What? What was that?

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Intro:

A lot of fun today. Excellent hard work from the PAX. My hats off to them. They even got to experience a surprise visit from “Gunther” in the beginning.

Disclaimer mentioned. No FNGs today. Mosey 15 feet to circle up for:

“Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one lifestyle influencing another.” – John C. Maxwell

Warm-up:

12 SSHs

8 Windmills

Around the circle hamstring raises (I can’t ever remember the F3 name of these)

Dynamic Stretching Warm-up:

3 inch worms continuing to straighten legs further on each one

Ninety Squared Stretch – 3X each side

Rolling Crucifix – 3X each side

Table Twists – 3X each side

2 Way Lunge and Reach (yoga style) – 3X each side

Hamstring Reaches – 5X 

Can Openers – 10X each side

10 Chopper Throws (throw down across body) – 10X each side

Frankenstein Shoulder Circles – 10X each side and each way

Imaginary Jump rope for 30 secs

Ran 2 gradual increase of pace warm-up laps (shorter lap)

Mixture of exercises throught the laps: high knees, karoke, shuffles, bunny hops

The Thang:

“A leader is great, not because of his power, but because of his ability to empower others.”  – John C. Maxwell

Between exercises:

  1. Round 1: One person shares a Praise/blessing/gratefulness topic for 15 seconds break before going to next exercise
  2. Round 2: Prayer request: Same as round 1 concept. The focus is on:
    1. You
    2. Family
    3. Close friend

Exercises: 16 Stations + a Surprise Station (We were aiming to get through all of them but were not in a rush. We accomplished about 13.)

We broke up into 2 groups and then rotated the grouping of stations after the 8th station.

Station #1: Surprise Exercise: Donkey Kicks into a High Knee Jump – 18

Station #9: Single Leg Burpees – 6 each side

Station #2: Superman but with arms to the side and rotate shoulders up to ski; legs go up to – 2 sets of 12

Station #10: Back Widow (use elbows) – MAX OYO

Station #3: Under the hedge (Divebombers) – MAX OYO

Station #11: Pancake Pushup, then Dive Bomber to Diamond Pushup – MAX OYO

Station #4: Jumping Lunges – 50 each leg X 2 sets

Station #12: Ninja Tuck Jumps – 12 X 2 sets

Station #5: Deep Carolina Drydocks – 30 head touching ground

Station #13: Reverse Iron Cross Pushup (Rear Delts) – MAX OYO

Station #6: V-ups with a completely straight leg – 15; break 20 seconds, then 5

Station #14: Flutters – 40 

Station #7: Dips – Set 1: 25; Set 2: 15-20 max

Station #15: Body weight tricep extensions pushups – 9 

Station #8: Full body movement: Sprint to stop sign/Run backwards back

Station #16: Sprint ladder with cones (catch the person that goes before you; 3 second delay) – 1 round for each person chased

If waiting for the other group and your group finished first, then you get to pick randomly from a SURPRISE list. The one picked today by Group 1 was:

Surprise Exercise: Squat thrust jacks (burpee then a plank jack) – 10

COT:

Announcements: Invergence, Convergence.

Challenge to take 1 prayer request /week; Can you be an everyday prayer warrior?

Final Prayer/Send off

Thanks for the opportunity today to lead these fine min, Fish Stix!

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Why you wanna give me a run-around?

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24 PAX gave me a run-around Thursday morning at Footloose.  Tuesday, I made it very clear to both PAX that were listening that Thursday, we would be running … a lot.

I rolled in with 3 minutes to spare, thanks too  … who cares, the Weinke was laminated, and I was loaded for bear.

1 FNG to welcome, a little mumbling, a disclaimer and we were off …

The thang:

Mosey around the main lot, then out to the road, down the hill and a tricky left before the big hill to the big church lot.

Line up for dynamic warm up
Squat walkers
Knee ups
Toy soldier
Windmill walkers
Bear crawl
Patrick Swayze (karaoke L&R, powerskip, backwards run arms out)
Inch Worm
Jonah Hill (3 broad jumps, 3 merkins x 7)

Mosey to the lot across the street, circle-up (ish)
IC: CDDx10, Travoltax10, Squatx10, 2 burpees OYO
Mosey up the stairs to the First Baptist back lot, spot #1
IC: LBCsx10, MNCx10, Monkey Humpersx10, 2 burpees OYO
Mosey around lot a bit to spot #2
IC: Flutterx10, Bombjackx10, Dying Cockroachx10, 2 burpees OYO
Mosey around the lot a bit to spot #3 near grass
IC: Hello Dollyx10 (shout out to Hef), Scorpion DD, KneeTar Jaix10, 2 burpees OYO
Mosey out the front to the church lot across form the fire station
IC: Rosalitax10, Merkinx10, Hillbilly Walkerx10, 2 burpees OYO
Mosey to small lot across from Hardees
IC: Freddiex10, Mahktar Jaix10, Calf Raisex10, 2 burpees OYO
Mosey … Down on Mainstreet … Down on Mainstreeeeeet to the courthouse lot around the corner
IC: Shoulder Tapsx10, Overhead Clapsx60, Imp Walkerx10, 2 burpees OYO
Mosey all the way back to where we started in the large church lot, lots of love and mumble chatter here since we went by what everyone thought was COT, but I saw 6 minutes left …
IC: Russian Twistsx10, Plank Jacksx10, SSHx10, no burpees this time

Back to COT

The skinny on this one was that we kept moving, nothing harsh, I didn’t have to carry Dark Helmet up 40 flights of stairs with a cinder block on each wrist (or whatever he makes you do), 10 counts were walking 10 counts, on your 6, on your feet, in a plank, on your feet. No rest, 45 minutes of exercise.

Welcome FNG Popper, EH’ed by a friend in F3 Columbia

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

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Lead, follow or move that Kettle Bell out of the way

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A beautiful morning gloom dawned on The Armory where the Pax came to pick up heavy things and put them back down again. Cars kept coming and the numbers kept growing as YHC barked out the 2 minute warning. Just as the fun was about to commence, what do our eyes spy, but an FNG! And he basically EH’ed himself after a buddy from the ATL told him about F3. Impresssive indeed. Thus, a full disclaimer (well as close as YHC could get) was offered. And away we go-mosey around the parking lot with some Butt Kickers, High Knees and Soccer Hips thrown in.

COP: (all IC): Windmills * 10, SSH*15, IW*15, MNC*20, Merkins *10, Plank-O-Rama

The Thang:

Mosey with KB to the seat wall in front of the church.

  • 20 Upright Rows & 20 Skull Crushers. Then Take a lap around the lot- Rinse & Repeat 3 times
  • 20 Figure 8’s & 20 Around The Worlds. Then Take a lap around the lot- Rinse & Repeat 2 times
  • 20 KB Swings & 20 Goblet Squats. Then Take a lap around the lot- Rinse & Repeat 2 times

Partner Up (size does NOT matter) for some modified DORA:

  • 100 step ups- P1 starts exercise while Partner 2 bear crawls to top of church stairs and runs back, flapjack
  • 100 dips- P1 starts exercise while Partner 2 bear crawls to top of church stairs and runs back, flapjack
  • Never got to 200 LBCs with this large group.
  • Had to leave time for the TESH favorite- PASS THE DUTCHIE, 1 round to the right, 1 to the left.  Note to self-if you are in the circle with Tesh, switch circles. That 40 lb KB will make you want to cry.

Mosey to COT. Prayers for marriages, our leaders and our community. BE THE LEADER YOU WERE CALLED TO BE. Event if that means you have to get out of your comfort zone. F3 can be a High Challenge proposition but will bring High Rewards.

Thanks Assassin for the opportunity. Great effort by all this morning and great “picking up” of the six. It was a pleasure.

Short Sale out.

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Trucker Strong

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Its been awhile since I had an opportunity to Q the Ranch, so dug into my bucket of go-byes to find something that I haven’t done or other Q’s haven’t done in a while. Sometimes it is just as fun to bypass pull-ups and just focus on merkins. So as the PAX arrived, mumble chatter revolved around the assumption of doing 1,000 pull-ups….ha!

COP consisted of 15 to 20 reps of: good mornings, windmills, Russian twists, Moroccan nightclubs, squats, LBCs, and Hip-leg thrusters. Mossy to Middle School drop off circle for 4 corners.

A cone was placed at each end of the circle and in the middle. Start at first cone and do 15 right leg scorpion merkins, run to second cone for 15 regular merkins, run to third cone for 15 left leg scorpion merkins, run to fourth cone for 15 wide arm merkins, run back to first cone. Rinse and repeat two more times.

Plank and LBCs until 6 is in.

Bear crawl up hill and do 10 squats, run down: rinse and repeat by dropping 2 squats each time

Mossy to benchs for:

15 dips/15 step ups per leg; 15/dips/15 squat sits; 15 merkins/15 LBCs; 15 derkins/15 Russian twists; 15 merkins/ 15 step ups; 15 irkins

Mossy to COT

Great work by all, 240 merkins during an AO is Trucker Strong!!

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The Painful Ideas of Virgin Q’s

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Fourteen strong came out for the final week of VQ month, and our Q’s proved once again that the new Q’s have no trouble pushing the Pax to their limits.  Here is what they did.

Photobomb on Q

10 Yard mosey and right to COP

SSH x 30,, Imperial Walker x 20, Wind Mill x 20, M. Nightclub x 20,  Mtn Climbers x 20, Merkin x 10 PeterParker  x 15, Parker Peter x 15

Mosey to ball field for 50 yard reps
High knees
Butt kickers
Karaoke x2
Single leg hops x2
Pogo x2
Burpee broad jumps x2
Bear crawl x2
Partner up and Wheel barrel x 2
Backward sprints x 3
Lunge walks w Monkee Humpers x 4

Hand off to Copperfield

Six Cones spaced about 15 yards apart. Three exercises on each cone:  upper body, core, legs.  Bear crawl between cones.

Cone 1:
Wide Merkins x 10
Ski Abs x 30
Jump squats x 50

Cone 2:
Merkins x 10
Flutter kicks x 30
Air chair x 100 seconds

Cone 3:
Arm circles x 30
Shoulder taps x 30
Jump lung x 20

Cone 4:
Arm circles x 160
In and out abs x 25
Bomb jacks x 30

Cone 5:
Side to side Merkins x 20
Pretzel x 20
Apollo ono x 50

Cone 6:
Derkin x 15
Plank x 60
Goblet squat x 50

Once complete go in reverse and only do the core workout on each cone.

COT

This is posted on behalf of our Q’s:  Photobomb and Copperfield.  After what you put us through today, you can post your own damn backblast next time!  Aye, it was a long morning for the Pax between the 50 yard wheel barrows, single leg hops, 160 arm circles (really?), and backwards bear crawling at the tail end of the workout.    I was completed gassed,  and admittedly,  called you both some unflattering names under my breath as we walked to COT.    After coffeteria, a nice shower, and some reflection, though, I realized that you did what I expect you to do and we are all better for it.

Our friend, Aquaman, was in town this weekend and YHC put a shout out on Twitter for the some of the Alcatraz ‘original line up’ to post today.  Some were able to make it  (Zima, Minuteman, Mr. Clean, Spark Plug) and we were glad to have you with us.   Don’t be strangers, men.  Welcome back Kotter, Cyclops, who I hope will continue to post regularly at Alcatraz.

VQ month was a success at Alcatraz.  All of our new  guys brought something different each week to challenge us.   My thanks to all of our VQ’s and ‘new to Alcatraz’  Q’s this month:  Which Hunt, Jedi, Chicken Wing,  Olaf, Lutefisk, Photobomb, and Copperfield.  Well done, men and you know you are always welcome to Q again at Alcatraz.

Announcements, Prayers,and Praises!

Read your newsletter!  The Fort 5th Year Invergence this Friday, Sep 29.  Be there.

We prayed for healthy families, and those with cancer.   We praised God for his healing hand on a mom with pancreatic cancer.

 

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What a Quagmire!

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Love the great start to the week at an F3 workout at the Quagmire.  Here’s what we did around Rivergate.

Running warmup was a long one, we travelled about a mile. Hit these exercises on the way.

– High knees – Butt Kickers – Toy Soldiers – Karaoke

When we finally stopped running (and the PAX was vocal about telling me this is NOT a running AO) we did this for COP.

20 Seal Jacks

15 Imperial Walkers

30 Moroccan Night Clubs

15 Squats

10 Merkins

20 Mountain Climbers

15 Plank Jacks

15 Parker Peters

Mosey off to the fountain for a Dora 1-2-3

Partner Up

100 Wide Arm Merkins combined

200 Squats combined

300 American Hammers (2 count, no cheating yourself) combined

While 1st partner completes the exercise the other partner runs around the big circle and half the loop back to the fountain.

Once we finished I shared a small conversation on Leadership and taking Ownership. I’ve been reading Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. I wanted to share a great way to show leadership in your family, at work and in every aspect of your life a great trait to have is taking Ownership, of all of it! By taking ownership I mean taking ownership of your response, your emotions, the blame,  projects, decisions.  There are countless ways every day that you should take ownership of an issue.  But when it comes time to receive praise, do not take the credit…share with the team.  highly recommend Jocko’s book and his podcast.  Thanks Witch Hunt for my new addiction to his podcasts.

Next cycle, ran over to the red balls by Target, my favorite!

Bear crawl between balls – at each ball do 3 burpees

Easy on paper, hard on your body!

Mosey back to the Fountain for the last few minutes

20 Steps Ups

25 Dips

Time to head back to COT!

Annoucements – read the newsletter

Praises and prayers by PAX

An honor to lead,

Royale

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Webb-o-Rama and Snake Hops

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The Golden Corral hosted 27 pax total (about a dozen ruckers, a dozen boot campers, and the rest runners) for fun and pain.  YHC can’t speak for the ruckers or runners, but here’s an account for the boot campers.

Mosey around the north side of HT and circle up in the back parking lot for COP Warm-up:

  • SSH x25
  • Mountain Climbers x20
  • IW x20
  • Windmills x10
  • Low Slow Squats x10
  • Run Stance Switch x10

Mosey between the buildings and circle around to the south side of HT to find a cone.  Partner up:

WEBB-O-RAMA
At each cone pax are to do (in cadence) 2 exercises in the spirit of Jack Webbs (1:4 ratio)

  • Cone 1
    • 1 burpee to 4 run-stance switch
      • Repeat with 2 burpees, then 3 burpees
      • >> Bear crawl to 2nd cone about 20 yards away
  • Cone 2
    • 1 big boy sit up to 4 american hammers
      • Repeat with 2, then 3 big boy sit-ups
      • partner wheelbarrow to third position
  • Cone 3
    • 1 box jump (or step up) to 4 dips
      • Repeat with 2, then 3 box jumps
      • partner wheelbarrow to fourth position
      • During the box jumps, YHC noticed Wheezer had an extra spring in his jumps for a few of the reps and then he fled his wall position for a new spot.  Seems there was a snake on the ground near where he was exercising.  Whether it was actually alive is not known.
  • Cone 4
    • Jack Webb – (1:4 ration) for 3 reps
      • Run around to cone 1

For round 2 of the cones, we did reps 4-6 at each station.

Mosey to the wall on the south side of HT parking lot for to Dora with your partner

  • Merkins – 100
  • LBCs – 200
  • Squats – 300

Back to COT

Great work by the pax.  Special welcome to FNG “Panda”, who looked like a regular out there, despite it being his first time.  It was also great seeing Cobra Kai at a boot camp!  Hopefully the ruckers won’t revoke his membership for taking a step out of the dark side.  Thanks to Decibel for scheduling me to Q.  Look forward to next time!

-old bay

 

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22 PAX braved the Clydesdale pace, some went their own way rather than face the excruciating hills of the Pineapple Loop, some, faced their fear.

The thang:

I run along the avenue
I never thought I’d meet a PAX as slow as you
Meet a PAX like you

With messy hair and sleepy eyes
The least you could do is keep up with the 6
Keep up with the 6

And I ran
I ran so far away
I just ran
I ran from 515 to 600ish
I couldn’t get away

A street lamp above your head
A beam of light comes shining down on you
Shining down on you

The street lamp is moving nearer still
A hole in the sidewalk comes in view
Hole comes in view

And I ran
I ran so far away
I just ran
I ran from 515 to 600ish
I couldn’t get away

 

Looks like we made it,

Barry Manilow

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PreBlast – Lake Dub (aka Lake Wylie) Q School

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Men,

The Mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership. In order to invigorate male leadership, we must strive to invigorate and encourage new males to step up and become leaders. One of the best ways we have to accomplish this is to help new PAX learn what it takes to Q.

To support this mission and the continued growth of the Lake Wylie area, we’ll be launching Q School at the Abyss during the first 3 weeks of October (4th, 11th, 18th). Q School will be led by a few of our veterans (who are also trying to get better at these opportunities to lead). Q School will feature both Q101 (perfect for new guys or those that want to get a handle on the basics) and Q201 (a more advanced session focused on some of the more detailed aspects of Q’ing).

Here is the schedule:

  • October 4th – Q101 – Double D + Royale
  • October 11th – Q101 – Senator Tressel + Ginsu
  • October 18th – Q101 & Q201 – Cake Boss + Dark Helmut

This is a great opportunity to work together to continue to develop leaders in the Lake Wylie area. Contact Royale, Bones, or Ginsu with any questions.

Ginsu

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Pre-Blast “Fast 5 – The World’s Fastest 5K” Relay (Fall 2017)

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You’ve been asking for it. You’ve been asking for it a lot. When’s the next Fast 5? Some new guys are like “What’s this Fast 5 you’re talking about? Never heard of it.” Sometimes we need to take something away just so you know how special it is. So when we give it back, you’re more excited than you’ve ever been about a CSAUP. Well PAX, we’re giving it back. Fast 5 – The World’s Fastest 5K Relay is back. You better jump on your guys and fill your team up fast because it’s only six weeks out. But let’s pull back a bit and give some history.

Bacon was never intended to be a part of this event. But when you’re sub-contracting your marketing to some guy in an eastern block country, it’s fairly reasonable to see where “We need a runner holding a baton” is translated to “We need a runner holding bacon”. Thus bacon became the central theme of this CSAUP. Rest assured Anchorman will be sizzling up several pounds for the event. It just wouldn’t be the same without that scent in the air.

So…The Fort presents – The Fast 5 (Fall 2017). “Fast 5, The World’s Fastest 5K” is a far cry from your standard 5K. That’s Right, 5 Men (or Women, that’s right! We are inviting our friends from FiA again) run a break-neck pace for 1 Kilometer each. Why you ask a 5K relay? Because it’s CSAUP…mostly S but definitely P as well. Think of this as a mini-P200, but instead of hauling butt to Charleston, we’re just running circles around Fort Mill High School’s track. Like last time, it’ll be over before it gets started. I have a hunch that SOB will return to protect their title? We’ve got a lot of new Pax since the last one, so it’ll be interesting to see the teams that show up. Will there be a Respectables team? A Clydesdales? Regardless, this event is about as 2nd F as you can get! We hope you’ll join us.

When, Who, Why, How? Some of these questions are answered below:

Where
Fort Mill High School Track
292 Munn Road E
Fort Mill, SC 29715

Date & Time
November 4, 2017 @ 10:00 AM

2ndF After
Tailgate in the School Parking Lot (Bring all your tailgating supplies, cornhole, etc.)*
*Quick Note: This is a DRY EVENT as alcohol is not permitted on the school grounds

  • Rules: Each 5 man team must have at least 1 Clydesdale (200+ lbs) or 1 50+ F3 Man (RESPECT!) / FiA and UltraTeams are Open

Awards: Bragging Rights for the 1st Place Team

T-shirt: Link Coming Soon

Start forming your teams now! Bring an FNG! This event will be bigger and better! More teams! More Regions!

Sign Up –> HERE

Here are some particulars about the event. This is a loose/non-regulated relay race. Here are the details:

Each Team will be provided with a baton or bacon
Each Team Member will run 2.5 laps around the track (slightly longer than 1K each)
Exchange Zones will be marked on opposite sides of the track where batons are to be exchanged
Exchange Zones are 1st Come 1st Serve as it pertains to lanes (1st to Exchange Zone may exchange in lane 1, 2nd in lane 2, etc.).
We will be self regulating and timing. We will communicate the process to the Team Captains.
Winners may or may not win a pound of Bacon but have exclusive bragging rights until next installment!

2.0 Race following the Fast 5. One Lap with all they got!

You are encouraged to invite your family and friends! The more people who partake in this nonsense the better. The tailgate afterwards will be a great time of fellowship and regaling of the event that took only a few minutes to complete.

But Wait!!! If it’s not CSAUP enough for you, we will have a 2-Man Ultra Division. Since this is an “endurance” race, we thought we should open up a 2-Man Ultra Team option (no requirements). So if you think you’re good enough, put your team together and show us what you got! Use the link above.

Aye!
Anchorman & Zima

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