To yucca, or not to yucca
Pretty awesome morning, weather-wise, greeted the record 18 of us at the greenway parking lot. What was intended to be a brief explanation of the planned route set the stage for the next hour of anarchy / chaos / free play / choose-your-own-adventure that followed.
Thang
Planned route:
Run into Sardis Hills – Old Bell, left uphill onto Blue Ridge, right onto Mountainview to the base of Mt. Horse’s Arse.
Hill repeats – up Mountainview, continue uphill by taking right onto Old Bell, up to the yucca plant. Backwards run to the cul de sac. Run down. Repeat.
Frasier, TL, and YHC seemed to be the only ones to continue this for all, or even most of the time. Everyone else did whatever the hell they wanted, which mostly seemed to be run a hill repeat or two, and then add in a short or long loop around the neighborhood to lengthen the recovery time.
Somewhere around 6:10, most of us said the pledge of allegiance at the Griswold flag – must see to believe – and then moseyed back to launch for COT.
Announcements:
- TR reminded about F3 Golf – abbreviated sign-up period, so do it now before it is too late.
- Swiper reminded about the hardest workout on Rea Rd tomorrow: Pre-blast
- High Tide, in absentia, and to save him time in the comments section, reminds of reflective A51 shirts. Order by Wednesday.
Moleskine
As promised, no exercises and intentions of avoiding a possible kidnapping.
If you haven’t experienced the suckfest that is Mountainview / Mt. Charlotte / Mt. Horse’s Arse, it is worth the hype. In short, it is a big, steep, long hill – the closest thing to BRR-level “hills” that I’ve seen in Charlotte. It doesn’t have the “wow” factor of Muthaship, and definitely won’t fit on a shirt as well – so don’t get any ideas High Tide, but the suck factor is pretty close.
A lot of “encouragement” out there today, which helped. Guys pushing each other to keep going, run faster, etc. Alf reminding me I wasn’t running backwards for instance, or me offering Sundancer advise on running headwear’s effects on aerodynamics.
Frasier says backward running slows him down and crab walk is kryptonite, but running hill repeats is wheelhouse. I’m pretty sure I got passed at least twice, and feeling fortunate he hasn’t uploaded to Strava yet. Turkey Leg wasn’t far behind him. Like a 2-year old, Tiger Rag chose not to play with others but rather in the same general area doing whatever he chose, which seemed like alternating short and long loops. Virtually everyone seemed to deviate from the planned route at some point.
I’ve still never seen him, but Chester apparently has a crush. The neighborhood unfortunately has multiple points of ingress / egress, so when Stone Cold is inevitably chloroformed and thrown into the back of Chester’s trunk, we will likely never be able to find him. However, SC is generally running with someone, and much as a cheetah goes after the slowest and weakest member of the pack (pax), Sundancer is rightfully concerned.
Several unofficial site FNGs – Curd, Swiper, Udder (I think)…maybe more.
No clue has the conch next week, but after today, I’m not sure it matters much. Much like BRR, I enjoyed it today, gents – except for the running. Same bat time next week.
- Kirk
Yucca repeats plus a twist
Tiger Rag made me promise no exercises, and something about not doing something else that I didn’t quite understand. Anyway, here’s the plan for tomorrow:
0515 – launch from greenway lot and head for Mountainview.
Hill repeats with a twist. Run up Mountainview slight right on Old Bell to continue going to the top of the hill (yucca). Backward run to the end of the cul de sac and back to the yucca. Recover run down. Repeat until 6:05.
Run down Wilby, right on Wilby. Stop at the Griswold flag for Pledge of Allegiance. AYG back to the launch point.
For those so inclined, SYITG.
- Kirk
The Hendrix
“Short” workout, so “short” backblast. YHC came into the lot playing “All along the Watchtower”. Only High Tide. No offense, bro, but that was disappointing. He ran in, which was the dumbass thing I did that led to a month on IR. Anyway, we got after it. Stated goal of a 6:30 opening mile declared, we were off. And it went about like you’d expect after a month on IR. Wheezed my way to a 6:48. Ugh. Fortunately the stated goal pushed High Tide to tie his PR on the HT mile.
Behind the school, we went into a modified version of the original pre-blast. HT went 15 pull-ups and no Burpees. At least for a couple rounds. Then we both audibled to 10 pull-ups and 5 Burpees. We kept the 20 dips, derkins, squats piece of the equation.
HT says he hit 80 pull-ups, which puts us at about seven sets of each #math. Then we ran the HT mile again. I tried to run with High Tide, which awkwardly never worked out as intended. Might be the slowest mile in awhile, but foot made it out ok, which was goal #1 for today.
Oh, and Daisy made an appearance. Newsflash, he actually works for Board of Elections. Who knew?
Last thing, High Tide is looking for advice on neon yellow or neon green for a new A51 shirt #crowdsourcing. No word on whether the alien survived. Sound off in the comments.
- Kirk
Pre-blast: The Hendrix
Origin of this came from finding a bunch of MP3s of questionable origin on an old laptop that amazingly still fired up.
Listening to DMB’s “All Along the Watchtower” led to the more famous Hendrix version:
Anyway, that’s just good, throwback stuff right there. And that’s what we’ll be doing tomorrow.
Partner up and run the HT mile. Head to the back of the school. Partner 1 runs to playground for 10 burpee pull-ups. Partner 2 completes 20 dips, 20 derkins, 20 squats. Flapjack. Repeat until 6:00, then run the HT mile again. First one back leads Mary until time.
Sorry to disappoint, Purple Haze – running six miles after a warm-up isn’t a bad thing to do with an hour. I’m sure you’ll make it to the top of the deck this time.
Why? Part 2
Just a touch of rain on the cars this morning, but ground was pretty dry for the 10 of us that showed up at OPE. The two site Qs were so far ahead this morning, that we both wrote pre-blasts. Were it not for Twitter notifications, we’d have had dueling pre-blasts….but as I had the Q yesterday at DMZ and promised this to be part 2, I somehow won out. That, or Sundancer really didn’t like Bushwood’s parking lot shuffle, which is entirely possible as it included WW2 situps #pukedancer.
Anyway, we decided to forgo the 3-mile Murph (I still think of it sing-song to Gilligan’s Island theme song) and went with the classic Murph.
Run a mile. 100 pull-ups, 200 merkins, 300 squats. Run another mile.
Classic upper body beat down. Everyone finished early (Swiper in 36 minutes), so we had multiple minutes of Mary…in fact, we all kind of took turns with her right there on the baby track. It was something to behold.
Hammer and Sledge went full Elvis after the initial mile and left the building. I thought it had to be something Sundancer said, as is typically the case, but no…they Elvised. Not sure which, but I’d guess Sledge because he couldn’t drive himself. Note – there is a porta-jon on site at concessions.
Runstopper was waiting in the parking lot when we finished the initial mile. This was a wheelhouse workout for him, too. Reminded me of Nibs (underrated pull-ups for the big man, despite what Cougar says) and Monkey Feet #Namaste, who both crush this type of workout.
With the tunes out, and a lot of upper body work to do, everyone got into their own little pain caves, which was only broken up by momentary hilarity. I can’t, and won’t, regurgitate all of it, but it was a good time. Lot of 2nd F out there today.
I seriously thought Nuke was showing off and doing one handed pull-ups for a minute, which he quickly denied. Just a really close grip, as in hands almost overlapping. High Tide was appreciative this was the 2-mile version, and somehow, he managed to continue with pull-ups while laughing. I could not. No idea who called for 10 Burpees at the end of Mary #refusenik. Xs and Os was fun. A little harder to hold the X today after leg day at DMZ.
Enjoyed it today, gents. We’ll be back out next week.
Announcements:
Swiper has the Q at Death Valley tomorrow. He likened it to Armageddon, dogs and cats living together, and “yeah, all that shit”. So, should be a happy Hump Day!
F3 Dad’s Camp – sign up now or get left out. Awesome time!
Why
Lone Survivor was on FX last week. It’s entering Shawshank territory for me. If it’s on, I’m probably going to watch it, and that made it pretty easy to plan for this week. Good info here (feel free to point and laugh at Crossfitters being slow):
http://boxlifemagazine.com/murph-why-we-do-it/
We’ll obviously finish in less than 45 minutes and first to finish will lead Mary (etc.) until all are in.
Rustic – Leg day
Beautiful morning welcomed 16 of us to Carmel Park. Clock struck 0530 as Orlando ran into the lot, and we were off.
Thang
Mosey through Church at Charlotte courtyard. Quick, obligatory 10 SSH and out the back of the church to Colony. Down to the bottom and stop at the guard rail for 25 dips IC. Mosey up to the light at Sharonview. Left and first left to Rustic Ln.
This was a decent hill for ladder work.
Start with 10 squats at the bottom, run backwards to the top for 10 lunges. Run back down for 11 squats…I think we got to 16 when we called time. One trip of partner wheelbarrow to the top for variety.
Mosey back to Carmel Park (choose your own adventure) with just enough time for 6 minutes of Mary. Swiper joined at this point.
Moleskine
Strong, veteran crew that stayed pretty close together. Opening half mile down the hill at Colony was at a 6:35 pace, and it didn’t stretch out too much.
We arrived on Rustic, which was not the intended destination. It was however a fairly steep, longer hill that more than sufficed for planned leg day. Certainly appeared that the trash bags were being moved back.
Gummy apparently deputized Hairball into the form police. Good reminders. Next time HB will get the reps right too.
Decided to use the X’s and O’s during Mary. Those are pretty awful. Covered +/- 3.2 miles with a lot of leg work bAlso, not a single merkin today. That was mostly by design. YHC caught Lone Survivor on FX the other night, so we will be running the Murph tomorrow at SOFAWIB. Come out to complete the full body experience.
The Smokey redux
Preemptive apologies for the uninspired backblast. WordPress got me down.
Anyway, four of us in the rain…go time.
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 with encouraging takeout by Booyah.
Some went a couple minutes into OT, but everyone finished two complete sets with mileage of +/- 4.35 depending on the watch. Throw in 200 merkins, 200 knee ups, and 200 squats…and that makes for a nice little 45 minute workout. Good work today, gents!
I’ll admit to cursing myself, and later Alf, for choosing The Smokey for today after DMZ yesterday. Way too similar. That was not a good decision. I was definitely not attacking the hills today. Cold Cuts pulled away on the final mile, which coincidentally was all uphill to OP.
Good to have Curd and Booyah today. Do not cross Curd. Dude can hold a grudge. Not sure he’ll ever forgive Haze for moving the AO to South Carolina. Booyah wore the “cool” trucker hat. Yep. It’s all in the interpretation.
That’s all.
– Kirk
“If you’re flammable and you have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit.” – Mitch Hedburg
Pre-Blast: The Smokey redux
Tomorrow we’re running back an original called “The Smokey” – name makes more sense with the video. We will be going Nascar style and turning left out of OP to run the mile down to Providence Lane West. For those unfamiliar, this half-mile long road has a slight hill with five side streets.
Route: https://www.strava.com/routes/2985882
Mosey down Providence Lane West and complete the following at each side street: 20 jump squats, 20 merkins, 20 knee ups (A little twenty twen twen). 100 of each per trip.
At Lancer, turn around and run up to Rea (no stops – this is a pure run / AYG up the hills). Then repeat the whole set.
Complete 3 sets #stretchgoal, or at 6:06, run back to OP. First one back leads Mary until all are back.
Total of +/- 5.3 miles with some decent elevation change, 300 jump squats, 300 merkins, and 300 knee ups, if completed.
On its maiden voyage, I believe a few of us hit 2+ complete sets covering +/- 4.8 miles with 200 each of the exercises, so yes, there will be a lot of running and a bunch of exercises. And… it may be raining. SYITG
Possibly worse than frisbees
That was a fun morning. Near perfect weather. Good, but odd, group of regulars who know the deal.
Thang
We ran the HT mile. Planked in order of finish by the implements. Waited an eternity for Sundancer who took his sweet, sweet time, even stopping to grab the speaker and tunes out of his car. Partnered up for partner races.
Partners run to playground (+/- 75 yards) and each do 10 pull-ups. Run back. Loser does 5 burpees. Winner takes 5 turns around the bat (Dizzy bat).
Partners run to outfield fence (+/- 50 yards) and each do 20 merkins. Run back. Same. Repeat with 30 squats. Repeat with 40 knee ups.
Back to playground for pullups. Outfield fence for merkins. Squats. Knee ups. Repeat again.
Run the HT mile again – or for the injured site Qs, an extended session of Mary.
Moleskine
Well, that went about as expected. It was jointly the dumbest thing I’ve ever done (BB title, possibly worse than Frisbees) and absolutely freaking hilarious. Those first few steps…wow. Swiper timed a drunk joke perfectly for the stumbling punch line. Daisy and I had several sprint finishes, and then we started almost losing on purpose (too dizzy). And yeah, that was pretty awful. I think it was almost universally decided that Dizzy Bat was worse than 5 burpees – even after Horn’s “leventy-million” merkins yesterday at DMZ. No one puked, though YHC came surprisingly close a couple times. I would have put money on Sundancer, but it appears that it really is only a WW2 situp deal (or mental). Amazingly odd.
YHC left the watch, but I’d guess total mileage was 3ish for the pax and a mile less for YHC and Sundancer, who was fighting some kind of leg injury. Lots of interesting stretches, I think, during the workout. Didn’t want to leave him behind solo on the final mile, and the back was beginning to act up again, so we had an extended session with Mary. Xs and Os were particularly awful.
I think we got in 4ish sets of exercises, but it’s a little fuzzy. Gents – thanks for putting up with what may have been my best, or worst, workout idea to date. It was fun.