5 PAX HC’ed and 5 PAX showed. Funny, it wasn’t the same PAX that HC’ed that showed but I won’t go in to that. *non-COVID cough* Panda *non-COVID cough*.
Monday, YHC posted the newest virtual workout Garage Band and was voluntold to take a virtual Brave Q by Fire Hazard. I thought I was already on the schedule for Thursday, but when I found out it was double booked with Bucky on Q I decided to do Tuck the solid and take Friday. I had a plan in my head for the vQ everyone has been accustomed to over the past couple of months, you know the drill – the 1 or 2 min out and back run, a chair, a lifting rock, EMOM or AMRAP, OYO counts, yada, yada. I hadn’t fully fleshed it out yet when I got a message from Tuck mid-Thursday asking if I wanted to take the first SOB in person workout since the SIPO! Because phase 2 is starting today, he and Mario had decided on opening The Brave. I, of course, happily accepted with a “Hell Yeah”! I drew up a Wienke that would honor COVID distancing and would still live up to The Brave standard of 4 miles and some grueling work.
I tried to turn in early because I haven’t gotten up at 0445 since before the SIPO and did NOT want to miss this (especially since I was Q). I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned and ran variations of my Wienke through my head trying to decide on the perfect 1st return workout. I probably got 4 hours total when my alarm went off and I was off like a shot. Couldn’t wait to get out there.
I arrived at The Gibson and Taco Stand was already there. Wingman and Tuck joined us soon after. YHC delivered the disclaimer, including half of the new COVID parts of it. Tuck reminded everyone if they were sick to go home. Mario came in hot, his first steps out of the car were to run with us down BC toward Stonecrest.
WARMUP
Warmup? It’s The Brave. We ran! Warmup…
THE THING
With very wet shoes from the hill, take a run to those first building in the giant Stonecrest parking lot. I think there’s some restaurants there? Here we did 7 of diamonds around the entire Stonecrest lot. It was more of a 7 of long rectangulars, but you get the gist. From that corner, to the end of Target, to the far end of the lot from Target, back to the steps coming down from Firebirds, and back to start. Each loop was over a half mile.
The last loop we had to cut a little short for time. Instead of running all the way back to the start end of the lot, we ran back to the corner of the lot nearest Target.
We finished with about 10 minutes to get back to launch. YHC was the 6 but would have been on time had his shoe not come untied on the run back.
MOLESKINE
5 men met in the Zoom just before 0530, was good to see the turnout including an FNG! Props to MAD for the EH. At 0530 YHC took a few minutes to explain the format of the workout and how counting wasn’t going to be done in cadence. YHC would announce the number and the exercise and it would be done on my count as a reference. Because of the format, this only really took effect for the warmup.
Warmup
The Thing
YHC set up a workout of 7’s, but with bear crawling between exercises instead of running a hill. This worked well for the virtual workout because you can pretty much guarantee PAX would be in a place where they could bear crawl 20ish feet. Between each set of 7’s would be a 5 minute OYO run.
7’s w/ bear crawls about 20 feet, or 10ish crawls
5 minute mosey
7’s w/ bear crawls
5 minute mosey
7’s w/ bear crawls
5 minute mosey
Diamond merkins and dips were on tap, but we ran out of time.
Announcements
YHC’s internet dropped right after name-o-rama, when FNG Popeye was getting his name. After getting reconnected Fire Hazard was helping Popeye with the FNG onboarding – Slack and such.
Moleskine
Great work from everyone. There’s self accountability in F3 even without our newest challenges of going virtual during this pandemic. Switching to a virtual workout where there’s OYO moseying and during the 7’s nobody was on camera, every PAX really needs to have the self-discipline to do the prescribed work and hold themselves accountable. This turned out to be a great 1st F and I will be feeling it in my shoulders all day. Based on the grunts and huffs and puffs I was listening to during the 7’s, I’m pretty sure everyone else was killing it too. Thank you for the opportunity to lead, especially during these difficult times.
11 PAX in all showed up at The Arsenal this morning. 6 for the prerun, where we did the Swift prescribed 4x 800m’s at a 5k pace. The high school track was great for it for obvious reasons. 5 more arrived for the main event and Happy Meal had to bounce out. If he hadn’t had told me yesterday he wasn’t going to be able to stick around, I’d think it was when he saw Fire Hazard and I pulling the sand bags out.
Warmup
Disclaimers given, sandbags shouldered, and we’re off to drop them off at the large student lot. Warmup on arrival, 15-20x of each IC
The Main Event
Leave the sandbags for a minute to head up to the smaller lot for 7 of diamonds. Starting in center, run out to each corner of the lot for called exercise, run back to center between each of 4 corners. Plank for 6 between rounds.
Return to the sandbags. PAX form groups per sandbag. 1 PAX starts as the timer and begins to throw the sandbag to the other end of the lot. The rest of PAX sprint to the end that the throwing PAX is headed toward and do as many of called exercise as possible until throwing PAX makes it to them. PAX then rotate sandbag throwers, and turn around to head back to starting point of lot. We had 3 per group and ended up doing 3 rounds.
Carry the sandbags back to launch. With about 10 minutes left we ran 3 laps around the parking lot doing burpees at the start. 10 after first lap, 5 after second, none for last. Plank up for final minute of time. Bounty Hunter really tried to stretch it out, but couldn’t figure out his fancy new GPS watch.
Announcements
Thanks, Fire Hazard, for taking us out.
Moleskine
4 Prerunners on the hills, 2 on the flats. Shout out to One Niner and General for pushing me to run the hills, and One Niner for slowing his pace to roughly half his regular and running with me. I PR’ed the damned thing and he was barely even breathing hard. That hilly prerun is something else. You’ll get about 250 ft of elevation in the mile down and back Point Carpenter.
Back for the main event YHC popped the tailgate to reveal several stacks of pavers, roughly 10 pounds each. PAX grab a paver each and make sure to treat it nice because you’re spending the next 45 minutes with it. Disclaimer given and we’re off.
Warmup
A mosey to the basketball court. PAX are thinking, “These pavers aren’t so bad. This will be a piece of cake.” At least that’s what I think they’re thinking. So, on my call we lift them above heads and hope nobody drops them on their skull. We’ll pull this trick for every mosey during the workout. Arrive to the courts and the first 3 exercise are the only time that paver was put down.
The Thing
Mosey to the front of the baseball field, alternating pavers overhead and held in front. 7’s on the hill with
Mosey to the playground, with a little backward running with a paver overhead, and partner up. Dora with running PAX holding the paver overhead, and exercising PAX using the paver for core work.
We had about 5 minutes left so a mosey back to the launch, picking the pavers overhead again.
Finish time with 4 rounds of Jack Webb with the paver.
COT & Announcements
Moleskine
This might have been my most fun Q yet. I feel like I say that every time, but this one I prepared for with practice laps and exercises with the pavers around my hood the night before to tweak the beatdown just right. The Newton’s cradle was a tough one and worked well for 7’s because you do max 6 of them. I’m glad to be able to give back to this group with not only this Q, but taking over as site Q as well. Thank you all!
4 men understood that my #tweetandmeat advertising was less about saving Stonecrest from an already passed and downgraded tropical storm and more about a sandbag beat down. YHC brought a bluetooth speaker, a weinke, and some sandbags. The speaker only worked for the first couple songs off Offspring’s Ignition album, and YHC gave up on it. The wienke was mistaken for a high school essay, and to be fair it was a full college ruled paper filled from top to bottom. The sandbags didn’t disappoint.
Disclaimer given with emphasis on keeping the sandbag under control and not overextending yourself. We don’t want injuries out in the gloom!
Warmup
The Thing
Then on to the essay. 10 of each exercise for a set. About 30s of rest between sets. Every 5 sets take a lap around the parking lot.
COT & Announcements
Moleskine
4 PAX enjoyed a slow f(l)at prerun and a total of 8 PAX showed up to a workout that at the end was described as “not so hard but annoying.” I’ll wear that one proudly! Disclaimer given, with extra emphasis that I’m only suggesting that you do the stupid things I ask of you, a few sandbags that YHC requested PAX bring shouldered, and we’re off.
Warmup
What kind of resembled a pack of trotting camels, PAX tried to mosey with sandbags on their backs toward the practice field. A brief stop halfway for a circle up.
The Thang
Continue to the field and take a few minutes to set the stage. 2, no wait, 3 tires brought out and lined up alternating with 4 sandbags along the endzone. 7 PAX lined up with these, while the final one lined up at the end. Thanks, Atlas, for jumping all over being the first runner. Commence beat down.
When reaching the other side, I need to make sure I can get some mileage in too. I did just agree to run Ragnar, so what better time to start training than now?
Conveniently, we’re back at where we left the gear! Take a 10 count but PAX still look like they’re not ready to jump back on the gear, so YHC graced them with 10 burpees OYO before repeating the beat down.
Had to cut the final snake run a little short to make sure we could clean up the tires and get the bags back to launch with time. Made it back with a few minutes to spare for mary.
COT & Announcements
Moleskine
There was some great mumble chatter out there today.
Thanks everyone who made it out this morning, great work!
19 PAX showed up as the lights were turned out at The Maul. There’s an analogy in that somewhere. This was my first Q off campus and was much different due to it. But thanks to my previous posts at The Maul, and Google Earth, I was able to build a solid Wienke.
Disclaimer delivered and we’re off.
Warmup
Mosey to Michael’s parking lot for a simple warmup.
The Thang
Mosey to Firebirds where there’s a nice knee-high wall and long parking lot. After a little more explanation than YHC hoped for, PAX partnered up to take turns running laps in the parking lot.
Mosey to the Regal’s parking lot for 11’s with Burpees and Merkins. Use the 11 crape myrtles lining the lot, which curve in as you progress so there’s less running (recovery) and more exercises. PAX finished up and with the stone’s throw mosey to launch, time expired.
COT & Announcements
Moleskine
Although I’ve already had the honor of Q’ing a couple gloomy mornings, it was still a great lesson that gave me some good takeaways this morning at Cuthbertson Middle. DiCCS were given and discussed in detail (heh).
Warmup
After a quick lap around the parking lot to get the blood flowing, PAX circled up and learned a core concept of Q’ing – how to count. One by one the PAX entered the circle to lead the rest in cadence. The next exercise is …, in position, move, in cadence, exercise, 1, 2, 3. If you didn’t get it right the first time, try again. It’s surprising how easy it is to forget such a simple routine when you’re out of breath and in front of a group of men. The actual exercises were unimportant because we were practicing the framework, but were mostly simple – side straddle hops, merkins, imperial walkers and YHC led some windmills. Stuff like that.
The Thang
A super quick takeoff from launch led to a game of pursuit of Goodfella to demonstrate the incorrect way to lead the PAX. After a sprint to the flagpole in front of the school we broke down exactly why Goodfellas lightning bolt across campus was incorrect Q behavior. Circle for the 6, try to keep everyone together, and/or plank it up. We then proceeded to learn a few different routines, by acting them out, that a Q could use for a good workout.
We wrapped up the last 10 minutes of the workout with a few examples of what you can do in the last 10 minutes of a workout and then actually doing one of those, a jack webb.
Everyone then met up at the local coffeeteria, a Chic-Fil-A, to go over some incredibly in-depth documentation put together by Posse. After a good overview of it all, we wrapped it up and committed to going out there and showing what we learned in a Q soon.
Moleskine
10 PAX showed up on an extra hot and muggy day for my 2nd Q at The Arsenal. My Wienke turned out to be a pretty nasty beat down that I think everyone is glad that they didn’t fartsack.
Warmup
Mosey behind the school for a warmup. It was the first time I noticed the basketball courts. Does anybody use those for anything? Probably not because there were no lights and it was pitch black. Maybe I’ll check it out in the future, but back to the warmup.
The Thang
Mosey to the playground for BLIMPS with a lap between each exercise. The kicker – the BLIMPS are cumulative.
This brings us to a grand total of 6 laps (a little less than ¾ of a mile), 30 burpees, 50 lunges, 60 IW’s, 60 merkins, 50 plank jacks, and 30 squats in about 20-25 minutes. I just noticed the pyramid the numbers make; I like it even more now.
Next, I planned on taking us to the large student lot behind the football field but read my watch wrong, thought we were running low on time, and audibled to take us back toward launch to climb the wall in front of the school. Over the wall’s zigs and zags, with a burpee on each landing. It wasn’t until the end of this that I realized we actually had plenty more time, about 20 minutes!
Well, maybe I can get this back on track. There are nicely spaced no parking signs that we’ve used before, not quite as large spaces as the student lot’s planters but will do in a pinch.
PAX partnered up, there was one group of 3 that I was in, but that really didn’t matter because the distance was short enough to keep everyone together. While partner 1 runs to each no parking sign, partner 2 performs an exercise, AMRAP.
At this point we had about 7 minutes left and were already by launch, so we finished the mosey to launch and finished with a full round of Mary that every PAX got to call an exercise.
COT & Announcements
A single announcement from Soft Pretzel – Sandbox project was moved to August 3 from 9 – 12ish. Sounds like a really great opportunity to help a family in need of it.
Moleskine