As a novelist, I turned out to be a pretty good sportswriter.

As a novelist, I turned out to be a pretty good sportswriter.

10 guys at Base Camp this morning. We did some stuff. It was maybe a tad aggressive, but with a few 10-counts and partner breaks thrown in, it still met the conditions required to be called “moderate”. Pro loves moderate workouts.

I have a few workouts locked in every week: Fast Twitch, Hydra, RockZero. I bounce around a little and hit one or two Mon/Wed/Fri workouts in most weeks too. I like taking Mondays off if I run on Sunday so I feel better for Fast Twitch. I laid out my Wednesday workout decision tree a few weeks ago. Here’s how Mondays go if I post:

DMZ – closest to my house (even closer to my new house in Lansdowne), but it has angry Metro guys and sometimes Semi Gloss. I haven’t been in a while, but I’ll probably work it back into the rotation.

Base Camp – Depends on who the Q is and if I want to take it easy. I remember when Simba used to make all his congregants post at Base Camp. I saw him a couple of weeks ago and he said, “You’re still going to F3?”. He doesn’t miss us.

M*A*S*H – Like Pro pointed out this morning, if you post there, you have to be ready to talk to maybe just one other person for 45 minutes. I like Hopper a lot, but that’s tough. I would’ve enjoyed this one a couple of years ago when I was last injured though.

The Matrix – It’s a long way out there – it may be in Union county. But solid crew usually. And I enjoy the square track and the weird half-buried tires in the back.

Horsey – No way. I went once a few years ago and my legs are still tired. I just don’t need that in my life.


Horsey – No way. I went once a few years ago and my legs are still tired. I just don’t need that in my life.
The Matrix – It’s a long way out there, but solid crew usually. I enjoy the square track too.

ya can’t hide a horse in ‘dem hills

12 men decided it was a good day to take on the hills of Horsey.  With YHC on Q all assembled in the parking lot at 5:15 except for a late entry by Mr Brady.  YHC had indicated, in a pre-tweet, that pax should wear reflective/safety gear.  Most pax heeded the call and had something reflective on.  YHC showed up in all black with a reflective ankle Road ID.  Veteran hide and seek move there. After a short disclaimer, the group took off for the top of Mountainview.

The Thang:

Hide and seek is a simple enough game, if you’re “it” you get a head start and the others don’t watch where you’re going but give you ample lead time to hide.  Then the others take off to find you.  Basically, CMIYC.

12 pax broke into 3 teams, Fast, Schmedium, and Slow.  One person from each team was “it” and took off along their selected route.  The other pax did 10 merkins, 10 shoulder taps, and 10 Peter Parkers before the chase.  Once the team caught up to their “it” person, rotate rinse and repeat.  Simple formula.  Strategy and tactics were left up to the pax.

Moleskinny:

YHC came up with this idea in the heat of the day Saturday, while doing yardwork and prepping for a big family cook-out.  The heat must have caused some neurons to misfire or it was the recovery beers from the double pre-run and heavy workout at Rock Zero.  Either way, it was an out of the box idea for YHC and should have been questioned at the door.

Nevertheless, good tactics on display from the pax.  YHC’s own tactic included a double-double-back on Old Bell and being able to circle back around to meet his team head-on.  Lying down on someone’s lawn (probably not Chester’s) while the team ran past oblivious to the 6’8” black hole smack in the middle of a green lawn.  Horsehead more than once attempted to hide behind a tree and a mailbox.  Mumbled something about Boo Radley’s driveway and losing his pancreas.

YHC assumes that the residents of this hilly hell in Charlotte must be used to this craziness.  Because no one questioned the wisdom of running through the gloom and shining headlamps onto stranger’s houses and lawns looking for your fellow pax.  Luckily the cops were not called, and no warning shots were fired.  Funky Cold was pretty sure it would be a shoot first, ask questions later type scenario (insert dueling banjos here).

The team breakdown is below.  Pax should sound off with their team’s highlights but we’ve caught a few from the hacked security cameras around Mountain View.

Fast Team –Lee, Thin Slice, Turkey Leg, Funky Cold

Schmedium Team – Benny, Flipper, What Did, Taf

Slow Team – Udder, Hoover, Mr Brady, Horsehead

Fast:  Always chasing Turkey Leg.  Seriously, dude was moving with everyone in hot pursuit every time YHC saw him.

Schmedium:  Caught Flipper trying to hide behind a pickup truck, at one point, he might have jumped into the bed.

Slow:  Mr. Brady was on the wrong team, and it has nothing to do with the nipple tape on full display during COT.  He blames the sweat, others thought he might have a part time job in the late night and left his tassels in the car.  YHC has no comment.

Announcements: Convergence on Thursday in Metro at 0630 Independence Park and Area 51 at 0700 at Hydra. Also American 4 miler on Thursday.

Thanks to Horsehead for the take out.

MillBridge Marketing Plan

There’s a lot of chatter in the group between the Lawson-ites and Boys of the Briar. Which neighborhood is supreme? Does lot size really matter? Which can lose the most weight? Which can wear the most weight (Do you even vest bro…)? And it had me thinking…why can’t we pull guys out of the multi-year reigning “Best Community in North Carolina”. Maybe it’s because we’re not that big of a ‘hood. Oh wait… there’s more that 1,000 homes now…that can’t be it. So, in an effort to make this morning’s workout very visible to the good people of MB, while also making the PAX in attendance hate me a little stronger, I thought up a work out that would be a twist on a classic, while covering plenty of ground and sticking to the main drags of MB. Let’s see how this goes…

Warm-up:

We Mosey’d out of COT towards the Elementary School, saw Rubbermaid filling in for Jingles in the last minute arrival department and cirlced back to pick him up. Ended up at the circle at the bottom of Nesbit

  • SSH x20
  • Potato Pickers x10
  • Hanging Stretch, Left, Right and Center
  • Plank Calf Stretch
  • Slow Merkins IC x 15
  • Moroccan Night Clubs x 20

The Thang:

Mosey out to MB Parkway for instructions

Traveling BLIMPS:

B

  • Burpees x 5
  • Run up MB Parkway to the traffic circle

B-L

  • Burpees x 5
  • LBC x 10
  • Continue MB Parkway to the next traffic circle

B-L-I

  • Burpees x 5
  • LBC X 10
  • Imperial Walkers x 15
  • Run back to first traffic circle

B-L-I-M

  • Burpees x 5
  • LBC X 10
  • Imperial Walkers x 15
  • Merkins x20
  • Run down Creekview Dr. to yet another traffic circle

B-L-I-M-P

  • Burpees x 5
  • LBC X 10
  • Imperial Walkers x 15
  • Merkins x20
  • Plank Jacks x25
  • Run back to original traffic circle

B-L-I-M-P-S

  • Burpees x 5
  • LBC X 10
  • Imperial Walkers x 15
  • Merkins x20
  • Plank Jacks x25
  • SSH x30 (In Cadence)
  • Run back down MB Parkway

Grouped up on the Path to Nesbit and did some Mary, passing around to different PAX to call exercises and count. Just a couple minutes left so we ran back to COT and planked/6″ until time.

Moleskin:

It was an awesome morning to get out a sweat. For the end of June humidity was low and the skies were clear. Definitely one of the mornings that makes you appreciate that we have the opportunity and health to get up early and work out with a great group of guys like this. Everyone pushed really hard, and most people got a little over 4 miles covered. It’s really great to see a new group of faces out on Saturdays to join in with the usual suspects. I think the MB marketing efforts were mildly successful, as a vested up Damascus spent almost as much time EHing passers by as he did still being at the front of the pack despite his extra baggage. I was also told that I’ve made it onto Breadbowl’s “Don’t come when that guy Q’s” list, so it was a successful morning on all fronts.

We had an FNG in the group too, Yeller, who admitted he hats running. Rough morning to start, but he did great.

Announcements:

  • Sept 14. Speed for Need Race being organized by Swimmers. Info is on GroupMe.

Popeye took us out.

Another Impromptu AMRAP Friday

It was muggy, hot and just a tough workout that 22 strong and driven PAX tackled this morning all to gauge how they are bettering themselves each and every month. With daily extremely tough workout options in WUC (to be named later), there has been some drastic improvements with PAX fitness along with the steady Eddie’s that are constantly tearing it up. aka. Hollywood, Dasher, Easy Button and now Zin, Chicken, Banjo pushing it to the max. Only one Vest made it out today, we are still determining if the Vest won or Deadwood as it looked like a tough fight. Well done Deadwood carrying around the extra weight.

It is the typical Impromptu AMRAP course that we plan on celebrating the last Friday of every month throughout the year.

.47 Mile loop around the back of the High School with a steep hill and a solid set of stairs.

Exercises include…

15 Mike Tysons

15 Derkins

15 Step-ups

15 Dips

A trip around the circle with a rock

A little Bear Crawl

15 Bobby Hurleys

and a Burpee at the end, 2 for the second loop, etc.

Pax Tally

Rudy 3- Tysons ( was moving and did not notice any Pit stops)

Deadwood 3 – Rocks (plus 80 lb Vest – Nice Job)

Hollywood 4 – Rocks (made us all look like we were standing still)

Easy Button 4 (made it look easy – like his button)

Dasher 4- Derkins (normal incredible pace – Nice work)

Ole McDonald 3- Tysons (way to push it)

Zinfandel 4 (our verbal time keeper made it look easy)

Chainsaw 3 (always pushing it – well done OG)

Banjo 4 (breezed through it with a little sweat)

Chicken Little 3 – Bobbies (took off leaving everyone in dust )

Breadbowl 3 – Derkins (way to push young man)

Fuse Box 3 – Derkins ( back at it after some time off – good job)

Crabgrass 2 – Bobbies ( way to push in your first AMRAP)

Doughboy 3 – Derkins (always gives his all, well done)

Schneider 3 – Mike Tysons (pushed it hard the entire time)

Knish 2 with Medical Pit Stop (rock grabbing his hand and sinking in was detrimental)

Recalc 3 – Derkins (way to push through the tweaked knee)

Damascus 4 – Tysons (way to tear it up – minus the vest)

Gator Cub 3 – Tysons (always giving it his all – well done)

Brutus 3 – Step Ups (looked good in first AMRAP – keep showing up)

GreenHornet 3 – (nice first run at the AMRAP – keep it up)

Hooch 3 – Rocks (only remember the first few minutes)

Announcements

Wedding Singer has Committment Saturday

Swimmers Need for Speed Run for Prostrate Cancer – Link on Groupme

Ole’ Macdonald with Breakfast on his mind took us out.

Ranger PFT at Centurion

Written by Mermaid on behalf of Lorax

Smaller crew of 7 at the ready in the lot when a super-sized Chevy Tahoe rolls in. Clown car? Nope. One man. Crotch Rocket. Lorax disclaimed the group and we circled up where we stood.

Thang

COP

IW x 10 IC

Merkin x 15 IC

MC x 15 IC

QIC gave command for the Centurion mile (modified). Rather than end at the top of Tartarus, go around football field and back to where we stood.

2 minutes push-ups (42 is minimum passing)

2 minutes WWII sit-ups (53 is minimum)

Centurion Mile. OG route up short ramps to end at top of Tartarus.

People’s Chair. 50 Air Press. Descend stairwell 1 to ground. Mosey over to the benches in the middle of campus.

Dora 1-2-3

Partner up. Partner 1 goes up ramp and mosey back while Partner 2 does called exercise. Swap it out until the target number is hit.

  1. 100 Step Up 2. 200 Dips 3. 300 Squats

Ascension to top of ramp rotated through: Bear Crawl/Lunge Walk/Crab Walk/Burpee Broad Jump

Mosey back to launch. Flutter x 30. Done

COP

Moleskin

Nice to have a smaller group. I know a few regulars are vacationing. Safe travels to them. Enjoy the time with family.

Really nice to have Crotch Rocket roll in at 0529. He was planning on another workout, but found his way to Centurion via wrong turn. Glad he joined us. He is the man behind F3 Expansion efforts. When you go to another city and join a workout, he had a big hand in that effort. 7 years of service in that role. T-claps, brother.

The Ranger PFT workout was a great idea from our Q, Lorax. Ranger is a 21 year old young man who started posting in the Spring to get ready for his own PT test. Last Friday was his last F3 workout for a while. Best wishes to him.

Solid work today men. Great way to start the day. Thanks to CR for the takeout prayer.

Ultimately it’s about FUN

Today is a BIG day in the Lewinsky household, so I was thankful for the opportunity to Q Hydra on this fine Thursday morning.

Quick disclaimer and foreshadowing was given to the vets. I assured the Pax we would have a little fun since we’re celebrating my little girl’s first birthday today.

From there we mosey’d to the bus loop for some warm-up:

  • IW 10x
  • SSH 10x (anarchy begins)
  • Merkins 10x
  • LSS 10x
  • Mountain Climbers 12x

Next we crossed the street and partnered up at the Church with a running rock and lifting rock per pair. Partners took off for a lap around the Church in opposite directions. Upon meeting, do 4 burpees, switch rocks, and complete the lap.

Rinse and repeat but now 8 burpees. This is the ‘fun’ many people thought I had planned…

We gently replaced the lifting/running rocks and did a nice easy ‘No Heros’ Indian Run from the Church to the back OP football field where the fun really began.

In a plank circle I shared that 8 years ago on this day, my little brother passed away after a wakeboarding accident with family friends. For 7 years, June 27 was a day of sadness and mourning in my family. Until last year when my first daughter was born, and God turned this day into a reason to celebrate! So in perusing the Exicon, I found a workout/game that is intended for around the holidays and today I chose to play Ultimate Football.

We split into teams and @Queen quickly volunteered our team for skins. Shirts team scored twice very quickly in what looked to be a sure runaway victory. The tides turned after @gummy took a rogue ball straight to the sack. Remember this is a gentleman’s. The skins team bounced back with a elite performance of ball movement and team unity resulting in two unanswered scores. At this point we moved from calling burpees to calling merkins upon each score. Let me highlight a couple ESPN worthy Top 10 plays before scribing how this clash of the titans finally ended:

  • @floorslapper’s size mismatch defensive knockdown on a long bomb to the endzone
  • @revlon pulled off an incredible one handed interception
  • @spackler had a near Nuk Hopkins one handed endzone grab, but couldn’t see it through for some reason
  • any throw from @hopper with that recently renovated shoulder

One more score is awarded to each team, as Shirts tied it up with 90 seconds remaining. With zero of these red blooded Americans wanting to end in a tie, the ball was kicked off to determine a victor. Tempers were hot and so was the ball movement. More turnovers were accounted for on this final series than any other. @lazboy was anything but lazy as him @one-eye, @clover and company worked the ball up field as easily as Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne and the Clemson stable of WR’s.

SKINS team claimed victory and bragging rights with mere seconds remaining on the clock!

Fast cleanup and mosey back to the parking lot for COT.

Happy Birthday to @hopper, @snowflake, and my daughter Charlotte!

Announcement: Convergence at Hydra AO on 7/4 with @gummy and @wareagle on Q **Note the 0700 launch**

Thanks @sprockets and @gummy for the opportunity to Q on this special day

Don’t Call Me Shirley

“Surely you can fart out a 5 min blast at lunch today.”

Horsehead

Apparently so.

For Moneyball

After a strange turn of events, I found myself on Q for the 3rd time this week. Unlike we normally see with Deadwood, this was purely coincidental, but I tried to bring something different to all 3. Asylum used some heavy gear, Watchtower was a burpee bonanza, so today’s focus was going to be on mileage – goal of at least 3…

As the PAX began filtering in, I kept waiting in anticipation for our 2 vest wearing site Qs. With 1 minute to spare, and neither of them in site, I was willing to settle for at least 1, but fartsacking took hold and we were all shocked that we were stood up by both on this fine morning… The dreams of the 10 faithful who did show crushed, we decided to sweat as a way to hide our tears.

Warmup

  • DiCCS provided – emphasis on safety as we were crossing roads this morning
  • Mosey to Dream Chasers
  • 20 SSH IC
  • Downward Dog
  • Calf Stretches
  • 10 Willy Mays Hayes

The Thang

  • Part 1
    • 1 mile mosey to Waxhaw Elementary
    • Mary for 6
    • Head to the playground for partner work
      • Partner 1 = AMRAP pullups
      • Partner 2 = Run up the hill to the school / 5 burpees / run down and relieve your partner
      • 5 rounds
  • Part 2
    • Mosey to the top of Bad Idea
    • Run down the hill – 10 speed skaters
    • Run back up the hill – 10 jump squats
    • 5 rounds — Had to audible to 3 due to time
  • Part 3
    • Mosey across bridge, past Dream Chasers, stopping at Providence Rd
    • Jail Break back to start

Moleskin

  • After being stood up by not 1 but BOTH site Qs after a barrage of threats and harassment yesterday afternoon about getting the BB out, I was tempted to scrap the BB as a passive/aggressive way to hurt them both. Then Moneyball caught wind of their betrayal and stepped in on their behalf, begging to keep the streak alive. Moneyball – This one is for you brother!
  • Another day where everyone pushed themselves and me hard. I have traveled to many other AOs across the country, and I can honestly say that few to none push as hard as the Area To Be Named Later…
  • Great to see Ranger coming out, giving up sleep over summer break to better himself for HS soccer!
  • Shake and Bake must have the strongest jaw in all of UC due to the constant jawing he does… BUT, he’s doing it while crushing the exercises, so there’s that…
  • Posse, Xerox, Doughboy and Blades of Glory all pushed hard today. This was not an easy day for non-Gazelles.
  • Dasher and Easy Button ate this one up like it was nothing. No doubt it was just a quick snack before their main meal at Client Dinner tonight.
  • Dana rocked the 20lb vest the whole workout with me! Welcome to the vest club – Membership today 4 2!

Announcements

  • Keep Radar in your prayers, but more importantly take a few minutes and make a call. Let him hear your voice and know that his brothers have not forgotten him.
  • Zero Prostate Cancer Run – September 14 – See Swimmers for details.

Canadian Stone Kickers

(super quick backblast- now or never on this one!)

Great group that pushed this morning. Sweating was not hard to come by. Fiji, back after several weeks of “travel/vacation” did his best to purge the extra fluff from his recreation- great job. Wild Turkey recovers from injury by posting one of my Qs- not sure how I feel about that. 🙂 Partners did rock curls, plank/derkins, ab throws, etc. We leverage the shopping card racks for pull ups and tight roped Sister Mary Catherine.

Always an honor to Q – thanks Olaf & War Eagle!

July 4th convergence. Speed for need

Anvil – Its been a while …

It has been several months since I have been to Anvil but it was great to be back. Fourteen men joined up in the gloom and, yeah, it was pretty muggy out.  The men were disclaimed and off we went.

COP – Mosey out to the front of the church in the big field.

SSH, LSS, IW, Merkin x10 & LS Merkin x 10

Next we moseyed around the side of the church to collect a lifting rock and made our way to the long parking lot that borders 51.  We lined up abreast and ran suicides to each of the islands.  Each time we came back to the starting point we did:  curls, triceps and over head press (x10 each). 

After that fun, we partnered up and found ourselves in shallow left field at the t-ball diamond.  P1 ran to the far fence while P2 ran up the small hill to the church.  We met back in left field to do 10 HS merkins.  One more time with P1 going to the church and P2 going to the end of the field – all with 10 HS merkins to top it off.  Next.

Next we met up between the playground and the concession stand.  The initial plan was for P1 to do pullups, however, the consensus was the playground was locked – so P1 did 20 drydocks outside the playground while P2 ran back to the concession stand for 20 dips.  We flipped and ran this route 3 times.

Time for some sprints.  We lined up at The Avenue of Trees and sprinted the length of 8 trees and did lunge walk to the end.  We turned around and sprinted 8 trees back and did 20 flutters.  One more 8 tree length sprint back to the church with 20 LBC’s

Time to mosey back to the launch site for 4-5 minutes of Mary

Moleskin:

Heard of little bit of mumble chatter and some general complaints as we headed out to the field for COP.  Someone’s feet got wet and someone else’s hands got wet during the merkins.  It was grueling.

Cheese Curd took a 2 mile pre-run coming in to Anvil.  I registered about 3 miles during the workout so getting a 7 miler in on a Wednesday morning is pretty impressive.

Always great seeing Snooka (R), Runstopper & Brilleaux out front.  Great work.

Thank you to Haze for taking us out.

Everyone was pushing it hard today and there was not much of a six to speak of.  Thank you to Brush Back and Lorax for the opportunity to lead the men.