The SF was planted and 5 S Charlotte PAX decided it was time to get the weekend started off right with a beautiful cool spring morning here in the Carolinas. With the arrival of DK at 0659 hours it was time to head out into the gloom and see what the day had in store for us.
Jog over to soccer field parking lot and circle up (small circle) for COP:
OK, we’re all warmed up, let’s head over to sidewalk at the entrance of soccer fields. Time for a mile run with stop at midpoint for called exercises:
Mosey over to school parking lot for suicide ladder:
Rinse & repeat x 2 with 5/10/15 Jump Squats & 5/10/15 CDD
Hand it off to Dirty Bird for 2nd half:
Mosey over to wall in front of school for PC & BTW:
20 Burpees OYO
Head back over to parking lot and line up at the island:
Circle up for 6 MOM:
That’s a wrap. COT
Moleskin:
Announcements:
13 hearty Area 51 pax posted on this gorgeous morning for another installment of Ascent moderation, curious as to what the Q had in store. Here is what they experienced:
The Thang
Lap around the 1/8 mi track with butt kickers and high knees thrown in, then mosey to the open field for
COP:
Mosey to the Playground
Playground 10 –> 1
Decreasing sets of 10 to 1, planking between each set to keep pax together
Plank-o-rama
Lunge walk halfway to Concession stand, mosey the remainder
Concession Stand 10 –> 2
Decreasing sets by 2’s from 10 to 2
Mosey back to field
Field Work & Mary
Mosey to school building
Time’s up
COT
Announcements:
Young Life Mud Run – Sept 20 – promise of more mud this year!
F3 Golf – May 29 – signup briefly extended
F3 Pool Party – June 14, 6-9 pm – Candlewyck Pool – check your email for an evite – $10 per pax for entire family
KB Clinic – 1st session today (awesome). 2 more sessions, Saturday’s, The Rock, 6:00-6:45. Learning clinic for KB use, not a workout. More info on website.
Moleskin:
Well, YHC got his wires crossed last week with Runstopper over who would fill in for an ailing Passport. Runstopper tweeted out first, so YHC was left with a weinke and no where to go. Luckily (unluckily?) for the pax, Gummy got called up to the big leagues (The Rock) today, so YHC was able to fill in today and put the weinke to good use. (Full disclosure: YHC tried out the workout on Low Tide, and he hated it. Probably not enough running. #whippersnapper)
Today’s workout focused mostly on strength and core, two essential elements that we probably don’t spend enough time on. Plus, YHC is still trying to nurse his Achilles back to good health, so running was to be avoided. (Jump squats may not have been the best idea either…) The pax seemed to embrace the weinke in large part, with the occasional mumblechatter that is the hallmark of a good workout.
Great job by all today. Remington Steele was crushing just his 3rd F3 workout, as was his 17-yr old 2.0, Squid (#triplehate). Great partnering on the pullups – they’re hard for everyone, which is why we work them most every week at Ascent. Also, t-claps for pushing yourselves but being smart about modifying as needed throughout the workout.
So, the comment of the day belonged to Jackie Chan (2.0, 10). We’re sitting a coffeteria, talking about basketball, which JC loves, and Passport offers that he and Strange Brew played basketball in high school. When JC asks who Strange Brew is, and SB is pointed out, JC replies, “who, the guy with the crazy hair?” Once recomposed, it was decided that SB’s lockes may be worthy of a Pantene commercial or, at least, merit a rename to Rapunzel!
Thanks as always for the opportunity to lead. It’s an honor.
HT
17 of Area 51’s finest took on a beautiful morning, launching from a slightly different spot in the vast parking lot that holds The Rock. The Qs adjusted their weinkes accordingly and off we went.
Hopper on Q:
Warm up:
25 SSH
25 Peter Parker
The Thang:
Mosey to Rea Rd
Indian Run for 1 mile
7 s on hill with bear crawl up and lunges down
Merkins on bottom of hill
Squats at the top
Plank after
Catch Me if You Can:
Wide arm Merlin’s for first “lap”
LBCs for second “lap”
Plank in between and after
Circuit work at playground:
15 jump ups
15 pull ups
20 decline Merlin’s
20 Dollys
Repeat
Hand off to Gummy
Mosey to the park entrance. From there, AYG to the Rea/51 intersection, doubling back to pick up the PAX when you get there.
Mosey across the intersection (disclaimer) to the Calvary sign. Cross the front yard with carioca, butt kickers, frog jumps, etc. Gather at the top of the North Face.
North Face Race
20 of each exercise, then a lap around the trees to the bottom of the North Face, climb to the top and repeat for each exercise.
Squat Jumps
HR Merkins
Ankle Breakers (one legged jump up on to curb)
Carolina Dry Dock
Mosey to parking lot for Mary
Flutter x 20
Dolly x 20
Parker Peter x 20
Protractor
AYG back to the farther-away-than-expected cars.
Moleskin:
Lots of opportunities for racing this morning. From my position in the middle of the pack, it looked like Intel, Checkpoint and Kirk traded off the lead most of the morning.
Special thanks to Intel for letting me grab on to him as I went down the hill during the indian run. I was proud that I stayed upright.
Welcome to FNG Vortex (Calvin). I was trying to think of a good Presbyterian nickname for him (John Calvin), but didn’t come up with it til I got home – TULIP. We’re going to need to recruit another Calvin just for that handle.
Thanks to Hopper for a great first half. It made the second half rough.
Announcements:
Good word from Mall Cop to remember each other’s needs between workouts. Pray for The Rock (the guy, not the site).
I think there were others, but my son called me during the COT, so I lost the recording from here. Sound off in the comments.
The VSF was planted just before 13 men planked in the parking lot at 0659 for a few words of encouragement and a run down of the disclaimer from the Gentleman Q. Then with a “follow me” off we went chasing Mermaid the wrong way around the track. Here’s a breakdown of what we did today:
The Thang
Mermaid Q
Run around the Proving Grounds track and circle up on the far side of the school, next to the dumpster, for COP:
Mosey to the benches in front of the school:
Plank-o-rama, including Mission Impossible. Then 10 Merkins on Q’s count.
Mosey a little farther over in the parking lot for the Triple Nickel:
Mosey to the back of the school and grab a boulder:
Put the boulders back and mosey up the school for some Semi-Gloss a/k/a Peoples Chair – 40 Shoulder Raises
Partner up for Partner Merkins x 10 (that’s 55 for those of you keeping score at home).
Purple Haze Q
Run to the Yellow Rose parking lot. Stay with your same partner. Perform called exercise then split and run in opposite directions along the loop around the Touchstone Shopping Center…~6/10ths of a mile. When you meet in the back along Bevington, perform same called exercise, then keep running back to the launch point.
Line up along the curb in the parking lot for more running:
Time for one more loop run.
Circle up in the Touchstone parking lot.
Moleskin
The Gentleman Q treated the Pax poorly throughout his 30 minutes. It was seemingly continuous motion push-o-rama…heavy on the merkins and CDDs. Our upper bodies got all blown up.
After too much time stirring up the asbestos in his attic during his move, Radar apparently has black lung. It started during the COP and continued all around…hacking cough, hocking up mucus and spitting loogies all over the school grounds. Poor kids come Monday. Kept it up at the shopping center too…although his mucus is clearly not even top 10 in the most disgusting things in the Yellow Rose lot.
Speaking of the parking lot, we were forced to keep our voices down during the suicides, etc there. At the far curb, two guys fast asleep in their car. Strong night apparently. Radar and Spackler began to reminisce…going back to many mornings seeing the sunrise from the parking lot of the Yellow Rose. #GoodTimes
Still clawing my eyes out after Loop 3. Semi-Gloss went shirtless. YHC’s hoping for a mild summer.
Solid group of men out there this morning. Another strong Q from Mermaid…thanks for stepping up at DZ. Thanks to Ribeye for his first site visit and a big welcome to @F3Crappie from Columbia.
Announcements
15 Pax ventured forth into the Gloom to punch their downPAINment in the mouth and it went something like this:
The Thang:
Mall Cop Lead:
Run to the soccer pitches for COP:
SSH x 25 IC
Imperial Walker x 25 IC
Squat x 25 IC
Mountain Climbers x 25 IC
CDD x 25 IC
Turn around and line up at the base of the hill for 7’s with burpees at the top, Jump Squats at the bottom.
Line up along the sideline for burpee broad jumps x 50 yards.
Mosey to the picnic tables under the trees for 3 sets of: 20 Dips, 20 Jump-ups / Step-ups, 30 LBCs.
Mosey to the Entrance 4 Hill for: Round 1) Lunge Walk Down, 20 Burpees at the bottom, backwards Lunge Walk up the hill, 20 Jump Squats at the top.
Round 2) Bear Crawl down, 20 squats, Bear Crawl up, 20 Merkins.
Hand-off to Strange Brew for his Q:
Naked Moleskin:
Mall Cop: My apoligies to the pax and especially to Strange Brew, my co-Q for not getting this backblast posted last weekend. I guess its better late than never. Special thanks to all the pax that brought canned goods or contributed money to buy canned goods for the SPEARHEAD Brew Ruck II. Great job as we donated 105 cans.
Strange Brew: Always a special honour for YHC to Q at the Rock, the original FNG post. Was a pretty strong group out there this morning, so cool to have Dora amongst the pax, always great to see him pushing the form example. Glad Abacus came out after a solo post at A51, well done not to let the morning go to waste, welcome at the Rock anytime.
The SF was planted by Escargot, and 29 hearty souls from all over Area 51, The Fort & Metro descended on Centurion for a good-size portion of Nicaraguan Stew. What? More on that in the Moleskine.
Thang:
Jog 1.5 laps around football stadium to far lot for COP
COP:
Merkins x 13 IC
Slow Squat x 13 IC
CDD x 13 IC
H-R Merkin x 13 IC
1-Legged Squat R x 10 IC
1-Legged Squat L x 10 IC
Run to natatorium lot for some slope work:
Lunge walk down
Backwards lunge walk up
Bearcrawl down
Backwards bearcrawl up
Burpee Broad Jump down
Bunny hop up
Quick-pace run to main HS entrance for the following:
BTW x 3
Peoples Chair w/overhead presses
BTW x 3
Peoples Chair w/overhead arm raises
Jog to main lot for following:
Sprint to first pole, 5 H-R Merkins
Sprint to 2nd pole, 10 H-R Merkins
Sprint back to first pole, 5 H-R Merkins
Sprint to first pole, 10 LBCs
Sprint to 2nd pole, 20 LBCs
Circle up for Mary:
High Slow Flutter x 13
Freddy Mercury x 13
Makthar Ndjiaye x 10
Run around football stadium
Dolly x 13
COT
Ye Olde Moleskine:
Was great for YHC to be off IR officially and, as always, was a privilege to Q alongside the Centurion pax. With the combination of just 2 days removed from a trip to Nicaragua and coming off IR – hope the workout was worth the forsaking of the fartsack.
Some particularly strong running noted on the part of Checkpoint, Dory, Mermaid, Cane, Jamboree, Cole Slaw, Udder (when he wasn’t holding back), RT (when he brought it fully)…and a few others I can’t remember.
Escargot, despite a gut full of Nicaraguan stew, was doing some strong work on the natatorium hill. As an aside, if you ever need construction help – call Escargot – amazing what he did in Nicaragua. Checkpoint was also fearless in doing great work while suspended from the bridge. It was humbling to be a part of that. Check with the 3 of us, Iron Horse, BTB, DK or Dozer if you’d like to hear more about the Bridge to La Flor.
Good to have Spackler as FNG to Centurion despite his constant bellyaching about the drive from SE Area 51 to SW Area 51. Many whiny returns Spackler.
Thanks also to MC for calling out my less-than-perfect plank form after I admonished the pax to watch their form. #notaprofessional #doasisaynotasido
Announcements:
3-week KB Tutorial by Byron starts Saturday at 6am at The Rock
Signup for F3 Golf – just a few spots left
F3 Dads starts Saturday, 6/14 at 9am at Col. Francis Beatty Park
Ballantyne Doubledown – Stonehenge at 6am; Ballantyne 5K at 7:30ish
Operation Overlord in honor of the upcoming Anniversary of D Day on June 6th. Show your appreciation to a serviceman/woman if you see one!
Get into groups based on speed 4 Waves of 5
Fastest group to the slowest
Bear Crawl Merkins down the parking lot in cadence…123 down for a count of 4 Merkins till the Q calls it.
Warm up with jog down to the lower lot around the course in our lines 4-5 abreast 4-5 deep.
120 yard sprints from cone to cone in parking lot. First wave goes off, second goes off when previous group is 5 seconds out, etc.
Winner of each group does 50 heel touch squats while the losers do 60 single leg squats 25/25. If a loser beats the winner in exercises, winner does 10 burpees. Do lemon squeezer abs until everyone is finished.
Continuous for 10 minutes.
If someone from the group behind catches anyone from the group in front of them the entire group that was caught must do 100 jump squats
50 Merkins/50 Drydocks/50 Diamonds OYO
When finished with exercises do crunches until all pax finishes.
Repeat above 120 yard sprints with winner doing 50 heel touch jump squats and losers do 50 lunges 25/25. Do Supermans until everyone is done. Continuous for 10 minutes.
50M/50D/50D again.
Sprints again with distance reduced to 50 yards continuous for 5-10 minutes based on time. With winner able to rest while losers do 50 heel touch squats.
Jog back to upper parking lot for Bear Crawl Merkins.
Finish with 3 minutes of Mary – Flutters with extended time Protractors.
Moleskin:
It was a great cool morning with the Pre-KB pax getting a massive sweat on during Bulldog’s KB Swing-o-rama of Pain. Most were smoked before the workout even started…especially Big Brown with his two week old 50lber…but he is swinging it like a champ! The mumble chatter started when people were trying to sandbag which speed group they would get in. Nothing like a warmup of Bear Crawl Merkins to get the mumble chatter going in high gear. Folks were asking for some SSHs and IWs but that was nowhere on the horizon.
Once the pax arrived at the starting point for the sprints and they saw the distance between the two cones, there were some people that disagreed to the distance. Once we finished the first sprint, mumble chatter became worse than mumbling, and some were drooling. This continued to degrade as the pax truly pushed themselves to the limit today…I would say Level “11” was achieved, especially when Harley starts complaining about how hard the workout is because he wants Skunkworks to be the hardest and Kevlar to be a coast of a workout. There were some folks, (ahem…TR, Bulldog, Donkey Kong) taking some interesting lines during the sprints to make sure they won or cut off others so they couldn’t win. It was a great time, thank you all for working so hard and making the mornings fun! I love the comraderie we have in Area 51, the Brotherhood! I do feel a bit bad for Turkey Leg running a 10K race tomorrow, and Far Side riding a metric century in the mountains tomorrow…probably not the best taper!
As I write this, I just received a text from A51’s greatest comedian, Brown, that his first customer this morning asked him, “Why are you walking like you are trying to carry a corn cob without using your hands?” Thanks for the laugh and material Brown, glad the workout did what it was supposed to do!
Sign up for F3 Golf 5/29
ThirdF Aftermath is starting a new book next Wednesday, “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller, come on out to the Starbucks next to Trader Joe’s in Piper Glen.
12 Pax ignored the weather forecast and joined Peak 51 for some downpainment. The rain didn’t start until after the workout and the only precipitation came from sweat.
The Thang:
COP
Mosey to the building for circuit work
Run around the building and grab some wall for People’s Chair (The Semi-Gloss)
Mosey to the track
Take a lap
There and Back Again
Indian run 1 lap
Mosey to the baseball field for some hill work
Partner 1 runs up the hill and back while Partner 2 does called exercise until he returns
Return to the parking lot for Mary
The Moleskin:
Announcements:
With thunderstorms just to the west, 14 men set out to put feet to pavement and achieve a “comfortably hard” run for 55 minutes. There was an alternative complex option, but only Bratwurst and his arm computer seemed to follow that plan.
The “comfortably hard” goal was achieved and perhaps even exceeded by some as the high humidity seemed to make the going just that much harder. The PAX dominated between 5 and 8 miles today and all seemed to leave satisfied.
We did lose Hops on the run back due to an emergency bio break. Unfortunately, he also took a wrong turn and headed out to 51 at some point. The search party (Tiger Rag) was dispatched to bring him in, but 2 minutes later in came Hops. After a quick COT, a second search party was dispatched (this time by car) to get TR. It is the assumption of YHC that he was eventually found and returned to the Tiger mobile. Else, there is a crazy goateed fellow still roaming Piper Glen.
Welcome to Voodoo (DT FNG) who put in some strong work out there today. As humid as it was, I bet he felt right at home swimming through it this morning. We are glad to have you while your shoulder is on the mend.
Great work to all today. As we spread out on the run, it seemed like most were left to face their inner demons alone through the extended exertion. It may not be the most fun you have in the gloom, but I guarantee that there’s not much else to push your aerobic capacity like a good tempo run.
Announcements:
– Stonehenge double down – Do the workout and then the Ballantyne 5k/10k at 7:30 for 10k or 7:50 for the 5k. See http://www.ymcacharlotte.org/branches/morrison/socialresp/events/runballantyne.aspx for details.
– Kettlebell workshop 6:00 – 6:45 am at The Rock. See http://f3nation.com/2014/05/13/preblast-kettlebell-clinic-this-saturday-at-the-rock/ for details.
– The F3 Charlotte South Olympics is currently being planned. The tentative date is the morning of June 14 with the awards ceremony being held at the F3 pool party later that day. More to come on both these events in the coming weeks.
It has been suggested mathematically that, because of the huge number of possibilities from shuffling a 52 card deck, it is probable that no two fair card shuffles have ever yielded exactly the same order of cards. YHC shuffled them 3 times. You just never know what hand you are gonna be dealt. I’d say the deal this morning was rather rough. And since I’m a gambling man, I would bet you $100 of Purple Haze’s $$ that the other 9 pax who joined YHC this morning would agree.
The Thang
Mosey around the theatre with various exercises at random stops. Then we took it over to the hill where we would remain…..the whole time.
Death of Cards
YHC picks a card and pax perform a pre determined exercise following suit and number count on card.
Hearts – backwards run up hill
Diamonds – partner merkins
Spades – Burpees
Clubs – partner CDD’s
Joker – 50 LBC’s
If same suit drawn back to back, jog around Cinema and then complete the exercise. The hand dealt today was:
King Diamonds
4 Hearts
6 Spades
3 Hearts
9 Clubs
jog around Cinema
King Clubs – crowd pleaser
7 Diamonds
Queen Clubs – wtf – I got no shoulders left
Joker – Thank God
9 Hearts – wtf – audible to forward run up hill
jog around Cinema – wait, you really didn’t draw another heart right?
10 Hearts – wtf – Audible – split up run with partner – backwards – while partner 1 runs, partner 2 does Mary.
Circle up for Mary
Dolly x 40
Flutter x 20
Ye Ole Moleskin –
Pleasure leading such a fine group.
Some observations:
Death of Cards is hurtful – so very hurtful
You know it’s bad when you are hoping for the burpee card
Had another Club or Heart been drawn – YHC may have had to make a run for it
Strong effort by Purple Haze and Rolling Rock on the hill work. Haze must still be single. Rolling Rock – you are leading Rebel Yell soon.
T-claps to Rock Thrill for running in from Rock Hill
Loved the effort by Hacksaw. Dude never quits. And BTW, he asked for Murderhorn today. Almost called an audible.
Welcome FNG to the site, Backbrush. Good work out there man. Sorry that cards had to be your first taste of Rebel Yell. Lucky it wasn’t Murderhorn though.
Thank you to our bi weekly chaplain Purple Haze for the send off.
Chime in if you had anything else.
Announcements
Today is last day to sign up for F3 Golf.