Palisades=Hills

The hills were alive. Rolling in from Tega Cay I was like “How hard can a stroll through Palisades be?” Turns out hard! A couple of notes from YHC before leading a running workout.

  1. Try to post a few times when you are not the Q. It helps with getting a lay of the land. And getting to know the regulars.
  2. Review some of the recent routes so as not to be repetitive and reflect an air of not caring or just “winging it”
  3. When laying out the route on mapmyrun, take a peek at the elevation changes and adjust as necessary (or not)
  4. Know where your going (this is key)

Item 2 above gave the necessary ground for some light twitter cyber-bullying of YHC (deserved). Item 3 resulted in some grumbles, mostly from YHC. And item 4 resulted in some wayward Pax (again myself included). Tclaps to Hauschka for getting me back on track.

So the 13 of us rolled out and took on Palisades. The route is posted somewhere in the Twitter-verse and should stay there. We had a good time, got the heart rate up, got lost (some of us at least), found about 4-5 different ways to get back to Palisades Park Elementary. All told the distances ranged from 4.5 – 5.5 miles. A special thank you to Jedi and Witch Hunt for the conversation rolling back into the school. If you’ve ever wondered the many uses of a credit card and/or penny, just hit Jedi up. He brings new light to the term “penny pincher”.

COT and BOM on me.

Haushcka, thanks for the opportunity as always.

Zima out!

 

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PRE BLAST F3 The Fort 6th Annual Invergence

Men of  The Fort,

On Friday, September 21st, we will celebrate 6 years of Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith in the Fort Mill area with our annual F3 Invergence party.   Bring a beverage, some food to share, and enjoy a relaxing evening with your brothers.   We’ll have presentations from your local leadership, take a look back at the previous year, and look ahead to what’s in store for 2019  F3 The Fort and F3 Nation.     This is the premier 2nd F event of the year so mark your calendars now,  and plan on being at Rush Pavilion on Friday night, September 21st.

This is a great FNG opportunity!

This is a Pax only event.  Make it up to your M and 2.0’s next weekend.
What:  Fort Mill Invergence (6th anniversary party)
When:  Friday, September 21, 5:30pm – 10:00pm
Where:  Bruce T. Rush Pavillion at the Anne Springs Greenway
Bring:  Food, drink, chair, cash (to cover the pavillion rental/donations to the F3 Foundation)
Please use the link below to RSVP and list what food you will bring:
6th year F3 The Fort Invergence Food Sign Up:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CAFAE2FA7FD0-f3thefort

 

 

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6 pack at Sea Legs

I don’t usually document the runs, but I figured it could still be helpful for those Q’ing a workout at Sea Legs that may be unfamiliar with the lay of the land.  Every backblast counts.

Nothing special this morning, there were 6 of us on a, what’s now typical, muggy morning.  We met at the parking lot at the Palisades Elementary and went up the back road/hill by the basketball hoops and down Langston road where we hit Grand Palisades pkwy and took that all the way down to the roundabout and back.  About 4.5 miles of safe running off the main roads.  This is a good route that fits nicely within the time slot and has a deceiving amount of hills.

We finished up a few minutes early and circled up for CoT

  • 6th annual Invergance
  • Prayers for travel and the PAX attending the GRT
  • Prayers for Routers Grandmother-in-law who is having surgery

Thanks for the Q Hauschka!

-Flux

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Running in McDowell Park, watch out for Pumas!

Tuesday morning.  9 guys showed up.  We went for a run in McDowell park across the street from Palisades Elementary.  I told the guys to keep turning right.  So we hit the 4 roads that travel down into the park.

Ran back, a few went around the school, three of us went on the back paved trail loop behind the pond. Strava tells me we did 4.5 miles.

~ Fin

Royale

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Sea Legs 7/31/18

The route was simple: Langston -> Oleander -> Grand Palisades Pkwy around the traffic circle -> Rt on 49 back to COT.

It was muggy, it was hilly and we got it done.

Praises for life and the realization of how quickly it can be taken away
Praise for faith
Prayers for those seeking employment
Prayer for a friend meeting with Dr’s about a cardiovascular issue.

Until next time,

Wild Thing Out!

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BEYOND at Sea Legs with Royale

I was honored that Maximus would reach out to me to Q the roaming BEYOND workout.  On a Tuesday choices were Golden Corral or Sea Legs for me, and with my new change in work schedule I needed the closest option, so our traditional running AO transformed into an ultra tough bootcamp for the day.  When I arrived the site Q Hauschka was there and let me know everyone was going to be doing the bootcamp…no runners today!

I’ve Q’d plenty, but this one left me with a pretty sleepless night.  Was my message going to be good enough?  I can make the workout as hard as I want?  I’ve been to several of the BEYOND workouts and the PAX before me have really done it justice.  Those men shared real stories and showed their vulnerability to others.  I needed to live up to that standard.  After the disclaimer I asked this question.

“What is the ONE thing you could alter in your life today that would make it better?”

The Thang

Started with a quick warmup lap around the parking lot with a short COP

-25 SSHs -15 Squats – 10 Merkins – 15 Mountain Climbers – 10 Diamond Merkins

Partner Up

1st partner was going to run over to the jungle gym for 10 pull-ups

2nd partner stays back and does jump lunges until you flip flop with partner 1

Get to 100 pulls ups each. (10 rotations)  This was a real crowd pleaser after the Memorial Day Murph yesterday…

We finished and from plank, I shared my “One Thing” – and that was my love of alcohol. It’s in my genes to want it…my father and most of his genealogy have been alcoholics, and I watched it destroy his productive life for decades.  It has a pull on me that I do not feel normal people get.  I have to make a conscious effort to maintain control when I drink or bad things happen.  It’s pervasive in my life – social events, my wife and I enjoy together, work events, Saturday nights when I don’t have to post Sunday – and I like all of those things!

We talked about the Jester, my favorite Q source read.  We talked about who he is, what he tries to do, and how he pulls you away from the proper path in your life.  I hope more will read of him here.  https://f3nation.com/2018/02/11/jester-q1-4/

Next phase mosey to the hill

7s on the hill

I learned a new exercise at the Memorial Day convergence in SouthPark from our Area 51 brothers.  The “True American” – 6 count exercise which is a hand release push up followed by a plank jack.

6 Trues Americans at top of hill

Run down

1 burpee – you know the rest!

As I crawled up the hill for the last round I was gassed.  I had one phase to go.

Wall sits

The PAX on the ends will bear crawl out to the road – complete 5 merkins – bear crawl back.  Continue down the middle until all PAX have bear crawled.

Mosey back to COT for 3 minutes of Mary

-Freddies – Flutters – LBCs

Closed my discussion with Hope: I know where I would be today, 3 more years down that path to failure…if it wasn’t for F3, my brothers in arms, and my PAX relationships that help me, guide me, point me on the right path in accountability and by who these men are.  I look up to all of you and have learned something from EACH of you! Continue to be my role models for success!

An honor to Lead…

-Royale

 

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Sea Legs

We ran…we ran fast and farther than any other Sea Legs!  5.4 miles in 47 minutes.  Great conversation with 4 of the 6 just completing the RuckOver event with Cadre Rad the Friday previous.  My legs really started to tighten up at the end of this run.  Good to have Bono out, but he still hasn’t posted to a bootcamp?  How does that happen?

-Fin Royale

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Fast! Baby Laps!

What does that mean? First, shout out to Hauschka for the invite to Sea Legs. After attempting a route through Palisades for 20 minutes the day before, I decided on an oldie. Lets run in circles around the school real “fast” and then do baby laps for recovery. So we did that for 45 minutes. Great to see Tater, Royale, DaVinci and Haushka. It’s been awhile but it’s been my fault. Need to resist the fartsack more. Should be easier with the weather picking up. Take a peek at our Laps Strava Art below.

COT was great with some open an honest requests for prayers and praise. Nice to know this brotherhood exists to lift each other up.

BOM on Royale!

Thanks again Hauschka!

Zima Out!

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Speed work @ Sea Legs

Many guys still working on P200 prep.  I got the call to Q late on Monday night, figured I’d mix it up a little bit. Showed up on a cold morning about 33° but it didn’t take long for us to warm up!

Our  goal is to get in some speed work today. I created a Strava segment on the back road towards Palisades called Langston Road which has a nice uphill grade for about 0.4 miles. We would run down that hill about 70% and then push it as hard as we can back up the hill for the 0.4 miles. The pax did this four times – pushed each other really hard.  Once that was done we had about five minutes back in the parking lot. Phase 2 was a small loop  where I had marked a straightaway of about 75 yards set up cones to cones.  For that 75 yards you were to sprint- the remainder was a light jog circling back to sprint.  Looks like we did that four or five times.

As usual Hauschka and Witch Hunt were at the front, Qbert was a speedster, and Tater was the steady-Eddy that just kept going all day.  I think Shakespeare, Peg, Cha-Ching and I really improved our speed.

Here’s how it looked.

Great way to start your day!

An honor to lead,

Royale

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Feeling the Need, the Need for Speed

Chilly, clear, dry. New Sea Legs locale (same locale as Abyss). 7 PAX showed up to get better. 2 other PAX were already out there doing so.

5:15 hit, no FNGs. Brief warmup right at COT start of the following:

  • SSH x 20
  • WM x 20
  • IW x 20
  • HW x 20
  • Stretch the hammys

Then mosey to the back of the school while doing one-legged bunny hops and high knee skips for height to further loosen/prep the legs.

Farleks:
Small ‘track’ out back of the school, less than 400m around (maybe 200-300m). Used a whistle to trigger when we run/cool down. We did a Farlek circuit in the following intervals (minutes at ~85-90% full-go / minutes of cool down run) :

  • 1/2
  • 2/2
  • 3/2
  • 2/2
  • 1/2
  • Rinse and repeat

Pax did 2 complete circuits. GREAT push!! Next time the full-go times will be longer.

Slow jog to COT to meet up with the mileage runners already out there (Witch Hunt and Jedi)  for announcements, Prayers, and Praises.

If you are a runner – beginner with aspirations or seasoned veteran – speed work is essential to becoming a better, stronger, faster, longer runner. It conditions your body in many ways – muscle strength and endurance, lactic tolerance, lung capacity, and oxygen transfer/use. Plus when you start seeing your body improve, it has a positive mental impact as well.

God Bless and Thanks for the opportunity to lead,
– NASA

 

 

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