This weeks Gumby devotional was picked selfishly. Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season or every activity under the heavens.
I don’t think I’ve ever been busier. My wife is due with our second child(a boy) in July. We went under contract on a new home Monday and ours hits the market Friday morning. My only thoughts the last three weeks have been “Get this house ready to sell.” It’s unhealthy. I miss my wife and daughter and they haven’t even been anywhere, I’ve just been paying attention to so many other things that I haven’t given her the time I normally do, and that’s unacceptable. It’s time to slow it down and that’s where Gumby comes in. Waking up at 4:27 for a pre-run followed by a yoga style workout rarely comes at the right time but the timing was so good Wednesday morning. After a head clearing solo 5K about Matthews I came back to 11 men ready to stretch. After the horrendous Amazon Music Yoga playlist began we started with DEEP hamstring and calf stretches. HURTS SO GOOD. We moved on to IT band stretches and the like while moving into some fast paced sun salutations(or maybe it was flow? Vinyasa? I am not a professional) and warmed up our legs even more and hit the hamstrings one more time. It was great.
Thanks again for letting me lead, gents. Gumby is great. Taking 45 minutes to stretch seems nuts until you do it and all of the sudden it makes sense. I’m so glad Swiss Miss and High Tide have built up a strong group of regulars at this AO. Let’s keep up the good work.
Announcements: Gumby needs Qs! It’s easy. Just do some stretches and pick out a horrendous playlist! Sign up here!!!!!!!
It’s been a while since I’ve Q’d Thrive. Lots of newer guys. Let’s mix it up a little bit.
Pre-Run
Oh, nm, there wasn’t one as Nomad needed his beauty sleep. Frankly, he needs a lot more but different topic for a different BB
The Thang
We start on time according to Apple. My iPhone said 5:30 so we launched. Bullwinkle claims we were early. Careful as Apple could get offended and they now run everything along with Google. Tread lightly on criticism.
We ran to a random spot on the road ignoring any possibility of danger. More to come on this…..
COP
SSH IC x20
IW IC x20
Oh look, there is Bullwinkle….late. 5 Burpees OYO. No sign of Hoffa yet. Nor Turnpike for that matter.
Windmill IC x10
That’s enough so let’s mosey to the field.
Broadjump Burpees across the field: That’s a Broadjump forward and then a Burpee. Repeato across the field. The jumps seemed to get shorter and shorter. Everything is easy for the first 3 but that’s a loooooong field. Not sure Bob Dole and his gimp arm….I mean Horsehead was doing burpees correctly but who am I to judge form.
Once at the other end of the field, we carefully circled around the fence mostly because Hairband is a slow learner and there is a guide wire. The last guide wire caused Horsehead to carry a pen in his gimp arm aka Bob Dole.
At the hill, we do 7s. Burpees at the bottom, Run backwards up the hill. Bombjacks at the top. Run back down the hill. Finish at the top. Seemed to be a sweet follow to Broadjump Burpees. The whining and complaining seemed a little loud. Or maybe just because I had Spidey aka Bernanke and his sweet Spiderman toboggan near me. A toboggan when it’s warm? Way to be creative Bernanke! Sorta like the Fed right now actually.
Finish at the top and we do various planks till everyone finishes.
So, we’ve done Burpees, Bombjacks, hill work. Thus, it’s time to run. Begin with a mosey and at each light pole, increase your pace. Finish at the stop sign.
At first light pole, we do a lunge walk to the next light pole. Rosalita IC while we gather.
2nd light pole to 3rd light pole, we reverse lunge walk. Dolly IC while we gather. It was during this that we had a car come up on us. Not sure who was more scared, the driver or us. Sorta think he must have thought we were doing some kind of block the road protest as he was scared to pull through even after we got off the road. Maybe Hairband was protesting. We had run after all.
After surviving our protest, we cross the road and backwards run from 3rd light pole to 2nd light pole. Flutters IC while we gather.
From 2nd light to 1st light, we crab walked half the way and flipped over and bear crawled the rest of the way. LBCs IC while we gather.
Mosey back to the intersection. Again we do an increasing pace run at each light to the stop sign.
Back to the field for Broadjump Burpees back across. I had planned for a Burpee run with 10 burpees at each Island but HH wanted some more Broadjump Burpees for him to ignore. Planks while we gather.
Along the way, Madison was whining that there wasn’t any arm work. Not sure what he was doing on his burpees but apparently skipped the merkin part. But whatever, he’ll whine and threaten to wear yoga pants if we don’t make him happy so mosey to the parking lot.
Line up on a line and bear crawl to the next parking space line. Increasing number of merkins at each parking space line w/ bear crawls in between.
Then we do 2 spaces forward, one space back run.
Mary:
Protractor
Freddie Mercury IC x20
Dolly IC x35
DONE!
COT
Thanks to Hairband? for taking us out
Moleskine
– Welcome to Shake & Bake. So named as his favorite movie was Talledega Nights. Way to push through and keep going.
– Some mockery that my broad jumps might have an extra skip to them. If you ain’t cheatin, you ain’t trying. Stop your crying Madison
– Lots of movement today though not a ton of miles.
– A little bit of variety for all today. Some burpees, some merkins, some bear crawls (for Lamont), some running and some dodge car. If you can dodge a car, you can dodge a ball. #lifelessons
– Countertop was there in our memories. As was Turnpike. Shepherd saved us from the Flu. Appreciate that.
– The Count was almost late. So late that he didn’t show up in a bandana. I didn’t realize till midway through the workout that he did end up getting his bandana in. He’ll never let us down.
– That’s about all the mockery I got. Thx for letting me lead.
Glass Joe
Posted on behalf of Queen
12 esteemed gentlemen gathered this morning at 5:30 for an F3 workout. I’m not sure where that was, but we also had 12 clowns show up at Hydra. Here’s how it went down and an explanation for the rep counts. Okay, I know we have some Clemson guys that post here, we’ve got some Alabama guys posting here. We’ve got some Carolina and Duke fans. Yeah, and I’m really glad that y’all have played in National Championship games in football and basketball over the past few seasons. Really, I’m happy for y’all. I went to NC State. We lost six football games this fall and we’ve lost 14 basketball games so far. That’s 20 times that my wife has had to deal with my irritability. I figured I’d take my pain out on this group. That being said, I know that there was at least one Wake guy and one South Carolina guy that posted today, so they share my pain and frustration.
20 Side straddle hops
20 IW’s
20 Mountain Climbers
Mosey to the Tree and the surrounding benches.
20 step ups, 20 decline merkins, 20 dips
14 step ups, 14 decline merkins, 14 dips
6 split squats each leg, 6 diamond merkins
Mosey to the playground and partner up
Partner 1 runs a lap around the school. Partner 2 does 20 air squats, 14 merkins, 6 pull ups. Switch up and repeat 2 more times
Partner 1 runs to the dugout. Partner 2 does 14 LBC’s and 6 diamond merkins.
Jog through the fog to the football field
Karaoke for 100 yards and back
20 burpees
50 yards of walking lunges and jog the remaining 50
Run 30 yards, 20 wide arm merkins, run 30 yards, 14 regular merkins, run the remaining 40 yards, 6 diamond merkins
Mosey back to the short field
Teams of 3 for a 40 yard dash relay (about 4 runs per person)
Good work by all. I thought we had a 13th pax member pulling up on a motorcycle during the mountain climbers, but I realized that was Puddin Pop on the butt trumpet. Welcome Sweet Roll. Glad to have you out, admired your work during the relay. The smart alack comment from Hannibal was the reason the 20 burpees were given out. No announcements, thanks to Arena for the take out.
5 pre-runners and one Soft Pretzel set-off for glory and adventure.
Lap around the school (.5 mi)
Warm-up
Side straddle hops x 20
Imperial walkers x 15
Mountain climbers x 10
Low, slow squats x 10
Peter Parkers x 10
Mountain climbers (right arm high) x 10
Mountain climbers (left arm high) x 10
Arch merkins x 10
Fun times #1
Bus alley, walkway
Backward run, turn& sprint the walkway x 2
Cut & run down the walkway
Find a spot between two poles, figure 8 around the poles and complete one burpee, repeat adding one burpee until we you reach 10. (55 burpees)
Recover on the wall, People’s chair with air press x 40
Fun times #2
Front of school
Partner 1 – 7 Bulgarian split squats each leg, 7 squats
Partner 2 – 21 donkey kicks
Rinse & repeat x 3
On the curb calf raises x 20
Plank jack x 20
Rinse & repeat x 3
Lap around the school (.5 mi)
Fun times #3
Wheel o’ Merkin
Speed session 20 yard sprints of backward runs, grape vines, shuffles, crabwalks, bear crawls, table top crawl and broad jumps.
Moleskine
I did not plan on a pre-run. I did not want to do a pre-run, but when four guys streaking down the lot call you out, you end up doing 1.3 at 7:35 mi pace! Ouch.
After yesterday’s trip to Kinetic Heights, I wanted to lay off the gripping and pulling muscles and focus on footwork and agility. I found some online inspiration for the figure 8 burpees and the final speed session. We hit 2 mi, approx. half was a short distance sprints. The crew was very tolerant of some of the less conventional exercises including the one-armed mountain climbers and arch merkins. Copay wowed with some amazing broadjumps, but some questioned his backward speed. Birdcage decided to do some extra burpees or miscounted. Ringer pounded out the wheel of merkin. Soft Pretzel blazed the early sprints. Fire Hazard showed site Q prowess, by volunteering Soft Pretzel and Birdcage for upcoming Qs. Special thanks to Fire Howard for covering a last minute Q at Stonehenge. This was me returning the favor.
Announcements
OK – it’s late, gonna keep this brief.
17 Men
Disclaimer
Run to day care – Seal Jack, Plank Jack, Low Plank Jack
Run to Davie – Pass Donut Runner’s. Mock their runner arms and donut guts.
Circle up: Squats and merkins, but not Imperial Walkers. They are so yesterday.
Run down hill. Suicide up hill for 5 lights. 10 Merkins at each light. 5 Burpees at bottom. This was way longer in real life than in my head. Finish at bottom of hill. Joker took off wooly vest. Smokey through the Rocky Top hat right in the middle of the burpee zone. Run Stopper threw his size schmedium orange pumpkin costume in the grass.
We did some Mary. LBC, Flutter, Heels to Heaven and Freddy Mercury – the usual.
Grab laundry and backwards run all the way up the hill to the gate. Except stop at each light for 10 jump squats. Super fun!
Run to playground for a quick set of 10 pull-ups, 10 burpees, and 20 CDD.
Lunge walk until all are done. Mosey back out of park. Stop at bottom of hill. AYG ~400M to traffic light at top of hill. Mosey home. Done.
Moleskine:
Announcements – Joker looking for volunteers to spend time with kids at Alexander Youth Network on Saturday – 4pm for 45 minutes. #serve
Thanks to Smokey for the takeout.
-Alf
A solid dozen donuts runners slashed their way through the course. Some legitimate #highfives were exchanged with the Death Valley crew as they made their way to Davie Park. Every one of them was asking for donuts. I doubt Alf brought them donuts #Q-fail.
9 of the 12 stayed for donuts, coffee and chocolate milk afterwards. Much of the conversation centered around clothes. I was sporting my new FREE Lulu shorts that I won in their Strava contest. I will never pay $70 for shorts, but these puppies are niiiiice. Semi was ashamed to even sit next to me. Horsehead has no idea what a brand is and Tiger Rag shops at Wal-mart, which was a little surprising. I pictured him more of a Dean & Deluca and Orvis kind of guy. Also, Semi purchases 10 pairs of pants at one time #friction. I think he gets a bulk discount. Basically, we sounded like a bunch of women at a coffee shop.
The BRR was well advertised as 5 of us had their shirts on #EyesOnThePrize.
YHC hates burpees. It is not an exercise designed for tall, long-legged people. #JustAskChelms No better way to face your demons than to include them (100 of them) in your Q. 14 PAX did not stay up to date on twitter (where they were forewarned) and posted at #Anvil. Disclaimer given…off we went.
Warm-O-Rama:
* get after it early with 10 burpees OYO
* Abe Vigodas x10 (old man style windmills. welcomed after burpees)
* Mountain Climbers x 20
* Sun Gods (forward arm circles) x 20
* God Suns (reverse) x 20
* Cotton Pickers x 10 (with a clap…makes all the difference)
* Alternating Shoulder Tap x 20
* Monkey Humpers x 20
Thang Part 1
Partner up; looks matter. Run to opposite ends of parking lot. 5 burpees. Meet in middle for 10 hand slap merkins. Repeato for total of 5 rounds, which brings total up to 35 burpees, including 10 during warm-o-rama.
Thang Part 2
The “alley loop” is about 0.20 miles. Plan was to run 5 laps (1 mile), with burpees at each end (ever 0.10 mile). Start with 10, ladder down to 1. That’s 55 for this part, bringing our total to 90. Mary while everyone finishes up what turned out to a be the Mile of Pain.
Thang Part 3
Rack & Stack Suicides. Each time you hit the line (going and coming), 10 reps of called exercise. Line 1 = Mountain Climbers (70 total). Line 2 = Squats (50 total). Line 3 = Plank Jacks (30 total). The ever-illusive Line 4 = burpees (10 total). Burpee Count now at 100. You’re welcome, McGee.
Thang Part 4
10 curl/press/skull crusher combo with rock. Mosey with rock (overhead if possible) a short distance and back. 10 more curl/press/skull combos. 15 squats.
Finished!
NMM:
Great work today by all. The guys that are in the “not quite ready to run a marathon” club were there and did not shy away from the mileage. The runners enjoyed striding it out some though they were held back with burpee interruption.
Q Fail on not having 4 lines for suicides. There are too many lots at Calvary. Going without spectacles, YHC gets us off course. We improvised, as all good PAX would do.
Champagne, fresh off the slopes, dismayed with number of burpees. Next round (or 2) is on YHC.
Good to see Dolphin, Hannibal, and Bus Boy at Anvil. My man, Snuka, is a beast for a Respect. Take what he is taking. #GNCVitamins
Announcements: Sign up for Christmas Party
Honor to lead. Thanks, McGee and Lobsta Roll, for the keys. YHC took us out.
Disclaimer was given as the Pax trickled in, 19 in total
The Thang:
Easy jaunt to the front of Thai Basil for COP- SSH x15, IWx15, Merkins x10, Low slow Squats x10
Mosey through the breeze way to the stairs below the yoga studio for Partner work- Partner 1 runs the stairs over and down, Partner 2 does called exercise-LBC, H2H, Flutters, Dolly
Take a mosey to the Target side lot- 5 burpees
Counted off in 4’s, try to remember your #
Head to the Neighborhood
Arrive at the Alexander Martin Roundabout–Get with your Groups for a Starfish– each group would call their own exercises for each leg x15- 1 time around the Starfish
Plank when your done
Weave around the streets of the Neighborhood, stopping along the way in plank for the 6 to catch up
Hopped on the nature tail and Hit the loading dock next to BofA for Jack Webb ab’s, 1-Heels to Heaven/4-LBC, 2-Heels to Heaven/8-LBC, up to 5-Heels to Heaven/20-LBC, then back down
Plow the fields in front of Pets Mart & Best Buy- when you get to the end of a row alternate Merkins x5 & LBC x10, at your own pace
Get back with your partner- Partners each run around Best Buy & Petsmart, but opposite ways. When partners meet do 10 Handslap Merkins; do this 3 times with last set at Bank of America
Circle up for Mary- 1 man calls the exercise and runs to Salsaritas, comes back, calls out random guy, random guy calls exercise and runs to Salsaritas and back, & so on, got in about 5 rounds
Head back to Chick-fil-a
Announcements:
Every Saturday meet up at the Bull Ring in Ballantyne Corporate Park for training for the Ballantyne & Pineville 5k bring your kids
Wednesdays after The Maul Tutti is starting a 3rd f at the Chick-fil-A, starts first Wednesday in March
Ragnar is coming October 6th & 7th, things are still coming together, but keep it in mind, talk to Kid Rock for more details
Moleskin:
-Great group out there this morning Vets to newbies, fast to slow, trash talkers to quiet folks, and everything in between
-Guess we hit some unchartered territory, in the neighborhood and the path behind Best Buy
-We had plenty of 10 counts
-As smooth and simple as the Jack Web Ab’s sound above, it was none of that, not only are they tough, but when the Q can’t count/lead the exercise, the Pax gets testy. Thanks to all of you who kept me on the right path, especially when Mighty tells you out of shear disappointment something to the effect of “Geeez, if your going to call my exercise, get it right!!!”
-Lots of Respest out there this morning- Chopper, Fredo, The Commish, & Gator Bait
-I think to much time passed between counting off by 4, because by the time the Starfish started the groups were uneven, Mighty Mite warned me, but was effective regardless
-MT had his smoke boots on, flying past Best Buy like he stole a big screen out of Best Buy
-Tuck & Kid Rock plowed the fields faster than anyone
-The Old Man we ran into was hauling it, Q fail for not ehing him
-Flo is a man of his word even after closing down Brazzwells the night before
-Big Tuna put his backward running skills on display, pound for pound the fastest backward runner in f3
-Nice attempt on the Spanish version of the count off, I think we made it to 9 before it all fell apert and we went back to English
-Thank you to Strawberry for taking us out
-Great AO I appreciate Tuck & Triple-7 for the Q
YHC was on injured reserve but could not give up a chance to post with The Bighouse Crew!
The Thang
Warmup
A short 4/10ths jog to lower p lot
25 SSH
10 Imperial Walkers
10 windmills
Once we sorted out two teams and your YHC got his mind off his leg long enough to give cadence correctly the real Thang began.
While one group was out for a loop of around .5 miles the other group stayed with YHC and burned some abs. Each time the group came back they continued the reps. Thanks to Udder who said why don’t we do some Indian Runs while away for upping the workout even more. The two groups ran 4 Laps and back to the COT for a total of 2 miles.
Here is what they did in between laps…with no rest period
15 pistol crunches each leg
10 cadence count mericans
10 box cutters
and 10 more the other direction
25 low slow squats
10 j los
20 chippy crosses cadence count
25 lunges OYO Got to talk to the guys a little here
40 superman impressions and hand lifts
30 dollys
10 to 20 merican hammers
Moleskin
Thanks to Dumpsterfire showing great leadership months in advance to invite me to lead the Pax. It gave me a challenge to get ready for. When YHC pulled a calf a week before thoughts of giving up came. Then YHC got out of Fart Sack with a plan that was going to hurt but he would not have to run…Do the reps 2 times one with each group. It was a terrible idea that is why I wanted to get it done. On the run down and the warm up I lost my cool because my leg started tensing up I lost focus and did not even count the Imperial walkers in warm up. I had to get my head out of an anatomically incorrect position. I did not want to let any PAX down so with all the men looking on with nothing but encouragement we hit our stride. It went well and 2 FNGs posted as well as Sideways for his second post. YHC is thankful for all of the Q leaders and New and Old PAX for helping out and making it a successful post.
16 PAX posted at Fast Twitch this AM for the promise of AMRAP. This included Hairball who was fresh off embarrassing the Sea Turtle half marathon course. At least he crushed it for 21,094 meters. Unfortunately a half-marathon is 21,097 meters. #StravaSux
In other news, YHC came in on two wheels this AM. Apparently I lost track of time from the alarm clock to the car. First glance of the crew was that all were regulars, or resembled regulars, or were not regulars. Either way, I threw out a “just don’t get hurt” sort of disclaimer and off wee went.
Run out to the corner of Raintree and Windbluff. Crush some Imperial Walkers to either A) Dynamically stretch the Hamstrings, B) Look silly in public, C) Waste time, or D) Both B & C.
Air squat on hold for instructions and quick count of PAX so I know we come back with who we left with:
Run down Raintree to speed hump and back. Run down Windbluff to speed hump and back. Run down Smoker-ise to cul-de-sac and back. At the end of each leg, do 15 good mornings. Back at the middle do 10 Heels to Heaven each time, while dodging blinker-less on-coming traffic. Choose you own route and repeat continuously until meeting back at Raintree/Windbluff at 6:05.
Run to Rising Meadow for the last leg. To cul-de-sac, 15 Good Mornings, back to intersection for 10 heels to heaven. Run to Woodfox, AYG down Woodfox and into lot. Pop-Tart led 60 seconds of LBC’s to finish.
Moleskine:
After The Matrix Fault Line mentions, “Do you know who Q’s FT tomorrow?” No I do not, I will look it up. Oh, I guess I do. And I have Death Valley on Wednesday. Good to know. I was not prepared for a lot of creativity so I went with some of the basics on the hills of Rain Tree. Hard to get creative on a running workout and I feel we have been spending too much time west of campus recently. Time to get back to our roots.
Strong work by lots of men out there today. Rachel and Hairball were cooking out there. Turkey Leg and Swiper were up front also, but they were powered by some competitive exchange of gas which killed anyone too close behind. Not sure who won that battle but I am sure the rest of us lost.
Haze and Soul Glow seem to be getting comfy out there. Now that Radar is out of the picture, there is nothing to stop their relationship from blossoming.
Duct Work, Margo and Fault Line were also making strong work of the AMRAP and covering some ground. Iron Sides was grinding while Mr. Brady was plotting his revenge from the back of the pack. Certainly it won’t take him long to regain full speed. I am not sure how much Pop-Tart ran, but he crushed the last quarter mile.
Thanks to Mr. Brady for the takeout.
I have rushed this and not proofread any of the backblast, I have outsourced that to Gummy. Any concerns can be brought to his attention. Hairball is his backup.
T-Claps to the men that helped at Debbie’s House and Ronald McDonald House this weekend. Excellent and admirable efforts. Proud to count you as brothers.
-Alf