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What Kind of Bullshit Exercise is This?

In an effort to make use of the Q Sheet, YHC is signing up to randomly Q through SW.  Today was a trip back to the hallowed grounds of Cletus, now with new and improved 5:30 AM start time.

EC was supposed to be a joint adventure at Deadbolt’s suggestion, but he (a) “Forgot” and (b) Chickened out of a Cletus beatdown given the threat of pull ups.  Something something rise to the challenge something set the bar higher something something.  So, a few of us (Cowboy, Cupid, UTI, Bernie, and YHC) hit up 2 miles of the chilly May morning before a proper boot camp.

FNGs: The CMD (Coal Miner’s Daughter, from WV)
Warm Up: Run the lines on the court, SSH, Fazio Arm Circles, Imperial Squat Walkers
The Workout:

Part 1, on the Courts:

5x Devil Burpees (Slap the floor; miss the jump shot; flop on defense; flip to pushup before overhead clap….1 rep)

Start with 1 legged Wheelbarrows (these are stupid hard, btw), go forward, sideways, then backwards.

Repeat with 1 legged Bear Crawl

Part 2, on the Playground:

Groups of 4 rotating exercise:

  • 5x Pullups
  • 5x Devil Burpees
  • 1 Legged Crawl Bear width of grounds
  • 10x WWII

Repeat 4x.  At some point Puddles provided the quote of the day (and title of this backblast)

Finish with extra round of pull ups before

Round 3, on the Hill:

Sprints while we waited for the 6.

This one is a bit of a blur.  We started with merkin bear crawls up the hill.  Every time your right foot came off the ground, a merkin was required.

Run back down, recover on the WWII.

Run backwards up the hill, Derkins off the fence.  Down the hill, recover on the WWII.  I think we did this 3-4 times.  Ending with some more Devil Burpees before one last trip backwards up the hill. There were hints of a Merlot on the last trip…

Mary: A few mary exercises.  Ended with Russian Ukrainian American Freedom Twists.
Announcements: Service opportunity at Food Cupboard tomorrow.
T-Claps (Recognition): Great to meet Plex for the first time this AM.  He just started F3, but was killing it.  I do not look forward to his first Q.
Prayer: So many ailing parents.  We’re getting older guys, cherish the time you have with your parents now, you don’t know how long it’s going to last.

R4TJ – gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble…. GOBBLE

FNGs: Welcome Face Plant!  He is one of the 12 Oaks gang and a semi-recent resident to Holly Springs and NC at large.  He and his family spend their downtime skiing in either the waters of Florida or on the slopes in the mountains.  The PAX struggled in the naming process this morning, as typical the turkey left them pretty lethargic (all that tryptophan?) so we zeroed in on his favorite activities and envisioned a face plant and so he was named.

Warm Up: At about 10 minutes to start time, Cowboy, Maybelline and YHC stood alone at R4TJ as we watched Lipstick quickly exit his truck for the john.  Shortly after, Lipsick exited and began running laps around the parking lot… strange but not unusual.  We shrugged and considered the allure of the LED beatdown at Possum Trot, “this is probably it..??” we thought.  Within a few minutes or so, Nemo and Yogurt arrived on the scene.  Good!  More running buddies 🙂  Bad!  Yogurt hill repeats 🙁  JK Yogurt JK.  Within a minute of start an SUV came barreling in.  To our surprise…  A 12 Oaks clown car complete with an FNG.  As Kitty would say… Let’s GO!

So… stretching is apparently bad or has no advantages…  So… we like… jogged together around the parking lot and stuff…  PAX were encouraged to butt kick, high knee, or really do anything that made them feel like they were ready to run.

The Workout:  The Turkey!!!  A 5+ mile route that makes the rough shape of a turkey on the Strava map.  She’s a big ole bird and she gets a little angry when you approach from the back side (Crossway).  No surprise, the 12 F3 PAX had little trouble running this turkey down.

Mary:  Thy name is Yogurt – Yogurt’s Ting Hill Repeats – Guaranteed to make you faster, stronger, and a better human being!  Cowboy, Nemo, Yogurt, Boy George, Lipstick and YHC were present.(note the 12 Oaks Clown Car didn’t stick around… I kid, I kid)

Announcements:  Tryptophan really did a number on these guys today…  Silence

T-Claps (Recognition): ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

Prayer:  Yep, tryptophan again…  YHC took us out.

Rock Work

Great weather this morning and a good number for EC as Emeril, Dawgpound, Cowboy and Dumbo headed out.  YHC was on the run a little after and we all headed down and around Womble.  Saw Bernie and Pilgrim doing some serious speed work along the way – killer pace and always cool to see a couple guys out there working together, holding each other accountable.
Warm Up: Standard jog around the big block but with more traffic than usual.  Circled up in the lot for the regulars and then added 5 burpees OYO by accident.  YHC saw Dumbo jump in late on the jog but it was just for a bathroom break.
The Workout: On the jog to the rocks and we each got a solid rock to use for an arm set.  Circled up behind library on one side of what I call the smile.  Started with biceps doing 7s.  After 1st set we ran to far end of smile, plank hold then 10 merkins.  Back to the rocks and we did 2 sets with a break in the middle for SSH.  Another run and merkins then 1 more bicep set.  Next we did the same routine but it was tricep press and skull crushers.  Rounded it all out with the classic Ground Pounder.  Overall, lots of reps and plenty merkins.  Returned the rocks and headed back to start for a bonus set keeping the arms up we did bat wings, 10 count hold, penguin claps, 10 count hold, overhead claps, 10 count hole, penguin claps, 10 count hold and back to bat wings.  Brutal.
Mary: Quick sets of LBC, low slow flutter, American Hammer
Announcements: Cletus now 5:30, Crazy Ivan needs more kettlebell, Holly Springs Food Cupboard this Sat.
T-Claps (Recognition): Happy early 2 year to Dawgpound.  I know I am not alone in saying there have been plenty of days this guy carried/inspired me including when we launched Ivan.
Prayer: Pilgrim and Bernie dealing with illness in family.  YHC took us out

What a sunrise…

FNGs: Nope.
Warm Up: Quick mosey to the lot in front of Wendy’s with a mix of butt kickers and high-knees. SSH x15, The Goof Ball x10, Daisy Pickers x15, Stretching (L/R, R/L, walk arounds), Wide Stance, Pot Stirrers (The German Potato Soup).
The Workout: The U-Turn with some PAX going for 3, 5+ and 10+. Strong times out there with a lot of good pushes up the hills and chases in between. Well done everyone!
Mary: Nope.
Announcements: Q-Sheet awareness continues!
T-Claps (Recognition): T-Claps to @Brexit who stopped and snapped this pic and then ran his arse off to crush it up this hills and finish with what I think was two laps around the finish…
Prayer: Silent Prayers. YHC took us out.

 

Conversion Sprints

Did you know that there are 2.54321359219 centimeters in each inch?  Just ask Skidmark.  Precision is very important to him.

FNGs: Nope
Warm Up: SSH, Daisy Picker, Hillbilly, take a lap together around the normal Paradise City loop
The Workout:

YHC and his trusty sidekick Cowboy put out cones just before the workout.  They were roughly spaced at:
40, 100, 200, 300 yards.  Much time and effort was spent discussing the merits of these distances vs. meter distances.  Again, ask Skid Mark.

The PAX were instructed to sprint hard to the cones, recover across the parking lot, then sprint back to the stop sign.  After going 300, go a full lap around the lot (1/2 mile).  Then, repeat in descending order.

Mary: Yeah right
Announcements: 2nd F with Carpex this Friday
T-Claps (Recognition): Props to Blue Hen.  After realizing the time was going to be an issue, YHC instructed everyone to cut off the second full lap and save themselves a half mile.  Blue Hen’s fax got lost and he plugged along.  Well done sir.
Prayer: Abbreviated, but we all know Crab Legs, Shredder, and many others need our prayers.

 

Be more than a Fitness Fraternity.

 

Pace Mountain!

 

The Route

Get Your O-Face On!

Pax: 187, 3rd Cousin, Axe, Bernie, Chips, Cowboy, Da Bizness, Dawg Pound, Emeril, Foghorn, M4L, Nemo, Pablo, Rainmaker, Snap, Slide Rule

Beautiful morning temps as YHC started his extra credit from the house.  On the way, I saw several Pax getting some EC as well as they were returning to the AO.  Got to the parking lot with a couple of minutes to spare.  16 Pax were off to feel the Bern.

FNGs: Nil

Warm Up:

Moseyed on over to the parking lot by the front entrance of the library.

  • SSH x 15 IC
  • Good Mornings x 10 IC
  • Hillbillies x 12 IC
  • Merkins x 10
  • Squats x 10

After a brief warm-up, YHC broke the Pax into groups of 3.  I joined a group to make 4.

The Workout:

Within each group of 3, one Pax lined up in a parking space while another lined up in a parking space directly across on the opposite side.  The 3rd Pax had to travel from one side to the other via the called exercise as the Pax on each end did a different exercise.  Once you got to one end, you switched with the Pax and did that exercise while they traveled to the other side.   This was AMRAP-style for 7 minutes for each round.  A lot of moaning after we were a minute into the first round, and I announced that we were going for 7 minutes!

  • Round 1 (7 minutes)
    • Side 1: T-Rex Merkins –> similar to military push-ups but hands were further down by your lower rib cage; feet against curb.  Pax modified for difficulty
    • Travel: Bear Crawl
    • Side 2: Modified Man Makers –> Burpee with a shoulder tap on each side after the merkin, then stand up and do an additional squat.
  • Round 2 (7 minutes)
    • Side 1: Mountain Climber Crossovers –> knee to opposite elbow
    • Travel: Duck Walk
    • Side 2: Frog Situps –> WW2 with bottom of feet touching each other
  • Round 3 (7 minutes)
    • Side 1: Plank
    • Travel: Crab Walk
    • Side 2: Suicide Squat Jumps –> alternating jump lunge and then a squat

After these three rounds, we moseyed on over to the steps at the library for the next round.  We stayed in our groups of 3 for this one as well.  For this round, the reps for exercise #1 served as the timer; so you switched to the next exercise in line one the Pax in your group doing exercise #1 finished.

  • Round 4 (2 sets)
    • Exercise 1: Step off from 2nd step into a squat jump (Timer: 10 times and then change exercise).
    • Exercise 2: Low slow flutter
    • Exercise 3: Inch worm

After round 4, we circled up in the grass for a finisher.  This was announced as a 5-minute glutes/hips finisher, but the jokes kept coming.  So we have a name for it below.  5 minutes straight (no stopping).

O-Face Finis(her)

  1. 30-sec donkey-hydrant with leg #1 (donkey kick/fire hydrant combo)
  2. 30-sec donkey-hydrant with leg #2
  3. 1-min hip thrusts (picture sitting back on your feet and sitting up to your knees – squeeze the cheeks.  Pablo kept looking for something to hold on to in front of him here
  4. 1-min Homer-2-Marge
  5. 30-sec 1-legged hip thrust with leg #1 (almost like a single-leg Homer-2-Marge, but instead you are holding yourself up with your arms and letting your planted leg do the work) – Emeril kept begging me to look in his eyes on this one.
  6. 30-sec 1-legged hip thrust with leg #2
  7. 30-sec lunge with kickback (lunge with leg #1 with a straight-leg kickback with leg #2)
  8. 30-sec lunge with kickback (lunge with leg #2 with a straight-leg kickback with leg #1)

Wrapped this up and moseyed back to start for 1 quick Mary exercise and COT.

Mary:

Quick 25 LBCs since we had a little time left.

Announcements: This month’s charity is Holly Springs Food Pantry.  Slide Rule going for a half marathon and distance PR with doing 15 miles on the ATT this Saturday.

T-Claps (Recognition): Slide Rule has gotten a bunch of PRs for a lot of distances in the last couple of weeks (1-mile, 5k, 10k).  Kudos to all the slappin da bass you’ve been doing to get faster.

Prayer:

Prayers up for Crab Legs, Shredder, Pilgrim’s dad, and the Morrisville police officer who passed.

 

Honored to lead this morning.

-Bernie

Uno, Racing and Burpees @ Southwake Dad’s Workout

FNGs:

Rapunzel, Rubble, Castle, Cat Girl, Clean Sweep

Warm Up:

The warm up was led by Sir Dawgpound and started just as the sun cleared the clouds.  Exercises consisted of:

  • SSH In Cadence x 20
  • Daisy Pickers x 20
  • Fozzio Arm Circles Forwards and Backwards x 15 each
  • Some Light Stretching with Left leg over Right and Right Leg Over left.

The Workout:

The workout had 2 parts.  The first was led by YHC (Cowboy) and consisted of a modified version of Uno.  The PAX were divided into 4 teams and each team was dealt 7 cards.  The teams were to move through each card and do the following:

  • For a Skip Card the PAX would Skip their side of the Tennis Court
  • For a Reverse Card the PAX would run backwards their side of the Tennis Court
  • For a Draw 2 they would run to the center of the court and pick 2 more cards
  • For a Wild Card they could pick their Color and do 10 reps of the selected Color’s exercise
  • For a number card they would look up the exercise associated with that color and do that number of reps
    • Red = Merkins
    • Green = Star Jumps
    • Blue = Squats
    • Yellow = LBCs (IC)

This was a bit disorganized but seemed to be fun for the kids and their dads.  We did this for 3 rounds.

The 2nd part of the Workout was led by Slide Rule and consisted of 2 activities.  For the first activity all the dads formed a line and planked while the kids jumped over the legs of their dads.  We then repeated but the Dads were in Downward Dog and the Kids Bear Crawled under through the smelly tunnel of Dads.  We then repeated the first part with planks and kids jumping the dads legs but added that once the kids were done the dads would follow the kids jumping the legs of their fellow dads and the kids after they had planked at the end of the line.

The second activity was a series of races in honor of Kentucky Derby Day.  The kids sprinted, bunny hopped, etc for each of their races.  The dads Bear Crawled and Wheel Barrowed their races.  Finally the kids rode their dads like horses and we raced around the tennis court.

Mary:

For Mary the PAX honored Riley Howell – the hero of the UNCC shooting with 21 Burpees together because in F3 we don’t do things OYO we are always together.  Slide Rule also shared some very inspiring words about doing the right thing even when your scared and to remember we all have each other to draw on in those times.

Announcements:

We need volunteers for the next Dads workout in June.  Note it is the same weekend as Run the Quay and a Triathlon that several PAX are running.

T-Claps (Recognition):

YHC personally feels that Skidmark and Pikachu deserve some T-Claps for tripling down today including lots of EC.  Great work men!

Finally Dawgpound came today with water, juice and snacks for the kids today and given the heat they were very needed and very appreciated.

Prayer:

Remember that we all have each other and that we can draw on each other to do the right thing, even when its difficult and scary.  Prayers for the family of Riley Howell and Prayers for all those unspoken prayer requests.

504 Burpees is a lot…

FNGs: Nope.
Warm Up: U-Turn has been bringing a full parking lot to Starbucks lately…First Mosey with high-knees and butt kickers to Wendy’s front lot. YHC realized we were right in front of the plaza entrance. Safety first, we moved one more lot over. We’ll likely circle here from now on as there was more room to spread out.

SSH IC x20

Imperial Walkers called by YHC but YHC started Hillbillies, corrected to x15

Hillbillies x10

Leg Stretching R/L, walk-arounds etc.

The Workout:

Lost count of the bikers going – maybe 5?

Others varying w/ varying routes of 3, 5+, 15 for those doing EC EC.

Following the thang, 21 Burpees OYO based on the callout for AO’s to remember Riley Howell – the hero of the UNCC shooting – who tried to stop the shooter and was fatally wounded in the process. God Speed Riley.

Mary: N/A
Announcements: Dad’s workout was this AM, Run the Quay 6/1, check channels/FB for Wrightsville registration link.

T-Claps (Recognition): Aquaman for creating his own route this morning and repeating the suicide hill climb on Irving!
Prayer:

YHC took us out. Riley Howell from the UNCC shooting and all those impacted.

Better, Stronger, Faster – $6 Million or TOAST?

One year F3 anniversary Q apparently had an impact: “I think you toasted us all,” was the compliment coming from Banana Seat.

But, it wasn’t me really, it was all the workouts that I’ve done over the past year. Today, I simply incorporated memorable parts of those beatdowns.

EC: Intervals for Slide Rule, Warbucks, YHC
Warm Up: Mosey to amphitheater, SSH x 55 (shout out to The Natural, who Q’d the entire week of his 55th birthday); yoga moves (shout out to Slide Rule, who Q’d yoga last summer); Bat Wings (shout out to Banana Seat, who always brings excellent material).
The Workout: 15-20x Dips on the ledge, followed by 15-20x Australian Mountain Climbers (shout out to Blue Hen, who brought AMCs to my first Nut Cracker workout–in the rain). Rinse and repeat 3x dips and Australians today.

Mosey to greenway. Guantanimo until each PAX had moved to the front 3x.

Mosey to parking lot: Partnered up. Wheelbarrow to top of parking lot. Add a burpee every time you switch drivers (shout out to Moby, who brought this to Nut Cracker one day). Next, Merkin shuffle (shout out to 187, who seems to like this one). This is where some real “toasting” occurred.

Lots of “recover on the run,” which is my favorite from CHiPs and Emeril Q’ing Paradise City.

Mosey to dirt parking lot. Time for some Jack Webbs to 21. Shout out to Nemo for burning up Disney with this one hot Thursday.

Mary: Slide rule led LBCs while I got ma phone. Next, I led low slow flutter, Hello Dollys, pickle pounders, and Banana Seat led Australian Snow Angels.
Announcements: 2.0 workout Saturday Womble 9 am, check Slack, FB
T-Claps (Recognition): All those great workouts and Qs over the past year.
Prayer: Nemo’s mom’s friend, who fight with cancer is about to end, Breach doctor visit today, Banana Seat’s father in law.

Big Reaction

8 PAX for the John
Warm Up: SSH x25, GM x10. MH x10, Frankensteins x10, Butt Kickers, High Knees
The Workout: “The Dipper”  Slide Rule decided to go reverse and kill all the strava segments along the way.
Announcements: Dad’s Camp on Saturday
T-Claps (Recognition): Nice Run Slide Rule see what happens when you put some effort into things! 🙂
Prayer: All those impacted by UNCC shooting, Crablegs – We are pulling for you and know God has a plan for you.  Keep your head up when one door closes, another opens.