9 PAX, all F3 vets of > 2 years, showed up for a "Q School" beatdown at Excelsior / The Estate at 0600 on March 17. Perhaps the timings were not clear, apologies, because 3 more showed up at 0700 for the "History Lesson" portion of the morning, thinking there was a beat down: Bootlegger, Canary, and Elmers. Dallas and Frogger joined for a bit of Mary, and there was even a "Mini Me" drive by. Here is, roughly, what went down:
0500: Dallas ran a very speedy River Rat 10k. Auto and Don Ho did a Spearhead workout which sounded very hard, quite frankly.
0600: It became clear that we weren't going to have any new PAX. However we made the most of the morning anyway with a workout that included plenty of 2nd F opportunities. Don Ho and others gave plenty of assists throughout.
Mosey to the basketball Courts by the school, including high knees, butt kickers, and Quadraphilia.
A very thorough disclaimer given.
WARM-O-RAMA:
- SSH x 15 IC
- IST x 15 IC
- Windmill x 15 IC (Bob Ross)
- Mericans x 10 IC. HOLD for:
- Mountain climbers x 15 IC. HOLD for:
- Elbow Plank x 1 min. HOLD for:
- Mericans x 10 IC.
The "Q School" Thang:
The original plan was to explore the AO, and let any newer PAX practice calling cadence. Given only grizzled F3 vets showed up today, we audibled to something slightly different.
- Run across the courts, 10 pull-ups OYO.
- Run back, LBCs x 25 OYO.
- Repeato, but with knee-ups this time.
Merican Suicides:
- Run to first hoop, Mericans x 5 OYO, run back.
- Run to second hoop, Mericans x 10 OYO, run back.
- Run to third hoop, Mericans x 15 OYO, run back.
- Run to fourth hoop, Mericans x 20 OYO, run back.
To the loading dock:
- Incline Mericans x 10 IC
- Plank walk along the hand rail
To the wall:
- Get over the wall
Mosey to the bottom of the parking lot, grab a cinder block. On the track we did:
- Block shoulder press x 5 IC
- Block curls x 5 IC
- Repeato for ~5 minutes.
- Lap around the track.
- Jump over your block x 10 OYO
- Mountain climbers x 15 IC.
- Repeato.
Run to the end of the track. Get into groups of 3 for:
- Two guys one armed curl third guy, who was doing a static curl hold and was perpendicular to the ground.
- Repeato until all 3 guys were being picked up.
- Second round, except this time the guy perpendicular to the ground did the lifting, while the other 2 guys did static curl holds.
- Moses can probably describe all that more eloquently.
Mosey to the covered area for:
- People's chair, including air presses x 15 IC and "touch them heels" x 15 IC
Mosey around the track, put the blocks away. Circle up for Mary:
- Crunchy frog x 15 IC
- Low flutter x 15 IC
- Homer to Marge
- Low Dolly x 15 IC
- Sound off if I missed anything else.
Recover, recover. We covered 1.7 miles according to Strava.
Moleskin:
- As stated above, we didn't have any new PAX for the workout portion. However, the workout and the 2nd F was good.
- The best part of the morning was the time after the workout. The PAX were lucky to have Moses and Gnarly Goat to give some stories about the history of F3 and our region. A real pleasure for everyone in attendance, which at this point included Bootlegger, Canary, and Elmers. Apologies again that there wasn't a beatdown at 0700 and if that was unclear.
- One thing was very clear from long time vets Moses, Gnarly Goat, Freedom, Jolly, and Elmers; they still love this thing called F3 and love giving it away.
- We had a Mini Me drive by. YHC wanted him to stop by for a picture but he seemed in a hurry. In case you aren't aware, the lineage of Nantans in our great region is Moses > Mini Me > Jolly Roger. Their leadership has helped make our region the best in all of F3, dare I say.
- Don Ho and YHC agreed that weekdays might be better suited for Q School. Also, we'll need to do a better job perhaps reaching out to specific newer PAX. Look for additional Q School opportunities, perhaps at any or all of the following suggested AOs: The Cauldron, The General, and Arnie's Army.
- T-claps to Magnus, Don Ho, Auto, and Freedom. They are all MQs, and they are all thriving in that role. Auto has reached out to YHC about "Advanced Q School", which would be targeted for PAX who have Q'd a few times but could use some additional guidance. Great idea! Magnus suggested that YHC arrange some meetings with MQs to discuss best practices, etc., which is another fantastic idea.
- Although we didn't cover much "Q School 101", there are some fantastic notes we can pass along. Rather than steal them, here is a link to a Q School that Don Ho led with some great notes: http://f3lakenorman.com/backblast/q-school-at-thefoundry
- Special thanks again to Don Ho, Gnarly Goat, Jolly Roger, and Moses for helping out today and sharing.
Twas a fine morning. We'll do this again soon and hope to have some newer PAX enjoy the fun as well.
– Turnpike