Grinders are a good way to start the week.

Grinders are a good way to start the week.

16 men decided to start the week off right and breath in deep the Gloom.

Veteran crew so quick disclaimer was given and off we went.

Mosey around lot twice
Butt kickers
Carioca right
Carioca left

Jog down to filed.

COP(* = in cadence)
SSH x 25*
5 Burpees oyo
IW x 15*
4 burpees oyo
Slow Squat x 15*
3 burpees oyo
MC x 15*
2 burbees oyo
5 x slow merkins (5 second hold at top and bottom)
1 burpee oyo

The Thang:

3 man grinders.

Divide up into groups of 3.

#1 stays at the track doing the following work:
10 x dive-bomb merkins (and no this isn’t anything like a burpee),
10 x jump squats,
10 x heels to heaven.
(Rinse and repeat until your teammate comes to relieve you)

#2 and #3 go to bleachers and both go thru one set of the following:
10 x steps (each leg),
10 x dips,
10 x derkins.
#2 stays and rinse and repeat until teammate arrives to relieve you.

#3 runs back up walkway, up the stairs and then down the path to the football field to teammate.
#3 will start doing the dive-bomb pushups, jump squats and heels to heaven while the other teammate, #1 runs back to the bleachers and relieves #2

Rinse and Repeat until time is called.

Line up across field in front of soccer goal
On your belly – Count down 3, 2, 1 – AYG to other end line – mosey back
(rinse and repeat x 3, with starts by Fireman Ed and White Snake)

Mosey up to parking lot.
6 (rather 3 minutes) of Mary
Flutter Kick x 15 – in cadence
Dollies x 15 – in cadence

6:15 – Done

NMM

Brought some continuous motion to Base Camp and the pax crushed it – solid work by everyone out there today. Hard to see much so if YHC missed something please shout out below in the comments. YHC did notice that by the time YHC was starting to get into the exercises, Hammer was already there to take our place (YHC was part of a four man team, and Duff got the unfortunate luck to be stuck with YHC)

YHC also loves sprints, gets the heart rate up quick but then gives you a chance to recover. YHC also learned that Morning Star has a completely different gear than most mortals. YHC thought he was fast until Morning Star turned on the boosters and made YHC look silly (not that its hard to do that). btw – Fireman Ed – next time don’t try to outrun Morning Star and your hammy may survive. Granted until it blew you were moving brother. Base Camp crew is a great group to workout with and start the week off with.

Thanks for the privilege and honor to get to lead such a strong group.

Shout out in the comments if YHC missed anything.

Announcements:

3 Golf Tournament – Don’t wait – sigh up today or TR will hunt you down. The date is Thursday April 30th. Here is the link to the post:
http://f3nation.com/2015/02/04/the-2nd-annual-f3-golf-classic/

3/21 – Team Chepul Hill Race For Brain Cancer Research – Team Chepul Hill has been created to support our brother Bill who is battling brain cancer. March 21, 2015 at Marshal Park in Charlotte. Sign up to race with Team Chepul Hill here: http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/site/TR?team_id=71982&pg=team&fr_id=2420&et=rooeuNcYZa7hnaNhPhYw_Q

HDHH at Mellow Mushroom in Ballantyne on Wed, 3/11, from 5-8 pm with 10% of proceed being donated for La Flor Bridge Project in Nicaragua.

Champagne Out

Matrix BackBlast

13 PAX, with a special appearance by Wolfman (hoooowwwww), attacked the matrix for a solid 43:56.

2 Laps of MRE with 90 Merkins mixed in

IC:

25 Merkins

30 Low Slow Squats

30 Mountain Climbers

30 Freddy Mercury’s

Protractor – for slightly too long

On to the Field for a Pyramid:

Burpees, Jump Knee Tucks, Drydocks, and Stump Huggers for 5, 10, 15, 20, 15, 10, 5 – running the full length of the field in between sets.

 

To the Wall:

Peoples Chair – leg up, leg down, some recovery, followed by more sitting and shoulder presses, Run-Stopper style, slightly.

 

Back IC to wrap up:

40 LBC

30 Mason Twists

Q-gassed out, and yes, stopped 1:04 short on the morning – no excuse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

KB Pentathlon

Twelve angry men were convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the KB Pentathlon is nasty.

The preblast gave the format:


 

  • 1H Swings x 6 min.  3 min recovery
  • Snatch x 6 min.  3 min recovery
  • Press x 6 min. 3 min recovery
  • Clean x 6 min. 3 min recovery
  • Racked Squat x 6 min. 3 min recovery

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.

Spreadsheet is HERE if you want it.  We’ll need every minute to finish on time so come early to warm up as needed.


Most guys paid heed to the advice to post early and warm up.  All except the Q, who was on autopilot, leaving the house at the usual 0510.  Came in hot, but had to start cold.

You ever walk into a room and everyone stops talking?  You ever walk into a room and everyone stops talking, and then someone gets in their car and leaves?  That was this me, Foxhole, and Honey Bee, respectively. Look, I didn’t think anything of it when Honey Bee dropped from Free Range: Big time engineering job,(corner cubicle and three monitors.) young kids at home.  And that head isn’t gonna shave itself.  Who’s got time to train, you know?  But then this morning, when he saw the One-Eyed TRuckster coming in on two wheels, all of a sudden his tummy hurt.  Tearing asunder the Enginerd Brotherhood is as unlikely as disassociating an ionic bond. And, yet, that’s where we find ourselves this Monday morning.  I know.  I’m as shocked as the shark in Jaws 2. It seems that being my personal KB valet is working out as well for HB as it is for me.  I guess I should have seen it coming.

But enough about yet another of my dysfunctional relationships.  We worked out, too.  The KB Pentathlon was something I discovered a couple of weeks ago, after getting sucked down a You Tube wormhole.  The original program is HERE.  I took the liberty of modifying it because, 1) we don’t ever do jerks and 2) that seems like a lot of presses.  This isn’t something we’d want to do every week but it is, I think, a good measure of conditioning, strength and endurance.  I didn’t dry run it, so here’s my take on the first run:

Upside:

  • First, it’s a good full body workout.
  • Repeatable to measure progress
  • The 1H focus exposes asymmetry
  • Sliding scale to accommodate different fitness levels and bell sizes.

Downside:

  • Focusing on counting effectively eliminates mumble chatter.
  • Six minutes might be (might) be too long of a work cycle.  Three minutes might be too long of a rest (even though I already cut it down from 5 min from the original program).
  • The squats gave me the shakes.
  • Madame Tussaud’s armpits in a sleeveless shirt

Overall, I like it and plan to use it going forward.  Sound off with any improvements you’d make.  Also, post your score so we can figure out the ranges and double mean regression our way to standards. I used a 50 lb bell for all sets and went 201 – 115 – 91 – 155 – 85 for an adjusted total of 1836 pts.  Goal by June 1 is 2000 pts.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

A disgruntled (and absentee) Honey Bee and a gruntled Market Timer passed the Foxhole shovel flag to Chanel–who almost immediately left it behind. Chanel’s KB knowledge and full head of hair will serve the Foxhole Pax well in the incoming administration (co-Site Q interviews are ongoing). He also hopes to put his kids through cosmetology school by selling homemade KB racks out of the back of his truck.  See his website for details: www.NiceRackPapaBunz.com.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sign up for Golf HERE, to benefit Leap Expansion.

 

Recycled material

An even number of twenty (20) experienced men showed up at Carmel Park this morning for the uneven running of this edition of DMZ.  YHC went with the original, unoriginal plan:  find a big hill and run up it.  Here’s what happened:

The Thang

5:29 – One minute warning and quick disclaimer

5:30 – Roll out to RTS back parking lot, circle up for warm up / COP (all in cadence):

SSH – 15x
Mtn climbers – 15x
IW – 15x
LBCs – 30x
Flutters – 15x
Merkins – 7x hold
Diamonds – 7x – recover

Mosey around RTS, across Sharon View, and into Pellyn Wood.  Stop in front of new home construction for quick warning to keep noise level down after Snoop riled up the guard dogs last time.  Mosey to the bottom of Howland Ln.  Full Jacob’s Ladder on the hill.  Plank when finished.

Mosey back out of Pellyn Wood, across Sharon View, and to the back parking lot of RTS.  Circle up for the following:

Widearms – 10x
LBCs – 20ish
Boone LBCs – 10 each side

Mosey back to Carmel Park and enter the tennis courts.  Partner up.

Partner carry across with 5 squats at each line (flapjack back)
Partner wheelbarrow across with 5 derkins at each line (flapjack back)
Partner crabwalk across one court (flapjack back)
Full suicide touching every line

Mosey out to parking lot for COT (watch turned to 6:16 as I exited the gate)

Announcements

Epic F3 trip to Peru – http://f3nation.com/2015/03/01/f3-mission-trip-epic-peru-2015/
F3 trip to Haiti – http://f3nation.com/2015/01/25/f3-to-haiti-2015/
HDHH to benefit F3 trip to Nicaragua – Wednesday at Mellow Mushroom in Ballantyne

F3 Golf – http://f3nation.com/2015/02/04/the-2nd-annual-f3-golf-classic/ – anyone want to put a team together?

Support team Chepul Hill for brain cancer research – http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/site/TR/TeamraiserEvents/CharlotteBrainTumorRace?team_id=71982&pg=team&fr_id=2420

Moleskine

Awesome weather this morning!  Great weather caused something of a change of plans because I didn’t want to waste it.  I had a very old school, core / minimal running workout planned (opposite of what I normally do), but weather like that after this winter…well, we had to run a little more.  Interestingly, some still felt the need for sleeves and pants despite mid-50s.

I didn’t check my watch, but Flutie clocked it at 3 miles.  Seems about right since we didn’t venture to the end of Pellyn this time.  One Eye led the Jacob’s ladder #wiretowire followed by Agony, who then proceeded to refusenik the plank #camodoesnothidewhiteshirts.  For all the well deserved grief he gets for amazingly poor burpee form (I think the inclusion of the dry dock somewhere in the mix makes it seem worse than it may actually be), Chelms was not far behind.  That’s meant as a legit compliment, brother.  You always point it out that you were near the front when you get grief for burpee form, so I’m saving you the time spent typing the comment.

I’m not sure anyone in F3 has embraced their name with the joie de vivre of Who Dat aka big easy.  Love the enthusiasm!  Good work out there today.

Brushback had his return to DMZ, and somehow a winter of swinging KBs helped him get faster.  I picture TR nodding approval while reading this.  Welcome back!

The surprisingly minimal amount of Q heckling, mostly from Hamlet, was rightly ignored.  I expected more on the tennis court work, since that was just unpleasant, but it wasn’t to be.  That could be because of the plethora of lunge walks, but I guess there are lots of bad backs in F3.  I have to give the assist for the partner crab walk to Double D’s, I think – correct me if I’m wrong Baracus, who rolled that out at the 1-year anniversary of The Charge.

Overheard Bushwood saying that Steinbrenner is on IR – godspeed on the recovery.

Two things I learned about Hops today:  1) runs faster backward than forward and 2) heavier than me (all muscle he said), which I didn’t appreciate on the partner carry squats.  He also epitomized what a site Q should do, circling back and bringing up the six as we made our way back to Carmel.  The help was appreciated.

Gents – thanks for following me today.  I appreciate the opportunity to lead you all and consider it a privilege.  I enjoyed it and hope everyone else got a little better as a result.

I probably missed a lot, so feel free to add it in the comments.

-Kirk

3 x the Fun with BTW Wall Walks

9 PAX members decided it was better idea to roll out of bed on a cold Saturday morning and go run around for 60 minutes rather than stay in the fartsack and catch a few ZZZZs.  We gathered at McKee Road Elementary and the SF was planted firmly in the soil for another Saturday edition of Area 51.  As the clock struck 0700 hours, YHC led a crew of 7 over to the parking lot beside the soccer fields for a brief warm up lap and then we circled up for COP:

  • SSH x 25 IC
  • IW x 25 IC  (Lo and behold here comes Floor Slapper to give us an 8th member)
  • Squat x 25 IC
  • Merkin x 15 IC
  • MC x 25 IC

Mosey over to the cinder block pile and grab a block for some fun.  (Oh, good morning Donkey Kong, glad you could join us.)  Head over to the soccer field and line up along the goal line.

  • 5 curls w/ block, 5 push presses w/ block, 5 goblet squats w/ block, then run out to midfield and back (w/out the block)
  • 10/10/10, then run length of field and back
  • 15/15/15, run to midfield and back
  • 10/10/10, run length of field and back
  • 5/5/5, run to midfield and back

Return the cinder blocks to their resting spot and jog to other end of the school for BTW Wall Walk

  • BTW wall walk 20-25 feet
  • Lunge walk across the bus parking lot
  • 15 incline merkins on the curb
  • Rinse & repeat x 2 (because if 1 round is good for you & 2 rounds are better, then 3 rounds must really do the body good.  Not  sure all the PAX agreed.)

Head over to the infield of the track for 6 MOM:

  • Dolly x 20 IC, hold’em
  • Flutter x 20 IC, hold’em
  • Rosalita x 20 IC
  • LBC x 20 IC
  • CCV x 10R IC
  • CCV x 10L IC

Let’s head back towards the playground near our launch point for a little 3 man grinder.  9 PAX, so 3 even groups of 3.

  • Group 1 starts with 5 pull-ups, 10 dips, 15 squats.  Keep cycling through until timer returns to relieve you.
  • Group 2 will serve as the timer for 1st round.  Run to back playground with Group 3 and then return to front playground to relieve Group 1.
  • Group 3 completes 10 jump ups/step-ups on the logs, 10 decline merkins with feet on logs, and 10 tire hops.
  • Complete cycling through the 3 stations until YHC calls time.  Everyone completed at least 3 stops at each station.

Time for a little PC at the front of the school:

  • PC x 60 secs with arms out front, arms over head and 25 air presses
  • Recovery walk out to sidewalk
  • PC x 75 secs, with left foot up, then right foot up
  • Recovery walk to sidewalk

Head back over to soccer fields and line up for an Indian Run around the soccer fields, with a 5 merkin chaser for the last mine in line.  Run the perimeter of the light poles lined around the soccer fields.  After lap and a half, line up on the end line of the soccer fields.

  • AYG length of the soccer field and then job back to launchpoint

NMM:

  • Another strong group out there on Saturday.  Ocho Cinco flying as usual on the field with Cold Cuts and Lobster Roll providing a nice push
  • Huggie Bear continues to show up each and every Saturday and quietly put in some good work.
  • Beaver not feeling 100% on Saturday morning but he managed to push through it and finish strong
  • Slapshot back out there this week after leading the week before.  May not be a fan of the BTW Wall Walk but he knocked it out and kept on powering  through
  • Not sure when or from where Donkey Kong arrived.  Handing out the cinder blocks and thinking we only needed 8, until I noticed DK in line.  Not sure when he arrived or from where he came, but he made his presence known all morning
  • Floor Slapper had to bail at COT for one of his kids soccer games/practices.   Glad we could keep you from defecting to Day Zero

Announcements:

  • Mud Run sign-ups still available.  See the weekly e-mail and/or website for the link.
  • Monthly work-out at Alexander Youth Network with the kids there.  Joker is leading the charge and looking for PAX members to help out when available.  1st Saturday afternoon of each month.
  • HDHH at Mellow Mushroom in Ballantyne on Wed, 3/11, from 5-8 pm with 10% of proceed being donated for La Flor Bridge Project in Nicaragua.

2nd Chances

9 men made the right choice the first time and posted at the grittiest Saturday workout in town on what may have been one of the last cold mornings of the year. 2 additional men got it right the second time after initially posting at The Rock and corrected their error by yogging to Day Zero. See below for details. With the SF firmly planted, Semi Gloss took the reins and away we went. Here’s what you missed:

The Thingy

  • 30 SSH
  • 26 MCs
  • 20 Merkins
  • 15 Imperial Walkers

 

Rock Stone work with a partner.

  • Curls with sprints
  • Presses with sprints
  • Tri extension with sprints
    Rinse and repeat

Curls. 30 cadence
Circuits on the playground

  • 30 dips
  • 20 merkins
  • 10 pull ups.
  • Repeat x3

Mary

Peoples chair. 100 arm presses

Mosey to the benches in front of the school.
25 dips and 30 step ups.
Sprint a lap in the front.
Plank.

SG tags out the Mouth and hustles to uptown for the Corporate Cup.
The Mouth Takes over-

Indian run down to the Monster Loop for the Circle of Terror

The loop is a slightly longer than 1 mile with instructions already laid out.

  • Pax Jogs to 1st station – 10 Merkins
  • Pax Runs ¼ mile – 10 LBC
  • Pax Jogs ¼ mile – 10 CDDs
  • Pax Runs ¼ mile – 10 Jump Squats
  • Pax Jogs ¼ mile – 10 SSH
  • Pax Sprints 150 yards – plank and wait for pax

So much fun, rinse and repeat with 7 reps this time.

Jog back to the basketball court, circle up, Elbow Plank to last man standing.  Once you fail LBCs until all are complete.

Notes from SG:

  • My fault on the running. Poor planning. There was a ton of chatter of the quasi negative kind.

Notes from The Mouth:

  • About 15 minutes into the workout 2 of the Rock Faithful come jogging in, seems only 2 of them posted there this AM and made the daring call to jog down to join Area 51 strongest… Since there has been a lot of trash talking between the site Qs on who has the best Saturday workout… Day Zero was chalking up a big win on this day…
  • SG started us off 30 seconds early since he was out of the car in shorts, a good 10 minutes before 7am; the “We are not professionals” disclaimer was missed, but the more important SG ate Mexican disclaimer was not forgotten!
  • Semi-gloss QIC the 1st 30 mins, and then left for the Corporate Cup, rumor is The Rock slept in
  • Semi-gloss got one over on the PAX, after planning with The Mouth that SG would do all the strength work in front of the school all The Mouth would do all the running with the PAX… SG decided to add some running of his own, knowing he wouldn’t be here for the 2 half and “Circle of Terror”
  • Great work out there by the PAX today, plenty of strong runners.  Teddy was out in front for the loop and The Mouth was glad the instructions were in chalk

As always great honor to lead such a great group of guys… even if it was from the back of the PAX today!

Announcements:  F3 Golf, go sign-up Prohibition wants you if you don’t golf!;  Go sign- up for BBR, you’ll thanks us later.

Here We Go Again

7 Men arrived in the gloom for a frosty beatdown.

The Thang

Warm up mosey over to the Elementary school.  Circle up at the at the intersection for COP.  unexpected early morning traffic interrupted the COP so (game off) pick it up and move over the parking lot (game on).

COP
– SSH x20
– IW x20
– Perfect Merkins x10
– 4 Count Squats x20

Indian Run over to the High School with stop for a little plak-o-rama
– Karaoke Right
– Karaoke Left
– Backpeddle
– plank
– Pike Ups x15

Up and over the fence into the stadium.  Partner up and pick s set up stairs
– Partner 1 lap up/down the stairs / Partner 2 Merkins (switch) x3
– Partner 1 lap up/down the stairs / Partner 2 Squats (switch) x3
– Partner 1 lap up/down the stairs / Partner 2 flutters, dollies, scissor crunches (switch) x3

Up and over the wall and mosey back to the parking lot.

COT

Moleskin:  Great work this a.m. An extra obstacle presented itself with the stadium fence being locked but the PAX were up to the challenge so up and over we went.  The sprints up the stairs proved to be a gasser.  After every round the PAX started to converge like we were done but there was more fun to be had so back to stairs we went.

KB Pentathlon

Introducing the KB Pentathlon:

  • 1H Swings x 6 min.  3 min recovery
  • Snatch x 6 min.  3 min recovery
  • Press x 6 min. 3 min recovery
  • Clean x 6 min. 3 min recovery
  • Racked Squat x 6 min. 3 min recovery

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.

Spreadsheet is HERE if you want it.  We’ll need every minute to finish on time so come early to warm up as needed.

Amazeballs Mud Run Training – Frozen Edition

At Ickey’s personal request YHC threw down the 2nd edition of the mud run training at Olympus.  It’s always a good time to lead the strong men of Olympus down the path less travelled on a Saturday morning.

Warm up:

Bring KB’s to main lot, run to sidewalk and back to knock the frost off the legs.  Circle up for:  25x SSH IC, 20x IW IC, and 25 2-handed KB Swings OYO.

The Thang:

Partner up, size and speed does not matter.

Catch me if you can.  10 Merkins and chase the P1 farmer carrying the KB’s out to light on 51.  Drop the KB’s and run down to Carmel Baptist, south end of the baseball field.

Well – what do we have here…. A retaining wall and some monster tractor tires someone left behind.

Everyone does 10 climb ups on the retaining wall and head to tires.

First team carries 2 small tires each to the woods and back (60 yards)

Other 3 teams pick one of the 3 large tires and rotate flipping them.

Rotate through so each team hits all tire stations.

10 more climb ups on the retaining wall.  Head back to KB’s with a little weave up and down the hill next to the baseball field.

CMIYC KB’s with 10 Merkins to school’s 2nd entrance.  Drop KB’s and keep running.  From this road sign to that intersection – bear crawl.  It didn’t look that far standing up, but way to far on the bear crawl.  Solid job by the PAX grinding it out and Fletch flying through it.  Keep running on down the road and take a left down the hill to the walking path.

Down the path – stopping for Burpees because the Marine said we failed an obstacle.  Do the weave through the split rail fence and shuffle across the bridges with feet on one railing and hands on the opposite railing.

At the park teams did the following:

Team 1 – climb up and over the monkey bars (the side way) 2x per PAX.

Teams 2-4 – Derkins with feet on the swing.

Rotate and change to raised split squats – left leg on swing.

(This https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaARD5KdSqQ but without the weight)

Rotate and change to raised split squats – right leg on swing.

Rotate and complete whichever exercise your team has not already done.

Return the way we came, except this time the Marine made us do 8-count body builders instead of burpees.

At Laurel Fork Drive run half way up, back to trail, then all the way up.

Run back to KB’s at school entrance and carry them back locked out overhead.

In the middle of all the running we planked, LBC’ed, squated, calf raised, and other various activities while waiting on the six.

Out of time.

Moleskine:

Always fun to lead the “follow me” themed workouts you get to make up on the run based on how the PAX are feeling, and the Olympus PAX were feeling strong today.  The tires at Carmel Baptist were a great find.  One of them, I’ll call Gargantuan is the biggest tire I have seen in Area 51, certainly a solid challenge for a one man flip.

Laurel Fork Drive also rates up their as one of the worst hills in Area 51 and used way to little due to both Elizabeth Ln workouts being gear focused.  It really needs it’s own nickname if it doesn’t already have it.

It was a great crew out there this morning.  A lot of craziness and all just followed along like any other day at F3 – brothers always up for the challenge.

Thanks for the send off by Young Love.

-Alf

Announcements – now mostly posted to the right of the Back Blasts page.