Commitment – Not just a cheesy poster

Commitment – Not just a cheesy poster

The men of Union County are launching #F3Commitment this Saturday, Nov. 15th at 6:30am at Weddington High School (park at the main entrance, near the sign).

Our Commitment is to push each man farther than he would push himself, to leave no man behind, and to encourage each man to make a commitment to himself and his brothers to return each week.

Bring yourself.  Bring a friend.  Bring your Commitment.  Do it.

#F3Swift Preblast – Race-week Challenge

Swift will launch at 0515 on Tuesday from The Vine restaurant at the Ballantyne AO.

Looking for a Hard interval workout?  With several Swift SoBs targeting the Thunder Road on Saturday as a peak race, we’ll accommodate those looking for a taper or an interval workout with a 4 x 4min with 2 min recovery.  Goal pace will be T-pace – find your T-pace here at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator.

 

With One Eye Closed

16 Faithful departed the #Shovelflag to find another F3 Brother lurking about the Carmel track – in the dark.

The Thang

Mosey to Carmel football field
COP
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Heels to Heaven x 30
Merkins x 15

Mosey over for some Track work
400 run with 5 burpees in each turn #NotACorner
400 run with 10 Squats in each turn
400 with 15 Merkins in each turn

Mosey to Goal line and Partner up

Partner 1 sprints to other goal line and back while Partner 2 does burpees
Flapjack and continue until each team does 50

Same drill with 200 Dollys
Same drill with 100 Merkins

Mosey to up to the building and find a little wall for 3 minutes of Peoples Chair. Would have gone longer but we ran out of time

Head for home with 5 burpees at each speed bump

COT

Moleskin

When the pax first arrived a the track (which is not lit), we spotted a dark shadow running laps. In the spirit of being trying to play nice in the sandbox, the Pax were asked to leave some room for the shadow man while we were on the track. After the first 400 while the pax were in a plank, the shadow man comes out of nowhere – speeding through the group. What? Was that an F3 race shirt he was wearing?? Field of Dreams made a positive ID immediately and announced, “No need to be respectful now. It’s only Egypt.” Egypt? What was he doing out there. According to His Highness, he was doing Speed Work #Impressive.

On the next 400, more excitement ensued with One Eye trying to go 4 wide into Turn 4. He must have been going too fast since he slid up (in this case off) the track and rolled an ankle. #NeedAHeadlamp The pax immediately went into action and selflessly drafted Egypt to drive One Eye back to the Carmel Pk parking lot. However, after some Miyagi-like movements with his hands, One Eye pronounces himself as cured and pressed on for the balance of the workout.

While YHC continues to get hounded about his headlamp, that’s two rolled ankles in the last two weeks for members of the pax at DMZ. Hmmm…..Perhaps some other “seasoned” pax like Hamlet and Barracuda will finally give in and wear a lamp with pride. #NotAChance

Finally, at COT, Agony graciously offered to accept donations of shoes for #ShoeRedemption. What he failed to disclose, was that those shoes were going to be credited to Metro’s numbers. Not ata workout South of the Border!

Announcements:
In all seriousness, if you have shoes with some life left in them, we don’t care who gets the credit, just bring them to a workout. Most workouts now have a Shoe Q. For DMZ, it’ Flootie Flakes. DEADLINE for donations is Nov 22.

That being the only announcement, Orlando took us out. Thanks Brother.

Cold Iron at the Foxhole

14 of the strongest SOB’s (Sons of Ballantyne) around assembled at the luxurious Elon Park Elementary to put some cold iron to work this morning.

There was some mumble chatter early on about YHC’s inexplicable absence for several months and there was concern that the warmup jog may extend to 12 or 13 miles.  However, it was a short jaunt and we soon circled up for the customary warmup COP.

Here’s what happened from there:

– SSH x 30, fwd lunge x 10, IW x 20, side lunge x 10, mtn climbers x 20, merkins x 20

– reassemble at the bells and find a partner (this took much longer than one would have thought.  It resembled a mulling around speed dating situation.

– Once suitable partners were found, we performed 5 burpees / partner catch me if you can the long way down to the field (Tweet said light on running not no running)

– Circle up and catch our breath with some plank-o-rama

Perform a circuit of 3 excercises rotated through 3 times

– 2 handed swings x 20 x 3

– Merkins with alternating hand on KB x 20 (crowd pleaser) x 3

– Clean & Press x 20 alternating hands x 3

Line up on side line

– Plank carry the KB to mid-field & ball dragger (duck walk) to other side line

– LBC w/ KB x 40

– Plank carry the KB to mid-field & ball dragger (duck walk) to other side line

– Dying cockroach with bell x 40

Line of Pain

– J-Lo x 20

– Monkey Humpers x 20 (ouch!)

– Dolly w/ KB Press x 15

– Rosalita x 15

Back to cars for one last thrust (in an uncomfortably tight COP)

– 2-hand overhead press x 20

– 1-hand swings x 10 each arm (thank goodness no one let go of a bell)

– Bicep curls x 20 + half way down x 10 + half way up x 10

COT

Announcements –

– Bring in shoes this week to a workout near you (thanks RT for the huge back of shoes today!)

– Sign up for the Joe Davis 5k or 10k (or both).  See the main page for details.

– Wingman is Q for Bagpipes tomorrow

“Some people just aren’t cut out for [The Wiggler]. ” **

“Some people just aren’t cut out for [The Wiggler]. ” **

But you are!  Run The Wiggler– 5:30 am Tuesday – corner of Foxcroft and Rothwood – pet groomer’s pace…

** Lloyd Christmas, Dumb & Dumber

The Brave – First round of Ranger PT Test in the books

Yes YHC is tardy in getting the BB up. ITs been due to working on improving YHC sit-up score.

7 SOBs decided to deny the warm fartsack to see how they measured up with the Ranger PT Test.

Great work by all involved. Lots of Larry Birds out there across the board today.

Results have been spreadsheeted for future comparsion.

A few key observations:

YHC can’t do old school sit-ups worth are darn – kryptonite. Need to fix that stat. Only managed 39 in 2 minutes. YHC was lapped by a few people…

Honeybee needs to fix his Weatherdotcom app so it doesn’t give him weather in FL. It told him it was short sleeves weather. Which was true if you think sub 40s is short sleeves weather.

Haggis and MT are both beasts in push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups – granted there was some discussion around MT’s pull-up form.

Great work all around out there and thank you for the opportunity to lead this great group of men. Its aways an honor.

Announcements:

Bring your shoes – we have until Nov. 22

Joe Davis 5K and 10K – on the main page – sign up.

Area 51 Christmas Party – see the Pre-Blast for it under S. Charlotte and get signed up by Nov 20th. Prohabition needs HCs to setup the food.

Thats all YHC’s got.

Champagne Out.

Special Delivery

Sixteen men.got roughed up smoothing out the parking lot.

WARM UP

  • Slow Mosey
  • SSH x 20
  • Slow Mosey
  • IW x 20
  • Slow Mosey
  • Low Slow Squats x 20
  • Slow Mosey
  • Slow Merkins x 15
  • SPECIAL DELIVERY: Unload the TRuckster

THANG

Team up for Pair-burners

  • Hairburners and Merkins x 100/pair
  • Hairburners and Squats x 50/pai

Mosey with plates to bleachers

  • Pax 1 run to base of stairs and back / Pax 2 dips with plates – 2 rounds each
  • Pax 1 run to base of stairs and back / Pax 2 weighted lunge – 2 rounds each
  • Pax 1 run to top of stairs and back / Pax 2 flutter press with plate – 1 round each

Mosey to Start with plates

  • Burn hair to end of parking lot and back – flapjack as required
  • Inchworm to first BB goal and back – flapjack as required
  • Finisher: one armed or one leg hairburner to first BB goal and back OR standard hairburner to 2nd BB goal and back

COT

MOLE(MAN)SKINE

  • Hairburners: What better way to spike the heart rate and save the joints at the same time?  Nice effort on what had to be one of the stickiest parking lots the plates have seen.  Butt down, hand way out in front and keep driving.  Simple, just not so easy.  Thanks to Dunder for Mifflin in the grass instead of on the plates. #BabyBirds
  • Lots of shoes collected this morning.  Kevlar is too far ahead to be caught, but Base Camp is making a strong play for second, even if they have to go past the deadline to do it.  There’s even asinine talk of trying to wrest away Kevlar’s crown, but only talk.  No one is willing to put their shirt sleeves where their mouth is.
  • Header, on the other hand, is resigned to consequences of his questionable gambling skills. And by “questionable” I mean awful.  The Sleeveless Winter bet wasn’t even his worst wager in the last month. Turns out he lost his Volvo betting arrival times at the USAir lounge last week, done in by a late arrival from Ithaca.  Then he went out and bought a Jeep.  Get help, man.
  • Always good to see Passport sporting the ninja mask at 39 degrees.
  • Simba pushing for a name change for our Belarussian (?) friend, Morning Star. Apparently the capital of Belarus is Minsk. Rochelle, Rochelle seems a likely candidate….
  • Thanks to Passport, Fireman Ed and the Base Camp Pax for having me out to Q today.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Sign up for the A51 Christmas Party by NOV. 21: http://f3nation.com/2014/11/07/area51christmasparty/
  • Sign up for the Joe Davis Run.
  • Last week for #SoleRedemption.  Get it done.
  • New Saturday Union Co workout launches this week:  The Commitment.  Ice 9 and Snowflake Site Qs.

Cotton Anniversay

11 men participated in the two-year anniversary workout at The Matrix. 

The Thang

Quick warm up… you know the drill… Imperial Walkers, Side Straddle Hop, Squats, Merkins and LBC

“Mini Murph” done in a partner format… everyone run one mile; then with your partner do a combined total of 100 pull ups, 200 merkins and 300 squats; everyone run another mile

Quick warm down… LBC, Flutter, Dolly, Mason Twist

30 burpees

40 squats

Done.

Moleskin

  • Since I can get pretty predictable when I lead workouts at McKee Road Elementary School I spent about five minutes planning for this morning’s workout… which is about five more minutes than normal for me… in hopes of mixing things up a bit.  I decided, with Veteran’s Day tomorrow, that it would be a good chance to do the Murph [or at least the modified Murph]. 
  • Great seeing Dora and Harley back at The Matrix this morning.  Lot’s of workout memories with those guys over the last couple of years. 
  • Good work by all this morning.
  •  Thanks to Alf and Uncle Leo for handing things over to me for the two-year anniversary workout.   

Run And Guns!

Hairband:
Outland has tires?! Let’s mosey!

COP:
SSH x 20
IW x 20… next exercise is…. Disclaimer! (thanks HH)
Slow Squat

Mosey out to the side of the stadium to find TIRES!!! Partner up…
P1 flips tires out to end of dotted path and back P2 does called exercise until P1 returns 2 x per round then plank until all are done before next round, as follows:
1. Step ups
2. Dips
3. Decline Merkins
4. Squats

Various plank work and LBC’s mixed in for good measure.

Be good stewards of our new toys and put them back where they came from and hand off to GJ!

Glass Joe:
Now that we are done playing with tires, it’s time for the run part of the #runandguns workout.  Mosey to the track around the football field.

Partner up for some Devin Hester’s (100 yard catch me if you can). After round one, I had planned on doing a couple rounds of these but the track was busy with multiple users and being good neighbors, let’s mosey to the stadium instead.

Staiway To Heaven:

Partner 1 climbs the stairs twice while Partner 2 does a called exercise doing as many reps as possible.  Then partners switch and when Partner 2 finishes stair running, plank until all groups are finished.  Then the next exercise is called out and stair running commences again. Here’s the order of the exercises called out:

Burpees
LBCs
Merkins
Squats

Burpees (Apparently The Late Show thought this would be a nice bookend finish to the Stairway to Heaven and was planning on how to break my ankles when he learned this was not the end.  #brotherhood)

Drydocks
Dips

 The track has cleared up some so let’s mosey back to the track.

The Runner’s High (I need an official name to this since I like to use it – let’s go with this until someone tells me it’s taken): One lap sprint on the track around the football field with a goal of 90 seconds or less.  In theory, the track is supposed to be a quarter mile thus you’d be on pace for a 6 minute mile if you do 90 seconds or less.

 The PAX are well gassed at this point so let’s mosey back towards the flag.

At the bottom of the hill, we do a jailbreak run back to the flag.

 6MOM:

Dolly x 20
6 Inch Hold-Em Leg Lifts, 6 inch Hold-Em leg lifts spread wide, Back to 6 Inch Hold-Em Leg Lifts

 Finished!!!!

 Moleskin:

HB: Ever since I heard a rumor about tires I have been itching to use them and today was the day! I have always appreciated Bulldogs creativity at Kevlar in the past doing circuits like this with tires so this was a great chance to bring the pain down south to the Outland.

GJ: The #runandguns workout was a huge success in soreness.  But the PAX were up to the task today and the synergy between tires, stairs, and sprints seemed to be a crowd pleaser.  No thanks necessary!!!

The FNG managed to secure the handle of Curfew.  Story behind that is Curfew dates Steak-Umm’s daughter.  Steak-Umm was instantly nervous about what name we would come up with but Curfew was said by HH and agreed upon by all.

Thanks to Shepherd for taking the group out in prayer.

Announcements/Prayers:

Convergence at Weddington next Saturday at 6:30 to help #F3Commitment kick off

Prayers for Electric Slide’s wife and DT’s mom.

 Personal Note: I have been reminded twice in the last week of what #F3 is really all about.  One is the way the group has pulled together to try to support Electric Slide during this difficult time for his family.  The other is something I don’t want public in this forum but suffice to say, when the storm clouds of life are gathering all around, knowing you have brothers in arms beside you can help ride them out.  I am often reminded that Jesus valued #brotherhood so much that He surrounded Himself with 12 men during His ministry.  Life is hard but it’s harder without brothers right beside you.  Thank you men for the impact you are having on my life, this group of men and the community around us.

Where two or more are gathered…..

Posted on behalf of GJ

After a late Thursday night text from CT that he was either still at work Uptown or celebrating Uptown, we had a late Q switch from CT to Glass Joe.  We knew the crowd would be sparse due to some work schedules and PAX volunteering at the Unionville Elementary BBQ.  We didn’t know it would be a crowd of 2.  Jesus said where two or more are gathered, He is in the midst.  In F3 lexicon, I think that translates to where two or more are gathered, the gloom awaits.  Off we go.

The Thang….

Two Hairband miles (Are Hairband miles in the official lexicon yet?  They should be.)

COP:

SSH x 20
IW x 20 (A cadence with two is sort of awkward)
Squats x 20 (No cadence – Awkwardness won out)

To the hill for some Jacob’s Ladder but let’s do backwards run up instead x 5

 Mosey to the back road for some Road Less Traveled and car dodging:

Lunges x 10
Burpees x 10
Lunges x 10 (CAR!!!!!)
Merkins x 20
Lunges x 10
Burpees x 10 (CAR!!!!!)
Lunges x 10
Squats x 20
Lunges x 10

Army Situps x 10…..er, scratch that as there are only two of us, LBCs x 20. No #awkwardmantouches

Lunges x 10
Bear Crawl (CAR!!!!!)
Lunges x 10
Burpees x 10
Lunges x 10
LBCs x 40
Lunges x 10
Burpees x 10

Let’s mosey down the back road for a grand finish of the Road Less Traveled:

An HB appreciated half-scalded monkey (CAR!!!!!)

Mosey back to the parking lot with some karaoke mixed in.  Indian runs with two are officially a #FAIL.

Jacob’s Ladder backwards run x 5

Hairband Mile

6MOM:

Dolly
Flutters
Dolly

Moleskin:

Though there were only two, there was no less intensity.   And for that I am grateful.  George Washington said this: “Discipline is the soul of an army.  It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.”

Announcements/Prayers:
Electric Slide’s Wife
DT’s Mom