Master Shredder’s Return

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YHC coordinator ran over from home expecting a light crowd tonight based on the HCs he saw before leaving the house – was pleasently surprised by the relatively large (7 pax) group that was there upon arrival. We mumbled for a few minutes and then got rolling.

FNGs: n/a
Warm Up:

SSH x15 IC

Daisy Picker x10

Standard Merkin x15

Fazio arm circles x10 forwards & backwards

*No rest*

Overhead clap x15 IC

*No rest*

Seal clap x15 IC

The Workout:

Mosey to pavilion

Partner up – 2x cayote uglies per person (thanks Double D)

Mosey over to the playground

YHC called for each partner to do 10x pull ups  / 10 x squats to 50 total, but audibled to 30 after the sets of 10 pull ups were feeling like a bit much

Mosey to the amphitheater

10 count people’s char down the line

10 count balls to the wall down the line

10 count people’s char down the line

10 count balls to the wall down the line

Mosey around the pond to the railing/bars

Partner 1 does 10x upright rows

Partner 2 does 10x star jumps

Switch and repeat for 20 of each total

Mosey to the rock pile – pax were encouraged to grab a small rock

Line up on the end parking lot line for bear crawl jack webs

4x Overhead press with rock

Crawl bear to the greenway

1x merkin

Bear crawl back to the rock

Repeat, going up in the 4:1 ratio up to 20 hallelujahs and 5 merkins

Pax were asked if they wanted to keep going or switch it up – switching it up won 2 votes to 1 so we moseyed back over to the pavilion.

Irkins x20

Derkins x20

YHC asked the pax what went well with Irkins and Derkins (expecting dips of course) but was surprised by a pax calling for merkins

Merkins x20

Dips x20

Arms were shot and apologies were made for anyone who needed to use them tomorrow.

Mosey to the tennis courts

Line up on the end line for lung walk suicides – lung walk to the middle of the first court, lung walk backwards to the start, forwards to between two courts, backwards to start, forwards to midline of second court, backwards to start, forwards to opposite fence, and then backwards to start.

Mary:

Shoulder tap x15 IC

Planks w/left arm / right leg extended & switching extended extremities

Planks with left leg/arm up and 5x crunches on each side

Chill cut for the last 60 seconds

Announcements:

Picnic this Saturday

Squatter has the Q at Thunder next week for his 2 year anniversary.

2nd F following Thunder at Pace Yourself
T-Claps (Recognition):

Shredder for being back out

Cupid for doing this madness with breathtaker (after working out this morning with it on too) AND rucking to Thunder tonight thanks to a car in the shop
Prayer:

Praises for Shredder back at a bootcamp

Burpees X 0 = My legs hurt

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During last week’s COT at Possum Trot, Fonzie made a comment about the Iron PAX challenge highlighting that we don’t do enough leg work.  With that in mind, I set out this week to begin combating that notion.  45 minutes later I had problems standing up after saying the prayer and we’re not even going to talk about trying to walk upstairs once I got home.

FNGs: None

EC: Cupid

Warm Up:

Moroccan Night Club x 10

Smurf Jacks x 10

Good Morning x 10

Cotton Pickers x 10

Nancy Kerrigan x 10 each direction.  This is a variation on the traditional arm circles.  You lean your torso forward and extend one leg out behind you.  Circle arms for a 10 count forward.  Switch legs and then do 10 circles in reverse

The Workout:

Today’s workout was to be a modification of four corners, where we were doing exercises on each of the four sides of the outside of the tennis courts with some sort of lunge walking between sides. It took a lot longer than I thought it was going to so in order to get through everything I wanted to we switched to moseying between sides on our 2nd lap.

We began in the parking lot with an easy set of 20 prisoner squats.

Lunge walk to the side of the tennis courts nearest the road.  Reminded PAX that it wasn’t a race and to make sure to use good form on the way over.  Squat hold for the six.

Bobby Hurley x 16

Walk Like an Egyptian to the next side of the tennis courts.  WLaE is essentially a lunge walk Indian run.   PAX line up and step forward in to a lunge and hold it.  The exion calls for the person in the back to run to the front but since I promised no running yesterday on Slack we bear crawled to the front.  Once that person go to the front we lunged forward with our other leg and held it while the next PAX bear crawled to the front.  We cycled through the line two times to get to the next spot.

Everyone grabbed a rock and came back down to the road.  Goblin squats x20 and then all PAX lined up and held squat with their rocks while 5 counts were given all the way down the line.

Lunge walk to side by the ball field.

Floating lunges x 10 each leg.  Lunge forward and then backward with the same leg, not touching in the middle.  Forward and back counted as 1.  This hurt.

Walk Like an Egyptian back to main parking lot.  This time, instead of bear crawls, we did duck walks to the front of the line.  We had less time than I wanted at this point so we only did one cycle through the line and then moseyed to the center of the lot.

Everyone grabbed a partner and back-to-back people’s chair for a 30 count.

Mosey to the street side where we did Bobby Hurley x 20.

Mosey to the back and grabbed our rocks.  Held them over head and did 20 squats.  Everyone returned their rocks and we moseyed to the next side where we did No Surrender x 20.

After that we moseyed back to the parking lot to circle up for Mary.

Mary:

Low slow flutter x 15

American Hammers x 15

Box cutters x 10

6 inches for a 30ish count.

The count wasn’t exact because I was doing it in my head and during this point someone mentioned my comment about burpees in the pre-blast.  I said that we were multiplying by 0 and that was the number of burpees we were doing.  It was pointed out that 0 wasn’t a multiple of 10 and then other’s starting indirectly calling in to question the public education system of Pennsylvania.  Clearly I got distracted.  Either way, we didn’t do any burpees.

Announcements:

Picnic on Saturday.  Signup sheet in the #2ndF channel in Slack.  Bring stuff.

Q Sheet challenge still going.  Even if its a couple weeks out, get your name on there and lead a workout.  If you’re new or nervous ask for help from a site Q.  It doesn’t have to be perfect and it doesn’t have to be gimmicky.  Just make people hurt (in a good way).

T-Claps (Recognition):

Fromunga for wearing a weight vest for no good reason.

Prayer:

FedEx’s coworker who got bit in the hand by a dog while at work.  Pray that he recovers full feeling to his hand.

Double D’s grandson getting tubes in his ears this morning.  Pray for his mother as any procedure on a child is always much harder on the parents.

 

010000

Stackups at The Nest

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EC: Fromunga, H1N1, Cupid, Fonzie, LED

FNGs: None

Warm Up: 20xIC SSH, 20xIC Mountain Climbers, 10xIC F+R Sir Fozio Arm Circles, Michael Phelps, arm/leg stretches

The Workout:

Balls to the wall til last man standing, Round 1. Winner = Cupid.

Stackups! We started at 5 reps in each corner (1 – merkins, 2 – squats, 3 – burpees, 4 – LBCs), and increased by 5 for every exercise except burpees (which stayed at 5) every time we hit the corner.

Balls to the wall til last man standing, Round 2. Winner = Fromunga.

Followed by Fromunga’s 15 minutes of abs.

Mary: She was covered by Fromunga’s exhausting ab workout.

Announcements: Sprinkler’s fire station in Fuquay hosting a fun day on Saturday. Bring the kids! F3 Picnic, also bring the kids.

Prayer: Unspoken

Lungapalooza at Purple Cobra

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FNGs: none
Warm Up: Moseyed over to the Planet Fitness parking lot for Good Mornings, Windmills, Fozio Arm Circles, Imperial Walkers and Hillbillies for 10 count. Did some 10 second stretching for the quadriceps and hamstrings.

The Workout: Lungapalooza commenced with forward lunges to various parking lot islands stopping to do standard merkins 10,20,and 30 reps. We then did reverse lunges back to starting point doing wide Merkins 10 each pit stop. Next we did sided lunges with squat with diamond merkins 10 reps each pit stop. Finally, we went back working the other side doing 10 standard merkins at each pit stop.

Pax then headed over to a curb to do 2 sets of 25 calf raises, moseyed over to the rock pile behind HT and did 21’s curls for the girls 2sets, straight arm front and side raises 15 reps for 2 sets.

We then moseyed over to in front of HT and grabbed a bench to do 2 sets of 25 reps of dips.

Mary: Popcorn Mary with various abs exercises with the Alphabet being the killer!

Announcements: Upcoming SW picnic.

T-Claps (Recognition): Promise Ring for waking up early to drive from Campbell to post!

Prayer: Warbuck’s wife’s grandmother and unspoken prayers

Oct-7 Murph

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Pax of two for our first Murph of October.  Thanks to Forceps for making it out and the company.  Second mile through the woods was completely dark, hoping daylight savings time comes soon.

Warm Up:  run 1 mile

The Workout:  100 pull-ups, 200 merkins, 300 squats

Mary: run 1 mile

Announcements:  Picnic this weekend

Prayer:  Recovery and guidance

This rock has sharp edges

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Another glorious morning at the nutcracker. Pre beast created some mumble chatter about getting in an easy workout.
Few of the purple cobra pax made the trip to the nut. Pax 15 strong showed up and the smell of the dump contributed to all the yapping. Pain sticks in full effect for this one…

Pax: Moby, the natural, alpine, emeril, chips, peeping Tom, UTI, pumpkin spice, Pablo, particle board, blue hen, breach, da business, dumbo & YHC  

EC: blue hen, emeril, Pablo, UTI, YHC (sorry if I forgot anyone else)
FNGs:none
Warm Up:jog around the lot, circled up for good morning x 10, morrican night clubs ICx 20 into seal claps x 15 into t-claps x 20 recover. Clock merkins 1-6
The Workout:split into groups of 5  Did two rounds of exercises x 2  rule was pain stick cannot touch the ground or one did monkey humpers x 10

round one group did chest presses with pain sticks, over head press with rocks, bear crawled across soccer field and jogged back around track  rinse and repeat

round two squats with pain sticks, triceps extensions, bunny hop across field and jog around track  rinse and repeat

we lunged walked with rocks and sticks back to rock pile, met in front for mary

Mary:low slow flutter ICx 30, American hammers ICx 10, homer to marge ICx 20, dying cockroach ICx 10, diamond merkins x 20
Announcements:picnic this weekend 11-2 Sharon Harris
T-Claps (Recognition):
Prayer:YHC took us out

October Ultimate at Mutiny

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FNGs: None
Warm Up: 20xIC SSH, 10xIC Good mornings, light static stretching
The Workout: Ultimate!
Mary: She was not to be found.
Announcements: Picnic Saturday. Bring yo kids, bring yo wife.
T-Claps (Recognition): Fram for some solid plays once again. The guy is a natural!
Prayer: General for injured PAX, unspoken

Not going to take the long way around?

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Ten strong at Downtown Train to get our week started out right.

EC: Warbucks

FNGs: None

Warm Up: DT Lap, 5 burpees (OYO), Daisy pickers, windmills, merkins, fazio arm circles forward and backwards

The Workout:

Mosey’d to library parking lot and paired up for some 7’s. Pax started in middle of parking lot for patty-cake merkins. Partners ran to opposite end of parking lot for burpees and back to the middle for patty cake merkins.

Mosey’d…the long-way…to different area of parking lot. Switched partners for some Dora. Exercises were as follows….

100 squat jumps

200 squats

300 LBCs

One PAX did exercise while partner bear crawled around planter. Switch/repeat until reached totals.

Mosey’d…at the suggestion of Flanigan, the long way…to parking garage. YHC decided to call an audible. He had intended to have PAX do leap frog burpees from one end of the garage to the other.  Instead, stuck with the leg them and PAX grab some wall for peoples chair (10 count each PAX x 2).

Mary: 10 burpees (OYO), dying cockroachs, Warbucks led exercise (name?), Breach led us in penguins, and Flanigan finished with 20 diamond merkins.

Announcements: Picnic this Saturday. See Slack and Facebook for sign up sheet.

T-Claps (Recognition):

Prayer: YHC took us out.

0.0 miles is a long ways to go

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It was almost 60 degrees this morning when 8 HIM gathered in the gloom for a 0.0 mile beat down. There was one PAX present for EC – UTI. Flag is planted and we circle up on the basketball courts ready to start the week off right!

EC: UTI. One is the loneliest number…

FNG: None.

Warm Up: SSH, Abe Vigoda, Fazio arm circles (F/R), Seal claps, Overhead claps, Imperial Walkers, Hillbillies.

The Workout: Partner up for accountability. Bear crawl from the basketball court up the hill toward the tennis courts to the end of the guardrail. Stop for 2 sets of Irkins, Dirkins, and Dips. Thanks to Lucky Charms for the strong counting all morning!

We continue up the hill to the tennis courts via a crab walk. This seemed like a better idea on my couch than it did in the gloom. Note taken. At the top of the hill we stop again for a Lazy Dora with your partner.

Lazy Dora:
100 merkins. Partner holds plank and switch every 10 reps.
200 WWIIs. Partner holds 6″ and switch every 20 reps.
300 squats. Partner squat hold and switch every 30 reps.

Leaving the top of the hill headed back down, bunny hop to the top of the guardrail. At this point the arms are too smoked for Irkins or Dirkins so we do 20 dips and keep moving. Our next mode of transportation is Lt. Dans (1 squat then 2 lunge steps) back to the basketball court. With Lt. Dans we increased reps from 1-5 and then back down.

Mary: I think Mary might have been hanging out with Midget today. Neither were present but we had 5 minutes to kill so might as well do some more work! Big boy sit ups, Homer to Marge, pickle pounders, Have a nice day!

Announcements: Picnic (sign up for things we need), GrowRuck (contact Pablo for details).

T-Claps (Recognition): Wallaby. Welcome back to the gloom brother!

Prayer: UTI uncle (fell out of a deer stand), unspoken.

It’s always a pleasure to lead you men in the gloom. Thanks for the opportunity and I’ll try to do better next time!

You Show Up and So Do I…

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Remember those episodes of Mr. Rodgers we used to watch as kids? They had a magic word with every episode. Later through mainstream TV in the 80’s and 90’s, shows like Saturday Night Live and Nike commercials featured Eddie Murphy and the “Admiral” David Robinson, providing parodies like Mr. Robinson’s neighborhood, where each provided comedic satire mimicking Fred Rodger’s word of the day. Well, Southwake….Today’s word of the day on this Sunday was…Ready?….ACCOUNTABILITY.

Full disclosure in this backblast in an effort to be completely transparent with PAX who continue to inspire me on a daily basis. YHC put up the pre-blast yesterday afternoon advertising a 5mi EC with a 6mi Main Event. The alarm was set for a 4:20am rise. Hit snooze twice.. Something about those 18 minutes, made YHC feel a false sense of security, knowing that I had enough time to make it to Womble in time to plant the flag and get PAX started for this morning’s run(s). As YHC finally woke, the back wasn’t feeling right. Same feeling from the week before. Surely PAX would understand if I ‘mailed it in’ this morning and decided to stretch instead of running EC. Last week I got a mile in and had Maybelline lead PAX on the designed route. In retrospect, stretching was the logical option, but after reading Aquaman’s FB post on discomfort this week, I should have planned better and ultimately would have been fine continuing on the route.

Arrived late to EC- about 4minutes. As I drove down Stinson across that set of speed bumps I know all too well from Cletus and Ivan EC, I had convinced myself that I’d plant the flag and tell LED and H1N1 that I just didn’t have it this morning.  They were the only PAX with an HC and a planned route that started at 5am heading into this morning. I had convinced myself that I would save it for the main event and even had a line…”You guys go ahead on your route. I’ll stay back and stretch and prepare for the PAX at 6am.” As I made the right into the Womble lot, I see the light up vests and headlamps. “Damn it, Mookie…If you can’t Q it, don’t do it.” And with that gentle reminder, YHC mumbled, “If you are showing up, so am I..suck it up” and pulled into the parking space next to LED’s truck. No more excuses… These guys were now waiting on YHC. It wasn’t just H1N1 and LED. We had Pikachu, Bernie, and Cupid, making a 6 pack for this morning’s EC run.

Asked LED if he had a route. He and H1N1 were doing the escape route to Ting for around 7-8 miles. Perfect. The remaining 4 would follow and circle back when we got to the Paradise City EC neighborhood. I think the last time I saw LED and H1N1 all morning was in that parking lot. Those dudes exited Stinson with a purpose and as we reached Jones onto Veteran’s Park, those light up vests faded to black. Cupid, Bernie, and Pikachu kept YHC honest. As I sat back in a comfortable 9:10 pace, I could still see them and knew if I kept them in sight, I’d be holding my own on the run. As we made our way out of Veteran’s, YHC lost them them on the ‘Boardwalk’ into the PC neighborhood. Light up vests then proceeded back toward YHC and at that point knew they reached the turn.

Made it back on the ‘Boardwalk’ and on to Veterans. Pikachu called an audible and indicated that we could bypass Veteran’s and venture toward Holly Springs Road by way of Rhamkatte Village. Also determined at that juncture to ride on the left side of Pikachu instead of behind, while also picking up the pace to be in front. Something was brewing inside of Pikachu and had enough wits to be above the fray instead of below…At that point, YHC’s back issues from earlier subsided. Guess its a part of getting older and just takes longer to warm up. Made our way through Rhamkatte and onto Holly Springs Road. Asked for a route confirmation… Do we go straight down Bass Lake to Stinson or do we get back to Womble via Holly Springs Road-Raleigh, Grigsby-Stinson?….

Neither. We ended up going Bass Lake to Earp, Left on Raleigh and then Grigsby and onto Stinson. All EC PAX arrived back to the lot and were greeted by an AGS regular- Master Shake. While YHC switched out Hokas, Pikachu made a pit stop, Cupid did some stretching, Bernie adjusted his earbuds.

And….then here it is.. just what in the hell is going on here at AGS?  In rolls DoubleD, followed by 187, Lipstick, SkidMark, Pablo, and an FNG UTI headlocked at Dunkin Donuts after the Saturday Dad’s Workout. Second FNG in 4 weeks at AGS.. Honestly, only in F3-Southwake do we see FNG’s showing up to first workouts getting 6 miles, having only run 3mi ever as their longest run prior. What’s even more impressive is that they keep showing up after and in impressive fashion.. Look at Master Shake- think he is on 4 straight weeks of AGS.

Walked over to greet Skidmark and mistakenly asked if he was ‘Getting 10mi this morning.’ His standard was vastly different than YHC’s standard this morning as he replied with a, “No Mook, I’m getting 18.” Yeah- note to self, next time YHC asks how many miles Skidmark, 187, Bernie, Pikachu, Lipstick, and Cupid are getting on a weekend day, just take the number YHC has in mind and multiple by 2….or in Pikachu’s case..muliple by 3. Good Lord, Pikachu…31 miles at 8:40 pace? Seriously? #Respect

6:00am hit and we were off with the following workout.

FNGs: Welcome, Juul!

Warm Up: Light jog around the tennis court lot. Circled up for Imperial Walkers X12, Hillbillies X12, Good Morning’s X12, Fazio Arms 12F\12B, Prison Squats X12, One extra Prison Squat with a hold for Morocan Night Clubs. One final squat hold to explain the route.

The Workout: Bernie and the additional gazelles (Skidmark, Cupid, 187, Lipstick, and Pikachu) had a planned 18 mi run, which would take them down and up Stinson, with a right onto Bass Lake, Left on Salem Ridge, Left on Linksland, and down Holly Springs onto Starbucks and the U-Turn route. YHC decided to change this morning’s planned route to mirror the first 3-4 miles of Bernie’s route so that PAX could run together for part of the way. The only exception to this morning’s 6 mi route was a slight detour within Rhamkatte for a lap and then back onto Holly Springs Road to Raleigh, Grigsby, and Stinson to the lot. Kudos to Pablo and DoubleD for picking up the six throughout the 6mi route.

Mary: Stretches OYO after the run.
Announcements: F3- Family Cookout next weekend. Sign up sheet on FB and Slack.
T-Claps (Recognition): All PAX getting quality miles this morning 6-18-31 mile distances. Also to Redenbacher, Full House, and UTI for completing a preview 1/2 marathon this morning. Also T-claps to FNG-Juul on his first workout and Master Shake for making AGS a ‘thang’ this past month.

Prayer: COT was conducted before the Main Event. Continued prayers for Pikachu’s friend, Josh whose grandmother passed last week. Continued prayers for Bernie and his family. YHC took us out.

Men- Listen up. I want you all to know that every one of you, those I’ve come to know well these past 2 years and those I’ve met a few times in the gloom..Whether you know it or not, you all continue to inspire YHC. Truth be told, I had no desire to run and workout this morning and is sometimes true from week to week. In fact, as stated earlier in this backblast, I am sometimes totally reserved to ‘mail it in.’ The power of ‘showing up’ is a real thing. It’s one thing to ‘show up,’ but it’s not just a matter of ‘showing up,’ its a matter of ‘showing up’ with intent. Every one of you showed up with the intent to make each other better this morning and every morning I make my way out of the fartsack and into the gloom. It’s what I enjoy most about morning’s in the gloom. You are the first faces I see, and the one’s YHC knows will be there in those times of discomfort (including rounds of DoubleD inspired Coyote Ugly’s) whether its in the gloom or in life. The Richmond Marathon and Holly Springs Half are just around the corner…. After what YHC witnessed this morning, there is no question…F3 Southwake is ‘Showing Up.’ Always an honor to lead on Sundays and looking forward to many more in the upcoming months.