There have only been 5 hirsute Qs at DT this year (and, frankly, two of them may not make that list next year) so I was as surprised as I was suspicious when I received a text from the lead Hirsutist asking if I wanted to Q today. For starters, I have more scapular hair than both Site Qs can muster over their combined 40 square feet of polished epidermis. What’s more, HB broke the first rule of the running castes: bird-boned Ectomorphs almost never talk to Mesomorphs except in extreme emergencies when they can’t open jars or need help moving lawn furniture. But I took it anyway, mostly for the chance at more bald jokes (like Honey Bee at the Beach).
Also: we ran a (partially) new route, too. The Danger Zone XL:
Ye Olde SkullSkin
Turns out that all the Real Runners and both Site Qs were meeting at O-Stupid-Thirty for a 20 miler. Great training for those overnight marathons, men. And let’s exercise caution if operating heavy machinery this afternoon.
Don’t know if the DZ XL will make the regular rotation but the small crew today seemed to enjoy it. The 60 minute cap made for on-the-fly strategery. The goal was Carmel Road, at 4.05(ish) miles from the start. That’s just under 7:30/mile pace. And what constitutes “half way?” Thirty minutes? Is the Out faster or slower than the Back? Are you faster on the Out or the Back? The hills are in different places on the way back…One thing we learned is that it makes you run a lot harder. Lots of smoked Pax at the end. Second, it will serve as a good benchmark tool in tracking fitness and testing race strategy.
Thanks to Caillou and Capt. Picard for letting me Q. Until next time.
Man, what an exciting World Series Game 7. Huge props to the Cubs for winning and the Indians for playing a hard-fought series. Fairly certain this kept a few of the PAX in the fartsack this morning. Understandable. 11 men and YHC posted on short rest for a Rebel Yell workout. Strawberry planted the shovel flag firmly and a straight-forward disclaimer was given. Off we went.
Thang
Mosey around the parking lot in front of the Regal Cinema over to the lot in front of Smoke. A fitting stop with our pitmaster Van Pelt with the crew this morning. COP done amidst the wonderful aroma of BBQ smoke.
SSH x 15 IC
IW x 10 IC
MC x 10 IC-hold plank
Merkin x 5 IC-hold plank
Wide merkin x 5 IC-hold plank
Diamond merkin x 5 IC
Low Slow Jump Squat x 10 IC
Mosey up to Elm. Take a right. Left on Elmstone. Stop at bottom of #Murderhorn.
Triple Nickel
Run up hill 2 stoplights. 5 Burpees. Run back down. 5 Jump Squats. 5 Repetitions.
Audible after 1st rep. Next 4 done to first stoplight. Tight timeline and all.
Plank series
Mosey down to Elmstone Park rock pile. Grab a lifting rock and bring it to the parking lot.
Rock Set
Civilian cadence: Press x 15/Curl x 15/5 Rockees OYO
Drop rock. Mosey down Elmstone past Big Rock entrance. Left on Thornhill Club Drive. Wrong right turn on Meadow Run. Realizing mistake, YHC halted group at darkest spot of the morning for Slow Merkin x 10 IC. Turn around and stop at corner of Meadow Run and Thornhill Club.
Triple Nickel
Start at corner. Run to top at cul-de-sac. 5 Merkin. Run to Bottom 5 CDD. 5 Repetitions.
Audible: Pop Tart asked, “Did you say Burpees at the top or merkins?” Certainly we can honor a request from Pop Tart. Sub Burpees for Merkins.
We got the dogs barking on this stretch of road. Rallied the PAX for a quick exit as the group was finishing rep 5. Mosey back to the rocks in the parking lot. Repeat Rock Set and return rocks to the pile.
Somewhere above we did a Plank Series that included: Elbow plank/RAH/RLH/Flapjack/6 inches/Leg Lifts x 10 IC.
Indian Run up Murderhorn. Cross Elm. AYG to the launch lot.
COT
Skin
Stayed up late trying to watch the end of the game. Fell asleep in the 8th when Indians tied it up and turned it off at rain delay. Struggled out of bed at the alarm due to leg soreness resulting from the execution of Alf’s Anvil Q yesterday.
Been excited to get over here for this Q. YHC doesn’t make it to this AO often. This was 2nd Rebel Yell post. No shortage of options. Solid AO. Thankful to Heartbreaker and Strawberry for the invite. T-claps, men, for your leadership at this site. Great to see a shovel flag flying.
Pop Tart was spot on. The Twitter picture was the Murderhorn. Rode through yesterday afternoon to get my bearings. Mapquest and Google Earth are great, but not like putting eyeballs on the AO.
Observations
Alf is steady as they come. Always works hard and pushes on others with encouragement. Bucky is fast. Solid work today. Cane and Morning After are workhorses. Great effort today. Van Pelt was moving on the Nickels. Respect. First time meeting Adobe and Pat Down. Strong effort today. Merkins, apparently were not good enough for Pop Tart. Good call on the Burpees. Covered over 3 miles with a bunch of hill work.
Announcements
Christmas Party. 12/2/2016. Sign up and join us for some great 2F outside of the gloom
Joe Davis Run for Recovery. Register under F3. Proceeds to Keystone Substance Abuse in Rock Hill, SC.
12 men showed up for the pristine fields in what has to the best AO in the world. PDS turf. Here is what we did…
Run down and around track, Mid field cop, Partner work 50 yd line…partner derkins (10 each)…each run to goal line 10 kneeups…5x
Jog to stadium seats
Circuit work: 3x 5 derkins, 5step ups each…touch each stair…5 diamonds at top…recover down
Run to main entrance of school (w/lunges, backwards running on way). 5 burps then serpentine bear crawls thru the cones. Back to the fields…
In between the lines….10yds beasts…2 spider man merkins at each stop….full field. Again with 30 yds.
some 100 yd sprints with jump squats at the end
One more round of 10 yd beasts..for fun
AYG final sprint (Big Top special)
NM:
I have known Big Top for a long time. I know him well, we are basically family. Kids hang out with our kids, our Ms are tight. Even love his dog #true. But as long as I have known him, I have never seen him fly…and today, on the last sprint, he did. He annihilated the pax on the final 100 yd AYG. Tears were flowing…Joy. To watch the man get it…an express train from nashville tennessee ready to mow down anyone is his path. Was worth the whole workout.
Steinbrenner..quiet…wha?
Barker…runner. Yes #vivaraw
Tesla…awesome takeout, thanks for reminded us of our need for the Lord everyday.
Thanks to Barracus for the opportunity to Q…loved it.
Doc(k)
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
Bringing the TURN back to Devil’s Turn: It’s 5 miles and change to Colony and Fairview. You have 60 minutes to get there and back via Danger Zone.
If you don’t like that, run the Danger Zone course.
0515 Start. 0615 Finish.
12 Men posted at Anvil this morning and got what was advertised. Strength plus high intensity cardio. The pre-blast Tweet even scared off the 2 site Q’s.
The Thang –
Disclaimer.
Run from cars over to front of Church for COT on the patio. SSH, IW, Very slow squats, and Merkins.
Mosey to Rock pile near 51. That’s where the good rocks are. Grab a lifting rock.
Note – Impressive crowd today as everyone picked a respectable lifting rock.
All rock exercises in Civilian Count to 15. Overhead squat, Curls, & Good Mornings. Repeat all three. Then plank.
While planking instructions were given. You were to run hard to given location. If you could have a conversation during your run, it wasn’t hard enough. Your pace and heartrate should reduce you to small grunts and fighting back the Merlot spills.
From the front of the church head back around the church, past the cars, out to Rea, left on Rea and stopping at 51. Mosey back to Rocks. Just over .5 miles at high pace.
Back to the rocks.
All rock exercises in Civilian Count to 15. Sots Press (Courtesy of Icky), Tricep Extensions, & Bent over Rows Repeat all three. Then plank. Repeat throw up run.
Back to the rocks.
All rock exercises in Civilian Count to 15. Thrusters, Front Raises, Louganis. Repeat all three. Then plank. Half the throw up run, stopping at tables by the cars.
A few rounds of 15 split squats each leg with 15 derkins followed by some Mary: Flutters and Dolly.
Circle up by cars for Burp and Merk – Starting at 1 merkin for burpee increasing 1 each time to 11. Freddy Mercury and Protractor to kill the time.
The Moleskine:
I learned something this week. From Joker. I was as surprised as you are. On Monday Joker jumped out of his car, 30 seconds late for his Matrix Q and just took off. Ran about a 6:30 pace for a half a mile. Did COP. Then did the same course in reverse at a similar pace. We did it one more time. It sucked. But I came to the realization that sometimes we all get into a bit of the standard rut of workouts. We do distance, but we settle into a comfortable 10K pace. We do wind sprints, but they only last for about 75 meters at a time (even though we claim they were 100m in the backblast). Sometimes we will recovery run to the light pole or tree and back, but that’s usually a fast mosey with too much chatter. All of these are good maintenance, but none stretch us outside of our comfort zone to improve.
Enter the hard pace middle distance. Short enough not to settle into the 10K pace, but far longer than a 15s sprint. And it’s straight awful.
Lots of strong workout there. Mermaid and his repaired knee was leading the pack. Followed closely by Depth Charge. I was suspect if Depth Charge was really worthy of such a handle, but he deserves it. Crushed the workout all while carrying, what sounded like, 15 pounds of keys in his pocket and in hot pursuit whoever was leading the run. Not sure what he was worried about. No one ever gets there car robbed at Calvary?
Red Rocks pulled a great Austin Powers impression on the way in this AM. I am pretty sure that was a 34 point turn to settle into a parking space. Right in the middle of a completely open lot.
Icky – big props for giving it all you got. And for feeding the birds.
Welcome to Puffs from Roanoke who is in town this week. Keep on coming out. Go Hokies!
O’Tannenbaum, was almost on time.
Really awesome job as everyone really gave it their all. I appreciate the effort.
Sign ups for Christmas Party and Joe Davis run. Lot’s of F3 PAX planning to attend both.
Thanks to Mermaid for the takeout.
-Alf
13 pax decided to come to Death Valley this am. To witness greatness.
COP
15 IW – CAD
15 SSH – CAD
10 Merkins – CAD
Mosey down to Alexis neighborhood
Partner up
One partner runs down wycomb another runs wyman. Meet in the middle.
Round 1
Hand slap merkins – 20
Round 2
100 cdd’s
Round 3
Lbc’s – 100
11’s on the hill off Wyman – Squats at the top and Merkins at the bottom
Mosey back to Launch
wind sprints –
Mosey to Ball park – Partner work again – 3 ish rounds
1. Supine pull ups
2. Derkins
3. Dips
Mosey up to top
15 Merkins – CAD
30 Boone Crunch – CAD
COT
Insights
I knew that it was going to be bad this morning as I gorged myself last night on steak and wine and well…… a lot of each and knew that it was going to be a struggle to rally and function for my q this morning. normally on days like this I just fade away and don’t come but I have responsibilities so here we are. To my memory I can’t remember us every going into this neighborhood so I decided to try something different. It was great an seemed to work out well for us, of course I was getting lapped by basically everyone so that made me feel special.
After the partner work I knew we needed to do some more running so the 11’s were called. Butter is very angry and thought that I was going to move them to 7’s. I pushed through not without almost having the merlot spill.
It was great seeing everyone out there. Regulars some new guys who have become regulars. It was great seeing Stumphugger, haven’t seen you in a while brother and great catching up. don’t be a stranger.
Annoucements – F3 Soccer – November 19th – Body bag has the details, connect with him and he will fill you in. We need some guys to sign up to fill a team.
In the rustic gloom of the Bambi lamp, 11 PAX gathered to observe the sacred rites of the Order of Gumby. Intoning ancient verses and following the mystic ways, they took their places and led by the dwarf called Swiss Miss they began. Let’s peek behind the veil to see what happened next:
Savasana – Meditation/Reflection: Transformation-Stretching based on Philippians 3:14
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me …
Bend knees and feet flat for Windshield Wiper (~5/side)
Right ankle on left knee and twist to left, arms in “T” and gaze to Right. Hold 5B. Flapjack with 5B hold.
Left leg straight, toes flexed, draw right knee to chest and hold. Breathe and relax down into mat. Hold knee to chest for 5B. Flapjack. Repeato 3B each side
Sit up and draw feet together, knees wide, back straight. Pull your feet in and knees down. Hold 5B.
Left leg straight, toes flexed, draw right knee to chest and hold. Breathe and relax down into mat. Hold knee to chest for 3B. Flapjack.
Release bind and slide onto knees for Child’s Pose. 10B
Table Top. Cat/Cow 5B
Plank. 1Breath. Up Dog. Down Dog – WALK THE DOG. Step or hop to top of the mat and Half-way Lift on INHALE. Exhale Forward Fold. Inhale up to Sun Salute. Once more through slowly together.
The Main Thang:
(Standing Hip Openers): From Sun Salute: Forward Fold, Half-way Lift, Down to Plank. Step forward with LEFT foot to Warrior 1, Warrior 2 (5B), Peaceful Warrior (5B), Triangle (5B), Side Angle (5B)
Back to Warrior 2 (2B), Peaceful Warrior (2B), Triangle (2B), Side Angle (2B).
Back to Warrior 2 -> Peaceful Warrior -> Triangle -> Side Angle
Warrior 1 -> Mountain -> Sun Salutation OYO, meet in Mountain.
Forward Fold, Half-way Lift, Down to Plank. Repeato Standing Hip Openers with RIGHT foot in front.
Warrior 1 -> Mountain -> Sun Salutation OYO, meet in Mountain.
Half-fold with elbow bind. Side stretch (shoulders) RIGHT and hold (5B)
Sun Salutations OYO X2 – follow your breath, meet in Mountain
In Mountain: Half-fold with elbow bind. Side stretch (shoulders) LEFT and hold (5B)
Sun Salutations OYO X2.
Step back with left foot into Warrior 1 -> Warrior 2 -> 5-pointed star -> wide-leg fold -> Keep breathing, but take a few minutes to gently stretch, using slow side-to-side movements if you want, or just shifting hips to get slightly more/less stretch in each side. 10 breaths
Bring torso up to 5-pointed star, step left foot up and face front of mat in Upward Salute.
Sun Salutations X2 – follow your breath
Step back with right foot into Warrior 1 -> Warrior 2 -> Peaceful Warrior -> Warrior 2 -> Fierce Angle Pose (f.k.a. “Goddess”). Hold 10B. Step your feet together and come back to the top of your mat in Mountain Pose.
On you 6 for Dead Pigeon 10B/side
Lie down for shavasana -> Prayer
Lord Jesus, help us to forget our past failures and lack of faithfulness in order to press on toward our heavenly prize. Stretch us toward your goals and your glory. Amen.
Stretch and sit up.
TIME!
Announcements while putting up mats.
Moleskin:
It was a good to see several meatheads swinging KBs in the parking lot when YHC arrived. Another car told me someone was out on a pre-run. All good ways to get warmed up before stretching. My preferred method: rolling with The Stick.
The antler chandelier drew mixed reviews. Some found it too dim, some too gruesome, some “thout it were real purdy.” It did make it a bit harder to read the weinke, so YHC may need to print it in larger type size or flip on some more lights next week.
Great to see another Site FNG. Welcome Slim Fast.
Thanks for following my lead, gentlemen. Hope you got some help for over-worked, under-stretched muscles.
Take time to think about the devotional message for today: Stretching means trusting God in moments of surrender. Stretching means walking into our fears and coming out as people of faith. Stretching means believing in God when we don’t see him working. Stretching means trusting God in all circumstances.
Preblast:
http://f3nation.com/2016/10/31/preblast-trick-or-treat/
The THANG:
Announcements:
Post Halloween work out where I’m sure we all wanted to stay in bed. With that said everyone did great as it was a good mix of laps and KB work. Great Job by all!
THE THANG
WARM UP
20 SSH IN CADENCE
20 imperial walkers in cadence
Mosey To Lower Lot:
Partner work: One takes the Lap from Middle Lot up to Road and Back while other works the plan
50 Two handed Swings, Lap
40 merkins, Lap
20 SSH IN CADENCE
40 alternating swings, Lap
40 tea bag squats, Lap
30 single arm swings, Lap
30 merkins, Lap
20 upright row and presses, Lap
20 diamond merkins, Lap
20 Louganis with KB
20 mason twists each side with no bell
15 Louganis with KB
15 mason twists each side with no bell
50 KB curls
Thanks,
ExLax
—-
ExLax was not much on witty banter. Workout started a bit rough with 28 of South Charlotte’s finest lined up and ready to go. ExLax gave some type of disclaimer and then said something like “I haven’t really been out in a while…but here goes.” A bit choppy on the cadence and then off for the obligatory mosey. And then ExLax dropped the hammer. KBs followed by a brutal 1/4 mile lap…over and over. Lots of rabbits out there, thanks to Stone Cold for pushing the pace on the hill. Always great to see Runstopper looking good in the tights. Hops trying to rally the troops for the Cubbies. Remember, Skunkworks is not just KBs, expect some mileage. And if that’s not enough, show up at 5am for a 3 mile pre-run with Fletch. Pop Tart on lead for next week. Well done today!
Harley