F3 New Orleans

Blog

  • “It was a Concept Beatdown” – The AB 20th Anniversary Rolling Stone Interview – from America’s Best

    Rolling Stone: So, AB, tell us about this beatdown you just wrapped up. What was the vibe at the AO?

    America’s Best: I was equally surprised by the wealth of knowledge out there and the lack of flatulence. . . Some mornings are just magical, I guess. We started with a warmarama that felt like an opening act—like you know when you’re going to see STP but The Offspring is there first? Just trying to get through it. Safely Valve tried to be the guy who knew better but we waited for him. Some were feeding off the energy of the hype, you know? After seeing the hype, Enron knew immediately that Arcade Fire was involved, but it was unclear if he was excited, concerned, or indifferent about it. The man is a riddle in a mystery inside an enigma wrapped in a cotton Phil Collins tank-ini.

    RS: So there was at least some anticipation of what was in store for the PAX?

    AB: At least some preparation. I think Paradox was running on pure adrenaline following his all-nighter of searching the Japanese internet.

    RS : For what was he searching?

    AB: I dunno. . . Answers? All I know is by morning he had figured out the album artwork for The Funeral. And he spoke fluent Japanese. Oh, sorry, Dox: “Nihongo.”

    RS: So do you enjoy the Q spotlight?

    AB: No. It’s too much for my ADHD brain. I do enjoy the creativity– trying to make something engaging and hopefully exciting. But most times it’s more fun to be in the trenches hammering away at something ridiculous and mumblechattering about someone else’s horrific music choices.

    RS: So do you ever think about stepping away and just producing?

    AB: I feel like I have more to give. I still feel young, you know? I mean, I’ve seen some greats like Yankee Jeaux step away for awhile and come back stronger than ever. Have you ever completed a Danny Go beatdown?

    RS: No I can’t say that I have. In fact, I can’t even remotely comprehend what you’re talking about.

    AB: It makes jurpin’ to “Give It Up” feel like crab-walking to the Halo theme.

    RS: That is zero percent helpful.

    AB: I feel like you’re getting a little disrespectful. Don’t be surprised if this interview goes sideways later.

    RS: Oooookay….noted. Anyway, what was your plan for this beatdown?

    AB: It was a concept beatdown. I wanted to capture the feeling of 2004. You know, I’d just graduated, gotten married, bought a house, begun a real job. I was getting realllllly boring. I mean, we were The Incredibles for Halloween that year.

    RS: You make is sound like 2004 was the beginning of the end.

    AB: It’s the year Facebook started.

    RS: Touche.

    AB: But getting back to the concept: It was simple. Put together a playlist of hits (Yes, they were hits, Lil Cuz) from 2004 that would be our soundtrack for a two mile run. At designated times, we would stop for an exercise. 20 reps would be the starting number, and we could deduct 5 reps each for the artist, title, and album identification.

    RS: And how did that go?

    AB: Let’s just say these guys were lucky Popeye was there.

    RS: So did he carry the PAX on music knowledge?

    AB: Oh there were definitely strong contributions by Honeysuckle and Goose too. But here’s the thing about Popeye: He has never forgotten. Anything.

    RS: Anything else of note during the run?

    AB: I’m glad you asked, Chumley. Is it ok if I call you Chumley? The thing is, I thought I threw a softball out there for our manmaker station. I figured half of theses guys at least knew Eminem’s “Just Lose It.” They knew it was him, but that was it. While I did hear a few of the PAX mumbling random facts about him, nobody could identify the album or title.

    RS: After all that intensity, how did you wrap it up? And no, please don’t call me that. That’s not my name or anything. Does that mean something?

    AB: No. Anyway, we moseyed back to the flag to finish up the last of the songs lighting-round style.

    RS: And how did that go?

    AB: No idea, Chumley. At that point I was running on fumes. But I assume it was pure magic.

    RS: Ok, why did you even ask permission if you are going to keep calling me that anyway? What does it even mean? Is it like “champ” or “boss” or something? Is that from something?

    AB: Don’t worry about it.

    RS: Ok, after all that intensity, how did you wrap it up?

    AB: COT. Phil the Pain (aka Face Value) went to Popeye. Blue Tube went to Enron. Lil Cuz prayed us out.

  • Little bit of this, little bit of that – from Akbar

    6 HIM got the week started out right on a beautiful cool morning at the Marsh.

    Warm up – SSH, Arm Circles, Self-Love

    Mosey to rips stopping along the way for more warm up exercises x10 IC

    Line up at the Lakefront wall for 2 sets of 7’s.

    1. Freak Nasty and Squats, run from wall to Rips, up the stairs, 10 calf raises, return

    2. Reverse grip Irkins on the wall, and Superman’s at Rips.

    Mosey to the poles under Rips for 3 sets of 10 count holds. Handstand, Al Gore, Mission Impossible

    Red Barchetta back to COT: Sprint 1 block, 50 reps, rinse and repeat to 10 reps.

    50SSH, 40 LBC, 30 Mountain Climber, 20 Merkins, 10 pullups

    Count, Name, and YHC prayed us out with thoughts of Shooter’s daughter in law and her baby check-up appointment.

    Announcements: Spartan in 2 weeks, Manny will have some courses setup this week on the playground across from harbor Field, sign up to Q.

    SYITG,

    Akbar

  • Skipping in the Wind – from Space Cowboy

    Weather: clear, 70 degrees, windy, low humidity
    I arrived early to Kennarie Ridge since we were expecting an FNG. He was a no-show (maybe next time), but I was soon joined by @Boo Boo, @Charmin, and @Chips on this beautiful windy morning with low humidity. Opened with disclaimer and headed to JPAX with a brief stop at truck to pick up jump ropes.

    Warmup
    Slow squats x10
    SSH x 15
    Abe Slogodas x10
    Imperial Walkers x10
    Seal claps x10
    Overheard claps x10
    Forward arm circles x10
    Backwards arm circles x10

    The Thang
    Burpees x10
    Jump rope 2 min (100-120 turns)
    Dips 4 sets 20 reps each, 20 sec rest between sets
    Burpees x10
    Jump rope 2 min (100-120 turns)
    Mountain climbers 1 min, 20 sec rest, 1 min
    Burpees x10
    Jump rope 2 min (100-120 turns)
    Merkins 3 sets 30 sec per set, 20 sec rest between sets
    Burpees x10
    Jump rope 2 min (100-120 turns)

    After listening to @Charmin talking about the pleasures of having the wind rustling through your beard, we headed to flag with a mix of lunges and high knee claps every other pole.
    Arrived at flag with burpees for 30 seconds
    COT

  • Belch at the Peltch – from Goose

    12 men (big and little) gathered courageously at The Peltch for the final, brutal IPC of 2024. For one in particular, it took a lot of courage: the soon-to-be-named L-loyd, Safety Valve’s FNG 2.0, Peyton saw a circle of large, surly men grunting through the dark morning’s tightness, one of whom was wearing what looked to be a woman’s tank top, and he was reluctant to jump in. So was YHC, but not Duke–he was the opposite of reluctant this morning, and he ran to make friends with the other similar sized human form in the gloom, and they warmed up in mini 2.0 fashion about 20 yards away.

    Eventually, unable to push off the inevitable any longer, we gathered the gear and headed to the track. The IPC went like this:
    8 rounds, 5 minutes apiece: 200 m run, 30 reps of a given exercise, 200m run, and then burpees till the end of the 5 minutes. Count your total burpee reps over the 8 rounds for your “score”. The exercises were as follows:

    Round 1: Freddy Mercurys
    2: Pickle Pounders
    3: Flutter Kicks
    4. Plank Jacks
    5. Monkey Humpers
    6. Squats
    7. LBC’s
    8. SSH

    Spirits were still high for Round 1 as the PAX mumblechattered their way around the track, the mini 2.0’s sprinted ahead, and all completed more burpees in 2.5 minutes than they expected to. Round 2 on went about as expected: mumblechatter was greatly reduced, the carefully curated playlist became just background noise, Honeysuckle stayed about 40-50 yards ahead of the pack, the mini 2.0’s played imaginary football (or something) on the field, and everything but counts sank into the brain fog.

    Despite the threat of takeover from the survival instinct, YHC still had the wherewithal to notice the awesome effort of every man out there, including the medium 2.0s. Nobody walked, and the majority stayed ahead of YHC on the track pushing hard the entire time, keeping the bar high, and not saving anything for the ride home.

    Admittedly, YHC was having a hard time performing at any kind of heroic level. The runs were the much needed breaks, and catching up to the front runners felt impossible. And, with only one glove, YHC quickly followed Valve’s lead in taking advantage of the (little bit) softer turf to avoid the cheese grater that the track was on the hands during burpees. His performance (and later Dox’s) right next to me was impressive, as was Honeysuckle’s and everyone who started doing burpees ahead of YHC (which was everyone but Smooth, who remains impressive in his ability to joyfully accept and own the things that are killing him, which usually include lots of running and burpees. Here’s to the clydesdales.).

    After round 8, YHC flopped to the ground drinking in the free oxygen before Dox hauled me back to vertical position from which I could see a yard sale of heaving bodies splayed on the track. But, we still had 7 minutes left, so after a 10-count, YHC turned off the Amy Grant, and we headed back to the flag for some Mary. More exercise certainly wasn’t easy, but anything was better than burpees.

    At 7:30, we counted off, and during name off shared the number of burpees achieved. YHC though it would be good to allow the monumental feat each man had accomplished to be known and appreciated by others. Each man had something to be proud of, especially Honeysuckle who cranked out 208, earning him the coveted Blue Tube.

    In an interesting, cosmic amalgamation of many small circumstances and decisions, Valve and YHC somehow finished at the exact same number. And we didn’t start or stop or take breaks at the same time or anything. What does it mean? What implications does it have? What does it reveal about the space-time fabric of the F3 Universe?

    These questions would have to wait as we had an FNG to name. Peyton is into Legos, particularly Ninjago, so it was an easy decision. L-loyd (pronounced “luh-loyd”) was quickly christened, and we’re sure to see his small, fast form sprinting ahead of many a Peltch Indian Run line.

    There’s nothing quite like suffering through really tough stuff together with a group of good men, which is why YHC looks forward to September every year. But, thank God it’s over. We did it, and now we can rest on our laurels. Until Monday.

    SYITG,
    Goose

  • Rain Day at The A1c – from Einstein

    Muggy and dank where the pax gathered inside the Justice Center garage.

    Warmup: all IC15x; toe touch, side staddle hops, arm circles, neck rolls,
    hi-jack hi-jills, butt kicks, high knees, popeye punches, BBQ wings, shoulder rolls, etc.

    With the rain YHC had to go to Plan B…the lesser of Plan A.

    Thang-1: from the Exicon; “The Gross” 12 exercise with 12 reps of each. 12×12=144 hence The Gross:
    burpees x12
    merkins x 12
    cobra squats x 12 IC
    star jack jumps x12
    plank jacks x 12
    iron crosses x 12
    lunges x 12 IC 2-1
    box cutters x 12 IC
    walk outs with a merkin x 12
    zombie kicks x 12
    star stretch x 12
    side to side lunge x 12 IC

    Thang-2: the Pax, in search of some moving air, heads to the upper ramp, the light drizzle and fresh air felt good.
    Jose’s Lieutenant Dan routine up the ramp; lunges/squats, ascending count while maintaining the 2:1 ratio,
    freak nasties up top, repeat Lieutenant Dan going down the ramp, then a backwards lunge up the ramp, some derkins
    up top.

    Mary: finished with a round robin of core

    DarkWingDuck led us out with prayers for those suffering from Hurricane Helene

  • Dora & More at The Gipper – from Einstein

    A bit cooler morning at The Gipper this morning ~ 68 degrees.
    Arrived with Hammer & Jose just finishing their private workout.
    The usual suspects; Moby & Legal, arriving soon after, with BBQ & PI rolling in hot.
    Jose blasts off to teach his students

    Warmup: all IC15x; toe touch, side staddle hops, arm circles, neck rolls, side to side stretch,
    hi-jack hi-jills, butt kicks, high knees, scissors

    Thang-1: Mosey to the Justice Center for Dora 1-2-3:
    Partner up for 100 merkins, 200 LBCs, 300 squats – with partner one running up the prominade, up the steps
    and return run to continue with exercising partner two’s count. Flip Flop

    Thang-2: Along the Justice Center side yard: sprint to tree/light post, do a burpee, repeating as we make our
    way to the other side of the Justice Center

    Thang-3: at the Armed Forces memorial, partner up, While pax 1 bear crawls around the memorial…Pax 2 stays in plank position.
    Flip flop

    Thang-4: at the Armed Forces memorial, partner up, While pax 1 crab crawls around the memorial…Pax 2 stays in chill-cut
    plank position. Flip flop.
    T-Claps to BBQ and Legal for doing the crab crawl all the way around without stopping or modifying.

    Mosey back to the flag as time expires

    PI prayed us out. And t-claps to PI who made the drive from Slidell to join us at The Gipper.

  • Back to Routine – from Shooter

    Doubled the count from last Thursday.
    Six runners of different paces and two Ruckers.
    Weather was mild and after brief warmup and chatter PAX ran the old Route.
    Returned for Mary.

    Count, announce and COT

    Until the next Gloom 👍🏼✌🏼✌🏼!!

  • Another Q for Sale – from Fracsac

    12 pax, including 1 DR that goes by the name Fuzzy, gathered at the Mothership to maintain their journey to live right.
    Disclaimer than mosey to the great lawn for a warmup.
    We tossed the frisbee and did some stuff.

    Broke out the big deck of cards. 4 pax called out for an exercise based on the suit.

    At about the midpoint of the beatdown YHC brought back “The Q is for sale!”
    5 burpee buy in, then roll the die to lead that exercise IC. From that point do as you like, the Q is yours. Only rule is it can’t be bought back and forth.
    Everyone kept to the cards for the most part afree purchase of the Q. Any mistake or upset of rules led to burpees. We did a lot of burpees.

    Time up, back to the flag

    COT

    – you know there were a lot of burpees when Catfish asked how many we did so far somewhere in the beat down
    – coffeteria enjoyed by many with the runners and many others that either fartsacked, were on IR, or just took the day off. Regardless, fellowship falls within F3, so come on out even if you don’t workout

  • The one that got away – from Smooth Operator

    This morning YHC got to the Den early to try and troubleshoot the basketball court lights but ended up successfully turning off the lights for the pickle ball court. Unfortunately Tana and Dilly were not there and could not be persuaded to put the paddle down and pick up a slightly larger ball and join us.

    Warmarama
    SSH
    Windmills
    Arm Circles
    Cherry pickers
    High knees
    Bit kicks

    Mosey behind Aldi through the Garden to the basketball court

    Thang 1
    We balled
    After our mosey, teams were picked and we started playing a little full court basketball with a couple catches. When one team scores the other runs a suicide and the scoring team does SSH for the duration of suicide. If someone turned the ball over they are to get to the side lines and start doing burpees until someone scores. The game continues a man short until a basket is scored. YHC set a 15 minute timer and the Smooth Pope Enrons got off to a good start scoring the first goal. Then the AB Goose Valves opened up a can of what the kids call “the whoopass” and skunked YHCs team 12 to 2. after that we ran suicides, 14 points were scored therefore we started with 7 suicides. After 3 suicides YHC called a stoppage and had Pope shoot a free throw for the opportunity to exonerate the PAX from suicides. Unfortunately he missed causing us to run another one. AB was up next and with ice running through his veins he made his free throw like he had night vision.

    Thang 2
    After moseying back to the flag, The PAX entered the burpee box near the side walk running adjacent to Canal St. Once the Pax entered the metaphorical box, we performed a burpee per each car that passed. I believe we were close to 40 within 4 or 5 minutes. Somewhere around this time it was brought to YHC’s attention that Yankee Jeaux was reading the newspaper and consulting AB on the matters. Come Home YJ.

    We hustled back to flag for a couple minutes of Mary. Pope called for crunchy frogs, Enron for LBC, Goose for wife pleasers. After this the clock decided to strike 6 and we counted off, announcements, prayed for our intentions with Safety Valve leading. Thanks Pax for showing up and letting YHC the beatdown he never got to be apart of last year.
    SYITG
    Smooth Operator

  • 11s inspired by DARKWING DUCK – from Jose10k

    Picture this: a crisp morning, the perfect time to not only crush some cardio but also question school board decisions, state decisions, soccer referees, basically life problems. Time for 11’s. Start off with 10 burpees at the front of the courthouse. Each burpee felt like gravity itself was personally offended that we dared to rise from the ground.

    Once we peeled ourselves off the pavement, we “ran” (more like shuffled) to the stairs. Now, these weren’t your average steps. Oh no, each one required three calf raises. Yes, three, because one just wasn’t enough to make our legs scream for mercy. Then, at the top, it was time for freddy mercury core exercises. Because who doesn’t want to feel like their abs are a pin cushion? It was here we found out how Hammer disregards referees instructions when it comes to Chainsaws wellbeing.

    But wait, there’s more! We dashed down a ramp that might as well have been Everest, looped around the parking lot, and did it all over again. Why? For fitness? For glory? To solve the mysteries of life? No, not today. Hammer and I concluded that solving world problems was best left for the crew at the scramble tomorrow.. Today, we simply survived, and that was more than enough!