So I am not even sure why I need to write this backblast up. Waxhaw’s super secret internal messaging platform has already had several memes and jokes about the events that took place this morning, and I’m sure everyone from SOB already knows that old school Waxhaw can be a little rough around the edges. We’ll get to that. However, 7 studs were exited to start off their week by basically copying Gerber’s workout from last week, this time with the added danger of cars and discussions with a local on Waxhaw’s recent mayoral results and what that means for an ever changing and growing city with increasing complaints on development and traffic.
Warm up: Run long way down path back up past the stairs and out to Cuthbertson and the school entrance. About a mile. 11 Mountain climbers IC, 11 Merkins IC. Start to leave, have a brief conversation with a local.
Thang: -Mosey to Lawson Dr. near clubhouse. Run from stop sign on Abbotts Creek Dr. to Oxford Mill Rd. 0.34 mi. At ends, 15 merkins and 15 Jump Squats; in middle at path, complete 5 burpees each time path was passed up to 50 total burpees. When done, run backwards up Lawson Dr.; more jump squats while we wait
-Playground work. Clubhouse parking lot, 10 merkins, down to playground 10 pull ups. Complete each 5x for a total of 50 of each.
-Run back to Cuthbertson Rd. –20 LBC’s at Abbotts Creek Dr. and Riverbank Rd. 40 LBC’s at Cuthbertson Rd.
-Mosey back through new Lawon and Five Forks RD. 20 Merkins at Pinewalk. Continue to second Lawson pool. Plank. -Down Surveyor General Dr. 10 jump squats every other light pole. Shortcut to the middle school to join up with the Flash crew for the last minute. 5mi plus
Moleskine: We got a little thrown off by the incident at 5:23am local time. The 7 of us were confronted and threatened by a lovely young gentleman in red flannel pajamas. Really wanted to talk to, have a conversation with, FIGHT all of us. He threw out some lovely and very Lawson-like language like the phrase in the title (technically he’s a Lawson guy) and we initially attempted to engage him back wonder what the heck was happening and if this was real before we realized he was serious and seemed wild enough to have a weapon (he did walk 50 yards with no shoes on across the busy street to confront, ask to join F3, FIGHT all 7 of us, ON SCHOOL GROUNDS). We were counting too loud (not confirmed though I can get loud like Deflated) and somehow woke him up with 11 MC’s and 11 merkins (both IC). But apparently the hundreds of busses and cars that zoom by his house every morning are like white noise to this guy.
I’m not really sure any of us ever answered his main questions, which is why we woke him up and who we were. While still standing in the middle of the street, we all just took off. Didn’t really turn around to see what happened next as I went full Kipchoge pace to the next stop. Figured Rubbermaid and Easy Button have been in a few scraps in their days and would take the guy if needed. And that was the end of it. Went home the long way to avoid grumpy, likely really really tired, pajama guy. I missed a lot I’m sure. Nobody that’s reading this anymore cares.
So yeah we did something similar last week but the workout still sucks. Threw in some pull ups because our last pull up challenge was an massive success epic fail. Good solid core group for Ignition. Just glad none of us were wearing our F3 shirts.
Announcements: May be partnering with Ray of Hope charity in Waxhaw. Stay tuned. Official announcement hopefully soon. Presents and money from our Christmas party delivered last week. 24th-Converge at Watchtower 31st-converge at Bushwood
Solid groups of fellas ranging from 12 to Respect. We covered 2.3 miles and did a healthy helping of ‘mericans, and assorted bootcamp bassery. Depite less than ideal conditions, this crew kept the mumble to a minimum and put a solid effort.
Warm-up
Side straddle, Imperial Walker and Steve Earls
Head in the direction the elementary school, stop for Wheel-O-‘mercan. (that’s 60 to star your day.)
Set 1
7s – Burpees and pull-ups then a school lap
Set 2
BLIMPS with hose
7 Teams of 2.
Team 1 – burpees
Team 2 – Lunges
Team 3 – Imperial walkers
Team 4 – ‘mericans
Team 5 – Plank jacks
Team 6 – Squats
Team 7 – Run the hose to mailbox and back
when the hose team gets back to start, rotate to the next station
Rinse and repeat
Run another school lap
Set 3
10 Bobby Hurleys —> 10 Single-leg Roman deadlift (each leg)
Rinse and repeat
Bear crawl across the parking lot
Set 4
‘merican / LBC ladder
10 and 10 to 1 an 1
#crowdpleaser
Mary to finish
PAX
Wild Turkey, Shop Dawg, Hi-hat, JWoww, Rubbermaid, Doughboy, Deep dish, Breadbowl, Turnbuckle, Blades of Glory, On time, Run Flat
Moleskin
First off, thanks to Rubbermaid for the invite. We recently completed a 50k together, well not really together because his time was far better than min. Anyway, he’s been a good and generous friend. He gave me great insight into the AO, the pax and even showed up early to give me a tour. Plus, he brought the hose!
Next, we heard in COT about another friend on the verge of suicide. For many people, this world can be a difficult place. Please know there is NOTHING so bad that won’t pass. Also know there is a community in F3 that can help you, listen and genuinely cares about you. This is more than a workout.
Speaking of more than a workout, cheers to the community clean-up crew this morning!!
Enjoy this advent season. There is a message in the season of patience.
13 Pax gathered with the hopes of staying on campus and doing a light workout before getting on with their day. They were all mistaken and I am pretty sure Joker got wind of the plan last night because he left shortly after the pre-run.
Very short disclaimer with this veteran crowd
Circle up in place
13 Pax each broke up into teams of 4 (I was odd man out), with each grabbing some of Alf’s holiday gear (concrete blocks, 45 lbs plates and sandbags). Each team instructed to run to basketball court at old Day 0.
Day 0 Basketball Court: 4 corners at the track, each Pax run to the corners and do curls (concrete blocks), overhead press (45 lbs plates), squats (sandbags) and Merkins (no gear Pax). Once the lap was completed, reverse the track and do additional lap.
Partner up with 12 hand-slap merkins back at b-ball court. It is noted that Voodoo left at this point putting the Pax in even groups.
Additional lap with entire Pax (minus Voodoo) no gear.
Re-group into teams of 4 (with dreaded gear) and head back to launch via Bevington Place, Elm and 51.
Completed with 1 minute of extra credit.
The trail of tears that was performed today was inspired by an Alf workout from a few years back. Although this workout didn’t end with a Charlotte Catholic parent yelling at the Pax. I appreciate the gear that he brought to help facilitate the misery.
A few observations from today’s Pax: Hopefully Hoover never intends to practice Hindu; he would make a good pack mule in his next life. Jet Fuel kept mumbling under his breath how expensive Christmas was going to be because of Miss Huntersville exquisite tastes. Looks like this will cost him another overseas trip to Bahrain to pay for his holiday expenses. Stone Cold needs a step ladder to get into his truck. I am sure he is on his way to Monster Jam 19 today to crush some cars. Alf: thanks for the gear, Jet-Fuel was very intrigued by your sleep over story. Hooper: did your athletic department donation to OSU go toward Chase Young steroids? That dude is a beast. Ductwork: you were a cyborg, I don’t think I ever saw you without a plate or block. Levi: good effort buddy, I know you are sore. IHop: good work today! Voodoo: It took us an extra 10 minutes to get back to launch because of you pulling the rip cord 30 mins early. We all appreciate it! O Tannenbaum: no you can’t sniff my ankle bra. Boerewors: Kid n Play called an need to borrow your hat for their 90’s hip hop tour reunion. Slingshot: didn’t think you were going to make it but you pulled through
Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
Bounce
34 degrees and rain. Doesn’t get much worse than that. There was a corner of me that was hoping know one else would show, but good men like Horsehead and Turkey Leg are not going to let the Q off the hook because of a little chilly rain.
Disclaimer – none. Ain’t got time for that.
First Exercise – Dive out of cars at the strike of 5:30, high tail it to the pavilion picking up a lifting rock along the way.
Some COP warm up calisthenics.
Then various unsavory things with and without the rock. Including curls, presses, burpees, incline merkins, decline merkins, regular merkins, little haze, dips, good mornings, louganis, flutter, heels to heaven, back scratcher, squats, calf raises, and maybe some other things in random order.
Horsehead with the take out in the Pavilion followed by the dash back to the car, dropping the rock on the way. In the car and on the road by 6:17.
Moleskine:
Horsehead brought his book bag of tunes. Although I’m not sure he knew how to use it. It sounded like a mash up of free and trial versions of SiriusAmazonSpotifyPandora, but I think it was mostly the OG of streaming: Muzac. The kind of instrumental soft pop and classic rock piped through department stores cluttered with going out of business sales.
I think TL and HH really enjoyed the rock work. The 34 degree rocks are basically like working out with a block of ice. The thin Home Depot Black Friday sale gloves weren’t really slowing the frost bite. In between the rock sets we hit the bench for some little Haze step ups. HH and TL complained about the post long distance run training weight gain. TL said he gained ten pounds which now gets him on almost all the adult rides at Carowinds. 5 more pounds and is hitting the Fury. HH said it was mostly his fault, he’s a master refusnik without actually being on team Trifusnik #FreeAgent. Running is the only thing that keeps him honest.
Thanks for joining me this morning.
-Alf
Announcements: Workout Q’s post in bad weather so should you.
Waking up as it is very cold and raining hard for a well thought out workout under the portico including the benches. Upon pulling up in the rain, can’t quite tell what I am looking at. WTF, Fuse is unloading gear in our area. Back to GroupMe, they decided to move Diesel to Cutty.
And then PAX began to arrive, some confused, some extremely annoyed. One OG angry, who continued to share his displeasure of the sequence of actions on GroupMe, the dude was not happy.
Rewind as to what just happened, did fellow PAX from other site reach out to ask for space, convergence or just some options, was that missed? The answer there was No. So Recalc provided some necessary site rules to our new visitors regarding parking, gear location, and some additional “advice”. And off we were, (the non stationary group) to find a new space to workout. Over to the back of the High School Portico to make it happen.
The Thang
20 SSH, 20 IW, Plank and Stretch the Cavs
Grab some Wall
20 Presses/20 Jabs/20 Heels up/Heels down x 4
5 Wall Plank Jacks plus 5 Mike Tysons x 4 hitting stairs between sets
Partner Up
150 Plank Extensions/LBCs/Flutters/Freddie Mercuries as Partner runs down and back under portico
250 Merkins with Partner running (killer)
Dasher killed us with American Hammer
Head to Back of Middle School
35 Dips then 5 Box jumps x 3
Times up, head to front of school for DICCs Pic and COT
Moleskine
4 annoyed PAX worked very hard with no complaints as there was very little non movement to the workout. Heart rates were kept up to where somehow 2.5 miles were covered in a very small area.
After much Diesel advertising that real men work out in the outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold. Talk of Vaginas. That was confusing, Fuse when is the last time you saw one. Only to swoop looking for shelter. (shaking my head) – for your shame…
Dasher killed it like normal pushing the PAX. Gerber outstrided us all like normal. Recalc blew off his Old Man steam pushing it very hard shedding the poncho for better dynamics. All 4 really pushed a somewhat unusual workout due to the inclement weather.
Announcements
Gladiator tomorrow. All I can remember.
Recalc took us out. Please keep the family of his old friend who just passed away from cancer.
Call it what you want. Audible. Relocation. Finding Cover. At 5:10 I met the site Q’s at Five Stones. The rain was coming down hard. Not a gully washer hard, but hard enough that I knew it wouldn’t be safe to lift things over our heads. Add on the fact that it was just 2 degrees above freezing, the decision was made to find cover. Nearest option, Cuthbertson Middle. We grabbed some blocks and headed over.
After unloading gear at the closest spot possible to the car (you know, because when unloading 400 lbs of gear by yourself you don’t want to move it too far), some Diesel pax started arriving.
I will leave out the grumpy Impromptu Site Q exchange and allow him to continue hanging himself in Groupme. I will say I was disappointed in the general attitude we were given and the lack courteousness. I expected jokes and jabs, not hostile attitudes.
A quick car relocation to get them out of teacher spots and a suggested gear relocation to get out of the main walkway, pax grabbed gear and headed towards a second cover with said site Q still offering unsolicited opinions.
Christmas Playlist going, drowning out el gruñón uno.
WARM UP
Waiting on Turnbuckle to arrive from moving his car I decided a light, no gear warm up was appropriate. 20 Side Straddle Hops. I look over to see Big Ten staring a hole through me. My bad. Audible to 20 Jump Squats. TB Arrives….lets go.
THE THANG
Since one of the Diesel Site Q’s apparently knows no other way to count than 1/4, 2/8….I decided to get started with a Jack Webb of sorts. Coupon jump squats and coupon presses. It was around the 20 presses that I thought we may not get to 40. It was at 24 that it was confirmed. On what should have been 28, we went back to 20 and stayed at 20 through the end. Lots of sarcastic chatter about Diesel being no cardio at this point. Lots of heavy breathing going on. Turnbuckle apparently thought his coupon was a bit to heavy dropped the peoples elbow on it to lighten the load.
20 Merkins while I set up the next round. Thanks to Posse for leading that (I think, that was a blurr).
Round robin of curls. By my count there were 8 curl stations and 2 row stations. 30’s with the 27lb barbell was the timer (10 bottom half curls, 10 top half, and 10 full curls). I accidentally put 5 curl stations all together which made for burning arms. Whoops – my bad!
Once everyone completed every station (and after the lactic acid subsided from our biceps), we partnered up. Partner 1 did foot release squats. Partner 2 did exercise. Exercises were 150 tricep extention and 200 rows in groups reps of 20.
Same partners for dips and then presses with weights (35, 30, or 25 lbs). 3 rounds each.
Same partners for Coupon Row and Lawn Mower Pulls (10 each side). 3 rounds each.
4 minutes left….what to do….Ask the pax. I heard calf raises (no), Presses (No, we already did an ungodly amount), and Abs (in my best little jon impression – Okay!).
25 heels to heaven. 50 LBC’s. 20 Windshield Wipers. Time.
MOLESKIN
I have to be honest; I expected only me and the site Q’s to show up today. The fact that Diesel had 10 people on a cold wet day is amazing. Thanks to all those that showed up.
Special shout out to Turnbuckle who is very close to finishing the Octuple. On top of the 7 workouts (and 1 second F event) for this week, he also plans to run his first 5k on Saturday. I’m really proud of the effort and commitment Turnbuckle is putting in to changing. Keep it up. And a shout out to all the pax that are pushing him and helping him through his journey.
Posse and Carb Load got in a slight argument tiff over who has completed more octuples. It was such a silly argument, that I allowed it to go on a bit before calling us in for prayer. If you care – which you don’t, Posse is completing his 3rd this week while Carb load is completing his second….yet carb plans to complete his third next week…which led to the….Oh who cares.
Big Ten becoming as automatic at Diesel as Scott Wood was at NC State from the Free Throw Line (87% career, over 90% his senior year). Perhaps I should have referenced Bobby Hurley here as an olive branch.
Spike walking into Diesel today with his chest puffed out coming off of that spectacular Chiseled Q and back blast. Great job.
Posse – the ever consummate professional psychiatrist. That being said, he did yell at me for asking twice what his rep count was. I perhaps touched a nerve there while not even meaning to.
Shout out to the Site Q’s for adapting to the weather and sticking up for your decision in the face of criticism. Thank you for allowing me to lead today.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Lots going on this Saturday:
Gladiator @ Rea Farms near Improper Pig Greenway.
Commitment & Homecoming both on regular schedule.
Look for updates from Carb Load about Waxhaw clean up currently scheduled for 7:45.
Cuthbertson Track 5K. Turnbuckle looking for help in pushing him motivating him over the finish line.
Zin’s beer exchange Saturday night.
Delivered
9 IW IC, 9 Merkins IC, Calf Stretch L/R, Downward/Upward Dog
Inspired by the 12 days of Christmas Song and in the same vein of Billy Madisons but in reverse, this is a running loop and exercise per “day”. Begin with a loop to simulate the “1st day of Christmas”, followed by an exercise with 12 reps as the “gift given by your true love”. This concludes the 1st “verse”. Run the loop again, followed by the new 2nd day exercise x 12 reps plus the 1st day exercise x 12 reps. This concludes 2nd day. Continue with the loop and adding an exercise each time until you’ve completed one loop and exercise combo for each of the 12 days. The “gifts” were as followed:
In the end this was a terrible idea and it really sucked horribly. I think the PAX who joined me today would agree whole-heartedly. I had a great time today leading both The Floater and Clyent Dinner. I hope the PAX in attendance at these two sites got what they came for or something else that maybe they didn’t know they were going to get but needed in the end. It was a fun challenge and I recommend it to any of you who want to push your limits and get out of your comfort zone.
Everyone pushed as hard as they could and only modified (including YHC) when necessary. It was a privilege to lead today/tonight. Always easy leading leaders. Great job fellas!
Announcements
3 workouts to choose from this Saturday.
Clean up immediately afterward in down town is still on unless it downpours. YHC will advise if postponed to following Saturday at ~7:30 am on Saturday so check GM around that time.
Turnbuckle took us out!
Hydra – 12/12/2019
Pax list: Marge (QIC), Geraldo, Sprockets, Gummy, Sleepy, Chico, Beaver, Beaver (Guest from Raleigh), Queen, Spackler, Bounce, Snowflake, Thunder Road, Hopper, Floor Slapper, IHOP, Foghorn
17 pax decided to start the day out right by posting in 28 degree weather. WTH were they thinking? It was an all veteran crew with one pax visiting from Raleigh. Quick (weak) disclaimer then we were on our way.
Mosey to Parking Lot on far side of school.
Partner up and catch me if you can Harris Teeter.
Gather around the large Christmas tree next to Harris Teeter.
Run to entrance of Chadwyck Farms.
Indian Run back to launch (or was it lunch)? For 2 minutes of Mary
Done
Moleskin
Great group out there today as always. This was my second of two Q’s over the past 5 days. I’ve been thoroughly congratulated and chastised at the same time for leading the group through 5 miles at RockZero on Saturday. I teased that we’d try to hit that mark in today’s 45-minute Hydra. No way. Geraldo would’ve expelled me from Area 51. I think we got in at least 3 miles though.
Some observations: Not sure anyone actually caught their partner on the CMIYC. Spackler made fun of me for running too slow on the CMIYC. I didn’t have a partner to catch so I was just running slow and steady (if you can’t Q it, don’t do it I guess). Lots of chatter about ticking off the Dunkin’ Donuts employees for doing Mary in front of their store. No customers were seen this morning so maybe we were all good. Gummy (I think) complained that my weinke (at least the Evelyn’s Rock / Hill part) was too long. That’s the first time I’ve been accused of that. Chico almost bailed the triple nickel to just head home to the fancy neighborhood at the top of that hill. Sprockets and Sleepy spent the whole Evelyn’s Rock triple nickel discussing personal care for their beards. Weird. Hopper and Floorslapper promised to buy me a beer when Clemson beats Ohio State for the National Championship early next year. I’m sure Gummy will join us. Maybe Lewinsky, Revlon, Deep Dish too if they ever come back to Hydra.
This was my 5-year F3 Anniversary. Hairball brought me out to Hydra for the first time on December 11, 2014. Hard to believe it’s been 5 years. I’m thankful for the friendships I’ve made through F3. I think fitness may be a bit better than 5 years ago as well.
Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
Geraldo on Q next week for Chadwyck / Wessex Christmas tour.
Backblasts are an important part of F3 and leading any workout, so there’s that. But I’m also writing this because when I logged onto f3southcharlotte.com, the four most Recent Backblasts on the homepage were all from Waxhaw or SOB. #representArea51
Despite the chilly temps, which were warmer than the forecast of 28, four other hearty souls joined YHC to make a handful at today’s Meathead.
The Thang
COP
Partner Fibonacci
Cook Drill – using a bell you can’t press, somehow get the bell overhead, then left-hand waiter carry, rack carry, & farmer carry. Sit it down, get it back overhead right-handed, and return to the start.
Snatch Test (#crowdpleaser) – 100 reps in 5 minutes with a 24 kg. That’s the standard. Adjust as needed. Go.
(how does this wordpress block thing work again?? I can’t see what I’m typing… Next time, I’ll cut and paste from WordPerfect)
Done.
COT
Chilly Moleskinne
Thanks to Voodoo for tapping me to fill-in for Chin Music. Otherwise, I might have #fartsacked this morning. (or gone to the #fern)
I wheeled into the parking lot to see Voodoo, back from an abbreviated 2 mile fun run, chatting with Drop Thrill, visiting from the Southern Carolina. We were shortly joined by Soul Glo, of the product name. As we were wondering whether Hoover was traveling or not, he wheels in to make it an even 5. (?)
We began a few minutes late, as we were all #chattykathying, so we tried to make up for it in volume. We did go over just a minute or two, to make up for the late start, but no one minded as we were snatching.
Mumblechatter was in full effect, with Drop Thrill leading the charge, but we all participated and solved many world issues, such as Brexit, the British elections (Bulldog, did you vote?), what kind of music is Trans-Siberian Orchestra classified (and which songs are good, which are not, and is this the first time for Christmas music at Meathead?) (Oh, and maybe 12 Days of Christmas next week??), and other topics of high importance.
I can’t see what I’m typing, so we’ll call it done. Plus, I discovered the left arrow is some kind of evil undo button, randomly changing things, so be ware of that. #protip
F3 Waxhaw has a special AO in the down town area that I love. The Floater. We have certain rules at The Floater and one of them is Burpee Trian. Simple rule, really. Train comes through Waxhaw, the PAX stops what they’re doing and does Burpees until it passes. It doesn’t alway happen but it happens enough that the Q for The Floater should always be prepared to adjust their Weinke in the case that it does. Thankfully the Weinke was short today and easy to modify for the dreaded Burpee Train.
Mosey to Lutheran Church and 9 X IW IC, Plank up do 10 X Merkins CC, Calf Stretch R/L, Upward/Downward Dog
Mosey to Baptist Church around the block and on the way do “a couple” burpees at the street light in the middle then do 10 T-Merkins, Return to Lutheran Church stopping for “a couple” Burpees (for those of you that don’t know, a couple means 2) and do 10 BBSU’s. Rinse and repat 2 more times for 3 sets. Way to finish Fuse Box!
Mosey to parking lot behind house across the street from Fox’s Pizza and do 11’s – Squat X 1 then BC to other side of lot and do MT X 10 then CB back. R/R until get to 10 S & 1 MT. Somewhere right in the middle of all this we were blessed with a Burpee Train. When we resumed the 11’s, I audibled to Lunges and Dry Docks then after about two rounds, realizing my error in judgement, I re-audibled back to squats. We got to 9S & 2DD’s before YHC called it due to time and we moseyed back to COT.
I think it was a welcome respite to have the Burpee Train come right in the middle as the Shoulders were getting wrecked and YHC was ready for a little break but it was a sort of “pick your poison” moment when Zinfandel called out there were 11 minutes left. I pondered for a brief moment whether I would rather do burpees for the remainder of the time or continue the 11’s.
Every body worked hard today and I was glad for the ones who braved the below freezing temps this morning to come out into the gloom with me. Hopefully you got some good shoulder work along with a little bit of cardio mixed in.
Anouncements:
Deisel 5:30 on Friday for gear workout and 0.0 runningCommitment 6:30 at Nesbit Park
Clean up after your workout of choosing starts at 7:45 on 12/14. 2.0’s and M’s encouraged. I will call it if the rain is coming down in buckets. Keep an eye out on Group Me for announcement at ~7:30. Coffeeteria is at Crossroads in down town Waxhaw.
Beer Exchange at Zinfandel’s house on Saturday 12/14.