There is one rule that F3, and life in generally, continually teaches me. You can not control everything. When man makes plans, God laughs and says watch this.
Q-School at the tank began like I imagine every other school day was for most of the PAX growing up. A few good students getting out of their car early to get prepared for the day. The kids that think they are cool get out of their cars, or their mom’s, a minute till time to start. Either scared of the rain ruining their hair, or because they were tired (as if no one else was getting up early to work out). Either way they knew that they had to be at school. There was plenty of chatter as the rain was coming down. HIMs concerned if the lightening was going to come over to J-town and interrupt the direly needed Q-school class that was about to be in session. Either way, we were here to workout come rain or shine, heat or cold. It was 0530, and school was in session.
Here is who was in attendance: Short Hose, Worm, Tony Malito, Meatball, Cutlass, Eeyore, Greenwich, Whooo, Jolly Rancher, Kilo, Vincent (R), Carlos’e, PK (Q). You can decide for yourself who you think was in the cool kids versus the good students.
Most workouts that I Q, I have a weinke written out. Some workouts the course is set, and the PAX can move along with little guidance. Today’s challenge was to present two workout styles in 45 minutes and cover all the required schooling material. So I had a nice piece of paper that I would be checking throughout the workout, and it was getting soaked.
That being the case I began like every good teacher/instructor, and introduced myself. My legal name is T.J. Schulte, I am known in the gloom as PK, and I have been participating in F3 for almost 2 years. My first workout was at the Poshlands on October 2, 2017. I was over-weight, with a great dad-bod, weighing in at 250 pounds. I have lost 60 pounds since then. However, I am still not a professional. As I am the Q for the workout, everything I say is a suggestion. Test your limits, but know them. We do not want anyone to get hurt, however we want everyone to get better. This is specifically outlined in the F3 Credo: Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him.
With the introduction, disclaimer, and credo given, time for the warm-up in COP. After each warm-up I went over the core principles of F3. Reminded the PAX as well, as I have worked out with many of them, how to count the exercise. Each count is to correspond with a movement, not just counting for counting sake. Plenty of mumble chatter on this one, as we all know who cannot count SSH at Vets. If you do not know, come out Friday.
20-SSH (in a 4 count cadence) F3 is free of charge
15-Abe Vigodas (in a 4 count cadence) F3 is open to all men
15-Grass Grabbers (in a 4 count cadence) F3 is held outdoors, rain or shine, heat or cold.
10-Merkins (in a single count cadence) F3 workouts are peer led by men in a rotating fashion, with no training or certifcation required.
20 Copperhead Squats (in a 4 count cadence) F3 workouts all end in a Circle of Trust
20- Finkle Swings 10 each leg (in a 4 count cadence)
With that we moseyed to get the coupons and circle in the parking lot of the Jeffersonian up for some Tabata. The best part about Tabata workouts is that they are easy to prepare. They are AMRAP workouts that you can set up on an app, to call out the exercises, keep the time, and play some tunes while you workout. It is a good rule to test the app settings to make sure it does what you thought it was. I unfortunately did not do that this time. Here is how it was supposed to go down from my weinke. Perform 3 sets of the following exercises:
1 set is the items below:
1 minute coupon bicep curls (15 seconds rest)
1 minute coupon squats (15 seconds rest)
1 minute coupon overhead press (15 seconds)
Rinse and repeat 2 more times. As I did not test out the Tabata, we ended up doing a 3 rounds of each workout, before moving onto the next, and the tunes weren’t coming through. I did get that fixed, however Worm was a little saddened because it wasn’t his favorite band “Kidz Bop”. I think he said he had all the albums. Cutlass was a little upset that the Tabata wasn’t operating at 100%. I kindly reminded him that I couldn’t remember his last Q (it was 10.16.2018 by the way- thank you Tron and the weasel shaker 3000). We had AC/DC, Drowning Pool, and Imagine Dragons playing.
As I mentioned I had two Thangs to get through as well as all the required learning from Nino and McAfee, so we had to put the coupons away and mosey back to the Memorial for Thang 2. Everyone was to partner up for a mini Dora 1, 2, 3. With everyone around the seal, partner 1 runs around the memorial, while partner 2 performs the workout. When partner 1 returns, partner 2 runs a lap while Partner 1 continues the workout until they have reached the cumulative goal established before moving onto the next workout.
50 Burpees
100 Merkins
150 Jump Squats
There was still enough time to do some more. Wanting to use my speaker some more, we also performed the next workout to some tunes. Gutbusters is a workout that can be found on the F3 nation website of exercises. I played this one on my first Q and still like bringing it out on special occasions like today. Everyone starts in and holds a plank during the Ghostbusters song. Every time they say “Ghostbusters” you complete a burpee. In the “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts” sections you do plank jacks in rhythm.
We finished right at 0615. The workout was to show, that just doing simple items can lead to a good workout, and it does not have to be over complicated.
We circled up for Count-o-rama, then Name-o-rama. We gave a few intentions and reminders of the upcoming events that we have coming up in the region. It is great to see so many things and opportunities for our F3 men to step up and lead. Charity events, running clubs, 2nd F opportunities, Ruck events, and the opportunities abound. I thanked the men for the opportunity to lead them, and to grow. We prayed that this workout would be the hardest thing that we faced for the day, and if not, know we can get through whatever challenge is thrown upon us, together. Thank you for challenging me, and allowing me to challenge each student.
T-claps to Cutlass. He stepped up after Q-school graduation and asked to Q next week. Can’t wait to see him put his newfound education to work.
F3 Louisville 