Swift will launch at 0515 on Tuesday from the Vine Restaurant at the Ballantyne AO. We will be going off-campus this week, but in a well lit area. Vests / blinking lights / headlamps optional.
The THANG:
Twenty four mouth-breathers descended upon Carmel Park to kick off June by oozing DNA from every pore. Turns out running in to the workout is the norm at DMZ (upwards of 20 ran in? maybe 30) and they exhibit no shame in extended a sweaty-palmed handshake to those don’t. Only slightly less jarring than shaking a prosthetic hand.
The early birds, chin in chest and faces aglow from their phones, managed to scare off a cab at 0515. Because you get a lot of walk up traffic on Carmel Rd at 5 am. Probably thought we were an Uber flash mob looking to take down #BigTaxi.
THANG
Little baby jog to the lot next door.
Mosey to the bottom of the hill, assembling in teams of 3, with one plate per team. Three-man grinders
Exercises:
Mosey home for COT.
MOLESKINE
See ya next time.
After a successful break-in to El Guapo’s fortress, 18 men gathered at Base Camp. After being properly disclaimed, and despite the lack of a shovel flag (does Base Camp have a flag?), we proceeded thusly.
Warmup
Lap around the parking lot to pick up a straggler. Wait, there’s another one coming in. Another lap.
Circle up for SSH, Mountain Climber and Slow Squats (no IW?).
Lunge walk about 25 yards, then jog over to the cinder blocks. Partner up and select a block.
The Thang
Yog down to the bleacher area. Pick a bleacher (no partner or blocks, necessary, I just didn’t want to go back up there). 10 derkins, 15 dips, 20 step ups, then run to the light pole in the outfield and back. Repeat.
Catch me if you can with the blocks, chaser does 5 HR merkins. Run from bleachers to track, then around the track. Gather in the near end zone.
Line up abreast with your partner and your cinder block.
Partner 1 runs to the other goal line while partner 2 does the exercise. Flapjack. Repeat exercise with run to the 50 yard line. Exercises were curls, overhead press, squats, merkins.
Carry the block back to its home. Circle up for Mary. Flutter, Freddie Mercury, Rosalita, Protractor. Done
Moleskine
I’d like to start by thanking Passport and Fireman Ed for leaving the bathrooms at SCMS unlocked. Could’ve been an ugly start to the workout without those (dirty, but functioning) facilities.
Good group of guys this morning. All business. I don’t think I was heckled once. Heartbreaker and whoever he was working with were flying on the football field. It was good to partner up with Hard Hat. Tough, hard working guy.
Marge was lamenting our Clemson Tigers playing themselves out of the postseason. At least SC didn’t make the tournament.
Welcome to FNG Coolio (A/C guy). He was out front during CMIYC. Good work!
Announcements:
Southern Discomfort is coming August 1. 8ish miles and 7ish AOs on Hwy 51. Sounds fun. The weather is perfect on Aug 1 for that kind of thing.
NODA 5k this Saturday. Details in the weekly email.
Mermaid is coordinating a food drive for Calvary Church (AO for The Rock and Anvil). Details here: http://f3nation.com/2015/05/29/calvary-church-pantry-food-drive/
YHC had trouble sleeping last night – too many choices of what to do in the Gloom this am at FoxHole (Area 51 may need to start a support group for people like YHC, High Tide and TR – who spend as much time with our KBs as our Ms)
Anyway – arrived to find a small but solid crew so threw out all options that were crafted the night before and went with a tried and true meat and potatoes Clean and Press ladder workout. (also, YHC missed his KB workout Saturday and this was a great chance to make it up)
8 MEN / SOBs started their week off with a little iron and no running at Foxhole this AM.
Quick disclaimer given (or was it – maybe in YHC’s head – can’t remember now)
Then warmup:
20 – two handed swings
10 good mornings
10 halo’s – 5 in each direction
5 prying goblet squats – ass to the grass deep.
The Thang:
Clean and Press Ladders.
The Russian – aka Pavel loves to use these to get a lot of work done in a realtively short amount of time – however, he does say American’s have a harder time with these than Russians – because they are boring – a hard workout, but boring and Amreican don’t do boring. (per Pavel)
Anyway enough of that –
A ladder went like this:
1 C&P (R), 1 C&P(L), 1 diamond merkin on your bell
2 C&P (R), 2 C&P(L), 2 diamond merkins on your bell
3 C&P (R), 3 C&P(L), 3 diamond merkins on your bell
4 C&P (R), 4 C&P(L), 4 diamond merkins on your bell
5 C&P (R), 5 C&P(L), 5 diamond merkins on your bell
and
5 goblet squats
Rinse and repeat for a total of 5 ladders
3 x snatches (R,L)
2 x snatches (R,L)
1 x snatches (R,L)
6 minutes of mary
KB Flutter in cadense (Press the bell up) x 15
20 leg lifts oyo using the bell as your counter weight (laying flat on your back, legs staight, lift them up and over your head and try to touch the ground behind your head, and back down = 1)
few minutes left – amrap – merkins for those in the challenge until time is called YHC was able to get 60.
No ground covered – but lots of work done.
NNM
Sometimes you don’t have to cover a lot of ground to get a workout and this morning was evident of that. Not a lot of mumblechatter but a lot of sweat flying around as everyone got after it.
Solid hard working crew out this morning – great work. Frehley’s finally decided to bell up today and did most of the C&Ps with a 24KG or 52 lbs for us Mericans. Solid work brother.
Also very little instruction needed today – everyone was using great form – so the Form Police wasn’t busy today.
Thank you men for the honor of leading you this am. It is a privilege.
YHC will cut the sight Q’s some slack today – sore shoulders need to be cared for, and alarm clock fails are bound to happen time to time…
Thanks for taking us our Frehley’s
Announcements:
Area 51 Southern Discomfort – Area 51’s CSAUP coming in August – keep a watch for news on this.
Champagne Out.
11 men either read the pre-tweet and wanted to visit a new area within our AO or didn’t read twitter and showed up anyway.
Warm Up:
– SSH x 50
– 5 Burpees OYO
– Merkins x 25
– 5 Burpess OYO
– Squats x 30
– 10 Burpees OYO
– Flutter x 30
The Thang:
– Mosey to Chick-Fil-A; regroup. Fast mosey to Elm/Ballantyne Commons. Flutter until 6 arrives. Mosey to Ballantyne Trace / Forum Ave.
– 11’s – Squats at top; CCV at bottom (both sides).
– Mosey back to parking.
– PPl’s Chair – right leg raised with 50 air presses. Left leg raised with 50 air presses.
– Mary – Heels to Heaven.
– Done.
Moleskin:
– Never ventured to Ballantyne Trace Ct. area – YHC thought 11’s would be a good idea. They were but equally terrible = success.
– Poptart advised we wet 3+ miles. Not bad mix of bootcamp and distance.
– It’s getting humid!
– Good to see some newer guys becoming regulars – Hammer, Bucky, Smash. Won’t be long until you men will be leading!
– Continue to keep those who have had loss in your hearts and prayers. Specifically Gentry Eddings of Forest Hill.
– Always a pleasure leading a great AO.
These are the 3 maxims of Skunkworks. Every week, the PAX expect a certain level of intensity and a certain type of workout. This is not your traditional bootcamp. F3RunningClub probably won’t like it, either. Moderate workout? Ummm, no. This workout brings out the best in everyone while sweating and beating the worst out of everyone. Even veteran Qs pause before planning the next session knowing they have to step up their game in order to meet the Standard expected.
TR waxed eloquently in last week’s backblast (http://f3nation.com/2015/05/19/history-2/) about how Skunk has evolved over the last 3 years, stealing the best/worst that other workouts had to offer and innovating some of its own atrocities. 3 years and each year brought about a new epoch, year 4 begins. Let’s start it with some style.
Warmup to get the blood pumping and the sweat flowing: jog around parking lot, SSHs, IWs, KB halo, KB around-the-world, 50 KB swings, 20 KB goblet squats, 20 KB good mornings, 20 merkins.
Event #1: Catch me if you can: pair up with a dude with a like size bell, partner 1 starts farmer carry run with both bells, partner 2 performs 10 quality merkins and sprints after P1. Flapjack and repeat around the church/school grounds, stopping at bottom of the concrete stairs. Can’t forget to mention: we ran this reverse course. Up hill the whole way. Brutal.
Event #2: KB ladder. Perform the following exercises, first 1 arm then the other: KB swing, high pull, snatch, clean, goblet squat. After set, run to top of hill, 5 burpees, run back and plank until all in. Move on to next set. Began with 2 reps of each exercise then repeat with sets of 4 reps, 6 reps, 4 reps, 2 reps. Some folks lost their shirts on this one. Others almost lost consciousness.
Event #3: Sledgehammer tire relay. Shoulder bell and run to other side of church parking lot. Pull sledgehammers and tires out of the shadows and line up for a 2-team relay race: Everyone performs various KB exercises while 1 from each team moves tire by striking it with the sledgehammer (sliding the tire flat on the ground) . Everyone gets a turn with the hammer swings, PAX performed a multitude of various KB exercises while enjoying the spectacle.
COT
Moleskine:
– No, I will not give you a weather update. We are men with more in common than most. We can do better than talking about the weather.
– I won’t give you a “wow, that workout was hard” update, either. It was Skunkworks. What do you think?
– Reverse course farmer’s carry – when I decided to go counterclockwise around the church/school rather than our normal clockwise, I was thinking only about where I wanted us to end up. Honestly didn’t think to remember how long of a hill we’d have to climb. Most of us were wiped out after that, and we still had 2 more events to conquer.
– Tough work put in by all today. Here are the ones I remember enough to note: Harley worked so hard he lost his shirt. F’man Ed did his burpee/sprint combos so fast he almost lost consciousness. Swiss Miss led the pack the entire way – that’s his MO, put his head down and got to work. Gumnut and Les Mis have stepped up to the big boy bells and swing them liked the beasts they are. Stone Cold: perhaps the ideal skunk – fast and strong. Freedom walking off holding his gorilla bell and sledgehammer over the shoulder looked like a hulking, barbarian headhunter (not bad for a worship leader!).
– I’m not sure I did anything more fun last week than swing that hammer. Something about holding a piece of hickory and swinging an iron head to remind me what men are meant to do. Even made sparks fly the couple times we grazed the asphalt. Vulcan and Thor would have been proud.
– A few of us figured out (accidentally?) how to pop the tire up and get it to roll. That took brains. But, we looked like idiots (i.e., dudes having a good time) as we tried to hit the moving tire with our 12 pound hammers.
– Cobains on the tardy backblast. Yes, this workout happened and yes it was a blast. Tardiness solely my bad.
– Comment below if you want to call me out for being a slack backblaster, or remember any other notable performances. I enjoyed Qing – thank you Harley for the opportunity, and thanks to the PAX for being willing to Follow Me as I led us through this little workout.
Eleven luckless pedestrians issued forth into the gloom to attack what would turn out to be twin Weinkes. And questions. Many questions. The first of which was, “Where’s Deep Dish?”
We passed time waiting on Deep Dish by coveting Stone Cold’s Jeep, the hot crazy girlfriend of automobiles:
“If I had a Jeep, would I look as cool as he thinks he looks?”
Probably not. And you’d have to put sunscreen on the top of your head. Some more than others.
Deep Dish arrived Just In Time and, making up for his brush with tardiness, tip-toed through the disclaimer, believing (erroneously) that veteran Pax are no less susceptible to biliousness, wooziness, and in rare cases, even unibrow. But such as situation befell a hypo-granola’d Pax just two days ago. A sober reminder for all Site Qs: keep a granola bar in your shorts at all times.
Such was the discussion as Deep Dish led the Mosey to the lot closest to 51, the one where a man sat alone in a green car, where the sun burns not just your rods but also your cones. The same one where passing cars can see you do 50 seconds of Tai Chi. And so we did. Then we gathered abreast–openly defiant– and raised many calves in the direction of Day Zero. Because of the solemnity of the moment, we did them OYO.
Did some running to and fro with various exercises sprinkled in: merkins, CDD’s, flutters and dollies. Then off to the playground for fun on the swing sets. Three rounds of Toes to Bar, Pull Ups and Donkey Kicks.
Stone Cold demos a new exercise that he saw on Art of Manliness: the swing-aided pistol. We only did 10 each leg but I can feel them. Good stuff.
Then off to the hotbox for running to and fro with exercises sprinkled in. Not your parking lot variety of running and exercises. This was running and exercises with 80’s Hairbands and trivia / arcane knowledge.
Question 1: Name the four members of the Monkees.
I am not sure that 10 men correctly named one Monkee and, further, I am not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Regardless 20 burpees was the reward/punishment for someone saying “joey something.”
Then some step ups and running, all while ruminating on the next question.
Question 2: Name 7 countries that start with the letter A.
Hops showed some depth here (Azerbaijan). Mouth did not (Angina). We managed to get seven, then did CDDs (feet on table) and more running.
Question 3: What’s the atomic weight of Hydrogen? [Ed. note: was going to ask about Oxygen but couldn’t remember if it was 8 or 16….If you can’t Q it don’t do it.. Turns out it’s 16.]
More running, mixed with heels to heaven. Then more running.
Question 4: Name 7 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices. An asterisk on this one. I was leaning toward Mouth and “Angina” over Hops and “Kagan”. Mouth let me down on that one.
Other bonus questions:
Into the volleyball court for suicides to finish up.
COT
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mermaid is leading an A51-wide food drive to help restock the pantry at Calvary. State your intentions HERE. The Rock has already claimed grape jelly but there are plenty of other needs. All they ask in return for using the campus is that we pray for their ministries. Let’s do that and give generously as well.
While Glass Joe and Shepherd completed an impressive 5 mile pre-run that allegedly did not involve any trips to Bojangles, a group of 13 mighty men assembled in the Sun Valley Middle School parking lot for a tour of the facilities. Countertop had to leave after a his solo pre-KB workout, leaving 12 for the main event.
THANG:
Note, I completely made this workout up on the fly – no duct tape weinkes or CSI style diagrams. I also smoked myself during this thing, so the details may or may not be accurate. Usually, only about 50% of what I type on these things is true anyway so it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Jog to back of Middle School bus lot for COPee (more on this later).
Group mosey to Elementary School playground for partner work. Pair up, and perform the following:
Pinball run (ICE-9 ™) all the way back to the cars. Pax race to a waypoint and then all turn around to pick up the six. Brief jog together until everyone gets to the waypoint and then another race. We did about 5 of these until we made it to the cars. This is my favorite replacement for the Indian Run – seems to push the faster guys much harder and keeps the six in sight just as well.
1 min H2O break, a new Outland site policy at the 30 min part of each workout. Everyone was still alive – good.
Group mosey out to the practice football field with a stop along the way for some burpees to catch up the six. Glass Joe did 1 burpee. He said he did them yesterday, which was supposed be somehow relevant.
Line up across the practice field for 7s, burpees on one end and merkins on the other. Serious sweating going on now.
Line up again for #bearapalooza across the field, which was now much longer than I had remembered.
Run back to Shovel Flag. Glass Joe attempted an Indian Run #qjack, which I was too smoked to ward off, and we all made it back somehow.
4MOM
Moleskin:
After almost passing out, barely avoiding mouth-to-mouth with Freedom, some dehydration at a workout on Thursday earlier this week, I was a little concerned about this one. Should be ok though, Splinter has the last half and leading the first 30 won’t be that bad. A quick text message late Friday about a rescheduled ballgame put me on the hook for the full 60. Then, my left knee went from hurting a little to being completely numb on Friday night, which was disturbing. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
I decided to drink about 800 gallons of water to prepare for this workout so I would not have a re-occurance of events earlier this week. I started Friday mid-day and fueled up like a camel preparing for a long journey. Shortly after the SSH in the warmup circle, it was very clear to me that I needed to pee very badly and that this was going to happen soon. Providentially, there was a new port-a-john very nearby from some construction work that I was able to duck into while the pax headed off to the playground. I caught a fair about of grief about this, but the alternatives would have been tremendous. #COPee
Even after the overhydration, we stuck with the water break thing that we had discussed before the workout. I think it went very well and gave the guys a little more energy to finish the 2nd half strong. It really didn’t interrupt the workout or take much time away, so it’s a keeper.
It was great to see Salt Lick roll up in his giant SUV. I thought he had a deflated rear tire or something preventing him from any running, but he was leading the way for the whole workout. He has the bear crawl knack as well . . . a little unsettling how fast he was bear crawling.
Toughskins is continuing to get after it. He put in some hard work out there.
The Count is hooked – good work out there.
Big Trade with his #batbelt is becoming a site regular. He did a great job helping our FNG Dragnet feel welcome and showing him to to do the smooth #modify thing while still looking awesome
Sweat Shop lived up to his name out there today – gross.
FNG Dragnet (Eric) is a former police office who has recently lost a lot of weight and working to get into shape. He did great today, and says he is coming back. Thanks to the Outland PAX for making him feel welcome.
Thanks to everyone for putting up with my attempt at leading this thing. It was a blast.
– Horsehead
12 test dummies stood around waiting to see what type of pain we could fill in an hour. Some just starred at the slamball others wanted to kick it.
COP
Mosey to side lot of school
Count off by 2
1 Plank Jacks
2 SHA
All in cadence x 25
Slow Squat x 20
Leg Scissors x 15
The Thang
Rock Burn
Grab a “lifting rock”
Monkey Curls x 25
Staggered Merkins on rock x 25
Six Press x 25
Repeat for 3 Rounds
Mosey to hill
Tunnel of Love on Hill
Failure – Move on!!
Mosey to field
Field Run Around
Pax circle up (small circle)
1 man runs with slamball around pax
Pax does called exercise of choice next man then so on
Burpees, LBC’s, Diamond Merkins, Wide Arm Merkins, SSH, IW, mixed bag.
Round 2 make circle larger same repeat as above
Recover
Partner up
Partner Push down field switch when needed
Partner over and under 3 times switch
Pax Tunnel of love 2 passes
Pinball Slamball
1 man runs with slamball to any location drops ball next in line picks up and runs to any location obstacle of his choice and so on and so fourth.
Take it back home
47 Burpees OYO
5 MOM with Ice9
Moleskin:
This was YHC’s first entire hour Saturday Q. Tried some new things some so so other worked well. Best part about today was having Hot Pants post again. He was on IR before he joined #Dromedary & #Commitment glad to have you out again. Good job modifying where you could!
Dasher was quiet with the mumblechatter today (VW’s are normally loud). Probably because I could not hear him over Ice9 & Bratwurst. I think the Monkey Curls hushed most of it.
Yes I had a Q fail. #whatever
Welcome FNG 004! This is what happens when another 007 themed brother brings you out. It seemed that Zeb is a 4th gen and that is where we landed. YHC decided to call out that turning 47 was in the next sunrise. I did the 47 damn burpees! Ice9 did his with the sounds of last evenings dinner coming back. We did have a #TBQ amoung the pax. It could be that wearing all long clothing warmed up the bowels. Good thing that track is open huh. Although plenty of wooded areas and leaves. It was an honor to lead today and a great place to get smoked!
Disclaimer: Frasier, being down an arm had Siri dictate his portion of the backblast. Let the record reflect for any spelling/grammar issues. YHC typed his own and has no excuse for any errors/omissions.
Anyways, 12 men made the right choice on this fine Saturday and brought the heat to #F3DayZero. Old Glory was flying proudly on Garbanzo’s Apollo Creed-esque chubbies shorts long before the tip of the shovel flag was planted firmly (kinda) in the scorched earth. After a notably awkward disclaimer, we were off.
Here’s how the thang-a-lang went down:
Mosey to the soccer fields for COP:
-LBC x 25 IC
-Merkin x 15 IC
-Peter Parker x 20 IC
-Imperial Walker x 25 IC
-SSH x 31 IC
Lap around the school. Butt kicks, high knees, backward run.
Merkin clock: Circle up in plank position performing merkins at each position of the clock face: 1 merkin at 1:00, 2 merkins at 2:00, up to 12 at 12:00. Form began to deteriorate around bedtime between 9:00 and 10:00. Solid work gents, 78 merkins for those counting.
Mosey to the playground and partner up
Dips x 200 between the partners. Bear crawl up hill, crab walk down.
Supine pull ups x 100 between partners. Bear crawl up hill, crab walk down.
Mosey to wall – donkey kicks x25 OYO
Mosey to sidewalk ramp to soccer field. Line up along ramp. The pax planked between railings creating a tunnel arch that would make an engineer proud (maybe). Pax at bottom gorilla hop to top under the arch. Keep your arch high fellas #hangingchads. Pax on bars shift down one position. Repeat until all pax complete gorilla hop.
Repeat tunnel arch with bear crawl. Audible before full circuit due to a gas leak.
Mosey to basketball courts. After another round of the merkin clock in military time was vetoed, we hit 10 burpees OYO.
Handoff to handoff to the one-armed man.
Circle of pain:
The idea was to stay on the move while we work together as a group. Four corners around the track stopping at each corner for a pain station. Mosey and all you got in between the pain stations.
Round one:
Mosey to the first corner with a running rock. 5 to 10 pounds. First called exercise was the goblet squat. AYG to corner number two. Calf raises and cadence to 30 while holding the rock above your head. Mosey to station three where we did step ups x 15. Extend your rock at the top of the step up. AYG to pain station four. 20 Turkish get ups with rock. AYG back to the start of turn one.
Round two:
First called exercise was to tap crunch with rock x 40. Mosey to turn to where we did Russian twist x 20.
AYG to station three. There we did hip thrusters a.k.a. the “Saturday night special” to 20 then alternated right leg left leg up to 10. Mosey to station four. There we did up down in a circle as a wave while holding a rock with their feet. Probably easier. AYG back to the start.
Round three:
Jump squats with rock over your 20. AYG to station two. 20 jump lunges with rock over the head. Mosey the station where we did 15 jump ups. Audible to step up or jump squat unable to do the jump up. AYG to station four. Put your rock on the ground and jump over your rock back-and-forth 30 times. Then jump 30 times sideways over your rock. Mosey back to station one.
Round four:
Dying cockroach x 20 with your rock. AYG back to the basketball court. For some Mary.
Combination flutter dolly times 20 with the rock. 100 LBCs to finish.
Ye Olde Moleskinne:
Announcements:
Joker noted that F3 Area 51 started almost 4 years ago and had grown from 1 workout to >30. T-Claps to the leadership of the men and growth of F3 in South Charlotte.
Two races coming in June with several Pax already signed up: