Squeaker

Squeaker

The Glass Joe one year anniversary Q. Well, I hadn’t planned on it coming in but my voice was a little, well, squeaky today which made me sound like Mike Tyson whose Punch Out video game I was named for due to the closeness of my hospital name to his. So, that gave the PAX something to harass me with during COP but I got them back later. Let’s go.

Pre-Work:
Great job by Shepherd and Turnpike for joining EE and I for the full 5 mile pre-run. Getting stronger guys!

The Thang:
Mosey to the flag

COP:
SSH x 20
IW x 15
3 second hold merkins x 12 (had planned on more but started laughing)

Mosey to Tri-Level ramp.
Low, Slow Squats x 10 while we wait for the crowd to gather.

Something new I’m calling Rail Hold Tunnel of Bear Crawls. Sort of like a modified Native American run except the crowd is doing rail holds forming a tunnel for the one on the end to bear crawl under and then do a rail hold himself and we kept the line moving until we had gone up all three levels. Well, since we bear crawled up and your shoulders already hurt, let’s Rail Hold Tunnel of Crab Walk back down. The chatter indicated it was a #crowdpleaser

Mosey to the back road finishing with a sprint to the stop sign.
You knew it was coming, backwards run up to the road that leads to the fields.
Stop to do Army situps x 15

Mosey to the fields.
Devin Hesters x 4
Going long-ways across the field (guessing 150 yards), buttkickers and then karaoke left and right.
Partner wheelbarrow with flapjack as needed back across the field long ways. #revenge

Mosey to the stadium
Stairway to Heaven with P1 stair running x 2 while P2 does the called exercise. Flapjack.
Exercises were:
Burpees
Dips
LBCs

Mosey to the track for the Road to Nowhere
1/2 track run and then a cadenced exercise. Here were the exercises:
SSH x 20
Dolly x 34 (random number of no significance)
LBCs x 10
10 burpees OYO.
This meant 2 laps around or 1/2 mile run.

Mosey to obstacle course and the PAX went through the entire course once
Mosey to the bottom of the hill for a jail break back to the flag.

DONE!

COT

Moleskine:
I hope I met all your expectations for my one-year anniversary Q. It had the amount of running that you would expect from a Glass Joe Q but I hope the Rail Hold Tunnel of Bear Crawls/Crab Walks and Flapjack Partner Wheelbarrows across a field that was way too long threw some surprises in for you. Great to have such a large crowd today at Outland. Welcome to FNG Fish Head (Billy C.) and site FNG Sweat Shop. Hope to see you guys back out. And it was good to see Espresso return. Wise choice on switching the coffee for water this week.

Personal Note:
This Q did mean a lot to me. I started F3 in March 2014 after being EH’d by The Late Show. But, there is something bigger at play. Some of you know this but all of you need to know why this matters. My Mom passed away in November 2012 from a 9 month battle with cancer. In October 2012, she had to go into the hospital for a few days due to complications and in her hospital room, we had about 5 minutes together where we were alone. As you can imagine, we shared stuff with each other that I hold with me to this day and haven’t even shared with my M. But, there is one part I want to share with you guys. She made me literally promise to take care of my wife and my girls. Made me say it out loud. A few weeks after she passed away, I went for my first annual physical since literally middle school and because of my weight (nearly 240 pounds), my Dr. listened to my heart. I was 34. 34! Let that sink in. And I had just made a promise a month before to my Mom who had passed away. Things had to change. Even with that, I was stubborn for a while and thought I could just play basketball once a week and be okay. Then the group I was playing with stopped meeting so I took up running in May 2013 for the first time in my life with the Couch to 5K program. And I lost weight and thought I was meeting the promise. Then I started to slack up in early 2014 as #solo has no accountability. My demon of laziness had not been killed, just suppressed. So, all that to say, F3’s not just a workout to me. It’s something deeper. It’s a promise kept and you guys are my accountability to keep the promise I made. I am thankful for each of you always pushing me for more. You honor not just me but my Mom as well. I can never repay you for this impact each of you has made in my life.

Spring Flowers bring FNG’s

We are happy to see 5 FNG’s join Commitment over the last 3 weeks.  Hopefully we can continue to grow as the warmer weather comes back.

7 men started their weekend off with some sweating and grunting.

Warm-up

SSH x 25 IC

IW x 25 IC

20yd Butt kicks down and back

20yd High knees down and back

20yd lunge walk down and back

10 burpees w/ high knee jump

Workout

Mosey to the back of the school for some peoples chair with 30 sec of Jabs

Mosey to the bridge to inch worm across

Hit the field for some 4 corner action

Round 1

sprint 100yds 20 merkins – backwards run the end zone 20 merkins – sprint 100yds 20 merkins – backwards run the end zone – plank until the six finishes.

Round 2

sprint 100yds 20 squats – karaoke run the end zone  20 squats – sprint 100yds 20 squats – karaoke the end zone – Peter Parker until the six finishes.

Round 3

Sprint 100yds 20 LBC – crab walk the end zone 20 LBC – sprint 100yds 20 LBC – carb walk end zone – low plank left hand/right hand until six finishes.

Round 4

Sprint 100yds 20 mtn climbers – bear crawl end zone 20 mtn climbers – sprint 100yds 20 mtn climbers – bear crawl end zone – plank jacks until the six finishes.

Mosey over the the track for  a 300 yd recovery jog.

Partner up for some bleachers.

P1 bleacher run – P2 Carolina Drydock flapjack once P1 finishes bleachers – SSH until the six finishes.

P1 bleacher run – P2 Jump Lung flapjack once P1 finishes bleachers – burpees until the six finishes.

P1 bleacher run – P2 Low Squat flapjack once P1 finishes bleachers – continue low squats until the six finishes.

P1 bleacher run – P2 Shoulder pull on back of bleacher flapjack once P1 finishes bleachers.

Take the field behind the bleachers for some quick field work.

Partner carry 50yds flapjack back

Wheelbarrow 50yds flapjack back

Mosey back to to the parking lot for Mary

Bicycle x 20 IC

Russian Twist x 20 IC

I am thankful that I had the opportunity to lead such a great group of guys.  The FNG’s were really pushing hard on their first time out.  Ice 9 is such a great inspiration to all of us, thank you for the positive energy you bring to the group.

Announcements:

Mud Run 4/11

Spartan Race 4/11 & 4/12

BRR in September 200+ miles

 

Fury 365

It was opening day for Fury 325 at Carowinds and the thrills started early at Ascent.  Drop Thrill brought the pain to celebrate one year in the F3 brotherhood and in some weird way to celebrate his 204th coaster ridden.  Also another random coaster fact for you, I ended my Intimidator all-time ride count last year at… 325.  Coincidence?  Aliens? You decide.

The tides were both High and Low and as soon as Byron landed the Ridgeline back on two wheels, we were off.

The Thang

COP

15-SSH
20- Imperial Walkers
20- Squats
20- Freddie Mercury

Marsha gets too much screen time, it’s time for Cindy!

This was a blast from the back blast of my first post 12 months ago lead by both Tides.  For 20 minutes, or till the Q figures out what’s next, do the following on repeat, no shuffle, just repeat:

5 Pull Ups
10 Merkins
15 Squats

Next mosey to a patch of grass since all the fields had been prepped for Atlanta Braves spring training.

Partner Up for cumulative sets while you partner runs down the baseball fence and back:

100- Squats
150- Star Jumps (an old Byron special as pointed out by BLC)
150- Little Baby Crunches

At this point I had 50 burpees on the menu, but skipped it as I saw many were getting gassed.

Next mosey back to the school and grab a piece of wall…but not for People’s Chair, Oh No!

Time for Step Ladder BTTW (or Ascending Testicles as the Exercise Lexicon calls them).

Feet on the wall, basically horizontal – 5 derkins – Recover
Walk your feet up a bit more – 5 derkins – Recover
Walk your feet up as far as you can – 5 derkins – Recover

Mosey back to the playground where we did Cindy

Someone asked if we were doing Cindy again.  I’ll leave that question alone, but the answer was no.

Time for step ladder of DOOM!

Repeat all exercises the number indicated and then repeat, going up or down the ladder in order of 2,4,6,8,8,6,4,2:

Dips
Merkins
Step Ups

Just a bit more time left for Mary.  There’s something about her.

15 – Flutters
15 – (Hello) Dolly!
Protractor fun

And we’re done!

Moleskin

Great work out there men! Welcome Blue Bomber to F3 Nation brother, strong work out there. Keep posting and you’ll see amazing things happen in your life as I’ve seen the past year.

Strong work all, calling out Pele who has come a long way and looking stronger every time I post with him.

*The Mouth was trying for a world record of posting the most at F3 on a Saturday so he posted at The Rock then left and came to Ascent.  Ha!  Good to see you come sauntering up half way through the workout.  Hope the world record folks get your record er, recorded.

Thanks to all the guys that posted to support my one year Q and just posted.  F3 has made an amazing impact in and on my life and now through my life as about a dozen guys now have been impacted through my life because of F3 and many are regulars in A51 and Union County because of what started one year ago at Ascent.  Thank you.

I loved the mumblechatter during Mary, I wondered how I’d handle that, but I found it hilarious as I couldn’t understand what BLC was saying, so I just laughed and kept on with the cadence.

Announcements: Mud Run, Golf, Zip, Think that was it.  Chime in for what I missed.

Thank you brothers, always an honor to lead such strong brothers and men.

 

 

Breaking the Wind Atop The Rock

The SF was planted, 10 pax including 1 FNG and one site Q via mountain bike were disclaimed by Baracus, and then launched another Saturday morning assault on The Rock.

The Thang:

Baracus Q:

Little jog around the parking lot with some buttkickers (or as autocorrect on my Mac calls them, “bootlickers”), high knees, karaoke…
COP
  • SSH x20 IC
  • Slow Squat x20 IC
  • IW x20 IC
  • Merkins x20 IC
  • Hillbilly squat x 20 (new exercise to many in this group….cadence count was a little tricky)
Jog over to end of parking lot for suicides (some chatter heard by YHC when I called this…something tells me this was expected…any bets won/lost?)
  • Perform 5x of called exercise, run to first island and return
  • Perform 10x of called exercise, run to second island and return
  • Perform 15x of called exercise, run to third island and return
  • Perform 20x of called exercise, run to fourth island and return
  • Exercises were merkins, squats, and hand-release merkins; with plankorama between sets
Jog over to courtyard area for partner exercises
  • Partner 1 in peoples chair while partner 2 does tricep dips off partner 1’s knees / flapjack
  • Partner 1 does decline merkins with feet on partner 2’s back (partner 2 in plank) / flapjack

Hops Q:

Quick run over to the picnic tables for the following:

Jump up x 20 OYO

Chilcutt

1-Legged Squat x 10R & 10L IC

Jump up x 20 OYO

Laettner

Dancing Chilcutt x 13 IC

Jump up x 20 OYO

1-Legged Squat x 13R & 13L IC

Run to Rocks near baseball field.  Grab a good sized one for the following

Slow Squat w/ rock x 13 IC

Overhead Press w/rock x 13 IC

Drop Rock

CDD x 10 IC

Good morning w/rock x 13 IC

Worthless Bicep curl x 13 IC

Run to launch lot for Mary

Slow Flutter x 13 IC

Freddy Mercury x 13 IC

Makthar Ndiaje x 13 IC

Knee Up x 10 IC

Cumberland County Viaduct x 13R.  Flapjack. x 13L IC

Russian Twist x 13 IC

Then Udder soiled himself, and YHC had to bail and end it a minute early.  Mercy!

COT

Ye Olde Moleskine:

Good effort by the pax. Special welcome to Wings – come back soon brother.  You kept up quite well for your first post.

Gummy had to be called out in COP for modifying poorly.  Being on IR is no excuse for lollygagging.

YHC was hurting something fierce during the suicides with H-R merkins.  #pencilarms

T-claps to Baracus for calling that unsavory concoction.

Not only did Udder bring a premature end to the Mary session with his vicious crop-dusting; I was certain something had S*^% under one of the picnic tables during our Jump Up, Squat session, but Udder later claimed that SBD as well.  #wipe #muddydrawers

Good to see Ray Charles back at The Rock.

Flipper, Taffy and Iron Horse were out front quite a bit and Cable Guy is clearly getting stronger with his consistent posts throughout the week.

there were announcements: Zip – contribute if so inclined – check with Horsehead for details

MudRun teams need some replacements.

Rave at the Brave

Great workout as the weather stayed warm (61 degrees at launch) for most of the time but dropped like a rock by 10 degrees with a drizzle and wind.  Kudos to the PAX for bringing their A game this morning as we did a variety of stations and covered a lot of ground at a brisk pace.  I almost confused Chipotle with Frazier today….Chippy is starting to look like a runner!!  Tomorrow at Stonehenge, which has the same launchpoint as the Brave, promises to be ugly as Mic Check is on Q and he didn’t post this morning…a rested Mic Check is bad news for tomorrow’s PAX for sure!!

Warmup: Mosey on long straight parking lot to the left of Einsteins and back to the corporate park. Circled for warmup:  SSH X 10, Merkins X 10, Squats X 10, Mountain Cl X 10, 8-Count Burpee X 10. Mosey to knee wall / fountain area…

Workout: Derkins X 15, Dips X 20, Knee ups on wall for abs X 20. Bear crawls to street (about 30 yards). Mosey 1/4 mile to lake and the grass hill. 

10 sets of Merkins X 15 reps for 150 total; in between each Merkins set we ran hills (X 4), laps around the lake (X 3), and high knees up the steps (x 3).

Mosey to parking lot for Mary:  LBC, Flutter, Dolly, Heels to Heaven – each set X 20.

Mosey to street for sprints: 200 yards @ 3/4 sprint pace; 100 yards @ sprint pace (Repeat each). Plank and 6 inches on the curb between sprints. Cone work: Start from plank position and run through cones placed in the parking lot.  Backwards run, shuffle, lunge walk.

Run 1/2 mile to fitness trail;  Dips X 10, pullups X 10, Burpees X 10.  Repeat. Run to short steps by the lake for bunny hops, single steps, double steps, followed by plank at the top in the parking lot with 10 diamnond merkins.  Run back to launch.

Hard Work & Respect

The tweet went out last night… Watch Lone Survivor tonight and embrace the suck in the gloom…

The Thang
Let’s mosey! And off to toward the elementary school we go!

Lung Walk past the school buses and then back pedal the length of the fence to the track.

COP

A little backwards but now we do:
SSH x 20
IW x 20

ok the real thang…

A quick explanation of Lone Survivor for some and what the Murph is along with the respect for that S.E.A.L team and this is how we will honor them.

What we will do is a mini or modified Murph

lap around track
10 pull ups
20 push ups
30 squats

No ruck? Add 10 reps to each exercise.

We will do this for 30 minutes GO!

Times up lets mosey back, a little lunge walk and then the rest of the way just in time for a quick round of Mary

Flutters x 20
Freddie Mercury x 20

COT

Moleskin

My goal was to find something for everyone and that includes Drop Thrill and I using the ruck.
Well DT was not feeling well and there was a little mention of a possible Dora sighting but neither happened. I rucked anyway. I think it was a smoker for everyone, not much mumble chatter. Simple and effective, what else can you ask for.

The Hydra Hotel Room Special

So YHC planned most of the workout after ones that I have done in my hotel room, usually in the middle of suffering through jet lag and the workout is done primarily to help get over the time difference.  Well we had 13 men get after the 0530 start time to get their bodies moving and blood flowing and it went something like this:

Short jog around small track x2

Field in front of school for;
SSH x 25

IW x 25

Burpees on Q count x 10

Dips oyo x 20

Burpees on Q count x 9

Elevated CDD’s oyo x 10

Burpees on Q count x 8

Squats oyo x 20

Burpees on Q count x 7

Dips oyo x 20

Burpees on Q count x 6

Elevated CDD’s oyo x 10

Burpees on Q count x 5

Squats oyo x 20

Burpees on Q count x 4

Jump ups oyo x 10

Burpees on Q count x 3

Flutter oyo x 20 (per leg)

Burpees on Q count x 2

Jump ups oyo x 10

Burpees on Q count x 1

Flutters oyo x 20 (per leg)

mosey to playground equipment

partner up for partner AMRAP pullups + 2

10 derkins

Flapjack

Repeato

Mosey to small football field

bearcrawl across field

crabwalk back

mosey to school wall

wall sit x 2 (second one includes arm raises)

btw x 2

modified wall sit for hip/groin flexibility

mosey to small track for 4 corners with 10 merkins/corner

mosey to parking lot

Flutter x 20

Sid-The-Kid x 10 each way oyo

now it’s 6:15 and time to quit

Had a blast Q’ing at Hydra for the first time, it is an AO YHC knows well due to work at Ascent but this crowd was great, although YHC learned that the instructions for the pullups should have been doled out in pieces as the entire routine was too much at one time, tclaps to those that did extra credit. Was great to see Skywalker out there, missed you brother, so glad you’re back. Strong effort by the crew, many were doubting the viability of much of the workout of being done in a hotel room, minus the mosey and run portions (kept to a minimum), you can pretty much do everything else (minus the pullups usually and the animal movements) in most hotel rooms if needed, just saying.

Announcements:

Zip-A-Dee move help is needed as are donations, see the e-mail or Horsehead and/or Countertop

Mud Run could still probably use a few guys to round out some teams.

Polish or Turkish Get-Ups?

YHC pulled into an empty parking lot 10 minutes before launch.  BOG was the next to arrive followed by the rest of the PAX.  There were 4 over achieving PAX who ran to the site (Mermaid, Dory, Sacagawea & the late arriving Scabby).  YHC got a little “trigger happy” and the PAX departed before Scabby arrived.  No worries as Scabby appeared during COP.

The Thang:

Run from launch to parking lot on 51 by McDonalds for COP

COP:

SSH x 20 IC

Burpee x 5 OYO

Merkin x 20 IC

Burpee x 5 OYO

IW x 20 IC

Burpee x 5 OYO

Shoulder Touches x 20 IC

Burpee x 5 OYO

Mosey to parking lot next to Palatine Hill & partner up

Partner 1 performs exercise while partner 2 runs to end of parking lot and back.  Flap jack and partner 2 continues exercise while partner 1 runs to the end of the parking lot and back.  As a team both partners complete the number of exercises called out

Round 1: Merkins x 100

Round 2: Dry Docks x 80

Round 3: Elbow Planks (1 round each)

Mosey over to the base of Palatine Hill

Run to the top of Palatine and do 10 “Polish” Get-ups.  Run down side of hill and around to the base and do 15 Squats.  Total of 5 rounds.  After round 2, modified to 5 “Polish” Get-ups and 10 Squats.

Mosey over to parking lot next to Cabo’s Mexican Restaurant for one round of reverse suicide runs.

Run to launch lot

5 MoM:

LBC x 40

Heels to Heaven x 20

Flutter x 20

X’s and O’s x 10

Elbow Plank – 1 minute

Moleskin:

Strong group of men today at #F3Centurion. YHC tried to fake out the PAX by running past Palatine Hill.  There was some chatter when “Polish” Get-ups were announced.  YHC did not realize they are actually called Turkish Get-ups.  The PAX avoided all fire ants and the heavy rain which is was a plus. Sending our best out to Rip Curl who pulled a muscle during the work out.

Announcements:

Remember that there is more to F3 than just the 1st F.  Explore opportunities to participate in 2nd and 3rd F groups.

Volunteer Opportunity – Brookstone School is looking for volunteers to tutor, read and spend time with its students.  Hannibal has details if interested.

 

 

Circuits of Fun (a.k.a. Pain)

9 men met at Charlotte Christian School for a fun-filled morning of running, pull ups, kettlebells, etc. I had asked the PAX in the Thursday night pre-tweet to bring their favorite kettlebell, but apparently no one at Joust actually uses Twitter. Thankfully, I have four and Joker had his M’s (why else would he have a 25 lb. kettlebell in his car?).

The Thang:

Grab the KBs and mosey to the field above the bleachers. Drop kettlebells and run down to the 50 yard line.

COP:

  • Disclaimer given (drilled into YHC after 2 consecutive Saturdays of Q school)
  • SSH x 21 IC
  • IW x 26 IC
  • Merkins x 15 IC
  • Slow squats x 20 IC (3 down, 1 up)

Next, we did a walk through of the morning’s circuit. There was a lot of mumblechatter as we didn’t actually perform any exercises during the walkthrough. However, once the workout started, there was very little mumblechatter. Here’s the circuit:

  • Run up Grandma Mountain to the playground equipment and do 10 (or max) pullups=
  • Run to the blue door and do 20 jump squats
  • Run to the kettlebells and do 20 reps of your favorite exercise (YHC did swings, snatches, cleans and OH press on successive rounds)
  • Run to the top of the bleachers for 20 derkins and 20 dips
  • Run down to the track and run around counter-clockwise back to the base of Grandma Mountain, stopping at the 10 yard line for 20 yards of bear crawls.

The goal was to complete 5 rounds or stop at 6:10. Most of us got 3+ rounds done. Lobstah Roll and Joker were at 4-5.

6:10 – plank up near kettlebells and wait for PAX to gather. RAH, RLH, Regular, LAH, LLH.

Grab kettlebells and mosey back to the start point for a little Mary

  • 25 x LBC IC
  • 15 x Heels to Heaven IC

COT – Thanks to Smokey for taking us out.

Moleskine:

– YHC designed this workout to keep everyone working hard at their own pace. The speedsters would do more and the Clydesdales would do less, but everyone would be in constant motion. The PAX didn’t let me down as everyone was pushing hard all morning. It’s always an honor to lead such a great group at Joust.

– Lobstah Roll and Joker led once YHC took the training wheels off. They bailed before COT, presumably to get their weekly blood transfusion from Superman because they were flying out there.

– #Kotters to Shockoe Bottom, who has been on IR for a while. It was great to have you back out there and hope to see more of you.

– Good to see Strange Brew, fresh off of his travels to Asia. To avoid congestion at any of the workout stations, he ran the course backward. #CrazyCanadian

Announcements:

– Please consider making a donation to help Zip-a-Dee with his medical expenses. Assistance is also needed in moving him tomorrow. Please reach out to Countertop or Horse Head if available.

– Mud Run bus and sundry payments are due. Sign up now to reserve your space. There are also a few teams looking for a 4th if anyone is interested in the premier CSAUP of the Spring. See the website for more information.

Warm Weather Brings Back the Boardwalk

12 men shook off the thoughts of fartsacking this am and set out to sharpen their running skills at the Turn.  After a couple of arrivals right at the wire, we set out of the parking lot headed for the boardwalk.

We started with a nice casual pace for the first mile as everyone warmed up and got some good fellowship time in.  After about the first mile we stepped up into more of a marathon pace as we cruised right past the Johnston Road Entrance. Continued down the boardwalk for about another mile before turning around and heading back to the Johnston Road Entry.  Once we got back to the Johnston Road Entrance we regrouped and set out on a progression run back to the Bevington parking lot.  The plan was to get progressively faster with each quarter mile by trimming 5 seconds off your pace with every quarter mile.

Moleskin:

Everyone seemed to enjoy the warmer weather and the opportunity to get back to the “flat” land of the greenway.  There appeared to be some nice chatter amongst the PAX as we began our run.  As the tempo picked u:p Rock Thrill found his way to the front and set the pace for the tempo run.  Saw no otters this time, but we did wake up a few deer.

Once the progressive run began, Honey Bee and Rock Thrill took off and really pushed the pace.  Even though YHC warned the PAX about starting too fast I fell into the trap and did just that.  Thanks to Sanka and Cheddar for helping to push to the end.  Everyone really embraced the progressive run and made for a nice finish to the workout.

It was great seeing so many Devils Turn regulars back out along with some frequest visiting PAX.  Nice work everyone.

 

Announcements:

Check out the mudrun, F3 Golf Tournament and third F at Ballantyne on Wednesdays at Einstein Bagels.