If you show up at F3-Swift tomorrow, you’ll be cold for a few moments after stepping out of your car in the parking lot of the Vine Restaurant. How cold or warm after that depends on your clothing choice (may want to consult http://www.runnersworld.com/what-to-wear) and level of effort.
The THANG:
SYITG,
Bratwurst
There were a record 5 pre-runners for Foxhole. This is a startlingly large amount, given
YHC had proclaimed on Slack the night before that the main event would have some
miles in it. One Niner pushed the pace a bit on the back half of the run, well done. Hope that shoulder feels better soon. Bratwurst joined us a few minutes in, dressed as the “bad guy” from those horrid Panthers-themed CPI security commercials. 2.7 – 3.0 little miles for the pre-runners. At around 5:28, some of the regular Foxhole crew rolled up like a gang (minus the bass thumping). Disclosure given, warm up ensued:
The road that takes you to the rear of Elon Park has a couple of speed bumps, and
is well lit. From our starting speed bump to the first it is 120 meters, to the second, 300 meters, to the third, 400 meters. Downhill out, Uphill back. If you run the speed bumps in a suicide fashion, it is 1640 meters or ~ 1 Mile. So we did some suicide style runs, with a twist:
It was obviously going to be important to stay warm today. Standing in a circle doing KB presses was not going to be on the docket (it rarely is at Foxhole). To stay warm, we were going to need elevated heart rates, and big muscle groups: enter stage left, running and squats, respectively. Strong work from the guys who had to modify a bit due to shoulder injury: Loogie was looking almost back in perfect form on the merkins, definitely rehabbing well. OneNiner was moving pretty quickly out there, despite the bummed shoulder. Mighty Mite was rocking that awful NC State hat/tuque/”girl braid” thing; YHC tried to keep up with Bratwurst for the duration, and Nard Dog is quite quick for a man of size. Voodoo was strong and had the largest bell within the suggested range of 35-45 lbs. Escobar has started stalking YHC a bit; posted at each of the last 3 Qs. Fahvre had us all licked by the 2nd hump each time #beastmode. Good work out there gents.
(Since this is somewhat of a personal reflective, I’ll dispense with the usual “YHC” 3rd person stuff for this paragraph.)
Well. It’s been a year. A year since my first post. Early January 2016. Foxhole. Madamme Tussauds gear Q. A couple epic dudes in attendance. Frehley’s, Irish Creme, Chanel, Wingman, Voodoo, Freon. Fire Hazard was one of them, introduced himself as “Chip” since I didn’t have a “callsign” and said I was “Calvin”. I’d read about the “nicknames” online, so for the duration of the workout, I was pretty sure “Chip” was a nickname, until COT. It was a great experience, and a hard workout. No doubt of who was in charge, or what to do next. A bunch of guys that show up on time, respect each other’s leadership, and challenge each other to work harder. Thanks for the warm welcome, the leadership, competition, and friendship.
13 men, 1 tree and eventually O’Tannenbaum met at the Matrix so that they could go in to work today and smile as their co-workers complained that their windshield was iced over when they woke up at 7:15. There’s nothing like an adventure in the gloom with dudes who post at 5:30am in 14 degree temps…it’s a special breed of dude. The Leland Cypress that fell is also a very special breed of tree.
I put on my Cleveland native face when I got out of my truck pretending like it wasn’t cold, but dang it was. I wanted to keep the PAX moving the entire time and that we did.
What had happened…
We took off down to Fort Knox (street named Knox so it works), avoided some ice, a fallen tree branch and came to a cozy cul de sac to warmup quietly…
Warmup: SSH, Imperials, Squat, Merkins
7’s up the hill and back down – Burpees at the top, Merkins at the bottom to get everyone warm.
20 merkins in cadence and then head back to the school. Stop. 10 more burpees at the stop sign. Go. Stop. 10 more merkins at the top of the street. Run back to school…this is where OT had been waiting, wondering, hoping….he joined us.
Back at the school…
Playground
Pull ups on my count – slow count pull ups to 5 – run to rock and do 5 burpees and back to playground
Pull ups, slow count to 5 – run to rock and do 5 burpees
Back to pull ups – 5 more on my count, 20 derkins, 20 dips
Super Indian Run – Instead of the back guy coming up to the front, we ran around the small circle and had the guy in front had to sprint to catch up with the rest. I was going to try this on the track but it was icy and yea, it wouldn’t have worked. We ended up having 2 guys run together which was actually better since it made it a race format.
Line up in lot next to playground –
20 merkins, 10 jack knives, sprint to cones and jog back
20 jack knives, 10 merkins, sprint to cones and jog back
Went to the wall –
10 thigh slappers, bear crawl to the curb, 10 merkins
12 thigh slappers, bear crawl to the curb, 10 merkins
20 thigh slappers, wall sit with 25 cadence air presses
All you got(ish) back to parking lot for some “crab toe touches” and that was it….
Moleskin
We all tried to talk but no one could pronouce their M’s, R’s or W’s this morning so we were all kind of confused by the chatter. Good Tower of Babel analogy in there for all you pastors who need a hook….you’re welcome.
On the run back from the neighborhood a few good F3 citizens decided to move the tree. Not sure who but good work – It was hard to tell who anyone was this morning since everyone was covered head to toe. Hell, I thought Lobsta Roll was me at the end of the workout, that’s how confused I got – could have also been the fumes from Pop Shart.
What’s worse than yellow snow? Brown. Thank goodness school is closed today otherwise some kids might’ve gotten sick.
Everyone stayed pretty close together, either due to athletic ability or out of necessity. Turkey Leg probably had the best push at the end. Chin Music always keeps his head down and his legs moving fast. Lobsta, who is known for his pull up prowess, could have gone all day on the icy monkey bars.
Thanks Smokey for taking us out. Thanks to Pop Tart and Squid for letting me lead.
Announcements:
Joe Davis run pushed to this Saturday 1/14…
Next Friday 1/20 we’ll be sending off Horse Head and Bull Dog as the Site Qs at Kevlar – they’ll be doing a joint Q so please come out to send them off well. Expect a lot of chatter, some modified workouts not featuring backs or left arms, and as usual, a top shelf Backblast. Header is going to do his best to start recruiting for Joust during the change in leadership…he senses weakness.
Picked up Utah at 0510. He was ready to go. We questioned how many would post on ride over. Figured YHC, Utah, and Dumpster Fire. Cheddar’s tweet left me scratching my head so I gave him a 50/50. Tried talking it up at the neighborhood snow-in party featuring award-winning chili, but most just talked of working out in a heated gym next to the #ferns. Turns out we had 8 plus YHC. Disclaimer given as the shovel flag waved. Off we went.
Thang
Mosey out of visitor lot and north on 51. Cross RR tracks and circle up in adjacent lot.
COP
High-tempo SSH x 10 IC
Mountain Climber x 10 IC
Merkin x 15 IC
High-tempo Smurf Jack x 10 IC
Mosey south on 51. Right onto Cranford. Left on Ridgely Green to corner of Franklin.
Brian Circle Repeats
Start at corner of Brian Circle/Franklin. Run clockwise around Brian Circle AYG. At corner: 15 Merkin/10 Jump Squat. Repeat x 2.
Mosey back out of the hood the way we came in on Ridgely Green. Right on Cranford. Cross 51 into the PD lot. Mosey past the cars and down the long park lane to the last building. Find a spot on the planter boxes.
10 Jump/Step Up/10 Dips/10 Derkin
AYG around adjacent parking lot. Return to planters and repeat x 2.
Mosey into adjacent parking lot. Bear crawl halfway, AYG to end. Plank series at opposite end. AYG back.
Mosey to closest building. People’s Chair. Arms out front. 10 Burpees OYO.
Mosey back up the park lane toward the PD visitor lot. Stop in adjacent lawn. On your six. Full roll right. Full roll left. Grunting from Hairball. Refusenik from Utah. He pulled up on the sidewalk.
Mary
Flutter x 10/Hold/Heels to Heaven x 10 IC/Hold/High Flutter x 10 IC/Hold/Dolly x 10
AYG back to the furthest building on park grounds and back.
COT
Moleskin
Been waiting for a bone-chiller of a morning for a while. YHC finds that the most memorable workouts include atypical weather. Makes you feel more alive. Extra cold, 36 and heavy rain, etc. Bring it on. It was actually warmer than forecast a few days prior. I think we were around 15 degrees. Initially, the Big House weinke did not include a ton of running, but modifications were necessary. YHC must keep moving when it is below 20. We stayed warm today covering 3.5 miles. YHC’s inside-the-glove handwarmers helped too.
Strong crew of 9 today. Hairball manned up and wore shorts. He was alone in that. Turns out, he doesn’t even own tights. Stamp on the man card there. Nice to have Madame T out with us today. YHC called an AMRAP in his honor, then quickly changed the call. We all know how much he loves him some AMRAP. Utah told YHC on the way over he did not want to be in the snowy, cold grass. Had to test his #refusenik-ing. It was strong. He stayed on the sidewalk for Mary while the rest of us suffered in the grass. Hairball and Beaker are young(er) dudes that were faster than the rest of us. The other 7 hung pretty tight throughout. Well done all around.
Beaker’s 2nd boy will arrive shortly. Dumpster Fire’s got one on the way soon too. Good stuff. Snowflake is a machine. Respect. Hairball disappeared at one point and reported that there is, in fact, a heated restroom on site. Memory bank for that knowledge. Made YHC think back to my last Kevlar Q. Bravo Mike was an FNG. He pulled up to YHC mid-workout and expressed his urgent need to make a #2. Unfamiliar with the AO, guidance was sought from Alf and Tiger Rag, who were nearby. TR led the group to a portajon near the tennis courts. BM did his business while we did Mary nearby. That is the way to make your F3 entrance.
Good work today men. Thanks to Dumpster Fire for the invite. An honor to lead these fine men. Awesome AO out there in Pineville. Put the EH’s on em and help grow this site.
So Friday One-Eye emails me to remind me of my Monday Q at DMZ. With Snowpocolypse only hours away I took a look at the weather. Morning temps on Monday slated to be 7 degrees. Seven. As in you can count on one hand – Seven. I believe my coldest F3 post was 8 or 9 at Kevlar a few years back and it was not that fun.
But Alas this morning was about 17 degrees at the start. More than double the warmth we were supposed to have! (You engineering and science nerds may claim this is incorrect so you can leave Kelvin out of this)
7 mean of steely resolve set out to get the week started right. The pre-tweet mentioned we were going to be run heavy to keep warm and thats what we did. Planking and wall-sits seemed like a bad idea today.
The Thang –
Mosey north on Carmel to Sharon View. Hang a right and do a little COP with IW and Low Slow Squats in the Redeemer Presby Church lot. Cross the street onto Harrison Rd.
Partner up. P1 Runs down Harrison with a left on Howland. P2 heads down Gorham. Meet in the middle for 30 Handclap merkins. Come back the way you came. Flutter until the 6 is in.
Repeat in opposite directions – 30 2-hands on the ground jump squats.
Repeat first route – 30 plank jacks
Repeat opposite direction. No exercise, just meet and return the way you came.
Back out to Sharon View, hang a left and run to Hartmill. 2 rounds of run to the bottom, 10 8-count body builders, run to top.
Mosey back to launch with 2 stops of 5 x 8-count body builders at each stop.
Hit the parking lot right at 6:15
Frozen skin:
The PAX started out with a thoroughly improper disclaimer where I did say something about ice and don’t die or sue. On the warm up run I was pretty sure my face was about to freeze off. But after 2 miles all was good. One Eye claims the 4.4 miles was a DMZ record. I claim returning 100% of the PAX without frostbite was mission accomplished. I also brought my headlamp to try and scout the ice, but either it was frozen or the batteries were dead, because it was dim and about as helpful as a single christmas bulb. I need some help with Exterior Illumination.
I don’t come to DMZ enough so don’t know the area that well so I plan the route with Google Maps. Pretty pleased with the hills over there in Pellyn Woods. They kind of sucked. But all the PAX were crushing it. Pothole and One-eye, who both ran in were moving well and Rock was leading the pack on our side of the course. Doogie was tackling the hills hard as well. Pretty sure Margo lost 4 pounds coughing up phlegm out there but t-claps to him for continuing to post through this cold he is fighting off. What was the excuse for the rest of you who didn’t post? Good to see Jamboree out there. An original Mercury’s Minion BRR runner. I think I see him once a year now! Always posting on opposite sides of town.
Thanks to One Eye for the takeout.
-Alf
OUTLAND January 7th, 2017
sNOwpacolypse! The snow didn’t show up but we did!
QIC: HAPPY
PAX: 3 Happy, Double E and Madison
THE THANG:
COP with Disclaimer given-
Off for a lap around the buses
Mosey to the covered pavilion—(we may be crazy but we are not stupid)
Squats – 5
No-No-5
Overhead presses- 25,50,75,100,125
WW II situps -5
Bomb Jacks -5
AYG to the parking lot
LBC-5
Lt. Dan –Lunge walk length of strap
Sled pulls—Short rope drag partner behind you
–Long rope pulls partner to you
Repeat 5 rounds 5x,10x,15x,20x,25x
If it didn’t hurt it didn’t work!
MOLESKIN:
No COP, no easy warm-ups….if you post in 28 degree temps in the middle of an NC Snowpacolypse you already KNOW what to expect. Besides Double EE already suffered through a pre-run with Glass Joe at another AO and I don’t think Madison ever stopped from last Saturday’s convergence.
We located the most well light and driest place under cover and began to work making snowballs. The first 3 rounds went fast in about 20 minutes and I began to think what I should be adding to the end of my Weinke to fill the time but alas round 4 and 5 included a lot of reps for each exercise.
Thank you F3 brothers! I need the workout and found myself thinking at 10 minutes before 7 that I must be the only crazy fool to venture out in this weather but I should have known better.
The Q thought he had missed a convergence notice when 31 PAX showed up at Dromedary. Neverthelss we grabbed some rocks and got to work.
The Thang:
Warm-up lap around the parking lot, then warm up with:
SSH x 20
Cotton pickers x 17
Merkins x 20; Plank-jacks x 17; Peter Parkers x 20
Next, grab a partner and a boulder to share. Partner 1 moseys with the boulder across the parking lot to the base of the grass hill. Partner 2 does 15 of an exercise I forgot and then catches up.
From the base of the hill, 3 sets of alternating exercises:
Set 1: P1 runs up hill with rock and completes 10 thrusters; P 2 does LBCs until he’s back. Repeat until 217 total LBCs completed.
Set 2: P1 runs up hill with rock, 10 tricep extenders; P2 does carolina dry docks until P1 returns. Repeat until 217 total dry docks completed.
Set 3: P1 up hill with rock for rows x 15; P2 does freddie mercuries. Repeat until 217 completed.
Mosey to front of school and grab a Peoples Chair. air presses X 40, then Mike Tysons x 20, all in cadence.
Mosey back with your rock to the starting point. Return your rock, then one more lap around the parking lot, stopping at each corner for 5 burpees. Circle up for some Mary.
Great job by all the PAX, and especially FNG Hog Tie, welcome!
It was cold. The weather sucked. We had a great workout.
YHC had hoped for a great morning in the snow. Thoughts of Mary while lying in the snow as the flakes wafted down had dominated preparation for this workout. In the event, it was pissing down with sleety crap and wet on the ground. There was immediate mumble chatter suggesting the parking deck.
In pursuit of the dream we started by running in the opposite direction from the parking deck, and headed straight for a merkin showdown in an open lot. Then we headed for Loch Ness to run some laps and do some dips. As the mumble chatter increased in volume (hands soaking wet now from the merkins), we started to slide around on the sidewalk and had to walk. With hopes of a decent workout quickly evaporating, yhc decided to head for the deck and salvage what we could.
Yhc really doesn’t have anything new in his toolbox, so the workout was distinctly similar to all the others I have led over the last four years. We did merkins, we ran intervals, we did burpees, we ran some more, we did squats, we ran again, we did Mary with more merkins, and we planked around a lot. We did not rest much, we did not cheat on form (much), and we did not fool around. If you didn’t feel it, it’s your own fault.
Then we ran back to COT and thanked God for this great group of guys, this great morning, and this great organization called F3.
Moleskin
Thanks Men. Let’s do this again.
I was informed Kevlar has an annual tradition for the first workout of the year, to have us all bring out our old and new fitness gadgets.
So,19 Men dusted off their favorite fitness gadgets to get their new year started right!
The Thang:
We warmed up with a run around the campus and:
The Thang:
NMM:
Announcements:
10 men ran three miles in an icy church parking lot this morning. What did you do? We had better conditions than was predicted, but it was still dicey. After a thorough disclaimer, we got after it thusly:
Little baby jog around the parking lot to test things out. I had no idea what conditions to expect this morning, so I had to do some just-in-time recon work and come up with a weinke on the fly. There were patches of ice and big puddles, and it wasn’t cold enough for the grassy areas to have frozen. Alright. We headed into the covered entrance near the fake grassy knoll for a standard warmup (SSH, IW, MC, Squats).
Partner up. Partner 1 runs around the median route we had tested during our recon jog (maybe 250 yards) while partner 2 does the exercise under the roof. Flapjack until the partners reach the total reps specified. HR merkins (150), Squat jumps (150), CDDs (200), Lunges (100 each leg). We switched partners halfway through. #swingers
Yog over to the hotbox. We did another recon run down the little hill with the trash cans. No good. In the hotbox, 10 incline merkins, run somewhere about 100 yards away and back – lots of variations here as guys modified to find a safe route. 10 one-leg raises on the bench. Run. 10 derkins. Run. 10 other leg raises. Run.
Mary. Repeat the merkin, leg raise thing without the running. More mary. Stagger out into the cold and gather on the main road around the parking lot. Run from here to the top of the forbidden hill entrance, stopping at each road hump for 5 burpees. A few of us ran down the hill and back up – mistake. Mosey over to the cars. Done.
Moleskine
I’m not ashamed to say that I hoped nobody else would be there this morning when I rolled in. No luck. Of course the guys were there. Although, as Flipper pointed out, none of the #highintensity guys made it. I’ve never shown up to Q with this little of a plan – I didn’t know if we’d be able to get around in the parking lot or what. Turned out that we got 3+ miles in running loops around a (mostly) ice-free parking lot. There were enough patches of ice that a muscle pull was never far off – except for Flipper who had his Swedish Spartan Race cleats on. It was good to see Fragile make a visit from Charleston. Snowflake ran in. Geez. Good stuff from the guys this morning. It was not easy to post today, it was cold when we got out of our cars, it was really cold when we started moving – the wind was rough. So tclaps to the men who got there and put in work.