Union County Q School

Union County Q School

A double deuce of Former Sad Payaso’s gathered in the Hazard County gloom to take the next step in #gettingbetter.  What is that, you ask?  It’s LEADERSHIP, that’s what it is.  Today was all about learning to lead a F3 workout.

Why?  Here’s why.

The mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership

Men were created to be leaders.  We were created to lead our wives and our families, and also to lead one another.  Sometimes, we just need a little motivation and encouragement . . . and maybe some teaching.

THE THANG BEFORE THE THANG:

At 6AM, a few of us (GJ, EE, Shephard, Crab Legs, and a Suprised Toughskins (more on this later)) met for a pre run with the 2.0s tagging behind on bikes.  The kiddos were outfitted with lots of blinking lights today, which made for some amusement as they weaved around and heckled encouraged us during the run.

THE THANG:

Horsehead Lead

Run to the practice fields.

A few Forwards, Backwards, and Sideways runs back and forth across the field to warm up the legs a bit.

Circle up for a large COP.  After some demonstrations of the basics of cadence calling with a few examples, we went around the circle and let each PAX take a turn at leading an exercise.  Every man was given a chance to lead and most pulled it off without a hitch.  Crab Legs, who enthusiastically launched into some ludicrous speed Imperial Walkers, gets the award for most entertaining exercise.  Big Trade asked how to do burpees in cadence, and then busted out 10 perfect 6 count burpees for his first ever lead – not too shabby.   Didn’t even spill any water from his #batbelt.

Double Applesauce run to the Shiloh Elementary Playground, with some instruction and advice about moving large groups from place to place.  Break in the middle to round up the 2.0s, who were chasing geese around.

8 Mins of She Hate Me, led by Countertop.  While calling this, he explained how these circuit sets allow the newer pax to catch their breath while the more experienced pax can go as hard as they want through the sets.

Repeated sets of:

• 40 toe taps on bench
• 20 donkey kicks on swing
• 10 pullups

Brief Mary led by Countertop, demonstrating cadence calling again for the pax.  Also, a demonstration of this ridiculous sideways spider jump up exercise thing that nobody could do properly.  About halfway into that, everyone was just looking confused and he revealed that he had called it “on purpose” to throw off the pax and demonstrate how to move on if you’ve called a bad one.  It happens to all of us . . . Good recovery.

Pinball run led by EE to back bus lot.  Another demonstration of how to move the large group along.  This one has the faster guys doing repeated sprints to landmarks and then jogging back to pick up the six.  Everyone gets a lung burner here.

Decreasing sets of Bomb Jacks and Derkins, starting at 10 each and working down to 1.  Break in the middle for some wall squats and air presses.

Mosey to Front Lot to finish out with some more Mary led by assorted pax.

MOLESKINE:

Poor Toughskins!  An error in the Mint Hill email that listed the Q school as starting at 6AM lured him out an hour too early.  He took a strong dose of #manup and joined in with us on the pre run activities, with only minor grumbling.  Strong work my friend.

Nobody calls cadence like Countertop.  It will almost lull you to sleep from the soothing rhythm, but will most certainly put you on your back as you pretend to do those core exercises that only he is able to pull off sometimes.

Speaking of the #weekendwarrior, CT did a really awesome looking aerial dive when demonstrating the swing donkey kicks.  He basically dove through the air and landed perfectly on the swing, right into the first rep.  I may have attempted a variation of this (this is unconfirmed) with less than stellar results (my pants almost came down and I got a boo boo).

The pax are getting stronger, which is apparent during the long runs from location to location.  We had a group of 22 today and everyone stayed together fairly well.  A couple of months ago, and it would have been strung out like Courtney Love.

Lots of enthusiasm about VQs now.  Next week, stay tuned for a three man Q featuring The Late Show, Smokey, and Big Trade.  This will be Smokeys 2nd Q (1st at Outland) and a VQ for Big Trade.  More guys also lining up to follow.

Also, be on the lookout for a new Tuesday workout at Indian Trail Elementary School.  A couple of guys are looking hard at this now for a fall launch.

I am very excited about the growth at this AO and the upcoming expansion and leadership opportunities.  I will be 2 years into this F3 thing in a couple of weeks, and I believe it has been used to mold me into a better man.  I hope it will serve the same purpose for many others.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

I’ve typed enough, read them somewhere else.

Read the preblast for links to some valuable documents to help with leading your first F3 workout.

http://f3nation.com/2015/09/04/union-county-q-school-preblast/

Always a privilege

– Horsehead