We'll take it from here, Cardinal

Early Thursday morning, YHC was stirring and came across the news of young Taylor Phelps, F3 Cardinal, out of Knoxville TN, who had horribly passed away during his Virgin Q (VQ) at a workout on 1/11/23. For Thursday’s workout, I incorporated one small element of his planned workout, 15 double count Freddy Mercury’s. We did them at the very end of our workout, and after the workout was over, I shared that his planned workout looked extremely hard, and I would be hesitant to try it. [Read More]

It's a Jungle at Lion's Den

7 at A-Team. 18 at DTP. 25!! at Lion’s Den. Difficult to scale, and I’m learning a lot still. 0530: Several mallwalkers and motherruckers out with the bootcampers this morning. An EC runner or two.All assembled, no FNGs, lots of familiar faces, Pledge of Allegiance, statement that we’ll keep pretty close to the flag, and we immediately have to move (too many pax for the first exercise). First was a follow-me to the coziest spot in Peak City for some Good Mornings (missed you Big Red). [Read More]

When are we going to start disturbing the peace?

So, Day 1 at A-Team was a nice intimate pax of 4 for the bootcamp, 3 for some ruck/walking. Day 2 was no such luxury. About 17 or so converged on the subfreezing temperatures in the very center of the Peak City. YHC fought a slow defroster to arrive with about 5 minutes before go-time. Feeble old eyes couldn’t make out the shovel flag, but the pax took joy in pointing out the HUGE flag at the fire station. [Read More]

12 Ways that Year 2 Differed from Year 1

Following up on my 12 pieces of advice from last year’s f3versary backblast, I thought it might be fun to reflect on how things were different over this second year. To summarize, I would say focusing and finding my place was the theme for this past year. Q’d a lot more this year (30+), and am more comfortable, yet oddly perhaps less prepared, at leading. Wrote way fewer backblasts. Used to write one per workout. [Read More]

Shooting sparks and a deck of cards

23 and me. Oh wait. This isn’t a commercial for a DNA testing kit. This is a writeup for the workout that happened today. Take 2. 23 men joined YHC at Hells Bells to kick off GTFO week. It stand for Get The F**k Out. A challenge for the PAX at AO’s they don’t normally come to. We had a good mix of PAX who are HB regulars and some “visitors” who may not have been to Hells Bells or at least not a regular part of their workout journey. [Read More]

F3 Carpex 6th Annual CSAUP, The Odyssey

93 PAX and 2.0’s descended on Downtown Cary for the 6th annual CARPEX Odyssey. Special thanks to Bogo and Badlands for doing the heavy lifting on the Q for this event, and to PetSounds for crushing the SAG Q and post-race 2nd F. Also thanks to all of the SAG support volunteers, Site Q’s, shirt designers, and inspirational musical selections. On to the workout…Rooney kicked us off with an opening prayer and then handed it off to Badlands for the warmup at the home of BO. [Read More]

August 2017 - Today

I said to the PAX at Tortoise today - I cannot imagine my life if I didn’t find F3 a short 5 years ago. It has meant so much to me, as I found new friends, pushed myself, laughed, looked outside myself, and pushed my boundaries. This workout was a celebration of those 5 years. The Workout There is no magic or mystery to a Red Ryder workout. Most of the time, you can count on hitting all the major muscle groups while you continue to move for 45 minutes. [Read More]

Ryder-versary Volume 2

Is the sequel better than the original? Well I can’t judge that. Dante’s Peak is the 2nd place I ever posted, so it’s a traditional stop on the anniversary tour. True story - YHC was EH’d by CHiPs from South Wake. I posted at Tortoises first time, and didn’t tell him I was going. Just texted afterwards, and told him I was going to go to DP if I survived the first time. [Read More]

Smoking the Smoky Mountain Relay 2022

For the first time, Carpex sent two 9-man teams to the Smoky Mountain Relay. Coincidentally, this was the first year that SMR had a 9-man division, and perhaps less coincidentally, the Carpex teams took 1st and 2nd place in that division. We’re going to cover a lot of ground in this backblast, from the teams, their experiences, the course, to a comparison with the perennial favorite Blue Ridge Relay (BRR), so buckle up, because this is going to be a bumpier ride than the “100% paved” abandoned Nantahala wilderness road of Leg 26! [Read More]

March Madness!

It was a beautiful morning, Mid 50s and nice and dry! Chiquita Banana and Fiddle showed up a full 1 minute early even beating a rucking Flenderson by a full 30 seconds! Thang 1 Mosey around to the front of the church. It’s such a beautiful spot, have to do our warmups there! Good mornings Calf stretches Runners stretch Hill Billys x 15 Merkins Regular x 10 Diamond x 10 Wide grip x 10 Ranger x 10 Regular x 10 Puddles was not a fan of the 50 merkins. [Read More]