Ring of Fire, Demon Dice and the Mark of the Beast
12 brave souls ignored the heat advisory and made the choice to have a devilish good time at Day Zero. Here’s the stuff we did.
The Thang
Boutique’s Virgin Q:
First…10 burpees OYO. Then mosey down to the Proving Grounds for a little COP.
- SSHs – 25 (cadence)
- Merkins – 25 (cadence)
- Squats – 25 (cadence)
- IWs – 28 (cadence)
Take off around the track to the other side of the field for some 100s. Partner up…Partner A does called exercise, Partner B does a 40 yard dash, flapjack. Go until you reach 100 as a team.
- Merkins
- Mountain Climbers
- LBCs
Mosey to the basketball court for the Ring of Fire:
- Pax bear crawl in a circle while 1st man sprints around the circle
- When he returns the circle, Pax do 1 merkin
- Back to the bear crawl. 2nd man sprints around the circle. 2 merkins for the Pax when he returns.
- Go until everyone has run around the Ring of Fire.
- Repeato with lunge walks and LBCs
Handoff to Purple Haze:
Time for Demon Dice. 1st Pax rolls the dice and entire group does exercise assigned to the number. Roll a double, double the reps. Assigned exercises:
- 2 – 20 burpees
- 3 – 50 mountain climbers
- 4 – 25 jump squats
- 5 – 20 merkin jacks
- 6 – 50 dollies
- 7 – 60 calf raises
- 8 – 20 wide-arm merkins
- 9 – 50 shoulder raises
- 10 – 20 knee tucks
- 11 – 1 minute of ski abs
- 12 – 20 Carolina dry docks
We did this until all the Pax had rolled the dice. Afterward, mosey back to the field to get some of the Beast. 6 exercises, 6 stops, 6 reps each stop. Exercises:
- Diamond merkins
- Deep squats
- Knee ups
- Carolina dry docks
- Jumping lunges
- LBCs
Mosey back to parking lot for COT.
Moleskin
- Despite starting the Pax off with 10 burpees on the roughest parking lot in Area 51, Boutique had some nerves in his inaugural Q (like calling for dips when he meant squats). However, he knew he had planned for sufficient pain and he didn’t let the early falter stop him. Plus, who isn’t nervous that first time out?
- The 100s were a definite crowd pleaser and all the Pax were dripping with sweat by the time we finished. During the 100s, Philmont comes in very stealth-like, fresh from Stonehenge…nice double down brother…especially with the pain that HoneyBee had planned there.
- The Ring of Fire was most unsavory. Even with only 12, the bear crawls seemed to go on forever while the Pax sprinted around the circle. Combine the bear crawls with the merkins and the upper body was definitely smoked. The lunge walk/LBC sequence that followed was not much better, especially since we were constantly getting up from and down on the concrete.
- This was the first appearance for the Demon Dice…and it seems to be a keeper. There were complaints about whether the dice were altered in any way since we hit on calf raises the first two times, hit on wide-arm merkins three times and also on dollies three times, including one double…that’s 200 dollies (Radar would have been proud).
- The Beast was painful as usual. We ran the entire field stopping at each trash can for the exercise. SouthPaw spent most of the time out front…ahh to be young again. It seemed we were running out of time and that our 5th trip would be our last. However, the Pax, led Mall Cop, pushed through the jumping lunges quickly, leaving us time to knock out the LBC sequence. Because of the time, the LBCs were an audible from the Haze favorite…Groiners. Good thing.
- Strong work out there today men! Kotters to Champagne, back from his calf injury…sorry about the back to back to calf raises…all in the roll of the dice. Thanks to Baracus, Mall Cop and Champagne to coming out after breaking their HC to join YHC at Centurion on Friday. Ok, YHC HC’d for them…but nonetheless.
Announcements
- F3Dads at Camp Thunderbird…check out the website.
- 2nd round of t-shirt orders open a few more days.
- Congrats to all our Area51 GRC brothers! Awesome job men!!
Ascent…meet Cindy
The shovel flag was planted, and 5 pax eagerly anticipated the official launch of Ascent.
The Thang:
(High Tide on Q)
Warm-up jog across the field, around the baseball field, through the concession stands, and back to the field for brief COP.
(in cadence)
- 15 SSH
- 10 Merkins
- 15 Squats
After we were sufficiently warm, mosey to playground to meet Cindy.
AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 20 minutes:
- 5 pullups
- 10 merkins
- 15 squats
(Stange Brew on Q)
Mosey to field
Audible for early visit from Mary:
- 10 Wigglers
- 10 Heels to Heaven
- 10 CCV
Mosey back to playground for circuit work
- 10 Dips
- 10 Step ups (each leg)
- 10 Lunges (5 each leg)
- Rinse & repeat for total of 3 circuits
Jog back through field, around second baseball field
- 10 incline merkins along the fence
- 5 burpees on your own
- 20 yrd bear crawl
Jog back through concession stand, around playground, and back to field for another visit from Mary
- 10 Dolly
- 10 Mason Twist
- 10 Rosalita
- 10 Planks – regular to elbow & back
Moleskin:
With the launch of Ascent, a moderate intensity workout, YHC thought it an ideal time to establish a baseline for future measurement of our ‘ascent’. Cindy arrived for that purpose. While YHC knew Cindy could be a handful, the pax was encouraged to modify as needed, take breathers as needed, etc to adjust the workout to our individual paces. However, pax being pax, we all pushed ourselves to the bring of merlot spillage. Thankfully, no merlot was spilled, and we all gained a great benchmark to compare against down the road.
After suffering through Cindy, Strange Brew audibled out of his original plans, which was to be heavy on the merkins (bless you!), and essentially, made up the rest of the workout on the fly! Great job! Initial visit with Mary allowed the pax to catch our breath from Cindy, and then we began the next round of circuit work to complete the smoking of our legs.
T-Claps to the pax for really pushing yourselves today and to Strange Brew for the audible on nearly the entire 30 min of your Q! And, thanks to the pax for allowing me to lead today – it’s quite an honor.
It’s all uphill from here…Aye!
(SB – if there is anything I missed, please sound off. I was pretty O2 deprived during the 2nd 1/2 today.)
Bulls on Parade
While our GORUCK brothers were still receiving their beat down, 10 strong SOB took to the streets of Ballantyne Corporate Park in a demonstration of solidarity. The question on everyone’s mind… will I be the one to recycle merlot?
The Thang:
Run to renovated parking lot for lunge-o-rama
– SSH x 30
– Forward lunge x 12
– Side lunge x 12
– Back lunge x 12
Legs now loose – run to Field of Bulls at a quick pace
– stop for plank-o-rama (side, leg up, regular with alternate leg and arm, etc.)
Enter the Field of Bulls for a legs / chest attack
– Sumo squats x 30
– Merkins w/ side plank x 40 alternate each side
– Single leg rising dead lift x 15 each leg
– Wide Merkins x 40
– Jump Squats w/ pause at bottom x 20
– Diamond Merkins (tucked elbows) x 20
– Calf Raises x 10 in, x 10 mid, x 10 out
– Dive-bomber merkins x 10
– Bonus just for Market Timer: monkey humpers x 40 (lots of laughs until quad burn set in)
Run through the parking lot toward the lake with hill (name?)
– Stop for non-stop LBC until all accounted for, but wait, where’s Higgins?
– More on that in the Moleskin, but we were now 9.
Arrive at hill with lake for crawl thru in honor of our GORUCK brothers
– Everyone plank / pike shoulder to shoulder
– 1st person crawls under all then runs around lake
– each person follows
– 1st person comes back and plank/pikes
– everyone comes and crawls through to resume position
Another shout-out to our GORUCK bros
– merkin inchworm (risky call by YHC)
– reached 4 merkins – not a bad start (#crowdpleaser)
Since we were by a perfectly good hill,
– Century Set: P1: burpees, P2: up and down hill (this was the best chance for recycled merlot)
– Continue to a cumulative count of 100 burpees
– YHC was odd man out and called the exercise when 50 burpees reached
Run back to Loch Ness woods
– Stopped off at the field of bulls to try the merkin inchworm again, but could not get the train to move – Next Time…
Continued run
– Stop for Freddy Mercury x 30
– Stop for Imperial Walkers x 30
Enter the Loch Ness woods – Divide into 2 groups
– Pullups x AMRAP
– Inverted Rows x AMRAP
Rinse & Repeat
The Naked Moleskin:
– As posted on Twitter as a pre-blast, YHC was on a quest to see some recycled merlot and planned a beat down to get it. Although a few thought about yakking during the burpee / hill century set, YHC failed. These are some strong SOB. Nice job brothers!
– On the way to the lake with the hill, we lost Higgins. During warm up, he shared with me that it was his second post and he was still recovering from back surgery earlier this year. He was EH’ed by Mic Check who was conveniently missing this AM. When we found Higgins after some searching, he waived us on. We are praying that it was nothing serious and you will be back out in the gloom with us soon! Aye!
– Wingman thought it was appropriate before the merkin inch worm to show us all his upper thigh. Nice try but that’s not motivation Wingman!
– Everyone seemed to like Soft Pretzel’s version of the Imperial Walker which does resemble a waltz of some sort. Bratwurst also liked the calf raises and their similarity to a ballet move. It seems dancing was a common theme today.
Announcements:
– F3 Dads Camp – Sign up! There are already 150 people signed up and it is bound to be a great time.
– Foxhole on Monday – Elon Park Elem. Honey Bee on Q with a special surprise involving Tabata and the Kings of Leon.
Special guest – not Old Man Bulldog but Jack Webb
The special guest was supposed to be Old Man Bulldog but due to the fartsack the orginal workout was tweaked on the fly and we had another special guest in the form of Mr.Jack Webb.
THE THANG
Mosey to parking lot. Loop around to allow Big Ben the chance to get car back on 4 wheels, park, and join up.
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Merkin x 10
MC x 15
Peter Parker x 15
Squat x 15
Stagger right merkins x 10
Stagger left merkins x 10
Diamond merkins x 8
Wide arm merkins x 10
10 burpees OYO
Partner up and head for the hills.
Partner runs hills while other partner exercises. Combine for target number of said exercise.
75 x dry dogs
50 x burpees
50 x diamond merkins
50 x jump squats
Mosey to school and split into 3 groups:
1) 15 burpees
2) Bench jumps
3) Tri dips on porch bench
Move on once someone hits 15 burpees. Repeato.
Sprint to flag pole.
Jack Webbs to 10 with LBC’s x 4 for each rep. Rep 8 was diamonds, rep 9 was wide arm, rep 10 was dive bombers.
Plank for awkward length of time. Shoulder taps for last 60 secs.
COT
MOLESKIN
It never fails that on any given Friday someone flys down Covenant Lane going 60+ mph. It used to be Matlock, then it was MallCop, Yo Yo Ma has done it, and today it was Big Ben who’s bell obviously didn’t ring loud enough this morning! Hats off to Bananas, Good Hands, and Deep Dish who ventured in on foot risking life and limb in a bid to get a good sweat on. One of the pax made mention of a spray bottle in the back of the clown car just making it look like they’d done a pre-workout.
The plans for the workout looked very different than anticipated due to the original plan being a workout that a 62 year old arthritic rugby player could endure. Things changed quickly from 5:15am onwards. Joker started the smack talking early doors by insulting the form of the Q on the side straddle hop of all exercises. To ensure correct range of motion yours truly combined the seal jack with the SSH for true accountability.
The hills gave the pax a beating today. Having partnered with Liquorsicle (sp?) the poor lad assumed the fetal position each time Zip took over on the plank exercises so you know he was pushing it.
We had to have a taste of the Go Ruck with many of our fellow pax heading into the unknown this evening. Good luck tonight to Header, Radar, Stone Cold, Stagecoach, Young Love, Tiger Rag, Dora, Donkey Kong, and any other south pax I’ve missed. Enjoy it boys and come back with some stories and hopefully your patch!
Best of luck also to Sprague who made a surprise visit prior to his departure to Colorado. Shout out also to Cheescurd who’s been out injured for while with a dodgy hi
p flexor or something in that region (although he still posts regularly at HDHH!)
Nice job today lads.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Go Ruck send off is tonight at Mid Town Park (and NOT Independence Park) near Kings at 9:30pm for anyone that wants to see what all the hype is about. Bring a bevvie or two.
Saturday workouts as scheduled.
Missing Q
19 very confused PAX assembled in the shadows of OP for the Q to show..
The THANG –
- The thang
- mirken x25
- Mt climbers x25
- LBCs x25
- Burpee x10
- Prisioner Squat x25
Mosey to concession stand at baseball field
SET #1
cross fit style jump ups x10
Dips x15
Burpees x25
Sprint to light-post turn and return
Plank up until all PAX complete set
SET #2
cross fit style jump ups x20
Dips x30
Burpees x50
Sprint to light post turn and return
Plank up until all PAX complete set
Jog to playground
Burpee – wall jumps ( burpee, Jump over Fence, burpee) x10
Jump over x20
Pull up x20
Partner up- complete between two partners – Pull ups x100
#Smoked
Moleskin
0529, hey who is he Q? Zipadee, i dont know… Purple Haze, you got me… i checked my watch, it was 0530 and no Q. hey everyone has a mis-function of the alarm clock, or perhaps a bug got him, either way there was no way i was going to leave the PAX waiting any longer. Sweaty already from the mile run into Hydra from Food Lion, I said follow me… The Pax gasp with excitement for what awaited the morning… All joking aside the pax did a great job!
The Ascent Begins…
Ascent, a new moderate intensity workout, similar to Base Camp, launches this Saturday, Aug 3, at 0700, at Olde Providence Elementary School (OP). OP is located at 3800 Rea Road and is also the location of the Hydra workout on Thursdays.
This workout is a great option for FNG’s, Kotters, those returning from injuries, and anyone seeking a lower intensity F3 workout. Same format and exercises but with lower reps. Smoke boots not required.
Co-Q’s: Strange Brew and High Tide
A Farewell, FastTwitch…
14 brave souls emerged from the gloom on Tuesday morning to kick the beast in the teeth at Fast Twitch.
The Thang:
Run to field for COP consisting of SSH’s, IW’s, Squats, Merkins, Deck Squats, and Burpees
Run to track for 10 minutes of sprints — 100 meter dashes, going every 50 seconds (faster you run the longer you can rest!) for a total of 12x.
Run to the field for the beast — 6 times down the field and back (end line to end line run), 6 stops along the way (3 going, 3 coming back), for 6 reps of the called exercise at each stop. Called exercises were merkins, deck squats, diamonds, dry docks, LBCs, and something else. LBC was the last one, and we did burpee broad jumps for the final 1/3rd of the field… just cuz.
Run to parking lot for SheHateMe till the clock read 6:00… about 3 minutes.
COT
Moleskin:
- As it turns out this one was the last time YHC will be on Q… until the next time (#Foreshadowing). I am relocating to Boulder, CO for a new chapter, and God’s great plan has us moving on pretty quickly. F3 has been a highlight of my years in Charlotte, and I miss it already. Tough workouts, good friends, faith, encouragement, accountability, leadership… Already contemplating how to plant the flag in Colorado, although unlikely to happen right away. But many thanks to the men of F3 in Charlotte that I’ve known… some better than others and some for longer than others. I’ve learned a lot from many of you and have formed many great friendships. I’ve also endured some insane beatdowns from many of you and dished some out myself… #GoodLivin! Keep it going fellas.
- YHC has admittedly gotten very slack with the backblasts… my apologies here. Some things you just have to be there for. Better late than never I suppose.
- During the Beast, YHC called for suggestions on the called exercises… at one point there were (I’m sure) 2 suggestions… I heard LBC from somewhere on my left, and #mumblechatter from somewhere on my right. Upon asking for clarification, Mallcop (who was on my right) assured me I didn’t hear anything from the right. So we went with the LBC’s, and Chelms started yapping about some rule I’d broken… some metro mumbo-jumbo I’m sure. Well I’ll have none of that, so we evened out the LBC’s with the burpee broad jumps for a third of the field.
- Deck Squats, fellas… consider that one firmly planted in Area 51. A parting gift from me, but courtesy of Ben Franklin who dishes them out routinely at Combine. It is not a Turkish Get Up.
- With me moving on, Turkey Leg is looking for another co-Q for FastTwitch. Hit him up if interested.
That’s it. Nice work out there. It’s been an honor.
-Sprague
The Taper Effect
The shovel flag was planted as 31 pax (with 3 FNG’s) ventured out into the gloom and worked out at Death Valley.
Grab the shovel flag and little baby jog to the track, ½ lap around the track, then circle up on the football field.
COP:
- SSH x 30
- IW x 30
- Slow Squat x 20
- 1 legged burpees x 10 each leg
- Merkins x 10 (hold it)
- Walking plank – CW
- Merkins with shoulder tap x 10
- Walking plank – CCW
The Starfish:
- Flag planted at midfield, run to corner 1 to perform exercise, then back to center for exercise, then corner 2…
- At the corners: Flutters x 50 (100 for those who insisted on counting each leg movement)
- At Old Glory: LBC’s x 20
- Total counts: 200 (or 400 ind. leg count) flutters and 80 LBC’s
Plank-o-rama
Little bit of Mary:
- Dolly x 25
- Cumberland County Viaduct (CCV) x 12 each side
Mosey over to the baseball field area for circuit work:
- Supine pull-ups x 15
- Wide-arm merkins x 15
- Heels to Heaven x 15
- 3 sets
More plank-o-rama
Jog around the behind the outfield fence over to concession area.
- People’s chair
- Wall plank
- Wall mountain climbers x 10 (IC)
- Rinse and repeat
Grab the flag and head to a grassy area for COT.
Before COT, 10 burpees on your own. After all, we had a minute to fill.
Moleskin:
- I must come clean. YHC concentrated on abs a lot today as my attempt of a taper for the Go Ruck Challenge on Friday night.
- YHC heard lots of chatter and giggling during the SSH/IW portion of COP. Nothing like a few 1 legged burpees to fix that.
- The barking spiders were out in full force during the flutters and LBC’s. Seriously, guys?? What did you eat last night?
- Stone Cold is still out of balance since we did right hand high one more time than left hand high in plank-o-rama. Can’t you imagine him doing left hand high at the office today to find that balance?
- Welcome to the 3 FNG’s this morning. Good work, hope to see you back out soon.
- Thanks for coming out to Death Valley…it’s always an honor to lead such a strong group.
Announcements:
- HDHH tonight – 6 pm at Vintner Wine Market and possibly The Lodge (check twitter this afternoon).
- The Ascent workout has a new permanent home at Old Providence Elementary. New location effective this Saturday, 8/3 at 0700 hours.
- Check out the Compass (3rd F) workout Friday mornings at 0630 at Arboretun Chick-fil-a. This week’s study will be chapter 2 of The Resolution for Men.
There will be lots of cuts today.
22 of F3’s finest gathered at The Maul to see if they had what it takes to make the Area 51 Fightin’ Aliens football team.
The Thang:
Mosey to the grass on Elm Lane, 4 lines like a team and follow your coaches lead through exercises.
SSH X20
Mak Tar Jai X 20?
Up downs on Coach Mic Check’s whistle X 20
High knees 20 yds Buttkicks 20 yds
Shuffle Left Then Shuffle Right
Carioca
3 point stance then fire off and sprint X2
Mosey back down to the lot for MM Q
Break up into 4 groups for
LINEMAN STATIONS
Station 1: Bear Crawl up and down the hill
Station 2: Partner push YHC’s car for 50 yards
Station 3: Fire out of 3 pt stance and squat walk for 20 yards
Staion 4: Fire out of 3 pt stance into one of the tackling dummies and push it for 10 yards
SPEED AND AGILITY WORK
3 cone spring- Catch a pass at the end
4 cone corners – Shuffle, Back pedal Shuffle and sprint-Catch a pass at the end
Long coe spring and carioca -Catch a pass at the end
Pax rotated through each stations doing different versions of Mary,(FLUTTER, MASON TWISTS, FREDDY MERCURY) while waiting for their turn to burn around the cones
PASSING DRILL
Line 1 = QB
Line 2 = WR
Line 3 = DB
GOAL IS TO CATCH A 20 YD PLUS PASS
If it’s a bad pass, guys in QB line do said exercise
Bad defense, DB line does said exercise
Bad hands, WR line does exercise
Coach called out exercises starting at 5 increasing to 12.
Merkins-Diamonds-Burpees-Jump Squats-Star Jacks-Squats-etc
Team Huddle
COT
Moleskin
Great work by all of the Pax today. Coach Mic Check and YHC were really excited to put this one on and we greatly appreciated everyone’s patience while we explained new exercises.
The inflextion in Coach Mic Check’s voice made it very difficult to tell when the Mac Tar Jai cadence was finished. Some pax stopped early, even more lost count, all of them were confused.
YHC wasn’t sure how well the the car push was going to work. Given the fact that this blast isn’t being posted from a body shop, we’ll chalk it up as a success.
The QB/WR/DB competition was a lot of fun. It’s pretty apparent that a lot of the pax used to spend some time on the gridiron back in the day. It was also apparent, that “back in the day” was a looooonng time ago for some of them. #leatherhelmets
Announcements
The 707 class of GORUCK will be departing on their journey at 10 PM on Friday. Location TBA.
Chipotle(FTQ) and Mic Check will be Qing next week. It’s going to hurt.
There are a ton of pax that frequent The Maul and are ready to step up to Q a half or a whole workout. Reach out to Mic Check or YHC and we will get you on the calendar.
New 3rd F workout starting at the Panera on Carmel and Hwy 51 after Centurion.
Sound off in the comments if YHC missed any announcements.
The Agony of Defeat
It wasn’t The Murph that defeated one pax this morning, but a rogue speedbump that jumped up out of nowhere (more on this in the moleskin). The shovel flag was planted and the pax jogged into the gloom for another edition of The Murph – named In memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y. – killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. The workout, which Murphy had called “Body Armor”, was one of his favorites.
The Thang
- Run 1 mile to McAlpine Elementary School
- 10 sets x (10 pull-ups, 20 merkins, 30 squats)
- Run 1 mile back to the shovel flag at Calvary
- Various exercises as pax return (LBC, flutter, IWs, superman, 1 legged flutters, Freddie Mercury, CCV, among others)
- Sprint relay – losing team does 15 burpees, winning team planks
Moleskin
YHC was doomed to make the backblast today. I must have been speeding, because the very first speedbump we crossed proved to be too steep for me and I careened into the asphalt. It was a picture not unlike the old videos from ABC’s wide world of sports – or at least that’s how I’ll remember it. While largely unscathed, a devestating injury to the pinky finger caused YHC to lose alot of blood through the workout – but I carried on! During the COT, Bananas informed YHC that for the low price of about $10 he could own a headlamp. Thanks for the advice Bananas!
Not long after the pax arrived at McAlpine and dove into the pull-ups, merkins, and squats, a CMPD patrol car pulled into the parking lot. He parked it just above the playground and sat for a good 5 or 10 minutes. Perhaps he was thinking about jumping in? More likely he was wondering why anyone would want to subject themselves to such punishment. Aye!
Not too much chatter from the pax today, except for maybe a few comments to YHC to “watch your step” or “don’t trip over this wall” (thanks Champagne for looking out). Strong work by all of the pax, particularly Joker, PBQB, and a few others that were first to finish! Well done!
Announcements
- F3 Dads Camp @ Camp Thunderbird – Aug 16-18 (see info on website)
- HDHH @ Vintners – 6pm, continue HDHH at “the Lodge” 7pm (speak up in comments if you have more info on this)