24 brave pax convened on Pullen Park on this unseasonably cool morning, but the heat would get turned up quickly as the FNG-friendly site was not going to be that today. YHC brought along 13 year-old 007 to help dole out the punishment as co-Q. Deliverance (not a Pullen regular) emailed YHC Monday night asking if he should attend. My reply, “you will not be disappointed”. Disclaimer given and warning that any standing around between exercises (i.e. not in a plank or air squat) would be penalized with merkins….we were off. Today was intended to be rapid fire and no 10 counts.
Warm-up: SSH x 15; Mtn climbers x 15 led by 007, Mike Tysons x 10, derkins on benches x 15 led by 007.
The Thang:
-Jog to playground and find a swing, rail, rope, etc. (whatever you can do a pull-up with) for pull-ups x 10 then switch grip x 10. If on swing, x 20 as hand switch over was tough. Exercises OYO. When complete, jog back to entry to playground and plank while others finish.
-P1 carries P2 from playground to pavilion near carousel (after carrying Countrywide I realize I miss Costco)…dismount.
-Find a bench for burpee box jumps OYO x 12.
-P2 carries P1 from pavilion to stairs heading up to tennis courts….dismount for run up stairs and hill to rocks beside tennis courts
-Grab a rock from the pile. With rock against tennis court fence (note: a building wall is much more effective but you use what you have): 1) people’s chair rock curls x 15; 2) tricep extensions x 15; 3) people’s chair rock overhead press x 15. Repeat set on more time.
-Carry rocks to tennis court. Group 1 frankenstein run with rocks across the 3 courts and back x 2 (I’ll admit, this one got me). Group 2 balls to wall walk down fence to left and back to right until group 1 returns. Flap jack. Much like rock exercises above, a building wall works much better, but…
-The Beast: Unfortunately for the pax, On Monday I happened to read Howard’s “Open Letter to F3” that he wrote many months ago about how he found F3, its impact on him, etc. (great letter if you haven’t read it by the way). He talked about “The Beast” that they did his first day. YHC had also done it one day at Late Night recently under Utah’s Q so why not bring it to the Forge. For those not familiar, The Beast is 6 exercises performed in reps of 6 at 6 different stops. We would do ours starting at the side of the tennis court, run to next court for 6 reps, then on to the next court for 6, etc. Once all reps of the first exercise are complete (36 for those non-math people), we’d plank or air squat to wait on others before moving to the next exercise. Just happens that 3 tennis courts provides 6 stopping points….convenient. One twist though: Being New Mexico’s 35th birthday and his desire to do something in reps of 35, we did 5 reps at the final stop so each exercise had 35 total reps instead of 36. The exercises in order: 1) standard merkins; 2) knee jump ups to touch extended arms; 3) wide grip merkins; 4) squat jumps; 5) ski abs; and last but not least 6) burpees. We rocked the Beast!!! Somewhere in the rotation Countrywide and New Mexico made some sort of reference to the “investigation” at Carolina or the “no-show classes” that everyone other than State fans and the N&O call “independent studies”. That earned them 10 penalty merkins. I digress. Grabs rocks and return them to the pile.
-Jog back down to large grassy area where we generally do Mary for 3 lines of leap frog over guys planking. After two times through, reverse direction and do bear crawls around guys planking (effectively a bear crawl indian run of sorts). Circle up for Mary.
Mary: Boat to canoe x 10; 6″ leg hold for 5 count around (forgot how long this would take with 24 people…not fun); and finally a variety of merkins x 5 each (std, from sarkozy and putin positions, etc.).
COT: If you have attended Metamorphosis on Wed or The Arena on Sat, you should. See sign-up sheets under Raleigh Announcements section of website. Mule: Oct 25 – Free 3-4 hour multi-location workout. It will be hard but you will enjoy it. See sign-up in the same section as Arena and Meta. MudRun – Oct 4; still time to sign up. See Gnard Dogg with questions $65.
Prayers for Hush Puppy’s family and several others (apologize for forgetting specifics, I’m getting older). Countrywide closed us out in prayer.
*Great job with the Beast. Forge is supposed to be FNG friendly, but we’ve taken it up a few notches lately. Great job by all.
*Welcome FNG Toga as well as The Natural from Charleston. I must not have been paying attention, and with as much growth as we’ve had, I just assumed you were someone fairly new to F3 Raleigh. Apologies. Thanks for coming out!
*Had to laugh at Countrywide’s comment during the workout: “Epoxy, your workouts are like the anti-workout to mine….they’re all planned out, etc.”. Very true and very funny to me b/c CW’s are so off the cuff (umm, let’s go over here, no over here) yet just as effective and I love it…to each his own I guess. It’s my CPA mind that causes this as I’ll admit that I go to each location the night or two before a Q to scope out and plan / take notes (kids in tow typically to note take / collaborate). I’m a dork I know.
*Finally to New Mexico: Happy Birthday you old bastard. You don’t look a day over 45. I wore my Carolina / CH F3 shirt mainly for NM and ruled that this is the new Q shirt for Pullen to be worn weekly (Hooch is going to look good in it soon). The Q should look distinctive IMO. NM started complaining / questioning at the end “you did this Q the other day?”….as if that’s a problem. Yes, it was very similar (the beast was new) but not many of the same people attend Pullen and Dawn Patrol so I thought it would be ok (Deputy Queen was at both I believe but few others). Any workout that elicits a comment about nearly vomiting from Peak Week deserves to be replicated.
Enjoyed it as always. I’ll be out the next couple Tuesday perfecting my drinking “hobby” in Hilton Head so see you brothers later in August. Epoxy, out
