Thursday night as I was thinking through ideas for the Q, I saw a deck of cards – immediately I had flashbacks to the first time I remembered this type of prop was used – Bob Villa @FloodZone.  And that is sometimes how a Q planning session goes…little did I know how much I might regret that decision.

Friday AM, I arrived a few minutes early for Extra Credit to find Friar Tuck and Denali onsite already waiting.  As a Q or PAX, this is probably the #1 reason we keep coming – we just know we won’t be alone.  I have no scientific evidence to prove this, but my experience has shown that as a Q, there’s something that happens as the PAX begin to gather and it seems you get a Jolt Cola’s worth of adrenaline when leading.  Here’s what went down:

EXTRA CREDIT (515-530):  Brief Warmup – SSH x25, Prisoner Squats x20, Imperial Walker x20, Run down towards Belks, Bear Crawl up ramp to second deck.  5 Burpees OYO – Squat Hold – Sprint down to the wall and back – plank hold while waiting.  Repeato x2.  I think we did some Merkins here or there as well.  Peoples Chair (while watching dueling banjos – more on that later).  Derkins w/ feet on top of the wall x 10.  Backwards Bear Crawl down the ramp.  Run back to the PAX

REGULAR (530-615):  No FNG’s, short disclaimer given.  10 Burpees OYO, some other exercise or two I can’t recall, run up the stairs to the second level.  Count off by 4’s and form into groups.

Round 1:  Groups 1-2 (Sprint about 100 yards to a pillar, 10 LBCs – don’t run back until your entire group has finished).  Groups 3-4 (Merkins AMRAP until the other groups return) – Flapjack

Round 2:  Same with sprinting groups doing 10 Merkins, non-running groups doing Freddy Mercurys AMRAP – flapjack

Competitive Mary:  each group chose a Mary exercise that the other 3 performed in cadence while the group that called it would plank.  I can’t recall all the called Mary’s but think it was:

  • LBC’s
  • Flutter Kicks
  • Boat – Canoe
  • Reverse LBCs

Jog up the stairs to the next level, Circle up.  YHC pulled out the deck of cards and explained that each PAX would pull a card off the top and perform the exercise for the suit that was drawn (Ace = 11, Face cards = 10).  YHC had different PAX give me an exercise for the suits:

  • Diamonds = Diamond Merkins  – (Macgruber) #naturally
  • Hearts = American Hammers – (Life Alert)
  • Clubs = Prison Cell Merkin Burpees – (Orwell) #crowdpleaser
  • Spades = Burpees (Denali)

With 22 PAX in attendance, a round trip through the entire deck we did not, but it didn’t matter, plenty of pain began to ensue.  YHC did not open a brand new set of cards for this Q, but I’m telling you it felt like all we kept pulling were Clubs.  Mumblechatter was a plenty, especially directed towards Orwell for choosing a most-miserable of Burpee styles #WorseThan8-point-man-makers?  After 5 PCMB’s, #youdecide.

Once the #PrisonofPain was over, we formed two lines and did an Indian Run through the garage back to the cars.  Circle up for some Mary

  • LBCs
  • London Bridge
  • American Hammers

COT

MOLESKIN:

  • During Extra Credit, we had to move out of the way for a couple cars that came up the ramp.  While doing Peoples Chair we noticed that for like 30 seconds both cars were going back and forth into some parking spots like dueling banjos.  Keep in mind there are like 5 cars in the entire parking deck at that hour #RandomThingsYouSeeAt520am
  • My favorite moment:  just over half-way through the deck of cards, a PAX pulls the Ace of Spades “expletive Orwell” were the next words out of his mouth – YHC almost considered calling an audible on that one, but the PAX persevered.  11 PCMB’s is not fun.
  • Last time I saw Pergo was about a month ago at Flood Zone when we partnered together.  He had pulled a hamstring and had to stop.  Pergo posted for Extra Credit – TClaps for persevering and working through injury.
  • Despite the threat of icy roads, we didn’t have any issues in and around the AO.  Friday may end up being the last Flood Zone in the 20 degree range until November or December.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

  • 3/7 – 6am, 645am F3 Raleigh 3 year anniversary Convergence at Pullen Park
  • 4/11 – Mud Run – see Duff or Zima if you still are interested in participating.

YHC shared a short devotional from Our Daily Bread that you can read here:  http://odb.org/2015/03/06/solving-the-mystery/

PRAYERS:  Healing for several individuals, Orwell’s trip to Shanghai, China this week.

Orwell closed us out strong.