14 men decided to make the choice to honor their obligation to Fast Twitch. There were a few regulars traitors that went elsewhere this morning. You know who you are. With the addition of a couple faces not seen in some time at Fast Twitch, a couple of stragglers coming in right at 0515, and a Bug Eater, the not so professional nor detailed disclaimer was thrown out there and we were on our way. Here is what we did:
The Thang:
0615 on the dot.
Ye very naked moleskin:
YHC was happy to see both Bug Eater and Joker making back to back weeks at Fast Twitch. Knowing how fast Joker is, I was pretty confused when we circled up and he was no where to be found. Purple Haze tried his best to keep Joker’s indecencies hidden from us, but finally confessed that he was dropping off a package in the woods back there and wanted us to wait for him. My immediate thought was all those reports of the creepy clowns trying to lure children into the woods. There are lots of bus stops in Raintree and Joker takes his name pretty seriously. May have gotten a little awkward, but alas he showed up. Little did he know we’d soon pass right by a portajon (which probably had hand sanitizer that he did not stop for), as well as, Gummy’s RV. Multiple options. Joker did quickly return to his usual form and ran much faster the rest of the morning.
Nobody likes the Providence Rd. hill. I hate it. I also know that there are several of those types of hills on the Charlotte Half Marathon course coming up in a few weeks, so I figured you all could join me in my training efforts. Thanks guys. Much appreciated. Today was not Kiawah friendly with all the hills, but you should all know that I am a proud card-carrying member of #NoTrackTuesday club. So never fear that from me. I think only 3 people made all 3 rounds of the hills: TL, Alf, and Fault Line. Everyone got in at least 2 full rounds, with some turning back half way on the 3rd.
There was a good bit of confusion on the rolling suicide along RT Ln. Some people just stopped when they got to a street. Some people just kept going (PH and Soul Glow). Only a few actually did what they were supposed to. Everyone certainly was a little confused when Bug Eater somehow went from the six to the front of the pack on the downhill. He said he just needed to know what it felt like up there. How was it? Per usual, Turkey Leg led the pack all day (with the lone Bug Eater exception). He was even nudging me along the warmup mile to speed it up.
Nice morning out today. Little warmer than it should have been. Gummy did his best Mr. Brady impression with the wringing out the shirt at the end. Don’t want to get those seats wet in the low rider. Great to see Lex Luther and Grease Monkey out this morning. Also, great to have Icicle back out there. Thanks to Duct Work for the take out. Not sure if I’m still #DeadToHaze or not, but hopefully I’ll be able to Q again another day. He did specifically tell me not to go through Raintree this morning. So there’s that. Thanks anyway for letting me lead.
Announcements:
17 men decided not to sleep in on a banking holiday known as Columbus Day. No protesters awaited us calling for it to be Indigenous People’s Day. A beautiful, crisp, clear morning awaited us to throw down like it was 1492. Lobsta Roll was feeling extra patriotic with his super hero Tom Brady back in the lineup and looking as sharp as ever. With a shovel flag planted, a quick disclaimer announced, we took off toward the lower parking lot and this is what happened:
COP:
Partner up and mosey onto the field and seek out ye old cinder blocks. 1 block for each pairing and head over to the sidewalk and line up. The first 3 rounds were a set number of reps you had to reach as a pair. P1 ran with the cinder block out to the 2nd light post, while P2 started the called exercise.
Each round had various planking in between. For the next two rounds, the blocks stayed at the sidewalk and partner 1 did AMRAP while partner 2 ran out to the second light post and back (sans block). Flap Jack.
Take the blocks back to their respective and not so hidden home. Mosey to far end of school and find a space on the long wall. This is where we gave respect to Columbus and YHC made up something called 14-92’s. We’d do 14 reps of a called exercise, followed by 92 seconds of people’s chair with variations added in.
With 17 sets of very shaking legs, we took it over to the main parking lot to loosen them up. Three rounds of sprints at various speeds:
Back to the cars for a couple minutes of mary:
That’s all folks!
Ye ol’ moleskin:
Solid crowd of the regulars out there today. Per usual, Floor Slapper rolled in a minute or so late in which Alf told him he needed to make up for the 20 burpees he missed. See, when you joke about burpees, you get burpees. I just wasn’t feeling like doing 20, so 10 would have to suffice for the time being. The usual gripes came out when we started getting the blocks, but the confusion and telling the Q he’s doing it wrong happened when YHC called to run with the blocks and do exercises without them. It’s always good to change up the routine from time to time. During one session of planking we were down on elbows and I tried to hold for a little longer than usual. It became really quiet and somebody mentioned they could go to sleep. If you can go to sleep mid elbow plank, we need to step up these workouts.
The 1492s seemed like a hit…before we started them. What began as a boring people’s chair in the first round, turned into much more gripes, whines, and strains in round 2 when we went toes up off the ground. Squid claimed they were worse than monkey humpers. I guess we have now found the only 2 things that can bring Squid down. Next time I’ll try monkey humpers with the toes up. Pop Tart quickly tried to say that Columbus did not do any burpees on his trek to the Americas. I’m sure the boys on the boat did lots of things they didn’t put in the history books. It was a long trip back in the day. #ThingsGotWeird We definitely needed to get the legs moving by the end of that last 92 seconds. My legs were cramping and shaking like crazy. Wind sprints are always a nice time filler.
Overall, great morning and thanks for letting me lead. Great takeout by Young Love as usual. See you all again soon.
Announcements:
On a crisp, cool morning with the smell of college football in the air, 31 men from Day Zero, Olympus/Ascent, and The Rock all converged on the smoothest parking lot in all of Area 51 for a Saturday morning beatdown. With YHC having focused on running workouts for the last several months, I was a little nervous about leading an hour-long bootcamp. But then I remembered this was going to be at The Rock, so the bar was going to be pretty low (shots fired from the Day Zero camp). With the clock saying 0700 and the disclaimer claimed, this is how it went down:
The Thang:
Warm up mosey around the parking lot/exploring to make sure the bigger rock pile was still there, and back to the big lot to grab a few stragglers. Circle up for YHC’s extended COP:
Mosey over to the large rock pile closer to Hwy 51 and grab a friendly running rock. Mosey back to the parking lot while holding the rock above your head. Partner Up.
Return rocks to rock pile and head over to Hot Box.
Mosey back to parking lot next to where we park the cars and line up in 2 lines (harder than it sounds apparently). Since it is opening weekend in college football, what better way to commemorate than to do some traditional football camp up/downs. Of course we replaced the regular up and downs with burpees. High knees until YHC calls out a number. Then pax do that many burpees. Take a break with a jailbreak across the parking lot and back. Repeat for another few minutes. Another jailbreak, then back to the cars.
Circle up for a minute of Freddie Mercuries x 20. Abrupt stop right at 0800. That’s all.
Total # of burpees on the day: 75
Total Mileage: 2.9 without leaving campus
Ye Naked Moleskinnith:
I was scheduled to Q Day Zero this week when I was forwarded an email from Gummy begging us to join them and Ascent/Olympus for a convergence at The Rock. I figured that would be fine, I don’t mind passing the buck a week out from BRR. Then Gummy went on to say that he doesn’t have a Q, so being the nice person that I am volunteered to Q the convergence. It was later that I realized it has been a few months since I Q’d a bootcamp due to all the BRR running we’ve been doing. I normally just hide in the back at the bootcamps that I’ve been to and only do about half the merkins and burpees as called (that may be true for year round as well). There was no hiding today, so my horrendous merkin form was on full display today. Good news is I wasn’t alone. It’ll be back to merkin mania in 2 weeks for everyone.
I wanted to make today a solid workout for all since these are 3 very different groups. Some rock carrying for Ascent/Olympus, burpees for McGee of Day Zero, and running for The Rock. Great stuff from everyone out there today. It was fun being with a large group of guys that I don’t see very often. Some of you I hadn’t seen in a while and some I don’t think I’ve ever met. The opening COP took about 20 minutes and certainly allowed for plenty of mumblechatter. Gummy, per usual, did more talking than he did burpees. Lots of gripes about the J-Los and all forms of slow merkins. More calls for Imperial Walkers throughout the morning. The people’s chair with heels in the air got the legs shaking real early into it. I hope everyone was able to enjoy that as it was hard to see anyone as we were all wrapped around the hotbox.
I was so focused the entire hour of staying out front and alive, I really did not have much time for any observations. So feel free to chime in below on what you saw out there today…other than my merkin form or lack there of. Thanks to Alf for the takeout and to Gummy and Hopper for allowing me to lead today. Good luck to everyone this week at the BRR. See you all on the mountain!
Announcements:
18 men (sans site Qs) showed up for another session of “Let’s run fast, far, and up & down hills” at Fast Twitch. Per usual this time of year it was a brisk 80+ degrees with 100% humidity. The shirts came off faster than on Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday. Here is what we did:
The Thang:
-Warmup mosey to Raintree Ln. Stop and do 10 SSH to wait for the six. Maybe 1 other person joined YHC in the SSH. Solid work, men.
-Continue mosey to top of Raintree Ln at Four Mile Creek and stop for instructions:
— Run down 4MC, left on Whitethorn at the blinky light, left on Raintree Ln. and back to 4MC intersection.
— Option 1: Repeat loop for a 2nd time
— Option 2: Run hill repeats from bottom of RTL by gravel lot to top at speed hump past 4MC.
— Meet at gravel lot at bottom at 0605
-Form 2 lines (not really though) for Indian Run back to Rounding Run
-Free run to Woodfox and stop for the six
-Russian Twist x 20
-AYG back to school
The Moleskinny:
Slightly smaller group today than I anticipated for less than 5 weeks from the BRR. No site Qs to be found. One was clearly DR and still running. The other was still complaining about his run-in with a stingray and used an excuse about needing to drive to Atlanta. Still no Hairball sighting. That’s 2 days in a row of no-shows for him. Beaker was getting a little nervous because HB talked him into meeting at 0445 to run in to grab some extra miles (Silliest idea I’d heard all week). But then HB decided sleep was much more fun and Beaker smartly walked back to his house, got in his car, and drove to the running workout. Gummy, per usual, was asking to turn around early and wanted to know when he could make choices. This isn’t The Rock – you actually have to do a full workout here.
The usual fasties jumped out front on the first loop and took off. Mr. Brady, Gerber, Alf, and Beaker did their thang and racked up over 7 miles each with their 2 loops and hill repeats. Van Pelt and YHC were the only other ones to take on the loop a 2nd time, I think. Correct me if I’m wrong. Great running with you VP. Strong work out there. EDIT: Voodoo, Cheese Curd, and Marvel also ran the loop twice. Then they screwed up and ran all the way to Providence. Happy? My apologies, I was typing this BB very fast and very hungover.
Most everyone else got in at least 6 miles or close to it. I don’t know which was the easier option of the hill repeat of the loop. The idea was that neither would be easier, so I think that worked. Shout out to Strawberry (the actual one and not his pastry twin Pop Tart) for getting in 6 miles. His first time passing that threshold at FT. Solid Work!
The Indian Run never really worked from the beginning. I said to form two lines, but it was one long line and a line of 4 guys that disintegrated almost immediately. It was probably for the better since we practically were playing Frogger along Raintree Ln with all of the cars that were rolling through. The IR was supposed to last until Rising Meadow, but with everyone getting spread out, the audible was called to free run to Woodfox.
Apologies for the late BB as YHC was traveling and working all day/night in Raleigh. Thanks for the take out by Runstopper. Everyone continues to get faster as we get closer and closer to BRR. Keep up the great work and try not to get injured. Run, stretch, rest, repeat.
Announcements:
– The Rock is converging at Randolph Middle School on Saturday 0700 with Metro for a workout, coffeeteria, and campus cleanup.
– Sign up for the 8/20 pool party.
24 men, realizing that there are less than 5 weeks until the BRR, decided to once again (or for the first time for several) take on the Mount Charlotte Horsey McHorse Arse Yucca Plant of Pain. Here’s what we did…maybe:
0515 – 20ish men left the Old Bell parking lot and headed for the base of Mt. Charlotte for a slight warm up. At the base, YHC laid out the plan for you to choose to accept, or just ball it up and throw it in the trashcan like most weeks. Head up to the Yucca plant (via the usual route to the right) and back down to base camp at the bottom. Turn around and head back up Blue Ridge Circle, but take a left on Mountainview, right on Wilby, then left back up to the Yucca. Turn around and come back the same way to base camp. Continue to flapjack which side of the mountain your are climbing and descending. Meet at the flagpole at 0608 for the pledge of allegiance, then back the cars.
The Moleskinny:
We had several site FNGs this morning who all looked so happy and eager to take on the Horsey. Looks like most everyone survived (HH may have come up a little lame)…but not nearly as excited as they were. Moreso happy that it was over. When I arrived, Horsehead said someone with a bright headlamp came up to him and said, “I’m getting started early…see ya in there!”. Horsehead, now partially blind, couldn’t see who it was. It was Fish Wrap of course. I guess he was needing to get in some extra miles. Not only was he first in, he stayed after to keep going. #FILO #beast #crazyman. Swiper also got a quick head start because he had to leave early. Put in a solid 30 minutes. I hope you’re proud. Udder and Margo were a minute late and had to play catch up. With the up and downs on either side instead of going in one big loop, there was a lot more of seeing each other than most weeks. Unfortunately with that, more and more of us are going shirtless. #ReflectiveSkin
As usual, the directions went in and out of the ears of several pax. There weren’t many stopping and turning at the Yucca, instead continuing the end of the culdesac to grab as much O2 as possible on flat ground. Alf seemed to be the only one who heard me. He questioned me twice on it and then went on to rat everyone else out that they weren’t stopping and turning around at the right place. This is HoMcHoA…there are no rules, man.
Great to have Slim Fast and Sensei out this morning. The Mouth woke up the neighborhood with his megaphone speaking level. Chelms finally made an appearance after saying he would for the past 6 weeks. Ickey Shuffle came out after running the Asheville Super Spartan on Saturday. I think you deserved a day off, but thanks for joining and keeping the legs loose. Mr. Brady, Fletch, and a bunch of team F3Metro were smoking it up front the whole time. Solid work by all.
Chester had a friend with him in the driveway this morning. It was another dude. Roommate? Slumber party? Are there bunk beds in that house? So many questions. At least they were both clothed…from what I could tell.
Thanks for the takeout by Slim Fast. See you all next Monday.
Announcements:
Check the weekly email for the details.
16 men remembered the announcement from last week, checked twitter, or got a text about the location change for today’s session of Fast Twitch and showed up despite the described forecast of 95% rain and an hour of hill work. We launched from the parking lot of Jay M Robinson athletic fields and headed into the south side of Raintree for a #BRRgutcheck.
1 mile warmup mosey:
Partner Up – Similar Speed would be beneficial
**Rainbow Forest Dr. is right at 1/2 mile in length from cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac**
Head back to parking lot
Moleskin:
YHC wasn’t sure how many would show up this morning with 3 things going against it: 1) location change, 2) weatherman calling for 95% chance of rain, and 3) a preblast stating it was going to be running for almost an hour on one street back and forth. I was pleasantly surprised to see 16 of Area 51’s finest show up. Also special shout out to Wild Turkey for joining us! He figured since he lived so close and wanted to get in some miles he’d join us. FYI: You can get to South Charlotte Middle without leaving the neighborhood. You should join us every Tuesday.
Started out a little bumpy this morning with a very dark parking lot and difficult parking. Two guys really seemed to have trouble parking and had a battle of wills about who was taking which spot. Once we launched down the dark sidewalk, we quickly found several not-so shallow puddles. Thankfully nobody lost a shoe today. After lots of mumble chatter during the warm up mosey about how steep these flat streets we were running on, we arrived at Rainbow Forest – a hidden street tucked in the backside of Raintree that I stumbled upon a ways back. Always thought it would be great for FT, but it would take too long to get there from SCMS that we’d be like Clark Griswold at the Grand Canyon. (“Ok, let’s go!”).
Rainbow Forest is a half-mile long gradual/rolling climb topped up with a short, but very steep hill. It was split amongst on which was tougher: the steep hill at the top or the gradual false-top hill at the bottom. My opinion, the gradual one at the bottom sucked the life out of me, but I was able to regain enough to take on the steep one. Talk amongst yourselves.
The usuals were killing it out there today: Mr. Brady, Gerber, Alf, Hairball were leading the pack. After that the group kinda got split up and I couldn’t really point out who was doing what. Van Pelt towards the end just kept doing the short, steep hill over and over. We had a majority of the group hit the big hill one last time together while we waited for the rest of the group to get back from the lower cul-de-sac. All in all, I was really impressed how well everyone was running out there. I don’t feel nearly in good BRR form, but I think a majority of you have a good head start on training season.
Maybe we can hit the Rainbow Forest one more time before BRR to see how we improved. Most everyone got in 5 1/2 to 6+ miles today. See how much more we can get next time.
Thanks to Turkey Leg and Purple Haze for letting me lead today and to allow me to change to location. Always a pleasure to lead a fine group. Thanks to Chelms for the takeout.
Announcements:
We’re are launching at a different location tomorrow to take on a new hill in early preparation for the 2016 BRR. It will be basic. It will be repetitive. It will suck. This is meant to be a #gutcheck to find out where you stand in your BRR training. It’s early, so we will probably all be terrible. But hopefully in a couple months we can try this again and see some serious improvements.
Launch from the Jay M Robinson Middle School Athletic Fields Parking Lot at 0515. **NOTE: This is not the regular middle school parking lot. This is the smaller athletic fields parking lot on Ballantyne Commons.** See twitter for map. @ProhibitionF3 #plug
1 mile warmup mosey:
Partner Up – Similar Speed would be beneficial
**Rainbow Forest Dr. is right at 1/2 mile in length from cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac**
Head back to parking lot.
As stated, it is 1 mile from Rainbow Forest to/from the parking lot, so give yourself time to get back.
5 men posted at the High Intensity Day Zero workout ready to go with smoke boots laced up. The official DZ shovel flag found its way out of the dark, spider-filled corner of Hairball’s garage to make an appearance. We ran around the school out to the front driveway for a brief warmup:
From there we headed down 51 towards Calvary. I promised everyone we’d do some running and it wouldn’t be the CCHS parking deck. Pass the 1st couple entrances at Calvary (No Rock Pax to be seen…) and cross the street into some new territory for Day Zero: The Whitegate neighborhood. Home of a very nasty steep hill on Five Knolls Dr. for some 7’s.
From there, back out of the neighborhood and across 51 to head into Calvary’s hotbox with the warm smells of Chic-Fil-A biscuits and Gospel music blaring.
Head out of the hotbox towards Rea Rd. Finally we spot the FIA pax at The Rock. No site q’s anywhere in site.
Run down Rea, right on Bevington and stop at the wall behind CVS
Run back to Day Zero AO going a couple minutes over. We covered over 5 miles.
Moleskin:
Small, but strong group this morning. Strawberry was a little concerned about the running, and I’m not sure Swede even knew we were running today, but they did fantastic. I was “leading from the back” several times today. The 7’s destroyed me right out of the gate. That hill was worse than I thought it was going to be and it just drained the life out of me. As usual, Hairball and Buttermaker were way out front just killing that hill.
Things got a little weird towards the end when we got to CVS. Buttermaker asked me to scratch his back in a spot he couldn’t reach. I was so delirious and O2 deprived that I actually did it. I don’t know what is wrong with us. Why did he ask me to do that? Why did I actually do that? #gross
Great stuff today fellas. Excellent 2nd F along with some nasty 1st F. #HighIntensity
Announcements:
13 men decided to start their week off right by showing up at The Matrix. Here is what happened:
Warmup mosey to lower parking lot with some buttkickers and high knees. Had to make a second lap to kill some time for the inevitable tardiness of Floor Slapper and O’Tannenbaum.
COP:
Mosey across school to dumpster area & partner up:
Stroll around the corner and find a spot on the wall:
Mosey to front parking lot of school and line up on the sidewalk:
Back to the cars for Mary:
That’s a wrap.
Moleskin:
Great group of guys out there this morning. Everyone put in some serious effort out there today. Wasn’t sure I could keep up with the likes of most of you, so I had to come up with something I could go at my own pace. Luckily there was an odd number, so I REALLY got to go at my own pace without a partner. Orange Whip had the smoke boots on this morning. OT had his usual eye rolls going when I mentioned burpees. Back Office and Witch Doctor were like the silent assassins this morning. Fast and quiet. Signups for ninja school are coming out next week.
Welcome FNG Doughboy! Way to hang in there. A fresh faced 19 year old pastry prodigy (maybe). Orange Whip owes you some cupcakes for bringing you out. Keep coming back! Also, Pop Tart was almost renamed Doughboy this morning. Good thing the FNG owned it.
We found out the Lobsta Roll does air presses on his own on Saturday mornings around 9, but HATES being told to do them. He was an angry Lobsta this morning. Case of the Mondays, perhaps? He blamed it on all of his teams losing this weekend.
No shovel flag once again. Apparently it doesn’t fit in Squid’s smart car. Take a lesson from the OQ Joker. Just hold the flag out the window as you drive. It works and you look really patriotic. #merica Thanks for the take out!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
……………………………………….just look for the email
Prohibition out.
Posted on behalf of Radar:
7 of Area 51s finest avoided the Geriatric Q down the road and put in some real work
The Thang
Q pairs everyone up and hands out sands bags.
Mosey down to the basketball court
o 25 hand slap merkins
o P1 – 25 over head press with bag P2- 25 Air presses (Rotate)
Pro Takes over
o 10 Pull Ups
o 20 Dips
o 30 Supine’s
o 20 jump ups
o 20 derkins
o Elbow plank leg lifts x 10
o 20 jump ups
o 20 derkins
o Suicides
o Flutter x 25
o Rosalita x 25
o Freddie Mercury x 25
Molskin
Strong group out there. I paired up the fast guys and gave them the heaviest bags. They complained the whole time. It was the only way the rest of us could keep up though. We covered some ground and nothing is easy with a 35 lb sand bag on your back. Not to mention the 50 lb bags the fast guys had to carry. McGee and TL stayed out front. Teddy and Buttermaker were not far behind. I did see Teddy throw Butter some dirty looks. I can only assume it was because they were not moving as quickly that he is accustomed to. YHC had to bail early so he could get home and get his three kids to the soccer fields by 0830. Pro had more than enough notice that I was leaving early. So really no excuse for his Q. Great to lead the best site in F3 nation.
And apparently Radar is only good for a 45 minute workout. That is all.