Posts

The Mario Cart Lineup Continues

Saturday March 20th, 2020

FNGs: Welcome ‘Peach Beach’

Another recruit brought out by Emeril that knew Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi.  YHC was having a tough time on deciding between Koopa Troopa or Peach Beach so I put it to a vote amongst the other PAX.  Peach Beach won by a landslide (I don’t believe there were any votes for Koopa Troopa…ha).

Warm Up:  quick mosey around the parking lot, Michael Phelps arms, 10x Good Mornings, 10x Frankensteins, 25-30 Merkins OYO.

The Workout: 3mi and 6mi option

Mary: no time today

Announcements: Long Ass Run Saturday 3/27 on the ATT – plenty more details to be posted on Slack

T-Claps (Recognition): 25 PAX at U-Turn on the first day of spring!  Emeril recruiting a 4th FNG in just as many weeks

Prayer: all the unspoken, teachers/students/state workers back in schools getting readjusted

Not too Wet n’ Wild

FNGs: none

PAX: @Finkle, @Gamecock, @K I T T Y L I T T R, @Martini
Warm Up: Mosey up to the covered bus ramp area at FV Middle School.  SSH’s 20 in cadence, overhead arm stretches and arm stretches across your chest, Michael Phelps, Downward Dog into Pigeon right knee then left knee, followed by a walk up slowly stretching our calves and hamstrings.

The Workout:

Event 1:  Plank hold Indian Bear Crawl.  In a line we held plank while the last man bear crawled up to the front of the line the length of the bus ramp.  Then we called out an 10 count exercise, followed by Bears and Dan’s coming back to where we started.  This is a bear crawl followed  by a 1:4 ratio of lunges to squats building up to 5 lunges (each leg) and 20 squats.  R and R.

Event 2:  Pax performed a given exercise while a runner ran the bus loop.  We did Merkins, LBC’s, Turkish Get Ups, Pickle Pounders, Wall Sits with Seal Claps and others.
Mary: There’s something about Mary that we all love…our abs!  We did Homer to Marge regular, followed by holding your left leg up then right leg doing a 10 count cadence, next was ABC’s and then Reverse LBC’s.
Announcements:  BRR (forming a team).
T-Claps (Recognition):
Prayer: @Norm and his family recovering from Covid, @Finkle has family that is traveling this week, @Gamecock mentioned that his church is opening back up and praying for wisdom as they do so.  @Finkle led the prayer.

Why Would 21 PAX Post for a Wednesday Run? Must Be the Sprints!

Was looking forward to Q’ing R4TJ because I wanted to do two things: Launch a new route and bring back sprints. Needed to get off Crossway for some variety, but wanted to retain the elevation gain. Had lots of ideas, but when it came to mapping, it was challenging. Plus, I told Bobby Bouche that I’d map out a 3 mile option. Initial routes had too many turns, which lead to confusion and frustration. Finally occurred to me that Skymont to Daisy Grove was the perfect solution.

Must Be the Warm Up! Multiple PAX EC’d already. PAX kept rolling in as 0530 approached. Had to get in the middle of the parking lot where we could circle up. 21 PAX make a big circle. With so many EC’ers, I just wanted to warm up the remainder. SSH 25x, Daisy pickers 10x. We got a count and Bobby Bouche agreed to lead the 3.5-mile runners. We all took off. Felt like start of the HS Half.

Must Be the Route! HS Half start, climb Anchor Creek, right on Wellspring, down to the greenway, across the boardwalk. Beginning at the long boardwalk, Skymont goes straight up for a nice elevation gain. This is a very functional route. At the top of Skymont near Daisy Grove, 3.5-mile runners peel off at the greenway connection to Jones Park, head to HS Road, then follow Main back to Ting. At Daisy Grove, 5.5-mile runners turn left, make a couple of simple turns to get to Homegrown, then HS Road and Main to Ting. Finally, we all meet up at Ting for COT and sprints!

Must Be the Workout! This “one hour” run that goes by like nothing. Why? The chatter, the junk talking, the climbs, the descents, the sunrise, the picking up the six, getting to know new PAX, catching with PAX you haven’t seen in a while, and finally, the shenanigans—ask Lipstick and Roger Roger. I tried to run with as many people as possible, while turning back for the six regularly. This was fun.

Must Be the Mary! No, actually it couldn’t be, there was no Mary
Must Be the COT!

Announcements: Long A$$ Run, March 27, multiple mileage options accompanied by multiple starting points, all end in Durham
Prayer: Maggie P and family

Must Be the Sprints! Yes, it must be the Sprints! All 21 of us lined up for sprints, yes! Wait, that’s not what happened… But, shout out to Bobby Bouche, UTI, and Lipstick for hammering out some sprint to AC/DC Long Way to the Top.

Do the Major Melon Dew T-Shirt Challenge

Pre-pre-blasted on Tuesday Feb 23rd that any PAX who posted and ran 3+ miles at U-Turn would receive a Mt Dew Major Melon long sleeve T-shirt and a free can sample of the full sugar or zero sugar.  Received plenty of HC’s on Tuesday and plenty more with Friday evening’s pre-blast.  Including myself 24-PAX were out and about at U-Turn…by far the most I’ve ever had the honor to Q

FNGs: none today

Warm Up: quick mosey around the parking lot, Michael Phelps arms, 10x Windmills, 10x Good Mornings, 10x Daisy Pickers, 10x Frankensteins, 10x Imperial Walkers, 25-30 Merkins

The Workout: 3mi option and 6mi option of the standard U-Turn route in reverse

Mary: no time today

Announcements: Monthly Challenge #3 begins Monday;  #monthlychallenge on slack for more details

T-Claps (Recognition): all the PAX completing 3+ miles today and earning some swag

Prayer:  the safety of all the students, teachers, state workers going back to school on Monday.  Also the safety of everyone state-wide as COVID restrictions begin to ease up.

Recess in session

YHC stepped in at the last minute as a sub for LED who hit it too hard working on a fence over the weekend. Thanks to the 4 PAX who came out in the cold, damp gloom and pushed each other. It’s always an honor to lead. Keep getting stronger every day!

FNGs: None

Warm Up:

Good Mornings x10 IC
Daisy Pickers x10 IC
Frankensteins x10 IC
Sir Fazio Arm Circles x10 IC fwd/ x10 IC rev
Overhead claps x10 IC
Seal Claps x10 IC
Imperial Walkers x10 IC
Hillbillies x10 IC

The Workout:

Head to the playground for recess to begin! Complete a circuit of 3 exercises – AMRAP while 4th PAX is running. R&R for 3 total rounds.
1. Pull ups
2. Derkins
3. Irkins
4. lap around the circle (timer)
Head to the rock pile for the second half of the workout and select a damp coupon. Each round consisted of stacking 10 reps of a rock exercise with a John Cusack lap in between rounds.
Round 1: Curls x10 IC
Round 2: Curls x10 IC, Ruh Roh’s x10 IC
Round 3: Curls x10 IC, Ruh Roh’s x10 IC, Ground Pounders x10 IC
Round 4: Curls x10 IC, Ruh Roh’s x10 IC, Ground Pounders x10 IC, Tricep press x10 IC
Round 5: Curls x10 IC, Ruh Roh’s x10 IC, Ground Pounders x10 IC, Tricep press x10 IC, Overhead press x10 IC
Round 6: Curls x10 IC, Ruh Roh’s x10 IC, Ground Pounders x10 IC, Tricep press x10 IC, Overhead press x10 IC, Burpees x10 – OYO (YHC doesn’t want to risk being called “soft”.)
Mary:
Low Slow Flutter x22 IC
Box Cutters x20 IC
American Hammers x20 IC
Dying Cockroaches x11 IC
LBC’s x22 IC
Have a Nice Day

Announcements:

Martini and YHC will be beta testing a new Sat. running/ rucking AO in FV at Fleming Loop. Run will be 5ish miles and ruck will be 3ish miles. Likely start time will be 6am with 2nd F to follow. Stay tuned for more details.

T-Claps (Recognition):

T-Claps to Martini for EC on a different route on the newly opened greenway.

Prayer:

PAX with injuries / Family & friends recovering from COVID

Did I Q Good? – Q School Re-Cap

8 PAX posted at Womble Park in the afternoon on a beautiful Sunday for our first SouthWake Q School in quite awhile. HIM’s offered great insight and input as we were in the business of equipping ourselves and others for leadership. In the end, all things covered tied back to the Mission, Creedo, and Core Principles of F3. Bottom line…we do what we do and how we do it for a reason. No one gets left behind, we pick up the six, and all men get stronger and accelerate together.

FNG’s: Not at something like this…but we covered the disclaimer and other good points of reference for FNG’s. Namely, the solid Q will assign another PAX to “keep eyes on FNG’s”.
Warm Up: SSH x 20, Good Mornings x 10, Standard Merkins x 10, Burpees x 5. Main point here was we do certain exercises in Cadence, slow cadence, single counts, and OYO for a reason. We don’t do fast windmills, we don’t do burpees in cadence.
The Workout: A quick mosey over the far end grassy field where we covered elements of routines or “Thangs” as some of us reference them. Safety, keeping PAX together and challenged were the main points here, with all PAX taking a turn to practice cadence counts, the “say” statements of…”exercise is”, “starting position”, MOVE (IC/on my…), “exercise.” It’s how it’s done! Did a series of 7’s with Mountain Climbers IC and Squats.

We did an Indian Run over to the rock pile, with a few points being shared by Skidmark about waiting until the indian is in line (rather than a weave) and also monitoring your PAX….again, we don’t leave people behind.

Did a small series of rock exercises both IC and single counts including: Curls for the Girls, Rut-Rows, Tricep Press, and Shoulder Press. Big idea on rocks…tell PAX to choose a challenging rock BUT…also let them know if you will be travelling with it.
Mary: Q has a big job when arriving at Mary to be sure all PAX are accounted for. We did LBC’s IC, LSF’s IC, WW1’s on the up.
Announcements: none
T-Claps (Recognition): Bobby Boucher, Wallaby, and McNugget, having done already their VQ’s plus some, seeking to accelerate and lead!
Prayer: Went over the format of COT, ending on time, prayer considerations. Bobby Boucher has an aunt with health issues. Martini with a big job audit situation at work. YHC took us out! On to a great time for 2nd F. My VQ at a Q School is now in the books, thanks for freeing me to lead!

We like it cold and wet…

FNGs:none

PAX: @Martini, @Gamecock, @Spoonman, @Finkle
Warm Up: SSH, Seal claps, Hillbillies, Imperial Walkers, Sir Fazio Arm Circles
The Workout: Since it was cold and rainy we took shelter under the pavilion.  We played a fun game of Princess UNO or rather OH-NO

Rules for the game:  Draw 4 means we did 10 counts of 4 different exercises, same with draw 2.

Red cards were switch lunges, Blue cards were LBC’s, Green cards were Groiners, Yellow cards were Merkins.  If we happen to pull a Wicked Stepmom with the Poison Apple we had to take a lap around the whole parking lot in the rain…very nasty.
Mary: 10 counts in cadence of Boxcutters, Low-slow-flutters, E2Ks, and reverse LBC’s
Announcements: Q-School on Sunday Feb. 22nd
T-Claps (Recognition): To all the guys who came out in such wonderful weather.
Prayer: @Finkle took us out.  @Martini has a big audit coming up at work, @Finkle travel mercies.

First Dingers

A much warmer, yet still misty morning at The Nest. YHC cooked up a much different routine that required far less running than the Q yesterday at Mutiny. We would be doing a pronounced upper and lower body attack during our workout today. I just needed to make sure the stage was clear for us to use the area down by the ballfields. As Gamecock and I passed on the EC run, YHC saw that we should be good to go. Good thing Sprinkler pulled in for the main event. The first routine of the day was inspired by him as he had previously shared a story about his first little league home run being hit at the field at the Nest. In addition, he shared that his 2.0 hit his first homer on the same field. Good story.

FNG’s: none
Warm Up: Windmills, Frankenstein’s, Moroccan Nightclubs, a squat hold series with overhead claps, seal claps, and more Moroccan Nightclubs, and Daisy Pickers.
The Workout: A short mosey over to the ball field for a baseball inspired stack up series. Each stack was followed by a 5, 10, 15, or 20 count per PAX of alternating Balls to the Fence or People’s Chair. We added an exercise each go around as noted below until the last round where we did all of them in order. Wound up with 7 rounds total.

SSH x5 IC (Single)

Merkins x10 (Double)

Fence Squats x15 (Triple)

Pickle Pounders x20 IC (Home run….of course)

Star Jumps x25 (2-Run Shot)

WW2’s x30 (3-Run Homer)

Diamond Merkins x35 (The Grand Slam)

Another short mosey back up to the parking lot for a suicide series that included a bear crawl, reps of squat jumps, lunge walk return. We did this across each of 8 parking lines, each line was a rep count (ie. 8th line = 8 squat jumps). We blew it out at the end with Monkey Humpers x10 IC, Shoulder Taps x25 IC, and Merkins x25.

Mary: American Hammers x20 IC, LBC’s x25 IC, LSF’s x20 IC, Hand Release Merkins x 25, Freddie Mercury x20 IC, Dying Cockroach x25 IC. Have a nice day!!!
Announcements: Hilltop Needmore Ruck followed by roadside cleanup this Sunday! Q School this Sunday, 3 PM, Womble.
T-Claps (Recognition): Martini was grateful a couple HS PAX as well as a few irregulars joined today at the Nest.
Prayer: PAX who are hurt, sick, injured. Finkle has got a heavy week at work. Sprinkler took us out.

That Didn’t Sound Nearly As Bad In My Head

PAX:  Shredder & Martini

FNGs:  Not Today

Warm Up:  SHH, Daisy Pickers, Imperial Walkers, Hillbillies, Good Mornings, Arm Circles, Frankensteins

The Workout:  B.L.I.M.P.S

PAX started at the last joint in the sidewalk.  Bear Crawl through 2 joints of sidewalk.  B – 5 Burpees, Bearcrawl through 2 joints of sidewalk, L – 10 Lunges, Bearcrawl through 2 joints of sidewalk, I – 16 Imperial Walkers, Bearcrawl through 2 joints of sidewalk, M – 20 Merkins, Bearcrawl through 2 joints of sidewalk, P – 25 Plankjacks IC, Bearcrawl through 2 joints of sidewalk, S – 30 Squats.

Turn around and head back – B.L.I.M.P.

Continued back and forth dropping a letter each time

This workout sucked . . . it will definitely be used again!

Combatives w/ Shredder

Mary:  Multiple core exercises – this may and ended up being worse than the Main Event

Announcements:  None

T-Claps (Recognition):  Shredder for a sloppy EC

Prayer:  Country, Covid

May I Make a Suggestion?

A cold morning at Kenny’s Grave today. Norm and YHC ran EC together and Norm was looking for a few more miles, so mentioned he’d return and jump in with whatever we were doing. Thank goodness he did, because YHC has been tweaking the routine on this agility ladder Thang that I have and Norm made a suggestion to help me further tweak it during the workout. F3 brothers need to be unafraid to help sharpen each other in the moment…or at least in the moments after. The F3 workout is the place to try, fail, and improve constantly. Much better to do it here than with more important things in life out there (we do that too but…). We hold each other accountable, we push each other, we accelerate! This is our workout, the Gloom belongs to us, and we all make it better and are stronger together!

FNG’s: none

Warm Up: Quick mosey lap with some nice and slow Good Mornings and Windmills IC, Imperial Walkers, Hillbillies, Seal Claps, and Overhead Claps. Another quick mosey with a stop for 5 burpees OYO.
The Workout: Each man grabbed the rock to his liking and Cusack over to the main lot. We laid the rock on the farthest parking line. Routine was: rock exercise (all 20-25 counts, except the chest presses, which were 30,40), sprint or mosey to the end parking line, then crabwalk, lunge walk, karaoke, high knees, typewriter, fast feet, or merkin roll back to rock for a repeat. Each set, we moved the rock 1 stripe closer to the start line. Merkin rolls are a means of travel between two points, but can get you dizzy or disoriented fast as we found out. But Kenny’s Grave apparently is the land of bad ideas, as site Q Finkle made mention. You do a merkin, tight roll over keeping core engaged, then merkin until you reach your destination. Exercises when we got to rocks were: Curls for the Girls (2 rounds), Tricep Press (2 rounds), Shoulder Press (2 rounds), Chest Press (2 rounds), and Rut Rows. Once complete, we returned the rocks.

Next Thang was the aforementioned agility ladder routine. Each PAX took a turn doing alternating in/out fast feet on the ladder and side shuffled to a series of 5 cones performing a burpee at each. While other PAX awaited, we did continuous WW1’s on one end and LSF’s IC on the other. It was a long time! This is where the suggestion came in to have the next PAX go when the PAX got to the ladder, rather than finished. Good idea! We did a return trip of this routine with continuous squats on one end and SSH’s IC on the other. Various PAX stepped up to take counts.
Mary: All exercises x 20. American Hammers, Freddie Mercury, Homer to Marge, Pickle Pounders. Finished with pigeon poses and some stretching and a few more Good Mornings for good measure! We don’t always stretch enough.
Announcements: Monthly challenge continues. Donations and action for HSPD first aid kits. Check Slack.
T-Claps (Recognition):  All the PAX for venturing out to play on this cold morning!
Prayer: My M Courtney, our schools and students…we need them to go back. Their learning and experiences have been deeply impacted and we just have to get after it! Pumpkin Spice and Mr. Terrific. YHC took us out. Honor to come down to the FV and lead today!