He’s An Angry Elf
It was a cold and rainy morning, there were beasts lurking in the dark looking to outrun Santa and his sleigh, but DT had something up his Under Armour sleeves known as the 12 Days of Christmas. There was much huffing and puffing and prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
Many decided to fartsack but there was very little rain once we started the work. Post anyway, you never know what the weather will do. You might be surprised.
ACOP (Abbreviated COP)
Hairband Mile (patent pending)
SSH – 15
IW – 15
This jolly, er, angry old elf then launched the Pax into the onslaught of the 12 Days of Christmas. This is the DT version, repeato everything just like the song, every time. Until the song is stuck in your head, or you have to do penalty burpees, whichever comes first.
1- Sprint
2- Burpees
3- Carolina Dry Docks
4- Lunges (each leg)
5- Golden Start Jumps
6- Flutter
7- Smurf Jack
8- Squats
9- LBC
10- Merkins
11- Freddie Mercury
12- Backwards Run
Awesome work brothers. 12 days isn’t easy and always a crowd pleaser.
We have a few minutes till the Q hand-off so it’s:
People’s Chair x3 including some air presses
Son of a Nutcracker!
At this point I handed over the reigns to a jolly old elf known as High Tide.
HT had his silver (KB) bells a-ready to go to bring us some Christmas cheer to one and all.
Bells were a-swinging and Bon Jovi was a-singing his New Jersey mirth and merriment. Hey, at least it wasn’t Nickelback. *flashes back to horrible workout at Skunk Works*
Solid KB clinic there HT and nice throwing us under the pull up bus. Those will come in handy when we’re trying to chase Santa up the chimney.
Moleskin
It was a pleasure to lead and thanks for posting in the nasty gloom, that didn’t turn out to be that bad after all.
Safe travels to all heading out of town.
Don’t forget the Joe Davis sign up.
Prayers for all those dealing with family and friends in the hospital or that have passed away. This is not an easy time of year to deal with all that. Remember them and put a hand on their shoulder and be #iamthird all the way.
DT out.
PS – Yes that is me playing Santa.
PPS – No I don’t own the suit, so I’m not coming in it at next year’s A51 party.
Where do you think you’re going? Nobody’s leaving. Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We’re all in this together.
It was a drizzly, chilly morning at The Rock, but twelve angry men (or at least twelve men with a lot of grit and nothing else to do at 7:00 AM) showed up for a workout designed to stretch out those legs! Gummy started us off…..and away we go:
Gummy:
Jog around parking lot, circle up for warmup.
SSH, IW, Slow Squats, Mountain Climber.
Line up abreast on the curb. High knees 25 yards, run to the other curb (25 yards).
Repeat with butt kickers, carioca both ways.
Finish with AYG 50 yards to the other curb.
Find a partner and a manly rock.
Gather near a light post. Partner 1 does the called exercise (with rock) while Partner 2 runs to the post labeled C2 (50 yards) does 10 good merkins (no Cherkins) and back. Flapjack.
Repeat 4 times with squat, curls, overhead press and lunges.
Mosey to the soccer fields, about 25 yards from the hill. Line up abreast, facing the hill. Tripel Nickel – 5 jump squats at the top of the hill, 5 hand release merkins at the starting line. But wait! There’s more! Bear crawl up and down the hill during each repeat instead of just running up the hill. Good times.
Circle up for Mary – Flutter and Protractor. Turn the Q over to Hopper.
Hopper:
Staying on the soccer fields, we ran a four corner drill, but used all of the area between the pavilion above the fields all the way out to the fence along Pineville-Matthews Rd. We split into four teams and did the following for three rotations:
Corner #1: 15 dips, 15 decline merkins…..Corner #2: 15 prisoner squats, 15 lunges…..Corner #3: 15 LBC’s, 15 flutters……Corner #4: 15 SSH, 15 jump squats.
Plank exercises in the middle of the field with a Runstopper 10-count twist (which ended up in real time to be a 30 or so count…..my bad on delegating, boys…..sorry).
Six 50 yard dashes with 10 counts in between each one. Tadpole provided the 10 counts as a penalty for winning each sprint, but that did NOT slow him down.
Mosey to the end of the soccer field and circle up for abbreviated Jack Webb. We went up to a five merkin count and back down to one.
Mosey back to parking lot for a quick 15 count Russian Twist (it would have been a 25 count, but Mall Cop threw me off by talking about some sneaker sale before the exerise).
That’s all she wrote!
Moleskin:
Great work men! Welcome Tito (FNG Jackson B)…..you really brought it man and you looked more like a veteran of the pax instead of a newcomer….but, we are glad to have you and see you next week…..and beyond! Great mumble chatter out there….lots of discussion around the term “abreast” (it does not take much to distract us) and I like how all of the teams stuck together for the four corner drill…..that’s represents the spirit of all three F’s.
Next up on Q is Frasier!!
Announcements:
- Joe Davis Run is on January 10
- Unbroken showing is also on January 10
- Anvil convergence on 12/24 at 6:00
- Ascent convergence on 1/3 at 7:00
- Runstopper Qing at Matrix on 12/22
- Today is last day to order A51 Gear shirt
Christmas Comes Early at AG Middle School
Seven men of purpose #impact joined friends and teachers to celebrate an early Christmas party with the kids in the after school program at AG Middle School. Thanks to the generosity of F3 Nation and a contribution from the F3 Foundation, we were able to provide a simple meal, a present, and a book fro each kid. It was amazing to see the big smiles on many of the kids faces. The joy of Christmas was seen all around on this day.
The Thang:
Eat, grab a book and a present. Enjoy time to together.
Oscar and Barnabus helping the kids select a book.
Rev Florida and a student having a chat
JENGA is back
Ellen, Barnabas, and Laura ready to hand out water to the kids
Excited about the party maybe?
Barnabus and Oscar trying to figure out if “Moby Dick” is too hard (pun intended) for them.
Leroy and FOD with some kids
NM
Special thanks to Barnabas for arranging the food, Leroy and Ellen Babb for helping with the presents, my co-worker for getting the books (for free), and Tryon for being the official photographer. All your help made this a great event.
F3 Nation should know that the kids really appreciate our gifts and time. Several expressed sincere thanks. One kid when asked why he was not eating said he wanted to take it home and share. Luckily we were able to give him some extra food to take home. It shows that these kids have love and compassion in their hearts and makes me proud of what F3 is doing at this school.
Announcement
We start back on January 8th and invite men interested in our work to contact me at pchepul@gmail.com. With over 70 kids in the program, we can use all the help (and ideas) we can get. There are also opportunities to tutor Monday thru Wednesday if Thursday does not work for you.
General – Mission ASHP
13 warriors met at the General and got lucky to survive new grounds for mission ASHP
SSH x 20
Frank-stein Squats x 10
Break dance x 15
Imperial Strom Troopers x 15
Mosey to first parking lot
Partner up
Burpee Partner Plank Merkin
Partner 1 planks while partner 2 does 1 Burpee then jumps over partner then does 5 merkins with feet on partner
Ladder up to 5 Burpees
Mosey to the at entrance…I’ll let the Generals name it
10 CCD at bottom
Bear Crawl up
10 Squats at top
Run Down
10 CCD at bottom
Reverse Bear Crawl
Run Down
10 CCD
1 arm air presses x 10 each arm
Mosey back to the parking lot
Curb Left arm shoulder touch merkin x 5
Dips x 5
Curb air arm shoulder touch merkin x 5
Mosey to the hill
Partner up…
Partner 1 planks, Partner 2 does 5 Jump overs their legs
Run up hill
Partner 2 on back for helping hands
Run down and flip flop – 2 sets
Mosey to the rails
People’s chair
Grab some ledge, Body holds – 4 10 counts
LBC’s with Feet on bars x 15
Partner shoulder presses – 10
Reverse Merkins with bars x 10
Mosey to Baseball field
Run bases, sprint to first and then recover pace back to home plate
Sprint to 2nd then recover pace to home plate…complete all bases
To the bleachers
10 Incline merkins then crab walk to other bleacher, then do 10 decline merkins
Repeato
Mary
WWII sit-ups x 15
5 Burpees
LBC’s x 15
5 Burpees
Low flutter x 15
5 Burpees
Bull dog Merkins x 10
Moleskin
– The mission ASHP – Arms, Shoulders, Hills & Pain was successful, the Pax got a little of each in this morning.
– The Po Po, mixed up the routine a little but we still made it to the unnamed hill. Everyone kind of starred at it for a moment; I even got a BS on the reverse bear crawl up….Nice! Didn’t see everyone, but did see “Freakin Alabama” knock it out, awesome job!!
-I meant to ask, what’s up with no history lesson this morning….alot of chatter but no generals covered.
-S’mores made a pit stop before we hit the hills so he owes us….Glad I got the picture with the helmet out of the way at the start of the workout. He was going to use that option if the bathroom was locked.
– Glad to see Skipper make it down for a workout, it’s been a while bro. I remember back in the days at the pool house you made those drives up every day! I’ll have to come and check out at your Q at the General.
– First time on the far baseball field, graded nice, was that Big bird that went flying by me….I see you getting strong, a solid 4 or 5 a week now!!
– We finished strong today with some burpees in mary, Hat Trick took his weigh-vest off just in time. You can thank Shaken for the last set, was going to go to another exercise but he shouted it,so gottha oblige.
– The master Q for the General going forward is going to be Kid Rock, good hand-off in Leadership, I know the rest of the clown car will support.
– Thanks to the Shoe, S’mores, and King Fish for the opportunity to lead, it is always an honor!
Living After Midnight!
First thing this morning I saw a text from Countertop bailing due to a crazy late night (after midnight) at work (What is he doing anyway?). So knowing this was a possibility based on an earlier conversation in the week it was time to break out a backup Wienke.
The Thang…
Hairband mile warmup while waiting for GJ & GT’s FNG
COP:
Side Straddle Hop X 20
Imperial Walker X 20
Low Slow Squat X 20… still waiting for FNG
Peter Parker X 10
Parker Peter X 10
Let’s mosey and grab some wall for Peoples Chair
30 seconds on
30 seconds, drop an inch and 30 more seconds
Aaaannd here is FNG #2 zooming into the parking lot.
Under the school cover and partner up
P1 supine pullups, P2 step ups until I call time then flapjack 3 rounds
During round 2 Audible! Same thing but 20 pullups instead of time, too hard to look at my watch while doing pull ups!
A bunch of plankwork mixed in
Mosey to the hill, stay with your partner:
Round 1: Partner 1 run up the hill 3 burpees at the top, Partner 2 Merkins at the bottom. Flapjack when P1 returns. Continue until Combined 100 Merkins.
Round 2: Combined 200 LBCs at the bottom, 10 squats at the top. Flapjack until the 200 are complete.
Round 3: Combined 100 Flutters at the bottome, 10 Carolina Dry Docks at the top. Flapjack until the 100 are complete.
More plank work mixed in including 20 hand release merkins, oooh yeah feel that?!
Mary
Flutters in cadence 20
Dolly IC 20
Backscratcher IC 20
And don…. GJ calls protractor! Ok!
6 inches
90 degrees
45 degrees
20 degrees
45 degrees
Back to 6 inches
DONE!
Moleskin
I hate CT needed to bail but totally understand and look forward to his schedule getting back to normal after the new year.
Great having 2 FNGs at Overdrive this morning and look forward to continuing to grow the region. Candy Crush was named due to his job as an IOS app developer, and Jenner because of his track & field skillset at college, named after the once honored and now creepy old lady looking Bruce Jenner.
Announcements:
Joe Davis Run
Stay tuned for holiday schedule
Strong work out there everyone and alway an honor to lead!
Christmas is a great time to visit old friends (the Webbs)
18 strong men embarked on a tour of Carmel/51 to celebrate that there are only 6 more days until Christmas
The Thang:
Fast Mosey to Wells Fargo on Hwy. 51 for COP
- 6 Diamonds IC/10 sec. hold 6 Inches – hold it
- 6 Merkins IC/10 sec. hold 6 inches – hold it
- 6 Wide Arm Merkins IC/ 10 sec. hold 6 inches – hold it
- 6 Mountain Climbers IC/ 10 sec. hold 6 inches – hold it
- 6 Rock Hoppers IC/10 Sec. hold 6 inches – hold it
- 6 Makhtar N’diayes IC/10 Sec. hold 6 inches – hold it
Jog to Panera shopping center. Partner up – size doesn’t matter. P-1 runs stairs X6 (two sets to choose from); P-2 rotates between 6 Flutters IC and 6 LBCs IC until partner returns. Switch. Plankerama until everyone is done
Jog across Carmel to large parking lot behind Remax building where cinder blocks await. Partner up again. P-1 does suicides to six points (about the size of a football field); P-2, with cinder blocks, rotates between 6 curls, 6 shoulder presses, 6 tricep extensions, and 6 squats. Switch. Plank until everyone is done.
Jog across 51 to Carmel Professional Business Center parking lot and discover the perfect Derkin wall. With Runstopper leading (b/c it’s his wheelhouse) perform a modified Jack Webb (name yet to be determined). Do 1 Derkin then 6 Air presses while in a Wall Sit, Do 2 Derkins then 12 Air Presses while in a Wall Sit. Continue to 6 Derkins and 36 Air Presses while in a Wall Sit and then back down to 1.
Jog through a couple more office parks and cross over Carmel to the shopping center. Do 6 Backward runs and planking along the way. Jog behind the shopping center (through some dumpster odors) end up at the backside of Pallantyne hill. Run the hill twice and do six Quintuple merkin burpees at the bottom each time (would have done six, but ran out of time). Jog back to start.
Moleskin:
Solid Pax this morning. It was great seeing Runstopper and Philmont back at Centurion after a long hiatus. We covered a lot of territory, but incorporated several pain stations including the perfect Derkin wall that may be visited again. Not sure what to call the Jack Webb modification with Derkins, but I’m sure someone more creative than me can think of something. I also incorporated some stray cinder blocks from a property I manage. With the construction at Catholic, I’m leaving them on the side of the Remax parking lot for future use. I heard a little bit of grumbling at the COP (about not including SSH and IWs and doing too many 6 inch plank holds, etc.), but other than that, the Pax seemed ready to bring it this morning. It was an honor to lead.
Announcements:
Joe Davis Run on January 10th and Brain Cancer Race at Marshal Park on March 21. Sign up for Unbroken on January 10th. Also, meet at parking lot close to Little Ave.(near where the buses park) next week if they start construction on the new parking deck.
Searching for the Christmas Star
clarke -“look kids, the Christmas Star!”
uncle lewis – “that ain’t the friggin’ Christmas Star Griz, it’s the light on the Sewer Treatment Center”
27 of South Charlottes Finest Sprang from their beds to see what was the matter at Kevlar. There would be quite a bit of running today as the Points on this Christmas Star were pretty spread out. Once the Pax was properly disclaimed – Here’s how it went down.
Drop off a few bells in the field to be used later on (thanks to those that provided the bells)
Circle up in field for Warm up In Cadence – SSH x25 – IWx25 – Squatx25 –Merkin x25
Grab a Partner and a Rock for a lap of catch me if you can with 5 Hand Release Merkins
Plankarama – at the end of the Loop
Mosey to center point of Christmas Star for brief description of the THANG. Quite a bit of chatter at this point – folks must have been eager to get started.
Break-up into 5 groups – each heading to a different point on the star
Return to center for 25 merkins at center of star before moving to next starpoint clockwise -25 Merkins before heading on your merry way
1 runs to rocks for 25 squat press with rock
2 runs to covered benches near tennis court for 25 dips
3 runs to Parking lot Field for 25 swings
4 runs to playground for 25 knees to elbows
5 runs to benches for 25 jump ups
Mary exercises performed while waiting for everyone to finish round 1 – The Flutter x25 In Cadence – hold it six inches – The Dolly x25
Begin Second round Christmas Star this time with 10 reps – Most completed 3 points before time was called.
COT
Moleskin – The objective today was to keep moving around the AO with plenty of strength training exercises mixed in. Hopefully the mission was accomplished for the Pax this morning. TR decided to bring his Gary Fisher to cut down on the running while nursing a sore calf…thank you for keeping guard of the KB’s. The rock collection process before the catch me if you can went slightly awry – but things seemed to settle in after that point. Great effort from the Kevlar Pax as usual. I saw a great mix of KB’ers and Fast Twitchers out there this morning – strength and cardio is what we were after with today’s workout so there should have been something for everyone. Not including COP or Partner Chase – we completed roughly 200 Merkins and covered nearly 2.5Miles during the Christmas Star. A pleasure to lead such a strong group of men this morning. Thank you Sussudio for taking us out with a prayer that really hit the mark as we enter the holiday season.
Announcements –
Two upcoming convergences – check weekly emails
12/24 at Anvil – 6am
12/26 at Charlotte Christian – 7am
Squats and Partners, keep it simple
10 pax posted to Peak 51 this Thursday for a little squat instruction and some simple but hopefully effective gloomy pain. The way some were dressed out there you’d have thought it was cold but since that is all in your head it doesn’t matter, for those that couldn’t shake the cold idea we set off, almost 1 min late as Slim Fast let YHC know…
So now I’m sure you are wondering, what did the Peak 51 crew do on this fine morning?
Run around the school to the back parking lot
SSH x 20
IW x 20
MC x 10
Comments from Slim Fast were funny but invoked 10 boyo
Rock Hopper x 10
Squat clinic (remember, YHC is not a professional)
Over to the wooden benches hmmm too much frost, nix the jump up idea let’s do
10 Elevated CDD’s
15 Dips
20 Squats (gotta reinforce the lesson)
That was fun, let’s do it again
Over to the track
Partner up
Partner run to the far end of the track playground equipment for partner amrap pull ups + 2
Back to the parking lot side for 20 squats
Back to the playground equipment for amrap pull ups + 2 again
Back to the front for more squats
Then to the back for partner paddycake merkins x 10
Back to the front for something other than squats that YHC can no longer remember
Apparently Whitesnake was getting bored and wanted to know how much time was left (11 min)
Off to the school to take a break, have a seat…yes, you’re right Geraldo arm raises WOULD be a good idea, x 30 it is then stand up
Oh no wait, sit down again, let’s hold our arms out in front because some teacher was parking her car and this would look more odd than arm raises
Reminder to modify as needed and btw – YHC was hoping to outlast Geraldo but such was not the case (Meathead beast)
Back to the parking lot where we met up with a woman who said her name was Mary
Sid-The-Kid x 10 each way (don’t get the mumps as an adult, just as Sid)
Dolly x 25
Rosalita x 20
FYI Whitesnake we are now out of time, well done all.
Moleskine:
After the relaxing start the pax pushed really hard today, had only a couple of 10 counts, YHC was clearly out of O2 as he called Hacker the wrong name…twice, sorry brother I’ll get it. Saw some serious effort out there, Insomniac was YHC’s partner and he sure pushed me on the strength work, I tried to reciprocate on the running. Sensei was demonstrating some good form after the squat clinic as were many of the pax, also noting many of the pax declaring that the might feel it a little differently on Friday. Hope you did, form is important, speed less so. Didn’t look like Gullah broke a sweat so either its getting easier or the chill prevents you from sweating but either way, looking good. Freedom was high fiveing everyone afterwards so must have enjoyed it. YHC is always honoured to Q, especially this crew, what an awesome crew and great AO.
Announcements:
Joe Davis Run register here: http://joedavisrun.racesonline.com/register identify yourself as an A51 Pax in the team drop down
Convergence Christmas Eve (Dec 24) 0600 at Calvary (Anvil or The Rock site)
Unbroken movie watching 2nd F Jan 10th evening, great 1st F, 2nd F doubledown day
Thursday 1/1 Convergence at the Rock.. 7:00 AM, Geraldo and Slim Fast Q.
Can’t Get There From Here
Posted on behalf of Long Haul for his VQ:
Well, 5:15am came and went and there was no sign of YHC on his Virgin Q. Apparently YHC doesn’t keep track of road closure announcements as he learned the hard way that the 485 outer loop ramps at both Johnson Road and Rea Road were closed this morning. So, after being forced onto the inner loop to Pineville, then taking the outer loop to Providence Road and then back on the inner loop to Rea Road, he finally made it to Devils Turn at 5:21!! #Cantgettherefromhere! Thanks to whomever got the PAX started.
Anyway, YHC was able to fall in with the PAX as they came back around from the apartment warm up loop and all was right with the world again. It was a large group and there was a fair amount of chatter as we had some quality second F on the way to Piper Glen. Once the PAX turned into the neighborhood the real work began as everyone kicked into their threshold paces.
It was a large group today, but hopefully everyone was able to get a good workout in. Due to a wrong turn here or there in the gloom, a few people may have gotten a bit more mileage in than planned, but that only makes you stronger.
We welcomed two new brothers to the fold today and hope that they become regulars in the gloom. Mike Griffin was given the nickname of Buttermaker (You’ll have to check out the Bad News Bears to get this reference) and Steven Cory was nicknamed Kingpin.
So, while it wasn’t the ideal VQ for YHC, I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless and loved the opportunity to lead such a great group of men. Thanks for all of the support.
Announcements:
Joe Davis Run
Unbroken Movie
Various Convergences for Christmas week next week
If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am now.
11 men eschewed more sleep and gathered in the parking lot of Charlotte Christian. More cars than people at launch time. Did we miss the rapture? Surely not. Onward.
Mosey down to the track, halfish of a lap, and gather for warmup.
SSH, IW, Mountain Climber, Slow Squat.
Mosey to the track in front of the bleachers.
Unnamed as yet routine where we do 20 of called exercise, half lap, 15, half lap, 10, half lap, 5, half lap. Good times. Repeat through the course of the morning with Hand Release Merkins, Jump Squats, CDDs and Lunges. What it lacked in creativity, it made up for with terribleness.
Between those sets, we did some mary and some feats of strength (Indian wrestling, plank wrestling and finger jousting). Mixed reviews of that portion of the program.
Finish with a fairly swift yog back up to the parking lot. 2.5+ miles. Not bad.
Moleskin
Good times. Good times. I guess 6 miles on the track at Fast Twitch wasn’t enough for me. I just hate to pass up the chance to take advantage of the nice padded track. Good work by the guys this morning. I saw Prohibition at the beginning of the workout, then about midway through I thought he’d taken off. I realized that he was just always way ahead of me. The boy has gotten fast – he’s probably ready to give The Rock a try.
It’s hard to tell what happens in the dark on that track, but apparently during one of the wrestling matches, Mr. Brady took out Uncle Leo. Leo emerged from the darkness with a nice cut on his forehead. Good thing I properly disclaimed the PAX before we got started.
We were all surprised in the COT to find out that the guy who kicked our butts on the track and the wrestling was a 16 year old kid from Covenant Day. Welcome to FNG Babel (or Babble?) – apparently he speaks three languages. And he kicked our butts. The future is in good hands.
Announcements
Sign up to see Unbroken on 1/10. Details on the website.
Joe Davis Run is that morning. Details on the website.