Be more

Be more

Just sliding this one in the last minute but it needs to be written as some things matter more than a workout

Background: Two weeks ago, I went with my church’s youth group, and my oldest daughter, on a mission trip to Asheville to serve with YWAM (Youth With a Mission). We ministered to the Travelers and Homeless in Asheville. One of my convictions is I knew more names of homeless in Asheville than Monroe. That is not loving my community well. Careful what you are convicted on….

Pre-Run:
4 for a 5 miler around uptown Monroe that included seeing an armadillo. Didn’t know those were a thing in NC much less near uptown Monroe but apparently their range have been spreading north. Weird stuff

The Thang:
Hoffa, slowly, pulls up on his little bike. Come on Hoffa!!! Guess I should just be happy he hasn’t cussed me out yet so let’s go.
Mosey to the courtyard

SSH IC x25
IW IC x20
Windmills IC x10
Mountain Climbers IC x20
Low, Slow Squats IC x20

Mosey to the new parking lot.

Starfish points:
1) Run to the playground and 10 donkey kicks on the swings
2) Run to the tables and 10 step ups each leg (20 total)
3) Run to the main parking lot and do 5 burpees (burpees are half off today)
4) Run to the rails for Tonawandas (Rail Slide w/ Merkins)
5) Backwards run up the hill and do 10 bombjacks at the top

After each point, come back to the new parking lot and do 10 jump squats

We each went to #1 first, back to the lot and then all four of us went to #2 where there was a homeless guy sitting on one of the tables. Well, I gave my conviction above and we finished #2 but instead of running back, we took a moment to talk to the homeless man named Benjamin and to get his story. Then we asked if we could pray for him and what we needed to pray about which he said pray that the system will remember him basically. So, right there in the middle of the workout, we prayed for Benjamin. Then we took off again to finish the starfish.

Round 1 done.

Round 2, we double everything.

This time at point #2, it had hit me that the least I could do was to invite Benjamin to Juds with us afterwards so I did and he accepted. Told him to hang around till 8 and he could go with us.

We finished Round2.

Mosey back to the playground for some extra work.
Supine Pullups using the swings x10
Donkey Kicks using swings x10
Decline Merkins w/ feet in swings x10

Repeat for 15
Repeat for 20

At the new parking lot, lunge walk across. When across, backwards lunge walk back.

Mosey over to the hill for 7s.
Backwards run up and lbcs at top. Run back down the hill and on your back, do knees up to chest. Combine for 7.

Mosey to the rail
Tonawanda Rail Merkins x3 full rounds.

Got like a minute before planned Mary so sprint up the hill to the flagpole and then back down on the other side.

Mosey to the courtyard.

Rosalita IC (en espanol) x25
Protractor
Backscratchers IC x20
Feet 6 inches high and hold arms out in front of you until the time hits 8. About 30 seconds worth I believe but the groans of not knowing how long we would be like that were awesome.

DONE!

Prayer
Grab Benjamin and off to Juds we go.

Moleskine
What are we? Are we just a group of guys working out? Are we anything more? What are we here for? Is it for us? Is it for something greater? If we are honest, these questions haunt us. Most of us are Christians and so we think we have these mostly figured out but then we are bothered in those quiet moments when we reflect on how we are living out our Christian lives. Jesus hung out with the outcast yet we avoid them. And we all think that’s not us and it’s those other Christians not doing their job but we know the truth whether we admit it or not. It’s also us. It’s also me. Jesus loved the least of these and I tend to avoid the least of these as much as possible. It was my conviction and here’s the blunt truth, we had seen Benjamin in the park before. We, no I, had avoided him mostly. Does anyone think Jesus would have avoided him?

Here are some Benjamin facts: He is homeless. He was very appreciative we invited him to eat with us at Juds. He used to work. A car accident left him with a severe back injury and if you’ll watch, you’ll see his hands jerk some which is due to nerve damage. He doesn’t like pork product so he avoided bacon and sausage at Juds. He laughed at how angry Hoffa is. He has 11 brothers and sisters. He has one book bag of clothes and a sleeping bag. He was recently robbed of some items while at the homeless shelter and is rightly upset that people would steal from him.

I’ll give one more fact: He is loved by Jesus. He should be loved by us and not avoided. We can’t solve all his issues. But, I did invite him to breakfast every week with us. He has an open invite at 8 AM to meet us at the park and go to Juds and we can make sure he gets at least one good meal that day. Isn’t that the least we can do?

I pray we get to know Benjamin more and we can learn how to serve him even better. We can’t just ignore and overlook the Benjamins of the world. Not when a Savior died for him on a cross just like us.

Rain Rain Stay Away From Cerberus

It was a dark and stormy morning…  Actually, the storms thankfully stayed away and we were just left with a swampy day in South Charlotte.  15 PAX showed up with no clue who was on Q or what to expect since @Transporter decided to crush FNG day the week prior with parking garage hair burners (really???).  Imagine the look of disappointment when they realized there was a South Charlotte Clydesdale leading them this morning as opposed to the usual six pack crew.

 

The Warmup

  • Circle Up / Give disclaimer
  • Quick mosey around the parking lot
  • SSH x 20 (IC)
  • Merkins x 10
  • Potato Pickers X 10

The Thang

  • Station 1 – Parking lot merkin suicides
    • Run from start to 1st island – 1 merkin
    • Run back to start – 2 merkins
    • Run from start to 2nd island – 3 merkins
    • Run back to start – 4 merkins
    • …..
    • Run from start to 6th island – 11 merkins
    • Run back to start – 12 merkins
    • Marry for 6
  • Station 2 – Partner work
    • Mosey to green belt
    • Team total = 200 box jumps + 200 dips
    • P1 = exercise
    • P2 = run around the circle
    • Marry for 6
  • Station 3 – Parking garage fun
    • Mosey to the parking garage
    • Ascent to top deck = 5 burpees at the beginning and end of each ramp
    • Descent to ground floor =  5 merkins at top of each ramp / 10 squats at the bottom of each ramp w/ a return to the top of that ramp before descending to the next one
  • Station 4 – 4 corners
    • Mosey to Desano’s Pizza / lap around building
    • Corner 1 = 10 merkins
    • Corner 2 = 20 LBCs
    • Corner 3 = 10 merkins
    • Corner 4 = 20 LBCs
    • Total of 2 laps
  • Mosey back to the start
  • Complete

Announcements

  • 3rd F Sanctuary – Monday’s 7:30pm at Brooklyn Pizza in Wesley Chapel – Will begin a book studying the Proverbs
  • 2nd F Pool Party – Lawson pool (6/8/18, 8:00pm) – Cost = $40/family which covers life guards, pizza, and beer as well as contributing to the Sandbox fund which is an account to be used for F3 service opportunities without having to ask for donations each time.

Moleskin

  • I truly enjoyed being on Q today and catching up with some guys I had not seen in a while (Brat, Wild Turkey, Madison, Das Boot, Bunker, Mighty Might) as well as posting for the 1st time with others (Astro, Billy Goat, Laronda, No Regerts, Uncle Leo, Zeek Face – who left early and almost cause a throw down as YHC mistook Billy Goat calling his name out in COT for a new nickname I was getting 🙂 )
  • Dirty Bird & Shop – We see each other all the time, but it’s still good to post with you
  • The group crushed it today.  This was supposed to be a lite day for YHC due to tomorrow’s Savage Race, and me being too Clydesdale-ish to post the day before such an event, but @Transporter suckered me into Qing on this fine morning about a month before, so here we were.
  • For those who can do coffee-teria in the future, it’s well worth the time to get to know your F3 brothers a little more.  Thanks to Shop for sponsoring this morning!

15 seconds with rusty balls goes way too quick

You’re probably reading this by accident. You must have been lost or bored on the internet. You were scrolling the site and title grabbed your interest. Now that you here, you might as well stay and read about the high jinks we got into.

Wow where did the humidity come from? It must have been 917% humidity. It’s the kind of day you sweat before you even start to workout. Well at least I’m the only crazy one. 8 other gentlemen (and I use that term loosely) joined YHC in the muggy gloom. If you were there, you know the fun we had and left a better man. If you weren’t, you can read about it and regret not going. The only workout you regret is the one you don’t do.

Warmup

  • Mosey around the parking lot. Hairband came in hot at 5:32. Conveniently missing the mosey.
  • Side straddle hops IC x 20
  • Empirical walkers IC x 15. That’s not a typo. That’s what I called. Blame it on too much F3 happy hour last night. Even though I butchered the name, the PAX knew what was meant and jumped right in
  • Mountain climbers IC x 20
  • Arm circles OYO x 10 each direction

Enough warmup. If you’re not warmed up between the temperature and humidity, you’ll warm up as the workout progresses.

The beatdown

When I come up with workouts, I try to think outside the box and do stuff that isn’t done on a regular basis. I haven’t been to a Tabata style workout so I thought it would be a good idea to create one. Turns out it was a terrible idea. For those of you who don’t know Tabata is a Japanese word that loosely translates to “holy crap this sucks”. It is named after a Japanese speed skating coach who found that high intensity training increased the athletes aerobic and anaerobic systems. Now when that comes up on Jeopardy, you’ll be able to answer it. In a nutshell, it is a period of exercise followed by a period of rest. Each exercise was 8 rounds. 30 seconds of exercise and 15 seconds of rest.

  1. Kettlebell swings
  2. Kettlebell bob & weave
  3. Lawnmowers (switch arms each round)
  4. Kettlebell double lunges (front lunge to a reverse lunge, switching legs each round)
  5. Curls
  6. Calf raises with kettlebell

Mary – whoops. I look down at the trusty timepiece and it is 6:15. No time for Mary.

Moleskin

BIG shout out to Snookie. He is our 62 (not a typo) year old PAX. In November, he was injured in a motorcycle accident when he crashed trying to jump 5 school buses. Today was the second or third time he has been able to get a shoe on. He may have been on the disabled list for 6 months, but he certainly picked up where left off. I hope I’m half the bad ass he is when get to that age. Great job and welcome back Snookie.

Hoffa was actually pleasant today. There may have even been a smile a couple of times. He might have been in a better mood since his bromance wasn’t there. This also means that our ears didn’t get quite the workout that they normally do. I don’t think anybody is upset at that fact.

We were talking about the new Panthers’ owner and how he was able to pay 2.2 BILLION in cash. Somebody said he should deliver the money in pennies. (I had to check the spelling of that last word a couple of times. I can’t afford that misspelling). Jabberwocky mentioned that Rusty WALLACE had received a fine and paid in pennies (again with the spell check). The thing is, none of the PAX heard WALLACE. It sounded like Rusty Balls. I didn’t know who he was talking about since I misheard. For a good 30 seconds, I thought Rusty Balls was an F3 name. Who knows it may end up being one.

Cyrpto is relatively new. I can definitely see improvement in strength and stamina. Keep up the great work. The workouts don’t get easier, you just get stronger.

It was good to see Bullwinkle in the gloom with his shiny new kettlebells. Yes Bullwinkle comes prepared. He now has 2 bells (again checking to make sure I used the right word). He’s like a human Shazam. Any song that came on during the workout he was able to identify. My M and I have an inside joke, that if we didn’t have so much useless crap (movie quotes, song lyrics, random information) in our heads that we could have devoted our brains to some more important. We could have cured cancer, if Forrest Gump quotes weren’t taking up so much space up there.

Hairband was swinging some serious weight. I’m sure he’s going to feel this workout. Good job. Thanks for taking us out this morning.

Another solid performance from Woody. He doesn’t talk much during the workouts, but he does it usually to drop “this is a bucket of suck”. If you’re not right next to him, it does NOT sound like bucket. I also like in the name-o-rama when he says his hospital name it sounds like temperamental.

A quiet but steady performance from Bernanke.

I know this was going to be a tough workout when I was making it. It was quite a bit tougher than expected. 15 seconds seems to fly by when you’re resting, but 30 seconds during an exercise feels much longer. Everybody did a great job and it was my pleasure to lead this morning.

Announcements

  • Pray for the victims in the school bus crash in New Jersey
  • Pray for Snookie’s friend, Steve who has a rough case of the shingles.
  • Poptart on Q at Outland tomorrow
  • Conviction is moving to Shiloh Elementary on 5/30 @ 0530. It will no longer be a “moderate” bootcamp after the move.
  • If you’re reading this sign up to Q a workout.

 

Buckets, Rocks, Tires, Twerking?

YHC hears alarm go off this morning and then hears a whisper in ear receives a text that clown car partner Deflated is fartsacking today.  This is ok as it gave me extra time to do a quick scout of the area that Hooch brought us by during OT on his last Q that has some tires available to use and quickly update the weinke for today.

So with plan in place it is 5:30 and we have 16 Pax ready to go at Impromptu.  Quick mosey around parking lot in search of Jingles, Posse, or other pax that may come in on 2 wheels but seems all that will be in attendance are on time today.

Warmup:

  • SSH
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Through the Tunnel
  • Merkins

Thang:

Grab a 5 gallon bucket with your partner and begin mosey to rock pile.  Each person grab 1 rock and insert into your bucket.  Down concrete path alternating at each light carry bucket overhead and complete 10 merkins.  Finish at the shed.  Complete some Mary while waiting for the 6.

With your partner grab some wall for people’s chair.  P1 remove a rock from the bucket and complete 20 x Overhead Presses.  P2 hold the bucket with single rock in at eye level.  Flapjack and complete 3 rounds each.

Mosey while alternating carrying the bucket down to football practice field.  Put buckets down and team up into group of 4’s.    3 groups find a tire and 4th group each person grab two buckets

Round 1: Groups on tires do partner tire flips back and forth.  Group with buckets go to end of concrete path with bucket carries and back.  Rotate through until each has chance to complete bucket carry.

Round 2: First group on tire do toe taps, 2nd group do box jumps, 3rd group do tire flips, 4th group bucket carry.  Rotate through until each has chance to complete bucket carry

Regroup with your partner and bucket of rocks and mosey back to parking lot.  At top of parking lot remove 1 rock from bucket.  P1 do squats while holding fence.  P2 use rock and complete 20 halos while wathcing partner twerk.  Flapjack and complete 3 rounds.

Mosey back with bucket of rocks.  Shed a single rock at rock pile by shed, and make a few stops along the way to gather the six.  Return final rock to pile and head back to COT.

Moleskin:

  • Great work by group, provided something different and did not include potential for ticks/poison ivy from the logs in the woods
  • Early chatter from Fuse Box this morning related to method of which I received notification of fartsack from Deflated
  • Moneyball quickly looking for clarification on proper bucket overhead carry form.
  • Bottlecap not comfortable with watching partner twerks/squats and quickly decided to about face and look to parking lot
  • Halfback had flashes back to his brief stint at Crossfit with tire routine today.  Believe he even mentioned WOD.  Will be sure to send him monthly invoice of $199 for attending this Q
  • Believe Rockwell was doing tire flips with 1 arm today.
  • Based on story below appears we should be leaving the rocks on site https://nypost.com/2018/03/23/school-district-arms-teachers-with-buckets-rocks-in-case-of-school-shooter/

Announcements:

  • 3rd F Opportunity this Sunday 7:00 am at Five Stones Office, reading book of John.  Discussion this week is on chapter 12
  • F3 fundraiser for Sandbox on Friday June 8th from 8:00 – 10:00 pm at Lawson Pool.  $40/family includes pizza/beer
  • Remember to continue to reach out to Pax both in attendance and not, check in with them see how they are doing.  This is big part of the brotherhood we share and it goes along way.
  • Flash on Memorial Day will be at 6:30 with Popeye on Q, if you have not attended in the past this is by far one of the greatest Q’s of the year and offers great ability to remember those who gave their lives for us in the line of duty.
  • Commitment this Saturday being led by Fusebox – sure to be a clydesdale and 2.0 friendly workout “guarantees it”

 

 

Modified Beast with Pavers – The Beast WON

18 PAX joined YHC even though many had correctly guessed that we would carry some extra weight this am.  The heckling started exactly 6 days, 23 hours, and 15 minutes ago as Purple Haze noted last week how easy this week would be #firewood.   Then my own brother (pretty sure he was adopted from a pigmy tribe in the south Pacific) jumps on the pile right before we start this morning with a snarky comment about an easy workout.    They might think otherwise next time (and I should learn to ignore their taunts but not likely that will happen).

The Thang:

Grab two pavers and head out of the lot.  The Q promptly trips on the barrier next to the bus and smashes both pavers (saved me – now Beaver and I are the only two to trip on that damn thing).  Runstopper takes the PAX for some warm-up while YHC circles back to grab two more pavers.   No real damage #stuntman

COP – Warm up with SSH led by RS, and then merkins, mountain climbers, parker peters and man maker merkins.

Mosey to parking deck for the main event – Modified Beast.   Six trips up the parking deck (long ramp up to 3, down to other end of 3, half ramp up to 4, and stairs back to start) with 6 reps of called exercise at 6 stops (half ramp at 2, top of ramp at 3, end of level 3, top of 4, and back at bottom of deck.

  1. Squats
  2. Merkins
  3. Push presses
  4. Knee ups (these sucked as well with the pavers)
  5. Lunges
  6. Hand release burpees (that round hurt YHC)

Mosey down to parking lot at end of football field for a few minutes of Mary – shortened since the Q can’t remember the difference between a dolly and flutters.      We did dollies/flutters, flutters/dolly, rosalita and that was it (Q was smoked at this point and things were getty hazy).

Mosey over to parking lot in front of swimming pool.    20 push presses than bear crawl up the lot and run backwards back to bricks.   20 more push presses, bear crawl up and backward run down, 20 push presses and backward bear crawl up and backward run back.   Push presses and curls for 1 minute and then head back to the starting point for COT.

NMS

Well that sucked.  I completely smoked myself so I hope a few of you got your money’s worth.    You can tell the boss it’s Chelms fault if you have to take a nap this afternoon.   The pavers do it every time – carrying them for 45 minutes is aweful.   Add the Beast, burpee finish and Purple Haze’s call for the backward bear crawl up the parking lot cummulatively made it really suck.  I often confuse dollies and flutters and this morning was epic since I got them backward sequentially.   I was deep in the pain cave at that point and not thinking clearly at all.

Everyone pushed hard and the gap between rabbits and six was much less than I expected.  The pavers tend to even things out a bit.   I have a camera up to “protect” the pavers so don’t get any ideas about taking them out.     We only use a few times per year and those times are “special”.  Mermaid and Haze especially like the pavers.

Flutie parks his rental in the middle of the lot – I guess that’s how he does it now that he is living up north so he doesn’t get snowed in by the plows.   Please remember it only snows once per year in Charlotte and NEVER in May.  Next time someone parks a car in the middle of the lot we will flip it a few times to work the shoulders.

 

Announcements

Memorial Day convergence on Saturday at Calvary and Patriot 5k at South Park Mall on Memorial day.

Please pray for Utah’s dad, who is in critical but stable condition at CMC.

Great take out by Hops – he’s starting to really get the hang of this praying thing (only took a year since he started his ministry).

 

 

 

Royal Wedding

A dozen men ended the week with a solid workout.

Warm up jog to campus down the back road across the street to the parking lot area near the retention pond near Fullwood Lane

Standard warm up, but out of order… Merkins, Imperial Walker, Side Straddle Hop, Flutter, Dolly

Mosey to the back road

Run to every other light post… 10 merkins… to the end of street

Rinse and repeat

Backpedal to every other light post… 15 squats

Mosey to the benches… merkins / dips / derkins combo… three sets

Mosey to the closest building… wall sits with some arm raises… three sets

Most to the lower parking lot across the street from the middle schools for some team racing

Partner 1 runs the big loop with partner 2 does merkins / squats / LBCs… flap jack

For round two, mixed in some backpedal as part of the loop

Mosey back to our start/finish

 

Moleskin

As you might expect, Bulldog is a big royal wedding fan.  Which, I googled it, is scheduled for Saturday morning from 7-9AM EST… so, don’t expect to see Bulldog at a Saturday working… he will be drinking tea [or a pint] and enjoying the show.

I tried to give our exercises royal family names this morning… but I ran out pretty quickly once I got beyond Prince Harry.

Random observations from today… Pop Tart has serious hair envy for Spicoli’s long locks.  I’m sure it reminded Pop Tart of a young [much younger] Pop Tart, during the heavy metal [or John Tesh] days of his youth.  Speaking of Spicoli, his hair was a real challenge during the backpedal and drekins… time for man bun my friend.  Don’t worry, none of the older guys will give you a hard time about it [?].  Always great to see Cotton Tail… a regular at Kevlar [and the old days at Skunk Works]… and, as expected, he delivered an exceptionally strong prayer at the end… preach it man!  By the way, did anyone notice Bulldog was wearing a long-sleeve shirt? As usual, I couldn’t quite keep up with Rhapsody… it must be his black shoes. I thought Cage was trying to break into one of the school buildings, but I was reminded he works at Covenant Day… still, with this black hat, he looked like a cat burglar.  Night Court was on hand, and was close to making a citizen’s arrest.  Harley came to grind things out… he’s always game for anything… running, lifting, pushing, pulling… he’s all good… never complains.  Which brings me back to Bulldog… he tried to play a Jedi mind trick on me this morning, and I swear it almost worked… real subtle stuff like, “we should probably move on now… we should probably move in now… you don’t want to do that… you don’t want to do that”…. it was hypnotic for me… until someone pulled me out of the trance.  After all, Alex Guiness [aka Obi-Wan] was a Brit after all.  Always good to see and hear Horse Head.  Every workout should be required to have a Horse Head.  Tackling Dummy is a big dude.  Next time we do flag football, he’s my first pick… I’ll be Brady and he can be Gronk.  Fault Line and Orange Whip have a good thing going at Kevlar.  Great site and great group of guys.  I’m sure Bulldog would have like more merkins today… he loves his guns.  And Pop Tart’s Garmin was working backwards today… the more we ran the lower his mileage total.

 

The Process

13 pax posted in the humidity (including 3 of questionable cognitive ability based on their choice to pre-run), eager to pack 60 minutes of #weinke into 45 minutes of #downpainment.

No FNGs but a heart-felt Disclaimer was given, nonetheless.

The Process Thang

COP

  • Mosey to bus lot
  • SSH – 15 IC
  • Merkins – 10 IC
  • IW – 15 IC
  • Mtn Climbers – 10 IC
  • Sister Mary Catherine – 10 IC – #crowdpleaser

Mosey to track

Stealth 1/2 Murph:

  • 5 pullups
  • 10 merkins
  • 15 squats
  • 2 sets + Jog a lap (1/6th mile)
  • Repeato 5x total
  • One more lap

Mosey to First Baptist “incline”

Sevens:

  • Squat jumps (or jump squats) at top
  • Plank jacks at bottom
  • Pax choice for early finishers

Parking Lot reps:

  • Lunge walk to 2nd light; LBJ (little baby jog) back
  • Backpedal (DB run) to 2nd light; LBJ back
  • Karaoke – L; LBJ back
  • Karaoke – R; LBJ back
  • Lunge walk; LBJ back (cut out due to time constraints)
  • Sprint; gather and mosey to launch lot

Mary:

  • Flutter -15 IC

Time – Done

COT

Announcements:

  1. Area 51 Gear Order – available thru May 24 only!
    1. Neon reflective shirts – https://f3.mudgear.com/collections/active-preorders/products/f3-area-51-reflective-shirt-pre-order
    2. Black shirts –
      https://f3.mudgear.com/collections/nc-clt-south-area51/products/f3c-a51
  2. Speed for Need at Patriot 5k – workout, 5k, extra mile – F32018 discount code
  3. Speed for Need – June 2nd for chariott pushers – Lake Norman area – Exit 54 is contact
  4. Gypsy post in VA Beach this weekend – ride down on Friday, post, and come back – contact Gypsy

Sweaty Moleskinne:

Wow.  Great group this morning with a lot of effort and great 2nd F.  YHC hadn’t been to Peak in, probably, two years (due to its conflict with Meathead), so it was great to be back.

For those of you whom posted at Ascent this weekend (Geraldo), the workout was pretty familiar – shortened the running by 1/2 mile and cut out some Mary to fit the time allotted.  Most of the pain was retained.

Smokey can run and was #LarryBirding most of the morning, despite his misplaced football allegiance.

Joker, Simba, Smokey, & YHC did have some fun football discussions of The Process, Nat’l Championships, etc.

Other observations from YHCs passage through the pax (from the front, the six, and seemingly everywhere in between):

  • Apparently in the dim light of the gloom, YHCs shoes match his Alabama football shirt quite well.  (I also have gloves that would likely match; however, you’re not yet ready for that much Crimson.  You have 106 days to prepare yourselves. AL v Louisville)
  • For reference, the 17 national championships were: 1925, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1941, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, & 2017.  #18in18
  • 1/2 Murph was deconstructed and snuck in on the pax.  The 1/6th mile track through things off a little, which is why the extra lap was thrown in, but 50 pullups, 100 merkins, & 150 squats were accomplished via the 2 sets + lap structure.
  • A little #mumblechatter was shared re too much running at a High Tide workout, countered with “but once he ran BRR, he’s a runner now”.  Not really a runner, but do run more than before.  1/2 a mind was given to scrapping the running and dragging out some kettlebells, but that’s for another parking lot…with equally smooth, cheesegrater-esque pavement.
  • In only their second week among the pax, Bernie & Madoff are putting in the work.  #tclaps
  • Thanks to Sensei & Tweetsie for accompanying YHC on the pre-run.  And pushing the pace.  That pre-exhausted me for the workout.
  • Speaking of running, today’s workout was 2.1 miles, down from Saturday’s 2.6 miles.  (These were full miles, not Hair Band miles.)  Your welcome.

A lot of fun today, guys.  Thanks for coming out and for the invitation to Q today.

Aye.

British Invasion!

11 beasts braved a beatdown to some British beats at Meathead.

 

THE THANG

40 swings 10 clap push-ups

30 swings 20 wide arm push-ups

20 swings 30 military push-ups

10 swings 40 regular push-ups

 

40 teabags 10 upright rows
30 teabags 20 upright rows
20 teabags 30 upright rows
10 teabags 40 upright rows

 

Two handed Rounds :

30 secs – upright rows

30 secs – goblet squats

30 secs – overhead press

30 secs – combo of all three

Repeat x 3

 

One handed:

30 sec snatch right

30 sec snatch left

30 sec high pulls right

30 sec high pulls left

30 sec alternating swings

Repeat

Abs

30 secs Louganis

30 secs Freddie Mercury no bell

30 secs flutter press

30 sec American hammer no bell

Repeat x 3

 

Thrusters and curls

1 thruster – 2 curls

2 thrusters – 4 curls

Up to 5 thrusters and 10 curls

Back down the ladder

 

YE OLD NAKED MOLESKINE

 

Good crowd at Meathead today. Stone Cold was admiring his shadow in the streetlight swinging to “Don’t you think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart. The rest of us were sweating our butts off trying to complete 50 sets in the warm up. 30 seconds on the timer seemed a long time for some of the rounds but we pushed on and got it done. Definitely a few odd looks from the Elizabeth Lane moms watching us complete our ab workout in cadence to “Come on Eileen!” Enjoyed it and a pleasure leading!

LBCs to catch your breath?? Shenanigans!!!

Homage to Kevlar and Orange Whip for pushing YHC to my breaking point and making me decide which direction I would go on 8/11/2017.. was it back to a sad clown lifestyle of smoking, fartsack, can’t run more than 100 yds, non 3rd F… or take the DRP, power through the 1st month of F3 with Aleve, in bed by 9 pm (or passed out on the couch) and back up by 4:55 am to post.  Since YHC is drafting this BB you can guess which direction I took for the F1 and now find myself at church every Sunday now with some top notch 3rd F individuals.  Hope to see you all at the F2 HH tonight as well.

Short story: 

5 miles at 8:30 pace, 90 Merkins, 40 Bomb jacks, 40 LBCs, 30 dips, 30 Squats, 30 Step-ups, 6 interval Wind sprints and, 3 sets of stairs.

The Long Story (aka:  The THANG)

  • 5:15 Disclaimer given hold for shoes to the tied and time to mosey
  • Right onto Trade Street
  • Left into Stumptown Park
    • 3 laps of Stumptown park walking loop with 10 Merkins and 10 Squats at completion of each lap
    • LBC to hold for 6
  • Out of park and left on Trade St
  • Right on Matthews Station St down to Library
    • 4 laps of Matthew Station St Park with 10 Bomb Jacks and 10 LBCs at completion of each lap
    • LBC to hold for 6
  • Out to Matthews-Mint Hill Rd taking a left
  • Left on Ames Rd and right into Motorcycle shop parking lot
    • 30 wall step-ups
  • Mossey across the street to long parking lot between Ames and Trade street
    • Wind-sprints to jog to Wind-sprints to jog from light post to light post (Repeato to Trade street)
  • The Orange Whip circuit: 3 laps (up the stairs to backside of Seaboards over to Brakeman’s Coffee, turn right, turn right on Trade back to parking lot.)
    • 20 dips on the parking lot wall
    • 20 Declined Merkins with feet on the wall
  • Leave parking lot turning right onto N Trade and straight to Four Mile Creek Greenway
  • Left into the Greenway at an F2 pace Down to say good morning to every Spartan’s favorite Giraffes.
  • Turn around at Giraffes
  • Stop at Bridge.. All you got Sprint across the bridge and LBCs to catch your breath.
    • Yes… LBC to catch your breath. As a Gypsy I post all over F3 Nation.  Learned this one in Birmingham, AL at the Vulcan.  (Scam was on Q) one of the pax there explained to me that if you do LBC and focus on your diaphragm/breathing after sprints you will recover much faster.  Try it next time… it really does work and is a heck of a lot better than planking for the 6.
  • Continue on to the Softball fields turning right onto the path around the school back to the Shovel Flag.
  • Done!! 5 miles and exercises all neatly packaged into a 55 min workout so we could COT with Peak 51.

Moleskin:
Love the format of Sparta.. Run until you think your lungs are going to jump out of your body and hitchhike home without you… then stop… give the lungs a break as you beatdown your muscles to just about failure… then stop… and do it all over again for 55 mins.

Its not easy at all..

The name of the AO is perfectly established for the #HIMs that decide to Shieldlock together here and post regularly putting in the work it takes to get better every day.

Thank you Smokey for taking us out at the combined Peak51/Sparta COT.

Announcements:

F3 Nation has a excellent AOs all over the place.  But for those that have read this far, you might want to take note of next week’s A51/UC Q line up at a few choice sites.

  • Monday: The Matrix (not for the faint at heart and you will be sore) Arena on Q
  • Tuesday: Thrive (YHC back on Q.. Christmas killed it this week.. My turn to see if I can turn it up a little more)
  • Wednesday: Gumby (Strange Brew back for Mobility stretching… seriously guys.. you have to try this one)
  • Thursday: Sparta (Thurston is being released back into the lineup after trying to kill us all at his last Q)
  • Friday: Pick an AO (for real… go to the Who is on Q and look at next Friday’s Q list. I mean seriously guys: in one day there is Thin Mint, Bottlecap, Hollywood, Lex Luthor, Spackler, Slim Fast and Nard Dog on Q. How can you go wrong at any one of those???)

SFN: Looking for F3 men to help support the Lake Norman and MECA races on 6/2 (See Exit 54 or Gapper for info)

Shirts:  order your A51 shirts now or miss out.

It’s an honor to be with you all in the Gloom.

Respectfully

Gypsy

Shuffling Through the Hills of The Haw

The rain held off so 9 PAX joined me to run around the streets of Downtown Waxhaw and lay down some serious sweat puddles.

Warm up: Mosey to Center Grove Freewill Baptist Church on Jackson Street.  SSH x20 IC, Peter Parker x10 IC, Mountain Climber x15 IC , Plank Jack x20 IC, 30 second elbow plank hold, Mountain Climber x10 IC

The Thang:

to High Street–at every light pole, 3 Merkins, then 6, 9, etc., down to end of the street and back up to top-Total 84 Merkins

Repeat-this time with Jump Squats-total 84

Once completed, Plank work, Mary which consisted of LBCs, Heels to Heaven, Dolly, all x20 IC

 

Mosey across tracks-stop in parking lot where Heritage restaurant is-Merkins x5 IC, Wide Arm Merkins x5 IC, Stagger Merkins each arm forward x5 IC, diamond Merkins x5 IC

 

To S. Providence Street near road closed signs-Broad Jump burpees to every 2nd rock, Lunge walk every 2nd rock-Repeat until rocks ended-I believe each was completed 5 times

5 Squats IC, 10 Monkey Humpers IC, 15 Mary Catherines IC, 4 Monkey Humpers (car interrupted us as we were in the middle on the street)

Mosey towards Keith Jong Hill (otherwise known as Church Street)-stop at HMS Commercial HVAC lot-Plank Work, various 6 inches, 6 inch Plank Jacks x10 IC

To Bottom of the hill-Up to 1st cone and complete Carolina Dry Docks x10, then back to start

Next sequence-10 CDD, at next cone 20 squats, back to start

Next sequence-10 CDD, 20 squats, at third stop 30 LBCs, back to start

Final sequence-10 CDD, 20 squats, 20 LBCs, 40 plank jacks at Village Laundromat

Back to cars-Flutters x20 IC before time called

Moleskin:

YHC went on a little reconnaissance mission prior to the start and was pleased that almost every side street doubled as a nice sized hill.  We didn’t run up all of them of course but there are many more to use at a later date for the faithful Floater regulars and for when I get another invite to Q.  Great group of guys as always.  It was quite a soaker out there due to the humidity but that didn’t stop the PAX from working hard.

Bottlecap-best fashion attire of the group. However couldn’t see due to fake glasses.      Moneyball-started a “grass sucks” chant during warm up.   Posse-happy that the form/wording police did not show today, was ready for payback   Recalculating-verified that his calorie watch is a sham #fakenews    Shake-N-Bake-new Waxhaw resident confirmed 8/10 locals are gluten free and can’t use his product on their chicken. #sad   Button-wondered aloud why there were two buttons at the workout, thought he had the button market cornered    Doughboy-Fortnite kill record is 3 🙁   His 2.0’s is 35     Fuse Box -despite PAX thoughts, stated that Schroeder is his favorite Peanuts character    Easy Button-glad he wasn’t named Hard Button #dirty

To recap:  The pace was fast. The six was never too far (unless that unnamed person was purposely slowing down).   Did not come close to my pre-workout threat of 4 miles.  No calorie records were broken today. No partner work.  Wearing an 100% cotton shirt was a bad idea.  Monkey Humpers in front on someone’s home did not get the cops called on us.  And as usual no train interruptions. Thanks again.

Announcements:

3rd F-Sunday morning Bible study at 7am. Five Stones Church-This week-John Chapter 12

June 8th:  F3 Pool party $40 per family-Lawson in Waxhaw