Monthly Archive November 2018

At least it’s over…

Some things never change… it’s cold in November, the workout starts at 5:30, and Gummy won’t do a side-straddle hop.  But sometimes you have to try something different, like bring a kettlebell to a Joust… and sometimes ideas that look good on paper, are best left on paper.  I did live up to my promise to Gummy that there would be no Ultimate frisbee this morning.  After all, once temperatures sink below 40 catching frisbees and hitting baseballs with an aluminum bat just shouldn’t be done.

So here’s what we did…

Yogged down to the playground area and dropped off the various sized balls of metal, then headed down to the track for a warm-up lap and to the center of the football field…

COP

  • SSH x25
  • IW x20
  • Merkins x20
  • MC x20
  • LSS x20

Mosey to goal line on the football field.

Start on goal line and run to opposite goal line, stopping every ten yds do a called exercise.  Start at 2 reps, and add 2 more at each ten yard stop.  Return after doing exercise at opposite goal line.

  • Merkins (fingers go numb)
  • Squats (fingers to thaw)
  • Flutter kicks (ass goes numb)
  • Burpees – audibled to every 20 yards (everything thaws again)

Mosey up to the school for peoples chair and kettlebells

  • Line up on wall in the seated position
  • First person picks up kettlebell and performs called exercise
  • Pass bell to next person and bear crawl to specified location (about 15 yds) and back
  • 5 jump squats and back into position
  • Called exercises: arm extension for 10 count, bicep curls x10, overhead press x10

That wasn’t too chaotic other than a little shifting and getting cozy so we wouldn’t have to resort to a game of KB toss ‘n catch. AND only a few objections from Mr. Brady about having to handle the kettlebells – sorry I forgot to bring the pink one from home.

Partner up for stations – this is where things went south…

Stations were supposed to be:

  1. Partner 1 – Tricep dips / Partner 2 – run bleacher steps once then swap until relieved by pair running around the track
  2. Partner 1 – Flutter kicks / Partner 2 – KB Swings (swap every 20 swings)
  3. Partner 1 – Merkins / Partner 2 – Lawn-mower (swap every 20 lawn-mowers – 10x each side)
  4. Partner 1 – KB squat press / Pull-ups (swap every 10 pull-ups)
  5. Partner 1/2 run a lap together as timer.  When reach station 1, everyone moves to next station

It was every man for himself at this point.  We only had about 15 minutes left when we started this debacle.  You know what they say about ‘best-laid plans…”.  Even a six year F3 vet can make a mistake every now and then.  Hopefully everyone found someway to keep themselves busy.  I know STH took advantage by swinging his 750 lb kettlebell a few times…and I know the bell was happy too as it had sat untouched and lonely for far too long.

Thanks to my F3 Metro neighborhood bros for making the trip across region lines: Want Ad, Tom Sawyer, Boondoggle, and STH.  Hope it was worth the trip… it had to be at least worth the price of admission.

Yeti… thanks for the opportunity to lead today, even if it was my last.

COT

Announcements

  • Area 51 Christmas Party @ Seaboard on Dec. 1
  • Metro Christmas Party @ Smokey Joes on Dec. 1

Up and Down- The Story of a Parking Deck

On a chilly but dry morning, 9 Pax rolled in (1 on 2-wheels) and as the clock hit 0515 and we departed.  Apparently, 2 others launched from this AO earlier, but they were gone before I arrived.  The plan was simple and recycled from an earlier Q on a parking deck. I modified for this veteran crew that I knew would be in attack mode and running fast to stay warm.

 

The Thang

We all moseyed to the last deck to the far right of the AO.  In anticipation to get kicked out, I thought about the parking deck near the Crane relay.  However, after a scouting mission, that deck is much smaller, so we sneaked into this deck and ran to the bottom for instructions.

The plan was to run the flat and the incline.  At the top of the incline, stop, back pedal to the start of the incline, perform 15x Monkey Humpers and 5 hand-release merkins.  Then run the ramp again, the flat and incline, then repeto.  At the top of the deck, run down the stairs to the bottom, then back to the top and perform 30x LBC.

On the descent, the same plan as above, however any incline is now a decline. At the bottom, run up the stairs then back down and 30xLBC and repeto.

 

Yep, about +50 minutes of that…done.

 

Thanks to Fire Hazard for the take out!

Announcements:

Christmas Parties- Area 51 and SOB Land  time is running out to HC

 

Ye’ Old Moleskin

  1. So I did a version of this workout about a month ago.  Knowing that the Brave regulars were not around that AM, I brought it back out and modified it to make it a little harder.  Also, I was curious how bad it would suck for a full hour.
    1. Not much of an upper body workout today, but the legs should feel that.
    2. From the 6, I was really feeling it, not sure about the leaders of the pack
  2. Purell and One 9’er were out in-front all morning.  I actually had them wait at the top on the first lap up, otherwise, they would have completed 2 trips.
    1. Most guys got 1 full trip and all the way to the top of the second
  3. For being sick most of the week Fire Hazard was killing it…hope your feeling better
  4.  Soft Pretzel was well into his own zone.  He launched hard and slowed, but still was well ahead was chasing FH.  Nice!
  5. Mighty Mite, Gumbo and Mario each had their own modification of the workout.  I am happy you guys stuck with it and modified as needed
    1. Mario even added burpees…nope
    2. Gumbo is mid Marathon training, probably not the best for a calf injury
      1. Many reference to the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2TRUUu2uHo
  6. Wild Turkey just pushes!  Although he and I were around eachother all AM, he always pushes hard and running real fast on the flats.
  7. Frasier and Bunker thanks for meeting back up with the crew.  Not sure what you did, I assume it involved running a long distance @ a fast pace.  Sure it was GREAT!
  8.  Not much Mumble chatter this AM or nothing that I could hear as I was far enough from the core of runners.  I do like this workout as it allows everyone to do their own pace but stay close
  9.  I am not always a huge fan of doing the same thing for the entire morning, but if I threw in much more, I did not want to confuse or slow the Pax down
  10. Sorry for being late to COT- I circled back for Wild Turkey (not sure why) although I figure he may be on his way to the AO- confirmed.  I did run harder then I wanted to on the way back!
  11. Not sure who the site Q is…Tuck?? Sorry to miss you, but thanks for the opportunity to Q.

 

 

The Stinging Rain Of Townland

(Posted on behalf for Dredd)

THANG: Ran 4.5 miles (and back) to the Dave Matthews Sports Complex (aka, “The Dave”), with some random exercises thrown in. The weather was perfect (cold, wet and dreary).

 

MOLESKIN:

 

  1. What better way to celebrate Sparta’s one-year anniversary than a Post in the howling wind and a run through the stinging rain? I ask you.

 

  1. Before I leave the house for a workout I always check my IPhone to see what Steve says the temperature “feels like” (today was 27). Then I check my hot gear chart to see where that puts me. Frustrated by being over or undressed (or having to think too much) I began making this chart last winter. My goal was to find the exact level of hot gear I needed for various temperatures during bootcamps, runs and rucks. The idea is start cold and warm up to comfort so that I’m not taking anything off. Thus, at 27/Bootcamp I only wore leather work gloves, a hat and a long-sleeve shirt. It was hard to believe when I get out my car in downtown Townland that it was going to be enough—because the wind was howling and the rain stinging—but it was. Mongol didn’t believe it either because he was wearing a full-body Panda-themed SCUBA suit. And still he was cold.

 

  1. Gypsy invited me down to Townland a couple of months ago (plenty of warning) and even sent me a map to help me find my way to the Sparta AO—YHC still got lost. Luckily the Mongol vectored me in with the flashing lights of his giant (and totally tricked out) F250/dually. Thank you Mongol.

 

  1. YHC was five minutes late (rather than 10 minutes early, as planned) because I thought Sparta was a 0530 workout—could have just checked the website and seen it was 0515. Also didn’t realize it was an hour long (website would have told me that too).

 

  1. We ran to The Dave because it, Costco and TigerRag’s office are the only things I can find in Townland without assistance. Yet, even though I’ve been to The Dave five hundred times for Shorty Soccer, I still had a dicey moment making the right turn—we could have ended up anywhere. Townland is small(ish) but really confusing.

 

  1. On the way back in, Gypsy told me that we were converging with Peak51 who would be doing some Mary, but when we turned the corner there was nobody there—Gypsy: “that’s never happened before”. Was it YHC or the Stinging Rain?

Running Places and Doing Things

So I waited over a year to do my first Q, but why not do another just two weeks later? With the weather getting colder I assumed the numbers would be down a bit. I guess the previous days and days of rain made gave some the “cabin fever” and we had 23 strong in attendance.

Warm-up:

Mosey to the front of the school, Big 10’s (SSH), Jimmy Dugan’s (just some stretches while avoiding the clap), merkins, and Imperial Walkers

The Thang:

Partner up and head to the back of the school. One partner runs to Transporter’s shed while the other starts hitting lights with merkins and squats. Partner one return and swap until we reach the shed together. At the shed we did some donkey kicks and Mike Tysons. From there we headed over by the football stadium for more partner work. 100 supines (is that a word?), 200 jump squats, 300 200 merkins as a team split up by partners running to the cirlce. From there we ran some more, stopped for Speed Skaters, Sit-ups, Air presses, Jabs and then Step ups.

Moleskin:

I’ll be honest with you, I’d like to believe that there should be some humor in these but I’m going on vacation and I wanted to make sure it got out. My first Q didn’t have much complaining, but we made up for it this time. I think I had a bit too lofty of expectations for the number of reps that were appropriate along the way. Might of been too much running too, as Deadwood said he like the amount of running we were doing. I appreciate the work these men put in and thank you all for the opportunity to lead the pack. Great to see Mad Dog back out there, thanks to him for taking us out

 

Announcements:

  1. No local AO’s on Thanksgiving but a couple of convergence opportunities
  2. Business attire drive – bring your clothes to Bottle cap (unless they fit Foundation)

Blackjack

15 high rollers tried their luck at the Uwharrie Bank and Casino. The wolfpack was formed and we all came away big winners.

 

The Thang:

No need to move from where we were hanging pre-work so we circled up. The warm up was incorporated with the disclaimer #twoforone: SSH x 14ish. Wanting to move on we moved at a fast pace up Elm to BCP; stopping for the six and some squats. Moving on we moved down to BDP and Rea for lungs and the six. We crossed Rea and moved to lower floor of the parking deck; circling up to a card table.

With YHC playing the part of dealer, we ran through rounds of Blackjack with the F3 WO Cards. Groups of 4 and 5 play hands. Whomever won the hand led the pax through the exercises listed on their winning cards. Many merkins and backward lunges were performed. #rangermerkins? Every pax played at least 2 hands. YHC won the 1st hand but no more. I thought the house always won?

Slower mosey back to the start with some quick Mary and it was time.

 

Naked Moleskin:

 

– Frehley’s can shuffle quite well while wearing gloves

– Many hands of 21 / blackjack were played.

– I don’t think the fast pace to start was well liked by Mighty Mite.

– Wingman tripped us out on High Knees.

– Apparently a ranger merkin is: Merkin position – however, your hands should be placed back more in line with your rib cage instead of your shoulders.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve led. I hope to get back more involved. Always a blessing to be with you guys. Honored to lead such great men.

 

Announcements:

– Christmas Parties coming up

– YHC is collecting business clothes for COTS

Beers on me!

3 pax joined yours truly for simple little mosey  tonight.  On arrival, Rubbermaid wanted to run a 5K and then pound some beers…no Q jacking today!

The Thang:

  • Half mile mosey
  • 20 SSH IC
  • 20 IW IC
  • Potato Pickers – stretch those legs guys!

Mosey to playground:

  • 50 WWII sit-ups
  • 100 dips
  •  100 squats

P1 runs P2 did  the work, flap jack. Mary for 6

10 burpees OYO

Run back to Foodlion (.5) around the back, down 16 to #keithjonghill’s brother (need to name it) and hit a triple nickel.. burpees at the bottom (I lied, we did burpees) LSS at top

50 merkins OYO – 25 and run up hill and back until complete

Inside Gazebo: 50 dips, 50 step ups…

Mosesy back to AO

The Moleskin:

Great work tonight guys! We put in some miles and had some fun.  So I take us out …we are approaching Queens South… all Pax IC, except me… “I forgot my wallet”.  Glad I could buy you guys a beer and give you half my food!

 

 

Turkey Meat & Potatoes

Thanksgiving is nigh, but today this bird did the carving.

Little baby jog around the premises. Circle up for a standard COP – ‘hops, walkers, low-slow squats and mountain climbers.

The THANGsgiving:

#1
Pick a partner, run down & up the ramp and meet up for 30 patty cake sit-ups
repeat with 20 handslap merkins and finally 10 burpees.

#2
The cave is a compact parking garage and the ceiling is lined with steel girders. Touch the ground, jump up and touch a beam x 2 per beam. With approx. 25 beams in row, it’s a lot of squat jumps. The second round was done with a side shuffle.

#3
Sprint BLIMPS
Run up the ramp, jog (not walk back down) then complete the called exercise.
R1 5 burpees
R2 10 lunges (each leg)
R3 15 Imperial walkers (each leg)
R4 20 ‘mericans
R5 25 plank jacks
R6 30 squats

6MOM
Everyone called out a doozy.

Mashed potato skins
It was rainy, so we went to the cave. I’d never been and I was grateful my GPS found it easily. The AO is small, but there’s plenty of room to run an adequate boot camp. I wasn’t sure what to expect, so I kept is simple (not easy). In fact, I implore you as a Q to include sprints. You don’t have to run far, but sprinting and other high-intensity work is the best way to get fit.

We got a lot to be thankful for. Practice gratitude in all you do. Safe travels this holiday season.

Rainmen

Posted on beHalfback:

 

8 Pax were foolish enough to be a true F3’er this morning all while brisk 36 degree rain splashing in our face with feel like temperatures in the upper 20’s. We covered a firm amount of ground with coming up just shy of 4 miles with moist socks and shoes weighing down all 8 pax as if they had cinderblocks tied town to their ankles.

 

Warm-up consisted of running a quick lap around the block and resorted to the farmers market tents to stay dry for a brief second to get a feel for what it would be like if we stayed and did the standard “rainy day” work out, tabata.

 

Warm up:

 

SSH IC x25

Imperial walker IC x15

Cherry picker IC x15

 

The thang:

 

  • Ran long 7’s on the hill with jump squats at the bottom and burpees at the top.

 

  • Mosey to Dream Chasers and did partner work, one guy ran around the block while other guy did dips, durkins, step ups, and inclined merkins. The timer was the guy running around the block.

 

  • Did a 20ft or so mosey to the street lamps and did five jump squats at ever light post.

 

  • Returned to AO and did SSH for the remaining two minutes.

 

Moleskin:

 

Although numbers were down from usual, none of the 8  pax that were in attendance took it personally.Shake n’ bake did another very impressive pre-run at 4:50am for the second day in a row…deadwood must have learned his lesson to not pre-run that early after Stubhub ran somewhat of a track meet at Dromedary yesterday. All in all, great morning of work with a great group of guys.

 

Announcements:

 

SOB/ Indian Land/ Western UC Christmas party: https://f3southcharlotte.com/?s=christmas+party (I think that link has all the necessary details)

 

Floater is closed next week for Thanksgiving

Nostradamus Meets Dinky

5 wise men, who know how to stay dry on a rainy day, posted at CCHS for The Fishing Hole.  YHC thought I might be solo but alas the parking deck won a few over (at least BOG said so).

The Thang:

Mosey over to deck for warm up – Cotton pickers, slow lunges, and imperial walkers

Circuit work with burpee ladder at start on level one, run up long ramp to level 3 for shoulder work, then run down to other end of level 3 for ab work before heading down the steps to the start line at level one.   We started with 5 burpees and made five trips so as to finish with 10 burpees at the end while also sprinkling in some peoples chair before shoulder work on level 3

Round 1 shoulder work was regular merkins, stagger right, and stagger left and ab work was dolly and low flutter

Round 2 shoulder work was CDD and wide arm merkins and ab work was Rosalita and high flutter (lunge walk half way down level 3)

Round 3 bear crawl up to car then run to level 3 for shoulder work of regular merkins and diamonds and ab work of box cutters and knee ups (backward run half way and karaoke other half on level 3)

Round 4 crab walk about 20 yards before run up to level 3 for shoulder work of balls to the wall and planks and ab work of LBC (backward run half way and karoke other half down level 3)

Round 5 we ran up middle stairs to level 4 and then down the stairs at end to level 1 (only time we got all the way in the rain except beginning and ending mosey)

Finish with peoples chair and 20 merkins OYO

Naked moleskin

One of the PAX guessed 7 burpees on round 3 of the circuit (aka Nostradamus) and other quickly caught on for last two rounds.   Old guys are really smart.   I bet more guys would have posted if they had known Nostradamus was going to post.   He’s even more famous than OBT and OBT drew a crowd of 14 but the weather was infinitely better that day (timing matters).

Blades of Glory was stumped when I asked him how tall was the tallest skater to ever win an olympic medal but he said we would research and get back to me.  I could not find on google but did find this comment

“Lysacek, like Boitano, is tall for a singles skater. Most seem to range in the 5’6 – 5’8 range
Ladies are lucky to be an inch or two over five foot.
Scott Hamilton isn’t even five four, neither is Paul Wylie. They are dinky even by mens figure skaters standards.
expand your horizon and watch the other disiplines, you’ll be presently surprised.”

Google can be harsh – calling BOG is “dinky” is just wrong.   If they had seen him slogging it out on the deck this am they would a least given him a “stylish” rating

Caddilac surprised me by being ready on time for the car pool pick up much less being out at all.  He is starting to get his act together (age will do that to a man) and his fitness is coming along nicely.

Chopper didn’t find any loose change on the deck floor so his running tally is still $25.29.  Cooter asked if he could manage that stash but found out he is also a financial planner and didn’t need help – thank you very much.   I think Chopper and Cooter both went back after COP to look for more change.

As always, an honor and a privilege to lead this am.

Announcements

Christmas parties coming up and Joe Davis Memorial run sign up is available (race moved to March).

 

Burpee Bath

18 PAX showed up on a soggy Wednesday morning. This is much more then I anticipated with the rough conditions, but maybe everyone saw the weather for the remainder of the week and realized this may be their best chance to burn a couple calories. No one got chiseled at Dromedary today as we left the rocks alone, but they did get their fair share of miles in today.

Warm up lap 3/4   way around the student parking lot into the dark corner for a warm up. Luckily someone set the motion light on to make it less creepy before my disclaimer.

WARM UP:

  • SSH IC 20x
  • Imperial Walker IC 15x
  • Plank Jack IC 10x
  • Peter Parker IC 10x
  • Cherry Picker IC 10x

THE THANG:

  • Snake the entire parking lot doing 3 burpees in the middle and 5 jump squats at the bottom, circle back to get the six which was never too far back with this group of PAX
  • Mosey to the alcoves on the side of the high school holding a wall sit for 20 jabs IC.
  • Go back and forth between the two alcoves doing ten donky kicks and five Mike Tyson’s three times each.
  • Go back out on the street, partner up; Partner one does exercise while partner two goes for a mosey to and around the globe. Exercised included, 150 Carolina Dry Docks, 150 Jump Squats, 50 Burpees.
  • Mary for some ab exercises; flutters, pistol LBCs, Heals to Hevan.
  • Mosey back to student parking lot doing five merkins at every other tree.
  • Finish off with a sucide run on the side of the student parking lot.

MOLESKIN:

Strong group of PAX today who all stuck close together as we covered 3.6mi. Well done Deadwood, Shank n’ Bake, and others who got out there early to cover a few extra miles. Thanks to Goodfella for giving me the opportunity to Q Dromedary and lead a great group of men. In case Fuse Box is wondering, Deadwood’s form was impeccable this morning, all his burpees included a full push up. Welcome FNG Pocahontas who made this workout look easy, later to find out he was a former Marine. And lastly big props to Mad Dog who shows up in these sub par conditions after just recently being discharged from the hospital. Mad Dog put in exceptional work today and didn’t modify anything as he promised the M he would!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 

  • SOB/ Indian Land/ Western UC Christmas party: https://f3southcharlotte.com/?s=christmas+party (I think that link has all the necessary details)
  • Floater is closed next week for Thanksgiving
  • Goodfella said he is “pulling Frack out of the closet” for his Q next week
  • Prayer Request for Johnny Utah’s wife who is having some serious back issues
  • Prayer Request for Pocahontas brother who is recovering from a stroke