When you have multiple Q’s, you have no Q’s…or something like that
After fartsacking on Thursday, YHC needed to post. After checking the website to find no Q listed; YHC inquired of Mermaid as to who was Q’ing. He informed that he was DR and that Margo was finding a Q…not so much. Here’s what Margo put out on the Twitterverse: “#F3Centurion will have a PAX led Q tomorrow. Come with ideas for your favorite things.” Don’t think so. YHC & Udder stepped up at that point…and actually Udder Q’d about 2/3 of the downpainment.
Giving site Q Margo some grief, but all in good fun…methinks he is the longest-tenured site Q in all of Area51, perhaps in the history of Area51….though Haze may have had a similar tenure at Fast Twitch.
BTW, Margo forgot the shovel flag, too; but in fairness it was buried below about 272 pounds of Christmas light boxes and other Griswoldian paraphernalia.
Anyhoo, below is some Thang and Moleskinny:
After a wandering, mediocre disclaimer from Udder that would have left Mermaid shaking his head, off the 10 pax went to Carmel Commons (or whatever the shopping center is called) for COP & a rough 11’s call from Udder: Jumping Lunges & Burpees – with running the stairwells and length of the retail complex in between. It hurt. Haze was yelling back to Udder that it should have been 7’s rather than 11’s.
The early finishing pax did some Mary while waiting on the six. Lorax, Haze, Brilleaux & Snuka were out front and almost lapped YHC….narrowly avoided that. Any knucklehead that says, “It’s you vs. you” – is wrong. We all know that. Stop with the silly sayings. Another saying that’s weak: “I am third”. Stop counting what place you are in line. Just serve. True humility is giving little to no consideration to yourself. C.S. Lewis put it this way:
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”
Ok, off the soapbox now. YHC took the Q reins at this point — and we headed back towards CCHS, stopping at the rock quarry and doing some sets of thrusters and other stuff x13, of course. These were OYO. OYO.
Clover cleverly asked for a demonstration to stall…but even the relative rookie Point Break knew what he was doing. It did take Lorax and someone else about 3 minutes to find a rock…and he exchanged at least once. Boxing Day was yesterday, brother. Grab a dang rock, and let’s get to work!
Snuka was throwing his rock around like it was a Christmas ornament. After last week’s forced tutorial from Champagne at Anvil, the fast-running Respect is a lifting machine.
The not-so-loquacious Thunder Road & Brilleaux (the x is more silent than him, or is it?) were getting after it as they always do.
After the rock work, we ran over to the front of CCHS for some double-squat jump up’s & dips; then back to the launch lot for some Mary including Makthar N’Djayie’s…of course. 13 of them, to be exact.
That’s it for the workout, or at least what YHC can recall.
Some other sundry, yet noteworthy, observations:
Margo’s beard is still legit. Clover still loves ND and Duke though, thankfully, made no mention of either this morning. Purple Haze posted at a bootcamp workout. We did not visit Tartarus. Chelms was not there.
That’s it and that’s all, sports fans. Tierra del Fuego. Muchos obligatos. Feliz Navidad. Joyeux Noel (that’s for everyone’s favorite French Iowan, aka Brilleaux).
Passez un bon weekend!
Amazing Race 1st Edition
Impromptu will forever be recognized as the best AMRAP Course workout on all of northeast Cuthbertson road; but could the Site Q’s deliver something fresh, new-age and dope? Well yes – The Amazing Race concept. With so many different sites popping up in the Waxhaw region it’s a blessing and it’s a curse. On the good side; plenty of workouts to choose from; and on the negative side (IMHO) – it fragments the larger group a bit and we don’t always see each other in the morning. So how could we bring everyone together that would help bring back the bonds with some brothers you’ve not worked out with or seen in a bit – enter the Amazing Race concept. 24 PAX for the inaugural running.
Warm up: SSH/Merkin/PlankJack/BH/Dugan
Quick Mosey Sprint to front of Middle School – it was supposed to be in order of finish count off 1-5. Not all grasped this (needs improvement for next AR)
We crafted this first one on the fly. It had some opening night miscues; but we’ll learn from this.
The concept was pretty simple;
- Try to get balanced teams
- Promote a bit of competition
- Get a good workout
- Do something different
Using the the Starfish approach: Home base & 5 stations with a task: (no prescribed order)
- Wheelbarrow to light pole and back
- 50 donkey kicks
- 50 Dips & 50 Step Ups
- Hair Burner across the lot
- Cinder Blocks – 50 Press and 50 Curl
10 hand slap merkins on return to homebase.
– if you made it to a station and another team was there: – you had to wait while doing SSH.
To balance or promote strategy, there was a “release a pax” concept. It meant that all pax on a team made it to a station; you could send 1 person back to starfish (presumably your slowest) before everyone started the exercise. But the penalty was that the remaining pax had to do the exercise + 10 Burpees each. Not sure if any team took advantage?
If you hit all stations it was close to 3 miles. I saw lots of sweaty PAX at the end, so I’m thinking a lot of folks pushed themselves. I know that being teamed with a gazelle or two will push you –
So next time give it your all – “Because you’re just not letting you self down if you don’t – you’re letting a fellow Pax down”
So for a period of time we’ll be running An Amazing Race on the last Friday of each month.
Announcements: Commitment & HOMECOMING are on tap tomorrow. Christ’s Closet on Jan 11th. New workout on Fridays 5:15 at Cuthbertson; “The Swarm”
Hats off to Schnieder for bringing another 2.0 from his clan. Brian 14 years old – We welcomed him as “Fur Coat” – Jet’s fan and we can’t give a kid a crappy name. #Dana
One Star took us out.
Starting to get concerned about the crowbar
5 pax gathered for a post-Christmas beatdown, including an fng (my second this week… and total). Attempted to go for a theme, but most carols are terrible for workouts and 12 days has been appropriately and roundly abused in the recent past. So, I ended up just attempting to hit one of the areas most affected by bad holiday decisions.
- Warm-up
- loop around parking lot
- 10 ssh and merkins in cadence, calf stretch, 10 potato pickers
- Run to Middle school entrance
- 5 diamond merkins and a half lap
- 3 rounds
- Run back to start- Jack Webb
- Hammers (increments of 4)
- Bobby Hurleys (increments of 1)
- Bearcrawl up hill
- Moseyed to the path
- 5 burpees at each light
- Run backwards between lights
- Run to high school parking lot – Suicides/4 corners
- Home – 20 speed skaters
- 1st corner – 10 dry docks
- 2nd corner – 15 wide arm merkins
- 3rd corner – 20 squats
- Book back to start (we were totally on time at 6:17)
- Fuse took us out
Everyone did great, the fng was never just lying on the ground questioning his life decisions, drive by was pushing it the whole time, Glider just outright killed my weinke, and Fuse Box was generally up front, but still threatens me with a crowbar… should I be concerned?
The fng had a narrow miss on his naming as he saved one of the best/worst wedding stories I think I’ve ever heard. The group walked away settling on the name Fourscore. A few minutes later he was talking about his various anniversary dates and the mnemonics he uses to remember them, in particular his wedding date. Apparently he was married in Nagasaki on the anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped there. Hence, with this backblast, I believe I have secured him a much better f3 name as Nagasaki (with the exception of One Star attempting to name my brother Cock Blocker Tuesday). Been trying to talk him into coming out here for probably years at this point, and I believe it helps when they don’t have to wake up before the crack of dawn to attend.
Announcements:
12/31 – Watchtower converges at Bushwood – Marvin Elementary
1/1 – Chiseled converges at Dromedary – Marvin Ridge High
The Floater
Will the streak ever die? Probably but not today! 15 men joined me at the worst AO in Waxhaw to burn 500 of the 5000 calories they probably consumed during Christmas dinner.
I arrived in Waxhaw around 5:00 to set out a few cones and scope out some uncharted territory. At 5:22 the Christmas dinner started talking as I made a dash to the convenient store only to find both restrooms out of order!!! Porta Jon!! I knew there would be a few at the new apartments in the heart of downtown. PJ found and crisis averted but I rolled up to the AO at 5:14.59! I hopped out of the car yelling out DiCCs and let’s mosey!!
We took off towards the tracks as 2 more cars rolled in….AUDIBLE #1 circle back for the late guys. Gerber and I led the way back to the AO to pick up the lone Pax only to discover they were not pax and were headed inside a building with Yoga mats… We gone!
Warmup:
Mosey from AO, down Another Bad Idea and along the back streets of Waxhaw to our final resting place at Pizza Hut. Circle up!
SSH x 10 IC
Merkins x 5 IC – Regular, Wide, Diamond
MC x IC
I think I skipped the calf stretch!! Sorry Gerber
The Thang:
Partner up:
P1 runs around the building, P2 walking lunges – Down and back 600 yards
Suicides:
#1 Burpee at each of the 7 cones increasing by 1/ 5 squats at the start – Stop at the end
#2 Alternate Carolina Dry Docks 5/10/5/10 at each cone/10-speed skaters at the start
Capt. Therkin 1 BBSU / 4 random ab exercises w/ 4 merkins 2/8/4 etc.
Partner up:
P1 inchworms across the lot, P2 runs a lap Audible #2 YHC decided the inchworm was too easy and changed to bear crawl. When you reached the end crawl bear back. RECOVER
We headed straight back to the AO and arrived at 5:15.10ish
Solid work by all and it felt great to Q again, and thanks for letting me lead! Merry Christmas fellas!!! Thanks to Mad Dog for taking us out.
Announcements
Legal Zoom on Q @ Clyent Dinner
Twas the gloom before Christmas….
Great stuff this morning men. Cobains here as I could only remember 24 of the 26 pax that posted. Not bad for not recording, and a convergence to boot. Speaking of convergence – a great mix of Area51 and SOB pax – roughly 50/50. Area51 hopes to return the favor at Bagpipe on NYE.
After YHC planted the SF, and Hopper reminded everyone they couldn’t sue anyone or anything, off we went.
The remainder of this backblast will be very little Thang and more Moleskinny.
Hopper had us pair up after COP and we ran some stairs, did a myriad of merkins. One thing to note during the stair work – Wingman was defying gravity and wisdom by jumping down 4 or 5 stairs at a time. Don’t tell his M. YHC partnered with Jazz Hands – great nickname.
Must insert here that despite Kirby’s HC on Slack yesterday – he was a fartsacker. Hope he shows on NYE. Cooter2 was there and pushing hard. Other random comments – didn’t see Frehley’s workout hanky? By the way, he’s got some Clemson tix to sell you if you feel like a trip to Arizona to watch Ohio State and the Tiggers. Can they both lose? If not, then better that Ohio State loses – no offense Hopper…actually, hope I did offend.
We did some circuit work, and YHC partnered with Spackler. The guy runs hard & well…just doesn’t do much of anything else. He may be better served at Fast Twitch.
Some other sundry observations:
Mighty Mite was wearing St. Nick’s lid…bet that smells tasty at this point. Geraldo was wearing a Santa Clause coat/t-shirt. You guys should’ve gotten a picture together and sent it as a Xmas present to all your fellow rucktards.
Jet Fuel was there – and that was noteworthy as he doesn’t post Tuesday’s very often…neither does Lorax and he was chatty and not hearing YHC’s instructions.
Snowflake and Snuka….I mean seriously. Do any of you think you’ll still be posting at F3 when you’re 58. We should open a book on that. Market Timer can run it.
Tagalong’s beard will still be posting in 20+ years when he’s 58….the beard will be 37.
Puddin’ Pop cleared some folks out….I think…during COP. Par. For. The. Course.
We did some other stuff for YHC’s portion of the Q including some box jump, double-squat burpees, Wallthar N’Djaiye’s, Burpees, People’s Chair variations, blah, blah, blah.
Cheddar – thankful for you brother. God’s continued grace to you and your M. and 2.0 in Chicago. We’ll miss you. Come back and see us.
Gotta run and grab a beer with Spackler at the Lodge, so I’ll end there….actually one more thing:
I can’t end a Christmas Eve backblast without saying the following: I am grateful for all of my F3 brothers. I pray for you guys often. My most consistent prayer is that all of you and your loved ones, if you haven’t already –> find hope, not just at this time of year, but always. Hope in that which is true, trustworthy and lasting forever. Most of you know I’ve found that hope in this holiday’s namesake. It’s not a religion or a bunch of do’s/don’ts. It’s a faith, moreover a trust, in this dude named Jesus. Do you know Him? I’d love to grab coffee, lunch or a beer with anyone who wants to talk about this hope.
Merry Christmas, men. Emmanuel.
Because somebody thought this was a good idea
When the decision was made to converge the great SOB/A51 hybrid sites for the weeks around Christmas and New Years, YHC thought “hey thats a neat idea.” Then somebody mentioned that a “swifter” should Q the FT workout today to which I thought “gee that’d be swell.” Then Purrell suggested YHC should do it…well the trend ended there, but he thought it was a good idea and so we found ourselves in the gloom embarking on a bit of an adventure. You see, YHC had never posted at Latin prior to this morning. Complicating things further, this would be the first time I’d attempted to Q a running workout… so… here goes.
The Thang:
Gather round the parking lot and at the tick of 0515 wait for Voodoo to clamber out of his soccer-mom-mobile and tie is shoes so we could commence warming up at 0516. Mosey around the big new building adjacent to the track, around behind same building and back down to the track (much to Haze’s protestations.)
Partner up with a PAX about your speed for AMRAP running work
Partner 1: Commence 400 intervals with 200 recovery
Partner 2: Run the same loop as during warm up (about .4 miles)
Flapjack. Repeato. The partners figure out the right way to switch out, but quite a few “I’m halfway through the 400” happened. By YHC’s math, the faster pairs completed 13-14 400s before I called everyone back to the gate.
Divide the group of “partner 1s” and “partner 2s” into 2 teams
Team 1:Flipper, Turkey Leg, Wild Turkey, Purple Haze, Woodson, Alf, Rosie
Team 2: Taco Stand, VooDoo, Laronda, Citgo, Astro, Wolverine, Purell
4 PAX from each team walk over to the far corner for a 7X200 relay as outlined above with a bit of a wrinkle (more on that later.) It was quite the event, ending in a narrow margin victory by team 1.
Mosey back around the building for a final cool down and back to the cars for COT with HawkPipe.
YE SKINNY MOLESKIN:
Today was much more of a success than I could have possibly hoped, with the PAX getting into the variety of format and grinding out some very aggressive turns during the 400 intervals. By 45 minutes in I was completely smoked and called the unplanned race segment as a way to camouflage the state of my flagging legs.
The relay was truly Epic, with TacoStand getting Team 2 off to a great start and opening close to 100 meter lead out of the gate. The margin opened and closed intermittently over the following legs with Woodson bringing team 1’s deficit down to about 25 meters right at the end. YHC was running to catch Wolverine (and hand off to Rosie who was the team 1 anchor) but the respect is strong and my legs were as mentioned before. Upon reaching the opposite corner imagine my surprise to see the bald greatness of Purrel, rocking his wife’s tights yet again, awaiting the tag from YHC. Off he went, and dang that man is FAST. Little did YHC know, Rosie is nursing a bit of a bum foot and Purrel convinced him to flop teams when the lead continued to be significant for team 2. Purrel, not to be beaten by his own artifice, blazed through 200 meters in what looked like 30 seconds flat to edge Rosie by a thin margin.
Also, Thin Mint and Polly were around somewhere doing the rogue thing… see them for details
Today’s workout was targeted at friendly competition, both in the pairings and the race. Having an adversary who can challenge us to put that next little bit into our performance encourages us to stretch, dig deep and develop performance in a way our internal motivation often can’t. Find somebody who tests you, and beat them, rinse then repeat.
YHC is reminded this time of year how much I am blessed by my strength of body and the strength of support I receive every day from the PAX. In year 6, YHC continues to be amazed by the power of this thing we call F3. Thank you to Purell for letting me be a part of FastTwitch, and to my brothers for being a part of your lives.
I truly hope each and every one of you has an amazing holiday week and enjoys time with your families and friends for Christmas.
Flipper Out
Everybody gets a strength workout!
As a new year dawns in South Charlotte, it’s time to announce the establishment of a new series of strength workouts, including new days of the week and new locations. Pay attention so you know where to be starting on Monday, January 6th:
- Mondays at 0530:
Name: TBD
McAlpine Elementary (former site of Day Zero), 9100 Carswell Lane, Charlotte, NC 28277
Site Qs: Mighty Mite and Ickey Shuffle
Note: this will be a joint Area 51/SOB workout
- Wednesdays at 0530:
Name: Meathead
Calvary Church (site of Anvil), 5801 Pineville-Matthews Road, Charlotte, NC 28226
Site Q: Voodoo
Note: shared COT with Anvil (think Bagpipe/Swift or Hawks’ Nest/Fast Twitch)
- Saturdays at 0630:
Name: Olympus
Elizabeth Lane Elementary, 121 Elizabeth Lane, Matthews, NC 28105
Site Q: Open (Voodoo for now)
Note: this will be a 60-minute workout
Please note that Skunkworks will be unaffected by this change. Funky Cold and Tulip will continue to run that site at Covenant Day School in Matthews on Tuesdays at 0530.
The goal is for these three sites to work together on a coordinated strength program during certain parts of the year (similar to Bratwurst’s 1-month rotations at Swift). If you joined us for the Total Tension program earlier this year, it will be like that, but with a few different programs being run throughout the year. During a strength program, the site Qs or weekly Qs will lead the prescribed workout and post a backblast. When there’s not a strength program in effect, they will function like a traditional gear site with weekly Qs leading workouts of their own design (and also writing up backblasts).
The first strength workout is a modified version of a prep program for the StrongFirst Girevik Level I certification. I recommend reading the original post, which can be found here. I have modified this plan (see here) to reflect a few things:
- 3 weekly workouts instead of 4 and elimination of the last week of tapering for the certification
- Replacement of the TGU with the waiter carry (since none of you were going to do them anyway)
- Increase in weights to account for the 24kg “standard” bell size for men per StrongFirst – modify this as needed! If you modify, try to keep the various steps up/down during the program consistent (i.e., if the program says to use a 28 instead of a 24, you should use a 24 instead of a 20).
- The author of the article says these workouts last 60-90 minutes, so we will likely run out of time. Don’t focus on completing everything, just do what you can in the 45 minutes you have.
I am excited for this new chapter in strength workouts in South Charlotte. I’m hopeful that some new locations will make these options attractive to more men from both Area 51 and SOBland.
See you in the gloom,
Voodoo
The Perfect Holiday Substitute for Bratwurst…….a Big Tuna?
Apparently for Saturday’s Homecoming at WMS, it was a Rare-Serving of Big Tuna. Here’s what was on the menu:
After a 6:30AM-sharp launch, we headed to the front of the school for a quick warm-up and brief Bro-ga stretch. We then jumped immediately into a Demascus Crowd Pleaser – Burpee Ladder / Bear-Crawl under the school canopy. (Everyone was warmed up by then.)
Partner Up (Clydesdales partner with Gazzelles) for a called exercise while the partner 2 runs the middle school loop. (Dips, Jump-Squats & Lunges) Mosey around school towards cafeteria. Same Partners, for a team total of Step-Ups x 100, Dips x 200 & LBCs x 300, while alternating running the outer-ring.
Mosey towards the Bus Parking Lot for some Partner Push-Pulls (Thanks for the reminder Deadwood!) Partner 1 Pushes midway then pulls second-half. Partner 2 Repeato. Last time Pulls-Only and midway Partners rotate. Mosey towards the WES playground for the Posse-Inspired Swerkins x 20 (a merkin with feet in a swing) Pull-Ups x 20, Dips x 20 with a 50-yard run between each exercise.
Next we find a rock-pile and the instructions were to get a lifting rock. (Definitions vary!) The PAX were asked to call the exercise. Once done, we needed to mosey to the front of WES, but not without a little backwards run across the parking lot. We finished the Burpee ladder / Bear-Crawl under the canopy. Mosey back to the front of WMS to the base of the driveway. Run up the hill of the driveway and back down the otherside and wait on the six. Once everyone made it, the final instructions from the Q was a AYG Jail Break back to the COT. Deadwood finished us with ab-merry.
I appreciate the opportunity to serve these fine men today. I haven’t seen Dasher more exhausted then after those Partner Push/Pulls (he was the unlucky one who partnered with the Q). Gerber, once again, crushed that hill like it was flat. Demascus & Legal Zoom saved they’re energy for the Down Hill. I appreciate Posse asking me to Q and showing up with his support!
Special prayer requests go out to Dasher and his family as well as Nails and his family. Happy Holidays!
12 Days of Christmas comes to Base Camp
6 men decided to start their week right by posting Basecamp.
Despite the nasty weather, they decided to partake of the 12 days of KB Christmas – Basecamp Style.
YHC has no interesting in getting soaked in 40 deg temps with wind and rain so did some recon yesterday and decided AO had some decent cover.
The Thang
Basecamp KB 12 days of Christmas – after quick disclaimer, YHC provided quick overview of the proceeding 12 days of Christmas workout. Provided a few KB tutorials to help some of the newbies. Entertainment was also provided to add to the holiday festivities. YHC is a huge fan of Vince Guaraldi – so it was Charlie Brown Christmas for the pax this am.
Quick warmup with a few prying goblet squats and halos – then to work.
12 Days of Christmas format – with each new day, do that exercise, then work thru all the previous exercises.
1st Day – 1 half dozen diamond merkins on your bell.
2nd Day – 2 Goblet Cossack squats per leg
3rd Day – 3 Halos
4th Day – 4 Viking Presses – (2 per side)
5th Day – 5 High Pulls per side
6th Day – 6 OHP per side
7th Day – 7 Goblet Squats
8th Day – 8 American Hammers (R+L = 1)
9th Day – 9 RDL per leg
10th Day – 10 Hack Squats (crowd pleaser)
11th Day – 11 Cleans per side
12th Day – 12 2 H Swings
Done
NMM
Great work by everyone today – this was a ton of work to get done in 45 mins. Made it most of the way, but combined 11th and 12th day at the end to make it right at 6:15. Thanks Men for braving the elements and starting the week off right. Kept everyone dry – mainly due to rain and KBs do not mix – slippery handles = bad situation. Everyone worked thru and made it thru the 12 days and no windows were taken out. .
Jello and Thunder Road – thanks again for the opportunity to lead and for covering for YHCs oversight earlier this year with the Q. Will be happy to be back and happy to bring the KBs back.
Thanks again men for denying the fartsack and joining YHC for some KB fun. Hope it was worth it.
And thanks to Voodoo for supplying extra bells and to High Tide, who is DR, who provided YHC with a large assortment of KBs to share – he may have a KB problem.
Announcements:
Holiday Happy Hour today – The Lodge 4:00 to 6:00 pm
Look for new gear workouts and schedules for the upcoming year.
New Monday gear workout at McAlpine Elementary starting after the first of the year – watch the schedule. – Site Qs to be Mighty Mite and Ickey.
Wednesday – Meathead to move to Anvil and launch with Anvil to provide options – Boot camp or gear.
Other changes coming too.
Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.
Champagne Out.