It was a great day to be at our favorite AO. We set off with a determined and upbeat attitude, ready for whatever The Brave could throw at us. Unfortunately Madame T ruined the good feeling almost immediately with some thoughtless comment comparing Nessie to a giant catfish.
With the tone set, yhc spent the next hour exacting revenge on all the pax.
Warm up: A few Imperial Walkers, then a quick set of high knees and butt kicks was all we needed. No SSH today.
Bear Crawl Merkin Ladder: Inspired by the big man himself (Mighty Mite), this is a parking lot bear crawl where you stop for merkins every two lines along the parking lot. We got to 10, then decided it was too easy and did it again.
Mosey to bottom of long slow hill to begin a distant cousin of 12 days of Christmas: 12 merkins then run to top of hill and back down. 12 heels to heavens + 12 merkins then run up hill and back down. 12 russian twist + 12 heels to heavens + 12 merkins then run up hill and back down. 12 6-count burpees + 12 russian twist + 12 heels to heavens + 12 merkins then run up hill and back down. 12 toe-tapper crunches + 12 6-count burpees + 12 russian twist + 12 heels to heavens + 12 merkins then run up hill and back down. 12 slow bicycles + 12 toe-tapper crunches + 12 6-count burpees + 12 russian twist + 12 heels to heavens + 12 merkins then run up hill and back down.
To keep everyone together we set it up so that everyone turned around on the hill at the same time, whenever the first runner reached the top and yelled out. That way we could complete the routine with no breaks.
Run 1/2 mile to bottom of Dunreggan Brae at mud run pace. Begin Dunreggan sequence: 5 burpees then run up hill for 30 seconds and back down. 6 burpees then repeat run, 7 burpees, repeat, etc all the way to 10. The objective here was to run slightly further each time in the same time period. Start out slow, and gradually push harder each time. Combined with an increasing burpee count, this sucked.
After a few more merkins, head back to the Vine.
Moleskin
This workout was about keeping everyone together in a way that allowed all of us to go at our own pace and maximize work rate throughout. It was a pleasure to lead – got a lot of help from all pax with different exercises – thank you.
There were a lot of strong performances out there today. Frehleys Comet pushed for first place on the hill a couple of times, as did Madame T and fire Hazard. Gekko crushed the second hill – definitely took the record there.
We started off with a mosey down to the front of Harris Teeter.
COP:
20 SSH
20 IW
20 MC
The Thang:
We lined up in front of Harris Teeter, and began the speed hump (SH) merkin challenge. Run in front of HT then behind Walmart to avoid getting hit by an early morning shopper, and perform 15 merkins at each SH. We hit 9 SH for 135 merkins then planked it up.
Circle up for some ab work.
20 x Flutter
20 X Crunch
Continue the theme around the next section of retail shops, but cut merkins back to 5 per SH. We hit 55 more, then planked again.
More ab work.
20xDollies
Same theme with 5 Diamond merkins for the last leg across the front of the theater then back to the AO. We hit another 50 DM for the last stretch.
Partner up. Partner 1 runs around the ABC store, Partner 2 performs squats. Total goal of 300.
Plank up when finished, then head over to the grass hill by Hwy 51. Partner 1 backwards bear crawl up hill, then 10 merkins, Partner 2 wide side lunges. (Keep feet wide and lean left then right) Flapjack. Repeato 2 times for each Partner.
260 Merkins total
COM
10 x right leg can opener
10 x left leg can opener
10 x Alternating toe taps
10 x side crunch right
10 x side crunch left
We had an FNG that just moved down from Liberty University up in VA. He hails from Hillsville. His nickname is Bengals, due to the college nickname of the Flames. Next time he will have to perform the plank for the whole “Enternal Flame” song.
The teasing continues as I take out the blackberry for name-o-rama. Tiger Rag was kind enough to nickname me “Tackle Berry with the Black Berry”. I think he is jealous as is the rest of the PAX since I have a collector’s item. Great work by all. Bulldog took the workout a step further and performed merkins at the cross walks, stop signs, and I think every parking space. He must have done 1,324 total. I wasn’t sure what the total merkin count the PAX could handle, but looks like the next hurdle to hit will be 350, then up from there.
Announcements:
Southern Discomfort, August 1. 14, 10 and 6 mile options.
11 of the faithful showed to prove their mettle this morning. Details in all their gory glory are below.
#Warm Up
Mosey for about 0.0001 of a mile. Is that a Hairband 5K?
**10 Burpees inserted into the Warm Up due to someone showing up late. You guys are a tough crowd.
#The Thang
Line up facing the opposite island. 10 Merkins/1 Broad Jump/9 Merkins/1 Broad Jump/ continue to 1 merkin. Turn around and go back. You ALWAYS go back, amirite?
Line back up. 15 Air Squats/10 lunges (5 each leg). Repeat till the end.
Line up. Again. 3 Merkins, bear crawl to the next parking space and 3 more merkins. Repeat to the end. (YHC note – this was a BAD idea. Like really bad. But we’d committed by the time I realized it was going to suck. Oh well.)
Line back up. Again? Yes, again. 10 Air Squats/10 lunges (5 each leg). Repeat till the end.
I think we did J-Lo’s here. 15 count I think.
We gotta get BACK to where we started, right? Suicides will do. Forward/backward – 2 up/1 back.
#Mary
#Moleskin
As always, thanks to the men of Overdrive for continuing to invite me out and putting up with my BS. Much love, guys.
Large group this morning, I’d love to see these kinds of numbers continue. Strong.
Urrbody working hard this morning. Sweat was everywhere.
Mountain Goat pax were greeted with marginally better weather than earlier in the week but sweating was pretty much guaranteed. A few comments on the pre-blast were made, a short explanation given and off we went for the warm up and The Thang, which went something like this:
Warm up mile – finish at the track
Dynamic stretching
Pyramid
4 – 200M with 200M recovery
2 – 400M with 400M recovery
1 – 600M with 400M recovery (running out of time)
1 – 400M with recovery mosey back to the parking lot
Idea here is to run a consistent pace, slightly slower than a mile time pace. It might make some of the initial 200M intervals seem a bit easy, strangely getting harder as the distances increase, if we had time to get all the way down the last 200M’s wouldn’t have been nearly so easy as the first ones (you’ll have to take my word for it).
NM:
Some really serious effort displayed out there, Semi-Gloss stating up front he would be the six, he is apparently not very good at numbers as he was the 12 with The Mouth (although The Mouth did pull out the 400M “race” at the last interval) but Semi had his excuses lined up so we’ll see how that goes next time. Freedom was absolutely powering through out there, wow is he getting fast, on the last 400M he pushed YHC to the end, strong! Pele and Kilowatt found company in the pain box and just got it done, awesome guys. Mall Cop and Huggy Bear thought the other was pushing the other and that is how it’s done! A real pleasure and honour to lead and so excited at how this workout is coming along.
Great take out by Semi-Gloss, thanks brother!
The chatter begain on Wednesday via Twitter. It continued on Thursday at Ghost Runner and afterwards at Vintner. It seemed that everyone was excited about the new parking deck at the Centurion AO and wanted to know if we would be breaking it in this morning. Some went as far as to show up early Friday morning to Neil Armstrong the thing (Chelms, Hops, Mermaid, Abacus, Cane, Margo, Checkpoint) #PlantTheFlag. Parking decks are like Bob Dylan: immensely popular with the people but YHC will never understand the appeal. After a few strategic head fakes and some internal deliberation, the deck was included in the weinke since if nothing else YHC is a #ManOfThePeople. Today’s plan consisted of Cerberus, three segments named for the three headed hellhound which gaurds the entrance to the underworld in Roman mythology, and Tartaus, the aforementioned parking deck named for a portion of the underworld known as the region of torments. Kip Winger’s favorite number began their weekend thusly:
Cerberus Head #1: Run to the Charlotte Acquatics parking lot and line up for the meat grinder. 20 merkins then run to the top of the hill. 19 jump knee tucks then run to the bottom of the hill. 18 merkins, run, 17 jump knee tucks, run, and so on and so forth all the way down to one.
Cerburus Head #2: Run to the rock pile for some glorious combination lift supersets. Find that the rock pile is gone thanks to the new landscape layout. Panic. Think of something on the fly. Deconstructed burpees it shall be, so 21 squats, 21 merkins, 21 things where you kick your feet in and out from the plank position. Next set, 15 deconstucted burpees. Next set, 9 deconstructed burpees. Somewhere during this Mario appeared out of the darkness, like a ferryman on the river Styx. #ComeSailAway
Cerberus Head #3: Run to the front of the school for strength work on the picnic tables. Three exercises, 100 reps each broken up however you see fit. Split Squats, Dips, Incline Merkins. Once finished gather on the sidewalk for a bit of Mary. Thank you to Chelms for leading this piece.
Tartarus: Will he or won’t he? We ran towards the mouth of the underworld but YHC deliberately stuck to the other side of the road as a bit of a rope a dope. At the last minute we turned toward the gates and into the deck. Run up each ramp, do 20 Dollies and 20 Flutter Kicks, continue the pattern on and on, up and down the deck until the Q calls time. Time called at 6:13, run back to launch point for an on time arrival at 6:15 a.m.
NMM: YHC was crestfallen to learn that the rock pile has gone to the great quarry in the sky, #FarewellWheelhouse. If you were wondering, the rock work was to be three sets of ten reps of Thrusters, Reverse Lunges, and Floor Presses into Crunches. In mythology the Gods often would screw with mortals for their own amusement so we got a taste of that today and had to ad lib. Cerberus was basically two German Shepherd heads and a Corgi head today. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the deck work. The prospect of spending every Friday for the forseeable future at the back of the pack chasing #YouPeople up and down that thing makes YHC feel like Morrissey on muscle relaxers. Thank you to the 16 men who came out this morning, I hope you were rewarded and challenged. Southern Discomfort 8/1/15. Mud Run coming up in October, F3 block of start times has been secured but sign ups are not live yet so be on the lookout. To make up for the missing rock work YHC expects to see all of you at Olympus Saturday morning.
We will be exploring a modified pyramid on Friday, looking to do a series of 4 – 200 M with 200 M recovery, 2 – 400 M with 400 M recovery and 1 – 600 M with 600M recovery and then back down again. The pace that we want to target is ideally consistent across all of the pyramid runs, so that means the 200 M might feel fairly easy whereas the 600 M might be quite a stretch, this means this is probably a fairly tough pace, not a sprint by any means but to try and leverage the lingo, “uncomfortably hard”. We will of course do our warm up and cool down and everyone is not only welcome but expected, no one gets left behind and everyone can benefit, we will regroup during the recovery.
BB posted by Slim Fast on behalf of Sensei:
14 PAX, including 1 FNG ignored the allure of the fartsack and ventured out on this gorgeous morning to Peak51 to see what was in store for them. After the disclaimer was provided, it went a little something like this…
Mosey around the front of FBCM to the side parking lot for COP.
10 Merkins IC
SSH x 20
5 Merkins OYO
IW x 20
4 Merkins OYO
LSS x 20
3 Merkins OYO
Peter Parkers x 10
2 Merkins OYO
Parker Peters x 10
1 Merkin OYO
Repeato in reverse order…
Parker Peters x 10
1 Merkin OYO
Peter Parkers x 10
2 Merkins OYO
LSS x 20
3 Merkins OYO
IW x 20
4 Merkins OYO
SSH x 20
5 Merkins OYO
Stretch Hammies center, right, left. Butterfly stretch
Mosey the rest of the way around the church to the parking lot for Jacob’s Ladder.
Run about 40 yds to one end and do 10 Merkins, Run to other end and do 10 Squats
Repeato decreasing Merkins & Squats by 1 each time until done
Mosey to track for more running.
Run halfway around track and do 10 Carolina Dry Docks
Run rest of way around track and do 10 Lunges each leg
Some PAX did static lunges while others did walking lunges. Q has to be more specific next time around.
Repeato w/ 10 Diamond Merkins & Lunges
Repeato w/ 10 Wide Arm Merkins & Lunges
Mosey back to parking lot for Mary
Before Mary we paid homage to Jack Webb. Jack Webb up to 5 and back down
It was pointed out to the Q that there was a smoother parking lot just around the corner which would have made the Webbs much easier. My apologies as I did not see the smooth, cushioned parking lot when we ran by.
On to Mary
Dolly x 20
Flutter x 20
Freddie Mercury x 20
Quick hammie stretch
Done!!
Moleskine:
This was my 2nd Q and it is truly an honor to lead such great men. Everyone was working hard and seemed sufficiently smoked at the end.
Thanks to Slim Fast, Geraldo and Good Hands for the company on the prerun. All are welcome to join us prior to the workout every week.
Geraldo got extra extra credit by rucking during the workout. Though he’s worn that thing so much it may be surgically attached to him by now. I’m not sure.
Welcome Fixit Felix and we hope to see you back again.
Excellent takeout Freedom.
Announcements:
Brew Ruck this Saturday 7/18
Go Ruck Light next Saturday 7/25
Southern Discomfort Saturday 8/1. 3 levels of fun.
BRR teams still looking for runners/drivers. Contact Turkey Leg for more info.
Please chime in with any additional comments/thoughts.
Today YHC figured that we would take a tour of the lovely hills that surround the Rebel Yell AO.
The Thang….
We moseyed over to the theater parking lot for the COP (20 SSHs and 20 IWs)
YHC figured that the PAX were warm enough so we moseyed on over to the speed bumps behind the Target. Here we completed burpees at each speed bump adding 2 each time. This put us ending at 12 which equals 42 total burpees. We added a few plank exercises while we waited on the 6.
From there we moseyed on over to the hill beside the Target and partnered up. Partner 1 runs up the hill and partner 2 does merkins. Flapjack and keep going until you reach a combined 100. Here we added LBCs OYO until everyone had completed the 100.
Next we circled up in front of the target for a some flutters and then continued on to the big hill near Cantina 1511. I thought this would be a good spot for some 7’s (burpees at the bottom and squats at the top). Once done, we completed a few more plank exercises until all had completed the 7’s.
Then we moseyed behind the movie theater and lined up on the wall for a little peoples chair while the PAX gathered. Once everyone was accounted for we did 5 rounds of 10 merkins at the top of the hill and 20 LBC’s at the bottom.
Luckily we still had time left to get to the Murderhorn. We ran to the bottom with some more planks waiting on the six and then did 10 merkins and 10 jump squats. Then it was all you got to the top. Once there head back for the 6 to finish together.
It was time for Mary but we still had one hill left. So we hurried over to the hill by the start point and did 10 Dolly’s at the bottom and 10 LBC’s at the top then 10 Rosalita’s at the bottom and 10 LBC’s at the top and finally 10 flutters at the bottom and 10 LBC’s at the top. While I was running to get my phone Mighty Mite led the PAX in a round of Freddy Mercury’s.
I appreciate the PAX letting me lead them today. It was an honor and a privilege. Everyone pushed hard and gave it their all. As usual Mighty Mite and Heart Breaker were leading the pack in many of the exercises. Also, I must mention that Cable Guy was tearing it up on the Murderhorn. I appreciate you 3 pushing us all. I am sure there were some other superstars out there that I missed as they flew past me on the hills.
Announcement:
Southern Discomfort August 1st – pick from 14.1 miles, 10.8 miles and 6.0 miles
BRR Septembers 11th some teams maybe looking for alternates
Mud Run October 24th – more information to come on sign-ups
Nine studs started off their day at Hydra this only semi-humid morning. We had police escorts the entire time due to it being Puddin Pops’ birthday (technically yesterday) and reasonable fear that the paparazzi may converge upon and interupt the workout should PP decide to go shirtless on his 38th special day. With a cruiser parked in the OPE lot, one parked in a driveway we passed and another driving past us during a run, we felt sufficiently flanked. So off we went:
Warm Up: Mosey to field behind OPE for:
Shopping for PP’s birthday:
We headed to Harris Teeter so we could pick out some balloons and cake for the big day. We partnered up for the approximate 0.75 mile jog there and on my notice, partner #1 would do 10 merkins while partner #2 would do 10 squats. Flapjack on each alternating notice. Unfortunately, HT was all out of birthday trimmings so we circled up for 38 LBC’s in the medical plaza parking lot behind HT instead.
Staying in the parking lot, we jumped into a merkin circle. Tightly assembled, we did the following:
Run back to OPE with partner #1 doing 5 plank jacks on my notice while partner #2 does 5 SSH’s. Flapjack on alternating notices.
Once back to OPE, we headed to the playground. Staying with our partner, #1 would conduct given exercise while partner #2 ran to assigned destination and back. Flapjack upon return:
Gassers in open field:
With a ten count provided by each of the 8 pax (YHC excluded) in between sprints, we ran from the fenceline to the batting cages (75 yards?) AYG.
Mary Cool Down:
That’s a wrap!
Moleskin:
I love the workouts where the pax stays together the whole time! It not only makes it easier as the Q, but it mainly provided great 2nd F, which we had plenty of today! Gummy provided his ample amount of Q heckling throughout, we got to celebrate PP’s birthday and we got to catch up with Mall Cop who has been nursing himself back to health the last few months (although he stuck with it the whole time so the IT band must be hopefully feeling better)….great time! Every single one of you brought it this morning. I worked with Pop Tart for at least five years in a former life and never knew how fast he was at sprints….then again I never raced him to the copier back then. Strong!! Tackling Dummy, great to make your acquaintance man and hope to see you in the gloom again soon! Huggie Bear, you have been quickly moving up in pole position man! Each time I see you, more strength and speed get displayed. Harley, it is always a pleasure….sometime you will have to teach me how you stay so calm and relaxed regardless if you are recovering or in the midst of pain….impressive. And Ironsides….way to earn the extra credit by running it in and back to home….Fast Twitch boys, look out!
I hear through the grapevine we covered about 2.75 today. I wanted to get 3 so I apologize for not paying better attention toward the end to our mileage, but I still feel beat….hope you all do, too!
PP, thanks for the chance to lead! It was an honor. Happy birthday, bro!
Announcements:
Southern Discomfort is Aug 1. Register on the site so we know how much water/gatorade to make available. This is the last day to order the official t-shirt for the event!
PP….Thanks for the great take-out!
Hopper
We were eleven in number. A malodorous, stiff-backed, collection of misfits. Not counting the walking guy with the bandage on his head pruning the trees.
WARMUP was something to the tune of 1H Swings, Halos, Squat and Good Mornings plus 1 minute of free play.
COMPLEX – 30 seconds of each, 10 minutes of continuous movement.
DEAD STOP swings (5×5), cleans and snatches (5×3). Dead stop concept explained HERE. Pretty tough when you take the momentum out and great practice in starting and parking your bell(s).
REGULAR swings and cleans (5×5). Snatches for 3 minutes to close.
COT
MOLESKINE
A little variety and experimentation with the dead stops. I like them, as they force proper start and stop form, in addition to mandating powerful hip drive. Abbreviated Moley, jump in on the comments.