YHC was cutting rope late into the evening last night while also trying to bottlefeed a clusterfeeding 2wk old. The gents joked this morning when I showed up with ropes “Oh, the M won’t let you use those on her, so you bring those out to use on us instead?’ yada yada yada…jackasses, although correct, still jackasses. 4 grizzled vets were boots on the ground at 5:15 and the music and boom box were cued.
Warm-Up
Partner Up (1 rope x partner group)
The legs were worn…I mean warm. Now on to:
The Thang
Using my homemade TRX ropes the PAX executed the 6 exercises below:
4 rounds total with the following reps 10-15-10-15
Finish off with a little core
Moleskin
Small group today, but the tunes despite no Taylor Swift inspired everyone to press hard this morning. Great work fellas
Gump – glad I saw you yesterday morning, getting your SWOLE session on. Strong work today setting the pace on the ropes and blistering the sprints. The strength work was right in your wheelhouse.
Kirby – always keeping the the comraderie high but knowing when to quit letting the Q BS around and preempt the start of sprints. Also appreciate you continuing to show restraint from stealing the Elementary kids coats from the playground and letting them hang around another week.
Bounty Hunter – cuts through my neighborhood today but was taking no short-cuts this morning on the ropes. Thanks for joining me in the no-glove club this morning. The hands are a little raw because of it but we all know “Real Men don’t wear gloves” hence on how we all made it into this world BOOM
Announcements
Over and Out
-General
YHC led his Q #2 at Dromedary and hopefully the IC was more intelligible than the VQ, though that’s debatable with the twists and new exercises on the scrawled sheet of notes. It’s a great day to wake up and be around others who are trying to improve themselves and the world around them. Thank you for the opportunity. (posted on Behalf of Das Boot)
The THANG
Moleskin
Dromedary began with a bit of unease this morning as the pre-run group did not show up. We considered sending a search party out for them but decided instead that a lost-while-running episode may put hair on their chest.
Big props to the PAX today for working in Agile mode as we tried out a few less-common exercises and adjusted accordingly. The Goofball quickly degenerated into a 1960s Funky Monkey dance – thanks to some of the more seasoned PAX (respect) – and the Heisman, which had the success of Eric Crouch in the NFL. In the coming weeks we may also experiment with the Frug, the Mashed Potato, and the Watusi, along with the Ray Guy and Lou Groza.
Agile Mode continued as we opted for the Scout Run instead of the traditional Indian Run, which took a little explaining. Then on to the Caterpillar which took some adaptations to recognize that spreading out the line helps to get through the jumps and down field more quickly. Blackjack was cut in half because… we’re agile and open to pivoting. However, this did create a heated discussion between Hollywood, Dasher and Doc about the validity of Doc’s merkins, as to whether they were merely pulses or deep, man-making merkins. YHC and his soccer arms cannot comment on this. The pulse discussion came in handy shortly afterwards, though, with the dip and squat pulses and elicited further laughs and questions as to what the difference between a dip and a dip pulse is, but the second round of dips effectively shut up that conversation due to the focus needed to make it through a fourth set of dip-like exercises without rest. Hollywood proved most agile-friendly in converting his squat pulses to monkey humpers.
The rest of the THANG went fairly well, except for a good chunk of the PAX confusing sea turtles for Superman and minus complaining about a few more LBCs – it’s almost summer and we need to work on those six packs. Apparently the pre-run crew conspired to fartsack it today.
Announcements
Because I tend to be indecisive sometimes and have been really busy at work this week, I didn’t feel like I could put the time and energy into making the big decision of running regular route or the reverse route. I know what you are thinking, “dude, just pick one”. But its much harder than that. It’s very strategic. Do we start with a large hill the first mile or do we coast into the run with a gradual downhill for the first mile? Do we pass the only pit stop locations at mile 2.5 or at mile 3.5? Does that even matter now that Alf proved to the whole world that you can hold in a turtle head for 4 miles? Do we start with the black abyss that is Old Providence or do we finish on Old Providence in the day light? What would Semi Gloss do? If we do the regular route and Jello shows up for his Jello Run, will he care that he may be totally alone? Why won’t Hannibal eat any donuts? Do we run 51 mostly uphill or mostly uphill because both directions feel uphill? Which route delivers the best 2nd F donut numbers? Why does Swiper always talk so much while running fast? Will Hairball wear the Lululemon attire if we run the regular route? It’s 9:51 and I’m hungry, should I eat a bagel at Panera or should I wait until my lunch at 11:30? Should we run the regular route, since it gives us a better chance to heckle Death Valley? Will people think differently of me if they knew my favorite donut at DD was the Bowtie? Does Turkey Leg know he is as short as he really is?
Anyways, I didn’t think I could answer all these questions yesterday. My head just wasn’t in it. So, we showed up and everyone (or someone) just said regular. That guy is decisive! It was probably Swiper since he talks so much #HIM.
Until next week!
BW
Under the moonlit skies
And the light that flickers,
17 PAX stepped out,
To get a good tail kicker.
If they’d known about burpees,
They would have done the dart back.
Hopped into their cars,
And headed for the fartsack.
But they persevered and stayed,
As we saluted the virtual flag.
We got a good beatdown,
And even welcomed Speed Bag.
Well, there you have it. The extent of my creativity. As noted, 17 PAX showed up to put the old banker in his spot by dusting him on the workout. Well done.
Warm-O-Rama:
* 5 burpees
* 10 Imperial Walkers
* 5 Burpees
* 10 Sun Gods
* 10 Reverse Sun Gods (God Suns)
* 5 Burpees
* 10 side to side climbers (alpines)
* 5 burpees
The Route:
With 1 FNG and 1 Site FNG, a tour of the Anvil AO would be in order. Why, that is great because that is exactly what YHC had hastily planned in between travel and BBQ competitions. Here we go (moseying b/w stations)
* 1st entrance (not sure it is technically “Entrance 1”)–15 donkey kick merkins
* Rocks–10 curl/press/skull crushers + 5 Rockies (crowd pleaser)
* Sweat Shack–10 jump ups/step ups + 15 Derkins
* 2nd Entrance–15 molitov merkins
* Speed Hump–10 monkey humpers (how appropriate)
* 3rd Entrance–15 hip-slap merkins
* Picnic tables–10 dips + 15 Irkins
* Bottom of North Face-10 jump squats
* Top of North Face–5 one-arm burps (no merkin)
* 4th entrance-15 plank jack merkins
When done with round #1, go at your own pace for round 2+. All completed 2 rounds; the fastholes got in some extra credit.
Finish with some Mary: flutter, dolley, something else (YHC had still not arrived), Freddy Mercury, box cutters, Rosalita. Finish with 5 burpees.
Moleskine:
Anvil is a great AO, with lots of options and things to do. We explored most of it today, leaving out the playground and baseball field. YHC hates sand. It is a much longer circuit that YHC thought. Perhaps we get in 3 rounds? Not so. 2+ was the most.
Rachel, Mermaid, Lorax, and Brilleaux set a wicked pace. Ickey, O’ Tannenbaum, Champagne, and Iron Horse kept them honest. Carmen Sandiego, Shrink Wrap, Slum Dog, Thunder Road, The Wall, Tri Delta, Tag-a-long (he may have been in the front. No idea.), and Speed Bag all pulled through with 2 complete rounds.
Welcome Todd. From NY, via Connecticut, 3 kids under 5 (special award for that), and former boxer. Speed Bag. You boys out to invite him to Fight Club. But be warned–he looks like he could knock the 4th F out of you. Great to have you join the PAX—come on back!
The MC started early. DK Merkins–“is this real?” YHC: “Yes, my wife taught them to me.” Probably the wrong reply. They do get the heart rate up. Then, on the hip-slap merkins, ‘Pagne calls out YHC for form. Evidently, you are supposed to bend your arms on merkins. Who knew? I thought a head bob was sufficient. Lots of chatter about ants on North Face. Good planning meant no LBC’s or other ground work. Evidently, the F3 Grounds Crew has not mowed North Face, resulting in soggy shoes. Cobains.
Announcements:
There may be a convergence on Saturday. There may not be. Check twitter, slack, email, smoke signals, and carrier pigeons.
Good luck to the Spartan Racers. Mermaid, Rachel, and I am sure others competing this Saturday.
Iron Horse is taking on decathlete Dan O’Brien in a few weeks in the Charlotte Heptathlon. My $$ is on IH.
Pleased and honored to lead. YHC took us out.
8 PAX made the right choice and posted at Death Valley for their daily DownPAINment.
COP:
Mosey to the day care parking lot stopping for Merkins x 10, Squats x 10, 4 CT Flutter Kicks x 10.
Head over to Serendipity Lane stopping for for Merkins x 10, Squats x 10, 4 CT Flutter Kicks x 10.
Get moving to Raintree Lane stopping for Merkins x 10, Squats x 10, 4 CT Flutter Kicks x 10.
Mosey to Smokerise stopping for Merkins x 10, Squats x 10, 4 CT Flutter Kicks x 10.
Move over to Rising Meadow stopping for Merkins x 10, Squats x 10, 4 CT Flutter Kicks x 10.
While we’re here, lets partner up at Rising Meadow. Partner 1 runs up to the second street light while Partner 2 performs called exercise, flapjack. Round 1 LBCs, Round 2 Squats.
Let’s head back tot he start point, stopping at Burning Tree for Merkins x 10, Squats x 10, 4 CT Flutter Kicks x 10.
One more stop at Woodfox and Strawberry, Merkins x 10, Squats x 10, 4 CT Flutter Kicks x 10.
Return to the bus lot for 2 rounds of AYG sprints.
Mary:
Moleskine:
Announcements:
Warming up with a pre-run before your Q could be a bit tricky especially when you arrive to the AO at 5:29 to see the relieved look on the face of one of the Site Qs. So the mats went down, music turned up but the lights stayed on and we were a go.
Devotional: Titus 2:13, looking for that blessed hope.
Warm-up: Knee up, butt kick, hop the fence, toy solider and LSS
The Thang:
Shoulder stretch across body, Traditional Triceps stretch
Butterfly
Starfish
Stand up-legs as wide as you can-fold forward
Seated-legs apart fold forward
Low Warrior I
Half Lord of Fishes
Cobra
One-Legged Pigeon
Dead Pigeon
Calf stretch
We did 2-3 rounds of each stretch holding for 15-30 seconds. To round i t out I included some table top, cat/cow and one downward dog.
Announcements:
Swiss Miss will send out the Gumby Q schedule through December. If a day does not work, switch with someone.
As always, thank you for allowing me to lead.
YHC arrived at CDS around 5:25 to find a few pax warming up while a few others were getting back from their pre-run (when do you sleep?). The pax kept trickling in and we eventually ended up with 21 for this week’s edition of Skunkworks.
After a quick disclaimer, we circled up for COP:
Partner up by bell size. P1 farmer carries both bells while P2 does 5 burpees and gives chase. CMIYC down to the parking lot next to the church.
The Thang:
P1 runs a loop around the church (~.15 miles) while P2 performs called exercise. When both partners have completed the exercise, plank or Mary until the next round starts. Exercises were:
Time’s up – grab the bells and carry them back to the launch point.
Circle up for Mary:
Finito.
Thanks to Bulldog for the takeout in COT.
Announcements:
Moleskine:
After disclaimer, a bit longer run than usual, with the usual “marathon” comments from the PAX.
COP
SSH X 25
IW X 20? (KINDA FUZZY ON THE EXACT NUMBER)
3 DOWN & 1 UP MERKINS X 15?? (STILL FUZZY) I did hear some groaning when the pace slowed down, thanks for the insight gentlemen. <— And I use that term loosely…
PLANK (ARM OUT / OPPOSITE LEG UP)
MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS X 15
AND A LITTLE DOWNWARD DOG STRETCHING
And we threw in a 5 Burpee penalty for Bullwinkle who's seems to have his own time zone. F3 in NC runs on EST, not BST….
The THANG!
Mosey over to the road right side of the soccer fields and partner up for Assisted Suicides (#1 runs a suicide to first island while #2 does Burpees, flapjack and repeat with Merkins to second island. Then alternate Burpees and Merkins at each consecutive island till we reached the stop sign).
Plank up when done, several “over achievers” pin balled back to pick up the six and got back to the start for a well deserved 10 count.
Mosey over to the shelter near the volley ball courts for Dips, Declined Merkins, and Step Ups (20 each – 3 rounds). Plus a 5 Burpee penalty for a Bullwinkle Q-jack.
Next, “Get Them Up Against The Wall”, well, after we move the trash cans all nicely lined up against said wall. Time for some Wall Squats and Air Presses (50 to start with, oh, did I say 50, I meant 100), followed by 10 Merkins and round 2 with 125 Air Presses and H.B.’s exit from the A.O. Thanks to Nomad for keeping the count, I was barely able to get every 10th count out of my winded lungs. Good job putting the trash cans back where we found them. Leave the place better than you found it!
Next, circle up on your 6 in the parking lot. Got a few grumbles from the pax after relocating down the parking lot a bit so no one would be laying in the nastiness that trickled out of the trash cans into the parking lot. That’s ok guys, I was listening, should have done 5 penalty Burpees for grumbling about the Q looking out for everyone’s well being. (Side Note – last night I sat in on a Review Board for Boy Scout advancing to the rank of Life Scout, and this young man told us about the “near full body fungal infection” he got from the lake at a Scout Camp up in the mountains, nasty stuff, so don’t grumble! LOL )
Finished off with LBC’s and The Flutter…
Bullwinkle’s Burpee form is really improving! Great effort and performance from Mind Crime and Sling Blade. Shake & Bake has really up’ed his running game, I barely got in any Burpees or Merkins during the Assisted Suicides. Playoffs got his new Heaven’s Gate running shoes too, how’s the knee feeling?
First time I’ve seen Houdini at Thrive, welcome man!
Thanks for the privilege to lead this morning. Shame Glass Joe hasn’t made any of my Q’s. We’ll see how many Burpees it takes to shut down the chatter on the next one. I’ll try not to go all “Angry Scout Master” on him..LOL
Keep an eye out for F3 Union Co. shirt order coming up, looks like Hair Band is heading up that endeavor.
New workout! Official Launch Wednesday 5/31 at Stallings Elementary.
We will be there 5-10-17 for a shared Q workout. 5:30 AM EST (not BST). Name still to be determined.
Posted on behalf of Woody
Summary
22 men still chose to run a few miles at Swift today, despite their fearless leader Bratwurst being DR, MIA, on a work boondoggle, starting up a new running workout, on Vacation (who knows). YHC thought surely that Bagpipe would have record numbers factoring in my main man Heartbreaker on Q, Brat’s absence, and YHC notorious Preblast. It didn’t happen and SWIFT PAX outnumbered Bagpipe 22 – 20. #scoreboard #notacompetition #yesitsacompetition Here’s what we did, or didn’t do:
The THANG (yesterday’s preblast)
“Bratwurst is out… Tolkien is in, but don’t worry… the fabled Fortune Cookie Run won’t be back. Instead we’re running a Chinese Fire Drill. Mongol style!
OPTION #1: 0500 – 0515: warm up the legs and core by pulling each other in rickshaws for 15 minutes, sneak in a little Tai Chi to get the mind right. Shots of ginseng to chase down a GU packet right before the main event.
0515-0615: In drive mode (coasting, no pressure on the gas) one PAX starts driving Tolkien’s truck around the bull ring with the rest of the Pax in the cab or in the bed. The person in the back of the bed, hops out of the truck, runs around the truck without getting hit, enters the driverside door, pushes the driver in, and the PAX move towards the back of the truck. Repeato until all PAX have cycled through. That’s round 1. Round 2, add 5mph to the truck speed and repeat until 0615 or until there is a casualty. Remember the disclaimer that is given at the start that you exercise at your own risk.
or….
OPTION #2: We could go with the Bratwurst plan, so set your watches accordingly:
PACE Groups:
(R) ICH Pace – if you can afford a fancy watch that will override your heart rate to something ridiculously low and pump your VO2 MAX into the 60s fictitiously. Bunker leads pace group.
(I) NJURY Pace – if you have sprained an ankle for good or bad reasons in the last year, you have a free pass to this group. Fire Hazard, Tolkien and Tuck are the pacers…. in arrow formation, like Nike’s Breaking 2hr marathon pacers did… only 2hrs slower.
(P) URGE Pace – follow Frasier, Citgo, Fahvra, and whoever else has no body fat who will be running at lightning speed, and purge the food they ate four days ago in the woods somewhere to stay lean and mean.
NAKED MOLESKINE
Surprisingly, everyone chose Bratwurst’s option #2, despite some consideration by Enron to do #1 per Slack comments. During the workout, Gumbo nearly changed his mind as well but resisted asking for the Chinese Firedrill. MAn it would have been interesting to attempt this! Anyway, After considering a multitude of venues for the workout, and realizing that after 100+ SWIFT workouts there wasn’t any new ground to discover, the Bull Ring was chosen to allow for more measured pacing and regrouping. Tagalong was curious at Stonehenge what SWIFT was all about, and was true to his word, came out and crushed it. His brother-in-law Thin Mint chose not to make it a family affair and was MIA after completing 50k Trail Ultra this weekend, which earned him a free pass… until Haggis showed up to run (also ran the same trail ultra), which immediately revoked TM’s hall pass for missing. Congrats to the both of you crazy fools. Cheddar rolled up with seconds to go, and started jingling away with his keyset. No word whether he ran the Smoky Mountain Relay with some keys. Way to go brother in the F3 Expansion! #HIM Hairball, Bunker, and YHC tried to take advantage of Frasier’s calf injury which was sustained Saturday at Stonehenge after some idiot Q had the PAX backwards-run up the ramps AND the flats of the Premier 5 story parking deck. All three were looking to get back in pre-marathon form and today looked promising, covering 7+ miles (not including the pre-run). Anne Springs Greenway Trail BFF’s Enron and One-Niner showed they can run fast on pavement and trails. Wild Turkey battled through lingering effects of a sprained ankle incurred from paying zero attention to a hole on a Monday 10 miler. Everyone else put in solid work it seems per Strava Labs FlyBy. YHC was too busy running (P)urge Pace and not (Injury Pace at the end, spilling merlot from an ill advised Gu packet.
Kudos to Brat for leading this workout week in and week out. It’s tough figuring out what to do on a speed day, without just running senselessly fast to get injured. It’s also tough to synchronize watches, keep the group together, and to B-skip properly, although it comes naturally to Tiger Rag. So thanks for sharing your knowledge, intelligence, and leadership with the SWIFT crew. You can have your Tuesday workout back.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our F3DOM!” ~ @JRRTolkienF3
Huge turnout for Watchtower…Seven whole pax made it out for a pitcher’s workout. Contrary to popular belief, a pitcher’s workout includes more than 20 pitches, sit a bit, scratch a bit, spit a bit, rinse and repeat. Here’s a little something from spring training.
We set off on a leisurely jog down to the track. Doc, Goodfella, Frack, and Foundation apparently engaged in something called a ‘pre-run’…have yet to confirm why. I mention the pre-run because none of them could stop mentioning their pre-run.
We got to the track and warmed up using some of the activation techniques we learned at the launch of Legal Zoom’s Cool Runnings…from Bratwurst.
The Thang:
At this point we jogged/staggered over to the stadium steps. Doc and Goodfella continued to discuss their ‘pre-run’. Frack informed us he no longer had a right hamstring. Foundation was quiet as were Jingles and Posse.
We ran stadium steps alternating aisles running up the first flight and down, jog to next flight and walk backwards up them and jog down. Rinse and repeat until all steps were climbed.
Jog back towards the front and walking lunge for approximately 30 yards, and took it to the front of the school for a few LBCs and American Hammers. We also stretched again, but were careful not to overstretch our tired muscles.
No announcements. Goodfella took us out, but not before he and Doc discussed their pre-run again in order to determine how far they’d run.