Rolled into Carmel Road Neighborhood Park at 5:23, empty lot, but quickly joined by the Agony-wagon and then one by one others to get to lucky number 7 to begin the morning’s festivities.
COP: Low, Slow Squat x10 IC, Merkins x33 IC
Mosey down Camilla to the first speed bump – Jerkins x15 OYO, keep going to second speed bump, Parker Peter x10 IC, keep going to the rock pile.
Select TWO rocks per man. Mosey w/rocks down to track, enter track and go to far end. Stash rocks in the end zone.
Begin the Burpee Pullup Mile:
4 laps. On each lap: 14-12-10-8 burpees at the north end of track, hop the fence on south end and do 14-12-10-8 pullups on the soccer goals. Do 3 diamonds for every pullup not completed.
Audible: Soccer goals were iced over, so went with 28-24-20-16 diamonds instead.
Various planks on the six.
Move rocks to track. Begin the Lactic Shaker: Grab one rock and walk 100M while doing skullcrushers and curls IC. Set the rocks down. AYG 300M. Walk 200M – skullcrushers, curls, shoulder press IC. Drop the rock. AYG 300M. Walk 200M – skullcrushers, curls, one arm press L, R. Drop the rock. AYG 300M. Walk 100M with more upper body exercises IC. Pick up second rock and mosey back to rockpile.
Drop the rocks, mosey to edge of tarmac, LBCs on the six. Mosey back home, stop at speed bumps for 15 jump squats OYO and flutter x20 IC.
NMM
General accommodated YHC’s abysmal pace for nearly 3 miles. If only the cold could truly be blamed. #christmasbooze #holidayonice
With a total of four shivering men awaiting Q instructions we started off:
20 SSH IC
10 Merkins IC
10 High Slow Pull-ups IC
300 meter KB weighted mosey down to the lower fields.
If was a simple thang today. An AMRAP of sorts, but one that kept the PAX in close proximity.
20 One Arm Swings
20 Merkins
8 lunges (16, 24, 32, 40 …)
Run 600 meters around both fields.
(add 8 lunges, 4 each leg, in each round)
After about **5.??** rounds, with around 10 minutes until endex, we headed back to the launch via a KB weighted mosey, and finished with this closer:
5 Fat Bar pull-ups
10 merkins
5 commando pull-ups
10 merkins
5 circular pull-ups
10 merkins
5 slow count negative pull-ups
10 merkins
90 second plank.
The AMRAP is often railed against for being exclusionary, too competitive, and/or leaving the six to fend for themselves. While that can sometimes be true, a good AMRAP also has some real benefit, for both the leader and the six.
The spirit of competition, especially amongst males, is a strong motivator. A motivator that is sometimes enough on it’s own to push the six. Strong encouragement from other PAX, along with the competitive spirit is a great combo. AMRAPs that are done in a relatively close vicinity (i.e all PAX can see all other PAX for the duration of the training) are great for delivering a competitive spirit and the ability to “cheer” on lagging dudes. Strongly recommend a tight geographical area for your next AMRAP workout, seems to help the community spirit, while still allowing everyone to get a great workout.
Great group of veteran dudes out there for said AMRAP, it looked like a board meeting (except Wild Turkey was present, so that was different); YHC probably would have called a different workout if some of the newer PAX were there. Great work men.
2 PAX decided to stay close to home for Blakovery instead of breaking ranks to wander around a parking deck in the Metro region. With 5 miles and the PJ route on the agenda, off we went. We were at a comfortable pace about half way in when a sidewalk took out Kirby. After a quick medical assessment (I’m not a professional), it was clear that running the rest of the way was not possible. With the temperature hovering around 20 degrees, it was a quick walk and occasional mosey back to the starting point. In spite of the set back, we arrived at the AO for a 6:15 finish.
MOLESKIN
For those who may not know, Kirby received his name about 2 years ago after posting at a Madame Taussauds led Maul where a randomly placed curb became his arch nemesis. But that did not stop Kirby from finishing the workout. With Tiger Rag and Haggis in attendance at the name-a-rama, it came down to Curbie or Jack the Tripper. By the time it reached Wingman the current spelling of “Kirby” was born. And the rest is SOB history.
Make sure you check in on Kirby this week, but I think he is posting tomorrow. I guess that means no one else has an excuse…see you all tomorrow at Bagpipe.
University of Alabama vs. University (sic) of Georgia – if you stay up late to watch the whole thing (Cheddar – Roll Tide, Enron – Who let the hairy dawgs out?, may be others), then chances are you won’t be making it to Swift in the morning for the 0515 start. However, our workout will still be determined by the outcome of the game.
We’ll either be “heading down the Atlanta Highway…” or will be turning over some big wheels. But I won’t know until about 0500 on the prerun or 0515 on the warmup when someone tells me what happened in the 2nd half (aka. after my bed time).
Order of events:
SYITG,
Bratwurst
18ish Pax ventured out on this 15 degree morning. Someday I will learn to take name-o-rama with a recorder; so I can remember everyone. Dirty Bird had a little extra swagger this morning after a Falcons win and Georgia representing tonight.
AO: Flash
QIC: Frack
PAX: Damascus, Bottle Cap, Run Flat, Posse, Money Ball, Dirty Bird, Fuse Box, Holly Wood, Half Back, Mad Dog, Gator Cub, StubHub, Good Fella, Recalculating, Jingles, and a few others.
Conditions: 15F and Clear
Warmup:
Mosey to front of High School and circle up:
Thang:
Q Note: Appreciate Goodfella calling me out for being last.
Mosey to launch for abs
Moleskin:
Announcements:
When Udder posted on Slack about wanting to head to the Muthership for some CSAUP, I knew this was a great time to step-up and get my butt moving in the cold.
COP:
While most PAX were a bunch of F3 Veterans, I still gave a thorough disclaimer and off we went.
1 lap around parking lot.
½ lap of butt kickers
½ lap of high knees
Circle up:
12 SSH IC
12 IW IC
12 LSS IC
3 burpees on your own
Head to the bleachers
12 (or 14) days after Christmas :
Listed on a white dry-erase board were 12 exercises. However, we were not doing the typical “12 days of Christmas” which is a great ladder workout. Instead, we were doing 12 exercises one after another. On your own, we did 14 reps of each exercise as it was the 14th day after Christmas.
10. Flutters
11. Dips
12. Burpees
Upon completion, I encouraged the PAX to jog to the steps and back to keep warm (instead of planking).
The No Ballet Series
There was no ballet this time! Benny was sad. That said, the following idea I stole after reading that a dancer (Katie Boren) with ABT (American Ballet Theatre) did this every morning upon waking up. The big difference is she said she planked against the Wall. But, if you can’t do it – don’t Q it!
Sequence:
Plank 30 sec
Mountain Climber 30 sec
30 Air presses
Rest 30 secs
Repeat 3x
My arms were really feeling it the 3rd set. But, this is the power of F3 and struggling together.
Rocks
Grab a rock for walking down the steps and back up.
1 lap squat – take 2 steps and then squat
1 lap curls
1 lap Air presses
My legs are a bit sore after this.
Wiseman Relay
This idea I stole from previously volunteering at a Children’s Ministry “Epiphany Party”. For the kids, it was running from 1 side of the room to another and fill a bag with items that the Wiseman might have needed along the way (Fish, Water, Gold, Frankencise, Myrrh ,etc.) we had them link arms as they picked up a partner. The trick was not to run, but to work as a team – always a good skill!
Divide into 3 teams
P1 starts runs to basketball hoops as does 3 Jump Squats
P1 runs back and get P2 runs to goal post, then do 6 Jump Squats together
P2 is doing IW while waiting
We repeated to 2nd and 3rd goal basketball hoops.
Mary
12 Good Morning Nashville
12 Heels to Heaven
15 LBCs
Protactor
12 Standing Sit-ups
2 easy laps to finish (we had 2 mins)
Moleskin:
Veteran crew this morning. The only one that I didn’t recognize was Olaf, who started with F3 about 2 weeks ago – welcome!
Major props to Costanza. During the 12 (or 14) Days After Christmas, he did a lap to the stairs and back after each exercise. #pushingit
Benny who is training for his 1st marathon, was out in front during the Wiseman relay – I thought he was taking an easy to train. Guess not!
I hadn’t seen Adobe or Thunder Road in a while. Good guys in the F3 Nation!
No real announcements.
Appreciate the take out by Adobe and prayers for my daughter, Kathryn aka Flexie, as she goes through Allergy testing on Tuesday morning. She had a reaction on New Year’s Day after eating some Cashews and smoked sausage. We suspect potential allergy to tree nuts. A trip to Urgent Care is no way to bring in the New Year!
A few final comments, while I advertised this workout as “Following the star” and an “Epiphany Party”, F3 is not a Christian organization. Sure, you’ll find Christian men here. I think the way I described it to my Dad was, “A church, without being a Church”. I thank you for that. Whatever you do or don’t believe – come on out! You’ll get a good work out and meet a bunch of great guys that just do the right thing.
We are a national network of free, volunteer-led workout groups for men. Our purpose is the invigoration of male community leadership.
14 men waved off the cold and kept moving at The Matrix this morning, and endured just a tiny taste of the mutha
The Thang:
Warm-up:
Mosey to main school lot for instructions and partner-up for main event:
Re-group; plank; 20 merkins OYO
Repeat main event; modify 5 dumbocrats on last round
Re-group; Mary
Run to rockpile, grab a rock, mosey down to field
P1 does called exercise while P2 runs to mid field and back; flapjack:
Return rocks to rockpile; run back to start
COT
Mileage: 3.1
Merkins: too many to count
Moleskine:
Announcements:
Okay so talking about the cold weather is already old and cliche, however, I was informed this am that this is the coldest Charlotte (or NC) weather since 1920. Wow. I think it was Cottontail who shared that…thank you. The forecast was 16 degrees, give or take a few. At 5:20am, a car pulled in, then another, and another and another and …. OMG, it was a legit group of motivated PAX…16 total. Godsmack walked up in shorts, short sleeves, no hat, no gloves, no sweatshirt. Since we hadn’t seen him in awhile, I’m assuming he was in a deep sleep and no one told him it was Winter. BLC loaned him some extra gloves #MintHillPrepared. Orange Whip was channeling old school Rocky Balboa, clad in great sweat pants and sweat shirt. Turkey Leg displayed some Smurf like royal blue gloves that made his hands abnormally larger than anything else on his body. Aside from that it was tough to know who was there because of all the layers and beanies pulled down snug over the ears…except for Sunshine that is, his long golden locks did not disappoint. I gave a quick disclaimer and off we went.
Mosey through Covenant Day to Fullwood and hit the neigborhood next door for a long than normal warm up. COP back at CD parking lot for SSH x 25, Merkins x 10, IW x 25, Carolina Dry Docks x 10. We proceeded the long way around the school as I pointed out designated areas; we arrived at the rock pile where we chose a lifting rock and did 25 overhead shoulder press.
Now back at the start at the side frontage road we began the AMRAP with four (4) stations around the entire campus, 25 Merkins, 25 Jump Squats, 25 Carolina Dry Docks and 25 Shoulder Press with Rock. GO!
Moleskin: The group broke up quickly, TL, Alf and Orange Whip jumping out front with something to prove. I couldn’t really tell where everyone was until the end as we all filed back to parking lot for some mary that had already started when I got there. Stone Cold displayed true class hanging with Godsmack who was pushing hard after some time off. HH found a football and made a side game of Fumble = Burpees as it made its way around the group. I think the minimum distance was 3.5 miles with the fast guys getting in 4 laps and over 4 miles. The goal was to stay in motion to offset the low temps. Mission complete.
Couple announcements, Joe Davis run tomorrow at 8am in Fort Mill, you can still run or just show up, it’s not too late!! New F3 bible study after Kevlar at Panera Arboretum #mancave. Thank you Squid for the takeout. Thank you all for showing up this morning in true F3 fashion.
Despite the Polar Vortex, Bomb Cyclone, or whatever this cold weather is being hyped with, 15 PAX made the decision to Tune the Body at Dromedary outside on Wednesday morning.
The THANG:
The Moleskin:
Announcements:
Summary
It was cold…10 degrees. If YHC had whipped out my weinke, it would have frozen. Speaking of frozen, when YHC got home, found out my pipes had frozen throughout the house #noshowerbeforework . Oh well, things could be worse… like the cold freezing the eardrums of the 12 bold PAX that posted such that instructions could not be followed… or heard… or understood this morning. That’s ok, as the Q YHC takes ultimate responsibility for such belligerence, so will try to un-sharpen my harsh Mongol intonation and speak more clearly next time. Enough jabbering, here’s what we did…
Thang
Moleskine
YHC was worried about today… sick for a few days, and honestly just not in the greatest shape but working on it. Glad to see one of my very best F3 friends, Mr. Brady, show up today. Brady would die for me, and proved it today by posting at a bootcamp.. and carrying weights! Chelms just nearly died from a self-described heart rate spike according to Twitter. Lorax doesn’t have a heart, since he wore shorts and a shirt to workout in while moving at warp speed #coldblooded. Mermaid and ? did 1,264 supine rope pullups, and forced YHC to modify the workout after instructions were unfollowed by doing them the ENTIRE time we went up the deck. Champagne forced us all to do extra slow squats while he exercised his lips… we nearly froze in place. Rachel needs to wear shorts over his tights , especially if wearing a bright yellow jacket to highlight the feature. No fun running behind him, and we all are. Brilleaux was YHC partner and was kind enough to do all the heavy lifting, while YHC cut corners up the deck. Marconi and Utah chose the heavy weights and are exempt from any trolling #respect. Mr. Brady led us chatting with the man upstairs to end the workout. Finito!
Thank you for the opportunity to lead as always, and thanks for joining me in the harsh weather for the first Q of 2018 for me, and post. YHC enjoyed posting in many regions in 2017 and will likely continue to change it up in 2018. Encourage you to step out of the comfort zone and try it from time to time as well. #Nation>Region
Announcements
“Who Pushes Who?!?” ~ SPEED FOR NEED
JRR Tolkien