Twelve faithful brothers (including 1 FNG) gathered in the 28 degree gloom of Alcatraz at 0630 to get their work done before the sun could melt the frost.  Some called this a running workout, but my arms are still reminding me that it was more than that.

YHC delivered a brief disclaimer and the PAX were off to Mosey about 2/3 of the loop at Runde and then circle up for

• 40 SSH
• 20 Mountain Climbers
• 10 Windmill
• 20 LBC

Mosey to the fence and line up

Cross the ball field

• 1/4 field – bear crawl
• 1/2 field – lunge walk
• 1/4 field – bear crawl
• 5 merkins at each change

Rinse and Repeat back to starting line before setting out again with a switch to

• 1/4 field – jog
• 1/2 field – sprint
• 1/4 field – jog

Rinse and Repeat.  The sprints brought some mumblechatter about F3 being a running group, and other such commentary. So I was surprised the PAX eagerly said they wanted to do another set of sprints across the field (thanks Pusher!).

After the third set of sprints, the Q had enough and decided not to ask if anyone wanted to do it again.  So, we ambled up to the retaining wall for

• 10 step ups right leg
• 10 dips
• 10 step ups left leg
• 10 derkins
• 10 dips

Some more mumblechatter here; it would seem the PAX thought we had done enough leg work at this point.

Mosey to the small ball field the hard way, with a trip over the outfield fence and gather into two groups for

• Round 1: People’s Chair while others jogged to the fence and back. Flip flop.
• Round 2: BTTW while others crab walk to 2nd base and jog back. Flip flop.

The PAX was then entrusted to Hasselhoff for the second half of this morning’s fun!

After a quick mosey to the playground, the groups were assigned a series of exercises to be performed while the other group ran to the opposite end of the parking lot and back, then flip-flopping before moving to the next exercise;

• Merkins
• Dips
• LBC’s

This was a popular series, with several PAX expressing concern about their brothers’ pace while performing Merkins and Dips, so everyone was pleased to hear the Rinse and Repeat with

• Incline Merkins
• Pull-ups
• Freddy Mercurys

The PAX was then led to the bottom of the hill below the Fire Station where they hear the words Jacob’s Ladder!  This particular version would start with a run up the hill and do 10 Merkins at the top then run back down the hill and do 1 Squat at the bottom, this cycle incremented by one with each trip until reaching 1 Merkin and 10 Squats.  Any remaining question about this being LEG DAY and a running workout, had now been answered and the PAX were excited to share some more mumblechatter about running and the hill repeat & squat combination!

Unfortunately some of the PAX ran out of time a cycle or two short of completion, but NONE complained when the Q called time and initiated the return to COT.

Welcome FNG  Randall Long; now known as M*A*S*H.

Announcements – See the newsletter.

Prayers shared for those battling medical and other personal issues.

I was reminded in a COT earlier this week that we all struggle and we all need support.  Every week is a Kotter week – check on those you haven’t heard from or seen in a while, and get them to an AO.  We all do this because we need it; your text/tweet/call may be all it takes to keep a brother moving forward instead of sliding backward.  No one that you’ve shared the gloom with, is going to mind a check in.

As always, I am thankful for, and honored by the opportunity to lead this group of men.

Respectfully,

Smuggler

Today, the Fort hosted some crazy CSAUP called the Yeti. I am not sure why someone would want to run 17+ miles just for fun, but as I drove to the island where Alcatraz is, I drove through this cool swarm of bright lights as the PAX started off. Of course I had to roll down my windows and yell “Its Yeti Time”.

As I sat at the Runde Park parking lot, the minutes slowly counted down towards 06:30. I was starting to worry that the PAX choose the easier of the 2 workouts since there were no headlights pulling in. But at last! 1 crazy PAX pulled in. Whew….thought I was going to have to Q myself – and started thinking how awful fake the backblast would be (500 burpees, 300 merkins, hill ran 10xs….).Thankfully Jiffy decided to try and escape Alcatraz.

So the PAX started with some Imperial walkers from one end of parking lot to the other, returning with toy soldier; did 15xs Windmills and mountain climbers; karaoke to/back length of parking lot. Took a nice pace around the park to the playground.

Started the Pyramid: 1 pull-up/5 squats, 2 pull-ups/10 squats up to 5/25, then worked back to 1/5. Same thing with merkins/dips.

Took another nice pace around the park, then mossy to the HILL.

Start at bottom of hill, run up hill and at every other tree do merkins, starting with 5 merkins and increasing at each by 5. At top of hill we finished with 25 merkins and then 25 flutter kicks.
Run back down hill. That took a toll on the PAX, so audibled, and did every 3 trees next 2 rounds. Second round was squats by increasing 5 at every other tree, 25 flutter kicks at top of hill.
Run back down hill and repeat with merkins again. Goal was to do 3 rounds each of merkins and squats, however, YHC still had lots on the weinke to accomplish.

Mossy to parking lot for a modified Dora 1-2-3. 50 pull-ups, 100 squats, 300 LBCs, while running length of parking lot.

sprint to end of parking lot, 20 mountain cilmbers, sprint back,

COT was quick and easy.

Luckily Jiffy was able to head home while YHC had to stay to help coach minors baseball practice at 08:00. Glad to see at least 1 PAX come out and successfully escape Alcatraz. Doesn’t matter how many PAX show up, in order to be #HIM it takes leadership and risk (of fear that no one likes you) to step up and lead. As always, honored to Q at Alcatraz and to be a part of F3.

Even better, YHC really enjoyed driving along Tega Cay drive and SC160 honking like crazy as the PAX finishing the Yeti. What an accomplishment!!

Trucker

14 strong pax tried to escape from #Alcatraz but found themselves torn between really hating #BearCrawls and really hating #F3RunClub.  All locked shields and made it through better men.

The Thang:

COP Warmup:

20 x IM then 10 x WM then 15 x MC then 15 x LSS then 15 x Froggers (Crowd Pleaser!) then 20 x SSH then 15 x Peter Parkers  Warmup – over.

Lineup on the line for everyone’s favorite – the Extra Long #BearCrawl (I guess the joking around is over)

When finished – line it up and do it again (Crowd Pleaser!)

Line-up for the Tunnel of #BearCrawl (except without the Tunnel – watch out for the #BearCrawl parallel park!)

O.K. what to do???  Let’s try four corners (Merkins x 20, Burpees x 10, Everyone’s New Favorite – Froggers x 10, Bomb Jacks x 10) but instead of a run between…..let us try some more #BearCrawls.

Well that took 21 minutes and YHC was all out of new ways to incorporate #BearCrawls into this workout – better hand it over to Gekko who wanted to do some running (#F3RunClub)

In tribute to the Carolina Panthers making the Super Bowl – Gekko thought it appropriate to recap their season with some Points Per Exercise based on their weekly results this past year.  Oh and he also added some #F3RunClub between weekly reviews (Allllll the way around the park?  Yes – allllllllllll the way around the park).

6 weeks were reviewed and (like the opponents defense) we couldn’t keep the Panthers under 30.  There were merkins, CDDs, MCs, squats, etc., etc., etc. with A LOT of #F3RunClub right amongst it.

When we had enough NFL in our workout – Gekko took us to the field for some BTTW followed by various crawls along the ground that did not include any #Bears. Cherry on top was the Mack-Tar-Jie (phonetically speaking) to finish everything up.

COT

Fantastic job by the pax to handle the 40/60 split of #BearCrawls and #F3RunClub and not complain (too much).  T-claps the Gekko for Q-ing the majority when YHC had enough.

Announcements – F3York and F3LakeWylie are ramping up big time so read your newsletter and GET INVOLVED!!!  Help spread this great thing called F3 to all that need it – we all know what it did and continues to do for us.

There are various opportunities to help worthy causes AND join in the #F3RunClub in the local community – there are good causes throughout our area that NEED OUR HELP!  Get right amongst it.

Prayers to Spitz’s friend that needs medical care late in his life – think about those out there that could use our help right now to avoid more pain later in life.  Prayers to the family of YHC co-worker who passed away 18 months after retirement – do not wait to have joy in your life – you need to work on enjoying the #PRESENT.

As always – a true honor to lead such a great group of men.  Aye!

The whole city was shut down and Tweets were flying in about closed AOs. But 4 Men know the feeling called “Fartsacker’s Guilt”, so they made a decision to post against wise judgement. But honestly, we’re men so our judgement is constantly called into question. Having originally been up to Q, passed to Jekyll due to training duties (which were cancelled), I humbly took the conch back and decided to get things moving. The following happened:

Mosey to the field for COP
All in Cadence
40 SSH
20 Low Slow Squats
20 Morrocan Night Clubs
20 IW
15 Merkins
20 Mountain Climbers Dumb!

Run a lap of the field and line up against the fence for…

Super 21 Explanation can be found HERE
Run to the opposite side of field and back
1-7 Merkins and Jumping Lunges
Run
8-14 Wide Arm Merkins and Monkey Humpers
Run
15-21 CDD and Squats
Run

Run to the opposite field for Apollo Onos X 20 (seemed appropriate)

Peoples chair 4×10 count
BTTW 3×10 count
Peoples chair 4×10 count
BTTW 3×10 count

Run around fields. The field almost swallowed Fishsticks. #swampfoot Circle back to the fence and begin a…

Super Dora
200 Merkins
400 LBCs
600 SSH (bad idea)

One more lap around the fields, steer clear of the hole and arrive back safely for COT.

NMM
Tclaps all around for those who posted. Fishsticks ran a few miles in the snow to get to the Rock while Dark Helmet and Geronimo scoffed at old man winter and drove from the Coop. Here are my notes from the morning.

-Alcatraz was a frozen tundra of about 3-4 inches of ice/snow
-Geronimo is a genius. He drilled short sheet screws into his old sneakers for traction
-Didn’t have anything planned for the morning but the weinke just seemed to write itself #43feetofroad
-Fish Sticks was practically swallowed up by the field. On one of our runs his foot cracked through the ice and literally dropped a good foot #nopunintended
-Geronimo is all heart and all energy
-Dark Helmet continues to amaze me for his willingness to do anything #bombjacks
-Thanks for the snelfie DH

In COT I shared that there would have been NO chance that I would have shown up this morning, had I not known that a few of my brothers committed to being there for this nonsense. But that’s the accountability thing with the 1st F. And speaking of accountability, if you weren’t there for the 3rd F Convergence this past Friday, the video is either out or coming out in the newsletter. This is required viewing for anyone aspiring to be a #HIM. There’s a call to action at the end that relates to accountability. Watch it! Think about it! Pray about it! And take action! When this accountability thing starts hitting the 2nd and 3rd F, that’s when things really start happening. Aye?

Announcements
Boeheim 5K for Rehab Center (Donate, Run, check Twitter) 2.13.16
Whetstone (watch the video)
Yeti 2.20.16

Prayers and Praise
Praise that we came out and other people showed
Prayers for injured Pax
Prayer for DH and business

Zima Out!