1 8 men were freaking cold… so we ran really hard and fast to stay warm. It worked, and no snuggling was needed (Gypsy and Madison were close).
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
THANG:
NAKED MOLESKINE:
YHC puked phlegm 15 steps before reaching John Street tryin to chase down Turkey Leg and Funky Cold, who were running hard all morning (especially on the 400m track sprints). Look for one of them to be the segment king on that route. Gypsy kept on trying to get Christmas to catch me on the AYG to Crestdale, which means he was wasting energy blabbering instead of running faster… smh. YHC wasn’t aware 10 counts mean site-Q’s do merkins, and there were a handful of 10 counts called. Trust me, YHC didn’t know about that rule. Good to see Horsee McHorse Runner Tweetsie out there pushing hard, and still smiling the whole time. Arena is a strong dude, and was bulldozing YHC on the partner pushes. Did Madison finally actually wear shorts over his tights today? YHC refused to check, but maybe his partner in wheelbarrows can verify <bad visual>.
Have a great day fellas. Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
YHC appreciates the invite from Moneyball via a work email to Q the 87th best workout in the F3 lands. Bottlecap chimed in with some optimism that 87 is not so bad, I mean Gronk (chowderhead) dawns the #87, legend Sidney Crosby rocks #87 and I think that was about the number of times I heard people piss and moan about doing burpees this morning. Frankly the site would be in the top 10 in my book, probably right at #10. That being said, I’ve only been to 10 sites…I kid. The goal for my Q today was to create a balanced workout that included HIIT, Strength and Running…I mean sprinting. Here’s what was The Hateful 8:
Warm-Up
Quick disclaimer given, group was assembled and ready to work
Mosey to the Bridge in front of Dreamchaser’s for SSH x25, Merkins x15, Mountain Climbers x15, run across the bridge and back while watching General bust his ass…too much damn lacquer on that thing. Moroccan Night Club x25…yes, they have night clubs in Morocco, check ’em out on your next trip, everyone inside has beefy shoulders.
The Hateful 8 (Cue the tunes…w/ limited ads)
The Hateful 8 is a tabata circuit with a 20/10 ratio (20sec high intensity, 10sec rest) with 8 different exercises. After completing a tabata round with all exercises, sprint up the longer than anticipated hill and recover down. After each round, an exercise would be eliminated (working bottom to top…yes burpees were a mainstay) and the hill sprint distance would decrease…or increase on one round due to poor depth perception on YHC’s part. The exercises:
Final sprint to the top of the hill, followed by 20sec of lunge walks, 20sec of backwards lunge walks and mosey back to launch for a final minute of LBC’s followed up by 6inch LBC’s (another crowd pleaser) annnd COT.
Moleskin
Solid group of sick individuals hailing from various tribes; Tribe Lawson being the largest representative, assembled for one of YHC’s favorite style of workouts. I know most workouts are predominantly run heavy. We did manage 2.1 uphill, scorching miles. This was hopefully a shock to the system and a reminder that you do have upper body and core muscles as well, hopefully you are feeling those at some point today or the DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) in the near future. Looked as though everyone was pushing as there was little separation amongst the group. Thanks for embracing (although complaining about the burpees) a different style of workout and knocking it out in the allotted time.
Announcements
Over & Out
General_
24 Pax joined me for a very cold Dromedary workout. The night before I had my Wenike all worked out Goodfella made me second guess myself when he mentioned using rocks…nope, I hate rocks!
The Thang:
15 secs til 5:30 disclaimer was given… Lets mosey!
Fast .45mile mosey, according to Transporter a 8 min pace. My goal today was to push the six while making the lead guys work hard. Stop plank for the six
Circle up:
Lets mosey – Stop at round about for six.
Ten body builders OYO (half the pax yells Teeyan) nope 15… Burpee with plank jack at the top of the push up
Pretty sure only a few pax actually did 15…The pace was fast
Let mosey back around the front of the school – Total opening loop approx. 1 mile.
Run 1,2,3 – Partner up – 100 merkins, 200 LBC, 300 Squats
P1 – Run Approx 200 yards (down/back) P2 – Works / flap – Everyone continue until six is in.
One star and Soft Pretzel decided to stop for Mary… I yelled at them to continue. Sorry guys I was pumped up, forgive me.
Bear Crawl Ladder – 100 yrds – Let the crying begin.
Two groups – plank head to toe. Pax at back weaves in/out other pax until to the front. This was no fun. Many pax folded and didnt make it to the end. Johnny Utah specifically said, “This looked better on paper”. Nah, it was good, just hard. Completed bear crawl.
Mosey to parking lot – Circle up (It was a huge circle)
Easy Button was beside me in the giant circle, we both were dragging and I told him I was calling it at the famous Deadwood Ten. He thanked me and we recovered.
Stayed circled up: Circle of Pain (Named by me)
Each pax ran around the circle while calling out an exercise. The other Pax did the exercise. This took a while due to the enormous circle and 25 Pax.
30 secs to go I called recover. All Pax line up and AYG to the COT. Of course I ran to the wrong area but finally managed to beat Goodfella in something, but he does have 10 years on me.
The Moleskin:
Thanks Goodfella for giving me the opportunity to lead this group of guys. You all worked hard and hopefully pushed yourself harder this time than you did at your last post. Until next time…
Announcements:
Legacy Sports – Christian sports ministry – Looking to grow, check out – Scott Tyson. See Goodfella and Rockwell for additional details
Continue prayers for Huggie Bear as he is in recovery
New Dromedary Co-Site Q – Dana
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lois posting this way way wayyyyy late for Madoff. I like to set the best example as a Site Q. Cobains.
A few weeks back, YHC was set to VQ at Peak 51. Not wanting to disappoint, YHC spent more time than was necessary preparing a weinke that would balance the need to deliver a sufficient PAX beatdown while simultaneously ensuring that said weinke would not leave YHC off doing the technicolor yawn while the more seasoned PAX wondered why they let a Clydesdale Q…it’s a classic VQ dilemma. “No problem,” thought YHC…”we’ll just plank and do merkins ‘til our arms give out.” Right then.
Unfortunately, that initial VQ was interrupted by what appeared to be God’s version of the ice bucket challenge, so the VQ had to wait a few weeks. So today, 10 brave PAX finally got a chance to enter the candy store at Peak.
24 degrees 5:30 AM:
Disclaimer may or may not have been given: memories fade fast in the sub-freezing gloom. Mosey on over to the church lot and the fun begins.
Warm Up
Mosey over to the bus lot where the fun continues.
The Thang
PLANK RELAY: ROUND #1 (…a real crowd pleaser)
PAX divide up into two teams of 5. Teams assume standard shoulder plank. 1st team member runs a lap, then rejoins team in plank. Next man up and repeato until all team members finish.
EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute)
This is a circuit exercise that follows a simple pattern of Merkins, LBC’s, and Squats. Every 5 minutes, PAX perform 5 sets of called exercises (1 set per minute). Reps increase every 5 minutes as well. R1 & R2 lulled the PAX to sleep with low reps and standard Merkins. R3 & R4 provided a 1st F reveille with higher rep counts and Diamond Merkins.
PLANK RELAY: ROUND #2
PAX divide up into teams of 3 or 4. Teams assume shoulder to shoulder chilly plank. Ist team member runs the length of the bus lot and reassumes chilly plank. Call is given to the next team member, and on we go until all PAX have run down the bus lot and back again.
Mosey back to Launch, with an abbreviated round of ABC’s for Mary.
Moleskin
Given that YHC’s perspective on running is that it’s what you do when you need to get away from a stronger opponent, this weinke was light on gazelle training. The unintended side effect of this, when combined with extreme cold, was an abundance of perplexing mumble chatter.
The PAX, particularly Bernie, took an immediate interest in Sardine’s choice of tights. Though unconfirmed, the unofficial opinion of the PAX is that the tights must have come from the no man’s land area of Marshalls: that group of clothing racks separating the mens and womens sections. We may never know…
The mumblechatter took a turn for the worse when YHC, in an attempt to entertain the PAX between EMOM intervals, attempted a version of “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” which included an observation from YHC’s Junior PAX #2 of certain body parts looking like candy.
Clearly, YHC and his bride need to do a better job of vetting the Halloween candy stashes next year. Given that the PAX were already boarded and fastened into their seats on the crazy train by this point, it is only fitting that the mumble chatter eventually landed us on some form of odd cousin love confession from Tweetsie. YHC’s bride says that the mountains of NC have a strange effect on the body and mind. After Tweetsie’s confession, YHC agrees.
All in all, YHC is thankful to the PAX for showing up this AM for a sub-freezing VQ. On some level, all 3 F’s were represented out in the gloom, and YHC was happy to have been a part.
Announcements:
Gremlin: Saturday, January 19
PAX: Bernanke, Woody, Hair Band, Bullwinkle, Gypsy & Christmas
That’s what she said. That quote was hear within minutes of the PAX leaving the dim warm dome light in their vehicles. I think it was because they witnessed YHC pulling the hose out of Gypsy’s truck. Various moans & groans could be heard. A witty comment or 2 was made and “That’s what she said” quickly followed. YHC signed up to Q Thrive a several weeks back and was excited to get back to one of the best bootcamp AOs in A51. YHC had no idea snow & ice would fall a few days before #Cantore, but Tuesday AM was cold & dry. Sadly, several PAX decided to fartsack and missed the fun that followed. That’s what she said. That quote was hear within minutes of the PAX leaving the dim warm dome light in their vehicles. I think it was because they witnessed YHC pulling the hose out of Gypsy’s truck. Various moans & groans could be heard. A witty comment or 2 was made and “That’s what she said” quickly followed. YHC signed up to Q Thrive a several weeks back and was excited to get back to one of the best bootcamp AOs in A51. YHC had no idea snow & ice would fall a few days before #Cantore, but Tuesday AM was cold & dry. Sadly, several PAX decided to fartsack and missed the fun that followed.
It went down like this.
Leave the parking lot and mosey down the side street to the far end. Circle up for SSH in cadence. Perform SSH until 6 joins the COP. (We did 50 IC)
Mosey down the street behind Carolina Courts to the other end. Perform Low Slow Squats until the 6 catches up. (We did 25 LSS)
Mosey down the street to the left of CC and stop at the 3rd corner for Mountain Climbers until 6 catches up. (We did 25 MC in cadence and then switched to Merkins)
Complete the 4 corners of COP by running back to the cars. Mix in a shuffle to the right & a shuffle to the left. Halt at the picnic shelter & find a partner
Mosey to side street #1 for station work (there just happened to be a 40ft firehose laying around).
Station 7 = American Hammer
Perform exercise at your station until hose gets back. Shift 1 spot to the left. Repeato until everyone has had a turn on the hose. #thatswhatshesaid
10 minutes left. Plenty of time for Dan Taylor & Jack Webb. Dan Taylor is Jack’s 2nd cousin on his mother’s side. It’s 1 full squat followed by 4 lunges. Jack Webb is 1 merkin followed by 4 air presses
Finish up with Mary – LBC x 20, Flutter x 20 in cadence
MOLESKIN
It’s been a while since the fire hose has been to Thrive. I’m sure the PAX would all like it to be a while before it makes its return. That 50+/- yards each way was a killer. Lots of chatter the night before about posting in the cold, moist temps. That’s all it was — chatter, because none of the talkers bothered to show. YHC heard at least 5-6 “That’s What She Said” references. They come all to easy when the hose is out (that’s what she said).
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Conviction needs Q’s
Great workout today with 16 brave men on a balmy morning of 25 degrees. To be honest, since this was my first Q I was hoping I’d have a nice small crew of 3 usual suspects like Lorax, Mermaid, and Purple Haze so it wouldn’t be too much pressure. No such luck, we had 16 show (with 2 FNGs too).
COP:
THANG:
Long row of trees:
Circuit (4x)
Lorax led Mary I was too tired to remember what he did except for boxcutters – I won’t soon forget those things.
Moleskin:
It must have been interesting for Mayhem and Valdez to have a VQ the first time out but everyone stuck it out just fine. Started out rocky because the counting is harder than I thought it was going to be. I settled down once Mermaid provided some “constructive criticism” and straightened me out.
Special thanks Lorax for bailing me out for the last 3 minutes since I was too gassed by my own workout and finished later than at least half of you. Both Lorax and Champagne provided some good coaching this past week… were they worried since I hadn’t been around in several weeks?
Is it me or is it extra disheartening when Scabby passes you with his fast run when you’re struggling to get to the next station? Mermaid was rockin it too but maybe so he could leave early.
Thought FNG Valdez was doing great for his first time until I found out he was 24 and a college tennis player… now I think he was sandbagging. FNG Mayhem showed up super early (5:15) and was ready to go on his first day – good stuff there too.
Does anyone know if there’s something special I need to do for the 2 FNGs?
7 Men Showed up at WAMRAP this morning. A record??? I don’t know, it was close. McGee was out fighting a cold. Gypsy was and HC but got turned around this morning due to a “Personal Situation” He’s said it’s all good now. So I’ll just assume what you all are already assuming: He had to drop a deuce. So it was 9 PAX in spirit.
Disclaimer: Wait 20 seconds as O’Tannenbaum comes in hot. Go.
The Thang (See there’s no COP at WAMRAP)
Run over to the Green Monster in Rea Farms. Basically a huge flat grass rectangular field that is at least ⅓ mile in perimeter.
First lap together, 5 Reps of each exercise.
Corner 1: Dips
Midpoint: Jump Squats
Corner 2: Merkins
Corner 3: Flutter Kicks
Midpoint: Mountain Climbers
Corner 4: Burpees (unwritten WAMRAP requirement that there is burpees)
Now get after it. As many rounds as possible, with an escalator clause. Every round add 5 more to each excerise.
With 4 minutes left we ran back to launch.
Moleskine:
Most guys got to the 7th round, but all conveniently finished with not enough time to complete the 35 burpees at the last stop.
Flipper continued his half workout, half stretching, half recovery technique as he heals up from injury. Glad to see you aren’t staying all snuggled up in bed at home through recovery and still come to join the PAX.
MAD is becoming a regular. Hard to recognize him without the ruck, but he kept moving.
O’Tannenbaum continues to be our resident RESPECT out at WAMRAP with steady work and always a grin. Looks like he’s up to something.
Turkey Leg and Squid hung tight. Not sure if TL slowed down to perfect form with Squid or Squid finally gave in to the rest of us knuckleheads and let his idyllic form slide.
I hung with Purell, a combination of him slowing his running pace to make me feel good about myself and my short-arm burpee advantage.
If you haven’t been to a WAMRAP you don’t know what your missing. Good fellowship, large AO, you vs. you vs. some other dudes to push yourself. Plus we keep the group in a relatively compact area so everyone stays in the same vicinity.
Announcments:
Continued prayers for Huggie Bear and Cooter as they recover from surgery yesterday.
Thanks to Squid for the takeout.
-Alf
15 men decided to combat the gluttony that comes along with the holiday season and post at Bagpipe. Speedo season will be around the corner soon fellas. We did not even attempt a tour of the Ballantyne Corporate Park and due to the sketchy winter weather of late took it straight to the Ballantyne Village parking deck. Here is how it all went down.
Warm Up:
Mosey to Ballantyne Village with an extra lap around the parking lot with shuffle left, butt kickers and then shuffle right. Then to the warmth of the deck for
15 SSH
15 IW
15 Hillbilly’s
15 Mtn Climbers
15 Morroccan Night Clubs
The Thang:
YHC created what I like to call the Advent Calendar of Pain (c). Partner up and we ended up with 7 teams which was right on the money. Since we have 14 days left until Christmas YHC pre laid out 7 exercises, numbered 1-7, on the next level up with 7 more, numbered 1-7, on the level above that (see what I did there?). Instead of a piece of candy behind each day until Christmas, the Pax were lucky enough to discover an exercise behind each day. YHC gave a team number 1-7 to each pairing of Pax. It was at this moment that Kirby pointed out that he and Frehley’s were Team #1. Noticing that both guys had on their Clemson attire and not missing an opportunity to pounce on the ever increasing Bama/Clemson rivalry YHC stated that he should have made them Team #2. In full disclosure Clemson was my preseason and current pick to win it all.
The idea was for the teams to take off and find the exercise number that corresponded to their Team #. Do that exercise then run up the ramp and do the corresponding exercise. Run back down and do the next exercise in order then repeat. So for example, Team #3 did #3 on the bottom, ran up did exercise #3, ran down did exercise #4, ran up and did exercise #4…until all were completed. YHC had a surprise and had a bonus exercise for Christmas Day, more on those later. The exercises were:
Lower Level:
#1 – 15 diamond merkins
#2 – 1 minute 6 inches with legs
#3 – 25 heels to heaven
#4 – 15 hand slap merkins
#5 – 24 J’Lo’s
#6 – 1 minute elbow plank
#7 – 25 LBC’s
Upper Level:
#1 – 24 chippy cross
#2 – 25 Freddy Mercury’s
#3 – 15 Carolina dry docks
#4 – 12 partner plank derkins
#5 – 1 minute protractor
#6 – 25 hand slap sit ups
#7 – 25 flutters
The Christmas Day bonus was on the bottom the teams had to partner wheelbarrow back up the ramp. This sucked but was manageable. The Christmas Day bonus on the top was to crawl bear (backwards bear crawl) back down the ramp. This sucked even more than YHC imagined that it would. Honestly YHC had to heed his own disclaimer advice and modify as necessary on that one. Once everyone was in we ran back up to collect the papers, ran back down collecting the papers and headed back to launch getting back right at 6:15.
Moleskin:
Awesome work by the Pax this morning. Everyone was back and forth on the ramps cranking out the exercises and busting it to the next. With the back and forth nature of the workout it was tell who crushed it out front but I appreciate the Morning Brisket Team for getting in and leading Mary until everyone got in. And it looked like the Happy Mic Check Meal Team may have finished and run an extra round up the ramps. Not sure if Mic Check had the weight vest on under the layers of clothes but solid work nonetheless. YHC gave specific instructions to stick with your partner and not move to the next exercise until both guys were done. Everyone adhered and hopefully enjoyed some 2nd F throughout this workout. Thanks to Tagalong for pulling my slow tail along and keeping the workout fun with talk throughout. YHC has been feeling a little extra Kris Kringle weight with all of the holiday fetting so I went heavy on the ab and core exercises. We should be able to enjoy some extra haystacks (YHC’s favorite Christmas treat) and craft brews this season. Thanks all for posting, giving it your all and making it fun.
And in the words of Snake from Home Alone, “Merry Christmas ya filthy animals.”
17 Pax posted on Tuesday in various states of readiness (some on recovery, some on full workout mode, some not sure which is which), but they all got a dose of run strength and endurance intervals that Swift aims to provide.
The THANG
Moleskin
Announcements
19 real American heroes were in the Nest (of the trust tree) this morning, undeterred by temps at which water transforms to a solid. Hops gave me some pushback on the start time, but then confessed that he doesn’t actually wear a watch. (Apparently he has Kramer-esque internal alarm clock skills). Regardless, the boyz looked chilly, so we gots to movin…
Thing 1:
Found a random parking lot (with lights this time) and circled up to get the blood flowin:
Mosey to the track…
Thing2:
Warmup lap with some karaoke, leaving the inner 2 lanes open for fellow civilians. (Several Geometry majors in the group seemed remarkably upset by this suggestion, realizing they’d have to put in at least another dozen steps this morning.)
Then (back by unpopular demand), the patented “a$$ wrecker” combo… sure to get your buns rock hard like those ballerinos in the Buttcracker Ballet:
Plank-o-Rama. Hold at 6″ until Revlon gets his fill.
Head to the turf…
Thing 3:
Mary circle at centerfield:
~30 LBCs
~25 Flutter
~20 HTH
Thing 4:
Line up abreast on the 50
Drop n gimme 20 merkins, run to the goal line (which is apparently farther away in soccer than in ‘Murican Football)…19 merkins, run back to the 50, wash rinse & repeat… 18, 17, 16, 15… finish back at the 50 yd line (or at least that was the idea.)
Thing 5:
Grab a shmediumish rock and head to the bridge, find a piece of wall and settle into people’s chair for another experiment that “looked good on paper”.
Drop the stupid rock and tell yourself the workout’s over and that you’re running back to parking lot…
Thing 6:
Instead of actually returning to start, follow YHC, who (in his first official full-length Q) clearly suffers from poor time mgmt skills and flounders to kill another 5 mins. Find a dark slab of icy asphalt. Bear crawl to 1st median, run to 2nd. Turn and repeat. (If your hands hadn’t already gone numb while holding the cold rock, this should certainly do it!).
Return to origin for ~25 Rosalita and 50 Freddy Mercs.
Some idiot noticed we had 30 secs left, so 10 burpees OYO rounded out the post.
Moleskin:
Upon commencing the polar bear crawls, I believe I heard Semi-gloss “call an Omaha”. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I believe it’s where you stand around while you watch other people exercise. (Sounds inviting… I’ll have to add that to my Weinke next time)
Hammer shaved a good 100yds off the workout by arriving at 5:31 and parking on the route toward our warmup circle (clearly a veteran move… I’ve still so much to learn!)
Doc McStuffins and Runstopper went for extra credit by knocking out another 14 merkins at the end of the merkin suicides. (For Doc, something was clearly lost in translation. For Runstopper, he starts his Merkins so close to the ground that I guess he needs the extra reps to make them count.)
Announcements:
Please keep Cooter and Huggy Bear in your prayers as they both face surgery today.
Hops encouraged us to consider reaching out a brother this season… a simple call can make all the difference in a man’s life.
Thanks to Hops for his leadership in this group, for asking me to lead this morning, and for trusting me not to screw it up (too bad). And thanks to Pastor Purple Haze for the solid sendoff.