Partners in Pain

Partners in Pain

7 assembled for their weekly test of strength and fortitude, known as Meathead.  Though #TBQ was avoided, it came close.  Here’s how:

Disclaimer

The Thang

COP:

  • One-hand swings – Left – 10 IC (20 swings)
  • Imperial walker – 15 IC
  • One-hand swings – Right – 10 IC
  • Low slow squat – 15 IC
  • One-hand swings – 10 IC  (5 left, 5 right)
  • Windmills – 10 IC
  • One-hand swings – 10 IC  (5 left, 5 right)
  • Prying squat – 3
  • One-hand swings – 10 IC  (alternating left & right on pax count)

Partner up

Round one:

  • P1 – 5 deep goblet squats + 10 squat jumps
  • P2 – merkins
  • 5 rounds

Round two:

  • P1 – 10 double-bell floor presses + 5 explosive merkins
  • P2 – bodyweight squats
  • 5 rounds

Round three:

  • P1 – 10 double-bell deadlifts + 5 double-bell swings
  • P2 – single arm presses or merkins
  • 5 rounds

Round four:

  • P1 – 10 lawnmowers/side + 5 high pulls/side
  • P2 – single leg romanian deadlifts
  • continue until time expires (most got 2-3 rounds)

Fini

COT

Announcements:

  1. Kevlar converges with Joust tomorrow, 6/23
  2. Keep the family of Cheech in our prayers, as the F3 Nation and the brothers of F3 Lexington mourn the loss of our brother who died last night after being hit by a car while running during a workout.
    1. Let’s use this as a reminder to be extra vigilant about staying visible during our workouts (headlamps, reflective gear, blinkies) and choosing the safest routes available.  But keep in mind, just be cause you can be seen doesn’t mean you will be seen – the driver has to be looking.

Naked Moleskine:

Great job by all today.  Lots of good 2nd F among the partners, as they pushed through, and everyone was getting after it.  Some may have needed larger bells and YHC may have needed smaller bells, but it seemed everyone got their money’s worth by the end.

The goal was to double-down on stressing body parts with KB + bodyweight superset, while allowing slight recovery with the opposing movements yet keeping the heart rate high.  It did look easier on paper, as always.  With overly ambitious bell selection and a head-cold sapping available energy, YHC was light-headed and nearing #TBQ by the end.  After a few minutes of rest, enough strength was available to drive home (thanks YL for checking).  At least for YHC, a little more recovery would have been nice, but some were able to get in extra sets – so maybe it all balanced out.  That’s really one of the beauties of a Meathead/KB workout – you’re in control of the intensity based on your bell size selection, regardless of what exercises the Q calls.

Thanks, as always for the opportunity to lead.  Aye.

The gift that keeps on giving

30ish PAX showed up for an out of character weather morning last Friday (6/16) to see what our dear friend and Kotters aficionado, RunStopper, had in store. Quickly disclaimed we mosey out the lot dodging a few latecomers. Quick audible to plank up in the street (beware of traffic) and graciously wait on our six. Altogether now, we mosey up Walsh to Carmel Corners. Quick right into the corporate parking lot and COP.

COP
In Cadence
SSHx30
IWx25
Merkinsx25
Low Slow Squatx25

maybe a few others. Time has washed away my memory of the preliminary work.

The Thang
Partner up in a row (abreast) in parking lot. Partner Wheel Barrow with swap in the middle of lot.

Run over to Panera lot. Hidden among the grass median waited a few weights intent on burning up the parking lot. 3 to a group, 1 pushes plate across lot and back AMRAP while 2 and 3 run the stairs up across and down. 2 relieves partner 1 and 1/3 run. Rinse and repeat x 2, 3 times maybe… Enough of that junk. Deposit plates back in the cut and head to CCHS for 4 rounds of 4 exercises x 25.

Derkins
Stepups
Diamond Derkins
Dips

Mosey back to lot for 3 mins of Mary.

One week old moleskin: Runstopper told us sorry and thank you for dealing with his out of shape self and indulging the ball of snakes that makes up his thoughts in order to devise a workout. I believe he also recently changed jobs, so there’s that also. Good news is we all got in a healthy sweat, and mild mumblechatter about his questionable choices.

Announcements:
Speed for Need July 4th race. American 4 miler
Looking for Q spots come this fall. Holler at Udder or Margo for dates.
Prob more things, but hey it’s a week later and I’m a ghostwriter.

(runstopper is a poopypants)

The Clock

18 men gathered for low miles and high reps at this morning’s edition of Rebel Yell.

We started with a quick job from the Regal Cinema to the Michael’s parking lot throwing in some high knees, butt-kickers, side shuffle and backwards run.

COP
Side straddle hops x 15
Imperial walkers x 15
‘Mericans x 15
Arm circles x 5
Mountain climbers x 15

The Thingy
Run across the street to the cul-de-sac of Piper Station Dr. The cul-de-sac is the face of the clock. An exercise was placed at each hour position.
1 Carolina Dry Docks
2 Single-leg deadlift
3 Jump squats
4 Super Man
5 Sky Humpers
6 Mahktar N’dyai
7 LBC
8 Push-ups
9 Lunges
10 Calf raises
11 Mountain climbers
12 American hammer

Pax spread out across the clock for 60 reps of each exercise. One could break up the exericse into managable chunks, but you couldn’t move on to the next hour without finishing.

The Larry Birds who finished all 720 reps just starting running back and forth. It was great seeing leaders keep moving. (No standing around!)

When (just about everyone) finished we ran back to Regal Cinema for a time-bomb burpees.

Moleskine
The goal was to provide a traditional full-body bootcamp high reps and low miles. I hope everyone used this exercise to think about how we spend our time. Our need to pace ourselves (it was not possible to rip through 60 reps of most exercises) and how it’s better to spend time with friends.

Stay safe out there!

12 Pax came out to support Chopper for my VQ

In an effort to be creative I presented a twist on an old favorite the triple nickel and called it the 666 Suicide which may have been my downfall. My knee gave way and had to limp the rest of the course while giving directions along the way. Maybe more thorough stretching before and after is in my future as it seems my injured knee is due to tight, locked up leg muscles.

Workout:
1. Assembly, disclaimer & start

2. Warm up: side straddle hop, imperial walkers, low slow squat, windmill, mountain climbers.

3. Partner up at fountain: 200 dips (per team) as partner runs around light pole

4. Mosey to wall behind Old Navy (plank or Mary till 6 arrives)

5. Indian run along back of building to end when it turns toward Rea Rd.

6. Triple 6 Suicide (this is my twist on the triple nickel): start with 6 Carolina dry docks run to first of 6 cones (or some other marker) then do 6 jump squats…end at the 6th marker. Mary until 6 is in.

7. Wall sit exercises for ~2-3 minutes

8. Mary Starfish at the circle

9. Mosey to square on Tolleson Ave. Break into teams of 3 (2 men exercising, 1 running at any given time) step ups at one end and derkins at other end

10. Mosey back to Chick-fil-A for Mary & elbow plank (2 minutes)

Closing circle

MOleskin courtesy of Strawberry:
– 666 Suicides were terrible. Thanks Chopper. I think those did you in.
– It was quite saucy this AM. It’s just getting hotter too.
– Great use of the AO. We traveled in all 4 quadrants, and visited the boardwalk/nature trail as well.

Disruptive Mumblechatter at the CCC

This morning 42 men of Anvil, Death Valley and parts unknown converged at Calvary Church for 45 minutes of work, followed by 20(ish) minutes of coffee and words from Dredd under the pavilion.

Thang

  • Launch promptly at 530 and mosey a couple lots over for COP
  • 5 burpees OYO, 15 IC LS Jump Squats, 5 burpees OYO, Merkins x5 IC, Diamond x5 IC, Wide Arm x5 IC
  • Divided the PAX into 4 groups and headed back to launch
  • 4 corners, 15 reps each corner
    • 1 – Derkins at the benches
    • 2 – Burpees at the other end of the long lot
    • 3 – Jump Squats
    • 4 – Freddie Mercury (15 each leg)
    • Counter-clockwise, 2 rounds, collect the 6 and mosey 2 lots over
  • Line up abreast facing short way across the lot
    • Bear Crawl to 1st line, 5 burpees, sprint back and plank
    • BC to 1st line, Lunge Walk to 2nd line, 10 burpees, sprint back and plank
    • BC to 1st line, LW to 2nd line, Broad Jump to other end, sprint back and plank
    • Straight sprinting suicide to finish
  • Head to lot by the hot box, grab a partner, line up facing long way down lot
    • Wheelbarrow to 1st light, flapjack, continue wheelbarrow to 2nd light
    • 20 handslap merkins
    • Repeat wheelbarrow coming back
    • 10 dips, 10 step ups in the hot box, meet where we started
  • Mary (Flutter, H2H, High Flutter, American Hammer)
  • Mosey to the rockpile. Same partner.
    • P1 – 10 curl & press, 10 tricep, repeat until P2 sprints to far light and back, flapjack
    • Repeat for round 2
    • Repeat for round 3 with high pulls / squats
  • AYG back towards launch for COT & takeout by Squid
  • Those who can, gather in the hot box at 0630 for coffee and words from Dredd

 

Moleskin

Schedule a convergence of A51’s two finest Wednesday workouts, call it CCC, add a promised visit and words from Dredd, then throw in some free coffee and you can expect big numbers — which is exactly what we had. Luckily (or more likely by Dollywood’s design), there is no better AO in the southland to accommodate a big crew than Calvary Church.

A few quick observations (emphasis on a few). Group 4 Whoever started with Freddie Mercury (you know who you are) needs to ditch their Garmin watches, get a good ol’ Timex, and watch the hands for a little while. If you need further lessons in clockwise vs counter-clockwise, my 5-year old is available and accepts pizza or red, white & blue Skittles as payment; Passing 10 burpees in a row sucks, every time, even if it’s only to do 15; Almost everyone missed the memo on wheelbarrows coming back and instead gathered early for coffee and hot air in the hot box. Found us doing Mary a few minutes later. Please apologize to your shoulders for denying them their full potential.

Good times watching Rachel and Dollywood race it out during the rock sets. Hairball, angry at the thought of his growing biceps creating wind resistance, called YHC out for killing time with the rocks. #AnvilVirgin. Must’ve thought he saw Jack Webb creeping around somewhere. Leading the herd took up the remainder of YHC’s energy, attention, and limited vocal cord capabilities – please add additional observations below (looking at you, Hops).

Appreciate Mermaid’s advice in planning for today and his readiness to step up and help if we needed to split the group. Mermaid EHed me a little over a year ago and has been an indispensable source of support and encouragement ever since in both F3 as well as my private life. Prime example of what it means to go beyond the easy part to have a deeper impact (more on that below).

Also appreciate Dredd taking the time to speak with those who were able to stay after (and Geraldo who came over from the Donut Run). While I definitely can’t reiterate what was said (the man has a way with words), a few takeaways for YHC personally:

  • Disruptive mumblechatter: Dredd provided us with plenty of this today, but the good kind of disruptive mumblechatter, the kind with a purpose. During a workout, deep in the pain cave, is a great time to hit a man with tough questions. Too often we spend that time complaining about the work, engaging in shallow chit-chat, or suffering in silence. Use the opportunity and time you have with your brothers to challenge each other and to dig deeper. The more we can focus on relentlessly building relationships with those around us, the greater our ability to have a positive impact and to recognize and react when we are needed most.
  • F3 is the easy part: EHing is easy (once you try it). We all want to give away this gift we have found and it’s pretty non-threatening to ask a guy to come workout. Bring him in, let F3 takeover. But, then there is the hard part. What about when that man stops showing up, or gets injured, or has problems at home? What about the man who just isn’t going to do F3? Do we write them off as a person we can’t reach or are they worth a little extra trouble to dig into another way? For those of us who are Christian, do we take on the daunting task of discipling non-believers or do we avoid that (often awkward) subject? Every case is different. But, if we are not asking ourselves these questions and leveraging F3 as a training ground for deeper pursuits (YHC is certainly guilty here), maybe we should be.

To be clear, I am definitely not claiming to represent Dredd or his views. This is just a little of what I came away thinking about when Dredd was done talking and I am sure every man had his own takeaways. If you missed today, I highly recommend you do your best to make the next convergence/speaker in July. Definitely a great way to spend the morning. Big thank you to Dollywood for his leadership in organizing this (stay tuned for the next one) and for the opportunity to lead today.

Finally, in the not-tough question category, what does CCC stand for? I am going with Calvary Church Convergence, but I am certain you creative types can come up with something much more interesting than that.

 

Announcements

  • Calvary Church thanks everyone who donated to the latest food drive for the pantry. That food will feed families in the community on a weekly basis and is much appreciated.
  • Speed for Need – register to run the inaugural race (American 4 Miler Registration) on July 4. Nash will be driving his son, Owen, in the F3 chariot and we will all run the race together. Metro convergence beforehand, 0600-0700 AM at Freedom Park Gravel Lot. Race to follow at 0730.
  • Church on the Street needs volunteers for August and beyond. Great opportunity to serve. Sign up here.
  • Fredo is a newly minted Site Q at da Vinci and is looking for Qs. Contact him to sign up.
  • Rock Zero re-launch this Saturday, 0700 at Calvary Church. Flipper has lots of details.

 

Oh look, a spider…

7 pax posted for the 2nd leg of YHC’s triple-down Q parade, in the cool, dry confines of the Scout Hut, for a little stretching, balance-work, and Hans Zimmer radio.  After supplying the site-FNG-friendly pink yoga mat to Tulip, an ultra-brief disclaimer was given, and we began.

The Thang

Savasana

Devotional – Ephesians 4:1-6

COP / Warm-up:

  • Bridge – double then single legs
  • Table Top
  • Cat & Cow – alternating
  • Check your six
  • Child’s pose – plus lateral
  • Thread the needle
  • Elbow Plank
  • J Lo (#crowdpleaser)

Half Salutes with Chair:

  • Salutation
  • Upward Salute
  • Forward Fold
  • Halfway lift
  • Forward fold
  • Upward salute
  • Chair
  • Forward fold
  • Halfway lift
  • Forward fold
  • Chair
  • Upward salute
  • Rinse & Repeato

Standing Hip Openers:

  • Triangle
  • Side angle
  • Warrior 2
  • Exalted warrior
  • Flapjack sides
  • Rinse & repeato both sides

Standing balance flow:

  • Dancer
  • Eagle
  • Pyramid
  • Triangle
  • Half moon
  • Flapjack

Low Lunge series:

  • Low lunge
  • Balancing low lunge
  • Crescent low lunge  (add optional quad stretch)
  • Prayer twist from lunge
  • Groin stretch from lunge
  • Push back into Runner’s lunge, toes down then toes up
  • Kneeling toe stretch
  • Flapjack

Sun Salutations with Lunges:

  • Salutation
  • Upward Salute
  • Forward Fold
  • Halfway lift
  • Forward fold
  • High lunge
  • Crescent high lunge
  • High plank
  • 6 inches
  • Up dog
  • Down dog
  • High lunge
  • Crescent high lunge
  • Step forward, then forward fold
  • Upward salute
  • Flapjack

Sun Salutation:

  • Salutation
  • Upward Salute
  • Forward Fold
  • Halfway lift
  • Forward fold
  • High plank
  • 6 inches
  • Up dog
  • Down dog
  • Step or hop forward, then forward fold
  • Upward salute

Corpse Pose

  • Reread Ephesians 4:1-6

Done

COT – take out by Tweetsie

Announcements:

  1. Final day for RED shirt pre-orders is today!
  2. Join YHC for his 3rd Q this week, tomorrow at Meathead

Naked Moleskine:

So, YHC returned from his business trip to San Francisco last week with a “souvenir” he’d prefer not to have, a head cold.  Nonetheless, he’s been missing Gumby lately, so with a pocket-full of tissues on hand, we pressed on.  Only a single nasal interuption, although YHC’s hearing may have been compromised early on.  No matter.

Today’s musical accompaniment was from a Hans Zimmer station on Slacker.  Some good variety of strong movie scores.  After YHC remarked that the song from Return of the King (Lord of the Rings) song was, “holy cow, ten minutes long!”, Stay Puft reminded us all of the context, “well, have ya seen the movies?”  Aye…

Thanks for the opportunity to lead today.  An honor, as always.

Soggy Donuts

The Donuts were not soggy but the Donut Run miles were soggy. 6 ran this morning (5 on the North course and 1 on the Jello course).

Some highlights:
1. The hill up Sharonview is delightful in the fact that it never ends.
2. Semi has some major gas issues.
3. Voodoo and Geraldo launched at 3:56am.
4. I believe we snuck up on Jello finishing his bathroom break on Rea.
5. Colony and Rea sidewalks need some major tree trimming. Could be a good service day opportunity for Agony’s church.
6. If Carmel CC (or Quail Hollow) is looking for a moderately bad golfer that can’t afford the initiation fee, then please contact Semi.

All in all, it was a good run and the new route was good.

NEW ROUTE: North Donut Run

NEW ROUTE: Click here for a map.

I thought it would be good to introduce the North Donut Run. We will do this route primarily during BRR training to get some hills in. I think everyone will love it.

Turns:
-Run down Rea (just like you are running the Reverse route)
-Left onto Providence Lane West
-Right onto Lancer
-Left onto Old Providence
-Left onto Sharonview (at light)
-Left onto Carmel (at light)
-Left onto Colony (at light) and back to start

The total milage is slightly longer than 6 miles, so if you want, you can start a minute or 2 early. Looking forward to seeing all my donut runners!

BW

Speed For NeighD Visits HoMcHoA

YHC understands, the only requirement to Q Horsey is to write a inappropriate sick backblast. Ok cool.

SUMMARY

16 Stallions, only one of them Black (Jack), had their @$$ handed to them temperature taken (see video) by the hills of Horsey-McHorseArse.  Nothing like a heat check where the sun isn’t shining to wake you up at 0515.  Fun Fact: Did you know a horse’s temperature is 38 degrees? If not, you didn’t watch the fine viral educational video long enough. When it was all said and done, each PAX did roughly 22 hill repeats, climbed 1,000+ vertical feet in ~6 miles, while popping the CHAIRy of the new SPEEDFORNEED Racing Chariot in it’s virgin workout.  For the third week in a row, there was no sign of Chester, as the PAX were unmolested running up and down the calm streets of Wilby Drive. Speaking of Chester, has someone tried to EH that dude before? Today YHC could have given him the best/worst name in all of F3. Chester the Moles… nevermind.  We’d just go second derivative on the naming like Dredd likes to do and call that man ‘Cosby’ to make it sound more politically correct.  Kind of like how we renamed ‘Horny’ to ‘Horn‘, only different.  Throw that man a puddin pop!  Getting off track… here’s what we did…

THE THANG

Itcher nearly caused a revolt last week by running a bootcamp on HoMcHoA which has been advertised as an exclusively running workout. So YHC needed to restore order at 0515, in the form of running hill repeats, 5X up and down each hill of the course, with PAX alternating pushing a #SFN Chariot loaded with 40lbs of weight up and down each hill. 0607 group photo, 0608 pledge of allegiance, 0609 AYG up the first hill 2 last times, 0612 head back to launch, 0615 another group selfie (this time w/ F3’s media model Stinger), FINITO!

NEKKID MOLEY

Plenty of ballerz today at HoMcHoA, but absent were two of the F3’s finest. Foulball didn’t show because he committed to some 45min workout aimed at EH’ing the lap swimmers at the Dowd (referring to the swimming pool, not Pee-Wee’s-Whirlpool in locker room #PWW).  Last year’s HoMcHoA 10K champ Fahvra realized more guys are competitive racing to a finish line, but it’s not a race everyone wants to win to be the first to touch a manhole (cover), so he stayed in his new hood Fort Mill.

Everyone today worked like a horse, and Nash was no exception.  The dude may look like a quarterhorse, ok, too big…. a miniature Shetland pony (with 8-pack abs), but Nash can push a chariot like a Belgian Draft Horse.  Like a horse, Funky Cold hung with the group and it was impressive to say the least.  After three weeks of competition FishwrapBelly Itcher, and Rachel have each won a leg of the triple crown with their amazing breakaway speed at HoMcHoA. Any couple in line at “the bank” wanting genetics to birth a fast kid might consider hooking up with these stallions… but like all horse racing winners, with each victory the cost to bang them just went up.  Not to mention they’re all married, or possibly geldings at this point.  Another bad joke, there will be more…moving on.

There was a mistaken moment of divine intervention today when a neighbor saw a cripple get out of his wheelchair and push it up the Yucca Succa … but it was just Mr Brady, now ringing out his soaking wet green and white tank-top on her lawn.  Then there was Voodoo who can not be influenced. When he says NO, he means it. Recorded conversation…

  • JRR Tolkien – “Hey Voodoo wanna push a chariot up a hill”
  • Voodoo – “NO”
  • JRR Tolkien – “How bout now?”
  • Voodoo – “NO”
  • JRR Tolkien – “Now?”
  • Voodoo – “Ok”

YHC wonders how many times it took asking Voodoo to be a college cheerleader? Hopefully more than #3.  Federalist looked to be having a blast in the chariot today.  Dude was seen being pushed up the hill by Ann&Hope while balancing a pair of fidget spinners on his areolas like he was a airplane with two propellers pointed to the sky.  Stinger showed he learned a whole lot of nothing from Q-source yesterday where we discussed Candor (definition = Graciously Telling The Hard Truth & Demanding to Hear It From Others) as he taunted Thin Slice about being slow while running backwards up the hill #Bluntness.  YHC would have at least picked on Slice for his John Leguizamo stache.  The Calvary food pantry drive was last week, and Tolkien & Chelms brought Asian rice (Tolkien: WiceWrand Brand) and American rice (Chelms: Riceland Brand), same thing different packaging, to feed the hungry. This week, the shirtless Nash, Thin Slice, and Belly Itcher each brought a pair of tomato slices, and Tweetsie, Chelms, and Geraldo brought a pair of saba melons, all of which were not on the pantry’s approved list #putyourshirtsbackon.  Tweetsie be diggin the hills, or he’s got a thing for animals. The only two workouts YHC has seen him post at is Mountain Goat and Horsey. He was also seen chasing down a Panda today.  Anyone notice Blackjack-Slimjack recent weight-loss and new found speed? Here’s the secret…store a gulp of RedMan, Kodiak, Skoal tobacco dip in your mouth at all times making everything taste like crap and restrict your breathing when running.  Some athletes would use a Training Mask, but if you want real gainz… TOBACCO DIP. Right Fish? Wow that was bad… but hey YHC tried.

SYITG ~ JRR Tolkien

ANNOUNCEMENTS

SPEEDFORNEED chairs are in and we are looking for heavy participation in our Inaugural race, The American 4miler Race in Dilworth on Independence Day 7/4 where Nash will be pushing his 2.0 son Owen in the race (we’ll all be running together). Check out movie trailer video and PreBlast for American 4Miler SFN Race You have until TOMORROW *6/21* to guarantee a race shirt for your entry, so sign up TODAY!  Metro convergence at 0600-0700 followed by race at 0730

Banned from Substi-Qing?

15 PAX gathered at SCMS in some crazy humidity for a bit of running and exercises.  Here’s what we did.

The Thang 

Run up Strawberry to 51. Turn left on 51 and head to Rae. Plank at the corner of 51 and Rae to wait for the six. Take a right on Rae. Head to entrance of 5 Knolls. Plank to wait on the six at the entrance. Head down 5 Knolls to the bottom of LC. Plank again to gather the PAX and give instructions. Run up LC then continue on to the end of 5 Knolls. Do 15 Merkins. Turn around. Run back to the bottom of LC. Do 15 Squats. Run to the other end of 5 Knolls (the entrance) and do 15 LBCs. Run back to the bottom of LC. Do 15 Squats. That was 1 lap. The idea was to get 2 laps. Modify if not able to get the 2 full laps. Meet at the top of LC at 6:05. Run through the neighborhood to get to 51. Head back to the launch.

Naked Moleskin

Nice work today men. Maybe not a terribly creative Substi-Q, but YHC believes effective. The conditions and the course were not easy today. Good to see everyone pushing. YHC literally laughed out load at the groaning that began when turning into 5 Knolls. It was short lived though. It sucks, but it’s good for us.

Announcements

-Death Valley and Anvil are converging tomorrow at that the Anvil AO (Calvary Church.) There will be coffee after and a talk featuring Dredd.

-Kevlar will be converging at/with Joust Friday.

-It’s that time again. Please be on the look out for Fast Twitch Q scheduling.