And then there were 3

And then there were 3

I’m not going to lie, while driving to Q this morning I was hoping/thinking ‘no way anyone will post….steady rain, Super Bowl beers and wings, its Monday. I’ll drive by and head home at 5:31.’   YHC hasn’t posted in 13 days due to serious cold and the like, so I was definitely operating at about 75%, which is like 50% for most of you.  But low and behold, Frack was ready to rock and Frehley wasn’t going to sack on his last day of being 50.  So after a brief discussion of pros and cons, audible to drive to opposite of the school for the dry patch provided by the “sure-to-get-blown-to-pieces-by-a-bad-storm” corrugated aluminum roof.

In no particular order but somewhat representative of our actual workout:

SSH x 25
Imperial Walker x 20
Merkin x 15
Mountain Climber x 20

2-hand swings x 25
merkins x 10
sumo squat x 15
burpees x 5
upright rows x 15
squats x 15
clean & press (left) x 15
clean & press (right) x 15
10 merkins

People chair (regular)
With KB for 30 seconds
Overhead press x 15

1 hand swings (l) x 15
1 hand swings (r) x 15
5 burpees
Hammer curls x 20
Horizontal rows x 15
10 merkins
tricep extension x 15
Plank row (left) x 10
Plank row (right) x 10

repeato of Peoples chair set,  with up right rows and curls

LBC x 15 w/ KB press
Flutter x 15 w/ KB press
Dying Cockroach w/ KB x 10
Rosalita w/ KB press x 15
Russian Twist x 15

Bear crawl 10 yds to school and back
Broad jumps to school and back
Bear crawl to school and back

2-hand swings x 25
Merkins x 10

Moleskin
For the most part we stayed dry.  The roof is good enough to have 5 to 7 pax when weather is less than optimal, but obviously not much space to get any distance exercises in.  Given that yesterday I couldn’t even breath and was on my 3rd box of Sudafed, I think we got a lot done.

Announcements:
Check weekly e-mail for Q school.  Runstopper in charge this weekend, so make sure to announce at workouts and get newer or so to be Qs to HC.  There is a link to sign up so get a slot.

Mud Run sign-ups are live

Team Chepul Hill forming team for March race for brain cancer.  See the link and sign-up or donate.

Market Timer

 

Wet n’ Soggy Base Camp

6 PAX ignored the rain drops and their warm FartSacks to post at the unseasonably warm yet soggy Base Camp AO.

The Thang:

COP:

Complete a Hairband Mile while the rest of the PAX arrives and circle up.

  • SSH X 20
  • Merkins X 10
  • IW X 20
  • Wide-arm Merkins x 10
  • Squats x 20

Catch Me If You Can:

Mosey to the track and partner up for Catch Me If You Can. Partner 1 runs while Partner 2 performs the called exercise, Partner 2 runs to catch Partner 2 then flapjack.

  • Lap 1- 5 Merkins
  • Lap 2- 5 CCDs

People’s Chair

Let’s go and find the only dry spot at SCMS at the bathrooms for the People’s Chair (AKA “Semi Gloss).

  • Round 1- Arms extended
  • Round 2- Air Presses
  • Round 3- Air Presses

Circuit Work

Move away from the dry cover of the bathrooms and head towards the baseball field bleachers for some circuit work.

  • 10 Decline Merkins
  • 15 Dips
  • 20 Step-ups (10 each leg)
  • Repeato

Spackler’s Blocks

Mosey back to the parking lot and locate the coupon’s Spackler left behind for a little gear circuit.

  • Curls x 20
  • Overhead Tricep Extensions x 20
  • Goblet or Teabag Squat x 20
  • Repeato

Mary

5 Minutes left return your blocks back to the not-so secret hiding place and return to the parking lot for Mary.

  • Dollys x 20
  • Rosalita x 20
  • Flutter x 15

Moleskin:

  • The Force was strong with the FartSack this lovely morning but he PAX resisted and put in a strong effort today.
  • YHC couldn’t resist Spackler’s donation to the AO, the blocks will become a staple.
  • No place to hide from the rain this morning, we were going to get wet no matter what.
  • Kotters to Robin Hood, great seeing you out there again.
  • Wild Turkey is nursing an injury but pushed through it, nice job.
  • Quite a bit of mumble chatter between Fireman Ed and Robin Hood with Fireman Ed recalling his most recent Fight Club exploits. The first rule of Fight Club broken.
  • Despite clear instructions, YHC still messed up Catch Me If You Can, sorry Uncle Si.
  • Thank you Robin Hood for taking us out.
  • In honor as always and please sound off with any mumble chatter.

Announcements:

Joe Davis Run (Finally) – Backblast – PR Tracker

Posted on behalf of Rock Thrill:

Dear Brothers of F3 Nation-

Just like always, you showed up BIG for the 3rd Annual Joe Davis Resolution Run on January 10!

On behalf of myself, my sister Melissa and my mother Kristen, I want to THANK YOU!

There is just nothing like the sight of Old Glory and the sun coming up when the shovel flags get planted!

#IMPACT is the first word that comes to mind. I wish that you each could hear the stories that we get to every year after the race. Addiction does not discriminate and it affects more people than we realize. I can assure you that your participation, on perhaps the coldest day of the year probably, saved a life. You may have saved someone’s mother, father, brother, sister or friend.

I am so honored to be associated with F3, its core values and what we stand for. What a testament to the public when they see us come out and embrace a cause to make the #bigball a better place. Let’s keep doing it!

Here are the numbers-

777 participants

638 finishers

161 members of F3 Nation!

The Fort-77

Area 51-64

Metro-18

NoCo-2

And with the help of our sisters at FiA, our total was 200!

That is over 25% of the total participants! Like I said, #IMPACT!

Funds raised for Keystone were $28,500!!!

This included a generous gift in excess of $500 by the PAX from coffeeteria overages!

You may ask, How does this compare with last year?

Last year, the race had

626 participants

506 finishers

$22,500 raised

The most remarkable thing this year regarding F3 when compared with last year is that, this year, everyone ran at least the 5k since there was no bootcamp option. I think that speaks volumes about the fitness level that is being facilitated by your Q’s, so thank them for their investment in you!

We hope to see everyone next year!

Please post your thoughts/comments below.

In Him,

Rock Thrill

 

The less directly relevant Strange Brew perspective:

In thinking through what to write up for the official back blast of the Joe Davis Resolution Run YHC is not really sure what one can say about a couple of races. From what could be observed there were quite a few F3 pax running for some combination of 10k, 5k and in some cases 10k then 5k. The planning Q’s had contrived a purely arbitrary number of 200 participating pax, and when the idea was put forth to reach out to our FiA sisters that goal was indeed met. To put this into perspective, it is believed that this more than tripled the previous year’s actual running participation (see RT’s write up above). YHC was firmly against a pre-run workout believing that hill repeat burpee ladders caused some additional slowness (being already inherently slow) at last year’s race. However, lest I take credit for the lack of a pre-race workout it was really the inclusion of a 10k race that given the timing precluded such a workout to occur much to YHC’s benefit.

Here are some things that I observed leading up and on race day itself, and strongly encourage you to include your thoughts below in the comments section:

 

In no particular order:

  1. F3 pax got behind their brother Rock Thrill (Chris Davis) and the Davis family by really supporting the Run, in numbers and in their financial support. There was not a workout that I attended that didn’t talk up the Davis Run (no, it wasn’t always me doing it) 2. Some clearly more experienced runners thought of turning it into a competition by outlining and then following through on a cross country team scoring format 3. Pax who don’t normally consider themselves runners, joined up and ran anyway, the number of guys who ran either their first race or first race in X number of decades was in my opinion fantastic and a testament to what kind of mental fortitude and support these men experience through F3 4. Pax running with other pax encouraging them along the way or as they passed each other, or at the start line or finish line (you get the picture), suspect many of whom did not know each other beyond the F3 logo on their shirts, its not about you now is it?
  2. Directly and indirectly hearing about such a large number of PR’s that there is no way I could do them justice but want to hear about them in the comments section 6. There are some seriously fast duded in F3, yes I know that is stating the obvious but wow is it fun to watch, think about it, these are guys that you can go run with at workouts and learn from! How awesome is that?

 

Race day itself had of course some interesting moments, such as during the 10k warmup when a tomato joined WWL’s warm up or when YHC overheard another runner ask someone who are these F3 guys (seems like I hear that at a lot of events I’ve participated in lately, wonder why?), overheard another F3 pax EH’ing on the fly (during the 5k).

 

Kudos have to go to The Fort pax for hosting and the coffeeteria which was very professionally done and a welcome relief from the slightly chilly weather. Also kudos to The Fort for fielding the largest team.

 

Results were deliberately placed near the bottom of this write up to require those competitive types to read through what I deemed as the most important information prior to getting to the actual results (thanks to the real running types for figuring this out):

Team format:

  1. A51
  2. Metro
  3. The Fort

I am honoured to have participated in this event, technically as a region Q but really mostly as a mumblechatter pax and I benefited from training and running the race that goes far beyond the race result itself. Thank you to Rock Thrill for the invite and warm reception to participate in this event, thank you to the pax for pushing yourselves and making the race such a great reflection of what F3 is about.

Can’t wait for next year!

Superbowl-spill the merlot

Hopper, Baracus, Flute Flakes, Bout Time, One Eye, Steinbrenner, Bugeater, Semi-Gloss.

8 men got after it

The thang

Mosey from Launch site to Carmel school

COP

25X SSH CAD

20X IW CAD

15X Merkins on oyo

Partner work

Round 1

Partner 1 – Run

Partner 2 – Hold Bolder above head

Flap jack

Round 2

Partner 1 run to end of the bb courts

Partner 2 200 curls (together)

Round 3

Partner 1 run to the end of the bb courts

Partner 2 150 presses (together)

Partner work complete

Wall Site

50 arm raises

50 countdown – hold arms out entire time

Triple nickel front pkg lot CCDD

Indian run back to launch

Mosey to shelter

20X Dips CAD

20X Dollies CAD

25X LBC’s CAD

Protractor

COP

Moleskine

Well – it was wet today boys.  The rain was not too bad at the beginning but after we got to the end of the AO it started pouring.  Too late to turn back now, there was a good amount of mumble chatter out there.  Can only imagine which commercials everyone was quoting.  The Rock hold was something that Splinter thought up but apparently stole it from “The Rock” this weekend.  A little bit of refusenik almost took place by some.

Strong work running through the muck today boys.  Bugeater is getting BRR ready with Hopper.  One Eye and Bout Time leading the pack gassed YHC.  Baracus as usual was out in full force.  Flutie Flakes was discussing Fast Twitch tomorrow not sure I will be there.  Steinbrenner was doing great and it was great seeing you again.

Mud Run Sign up – check website

Prayers for Gummy- heal up soon brother.

“There’s not gonna be any [Wiggler] without Scott Riles and the incredibly polite Canadian news team.”**

CBC News Anchor: There’s not gonna be any [Wiggler] without Scott Riles and the incredibly polite Canadian news team.

Canadian Anchor: What about the French-speaking Quebec News? The real voice of Canada!

CBC News Anchor: Give it a rest, eh?

Champ Kind: Give me a break! They can’t have news. Nothing happens in Canada!

 

Run the Wiggler! 5:30 am Tuesday – corner of Foxcroft and Rothwood – Canadian pace…

 

**Anchorman 2

#F3Swift Preblast – 120s exploration

Swift will launch from the Vine Restaurant parking lot at the Ballantyne AO at 0515 with or without the Q (though the Q has set multiple backup alarms including a pail of water teetering above the fartsack to splashdown if the Alarm snooze comes into play).

This week, we’ll be back to I-pace speed.  Instead of extending the 3min intervals of 2 weeks ago, we’ll be stepping back to the 2-1-30.  Perfect day to come out and explore intervals for a max of 120seconds at a time.

  • We’ll launch at 0515, mosey for a courtesy lap, and then be gone into the gloom the rest of the morning.  Course will be rolling hills via a new angle.
  • Rounds of 2minute I-pace (a.k.a. 2 mile race pace / VO2max – find your personalized pace here at http://runsmartproject.com/calculator ), 1minute recovery, 1min I-pace, 30seconds recovery, 30sec I-pace, 30sec recovery
  • Total miles = around 5.0 over the course of 60 minutes for the six.  If you’re out front, you’ll run more.

Another Messy Matrix

4 men got drenched while starting the week off with a little runaround

The Thang:

  • Make full lap down McKee and around school; run back to rear lot

COP

  • SSH x25
  • Ski jumps x20
  • IW x20
  • Long kicks x20
  • MC x20
  • Flutters x20
  • Peter Parker x20
  • Partner hand-slap merkins x20
  • Side Burpees x20

Lap in front of school back to front playground for circuit work.  4 stations:

  • Dips
  • Squats
  • Derkins
  • Run – out to cones and back; runner is timer – when runner returns, switch; repeat circuit

20 squat jumps, then run around school back around to front wall

Balls to wall with merkin;  go in to balls position, then immediately walk down to plank and do a merkin, reverse back up to wall  (10x)

Wall squat relay.  One runs out to cones and back. When he returns, next man on the wall runs out, etc.   Complete 1x, 10 peter-parker-merkins, complete relay once more.

Run to front lot.  Two groups; group 1, 10 burpees; once they finish, group 2, 9 burpees; etc, till group 2 finishes with 1 burpee.

Sprints curb-to-curb AYG x2;

Return to launch point; bicycle 20x; burpee 10x

COT

Moleskine:

  • Who was that man with an an ear-to-ear grin while we stood out in the pouring rain a few minutes before launch? Was that Lobster Roll? almost didn’t recognize the guy. Mentioned something about a football game last night.
  • O Tannenbaum nearly LIFOed, coming in on two wheels with horns blazing.
  • YHC tried to take it easy on the pax due to the weather, even taking some of the workout under the overhang to keep them out of the rain – though the balls-to-the-wall merkins didn’t feel like a fair concession to some.  #crowdpleaser
  • Modified the merkin challenge near the end with an audible to a burpee challenge — but not before Back Office went for swim in what must have been a foot-deep puddle.  How does that happen?
  • Tried to keep the running to a minimum (under 2mi), but even so, I wasn’t sure if all the running around would be appreciated out in the mud; everyone kept up well – nice job out there today.
  • Its a pleasure kicking of the the week at the Matrix; Alf and Uncle Leo – thanks for letting me lead today.

Announcements:

  • Blue Ridge Relay – still recruiting.  We have at least 6 teams locked now, still looking for members to fill out a 7th team – option for either 9-man or 12-man. Contact Turkey Leg if interested.

 

Fight Club

10 men got a solid upper body workout.

Fight club has different stations – bags, pads, jump ropes, medicine balls, etc.  We all have our favorite, and everyone loves the patch of dirt known as “the ring”.

There were a couple of new faces today – but every face looks the same on the end of a glove, right?

Welcome to the newcomers.  Now that you have a taste, we know you will be back.

Saturdays.  0745.  13515 Ballantyne Corporate Place.  Chippy and Madame T on Q next week.

HELLO NURSE!!!

9 PAX arose from the comforts of the fartsack to encounter a meeting with Nurse Cindy #turnandcough! She wore off her welcome quickly and delivered the pain with no relief!

PreWork:

This keeps getting more and more insane to see how many preworks are needed before an actual 7:00 beatdown. BUT ALL ARE INVITED & ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND THEM ALL!!
0540 – GJ and EE show up for 4 – 5 mile run.
0615 – HH, BD, EE, GJ (arrived after 5 mile run) KB Swing-A-Thon. HH FINALLY brought some sweet swingin’ tunes performed by only the original artists #2yearproject.

THAT THANG:

EE on Q

Mosey to Elementary School Playground

MEET NURSE CINDY
(Cindy = 5 x Pull-Ups, 10 x Merkins, 15 x Squats (modified from a CrossFit workout I did)
100 SSH, 5 x Cindy
80 SSH, 4 x Cindy
60 SSH, 3 x Cindy
40 SSH, 2 x Cindy
20 SSH, 1 x Cindy

Hand off Q to CT (Sorry CT, we went over about 10 minutes but Finished!!!)

Mosey over to the parking lot and circle up for some flutters x 35

Indian run over to the practice field with a stop along the way for a little core work. Heels to Heaven x15

Line it up on the edge of the field

Bear crawl across field
LBCs x50

grab a partner and pepper pods with your partner back across the field

Plank and hold

Partner 1 carries first 1 to get the other and switch and partner to carries back

Inch worm across the field (Audible. Recover where you are a circle for some Mary)

3 MoM

– LBC, bicycles, back scratchers

Mosey back to shovel flag (Drop Thrill with the Qjack. 3 x Over / Under Phone Poles) He just can’t stay away from that obstacle course)

0800 – BEATDOWN COMPLETE!

Moleskin

I would have posted this sooner if I could have moved my arms!

Awesome work by the PAX today to not only see some benefit to attempting a Double or Triple down (Quadruple including 3rdF #TheGrindstone), but for pushing and pushing each other to keep going when you feel like complete burnout has set in. I challenged each of the PAX before Cindy to struggle with the traditional Pull-Ups as much as possible before modifying (that’s an area I personally have much room for improvement) as they seem to be on tap only few and far between the workouts. And I could tell with all of the grunting and screaming Cindy was effective in delivering the exact medicine we all needed! Even when most of us were nearing or at failure and my half on Q was up, all PAX (I think!) wanted to see it to completion #STRONG! Not sure what happened when BoonDock Ali wanted to take on HorseHead Frazier during a set of the SSH’s but I see BD taking a few rights at him and in one fail shot, HH pummels him to the ground #Parenting101withboys.

CT gets the Ab-cer-sizer award for his Core performance. And the Ark Loader on ice hurt… bad! Glad to see HB back out and still working hard to get back to Pre-Flu condition. Shepherd is a beast and DT you are getting faster and faster! GJ strong on the Triple Down brother!! Keep it up All!!

Announcements
– HH and GJ running some Gamecock 15K along the sewer lines of Columbia, SC next weekend (prayers needed there)
– Sign Ups for BRR
– Outland/Overdrive/Grindstone Q Sheet going around to plan Q’s for the year. Of course leaving room for new Q’s.
– 3rdF #TheGrindstone – working through “Not a Fan” by Kyle Idleman
– Sign Up for Mud Run

Thank you to The Late Show for Taking us out!!

Always Thankful for the PAX of F3!!

EE

Sid the Kid welcomed at Ascent

6 pax started but 7 pax finished what would prove to be a hearty 60 minutes of workout that went like:

To track: 1 Lap (High Knees, Butt kicker, top of track SSH x 20, High Knees, Karaoke Left, Butt Kickers, bottom of track Mountain Climbers x 20, High Knees, Karaoke Right)

50 Merkins On Your Own

Line Up: 4/5 mile Indian Run to Business Building By Harris Teeter

15 Wide Arm Merkins In Cadence

3 Stations in Parking Lot

STATION 1: 50 Yard Zig Zags (25 good squats touch the lines) – PLANK exercises while we wait

STATION 2: 50 Yard Merkin Sandwich There and Back Ladders  20 yards Mary Katherines, 20 yards squats (5’s, 10’s, 15’s, 10’s, 5’s) – PLANK exercises while we wait

STATION BREAK – CIRCLE UP ON YOUR 6: Flutter x 40, Protractor Various Degrees for 90 seconds

STATION 3: 50 Yard Heel To Heaven There and Back Ladders with Jump Squats in Middle (15 HTH each side with 5,10,15,10,5 Jump Squats) – PLANK exercises while we wait

Line Up: 4/5 mile Indian Run back to Olde Providence Elementary

Upon return Welcomed FNG “The Kid” waiting in OP parking lot who we found had arrived at 0709 who we gave credit for sticking around for 25 minutes and jumped in and finished with us. He was head locked by Strange Brew (after months of SB persistence – way to go brother)

CIRCLE UP ON YOUR 6: Dolly x 25

To the school building for Peoples Chair for 3 minutes with 25 Air presses

To the benches for steps ups / jump ups x 20

To the monkey bars for pull-ups x 20 on your own and Old fashion situps x 20

To the concessions for Dips x 30 and Burpees x 10 (2 sets)

Return to parking lot for COT

Count-o-rama (1,2…7)

Name-o-rama

Moleskin:

Cold again! That is a lot of consecutive cold mornings this week. After about 15 minutes of movement we were warm and in good form. Ascent offered up a great opportunity for 7 of us to get a workout in that focused on legs, core, shoulders/chest. Great work. Thanks to High Tide for the opportunity to lead. We got an energy boost with “the kid” joining us at mid-way with his upbeat attitude and readiness to learn what F3 was about.