Chutes and Ladder – Forget the Chutes

Chutes and Ladder – Forget the Chutes

VSF planted and we launched @ 5:30am with a ready PAX posting up after a Holiday Weekend.  Impressive.

The Thang:

Short jog through the turn-a-round to the lot near Duckworths for a brief warm-up in cadence (or as close as Puppy Luv could get on his first at bat – need some serious practice on the 1/2/3 thing):

Imperial Walkers X 27

Shoe Stretches X 22

Merkins X 18

Jumping Squats X 18

Gentle jog toward the Field of the Bulls with a lunge walk at the halfway mark.

Chutes & Ladders at the Field – -minus the Chutes:

Jack Web ladder

LBC/Burpee ladder

Flutter/Dolly ladder

Quick jog over to the BAE lot for a Two Team suicide stopover: ½ lot first round, then full lot to finish

Curb Hops X 25 in your own time

Next stop on the tour:  Hill of Pain

Hill Work:

Hill/Burpee ladder up to 11 – -check that, up to 7 once my Q-Mentor Haggis asked after 3 rounds if “11 was Enough”.  Your Q needs to tighten up on his ask of the PAX, especially since he is in there panting with you all.

Plank Up at the finish with an audible from Mic Check to go right-up, left-up.  Appreciate the add Brother.

Time check from Haggis with a shout out of “11 minutes to go” – don’t blame him for having serious doubts about how this deal was going to close up.

Gather our group for visit to Bunny Hop the stairs up/down.

Fast pace Indian Run back to BaseCamp with a quick visit to Rosalita for 17X on the way

Land on the deck with 1 minute to spare – Merkins on your own until all the Men are back together.

Moleskin:

– Roll Call – Welcome our FNG “The Donald”.

– Great first lead from Puppy Love.  Keeping the PAX on their toes with a mix of different exercises and interesting counting techniques.

– Nice to see more of the PAX stepping up for Q duty including Fireman Ed coming up at the Rock!  Awesome!!!

20 Seconds is Easy…

19 showed up for a post Memorial Day celebration at Skunkworks…and the clock did not disappoint.

Warmup: SSH, Imperial Walkers

Century Set: 50 jump squats, 50 burpees on your own

Rack and carry KB to parking lot

Run the parking lot alternating between 70% and 100%  effort…(I think I dropped to 50% by end of lap)

Tabata Time, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, 6x of each
–          Two-handed swings / merkins
–          Upright row / LBCs
–          Goblin squats / burpees (crowd pleaser)

Circuit Breaker x3
–          10 goblin squats
–          Bear crawl to first median
–          20 mountain climbers
–          Sprint to top of hill
–          10 merkins: left hand stagger (1st lap), right hand stagger (2nd lap), wide arm (3rd lap)

Lunge walk with KB, run it in to flagpole

Moleskin:
Small group today following the long weekend, fairly quiet chatter even from Zip-A-Dee. Apologies for the lack of creativity, went with the Tabata pain due to a lack of planning time on Monday. 20 seconds of anything is easy…right?

— Harley

The Pacesetter

 7 brave early risers gathered this morning for Fast Twitch – to be put to the test while enjoying one of the few pre-dawn days we have left before the sweltering summer heat set in next month. 

 The Thang:

 Warm-up and COP:

  • ¼ mile jog around the track
  • 26 SSH
  • 20 IWs
  • 20 MCs
  • 10 Merkins
  • 20 Squats

 The Pacesetter:

  • 1 Mile Run around track – timed
  • 10 burpees
  • ¼ mile walk cool-down

 Mosey to baseball bleachers for…

 The Ramp-Down Circuit:

  • Lap run up stairs and around baseball field back to bleachers (~1/4 mile)  (x 5)
  • 3 stations along route
    • Squats (x20, 15, 10, 5)
    • SMCs (x20, 15, 10, 5)
    • Dips (x20, 15, 10, 5)
    • Last mile pure sprint, no stations

 Sprint back to parking lot for COT

 Moleskin:

Just to ensure the PAX were all awake before the pacesetter, they were treated to skip counting by the rookie Q who apparently needs a refresher in counting from his preschooler.   Once sufficiently disoriented, all the PAX got an opportunity to set their baseline 1-miler pace:

  • Turkey Leg  6:32
  • Rock Thrill  7:30
  • Badlands  9:40
  • Flyboy  7:30
  • Custer  9:30
  • Skywalker 7:10
  • Joker 5:55*

 Joker doesn’t just get a * for being the fastest, but also a note for the record books that there was some irregularity in the timing – something about his watch not accounting for him running in the outside lanes so he needed an “adjustment?” to the time – then he apparently forgot about his burpees till the end. 

Anyway, great effort by all today.   One FNG this morning and luckily for him he howls from South Dakota enabling him to snatch a proud “Badlands” handle.   Terrific work by all!

Memorial Day Workout

42 men gathered today at The Matrix, in recognition of Memorial Day.

Kept it simple, no frills required:

Fast-paced trail run

Squats / Merkins / LBC X 17 each

Playground, for two cycles of:

-squats X20

-dipsX20

-decline merkins X20

-pull ups X10

800 Meter Race

Little bit of Mary, with some merkins and squats to wash things down

Rock races

-50 yards out [with rock]; 30 merkins; 50 yards back

-50 yards out [with rock]; 20 squats; 50 yards back

-50 yards out [with rock]; 20 curls with rock; 50 yards back

Close out with merkins and Carolina Dry Docks

Moleskin

-Not much chatter today, as we were moving at a pretty fast clip.  Except for a few “three counts” the heart rate was running pretty high.

-On the trail run Your Humble Correspondent could hear someone close on my six.  As I sped up, he sped up; as I hit a full sprint, he hit a full sprint.  At the end I turned around and realized it was someone’s 2.0.  The best part was when he looked me in the eyes and said, “We lost ’em.”  Not as in, “I’m worried about my Dad back in the woods”… but more like… “we smoked ’em all”.  Whoever he is, I like the kid.

-O’Tannenbaum did a very graceful tumble when he tripped over the log at the entrance/exit to our trail run.  We may incorporate that into the workout next time.

 

Thank you sir, may I have another

20 PAX met for a Saturday morning beatdown at Area 51.  Perfect weather for some Memorial Day Weekend PAIN. War Daddy’s, 2.0’s, 4 FNG’s, a partridge and a pear tree

The Thang:

Counter Top Part Uno –

Nomadic Warm Up

  • Pull ups x 5 @ playground
  • Mosey to 1st post – SSH x 20
  • Backpeddle to 2nd post – Imperial Walkers x 20
  • Mosey to 3rd post – Mountain Climbers x 20
  • Karaoke right to 4th post – Squats x 20
  • Mosey to 5th post –  LBCs x20
  • Karaoke right to 6th post – Perfect Merkins x 10

Indian Run around field to back of school

Leg-o-rama

  • 20 single leg squats 10 each side 
  • 20 body weight squats 
  • 20 jumping lunges – 10 each side 

 walking lung between stations

repeato x3

 Mosey to Playground

  • 10 pull ups 
  • 20 dips 
  • 10 hanging leg raises 

 Plank and repeato

Far Side Part Dos

Rock Pile fun

Sprint 50 yds with rock drop it and run remaining 50 without – drop and do 25 Merkins run 50, pick up rock and run the remining 50

Repeat with 10 Berpies instead of merkins

Circle up with Rocks

Rock Diamong merkins x 8

off set merkins with rock x 8

switch hands x 8

Luganus with rock x 10

mason twist w/ rock x 10

tricpe extension with rock x 10

at rock pile – squats w/ rock x 10

follow the leader jog around soccer field mixxing up back pedal, kareoke, side hop and 5 berpies in the middle for good measure.

peoples chair

partner derkins x 10 – switch and repeato

peoples chair

merkins x 10

pull ups x 10

dips x 10

Mary –

rosalita x 15

flutter x 15

LBC x 15

Bicycle x 15

Fineato

Moleskin:

Lots of FNG’s this morning to experience the F3 magic – thanks for joining us and hope to see you all again soon.  Dennis the Menace gave out his first official nickname to Tooth Fairy – congrats to you both.  Joker showed up early to knock out a quick 150 berpies for some fundraising efforts and Young Love & Crab Cake joined him, #insanemaniacs.  a 62 year young Boomer brought his A game back to Area 51, #WarDaddyStrong.  Dirty Bird bailed early to catch an 8:30 Tee Time – Hope you walked the course to get some extra pain in your day.  Enis, a 2 week F3 veteran, has been on a tear – keep it up brother!  Strong work by all topped off with some good coffeteria fellowship.

Announcements:

If your reading this and you havent signed up for the Mud Run, today is the last day.  DO IT.  You will not regret it.

Memorial Day Convergence at Area 51 on Monday at 7am.  Bring a friend, bring friend’s friend.  Heck, bring a stranger for all we care – the more the merrier on Memorial Day!

Picnics and Pain

The holiday weekend may have tapered attendance, but not attitude and appetite.  No burgers and beers on the menu this morning, just beatdowns.  So before we fire up the grills, lets get down to that thang:

COP at North West Stonehenge
SSH x 25
Squats x 20
Mountains Climbers x 30

Sprint across Johnston to beat oncoming traffic to North East Stonehenge
Jack Webb up to 5, ladder back down to 1

Mosey to Premier parking deck, lunge walk along the way
Partner 1: sprint up incline to level 2, 10 jump squats, sprint back to level 1.
Partner 2: nonstop donkey kicks on wall until partner returns.
flapjack and repeato
(donkey kicks total #crowdpleaser, especially on 2nd set when partner was smoked and gone for what seemed like 2 minutes)

Partner 1: sprint up incline to level 2, 10 knee-ups, sprint back to level 1.
Partner 2: nonstop LBCs until partner returns.
flapjack and repeato

Peoples chair: hold for 30, hands up for 30, press it out x 20

Partner merkins: 10 with added weight of partner planking. (some confusion on format here, Q’s fault. All apologies. #Cobain  Extra credit to Ice-9 and Frehley who may have added bonus set of 10.

Bear crawl to other side of parking deck, bear crawl back.

Little baby jog to Aloft Hill
6s on the hill, burpees at the top, squats at the bottom.

Over to the Field of Dreams
5 merkins, sprint to halfway point for 5 merkins, sprint to end for 5 merkins
10 mountain climbers, high knees to halfway for 10 MCs, high knees to end for 10 MCs
10 mountain climbers, a$$kickers to halfway for 10 MCs, a$$kickers to end for 10 MCs

Jog to Dana Radar Golf School lot for Mary
Flutter x 20, 2 merkins in cadence (Ice-9 tries to EH #sadclown showing up for putting lessons. He declines, but Ice tells him to join us at Vine next week anyways)
Dolly x 20, 4 merkins in cadence (Frehley makes inappropriate innuendo mocking YHCs directives)
Rosalita x 20, 6 merkins in cadence
Russian twists x 15, 8 merkins in cadence

Jog to Loch Ness for partner relay, lunge walk across bridge on the way
Partner 1: sprint around lake to halfway point, 10 jump-ups on wall, sprint rest of lap to tag partner
Partner 2: 10 derkins, 10 dips on picnic table, repeat until partner returns. (still no burgers at picnic table = sad pax)
Flapjack

Take it home for Ball of Man

Moleskin
We covered a lot of ground today.  Strong work by all, especially in parking deck painfest.
Special Area51 welcome to metro QIC Ice-9,  great to have you at Stonehenge.
Honor & Respect to our fallen warriors on this Memorial Day weekend. #freedomisnotfree

Announcements
Check website for details on Monday’s #quadrupledown in South Park, including Patriot Festival run.
Last day to register for fall USMC Mud Run
All reminded about Monday’s limited schedule.  Report to Area51 at 7am for convergence

Enjoy the long weekend and safe travels if heading downrange for R&R.

Market Timer

Day Zero – Launch Party- Dont Pull A Hammy

 13 highly motivated men showed up for a Memorial Day launch. Welcome to Day Zero 

 

The Thing

Mosey and Circle up for warm up

Q gives brief speech about launch dedication and Memorial Day. Something about keeping the meaning of the day in mind as you push through each workout and keeping the flag in front of us the whole time. No applause or tears. Need to work on my delivery 

 

20SSH (Cadence)

 

10 Merkin Jacks (Cadence)

 

20 High Knees (Cadence) 

 

Run to adjacent shopping center parking lot for pain stains. 

 

PS #1-10  Peter Parker Merkins

Bear Crawl 20-30 yrds

 

PS #2- 20 Deep Squat jumps (I think I saw a subtle smile from Tiger Rag when I demonstrated the deep squat with your fingers touching the bottom of your shoes. Probably not a smile. Probably just the sun)

Backwards Sprint 20-30 yrds

 

PS #3- 20 Sister Mary Catherines

 

                Sprint Back to the start

Repeat

 

Repeat again 

 

Grab The Shovel Flag and head out for a run.

 

Ran around the block doing Indian Sprints (See Moleskin for highlight)

 

Last leg of the block is a big hill. 

 

Still Doing Indian Sprints however Qs switches Pax to lunge walks up the hill.

 

Once at the top of the hill we ran to the front of the school and lined up on the benches 

 

10 jump up Burpees

 

10 Decline Merkins with one leg up 

 

Repeat(Other leg up) 

 

Mosey to Back Fields. 

 

7s (Q had to call an audible here do to time. We got through 3 rotations)

 

Start- 1 Deep Squat with calf raise

 

High Crawl 10 Yards

 

Sprint 30 yards

 

           6- Turkish get up Burpees- (Tiger Rags first correction of the day “Those are deck squat burpees”)

 

                Sprint Back 

 

Mosey To another field

 

COP

 

20 Ski abs

 

10 Carolina Dry Dock

 

Repeat 

 

Q calls Flutter Kicks in cadence and started doing Dollies- (Insert Tiger Rags second correction of the day. We did ten or so) 

 

Q walks out and Grabs The Shovel Flag and brings it back to center of COP- Another big speech about giving it all to those who gave it all for us. I liked that one- getting better at this 

 

Next Exercise 

 

100 Burpees- You Got 15 minutes

 

Mosey up to the AO

For some Mary-

 

                75 Dollies

 

                25 LBC 

 

Moleskin 

 

We had a great turn out for this launch. Everyone was motivated and ready to get going. As we were waiting for the start Iptay let us know his M gave him a stern warning to save his energy for tonight. He gave us a little show of circle hip thrusts to let us know what he meant. Later he said he was talking about dancing. No one believed him. 13 minutes into workout, at the beginning of Indian Sprints Iptay lets out a little noise and grabs the back of his hamstring. Uh Oh. Sorry Iptays wife. He was able to recover and meet back up with us limping the whole way. Respect for fighting through 

 

All through the workout the men were motivated. Although quiet at times. The 100 burpee call at the end of the WO got me some dirty looks. Everyone made it and Zipadee did a great job of helping along some of the PAX. 

 

At the end of the Mary we got together and took a picture to capture the Launch of Day Zero. As we all know Tiger Rag is always on watch for good form. Apparently, he has some passion for photography as well, as he schooled us on proper lighting and getting the full advantage of the sun for the picture. 

 

Thank  you all for making this a great launch and for letting  me lead it. 

 

Purple Haze is QIC next week and I can only assume the hurt will continue 

 

Have a safe weekend 

 

Radar

 

Strap it on and take the pain!

31 of Charlotte’s toughest (or craziest) F3ers showed up for some Backcracker pain at Kevlar today.

The Thang

Bulldog lead: mosey to parking lot with additional loop in a bid to “enable” stragglers speeding in on two wheels.
SSH x 20
IW x 20
Squats x 20
Merkin x 15
Parker Peters x 15
MC x 20
Dry Docks x 15
Squats x 20

Backcracker lead: everyone grab a band. Color key as follows: wimps – green, pansies – blue, tough guys – black
Apply bands to ankles and side step to tree and flip flop to second tree.
Leg circuit: ten side steps with squats facing one side and flip to other side. 20 lunges. 20 split jumps on curb. 10 frog jumps. Repeat x 5.
Chest circuit: bear crawl with bands on hands to curb. 10 merkins down, 9 merkins down, repeat to 1 and bearcrawl back.
Cardio circuit: shuffle side to side, up call was 5 jumps knees to chest, down call was burpees.

Bulldog lead: Jacobs ladder to 5: jump squats at bottom, burpees at top.

Sprint back to school lot for Mary.

COT

MOLESKIN

Great to have chiropractor Backcracker out with his bells and whistles today trying to keep the lads on their toes. Tiger Rag questioned Backcrackers “eurosac” at the start asking if it was the new Go Ruck pack for 2013. Little did he know that it contained the rubber bands that would inflict today’s pain on the pax. As we strapped on the bands there were some mumble chatter about the hair loss on the side on the ankles but that will be the least of all of our concerns come tomorrow morning. The complaining was nipped in the bud with the command of “just strap it on and take the pain.” Needless to say a few other comments followed an instruction like that which could not be posted on a public forum!
The chest workout saw many fellas struggling especially those who bowed up and still went with the black band which meant you could do nothing other than diamond merkins. Those with the green band (almost like pantihose) could have done wide arm merkins and even manmakers with as stretchy as that one was.
Great lead there Backcracker and you may be creating your own new pipeline of patients leading workouts like that!

Welcome FNG David Dees (headlocked by Chaps) and I think that a great chance was missed in naming. Q asked “if he was good with Deez Nuts?” and it all came out sounding very wrong. With a last name like Dees we can certainly do better than Gullah or whatever we named him. Bananas I am relying on your Beavis and Butthead type humor to come up with something more appropriate. Please submit your thoughts below…

Have a great weekend with your families and loved ones and remember those who fought for our freedom.

Early Birds Get The Worm

The shovel flag was planted and 22 men, all accounted for, posted for their weekly dose of Centurion.

The Thang (early start by 5 minutes – YHC ready to get the holiday weekend started):

Run up road to Carmel to parking lot near Panera for COP

SSH X30
Burpees – 10
LBC X30
Burpees – 10
Merkins X20
Burpees – 10

(Those who were late – well, just not early, joined half way in)

Run back to CCHS parking lot for the Devils Workout (6x6x6)
Six stops and six reps of called exercise while running down parking lot and back
Round 1 – Imperial Walkers
Round 2 – Knee ups
Round 3 – Merkins
Round 4 – Mountain climbers
Round 5 – Jumping lunges
Round 6 – Burpees (ouch)

Run to picnic tables at front of school
10 step ups each leg, 10 dips, 10 decline merkins
10 step ups each leg, 15 dips, 15 decline merkins
10 step ups each leg, 20 dips, 20 decline merkins

Run back to parking lot for six minutes of mary and some shoulder work
Flutter kick X20
Hold em
High flutter kick x20
Hold em
Dolly x20
Hold em
High dolly x20
Hold em
Freddie Mercury x20
Diamonds x10
Stagger right x10
Stagger left x10
Carolina dry docks x10

COT

Naked Moleskin:
YHC was a little anxious for a holiday weekend and started at 5:25. Had a long list of pain and wanted to make sure I got it all in. Apoligies to the late (not really) arrivers.

Sacagawea once again trys to go for Larry Bird award but I think that goes only to old guys that beat the younger QIC. I’m around 15 years older so he doesn’t get to take home the trophy until he laps me.

FNG Mike Babb aka Philmont – (mbadd@usa.net) showed up on his own and announced he was an FNG at the start. His goal is to lose 50 pounds before trip to Philmont next summer so he came to the right place. Keep coming back brother and we’ll do our best to help you with that goal. After further consideration, changed your name from wishbone to Philmont.

Still hoarse from having to shout Hate so many times during COT. Abacus (my younger brother) showed up to taunt me but it was just fuel for the fire. He does count nice and slow like an old man so it was a nice break.

Remember Memorial Day Convergence at Sout Park and consider signing up to help tutor next fall at AG Middle School. See web site for more details.

New Saturday workout launches May 25

This Saturday, Radar & Purple Haze will launch Area 51’s fourth and latest workout on Saturday mornings. To think that in one year we have grown from 3(?) workouts to 16 is just amazing. So many of us have been so positively impacted by our involvement in F3 that we can’t help but try to EH every guy that we know. And that is one of the reasons that we have grown so much.

So here’s your chance to EH another buddy, coworker, or neighbor.

The workout (name still TBD) will launch at 0700 from McAlpine Elementary School, located at 9100 Carswell Lane. That is just off Hwy 51 (Pineville-Matthews Rd) about 1 mile west of Calvary Church.

It’s a great site for this traditional bootcamp workout.

See you in the Gloom. Aye!