Loosenin’ up the hips

Loosenin’ up the hips

10 pax posted for their weekly stretching & mobility work and were “treated” to a playlist of Classical Movie Scores, as selected by the Slacker app.

Disclaimer – I’m not a professional.  If it hurts, don’t do it or back off a little.

The Thang

  • Savasanna
  • Devotional – Genesis 1:28

COP

  • Bridge – both legs and single leg options
  • Cat & Cow – alternating poses
  • Child’s Pose
  • Lateral Child’s Pose – both sides
  • Threading the Needle – both sides
  • Elbow Plank
  • J. Lo

Main Event

  • Chair & Tree Flow
    • Chair
    • Mountain
    • Tree, right leg bent
    • Twisting chair, to left
    • Tree, left leg bent
    • Twisting chair, to right
    • Mountain
  • Standing Balance Flow
    • Dancer
    • Eagle
    • Pyramid
    • Triangle
    • Half Moon
    • Repeato on other side
  • Sun Salutations with Lunges
    • Salutation
    • Upward Salute
    • Swan dive to Forward Fold
    • Halfway lift
    • Forward Fold
    • Right leg back to High Lunge
    • Arms overhead
    • Fold back to High Lunge
    • High Plank
    • 6 inches
    • Up Dog
    • Down Dog
    • Right leg forward to High Lunge
    • Arms overhead
    • Fold back to High Lunge
    • Left leg forward to Forward Fold
    • Upward Salute
    • Salutation
    • Repeato with flapjack of legs
  • Lunge Flow
    • Low Lunge, right leg back
    • Balancing Low Lunge
    • Crescent Lunge
      • Optional, add quad stretch
    • Prayer Twist from Lunge
    • Groin stretch from Lunge
    • Runner’s Lunge, toes/foot down
    • Runner’s Lunge, toes/foot up
    • Flapjack Left leg back and Repeato
  • Kneeling Toe & Plantar Stretch
  • Sun Salutations – several rounds OYO + a few stealth merkins thrown in for good measure, disguised as alternating high & low plank positions
  • Corpse Pose
  • Revisit devotional

Done

COT

Closing prayer by Tweetsie.

Announcements:

  • Don’t forget: sign up to Q.  It’s pretty easy (Swiss Miss and YHC each have a “Pocket Yoga for Athletes” book you can borrow – YHC leans very heavily on it), and the perks are great (you choose the playlist and mood lighting).  It’s pretty fun too.
    • Paper Jam is on Q next week, 5/10.
  • Kinetic Heights – this Friday, 5/5.  Main “workout” from 0530-0615.  Pre-run at 0500.  Access to the Warrior Course from 0500-0700.  See “Kinetic-trips” channel on Slack for more details or reach out to Argonaut.

Supple Moleskine:

 

  • Fun times this morning.  YHC rolled in a bit sleep deprived, so some things were likely missed.  Nevertheless, we had some lively mumblechatter, which is what makes this Broga not yoga.  Somehow, we got on the theme of sex early on, I think it was the mood lighting, then lying down for corpse pose, when Tweetsie belted out a little Luther Vandross or Barry White.  An audible was required to skip the Pickle Pounders, after that, but J Lo and Honeymooners, aka Up Dogs, remained, however.
  • T-claps to the pre-runners.  Not sure how many there were, but it seemed quite a few of you had been sliding/skating around a la Gumby.
  • Sound off if I missed anything else of note.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead this morning.  Always an honor.

Aye.

The Great War

21 PAX were present at Dromedary for my first Q. Was a little haphazard, but everyone was able to bear with me (posted on behalf of LegalZoom).

Warmup:
SSHx30
Merkinsx20
LBCx25
Potato Pickersx15

THANG:
We moseyed to the end up the parking lot for 5 exercises with partners:

  • 150 merkins with partner running up the hill doing 10 WWI sit-ups at the top, flapjack
  • 150 squats with partner bear crawling up the hill doing 10 SSH at the top, flapjack
  • 200 LBC with partner running up the hill doing 10 merkins at the top, flapjack
  • 100 Burpees with partner bear crawling up the hill and crab walking down the hill, flapjack
  • 100 flutter kicks with partner running up the hill doing 10 LBCs at the top, flapjack

The pax then formed up 2 lines and we did two Indian run laps around the parking lot

The last ten minutes of the workout devolved into a rather eclectic request show involving
merkins, watercraft and a debate of which world war sit-ups were from (hint: only one was called
The Great War).

Takeout from ShopDog (or is it ShopDawg).

Announcements:

  • Please pray for Transporter’s mother who is currently recovering from surgery at the moment.
  • New running / interval workout in Waxhaw starts on Thursday, May 4th 0515-0615 at Cuthbertson Middle School.  Bratwurst on Q first 2 weeks.  Format is similar to Swift / Mountain Goat.
  • Sign up to Q at Dromedary = http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4baeaf29a46-dromedary
  • Pre-run at Dromedary each week being Preblasted on “#_the_haw” Slack channel – http://f3sclt.slack.com.  Good numbers each week with 7-8 PAX. Join Slack if you want the details!

SOFA Twitch

17 PAX gathered in the gloom for their weekly dose of Fast Twitch. Little did they know they were about to receive a healthy dose of SOFA WIB.  Here’s what we did:

  • Run from the school to the corner of 51 and Rea Rd. Plank on the six.
  • Split into two groups – one on each side of Rea Rd – for the main event.
  • Run up Rea to the intersection of Rea and Colony
  • Forward run to the first light pole flip to backwards run to the second light pole — Stop for 10 burpees
  • Forward run to third light pole and flip to backwards run to the fourth light pole – stop for 10 Merkins
  • Forward run to fifth light pole and flip to backwards run to the sixth light pole – stop for 10 squats
  • At each names street stop for 10 two count flutters
  • Rinse and repeat up and back
  • Run from corner of Rea and 51 back to the school. Larry Birds circle back to pick up the six.
  • COP for 3 minutes of Mary – Rosalita, Heals to Heaven, LBC.
  • COT

Moleskin

Haze reached out last week to see if YHC could take an upcoming take the Q. YHC is a relative newcomer to Fast Twitch as my usual Tuesday post was SOFA WIB prior to its untimely demise so I was feeling a bit of pressure to do a good job.  Lacking the creativity to come up with something original, YHC decided to bring the Fast Twitch and SOFA WIB worlds together by running a variation of one of my favorite SOFA WIB workouts – Maria Maria (ask Kirk about the name).  Alf apparently spends most of his days reading back blasts from workouts he doesn’t attend as he quickly let me know that recognized this as a SOFA WIB retread. YHC goal was to cover a respectable distance running and provide a solid upper body beat down.   We ran just under 5 miles (over a mile of it backwards) with a healthy dose of burpees, merkins and squats.  Mission accomplished.  Strong work by all of the PAX – even those that skipped many of the exercises (you know who you are, Semi).   Humbling to work with this group and thanks for letting me lead from the six.

Aye.

One Eye

Help wanted – New Scheduling Assistant

It’s hump day and 14 pax took a #DRP to get better.   Mermaid was itchy for a Q jack, especially after the comprehensive disclaimer was out of the way, and Gummy started whining before the antenna flag was firmly affixed to my SUV.

The Thang:

Mosey over to other side of lot for quick COP.   SSH X15 (no credit for Gummy), stagger right and left merkins, each X10, Parker Peters X15, Mtn Climbers X15, and slow lunges X15.

Line up for extended four corners with 10 of called exercise at each corner and bear crawls on the two shorter segments.  Four rounds:

  1. Jump squats
  2. Hand release burpees (modified to 5)
  3. Peter Parkers
  4. Heels to heaven

Mosey over to playground for some pull ups (trying to do pull ups as often as possible).   Four rounds with 5 pull ups and 10 merkins each round.

Mosey over to rock pile and  find a partner and one lifting rock per team.   Partner 1 sprints down to end of lot and back (about 100 yds) and partner 2 does called exercise until partner 1 gets back for flap jack.  Three rounds

  1. Curls
  2. Lateral extensions
  3. Push Presses

Mosey back to rock pile to drop off rocks and lunge walk while we wait for six.

Mosey over to parking lot for a few minutes of mary.     Flutter X15, Dolly X15, Rosalita X15.  Due to harassment of Q regarding form, audible to sprints with hand release burpee ladder to run out the clock.  The PAX can thank Gummy and Baracus for the switch from the relative comfort of six minutes of mary to the discomfort of sprints with hand release burpees.

Naked Moleskin

2nd Q in a row where my scheduling assistant (ie me) signed me up to Q the morning after an event the night before that involved adult beverages.    I paced myself accordingly both times the evenign before and was able to avoid any Merlot (pale ale actually) spillage.  However, it does increase the discomfort of an F3 workout, which is painful enough on a good nights sleep.   The Wall gave me a nice complement by noting that he was afraid to show up for a Q where I had not been out the night before since last Friday when I Q’d Centurion was his first time out with me at the helm.   Gummy and Baracus made sure that this did not go to my head and pointed out the many flaws of my Q.

During the partner work, Rachel asks me when to run since he doesn’t have a partner.  Next, I look over and see Pre-school working on his own (he says it’s better that way since he can start running whenever he feels like it).  I look at them with a WTF expression and they figure out they can partner up with each other.  Guess I’ll have to spend extra time next Q making sure everyone pairs up.

I have a mental block when it comes to differentiating a dolly from a flutter (among many mental blocks – probably should just stop calling either one).  Baracus and Gummy were happy to “educate” me on the difference.  The pax were then “treated” to the hand release burpees because I’m to old to be “educated”.

Rachel and Mermaid were competing for Larry Bird award but I only give that to guys older then me. Lorax and Brilleaux were right behind with solid efforts.  The rest of us did break a sweat.

Enjoyed the privilege of leading this am.  I encourage every man to step up and Q or lead the PAX in prayer.   F3 is about getting outside your comfort zone and growing.    Q’ing or leading the PAX in prayer are both good ways to start.   Plus, you can’t do it much worse me (making up the workout on the fly doesn’t help but that’s how I role).

T-claps to Lorax for taking us out.

Announcements

Contact Mermaid at F3mermaid@yahoo.com (not aol.com) for all the ways to get plugged into F3 communications (web site at www.F3nation.com, twitter, slack, facebook, linked in and probably 5 new Apps YHC never heard of).

Contact me at pchepul@gmail.com if interested in mentoring middle school kids that don’t have the support network we do.

Look out for Memorial Day convergence information on above mentioned communications channels.

All together now

4 for the Prerun broke am early sweat and were greeted by 19 others ready to swing some iron. 23 in total enjoyed perfect conditions this morning for a little running and a lot of bells. After a disclaimer – here’s what we did.
Warmup in cop consisted of
Sshx20
10 diamond merkins on bell
Iwx20
10 diamond Merkins on bell
20 swing oyo
Merkins x20 ic
10 diamond merkins on bell
20 swings
30 overhead presses

Partner up like bells
Farmer carry catch me if you can the long way to lower hill lot
10 Jump squat chaser

Plankarama

P1 on bell/ P2 runs to end lot and back
Round 1 Single arm swings switch halfway
Round 2 cleans
Round 3 lawnmower rows
Round 4 single arm press
Round 5 snatches

Round 6 included All of the above in one consecutive set

Mosey To the hill
P1 runs hill 3x
P2 two handed swings
round 2
P1 runs hill 3x
P2 squats (goblet/teabag/goblet)

Fast mosey to lot for mary
Flutter w press x25
Hold it
Dolly w press x10
Freddie Mercury x20 ic
Time

Namarama etc
Announcements: Saturday before Memorial Day convergence at location tbd (more details to follow)

Moleskin.
What’s better than a little running mixed with strength training? Not much on a morning like today. Nice temps to break a nice sweat and get the blood flowing. Heard someone say that the farmer carry gets the heart rate up, definitely agree. That and it brings about grip failure and general fatigue. Strong work out there men. The main thing was a build up with the final round being a continuous effort to work on endurance – both running and muscular endurance. Got a few grimaces from the pax, but skunk pax always meets the challenge. Wrapped it up with a little leg work on the hill and 5 min of Mary to work on the gut/stomach/abs etc. I may have missed some goings on over in the top lot, but on our lane we had smokey and stone cold crushing the run. Hoover was making the big bell work look easy. Looked like Dollywood and bulldog were both getting after it as well. Enjoyed it fellas. Until next time…

No Apologies, Just Modifications

Good group of 15 at Base Camp for my VQ at the site.  I have posted a good bit at the site for Base Camp and Fast Twitch in the past, but unfortunately it has been a while (and maybe I get the two confused sometimes, more on that later).  But great spring morning to do some running, and that we did.

Mosey to the Arboretum parking lot for COP.

COP

  • SSH x 20 IC
  • IW x 20 IC
  • Low Slow Squat x 15 IC
  • Mountain Climber x 15 IC
  • Burpees x 10 OYO

The Thang

Left the parking lot and headed to the patio in front of the lake.  PAX partnered up and perfectly executed Dora 1-2-3 with the normal 100 merkins, 200 LBCs and 300 squats between partners as the other ran to the other side of the parking lot and back.

Had planned another round with planking instead of running and Carolina DDs, Dips and Step Ups but time was not on my side.  Had also planned some hill work and more Mary on the way back as well, boy was I way off.

We made the long trek back with a few stops along the way of Freddy Mercury, Heels to Heaven, etc.

YHC took us out in prayer

Moleskin

Strong work by all today and really appreciate Goonie and Drano giving me the opportunity to lead. As I sat down to think about the plan, I kept thinking of multiple past workouts at the site that made it to the same part of the Arboretum shopping center.  After this workout and how rushed it felt, those must have been fast twitch workouts with the extra 15 minutes.  So with that being said we did a lot of running for a Base Camp group, and hopefully someone got surprised and ran more than they thought they could.  I was told 3.7 miles was the count, and if so I’ll take it.  Everyone put in a strong showing and got the week kicked off right.

I’m sure I missed something, so feel free to sound off below.

 

Everybody loves the Donut Run reverse route

Let’s flip and reverse it. Because that’s how the cool kids talk these days. Last week, I was disappointed by how little of you stayed for donuts. It was all Semi’s fault though.

Topic to discuss: Should I make a royalty fee by licensing out the Donut Run concept to other F3 regions? Lexington, SC now has one (http://f3nation.com/2017/03/12/donut-run-hold-onto-your-hats/). How much should I get paid?

Route: https://www.strava.com/routes/7470827

Launch times:
515: 830-8:45 pace
520: 8:00-8:15 pace
525: 7:30-7:45 pace
530: 7:00-7:15

Mutiny

Somewhere between 12-18 guys showed up to run (not my job to count or write them down).  RS is getting old so he decided to go with bootcamp (we actually did pull ups at Fast Twitch) since he can’t run more than 200 meters before having to dial it back and decided not to write a BB (has he started working out in Metro).    We did make it all the way to Davy Park and back so he probably accomplished more than he thought possible.  The site Q’s were sweating, not because of the workout, but because Fast Twitch had never, ever, been less than 4 miles.   I do think we made it over 4 but that’s not official.

I’d give Rachel props for Larry Bird but he’s under 40 so actually he should have been further out front.  #slackingoff  Most of the other guys beat me also but RS was not one of them.  #winning

RS did not pay me to be his Ghost Writer for this BB

PS – I will happily delete if RS posts a real BB with names and all.

I am not Brat

25 men showed up in the parking lot for the weekly installment of Swift.  At least 10 did the prerun. I apologize who they were but internal satisfaction is more rewarding than external praise right?

An announcement that I was not Brat, nor could anyone be, and the disclaimer was given.  A mumbled direction was given and off we went.  Comments soon followed that “Brat wouldn’t have done it that way.” They were right.  We headed the opposite direction of the prerun through the bull ring until the last building on off of Rushmore and Ballantyne Commons.  In the parking lot we did the standard warm up drills: toe inside, outside, straight; heel inside, outside, straight; high knees, butt kickers, B skip and zombies.

Short mosey over to the corner of Rushmore and Ballantyne Commons.  The direction was given to run a 5k pace to the top of Ballantyne Meadows Dr.  Once there either wait for the six or recover.  We ran from the daycare to the intersection of Ballantyne Meadows and Valley Spring. This is where we spent the majority of the morning.

The sum of it all was we did varying lengths up parts or all of Ballantyne Meadows and Valley Spring with recovery going back down.  Always at the 5k pace, although this was not always adhered to.  Those that did not listen have after school detention doing an hour of monkey humpers and mowing my lawn.

We did a 5k pace down Ballantyne Commons back to Rushmore.  From there you had two options. Shorter way or longer way home with the goal to be under 6:15.  Most made it by that time.

BRR is not far off and so we will begrudgingly being running more hills over the next four months.  It was a nice morning for a run though.  The humidity had moved out so it allowed for better conditions.

Moleskin: Everyone was running hard and at times too hard.  Honey Bee smoked it going down Ballantyne Commons.  Probably sub 5:00 on that stretch.  Haggis despite having an ultra on Saturday was out front all morning.  Thin Mint even pushed it once or twice despite having the same ultra.

Some newer faces out at Swift this morning with Erector, Boot and Birdcage.  Meatloaf and Picasso are becoming regulars.  Good to see Ringer back out.  He was pushing hard. Chipotle loved/hated every minute of it but never stopped to walk when it was time to run.  Great job!

Hairball, Honey Bee and TR were usually within seconds of each other on every segment.  Fire Hazard, Bunker, Teddy, Depth Charge, Gumbo, Soft Pretzel off his 10k and Tuck were never more than a few seconds off that group.  There was some back and forth between the groups.

It is honestly hard to keep up with 25 guys it is a testament to Brat for building some a strong workout to have guys come from other regions regularly for his workouts.  No way I could duplicate something like that with the precision that he does.  We are all better runners and men for it.

Highlight/low light was at the end of the down hill spring that Honey Bee won.  He tried to show his superiority over the second place finisher TR in a very archaic way.  It came within a inch of happening.  Awkward.

Thanks boys for following along and mostly playing nice.

Swift needs a Q next week.

Feel The Burn

8 men gathered at the Pineville Police Station for another episode of THE BIG HOUSE.  The plates had already been placed with care in the parking lot so after my best version of “the disclaimer” off we go.

COP: 20 SSH, 20 IW, 20 mountain climbers, and 10 merkins.  All IC.

Main Event: Get in groups of 4 with one plate per group.  “Cones” are set up to mark the distance – one short, one long.  (Sidenote: instead of actual cones, I used my kids’ toys which were the police dog character from Paw Patrol.  I thought this would make hairburners somehow whimsical and fun.)  Set up for a hairburner relay where PAX take turns pushing the plate.  On the short runs, called exercise was merkins and on the long runs it was flutter (Round 1).  Every PAX goes twice per run, then a recovery lap.  Round 2 – same thing but diamond merkins and LBCs.

At this point, time to regroup.  Circle up and go through some called exercises.  Spice it up as YHC called out PAX for extra hairburners and asked for volunteers for the same.  Guys were stepping up left and right and everyone got in several more runs.  Exercises were: American Hammers x 20, Carolina Dry Docks x 10, Diamond merkins x 10, dollies x 20, plus some others that were called out while YHC was taking turns pushing plates.

6 minute run.  As many laps as you can running from the parking lot over the bridge and back.

Mosey back to the launch with a stop for LBCs on the way.  Time called.

Moleskin: As I noted at the beginning, hairburners are easily my least favorite F3 exercise.  No more sure way to push yourself and get absolutely banged up on a Monday.  Tremendous effort especially by FNG JWOW.

Announcements: Run Ballentyne May 20.