It was a fine morning at Runde,  and 6 men got an early start to their Saturday with another spirited beatdown at Alcatraz.  Here is what they did:

The Thang

Easy jog out of the park, around the cul-de-sac on Windward, and then back to the park for COP.

Falcon Crest on Q

SSH x 20, Windmill x 15, Morrocan Night Club x 20, IW x 20, Mountain climber x 20, Squat x 20, Merkin x 10, one or two more (can’t remember)

Hand off to Senator Tressel 

Mosey to the chin up bar along the path.  Split into groups of 2.

Group 1: Burpee pullups x 10 (crowd pleaser)

Group 2:  Step Ups (10-15 each leg)

Group 3:  LBC x 20

Rinse and repeat 2 more times.

Hand off to Decibel 

Mosey to the hill behind the practice cage for Jacob’s ladder (7/1)

Starting with one LBC at the bottom of the hill and 7 burpees at the top of the path.   Repeat and count up/down  to 7 LBC’s and 1 Burpee at the top.  Stay on the path.

Hello dolly x 20/Rosalta x 20/Budha x 15 – no break (crowd pleaser #2)

Hand off to Cable Guy 

From the path, line up and do an indian bearcrawl run along the straight section of the path, keep going until the path begins to curve.     Mosey to the railroad tie ledges along the corner of the park

50 dips, 25 LBC’s, 10 derkins.  Rinse and repeat

50 dips, 25 LBC’s, 10 derkins, 10 jumping lunges each leg (crowd pleaser #3)  (The lunges were added to give Cardiac a little more leg workout than he was getting up to this point..   We all thanked him for his request…)

Mosey down to the baseball field and line up again for indian bearcrawl run all the way across the field.

COT

Moleskin

We decided to keep Alcatraz open this Saturday (Yeti), and had no scheduled Q’s.  I could not get a hard commit from anyone to Q, and really didn’t know who was going to show up so just decided to wing it.   No worries, though.  We have enough experienced Q’s to do it on the fly and that’s what we did today.  We threw virgin Q, Falcon Crest,  right into the fire this morning and he started us off at COP.   Then, the veterans took turns at Q and strung together a solid workout. Unplanned workouts are usually strong, and today was no exception.  All the Q’s pushed the Pax and kept things moving along for 60 minutes.

T-claps to Falcon Crest to stepping up (voluntold) to do COP on his VQ.  You did fine today, my friend, but should have come to Q school this morning.  Let’s get your Twitter skills up to speed!

It was great to see Cable Guy back at Alcatraz. He has been noticeably absent from Runde for a long time and it seems that his new girlfriend is keeping him from making it here on Saturdays.  So, we’ll have to start re-EHing him to get back on a regular basis.  You are missed, brother!

Welcome  uber-fit, Cardiac from Durham who was in town visiting his family.  Great meeting you and t-claps for attacking the workout with gusto today.  I hope you got your money’s worth today and come back the next time you are here.

Good mumble chatter from Decibel and Cable Guy as always.   I have to give a shout out to all the Q’s today for willingly stepping up to lead like I knew you would.  Well done, gentlemen!  It was beautiful morning and a pleasure to spend it with my F3 brothers.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

1,  Children’s Attention home workout today at 4pm.  Get involved in this great outreach project!

2.  There will be a 3rd F convergence next Saturday, Feb 25.  The topic:Intentional Living.  This will include testimony from local F3 men on their personal journeys.  You don’t want to miss this.  Alcatraz will be closed that day and we’ll converge at WEP at 7am for workout.

3.  Prayers for injured and sick Pax.

A small, but mighty group of 5 men met at Runde Park for another Saturday of fun. Here is what we did:

The Thang:

6:30 came and went and the Q’s were not around – whoops!  Co-Q’s YHC and Bolt went a little longer on the pre-run,  and found the parking lot empty of Pax when we returned from our little jaunt.  The Pax took the initiative to get started without us and we found them rounding the corner of the running path at about 6:35   After our sincere apologies for tardiness, there was no need for a disclaimer so we continued with a dynamic warm up of knee pulls, ankle pulls, lunge walk with a twist, back stretches, arm circles and toy soldiers.    Then, off we went:

Senator Tressel on Q

Mosey out of the park and take Windward drive down the steep hill at Tara Tea.  Hang a right on Mariana drive and go all the way to the stop sign, and then hang a left to the cul-de-sac for COP.

COP (all in cadence):

SSH x 40, Merkin x 10, Cherry Picker x 15, Diamond Merkin x 10, Squat x 25, CDD x 15, IW x 25, Morrocan Night Club x 40 (after about 20  reps, we broke the circle and the Q led them down Mariana Court).  We completed the MNC’s while walking, then stopped at the end of a driveway for 25 American Hammers and 40 Mountain Climbers.

Mosey back to Runde and to the playground for:

10 pull ups, 20 Derkins, and 20 Flutters. (Rinse and repeat for a total of 3 cycles)

Hand off to Bolt

Mosey out of the play area and head to the big hill behind the park:

At about 2/3’s the way down the hill, there was a list for FOLTS.  FOLTS stands for:

Flutters

One Leg Press (balance and leg strength)

LBC’s

Toe Raises

Squats

For FOLTS, we paired up and took turns running up and down the hill, and doing the exercise listed.  We finished when each pair had run up and down the hill 5 times and completed each exercise.

After FOLTS, we all moseyed back to the park and found a 30, 40, and 50 lb sandbag waiting for us.  The Q set up 6 stations:

1.  Burpees
2. 30 lb lunge walk to red line and back
3. Superman hold
4. 40 lb lunge walk to red line and back
5. LBC’s (I think?)
6. 50 lb lunge walk to red line and back

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

When we took off from the park, the air was cool and dry, and the sky was especially bright, even before daybreak.  It was another beautiful morning at Runde and ideal F3 weather.    After the Q’s took our admonishment for being late for the start, we got down to business and took an easy jog up the hill to the cul-de-sac at Mariana’s Court.  I took the group there a long time ago and Decibel remembered it as we ran up the hill.   For COP, we kept our voices low (also known as ‘sexy count’) because we were surrounded by houses close by and didn’t want to disturb those still asleep.  Although we were small in numbers today, there was still a good amount of chatter, but surprisingly Change Order had no inappropriate comments to say.

Crash had to leave after the first half and  missed the lunge walks with the sandbags, which were harder than I thought they would be.  I definitely felt those later in the day.

For COT, I copied what Gears did last week  because I really liked it.   Since we had just 3 people at COT, he had each of us ask for a prayer or express a praise for something in our lives.  It was much more personal,  and for most people (myself included), much easier to open up in front of a small group than in front of a large circle of guys.  So, if you are reading this, remember it the next time you Q a work out and you have a small number of people.  Ask each man in the group what might be troubling him or what is going great in his life.  It’s something that might get missed if you think ‘bummer – only a few showed up’ or ‘we had small numbers today.’  Take advantage of that opportunity and get to know your brothers better.  It makes a difference.

It was a pleasure, as always,  to lead the group this morning.  Thanks for the great co-Q, Bolt,  and I look forward to our next one.  Indeed, our numbers were small today, but it was great getting to know each man better, and we were lucky to be able to do that.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

Children’s Attention Home back up and running.  Saturdays at 4pm.

Yeti next week (02/18).  Check the preblast for details and be sure to sign up.

Read your newsletter!

Prayers for a one with work stress and money,  a son’s anxiety at school, guidance with F3’s continuing work in the Paradise neighborhood.

Prayers for an F3 member and his family going through a difficult time right now.

Praises for a new job and success!

It has been forever since YHC has Q’ed at Alcatraz (according to f3nation.com, over a year), so I was excited to come back for some fun.  I rolled into the parking lot at 0615 and saw Gekko there ready to co-Q.  As 0625 rolled around, there was still no one else there, so we debated what to do, but that was short lived as the Senator and Fishsticks rolled in to give us something to do.  Here’s how it went:

The Thang

Gekko to start:

Dynamic warm up:

• High knees
• Toy soldiers
• Side shuffle
• Karaoke

Mosey to field for COP:

• SSH
• Imperial Walker
• Plankoramma
• Merkins
• Peter Parker
• Mtn Climber.

Mosey to Lot for Partner Paver Progression (yes i just made that up):

• Shoulder Press for Partner 1 with Bear Crawl full lot for Partner 2, Flapjack
• Curls for Partner 1 with Crab Walk full lot for Partner 2, Flapjack
• Tricep Extensions for Partner 1 with 15 Burpees for Partner 2, Flapjack

Hit the Park Bench for 20 Dips & 20 Derkins

Ascending/Decending BTTW to finish Gekko’s portion.

Hand off to Gears.

Bataan Death March around the Park (5 Burpee Indian Run), extended out into the street.  Gekko had to leave for Running appointment

Mosey to Baseball Field and grab some wall.   1 PAX runs the length of the field, jumps the fence and does 3 Pull Ups, then runs back.  On the way out till Pull Ups, other PAX are in People’s Chair, On the way back, Other PAX are in Elbow Plank.  Ran the full group twice (yes all 3 of us).

Mosey to Playground.  3 PAX rotation:

• 1 PAX runs the park loop
• 1 PAX does Six Pack
• 1 PAX does Elevens of Dips/Derkins

Mosey to Smaller Hill for one more round of Elevens with Squads and LBCs, then Mosey back to COT.

NMM

Planned for 10 PAX, got 3.5.  Had to Audible… Fishsticks and Senator were good sports.  Hoping to see a bigger crowd out next Saturday.

Honor to Serve.

Plenty of good mumble chatter with some highlights of RESPECT and questions about colonoscopies and digital prostate exams from the young’uns.  They did not know that digital does NOT mean electronic?

Warm Up: Run, SSH, IW, Mt. Climbers, LBC, Parker Peters

Mosey to Hill:

Bottom = 20 Jumping Lunges then backward run up 1/3 of hill then 20 Squats then lunge walk 1/3 of hill then 20 Monkey Humpers then run to the top of hill and do 20 Bomb Jacks…Repeat

Mosey to Wall and do 20 Step Ups, 15 Russian Dips…Repeat

Mosey to grass field for Loungers, Slow Merkins, Full Release Merkins

Swap to YHC and completed a Starfish (with only four legs) in parking lot.  At center complete 5 Burpees.  The four legs consisted of 50 Carolina Dry Docks, 100 Merkins, 150 LBC’s and 200 Squats (at least that was on my Weinke).  Do the legs in the order of your choice and try to stay with at least one other member of the PAX.

Mosey to Wall Sits for ten minutes of sitting, Bear Crawling, and jogging to the fence and back to the wall.

Mosey back to the parking lot for 7 Minutes of Mary (rotating choice) with a double dose of a Shark Bait special.

COT and it was a pleasure of Cornhole and I to be with everyone,

Spitz

5 for pre-ruck = Cobra, Reborn, Trucker, Lil E, and I

3 for pre-run = Fish Sticks, Funhouse, and Senator

We did exercises, but as Funhouse said “men are here for the sermon”…

CSPAN on Q

Warm Up with all my favorites in cadence in COP, plus a long series of back and forth across the parking lot…crowd pleasers included broad jump-burpee-bear crawl and broad jump-burpee-crabwalk…

Sermon was about resetting the scoreboard for 2016 and going into 2017. God forgave all of your sins not just the ones you think should be forgiven. Men can’t forgive ourselves, let 2016 failures go, and set a new course for 2017, where your past does not impede your future.

Santini on Q

Pick up landscape paver (which you held for the 30 minute remainder of the workout)

Discussion on One Word Book:
Link to podcast
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/weekend-message-sermons-from/id159573030?mt=2<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Word-That-Will-Change-Expanded/dp/1118809424/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?

Link to Book on Amazon
_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WFMH4N96TT09P9RR5RQH”>https://www.amazon.com/Word-That-Will-Change-Expanded/dp/1118809424/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=WFMH4N96TT09P9RR5RQH
Discussion on forgiving and not having to be “right”

Personal testimony

More holding that paver, with exercises, crowd pleasing discussion about the freedom you feel when you forgive and you get to set that brick down

COT

Prayer or Praise

BOM

Happy New Year

AYE!
CSPAN

It was a cold and dark morning at Alcatraz.  Only one participant for the 4 mile pre-run in the surrounding neighborhoods.  Ten men showed up for the workout, two (Spitz and Lugnut) were carrying extra gear.  They said they would stay for 30 minutes and ruck back to their destination.  Senator Tressel arrive just in time for the disclaimer.

We began with a slow jog to the traffic circle and back. When we got back to the parking lot, we performed the following warm-up exercises:

SSH x 30

Moroccan Night Club x 30

Windmill x 15

Imperial Walker x 15

Next, we moseyed to the field entrance for some exercises with the pavers.  After each exercise, we ran around the perimeter of the parking lot.  Here are the exercises we performed:

Overhead presses x 30

Curls x 30

Squats x 40

Flutter Kicks x 30

Merkins x 20

LBCs x 40

Calf raises x 30

Upward rows x 20

Some of the speedster had the opportunity to repeat some of the exercises before the handover to Cerrano at the top of the hour.  Next, Cerrano took us on an off-campus tour of the surrounding area.  We jogged to the retaining wall beside the fairway overlooking the tennis court.  We performed 30 dips and then moseyed down to the tee box near the tennis court.

He instructed us to bear crawl up to the tee box and back down to the walking path.  The grass was a little slick so some of us were able to slide down like it was ice.  We repeated this exercises three more times before moving on to the next adventure.

We stopped at the bottom of the path leading up to the clubhouse.  We each selected a rock (it was really a small boulder) and ran up to the clubhouse, single file with the boulder in hand.  The runner at the back of the line ran up to the front of the line while the others performed overhead presses and curls.

At the top of the hill near the clubhouse stairs, we dropped our boulders and hopped up and down the stairs.  Lots of coordination needed, some chose to modify or skip all together.  Next we picked up the boulders and returned down the path.  We performed a few abs exercises before returning to the tee box for bear crawls.

Next, we finished up with 30 dips and returned back to the park for COT.

It was good to team up with Cerrano.  It has been several months since we have been at the same workout together.  It was also good to see some familiar faces, some recovering from injuries and others trying to balance work and family commitments.

The holiday season brings out a full spectrum of emotions: Joy, excitement, sadness, anger, etc. It is tough to find answers or solve the problems for the people who are close to you.  While you make not see the impact immediately, just letting the know that you are there for them and you are praying for them can make a big difference.

Announcements:

Christmas Party – Dec 17th

Joe Davis Run – Jan 7th, please support this cause, many families have been impacted by addiction.

Prayers:

Families struggling during the holiday season

Injured PAX

It is with great pain that YHC hammers out this Backblast, because simply lifting my arms is a painful challenge. But apparently that is the norm when one posts to (or co-Qs with) Walker’s workout. Perhaps all 12 pax that posted are suffering, and thus better as a result.

The morning was cool and dry, and the pax were ready to start their weekend on the right foot, especially Crash and Bojangles who had run. Disclaimer was issued and YHC started off the first half with 30 SSH before a mosey around the neighborhood. We stopped at a few different places for some warm up exercises, including:

* Windmills
* Peter Parkers
* Parker Peters
* (an exercise I don’t remember)
* Monkey Humpers

Mosey to the top of the hill (road) behind the west-most baseball field and partner up. Partner 1 runs about 1/2 way down the hill and back while partner 2 does first pair of exercises (alternating every 10 reps), listed below. Flapjack when partner 1 returns. Then move to next set of exercise.

1. Bomb jacks // Box
2. LBCs // Lunges (in place)
3. Imperial Deep Squat Walkers // Apolo Ohnos (speed skaters)

Quick recovery and discussion about having the #giveitaway spirit and passion, but about the Christmas (and its true meaning).

4. Makhtar N’Diayes // Monkey Humpers (full hill run)
5. Plank Punches // Peter Parkers (full hill run)
6. Seal jacks // Scorpion Dry Dock

Hand off to Walker for the serious punishment. Mosey around and onto one of the baseball fields for Blackjack 21. For those not familiar, this is like Elevens (or a ladder), but starting reps is 20 on the near side of the field, and 1 at the far side. Near side exercise was merkins, and far side was squats. For the non-math majors, that’s 210 merkins. And for pax that finished early, they were rewarded with planking up.

With 5 or so minutes left, we circled up for COP, which involved leg-lifts and more merkins. I think I blacked out for some of the COP, but what I remember was at least 60 or so additional merkins of various types.

Moleskin
It was a pleasure and honor to Q Alcatraz, and Q with Walker. The pax did awesome work. Special t-claps to guest pax Prosciutto from Tennessee (Chattanooga?), who was visiting family in Tega Cay. He’s actively involved with giving it away by helping start a new region in TN. Nice work!!!

YHC had the honor of co-Qing at one of my favorite AOs with Aqua Man. We exchanged a few text messages in planning for this one and agreed that he would take lower body and I would take upper body.  I will just say that my legs were completely smoked in less than 20 minutes.

Aqua Man led off with a mosey around the fields and headed for the hated hill. We moseyed down the hill and up the other side to a parking lot I have never visited for COP.

• SSH X25
• Merkin X10
• Peter Parker X10
• At least two other exercises that I can’t remember

We then took a mosey back to the base of the hill where the pain would ensue. The PAX partnered up to provide each person with someone to help push them.  Aqua Man called for 15 squats at the bottom of the hill and 15 jumping lunges at the top.  We completed this 4 times stopping at the top after the final ascent.  The PAX gathered on the sidewalk for some Mary.  LBCs, but the real treat were the box cutters while resting back on the forearms.  If you haven’t experienced that it takes the exercise to the next level.

It was now time for YHC to take over. We took a mosey away for the park and along the path on Tega Cay Drive.  The PAX collected at the wall next to the 9^th fairway of the golf course.  We completed wall work with one PAX doing an exercise (derkin) and then taking one shuffle down the section of the wall. The next member of the PAX would follow once two reps of the wall exercise had been done.  While one the PAX moved their way down the wall any PAX either waiting to start or having completed the wall would do an exercise.

• Derkins on the wall and burpees for the idle PAX
• Dips on the wall and bomb jacks for the idle PAX
• Incline merkins (two lengths of the wall) and Aqua Man’s awful version of the box cutter for the idle PAX
• Derkins on the wall and burpees for the idle PAX

Shoulders completely useless at this point we moseyed back to the parking lot, filled the last four minutes with Mary and COT.

Announcements:

• Christmas Party
• Joe Davis Run – Run option and a ruck option

Prayer Requests:

• Keep encouraging all PAX
• Cha Ching’s M is 1 year out from losing her mother.  Prayers for the family as the season is a reminder of their loss.
• Prayers for the law enforcement as they continue to stand on the front line.

YHC was glad to come back home to his favorite AO and substitute as Q for CSPAN, then Zima as they decided to head south to GrowRuck. DD also volunteered to Q so it was going to be double your pleasure of pain. The Thang:

DD starts of by:
Lunge walk across parking lot
Backward jog back
Sideways lunge walk across lot
Backward jog back
Karaoke across lot and back

COP — all IC x10
Mtn climbers
Peter Parkers
Hillbilly walkers
Imperial walkers
Parker Peters
Merkins
Windmills

Run lap around baseball field
Partner up and line up along fence between ball fields
Wheelbarrow to light post in right field
Backwards run back to fence
(Rinse & repeat wheelbarrow/backward run sequence 2 more x)

People’s chair along fence

Indian bear crawl to right field light post
Backward jog back to fence

People’s chair along fence

Line up for suicides from fence to right field light post w/2 turnarounds before light post
(Rinse and repeat 2 more x)

Short session of Mary — Penguins, Dollies, Freddie Mercurys

Handoff to Trucker

Mossy to small hill and bear crawl up to Park trail, mossy then to the infamous Tega Cay Hill.

After an inspiring convergence at the Fort last week with Olive’s Q and message, I thought it would be good to replicate his workout a little. So we did a mini version of sharknato sine YHC loves to run.
The PAX were informed of the 9s version where there are 3 rounds of 3 laps.

Run down the hill and do 10 merkins, run back up and do 10 merkins
Run down the hill and do 10 squats, run back up the hill and do 10 squats
Run down the hill and do 10 LBCs, run back up the hill and do 10 LBCs
Rinse and Repeat – unfortunately time was running out to finish the third set of 9’s.

Mossy along the Park trail towards the fire station. At the pull up bar (what’s a Trucker Q without pull-ups?)
As each PAX does 5 pull-ups, the other PAX does continuous squats until each PAX did 3 sets of 5 pull-ups.

Mossy to parking lot for toy soldiers the length of the parking lot, and then high knees back.

2 minutes of Mary: Hello Dolly and then protractor

COT

As always, am honor to Q and appreciate DD sharing the Q!!

Announcements: Read the newsletter and signup for the Xmas Party!!

Prayers: there were a few spoken and unspoken, but the Q forgot his phone so apologize for not recalling them.

Trucker