Pre-Preblast: Stonehenge – Nov 23
So Dolphin is letting me Q Stonehenge again after a long hiatus and I had a bright idea; what if we do a workout with limited running? Before you start planning your mutiny, read below to see why this is a great idea.
Reason #1: Thunder Road is over! Those that participated are likely burned out on the whole running thing and could use a change of pace.
Reason #2: There are new events for the SOB to set their sights on like the Spring Mud Run and GORUCK challenge.
Reason #3: It presents a great opportunity for inviting that FNG that you have been trying to EH.
Here’s the deal. If you have a ruck pack or at least your teenager’s old bookbag, load it with 6 bricks and show up to Stonehenge. See this link for one (particularly thorough) way to load your bricks. http://news.goruck.com/gear-explained/wrapping-bricks-explained/ Since we won’t be running, you should be fine even if this is your first time with a ruck. I am personally bringing my “budget ruck” made from an old North Face bookbag.
For the FNG’s, they will have a leg up because all of us ruck newbies will be busy manhandling the rucks. They will also be much happier since we will be covering less ground than normal (common complaint of the FNG to Stonehenge).
Even if you don’t want to ruck and you are no FNG, still show up! Believe me, it is going to be a beat down (just with less running).
So there it is, the plan for Stonehenge this week. I am sending this out early so you have time for making your own “budget ruck” if you are so inclined.
Preblast: Devil’s Turn – Short, Slow, and Happy
NOTE: The start time for running the 3 mile Thunder Road taper is 5:30 am (not the regular start time)
Since the majority of the Devil’s Turn regulars are participating in the Thunder Road Half or Full Marathon on Saturday, we will be doing a “get the kinks out” run tomorrow.
We will keep it short at ~3 miles and slow for a fellowship pace to keep us all healthy and happy leading into Saturday’s main event.
Blue Pill: Start at 5:30 am from corner of Rea and Bevington and enjoy a liesurely 3 mile run
Red Pill (no Q): Start at 5:15 am and get in a quick 6 miles on the greenway or other location.
See you out there tomorrow!
Honey Bee
Preblast: Devil’s Turn – Nov 7
Ok Devil’s Turn faithful. It is time to return to our roots.
5:15 am we launch from the greenway parking lot (corner of Rea Rd. and Bevington Place). Unless someone one steps up with a clever route, we will hit the greenway for a 6 mile run. Bring a headlamp if you have one.
Two Options:
Blue Pill – Fellowship pace complete with healthy banter
Red Pill – Tempo pace including more heavy breathing and guttural noises
See you in the gloom!
Frehley’s Foxhole
8 men stepped out into the cold and started the week the right way (at the Foxhole).
Posted on behalf of Frehley’s Comet (QiC). Thanks to him for stepping up to lead the SOB into the trenches of Elon Park Elementary.
Workout:
The Halloween Ranger Physical Fitness Test
9 men conquered the (adjusted) Ranger Physical Fitness Test (RPFT) this Halloween morning with 3 cleared for service. Here is the synopsis of the event.
The adjusted test was comprised of 4 parts:
1) 2 minutes of perfect form merkins (goal = 49)
2) 2 minutes of full sit-ups (goal = 59)
3) Pull-ups (dead hang with no lower body movement x 6 minimum)
4) 5 mile run (goal = 40 min or 8min/mi)
While many excelled at individual challenges, only 3 (Fletch, Mighty Mite, and Turkey Leg) passed all 4 to gain figurative entry into the Rangers basic training. Great job guys on your all around fitness!
Here is a summary of each event:
1) Merkins: Range 49 to 80 with Haggis, Turkey Leg, and Fletch in the lead
2) Sit-ups: Range 35 to 65 with Mighty Mite, Fletch, and Turkey Leg in the lead
3) Pull-ups: Range 6 to 13 with Haggis, Frasier, and Mighty Mite in the lead
4) 5-mi Run: Range 36:05 to 43:40 (7:13 to 8:44 min/mi) with Frasier, Turkey Leg, Fletch, and YHC in the lead
Overall, it was a great morning with cool breezes and good 2nd F throughout. As always, YHC appreciates the opportunity to train next to this great group of men. Aye!
Preblast: Devil’s Turn – The Halloween Ranger Challenge
Ok, so at the risk of offending the Devil’s Turn purists out there, YHC is proposing a new challenge this Halloween morning. The challenge is the Army Ranger Physical Fitness Test (minus the rucking since that would just be crazy).
The adjusted test is comprised of 4 parts:
1) 2 minutes of perfect form merkins
2) 2 minutes of full sit-ups
3) 5 mile run
4) AMRAP pull-ups
The proposed 5 mile loop is included below. To get in the pull-ups, we will stop at mile 2.3 at William R. Davie Park (D on the map). After restarting the timer, we will continue past South Charlotte Middle School and onto our standard path back to the start.
The idea is to max out on each of the events to determine your current fitness level. In this case, we can use this as our baseline to compare in the future when we revisit the challenge.
Here is the rough schedule:
Begin: 5:15 at Rea Rd. and Bevington Pl (warmed up and ready to go)
Push-up Challenge: 5:15 – 5:17
Sit-up Challenge: 5:18 – 5:20
5-mile Run Challenge: 5:20 – 6:15 (with stop for pull-ups @ William R. Davie Park)
End: 6:15 convene for COT
See you in the Halloween Gloom!
HB
Cold Iron and Ice Water Astroturf
8 of the strong SOB’s (Sons of Ballentyne) dusted off their cold weather gear and entered the Foxhole for what turned out to be an all-out total body assault. After finding the Sports Connection boot camp crew on our turf (literally), we thought there could be some actual assault. However, there is enough room on the spacious Elon Park fields for 4 simultaneous boot camps so no problems were encountered.
The Thang:
Run to side of school and begin warmup
– SSH x 60 (Bratwurst joins half way through)
– Old Fashioned Toe Touches x 15 per side
– Backward Lunges x 12 per side
– Mr. Miyagi x 10 per side
– Monkey Humpers x 10 (Chipotle’s personal favorite)
Rack ‘em and head to the fields for the real work
– Audible called upon realizing we were not alone (Sports Connection boot camp has infiltrated our AO)
– Head to the other side of the field
– Round 1:
– 2 hand swings x 20
– Juggler x 45 sec
– Snatch x 10 per side
– 10 count pause for effect
– Round 2:
– 2 hand swings x 20
– Juggler x 45 sec
– Snatch x 10 per side
– Figure 8 x 45 sec each direction
– 10 count
Line up on side line
– Bear crawl to center field / jog back
– Crab walk to center field (w/ KB on your stomach) / jog back
– Bear crawl to center field / jog back
– Crab walk (no KB) to center field / jog back
(Editorial Note: If there is ever a crab walk competition, don’t challenge Market Timer. You will lose! #strangelyproficient)
Head even further away from Sports Connection crew since the hooting and barking noises were getting distracting.
– Round 1:
– Clean & press alternating hands x 10 per side
– KB curls holding the ball of the KB x 20
– Triceps extension x 20
– Round 2:
– Rinse & Repeat
– Jog 100 yds and back
Begin 6 minutes of mary
– Full sit-ups x 40
– Mason twist x 20
– Freddy Mercury (called by Bratwurst) x 20
– Dolly (called by MT) x 20
– Mission impossible x 10 with a hold while Greatest American Hero intro was sung (another Chipotle favorite)
– Protractor (called by Frehleys) with some 62deg Dolly thrown in
The Moleskin:
– At 42deg, it was a cold start this morning. Frehley’s even broke out the tights (thanks for wearing the shorts over them!). Once we got to the monkey humpers though, everyone was sufficiently warm to get to work.
– It was good to meet Whiplash (brought to the Foxhole by Rock Thrill). Thanks for coming out brother. Hope to see you out again.
– Due to Chipotle’s great reaction, monkey humpers and the Greatest American Hero song may deserve repeating in future workouts. Pretty funny stuff.
– Overall great effort by all. It was on purpose that there was not much running involved today, but hopefully you would agree, it was still a total body burn.
Announcements:
– Jan 4 Convergence and Joe Davis 5k – the post and instructions are up on the website. Sign up for this great event! NOCO, Metro, The Fort, and Area51 all expected to represent. http://f3nation.com/2013/10/20/convergence-and-5k-run/
– Football 2nd F Event – November 10 – Fox & Hound in Ballantyne – See Evite
– Holiday Party – December 7 at TR and M-TR’s house – See Evite
Preblast: Devil’s Turn – Oct. 17
Tomorrow, Devil’s Turn will have a progressive party. For this party, there is no need to dress up, headlamps and GPS watches will suffice. If you don’t have a GPS watch, there will be someone around you with one.
First, go to http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm (thanks Bratwurst) and input a race time that you have recently completed. On the right side a bunch of numbers will appear. We will be using those to dish up some tasty treats. Each “Dish” is one mile.
Dish #1: Warmup at “Easy” pace
Dish #2: Take the average of “Easy” and “Marathon” pace, and do that for a mile
Dish #3 (on track): “Marathon” pace
Dish #4 (on track): “Threshold” pace
Dish #5: “Marathon” pace
Dish #6: Cool down at “Easy” pace
Since each PAX will have their own targets, we may get somewhat separated although we will hopefully have some pace groups that form. We will regroup at the track before heading back to COT.
Here are some values to give you some ideas on your various paces.
See you in the gloom!
HB
The Devil’s Turn: Hill Interval Edition
6 men chose to attack their VO2 Max this morning with some hill intervals. Some standard cruising mileage was also thrown in for good measure.
The Thang:
The troops assembled between 5:00 (Soft Pretzel arrived after doing a few laps around the median in an attempt to find the entrance) and 5:14 (Haggis came in hot just in the nick of time).
5:15 came and we were off. Some good conversation was had on the 1 mile to the hill while the PAX warmed up in the cool fall air.
Then the work came. The assignment was to run up the ~100 yard hill as many times as possible in 10 minutes with a recovery decent back to the bottom each time. All PAX completed 8 reps of the hill intervals with a total distance right at a mile. Haggis ruined YHC’s plan to take it easy today (even after running up Crowder’s Mtn last night). Nice push though to keep us all honest.
After a recovery mosey to the corner, the PAX were back to cruise mode all the way to S. Charlotte Middle where an impromptu 50 LBC’s were administered.
Then it was back to running for the 1 mile to reach the top of the interval hill again. 8 more hill intervals were completed with strong effort by all.
The one mile back to COT went by quickly through some 2nd F discussion of Thunder Road and the Palmetto Race. Mighty Mite and Haggis poured it on at the end for a fast finish. Rock Thrill was very popular with the Run for Your Life crowd congregating at the corner.
The total distance was right around 6.3 miles at 8:57 min/mile pace (although that counts the time the PAX were doing LBC’s). So let’s say the average for the day was 8:00 – 8:20 min/mile when we were moving.
Moleskin:
– Great effort today by all. It was good getting to know Slim Fast who YHC had not met before. It was also good to see Soft Pretzel out as a DT FNG. I think we convinced him to do the Thunder Road half. It will be great to have you out there brother.
– We missed some of the regulars this morning (Bratwurst, Turkey Leg, Zip-a-dee, and Dolphin). There were no HC’s so this is just an observation.
– Next week the plan is for a Progression Run. Details in the preblast next week.
Announcements:
– There is rumor of an Area 51 Palmetto Race team forming. Contact Rock Thrill or Haggis as it seemed they were informed.
Preblast: Devil’s Turn 10/10
The plan for Devil’s Turn this week is simple. Meet at the Greenway parking lot (corner of Rea Rd. and Bevington Place) at 5:10am for some stretching/warmup activities then…
1) Leave parking lot at 5:15am and run ~ 1 mile to hill
2) Run uphill fast and downhill for recovery for 10 minutes (high fives when passing other PAX optional)
3) Run remaining 1 mile to S. Charlotte Middle School
4) Turn around and run 1 mile back to hill for 10 more minutes of hill intervals
5) Run back ~ 1 mile back to COT (high fives then become mandatory)
That’s the plan. See you in the cool morning gloom.