Author Archive Haggis

Double Trouble

Haggis posting for Doubfire

Browbeaten by Wild Turkey into a ‘Happy Brothers’ Day’ Q session, Haggis and Doubtfire started with a quick disclaimer to the assembled eight.

Warm-up consisted of a quick jog then:

50 count side-straddle hops
20 count merkins
30 count mountain climbers
20 imperial walkers

The thang:

The mile (3.3 laps of Loch Ness) challenge. Haggis determined not to allow Doubtfire (his brother or his son?) to win, passing him with twenty metres to go.
Merkin ladder which involved crawling to various parking lot lines and performing 2, then 4, then 6 etc. merkins until 20 or collapse. Fireman Ed counted at his pace, which was unfortunate for some.
Ramp runs x3: planking up then sprinting up the parking lot slope.
Reverse crawls up the three flights of steps in the Corporate Park. Frehleys Comet led the way and had obviously been practising; Wild Turkey had not been but ably followed suit.
Sit-up suicides. Multiplying sit-up reps at 5, 10, 15 and 20 metre sprints.

Haggis Moleskin:

Smaller numbers today with a lot of folks on BRR training.  It was a strong group, notable for full commitment from all present.

Nard Dog crushed the mile. Billy Goat powered through every event.  Samurai is used to running much further. Wild Turkey always puts in a solid all-round performance. Frehleys is an inspiration sometimes.  Fireman Ed would rather to pull-ups than run, and Nard Dog likes his chest hair.  Haggis and Doubtfire can’t help competing on every drill.

Thanks Wild Turkey for convincing us to co-Q.  F3 continues to give so much.  We are grateful.

Swift Preblast BCC intervals

Pre run option at 5am – have fun.

5:15am main event: leave Vine for approx 1 mile warm up to suitable stretching spot.

Dynamic stretching per our Guru Bratwurst.

Intervals  through Ballantyne Country Club as follows:

2 mins hard, 1 min recovery.

1 min hard, 30s recovery.

30s hard, 30s recovery.

Repeat.  We will double back in the recovery periods so that we stay together.

Pace guideline – two options:

  1. Sensible option – comfortably hard.
  2. Other option – go as fast as you can without throwing up.

We will cover 6-7 miles.  If you have the skills, please program your watch.

Fat camp backblast

2 plus miles at fat camp  – a new record

Backblast late because of Haggis ineptitude and inability to follow simple instructions

The Thang

Run around the school for warm up

Stretch a bit

Run around the school stopping for 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 merkins on the way.

Go to pull up bars.  Pull up ladder with full extension.  Start with 1, rest. Then 2, rest. Up to 5. Very hard to do more than 5 at the top of the ladder when performed this way.

Take a break – pax plank while one of us does a monkey bar circuit as far as possible.  All take their turn.

Repeat 3 times.

Run to bottom of hill.  Start with 10 6-count burpees, then run up hill for 30 seconds.  Back down for 8 burpees.  Repeat until time runs out.

Moleskin

Only 4 of us but this was a solid workout and everyone worked hard.  Toothpaste said he couldn’t do pull-ups, then did a whole lot of them.  Truth be told, more actual pull-ups were performed in this single workout than in a normal week of F3 workouts.  Yep, that’s a dig on form.  We did them right.

The hill repeats with the challenge to go a little further each time are always a crowd pleaser.  Amazing how this routine never fails to wear you out.

YHC hasn’t led in a while, and I appreciated the opportunity.  Thanks all.

Ballantyne land of the lakes

A small team of tough men for this morning’s Brave.  A good thing too – it was physically and mentally unsavory from start to finish.

The thang:

Run hard to the first lake.  Do 30 6-count burpees.  Run hard to the next lake.  Do elbow plank for 70 seconds (10 second count per man).  Repeat until we have visited every lake.  Total 4 miles or so.

Bonus pull up session: The pax elbow plank while each of us in turn performs three real pull ups.  Here’s what a real pull up looks / sounds like: Hang on the bar, fully extended.  Pull your body up until your chest touches the bar.  Hold for 1 second.  Let yourself down gently, and hang fully extended for 1 second.  It’s difficult to do three of these.  We did three sets each.

Moleskin:

The workout was set up to keep a group of different paces together with faster guys doing a full 30 burpees and others joining in at each lake whenever they arrived.  In the event, it was a fast group all around, and everyone got a full share of burpees.

Easy to forget how unpleasant it is to run hard, do 30 burpees, then run hard again.  Need to practice the Spartan spear throw – you don’t want the penalty.

With the announcement of the Brolympics, the pull up session was timely.  Pre blast mentions full lockout.  Will they hold us to it?  Pull ups are hard to do right, and pretty pointless if you cheat.  Kinda like life, brothers.

A strong group today, and an honor to lead.  Thanks to the men of F3 and the SOBs for all that you do.

Stonehenge 4 year anniversary – we made it happen

It was cold.  The weather sucked.  We had a great workout.

YHC had hoped for a great morning in the snow.  Thoughts of Mary while lying in the snow as the flakes wafted down had dominated preparation for this workout.  In the event, it was pissing down with sleety crap and wet on the ground.  There was immediate mumble chatter suggesting the parking deck.

In pursuit of the dream we started by running in the opposite direction from the parking deck, and headed straight for a merkin showdown in an open lot.  Then we headed for Loch Ness to run some laps and do some dips.  As the mumble chatter increased in volume (hands soaking wet now from the merkins), we started to slide around on the sidewalk and had to walk.  With hopes of a decent workout quickly evaporating, yhc decided to head for the deck and salvage what we could.

Yhc really doesn’t have anything new in his toolbox, so the workout was distinctly similar to all the others I have led over the last four years.  We did merkins, we ran intervals, we did burpees, we ran some more, we did squats, we ran again, we did Mary with more merkins, and we planked around a lot.  We did not rest much, we did not cheat on form (much), and we did not fool around.  If you didn’t feel it, it’s your own fault.

Then we ran back to COT and thanked God for this great group of guys, this great morning, and this great organization called F3.

Moleskin

  • Nard Dog, Tuck, and Fire Hazard were firing on all cylinders for the sprints.  They crushed it.
  • Outback showed he has a turn of speed when he wants it and chose one particular sprint to destroy the rest of us.
  • Wild Turkey, Turkey Leg, and Wingman showed total discipline in the merkins and plankoramas.
  • PaperJam showed that he can squat with the best of us after a faltering start.
  • Billy Goat blasted through the long set of 6-count burpees and pushed hard on every run.
  • Madame Tussaud showed his stuff on the burpees and had a really big smile on his face when he passed yhc on one of the sprints.
  • Tolkien, who has been a little quieter on Twitter since New Years Day, pushed to the max on every plankorama and ran every set even with a buggered leg.
  • Market Timer, who had promised to show up, was late even for coffeeteria because he to shave his head.  But he made it in the end.

Thanks Men.  Let’s do this again.

 

The Brave Backblast

Do a lot of burpees.

Run a timed mile as fast as you can.

Do a lot of burpees.

Run up a hill many times, each time going further than the last.  Go fast.

Do a lot of burpees.

Run a timed mile as fast as you can.  If you can’t beat your previous time there is a problem in your head.

Shoutouts to all who completed this workout and competed against themselves.  Bunker, Gumbo, Bean, and Frazier put in awesome performances.  Frazier ran faster on his second mile than on the first.  I don’t know if anyone else managed to do that.  YHC did not.

Strong showing from all pax.

Thanks for the chance to lead.  It was fun.

SOB hammer comes down part 2

The SOB convoy rolled into Blakeney at 7.02 am for part 2 of the double down pain fest.  We were joined by another 6 pax for a total showing of 17 men.  Not bad for the second week of a new workout on a snow day.

The Thang:

Kick off with a merkin fun fest: 10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1.  Then head to playground for attempted pull-up / burpee routine.  This didn’t really work due to not enough pull up bars plus ice, so YHC changed tactics and headed to an open space.

Burpees, merkins, handslap merkins, and ab routines interspersed with planking plus sprinting back and forth ensued.  Most of this was standard stuff (read: hard), but the planking / ab routine is worthy of further comment.  YHC found himself turning into Angry Q and increasingly yelling at the pax: “6 inches!!!”.  The goal became to try and see who would give in first (Fireman Ed?).  We interspersed holding our feet 6 inches off the ground with elbow planking for a good long time.  YHC did not know when it was going to end, and nor did the pax.  It went on for a long, long time.

After this brush with hell, we reconvened at the fountains for dips and durkins.  Can’t remember how many sets – it was getting fuzzy at this point.  Almost lost Mic Check at this point, but he held on in the end.

Then we wandered over Ardrey Kell to a long stretch of virgin snow on a slight incline.  There we proceeded with more merkins, 6-count burpees, bear crawls, and sprinting back and forth in the snow.  When YHC got to the point that he couldn’t run anymore, we switched to another 6-inch / elbow plank routine.  This one went on for a while also.  After that we did a few more merkins then headed back to the fountain for COT.

Moleskin:

The pax were forced to look deep within themselves during the planking / ab routines.  Did you like what you saw?

There was a fair amount of chatter.  Mr. Bean in particular called a lot of people out during the 6 inch routines.  Interestingly, he only had energy to speak when his own feet were on the floor.

T-Claps to Jean Claude for a strong post.  Good to have you out there brother.  Also Heartbreaker, Bunker, and Strawberry were notable for keeping strong form throughout.

Mic Check inspired a lot of this workout with his trash talk at the bar.  I hope he suffered, but apart from his minor breakdown during Durkins he didn’t seem to struggle too much.

Loogie has the most creative approach to planking. Frehleys Comet seemed at the end of his rope but stepped right up to lead burpees when called.  The old man is a beast!

Bratwurst objected strenuously to the planking routines, but held it together.  That’s what you get for crushing YHC at the Joe Davis run!

Wingman, Tuck, Mighty Mite, Fireman Ed, Market Timer, Madame Tussaud and Tolkien were all characteristically solid, performing all required motions with little fuss.  Mighty Mite had extra speed on the snow sprints.

I was proud of the SOBs today.  Great workouts with a great group.  Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

SOB hammer comes down part 1

One for the history books.  After a lot of talk last night 11 big hairy SOBs showed up at Stonehenge with little regard for the weather.  What followed was a kick in the teeth.  Then every single one of them accepted the double-down challenge and also posted at Da Vinci for more.

The Thang:

A slow mosey through the ice to the Ballantyne Village parking deck.  Go to the bottom of the deck and proceed with all the old favorites – bad and basic.

20 burpees, sprint length of the deck at the bottom and back (around 100m each way).  10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1 merkins, sprint.  Elbow plank for an indeterminate time, then sprint.  Proceed to the depths of the deck and line up for merkins.  20 merkins, then run to the top of the deck.

Hang out at the top for a mary routine – planking, bicycles, etc, then run back down.  Repeato 3 times with some variations.

Time passed quickly then we headed back The Vine for COT.

Moleskin:

Considering that this was just round one, it was fairly challenging.  Tolkien and Bean were really getting after the sprints and runs to the top of the deck.  Nice work.  Didn’t see any merlot but I know YHC was close a couple of times and I think Tolkien may have been too.

There was some grumbling about the numerous plank sessions, but nothing compared to what was coming at Da Vinci.  YHC was lined up for Da Vinci and somehow got talked into a Double-Down Q at the last minute.

Don’t have a count on Merkins.  Had to be at least 200.

T-claps to Market Timer for putting in the time.  He didn’t bring his daughter or his pajamas (like he did at Brazwells last night) but he was on strong form nonetheless.

As we left the parking lot, it looked like Wingman might be a no-show, but he rolled in just as we were leaving and caught all the action.

We were proud to be F3 SOBs this morning.  Everyone who talked it up, showed up.

Part 2

https://f3southcharlotte.com/2016/01/23/sob-hammer-comes-down-part-2/

Stonehenge kicks abs – the workout that keeps on giving

20 men got their abs handed to them at Stonehenge.  The backblast is late, but this was the workout that keeps on giving.  It ain’t over yet.  Anyone not in severe pain today… wasn’t doing it right.

The boys set it up as a form workout.  We did a little of that, and also got introduced to a new method of planking which hurts like heck.

The Thang:

Quick warm up with a little of this and a little of that.  Lesson one was how to do a proper elbow plank:

Lie face down flat on the ground, put your elbows on the ground in front of you, and lift up your mid section on your knees (“ON YOUR KNEES, FIREMAN ED!”).  Tuck your arse in, then lift up your knees.  Hang out for a while.

After the warm up we moseyed over to a parking lot for a few merkins and a bit of running.  Incorrect form was aptly demonstrated as we ran through the sneaky cheat merkin, the saggy arse merkin, the metro merkin, and of course the go-ruck merkin.  After that we stopped wasting time and did some proper merkins with a partner to hold us accountable.  In between we did a lot of (proper) elbow planking.

Then we ran along to Loch Ness for timed mile.  3.3 laps is all it took – Frasier destroyed the field.  The rest of us struggled along behind.  When we finished we did some elbow planking for good measure.

After this the lads were begging for more merkins, so yhc obliged with the Mighty Mite merkin ladder across the parking deck.  It sucked.

Next to last we set off for the pull up bars and all pax did two pull ups, one at a time.  Feedback was requested and vocally given.  The rest of us planked while this went on.

To finish we stopped at a parking lot for some 6-count burpees then did a jail break back to the parking lot.

Moleskin:

It was a strong performance by all today, with many notable instances.

Honey Bee was very good at demonstrating both the arse-up and arse-down merkin, but then he knocked out two pull-ups that were absolutely perfect. Plus, he kept up with Frasier on the mile (almost).

Mr Bean had cold nipples which prevented him from doing some of the elbow planks.

Fireman Ed got a bit worked up and started yelling during the Mighty Mite merkin ladder.

Mike Check showed us all how to do perfect merkins.  Every one was spot-on.

Great to meet Icicle and Early Bird.  Thanks for coming to Stonehenge.

The elbow planks hurt a lot.  My abs have been agony all day.  How was it for you?

 

Stonehenge Preblast – Opportunity to help with COLA flood effort

Do you want to be part of the F3 response to Columbia flooding?  Now is your chance.

http://f3nation.com/2015/10/07/all-hands-on-deck/

On Saturday the mighty Soft Pretzel will lead a brutal workout at Stonehenge, 6am.  That’s normal.  What’s not is that after the workout we will load up from The Vine (grabbing breakfast to go of course) and clown-car down to Columbia to help with the effort.

If you are like me you have been watching the tweets and seeing the F3 response to the floods in Columbia with awe and admiration, and hoping that some opportunity to help will present itself. This is it.  Let’s step up Area 51!

What will we be doing?  See the above post.  We will be doing the dirty work of clearing up.

What to bring? Yourself, at least one crate of water, work gloves, any tools that might be useful (see post), and a mask.  Yard-work pants, plus an F3 shirt to wear.

Haggis will bring: Truck with the hopes of filling the back with water.  Some demolition tools, multiple pairs of gloves, a pack of masks.

It’s a big truck.  Whether you can come to Columbia or not, please bring a case of water to Stonehenge if you can.

Any  suggestions – sound off below.