Swift launches every Tuesday from the Vine Restaurant in Ballantyne at 0515, but some either sick in the head and want to run more, or old and need extra warm-up show up at 0500 to run a tad more.
The THANG:
This week, in the interest of those running the Palmetto 200 starting on Friday (Frasier, Bunker, HoneyBee, ThinMint, Haggis, Bratwurst, Atlas, General, who else?) or New River Trail Marathon (Enron, WildTurkey), this week will offer an option of Taper or Pushing it.
8 men gathered at McKee Road Elementary school and here is what we did:
Run 2 miles to JM Robinson Middle
4X400 Relay Race
Run 2 miles back to McKee Road Elementary School [with five sets of 20 merkins sprinkled in along the way]
Finish with pull ups and squats
Moleskinny
17 PAX showed up to celebrate the 1st day of spring with what hoped to be a true beat down.
I want to give a shout out to Transporter us shared with the group his thanks to God for the ability we have to get out each day and push ourselves after seeing a man yesterday who did not have the ability to enjoy that freedom. We should not take our health for granted and should thank Him each day we get to enjoy physical activity – either alone or with an exceptional group of men like F3.
The Warm Up
The Thang
Announcements
Moleskin
With temps in the low 20s, 6 gathered to drive that 1st F another step forward. YHC is glad we got a good one in before the tournament started because March Madness is a serious inhibitor of both my fitness and ability to write backblasts on time. #terrible excuses
The Thang: Warm-up = a run to the football field, catch-me-if-you can style with 3 burpees a piece. SSH waiting for all to arrive. Then complete the basic form-running drills made famous by #Bratwurst: heels walk, toes walk, 50 high knees, 50 butt kicks, stride the remainder of the 100 yards after each.
Main Event. Line up for sprints going width ways across the field. Each sprint is down and back AYG. 10 merkins IC before each sprint where the “halt” on the merkins = the “go” of the sprint. 3 sets. Then switch to face the length of the field. Same format for the ~200 yard run. Try to fun it at your ~1 mile race pace. Finish with an AYG 100 yard sprint then keep going AYG to the top of the big hill.
Mosey to the playground. At this point we’re thinking completion of the daily fitness challenge – 30 pull ups and 200 merkins. YHC had been a little math challenged on the merkins thus far and time was running down. 3 sets of 5,10, and 15 pull-ups with a lap in between each as well as a set of merkins. Mosey the long way around the school back toward launch with stops for merkins and Mary to get to 200.
All in: 2.6 miles (about 50% of it at all out effort), 30 pull-ups, 200 merkins, and other stuff. 45 minutes goes fast but it was a respectable effort.
Announcements: P200 next weekend – good luck to all competing and prayers for good health.
13 ventured out into the unknown to start their Saturday out right with a prescribed dose of downpainment at Stonehenge. YHC rolled up on two wheels exited, stashed the keys, called 30 seconds all in one seamless motion and then promptly disclaimed the PAX and our FNG. One late arrival flying in on the scene we headed out to participate in Strava’s new craze, Strava route art. Unbenounced to the pax we were attempting to make a cow but the mapping and guidance of YHC didn’t vibe. Desired result -> https://www.strava.com/routes/7932287 With a mile under our belts we stopped behind the Stone Mtn Grille for a little COP.
COP: Exercises in cadence as follows:
Side Straddle Hop x 20
Imperial Walkers x 20
Mountain Climbers x 20
Merkins x 20
Windmill x 20 #wheelhouse
All warmed up we head off to the deck at Ballantyne Village. YHC got to talk quickly with our FNG Rob and learn of his 2 kids and how his EH fart sacked this morning. Dudes got stones to come out on his own. T-Claps. Meet at the bottom (basement) of the deck and survey our terrain for a min while leading a little plank-o-rama.
The Thang: Triple Nickels on all ramps, followed by some wait on the six exercises and then a trip up and back down the nearest staircase.
Ramp 1
5 Merkins Bottom, Run ramp, 5 Wide Arm Merkins Top
Peoples Chair with 50 air presses while waiting on the six.
Over to the staircase and AYG to the top and down.
Mosey up ramp to next level.
Ramp 2
Diamond Merkins, Run, Merkins
Plank-o-rama to wait on six
Stairs – down to bottom then up to top and back to level 1
Mosey to next ramp
Ramp 3
Jump Squat, Run, Jump Lunge #burninglegs
Mary to wait on six
Mosey up to stairs – Down to bottom then to top and back to level 2
Mosey to last ramp
Ramp 4
Carolina Dry Docks, Run, Burpees #crowdpleaser
Merkins to wait on six
Mosey to stairs – Down to bottom then to top then down to bottom.
Everyone grab your gear and mosey up the ramp and out the townhomes neighborhood with a whisperchatter. Crossed Ballantyne Commons and headed the long way back to The Vine. Finished with 4.4 miles, some say they got 4.7 or 5.
NMM: Good work by all and very impressed with our FNG. He will be a force to be reckoned with asap. For all you counting the Pushup/Pullup challenge we did 120 Merkins officially. 170 if you count CCD and Burpees, 195 if you got 1 round after Ramp 4 and 220 if you got 2 rounds after Ramp 4. Some were busting them out just whenever. I see you General, Madame and Cheddar. Madame just couldn’t seem to grasp the Triple Nickel concept. Some things you just can’t fix. I’ll schedule a time for you and Mermaid to talk about the mechanics of it. Strong work out there by all. YHC had a loose idea of what I wanted to do and like always the pax did not disappoint in effort and grit. T-Claps all around. Always nice to break up the consistency of 45 min workouts with a 60 min one. Thanks for having me out WT and JRR. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We wound up 5 more strong when Brat, Fraiser, Bunker and Thin Mint appeared out of nowhere post 9 or 10 miler. Strong work you freaks. And of course no Saturday morning would be complete without a Frehley’c Comet streaking by, in jeans nonetheless. He was waiting on the Wall Building crew and during Name-o-rama found out he lives across the street from our FNG. #smallworld
With 18 in tow Lex Luthor took us out. Thanks brother and good luck with the F3 Heavy Heavy Goruck challenge 4/6-4/7 #bonkers #farewelltour #swansong
Announcements:
F3 Dads is Full! Snooze you lose. There’s always next year.
Tune in to the super awesome leadership of F3Dads here in A51/SOB for or next local outing. F3Dads slack channel.
Richard Sheltra 5k. Need flags for pacers. See preblast, Cheddar, or Dumpster Fire
Other things were mentioned but I cannot recall at the moment. Sound off in comments or Slack Comz or Mumblechatter channels
Posted on behalf of Bullwinkle:
13 Pax strong for an F3Overdrive Beat Down by YHC
COP
SSH X 15 IC
Merkin X 10 IC
Imperial Walker X 15 IC
Windmills X 15 IC
Bobby Hurley x10 OYO
THE THANG
StarFish
4 stations
4 Stations- everyone splits into groups of two or 3 and starts at 1 of 4 stations and meets moseys back to the center 4 and exercise of YHC’s choosing then back out to another station. Rinde repeat for 3 rounds, each round featured a different exercise in the center
Station 1 -Curls x 20
Station 2 -Goblet Squats x 20
Station 3 -Mini-Hairburners x 20 (10 each arm)
Station 4 -Skull Crushers x 20
Center:
Round 1: 5 burpees
Round 2: 10 clap up merkins
Round 3: 10 Diamond Merkins
Once completed, we did plank to six inches with musical accompaniment, “Lets Go Fly A Kite” from the Marry Poppins sound track, switching position each time the word kite was mentioned or a word rhyming with Kite. Considering no one could hear the song, everyone had to rely on YHC for the cues.
Next, circled up for Fire Drills. With Fire Drills all PAX stand in a circle, running in place, and alternating turns counter clockwise (or clockwise) yelling FIRE. When a PAX yells fire, all PAX drop to the ground, roll to the left, complete one merkin, roll to the right, complete one merkin, and then get back up and run in place waiting for the next PAX to shout fire. Rinse Repeat till all PAX have had a chance to cause a riot in a movie theater.
Finished off with 30 LBCs.
COT
Moleskin
For my first Q wasn’t bad. Next time I’ll bring speakers. Thank you for the opportunity to lead. The “quiet glass joe” challenge failed even after 20 burpees and several plank to six inches, dude managed to get at least one word out. Thank you everyone also for synchronizing your clocks one minute slower, really meant a lot.
Announcements
Be on the lookout for an upcoming UC convergence to take place some time in the near future as well as a 2nd F.
Fish for some FNG’s!
Monday morning and only 4 of us were starting off a winter week after a spring month. Numbers were inevitably low due to the large swing down back into normal temps, and no one ready for that after a 70 degree February. Tool Bag did promise that Cheddar would arrive, and he did – running in from the dark right after warmup. Good thing because we were going off campus.
– Quick circle – call out newer Pax to run the warm up. First up – Tool bag for SSH x 20. Then Private Benjamin for IW x 20.
– After Cheddar joins us; we run out to Main St., up and left on Johnston Dr. all the way down to Belle Johnston Park. ~ 0.8 miles
– Mosey down to the Amphitheatre for some circuit work.
* 10 Merkins to start and then run a loop the Amphitheatre including all 4 sets of steps (2 sets up, and 2 sets down). We did 6 rounds. On each round, we traversed the stairs differently per round. Here’s how:
* Round 1 – Run up and down each stairwell hitting every step
* Round 2 – Run up and down each stairwell hitting every other step
* Round 3 – Hop up and down each stairwell hitting every step
* Round 4 – Hop up and down each stairwell hitting every other step
* Round 5 – Lung Hop Sideways up and down each stairwell hitting every step
* Round 6 – Lung Hop Sideways facing the opposite direction up and down each stairwell hitting
every other step
– Mosey down to the picnic area for Fake News Ab Workout (See BB for last edition of daVinci). Set timer for 3 movements and 4 rounds. This workout really targets shoulders.
Movements involve the picnic table bench:
* Parker Peter bench
* Bear crawl reach
* Bear crawl step down
– Partner up. Partner one to do dips while Partner two runs up to the top of the hill at the Belle Johnston Community Center and back. Total # of dips = 200
– Quit early to get back to the cars.
– 1 minute left for quick Mary.
Moleskin:
– No one was fully ready for the 20+ swing in temps for this morning. Except Tool Bag who was in shorts.
– We made sure that the participants of the Merkin/Pullup Challenge got a great jump on the day with at least 70 Merkins.
– Small but fun group this AM. I really like the AO with a lot of possibilities. A Saturday, 1 hour long workout should be in the cards for the extra 15 minutes. Belle Johnston Park has a lot of options.
– Thanks for Cheddar and Dumpster Fire for letting me lead.
Annoucements:
– SOB date nights – Madame has set up F3 guy and M date nights with fellow Pax all through to this fall. There’s a ton of really cool events that you should go to and have adult couples time with fellow F3. It’s simple – do you like to hang out with the guys? Getting the girls together with other girls is an easy way to do that.
– F3 Dads – Ever want to sing the National Anthem at a Baseball Game? F3 Dads are taking over BBT Ballpark in May to do just that.
– F3 Dads – F3 Dads camp tickets are opening this week. This is an incredible event for the Dad and his kids. Tickets go fast so don’t wait. (Too late per Halfpipe – sorry)
Thin Mint messaged a group of about 8 guys early in the week looking for a sub – a few guys pretended not to see it, a few claimed “injury”, Hops played the “groinal protuberance” card for the 37th time. So I took it and roped Jet Fuel into splitting it with me. He warned that he’d be coming off a big night of bar hopping. We call that “Saturday” at RockZero, so all good. Of course it was raining. Still 10 men (including Horsehead’s 2.0) gathered, I gave a meager disclaimer, and off we went.
Meander around the parking lot, circle up for a quick warmup (no SSH), then over to the island parking lot. Horsehead started talking early, but we couldn’t really understand him. Line up (abreast) for The Beast. 6 reps of the exercise at each of 6 islands, then run back to the start. Yes, we finished with Burpees. Ugh.
Over to the Hotbox where we met the Calvary soccer boss. Soccer was not cancelled today – let them play! We did a couple of things to kill the last 5 minutes of my half, then I turned it over to Jet Fuel.
Over to the rock pile in front of the church. Grab a rock and a partner. CMIYC down 51 to the other entrance, then to the fake grassy knoll. Partner 1 does the exercise while partner 2 runs the aggressively long lap around the parking lot. Flapjack and repeat for a few exercises. People’s Chair while each PAX does 10 merkins. Return your rock.
Run over to the North Face. Jet Fuel ignored all the protests, and called for 3 laps (all the way around the trees) with squats at the bottom. Back to the cars and finish with a bit of Mary.
Selected quotes:
Horsehead “Don’t feel bad if I do better exercises than what you’re doing.”
Ickey Shuffle “If we are ever attacked, and the survival of our nation depends on me, then I may do a Ruck.”
Boondock (Horsehead 2.0) “Can I do People’s Recliner?”
No announcements, let’s go get some coffee.
I made the mistake of signing up to Q the day after the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Bad move on my part. I warned the crew that I may be showing up a little “under the weather” aka hungover, and I didn’t disappoint. I had no clue what I was going to do until I turned on to Rea Rd. I pulled in the parking lot hot, and he is what went down.
The Thang:
Mosey around Chick Fil A to parking lot of apartments and then come back to the BB&T parking lot.
20 x SSH
20 x IW
20 x Merkins
Follow me to my truck and form teams of 3. Grab a nice, light, soft, fluffy sand bag and listen up. As a team carry the sandbag to the playground down Blakeney Heath Rd. Once we had the whole crew there, more fun ensued.
Partner 1 run down to the entrance for the Montessori school. Partner 2 tricep extensions with the bag, Partner 3 pullups. Keep going to each Partner gets there 30 pullups for the day.
Second round. P1 run, P2 curls, P3 merkins. Run until each team hits 300 merkins.
Once done, let’s head back to the launch point. Oh wait, we had too much time left so let’s use the short wall at the water fountain. P1 run to median, P2 dips, P3 more merkins.
Now, let’s head back to start. Over to the side lot for a little Mary.
10 x Can Opener each leg
20 x Leg Bend thing thanks to Squid
Moleskin: I had a few goals for today. First, try to knock out the exercises for the Merkin/Pull up Challenge. Welcome to the challenge Commish. Second, make everyone mad by making them run with something heavy. This was only my 3rd post at DaVinci so I was sure if there were rocks, so I brought my own sandbags. Thanks for the bags Faultline. Third, sweat out the alcohol and try not to puke. I think we accomplished it all. Paper Jam was trying to redirect me to the other playground, but I didn’t fall for it. Good try though. Heartbreaker apparently can’t read entrance signs too good so we might need to get him glasses. Might Mite needs to carry two sandbags next time. Bucky makes a really good target for hit and run practice with his festive jacket. Chopper brought our a FNG, Ron aka Cockie. One day El Gaupo will be used, but thanks to Paper Jam not yet. Thanks for letting me lead Tuck. And props for the socks. I can’t wait to wear them.
Announcements:
Rock wall today.
April 22: Brolympics at 6am. Elon park maybe.
Next Saturday come support Escobar’s VQ. About time for that guy.
17 PAX at Swift posted last Tuesday with the threat of rain, with reading the PreBlast that there would be no cover in a parking deck, and knowing (well most at least) that the proposed workout was one of the sneaky hardest workouts to get done without feeling it later in the day.
The THANG:
http://f3nation.com/2017/03/12/preblast-back-to-max/
The Moleskin:
SYITG,
Bratwurst