… but the Mountain Goats managed to keep warm! 7 Goats left the warmth of their pj’s and duvets to endure hopefully the Groundhog’s final fury! I believe this was the coldest Mountain Goat this year… and it is MARCH!! That is MADNESS!!
But I digress… Having been appropriately disclaimed, and allowing for Tweetsie to come in hot on 2-wheels, we set off for the following:
DONE! We got in 5.5-5.8 miles, including 1-mile at an R-Pace… which is very close to 1-mile race pace. Excellent job as always!
Moleskine:
While the numbers were a little lighter today than normal, we still had a great showing! I’m assuming Winter’s final Ball Buster didn’t help, plus some have started Spring Break.
I do like the 200M intervals… deceivingly difficult!
Joker was leading the pack on all of the intervals… made me think of The Kings song “Switchin’ to Glide”… as Joker does!
Great to have Geraldo join us. He is starting his BRR training early! Geraldo and Retread were hanging close to the front throughout the morning.
Beaver, Insomniac and Tweetsie all keep getting stronger! You guys give it 100% without fail!
During stretching, Joker posed the question of what would be a good English Premier League team to follow, especially if you are just getting interested in the game. For those that don’t know, the EPL is the top level of soccer (football) in the UK.
In English Football each year, the bottom 3 teams of the top league move down to the next lower league (called relegation), and the top 3 teams of the lower league move up to the next higher league (called promotion).
It should be noted that Insomniac is a fan of Newcastle United, which were relegated last season from the top league (EPL) to the 2nd league… the “Championship” league. They will most likely be in the top league (EPL) next season, but go to show you that even legacy teams that stink it up can face the shame, not to the mention the economic loss, of moving to a lower level. This would be akin to the San Francisco 49’ers having to play in the USFL instead of the NFL… or a stinky MLB team moving from MLB to Triple A.
So for those that are looking to become interested in following an EPL team, here are some references that might help you:
Top Teams (many would call these bandwagon teams… you will know these names):
Next Tier that are great teams that are not as popular outside Europe. These teams are collectively like the Titans, Redskins, Baltimore… mid-table… some days they are great, some days they are stinky:
Lowest Tier — these are working class teams that won’t be in the EPL year after year… they usually have a season or two up, then down, back up, etc… These teams are always in danger of relegation. These are your Cleveland Browns, Jaguars, Bears…
Relegation Danger — these teams are in the “relegation zone”… meaning if the league ended today, they would move down. They will continue to fight to stay up… but some things are inevitable…
Announcements:
Tweetsie took us out in prayer.
With touches of frost on the AstroTurf, 6 Pax arrived to FatCamp to get swole and try out the nifty new sled.
A questionably robust disclaimer was called out and a warm-up mosey around the parking lot shook the cobwebs out.
Warm-up:
The THANG
Kettlebells 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, rotating bells each exercise while man at end does merkins: (x3 Rounds)
Sprints:
Pain Stations:
Rotate through sequence until Time is called (Completed 3 full rounds)
Moleskine:
Thanks to General_Underscore for inviting me to Q, always a solid group at this AO. Cobains for not planning better on enough Kettlebells, hopefully the rotations worked out. Really rolling the dice on which exercise you were on for the Big Bell. On a very cold day, not much mumble chatter. Heavy on the shoulders all workout and did not get in ANY pullups, which really is a #Qfail for those of us doing the challenge. More Cobains. The sled was a new one for YHC. Amazingly, it got heavier later in the workout than at the beginning. Not listed in the above was maybe the toughest part of the workout, which was carrying the MANY plates, bells, and sled back to the car.
Thanks to all the pax for help schlepping the gear back to the car and for the opportunity to lead.
Announcements:
Providence Presbyterian Wall Build after Stonehenge on Saturday.
New 3rd F Opportunity starting up on Wednesdays 6:30at Dunkin Donuts on Johnston near Harris Teeter. (No, the other Harris Teeter)
Checked earlier in the week and the forecast was 60F, checked this morning and it was 26F.
Probably my coldest Q so far, so tried to start with some laps to get warmed up, didn’t really help.
The Thang
Warmup: Disclaimer with some interruptions from Gummy about how they did disclaimers before the war. Quick lap around the track, some karaoke on the way. Circle up for some SSH, Merkins (the start of good things to come), IW, mountain climbers, squats.
Still freezing, so we fit some squares in an oval shape, doing a couple of rounds:
Run up to playground for some people’s chair, arm raises and a couple of rounds of crowd pleasing hip slappers. Any reason to slap some heat into this legs.
Back down to the grandstand for some partner rounds, group waiting on runners were doing some:
Dips, derkins, lbcs, incline merkins, squats.
Finally on the field for some 50 yard sprints, lunge walks, more merkins and maybe some lbcs.
Return to cars for 2 min of cool down with some more merkins for the fun of it, and finish it off with some Russian twists.
The Moleskin:
Gummy was on form patrol, definitely going for quality over quantity and making sure there is daylight on our jumpsquats. The PAX seemed to enjoy some of the metro exercises, specially the hip slappers, definitely need to add more of those. Good job guys!
Distance of 2.3 miles, got in our 200 merkins for the merkin challenge!
My first non-weekend Q, next time it will hopefully be a bit warmer.
Thanks for the Q guys!
This backblast is the only thing between me in front of this computer and me heading out to happy hour. Here goes.
9 men showed up for the Brave.
At 6:15 the disclaimer was given and the trunk was open to grab the plates and sandbags. #moans
Carry both the 100 yards or so and drop the sandbags off by the Residence Inn and then mosey down the sidewalk and drop the plates off on the other side of the office building. Keep moseying around the loop to the next building.
Round 1 (together) – 10 decline hip slappers (each hand), 10 split leg squats (each leg), move clockwise around sidewalk. Burpee broad jump between trash cans (10 -12 burpees). Move on to fitness trail for 10 parallel bar dips and 10 pull-ups. Back off trail and continue clockwise around loop. At sandbags, 10 sand bag thrusters and 10 full sit-ups. Continue to next building for 10 jump ups on wall, 10 decline merkins. Continue to plates, hairburner approx. 30 yards and 10 heels to heaven. Continue around circle back to start of loop.
Round 2 and beyond… Repeat AMRAP but add 10 to each exercise (except dips and pull-ups) each round. Most were half way through round 4 when time was up. 40 sand bag thrusters are super awesome.
2.5ish easy miles.
Moleskine:
Awesome work out there. Transporter, Buckeye, Fahrvra, and Doc McStuffins were tearing it up out there. WT, VP, PJ, and Champagne weren’t far behind, encouraging each other to keep the pace.
This workout will turn the legs to jelly real quick, so while the runs were short, they weren’t easy.
#Soapbox
So The Brave was originally put together by Champagne and MT to be OCR training specific. Looking back at the backblasts I see a lot of hard workouts, but the uniqueness of OCR training seems to be lacking. OCR is about running mixed with high intensity efforts pushing, pulling, climbing, carrying etc. That includes coupons. Grumbling about coupons at The Brave is like being mad there are KB’s at Skunkworks. It’s part of the workout and OCR training and should be there all the time. Deal with it. This is one man’s opinion and you have a couple of great site Q’s who like to lay a down a beating regardless. (Just none of them there to take a beating today!) Make OCR training great again!
#Soapbox #2
Thanks to Thin Mint for getting me back out to The Brave. Really trying to make a purposeful effort to hit many different workouts and get more variety each week. Challenging the body and the brain while getting to know more PAX.
If feel your workouts are getting stale, get out of your comfort zone and try some new ones. There are lots of great ones every day. If you are a runner, go swing a KB, plenty of extra KB’s to go around out there. If you are a meathead go run loops at Swift. No matter your pace Brat will keep you all together. I got a refresher on this from Fishwrap’s note to the Metro PAX this week. To be honest I don’t understand most of what he is talking about. It’s kind of like the time I took a vacation in Italy. I don’t speak Italian, but I did flail through 3 years of high school Spanish. Spanish isn’t Italian, (especially 3 years of poorly learned Spanish) but its close enough to sort of get the idea of a conversation in Italian without really understanding any of the detail. So to me Fishwrap speaks Italian, I speak terrible Spanish and yet somehow I sort of get where he is going.
So pick one workout a week on a different day than your norm, or different AO than your norm. Meet new PAX, challenge your physical ability, keep things fresh. The Q might decide what you do when you post, but you decide where and when to post. Make good choices. You could even Q at a new AO.
#End Soapbox
Thanks to Wild Turkey for the takeout.
-Alf
Announcements – build a wall with Haggis tomorrow. Sign up for Dad’s camp.
I had several themes to choose from, but opted not to choose one, rather went for the essential elements of a Friday bootcamp style workout. Being a little chilly this am, I wasted no time with a quick disclaimer and 13 of us mosey’d from the parking lot, this is what we did…
The Thang
Mosey’d down to lower lot for COP – SSH, IW, Merkins, Mtn Climbers x20. Continued around parking lots up to new sports field where sandbags awaited, apparently left by Leprechauns. We broke into groups of 3 for grinders over the full length of the field. Bag side – Overhead Press, curls (briefly), tricep extensions, flutter press while far side was Jump squats and Romanian deadlifts. After about 8-10 full sets we ran back to main lot sharing bag carries along the way.
Once back at the mini-field and track, circled up for a group exercise while one PAX named the exercise then ran the mini-track carrying the slosh pipe. Exercises were burpees, 8-count body builders, heels to heaven, full sit-up, merkins, 6 inch plank, flutters, Turkish getups and others I can’t recall. Finally, we lined up for mid-field suicide sprints and full field sprints. Done.
Moleskin
Overall solid workout, not too much chatter, we logged a few miles, threw around some weight and gutted through some sprints. I’m always fan of grinders, seemed like everyone pushed hard, the sandbags were especially heavy today. Bulldog asked me to “race” him the last leg. I felt like Clark Griswold chasing Rusty to the entrance of Wally World. Only half the PAX were able to experience the novelty and difficulty of the slosh pipe because Turkey Leg decided it was much easier if you just bang one end on the ground, knock the cap off and dump the water out. We audibled with sand bags so it all worked out. In conclusion, thanks to everyone for coming out, I was impressed with the numbers considering the NCAA tournament was going all night and it was 27 degrees this am. Poptart mumbled some announcement about Savage Race, just look it up. Thank you Squid for the takeout. Have a great weekend!
YHC arrived a little early to plan the finishing touches on the St. Patty’s day plan. At 0525 the parking lot was empty. 1 minute later the vehicles started rolling in. 18 in total for this Friday’s edition of #F3Centurion. Disclaimer delivered but no sign of Udder.
Mosey towards Panara Bread shopping center for a .25 mile warm-up. Chelms claims that when the weather is 25 degrees and lower there should be exercises prior to running. Must be an over 50 thing (RESPECT). YHC had never run around the circular round-about next to Wells Fargo so it can now be marked off the list. Circle up next to Wells for COP.
COP
SSH – IC x17
Merkin – IC x17
Peter Parker IC x17
Hold plank at 6 inches for 17 seconds
IW – IC x 17
The smart peeps in the PAX picked up on the theme here. 3/17 = St. Patrick’s Day
THE THANG
Mosey over to Panera Shopping center for some circuit work. 10 merkins at bottom of stairs. Run up stairs and across 2nd floor and down other staircase. At the bottom of the stairs broad jump for about 20 yards. That is one loop. Performed this 5 times. Mary and plank work while waiting for the six.
Mosey across 51 to Palatine Hill. Keeping the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, 7 is a lucky number. 7’s up Palatine. Burpees at bottom and jump squats at top. Once finished performed some Mary:
Heels to Heaven – IC x17
Dolly – IC x17
LBC – IC x17
Mosey to Charlotte Catholic parking deck for the grand finale. Split into groups of 2 and started at bottom middle of parking deck. 10 merkins in the middle and each group ran in opposite directions to the far staircase. Run upstairs to top level for 10 squats. Run to middle and down staircase. YHC called 5 reps but only completed 3 due to time running out.
A little more Mary to follow:
Flutter – IC x17
Freddie Mercury – IC x 17
Run back to starting spot and that’s it!
MOLESKIN
Strong work by all today. Covered exactly 2.5 miles and a total of 37 stories of stairs in elevation. Don’t know about everyone else but YHC was worn out after this one. Definitely feeling it in the quads. This is hopefully the last day of cold for Centurion. Mermaid is on tap for next week so looking forward to see what’s in store.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Building a wall tomorrow. Check Slack/Twitter for details.
YHC has been surfing the net (Youtube) for some unique workouts. I thought I was golden with a 4 movement, bench utilized, 4 set ab workout. Awesome – abs in the beginning, and abs in the end. Various coupon movements in between. Here’s how it played out…
– Grab a partner and pick out 2 bricks each person.
– Mosey to BBT and circle
– Lay down bricks and SSH x 20; IW x 20; and Low Slow Squat x 20.
– Jaywalk over Rea to the fountain in front of the medical buildings.
– Watch a cool video of a dude performing an ab workout.
– Recreate said ab workout.
– Realize it’s actually ripping our shoulders to shreds.
– Mosey to the parking lot behind buildings for some brick suicides.
* One partner runs out ~ 15 ft. and lay down one brick; run back and pick up another brick; runs out ~ 30 ft. and lay down brick; run back and back out with another brick for ~ 45 ft.; back for the last brick and out ~ 60 ft. While partner one runs; partner two does LBC.
*Partner two runs out and picks up 1st brick, runs it back; performs above suicide run except he’s picking up the bricks instead of laying them down. We did 2 rounds of this.
– Jaywalk across AK and over to the breezeway for a brick and running circuit.
* Rounds where one partner does movement with bricks and the other runs up the stairs, down breezeway, back down far stairwell, and back to breezeway where partner eagerly awaits.
* round 1 – brick presses
* round 2 – same
Poor attempt taken to recreate Mike Tyson’s. Thankful for Soft Pretzel for correcting me.
* round 3 – brick man-maker merkins
* round 4 – flutter
* round 5 – something else
– Mosey over to fountain between Brixx and Bravo for a triple nickel: 5 brick diamond merkins; run to far side of grassy mall area for 5 brick squats. Run it 5 times.
– Another round of Youtube ab workout. Another burning sensation in shoulders.
– Quickly back over to Chick-Fil-A for round ‘o pax call of various Mary. I believe we got 4-5 different called exercises before time.
Moleskin:
– Liked the ab workout, but renaming it a shoulder crusher. YHC should try these out beforehand. I guess I was fooled by the Fake News on the internet.
– I enjoyed seeing Fredo and Cable Guy at DB’s Tavern the evening before. Glad to have their support after they saw in in a bit of rare form.
– Chopper been posting very regularly. It’s pretty awesome to have such a strong collection of *RESPECT brothers in F3. Fredo promises he’s in that lot, but I’m unsure. Cable Guy is closing in fast.
– There’s been a great regular daVinci group with Bucky, Paper Jam, Escobar, and Heartbreaker. It’s a ton of fun posting with these guys.
– Soft Pretzel is in great shape. Dude is pretty fast even running with bricks.
– Mighty Might is faster than most men half his size. Beast
– Welcome El Swampo. Pretty sorry display for all of us on the naming this morning, but the more I say ‘El Swampo’; I actually think it’s pretty hilarious.
Annoucements:
– Wall project – Saturday March 18. There’s a sign up genius.
– SOB/Area51 date nights. An option every month to get couples together.
9 tough guys met up at Elizabeth Lane Elementary for a circuit workout. It was narrated by the sultry English (Australian) voice of my SecondsPro timer. #shamelessplug #prettycoolactually
After delivering a thorough disclaimer while tying my shoes, we proceeded to warm up:
YHC forgot the swing/press set, so we went right into the circuits. :30 on/:30 off through the following exercises:
We ran through this 3 times,but still had plenty of time left (because I forgot the swing/press set).
Heavy set: 3 1H swings, 3 high pulls, 3 snatches per side with a heavier bell (or the same bell for some)
Then we did this:
COT: Thanks to Chin Music for the take out.
Moleskine:
Twelve Men braved the cold this past Monday for some early morning work
Disclaimer was given and off we went to the track
COP
3 Man Relay around the track 2 laps (1/2 mile)
A runner relieved his teammate behind each goal post who was completing:
Planker’s Delight – Always a crowd pleaser!
Mosey to the rock pile and form 2 man teams, grabbing a rock and continuing to the baseball bleachers.
Partner 1 runs the stair loop while partner two completes:
Completed the above loop twice then ditched the rocks for another two rounds of dips and pull ups.
Returned the rocks and Mosey to the parking lot for 2 lines of wind sprints to complete the morning exercise.
We welcome FNG Benjamin Brandenburg AKA Button.
Minimal chit chat afterwards. It was cold and time to go home.