F3 New Orleans

Author: Steve

  • Running In Circles

    There were a couple of noteworthy things at this morning’s beatdown: Bubba’s victorious return after a lengthy F3 hiatus, Moby’s first completed workout since suffering an ankle injury, and Maverick’s remarkably prompt arrival at the Gipper!  T-claps to all these men for stepping it up.

    So… after a month of running stagnation, YHC was finally in a running mood this morning.  Most of the thang today therefore involved… you guessed it, running.

    Warm-up: Good Mornings, Toe Touches, Windmills, 15x IC.  SSHs, Seal Jacks, and High Knees, 25x IC.

    The Thang: First, off to the Taj for a new partner routine: PAX performs flutter kicks while two men run the perimeter of the Taj in opposite directions.  Once they meet on the other side, they knock out 5 burpees and then return along the same path.  Next pair up, and so on, until the entire PAX has completed the run.  Followed up with the same drill but mountain climbers replaced flutter kicks, and lastly, jump squats.

    Mosey to the grass in front of the parking garage for a quick set of Catalina Wine Mixers, 15x IC (at an odd 6-count that miraculously went over smoothly).  The name may be hoity toity, but the exercise itself is straight grunt work.  Then up to the 2nd floor to start another partner drill: P1 begins lunge walking up the ramp, while P2 runs past him to do a loop – up, around, and back down the stairs to catch P1 and switcheroo.  Then bear crawls, then broad jumps.

    Lastly, before returning to the flag: burpee suicides.  Sprint to mid-parking lot and back, 5 burpees.  Full length and back, 5 burpees.  This one was inspired by Grundy’s looooong PFT sprint, which I think I can safely say kicked everyone’s ass last Saturday (except Turbo, of course).

    Back safely at the flag, there was just enough time to do Jane Fonda’s, 20x IC each leg.

    Countdown, nameorama, and Moby prayed us out.  As always, thank you men for the opportunity to lead and get stronger with you.

  • El Cinco de Dolor y Miseria

    Well, as they say… that happened.  The FBI physical fitness test pre-thang Q’d by Grundy started promptly at 0545 as promised, but it would require a prodding Bushwacker to keep this thing on schedule.  You see, until this morning, none of us (least of all Grundy) realized just how patriotic our lakefront residents were.  After knocking out as many sit-ups as possible in a minute, we slow-moseyed down the street looking for Grundy’s starting line… “a bench lined up with an American flag.”  Turns out there are a lot of American flags, and a bunch of benches out there.  A bit of confused back and forth and finally, worried about respecting the time, Wacker just took off on the 300 meter sprint.  The rest of the PAX quickly followed.

    T-claps to Grundy who got us out there, and to those men who got up early to complete the PFT: 1 minute of sit-ups, 300 m sprint, max out on merkins, 1.5 miles in less that 12:50.  YHC would call out each man individually, but the fog of being thoroughly beaten has settled in, and it’s a miracle I even remembered the 20 PAX who posted today.   Not sure who passed and who failed, but all men did admirably and with all the turnover going on at the Bureau these days, it’s a good thing they’ve got some young men like Grundy coming in.

    So yeah – 20 PAX this morning!  All the EH’ing and warm weather is paying off.  FNG’s are rolling in each week and that’s got the rest of us posting more regularly and upping our game.  Speaking of upping our game – YHC had sincerely thought last night about doing… well, not an easy beatdown, but maybe a more mild one?  But nah…

    Alright, enough rambling, here’s what went down:

    Warmorama: Toe Touches, Imperial Walkers, Seal Jacks, SSH, Butt Kicks, High Knees, Mountain Climbers, Plank Jacks.  All 20x IC.

    The Thang:

    Mosey west for a COP: 20x IC side to side plank hops, plank jacks, partner up for jump overs (20 OYO), in-out jump squats, and everyone’s favorite, monkey humpers.

    Ei said it best when he noted, “Well, now that we’ve embarrassed ourselves there…” onto the next location!  Mosey to the loading dock for what I knew would be a real crowd pleaser: burpees down the street!  More mumbling from Bushwacker (you really can’t be fasting that much with all today’s chatter), trying to tell me that I can’t eat an elephant one spoonful at a time, or some such nonsense.

    Because there were so many men this morning, YHC decided we’d partner up and P1 would hold plank while P2 burpee’d down the street.  It goes like this: burpee with the standard 1 merkin, but on the jump up do a broad jump forward.  2nd burpee has 2 merkins, followed by 2 broad jumps, 3 x 3, and so on, down the road.  It was fun.  Even better than I imagined on paper. 

    At about this time a few 10 counts were needed (in espanol for Cinco de Mayo), and then we moved over to the playground for a few stations.

    P1 holds a wall sit and does air presses while P2 hits the three padded stations: Sister Mary Katherine’s x15, hand-release merkins, and LBC’s, all single-count x15.  After 2 reps each, P1 does heels to heaven while P2 hits the stations, flapjack, 2 reps each.

    Next up, formed two lines to indian run back to the flag.  Finish up with Hello Dolly’s x25 IC.

    Countdown, nameorama, naming of our two FNG’s  (welcome Doolittle and Vel-Vito!!), and Splice prayed us out.  The only thing that would make this beatdown more complete would be a drive-by from Choppa…

    On to the Coffetería, which looked to have a little more action than usual with the table dancing, but you’ll have to check the groupme for that report.  A sincere thanks to this great group of men – despite my body’s response, YHC had a great time out there this morning.  Keep posting, keep the FNG’s coming, and hey, let’s try to get some of our missing comrades (ahem, Turtle and Bubba) back in action.  See you guys out there.

     

    EDIT: One (hopefully) final edit on this unusually long backblast: this was likely Carpool’s final posting as a Northshore resident.  As his family makes the trek over to the Woodlands, we wish them nothing but the best.  He’s been a great addition to the F3 family over here, and Houston will be lucky to have him.  Stay tuned for info on Carpool’s Woodlands launch (potentially mid-July?), would be great if a couple of us could make it out there to support him.

  • Tramps Like Us

    These days, it sure doesn’t feel like YHC was born to run.  Mosey, maybe.  But run?  And run with sprinting?  No, no, no… not with the post-Classic staleness I’ve been battling.

    Of course, that’s the thing about F3 – the exercises you despise… well, they somehow, in some twisted way, make it into your Q.  And make no mistake, this is my least favorite beatdown.  But with Chewy firmly back in the fold, it seemed appropriate to bring back his most excruciating gift to the PAX: High Intensity Interval Training.  Basically, interspersing long sprints within our usual 5k run (the key word being ‘long’).  I know, it doesn’t sound too bad on paper, but boy is it miserable.  (A little less miserable than I remember, probably due to our slower pace and the fact that summer hasn’t fully kicked in yet.)   At one point Chewy provided some scientific papers to prove the method’s effectiveness over traditional running, but hey, you’ll have to scour the history of Northshore backblasts for that one. 

    First, though, a little warmorama: PAX lined up along the parking lot edge and did the following dynamic stretches: lunge twists, high kicks, knee tucks, carioca.

    Then time to hit the HIIT, knocking out about 5x 300-400 yard sprints sprinkled throughout the usual path to and fro Sunset Point.  Unfortunately for the PAX, Wacker is on some crazy fast and so the mumble chatter was, as POTUS might say, low-energy.

    Once back, a quick plank stretch before the PAX humored me by hitting the monkey bars for some hanging toe touches – hang from the bar, kick your feet up and attempt to touch your toes to said bar.  x12, with only intermittent success.

    And finally wrap it up with 15x IC Manmakers & 15x IC Crunchy Frogs.

    Countdown, nameorama, and Shooter led us out with prayer.  T-claps to Sprocket who’s now made two consecutive Scrambles after a long hiatus – good to have you back.  And thanks guys, I certainly would not have done that on my own!

  • Long Duk Dong and The Marsh Revival

    After a weeklong hiatus from F3, spent hanging with Captain Hollywood aboard the USS Kidd, it felt really good to be back in action this morning.  First off, t-claps to Bushwhacker, who responded promptly to Turbo’s call to EH more FNG’s, producing one the very next beatdown at the near-comatose Marsh.  Just more proof that Wacker’s gift of gab is good for more than just entertaining the men of F3.  Our FNG – Big Tuna – jokingly introduced himself with his own nickname (one that had us all laughing but won’t be printed here for posterity), a nickname that had YHC thinking of a classic character from 1980’s cinema (and yes, likely an offensive cliche) – Long Duk Dong, aka “The Donger.” YHC slightly regretted not bringing this up, because upon further reflection on the car ride home, YHC decided ‘The Donger’ is a pretty great nickname.  So like that time when Rudy wanted someone to be named Apples and willed it to be, YHC may be bringing The Donger out again in the near future.  But…  ‘Big Tuna’ fit the bill just as well, and he was a very welcome addition to the crew this morning, single-handedly getting the Marsh back up on its feet with SIX  PAX posting.  It felt like old times.  Now if we could get Splice back out there, this AO’s days of solo posts could be a thing of the past.

    Warm-Up: SSH, IW’s, Windmills, Toe Touches, Good Mornings, High Knees, Butt Kicks, all IC at or around 20x.

    The Thang:  Back at the Classic a few weeks ago, Shooter, Sparkles, Wacker and YHC passed the practice track in City Park and remembered fondly the 14 hours of pain and misery known as the Grow Ruck.  YHC is pretty sure the Marsh was borne out of that experience, where many of us first experienced the army physical fitness test.  Butt Splice opened the Milestone Marsh for business soon after, pushing us to set a benchmark each week with 1 minute of merkins, 1 minute of sit-ups, and a timed 1 mile run.  Keep your count and try to improve each week.  It’s been a while, and YHC thought it’d be nice to bring back a component of that.  So we began with:

    1 minute, as many merkins as possible.  The Pelican knocked it out of the park, so he took a water break while the rest of us hit 10x burpees, OYO.

    Next up, 1 minute of sit-ups.  YHC is not sure who won the count on this one, but it didn’t matter too much since there was no time for another 10 burpees, gotta keep this train moving.  So we moseyed onward, to the lakefront.

    Stop at the sea wall for: Irkins x10 IC / BSS L x10 IC / Freak Nasties x 10 IC / BSS R x10 IC / Derkins x10 IC.

    Then, on to the legendary stairs of Rips for a twist on an old classic: PAX performs Rocky Balboas, while one man begins the ascent, performing 10x calf raises as he hits each step.  At around the 3rd step, he call the next man up.  And so on, until the entire crew is lined up staggered on the stairs, pulsing up and down like a bunch of madmen.  Once you hit the top platform, knock out 10x merkins and then begin the descent, this time performing 10x squats on each step.  As each man completes the journey, he returns to the curb to continue with the Rocky Balboas until the entire PAX has completed the routine.

    Finally, mosey back to the Marsh to hit an abbreviated Mary: Leg Raises 15x IC, Putins 20x IC.

    Countdown, Nameorama and naming of the FNG, Announcements and Pelican prayed us out.  Welcome Big Tuna, great to see a new man post at 0500 on a Monday morning!  Hope to see you out there again soon.  And thanks guys for the opportunity to lead and for the motivation to get out of bed, I appreciate it!

  • Mastering the 8-Count

    Warm Up: Toe Touches, Good Mornings, Windmills, SSH’s, Toy Soldiers, Seal Jacks, Sister MK’s, all IC at or around 20x.

    The Thang:

    Mosey East towards the Lakefront playground, hitting a series of 8-count exercises at each cross street:

    1st 20x 8-Count Bodybuilders

    2nd 15x 8-Count Absolutions

    3rd 10x 8-Count Bodybuilders, 10x 8-Count Absolution

    So the F3 Nation website or – the more frequently visited – Grundy Audited Database (GAD for short) says that a wise Q will introduce the 8-count cadence for the exercise known as Absolution, but then “instruct the PAX to do the exercise OYO, lest he give the impression of weakness.”  Well, YHC has never been accused of being wise and this group of men has certainly already seen me act weak (ahem… the high-pitched squeal as Captain Sparkles emerges from the bushes), so… time to forget one’s pride and school the Q in mastering the 8-count!

    The thing is, the 8-count isn’t actually that difficult.  So really, this was more of an excuse to wreck the PAX early on, which seemed to have worked.  (At the very least, it wrecked this here Q.)

    A few 10-counts later, we arrived at the playground and split into partners for a little routine up the tallest “hill” in Old Mandeville.  These sort of rigorous elevation changes would be good training for those running the Blue Ridge Relay this fall.  Here’s what we did:

    P1 does squats, P2 run-walks (aka, lunge walks) up to the swingset pad and back.  Flapjack.

    P1 does merkins, P2 bear crawls up and back.  A little slippery this morning.

    P1 does lunges, P2 frog jumps up and back.

    And finally, P1 does Freak Nasties, P2 does an 80% sprint around the perimeter.

    A few more 10-counts sprinkled throughout, and we’re onward to the back of the baseball field, which had a lot of action for 0700.  Gearing up for an early morning game, the PAX got to watch some kids practice their swings, and also witness the slowest-ever flag raise while we planked up and one by one (or two by two, I suppose) hit the pull-up bars for 8 pull-ups.  The 2nd round was 4 pull ups, and the flag had still only made it to half mast.  Did a round of 25x IC Mountain Climbers, but still didn’t get to see that flag hit the top.  Oh well, can’t plank forever.  Time for an Indian Run back to the flag.

    T-Claps to Low Nays who overcame the strong urge to splash some merlot and made it back to the flag for some Mary: (all IC) Flutter Kicks x20, Leg Raises x 15, Putins x20, Jane Fondas/QuickPulses/Heel-to-Knees x20 each leg.

    Countdown, nameorama, announcements (Sign up for the Classic!  Sign up to Q!), and The Manny led us out in prayer.  Thank you guys for the push to be a better man, and for a truly great start to the weekend.

  • Mid-Month AMRAP Recap

    At a cool 38° and with the Ides of March approaching, it wasn’t a Shakespearean betrayal that had YHC worried – it was what miserable AMRAP challenge would Turbo come up with next?  So 14 days in, I figured we’d sprinkle a few of the past challenge exercises (italicized below) throughout today’s beatdown as a reminder of this month’s short but effective doses of pain.

    Warm-Up: Good Mornings x15, IW’s x20, Windmills x15, SSHs x25, 8-Count Bodybuilders x15, Shoulder Taps x25, all IC.

    The Thang: First and foremost, mosey to the back of the Justice Center to knock out today’s challenge before our legs were jello (gotta keep those numbers up!): 90 seconds of one-legged curb hops (45 secs each leg).  Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson were somewhere around the block in downtown Covington this morning, starring as two Texas Rangers on the hunt for Bonnie and Clyde.  Had they seen Turbo perform his one-legged curb hops with his usual sense of ease, he surely would’ve merited a part as a Ranger alongside the two (though, probably one who gets shot down early on in the film).  Is there enough room on the Northshore for two stars of the silver screen?

    Onward to the Veteran Memorial for a COP:  Burp n’ Groin, Burpees with ascending groiners after the merkin, up to 10x. As the PAX has noticed, groiners have become my new go-to.  Out with the old (Sayonara Bulgarians!), in with the new.

    Animal Walk on the grass back to the rear of the Justice Center: Bear Crawl, Monkey Humpers x20 IC, Duck Walk, Monkey Humpers x20 IC, Crab Walk, Frog Jumps x10 (forward and back)

    Next up, an AMRAP run up the rear justice center walkway: 10x Hand Release Merkins at the starting line, 10x derkins at first set of benches, alternating one-legged Freak Nasties x10 at second set, and up the stairs for 10x Butt Kick Jumps.  Reverse, hitting those same stations until reaching the starting point.  Rinse and repeat for approx. 8 mins.  (Hitting the derkins station for the 3rd time and facing a slab of concrete with weakened arms was a good reminder that YHC had forgotten the disclaimer.)

    Finally, plank up and wait while each man takes a turn sprinting the corridor, up the stairs and back.

    YHC wanted to return to the flag for and get in a few minutes of Mary, but alas, out of time.  Greeted at the flag by a nearly fully-recovered Moby, who is looking rested and slim!  Countdown, nameorama, and Shooter prayed us out.  T-claps to Turbo for reminding us to sign up to Q – if you haven’t already, please do.  Let’s get this next month all locked up.  Thanks for the opportunity to lead guys!

  • Purple Rain

    If you live in Old Mandeville, and are up at odd hours like the men of F3, then you’ve surely noticed the otherworldly purple glow emanating from sky in the center of town.  Many have been beckoned by this glow, called upon to find out just what exactly is this heavenly luminescence?  And YHC can assure you, all were as disappointed as I was to discover that it was simply the car wash at the corner of Florida and Girod.  Effective marketing, though.

    But before I left the comfort of my home and saw the purple rain, my half-asleep wife asked me on my way out, “You guys still work out in this rain?”  The implication being, Well, maybe you work out in a light drizzle.  But a downpour like this?  That stopped me for a moment.  YHC has been in F3 for a year and a half now, and my wife doesn’t know the ‘rain or shine’ motto of F3 nation?  Hard to believe.  I guess I’ll have to double down on my efforts to post on rainy mornings in 2018.

    Luckily, though, Shooter and Chewy know the opportunities that a morning like this one provides, and were out there ready to go:

    Warm-Up: SSH, Seal Jacks, Windmills, IWs, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, Plank Jacks, Nolan Ryans L / R, all IC, 20x.

    The Thang:  First up, a Dirty McDeuce.  YHC used to attempt to plan out all 12 exercises, but upon realizing the limits of my memory these days, I’ve determined the best course of action is to simply wing it.  So these may not be exactly right, but it went something like this:

    Merkins / Shoulder Taps / Lunges, all 12x IC.  Sprint half the corridor & back, sprint full corridor, up stairs and back.

    Burpees (12 oyo) / Mountain Climbers / Squats, 12x IC.  Sprints / stairs.

    Hand-release Merkins (thanks Turbo) / Absolution (killer 8 count exercise) / Slow-squat Jumps, 12x IC.  Sprints / stairs.

    Bodybuilders / Peter Parkers / Sister Mary Katherine’s, 12x IC. Sprints / stairs.

    Next up, onward to the benches for an old favorite: Freak Nasties IC, Lateral Jumps over Bench (oyo), Step Ups R / L, all 12x.  Then, more Freak Nasties IC, Knee Ups R / L, Bulgarian Splits R / L, all 12x.  And finally, Freak Nasties, Derkins, 12x IC.  This probably killed our chances of competing with Grundy in today’s ISI challenge (the likelihood of which was very slim to begin with).

    Mary: Mosey back to the stage for the finale, Hurricane Hoedown, a descending circuit of flutter kicks.  Start off seated, slightly reclined – 7x, IC.  Move to standard flutter, 7x, IC.  Then hands behind head, Freddie-flutters, 7x IC.  Back to first position, now 6x IC, eventually working our way all the way down.  With a minute to spare, we knocked out some Crunchy Frogs, did the countdown, nameorama, and Shooter prayed us out.  Thank you guys for posting in the rain and giving me the opportunity to lead, it really was pleasure!

  • Code Red at the Marsh

    It’s been fairly well-documented, but The Marsh has been on life support for weeks.  A harsh winter and the prolonged absence of Butt Splice has put the AO into a deep coma, and resuscitation has been slow and unsuccessful.  YHC provided some half-assed CPR this morning, but knows that it’ll take the return of Señor Splice and some warm weather to really get this AO moving again.

    Here’s what went down this morning: YHC rolls in a little early (that’s right, I’m back in a car now), and whips out the phone to see who’s Q.  A glowing, empty slot stares back at me.  So… it’ll either be a Round Robin, or no one will post.  Turtle made some vague mention of possibly-maybe-potentially showing, and one of the Seal Team 6 members can always surprise you.  But as the minutes wore on it became clear no one would post this morning, and YHC felt awake enough to do something.  Now, if this comes off as, Hey, look at me, guys! I went out and got some while you guys fartsacked!, let me just assure you that last Friday at the Cove was another no-show morning, and YHC did absolutely nothing.  (I noted to myself that it took 66 steps to get to the car and only 42 to make it right back to my bed.)  And this morning was not much more: a bit of standard warm up, jog around the block, descending ladder of pull-ups, the ISI challenge of the day, and some mary.

    Now, with the Marsh facing such decline, I’m going to make a commitment to make at least the next two Mondays.  Maybe the next three.  And I challenge you guys to do the same.  Shooter’s got the Q next Monday, let’s show the man some support!

     

  • Level 3 Running Achievement Unlocked: Bleeding Nipples!

    Yeah, you read that right.  Now, seasoned long distance runners know about this and prepare properly for it, and YHC had heard of it and maybe even seen a few ghastly pictures at some point.  But, YHC assumed that our (relatively) measly mileage this month wouldn’t cause such a disturbing phenomenon.  (I thought you had to be running full marathons for crazy shit like that to happen!)  Well, YHC was clearly incorrect and will now employ a band aid tactic for all runs from here on out.  (In case you were wondering about previous levels, Level 1 is Severe Shoulder Stiffness, and Level 2 is Shin Splints – congrats Beast!)

    Anyhow, that happened today.  And I should add, it couldn’t have happened without the Pelican, for had he not shown up, YHC most likely would’ve thrown in the towel and headed back to bed.  But there he was at 0445, fresh off a Disney Cruise and ready to hit some solid ground.

    So we got to it, dove deep into cruise boat and Disney politics, and made the best out of our slower-than-usual pace (entirely due to me and my running fatigue – Pelican was ready to roll, but kind enough to stick with me).  So thanks Pelican for helping me to unlock my latest running achievement – despite my gripes, I really do appreciate the push!

  • A Grueling Murph for President’s Day

    YHC has only done one murph in my year plus stint with F3 and it was brutal.  Why I wanted to revisit that experience is beyond me, but I decided President’s Day was as good a day as any to give it another go.  (And if some loose association was needed, it was Washington himself who first awarded the Purple Heart some 223 years before Michael Murphy would get it for his heroism in Afghanistan in 2005.)

    So yeah, this seemed like a good idea last night.  Now, running to the AO at 0440 (who uses cars these days?), it suddenly seemed like a terrible idea.  My mind was scrambling to come up with other options.  Then I strolled up to the Marsh to find Sensei Shooter (also carless) waiting alone, and I knew the Murph was going to happen.  You see, Shooter has come to every beatdown for the past two weeks.  And for the past week, he’s been running to each AO (save the Gipper, of course) rather than driving.  AND, he’s putting up consistent mileage each day for the run challenge.  And the man has a job and a family.  He’s an animal and an inspiration.  So had it been anyone else, I might’ve altered course and given in to the weaker me.  But Shooter inspires the best in everyone and therefore deserves the best.  So we got down to it:

    1 Mile

    100 Pull-Ups

    200 Merkins

    300 Squats

    1 Mile

    We made pretty good time, coming in just under our allotted 45 minutes.  Thanks brother, for elevating all those around you.