9 PAX got to sleep in an extra half hour before heading out into this brisk windy cold morning at Cuthbertson Middle School to get edumacated on the arts of Qing. Dasher and Posse shared the lead of a light (unless coming out of Hibernation like me) workout filled with advice on how to Q a work out.
The Warmup
Started this Windy COLD March morning with a quick warmup involving all PAX
The Thang
Moleskin
Great opportunity was presented by Dasher and Posse to learn more on how to run a successful Q. This was especially good for me as I Q’d (half Q’d) one work out in the past and made thing to difficult.
As everyone arrived at the Middle School Dasher was sure to keep us on time and notify us how much time until we go and get us started on time. During warmup got a chance to hear everyone’s name and everyone got a chance to lead an exercise to get right into it.
After finishing up the warmups we moseyed over to the front of the school for 25 Dips and 25 Step-ups. At this location got teachings and suggestions on planning our future Q’s.
After this we made it over to the covered walkway where we did 3 sets of walking Lunges and jogging around covered sidewalk to start each lunge set.
From here we Moseyed on over to the HS stairs and began doing 7s, starting with 1 jump squat at bottom and 6 merckens at top. Here is where Posse conveniently decided to be duck out of this part of the work out to be “helpful” and go gather Radar who had just drove in with his tardy slip to join the rest of the students. Discussed how leaders can modify with extra reps or doing 11s, starting at 4 and other methods to help keep PAX together. Togetherness Good, Large separation Bad, Not Good but Bad.
After we finished up the 7’s we started to Mosey back when Posse and Radar caught back up to the group. Once all together we started our trot back with a quick stop back at the benches to do Incline Merkens, Derkens and Regular Merkens before finishing our mosey back to start. Ended with a PAX count, names, more instruction, Announcements, and an Inspirational quote from Posse.
We all drove to McDonalds (Not Ole’ MacDonald’s) and reviewed, in a bit more detail, the documents. Great time of fellowship, discussion and time getting to know one another.
Announcements
#tclap | 2
A crisp, clear morning was waiting to welcome the PAX of Ascent. Here’s how we filled our time:
Warmup
Slow mosey around parking lot track then circle up with bells.
SSH-15IC
5 good form 2-handed swings
IW-15
10 2-HS
Merkin-10IC
15 2-HS
LSS-10
The Main Thang:
PAX choice: Intense: 20, 15, 10, 5 or
Moderate: 12, 10, 8, 6 of the following. (Each side = 1.)
Circuit A:
TIME! @ 12minute mark
Circuit B:
TIME! @ 12minute mark
Break time: Mosey to Pullup: 5X: Up and hold for 5 count, then 5-count descent
Break over, mosey back to KBs
Circuit C:
TIME! @ 12minute mark
Circuit D:
TIME! @ 12minute mark
Announcements:
Q school was this morning. Various races coming up – check out the Run channel on Slack.
Moleskin:
YHC had been warned by Jet Fuel that attendance was light at Ascent, so I wasn’t surprised that we had only three this morning. Since Ascent is billed as moderate, I can only assume that all of the PAX of Area 51 are pumped enough to need higher intensity workouts on Saturday. Or that they were at Q School, or at the Get Your Rear in Gear race. All of which is great. I’m sure the light showing isn’t due to fartsacking, since that’s not the way of the Area 51 PAX.
T-claps to High Tide, who brought his extended collection of 73 kettle bells. His didn’t need to pre-run or pre-anything: unloading of the bells is its own mini-workout.
The Weienke offered a “moderate” and “intense” option. We all opted for “intense.” High Tide went to 11 when he upped from single bell to double.
It was good to have Cooter with us. Don’t be fooled by his gentle demeanor; the guy’s a workout beast!
Thanks for the chance to come to Olde Providence and share some suggested exercises and classic rock.
9 PAX slept in a bit and then got to learning at Cuthbertson Middle School. Dasher Q’d with Posse assisting and lead a light workout filled with advice on how to Q in the future.
The Warmup
It was a bit chilly this morning, but all braved the cold and each took a turn at leading a warmup.
The Thang
Moleskin
I had only Q’d one other time and it was awhile back, so this was great training and encouragement to get out and Q again. Great training by Dasher and Posse!
At warmups, we introduced those of us that did not know each other and had time to ask more questions between exercises and afterwards at MacDonalds.
Finished the warmups and moved on the the front of the school for 25 Dips, 25 Step-ups and a triple of Derckens, Merckens, and Inclines. Empaphasis on planning activities (Bonhoffers wheelhouse).
Continued on to the HS stairs doing 7s, starting with 1 jump squat at bottom and 6 merckens at top. Discussed leaders modification with extra reps or doing 11s, starting at 4. Also talked about how to keep PAX together.
Posse ran off to get Radar before we moseyed back to the start. Ended with more instruction, Announcements, and an Inspirational quote from Posse.
We all drove to MacDonalds and reviewed, in a bit more detail, the documents. Great discussion and time getting to know one another.
I, Ole MacDonald, saw one of the boys I coach in football at Indian Land HS and I was able to meet his father…pretty cool.
Announcements
9 PAX got schooled today at Cuthbertson Middle School in the chilly wind, Q’d by Dasher at the front of the sleigh: Ole MacDonald, Posse, Bullwinkle, Bonhoeffer, Dasher, Maple Syrup, Recalculating, Radar, Foley
The Warmup
@ parking lot … every student leading aN exercise
The Thang
Moleskine
After already having Q’d a number of times, it was great to officially get trained. Good job, Dasher, for leading with whoever the other guy was (Posse?)!
In front parking lot, lots of good stuff about not leaving PAX behind and taking charge.
Mosey to the benches at the front of the school where we did 25 dips that were really 50 on a 4-count. Tricky. Then 25 step-ups total, not each leg. Finished off with a triple of derckens, merckens, and incline merckens.
Teaching about planning activities for those PAX who lead the pack so they get a full workout.
Mosey a little further to the stairs where we rocked some 7s, starting with 1 jump squat at bottom and 6 merckens at top.
Teaching about helping the leaders modify with extra reps or doing 11s, starting at 4.
Radar finally joined us right before we moseyed back to the start.
Then we car-moseyed to Mickey D’s to skim through our packets and get teached some more good stuff about planning out workouts, posting backblasts. Posse said he wrote the instruction packet, but like any typical classroom, he “borrowed” it all from other places and compiled it together into a pretty legit training doc. Basically WiF3pedia.
A PAX from Huntersville walked past us and got connected with us after moving down from the North side.
El fin.
Announcements:
In circle of trust, we closed with an inspirational quote from some President Guy whose name I can’t remember. It was good though, about being the dude in the ring actually doing the thang instead of being the critic on the outside. *rah rah, yeah*
14 PAX came out to see the aftermath of the Bro-Lympics. After last week’s events, the rumor mill was swirling. Would the PAX be met by armed security? Would the Principal be standing in the parking lot with crossed arms when we arrived? Thankfully the only authority figure we ran into was “Redskin” doing his track workout like the boss that he is #HailToRedskin.
WARMUP (cue the boombox)
THE THANG
MOLESKINE
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thanks to Delta for the takeout
17 Goats arrived at South Charlotte Middle School amidst the cooling temps… some ready to run the Timed Mile… some already aware that we postponed the event due to standing water on the track.
Regardless of pre-knowledge, it was soon understood that we would indeed postpone the Timed Mile until 3/16, and that for today, we would be doing the following:
Excellent job as always! 4.75-5.5 miles depending on pace!
Moleskine
Great to have some new faces out to Mountain Goat… including FNG Eric Wisotsky (“88”). 88 came as guest of Drano. He has recently changed his life completely by losing a lot of weight, eating better, and getting back into exercise…. AWESOME!! You did great out there! I hope you will find a way to make F3 a part of your new lifestyle change! Welcome 88!
Also a new/old face to Mtn Goat is Madison…. at least I can’t remember you coming out. As expected, Madison was leading the pack the entire morning. Madison is training for P200, as are Tutti and Goonie. With 3-weeks to go, I hope you enjoyed the mileage along with the intervals. This is a great way to get those “hard” running miles… they add up before you know it!
Fleetwood was in the lead pack with Goonie and Madison. Fleetwood is bringing some serious game! He must have been trying to burn off all that Chicago has to offer!!
Honored to have Fireman Ed join us. He couldn’t stand not doing dome body exercises, so he added some squats on his own. Either that, or he thought it was Tuesday and he stumbled to Fast Twitch! Regardless… always great to have you in the PAX!
An old face, but a non-regular showed up… and I’m not talking about The Mouth…. I AM talking about Horsehead! I can’t figure out if he was late to another workout and just figured he could be on time to Mtn Goat… so he stopped! Regardless, it was great having you there. Strong as usual… plus sporting a fashionable green blinky light that goes well with pumps and a leather man bag.
Sensei, Nomad, Insomniac, Retread, Lois, Gullah, Drano, Kilowatt… I never can say enough about you guys! You guys make the site work!
The Mouth… glad you found us as we finished warm-up. Always great to have you!
Announcements:
Madison took us out in prayer.
28 pax, including a late-arriving RT who overslept for a 0515 workout in The Fort and scrambled northward to join us, took on what Centurion had in store this morning. No SF (Margo is DR), a marginal disclaimer (think I saw Mermaid shaking his head), and off we went. Below is somewhat akin to what we did with some rambling commentary.
The Thang & Ye Olde Moleskine:
Apparently Spring is upon us. 28 pax, not including Chelms (who jabbed and baited me about a weak Q effort), did some plank work while waiting on RT to make his way over…he was, in fact, hustling. First time I’ve ever started a workout with plank work, but might do that again. After that we took a rare right turn out of the launch lot, and an even rarer right turn down the lane behind the visitors stands at the gridiron Home of the CC Cougars. We then ran to the top of Cerberus (no wait, that’s the name of the new workout in UCoSOBA51 — I mean Tartarus. We ran up the rarely used north short ramps. As we were running up, Lorax (always out front but too kind to Larry Bird the Q) expressed his displeasure with my pattern interrupt. Old School Bootcamp doesn’t mean Stale! #makebootcampsgreatagain
COP at the top of Tartarus:
Slow Squat, H-R Merkin, Freddy Mercury & Groiner (yes – GROINER) x 15? IC
Run back down the stairs at Tartarus’ south end (does that mean his backside?) and over to the benches and ramp at front entrance of CCHS. Partner up for 3 rounds of Box Jump Burpees while the other partner bear crawls the ramp and lunge walks the sidewalk. Flapjack with partner. Snuka, RT, Runstopper & Haze appreciated the shortish benches we used for the burpees. You’re welcome.
We then ran to the picnic tables outside the cafeteria for 3 rounds of the following:
One-legged squat R x 10, One-legged squat L x 10, Incline Merkin x 10
Chelms must have come by earlier to turn on the patio lights, as they were on for perhaps the first time ever for Centurion. Semi-Gloss and Puddin’ finished early or didn’t do the called exercises (likely the latter); and they refuseniked the call to plank up when finished…..I love you guys.
We then ran down and around to Little Avenue and over to the Natatorium lot, at the bottom of which were some plates for some hairburners. On the way over, Drago asked my nickname. Appreciate that the War Baby 20-year old forgot a name…makes me feel better about forgetting other pax names. That being said, I did get 24 of the 28 pax names without having to go to the recording….85% ain’t bad.
Anyhoo, the hairburner portion of the workout was a bit of a cluster. #cobains 28 pax and only 6 plates was not ideal. But each pax burned some hair a couple times and did some burpees…..though there was a lot of standing around, pretty sure it was SG, Puddin’ again…among others.
We then made our way back to the launch lot for 7.36 minutes of Mary…..might have been more – Mermaid was very helpful in giving me the 30 second warning….I actually brought my watch to Q today #miracle
We did Makthar N’Djayie’s (of course!), American Hammers, Slow Flutters, LBCs, Dolly’s, Dancing Chilcutts all to 13 IC except the Chilcutts – I was hurting. Oh, and we also did IW’s at the end, and I’m not afraid to admit they were considerably more laborious after all the hip flexor Mary we did. Anyone else?…. Liars.
We renamed the pax formerly known as M____ Wood to Bottle Rocket because we needed to rename him. T-claps to Bottle Rocket for posting 3 times in his first week at The Big House, The Maul & Centurion!
Did I mention Chelms was a no show? So was Udder, and he wasn’t even scheduled to Q. Crabcake was an FNG to Centurion – many happy returns brother….though noticed you did not bring your Porsche? Was that due to the fact that Voodoo & Checkpoint were once held up at gunpoint at Centurion while stepping out of their nice automobiles?
Puddin’ was back at Centurion for the first time in a couple years; sorry you didn’t more well-acquainted with Tartarus. You will if you come back.
Speaking of Tartarus….who picked up the quarter this morning? Give it to Frehley’s for the Fishin’ Hole fund for the old & decrepit.
As for those VFD’s who park their vehicles “a$$ in” – I think Marconi may start doing so. Our respectful brother got hit backing out of The Stand (3rd F) today at Panera….sorry brother.
I have no idea how far we went….not very far…less than 2 miles. Did I mention Centurion is a bootcamp workout?
And thanks also to Puddin’ for a great takeout for the pax.
Love Q’ing the pax at Centurion. I purposely hop (see what I did there?) around AO’s all the time, but Centurion is my go-to workout. Thanks to Margo & Udder for Q’ing me up.
And I leave you Bootcampers with this thought: Is there someone you know who needs F3? If a name or two doesn’t immediately come to mind – then give it some thought and perhaps some prayer. Let’s give away what we’ve found, aye?! Thankful for you fellas.
I check the weather app on my iPhone every night while riding the couch and contemplating the series of bad decisions I made during the day, most of which start with getting out of bed at 04:45 and going to do stupid things with a bunch of dudes in the dark – a/k/a F3. Wednesday night was not different. I can’t exactly say I was thrilled to see the forecast call for 90% chance of rain at 5AM, and I will testify that I considered a #fartsack Thursday morning.
I got up when the alarm sounded but wasn’t happy about it. It was raining and I would have rather taken an a** whoopin’ than have to run in the rain. I ran through a quick checklist of who might be there or who I might NOT be there so I could fartsack. That’s about the time Gypsy texted and said he was running in a poncho. Dammit Gypsy! That text saying you would be there now makes me HAVE to go…. Grrrr! My play was to do all I could to convince the Spartans to go to Dunkin’ and talk about running. When I pulled up and Gypsy was the only one there, I thought the plan was coming together nicely. I was willing to pay him any amount of money to turn our 1st F into a 2nd F. I’m pretty sure I had him convinced. Now all we had to do was wait until 5:16 on the clock, claim no one else was coming and we could stay dry. Wait….. What’s that???? Who is that coming down the road with their turn signal on????? NOOOOO!!!! Don’t turn into Socrates! I hate you, whoever you are! As the car entered the parking lot, I had to rub my eyes because I was sure they were playing tricks on me. But they weren’t. It really was Bullwinkle. It was hard to believe because 1) it’s a running workout 2) it’s not Fight Club 3) it’s 5:14 – he’s not late & 4) it’s still pouring rain. He has foiled my plan. Now we had to hold the 1st F because, #Accountability. We got out. I thanked Bullwinkle & Gypsy for coming (sarcastically & sincerely), because #Accountability, and we got to it as the rain began to slow and eventually stop.
Circle up for COP to get the blood moving – SSH X 15 IC, High Knees x 15 IC, mosey to the entrance of Col. Beatty Park
The Main Event started at the entrance of the park and consisted of 1 minute intervals of AYG sprints. At the 60 second mark, recover for 1 minute (recovery included backtracking to gather the Six). Repeat until we reached the main parking lot.
The 4 corners of the parking lot served as the field for the next 20 minutes of pain. Start in corner 1 – shuffle (lateral movement) to corner 2. AYG sprint from corner 2 to corner 3. 20 Merkins in corner 3. Shuffle (lateral movement) from corner 3 to 4 then AYG sprint from 4 back to 1. 20 Air Squats. That’s Lap 1. On Lap 2, shuffle the short side (corners 1-2 & 3-4) but high knee skip 1/2 way from corner 2 to 3. Recovery jog (70%) the 2nd half of the way. Backwards run 1/2 from 4 back to 1. Recovery jog the other half. Repeat exercises. Lap 3 replaced high knee skips with butt kickers and the backwards run with a full recovery. Move to playground
3 People = 3 exercises in rotating stations. Station 1 = supine pull ups. Station 2 = air squats. Station 3 = tricep dips. The Catch = Station 2 held the ankles of the person at Station 1 while each performed 10 reps of their respective exercises. Rotate thru stations until time to return to cars.
The run back to Socrates gave us the opportunity to run Light Pole intervals. AYG sprint to the light, recover to the next, then repeat the AYG sprint. There were approx 10 light poles. Slow mosey from park entrance/exit back to cars.
Circle up for COT, Name-O-Rama & Announcements. It started to rain again.
Announcements – Run Jen Run 5K is a SFN event on Saturday.
Deep Thoughts
I likely would have skipped Sparta today if not for the burden of being on Q. When one has the Q at a workout, it doesn’t always translate to him being there. #TrueStory But there’s a greater motivation that does charge him with being present. That motivation is called ACCOUNTABILITY. Accountability is what motivates you to get out of bed when it’s 4 degrees and you are the PAX, when it’s a VQ for a long-time PAX, or when you go to bed later than usual but told someone you’d be there. It’s what drives you to give 100% for the entire workout even when you don’t feel being there at all – and that 100% is measured differently for each individual. #YouVsYou Accountability is what drives you to step up and take on your VQ or to visit an AO while out of town. Accountability is what made and continues to make F3 successful. While F3 is free, open to all men, and requires no professional certification, it would stagnate or fail if not for each and every PAX being accountable. Consciously or unconsciously, you become accountable to your brothers in the PAX from the moment you stepped out of the car as a FNG. They count on you being there for them because you may be the #HIM they need to see that morning when they don’t feel like posting. You become accountable to your family because you have started the journey of working on yourself and becoming a HIM to everyone you encounter in your daily activities. You become accountable to yourself because you get up at 5:00 (or earlier) seeking a higher purpose for your life, for connection, or for any number of reasons that may be personal to you.
It’s accountability that keeps AOs (1st, 2nd & 3rd F’s) in operation and that keeps the PAX coming back. You owe it to your F3 brothers to give it all you’ve got because your effort may be what they need to see that helps them push themselves a little further physically, mentally or emotionally. We don’t come out to go thru the motions — no one wins when we “mail it in” or show just to be seen. You never know why the guy beside you showed up that morning or what he may be facing throughout the rest of his day, but you owe it to him as a HIM to be there for him.
Thursday morning was a perfect example for me. If not for Gypsy and Bullwinkle, I would have stayed in or returned to my warm bed and regretted it for the rest of the day. TCLAPS to everyone who made it a priority to post today, yesterday or will tomorrow. For me, it’s not me blessing you with my presence, but me being blessed by yours.
OUT