Merkins and a Chicken Biscuit

Merkins and a Chicken Biscuit

We started off with a mosey down to the parking lot in front of HT.
COP:

20 Merkins
20 IW
20 Low Slow Squats
20 SSH
10 Merkins

The Thang:
Line up on the curb in front the shopping center where the HT is located. 20 merkins at each parallel parking lot strip and plank at the end. Total of 100 merkins. On your 6 for 20 flutters. Line up on next curb and 5 merkins at each parking strip to the end where the parking lot drive cuts through. 40 more merkins. On your 6 for some LBC work.
Mosey over to Chick Fil A parking lot. Partner up. Partner 1 runs around CFA, Partner 2 performs backwards lunge with forward kick. Flapjack. Continue until total is 100. Then, Partner 1 runs around CFA, Partner 2 performs squat. Flapjack. Continue until total is 200.
Mosey over to the front of St Matthews Catholic Church. Run around church performing 5 merkins at each speedhump. Total of 50 merkins.
Catch me if you can on the way back to the AO. Find your partner and Partner 1 runs, Partner 2 performs 5 Monkey Humpers.
COM
40 x LBC
15 x right leg can opener
15 x left leg can opener

Moleskin:
I just can’t resist finding a way to use the speedhumps for some merkin intervals. Heartbreak carbo loaded on beer the night before. I am not sure those are the right kind of carbs. We finished up running at least 2.25 miles and a total of 250 merkins. Impressed with the hard work of Philmont and Torpedo. Cold cuts and Tuck continue to show how manly they are with their merkin abilities. And thanks Floppy Disk for dropping by from Lexington, SC. That sure is a long drive just to post. You must have heard about how much I like merkins. And did anyone else notice that Heartbreaker was wearing an undershirt to the workout? I wonder if he was going to put his dress shirt on and head straight to work. He must not like his coworkers.

Announcements:
Mud Run sign ups about to start.

Preblast – Day Zero Challenge: BRR Edition

Post tomorrow at the undisputed toughest Saturday workout in Area 51. Think you know all about the DZ Challenge? Keep reading, tomorrow there will be something on tap for everyone.
28 days until BRR puts a new spin on an old favorite.
  • 100 burpees
  • 1 mile run (3 laps around the track)
  • 100 squats
  • 1 mile run
  • 100 merkins
  • 1 mile run
  • 200 LBCs
  • 1 mile run
  • 100 CDD’s
  • 1 mile run
  • 100 burpees

In total: 5 miles, 200 burpees, 100 squats, 100 merkins, 200 LBCs, 100 CDDs. Can you finish by 0800?

Oh, and if you have an injured foot (there are a few of you out there), drop the running and run through the exercises twice.

@DearAbby hosting a pre-run at 0700.

Mud Run Prep

11 SOBs answered the call to start training for the Mud Run on October 24th. Here’s what we did:

The Thang:

11 SOBs Mosey to COP – IW IC X 12, Squats IC X 10, Merkins X 10

Mosey over to the Small Pond with the bridge and line up at the very bottom of the hill for modified 7s which include running up the hill, 6 merkins at the top, 1 burpee at the bottom, bear crawl from the bottom of the hill to the side walk, 1 lap around the lake and bear crawl from the side walk to the bottom of the hill; running up the hill, 5 merkins at the top, 2 burpees at the bottom, bear crawl from the bottom of the hill to the side walk, 1 lap around the lake and bear crawl from the side walk to the bottom of the hill; etc… Once you finish your set, meet up with the six and finish their set.

Then mosey over to the fitness trail and divide into 3 groups. Rotate through pain stations and remain in with your teammates. Leave no man behind.

Pain Station #1 – Run a lap around Lock Ness

Pain station #2 – Run around Lock Ness, but stop at the 1st short wall for 20 Durkins, run over to the 2nd wall for 10 burpees, run over to the grassy field and bear crawl across the field.

Pain station #3 – Arm walks, high arm walks, 10 pull ups, 1 rope climb

Continue to rotate through the pain stations until the Q calls time.

Head back to the COT

Moleskin:

The weather couldn’t have been better for The Gloom this morning. The temp was perfect and the pain was present. Great effort by all. It was great to practice moving as a team and motivating each other during the second half of the workout.

As always, it was a pleasure leading my SOB brothers in The Gloom.

Announcements:

Drivers and runners are needed for the BRR. Let me know if you’re interested.

Q’s are needed for the Brave. The only requirement is 4+ miles of running, the rest is up to you.

A Roofer’s View

6 strong men showed up in the not-so-bad gloom to show a roofing crew how to REALLY work in the morning. The devastation is as follows:

#Warm Up:
Mosey out and down to the end of the bus lot for:

  • SSH x 15
  • Windmill x 10
  • Cherry pickers x 10
  • Merkins x 10
  • Air Squat x 10

#The Thang:
Mosey out to the, um, other school parking lot. This one is further away.

  • Karaoke suicides 2-up, 1-back. Up and back.
  • LBC x 15
  • Reverse Crunch x 15
  • WWII situps x 10 (OYO)
  • 1 Merkin/Bear Crawl/1 Burpee – increase x1 each time to the next island.
  • LBC x 15
  • Reverse Crunch x 15
  • WWII situps x 10 (OYO)
  • Repeato back to starting island.
  • LBC x 15
  • Reverse Crunch x 15
  • WWII situps x 10 (OYO)
  • Burpee broad jumps to the next island
  • LBC x 15
  • Pretzel Crunches x 15 (each side)
  • Burpee broad jumps back

Mosey back to the bus lot and circle up for:

  • Man-maker Merkins (sorta) x 10
  • Prisoner Squats x 10
  • Monkey Humpers x 10
  • Al Gore x 45sec

Back to the launch point for Mary

  • LBC x 15
  • J-lo x 15
  • Protractor
  • 2-legged flutter kicks. (I’m sure there is a name for this. I’m also sure I don’t know it.)

Moleskin:

  • There are some grey areas in there as can happen at times. Sound off your recollection in the comments.
  • Great leading the strong men of #Overdrive. Strong work by all.
  • I want to thank you guys for letting me work out my issues this morning in the form of our workout. We are all stronger.

Toes, Tents, Sprints and A Broken Fence

Well, the morning began with the usual chatter. Skywalker arrived in his George Jetson futurama mobile but with the top up. Header arrived in #momjeep with front doors off (in fear of more TR verbal assault) in vain as TR was no where to be found. Oh the fun he/we would’ve had! But… We proceeded…. Into the gloom at 5:30. (Sharp)

Mosey to the back of the strip center.

  • Circle up (while we stared down an 18 wheeler, waiting for it to Transform or move) We won, it moved.
  • Statement delivered, COP begins

SSH x 25, IW x 25

Mosey to concrete pylons.

Find a curb :

incline merkins x20, plank o rama, x20, plank o rama, x15, plank o rama, x10, plank o rama

Mosey to Raintree Ln:

Sprint at 90% for .30 secs, drop and do 30 LBCs, mosey back to start, plank o rama.  Repeat 6x

mosey to soccer field

YHC demos “chief crunches” (cross arm, straight leg crunches) then proceeds through the park gate, trips, catches himself on fence and according to Bulldog, it is a little iffy as to its function post Freedom encounter.

straight line at the bottom of the hill and continue .30 sec sprints to the top of the hill and into the soccer field, 10 chief crunches, mosey back to start line, plank o rama. x2

.30 sec sprint, 20 chief crunches, mosey back, plank o rama. x2

.30 sec sprint, 15 chief crunches, mosey back, plank o rama. x2

.30 sec sprint, 10 chief crunches, mosey back, plank o rama. x2

circle up on your 6 at nw end of field

30 chief crunches in cadence (groups of 3 x10), 30 straight leg raises in cadence, right hand to left toe crunches x15, left hand to right foot crunches x15, climb a rope crunches x30 in cadence, 30 straight leg raises in cadence, reverse crunch: roll over to elbow plank position and raise tail in the air while on elbows and toes keeping core tight (tippy toes) x15. Yup, we called em pup tents…..

Mosey back to abc

circle up:

x45 chief crunches in cadence (groups of 3 x15)

Done

moleskin:

Awesome work and some strong cats out there. I hope the pax enjoyed the core work and running elements, both of which YHC needs! YHC tried to shake it up a little by also adding the incline merkin element which seems to be under-utilized and YHC also needs. Apologies for the whistle, I was channeling the Hoff.

Great to see Dickens, Witchdoctor and DuctWork back out again. In fact, DuctWork Q’s in a couple weeks. I’m assuming running shoes will be in order. Strong work from these guys.

This group of guys is always intimidating for YHC. Strong, fast and relentless. Thanks for the opportunity to lead and learn.

YHC assumed his choice of vernacular towards the end of the BC would ensue some interesting chatter and was not disappointed. 😝

speaking of that, during Compass it was said by Cottontail that the reverse crunch (pup tent) should be named after him. Based on the applause and continued interesting chatter, I would guess (with approval) it is thus renamed:

The Cottontail Special

 

annct: watch for possible Joust relocation !

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ghost Runner and BRR Strategery

9 PAX would have been a solid number for Ghost Runner last year, and this summer I think this is our lowest total so far!  There was a little Twitter encouragement for PAX to step up to the 6 mile option this close to the BRR and most did.

Glass Joe started out strong and led the pack for a good 2 miles.  Then Brady and Turkey Leg decided to start running and pushed off past him up the hill on Providence and into the setting sun, not to be seen again until the Arbo parking lot.  YHC tried to catch Glass Joe on the last 2 miles, but he was able to hold that early lead and I ran out of course (happily).

Appreciate some good 2F with Sanka and Joker for a couple of miles.

Most headed to Vinter’s for a discussion of F3 Dad’s camp and BRR logistics and strategery.

Only 3 Ghost Runner’s left for the season.  Come out and get your double down BRR training in.

Also, the days are getting shorter and the course darker by the time we run the finishing stretch up Raintree.  Be conscious of wearing bright colors and/or head lamps as there is significantly more traffic in the evening than our normal 0-dark-thirty workouts.  A good chance to test out the vest/lamp combo prior to the actual race to make sure it’s not all rubbing the wrong parts.

-Alf

Mr. Webb starting QB for the Jets

As the Q pulled up the Pax was already forming, even Insomniac. That never happens at Base Camp. I think several Pax did a warm up run of 11 miles great job. After everyone finally gathered it was time for 19 non fart sackers to enter the gloom for a moderate beat down.

Warm up:

Mosey to the parking lot next door, with some high knees and butt kickers.

Circle up:
20 X SSH
20 X Imperial Walkers
10 X Merkins
10 X squats
20 X mountain climbers

The Thang:

Mosey to the lot behind the school

6 stations of pain along approximately a quarter mile route AKA the Juggernaut; go around as many times as you can for 30 mins

Station 1 10 X merkins
Station 2 5 X pull-ups
Station 3 10 X squats
Station 4 5 X Burpees
Station 5 10 X CDD
Station 6 10 X Step-ups

Circle up by the baseball fields
A few rounds of Mary
10 X bicycle
10 X flutter
10 X dolley
20 X LBC
20 X rosalita

Stay in circle for a little Jack Webb

1 merkin 4 air presses 2 merkins 8 air presses and so on up to 8 merkins and 36 air presses.

As a pack mosey around the school picking up all the cones.

Moleskin:

Great job everyone. Extra credit to those ruckers Geraldo, Zombie and Dora, I am sure it was touch especially those pull-ups. I did see Smokey getting a little ruck action in, he is a beast at skunk works.

Welcome FNG, Boogie Shoes, and great job out there we hope to see you soon. I think there was a little inside information on his naming. Sound off in the backblast who head locked him into coming. Was it Rocky Top, Tough Skin or The Count, I am getting old and can’t remember anything. Had to leave 10 sticky notes to remember I had to Q today.

Sensei great job pushing through the stations, I know it can be tough but it was only 30 min.

I thought I saw Swissmiss as he was blowing by during the pain stations. Then Quint passed me too, maybe I need to start hitting more workouts.

Dam Gina remember no walking little tiny itsy bitsy baby jogs. Good job out there getting after it 3 or 4 a week and then these will be nothing.

I heard a lot of excitement about the Jack Webb was that Tawny or Whitesnake. Way to push through.

Good to see 777 out there after the Gummy tripping on a pine cone incident even though there wasn’t a pine tree for miles. No injury’s this workout thank you 777; you will have to look back at TRs back blast from leading Death Valley the other week. Then it will all make sense.

Drive by sorry of accusing you from being from LA. Like the name though

Slim Fast, as always flying through the workout even after that 11 mile pre-run. Good job taking us out and thank you for the honor of letting me Q

Insomniac was early

One last thing, after a historic week for the Jets, I thought I might mention I am a NY Jets fan and that is where my name came from. Embarrassing could be

Announcements:

Blue Ridge Relay Drivers and Runners needed contact Turkey Leg. I hear driving the van is the greatest job ever. Ask Geraldo he did it last year, I think he said he would quit his job if he could do it full time.

Mud Run coming up see Mermaid for additional information.

Mountain Goats Like Cool Weather

Well… a little better than the past month, but not as cool as I expected.  However, that didn’t stop 11 PAX from coming to sample a Mountain Goat experience at South Charlotte Middle School.

Here’s the Thang:
1.  Warm-up mile down Strawberry and back.  Head to track for stretching.
2.  Run the following intervals:

400m at 2-3 mi pace, followed by 90-sec recovery
300m at 2-3 mi pace, followed by 90-sec recovery
200m at 2-3 mi pace, followed by 90-sec recovery
100m at 2-3 mi pace, followed by 90-sec recovery, then we reverse —

100m at 2-3 mi pace, followed by 90-sec recovery
200m at 2-3 mi pace… etc. back to 400m followed by 90-sec recovery.

Once the lead lap completed the 400m, we regrouped for an audible.  Most finished the second 300m.

To keep us together, we proceeded to run the following:
1.  400m recovery pace
2.  400m 2-3mi pace/200m recovery/collect the 6
3.  300m 2-3mi pace/200m recovery/collect the 6
4.  200m 2-3mi pace/200m recovery/collect the 6
5.  100m 2-3mi pace/400m recovery and cool-down

End with stretching.  Final miles between 4.5 to 5.25.  Excellent job!

Moleskine:
While the plan seemed to work on paper, in execution, YHC didn’t do a good job of keeping us together, which is an important objective of Mountain Goat.  So after the first ladder, we needed to adjust.  Thanks to everyone for being flexible to adjust the plan!

Welcome to Gooney for his inaugural MG.  You did awesome!  I hope to see you coming back out! Also, welcome to Turkey Leg and Mr. Brady for their inaugural MG.  They were both in the lead lap as would be expected, but also helped to keep the PAX together on the recovery segments.

Baracus was there for his 2nd MG… looking strong… and welcome to Mercury’s Minions!

Great to see Stumphugger out!  I know you have been rehabbing from some injuries, so honored to have you join us!  Looking great!

High Tide, Strange Brew, The Mouth, Geraldo and Booyah… thanks for being the veterans!  Geraldo didn’t know what to do without a ruck, but seemed to survive.  The Mouth was… ’nuff said!

Safe weekend for everyone at F3 Dad’s Camp!  It is going to be a great weekend!

 

no sleep = shared pain for all

10 (eventually turned into 11) men were circled up in the gloom wondering what runstopper would show up today.. the loud commanding runstopper or the subdued runstopper of the past?  Well they soon found out as I quickly said I wasn’t a professional and ask them to follow me… snap, ‘gonna be the latter.

Turn on street near OP, inside voice count for COT:

SSHx20, IW x20

Proceed to nice gradual hill for 11s.  Bottom of hill 1 squat, run to top of speed bump 10 burpees. run back down 2 squats, run to op to speed bump 9 burpees… complete – active recovery

Two lines for Indian Run back to the AO

Partner up for following: 2x

  • Partner – Over Under (partner 1 planks, partner 2 crawls under his body and jumps over his legs) flapjack x20 each partner
  • Pull Ups x20 each partner

Time running out, move to low fence for 10 Burpee Fence jumps (1 burpee, jump over fence, 1 burpee, continue until you reach 10.

Mosey back to parking lot for one final set of Mirkens x20 in cadence.

DONE.

Naked Mole Skin:

I was operating on 4 hours of sleep due to chauffeuring my son and his girlfriend to the J. Cole Concert, so I actually surprised myself when I woke up and felt 100% for todays beat down.

Good to see so many new and old faces (lol) out there this morning.  Thought we missed Puddin-pop in the COT an 11s but he came trucking up the street once we had completed, said he went the opposite direction looking for us. He refused to do his penalty 11s. #whotobelieve

T-claps to Fluty Flakes for managing to keep his ‘boys’ from being hung up on the fence when we were doing the Burpee fence Jumps!  I really didn’t want to call Jenn to inform her of your new status.

Announcements:

Young Life mud run – Sign Up

Blue Ridge Relay – Drivers needed, please see your site Que or check the F3weekly email for details.

Done. Run Stopper

 

 

Ok, who hustles in running?

As tends to happen at Devil’s Turn, 25 men started the run, 24 ended (Madame had a nature’s call that not even the resident porta-pot could handle), and after COT we were suddenly 26.  Mall Cop and Wolfman got a late start to the morning since WM had to wake MC out of the fartsack.  We were glad he did though.

The plan for the day was to hit the hills of Piper Glen in a last big push toward the BRR.  We will continue to repeat this course for the next 3 weeks until it is time for taper week going into the main event.

Since we will be repeating the same route each week, there is an excellent opportunity for metric tracking (Haggis would have been so proud if he would have actually showed up today).  The current observation is that the average track week pace is 15 to 30 seconds faster than the hill week pace.  The challenge today was to hold “marathon” pace even on the hill course and minimize the gap between the track week pace and hill week pace (meaning you are a better hill runner).  For those rule oriented types, the average pace AFTER warmup until COT is what is counted.

Unfortunately, our arm computers were not fast enough on the draw to allow a real time tally of the results in COT.  A few spot observations though showed that at least two (Strange Brew and Simba) actually went faster today on the hills than they do at the track.  What?  It seems that we are being hustled here.  Either that or these men are up for a challenge.

Since it seems the PAX are out to destroy the track/hill hypothesis, here comes a revised challenge.  YHC has broken out a spreadsheet and captured the average pace of those currently on Strava and will do the same for the next 3 weeks (4 weeks total).  Let’s see if you can improve on your average pace over the next 3 weeks.  Boom… the gauntlet has been thrown.

Besides the record performances of Strange Brew and Simba, there were many others pushing themselves to new levels today.  Turkey Leg seems to have not yet cleared up that wild hair situation and was again on a tear.  In fact, TL now shares a record time with Frasier and Bratwurst on the Old Course (in) segment in Strava unseating YHC.  Ouch.

There were many cotters today and it was great to see those long lost DT brothers such as Baracus, Fletch, Exlax, and Brisket.  There could be a correlation with the fact that BRR is only 4 weeks away, but whatever the reason, it is great to have everyone out.

Since it was a challenge week, there was not too much 2nd F going on.  Everyone had their game faces on.  If there were other notable occurrences, sound off in the comments.

Great morning running with you guys!