Now there’s a title that is sure to create some page views for my backblast.
3 things I learned at F3 this week:
This morning 14 strong men saddled up to the greenway parking lot to conquer the smooth and sexy hills of #theLC. This is a great course and thanks to Hairball’s infatuation with MTV and their wonderful programming, we have a new classic route name. Maybe it’s the warm weather, the early sunlight, or most likely the PAX’s love affair with bald runners, but numbers are picking up for the summer at DT. Good to see a consistently strong crew out there.
The Thang:
The plan was simple this morning (as it usually is at DT when we aren’t trail running with Tuck). Mosey north on Rea, cross 51, and hit the Five Knolls neighborhood for some repeats. Just in case folks were delirious from the humidity, YHC drew a nice chalk map for everyone. It was very complex, but after walking HoneyBee through it a couple of times he finally got it. Directions: Start, long arrow with a u-turn back, Finish. Repeat. (it was the last one that tripped him up)
Moleskine:
The more things change the more things stay the same at DT….we had some “new” blood that YHC hasn’t met before (Fletch and Geraldo), and we had the same guys out front killing it (HoneyBee & Mr. Brady).
Speaking of HB…right out of the gate he takes off and I knew he was going for the infamous 3 laps. You can’t tell from Strava, but I think he got it. Kudos to you my fast bald friend.
Teddy, Fletch, and Mr. Brady were all strong this morning. Teddy stormed out of the gate only to have his soul crushed on the 2nd repeat of that beastly hill. He recovered nicely though and finished running hard. Mr. Brady was fast up and down the hill this morning….looks like he brought his Slip N’ Slide to the workout. Fletch was killing it…nice to meet you today. You stayed right with the Bee all morning…by the way, your movies are classics (I’ll have a bloody mary and a steak sandwich and….a steak sandwich please).
Cheddar showed up on time today!
StoneCold was a beast again today….we kept each other company up and down those damn hills. Thanks for not letting me slow down this morning…we both agreed that the hill on the way out is the worst. During our run he told me all kinds of cool stories about Vince McMahon. Did you guys know that wrestling is fake?
Another solid crew spread out across the course today….and it’s nice to see you guys out on a regular basis. Margo helped me set the pace at the beginning and ran hard until “leaving early for a meeting”. Hannibal was his methodical self, CheeseCurd complained that the hills sucked, Utah grunted at us when we said “good work”, Huggie Bear hugged everyone he saw, and Prohibition was boozing it up and down those hills.
Geraldo kept me company on the way back to COP. I asked him about Al Capone’s vault and how bad it hurt when the chair broke his nose. Bring back the Geraldo show!
Another fine showing for Devil’s Turn. Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
16 SOB’s showed up on a glorious, sunny, dry, 65 degree morning…wait…never mind. 16 bada**es showed up in rainy, cold, disgusting conditions to see YHC’s VQ at The Brave. The Brave is the elite…the best of the best…where grown men (and Tolkien) come to find pain only to make themselves better. YHC was offered the chance to lead these fine men into the gloom and eagerly accepted (was told by Mario I had no choice) the challenge.
The Thang:
Last week The Brave suffered a beatdown from Mr. Bean…who coincidentally did half my planned workout. At first I was deflated…then I quickly realized that Mr. Bean was just brilliant in copying my workout one week ahead of time. It’s like he was from the future and then went back in TIME. #michaeljfoxrules
Here’s what we did…gather the PAX at 0515 and make a beeline towards the parking deck since it’s raining. 4 seconds into the workout make a hard right and start moseying towards the Bull Ring which was turned into a clock today.
Arrive at the Bull Ring/Clock for an AMRAP of the following:
Odd laps – sprint the straightaway, recover around putting green, sprint the straightaway. Then complete one lap around the Clock stopping at the 12, 9, 6, and 3 o’clock positions for 12 merkins at each stop (48 total per lap)
Even laps – Bear Panda Crawl the straightaway, recover around the putting green, bear Panda Crawl the straightaway. Then complete one lap around the clock swapping the merkins for burpees
Round and round we go until 0610
Head back to The Vine
Congratulate Bunker on awesome Q
Moleskine:
The weather was nasty this morning. Before we even got to the Ring, Gumbo was crying (or was that rain on his face) about how much he loved us all. Everyone had 5 lbs of water in their shoes before we did our first merkin. Nipple chafing began quickly….some went shirtless, some tried to go pantless (stop it Tolkien). All of this within 5 minutes…it was going to be a good morning.
No confusion this morning from the PAX…probably because directions were so clear. The chalk was used at 4:45 and by 5:15 it was gone….YHC still gets an A for effort. Maybe if I had borrowed Frasier’s Murderhorn Championship chalk it would have been visible…or perhaps it would have disappeared just as fast as that dude can run. Seriously…he’s already done with next week’s Swift workout.
The PAX was strong this morning. Right out of the gate Mario, Panda, General, Tuck took off like madmen. YHC thought surely he would catch them later while he “rested” on the running portion. You guys were strong this morning…couldn’t catch you guys today.
Outback was a beast AGAIN. He showed up early, ran 72 miles, did 500 burpees, and then ate my workout for a snack. #checkhisbagforhgh
Madame Tussauds was awesome leading up to my VQ. Offering advice, videos, moral support, twitter updates, and I even think he had a plane flying overhead with directions in case I got lost in the Q. Thanks for the support brother.
Speaking of Overhead…welcome FNG Overhead. Nice to have you out there…your first post at The Brave was awesome. Glad to have you out and look forward to more.
Flint was running in galoshes…or at least that’s what he thought he needed. No one told you that you need a life preserver for The Brave did they.
I heard Mic Check once this morning….I heard him say (or at least thought I did so I’m sticking with it), “man…is this a Black Diamond workout?” #boom (I know, I know…I haven’t posted to BD yet. Chill out).
One-niner showed up late and still crushed it. He told me it was horrible….perfect.
Soft Pretzel and Argonaut stayed with YHC for pretty much the entire workout…awesome to have you guys out there pushing me and each other. Softie and I had the countdown going on the last lap. #sub6minmilepacers
Kudos to you for your comment Wingman….had a great point about hearing the rain and choosing between a Fartsack and a workout with the PAX #dontleaveQhanging
But the best part of the day was learning Tolkien HATES bear Panda Crawls….I’m sure we’ll see a lot of those in the future. It helps us keep up with him. Of course I’m sure he’ll come after me and make me do 700 lb bucket carries, push me to have my heart explode trying to go sub-20 on a 5k, or some other insane strength exercise that he crushes and I can’t do. #muchrespect
Not bad for a day’s work. #bunkermorethanjustarunner
Thanks for the opportunity to lead today.
Devil’s Turn ventured into “new” territory this week. The “new” route is affectionately known as The Village. I didn’t see any cops or construction workers or people dressed up in a headdress on the route (the younger folks like Mario are going to have to google this reference)…but I did see hot tub pics of Tolkien on Slack. #burnedretinas #pleaseGodwhy #nomorenipples (no harm Tolkien…keep the invites coming. I’ll show up eventually and you can make fun of my soft pasty white body).
It’s getting hard to find new routes out there….Hairball did it a couple of months ago with The LC (which is an awesome route), but it’s getting harder to find new ground out there. YHC took it upon himself to find some new running routes and inov-8 (shameless plug…please send free shoes). I thought I was super original until half the Pax was calling it their old stomping ground and was well aware of the course. Oh well…not so “new”, but it’s adds another choice to the cycle and I didn’t have to worry about anyone getting lost. #doublearrows #Qlikestobeprepared
The Thang:
I was working out the kinks of the new route so I was a little concerned with timing, but the new area has several different routes that can be used in the future. The goal was to run some hill sprints, run some laps, and finish with more hill sprints.
Start out with a mosey on Bevington the OPPOSITE way we normally go. Cross over Elm and stop at the second sidestreet. There’s a nice little hill to attack. Probably a 150-200 meter sprint (some folks need to google the word sprint) straight up hill. Hit that hill twice to get the legs and lungs burning to start. Next stop is the corner of Bevington and Carswell for instruction. There’s a nice loop on Bevington to Baybrook to 51 to Carswell that is right at 1.75 miles. Directions were to hit that loop twice (3 times if you were feeling frisky) and then head back to the start for hill sprints until time is called. The last round of hill sprints didn’t go as planned as a few folks were standing around…I’ll channel my inner-Haggis to yell at folks next time. #tuckyourarse
Moleskin:
14 Pax showed up today…nice numbers for DT. Must be the Q…must be the new route…must be people wanted to support DT on a Black Diamond Thursday. Either way, I’ll take it.
Subtle mumble chatter at the start, “where are we going”, “what are we doing”, “does Bunker have any idea what he’s doing”, “why are all the bald guys wearing yellow”, “when do we start making fun of Tolkien”….who knows if all of that was really said, but I heard some of it inside my own noggin this morning.
Prohibition was familiar with the route. “Hill repeats…nice” was a quote I heard from him this morning. He seemed to “enjoy” the hill sprints, and was very familiar with the route. Good to see you out there this morning.
HoneyBee and Haggis were heard saying, “the challenge is 3 laps”. As soon as I heard that I knew they were doing 3 laps without question. The Stone Man and Stinger took off like a bullet right out of the gate. Everyone needs to watch out…Haggis has a new computer on his wrist. As soon as he learns how to work the dang thing (“Honeybee…what’s my damn pace on this thing”), records are going to fall. #stonecrushespanda
Mr. Brady went swimming this morning…or at least I thought he did. Thank you for the kind warning not to touch you during COT (www.shamwow.com).
Hairball and Stone Cold were strong again this morning. Running mid-7 pace on the laps while still having some nice morning chatter.. Stone Cold had the guns out this morning #sunsoutgunsout. YHC was running with this pace group and we had some nice momentum going. YHC broke off after lap 2 to make sure the troops weren’t lost, and those 2 took off on a strong 3rd lap. LongHaul was also part of that crew this morning…he was heard saying “I’m backing off on this second lap guys” and yet every hill he seemed to fly right by us.
Tuck snuck up behind us on the 2nd lap and joined in….#ifeeltheneedforspeed. He went to Tolkien’s doctor one time and she played with his toes…he’s apparently healed. She must have Seinfeld man-hands. Tuck and Margo were twinsies with a nice shade of orange this morning. The color really sets off your eyes guys…good choice.
Cheddar was out there this morning…good to see you at DT. I didn’t hear any keys this morning…maybe not carrying the extra weight helped with the speed today.
Frasier and Utah were running strong today. I’m not sure Frasier is mortal…is it possible that he ever gets tired? And every time I see Utah for some reason I want to yell “Omaha”….i’m not sure why.
Marvel also showed up to DT today…great having you out there. I love your movies and I really want to meet Black Widow. Please. Seriously…I really do. I’m not kidding…she’s super hot.
Another fine showing for Devil’s Turn. Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
This morning the crew of DT ran the greenway in the dark. A handful of us are hitting the Mud Run this weekend so I promised no big hills to keep the quads and hammys in shape for Saturday. Lots of strange noises and sounds this morning on our run. I think we were actually being stalked by a werewolf or a chupacabra. For a second I also thought Tolkien was sneaking up on us in the woods, but alas he was not to be found today.
The Thang:
0515 – No pre-bootcamp before the run this morning. 9 PAX showed up and YHC gave them the directions….pretty simple for the day. Run a 1 mile warmup, followed by 20 minutes at a “comfortably hard” pace (my favorite Bratwurst saying), then a 3-5 minute cool down followed by another 20 minutes at a “comfortably hard” pace (so nice I used it twice). That’s it…no more no less today.
The Naked Moleskine:
A little confusion popped up last night on who had the Q. HB asked me to take the helm while he’s out in wine country…he tried to make it back in time but the headwind was still too strong to get back to the east coast. #BigSur=BigWind
A big thanks to Hairball who admirably tried to jump in and handle Q duties last night thinking no one was at the lead….I appreciate the willingness to jump in and we look forward to more of your Q’s in the future. As usual, at the firing of the gun he’s off like a rocket and we didn’t see him until the end. Hairball has speed.
We were in the presence of greatness this morning…Mario blessed us by showing up for DT. Kudos to him for coming out for a little training run with YHC and Tuck (mud run teammates). We ran strong the first 20 minutes, and then pushed each other for a much quicker second 20 min session. During our second stint we almost ran over what appeared to be a Zombie from The Walking Dead….literally. This lady was staggering all over the place…had she been moaning like the dead Mario was sure to take her out to protect me.
Tuck was running hard this morning. He’s been racking up the miles, has knee issues, and yet still keeps showing up and working hard. At the end of the run he extended his hand to me and called me “dear”….so sweet. Until I realized he was actually pointing at 3 big DEER next to the trail staring at us.
Margo showed up for his first Devil’s Turn appearance…welcome! I didn’t realize it was his first post at DT until I listened to my phone recording at work…thanks for coming out and running hard today. Great to have you at DT…come back again. We have some great running locales at DT.
Good to see Outback this morning. I actually saw him drive up…had I gotten there a few minutes later I would have assumed he had already run 10 miles before the workout…but maybe he did somewhere else. The man is a machine and can lay down the miles at a strong pace.
Huggie Bear, Exlax, and Stone Cold all had strong showings this morning. Good to see you guys out there. Stone Cold disagrees with my description of the pace and he wants me to change it to “uncomfortably hard” which I totally understand.
Thanks for the chance to lead today. Another fine showing for Devil’s Turn.
What? Kenny Loggins? Is that the same guy who got married naked….in front of his kids. Weird. (true story…look it up).
But, Kenny also sang DangerZone…which is where Devil’s Turn happened to go this week. YHC was a late replacement for the Q, standing if for HB while he tapers for Big Sur. This also happened to be YHC’s first official Q (I’ve Q’d an SOBLSD, but never had to break out my phone, have people count off, stumble my way through saying how awesome it is to lead the PAX in a workout, and then write a backblast).
Last week’s pre-blast by HoneyBee was so stunningly elegant that I couldn’t replicate (and I also couldn’t post to the site until this afternoon – thank you wingman)…so I just hoped people would show up for the workout.
The Thang:
0500 – YHC shows up for his new pre-bootcamp workout before the run. HoneyBee joins after deciding all the running is giving him stick arms and he really wants to be built like The Rock. The massive pre-bootcamp consisted of 3 sets of Merkins and 3 sets of LBCs…I know…we are wild men to do so much before a run.
0515 – rest of the PAX shows up and we are off. Plan was to hit DangerZone which is Rea road north of Highway 51 for some 1 mile repeats. Wait…what highway? Yes…the Highway to the DangerZone (if I knew how to incorporate a link to Top Gun I would). Directions were given to stretch if you want (Haggis wasn’t there so no one did), and then take off at your own pace. Subtle nudging from YHC was to run 1 mile at “comfortably hard” pace and then 1 mile at “slower pace” and then repeat until time.
The Naked Moleskine
StrangeBrew all dressed in white (apparently he was going to a wedding this morning) showed up and stared at YHC and HoneyBee doing the warmup. “What’s this? The infamous pre-bootcamp”. When asked to join, an emphatic “no” was stated…and that was the end of the pre-bootcamp. And pretty much the last time we saw Brew as he had to leave a little early.
Hairball showed up after putting up a very strong time at Racefest and took off on a blistering pace. Running mid-6s on the out and sub-8s on the way back. Apparently he’s not sore from the hills at Racefest…nice job.
Bratwurst was running fast as usual, but his strava activity looks like he had the groovy Swift music still on his mind.
HoneyBee was “tapering” with a few miles in the low-7 range. Nice taper…he looks strong headed into Big Sur and we all know he’ll do his father-in-law proud and get him into Boston. #nopressure #dontfailyourwifesdad
Stumphugger was his normal upbeat and cheerful self. He regaled us with tales of tearing up both knees, hence the DangerZone name.
O’Tannenbaum, CheeseCurd, Utah, and Hannibal all put on strong showings today. Utah must have run extra credit as he was a little late to COT, but YHC was thankful he showed up and he didn’t lose anyone on the first Q.
Thanks to all who showed and allowed me to lead today. Another solid Devil’s Turn workout in the books.