Welcome to THE Swarm
When did it become Swarm and not THE Swarm? I feel like that’s a critical distinction that it’s not just any old Swarm and rather it’s the one everyone should be talking about. Afterwards, of course, because with the humidity at 1000% it felt like we were breathing through a straw so it wasn’t a day for mumblechatter. Unless, of course, you count the book club going on during the warmup portion of the exercise with a couple of chatterboxes (not THE Chatterbox, who posted at Impromptu) going on about who knows what.
So let’s get down to it. We did a warmup lap around the IPC 400 loop with some Side Straddle Hops, Imperial Walkers, stretches, and plankjacks. That’s when the aforementioned book club was going on. As the QIC for the premier hour long Friday morning Waxhaw bootcamp I took offense
Back to COT and down the Path to the Palace. Paula Abdul style. 10 Merkins and 10 Squats at the light poles on the way down.
Silence is golden.
People’s chair and 50 air presses on the shed then mosey up past the traffic circle and over to the triangular area near Geeb’s Jungle. Find yourself a partner on the way.
Collectively, you and your partner are now responsible for 150 Mike Tysons, 150 Flutters (2=1 duh), and 150 Step-Ups (as in, 150 times off the ground. I don’t know how you count 2=1 for those) and to ensure we get some good mileage in you get to alternate running around the circle and back.
Now, ditch your old partner and find a shiny new one
This next part was a terrible idea from the beginning but mama didn’t raise no quitter¹ so we did it anyways.
Partner 1 BEAR CRAWLS around the Jungle while Partner 2 runs the opposite direction around. When you meet up, swap places and continue until you complete the full bear crawl lap.
So I had planned to do a full bear crawl lap
Instead, repeato until both partners have bear crawled and run twice. That was good enough for about half a lap around the jungle.
So now we’re at the high school parking lot and there’s still 20 freaking minutes left. Time for a little Aggressive Corners. Now I know it’s Progressive Corners, but I feel that Aggressive is much more fitting of a name.
- Corner 1 – 5 burpees
- Corner 2 – 10 Bomb Jacks
- Corner 3 – 15 Six Inch Plank Jacks
- Corner 4 – 20 Big Bois
So you basically add a new corner each time you run back. Only doing the exercises on the clockwise direction. Have you ever tried to breathe through one of those little plastic coffee stirrers? I don’t know why you would but that’s what I imagine it would feel like.
Getting low on time so we mosey to the alcove on the high school and do a Chastain Classic™
10 Donkey Kicks on the wall followed by a 10 second hold. Repeato with 9 DKs and a 9 second hold all the way to 5. Running low on time so recover.
Indian Run back to COT. It’s always a crapshoot with Indian Runs. Sometimes you get guys who refuse to sprint to the front. Other times you get get guys *cough* Ice9 *cough* who sprint the whole time. Fortunately, everyone was on their best behavior and we did probably the best Indian Run that’s ever been ran.
Upon arriving at COT, Transporter led Impromptu/Swarm in American Hammers. I think we hit close to 400 or something
Ricky Boobie took us out
¹ – This was determined to be a lie
Announcements
- F3 Dads – Tomorrow from 9:00 to 9:45am at Briarcrest Clubhouse. Bring your 2.0s boys AND girls. Bring a swimsuit to swim in the pool from 10:00 to 11:00am
- Beer Run – Tomorrow at noon, in and around Plaza Midwood
- Blood Drive – June 19th at 5 Stones from 9:00 to 1:30 – Go sign up
- Crane Relay 2021 – August 13th – Team relay style. See GroupMe calendar for details
And The Clouds Parted
If you woke up at at 4:10 like I did, this is what is looked like outside:
So I was waiting for the text:
But I had a response text already waiting:
Because it wasn’t going to be this kind of day:
I’d much rather have it be this type of day:
If Zinfandel had it his way every day:
But I digress…..
The clouds parted, the skies cleared the rain was not an issue:
Would anyone show for the 5am pre-run?
Nails was there early and Bratwurst came in hot so the three of us headed through the woods into Champion Forest for a little jaunt before the main event:
DiCCS were given (Disclaimer, Cell phone, CPR, Safety)
Warm-up:
- SSH x 25 IC
- IW x 20 IC
- Moroccan Night Club x 20 IC
- Jimmy Dugan (center, right, middle)
- Plank for one minute
- discuss 5 core principles of F3
- Free of Charge (hell yea)
- Open to ALL Men (damn straight)
- Held Outdoors (Even in the rain….)
- Peer Led (share the love)
- End with COT (we got you)
- discuss 5 core principles of F3
- Calf Stretch
- Glidah stretch
- Little Baby Mountain Climbers
The Thang:
- Grab your cinderblock or kettlebell and rifle carry to the end of the lot close to COT
- 10 cinderblock/kettle bell swings, rifle carry to next island, 10 cinderblock/kettlebell swings
- Rinse and repeat to far end of lot (6 stops)
Mt. Chiseled
- Rifle carry to side of Mount Chiseled
- 10 blockees, rifle carry to top for 10 curls, rifle carry to other side for 10 chest press on back, rifle carry back up for 10 goblet squats, rifle carry back down
- Repeat with 9, 8, 7, of everything
- Did 6 blockees and then time for something different
IPC flashbacks
- 10 dips on blocks
- Murder Bunnies from end of lot to first island for 10 dips
- Murder Bunnies to next island, 10 dips
- Backward rifle carry to next island, 10 curls
- Backward rifle carry to next island, 10 curls
Backwards Captain Therkin Brick Web
- Trade blocks for two bricks
- 10 big boys with shoulder press w/ bricks, 10 American Hammers IC w/ bricks, 5 brick Merkins (all the way down)
- Repeat with 9, then 8, all the way down to 1 on the big boys with shoulder press and American Hammers but keep the brick Merkins at 5 every time.
- Plank for 1 minute on bricks
- Have a nice day for 30 seconds holding bricks up
Done!
MOLESKIN:
Solid crew of hard working cinderblock and kettlebell swinging PAX this morning
Some good mumblechatter as always, I think I remember dome discussion about a coach from Durham who is retiring after a year long farewell tour:
There were some discussion of the other team in Chapel Hill and how their coach decided to retire:
Thank you for the opportunity to lead today
Have a great weekend.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- F3 Dads tomorrow morning at Briarcrest Clubhouse at 9am (1701 Laurel Hill Drive, Waxhaw, NC). This a pure 2.0 and dad’s event so bring out your 2.0s (boys and girls) ages 3-4 and up. We will be doing out “workout” from 9:00 – 9:45am followed by DONUTS, then swimming at the Briarcrest Pool from 10am to 11am, see you there!
- Blood Drive coming up June 19th at Five Stones. Sign up via Red Cross website or message Turnbuckle
Milk Was A Bad Choice…
And for my 72nd Q, I’m realizing I freaking hate the humidity. The Site Qs, correction, Site Q should take temp readings in Downtown Waxhaw and encourage all Qs to only host exercises in the coolest areas. Get on it EB!
All that said, back is still tight but the pain is coming from my left hip. Who knew. I even have some resistance band assisted stretches I can do on the thrown before workouts. Honestly I was devastated to miss The Murph but it was better to bail to reduce my chances of further hurting myself. This back issue blows but a good reminder to take care of yourselves boys.
At 512am I was pulling into Dancing Bears driveway because his back was finally in a place to try running. I think the last time he posted was the 13mi Waxhaganza…my bad on that invite bud. He also had his 2.0 Gummy Bear with him! Let’s rage…
DiCCS given while I was being harassed about my injuries. It’s all and good fun? We gone…
THE THANG
Mosey towards the church and then cross over to 701 Main Restaurant parking lot. Circle up for warm up:
1. 20 x SSH IC
2. 20 x Moroccan Night Clubs IC
3. 15 x Imperial Walker
4. 15 x LS Squats IC
5. Jimmy Dugan
6. Calf Stretch
7. Can Opener & Runners Pose
8. 10 x IC Plank Jacks
Mosey, make 1sr right down S. Jackson St. and over to the top of Givens St. for some suicides. Jail break down to the speed bump and mosey back. Jail breakdown all the way down to the bottom of the hill and mosey back to the Speedbump. Jail break backdown and circle back for the six as we make our way to the parking lot…
Mosey over to shopping center parking lot for some Ab-o-rama. Circle up. 1 x Big Boy and 4 x LBCs. Up to 10 x 40. 2 x Mike Tysons between each round. Ice9 was baffled by the MTs between rounds, just something to take the edge off the abs dude.
Mosey across the street and over to Dreamchasers. Partner up with true opposite speeds and knock out the following until your partner returns from a hot lap. Rinse and repeat for 2 rounds. Cut short due to time.
• Burpees
• Plank Jacks
• Lunges
Mosey to COT parking lot for a spin on semi-suicides. Bear crawl from one side to the other, 2 x Merkins IC, then up by 2 each crawl up to 10 x Merkins IC. Sweaty as can be by this point and lots of complaining.
3.5 minutes left but I was tired. Called Have A Nice Day but after 60 seconds of Ice9 disobeying I called for 20 x IC American Knockouts. Still stupid time. Called for 10 x V-Ups and I’m spent. And that’s time…
MOLESKIN
What was learned today and what would I have changed? The workout was fine and I was close to breaking the “if you can’t do it, you can’t Q it”. Haven’t done a good Ab Webb in a minute and it showed as I struggled to complete all the LBCs in the late rounds. Thanks to those that helped count, it’s appreciated.
It’s always a pleasure to lead fellas! Enjoy the day… I’m still trying to make up for the lack of oxygen this morning.
Hello Mr. Turtle!
YHC was the first to arrive at the jet black launch lot at the far end of the Stonecrest shopping complex…prompting a quick text to Theodore to make sure Circuit City and management hadn’t moved the mustering point. Can’t remember the last time I was first to a workout even when Q’ing. BTW, pro tip: workout Q should be first to arrive and last to leave. #doasIsaynotasIdo Was also uncertain as to launch point as no shovel flag was to be found. Time to reestablish that lost tradition. Pretty sure only 1 AO in A51 still has a shovel flag. Any SOB AO’s still practice that tradition? ….alas.
10 others pulled in to the unlit lot. We launched about 75 seconds after 0530 as Circuit City informed the pax some dude was rummaging through cars yesterday at The Maul, so YHC actually locked the car and hid the keys. Hadn’t done that in months. Pretty sure the dude stole something out of Loogie’s NCState-mobile…hopefully not his concealed firearm.
Below is some Thang and a decent helping of Moleskinnage:
We jogged over to between the Wells and BofA ATM’s for COP. Teddy was with us for a bit, but exited before COP started as he had an urgent Code Brown. He returned quickly….meaning he couldn’t find a place to do his paperwork…then left again for what appeared to be a trip behind the bushes up the hill behind Firebirds. “Hello Mr. Turtle!”
COP included the standard fare, but no SSH’s, of course.
Kotters to Prohibition who posted for the first time in 2 months. Hadn’t seen a lot of the pax….but that’s due more to not posting in SOBland in a while. Long Haul was there…and his name came to mind just yesterday as I was listening to Ian Munsick’s “Long Haul”. If you like country music (it’s ok to admit you like it), check out the song. And speaking of the south, YHC did call Yankee aggressor and Southern gentlemen during some plankorama. Might have offended some with that one, but did not call them Rebel gentlemen…so there’s that. You’re welcome.
Mr. Magoo did not ask YHC if he was fully vaccinated. Apparently, Kirby got 2 doses of the burpee vaccine. We did some of those during the ‘cash dash’. Before calling the dash, YHC asked if anyone in the pax worked/had worked for Wells. YHC was the only one! And only one pax rose his hand when asked the same question about BofA. Think that was Happy Meal though not sure…maybe Frankie? Thought everyone of us were bankers or recovering bankers. So after called exercises with AYG runs between the ATMs, we headed over to the Murderhorn. Having finished his paperwork, Teddy rejoined the pax at this point. Frehley even offered Teddy his workout hankie to clean up any remaining debris. What a guy that WD is!
Crockett, who YHC had not seen in years since he was posting and working at SCMS (he’s now at MPHS), was out front with Long Haul on the Murderhorn modified triple nickel. BTW, he had brain surgery 2 years ago! True story. Great to have you out with the pax, brother.
At some point during the rock work at bottom of hill (thrusters) & burpees at top, Circuit City tapped Long Haul to Q. Not next week though, Hoover is off the DL and will Q the festivities.
Stopped on the way back for some Mary and some dry docks, with a small tutorial. Couldn’t help it.
Not sure what else we did, but we made it back to the launch lot on time.
After COT, Frankie was checking out YHC’s ride. He asked if I was selling it, but no – it’s a loaner from the Hyundai dealer while my 2.0’s car is in the shop.
YHC was hurting, largely due to not posting since last Friday at Centurion. But the pax got their money’s worth as far as I could tell.
Announcements included the Beer Run this Saturday. See slack and/or Tuck for more details. Tuck is the Beer Run Czar. YHC can’t make it this weekend, but love the event! You should go.
Also some kind of Ruck event or GoRuck or whatever on August 6. See one of the Rucktards for more info – but something about buying a $300 backpack and paying another $200 to have Dredd yell at you for 12 hours…or is it 24 hours? Ready to sign up now?!
Thanks to Circuit City for tapping YHC to Q. Good to be back among the gracious pax of SOB.
D-Day WOD
YHC arrived not knowing who might show up for this week’s edition of SACS. Dora was a soft commit last night, Prohibition DM’d me say he might show up. Cheese Curd indicated that he would be there so I had that going for me. When I pulled in Wild Turkey was the lone car waiting. He was probably questioning why he was there, like Cameron Frye sitting in his car talking to himself before picking up Ferris Bueller. Cheese Curd finally pulled in, and then Hoover arrived. Hoover took his sweet time getting his ruck out of the car and on his back. We were off when the big man rucked up. The D- Day WOD: 1 Mile Ruck to Davie Park
- 77 Ruck Squats
- 77 Ruck Push-Ups
- 77 Ruck Deadlifts
- 77 Shoulder Press
1 Mile Ruck back to SCMS
Mary
- Flutter Kicks ruck overhead x 20
- LBCs x 20
- Rosalita ruck overhead x 20
- Hello Dollies x 20
- Heels to Heaven x 20
Done
Moleskinny:
- Cheese Curd asked me last week if I could take the Q this week. YHC didn’t have a plan until late yesterday afternoon when I spotted the GORUCK Sandbag Ruck Training (SRT) program monthly WOD courtesy of Cadre DS. The WOD didn’t require a sandbag, so it was only an RT WOD.
- June 6th will mark 77 years since D-Day thus the 77 reps for each exercise. Makes me want to watch “Saving Private Ryan” or “Band of Brothers” soon.
- Thanks to Hoover for the speaker and appropriate AC/DC playlist this morning. YHC intended to bring a speaker but forgot on the wait out the door this morning #QFail.
- Cheese Curd was fresh from his family’s trip to Dollywood. He says they had a good time and that it’s quite the place for people watching.
- I originally thought about doing an out and back for the mile buy in/buy out but Wild Turkey really doesn’t like staying on the SCMS campus. Plus the soccer pitch at Davie park is quite plush.
- Wild Turkey readily admitted he didn’t finish all of his merkins, like admitting you didn’t eat all your veggies. I think he opted for the “knee-assisted” push-up as well.
- Hoover is looking strong coming back from a minor set-back with a stress fracture in his foot.
- There may not have been an Ohio band on the playlist but we did discuss the Black Keys’ new album, so that counts for something Wild Turkey right?
- Cheese Curd lost count some where, and his ruck presses didn’t seem to get higher that his visor lid. JK, CC was putting in the work with a 40# ruck.
- There was some discussion about hoses, whose hose was heavier, something to that effect.
- Thanks to Wild Turkey for the take out.
- Thanks to Cheese Curd for the opportunity to lead and please sound off with any mumble chatter.
Announcements:
- GrowRuck 24 the weekend of August 6th https://www.f3metro.com/growruck-24-metro/
- Cheese Curd has the Q next week
A Jaunt Thru the Wood
Down and dirty backblast.
- DICCS
- Warmup
- 7’s at the Millbridge pool hill
- Carolina Thread Trail run
- COT
White Men Can’t Jump, But Wingman Can
7 ballers brought their balls to the Maul to give it their all.
Basketball Jones
Warmup: Circle up in front of Elm bridge, 15 SSH’s, 15 Imperial Walkers, 15 Mtn Climbers, 15 Hillbilly squats, 15 merkins. Mosey towards Murderhorne – PSYCH! Quick U-turn and head back to Regal parking lot, where there are four corners with cones placed.
First Quarter: BLIMPS ladder – 5 burpees, 10 lunges, 15 imperial walkers, 20 merkins, 25 plankjacks, 30 squats
Second Quarter: Killer B’s. Broad jump to island, 5 burpees, bear crawl to island, 5 burpees. Repeato, just half the parking lot.
Halftime: Partner up for Wilt Chamberlin 100’s. Partner 1 chips away at 100 jump squats, partner 2 runs up the hill.
Third Quarter: Gear AMRAP. Gear exercises: crossover pushups with basketball, curls, presses, tricep extensions with concrete blocks, bobby hurleys. Other partner runs to end of parking lot and back.
Fourth Quarter: Merkin ladder sprints. 5 then sprint, 10, 15, 20. Shuttle-run sprint, this time without the merkins.
Overtime: Partner up for another round of Wilt 100’s. Partner 1 chips away at 100 squats, partner 2 runs up the hill.
Game Notes
- Props to Tuck for the inspiration. He led a basketball-themed workout last year during Virtual workouts and I loved the concept
- Wingman needs to be renamed Jump Man after his broad jump prowess. He hopped twice the distance as everyone else in half the speed. Next time I’ll bring a hoop so he can dunk on us
- Olaf was absolutely amped at COT when he ripped his shirt and threw it to the ground. He’s got a new level of confidence and testosterone after getting back in the swing of regularly posting and Qing
- Picasso you should come to Da Vinci on Saturdays. Just sayin
- T-claps to Crockett for posting for the first time in nearly 2 years. Glad you made it out this morning and shared your incredible story. Good to have you back in the gloom and hoping you’ll accept my Slack invite
- Props to Teddy for posting after getting back from vacation. Either the vacation or side effects from the 2nd dose had him catching his breath for most of the second half.
- Loogie’s jeep nearly got stolen by some shady teenagers who were hanging out in the parking lot before and during the workout. Might be time to take up Teddy’s innovative key-hiding technique. Don’t worry Teddy, I won’t give away your secrets.
It is getting bright in the mornings!
This morning, I really did not want to get up. But I had no choice, since I was Q’ing. My preparation was nothing fancy, only “quick and dirty”… but maybe this also comes with some experience of Q’ing! Well, it just takes time to re-adjust after a nice, long weekend! DiCSS were given and off we went!
Warmup
All the classics, with a bit of a twist: warm-up mosey on the parking lot, then: 15x in cadence: Side Straddle Hops, Maroccon Night Clubs, Imperial Walker, here come s the twist: Potato Pickers, Mountain Climbers – then calf and runners stretch, 6 in plank, upward dog and downward dog.
The Thang
We moseyed a few yards to the corner of the street on the main entrance: First block was: run to the second lamp posts ahead, do 5 merkins, run back one lamp post and do 5 big boys. All the way around the world (the globe) to the back entrance. And to make it more interesting / confusing: every second time you run back one lamp post, run backwards! During the warmup mosey, there was all kind of chatting and mumbling – all of a sudden, this stopped here! Hahaha… mission accomplished!
After marrying until the 6 comes in, mosey to the Middle School entrance. There we did a time-consuming 7’s. run down to the bend of the parking lot, do Mike Tysons, rung up on the parking lot, cut through the walkway to the entrance and do Booby Bobby Hurley’s. We started with running down there and 1 Mike Tyson… The first moaning came already “all this running” – unfortunately, I forgot who the Pax were…
After we all picked up the six, an Indian Run to the rock pile at that small loop was a good thing to do. Most everybody at front kept the pace slow to make it not too hard on everybody else. That’s team work! 😉 Arrived at the rock pile – partner up and find a lifting rock. One partner is running (functioning as the timer), doing two burpees at the opposite site of the loop while the other partner is doing exercises. Curls, Triceps, chest presses (?). The crowd turned more silent with every rep and yard… And I learnt my hard lesson that it is never good, if your partner chooses the rock for you! Thanks Shop Dawg! 😉
Return the rocks and mosey back in direction of COT. On the Hill on the parking lot, we circled up to do some last minute exercises – a variation of planks, 6in planks and half planks… Then jailbreak to COT! Done!
Moleskin
As always, it was great to actually get out of bed and work out with some great Pax! It is motivating to see how we all get exhausted together to start our day – and feel better afterwards, every single time!
Announcements
- Last Call needs more Q’s for June! Sleep in and Q at 6:02am!
- Beer Run on 6/5 – the perfect preparation for the Blood Drive! Or did I miss there something?
- Blood Drive is on 6/19 – GIVE. YOUR. BLOOD!
Premature – I / we hope everything is going well!
Shop Dawg took us out – thank you!
Setting the Neighborhood Watch bar with Briarcrest
The May 16th edition of Neighborhood Watch brought us to the BC with big lots. Zinfandel promised a big turnout and once again he delivered. We fed off the overnight campout held at BC ran by Gerber. Lots of 2.0’s came out to join us as we went through the trails from one side of BC to the other. Fun was had by all.
Where does that Trail go to?
So this past Sunday’s Neighborhood Watch brought us to Prescott in Waxhaw. Radar and Posse started off with a Pre Ruck. They returned to the parking lot to meet up with myself and Shriver. We quickly walked some of the streets of Prescott and then headed into their trail where we came out on Waxhaw Marvin Road. Posse then said who knows where the trail across the street at Town Creek Park leads to? So I said…lets go and find out. So off we went. We took the dirt trail which we found out connects to Millbridge at the Creekview extrance. Posse was so excited to find this new trail for us to use. His excitement was then killed by the fact that in three consecutive weeks Neighborhood Watch has hit all three of his forbidden developments to walk in for Neighborhood Watch. As we walked past Wrigley’s neighborhood, I had thought about us gracing him with Monkey Humpers at his home but we were running late so we continued on.