Category: Alcatraz

F3TheFort Holiday Drop-In

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The Forts annual holiday party will have a different feel this year.
With COVID still lingering we have decided to have a gathering but it will be a bit different.

We are encouraging The PAX to go to dinner with your M and either your Shieldlock, Whetstone, or small group of fellow PAX and their Ms. After dinner we will all gather for an hour or so of a social hour(s).
This will give our Ms the opportunity to meet the crazy fellas we spend the early mornings with but more importantly their M.

We are all fortunate to have this crazy group it is also just as important to try and let our Ms meet some other ladies in the community and possibly let them start great friendships as well.

Make it a day of F3. Start with the golf outing, go to dinner and then grab a couple beers, a bottle of J Lohr wine, a cocktail and let’s kick off the holiday season.

If COVID worries you or your M we will have an outdoor area to hang out at as well as indoor areas.

Where- Springfield Community Center- by the tennis courts/pool
420 Horton Grove, Fort Mill, SC 29715

Time- 7pm-9pmish

When- Dec 3rd, 2021

Contact- Backdraft with any concerns…

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F3 The Fort Anniversary Party

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Get ready to celebrate the Anniversary of The Fort. Location will be next to The Springfield neighborhood pool under the pavilion. but the date is set Sept. 17th, 2021. 1830-2130 or 630pm- 930pm for anyone that dosn’t know how to do military time. Cant wait to see you all. It will be the same as last year and bring your own dinner and drinks. We will have a few people speaking.

Look forward to seeing everyone.

location- Springfield Neighborhood Pavilion, next to pool

time- 630pm- 930pm

what to bring- whatever you want to eat and drink.

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Fecta-Traz

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11 pax posted at Alcatraz on another warm humid day.
This co-Q was the third Q in my birthday Trifecta (Ranch #1, Varsity was #2).

First Q at bat was Ruby Slippers who gave the disclaimer and warmup:
Cherry pickers, windmills, Peter parkers, parker peters (10x IC).

Thang 1: HIIT
At the playground area of Runde park.  Pax split into three groups. Exercise for 1 minute the groups move to next station.
station 1: pull ups (dead hang if you can’t do anymore)
station 2: Step ups
station 3: LBC
Next iteration was:
station 1: pull up and toes to bar (dead hang if you can’t do anymore)
station 2: Lunges
station 3: flutters
Next iteration:
station 1: Do one pull up and hold at the top.  Goal is 1 min; do a slow negative pull up if needed but hang on to the bars.
station 2: Lunges
station 3: V-ups

Thang 2: Field Sprints (with Merkins)
Pax line up on the outfield
Run at 50% for first 30 feet, then sprint/100% to end of the outfield.
Pax do 20 merkins.
Do the same run routine described above. At end pax do 18 merkins.
Rinse and repeat downwards to two merkins.

Q transition to Harry Carry.

Started with a run as a group in the surrounding neighborhood.  Simple loop of approximately ½ mile. Returned to Runde Park’s lot.

Thang 3: Prison Yard Burpees
Pax split into two groups.  Each group has a basketball half-court as their prison yard.
Groups start in corner 1 does 10 burpees.  Then bear crawl (alternate method allowed was lunge walk) to next corner and do 9 burpees.  Proceed with the descending count of burpees and bear crawls until 1 burpee is reached.

Run again as a group, different route, hit the hill on Tara Tea Drive. Distance of about 1/3 mile. Return to Runde Park’s lot.

Thang 4: Bear vs Crab Soccer
Done on a basketball court.  Cones used at each end to mark a ‘goal’.
Split pax in two teams
15lb slam ball is mid court
Team 1 bear crawls only, Team 2 crab walks only
Get the ball and try to score
One team did score, don’t remember who.  We did switch animals at some point.

Game was called when a bear tried to eat a crab.

Non-Mary: Monkey Humpers, Imperial walkers (both 10xIC).

Fini. COT

It was quite a spectacle to see pax go after the slam ball and had some scrums too.  A few pax were even able to ‘throw’ the slam ball…may have to modify the rules for future games.  This was good clean fun.
Quite a great way to end my Trifecta of Q’s.  Great group of HIMs we have in our region.

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Fast 5 friendly, except…

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Remember, the Fast 5 was kicking off 2 hours post-COT so we need to make this one leg friendly. I got the memo but apparently, Bonsai did not. While the complaining in the second half ramped up, we knew we’d all be better for it.
With Maximus up for the first 30mins, here’s what happened:

We moseyed around lap around the park with Toy Soldiers and Butt Kickers thrown in for good measure.
Back in the parking lot, we did some slow squatting, 3-way calf raises and wide-arm Merkins

At the playground:
Group 1: 15 Pull-Ups & 30 Merkins
Group 2: American Hammers until Group 1 is done
Due to some questionable form, we did that one again with 10 Pull Ups and 20 Merkins.

Group 1: 15 Pull-Ups & 30 Carolina Dry Docks
Group 2: Freddy Mercury’s until Group 1 is done

Back to the lot for 10 Burpees, Boats & Canoes, Grave Diggers and Super Mans

Hand off to Bonsai:

We moseyed to the area at Fire Dept wall:
Level 1 Drill – 10 each
Merkins / Mountain Climbers, Hip Thrusters (questionable call)
25 LBCs
30sec Wall Sit
Repeat then run to the basketball court and back

25 Dirty Myrtle
15 Mike Tysons
25 American Hammers
25 Squats
Repeat then run to the basketball court and back

30sec BTTW
20 Plank Jack
10 Lunges each leg
15 Leg raises
Repeat then run to the basketball court and back

Bear crawl some, mosey, 30sec 6″ Merkin hold, mosey

COT

Maximus & Bonsai

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Fabulous Four

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A small, but dedicated group of four hit the rock this morning for a workout with  sandbags and some old Alcatraz classics.  Here is what they did:

The Thang:

Skipper on Q:

Disclaimer and mosey on the path around the park.  We bypassed the pull up bars for now, but the Pax would  not escape them completely today.  Circle up on the lot for COP:

All in cadence:

SSH x 20, Merkin x 10 (hold plank), Peter parker x 10, Parker peter x 10, MC x 10).  Mosey to the other side of the lot and pick up two sand bags.  Partner up.

Dora 123:  Partner 1 does the exercise while partner 2 carries the sandbag to the basketball hoop, does 5 squats, and returns to the start.

Exercises:  100 diamond merkins, 200 big boy situps, 300 shoulder taps.  At about midway through the shoulder taps, Skpper made the call to modify and swapped squats for shoulder taps, and 10 sandbag throws out and back in place of carrying the sandbag and doing squats (GOOD CALL – I was getting smoked and I believe the others were too!)

Hand off to Senator Tressel

Line up in the field for 40 yd sprints out and back with short recovery.  I believe we did 5 sets, maybe 6.  Recover and walk to the concession stand wall for the Strong Square:

Starting at the wall, assume BTTW and walk on your hands the length of the wall, lunge walk to about the 2nd base line, backwards bearcrawl towards the fire station, and power skip back to the start.  Repeat this 2 more  times.

Mosey to the playground for pull ups (10), reverse step ups (10L/10R), and big boy sit ups (20).  We did 3 sets.

Mosey back to the field for 2 minutes of Mary:  Freddie Merc x 20, Pretzel crunch x 10.

End with 60s of Body Destroyer (my favorite)

COT

It was a pleasure to lead the group today with Skipper.  We had a good mix of newer exercises (seeing a lot of sandbags at workouts these days) and stuff we did years ago (40 yd sprints and walking on your hands).  With a smaller group, we moved from exercise to exercise quickly and didn’t waste a lot of time.  Everyone left it out there today and I felt we gave them their money’s worth.  Well done, men!

Announcements:  Fastest 5K next Saturday, Stuff the bus for Ft. Mill schools, read your newsletter

Prayers/praises:  raising teenagers, families traveling, new job in NY for a college grad, and famlies and friends with cancer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lakeside Park

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Six of the Fort’s finest met at Runde park and answered the call for Alcatraz on the Lake.  Here is what they did.

The Thang:

Full disclaimer with the usual verbiage of ‘I am not a professional, it’s a voluntary workout, modify as needed, can’t sue the Q or F3,  etc..’.   Since we were going into Lake Wylie today, YHC added that if you drown or contract an illness from a waterborne parasite, you also cannot sue the Q or F3.  Off we went…..

The mosey to Pitcarin Park is about 0.6 miles and we had the usual chatter en route.  Cyclops carried the flag as we cruised along and he planted it on a  hill near the lake side.

Senator Tressel on Q

Everybody up on the floating dock for COP  (All in cadence)

IW x 20, merkin x 10, Squat x 20, MC x 20, Freddie Merc x 20, wide arm merkin x 10, Morrocan Nightclub x 40 and start walking toward the stairs at the lower parking lot.

Partner up and wheelbarrow up the stairs to the upper parking lot, across the lot, and up the cement stairs to the picnic benches.  Flapjack with your partner about 1/2 way through.  When you reach the picnic bench, do 20 bomb jacks, run back to the start.

Repeat the wheelbarrow, but with 20 burpees at the picnic benches, run back.

Repeat the wheelbarrow, but do 40 dips at the picnic benches.

Change Order on Q

Mosey down to the upper lot and do a series of ab exercises (Flutters, LBC’s, Protractor, other).

Mosey to the dock, remove your shoes and shirt and jump in the lake.  Tread water for about 5 minutes.

Back on the dock, do some merkins, squats, abs, and then jump back in the lake.  Tread water for about 3 minutes.

Naken Man Moleskin

Lake Day is always fun and it’s a good opportunity to do something a little different with the bootcamp.  I said at the beginning that this workout is more fun than intense, and that was mostly true today (there were some complaints, though about the 20 burpees following the long wheelbarrow sequence).

Cyclops, Bonsai, and Fishsticks all showed some great form today with cannon balls, can openers, and a flying frog dive off of the dock – well done men!   Treading water is not really hard, but doing it for just 5 minutes can tire you out, and I think we were all feeling it after the 2nd go round.

It was another great day at Alcatraz and it’s always a  blast to be with my F3 buddies on Saturday mornings.    I attached the picture we took after the workout.  It took me a few tries to get the pic, and I was called out for my less than deft ability at using an Iphone camera.      I’ll have to work on that for next time.    Oh, and the title of the backblast is a Rush reference (huge fan here, RIP Neal Peart).

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Pain posting at BAOPS

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Alcatraz eventually became a prison on an island in the cold waters off the Northern California coast. It was known to be difficult to escape for the inmates that called Alcatraz home. The waters surrounding it were cold and rough, much like its residents.

When Trucker took over Alcatraz, he had a vision for our own little AO on the island, well, it’s really a peninsula but just go with me here. He wanted those that posted at Alcatraz to experience their hardest (or close to their hardest) workout of the week. The idea of coasting into the weekend wasn’t exactly his cup of tea. That said, for those of us that Q Alcatraz now, we have the Trucker-created acronym, BAOPS, in our minds when planning our pain. BAOPS stands for the Best AO for Pain on Saturday. You get the idea now?

For Ruby Slippers and I on this brisk morning, we knew we had to answer the call. The planning began earlier in the week when Ruby said he was incorporating cinder blocks. That’s when I knew this would be top-shelf. Ya see, when a man named after fancy footwear says he’s bringing pain like that, it’s time for the rest of us to bring our big-boy shoes. He shared his plan with me on Friday night and I had to chuckle; it was all I could do to keep from splashing at the thought.

To kick off this adventure, Fish Sticks, Trucker, Geronimo and I decided we needed to get to the AO early for a few rounds of pull-ups which has become quite the nice addition. At 0630, we had 17 of us gathered in the parking lot to embark on this journey.  While not swimming cold, choppy waters, we did see all the cinder blocks lined up and knew we were in for something special.

Ruby took control, disclaimed us and warmed us up with Wind Mills, Tappy Taps, Burpees, SSH, Merkins, Burpees and a few other things. Who does burpees in a warm up? We then all grabbed a cinder block, made our way to the field and counted off in 4’s for the 4-corner beat down. He had set up 4 stations in the corners about 15yds apart from each other.
Station 1: 10 Man Makers, 20 Cinder Block Swings, 30 Overhead Presses
Walk to station 2 with the cinder block in the rifle carry position, overhead.
Station 2: 10 Man Makers, 20 Cinder Block Swings, 30 Bent Over Rows.
Lunge walk to station 3 while holding the cinder block.
Station 3: 10 Man Makers, 20 Cinder Block Swings, 30 Derkins w/ your feet up on the block.
Walk to station 4 with the cinder block in the rifle carry position, overhead.
Station 4: 10 Man Makers, 20 Cinder Block Swings, 30 Curls
Lunge walk back to station 1 while holding the cinder block.

We continued on this circuit until our never-ending 30mins had expired. It felt like 30 days and holy smokes, the collective groan from the PAX almost woke the neighbors. We were all on the struggle bus after this and guess what, we were only 1/2 way through this wonderful nonsense.

Gee, THANKS TRUCKER!!! Now we’ll hand off to Maximus for what was intended to be the tour de hills of our lovely AO. Once I told the PAX about the 3 hills we were to be visiting, you could hear it again. That collective groan, yeah, it voiced itself again. Anywho….

Mosey to Hill 1 at the front of the neighborhood by the Fire Station:
Run down without busting your tail for 5 burpees and 10 Flutters I/C
Run up the hill for 2 squat burpees and 10 Flutters I/C
Complete this 4 times

Mosey to the next hill, Hill 2 down by the circle:
Run down the hill for (5) 8ct burpees and 10 Freddy Mercury’s
Run up the hill for (2) 8ct burpees and 10 Freddy Mercury’s
Complete this 3 times

C’MON MAN!!!! REALLY???? Did our time really expire before we can complete Hill 3? Yes, yes indeed. Fortunately, we got back to the AO in time do complete a few rounds of Mary.

Aaaannnndddd, there you have it. BAOPS lives on!!!

Announcements: FM Study Hall volunteers needed. D2DB reminder. Do yourself and your concentrica a favor by engaging in everything F3 has to offer. Spiderman cemented this by a call to action for the PAX to GET IN A SHIELDLOCK. There were more announcements but I apologize, my stenographer failed to show.

Prayers/Praises: Some serious things on the hearts of our PAX and if you want to know what they are, you should’ve posted. Praise for our boy, Skipper, now 1wk into this new chapter of his life with us in F3. Welcome.

Until we SYITG,
Ruby Slippers & Maximus

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Humble Pie

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7 men braved 18 degrees this morning at Alcatraz. Here’s what we did:

The Thang:

  • 25 SSHs (IC)
  • 25 Imperial Walkers (IC)
  • 15 Low Slow Squats (IC)

Mosey to Anchorage Lane

Once we arrived at the bottom of the hill of Anchorage Lane, Reborn told us the plan. We were going to Partner up.

Partner 1 was to Nur up the hill and run back down while Partner 2 performed exercises in a modified Dora. Then flapjack.

The exercises at the bottom of the hill were:

  • 100-Diamond Merkins
  • 200-Double Count Lunges
  • 250-Squats

Mosey back to the park

This took us to a little after 0700 and Reborn handed it off to YHC.

  • 10 Burpees
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 10 LBCs (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 9 Wide arm Merkins (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 8 American Hammers (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 7 Mac Tar Jais (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 6 Boxcutters (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 5 Sphinx Merkins (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 6 Flutters (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 7 Tempo Merkins (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 8 Freddie Mercurys (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 9 Merkins (IC)
  • Run across the parking lot and return
  • 10 Big Boy Sit-ups

Mosey around the Park

  • 20 Low Slow Squats (IC)
  • 20 Narrow Squats (IC)
  • 20 Calf Raises (IC)
  • 15 Irkins (IC)
  • 25 Dips (IC)
  • 10 Derkins (IC)
  • 15 Overhead Claps (IC)
  • 25 MNCs (IC)
  • 15 Seal Jacks (IC)
  • 1 Minute of Flutters

NMM

My pastor posted a message to Twitter yesterday that I found worthy to share.

“God chose to be born as a pauper, not a prince. In a stable, not as a superstar. As a servant, not a celebrity. What does that tell us about how important the Lord thinks humility is?”

In the age of coronavirus shutdowns, celebrities have taken to social media to say, “we’re in this together” from their palatial estates. Their messages have grown stale as people realize how out of touch celebrities are. Their self-absorbed, self-conceit is the exact representation of what we aren’t to be.

We are called to live third – to put God, family, and others before ourselves. When we get the order backwards, we crash and burn. As High Impact Men, we are bound for success. When we succeed, we must remember to stay grounded and stay humble. Keep close to your brothers and keep them in check. Allow them to keep you in line. We are actually in this together.

Aye!

Italian Job

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Christmas Trivia and Choices

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Eight men showed up at Alcatraz this morning.  Two carried their heavy backpacks around the Cay for the hour.  Geronimo was still putting together his painful Q at 0630 so I began the workout with some warm-up exercises (SSHs, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Plank Stretches).

I decided to borrow this idea from a workout Double D and Old Bay Q’d back in 2017. Christmas Trivia with exercises sprinkled in between each question.  Penalty for missing a question was 5 burpees.  Oh, by the way, the burpee penalty was cumulative until the next correct answer.

Exercises:

10 Bomb Jacks

20 LBCs

15 Plank Jacks

10 Donkey Kicks

20 Monkey Humpers

15 Moroccan Night Clubs

20 Calf Raises

10 Plank Jacks

15 Mountain Climbers

15 Merkins

10 Lunges

15 Carolina Dry Docks

20 Squats

Luckily Skate or Die knows his Christmas Movie Trivia or we would have done alot more burpees.

Next, hand off to Geronimo.  He quickly told us to partner up and headed to the “Hill”.  As we ran down the hill, there were several signs with exercises lined up along the side of the street.  At the bottom of the hill, he instructed us to run up the hill and choose an exercise at each sign.  Sounds simple enough..what was the catch?

The exercises:

  1.  50 SSHs or 50 Merkins
  2. 50 Merkins or 50 Hello Dollies
  3. 20 Air Lunges or 50 Mountain Climbers
  4. 20 Squat Jumps or 20 Diamond Merkins
  5. Bear Crawl or Nur to Next sign
  6. 50 Squats or 100 LBCs
  7. 50 Flutters or 20 Flying Squirrels
  8. Crawl Bear or Broad Jump
  9. 20 Tuck Jumps or 50 Overhead Claps
  10. Run down the hill and back or run to the fire station
  11. 30 Big Boys or 60 Calf Raises
  12. 20 Burpees or 40 Burpees

When the teams got to the top of the hill, Geronimo instructed us to go down the hill and repeat the process, but do the exercise that you did not choose the first time.

Great work this morning..mind, body, and holiday trivia 🙂

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From the ground to the hills of Alcatraz

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BAOPS: Best AO For Pain on Saturday

That’s what has been established in recent months at Alcatraz as Trucker has pushed the Q’s to bring it just a little bit harder when their number is called. So, for Lil E and I, we worked to ensure consistency this beautiful Fall morning. Between, the story of hitting a deer on the way to the AO and the lingering hamstring soreness and name-calling, we had the makings of a good time in store.

With Lil E up first, he disclaimed and proceeded to Q us through an extended warm up consisting of:
Warm up lap around Runde Park
SSH x 30
Imperial Walkers x 20
Windmills x 10
Merkins x 10
Squats x 15
Mountain Climbers x 10
Monkey Humpers x 10
Morrocan Night Clubs x 20
Overhead Claps x 20
Peter Parkers x 10
Parker Peters x 10

And this is where our tough-guy computer hands got some focus:
Bear crawl the length of the parking lot on the most hand-friendly blacktop this side of a gravel road. Fortunately for our hands, we got a break at four stops along the way to encourage the mitts even more with 10 merkins at each stop.

Oh, you want more attention paid to your baby soft skin? Great. Line it back up at the start but now, you’ll crab walk the length of the parking lot with 15 LBCs at each of the four stops.

But wait, there’s more. Next, we got to (get to, not have to) lunge walk the length of the parking lot with 15 squats at each of the four stops.

Lastly, a reminder of how lonely our hands got during the lunge/squat round, we then did the ol’ Burpee Broad Jump down the parking lot…no stops, just straight on through. Oh, joy!!

Hand off to Maximus who had a bit of an axe to grind.

You see, I take the Q responsibilities as a unique obligation/opportunity to ensure the PAX feel the workout was worth their time. After all, if we’re waking up early to be with our brothers, it needs to be worth it. I never want to give the PAX the feeling of leaving a post and not getting a good workout in. If you feel that you weren’t completely challenged, at least physically, then I didn’t fulfill my role that morning. I know we can all modify as needed, to achieve more, but it helps when the Q brings it.

So what does that have to do with today. I feel I failed the PAX at my most recent Q, earlier this week. It looked like a challenge on paper but at the conclusion, I had a feeling like the PAX didn’t get their “money’s worth.” So today, I was committed to right the ship and the 7 of us at Alcatraz  enjoyed it after Lil E’s first half shenanigans.

Take to the hill on the backside of the park and do 1 lap down then back up to get familiar with our track.

Run down to the bottom of the hill, 20 V-Ups & 10 Burpees (while dodging Bambi(s).
Run back to the top of the hill, 20 Box Cutters & 10 Hand-Release Merkins into a Jump Squat. This is like a Burpee broken into 2 parts.
Repeat this 3 more times for a total of 4 rounds.

Mosey over to the pull-up bar and each PAX completed 5 pull-ups. While you were waiting, you rested by doing Merkins.

Hopefully I made up for my past transgressions. Thanks for sharing your morning with Lil E and I.

Major Announcements:

  1. Thanksgiving convergence with the details in the Newsletter or right here: 0630 at the Ranch on Thanksgiving morning. That’s it!!
  2. Bonsai is coordinating an Advent Calendar Food Drive and the collections will be taken at our Christmas Eve Convergence!!
  3. Christmas Party

SYITG,
Lil E & Maximus

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