Sixth Sense?…Maybe\Maybe Not

Pre-Blast for AGS advertised a 4mi bootcamp with a creepy picture of YHC in a bunny sack costume. Yep- that may have turned many away, but not 4 PAX who showed this morning to catch some miles and put in some quality work. Picked up Deadbolt @ 5:45, and rolled out of Wescott and onto Womble to see Nemo backed in and ready to go. Oboe came to join the party followed by Vasoline. Planted the flag and started PAX with a brisk warm-up inside the tennis courts

Warm Up: Alternating side shuffles around the perimeters of each of the courts inside the tennis fences, exited and circled up at the top of the parking lot for Imperial Walkers X 10, Hillbillies X 20, and a series of squats while YHC reinformed PAX that we’d be doing a 4mi boot camp style workout, utilizing Womble and surrounding areas of Main St.  and Downtown Train domain.

The Workout: Single file Indian run to the top of Stinson. At the stop sign performed a series of Good Mornings X 10. Instructed PAX to proceed and take a left up Grigsby in fellowship run formation to the back side of the tennis courts and onto the parking lot adjacent to the baseball fields. Squat hold for the six and warmed up with Fazios X 10 Front\Back with some tricep stretches following.

PAX grabbed a rock they were comfortable curling and tricep extending.

Called for a series of “Nemo’s”- Curls from bottom to middle X 20, Curls from top to middle X15, Curls from bottom all the way to the top X20. Followed up with some Tricep extensions X25.

Placed Rocks down and Michael Phelps’d. With rocks still on the ground, PAX performed some rock merkins starting with right hand on rock X20 and evened us out with left hand on rock X20. Recover and then performed some Rut Rows X20. Returned rocks Cusack style back to the pile. At that point Deadbolt thought we were ready for some COT, but come to find out we were right on schedule 17 minutes in.

Instructed PAX back into the Indian Run line past the Womble courts and to the entrance onto Stinson and taking a left back to the the top. Circled up and shared that at TBD one time in the winter, Aquaman had us doing some type of crazy merkin mile along Main Street, where we did merkins at each intersection along the way. Kept it simple with 5 merkins at each intersection while mosey’ing single file along the way. 25 Merkins later we were on the top of the parking deck behind City Hall.

Informed PAX that we’d do some modified 7’s. Modified as I would have preferred 11’s, but we still had a lot to do after this.

One side of the lot was 6 SSH, sprint to the far end 1 burpee.. Continued this til we had 6 burpees at the other end and 1 SSH at the far end. Before exiting the lot, YHC saw some brick wall with reserved parking for OBGYN’s…why not? This is where we separate the men from the boys. Derkins X20, which were more like balls to the wall presses, given the height of the wall and also that YHC is vertically challenged.

Exited the lot via mosey and quickly instructed PAX to reform their Indian run formation to the traffic circle in front of the library. When we arrived, YHC noticed that the circle had nice arrows painted around it and offered minimal guess work. Informed PAX that we’d be bear crawling around the circular island. Legs were burning at this point, but we all made it all the way around. Continued down library hill in fellowship mode until we got to the adjoining subdivision pool by the speed bump signs. Once the six was in, performed a series of 10 squat jumps IC.

At this point, I informed PAX that usually I like to do ‘the hard things’ first in my day, but today we were saving the best for last. As a nice sunrise illuminated our bear crawl in front of the library, we now had plenty of light to experience the insane East\West Elm hill segment. This street hits you twice and is a literal punch in the face no matter what pace you are trying to run on it. Fellowship run up the street and then a left on Avent Ferry, back to the parking deck.

Quick check of the watch had us with 7min to go and 25 more merkins on our way back to Womble via indian run. As we made our final descent down Stinson back to the flag, I asked Oboe for a quick mileage update after the last speed bump before hitting the lot. “We just hit 4 mi, Mookie.”

Perfect as we also just hit 7am on the dot. Some freaky sixth sense kinda of stuff this morning, where the numbers just lined up with all the variables of PAX, pace, and exercises.

Mary: Didn’t really see her for too long, but Vasoline was flirting with her after the workout.

Announcements: Check slack for site Q opportunities

T-Claps (Recognition): All PAX getting out there on a Sunday and getting after it. Really strong work this morning.

Prayer: Oboe’s father-in-law Emery, who is battling heart issues. All health care and front line workers. Those seeking new job opportunities. YHC took us out.

Boulders, Breakfasts, and Banana Seats

After running the “old school” U-Turn loop this am, YHC decided to take the Q at Ground Pounder with a real focus on “muscle moves” and rep counts.  11 pax showed up for a lot of rock work and an impromptu photo shoot by Banana Seat.  When asked if he was joining the workout, he responded he was only a spectator this morning, and this guy just stood there eating his breakfast….but got some great photos of the workout.  There’s gotta be a name for this type of behavior in the lexicon. Either way, we all did 5 burpees in honor of our breakfast eating photographer/spectator’s arrival and departure in his “sweet” new ride.

EC: Nemo and Coal Ash

FNG’s: None
Warm Up: SSH, Sir Fazios F/R, Seal Claps, Overhead Claps, Frankenstein’s, Windmills, Good Mornings.
The Workout: Merkin ladder up of 10,15,20, and 25 counts with 13 SSH in between each set.

Rock Time

Descending ladders of rock exercise combos. Counts were 20,15,10.  Curls for the Girls/Ground Pounders. Then Triceps Extensions/Squats. Then Shoulder Press/Rut Rows.  Each combo was followed by a break where we did 20,15,10 reps of chest presses and an ab exercise with rock. Finished this portion of the workout w/ 20 count IC of Bus Drivers. Every driver drives in his own way!!!

Bear Crawl across lot with 10 merkins, return trip with lunge walk followed by 10 squats. Repeato with two rounds of “penalty exercises” for pax doing rock exchanges during the workout.

To the Wall for 2 rounds of BTTW with each pax doing 5 count and 1 round of People’s Chair with each pax doing a 10 count.
Mary: each pax took a turn calling a 10 count exercise including: diamond merkins, nipplers, Shoulder Taps, spider man merkins, Pickle pounders, WW2, plank holds, burpees, squat jumps.
Announcements: Many AOs open. Looking at possible Fleming Loop site soon. Mr. Terrific taking the lead at Tiger Blood with a speed and form focus.
T-Claps (Recognition): PAC-Man’s Birthday. Happy 33rd.
Prayer: DOA’s family member with cancer/stroke, Coal Ash grandma w/ demensia , YHC’s daughter Julia recovering from stomach bug but with some mental barriers to cross and my M with strained relations with her mom. Mr. Terrific and his career change time. Our country and nation. Honored to lead HIM’s.

You took a tranq to the jugular man!

FNGs: None
Warm Up: Imperial walkers x 10; daisy pickers x 10; hammy stretching 10 counts; frankensteins x 10, SSH x 20
The Workout: 19 PAX on this Saturday for 5+ miles trekking through the old u-turn route.  Good route, lots of mumblechatter, all helped pick up the six.  Various PAX for EC, Cupid, Dawgpound, Dumbo, Emeril, Full House.
Mary: none
Announcements: Roon race coming up in June – see Banana Seat for details
T-Claps (Recognition):
Prayer: Prayers for Mr. Terrific in his job search, healthcare workers, first responders

Yogurt Celebrates BDay With 55 Burpees; Fanny Pack Leads TBD

Yogurt led eight PAX for a non-stop workout centered around 55 burpees. Fanny Pack led seven PAX for some 11’s and more…

Warmup: Mosey to amphitheater, spread out for 11/55 burpees. I asked Go-Gurt to help me account for our five sets of 11 burpees.

Stop 1: Amphitheater

  • Ledge for dips, greenway downslope for derkins
  • 55 dips and 55 derkins, completed in five sets of 11

Stop 2: Picnic shelter area: 11 burpees to make it 22/55

  • Mosey to tennis court area: Needed a break from burpees, so we did ab work in sets of 55

Stop 3: Top of Ivan lot: 11 burpees to make it 33/55

Stop 4: Bottom of Ivan lot: modified Red Barchetta

  • Sets of 55 SSH, 45 Mtn climbers, 35 something else at the top
  • 55 curb step-ups at varying paces at bottom

Stop 5: Top of Ivan lot for 55 more burpees to make it 44/55

Stop 6: Tennis courts for 11 more burpees to make it 55/55!

 

TBD Led by Fanny Pack

Round 1: Ivan lot: Sevens with burpees and alternating lunges

Round 2: Amphitheater: Step ups, squats, irkins, dirkins, dips, several rounds of BTTW and People’s Chair

Round 3: Tennis courts: Ascending ladder to 11 of Jack Squats (squat replaces air press) with sprints in between

Mary: Combined Masters and TBD. Lots of ab and core work in sets of 55 or 28. We did not stop until 0615.

Prayer requests: Fanny Pack’s daughter, who is overcoming stomach-bug-type illness, but seems to be slow recovery.

Announcements: Yogurt turns 55, nothing major

Third Time’s Charming

Warm Up:
Mosey round the school
Walking sumo squats, hands up, then out
SSH
Morrocan Night Club
Side leg lift
Imperial walkers

The Workout:

Burpee progression – 2s, then 4s, with short runs in-between. Start with burpees, halfway across the lot, burpees, run the rest, burpees, then run back to start
Regular
Double Merkin
Tuck

Ab pulse-ups (stretched out, arms and legs come up about 1ft)
Rinse & repeat burpee progression

Merkins, 5sec up/down for 3, then 3sec u/d for 3, then 1sec u/d for 4
Squats to same tension cadence
Down dog shoulder press to same cadence

Combatives:
Review of side kicks from last week
Learn roundhouse kicks
(Pivoting so your base heel points toward the target is crucial!)

Mary:
Side crunches
Sit-up twists
Pax call out an exercise:
Boat canoes (super slow, courtesy of Banana Seat)
Xs and Os (Yosemite)
One-legged homer-to-marge (Norm)
Toe touches (Martini)
Break dancers (Shredder)
And I can’t for the life of me remember what Mr. Terrific wrapped us up with!

Announcements:

Keep an eye out for the June challenge announcement. Hint: it’ll be called “RUNE”

Prayer:

Mr. Terrific’s job search

May 15th Cletus: Started Friday off right but I stopped Short! as Hardy killed the Q

FNGs:  YES!  Nick Singleton AKA Moped headlocked by Tetanus
Warm Up:  The usual – SSH’s, Fazio Arm Circles FW & Rev, Daisy Pickers, Good Mornings
The Workout:  A tribute to @Yogurt as we headed to one of his favorite places the Pit today.

Thing 1:  11’s Burpees and Plank Jacks across the field.  I tried to add an extra 11 Burpees at the end but got called out that I had it wrong (but Hardy would save the day!), so we headed up the stairs.

Thing 2:  Divided into two groups, 1 group BTW, 2nd group 10X merkins, Switch.  10 count Merkins was long enough so we went to 20 on round 2.  20 seemed to long but there was 1 PAX that couldn’t get enough.  For round 3, it was group 1 peoples chair, group 2 – I requested an exercise, no one had time to respond before Hardy called out Burpees. 10 X Burpees it was.  Repeat for round 4.

Thing 3:  Headed to rocks as I had pre-blasted last week and didn’t deliver on.  15X Curls for the girls, 15X Tricep extensions, 10X overhead Press, 10X Squats, Repeat

Mary:  Popcorn Mary – 15X Pickle Pounders, 15X LSF’s, 30 Merkins (Hardy killed the Q on this one as I was forced to “stop short” and forget what Florence called out next 15X of something), 15X Homer to Marge, and finally Have a nice day.
Announcements: Check Slack
T-Claps (Recognition):  @Moped for hanging in until the end
Prayer:  All those affected or helping with Coronavirus

May 8th Cletus: What have I done!

FNGs:
Warm Up: The usual, SSH, Fazio arm circles FW and Rev, Overhead Seal Claps, Seal Claps, Daisy Pickers
The Workout:  Stack em and Un-Stack-em:  Around the soccer fields with a stop on each side at the parking lot, we stacked 10 Burbees, 15 Merkins, 20 Sumo Squats, 25 Freddie Mercuries and then repeated with a full stack and then began the un-stack.
Mary:  A core annihilation brought to you by Aquaman, I really don’t remember as I was forced to modify but it was intense and definitely had some boat/canoes in there.
Announcements:  I don’t remember, need to shake off the rust and start posting backblasts in a timely manner.
T-Claps (Recognition):  Everyone for completing this workout, it was a Mother#%#@!
Prayer:  Shame on me, I remember Fanny Packs daughter and her stomach bug but there was another significant prayer request that slips my memory.

May 1st Cletus: F3 is Back Baby!!!

FNGs: None
Warm Up: The usual – SSH, Fazio arm circles, Overhead Seal Claps, Seal Claps, Fazio Arm Circles FW & Rev
The Workout:  Modified Murph, 1 mile stroll, 100 Merkins, 200 Squats, 300 LBC’s, 1 mile stroll
Mary: No time
Announcements:  We’re back Baby!
T-Claps (Recognition): Fanny Pack and Florence braving the gloom!
Prayer:  That this epidemic  shall pass

E-Ticket Rides at Disney

FNGs:  None

EC:  ShamWow!, Nemo and Full House

Showed up to Disney with three workouts planned in my head.  I wasn’t sure how many PAX would take my challenge after taking a picture of the abyss and posting it on the socials.  I wanted to make sure I had a plan for 3 PAX, <10 PAX or  >10 PAX.  It was a very long time since I had taken the 22 mins drive at o dark hundred in the morning.  I drove in silence doing a walk through in my head of the planned activities.   Planted the flag and greeted PAX I had not seen in 8 weeks.

Warm Up:  Nine PAX and a pooch took to the pitch after a mosey around it.  Completed SSH, Hillbillies, Good am, Seal Claps, Overhead Claps, Fazio Arm Circles, and static arm stretches.  The pitch was beautiful (flat, manicured) with temps  in the high fifties.

The Workout:  Mosey to the abyss.  Paired up for a Dora: 100 merkins, 200 LBCs, 300 SSH; hold squat/ completed squats and helped PAX finish their Dora.  Thanks for the assistance on the count of SSH Nemo – apologies for not clarifying single vs four count SSH.  Partner not doing Dora, ran/walked the stairs.  At the bottom of the stairs, PAX completed 5 Star jumps before starting back up.  Some PAX chose running up the dirt trail parallel to stairs.  Indian run back to pitch.  Nice sprints by Yogurt and POTS.

Mary: Lots of yoga.  Popcorn 10c AB work.

Announcements:  See Slack/FB

T-Claps (Recognition):  Special shout out to my Shield-lock brothers:  Masters for their support.

Prayer: YHC took us out.  Prayers for injured PAX, everyone struggling with pandemic, first responders, delivery drivers.  Honored to lead.

The shortest 10 seconds in the history of time

EC: Norm, Boy George
FNGs
: None
Warm Up: Despite post last night stating no running, we did a quick jog around the parking lot before the usual set of warmup exercises – SSH, Windmills, Imperial Walker/Hillbillies, Sir Fazio arm circles, and Good Mornings.
The Workout: Modify posted on social that he was looking for a Q for today, and it’s been a good long while since I led a workout so I took my Daily Red Pill and seized the opportunity to accelerate my fitness while leading a great group of men. I decided on doing a Tabata-style workout, which consists of several exercises in the follow setup – 8 sets of doing AMRAP for 20 seconds, followed by a 10 second rest. After the 8 sets, you get a 1 minute rest before transitioning to the next exercise (so you spend 5 minutes each). I picked out 7 different things that would alternate between upper and lower body, followed by some core exercises with a bit of cardio mixed in. During some of the 1 minute rest periods we did something – squat hold, arm stretches, plank, etc – other than standing around. The order was:
1. Squats
2. Merkins
3. Lunges – alternating legs, every set we switched between forward and reverse lunges
4. Burpees
5. Mountain Climbers
6. Up tempo Side Straddle Hop – 12 IC for each set, pushed for 13 IC on the last one.
7. Plank – switch between Shoulder Taps and Nippler each set

Observations:
1. When putting this together I thought the 10 second rest would feel too long, having never done a Tabata workout before. By the end everyone agreed the 10 seconds felt like about 2 or 3. It didn’t help having my watch that started beeping at 5 seconds to count us down to start the exercise again.
2. Pace yourself. Before the merkins I mentioned the Goggins workout where he does 10 every 30 seconds and thought that was a reasonable goal. Somebody pushed and did 15 the first few sets and was paying for it by the end. As Norm mentioned, that first set always feels easy and gives you a false sense of hope, but by set 6 or 7 you are just praying for it to all be over.
Mary: Went around the circle with each PAX picking an exercise. American Hammers, In-Up-Out, Homer to Marge, WW2s and Low Slow Flutter. Have a nice day!
Announcements: Banana Seat putting together a running challenge for June, more details to be announced.
T-Claps (Recognition): All PAX present for pushing themselves
Prayer: Praise for Wrangler’s daughter’s recovery/continued healing, family/friends of Heather Prince (HSRC founding member) after she passed away unexpectedly, Gamecock’s niece, Coronavirus