PRE-BLAST: F3 The Fort 5th Year Invergence

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  • QIC: INVERGENCE PLANNING COMMITTEE
  • When: 09/29/2017
  • Posted In: Pre-Blast

Men of  The Fort,

On Friday, September 29, we will celebrate 5 years of Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith in the Fort Mill area with our annual F3 Invergence party.   Bring a beverage, some food to share, and enjoy a relaxing evening with your brothers.   We’ll have presentations from your local leadership, take a look back at the previous year, and look ahead to what’s in store for 2018  F3 The Fort and F3 Nation.     This is the premier 2nd F event of the year so mark your calendars now,  and plan on being at Rush Pavilion on Friday night, September 29th.

This is a Pax only event.  Make it up to your M and 2.0’s next weekend.

What:  Fort Mill Invergence (5th anniversary party)

When:  Friday, September 29, 5:30pm – 9:30pm

Where:  Bruce T. Rush Pavillion at the Anne Springs Greenway

Bring:  Food, drink, chair, cash (to cover the pavillion rental/donations to the F3 Foundation)

Please use the link below to RSVP and list what food you will bring:

5 year F3 The Fort Invergence Food Sign Up

Finally, we would like to know how F3 has impacted you as a leader.  Go to the link below, and submit your responses.  It’s OK to be anonymous, but please include your F3 name.  We will be presenting these during the Invergence.

How has F3 impacted you as a leader?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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4

Prisoners over the Wall

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11 men arrived at the park, with 1 FNG in tow.  Change Order and Copperfield had an alternate plan to run the Tega Cay hills.

Fishsticks began the workout with a warm-up jog around the neighborhood.

Circled up for COP

Plank Stretches

SSH x 20

Imperial Walker x  20

Windmill x10

Hello Dolly x 10

Moroccan Night Club  x 20

Mosey to the field for some partner exercises at each corner of the field

  1.  Elevated push-ups x10 – feet on partner’s back
  2.  Single arm lifts x10  – Lift partner up from ground with one hand
  3. Dips x 10 – Partner 1 in plank position while partner 2 dips
  4. Merkin claps x 20

Rinse and repeat two more times OYO

Jekyll takes the Q-

Mosey around backside of Alcatraz with a head fake to “the hill”.  Stopped for some seal jacks and plank jacks before having Sparkplug lead the pax to the coupons.

Taking our brick we pick it up and put it down several times in the form of curls, squats, lunges, shoulder press, tricep extensions.  Bonsai looked like he was lifting cobble stone.  That dude big.

Split off to team 1 and 2.  Team 1 on wall for sits and team 2 race across field, scale the outfield fence, run up the mulch hill and do 5 bombjacks- race back to wall.  Flapjack.  2 more rounds throwing in BTTWs and Wall sits.  Sparkplug continues to be a no quit leader.  #inspiration.  Falcon Crest almost had nonscheduled reassignment surgery getting up and over the fence.

Putting coupons back at home base we moseyed to the field for Jack Webbs and Lt. Dan’s.  Crowd favorite here- especially the LT. Dans.

Great effort by all.  Triple Hate- FNG Baywatch was a welcome surprise.  Nice job Router.  If you are still wondering- Shady has firm backside that provided a great bench for YHC.

 

Excellent work men!

 

Announcements:

F3 Chicago – Launching soon

The Fort Invergence – Sept 29

Paradise workout – Friday night at 7:00pm

Prayers:

Shaddy’s M interview

Change Order’s M turns 40

Jekyll’s 2.0 away on camping trip

 

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5

Everything must change

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On yet another morning of summer swelter, 8 pax posted to Block Party to wring out the impurities in the body and refresh the mind for a new day.

The Thang

Warm up run 1/2 way around path

COP — SSHs, Squats, Mtn climbers, Merkins, windmills, hillbilly walkers, IWs

Mosey back to path

Drill bit w/ 10 Burpees OYO at each post

Mosey to playground

Plank jack x10

Shoulder taps x10

Pull-ups x10 OYO

Plank jack x10

Shoulder taps x10

Pull-ups x10 OYO

Plank jack x10

Shoulder taps x10

Run the path back to COT area

Circle up for some pass the hat Mary — Dollies, American Hammer, Freddie Mercury’s

COT

NMM

Happy to have Uncle Sam back amid the pax!  Sounds like he will be sharing community and pain with us for 9+ months.  Paired with FNG/Mayflower from Portugal at Flight Plan the day before, the week started off with quite an international flavor.

Solid #Respect showing on this morning, with 50% of the pax tipping the solar calendar at 50+ revolutions.  Keep it up men!  You’re as young today as you’re ever going to be!

It was great to see some fresh faces in the form of Spitz, Backdraft and Bridgegate this AM.  These two veterans put it out there through the good and bad today –  very little mumble chatter among pain and sweat.  They were all business in the best possible way.

The theme for the day was about Change, taken from a quote I saw in a presentation at a recent conference.  The quote, from the novel The Leopard is “For things to remain the same, everything must change.”  This quote has stuck with me for days, leading me to dwell on the fact that everything is in a constant state of change.  If I don’t respond to the changes around me, if I don’t adapt to changing circumstances out of either fear of the unknown future or satisfaction with the present, I will find myself left behind and left out.

One of the best things about F3 is the constant state of change that we all experience.  Different AOs, Qs, exercises, paces, messages, weather, gear, prayers/praises, etc.  I don’t think there is anything about change that scares this group, when put into the context of F3.  What about the other areas of your life?  What would it be like to embrace change in all areas besides the Gloom?

Always a privilege to lead the pax.  Thanks for making it real  this AM.

 

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5 Year Convergence + FNG Challenge PreBlast

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On September 26th, The Fort celebrates 5 years of invigorating male leadership in the Fort Mill community. To commemorate this occasion, we are pulling together the PAX of Fort Mill to a 1st F Convergence on Saturday, September 30th at 0700 at Nations Ford HS.

Join us on September 30th as we come together to celebrate this HUGE milestone. There will be 5 different workout options to accommodate PAX and every level. You have no excuses.

Also, with the time of year (weather + vacations are over), weekend date, late start time, workout options, and away Clemson & USC games, this is the PERFECT STORM for EH’ing FNGs. Add in the general excitement that a convergence generates and the conditions could not be more perfect. That said, we’re setting a goal of 20 FNGs. That’s roughly 1 FNG for every 20 PAX…we can do this…easily.

Here’s the Plan:

WHAT: Ruck

  • Q: Trucker
  • Time: 0700

WHAT: Bootcamp

  • Q: Royale
  • Time: 0700

WHAT: Run

  • Q: Birdcage
  • Time: 0700

WHAT: Black Diamond Bootcamp

  • Q: Backdraft
  • Time: 0700

WHAT: Moderate Bootcamp

  • Q: Short Sale
  • Time: 0700

Let’s celebrate the last 5 years of impacting this community and many more years to come!

Ginsu

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28

Nothing but light poles

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Back to Back Q’s are always my favorite. Especially when I had 8 hours to prepare. Kielbasa took the day off so I jumped on the chance to Q on what I still consider to be home turf. Vernon walked up confidently with what I came to find out was an FNG. I instantly Omaha’d from my original set LOL. Didn’t want to scare him off day one.

I gave the disclaimer (just showing off for the new guy) and off we went. Short mosey around the parking lot then on to the proverbial stretches. Moroccan night clubs, imperial walkers, and merkins. To end the merkins Airborne held 6″…..

Grab the bells and ran down to the mild of 9 light poles lining the entrance road to the school. Starting from the entrance going all 9 light poles toward the school the exercises were as follows.

10 Gunslingers, 20 flutters , 30 tri-extensions, 40 goblet squats, 40 American Hammers, 40 LBC, 30 Curls, 20 KB Swings, 10 plank flys

We started in the middle at the Hammers. We did those then went to the next pole to get the LBC’s. Then we went back 2 poles and hit the Hammers again and then squats. Next it was back toward the school for Hammers, LBC’s, then Curls. You may be catching on by now…..Next was back accross them all toward the entrance for LBC’s, Hammers, Squats, and Tri-extensions.

This went on and on until we reached the flutters on the entrance side and the flys on the school side. We almost made all of the poles but after what amounted to 1.5 miles of running with the bell and something to the order of 300 Hammers with the bell we were all toast. COT time

Prayers for our country, Texas folks affected by the storm, and our group.

Moleskin

I am not the preachy type. I’m more the “is that a Greek God” in human form type. But, with a new comer in the crowd I felt compelled to speak today. Somewhere around light pole 14 we paused for me to drop the truth. What started as a normal F3 speech quickly transformed and I found I was speaking to myself. I started to describe our group as follows.

We are just normal guys. What gets most of us is the freeness of the event. Most guys do anything thats free LOL. That’s at least what it starts as…..we are a band of brothers for a greater cause. When you wake up always know we are there in the gloom waiting on you. When someone Q’s understand they want you to not only be physically stronger, but mentally and spiritually as well. This group has brought me to heights I never thought achievable. Hell, I ran a fricking half marathon and the P200 at 250 pounds. Yea the physical conditioning helped, but the most valuable asset of all is every single member of this group. When I ran those events I thought of all my brothers running ahead of me, with me, and encouraging me from behind.

If you come here to work out then basically you’ve missed everything. You can do that on your own time for free at your community gym. Get plugged in, hit the 3rd Fs, volunteer, go to convergences, get in Whetstone. Basically in Birdcage language…sh*t or get off the pot.

Well now that its out I can get preachy I expect a flood of messages about me speaking at events. I offer an F3 discount, just be sure to mention the special promo code CSPANISOLD

Thanks Sauerkraut – even though you weren’t there

Welcome FNG Neo- Vernon must not like you to bring you to one of my Q’s

Respectfully, Birdcage

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2

Little of this, Little of that

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12 men posted to LacesIn on a perfect temperature kind of day. We even had a light breeze.

Warm up

Short mosey and circle up for the usual suspects.

  • SSH
  • Windmill
  • Imperial Walkers
  • Merkins
  • Mountain Climbers
  • Squats
  • Peter Parker
  • Parker Peter

The Thang

Mosey over the band lot and line up on the goal line for the following

  • Lunge walk 50 yards. Stop every ten yards for 5 squats. Jog back to start
  • Bear Crawl 50 yards and 5 CDDs every ten yards. Jog back to start.
  • Crabwalk 50 yards with 10 LBCs every ten yards. Jog back to start
  • Burpees broad jump 50 yards. Jog back to start.
  • Theee rounds of suicides to the 10, 20, and 30

Mosey back over to base of hill at the entrance to parking lot from Munn Road and do:

  • 10 singe count Merkins, 20 squats IC, 30 LBCs. Run to top of hill and jog back down.
  • 10 single count diamond Merkins, 20 sumo squats, 30 Freddy mercury. Run to top of hill and jog back down
  • 10 single count wide Merkins, 20 monkey humpers, 30 flutters. Run to top of hill and jog back down.

Mosey back to COT

Had a great time Qing today and thank you all for coming out and supporting LacesIn at the new location.

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0

Getting G-Fit in Paradise

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What a fun evening in Paradise!  If you have not gotten the opportunity to come see what G-Fit on Friday night is like, I highly recommend it.  Our brothers Deacon and Bolt and others have taken ownership of this AO and really are making it into something special.  This was my first time back to Steele Street Park since our Easter Egg Hunt outreach and it is a great little park.  Full court basketball, a field for football, a pavilion, swing set, spray park?  Awesome.  And like it says in the bible, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  We need more Q’s to step up and lead.  DO IT!  You will be blessed and encouraged, I guarantee it.  Here’s what we did on my VQ:

YHC gathered his 2.0, Captain Snooze, and his FNG friend from the neighboorhood and we arrived a the park around 18:40.  Kids and teens were on the court shouting around so we joined them.  I quizzed the crowd about F3 and who had attended a workout.  About half had.  We quickly head locked the other half and it was announced we’d start at the top of the hour.  As 19:00 approached, more and more of The Fort PAX started showing up.  It was great seeing so many familiar faces!  Longer shout-out to you all below but back to the blast.  We circled up at half court for disclaimer and a few words about what to expect for the next 45 minutes and we were off.

THE THANG

Mosey around the park, past the pavilion, around the bathrooms, loop around the spray park then high knees and butt kickers as we head to the parking lot.  Once on the lot, karaoke right for half, then left until the end.  Up the grass hill to the field area for COP

Reps were kept to around 10 for the following exercises, all in cadence:

SSH, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Squats, Merkins, LBC, Flutters

Water break while we talked about the word of the month, discipline.  What is discipline?  We discussed that discipline is doing what is necessary even when it’s not what you want to do.  We need discipline in our lives to reach our athletic goals.  Kevin Durant did not develop his jump shot by shear luck or talent.  It has taken years of hard work and discipline to get his game to where it’s at.  We need discipline in our lives to reach our academic goals.  Good grades and success don’t just happen, they take discipline.  AYE!

The group was then split between younger kids and teens / adult and each group headed to a basketball hoop.  We lined up from tallest to shortest on the free throw line for a game of knock-out.  Classic game that is always fun.  Bolt quickly emerged as the man to beat but nobody actually could!  Fortunately he sat out after one victory and let some others win.  I think a total of 3 games were played.  Maybe 4?  Anyway, we grabbed a quick sip of water and then headed to the field for some flag football.

Deacon picked 2 younger lads as team captains and all the younger PAX were picked for teams.  Deacon and YHC served as coach / referee while the adult PAX resumed their battle on the basketball court.  The football game was a blast to watch and it was great to see the younger PAX work together as teams.  A bunch of touchdown were scored and a bunch of smiling faces greeted us as we call time and headed for COT.

At COT we named to 4 FNG’s and it was sweet to see how pumped the kids were at their names.  I think we did pretty good with 88 (Cowboys fan), Clutch (the star of the football and basketball games), Man of Steel (Steelers fan who was wearing a team jersey), and Philmont (Boy Scout working towards Eagle).

Announcement was made about a special Labor Day workout on 9/1.  Did somebody say PIZZA?  Expect record breaking numbers for that one.  No prayer requests but YHC took us our with a prayer asking God for help in developing margin and discipline in our lives.

Moleskin

As this was my VQ, I really appreciated seeing some familiar faces.  Thanks to Barry Manilow, Bolt, Deacon, Polaroid, Fish Sticks, and Wapner for posting.  Most brought a 2.0 with them and that is a great part of this AO.  Sharing the vision of F3 and the mission of this particular workout with your kid and having them join you is truly a blessing.  I have to say my heart was warmed when I saw a young kid from the neighborhood jump on my 2.0’s back.  Everybody got along great together, supported each other, and had a blast on a beautiful Friday night.  The sunset was unreal BTW.  Deacon said it’s like that after every workout.  Thanks to you, Deacon, for the opportunity to Q.  After all the unrest and hate on display in our country, it was a breath of fresh air to laugh and play and pray with men and young men of different nationalities.  It’s really not that hard when you just love one another.  Everybody loves love.

Flat Tire

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1

The Bird has landed

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Well well well….Your boy Birdcage gets injured and everyone thinks hes gotten soft when he returns. Sorry boys, aint gonna happen. I’m not back to full running form however everything else works fine.

The Thang

Hi my name is, dont sue anyone, lets go.

What a better way to start than a little 1 mile ish run around NAFO at a faster than some desired pace (Kielbasa). Warm up consisted of a plank nightmare. The ten of us circled and entered the plank position. We went around counting off ten counts. About every three ten counts I barked out a different plank variation. We rotated from regular, then left, then right and after 2 minutes of planking we hurt.Next variation was not as fun. We did the same scenario with mountain climbers, peter parkers, and parker peters. Yea……2 minutes of that sucked also.

We then ran back across the AO for some wall sits down at the elementary school. We did wall sits while the line bear crawled past us….twice. Then we all did a ten count each whilst in the wall sit position. I like others to get involved….

Most had noticed we past the pull up bars as we journeyed across the AO. Well, I’m no good at pull ups but everyone seemed to want to do them so off we went. Series included 10 knees to chest and 5 negative 3 counts from the pull up position. We did 3 rounds of this.

So we seemed to be missing something, running. We ran back across the AO to the practice fields. There we did 2 rounds of partner wheelbarrows across the field width wise.

Then back to COT for a well deserved Body Destroyer. If you dont know what those are show up to my next q, if your man enough.

Thank you Kielbasa for the invite. I love qing that AO. I also like that you drank a Coors light in COT. Only a Polish guy could get away with that, or a rucker.

Birdcage out

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4

Crawlin’ at the Deep

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It was a beautiful Saturday morning at the Deep, cool with no humidity in sight (finally).  Since this was my first opportunity to Q I showed up early to scope the lay of the land and prep for the beatdown that was to follow, I wanted to make an impression after all.  The minutes leading up to the workout were suspenseful for me with most of the 9 PAX that posted rolling in at about 6:28.

@ 6:30 sharp we were all ready to begin.  No FNG’s in sight so I gave a quick disclaimer and we immediately circled up in the parking lot for some warm up exercises:

15 Windmills IC
15 Cherry Pickers IC
15 Moroccan Nightclubs IC
15 SSH IC
15 PJ’s IC
15 Alternating Shoulder Taps (Plank position) IC
15 Low Slow Squats IC

We then moseyed the long way around the parking lot with a few toy soldiers along the way until stopping at the top of a grassy hill for the first routine.  This consisted of running down to the bottom of the hill and backwards back up to the top where 5 CDD’s  awaited us before repeating 5x and adding 5 CDD’s each time.

Back to mosey across the street to the elementary school playground where the next routine awaited which consisted of 5 dips & 2 pull-ups and a lap around the perimeter of the playground.  Repeat 5x adding 5 dips & 2 pull-ups each time.  Grand total about a half mile of running, 30 pull-ups, and 75 dips.

Short mosey from the playground to the track & field where we spent the rest of our time.

First up was a little baseball, F3 style, as we attempted to hit for “The Cycle”.  I found this little gem on the Exicon, which I must admit, seemed a lot easier on paper.  After a little grumbling and a lot of crawling we all finished the exercise.  The Cycle consisted of bear crawling to 1st base (about 75ft to each base in our version), performing 3 burpees, and crawl-bear back to home (backwards bear crawl).  Then another bear crawl from home to 2nd base (rounding 1st), 6 burpees, and crawl bear back to home.  From home to 3rd base with another bear crawl, 9 burpees, and crawl bear back to home.  Finally, the last bear crawl all the way around the bases where 12 more burpees awaited…

…We called and audible and nixed the crawl bear back around the bases to the relief of all.

The last routine was another goodie I found on the Exicon named after Del Brown.  This consisted of performing 10 merkins, 25 yd. crab crawl, 10 diamond merkins, 25 yd. crab crawl back, and 10 more merkins.

Mosey back to the parking lot with a couple of minutes to spare.  I called on some PAX for ab exercises and we filled the last couple of minutes with Boxcutters and Hello Dolly’s before recovering to CoT.

Thanks Royale for the opportunity to lead, it was an honor and I’m already thinking about the next one.  All the PAX worked hard today and a few of us met up for Coffeteria after at the local Dunkin’ Donuts for a little 2nd F.

-Flux

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12

Mixed Up Miles

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8 pax posted to #LacesOut for a morning of speed training measured by who could start sweating the soonest.  It didn’t take long, with shirts coming off after the first cycle.

The Thang

COP warm up — SSH, Mtn climbers, Parker Peters, Windmills, Hillbilly walkers

Karaoke across football field

Butt kickers and toy soldiers back across

Run 1 mile at 2nd F pace

Line up on track at 50 yd line on home side

Part 1: Run 2 laps counterclockwise
Part 2: Jog 1/2 lap to 50 yd line on visitor side
Part 3: Turn around and run 1 lap clockwise
Part 4: Jog 1/2 lap back to 50 yd line on home side
Total = 1 mile
(Rinse & repeat 4 total cycles or 4 miles)

Stretch

COT

NMM

Solid work by all pax today in the steamy gloom.  5 miles total and plenty of sweat.  Metabolism was cranking for hours afterward.

Thanks to STH for the invite!  You were missed!

 

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