Erector put out a call for Qs at The Arsenal a couple of weeks ago. Fresh off a trip to Indian Land to mow the grass at the Sandbox family that F3 helps out (check out the #sandbox Slack channel to learn more), I felt like I could make the trip south again for my first Q out of NC. I gassed up the Jeep last night, checked all the fluids and packed a breakfast in case I got lost. Google Maps said 25 mins. I left at 5:00 – we got this. I passed several other Thursday workouts to get there – nobody at Hydra yet, but I saw some guys gathering for Devils Turn, passed close to Rebel Yell, maybe some in Ballantyne. I passed the Foxhole (I love the Foxhole), then safely across the border. I didn’t need gas, liquor or fireworks on this trip into SC. My destination was Indian Land Elementary.
Erector and Ringer got back from their prerun, Cobbler pulled in right at 5:30. Off we go. I had never been to the site before, but my Google Maps research indicated that there was a football field and a track. I’ve led plenty of workouts with nothing more, so that’s what I had in mind. Welp. The gates were locked and there wasn’t a way in to the field. NBD, let’s go over to this field over here instead while I make something up.
Circle up for a cursory warmup (no SSH). Run back and forth a little to loosen up. Then gather in the middle next to that orange piece of trash. One guy runs to the goalpast while the other do exercises (HR merkins, LBCs, CDDs). Rotate through all four spots. Over to some strange piece of equipment that had barbell weights on it – just as I planned. Two guys run over there and touch that thing (right next to a chicken coop, apparently) while the other two do weight stuff. Three trips each for curls, OH press and triceps. Over to the hill (they call it Dragon’s Back or something) for a Triple Nickle. Jump squats at the top, merkins at the bottom. Recover with a little wall sit against the bathroom (apparently heated and always unlocked, btw). Mosey over to the playground for a few pullups. Then to the picnic tables for 10 jumpups, 10 dips, 10 derkins, then run around the playground. Repeat. Mary for a bit. Then head back to the cars with a stop for a plank walk merkin thing. Finish up with a little mary and 5 burpees. Done.
Thanks for having me out to Indian Land, guys. Great AO and some hard working guys. It’s cool to put in work with new guys occasionally. I get tired of Semi Gloss.
posted on behalf of One Eye
17 PAX started their week the right way
The Thang:
Moleskin
Good group out there today. Mumble chatter started early with Swiper commenting on the Qs attire. He especially like the gloves. Believe he called them rapist gloves. I’ve never heard anyone refer to a pair of gloves as being particularly well suited for that crime but it appears Swiper is an expert on that type of thing. Strong work by all. Kirk, Swiper, Chalet, Cold Cuts and Chappy crushed both of the one mile runs. Some of the PAX were begging to stop at the 9 driveways on the right before the second mile…. so YHC knows it was a solid beat down. Thanks to Cold Cuts for the take out. And thanks to Aquafresh for giving the me chance to lead. Always a pleasure.
Announcements:
Convergence on Saturday at RockZero
No DMZ next week; Convergence at Symphony Park, Southpark Mall 0630 Checkpoint has the Q.
By the time YHC arrived at St. Philip Neri Church in Fort Mill the rain had stopped and the clouds were parting, just in time for the pre-race festivities at the SPN Festival. Not long after setting up the tent and planting the shovel flag the FIA Fort Mill ladies and Vuvuzela arrived, ready to roll with Jessie & Luka in the Cannoli Run. Then Bolt lined us up in the front of the pack and we were off for 5 winding km and a few cannolis on the way. Jessie & Luka are both SFN veteran Track Commanders but this was the first event for the FIA Fort Mill ladies, all of whom seamlessly represented the mission of Speed For Need – fostering inclusion and raising awareness of those with special needs through participation in fitness events. Jessie’s mom told YHC that this was such a fun, high energy experience for her, complemented by her enthusiastic drivers and the cheering spectators offering high fives and words of encouragement. Jessie was smiling and laughing most of the way, especially over the many speed bumps and the fast downhill sections. As for Luka, well, Vuvu and Penny Pincher sped off at a championship pace from the start. The only time YHC caught up to them was on the turnaround where Strava will show that I turned around early just to run with them for a while and snap a few photos.
Some impressions from our FIA partners:
We agree and we hope to see everyone again at another SFN event soon. Please check the calendar at www.speedforneed.org. Next up: Run for Holland on May 26 in Spruce Pine then the May 28 Patriot Festival 5K at Southpark Mall. Come out and get involved, foster inclusion, raise awareness, and ask yourself, who pushes who?
There is a time for everything under heaven. Turn turn turn. Grave Dancer Q. SYITG
You are welcome. They say when a bird craps on you its good luck. Well on a quick walk with the dog after the workout, I got bombed square on the top of the head. Luckily it was dead on and the mess sort of stayed in the hair. Feel bad for guys like Purell as that would have been a drippy mess. Anyway – your welcome because I think some of that luck will head your way today just for posting with me this morning, although you probably didn’t feel lucky on lap 5.
16 men posted up at Death Valley this morning for a little work out in the muggy swamps of South Charlotte Middle School. Here’s how it went.
Disclaimer.
Jog over to day care center for COP.
Merkins, Low Slow Squats, Merkins, Lunges, Merkins, & Imperial Walkers. Header was there, and I know he loves a lot of merkins.
Jog back over to the cars, plank up and count off in 4’s. Each team grab a 50lb sandbag and head to the football field. Line up in the end zone.
P1 does lunges with the sandbag. The other 3 run to midfield, 5 merkins and return. Flapjack for 4 rounds so each PAX gets the lunges in.
Team sandbag carry 400m around the track.
Back in end zone: P1 holds bag extended over chest and does flutter kicks. The other 3 run to mid-field for 10 LBC’s. Repeat for each PAX.
Team sandbag carry 400m
Back in end zone: P1 Planks while partner rests sandbag on back. the other 3 run to midfield for 10 merkins and return. Rotate through all 4 guys. Some of the planters hit a few merkins and 6″ holds.
Team sandbag carry 400m
Back in end zone: P1 does Sandbag Burpees: (Lift sandbag from ground to overhead after merkin portion of burpee). The other 3 run to midfield for 10 merkins and return. Rotate for all 4.
Team sandbag carry 400m
Back in end zone: P1 holds sandbag locked out overhead (Unbroken style) while the other 3 run to midfield for 10 Dry Docks and back. Flap jack for all 4 PAX.
Grab bag and head out to the Semi-Gloss palace……. Oh wait. Spackler requests another team sandbag carry. Easy enough.
Team sandbag carry 400m and back up to the parking lot.
3 minutes of Mary: Flutter, Freddy Mercury, & Protractor.
Done.
Moleskin:
While the count-off in groups of 4 is generally a confusing mess because guys can’t remember there number or how to count, its a nice change of pace to shake up the teams a bit from the guys you might normally run with. Schmedium and Smokey were on my team and after 6 or 7 weeks in Smokey asked him if he can tell the difference now that he was posting regularly. He said he can’t, but his wife can. Smokey wisely skipped asking for further details. Don’t worry Schmedium you are getting faster, it’s always going to feel hard. My team was also struggling to keep up with Purell – while he carried the sandbag he was still pulling away from us on the track.
Laronda and Dollywood were smoking around the track carrying the bag as well. I guess thats the benefit of your age starting with “twenty…”
I noticed when I unloaded the car that one bag was about 10lbs less than it should be. Not sure which group was benefiting from the leaking sand. Might have to cut that one open and add some weight back to it before the next outing. I think I go through half a roll of duct tape every time I bring those bags out just to repair them.
Everyone was moving hard out there today and sticking fairly close on the track. Carrying those bags never gets easier.
Thanks to Puddin Pop for the take out.
-Alf
Announcements:
5th Annual Pre-Memorial Day Convergence. Saturday, 7am at Rock Zero (Calvary Church). Always the best workout of the year. Come and honor those who have sacrificed for our country while we work hard and read three Medal of Honor citations.
Hey, what are you doing on Thursday? While there are a lot of high-quality workouts throughout Area 51, you should really show up to Peak 51, as we have a special Q — our brother Benny will be on Q.
Kinda sorta.
As a refresher, Benny was hit by a car back around MLK Day President’s Day on a training run for a marathon. Which one? That’s hard to remember, because as we all know, Benny had about 167 different races and events he was training for at the time. Anyway, after the accident, he had to have surgery to insert some metal rods in his leg and has been on the road to recovery ever since.
But, as for this Thursday, he had requested the date earlier this year, before the accident, as it’s the 1-year anniversary of his VQ.
So, we’re going to honor that, and honor him.
Benny has crafted a #Weinke, and Sensei and YHC will be leading the PAX through it. #SpoilerAlert: Jack Webb is on the list.
We’re also about 98 percent sure he’s going to come out for COT at the end. Obviously, a lot depends on how his legs are doing Thursday morning, but, he’s going to do his best to get out.
Also, YHC is trying to call in some favors to have Sir Elton John show up for a special live performance of “Candle in the Wind.” It’s not looking great, but a lot can change between now and Thursday.
Anyway, here’s to hoping you’ll show up just to show your support and show him that he’s missed, plus you’ll get a quality workout, which will feature Jack Webb.
So, show up to Matthews Elementary School on Thursday:
SYITG!
Back in 2014, for the 1 year anniversary of Day Zero, @OG_Radar had the idea for a wonderful Memorial Day weekend workout to honor American heroes that had paid the ultimate price for our freedom. This coming Saturday, we’ll do it again, for the 5th time. There’s no surprises to the workout. It will be hard. And we’ll push to the limit, as small recognition and appreciation for our American warriors.
The workout will consist of:
Throughout the workout, each Q will read a citation describing the bravery and willing sacrifice of an American soldier. This year’s citations include an Army soldier from WWII, a Marine from Vietnam and a Navy Seal from Operation Iraqi Freedom.
This weekend is not about cookouts and pool parties. Come get your mind right. 0700 this Saturday at Rock Zero (Calvary Church).
NOTE: If you have a shovel flag, bring it!
12 PAX arrived at Fast Twitch for what felt like a relatively cool morning ready (or not) for the grab bag of hilly running that came next.
Thang
Moleskin
YHC was excited to be offered this Q slot at Fast Twitch by Purell. The new launch point offers endless potential for painful, hilly suffering of which I am quite fond and I was more than happy to share this with the A51 PAX this morning. Morning felt cool at first but, as usual this time of year, that changed pretty quickly. I had visited the new AO a few times in the last few weeks so was aware of the new launch point, but multiple PAX were friendly enough to share addresses, pictures, maps and other various coordinates to make sure YHC arrived. Looks like Frasier has given us SOBs a bad name. Not sure whether I helped or damaged that reputation this morning.
The warmup was similar exactly the same as Fletch’s popular warmup last week. YHC made a point this morning to run far enough ahead of Purple Haze and Alf to not hear any complaining about running, running too fast, running on hills, etc. Unfortunately, the timed interval set required us to stay together and much mumblechatter was heard including the use of the word ‘Swift’ as a curse word. Nothing wrong with a little structure to the running, guys. Looking at Strava, it looks as if everyone played along for the most part. Appreciate it.
To appease the masses and avoid outright rebellion, our main set included moments of both hands and asses on the ground. This, unfortunately, did not make it any less painful. Took us about 4.5 miles to travel the 1.5 mile stretch of Raintree and it definitely felt like it was never going to end. The 3 trips up various parts of the Providence Colony hill, as well as the full trip up to Windbluff, were definitely soul suckers. Even Purell looked a little winded at one point so we knew we were onto something.
Rachel and Purell finished the entire Paula Abdul set with a little to spare and head back for the six. Believe Uncle Rico and Astro may have finished entirely as well and were close on Rachel’s heels either way. Uncle Rico’s (somewhat awkward by FT standards, perfectly acceptable at Swift) pre-warmup stretching* paid dividends as he edged out Astro. Astro likely would have finished quicker if not wearing a 30 year old cotton t-shirt that proved to be more of a wind-catching kite than an article of clothing. Alf and Purple Haze fueled each other with grumbles all morning and almost made it. Everyone else put in an impressive performance and refused to throw in the towel, all arriving at 0615 on the dot. All-in-all, we covered between 5.7 and 7 miles today, most at a healthy pace.
Thanks to all who came out. Pop Tart was last seen looking for a beer to fuel up for his next lap of Raintree after hearing Turkey Leg mention that the Beer Mile should really be the Beer Raintree 10K.
* recorded clip of Uncle Rico stretching available here: https://giphy.com/gifs/stretch-Ig9Z7wby0MOKk
Announcements
Tuesday morning…I think it marks 5 straight days of rain and YHC seriously dislikes those boot camps that end up being rolling around the mud or planking in the biggest puddle at the AO just because we are F3 and can. Knowing we were expecting heavy showers again overnight, YHC had a different idea. Keep the feet dry and no planking at all.
5:30: Disclaimer given and advanced warning about the above did bring in some mumbles that the wrong shoes were selected for a “Dry” workout. (Sorry HairBand)
7 Pax begin the Mosey to the Indian Trail town Hall.
Set of headlights coming around the corner hot.. We all know this vehicle so we modify the run to include a detour to collect the good Shepard… (We leave no man behind at Thrive) … and continue to the Town Hall.
Circle up from some COP
(But 1st we must honor the UC traditions: 5 burpees OYO as down painment for Shepard. ? )
Reverse Indian Run around the Town Hall front lot circle
Leaving the Town Hall with an F2 pace mosey to the steps overlooking the outdoor Volleyball courts
Short Mosey to the Tennis courts. (Side note… been attending Thrive for almost a year now fairly regular and have never seen the Tennis Courts used in a bootcamp so I was unsure if there was an unspoken rule against using them…Hope not)
DORA 1,2,3: Partner workout (pax one runs to the far line of 2nd tennis court, performs 2 Burpees and returns as pax two is performing set exercise. As a team completing the count. When your team completes final exercise you join in with a team not completed to help finish their sets.) #NOPLANKING
Short Mosey to “The Wall”
2 mins of Mary
MoleSkin
Solid Union County PAX today to help push YHC through the workout and I appreciate them allowing me to try out a few new things I have picked up on my gypsy style adventures to other F3 regions. (Reverse Indian run (A51), 1.5 Merkins (Hampton Roads), tennis court Dora (Lexington KY), LBC for 6 vs Planking (Birmingham AL), and slow flutter kicks (Lexington KY). I encourage all pax to get out and visit other areas to meet the members of F3 Nation that are beyond the confines of your regular AO. Listen to their stories and see what drives their region. Then bring it back and share it with us. If you need a ride to one I will pick you up. ?
Also: if you have not read Glass Joe’s BB from his Q on Saturday, you need to!!
I will help you find it: ( https://f3southcharlotte.com/2018/05/19/be-more/ )
T-Claps to Lumberjack for taking us out in the COT.
Announcements
As Always: Thank you for allowing me to lead today. Stay Strong!!!
Respectfully,
Gypsy
Still waiting on the Hawk’s Nest shovel flag….clowncar’d it with Lewinsky & Leprechaun, arrived on time which was nice. 21 pax, including one FNG – “Hightower”, mustered for a Tuesday downpainment at one of Area 51’s best AO’s; even if the Q/Site Q still isn’t familiar with all it has to offer. More on that later. A fairly weak disclaimer (#cobains Mermaid) was given, and the pax launched into the gloom.
the Thang & Ye Olde Moleskine:
We jogged through the Latin Labyrinth of porticoes, covered sidewalks, ill-placed walls, etc. and made our way in front of the gym for COT
Low Slow Squat x 15 IC (might have been 20 IC, but already can’t remember)
IW x 15 IC
Slow Flutter x 15 IC
H-R Merkin x 15 IC (pretty sure Gummy was already complaining at this point)
Rockhopper x 15 IC
There was some mumblechatter about no SSH’s. That was not an inadvertent omission men. They’re terrible for you.
Jog down to one of the front lots near Providence entrance.
Lunge walk 30 yards, Burpee Broad Jump 40 yards
Jog over to the new field hockey (I think?) turf field. Split into 5 groups.
One group runs perimeter of field with 5 Carolina Dry Docks at each corner while the other 4 groups do a smorgasbord of plankorama, Al Gore’s w/overhead press, Mary, etc. Much mumblechatter about this is going to be a lot of plank work. What they were really saying is: “Where is my 3+ mile bootcamp with way too many bad form merkins?!!! We got through that with Bulldog leading the final group while YHC ran the CDD circuit. By the way, be sure to wash all the carcinogenic astroturf pellets off fully.
At this point, we ran over to what I thought would be the high terraced wall & steps outside the auditorium. Despite my 2nd Q at Hawk’s Nest and the fact that I’m a site Q as well….I couldn’t find that particular building. Drat. So we found some walls and did Walthar N’Djaye’s x 13 IC. We then did some People’s Chair, except for Bulldog, Thunder Road and a few others who either were refuseniking fully or too lazy to find an adequate wall?
Dollywood & Hollywood. Just wanted to say both those nicknames in succession. Try it. It’s fun. And they were both part of the pax this morning…both in really good shape, too.
Another observation: the # of Clemson alums among the pax seems to be increasing or perhaps Hawk’s Nest is becoming somewhat of a fan club meeting every Tuesday morning. Not only do they seem to post as a group, they all seem to wear orange….a lot. Today’s Clempson orange-wearing pax were: Busch, Lewinsky, Revlon (full Tiger paw). Marge & Gummy were more understated in their allegiance. That’s a lot of Clemson “nowledge” in the gloom, some might say too much…
Ok, what else did we do? Did I mention the Q got lost? So we moseyed to the “middle school”/”recess” field for some work. Incidentally, I think this is the field where our hosts thought we would do all of our workouts, in their entirety. Negative.
We did some down & back AYG runs with H-R merkins, CDDs, Jump Squats & LBC’s at the far end. We then did 10’ish minutes of Mary, finishing with 13 6-count burpees in the parking lot.
We did a lot of plank work throughout the morning’s downpainment. Good form plank work is some of the best exercise you can do. You can thank me later.
Some other sundry obervations before I list a couple announcements and prayers lifted this morning:
Love Q’ing the pax. I’ll do better next time….but you loved the burpee broad jumps and Walthar N’Djaiye’s…plenty more where that came from.
Announcements & prayer concerns:
Sat., May 26th – 7am Area51 & SOB (DaVinci, for sure) Memorial Day convergence at RockZero (Calvary Church) — Q’ed by Purple Haze and Rachel (Marine veteran). Be there – the best convergence workout of the year.
Mon., May 28th – Patriots Day Festival in SouthPark. Charlotte F3 convergence workout (NoCoTope, Fort Mill/Rock Hill, Metro, A51, SOB, UC, Gastonia, etc, etc) followed by 5K with 8 SpeedForNeed chariots carrying veterans.
Continue to pray for: Utah’s father to heal & Jennings (Bout Time’s 3 year old son) battle with cancer
Thanks to Haze for taking us out in prayer and giving thanks for the friendship that exists among the pax. I’m thankful for you men. This fellowship is a gift that I didn’t even know I needed until it found me.
“Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, ‘What? You too? I thought I was the only one.’… It is when two such persons discover one another, when, whether with immense difficulties and semi-articulate fumblings or with what would seem to us amazing and elliptical speed, they share their vision it is then that Friendship is born. And instantly they stand together in an immense solitude.” – C.S. Lewis in “The Four Love”