Goal today was to keep the heart rate up while focusing on upper body and core – pull-ups, stagger merkins to isolate each side, curls (for show), and upper / lower abs. Four executed that plan:
Thang
Run the Candlewyck mile. Grab a lifting rock from Wesley UMC and carry it back to the OPE bus parking lot.
Partner 1 – run to playground behind the school for 7 pull-ups and 14 hanging knees-to-elbows
Partner 2 – 10 staggered merkins on rock (each side), 20 curls, 30 Louganis
Flapjack and repeat until 6:05. Return rocks and run the Candlewyck mile again.
COT.
Announcements:
Moleskine
Guess starting at the beginning is the best place. Tied Bel Aire for the Candlewyck Chaser CR per Strava at the start, so appreciate One Eye pushing the pace. YHC breathing heavily, he seemed ok, so tried to headlock him into filling the vacant BRR spot to no avail. Rock selection remains a glaring weakness for YHC. What was a good size rock for 20 curls was a terrible size for 30 Louganis – can pretty much guaranty to miss your Q at DV tomorrow, Swiper.
Cold Cuts and One Eye crushed this one. One Eye did it in long sleeves, and then following yesterday’s COT shirt wringing, proceeded to create river of sweat that swept away several large ant mounds. I’m not sure the city storm water system could handle he and Mr. Brady at the same workout.
Thunder Road was pushing hard, it seemed, but he was running with One Eye most of the time. I don’t think we ran together until the final sidewalk back to COT. That bandana seemed to get quite a bit of use wiping sweat, so again, seems like he got his money’s worth. Same time / place next week.
We somehow managed to still clock over 3 miles plus 5-6 sets of exercises on what was intended to be a lower mileage day.
With the pool party fast approaching, still time sign up / join, SOFA WIB plans to accommodate with a little late summer bod finishing work. Trust me, you’ve been running too much already.
Plan –
Partner up. Run the Candlewyck Mile. Once back to OP, run to the church across the street and select a team lifting rock (careful to avoid the fire ants known to inhabit this particular stream bed).
Partner 1 runs (notice there is no soft “j”) to the nearest playground\ to complete 7 pull-ups and 14 hanging knees-to-elbows.
Partner 2 stays put. 10 merkins on rock (each side, alternate hands), 20 curls with rock, 30 Louganis with rock.
Flapjack and repeat, ad nauseum. At 6:06, drop the rocks in their rightful places and run the Candlewyck mile again.
Fin.
Between work and life, YHC didn’t have a lot of time to think through a pre-blast. Rather than truly going green and recycling an old workout, YHC opted to steal bits and pieces from prior workouts (and re-use the late pre-blast). Kind of like when a drug company adds another drug to one rolling off patent to prolong it’s life / profit stream for another 7-years…but anyway.
No other takers for the pre-run, so YHC got to be alone with that little voice inside, which was a scary place. Good middle of the night BRR training. Internal monologue:
Nice downhill to start. Try to keep an easy, sustainable pace.
Abbotswood has to be the darkest street in Charlotte…eh, maybe just S. Charlotte.
It is eerily quiet. And dark.
Totally convinced there was someone hiding behind a boat parked on the street.
Pre-blasting a solo run seems like an invitation to Chester
Could I outrun a kidnapper? Are they on foot or in a car?
This has to be something Sundancer has thought. And irrationally feared.
Is that a raccoon? 3? Why are there 3 raccoons together? Weird.
And why did that one run into the storm water grate? Ninja Raccoons!
Hope my car is still there. I wouldn’t be surprised if Swiper moved it and acted like it was stolen.
Oh, a truck. It’s Hammer. And Sledge. Only, wow, 2 minutes to “go time”.
Small group. Good thing there isn’t much of a plan.
Oh, there’s Swiper. At least even numbers.
So the four of us did the following:
Run the Chadwyck Chaser mile.
Partner up on plush grass of the newly striped mini-football field behind the school. Partner 1 stays by the conveniently placed cone and does mountain climbers. Partner 2 runs to the playground. Partners collectively complete 100 pull-ups, 200 merkins, 300 squats, 400 LBCs.
Run the Chadwyck Chaser mile again. COT.
Announcements
Church on the Street – sign up for Labor Day weekend if you’ll be in town
A51 Pool Party – sign up now for planning purposes (CHEAP)
Moleskine
Had to call an audible after +/- 20 minutes of mountain climbers. If regular mountain climbers were an escalator, most of us were creaky old stairs. Heart rate stayed up and shoulder are sore, so mission accomplished. Lunges were far easier today but will be felt tomorrow.
Swiper and Hammer went with the 1-exercise at a time route, which probably increased their mileage…only they didn’t quite finish. Lost time from all the transitions. YHC and Sledge did some of each exercise per trip and easily finished, adding another 40 squats albeit with less mileage (+/- 3 miles). Think everyone still felt tired by the end of what felt like a grind.
Appreciate it, gents. Same time & place next week.
All in all, not a bad morning weather wise that greeted the seven of us this morning. Clock struck 0530 and we were off. Veteran crew, so a moving disclaimer after One Eye mentioned turning his ankle yesterday.
THANG
Run left out of OP onto Rea for +/- 1 mile to Providence Lane West.
This is a roughly 1/2 mile long stretch with great elevation changes and five side streets.
At each side street on the way to Lancer, do the following: 20 merkins, 20 knee ups, 20 squats
At Lancer, turn around for pure run back to Rea Rd. That’s one. Repeat until 6:05ish and run back to OP.
COT
Announcements:
F3 Dads – pretty sure still ongoing in SOB land
F3 Golf – sign up soon
Church on the Street – YHC signed up for September, need a few more for August I believe.
Former college roommate of mine is a church planter in Boston. YHC will be hosting an event for him next Tuesday, so for anyone with a heart for the inner city (or that just likes free beer), shoot me a DM on Twitter for details: @leewillunc
Moleskine:
This was early BRR prep, as the hills on Providence Rd West are deceptively steep, though short. The Strava elevation map looks a little like the silhouette of Batman.
YHC entertained going for 3 full trips, jumped out to an early lead, and then faded. Lungs and legs still not back to “normal” after what seemed like a short IR stint. I believe most of the group completed 2+ full trips. YHC had the distance at 4.44 miles with 200 merkins, squats, and LBCs. Sundancer, despite having run this before, stopped for exercises on the way back also…so more exercises and less distance? Something like that.
Anyway, that many squats take a lot out of the legs. Not a fun 1-mile run, all uphill, back to OPE. Quite a bit slower for all.
Good to have Cold Cuts back off IR. One Eye and Sundancer are back from vacation. Apparently it was 82 and sunny all week in Connecticut, which was coincidentally about the weather upon our arrival back to OPE.
Probably leaving out just about anything that could be of interest. Serious about the next Tuesday thing.
BRR training in full effect, so plan to join us tomorrow for the third running of The Smokey (link to original PB and explanation):
Run left out of OP onto Rea for +/- 1 mile to Providence Lane West.
This is a roughly 1/2 mile long stretch with great elevation changes and five side streets.
At each side street on the way to Lancer, do the following: 20 merkins, 20 knee ups, 20 squats
At Lancer, turn around for pure run back to Rea Rd. That’s one. Repeat until 6:05ish and run back to OP.
Yet to be accomplished is the original goal of 3 full laps, which would be +/- 5.3 miles + 300 of each. Happy hunting!
Reading the title, I know what you’re thinking, but no, oddly enough, this is not the Horsey McHorseArse backblast.
However, this is how it was explained to me that I start a workout when I have the Q. Let’s go (ring the bell) and run. Despite a 1-minute warning, new watch was a little slow to sync, so slight deviation today:
Thang
5 Burpees OYO
Shake out mosey to Carmel Pres for short COP – SSH, Mtn Climbers, Squats
Mosey to Pellyn Wood with brief pull of the reigns to remind everyone to keep it down #underwhelmed. Mosey to Walden Pond – dips and derkins…plank walk right. Recover. Calls for symmetry ignored.
Mosey to La Maison Dr – now, I’m no Spanish major and I haven’t taken French since elementary school, but shouldn’t it be “Le Maison”? Anyway, digressions aside, we more or less piled up in something that could loosely be considered a circle with no real middle (or in SG parlance, this was more like a jelly-filled donut than a traditional).
Flutters, LBCs, Freddy Mercury, merkins
Mosey back to Walden Pond – dips, derkins, plankwalk left. Russian Twists to keep the pax from leaving too soon. Mosey to Howland.
Backward run up. Squats at the top. Recover down.
Backward lunge walk to the 2nd driveway, then backward run up. Recover down.
AYG to the top. Recover down.
AYG to the top. Recover down. Knee ups at the bottom.
AYG to the top. Mosey back across Sharon View to the back of RTS. Larry Birds did some planking that kept the group mostly together. Mosey back to launch point. 5 burpees OYO. Fin.
COT
Announcements:
F3 Golf – if you’re going to play or want to play, sign up now
SOFAWIB – Swiper says tomorrow will be “historic”. I have no idea what that means.
Pray for Ninja Turtle (son of Run Stopper) currently in the middle of a 5-month hike of the AT
Moleskine
Per the text from Bushwood, Hairball apparently pulled out last night #twss. SemiGloss and I played rock paper scissors for the Q, and there was never any doubt he was throwing rock. So, YHC got the conch. It had been awhile at DMZ – probably since the time I ran in, likely got a stress fracture, and took a forced month off….so yeah, good to be back and still injury free.
If you aren’t running BRR, you are now one step closer to being ready to step in an as alternate #SemiGloss. Quite a few hills in Pellyn Wood (3.3 miles worth per Strava), so despite several comments about going back, yes, we did; no, we didn’t re-use the halfpipe. The decline plank walk was fun. Little bit of a change up there. Uphill backward runs are a staple and pair well with squats and lunges. Nice way to ease into the week.
Loved the progressive pax expressions after each, “recover back down”. Highlight of the morning.
YHC led from the middle (being generously optimistic) today. Rachel, Square Root, Agony, Swiper, One Eye….list goes on…etc. were ahead of the Q most of the morning. Coming back from IR is a slow journey. Legs and lungs aren’t there yet.
Discovered during Name-a-rama that Bugeater was there. Felt like this scene: There you are. Having just come off a shorter IR stint, you’re in there Bug. You’ll find it. See you tomorrow at OP. I’m told it’ll be historic, whatever that means.
Appreciate the opportunity, gents. Bushwood is buying beers at F3 golf for anyone who didn’t get their money’s worth today.
Four red blooded Americans on July 5th for a US Flag inspired workout. Old Glory has 13 stripes and 50 stars, so we went for 13 exercises and 50 reps of each.
Thang
Run the Chadwyck mile.
50 reps of each of the following 13 exercises in order:
Run the Chadwyck mile again.
Moleskine
Ouch, on a variety of fronts. Not sure if it was the jalapeno poppers, the beer, or the lingering calf tightness…but that hurt. I believe everyone got through 12 of the 13, and took off for the final mile at some stage of completion of the burpees. In hindsight, probably should have led off with those, as that was a brutal way to finish.
Sledge, who Hammer recently cut loose from his tether, took the opening mile VT. Yes, @Sundancer, feel free to point and laugh from afar, as it finally happened. YHC felt the strong urge to Elvis to the convenient port-o-jon about midway through the opening mile, slowed, and tried to sneak past him with a finishing sprint only to be rebuffed. Strong work from Sledge today.
Grapevine – with what may be a site FNG post – apparently parked, thought he was in the wrong spot, played stalker from the car, and then parked again. Confusion may have been partially a result of YHC flying in on 2-wheels at 0530. He caught up at the school and flew through the list. Pretty confident he was the closest to finishing of the group.
Lot of strength work today, so feel free to walk around feeling swole. That’s all I’ve got.
Independence Day – nothing more American than celebrating our freedom, and lots of Old Glory flying this weekend.
US Flag has 13 stripes on and 50 stars. We’re going 13 exercises and 50 reps of each.
Run the Chadwyck mile.
50 reps of each of the following 13 exercises in order:
Run the Chadwyck mile again.
Fin.
“Good morning to be Aquaman” – Iron Mike
It was sticky this AM with seemingly more water than O2 in the air. YHC was last to roll in at 0528. Group of 8 with several site FNGs. Quick review of the morning’s activities, and we were off.
Thang
Run the HT mile. Mosey to back of OPE.
At the playground: 10 pull-ups and 10 hanging knees-to-elbows
At the concession stand: 20 derkins, 30 dips, 40 LBCs
Lather, rinse, repeat until 6:06.
Run the HT mile again.
Announcements:
F3 Dads at Freedom Park
F3 Golf – July 29, Sign up here
Church on the Street – Currently NO ONE signed up for this Sunday morning
Moleskine
Slight change from the pre-blast: had to change from / to – in the title, as it was showing up as a dial-able number. I don’t want to be responsible for Haze ending up on some watch list unable to buy a gun because he kept hoping an available young lady would answer.
P-BO got up extra early to make the trek south with Bel Aire, and they were waiting in the parking lot at 0528. Seemingly no one thought anything of it today, but for most of Metro, that would be seen as a Christmas miracle. It was good to have you out. Pele and Thunder Road were also site FNGs. We run the same format each week – you vs you. Helps to find someone a little faster and nip at their heels. Good work out there today!
Speaking of, Bel Aire led the field today. 6:31 opening mile and didn’t slow down much after that. HT with a Strava PR for his mile also. He’s like a moth to a flame with pull-ups. He opted out of the two station format, so no clue if he got to 10 sets or not.
The combination of pull-ups and hanging knees-to-elbows was pretty awful. Not sure if that or the dips was the most excessively accumulative, but they built up and got bad in a hurry. I think most everyone got in 3+ miles and 6-7 sets of exercises. I honestly lost count. It was that kind of morning.
Until next week, gents.
Simple plan for tomorrow:
Run the HT mile.
At school complete 10 pull-ups and 10 knee to elbows. Run to concession stand. Complete 20 derkins, 30 dips, and 40 LBCs. Repeat until 6:06 with goal of at least 10 circuits
Run the HT mile again.