Quad Dukesie 2025

The original 2017 Quad Dukesie at Novitiate Park in Los Gatos involved 4 laps where each lap started with 25 pull-ups, 25 pushups, and 25 squats, followed by a 4 mile trail run up the Flume trail to thte top of St. Joes with +840 ft of gain, where we did 25 burpees at the summit mid-lap. Each lap took about close to an hour. A finisher did not materialize until the third year.

After moving to Ventura and a Covid hiatus in 2020, I thought I found the perfect arena. The pull-up bars at De Anza middle school and the trail straight up the pipeline to the ridge. Although the trail was shorter, just 2 miles round trip, it was steeper at 1,000 ft per one mile. The total time was slightly shorter at 50 minutes per lap.

Closure of our pipeline trail moved the venue and the event in 2024 and no pull-ups were involved at all! Nominally, each lap involved two times up the Hill of Despair, taking 50 minutes per lap.

For 2025, November 29, I believe we can go back to De Anza middle school and its lovely pull-up bars. Without the pipeline trail, we'll have to find something else so we get the lap times back to around 50 minutes. And 3-4 hours total for a Quad Dukesie.

Required Equipment

• 2 5 gallon buckets (home depot variety)
• 2 sandbags, 50# each; generally 35# for women (i can offer 25-35# dumbbells)
• water, food

Each Lap

As usual, each lap requires 25 pull-ups, 25 push-ups and 25 squats. Each variation should match your capabilities to barely get 25 reps. You can mix exercises to get to the total rep count. For instance, I normally do 5 pull-ups and then 15 push-ups, 5 pull-ups, and then 15 squats and so forth. Based on your abilities, you can mix in chin-ups and inverted rows for the pull-ups. For push-ups, these should be the hardest variation you can do 10-15 reps for - diamind, spiderman, sphinx, archer. See here for some some ideas. Same for squats - without weights, 25 split squats on each side is good unless you want to use a sandbag. About 10 minutes per lap.

Lap 1

Bucket Mile. We're going to position our sandbags and buckets at the end of the parking lot facing the basketball fields. With a sandbag in each bucket, and a bucket in each hand, we will farmer carry them straight down the pavement to Ventura Ave. and back. Upon return, do 25 burpees. Now grab the buckets and do another trip to Ventura Ave. and back. That's a bucket mile. The bucket mile should take ~30 minutes and a few more for the burpees should have us complete lap 1 in about 40 to 45 minutes.

Lap 2

Trail run. From the back of the school on Cedar St., we run to Seneca St. Near the end of Seneca is a trail that goes up to the ridge line. At the ridge, we do our 25 burpees and then return. It's 2.1 miles of running, just 675 ft of climbing. This lap should be around 40 minutes.

Lap 3

From the pull-up bars, covering the vast field to the south, we will do one lap, just 0.32 miles, alternating bear crawls and lunges. To the first corner, bear crawls. To the second corner, lunges. To an estimated mid-point down the field, bear crawls. Now to 25 burpees. Lunges to the next corner. Bear crawls to the next corner, and then lunges to start/finish. Probably 20 minutes.

Lap 4

In a first, we will drive from the pull-up bars to the final section. The start point is on Santa Clara Ave, across from the Clocktower Inn. From there, we will run up Palm St and Ferro Dr, up the trails above the cross as high as they go and then return coming down Brakey Rd. 2.5 mi RT and 590 ft of climbing. Burpees at the top, of course. 35 minutes?

That's a grand total of 3 hours plus any downtime we might want between laps.