After 16(!) weeks of the modified Quick and the Dead program, it’s time to change things up at the Area 51 kettlebell triumvirate of Swole, Meathead, and Olympus.
For our next program, we’re going to modify Dan John’s 10,000 swing workout (link). While doing 10,000 swings in a month is a worthy goal, (i) we don’t have time to do 500 swings in a 45 minute workout, (ii) we don’t have 4-5 KB workouts a week (yet), and (iii) doing 500 swings in a workout is something you don’t want to do multiple times a week without working your way up to it. As a result, we’re going to modify the program to 250-300 swings per workout, 3 times per week. Swings will be done in sets of 15 and 35 at first. As we get used to the volume, we may mix in some 10-15-25-50 rep sets.
While the main course at the workout will be the swing (the cornerstone kettlebell exercise), there will be other exercises worked in between sets. This “accessory exercise” will be selected by the Q and could be the same for the whole workout or could change for each set to give the pax some variety. We’ll finish with Mary and mix in TGUs on Saturdays at Olympus.
This new program will start tomorrow at Swole, with Mighty Mite leading the charge. Swole meets in the inVue parking lot off Carswell Lane at 0600. We hope to see you in the gloom.
Well I was supposed to have my VQ back a few months ago but it was unfortunately placed on hold due to the virus. So my VQ opportunity finally arose for Homecoming and, what do you know, I show up late for my own party. In my defense, the start time did change from 7 to 6:30 but still not a good excuse (my bad!) Fortunately I was able to catch up to the group and they generously let my start the Q. There were 7 to start with 2 showing up at the old time of 7. Hopefully the DICCS were provided prior to my arrival.
Warm-up
None. By the time I got to the group they were finishing up their 40 triceps dips.
The Thang
We all took a mosey around elementary school to the middle school drop off circle where we started the day with some stacking exercise with a lap around the traffic circle between each set. Bottlecap thoughtfully ran back to the parking lot to check for any latecomers and found SCUBA.
Side straddle x 10
American hammers x 10 – 2=1
Low slow squat x 10
Flutters x 10 – 2=1
Side lunges x 10 – 2=1
Heels to heaven x 10
Merkins x 10
Boat/Canoe x 10
Donkey kick x 10
Mike Tyson x 10
Next we took a mosey around the corner to the rock pile where we found a nice lifting rock and socially distanced ourselves with a partner for some work. The non-lifting partner would run to end of the lot and squeeze out 10 Freddie Mercuries.
Triceps extension x 100
Curl x 100
OHP x 100
Bent over row x 100
Lastly, we took a mosey back around to the elementary school basketball court where we finished the day with a set of suicides, first running forward, the returning with a backwards run.
First suicide – jump squats x 5 each stop
Second suicide – Carolina dry docks x 5 each stop
Third suicide – Burpees x 5 each stop
Fourth suicide – no exercise just full on sprint
Moleskin
First Q definitely gave me a greater appreciation for the amount of effort it takes to organize one. It was a hot and humid morning but everyone hung in there and worked hard. Bottlecap felt eager to race everyone and found out that Shotgun Wedding is faster than he looks. Thanks to the PAX for not giving me too much grief for showing up late.
Announcements
Blood Drive July 23rd, need more people to sign up. Sign-up at American Red Cross website.
Raffle for $1,500 Furniture Gift Certificate Ongoing. Centerfold has tickets for sale. All proceeds goes to our goal of raising $10,000 for local charities.
100 Pax Challenge – Looking for 100 Pax to donate $100 or WHATEVER YOU CAN. Venmo to @f3waxhaw. See Posse for details.
Q-school/Site School coming up. See Posse for details.
Keep Goodfella and Centerfold in your prayers.
On Wednesday night, I got tapped on the shoulder and was told that Rock Zero needed a Q. I believe Geraldo was begging, but I tend to read too much into texts. Either way, I have never Q’d Rock Zero…nope almost 8 years and never Q’d. Would I fail? Would the Pax point and laugh? It was completely possible! However, with minutes before 0700, 6 of us were wondering…”Where is everyone?” Well, 0700 and off we went, but wait here comes Levi on all 4 wheels (should have been 2, your late) And then there is Flipper, we caught him on the warm up. We knew we had at least 1 pre runner and “someone” should have run faster or watched the clock, but Mr GQ was now going shirtless all morning #distracting. Now that we had 8 off we went.
Warm up
Run to the Rock pile for a lifting rock. Had to pause here, because this group needed more time to warm up: SSH x15 / IW x15 and we were warm
The Thang
The plan was 3 stations (1st in full sun)
Curls x20 / Tri’s x20 / Squats x20 / 5 rock burpees ..then hold rock over head to the next station (in the shade)
Repto then move closer to the rock pile (in the shade) Repto and return you rock when finished
At this point I think I began to hear some rumbling (I sense some of the Pax knew where we were headed) as we made our way to the entrance of the LC (White Gate neighborhood)
I believe we did some Mary prior to instructions.
There are 3 culd-a-sacs, 30 LBC’s and either 20 hand release , wide are hand release or diamond (chest to ground). We hit all 3 as a group, with Diamonds, then wide arm, then normal.
And at this point it was clear, the Pax wanted out of the LC without visiting the main event, but we have come so far. So I shook off the background noise (turn left, your other left) so down the hill we went to the base of the hill. Did a few more Mary while we waited and then instructions were given
LC: There are 6 driveways on the left. Run to the first driveway and backpedal to the base. Run to the next driveway, back peddle to the first driveway and the run to the base. So combination of running up the hill, backpedaling and recovery run down. See Ye’ Old Moleskin for my commentary on this.
Once were were done, we mosey’d back stopping along the way for various planking, Mary while we headed to the hot box. On the way to the hot box, we noticed that there was someone enjoying a good book, so we skipped that, did some more Mary and headed to the front of the church by the benches
At the benches, 3 rounds: 20 Dips and 15 (each leg) Bulgarian Split Squats. Between each set, run around the tree.
Headed back to the parking lot (shaded part) for 3 more minutes of Mary and we were done!
Announcements: As Covid is getting closer and closer to our inner circles, Flipper shared a story about it hitting close to home. Although he is good, he has a few members of his family and including some grandparents at risk. Additionally, Run Stopper has had some heavy news lately. Starting with his youngest getting injured on some burly quest/hike that he just started. He is OK, but will need time to heal. Additionally, he has a bother that just received some bad news regarding cancer. Please lift these guys up when you see them and others around you. The world can seem dark these days, be someones light.
Ye Old Mole Skinny
-Thanks to Geraldo for hitting me up last minute. It was hard to say no as I just told him to put me in the rotation.
-I had said to him a week or so out, if I Q rock, were are going to the LC. So when he tapped me to Q, he knew exactly where we were going
-Speaking of the LC, glad I got to introduce the little hill to Levi and Mr Magoo. Neither had been there and Levi said that he sort of enjoyed the new territory…your welcome
-As for the LC, full participation was mildly received.
– Towards the last few rounds, a few guys decided to that they had not had enough Mary and just stopped running the hill. No worries, that hill is a lot to digest
-Little FYI..when you do your warm up in the full sun you will probably hear some complaining…man right off the bat the Pax begain to complain
-I have been impressed with Geraldo recently as he is coming out of Covid on top of his game, maybe not feeling it today, but we all have days like that, hand in there
-Flipper is in beast mode, with all his technology, hopefully he gets a watch that get him to the launch on time
– Mermaid, Captain ,were just getting work done today
-Voodoo was working hia KB’s solo today #strong. Made sure to say, HI a few times
-So again, my VQ at Rock Zero is no more. This is a good site with lots of area to cover.
As YHC drove into Stonehenge territory to make sure I had the workout mapped out properly I passed 2 PAX pre-running… kudos to Lex and Kirby. Yep, everything is good to go and back to launch I went. As we gathered, MaryKay drove up to confirm where we were going and we would see him there, even though his knee is messed up he still got work in this morning. Disclaimer was given and we went towards the bullring (briefly the wrong way… oops).
Warmup along the way – 15 SSHs in cadence, 15 IWs in cadence, 10 Mountain Climbers in cadence
We arrived at the bullring and instructions would be given… simple workouts are sometimes the best and quite challenging… we would be doing 4 laps
Lap 1 – at each speedbump merkins – 5/10/15/20/25/30 for a total of 105
Lap 2 – at each speedbump squats – 10/20/30/40/50/60 for a total of 210
Lap 3 – at each speedbump LBCs – 20/40/60/80/100/120 for a total of 420
Lap 4 – at each speedbump burpees – 2/4/6/8/10/12 for a total of 42
With some time to spare we began to head back to launch stopped in a parking lot for 1 minute plank. Stopped at Stone Mountain Grill to grab some wall – each PAX would count off 15 arm raises down the line for total of 120, then back of the wall for each PAX 10 count with arms straight out. Mosey back to launch for around the horn Mary (Freddie, Heels to Heaven, Hammers, High Flutter, ankle taps, and one other I can’t remember)… YHC was gonna call it with 30 seconds to go and Airwolf stepped up to call one more – GREAT WORK Airwolf (Frog kicks)!
Awesome work by all the PAX on a very humid morning!
Announcements – F3 5k/10k next weekend signup please. Even if you can’t run please consider making a donation. Proceeds going to support local foodbanks in this time of need
It’s been a while since I have led Clyent Dinner and after posting at the floater in the morning I had nothing left in the tank thanks to Bottlecap. So, I decided to make it 2.0 friendly with the idea of taking it easy and giving myself a break. Well, according to the rest of the Pax and 2.0’s I may have been overserved at the happy hour prior to dinner and forgot all about taking it easy. We went light on the miles (1.75 total) but that was about it.
14 Pax were ready to roll so I handed out the DICC’s an off we went……oh, wait a second, coming in hot on two wheels is Zinfandel and his 2.0’s. Welcome back Zin!! Now 17 Pax and we get started. Mosey down the path towards Rudy’s shed with high knees, butt kickers, side step, flap jack, backwards run, and continue mosey to shed. Circle up.
SSH x 20
Imperial Walkers x 15
Merkins x 10
Mountain Climbers x 15
Moroccan Night clubs x 15 (The look on Scuba’s face when I called this was priceless)
Wall sits with Air Presses and Air punches
First set: Head up to the basketball court and line up across the sideline. Run over to the other sideline and back x 5 and complete an exercise.
Round 1: sideline to sideline x 5 – 20 flutters in cadence.
Round 2: sideline to sideline x 5 – 20 peter parkers in cadence
Round 3: sideline to sideline x 5 – 1-minute elbow plank.
Second set: let’s find some shade. Head over to the bus shelter on the side of the middle school. Start with 10 burpees, then 10 big boy sit ups, 10 squats, 10 merkins. Repeat with 9 of each, then 8, then 7, then 6 down to 1. A Crowd pleaser! Not one complaint from the group.
Third set: Mosey to front of Middle school for Ab Webb, 1 big boy and 4 American hammers all the way until 10 and 40. Another crowd pleaser although it seemed too easy for Wrigley.
Fourth set: 25 dips at the benches and half lap around the middle school parking lot. Rinse and repeat. DONE!
Announcements
Blood Drive July 23rd, need more people to sign up. See Newschannel for sign up link or Fusebox.
Raffle for $1,500 Furniture Gift Certificate Ongoing. Bring Cash to AO, see Centerfold for details. All proceeds goes to our goal of raising $10K for local charities. Raffle ends in a week, so hurry and get your tickets!
100 Pax Challenge – Looking for 100 Pax to donate $100 or WHATEVER YOU CAN. Venmo to @f3waxhaw. See Posse for details.
Qschool/Site School coming up. See Newschannel for details.
Keep Goodfella and his family in your prayers.
YHC took us out.
I showed up to Q without a Weinke on my wrist to guide me and I screwed up the Warm-up (Appreciate the call-out by Deadwood). I did have a Weinke in my head but the fact that I have CRS came into play… Not only did I miss the first marker but it seems that when I said “let’s Mosey”, there were some PAX who didn’t hear me and got a little behind. We ended up together but I was nervous we may have to turn around and start over. Everyone caught up and so we went…
Warmorama
Burpee Ladder down the back of the MS sidewalk for a burpee ladder stopping at each light on the left for 1,2,….., 8 Burpees. Total of 36 Burpees. (If Bottle Cap had posted, we would have added a 9th stop but he didn’t so the PAX that posted got a reprieve. You’re Welcome…). What better way to warm the body up than to do 36 burpees from the start? So we circled up at the Shed and did Downward Dog, Calf Stretch L/R, Upward Dog, Jimmy Dugans C/L/R/C and Runner’s Stretch L/R.
Thang
Grab a lifting Rock and partner up (Or pair up with the person the Q assigned to you). Partner 1 runs to sidewalk by Softball field and back while partner 2 does Curls the first round, shoulder presses 2nd round, rows 3rd and Tricep Ext 4th. Return Rocks to their original place…
Mosey to Traffic circle between MS/HS for 7’s – Starting at top circle run down to bottom circle for 1 BBSU and return to top for 6 Diamond Merkins all the way up/down to 6 BBSUs/1 Diamond Merkin.
Mosey to 1st alcove on North Side of HS for MT/DK web from 1/4 up to 5/20. (The original plan was to go all the way to 10/40 but don’t Q what you can’t do…)
Mosey to front entrance of HS and find a bench for 25 dips, 20 Jump ups/Step Ups, 15 Derkins, 10 Reverse Plank Knee Ups, 5 Burpee Jump ups with Hot lap around drop off circle between each exercise. Rinse and Repeat for a second round.
Mosey to MS Admin parking lot for four corners. At each corner stop for 10 reps of called exercise. 1st we did American Hammers IC, 2nd Flutters IC, 3rd LSSq IC and ended with Walking Lunges 1=1.
AYG back to COT and done!
Kudos
Fuse Box getting into a new comfort zone with the more-mileage-longer workouts. (Keep pushing bro!). Pre-mature is drinking the Kool-Aid and getting faster every week (Caught him doing a pre-run). Good to see Deadwood back out with us after few days away with work commitments. Ice-9 posting regularly in his own region and showing us what it is to push beyond your limits. Dasher and Glidah displaying what hard work does to your love handles when you run the Waxhaw Express for 8 weeks (hint: they melt away). Rubbermaid (Respect!) out there with the Youngins and showing us that age is just a number.
Moleskin
First time Weinkeless Q. (Not that I didn’t have a Weinke but that I didn’t carry it on my wrist like usual). Tough for me to remember but I had it all worked out in my head before hand. Seems like I got it all in but in hind site, will print and carry with me in the future. I did have to call an audible due to the Impromptu PAX using the benches at the MS cafeteria but that is to be expected when 2 workouts share the same AO. We improvised, adapted and overcame. Glad to be asked to lead this workout. No mileage minimum but we hit just over 4 miles with those who picked up the Six logging 4.25 or more. We stayed together and had some mumble chatter about the second round of 25/20/15/10/5 but we all pushed through and finished.
Announcements
See BB for Impromptu
Rudy took us out
8 people showed up for Diesel
The Thang
Announcements
Prayers for Centerfold’s wife for a quick recovery from her surgery. Prayers for two fellow F3 members diagnosed with Covid-19
11 Men went back to school at The Floater. As one of the original Site Qs (along with Moneyball), I might be a little biased, but downtown Waxhaw is my favorite AO. Lots of unique options and the traffic scenery is much different than our typical AO.
WARMUP:
MAIN EVENT:
THE RECAP:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Prayer for Goodfella and his wife as they are back in hospital for more observation.
You know, there’s a saying that you’re either growing or dying. Basically you’re either pushing yourself to be better and staying just outside of your comfort zone or remaining stagnant just going through the motions of life. Well what better way to grow and get a little uncomfortable than to take center stage and lead a group of your peers. Oh and why not make it a VQ at an AO you’ve never posted at before! I will say I did cruise around campus on my mtn bike the morning before to connect what I had mapped out in my brain from google maps. Did you know you can draw and measure distance on a PC in google maps? Well you can… Anyway I arrived extra early after a couple PAX were already on site and the cars just kept pulling in right up until time to mosey. DICCS were given while the last vehicle parked with an extra reminder for distance and safety.
WARM UP
.25(ish)mi mosey around the massive school parking lot and circled up
Mobility stretch – up & downward dog, hip stretch, twist (lots of groans so mission accomplished)
Peter Parkers IC x 10 i think
Rock back merkins hold EA position x 5 (i do these selfishly because I LOL inside watching PAX try to figure it out)
THE THANG
Mosey to mini track for 1mi Build a Burpee – 6 total laps (unless you’re Tool Time and then double it)
All exercises 6 down to 1 rep
Corner 1 – merkins
Corner 2 – in and outs
Corner 3 – squats (will remember to add the jump next time)
Corner 4 – burpees
Mary until 6 is in –
Mosey down the sidewalk to go around the back of the school off road down around edge of woods toward baseball fields
Hard left through the grass and edge of woods and stop at gravel access Rd.
Out and back merkin Buffet
Start x 5 diamond
Light pole x 5 (players choice because i completely drew a blank)
Light pole x 5 wide
End x 5 reg
X 2 rounds
Mary until 6 is in –
Mosey back to COT – ab web 1 BB 4 flutters until time
MOLESKIN
Hot damn I had a great time at Dromedary this morning! My preparation paid off and I felt cool, calm and collected the whole time. So much, in fact, we ended up running nearly 3.5mi before time was up. Ooops… I swear Garmin told me we should end up around 2.5/.75 tops the day before. I guess that’s one way not to get invited back to Q. Dasher double check with Deadwood next time, would you?! I had tons of help and support throughout my weinke from Tool Time, Posse, Dasher, Premature, Fiji, Shop dog and others I’m sure I’m forgetting but you know who you are. 5:30am seems more like a dream at this point. We had 24 pax including 2 mashers and I saw many faces I hadn’t seen in a long time or finally got to connect a face with a name so that was awesome. Random fact but this is the second Wednesday in a row that I have been attacked by Carolina piss ants fire ants at the very end of the workout. Last week at Chiseled whilst doing shirtless burpees. Little spawn of satan nailed me twice right in the gut and then two separate attacks by bigger and angrier little SOBs on the lower calf and my right hand this morning. Still had my shirt on this time too if you’re thinking, “Serves you right Glidah… keep your clothes on already.” I can’t close out this BB without mentioning the local news caught wind that Goodfella was making an appearance for the first time in two weeks today and caught the whole thing on tape! Ok Fox news was doing a story and Goodfella was there but the two were not related. Something about COVID… I don’t know. He still rocked it out the whole time like he wasn’t sleep deprived and hadn’t missed a single workout. He closed us out with a great reminder of how important it is to always work hard and prepare for the battles of life. Not if, but when. And not physically but spiritually; mentally. Without faith in something greater than yourself you can’t navigate the storms of life. It left yet another confirmation that this group is a big deal and not an accident. We support, we encourage, we give, we love, we serve and we care about others first before ourselves. I am humbled and grateful to be a part of something so incredibly awesome. Dromedary I will be back!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
100 pax challenge – donate and get raffle tickets – win a pimped out recliner or take a store credit – Winning
Sign up for Q school if you haven’t already.
Pray for continued healing for Goodfella’s M, baby boy and family. God is good and has his arms wrapped around them tight.
There are more announcements that I am forgetting so please scroll to the bottom of the other BB’s that were posted earlier today because they probably remembered.
YHC took us out. Look to Him and remember to show others that He is at work in your life.