7 men came out for Cerberus. I wanted more, but hey, its better than the 2 we had on Wednesday!
The theme of the day was 22. It’s the most important part of this backblast, but I will come back to that in the Moleskine.
The Thang:
Fast mosey out past the shopping plaza and Camp Gladiator, up the stairs and around the corner to the nice fire pit area of the apartment complex. Circle up for 22 SSH and IW in cadence.
Had to be too quiet here so mosey out to the back street. Circle up again for 22 8-Count Body Builders in-cadence. Seems like these were enjoyed by all.
Fast Mosey up the first circle. Freddy Mercury.
Fast Mosey to 2nd circle. Carolina Dry Dock.
Circle of pain. Partner up. P1 planks along round-a-about and plank walks counter clockwise. P2 does 5 merkins, runs around circle and back to P1. Flapjack and repeat for 2 rounds.
Fast Mosey back up to other circle for flutter kicks and 2nd Circle of pain. Same as the first except for a different partner and moving clockwise.
Fast Mosey to the bottom of the parking deck. LBC’s.
New Partner. P1 runs up left stairs, P2 runs up right. Meet in middle of top deck for 22 Hand Slap Merkins. Run back down the stairs you came. At bottom P1 planks while p2 bunny hops over the legs for 11 reps. Flapjack plank and hop for another 11 reps.
Repeat the cycle 5 times.
At the top of the deck after round 5 do a series of dragon flags (shout out to Tolkien).
Mosey back to launch and done.
Moleskin:
Pax quickly caught on to the #22 this morning. I let them know it was in honor of someone. A tough week in the small bubble that is the Lochridge world. Found out last night that a young woman, 22 years old, who was our go-to baby sitter for 5 years while she was in high school and college had passed away. She was a fantastic young woman who my daughters really looked up to and adored. She volunteered to help the sick and elderly, loved god and her church, strong athlete and good student; a great role model for my girls. While the circumstances aren’t clear, it appears she took her own life. This is unfathomable to me. Not that suicide happens, because it unfortunately does, but that it happened to her. Depression is a black hole and can hit deeply those you would never expect, for reasons you don’t know or don’t understand. All we can do is seek help when needed and be an active participant in our relationships with friends and family so we can get them help immediately when needed. I think a few months back Mermaid asked us to go beyond the “How you doing?” question and ask our brothers, “No really, how are you?” I keep thinking, if someone, anyone, just asked her, “No really, how are you?” maybe she would still be here.
Thats a lot, but there’s more.
My M and I support Alexander Youth Network for children with Behavioral Health issues (thanks to Joker for introducing us to them). Many of these kids come from challenging family’s where abuse, drugs, neglect, and violence are more normal than you can imagine. My M is a lunch buddy to a 12 year-old girl there once a week. The girl is smart, an amazing artist, and street wise beyond her years. Her mother isn’t fully capable of taking care of her so her Grandmother is her primary care giver. Her sister committed suicide recently, at a very young age. Her sister’s suicide is one of the reason’s she is at AYN and that she doesn’t value her own life like she should. Well this week, her grandmother, her only real stable support in life passed away. At this point we don’t know where she will end up. Not sure if there is a capable family member or if she will be put into foster care.
I am sorry this is tough for a Friday. But it’s real and it’s what is weighing on my heart today.
Please consider these families in your prayers this weekend. They will need it. Also consider how you can make an impact on someone else. Maybe get involved in a cause like suicide prevention or Alexander Youth Network (I can share details). Or do something with more immediate impact to your sphere of relationships and ask that follow up question: “No really, How are you doing?” You can’t imagine the level of impact that might have on someone.
Thanks Das Boot for the takeout this morning.
-Alf
On a Thursday morning with a Hurricane Looming, 15 PAX thumbed their nose at Jim Cantore at showed up at Peak 51 for a beatdown. I couldn’t help but to Oblige:
-Mosey to Church Parking Lot
COP
– SSH X 20
-IW X 20
-Mountain Climbers X10
Mosey to bus lot
-Star Fish
4 stations one center
Center (5 Burpees)
Round 1
Arm 1 1:- 15 Merkins
Arm 2: 15 Hand Release Merkins
Arm 3: 15 Carolina Dry Docks
Arm 4: 15 Diamond Merkins
Round 2
Arm 1: 20 Jump Squats
Arm 2: 20 Squats
Station 3: 10 Donkey Kicks
Station 4: 10 Monkey Humpers
Round 3:
Station 1: 25 Flutter
Station 2: 25 American Hammer
Station 3 25 Freddie Mercury
Station 4: 25 LBC
After Stations 1-3 back to center for Burpees
After Station 4- Run one lap around the starfish (Clockwise), connecting All stations. Plank up in Center when done
Mosey to the wall
Wall sits- Arm presses (2 rounds)
Mosey back to launch for Mary
LBCS
Flutter
DONE
Announcements
BRR 2019- Sign ups are already happening.
Hurricane Party at Joker’s!
Moleskine
Pleasantly surprised by the group that showed up. With Florence looming, and the concern regarding itw would’ve scared of a majority of PAX from attending- but not so.
I’ll be honest- this was rough. Being a last minute Q request (hope you’re feeling better Coctkail), I pulled an old Weinke out of the closed. Being a Post BRR workout made it high rep/low running- but the pains was still there. There were a few moments where I thought we had lost Sensei, but he gamely held onto the end.
Bernie and Sardine were out front most of the day- I’ve been impressed recently with Sardine’s straight line speed- that dude can motor.
Welcome back Early Bird! Good to see you after an extended absence.
Slim Fast is 180-0 keeping the rain away from Peak. Not even a hurricane could break this impressive all time streak.
Thanks Lois and Sensei for the opportunity to lead!
Well it was an experiment that may need to be refined. As we got ready with a minuet to spare our brother Cooter 2 informed the PAX that he has a cancer that is on his knee. YHC had in his mind a 0.0 workout that stressed core strength and upper and middle back muscles. This was in part to knowing Cooters low running condition and seeing many of his brothers go through injuries to shoulders and lower backs. As a workout it was met with open arms but YHC could see that it needed timing and improvement on the direction given.
More important that all that. We were all able to rally around Cooter 2 and his impending treatment with a ton of love and support. His spirits are high and he knows that all 3 Fs are very important to his recovery and healing.
Posted on behalf of Dancing Bear. Enjoy!
It was a VQ this morning for Dancing Bear and my heart was overflowing with joy when half of the PAX showed up in white t-shirts to work-out in honor of the Q. With 26 PAX on site, there was talk of this being an attendance record for this AO. I had to live up to the hype of delivering a solid VQ.
The Warm up:
Mosey from the Water Tower to the corner of the Bridge and Dreamchasers for a cirlcle up.
20-Imperial Walkers
20-Mountain Climbers
20-heals to heaven
The Thang:
After and exchange of Good mornings and a good warm up that didn’t include any SSH’s, we started with a light pole run starting at dreamchasers and ending at the of other end of the street. One light pole was 10 merkins and next light pole was 10 squats. When done some went back for the six while the rest of the PAX grabbed some wall to do dips. The Q then realized he lost his weinke during the exercise. I felt my backside pucker as I didn’t want to forget any part of the workout. How was this to turn out? Only 1 way to find out. Keep pressing the group forward.
Once the six was in we moseyed back to the water tower to get set for 4 laps of 4 corners. First corner was holding squat while giving 20 jab punches. Damascus’s ears perked up when the Q said it will be 20 for each arm and the rest of the PAX knew they were in for a treat based off facial expressions. Second corner was 20 dry docks. Then after running up the hill to the third corner, you did 20 plyometric hand slap jumps. Judging by the groans at the end this was the majorities favorite. The final corner was 20 plank jacks. There was no catching your breath with SSH’s on this rotation. The PAX did a great job finishing the set and the six was not far behind the pack. This wore everyone out. The Q was feeling good at this point about the workout.
With 15 minutes left and the PAX looking for a break we took a 10 count. After that it was to the bottom of the hill!! I knew the PAX was winded when I could hear faint gripes in the wind. At the bottom of the hill we partnered up with a lifting rock. First set, one ran the hill while the partner did curls until he returned. The next set was the hill while the partner did triceps. This set off Recalculating to yell in a whining tone, “We did this yesterday!” With a quick reply from the Q, “Deal with it!!” The Q felt this banter energized the PAX and we finished strong with one last set of hill-runs mixed with squat thrusters.
By this time, everyone was spent. We moseyed or in some cases walked (Moneyball) back to the water tower for circle. The day was capped by a picture of the white t-shirt crew. In the excitement of a very successful VQ, the Q left his phone on the back of Southern Belles truck which fell of half way home on the side of the road. The Q used the kids Ipad and the find my Iphone function to locate the phone.
Announcements:
Happy Hour tonight 7pm at East Coast Wings. Come, Eat, Drink, and be Merry so Briarcrest can win the weight loss challenge
Q school is this Saturday from 630-830 at Cuthbertson Middle. It will comprise of a light 1-hour workout followed by a review of Q documentation. If you are thinking of Q-ing or only Q’ed a couple times this class is for you.
Remember to collect hotel toiletries for the “Shampoo Crew”
Finally, let’s remember to exercise patience today at work and at home as we never know where others journey is taking them from day to day.
On a muggy September Wednesday, Nine Pax rolled into Gumby to do some recovery stretching- here’s how it went:
Moleskine
I’m beyond grateful for Gumby. I don’t say just say this due to the Site Q responsibilities that I have, but also because of how much of an impact it has on my recovery weekly- and especially this one. Being the first workout attended after the BRR, it was nice to take some time and slowly stretch out the legs, and get everyone.
Pretty quiet day today as we went through all of the stretches- Either everyone was focusing on the stretches, or taking time to enjoy the sweet playlist that was playing.
Fireman Ed did find a random chair he was using to stretch- seemed to really enjoy it (no judging over here).
Thank you all for showing up!
19 PAX came ready to rock this morning for a VQ beatdown. After a brief disclaimer and announcement that it was my VQ, a round of applause followed. They didn’t know what was about to hit them…Let’s mosey.
The Thang
Circle up in the bus parking lot.
Mosey to the corner of Windyrush and Banfield, or as Gummy called it, “where?” This is the intersection with the hill and Evelyn’s Rock, which YHC learned of a couple of months back with Purple Haze as QIC. I found it only fitting that our workout would start with a hill and a rock. Here’s where we hit some 7’s, with burpees at the top of the hill and squat jumps at the bottom. When we finished up, Marge led us in some planks while we waited for the six.
Mosey to Wesley United Methodist Church parking lot – split into groups of 2. Grab a rock. Partner 1 runs to opposite corner of the church parking lot and does 16 merkins. Partner 2 stays back and does rock curls until P1 gets back. Flapjack. Next set was 16 mountain climbers for P1, while P2 did overhead presses with the rock. Flapjack again. We did this until each partner had done 2 sets of merkins, curls, mountain climbers, and overhead press.
Mosey back around the school to the starting point for some Mary. YHC wasn’t too polished with the calls just yet so I summoned some help.
Recover and count em off.
Moleskin
#F3Hydra was my first post so I was honored to have my VQ experience here as well. Thanks to Marge and Queen for making it happen, and thanks to Lewinsky and Jet Fuel for doing so as well in a roundabout way.
Some mumble chatter that stuck out – “This is BS” someone shouted while climbing the hill during 7s. I believe there was also a “This guy loves to take the long route” or something along those lines.
Jet Fuel, who was supposed to be in Japan today, made a special appearance as his trip was delayed. I believe I heard him say he was trying to learn Japanese so he could gather some PAX over there. Jokes aside, Jet Fuel was the Q on my first post, so it was great having him there as well.
It was good to see Flo Jo yet again and he told me he really enjoyed the workout. Hey, as long as 1 did, I’m good with it.
I think it was Hannibal that asked what the significance of the 16 was. As I was donning the orange and the tiger paw, of course it was another tie to Clemson, and the National Championship we won in 2016 (as well as Trevor Lawrence, who wears 16 now). I’m not sure if Jet Fuel picked up on that or not, but it was ironic that he broke the cadence of 16.
Sprockets was out in front of the PAX seemingly all day. That guy is a machine.
T-Claps to Lewinsky for helping me plan this thing out.
No real announcements other than Lewinsky letting everyone know I turned 30 today. When scrolling the Lexicon recently, I learned that PAX in their 20s are “Hate Hate” and PAX in their 30s are “Hate” so becoming less hated is the highlight of my 30s so far.
There’s no better way to start the morning and no way I’d rather enter my 30s than being at #F3Hydra this morning. Thanks to everyone for the encouragement this morning.
A wild bunch of PAX gathered in the gloom at Matthews Elementary School for this week’s edition of Peak 51, only to find out, we weren’t staying too long at the school.
After a decent disclaimer, including the fact that we would be on a road trip today, we took off for what turned into an extended warmup.
Mosey to the First Baptist lot via the short route … circle up.
COP
Mosey to the BB&T lot beside Mac’s Speed Shop … circle up.
COP, Part Deux
Cross John Street, carefully, and mosey to the perilously slanted small lot kinda-sorta behind Renfrow Hardware … circle up.
COP, Part Tre
The windmills were cut short because Slim Fast and Tweetsie guided this part way off the rails. More on that later.
Mosey on, turning left at the attorney’s office, stopping at the Pizza Peel … circle … well, not a lot of room, so just get in where you fit in.
COP, Part IV
Finally, mosey down to the front of the Town Hall/Library.
THANG
Okay, partner up for some Dora 1-2-3. Pretty easy — one partner does the exercise, other partner runs the traffic circle, flapjack, finish when you have reached the cumulative number of exercises.
Requisite planking in between sets.
Stay with your partner, take off in different directions around the circle and run. When you meet up, do 5 hand-slap partner merkins. After that, lunge walk until you meet again, then do another round of hand-slap partner merkins.
Once that was done, time to start moseying back. This time, we take the more direct route — head up to Trade Street and hang a left. We stopped a couple of times to do some squats until the 6 rolls in, including the Trade/John intersection where we were stopped by the speedy stoplight, where we wound up doing more squats than we bargained for.
Arrive back to launch to find our Sparta friends doing burpees. Note, even though there might have been some grumbling, please note YHC ordered no burpees. #YouAreWelcome
MARY
LBCs x?? IC — Tweetsie led while YHC gathered his phone.
Rosalita x20? IC — again, #mumblechatter and the Tower of Babel level of different languages counting along made this difficult.
Heels to Heaven xI don’t remember IC.
Time called.
COT
Counting.
Naming.
Takeout by Tweetsie.
–30–
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
MOLESKINE:
After being away two weeks — one for BRR tapering, and one because of a post-BRR crud — it was good to get back out to Peak and put in some work. Even though a lot of us are a little tired of running at this point of the year, I wanted to get out and hit up a different locale. The Town Square area is a great spot that we haven’t hit up for a while, so, that’s where I wanted to head.
The irony of the whole thing is that Sparta regular Arsenal joined us, because I think he was looking for a little less running this morning versus the 4-5 miles usually put in by the Spartans. FWIW, it was a little more than 2 miles, so, technically, he got what he wanted.
The traveling COP was intended to help break up the run to the Town Hall and keep the group together. It was not without a couple of bumps.
First, there was the female BB&T employee who ventured out from the bank to her truck to find us working on good squat form.
Then, things really got out of hand when we were in the parking lot off of Cotton Gin Alley. When I called for the hillbilly, Slim Fast just started lobbing grenades at Tweetsie, calling it the mating dance of App State alums. While they were throwing jabs at each other, the rest of us were trying to, you know, actually do the exercise called. Then Slim tried to Q jack a bit by counting the number of reps he finished versus everyone else. #TexasMath
The 1-2-3 is a simple F3 staple that is always easy to throw out, but not necessarily easy to accomplish. All of the PAX just ripped it. Also, there were a lot of good sweat angels/imprints on the bricks and pavement that we were all admiring.
When the meet-your-partner portion was called, I rounded the turn to the meeting spot, and Sardine just came flying through like he was a car in a Fast and Furious movie. I was actually a little afraid he wouldn’t be able to stop amidst all that #LarryBird-ing.
About halfway through the lunge walk, there was grumbling, and for good reason. It was perhaps a little far. Of course, when I called for a modification to just go ahead and meet up, Tweetsie decided to back up to make me come all the way to the exact middle. Thanks.
The final bit of absurdity came when we were stuck at the Trade/John intersection, with its notoriously slow light. So, there we are, a bunch of guys just doing squats on the corner. Don’t mind us. Thumper and a couple of other PAX decided to take an available window and jaywalk (jayrun?) across the street and get moving. Those of us who respect the law were not too far behind.
Swiss Miss says there is a website where you can offer feedback on the performance of stop lights — I think we all need to lodge a complaint. After all, we are legion.
Oh, also, #kotters to Early Bird and Entourage! Great to have both of you back.
Sound off with any #mumblechatter I might have missed. Excellent work all around … you guys make Peak great and are what F3 is all about. It’s an honor to lead y’all.
9 men showed up for what they thought was Death Valley, but actually a classic Fast Twitch in disguise
The Thang:
Jog around lot to front for brief COP:
Warmup run to Rising Meadow for sevens: Burpees at top, Merkins at bottom.
Mosey to Rounding Run loop, partner up.
Partner one goes CW, partner two goes CCW, 20 hand-slap merkins when you meet. Reverse and return. 20 hand-slap merkins back at start
Again, but partner one goes CCW, Partner two goes CW, 10 hand-slap merkins when you meet. Reverse and return. 10 hand-slap merkins back at start
Mosey back to WoodFox; indian run back to school
Mileage: 4.0
COT
Moleskine and Announcements: