21 Men of Integrity posted at Anvil this AM. As a man of integrity, I was true to my tweeted word: Mileage low, Awfulness High.
Mosey all the way from the new parking area to the old parking area for quick COP warmup.
SSH and Mountain Climbers. No running so no need to hit the Imperial Walkers.
Mosey to rock pile and grab a lifting rock (BTW – If you can palm your rock, its not a “lifting rock”. No names but this may or may not have been the case with a few of you.) Return to circle.
Round 1:
20x Diamonds
20x Front Raises with Rock
20x Goblet Squat with Rock
8x 8-count Body Builder
Repeat this 3 times through then run ~50 yards out and back.
Round 2:
20x Staggered Right Hand on Rock Merkins
20x Overhead press with Rock
20x Tea Bag Squat with Rock
8x 8-count Body Builder
Repeat this 3 times through then run ~50 yards out and back.
Round 3:
20x Staggered Left Hand on Rock Merkins
20x On your six – Overhead Lat Pull with Rock
20x Flutter with Rock Press
8x 8-count Body Builder
Repeat this 3 times through then run ~50 yards out and back.
Round 4 – for the Girls:
20x Curls with Rock
20x Tricep Extensions with Rock
20x Romanian Dead Lift with Rock 10R/10L
8x 8-count Body Builder
Repeat this 3 times through then return rock and back to Circle.
Some plank-o-rama between rounds.
Freddie Mercury for the finish, the mosey back to launch.
Done.
Moleskine:
Lots of work, little chatter today as the effort was consistent and solid. A few jeers on starting it off with the diamonds, but knowing we had 180 Merkins and 96 Body Builders coming, I knew Diamonds were going to be near impossible late in the game. Also some early concern on only Staggered Arm Right merkins for Round 2. What about the left? We were making the Right stronger because per Wikipedia, and the Internet is always right, a Lefty man makes 5% more than Right handed man? How is this travesty of a wage gap not front and center of the presidential election? Is there F3 in Canada, because I might need to go there if this isn’t first on the agenda for the new administration?
Yeah, the Q got called out for mixing the order up on one round and having to double back on the 8-count body builders. Too much thinking ahead to keep things moving. Glad to see whoever that was watching me and not doing work. Speaking of calling out, Haze apparently felt Fraiser wasn’t meeting the standard this morning. Fraiser rebutted that he was a Man of Integrity. If you feel otherwise, chase him down and let him know.
One FNG – Dave T. – “Schneider” If you were born in the 80’s you don’t get this, ask Haze because he is old and pulled that name out.
Great work by all and thanks Champagne for the watch that YHC forgot to bring and to McGee for the takeout.
-Alf
Announcements:
– Service Project Sat 5/14 Providence Presbyterian Church – rebuild the wall. See Sign Up Genius
– Champagne is 2F and needs ideas for social activities outside of happy hour (including ideas with families)
– Bratwurst – Q’s Black Diamond Thursday at Community House Middle
– Drop Thrill – looking for Q support in Mint Hill
So Bushwood bamboozled me into Qing at DMZ. Somehow I agreed having only been to the AO once, like 2 years ago, on a convergence. Apparently 18 other men came to watch to see if I could get them out and back in the gloom with a decent workout in between. Bushwood however was a no show, with an excuse of an early flight (after he posted at HHM) #Afraid. Mental note – never sit next to Bushwood on a plane. He smells after a workout.
Proper-ish disclaimer.
Roaming COP – Head down Camilla with SSH at Thornridge intersection. Down Thornridge with lunges at Broad Hollow. Down Broad Hollow with Mountain Climbers at Kimblwyck. To the top of Kimblwyck.
The Thang:
Start at top of Hartmill with 20 Merkins and 20 Full sit-ups.
Ran down to bottom for 19 Merknis and 19 Full sit-ups.
Run back up for 18 of each.
Repeat until 1 Merkin and 1 sit-up.
Head back to launch with stops for 10 burpees, 25 Merkins, and 25 Jump Squats along the way.
Mary-ish
25 wide arm merkins, freddy mercury, flutters, 10 diamons, 15 regular merkins, plank-o-rama to kill time.
Done.
Moleskine:
The way back and planks was a bit of a time kill. I had plans for more down by the school but didn’t think we could make it there and back in time and frankly I didn’t know where the rest of the good stuff was at DMZ so you got stuck with Mary/Plank time kill.
If you were looking to start the May – 10K Merkin challenge then you are welcome: 285 merkins if you did them all. My tailbone very much disagrees with doing 210 full sit-ups on pavement. Gonna feel that for the next few days.
A couple of guys out in front most of the morning, but I not knowing all of these regulars well, I might get it wrong. I was certain Fraiser was in front – by a wide margin. I also think One-Eye, Pothole, Kirk and Agony were pushing strong up front. Spackler, Bounce and Semi spent most of the morning discussing funny t-shirts to order instead of working. Good to see Bugeater and Runstopper – its been a while but always great to have you.
Thanks to Checkpoint for the sendoff
-Alf
Announcements – Mud Run – next year
Also – I rushed through this so grammar, spelling, and sentence flow may be a mess. See Gummy for an edited version.
21 Men posted at Kevlar a solid mix of newer guys with some OG’s from back in the day where Bulldog Q’ed just about every single one of these workouts.
The Thang:
Run around the block to Aldi – where according to Horsehead they have good generic soda. Circle up.
Merkins x 20 IC
Low Slow Squats x 15 IC
Diamond Merkins x 10 IC
Mountain Climbers x 20 IC
Wide Arm Merkins x 10 IC. Or Right are Merkins if you had interest in those.
Mosey out to 51 and across the street to the SOAR fields. Gather in the center of the soccer field for four corners.
Round 1: Run to each corner and back to center. 1st corner do 10 Merkins and 5 burpees in the middle. Repeat with 20, 30, then 40 Merkins.
Round 2: 25 Flutters (each leg) at each corner. 15 old school sit-ups in the middle.
Round 3: Same as Round 1 but Jump Squats in the corners
Round 4: 25 Dollies at each corner. 15 Heels to Heaven in the middle.
Round 5: Backwards run to each corner, forwards run to the middle. No exercise in corners or middle
Mosey back to launch, dodging cars along the way.
Time.
Moleskine:
With the school campus under construction it was easier to get some space across the street at the park. The turf out there was perfect and had a few yearning for the plush fields and cushy track at Joust. But we can’t all hang out where the fancy rich kids play.
Probably close to the biggest crowd at Kevlar since we started back in January. Banana’s came because he thought we were going to throw rocks at each other. Puddin’ Pop put on his special grey t-shirt for the event. Busch posted for the first time at Kevlar this year, and he came back-logged with 3+ months of stuff to talk about. Young Love made a triumphant return post knee surgery #Kotters. Crotch Rocket joined the exodus of Metro guys to the South CLT ‘burbs this past year. Good to have you out and if you live that close to Tiger Rag see if you can drag him back out.
Lot’s a chatter and complaints about the Aldi parking lot, but that was some fairly nice and smooth pavement.
And by the way, if you are interested in where the gold lies, check the treasure map on the Strava stream. X marks the spot.
Thanks to Squid for the take out.
Always and honor to lead this group.
-Alf
Announcements:
– Sign up for F3 Dads Knights Baseball on May 14
– F3 Dads camp sign ups are out – late August.
– Sign up for F3 Golf in July
– Expansion for Roanoke starts tomorrow – EH your Roanoke friends
– New book starting at Compass Chick-fil-A – Friday 3rd F after Kevlar.
Wingman taught me how to fix backblasts. Still see comments for backblast.
-Alf
The next Black Diamond will launch on Thursday 4/14 @ 5:15 from the Trader Joes parking lot in Piper Glen. (This is not a Devils Turn convergence)
For those who haven’t heard. Black Diamond, the brain child of the SOB/Indian Land region, is a rotational workout where day and location is selected by the Q. At each Black Diamond workout the next Q is selected and asked to host the next BD workout in the next week or two.
Black Diamonds are supposed to be non-FNG friendly and very high intensity. It will however be #MerlotSpilling friendly. Basically this is a normal high intensity workout amped up with additional hard stuff added in. Come rested and prepared to work.
-Alf
10 Men, who are not the Site Q’s, showed up at Day Zero for the promised Saturday morning beatdown. 1 Site Q jogged over the bridge in Charleston on his way to a booze filled afternoon and the other Site Q, well, he needed some beauty sleep.
The Thang:
Mosey out of the school and hang a right down Carswell, around Bevington, back up Baybrook to the grassy knoll near the apartments. Circle up for COP – standard issue SSH, IW, and Merkins.
Mosey over to the Touchstone parking lot for details on today’s activity.
Split up into 2 groups.
There are 5 exercise in the parking lot. Complete one exercise then run the lap on the streets around Touchstone plaza (~⅔ of a mile). When you get back complete another exercise. Repeat through all 5 exercises.
Group 1 started with exercise and group 2 started with running the lap to limit the waiting on the equipment.
Plank work when done then lug all gear back to cars.
Head to front of school for 20x step ups with jump (each leg), 20x derkins, 20x full sit ups, 30x Flutter IC, 20x Dolly IC. Mosey to end of parking lot. AYG back to cars – Ickey killed it as usual.
I had us at 4.2 miles.
Moleskine:
With OCR season upon us and some guys running Spartan and Battlefrog over the next couple of weeks, this was a great training session. Hilly runs broken up by having to complete some idiotic exercise. All we needed was more mud and some walls to scale. Solid work by everyone out there literally grinding through it. It always made me smile to be heading up Baybrook hearing the grinding of that sled and plates down the parking lot.
Spackler, Bounce and The Swede buddied up for encouragement, and to miss the equipment return to the cars #Convenient. Most of the rest of the crew went at their own fast pace except for Ickey who cut out about half the running and stuck around the weights to push, pull and lift anything he could find. The man loves heavy weights and sand bags.
Pretty sure this workout didn’t match up quite as much as my last DZ Q. I’ve been racking my brain to figure out a follow up to that adventure, but haven’t figured it out yet… yet. Either way it’s always a good time to break out some toys, Olympus style.
Notable absences:
Lastly – I did not re-read or proof read this post. I’ll leave it up to Gummy to provide any corrections on homonym choices, dangling particles, spelling, font selection, and sentence structure.
Thanks for the take out Haze.
-Alf
Announcements: Quarry run in a couple of weeks. Come out and run down into a hole. First half of the race is awesome. Frasier is running it, so come try and beat him.
18 PAX showed up for this weeks edition of Fast Twitch. With instructions for the morning clearly explained in the pre-blast, I am not even sure why I showed up. It’s really the workout that runs itself.
The Thing
Run. Stop at intersection Arboretum View and Springs for a IW’s then run Arboretum View to the end stopping at every 3rd light for 10 heels to heaven. Mosey to Swan’s Run Rd and partner up. CMIYC the entire length of Swan’s Run. P1 Runs while P2 does 10 merkins and chase, flap-jack, etc…
Mosey down the lane to OP Elementary and catch up with the SOFA WIB crew just finishing their opening run around the block. Join them for dips, jump ups, squats. Run to playground for pull-ups, knee raises, and derkins, run around ball field and repeat.
Bail on SOFA WIB and head home with 3 x 3/4 mile as fast as you can, circle back for the 6. Add a ~100 yards of mosey in between.
Somwhere between 5.5 and 6.4 miles.
Moleskine:
I believe this was Bus Stop and Grease Monkey’s first FT post. Tough one to start out with. An out and back run doesn’t leave much room for short cuts but they hung in there strong. I personally enjoyed my virgin post to SOFA WIB. It’s pretty dark out there so I am not sure how much real work is getting done, but they certainly talk a lot. Certainly competes with SCMS on low visibility. Glad to have that workout checked off the bucket list.
I’m tired and can’t think of much more for the Moleskine. I need to get this out the door. If I think of things I’ll add to the comments.
Announcements:
Mudrun sign ups continue. Each race comes with free manure!!
Hairball has a free SOB/A51 bracket on ESPN. Go do it and talk trash.
Thanks to Haze for the send off.
-Alf
16 Men picked the right day to show up at Anvil, so we did some work.
Mosey from new parking spot to old parking spot
Roaming COP:
8-Count Body Builders – IC (Yeah, just like that, we are into it.)
Hold plank and mention that the 1st station of our station work is in the Hot Box – Split Leg Squats and Derkins are the exercise.
Mosey toward playground
Flutters – IC, hold at 6 inches and note that the 2nd station of work in the playground is knees-to-elbows and box cutter (abs)
Mosey to rocks
Jump Squats – IC, hold squat – discuss the third station was to grab a big rock for Overhead Squats and Louganis.
Mosey down to Rea Rd entrance and backwards run up hill.
The Thang:
Run to Station 1, Hot Box, for 10 Derkins, 10 Split-Leg squats, each leg.
Station 2 for 10 knees to elbows and 10 box cutters
Station 3 for 10 Overhead Squats and 10 Louganis
Back down entrance hill, backwards run up, and 10 – 8-count Body Builders
Keep repeating cycle: Round 2 is 20 reps of each, Round 3, 30 reps, etc.
With 2 minutes left gather at rocks for some mosey/sprint combinations back to cars.
The Moleskine AKA: the stuff you might actually read. Maybe.
You have to bring it tough to Anvil, no doubt about it. So between that and Horsehead HC’ing I had to make it painful. See here’s, the deal. HH claimed my last Q at Kevlar was “Moderate FIA” level easy. Admittedly Kevlar wasn’t my best weinke and I have a brand to uphold. HH lets me know yesterday he just ate the top tier of a Whitman’s sampler and needed to sweat out some Nougat and probably some other highly processed food like substances. Time to bring it Anvil.
I could have brought out all the sandbags and plates for hairburners, but don’t want to be a one trick pony Q, always relying on the toys. Plus carrying around 500 extra pounds in your trunk kills gas mileage and who can afford gas these days? All that and I showed up at 5:28 so no time to pull out a bunch of gear.
Rachael and Mermaid pretty much crushed this one. Left everyone in the dust. New site Q’s McGee and Lobstah Roll gave a solid chase but they were 8 lengths ahead when Lobstah pulled up lame in the 2nd round. Hope the knee gets better Lobstah. Blazing Saddles, Lorax, and Jamboree weren’t far behind. Hops, Horsehead, and Purple Haze were farther back with HH mumbling something about maintaining proper form. Appeared that most got half way through the third round and Mermaid and Rachael were a good ways into Round 4.
Great work men.
Apparently the men over at Death Valley tried to creep up on the otherside of the AO while we weren’t there. Didn’t see them, otherwise we might have had to have an old school gang fight. In my mind it sounds tough, in reality it would probably be more like Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video with solid dance moves and awkward stare downs.
Thanks for joining me out there,
Alf
Thanks to Hops for the send-off. Very well done indeed.
Announcements:
March 5, F3 is 5 party.
SOB Balrog CSAUP on 3/12. Sign up on weekly newsletter so they can get headcount. Mileage options very from suck to suck real bad. Go for suck real bad.
15 Men chose to start there week off with a Pop-tart Q’ed The Matrix. But they got swindled. Pop-Tart headed out Sunday night for a “work trip” so you all got stuck with the alien midget. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Slow Mosey out and around the track, back to parking lot for COP:
SSH, IW, Low Slow Squats. All the standards.
The Thang:
Mosey to playground for: 5 pull-ups, 5 hanging knee raises, 30 dips.
Mosey to fence for: 15 decline merkins w/ feet on bottom rail and 15 derkins w/ feet on top rail.
Mosey to stumps for: 25 old school sit-ups with feet under tire. 10 Jump ups on stumps with full extension at the top.
Mosey to cinder blocks for: 20 curls, 20 overhead presses, & 10 burpees.
That was round 1 – completed as a group. Complete 5 more rounds OYO starting at the playground.
Meet at blocks with 2 minutes left to spare, 15 curls and return the block. AYG back to cars.
Done.
Moleskine:
Thanks to McGee for coming out to keep Lobsta Roll company out in front. All though when it was done I think he regretted trying to keep up with the Lobstah. He doesn’t slow down and it hurts. These guys were out in front and were about 2 minutes away from being able to complete all 5 laps, very solid. Everyone else was still 1/2 lap or more back.
Turkey Leg and Witch Dr. were crushing it as well. While everyone was generally in the same area, the field is dark so hard to see everyone, but all were pushing as this was very much a grind it out workout. Props to Squid who never sacrifices solid form for speed. Doing it right every time.
Thanks for joining me out there on this balmy February morning. Enjoy the week. And thanks to Squid for the send-off.
-Alf
Announcements: