F3 New Orleans

Author: Torque

  • Back to the Weekend

    So, Troubled Waters is back on a Saturday only schedule, which is a little disheartening to YHC.  I really enjoyed the weekday beatdowns, but alas, attendace has diminished and EH’ing had not filled the void that was left.  I hope we can get back on a weekly schedule soon, but until then, we beatdown on Saturday.  I had a nice little surprise EH today.  My 2.0, (all 10 years of him) asked to come this morning, so up we got and off we went.

    I had this beatdown broken into 3 15 minute sessions, which would’ve brought the PAX to extreme pain, but I didn’t factor in the mosy time, and the mumble chatter, so we only got to 2 of them, which was probably for the best, considering the condition we were in after the 2nd one.

    WarmUp

    Arm Circles 10x’s every which way, backwards, forwards, with some OH claps & Seal claps thrown in there.

    Plank to Pigeon Pose, 30 seconds right leg, back to plank 10 seconds, 30 seconds left leg and circle up

     

    ABC’s Squared

    10x’s each exercise, IC, all together

    American Hammers

    Box Cutters

    Captain Thor

    Dolly

    E2K

    Flutter Kicks

    Gas Pumps

    Homer to Marge to Mr. Burns

    Imperial Crunches, (thanks to Mathlete for that name.  Combination Bicycle SitUp with an E2K.  In Cadence, makes it a slow painful burn)

    J/K – because there’s nothing that starts with J or K

    LBC’s

    Monkey Crunches

    Never Cross Dolly

    Outlaw

    Plank, High

    No more time, gotta mosy to the Xbox. 1/4mile lap around the ball fields, and pace off 10 meters

    Death by 10 Meters

    Nothing fancy, just running 1 10m dash on the first minute and waiting the remainder of that minute.  Then, 2 10m dashes on the second minute and rest.  Repeat ascending until you cannot complete a round.  Smart money was on Joe Dirt on this one, as he is young, competitive and has a soccer pedigree, but nobody was going to try to make it easy on him.

    Terabyte – 5 rounds, (I believe)

    FNG – 6 rounds

    Mathlete – 10 rounds

    Torque – 15 rounds, 15 reps

    Joe Dirt – 16 rounds, 12 reps

    Kimchi -16 rounds, 16 reps.

     

    It was an epic showing of will and determination versus speed and athleticism.  Both men prevailed over their weaknesses, but Kimchi took the court that day.  Well done sir.

     

    POW walk out of the Xbox, past the fidget spinner, mosy from the Playstation back to the array of shovel flags in the ground.

    Countorama, Nameorama, where I got to bestow my 2.0 with the name ‘BrickMaster’, for his love and proficiency with Lego’s.  He’s already excited to come back.  Hopefully, the N.O. PAX will come around to the kind gesture of giving the younger FNG’s cool names, so they have a desire to come back.  Time will tell on poor Tinkerbell.

     

    A pleasure to lead and it was a pleasure to get together under the bridge with the guys again.  See you soon!

     

    Torque

  • Then There Were Three

    The attendance at Troubled Waters is equal parts suffering and sustaining.  We lost a faithful weekly member when Kimchi got accepted to Ptech school and got another one when Nih was EH’d.  We still need to invite some new people, so please be EH’ing folks.  EVERYONE NEEDS to be healthier and more disciplined!

     

    Came to the AO this morning and Joe Dirt and Nih were already there with a flag in the ground.  Off we go:

     

    Mosy around the long track, stop at the fidget spinner for some warmup

    10 OH Claps

    10 Merkins

    10 Peter Parker Merkins

     

    Mosy to the Playstation for  some 3 Person Dora 1-2-3, 1 man runs, 1 man works, 1 man rests

    100 Pullups / 200 WW2 Situps / 300 Squats

    This got a little spicy if you pushed the run, but the rest period was enough that after a few rounds Joe Dirt and I started doing extra pulls to finish the ISI challenge.  Still have some work left to do.

    One more full lap around the track.

    Name-O, Count-O, quick note of appreciation for the men.  I wouldn’t have gotten out of the fartsack this morning if I didn’t know they were going to be there.  Grateful for them.

     

    Torque

  • 3 Bears

    So, we had an interesting PAX this morning.  I picked up Rinse, a 6 year old stud athlete, and met Nih at the AO.  And off we went each of us about a decade and a half different in age from the next closest one. Someone watching the three of us burp and mark and count and pray might have felt like Goldilocks stumbling into the bear’s home.

     

    No worries.  The Troubled Water crew takes great pride in beating down a diverse PAX.  We’ve been acclimated by suffering the indignity of watching Joe Dirt do his workout, then do ours, then bang out more pushups while we suck for air and ring our shirts dry.

     

    Off we go.

    Warmup with some arm circles, ssh’s, merkins, a little core work and take a lap around the park to the fidget spinner/water fountain area.

    Getting It

    Burp and Merk: 1-10 and back to 1

    Burp and Groiner: 1-10 and back to 1

    Burpees: 1-10 and back to 1

    Small bead of sweat are beginning to be visible on Rinse now.  I’m drenched thoroughly. Nih is almost dead.  I feel like I’m doing this right so far.

     

    Mosy to the PlayStation with some butt kicks, high knees and prisoner walks

    4 Rounds:

    10 Pull Up Timer

    Other pax work until the 10 pull-ups are done

    High Plank Hold

    American Hammers

     

    About now, I notice that Rinse is really sweating.  Breathing heavy and everything.  Still moving like an Automaton through the work, but his humanity was peeking out.  Nih, on the other hand, scaled the pulls and has recovered nicely.  I’m still sweating far more than than should be possible.

     

    Mosy across the street and sprint up the Levee for some:

    Quadriphelia

    4 Rounds,

    Running down the hill, Running backwards up the hill and performing 4 squats at the top.

     

    Head back across the street and to the playground for some Mary.  I’ve decided that all Mary should involve hanging from something.

    Round Robin Q/Q school Mary

    One of my first posts at Okwata, Hawgcycle circled everyone up, and we did a round robin Q.  He explained how we call out the exercise, begin the work, do cadence, and I wanted to expose these guys to it as well.  So, I gave an explanation of how we would do the Mary.  How we start the exercise, keep cadence and off we went.

    Hello Dolly

    Box Cutters

    Hanging Leg Raises, one leg at a time

    Freddie Mercuries

    American Hammers

    Knee Ups

  • Troubled Waters Benchmarks of Fitness

    Troubled Waters Benchmarks of Fitness

    4:45am: my curly headed 4 year old opened my bedroom door, creeped to my side of the room, crawled up and laid his head on my chest to snuggle in for the rest of his night’s sleep.  Struggling with “how best” to be a good father to this little guy, I waited and thought about whether I dismount the fartsack and disappoint the little guy or to get up, get out and get going.  This thought battle raged through 2 snooze settings, and finally, I did get up, get out of the bed and get going to the AO.  I wasn’t even sure I did the right thing, but there is ALWAYS a reason to lay in bed.  As I’m writing, I can’t quite find the word to describe laying in bed to satisfy the perceived needs of a sleeping child…quick break from this BB to…

     

    ***peruse the lexicon for a clever term for this phenomenon…sure enough***

    “KNOX ROLL: Any act or omission by a Presbyterian (or anyone with a Justifier) so weak and kittenish that it would cause John Knox to roll over in his grave and moan in despair.”

    (In case you’re wondering why John Knox is the standard for weak actions, here’s what’s left of St. Andrew’s Cathedral after he got finished preaching.  Also, he weighed about 120# soaking wet…)

     

    So, deciding not to shame the legacy of the “Iron Reformer”, I headed out to the AO, and instantly glad of my choice, I see Kimchi, by himself in the parking lot.  Nobody wants to beat their own self down.

     

    Disclaimer, Brief Warmup

    15 Front – Center – Back Stretches

    15 SSH IC

    Lunge stretch each side

    Mosy to the playstation

    Butt kicks, 50 yards

    High knees, 50 yards

    Sprint 50 yards

     

     

    In order to test our level of fitness, we need to be able to do the same work and measure the results against previous results.  August is bringing a new day and new Iron Sharpens Iron Challenge, so these benchmarks will be repeated at the end of the month.

    Benchmarks

    6 Rounds for Time

    10 Merkins

    10 Big Boy Situps

    10 Squats

    • Torque: 4:14
    • Kimchi: 4:19

     

    As providence would have it, a man I’ve been EH’ing for several months, (who has been at the AO with other people walking and generally, fitness-ing) walked right by us.  We asked if he’d like to join, and he was happy to.  So, adding his benchmarks

     

    Max Set of

    Merkins

    • Torque: 70
    • Kimchi: 44
    • FNG: 40

    Pullups

    • Torque: 11
    • Kimchi: 4
    • FNG: 5

    Plank

    • Torque: 1:45
    • Kimchi: 1:12
    • FNG: 2:05

     

    Mosy to the levee for some real work

    Quadraphilia

    4 Rounds starting from the top of the levee, always facing the same direction

    4 Burpees at the bottom of the levee

    4 Star Jumps at the top

     

    Mary

    To the playground next door

    20 IC Hello Dolly

    20 IC LBC’s

    10 IC Leg Lifts

    15 IC Alternating Knee Raises

     

    Mosy to the Virtual Shovel Flag:

    Countarama, Namearama, Prayer of gratitude for His faithfulness, for Disciple’s willing to share what the Lord is doing in His life.  Water break after at the back of the truck.  Thanks for letting me lead.  It’s always an honor.

     

    Moleskine:

    • Hanging Mary work is so much more demoralizing than exercisez on your 6.  J/s.
    • These workouts will be repeated, so Mathlete, Terabyte, Joe Dirt, Chipper and Nih are politely requested to complete them on their own.

  • Troubled Bear Crawls

    Troubled Waters had some regulars travelling with work, so Kimchi and YHC rolled up and held it down.

     

    WarmUp

    Windmills x 15

    IW x 15

    Hello Dolly X15

     

    The Thang

    Mosy up the levee, and do

    10X Jumping Lunges

    10 Burpees

    10X Jumping Lunges

    9 Burpees

    10 Jumping Lunges

    8 Burpees,

    Etc…

     

    Always face the park, back to the river

    Bear Crawl down the levee, 10 Merkins, Run backwards up the levee

    Repeat, descending the Merkins until 1.

     

    I had a seminar in Metairie at 8:30, so had to cut it short and no coffee today.  Next week, Mathlete Q’s the mothership, so Troubled Waters will road trip again, as will be the custom when a TW native Q’s mothership.

     

    Moleskine:

    Tough Workout.  Would’ve been tougher if I brought my notes and did it the way I planned.  Beware Kimchi, the real beatdown is coming!

    COT – BOM prayers for Terabyte, Mathlete and Joe Dirt while they’re putting in extra hours, days and weeks with their jobs.

    Big prayers for Chipper and his M, who were in the hospital in labor.  They didn’t progress though, and they’re back home waiting for their 2.0 to finish baking.

     

  • B.O.M.B.S.

    There is a Tuesday morning tradition at Troubled Waters.  Kimchi and I look at each other, and say, “what do you want to do today?”.  Usually one of us steps up for warmup while the other one figures up a beatdown.  This Tuesday was different.  We still looked at each other and asked the question, but this time we had an answer.  B.O.M.B.S.  It’s simple and it’s rough.  Thankfully, Nih had been waiting in the construction traffic that backed up through the off ramp to the bridge park and joined us to share the explosion 🙂

     

    Warm It Up

    Arm Crosses 10×10

    OH Claps x 20

    Merkins, 20IC

     

    The Thang

    mosy to the playstation

    B.O.M.B.S.

    2 PAX perform alternating reps, while the 3rd PAX jogs to the water fountain at the fidget spinner and back & takes the place of one of the PAX.

    50 Burpees

    100 OH Presses

    150 Merkins

    200 Big Boy Situps

    250 Squats

     

    Back to where the shovel flag would normally be.

     

    Mary:

    10 Hello Dolly

    10 American Hammers

    10 Box Cutters

     

    Moleskine
    Prayer for Chipper’s M & 2.0, as well as Joe Dirt, Mathlete, Terabyte’s very busy work schedules and work travel.  Looking forward to Saturday’s weekly reunion at Troubled Waters

  • Legs, Shoulders and Chest – Oh My!

    05:25 – YHC rolled up to the AO and 2 PAX were ready and waiting.  Jam the flag into the hardest clay in St. Charles Parish and get started. The disclaimer was a little extended and thorough, because I knew what was planned for them, and the PAX really should be aware of how little they should trust me to not destroy their shoulders and quads.

     

    I had a nice little beatdown programmed, so I wanted to make sure that I had them stretched and warm, but not too tired.  Just wanted to keep it simple.

    Arm Crosses & Arm Circles just to get their attention.

    10x Mountain Climbers IC, FoF!

    10x Goofballs IC, slow.

    10x Goofballs IC, fast, to lighten the mood.

    Plank complex – starting at high plank, to cobra, to high plank, to pigeon pose on the left, back to cobra, back to plank, to pigeon pose on the right, back to cobra, to high plank, to Annie Planks on the left and right.

     

     

    Mosy to the PlayStation, (cool name Terabyte), but turn to the bleachers for

    The Thang

    3 Rounds each of:

    Aiken Legs: 20 Box Jumps, 20 Squats, 20 Lunges, (10ea leg) & 20 Split Jacks

    ATM’s: 15 Shoulder Taps, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Fast Merkins

    Ascending Testicles: Legs at a 15 degree angle, 10 Derkins, then legs at a 45 degree angle, 10 derkins, then, BTTW, 10 derkins.

     

    Walked back to the track and took about 20 steps back to find a nice starting point to sprint AYG back to the flag, 75 yards or so.  Good Times

     

    Mary:

    American Hammers 15 IC

    Box Cutters, 10 IC

    Bay City Scissors, 10 IC

     

     

    Countaroma, Namearoma, Intentions.

    Prayer for the PAX and a few special intentions and back to our week.  Thanks for showing up gents.  It’s a privilege to beatdown with you.

     

    Moleskine:

    Nih has made 3 beatdowns in a row, since he was an FNG. The man is showing some determination. Great job!

  • Who Me?

     

    YHC heads to the AO Tuesday morning, a little sleepy, but full of patriotic excitement, and a little curious if TripleShift is going to cycle out for the coffee-ramo, coffeeteria or covfefe…I can’t remember what we call it.  The inner monologue went like this:

    “YAWN….Cool! We got a nice 4th of July crew here today. Mathlete’s here without Terabyte. Tape Deck made it with Kimchi.  Haven’t seem him a while.  Nice EH Kimchi. This should be good.  YHC missed Saturday, while I was working on location, but Chipper stepped up and led the team on short notice. Good move Chipper. Tuesday is his day to Q.  I wonder if…No.  He’ll be here…right, and why is everyone staring at me?”

    dammit…

    It was at that moment when Kimchi kindly informed me that he signed me up for the Q today. wasThat  nice of him, and I like to Q.  I also like to know about it before the beatdown starts, but hey, where’s the challenge in that? Revenge was on the mind now, and I want to make him pay for this. It’s the 4th of July and this is F3, so when I’m in doubt, I get to the basics. Merkins and squats, and lots of them.  For Freedom!

     

    Warm-Up

    10 Burpees, together

    20 SSH IC

    10 Arm circles IC

    10 Windmills IC

    10 Reverse Arm Circles IC

    10 Mountain Climbers IC

     

    Time to head to the the tennis courts for the fundamentals.  Hopefully, Kimchi will learn to give me notice

    Mucho Chesto

    15 each in the doubles lane of each court

    Merkins – Werkins – Stagger Merkins Left – Stagger Merkins Right

    Reverse Direction for another round of 15’s

    Diamond Merkins – Right Arm Merkins – Left Arm Merkins – Merkins

    Plank or B2W for the 6.

     

    Still have some time on the clock, so we’ll try a new one.  I named it, “Something Torque made up to burn 15 minutes”

    1 man at each corner of the tennis courts. 1 man in the middle.  Man in the middle calls the start and everyone starts.  He does 5 burpees and runs to tag the man in corner 1. Corner 1 man runs to tag corner 2, etc, in clockwise direction.  Corner 4 goes to the middle and repeat until the original man in the middle is in Corner 4.

     

    Man in the Middle – 5 Burpees

    Corner 1 – Squats

    Corner 2 – Jumping Lunges

    Corner 3 – Al Gores

    Corner 4 – Jumping Squats

     

    No flag today, so Countaroma, Namearoma, Intentions and Prayer on the tennis courts

     

    Moleskine:

    • Kimchi burned through Mucho Chesto, so I’m pretty sure I exacted no revenge on him. He will be emboldened to set me up for more impromptu Q’s, I’m sure.
    • If you ever don’t know what to do next, Mathlete is right there to help you create an on the fly beating.
    • Triple Shift did in fact make it to the coffee shop, and it was nice to visit with him.  Thanks TripleShift!

  • No Chipper, No Problem

    In keeping with Troubled Waters tradition of letting the Q sleep in, YHC and Kimchi rolled up to the bridge park and got bizaaay.  Kimchi happened to have a shovel flag on him from Nola.  Sweet.

     

    Round Robin Warmup

    SSH x 20

    Merkins x 20

    Freddie Mercury x 20

    Windmill x 20

    Something else x 20

     

    The thang:

    Mosyed over to the pull up station and did one that doesn’t have a name.

    5 Rounds; Ascending/Descending x5,

    Start running in opposite directions, meet at the halfway point, (in between the fields on the track behind the outfield)

    5 Partner Handshakes

    Continue running in opposite directions, meet up at the start,

    25 Partner Dips

    10-20, 15-15, 20-10, 25-5

     

    Took longer than it looks, we decided to finish up with some community service, with TS Cindy seeming like she would be more trouble than she was.  Since the AO is a St. Charles Parish sandbag station, we filled up sandbags for 15 minutes and left them tied for the next comers.

  • A Different Kind of Name-a-Roma

    Spent a few minutes the night before working up a quality beatdown and writing it out on a notecard.  The, I forgot to bring the card.  Typical Torque.  Let’s see how well memory serves

     

    Warmup,

    Windmills 25x’s, (Joe Dirt rolled up, YAY)

    Slaughter Starter – 20 Burpees OYO

    Cozy up to a large concrete bridge support for some people’s chair work.

    People’s Chair – 60seconds, 20 People’s Presses IC with 5 seal claps: 15 count

    People’s Chair – 60 seconds, 20 Commodus’, (Arms out, thumbs up/thumbs down IC.  We made it up and named it on the spot.  This was strictly to take our mind off of our burning quads), add 5 seal claps.

    Wave of Merkins 1-10, 10-1

    People’s Chair – 60 seconds, 20 overhead claps

    People Chair – 60 seconds, 20 of something that I forgot

    Burp & Merk – 1-10, 10-1 <-that was ambitious, the Troubled Waters PAX was game though.

     

    To the Hill:

    I read about the “Joe Hendricks” from the Lexicon, bear crawl up a long hill, the longer the better.  Our levee is tall, but not really long, so we added some “Trouble” to it and got to name another workout.

    Yosemite National Park

    8’s ascending / descending, groiners at the bottom, Bear Crawl up the levee

    Merkins at the top, reverse bear crawl down the levee.

    Joe Dirt did the bear crawls so fast, he looked like a baby grizzly or Yogi Bear.  Yogi lives in Yosemite National Park, boom.

     

    Mosy to the playground for Mary

    Freddie Mercury x 25 IC, Knee Ups x 25, Crunchy Frogs x 25 IC, Twisting Knee Ups x 20 IC, LBFC’s x 20 IC, L-Sits x 10IC.

     

    Mosy back to the flag, too much time left, but I was out of beatdown and the PAX was fully suffering.  So Joe Dirt gave us some calf & groin stretches. We did some Pigeon Pose & Vinyasa’s to finish.

    Count-A-Roma, Name-A-Roma, no FNG’s – so we named our beatdown instead.

    Headed to Donut Land for some F2 and bad decisions.

     

    Moleskine:

    – The Troubled Waters regular PAX are very fit.  The hill workout was painful, but every man powered through it in a faster amount of time than I expected.  Programming beatdowns is getting more challenging.

    – We also need to get more intentional about EH’ing some FNG’s.

    – The Levee is an underused asset at TW.

    – Joe Dirt is ridiculously fast.  My main challenge in Q’ing is finning something that can keep him moving at a hard pace, that still allows the rest of the PAX to challenge themselves.  It’s a fun challenge, and I enjoy it.  He is gracious however, and just does extra reps sometimes.