Hold On

Hold On

Some day somebody’s gonna make you want to
Turn around and say goodbye
Until then baby are you going to let them
Hold you down and make you cry
Don’t you know?
Don’t you know things can change
Things’ll go your way
If you hold on for one more day
Can you hold on for one more day
Things’ll go your way
Hold on for one more day

 

Blame it on Slim Fast (!!!!).  He sent our mutual friend K. Wilson into the gloom, gloveless and alone. Big League Chew came through with a pair of chaw-stained gloves from an 80’s circus wrestler hailing from Yazoo, Mississippi, and the rest of the folks promised to keep an eye on him.  There was much work to be done today and some doughy FNG wasn’t going to derail this Weinke.

Since Bulldog has quit twitter I had to catch him up on Mr. Oh-No!-vember.  We exchanged a hearty chuckle there, mate.  Then we were off to fetch tires from the dark corners of the track, and hauled them down to the HS parking lot.  Some did.  Some wise-apple grabbed the gokart tire while Squid and a few others rolled commercial truck tires down the hill.

A bit of COP to make the the Sheeple think it’s business as usual and then-WHAM-O–a burpee ladder right in the kisser.  10 down to 2 and then the old surprise 10 burpee finisher.  Spackler and Bounce took turns on back rubs while our FNG power through them like a champ.  Or maybe he didn’t cause I sort of lost track of where he was.  The Tall Man Burpee Disadvantage was on full display this morning.  Faultline’s length, however, and his glacial burpee cadence, was an advantage to the rest of us. We caught our breath and watched the poor sap gingerly lower himself to the ground, as if he had just dropped his contact lens.  Sorry, dude.

Mosey to the new courtyard for a 3-man grinder.  Do an exercise while the other two ran to the top of the steps.  We start prying for info from the FNG, whose last name is Wilson.  I educating Bulldog on Puddin’ Head Wilson when it took a nasty turn in the direction of Wilson Phillips.

Random Pax:  “What was the name of that song th….”

Squid:  “Hold On.”

Random Pax:  “Oh yeah.  Who was the lead sing….”

Squid:  “Carnie Wilson or Chynna Phillips.  Wendy Wilson was not as well known but she was good, too.”

Random Pax:  Alrighty then.  How about those Bears?

The Pacific:  it’s a big, lonely ocean, my friends.  It will break a man……(Also, thank you for your service.)

One to an ambitious running of 7s with tire hairburners and burpees on each end.  Had to dial the hairburner length down from LOOKED GOOD ON PAPER to STILL SUCKS BUT DOABLE.  Alf and other short people led Mary (burpee advantage).  We put our toys away, circled up for 2 minutes of Mary, during which a man to my left gave birth to a large part of his lower GI system, managing to offend all five senses simultaneously.  It was that bad.

COT, Name the FNG (Gaffer), and a take out by the birthday boy Orange Whip.

Veterans Day Mountain Goat Pre-Blast

Mountain Goat will meet as usual… 0515 at South Charlotte Middle School.  On tap for Veterans Day is one of my FAVORITES:  5-5-4-4-3-3

Here is how it will go down:

  1. Warm-up/stretching; mosey to track
  2. 5:00 I-Pace/4:00 Recover
  3. 5:00 I-Pace/4:00 Recover
  4. 4:00 I-Pace/3:00 Recover
  5. 4:00 I-Pace/3:00 Recover
  6. 3:00 I-Pace/2:00 Recover
  7. 3:00 I-Pace/2:00 Recover
  8. Cool down

Promises to be more fun than anyone should be allowed!  See you in the morning!

Five reps… should be easy enough (WRONG)

Haven’t posted at Meathead in a while (running got in the way a little bit) and I have missed it dearly. Great site and regulars out there week in an week out getting stronger. Being a 0.0 site gives plenty of time for quality and quantity bell work. We would focus on quality and quantity this morning with a 5x5x5 routine designed to kick up the heart rate and keep it elevated for maximum impact! Here is how things went down when the clock struck GO TIME.
Warmup consisted of
Ssh x20IC
20 alternating swings OYO
Merkins x20IC
20 overhead presses OYO
IW x20IC

Warmup over – tunes commence for the main event as follows:
5x5x5 (5 reps of 5 exercise for 5 rounds)
5 swings EACH ARM
5 cleans EACH ARM
5 snatch EACH ARM
5 high pull EACH ARM
5 shoulder press EACH ARM
25 merkins between Each Round
Cycle back through these five exercise including the merkins 5 times
Grab the tailgate and LBC’s to allow all to finish.

5 good mornings
5 two handed swings
5 goblet squats
5 thrusters
5 reverse lunge Each Leg
25 jump squats between rounds (modified to 15 jump squats for rounds 2-5)

Find a partner with a similar Bell
5 reps x 5 rounds of dubs (three exercises all we had time for)
Double Swing
Double Clean
Double Rack Squat

TIME

Announcements:
Christmas Party – December 2nd – sign-up
Joe Davis Run – January 7th – sign-up
Be on the lookout for a TurkeyDay Football game

Moleskin:
The guys at Meathead never cease to amaze. Tried to put a smoker together this morning and the pax handled it without any complaints. Lots of reps today and all of the meat and potatoes kb moves were employed. Should be feeling the reverse lunges and double squats right about now. First morning cool enough for a hat today, but it warmed up quickly over the course of the 5x5x5 kb circuits. I was gassed for a good portion of today’s workout, so if I missed anything comment worthy – please post up. If you haven’t been to Meathead – I highly recommend it. Great for runners too!

“How ’bout some more beans Mr. Taggart?”

Puddin’ Pop called in sick, so there was no SF.  Nonetheless, after a quick disclaimer – the pax headed out for another Thursday assault on the 3-headed monster.

The Thang:

Jog over to church lot across Rea Road for COP.

IW x 20 IC

Rockhopper x 13 IC

Slow Squat x 20 IC

H-R Merkin x 20 IC

Partner up and grab a rock from the creekbed.

Catch me if you can.  P1 with rock overhead double-timing/jogging while P2 does 5 burpees.  Repeat for 2 laps around the church.

Mosey over to OPE campus.

20 Jump-Up’s with squat

15 Jump-Up’s with squat

10 Jump-Up’s with squat

Elbow plank with alternating leg lift x 10 IC

Jog to school building

People’s Chair w/Overhead press x 25 IC

Partner back up.

P1 runs to concession area for 10 Incline Merkins & 10 Derkins while P2 does 5 pull-ups and LBCs.  Flapjack.  3 circuits.

Mosey to field for 6 MoM

Slow Flutter x 13 IC

Makthar Ndiaye x 13 IC

Freddy Mercury x 13 IC

6-count burpee x 13 IC

Protractor

SSH x 45 IC

Done.

COT

Ye Olde Moleskine:

Good to see Bananas post north of Rt. 51 again for first time since moving to the UC/Land of the Waxhaws.

T-claps to Jamboree & Cheese Curd for running into Hydra.  Curd is EH’ing something fierce for the Smoky Mountain relay…pretty sure Jamboree was an HC for that.

Some quiet assassins out there this morning – Marge & Jet Fuel to name a couple.

Speaking of assassination – what in the world was going on with Buttermaker’s GI tract??  Mercy!  At one point during the Inclines/Derkins circuit, I thought we might have to call the medic or veterinarian.  Unbelieveable.  No way he made it home without filling his drawers.

By the way, beware the “Q Trap”.  Never ask a site Q who’s Q’ing the next day if you’re not prepared to Q.  2nd time YHC has made that mistake. #slowlearner  And Puddin’ didn’t even have the courtesy to post…something about the sniffles or hangnail or something.

Speaking of Hydra, thusly named due to the original Tri-Q’s of Donkey Kong, 49’er & Bugeater.  When’s the reunion?  DK just can’t call 200 burpees….that’s just stupid.  In the immortal words of Long Distance: “Not doing it!”

By the way, pretty sure we saw Chico, Gummy and Bounce speed-walking down Rea Road.  What the heck guys?

Anyway, great crew and fellowship at Hydra as always.  Glad Good Hands & Puddin’ told me, I mean asked, I’m Q’ing.

Announcements:

Christmas Party – December 2nd – sign-up or Bean will bring the after-party to your house.

Joe Davis Run – January 7th – sign-up because hope is arguably the greatest gift to anyone, especially those battling addiction.

Bulldogs Matter – get in touch with Chelms to help positively impact young men at AG Middle who need encouragement, positive examples, and HOPE.  Lots of opportunities and proximally close to those of you in northern Area 51.

 

 

Turkeys Can Fly

This morning the crew of Devils Turn headed for the hills…Piper Glen hills that is.  The weather was cool this morning…a stark contrast to the muggy, humid, burning hot days of summer we grew accustomed to at DT.  The chill in the air was a nice break from the sweaty mess we usually are when we’re done.

The Thang

The main thang this morning was the Piper Glen route.  Hit the apartment loop for a warmup, then head up Rea to Old Course and through the rollings hills of PG.  A few of us started at 0445 for some extra miles (YHC and Frasier)….a few more of us started even earlier and got the coveted “night run” in on Strava (Both HBs…Hairball and HoneyBee).

Ye Olde Moleskine

YHC can’t say what happened with the night crew….I did that trek last week and could not be convinced to hit it again this Thursday.  I can tell you what happened on the 0445 warmup though…fast running.  Mental note…don’t let Frasier set the pace on a warmup.  We’re laying down 7:30s on a warmup and Frasier is chatting me up like we’re eating bagels at Coffeeteria after a workout.

Not too much mumblechatter today…the Pax got spread out and YHC got a little hurt so I missed a lot of talk.  Poptart started it off in stride by complaining why he showed up to a running workout when he doesn’t like to run.  It was his first post at DT so congrats….and yes we do run at DT. In fact, that’s all we do unless you count the pre-run bootcamp I put on for myself.  When he was finished he said it was the worst six miles of his life…i wasn’t sure if that was because he hates running so much, or because he ran the entire route with Outback.

We did find out Turkeys can fly….or at least their legs can.  Turkey Leg laid down 9+ miles in a low 7 min pace.  He was flying out there.  Haggis was right behind him grunting the whole way.  Hey..does anyone else think Haggis’ winter hat looks like a football helmet from the 1920s?  Also, apparently Haggis hates Honeybee and Hairball as he absolutely refused to say hello to them on the course. #allbusiness

Tiger Rag was his usual upbeat, chipper, and optimistic self.  Never any complaints or sarcasm from him.  #hurryupletsgetmovingdammit  #CARUP…ISAIDCARUPDAMMIT

A few of us settled into a nice pace…Van Pelt (thanks for showing up to DT), Bratwurst, Longhaul, Stone Cold, and YHC were doing a nice smooth 8 min pace.  Everyone was feeling good about themselves until Bratwurst started complaining about how tired his legs were and how sore he was….so he could ONLY run at this pace.  Thanks for the support brother.  Longhaul was a beast on the hills today…kept powering up them and ran away from us.

YHC couldn’t hang this morning….a sore foot from all the training forced me to slow it down and turn back early.  F3 brotherhood came through strong as everyone stopped to make sure I was ok….and then left me on the side of the road.  #ihaveabooboo

Thanks for the opportunity to lead this morning.

Announcements:

Christmas party – sign up (yes…we are having a party in case you hadn’t heard)

Operational Sweet Tooth – buy presents for kids…do it….after you sign up for the xmas party.

Long run this weekend on Saturday at 6am – McAlpine Greenway.  See Bratwurst for details.

 

Sharpening Iron

14 men, including 1 FNG, posted for what promised to be a well-rounded, FNG friendly post.

Here’s what we did:

The Thang:

Mosey over to Starbucks for COP: SSH, IW, Merkins, and Mountain Climbers

Mosey over to the 131 Main parking lot for Merkin Ladder sprints. Sprint across the parking lot do 12 merkins, sprint back 11 merkins, etc…

Mosey down Blakeney Heath road at the bottom of the hill at Knightsdale Drive for 10 burpees.

At the Playground, partner up. Partner 1 do 10 pull ups, partner 2 do 20 merkins, flap jack. Rinse and repeat, plank to wait for the six

Run back down Blakeney Heath road at the bottom of the hill at Knightsdale Drive do 10 burpees and return to the Playground.

At the Playground, same partner Partner 1 do 10 pull ups, partner 2 do 20 merkins, flap jack. Rinse and repeat, plank to wait for the six

Split into 3 lines for relay races. Front man does starts the bear crawl relay. PAX in Line does the called exercise in cadence.

Mosey over to the hill infront of Well Fargo for triple nickel with backways bear crawls up hill and CDD at the top and the bottom.

Mosey over to the park fountain for Mary. Back to Chick-Fil-A

COT

Moleskin:

It was a great morning in the Gloom for a post. I’m pumped we finally have cooler weather.

The merkin ladder sprints were painful to kick off our morning. The bear crawl relay was a nice mid workout break, plus we got to hear Paper Jam complain about my bear crawls. The bear crawl, CDD triple nickel always sounds easier than it really is.

Welcome FNG Brownie.

Always a pleasure leading the men in the Gloom.

Announcements:

Sign up for the Christmas Party by 11/18. The party is on Friday 12/2.

The Brave, Fight Club and Centurion are converging at stone crest the Friday for Veterans Day.

✯✯✯ ÅΜ®ÅP ✯✯✯

Pre-Thing

It was absolutely beautiful weather this morning. Enough chill in the air to keep the sweat level down, but not so cold to make it painful to touch the asphalt for prolonged periods. Here’s what went down at the Maul today:

  • 0500 : YHC rolls up, along with Beaker, Heartbreaker, and Strawberry.
  • 0500 – 0525 : Pre-run, 2.8 miles-ish down B-commons, up the Murderhorn, around the shopping center and back to launch. Nice warm up, good 2nd F.
  • 05:30 : Main Event

The Thing

Warmup
  • Mosey away from the cars to form a large circle.
  • Disclaimer given.
  • 25 SSH in cadence
  • 20 Low Slow Squat in cadence
  • 15 Merkin in cadence
  • 10 good mornings/windmill in cadence
  • Mosey up to elm and proceed toward B commons

AMRAP #1
  • big hill behind target
  • 10 hand-release merkins at the top
  • 10 deep jump squats at the bottom
  • Repeat for 6 min

  • 15 windshield wipers in cadence (better than a Q only demonstration)

AMRAP #2
  • 20 windshield wipers
  • run to end of row
  • 20 supermans
  • repeat for 6 minutes

  • Deconstructed Burpo’s (3 low, 3 high, 3 all together) (see Exicon)
  • Mosey to the fountain lot

AMRAP #3
  • 5 star jumps on each corner.
  • lateral, forward, lateral, backward running to get to each corner
    **
  • Mosey back towards launch.
  • One AYG Sprint of roughly 120 meters. ALL YOU GOT, it’s only one sprint.

Mary
  • 50 LBC
  • 10 6-inch plankjack
  • 20 Flutter (reg then high)
  • 10 6-inch flutter
  • Protractor

YHC with a breathy, post-burpee takeout word.

Moleskin

Good to see some new faces out there this late in the year.

  • FNG (Rueben) Deadline
  • FNG (Chip) BoomBoom

Solid effort from all during the beatdown. As promised, it was a UvU-palooza out there today, a couple AMRAP efforts of relatively short duration with some recovery-ish activities and jogging in between. The AMRAP loops were short, so getting lapped by Rachel or Squid was a definite possibility (happened to me at least once). Tuck was there, crushed it, and brought an FNG from San Diego (Deadline). Well done. I’m sure we’ll see you back. Site Q duo of Cheddar and Commish were crushing it. Commish was really pushing himself during the windshield wipers; respect. Cheddar was really pushing it to get there by 530, another 2-wheeled arrival, may have only gotten the last 2 reps of windmill in the warm-up. Triple7 had another solid morning of outperformance with a small pre-run and a lengthy post-run (6 miles total) and a strong, consistent effort throughout the main event. Beaker, Heartbreaker and Strawberry showed no signs of slowing up after the pre-run. Strawberry’s effort was especially impressive given the 7 layers he was wearing for the pre-run (clothes, not bean dip). First time posting with Dumpsterfire I think, the dude is solid and was near the front of the pack all morning. BoomBoom stayed strong for the duration despite this being his first bootcamp in some time. He was a mortarman in the Army (thus the Boom); thank you for your service my friend.

‘Twas an honor to lead you this morning, looking forward to you all returning the favor soon. Q Schedules for multiple AOs are open early next year. Make plans to lead !

Argo Out.

Suspicious Steamy Windows and Segment Hunting at Stonehenge

YHC should have seen it coming… it was all too obvious. It all started a few days earlier at HDHH (yes HDHH is still happening).

Actual Conversation…

JRR Tolkien:        “Hey Thin Mint, how you feeling? You gonna be able to Q Stonehenge this Saturday”

Thin Mint:           “I am going to try… but I dunno my calves are still not right.”

Mighty Mite:      “Are they sick? You’re talking about farm animals like the kind Madame Tousseau raises right?”

Thin Mint:           “No Mighty, btw those are chicks.  I was talking about different kind of calves… like the exercise calf raise? Not the baby cows.”

Mighty Mite:      “Oh… nevermind. That’s boring. Hey bartender, can I have a glass of milk? Eat more chikn!”

Fire Hazard:        “Hey Tolkien, if Thin Mint can’t go, I’ll co-Q with you Saturday”.

JRR Tolkien:        “Very kind of you Fire Hazard, I’ll let you know. So long as Mr. Bean doesn’t Q Stonehenge we’re all good”

Friday midday rolls around, and YHC is a bit late on Twitter marketing thanks to a busy day at work (which has been CRUSHING YHC lately). YHC calls Thin Mint and it’s a no-go for Stonehenge Q, which is all good, since my boi Thin Mint is the man… and needs to get healthier to smash Kiawah Marathon and Spartan Race Series next year #admittedmancrush.  The next call goes to Fire Hazard to pick up the Q as he volunteered at HDHH, but apparently in the span of two days has had enough of Einstein Bagel, can’t turn down Chik-Fil-A, or just flat out lied to me about wanting the Q at HDHH. YHC got some kind of excuse sounding like, “Oh sorry JRR, I’m watching the Teletubbies with my kids from 5:30am-615am so I can’t make it.” SMH! No problem… no need to cover up the personal invite to some other SOB site.  YHC gladly picks up the Q, in fact come to think of it, YHC hasn’t Q’d a workout for some time.  Blame it on Kiawah Marathon Training, blame it on MAF, blame it on One-Niner’s constant fat shaming of YHC, all of the above.  Heck YHC hasn’t even finished writing the 24HR Ragnar Trail Relay backblast yet! (at this point YHC waiting to make it preblast for next year’s event)

After giving it some thought YHC came up with the idea of Segment Hunting many of the notorious Strava segments near The Vine… Bagpipe Hill, Ben Nevis, Soul Crusher, The Bull Ring, Rushmore, and more to declare new Strava crowned champions, and take down Frazier’s records, if it were even possible.  F3HotTub Co-Site-Q Mario even hit YHC up on Slack claiming he was a HC, and might even bring his brother-in-law.  Fahvra usually shows up and would definitely be game. The plan was perfect.

Saturday Morning rolls around, and YHC pulls into the Vine Parking lot to see more than a handful of cars parked in the lot, some familiar ones, and then a white sedan with steamed up windows (more on that later).  YHC plants the F3 Hot Tubs shovel flag, still wet with bubbles, and we’re ready for Showtime! But wait, YHC looks at his wrist to see what time it is and NO GPS WATCH!  ^$%#$&^%&%^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Forget keeping track of time, how will YHC become Segment Champ without the results put on Strava! Tears were falling from YHC face faster than when I saw the video of a panda rescue the day before.  Suddenly, Bunker, Gumbo, Tuck, Mighty Mite, Goonie, Outback all emerge from their vehicles in The Vine parking lot, and I’m like… ‘BOO YEAH!’ the power of JRR Tolkien marketing in full-effect, since YHC got some DaVinci regulars and even the co-site-q to post.  WRONG! All of those clowns were going to do a pretend obstacle course race, known as the “Tough” Mudder.  C’mon fellas… step up and do a color run or bubble run or something that’s timed!   YHC was so pissed at the headfake, that I kicked them out of The Vine Parking Lot to park somewhere else and they obliged to keep from getting their cars keyed.  I hope the electric shockers got stuck on their weenies at Tough Mudder #somuchhate.

Now, back to that white car parked in the front of the lot. At first YHC thinks it’s Mario’s… It’s not.  Mario pinged me on Slack saying he was going to HC and even EH his brother-in-law, but after a short long night with his girlfriend PALMela HANDerson playing a game of 5-on-1 pocket pool…. Mario was worn out, and a no show. YHC starts giving the lengthy disclaimer when a lady steps out of the passenger door of the white sedan, walks around the back of the car to the driver side, then seems to pull up her sagging pants before opening the driver side door. YHC is trying to figure out what to do since another A51 workout did have several women participate in the workout a few months ago. At PAX request, YHC calls for some quick Freddy Mercury followed by some slow Rosalita in the parking lot to see if we can shake them pants off… NO… WE DIDN’T DO THAT. STOP! Not sure what was going on in that car but we stayed away… on to the workout:

Thang-a-ma-bob:

  • Extensive disclaimer given with FNG (Chicago native Jim “Billygoat” ) who is shaking in the lot, not from the cold, but from raw fear. YHC sees the fear in his eyes, and knows there is a high probability a law suit is in order. Head towards a surface lot do some stuff, pretend YHC cares about SSH or imperial walkers while practicing some cadence, although it’s not really done in cadence. Do some hand release merkins for fun. Enough… next.
  • Race up Ben Nevis all the way to Lancaster highway, a segment called ‘Ballantyne Commons Soul Crusher Part Deux’. Apparently the Ben Nevis segment is on the South side of Ballantyne Commons. Cheese Curd takes Overall (#12th place) after beating the snot out of the one-armed One-Niner (#19th place) by 9 seconds. The 2:05 record by Honey Bee, who must have flown to the top, get it.. bees fly, still stands. We do some funky ab exercises at the top, and run back down, do some dips on the rail at the bottom.
  • YHC finds a lighted hill by the pond, after the steep pond across the street was “too dark” to use according to One-Niner. Walking lunge up hill, walking lunge down, side shuffle squat up hill, and side shuffle squat down. BillyGoats are supposed to be expert mountain climbers, but this one was content to be grazing at the bottom in the grass. Ease into F3 buddy… it’s a marathon not a sprint.
  • Run over to a surface lot close to the bull ring. Do some dumbocrats, full sit-ups while partner planks, Carolina drydocks, more funky cruncheroos… listen to Cheese Curd yap some more. Watch Loogie and One-Niner squat up and down like they were bobbing for apples… candied apples since it’s just after Halloween.
  • On way back to vine, stop by another lot, do some Makhtar N’Diaye, low slow squats, sprint back to the Vine parking lot if you’re Mic Check like a Clown was chasing you, do more of those ab crunchie-munchies. Finito!

Holy Moley:

  • Cheese Curd is the KING of the hand-slap merkins, he gets his chest way down touching the ground in perfect form, and, well… never comes back up. Just slaps hands with his partner Mic Check laying totally flat. He’s also KING of the mumble chatter, had more to say than the Q today. Which wasn’t hard since YHC threw out the weinke and made up the whole workout. Love me some Curd, may even join him and some beasts for the Smoky Mountain Relay… ok, no I’m not.
  • Lex Luthor gets the award for the first guy YHC has seen bust out the winter beanie, in the form of a turquoise blue one with a pom-pom on top. Cmon man YHC was wearing a tank top! If Lex ever wants a renaming, YHC recommends we call him Shakira since his ‘Hips don’t lie’ when he side squat lunges up the hills.
  • MarketTimer’s attempt to fool YHC into ending the workout early by a few minutes failed, and he looked surprised that a man of his stature just didn’t get whatever he wants. After all, the dude has ticket connections to see Chicago Cubs in the World Series, and flashed pictures of himself doing shots off Led Zepplin’s bellybutton… or something like that #connections.
  • Loogie absolutely loved that we covered 4+ miles of running (thanks for taking care of FNG). He even told me that he was going to make it his New Years resolution to be a runner, kind of like how Voodoo did for a mid-year resolution. He confided in me that he wants to be just like another runner, Tiger Rag, by buying a new Jeep, just like him #LoogieLovesRunning.
  • One Niner is useless except for his legs, and even those are useless, even if they look nice and muscle-y.
  • Mic Check showed up to fine-tune his skills for the upcoming Turkey Bowl where his team is looking for a 3-peat? He displayed his elusive quarterback quickness by zipping past JRR Tolkien to The Vine on way back. Reminded me of when he sprinted back to Starbucks at DaVinci and cost YHC a coffee.
  • BillyGoat (FNG) – great to have him out, just moved to Ballantyne to have more kids than Tuck. Amazingly he didn’t throw up. But he was so far back of the pack maybe he did. It was great to have you out with the fellas this morning, and hope to see you out there in the gloom soon. You’ll be crushing these workouts in no time.

Panda’s Prolific Pontification:

Maybe it’s me, but YHC sees less and less PAX out on Saturday mornings to post and thinks it’s dissapointing. YHC loved the days of ~20 person coffeeteerias where it looked like we rented Einstein Bagel out for a private party with no strippers.  If you’re a regular, then disregard and great work showing up in the gloom to make yourself and everyone else around you better, and just to hang out to do life for an hour + some coffeeteria with some Brothers.  But if you ARE one of the guys who hasn’t been posting, why is that? Saturdays there are two GREAT options in SOBland Stonehenge @ 6am & DaVinci @ 6:30am, plus a number of others in A51 / Indian Land / Union County. For you newer PAX, show up, get better, meet some new friends, and chat over a cup of joe after.  Some of YHC best friends have come from a simple hour workout and 20min cup of coffee.  YHC doesn’t care WHERE you post so long as you DO post.  Yeah it will be colder, but your nipples won’t freeze… and if they do, likely they will thaw, even if they fall off. Yeah it’s early, but you’ll be home before the rest of your family is really awake and certainly before kids sports.  Stop with the excuses, and make it a point to show up and exercise your body, mouth, mind, and soul on Saturdays. Hope to see you out there.

Announcements:

  • Thanks to Mr. Bean for stepping up to Q Stonehenge this Saturday 11/12/2016 #awaitingthebackblast
  • F3 Christmas Party… don’t sign up. Save your money for a decent/indecent cause. All the guys everyone really wants there are already going, so if you haven’t signed up, odds are you really weren’t in high demand to be there. <Let’s see if reverse psychology works for all you deadbeats who haven’t signed up yet>. Most of you aren’t even reading this backblast anymore. Not that I blame you….
  • Joe Davis 5k/10k – take on the Tolkien Challenge…. Run your first 5k or 10k, I do 10 burpees… PR your race, I do 10 burpees, beat me in the 10k and I’ll do 10 more burpees and fork up some extra dough to the charity. Bring it on! All for a great cause… ending addiction. Addiction is real, learn from those who have fallen victim and don’t fall victim yourself.
  • Best of luck to those running the Charlotte Half/Full Marathon this upcoming Saturday. Don’t lay an egg, everyone will know about it, because they’ll still kudo you ‘Great job’ on STRAVA when they really mean… ‘you really shttt the bed bro’ so leave it all on the field Saturday, and endure a little more when you think the pain just can’t be any greater. And make sure you kudo me ‘Great job Tolkien’ in my Strava comments if I don’t crack 1:30 and please insult the hell out of me on Slack if I do crack it. #callingmyshotnow

SYITG ~JRR Tolkien

Glue Factory

Horsehead is Q at Monroe. Shortly after his Q begins, he is sent to the glue factory. The gloom can be dangerous when you can’t see a wire strung across. And it’s dangerous when HH is your Q.

Pre-Thang
EE joined Kiefer and YHC for a solid pre-run. Kiefer claims he didn’t know he could run that fast. My bet is he can be even faster. EE quickly jets off to #F3Outland

The Thang
HH was going on some sort of recon mission. He apparently missed the booby trap wire strung across. He comes back complaining about elbow pain. I wave it off as normal HH refusal excuse. #compassion

COP:
SSH IC x20
IW IC x20
Mountain Climbe…..Nevermind, HH nearly puked due to pain.

Ignoring sanity, he decides to press on. We grab two sandbags and carry them over to the bottom of hotdog hill.
Partner up and do Sandbag squats while partner runs up to the top of Hotdog HIll and does 5 merkins. Flip flop and then repeat.

At this point, HH bows out as the pain is too much. We take the sandbags back to his truck and he heads off to the glue factory.

YHC takes over and off we go.

Mosey to the softball field across from the Farmer’s Market
Ark Loader x3
Round 1: Bear Crawl to First. Crab Walk to Second, Lunge Walk to 3rd. Frog Hop to Home
Round 2: Duck Waddle to First, Lunge Walk to Second, Panther Walk to 3rd, Bear Crawl to Home
Round 3: Bear Crawl to First, Frog Hop to Second, Lunge Walk to 3rd, Crab Walk to Home

Legs are shot so let’s do stupid stuff

The Softball field is in a nasty hole. And the hill is literally almost straight down at the point I took us too.
Bear Crawl up/Bear Crawl Down. The down is simply nasty. Great core work to keep yourself from falling down the hill.
Repeato but this time, Nekot’s arms do a refusal so he slides down the hill. Great work brother.

Mosey back to the park to Hotdog Hill on the steep side.
Backwards Run Up with Bombjacks at the top and then run back down. 7 Bombjacks first round all the way down to 1 Bombjacks. #smoker

Now Lunge Walk to the covered area. Much complaining at this point. #success

At the covered table, we put our feet on the table bench and do 10 shoulder taps each shoulder. Without resting, move your feet to the top of the table and do 10 more shoulder taps each should. Then repeat back on the bench.

After losing HH and Boondocks, we have 4 remaining and I see 4 swings. Mosey down to Swings for Donkey Kicks IC x15

Now we lunge walk again across the field to the bottom of Hotdog Hill.

Back at Hotdog Hill, we run up to the top and do the Pledge in honor of upcoming elections.

And then I see the backside of Hotdog Hill is also really steep. I mean, really steep. Bear Crawl Down and Bear Crawl Up. After Round 1, Nomad seems to be wanting a Round 2 and you can’t just do something once, so Repeato. #awfulcore

We run down Hotdog Hill and again, Nomad reminds me we can’t do something once so we ran back up Hotdog Hill to the flagpole and then back down.

At the bottom, TPC x50 against the vertical poles. Again Nomad says we can’t do something once so we do repeato with TPC x150

2 MOM:
Rosalita IC x21 (Your Espanol is terrible except for Kiefer)
Protractor

Done!!!

COT:
Prayers for HH and Paige.
Thanks to Nomad for taking us out.

Moleskine:
– So HH really did end up breaking his elbow. Sorry to hear that brother! Hope it heals quickly. Way to try to tough it out.
– The Ark Loader was a spectacular start for your legs. Only went downhill from there.
– Downhill Bear Crawls on steep descent were also spectacular. Well, Nekot’s slide down was spectacular.
– It was all on the fly but managed to smoke some legs. Nekot threatened to kick me on social media but then he was so hurt that he couldn’t lift his legs. #Qwisdom
– The backwards up Hotdog Hill is one of Kiefer’s favorites. He pulled it out again just for him.

Thanks for letting me lead (or well, letting me take over once we put HH down).

Glass Joe

Election Hangover at the Charge

Eight brothers met in the gloom early on the morning after another peaceful election day in America. Despite the veteran crew, a complete disclaimer was delivered.

The Thang:

Head to the track for a warm up lap, then circle up at the 50 for COP:

  • SSH x 25 IC
  • IW x 15 IC
  • Low slow squat x 10 IC
  • Low slow merkin x 5 IC (down for 3, hold, up)

Line up along the goal line:

  • Broad jump 25 yards, run 25 yards, broad jump 25 yards, run 25 yards, plank at the goal line
  • Lunge walk 25 yards, run 25 yards, lunge walk 25 yards, run 25 yards, plank at the goal line
  • Bear crawl 25 yards, run 25 yards, bear crawl 25 yards, run 25 yards, plank at the goal line

Mosey to the bleachers for circuits:

  • 15 derkins, run to the top
  • 20 Bulgarian split squats (10 per leg), run to bottom
  • 30 bench squats (butt to bench), wobble to top
  • 40 LBCs, run to bottom
  • 50 calf raises, plank.

Repeato x 1 (the plan was to repeat 2x, but the Q’s legs were smoked)

Plank it up. LAH, LLH, Regular, RAH, RLH, Regular, 6″

Back to the field for a lap of CMIYC. Partner 1 runs while Partner 2 does 15 LBCs (audible to 10), then chases. Complete one lap (my story is that I didn’t want to wear Baracus out before the weekend), then mosey to the wall in front of the stands for People’s Chair. Right foot high, down. Left foot high, down. Air presses x 40 IC.

Back to the field for 40 yard belly sprints x 4.

Mosey back to the start point for Mary by committee. I’m probably missing some, but these are the exercises I remember:

  • Freddie Mercury
  • Dying Cockroach
  • Rosalita x 10 IC, Right Leg Rosalita x 10 IC, Left Leg Rosalita x 10 IC
  • Dolly
  • Protractor
  • Heels to Heaven
  • Slow Freddie Mercury

30 seconds left, so we did 5 burpees OYO. Thanks to Baracus for grading form. #clipboarder

Thanks to Pigskin for the takeout in COT.

Announcements:

  • Baracus is running the Charlotte Marathon this weekend. Most are aware of how hard he’s been training, so we know he’ll crush it. If you’re in town, consider stopping by to cheer him on (as well as the rest of the runners/crazies).
  • Please sign up for the Area 51/SOB/Indian Land Christmas Party. The organizers have put down the deposit, so help them out by signing up and making your payment. Details are here.
  • Please sign up for the Joe Davis Memorial Run. There’s always great participation from F3 and we hope that will continue. Details are here.
  • The Rock and Day Zero have merged at Cavalry on Saturdays at 0700 to from Rock Zero. The word on the street is that Swiper will be delivering a moderate beatdown this week.

Moleskine:

  • It’s always an honor to lead the pax. Wednesday is usually a rest day for YHC and there are many great Wednesday options, so I don’t make it to The Charge as often as I’d like. However, the pax are dedicated and the facilities are great. Thanks to Baracus for inviting me to lead and the pax for following me into the gloom. The workout was a little on weinke/a little off. Please feel free to point out anything I’ve missed above.
  • Baracus said Double Ds (original site Q) would post today, but apparently he stayed up too late watching the election results. Ditto for Tesla.