It was a chilly and damp morning for 9 men to show up and work like they’ve never worked before. It all started with a bit of a warm-up.
– Quick little jog around the lower parking lot
– Circled up for some Side-Straddle-Hops, Imperial Walkers (I guess Mcgee heard burpees), and Merkins
Once Mcgee was done trying to impress us with all his burpees we headed over the field for a five point “star”.
– Starting at the middle light post we ran out to the individual light post surrounding the field and back to the original starting light post. At each light post was 10 of a called exercise. After completing the called exercise, we ran back to the original light post for 3 burpees (for my boy Mcgee) before heading out to the nest light post.
Round 1: 1) Merkins 2) Squats 3) LBC 4) Lunges 5) Carolina Dry Docks
Round 2: 1) Diamond Merkins 2) Jump Squats 3) Flutter 4) Sumo Squats 5) Wide-arm Merkins
After that we headed over to the track for a little something new. We did an Indian run but with a twist. Instead of the person in the back running to the front of the line, the person in the front of the line had to run around the track to try to catch up with the end of the line. This was not for the faint of heart and there was no judgment on those that cut across the field to catch the end of the line.
Once everyone had a chance to catch the line we went over to the playground. We got into groups of two, one person did a called exercise while the other ran around the island and back. Flap-jacked and continued for 2 or 3 rounds each exercise.
Round 1: 10 pull-ups and plank until partner came back
Round 2: Tri-dips until partner came back
Round 3: Derkins until partner came back
After the three rounds we had just enough time for some Mary to close things out.
Great workout to start out the week!
Thang
Moleskin
Cobains on the delayed backblast. No excuse, just didn’t do it. First sub-freezing post of the year so we got off to a quick start with plenty of burpees to get the heart pumping. The call for 15 burpees OYO was the first (but not last — burpee box jumps, hariburners, burpee broad jumps) time this morning that Frehleys cursed YHC. Starting to like this guy.
The Brave serves up a minimum 4 miles of running every week and YHC had the intention of getting most of those miles out of the way early. No better place to do that than Ben Nevis. If you haven’t run this hill, come give it a shot. The thing just keeps going. Strava segment called Ballantyne Soul Crusher is right on. It was Mermaid (and I think Utah’s) first time on Nevis and Mermaid left a 5 star review on Twitter.
Kotters to Fahvra who returned this morning 3 weeks post-hernia surgery. If we thought Fahvra with a hernia was trouble, healthy Fahvra is a nightmare. Led the way up and down Ben Nevis (and through the entire workout) without breaking a sweat. Welcome back!
Things went a little off the rails in the basement of the parking deck due to the arrival of a 9th person (aka – the Qs inability to count himself). Much dismay over hairburners in the deck being too loud for all the sleeping folk nearby as well. Worries possibly a little overblown, but getting us kicked out of the last deck available to us didn’t seem like a good risk one week into my newly minted Site Q duties at The Brave. Audible called with the benefit of the plates being carried back to my truck saving me some gas. We will call it a q-jack win-win.
Thank you for coming out in the cold to post and thanks to Mermaid for the take-out. Everyone pushed hard and put in the requisite 4+ miles at a healthy pace. If you would like to Q at The Brave, we have some open dates in early 2017 so please step up and give a shout out to myself, Fire Hazard or Mario.
Congrats to all the men (and Ms) who completed the Kiawah Half or Full marathon this weekend.
Announcements
YHC will be your Q at SOFAWIB tomorrow and we’ll be running a SOFAWIB original: the Foxworth Forty.
Partner up and run to Foxworth (right out of OP, right on Summerlin, right on Abbotswood, right on Windyrush – stop at Foxworth +/- 1 mile)
Foxworth is a short, steep hill. It’s also a Strava segment, and one of the steepest in the area at 6.3% grade: Foxworth Hill on Strava
Partner 1 runs the Foxworth Hill (up to Bedfordshire) with 1 burpee per trip at the top (for example, on the 6th trip up, 6 burpees).
While Partner 1 runs, Partner 2 does 40 reps of each exercise: merkins (during 1st trip), squats (next), LBCs (next), then repeat.
At 6:07, stop and run the mile back the way you came (NASCAR style, all lefts).
The weather will be perfect (~40 degrees and dry). Get after it!
14 pax braved the cool temps this morning to stare down the barrel of the KB Pentathlon. This test was devised by Tiger Rag in March 2015 as a standardized test for meatheads. Original preblast can be found here.
No time for warm up, so let’s get to it:
Score = (#Reps) x (Adjusted KB Size) where Adj. KB Size = Wt of Bell (in kg) / 8.
EX: 100 swings with a 24 kg bell = (100 reps) x (24 kg / 8) = 300 pts.
Scoreboard:
| Name | Date | Score |
| Argonaut | 12/12/2016 | 1,841 |
| Voodoo | 12/12/2016 | 1,452 |
| Ickey Shuffle | 12/12/2016 | 1,144 |
| Gomer Pyle | 12/12/2016 | 1,055 |
| Nard Dog | 12/12/2016 | 1,033 |
| Wild Turkey | 12/12/2016 | 953 |
| Frehleys Comet | 12/12/2016 | 911 |
| JRR Tolkien | 12/12/2016 | 733 |
| Band Aid | 12/12/2016 | 667 |
| Kirby | 12/12/2016 | 535 |
Announcements:
Moleskine:
13 men started their morning right at Carmel Park. Here is what went down:
Mosey to Carmel Middle bus parking lot. SSH x 20, by popular demand IW x 10, Merkins x 10. Rail walks up the ramp and plank for the 6. Mosey to the back corner of the school and partner up. Partners run in opposite directions around the school. Partner Handshakes x 20 when you meet, burpees x 10 at the start/finish. 3 rounds followed by a little Mary – LBCs, Dolly, Freddie Mercury then mosey to the benches in front of the school for dips x 20 and step ups x 20. Mosey to Broad Hollow where one partner stays at the top for called exercise while the other runs to the bottom and back. Called exercises were squats, jump squats, lunges, squats again, LBCs and Swiper led over/unders. Mosey back to the bottom of the church parking lot for reverse run to the second light. Mosey back to the bottom for an AYG to the top. Mary – Heels to Heaven, Russian Twist, LBCs.
Moleskin
Pretty standard bootcamp today with 3.3 miles logged and a good mix of legs, upper body and core. Swiper and Cold Cuts were out front all morning and I saw Rachel edge Cold Cuts on the AYG at the end. Thanks to One Eye (who we learned actually does have two eyes) for letting me have the reigns.
11 men gathered in the safest AO parking lot in the city, were properly disclaimed, then proceeded thusly.
Yog out of the police department visitor’s lot into the dangerous streets of Pineville. Not really. Just down the park driveway to the entrance for a high-visibility warmup COP near the road. #advertising. We did the usual (SSH, IW, etc.), then moseyed back into the park down the driveway, interrupted by lunge walks, burpee broad jumps, carioca, etc. AYG back to the park entrance (quarter mile). A little Mary recovery, then AYG back. Amble over to the little walls nearby for some 10x derkins, 20x step ups, 30x dips. Repeat.
Partner up and gather at one end of the parking lot. Partner 1 does an exercise while partner 2 runs to the first median. Flapjack, but run to the second median. And so on. Three sets: 100 HR merkins, 150 jump squats, 150 LBCs. Udder bullied Cinnamon into a faster pace on the last lap to get the win, just as Alf’s PEDs were wearing off.
Meander over to the nearby grassy field. Mary. Then line up abreast for wind sprints across the width of the field. 10 sprints with a countdown from 10 between each one. Mermaid was nervously looking at his watch the whole time. It was a little longer back to the cars than I remembered, but we were only about 30 secs over.
This is a great new AO out in Pineville. Tons of space in the parking lots and fields, lots of picnic tables, walls, etc. Get out there and support the westward expansion of SOBs and Area 51.
Joe Davis Run signups still open. We’re trying to get to 1000 guys registered, and we’re around 500 now. See the newsletter for details.
Ok, I know it’s been a while since I Q’d a workout, but I do know that you’re supposed to get the backblast out sometime that morning so that everyone can wax poetic about how epic the beatdown was, how cold the gloom, and how crazy that random thing that happened was. Well, if you can’t get it out that morning, definitely by end of day. By end of week. Ok, definitely before the next iteration of the workout. So here I am enjoying my Sunday evening by clearing my conscience…
7 guys circled up around 9 cars and with a push and a nod we were off. Quick mosey around the parking lots and over to the assistant teacher of the week parking spot (primo location!). Circle up for a thorough COP: SSH, IW, Merkin, Mountain Climbers, Squats, Flutter, Plank, LBC. Mosey over to the baby track for BLIMPS:
Mosey to the wall, people’s chair, BTW, lunge walk across lot, 20 incline merkins; repeato x2
Run back passing and completing 2 rounds of As Many Pullups As Possible (AMPAP?).
Circle up in lot, greet the late arriving owner of the extra 2 cars, complete 1 burpee as a group and we’re done.
Moleskine:
PEACE.
Mosey to the Farm
Lurker climb up the Farm to the Clock and the horses to the Flag
Endex
COT
Everyone worked hard. I think most guys did the entire Fence Jumping 11’s. I might have lost a few in the Marathon Mary. Like Abba said, “That’s why I do F3, because I never would have done that on my own!” ditto. Thanks guys.
The idea for the Kiawah marathon began late last year with Bratwurst sending out a pole of perspective runners and their thoughts about where they wanted to run. Kiawah was the answer.
Over time more and more guys signed up once Hot 4 Teacher secured a sweet $55 dollar entry fee. The official training started before the BRR but got kicked into high gear after the BRR.
Many of us cross trained and several only did the running program that our leader Brat formulated. Brat could have told us that we were going to run through creeks and I do not think anyone would have questioned it. Brat was the spearhead to all of this madness and was a great leader throughout. He made it simple, straightforward and allowed the rest of us to not have to think about what the plan was each day we showed up. It would be impossible to thank him enough and he is too humble to accept too much praise.
Most of us trained and silly times often way, way before a normal workout would start. Almost always no one had to train alone because no one wanted to let each other down. There were setbacks, injuries and illness throughout the season. We lost Thin Mint and Gumbo to injury and were not able to make it back unfortunately. Bunker fought a cold the last two weeks of the calendar and Brat was sick while he was running the race. Most of us made it intact to the start line.
There is no way to quantify what it means to be running with your friends on race day and to have friends in the crowd cheering you on. It means a lot each day we show up for a workout but even more when you compete in something grueling where you do not know how it is going to end.
We pick each other up, make fun of one another and encourage one another. It makes the time pass and the pain less. I know there are many accounts out there and I hope you sound off. Mine is this.
Brat was his ever positive self at the start line. He was patient at the start weaving his way through the crowd for the first mile while I tagged along. At one point he said he was not feeling that well and then at mile 16 took a break. He was able to get it back together and picked his pace up. We both had the goal of sub 3:00 but it was not meant to be today. At one point on mile 25 he and Honey Bee caught me. Brat said “come on I’ve got Honey Bee with me” and Honey Bee followed it up by saying “Let’s finish this thing.” It caused me to pick up the pace and make it in for 3:11.
I know several of us did not reach our goals but there were a ton of PRs and Boston Qualifiers. Honey Bee PR/BQ 1st F3 SOB/Area 51 and fastest out of the parking lot, Haggis PR, Turkey Leg PR/BQ, Hairball PR, Brat BQ, Tolken PR for his age. The half marathoners also were awesome. Maria PR, Wingman PR, Tuck PR, Outback PR and Bean PR. I would say and I know no one would disagree that we can thank Brat for our preparation and coaching.
Spackler gets the award again for the best F3 cheerleader. He was all over the course cheering everyone on. Not to mention being a great host again.
I know it is early and the body is not healed but you can sign up for 2017 until tomorrow for $40. Those that have run this race know it is a great race and those on the fence get off of it and sign up. Anyone can do a half marathon given enough time to prepare. The second F as usual is the best part of F3 and you get a full weekend of it. Here is the link for the marathon. I am signing up. https://secure.marathonguide.com/register/KiawahIslandMarathon/
Ok… so it wasn’t quite THAT bad… but man was it cold! And those that know YHC know that cold ain’t my favorite thing! So the goal today was to KEEP MOVING!
14 PAX showed up with a similar mindset… having disclaimed, off we went!
The Thang:
Mosey to the glacier-covered practice field for some quick COP:
Then began the nomadic wandering around the AO. Without going through each stop, we made around 11 stops. At each stop we completed 10 Merkins (110 Total), 20 Squats (220 Total) and 30 LBC’s (330 Total).
Then sprinkled throughout were the following:
Suicides:
Finished up with people’s chair for 1-minute.
DONE! We covered 2.25 miles over the AO.
Moleskine:
It was great to see everyone… it has been TOO long since YHC has posted at Ascent/Olympus. At least Mall Cop didn’t have to be alone this week!
“Quiet please” t-claps to Dumpster Fire for making it to Ascent after his 2 Christmas parties on Friday! Apparently they were going to get pretty crazy!!
Also great to have Mall Cop out after being out for several weeks. I hope the recovery continues to go well!
Same for Pele… I know he is returning from recovery after BRR and some extensive travel. Not sure who the jerk is that roped him into that… but when I get my hands on him… man, is he going to be sorry!
Announcements:
1. Joe Davis Run 1/7… get registered today! No Ascent/Olympus that Saturday.
2. Time to start thinking about BRR teams… reach out to Slim Fast if you are interested!
3. Ascent will be open 12/24 and 1/31… Get your shopping finished before then!
Pele took us out in a great prayer. You guys are awesome! Thanks for letting me be the leader today! It is an honor!