Q-School Part 1

Started this fine morning with Pusher leading the Disclaimer.

All key points were included.
Asking for new people
Declaration that you are not an expert
Stating that everyone there is assuming all risk by being there, every exercise is a suggestion and to modify if needed to avoid injury.

Pusher also made sure to note the leadership aspect of being a Q. How it links with the larger mission of F3 and how being prepared to lead is instrumental in having a successful Q.

With that we moseyed to behind the Oil Change garage.

Here we circled up and Pusher put us through the finer points of a warmup including how to call cadence, how to pace cadence, and a sample of exercises that are popular within a warmup. After this portion of Q-school Pusher handed it off to me and I called 5 burpees OYO. Because why not….

Well also, as I explained, it’s a good tool to use to silence mumble chatter and help corral the PAX. (a whistle also helps with this)

For my portion of Q school I introduced a couple of workout concepts that had are scaleable. Meaning that the PAX could modify these up or down as they saw fit during the course of the workout. The other key piece I mentioned here is the intention of time-boxing your workout. For me I like to divide my workout into pieces. This helps inform me on if I can modify up or modify down a set of exercises based on the time allotment.

The first two sequences were first a simple circuit using the wall behind the garage.

10 Irkins
10 Derkins
10 Dips

X3

Plank for the 6

Run to behind the grocery store

Using the two islands

A simple 7 concept with a run in-between the two stations

HR Merkins on one side and Squats on the other.

Again, these are concepts that you can leverage and elevate as needed. For instance the 7’s could become 11’s, 20’s or even 30’s if you are so inclined with any mode of transportation you see fit in-between like bear crawls or burpee broad jumps.

For the final 3rd piece of the WO portion I took us to the pavilion by the church. I talked about knowing the AO and what it has to offer. Specific for this AO we have cover and benches here. It’s a great spot for a tabata style workout leveraging the WOD app. And that is what we did. I called out a series of exercsies with a short rest in-between.

Again, this is a great way to use a small space but keep the hear rate up and engage the pax. Candidly some of my best Q’s were in this format because of the proximity of my fellow pax and the ability for PAX to push themselves in this type of format.

After this portion was over we took off for COT.

With just over 5 minutes left we did Mary but had newish pax attempt cadence. I’m happy to say we all settled on Starting Positions ….MOVE……and that all Pax did a good job of picking up on it quickly.

We ended on COT where Pusher did a great job of articulating why it’s important and why it makes F3 different.

To quickly recap

-A great Q starts before 5:15. Work with the Site Q and plan ahead. Always overplan because it’s easier to scale down than scale up if needed.
-When calling cadence practice if you are not used to it. Practice in your garage or wherever but perfect practice makes perfect.
-Be willing to alter your plan if needed. A big thing for me is to keep PAX together and keep Pax safe. In other words if you think that hill looks a little too muddy to run up maybe look to do something else. (burpees for instance)
-COT is one of the most important pieces of the Q experience (that and writing a timely backblast). Be respectful and thoughtful.

Thanks to the Pax who came out, and the Pax who supported this (Especially Fishtix and Olaf who shared tidbits of wisdom throughout)

If anyone has any questions or wants to view/access some of the documents referenced today please feel free to reach out.

SYITG!

Class dismissed!

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~Alabama Route

Alabama route was called, with some tweaks to get us to 6 miles. Several pax started early and/or ran late to get up to 12 miles. YHC took video of the most pax, and thus felt inclined to post this backlist.

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The Zipper at Minnow Pond

YHC was excited to join the Pax for Minnow Pond this AM. Prior to the workout, I looked over previous backblasts because I wanted to do the Zipper but wanted to see the level of exercises associated with it. I chose 4 exercises to mix in with the running and get a full body workout.

WARMUP:
Disclaimer, Pledge of Allegiance followed by a mosey to old Hardees parking lot. (Aside – does Fort Mill need a paid parking lot?)

THE THANG:
Run the Zipper which includes Spring Street and the associated side street with 10 merkins, Mtn climbers, squat jumps and big boys at each corner.

Run back to old Hardees at 5:55. Last group of exercises

MARY: Flutters, LBCs and Hello Dollies until the 6 arrives

Mosey home.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Congrats to Dark Helmet as he takes the reins as Nantan of F3 Nation
Read the newsletter as we have lots of activity coming up

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Running with push ups

WARMUP: pledge
THE THANG: mosey to WEP and partner up. Each partner runs in opposite direction around the WEP path and each time they meet do the next installment in a 1/4 jack webb with burpees/ merkins ( 1 burpees and 4 merks, etc) cap of 7 burpees and 28 merkins before starting back down the mountain
MARY:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
COT:

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Preparedness at Dawn Patrol

Weather was 32 degrees and YHC had cold hands and feet coming off an earlier Q at the Coaches Box but pressed on.

YHC continued the discussion on Jester and Preparedness throughout the workout.

THE THANG:

Mosey to Lash parking lot

COP
Lots of exercises here

Mosey to far end of the lot

BLIMPS workout
Burpees x 5
Lunges x 10
IW x 15
Merkins x 20
Plank Jacks x 25
Squats x 30

Run to end of lot after completion of a round. Rinse and repeat 5 times

Mosey home with Mary along the way.

COT:

32 Year Anniversary for DD
Prayers for Old Bay M
Prayers for Sprockets upcoming grandchild

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Preparedness at the Coaches Box

Weather was 32 degrees and chilly but the lights were on and YHC was prepped for a Q to discuss Jester and Preparedness

Simply defined, the Jester is temptation of the flesh that hinders Acceleration. It is a stumbling block that a man continuously trips over in his effort to become a Pro.

The Jester tells a man several lies including:

1. You are the boss of me
2. You are what you do
3. You are not a bad guy
4. Jester and Virtue can coexist
5. You can’t live, if living is without me

But the antidote to the Jester is preparedness, preparing for what is expected and what is unexpected. The addition of love to this preparation leads to diminishing the Jester. But it is a battle that a Man must fight throughout his life.

THE THANG:

Mosey to the front of FMHS

COP
SSH
Merkins
Windmills
CDD
MNC
Plank Jacks

Mosey to the band lot

Deconstructed Burpee – STAR model

Burpees in the middle x 5
Bobby Hurley x 25
Squats x 25
Merkins IC 12
Mtn Climbers x 25

Mosey to pull up bars

Grip Strength work
Partner 1 – hang
Partner 2 – Mary

Rinse and Repeat x 3

Mosey home for COT

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Bag of tricks

WARMUP:
Short Mosey to parking lot near entrance
SSH – 1 Burpee
Low slow squat – 2 burpees
Windmill- 3 burpees
Maraca nightclub – 4 burpees

Too much mumblechatter so we went to the hill for quadzilla

Run down the hill and run backwards 7 times and do 7 LBCs at the top, decrease LBCs by 1 each time up.

Moved over to front of elementary school by flags for some bear crawl. Line up along the curb facing flag. Crawl to the other side and do 1 merkin, then reverse bear crawl back and do 1 merkin. Repeat 5 times.

Knocked out a few minutes of a work with the protractor. Then had enough time for one round of Dirty Myrtle and Mike Tyson’s (great combo)

Made our way back to COT.

Last but not least was the Airborne special hip exercises.

MARY:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
COT:

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Flight Plan – We Ran

WARMUP: Nope
THE THANG: ~4.8mi
Run down Market, cross Sutton onto Settler Heights. That turns into Stratford Run.
R/T Gardenia
R/T Morris Hunt
Run to the end of Morris Hunt and back
L/T Gardenia then up the hill
R/T Stratford Run and run to the intersection with New Grey Rock
Turn around and run back on Stratford Run-Settler Heights-Market back to COT.
MARY: Nope
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Yes
COT: 5th Core Principle

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