6 – 4 – 7, Saban would not be impressed
12 men showed up to the Calvary parking lot for a cool Saturday morning. The workout was advertised as a salute to the 246th anniversary, to the day, of General George Washington’s acceptance of the command of the Continental Army. This little factoid was shared with the assembled Rock Zero pax at 0700. The Olympians, much like the Greeks in the 18th century, were too far away to hear and too pre-occupied with their own business to be bothered.
Not many people know General Washington’s war record, and so it was shared that morning with the assembled pax and the assurance that this workout would honor 6 wins, 4 ties, and 7 losses. As one might surmise by this record, if General Washington was a coach in today’s modern sports world, he might have been out of a job. And in an effort to keep our Alabama-Snowflake pax satisfied, if Nick Saban were a redcoat Washington would have been toast. Thankfully, Washington was more like Mike Ditka he had his wins, he had his losses, and retired a hall of famer.
But enough about Ditka, let’s get back to the workout.
Da Thang
Mosey around the parking lot towards the Hot Box. Circle up for the typical warmup exercises. After that we hit the Hot Box to celebrate General Washington’s wins. All 6 of them. For this, pax completed 6 4 rounds of called exercises and ran down the hill of trash cans to the bottom and back. There was much debate on going to the end of the sidewalk or taking the three extra steps to get to the garbage can ON the grass. After the 4th round, the OTHER workout showed up and started making fun of us. The other workout being two middle aged women with 15 pound dumbells. Apparently, Runstopper’s half zip sleeveless vest did not impress these ladies and they commented profusely on the pax need to stop and breathe actual oxygen after 4 rounds. Pax wisely moved to the front of the Hot Box for some wall sits with air presses and story time balls to the wall. Today’s story, how Runstopper got his F3 name. After both rounds, pax ran to the light pole in the parking lot and back.
Move onto the Avenue of the Trees. One day this will get a proper LOTR/Ent reference but until then … At the avenue of the trees we contemplated the 4 ties during General Wahsington’s career. Such contemplation could only be completed with 4 rounds of 5 reps of a called exercise at each tree. After the 2nd round we stopped for some Murray (because Mary is for young guys and Murray is a proper representation of fat middle-aged men trying to get a 6 pack in the summer). After this, the pax wrapped up the final 2 rounds. Head over to the Rock Pile to contemplate Washington’s losses.
YHC’s instructions were to grab a lifting rock and the pax were informed that losing sucks. So grab a lifting rock and head to the adjacent lot for descending 7’s. Start at the first island and do 1 overhead press then mosey all the way to the last island with your lifting rock and do 6 rock squats. Come back to the fist island and complete 2 OH presses then mosey to the second to last island for 5 rock squats, rinse and repeat. Each time pax got closer and closer until we wrapped up with all pax cursing YHC’s good ideas. It should be noted that Runstopper had a strong lead on the pax all morning until now. We needed Proehl out there to keep him in check. There were many comments about choosing a lifting rock for running but this is where YHC reminds the pax that losing sucks. It sucked for General Washington and it sucks for the assembled pax.
With just under 10 minutes to go, pax replaced their rocks gently, back where they found them by throwing them as far as they could without approaching the Rock Pile. Mosey across the parking lot to the cemetery and the circle up at the flag pole for the Pledge of Allegiance. For whatever reason, Calvary church has left the cemetery gates open alot. Time for someone to take advantage of that extra strip of asphalt. It’s not like the current residents are getting a lot of use out of it. Head back to launch and round up the Olympus pax to join us for COT.
Da Moleskine
Solid group for a cool Saturday morning. Wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of numbers with the 4th of July weekend upon us but the pax in town did not disappoint.
- Welcome FNG, Warped Tour. EH’d by Mildew. He is to young to know what the Warped Tour is but he wore a Vans t-shirt to the workout and the other option was Lilith after the Lilith Fair. He can thank me later. Warped Tour was a solid FNG and kept pace with us throughout the entire workout
- Welcome, Emoji from F3 Richmond. He recently moved to town and was super excited to be transfer his membership from F3 Richmond to Area 51/SOB. Look out for him at workouts in the coming weeks. He was really anxious to meet other pax and get know the AOs.
- Sound off with other fond memories of the workout.
The pax were treated to a history lesson between each set of rounds. Here’s the breakdown for you on the wins, ties and losses of General Wahsington.
6 victories
Siege of Yorktown
Battle of Princeton
Battle of Trenton
Battle of Second Trenton
Battle of Harlem Heights
Siege of Boston
4 draws
Battle of Monmouth
Battle of the Clouds
Battle of Whitemarsh
Forage War
7 losses
Battle of Long Island
Battle of Kip’s Bay
Battle of White Plains
Battle of Fort Washington
Evacuation of Fort Lee
Battle of Brandywine
Battle of Germantown
Da Announcements
Crane Relay, plenty of spots still open to run
GrowRuck 24
Thanks to High Tide for the takeout
Bridge out of order
So it appears that chickens are afraid of water. And as an act of solidarity an entire neighborhood decided to keep the bridge up and fartsack together today to honor their sacred chicken. There were however 8 pax (50% of which reside in a certain neighborhood that ain’t scared) that were man enough to brave the rain this morning.
DICC’s given, and still had a few seconds left to make fun of Briarcrest, and off we go. Mosey around the block to give myself time to plan a Wienke.
Warm up
20 x SSH
15 Imperial Walkers
15 merkins
15 mountain climbers
Various stretches.
The Thang
I announced in my DICC’s that we would not cross the street because of weather. That went out the window pretty quick. Cross the street and mosey to the end of N. Providence St. at 1st street light do 20 big boi’s. At second street light do 15 merkins. Rinse and repeat until you make it to the stop sign near Dream Chases.
On the way back down N. Providence street do 20 Plank jacks at light 1 and 15 Bobby Hurleys at light 2. Rinse and repeat down the road until we make it to the speed bump.
Mosey over BB&T parking lot and partner up. P1 run lap around building while P2 does exercise, then switch. Each partner will do 2 sets of each exercise per round.
Round 1. Dips on the wall
Round 2. Mike Tysons
Round 3. Elbow plank
Mosey over to KJH. 1 burpee at the bottom and 10 merkins half way up the hill. 2 burpees at the bottom and 10 merkins halfway up the hill. 3 burpees at the bottom and 10 merkins halfway up the hill. Head to COT.
30 seconds of have a nice day to soak in the rain.
The Moleskin
Great group of guys this morning. Thanks for braving the weather and supporting a fellow pax who was on Q.
Announcements:
Looking for a Co-site Q at The Floater. Wedding Singing is currently filling out his application
Thanks Bottlecap for taking us out.
There is a *ick over there with my name on it
Week after week the training is getting tougher, the weight gets heavier and this week was no different. As I prepared for today, I wanted to build on last weeks Geraldo Q, which was about team building and staying together. Also, he built on Hoovers, Shut Up and Carry Shit (SACS) the week before. Either way the 80lb sandbag made it out last week which sucked. THere was talk of the 120# bags, so today is the day I finally got to use mine.
So 5 veterans of the gloom all rolled in (some later then others..Focker) and were greeted with SACS. First, everyone was given an extra 10lb before we even got moving. This was to give the Pax time to adjust to the weight of the water that we are required to carry for the GrowRuck event. Once we got adjusted, we grabbed Geraldo’s and YHC 60#sandbags x2, another 30 sandbag, Hoover’s 40# sandbag (previously 80#) and at that point Wild Turkey surprised us with his newly acquired “sandbag” the all famous Whale Dick. Yep…thank you Fire Hazard, this thing lives on. If you haven’t seen it your lucky. I am not sure which mad scientist made it, but it is long, black, curved, soft and has a good weight (50 0r 60??) to it…there it is. Thanks for that.
We gathered up our Rucks and extra items and got moving. We did not get to far and I had mentioned that I was waiting for my FNG. Well, I had the Pax walk right by “him” . In my house if I can’t think of someone’s name he is automatically, Steve. So welcome FNG-Steve. Steve is a 120lb sandbag and he had a ruck with another 20lb in it. Thankfully Steve fell under the 150 lb and was only required to carry the minimum. That said, the Pax were overjoyed to meet FNG-Steve and we partner carried Steve and his ruck all morning. The total combined/ shared weight was 360lb plus what each man carried on their back (30-50 lb including the extra 10lb)
The Warm Up- Nope…The Thang
The goal was really to walk while carrying crazy heavy things today. Mission accomplished! I had the course set up like the old Death Valley- Gopher, which involves the track and the baseball diamond. We stayed together as a group and traded coupons frequently.
Track- 15 ruck swings / 15 Shoulder to shoulder press / 15 curls
Pavilion- 5 ruck burpees/ 30 reps of some Ab exercise / 1 min of holding the ruck above your head
Baseball field- 20 dips (w/ruck) / 20 step ups and 20 squats (with ruck and sandbag)
That’s is it. We managed to do this circuit 2x’s for a staggering 1.4 miles
Announcements: None asked for / none given
Take out: Thank you Geraldo …even if we were delayed (my bad)
Ye’ Old Mole Skin
- Well if the title didn’t grab you this morning (assuming most of your are sleeping and you will read this on the crapper in the AM) then maybe you just needed something to read, so thanks.
- Regarding the title. At some point we all would just pick up random equipment (more than enough to go around). At one point Wild Turkey said, “There is a dick over there with my name on it”. At this point nobody wanted to carry anything else of for much longer, so a comment like that will totally lift the mood and we all had a good laugh, as he slung that big thing on his back.
- Seriously, I am not sure if that whale dong makes me happy or sad…..I am sure we will see it again
- Everyone pushed real hard today. It took a team to move all that weight for 1 full hour today. It wasn’t pleasant or fun and neither Geraldo or Focker are signed up for GrowRuck. Thanks for humoring me!!
- I will say it week after week until we break him, but Geraldo likes heavy crap and won’t complain. He was the first to take the 120 + ruck back to the pavilion himself (including the stairs). Strong brother
- Not to be out done, Focker also grabed the 120 and his ruck and carried it from the pavilion to the cars. This guy is barley F3, but he is all SACS! I think this is the only workout he does. Love it! Feel free to look at the website…just not other workouts on Wednesdays.
- Wild Turkey is like a crackhead on speed when you give him added weight. He just wants to be done so he moves extra fast and won’t stop. He also has a will that won’t be broken.
- Hoover is Hoover. I am not sure anything phases this guy either. He was even ready to go with his own extra water, therefore did not need the extra weight. Another who likes to carry heavy and awkward crap.
- I was very pleased with the workout today. I will say it again, if you Q a workout you want to do, then it is fun and no pressure. Thank you for the Pax for putting up with this one.
- I am really looking forward to the event. If you read this backblast or the last few…we have fun (like other AO’s) I know rucking is not for everyone, but no one suffers alone. Great group today!
- At one point I had to go back and recover my phone and Hoover pointed out that 4 or the 5 guys present do not like me…well, make that 5 for 5, cuz I did not like myself much this AM.
- Disregard spelling and grammar (you know who you are). It’s after midnight an I just wanted to get this out before tomorrow morning.
- Wild Turkey has the Q next week. I may be out of town, but please join us and get some!
More squats
5 pax showed up at Meathead to get their swole on. The Worm wasn’t there, but he said he wouldn’t post. Something about mulch. Mighty Mite told him to post anyway, but then elected not to post himself. I guess that’s pay back for my Monday fartsack. Touché, my friend.
5:30 – time to get down to it
Warm up:
- SSH x 20 IC
- Swings x 10
- Halos – 5 each direction
- Prying squats – 2 with long holds
- Swings x 10
- Windmill x 10 IC
- Swings x 10
Main Course:
- Racked squats – 5 sets of 4+4 racked squats with overhead holds between sets. Don’t put the bell down. Go heavy since reps are low and it’s singles.
- Voodoo complex (swing, high pull, snatch, clean, squat, press, L+R) x 10:00 EMOM
Easy Strength:
- 4 sets of 5 double deadlifts
- 4 sets of 10 floor press with single or double (I think just Soul Glo) bells
- 4 sets of 5 upright rows
- 4 sets of 5 double cleans
Mary:
- W-Y x 10 OYO (sort of like a Superman, but moving your elbows down by your side for each rep)
- Dead bugs x 15 OYO
- Elbow plank x 1:00+
Time. Thanks to Frehley’s Comet for taking us out.
Announcements:
- Grow Ruck Muthaship – 1st weekend of August
- Crane Relay – 8/13 – see Bunker’s Slack post for sign-up details
Moleskine:
- Good mumblechatter this morning as the pax talked about people that weren’t there, most notably The Worm and Mighty Mite. Unplugged and High Tide were spared since they were both on road trips.
- Rage Against The Machine came up on the playlist (Audioslave Radio by Spotify), which of course triggered a discussion about socialists charging exorbitant amounts for online guitar lessons. Seems like it should be free, eh Comrade? This led into a broader discussion of contemporary politics and the age of our elected leaders.
2.5 stars – lacks variety
5 of us posted at Olympus on 4th of July eve. Rather than running around, chasing the human flagpole that is Hoover, we decided to stay in one place and lift some weight.
Since the Q rolled in hot from his pre-run #cobains, High Tide did the honors and led the warm-up, which culminated with 25 swings, which just so happened to be the first item on the weinke.
On to the Main Thang:
- 2 sets of 5+5 single leg deadlift with moderate weight
- 5 sets of 5+5 single cleans and 5 goblet squats – go heavy since it’s singles. For recovery between sets, do 10 merkins, 20 lunge walks, 10 merkins, 20 lunge walks back.
- Waiter carries – 2x out and back for :45
- 3 sets of 5 reps of single arm swing/clean/snatch/push-press/reverse lunge (L+R is 1 set)
- 1:00 elbow plank
- 1:00 hollow body hold
- 2 more sets of the 5 rep complex above (L+R is 1 set)
- 1:00 glute bridge
Time. Circle up with the RockZero crew for some COT.
Announcements:
- Metro Grow Ruck is scheduled for the first weekend of August. 120+ pax signed up so far. If interested, reach out to Cheese Curd, Hoover, or Wild Turkey.
- Crane Relay 2021 will be held on 8/13 in Ballantyne. Get signed up soon – see Bunker’s post on Slack for link. You don’t have to be a runner to do this relay, you just have to be crazy enough to do a few runs in the middle of the night with some of your closest friends.
Moleskine:
- Thanks to the pax for starting their 4th of July weekend with me at Olympus. We listened to Spotify’s Garage Rock Revival, which had some hits and some misses.
- The two complexes we did today were pretty awful. 20 lunges is way too much between the squats. The Voodoo complex-like second complex didn’t seem too bad on paper, but added up quickly with all those reps. I think everyone was ready for both of those sets to be done well before they actually ended. Thanks to the pax for sticking with it.
TBD: Who draws the short straws?
Looking to put up marketing for Bushwood, YHC noticed that TBD was our Scheduled Q! great, who is this mystery HIM, can’t wait to find out?
Well, as we all know, that PAX doesnt exitst……Not yet at least to my Knowledge, but how great would it be for a new FNG to get totally railed by that name?
Anyhow, guess that means the lone site Q has to step up, awesome, they YHC!
After messing with the PAX asking who’s on Q, I just started a mosey and when with some gut instincts for my home site.
Warmup:
SSH/IW Potato pickers/calf stretch/runners stretch, maybe a few others…
I may miss some stuff with a lack of weinke.
THANG:
Mosey to the half wall, 20x Dips/step ups/Derkin(irkins) 2x
Head to Turkey trot: each right mailbox, alternate 18 Merkins/18 squats on the way there, 18 LBC/forgot the other, but 18 of them too!
head back to the trail behind the school en rte to the small track while doing 1 burpee at each mailbox. We seemed to have lost a couple Pax along the way as Babyface agravated a calf, and On-Star, I mean One-Star was on point to make sure he was okay and walk him to COT just in case. The rest of the crew partnered up and did Pull ups and derkins while the partner ran the short track. On-Star showed back up with Babyface slowly Limping/walking behind.
We then headed to the staple rock pile for the regular weekly visit for two exersizes then a large lap.
- curls 27
- press 18
- tris 18
- chest 27
- rows 18
- maybe a few others, then repeato.
Put rocks back and head back to COT.
MOleskin:
Well, what do you know, Chastain woke his but up an hour early to make the cross town trek to Bushwood. Lots of chatter about housing him up for a few days as he is AUDITING visiting for Site Q’s Review(yeah, perfect timing) near Marvin.
Props to Babyface for continuing and modifying to just stay with the pax during rock work, and to One(ON) Star for not leaving anyone behind.
We were able to get our regular tunes in at Bushwood as it has become a fairly normal occurrence. also hit some decent mileage to my surprise.
Announcements:
- Check yourself for Chastain and his “Site Q Review”
- Looking for possible new Site Q’s around the Waxhaw region
- (late BB, but Chastain, i didn’t see you at Dromedary today!) just sayin.
- crane relay
- Need Q’s for Bushwood and Last CAll
- F3 Dads (could Lil Sweet show up for that?)
- Chastain will be at Rea View
- Will any site Q’s show up at Last call? you have to show up to find out…
Workout w/Singing Frogs in the Background
It was a beautiful July morning and 9 PAX showed up to get in a workout before Hurricane Elsa arrives. The chirping and moaning frogs seemed to be extra loud today but gladly, no one complained. DiCCS given and away we go…..
The Warm-Up:
Mosey up to the Five Stones entrance and return to the parking lot. Circle up for some warm-up exercises all in 1-2-3 cadence: Sidestraddle Hop x 20, Moroccan Night Club x, 20, Speed Skaters, x20, Imperial Walkers x 2o Calfstretchers and Pantsrippers.
The Thang:
While one partner functions as the timer (run backward up Mt. Chiseled and back), the other partner begins the exercises. Each exercise is done “as many as you can” style one at a time until the timing partner returns triumphantly over Mt. Chiseled. The exercises included all of the following. Merkens, LBCs, Curls (21s w/ coupon), American Hammers, Low Slow Squats (w/ coupon), Diamond Merkens, Shoulder Press (w/ coupon), Bobby Hurleys and ending with Kettle Bell swings. Everyone done real good with Rockwell and Recalculating leading the pack.
At precisely 6:05 am, we are back doing a rifle carry of coupons back to the original starting point. Next, each PAX gets to choose their exercise of choice for the group. After some more grueling lifting of coupon blocks and jumping on them thanks to Fuse. Poor Loafer did not get to play this fun game as time expired just before his turn. 
Moleskin
My 2nd Q is now complete! Thanks to everyone for the inspiration and support. I will say that it was much easier the 2nd time. Thanks to our site leaders Loafer & Exlax for inspiring me to get out and lead a workout.
The Bottom Line – Bridgehampton Parking Lot Tour
WARM-UP * Mosey up Southmoor Lane and back to Bridgehampton Clubhouse.
* 20 Rocking night clubs * 20 Side Straddle Hops *20 Imperial Walkers
*Plank Position – Calf Stretches, Jack Knifes, Downward dog, Upward Dog.
THE THANG
* In Bridgehampton parking lot sevens: 1 LBC / 6 Mike Tysons, 2/5, 3/4, 4/3, 5/2, 6/1.
* Staying in the parking lot Round 1: 4 corners: Start with 3 Burpees in the center
(25) Bobby Hurleys / 3 Burpees center
(25) Jump Squats / 3 Burpees center
(25) Freddie Mercuries / 3 Burpees center
(25) Big Boys / 3 Burpees center
* Then, continuing in parking lot for Jack Webb’s. 1 Merkin/4 Air Press..2/8, 3/12..up to 10/40.
* Round 2 – 4 Corners: Start with 5 Squats in the center
(20) Mountain Climbers / 5 Squats center
(20) Heels to Heaven / 5 Squats center
(20) Speed Skaters (2 is 1) / 5 Squats center
(20) LBCs / 5 Squats center
* Remaining few minutes 10 American Hammers & 10 V-Ups
* COT
Announcements:
Q-School: Sat. July 17 @ Rea Rd 6:30am workout combined training
August 13 – Crane Relay
Sometime in August in Charlotte – Grow Ruck event.
MOLESKIN
7 Pax strong for a parking lot tour of Bridgehampton Clubhouse. Thank you S.O.B. F3 Brothers for welcoming a Waxhaw Pax to lead your workout being my first Q outside of Waxhaw region. Great work gentleman, as awesome meeting you and look forward to working out again together soon.
Kickin It Old School
With July 4th falling on a Sunday and most people off on Monday the 5th it was a no-brainer to extend the Independence Day celebration another day. And what better way to celebrate than a 2.0 friendly workout where all Pax can release their inner 2.0 as well. An emerging hot spot for outdoor activities, Ballantyne’s Backyard, was the decided upon terrain where we could roam far and wide. 8:00 hit and the crew of 21 was pulled in for a disclaimer and off we went.
The Thang:
Circle up on a putting green for a warmup of SSH, Mtn Climbers, Peter Parkers and Arm Circles. Mosey to the tee box on the next hole. Here YHC, Mary Kay and Midriff had set up a relay course for a partner relay. Farthest tee box P1 bear crawls to the end of the tee box then flapjack. Once both partners have bear crawled the tee box sprint to the next tee box. Here several dozen eggs and spoons were strategically placed for an egg spoon carry. P1 carries an egg on a spoon down to the end of the tee box then flapjack. If your egg falls you have to start over. Once both partners have finished on to the 3rd tee box for crab walks. Once you and your partner have finished the crab walks both sprint down to cones in the fairway. Turn at the cones and then work your way back through the relay course to the start. This relay ended up being more of a grinder than I anticipated but Sabertooth and the robot crew of T1000, Johnny 5 and C3PO smoked the course. Kudos to the couple of dads that had to bear crawl and crab walk while carrying 2.0’s.
After a 10 count we moseyed back to the putting green where we warmed up. Here we broke out into 2 groups for a relay race: Pax that were 15 years of age and under in one team and Pax that were over 15 years of age in another team. In order to even out the number of Pax in each group Midriff and Taco Stand smartly volunteered to join the under 15 age group. The first person on the U15 team had to run up a shorter hill and do the number of merkins that matched their age. They then ran to the back of the line and the next Pax went until everyone had gone. The Over15 team had to run up a much taller hill and do 20 merkins. The other stipulation was that the Over 15 team had to plank until the last person had gone. Not surprisingly the U15 team crushed the relay and to add salt to the wound planked themselves until the O15 team was done.
Finally time for the main event, the inaugural F3 kickball game. We had about 35 minutes to get 5 innings in. Teams were divvied up and it was time to start kicking. Many highlights came from this one both from the older and younger Pax. Despite some questionable calls from head umpire, Mary Kay, it was a very cleanly played game. Ultimately Team 1 came out on top 7 – 5. The post game party consisted of bottles of water and popsicles.
Moleskinny:
This one was a lot of fun. None of the 2.0’s seemed to be bored and they all stayed engaged the whole time. And they really put in the work and did the activities in the relays.
There was a drone flying overhead much of our kickball game. Either it was filming us for a Northwoods Properties promotion or a police drone following Kirby’s every move.
We welcomed FNG “Crash Test”. Crash Test owns a company that sells safety gear and after tweaking a knee during kickball he noted that he could test his products on himself…thus “Crash Test”.
Announcements:
- 2nd F shovel flag making party 7/17 at Taco Stand’s cul-de-sac. Each AO should have a shovel flag and we have 13 sites in SOB land that do not have a shovel flag. Shovel flag supplies and libations provided so it will be a great time to pitch in and make the flags while hanging out with fellow Pax.
- Crane Relay 8/13. If you can do a bootcamp you can run the relay. Another chance to get to hang out with more Pax except there will be a tad more running than at the shovel flag making party.