Eight of Tega Cay’s finest came out help each other get better and stronger at Alcatraz on a mild, dewey morning. YHC and Cerrano had the Q, and agreed that I’d take the first half, focusing on upper body, while he took the second to carry the spirit of BRR training. Just before starting, we saw almost as many #F3RunClub pax buzz by, posting for their double-digit mileage. No FNGs were present, so a light disclaimer was given and we were off.

= Warm Up =
Lap around the big baseball field at Runde Park
SSH – x25
IW Squats – x20
Butt Kickers
Merkins – x15
Plank Jacks – x20
High Knees
Carolina Dry Docks – x15
Toy Soldiers
Moroccan Nightclubs – x20
Another lap around the field

= The Thang =

Suicide Circuit (x2)
Pax paired up, size doesn’t matter.
7 cones were arranged in a line on the outfield of Runde Park, each cone about 10m apart. The starting cone was the middle most code (#4). It was considered the “base line” for the suicide. This cone also had “5 burpees” written on it (more on that in a minute). Each pair of pax were to stay together and progress through the suicide, starting with cones 3 (and back to 4), then 2 (and back to 4), and then 1 (and back to 4). But here’s the “circuit” part:

= At each “turn” (cones 3, 2, and 1) there was an exercise and count. Each team of pax had to do these together (see below).
= When pax passed a cone they had been to already (like passing cone #3 to get to #2), they had to stop at cone 3 and do the exercise again. So, if you do the math right, the exercise at cone #3 was done 3 times.
= Pax could run/mosey/walk toward the turn cones. But heading back to the baseline cone, they had to perform the moving exercise until they hit the next cone, or reached the baseline code (#4). Stationary exercise on the cones did NOT have to be done during the return.
= At the start, and with each return to the “baseline” cone, 5 burpees were to be done

Round 1 was cones 4, 3, 2, and 1. Round 2 was cones 4, 5, 6, and 7. Here’s what was on the cones (by number).

Round 1
4 – 5 burpees
3 – 20 Russian Twists and return exercise of bear crawls
2 – 20 Mountain Climbers and return exercise of crab walk
1 – 20 Carolina Dry Docks and return exercise of Wheelbarrow (partner 1)

Round 2
4 – 5 burpees
5 – 20 Hello Dollies and return exercise of bear crawls
6 – 20 Merkins and return exercise of crab walk
7 – 20 Sumo Squats and return exercise of Wheelbarrow (partner 2)

We cooled down with some Moroccan Nightclubs

OldBay then handed the mic over to Serrano

Mosey over to long hill behind park for hill work using the downhill for recovery. Cerrano asked the PAX to push themselves up the hill, we ran this twice.

Slow mosey over to tee box #2 for short mountain goat training, completed 3 different exercises at the top. 20 squat jumps, 20 gorilla humpers, 20 bombjacks.

Short mosey over to dreaded hill on the way back to Runde for BLIMPS, 5 burpees then run the hill for 10 lunges each leg, down hill for 15 Imperial Walkers, up hill 20 merkins, down for 25 plank jacks, up for 30 squats.

Long mosey back to Runde Park for Bear Way to Heaven which is a bear crawl suicide with decreasing burpees at each line beginning with 8. Crowd pleaser.

Finish up for 1 minute of LBC’s

Total count of burpees for the workout: 86

Nake Moleskin
Sticking with the theme of marriage, I talked with pax about my marriage (though far from perfect) has been strong for about 18 years. Some of the durability of our manage has been due to neither of us being very confrontational (which some might say is *not* a good thing). But something else we each try to do when making independent decisions is ask ourselves: “would my spouse be ok with this?”. The “What would Jesus do?” question is a great one to live by. But it can sometimes be a lofty goal that feels out of reach. For those of us with God-fearing M’s, responding to the question of “would my M be ok with this?” can help you make marriage saving decisions. Of course, being the imperfect guys that we are, we don’t always make the right decisions. But that’s where having a person *other than* your M can help hold you accountable to make better decisions in the future. If you aren’t already in an accountability partnership with someone, I strongly encourage the Whetstone program being organized by Rebel for TheFort. It’s a great way to dig deep in your willingness to be held accountable, and help someone else do the same. The Whetstone program can truly help your marriage.

Thanks, Senator Tressel, for the privilege of Q’ing (with Cerrano) at Alcatraz!

-old bay

8 HIM joined Crash and YHC in an old fashioned beatdown. YHC gave the disclaimer but with some additional info. In that YHC is 51, he actually saw Prince’s Purple rain tour in January 1985 (not a fan of him but does make for an awesome first date at the time, except for the $80 for 2 tickets. That is a lot of money in 1985!). I said today I would be Sheila E (opening act) and Crash would be Prince (headliner).

This is how it went:
Quick mosey to the Tennis Courts for a Burpie-fest warm-up. Everything would be done in cadence (including Burpees as it is not a Burpie if not in cadence #flying squirrel) Let’s go Crazy.!

10 Burpies
20 SSH
8 Burpies
20 IW
8 Burpies
20 WM
8 Burpies
20 long slow squats
8 Burpies
Now time for some EVIL 8 on the tennis courts:
The pax will rotate stations in a figure 8 motion, all exercises are completed with 8 reps (pax start out divided up at each station):
Station 1: Bomb Jacks
Station 2: Jumping lunges
Station 3: Mak Tai Jai
Station 4 Knee Tai Jai
At FIQURE 8 intersection: 8 Burpies with bearcrawls to and from the Intersection to the next station.
RINCE and REPEAT
A set of Jack Webbs up to 10 merkins, 40 air presses.
Hand off to Crash (Prince):
Run to Tega Cay Country Club where we divided up in halves. Three hill repeats alternating with rock (or pebble for some) with overhead press, squats and bicep curls.
Mosey to the 9th hole wall for 15x IC derkins, 15x step ups each leg followed 10x more IC derkins.
Mosey back to Alcatraz home for a nice set of Lt Dans.
Thankfully time was up and COT was upon the men.
NMM
Crash mentioned that this was his first weinke-less Q. This was appropriate as Prince had so much material that he would commonly but “make-up” his concerts. Actually must of YHC Q’s are weinke-less. Just like Prince we should have enough in our F1 arsenal that we are always prepared to when called upon. BETTER TO BE PREPARED FOR AN OPPORTUNITY THAT MAY NEVER COME; THAN HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY AND NOT BE PREPARED. This statement should be true in almost all aspects of lives (including sharing our 3rd F).

COT
Read newsletter for all the announcements.
Prayers for the M’s who really are extraordinary people doing so much. Remember to tell them how truly thankful we all are for them. (Copying my M on this just to be sure!)
Thanks Senator for the invite. I love Alcatraz. It was also great to co-Q with Crash. Humbled and Honored.

Nut Cracked

April has become OCR training month at AO’s across F3 nation leading up to the Spring Mud Run. This past Saturday, Geronimo and Bolt invaded Alcatraz with an OCR-type setup.

12 Alcatrazians arrived in the brightness of the Gloom. Yes, brightness, as the baseball field lights were on for the entire hour. While only 3 were headed to the Mud Run, the rest were willing to take on the course we had laid out.

The Thang

While we could not duplicate mud, the goal was to get a similar feel of an OCR event which consist of shorter runs or sprints, followed by an obstacle/exercise, then a short run, and so on. Some refer to this as a brick workout…each run/exercise is a brick. Elite OCR’ers train in this fashion to get the body used to the many, quick transitions.

The lap around the baseball fields was used as the loop. 5 stations were implemented as below. The PAX broke into teams of 2 and were instructed to push themselves and push their partner on the run portion the best they could. Stations were alternated by adding 2 to a completed station (ie. 1 followed by 3, 2 by 4, etc)

Following an initial group stretch to loosen up:

Station 1 – playground area, max pullups followed by 20-40 merkins
Station 2 – lunges up the hill behind the fire station
<part of the course after the lunge station was a zig zag up and down the hill on the far side?
Station 3 – 15-20 box jumps behind the backstop on the far field
Station 4 – 20-30 burpees at the basketball courts
Station 5 – on the main open field: 5a – one partner pulls 35 lb sand bag about 20 yards, partner farmer carries 45 lb dumbells, then switch
5b – head across field. one partner throws/pushes the 20 lb weight ball about 30 yards; partner carries mulitple choices of weight bags and sand bags ranging from 20-50#

At the :30 mark, the PAX was called in for about 5 minutes of core exercise, then back to the loop. This time adding 3 stations to increase the run distance. (1 to 4, 3 to 1 etc.)

The last 20 or so minutes of extra running was pretty relentless.

NMM

This backblast was written about 3 times some of which were eaten by the website, some copied and sent back and forth via e-mail. With some cooperation between Bolt and I, this backblast, like the US mail, will get through to the PAX.

The bad news was I've been fighting some kind of insidious chest cold, and my mud run training has been suffering because of it (sorry Bolt, MaryLou and KidRock). The good news for everyone is that this workout was 60 minutes long. If everyone were to push as hard during a race like the USMC Ultimate Challenge as they did today, they'd only have about 15 minutes left and they'd be doing some kind of AWESOME for their teams.

It took a lot of work to get out there and get this course set up for the PAX, but in the end it was totally worth it. Thanks to Bolt, who did most of the planning, and especially to all those brave souls that came out to do burpees and drag or carry heavy stuff around a field in the early morning.

Bolt and Geronimo!

Eight Inmates came out to the prison yard for an old school beat down.

The Thang:

Mosey around the round about for a quick warm up lap.

Mosey to the well lit field (thank you Tega Cay taxpayers)

High Knees, Butt Kickers, Karaoke, Karaoke other direction.

Circle Up: IWx25, Merkins x10, Windmills x15, Slow Squats x20, CDD x15, WA Merkins x10

Mosey to playground: pull-ups x10, 25 dips, 25 freddies, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat

Mosey to wall: People’s Chair, Balls to the wall, Walking Merkins, People’s Chair, Balls to the wall

Pass to Spitz:

Mosey to half wall: step ups 25 for each leg and 15 jump ups

To Hill: Jacobs Ladder: descending burpees on bottom start at 7 and ascending bomb jacks starting at 1.

Community service trash pick up.

Great group of guys today.  The 1st half had plenty of mumble chatter but if done correctly we should be feeling it tonight or tomorrow.

Check the email for events.

Be conscience to pray for you kids and other F3ers kids!

As always a pleasure!