Tag: Senator Tressel

Set those goals and discipline will take you there

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11 hearty Pax posted to Alcatraz looking for that perfect mixture of pain and fellowship. I was stoked to be able to lead alongside a well-known Master of the Beatdown, our own Jekyll. We agreed ahead of time that YHC would take the 1st half and this is how we started:

Full Disclaimer was given for our FNG (my wife’s cousin Joe) who I had been EH’ing for some time along with Old Bay and Destiny. Old Bay gets the assist as he agreed to drive Joe to Alcatraz. Luckily, my legal training has prepared me for denying and disclaiming all liability.

Mosey along Windward with some Butt Kickers, High Knees and karaoke mixed in.

COP, all IC: SSH * 20, Imperial Walkers * 15, Merkins * 10, Windmills * 15, Diamond Merkins * 10, Squats * 15, Plank Series, MNC*15, Wide Arm Merkins * 10

The Thang:

Grab cinder blocks from Jekyll’s car and mosey to the near baseball diamond. Partner up and prepare for a modified Dora-Milwaukee Baseball Trivia style. With the monthly theme of Discipline swirling in my head and heart all week, my thoughts turned to the sport of baseball as it requires so much mental and physical discipline to reach the highest level. So, our exercises would be informed by some trivia about my hometown of Milwaukee and its’ teams. To Wit:

  1. 1954-1st National League city to pass 2 million in attendance- not New York or Chicago, but Milwaukee-do 54 chest presses total
  2. 1979 1st time there were Co-Rookies of the Year in the AL- 79 block swings– The co-rookies were Alfredo Griffin, Toronto and John Castino, Minnesota. John happens to be my cousin and his discipline and determination at baseball made a large impression on me and grew my love of the game immeasurably.
  3. 1982- 1st and only World Series appearance for the Brewers- 82 overhead presses
  4. 2008- Brewers end 26-year playoff drought- 108 LBCs w/block

Closed out my portion with 20 leg throws/partner and 20 partner hand-clap Merkins.

Cue Jekyll:

With Short Sale testing the cerebral and the chesticles, I thought wise to focus on the ol back and stumps.  We moseyed the loop around the park stopping for a few upper, middle, lowers- ala: pearls on a string.

Keeping with the baseball theme- we ran bases as such:

  • Bear Crawl to 1st, do 5 Burpees, crab walk to 2nd, More Burpees, Bear Crawl to 3rd, You guessed it-5 Burpees and Crab walk home
  • Squat walk to 1st, tip toe lunge to 2nd, squat walk to 3rd, tip toe lunge to home
  • Partner carries swapping as needed for everyone to get 2 full laps
  • Wheel barrow with partner swapping at each base

We probably did some more but I (Jekyll) had sweat in my eyes the entire time.

Short Sale had great words of wisdom RE: theme of the month Discipline.  YHC offered his two cents:

  • Ephesians 6:4 Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord
  • Hebrews 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

NMM (from Short Sale):

After COP, I mentioned our first thoughts on Discipline. I often blur the line between Discipline and punishment towards my kids. Discipline should be a way to moderate their behavior and show them the “guardrails” in life. YHC can be heavy handed at times and I need to be less of a taskmaster. Also, be more disciplined and do a better job of treating our 2.0s equally and not showing favoritism. Discipline is also the bridge that takes us from our current accomplishments towards the goals we have set for ourselves. Personally, the gap between my accomplishments and my goals can be very wide sometimes. Need to focus more on serving my M and less on selfish pursuits. Jekyll’s bible verses above were spot on. All the advice I need is right there in Scripture, just need to take the time and give my faith walk greater attention.

I was honored to lead with Jekyll and humbled at the opportunity. Thanks Senator Tressel for the nod. To me, Alcatraz is one of the finest AOs, and that is a testament to the Senator’s leadership.

Short Sale and Jekyll out.

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It Was Sooooo Humid Today…

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23 men gathered in the sultry SC gloom for another round of F3 at  Golden Corral.  Some rucked while others boot camped, but we all got a good sweat on this morning.  Here is what we did:

The Thang:

YHC  took the boot campers aside and stated their obligations for the next 45 minutes (don’t get hurt and  if you do, it’s your own fault).  We then moseyed for a dynamic warm up of knee pulls, ankle pulls, toy soldiers, arm circles, and lunge twists.  After we woke up our bodies, we mosey around the lot and found a good spot in front of the Piedmont Family practice for COP:

All in cadence:

SSH x 40, merkin x 10, windmill x 15, crab tags x 20, squat x 20, Peter Parker Peter x 20, diamond merkin x 20, side lunges x 15, wide arm merkin x 15, LBC x 20

Mosey to the corner of the lot for suicide repeats.  Run out and back to the first, second and third concrete islands.  Plank up when finished and wait for the six.  We did five rounds today with the following exercises in cadence between each round:

Round 1:  Carolina dry dock x 20

Round 2:  Diamond merkins x 10

Round 3:  Morrocan night clubs x 30

Round 4:  Can’t remember?

Round 5:  Burpees (10 OYO)

Mosey back to the start point for 5 minutes of Mary:

Hello Dolly x 20, Freddie Merc  x 20, Pretzel crunch x 10L/10R, Superman hold x 2

COT

Big group today – more than I expected.   It’s been a while since I’ve been here,  and even longer since I had the Q so was happy to get the call last night from Decibel.   I think we had about 15 boot campers and 8 ruckers.  Don’t know what the ruckers did, but they looked pretty tired at COT so it must have been good.    There was a lot of chatter today from Decibel and Falcon Crest, as well as from the usual suspects (Pusher, Funhouse, Change Order).  The humidity was in full swing and the heavy air made everything harder today.     The pax did a great job, though, and no one complained, when YHC called for the next round of suicides.   Well done, men!

It was nice to have F3 The Fort’s official historian couple (Lugnut and Spitz) in attendance as well as many, many new pax.   My hope for the new guys is that they take full advantage of all that F3 has to offer and that they become stronger men and leaders.

Announcements/Prayers/Praises

Read your weekly newsletter.  If you are not receiving the newsletter, reach out to Old Bay.

Prayers for the death of a brother-in-law, brother-in-law with cancer, a member of our NC pax struggling with addiction,  children going back to school and heading off to college

Funhouse  made a call for our local F3 pax to be leaders and mentors for young boys in our community.   Deacon called out the Pax to be men of action and not those who stand and watch injustices.

 

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Summer Q School – Shooting Stars and Counting to 3

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Senator Tressel and YHC headed up the final installation of the summer Q school.  8 PAX joined in for some instruction, antidotes, and how to count to 3.  Brief introduction in lot, totally forgot to make the disclaimer, and we were off.  YHC at the helm.

The Thang

1/2 lap around WEP and circle up for the COP

Each exercise had some instruction of counts, cadence, form, etc.  It was awesome, I guess you had to be there.

SSH X 25 (Hey I saw a shooting star!)

Imperial Walkers X 25

Merkins X 10

Windmill X 15

Mountain Climbers X 25

Disclaimer X 1

Mak Tar Jai X 15

Burpees X10 OYO

Hand Over to Senator who then took us to the hill.

Jacob’s Ladder to 7 with Burpees at top. Senator explained more about what the main workout is about and how to prepare, audible, and listen for mumble chatter.  Kielbasa helped out with the suggestion to do burpees for this ladder.  No one was pleased, except for Seantor.

After ladder we moseyed over to the playground for some pull ups and ab lab.  Senator made it a point to tell the Q School that we do not do enough pull ups/chin ups and that he ALWAYS adds these in at an AO with bars.  I think Senator’s agenda was accepted under duress and the PAX pushed through with 2 sets of 10 pull ups/chin ups and then slow count LBC’s followed by a slower count of Freddy Mercury.

Final thoughts from Seantor about safety, serving the PAX when Q and how he doesn’t ever need a Wienke (memorizes before he gets there) but FunHouse always does (can’t even remember his kids’ names). And do the damn BackBlast!

COT – Always end with Circle of Trust – Prayers for kids to college, parents transitioning to new home and Seantor’s brother in law. 5 years of The Fort in September!

It was an honor to work with Senator to get the new Q’s on track to lead the PAX.  I am looking forward to see what this group of men will bring to the Gloom.  Double D is the man to hit up if you haven’t Q’d and want to get on the list for Block Party!

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BackBlast from The Ranch 7-27-17

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16 HIMs showed up in the gloom to join me at The Ranch for my last Q/post until after I become a father of 4.

Mosey to the back of the school.

Warmup

  • 20 Side Straddle Hops
  • 20 Squats
  • 5 double count Merkins
  • 20 Mountain Climbers
  • Honeymooner
  • 20 Moroccan Night Clubs

Short Warmup so that we could get to THE THANG:

BOARD OF PAIN

Mosey Back to COT

Announcements

  • Last week of F3Dads this Saturday the 29th – NEED A Q or 2
  • Last week of QSchool next Tuesday the 1st
  • Effort to get VQs in September

Prayers/Praises:

  • Senator Tressel’s Sister & Brother in Law
  • Flat Tire’s mother (health)
  • Flat Tire’s wife – praise for new J-O-B!
  • Prayers for Bella (Ginsu’s soon to be daughter)

Thank you to the men who posted!

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Laces In and Laces Out: Back together Again!!

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Long time ago…..in a different AO……Laces Out and Laces In were together. Today we could say that again. Its like meatballs and spaghetti or hot dogs and hamburgers…..its just natural!!

So the Laces out clan arrive at 0500 and take off running to Baxter like the fools they are. Hills and cars and danger Will Robinson!! But they all made it back safely and met us Laces IN  crowd at COT. No water melon ….losers!! haha

Laces In we did a little tour of the High School, with some 4 corners and some other pain stops along the way. There is a ton of potential and no Rosalita calling the 5.0 anymore. If we bother anyone out here, they better join the PAX as they have no other reason to be out there at 0 dark 30.

Great PAX and awesome times. Be sure to post to Laces In/Out and bring an FNG!

Cake Boss Out!

 

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Board of Pain Tabata style

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As the Pax started to gather around this morning I gave a heads up that they needed to get loosened up because there wouldn’t be a warm-up this morning.  Some heeded my warning and some didn’t.  When it hit 5:14 I began to give the normal speech and tell the group we were about to take on the Board of Pain.  However there was one catch to it.  We would work our way through the Board of Pain, but we weren’t going to be counting.  We would do 7 rounds of Tabata each exercise.

For those who don’t know what Tabata is it is where you do a set of exercises for a predetermined amount of time by exercising for 20 sec and then take 10 sec off and keep rotating through.  For us we rotated exercises after 7 rounds of 20/10.  Needless to say I didn’t get to 100 burpees, but I was fine with that.

During the workout I failed as a Q because I had promised music and when I attempted to play the music the speaker wasn’t working.  I believe it had to do with the 150% humidity that morning, but its still a failure on my part.  Luckily fellow pax Change Order and Lutefisk saved me by performing for us several songs including Ice Ice Baby timed perfectly during one of our 10 second counts.

The Thang:

Burpees
Calf Raises
Ski Abs
Merkins
Squats
LBCs
CDC
Am Hammer
Mac Tar Jai

100 Maracain Night Club because I didn’t want to have to Jump Squats for the last 2 minutes

This workout was one of those workouts where you get all 3 Fs during the 45 minutes which was awesome to be apart of.

It was an honor to lead!  Thanks for the opportunity

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G-Fit 2017.28

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Today I was endowed with the immensely gratifying responsibility of Q at the Paradise AO.  It was a lot of fun, and having some experience coaching soccer, I found it to be near my comfort zone.  I brought a bag with soccer balls, basketballs, and footballs.  All of which were put to good use.

Warmup:  SSH, Merkins, Windmills, Freddy Mercuries

Mosey down Berry St and back to the courts.

Next we split into two groups for a little relay race competition.  One team has a basketball and the other a football.  Run the width of the court then pass it back to a teammate to run.  Finish when all PAX are across the court.  I think we did this 6 times (each team got 3 times with each type of ball) because no one likes second place and there was always demand for a rematch.

Another set of exercise: 30sec hop on each foot, plank shoulder taps, cherry pickers, oblique crunches

Split to two groups for practicing layups and rebounding.

Lastly, we split into 4 teams for some 3 on 3 half court.  I got paired with Speedy and Roundhouse who both impressed me.  Speedy can launch a ball from well beyond the arc and Roundhouse was very strategic in finding lanes.

It was a blast and seemed pretty apparent everyone has a good time at this AO.  A couple kids even asked to make sure I was coming back which warms my heart like a matchstick.  There’s something here that may not blossom or bear fruit immediately, but with enough diligent investment, I’m sure it will have an exponential return on investment.  T-claps to Deacon and Chicken Hawk for the hard work and guys like Figaro and Optimus for spreading the word to an audience that may not get bombarded by EHs.  Hopefully I have done this service justice.

 

 

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14 pax posted to Alcatraz to get an early start to the weekend…well, 13 plus Pusher who posted as Bullwinkle was taking the crew out of the parking lot.  All veteran pax today, so limited Disclaimer and Bullwinkle (working his 2nd Q in 3 days) launched.

The Thang

Warm-up run to the cul de sac and back to the parking lot

COP — SSH, Prisoner Squat, Hillbilly Walker, Moroccan Night Club, Windmill

Mosey to the cones on the ball field

Bear crawl to first cone, Karaoke to the 2nd cone, Crabwalk to the 3rd cone, run to the 4th cone
(rinse & repeat for 4 total cycles)

Mosey back to parking lot and grab  coupon

Lunge walk across parking lot with coupon over head
LBCs x20 with coupon
(rinse & repeat back to other side of parking lot)

Squat x15 with coupon
Rows x25 with coupon
(rinse & repeat)

Return coupons

Handoff to Double D

Mtn Climber x20

Plank sequence

Mosey to home plate on ball field

Run to 1B 5 Merkins
Run to 2B 10 Merkins
Run to 3B 15 Merkins
Run home 20 Merkins
(Rinse & repeat 3 more cycles with Monkey humpers, CDDs & Freddie Mercurys)

Mosey to cones & partner up

Burpee cycle (split the aggregate number in whatever work for each pair)
Cone 1 = 5 burpees each (10 total)
Cone 2 = 10 burpees each (20 total)
Cone 3 = 15 burpees each (30 total)
Cone 4 = 20 burpees each (40 total)

Superman

Hello dollies x10

Flutter x 10

Penguin walk x10

Mosey home

COT

Naked man moleskin

ST ran into some scheduling challenges midweek and reached out for some help.  Since I’ve missed out on 1 (and maybe 2) Qs at Alcatraz over the winter/spring, I was happy to have the chance to be back in TC.  Inclusion of what was possibly  VQ with Bullwinkle was an extra teat.  Turns out Bullwinkle crushed his VQ at Footloose on Thursday, so he was more than ready to put some pain on the pax today.  Well done, brother!

Lots of mumble chatter among this group, led of course by Pusher and Change Order.  It certainly kept things lively throughout.

#Freedom is the theme for July.  We spent some time reflecting on the notions of Freedom FROM and Freedom TO.  The idea was to consider what obstacles are standing in the way of us seeing the beauty and abundance of the life that is around us everyday, but that we often miss among the busyness of our days and the negative messages from our culture/media.  Perhaps I need freedom from social media (Twitter, Facebook), TV/media, friends/colleagues who are bad influences, etc.  What might it be for  you that stands in the way of seeing the gift of a new day and the life associated with it?  What parts of your life do you want to be freed to choose to see or to live into as you move ahead?

Thanks to ST for the invite to Q.  Always an honor to be with the pax of Alcatraz!

 

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