and it was impressive to say the least. After three weeks of competition Fishwrap, Belly Itcher, and Rachel have each won a leg of the triple crown with their amazing breakaway speed at HoMcHoA. Any couple in line at “the bank” wanting genetics to birth a fast kid might consider hooking up with these stallions… but like all horse racing winners, with each victory the cost to bang them just went up. Not to mention they’re all married, or possibly geldings at this point. Another bad joke, there will be more…moving on.
There was a mistaken moment of divine intervention today when a neighbor saw a cripple get out of his wheelchair and push it up the Yucca Succa … but it was just Mr Brady, now ringing out his soaking wet green and white tank-top on her lawn. Then there was Voodoo who can not be influenced. When he says NO, he means it. Recorded conversation…
YHC wonders how many times it took asking Voodoo to be a college cheerleader? Hopefully more than #3. Federalist looked to be having a blast in the chariot today. Dude was seen being pushed up the hill by Ann&Hope while balancing a pair of fidget spinners on his areolas like he was a airplane with two propellers pointed to the sky. Stinger showed he learned a whole lot of nothing from Q-source yesterday where we discussed Candor (definition = Graciously Telling The Hard Truth & Demanding to Hear It From Others) as he taunted Thin Slice about being slow while running backwards up the hill #Bluntness. YHC would have at least picked on Slice for his John Leguizamo stache. The Calvary food pantry drive was last week, and Tolkien & Chelms brought Asian rice (Tolkien: WiceWrand Brand) and American rice (Chelms: Riceland Brand), same thing different packaging, to feed the hungry. This week, the shirtless Nash, Thin Slice, and Belly Itcher each brought a pair of tomato slices, and Tweetsie, Chelms, and Geraldo brought a pair of saba melons, all of which were not on the pantry’s approved list #putyourshirtsbackon. Tweetsie be diggin the hills, or he’s got a thing for animals. The only two workouts YHC has seen him post at is Mountain Goat and Horsey. He was also seen chasing down a Panda today. Anyone notice Blackjack-Slimjack recent weight-loss and new found speed? Here’s the secret…store a gulp of RedMan, Kodiak, Skoal tobacco dip in your mouth at all times making everything taste like crap and restrict your breathing when running. Some athletes would use a Training Mask, but if you want real gainz… TOBACCO DIP. Right Fish? Wow that was bad… but hey YHC tried.
SYITG ~ JRR Tolkien
ANNOUNCEMENTS
SPEEDFORNEED chairs are in and we are looking for heavy participation in our Inaugural race, The American 4miler Race in Dilworth on Independence Day 7/4 where Nash will be pushing his 2.0 son Owen in the race (we’ll all be running together). Check out movie trailer video and PreBlast for American 4Miler SFN Race You have until TOMORROW *6/21* to guarantee a race shirt for your entry, so sign up TODAY! Metro convergence at 0600-0700 followed by race at 0730
15 PAX gathered at SCMS in some crazy humidity for a bit of running and exercises. Here’s what we did.
The Thang
Run up Strawberry to 51. Turn left on 51 and head to Rae. Plank at the corner of 51 and Rae to wait for the six. Take a right on Rae. Head to entrance of 5 Knolls. Plank to wait on the six at the entrance. Head down 5 Knolls to the bottom of LC. Plank again to gather the PAX and give instructions. Run up LC then continue on to the end of 5 Knolls. Do 15 Merkins. Turn around. Run back to the bottom of LC. Do 15 Squats. Run to the other end of 5 Knolls (the entrance) and do 15 LBCs. Run back to the bottom of LC. Do 15 Squats. That was 1 lap. The idea was to get 2 laps. Modify if not able to get the 2 full laps. Meet at the top of LC at 6:05. Run through the neighborhood to get to 51. Head back to the launch.
Naked Moleskin
Nice work today men. Maybe not a terribly creative Substi-Q, but YHC believes effective. The conditions and the course were not easy today. Good to see everyone pushing. YHC literally laughed out load at the groaning that began when turning into 5 Knolls. It was short lived though. It sucks, but it’s good for us.
Announcements
-Death Valley and Anvil are converging tomorrow at that the Anvil AO (Calvary Church.) There will be coffee after and a talk featuring Dredd.
-Kevlar will be converging at/with Joust Friday.
-It’s that time again. Please be on the look out for Fast Twitch Q scheduling.
17 men circled up at 0530 this morning ready to sweat out the beer and grilled meat from a Father’s Day weekend. I think we go some of it accomplished.
Disclaimer – don’t get hurt or it’s your fault.
Mosey down McKee towards fire house. Plank at first street and wait for six. Head down that street and plank again at the T intersection. Run through the back fields of McKee Rd Elementary and up onto the pavement.
COP – SSH (As requested), Low slow squats, IW, Merkins, Mountain Climbers.
Mosey to open field in back of school and partner up.
P1 runs to play ground does 10x Pull ups. P2 Runs to stumps and does 10x step ups.
Meet back in the middle for 10x hand slap merkins. flapjack.
Repeat x3
Next Round, same as the first except switch to Toes to Bar and Full Sit ups.
Mosey to rock pile and pick up rock for curls, Louganis, tricep extensions, and flutter with press. Drop rock and head towards fire station and stop at first road. Backwards run to next intersection and mosey to the T-intersection. All you got ~400M back to school. Choose your own direction.
Done.
Moleskine:
So at the conclusion of the first lap around the AO and back up to the fields Orange Whip and I came up on a group of deer at about 10′ away. Not sure who was more scared, the deer or me. I don’t think either one expected to see the other that close up in the dark. They took off and kept their distance the rest of the workout.
Didn’t recognize Chin Music this morning in the new stream lined hair cut. Bunker and Honey Bee would approve. Strong outing by the group, I’ve only posted with Body Bag and Square Root a few times and they kept it moving. I think it was my first post with Icing and LaRonda and they were killing it too. If anyone wondered Squid had perfect form on Toe’s to Bar. Arms locked at 90 degrees, knees locked out, smooth transition from top to bottom. Joker showed up late, I guess and somehow popped out of the woods after the first COP exercise. Great to have you.
Announcements:
UCo Happy Hour starting this week at Wesley Chapel, Hickory Tavern, Thursday night.
Kevlar converges with Joust this Friday at Joust!
Thanks to Squid for the take out.
-Alf
At 0515 on Tuesday morning, we’ll launch from the Vine Restaurant for the weekly Running Interval workout known as Swift.
If this looks like a PreBlast from 4 weeks ago, it’s not. I changed some things…
How many can you do? How consistently can you do them? Will you improve over time?
“If the purpose is to hurt, then go out real fast and be as miserable as you possibly can.”
It’s that time of the season where we set baselines for the months of training ahead. In this case, it’s the BlueRidgeRelay (BRR), where most PAX will be putting forth multiple 10K type efforts over the course of a day. That’s where the Interval pace (aka 2 mile race pace, aka VO2Max pace) comes in. It’s a pace run at 97-100 percent of Maximum Heart Rate, and for more explanation see the linked video.
To do this workout, we’ll try be measured and consistent this week so we can compare to the same effort approximately every 4 weeks. Like in year’s past when we’ve had SIB come to town or went to visit there, we’ll be doing this in 800 meter segments @ Interval Pace with about a 2 minute (or 200m) active but very slow jog recovery. No need to program your watch because there will be landmarks to start/stop, but if you do, program 800m Distance Interval and 2 minute rest. Just be prepared to end your recovery early.
The THANG:
Some more helpful info:
Intensity: Generally in the range of 95-100% of VO2max or 98-100% of HRmax. Intervals are “hard” but not all-out running by any means. Usually at a pace that you could maintain for about 10-15 minutes in a serious race. Intervals are best if they involve runs of 3 to 5 minutes each (800m and 1000m workbouts are typical), with jog recoveries of similar duration (not necessarily, equal distance); relative to the runs they follow. If a workout calls for “hard” runs, then go by feel and imagine 5k race pace, as the intensity of each run.
Purpose: Stress your aerobic power (VO2max). It takes about two minutes for you to gear up to functioning at VO2max so the ideal duration of an “Interval” is 3-5 minutes each. The reason not to go past 5-minutes is to prevent anaerobic involvement, which can result in blood-lactate build-up.
SUMMARY
12 young men in their 40s or 50s, got suckered into following a MUCH younger and better looking 39yr old Q for an hour of Obstacle Course Training at Area51. ~2.5 miles were covered, old-man strength was unleashed, no trees were damaged any more than they already were, and noone was arrested or injured (to my knowledge)… it was a good morning. Here is what we did:
THE THANG
7:00am and it’s GO time! Take three laps around the parking lot alternating side shuffle, butt kickers, high knees, karaoke to get the legs limbered up. Circle-up for some pineapple pickers and 25 merkins (regular, wide, diamond, offset hands). YHC gave PAX quick tour of the 10 stations, which PAX would cycle through once (not twice this time), in a clockwise direction.
Partner up, and each pair start at any one of 10 different stations. For 4 straight minutes, work at that station, then for the 1 minute “recovery” run the parking lot loop in front of the school before heading to the next station. Idea was to concentrate on the modality at that station to really work on muscular endurance. 50 minutes total. The Finito!
Stations:
NEKKID MOLEY
Well, that was fun. The beauty about writing a backblast a day or two late, is you always know how you feel from the workout. YHC’s chesticles and shoulders are sore from playing hot-potato with two sandbags for 4 minutes. Solid work by everyone today, and as promised there was something for everyone to love or hate. Hopefully both at the same time. It was a long overdue trip to the closest AO to YHC home in Providence Plantation, but hey, at least the seal was broken. It won’t be the last time now that kids soccer is done and YHC is no longer site-Q at Stonehenge.
The early crew of Abacus, Beaver, and OT took off for a prerun before the main event. The limbering up allowed Abacus to scale the Tyrolean Traverse like a polar bear squirrel running upside down on a telephone wire. Impressive for a big man. Joker had a hallucination thinking Stallone was scaling the Tyrolean Traverse like in the movie ‘Cliffhanger’… it was Squid. Escobar supposedly missed the 0630 DaVinci launch, sped on over to Area51, nearly ran over all the workout gear in the parking lot with his SUV, and smiled like a kid in the candy store the entire workout. A pretty irritating sight to see when you’re struggling and arms are on fire. OT had deadeye aim on the spear throw from what I could see, maybe because he didn’t want to do burpees. Has anyone seen that man sweat? He rivals Mr. Brady. Lobstah Roll on the other hand, almost went home because burpees weren’t on menu, so he intentionally missed all his spear throws just to do some #penaltyburpees. Retread found a way to make spears rotate like a helicopter blade when they are thrown without breaking his wrist. Floor Slapper does not like buckets, or he’s just smarter than the rest of us who are trying to break our backs lifting them #talktoSquid . Great to see ColdCuts somewhere other than the Siskey Y when injured … over a year ago! Joker and Witch Doctor must like this workout since they’ve both been to three of these OCR sessions… now if we could only get them to sign up for an actual race to test their skillz. When Joker wasn’t crushing the stations, Joker was berading poor Huggie Bear about lying that the British lady’s voice did not call for the next interval, since YHC, Escobar, and Joker apparently worked right through the the 1minute run, having too much fun on the partner resistance band station. Thanks to everyone for letting us know to rotate #NOT. Beaver put in strong work, and when he wanted the rest, he simply threw the sandbag on top of the jungle gym bar so it got stuck… well played. YHC enjoyed working out with you fellas, and promise to make sure the next visit isn’t as delayed as the first one.
Thanks to the preacher Squid with the takeout. Joker, Huggie, and Abacus for the invite to Q, and all the fellas for a great 1st and 2nd F during the workout and coffeeteeria! See you guys next time.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
SYITG – JRR Tolkien
YHC’s 2-year anniversary Q began in a much more anxiety-filled way than was hoped. To celebrate, the goal was to get in a good 2-3 mile pre-run (something YHC couldn’t fathom doing during the first year of F3, let alone before F3) and then kick some serious @$$ during the workout. YHC made a quick loop down Woodfox, left on Rounding Run, left on Raintree, left on 51, and back to Strawberry at about 1.8 miles. The goal was 2-3, so YHC decided to yog down Strawberry and back to launch. On the way back up, YHC spotted a dog ahead in the street. As I got closer, I realized it wasn’t just a stray dog. It was a stray pit bull. Now, some of you may say “they’re actually very calm, nice animals if they don’t feel threatened.” You may be right. However, they’ve also been known to kill people, and I’m not a dog person. Therefore, this whole experience scared the $h!t out of me. Thankfully, YHC went to the far side of the road, and Fido never made a move toward me. However, the Weinke called for some work on Rosecliff and possibly Fairway Downs Ct. That wasn’t happening, not going to put Pax in danger. So, as 12 collected to start their week at Base Camp, on to plan B, or C, or D….. Whatever one it was, it was made up on the fly, not-so-moderate, and painful. It went like this:
The Thang:
Semi-adequate disclaimer given. Pax enjoyed that everything was going to be merely a suggestion. Mosey over to a lot on the other side of SCMS for COP: SSH x 15 IC, IW x 15 IC, 5 burpees OYO (just for MAD), LSS x 15 IC, merkins x 10 IC. Enough of that – to the hills!
Mosey down Woodfox. Left on RR to Rising Meadow. Run up Rising Meadow, 10 merkins at the top. Run back down, 10 LBCs at the bottom. Repeato twice for 3 times total. No triple nickel because more pain is coming. Mary while we wait for the 6 and catch out breath.
Continue down Rounding Run to the half-pipe as you approach Raintree. Nightmares of Udder having us run 3-man grinders on this half-pipe for 30 minutes still haunts the Pax. As you’re running, 10 LBCs at the bottom of the pipe, 10 merkins at the tops (YHC wasn’t very creative on the different exercises this morning). Run to the other side and back twice. Many cars were dodged in the process. None of them were nearly as frightening as a stray pit bull.
Collect the six and head back to the intersection of Rounding Run and Woodfox. Some Mary while we rest the legs a bit for the next challenge: an AYG run up Woodfox to Strawberry. This was pretty terrible. A quarter-mile of uphill suck. Collect on the sidewalk on Strawberry for some Mary while the 6 comes in.
Mosey to the rockpile by the stairs next to Semi-Gloss’ office. 2 sets of 15 bicep curls, 15 overhead press, and 15 tricep extensions. Return rocks and end with 3.5 minutes of Mary and planking. Done.
Moleskine:
This is what the Pax gets for putting someone on Q that’s training for the BRR (oh wait, YHC put himself on Q). The Rising Meadow and Rounding Run hills are not fun. Top that all off with an AYG up Woodfox and it makes for a pretty painful workout. The humidity didn’t help – it was soupy out there. Pax got about 2.4 tough miles in.
Base Camp is supposed to be a moderate workout, but this might have fallen outside the “moderate guidelines.” The Pax were killing it, though. Not too much mumblechatter, just hard work. MAD exclaimed at the beginning that he was done with rucking for a bit but wanted to do some burpees. YHC obliged, much to Wolfman’s chagrin. Speaking of Wolfman, he was sporting a brand new aerodynamic look this morning. It worked, too. He was looking faster out there on those hills. Fireman Ed, Simba, Jet Fuel, and YHC led the pax up Rising Meadow. Simba and YHC repeated that effort on Rounding Run. Snoopy was looking STRONG on Rounding Run. For his efforts, he earned a spot in the Base Camp Q rotation. Scrum is only 3 weeks in, yet tackled this workout without complaint. Strong work, brother. Keep it up.
Huge T-Claps to all who donated to Speed for Need this morning. YHC collected $70, which means I owe the Pax 70 burpees during Jello’s Q next week. I told Thunder Road that if he got a donation to me BEFORE the workout started next week, I would count it. That goes for the rest of you, as well.
Finally, a sincere and humble thank you to all of you men of F3. These last two years have been life-changing for me, and every single one of you are a part of it. Please know what a profound influence and positive effect it has had on me, and go find the next guy. Pay it forward.
Ten men remembered that Father’s Day was over, and it was time to get out and grab the DRP by the throat.
The party went something like this-
Grab two Standard Issue red bricks out of the back of YHC’s car. Get acquainted; these bricks will not leave your hands for 45 minutes.
Mosey out to 51 and back in Park drive, all the way to the end.
COP
SSH X 15 (yes, with bricks)
Squat X 15
Mt Climbers x 15
Line up for Karaoke Right, to the concession building.
Karaoke Left back to start.
Man Maker Merkins x 15.
Lunge x 15.
Squat x 15.
Run back to Concession building for StepUps x 15.
Run a loop around the ball fields
Circle up for history lesson on The Burpee. ( Invented by Royal H. Burpee, circa 1939)
“Royal” Burpee x 10 (original version, 4 count no Merkin or Jump)
Brick Burpee x 10 (current version w Merkin and Jump, plus bricks)
Run another lap around ball fields, grab some wall.
People’s Chair with bricks straight out in front. Hold til done.
No recovery, People’s Chair w Shoulder Press x 25.
Mosey to open pavement for Mary
LBC x 25 (bricks on chest)
Flutter x 15 (bricks held out to sides, off the deck)
Mason Twist, with actual masonry x 15
Heels to Heaven x 15
Mosey back to benches for StepUps x 15, run back to start.
Moleskin
Mubblechatter ended pretty quickly this morning. Not expecting Christmas cards from this group after today.
YHC a little surprised no bricks actually re-entered my car thru windshield.
Nonetheless, strong work by an able crowd. This AO has done a great job building the community of male leaders in the Pintville area, T-Claps to Dumpster Fire and Cheddar for the efforts.
Announcements
Sign Up and join us at American 4 Miler, the first ever #SpeedForNeed event! July 4th, Cotswold area.
http://f3nation.com/2017/05/25/preblast-speedforneed-inaugural-race-american-4miler-7417
Last week to order SOB shirts- Place orders by Friday
New Indian Land workout Walnut Creek Saturday 0530
17 Pax came out for some terrible music (with ads), bad cadence counting in warmups, rock lifting, and little bit of running. So without further ado here is today’s backblast with inserted ads for your reading pleasure.
Warmup: Presented by Bud Light Real American Hero – “Mr. Golf Ball Washer”
Thang:
Rock Portion (3 rounds) Presented by Bud Light Real American Hero – “Mr All You Can Eat Buffet Inventor”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHNt9rXSsTM
Exercises Included:
Wall Portion Presented By Bud Light Real Men of Genius “Mr. Overly Competitive Touch Football Game Player”
Mosey Back to Start and complete LBC until Six is in
Moleskin:
Great work by the group today. Looked like Legal Zoom was leading the way on the each of the running segments and the humidity did not faze him as he continues to wear the long sleeves. Glad to have Maple Syrup back now that school is out. Damascus way to push on the runs (You got me today), must be getting faster now that he is wired up and tracking his workout data with the new watch and sports bra….I mean heart rate monitor. Bottle Cap always welcome the mumblechatter through out workout and look forward to video of the And 1 mix tape highlight of you going against Moneyball on Saturday. Believe it may look something like this?
Can see the recent additions Segway, Xerox making improvements and pushing the pace, way to go! The Respect Club has strong presence at Flash – Shop Dog, Ole McDonald, Gator Cub, Xerox, Foley. You guys are truly tough!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c99O2EChQAA
And I think I have exceeded the amount of ads allowed for a single BackBlast.
Announcements:
Wednesday June 21 – Death Valley & Anvil will converge at Calvary Church (the Anvil AO).
Schedule:
0530: Convergence Workout Q: Thin Mint
0615: COT
0630: Coffee under the soccer pavilion (inside if it rains)
DREDD shares
0650: Pray & Leave
It has been awesome to have 30+ men out each month for our convergences. Don’t miss this one as DREDD is sure to deliver a great word!