Maximum Overdrive

Maximum Overdrive

YHC pulled into the lot with a minute to spare, Floorslapper was not far behind and O’ Tannenbaum was not far behind Slapper….and Udder was even further behind OT, thus, 11 of Area 51’s finest launched into the the unseasonably warm gloom of the darkest AO in the region.

So here’s some Thang and some Moleskinnage:

Moseyed down to the track for a warmup lap and COT behind the end zone.  Standard COP including the obligatory flatulence during the flutter kicks.  Plan was to do some work on the football field but YHC heeded the “Stay Off the Field” signage, so we instead availed ourselves of one of the baseball fields.  Baseball’s more to my liking anyway.

Triple Nickel on the field with dry docks & jump squats on either end.

Bear crawl to stairwell, grab a lifting rock not a running rock.

At this point, Sardine claims I had pax running with rocks one time at Hawks Nest.  #fakenews. Running with rocks or rucks is just plain stupid.

Rock work including thrusters, triceps, old school sit-up’s, Lougainis, etc, etc.

Back to the diamond for another triple nickel – burpees & Freddy Mercury’s

People’s Chair

6 Minutes O’ Mary

Finito

Other observations:

  • May have been some dueling headbands between Circuit City & Sardine
  • Udder’s not scared to drive 30 minutes to post at Basecamp.  T-claps.
  • Marvel is a silent assassin
  • OT was gearing up to caddy at the pro-am at Quail this morning #dannynoonan
  • Jet Fuel is getting married on May 21st.  None of you are invited.
  • Memorial Day 1-hour workout at 7am at Basecamp.

By the way, the “Maximum Overdrive” title is because a huge tractor-trailer was parked near the launch lot and was running the enter time.  Ask Geraldo or Puddin’ for a synopsis of that Stephen King flick.

Not a ton of mumble chatter.  Solid crew.  Thanks to Magoo & Thunder for tapping me to Q.

Have a great week sports fans.

Heads or Tails

The Warmup

Starting the morning thinking how stupid can I be to Q Ignition after WTF! What is worse I agreed to this after WTF was completed! Anyway we were off with a mosey to driver education parking lot for some dynamic stretching.

  • 15 SSH
  • 15 Imperial walkers
  • Glidah stretch 10 seconds per leg
  • Hurry stretch 10 seconds per leg
  • 15 Mountain Climbers
  • 10 seconds upward dog
  • Started the THANG

The Thang

PAX ran to the the entrance of Champion Forrest to complete some Paul Abdul. I asked the PAX, heads or tails and Baio said heads.

Paula Abdul consisted of 10 dry docks at second street and back one light for 10 more. This continued until we reached the stop sign.

We turned around heading back to the school to complete another round of Paula Abdul except this time was tails, big boy situps.

PAX arrived back to Cuthbertson and ran to the center island to complete 5 sprints. Run to first sign on the football field fence and wait for the 6. Repeated four more times and then proceeded to the roundabout. PAX broke into teams to complete more sprints. P1 person ran around the parking while P2 completed heel to heaven until P1 returned, then switch. Each team completed 2 rounds.

Mosey to Rudy’s shed to finish off with more Paula Adbul expect this time 10 dry docks at second light and 10 big boy on the return trip. Audible was called to reduce reps to 3 and with 1 minute left, ran to COT.

Confirmed, I was stupid and thanks everyone for waiting on me since I was the 6 the entire time…lol

Announcements

The Murph memorial day

6th man – Judge Smails

 

Off Campus Hills

6 men started the week on purpose and came to check out what some guy that supposedly went to F3 in Harrisburg had in store this morning.  Promises of going off campus were kept and no pax were lost in the process.  It went like this.

#Disclaimer

Warm Up

  • SSH x 15
  • Imperial Storm Trooper, aka, Imperial Walker x 15
  • Wind Mill x 12
  • Mountain Climber x 20
  • Merkin x 10

The Thang

Wall Routine

Balls to the wall with hip slaps x 10

People’s Chair with Air presses x 15

3 rounds

Stairs

Reverse Bear Crawl up one flight, Crawl bear backwards on the level, reverse bear crawl up 2nd flight

Mosey to Bleachers

20 Dips, 15 decline merkins

Mosey Off Campus to Poplar Grove Circle

Partner Up Catch me if you can

One partner does 10 merkins while other partner quadraphelia (runs backwards up the hill)

After 10 merkins sprint to catch your partner and switch

Repeato until we reach the top of the hill

Round 2

Partner 1 does 2 burpees while partner 2 runs forward slowly

Repeato until we get back to the bottom of the hill

Halleluiah Indian run (pax in the slow line have arms raised while running) back to the sidewalk exit

Mosey to bleachers for one more round of 20 dips, 15 decline merkins

Mosey to parking lot

Bear Crawl Suicides

Bear crawl to line, 10 merkins, run back – 3 sections worth

4, actually 3, corners

5 merkins, 20 LBC, and 20 Reverse Crunch

Mary

LBCs x 20, Low Flutter x 20, Crunch Frog x 15, 1:30 elbow plank

Moleskin

  • Thanks for coming out this morning.  The AO has a lot of options, especially if you bring a good headlamp.
  • Glad you guys “liked” the balls to the wall hip slaps.  The disclaimer comes in very handy.
  • Welcome out Joe, now Deuce.
  • Not too much mumblechatter this morning, at least that YHC could hear.  I’ll take that as a compliment that you were too out of breath to talk too much trash.
  • Announcements
    • Friday afternoons from 12:30-1 there’s a workout at Dogwood park in Wesley Chapel.  Guys that “aren’t morning people” or need a shortened version to get started now have no excuse to try it.

 

Monday Morning MASH

4 PAX made their way to Cuthberson on a Monday morning and found themselves on the opposite side of the parking lot. We joined the boot campers to start and then we were on our own for:

WARM UP:

Dynamic stretching: butt kickers, walking imperial walkers, toy soldiers, open the gate and LSS.

THE THANG:

Medley of Merkins, perform the called merkin followed by an ab exercise:

Regular Merkin x 10, LBC x 15

Diamond Merkin x 10, Heels to Heaven x 15

Wide-Arm Merkin x 10, toe-tap crunch x 15

Then it was time to concentrate on the arms: one round of 21s with dumbbells or bricks, then tricep extension x 15 in cadence count

Use the sitting portion of the bench for incline merkin and dips. Do a merkin, then a dip, move down a bit, do another until you are down one side of the bench then go to the other side and do the same thing.

Stay at the bench to work on legs. Squats x 10, split leg squat (r) x 10, squats x 10, split leg squats (l) x 10, squats x10

Rinse and repeat: Medley of Merkins, arm work with dumbbells, and leg work on bench.

Finish with each PAX calling a mary and some stretching.

MOLESKIN

It was great to finally get to Q MASH.  I don’t know if they got anything out of my Q, but at least I was able to get Penalty Box to crack a smile at one point.

Thank you for allowing me to lead.

 

Less than 8 hours of RockZero

My first Q in quite some time at RockZero, weather was perfect and no site Qs were joining the workout, so we could celebrate May Day in peace. I did promise no burpees and that the workout would be less than an 8 hour work day, and I think we were successful.

The Thang

Warmup run to side of Calvary which included some  high knees, butt kickers, karaoke. Had to go around a bit to add be able to get both sides of the karaoke, but the PAX still complained it wasn’t quite enough karaoke.

Circle up for some SSH, mountain climbers, IW, Merkins (seems like I need to work on my cadence counting for merkins), Sharon Towers, Carolina Dry Docks, Low slow squats.

 

Run to grassy field in front of the church

5 corners – deconstructed burpee edition

Middle: jumpsquats x16

Corners (x16):

Merkins

LBCs

Widearms

Heels to heaven

Diamonds

Second round reduced this to 8, which felt much better.

 

North Face:

Feet on curb planks, with called exercises, and some moves to the sides (bear walks?)

Shoulder taps, Mountain climbers, arm highs, back pockets, peter parkers and various other fun little activities that were broken up by some North Face loops. Think we did 3-4 loops, but who is keeping track anyway.

 

Rock Pile / Baseball Field:

Lifting rock

Partner 1 runs around outside of field (obstacle course)

Partner 2 does exercise curls, overhead press, tricep ext, rock squats.

Joker Lap – each partner had to do at least 1 joker lap hitting all the bases.

 

Back for some Mary.

 

Moleskin

Thanks for letting me lead! It has been a while since I’ve done some North Face loops and Baseball field loops, both of which turns out is quite a bit of distance, so that managed to eat up most of the workout. We did manage to get a good 3.3 miles, but that did mean we didn’t quite have time for the 2nd half of the weinke. Still, was fun to do some of the more “old school” items at RockZero. Great work by the PAX, especially since no one got hurt on the baseball field loops (man, those holes are huge).

GrowRuck 24 Pre-Blast

You’re reading this pre-blast because:

  • You’re thinking about participating in GrowRuck 24 in the gateway to Gastonia, Charlotte NC
  • You’re not doing GrowRuck 24 and you just need the reading material to keep you sane before your next conference call
  • It’s 0500, you’re on the can, flipping through your phone and about to head out the door to a workout

If you don’t fit neatly into one of these categories, sound off in the comments.  While you’re coming up with something witty to say, here are the top-ten reasons you should do GrowRuck in Charlotte, this year.

  1. When was the last time you played army in the woods with a bunch of your buddies?  That corporate paintball trip doesn’t count.  Even when you went all Apocalypse Now on Tucker from logistics, like you were some kind of Martin Sheen to his Marlon Brando.  Next time Kyle from accounting offers you that crappy camo face-paint, just say no.
  2. You get to buy an expensive backpack.  Why does the M get to have all the fun and spend all the money on pointless accessories?  This is your opportunity to match her $ for $*. 
  3. Because DREDD likes to talk .. and talk … and talk … and talk for 2 days. GrowRuck will give you plenty of that.  Led by F3 Cadre, most notably Cadre DREDD.  You will get to pontificate with and listen to the musing of the mind that brought us F3.  While rucking your @$$ off.  If you’ve ever been to Speed Ruck on Fridays (or any other Metro workout) with DREDD you’ll know what YHC means.  Meet and learn from one of the founders of F3, DREDD aka: David Redding.
  4. Lack of sleep.  GrowRuck starts at sundown and ends at sunrise or whenever the Cadre calls it.  You’ll never see a better sunrise than at the end of a GrowRuck Tough or you won’t …
  5. Carry heavy things long distances.  GoRuck was founded on the foundation of Special Forces training. Green Berets are well versed in shouldering heavy rucks through cities, mountains, jungles and deserts, in war and in peace.  You’ll carry a ruck. and probably a sandbag or 9.  If you’re really lucky someone will find a log for you to carry.  Doesn’t this sound wonderful?  Covid restrictions do not apply.
  6. It’s the perfect excuse to go train at Area 51’s premier (and only) ruck workout, SACS.  It’s the best (and worst) ruck workout in South Charlotte.  Winner of every prestigious new workout award (of which there are none).  You’ll find your favorite regulars at 0515 SCMS parking lot including (but not limited to) Geraldo, Wild Turkey, Dora, and Cheese Curd.  Reach out to one of them if you need a spare ruck.
  7. You get to be called a weirdo by people who have no idea what rucking is or why they should be doing it.  Just wait until that carload of 20 somethings pulls up next to you at 2:37 AM and asks “what are you guys doing?” “What’s F3?” “Are you some kind of militia?” “That looks heavy.  Is it?” “Hey my uncle stormed the capitol, will you say hi to him in prison?”
  8. It’s a CSAUP and makes for really cool stories to tell your kids, co-workers, and other pax.  Like your favorite fishing story, “Man you should have been there, by the time we pulled this thing out of the water it was over 40 feet long and must have weighed 2-ga-jillion pounds.  What Cadre hides their snack in the glove box of a rusty El Camino at the bottom of a lake, weighed down with cinder blocks, and conveniently has a rope tied to its front bumper for retrieval?”
  9. You get to put reflective gear on your ruck.  And reflective gear has proven to be 100% effective at defending against, and repelling, small arms fire, mortar attacks, rocket propelled ordinance, fat girls on roller blades, ninja attacks, zombie hordes, gay vampires, gremlins, bigfoot, UFO abductions, el chupacabra, great white sharks, creepy little girls in horror movies, Jehovah’s witnesses, mimes, Rosie O’Donnell, that sham-wow guy, sith lords, decepticons, goth kids, charlie horses, purple nurples, and gingivitis.  All in all reflective gear is the best accessory for your ruck.
  10. These things typically end with a cold beer, a cool 2×3 patch, and knowing you’ve done more by sunrise than most people will do all week.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

* F3 does not take responsibility for pax choosing to match their M’s handbag spending $ for $.  Any pax choosing to do so, will proceed at their own risk.  Your safety is not F3’s responsibility, but is our priority and all pax are encouraged to modify as necessary.  We are not professionals and F3 does not endorse the statements above nor recommends spending obscene sums of money, unless it’s at The F3 Gear Store or goruckdotcom (not a paid promotion).

Swing and Misssssssssss…Not

Brothers:  14…Penalty Box, Popeye, Chicken Little, O69, Swimmers, Bunyan, Lambeau, Elmers, Centerfold, Ball & Chain, Landfill, Chastain, Spitz, and Mayhem

This morning was spring training for F3’s first baseball tryouts.  Did not find any diamonds (ie Babe Ruth, Bull Durham) in the rough, but plenty of “Smalls” stepped up to the plate.

14 F3 brothers sported their favorite gloves, baseball hats, and team logos for a fun workout this morning.  Yes, Fitness (F1) is important to all of us.  Fellowship (F2) in our communities (ie CPR training, blood drives, Christ Closet giveaways) are equally important.  Don’t forget the 3rd F (Faith).  Q Source meetings on Mondays and Fridays, bible study on Zoom calls and in person on Saturdays and Sundays, and discipleship study (with pizza and beer) on Monday nights.  My point…be a positive change agent (aka Him) in your homes and communities.  Friends, family members, and strangers need you.  Will you engage?

Exercises (if the Lexicon is incorrect, asking for grace).

Thangs:

Wiffle bat stretches

Side straddle hops

Dead stop pushups

Side planks (3 x 20 seconds)

Rotator Y’s and W’s

Lateral hurdle hops over bricks

Bulgarian squats

Single arm dumbbell rows

Rotational bat (instead of bonze ball and cable on Smith machine) rows

Low slow squats with bat behind head

Double coupon (instead of trap bar) deadlifts while partner completes side straddle hops

Ended with 5 minutes of stretching and breathing led by Bunyan.  Need more of this brothers.  A lot of banged up people out there.

I’m sure I forgot something.  Oh well…

Thanks to Chastain for “voluntelling” me to Q.

Later brothers.  Thanks for who you were, are, and will be moving forward.

Mayhem out.

Modify on the run

Bottlecap asked me to Q the Afternoon Delight earlier this week but I didn’t start planning it until my drive over to the park. 30 minutes? No big deal.

4 pax ready to roll at 12:30. DiCCS given then off we go. I had a general plan to loop all the trails in the park and throw in exercises at random. I figured there had to be a rock pile somewhere on site too so there’s be plenty to do. Turns out I was right so that’s what we did.

Loop the trails. Pick up some rocks. Run back and forth while your partner picks up some rocks. Shoulder Taps, Bomb Jacks, Squats, and Tysons. Finished with some Step-Ups and some Side Straddle Hops to kill the clock.

We did about a mile and a half. Nothing crazy but we didn’t avoid running either.

I was really worried about tripping and falling at WTF tomorrow so I decided to do it today instead, much to the amusement horror of some poor lady walking her dogs. Sure glad I got that out of the way so I didn’t embarrass myself tomorrow.

Fun-Fact Friday and almost closing out the April Q-challenge

I noticed two things this morning. First: 10 degrees more make a huge difference to your transpiration! Second: as a Q you never know what to expect. Last time I Q’ed Last Call, we were 11 Pax, before that at Dromedary (same location) we were  23 Pax. Today, we were only 3! But: this is what makes you a stronger and better leader when you Q because you always have to adapt! When One Star announced last Wednesday at Dromedary that I am Q’ing Last Call, he said that I will share some history from Germany and bring an international flair to the workout. FFF aka Fun-Fact-Friday was born! First Fun-Fact was given during DiCSS: The largest Class Action Settlement in the USA was the Tobacco Settlement for $206 billion. The third biggest was the Volkswagen emissions scandal for $14.7 Billion. Volkswagen also had a class action settlement in Germany – worth only $830 Million… so: you cannot sue F3, the school / location, me and you should not sue each other.

Warmup

Schnitzel-classic or better: Waxhaw-classic!  warm-up mosey then the next Fun-Fact (FF): When JFK visited Berlin, he infamously said “Ick bin ein Berliner”, which also translates to “I am a jelly donut”… so let’s get rid of the donuts we ate over the last days and weeks! 15x in cadence: Side Straddle Hops, Maroccon Night Clubs, Imperial Walker, Mountain Climbers – then calf and runners stretch.

The Thang

We moseyed a few yards on the parking lot and started a star-fish: 15 merkins, 10 big boys, 10 Mike Tysons, 20 Freddie Mercury’s and 3 burpees in the middle. Repeat to have 2 rounds. We learnt that One Star is more of a “Drive-way” than a “Big-Gig in the Taphouse” singer. But hey – I would not even come close to a Mic! Next FF: If you think this workout section was bad – think again! Chancellor Angela Merkel has a Barbie doll made after her! Urgh…

During the mosey to the main entrance I was planning to say “partner up”… but… with 3 in total, this is a difficult exercise… So Deep Dish was running first the small loop on the parking lot in front of the entrance as a timer, while One Star and I started with the exercises… sit against the wall – jabs, then donkey kicks, then sit against the wall – air presses, then bobby hurleys. We repeated until I said stop (I think it was almost two rounds). One Star and I had to leave Deep Dish out of our conversation, since he was always running away, but One Star and I talked about Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods and how crazy success-driven they are. In other words: if you really want to achieve something, you can do it (with a little bit of talent)! Next FF: If you think that this was a rather long section of the workout – think again! “Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft” is the longest published word. It is 79 letters long! And no, I will not translate it for you, because this would eat up another 10 paragraphs… 🙂 And something short / narrow: in my home town in Reutlingen is the world’s narrowest Street. It is called “Spreuhofstrasse” and is 31cm (one foot) wide at its narrowest point!

Mosey down to the parking lot again, finding 4 corners: 20 dips, 20 speed skaters (one is one), 5 Burpees, 20 LBC’s. Total of three rounds. With a little time to kill we lunge-walked “fuenf Baueme” (5 trees) up the street. Next FF: 65% of the highways in Germany (Autobahn) have no speed limit. And: In Germany, there is no punishment for a prisoner who tries to escape from jail, because it is a basic instinct to be free! Now – if you count 1 and 1 together… you got it! Jailbreak to COT!

With two minutes to go we did Floaters and big boys in cadence, and finished strong with a 10sec “have a nice day”.

Moleskin

Having only 3 Pax in a workout makes it naturally a bit more intimate, calm and serene since there is no BS in-between… But we all did a great job in pushing ourselves again and enjoyed a beautiful morning. My assumption was, that I am closing the April Q-Challenge, but learnt later that the Noon-Workout still took place… deng it!

Announcements

  • Last Call needs more Q’s for May! I saw there were a lot of VQ in April
  • tomorrow is WTF and workout-convergence at Blackhawk where Shop Dawg will give you a beat-down.

I closed it with some more FF for the weekend: there are over 1,500 (or 5,000 – depending on the source) different beers in Germany, pured under the German purity law (only barley, hops and water). There are over 300 different kinds of bread in Germany. There are over 1,000 kinds of sausages in Germany. Beer is officially considered a food in Bavaria and – last but not least – The “Weihenstephaner Brewery just north of Munich has been operations since 1040, making it the world’s oldest brewery (sorry, Yuengling!). So, try and stay healthy during the weekend!

Small and Intimate

Rousey threw Taco Stand and YHC a curve ball this morning when he drove into the Gibson lot on two wheels with 70’s R&B love songs playing. It really set the mood for what was a small, but intimate setting for some solid 1st F and even better 2nd F.

The Thang

  • Warmup: mosey to lot behind Wingate University building for 1 burpee, 10 low-slow squats, 2 burpees, 20 merkins, 3 burpees, 10 low-slow squats, 4 burpees, 30 LBC’s, 5 burpees. Mosey to Hampton, rotate between 5 merkins/5 squats at each light post
  • Hampton Hill: 10 LBC’s, run up the hill, 20 LBC’s, down the hill, 30 LBC’s, up the hill, finish with 40 LBC’s. Mosey across Johnston and stop in middle of traffic circle.
  • 10 Derkins, run clockwise, 10 Inclined merkins, run clockwise, 10 diamond merkins, run clockwise, 10 wide arm merkins. LBC’s then repeat clock again, but doing 5 reps each and remove the run. Mosey to nature trail behind Pike’s. Headlamps on, run to parking lot off Johnston Road.
  • 4 Corners: 10 merkins, 5 burpees, 20 LBC’s, 5 burpees, 30 squats, 5 burpees, 40 LBC’s, 5 burpees. Mosey back on Johnston to SpringHill Suites parking lot. 1 burpee, bear crawl to next line, 2 squats, bear crawl to next line, 3 merkins, bear crawl to next line. Repeat for 20 spaces. Mosey back to launch, doing 5 merkins/5 squats for 10 light posts
  • Mary for last three minutes: protractor, more LBC, freddie mercury, regular plank, elbow plank

Moleskin

  • YHC wanted to craft a “simple” and low-stress workout in light of WTF race happening tomorrow. Easier said than done. Simple workouts are rarely easy workouts. I stuck with 4 basic exercises and attempted not to deviate. 4.27 miles later I was winded and dripping in sweat.
  • During one of our first moseys, I quizzed Rousey and Taco Stand on the mission of F3 and focused on the “grow” component towards invigorating male community leadership. Growth happens through depth and width. Building deeper bonds with each other and inviting new brothers and friends into the fold.
  • T-claps to Taco Stand for making his first post since extended vacation. I know you enjoyed this one buddy ;D
  • T-claps for Rousey and Taco Stand for opening up to share life stories. YHC left encouraged, humbled and immensely grateful for both of you. When you’re running next to them at an upcoming workout, ask them some questions. Both have much wisdom and encouragement to share.
  • Shoutout to Mary Kay for the glam shot of Taco Stand and YHC afterwards. One day we’ll make it into the Ballantyne Magazine. One day….

Midriff