7 PAX made the right choice and posted at Rock Zero, perfect temps, great sunrise, and we got down to work.
COP
Road Trip
Head out of the Calvary parking lot make a left on Route 51, stopping at Elm for some Mary
Mosey to Day Zero AO for the following:
Move over to the lowest benches in the Area 51 region for parter circuit work. Partner 1 performs called exercise while Partner 2 takes a hot lap around the parking lot. Two rounds for each exercise.
On the move to Bevington Place stopping for the following:
Mosey to Stony Hill Lane stopping for:
Move to Elm stopping for the following:
Mosey Back to Route 51 for the following:
People’s Chair
Return to the AO and Grab Some Wall, for two rounds for Air Presses x 50.
Jack Webb
Head back to the start point for a dose of Jack Webb up and down 7.
Mary
Moleskin
Announcements:
YHC headed south to Q at the Arsenal, the premier Thursday morning bootcamp in Indian Land. YHC arrived a little early to do some scouting of the AO and passed Atlas and Brexit pre-running. I rolled down the window and yelled some form of encouragement to which Atlas and Brexit completely ignored YHC. Apparently they get catcalled on a regular basis during their pre-runs so it was nothing out of the ordinary for them. At 5:28 General rolled in to make 4. 5:30 on the clock so YHC began his disclaimer but what’s this? Cobbler rolling in on 2 wheels to make it 5 Pax. Disclaimer completed and we were off.
The Thing:
Mosey around the school to the playground area for a standard warmup. Then partner up. P1 runs to the monkey bars for 10 pull ups while P2 does an ab exercise and flapjack. 3 rounds of this with 10 pull ups each time and ab exercises consisting of flutter, J-Lo and box cutters.
Then we were off to run some hills. I know there are several hills at the AO so I asked Brexit which would be the best. This may have been a mistake as the hill that Brexit took us to was b-r-u-t-a-l. At this hill YHC called a triple nickel of 5 burpees at the bottom, 5 Carolina dry docks at the top for 5 rounds. The hill has a false top to it. The first level is fairly steep and when you think you at the top where it flattens out, you realize there is a 2nd level that is steeper than the first level. This was tough.
Once all had finished this suckfest we headed to the high school parking lot. Partnering back up P1 bear crawls towards the end of the parking lot with a merkin at each parking spot. P2 runs to the end of the parking lot for 5 wide arm merkins then runs and flapjacks with their partner, picking up where they left off. Keep this going until the guy bear crawling reaches the end of the parking lot.
Head back to launch with about 8 minutes left. First up is a 5 man round of Abe Froman (see Bagpipe backblast from 4/13/21 for an explanation of the Abe Froman). The 5 man goes faster than the 11 man version and leads to more merkins and less planking. General made quick work of the rest of us and took the title belt on this morning. We finished up the morning with each guy taking turns calling a Mary exercise.
Moleskin:
As always it was an enjoyable time down South. If you have not made it out to The Arsenal I suggest going at least once. It is a fun AO and good to change things up some. The hill was an unpleasant pleasant surprise and will remain in the Q bag for YHC. YHC was unoriginal pulling the Abe Froman out twice this week but it is such a good finishing challenge to burn everyone out and who doesn’t love a competition. Good mumblechatter throughout and great to catch up with some guys that I don’t get to see on a regular basis.
Four great minds joined YHC at Da Vinci on a fine April morning to workout with a celebration of two great things today — Haiku Day and the 70th anniversary of the major league debut of The Commerce Comet, The Mick, Mickey Mantle. Early on YHC tossed out the question, “What did George Costanza want to name his son?” Seven, of course, after Mickey Mantle.
Mission Haiku
To plant, grow and serve
Male community leaders
The F3 mission
DICCS Haiku
Cell phone, C-P-R
Modify moves as needed
Don’t sue, be alert
WARM-UP
Mosey to the medical center
Hillbillies x 18 IC (number of seasons Mantle played)
Moroccan Night Club x 18 IC
Plank Jacks x 18 IC
Stretching
THE THANG
Go to and through the neighborhood on McIlwayne Dr
Cross AK to the Lash/Dentist/whatever buildings for lifting rock work
Haiku Rock work with 5 of an exercise, then 7, then 5 (5-7-5). Complete one set, run backwards to the end of the island, return normal run. Repeat same set 3x (number of MVPs The Mick won) before moving as a group to next rock work group.
Finish off the rock by bear crawling and pushing the rock back to its home.
2 Laps around the triangle island with alternating exercises at each corner
Head to Blakeney for 7x Wall jumps + 7x dips repeato once more
Back to AK for the hill on the south side of AK for Merkin Clock with 7x merkins as each PAX called a time
Run back to COT (through sprinklers!)
Superman x 16 civilian count (number of All Star appearances)
Mickey Haiku
Amazing player
Terrible husband but which
is more important?
MOLESKINE
It was a great morning to Q at da Vinci and YHC appreciates the opportunity and the support of the PAX in attendance as they put up with some goofy themes for the day. YHC was looking for a different route to the Lash Rocks and none of the PAX remembered using that street before, so mission accomplished. Also may have used the hill along AK across from Blakeney for the first time as well.
Kudos to Soft Pretzel for quickly showing off his Seinfeld knowledge and setting the group up for reps of 7 throughout. He and Sweetwater led the pack throughout and stayed strong. Dwight had the guts to call the biggest shift on the merkin clock going from 6 to 12. Kirby powered through a knee injury, just like Mickey did for years and the sprinklers were a welcome way to clean the profuse bleeding. Maybe not profuse, but fortunately we don’t often see blood at F3. No word whether he’ll attempt to sue the small strip mall of offices for the dangerous rocks they have on site. Kirby also discovered some muscles he didn’t know about between his legs, so that was interesting and may make for a fun Saturday night.
The rock work with the lunges and backwards running, along with gorilla humpers into a mosey was all sneaky difficult and should feel fantastic later tonight or tomorrow morning. The goal was to use some moves to target less-frequent muscles and hopefully that was accomplished.
YHC was a big Mickey Mantle fan growing up, especially drooling (almost literally) in person over a 1952 Topps card. But as the years have passed and off-the-field issues are exposed, it’s a reminder that we’re all human and celebrity isn’t always to be celebrated. YHC has no plans to take a wife and a mistress to a retirement ceremony and will never don the pinstripes for the Yanks, but what YHC can do — what we all can do — off the field is highly important and that’s where the current focus is.
I don’t see Atlas as the backblast writing type. I hope I’m wrong, but just in case I’m not…here is what we did at Blackhawk today. If nothing else, perhaps he writes one too and I get double credit which will send Zinfandel (Zinfendell, Zinfindel, Zanfendelli?) into a tail spin of angry gifs which should make for a fun afternoon of beer drinking and catching up on GroupMe. Now that I have that paragraph long run on sentence out of the way…here is what Atlas made us do.
WARM UP
Run. We kept running. I look down at my watch and we have gone .7 miles on this opening mosey with no end in site. I let out the proverbial “Dad, are we there yet”, but all I got back was “No, quiet down back there”. We finally reach 521 for some stretching, Merkins, the the worthless exercise known as imperial walkers (which offers no stretch, cardio, or muscle building movement, but I digress).
Another mosey towards the pickle ball courts enjoying the wonderful sky as we went (really, I’m a sucker for morning sunrises with pink, purple, and orange colors and we were treated to all three this morning).
THE THANG
21’s. Really? 13’s are boring enough but he called 21’s. Ok. Merkins starting the 1, run to other end of court for 20 squats and run backwards back to start. We went until we got to 11 Merkins and 10 squats and he thankfully called it. I was starting to lose my mind (I’m mentally weak).
Mosey to rock pile for rock work with runs in between. Curls, tricep, presses were first round. American Hammer, flutters, and chest presses were round two (yes with the rock). I found my rock too big for the American hammers so I simply split it in two with my bare hands (true story – apparently my large granite rock was ready to split).
Mosey to what naturally looks like the launch point (yet they don’t launch from there?) for 10 each of dips, irkins, and dirkins followed by a lap. Repeato 3 times.
Bigger lap to get us back to the naturally looking launch point that they don’t launch from for 6 minutes of Mary. LBC’s, Windshield Wipers, Jack Hammers, Boat Canoe, and In/Outs were called.
30 seconds left and Atlas called have a nice day. I was repeatedly reminded by Shop that Have a Nice Day is for internal reflection and you have to close your mouth for that.
MOLE SKIN
In comic lore Wolverine has an adamantium skeleton, or something like that. When YHC arrived at da Vinci to see Wolverine on Q and sporting a giant bionic knee brace and Doc McStuffins who hasn’t been to boot camps much lately due to OPEN.HEART.SURGERY, there was a sense that the running would be less intense. Terribly incorrect assumption. Wolverine had an agenda of sprints behind the Target that pulled Teddy up with a hobbled hamstring and left all exhausted. The guy with the knee brace and the major surgery were out front while YHC was making sure there was a six.
The highlight/lowlight of the weinke was a Jack Webb of Diamond Merkins and Side Straddle Squats. When the Diamond Merkin is the easy part of a called exercise, you know you’re in trouble. Building up to 40 SSS is some major leg work, especially after the sprints.
Smaller group to finish up spring break ’21, but it was a good group with a solid beatdown.
13 gathered for Swift in some form or another, with the call for 2/1/:30 intervals. The target was 6 sets but 5 braved the Endhaven Hills of Nut Up or Shut Up. Who made the more regrettable decision?
Clean slate -“flock of seagulls” at a Community Yard Sale.
Welcome and DCCS – never been here before so let’s go exploring
.25 mi mosey to warm up
20 SSH ic
10 IW ic
potato pickers b/c stretching feels great, then walk it out to a plank for runner stretch, 10 murkins “while your down there” and finish warm up with 25 LBCs for those abdominals.
let’s mosey .25 mi to tennis courts for shredding arms
10 Derkins
20 step ups (10 ea)
30 dips
repeat 3 x
lets mosey ..25 mi stopping 1/2 way to do monkey humpers waiting for the six – let’s go to the parking lot for a star pattern consisting of:
10 burpees then to center for 5 squats
20 big boys then to center for 5 squats
30 flutters then to center for 5 squats
40 plan jacks then to center for 5 squats
Repeat 2 x
let’s mosey .25 to buss lot for “upside down Spider-Man bus walk” to the left, get back to your feet and do 20 squats, then upside down Spider-Man bud walk back to your right – (you’ll have to ask someone who was there!)
Mosey around back of campus to a 7 man Web of 4 american hammers and 1 plank jacks, 8 & 2, 12 & 3, 16 & 4, 20 & 5 and so on to 52 & 12
.50 mi mosey stopping 1/2 way to monkey hump till 6 is in.
Paula Abdul the crape Myrtles with increasing combo of +1 murkins and +1 LBCs till 10 and 11.
Mosey back to COT
Then finish together with 15 Twinkle toes in cadence followed by have a nice day with my new brothers.
11 Pax kicked off their Tuesday with a little visit to the gloom. At 5:30 disclaimer was given and off we went.
The Thing:
Standard warmup by the hotel near Loch Ness. Then over to the rock pile for a lifting rock. Carry said lifting rock to the parking lot where the fitness trail kicks out behind the Campbells building (I think). Pretty meat and potatoes workout here, do the exercise and then run to the end of the parking lot and back, do next exercise and then run to the end and back, so on and so on.
Exercises were:
25 bicep curls
25 overhead presses
25 tricep extensions
25 bent rows
After this we did a set of “7’s” bicep curls.
Repeato on this set but now with reps of 30 and another set of “7’s” after this set. The boulder that Midriff chose was adding a level of difficulty to this that the rest of us did not endure with our average sized rocks. Others took turns with Midriff’s rock…Rousey and Tagalong I believe.
Carry your rock back to the rock pile for the final set of “7’s” then place the rock back ever so gently. Next we were off to the fountain area between the two office buildings in Ballantyne Corp Park (sorry such a generic description of locale but I have no idea what companies are in those buildings to provide reference). Each corner was a different exercise, complete the exercise then run to the building on your side and back working around the corners clockwise.
Exercises were:
Corner 1 = 15 derkins
Corner 2 = 25 dips
Corner 3 = 15 incline merkins
Corner 4 = 15 box jumps
After everyone was done it was 25 out and in’s on the wall.
Mosey back to launch with a few minutes remaining which meant just enough time for a visit from Abe Froman. Abe Froman is of course the sausage king of Chicago but also the inventor of a diabolical merkin challenge. Pax get in plank in a circle. First guy does 1 merkin, then the next guy for 1 merkin, then the next guy for 1 merkin all the way around, over and over until everyone drops but the last man standing. If you get out of plank or can’t do a merkin when it is your turn you drop and are out. This was a fun event with 11 guys and came down to a showdown of wills between Rousey and Mic Check. Mic Check eventually outlasted Rousey and was proclaimed the Abe Froman champ for the day.
Moleskin:
Great crew out there on this morning. Lots of good mumblechatter and the lifting portion seemed to give guys a chance to catch up with each other. It started early when just about every one of us made a joke to Tuck referencing the fact that he just missed the Swift crew and could still catch them. The razzing continued with the warmup when Frehley’s stated that my SSH cadence was too slow at which point I slowed it even further #stubbornassQ. Then when instructing the Pax to stay in plank between warmup exercises YHC told the group “Stay!” Too much training of our 2 young dogs I suppose. This of course led to many jokes about leading the Pax around using dog treats and dog calls. Might be a good idea for a future Q. Maybe set up some flaming hoops to jump through or sprints to catch frisbees in midair. Circuit City has been working hard and it shows, he was at the front with Tuck and Mic Check on the rock work. Jerry World is a sneaky deadly combo of strong and fast. It must be from those referee/umpire days. I can’t wait to see how well he does at the upcoming CSAUP’s. Great to see Cable Guy back out in the gloom and working back from an injury. He hasn’t missed a beat. I wonder if Rousey’s showboating by doing multiple merkins instead of the 1 merkin during the Abe Froman did him in against Mic Check. As noted earlier, Midriff took the red pill (and his Wheaties) and used a man’s rock during the rock work. Now that Cooter is a #runner and doesn’t break a sweat during the running portion of a bootcamp it was good to get his hands dirty again. Tagalong, appreciate you mentioning a couple of times post workout how much you enjoyed the workout. Even though it is because of the Pax that were there and made it fun, it’s still good as a Q to hear when guys enjoy the morning. Good push by everyone out there and the rock lifts served their purpose, at least for me, as my arms were sore the next day.