Page 1333 – F3 South Charlotte

It takes 2 to make it outta sight at Ascent

The pax gathered in the somewhat chilly and really wet Saturday gloom. I arrived to see High Tide rocking some tunes and swinging not one, not two, but three kettle bells in some form of mad man pre-Ascent KB circuit training. All two of us began what would be an hour of fun. The story goes something like this.

To Track: 1 Lap (1/2 butt kicks, 1/2 high knees)

Merkins x 50

Run 1-mile past Harris Teeter to Business Building next door:

Merkins x 50

3 Stations behind office building (parking lot):

#1: 60 yard zig zags (touch the line) x 2

#2: 60 yard burpee sandwich

1 burpees, 20 yards, 5 squats, 20 yards, 5 Mary Katherines, 20 yards, 2 burpees

3 burpees, 20 yards, 10 squats, 20 yards, 10 Mary Katherines, 20 yards, 4 burpees

5 burpees, 20 yards, 15 squats, 20 yards, 15 Mary Katherines, 20 yards, 4 burpees

3 burpees, 20 yards, 10 squats, 20 yards, 10 Mary Katherines, 20 yards, 2 burpees

1 burpees, 20 yards, 5 squats, 20 yards, 5 Mary Katherines, 20 yards

#3: 60 yard merkin sandwich

10 merkins, 30 yards, 5 jump squats, 30 yards, 10 merkins

10 merkins, 30 yards, 10 jump squats, 30 yards, 10 merkins

10 merkins, 30 yards, 15 jump squats, 30 yards, 10 merkins

10 merkins, 30 yards, 20 jump squats, 30 yards, 10 merkins

1-mile run back to Olde Providence Elementary

Merkins x 50

To Playground for (30 Dips, 20 Step Ups, 10 Pull-ups)

To Concession Stand Peoples Chair for Two Minutes – arm raises x 20 in cadence

To Football Fields for:

50-yard Karaoke Right, 50-yard Karaoke Left

20 Count

50-yard backward run, 50-yard forward run

100-yard sprint at 80% x 2

20 count

Through Outdoor Classroom to Foxworth Hill

Heels to Heaven x 20 – Bottom of Hill

Dollys x 20 – Top of Hill

1/2 mile run to parking lot

Circle Up:

Last minute: Flutters x 20

Count off 1,2

Name-o-rama

Whoops, forgot send off prayer. Lord bless us, thank you, and make us stronger in all ways.

Moleskine:

It is something about my Q days at Ascent. The cold wet mornings keeps some pax away and today we were competing with a big ceremonial send off at The Rock after it’s near 2 1/2 years of existence being ran by site charter members Runstopper, Hops, and Mall Cop. They are to be commended as that site has been absolutely exactly what it is named, the Rock. Great work gentlemen. Good luck to Gummy and Hopper as they will carry the site lead going forward.

Enjoyed the 2nd F element of this workout today High Tide. We covered most of the AO offered up at Olde Providence. We went shopping, went into OP neighborhood, ran on football field, climbed on playground, went to concession

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Announcements:

A51 Holiday Party Tonight – see you all there, bring cash for raffle and cans for Calvary Church Food Drive!

Kiss Your Asphalt Goodbye

18 Pax gathered in the gloom to say farewell to the Catholic High School upper parking lot, which is getting an extreme makeover Monday to become a parking deck. No Muthaship, true, but it will be another toy for the Pax ultimately.
Today, however, we made other arrangements.

The Thang
After a quick meet and greet, YHC determined we were an FNG-free zone and not in need of a disclaimer. So off we ran…

Loop around the football field
COP in Cadence
SSH x 20
Squat x 20
Merkins x 20
Imperial Walker x 20
Burpees 20 OYO
Second loop around football field

Pavement Pounder in Cadence
Squat x 10, Merkin x 10, Burpee x 10
Squat x 9, Merkin x 9, Burpee x 9
Squat x 8, Merkin x 8, Burpee x 8
You’re quick, you noticed the pattern.
Today being the 5th, we stopped at 5.

Partner Up
Round 1: Partner 1 does Jump Ups while Partner 2 runs up ramp, and down stairs at back of school. Flapjack
Round 2: Partner 1 Derkins while 2 runs. Flapjack
Round 3: Wheelbarrow up ramp. Flapjack
Round 4: Ankle throw downs x 20. Flapjack

Line up at one end of lot, Sprint to patrol cars.
Sprint back.

Head to rock pile for lifting rock.
Curls x 10 IC, Tricep Ext x 10 IC.
Curls x 5 IC, Tricep Ext x 5 IC.

Mary IC
LBC x 25
Oblique x15 each side
Flutter x 15
Freddie Mercury x 15
Heels to Heaven x 15
Rosalita x 15

Moleskin

With Escargot’s knee healing at a snail’s pace (see what I did there?) a call went out Wednesday for a Q. Mermaid, being the tireless beast that he is, stepped up first and offered to cover. YHC pulled rack (seniority is more like it), and Q-Jacked Centurion. The anarchy continued when Chelms aka Tater was left stranded in the KB arena all by his lonesome, stiffed by his own brother.
Finally the group all made it in, and order was restored. T Claps to Udder for not only posting in a Ruck, but running with it 4 miles to the AO. #ruckstrong

Announcements
Joe Davis Memorial Run January 10th Baxter Village. Sign up for this awesome run for Rock Thrill’s brother, in support of substance abuse and treatment.

Watch for sign up link for March 21st Brain Tumor, Marshall Park.

Commitment has launched at Weddington High School, Saturdays at 0630. Tell a friend.

That is all.

177 burpee BB Joust

A friendly wager between Kevlar and Joust on which site could generate more shoes for the Charlotte Rescue Mission resulted in Tiger Rag doing 177 burpees this morning. Needless to say, Joust turned in 101 shoes while Kevlar which was led by TR turned in 76. A win for Charlotte Rescue Mission but someone had to pay the price!

COP-

SSH 21, IW 21, Merkins 15, Peter Parker 12, Parker Peter 12,Monkey Humpers 15

Mosey to split rail fence – 10 Derkins w feet on lower rail, 10 Derkins w feet on upper rail, 10 Derkins w feet on lower rail – rinse and repeat. (TR replaces Merkins w burpees)

Mosey to track and partner up. Partners run opposite directions around track and when they meet they do 20 partner slap Merkins. They continue their run and do 20 partner slap Merkins upon meeting. Rinse and repeat. (TR replaces Merkins w burpees)

Mosey up stadium steps to playground. Partner up. Partner one runs down stadium steps and does 20 step ups at bottom of stadium and then runs up and replaces partner two from excercise. Flap jack. Three sets of exercises. Heals to heaven, hanging knee ups, mason twists

Mosey to Grandma Mtn. Run up and down mtn 4 times and do 15 carolina dry docks at the bottom of each trip. Ways we ran up the mtn-bear crawl, run, backwards,run.

Mosey to sideline of football field. Each man calls out an excercise for the pax to do while he runs across the width of the field. We go throu all 12 members of the pax.

Mosey back to the parking lot and jail break up cars. Go to split rail fence and do Derkins 3 sets of 10

COT

A great morning!

Getting ready for the Mud Run

9 Sons of Ballantyne (“SOBs”) met at 0515 at the Vine Restaurant at the Ballantyne AO to cover some ground and climbs some walls. We covered 5.5 miles in total. Here’s what we did:

The Thang:

We ran down Ballantyne Commons, east towards the far premier parking deck #2.

Run up to the 2^nd level of the Premier parking deck and 5 Burpees OYO. Run up and around to the 3^rd level 5 Burpees OYO, Run up to the 4^th level 5 Burpees OYO, run up to the 5^th level.

Line up for sprints across the deck with a variety of options of 4 – 8 foot wall jumps and run back to the starting point X 2. The options were 4 foot wall, 7 foot wall with a step for assistance or an 8 foot wall with no step. The PAX then headed down the stairs down Ballantyne Corporate Pl to the fitness trail.

We assembled at the pull-up bars for instructions from the Q. We did the following circuit: 10 Pull-ups, 30 Merkins, 30 LBCs and 2 laps at your own pace around Lock Ness x 6 (or as many as you can get before 0615).

We finished up the last 5 minutes doing some dips, durkins, and in and outs (Wingman).

COT

Moleskin:

No one liked to hear about the circuit we ran this morning. I thought it was a perfect combination of running and excersizes to prepare for the spring mud run. The only thing missing was bear crawls. NEXT TIME!

Always a pleasure leading the men in the gloom.

Announcements:

Joe Davis Run – Sign up now.

Battle Frog Discounts are available. 5K and 15K mud run options.

Get to Sugar Creek Brewery at 5:30 for happy hour. Bring can goods to the party.

Team Chepel Run for Brain Cancer research. Sign up early.

Great work this morning men!

GIANT JENGA – Tryon Hits Grand Slam at AG Middle School

Nine men of purpose and over 30 young boys gathered for a game of GIANT Jenga (considering sumbission to Guinness book of world record for largest Jenga game ever)

The Thang:

Circle up (figuratively) with the boys. First item of business was for Backup to show the kids the Billingsville shovel flag and let them know he would make a shovel flag for them with a design they created. Barrcuda explained why F3 has shovel flags. On the fly, we selected one of the boys who stepped up to lead the design effort #futureleader.

Main event – Tryon and his 2.0 Paige arrived early to set up the Giant Jenga sets and we divided the boys into four teams.

First activity was to knock down the tower and work together to re-assemble with a member of the PAX providing guidance. All the teams did a great job of working together to re-assemble.

Next was the main event – play the game to create the tallest tower by removing pieces from tower and stacking on top. Each team member rotated and all four teams did a great job of staying focused on the task at hand with assistance from a member of the pax (Cadilac – Team 1, Senior Chips – Team 2, Barracuda – Team 3, and David Price – Team 4). Team 3 was the winner.

T-claps to Barnabus for being the event photographer.

Not only did Tryon lead this effort, he (or more likely his 2.0) created the awesome video. Cannot give him enough props for the idea and the follow thru on this activity. He set the bar really high for the rest of us (#ISIS). Rev Florida has next week and everyone knows he has the creative talents to make a run at the bar Tryon set.

Announcement – Please consider making donation to F3 Foundation (go to Foundation page at F3nation.com for pay-pal link) to support holiday parties at Billingsville and AG Middle School.

Turned to Stone

10 PAX fought the urge to crawl back into their fartsacks and posted at Peak 51 for their daily DownPAINment.

The Thang:

Mosey to the lower parking lot for the COP but first a #HairBandMile

COP

5 Burpees OYO
SSH x 25
4 Burpees OYO
Merkins x 10
3 Burpees OYO
Imperial Walkers x 15
2 Burpees OYO
Squats x 20
1 Burpee OYO

Mosey to the Greenway, making our way to what Drop Thrill called a Celtic ruin for some circuit work.

Round 1

Step Ups x 20
Dips x 15
Merkins x 10

Round 2

Step Ups x 20
Dips x 15
Decline Merkins x 10

Round 3

Step Ups x 20
Dips x 15
Incline Merkins x 10

Round 4

Step Ups x 20
Dips x 15
Diamond Merkins x 10

Track Work

Mosey back to through the Greenway back to the track, take a lap and then perform the following exercises:

Pull ups x 5
Merkins x 10
Squats x 15
Repeato for 3 rounds

Head over to the school for some Peoples Chair mixed in with some air presses

Mary:

Dollys x 20
Rosalita x 15
Heels to Heaven x 15
Flutter x 10
Protractor

Moleskin:

Great effort by the PAX today, the temperature is cooling , but great weather for the December gloom.
Joker mad some reference to YHC borrowing my M’s watch for the workout, he of the Wooly Vest.
Drop Thrill noted via Twitter that it felt he was a at Celtic ruin during the circuit work and enjoyed the tranquility of the water feature.
Sensei set PR at the pre-workout run with an 8 min/mile pace, we’ll need to change the route to a 10k loop if he keeps it up. Join us next week at 4:45 if you’re interested and training for the Joe Davis run.
Freedom, what else can I say, you’re crushing it.
Thanks to Hops for taking us out.
It is an honor to lead, please sound off with any mumble chatter.

Announcements:

Area 51 Christmas Party Saturday 12/6 at the Sugar Creek Brewery, bring canned goods if you’re attending
Joe Davis 5K / 10K – 5 entries to the Thunder Road 2015 event are going to be awarded in some fashion to top PAX (check here). Check the preblast for registration details.
Survey for a potential new workout east for Providence, see the Pre-Blast here
Thoughts and prayers for Drop Thrills mother

Bigger, Faster, Stronger

13 gents got after it in the gloom with a new twist on an old weightlifting classic. Any former high school athletes from the ’90’s may remember, Bigger, Faster, Stronger workout? The best workout at the time to add muscle to teenage puebesent frames. Fast forward to today, crunch the month long program into 45 minutes, add a kettlebell, and some much older now meatheads and this is what you got:

The Thang

SSH x 20

Merkins x 20

Squat x 20

CDD x 20

As a circuit, If you can’t go heavy, go double

3×3 (heavy)

Squat

High pull

Clean

Snatch

50 swings

5×5

Squat

High pull

Clean

Snatch

30 swings

54321

Squat

High pull

Clean

Snatch

20 swings

As a circuit

3×10

Tricep ext

One hand rows

Lying down two handed press

Lunge

Tea bagger squat

Reverse lunge

Upright row

Overhead Press

Shrugs (partner up for 2 KB)

No need for Mary at Meathead

Moleskin:

Good crowd this morning. What a great way to start the day! Not a whole lot of mumble chatter early as the influence of Bigger, Faster, Stronger set in pretty quick. Even Pandora stayed strong for the most part as well. I saw a lot of guys mixing it up and going with heavier bells which is the only way to get stronger. Others pushing each other to finish as it got dang tough about half way through. Good to see all of the usual faces and glad to see Bananas back grinding it out with the iron again. Brushback showed up sporting his winter coat on his face. Used Just for Men, but it’s really just for tha lay-days! Numbers are strong and growing. Thanks for your dedication to strength. Well, its actually probably due to the much anticipated F3Meathead sleeveless shirt debut. Coming soon my friends, coming soon. Thanks to Bulldog for taking us out. Until next Thursday…

Announcements:

Susudio on Q at Kevlar

Christmas Party Saturday Night – If you didn’t sign up, you can sign up to drive a van! That way you can see how much fun you didn’t get to have…you procrastinator!!!

Brown

Rest Easy, Area 51 BB is now Live

(Posted on behalf of Lobster Roll)

After a few late arrivals, 7 PAX departed from the VSF and were off and running. Quick loop to the cinder block pile to collect a companion for today’s session.

Part 1 consisted of 4 stations along a 1 mile route (carrying the cinder block of course)

Station 1:

25 x SSH (IC)
20 x Merkins (OYO)
25 x IW (IC)
20 x Incline Merkins on the Block (OYO)
25 x Block Squats (IC)
20 x Decline Merkins w/ feet on Block (OYO)
25 x Calf Raises (IC)
20 x Staggered Merkins w/ Left Hand on Block (OYO)
25 x LBC (IC)
20 x Staggered Merkins w/ Right Hand on Block (OYO)

Station 2:

5 Burpees after each of the following:
20 x Block Shoulder Press
20 x Block Bicep Curl
15 x Lying Down Tricep Extension (IC, each side)
15 x Back Row w/ Block (IC, each side)
25 x Flutter (IC, w/ Block over head)

Station 3:

25 x SSH (IC)
20 x Merkins (OYO)
25 x IW (IC)
20 x Incline Merkins on the Block (OYO)
25 x Block Squats (IC)
20 x Deline Merkins on the Block (OYO)
25 x Calf Raises (IC)
20 x Staggered Merkins w/ Left Hand on Block (OYO)
25 x Dolly (IC, w/ Block over head)
20 x Staggered Merkins w/ Right Hand on Block (OYO)

Station 4:

5 Burpees after each of the following:
20 x Block Shoulder Press
20 x Block Bicep Curl
15 (each side) x Lying Down Tricep Extension (IC)
15 (each side) x Back Row w Block (IC)
25 x Mason Twist (IC)

Return the cinder blocks and head to the playground

10 x Pull-ups
20 x Merkins
30 x Dips

Wrapped it up with 6 MOM

COT

Per Lobster Roll, lots of hard work by these men. Great job all.

#F3DevilsTurn – How is Hard Comfortable?

12 PAX launched into the gloom for the weekly Tempo run known as DevilsTurn. 1 more PAX got in on the fun at some point.

The Thang:

Using the normal route to South Charlotte Middle School, Warm-up at 2nd F pace.
When ready (or at the track), try to hold a Threshold Pace for at least 20 minutes. Check the Preblast for an explanation – http://f3nation.com/2014/12/03/f3devilsturn-preblast/
Continue T-pace run or cooldown to get back to the COT by 0610.

The Moleskin:

Threshold Pace is comfortably hard? How Hard is Comfortable? Well, nothing with “Hard” in it feels very comfortable at first, but this type of training should be VERY beneficial to any Endurance running you are doing. That’s anything from 1 mile up to Marathon. Speed kills, but Endurance wins the race.
Watch the video link in the post, but here is my summary from the Headline video with Jack Daniels explaining what Threshold Pace is, “The purpose of running at your Threshold Pace is to improve your endurance. It is the speed of running at which Blood Lactate (Lactic Acid) will start accumulating too fast for the body to clear it [then muscles get heavy]. If you want to improve some physiological function in your body, then you have to stress that function, but you want to stress it at the lowest intensity that stresses it.”
A key thing is lowest intensity. Training harder than your current fitness level will not produce any additional benefit, so that just doesn’t make sense. Whenever you calculate using the Pace Calculator, use a recent race result and NOT a race goal. Training at your current fitness level will produce enough benefit. Race to test where you are, and then recalculate new training paces. Training at a future Race Goal only leads to the possibility of injury. The workouts in the Joe Davis 5K/10K training plans (check Preblast above) are hard enough to get through at your current fitness level. No use pushing yourself beyond that if you won’t get any benefit.
It’s nice to call for an extended warm-up over to the track. After all, most of us come to F3 for Fitness and Fellowship, and the warm-up where pace doesn’t matter, allows for 15 to 20 minutes of 2nd F. HoneyBee is always good about incorporating plenty of 2nd F in the DevilsTurn weekly plans.
Getting into the Threshold Pace feels good for maybe a couple of laps or so. After that, talking becomes harder, then breathing goes to max, and finally it just gets hard to continue. Thankfully, there was a swish, swish running behind YHC over the last 10 minutes or so that pushed YHC to the end. Turns out Frasier was the extra PAX that showed up at some point.
What other AO has as nice of a pitstop as SCMS? YHC almost didn’t want to come out of it today…
Every PAX pushing themselves on the track today and then back to the AO. Threshold pace is hard stuff, and especially hard if you are already sore and tired from other workouts in the week or have a nagging injury. Threshold pace usually lasts at least a mile to get any benefit. Get used to it, for it’s key in increasing Endurance. The plan for next week could be Threshold Pace in mile increments. Run 1 mile, rest 1 minute. Repeato up to your 5K or 10K race distance.
Welcome to FNG “Funky Cold” Paul M. who said after returning to the states from South Africa, “My threads are fresh and I’m lookin’ def, yo, what’s up with L O C?“

Announcements:

Joe Davis Run – ante has been upped with some sort of free entries to the 2015 Thunder Road races up for grabs. This will be a fun race to watch and participate in. Not like the Mud Run or BRR where you don’t run next to other PAX. It’s still you-vs-you, but there is a high component of competition that will be pushing you at this one.
The Charge – tomorrow at Charlotte Christian. Tiger Rag may or may not be leading it. Show up regardless.
Commitment – newer Saturday bootcamp at Weddington HS at 0630. Come to explore the huge campus and get doses of pain from Snowflake and Ice9.

Rebel Yell Becomes a Strawberry Field

The ThangaLang

Mosey with some butt kicks, high knees, and karaoke mixed in

Circle up

50 cadence SSH

25 mountain climbers

5 rounds of 10 second 6 inch hold followed by 10 quick merkins

Mosey back to the parking lot

Get in groups of 3. Grab a plate and a sand bag.

P1- Hairburners across the parking lot towards the hill. Run up the hill and back down. Hairburners back to your group

P2- Sandbag Work- Overhead press

P3- Run around the parking lot.