On another textbook muggy Wednesday morning, 8 Pax ventured out to Conviction. Here’s what we got into:
Disclaimer
15XSSH
15XIW
15X Mountain Climbers
15 X LSS
Running stretches to the Sidewalk
Partner up
Dora- Partner 1 Run! Partner 2 run to baseball field and back
100 X Merkins
200 X Squats
300 X LBCs
Once done, mosey on over to the hill for some:
7s!
Bottom of the hill: Burpees
Top of the hill: Jump Squats
Peoples chair- Ear Flappers
Snake Run to bus parking lot
Mary
15XLBC
15XFreddie Mercury
15XFlutter
Stretch it out
Fin
Moleskin
There was some trepidation on my part- In my year of F3 Experience, I have never Q’d outside of the comfy confines of area 51- heading into Union County felt like a whole other world (even though Conviction is closer to my house than most Area 51 workouts).
However, my fears were soon put to rest as upon arriving I saw a few familiar faces- mixed in with some new ones.
Another muggy day- it was especially hard for me because Wednesday’s are normally devoted to Gumby, which comes with Air Conditioning.
The Mumble chatter was STRONG- everybody made sure I knew how they felt about Dora and her explorin ways. Shake and Bake was especially not happy about having to run between “hatchet row”
Finally, a Snake Run where the PAX listen and go at the speed asked of them. First time it’s happened in my time Q’in
Announcements
F3 Golf coming up
Horsehead is on at Outland, and Bernakey is on in Monroe. E harmoney SHOULD’VE done overdrive, but Woody took it
Nomad has Q at Conviction next week
Thanks Bullwinkle and Site Qs for having me out- I’ll be heading back your way soon.
Event Summary
More than 70 F3Nation PAX, M’s, and 2.0’s registered and participated in SPEED FOR NEED’s debut in the South Charlotte Region at the Isabella Santos 5k. Count the spectating supporters, and there were over 100+ supporters total from the F3 family. What a great way to support a great cause, and kick off our new charity!
For only the second race, the entire fleet of racing chariots (4) were on display for the race, and it was a sight to see! Drivers and Track Commanders were as follows:
o GREEN Racing Chariot: Fire Hazard, Buckeye, Goonie (Track Commander – Lily)
o RED Racing Chariot: Frasier, Thin Mint, Scabby (Track Commander – Kinzey)
o BLUE Racing Chariot: Fredo, Billy Goat, Strawberry (Track Commander – Andrew)
o BLACK Racing Chariot: Ickey Shuffle, Heartbreaker, Flipper (Track Commander – Luke)
“For many of us, this was our first time witnessing first-hand the impact of SPEED FOR NEED on the riders, their families, and the drivers. Goonie, Fire Hazard, and I had the pleasure of pushing Lily in the Green racing chariot. As we practiced loading Lily into the chair, she wouldn’t sit still, constantly wanting to get in and out, seemingly uncomfortable in the chair. Naturally, we were a little concerned about how she would manage during a 5k race without her father nearby to console her. As we moved to the starting line, strapped her in, and took off down the road, Lily became ALL smiles. The challenges life has presented her with took a backseat as she cruised down the road, wind blowing in her hair. This was Lily’s Saturday sporting event; her moment to feel like part of a team; passing out high fives to her drivers and almost every other PAX (not named Mario). When we finished the race, Lily kept wanting to get back in her green chair, overjoyed with her experience and more comfortable in her chariot. So comfortable that she asked her father to push her in the fun run. This first-hand experience makes me realize the significance of this charity. Until then, many of us had just been goofing around in the chair when JRR Tolkien has brought them around to the workouts, but seeing Lily’s face light up for that short race was an amazing gift.” – Buckeye, Event Co-Q
“From the beginning of SPEED FOR NEED I knew I would support the cause. JRR Tolkien had enough faith and drive for all F3. I knew it sounded like a good idea and I knew that other teams did it, but it didn’t all click in my head. I still had many questions even though I was the Q for the race… Did people really want to be pushed in races, is this really helping them, does this help with inclusion, and many others. Either way, we kept working and pulled it all together. On race day I was anxious to make sure all the pushers were there and that all the Track Commanders had waivers signed, tents were up, etc… Then it was time to meet the kids and their parents. To be honest it was a mixed bag. Some of the kids and parents seemed nervous like me and others were raring to go like JRRT. Either way it was time to go. I just tried to get Lily to warm up to me in hopes she wouldn’t cry during our race. Her dad was great. He helped us get her fitted in the chair and saved us by showing her a video while people were talking about stuff before they let us go. I was just thinking “why can’t we go already”. Lily is going to lose it and want to get out of this chair soon.. Finally, they let us go. Her dad ran the first 50 yards with us to make sure Lily was ok. Then we took off. I just figured a girl with this much energy would want to go fast. Luckily, we were behind the police motorcycle. Lily was a big fan of that. We just kept talking to Lily and giving her high 5’s. I had a minute to think.. “Hey, Lily is actually liking this”. I looked back, the other kids were having a great time too. Maybe this really is a good thing. As I had time to watch Buckeye and Goonie push and interact with Lily some more I started to understand the goal for SPEED FOR NEED. Those kids had a great time and I think my fellow pushers and I may have even had a better time. I was now 100% bought in, SPEED FOR NEED is a great thing for us and our community. We get to do what we like; run and push things, and we get to do it with some really great people (both in the chairs and out). SPEED FOR NEED has helped me meet new people, help some children do something they would not have been able too, and helped me have some great conversations with my own children about inclusion. If you have seen my short or non-existent backblasts you will realize that this is a lot of typing for me, but I wanted to give you my SPEED FOR NEED journey in hopes of getting any of you, who aren’t sure why we are doing this, out there and involved.” – Fire Hazard, Event Co-Q
We would encourage all PAX to participate in at least one SPEED FOR NEED race a year… just show up to one, and see what it does for you, your family, your community, the track commanders, their parents, and F3 Nation… you won’t be disappointed. Great work South Charlotte!
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/qoZUEIFud_I
Event Q’s: Buckeye, Fire Hazard
15 of Area 51’s heartiest lads suited up for another Friday edition of Kevlar…and then Joker arrived to make it an even 16. YHC was woefully sleep deprived after watching the Cubs advance to their 3rd straight NLCS, so included that in the disclaimer and off we went.
The Thang & Ye Olde Moleskine:
Jog over to the field hockey field for COP
IW x 20 IC
H-R Merkin x 20 IC
Slow Squat x 20 IC
Dancing Chilcutt x 13 IC
Slow Flutter x 20 IC
Plankorama
Partner up for alternating AYG runs across the field by one partner while the other does the following exercises…flapjack:
Carolina Dry Docks x 2
Jump Squats x 2
Alternating Lunges x 2
Jog to the main church building between the outdoor staircases.
Partner 1 runs up/down the stairs while partner 2 does following exercises…flapjack:
Jump Ups
Incline Merkins
One-legged squat L
One-legged squat R
Mosey over to some other sets of benches for 10 box jump burpees. 12 of us did those while Spackler, Bulldog, BLC and Joker (I think?) stood around and talked. #unnecessarymodification
Spackler, true to form, did about 44% of the called exercises or exercises of his own choosing.
The pax then jogged back to the small field near the launch lot for 12 or 13 minutes of Mary, including but not limited to the following x 13 IC
LBC, American Hammer, Barishnokov, 6-count burpee, Protractor, Makhthar N’Djaiye, Slow Dolly
We finished with a bear crawl the length of the field with 13 H-R Merkins at the other end, and so not to offend anyone’s sense of protocol — we finished with 13 SSH’s.
Done.
COT with a great takeout from the Greatest Criminal Mind.
A couple random observations:
Announcements:
Please be in prayer for The Shore and his family as his son Nathan has run away from home and been missing for 4+ days. May God be merciful and gracious in every way in this situation.
Charity 5K at Kevlar/Skunkworks AO site on Saturday, Nov. 4th at 8am. Connect with Madison or Tackling Dummy for more information.
I did my second Q at the Arsenal this morning and I thought I would try to get somewhat creative; back to the Execon again! Here is the rundown.
Prerun at 0500 (Fallout and myself in attendance)
Warmup including a short run around the parking lot.
-Ascending Testicles (pretty tough one and it started the first of many wise cracks at my name)
-20 Freddie Mercury
-30 Squats
-10 muscle ups
-20 flutter kicks
-30 lunges
Next, we headed to the playground.
-15 regular width pull-ups (and some complaining from @one_niner about not being in “pull-up shape”)
-20 Big boy situps
-10 jump squats
-10 wide pull-ups
-10 toes to bar (while @fallout put his toes on the bar and rested…clever)
-20 split jacks
Over to the high school
-20 shoulder taps
-20 LBCs
-15 Ballerina toe squats
-run halfway down the parking lot
-10 one-legged burpees
-15 big boy sit-ups
-10 jump squats
-run to the end of the parking lot
-15 diamond merkins
-varying elevation plank
-20 split jacks
-run back halfway down the parking lot
-20 plank jacks
-protractor
-walking lunges to the end of the parking lot
mosey back to the cars (with an indian run in the middle) and COT.
Thanks to all the PAX who made it out this morning!
Mosey to the track – Warm up
30x SSH
20x lbc’s
10x Squat Staddle Hops
20x imperial walkers
Track sprints
1x 100%
10 burpees
2x 75%
10 burpees
3x 50%
10 burpees
Mosey to the clock
Partner Clock lunges- x 2
Lunge opposite directions when you meet, 10 partner hand clap merkins
Run the valley-x2
50% to the bottom of the valley
100% to the top of the other side
20 WW2 sit ups
Same thing back the other direction.
Yoga poses
Tree pose
Hold table
Cobra pose
Downward dog
Mosey to the Flag for some Mary
COT
Announcements: Camping trip with Becky’s Church coming up; Charlotte Half/full Marathon coming up; Huntingtowne Farms school workday coming up in early November
Funny Farm brought us out. Amen.
10 pax joined YHC this morning for his substi-Q. It could’ve been an even dozen (12), had Bulldog joined us but for his fear of Turkish Get-Ups and Pull-ups in the kitty litter. However, no TGUs or pull-ups were to be found. Here’s what was found instead:
Lame, rambling disclaimer – something about not being a professional, go heavy or light, and/or do what you want to do. Not really sure; I wasn’t really listening.
The Thang
(my mind was already here, which is why I wasn’t listening, above)
COP:
Sufficiently warm and loose, partner up with like-sized bells.
Dozens of Doubles:
Similar to 11’s but one better, each pair of exercises will add to 12 as we count by two’s up/down, beginning at 10 + 2, then 8 + 4, etc.
(Note: this looks surprisingly short in the BB, but it took us 20-25 minutes to get through this. Whether or not it was easy, well, that depends on your choices, as in life…#philosophicalmoment)
Cook Drill:
Grab a heavier bell (!) and begin with an overhead waiter carry (on your less strong side), walking until your form begins to degrade, then drop to a racked carry, continuing to walk until your form again degrades, then drop to a suitcase carry, continuing until you need to stop. Switch arms (stronger side) and retrace your steps back to the start.
Then, ditch your partner for some singles work. (Dear Voodoo…)
Two by twos:
Begin with two reps of each exercise, and add two reps each round, up to ten and back down to two, or until time runs out:
Assorted “stretching” (aka resting) OYO throughout today’s workout
Time – Done
COT
Take-out by Young Love
Announcements:
Naked Moleskine:
Great group of pax today – lots of mumblechatter early, sweat flyin’, grunting noises, sweat-angels on the cheese grater pavement.
One of the great things about using kettlebells is that you can make the workout as easy or as hard as you need it. YHC needed an easy day (hard day was solo Tuesday), so with a pair of 35’s during the Dozens of Double (TM) (and a 44 for warmups and a 53 for the Cook Drill), it was. Depending on your bell selection, your mileage may have varied.
For the Cook Drill, each of us needs to use a larger bell, YHC included (62 or 70). Next time, I’ll bring larger bells, with the goal of us each ending our initial side walk no farther than the sidewalk, if not much shorter than that. Our mileage today really stretched our #0.0 designation, despite the fact no running was involved.
#kotters to Chanel, who reappeared today, seeming to have not lost a step/swing, and who may be renamed Charlie Daniels (#longhairedcountryboy). Nice truck, too.
I’m sure Bulldog has a better reason for missing today than what was listed above, but we’ll have to wait to see the note from his M to know for sure.
Anywho, thanks for coming out this morning and the opportunity to lead.
Aye.
Mosey to the picnic tables.
Quick COP: IW x15, SSH x 15, Squat x15
11s: Declines and Dips
Mosey to the football practice filed at the back.
Broken Arrow (fancy term for run 100 yards and do an exercise).
Quick story. Back in the day we all tried to outdo each other with self-indulgent Q creativity. I showed up at Governator with a bow and arrow. Fire arrow. Race to the arrow, 10 burpees, race back, 10 of some other exercise. Rinse and repeat. Quickly broke my son’s bow and arrow and resorted to just running 100 yards on the Carmel Middle football field #cleareyesfullheartcan’tlose #toolongforahastag #canyouhaveanapostropheinahashtag #arehashtagsstillcoolwhenyouaren’tevenontwitter? #canyouhaveaquestionmarkinahastag #chicoisawesomeandsmartandcoolandanaawesomeQandhasahotwifeandisgenerallybadass. Someone thought it was cute to call that Broken Arrow. Egypt thought it was cute to start calling me Catniss, which was better than what he had been calling me, which was Tolbert or Tub of Mayo #flattering. Of course I used to just call him jack ass, which is yet another story related to hand release merkins, which then became known as jack ass merkins, but only to about 10 people. OK, that story wasn’t so quick. At least I didn’t tell the whole jack ass merkins story. Or stories about my high school girlfriend, which sort of gets referenced later #southerndiscomfort
We ran 6x 100 yard “sprints” with the following exercises: Dolly x20, Flutter x20, oblique left x 20, oblique right x20, LBC x20, heels to heaven x20.
Absurdly long suicide. (First light and back, midfield and back, next light and back, end and back).
Gummy 10 count (IW x10).
This pause brought to you by the long North Carolina tradition of slow smoked Q.
Run to the other football practice field.
Run back and forth dropping for 5 wide arms every time Q yells “hit”
Hannibal seemed to think that was too few, until we had done 8 or 10 hits, after which he called for an audible. Nope.
Leave the friendly confines and head down Summerlin. Funny thing. Hills usually seem longer going up. This morning, running down Summerlin seemed to be about 9 miles. Perhaps d/t the knowledge we had to run back up.
There’s a bit of a half-pipe that crosses Summerlin at the bottom, so we ran that with 10x hand release merkins (aka jack ass merkins; see Egypt story, supra). Total of 50 jackass merkins.
Embrace the inevitable and run up Summerlin and back to parking lot for three minutes of Mary (aka Hannibal’s honeymoon, aka the Wake Forest Sigma Nu #anothershotatHannibal #anotherhashtag #seriouslywhydowedotheseinbackblasts). Freddy Mercury x10, Dolly x 15, Low slow squat x 15, Flutter x15, Jack ass merkins (again) x10
The Weather:
We shouldn’t be wringing out shirts in mid-October. Actually I don’t think that was real sweat. It was some fake news haze dropped from commie hybrid blimps piloted by Al Gore as part of the vast left wing conspiracy to convince us climate change is real #itis. Brought to you by the same people that think dinosaurs were real #theywere, or try to convince us of that so they can make billions selling fake fossils. #bigpaleo. Seriously, big paleo, look that one up. #christiansagainstdinosaurs … real thing. I’m gonna start a new movement called #christiansfordinosaurs because dinosaurs are awesome #likechico. If you take nothing else from this backblast take this: Chico … pro-dinosaur.
Mumble Chatter:
Pretty sure Hannibal was talking smack the whole time but I was smoked pretty early and lost my ability to comprehend pretty much anything. 20 minutes in any mumble chatter became about as comprehensible as the average Fishwrap backblast. If you don’t know Fish #gooddude, reading his backblasts are like watching an Italian “art film.” 10% of you feels inadequate for not understanding, while the other 90% is pretty sure even the filmmaker has no idea what the heck is going on. I was hanging on for dear life in my stupid fake sweat Al Gore conspiracy haze drenched long sleeve shirt, leading from behind and trying to keep a running list of the Larry Birds. For your reference, they were everyone listed above not named Chico.
Announcements/Prayers:
Southern Discomfort is soon. Not sure what it entails, but from the name I think you drink bad liquor and try to make out with a redneck girl in the back of a Volkswagen. F3 Golf is also very soon.
Prayers/thoughts for the Kocmond family. 16 y/o boy Nathan missing since Monday. Father is an Area 51 F3 brother.
Prayers also for my client Molly Offstein, a collegiate runner hit by a car, who recently showed her first signs of emerging 6 months post-accident. Long road ahead.
Thanks to Queen for the nod and One Eye for the takeout. It has always seemed to me that saying “thanks for the takeout” makes it sound like the person who prayed brought takeout to my house or something. Like I was sitting there watching the rather disappointing Indians/Yankees game last night and One Eye just randomly showed up with a couple of bags of Chinese food. Though that would have been awesome, and the wife and kids would have appreciated it #nomeatloaf, the prayer was great too.
We are closing in fast on the third annual Southern Discomfort which will launch at 7:00 am on Saturday, October 21st. The details are about 90% complete, which is pretty good for a consulting and project management “professional” such as YHC. It’s more fun to leave a bit up to chance anyway, it keeps things interesting and makes you feel alive. Essentially we will traverse the main artery of the Area 51 region stopping along the way at AOs for pain stations led by an murderer’s row of Qs hand selected for their ability to deliver efficient and effective workouts.
This year we are going to incorporate a philanthropic element to the festivities. With several events in the rearview such as BRR, Ragnar, etc. YHC would venture that most of us have several pairs of running/athletic shoes that we have taken out of the starting lineup but still have some useful life in them. A few years ago, we did a shoe drive called Sole Redemption that benefited the Charlotte Rescue Mission, so it’s about time we did that again. Bring any shoes you can donate either to Southern Discomfort where we will collect them, or to a regular workout next week where the Site Qs will collect them. Site Qs, consider yourselves voluntold that you are on collection duty next week, so either come to Southern Discomfort or contact YHC or the Shoe Q to facilitate transfer. That brings us to the next order of business. We need a Shoe Q to handle collection and delivery to the rescue mission. If so called to service, please announce your intentions in the comments.
The route and the Qs:
On Saturday November 11, SPEED FOR NEED and F3 Nation will be pushing the most riders ever in one day! 20 WW2 veterans (95-102yrs old) will be honored on Veterans Day, along with kids and others without the ability to run themselves will be joining us to run the Charlotte Marathon Relay.
For those who don’t know, the marathon relay is a 5 leg relay race covering the entire 26.2 mile marathon course. The legs are ~4 to ~6 miles long and have fixed transition areas along the course.
SPEED FOR NEED will start off the race with a Rider in each of the 4 Chariots and at each transition will change runners and riders. The initial teams have been set and captained by Bratwurst, Scabby, Subway, and Alf. In some cases other relay teams or single runners will be running along side the SPEED FOR NEED racing chairs. All are welcome to sign up and join. We expect each of the chairs will be moving at different paces as well.
You don’t want to miss Charlotte’s biggest day of racing and the biggest day for SPEED FOR NEED participants. If you need some inspiration watch a few of the epic Youtube videos posted of past races and events:
https://www.youtube.com/user/mrkevinmyoung
How can you support?
Sign up and official event details here: http://runcharlotte.com
A huge thanks to JRR Tolkien for his tireless efforts and leadership to the cause #HIM.
-Alf
I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be an evil villain with minions, or perhaps just a few go-to henchmen. Big ugly ones like Beastman and Trap Jaw who follow your every whim without (too much) questioning. Let’s find out.
21 at the Peak, if you count the two #walkerstalkers dressed in black – Geraldo and Dora. We’ll take the numbers. They looked evil enough.
Follow me, minions . . .
Snake Mountain mosey weaving around the parking lot. I just kept turning to see if the big train would keep following. Evil henchman conga line – perfect.
Now we circle up for some cruel exercises. Gather round my evil underlings.
SSH X 20
Squat X 20
Mountain Climber X 20
Fire Ants X 100 (minions followed until they figured out it was not an exercise)
Crawl around X 50
Peter Parker X 20
Leave the scene of the crime
Death Star-fish in the parking lot – burpee center with merkins, lbcs, mary catherine, & jump squats in the corners. Repeat until I release my command. That’s right, my evil powers cross the bounds of Filmation and LucasFilms.
Some jibber jabber from Slim Fast about the Mary Catherine technique. He had already tied one hostage to himself with a towel, so I backed away. Can’t risk a mutiny.
7s on the hill – situps and burpees. More talk of mutiny, but I held it together by threat of force lightening.
Partner up for (evil) Alabama Slamma – decending merkins. Slim again with the lip, but we threw him in the snake pit. Rumor is that he has already recruited a BRR team from within the other captives.
What’s left? Time to show your loyalty to the evil master. Suicides. One set until folks started to stagger, then a 2nd set to seal the deal. Flying monkey march (got that one too) back to the getaway vehicles. Somebody led some mary while I circled back to taunt the stragglers from my evil and strangely self-propelled flying chariot.
Other notes from Snake Mountain:
Two of my scariest and most evil henchman have taken it upon themselves to become less-scary skinny versions of themselves. Bullwinkle and Shake & Bake have lost nearly 100 lbs between the two of them. This is unacceptable – we need you back as fat evil villains. Don’t let it happen again.
Benny was named after a group of New Jersey people who are somehow more offensive than the rest of the New Jersey people. I like it, in an evil way.
Lumberjack kilt him a bar when he was only three.
Lois reminds me of the kid who had 100,000 baseball cards. We broke into his car and replaced them with Garbage Pail kids. Much more evil. Used some of them as stickers too.
We need to name somebody Ram Man. He was the best He Man character. Would have been even better if he were evil.
PSA:
If you watch one terrible sci-fi movie on Netflix, you pay for life. All of the “suggestions” keep coming in with more terrible choices, serving as a constant reminder of the transgression. It never stops. Just think about that before you click on anything with Sharks, Monsters, or Ian Ziering in it.
Announcements:
“Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.”
Hate,
Skeletor