The bright lights of Runde greeted 8 strong for an Alcatraz beatdown at the hands of Senator Tressel and our newest  VQ, Fish Sticks.  Here is what we did:

The Thang:

Senator Tressel at the helm:

Easy jog out of the park and up Windward drive to the circle.  Karaoke around once facing in, and karaoke around again facing out, jog back to Runde for COP:

All in cadence;

SSH x 50, Diamond x 10, Crunchy frog x 25, Squat x 25, Windmill x 20, Wide merkin x 20, Hillbilly x 25,  LBC x 25, MC x 25/hold/left arm and leg high/hold/right arm and leg high/hold/6″/hold

Mosey to playground:  Split into 2 groups.  Group 1 does 10 pull ups, Group 2 does 20 dips, flap jack and rinse/repeat.

Mosey to concession stand wall, and sit against wall- arms up, clap overhead, arms out – 2 min hold. Take a few steps and shake ’em out.  Walk back to wall and do BTW for 60 sec.

Hand off to Fish Sticks:

Short mosey to the first ball field and get back into 2 groups.  Each group does the following:

1 person runs the path around the park while the others do the following:

100 bomb jacks, 200 lunges, 300 merkins, and 400 LBC’s.   Each person takes a turn running until the group finishes all the exercises.

Line up by the fence that splits the ball field.  Three rounds of sprints and exercises:

Round 1:  Run at 50% effort to last light pole and run back.  Repeat at a sprint pace.  Jog to parking lot, grab a paver and do 20 curls and 10 overhead presses.  Jog back to start

Round 2:  Sprint all the way to the opposite fence.  Repeat.  Jog to small retaining wall and do 20 step ups on each leg and 20 dips.  Jog back to start

Round 3:  Sprint all the way to the opposite fence.  Repeat.  Jog to COT

Moleskin:

It was fitting that Tega Cay Parks and Rec turned on the lights this morning for Fish Sticks’  VQ. Our fried friend had an auspicious debut and he wasn’t afraid to push the Pax on his first outing at Q   Not sure how he would do in water, but he was plenty fast on the ground during he sprints – leading the group on every sprint and looking plenty fresh at the finish (fresh fried fish at the finish – sounds like a Dr. Suess book  I used to read my kids….)

It was another beautiful, cool morning at Runde and it was good to see our old friend Bojangles (who used to swear off F3 at temps below 50 degrees), and also welcome an Alcatraz FNG, Tesh, who is moved here from Greenville.  Welcome and hope to see you again.    As always, it’s a honor to lead such a fine group of men,  and I am very grateful to be able to do it.

Announcements – Fast 5k (completed and hugely successful as of this writing), Mud Run on Oct 24, CAH run in Baxter on Nov 7, Christmas Party on Dec 19.  Check Twitter and the website for updates.

Continued prayers and support for the people affected by the flood in Columbia.

Five men drove to Alcatraz this morning to test the weather and themselves.  It was very clear that most of the inmates were denied yard privleges as they were still in their cells. I’m sure a little rain didn’t scare them away.

We skipped many of the gathering pleasantries and started with a simple “It’s wet, don’t get hurt” caution and headed off on a mosey to the tennis courts.

Circle up for a brief chill chaser.

30 SSH
10 Windmills
20 Mountain Climbers
10 Merkins
20 Low Slow Squats

Line up on the fence
Lunge Walk across courts
Bear Crawl back
Repeat Reverse
Lunge Walk across courts
Crab Crawl back
Repeat Reverse
10 Bomb Jacks
Lunge walk across and back

Partner up (which at this attendance level was a group of 3 and a group of 2).
A Dora 1 2 3, (cut to a 1,2,1 due to time)
Doubles Line Suicides and
Total Count 100 Merkins
Total Count 200 Bomb Jacks
Total Count 100 Squats

Hand-off to Aquaman who opened with a discussion of faith in light of recent national and global events. YHC can’t do justice to the message here, but my takeaway was that we are all called to play a role in god’s kingdom. Be confident in your faith and demonstrate it as you are called.

And so Aquaman began with a little speed/agility work.
Start with squat in a ready stance and begin to sprint in place, turn to 3,6,9&12 o’clock postion to complete one round. In cadence. Shuffle to he right then to the left and back to starting position then 10 merkins. Repeat X5.  (Legs Smoked).

Mosey from courts to walls at entrance to golf course. With one leg raised to the wall, we conducted 10 single leg lunges, switch to opposite leg.
20 derkins, hold, 10 derkins, hold for 10 count.
Dips, 30,20,10.
Single leg step ups, switch for 10 each.
Mosey back to Alcatraz, and grab a paver.
20, curls, extend arms straight and hold out for 5 seconds,
10 curls, hold for 5 seconds,
5 curls hold for 5 seconds.
Move to tricep extensions with paver.
20,10,5.
Move to shoulder presses,
20,10,5.
Place the paver on the ground and with one heel on the paver 20 squats. then switch legs.
Back to some more agility work, with paver on the ground, and one foot on the paver, sideways hop over the paver while touching the paver with opposite foot each time. 20 oyo.
Move to AbLab.
20 leg raises while holding paver,
20 LBCs,
20 Freddy mercs,
protractors.

COT – Prayers for those having surgery this week, and those struggling with finding their own way. Patience for us all as we deal with the trials of life and family.
Read the newsletter for the list of events.

Coming off a super high from the Blue Ridge Relay and a surprise trip to Disney World (rumor has it I vacation a bit), YHC was missing the hills of Western North Carolina, particularly leg 33 of the #BRR, or what I humbly refer to as “My Time with the Lord”.  I was excited to share what this mountain goat leg felt like, so instead of using words I attempted to develop a weinke that delivered the leg pounding equivalent of legs 31 and 33.  In my humble opinion, I think we came close but there really is no substitute for the real thing.

A few minutes before we set off, Dark Helmet shared with us the impact that F3 has had on him. There is no doubt that this guy has burned the ship, but he keeps one shirt that he used to wear as a reminder of where he’s been.  He put it on and you could see he’s half the man he used to be (physically).  Something tells me he’s more the man, dad and father than he used to be.  One story of #IMPACT that F3 has had on a man’s life.  #INSPIRED

But I digress, back to disclaimer, Mountain Goats and THE THANG:

Loop around Alcatraz at a brisk pace (7:30/min)

Circle up at the ball field for COP

• SSH IC 50X (Increased cadence from 30-50)
• Windmills IC 15X
• Merkins IC 15X
• Mountain Climbers IC 20X
• CDD IC 15X

Run to the lower hill below the Fire Station for MG Leg 31.  This consisted of a series of 5 runs up the (steep) hill with 10 Squats at the top and 10 Jumping Lunges at the bottom.  Once completed, we moseyed to the parking lot for…

Harry Callahans. A variation of the Jack Webb geared to shredding your legs.  This consisted of 1 Squat and 4 Monkey Humpers increasing exponentially until we reached 10 Squats and 40 Monkey Humpers (Crowd Pleaser).

After this lovely display that could get one arrested in Tega Cay, we moseyed to the hill at the top of Alcatraz (yes, that one) for MG Leg 33. This was very similar to Leg 31 with 5 hill runs except the hill is much longer and we completed 10 Merkins at the bottom and 10 Dips at the top each.  Legs were sufficiently #SMOKED by now, so we moseyed back to the ball field for some…

Jack Webbs (nuff said) Click here for a description if needed.

With just enough time for some Ab work, we set off for the 4 Corners of the field and completed the following (1 per corner) in cadence:

• LBCs IC 25X
• Freddies IC 25X
• Russian Twists IC 25X
• Flutter Kicks IC 25X

Mosey to COT

Moleskin

It was great to get back to a workout today.  With all of the #BRR training, I’ve missed quite a few boot camps and figured I needed to challenge myself with leading Alcatraz solo.  Honestly I barely made it through the Jack Webbs.  Thanks to Trucker for calling me out.  I felt inspired by Dark Helmet sharing his journey with F3 and it was a great reminder that there are so many other #sadclowns out there that need this.  Find them and EH them!

Also, my hope this morning was to give the PAX a taste of (simulated) #BRR hills.  Maximus and ST showed they’ve “been there done that” by leading the pack.  Crash and Gekko were like, “Seriously? I thought we were done with this running business.  Cerrano showed he’s ready and willing by keeping up.  Dark Helmet once or twice mentioned his disdain for running, but also a willingness to suffer with brothers, so he’s somewhere between a SC and HC for #Palmetto200.

It’s an honor to serve the PAX in this capacity and I look forward to the next opportunity.  Thanks ST.

Announcements (Check the Newsletter)

• Worlds Fastest 5K
• Christmas Party
• OCR Training at The Reservation (Sat 0600 leading up to Mud Run)
• Mud Run
• Palmetto 200 Teams Forming
• So much happening, check the Newsletter

Praise & Prayer Request

• Work Prayers for Jiffy, Cerrano and Trucker
• Prayers for Truckers Family and Medical Issues
• Prayers for Spitz and recovery
• Praise for YHC M / She blesses me in so many ways

-Zima

On my way to Alcatraz, as I was cresting one of the hills on the way to the park, I was amazed at these dark blue lights on the horizon.  The closer I came it became clear that these were the blue lights of the Tega Cay Police.  We all know that those lights are not new…but this time the whole road was blocked getting to the park! 4 police cruisers had cut the lane into Tega Cay because some unfortunate person flipped their SUV coming over the hill.  After 10 minutes they opened the road and our train of PAX was welcomed back into the AO.  So we still found 12 PAX to get out on a gloomy Saturday morning, even without the men working hard on the BRR this weekend. So we arrived a few minutes late…but that can be OK on a day at Alcatraz.

I looked over the PAX, no FNGs and gave the disclaimer as I recall it… and we were off.

Started with an Indian Run around the baseball fields.

COP in parking lot:

15 Imperial Walkers 10 WA Merkins 25 SSHs 15 MCs 15 CDDs 15 Windmills

I informed the PAX we were doing interval training today and would be doing in cadence 1-2-3 and a lap around the parks…so we took we took the first lap.

Back at the parking lot we started our 1-2-3

10 Merkins 20 Slow Squats 25 LBCs (so I was short)

Take another Lap

10 Peter Parkers 10 Parker Peters finished with 10 Burpees OYO and LBCs until 6 was done.

Take yet another Lap…

As we gathered in the gloom, before I handed it over to Trucker, I shared a few words…

I wanted everyone to know what F3 has done for me over the last 6 months… There have been a lot of ups and downs in my life over that time, but all 3 Fs have taught me so much in that time and has helped me handle those good and bad things so very well and different than I would have before joining our group..so I wanted to thank the PAX for this evolution in myself.

With that I handed over to our man Trucker!

He didn’t keep it easy (and if you know him, it’s NEVER easy when he Qs)

Trucker paired us off into 2s

Move to playground and 1s do 5 pull-ups while 2s do dips. Rinse and repeat 3X

Then Trucker instructs us to start the BEAST…

In pairs, 1s pick up the paver…2s get ready to do sprints with 2-4-6-4-2 Merkins while 1s are curling pavers then partner switch.

2nd Triceps Curls partner 4-8-12-8-4 LBCs repeat

3rd Shoulder Raises 4-8-12-8-4 MCs

4th Paver LBCs 2-4-6-4-2 BURPEES… (MAN!)

So by the time this was over….no mumble chatter… Trucker finished with sprints!

Sprints worked in high knees, karaokes and more sprints!

Ended on COT

Prayers for Trucker’s Father in Law, the BRR brothers, our Colombia brothers, and the person that wrecked in Tega Cay this morning.

Thanks for reading, and if you posted… Thanks for being there…  It sucked!

15 men chose to do the right thing and met in the Gloom of Alcatraz for a Saturday Morning Sweatfest. Crash brought his VQ list of horribles, which proved worthy of today’s PAX.  The quality of preparation was clearly displayed in his armband weinke.  T-claps to Crash for the decision to make his VQ set list from his own personal “hates”, and the ability to lead them all with fortitude.
Mosey around the park with a loop down the hill. (The addition of the hill brought out some quality mumblechatter from the PAX. “Oh, so it’s going to be like this?”)
Circle up on the ball field for:
40 SSH
5 12-count merkins
30 windmills
20 Carolina Dry Docks
15 Mountain Climbers
12 Parker Peters
12 Peter Parkers

Eyes on Home, baseline runs with karaoke and side shuffle across the fence line.

Burpicides across the field, rinse and repeat Suicides with Bombjacks, rinse and repeat (Another definite crowd pleaser.)

Jack Webb, with extra credit. (Going for 11, with quotes from Dredd on your first Q… AND nailing it… Priceless!)

(Disappointingly ran out of time for reverse uphill bear crawls and balls to the wall!)

Hand off to Smuggler:

“It’s more satisfying and fulfilling to do a difficult thing that’s right than an easy thing that’s wrong.”
                                         – Tony Dungy – One Year, Uncommon Life, Daily Challenge

Banjo Bear Crawl – borrowed from Banjo (Columbia) via F3 – Hartsville
• Circle up within arms-reach facing out
• Drop to Plank position and hold
• Starter does 3 merkins and bear crawls out and around the group, then back in.
• When someone passes in front of you, you must be doing merkins.  (Realistically the group at 15, was too big for this but we managed.)

Partner up (size doesn’t matter)
• 20 leg throws P1.
• 20 Russian Twists both
• 20 Leg Throws P2.
• 20 LBC’s both
• Extra LBC’s for those that finished earlier than the 3-person group

Cross Field Sprints
• ½ 100%, ½ 75% x 2
• 1 Easy
• ½ 100 % ½ Easy x 2

To the Wall behind the Dugout
• 10 Step ups Right Leg
• 10 LBC’s
• Rinse & Repeat for the left leg

Mosey down the hill and up the other side to the Old City Hall lot.
• Round Robin Ab Lab – Protractor x 2, X’s and O’s, Hello Dolly, and maybe one more I can’t remember.
Mosey back to COT (just a little more hill work along the way).

Announcements: – see the weekly e-mail.

Prayers – Those struggling with illness, preparing for surgery, and families impacted by these and many other issues.

It is always an honor to lead our Brothers of F3. We thank you for being an example to others and encouraging us to improve ourselves. Iron Sharpens Iron.

Respectfully,

Smuggler and Crash.