Category: Alcatraz

Alcatraz has rocks and hills – Who knew?

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4 Pax showed up for a humid Saturday in Tega Cay.  YHC had been pretty lazy this week after returning from BonAire.  Look it up!  Fantastic windsurfing!  So, the beatdown commenced with a run, what else.

The Thang

Run to the tennis courts for COP

SSH X 30, Windmill X 15, Squats X 20, Merkins X 10, IW X 20, Mountain Climbers X 20, SSH X 30

Run to the Hill, get a rock

Run up the hill to the split, come back get your rock

All X 20, after set go run again…

Curls, Triceps, Overhead Press, Bent row

Mosey to the tee box for 10 minutes of Merkins : 1 minute do 10 Merkins, rinse repeat for 10 minutes….

Mosey back to tennis courts for some wind sprints – Hit every white line (there was like 10 of them) – Only 1 round

Back to Runde for 3 minutes of Mary

COT

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Pillars of Pantheon – PreBlast

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Pax:

We’ve all joined F3 for various reasons; however the common theme is acceleration in each of the 3 F’s.  In the spirit of QSource, 43Feet, Roundtable and others we are launching a new and insightful discussion:  Pillars of Pantheon.

Pillars of Pantheon will be a quick two minute interview with the Pantheon Q of the Day to expand on these questions:

> Tell us about your own EH experience and induction into F3?

> How has F3 helped you accelerate your 3 F’s?

> What is one idea that you will spearhead to take F3 into the future?

The Pillars of Pantheon discussion will occur after COT and the Gloom Crue in attendance are welcomed to listen in and discuss with that day’s Q post recording.  The intent is to strengthen our 2nd F, tighten our Shield-lock and of course, sharpen each other.

AYE!

-BearGrylls

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Double duty and bring up the big guns

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Slightly delayed due to PTO, but better late than never.

As the disclaimer was given, Jekyll rolled up in the rental truck and distracted us all with his manly vehicle.  Divac, fresh from moving from Hartsville, led us through warm-ups and then took us to the monster hill where we took on 11s.

Burpees at the top and big boys at the bottom.  Run down the hill and then backwards run up the hill.  It wasn’t fun but it was a nice warm up in the heat!

Next up was some 4 corners and partner work.

  • With your partner, 10 derkins using your partners back while they were in plank
  • 10 dips each off your partners back
  • 10 squats with an opposite foot touch
  • 10 big boys with your feet locked with partner
  • Rinse and repeat….for a total of 3x

Then we moved over to the playground.

  • 30 pull ups
  • 60 step ups
  • 100 flutters
  • Short mosey to end of parking lot with a short message below (and then the following)
  • 25 pull ups
  • 50 step ups
  • 80 flutters

For short breather we talked about being intentional either with ourselves or with those around us.  Less phone / screen time for Shady #DontBePhony per my 3 year old niece.

Wrapped up with COT and all things that go with that…went around the circle with what we were going to be intentional about for the weekend and upcoming week.

Great work and leading Divac….I think this guy has something going on!

Shady out…

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Can I get a taxi, Uber, or Lyft?

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17 men and 1 2.0 came prepared for the workout. Lots of smiling faces, not knowing what was in store for the next hour. After the disclaimer, we jogged down to the fire station and back to the parking lot.

COP
SSHs x 20
Imperial Walkers x 15
Wind Mills x 10
Plank Stretches
Merkins x 5
Plank Jacks x 10
Peter Parker x 10
Parker Peter x 10

Next, we moseyed to the field for partner exercises called Hora(Dora’s evil cousin) 2-3-4. Similar to Dora 1-2-3 except the count for each exercise was 200, 300, 400 and the movements would be a bit more complicated that simply running back and forth.

Exercise 1: 200 Merkins
Movement: Lunges to the lightpole and run back
Exercise 2: 300 Squats
Movement: Burpee broad jumps to lightpole and back
Exercise 3: 400 LBCs
Movement: Inch worm merkins to lightpole and back

Lots of grumbling and mumble chatter. The first half was complete. The baton was passed to Maximus. Good luck everyone.

In the outfield, we circled up for two sets of exercises:

10 J-Lo’s (A generational reference was made by substituting J-Lo with Barbara Streisand. I had to google her…No compare to Jenny from the block)
10 very slow flutters

Next, we partnered up with like speed for 7’s on “the Hill”. We began with Jumping Lunges (6) at the top and Caroline Dry Docks (1) at the bottom. NUR (backwards run) back up the hill and jogged to the outfield. We lined up on the chalk line for the following exercises:

5 Staggered Merkins on each side followed by a sprint to the other end of the field.
10 Jump Squats and sprint back.
10 J-Lo’s and sprint back

End of workout, mosey to COT.

Great job by all. Uber brought his 2.0 to the workout. Likes to ski, dad is Uber. We named him Lyft. He was full of energy and smiled the whole time.

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Alcatraz HIIT & Strength beatdown

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Cobains on the delay. #Life

We had a hearty crew Saturday morning.  Lots of chatter in the Twittersvere for Tesh?Jekyll Q drawing Pax from across the river and inspiring Fishsticks to bring a #kotter and an #FNG.  Well done!

HIIT:

Disclaimer then we took off for a lap ’round Runde stopping for a brief painstation to let Dolly Dogwalker go by.  Must be crazy to have 14 men run up on you so we gave some space.  Pouring into the field at the open gate we started with a circle of pain and the usual suspects of exercises in cadence.  Feeling the need to keep up my portion of the HIIT on the line we went for sprint run and and nur (backward run).  70%, 80%, 90%,100%.

Moved to the next field and put partner 1 on the line and partner 2 on the wall.

  • P1: Bearcrawl to second base run to baseball fence, hop the fence then run up hill to finish with 5 bombjacks.  Down the hill, hop the fence, AYG back to line.
  • P2: Round the world squat jumps.

Repeat 3 times with P2 doing Carolina Dry Docks then Wall sits.

Hand off to Tesh for Strength.

First exercise was to max out our push pull muscles.

Pulling is first.  Circle up shoulder to shoulder.  Every other man does an about face and puts his 6 on the ground so that his shoulders are between two PAXs feet.  The standing PAX now reach down as if they are going to help a brother up, but instead, we are going to use this as a no-equipment upright row.

All PAX lift up on the Q’s command and let down on command.  Q does this until he sees around half the PAX struggling to lift.  Swap positions and repeat.  (This may sound like a rest for the guys laying down being lifted, but you still have to keep most everything engaged so it’s not.  It’s more of an isometric hold)
Pushing is next.  You can’t do much better than the merkin.  But i wanted low rep, higher volume.  So to achieve this, the sprinkler head merkin puts more load on one arm.  (It’s a typewriter merkin without swaping sides.)  So one are goes out wide and stays straight wile the other does all the pushing (4 count to 3 both sides). Then regular merkins (4 count to 10).
Do this superset 3 times.  (I modified the pushups for some other challenges, but you’ll have to ask someone that was there… blame Walker.)
Next were some grip strength, because I think almost every man lacks in this department (it’s hard to train and doesn’t give you anything sexy to show off).  Mosey to the playground for deadhangs.  Split into two groups, one does peoples chair / Al Gore while the other group deadhangs.  Four rounds of 1 min.
Mosey to parking lot for Lt Dan.  I always associate this exercise with Jekyll for some reason, and he didn’t do it so I felt obligated.  And it’s a great exercise.  Dry dock/merkin breaks after rounds 5, 7 and 9.
And finally American Hammers till time.
NMM-
Great to have Bon Jovi who is back after a couple of years and hinted at a name change.  During the course of the workout his options became clear and ultimately stayed with Bon Jovi.  smart move.
Welcome Paper Jam from Rochester New York home of Xerox.  Today is but your first day!
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Respectable Q at Alcatraz

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A beautiful morning at Alcatraz and the Pax began to gather for a beatdown by 2 respectable Qs with YHC and Bolt.  Circle up disclaimer was given and YHC took the 1st half and lead the group out on a warm up mosey.

COP – SSH, Hillbilly walker, Low Slow Squat, Mountain Climber, CDD, Peter Parkers, Downward to Honeymooner(x3) – Mosey to the Pull up bars

At the Pull up bars I shared how we would spend the rest of my allotted time- A few rounds of Cindy Round 1 – run to the bottom of the terrible hill then back to the pull-up bars for  5 pull-ups, 10 Merkins, 15 Dips, 20 4 count flutters.  Round 2 – Run around the park same workout. Round 3 back to the bottom of the hill and same workout.  After 3 rounds we were all sufficiently smoked and ready for Bolt to take over.

Bolt had mercy on us and we walked  back to the parking lot where he gave his instructions.  4 stations around the park Station 1 paver curls and 5 Burpees, Station 2 Jump Squats and 5 Burpees, Station 3 Bombjacks 5 Burpees, Station 4 10 Burpees, sprint back to Station 1.  Rinse and Repeat.  With the remaining time we circled up for some interesting and challenging ab work as only Bolt could bring.

To COT – Prayers requested and given.  A great morning, and a great group of PAX

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Old School at Alacatraz

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I got the call early on Saturdayy morning that  my Co -Q was having flu like symptoms and I decided that the Pax would be my Co-Q.  I was excited to see a classic group of old school and new regulars at F3.  After almost 8 years of doing this it is great to see old friends and meet new ones.

I had decided I was going to take a tour of some of the areas of Alcatraz I had not been to in a while.

The Thang:

Mosey to tennis/pickle ball courts:

Around the circle 2x with each member leading an exercise.  Exercises included but were not limited to side straddle hops, LBC, imperial walker, dynamic stretches, cherry pickers, merkins, windmills, peter parkers, parker peters.  The counts were between 11-21.

Mosey to short wall by the golf course:  30 step ups….at this point slum lord ran but and was sucked into our pax….. then 25 derkins, 20 monkey humpers and 25 irkins.

mosey to hill by golf course.  Partner up and grab one rock per group.

Run up hill while partner does curls, switch, bear crawl up hill and crawl bear down while partner does overhead press,  switch,  run up hill while partner does tricep extensions, switch and bear crawl up hill and crawl bear down while partner does chest press, switch.

Run to club house steps and wheelbarrow and up and down, switch.  Rinse and Repeat.

Stop on way back for LBC- 30 OYO.

Mosey back and per Zima suggestion do a 4 minute hill workout calf buster by running up the hill backwards for four minutes and forward down (crowd pleaser.

Moleskin:

It is always great to lead.  It is amazing how time has flown and many a pax has seen time at Alcatraz.  Always great to catch up with new regulars and the ol faithful.

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Alcatraz Fishermen

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I’m writing this way past due and don’t have much, but what the heck, let’s give it a good ole college try.  Fishsticks warms us up with the ‘regulars’ and proceeded to crush our arms with some partner style work using the loose bricks.  I just remember hurting.  Then YHC ran a starfish exercise as a team.  In the middle was 5 body bag builders (a 10-count burpee).  Each corner was done twice with broad jumps and duck walks between the middle and the stations.  The corners were all combination exercises that created #pain.  So that’s it… all I can remember.  Just thankful to be able to work out with such great #HIM.

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Dynamic Duo Q at Alcatraz

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It was a chillier than usual Spring morning at Alcatraz (43 degrees) and after setting up TinselUtensils with the help of Straight Up we were ready for an unusual co Q combo with plenty of coupons; at COP we welcomed Prosciutto, he grew up in Tega Cay but now he’s a big part of F3 Chattanooga. AKAY2 crew was there for day 18 of their journey.

The disclaimer was provided by YHC and Straight Up led the warm up with the following:

10 SSHs
Warrior 1
Runner’s Stretch
Deep Runner’s stretch
Sit-on-yer-leg stretch
16 U-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it stretches
4 back stretches
2 X-jumps
3 mins of 5 reps each:
Merkins
Air squat jumps
LBC Twists

after warm up it was time to play with TinselUtensils, PAX  were split into 4 groups and each group went to a station, after completing the station we bear crawled to the next one:

STATION 1:

-> 10 burpees (Fun House noticed that our visitor Prosciutto  clapped at the end of each burpee and we were told that they do that as a standard in F3 Chatt) 

-> 10  Tire flips

-> 20  Monkey Humpers

-> 20 lunges SC

-> 30 low squat (touch the ground with hand)

STATION 2:

USE WEIGHTS OR CINDY

-> 10 man makers

-> 20 biceps curls

-> 20 bent over row

-> 25 overhead press

-> 30 triceps extension

STATION 3:

-> 30 LBC’s

-> 30 Rosalitas

-> 30 Sledgehammer swings  (15 each side)

-> 40 Dying Roach SC

-> 20 slam ball to ground

STATION 4:

-> 10 diamond merkins

-> 20 wide arm merkins

-> 20 regular merkins

-> 30 battle rope wave SC

-> 40 Shoulder taps

-> 40 plank jacks

After all groups completed the full circuit of 4 stations we moved to the grassy area for some Captain Thor’s  Ab Lab: 1 Big boy sit up and 4 American Hammers, progressive to 10 BBSU and 40 AH, this is my favorite Ab Lab combination and even though there was lots of mumble chatter we all finished the exercises.

With about 25 minutes left on the clock it was time for Straight Up’s part of the Q:

Workout:
Grab a heavy item and run to pull-up bars.
We rotated through one round of 50 seconds on and 10 seconds of rest for each of the following stations:

First Round:
Jumping Pull-ups
KB Swings
Commando Pull-ups
Bear crawl up the hill, run down
72 lb sandbag run
Jumping Lunge into 2 SSHs
Mag-R-Tai
Low Slow Squat with 40 lb sandbag
Apollo Ohnos
Dips using a set of real dip bars
The “Worst Merkin Ever”

We then proceeded to run with the heavy items to the top of the hill.
We ran down the hill, broke up into partners and competed against Straight Up.

Second Round:
Goal: to beat Straight Up as a partner team to COT by doing the following:
Partner 1 runs the hill up and down while Partner 2 does slow kick-thru burpees as they wait to be tagged.
Then switch.
Then run up hill again to COT carrying a heavy item of choice (first come first serve).
Straight Up did 2 hill runs with 15 kick-thru burpees each side in between the runs, then ran hill again to COT.
Congratulations to all groups who beat him! Well done!

Unusual F3 event: 3 deer running across our running paths directly in front of us

COT:
Announcements (keep pushing FunHouse this month!), Praises, Prayer requests.
Army PT Test Wed at The Coop

Tinsel out…

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Productivity at it’s Best @ Alcatraz

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  • Had the luxury of Co-Qing this fine Saturday morning w/ Corn Hole at Alcatraz.  I sent John my 1/2 of the workout a couple days in advance so he could decide if he wanted to ignore what I planned and do his own thing or make it complementary.  He choose the first option, and completely ignored the exercises of the 2nd half and made it extra spicy by incorporating a ton of burpees and legs right off the bat.

Here it is –

Took a mosey around the outer perimeter of the ball field and made our way back to the starting point for a typical warm up.  Standard John stuff – you know, about 100 side straddle hops and then I forgot what happened after given how smoked my calves were.

From there he took us through the 4 corner accumulator / deccumulator.  Starting on one corner of the parking lot we did:

  1. 5 burpees, then lunge walk to next corner
  2. 5 burpees + 10 merkins then bear crawl to next corner
  3. 5 burpees + 10 merkins + 15 squats then lunge walk to next corner
  4. 5 burpees + 10 merkins + 15 squats + 20 SSH then bear crawl to 1st corner again
  5. 5 burpees + 10 merkins + 15 squats + 20 SSH + 25 LBC’s then bear crawl back to 4th corner
  6. Decummulator time – remove the LBC’s and do the other 4 exercises above, + lunge walk to 3rd corner
  7. Remove the 20 SSH and do the rest, then bear crawl to 2nd corner
  8. Remove the squats, ado the rest, lunge walk to first corner
  9. Remove the merkins and do the burpees

Yikes – that’s 45 burpees, 70 merkins, 75 squats, 60 SSH, 25 LBC’s and a crap ton of bear crawls / lunge walks in a small window.

Transitioned over to my half of the Q and we hit the ball field.  It was still soaked from the monsoon the day before and the field guy was out there getting it fixed up for the day’s games.  Had to quickly modify my 4 corners on the field to do just one side of the field not make him angry.  Here’s what we did:

Starting on one side of the field, we jog a 1/3 of  the length of the field, and then sprint the remaining 2/3 of the field then do an exercise:

  1. 50 squats.  Jog a 1/3, sprint 2/3 then
  2. 50 merkins.  Jog a 1/3, sprint  2/3 then
  3. 50 jump knee tucks.  jog a 1/3, sprint 2/3 then
  4. 10 burpees

Next up, we head to to the retaining wall behind the back stop of the baseball field in the far corner.  We do an exercise on the wall, then do another exercise down the fence line (full length of field) and then back to do another exercise on the wall.

  1. 20 dips, then power skips down the length of the field and back
  2. 20 derkins then side shuffle down the length of the field and back
  3. 20 step-ups per leg then back pedal the length of the field and sprint back
  4. 10 burpees then jog back to the parking lot

From there, we got down in a plank position and did alternating sets of carolina dry docks and merkins, then sumo squats and narrow squats:

  1. 11 CDD, 10 merkins, 9 CDD, 8 merkins, 7 CDD, 6 merkins, 5 CDD, 4 merkins, 3 CDD, 2 merkins, 1 CDD (36 CDD’s and 30 merkins all at once – holy smoke show)
  2. 11 sumo squats, 10 narrow, 9 sumo, 8 narrow, 7 sumo, 6 narrow, 5 sumo, 4 narrow, 3 sumo, 2 narrow, 1 sumo (36 sumos and 30 narrow squats back to back to back)

Had about 5 minutes left, so hit hill on the road off of Tega Cay Drive for some big boys and merkins.

  1. 10 big boys, run down the hill, 1 merkin, back pedal up hill
  2. 9 big boys, run down hill, 2 merkins, back pedal hill
  3. 8 big boys, run down hill, 3 merkins, back pedal hill
  4. 7 big boys, run down hill, 4 merkins, back pedal hill…and we ran out of time.

Back at COT, we had a couple prayer / praise reports, and half the folks headed over to Change Order’s house for some Q source discussions.  So awesome to see our boys Crash and On the Rocks get back out there – been way too long fellas.  Thanks for the effort today – great work by all.  Until next time.

Cha Ching

 

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