#Preblast – Recycling Friendly workout
The weekly Speed running workout known as Swift will launch at 0515 from the Vine Restaurant in the Ballantyne AO. If this workout seems like it is a recycling of a workout from 3 weeks ago, you’re probably right. Just like last time, there will be cones to mark distances and a pause for instructions to the group before each set. Therefore, no pre-workout watch programming should be necessary if done with the group!
The Plan:
- 0500 – come early for some extra easy running
- 0515 – head out with the full group of PAX for a warm-up of easy running and dynamic drills. Head towards Rushmore Dr.
- 0530 – Start the main workout. Each interval has equal distance jog recovery.
- 2 x 600m at 1-mile Race Pace + 3 sec (i.e. if your 1-mile target is 6:00, then your 600m target is 2:15. Run this 600 at 2:18). Don’t make this too fast.
- 3 x 400 at 1-mile Race Pace
- 4 x 300 at 1-mile Race Pace – 1 sec (i.e. if your 1-mile target is 6:00, then your 300m target is 1:08. Run this 300 at 1:07). Feel like you are pushing slightly.
- 6 x 200 at “F”-pace – your 800m race pace
Note: F-pace is about 4 seconds faster per 200m than your 1-mile/1600m race pace – which is the same as a full 32 seconds (4 seconds x 8 (200m per 1600m)) of pace per mile. For example, if your Mile Race Goal is 6:00, then your F-pace target is about a 5:28 / mile pace. Which means that you could run a 800m race in about 2:44.
SYITG,
Bratwurst
March Madness Frenzy
15 PAX (1 FNG) made it it after some late night March Madness for an early morning beat down.
Warmup
35x SSH
25x Mountain Climbers
25x IW
25x LBC
Mosey down the path…
Stop 1 – partner 1 plank, partner 2 feet on partners back and 15 merkins. Flapjack Stop 2 – same as 1 but wide arm merkin Stop 3 – same, diamond merkin Stop 4 – partner up and get to 100 supines with one partner run a loop and flapjack when you get back.
Bear walk to sign, lunge walk to light post. Over to basketball court.
Grab your partner. While one partner does 10 burpees other partner does following exercise, then flapjack. 6 rounds Flutter, sit ups, H2H, LBC, rosalita, can’t remember
Mosey to stairs… Partner 1 Maryland Crab, partner 2 run stairs and “box jump” up stairs until 50 complete. Shoulder press x 30.
Mosey back to lot with burpees along the way and finish with 4 minutes of Mary as led by the pax.
Moleskin
Great workout this morning. I wasn’t sure if I was the only one up late watching bball, so I was happy to see such a good showing.
Does Semi Gloss still do F3?
8 peeps rolled up to DMZ (yes, I’m including myself and my 132 yard run in). Agony put on 2 coats and 2 pairs of gloves and we were off.
20SSH while waiting on Swiper. Run down Camilla and stop at each driveway on right and the end for 10 merkins each. Flutters x 20IC. Run back up Camilla with same stops with 10 squats each.
Head over to benches at Church at Charlotte for derkins and dips ladder (20/5, 15/10, 10/15, 5/20). Flutters x 30 IC. Run to bottom of lot for triple nickel (10 HR merkins at second light and 20 LBCs at bottom). Repeat for a total of 5 trips. Head back to benches for derkin/dip ladder. Flutters x 25IC. Back to bottom of lot for suicides (10 HR merkins at each light and 20 LBCs every time at bottom). Back to benches for derkin/dip ladder. Flutters X 25IC. AYG back to lot.
Moleskin
For those counting home that’s 150 derkins, 100 merkins, 100 HR merkins, 150 dips, 180 LBCs, 100 Flutters, 100 squats, and 2.7 miles running. Not a bad morning.
Lots of complaining on the derkin/dip ladder. Lots of chatter on what Agony looked like as a lineman at Davidson. He also removed his outer jacket during each derkin/dip ladder.
The form was outstanding today. Top notch. Seriously though, Bout Time’s form is impeccable.
McGee was the scheduled Q but he came down with a case of the Mondays, aka the stomach bug.
Semi has quit F3. It’s a shame. So much potential with that one. #minivancenturionNOT
Announcements
SOFAWIB should be huge tomorrow. Probably 50+ out there.
Merkin Fest
10 men posted at Ascent/Olympus Saturday morning to see what the next hour would hold for them. It went down like this:
Mosey to the track, take two laps around the track with 15 merkins after each lap, plank when done to wait on the six.
Jog to the smaller field for
COP:
SSH X 20 IC
Squat X 15 IC
Mountain Climber x 15 IC
Line up on end of field near school for 50 yard sprint ladders:
Run to other end of field for x 5 squats, x 5 merkins, x 5 LBC’s. Run back to start point and perform 5 reps each of the same movements. Keep running to each end of the field and perform same movements x 10 reps, x 15 reps, x 15 reps, x 10 reps, x 5 reps at each end until done. Plank and wait for pax to finish.
Mosey to the baseball field and partner up:
P1 bear crawl thru outfield to second base line and lunge walk back. P2 does CDD until P1 returns. Flapjack, x 2 rounds completed.
P1 karaoke facing home plate to second base line, karaoke facing outfield back to starting point. P2 does wide arm merkins, flapjack, x 2 round completed.
Mosey to concession area for AMRAP in 6 minutes of:
x10 incline merkins, x 10 per leg step ups, x10 dips.
Jog to playground area for some Cindy: 20, make that 10 minutes of:
x 5 pull ups, x 10 merkins, x 15 squats.
Goon spoke up and mentioned 20 minutes might be a bit much of that so he volunteered to lead the last 10 minutes which consisted of Flutters, Dolly, Rosalita, Jane Webb, Russian Twist, Protractor and a little People’s Chair. That’s a wrap!
Moleskin:
Great work today men. This workout was thrown together at the last hour due to Hoff injuring his back and not being able to Q so YHC and Pele jumped in. Pele then had to endure sick kids all of Friday night so he was unable to make it, although he did send YHC his plan so I was thankful for not having to come up with 30 minutes on the fly. Thanks to Goon for stepping in for the last 10 minutes to break things up a little. Cindy is always great to do, but I think the guys had had enough of merkins and merkin related movements. Everyone really pushed it out there, and word is Low Tide woke up Sunday with soreness in multiple areas so YHC must have done something right if I can get a young man to feel it. Us old guys do no matter what. Pleasure to lead you men.
Hope Hoff’s back feels better
Hope Pele’s kids are well soon
Thanks to High Tide for the prayer to take us out.
Gullah
Cinco de Marzo
AYE. 5 of Area 51’s finest met in the Gloom for the weekly Day Zero beatdown.
THE THANG
Quick COP – The usuals x 10 + 5 burpees in between
Run a mile – Alf clocked a roughly 6:30 pace
Run the box around the shopping center #RIPTuesdayMorning
Attempted 5-man grinders on the hill – 3 guys stationary while 2 run between
After we sort of failed at that for 15 mins or so, head over to the daycare for the Leg Breaker
People’s Chair/Baryshnikov/Huddle Jump/DWTS/Jump Squat/Squat, etc.
Lots of sprints, then head back home
MOLESKIN
1. Where the pax at? I’m confused. I thought people wanted hard workouts.
2. Tclaps to T&C who posted for his second time today and gave us a lesson in #Diamlernomics, where every employee gets a Benz and the big shots get G65 AMGs. Sign me up.
3. Larry Birds to Alf. Dude is so fast.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Nada.
Your Voice, Your Choice! An exercise that everyone wins!
Since the primary election had become a vote for the lesser of the evils rather than a vote for confidence I decided to give the PAX 2 positive choices that everyone will benefit from!
COP in cadence
Side Straddle Hop x 25
Imperial Walker x 20
Squat x 25
Mosey to hill for instructions
Merkin burners 2 lines opposite directions x 2 just to get it right!
Mosey to the buses for Cheese Weave
Bobby Hurley- Shuffle left, right, sprint
Plank for 6’S
2 line Indian Run to SunValley elementary parking lot
(1 fast line and 1 not as fast line)
fast line takes a lap around parking lot then rejoins slower group on the way to the rock pile
Mosey to Rock Pile- grab a lifting rock
Choose a rock and carry it to the parking lot and put it down in front of you
then take a step to the right (that is your new rock)
Goblet Squat/Curl/Overhead Press superset x 20 in cadence x 2
Lunge walk with rock to the school walls (with your original rock)
Peoples chair with overhead presses (with another new rock) x 40 then x 50
Your voice your vote (pick your poison)
BTTW with 10x Hip Slaps OR BTTW with 10x mountain climbers x 2
return the rocks to the pile and mosey to the interesection
Push #45 plates OR pull tires with #45 plate in the tire behind you
PAX– 5 merkins at the start and finish line while you wait your turn x 4 or 5
mosey around to the back of the middle school to the stairs
Stair Jumps OR backwards bear crawl up the hill x 3
Rail walks OR lunge walks x3
Take the laps down the stairs and back to the start x3
Mosey to the front parking lot
8 signs of Suicide OR 6 LBC/Merkin ladder on the hill
MOM round robin
Freddy mercury
Rosalita
Dollie
some kind of hip thrust to the air???
Merkins
and 1 more that I am missing
Moleskin: I introduced a couple new exercises today and we smoked the arms right of the start. Of course since it was new, we needed to practice it once then try it again just to get it right! Merkin Burners, Merkin Milipedes, Merkin mile…..a good exercise by any name. 2x is NO BUENO!
Never let a 2.0 with ADD lead the PAX, my son decided to get in the fast line and mistakenly redirected the fast line to the short route!
Oh well, to the hidden rock pile. There are a lot of smaller rocks than the Outland studs can truly handle so when I saw a few guys grab a pebble/hand sized rock, I decided to have every one set the rock on the ground in front of them and then SURPRISE.. take a step to your right and pick up your new rock..some guys benefited and some lost! Goblet squats blasted everyone and then we shuffled to the left 2 spaces to get an new rock and try it one more time.
Off to the wall for some people chair..by now no one knew what rock they were going to get. Grab a spot on the wall and lift the rock for some rock presses. I forget to give the count so we went until most guys dropped then recovered for a mere minute..back to the wall for a loud count of 50 rock presses. Was this too much? Maybe? I don’t know that many PAX made it to 50 on this round.
Next up was your choice to pull the big tire with a #45 plate inside it or push the #45 plate..Neither candidate was well received but non the less….the evil began and PAX pushed or pulled to the line and ran to the next then completed 5 merkins at the start and the finish lines. Smoked legs all the way around! Every body wins right? no one left to suffer the misery on their own.
Next up we moseyed to the back of the middle school for another neglected area of the ever expansive Outland AO. Bear crawl up the hill backwards or boxjump up the stairs. I think maybe 1 person tried the bear crawl then quickly switched to the jumps. At the top of the stairs either lunge walk the length of the hand rails or get on top and rail walk the length, head down the backside of the stairs and run around the gravel path back to the first set of stairs and repeat 3 laps.
All done! NOPE! not yet…mosey around the front to the parking lot and voila! parking cones ready and waiting for us. 8 signs of suicide ahead and waiting but wait what about the YOUR VOICE YOUR CHOICE? Well then sensing some refusiniks on the suicides the option to do some 7’s ladder with Merkins/LBC on the hills came about and the PAX chose…again both parties won!
Feeling pretty well smoked and 6 minutes left on the clock, we retired to doing some MARY led by a round robin from 6 PAX with each man calling out and leading a minute.
A special thanks to Horsehead for taking us out in prayer. Very well said, my brother in Christ!
First Q at da Vinci
Could be YHCs first Saturday Q. no. really? At least for a long time. That is for sure.
With weinke-in-a-bag in the pocket and recon and mapping done the night before, 6 men launched at 0700 for a good workout.
The Thang
IW x 20 IC
SSH x 20 IC
Mountain Climbers x 20 IC
10 Merkins – Civilain Count on my call. Down, you say 1
.5 Mile Loop
Start/Finish at the fountain in front of Banana Republic
Lap one. Fellowship pace.
20 dips on fountain
Lap two – Bratwurst theory. It’s half a mile, so… 1 mile pace? Ok. Go.
Pax may optionally take inside loop around McAlisters and TCBY
We pick up a Pax along the way (Outback). Now we are 7.
Mosey toward Jos A Bank
High wall across and stand backward and grab the railing.
20 leg lifts. This looked great on paper and still did the trick. Small lip on brick sticks out.
Strategery need to keep shoulders from popping out. Go higher up or lower down.
Mosey toward Blakeney Heath
Planned to use the small wall behind the toy store for step-ups. 5-0 was eating donuts there so decided to keep rolling. Mic Check led us in Merkins and Plank-o-rama waiting on six. Wait where’s Kevin (loogie)! Circle back and find him. Somehow thought we were doing .5 loop again. Q Fail there. Regroup and head back up Blakeney Heath.
10 Merkins – Civilian count at corner of Knightsdale and Mitchell Glen
New territory found. Unlimited rocks of all sizes.
20 Curls
20 Overhead Presses
20 Tricep Extensions
Repeato
Playground
Leave the rocks behind (set down quietly) and head out towards playground on Blakeney Heath
10 Full Pull-ups. 5 if you need to.
20 Original Sit-ups.
Repeato.
Mic Check called 5-2-2-1 on the second set. Great Call!
Autumn Applause
Apparently a PAX lives on this street and he didn’t make workout this morning. Should we wake him? Decided better of it. At each intersection we alternate
Willow Tree – 10 Burpees
Huntland – 10 Merkins Civilian Cadence all the way down,up
Stags Leap – Somehow we missed this. It was on the wienke.
Fieldcroft – 10 Burpees
Mosey Toward Launch
10 Civilian merkins at Blakeney Heath
10 Civilian merkins at Launch as we wait for six.
Mary
Starting position move is 6 inches for all exercises
20 x Dolly IC
20 x Flutter IC
20 x LBC IC
20 x Heels to the Heavens IC
Done. 3 Seconds over
Thine Only Moleskine
Covered some ground today. Original Route said 2.5. Finished around 3.5ish.
Was worried at 655a YHC would be only PAX. Bunker, followed by Loogie, Mic Check, Cable Guy, Marlin, Outback all rolled in. Great second F with a smaller crowd.
Great job to Mic Check, Bunker and Marlin, Cable Guy – you guys flew around the 1/2 mile. YHC had 4m so i can only guess you guys were near lower 3s??? Sweet.
Nice job modifying Loogie. And you mananged to pick up Outback along they way!
Loogie thanks for hanging in there with the merkins and rocks with the shoulder. Hope it feels better soon.
Outback – a 10k, Stonehenge and da Vinci? Amazing energy level. #F3Strong
Thanks for taking us out Mic Check. An honor to lead you all this morning.
Meatheads in Motion
To be honest YHC was a bit troubled by the foreboding forecast of precipitation as I lay my head down last night. Having recently committed a decent amount of funds to the Muscle Driver USA selloff extravaganza I was looking forward to flexing the new toys and rain would make what YHC had planned a little more complicated. Needless to say the beautiful morning was an amazing surprise, as was the activities which 13 pax would be subjected to as the sun began to peak over the horizon.
The Thang:
Gathered at the new launch point we headed off at a brinks pace down and around the front of the church in indian style via the road and shoulder (cause who doesn’t love playing car-chicken at 7am???) Pax were just starting to grumble about distance when we arrived at the courtyard for a disclaimer and COP.
All in cadence:
SSH X20
IW X10 (too fast was the mumblechatter here… odd)
Merkins X10
Mountain Climber X10
Peter Parker X10
Parker Peter X10 (These last 4 done without recovery between)
6 inches for an icky-shuffle 10 count
At this point the Pax encountered our first party favors (two 20 lbs. slam balls and a 16 lbs. wall ball.) Again in indian run style we struck out passing the party favors back and sprinting forward when they reached the back of the line. We struck out towards the fields then up the road until we reached the parking lot across from the cemetary where it was time for….
Devil’s Starfish
6 stations in starfish set up with a middle cone. The stations were as follows:
Plate Burpees with 20kg plate (chest to plate on top of a small dumbell) X5
Rope Slam X10
Sandbag Clean&Press (56 lbs. sandbag) X5
Over-ball push ups then slam 3 sets of 4 (20 lbs. slamball)
Plate skull crush then press (10 kg plates) X10
Slamball updowns (40 lbs. slamball) X5
In between each station run to the center and do either 1,2,3,4,5,6 of weighted burpees (56 lbs sandbags) or unweighted for 2,4,6,8,10 with the reps escalating after each station.
Repeato of the above except cut reps in half (10 to 5 and 5 to 3) with the center exercise being jump squats (Weighted 6 down to 1 or unweighted 10-2)
After above a mosey around the front of the church, this time on the grass lawn carrying all of the party favors and switching prodigiously. Drop the heavy plates, sandbags and heavy slamballs before repeating the weight-passing indian run with the remaining party favors (thanks Hoover for YHC transport the remaining plates… passing those didn’t seem a great idea at the time.)
Once arriving at the shelter assume peoples chair. Pass the 20 lbs. slamballs, the wall ball and 10 kg plates down the line without touching the ground, then back.
20 Merkins oyo
Resume the peoples chair and pass the party favors again, this time with overhead presses every time you received an object. Return the party favors to the start of the line.
A quick mosey returned us to the cars where YHC angry Q’d Jack Webb to 8 to finish out the morning.
Moleskin: Admittedly this workout was very #highintensity and featured weighted objects which was out of character for The Rock. Unsurprisingly the Pax gamely rose to the occasion with nary a grumble among them. Thankfully YHC recalled Gummy’s objection to lilly white thighs last week and wore appropriate length shorts so that kept things a bit quieter for sure.
Additionally it was great to have a couple of our “meatier” brethren come and enjoy the regions best AO when they heard rumor of the gear-centric playlist for the day. Welcome back any time guys.
Finally it was bittersweet to have Fragile present for what is his last day in Charlotte before journeying south to join the PAX in Charleston. God’s speed brother, we’ll see you soon (he promised beers at his place if we field trip down… I’m tempted.)
Announcements:
-BRR in 6 months… still too soon
-Spartan Sprint on 4/9 and 4/10 – Team name is F3 Nation
These are Chinooks
Ok, this is going to be a quick summary because it’s Saturday and I have little kids and errands to run and I need to mow the lawn before it rains.
From the launch at Vine we ran to the hotel parking lot for the standard side straddle hops, Imperial Walkers and Chinook Squats. Next we convened at Loch Ness for progressively difficult laps.
Lap 1 – 10 step-ups first patio, 10 derkins second patio & 10 dips at the picnic tables
Lap 2 – 20 step-ups first patio, 20 derkins second patio & 20 dips at the picnic tables
Lap 3 – 30 step-ups first patio, 30 derkins second patio & 30 dips at the picnic tables
We cut across the creek through Snyder-Lance HQ to Brixham Hill for catch-me-if-you-can. Partner 1 runs backwards, partner 2 does 5 merkins and runs forward to tag Partner 1. After the tag, partners switch roles until they reach the end of the overpass bridge. The Larry Birds did some Mary while we waited for the stragglers.
From the overpass, we scooted to the Y soccer field Helipad for Clock Merkins. Starting position is 12 o’clock for 12 merkins. We cycled through the clock for a total of 78.
Next up, we did some cone drills on the field.
Drill 1 – Sprint to first cone, run backward to second cone, repeat until complete
Drill 2 – Bear crawl to first cone, crab walk to the second cone, repeat until complete
Resistance band training curtesy of JRR Tolkien
Partner 1 wearing band, Partner 2 provides resistance
Run across field forward, then backward, side shuffle right & side shuffle left
Switch.
Next a long mosey up Ballantyne Commons back to the Vine. We finished up with a round of time-bomb merkins and Chinook Squats.
YHC on the take out. Finito!
Moleskine
I’m bias, but Stonehenge is my favorite workout. You get a little extra sleep, a bagel party and everyone is pretty happy for the weekend. Shout-outs to Honeybee from bringing the FIL – Out Cold. He had no trouble keeping up with the (somewhat) younger crew. Big ups to co-Site Q JRR Tolkien for bring the resistance running bands. Everyone enjoyed the new toys. Lastly, Lex’s hair is getting pretty long. Is he starting a 70s rock cover band?
A little mosey around the AO
21 SOBs, including 2 FNGs, posted at The Brave. Spring is in the air, the birds are chirping and FNGs are starting to cave to the SOBs EH’ing.
Here’s what we did:
The Thang:
At launch, Q gave instructions that anytime during the workout that the Q yelled “Down” 20 merkins must be done by the PAX OYO.
COP – SSH IC X 10, IW IC X 10, Merkins IC X 10
Head to the bottom of Ben Nevis on Ballantyne Commons for instructions from the Q.
Run up Ben Nevis pushing a fast pace, 50 Merkins at the top, recover mosey down Ben Nevis to wait for the six, 30 Dips on the road side guard rail; run to get the six.
We then headed over to the Pond with the bridge Merkins X 25 one lap around the lake with backwards bear crawls up the stairs back to the start X 2
Then moseyed over to kid pond for slalom around the line of trees behind the BofA building. At the end of the trees, 3 heavy bags waited for the PAX.
We split into 3 teams. The objective was to work a team to complete the rest of the workout with the heavy bag. Teams could use any means to carry the bag, a single person carry with hand offs or 2 guys carry at a time. After instructions we headed over to the fitness trail.
In our same teams, team 1 did 10 pull-ups, teams 2 did 30 dips, team 3 did 30 merkins, rotate to all stations.
We then moseyed back to the launch
COT
Moleskin:
Today was the 2nd time in my F3 career I’ve felt bad about my Q. The first was November 2014 when I got the PAX a little too far ahead of a six and he moseyed back to his car before the end of the workout (sorry brother – learned a good lesson that day) and today. I didn’t leave anyone behind today, but after the workout I realized I should have done a better job of modifying my gameplan for the FNGs. We covered 4.5 miles in total, which is a long way for a new guy.
Van Damme and Uncle Phil, hope to see you both back out with us. Great work today. This was not an easy first F3 workout.
We hit Ben Nevis first. That hill always gets year heart rate up, no matter how fast you run up it. 50 merkins at the top and 30 dips at the bottom. It was a good warm up.
At the pond, I had to work in my backwards bear crawls up the stairs. That crushes my shoulders.
I’ve started using my heavy bags more in my Q’s. I like how they add that much more pain to your calves and hamstrings.
It was great to see Big Tuna back out in the Gloom again. Seems like it’s been a while for him.
Announcements:
Frehley’s had to switch his Q at Stonehenge tomorrow with Wild Turkey because he has a “tennis match.” What ever that means. I hope he’s not actually play tennis over posting.
Sign up for the Mud Run.