Hundreds of Merkins
Great morning to join other men in south Charlotte for a little F3!
The morning went something like this….
Mosey towards the fields stopping between the buildings for 25 derkins. Mosey down to the track and run a lap. Circle up for COP. SSH x 25, Merkins x 25, lbcs x 25, Mason twists x 25, IW x 25.
Another lap around the track. Partner up. P1 does 20 Merkins while p2 does lbcs. Then flap jack. Then P1 does 19 Merkins while P2 does lbcs. Flap jack. All the way down to 1 merkin. Total 210 Merkins.
Run another lap around track
Line up on goal line for suicides. Run to 10 yrd line back to goal – 20 yrd line back to goal all the way to 50 yrd line and back. Every time we get back to goal line do 10 CDDs. Do suicides 2 more times. Heels to heaven and monkey Humpers.
Mosey up to play ground. Partner up. P1 does wall sits w air presses while P2 runs to other play ground to do 15 hanging knee ups. Flap jack. Rinse and repeat.
Mosey back to parking lot.
COT –
Great work gents! Not a whole lot of material to write about as everyone was focused and worked hard with not too much modifying. Sinsei is always inspiring. Well done leading Freedom!
Thanks for coming to joust today! Have a great weekend!
What Rain??
11 Men disregarded all normal thought processes as they drove to Matthews Elementary at 5:15 and it poured rain from the heavens, not knowing that in 15 more minutes, there would be stars in the sky! It looked like it would be a wet, soaking workout… but turned out to be only wet! Quickly 3 of us turned to 11, including FNG Al (who came with Dora). We disclaimed and took off into the damp but dry(ing) morning. Here’s how it went down:
The Thang:
We started with a slow mosey tour of the campus…just to make sure everything was still in place!
Circle-up back in the church parking lot for COP:
SSH x 20
Low Slow Squat x 20
Merkins x 10
Imperial Walker x 20
Mountain Climber x 20
Mosey to bottom of parking lot for YHC’s favorite Suicide Runs.
1. 3 lines of suicide touches, then sprint to top of parking lot; 10 Merkins OYO; Rinse and Repeat coming back (including 10 Merkins OYO)
2. 3 lines of suicide touches, then backwards run to top of parking lot; 10 Merkins OYO; Rinse and Repeat coming back (includinding 10 Merkins OYO)
3. 3 lines of suicide touches, then lunge walk to top of parking lot; 10 Merkins OYO; Rinse and Repeate coming back (including 10 merkins OYO)
Mosey over to Stumptown Park amphitheater… which is our wet weather contingency. Despite the drying skies, YHC still wanted to use the facility… kind of a Disaster Recovery test so to speak!
Grouped in 3’s:
1. P1 bear-crawl across the stage while P2 and P3 do squats… flap jack until stop.
2 P1 crab-walk across the stage while P2 and P3 do LBC’s… flap jack until stop.
Circle up for Tabata circuit. Starting with PAX we called the exercises for :40 seconds, then :20 second rest.
1. Flutter Kicks
2. SSH
3. Plank
4. Toe Squat (ask Booyah)
5. Wide Arm Merkins (smoker)
6. Burpees (fake last exercise)
7. CDD’s (are you kidding?)
Mosey back to parking lot…DONE!!
Moleskine:
Excellent work out there this morning! A special welcome to FNG – Snoopy (Al Pardo) who came with Dora. To claim to be an acquaintance of Dora is brave enough… but to hop in a car with him at 5:10 and head to a dark parking lot in the middle of the pouring rain is, well… enough said!! But seriously, welcome!! Great job out there for your first tme… looking forward to many more to come!
Also a hearty welcome to Body Bag, Grape Juice (Jelly Roll/Jelly Fish), and Lex Luther! I think you guys might have been to Peak before, but regardles… welcome and join us any time! Of course, all 3 were consistently at the head of the group for the exercises… especially the suicides. We will try to challenge you more the next time!!! 🙂
Thanks as always to the regulars that continue to get stronger… Geraldo, Booyah, Lamont, Swiss Miss, The Count… you guys keep the site going strong each week!
It is always an honor to lead such a great group of men!
Announcements:
1. Keep The Count (Jason Clark) and his family in prayers. Jason’s Mom, Dad and Mother-In-Law are all experiencing health issues, and just asking for God’s guidance and healing.
2. Dora mentioned the Red Light and Blue May 13th War Stories. May 14th is Go Ruck Light. Or consider sponsoring a vet to participate at www.vetsau.com
3. Let Slim Fast know if you are interested in running in the Blue Ridge Relay in September.
Black Diamond Pre-Blast
The next Black Diamond will launch on Thursday 4/14 @ 5:15 from the Trader Joes parking lot in Piper Glen. (This is not a Devils Turn convergence)
For those who haven’t heard. Black Diamond, the brain child of the SOB/Indian Land region, is a rotational workout where day and location is selected by the Q. At each Black Diamond workout the next Q is selected and asked to host the next BD workout in the next week or two.
Black Diamonds are supposed to be non-FNG friendly and very high intensity. It will however be #MerlotSpilling friendly. Basically this is a normal high intensity workout amped up with additional hard stuff added in. Come rested and prepared to work.
-Alf
Pre-blast: Spartan Race Sprint @ DAY ZERO 4/9/16 7-8am
YHC wanted to write a more epic pre-blast but ran out of time, so this will have to do. IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON POSTING AT DAY ZERO TOMORROW, PLEASE READ AND REVIEW THE COURSE MAP SO YOU KNOW WERE TO GO (subject to change… and I have already modified it ). Hoping to see ALL of you who want to be out there tomorrow, and NONE of you who don’t.
What: FREE OCR Course at DAY ZERO (~1mile course with ~10 obstacles… 3x = 3 miles 30 obstacles)
When: Saturday, April 9th @ 7-8am … get there early to get course instruction. Race starts on time!
Where: DAY ZERO AO – McAlpine Elementary School (9100 Carswell Ln, Charlotte, NC 28277)
Who: Only the mentally toughest PAX who will try to complete as many laps as possible in 1hr (YHC challenges all Pax to do 3 laps). If you are not wanting to push yourself to the limits, as last week DZ Q Alf stated, there are several other options in other AOs for you to post at, and suggest you visit those.
Why: What better way to get ready for Spartan, Battlefrog, or Leatherneck Mud Run than to simulate a real Spartan Race, which happens to be this weekend as well. You vs. You …. and brother vs brother, in an iron sharpening battle! YHC Challenges all PAX to complete three laps of the course in the 1hr allotted time.
General Rules / Guidelines:
- This workout is an AMRAP starting at 7am and ending when YHC calls time at @7:55am
- #30 Spartan style penalty burpees for failure to complete an obstacle (chest touches ground, feet leave ground). Honor system, don’t cheap yourself, and have some personal pride by doing the penalty if you can’t complete the obstacle.
- Count your laps for the end (partial laps count).
- The course flows in a counter-clockwise single lap and does not leave the DZ AO. Orange cones will be laid out at obstacles.
- If you arrive late, jump in the course somewhere there is not a log- jam, or wait a minute or two to get PAX separation.
- Modify if necessary, as PAX safety precedes fitness, but if possible complete the obstacle as it was intended.
Course Map attached (pretty close to actual, but YHC has made modifications’ … YHC will better explain obstacles at the site before the race, and there will be cones with instructions as well.
SYITG ~ J.R.R. Tolkien
F3 Outland Preblast – Pancho and Lefty
Gentlemen,
Tomorrow shall mark an important occasion for the men of Union County.
We have a long morning ahead of us, for there are wrongs to be righted, sins to be repented, grievances to be aired, and winds to be broken . . . all in an action-packed 60 mins.
If you attended last week’s #F3Outland, you’ll remember that Shemp and Joe, the two unnecessary Stooges, nearly ruined what used to be a glorious Saturday morning experience by unleashing what amounted to a giant stale Peep of a workout on the pax. Their unwanted sequel to that steamer of a workout from last year reminded us of cinematic gems such as “Son of the Mask”, “Titanic 2”, and “Deuce Bigalo, European Gigalo” – all sequels to something that should never have existed in the first place.
But we all followed along and went Gee when we should have gone Haw . . . time to jerk the bit and steer back on course.
Join me, Pancho, and Lefty tomorrow where we will turn the beat around and play a little #monkeyinthemiddle with what will possibly be the best worst idea to ever escape my twisted and unfiltered mind.
Let’s make Outland Great Again!
Horsehead
Anyone can do an exercise for 45 seconds… Right?
A nice cool morning to make everyone sweat.
5:30 struck and off we went for a #HairbandMile #Hairband100ydDash
COP
SSH x 20
Imperial Walkers x 20
Peter Parker x 10
Parker Peter x 10
I feel like I called something else but that may have been when I Q’ed Thrive on Tuesday, it’s all blending together now.
The Thang
Welcome to a Tabata/HIIT workout here is the deal. exercise for 45 seconds, rest for 15 (While moving to the next station) and the 45 second clock starts again. Anyone can do an exercise for 45 seconds right?!
Here are the stations:
- Burpee
- Jump Rope
- Kettlebell (or sandbag) overhead press
- Rock hoppers
- Elbow plank – Hey you don’t even move that should be an easy rest right? Right? #NotSoMuch
- Flutter with Sandbag press
- Battle Ropes
- Sumo Squat with kettlebell
- Step ups
- Shoulder to Shoulder w/ sandbag
We did 25 rounds and everyone was pushing themselves which is exactly what you should do!
Just as we were getting done my friend Jack Webb showed up! 1 Merkin to 4 Air Presses up to 10/40.
6MOM
Pretzel Crunch right for 10, left for 10
Flutter x 20
Rosalita x 20
Freddie Mercury x 27 (just to throw everyone off)
Superman/Banana
Again I think there was something else but can’t remember #O2Dep or #Old… #Both
Moleskin
So let me start with my #Brainfart… I planned an awesome playlist of music using Amazon Prime on my phone, it didn’t occur to me until 5:25am that I needed my phone for the tabata timer app! Ugh!
Grabbed my iPod out of my car and put on an old playlist, still a good playlist, but not as epic as I had planned. As pointed out I still had Whitesnake to pay homage to my Hair Band name.
Great work by everyone, great to see The Bus back, & as a newbie sorry about your arms today bro. Jack Webb has a way of rendering them pretty useless for the rest of the day and your suggestion on pulling that out for kids that show up in your office in trouble is a brilliant idea. #IAmNotAProfessional
I think I heard more groaning than #Mumblechatter through most of the workout which is a good thing.
Announcements/Prayers
- Keep The Count’s Mom & Dad (& MIL) in your prayers but there has been some encouraging news lately.
- Glass Joe’s Family
- Get involved in the Patriot Run in South Park on Memorial Day
Homes starting in the $400’s
12 anti “fart sackers” came out to Kevlar this morning to prove their worth and it was a pleasure to take the lead…
Warmup
Run to parking lot…
SSH
Merkins
Low Slow Squats
Carolina Dry Docks
Run to neigborhood hill and on the way we stopped at each light post and did 10 merkins OYO, 10 LBCs, 10 burpees, 10 squat jumps, 10 lunges each leg, 20 calf raises...cross Hwy 51 to hill….
20 Monkey Humpers at bottom (new tradition – see below) Partner up
Partner 1 – lunge walk up hill
Partner 2 – 20 merkins then catch partner 1 and flapjack
Run down hill together
Partner 1- reverse run up hill
Partner 2 – 10 merkins then catch partner 1 flapjack…..again
Partner 1 – shuffle up hill
Partner 2 – 5 merkins then catch partner 1 flapjack....again
Partner 1 – Bear Crawl up hill
Partner 2 – 5 merkins then catch partner 1, flapjack...back down
Run up hill as a group…and over to the benches near the playground..
10 minutes of pain
We did 1 minute timed runs of the following exercises
1 min – Toe taps on benches (prob the hardest one IMO – Alf named this one “Irish Dance” or something – I guess that’s better than “toe taps”
1 min -Dips on bench
1 min – Iso squat – hold at 90 degrees
20 Derkins in cadence
1 min – bench sit ups – balance on bench and extend legs
1 min – sit downs on bench
1 min – step ups
1 min – lady pushups (incline) on bench
One or two more? I had 10 planned but we were running slighly over…
Back to the field and circle up
15 Power Jacks in cadence (plank position, legs jump up outside of arms and back)
20 Hostages (hands on head, go down to ground one knee at a time and back up)
20 Flutters
6 inches (or two feet for most of us at this point) and we’re done!
Recap
Good push by all this morning – not too much down time and I appreciated the limited complaining about Bear Crawling up the big hill…Turkey Leg impressed with some swift running despite having one injured leg….allegedly. Which Doctor and Alf went strong all morning and the group all stayed together as we zig zagged from lot to lot. Cotton Tail and others seemed to enjoy the Hostage at the end…I’ll keep it in the rotation.
We Froggered over Hwy 51 to the neigborhood Pop Tart introduced us to a few weeks ago and we did our 2nd monthly “20 monkey humper salute” in the cul-de-sac which the new homeowers must certainly enjoy at 5:30am. They didn’t realize that homes starting in the $400s also included a free Thunder Down Under show, F3 Style – should we consider making a 2017 Monkey Humper Calendar? I call Mr. July.
Announcements
Knights game coming up for F3 Dads – full info below:
F3 Dads: A Night with the Knights
The Boys of Summer are taking the field and F3 Dads will be there in force on Saturday May 14th. Load up the 2.0s and leave mom with a good book and a bottle of wine as we kick off the Summer of Sixteen at BB&T ballpark. We have a large block of tickets reserved for the game against our cross-state rivals the Durham Bulls.
Tickets are on sale now through April 28th! Don’t wait. This will sellout.
Who: F3 Dads from across the F3Nation and 2.0s of all ages.
What: Charlotte Knights vs. Duham Bulls
When: 6:05pm, Saturday May 14th
Where: BB&T Ballpark
Why: 2nd F – Making memories; Building character; Having Fun
How much: $12 per ticket; pre-game cookout in the park is free to every person with an F3 Dads Jersey
PURCHASE NOW:
1.Visit www.ticketreturn.com
2.Login at top left corner with Username: f3dads and Password: tickets
3.Select your seats by clicking the box next to the tickets you want
4.Scroll to bottom and click “Confirm Selected Single Tickets”
5.The next page provides confirmation, click “Proceed to Checkout”
Select your delivery method and enter your payment information
WT’s Garage OCR training
The Ingredients
2 Hula hoops
4 buckets
1 board
9 cones
1 sawhorse
1 piece of sidewalk chalk
5 logs
The Thang
We began with a short job from the Vine to the steps of Loch Ness. No SSH, no IW, no warm-up at all.
The instructions were delivered. Run around Loch Ness and the various obstacles as many repetitions as possible (AMRAP). On each second lap alternate the left and right sides of the fitness trail. On the left side complete five pull-ups on the right traverse the low and high parallel bars.
The obstacles
Patio 1
Chairs set up to into 5 chutes for alternating wall jumps
Patio 2
2 hula hoops to crawl through
Down the hill
9 cones to slalom
Straight-Away
1 saw-horse hurdle
Up the Hill
Chalked-off bear crawl zone
Final turn
Small log jump
Tall log jump
Bucket hurdle
NM
Let’s state the obvious, I’m not that fast. That said, there’s no reason even the slower guys can’t Q The Brave. You just have to do some planning. After some thought and visit to my garage and shed, I picked some items that could be used as obstacles. After all, The Brave isn’t just a running work-out, it is OCR training.The hula hoops were a bust. They were too small and kept getting knocked over. I saw some good improvisation at that station including bear crawls and merkins.
I appreciate the big turnout today. (Centurion beat us by 1.) Lots of great hustle from everyone. Thank you to the IL boys for coming out. Thank you to JRR T for providing his logs.
Keep it up and sign up to Q. Don’t be afraid to mix it up and try some new things.
Announcements
Fast Five – http://f3nation.com/2016/03/31/pre-blast-fast-5-the-worlds-fastest-5k-relay-spring-2016/
SOB/IL F3 Dads launches May 27 at the Bull Ring
Bucky’s neighborhood fest supporting a Kenyan Orphanage – https://t.co/ZT7IUFUvmk
April 16 Stonehenge and DaVinci converge at Indianland Elementary for OCR training and boot camp. The fun starts at 6 AM.
Short & Fast TWSS
So there were 14 pax for this weekly rendition of Mountain Goat, which apparently had an over ambitious Q comparing the pre blast to the actual workout, my how time flies when you’re slogging it out with your F3 brethren. That looked something like:
Warm up as per usual, including the usual comments about YHC’s short sleeved shirt (it was warm out) and white shoes (they only come in white), it’s ok I can take it 🙂
Dynamic stretching
4 x 400 m with 400 m recovery at mile time pace, for those mathematically inclined this would give almost a mile at race pace broken up, important to not exceed mile pace, especially early on
4 x 200 m with 300 m at approximately mile pace minus 20-30 seconds, yes this is pretty fast, but it is pretty short with a long recovery, this is a very hard effort but not an all out sprint…
oops – didn’t get to the 4 x 100 m with 200 m recovery at 90-95% AYG – obviously fast with very long recoveries, focus on form, focus on breathing
Two laps “backwards” on the track to cool down, up to the cars and wow, look at that 6:15 already.
NM:
Slim Fast joined YHC for a light pre-run which was slightly quicker due to that fact. Brat and Mr. Brady were out in front as one would expect, Joker pulling up close behind, the non-aero vest no doubt slowing him down just a tad. Icicle and Early Bird were confused for each other at least 4 times, although for once, not by YHC (say nothing and sometimes you get rewarded), but they were running together at a pretty quick pace. The Mouth was unusually quiet as it appeared he was working pretty hard, I guess that’s the way to do it. Nuke was steady on the pace and looking strong and consistent, way to keep that improvement coming! All strong efforts out there and a lack of O2 for YHC no doubt caused loss of memory on other notable efforts so sound off on what you saw below.
Thanks to Mr. Brady for the send off into the day!
Announcements:
Fast 5 relay, 5 person team, each running 1 km (.62 miles) and each team requires either a 200lb or a #Respect, YHC would love to join a team to meet the Clydesdale requirement.
RLB coming up in a few weeks, can double down on that and the Knights game for F3 Dads, not a bad way to spend a day.
Slim Fast offered to connect anyone interested in running the Great Smokey Relay up with a team looking for 2 more runners so you can contact him @maclisll on twitter
Getting shorter but faster
Due to the likely overall shorter distance a pre-run warm up run option is available at 0500 to grab a 2nd F mile or so to loosen up the legs.
Mountain Goats will be able to work through their mile time and beyond in shorter but faster bursts of speed progressively through the workout sort of like:
Warm up as per usual
Dynamic stretching
4 x 400 m with 400 m recovery at mile time pace, for those mathematically inclined this would give almost a mile at race pace broken up, important to not exceed mile pace, especially early on
4 x 200 m with 300 m at approximately mile pace minus 20-30 seconds, yes this is pretty fast, but it is pretty short with a long recovery, this is a very hard effort but not an all out sprint…
4 x 100 m with 200 m recovery at 90-95% AYG – obviously fast with very long recoveries, focus on form, focus on breathing
Some potential to repeato as time allows but we will be focused on a proper cool down run after this kind of speed to get the legs adjusted
Overall distance is likely to be a little shorter than normal, not by much but focus is on shorter distances but keeping the pace pretty quick.