Alcatraz Fishermen

I’m writing this way past due and don’t have much, but what the heck, let’s give it a good ole college try.  Fishsticks warms us up with the ‘regulars’ and proceeded to crush our arms with some partner style work using the loose bricks.  I just remember hurting.  Then YHC ran a starfish exercise as a team.  In the middle was 5 body bag builders (a 10-count burpee).  Each corner was done twice with broad jumps and duck walks between the middle and the stations.  The corners were all combination exercises that created #pain.  So that’s it… all I can remember.  Just thankful to be able to work out with such great #HIM.

TClap |
0

6 years, God only knows where I might have been….

6 years ago YHC rang the bell for the first time with a handful of rag tag HIM’s. There were 3 workouts, total, in The Fort. A lot has changed!  YHC was blessed enough to be able to come to Block Party and Q on a day that has changed my life.  32 other PAX joined YHC in the gloom for some fun for Day 20 for Ass Kickn’ April Y2!

The Thang:

Long loop around WEP

COP

SSH X 50, Squats X 25, IW X 20, Mountain Climbers X 25, Plank Jacks X 25, Slow Sumo Squats X 25, 6 count Burpees w/ hand clap X 10, SSH X 10 – Mosey to playground

DORA 1-2-3

Partner up, 100 Merkins, 200 Squats, 300 LBCs. Go.

Huddle Up

Got the PAX together to briefly talk about what F3 has done for me.  I had initially thought that F3 would always be a physical challenge, and it is, but I would never have guessed how much the 2nd and 3rd F’s would come into play.  Having 32 other men show up at 0515 to work out under my lead, shows exactly what F3 is all about.  Supporting your F3 brother celebrate a special, life changing day by doing burpees and dodging fire ants.  The 1st F is the magnet, always pulling you in.  The 2nd F is the glue, keeping you connected and active.  The 3rd F is the dynamite, serving others, putting yourself 3rd and sharing this crazy thing F3 to all men around you. Off to the hill for Jacob’s Ladder.

Jacob’s Ladder – 8’s – 1 Burpee at top and 7 Bomb Jacks at Bottom. Add, subtract, flippy flop, you know the drill.

Off to COT, but lets do some more while we count down to 0600.  30 seconds of Mountain Climbers, Plank, burpees….. Saved by the Bell. Done.

Great Tuesday morning.  So humbled and blessed with the HUGE turnout this morning.  I couldn’t be more excited about being a part of F3!

FunHouse

TClap |
7

Burpagedon

A disclaimer was given and PAX ran a warm-up lap for COP.

COP
SSH x 15
IW x 10
Squats x 10
Bonsai Cherry Tree Pickers x 10
Windmills x 10
MNC x 10
Sun God’s x 20
Merkins x 8 IC
MTN Climbers x 10

YHC had thoughts of bear crawls after burpees, but threw an audible and we did those first.

Bear crawls to every other HT post x 5 Merkins, crab walk to next second post x 10 crab cakes. On the way back we did x 5 CDD and 10 LBCs.

YHC had asked my 2.0 what to do for the Q, and after showing him his options, he adamantly decided on “a lot” of burpees, and further stipulated 100 was not “a lot.”

With that in mind:
Round 1: x 10 reg. Burpees x 10 sea monkey Burpees (2 hand release and a monkey have before jump) with one extra sea monkey to make it 101
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 2: x 10 left legged Burpees x 10 right legged Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 3: x 10 knee tuck Burpees x 10 squat Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 4: x 10 plank jack Burpees x 10 spiderman Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Round 5: x 10 reg. Burpees x 10 kraken Burpees
Run a lap (.2 mi)

Wall sits while PAX did OHP while we went down the line and did x 10 Squats. Finally ended with a round of Mary.

COT
Read your newsletter

Thanks Lutefisk for the opportunity to lead, and the PAX for sticking with it today.

TClap |
1

Productivity at it’s Best @ Alcatraz

  • Had the luxury of Co-Qing this fine Saturday morning w/ Corn Hole at Alcatraz.  I sent John my 1/2 of the workout a couple days in advance so he could decide if he wanted to ignore what I planned and do his own thing or make it complementary.  He choose the first option, and completely ignored the exercises of the 2nd half and made it extra spicy by incorporating a ton of burpees and legs right off the bat.

Here it is –

Took a mosey around the outer perimeter of the ball field and made our way back to the starting point for a typical warm up.  Standard John stuff – you know, about 100 side straddle hops and then I forgot what happened after given how smoked my calves were.

From there he took us through the 4 corner accumulator / deccumulator.  Starting on one corner of the parking lot we did:

  1. 5 burpees, then lunge walk to next corner
  2. 5 burpees + 10 merkins then bear crawl to next corner
  3. 5 burpees + 10 merkins + 15 squats then lunge walk to next corner
  4. 5 burpees + 10 merkins + 15 squats + 20 SSH then bear crawl to 1st corner again
  5. 5 burpees + 10 merkins + 15 squats + 20 SSH + 25 LBC’s then bear crawl back to 4th corner
  6. Decummulator time – remove the LBC’s and do the other 4 exercises above, + lunge walk to 3rd corner
  7. Remove the 20 SSH and do the rest, then bear crawl to 2nd corner
  8. Remove the squats, ado the rest, lunge walk to first corner
  9. Remove the merkins and do the burpees

Yikes – that’s 45 burpees, 70 merkins, 75 squats, 60 SSH, 25 LBC’s and a crap ton of bear crawls / lunge walks in a small window.

Transitioned over to my half of the Q and we hit the ball field.  It was still soaked from the monsoon the day before and the field guy was out there getting it fixed up for the day’s games.  Had to quickly modify my 4 corners on the field to do just one side of the field not make him angry.  Here’s what we did:

Starting on one side of the field, we jog a 1/3 of  the length of the field, and then sprint the remaining 2/3 of the field then do an exercise:

  1. 50 squats.  Jog a 1/3, sprint 2/3 then
  2. 50 merkins.  Jog a 1/3, sprint  2/3 then
  3. 50 jump knee tucks.  jog a 1/3, sprint 2/3 then
  4. 10 burpees

Next up, we head to to the retaining wall behind the back stop of the baseball field in the far corner.  We do an exercise on the wall, then do another exercise down the fence line (full length of field) and then back to do another exercise on the wall.

  1. 20 dips, then power skips down the length of the field and back
  2. 20 derkins then side shuffle down the length of the field and back
  3. 20 step-ups per leg then back pedal the length of the field and sprint back
  4. 10 burpees then jog back to the parking lot

From there, we got down in a plank position and did alternating sets of carolina dry docks and merkins, then sumo squats and narrow squats:

  1. 11 CDD, 10 merkins, 9 CDD, 8 merkins, 7 CDD, 6 merkins, 5 CDD, 4 merkins, 3 CDD, 2 merkins, 1 CDD (36 CDD’s and 30 merkins all at once – holy smoke show)
  2. 11 sumo squats, 10 narrow, 9 sumo, 8 narrow, 7 sumo, 6 narrow, 5 sumo, 4 narrow, 3 sumo, 2 narrow, 1 sumo (36 sumos and 30 narrow squats back to back to back)

Had about 5 minutes left, so hit hill on the road off of Tega Cay Drive for some big boys and merkins.

  1. 10 big boys, run down the hill, 1 merkin, back pedal up hill
  2. 9 big boys, run down hill, 2 merkins, back pedal hill
  3. 8 big boys, run down hill, 3 merkins, back pedal hill
  4. 7 big boys, run down hill, 4 merkins, back pedal hill…and we ran out of time.

Back at COT, we had a couple prayer / praise reports, and half the folks headed over to Change Order’s house for some Q source discussions.  So awesome to see our boys Crash and On the Rocks get back out there – been way too long fellas.  Thanks for the effort today – great work by all.  Until next time.

Cha Ching

 

TClap |
3

Old School Slug Fest at the Corral

Man, I have to give props to our boy Lutefisk for taking over this AO as Site Q and really elevating the attendance and holy cow the consistent FNG’s rolling up here.  It’s so great to see, and likely the only reason I got 14 to come out to my Slug Fest of a Q.

After taking it easy for a week post P200, I decided to turn it on and give the pax a reason for getting up so early.

Warm up was quick – side straddle hops x20, windmlls x 10 and we were off for the real warm-up:

  • Burpee Mile – from COT, I led the pax on a very brisk mosey behind the Teeter, through the apartment complex, up the steep hill, out to 160, down to the gas station and back through the Teeter parking lot and ended back at the steep hill out back.
      • The kicker was that we stopped every 0.2 of a mile and knocked out 5 burpees along the way.  Finished w/ 25 burpees, and then tacked on 5 more just for good measure and a round 30 count.

Next up, a simple Dora…on the hill…with burpees.  We partnered up on the level ground about 3/4 up the hill near the fire station and I informed the pax:

  • Partner 1 runs down the hill, knocks out 5 burpees, and back pedals up the hill.  Meanwhile, the partner not running works on the rep count of the following exercises (partners switch on and off as they complete the hill) –
      • Merkins x100
      • Jump Squats x200
      • Crunchy Frog (Witchhunt special) x300 (we may have cut this off at 200 count)

This stunk.  Back pedaling hills is evil.  Once we finished there, the wounded pax were led back over to the Teeter parking lot via another mosey.  Next up, the Jedi version of Jack Webbs – holy smoke show:

  • On the curb – 1 dip per 4 crab cakes…up to 10 dips / 40 crab cakes.  I  never want to do another crab cake again.  So many crab cakes – appropriate given it’s Golden Corral.  Arms were toast.

From there, we did side shuffle suicides on the full length parking lot which brought my heart rate to 110% of what it’s supposed to do and finished w/ 1 min to spare at COT where we knocked out 11 merkins, 10 diamonds, 9 merkins and 8 diamonds.

Encouraged the pax to read up on Jedi’s Muggo posting about his Greatest Fear and then spoke briefly on something that’s been on my heart .

What would you do differently throughout your day / week / life if you lived eternally focused and NOT from a temporal perspective?  How might you interact w/ your kids or wife or those around you differently?  How might you come to practice more patience / endurance?  Would your timing expectations change?  How might your desires / things you’re asking God for change?

Appreciate all the pax that shared prayer requests and came out to play this fine Tuesday morning.  I was definitely sore so hope each and every one of them walked away in better spirits and a little vomity.

Cha Ching

TClap |
5

Shovel flag hand off at LacesIn

15 Pax sounded the call and hit LacesIn on this brisk morning while 4 Pax hit the track for LacesOut.

The Thang

YHC ran through the disclaimer and then handed off Cyclops to get the party started.  I think Cyclops may have said Mosey, but it was basically a sprint from the stadium parking lot to the band parking lot.

COP – all in cadence.  Moroccan Night Clubs x 16, Baby Arm Circles foward and backwards x 16, SSH x 32, windmills x 16, Merkins x 8

Mosey back to The Hive’s parking lot and start at first light pole for 64 squats, mosey to light pole across parking lot for 32 walking lunges.  Mosey to next light pole for 16 calf raises regular, 16 calf raises with toes pointed in and 16 with toes pointed out.  Mosey back across parking lot to light pole for 8 box cutters, 4 bomb jacks and 2 burpees.  Do same exercises in reverse starting with the 2 burpees and working back up.

Hand off back to YHC.  I had planned on some NCAA march madness trivia and life got in the way, so just settled for one question.  Who has won the most titles and how many?  Bonsai and Offset combined for correct answer of UCLA with 11.  In honor of UCLA’s 11 titles we did 11’s with burpees and squat jumps.  Lined up on curb to start with 10 burpees ran to 2nd light pole for 1 squat jump, back to curb for 9 burpees then back to light pole for 2 squat jumps.  Continue until you are 1 burpee and 10 squat jumps.

Mosey back to stadium parking lot for 6 minutes of mary all exercises in cadence to 10.  LBCs with feet on the ground, lbcs with feet raised (normal), lbcs with right leg straight, lbcs with left leg extend, and dying cockroaches.

Announcements

Christina Latini Memorial 8k in Huntersville on 3/30.  If you cannot make that they are doing a virtual 8k at Alcatraz.

T-claps to Cyclops as he takes over as site Q of LacesIn.  Very excited to see what he will do as new site Q!  Also, much appreciated to everyone that has come out or Q’d at LacesIn the past couple of years.  You have made posting each Thursday enjoyable.

TClap |
4

Run through the RP

Broga – with the Squatch out of town, Bass O Magic stepped in to lead the crew in some Broga….I’m sure we all felt like we were yogis, perfectly stretching and contorting ourselves into positions that would enable enlightenment.  I can only imagine the cars driving by at 5:00 am saw something entirely different.

Run – once limber, YHC led 5 of the 7 of us on a casual tour of Regent Park, including a pass-by of YHC’s new abode. Not sure what the other  2 PAX did,  but they smelled of bacon and stale Waffle House coffee upon our return.  Our tour consisted of 3.25 miles at ~9:00/mile pace, with some great conversation.  Also completed some Mary upon the return.

TClap |
0

3 Men and a Baby

Four men (three respects and one ‘no respect’) joined together on a fine SC morning to get their daily feast at the Golden Corral.  Here is what they did:

The Thang:

Mosey out of the HT shopping center to the new apartment complex behind Express Oil Change. Circle up for COT:

All in cadence:  SSH x 40, Potato picker x 15, Merkin x 10, Squat x 20, Windmill x 15, Imperial Walker x 20, Carolina Dry Dock x 10/move to a regular plank/6″ hold/regular/left arm, leg high/flip over, 10 dips/right arm, leg high/flip over to regular plank.  Rinse and repeat whole sequence without taking a knee.

Mosey to the alley between HT and O’Reilly Auto parts.

Starting at the front of Harris Teeter,  sprint to the end of the building and back, and immediately go to people’s chair along the side of  HT.  Rinse and repeat 4 more times.   After the first set, while we sat against the wall, we  took turns telling each other what our F3 name means, who named us, and how long we’ve been in F3.

Line up along the HT wall,  assume the BTTW position and hold it.  Climb down, bear crawl over to the O’Reilly building, assume the BTTW position, and hold it.  Climb down and bear crawl back to the start.  Rinse and repeat (crowd pleaser).

Mosey to the parking area near the new Green Olive Grill restaurant.  Using the parking lines as a guide, make your way to the last parking line by sprinting forward, and side shuffling across the parking lines in a zig-zag fashion.  Rinse and repeat three more times.

Take a short mosey and circle up for 9 minutes of Mary:

Freddie Mercury x 25,  Pretzel crunch x 10L/10R, Flutter x 25, Superman hold x 3, LBC x 25, Hello Dolly x 25.  End with the BODY DESTROYER

COT

Naked Man Moleskin

Had a good time with the 3 gents who joined me this morning.   The 3 men and a baby is a reference to the three ‘respects’ in the group today (Cornhole, Gecko, and YHC) and Lutefisk, our warbaby.  Smaller F3 workout groups usually lend themselves to more personal mumble chatter and today we took time to learn about the origin of each other’s F3 name.  Cornhole’s name is a reference to his upbringing in Iowa and his alma mater, Nebraska (Cornhuskers).  Gecko works for Merril Lynch and refers to Gordon Gekko from the movie, Wall Street.  Lutefisk hails from MN and Lutefisk is a Scandinavian dish (dried fish soaked in a lye brine).  I lived in MN for a couple years about 30 years ago and remember trying this fish once.  It’s something you don’t forget.  Anyway,   YHC was at Lutefisk’s first workout at the Colosseum and tagged him with that name.  You can read about the origin of my name, Senator Tressel, by reading the Alcatraz backblast from January 19th.

To provide a little change of scenery, we did COP near the clubhouse of the new Evolve, apartment complex behind the Express Lube.  The clubhouse has an indoor gym and YHC tried to EH a guy who was headed to the gym for a morning workout on the treadmill (BORING).    Perhaps the next Q should take the Pax to the same location in the coming weeks and see if he can get some of those apartment dwellers to join our ranks.  They really don’t know what they are missing.   Today was a great morning spent with my friends and the best way, hands down, to start each day!

Announcements, prayers,  and praises:

Read your newsletter:  lots of running events coming up (Joe Davis, Operation Sweetooth, Yeti, Rooster)

Prayers for a daughter of a friend of Cornhole’s who suffered a stroke and bad car accident.

Prayers for Gekko’s son in college.

Prayers for Lutefisk’s father who is struggling in a new relationship.

Prayers for YHC’s upcoming surgery and recovery.

 

TClap |
1

Accumulating Around Rite-Aid

Lightning Backblast

22 degrees didn’t scare off 6 pax from Golden Corral.  No FNGs, so the disclaimer was light and we quickly got to moseying around the parking lot.  Quick stop near the launch point for a warm-up:

  • 30 SSH
  • 10 Windmills
  • 20 Imperial Walkers
  • 20 Mountain Climbers
  • few others that have escaped YHC

Mosey to far corner of Rite-Aid

The Thang – 4-Corner Accumulator
At each corner of the Rite-Aid, we stopped to do the exercise for the round.  Run between each corner, and plank up for the six after each round.

Round 1- 1 burpee at each corner
Round 2 – 1 burpee, 2 Crab Jacks at each corner
Round 3 – 1 burpee, 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch
Round 4 – 1 burpee, 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins
Round 5 – 1 burpee, 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks
Round 6 – 1 Burpee, 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 7 – 2 Crab Jacks, 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 8 – 3 Run Stance Switch, 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 9 – 4 merkins, 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 10 – 5 plank jacks, 6 box cutters
Round 11 – 6 box cutters

Finished right on time. Headed back to COT.

Thanks Falcon Crest for the opportunity to lead!

Onward!
-old bay

 

TClap |
0

The Spirit of the Pax

The skies were gloomy, but the spirit of 10 men was high as they kicked off their Saturday morning with another beat down at Runde Field.  Here is what they did:

The Thang:

Change Order on Q

Mosey on the path around Runde and circle up in the parking lot for COP

All in cadence:  SSH x 25, Hillbilly walker x 20, Windmill x 10, Merkin x 10, standing hamstring stretch (L/R), sitting IT band/buttock stretch (L/R)

Count off by 4 and break into groups for the Starfish.  At four corners of the parking lot, there were exercise listed.  Complete that exercise, go to the center and do 4 burpees, then move to the next corner.  The exercises were:

  1.  25 merkins
  2. 40 chest presses with a landscaping paver
  3. 30 squats
  4. 40 LBC’s

Rinse and repeat with intention.  The Pax were instructed to do the merkins with a closer arm stance and chest touching the ground, double the weight (2 pavers) on the chest presses, do deeper squats (hands touch the ground), and perform ‘loungers’ instead of LBC’s (legs pivot up and down with the torso)

Hand off to Senator Tressel

Line up for an indian run on Windward road and then mosey to the concession stand wall in the ball field.  Start at the far end of the wall, get in a BTTW position and then walk on your hands to the opposite end of the wall.  lunge walk to the 2nd base line, bear crawl across the field, and then lunge walk back to the starting point.  Rinse and repeat 2 more times.

Mosey to the playground and split into three groups.  Group one does 10 pull ups, group two does reverse step ups, and group three does Al Gores.  Rotate through all 3 exercises , then rinse and repeat 2 more times.

Mosey to the ball field and find a dry spot for 6 MOM

All in cadence:  Box cutter x 20, pretzel crunch x 20, boat/canoe x 3, American hammer x 20ish (lots of mumble chatter trying to throw off the Q).  End with the body destroyer.

COT

Naked Man Moleskin:

I  was happy to get the call from Change Order on Thursday night to co-Q  this workout.  The last time we Q’d together  was when we launched F3 Cincinnati in 2017.  It was great to have Photobomb back in action with us after a serious leg injury forced him out for several months.  Jekyll came in hot at around 6:45 and then provided the Pax with his usual one liners and mumble chatter.

T-claps to my co-Q for doing ‘Geronimo 10 counts’ today (and T-claps to Geronimo too).  Instead of our normal count to 10 as a rest break,  Change Order asked a member of the Pax how they came to F3 and what their F3 name meant.  YHC and Uber were asked today.    My start to F3 was through an email from DD (Dan Janick) who was just a casual acquaintance at the time.  He was trying to round up men for the very first F3 workout in Fort Mill.  My F3 name, Senator Tressel is a reference to Jim Tressel who was the football coach at my alma mater, Youngstown State University, before going on to fame, (and infamy), at Ohio State University.    The Senator part comes from ESPN’s Chris Fowler who used to call Tressel ‘The Senator’ because of his demeanor during games and during press conferences.  As a side note, F3 at the time was a much, much smaller entity, and Dredd and OBT came to help launch F3 Fort Mill.  Dredd named all of the FNG’s at that first workout at WEP.  Uber told us his F3 name came from the fact that his wife is German and also as a reference to first F3 workout when he told the Pax he was going to call for an Uber, rather than finish the workout.  I am pretty sure I was at that workout and remember him saying that at the bottom of the big hill behind the park.  Uber, if you read this, reach out and let me know if that’s correct.  I really like this idea of Geronimo 10 counts and decided to start using it when I Q.  I encourage other guys to do it to as a means to strengthen our 2nd F.

It was a gloomy morning for sure, but the Pax were in good sprits as evidenced by the mumble chatter and jokes before, during, and after the workout.     The 2nd F is alive and well at F3 The Fort!   It’s always a pleasure and privilege to lead such a fine group of men.

Announcements, prayers, and praises:

Q source, week 3.  If you haven’t attended yet, it’s never too late to join.

Support the Operation Sweet Tooth 8K and Joe Davis Run if you can.  Read your newsletter for details!

Prayers for:

Fish stick’s father with cancer

Delta’s  brother-in-law in very poor health from diabetes.

Funhouse’s brothers

 

TClap |
0