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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.

Brick Barrow 2

It was absolutely awesome getting to do my very first F3 workout again.  Even though I had breath taker it was still a pleasure to see how far I’ve come.  Thank you all for coming out for my 2 year anniversary workout.  I couldn’t ask for a better group of men that supported me in my F3 journey.  The accountability and fellowship matter, so much to me.   Without F3 I would probably be posting 3 times a week at a gym somewhere.  Making no real progress in life nor fitness.  I am truly grateful for every pax in South Wake.

EC: Dawgpound, Emeril, Slide Rule, Chips, Pikachu, Nemo, Brony, Moby, Peak week, Flanigan

FNGs: AAA — How we got here.  He looked like former Atlanta Braves Pitcher John Rocker.  At least this is according to Flanigan.  I guess Mr. Rocker had batteries thrown at him.  So AAA.

Warm Up:

Run by the road and end up at the place where we keep the bricks.  Each PAX grabbed two bricks.  We didn’t put the bricks down until the end of the workout.

Circle up for the following
10 Windmill
10 Fazio Arm Circles Forwards and Backwards
25 Morroccan Night Club
30 Mountain Climbers

The Workout:

Partner up.  Each partner ran in a different direction around the loop in front of the school.  When they meet up do a descending count by one from 10 to 1 of Broke Back Merkins with shoulder taps.  This means tap right shoulder, tap left shoulder, merkin.  That was one rep.  I remember this torching me my first workout and always wanted to see how I fared after a got used to F3.

After the Broke Back Merkins we jogged to the soccer field.  No one partner dropped his bricks so he can hold his partners feet.  We brick barrow across and back from the soccer field.  There was some beautiful picking up the six here.

Once everyone made it back we ran to the side of the school.  Next up was Moby’s favorite Jack Webs.  1 to 3 ratio.  We went up to 10 and 30.  I think my first workout I did very few at this point.  It was nice seeing what F3 has done for me from a fitness point of view.

Mary:

We jogged to the gate where we return the bricks, but we held on to them for a moment longer.

Low Slow Flutter with clapping bricks
WWII with the bricks overhead
Plank Jacks
Have a Nice Day

Announcements:

See Slack
Charity opportunity this Saturday at Holly Springs Food Cupboard from 9 to 12.
Slide Rule was approach by someone about a charity opportunity and will be reaching out to guys.

T-Claps (Recognition):
Prayer:

Moby’s Dad
Shredder
Crab Legs
Pilgrams’ Dad
Bernies’ Step Dad

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

Thanks for Participating..Here’s your Trophy. 9 PAX Make it Count in the Rain @ AGS

After consuming a few too many pre and post-Derby adult beverages the night before, which parlayed into a few more during a pivotal Bruin win, YHC woke up a little groggy this morning. A quick check on instant messenger showed a text from Deadbolt, who HC’d the day before. A little rain continued outside as I grabbed my gear. Would we be running, would we be making the most of the shelters at Womble? Picked up Deadbolt and exchanged some good mumblechatter as we clown car’d to Womble. “What are you thinking, DB?  You think the rain will let up long enough to run?” and also “Who do you think will show?” The rain is always an interesting element that can have impact on AO attendance. It takes a very strong commitment to pull one’s self from the fartsack on a Sunday, especially if its raining.  Pulled up to Womble and would have thought the Town of Holly Springs was hosting an early morning soccer tourney with cars lined across the lot. The rain caused a “mogwai” effect this morning, with 9 PAX looking to raise their standard. Lots of gazelles and AGS virgins this morning- Pikachu, Skidmark, Maybelline, ShamWow, Aquaman, Dahmer. Oh yeah, and a Slide Rule, who was looking to raise his standard and join us in the drizzle. Arrived 2 minutes before start and the rain had let up. Planted the flag, exchanged some pleasantries, and then went to work for the following warm-up.

Warm Up: YHC took off and led the 8 PAX to the first picnic shelter for a round of 5 Burpees OYO. Continued the mosey to the Crazy Ivan Lot, squat hold for the six. Once all PAX were accounted for, YHC lead the group with 5 more Burpees in cadence. Continued to the other side of the lot with a series of Carioca L\R-R\L & Butt Kickers. Squat hold for the six, and performed 5 more Burpees in cadence. Light mosey back to the originating lot, with alternating lunge walks. At the last corner around the soccer fields, performed 5 more Burpees, leaving one remaining Burpee. PAX mosey’d back to the originating lot. Performed the last Burpee in cadence. 9 PAX x 21 Burpees= 189 Total (in honor of Riley Howell).

The Workout: The second week in a row putting the Lake out of play. Had to opt for a ‘dry’er’ route. Decided on the opposite route of what was run last week, which led us down Stinson. PAX would then proceed left on Bass Lake Road, with a quick up and back through Rhamkatte, with a left on Holly Springs Road onto a Right on Linksland, Right on Salem Ridge, Right up Bass Lake Road, and then left back onto Stinson to the soccer fields. Before the run, YHC had reiterrated the message from last week about raising the standard. Lots of speed out there this morning, so advised PAX that if they felt up to it, to push a little with the accountability partners we had running this morning. With that, PAX took off from Womble and headed down and up Stinson. Great mumblechatter through out, even with the hills that were served up throughout the route. The Sky Q held the rain off long enough to allow PAX to get their miles before he ordered the rain back on, while YHC (the six) finished along the soccer field fence

Mary: Stretches OYO in the shelter, with great exchanges centered on a lonely ‘participation’ trophy that was left behind from yesterday’s games. We wanted to give it to Bullseye, but had heard he was not able to claim independence from the fartsack this morning. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Announcements: Memorial Day Murph in the works..more to come.

T-Claps (Recognition): Dahmer, Aquaman, and Slide Rule making their AGS debut with solid runs. Alot of Iron Sharpens Iron going around at AGS this morning with Pikachu pushing Slide Rule to a 10K PR. Maybelline pulling ShamWow up Bass Lake on his way to a Bass Lake Rd PR. SkidMark, well….being SkidMark in picking up the six along the route and positive encouragement on the hills. Deadbolt for holding me accountable and getting me out of the house this morning and on time.

Prayer: Continued prayers for Shredder, CrabLegs, and marriages. Aquaman took us out.

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.

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.

Devil Burpees!!!

FNGs: none, but welcome back Cobol!!!

The pax were warned this was an homage to my very first f3 workout.  It was led by M4Life, who I thought would attend.  Alas, was not to be.

EC: Shamwow with a mile PR! Maybelline and Slide Rule out there early as well.
Warm Up:

Quick lap, ssh, good mornings, merkins, imperial squat walkers

The Workout:

11s on the Half Pipe

Merkins on one side, wwii on the other.

EC burpee in the middle if you wanted…. Looked like everyone wanted.

Extra trip of 10 each if you finish early.

Shamwow hit his stair goal during this portion.

 

Abyss!

The PAX were introduced to a new workout move, the *Devil Burpee*.  As we all know, the Blue Devil takes the already insufferable Bobby Hurley (slap the floor like a d-bag, then miss a jump shot) and captures the more full essence of Duke with a defensive flip.  So, jump squat+ Turkish get up.

The Devil Burpee adds another layer of d-baggery by adding a Burpee before getting up off the floor (seriously, after flopping, doing push-ups before standing back up, ugh).

These are 100% guaranteed to spike your heart rate or your money back.

 

So, head to bottom of Abyss, 2 Devil Burpees.  Top, x4, Bottom x6, etc.

Stop at the top with 12x Devil Burpees.

Audible was called where the 12 could be skipped if the pax raced someone up the stairs.

Mary:

Traveling Mary!  Start on baseline of field, do 10x Mary exercise, Sprint to mid field.  Repeat x8, sprinting half field each time.

 

Recap:

Holy cow.  My heart rate averaged 141 for this nonsense.  29 flights of stairs, just over 5 miles (including EC), and will over 1k calories burned on the morning.  Great job everyone pushing hard.  Not a lot of mumble chatter, whole lot of really heavy breathing.

 

Announcements:

2.0 Saturday.  Spartan race (see Shamwow, Dahmer)

T-Claps (Recognition): great job to glass jaw pushing himself!  And Shamwow with the mile PR!!

Prayer: Crab legs, Glass Jaw employment opportunity

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.