So… I borrowed this recipe from Emeril…

ECEC: Cupid, Pikachu, M4L, Yellow Card

EC: Lipstick, Flanigan, Emeril, ShamWow!, Blue Hen, Nemo, Full House, Skidmark, Pablo, YHC

Ting Ramp EC: Nemo, Pikachu, Cupid, Yogurt, GoGurt

I must admit that I was a little overwhelmed to see the number of HIM that showed up today in support of my 2yr Anniversary with F3 – and this was only EC.  It was quite a light show pulling up right at 5:15 this morning with all those vests lit up, blinking away.  I can report that these vest contraptions really, really work.  As I pulled up just in time and had some preparation to do, I got to watch this awesome pack of PAX roll-out right on time and could see them slowly disappear over Bridgewater Short Hill (Strava Segment name BTW, I highly recommend Strava, it’s all the rage).  Shovel Flag planted, Nemo out ahead of me by a few minutes.  It’s going to be a great morning in the gloom!

What follows is a workout inspired by the workout Emeril put together as Q on July 24, 2017 – My first F3 Post.  They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Emeril deserves some credit for this workout, it’s a burner as they say.  If you are a Facebook’er – Here is link to the BackBlast.

  • I showed up late this morning for EC, please correct me if I missed you…

FNGs: Too scared

Warm Up:

A moment taken by YHC to thank everyone for showing up and bringing such a large number of PAX to the celebration.  27!!!  Nearly got a Deadbolt sized crowd 🙂

Special thanks given the Thingamabob out of N.E. Wake, he had a 45 min drive this morning.  He and I used to work together and apparently I had EH’d him in conversation and he decided to post on his own at some point.  Great dude, hope you got a chance to get to say hi.

Also notable attendance by Emeril, Pikachu, BlueHen, Nemo, Patch, M4LIFE, and Yellow Card.  These guys were there with me on day 1 and showed up again today.  Noted regrets from Deadbolt, Roger Roger, DawgPound, and Slide Rule.

Equally present were many of my EHs from the last 2 years.  Lipstick (BREATHTAKER!!!), Straight Cash, Peeping Tom, and Tetanus

WHERE IS THE HOOK!!!  WHAT WAS THE WORKOUT!?!?  ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

We began with 20 SSH, 10 Windmills (1st 10 count offense),  YHC was still a little verklempt and had some counts that sounded like he was ending these 2 workouts a little early.  There was a quick little internal monologue and pep-talk (UTI you’re blowing it!) then we went on a Mozy towards the tennis courts.  Half way up the back stretch at Ting we went into a Carioca, switching half way past the tennis courts and continuing the rest of the way up the hill.  We rounded the corner and Mozy’d once again for a bit.  At the next tree, we met the sidewalk for Fast Feet until the next tree.  Back to a Mozy as we headed down the Ting Ramp for “The Workout”.  Squat Hold for the 6

Image result for verklempt

The Workout:

Pulled straight from Emeril’s cookbook – Pair up into partners for B.O.M.B.S  (50- Burpees / 100- Overhead Claps / 150- Merkins / 200- LBC’s / 250- Squats)

Partner 1 does a workout and works to complete as many as possible during the time allowed.  The time allowed is driven by partner 2 who is on the run from one side of the lot to the other.  Partners 1 and 2 switch out at the completion of each run and they work together to complete the B.O.M.B.S.  If this were a video I would be playing this section in timelapse cause it took a while to complete.  PAX picked up the 6 on these and helped the remaining groups finish out their work.  This workout was tough for me as an F3 newb and it was good to see that it’s still pretty effective on some of the experienced guys too.  Good feedback on this one.  Everyone seemed to feel they got their money’s worth.

Short/quick Mozy to the bottom of the ramp.  The rest of the time I diverged from Emeril’s recipe a bit.  His recipe called for partner carries and in the last 2 years we have largely moved away from them, past the injury record they have – I know no one wants to carry YHC (I was particularly sweaty today).  So, we stayed in our existing partnerships with partner 1 Bear Crawling up the ramp while partner 2 hung back and whipped up 3 Burpees.  Once said burpees were adequately whipped, partner 2 sprinted to catch partner 1 and they swapped all the way up to the top of Ting Ramp.  The original plan was to take these all the way to the tennis courts but time was almost up.

<Slashed out a small section of the original plan here for time.>  You know how in cooking you can just leave stuff out sometimes – dash of this, dash of that, nope don’t need that (toss it over your head without looking)…  Emeril knows what I’m talking about.  BAM!

Audible called to form 4 lines for Indian Runs.  From the looks of it, we ended up in 3ish lines of varying sized but it seemed to work well enough…  Indian Runs continued around around the tennis courts and back down to the basket ball courts for Mary.

All the while – we did have Peeping Tom (or PT as he’s known in Carpex) out on a run with Straight Cash to keep him company.  PT is still on the mend but they both made a point to be here on my anniversary with a modified workout.  Nice job men!

Mary:

10 Have A Nice Day (2nd 10 count offense), 20 Leg Lifts, 12 Freddie Mercs, 12 Homer to Marge, Pigeon Pose both legs, Runners Pose both legs, 20 Diamond Merkins (Lipstick ending strong with Breathtaker)

One more thing from YHC – Very happy to be a part of F3 South Wake.  It’s been a great 2 years and I’m happy to have stuck with it.  1st F was the hook and I’ll admit it took me almost my first year before I started to truly buy-in.  So happy to have gotten more involved in the 2nd and 3rd Fs.  Feeling alot of growth through F3 and very happy to continue that growth in the years to come.  If you’re new and this is still just a workout, you haven’t come to understand or believe that it’s more than a workout – hang in there.  It’s worth the wait.

Announcements:

  • Check with Skidmark – BRR Simulation will be in play next weekend, 3 mile runs scattered throughout the day to test your legs
  • F3 Dads Camp has some open spots – See M4L
  • Check the Slack and the Facebooks for more intel and other announcements.

T-Claps (Recognition):

  • See above – Thanks again everyone.  Great time out there this morning.
  • Shredder doing good in the world on a mission trip.

Prayer:

  • Hit and run victim in Fuquay over the weekend.  Not a member of F3 but a reminder to wear your reflective gear on your runs.
  • Crablegs on his MLB journey
  • Quiver’s daughter starting school soon shortly after their move to South Wake.  YHC extended the prayer to all kids returning to school.  Being a kid is hard and guiding your kids through life is hard too.  Prayers to oversee the kids and the parents through these changes.

A Tale of Two Q’s…

Here’s what I like about Sunday’s… PAX show up, put in the effort, fellowship all around, and everyone closes the page on the previous week and puts themselves ahead of the curve heading into Monday. On Saturday, Dauber reaches out to YHC and asks for the Q. It’s his birthday week, and what better way to celebrate than with a Ruck at AGS. As we know there will be some PAX looking for running miles, we agree to split the Q, he’ll lead the warm-ups, ruck, and COT, and I’ll put together the run… Done.

Pre-Blast advertises the Ruck along with 3-2mi running routes, complete with a water station. Here’s the other thing I like about Sunday’s, the PAX that show and want to raise the standard. The ones that rise from the fartsack on a weekend, especially the ones bookend’ing their weekend fresh off of U-Turn and finishing with AGS. I am humbled by the efforts today of the 10 HIM who showed and helped celebrate the start of an exciting week long Dauber celebration.

Dauber was first to arrive this morning. Giddiness?  Anxious?  Excitement?   Not sure.  YHC shortly rolled in after, exchanged fist bumps while both making note of the unbelievably difficult time planting the shovel flags in what seems to be concrete covered in mulch.  Usual suspects this morning in the form of DawgPound and Cowboy. Followed by Redenbacher. Anybody see this guy lately? He looks like Redenbacher’s younger brother. Red truck rolled up carrying Skidmark. YHC noted this last week when sharing the impact of DoubleD’s presence in AO’s, but it should be also noted that Skidmark’s posts at AO’s have a similar feel. Not sure what it is, but maybe its that whole Master and Apprentice thing Yoda talks about in those Star Wars flicks. Now the surprise of the morning comes in the form of an SUV carrying Yogurt.  WTH?  He usually runs or unicycle’s into Womble?  Apparently, running late this morning and opted for 4-wheels. Great seeing him. Six o’clock hits and Dauber presses play to start our morning.

Warm Up:

Warm up around the track with karaoke, Frankensteins, Bitt kicks.  Circle up with only one warmup exercise:  51 SSH.  Not sure what the connection was but PAX were griping for sure.  At one point, YHC modified with M4L-styled dirty bird hops and PAX stopped counting, but Dauber was certain he landed on 51.

The Workout:

Ruck:  Dauber borrowed a kettle bell from Sir Dawgpound and added it to his ruck pack.  Two brave PAX (Sir Dawgpound and Forceps).  Great mumble chatter while getting in over 7000 steps in one hour.  We had two sightings of Coal Ash along our trek around Sugg.  Soul crusher was in decent shape and challenged PAX with its precarious footing and arduous climb.  We survived without any misfortunes and helped hydrate a PAX on his run.  Stepped up the pace and cruised into Womble parking lot at 7:05 am.

While the Ruck was in progress, YHC had a run planned that would include 3-2 mi loops beginning and ending from the Womble lot. The first of which would focus on the entire Stinson stretch.

Stinson Segment (2.0mi)

YHC lead PAX to the top of Stinson by taking a left out of the lot to the stop sign at the top of the hill. From the stop sign, PAX let it fly down the hill and then back up to the stop sign at the intersection of Bass Lake Rd., while periodically picking up the six throughout the segment. As we made our way back to the Womble lot, YHC noted that we were about 0.25 short of 2mi, so extended the run to the playground and then back. PAX hydrated at the water station and then proceeded to segment 2- Main and Raleigh

Main and Raleigh Segment (2.0 mi)

YHC lead PAX back up Stinson and onto Raleigh. Took a left on E. Ballentine to Main and carried the remainder of Main to Holly Springs Road. Right on Holly Springs Rd. and then back onto Raleigh on our way back to the lot. Strong pushes from all PAX on this segment and T-Claps to Yogurt, Skidmark, and Nemo for picking up the six. As we approached the Womble lot, YHC took a quick look at the Garmin as PAX rehydrated and confirmed we had 10min to complete the last segment.

Fields (1.0)

With only 10 min to 7am, YHC called for a 1 mi scout run, with the PAX at the front setting the standard by running his 5K\10K pace ahead of the remaining PAX. The route took us the long way around the ball fields as we veered to the right, around the fields. As we came to the intersection toward the lot, we went right and then headed to the Ivan lot and then back around the soccer fields still holding strong in scout run formation.As we reached the last 0.15, Skidmark called for a jailbreak back to the lot. This was the strongest segment of the run, with pace hovering at 9:04-9:10. Solid work by all PAX. Later check of Strava had Cowboy pacing 42 secs faster than U-Turm the day before #Strong.

For the 4 time in a row, YHC had PAX back by 7:00am on the dot as planned. Were later joined by rucking PAX and Bernie, fresh off of 9 miles and change. Great work!

Mary: Stretches OYO
Announcements: BRR planned training runs next Saturday led by Skidmark. 2nd F at Dunkin Donuts
T-Claps (Recognition): All PAX. Strong efforts by all in attendance.
Prayer: PAX with injuries and life challenges. Bernie’s stepmom who is battling a health issue.

Great message from Dauber drawing an analogy between his ruck sack and life. Drop the bag of stuff (grudges, people who have been hurtful to you or harmed you in your past, misfortunes, etc.). Get the weight you are carrying off your back.  Go forward on your journey with a clean slate.

Dauber took us out.

“Hey, What running club are you guys with?”….something something something…

FNGs: Not this time
Warm Up: 20 SSH, 15 Frankenstein, Next exercise….10 The Windmill (YHC brainfart holding hands over his head on remembering Imperial Walkers), 187 – “I’m laughing because the Q forgot Imperial Walkers”, 10 IMPERIAL WALKERS. Let’s get to it.
The Workout: EC: Well there was a bunch…. Old U-Turn 5: Warbucks, U.T.I, Cupid, Pikachu, Browns to the Superbowl – 3?: Lipstick . 2.5: Aquaman, 2: ShamWow!, Webex, Dahmer, Sparty. I’m pretty sure there were others out there….Let me know who and I’ll update.   Thanks all those picking up the 6 today. I think there was about 10+ PAX who turned near the movie theater and then over and over again – some logging more than 7 miles on the turns…That’s awesome.

Mary: She was left waiting
Announcements: BRR Training runs – Skidmark posted routes and sign-ups in Slack. Crablegs – follow HIM on social media.
T-Claps (Recognition): All those EC’rs out there today. Starbucks lady made a comment: “you guys are all over town today”
Prayer: YHC took us out.

Wilt Chamberlain is a beast!

PAX: Recorded setting day at South Park with a Pax of 6. Roll call – Yogi, Fly Boy, Lab Rat, Globulin, FNG, and myself (decoy).

FNGs: Welcome Big Green!
Warm Up: Short jog to get moving, followed by side straddle hops, cotton pickers, imperial walkers, Michael Phelps, and arm circles.
The Workout: Wilt Chamberlain: 2 sets of cones set 100ft apart. Started with 25 squats, ran 100ft, 25 LBC, 50ft bear crawl to second set of cones. 25 Lunges each leg, ran 100ft, 25 flutter kicks each leg, bear crawled back to the beginning. Completed the circuit 4 times in memory of Wilt’s 100 point game.
Mary: 10 reps of dying cockroaches, plank, WW1, burpees, Freddie Mercurys, and more flutter kicks.
Announcements: Sasquatch next Saturday, Community 5k Aug 17 in Wendell.
Prayer: Family starting new jobs, family and friends recovering from injuries and illness.

Groundpounder Backblast- The Rock is my Friend

Pax of 8 showed up for some fun in the sun on a humid Saturday morning. Pikachu, Dauber, Doc, Pac-Man, Lipstick(W/Breathtaker) Cupid 8-Bit and Breach on the Q

FNGs: None

Warm-Up: Started with a light jog around the pond and circle up for 22 counts of SSH, Imperial Walkers, Prisoner squats, Pickers, and Frankensteins

The Workout: The workout started like any normal workout with a traveling Merkin session around the bricks on the baseball field, then on to some quick feet, where Pickachu knocked his grape on the pole of the batting cage. We moseyed over to the wall for some step-ups. naturally 11 on each side for 22 total count and some dips to finish it off.

We caught some wall for balls and peoples chair before heading over to the rock pile to find some friends. After that, if a pax member dropped a rock it was a 10 burpee penalty. We went to a nice shady spot in the parking lot for a circle of fun. Shoker here but it was 22 counts of Curls for the girls, Tricep extensions, Homer to Marge, Bus drivers, Groundpounders Truck twists, Low slow flutter, WWIIs, and Hello Dolly.

A little John Cusak action over to the grass where we circled up for some 90 degree holds followed by some more John Cusack while one member of the pax Duck walked weaved in and out of the pax. Followed by an accidental on purpose drop of the rock for 10 Burpees. John Cusak back to the rock pile to return our friends home for the day.

Mosey over to the disc golf putting area where we circled up for a plank meltdown. One pax member would bear crawl around the outside of the circle where the other members are holding a plank. Regular, chill cut arms up, arms out and so till all the pax went around the circle.

Mary: Last 3 minutes were spent with some yoga moves to stretch out the hips
Announcements: Meg’s smile auction is tonight started at 6p in 12 oaks, CUASP next week in Greenville, Healing Transitions volunteer event coming up in Sept.

T-Claps (Recognition): Doc and Dauber for each getting a 6 pack in this week.

Prayer: Double D and his family and Crab legs as he travels.

Nothing Has Changed in 4 Years…

22 PAX joined me in my 4 Year Anniversary and 16-Bit’s 1 Year.

FNGs: Welcome Go-Gurt!
Warm Up: 16-Bit warmed us up with smurf jacks, morracan night clubs, leg stretches, arm stretches, and a merkin circuit of 5 standard, 5 w/right leg up, 5 w/left leg up, and then 5 standard again.

The Workout:

–A Little P90X – “Do your best, forget the rest”

  1. Jump shot 15x
  2. Double Airborne Heisman
  3. Run Stance Squats (switch feet-looking forward, touch toe)
  4. Swing Kicks
  5. Twist Combo, tip-toe twist
  6. Leapfrog Squats

Howling Monkeys – We bent over and grabbed our ankles while each PAX did 5 Monkey Humpers

Two Rock Shakur (grab two rocks)

  1. Biceps – In –  15x
  2. Triceps – Bent over curls
  3. Shoulders – Arnolds
  4. Biceps – Front
  5. Triceps – Overhead extensions
  6. Shoulders – Overhead
  7. Biceps – Outer
  8. Triceps – Tricep press on your back 40x
  9. Shoulders – Deltoid extensions – side raises – 15x

Crabjacks 25x

Mary: Around the horn with various exercises.
Announcements: SUP Aug 3 at Jordan Lake, Meg Smiles Charity Auction this weekend
Prayer: Dusty’s brother, DoubleD and his family after his father’s death. John Deer (leg fracture)

It was honor to Q four workouts this week and lead you men. F3 has extremely impacted me personally and professionally. Thank you!

Welcome White Claw and Duck Hunt

Yoga EC: Dawgpound, Buford, Emeril, Skidmark
EC: Pablo, Blue Hen, Moby, Flanagan, Lucky Charms, Dahmer, UTI, White Claw

FNGs: White Claw and Duck Hunt
Warm Up:

Bounce
High Hinge. Left leg back
High Hinge. Right leg back
Trace your foot
Back Stroke
Arms out rotate shoulder

Teaching:

Tier 1:
Swing bell against chest
Reverse Warrior Lunge
Pushup on bell on knees

Tier 2:
Swing two handed
Rotational Warrior Lunge
Pushup on Bell

Tier 3:
Single Arm Swing
Rotational Warrior Lunge with Press
Plyo Pushup on Bell

The Workout:

20 Rounds of one minute of the tier you select above. Start at 4 reps each exercise. If you have something you have to do on each arm it will be 2 and 2. If you finish the exercise under 30 seconds. Increase the number of reps. We will go from 4 to 6. If you cannot finish by 40 seconds decrease the number of reps from 6 to 4. You must stay in good form. Form cannot suffer. Increasing/decreasing the reps is down by 2.

Mary:

Reach Through Draw the Bow
Childs Pose
Downward Dog Leg lift Open Hip
Pigeon Pose Look both Ways
Runners Pose With rotation of hip

Announcements:

Meg’s smile volunteers Saturday
Sasquatch coming up
Special BRR run next Saturday

T-Claps (Recognition):

Flanagan and Moby got their fritter

Prayer:

Crablegs
John Deere
Emeril’s Dad
UTI’s family friend
Dusty’s brother

3+ miles of Indian Runs!!!

EC: Aquaman, Bullseye, Dahmer, Shamwow

FNGs:None

This is gonna be short and to the point.
Warm Up:Mosey to greenway with various stretching and exercises along the way. Windmills, high knees, butt kickers…..you get it, we were getting ready to run a bit.
The Workout:Took off out the green way in a 2 group indian run. YHC instructed that every time “DROP” was heard, PAX was to drop and do 2 DBL Merkin Burpees then continue as you were. In addition, at YHC’s direction we did various exercises together, never leaving the six. Merkins X20 in various forms, Derkins X20 at the bridge, step ups on the equipment, LBC’s IC X20 X20. I think there were other exercises but who’s counting. If you really want to know, you  should have been there! We went 1.5mi out and stopped at bottom of hill on the way back. YHC thought it would be a good idea to instruct everyone to run to top, do 5 burpees, down 5 burpees, up 4, down 4 and so on. that didn’t last long…….Indian run back for mary.
Mary:Low slow flutter, LBC’s, Boat Canoe (my fave ;)) Have a nice day
Announcements:
T-Claps (Recognition):
Prayer:YHC took us out

Top Gun VolleyBall…We Looked The Part Too

PAX of 9 joined in on some Top Gun Beach Volleyball. There were digs, and spikes, and sets, and falls…and that was just Dauber. It was nice to have a workout without shoes too 🙂

FNGs: None
Warm Up: Stretches as we wanted to get right into the game.
The Workout: Beach VolleyBall. Whenever the ball hits the grass, a penalty exercise was called. The ball landed in the grass quite often prompting us to do Merkins, Monkey Humpers, Squats, LBCs, Burpees, and more. 3 games were played.
Mary: Our game went 15 min over so we went straight in to COT
Announcements: Deadbolt’s 5 Yr Workout, SUP Workout Aug 3
Prayer: Healing for John Deere’s leg, Dusty’s brother Ken (stroke), Noah’s Ark and wife,

Thanks for letting me lead and joining me in part of my 4Y4Q Week. Great 2nd conversation afterwards too.

Is there a Big Dipper?

EC: Redenbacher, Lipstick, Nemo, YHC

FNGs: Not today…

Warm Up:

The original plan was to endure the heat and do a simple out and back from R4TJ headquarters to TBD headquarters, see if we could do a fly-by and see some of those PAX out to be DETERMINED.  Slap some hands, some asses, and bring it back to R4TJ HQ for COT.  Then, even before we could start warm-up, I locked eyes with DawgPound and he was giving me those big puppy dawg eyes.  He wanted to run The Little Dipper…  How can I say no!?  There was some backlash in the ranks “Who’s the Q?”  I answered “Well, I am!” and justified that it’s running and I want to make sure that R4TJ is catering to the needs of it’s VIPs (which is anyone that shows up and has a voice – extra VIP status for ‘The DawgPound’ because is has a THE in his name).  Had he requested that we all start doing Merkins for the duration of the workout, I would have said “Dawwwgggg, Please!” but he only suggested a slight detour on our return route and we probably netted a bit more mileage which MADE US STRONGER!!!  But, I digress…

Frankensteins, Daisy Pickers, High Knees, Butt Kickers were our warm-up moves.  The last two were in motion towards the stop sign off the main drag into Ting near the construction.  We began the run from the sign.

The Workout:

A RUN!  It really shouldn’t surprise anyone, R4TJ is listed as a RUNNING AO on our website.  Not listed on our website is that we typically run for something closer to an hour end-to-end at R4TJ.  Lipstick and I will need to call on our resident web heads to fix that.  We’ve been living a lie…

We ran The Little Dipper for THE DawgPound as previously discussed.  It’s named for it’s shape, see this backblast for reference.  187 was fast to ask about the Big Dipper…  We simply don’t have one here in South Wake.  Maybe it’s because Holly Springs isn’t very big? Or perhaps we discovered the Big Dipper but called it the Little Dipper because we were hoping for more from a Dipper?…  Not sure…  Curious… Fascinating… Intriguing….  Dodo Birds?  OH, YEAH!  So we were running and it was really hot and steamy out this morning.  I don’t know about the rest of the PAX but it was a struggle today for YHC.  I managed to get back to HQ clocking in just over 5 miles (even with the slight short-cut down the stairs instead of going all the way to the light at Ting).

It is important to note that we had 2 visitors this morning

– Peeping Tom of Carpex was out.  Still a little bloody and bruised in places but getting out in the gloom from some walking and light running where his injuries would allow.

– Borland from Raleigh was present and accounted for as well.  Glad to have him out and in my corner to maintain order at the AO this morning.  Be glad some of you were counted, nuf said.

Mary:  Big Mary or little Mary?  Do not tell Big Mary, I called her Big…  It never goes well…

Announcements:

-Sasquatch CSAUP 7/27 – Hit up Owais for details, check your Social Media accounts

-Still needs for this weekend to support Meg’s Smile – check with Sliderule

T-Claps (Recognition):

-Midget for helping bring everyone together this morning (through the power of his High School self) but also every other day of the week.  He is always our spirited mascot/ambassador, EHing guys on the runs through town at many of our AOs and keeping the rest of the nation aware of what we are doing here in South Wake.

-Sliderule is killing the target for Meg’s Smile charity this month with everyone’s help of course 🙂

Prayer:

-Crablegs – Great work out there on behalf of ALS, hope you are enjoying your travels and stay safe.

-Double D – Your family is in our prayers following your father’s passing.

-Our BRR 6-man, stay well men and God speed.  Take care of yourselves and each other as you continue your training.

-Emeril’s Dad – recovering from surgery

-Friend of YHCs son Corbin, still in a coma after a dry drowning event.  He did come off of the ventilator and is breathing on his own.