Quotes from the Gloom (heard at various times throughout the workout):
Yes, the mumblechatter was riveting throughout, but on to…
The Thang
Moleskine (i.e., Spreadsheets from the Gloom)
Note to self: Apparently I should have come early and spread some grass seed and/or turf across the outfield, as there was probably more dirt than grass out there while we were doing walking lunges across the field. I think I still have some pebbles lodged in my knee skin (and I’m the one who recommended knee pads, too).
Flashback: I showed up for my first F3 workout exactly 52 days ago, on a chilly Friday morning. Even though the AO was Swarm and Dasher was on Q, I still came back the next week, and every week since. I am so glad I did. It has been a great ride so far and it was a pleasure being able to have my VQ there at The Lycan with some great Pax.
Reflections: One question that came up towards the end of the workout this morning was, “What’s with all of the 14’s?” Good question. Today is actually my 14th Wedding Anniversary. For the last 14 years, MDunkin has been a great companion, an amazing light and support to me. Over the last couple of months, she has seen the good that has come from me being a part of this F3 fellowship and she loves it. I dedicated this workout to her both with the number of reps (almost always 14), as well as with the “up and down” symbolism of the specific exercises. While we were planking in pain this morning, I shared with my fellow Pax that marriage (like most relationships) can definitely be filled with a lot of ups and downs. For me, it has been about tempering those highs and lows—not necessarily being a flashy guy, but being a dependable and faithful husband and father. That is what is important to me. Just wanted to share it with all of you. Thanks for being great examples to me and my family!
Announcements
DICCS -given to include all the regular stuff
Warm Up
Mosey around side lot to front of middle school
Continue to mosey down to the front of the high school.
The Thang
High School Side Alcoves:
20 dips on benches
15 donkey kicks in first alcove
15 mike tysons in second alcove
back to front of high school…
Repeat X 3
Partner Up at Back Parking Lot:
EACH: 50 curls, 50 shoulder presses, 50 squats, 50 LBCs
One runs to end of lot, other exercises
“Dog Bone” Web:
7 merkins one end, 1 jump squat on the other
until 1, 7
skip…
Final Path to COT with Stops at Light Poles:
1 burpee, increment 1 at each light up to 5, then decrease by 1 down to end
COT.
Moleskin
Enjoyed leading this group of men from veterans to rookies. Everyone pushed hard. Few call outs today:
Tonyatine – great work, good to meet you, way to represent with ‘tine’ pronounced ‘teen’ (Havertine)
Snowball – welcome! way to come out on your own and way to finish!
Elmers – great seeing you hang tough.
Chatterbox – hard keeping up with you on the partner work! awesome job.
6th man – Beetle. Thanks for sharing and I learned what Beetle Bailey is today. Keep coming out!
Announcements
Week two of Runs & Guns started a bit more optimistically than week one, with YHC actually arriving on time for the 0515 pre run to meet up with TurkeyLeg and Toolbag who once again started at 0500 #dedication. Add in site FNG Jello and we were off for a quick out and back to Day Zero (or in that direction if you didn’t want to run in the low 7s). Upon arrival back at the launch we were greeted by Goonie, Madison and Orangewhip. Joker arrived not quite on two wheels and then it was 0530. Healthy briefing was given which was mildly disclaimer like and we got started.
THE THANG:
Run:
Agility ladder w/ ~40 yard sprint then mosey around the island and back to the start for 10 minutes.
Mobility Cycle:
Malasana prep squat alternating with Forward Fold
Forward Fold Squat w/ fingers under toes
Runners Lunge alternating with Hamstring stretch
Figure four stretch
Inch Worm
Knee to elbow Bearcrawl
Alligator
Advanced Alligator
Strength Circuit:
Return of the 10 X Box Jump as the “timer”
Ball-Over Merkins
Single Leg Squat
Strict Curl-Squat-Press & Slam with 40# ball
Scorpion Merkins
Clean & Press w/ 60# bag
Bird-Dog Merkins
Depth Charges
fin.
Moleeoleoleoleskin:
-Welcome Jello, OrangeWhip, Madison & Joker to the mildly demented musings of an under exercised mind. Good effort from everyone today as we introduced a few new movements and stretched the credibility of the definition of “bootcamp.” RnG isn’t ever going to be a high intensity workout, the very nature of the mobility segment in the middle prevents that from occurring. That said, the strength circuit seems to be a crowd pleaser.
-YHC finds himself coaching form more often than I had thought I would, but doing things correctly prevents injury and maximizes results, so there you have it. Hopefully the PAX appreciate the feedback #pursuitofperfection
-Joker seemed to particularly appreciate the mobility work as he paused to comment “my hips feel great!” At nearly 50 years young, mobility is a great way to spice up your fitness routine, especially if you’re a former Nantan.
-OrangeWhip cheats… he just does. I’ve yet to find something he can’t do well. Between slaying the agility to sprint cycle and hitting the 30 inch jumps X 10 in what felt like 25 seconds, he was the PAX to beat all morning. T-claps
-Grasshopper was not in attendance today, having posted something on slack late last night about excess celebration. YHC also over indulged yesterday evening, however when you’re both the site Q and the QIC, the fartsack is not an option… it shouldn’t be for anyone else either so when you see ‘hopper give him some mumble-chatter.
-Goonie clearly played football at some point in his life as his ladder to sprint form was impeccable.
-Jello was embarrassing all of us with his flexibility #balletdad
-YHC is grateful to the PAX for trusting me with their future speed, and I’m enjoying putting together this new format. That said, looking forward to having a few other Qs step up, if you want to lead RnG let me know!
SYITG
-Flipper
10 men kicked off the inaugural Functional Strength Challenge (FSC) with grit and determination this morning. No one knew exactly what to expect or what they could achieve. Most, if not all, left the AO with a PR or two, and no, not just because it was our first event. They were just that good.
The Thang
Disclaimer – quite thorough. (This is a CSAUP, after all)
Overview
COP – aka Warmup
Main event(s)
COT
Moleskine
“A good time was had by all.” OK. No one really said that, at least out loud. But more than one expressed an interest, not only in doing this again, but more than annually. YHC considers that a success and was already thinking of doing this semi-annually. Keep your ears open during COT for an announcement this Fall.
Full results are online, but suffice it to say, everyone put up impressive numbers. All exceeded what we see in typical workouts and even more than we saw a few weeks ago during our logistical dry run. As an example, for a KB certification, the snatch test requires a minimum of 100 snatches in 5 minutes. 8 of 10 participants exceeded the standard, and of the remaining 2, one was new to snatches while the other had just completely dominated the deadlifts! Deadlifts and pull-ups were equally impressive.
Looking forward to the next event (although I’ll admit dreading the snatches already…hopefully it’ll pass).
Aye.
Sixteen Pax showed up to Commitment to find a Swarm Workout
The Thang
Mosey to the circle
Mosey to the rock pile at Kennsington Elementary and Grab a Rep Rock
Closing: Well, you know you pushed it a lot when J Woww tried to cancel your Q 45 minutes in because it was too much. 4.5 Miles, 450 Reps, lots of angry PAX.
Announcements
Donate blood June 19th
Watchtower is moving to Weddington Elementary next week due to the ongoing roadwork
Pray for Premature as he works through health issues
Happy 62 Birthday for Chainsaw
Get your Physical, Colonoscopy, and Prostrate Checked
Oh, you were looking for rock jokes? Let’s see what we can dig up…
The Thang
Mosey to side of bank for warmup. Pass the mic to Franky for his first lead! ssh’s, Peter Parker, mtn. climbers, imperial walkers, merkins. Mosey to rock pile by nail salon. 5 jump squats/5 merkins at every road crossing.
Rock Circuit 1: 5 man makers OYO. Partner 1 runs the parking lot while Partner 2 chips away at 100 curls, 100 press, 100 tricep extensions. Flip and repeat.
Rock Circuit 2: 1 partner chips away at 50 american hammers while partner 2 bear crawls and pushes rock to opposite curb. Pick up rock and relieve partner 1.
Rock Circuit 3: Wall of Pain: 1 partner is timer and does 10 cross over pushups on rock while partner 2 balls on the wall. Repeat sequence, but with wall sit and rock over head
Repeat same sequence above, with slight modifications (shorter running loop, bent over rows, goblet squats, ground pounders)
Schoolyard favorite final exercise with our happy little slabs of earth – Rock, Rock, Goose. Circle up and hold people’s chair with rock. In clockwise motion, first pax puts rock down, runs circle and resumes the position. It’s a hard rock life for us…
Goodbye dear rock friends. For it is time to mosey home. Repeat 5 jump squats/5 merkins all the way back, this time hitting 6 stops. Regular plank, 6-inches, regular plank until TIME
Reflections
May the quartz be with you!
I’ve been to a lot of great workouts at F3, but never a true 5 Star workout, so this was the day for one. We warmed up with a lap around the parking lot and then ran in the shape of a warm up exercise at each point of the star (SSH, seal jacks, merkins, low slow squats, and I’ve forgotten the last one). Then we did a mosey to the band field and did our next star, this one much bigger, with 10 side lunges at each point of the star. Then off to the cross country trail that goes around the Weddington campus. It’s about a 5k if you just do the trail, and it goes in and out of the woods at different points.
Our first stop on the trail was at the brick pile where we did 10 overhead presses with bricks. Back on the trail we continued till we came to some benches at the high school and did 10 dips, then kept going till we got the the hand rails where we did 10 supines, or however you spell it, then kept going. Our next star was in the high school parking lot where we did 5 LBC’s at each point of the star. Then back on the trail.
When we came out of the woods on the elementary school entrance we saw Posse running down the road. He had driven all the way out to Clean Slate and no one was there, so he came back to Homecoming! That is dedication! I would have just gone straight to Dunkin, but Posse is the man.
We kept following the trail and stopping along the way for more exercises (merkins, bobby hurley’s, snow angels, autrailian snow angels, and a bunch of other stuff) We did our last two stars in the bus parking lot and the middle school bball lot. Then finished out the trail and came out pretty close to where we started. Overall we did about 4.5 miles of running so it was a good workout. Nice job fellas!
Seven Pax showed up with big bells and high expectations at Union Co’s premier KB & Gear workout, Overdrive. The weinke was a simple Tabata workout that I hope didn’t disappoint. Here’s how it went down.
Long mosey to warm up then circle up for COP.
SSH x 20 IC
IW x 10 IC
Hillbillies x 10 IC
Windmill x 10 IC
The Main Event
30 Second Effort / 20 Second Rest Tabata Workout
Run the big loop from COP to recover (approx 2 min)
40 Second Effort / 20 Second Rest
Mary
Moleskin
It’s a good thing we had a timer because counting was a struggle for the QIC this AM. YHC forgot the count during SSH in COP and had to count the Pax in COT 3 times. Lots of discussion about big bells, big clocks, and other big items during mumble chatter. The Lithium Workout channel on SiriusXM provided the tunes and led to a pretty serious game of There was a serious game of Name That Artist — lots of one hit wonders were coming across the airwaves this AM. Lots of discussion about the metal bands we each saw during our younger days.
Solid effort by everyone today — We’re older & wiser now, but still like to rock to (& swing the) metal.
Great takeout by Hair Band
Showed up a little early to do some recon and found a little surprise for the group.
Since we had an FNG had to make sure we did the proper disclaimer.
Warm-up
Mosey down the path and did 5 burpees at the shed, did another 5 at the path, then another 5 at the roundabout . A few stretches at the other roundabout. Now lets get after it.
The Thang
We hit the bleachers for the 1st time in over a year.
Round 1 – 5 burpees at the top and 10 dips at the bottom
Wolverine crushed round 1 while the rest of the pax took it pretty easy. No names mentioned Easy & Gerber.
Ice 9 did the right thing by staying with his FNG
Round 2 – 10 BB at the top and 10 incline merkins at the bottom
Had a bunch of slackers other than Larry Bird. YAC was yelling a few choice words.
Round 3 – Was to all out run
To make sure some were working hard the train was lead by EB, Wolverine, and Gerber with lots of yelling behind them
Hit a quick lap around the track to the pull-up bars. YAC may have ran the 100 hurdles in a masters record. Couldn’t get anyone else to follow suit.
We did 5 pull-up the 10 step-ups for 3 rounds
Mosey to the Shed, stopped 3 times to do 10 BB along the way.
So I heard Ice9 say yesterday what ever happened to the wheelbarrow. Brought that sucker out maybe by mistake.
Did the length of the field switching as needed then we bear crawled back. Yikes!
Then we did the width of the field for wheelbarrow and bear crawls. Shoulders were roasted.
Slow mosey back to COT and did 10 BB and 30 sec of Good Morning!
Moleskin
I think Ice said it best a couple weeks ago. There were some XXXXX in the group today and chose not to push it. Kidding not kidding aside it was great to bring back some of the old school things back, get the shoes wet, and grass clippings everywhere. Enjoyed the time leading the group.
Ghosted once again was dressed for 40 degree temps. By mid next week he will be in a tank and 5 inch running shorts. Clearly Wolverine hasn’t shared his famous runners what to wear guide. Sugar is always a beast and is very inspiring to the many soon to be over 50 guys like myself. Dunkin has been a regular since he started about 5 weeks ago and continues to improve and push him limits.
Welcome our FNG, Mistro to the group. Once he gets his soccer legs back he will be right up front. He coaches Ice and EB’s kids soccer team. Think I heard them giving him tips on what the team needs.
Friday afternoons have been a good break to the week letting YHC sleep in some after a long night on the Ice. Gives a little time to re-hydrate and rest some of the sore muscles.
Heading out to Dogwood park is usually a good 15 minute ride for me, but apparently there was an accident on the way there that had many of us Detour a bit, so we decided to wait an extra 5 minutes in case any Pax came in late.
Quick DICCS and we’re off!
Warmup:
mosey around a litte, climb steps to the flagpole area for some SSH/IW/Arm Stretch/calf Stretch/Pickers
Thang:
Part 1: Run the wooded trail to escape the hot sun for a bit to the rock pile. Grab a coupon and civilian count 3 exercises 30 Curl/ 50Chest Press/ 30 tris. Head through the second part of the Snake trail, which is much longer than it seems. Back to smaller rock pile for some Shoulder Presses/Hernias/and Row Squat Thrusters.
Part Two: was going to run the snake trail again, but forgot this is a 1/2 hr workout, so just audibled and mosey’d to the picnic tables for two rounds of Dips/Derkins/Step ups.
Part three: Head to the third running trail where there is a hidden brick pile that Driveby and I found last week! 20 front and lateral shoulder raises in a 6 count, then Brick Plank Rows. These start off easy, but get pretty tough after 20 from what Rubbermaid thought.
FInish up to COT
Moleskin:
Pretty small group but some regular chatter. Mostly thinking what this was gonna be like when there is no refreshing breeze and its 95 degrees out! Was pretty balmy out as it was today!
As I mentioned earlier, these Friday Noon workouts are nice end to the week if you have the chance to do it. The park has some nice quick trails and some decent terrain. Would be a good place to check out if you have the time.
Pray for those that were involved in the accident!