Watchtower workout on Tuesday. We had 20 guys and a whole-lotta humidity. It was my third time as Q, and Q-ing gets easier every time. The weinke was nowhere in sight (but balled-up in my pocket for safe keeping). Next time, just pure freestyle, whatever comes to me in the moment. But here’s how it went down:
The Warm-up
Start at the normal side-parking lot. After disclaimers:
The Thang: Rock and Rail
Partner-up. One man runs the circular Bus Lot while the other does:
Mosey to the handrail at back of the school:
Concessions made:
To Lot
“There is magic in misery. Just ask any runner.” — Dean Karnazes
Extra Credit
The early birds kept the pace in check this morning.
The Required.
Disclaimer was delivered.
The Route
From the Vine, take Ballantyne Commons to Bright House Financial for dynamic drills. For the sake of simplicity and expediency, we did the basics – toes, heels, high knees and butt-kicks. No big whoop! We looped around Community House back to Ballantyne Commons and hung a right on Ballantyne Corporate.
At the bridge, I delivered the workout details. Run down Bagpipe Hill to Brixham Hill Dr, turn around and gather speed as you descend and sprint up Bagpipe Hill. Repeat until time is called.
Moleskine
Sprinting is vital to fitness. Sprinting and other high-intensity activities smoke calories, burns visceral fat and builds muscle mass. (Compare the legs of a sprinter vs a marathoner.)
I like this course because we stayed together, but gave the fast guys the room to vroom.
Welcome aboard E. Coli or whatever your new name is.
Race Isabella Santos!
Check Slack for #Sandbox service opportunities.
Thank you for the opportunity to lead! Always an honor. (If I missed your name, let me know and I’ll add it.)
26ish PAX joined me for some long intervals at Swift this week. (More on the “ish” later.).
The THANG:
5 minute intervals with 1 minute recovery were announced at the outset. The 1 minute recovery registered some groans, but the PAX were assured that this was in fact the prescribed interval by Dr. Jack Daniels, and could be accomplished if the proper threshhold pace was maintained. Then, off to the warm-up jog to the cut through between Community House and Ballantyne Commons. Following some dynamic stretching, instructions were given to do commence the intervals down Community House Road to the light at “Eindhaven” Lane and back. Despite the Germanic pronunciation, the PAX understood and off we went. Most PAX got in a healthy 5 reps of the intervals before jogging back to COT.
Moleskin:
Great turn-out this morning with over 25 PAX in attendance. I only wish my phone had not freaked out when I tried to save the voice memo with all of your names. I tried to list as many as I could from memory, but I know I left names out. Regardless, everyone gave a great effort on some tough intervals and they’ll be better for it. Thank you gentlemen for the honor of leading.
So YHC comes back from his wonderful vacation that he did not work out at all to a post by the mild mannered paperjam. He had to go and make YHC feel supreemly less of a man becasue I did not run a bridge and did not have a cool photo of the sun and the moon. BTW if you have not read the slack post check out #mumblechater. Spoiler alert there is no drainage grates vandalyzed in the post. YHC also found out that his lack of physical care in the past week was going to haunt him when chedder stated that I had Q in the gloom the next day. So the next morning YHC could not sleep and got to the AO at 445 and made a list of pain stations on the ground with his 7 year old daughtes play chalk. It was commented on that the handwrighting was sub par and made no sense especially to the Q who wrote it. At 5 the loan pre runner was just YHC and on the lap back Chedder pulls up at 515 and we proceed to go across the street and get lost and just made it back to launch. This is the second time that Chedder and YHC have gotten lost on a run. As we started up the PAX were suprised that there were going to be stations and lots of running. We also had our dear friend Sandy with us which I was informed by No Show our LGBTQIA versed member that I was not allowed to assign a gender to Sandy so it is just a bag full of sand or what ever it chooses to identify with. As we ran indian run with Sandy always at the lead we took a turn to the darkest part of the AO and YHC thought about his life and the fact he was in his 2nd third of his journey. YHC paused the pax to thank them and to tell him his hope challange with his injuries and with his ongoing career change. YHC aslo told them he loved them and was proud to lead them in the Gloom some uncomfortable glances later we were running again with Sandy. YHC read a article about Dabo Swinney (yes Tiger Fan) about how he belived that the word “love” is the most underused word in our language. When we start using Love in our words are actions are not far behind. Dumpsterfire in the COT had a powerfull statement in the closing prayer. To paraphrase he said even though his brother passed, brotherhood is not dead it lives strong with in the MEN of F3 and our Love has supported him in this diffcult time. So if you have a moment to say “I love you.” to a special person in your life please take the time. Start making the word “LOVE” the most used word in our lexicon and see if our actions and maybe theirs will change for the better.
AYE. Twelve (soon to be 11) posted at The Matrix for what turned out to be a for real #oldschool beatdown. YHC never quite knows how the workout will unfold until arrival, but upon seeing the PAX eager for AMRAP, I changed plans. Here’s more or less what transpired:
THE THANG
Mosey to lower parking lot
Warmup – Imperial Walkers, Plank-o-rama
Gather at end of parking lot behind the East island
Simple instructions – do the specified exercise at East island, do 1 more burpee at West island, lap back for the next exercise. Rounds were:
25 x Merkins
25 x Jump Squats
25 x Heels-to-Heaven
25 x Diamonds
25 x Monkey Humpers
25 x Freddie Mercury
25 x Widearms
25 x Romanian Deadlifts
25 x WWII Situps
10 x Pull ups
25 x Sumo squats
25 x Little Baby Twist
25 x Exploding Merkins
25 x Sister Mary Catherines
25 x Dolly
Totals – 120 burpees, 360 reps, 2+ miles
YE OLDE MOLESKINE
1. We had lots of strange behavior from the PAX today. First, PopTart emailed me last night at 9:45 to let me know that he would not be attending the workout because he was “celebrating” his anniversary. Dudebro, I do not want to receive any emails from you on your anniversary night. Just FYI. Second, OT showed up 5 minutes late because he claimed that he couldn’t decide whether or not he should wear a shirt. OT, always wear a shirt. Otherwise, you will leave puddles of sweat everywhere and someone will slip and get hurt. Third, Madison disappeared somewhere between rounds 3 and 4 without saying anything. He just disappeared into the Gloom. It’s a mystery. Sound off below so that we know you’re ok and to explain thyself.
2. For those of us who were actually at the workout and on time, it was a #smokefest. No Regerts was at the front of the pack for a while but got overtaken eventually by Gypsy. Christmas was only fast on the last sprint, after which he admitted to #sandbagging. At least he’s honest.
3. Much complaining about the burpees, but, personally, I think that’s the easiest way to knock out 120 burpees. I know, I know – I said 110 at the workout but realized later that I’d missed the mark by 10. Even with the 20 burpee margin of error over the required 100 at a McGee Q (that’s a legend and is not actually true), it’s doubtful that Prohibition got over 70.
4. No Regerts announced that his wife just opened a new bakery next to his tattoo shop in Matthews called Baked Well. This announcement explained why his name is No Regerts (get it? Tats you regret?) and also reminded me of some of my friends in high school, who were pretty always on a quest to be well baked. Anyway, I don’t think you can get well baked on the baked goods at Baked Well, but it’s worth a shot. Apparently the chocolate chip scones are incredible.
#horseneck OUT
14 men came out for a Fun Friday at Joust (emphasis on the fun). We played Ultimate, did some burpees, talked to at least one fair-weather Tennessee fan, and sent one skins team member home to pray about his attitude.
Ultimate Frisbee (thanks Yeti for the sweet disc, brah)
Every time you’re scored on, you do 5 burpees (add five if scored on twice in a row)
Great game out there by everyone – also, no one got their block knocked off coming across the field in the dark.
Enjoyed it fellas, I’ll definitely be back for some more of that in the future.
It was a fantastic cool morning, 55 to be exact, great morning to sub Q as Spooky is working through back issues. Great guy, we will get him back when he is up to speed again, for sure!
WU: 15SSH, 15 Merkins, 15 IW, and something else…
The Thing: mosey across the street to the NEW Harris Teeter, impressive area, pleny of space to with with, hit the light pole, instructions were simple. Run 2 light poles 10 squats run back one pole 5 burpees. 9 Poles in total, did some step ups and then something similar on the way back. Mosey back home for some wind sprints and out.
Moleskin:
Love to run buy the “Gladiator” group while they are paying some guy $100 a month to do the same thing were doing for free. Seems the Lifetime boot camp also ran to the parking lot for some F3 education as Doc had to bust McGee’s chops for form on Burpees, McGee fought back hard in defense his form met Burpee Regulations. It was good to see Mr. Bean, havn’t seen him since he went fishing months ago, still waiting for my invite…. Astro showed no mercy and put the Burpees down, Job was a bit tentative on the cadence count until he was given no choice by a call out by McGee. Uncle Leo and Huggie Bear didn’t quit and put in the work. Our FNG (Menzel) who started on a Burpee heavy work out but kept jumping back in the mix. McGee, Alf and Doc did their standard stout performance. Pop Tart showed his speed on the last wind sprints letting us all know that light flaky breakfast lacks no speed.
Finished the workout with a Hope story from McGee on learning new perspective and how we need to leverage each other experiences to help each other.
Appreciate the opportunity to lead gents, remember the theme, 2 steps forward, sometimes one back, but get back on it and push forward.
There is never a shortage of workouts and backblasts throughout the Union County Area. Today, I had the joy of hanging out with some of the PAX and families while we floated down the Catawba River. Now, you may think that the behaviors and personalities would change outside of a workout at 5:30 in the morning. However, there is never a shortage of jokes or fun strewn throughout an F2 even with my fellow F3 Brethren.
The Thang
Show up to the Catawba River near the Pump House
Posted on behalf of Beaver
The Thang:
Mosey to the Fire Station for COT:
SSHx25 in cadence
IWx25 in cadence
50 merkins OYO
50 LBC OYO
Plank Jacksx25 in cadence
Dollyx25 in cadence
Flutterx25 in cadence
Mosey to Promenade on Providence (central island):
PAX led Mary until Q arrived (nice leadership from the PAX!)
Bench stepsx20
Decline merkinsx20
Plank variations
Cleansing lap around island
Rinse and repeat x2
Pause to pay homage to an orange McLaren in the parking lot by doing 20 merkins.
Mosey back to Fire Station:
Mary varietals at Fire Station including –
1) PAX led Mary
2) Heels to heavenx15 in cadence
3) Russian twistx15 in cadence
4) Squid exercisex15 in cadence – name unknown (still trying to forget this one – too painful)
Mosey to rock pile:
Curlsx15in cadence
Military pressx15 in cadence
Tricep pressdx15 in cadence
Rinse and repeatx10 in cadence
End with 5 burpees, thanks to Witch Doctor’s watch which gave us 20 more seconds in the workout.
Moleskin:
It was an honor to lead the PAX today in my first Q back at Area 51 in a long time.
Great to see Rad (Witch Doctor’s 2.0) and nice takeout prayer by OT.
Great work by all!