Ruck like an SOB
12 of Ballantyne’s brave stepped out into the balmy gloom for something a little different at Stonehenge. Today’s Stonehenge was promised to be limited running which made it perfect for trying out the ruck or for FNG’s to post for the first time. We didn’t have any FNG’s but 4 rucks out there for their maiden voyage.
A 5:30 pre-workout run was planned, but an audible was called when Snowflake and Fireman Ed showed up and peer pressured YHC into some kettlebell work instead. Knowing what was in store for the main event, YHC knew better but couldn’t say no to some KB action.
The Thang:
Warmup in Wells Fargo lot (confusing a hapless ATM customer with our presence)
– All with no rucks
– SSH x 30
– Forward Lunge x 10
– Imperial Walkers x 20
– Manmaker Merkins x 20
ATM Madness – with Rucks
– Line up in front of the bank drive thru
– All exercises in cadence and together – team
– Squats x 30
– Lunge Walk x 25 yards
– Merkins x 30
– Bear Crawl x 25 yards
– Squats x 25
– Lunge Walk x 25 yards
– Merkins x 30
– Bear Crawl x 25 yards
Mosey to Lock Ness wall #1
– Dips with ruck reversed x 30
– Squat Thrusts (Presidential Fitness Style) x 10
– Dips with ruck reversed x 30
– Squat Thrusts (Presidential Fitness Style) x 10
Mosey to next wall on Lock Ness
– Incline merkins x 30
– Step-ups (together) x 20
– Incline merkins x 30 (KB work began to catch up with us at this point)
– Step-ups (together) x 20
Mosey around field down to the bridge – Surprise! There was a pile of concrete rocks conveniently placed there just for our needs.
– PAX divide into 4 groups of 3, grab a rock, and bring it to the field
– Person 1: Flutter w/ Ruck Press
– Person 2: Rock Carry 50 yards
– Person 3: LBC w/ Ruck above head
– Repeato ~ 4x through
– Editorial note: About this time, Mic Check was voicing his desire to punch YHC in the gut for talking him into carrying a ruck to this party. This was also about the time that Fireman Ed noticed that YHC had conveniently “lost” his ruck at one end and was letting his team enjoy it for the flutter/press combo. Mumblechatter ensued.
Deposit rocks in a pile and form a Tunnel of Love
– Everyone cycle through tunnel twice
It was time to move, 4 lucky PAX grabbed the rocks and we were off
– We rucked / carried the rocks around Loch Ness and out onto the street.
– Stopped for 20x Dolly and 20x Rosalita
– Recover, load up, and continue to the back of the medical building for some people’s chair
– Wait, there’s a mobile MRI trailer in our spot, proceed to the front of the building
– Oops, there is too much shrubbery for people’s chair
– Fireman Ed then noticed the perfect brick wall across the street – perfect!
People’s Chair commenced:
– 1 minute with ruck on chest
– Silent 10 count and mumble chatter to catch our breath
– 1 minute with ruck / rock above head with presses in second half
– Some more mumble chatter to recover
– 1 minute with ruck / rock held out in front
Head back to start for COT (Jailbreak called by Udder but not fulfilled by anyone else – heavy load)
Moleskin:
It was a great day in the gloom. The promise of limited running was fulfilled and when we moved from place to place, the pace was a true mosey. Even still, YHC was officially smoked at the end and hopefully the PAX shared this outcome.
The rucks we came up with for this challenge were definitely not the GR1, however, they were effective and raised the bar on the pain level. Most creative ruck content goes to Mic Check with a high school backpack filled with dumb bells. It seemed like it worked fine though. YHC is glad the promise of a gut punch was not fulfilled after COT.
Doing all the exercises in unison and focusing on teamwork was nice. It was good to see people passing the rocks and helping each other out during the movement to different locations. The GORUCK challenge is still a long way off, but YHC hopes to join the other SOB and experience it together in March. Based on how this workout went, I think we have a good start.
The Rock
The shovel flag was planted at 0645 while The Shore completed a solo gear pre-workout and Bratwurst limbered up for the assault on The Rock.
The pax rolled in through the foggy gloom, and 18 brave souls were on their way.
YHC decided to make this workout a bit of a break from the norm, a pattern interrupt, if you will.
Thang:
COP started with 25 Rockhoppers followed by 15 Groiners. The pax was confused and a bit testy that we did not start with the obligatory SSHs or IWs. And in full honesty, the Q pert near smoked himself with that start. Not smart…yet will certainly be repeated a beatdown in the near future.
This Thang will be as close to accurate as YHC can remember. The fact that I ad-libbed all but the tennis ball segment coupled with this BB coming many hours after the workout –) means the events and counts will be approximations. My apologies in advance, and do correct YHC below in the comments.
After the Rockhoppers and Groiners, I think we did 25 hand-release merkins, 25 squats, 25 SSHs (all is right with the world….and F3 Nation).
Mosey to the church wall for some People’s Chair including 20ish overhead presses and BTWs.
Mosey to the huge field in front of Calvary. Supersonic grabbed the tennis racket (what?) and YHC grabbed the bag of numbered tennis balls.
The next 25ish minutes consisted of Supersonic picking a numbered tennis ball from the bag and one of the pax then smacked the tennis ball with the aforementioned racket. The pax would sprint AYG to the tennis ball and YHC would then call out an exercise with the reps corresponding to the number on the ball. We would then sprint back to the start point. Rinse & Repeat several times with (I think) Cottonmouth, Chopsaw, Lost Weekend, YHC, MallCop, Supersonic, Cadillac, and Intel taking a turn at launching one of the felt-covered orbs.
The numbers on the balls were: 27, 25, 13 (2 or 3 of these – YHC’s favorite number), 81 (unsavory and our final exercise of LBCs. Q again smoked himself and had to split this one in two parts.) Other numbers were 37, 15, 28….can’t remember the rest.
Exercises were: CDDs, Burpees, Makhtar Ndijaye’s, Widearm Merkins, Freddie Mercury’s, Flutter Kicks?, Stop motion squats – cadence was unorthodox and staccato — mixing it up to the simultaneous amusement and frustration of the pax.).
After the tennis ball silliness – we lined up for 2 lines of Indian Run and ran from front of church to back of church.
We then did backwards run, Karaoke about 400 yards.
Plankorama, then over to picnic tables in the woods for 3 sets of 20 dips and 20 decline merkins. YHC again smoked himself with this one.
We moseyed down the hill to the sand volleyball courts for the following:
Lunge Walk, Backwards lunge walks, Bear crawl (Harley is an inhuman beast at this, btw), partner wheelbarrow (flapjack 1/2 way), one-legged wounded bear crawl (switching L to R 1/2 way), broad jumps. Think that was it.
Mosey over to concession stand pavilion for some more people’s chair followed by wall planks with 5 merkins.
Jog back to starting parking lot. We still have about 4 minutes……so Supersonic grabs a couple more balls out of the bag for a corresponding 13 more burpees. Then 15 was drawn from the bag, so we did a minute of protractor at 15 degree angle.
COT
Moleskine:
Had a lot of fun leading this morning. Great to have Funky Bunch back out. And Hacksaw continues to impress by pushing himself. T-claps for signing up for the USMC spring mud run brother. Great group of men this morning. I’m not overstating but perhaps am a bit of sentimentalist when I say: I love F3.
By the way, Chopsaw had a nice whiff on his first attempt at launching the tennis ball. Thanks also to the pax for offering some solid suggestions for exercises as YHC was ad-libbing the beat down.
Announcements:
Pretty much the normal stuff. Thanksgiving convergence at The Rock from 7am-8am Q’d by CrabCake and Hops. Normal schedule Friday and Saturday.
Check the website and don’t forget the Christmas Party at TR’s crib on Saturday, Dec. 7th.
Beastly Knerkins
5 pax took on the Beast and other assorted trials as a warm-up to their weekend.
The Thang:
Jog around concession stand and baseball field and back to front field
COP:
- SSH – 20
- IW – 20
- Arm Circles – 10
The Beast:
- 6 reps at 6 stations, every 20 yrds along the front field:
- Jump Squats; Merkins on your knuckles (Knerkins?); Flutter; Speed Skater; Situps; Knerkins
Playground:
- Pullups or Supine Rows – AMRAP
- Lunges – 10
- Good Mornings – 10
- Rinse & Repeat – 4x total
Baseball field:
- Karaoke; Back Peddle; Side Shuffle; Back Peddle; Karaoke
Concession Stand:
- Box Jumps or Step-ups – 15, 15, 10
- CDD – 15, 15, 10
- LBC – 15, 15, 10
Playground:
- Knees-to-Elbows – AMRAP
- Jump-overs – 10
- Derkins – 10
- Rinse & Repeat – 3x total
Switch over to Low Tide as Q
- Jack Webb – to 5/20
Mary:
- Protractor for 2 min (#crowdpleaser)
Time’s Up
COT
Moleskin:
The small number of pax didn’t lend itself to lots of mubblechatter, or maybe it was the Beast that suppressed it. YHC has got to remember to build in more opportunities to catch our breath, but we made due with several 10 counts.
Merkins on our knuckles were introduced, and we decided they needed an appropriate name – Knerkins seemed to fit.
Also introduced were knees-to-elbows, where we learned Bubbles does them all the time when visiting the Fern and shared his tips with the pax (control your swing).
No new announcements.
Challenge Accepted
The #F3DayZero Challenge was issued and 17 men accepted.
The Thang
We did the exercise outlined on the giant weinke and then ran a lap around the 1/3 mile track after each exercise. The goal is to push yourself and get as far as you can (and past your point from the previous Challenge). These are the exercises of the Challenge:
- 100 Burpees
- 150 Calf Raises (50 in, 50 straight, 50 out)
- 100 Ski Abs
- 100 Merkins (25 diamonds, 25 narrow, 25 regular, 25 wide-arm)
- 100 Deep Squats
- 200 LBCs
- 100 CDDs
- 100 Knee Jumps
- 100 Russian Twists
- 100 Nipplers
- 100 Jump Squats
- 100 Mountain Climbers
- 200 Shoulder Raises
- 100 Jumping Lunges
- 200 Dollies
- 100 Hindu Merkins
- 100 Squat Jacks
- 100 Groiners
- 100 Burpees
Moleskine
The Challenge is tough. It is all about you versus you. But you are not alone…you have all the other guys pushing through the same Challenge and encouraging one another throughout.
When comparing the results of this Challenge to those of the prior two, the Pax have improved. Until today, the farthest anyone had gotten in the hour was a 3/4 lap after Jump Squats. Today, 2 pax made a full lap after the Shoulder Raises. That’s a lot of reps and over 4 miles of running…in one hour.
2 pax stayed overtime to finish the list above and log in excess of 6 miles of running.
Announcements
We all know them by now.
Killer B’s on a Swarm…
16 nasty beasts showed up for a Killer B’s led beatdown. The weather was gloomalicious with 50’s and a mist, so we made sure that nobody could enjoy it.
COP: (Baracus)
SSH x 25
IW x 25
Mountain Climbers x 25
Mosey to the track
Farmer Carry KB Chasers:
Partner up – KB size matters
Partner 1 does 10 merkins then sprints to catch partner 2. Continue until 100 merkins completed. (50 each)
100s: Stay with parnter, 1 partner performs exercise while other partner runs around track. Keep going until cumulative repetitions reaches 100.
– Bicep Curls
– Upright Rows
– Overhead Press
– Overhead tricep extensions
Mosey to playground (Bananas)
5 rounds as fast as you can of:
20 pullups
30 merkins
40 LBC’s
50 squats
Audible at round 3, Lawn mower rows for pullups
Audible at round 4 calf raises for squats
COT
20 two handed swings (in cadence)
20 (10 each arm) snatches with professional demonstration from Byron.
20 flutter press w/ bell (in cadence)
15 dolly press w/ bell (in cadence)
Recover
Moleskin:
Beautiful morning for our workout. Baracus dipped us right into the pain with farmers carries and merkins which generated about 3 laps of sprints, unless you were with the Q in the remedial class, (Crab Cake/Baracus) who managed 4 laps #slerkins. Our Queen City DJ’s showed that they are in their prime in the music industry as The Hoff and Wolfman spent about 10 minutes each fixing the tape that was eaten by the jambox or angling the broken antenna to make sure Michael Bolton was coming through clearly. I’ll be honest with you, I love his music, I do, I’m a Michael Bolton fan. For my money, it doesn’t get any better than when he sings “When a Man Loves a Woman.” #officespace. Bad music, red clay, and kettlebells, no better way to start a Saturday. Thank you men for letting us lead. Have a great weekend.
Announcements: Don’t forget to get your canned goods to Calvary for Thanksgiving, Crab Cake and Hops are on point for this if you have any questions. Also, Busch and Tiger Rag will be leading some pre-game KB work on Wednesdays and Fridays. Follow them on Twitter to find out where the fun will be.
Centurion takes on the Murph – Ready for Round 2
33 men gathered in the gloom around the virtual shovel flag to pay respects to Lt Micheal Murphy and the workout named after him.
The Thang:
COP
SSH X40
Mtn Climbers X20
IW X20
Run 1 mile
Perform the following (most did 10 sets of 10/20/30)
100 Pull ups (assisted or Australian – as necessary)
200 Merkins
300 Air Squats
Run 1 mile back starting point for some Mary led by Hops
COT
Naked Moleskin
This is a you versus you. Can be timed but in 45 minutes much of the PAX had to settle for getting in as many sets as they could. The run may have been slightly over 1 mile and the warm up COP required precious minutes but the goal is to do the best you can and get better each time.
Great crew and I love the age difference (two Doubles Hates at 27 all the way up to WD of 60+). Foot wedge was new to Centurion and picked a good one as the murph always pleases.
Anyone looking for a Christmas gift for Philmont can buy him a new joke book. Some of the PAX were complaining about reuse of old material.
Long Distance stepped up to Q on Black Friday and Run Stopper quickly jumped in to co-Q, reminding everyone that it was “Black Friday”. Luckily that PAX will not have to wait in line for a beat down and all the “gifts” at Centurion only require sweat.
Announcements:
Convergence at the Rock on Turkey Day.
Tutoring continues and you are encouraged to invite others including high school age kids and older, wives, girl friends (not on the same day), neighbors, grand parents. F3 has Thursday but the programs can use more help Monday thru Thursday.
Preblast: Stonehenge 11/23
If you missed the pre-preblast, check it out here http://f3nation.com/2013/11/19/pre-preblast-stonehenge-nov-23/
If you are distraught over the limited running format for Stonehenge tomorrow, come at 5:30 for a fellowship run before the “Ruck and FNG fiesta”. The pace will really be fellowship and no man will be left behind.
Tomorrow’s workout is going to be a painfest so a kettlebell warmup session is not suggested. Feel free if you want, but YHC is not doing it.
The plan for the main event is locked and loaded. We will be covering between 0.5 and 1 mile tomorrow so this is not bad at all for rucking it. Finalize those budget rucks and bring them out. The more creative the better.
See you in the Gloom!
The Dawn of The Liquor Cycle
8 PAX posted at SPEARHEAD today and were lead through a routine that would have even given a GRT Cadre heartburn…
Extra Credit: 04:45 1.5 Mile Ruck with 80lbs Coupon
05:15 1 Mile Run with Ruck (11 Minutes)
The Thang:
SS5 x 35
Slow Squat x 25
Selection Test:
– Selection Style Push-ups for 2 minutes (target 55)
– Selection Style Sit-ups for 2 minutes (target 55)
Mosey to End Zone – Every 10 yards perform new exercise
End Zone: Monkey Humpers x 25 / Bear Crawl to 10 Yard Line
10 Yard Line: Imperial Walker x 25 / Low Crawl to 20 Yard Line – Packs off, move pack on ground
20 Yard Line: Flutter with Chest Press x x25 / Duck Walk to 30 Yard Line – Packs on
30 Yard Line: Parker Peter x 25 / Bear Crawl to 40 Yard Line
40 Yard Line: Belly, Back, Feet x 15 / Low Crawl to 50 Yard Line
50 Yard Line: Peter Parker x 25 / Duck Walk to 40 Yard Line
40 Yard Line: Jack Webb x 8 / Bear Crawl – Packs off, move on ground to 30 Yard Line
30 Yard Line: Ruck Curls x 25 / Low Crawl to 20 Yard Line
20 Yard Line: 8 Count Body Builders x 10 / Duck Walk to the 10 Yard Line
10 Yard Line: Mason Twists w. Ruck x 25 / Bear Crawl to End Zone
Partner Carry to 50 Yard Line / Flapjack Partners / P2 Carry to End Zone
Ruck Carry Ladder:
All Pax Plank at the End Zone
PAX 1 Carry all Rucks to 10 Yard Line. 1 by 1 next person sprints to 10 yard line and back to retrieve 3 Rucks. Once 3 Rucks are on the 10 Yard line, the next person goes and 1 by 1 carries 3 more rucks to the 10 Yard Line. Once all Rucks are on 10 Yard Line, PAX 1 moves 3 Rucks to 20 Yard Line. Rinse and Repeat until all Rucks are moved down the Football Field
Rest of PAX Plank Up and perform Merkins until all PAX move Rucks
LBC until the rest of the Rucks are back
Strong work as always from the PAX today. I named this post The Dawn of the Liquor Cycle for a reason. Watching him come along as a site Q has been a wonderful thing to see. LS- you killed it out there today. That routine that tested us in every way possible and it was very well thought out…However your audible at the end (on the fly) was amazing. You created a cool and challenging routine with the Pack Carries that I know we are going to use/modify over time!
Additionally, Liquor Cycle carried me (The Hoff) for 50 yards. I had a 47 lbs pack, weighing in at a hefty 235 and his pack at 40lbs, he shouldered 322 pounds #superhuman!
As for the PAX there were times when I looked over and saw everyone moving as a group and going through the Suck together as a team. As a result, SH is making us a well oiled machine!
On Behalf of Liquor Cycle, thank you for training with us this morning and please sound off below if you have comments about this workout.
Respectfully,
The Hoff (On Behalf of Liquor Cycle)
I think it counts……
18 pax put in work this am. Some showed up early for a little Busch led pre game. See the work out here. http://rkcblog.dragondoor.com/the-9-minute-kettlebell-complex-from-hell/
The Thang
- Little mosey around the way.
- Circle Up
- SSH
- Ski Abs
- Mountain Climbers
- Mosey over to entrance sign and partner up in 3s
- Hair Burners and Sand Bags all the way around the church campus. 5 pain stations along the way.
- P1 starts pushing plates while P2 and P3 run down and do a designated sand bag work out. When they hit the number P2 and P3 run back to the plates and one of them takes over. The other two run back to the pain statin and do the reps again. This goes on until the plate gets to the pain station
- Pains Stations
- 25 over head press
- 25 rows
- 25 alternating shoulder press with squat
- 25 Carolina dry docks
- 25 merkins
- Once every finishes we mosey over to the hill for some more work
- 200 team merkins. Only the ones at the bottom of the hill count
- Same Concept- P1 starts at the bottom doing merkins. P2 and P3 up the hill and complete 10 diamonds. Back down and relieve p1. Other two packs up the hill for 10 diamonds until the 200 merkins are complete.
- Team Sprints and Bear Crawls
- Same Concept- P1 starts bear crawling. P2 and p3 sprint out 50 yards and back. Switch out the bear crawler and do this until the bear crawler get to the end
- Mosey in the wrong direction so we get some stairs in before heading back
- Jail Break to the flag pole
Mary
- 25 or so reverse crunches
- 20 or so slow count bicycles
- 40 seconds of ski abs on your own
Moleskin
Strong work by the group today. The pre gamers definitely got their moneys worth. There was a bit of confusion on how the hair burner and sandbag routine would work at the beginning. YHC must not have explained it well enough. We got it together by the first pain station though. I expected this to take a lot longer than it did. I still had 17 minutes left once we got to the end. So the hill work and bear crawls were a bit impromptu.
I don’t have any funny moments to mention as it was all I could do to focus on the task at hand. We moved those plates a long way (.49 mile) with really no breaks.
Keep Geraldo in you thoughts and prayers. He hurt his back during the KB and had to call it a day. Tiger Rag had him sign a disclaimer right before he left
I should mention Spackler texted the captioned right after the work out. I think it counts
Announcements
Day Zero Challenge tomorrow- Haggis HCd today
Punt, Pass, & Kick…with Lasers
15 men arrived at Charlotte Christian to “kick off” the day right (pun intended).
Warm-up: Jog to football field.
COP (on field):
- SSH x 25
- IW x 25
- Mountain Climbers x 25
Field work (start in end zone):
- Sprint 100 yds to other end zone / Jog back (repeat)
- Walking lunges 50yds / Sprint 50 yds / Jog back
- 25 squats, 10 burpees, 25 merkins
- Walking lunges 50yds / Sprint 50 yds / Jog back
- 30 alternating lunges, 20 merkins, 20 squats
- Sprint 100 yds to other end zone / Jog back (repeat)
Bleacher work:
Round 1
- Run steps – one time up, one time down.
- 20 triceps dips on bleachers
- Run steps – two times up, two times down
- 20 triceps dips on bleachers
- Run steps – three times up, three times down
- 20 triceps dips on bleachers
Round 2 – repeat, but replace tricep dips with derkins
Punt, Pass, & Kick
Split into 3 groups. Each group does each station and rotates to next station
Station 1 – Punt fielding
- Take turns fielding punts from each other until all have had a chance to kick.
- For each punt missed group does 5 squats at the top of grandmother mountain (max 20)
Station 2 – Pass & Catch
- Take turns going out for a pass of at least 25-30 yards
- For each incomplete group does 5 merikins at the top of grandmother mountain (max 20)
Station 3 – Kicks made
- Take turns kicking field goals from the 10 yard line
- For each missed kick do 5 burpees at the top of grandmother mountain (max 20)
Jog back to parking lot for COT
Moleskin:
It was a perfect Friday morning to be out in the gloom. YHC decided to attempt another edition of Friday Fun-day by again trying to work in a little football theme. 3 footballs came with me, including Nerf Firevision frames. Hey…we’ve already learned it’s hard to catch a football in the dark…this was the solution. This has to the first time an F3 workout incorporated lasers!
After running up and down the football field several time, and spending some quality time on the bleachers, the pax was beginning to wonder if we were actually going to use the footballs or just use them to decorate the 50 yard line. Once finishing our bleacher work, we returned to the football field to demonstrate our masterful football skills on the same field that Charlotte Christian won the State Championship two weeks before. Don’t worry Panthers…no roster spots are at risk with this bunch. Even with the firevision, the pax still found it difficult to catch the ball. The punts weren’t pretty, and the field goal kicking would have made any Florida State alumni proud. So needless to say, the pax spend plenty of time doing exercises on top of Grandmother Mountain. And another first … the words “I can see those lasers so clear from up here” were spoken on the mountain.
All in all, it WAS a fun workout, and I thoroughly enjoyed leading the pax. Thanks for the opportunity!
Welcome to our 2 FNGs, Mr. Brady and Cosmo. Interesting method of EH with Mr. Brady. Last week when YHC was jogging home from Joust, he ran up next to me and started asking questions since he had seen me leave the pax back at Charlotte Christian. I welcomed him to join us and a few minutes later he sped off into the darkness, leaving YHC dragging his butt down Sardis Rd. Thank you both for coming out this morning! I hope you both enjoyed the workout and will come back for more.
Announcments: Compass immediately followed at the Arbo Chik-fil-A, Start thinking about BRR in 2014 (registration process will start early in January).