Author Archive Argonaut

Sneaky

7 dudes gathered at the place where men are forged – Elon Park. Kirby was not
present since coat season has passed, though there were at least 3 coats present.
Opportunity missed. It doesn’t look like much, but here’s what the gang got into this AM. This workout was sort of sneakily challenging:

Pre-Run

• Turkey and YHC, 5k, moderate pace. Felt worse due to the the humidity.

Get Warm

• Full School Lap
• 20 Sumo Deadlift High Pull (Slow Civilian Count)
• 20 KB Squat (Slow Civilian Count)
• 10 Merkin IC
• Full School Lap

Main Event

Grab all the bells and head to the playgrounds.

Partner Work

3 Rounds

• Partner 1 – 10 pull-ups
• Partner 2 – Swing Set, In and Outs

4 Rounds

• Partner 1 – 15 Toes to bar
• Partner 2 – Bent over Rows (Double KB)

5 Rounds

• Partner 1 – 20 KB Sumo High Pull
• Partner 2 – Strict Dead hang

Mary

• 50 LBC, IC

Moleskine

Looking up at the workout this morning, it doesn’t look very challenging on paper. For YHC, it was a challenge. This was a very grip intensive workout that had a slow and steady build to it. Solid crew at the ‘hole this morning. Frehley’s Comet is back after his longest absence from F3 in 5 years (a mere 10 days). Did not take long for him to get back in the swing of things (i.e farting, talking about towels, throwing a TWSS in there.). Fire Marshal Bill was back for more after crushing a Q last week (at least we thing he did #nobackblast). Well done on the pull-ups especially. Nard Dog rolled up with some new wheels. Word on the street is: he wanted some new wheels for his old Jeep, then saw a new Jeep with the wheels he wanted, so he just bought a new Jeep. That’s how we do it in #merica. Peppermint was slow but steady this morning, keeping that form perfect since he is recovering from a brutual hamstring injury during FatCamp pre-sprints (who’s dumb idea was that). Short Pole is down at least 20lbs since he started posting and is adding speed and cardio-endurance to that hideous strength. Wild Turkey is crushing some pre-runs these days, not to mention some bells. Well done good sir. Thanks for the 2nd F on the pre-run.

Announcements

• Foxhole converges with the rest of SOB for Memorial Murph next Monday. http://f3nation.com/2017/05/16/preblast-sob-memorial-day-2017/
• Wednesday “Summer Kick-Off Convergence”. Bring a F’in New Guy.

Posterior Chainsaw Massacre

Muggy morning at the ‘hole this morning for eight dudes looking for some muscle gains. The kind that impact speed and overall athletic performance: the posterior chain. Today we worked those big muscles in the posterior chain… a lot. 2 joined for a 5k at 5 to start things off (YHC, Nard Dog). Men were disclaimed, urged to put out effort today, and to leave the light bells to the ladies.

Warmup

• Quick lap
• 20 SSH
• 10 Good Mornings

Workout Summary

First, had a KB pageant of sorts. Lined all the bells up in order of weight. Then took the top 8 bells and dragged em down to the field where YHC had a circle with some horrible EDM music playing. The pageant winners were:

• 80 lb (AKA the Liberty Bell)
• 62 lb (AKA Voodoo’s “other” Bell)
• 60 lb (AKA Mighty’s Sneaky 60 Bell)
• 55 lb (AKA Argo’s Fat Handle Bell)
• 53 lb (AKA Voodoo’s Big Blue Bell)
• 50 lb (…)
• 45 lb (…)
• 45 lb (…)

The bells were spread out randomly around the center field circle. Q called out
an exercise and a number of reps, each PAX would perform the exercises then move clockwise counter-clockwise around the circle. After completing the reps PAX alternated between plank hold and a static KB hold (i.e the top of a deadlift) until everyone finished their exercises. Occasionally we added a 10 count to the end of a static hold or a plank.

Circuit One

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• 20 Sumo-Deadlift High Pull (“SDHP”), Static Hold
• 20 Swings, Plank
• 20 Deadlift, Static Hold
• 10 Deep Squat, Plank
• 20 SDHP, Static Hold
• 20 Swings, Plank
• 10 Deep Squats, Static Hold
• 20 Deadlift, Plank

Merkin Lap

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• Run a lap around the field in the corners perform 10 merkins
  • Corner 1: Wide-Arm
  • Corner 2: Diamond
  • Corner 3: Stagger Right
  • Corner 4: Stagger Left

Circuit Two

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• 20 One arm Swings (10 each arm), Static Hold
• 20 Bent Over Rows, Plank
• 30 Deadlift, Static Hold
• 20 High Swings, Planl
• 20 SDHP, Static Hold
• 20 Bent Over Rows, Plank
• 10 Cleans, 10 Swings, Static Hold
• 20 SDHP, Plank

Merkin Lap

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• Run a lap around the field in the corners perform 10 merkins
  • Corner 1: Wide-Arm
  • Corner 2: Diamond
  • Corner 3: Stagger Right
  • Corner 4: Stagger Left

Core Work

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After dragging the bells back up the shovel flag, mosey to the swing set and
perform some ballistic leg lifts / Windshield wipers / dragon flags. Roughly 30-40
of these in varying direction and timing.

Grip Work

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• Mosey back up to the playground, grab some pull up rings
• Dead hang hold, slow pull-up, slowly lower down, dead hang count down.
• Repeat above with 4 fingers, then 3 fingers, then 2 fingers.

COT

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• count, name, etc.
• Wild Turkey take out, Thanks !

Some Random Thoughts

It seems that Voodoo loves the Foxhole almost as much as he loathes the abysmal music YHC plays out of the AmazonBasics Large Portable Bluetooth Speaker (#productplacement). At this point, Voodoo’s annoyance is the only reason the music gets played. Finally found the Foxhole shovel flag in the garage this weekend; felt good to have ole glory flying in the spring/feels-like-summer breeze this morning. Mighty made the comment that the Foxhole 4 year (4 years, gasp !) anniversary is coming up; expect fanfare (maybe literally). Perfect sized group this morning. 8 is big enough for that “group effort” feeling, but small enough to not have to repeat instructions a bunch.

A couple really solid efforts out there this morning. YHC challenged everyone before the workout to really give it a go on the larger bells and the dudes answered the call. No one, no one went back for smaller bells. A couple individual efforts are worth noting:

• Nard Dog was extremely chatty during the pre-run (no complaints) despite the muggy humidity and decent pace. The big fella has a motor. Also. He crushed the 80lb liberty bell with some deep squats today. Well played, though not as well played as those dance moves you tried to inflict us with after returning from merkins.

• Frehley’s Comet was equally appreciative of the modern music today. The sweat rag was flying today and pace was good on those merkin laps. Hope the left forearm feels better soon; way to power through.

• Wild Turkey did not seem thrilled about the prospect of having to stray from his own bell, but did express that he was glad for it in the end. Life is best lived outside of the comfort zone my dear feathered friend.

• Voodoo supposedly is becoming a runner now. Classic E True Hollywood F3 story. We’ve heard it before. BUT… here’s Voodoo rolling into home sweet home at the Foxhole coming to lift heavy rocks with the KB bros. Good news Voodoo. You CAN have your cake (running) and eat it too (lifting). sorry not sorry on the lame music. Make a playlist, share it with YHC on Spotify; I’ll play it next time. OR ELSE.

• Patent Pending crushed it this morning. Consistent and alarmingly strong on nearly all of the exercises. Good work.

• Mighty Mite continues to outperform at the Hole. The man is wicked strong and has been a stalwart in SOB-land since the beginning. Soft Pretzel was telling YHC that in the early days of SOB (before Mighty travelled more for work) he’d see Mighty Mite posting every single day for weeks and weeks on end.

• Kirby killed it today and worked some lower back muscles that maybe haven’t seen the light of day for a while. Well done battling back from injury and getting out there to swing the heavy bells.

Announcements

• Savage in 2 weeks.
• Training for Savage at Kinetic Heights this Friday. DM Argo for details.

As always, grateful for your willingness to come out and sweat with me,

Argo

Kettlebell Infused Sprints

An 8-pack o’ PAX this morning at a beautiful 55 degree Spring morning. A perfect day to
wreck yourself of some KBs and sprints. After a thorough disclosure, we were off:

Warmup (all in cadence)

• Warm-up Lap (just to allow time for Tootie to park and join.)
• Slow Sumo Deadlift x 7
• Side Straddle Hop x 15
• Prying Squat x 7
• Merkin x 15
• Two Hand Overhead Press x 7
• Arm circles x 15
• Waiter Carry L x 30yds
• Waiter Carry R x 30yds
• Racked Carry L x 30yds
• Racked Carry R x 30yds
• oh look, we’re at the fields…

Main Event

The below looks a lot easier than it is. Really getting after it and goading yourself on each effort is mentally challenging and physically demanding. We rested adequately between sprints modifications (“mods”) so each one could be 100% effort.Here is the series of sprint mods we did:

Mod One

• 20 one arm swings (switching every 5)
• broad jumps to the cone (20m)
• sprint 50 meters to the half field (50m)
• backwards sprint to the cone (20m)
• 20 one arm swings

Mod Two

• 5 KB Jumpsquats
• 5 KB Squats
• 5 Jump squats
• 5 Squats
• Sprint 150 meters

Mod Three

• 10 Snatch L
• 10 Snatch R
• 10 Clean L
• 10 Clean R
• 10 Swing L
• 10 Swing R
• Sprint 70 meters
• Sprint backwards 70 meters
• 10 Swing L
• 10 Swing R
• 10 Clean L
• 10 Clean R
• 10 Snatch L
• 10 Snatch R

Mod Four

• 10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull L
• 10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull R
• 10 Clean and Press L
• 10 Clean and Press R
• Run 500 meters
• 10 Clean and Press L
• 10 Clean and Press R
• 10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull L
• 10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull R

Mod Five

• Sprint 150 meters

Mod Six

• Sprint 70 meters

Mary

• grab some fence, then 30-40 high leg lifts, civilian count.

Moleskin

Good group of regulars and some newish faces at the ‘hole this morning. There
was some mild forewarning of more running, but we only got 1.5 miles. These
miles were hard fought miles for the most part. Solid work from everyone today,
sprints are hard. Hard in a weird sort of mental way. If you don’t focus your
psyche on giving it 100, you’ll quickly devolve into a mere fast run and lose
the desired hypertrophic and metabolic effects that 100% effort, high heart rate
sprints can afford you. Nice range of ages today: Chopper and Frehley’s Comet,
both firmly in the Respect category, and Beaker, a lad of 23, who is blurry fast.

A quality performance from all age groups today, and minimal chatter during the
main event. Next week, Voodoo leads, then Pebbles. Both workouts promise to be
challenging and aggressive.

Announcements

• Sign up for Savage. DO IT.
• Brolympics, Apr 22. DO IT AS WELL.

Lucky Number Seven

8 total for Foxhole this morning. 2 for pre-run (General and YHC), 4 for the clinic: Voodoo, General, YHC, and Chopper

Work

1. 10 deep KB squats (civilian up-down count), Go get 7 dead-hang pull-ups, come back for 14 push-ups, 21 one handed swings.

2. 10 deep KB jump squat (civilian jump-up-down count), Go get 7 dead-hang pull-ups, come back for 14 push-ups, 21 one handed swings.

3. 10 deep KB squat and press (civilian up-down count), Go get 7 dead-hang pull-ups, come back for 14 push-ups, 21 one handed swings.

4. 10 deep KB jump squat and press (civilian jump-up-down count). Go get 7 dead-hang pull-ups, come back for 14 push-ups, 21 one handed swings.

5. 20 body weight squats (10 IC).Go get 7 dead-hang pull-ups, come back for 14 push-ups, 21 one handed swings.

6. 5 deep squat and press, left arm, 20 body weight squats (10 IC). Go get 7 dead-hang pull-ups, come back for 14 push-ups, 21 one handed swings.

7. 5 deep squat and press, right arm, 20 body weight squats (10 IC). Go get 7 dead-hang pull-ups, come back for 14 push-ups, 21 one handed swings.

AMRAP (10 minutes)

7 KB goblet squats
Run to pull-up bars
7 pull-ups
Run back to tarmac
7 push-ups
7 swings

Core (all in cadence)

• 25 LBC
• 10 Flutter
• 10 Low Flutter
• 10 High Flutter
• 10 Rosalita
• 15 Heels to Heaven
• 20 Full sit-ups (civ count)

Ole Moley

First, a salute to the General for posting with YHC for 3 straight Qs. Well done ! You crushed em all ! Made every pre-run, gave 100% every time. Solid job from the rest of the crew out at Foxhole this morning as well. Absolutely ZERO chatter this morning; one can only hope that means that the promised workout was delivered. Either that or everyone was in a bad mood after the Dirty Birds got smacked around late in the game by the comeback Pats. Voodoo, a lifelong Falcons despiser, oscillated between emotions of glee and a touch of remorse given how bad the loss was. Either way, he was pushing it hard this morning with 24kg bell (except for the 10 reps of single arm which required a quick sprint to the car for a different color bell). Escobar had some competitive fire in him this morning. Banging out the pull-ups and staying quick on the running transitions. Bratwurst, a “dare I say” Foxhole regular, was at the front of the pack today, working hard to add some more layers of strength to the already dizzying speed. Frehley’s Comet loves those pull-ups, and was feeling the lats, and feeling young at the end (he wasn’t the war daddy today!). Gumbo appears to be back in the Foxhole game after some rank absenteeism during the holidays. Glad to have Gumbo back ! (Keep posting man). Chopper was both War Daddy (oldest PAX for the day) and Site FNG (first time at this particular workout) and the dude worked out hard. He already has much better squat form than 80% of the nation.

All told, roughly ~80 pull-ups, ~130 push-ups, ~140 squat (weighted and unweighted), ~175 swings, some running around, and ~200 core movements. Good start to the week.

An honor and a pleasure to lead you all today.

Argo out.

Swifthole

Conditions

• 15 degrees and no breeze
• No Shovel Flag (didn’t want to shatter an ankle trying to stick it in the permafrost)
• Bratwurst, the famous running coach and siteQ at Swift (Tuesday Mornings), was in attendance and we ran so thus the title: Swifthole

Thang

At First

There were a record 5 pre-runners for Foxhole. This is a startlingly large amount, given
YHC had proclaimed on Slack the night before that the main event would have some
miles in it. One Niner pushed the pace a bit on the back half of the run, well done. Hope that shoulder feels better soon. Bratwurst joined us a few minutes in, dressed as the “bad guy” from those horrid Panthers-themed CPI security commercials. 2.7 – 3.0 little miles for the pre-runners. At around 5:28, some of the regular Foxhole crew rolled up like a gang (minus the bass thumping). Disclosure given, warm up ensued:

• 10 SSH
• 10 Merkins
• 10 Windmills
• Run with your bells down to the Elon park Rd.
• Gather PAX at the first speed bump
• Run out to the 3rd speed bump, and back. (1/2 mile)

The road that takes you to the rear of Elon Park has a couple of speed bumps, and
is well lit. From our starting speed bump to the first it is 120 meters, to the second, 300 meters, to the third, 400 meters. Downhill out, Uphill back. If you run the speed bumps in a suicide fashion, it is 1640 meters or ~ 1 Mile. So we did some suicide style runs, with a twist:

Mile #1 (Leave KB at the Starting Bump)

• Run to 1st bump and back
• 15 KB Squats
• Run to 2nd bump and back
• 15 KB Jump Squats
• Run to 3rd bump and back
• 15 KB Squat and Press
• (Throughout, stop at each bump as you cross them, with feet on the bump, and do 5 hand-release merkins)

Mile #2 (Bring Your KB)

• Run to 1st bump (bring your KB on your shoulder), 7 deep KB squats
• Run back to starting bump for 15 hand-release merkins
• Run to 2nd bump (pick up your KB from 1st, and bring it), 7 deep KB squats
• Run back to starting bump for 15 hand-release merkins
• Run to 3rd bump (pick up your KB from 2nd, and bring it), 7 deep KB squats
• Run your KB back to starting bump for 15 hand-release merkins
• (Run back to collect and encourage the six)

At Last

• 12 civilian count deep KB squats, with long pauses at the bottom to discuss
  bathroom technology (i.e squatty potty, Nard Dog’s bidet #cornellgrad). The 10
  second conversations about lavatory innovations were MUCH more entertaining than
  simply counting down from 10.
• 15 Flutter IC (hands over head)
• 15 Chippy Cross IC
• 15 LBC IC
• 15 Heels to Heaven IC
• Done

Frosty the Moleskine

It was obviously going to be important to stay warm today. Standing in a circle doing KB presses was not going to be on the docket (it rarely is at Foxhole). To stay warm, we were going to need elevated heart rates, and big muscle groups: enter stage left, running and squats, respectively. Strong work from the guys who had to modify a bit due to shoulder injury: Loogie was looking almost back in perfect form on the merkins, definitely rehabbing well. OneNiner was moving pretty quickly out there, despite the bummed shoulder. Mighty Mite was rocking that awful NC State hat/tuque/”girl braid” thing; YHC tried to keep up with Bratwurst for the duration, and Nard Dog is quite quick for a man of size. Voodoo was strong and had the largest bell within the suggested range of 35-45 lbs. Escobar has started stalking YHC a bit; posted at each of the last 3 Qs. Fahvre had us all licked by the 2nd hump each time #beastmode. Good work out there gents.

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(Since this is somewhat of a personal reflective, I’ll dispense with the usual “YHC” 3rd person stuff for this paragraph.)

Well. It’s been a year. A year since my first post. Early January 2016. Foxhole. Madamme Tussauds gear Q. A couple epic dudes in attendance. Frehley’s, Irish Creme, Chanel, Wingman, Voodoo, Freon. Fire Hazard was one of them, introduced himself as “Chip” since I didn’t have a “callsign” and said I was “Calvin”. I’d read about the “nicknames” online, so for the duration of the workout, I was pretty sure “Chip” was a nickname, until COT. It was a great experience, and a hard workout. No doubt of who was in charge, or what to do next. A bunch of guys that show up on time, respect each other’s leadership, and challenge each other to work harder. Thanks for the warm welcome, the leadership, competition, and friendship.

Burpee-Swing-Run-March

Conditions and Cadre

• Wet, light rain, 50 degrees. Could have been a lot worse.
• 2 for a soggy pre-run (Nard Dog and YHC) of 2.7 miles
• 9 total for a soggy Foxhole.

Wet Thang

Might Mite 30

Mosey/Walk down to the fields for a little disclaimer/ warmup:

• 10 good mornings
• 10 imperial walker
• 10 arm circles forward
• 10 arm circles backward

Line up on the end line for:

• 5 burpees, 10 swings, 1 half field and back run
• 10 burpees, 20 swings, 1 full field and back runs
• 15 burpees, 30 swings, 1 full field and back run, 1 half field and back run
• 20 burpees, 40 swings, 2 full field and back runs
• 25 burpees, 50 swings, 2 full field and back runs, 1 half field and back run

Argo 30

Line up on the end line, words of encouragement given; Ready Set… Go. AYG to the far side, walk back recovery and to receive instructions. The next segment was somewhat haphazardly constructed. YHC has a couple military friends, and a few in the family, this mornings weather reminded me of some of the nasty conditions that those guys are forced to run/ruck/train/march in. So we did a forced march, goose run (I.e Indian Run) ish thing , with some assorted exercises. It went something like this:

• Hold KB on Right Shoulder, while PAX speed walk, runner comes from back (running with the KB any hold)
• Continue until all PAX have run through. Then stop for some cadence KB squats.
• Repeat with various KB holds: left, right, center, curl, farmers, and various cadence counted exercises such as Merkin, high-pull, a 90-count Mary, KB swings. Toward the end we swapped the bells around so folks that had lighter bells got a chance to lift real ones.

Wholly Moley

Here are a couple random, disjointed thoughts about the morning: Most of us were pretty much gassed from Mighty’s Champagne-inspired Burpee/Swing/Sprint ladder; enough so that when we realized we’d be pretty much walking around for the rest of workout we were happy (forgetting the disappointment that YHC did not bring out all the heavy gear). Nard Dog is a pretty fast sprinter when he sets his mind to going fast. Mighty Mite, besides being a solid F3 leader, is wicked fast at burpees. #leadingfromthefront. Frehley’s was the center of attention for most of the morning, no surprise. Vodka, Bourbon, Chicken Wings, Steak, Beer, other assorted culinary vices were all discussed, nay celebrated, by him on the heels of the Clemson win (also known as the last win of the season, #rolltide). Goonie complained very little about the community kettlebell program near the end of the marching. He MAY have gotten stuck with the big one on purpose at the end. Soft Pretzel and FMB both rock solid for the duration. One-winged Loogie seems to be making a solid comeback; stay disciplined with that PT man. First post with Escobar, solid performance and excellent job finishing that 90 count Mary that we ill-advisedly started.

Thanks for coming out short notice all, and a special thanks for Mighty Mite for prompting the re-opening of the Foxhole. See you ALL next week.