Is there a minimum mileage?

Is there a minimum mileage?

Chastain wants credit for the workouts that Chastain does. No backblast = no credit. So Chastain writes the backblast.

The Boondocks is allegedly a bootcamp workout at Porter Ridge but this day was very gear-ish. Medicine ball and a firehose. Oh yeah, and 0.55 miles according to my watch. Great workout and I’m not complaining, other than it didn’t help me hit my mileage goal for the week.

So lots of stuff was done. Throwing the medicine ball. Slamming the medicine ball. Breaking the medicine ball. Oh yeah, and tugging at the hose. Uh, the firehose. No, I don’t think that’s a pet name.

Welcome to FNG Timothy, now known as Holyfield. Had part of his ear ripped off while playing goalie in a soccer league in his younger years. Can’t tell now, though, as plastic surgery is a wonderful thing. Still gets the name, though.

That should be enough talking to qualify as a legit backblast.

Code Brown

I pulled into Calvary at about 6:59 on Saturday and found 3 pax waiting for me. Ickey and Frehley’s were out of their cars and ready to rock. Hoover was busy strapping on his boot. We got our gear ready and Hoover unloaded his cooler, which doubles as a seat.

After a brief disclaimer (only veterans in attendance), we got warmed up with the usual SSH, IW, Windmill combo. We mixed in a prying squat and maybe some swings, too. Then, we got down to business.

  • Neupert: 10 sets of 6 double swings
  • Complex: Elevens with 10 merkins/1 snatch per side, 9 merkins/2 snatches per side, 8 merkins/3 snatches per side, all the way to 1 merkin/10 snatches per side. At some point during this set, Ickey proclaimed that he was bailing as he had an emergent problem to deal with. We offered up multiple options: the hot box, the church (people were going in and out), the bushes (questionable considering the daylight and aforementioned visitors), but he had made up his mind and had no time to equivocate.
  • Easy strength: 3 sets of 5 double deadlifts, 3 sets of 5 double military presses, 3 sets of 5 lawnmower rows, 3 sets of 5 double cleans.
  • Static holds: Since Hoover can’t walk, we decided to do some static holds instead: 3 sets of: :20 double overhead hold/:20 double racked hold/:20 rest.
  • Mary: 1:00 each of elbow plank, hollow body hold, and glute bridge.

Done. Since Hoover had the cooler, the RockZero pax and Cheese Curd joined us for COT.

Announcements:

  • The Functional Strength Challenge is at 0700 on 5/22 at Olde Providence Elementary. Join us for a little friendly competition. Deadlifts, pull-ups, and snatches.
  • F3 Metro is hosting a Grow Ruck in August. See Slack for the pre-blast and more details. The event is capped, so if you want to attend, get signed up. There will be pax from Area 51 training for the event – connect with Cheese Curd and/or Wild Turkey for more info.
  • Happy Hours are back! See Hoover’s excellent pre-blast for details. The first event will be 5/19 at Seaboard in Matthews. We hope those who are comfortable will come out and join us for a beer or two.

Moleskine:

  • Thanks to the pax for coming out and putting in some hard work. The double swings are tough due to the number of sets with heavy weights. The Elevens were way worse than I was expecting – I’m not sure about others. They’re supposed to be double snatches, but we did singles and just did them per side. I’m honestly not sure which is worse.
  • Ickey started complaining about his bowel issues during the prying squats in warm up, so we knew there was the potential for an issue during a 1-hour workout. Sure enough, he was sporadically “resting” during the complex and ended up making a jailbreak home. I saw him at Swole this morning and he made no mention of any disasters, so it seems like he made it.
  • Hoover continues to post, even with his boot. The dude’s a machine and led a killer workout at Swole this morning. I think he’s getting a little too comfortable with the format when he comes up with worse complexes than what’s in the spreadsheet.
  • For once, Frehley’s was not the reason for the poop jokes. As far as I can tell, he even kept the flatulence in check on Saturday. He’s going to be leading the workout on Wednesday, so be prepared for some hair band music.

 

 

The Bear Necessity

Twenty Pax showed up to stretch themselves and glorify God through strengthening themselves as men.  Unfortunately, it has taken too long to get to the backblast so this is way late and Fusebox is going to be chewing on me at any minute.  It had been a while since people had forced some bear crawl on the PAX and the time was now to bring back the classics.

The Thang

Mosey to the front of the middle school.

  • Side Straddle Hop X20
  • Burpee
  • Imperial Walkers X20
  • Merkins X 10
  • Burpee
  • Runer Stretch
  • Merkins X 10
  • Plank Jacks X20
  • Calf Stretch

Mosey to the front of the high school

  • 40 Dips and take a lap
  • 30 Steps Ups and take a lap
  • 20 Dips and take a lap
  • 10 step ups and take a lap

Mosey to the large high school parking lot by the football field

  • 5 merkins
  • Bear Crawl the parking spot
  • Lunge Walk to the next parking spot
  • Bear Crawl to the line
  • 5 Merkins
  • Repeat till the end of the parking lot
  • Run back to the beginning
  • Fill in with some Abs
  • Repeat with squats instead of merkins

Grab a rock and run to the circle near the football fields

  • 40 Curls, run to the bottom circle, 1 Burpee
  • 30 Triceps and run to the bottom circle, 1 Burpee
  • 20 Overhead press and run to the bottom circle, 1 burpee
  • 10 squat to press and run to the bottom circle, 1 burpee

Run back to COT

Closing: When Transporter says it was a good workout, I knew I stretched the group.  I also knew this as I was huffing it hard when I gave myself a cramp.  Nothing like being to Q to push yourself in a workout.

Announcements

Christ Closet folding party on the 15th after coffeteria

Asylum Going to Q-Bytes after the workout – Mental Health Month

Lots of Service Workers are struggling with the world of Covid and the aftermath

 

My First Homecoming Dance

Thank you to Honeycomb for helping me plan my first Q at the Homecoming site. Six strong PAX took on the Weddington Middle School/Elementary School campus with bravado. I had a morning planned so that we would mix it up with running, rocks, pain stations, even a trail run. We circled up at the Middle School parking lot – COT – for the disclaimers. DICCS given.

The Warm Up – Mosey from Middle School parking lot to side parking lot for Toe Taps (curb step-up’s) along the curb to loosen up the legs. Mosey to the bus lot behind the Middle School and circle up. Warm up exercises consisted of:

  • 20 X SSH
  • 20 – Imperial Walkers
  • Jimmy Dugan – center, left, right – walk it out to a plank
  • Calf stretch
  • Frankenstein

The Thang – After warm up, our first challenge started with 5 lights to which we alternated between 10 Hand Release Merkins and 10 WWII Sit-Up’s (Also called Big Boy Sit-Up’s). This was headed towards 12 Mile Creek Rd. so loop back around to the six when you finish. We carefully crossed 12 Mile Creek Rd. (trying to make sure Blue Screen didn’t get hurt) and the next pain station was more lights! Five lights at the entrance of the Elementary School started us on: 20 Carolina (North Carolina) Dry Docks and 20 Mountain Climbers, alternating between the two exercises. Flutter till the six gets finished. Mosey to the Elementary School parking lot and line up for suicides. Starting line do 10 Plank Jacks. Run to second line and do 10 Jump Squats. Run back to start for CDD’s, up will be every two lines – six lines in total for the suicides. In the large part of the paring lot we set up for a Starfish…HOLD THE PHONE…we need to make this more interesting. Go grab a lifting rock! (there were some that needed to return their rock) You will keep your rock with you the whole time! Starfish (with rock) consisted of 5 Burpees in the middle each time. Four corners were Curls, Overhead Press, Triceps Extension, Bench (on Back) Press – I don’t know the correct name for that one. Rinse and repeat 3 times. Found a small corridor that had plenty of benches so we did a quick mosey over for Dips and Step-Up’s. 20 Dips and 20 Step-up’s – rinse and repeat 3 times. Another mosey brought us to our trail run (I had never been on this trail so I hope Chicken Little knows where he is going). We had one stop in the trail for some Bobby Hurley’s to collect the PAX (OK me!). Finish run and mosey to entrance of the Elementary School for the final pain station. Partner up! 200 LBC’s as a team – Mike Tysons as a team – we said 100 but we were running out of time, do two sets. Donkey Kicks as a team till we got down to two minutes left. Mosey back to COT.

The Moleskin– Thank you all for getting out of bed (No fartsacking!) today and aiding me through my first Q at Homecoming. I have done some workouts here, but not enough. I must admit, I required the assistance of Honeycomb to help me create my masterpiece. There is a ton of things to do on this campus, so it was fun putting this together and sharing it with the five of you. I am very thankful and proud that I was able to lead this great bunch of guys today!

Announcements – Need help today at 8:30 am with Christ’s Closet. Too late for that one! The Sit Q’s still need help with filling spots. Please step up and contact your Site Q’s to see how you can step up and LEAD!

Prayer and Family Photo – A special prayer request was made by myself for my sister in-law Pat Holman who died last Wednesday from gastro complications. Our thoughts and prayers go out to my Brother John as he goes through these difficult times.

5 of every 7 PAX has a May birthday – it’s fact

YHC rolled in to The Soon To Be Woody’s So We’re Told parking lot for another episode of The Brave. A solid Friday morning crew of seven rolled out of the parking lot at 0530 for a mashup of recycled Q’s YHC has put on before. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone when we started headed to YHC’s favorite feature of AO’s in this area – The Murderhorn.

The Thing

  • The warmup took the form of a mile-ish run to Thornhill.
  • Run in to Thornhill for a triple nickel at the cul-de-sac. LBC’s and American Hammers.
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Run to the playground area for another triple nickel. Picnic table jumps and Merkins.
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Run to the bottom of the Murderhorn for… a triple nickel 
    • YHC was considering whether to do this the whole workout leading up to this, and finally decided to switch it up when we got there
    • Instead, we ran up the Murderhorn doing 10x merkins at each of 3 lampposts – regular, diamond, wide armed, and dealer’s choice
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Run in to the Regal parking lot for 2 rounds of celebrity four corners
    • 10x Mike Tysons
    • 10x J-Los
    • 10x Makhtar N’Diayes
    • 10x Bobby Hurleys
    • Run to center for 2 Burpees after each corner
    • Repeato
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • 7’s on the hill – deconstructed burpees, so Merkins at the bottom and Squats at the top
  • 5 Burpees OYO
  • Run back to launch via BCP, stopping once for 10x LBCs IC
    • Burpees in order of getting back to launch – 1x for the first to get back, 2x for the second, 3x for the third and so on all the way to YHC in last to do the final 7x
  • Fin

Moleskin

  • This was a real smoker. We got in over 4.5 miles and still a lot of solid work on the way.
  • I know Soft Pretzel came in back to launch first and only had the 1 burpee.
  • I also know I was last with the 7 burpees, but too far back to know what the order was between us.
  • The sleeping cop at Thornhill clubhouse bounced after our 2nd or 3rd run up of the triple nickel. Had to be a little awkward for him to be woken up by a bunch of dudes running back in forth by his cruiser.
  • In COT I mentioned I’ve got a birthday Q at Arsenal next week and we figured out a lot of PAX had May birthdays, so just go ahead, and wish everyone happy birthday this month and you’ve got chance on your side that you’re right!
  • It’s always nice to hear a few grunts, groans, and complaints during the workout. I know it killed YHC and I had some pretty good feedback from other PAX too, during and after on Slack.

COT and Announcements

  • I dropped my new AO, The Bottom Line at Bridgehampton clubhouse, and want PAX to tell their friends. We’ve had FNG’s and regulars every week, it’s been great.
  • Thank you, Soft Pretzel, for taking us out.

Awesome job out there guys. There were a few times that I was in six position thinking, damn these are some bad asses. Keep up the good work.

Brexit

 

Not your typical Benny bootcamp q

11 pax made the smart decision to post at Centurion this morning, after a proper disclaimer that would’ve been Mermaid approve had he made it to the workout, off we went first stop on our adventure was the Fish Third Bank lot for cop.

Cop:
Imperial Walker x 15 in cadence

Low Slow Squat X 15 in cadence

Mountain Climbers X 15 in cadence

Following this mosey towards the complex on the intersection for the intersection of Carmel and 51 for the main event.

The Thang:
Split into teams of four PAX each. Two stations, one on the walkway upstairs, another in the lot. PAX 1 does merkins in the parking lot, PAX 2 runs to the close stairs and runs up them, and around to where PAX 3 is doing jump squats. PAX 3 & 4 runs to the lot and commences merkins while PAX 1 runs up stairs to relieve PAX 2 and do jump squats… repeat 3 times. Followed by a 10 count

Round 2:

Head back to the lot for a second set of the grinder using a mary rotation of LBCs, H2H and Box Cutters X10 in the lot, then upstairs we did burpees, then flapjack repeat 3 times. Followed by another headcount

Next we went and grabbed some wall and did Peoples chair starting at 25 air presses repeated this 3 times and worked our way up to 75 air presses. From there we began moseying back to launch, upon this YHC realized we still had time to spare and came up with another terrible idea.
From there we did two rounds of sucides from the end of the lot closest to McDonalds each round 3 times. At the buildings closest to Planet Fitness round 1 we did 10 merkins each time we got there, second round we did 5 squats. From there moseyed back to launch for quick Mary.

Mary:
Dolly
Rosalita
Box Cutter

Snowflake with the strong takeout at the end of the workout. Mileage ranged from 1.5 all the way to 2.6

Done

Moleskin:

Strong work today by the pax, I got this terrible idea from Flipper when he Q’d at Centurion in 2020 but added my own diabolical twists to make it more interesting. Thought it would be nice to show that YHC can lead a bootcamp and not have close to 3 miles of running(yes that is possible). Strong work by everyone today no shocker that Point Break and Sable were out in front just about the entire workout. This q was a long overdue makeup one back when Margo was still a Centurion Site Q I owed him for taking a Fast Twitch Q, unfortunately being on IR pushed this back awhile. Either way it was good to come out and post at Centurion, I don’t normally post there but its a terrific AO with tons of options to chose from. Sable almost gave me the idea to have us run to the neighborhood of site q’s Pre School and Mermaid both of which weren’t present. Pre School adapting to having another 2.0 I figured understandable excuse Mermaid found out that he had overslept his alarm not as much of an excuse.

Announcements:
-Metro is doing a GORUCK this summer see slack for details.
-Keep an eye on the slack channel for a revival of Crane Relay likely happening this summer. Thank you to both Mermaid and Pre School for inviting me to Q at Centurion, always happy to come back and lead anytime. Figured third time is the charm and if I expect Fast Twitch to do backblasts then have to post a Centurion backblast as this site has a tradition of almost always having a backblast posted.

Benny out

Swarm before the WTF

Wolverine on Q….modification of typical Swarm workout because of WTF the next day.

The HDHH Tour, First Stop: Seaboard

Gents, mark your calendars.  The HDHH is back.  Starting this month on Wednesday, May 19th, Area 51 is kicking off the HDHH summer tour.

It’s no secret, YHC likes to drink beer as much as the next three legged dog in a tuna factory.  YHC is a little like that Sam critter from the moldy colored-breakfast food book for children, Green Eggs and Ham.  In that beer can be drank here or there, beer can be drank anywhere.  Fun fact, YHC has consumed beer on just about every nautical vessel known to man.  The fact that most of those vessels were not in the water at the time of said consumption doesn’t need to be mentioned, but it’s not like the people at the Guinness Book of World Records will ever know.  Despite numerous attempts by YHC, they just refuse to recognize the fortisitude required to achieve these monumental successes of the human spirit.

But, you may ask, what does all this have to do with the aforementioned HDHH tour?  Glad you asked.

Just like those washed up card carrying AARP members of the 80’s rock band Poison, Motley Crue, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and/or Def Leppard we’re going on a tour this summer.  No tour bus, the M won’t let YHC have the family wagon.  No hot chicks on motorcycles, surprisingly none of them would return YHC’s calls.  And we’re really not crossing state lines here, so maybe less of a tour and more of a jaunt around South Charlotte.

First stop on this tour, Seaboard.  Located in the heart of Stumptown, AKA Matthews, AKA that spot between Charlotte and Mint Hill that doesn’t want to be Charlotte but also does want to be Mint Hill.  Park nearby in the Sparta AO parking lot and join us at 5:30 PM or 1730 for you military types.  Outdoor seating is available.

Have you got a request for the next stop on the HDHH tour?  Sound off in the comments below.

#SYITHDHH

Afternoon Delight – It’s official?

HEADLINE:  6 PAX skipped out of work cleared their schedules on a Friday

WHERE:  Dogwood Park in Wesley Chapel (side note:  A great AO for those who haven’t visited)

WHEN:  12:30-1:00PM (yes . . . PM stands for Post Morning)

WHY:  Waxhaw’s first afternoon workout in order to not let lazy PAX have an excuse to fartsack all day get more FNGs and Kotters into the mix

HOW:  Since it’s only 30 minutes, we got right into it with a quick trail mosey to other side of pond

  • SSH, Merkins, MC, PP, Lunge Squats
  • Mosey to bridge
    • P1:  Runs to right bench and does 10 derkins
    • P2:  Runs to left bench up hill and does 10 derkins
    • Meet together and do 5 high five burpees
    • Repeato
  • Bomb Jack / Deep Railing Squat
    • 1 x 4 . . . 5 x 20
  • Mosey to hill
    • P1:  Runs up hill to flagpole and does 3 burpees
    • P2:  10 merkins, 10 MC, 10 PP, repeato until P1 returns
    • x 3
  • Mosey to bottom of stairs
    • P1:  Runs up hill 3 audible 2 times
    • P2:  Air Gores (?) until P1 returns (Air Gore = hold Al Gore position but then jump)
  • Backwards run up hill
    • Derkin Plank walk on half wall . . . 10 to right, 10 to left

COT:  May is Mental Health Awareness month

  • Fredo shared an encouragement about being vulnerable and honest with fellow brothers
    • Our 2 most common outlets are Work and Wife
    • What happens when both of those aren’t going well
    • We need other men to open up to and share vulnerabilities/encouragement
  • Honeycomb’s son Chum had finger surgery today
    • Apparently, holding hedge trimmers the wrong way isn’t good
    • Prayers for quick recovery and that God would use this time to reveal things to Chum
  • Are we making Afternoon Delight official?
    • 2 weeks in a row of backblasts!?!?
    • It’s starting to feel official
    • Would anybody be willing to be a Site Q with me?
      • No experience needed
      • No obligation to show up every week
      • Just somebody willing to show up every once in awhile and book some Qs
    • Initial thought is to have an official launch the Friday before Memorial Day
      • Nobody works that day anyway
    • Second thought is to make this a 3 Season workout
      • Spring, Fall, and Winter
      • Summer is too dang hot at 12:30pm
    • Summer is for F3 Dads at Dogwood Park
      • Look for announcement
      • Saturday mornings

Let’s PLANT, GROW, and SERVE . . . there are LOTS of men in our path that need Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith.  Be bold and courageous to tap guys on the shoulder who need it.

Figuring Out Friday and A Challenge to Waxhaw PAX

17 PAX including a FNG gathered in a well-lit parking lot of Five Stones Church for the latest edition of Diesel.  Chastain, Mayhem, and Spitz helped me drag a bunch of gear up to the launch site (most of which we never used) and after staring at the pile of gear for a few minutes, I finally figured out what to do. After a proper disclaimer we were off for:

COT: SSHx10 , 5 merkins OYO, LSS x 10, 5 merkins OYO

THE THANG:

Round 1: 11s. Grab a cinder block and line up at the curb facing the parking lot for curls and shoulder press. Perform 1 curl with the cinder block by the curb, then walk to the white line about 25 yards into the parting lot with the cinder block and perform 10 shoulder presses. Return and do 2 curls and walk across parking lot and do 9 shoulder presses and so on.  Plank waiting on the 6 and a few random Mary to end the round.

Round 2: 21s (curls): Grab coupons (bricks or dumbbells) for arm work. 7 reps half way up, 7 reps the other half up, and 7 full curls. This did not work. Bricks/dumbbells were to light for the Diesel faithful. Walk over the the rock pile near the gravel lot, find a lifting rock, and circle up. Tricep extension 15x at cadence count. Shoulder press 15x at cadence count. Curls 15x at cadence count. Then finish off with a 15x Triple Lindy (curl, press, tricep extension is 1 rep).

Round 3: Time to work on the legs. Return to launch site and using the cinder block for split leg squats 15x in cadence count each leg. Then 15 x squats (with or without cinder block or weights), and 15x Bobby Hurleys (without weights). Rinse and repeat 3 times.

Finish up with random PAX calling Mary.  Chastain (American Hammer), Chicken Little (flutter), Jingles (protractor), Penalty Box (Rosalita). Mayhem (Os), and Bratwurst (J-Lo)

MOLESKIN:

Happy Birthday Mayhem, welcome to the 50 club!

This morning culminated a weeks worth of Qs. After WTF (or any race) I take a recovery week, i.e. no running. I feared the fartsack. The only way to prevent sleeping in was to step up and Q. On Monday-MASH, Tuesday-Morning Woods, Wednesday-site Q duties at Prickle and Goo, Thursday-The Floater, and today Diesel.

This was the first time in my 6 year F3 journey that I Q’d a gear workout. It was only my 2nd time attending one. The 11s with the cinder block is something I stole from Lobsta Roll/Alf who made me do something similar at The Matrix.  But they made me run across a soccer field and do different exercises with the cinder block. I commandeered the split-leg squat idea from Champagne. One Friday morning at Centurion we devoted almost the entire workout to legs using a set of benches at Charlotte Catholic. Using a rock to do arm exercises is a common as it gets in F3.

I provide this information to encourage those who are nervous about leading a workout to step up and serve. None of what I did today or this week as a Q was new or unique. I have no idea if it was effective. Some of it was probably an epic fail. But all that is asked of me is to step up and serve.

So here is the challenge: If you have not Q’d or have not Q’d in a while, step up and serve. Reach out to a site Q and offer to take a day. Don’t wait for them to ask you.

If you are not sure how to Q, ping me on Slack or GroupMe and I will talk/walk you through your weinke. That is not a new idea either, ask Outback, who took pity on a guy who was new to F3 and taught him the finer points of a parking deck Q.

Waxhaw is a great region (I have now been a part of 3 F3 Regions) and it is growing fast. That means new sites will have to be created from crowded ones or started in new places. As a result, we will need more Qs and more leaders. We cannot rely on the same guys. But that is what F3 is about. We don’t sit on the sideline and consume, we step up and serve.

When will you?