Four New Orleans Pax descended upon Mobile as the final round of guest Qs. Here was our line-up:
Gabrielle – A beast of a man. He’s helped lead an Uptown resurgence as those around him strive to achieve similar looking biceps.
Jingle Vader – The name says it all. A stalwart of F3 New Orleans. No one has attended more workouts than this High-Impact Man.
Rev Sox – A long time hold-out, but ever since he was finally coerced into posting at an F3 workout he’s been afire. He is single-handedly responsible for bringing F3 back to America’s City.
YHC – Unfortunately, I’ve really let myself go. I don’t even own shoes anymore. If only the Men of Mobile (MOMs) could have seen me in my heyday.
Just before 0700 we introduced ourselves to our 3 native cohorts, YHC provided the disclaimer and we were off on a short exploration of this great AO. I can’t say that we rode into Mobile with all the fury and fight of the Four Horseman that Grantland Rice made famous, but I can say that the two jogging stroller moms did peer once or twice at the bewildering panorama spread on the green plain below. (Shout out to Rudy).
Warm-up
The Mobilites are on their own next week so YHC spent a little time going over how to count and then gave them the opportunity to lead some exercises in cadence.
SSH x 10 (YHC); SSH x 10 (Plunge); Imperial Walkers x 10 (Sludge); Squats x 10 (Boots);
Then we talked about saying recover when it’s time to get up…and if you want everyone to stay in plank, don’t say recover: Peter Parkers x 15; Plank Jacks x 15; Parker Peters x 15…recover.
Then we went over some different types of cadences:
Tempo Merkins x 15 (3 counts down – 1 count up); 8 count Body Builders* x 10; Jack Webb (2-count cadence) up to 10.
*I totally fouled up the body builders. I knew I had the merkin and plank jack backwards after the first one, but I owned it and kept trucking with supreme confidence, as if I this were the way they are supposed to be done. Fortunately, I brought along 3 men from New Orleans that were all quick to point out I was wrong.
The Thang
The Q was passed to Rev Sox. During our two and a half hour planning session the night before, we had decided Rev Sox would Q some 11s. However, during introductions, we learned the Mobilenniums had already done 11s. Not to be deterred, we flipped to Appendix E of our game plan and chose plan C.3 – Global Warming.
All pax in a circle holding an Al Gore. Pax #1 starts 5 burpees. When he gets to burpee #3, the pax to his right starts 5 burpees, so on and so forth around the circle twice.
We then moseyed to one of many open fields where there were some benches. Chong-Li delivered an epic beatdown during the New Orleans launch almost 4 years ago that included something we named the Red Hot Chili Pepper. He did it under the I-610 overpass in City Park, I assume because he saw a bunch of tables and benches there. 1) Who would think that people would want to picnic under an interstate overpass? 2) Who would want to work out on abandoned picnic tables covered in bird feces? Fun fact: It’s been 4 years since the New Orleans Pax have worked out under that overpass.
This was a modified version of the original Chili Pepper (in cadence).
Channing Tatums x 16; Decline Merkins x 8; Tatum Channings x 16; Incline Merkins x 8;
Channing Tatums x 12; Decline Merkins x 6; Tatum Channings x 12; Incline Merkins x 6;
Channing Tatums x 8; Decline Merkins x 4; Tatum Channings x 8; Incline Merkins x 4;
Channing Tatums x 4; Decline Merkins x 2; Tatum Channings x 4; Incline Merkins x 2
Then it was on to the middle of the field where we circled up for half of a Dirty MacDeuce.
JV on Q – Nolan Ryans (left hand down) x 12; dying cock roaches x 12; Bobby Hurleys x 12 – 1 lap.
Gabrielle on Q – Arm Circles (6 forward, 6 back); Flutter Kicks x 12; Squat Jacks x 12
This left us just enough time to play a little F3 Ultimate. On each change of possession, the team losing possession must do 2 merkins, play doesn’t stop until someone scores. Team that gets scored upon must do 5 burpees and sprint to the other end of the field. YHC picked teams as I paired myself with the 3 Mobilesexuals. I chose well as we thrashed the New Orleanians, scoring 3 times in about 4 minutes. One might say we won because we outnumbered them 4 to 3, but I’m pretty sure we won because Plunge was on our team. He may have been able to beat us 1 on 6.
That was it. We gathered our flip flops and headed back to the flag, arriving a couple of minutes late…Don’t ever let that happen again. We enjoyed COT and then headed out for coffeeteeria.
Naked Man Moleskin
- Thanks to F3 Mobile for inviting us to take part in their launch. We all thoroughly enjoyed getting to know these men. I don’t know about the rest of Mobile, but these three guys are top notch. They are going to do some great things in this city.
- Rev Sox, who hasn’t been to a Saturday workout since his FNG posting felt like he was working out in the middle of the day with the 0700 start. It’s much brighter at 0700 than 0530.
- I was more than thrilled to see Boots’ choice of footwear. Shoes may be the standard F3 attire, but who says that’s right?
- Mobile is set up for success with both the AO and the coffee shop. The AO has a ton of potential. I didn’t see a place to do pull-ups, so someone may need to take that into their own hands and provide a solution. Not a lot of inclines either, so you may need to get creative there, but there are tons of open fields, a pavilion, benches, etc. The coffee shop was a local spot and had plenty of room. It also had a stage, which opens up lots of possibilities.
