Better late than never

Better late than never

Date: 2025-11-18 AO: skunk-works Q: baracus PAX: smokey, Mountain Momma, lois, baracus, Header FNGs: None COUNT: 5 One of those mornings… forgot to set the alarm, but a nudge from the M at 5:18 got me moving and on my way to the AO. How fitting to pull up behind four men giving the Skunkworks salute – #monkeyhumpers. Thanks Mountain Momma for getting things going before my tardy arrival.
We enjoyed some deep conversation, great 80s tunes, and great fellowship. Good to see this great group of men this morning. Thanks for the opportunity to lead!
WARMUP: We did a few warmup exercises with the bells: swings, around the world, halo, figure eight, ply squats, lap around the track
THE THANG: Three stations, three rounds, 2x around the circuit
Round 1 Station A — Kettlebell Swings Station B — Alternating Lunges w/ bell Station C — Russian twists
Round 2 Station A — Goblet Squats Station B — Merkins Station C — Plank with shoulder taps
Round 3 Station A — Kettlebell Rows (alternate arms) Station B — Burpees (or squat thrusts) Station C — LBCs
Cardio blast One easy lap followed by 1 1/2 hot laps then a 1/2 lap recovery. Repeat.
Mary/Cooldown: Dead bugs x 12 Flutter x 12 Stretch
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Christmas party @ Hops residence on 12/7 Metro Christmas party @ Duke mansion on 12/17
COT: Prayers for South family who lost their son Parker a week ago.
Mountain Momma closed us out.

A case of the Mondays

Date: 2025-11-17 AO: swole Q: flipper PAX: flipper, high_tide, voodoo, Emoji, Uncle Leo, Soul Glo, Pepsi, The Worm FNGs: None COUNT: 8 Sometimes you just have a case of the Mondays, which YHC had in droves. Thankfully, TheWolf doesn’t care if you’re bright eyed and bushy tailed, or fully a sloth. TheWolf hunts you no matter whether you remember to start the music, or if your speaker battery dies. There is nowhere to hide from TheWolf, and Gainz find you even in your foggiest moment. Thusly, a less than coordinated Q and 7 PAX took on day 1 of week 3
WARMUP: SSH, IW, LSS, Prying Squat, ST, arm circles. THE THANG:
DCL, DFS, DMP, DCL, DFS all 5 reps for 5 sets. We did chain, complex, Oreo, complex, chain and that was TheWolf
E2MOM AMRAP. Alternate heavier bell and lighter bell every odd minute for a building AMRAP where we added one movement every other time. Swing, Clean, Snatch, Clean, squat. All single hand switching sides after each set of reps. This was a real crowd pleaser.
MARY: 15 seconds of plank ANNOUNCEMENTS: see pinned list in mumblechatter COT: YHC took us out

Domo Arigato Mr. Da Vinci Roboto

Date: 2025-11-15 AO: davinci Q: midriff , PAX: C3P0 FNGs: None COUNT: 2 YHC launched solo into the gloom until C3P0 booted up and connected to the network a full three minutes late — which honestly might be the most realistic robot behavior we’ve ever seen at F3.
We threw on the rucks and headed toward the Morrison YMCA trails for a smooth, active recovery morning. Along the way we hit three rock piles, cycling through: – Curls – Tricep Extensions – Shoulder Press – Weighted Squats Slow, steady grinding — enough to wake up the arms and shoulders without frying the circuits. The best part of the morning? The conversation: Tiger moms → Aruba AirBnBs → AI → corporate America → everything else under the sun. A full diagnostic scan of modern life. Wrapped up feeling better, looser, and a little wiser — just two robots getting in the reps and debugging the weekend.
Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto

Game 456

Date: 2025-11-14 AO: the-brave Q: midriff PAX: fire_hazard, Hippie, soft_pretzel, frasier, wingman, Franky FNGs: None COUNT: 7 We had no prizes this morning — only punishment — so naturally fire_hazard joined YHC on the prerun to help set up the madness. Quick run to the traffic circle for warmup and the usual suspects (SSH, IW, dips, Merkins). Then we split into teams: :small_red_triangle: Team Red Triangle: Fire Hazard, Hippie, YHC :large_blue_circle: Team Blue Circle: Soft Pretzel, Frasier, Wingman
Franky sat this one out to keep the legs fresh for Richmond and to fulfill his dream of being “the old guy who kills everyone off.” – We crossed over to the Wells Fargo deck — our arena. Started in the basement and flipped a coin at every ramp: Heads = burpees x 2×floor level. Tails = sprint to the top of the ramp and back. The coin hated us. We lost every round. Lots of burpees. – At the top deck we moved into shuttle sprints + cone pickups, eliminating one player per slow round. Team Red Triangle took this one, narrowly, loudly, and proudly. – Down to the basement for Dodgeball: Round 1 & 2 — and Team Blue Circle dominated both. Wingman is apparently a sidewinder missile. – Back up the deck for the Indian-shuttle run to the top. Another nail-biter — Team Blue Circle edged out Red Triangle by a hair. – We took a moment for Mary and a perfect sunrise over Ballantyne. Peaceful. Briefly. – Then across the street for our final game: Spin the Bottle. Three balls in the middle. Spin to select the hunters. The hunted sprint away and try not to get pegged. In the end? We all got pegged. Throw of the Day: Fire Hazard’s rainbow shot that nailed Frasier square in the back — straight out of the snowball scene in Elf. – Closed with the Wheel of Merkin: one merkin around the circle, keep going to 100. Hats off to Hippie, Frankie, and Fire Hazard for making it all the way.
Great work, men. No one died. Everyone suffered. Perfect morning at The Brave.

Morning of Sweet Pain

Date: 2025-11-17 AO: firestarter Q: Hawkeye PAX: Adobe, wildturkey, Roulette, SweetWater FNGs: None COUNT: 5 WARMUP: Ring around the turf THE THANG Coupon workout with curls, half curls, press, tricep, bench press with two coupons as a bonus. Run lap with Burpee’s. Finished with a trip around the back lot with PAX calling exercise at every street light. MARY: A MIX OF SELDOM USED, BUT PAINFUL CORE EXERCISES. INCLUDING AMERICAN HAMMER WHILE PASSING A WEIGHTED PLATE. BONUS WAS THE SOFT SURFACE FOR TUSHY. ANNOUNCEMENTS: The back blast from the beer ruck was that it was more about the beer than the ruck. Sounded like Roulette could hang, but Wild Turkey needed a sippy cup. COT: YHC it took us out.

Providence CC

Date: 2025-11-17 AO: run Q: frasier , PAX: bunker, gumbo, Polly, jrr_tolkien, Kiebalasa FNGs: None COUNT: 6 WARMUP: THE THANG: Great temps and group out. MARY: ANNOUNCEMENTS: Tolken keeps getting stronger each week. COT:

More snow

Date: 2025-11-16 AO: stonehenge Q: snowflake PAX: wildturkey, teddyf3, Cheese Curd, Roulette FNGs: None COUNT: 5 WARMUP: went to some new warm up spots THE THANG: some of this some of that MARY: yeah, we got it ANNOUNCEMENTS: ? COT: Thanks for taking the lead today!!

Nickel for Your Thoughts?

Date: 2025-11-15 AO: olympus Q: Krzyzewski PAX: hoover, Emoji, Toto, Mountain Momma, voodoo, The Worm, ickey_shuffle, Pepsi FNGs: None COUNT: 9 It was a full house for the beat down this morning. In fact, most of the circle was literally elbow-to-elbow (although that might have more to do with the threat posed by week-long chili consumption by one of our beloved pax). Despite the sword of flutebridge hanging over our heads, the pax persevered and got to work on the latest installment of THE WOLF. While THE WOLF was terrible (of course), YHC, who was DR last week, was enlightened by all of the various ways the pax have sought to distract themselves from its terrible-ness – e.g., chains, complexes, and various Flipper-invented amalgamations therein. Through various permutations and combinations, we all came out the other side (mostly) for the better. Solid mumblechatter, as usual, kept us moving and negative points were awarded to YHC for not only making an awful playlist (no shocker there), but essentially repeating the played-out “Wolf” theme that’s been in rotation several times already. Good times – YHC promises better for the next iteration of this bad boy. With that, let’s get into the recap… WARMUP: Swings (10x), prying squats, hi-pulls (5x e/s), synovial circles, one-handed swings (5x e/s), slingshots (7x e/w) THE THANG: 1) Voodoo Complex (3 sets) – Voodoo complex (1x rounds e/s) – Voodoo complex (2x rounds e/s) – Voodoo complex (2x each exercises, but 1x round e/s) 2) ThE wOLf (4 sets; combo of “complex” and “chains”) – Double snatch – Double squat – Double press – Double squat – Double clean – Double squat 3) Carries! Carries! Carries! – Single bell; waiters/rack/shrugs/suitcases…4x times up and back total 4) Complex A (3 sets) – Deadlift -> upright row (5x) – Merkins (10x) – 1-handed alternating swings (10x) 5) Complex B (2 sets) – Sumo squat (8x) – Lawnmower rows (6x e/s) – 1-handed alternating swings (10x) MARY: Nope. ANNOUNCEMENTS: :mega: Wildturkey’s summary of upcoming events: docs.google.com/document/d/1rfXr_W_lxq61DGddefdopUF81v3z13rkIIrnyQ_ROFc/edit?usp=sharing :christmas_tree: Area 51 holiday party sign-up sheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Q5rBuOznuTlTQjSztxlK_CL-NLaoS7WAjaHZPwy96tk/edit?gid=634347005#gid=634347005 :ocean: “No man steps in the same river twice.” — Heraclitus :arrows_counterclockwise: “To resent change is to wrongly assume you have a choice in the matter.” — Ryan Holiday COT: Went out with the joint group of Olympus and The Rock in COT

Chopper’s Lake

Date: 2025-11-15 AO: chicken-run Q: Hippie PAX: jrr_tolkien, Chopper, tuck, Polly FNGs: None COUNT: 5 WARMUP: Negative THE THANG: We were on a top 5 route to Lake Mundorf this morning!
Polly joined us for 3mi and then needed to head back.
We found the 5:45 PAX at the Lake. It all came together nicely. Met DaVinci for COT
MARY: Negative ANNOUNCEMENTS: COT: – shout out to Rob Rosenthal – Drive By Franky kirby hairball madison for their races this morning. – Myer’s Park student tragedy this week. Remind our students and those we encounter that they matter.

Just keep moving

Date: 2025-11-14 AO: the-devils-turn Q: flipper PAX: retread, frasier, grasshopper, bunker, flipper, Polly FNGs: None COUNT: 6 6 PAX, all ran the called route including a resurgent retread.