Tag: Austin Powers

A Darth Visor Backblast

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I came across this backblast while trying to find something to say about Darth Visor’s passing.  After reading it, I figured what better way to learn a small something about the man he was, than to “participate” in his VQ.

Other than not having an outhouse or a baseball field (we used road by the playground and the track), I kept the Weinke as close to the original as I could.  It was surprisingly easy to tie the IR race.

After finishing, I let the PAX know who was responsible for the Q, and had some time left for ab lab.

COT

We finished up with some good discussion and prayers for Darth Visor and his family.

Thanks Bones for the opportuNITY.

The original backblast:

Virgin Q – Darth Visor – It’s about time Back Blast – 6.23.15

  • When: 06/23/15Where:

    The Pax: Hickory Stick, Trojan, Light Bulb, Sketch, Green Bean(@F3ATL), Gear(@F3theFort), Boomer, Foghorn, Def Con 2, Nacho Libre

    QIC: Darth Visor

11 PAX joined the party at THE RUBICON for a VIRGIN Q by Wardaddy in charge. Great to have @greenbean from F3Atlanta and @Gears from The Fort join in the GLOOM.

What had happened was…

7:00 sharp we mosey to the slice of heaven between the diamonds for a little warm up

Starting Position…Move….In Cadence….Exercise

SSH

Squats “really missed GRITS” was going to have him demonstrate proper technique

EW

Cotton Pickers

Feeling loose – we mosey

The Thang

1-2-3 ‘s lovely learn’t this’n up thar in fort mill region.

Partner Up and head for the outhouse…partner sprint around outhouse while other partner commenced to exercising!

100- step ups

200- dips

300 – LBCs’

Whew 10 count needed.

Let’s mosey to the ole ball field for a slight twist on our old favorite IR. PAX you got’s to sprint….not jog when its your turn. So we turned up the heat with a little team race – IR around the ballpark. Losers get to enjoy OYO 15 Burpees.

Trojan takes early lead for left side, then Boomer hits high gear to pad the lead, Hickory Stick notches one for the right side, and someone hit the speed switch for Light Bulb and it looks like left side is going to “run away” with it BUT amazing speed from Nacho Libre, Sketchy, and Gears even things up by the time we pass home plate.

Strong Showing by both teams BUT WE TIE AND EVERYONES a LOSER.

15 burpees for all and all for the PAX

Outfield Fence for little Wall Squat to catch our breath.

Let’s Mosey to THE HILL

Merkin Ladder 10 down run up hill 9 at top back down 8 back to top 7…all the way to 1 MERKIN.

COT and BOM

Much to be thankful for…GBABY arrives for WD,  remembering Foghorns wife – expecting, Mufasa’s back.

Moleskin

There was some more Beatdown but who can really remember it was soooo long ago.

Pleasure to have led you men, inspiring, fun, makes me feel good at 6:15 AM on beautiful 2sday AM

Sorry CRACK, MUFASA, Grits, Peanut, Stang, and other faithful had to miss…we’ll get you next time.

NEXT DARTH VISOR Q coming soon to the Gloom near you F3Alpha.

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4

Rolling Dice at Crow’s Nest

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Today’s Q was super special to me. It’s my first day after a long weekend getaway with the M and my first post after GoRuck Selection which inspired me to push harder and discipline myself further in everything I do. I have become more persistent in house chores, time with my family, time with my God and intensity in workouts.

This Weinke was partially tested on some elementary kids at church Sunday night so I had the kinks worked out haha

The callout was put on Twitter for a ruck friendly Q, so a couple of PAX strapped up as well as YHC.

After a short disclaimer we went over to the well known at this point rock pile to find a new friend for the morning. With the coupon we jogged over to the east side road and lunge walked with the rock held overhead between lightpoles. Then reverse lunge to the next light pole. This was a VERY LONG 9 minutes

At the eastside parking log I had some cones set up and a colored cube (Awanas cube if anyone wants to repeat this and can snag one from church, could do a regular die also of course)
So I had matching colors on the cones, every PAX would roll the die and then state a number of reps. It had to be over 10 was the only rule, to be fair no one went crazy we only had one set of 20. Then the group would bear crawl to the cone and the PAX in charge would look under the cone and pick 1 of the 3 exercises available. These could be repeated. We went for 14 cones before setting out for the next set.

Examples of exercises
Run a lap
Clap Merkin
Merkin
Burpees
LBCs
Big Boys
SSHs
Overhead clap
Flutter Kick

nothing too crazy because the bear crawl to each cone really gets the sweat rolling

Then we took our friendly rock and carried it towards CoT, however to help with the overheating I decided we would cool off and take a break by low crawling across the soaked grass rolling our rock along with us. Never leave a friend behind right? This came with lots of mumblechatter and drenched clothes. Dropped the rocks off for some quick MoM

Rosalita
Crab Cakes
Flutter
Freddie Mercury

To close it out 5 8-count bodybuilder OYO

9 PAX in the name-a-rama
Please pray for those chasing after the Ragnar trails this Friday night. That’s mostly whats on everyone’s minds right now. Stay safe on the trails in the mornings too.

Until next time

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The Abyss – Pushing the Perimeter!

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Put this one together fairly quickly the night before my Q while laying in bed w/ my 2.0.  Those tend to not work out so well for the Pax as it’s super easy to write down everything that is awful and hard and then ask the Pax to make it happen.  Well, that’s what I did.  It felt lazy.  It felt last minute.  It was both of those things.  And I was happy about it.

Had a solid crew of 18 boot campers – gave them the general theme of what this would be about, quick disclaimer, just enough to scare them a bit, and then we were off for a very quick warmup – something I am known for.

Warm-up:  seal jacks, merkins, plank punches, shoulder taps, superman coupled w/ Moroccan night club, slow as day windmills and we were done.

I didn’t know how long this next part would take, so I had a few extra things to do if we had time, but I was a bit uncertain from the get-go.  If you’ve been to Abyss (Palisades Elementary School), you know the front of the school is a standard school set up – a long road in w/ some turns, making its way to the parking lot, a roundabout for the drop off, etc, etc.  My goal was for us to do the outer perimeter with exercises as our mode of transportation – for the entire thing.  Starting at the loop at the front doors of the school:

– Lunge Walk (90 yards / 80ish meters) to the first turn
– Burpee Broad Jump (175 yards / 160 meters) to the next turn that then goes uphill to 49
– Crab walk up the hill (230 yards / 200 meters)
– Bear Crawl down the side walk parallel to 49 and then down the stairs (140 yards / 130 meters)
– Grand Finale:  Burpee Bounces around the loop / circle back to your starting point…you make ground by doing one burpee and as you push-up, you explode up and throw yourself forward 3 times on all fours.  Pop up, jump, that’s one burpee.  Keep it moving.

After the last of the pax finished the full loop, we had about 10 minutes, which we leveraged for partner carry work.  Thanks GRT from Friday night.  Felt inspired.  Partner up –
– Partner 1 does Spiderman Merkins while Partner 2 runs the length of the parking lot.  When they get to the end, they call for Partner 1 who starts to run to their Partner 2 (while Partner 1 is catching up, Partner 2 does Spiderman Merkins).  When they meet up, they partner carry each other the full length of the parking lot back to the starting point.  Did that 2 more times so everyone carried their partner 3 separate times.  The other exercises while one partner was running were squat touches (squat low enough to touch the ground w/ your fingers) and crunchy frogs.

2 minutes left – good old fashioned sprints.  Everyone back pedal 1/2 the length of the parking lot, all you got, and then turn and sprint the second half.  Did that 2 times and then it was time for COT.

Praises – new jobs / promising job interviews
Prayers – marriages, big flo barreling our way

Thanks to Bones for giving me the chance to lead these great men.  Big thanks to all the guys who made it out today – was awesome to bust a$$ together and get after it.

ChaChing

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8

“Where No Man Has Gone Before…”

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9 men braved the gloom on a humid early September morning so that we could explore new worlds and new civilizations….   Not really actually, I just wanted to incorporate some running into my bootcamp in preparation for the quickly approaching Ragnar.  In my Twitter advertising for the Bootcamp I recommended the Pax to bring headlamps for the run.  After the disclaimer I told the Pax the game plan, mosey on up to the Copperhead Bar (about a mile).  It took about 10 minutes to get there, which was not bad considering the incline to get there.

COP

At the parking lot of the bar we did

30xSSH

10xSun God’s Fwd and Reverse

10xWind Mill

10xCherry Pickers

Down Dog into 10xThigh Master’s Left and Right Legs

The Thang

I set up 4 cones in the 4 corners of the parking lot with 3 exercises on each cone.  We did a 4 count with the respective numbered Pax going toward a cone.  The plan was to do the exercise’s bear crawl to the center, do 5 burpees, then crab walk to the next cone.

Cone 1- 30x’Mericans /30xCDD/30xLBC’s

Cone 2- 30xRanger ‘Mericans/30xSquats/13 Burpees

Cone 3- 30xInch Worm ‘Mericans/30x Jump Lunge’s/30xBig Boy Sit Ups

Cone 4- 30xArcher ‘Mericans/30x 1 Legged Squats/30xFlutter Kicks

The Pax were not able to get the full cycle finished before we had to head back to COT, but as Jedi once said, always plan for too much exercise instead of too little.  We moseyed on back to COT and the six arrived at 0600 hours exactly.

Thanks to Peg for the opportunity to lead.  Great push by all the PAX!!! 

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Octagon of Pain, same low price, but now with more jumping!

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Great morning and a great crowd of 16 PAX at the Poopdeck.  I mean it was still hot and humid as hell, but that’s par for this summer.

After a quick disclaimer we took off around the lot for a mosey that included some shuffle steps, NUR, and Toy Soldiers before circling up near where the cat lady roams for some Warm-A-Rama.

  • Windmills x10 IC
  • Planks (2x 10 counts)
  • Merkins x 10 IC
  • Morroccan Nightclubs x 10 IC
  • Low, Slow Squat x 10 IC
  • Hold squat (2x 10 counts)

Short Mosey to the upper lot (deck?) at the Poopdeck, I’ve been Q-loaded the last couple of weeks and the previous 2 Q’s were brutal on the arms and shoulders so I decided to mix it up a bit this morning by giving the upper body a complete break at the expense of all leg plyo workout.  I wasn’t sure how it was going to go over, but everyone seemed pretty beaten by the end.  In any case, here is the breakdown of how it works:

  • 8 Cones setup in an Octagon in the parking lot (fairly large in diameter though I didn’t count the paces) with a 9th cone in the middle of the Octagon.
  • Each cone had a (jumping) exercise on it
  • Pair up (only for the push, none of this required a partner)
  • Pick a cone, do the exercise on the cone, and then Broad Jump to the center cone and do 8 Burpees, then Broad Jump back to one of the 7 remaining cones and continue through until all 8 are completed and a trip back to the center cone after each cone for 8 more Burpees.
  • The exercises were:
    • 100 SSH
    • 100 Jump Rope
    • 50 Jump Squats
    • 50 Jump Lunges (25 each leg)
    • 50 Lateral Jumps (25 each leg)
    • 50 Knee Tuck Jump-ups
    • 50 Squat Jacks
    • 25 Bomb Jacks
      • ~64 Burpees
      • lot of broad jumping!

Everyone made it through at least once, which was the goal. In typical Jedi fashion he made it through a couple extra.  With about 10-15 minutes left we lined up for some Indian running around the parking lot.  Lead PAX drops and does 4 Burpees and rejoins at the back of the line.  We cycled through each of the 16 PAX twice before heading back to CoT and about 2 minutes of Mary to end the workout.

  • 6th annual Invergance at Rush Pavilion 9/21 @ 5:30
  • Prayers for all the teachers and kids in school
  • Prayers for injured PAX

Thanks Peg for the opportunity to Q!

Until next time,

-Flux-

 

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Live Right through your Concentrica

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My goodness it was humid again.  The day started at 74 degrees and just being outside for 1 minute you started to sweat.  It was going to be a tough morning!

17 men gathered before the 5:15 start, I was happy to meet Radar down from F3 Gastonia.  Tesla told him to come down and check us out.  Regal also brought Supafly who was posting for his 2nd workout this week while up from GA on business.

Bones allowed me the pleasure to Q at one of my favorite AOs.  Always a large and great group of guys out at the Abyss.  Today I wanted to bring more of a message to the group than usual, but this is a 1st F workout…so a beatdown came with it!

Gave the longer disclaimer (I needed the practice) and off around the parking lot we went for the warmup.  Standard running stuff, high knees, butt kickers, karaoke, toy soldiers then circled up.

COP consisted of Seal Jacks, Imperial Walkers, Moroccan Night Clubs,  Slow Squats, Merkins, Plank Jacks…all at different reps.  That seemed to drive Witch Hunt and Jedi crazy because the mumble chatter between those two wouldn’t stop.  Tough to yell at someone when you’re counting in cadence (and they know it).

Mosey to the back bus parking lot for the things I had planned.

The Thang

I really did find these on the F3 Nation exercises!

“Bo jangles Biscuit” = Use the oval track, sprint the straightaways & mosey the turns. Do this twice.

“Slowjangles Blueberry biscuit” = lunge walk around the oval and at four designated spots we stopped for 5 burpees.  One lap.  This was longer and harder than I thought!  I might have been the biggest complainer about this evolution.

The Main Event

I’ve truly enjoyed the 43 feet Podcasts and the Q source posts.  The messages are excellent, but the implementation is tough…but bringing this stuff to our PAXs attention should be something we all do as a Q in some detail.  Many of my most memorable posts are when the Q brings a solid message with the workout and I wanted to live up to that.  In my own life I know how backwards I’ve had my Concentrica lately and a good refersher for all followed.

We talked about the Acceleration of a HIM going from Get Right –> Live Right –> Lead Right –> Leave Right.  Today was a focus on the Live Right.

The discussion I shared was around intentionality, understanding the fallacy of a work-life balance being represented on a teeter-totter.  The picture is best represented as a target.  In the center is your “M” (and we properly defined M) then 2.0 (family) then Shieldlock Brothers then Friends then Mammon.  I explained each and there suggested relevance to your life.

But I had also drawn a large target representation of all this on the ground (Mr. Selfie forgot to take a picture)…so we were going to play a game! Each PAX was going to get an opportunity to throw a bean bag at the target from about 18 paces away.  (definitely not corn hole regulation distance I was told multiple times.)

Each section represented a different 10 rep exercise we would do…and DO NOT miss the target!

M = 10 count (we had ZERO hits here)

2.0s/Family = Squats in cadence

Shieldlock = Ranger Merkins

Friends = Jump Lunges

Mammon = Bombjacks

outside the circle = 10 burpees (about 5 men missed)

I thought it was fun, and we kept sweating quite a bit.   I hope the PAX enjoyed it as well.

Mosey back to COT where we had 5 minutes left of Mary.  10 counts for ab exercises picked by the PAX

Annoucements = (read your newsletter)

Prayers for Lutefisk’s mother, Tesla’s friend Meredith and her passing, Qbert and his church helping 100 children through the gospel.

A Honor to Lead!

-Royale

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The Modified Murph

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Michael Murphy was a Navy Seal from my neck of the woods on Long Island, New York who died in service to this great nation.  The Murph challenge has been gaining steam for the last couple of years as many people have taken to the challenge of doing a 1 mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 pushups, 300 squats and then running another mile with a 20-30 lb ruck sack on.  I did my first modified Murph this past memorial day(no ruck sack) and could not wait to do another, so I figured I would do a modified one and torture my F3 buddies along the way.

We did a quick mosey on over the back basketball courts with side shuffle’s and toy soldiers worked in.  

COP

10-SSH w/2 Donkey Kicks

10-Sungods fwd and reverse w/4 DK’s

10-Windmills w/6 DK’s

10-Cherry Pickers w/8 DK’s

10-Down Dog into Thigh Masters each leg w/10DK’s

The Thang

Since I figured everyone can run forward, I decided on having everyone nur for 2 laps around the track that surrounds the basketball courts then do 100 pull-ups, 200 archer ‘mericans and 300 one legged squats then nur for another 2 laps.  I instructed the Pax to do the modified Murph in 10 sets of 10 pull-ups, 20 archer ‘mericans and 30 one legged squats.  There wasn’t much mumble chatter for this workout and Austin Powers even threatened to get even with me the next time he was on Q.  Little does the late showing Mr. Powers understand, I enjoy a good challenge, the harder the better.  Dr. Evil is in the house!

Around set 6 I figured in the interest of time that we do regular push ups and squats to finish the Murph.  Unfortunately, there is no modification for pull ups.  My timer rang at 5:55 and everyone was in the middle nuring the last 2 laps so I had us mosey back to COT where we finished up the workout with 4 minutes of Mary.

Big Boy Sit Up’s until a runner ran to the far island and back.

Freddie Mercury’s until a runner ran to the far island and back.

Hello Dollie’s until a runner ran to the far island and back.

LBC’s until a runner ran to the far island and back.

Observations:  Better late than never AP.  Respectable Olaf and Haushka ran during the boot camp and were not part of the name-o-rama but respect to them for coming out in the gloom and training.

Prayers to the family of String Bean(Will Frederick) from the York Pax who has gone to be with Sky Q.  A tough loss at only 23.  Prayers for Stang’s mother in law who is having bypass surgery today.  Prayers always for Pax looking for work or dealing with the loss of a loved one.

Peace brothers.

 

 

 

 

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Cats, Kicks, and Crawls at Poopdeck

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10 PAX posted in the gloom at Poopdeck with early comments that “at least it feels cooler today.” We obviously hadn’t started moving yet. After a quick – and disjointed due to late arrivals – disclaimer, off we moseyed in a counter-clockwise fashion around the parking lot. Cutting around to the backside of the building, leaping over the Dark-Helmet-eating curb, we threw in some side shuffles and toy soldiers before circling up behind Sherwin Williams for a quick-ish COP.

10 windmills

10 merkins

10 hillbilly imperial hillbilly squat walkers (these need a better name)

15 mountain climbers

10 thigh masters per leg, interspersed with downward dog

Quick scatter like cockroaches when the Crazy Cat Lady rounded the bend at 84mph and almost crashed into us. Crazy Cat Lady sighting = 5 burpees. Thanks for nothing.

With that done and adrenaline high after yet another near-death experience with our feline-loving “friend,” we moseyed to the upper shopping center lot for the main event.

The Thang

I don’t know distances between them, but there are two rows of parking spots that have light posts. We used these as our side lines. There are two rows of parking spots in between these rows. In both of the rows with the light posts, four cones were spread roughly ten yards apart (plus a light post), making for five “spots” on each line. It makes sense if you were there.

General rules: move as prescribed, do assigned exercise at each cone and last light post in row, do five plank circles (think dizzy bat without the bat and in a plank), then run like a drunk person to the other side of the parking lot where the other line of cones was. Pretty straightforward but not.

Round 1: broad jump to the cone, 5 Tony Hawk burpees, broad jump to the next cone, 5 Tony Hawk burpees, etc. (Total of 50 Tony Hawk burpees). Lots of spinning this round. Requests were made for motion sickness meds. Also, “there’s the humidity.”

Round 2: monkey scoots DaVinci cartwheels (description below), 20 monkey humpers at the cones (did we modify that down to 10? I can’t remember…)

Round 3: 2 double count crab cakes, flip over to 2 CDDs, flip over to crab cakes, CDDs, etc. Don’t worry about the cones. Just keep going. Ended with one million CDDs and two million crab cakes.

Ran out of time for rounds 4-7. Oh well.

Mosey back to COT with a slight mosey extension to kill an additional 30 seconds.

Announcements

  • F3 Dads camp is this weekend
  • CSPAN sendoff convergence the 18th
  • Read your newsletter

Praises and Prayers

  • Pray for F3 Dads camp, that everybody stays safe and we all still like each other at the end
  • PAX still looking for jobs
  • PAX out due to injury

Truth be told, I ran out of time to plan this. But, after running three days already this week, I wanted to place more emphasis on arms and less on running. I think the PAX appreciated it. Watching the drunk running was my highlight.

Thanks to Peg for the opportunity.

Jedi

 

“DaVinci Cartwheels” = Begin in a low squat. Reach across with both hands, placing your left hand next to your right foot and your right hand a bit further off. Push off with your feet, lift your hips over your shoulders into a mini tucked handstand, then (as gracefully as possible) put your feet back down past your right hand (left foot next to right hand), facing the same direction as you started. Rinse and repeat. Sometimes called a “monkey crawl” or “monkey scoot.” Can be done in both directions.

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A Summer Reunion at Crow’s Nest

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Great way to start your week.  5:15 bootcamp with 95% humidity! We gathered up in the gloom and I was happy to see 10 guys join me for our Monday morning beat down.  Two Ferns made his Crows Nest debut, Austin Powers returned  from his vacation across the pond and we had Viogt join us from Rock Hill at the request of Homebrew.  Excellent group this morning, especially after Olaf and Nemo ran up late to COP!

I quickly gave the disclaimer and we were off. Mosey down the service road to the back parking lot of the school with several dynamic warmup moves.  It’s funny how you go under the street lights and they TURN OFF when we stroll by… really tells us how wanted we are.

COP

Random counts of Imperial Walkers – Moroccan Night Clubs – SSHs – Merkins – Yoga – and Mountain Climbers

Didn’t take long to break a sweat, so we moseyed to the playground area farther back in the school.

We started a cycle of an easily written, but hard workout. UvU

Station 1 = 10 pull-ups

Station 2 = 20 Merkins

Bear crawl about 40 yards to next station

Station 3 30 Sumo Squats

Crawl Bear another 40 yards back to station 1

Rinse and Repeat 5 times

Once this was over I shared a few “motivational” words about being tougher than you think you are.  Completing this cycle was a big challenge, and everyone made it.  It’s opportunities like this that show you how far you can actually push yourself.  Keep it up throughout your day and challenge yourself to be better in everything you do!

Mosey around the school to a wall for next evolution

Wall sits for 60 second counts

Wall Plank with feet on wall then we did 10 in cadence shoulder taps. (real crowd pleaser)

Wall sit another 70 seconds of counts

BTTW 30 seconds of count.

Made our way back to the front of the school for the last 5 minutes of Ab Lab.

PAX went in clockwise circle picking the Ab exercise and counting the cadence.

Ended with COT and our prayers.  Shared a summary of the 3rd F Invergence from the previous Friday.

Honored to Lead

-Royale

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Still in Abyssness

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I seem to keep having my last Q in the Carolinas at least once a week now. Gonna need to stop calling it that until I got a final date for when I leave. Bones gave me the Q for abyss at sea legs, came up with something on the spot that went more or less like this today-

Mosey to basketball court, COP

Mosey to the back road. At top of back road, tried having us do rugby sprints, learned its kinda hard to do it coming downhill, didn’t realize the angle was as steep as it was when trying to stop suddenly for six inches. Did this all the back to basketball courts

WIth a partner, each man does 30 pullups  altogether, switching off to run to give breaks between sets. I love my pullups, and 30 is ambitious I think for most people.

After this went on to main event. Tried explaining the whole routine before starting, but learned it was alot easier to just go round by round and have the PAX follow along till the habit picked up.

ISLAND HOPPING

4 islands nearest us in parking lot, do a set of an exercise and run to next. then,Far away islands, run to each and do 15 LBCs.  last island near middle by COT, 10 burpees before moving on to next round. rounds were as follows:

1.10 merkins

2.20 squats

3.20 monkey humpers

after going through one cycle of this, PAX had it down pat. 10 minutes, left, started over with intention that everyone do as much as they could before time. Pax in lead got to monkey humpers again before COT called.  As usual, Jedi was beast mode and in the lead and never looks like he’s dying haha.

Had lunch with Qbert today who was present, I asked him what the general impression was of ” a whopper Q”, if it had any general characteristics . He answered that it was that nobody ever knew what it was going to be or what to expect. Really, Really glad to hear that because honestly, my biggest thing that I want to avoid at all costs, is to be too predictable or cliche when I lead the beatdown. So its good to know.

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