Author Archive Brexit

The Mobile Webb (or The Anal Bar)

My first Monday Q in a while. Probably since Tweet ‘n Meet, which was Monday’s, right? YHC couldn’t sleep Sunday night. It always happens the night before a Q. I’m not sure if it’s because of the Q or just unlucky. Anyway, I was staring at the back of my eyelids at about 4am, waiting for my alarm. When it finally went off, I was so ready to get out of the sack and go. I was the first to arrive at Firestarter. I pulled in and there was a car next to mine that I assumed was F3, but when I got out there were 2 teenage girls glued to their phones. I thought it was odd they were that at 5:15 in the morning, but they probably thought the same about the eventual 10 PAX moseying out from launch 15 minutes later.
The next to arrive was an FNG! Very exciting. He introduced himself and told YHC he found us on the site. Not only had he found us on the site but he had already researched F3 pretty well and even ordered and read the book! Dude does his due diligence. I like it.

The rest of the PAX filter in and at 0530 YHC delivers the disclaimer and we’re off. I see the teenage girls trying to hide in their car because of the weird middle aged men running past them. But on to the workout.

Warmup

We run to the 2-story building right beyond launch that is so frequently used. YHC was looking for a good hill or berm because I love kicking off a bootcamp with something involving running up and down a hill and getting the heart rate up out the gate. Blakeney is surprisingly flat though, but the stairs work in a pinch.

  • 15x SSH
  • 15x IW
  • 15x Low slow squats
  • 10x Merkin
  • 7’s on the stairs, burpees at the bottom, up the right flight, squats at the top, down the left

When finished, plank for the 6.

The Thing

When the 6 was in, we started the Webb. 1x merkin, 4x mountain climbers. We then are up and moseying toward the rock pile behind that Lash Studio. On the way there we stopped 4 times to continue the mobile webb: 2x merkins, 8x mountain climbers, up to 5x merkins and 20x mcs.

We arrive at the rock pile lot. Not only is the Lash Studio there, but Tanyatine points out the Anal Bar. Wait, no, it’s the A1 Nail Bar. Seriously though from an angle it really did look like the Anal Bar. I did my best to recreate with Paint 3D. I spent far too long on this, so you better enjoy it.

View post on imgur.com

It doesn’t do it justice. You need to go drive there and see it. Go ahead, YHC will wait. OK, you’re back? Anal Bar all the way, right? Exactly.

We line up at the mailbox and I lay out the format for the next 3 rounds of exercises.

  • A called moving exercise toward the rock piles
  • Stop at all 4 islands and do a called exercise
  • Grab a rock and do a called exercise
  • When finished go grab some wall by the Anal Bar, wait for the 6, and do a called exercise in cadence.

The rounds:

  1. Bear Crawls, 2x Burpees, 20x Curls, 20x Air Presses
  2. Broad Jumps, 1x Merkin, 20x Front Raises, Raise Legs on call
  3. Lunge Walks, 2x Squats, 10x Squat Thrusters, Put back rocks

After this we head back to launch, stopping to ladder back down our webb. 5x merkins, 20x mc’s. Stop a few times and by the time we get to launch we’re back at 1x merkin, 4x mc’s.

A few minutes of Mary at the launch. Rousey forgot how to count, it was hilarious.

COT, Announcements

  • 7 runners joined from Blakovery
  • Frasier – sign up for the Crane which will be on 8/13. It was my first relay and it’s fun. It’s true, if you can do a bootcamp, you can do the crane. https://forms.gle/PYo3XvwAhorvSEdN7
  • YHC – Q School – Saturday 6/17 at DaVinci. Park at Blakeney Pet Smart 0630.
  • YHC – Shovel Flag Making Party – Also 6/17 at Taco Stand’s cul-de-sac.
  • YHC – Fourth of July convergence 7/5, 2.0 friendly – preblast link https://f3southcharlotte.com/2021/06/21/july-5th-independence-celebration/
  • Apparently, I think Wingman should have all the information for the announcements. Madame Tussauds called me out for looking to him for help on every date. He didn’t know either, so I had to look them up for the BB.
  • Jerry World – There’s a shortage of jr high and high school football officials in the area and like Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. So, if you’ve ever found yourself on the sidelines telling the official they’re blowing the game, you give it a go. Great announcement JW.
  • FNG named Oddjob
    • Wade is from Ontario and his work in the gold industry brought him to Charlotte
    • Gold -> James Bond Gold Finger -> Oddjob
  • Thanks, Frehley’s for taking us out

Moleskine

  • I always blow my load in The Thing part of the backblast, but the anal bar was too good to wait this long. That’s definitely what she said.
  • Great mix of PAX and great workout by all

5 of every 7 PAX has a May birthday – it’s fact

YHC rolled in to The Soon To Be Woody’s So We’re Told parking lot for another episode of The Brave. A solid Friday morning crew of seven rolled out of the parking lot at 0530 for a mashup of recycled Q’s YHC has put on before. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone when we started headed to YHC’s favorite feature of AO’s in this area – The Murderhorn.

The Thing

  • The warmup took the form of a mile-ish run to Thornhill.
  • Run in to Thornhill for a triple nickel at the cul-de-sac. LBC’s and American Hammers.
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Run to the playground area for another triple nickel. Picnic table jumps and Merkins.
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Run to the bottom of the Murderhorn for… a triple nickel 
    • YHC was considering whether to do this the whole workout leading up to this, and finally decided to switch it up when we got there
    • Instead, we ran up the Murderhorn doing 10x merkins at each of 3 lampposts – regular, diamond, wide armed, and dealer’s choice
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Run in to the Regal parking lot for 2 rounds of celebrity four corners
    • 10x Mike Tysons
    • 10x J-Los
    • 10x Makhtar N’Diayes
    • 10x Bobby Hurleys
    • Run to center for 2 Burpees after each corner
    • Repeato
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • 7’s on the hill – deconstructed burpees, so Merkins at the bottom and Squats at the top
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Run back to launch via BCP, stopping once for 10x LBCs IC
    • Burpees in order of getting back to launch – 1x for the first to get back, 2x for the second, 3x for the third and so on all the way to YHC in last to do the final 7x
  • Fin

Moleskin

  • This was a real smoker. We got in over 4.5 miles and still a lot of solid work on the way.
  • I know Soft Pretzel came in back to launch first and only had the 1 burpee.
  • I also know I was last with the 7 burpees, but too far back to know what the order was between us.
  • The sleeping cop at Thornhill clubhouse bounced after our 2nd or 3rd run up of the triple nickel. Had to be a little awkward for him to be woken up by a bunch of dudes running back in forth by his cruiser.
  • In COT I mentioned I’ve got a birthday Q at Arsenal next week and we figured out a lot of PAX had May birthdays, so just go ahead, and wish everyone happy birthday this month and you’ve got chance on your side that you’re right!
  • It’s always nice to hear a few grunts, groans, and complaints during the workout. I know it killed YHC and I had some pretty good feedback from other PAX too, during and after on Slack.

COT and Announcements

  • I dropped my new AO, The Bottom Line at Bridgehampton clubhouse, and want PAX to tell their friends. We’ve had FNG’s and regulars every week, it’s been great.
  • Thank you, Soft Pretzel, for taking us out.

Awesome job out there guys. There were a few times that I was in six position thinking, damn these are some bad asses. Keep up the good work.

Brexit

 

The Bottom Line – Official Launch

This backblast is going to start with a little history leading up to this workout and will get a little long. But I’m enjoying this little journey of launching an AO so deal with it.

Mid-October of 2020, The Arsenal had a sort of CSAUP workout Q’d by Dark Helmet (F3 President, HIM, and generally great guy). Happy Meal and YHC billed it as an FNG workout, and I dropped a post in my neighborhood’s Facebook group inviting men. It received some interaction as likes and comments, but nobody showed up. Side note: YHC is kind of glad nobody showed because if you attended this workout, you’d know that Waxhaw showed up in full force to win the ghost flag leading to a 90ish PAX in the middle of Covid lockdown times, albeit in SC.

Anyway, fast forward 5 months later to the end of March 2021, I’m having some neighbors over to finally meet them now that Covid is starting to wind down. We’re several drinks in (where most EH’s happen, right?) and someone asks about my Facebook post and if I’m still doing the “workout thing”. YHC begins to explain F3 and the benefits it’s had on YHC’s life – the 3 F’s, really. I explain the core concepts, and everyone is super interested. Now, anyone who’s EH’d someone knows what happens next… “We start at 5:30″… And immediately, all interest is lost! It’s amazing really. But YHC persists. YHC had a pretty kick ass EH’r myself. Fire Hazard would Q some unofficial in-neighborhood workouts that used to kick my ass. I immediately thought of that and asked these guys, “What if it were at your front door?”… Immediate buy in, which was kind of a pleasant surprise. I get them to agree to a workout if I bring the F3 to them. Perfectly happy to do that. YHC pours another round.

That Tuesday, YHC had the pleasure of Q’ing a workout for a couple of my neighbors and Atlas came to support my efforts. I’ll call it a psuedo-F3 workout because we didn’t end with a COT. The workout itself was fun. We got in a couple miles, did a set of 7’s, Dora 1,2,3 on the playground, and Indian Ran back to the cul-de-sac. It got great reviews and I had commitment for another workout. On top of that, another neighbor wanted to join the next Tuesday. Seems like an obvious next step to start an AO if three men in my cul-de-sac alone are interested in repeat attendance. YHC has a couple of weeks to figure it out because the following week is spring break.

Bringing up the idea of starting an AO in Bridgehampton to the board was met with a response that seemed like they had been waiting for me to do it since I moved in. YHC had immediate messages from War Eagle, Kirby, Taco Stand and Mighty Mite that they’d attend, Q, help me market, etc. War Eagle and Mighty commit to coming to my next workout and scope out the scene.

The next workout is attended by two of my three neighbors as well as Atlas, War Eagle, and Mighty. YHC hits some of the site’s highlights and we do a per-driveway merkin ladder lap around a street that loops back to the clubhouse, some BLIMPS across the basketball court and soccer field, some bear crawling, and finish with a Jack Webb for time. This time we do end with a COT and get to name some FNG’s. Welcome Toro, who owns a commercial landscaping business, and Schooner, who has double respect and races sailboats in retirement.

At this point everything is in place and there’s really no reason to not make it official and start marketing the workout… except it needs a name. This might have been the hardest part of the whole thing for me. YHC just couldn’t get anything that clicked as “the one”. Every name seemed flawed. YHC went through all sorts of variations of bridges, trolls, borders, junctions, mascots, streets, and more. The two groups YHC was brainstorming with, Mighty/War Eagle and the Indian Land PAX, eventually stopped responding after YHC resolutely declared a name final… three times. The M grew annoyed with YHC asking her to rate ideas. Then one day, six days into it actually, “the one” finally comes to YHC, a play on the border, a definitive statement, with limitless Stone Cold marketing material – The Bottom Line. You better like it, but if you don’t keep it to yourself. If it came to YHC any later, the AO would have been stuck with “the unnamed AO”. But it did come, and just in time to get some marketing in for the next day’s workout.

Tuesday morning, the cul-de-sac clown car takes off to the clubhouse for the official launch. Toro, Schooner, and FNG (to be named Myrtle) and YHC arrive to a small group who have come to support the launch. Lo and behold there’s another FNG that War Eagle has EH’d from church who lives in BH. A few more PAX arrive, disclaimer delivered, and we’re off.

WARMUP

Mosey to the entrance of the clubhouse for a classic F3 warmup

  • 20x SSH
  • 20x IW
  • 10x LSS
  • 5 Burpees OYO

THANG

  • Mosey down in to the SC side of the neighborhood, back toward some brutal hills that I’ve run before. On the way, stop at every intersecting street and do 5x Bobby Hurleys for a total of 30.
  • Turn in to the first intersection of the back entrance of the neighborhood for a triple nickel on the hill. 5x Mike Tysons at the bottom, 5x Bomb Jacks at the top.
  • Mosey back to the clubhouse area the same way we came, this time doing 5x WW2 sit-ups at every intersecting street.
  • Mosey back to the soccer field for a round of 4 corners. 10x of an exercise in each corner and return to the center between each for 2x burpees. The 4 corners are Makhtar N’diayes, J-Los, Flutters and LBCs.
  • Partner up and line up across the soccer field. Partner 1 bear crawls toward the other end, while partner 2 runs to the end, does 2 burpees, and runs back to flapjack. Repeato back across with duck walk and air squats.
  • Finish in overtime, but we’re near to launch and get back only about a minute late.

COT / Announcements

  • Thanks everyone for making it to the launch of The Bottom Line. Come on back y’all and bring your friends.
  • Midriff with the reminder of the mission of F3 – to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.
  • I think WTF was brought up, and I might be missing some others, but YHC was gassed from the workout.
  • Got to name 2 FNG’s
    • Gimbels – Lives in Bridgehampton and saw our trial run workout when out on his morning walk, recognized War Eagle as a member of his church, and contacted him to ask if he could join the fun. Huge kudos, and glad to have you join. Gimbels works for Belk and was named after the department store, mostly known by our generation as the department store where Buddy the Elf works.
    • Myrtle – Myrtle was the original HC for the first workout. Myrtle’s name is from Crape Myrtle – his hospital name is pronounced Tree and he lives in South Carolina. I seriously think that’s one of my favorite F3 names.
  • Thank you, Periscope for taking us out.

MOLESKINE

  • This section probably isn’t needed because of the longevity of the intro. Instead, I want to give some shout outs.
    Schooner, Toro, and Myrtle for partaking in the fun and giving us a reason to launch this AO.
  • Gimbels for having the spirit to join us after seeing only a brief part of what we do. Hope to see you out every Tuesday.
  • Atlas for joining, without hesitation, the workouts I was doing pre-launch to support it.
  • War Eagle and Mighty Mite for helping me make decisions and guide the launch.
  • Cobbler for making the long haul up from Van Wyck.
  • Patent Pending, Loogie, Midriff, and Periscope for coming for the official first workout.
  • The SOB board for helping me launch this and jumped on any opportunity to help.
  • Everyone who has offered to Q which is a lengthy list. I’m still working my way through it, and I’ve got May filled.
  • You, if you made it this far and read YHC’s entire BB.

And that’s The Bottom Line,

Cause Brexit said so.

The Proving Ground Preblast

The Arsenal Proving Ground

WHERE: The Arsenal, Indian Land Elementary. 521 South, right on Doby’s Bridge, first left into the school parking lot.

WHEN: The last Thursday of every month at 0530, beginning this Thursday – 4/29/2021

WHAT: The Proving Ground is a gear workout that will allow PAX to really push themselves in a simple and flexible format.

PAX bring whatever gear they might have from their home, garage, workplace, neighbor’s yard, trainyard, boatyard, etc. Between some of Arsenal’s regulars we’ll have sandbags, rucks and ruck plates, plyo boxes, kettle bells, dumb bells, bars, and more. When the eagerly awaited return of Fire Hazard happens, we’ll be sure to have some whale parts to throw in the mix as well. If you have more and want to bring it, great! If you don’t but want to come, great! IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO BRING ANYTHING TO JOIN THE PROVING GROUND. We should be able to have more gear than PAX. The gear will be positioned in stations in the parking lot. A half mile warmup lap to get the blood flowing and add some Strava fuel. Turn on the good jams and start the workout.

THE THANG:

  • PAX will rotate in an unorderly fashion between stations every minute for 5 minutes.
  • At each station PAX will spend a minute using the gear at their station to do whatever exercise they see fit. A list of exercises can be provided for PAX with no imagination, like YHC.
  • After 5 minutes and 5 stations PAX take a lap around the parking lot.
  • Rinse and repeat until time.

The concept came from a recent Q by Atlas which received great feedback. Soft Pretzel came up with the idea to make it a regular thing for the AO and here we are. Looking forward to seeing you for some good 1st and 2nd F!

SYITG,

Brexit

🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

Pulled into The Gibson to find a lone Wild Turkey. I swear I’ve written that line before. This one continues differently though; no other PAX came in hot to spoil our time! There was a light rain, but not enough to force us into the parking decks, at least not right away.

The Thang

Take the long way around Ballantyne Corners and run North up Community House to Endhaven. By the time we reach the Elementary School, we’ve already got a mile under our belts. In the parking lot of the school, we ladder down pull-ups on the playground with a lap around the parking lot between each set.

  • 10x pull ups
  • lap
  • 9x pull ups
  • lap
  • …
  • 1x pull up
  • lap

During laps WT and YHC noticed that the parking lot had a bad ass little obstacle course drawn out on it. Well, bad ass for elementary school kids but we tried our hand at a lap all the same. I really hope a security camera caught the two of us skipping through the parking lot avoiding HOT LAVA!

At this point the light rain had soaked into the clothes decently enough to head under cover of a parking deck. We run back south on Community House and into the parking deck at Potbelly. YHC is telling WT about his ride on the $GME 🚀 last week, all the way UP and all the way back down. Somehow the concept made it into the parking deck work as we start at the bottom. On the ride up the deck, at every level we do 5x diamond to full release and arms out merkins, dubbed the GameStop merkin in reference to wallstreetbet’s emoji lexicon – 💎👐 and 📃👐. If you have no idea what I’m talking about you’re probably better off. The parking deck had 8 levels, so we got in 40 of these merkins. We are now 🚀🌑 and we quickly take the stairs back down to 🌎.

We’ve got about 12 minutes left and head back to launch. I hate sprints, so we do some sprints. Starting at the Genghis Grill side of the parking lot we sprint to the first island in the lot and light jog back to do 5 burpees OYO. We then sprint to the second island and light jog back. 5 burpees OYO. Just enough time to sprint to the end of the parking lot and jog back. 1 minute left for a plank ’til time.

Announcements and COT

  • Blood drive on the 19th
  • A Roof Above welcome packages – goal for each site to raise $300 to pay for a package, more info to come
  • New workout following The Brave starting next week! T-claps to Market Timer and Frehley’s for taking the Site Q and looking forward to seeing guys come in as YHC heads out. YHC can’t do the late workouts, but glad there is an option for the PAX that can.
  • WT took us out.

Moleskin

  • I had 2 Weinke’s ready for the morning depending on how hard the rain was. We somehow ended up doing them both and topping 5 miles along the way. It turned out to be a solid workout.
  • Was a good time, just WT and YHC. I learned some stuff about the bird that I didn’t know before. Glad to be able to see him, and all (or at least most) of you in the gloom.

AMRAP at DaVinci

Midriff, the bundle of excitement that he is, is hard to say no to when he asks you to take a Q. He doubled down with the offer of Q swapping so there was no way to say no. I’m used to the early starts and an 0630 start is hard for me to swing but I can do them every now and then especially when I bring home breakfast. Chicken or bagels don’t matter to my crew.

I pulled up a little early to an empty lot. 4 more PAX arrived in time for launch. Dwight and Watson were rolling in to take off only a few seconds later. I already knew C3P0 and crew always post DaVinci but are known to be last in. Just for them, I planned warmorama in launch lot. As expected, we took a few strides toward NC Velo and another car pulls in, but wait, it’s not who we expected, it’s Mighty Mite! He caught up to us at warmup and received less ribbing than I expected. Soon after the expected robot gang arrived and joined us.

Warmup

15x SSH IC
15x IW IC
15x Merkins IC
15x LSS IC
Side shuffle across lot and back

Mosey to the playground and fountains to prepare for the main event. On the way do some high knees and buttkickers.

The Thang

This week I attended my first WAMRAP and loved/hated it. I decided to bring that awfulness to DaVinci this week. I strongly considered doing a straight 1 hour of a single routine but decided to break the PAX in to it slowly so they will come back for more. We managed to squeeze in 3 15-minute AMRAP routines. The general format being:

15 reps of 3 exercises each, a small lap less than a quarter mile, then a burpee counter. Start with a single burpee for the counter. Repeato for 15 minutes, each round adding another burpee.

Routine 1 – Fountains – Legs
15x jump squats
15x split lunges
15x wall jumps
A lap around the lot to Banana Republic and back
Burpee counter

Smuggler was the star of this one. I think he finished 5 rounds while most the other PAX ended with 4. I planned this one first because I wanted to burn out PAX’s legs for the next half hour. It worked well. The explosiveness of all the exercises really killed it.

Routine 2 – Playground – Back
15x pull ups
15x wide arm merkins
15x one legged deadlifts
A lap around Smashburger and the Thai joint
Burpee counter

C3P0 really got on everyone’s good side with this one. I had planned to restart the burpee counter for each routine but he insisted on continuing from where we left off. I loved the idea. Nobody else really complained, so we went for it. Later it turned out to make things pretty tough. Those 15 minutes were half burpees.

Mosey back to launch where I was kindly reminded by Mighty Mite that we still had 15 minutes in the workout. Luckily, I already knew that and we had exactly 15 minutes. Let’s do it!

Routine 3 – Bank of America – Chesticles
15x merkins
15x diamond merkins
15x explosive merkins
A lap around Bank of America
Burpee counter

At this point everyone was gassed and the merkins were slow going. The mumblechatter had quieted and shifted to “how much time’s left?”, “finish strong!”, and “I can smell the chicken!” Time finished while YHC was starting his final 12 burpees, 4 at each routine. I think everyone else was close to the same.

Announcements / COT

  • Kirby will be collecting this week for Escobar s charity which sends clothes to Columbia. Specifically, for children and teens. Bring to workouts.
  • Soft Pretzel on Q at Firestarter Monday, right back there in Blakeney. DaVinci for kicking off the weekend. Firestarter for kicking off the week. Get out of that fart sack and post!
  • Paper Jam needs some extra hands to help him move stuff from his Dad’s apartment in Blakeney today, 1/9. It’s already started before this is published but if you’re reading it in time and looking for something to do, go help. The address is in Slack.
  • Mighty Mite has organized another blood drive on 2/19. Look out on Slack for details and sign up. Blood is always in high demand and if you have the ability to give, it’s one of the best things you can do to help others.
  • C3P0 looking for Q’s at The Appetizer. 1730 @ Rea Farms Elementary – 2.0 friendly. I wish my boys were old enough to attend, I’d be there every week. Go help him out and keep those afternoon AO’s rolling.
  • Midriff reminded everyone how tough this year has already started. The antics in the capital show how much pent up anger and frustration there is. A lot of people need some help out there, so keep an eye out and be that helping hand. Chopper added that it’s not just out there, it’s in our circle as well. He is absolutely right. If you feel this way or know someone who does. Talk to someone. This group of guys will bend over backwards for you, whether they agree with you or not.
  • Thanks, Kirby, for taking us out

Moleskine

  • Solid crew out there this morning. Everyone was giving it all they had. Lots of encouraging words exchanged.
  • I didn’t know how the AMRAP was going to be received. It seemed to go over great though. The other great part about it is it’s simplicity. I’ve posted before about how I like simple but hard and this fits right in there.
  • Pulling up to launch I thought maybe I had my times mixed up and I ghosted everyone by mistake, but all those cars and trucks were runners.
  • Thanks everyone for coming out and getting after it. Great way to kick off the weekend.
  • A special thanks to McGee, Alf, and Jazz Hands, none of which were at this workout but at WAMRAP this week, who introduced me to the format. If you want more of what we did today go get it 0530 Wednesday mornings at Viva Chicken in Waverly. I know I’ll be back there.

Brexit

A backup band slaps floors at the Murderhorn

Yesterday, I got the text. You know the one. THE text. Can you substi-Q? OK, maybe I made that a little more dramatic than it needed to be. Anyway, I was on high gravity #2 at Lore for a post-Arsenal HH with One Niner, Cobbler, and General when I received that text asking if I could take the Q because Tag-A-Long had to tag-a-out. I quickly replied, “Yes.” Then I replied, “Who is this?” Just kidding. It’s usually me texting Taco Stand because I need help with a convergence Q, or I have really hard questions about a mortgage, or I just need someone to talk with when I can’t sleep after eating too much ice cream. So, I polished off my beer and maybe another few and headed home to plan another Brave beatdown.

Pulling into The Gibson the next morning there was a lone Wild Turkey. He yelled some unnecessary profanities at YHC that I highly enjoyed. We were getting ready to run off into the sunrise holding hands, of course socially distant holding hands to please Lord Cooper, when Jazz Hands and Soft Pretzel rolled in to ruin our fun. Some required jokes about 3 guys in red shirts and one in black not getting the memo were delivered. Some better ones about looking like a lead singer with a backup band followed. Soft Pretzel showed us later that black shirts are better than red by making us eat his dust for the entirety of the workout.

YHC delivered a pretty solid disclaimer (definitely getting better at those) and we skipped the stretching YHC had planned because it was cold, and the wind was brisk.

WARMUP

A run to the entrance of launch – approximately .04 miles

THE THING

  1. Ladder down Bobby Hurleys at each intersection from launch down BC to Elm to the top of the Murderhorn.
  2. Run down the Murderhorn, 10 burpees OYO at the bottom.
  3. Start jogging up the Murderhorn, slowly accelerating until you’re at a full sprint at the top, 25 LBCs OYO at the top.
  4. Continue on Elmstone in to Stonecrest, but only to the other AO’s parking by the theater.
  5. 7’s on the parking lot’s berm – merkins at the bottom, squats at the top.
  6. At this point we were just short of being halfway through time. YHC had planned to reverse the first half for the second half but had not anticipated having extra time. So, in reward of how fast the PAX were, YHC made the executive decision to run another set of 7’s on the same hill – this time with shoulder taps and lunges.
  7. Back to the top of the Murderhorn to redo our run down, this time with 10 jump squats OYO at the bottom.
  8. Accelerate up the Murderhorn to another 25 LBCs.
  9. Ladder down back to launch, the same way we came, but this time with plank jacks.
  10. With about 5 minutes remaining at launch, YHC stole from yesterday’s Arsenal Q and did a sorta Jack Webb of 4x bear crawls, 1x merkin, 1x shoulder tap, 4x plank jacks. Glad Softie was at both beatdowns to help me remember it. We made it to 16x and 4x.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Thursday SOB sites are closed next week for Christmas Eve, converging at Rea Farms for a Taco Stand Q. Told you I leaned on him for lots of stuff! Park at the Improper Pig, 0630 start, 1 hour workout.
  • Stonehenge and Da Vinci are doing some converging over the next couple of weeks too. I don’t remember the details but will update here when I hear back from Soft Pretzel. Or you can check the schedules. Probably best to check the schedules and Slack over the next couple of weeks to make sure you’re not pulling up to empty lots.
    • UPDATE:
      • Stonehenge will converge at DaVinci 12/26 with Taco Stand on Q. Man, that dude is a Q machine.
      • Stonehenge and DaVinci will converge at Rock Zero 1/2.
      • Shameless plug: YHC on Q at DaVinci the following week – 1/9, so come get some.
  • YHC took us out.

MOLESKIN

  • Another enjoyable Q at The Brave. It’s a really fun Q to take. Maybe I’m crazy but I feel like the 4-mile requirement makes it easier to come up with a good plan.
  • There was an underappreciated moment at the start, of a dog walker not really knowing what to make of the lead singer in black and his backup band in red slapping the ground and jumping in the air at 5:30 in the morning. He moved off the sidewalk and awkwardly waited for us to pass before continuing his way. I can only imagine him going home to explain it to his M.
  • I wasn’t kidding when I said Soft Pretzel can’t be slowed down. The rest of us were able to mostly keep up with him for the first half, but he had to circle back for the us pretty far laddering back to launch. Wild Turkey was probably closest to keeping up with him, but I think that was a stretch too.
  • Wild Turkey dropping that Murderhorn is a reference from Simpsons on us blew my mind. Later Mighty Mite dropped this link on Slack – https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/The_Murderhorn, and I sadly only just realized that Murderhorn was a play on Matterhorn.
  • Jazz Hands texted me last night that he had broken into some Greek moonshine, or Raki, that we got our hands on last week (don’t ask, long story) and I fully expected him to not make it out but was pleasantly surprised.
  • While typing this up, I learned that Tag-A-Long was out of commission for some positive Covid testing in his household. Hate to hear that man. Hoping it passes quickly with minimal symptoms.
  • The Lord Cooper bit is just a joke, and a sub-par one at that. I know we all have different views on this pandemic, and I understand the need to slow the spread. Please everyone, be safe out there.

‘Til next time!

Brexit

It’s just ten merkins

10 Brave PAX showed up for 10 merkins, a whole lot of times.

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Warmup

Run to Legacy Apartments for a warmup. I stole Swift’s active stretching warmup, but it’s been a while since I’ve posted Swift so I had to ask for some help to remember what was what.

  • On toes, 10x straight, 10x inward, 10x outward, sprint it out
  • On heels, the same, sprint it out
  • 20x buttkickers, sprint it out
  • 20x toy soldiers, sprint it out

The Thang

Run to Stonecrest, doing 10x merkins at each intersection. Alternate regular, diamond, wide armed. I wanted to turn at Elm but Soft Pretzel and Sweetwater left the rest of us in the dust here, so we went past Elm and had to turn around. No worries, just got in a few extra merkins.

Run to Murderhorn, continuing 10x merkins at each intersection.

At Murderhorn I took a moment to make sure everyone know what BLIMPS were, and then we did said BLIMPS at each street light on Murderhorn.

  • 5x Burpees at the first light
  • 10x Lunges at the second
  • 15x IW’s at the 3rd
  • Run to the stop sign
  • Turn around and finish the MPS up the ‘horn.

At the top of the Murderhorn, turn in to the circle on the North side. Partner up. Run opposite directions on the circle and every time you see each other do 10x socially distant hand slap merkins (so only regular merkins). Repeato the loop x3.

About 12 minutes left to get back to launch. We take the route through Thornhill. Stop at every intersection for 10x more, you guessed it, merkins.

We make it back to launch with a few minutes for some Mary.

  • Flutter
  • Rosalita
  • American Hammers
  • LBCs

COT

Moleskin

  • I’ve got a lot going on right now in my life. A 3-month-old, with his older 2-year-old and 3-year-old brother really make life busy by themselves. On top of that we all moved into a new home that needed a whole lot of renovations just over a week ago. Throw normal work schedule in there and it’s an overfull plate. I’m still glad to get the DM from Tuck to get me on Q and keep me in check though, glad to be a part of it. Just don’t anyone else try to pull that for a little while!
  • Because of the busy schedule, I went for simple. I honestly produced the wienke as I was drifting off the night before. I planned the BLIMPS being the main event, but somehow the merkins really stole the stage.
  • Thanks everyone for coming out, always enjoyable to see you all in the gloom.

The Hills of Point Carpenter

PAX – Happy Meal, Eat More Chicken, Soft Pretzel, Atlas, FNG Periscope, Brexit

YHC hasn’t been posting much since the birth of 2.2 (third boy) and renovating / moving into a house big enough for this larger family. When YHC does post its pretty much only Thursdays at Arsenal, and the occasional Friday at Brave. It’s always good to see The Arsenal regulars, but what’s this? An unknown vehicle pulls up and it’s an FNG. Later named Periscope, we’re told he found us on the website after a co-worker told him to check us out. Great stuff, let’s make this a fun one! Disclaimer given and we’re off.

Warmup

Mosey around the school, taking the route for the hilly pre-run. This is called foreshadowing. Take a break on the back side of the school for

  • 10 x SSH
  • 10 x IW
  • 10 x LSS
  • 25 x Moroccan Night Clubs

Continue the hilly pre-run path, just waiting for Atlas to call me out on it. Surprisingly, he either didn’t realize we were going there, or he was busy mumble chattering with the other PAX until we were crossing the road into the neighborhood. Too late! No turning back now, mwahaha!

The Thang

Lately, I’ve found that the simpler the Wienke the better. If I can recap it in a sentence it’s a good one. Here’s this Q’s sentence – “Do triple nickels on the hilly run until time”. Can’t get much simpler than that.

  • First hill – burpees and squats
  • Second hill – bomb jacks and LBCs
  • Third hill – damn, not enough time for a third hill, but still over 15 minutes

Turn around and use a little trick I learned at a Thin Mint Brave Q – sprint up the hills, recover down them. This might have been a little aggressive. I forget how serious these hills are… not your average Murderhorn (pat on my own back for a NoE dig #ThursdayAOs). Everyone managed to make it back to ILES in one piece though. PAX then use the wall in front of the school to monkey over and do five merkins on each side, eight walls and forty merkins by the end of it. We’re nearing time now so one more lap around the parking lot and a few minutes of Mary and plank until time.

COT, Announcements, FNG Naming

  • Virtual marathon in the works to appease all these runners with cancelled events. Personally, I was going to do Ragnar but am perfectly fine to slack off instead. Good on all you PAX who so want to hurt yourself that you’ll organize your own event.
  • Blood Drive 10/17 – sign up
  • Welcome FNG, Periscope!
  • Thanks, Soft Pretzel for taking us out

Moleskin

  • It was hot and muggy. The shirt quickly became a weight vest to make the workout that much harder
  • I must reiterate – those hills are the real deal. 2 triple nickels and sprinting them back was torturous. My body was hating me for the rest of the day.
  • Great work by Happy Meal’s 2.0 Eat More Chicken. He was leading the PAX with his pops and did an excellent job counting some Mary.
  • Soft Pretzel had a Q a couple of months back where he took us out to the hills for some resistance running. If anyone wants to blame someone for the idea, I got it from him.
  • Atlas continues to crush the pre-run. YHC does plan to get back out for that soon, once the move is over and the new baby is sleeping more.
  • Strong work by Periscope for his first gloom workout. He not only hung with the workout, but also the mumblechatter.

A nearly unBEARable Jack Webb

4 PAX showed at the re-opening of The Arsenal. It’s been a pretty wet and rainy week, so YHC planned a Wienke that would avoid the grass and mud and what I’m sure was a swamp of a practice field. The disclaimer was delivered, this time I remembered the new bits too and we were off at 0530 on the dot.

WARMUP

From launch, take a lap around ILES stopping in the bus parking lot for a warmup.

  • 15 IC SSH
  • 10 IC Merkin
  • 15 IC IW
  • 30 IC Moroccan Nightclub

THE THING

  • Finish the lap around the school back to launch for a Jack Webb variation, which was to be followed by 2 more laps around the school and 2 more Jack Webbs.
  • Jack Webb #1 – 1x Carolina dry dock, 4x bear crawls, 2x Carolina dry docks, 8x bear crawls, 3x CDD, 12x crawls… 10x CDD, 40x crawls.
  • 1/2 mile lap around ILES – a very welcome break, arms already smoked.
  • Jack Webb #2 – the traditional merkin / air presses – those first 4 air presses hurt, the last 40… ouch.
  • 1/2 mile lap around ILES.
  • Jack Webb #3 – a welcome switch to abs with 2 count flutters and LBC’s – by the end I was ready to go back to arms/shoulders.
  • Final 1/2 mile lap around ILES put us at time, with total about 2.5 miles.

COT / ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • As more AO’s are opening, remember the PAX that are still taking advantage of the virtual for whatever their reason may be.
  • YHC will be one of them when the new baby arrives in the next couple of weeks! I’m pretty glad there will be the option for it.

MOLESKIN

  • The beatdown was pretty intense. I planned the bear crawl Webb as the final but decided to knock it out first which turned out to be a good idea. It was a doozy for sure. There were a couple of 10 counts to bring some life back to the arms and the following lap was with my arms hanging by my sides.
  • 40 bear crawls clears ILES parking lot. Good to know.
  • I Q’d The Brave last week but there was no IC counting. I forgot how difficult it can be. I had only done a warmup lap and was still somewhat struggling to keep the count for the warmup.
  • It was great to see some of the regulars back out at The Arsenal. I look forward to more showing up at future workouts.
  • Atlas grew a mean quarantine beard, and pre-ran under the radar! I only knew from Strava.
  • Thanks, Soft Pretzel, for taking us out. Kudos for back to back posts, coming from The Maul, after quarantine capped with a beach trip. Keep up the good work.
  • Happy Meal showed up strong as always as if he wasn’t coming out of quarantine.
  • C3P0 on deck for Q next week!

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