I’m taking a risk here that I could scare off the regulars…we will be doing some BRR training at The Charge tomorrow. I’ll be bringing the pax to my home turf to visit one of the finest hills we have to offer in Southeast Charlotte…about 1/4 mile of 8% grade Rocky Falls Rd!
We’ll depart from Providence Day School and make our way to Stonehaven, with a few stops along the way to keep the pax together. Turn right out of PDS onto Sardis, left on Waverly Hall, left on Regency, then right on Rocky Falls down to the intersection with Charter.
We’ll have time for three good climbs together.
We’ll make sure we have all the pax together and make our trek back to PDS, stopping along the way for exercises provided we have the time.
10 Pax showed up this morning with light humidity and great weather to sweat. Here’s what happened.
Began with a mosey up to Sardis around Sardis back through main entrance of PDS, run down to starting point. Had the PAX circle up for some warm up exercises. Exercises included: Side Straddle Hop x 20, Imperial Walkers 20, Mountain Climbers x 20, Low Slow Squat x 20 and OYO Merkins x 10.
Mosey to the stadium for step work.
PAX start at bottom of stadium steps to perform a ladder. Start at top of stands with x 14 jumps squats followed by x13 Durkins at botton of stands. Continue ladder until work down to x1 Durkin at bottom of stands.
Mosey to edge of track and partner up at the benches. Partner 1: run to the 50 yd line and bear crawl/crab walk/lunge walk across the field and return back to benches. Partner 2: combination of step ups and dips during partner run. Three rounds of pain.
Mosey over to starting line of track for four corner drill. 5 hand release merkins at first corner run to the second corner with group. Group does 10 hand release merkins at second corner then runs to the third corner of track. Group does 15 hand release merkins at third corner of track then runs to final corner. The group does 20 hand release merkins at last corner.
Mosey back to benches at edge of track. Circle up for “Pick Your Poison” Mary. First round: Baracas led the group with flutter kicks. Second Round: Funky Cold led the group with boxcutters and Arena finished the exercises with LBC’s.
The “night cap” was all you got back to Shovel Flag to finish the pain.
Moleskin:
A few items of note from the morning’s events. Baracas looked like death before the workout this morning and felt like death after the mayhem. I also kept hearing a bunch of mumble chatter about Semi-Gloss’s 4 mile death march off campus from the previous week.
Special thanks goes to John Deere and his tunes that helped the PAX through the pain this morning. Everyone did nice work today! Thanks for the opportunity to Q!
Announcements:
The Charge needs more QIC’s for this summer. Please email Baracas about dates. F3 Dads: Metro –Freedom Park (Train) at 9am this Saturday, Area 51 – Frances Beatty Park this Saturday at 9am
I drove right past my normal Friday post at Joust for my first Kevlar Q this morning. First vehicle I see pulling into the parking lot was the TRuckster. What happened to the “Great Pumpkin”? Horsey suggested it turned back into the TRuckster at midnight last night.
So as I’m parking my car, the nerves were running a little higher than normal this morning knowing a large crowd of mostly younger, stronger guys would be waiting for me. I thought there were high standards at Kevlar, so I put together a plan that I thought would meet those standards, and it didn’t include any strange objects, coupons, logs, etc. Just you and whatever weight you have on you. After a brief disclaimer, we were off to do it…
COP
Merkin Suicides on the hills
Exercises: Merkins, Wide-arms, Diamonds, hand release, burpees
Partner up:
Partner 1 runs parking lot lap while Partner 2 does called exercise. Flapjack until target number of repetitions achieved. Exercises:
Return to launchpoint
COT and Simba takes us out in the BOM
Moleskin
So the standards weren’t exactly what I thought…apparently the Side Straddle Hop standard is no more than 25 reps. Once the count exceed 25 the pax started dropping like flies…looking around in utter disbelief that the Q could do such a thing… the horror. Everyone perked up though once we jumped into the Imperial Walkers…I’ll bet I could have gone past 25 with these, but thought better of it cut it off there.
BRR training season is definitely upon us…there were some Twitter calls the night before requesting running Baracus vs. merkin Baracus. Do I have a reputation? I do love those merkins, but the love affair died down after last years 10K merkin challenge…never again after the 6 months of recovery time my shoulder needed. Nevertheless, we did some running AND we did some merkins today….even a few burpees called just for Spackler who was pleading that we don’t make him do anymore burpees this week. Sorry Spack…they’re good for you.
Definitely some Q failure during the partner work. The target counts were supposed to be 100 HTH, 200 air squats, and 300 LBCs. People finishing their HTH at various times looking for something to do… I called air squats thinking that was a jump squat…and who knows how many LBCs everyone did. My only response was “quit standing around and do something.” That’s a bank leadership tactic right there. I heard the calls to send me back to Q school in the morning. I probably need a refresher.
It was a chatty group of men this Friday morning…but the group looked strong. I was leading from the six during the hill suicides. I knew this group of men was strong and fast… you all were killing it out there. And Bulldog…I thought he was coming off IR? He was flying! Nice work men, and as always thanks for the opportunity to lead!
Announcements:
12 guys + 1 unnamed late arrival (Skywalker) showed up (eventually) at Charlotte Christian this morning to get a little workout. While YHC never really had this group under control, I think we still got our money’s worth. Here’s what we did…
Mosey up the parking lot in front of the school – passing Skywalker on his way in
Circle up for COP
Numbers are a little squishy…I think I was the only one counting this morning and even I gave up eventually.
Flip over to plank position
Jog over to the blue door
Mosey to playground
Jog over to the top of G-ma mountain for Hill Repeats
Jog to the bleachers
Jog to the end line for gassers
Mosey back to parking lot
Moleskin
T-claps to all the men out there this morning for putting in some hard work. An extra t-claps to Big Top and Yeti for running in this morning (I still don’t know where Yeti is coming from…he just materializes in the upper parking lot every Friday).
This group today certainly knew it was Friday…and the 13th no less. Everyone seemed to be excited for the upcoming weekend and there was lots of chatter led by Skywalker..to the point I completely lost count of where we were in COP, which is definitely a first for me.
This AO has so much to offer for a bootcamp, so we toured almost all of it…from the blue door, to the playground, to Grandma Mountain, the bleachers, and the field. A little bit of something for everyone, even introduced a new exercise. Seems that the Lunge Jump Burpees were a crowd favorite… I know they kicked my tail.
Strong work by all of you men pushing yourself out there this morning. I may get this wrong, but I think I saw Yeti, Smokey, and Dollywood out front a bit this morning. Stone Cold killed it on the AMRAP pull-ups…then provided the assist I needed to get mine in (pull-ups = kryptonite). Sensei was getting after it during the gassers too. Some debate about finding someone fast enough to lead him on the field…Header partnered up with him and they took off.
As always, a pleasure to lead this great group of men. Hope you got your money’s worth this morning.
Announcements:
YHC has run his fair share of hills and miles so far this week, so why not just continue the trend and bring something a little different to The Charge. We’re leaving campus today men!
So as Tesla was locking up his vehicle, YHC gave the obligatory short disclaimer and off we went.
We started off with a mosey up through the carpool circle and stopped on the sidewalk for what would be our first of many sets of 20 merkins.
We continued up past the basketball court and lacrosse field and circled up in the parking lot.
COP:
Mosey out to Sardis Rd and head to Robinson Woods
Run to Glen Oaks Rd – 20x merkins
Run down Glen Oaks Rd. to Canyon Trail – 20x merkins
Run down Canyon Trail to Post Oak Rd – 20x merkins
Run down Post Oak Rd to Whitestone Rd. – 20x merkins
Run up Whitestone and stop at intersection with Glen Oaks Rd….wait for instructions
Hill repeats
Pax to run up and down Whitestone between Post Oak and Whitestone, with increasing reps of merkins (at top) and sit-ups (at bottom): 10x, 12x, 14x, 16x, 18x, 20x – finish at corner of Whitestone and Glen Oaks.
When finished, run to bottom of Glen Oaks – 20x merkins
Run back to AO, with a stop in the upper parking lot for LBCs (IC x20)
Arrive in lower parking lot and close out with some Mary
Total distance – 3 miles
Total merkins – 230
Moleskine:
Great group out there this morning guys! Yet another perfect spring morning for a workout. T-claps to Huddle who ran to/from the workout this morning. He gave me early warning of what he was up against when he asked me where we would be conducting our workout. Important information should he need to peel off for an emergency. Good thing we had hill repeats in the plan as it allowed him to take care of business and rejoin us. Huddle, I can tell you from experience that 2 mile run home could have been quite the adventure had you not done that.
I know we’ve been back in Robinson Woods before, but I believe this workout was a first for The Charge and we got to see more of the neighborhood than usual…and we found another nice little hill to climb. BRR training season has begun, so I expect we’ll be seeing more of this type of thing across many of our AOs.
I think I saw Chowda, Arena, and Early Bird staying up front during the repeats, but the rest of the pax were not far behind. Tesla, Backup, Voit, Pigskin, and Huddle were right there.
Always a pleasure to lead men. Hope you got your money’s worth this morning,
Thanks Tesla for the prayer to close us out.
Announcements:
Another beautiful spring morning in the gloom. A great day to return to my old Wednesday stompin’ grounds. 17 men felt the same way. After the obligatory disclaimer…off we went.
Mosey to front of church near entrance 1 for COP.
COP
Line up at end of parking lot facing the islands
Merkin Suicides
Do 2x exercise. Run to first island and back – do 4x exercise, Run to second island and back – do 6x exercise, third island – 8x, fourth island – 10x.
Jog back to soccer field for…
Jack Webb
Jog to hot box
Jog back for COT
Moleskin:
My first problem this morning was finding the pax. While I did recall something about a parking location change several months back, I neglected to get current on that little detail before-hand. So I sat in the old meeting location and watched car after car drive by and disappear. Figured it would be wise to follow one of those cars, so I finally did make it with a few minutes to spare and happy to know the site Qs were not playing a practical joke…although neither one of them were there to get a laugh at my expense anyways.
I decided to bring back Merkinfest, an old classic, for this mornings workout. I think everyone felt that they got a sufficient upper body workout. Some were not as happy about it as others, with one nameless pax (Champagne) threatened to kick my ass after calling merkins for the 15th time, and perhaps there was an “I hate you” in COT as well. The pattern became painfully obvious after about 4 exercises into COP. Runstopper had me all figured out…that is until I completely stopped counting during one set of merkins. He didn’t know what to do, and neither did I…I completely forgot what count I was supposed to be on. #O2Deprivation
Going into Jack Webb after the Merkin Suicides was clearly a crowd pleaser. Thanks Runstopper for helping me remember the name. Who needs a weinke? I knew I could count on you.
Everyone was killing it this morning! I think I was closer to the six than the front…75% of the pax were Larry Birds today, although I wouldn’t carry that around as a badge of honor when YHC is Q. #clydesdale Good to see familiar faces and a couple new ones. Sludge, I mean Sledge (Hammer’s 2.0) was hammering it out all morning and finished strong beating the rest of us old men back for COT. T-claps to Mermaid and Thin Mint for coming out for some core work despite being on IR. Thanks Snowflake for the prayer in COT, and thanks to all for the privilege of leading this morning.
Announcements:
After about 10 days of spring, summer is upon us. It was a little humid this morning, so there was ample opportunity to break a sweat. 13 guys took advantage of that opportunity, and sweat we did. Here’s how we did it…
Mosey around the back of Old Providence and then to the church across the street, with a little high knees, butt kickers, and karaoke mixed in. We circled up under the lights in the parking lot for some COP… although I can’t be completely sure about what we did in COP it was probably something like the following:
Mosey over to the rock pile, find a partner as well as a rock of agreeable size. Or if you’re Good Hands find one you can fit in your pocket. Partner 1 does a called exercise with the rock while partner 2 runs to the donation bin on the other side the parking lot and back – then flapjack. Called exercises:
Gently return rocks to their resting place and mosey around the back of the church and back to the track at the school. Time for a little bit of everything…upper body, core, lower body, and running. Partner 1 group does a called core exercise at 12 o’clock position on the track, while partner 2 runs counter-clockwise around the track and does exercise at 9 o’clock position, 6 o’clock position, and 3 o’clock position, then flapack when partner 1 group returns to 6 o’clock.
With time running out, I asked Hops to lead a cameo appearance of his classic Cumberland County Viaducts…13 on each side and they just wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t do them on a surface that feels like broken glass.
Make our short walk back to the parking lot for COT.
Moleskin:
Strong work by all 13 men this morning. Thursday’s is usually my rest day, but it was great to get out to Hydra and see some guys I haven’t seen in a while. I’ve only Q’d at Hydra a handful of times, but for whatever reason I like to accessorize the workout with the rocks <insert obligatory joke about rock size here>. We found out this morning how important it is to accessorize. Nuke takes this very seriously…not only did he wear his very functional headlamp, but he showed us all up with his stylish “mini-fanny”. This particular fanny is designed for guys with a very active lifestyle, and really goes well with anything. Touring the big city, or hiking in the back woods…every man should have the “mini-fanny”. Oh…and you can carry your car key in it too. I kid…but one of these days the pax will run off-campus only to return to an empty parking lot, except for Nuke’s car.
Kotters to Hops who is returning from an injury AND Ecoli poisoning. Yikes! Unfortunately Hops could not tell us where he picked up this lovely bacteria so we could know where to stay away from. Glad your feeling better brother!
As always it was an honor to lead the pax this morning, and I’m thankful for the opportunity. I hope all of you felt like you got your money’s worth this morning.
Jump in with your own anecdotes from this morning if you’ve got ’em!
Announcements:
Posted on behalf of Bounce
11 Pax showed up on an gorgeous morning. Here’s what happened.
Began with a mosey to the end of the parking lot at PDS with short run down Sardis back through school down to track. Continued the warm up run around the track (starting to feel like a 5k without the water stations). Cut the lap in half and had the PAX circle up for a few warm up exercises at mid field.
COP:
– Side Straddle Hop x 15
– Imperial Walkers x 15
– Mountain Climbers x 15
– Merkins x 10.
Mosey to goal line of south end zone for some track and field work.
Round #1: Partner1 – LBC’s, while Partner2 did bear crawls to 20, lunges to 40, Bear Crawls to other 40, Lunges to other 20, Bear Crawls to goal line and run back to south end zone.
Round #2: Partner1 – Mountain Climbers, while Partner2 did Crab Walks to 20, Lunges to 40, Bear Crawls to other 40, Lunges to other 20, Bear Crawls to goal line and run back to south end zone.
Round #3: Partner1 – Pick Your Poison, while Partner2 ran to south end zone followed by 10 Hand Release Merkins run back to south end zone.
Round #4: Astro Turf Four Corners – start at south west end zone with 5 Merkins, run to other end zone followed by 10 Merkins, run across end zone to corner followed by 15 Merkins, run down field back to south end zone followed by 20 Merkins, run back to starting position.
Round #5: Astro Turf Four Corners – start at south west end zone, run to home team bench and do 25 dips. Run around north goal line down sideline to opposing bench. Do 25 Step-Ups each leg followed by finishing the field lap at the starting position.
Proceed to track for a ½ mile Indian Run that finished at the steps to the field. Mosey up the stairs to speed bump with a round of Planks, Elbow Planks.
The “night cap” was a mosey to Shovel Flag back to speed bump with a Jail Break to finish the workout.
Moleskin:
There was a lot of Mumble Chatter about the extended warm up run. The lap on the track was cut short due to heavy breathing and moaning coming from the PAX (not to point anyone out…….Baracas). There was a real concern about a mutiny 8 minutes into the workout.
Special thanks goes to John Deere and his tunes that helped the PAX through the pain this morning. Everyone did nice work today! Thanks for the opportunity to Q!
Announcements:
The Charge needs more QIC’s for this spring and summer. Please email Baracas about dates.
I thought Haze and TL were trying to make Fast Twitch great again, yet they invited this old, slow guy to take the reigns this week. I had to plan a workout that wouldn’t allow the speedsters to get too far out in front of the Q, so here is what we did…
COP
• Windmills x15
• IW x15
• SSH x15
• Slow Squat x15
• Mtn Climbers x15
• Merkins x15
Mosey to corner of Strawberry and 51
Mile pace to Davie Park Entrance – plank until six arrives
Mosey to playground
• 20 jump ups / step ups
• 20 dips
• 20 derkins
Mosey up to soccer field for intervals
• Line up on goal line
• Sprint length of field
• Recovery jog back to goal line
• Repeato x5
Back to the playground
• 20 jump ups / step ups
• 20 dips
• 20 derkins
Catch me if you can down Windswept Dr and back to Davie Park Entrance – plank for six
Mile Pace to corner of Cary Ridge & Coburn – plank until 6 arrives
• Partner derkins x20
• Sit-ups x20
Mosey to Marseilles Ct.
• Partner 1 does flutter kicks while Partner 2 AYG to end of cul de sac and back
• Flapjack
Mosey to Bratton Pl
• Partner 1 does Heels to Heaven while Partner 2 AYG to end of cul de sac and back
• Flapjack
Head back to South Charlotte Middle for COT
NMS:
The Twitter chatter started last night as I was trying to figure out what in the world I would do for my very first Fast Twitch Q. Hairball was very inquisitive about how hard it was going to be (for a friend), yet no Hairball this morning to support his fellow Hokie alum…something about an alarm clock? AM/PM thing Hairball?
Sans Hairball we got started on our warmup routine. Some were trying to tell me that this isn’t Swift? Not sure what that means…I’ve never been to Swift – I’m a loyal Fast Twitcher. Then we circled up for some COP and after several exercises the crowd got restless again…”this is a running workout!” Hey guys…we’ve got to work on those pencil arms. Can’t have you going to one of those meathead workouts looking like Napoleon Dynamite.
We quickly made our way to Davie park and found some benches to do some MORE strength exercises (queue more comments about this being a running workout). Guys…I wouldn’t ask you to do it if it weren’t good for you.
We did some CMIYC through the park roads, but some perilous terrain just off the side of the road claimed one of our pax when Bus stop turned his angle in a hole. He mustered enough toughness to finish out the segment. Nice work brother, hope you’re ok! And thanks to the guys who circled back to pick him up (Haze, RT, Cane, Pro?).
We made our way back on Coburn and did a couple more hard runs down side streets before the return run back to South Charlotte Middle. The time definitely went faster than I anticipated, but we still got close to 5 miles with all of the strength work we did.
I hope you guys enjoyed the workout. Maybe you were a little disappointed in the mileage, but what you lacked in distance you made up for it in character. I couldn’t help but bring out some old school tricks after reminiscing through old BBs last night. Who remembers Turkey Leg’s “Cowboy Run” where you had to sprint to get to the front of the line when everyone else is sprinting (worst idea ever). Or remember when track/field work was central to the workout? Lots of dark mornings down there running the field or the track.
Thanks Haze and TL for the privilege of leading this morning!
Announcements:
– Mud-run 4/30
The weather is clearly warming up and it was anything but gloomy on this perfect morning. So the shovel flag was planted and as soon as the last car rolled up and emptied we were off.
Warm-up:
Start with a little mosey to warm-up: high knees, butt kickers, heel walk, toe walk, lunge walk, side shuffle right left. Jog to far side of stadium, up stairs, then up and down the bleacher steps.
COP:
Triple Nickel:
First set:
Second set:
Mosey to wall around the corner.
Mosey down to the field.
Jack Squat
Jack Webb
One mile of Track intervals
NMS:
We did a little bit of everything this morning. A little upper body, lower body, and even some cardio on the track today. Not a lot of mumblechatter this morning…a quiet group for the most part, so I think all were focused and working hard.
One of my favorite routines is the Jack Webb, so decided to bring a modification called the Jack Squat. Just like with the Jack Webb, what seems like an easy exercise becomes very difficult once you start getting up into the high rep counts. So we did both the Jack Squat and the Jack Webb. I know I heard at least one pax declare that “this is much harder than I thought it would be.” #missionaccomplished
Frack was off to a quick start on the sprints (fast in his Vibram “Five Fingers”). Funky Cold and Cowgirl were our Larry Birds out there this morning on the track intervals. The lady runners out there were startled as we sprinted up behind them, but they were quick to lay on some additional encouragement.
Nice work to all of you men! Always a pleasure to lead.
Thanks Funky Cold for taking us out with the prayer this morning.
Announcements: