Dad: If your idiot friends jumped off of a cliff, would you do it to?
GJ: Yes, yes I would
Dad: Idiot
Running a tad late on the pre-run, so I texted the boyz. No response, they were already off and running (or kidnapped). Fortunately, I was able to spot the gleam of GJ’s giant melon from 1/2 mile away and join up. That giant head would prove useful, as we used its reflective properties to amplify my headlamp beam as we trekked through abandoned factories, crystal meth labs, and a haunted corn maze.
Thankful to be back at the vehicles in one piece, we began the workout with a little something like this:
THANG:
SKIN:
Yesterday afternoon, I did a poll on Slack to see if the pax desired a running or strength workout (knowing full well that I was going to run regardless). The Hairband eagerly participated in this, with some strong suggestions. Very interesting how he became ill so suddenly upon learning of the results. Very interesting indeed . . .
Still not sure where that pre-run went off the rails. I think it started there. The suggestion to go into the haunted forest started as a joke, but got legs somehow. I was waiting for the giant spiders to attack at any time.
If integrity is defined as “doing the right thing with nobody is looking”, what do you call it when a Pastor blatantly cheats in front of an audience? If you were there, you know what (and who) I am talking about. Still love you man. The extra burpees were a nice touch.
The UC boys have gotten faster, and I have lost a step or 10 (and gained a lb or 10). The combo resulted in me leading quite a bit of this one from the back. Don’t worry, I’m on a comeback. Another dozen or so of these sketchy pre-runs and I’ll be back in the middle(ish) where I belong.
Good site – lots of options without having to go far off of campus. The working bathroom is a cherry on the sundae. Almost cancels out the weird.
Sound off with any other comments of observations.
Love,
Horsehead
Between work and life, YHC didn’t have a lot of time to think through a pre-blast. Rather than truly going green and recycling an old workout, YHC opted to steal bits and pieces from prior workouts (and re-use the late pre-blast). Kind of like when a drug company adds another drug to one rolling off patent to prolong it’s life / profit stream for another 7-years…but anyway.
No other takers for the pre-run, so YHC got to be alone with that little voice inside, which was a scary place. Good middle of the night BRR training. Internal monologue:
Nice downhill to start. Try to keep an easy, sustainable pace.
Abbotswood has to be the darkest street in Charlotte…eh, maybe just S. Charlotte.
It is eerily quiet. And dark.
Totally convinced there was someone hiding behind a boat parked on the street.
Pre-blasting a solo run seems like an invitation to Chester
Could I outrun a kidnapper? Are they on foot or in a car?
This has to be something Sundancer has thought. And irrationally feared.
Is that a raccoon? 3? Why are there 3 raccoons together? Weird.
And why did that one run into the storm water grate? Ninja Raccoons!
Hope my car is still there. I wouldn’t be surprised if Swiper moved it and acted like it was stolen.
Oh, a truck. It’s Hammer. And Sledge. Only, wow, 2 minutes to “go time”.
Small group. Good thing there isn’t much of a plan.
Oh, there’s Swiper. At least even numbers.
So the four of us did the following:
Run the Chadwyck Chaser mile.
Partner up on plush grass of the newly striped mini-football field behind the school. Partner 1 stays by the conveniently placed cone and does mountain climbers. Partner 2 runs to the playground. Partners collectively complete 100 pull-ups, 200 merkins, 300 squats, 400 LBCs.
Run the Chadwyck Chaser mile again. COT.
Announcements
Church on the Street – sign up for Labor Day weekend if you’ll be in town
A51 Pool Party – sign up now for planning purposes (CHEAP)
Moleskine
Had to call an audible after +/- 20 minutes of mountain climbers. If regular mountain climbers were an escalator, most of us were creaky old stairs. Heart rate stayed up and shoulder are sore, so mission accomplished. Lunges were far easier today but will be felt tomorrow.
Swiper and Hammer went with the 1-exercise at a time route, which probably increased their mileage…only they didn’t quite finish. Lost time from all the transitions. YHC and Sledge did some of each exercise per trip and easily finished, adding another 40 squats albeit with less mileage (+/- 3 miles). Think everyone still felt tired by the end of what felt like a grind.
Appreciate it, gents. Same time & place next week.
3 men ventured out into the soup that was this Saturday morning. We spent 45 minutes working our legs into Jello before we decided to cram a bunch of merkins in all at once.
Tha thang
Warm-up lap around the track
COP:
Imperial Walkers x 10
Cotton pickers x 10
Squat x 10
Lunge x 10
Mosey over to the front of the school, partner up (which was difficult with only three people):
Partner 1 runs a lap around the track.
Partner 2 completes the following:
10 single-leg squats left leg
10 single-leg squats right leg
10 jump ups
10 step ups
Rinse and repeat
Mosey over to the hill on Carswell for a Triple Nickel ™
10 tuck jumps at the bottom
Lunge walk up the hill
10 squat jumps at the top
Mosey back to the school, hold people’s chair while we take a short water break (it was hot, y’all).
One lap around the track, stopping at each corner for 20 merkins.
Find some shade for Mary:
15 x dolly
15 x rosalita
15 x heels to heaven
15 x freddy mercury
Run out time with a three man grinder, with squats on one end and hand-release merkins on the other
COT
Moleskine
It was a small crowd, so lots of 2nd F was had. Everyone pushed hard through the heat. There was absolutely no air flow whatsoever. Props to Alf for pushing it on the laps around the track. Fault Line was a beast as well.
Saturday was a big day for DaVinci….a 40th birthday celebration by the Q. YHC hasn’t posted to DaVinci in a while and felt bad about it…such a good AO with so many options to choose from. A nice crew showed up this morning to celebrate and get a good workout in. The theme this morning was 40 or variations of it….4 laps, 4 sets of 10, 40….anything to get people griping (only one person did and we’ll get to that later).
The Thang
Started off with a very thorough disclaimer so no one sues us.
Head towards Nakatomi Plaza for the following loop: Run up stairs, then across, and back down the stairs. 40 LBCs and run to the corner for 40 Russian Twists. Around the building to the breezeway for a People’s Chair and 40 shoulder presses and then to the last corner for 40 Freddie Mercury. Repeat 4 times for a total of 160 exercises at each station in total.
Head across Ardrey Kell to Carolina Sports Clinic parking lot. Bear Crawl approx 40 meters (or more..who’s counting but it fits the theme) then sprint the rest of the lot. Loop around for Lunge Walk plus sprints, and finally 10 merkins at each of the 4 islands for a count of 40. Repeat 4 times.
Head back to the start for 10 dips, 10 derkins, 10 full touch the toe sit-ups, and 10 pull-ups.
40 burpees to top off the hour.
Skinny of the Mole
DaVinci really is a great AO. It’s not getting the love it should…we have so many workouts in SOB land it’s hard to hit them all, but there are so many areas to hit from that site. This morning we had a good crew show up and pound the pavement. Triple 7 showed up after Stonehenge for a strong double-down…dude is flat out killin’ it. Mic Check, Bratwurst and his 2.0, and Tolkien (a little late but he worked out like 7 times that morning so I’ll cut him some slack) rounded out the crew.
The first stop seemed to go well…everyone was pretty close together and the pace was good. The LBCs seemed to get the most out of folks…Bratwurst apparently can’t count to 40 or gets lost in his own thoughts and just goes until folks are done. Whatever works in my book…
The second stop is where the complaining started….well actually it started a little earlier, but it amped up there. Mostly from our good friend Tolkien. No matter what YHC gave direction on, there was a quick “this is bullsh**” comment to follow. It was probably the bear crawls….which were included for a reason. I will give him kudos though…I saw him complete the full bear crawl exercise. Of course, I had already completed that, plus finished the lunge walk section, and was almost done with all my merkins by the time he finished one round of bear crawls, but F3 is all about getting better. Keep at it my little-armed friend.
The best part of the day was Bratwurst’s face when I said we had 40 burpees to complete after the entire workout was just about done. It was priceless….I wish I had a picture. It was a mix of anger, fear, hatred, and just plain old annoyance with the Q. Even Howie, his 2.0, got into the act by giving the Q a hard time…a chip off the ole’ Brat(wurst). He got me back though…YHC didn’t realize that several PAX were planning to wake me up post-hangover the next morning for an early run. I should have seen that one coming…but my 40 year old brain is slower.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
Self-flagellation: the action of flogging oneself, especially as a form of religious discipline.
YHC isn’t so sure about the religious discipline part of the definition (3rd F?), but there was definitely some intentional flogging going on at the Foxhole this morning. After Pebbles’ 500 swings shredded the hands last week, YHC brought back a favorite workout from a few months ago. It’s meant to be a mix of strength and aerobic capacity, mixing kettlebell exercises and running. YHC clocked 1.8 miles this morning, but others got 2+.
COP:
The Thang:
Mosey to the playground with your bells for some circuit work:
Circuit 1:
Run the big lap through the parking lot and do 4 burpees before returning to the playground.
Repeato 4 more times for a total of 100 swings, 50 C&Ps, 25 pullups, 20 burpees and 5 laps.
Circuit 2:
Run the little lap through the parking lot and do 4 burpees before returning to the playground.
Repeato 4 more times for a total of 100 high pulls, 50 snatches, 25 goblet squats, 16-20 burpees and 5 laps. Running late, so YHC (and a few others) skipped the last lap and burpees.
Circle up for 5 burpees OYO to make an even 41. 1-2 minutes over. #cobains
Thanks for the takeout in COT, FMB.
Announcements:
Moleskine:
Swift will be launching from the Vine Restaurant parking area in Ballantyne on Tuesday morning at 0515. Come early at 0500 for some extra sweaty 2ndF warm-up.
The THANG:
SYITG,
Bratwurst
#Cobains on the Delay for this Backblast of #F3Swift last week on July 26, 2016.
The THANG:
http://f3nation.com/2016/07/25/preblast-fast-finish-hills/
The Moleskin:
Your “Running” Public Service Announcements for the week:
20 Pax came out for a fun little hill run this morning. Great way to start the week!
1. Run the full circuit, including the drop to the base of Wilby at Sardis and back up.
2. Run the circuit again to the bottom of Wilby. Do exercises until the 6 comes in.
3. Suicides 4x to the mailboxes up Wilby hill (Triple Box)
5. Complete the circuit back to the base of Big Yucca and wait for the 6.
6. Run up Big Yucca forward, come back down to the base, and run up it backwards.
7. Run to the flag, say the pledge, and get back to the parking lot.
It was tougher than expected – or maybe I’m weaker than I want to admit. The Triple Box suicides on Wilby hill was a nice variation that everyone seemed to fall in love with. I vote we put it in the regular stock of activities. Frasier was handy this morning for rounding up the 6 whenever the rest of us were in the air-sucking recovery process. TL, Hairball, and Fletch rounded out the front pack. Plus we had “Chester” driving his pickup truck around us like a pace car. Couldn’t tell if he was thong’d up or not. I didn’t want to get that close. And the lady with the rabid dogs added something. She kept telling the dogs we were friends, but I think those mutts didn’t see anything but slabs of prime rib with running shoes on.
Horsehead created something really ugly when he founded Horsey. Total suck!
Swiss Miss on Q next week.
Friday morning saw a welcome break from the oppressive heat wave that July has brought. The pre-dawn hour and the wind chill combined to bring the temperature down to a brisk 92 degrees. Twelve set out to get some work in before gunning for their tour cards at the golf tournament later in the day. The disclaimer was probably mostly correctly given and we set out to play Frogger across 51.
Warmup:
Around the World:
YHC wanted to find some new bits of ground to explore at Centurion, which was challenging since the regular rotation of Q’s does a phenomenal job of utilizing the CCHS grounds, the shopping center where Panera is (YHC can’t remember the name, probably Carmel something or other), Carmel Crossing Drive and accompanying hills, and the practice fields and parking lots in the immediate vicinity. Carmel Commons seemed ripe for the picking since we sometimes utilize the Jack in the Box and McDonald’s parking lots but not much else. So, while driving the 2.1 to daycare one day and sitting on 51, YHC took stock of the various eateries in the plaza and came up with this bit of nonsense called Around The World.It consists of running along the shopping center sidewalk and stopping at every restaurant that serves the cuisine of a different nation to perform 20 merkins, 20 LBCs, 20 squats, 20 Russian twists, and 20 plank jacks. We began at Amalie’s which sounds like a French place so YHC gave the PAX the option to substitute monkey humpers for any exercise to punish the first stop for the sin of being and/or sounding French.
After the first circuit run to the Greek place called Zoe’s, pausing along the way to wave to Purple Haze on the elliptical at Planet Fitness. #LunkAlarm #TurnThatThingOffYouJackwagonsDumbbellsAreLoudWhenYouRackThem Repeat the circuit then run to the Thai place called Bangkok Ocha and do the circuit. Longish run to the end of the shopping center to the Chinese place cleverly named Great Wall of China and do the circuit, then run literally four feet to the Mexican place Cabo’s for the 100 rep circuit. Finally run back to McDonald’s which we used to represent the greatest country in the history of countries, and the lone superpower on Earth, these United States of America. Being the American station, and being McDonald’s, the PAX were instructed to supersize the circuit and do 25 reps of each exercise. The hashbrowns smelled delicious and deere lowered YHC misses carbohydrates. Did McDonald’s actually need to pay McKinsey or some other high priced consultancy seven figures to tell them that all day breakfast was a good idea? The executives could’ve simply gone to any store at 10:25 am and seen the mad rush for McMuffins and McGriddles and saved the shareholders some money. Take one last inhale of carby, grainy, deliciousness and run to the picnic tables in front of CCHS.
At the tables find a bit of bench and perform 50 single leg split squats and 50 dips. Once finished run to the mouth of Tartarus, the region of torments. Go up the short ramps alternating between sprints and lunge walks until ascension of the summit, then run down the steps. Seeing we still had a few minutes to spare after completion, we ran up the stairs and down the short ramps alternating between hard charges and recovery paces. Run back to launch lot and circle up.
YHC likes to outsource Mary to the PAX under the guise of getting everyone involved. The dirty little secret is that YHC’s form on most core exercises is as sloppy as Ole Miss’ recruiting in recent years. #SeriouslyHughFreezeYouAren’tFoolingAnyoneYouFlthyCheater We did the usual suspects for Mary ending with a plank and YHC’s favorite, zero burpees OYO.
Thanks to those who came out before golf and the site Q’s for the opportunity to lead. YHC tried to get out of the proverbial comfort zone and lead a boot camp workout without relying on lifting rocks. CCHS removing the rock pile was also a catalyst in that. After careful consideration, the Rusty Onion was left off the Around the World roster since YHC felt that including a bar/pizza joint as Italy might cause consternation among any PAX of actual Italian descent. Roll Tide.
Warm-Up
Side Straddle Hops
Daddy Elevators
Fight Club shadowboxing
Jab/Cross
Hook
Upper Cuts
2.0/KO with burpees
Games, Games, Games
Smaug the Drag
Red light/green light
Night at Museum
Daddy Wolf
Shoe Relay (don’t do this)
Limbo
Capture the Flag
Pledge of the Alliegence/ BOM
Capture the flag was the highlight of the day. We played two full rounds with LOTS of running. By the end there were a lot of sweaty kids with big smiles. Thanks for all the dudes and kids who came out for fun day. My kids and I really enjoy the hanging out with all the kids and playing outside games. Thanks to Honey Bee for organizing and the weekly Qs for providing the all 3 Fs.