Tidal Surge at Hydra – News at 11
A Tidal surge was forecast for Hydra after YHC took the call from 49er, who was himself “under the weather”. (feel better soon!) 9 pax ignored the #cantore warning, while Search & Rescue continues to look for MallCop, who may be lost at sea.
The Thang:
COP:
- Warm-up lap around the track
- SSH 20
- IW 20
- Mtn Climbers 20
YHC had planned a 4-station starfish workout today, expecting higher numbers of pax, with two upper body and two lower body stations. With a more intimate number of pax, we audibled to 2 groups and ran upper body and lower body circuits instead.
Upper Body Circuit:
Playground:
- Pullups 15
- Situps 20 (old-school style)(unanchored or anchored, if needed)
Fence around far baseball field:
- Decline Knerkins on the fence 15 (Knerkins = merkins on your knuckles)
- Regular Knerkins 20 (audibled to LBC’s after 2 rounds)
5 burpees on the big field as you transition between stations
Rinse & repeat for 18 minutes
Lower Body Circuit:
Concession stand area:
- Jump-ups 15 (fully stand up at top of each landing; no “toe taps”)
- Low, slow squats 20 (3 count down, 1 count up – OYO)
Area near far baseball field:
- Leg raises 15 (like protractor from 0 to 90 degrees)
- Jumping Lunges 20
5 burpees on the big field as you transition between stations
Rinse & repeat for 17 minutes
Mary:
- Twist (Mason, Russian, Lemon, whatever) 15
- Flutter 15
- LBC 15
- Dolly 15
- Freddie Mercury 15
COT
Moleskin:
Rookie Q at Hydra for YHC, having previously Q’ed only moderately at Ascent and BaseCamp, so the pressure was on. Living up to the high standards of Hydra and without the benefit of a whistle, YHC had a restless night’s sleep, waking up twice thinking he had overslept.
Knowing the Hydra layout well from Ascent duties, YHC was concerned about the typically larger # of pax at Hydra and keeping the groups small enough to work in the stations desired, so the plan was for a 4-station starfish to accomodate 30-40 pax. With only 9 strong pax on hand, those would have been 4 pretty lonely groups, so YHC opted to combine them into 2 groups to better facilitate the 2nd F.
(Speaking of the smaller number of pax, YHC began to wonder whether his reputation preceeded him, but later convinced himself it must have been the weather or the HDHH…)
Learning of the day: the fence around the ball fields are much higher when you are not standing on a deep pile of mulch as when you’re on the playground. So, the decline knerkins had much more decline to them than originally planned. #underpromiseoverdeliver
Lots of strong work by the pax today. From the back of the pax, YHC has yet to learn the shape of everyone’s head, but Hopper, Iron Horse, Gummy were identified as out front, among others. T-claps!
Finally, several pax mentioned the strong HC from Mall Cop, so we know he must have been on the other side of the field, although we never saw him at the burpee transition zone. Shout out in the Comments below if you find him… #neverleaveamanbehind
Thanks for the opportunity to lead today. It was an honor!
Area 51 Christmas Party – 2013
52 pax and most of their Ms make 91 total (give or take) to make the F3 Area 51 Christmas Party a big success! Tons of food, tons of fellowship, tons of fun in a big, beautiful home seemingly designed for just this purpose. Thank you TR and wife Leslie for opening up your doors and welcoming us all into your home. I will share a few thoughts of things leading up to and including the party, but I welcome all to sound off in the comments to ensure we’ve got a good record of the event for posterity.
- We expected a bigger turnout this year over last given the amount of growth we’ve seen in Area 51 since last year. YHC explored multiple venues, but after a few weeks and no ideal option Tiger Rag throws out the idea of hosting at his home. Dude are you crazy?
- After estimating a turnout around ~100 (including Ms), Tiger Rag is calm and cool about hosting. Then the evite goes out to 400+ pax (not counting the Ms). OK…now he’s a little worried.
- The party starts and people start to arrive bringing a delicious variety of appetizers, main dishes, desserts, and a takeout pizza care of Big League Chew.
- Some pax apparently thought this was an ugly sweater party. Spackler’s Hane’s sweatshirt with an airbrushed Santa Claus was a first. Pretty sure he made it in Home Economics class back in high school.
- Lars (aka Zippity), the Swedish masseuse, was looking very stylish in his CREAM colored mohair sweater.
- Perhaps the biggest surprise with Donkey Kong. No plans to dumpster dive tonight…he was dressed to impress. Yes, that’s a tie around his neck!!
- As the crowds were forming it quickly became apparent that YHC forgot an important detail…nametags. Big thanks to Boutique and his M for a quick stop on their way in to the party!
- All should be impressed with Bugeater’s selling skills and Radar’s negotiating skills at the raffle table. Congrats to Busch and Strange Brew!
I’m sure there are many more fun and interesting moments to call out, so I will leave it to you to shout out in the comments.
In addition to TR and M.TR, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a few folks a shout out.
- Cottonmouth – thanks for leading the charge to pull together all of our volunteers to setup for the event. We had everything we needed and everthing was in place when the party started. Thank you also for staying late to clean up and break down.
- Gullah – thanks to you (and your M) for facilitating the food sign-up and ensuring we had plenty of good food for all to enjoy!
- Yo Yo Ma – thank you for spending your Saturday morning chopping firewood to use in the fireplaces and pits that kept us warm… after your band played until 3am.
- Thanks to all of the other guys that took time out of their Saturday and lent equipment for the party: Deep Dish & his 2.0, Hops, Abacus, Dolphin, High Tide, Zippity.
And for the BIGGEST accomplishment of the night….thank you to ALL of you that brought your bag of non-perishable foods for the Matthews Help Center. We filled TRs truck and collected enough food to feed 100-125 people. THAT is the Christmas Spirit….Outstanding!
What a great way to kick off the Christmas season! It was a joyful time spending the evening with all of you, and I hope that continues for all of you and that you all enjoy a happy and blessed Christmas season.
Five Golden Burpees
24 PAX gathered for a beatdown in the 26 degree gloom this morning. Nice work by all. Reading thru other backblasts this week, the 12 days of Christmas have been a popular choice. Here’s the Death Valley version…
Warm ups:
Jog around parking lot
SSH x 25 – varying speeds
IWx25
Hand Release Merkins x 15
Jog to football field
THANG:
12 days of Christmas:
Day 1:
100 yard dash
Day 2:
2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 3:
3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 4:
4 Alternating lunges, 3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 5:
5 Golden Burpees (hand release merkin at bottom), 4 Alternating lunges, 3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 6:
6 Diamond merkins, 5 Golden Burpees (hand release merkin at bottom), 4 Alternating lunges, 3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 7:
7 Seal Jacks, 6 Diamond merkins, 5 Golden Burpees (hand release merkin at bottom), 4 Alternating lunges, 3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 8:
8 Wide Arm Merkins, 7 Seal Jacks, 6 Diamond merkins, 5 Golden Burpees (hand release merkin at bottom), 4 Alternating lunges, 3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 9:
9 LBC’s, 8 Wide Arm Merkins, 7 Seal Jacks, 6 Diamond merkins, 5 Golden Burpees (hand release merkin at bottom), 4 Alternating lunges, 3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 10:
10 Regular Merkins, 9 LBC’s, 8 Wide Arm Merkins, 7 Seal Jacks, 6 Diamond merkins, 5 Golden Burpees (hand release merkin at bottom), 4 Alternating lunges, 3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 11:
11 Squats, 10 Regular Merkins, 9 LBC’s, 8 Wide Arm Merkins, 7 Seal Jacks, 6 Diamond merkins, 5 Golden Burpees (hand release merkin at bottom), 4 Alternating lunges, 3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Day 12:
12 Peter Parker’s, 11 Squats, 10 Regular Merkins, 9 LBC’s, 8 Wide Arm Merkins, 7 Seal Jacks, 6 Diamond merkins, 5 Golden Burpees (hand release merkin at bottom), 4 Alternating lunges, 3 Turkish getups, 2 one legged burpees, 100 yard dash
Mosey to track for Mary:
Protractor
Dolly x 25
One legged Dolly 15R/15L
Jog to concession area and find some wall:
The Semi-Gloss (People’s chair) x 60 seconds
Plank with feet on wall – 10 count
Wall mountain climbers x 10
Rinse and repeat
CCV’s 13R/13L
COT
- Great group this morning. Everyone pushed hard throughout.
- This workout was a test of the mind as much as anything. What was 7 again?
- Not too much chatter from the PAX after about day 5…I’m sure O2 deprivation had something to do with that.
- So at one point I heard Mall Cop say to Turkey Leg “Do you have a speckled (ahem) Richard?” Not sure what that was all about, nor do I want to know.
- Great send off by Busch!
Announcements:
- 3rd F workout Compass starts a new series this Friday. http://f3nation.com/2013/12/11/new-compass-book-fight-by-craig-groeschel/
- Haggis wants to go for a really, really long run…and he wants you to join him. Join Haggis on a 50 mile or 50k mountain spectacular. There may also be a 10 mile option.
Preblast: Devil’s Turn 12/12
As promised, this week’s Devil’s Turn is geared toward the newcomer. The definition of newcomer you may ask? Answer: The PAX that have always wanted to try out Devil’s Turn but have been hesitant due to the term “running workout.” You can rest assured, if you can do a Saturday F3 workout, you can do Devil’s Turn tomorrow.
We will be leaving from the greenway parking lot (corner of Rea Rd. and Bevington Place) at 5:15 am and will run 2 miles out to S. Charlotte Middle School. You will then have options:
1) Do some boot camp exercises for 15 min
2) Do 800 m (2 lap) intervals around the track x 3 times with 1 lap recovery between intervals
3) Run the track at your desired pace for 15 min
We will then leave the track and run the 2 miles back to COT. The run to and from the track will be at fellowship pace (and I don’t mean Bratwurst’s fellowship pace). It will be a no drop run. Come and give it a try you won’t be disappointed.
See you in the cool crisp gloom!
New F3 Compass Book – “Fight” by Craig Groeschel
Men of F3 – we are starting a new book for Our Third F meetings at the Arboretum Chic-Fil-A on Fridays at 0630 (and we will start to meet inside.) The name of the book is “Fight” by Craig Groeschel and it is an easy and quite humorous read. You can order it online for your iPad or Kindle at this link below and also preview the first few sections:
Hope to see you this Friday.
Bulldog and Stone Cold
PS. All pax in attendance will receive an Adidas 50% off entire purchase voucher valid at the Concord Mills Adidas store for this weekend! How’s that for an EH!
Everything but the Kitchen Sink
13 Men helped the Q’s with a last minute audible as once Double D’s got a taste of the Ruck, he asked for more…so the Pax responded and rummaged through their cars to help us collect 13 coupons that we could use for our routine. We had an 85lbs, 70lbs and 50lbs sandbags, several kettle bells, 5 Ruck sacks and even thought I saw a guy with a Kitchen Sink! 
Extra Credit:
04:55-05:25 1.5 Mile Ruck with Coupons (85lb, 70lb and 50lb Sandbag)
The Thang
Double D’s on Q:
Everyone grab a weight, ruck or sandbag and run up to carpool lane and down to football field (drop off coupons by consession stand)
SSH x 30
Burpees x 10
1/8 mile run
Burpees x 10
IW x 10
1/8 mile run
Burpees x 10
IW x 10
Partner work:
P1 Run up Bleachers. At Top Knee Ups x 10…run down; At bottom Dips x 20; Rinse and repeat – Run back to Track – Perform LBC’s until partner arrives
P2 Run ¼ Mile – meet P2 and perform 50 LBC’s
Flapjack
Rinse and Repeat x 2 complete cycles
The Hoff on Q
Run to Concession Stand – Circle up with weights
Burpee-Squat-Thrust / Merkin – Jack Webb Style. Each round, rotate to the left and get a new weight
Burpee-Squat-Thrust x 1 / Merkin x 4
Burpee-Squat-Thrust x 1 / Merkin x 8
Burpee-Squat-Thrust x 1 / Merkin x 12
Burpee-Squat-Thrust x 1 / Merkin x 16
Burpee-Squat-Thrust x 1 / Merkin x 20
Round Robin:
Perform Exercise with weights, then run behind bleachers, up 2 flights of stairs, across top of bleachers, down long steps and return to the circle with weight
Rd 1: Overhead Press x 20
Round Robin
Rd2: Squat/Upright Row x 20
Round Robin
Rd3: Squat x 20
Round Robin
Monkey Humpers x 60
Jailbreak to parking lot
LBC x 30
COT
Moleskine:
Great work all around and we covered a lot of ground today. T-Claps to the entire Pax as YHC #1 (Double D’s) called an audible during the Extra Credit requesting that we use all the Rucks and weights (sandbags) we were carrying up Sardis Rd for the workout today. So on the Fly, we adjusted the planned routine to accommodate….but we needed a little help from the Pax to pull it off.
To our surprise, “The Charge” Pax always come prepared! All we had to do was ask if anyone had something heavy to contribute to the mix and before we knew it, it was like asking the Genie in the Bottle for a wish come true….12 heavy weights appeared. Each person strangely had something in their trunks already. Gotta love the power of F3…our guys drive around town with sandbags, kettle bells
Sorry for the late post, it’s been an extremely busy day and just was able to get to it.
Sound off below!!
As always, it was an honor to work with such strong individuals.
Respectfully,
-The Hoff and Double D’s.
Lets go see the Murderhorn
13 men dusted off the caps, 1 decided it best not to wear the leopard print hair bandanna and off we went
Warm-up (IC)
SSH x 30
Lunge with Upper body twist x 6 each leg.
Imperial Walker x 25
Merkins x 20
Mosey to the Murderhorn
(Thanks to MM for reminding me of this yesterday)
At the top of the hill perform the M100:
– 10 Burpees
– 10 Mountain climbers each leg
– 10 Squat Jumps
Keep cycling through until you are at 100 total count (should end with 10 burpees for 40 total).
Run to the bottom of hill and back up and plank.
Plank-o-rama:
Elbows for slow 10 count, Normal, RAH, RLH, Normal, LAH, LLH, Normal
Is everyone back? Yes
Six Inches for 10 count by MarketTimer
Mosey to the Movie Theater for a little ‘The Semi-Gloss’ (see: http://f3nation.com/2013/11/13/the-semi-gloss/)
We squatted near the flight of stairs and performed a modified indian run. Last guy in line runs to front and bunny-hops up stairs and back down and then joins front of line. Line shifts to left and last one again runs up and hops.
– Repeat until all PAX are through.
Balls to the wall for 20 count. Single-arm if you got it.
Mosey to parking lot for a Mary Relay
Count off by 2s
split up according to number across the parking lot
Team 1 starts off runs to other team and tags a guy in Team 2
Rest of the PAX are doing called out Mary until everyone has sprinted. Change excercise.
LBC
Dolly
Rosalita
Flutter
Jack Webb
Ladder to 8 and back down (1 Merkin x 4 Presses).
Moleskin
The 2nd F entertainment and fellowship started early today with a visit from Spackler (FNG at The Maul). Always entertaining. The cold weather was back with a vengeance today. Big change from yesterdays 50 degree weather. YHC didn’t want to run too much and i think we accomplished it. 5 minutes of ‘The Semi-Gloss’ is tough. Jack doesn’t let up. Lots of shoulder burn.
Announcements
Convergence and 5k Joe Davis Run
Join Haggis on a 50 mile or 50k mountain spectacular. There may also be a 10 mile option.
Merkinfest…again
13 men slid out of the fartsack and came out into the gloom for a workout on the frozen tundra of Calvary Church. YHC has had a brutal work at week, so I had to go to the workout archives…but what it lacks in creativity it makes up for in difficulty.
The Thang:
10 burpees OYO
Jog to courtyard area on side of church with the fancy turf.
COP
- Merkins x 20
- SSH x 20
- Merkins x 18
- Slow Squats x 18
- Merkins x 16
- IW x 16
- Merkins x 14
- Calf raises x 14
- Merkins x 12
- Lunges x 12
- Merkins x 10
Jog to parking lot
Merkin Suicides (5 cones)
Run to first cone and back/do 2x exercise
Run to second cone and back / do 4x exercise, etc.
- Wide-arm Merkins
- Merkins
- Diamond Merkins
- Man-maker Merkins
- 8 count Body-builder Merkins
Jog to soccer field
Jack Webb
- 1 pushup 4 arm raises
- 2 pushups 8 arm raises…etc.
- Up to 10 pushups 40 arm raises
Jog to pavilion
- Decline Merkins x 20
- Peoples chair (arms to side, arms in front, arms overhead, overhead presses x 20 on rounds 2 & 3)
- Repeato x 3
Jog to shovel flag for some Mary
- LBC x 14
- Dolly x 14 hold’em
- Flutter x 14 hold’em
COT
Moleskin:
The tights were out in full force today as the temperatures dropped into the high 20s. Only YHC and Mermaid (I think) toughed out the cold with bare legs…although I wished I had the pants when kneeling on the frozen tundra for the Jack Webbs #kneelock.
The pax were pleased with the return of merkinfest today. I enjoy workouts that target specific areas, and this one definitely fits the bill. I expect all of us to have some sore shoulders for the rest of the day and tomorrow. The merkin suicides are more of a crowd pleaser than I remember from the first time, and I was beginning to wonder how I managed to finish this part of the workout the first go-round. One way is to follow Zip’s approach – “if you ain’t cheatin’ you ain’t tryin’!” The 8-count body builder merkins are particularly tough…seems like you’ll never finish.
There was a fair bit of chatter from the pax today, and I expect nothing less than that when Zip is involved. A few comments during the peoples chair…YHC took a little Jane Fonda and leg warmer ribbing from the group, but I think I got the point across. All in good fun.
Great work out there today guys. As always it was a pleasure leading!
No new announcements today
Chippy goes nuts at Bagpipe
Haggis posting for Chipotle
The drizzle kept Mic Check from this morning’s festivities, however it did not keep 13 other men from fart sacking this morning. YHC decided to steal a Ground Zero themed workout and modified it to please the crowd.
The Thang:
Warm UP
25 SSH
20 IW
Partner Up for the following:
100 burpees combined followed by one lap around lake
200 merkins combined followed by 2 laps around lake
150 squats combined followed by 3 laps around lake
200 LBC’s combined followed by 1 lap around lake
100 dips followed by 2 laps around lake
More exercises were on everybody’s personalized Weinke’s however did not complete due to time.
Moleskin:
YHC seemed to hear some hatred mumbles from a few PAX members however, this seemed to be a hit. I am sure this workout will reappear soon, maybe next time Mic Check will show up.
New Announcement:
Haggis is recruiting for a Ultra Run March 29th at Leatherwood Mountains……it is just a 50K, so sign up it should be 7 plus hours of fun.
Jack Sprints™
YHC was always fascinating by huge sports icons trademarking their own phrases. The trademarks not only cement their place in history, but also help them get paid! We’re talking licensing on shirts, hats, ice cream, you name it. A few of the great trademarks:
- “Three-Peat” – Pat Riley
- “Getcha Popcorn Ready” – Terrell Owens
- “Fear the Brow” – Anthony Davis
- “Lin-sanity” – Jeremy Lin *Note: The ice cream was pulled from the shelf because apparently filling it with fortune cookies and lychee is racist. #corporatecowards
YHC is going to go for: Jack Sprints™ Sound off in the comments if you need info on licensing deals.
Without further adieu – The Thang:
800m warm up jog followed by SSH, IW, and some squats.
Jack Sprints:
For each merkin, sprint 20 meters around track.
- 5 merkins, 100 meter sprint
- 10 merkins, 200 meter sprint
- 15 merkins, 300 meter sprint
- ….
- 40 merkins, 800 meter sprint
So 8 rounds of Jack Sprint with 60 to 90 seconds rest between each round.
Finish with a cool down lap around the parking lot, 25 LBC’s, 25 flutter’s and 20 merkins (in cadence)
Moleskine:
YHC was looking for ways to throw some upper body pain at the PAX of Fast Twitch. 220 merkins should do the trick. I missed counted during the workout and told them we were going for 200. Oops, I got it wrong. While there is no official record keeping, I figure it has to be close to the record # of merkins for Fast Twitch.
In order to even the playing field a bit we asked the faster runners to hold onto the outside lanes to give them a longer lap on each run. It didn’t work. Fletch and Frasier still smoked everyone from the outside lanes.
I enjoyed the workout and it felt much harder in real life than it looked on the Weinke. Maybe because it was YHC’s first running since Thunder Road.
It’s always an honor to lead the PAX and by the lack of mumble chatter I think everyone was fairly winded. So it worked.
-Alf
Announcements:
Tis the season to give back.
Good Fellow’s luncheon: http://f3nation.com/2013/12/03/come-to-the-good-fellows-luncheon/
Support the AG/Billgingsville Christmas celebration: http://f3nation.com/2013/12/03/f3-billingsvilleag-christmas-celebration/