Despite dire warnings of the sinister nature of the course today and hot humid conditions, 14 men launched from the greenway parking lot headed for Piper Glen to attack some hills. 2 other men (Mall Cop and the illusive Wolfman) launched at an unknown time from the same location, followed an unknown route, and 1 left before sunrise could catch him unawares. No matter the timing, pace, or course these 16 loosely affiliated souls were tested this morning while pushing the pace on challenging terrain.
Before making it out of the warm-up apartment loop, all the PAX were maliciously chicked. It was even about to happen a second time when we all ran away down Rea Rd. There was no one immune (don’t let anyone tell you differently). We will all have to live with this and there will be no excuses accepted.
After leaving the apt loop, the course was the typical Piper Glen hill route and good groups formed at various speeds. There seemed to be quite some ad-libbing of the course today (even neglecting the 2 wayward souls). It seemed that O’Tannenbaum noticed the chalk marks but decided to go out to the clubhouse to see if they had an Arnold Palmer for a mid-run refreshment. Once he found them closed, he made his way back with no issues.
Buttermaker and Sanka (perhaps others?) explored the Piper Glen Dr. exit and seemed to enjoy it. Perhaps we will mix it up a bit with this change to the course in future weeks too. Tootie did not lead Stonecold astray today to the far reaches of Setton House and for that we are thankful.
Bratwurst, Frazier, and Turkey Leg grouped up early and hung together through to the end. Bratwurst was even able to keep up with a bruised toenail from a child’s plastic bucket accident. You have to be careful with those things apparently. #surprisingdangers Frazier is working back into the rotation again after a 2 week hiatus repairing his arm and he didn’t run up the hill backward today. Turkey Leg has been incorporated into an Ultra team for BRR so we should be seeing a lot of him in the coming months.
Kotters to Hannibal who has been absent from DT for some time. It seems that work travels have kept him away. Glad to have you back.
Pretty much everyone was soaked in COT from the exertion and humid conditions. That’s a sign of a good workout if you ask me. Thanks for coming out!
Announcements:
– Convergence Saturday at DayZero @ McAlpine Elem.
– Convergence Monday at South CLT Middle School – 7:00am start
– Sussudio sendoff tomorrow at Joust
– Ghostrunner Thursday nights starting next week
– Swift measurement day – 3rd Tuesday of the Month – In June, SIB will join Swift
– Running form clinic is in the works with Try Sports Blakeney – more details to come
13 pax decided to bypass an additional hour in their warm comfy beds for an hour out in the uncomfortably thick, moist (I love that word) humidity. YHC was sweating before we even got started, although some of that may have been leftover from the 5am growler. T-claps to Champagne and Ironhorse for yoggin in from Food Lion. I’m sure that run back was pleasantly moist (there it is again – love it)
That thing
#COP
20 IW
20 slow CDD
20 SSH
Mosey to playground for ~10 min circuit – complete as many rounds as you can
10 merkins
20 dips
30 squats
Mosey through the woods to the hill in the neighborhood for 11’s
Burpees at the top; Rock Hoppers at the bottom
Mosey back to school for Mary
20 Dolly
~ 1 min of 6 inches
Le Moleskine
Announcements
Convergence on Monday for Memorial Day. Check twitter for time and place.
8 sadistic men with an appetite for pain showed up ready for an ol’-fashioned beat down. Camacho lead the charge and proceeded to lead the men in a series of grueling total body exercises.
Warm up
30 side straddle hops
20 imperial walkers
10 merkins
10 Eight-count burpees
The Beat Down!!
Hill work:
Run down the hill, backwards run up hill
8 count burpees at top
Repeat cycle 4 times
Run down the hill, forward run up hill
merkins at top x 4
Mosey over to bridge and lunge walk across bridge
Circle of pain:
Around the world (everyone calls out an exercise) abs x 10/each
Around the world merkins x 5/each
Indian run:
300 meters
Bleachers:
Snake run up and down bleachers x 8
Suicides:
50yd line with 5 merkins at beginning
Lunge walk to 25yd line and back with 5 merkins at beginning
The home stretch:
Peoples chair shoulder press and dips. Begin w/ 30 presses and 20 dips. Count down by 10 for presses and 5 for dips. Repeat 4x
4 Corners
Merkin variations 5x at each corner. Forward run long side of field. Backwards run on the short side.
Mosey home
Moleskin
Another leader steps up at #Commitment to prep the Pax for the weekend! T-Claps to Camacho for crushing us right out of the gate. Backwards run up that steep hill was a real test. A couple of Pax obviously have a Reverse Gear that YHC (Snowflake) lacks. I would tell you who they were, except by being faster backwards, they were always behind me. (Confused yet?)
Crowbar, Mustang, Kevorkian and Camacho bring great energy to Weddington. We were missing some of the Charter members, and still had 8 Pax. #additionbydivision
Some of the highlights may be missing from my commentary; feel free to chime in below.
Snowflake (on behalf of Camacho)
With the disclaimer given, and a time keeper identified (YHC forgot that timepiece) the pax set off. 3 pax did a pre-run and Geraldo wisely decided to wear his 4 brick ruck.
Short ~.25 mile warm up mosey
COP
SSH x 31 (cries of moderate started immediately after 20)
Merkins x 10
IW x 21
LSS x 16
Dancing Chilcutts x 11 (Thanks Prohibition)
CDDs x 11
Partner up for partner AMRAP pullups +2 flapjack and repeato
Center of the parking lot next to the center cone
There are cones in each corner and 1 in the center
Pick a location with your partner as a starting point
Corners are merkins x 15
LSS x 15
CDDs x 10
Dancing Chilcutts x 10 (each leg)
The center cone is 5 burpees
Do the exercise then run to the center and do exercise then to the next corner until a round is complete, plank it up until the rest of the pax are done
Repeato but with only 3 burpees in the middle
COP for some Mary
Flutters x 31 (yup, you can do it)
LBC’s x 16
Freddie Mercury x 11
Sid-The-Kid x 10 each way
Over to the benches for partner 1 bearcrawl to the sidewalk and jog back while partner 2 does dips, flapjack and of course repeato
Over to the wall for a bit of a break, wall sit, since Geraldo was there the pax did 50 arm raises
Round two was pass the ruck down the line, hold as long as you want, the last man calls up
Mosey back to the parking lot, that’s a wrap
NMM:
A couple of Larry Birds out there this morning on the corner work (Joker and Swiss Miss), strong work, really impressed with the pax’s focus on form this morning, YHC has been trying to work on it (work in progress for sure), good to see so many others doing the same. Unfortunately Geraldo’s ruck touched the ground a few times which added a 5 boyo each time, thanks Geraldo for the extra burpees, you don’t see them in the write up since it wasn’t planned, just extra credit, kind of like Gerald wearing the ruck in the first place, and oh yeah doing the pre-run with Slim Fast and Good Hands, strong work guys. Joker was helping to push others out there with the high fives on the corner work, thanks for that. Drop Thrill was mumblechattering about the reps but keeping up all the same, strong work brother! Frosty Paws, nice to meet you, can’t wait to see you again. Despite a tough post at Devil’s Turn the previous day (thanks again Prohibition) Freedom was pushing it out there, yes you are 50, yes we respect you for getting at it! Insomniac is always quiet and just goes after it, Tawny taking note and just getting in the pain box and pushing through, well done guys. Didn’t get a chance to see Peeper’s work but given the sweat level at the COT am presuming it was pretty strong. Always an honour to Q, feedback in the comments is always welcome, try to make myself a better Q.
Announcements:
New running workout Q’d by Slim Fast and Stumphugger Friday mornings, hard launch next week, tomorrow is a soft launch, it’s for everybody, especially if you don’t run or like to run.
Freedom was ambushed for the takeout and did a marvelous job as always, such a great way to refocus to go out into the day, thanks brother!
So the 14 pax got at it in the warmth of the Monday morning, after a short COP we hit the blocks.
Sort of went something like this:
Jog around the parking lot a few times waiting for the LIFO’s (had a couple)
SSH x 31
IW x 21
Merkins x 10
Rockhoppers x 10
LSS x 20
Mountain Climbers x 10
Partner up, go pick a cinder block from the pile and meet down at the football field
Line up along the sideline, partner 1 runs to the other sideline and back while partner 2 does push presses – flapjack
Repeat the format with the following exercises:
Incline merkins on the block
One hop over the block, 1 burpee
Hold the block out in front (static hold)
Then without the running
Arm curls x 10 flapjack
Tricep extension x 10 flapjack
Repeato
Partner catch me if you can with the one partner doing 10 merkins before running to catch up
back up to the top to put the blocks away
To the gazebo type building to do a couple rounds of BTW x 30 sec
COP for some Mary
Flutters x 30
Dolly x 20
Sid-The-Kid x 10 each way
Mason Twist x 10
5 burpees oyo
Q heckling from Udder
5 more burpees oyo
NMM:
A great effort by the pax today on a cinder block centric workout, thanks to Spackler for the blocks, thanks to Crockett for letting them stay there. The FNG’s were looking pretty strong, hope you come back. YHC was surprised at how fast the pax can round around a track with a cinder block when speed = less merkins, impressive. Sorry for the delayed back blast, crazy busy this week.
Announcements:
Fall Mud Run coming up
30 of Area 51’s finest including 3 FNG’s descended upon Death Valley and came out stronger and dirtier men. With a mysterious trailer in tow captivating and possibly intimidating the early pax, YHC rolled into the parking lot with a plan to inflict some pain. Here’s what we did:
Mosey down to track, run one lap and circle up in the center of the field.
Circle of PAIN:
10 burpees
SSH x 30
9 burpees
IW x 27 (actually 28)
8 burpees
LSS x 24
7 burpees
MC x 21
6 burpees
Peter Parkers x 18
5 burpees
Slow Merkins x 15
4 burpees
Heels to heaven x 12
3 burpees
Slow Wide Arm Merkins x 9
2 burpees
Dancing Chill Cut x 6
1 burpee
Slow Diamond Merkins x 3
Mosey one lap around track and back to center field for instruction on the circuit:
10 burpees OYO
Corner 1: Squat Jumps x 10
Corner 2: Dancing Chill Cuts x 10
Corner 3: Merkins x 10
Corner 4: Heels To Heaven x 10
1 lap around track
Rinse and repeat with each corner going up in increments of 10. Burpees stay at 10. Total of 3 rounds.
Back up to Parking Lot for some quick Mary led by Sussudio:
All Done
Ye Naked Moleskin:
First off, it was a great group of guys out there today. Everyone that I saw was seriously putting some work in out there and sweating up a storm. With this being my first Q at Death Valley and knowing it was going to be a large crowd, I hope I was able to put something together that was solid/painful for everyone. Thank you all for the opportunity and the support out there.
I was seriously pondering tweeting out pictures of the trailer last night just to gain some intrigue, but it was so much better just to show up and let all the speculation begin right in front of me. I knew I had raised a few eye brows when before I had even gotten out of my car, Semi-Gloss was walking over to me like a manager coming out of the dugout to tell me I’m being relieved. Although, I’m pretty sure he was just hoping the trailer was stocked full of booze.
Ahhh, the ol’ burpee ladder to kickstart a Death Valley workout. I was one leg away from channeling Stage Coach, but I knew I would not have survived it myself. I had enough going on trying to work my way down by 3’s as pointed out by several pax. I do believe we ALMOST skipped a round of burpees, but you can thank Gummy for reminding me. Gummy was the one by the end of the workout that had dirt (we think) all over his forehead from his vigorous Heels To Heaven.
It was clear that when I divided the 30 pax into two groups that one was smarter than the other. Of course it was the group that YHC was NOT a part of as that group decided to keep their clothes relatively dry by doing all exercises on the nice dry (sections) of the track, while the other group (including myself) did all of our exercises on the nasty, rain soaked, skin clinging, dirty soil of the field. Cobains to all in my group.
At one point I thought I was going to break off to jump into the other (smarter) group, but I didn’t have the energy to keep up. But I did try to give Horsehead some instruction to take over for me if our group was to finish up first. He immediately responded with, “Why are you telling me this? I’m about to pass out!” Classic!
Great job to our 3 FNG’s Bear Cat, Interpol, and Deflator! I don’t recall any of them slowing down once. Gummy, what kind of consulting do they do??? Seriously, whenever you guys are in town, you are welcome to come by and get your shoes dirty!
Thanks to Sussudio for leading us all in some Mary and for being an inspiration to each of us on your dedication to exercise and outright ability to make the rest of us look ridiculously out of shape. You are a beast and Florida doesn’t know what’s coming. Safe travels and send us a post card! Oh and let us know when we can all visit. Hope you have enough room for a few hundred pax!
Any other observations, please chime in on the comments.
Until next time,
Prohibition
Announcements:
It is hill week at Devil’s Turn. Do you have what it takes to run at a high rate of speed for ~55 minutes over the biggest hills in Area 51?
If you are looking for a #redpill, this is it.
We launch from 4-mile creek greenway parking lot at corner of Rea Rd. and Bevington Place at 5:15 am. We will warm-up run together and then run the hills of Piper Glen. Chalk arrows will be placed appropriately to keep people on the straight and narrow. 4 and 6 mile options available.
Bring your headlamps and blinky lights if you desire to see and be seen.
It was 11 men who were brave enough to come out to one of the toughest AOs in the land, and knowing full well we were going to test where our fitness levels stood. Here’s what we did:
Brief mosey to lay out the 0.2 mile+ loop that will be used soon for the timed run
COP
Feats of speed and strength
Done!
Mermaid and I discussed bringing a fitness test style workout to Anvil, as we had seen this done at Metro’s Jungle. I think what we put together today did a good job of measuring strength and endurance, and will work as a good measuring stick that we will revisit periodically. It was designed to allow for brief rests followed by maximum effort for short bursts. Hope everyone enjoyed and got out of it what they saught.
If we aren’t out here to get better then i don’t know why we’d come out. Though Van Pelt did make the comment that once you hit Respect it’s about maintaining. Good perspective. So this can be used as a baseline for improvement and/or maintaining a certain level, but do use it as a marker to strive to meet or beat in the future.
Welcome to High Tide making his first Anvil post. Welcome back Rehab and congrats on your first…get some sleep! Mermaid and Runstopper: hope those knees get better soon.
Solid work with all of the pax pushing themselves. Always great to see.
Sincere takeout by Hopper.
In full disclosure, here are my numbers. Shoutout with your numbers in the comments.
Until we meet in the gloom again. Aye.
Announcements
25 SOBs showed up to the Maul for a beat down from The Commish, but The Commish had some family business to take care of, so I was happy to step in and lead the PAX. Here’s what we did:
The Thang:
COP – IW X 20, Side Lunge X 10, Merkins X 20, Mountain Climbers X 20
We moseyed to down the Murderhorn to the Club House parking lot and Split into 2 groups. Group 1 headed over to the picnic tables and did two rounds of 20 dips and 20 Durkins and Group 2 went over to the playground for 2 rounds of 10 pull-ups and 30 Merkins, flapjack once your 2 sets are complete.
We then lined up at the bottom of the parking lot for the following:
We then moseyed over to the rock pile at the bottom of the Murderhorn for a single count speed rock workout. All the PAX grabbed a massive rock for the following: 20 curls, 20 presses, 20 tricep extensions, 20 upright rows and Carolina drydocks IC X 10, rinse and repeat the routine.
We then moseyed up the Murderhorn to the parking lot and circle up, 10 burpees OYO and Mary. LBCs x 20, Dollies X 20, Freddy Mercury X 20, Heels to heaven x 20, Crunchy Suitcase (aka Loogie’s Lap dance) X 20, Protractor
COT
Moleskin:
Being honest, YHC received a text from The Commish a few minutes after 5am that said he had something pop up that he needed to take care of. About 25 minutes later, I was standing around with a bunch of SOBs trying to come up with something to push my brothers. By the end of the workout, we seem to have worked most of the major muscle groups covering less than 2 miles of running.
There’s no place I’d rather be than in out in The Gloom with the fellas. It was an honor to lead the PAX this morning.
Announcements:
SOB Happy hours tonight 6-8 at Duckworths in Ballantyne.
Memorial Day convergence this Monday at 7am at South Charlotte Middle School.
With the original plan of going on campus scuttled with the back gate locked AND chained, 11 dudes toiled around PDS campus with a workout that was a bit made up on the fly. Here is what we did:
COP:
-Mosey up, through and around the PDS campus
-Stopped under a random light for COP (yes, we were on a hill #Oops)
-SSH x 25IC
-IW x 25IC
Burpee Mile
-Run 100M, 5 burpees
-Run 200M, 5 burpees
-Run 300M, 5 burpees
-Run 400M, 5 burpees
-Run 300M, 5 burpees
-Run 200M, 5 burpees
-Run 100M, 5 burpees
-Various Planks
-LBC x 25IC
-Flutter x 25IC
Dip/Derkin Combo (also called the DipKin, trademark pending)
-Mosey to benches in stadium
-Derkins x 10IC
-Dips x 10IC
-Derkins x 8IC
-Dips x 8IC
-Derkins x 6IC
-Dips x 6IC
-Derkins x 4IC
-Dips x 4IC
-Derkins x 2IC
-Dips x 2IC
Beast/Suicides on the Tennis Courts
-Locked Gate! Dang you PDS security!
Starfish on Football Field
-Center of the Starfish is the 50 yard line: 5 burpees each time you pass center
-Corner 1: 20 Russian Twists (double count)
-Corner 2: 20 Flutters (double count)
-Corner 3: 20 HR-Merkins
-Corner 4: 20 Monkey Humpers (Called by Double D’s)
-Knee-up x 25IC
-Heels to Heaven x 25IC
Leg Crusher
-Mosey to track
-Squats x 10IC, AYG 100M
-Squats x 10IC, 10 Jump Squats OYO, AYG 100M
-Squats x 10IC, 10 Jump Squats OYO, Monkey Humpers x 10IC, AYG 100M
-Squats x 10IC, 10 Jump Squats OYO, Monkey Humbers x 10IC, AYG 100M
-Freddy Mercury x 25IC
-Flutters x 30IC
Mosey home for COT
MOLEskin
Well, that plan was pulled out of left field. Before starting, I had taken a look at the back gate to make sure it was open. Negative. Locked and chained. Thought about making the crew jump the 6ft high fence, but I know Baracus can’t jump that high. So, we did the burpee mile instead. I think everyone really enjoyed it! #HeavySarcasm
The DipKin was brutal. Doesn’t sound that bad on paper but my arms were shot after that. I thought about going back up the ladder but that was a pipe dream. Simple and very effective.
Having to change a workout on the fly, not that bad. Having to change it twice, woah! PDS is serious about their security. They even lock their tennis courts at night! You know, just in case someone gets the itch to play tennis at 3am in the pitch black. As I was trying to figure out what to do next, I passed Starfish when I turned around. STARFISH! Yes, we will do a starfish on the field.
The leg crusher was fun. Double D’s has some wheels when he turns it on.
Baracus and Big Easy had the guns out this morning. Big Easy has some serious guns. If I was Baracus, I would have felt really insecure. Big Easy is also getting faster out there.
Covered 2.7 miles this morning. Great job by all.
Thanks to Tesla for the takeout.
Annoucements:
F3 Kernersville (aka K-Vegas) starts soon. Send names to Starfish.
F3 Boondocks (Mint Hill) started this week. Start EH’ing guys you know.
F3 superbowl is on for 10/24. Get on a mud run team and challenge South Beach.