It was a little after 5am and there was Bunker’s car faithfully parked in his traditional spot. As I began my dynamic warm up routine, a familiar face with white hair emerged. Nomad arrived to make his Blakovery debut. With the rest of the PAX in place, and 5:15 on the clock, Bratwurst jumps out and 10 of us were off and running.
THE THANG
Originally billed as the reverse Providence Country Club route, a premature left turn had us going in from the front instead of the back. This is how it started: leave Blakeney Shopping center and cross Rea Rd up Ardrey Kell going pass the Chic-Fil-A. Make a right turn on Tom Short Rd, left into the rich folks neighborhood, left on 3 Lakes Dr., right on Congressional Club Drive and right on Colonial Country Lane. At that point, it was clear that it was a very slow morning for me as the fast guys, injured guys and one guy who began the morning concerned that he was too slow raced ahead of me. Bratwurst circled back, found me and led me to the short cut back to Tom Short Rd while the others went the long way and we all arrived back at the AO for some much needed stretching.
MOLESKIN
It was a rough Monday. The body and mind were weak but the men of F3 gave me strength to show up and run.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
-F3 Dad’s weekend camping trip to Julian Price Park. Here is the link. https://www.recreation.gov/camping/julian-price-campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=74043 Details July 20-22. $20 a night so $40 total. There are 10 foot pads at each site. Reach out to Fraiser by the end of May (next week) to reserve your spot.
-Memorial Day convergence on Saturday May 26 at Calvary Church. Launch at 7am, most sites closing down.
The AO at FIGHT CLUB / fox hole is loud and smelly. Kettlebells clang on the pavement, punches slam into leather mitts, pax groan and grunt through each HIIT cycle. It’s the sound of men getting after it.
COP
Opening school lap
Side-straddle hops x 10
Imperial walkers x 10
‘Mericans x 10
Mountain climbers x 10
Boxing Stations
Jump rope – jump until fail, then do 10 push-ups, repeat unil time
Gloves and pads
Heavy bag
Kettlebell Stations
Deadlift/2-handed swings
Single leg deadlift/cleans
American hammer/sit-up & press
High pulls/single-arm swings
Snatch/upright rows
Pull-ups/chin-ups/burpees
Runner is the timer. Each time a new runner returns from the school loop, find a new station.
We end the session with a Core/’Merican ladder
10 crunches
20 ‘Mericans
10 toe-tap crunches
18 ‘Mericans
10 LBC
16 ‘Mericans
10 knees R crunch
14 ‘Mericans
10 knees L crunch
12 ‘Mericans
10 Pistol R
10 ‘Mericans
10 Pistol L
8 ‘Mericans
10 Chippy cross
Moleskine
Variety – This is the place is you want to add some spice to your workouts. There’s really no AO that a similar format. Plus, you choose the stations, so you can box or lift as much or as little as you like. You’ll develop a new appreciation for boxers and their training after a few rounds. It’s exhausting, but worth it.
20 men (including one brave 2.0) went on a field trip to Davie Park for a Murph-style beatdown.
Workout started 30 seconds early because Goonie’s watch is on Lombardi Time. The Q almost didn’t make it due to misplaced car keys, but fortunately rolled into the parking lot in the M’s minivan at 5:29am. After a quick disclaimer we got going with the warmup…
Burpees 10x OYO
SSH 20x
IW 20x
Mountain Climbers 10x
Merkins 5x
We then moseyed to Davie Park, stopping at every few light poles to knock out some squats until the six caught up. Upon arrival at the playground we partnered up for some work…
Partner #1 – runs lap from playground down to main park gate at bottom of hill
Partner #2 – MiniMurph w/ 5x Pullups (or Dips or modified Rows on the swings); 10x Merkins; 20x Squats…repeat until Partner #1 shows up, then flapjack
After three rounds of this, we added in LBCs (50x) to give the PAX a breather, then knocked out two more rounds before moseying back to South Charlotte Middle for 60 seconds of Mary.
Moleskin
Extensive chatter / sass from the PAX upon the Q’s arrival this morning, but everyone seemed to fall in line after the burpee ambush during warmups. Was pretty bummed to find out the new Davie Park playground has removed all the monkey bars…pull-up opportunities were few and far between but the PAX adapted well. The woods between South Charlotte Middle and Davie gave off a foul odor at a few spots, hopefully that doesn’t get worse or we might need to take a break from field trips until whatever just died has completely decomposed. Great to see a 2.0 in the gloom, Spidey crushed it out there.
Announcements
Keep Transporter and his wife in your prayers
Pre-Memorial Day convergence on Saturday (5/26) at 7am at RockZero site
Memorial Day convergence on Monday (5/28) at Esplanade building in South Park: 630am workout followed by Patriot Festival 5k at 730am (M and 2.0 friendly), contact Little Mike for more details
5 hombres showed up at McKee Rd Elementary this weekend to find there would be a Q assigned to lead. YHC has made his way back from tax season coma and Huggie Bear and I are striving to return the original AO in Area 51 to its glory days. OK, maybe not its glory days but at least make it a viable workout PAX will want to show up for. Beaver (WD) is on the mend from his time on the IR and was the first PAX to join me, followed closely behind by Turkey Leg (nursing some knee tendinitis among other things which has him focused on bootcamp workouts) and O’Tannenbaum (pulled himself away from the Royal Wedding and tea and crumpets with his wife & 2.2). And last but not least, Prohibition (WB) made his way out just before our 0700 launch.
With all the formalities behind us, YHC led the crew for a short jog through the lower parking lot by the soccer fields and we circled up for COP in The Matrix parking lot where we completed the following:
Properly warmed up we headed up to the teacher’s parking lot in front of the school. Original plan was to head over to South Hall neighborhood and the nice little hill on Derbyshire. However, with Turkey Leg nursing some knee tendinitis and groin issues and Beaver working his way back into shape after some time on IR due to his hip surgery, YHC decided to alter his original plan. In the teacher’s parking lot we ran suicides in a descending ladder as follows:
Having broken a pretty good sweat, we made our way to the back playground for some circuit work:
Head back up to the front of the school and find a spot on the wall for PC w/ air presses followed by BTW wall walk, Lunge walk across bus parking lot and the 10 Incline Merkins. Rinse & repeat (w/ jabs instead of air presses during PC)
Next on the agenda was our old buddy Jack Webb. Circled up on the track infield and worked on shoulders and upper bodies with the following:
Once we wrapped up our visit with Jack, YHC led the PAX up to the front playground for another round of circuit work consisting of the following:
With 8 minutes left on the clock, we circled up on the lawn for a little Mary:
COT
NMM:
Announcements/Requests:
As I began my disclaimer Hula Girl announced that he had an FNG. It was 6:00 so a disclaimer was given and instructions to Hula Girl to meet at the parking deck at the Village. Muggy morning but welcome to summer in the Carolinas.
The warm up. IW x 10; Slow merkin with Q calling when to go down and when to go up. Repeato for the squat total of ten for each. Saunter over the deck. Instructions were given that we were doing sevens. Six merkins with the feet on the wall, run to the other end of the deck and do one CDD. Flip flop until you get all of them in. Line up according to your finish on the wall doing wall sits with some arm flutters.
Next thing: Partner up. The first place finisher from the sevens partners up with the last place and so on until everyone has a friend. Brew, Spidey and Frehleys were a trio. The instructions were stolen from Thin Mints Q yesterday. I liked it so much I wanted to do it again. Partner one runs the stairs to the top and then starts on the way down. Partner two runs the ramps. When they meet they do ten hand release hand slap merkins. Go back the way you came and do another ten hand release hand slap merkins. Flap jack and who just ran the stairs now runs the ramps. Do the same thing with the merkins in the middle.
Next we alternated one leg hops up the stairs to the top alternating between right leg, both legs and then left leg. Once at the top everyone grab a white column that is about three or four feet high. Twenty get ups and you had to stand all the way up. Did some mary while waiting on the finish.
Mosey down the ramps out towards the fountain that is no longer a fountain but a flower garden. We did a starfish rotating between merkin and Abs. Twenty dips to start in the middle. At each corner we did diamond, wide, regular and CDD x 10. Next we did ten step ups followed by twenty dollies, flutters, American Hammer and plank jack. Lastly we did ten squats after stepping up on the bench followed by the same merkins but x 15. We did elbow plank in between sets.
Mosey down towards Ballantyne Commons. Instructions were speed bump suicides. We did five merkins at each speed bump. There were three total. On the suicides everyone starts at the same time. When the first person reaches the speed bump everyone else stops where they are. The idea is that everyone gets back to the start at the same time. We came close.
Final push. Instructions were we had five minutes to make it back to the AO. Everyone pushed hard enough that we had a minute and a half of elbow plank in honor of Haggis. Done!
Moleskin: It has been crazy humid with the dew point and the tropical system hanging out with us the past four days. Everyone had a good sweet going early. I said yesterday it would be a fun idea to weigh in at the beginning and the end of the workout on these type of days to see how much water we lost.
There was a good bit of grunting but no real mumbling about all that we did. We covered just over 3.2 miles so just tell your family you ran the Run Ballantyne Run. Everyone gave great effort. Morning after was always up at the front. Frehleys was strong on the starfish. FNG said he was going to kill Hula Girl about forty minutes in. I am a mandated reporter so someone will be following up with you guys for a welfare check.
We did not have our first “That’s what she said” until thirty seven minutes in. One guess who that was.
I do not lead boot camps all that often but the change is nice. I appreciate Wild Turkey letting me Q. Nard Dog was a no show even though I saw him later at the Let Me Run 5k. If I am there cheering he could have made the workout. I figured he was just watching the wedding since he is part British now.
All of it was fun and hard. That is why we start F3 and end up staying because of the relationships and fun.
Announcements: F3 Dads starts June 9th and every Saturday at 9:00 in June. Wild Turkey is on Q first. Nothing but all stars coming at you this summer.
F3 Dads camping in the mountains July 20-22. HC by the end of the month to guarantee a space.
Sandbox fund raiser June 8th Lawson pool. $40 gets the family in for food, swimming and beer.
F3 Knights night June 9th.
Keep Transporter’s wife in your prayers this week.
I haven’t posted on a Saturday, or at Outland in a long time, but I was more than happy to join the Pax. Funny how Madison asks me to Q, but then he never shows up. At least EE was there. I will admit I had to pull a map up of the AO to refresh my memory of what I wanted to do.
The Thang
Mosey to parking lot between two elementary schools for our warm up.
20 x SSH
20 x IW
Line up abreast and merkin suicides using the bus parking spots. We went from J all the way down to A. We skipped K which offended Horshead. 5 merkins at each parking spot for a total of 50. Mosey over to picnic area/playground. 5 pull ups, 20 dips and run a lap around the track. 5 times. Wall sits for some recovery with 100 air presses.
Mosey over to parking lot next to SV elem. Lunge walk to the last handicap man (not HH) but the actual painted symbol on the pavement. Lunge walk back. Then we ran a few laps. First lap do 10 merkins at each light pole. Second lap 20 squats at each light pole. Last lap 20 LBCs at each light pole.
Mosey back to the cars for a little abs. 10 x canopener on each leg, 20 x Rosalitas. Time.
Moleskin
Great group of guys and really enjoyed leading. Horsehead is always entertaining with his banter, and Mimi came out for his first workout. He isn’t an FNG per se, but this was his virgin workout post. Since he didn’t throw up or pass out he said he would be back. Good to hear. Thanks for the take out Hairband.
Announcements
Pool party on June 8 at Lawson to raise money for Sandbox.
Memorial day convergence for WW2 veterans.
Thang
Moleskin
Ben Nevis is a beast of a hill and proved just right for this morning’s repeats. The idea was to run hard uphill for long enough, with a short enough break, that we built up some nice lactic acid in the legs and had to push through and keep our form in the final 15 second sprint. Worked out well enough although we probably went a little too hard on the 90 second efforts — par for the course at Swift. Saw some competition out there on the 15 second sprints — Haggis / Bratwurst showdown; Gumbo / Bunker duel; Woodson / Thin Mint drag race (Woodson by a mile).
Pleasantly surprised seeing One Niner out at Swift in spite of his tumble down a ravine a few days prior at PMBAR. Beast. Also good seeing Fire Hazard post somewhere other than the YMCA as he comes off his injury and great having Depth Charge back in the regular schedule (except for when he Qs mile repeats which YHC mysteriously did not attend). Awesome work by Magic Attic coming back to his 2nd Swift in 2 weeks. 5 minute T-pace intervals last week followed by Nevis this week is a strong start to a Swift career.
Near anarchy when lunge walking was called during the dynamic warmups. We survived. Such is the world of Swift in a post-Bratwurst era. New things will happen, mistakes will be made (although lunge walking was definitely not a mistake — if it’s good for the glutes, it’s good for the running). My only question is who’s running the pool on how long it will take before Bratwurst throws the amateurs out of the saddle and takes the reins back.
Announcements
7, make that 8, came to The Brave in spite of weather forecasts to finish their week right. 5+ miles later, they hopefully found what they were looking for. Quoting from Fuse Box’s backblast posted a few minutes ago: “In my haste to post a back blast before getting to my Saturday Honey Do’s, I failed to come up with a clever workout name.” (https://f3southcharlotte.com/2018/05/19/the-no-name-workout/)
Thang
Moleskin
Solid crew at The Brave today, as always. You can guess who was out front with names like Purrell, Rachel and Frasier on the PAX list. You can also guess who was late with a quick glance at the PAX list (hint, he made a bathroom stop on the way). What you may not have guessed (but only if you haven’t been paying attention lately) was Paper Jam coming out to The Brave for his 2nd or maybe 3rd time in a month. The whole “Paper Jam is not a runner” thing is pretty much played out at this point (Snopes officially gave it a “False” rating), but it’s really great to see new faces such as his becoming semi-regulars at my favorite place to be on Friday. Now we just need some of our old regulars back out there (I’m looking at you General_, Ringer (is this guy allowed to cross the border?), Argo, Goonie, Market Timer, …) and even more new faces coming to see what they are missing.
Forecast called for possible thunderstorms this morning which also ended up being false. Humidity was some high number, but that’s pretty much a given this time of year. Broke my promise a little and stayed away from the deck for the first half of the workout or so. Thought it would be nice to get some miles in the fresh, moist air first. Much confusion over what a “street sign on our side of the street” was, so instructions were modified to “any sign attached to a metal pole with small holes in it that is in the grass immediately to your left.” This seemed to appease Frasier and the correct number of merkins got done. Had trouble following my own directions in the parking deck, but that’s different.
Anywhere between 4.5 and 5.5 miles today, plenty of elevation change and no man left behind. Only 6 days left until another Fun Friday at The Brave.
Announcements
In my haste to post a back blast before getting to my Saturday Honey Do’s, I failed to come up with a clever workout name. After 5 minutes of day dreaming about neighborhood pool moms staring at the computer screen, I went with the very uncreative No Name Workout.
Six pax showed up to see what exactly my guarantee was. At the end, I think most would agree it was epic, legendary, a beat down, only tough because it was humid. (If you haven’t noticed by now, I read Foundations recent back blast and figured out how to do a strike through…..it may get excessive during this back blast).
WARM UP
Mosey around school buses and half way up the parking lot. Warnings, Form Threats, Disclaimer Given.
25 SSH
10 Mountain Climbers
10 Peter Parkers
10 Parker Peters
15 Potato Pickers (Through the hole is not a thing, except in the bedroom)
THE THANG
Mosey back towards the school warning the pax along the way that I wanted to try something new and that it would probably suck.
Circle up in the grass for Ladder Merkin down mixed with Ladder Maktar Jai (Spelling?) going up. With a tip of the cap to Recalculating I did mention it was a version of Catalina Wine Mixer. So…..9 Merkins & 1 Maktar Jai, 8 Merkins & 2 Maktar Jai….. Around the 4 Maktar Jai mark, I decided that yes, this exercise did suck as bad as I thought it would. I gave the pax the audible if they chose to take it to continue on with only Merkins. 4 Pax joined me in that modify, but 2 stayed strong and completed the true ladder. I expected it out of Dasher because, well he’s dasher; but I was very impressed with Mad Dog pushing through. Good work.
Partner up and grab 1 heavy rock per team:
Everyone: 15 Derkins.
Mosey to Railings for Supine Ladder staring at 9 and going to 1. At 3 I added a 5 second hold at the end of 3, 2, and 1.
Lunge walk across the bridge with a jailbreak up the hill to the short wall.
20 dips, inch worm merkins to the wall, 10 donkey kicks, inch worm push ups to short wall. 2 Rounds total. I believe Dasher was the only one to complete the two rounds (Surprise, Surprise) before YHC called an audible.
Mosey to the brick pile.
Partner 1: Curls with Elbows rested on belly. Partner 2: Run down hill, hold fence for 10 low slow jump squats and back up the hill. 2 Rounds. I gave modification option of taking gravel stairs to stay off the grass. Finch and Shop Dawg laughed in the face of that modification. At this point, I was pretty gassed and knew we had plenty of cardio coming so I modified (seems that’s becoming a trend with this workout).
Circle up as a group for brick work. No specific count, just go until it burns, then put bricks down and continue without bricks until it burns.
Mosey to trees behind baseball field. Hills – up and around the tree (Clydesdale modification was just to top of hill). Tree 1, 3, 5, & 7 were front hill runs while tree 2, 4, and 6 were backwards hill runs. I gave an extra disclaimer about wet grass, being careful, and modify if you feel unsafe. When I was done I look up to see Dasher already running back up the hill. Even with the modification, Dasher was on tree 7 as some of the Clydesdales entered tree 5 with heavy breathing. I audibled and had everyone stop where they were and meet back at Bricks.
Burn out triceps one last time with 20 tricep kickbacks. Bricks up and mosey to the bridge. On the way there I warned Shop Dawg and Southern Belle that they were going to hate me for what I had planned for the final 8 minutes. Shop Dawg said bring it, so just like the crappy cheer leading movie from the 90’s – I brought it.
Partner Pushes from the bridge to the left side parking lot. Flap Jacking whenever the pusher gets tired. I gave my partner Mad Dog the good news that I in fact did remember to brush my teeth this morning since we were going to be in such close quarters. Unfortunately for me, he failed to do the same. Mad Dog and I mary’ed with heels to heaven waiting on the 6. Based on the remaining 4 walking in, I assume that was a beat down of an exercise.
Partner Pull from bottom of parking lot to the cars (at least that was my intention) flap jacking when the puller gets tired. At the top of the parking lot, most of the pax were spent so I audibled (once again).
Walked for 10 seconds to catch our breaths then did a jail break to the crosswalk to end the class. Dasher jumped out to an early lead, but apparently he never read the tortoise and the hare book as a kid because in a surprising upset, Shop Dawg brought home the gold. We may have to incorporate some horse racing odds next time because Shop Dawg could have earned some big money on that win.
MOLE SKIN
A great group of guys came out today. A smaller group than usual, but quality over quantity today (those that usually come please don’t get offended, that’s a joke).
Very little mumble chatter today to spice up the back blast. Dasher tried his best to add some lively discussion. I realized today that all the good talkers are gazels. Bottle Cap, Money Ball, and Goodfella just to name a few. I’m beginning to think its not a personality thing (introvert vs extrovert), or an intelligence thing (as obvious with Money Ball going to Tennessee – I’m kidding of course), but I think its a Clydesdale vs Gazel thing. I think us Clydesdale’s are so winded, that we physically can’t speak or think of anything funny to say. I will continue to observe this new theory from the back of the pack and try my best to step up my mumble chatter game.
The towel made its appearance again this week. Actually, I got tired of Recalculating asking about when it was making its return so I decided to bring him out of winter retirement. I’m beginning to wonder if they (Recalc and my towel) have some weird side relationship that I don’t know about. Either way, I asked the wife to use bleach when cleaning the towels.
Good work from Southern Belle. He’s coming along nicely and improving with each post. Thanks to those that continue to push the new guys and encourage them to keep coming out.
Shop Dawg put in some good work today. Please take this as a compliment when I say this, but I hope in 20 years I can still post to F3 and keep up as well as you do. I was shocked as you came flying past me during the final jail break. Loved that you beat Dasher.
Finch was getting very close to having his Clydesdale card pulled the last couple of workouts. He was approaching back of the gazel pack territory. Good work lately Finch.
I thought Southern Belle and I were going to be the first ones there this morning. As I round the corner into the school I see Mad Dog planting the flag in the ground. Dude worked his butt off today. Pushed through the full set of Maktar Jai’s even after I gave a chance for modification. He even posted while on vacation – impressive. Glad to have you as a site Q on Saturdays. You and Popeye make a good team.
In case no one knew, Dasher is fast. I tried my best to handicap him today, but to no avail. He also pushed through the full set of Maktar’s. Good work.
Announcements
Third F opportunities:
Sunday 7:00 5 Stones Office building. Studying the book of John.
Monday evenings @ 7:30 Brooklyn Pizza. New book starting this week. Come to get a copy of the book and drink beer with Shop Dawg.
Sandbox Fundraiser Pool Party June 8th @ Lawson Pool. $40 per family. Pizza and Beer provided.