You’re not serious about that running stuff, are you?
On a steamy Saturday morning following an evening down pour, a white Range Rover pulled into the parking lot which signaled Escobar was up to the running challenge YHC posted on Slack. Apparently Escobar does not troll Slack as much as the rest of us and he he questioned the Q’s commitment to a run heavy workout. That idea drew some chuckles from Mighty Mite, a look of disbelief from Arsenal, and despair from Twinkle Toes who has been missing out on all the fun lately. After a quick disclaimer, 7 PAX were off.
I broke from F3 tradition and skipped the COP and opted for a Bratwurst style warmup for the ensuing running. Just as we found a spot in between Bank of America and Best Buy to start some warm ups, here comes Fredo, a late arrival to the party, joining us for: toy soldier, hop the fence, and some quad stretches to warm up the legs.
Once done with the warm up, we began our adventure up Rae Rd towards Stone Crest Shopping Center. We took a quick detour into a little grassy area for a delayed COP: SSH x 10, IW x 10, Merkins x 10. Conveniently located next to the grassy area were some flimsy park benches which led to questioning by Bucky and Might Mite if they would hold. 2 Rounds of 15 dips, 15 derkins and 15 step ups (or squats).
From there instead of going back out to Rae, we took a quick detour towards my hood for our run. The rule: at every street corner stop and perform 25 toe tap crunches and another set of Mary waiting on the six. There were stops at Alexander Martin Ave., Eudora Ln, Alma Blount Blvd., Darcy Hopkins Drive, Treat Woods Dr., Beaver Brook Way, Bay Tree Way, Totterridge Rd, Parkchester, before stopping in my driveway to do a set of merkins.
YHC ignored requests for food, water, and use of the bathroom and we went over to Parks Farm Lane via the cut through to arrive at the neighborhood park for field of plank. Line up on the near side of the field, five lunge walks towards the far side of the field and perform the called plank. Regular plank, elbow plank ,Makhtar N’Diaye, right arm high, left arm high and that was enough.
Mosey to the parking lot for some squats and to watch Mighty Mite attempt to dunk a basketball, miss a jump shot and layup (he looked like a true NC State player) and back to running. Stops on Parks Farm Lane and Fieldgate Drive for some more mary were in order before we went back to Rae Rd. to head back towards Blakeney.
We paused at Bellegarde Drive, Southbrook Drive and Alexander Martin Dr. for more core work before we crossed over to run towards the playground at the shopping center.
Upon arriving at the playground the promise of pull ups and stretching was fulfilled. First, 10 pull ups and 15 dips. Then loosen up the hamstrings, hip flexors, IT band and calves with some broga moves (come to Gumby on Wednsday for the extended version) and back to the AO and the appearance of Paper Clip running out of the Chick-Fil-A to give his daddy a big hug.
MOLESKIN:
Since I am not a runner I cannot tell you exactly how many miles we covered, my guess was about 3. But we did close to 400 ab exercises, so I know we should be feeling that tomorrow. It was fun to take the daVinci faithful of a tour thru my hood. We did not have any announcements, so YHC led the takeout and we were done. I am always grateful to have the opportunity to lead a great group of men.
Into the Mist
20 Runners parted the mist at an alternate Swift site on Tuesday, July 25th. The goal was to repeat a workout performed twice so far over the last couple of months, but this time get some precision and predictability. Pretty sure all were successful, and we had no head on collisions on a crowded track for the morning.
The THANG:
- Read the PreBlast at https://f3southcharlotte.com/2017/07/24/preblast-measure-yourself-more-exactly/
- Disclaimer in the parking lot
- Run the warm-up as a Preview of the course on the cones that followed cones marking Start, flashing cones marking Stop, and other cones marking turnaround for the recovery.
- Run Odd Interval in Lane 1 going normal direction. Recover 200m in Lane 3/4. Start next 800m in Lane 5 going opposite direction. Recover 200m in Lane 3/4.
- If you see other runners arriving at the track, let them know that Lanes 1/2 are normal direction, runners will be jogging in 3/4 both directions, and Lanes 5/6 will have running in the backwards direction.
- Don’t start another interval after 0610.
- Meet in the parking lot at 0615 for COT
The Moleskin:
- PAX accomplished the goal of running 800m intervals on the track, but how consistently they were done is up to the individual. Looking at results from Strava (must look at the Web version to see manual Laps), several PAX actually got faster as the intervals accumulated: Gumbo (dropped 10+ seconds from 1st 3 to the last 3), FireHazard (dropped about 5 seconds), OneNiner (dropped about 4 seconds).
- What everyone had to deal with the same was the ever-present humidity. Weather reports had us at 73 degrees, 94% Humidity, and a 3mph breeze. As we rolled around to the starting line around 0530, the fog / mist was getting so thick that you could actually taste it. At times, it was hard to see the other side of the track or around the corner. The slight 3mph breeze on one (short) segment on the track was welcomed, but the rest of the air felt dead and heavy as you tried to breathe it in. Thankfully, all PAX followed the directions about direction and start/stop, so there wasn’t anyone running into each other.
- Many PAX got in 8 intervals based on posting their workout results or YHC recalling who was there in some packs: Frasier, Haggis, Gumbo, Woodson, DepthCharge. Not sure about Rebar because he doesn’t post his workouts, but he was looking pretty strong out there.
- One thing to try to follow is YHC’s suggestion of running with another PAX. Even if it just means starting an interval together, so you may have to drop back to recover with someone slightly slower, or have to shorten recovery and move up to catch someone faster, it helps to push you. If about the same speed, it allows you to take turns leading the interval to get an idea for pacing, to help you workout the mental difficulty of following, or be pulled along when you don’t think you can keep up anymore. Just to have someone suffering with you is much better than suffering by yourself. #ISI
- At COT, only 3 PAX raised their hands that they were NOT participating in the Blue Ridge Relay. Someone needs to reach out to them ASAP to pick them up as a runner (not only as a driver).
- Thanks to Gumbo (voluntold) for taking us out.
Fun Facts
Ten men showed up in the rain to experience Rock Zero ‘light’ with no weights, rocks, or medicine balls. Properly disclaimed, off we went and here is what happened:
Run to the front of the church and circle up for COP:
- SSH x 10
- IW x 10
- Low, slow squat x 10
From there, run to the front parking lot. During the mosey, find a partner and share a fun fact about yourself. The Pax was a little confused by this, but it will come into play later on during the workout.
At the front parking lot, line up abreast. There were three flags planted at three different medians. At each flag perform the following:
- 20 hand release merkins
- 20 diamonds merkins
- 20 wide are merkins
- After each set of merkins, return to start and perform 10, 4-count peter parkers
Repeat a second time with the following:
- 20 LBCs
- 20 CCDs
- 20 squats
- After each set return back to start and perform 10, 4-count parker peters
Next, run to playground for three rounds of the following:
- 5 pull ups
- 25 donkey kicks
- After each round run to first basketball goal
Mandatory water break….
Now that everyone is fully hydrated, grab some wall for people’s chair. Remember the fun fact??? While the group was holding the chair, each individual pax came before the group and performed the following:
- hold six-inch plank, tell Pax who your partner was and their fun fact, then do 10 merkins
Next, off the the finest fields in all of A51 for some four corners.
- Run to fence on far side of field and do 10 merkins
- Run along side fence until it runs out and do 10 merkins, 10 regular sit-ups
- Run parallel to highway 51 to backstop and perform 10 merkins, 10 regular sit-ups, 10 CCDs
- Run back to start and perform 10 merkins, 10 regular sit-ups, 10 CCDs and 10 LBCs
- Repeat, but in reverse order
Mosey back to parking lot for 10 rounds of 30-yard sprints.
Return to start for 4 minutes of Mary: Rosalita, Russian Twist, Fredy Mercury x 2, Protractor, Merkins, Protractor.
Mercy.
Moleskine:
Great veteran group this AM. YHC thought 24-hours of booty might keep the numbers low, but as it turned the numbers were perfect. A lot of chatter about the rain, and this being a “light” workout. However, Flipper will tell you that ‘light’ doesn’t mean easy. Many fun facts were leaned, some were a little disturbing. Hope everyone got their money’s worth. Thanks to McGee for taking us out.
Announcements:
Nemo, Marlin, McGee are starting a new Friday workout at Kohl’s. More details to follow.
Personal Responsibility
A small but strong group of wily veterans gathered in the CDS high school middle school parking lot for their daily dose of fitness. Given the expert crew, and the fact that they all knew I’ve never been an expert in much, I gave what might generously be described as a woeful (at best) disclaimer and took off running. Risky move, I know, exposing myself and all the other F3 shareholders to so much potential liability. Oh wait, there are no shareholders? Ok, all the board members and me? Or, all the members? Or…? Ok, so no good answer to that one. Good thing no one tripped, got lost or fell on an ant bed.
Thanks to Curd’s ribbing, I proceeded to remedy the deficiency when we circled up for actual exercise by giving a thoroughly sound and complete disclaimer, finishing with the legally precise catch-all clause: “Remember, if anything happens out here, it’s your own [darn] fault!”
For those who care, here’s what we did:
The THANG
COP: SSH, Merkins, Squats, 8-count body builders, LBCs, Mountain Climbers and maybe something else.
Using rocks we found in a ditch, we proceeded to the main parking lot for some running/lifting partner combos that went something like this:
- Run to end of median/curls
- Run around median/squats
- Run to end of 2 medians/press
- Run around 2 medians/lunge
- Run down entry lane, banging out 5 merkins at each break/squat-press (repeato)
- Run around church/curls, squats, lunges, press
Having returned the rocks, we proceeded to the high school middle school picnic tables for a little more partner work:
- People’s chair on wall/derkins and dips on tables
- flapjack and repeat x3
Circle up on the concrete slab for a quick session with Jack Webb.
COT (on the slab)
NMM
Cobains for no Imperial Walkers today. I personally hate it when the Q doesn’t include those. Feels like the workout is just a tad short-changed and I missed out on something. Not sure what benefit that exercise provides have, they look kinda stupid and most folks half-ass them while chatting with their buddies, but they’re still an F3 staple. But, I forgot them. Oh well. You’ll just have to bang ‘em out on your own if you missed them like I did.
“If anything happens out here, it’s your own [darn] fault.” I’ve been thinking about that statement a little more today, and I really think it rings true. For more than just any potential injury. You want to get faster? It’s on you. Stronger? You. Community? You. You have none of the above? Uh yeah, you. As we shared (ok, I pontificated a bit) in COT, F3 can be a very good thing, helping some of us get in a bit better shape, but more importantly providing a community of men actually getting to know and care about one another. Tough to find in this world. It should be easier to find elsewhere, but for so many it isn’t. Many if not most do find this community at F3 (when they show up semi-consistently, invest in others, etc. – again, it’s on you) and the remarkable thing is that when they find it at F3 they tend to take it with them back into their other work, family, churches and neighborhood.
Announcements
- #Haywoodstock and the 24HOB is tonight! Great event for a great cause. Check twitter/slack for details.
- Redrink the koolaid: Dredd/OBT and F3 were interviewed by Brett McKay and the story of F3 is now available for all to hear. It’s worth a listen whether you are brand new to F3 and never heard the story of why guys do pushups in a parking lot at 5:30 am, or whether you’re an OG who just needs a bit of encouragement. Available at www.artofmanliness.com (and links are floating around on twitter/slack). Don’t worry, Pop Tart, it’ll be available in audio cassette format soon.
- Bulldog and his M are opening a fitness studio in South Park. Sounds like it’ll be a top notch endeavor. Reach out to him for more info.
AMRAP – 4th month w/ 400% humidity
Not sure if it’s Impromptu, the intrigue of an AMRAP challenge, the opportunity to wear Red on a Friday, or the strong EHing going on by the local PAX, but a lot of new PAX took to the best AMRAP course in the Cuthbertson school district. The nice weather surely wasn’t the draw as it was tough to even see the PAX through the thick air this morning. Cue the boombox (but no Amy Grant today).
WARMUP
Mosey to front of school. Disclaimer given. SSH x 20, Merkin x 10, MC x 20, Flutter x 20. Mosey to the back of the high school for the action.
THE THANG
AMRAP challenge. Consists of about a 1/2 mile lap with 7 exercise stations along the route. 30 minutes to complete as many laps as possible. Stations included:
- Merkins x 20
- Dips x 20
- Box Jumps x 20
- WWII sit-ups x 20
- Curl to Press x 20
- Suppines x 20
- Burpees x # of laps completed
After 30 mins, we gathered up the PAX and slogged back to COT
MOLESKINE
Impressive effort by the PAX with the humidity being HORRIBLE; every PAX got at least 3 laps in. Nice work. It was great to have 8 new PAX taking on the AMRAP course including 2 new FNGs. Welcome Chunky Soup (Campbell the 2.0) and Rooney (Brian the Principal). At least one PAX was not happy about how “easy” we went with Rooney’s nickname (not calling anybody out though Longhorn). Solid effort by Brexit, OutOfOrder, Hooch, Longhorn, Toast, and Bookworm on their first time on the course. Great job by Dasher leading the way; couldn’t quite catch the course record although he does have the “warmup lap” excuse. Kudos to Rockwell for being the only 4-time PAX participant. Here are the results:
| PAX | April | May | June | July | Stations | |
| Popeye | 3.1 | 3.1 | 1 | Merkins | ||
| Bookworm | 3.2 | 2 | Dips | |||
| Posse | 2.5 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3 | Box Jumps | |
| Brexit | 3.3 | 4 | Sit-Ups | |||
| Hooch | 3.3 | 5 | Rocks | |||
| Longhorn | 3.3 | 6 | Supines | |||
| Rooney | 3.3 | 7 | Burpees | |||
| Xerox | 3.0 | 3.3 | ||||
| Gator Cub | 3 laps | 3.4 | ||||
| Jingles | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.4 | |||
| Recalculating | 3.3 | 3.4 | ||||
| Toast | 3.4 | |||||
| Chunky Soup | 3.6 | |||||
| OutOfOrder | 3.6 | |||||
| Rockwell | 3.2 | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.0 | ||
| Bottlecap | 3.5 | 4.6 | 4.4 | |||
| Foundation | 3.4 | 4.4 | 4.4 | |||
| Dasher | 4.5 | 4.6 | ||||
| Baby Bell | 2.3 | |||||
| Damascus | 4.3 | |||||
| Das Boot | 4.0 | |||||
| Delta | 3.2 | 3.4 | ||||
| Dirty Bird | 2.1 | 3.0 | ||||
| Doc McStuffins | 3.4 | |||||
| Duck Dad | 3.3 | |||||
| Foley | 3.3 | 4.1 | ||||
| Frack | 4.3 | |||||
| Goodfella | 3.5 | 5.2 | 5.2 | |||
| Hollywood | 3.5 | 4.6 | 4.5 | |||
| Kielbasa | 3.6 | |||||
| Lamar | 2.5 | |||||
| Maple Syrup | 3.5 | |||||
| Moneyball | 3.1 | 3.3 | 3.3 | |||
| Segue | 3.1 | |||||
| Shampoodle | 3.1 | |||||
| Shop Dawg | 3.1 | |||||
| Shriver | 4.0 | |||||
| Striker | 3.5 | |||||
| The Hoff | 3.2 | |||||
| Transporter | 2.6 | |||||
| Yeast | 2.5 | |||||
Announcements:
Bookworm says a big THANKS for all who donated Scooby Doo DVDs to his son . . . Praise that he is doing better
Autism AMRAP: August 12th; Recalculating and Dasher have more details
Commitment: Saturday 0630 at Weddington High School. Popeye on Q
Flash: Monday 0530 at Cuthbertson Middle. Return of Ice9 as Q
24 Hours of Booty: Starts Friday evening downtown. Great event for families to come out and support as well as F3 workouts going on
It’s Getting Crowded In Here
Nine pax chose to start their Monday in the DMZ, without regard for the consequences. Here’s what happened:
Circle up where you are, SSH x15 IC
Mosey across Carmel
Speed bump #1 – Merkins x15 IC, Low Slow Squats x15 IC
Speed bump #2 – Merkins x15 IC, Low Slow Squats x15 IC
Fastish mosey across the CMS tarmac buzzing Mr. Gladiator
Stop at the coupon place and select a coupon. Pax questions: running or lifting with the coupons? (A: both)
Head to the track. Poor scouting, legit entrance gate is flooded. Step/jump carefully around.
Lap#1: Carry the coupon and stop for 10,15,20,25 coupon thrusters on the corners. Mary on the 6.
Lap#2: Drop it for 1,3,5,7 Megaburpees on the corners. Mary on the 6.
Lap#3: Pick ’em back up. Wide Arms touching chest to coupon. 10 on each corner. Mary on the 6.
Lap#4: Partner up and 5 Dumbocrats on each corner, alternating partner positions on each corner. Mary on the 6.
Hop the fence or look for some other way out, mosey back to the pile and re-deposit.
Fast mosey back across the tarmac and past Gladiator training.
Up the stairs and Elbow Plank by the CMS front wall.
15 Mike Tysons IC
B2W
Mosey to the base of Camilla. There are nine segments of road between here and the top driveway….
Lunge 1st segment, Sprint 2nd Segment, Bear Crawl 3rd Segment
Repeato all of the above 2x to get back close to home. Not so precise instructions resulted in the out-front pax heading back to the launch point, but we still had a sliver of time to use.
Elbow Plank top of CoC parking lot.
AYG bottom of lot.
Head back home, but stop for 10 Merkins OYO at each island. YHC intended each island on the left but someone suggested all the islands, so there you go.
Audible after ~60 Merkins, out of time, back to the launch for real this time.
COT
Announcements – 24 Hours of Booty Race/Party etc.
I am pretty sure Kirk took us out, it was good in any case.
NMM
Always a pleasure to post and now lead in this hard-to-beat AO. Thanks to One Eye, and to Egypt for giving up the Q. (I suspect to rest for his #smokebootsmile performance on Tuesday. Nice job Egypt)
We got in something like 275 Merkin variations for those keeping count, plus a fair amount of leg work.
The DMZ used to be about covert operations, but lately it is quite the social scene. An exerciser and two German Shepherds on the tennis courts, the Romanesque trainees at CMS, and now a new group on the basketball court (peer-led? clipboard?). Plenty of room for all but it would be good to see a show of strength from the faithful.
Why Did the Chicken Cross Hwy 51?
We opened with a disclaimer in the darkness of the CC parking lot. At 5:30 sharp 25 PAX jogged up to Olde Town Village Center.
Warm-Up (with some D+ cadence from the VQ…definitely a work in progress)
- Side Straddle Hops x 20
- Imperial Walkers x 20
- Windmill x 20
- Carolina Dry Dock x 15
- Cotton Pickers x 15
We then made the trek across 51 to Carmel Commons
Speed Bumps
- Stop at each speed bump (approx. 7) around the shopping center and complete an exercise x 4, each followed with Mary waiting on the six
- 1st round – Merkins x 10 at each speed bump
- 2nd round – Mountain Climbers x 10 per speed bump
- 3rd round – Carolina Dry Docks x 10 per speed bump
- 4th round – Mountain Climbers x 10 per speed bump
We then jogged behind the shopping center to tackle the hill
Hill Work
- Began with 6 jump squats on side A of the hill and 1 hand release burpee on side B, alternating until finishing with 6 HR burpees on side B. I know there is a name for this, but it is escaping me at the moment.
We then moseyed around the shopping center, successfully crossed over 51, and met up for Mary at the launch spot
Mary
- We went around the circle with the PAX leading various Mary exercises and finished up with a minute plank
Moleskin
- Great job today by the PAX. I appreciate you guys being a part of my VQ, I’ll work on the cadence for homework.
- Thanks to Shoe for the nice prayer to take us out.
Announcements
- The Brave and Centurion are converging next week at Charlotte Catholic – start time 5:15
Dulverton Drive
Posted on behalf of Queen
6 fine esteemed gentlemen showed up at Hydra on a mild but humid morning. After a brief disclaimer, we started it up.
SSH X 25
IW X 20
Low Slow Squat X 10
Mountain Climbers X 10
Mosey over to the playground.
P1 runs to the dugout while P2 does Merkins, flapjack until 100 merkins
P1 runds to the dugout while P2 does pull-ups, flapjack until 50 pull-ups
Mosey to the big tree with benches surrounding it.
20 step ups, 15 dips. Flapjack
Mosey to the Windyrush/Rae Rd corner.
Run down Windyrush to Foxworth, 10 Carolina Dry Docks at each street lamp on the left side (5 lamps)
Stop at Foxworth for Mary
Partner back up for plank situps (15 situps per partner)
Rosalita X 16
Freddie Mercury X 14
Jog up Foxworth and take a left on Bedfordshire. Stop at the corner of Bedfordshire and Dulverton Dr. There was a port a-potty on that corner, but I looked back and realized Semi-Gloss wasn’t part of the PAX (I was thinking of you brother).
10 merkins, run down Dulverton, 10 merkins, run up Dulverton, 10 merkins run down Dulverton, 10 merkins run up Dulverton, 10 merkins. Plank up at the end.
Mosey over to the Matt Ham’s house on Dulverton
5 burpees in his driveway. (taking a page out of Chico’s book)
Mosey back down Foxworth and through the woods to the football field.
Run 100 yards
Run 100 yards back, AYG
Mosey back to the start
Done
Moleskin
For those of you that hate the Foxworth hill, I figured Dulverton would be a nice change of pace. A quarter of a mile straight up. The downhill wasn’t bad. Going back up was rough (think Summerlin, maybe worse). Sleepy seemed to handle the Dulverton hill with ease. Nice to see Fireman Ed, been a while, glad you made it out. Floor Slapper (Mr. 5:32) actually showed up a few min early, caught me off guard. A lot of you know Matt Ham from Windyrush or Hope. He can probably squat around 700 pounds, but he’s always been too scared to post. I figured we’d take the workout to him. So I texted him a pic of guys doing burpees in his driveway at 6:00 AM.
Announcements
Flutie Flakes said that F3 New Hampshire is going strong. If anyone’s ever in the area, he said they have a wonderful Saturday morning workout. Thanks for Jet Fuel for taking us out.
Organic Waterade® +
One short of a dozen brave souls ended up taking on the hills and thrills of Ballantyne this morning, the main event started at 5:15am, but the story starts an hour before….
Eyes Wide Shut
After a night filled with dreams of waking up late and missing the workout, the morning presented itself at 4:10, a full 20 minutes before the usual “pre-run” alarm. These alarm-less wake-ups are both curse and blessing: cursed because they withdraw precious minutes from the sleep bank, blessed because the the chance of arousing the M out of her slumber are reduced, especially blessed this morning because it gave YHC time to add some ice to the Yeti and stop at the office for some cups to serve the Organic Waterade + (recipe below).
Sara, Plain and Small
After a pit-stop at the office, dropping off the ride (and the cooler) at the launch, getting an awkward “We’re not running with you” wave from Outback and Madamme T, it was time to run over to the Sara’s YMCA to find Joe Schmo. If you haven’t been to the Sara’s Y, it comes highly recommended by Tuck, YHC and several others as a great place to compliment your F3 regimen with some weight, grip, and other training that requires cool gear. Also, a great place to EH folks. YHC EHed one of the employees this morning, TBD if he shows.
The American Kitchen
The small pre-run was a meager mile or two and ended at the Vine. The crew was rounded up, a disclaimer given, and we began, kind of.. Joe Schmo stopped off to pull a Mario/Transporter in the bushes behind the Vine at 5:14, and at 5:15 a gray F-150 pulled up with Uber inside. This was Uber‘s second F3 post ever, his first was in February or March. (at that rate, we won’t see him again until Christmas). In response to all this last minute PAX chicanery the whole crew ran 2 laps around the Vine parking lot until everyone was ready.
Setting the Oven to Keep Warm
Only a short distance away is a well lit parking lot across from Duckworth’s. We circled up and performed the following exercises:
- 20 Side Straddle Hop
- 10 Low Slow Merkin
- 10 Phelps Merkins
- 20 Low Slow Squat
The Curious Case of Benjamin Nevis
We kept warm after the warm up and ran West on Ballantyne Commons to the base of the Ben Nevis hill, stopping occasionally for planks and phelps merkins. The instructions were given:
Run at your 1/2 mile pace up the hill to where the neighborhood entrance directly after the Gateway daycare is. Upon arrival perform rounds of 10 jump lunges, and 10 merkins until the last man arrives and gets 2 rounds of the lunges and merkins in.
Early arrivers to the top included: Joe Schmo, Doc, General, Fire Hazard, Frasier (probably others as well).
Driving Hard in the Valley of the Spring
The crew moseyed into the neighborhood to the cul-de-sac at the bottom Valley Spring Dr., various plank / merkin at the base of the hill as we ensured the 6 was in. Vally Spring Dr has two side roads on the right hand side (on the way up) that split the road roughly into thirds. The instructions were given:
- Run forwards hard to the first side road.
- Run backwards hard to the second side road.
- Run forwards hard to where the road hits the main neighborhood road.
- At the top perform rounds of: 10 jump lunges, 10 merkins
Top performers included: Haggis, Joe Schmo, General, Doc, Frasier, Firehazard
Hunting for Doves
From the top we scurried back down the hill, but hung a left down Dove Hunt Pl, and through the the cul-de-sac and to the neighborhood playground. Instructions were given to partner up:
- Partner A: 10 pull-ups (good form)
- Partner B: Flutters until Partner A is done.
- Repeat the above for 3 rounds, flutters until last pair is in (which was several flutters)
After each completing those 30 good looking pull-ups, the group moseyed over to the base of the Dove Hunt Pl hill. Instructions were given:
- Run forwards hard to the second car on right.
- Run backwards hard to where Dove Hunt hits Valley Spring.
- Run forwards hard to where the road hits the main neighborhood road.
- At the top: various planks.
What Goes Up Must Come Down
We scooted out of the hood and across Ballantyne Commons to the opposite side of the road to stride it out down the Nevis hill. The focus here was on building good controlled speed on the downhill. We gathered the PAX at each cross road and performed 20, 15 and 10 merkins OYO. We eventually made our way to the entrance of the Ballantyne Village shopping/dining area, and took a few strides of walking recovery before the next segment of the workout.
Ready….Go
Into the BV Parking Deck we went, to the basement floor. Instructions were given to sprint up the westward ramps, and walking recovery up the eastward ramps, we gathered all the PAX for before each sprint. There were three in total, PAX were encouraged to give 110% effort on the sprints to earn the walking recovery. There were a total of 3 sprints, the winners were: Argonaut, General, Haggis on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sprint, respectively. Quality efforts from everyone on those.
Coasting
From the top of the BV deck, we took in the sunset sights for 3/10ths of a second, enjoyed the breeze, then headed back down the deck ramps, and back to launch for a total of ~ 5 miles. Those who arrived first were greeted with some heavenly ounces of Organic Waterade +, a 2.0 version of the famed recovery drink popularized by Firehazard at the Hurricane Mud Run Ragnar Trail Race last year. Plain water for the others when the ‘Ade was gone. There’s nothing that water is that Waterade isn’t.
Shutting it Down
Good run from all this morning. Folks ran hard and rotated duties staying with the 6 (T-claps to Fire Hazard, Haggis, Frasier and others YHC didn’t see). The hope today was to give the folks training for hilly races a chance to work on some hill speed while keeping the less run focused engaged by frequently re-grouping to pound out some calisthenics. Good luck to all the Spartan racers this weekend. Bring back the bling.
Organic Waterade +
- Ingredients
- 1 gallon, Clean Cold Water
- 1% of 1 teaspoon, Organic Banana-Orange Fruit Juice
- Instructions
- Mix and serve in a recycled paper cup.
Rope-A-Dope @ Fight Club
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion’.” – Muhammad Ali
Its started out slow for Fight Club as we pondered over many, bumps, bruises and breaks…but when that bell rang at 5:30am all of that was left on the pavement. A big loop around Foxhole and some necessary shoulder stretches and we got things moving!
Warm Up – Partner Up
200 J/C
100 Hooks
200 U-Cuts
After the heart rate continued to climb and the shoulders were warm, we moseyed to the back of the school yard for a little manly sparring.
4 – 3:00min RD – Close contact sparring, stay within the white box or do burppees
30 Sec LBC’s in between RD’s
Mosey back to the front of the school for a little rope-a-dope.
20 Yard rope drill – all uppercuts
Sprint to the center line for in and outs
5 mercks
Sprint to the center line for in and outs
1 Burpee and back on the rope
Ended the day with 10 merks 10 LBC – 9 mercks, 9 LBC…so on
Really great morning with these guys, I encourage more members to come check out Fight Club each week is getting tougher and tougher!