Creative Misery at the Rock

When Smuggler organized this Q combo, he must’ve known a lot of PAX were looking for that Saturday morning push. After some banter back and forth between the WEP Q’s and us Alcatraz Q’s, we were pleasantly surprised to see car after car after car roll into Runde Park this Saturday morning. The weather was warm and the PAX were primed with the early mumble chatter. With the typical “don’t hurt yourself and don’t sue if you do hurt yourself” disclaimer, we took a very abbreviated (10yd) mosey to the right side of the parking lot (a slight teaser for what was coming).

Jog to the other end of the lot and back then repeat.

Walking lunges 1/2 way down then high knees to the end. Same thing on the way back to the start.

Windmills & deadlifts to warm up the legs a little more then mosey to the top of “THE HILL”

PAX squat for 20sec then jog to the base of the hill followed by an all-out sprint back to the top of the hill and squat for the six.

Repeat for a 40sec squat hold then the jog down/sprint up and squat for the six.

Repeat for a 60sec squat hold then the jog down/sprint up and squat for the six.

Find some curb and 50 calf raises each leg.

Mosey to the field for a circle up.

This was when I think they really lost my mind…Lt. Dan’s (1 squat and 4 jumping lunges (2ea side counts as 4)) and we went to 8:32 before handing it off Tesh!!

With Tesh on Q, you just had a feeling this was going to get bad.

With the PAX in a very long plank:

5 Merkins

10 Mountain Climbers

5 Merkins

10 Peter Parkers

5 Merkins

Various Tesh-approved CORE exercises

Mosey to the fence line:

Merkin-Turtle crawl (can’t explain…you had to be there)

10 Merkins

Bear Crawl 50yds

More Tesh-approved CORE exercises

10 Bombjacks x 3 rounds

Mosey to the playground and split into 4 groups

Rotate through 5 pull-ups & 10 dips. For those waiting, hold the Al Gore pose.

Yet more Tesh-approved CORE exercises

Repeat the above 2 lines

Closed it out with 6min of Mary which couldn’t end fast enough.

Announcements: Yeti (Newsletter), Reading in Paradise

Prayer Requests: Praise for Palmer family, Cornerstone’s family, continued prayers for the Family & Friends affected by the recent tragedy’s our community has experienced, our officers, job transitions, marriages.

I’m sure Smuggler will get a little verbal backlash on this but hey, it made us better and everyone crushed it.

Maximus & Tesh

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Christmas Movie Trivia Loop

When Pusher and YHC realized we were co-q’ing Alcatraz, and the weather was predicted to be quite winter-like, we decided a Christmas theme was in order.  But we wanted something a little unique.  So, we landed on Christmas Movie Trivia.

The wintry weather showed up on cue, though more cold and wet than snowy and Christmas-like.  “No matter” said the 12 pax that posted ready for the physical and mental challenges.

Pusher started us off with a jog intentionally avoiding the path around the ball fields.  We moseyed to a few different intersections near the park for various warm-up exercises, including SSHs, merkins, peter parkers, and a few others, while playing a little frogger.

We then moseyed to the bottom of a steep hill and partnered up (size no matter).  Partner 1 took the hill, while partner 2 held a squat.  Flapjack.  Repeat 2 additional times.

We then moseyed up the hill half way, and lunged the rest of the way.  Pusher then took us back to the parking lot where we started and turned it over to YHC.

We moseyed around the parking lot, then to the path that circles the park, where the first of about 30 cones was sitting (each about 10-20 yards apart, all along the path).  And so began the Christmas Movie trivia challenge.  Here’s how it worked:

  • On each cone was a trivia question.  Upon arrival to the cone, the question was read aloud.
  • While pax pondered and discussed the question, an exercise was performed, which was dependent on the movie.  Here were the exercises (some of which we didn’t get to):
    • A Christmas Carol – 10 high jumps
    • A Christmas Story – 10 Plank Jacks
    • Christmas Vacation – 10 Mountain Climbers
    • Christmas With The Kranks – 10 Bombjacks
    • Deck The Halls – 10 Plank Punches
    • Four Christmases – 10 Sumo Squats
    • Elf (My Favorite!) – 10 Squat Jacks
    • Ernest Saves Christmas – 15 Hillbilly Walkers
    • Holiday Inn – 10 Morning Wood
    • How The Grinch Stole Christmas – 10 Russian Twists
    • It’s A Wonderful Life – 10 Dry Docks
    • Jingle All The Way – 10 Run Stance Switch
    • Nightmare Before Xmas – 10 Crab Cakes
    • Miracle On 34th Street – 10 Merkins
    • The Polar Express – Bearcrawl to next cone
    • Scrooged – 10 Monkey Humpers
    • The Santa Clause – 10 Chop Sticks
    • Santa Claus: The Movie – 10 Speed Skaters
    • White Christmas – 10 Donkey Kicks
  • Once the exercise was done, pax had to agree on an answer.
    • If the answer was correct, pax moved on to the next cone
    • If the answer was not correct, pax had to do one or more penalty exercises.  Here’s how the penalties worked:
      • 1st incorrect answer – 10 burpees
      • 2nd consecutive incorrect answer (i.e. at next cone) – 10 burpees AND 100 yard run
      • 3rd (or more) consecutive incorrect answer (3 cones in a row)- 10 burpees AND 100 yard run AND 10 merkins
      • After the penalty was served, pax moved on to the next cone

We got through about 25 cones (with a score of about 50%) before running out of time.  The questions were tough, and thus we clocked in over 100 burpees.  I won’t post the questions/answers here in case any pax want to reuse this weinke, or a variant thereof (contact me on twitter if you’d like the questions and answers).

Moleskin

It was a privilege for Pusher and YHC to lead the workout at Alcatraz.  Pusher talked about how thankful we are for F3 and the amazing HIMs that make it so great, including and especially the pax posting to Alcatraz.  For me, what has made F3 so life changing isn’t the organization, or structure, or exercises or cool gear; it is the men of F3 that invested their time into “FNGs”, long after their first post.

If you are a man that a fellow F3 pax has invested time into, my encouragement to you (and to me) is to find a pax in F3 that could benefit from you pouring into them.

 

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Visitors at the Prison

Alcatraz was full of the normal Saturday chatter with the expected return of F3 Aquaman.  In addition, F3 Prosciutto was visiting from Chattanooga, TN with an FNG in tow.  His name, Heater, given based on his pre-workout  ritual.  On the Rocks led with the disclaimer and a lap around the field.  Next, we ran several rounds on sprints and circled up for the following warm-up exercises:

SSH

Imperial Walker

Windmills

Squats

LBCs

Next, we ran over to the baseball field and split into two groups.  The first group bear crawled to second base while the second group performed wall sits.  We switched up after the completion of the exercises.  Next, the first group ran to the outfield fence while the other group performed balls to the wall (switched when complete).

We then circled up for a merkin wave up to ten, followed by a crowd favorite, the grave digger.  On the Rocks finished with the merkin caterpillar.

Next, we headed to the hill to reduce some of the chatter from the regulars.  We ran to the bottom of the hill and waited for all to reach the bottom.  The group was instructed to sprint to the top of the hill.  After a quick ten count, we split into teams of two.  The first person ran to the bottom of the hill and back to the top while the other person performed an exercise (merkins, squats, LBCs).  Once complete, they switched.

After a couple ten counts, we moseyed to the landscape timbers for derkins, step-ups, and more LBCs.  We finished up in the parking lot with some paver exercises (overhead presses, curls, burpees, and LBCs).

Great job by all.  I mentioned during the workout that this time of year is very difficult for some people due to events in their lives, issues with depression, struggles with substance abuse.  I challenged each person reach out to these family members or friends and tell them you love and care about them.  These simple words go a long way.

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Veterans day at Alcatraz

7 of the finest men in the TC Peninsula got after it on a darn chilly morning.  T’was great to see everyone out of the fartsack considering today was the payoff day for those training for Charlotte Marathon and the men of at The Fort had something good cooked up with our northern brother, Olive and Operation Sweet tooth. Aye!  Inspiration!

Got the call late Friday that I would/could take the Q.  Proudly disclaimed and reviewed our 5 core principles and off for a lap around the fields.

COP; SSH, Squats, Mountain Climbers, Seal Jacks, Parker Peters each intertwined with a trio of burpees.  Delightful.  Add in a few full field sprints 75%, 85%, 100% and we were warm.

The THANG:

Jungle Gym for Pull ups, Merkins and dips.  3 rounds of 10, 15, 20 here.

Over the to wall.  4 or 5 sets of Bearcrawl/lunge walk to second base then fun to fence and back.  Those waiting were treated to Wall sits and Balls to the wall

Next exercise.  1st base, 2nd base, 3rd base and back.  3 burpees, 6 burpees, 9 burpees, 6 burpees, 3 burpees.  Your mode of transportation could be any combo of bear crawl, lunge walk or crab walk.

Next exercises Pain platoon- connected merkins- caterpillar style- ask Mainframe.  Tunnel of love, seal team sit ups.

Closed out with some around the horn Mary.

Naked Man Moleskin

Delta- you are progressing along nicely.  Very proud you kept your Smirnoff Ice consumption from the previous nights escapades with in you.  Keep charging brother.  Yat Yas was an inspiration for the day as he was our #veteran in the group.  Always pushing and not quitting.  Let it be known that if we are to line up in merkin formation with someone’s feet on your shoulders and do merkins in cadence- Mainframe is not in favor.  I don’t necessarily oppose his opinion.  #wheninRome.  Conversly- it seems On the Rocks is up for anything… go figure.

Minute Man added speed while we were all thankful Change Order kept his shirt on… today.

We shared stories of veterans we knew and our thankfulness for them giving way to our own veteran in the group, Yat Yas.  Thank you for serving brother!

 

 

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Welcome to Alacatraz!

It has been a long time since YHC posted at Alcatraz and much less led a WO there. The AO is fabulous and thanks Senator for the invite. It is great seeing different faces going to different AOs and appreciate the opportunity to Q.

Warm Up

Mosey around the field with some dynamic stretching.  Circle up in the parking lot to avoid the wet grass. I know, we are soft!

SSH, Smurf Jack, Tuck Jumps, Monkey Humpers, and Bomb Jacks x 10 IC each, no rest in between

Squats x 20 IC

SSH, Smurf Jack, Tuck Jumps, Monkey Humpers, and Bomb Jacks x 10 IC each, no rest in between

Windmills x 20 IC

SSH, Smurf Jack, Tuck Jumps, Monkey Humpers, and Bomb Jacks x 10 each, no rest in between

Mosey around the hill for the main course stopping to grab some music along the way. This was a lot like the workout on Friday, so I knew we were in for it.

AMRAP 3 rounds of 9 minutes with 90 seconds rest in between.  Nirvana channel on Amazon was played….great songs once again. Channel does not dissappoint!

Round #1 – 10 Burpees at the bottom, bear crawl to the telephone pole, run up to the yellow sign 10 squats, 10 tuck jumps at the top

Round # 2 – 15 dips at the top, 15 CDDs at the middle, 15 bomb jacks at the bottom, crab walk to the pole

Round # 3 – 15 Merkins and the bottom, run backwards up, 15 jumping lunges at the middle, 15 tuck jumps at the top.

Mosey back to the parking lot for 90 seconds of boats and canoes.

COT – Prayers to those affected by the hurricane, families, addiction, and unspoken.

CAH work day on 9/30 at 10:30AM until complete.  Lunch will be provided
2nd at Dunkin
Invergence the 29th, Convergence the 30th

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