27 pax posted for a BeatDown and YHC had 2 objectives for this morning’s gloom; 1) Deliver a workout worthy of living up to the #F3Hydra multi-headed beasts name and what we’ve come to expect when we post on Thursdays, and 2) Introduce 2 variations of a new exercise to try to slow down Run Stopper’s insane burpee cadence and speed. This is how it all went down:
The Thang:
Run around the front of the school to the opposite parking lot as I hear call outs of “Mall Cop, you’re heading the wrong way! We usually run the other direction!”
Quick COP:
SSH x 25
Squats x 20
Merkins x 15
Enough of a warmup, mosey to the concession area and find a picnic bench, retaining wall, or bleachers for an exercise to try to slow down the insane BEAST (Run Stopper).
Round 1: The Hand Release Box Jump Burpee x 15, go down to the plank position of the burpee and do a hand release merkin, then come up and perform a box jump up onto a bench.
Round 2: The Double Merkin Box Jump Burpee x 15, at the plank position of the burpee do 2 Merkins, then come up and perform a box jump up onto a bench.
Mosey over to the large field between the baseball diamonds where YHC had shown up early to lay out 4 cones 33 yards apart for a total right at 100 yards.
YHC wanted to bring a taste of an early #F3FastTwitch workout that Sprague had Qed to the pax. Sprint all you’ve got 100 yards x 10. YHC timed it to where every 20 seconds we started the next sprint. So if it took you 13 seconds to sprint the 100 yards you would have 17 seconds of recovery time.
Line up along the first cone for the 100 yard Beast, 6 of the exercise called at each of 6 cones.
Round 1) Merkins
Round 2) Squats
Round 3) LBCs
Round 4) Carolina Dry Docks
Round 5) Flutters
Round 6) Burpees
Partner up for some core work with 10 MOM. In honor of Egypt posting at Hydra this morning now that he lives closer to our AO, YHC felt it was time to introduce the Hydra pax to an exercise that Egypt and Malko introduced to me a year and a half ago at Armor. We had a visit from The Granny! This isn’t your normal sweet granny that we all love that knits and bakes, etc… No, this is a mean, old, relentless lady who won’t let up on the pain! Partner 1 planks holding Partner 2’s feet. Partner 2 does AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) old fashioned sit-ups for 30 seconds, then holds upper body in a 45 degree angle with your arms crossed for 15 secs, look up to the sky for another 15 secs, hold your arms overhead for 15 secs, bring your arms back in crossed over your chest for 15 more secs, then end it with 30 more secs of AMRAP sit-ups. FLAPJACK.
Flutter x 25
Dollies x 20
COT
Naked Moleskin:
Great muggy, warm morning for a workout this morning and this one was sure to make you sweat! There were no 10 counts today as YHC wanted to keep it moving with an up-tempo, non-stop pain today. It did pay to be a winner and early finisher on the Beast to get a couple seconds rest as YHC called the next exercise and off we went as soon as the last pax finished the last rep of the previous round.
We all know how good & fast Run Stopper is at performing burpees , so YHC thought I would try to slow him down with the new box jump burpees. All I did was slow the rest of us down as he was done both rounds with his 15 by the time everyone else finished their 10th! We have the women of the Reebock Crossfit to thank for that one as I couldn’t help but notice them performing the box jump burpees as I walked out the Mint Street Parking deck to my car last week to drive home after work.
It was great having Egypt (Best Nickname in All of F3 by the way) out with us this morning, as well as Starfish from the Winston Salem Pax in town with us.
Announcements:
Spearhead Memorial Ruck this weekend at 7:00 in the University Area, look for the announcement on teamspearhead.com. If you can’t attend you can still contribute to the foundation set-up for the family.
Day Zero 1 Year Anniversary this Sat with The Rock and O
Memorial Day Convergence at Symphony Park in South Park on Monday.
If you’re interested in the BRR please see Baracus as there may already be a spot on one of our Area 51 teams and there are sure to be a couple of injuries leading up to the race.
Change in original schedule regarding Byron’s KB Clinic:
Read the Series Pre-Blast HERE
Read the Session 1 Back Blast HERE
Unknown # of men showed up to do this:
Mosey To Front of Theatre
Mosey to Fountain
Mosey to speed bumps (partner up for pain stations)
Two backward runs up the hill
Mosey to COP
Mosey Back to SBs
Indian run back back around Targetr towards the AO
Jail Break last 100 yards
Mary
Moleskin
Strong group today. I enjoyed leading. YHC had to take two pulls off the enhaler this am to keep the bronchitis at bay. Good thing I did because this was a fast paced one. Lots of Larry Birds out there today. (I have bronchittis…) 3 dudes showed up for KB. 2 of them actually did it. That same 3rd individual also refusniked mary at the end.
Spackler, (3rd individual mentioned above) did crush the jail break. Hair Ball was right on his tail though. Hair Ball was also able to complete Mary.
There was not a lot of mumble chatter today so I will take that as an indication that the PAX were sucking wind.
Thanks for letting me lead.
13 strong men circled up, grabbed a partner and took a beating today. Shout out to my new employer. Yes I’m drinking the Kool-Aid.
Thankfully Mosey was called
Partner up
30 jump tucks flapjack
30 plank/old school sit ups flapjack
20 hand slap merkins
run a lap
repeato
partner 1 suicides
partner 2 elbow plank
flapjack and repeato with side elbow plank right, then left
6″ X 3
mosey for mary
Pax choice Mary with a few hill sprints and merkins mixed in
Moleskiney
This was a rough workout. I feel we are going to have a lot of sore men come tomorrow morning. Impressive work by Long Haul pushing Mighty Mite in the suicides. As always it’s a pleasure leading a great group of men. I’m proud to be a part of it.
—- Posted on behalf of Semi-Gloss —-
29 dudes completed their pre-game rituals and gathered to see what was up at Death Valley this week.
Cop
Around track.25 ssh cadence
25 mountain climbers
25 imperial walkers
10 hand release merkins oyoThe thang
Deck o cards
King of hearts. 13 -100 yard down and back gassers with lbc’s and squats
Jack of diamonds – partner merkins 12
jack of spades – 22 Carolina dry dogs
2 of clubs – jack web 2 burpees
7 of diamonds – audible 7 oyo
10 of hearts – audible 50 yard gassers
Other cards the q can’t rememberMary
Protractor
Lbc’s as many as you can in a minuteMoleskin.
Q showed up early to check the track to make sure no deer were on the track **see fast twitch back blast**
The chatter was loud during the warm up. Once the king of hearts was called. I did hear a few pax saying “is he serious”. Was a little nervous about the first part but I ran with it. The deck o cards was something I got from Spackler and I didn’t want to let him down. Although spackler got a little upset I ended mine early. He was questioning the count by a few pax.
Once the partner merkins were pulled there was a lot of chatter about the hand slap. Remember boys that’s about 5% of that workout. Don’t get caught up in the weeds. A few more diamonds were called and I had to do the audible or risk a mutiny right there. Not gonna lie trying to keep up with Busch on the partner merkins was tough.
The q was a little gassed so the rest of the count gets a little foggy. You all should be proud that you did at least 2.5 today.
There was a lot of chatter about the q’s shirt. Apparently there was some talk about bowels, etc… I am just happy with the good work out.
Announcements:
F3 golf – get bananas your team ASAP. Real names please. If you don’t know their real names it might be time to learn the
F3 dads – header is site q but needs some guys to q workouts. Reach out to him.
3rd f studies – Busch has aftermath wed am and splinter and SG has threshold. Don’t find a reason to miss one. Find a reason to make one.
This week there was discussion of taking the DT show on the road and heading down to Rebel Yell to show them how the Murderhorn is run. However, news of people getting hit and the lack of roads with appropriate shoulders caused a second thought on that idea.
Instead, the plan remains the same as previous weeks. Start at 5:15 am in the greenway parking lot at the corner of Rea Rd. and Bevington Place, proceed to warm up for a mile and then accelerate to a “comfortably hard” pace and hold it for the remaining 45 minutes.
Before you decide to make that pace too comfortable, see last week’s preblast for how to calculate your Marathon and Threshold training paces and plan to run between those for the workout. It will not be easy! http://f3nation.com/2014/05/14/preblast-devils-turn-515/
On Tuesday morning at 0515, several Sons of Ballantyne (SOB) sped off for a quick warm-up and drill. We got in some bird walking (toes and heels), bird hopping (skips), and road runner (butt kicks and high knees) BEEP-BEEP!
Upon returning to the Vine AO, we picked up some, dropped some off, and headed out at 0530 for the Swift workout.
The THANG:
The Moleskin:
The SF was planted by someone prior to the KB pre-work Q’d by Champagne. At 0530, 30 of Area 51’s willing and able pax took off for another midweek attack at Anvil.
Thang:
Even before we set out, Crabcake noted I dropped off some toys at the far end of campus. Thanks to Pele for the assist with that. Before we got to the far end near hilly entrance 4 – we did the following:
Jog to other end of campus near Rt. 51 for COP:
SSH x 43 IC (Happy birthday PH)
Squat x 25 IC
Groiner x 13 IC
IW x 43 IC
1/2 Way Around the Clock Merkins (from 12:00 counterclockwise to 6:00). YVHC must confess my weakness in audibling out of this one. Intended to come back to it at the end but forgot. Weak and forgetful Q.
Run to far end of campus (entrance 4) with some butt-kickers and high knees on the way.
Plankorama while waiting for the pax to reassemble.
Split Pax into 3 groups for the following (rotating through each station):
1) Hairburners – 3 rounds for everyone
2) Entrance 4 Hill – Lunge walk down, Backwards lunge walk up
3) Mary – Knee Up x 20 IC, Flutter x 20 IC, LBC x 20 IC
Run to grassy median for celebratory burpees in honor of PH’s 43rd birthday.
PH & others with beards, goatees, etc: 43 burpees OYO
Pax over the age of 43: 40 burpees OYO (bit of a break for the old men)
Pax under the age of 43: 50 burpees (should have made the hate-hate’s do 70, and the 30-something’s do 60. I’ll do better next time)
Dolly x 13 IC
CCV x 13R & x13L IC
Makthar Ndjiaye x 13 IC
AYG sprint to the shovel flag
COT
Solid closing prayer by TR. Remember to keep M. Pele and his whole family in your prayers – breast cancer surgery next week.
Ye Olde Moleskine
Happy birthday to one of Area 51’s finest – Purple Haze. Thankful for you brother….not thankful for the extra COP reps and burpees, but owed them to you and the pax.
Included Radar’s right lung in the pax listing. Mercy! No wonder you refused to do 3 rounds of hairburners. #refusenik
Great work by the pax. Thanks to Baracus & Young Love for the opportunity to Q. Saw a lot of new faces – great to see the pax growing. Keep EH’ing your friends, family and neighbors men. We need F3, and so do lots of other men.
Sorry for the Around the Clock Merkin audible gents. YHVC still has a ways to go to get back in shape…but I’ll get there and we’ll try that one again soon.
Announcements:
HDHH tonight at The Lodge @ 6pm
June 14 – about 13 different events going on that day:
1) Bicycle Ride for underprivileged kids from 8:00 to Noon – see website, emails, twitter and/or Far Side for more details
2) F3 Dads
3) Area51 CSAUP Olympics
4) Area51 School’s Out/Summer’s Starting Pool Party
5) Flag Day -The Fourth of July was traditionally celebrated as America’s birthday, but the idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885. BJ Cigrand, a schoolteacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes) as ‘Flag Birthday’. In numerous magazines and newspaper articles and public addresses over the following years, Cigrand continued to enthusiastically advocate the observance of June 14 as ‘Flag Birthday’, or ‘Flag Day’.
On the second anniversary of Skunkworks, thirty-eight men gathered in the gloom to get their exercise on. Given the anniversary and the growth of the PAX since the inaugural Skunk, YHC wanted to provide a taste of the original Skunk, mixed in with the Skunk 2.0 we’ve all come to fear and enjoy:
Warm Up / COP
The THANG:
100 Burpees. 10 minute cap.
Split into 2 groups. Group 1 goes with Tiger Rag and Stone Cold to experience their amusement park of many toys (aka. Classic Skunk). Group 2 goes with YHC to hoist their kettlebells. Flapjack after 15 minutes with Harley coming in as relief Q for the kettlebell portion.
Classic Skunk — Stations set up around high school parking lot as follows:
Skunk 2.0 – Kettlebell ladder-sprint combine in track infield
COP – All PAX rejoin and Flutter x45, hold ‘em
COT/Finis
Moleskine
– Nice crowd this morning. Folks seemed to be in a festive mood, especially when they saw the toys lined up in the parking lot. Nice witty banter during SSH and IW. Banter ceased as the PAX were punched in the throat with the call for 100 burpees. YHC heard a couple “is he serious?” remarks, which I ignored as I got to it. Nice work by all on the burpees as most seemed to finish in time.
– Apologies on deleting the attendance list. Probably something to do with shakey-fingers and O2 deprivation, but I remember looking at my phone, seeing that I had properly recorded the name-o-rama, then promptly deleting it. Not sure what I was thinking…
– Given the work it took Tiger Rag and Stone Cold to load their vehicles at home and arrive early to set-up the amusement park, it’s no wonder that Skunk has moved on to utilize the kettlebell rather than “everything and the kitchen sink.” Still though, once in a while it’s fun to bring out the implements and experiment a little.
– Thanks to Tiger Rag and Stone Cold for inventing Skunkworks. For many, it remains the highlight workout of the week. Thanks to Harley as well for keeping the tradition going into its third year. Every week this site is guaranteed to be one of the hardest, if not the hardest, beatdowns one can experience in South Charlotte. Thanks to Harley for allowing me to lead this week – it was an honor and a privilege – and to Tiger Rag, Stone Cold and Harley for the assist.
– Finally, a little history lesson for the 2nd generation Skunks. This workout is so old Donkey Kong was still Heinz in the early BBs…
o Original BB: http://f3nation.com/2012/05/15/f3-skunk-works-backblast-05-15-12/
o 1 year BB: http://f3nation.com/2013/05/21/skunkiversary/
Announcements:
– 3rd F Aftermath – Wednesday mornings with Busch. Starting a new book this week: Blue Like Jazz.
– CSAUP Olympics coming 6/14
– Area51 Summer Kick-off Party also coming 6/14
PRE-BLAST:
On Memorial Day weekend 2013, Day Zero launched its first workout with an inspiring speech from Radar about America and pushing ourselves past our limits. That day set the tone for what Day Zero has become…one badass Saturday workout. And now one year later, we are set to do it again. Radar and Purple Haze on Q to reflect on what we’ve done and to lay the groundwork for the year ahead.
The flag will go where we go. Where we go, we will go quickly. What we do when we get there will be hard. So come prepared to give your best, your all. And if you can grow a beard between now and Saturday, you should.
#F3TheRock, who launched us, and #F3Olympus, who we helped inspire, will converge with us. 0700 on the McAlpine Proving Grounds. See you there on Saturday after the 2nd installment of Byron’s KB clinic.