Hard workouts can be scary. We get it. That’s why there are famous quotes like:
Understanding that, we weren’t surprised when only 4 guys showed up for cowbell. Feeling empathy for the petrified no-shows, we got to work.
We did swings, squats, side squats, ladder squats and swings, the sugar ray, the swinging lunge, the regular lunge, plank row and merkin ladders, lawnmowers, heavy big boy and twist ladders, heavy big boys, twists, cockroaches, and took a long farmer’s walk around the target with partner merkin chasers. And we did a bunch of sprints. Total of 5.73 miles by the apple watch.
T-claps in particular to Popeye for stepping up to the big bell today, and for his already-progress with intermittent fasting. Dasher is Mr. well-rounded, and brings power with the speed — always has. And Baio continues to impress with speed and grit. Everybody today was 49 or 42. Man, we are in our prime.
Thanks to Popeye for the takeout. Let us all love more.
The request to Q any site always comes with the challenge of finding something new to make the workout unique and painful. This week, I felt that revisiting Jack Web would make for a great adventure. 11 PAX showed up for the fun.
The Thang
Mosey out and back to the circle in from of the stadium
Mosey to the beginning of the road for a run Web
Mosey to COT
At the end, 3.0 Miles, lots of squats and some tough abs
March came in like a lion with a warm and humid morning in the 60s at Firestarter. Haze brought some repetition and sprints that bright out some competition and also showed that the concept of “end of the parking space, not the line” can be a challenging one. Another challenge: Q called for a “chair plank.” Appears to be very similar to a squat, chair squat out Al Gore.
Why this? #waxhawcounts
While we have been noticing temps rising during the day and afternoons, I woke up this morning to a text from Fiji with a screen capture saying 34 degrees with flurries! NO way I thought, but dressed accordingly.
Left the house, rolled up to MES and saw the Mashers getting set up, heard some bumpin music in the SUV to left and thought, this is gonna be good. There were only a few cars when YHC arrived, but they kept pouring in one after another…Looking around, we could tell this was a serious headcount for B-wood, but we took it in stride.. DICCS set, Cranked up some warm weather tunes, Lets Mosey..
Warmup:
slightly longer Mosey to get the legs warmed up, although still jacked up counts
Thang:
Mosey to Turkey Hunt for a Paula Abdul: 5 Merkins, then 10 LBCs at the driveways, Mary at the end for the 6, then repeat back.
Head to the secret trail doing 5 speed skaters 2=1 at the driveways while I face the PAX to make sure they do em correct..Recalc, may need to set up a video to show these guys how to do these properly… Trust me, do’em right and you will feel it! Hit the trail, head behind school to the Coupon book.
With Coupon, Pax Circle up, 2 exercises, then run larger lap.
Rifle carry coupon back to pile, then head to COT.
few seconds left, so had the typical Bushwood Finally with the Fiji Fast feet merkin..
Moleskin:
Well, every week we are seeing more and more PAX and FNG’s come out to bushwood. I think the Firethorne Crew sits at the Bar Shaming recruiting patrons.. Or they have a Hustle going down on the course.
As always its a great time heading this crew and awesome to see the growth at this AO and Waxhaw in General.. The small group that met here during the early days of Covid has seen significant growth.
YHC wanted to change up the music theme from the typical 80’s hairband to the smooth vibes of Cali-Roots Reggae- definitely a different sound.
Sadly, I saw sneak peek at a BB that was never able to be shared last week from the Body Shop where a certain QIC had to audible to the fields to talk to a man about a horse. During the Warmup, I heard/Saw said PAX pull out some TP and say, “i’m coming prepared for now on..” There is no Rudy’s shed at Bushwood, and the clubhouse does not take kindly to the degenerates in cutoff collared shirts, there is a $#*+’s Creek though!
I know YHC doesn’t make too many friends when it comes to coupon work, but we at Bushwood feel an all around workout is what sets us apart. Had a few grunts and rumblings of mutiny during shoulder raises, Hernias and BG raises, but overall you will thank me.
Speaking of Hernias: this is now added to the Exicon.. some how I have noticed certain Pax/Q’s have signature stylings.. J-woww’s flavor of the month Merkin, Das – Arod Pickle Pounder …… Some things are now to be expected.
Seems like we have been getting weekly FNG’s and this week is no different. Welcome Tyler Turnbull –Flo. Hes the latest sucker Pax from Firethorne who, Get this, was waiting for it to get warmer to come out! Newsflash, still flippin cold. Smuggler is the culprit, and Tyler deals with insurance (bonds, but who cares when naming), Hence Flo, He is from Ohio, OSU and is a runner.
With the 4 mashers, we piled up to 23 Pax!!!! This caused a little bottleneck on the Abduls, but awesome to see these numbers growing. If you haven’t been to this site, get you butt out here. Its a bit of a change up from the others.
Announcements:
DiCCS
Warm-up Run with Stretching
The Thang
400 – 600 – 800 ladder x 3
Cool down run
Moleskin
Good to have the LRC gang out with us this morning.
I believe this is Popeye’s 5th or 6th Express workout. Great job pushing yourself
Chatter box comes out of the dark as he was a couple minutes late.
Premature getting in his last hard workout before the Rooster.
Pretty sure everyone ran faster than they thought they would. Smithers and Foundation were killing it today.
Hurry being Hurry.
Announcements
Next CASUP is May 1st. Will be a trail team relay. Preblast coming from Kid Rock this week.
20 of us gathered for a entertaining workout/lecture series. Most were anxious to prove their mettle and perhaps attempt to hijack the Q – looking at you One Star 😉 – to show how much they already knew. Some were just plain anxious or were trying to make everyone else feel better by pretending not to know how to count in cadence! Chastain did his best to wrangle the rowdy crew, God bless you sir!
This turned out to be the bulk of the workout. Chastain rattled off more disclaimers than I realized existed, and we then took turns leading one exercise IN CADENCE to a 5 count. Everyone seemed to go brain-dead, as we struggled to come up with more than 3 distinct exercises, and we had a hard time counting to 5 at some points. I should note that this section may need to be renamed, as there was much more standing around than actually warming up. You did your best to keep us moving Chastain!
Fuse Box “led” us to the front of the school where we did some partner work, modeled a bunch of bad behavior for the kids, and talked at length about how to put together a Weinke, kill time, and avoid big mistakes when learning to Q. As mentioned earlier, lots of Q jacking going on, lots of ideas for exercises, and a lot more standing around. We then ended up at COT, where there was lots more standing around and instruction. After that was a graduation ceremony and if it weren’t for COVID I’m sure there would have been lots of hugs to go around as well.
All in all, it was definitely helpful, and fun time meeting some new guys and sharing some laughs. Well done Chastain, thanks for all the hard work!
11 men decided to start their week off at Firestarter. With YHC at the helm for the first time at this AO, I figured I’d bring some old school F3 to the site. I mean, what’s an old school F3 bootcamp without burpees? With a virtual shovel flag planted in our minds, a disclaimer verbalized for our attorneys, and a group of tough dudes that were trickling in at 0530 and 0531…we were off for 45 minutes of pain. Here’s what we did:
Circle around the green to grab Wingman and Tuna and then off past Chili’s and throughout the shopping center avoiding garbage trucks, up and down some stairs, and found a nice area of asphalt to circle up:
COP:
(If you are counting, that is 55 burpees within the COP)
Mosey around the parking lot some more to stretch the legs and head over to the Target parking lot. Line up on the curb for a modified Beast. Typical Beast is 6 exercises x 6 repetitions x 6 rounds. Unfortunately, there are 7 islands on that particular parking lot, so we had to modify. 6 repetitions at the first 6 islands and then 6 burpees at the final island.
(Adding those 6 burpees at the end of each round = 36 bringing our total up to 91)
Mosey back to launch. With approximately 30 seconds left, it was notated that we had 91 burpees in the bag. So logically, we needed to go ahead an knock out 9 more to make a perfect 100. I didn’t hear any complaints either which was pretty amazing. Great work fellas!
Ye Naked Moleskin:
Let me just say, it was awesome to lead this group this morning. Thanks for having me. The guys really got after the whole time right from the get go. It only took to the round of 9 burpees in the COP for the pattern to be discovered. But everyone stuck it out. Had some pretty sound groans as we got towards the end of the COP.
The Beast may have brought out some colorful language from what I’m told on Slack, but I did not have the pleasure of hearing it. Feel free to recap in the comments! But here is a pro tip from Wingman on efficiency of LBC: when needing to get up and move quickly, do them facing the opposite way, then roll over and go. Thanks for that!
Great to see some guys out that I haven’t seen in a good bit. Mic Check is coming up on 8 years of F3 in April. Midriff was crushing it. Big Tuna kicking ass as always. Teddy smoking it out there and reminiscing of our days from Day Zero aka the baddest AO in Area 51 (RIP). Das Boot running in and out is always impressive. Hopefully the run back wasn’t too bad! LaFawnduh picked a good one to make his comeback . Cotters! Great work everyone.
Announcements:
20 PAX were in attendance for my first F3 Q-School at the cold Cuthbertson Middle School parking lot. With Chastain in the lead, we went through the DICCS and they were explained. I liked the fact that there was a “no question is a stupid question” disclaimer! Comfort was granted right from the start…Little did I know Fuse Box was lurking in the group of PAX.
The Warm-Up – If we were not in Q-School after the DICCS we would normally go to a mosey to circle up for the warm-up. The PAX all circled up at the start and we were taught about the correct way to count the exercises. Each PAX had to pick an exercise in cadence count to perform front and center. That is where I was able to ask my first stupid question.
The Thang – And they’re off!! Normally this would have been in the Warm-Up but, Fuse Box took off like a gazelle like he was being chased by a lion! I was impressed, I didn’t know the young guy could go that fast. We were then schooled at the correct way to lead the PAX to the warm-up and to circle up and lead. After the circle-up, we preformed exercises at the front of the Middle School. We spoke of the different exercises one could use, use of partners (partner carry was put aside for Covid-19) and other ideas one could use. In this area of the backblast, I might also list the exercises such as:
With no time remaining, we jail broke back to the start. Of course, Fuse Box was the first one back to the start – what a gazelle!
Circle up back at the start and count off. Any Friendly New Guys??
The Moleskin – What a great Q School! Thanks to Chastain, Fuse Box and the rest of the veterans who helped out today! I felt we ALL learned a ton today. Including the all important DICCS, the correct way to count and use cadence, how NOT to run ahead – leave no man behind, and the correct way to LEAD a successful Q. I just signed up this morning to Q at Flash on April 5th…let’s see if I learned anything!
Announcements – Any announcements from the group? Name the FNG’s if any. Chastain did take us out with a genuinely nice poem. Normally the Q takes us out. Chastain recorded the Nameorama on his cell phone. Frozen, we took the “Family Photo” and I had to run off to go to work!
Forgive me F3 Waxhaw for I have sinned. It has been 534,343,343,864,344 days since my last Q. It all started some time in February when the Chicken came to me and said, “You need to Q. I am signing you up. You want to pick the date or you want me to pick one for you?” Just pick one I said. March 8th was the day. I kind of forgot about it till Banjo reminded me last week. Zinfindel chimed,”Are you f’ing serious?? You may want to hit Q school first.” A lot of truth in that statement. Then Saturday hit and I run into Sugar Daddy at the soccer fields.”Hey man, pretty sure I am hitting your Q Monday.” Pressure was starting to mount.
Marketing goes out Sunday. Prep work is taking place. Many changes going through my head. Then I look at the weather. F me below 32 degrees. Couldn’t sleep and got out of bed at 430. Go out to the truck only to find that I left a window cracked. The whole inside of my winshield was frosted. Good times. I think it ended up being 25 degrees when 23 of my brothers joined me in the gloom for a beat down.
DICCS-“Did I forget anything?” Please see days since my last Q as to why I asked.
Mosey to the front of the middle school for a circle up.
SSH, elbow plank, calf stretch, elbow plank, flap jack calf stretch, and heals to heaven
I had more but Recalc started whining about lets get moving, so I cut it short.
Groups of 3 or 4 for some relays. Pick the exercise you are weakest at and amrap until your teammate came to tag you to run. Everyone did two laps. Explaining this created some confusion. I blame it on the cold and not my poor direction.
Grabbed some wall for a squat donkey kick web. Everyone loved to do this one.
Mosey back out to main connector road then back to covered walk where the buses are located.
More wall….25 air presses then jog to cover and bearcrawl the length. Rinse and repeat 4 times to get to 100 airpresses with a final bearcrawl. THAT SUCKED!
Long mosey to rear path for some light pole work. Every light pole on the right for 2 count as 1 mountain climbers.
That got us back to COT with 2 minutes to spare. For some, that is enough time to do it twice.
I wanted to bring back a more traditional bootcamp style workout with less mileage. I think we were around 2 miles. I think we succeeded. It was good to get back out and lead this group again. I usually struggle during the winter with mental health. Honestly, this winter has been one of the best winters for me in a while. Then why did you not see me post more than I have this winter? I have been working from home for the last year like many during the pandemic. I found myself in the routine of lunch time workouts. It was warmer. I got to sleep. Did I mention I got to sleep and it was warmer?? So in all honesty I was being selfish and lazy. Not physically lazy but brother lazy. You see you never know who may need you or when and if you aren’t there, you can’t help. I made it about me instead of everyone else. I will try to be a better brother to all. Thank you for the welcome back and it feels great to be back.
Ok, I am cheating a little bit and combining my Snooze Button and Stonehenge Q. See Market Timer, Frehley’s, Lex Luthor or Cul-de-Sac for refunds.
Snooze Button
The Thing
Head towards corporate offices and parking decks on Community House. Warmup only to have a Ballantyne Park security drive through our COP. Fella didn’t even stop at the stop sign but he didn’t tell us to leave so no harm no foul. First run through of the next exercise is done together. Run the road that cuts through the park stopping at each crosswalk (4 total) for 10 jump squats. Then round the corner to run behind the corporate buildings. 1st Building = 10 derkins and 20 flutters, 2nd Building = 20 dips and 20 flutters, 3rd Building = 20 In and Outs on the wall and 20 flutters, 4th Building = 10 incline merkins and 20 flutters. Now that we have gone through the exercise together knock two rounds out OYO. You vs. You. Fredo, Johnny 5 and Wingman crushed it and circled back for the 6 getting an extra round of incline merkins and flutters in.
Next mosey to a parking deck, sprinting up to the top level. Partner up with P1 bear crawling with a merkin at each parking spot and P2 running to the end of the lot for 3 donkey kicks. Keep flapjacking until getting to the end of the lot. As we exit the parking deck YHC asked everyone to take a 3rd F faith moment and appreciate the sunrise and the view of B-tyne with uptown in the distance. Mosey back to launch ending with 1 minute of elbow plank.
Moleskin
I gotta say the extra hour and 15 mins is nice. And having light is a plus as well. The only downside is a few more cars and early bird workers to dodge but that adds to the obstacle course feel. Nice push out there by everyone.
Stonehenge
The Thing
Before we started out quick detour to YHC’s car trunk. In it were 8 gallons of water and looky here 8 Pax…destiny. Everyone grabs a gallon to run with for the duration of the workout. COP at the end of the medical buildings. Mosey over to the extremely scenic pond with the bridge. 10 merkins at the bottom run up the hill for 10 monkey humpers then run a lap with water for 3 rounds. Mosey through the fitness trail to the tables near Loch Ness, stopping along the way for Mary and Al Gore. At the tables YHC led the group in a HIIT round of Tabada. 45 seconds on 15 seconds rest alternating between dips, plank jacks, 2 cone shuttle, squats and Peter Parkers for 4 rounds. Mosey back to launch, 1 minute of elbow plank then done.
Moleskine
The use of the gallons of water served 2 purposes, one it adds a bit of inconvenience when running and two it got the gallons out of my trunk. And after Wild Turkey started to run back to launch with the gallon in his pants YHC definitely was not taking it back. Solid work and t-claps to the group for utilizing the water gallons throughout the workout even when YHC did not call it. The group curled the gallons when we Al Gore’d waiting for the 6 and included them in the dips and squats. Way to push each other.
Announcements