With the hint of rain in the air 8 PAX still decided it would be better to make an appearance at The Matrix rather than fartsack this morning. Hopefully, after 45 minutes of getting the heart rate up, they were all satisfied with their decision to post on a dreary Monday morning. Something must have been in the air as even Floor Slapper pulled into the lot with a minute to spare. With all 8 in tow, YHC gave the disclaimer and we then headed off into the Gloom.
Slow jog through the lower parking lot beside the soccer fields and circle up.
COP:
Line up at the island at one end of the parking lot for the following:
Mosey over to rock pile and find a suitable rock
Deposit rocks back on the rock pile and head over to the sideline of the soccer field for a sprint ladder
6-7 minutes left so we headed over to playground in front of school for some circuit work:
COT
Moleskin:
Announcements:
16 pax and one FNG (David: Big Papi) fought the rain of the morning and decided to post at Base Camp. What they did not know going in is that pre-season football had already gotten the best of the Q so the theme of the morning was “the grid iron”.
The Thang:
Warm up run of two laps around the parking lot with butt kickers and high knees mixed in. Mosey ultimately to the front parking lot for:
· SSH X 20
· IW X 20
· Low Slow Squats X 20
· Merkins X 10
Mosey to the side parking lot for Merkin Mania! All of the pax circled up in tight formation for the following:
· 10 regular merkins…..hold the plank
· Take 5 plank strides to your left
· 10 diamond merkins…..hold the plank
· Take 5 plank strides to your right
· 10 wide arm merkins….hold the plank
· Take 5 plank strides to your left
· 10 HR merkins…..hold the plank
· Take 5 plank steps to your right
· The planking was capped off by two rounds of Ring of Fire
Grab two footballs and mosey down to the track. We formed two relay teams and YHC explained that the last man in the line starts with the ball, sprints to the front and hands off to the then second man, who then hands off to the third man, etc. until the ball makes its way all the way to the back of the line when that pax member sprints to the front…..i.e. the end of the line can’t run to the front until they have the ball! We ran this for two laps and we did great until the outside lane team suffered from Ernest Byner syndrome (look it up….1987 AFC playoffs) and fumbled the ball twice. Rather than getting penalized 10 yards, the team got slapped with 10 merkins….and the inside track team was cool enough to do the merkins with us…….that’s brotherhood!!!
Time for GLORY DAYS! Here is where the mumble chatter really kicked in, along with some smack-talking competition. The pax lined up at one end zone line of the football field. One by one, a pax member would throw the ball as far as they could and shout out an exercise. Once the ball lands, the pax drops, stands, squats (whatever) and completes 5 of said exercise, runs AYG to the ball and completes 10 of said exercise, then run back AYG to the goal line and completes 15 of said exercise. Unfortunately, not everyone got to throw since we had 17 pax members, but some of the exercises included:
merkins, LBC’s, jump squats, wide arm merkins, , mountain climbers, diamond merkins, lunges (shout out any others I am forgetting in comments). As I say, lots of solid smack talking about “short distance throws” and exhibitions of estrogen rather than testosterone…..good stuff!
Slow ½ lap mosey back to side parking lot for a quick Mary session of 20 Rosalitas.
That’s a wrap!
Moleskin:
I had a lot of fun today boys! Thanks for letting me lead as the boys at Basecamp are some of my favorites. Kudos to Klunken who dragged out his father, FNG Big Papi, who is here from Zimbabwe to visit his grandchildren. We hope to see you again Big Papi! Also, I cannot remember who it was, but after we started the warm-up, one of the pax pulled up beside us and abandoned his car like there was black ice on the street and jumped into exercise formation. I have never seen anyone pull up curbside to join a workout, but that was awesome!
Thanks for the honor, men!
Announcements:
· Young Life Mud Run is September 20. Registration is still available
· Openings still exist for USMC Mud Run through F3
· Keep the families of Big Top and Pele in your prayers as they go through challenging times. Smash also asked we keep family friends of his in mind as they recently lost a young, loved one.
Passport, thank you for the excellent take-out in Ball of Man.
-Hopper
(ctrl-c/v’ed by Passport)
26 men assembled in the mist. The satellite watch says 5:30. Let’s go.
Warmup
Run around the church next door and assemble in the parking lot.
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Peter Parker x 15 (hold it)
Parker Peter x 15
Mosey up to the courtyard
Jump-ups, Dips, Derkins x 5 each, then run the shorter loop around the church. Repeat with 10x, 15x and 20x with a lap between each set.
Mary in the courtyard
LBCs, Flutter, Dolly
Mosey to the bottom of the parking lot
Triple Nickels: Run up the hill to the big planter, 5 HR Merkins. Back down the hill, 5 burpees. Repeat 5 times total.
Mary in the parking lot
Rosalita, LBC, Protractor, Russian Twist
Mosey back to the courtyard, partner up
Partner 1 runs the big loop around the church. Partner 2 does exercise. Flapjack.
Squat jumps, Merkins, Lunges, CDDs
Back to the park for COT.
Moleskin
We covered almost 3 miles this morning and never left the church parking lot. Proof that you can get in a good workout anywhere. I had a nice discussion with Brushback before we got started about all the great options around the DMZ AO for a workout. Carmel Park, the school, RTS, Pellyn Wood, etc. Or we could spend the whole 45 min in the church parking lot.
Thanks to Kirk and Runstopper for covering for me as I led from the middle of the pack. They didn’t let the front runners catch their breath for long before starting some Mary or Plank-o-rama. There wasn’t much enthusiasm for the jump squats or lunges (audibled down from Sister Mary Catherines) – I think everyone’s legs were dead by then. Mine were.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead at DMZ – first time Q there. I was nervous because there are some fast guys there, and I don’t know a lot of them. I didn’t get the heckling that I normally get down south, so thanks for taking it easy on me.
Swift will launch Tuesday at 0515 from the Vine Restaurant at the Ballantyne AO.
YHC was pleased to see an oldie but goodie pop up on the schedule for this week (and there is a wrinkle). We’ll be heading to our “track” at the Bull Ring to run 400s. The goal will be at least 6 x 400 meters at 2-mile race pace (a.k.a. “Aye” or Interval pace from the calculator at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator) with a 200m jog recovery. Note the short recovery – that’s why we’re not running the 400m intervals at the normal 1-mile Race / Repetition pace. Should be a fun one!
This will be a FNG-friendly workout. Expect pace groups to form running the intervals around these groups. If pace groups don’t form, we’ll regroup as much as possible. No PAX left behind!
| I-pace (minutes per mile) | 400m split |
| 0:05:30 | 0:01:23 |
| 0:06:15 | 0:01:34 |
| 0:07:00 | 0:01:45 |
| 0:07:45 | 0:01:56 |
| 0:08:30 | 0:02:07 |
“Veronica and I are trying this new fad called jogging. I believe it’s ‘jogging’ or ‘yogging’, it might be a soft ‘J’, I’m not sure. But apparently you just run for an extended period of time.”**
Yog The Wiggler– 6:00 am Tuesday – corner of Foxcroft and Rothwood – anchorman pace…
** Ron Burgundy, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
The “6-Pack” Strong arrived in the misty morning of #F3Outland ready to push the Earth Down Chuck Norris Style! With the SF firmly planted, let’s begin! (Double E)
Pre-Work – 0600
Glass Joe was bringing the speed followed by Double E in the pre workout 5 miler. Although Zip fully committed to be there, I believe his “In” meant “In Bed”!! Z = ZZZZZ snoozefest (I know he was “working”)
The Thang – 0700 (Double E on Q)
Mosey to PSF for Warmup!
SSH x 25 IC – Rotate 180 degrees after each number
IW x 25 IC – Rotate 90 degrees after each number
10 x Burpees – For Snowman Not showing up!
Rotating Merkins x 30 – rotate 90 degrees after each Merkin
Indian Run toward Elementary School
Along the way, Plank-a-rama & 30 x LBC OYO
Continue IR
50 Yard Lunge Walk to Elementary School Track
Time for some Track Work with 4th F – Fhysical Ed!!!
Goes like this:
Start On Whistle, All out sprint 15 seconds
Stop On Whistle, 10 Burpees
Start on Whistle, All out sprint 15 seconds
Stop on Whistle, 9 Burpees
Continue until you a) pass out or b) get to 0 Burpees – Luckily We all made it!
Quick Regroup and begin 8 mins of Station Work at Playground Rotate between
20 x Donkey Swing Kicks
Shifting Supine Pullups on parallel bars
Conquer the Monkey Bars – Elementary school style
Regroup with 30 x Bench dips at picnic tables
Hand off to HB!
Ok on your six for some active recovery… Wait, where is Zip going?! With his crazy work schedule he must have forgotten this was just the beginning of the 2nd half!
Now that we are all together…
40 LBC’s OYO
40 flutter OYO.
Fellowship mosey over to the sidewalk to work our way back from the elementary school
Then lunge walk to the 1st light post then a quick mosey in front of the buses for a merkin heavy beatdown.
I Quickly realized I was the only one attempting the 10kMerkin challenge which made this even more of a #Crowdpleaser which went like this…
Round 1: 25 Merkins, 10 Jump Squats, 10 Carolina Dry Docks
Repeato 4 times (somewhere in here the sky started to open up… and felt good.)
Recovery lap around the buses
Round 2: 20 merkins, 20 backscratchers, 20 LBC’s
Repeato 4 times, plank when done.
Mosey back to middle school with some back pedaling and Karaoke right and left thrown in for good measure. Double E got an education on his right and left along the way, or the 5 of us were wrong and he was correct… Naaa.
Back at the middle school, nobody in F3 wants a big upper body and chicken legs so, grab some wall for:
Peoples chair 30 seconds, drop an inch & 15 seconds, off the wall and 20 calf raises.
Repeato with 20 air presses then 20 outer calf raises.
Repeato with 20 inner calf raises.
Mosey to cover at the middle school as the monsoon hit for 40 step ups on the benches, a little mary and that was it! Well done gentlemen!
Moleskin:
(Double E)The beatdown was intense but the PAX were resilient and just like my man Jimmy V, they Never Gave Up! I must admit the rotating warmup’s added a little flavor to the normal Q Circle Stare-down, but could have been misconstrued to passer-by’s as a group of guys that could not get past level 1 in Just Dance 4. Not sure if Z was embarrassed or was pulling an Elvis as he quickly left the circle to head to the parking lot. But he quickly rejoined the group and got back at it #FakeElvisMaybe?! The sprint/burpee combos were killer and HB brought the pain strong from the handoff. Glad to have CT back from vacation and thinking about DT as he conquers his first Light Ruck!
(HB) Solid work by all, the spinning COP had me more dizzy than warmed up though.
A reminder for all of us that wet sneakers/body against a painted door while on a rubber mat can be hazardous to our health and we appreciate Zip demonstrating that for the safety of the rest of us. #Ididntsayonyoursix #Readthedisclaimer
– CT deserves the #Cantorre medal for risking all to get the #shovelflag in the monsoon, and Double E’s… MIA Weinke? Really? #Noweinkeleftbehind
– Turnpike keep it up, you will get stronger every week, we can all attest to that!
– 10,000 Merkin Challenge through August 31st – Get Started today or Keep it up
– A few weeks behind due to vacations but next Saturday we celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Outland, our favorite Saturday AO beatdown! Looking forward to having most of our regular crew back and hopefully some #Kotters to dole out.
– Virgin Q of Drop Thrill in the near future
– And for CT’s safety at home… His daughter can baby/dog sit.
12 men left the comfort of their beds on Saturday morning for good old fashioned beat down.
The Thang
Lobster Roll
Warm Up – SSH, IW, Squats and Merkins
Cinderblock 800 – Just like it sounds… pick up a cinderblock and run with it for 800 meters, stopping three times for pain stations on the way [including shoulder press, tricep extensions, curl and incline/decline merkins]. Also managed to find time to squeeze in some bear crawls and sprints as we passed by the lower field.
Joker
Mary – LBC, Flutter, Dolly, Mason Twist
Circuit work at the playground – pull ups, dips, squats, merkins
Starfish on the big field, with merkins at each light post
Close out with People’s Chair, merkins and Carolina Dry Docks
Moleskin
All told, did somewhere around 250 merkins. Kind of lost count along the way.
Welcome to two FNGs… “Hochuli” [he’s a high school football ref], and “Venus” [he’s a tennis player and fan].
7 PAX disregarded the threat of precipitation and opted for a 100% chance of perspiration at F3 Ascent at Olde Providence Elementary school.
The Thang:
Mosey to track for two warm-up laps, including butt-kickers, high-knees and karioke.
Mosey to practice field for COP:
5 burpees OYO
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Slow Squats x 20
MC x 15
CDD x 15
Diamond Merkins x 10
5 Burpees OYO
Mosey to concession stand:
2 sets of 10 dips, 10 incline merkins, 20 step-ups (10 each leg)
Mosey to bleachers near playground:
2 sets of 10 dips, 10 decline merkins, 20 step-ups (10 each leg)
Mosey back to middle of practice field for station work. Pair up:
Middle field: 5 hand release merkins each.
Station Left: Jump squats 5 each partner
Station Center: CDD x 5 each partner
Station Right: 5 Pull-ups each
After each station, return to Middle field and do 5 hand release merkins.
After 3 rounds, we did a recovery lap around the baseball field and back to the practice field. Rinse and repeat station work with partner with the following station changes:
Middle Field: LBC x 10
Station Left: Partner decline merkins x 5 each
Station Center: Partner shoulder press x 5 each
Station Right: Prairie Fire Mary x 15 (5 each position)
After 2 rounds, we met in the middle for a Jack Webb ladder to 5 and back to 1.
Mosey to front of school for some people’s chair x 3
Mosey back to parking lot for Mary
Dolly x 15
Flutter x 15
LBC x 15
DONE!!
Moleskin
Everyone did GREAT out there today! It was a small intimate crowd which allowed us to adjust intensity together. I enjoyed pushing myself along with each of you this morning. Lumberg was bringing it strong for his 3rd time out, and Whitesnake as always left everything at the workout. Katniss was FNG to Area 51 as guest with Robin Hood, and Tootie is FNG to Ascent. Welcome to both of you!
Everyone gave their all, and that felt good… especially with the small shot of rain to cool us off!
Thanks for the great send-off from Robin Hood!
Announcements:
1. Last day for F3 Dads at Beatty Park 0900.
The shovel flag was planted as 12 men anticipated and contemplated going another round with #F3DayZero. The brothers-in-law Soul Glo and Radar were on Q.
The Thang
Soul Glo Q
Warmup run around the McAlpine track and gather on the basketball court for COP
Mosey to the field for a merkin ladder with sprints
Mosey to the playground equipment and partner up
Mosey to the rock pile and grab a respectable rock with your partner
Radar Q
Mosey to Radar’s car and grab 2 sandbags. Mosey back to the field and form two lines for relay races
Line up across from Partner for some human blocking sled pushes
Line up head to toe. Pax hold 6 inches or elbow plank. Man on the end Plank Walks over the Pax. Then next man goes as soon as he’s passed over. Radar called this the Tunnel of Hate.
Then on our sixes for some Mary: LBCs and P90x crossover situps
Then back to our two lines. Line 1 throws passes. Line 2 runs a post pattern.
Mosey back to the parking lot. COT.
Moleskine
With the brothers-in-law leaving for a week long in-law vacation right after DZ, there was a question of whether they’d deliver some pain or if they’d already have pictures of High Lifes and mojitos dancing in their heads. It was a little of both today. Some hard work. And some fun.
Soul Glo started out with a full Alabama Slamma in mind but audibled to stop after 11, wanting to get some pull-ups and bicep curls into the routine. Think he plans on looking ripped at the beach next week.
Radar was his usual creative self with the human blocking sleds and the Tunnel of Hate. No doubt the Tunnel of Hate was hurtful and he stuck Soul Glo with having to go the length of the Pax line back to back as we reversed the line to move back.
The post patterns were fun…but not good. We did a lot of burpees. A wet football and the lack of attendance at a quarterback camp had most of the Pax looking like Jimmy Clausen out there…a lot of underthrown wounded ducks.
Thanks for leading today Soul Glo. Radar, thanks for the opportunity to write another BB for you.
Announcements
Eight men gathered for a Stanford University soccer fitness test-inspired workout.
The Thang
Warm Up
-SSX X 30
-IW X 30
-Merkins X 30
-1/4 mile warm up jog
Fitness Test
-1/2 mile race pace, with maximum allowed time of 2:45
-rest 90 seconds
-6/18/60 yard shuttle, with max time of 32 seconds
-rest 90 seconds
-1/4 mile race, with max time of 1:15
-rest 90 seconds
-6/18/60 shuttle, with max time of 32 seconds
-rest 90 seconds
-1/4 mile race, with max time of 1:17
-rest 90 seconds
-6/18/60 shuttle, with max time of 33 seconds
-rest 90 seconds
-1/2 mile race, with max time of 2:50
———
LBC X 30
Flutter X 30
Dolly X 30
Mason Twist X 20
Merkin X 20
Run up the hill to the “blue door” and back
Jog / jail break to parking lot
Merkins X 20
Carolina Dry Dock X 20
Moleskin
I found this fitness test workout on the internet last summer [and I believe everything on the internet because it was invented by Al Gore]. The last time we did the test was in the summer of 2013 at a Fast Twitch workout. It didn’t feel any easier this time. The max threshold times above feel within reach when you see them on paper, but when you stack up the exercises with limited recovery time it is a real challenge. And on balance, the 6/18/60 shuttle run max times were more difficult to achieve than the 1/2 mile and 1/4 mile max times. We stuck with the fitness program protocol, except on the last 1/2 mile we stuck together as a pack rather that doing an as-fast-as-you-can-go format.
Splinter burned up the track on the first 1/2 mile test, and a couple others squeaked in just under 2:45. Lobster and Turkey Leg were motoring at a fast clip, especially on the 6/18/60 shuttles.
Great to see Skywalker back in the gloom. He must have superhuman healing powers that Skywalker.
Gummy, if you haven’t noticed, is a sweating machine. Almost to the point of Slapshot, and that is saying something. Definitely fist bumps, not hugs, at the end of workout with brother Gummy. Speaking of Gummy… lots of Gummy sitings at F3 workouts lately
Strange Brew is just an animal. The guy does Go Rucks, marathons, F3 Gears, sprint workouts, kettlebell workouts… whatever it is, he’s game to try it.
So it turns out that Cheese Curd is a fan of the 90s grunge / alt rock scene, as am I. Next time a good band comes to town… let’s get a crew together and hit the show.