When we worked out? At Alcatraz? Like a week ago? Yeah… I’m just now writing the BackBlast… So sue me…

It was a beautiful morning and our numbers were strong (twitter marketing gets them every time), so 16 men gathered to get to work.

The Thang:
Warm up lap around the Park with some dynamic stretching mixed in.
Circle up for a few of each of the following:
SSH
Merkins
Squats
Moroccan Nightclubs, etc.

Having just returned from the P200, and having such a good experience on a relay team, I thought it would be fun to do a series of relays with the Pax…
– SO (!) we headed over to the hill, er, excuse me THE HILL on the back side behind the park and got into teams. Then we relay raced down THE HILL and back up while the Pax who were waiting did shoulder taps.
– Then over to the field for a hairburner relay with 50lb sandbags – waiting Pax for each realy did… um… stuff… Squats, plank, stood there, LBCs, etc.
– Backward run relay
– Bear Crawl Relay
– We repeated a few of these… then we wished we hadn’t, then we did some Mary…

NMM:
– ALWAYS some of the finest mumblechatter when you have BOTH Funhouse and Jekyll there. I love a good Jekyll Heckle…
– I told a couple of P200 war stories, and of course we gave a HUGE congrats to Jekyll for winning the damn thing!
– Best part of P200 is that there was an Easter message in it for me. My legs gave out about 16 miles in on my last leg of the course. I had 2 miles left and just was DONE. So, Slumlord jumped out of the van and did my last 2 miles (even though he was feeling ill). Then, later that day my teammates heard me call my daughter to tell her that it didn’t look good for us to get home in time for the Daddy-Daughter Dance that was going to be held at church that evening. (Geronimo, on our team, also was to be at the same dance) They heard the tears. Then, they told Geronimo and I that we had to abandon the team prior to the finish so we could get home in time. I was prepared to finish with the team. To share the drive back duties, etc. and to miss the dance. They were NOT going to have that. “Dad first”, they said.
So, in those two scenarios, something happened that I found Easter in. These Pax, my friends, the men I bonded with in the gloom and then on the race course, did something for me that I was unable to do for myself, but was to my great and undeserved benefit. Maybe you’ll think it’s a stretch to say this, but they acted as Christ would have, in my estimation. They did something for me that I had no ability to do on my own. They made possible for me something that I was going to have to try and make up for later. In much the same way that Christ did in Gethsemane and on the Cross… It was amazing. I felt loved. Accepted. Lifted. I was made better. It was awesome.
Yes, it may seem like a stretch to say that, but you didn’t see my daughter’s face when I walked into that room and started doing “The Chicken Dance” with her…

Helmet, out…

The new lights were on at Alcatraz this morning.  You can see them from miles away.  Hopefully it will be a beacon for FNGs.  Attendance was down from last week’s record breaking 27 PAX, but the 8 men were ready to sharpen their skills.

Warm – up:

Knee stretches, butt kickers, hip circles out and in

Light jog around the park

COP

SSH x30

Imperial Walker x15

Windmill x15

Morrocan Night Club x 25

Merkin x10 (6” hold)

Peter Parker x10

Back to plank with a 6” hold

Mosey to the brick pile to test our dribbling and shooting skills.  Each person dribbled to the basketball hoop, made a shot, and returned to the group performing exercises with the bricks.  We saw some impressive dribbling and shooting (a few air balls).

Brick exercises:

Arm curls

Merkins

Overhead Presses

LBCs

A quick hand-off to Decibel who posed a question to us.  “Do you want to do option A or option B?”  He put together two different plans for this morning’s workout.  We selected “A” which was a bad choice.

Mosey to playground for a series of exercises.

50 Pull-ups

100 Merkins

150 Dips

Plus, three laps around the park to help you forget about the pain in your arms.  It seemed we had enough time to start option B. Decibel was marketing a new workout video, “How to complete 60 minutes of exercises in 30 minutes.”

Mosey to the retaining wall for 20 Step-ups

Mosey to the hill

75 LBCs

75 Freddy Mercury

75 Hello Dolly

Two hill laps (running backwards halfway up the hill)

COT

Announcements:

Spring Fling – Sunday 2 – 6pm

Mud Run – Register by March 20^th

Nun Run – April 9^th

Cannoli Run – Coming soon

Get ready for BRR signup coming soon

Camp Care 5K, a BRR alternative

Prayer Requests

P200 & P70 participates finishing and safe travels back

Health and wellness of family members

Noah’s great progress walking and school transition

Always an honor to serve!

Saturday morning was a perfect 60 degrees…was it the weather? Was it the 6am start time for Sasquatch to share his wisdom around proper stretching techniques? (Which was excellent by the way, make sure you post next time he shares this!) He also shared new dynamic warmup stretches and the proper technique of some of our favorite exercises. It certainly could not be for myself and Gears on the Q…but we had 27 PAX post for the extended Saturday morning stretch and beatdown.

I gave the disclaimer and we began.

The Thang

We used some of this morning’s lesson and started with some dynamic stretching. Knee to chest pull ups, ankle pull to chest.

Mosey around the outer loop of the ball parks.

Circle up in the outfield for COP

20 SSH 15 IWs 10 Windmills 10 Merkins 20 Seal Jacks 15 Squats

Mosey to parking lot count off by 10

There were ten cones in the area, each with an exercise to complete. We spent the next 20 minutes rotating around in our smaller groups. Everyone completed 2 rounds of 10 or more.

1. 30 Paver Bent Rows

2.  20 Paver Curls

3.  15 Durkins

4.  10 Pullups

5. 20 Dips

6.  10 Bombjacks

7. 20 Merkins

8. 30 Morrocan Night Clubs

9. 10 Burpees

10. 10 Diamond Merkins

We circled up before I handed it over to Gears, I shared a little something on my mind.  I haven’t been out to Alcatraz for several weeks, mostly because I’ve been posting at the Dragon to help support F3 York.  It has been really refreshing to see the light go on for these new members of the PAX at the Dragon.  It’s easy to keep posting at your same locations but I challenged everyone to start EHing new PAX and getting them to post in new locations.  Then I shamelessly plugged the launch of “The Deep” on 4/9/2016 to start F3 Lake Wylie! BE THERE…

Gears took the lead, and mosey we did…to our favorite Tega Cay hill.

Next, Heartbreak 1-2-3.

Partner up, we were going to perfect the 3 exercises Sasquatch showed us the proper technique for.

First partner runs the hill while 2nd partner does the following, then switch while adding to your partners count.

100 Merkins

200 Big boy sit-ups

300 Squats

After what seemed like an hour, the PAX elbow planked until the 6 finished.

Mosey up that darn hill one last time to a good amount of mumble chatter. 5 minutes left (somehow) so we finished with a few ab exercises circled up in the baseball field.

Gears led us on Flutter Kicks – Heels to Heaven – back to Flutter Kicks

Announcements: Mudrun 4/30, F3 Dads Saturdays for Middle School 2.0s, Children’s Attention Home today, Charlotte Leadership Forum Tuesday with Santini.

Prayers for Families, Bing, Royale (YHC), Stang and all those unspoken prayers we all have…

Gears lead us out, thank you!

Moleskin:

What a great day to be out with 27 #HIM! It truly is an honor to be asked and able to lead, when one year ago I would have laughed at the thought! These are the men I know as the veterans of F3 through my last year posting. Many of these men where there the first day I posted.  I have learned so much about how to be a better father, husband and leader with this group.  And now we have to pay it forward. I’ve started posting in York over the last month, helping those men learn about what F3 is and why it is so much more than a workout.  Last week they started weekday workouts, and already three of the new PAX in York are picking up the torch, running AOs and leading workouts in less than a month!  I’ve gotten to know the men from Rock Hill who have led this expansion and helped launch this group.  We’ve helped explain the mission, purpose and priniciples of F3 to these men…and after one COT Chappie said to myself and Apache, “Thank you to you veterans of F3 for bringing this to York.” Veterans? That’s not me…those are men from Alcatraz!  But I am proud to be able to share this thing we call F3.  Make sure to join me with new FNGs on 4/9/2016 at the Lake Wylie launch of The Deep!

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!