YHC had a few game plans for rain and no rain. Mother Nature was kind so I went with loosely thought out plan No.1 – to go to the least used Ballantyne Quad that YHC hadn’t been in his 4+ years. Frehley’s informed me that they had just been there a week prior. So this section of the AO will be new not new.
What we did:
Mosey the long way over to Ballantyne Commons / Johnston Rd. intersection and carefully cross (THC wanted to stick on asphalt hence the long way). Continue down towards the BP station and hang a right up and into the Harris Teeter/Fox and Hound Quad. Stop at breezeway past JJ Red Hots.
Circle for:
Merkins x 15
SSH x 15
Flutter x 15
Carolina Dry Docks x 15
Mountain Climbers x 15
LBC x 15
Partner up. = 300 Squats, 200 LBC, 100 Merkins total each team
– Partner 1 does work while Partner 2 runs around the outside of the fountain area. Flat jack and continue until the team completes the counts. Some Mary and six inches while you wait on the 6 to finish.
Mosey through the breezeway to the first speed hump about 20 feet away. Instructions given – We will run around in a figure eight around the HT parking lot and do 5 burpees at each hump. There’s 10. After the 1st hump YHC realized that we were going to be running short on time so we audibled to 5 merkins at each hump.
After completion we lined up for an Indian Run up to the intersection. Carefully mosey across Johnston and finish with 3-4 minutes of Mary with the overachieving early finishers at Swift.
Observations:
– Appears that #Cantore won this AM with lower than normal numbers for Bagpipe. Guys – never trust a weatherman.
– It’s been a while since I’ve posted with Kirby. He’s been to 2 of my workout leads in the last 2 weeks — not sure he wants to come to another soon. #notarunner
– Fredo doesn’t sweat. Ever. Proof that he’s a machine. That and he keeps trying to convince us he’s 50. Hmmm – Not aging, no sweat, no slowdown. Yea, he’s a machine.
– It’s really good to see Escargot back. Now that he’s in the over 40 crowd he knows that he’s battling father time and has to keep posting.
– Someone ripped an absolute monster fart – not blaming anyone, but Frehley’s posted today.
– Patent Pending apologized for falling back a little on the Indian Run, but DUDE! You, Kirby, and Speedbag were grinding it out hard core. No apologies necessary. Keep up the effort!
– Long Haul is a pretty good runner. He either likes us Bagpiper’s instead of Swifters; or is just there to make us look ssssslllllooooowwwww. Mission accomplished.
– Same deal with Mermaid. No sweat, easy peasy on all the exercises. Busted out 75 merkins in a second because “I wanted to get them done”. Our leader is a cyborg.
Thank you for letting me lead guys. I really enjoyed it.
Announcements:
– Tomorrow at The Maul – it’s ‘bring a friend’ day convergence.
– Tomorrow – Death Valley converges with Anvil. Coffee afterwards and words of wisdom from Stinger.
– Speed For Need – Watch the video and make a donation. There’s not a better cause to support. And Tolkien will buy you a car. No lie.
6 skipped the Savage Race (insert sound effects) and posted a nice May morning at daVinci. YHC learned a lesson from the site Q Tuck last week in venturing outside of the same old spots so we decided early to visit the beginning of Community House. But first….
Disclaimer as we began. Quick mosey to BBT and circle.
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Merkins x 10
Mtn. Climbers x 10
Up, cross over Rea and begin up AK towards Community House. Random stops along the way.
Stop somewhere before the hill climb and partner up.
Catch me I you can up to Community House.
– Round 1 – 5 Burpees for partner 1 then catch partner 2. Plank while you wait. Indian run back down to start.
– Round 2 – 5 Merkins. Indian run back down to start.
– Round 3 – 5 LBC. Friendly mosey back down.
Mosey to new parking lot and grab a lifting rock.
– 20 curls, 20 press, 20 extension, 20 bent row – run lap with rock around drainage pit. We will do that same circuit 2 more times.
Mosey back to CFA for a quick flutter and heels to heaven x 20 each.
NM:
– Mighty Mite was unimpressed with catch me if you can so he took off sprinting to Community House. YHC gave up chasing him. I believe that silent protest took its toll on him though.
– Smooth call by Paper Jam in finding 5 rock piles around the new retail building on AK. We’ll visit that place again.
– Awesome 2nd F at Chick-Fil-A afterwards. We had a great discussion of some legendary comedy movies. From Old School and Wedding Crashers to Monty Python and Blazing Saddles to Office space. Please all Pax! – find one or more of many opportunities for 2nd F.
Thank you guys for letting me lead.
Announcements:
– Quote of the day from Kirby: “Savage…uh never mind.”
– Actually, there is probably time to register if you felt so inclined.
– May 24th – FNG convergence at The Maul. Grab a new guy or someone who hasn’t posted in a while.
– Please read about Speed-for-Need; a great cause spearheaded by our very own JRR Tolkien and Metro’s Nash. Here’s the link. http://f3nation.com/2017/05/12/speedforneed/
YHC didn’t have anything written or thought of for a workout today except for an old but effective starting exercise that Radar introduced. Some of the vets caught on quickly; the others soon found out.
We quickly moseyed over about 40 feet and circled up.
SSH x 100. Yes that’s right – ONE HUNDRED
Mosey to 1st speed hump behind HT for Paula Abdul (2 steps forward, 1 step back).
– Run forward for 10 Merkins and then back for 10 LBC. Run to next speed hump for 10 more Merkins and then back for 10 LBC. So on and so forth until done.
On your 6 for flutter x 50 then LBC x 50.
Up and Mosey to the front side of Target. Lunge walk all the way to the stop sign. (~50 yards).
Squats x 50.
Mosey out of Stonecrest at Ballantyne Commons entrance and West up B-tine Commons over Elm down to Ballantyne Trace Ct. Hang a left and up to Forum Ave. to catch our breath. Frehley’s was having none of that so some did Mary while YHC heaved with my hands on my knees. #tiredQ
Here we did 7’s – CCV (Cumberland County Viaduct) Right side at corner of Forum and Ballantyne Trace and Left side at the top at Elm.
Mosey from Elm over to the fountain in front of Forum at Ballantyne Commons office building. Partner up. Partner one – dips. Partner two – run around building. 5 times around the building for each partner (we got 3 laps).
Back to the start with a final AYG and fast minute of dolly before we’re done.
NM:
– We moved really quickly today. Everyone was pushing. Great showing by all.
– F3 feeds to all aspects of our life. I met another Insurance professional and am getting lunch out of it #winning.
– Frehley’s knew what was up on the SSH shorting after passing 35. I think he and Mic Check stopped at 70 and did another exercise. Their prerogative #modifywherenecessary. I think the remaining wished they had stopped. This is definitely a crowd pleaser. Tclaps to Radar for the first that I know of to start a workout with 100 SSH. What a D-move. Man we miss Radar!
**Bucky stopped me at BROlympics and said he was still sore from the SSH #itworked!
– We got 3 miles and stiff legs.
Annoucements:
Sorry I forgot all, and this is late (BROlympics was last Saturday and was a blast) but – Richard Sheltra 5K;
Bucky’s street fest; COTS.
Bucky’s thing – 4/29 – fundraising event for Kenya orphanage. 4 brews trucks, food trucks, Whiskey Dollars band. $25/person. kids free. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spring-fling-craft-brew-fest-tickets-31849876839
What a wet Monday morning! Not a lot of cars in SCMS parking lot. Only four arrived, and we only disembarked about a minute before 5:30.
“I was hoping that you and I would be the only people to show, then we’d cancel.”
“Are we really going to do this?”
“I will if you will”
“F-it. Let’s go”
“Are you wearing the ruck? We are running for shelter?”
“How far” “about a mile” “Let’s Go!”
I initially wanted to go to the 2-story office off of Raintree and Willow Point by way of Woodfox and Rounding Run, but mother nature quickly changed my mind. We went 2 by 2 from SCMS down Hwy 51 to the beloved shelter of Raintree Village Center. Partner up.
Partner 1 will perform an exercise while partner 2 runs down the breezeway, up the stairs, back down 2nd story breezeway, and back down for the loop. Then flip flop.
We did 3 sets targeting arms, abs, and legs:
Set One – Merkins, Diamond Merkins, and Carolina Dry Docks.
Set Two – LBC; Flutter; Dolly
Set Three – Squats, Lunges, and Calve Raises (we ran out of time before getting to the calve raises).
Quickly back to the start and a little early finish.
Count off, name-o-rama, prayer for Mad and his 1st Go-Ruck this weekend!!!
Get out of the Rain!
Soggy Moleskin:
– This is the 1st time I’ve posted but seriously considered cancelling. I’m so glad that we didn’t. I had some great 2F with Mad. Good luck at your Go-Ruck!
– I also really enjoyed running with Drano. He’s a great guy. Grab him for partner work next workout.
– Crash I believe was the most ready to workout this AM vs. bolting for dryer places. Tclaps for also knowing exactly the ‘shelter’ I had in mind. Shows he knows the AO well.
Announcements:
– Richard Sheltra
– Whatever it’s raining
Monday morning and only 4 of us were starting off a winter week after a spring month. Numbers were inevitably low due to the large swing down back into normal temps, and no one ready for that after a 70 degree February. Tool Bag did promise that Cheddar would arrive, and he did – running in from the dark right after warmup. Good thing because we were going off campus.
– Quick circle – call out newer Pax to run the warm up. First up – Tool bag for SSH x 20. Then Private Benjamin for IW x 20.
– After Cheddar joins us; we run out to Main St., up and left on Johnston Dr. all the way down to Belle Johnston Park. ~ 0.8 miles
– Mosey down to the Amphitheatre for some circuit work.
* 10 Merkins to start and then run a loop the Amphitheatre including all 4 sets of steps (2 sets up, and 2 sets down). We did 6 rounds. On each round, we traversed the stairs differently per round. Here’s how:
* Round 1 – Run up and down each stairwell hitting every step
* Round 2 – Run up and down each stairwell hitting every other step
* Round 3 – Hop up and down each stairwell hitting every step
* Round 4 – Hop up and down each stairwell hitting every other step
* Round 5 – Lung Hop Sideways up and down each stairwell hitting every step
* Round 6 – Lung Hop Sideways facing the opposite direction up and down each stairwell hitting
every other step
– Mosey down to the picnic area for Fake News Ab Workout (See BB for last edition of daVinci). Set timer for 3 movements and 4 rounds. This workout really targets shoulders.
Movements involve the picnic table bench:
* Parker Peter bench
* Bear crawl reach
* Bear crawl step down
– Partner up. Partner one to do dips while Partner two runs up to the top of the hill at the Belle Johnston Community Center and back. Total # of dips = 200
– Quit early to get back to the cars.
– 1 minute left for quick Mary.
Moleskin:
– No one was fully ready for the 20+ swing in temps for this morning. Except Tool Bag who was in shorts.
– We made sure that the participants of the Merkin/Pullup Challenge got a great jump on the day with at least 70 Merkins.
– Small but fun group this AM. I really like the AO with a lot of possibilities. A Saturday, 1 hour long workout should be in the cards for the extra 15 minutes. Belle Johnston Park has a lot of options.
– Thanks for Cheddar and Dumpster Fire for letting me lead.
Annoucements:
– SOB date nights – Madame has set up F3 guy and M date nights with fellow Pax all through to this fall. There’s a ton of really cool events that you should go to and have adult couples time with fellow F3. It’s simple – do you like to hang out with the guys? Getting the girls together with other girls is an easy way to do that.
– F3 Dads – Ever want to sing the National Anthem at a Baseball Game? F3 Dads are taking over BBT Ballpark in May to do just that.
– F3 Dads – F3 Dads camp tickets are opening this week. This is an incredible event for the Dad and his kids. Tickets go fast so don’t wait. (Too late per Halfpipe – sorry)
YHC has been surfing the net (Youtube) for some unique workouts. I thought I was golden with a 4 movement, bench utilized, 4 set ab workout. Awesome – abs in the beginning, and abs in the end. Various coupon movements in between. Here’s how it played out…
– Grab a partner and pick out 2 bricks each person.
– Mosey to BBT and circle
– Lay down bricks and SSH x 20; IW x 20; and Low Slow Squat x 20.
– Jaywalk over Rea to the fountain in front of the medical buildings.
– Watch a cool video of a dude performing an ab workout.
– Recreate said ab workout.
– Realize it’s actually ripping our shoulders to shreds.
– Mosey to the parking lot behind buildings for some brick suicides.
* One partner runs out ~ 15 ft. and lay down one brick; run back and pick up another brick; runs out ~ 30 ft. and lay down brick; run back and back out with another brick for ~ 45 ft.; back for the last brick and out ~ 60 ft. While partner one runs; partner two does LBC.
*Partner two runs out and picks up 1st brick, runs it back; performs above suicide run except he’s picking up the bricks instead of laying them down. We did 2 rounds of this.
– Jaywalk across AK and over to the breezeway for a brick and running circuit.
* Rounds where one partner does movement with bricks and the other runs up the stairs, down breezeway, back down far stairwell, and back to breezeway where partner eagerly awaits.
* round 1 – brick presses
* round 2 – same
Poor attempt taken to recreate Mike Tyson’s. Thankful for Soft Pretzel for correcting me.
* round 3 – brick man-maker merkins
* round 4 – flutter
* round 5 – something else
– Mosey over to fountain between Brixx and Bravo for a triple nickel: 5 brick diamond merkins; run to far side of grassy mall area for 5 brick squats. Run it 5 times.
– Another round of Youtube ab workout. Another burning sensation in shoulders.
– Quickly back over to Chick-Fil-A for round ‘o pax call of various Mary. I believe we got 4-5 different called exercises before time.
Moleskin:
– Liked the ab workout, but renaming it a shoulder crusher. YHC should try these out beforehand. I guess I was fooled by the Fake News on the internet.
– I enjoyed seeing Fredo and Cable Guy at DB’s Tavern the evening before. Glad to have their support after they saw in in a bit of rare form.
– Chopper been posting very regularly. It’s pretty awesome to have such a strong collection of *RESPECT brothers in F3. Fredo promises he’s in that lot, but I’m unsure. Cable Guy is closing in fast.
– There’s been a great regular daVinci group with Bucky, Paper Jam, Escobar, and Heartbreaker. It’s a ton of fun posting with these guys.
– Soft Pretzel is in great shape. Dude is pretty fast even running with bricks.
– Mighty Might is faster than most men half his size. Beast
– Welcome El Swampo. Pretty sorry display for all of us on the naming this morning, but the more I say ‘El Swampo’; I actually think it’s pretty hilarious.
Annoucements:
– Wall project – Saturday March 18. There’s a sign up genius.
– SOB/Area51 date nights. An option every month to get couples together.
21 degrees was the forecast for this Saturday’s edition of Stonehenge; so 9 of us decided the best course of action was to hightail it to the Ballantyne Village parking deck’s lower level. Little did they know that YHC left a surprise.
Quick disclaimer before we began. Then a quick summary of our travel intentions. Right before we were off, I realized that I left my notes in Heartbreakers car. Before I could retrieve it, the group had begun the quick mosey up the hill to the warmer confines of BV subterranean parking. Heartbreaker and I gave chase.
We reached the bottom and circled up:
SSH x 30
Squat x 30
Merkin x 15
LBC x 30
Mtn Climber x 30
10 Burpees
Heals to Heaven x 30
Log run / concrete column weaver relay:
Break into 3 teams of 3 and grab a cedar log from my truck bed. We will relay race and weave between the columns (there were conveniently 3 columns) – approximately 75 yards and maybe 10-12 columns. Catch is that the runner will shoulder the log while running down and back.
– 1st race – run forward. The winner was the team of Fire Hazard, Wild Turkey, and Commish.
– We all do random exercises with winner the easiest and lowest reps.
– 2nd race – run backwards with said log. Winner again was Fire Hazard, Wild Turkey, and Commish.
– We all do more random exercises.
– 3rd race – Carioca with log. Winning team was Mighty Mite, Heartbreaker, and Strawberry
– We all do more random exercises.
Mosey to hill for 7’s – squats at the top; merkins bottom.
Run a few fellowship loops while YHC bounces ideas off Wild Turkey and figures out what to do next.
Grab a few bricks and find a spot on the wall for people’s chair.
– Hold the bricks out front for a Pax led 10 count. Raise the bricks for air raises x 30
– Hold the bricks out front for a Pax led 10 count. Raise the bricks for air raises x 25
– Hold the bricks out front for a Pax led 10 count. Raise the bricks for air raises x 20
– Hold the bricks out front for a Pax led 10 count. Raise the bricks for air raises x 15
– Hold the bricks out front for a Pax led 10 count. Raise the bricks for air raises x 10
– Hold the bricks out front for a Pax led 10 count. Raise the bricks for air raises x 5
Run up each level to the top; meet up at the bottom of the stairs/ground level; and quickly back to the AO almost right on time.
Notations:
– The surprise was that I dropped my truck off at the bottom deck level. My bed was full of some of my coupons: cedar logs and brick pavers.
– Wild Turkey and Heartbreaker were doubling down here and then a 5k at the Jingle Bell 5K. They weren’t holding back at all either.
– Heartbreaker is pretty fast forward; but backward…is…another…story…….. That’s OK because (see below)
– Fire Hazard went astray on the last relay race and opened the door for an upset. Always the overachiever! This time it backfired.
– In Heartbreaker’s defense, I had already tried to get us kicked out by hitting the log against anything breakable.
– It’s insane the temperature difference in the lower deck area. That parking deck is a gem for the SOB’s.
9 started but 10 finished the most recent installment of daVinci. We were very active today – visiting every retail establishment. But no one was buying; we were only window shopping.
The Workout:
Blakeney has retail in 3 of the 4 quandrants at Rea Rd. and Ardrey Kell Rd. We will do 5 LBC at EVERY door to EVERY store and/or storefront (Including Vacant) starting at Chik-Fil-A; traversing to BofA and that quadrant; then traversing over to main Blakeney and tackling every door that we can find there. Group is to stick together, and not get to far out ahead of anyone so YHC will call single cadence at every stop.
Total is over 700 LBC and around 3 miles.
Moleskinny (after so many LBC’s):
– This workout was loosely detailed and planned together which ended up be a great thing because we kept making adjustments from Pax suggestions. Each added a great deal to the workout and YHC really appreciated it. Some of the highlights were Tuck’s suggestions for Bear Crawls between doors. Another was Stumphuggers help in counting doors and how many we should do at garage doors.
– Adobe was out taking a stroll in jeans and a pocket knife. #protectionfrombadguys We picked him up a little over half way in and he finished strong with us; so no one will question why he wasn’t there in workout gear. Statement of the day was from Heartbreaker = Adobe: “I don’t know guys, I’m starting late.” Heartbreaker: “Why should that matter Adobe – you always roll in late!” #burn
– A lot of great chatter today. The title says it all!
– Coffeeteria had 7 in attendance. YHC believes that’s a record for this site. It was really enjoyable, and something that everyone should commit to on Saturdays. Each man has a great story, and it’s nice to find out more about your F3 Brothers. I enjoyed conversing with Bucky. He’s a pretty dynamic guy so I recommend hitting him up for coffee soon.
– I know I forgot a lot great BB material. Sound off in comments to fill in my blanks.
– Thanks for letting me try something different. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as me (the fellowship more than the workout; which wasn’t bad).
14 13 men gathered before the Thanksgiving beatdown for an appetizer consisting of bricks, posts, and random other lumber / logs. Everyone got their fill.
Circle up:
– SSH x 20
– IW x 20
Mega Starfish – Partner up and a quick circle around the Starfish to review and explain each exercise station. After explaining each movement and number of reps per team, we gathered back in the middle for instructions that we will perform 10 merkins every time we returned to the middle.
Starfish Stations:
– Station # 1 – One partner = Thrusters. The other = Skip Rope. Total Thrusters x 50 total per team
– Station # 2 – 2’x6’ Curls and Overhead Press x 50 each per team
– Station # 3 – Brick Man-maker Merkins x 40 total per team
– Station # 4 – 2 times through agility ladder with Walking Brick Merkins
– Station # 5 – Overhead press w/6’x6’ post x 20
– Station # 6 – Cedar log squats x 100 total per team
– Station # 7 – Partner Post run out and back
– Station # 8 – Cedar log hand snatch x 50 total per team OR controlled slow shoulder raises
We finished with time to spare, so we elected to keep running through the stations.
– Initial WOD didn’t involve my equipment, but a late request from Bratwurst changed my mind. No one had experienced my Atlas Home Depot equipment before, so I’m hoping they all enjoyed something different.
– Speaking of, Brat had to bail before we began due to a fear that the workout would ruin his finely-honed runner’s body. In actuality he’s nursing an injury — get well Brat – we need you out leading us brother.
– Stumphugger almost bailed from work to join us, but YHC didn’t want his tie wrinkled. He did look all about business though!
– We were separated from each other the majority of the workout so I didn’t catch a lot of BB material.
Thanks for letting me lead.
9 gathered in front of the theatre for this Thursday’s installment of Rebel Yell.
We began with a ‘short’ mosey to circle for quick – IW x 20; Peter Parker x 10; Parker Peter x 10.
Good enough; we’re off.
We then ran a direct route straight up towards the mouth of The Murderhorn…BUT I took a deceptive quick left at the last second, and took us instead to another nice inclined hill, albeit much shorter.
At Ballantyne Trace Ct., we settled upon 7’s. From the top of Ballantyne Trace down to Forum Avenue, 6 burpees would be performed at the bottom; 1 squat at the top. Then 5 burpees; 2 squats. That would continue until we were at 1 burpees/6 squats. We regrouped at the top after the final combination, where McGee and Pop Tart were caught busting out flutters while they waited.
Afterwards, we ran back down to Forum and regrouped at the fountain in front of the office building. Our circuit here would be:
– 30 dips; 5 box jumps – run a loop (clockwise) around Wells Fargo
– 20 dips; 10 box jumps – another loop around Wells Fargo
– 10 dips; 15 box jumps – 1 final loop around Wells Fargo
After a short breath; we ran up and over Elm down Ballantyne Commons to the 1st left entrance back into Stonecrest where we stopped at the bottom of the Target parking lot. At the top of the parking lane we performed 10 merkins. At the bottom of the lanes we performed 15 LBC. This repeated this for every parking lane up to Smoke – 23 totals lanes equals 220 merkins and 330 LBC (it works out I promise).
At a quick pace we moved back to our launch spot for a final 30 LBC.
Thoughts/Observations:
– McGee, Poptart, and Morning After were pushing out front all morning. Great work men.
– I led from the rear today which shows how hard everyone was grinding.
– 3.32 miles according to Frehley’s body clock. It felt like a lot longer. I wore my watch but forgot to start it. I believe Heartbreaker said we got 3.6 — Frehley’s was pretty close!
– Adobe was a late arrival, but got after it quickly.
– Heartbreaker is ready for Fast Twitch or Swift. EH him to post there.
– Goonie was sporting a new ride in time for vacation. “Honey, my car just will not make it. I think I need a new one”. Smart move.
– McGee’s got a new ride too. I wonder if he used the same line as Goonie? I need to try that line for a sweet Mustang GT350R.
– Van Pelt…what can I say about Van Pelt. Everyone knows how awesome he is. If not – post with him and find out yourself.
– The zig zag exercise needs a name – I called it ‘Geiger Counter’. Heartbreaker called it ‘Lie Detector Test’. We’ll take suggestions.
Thanks for letting me lead you guys.
Announcements:
– Christmas Party
– Joe Davis Run