F3 New Orleans

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  • No Cowbell, No Problem

    The clock ticked steadily towards 5:30.  The growing herd of PAX started to get restless.  Mutterings of “Who’s the Q?” were heard.  YHC had checked the sheet the night before – Cowbell was on the list.  Surely Cowbell would have also checked the list, or his email.  Right?

    Wrong.

    5:30 arrives.  No Cowbell.  But the PAX wait on no man, and the Workout must go on.  So YHC grabs the Disclaimer, and leads the PAX off to the rock pile – with the warning that others better be planning their own part of the workout.

    Rudy – The Warmup

    Typical Rudy start. SSH, Smurf Jacks, Monkey Humpers, IW, then Plank-o-rama with Peter Parker, Mountain Climber, Parker Peter.

    Go grab a rock.

    Mahatma – The Ruck

    Line up in 2 lines for a Ruck.  Follow Mahatma’s lead.  Start with the rock held on one side (NO RESTING ON THE SHOULDER).  Then up above your head.  Then to the other side.  Ruck down to the tree line.

    Line Up and Partner Up.

    • PAX 1: Carry Rock #1 out about 30 yards.  Bear crawl back.
    • PAX 2: Simultaneously start bear crawling out to Retrieve said rock and return it.
    • PAX 1: On return, grab Rock #2 and carry out about 60 yards.  Sprint back.
    • PAX 2: On return with Rock #1, sprint out to retrieve Rock #2 and carry back.

    Rinse and repeat.

    Bogey – The Slllllllooooooowwwwww Count

    All exercises in slow count cadence.  Up in 4, Down in 4.  x20 (or so) each

    • Curls
    • Straight Out in front (ok, this one was “not easy”).
    • Rows
    • Squats

    Pai Gow – The DangerFEST

    Line up.  Be watchful – its time for rock throwing!

    • 5 Burpees
    • Throw rock, bear crawl to it.  Throw it again.  Try to avoid bear-crawling PAX in the vicinity.  Bear crawl some more.  Until Tree #1.
    • 10 Merkins.
    • Throw rock, lunge walk to it.  Repeat. Until Tree #2.
    • 20 Shoulder Press.
    • Return following roughly the same pattern.  Or we may have gone out to Tree #3 for another set of exercises before the return.  Sorry, YHC memory is faulty, caused by high humidity, high sweat, and high fear of falling rocks.

    King Kong – Work them Abs

    Circle Up.  King Kong runs us through some Core, while holding the rock.

    • American Hammer.  Twist that rock.
    • Scissor Kicks.  Keep the rock in the air.
    • Flutter Kick.  Keep the rock in the air.
    • One other set.

    Then Mahatma led us on a Ruck back to the Rock Pile.  Then a final sprint back to the flag.

    Walleye then took us home with the Count-off, Name-o-rama, Announcements and a closing Prayer.

  • Stomp 151 – Sprinting in the gloom

    Morning Forecast: Typical July morning.  Hot.  Preposterous humidity.  Low growls of thunder in the distance.  Good times.  The brief time when we could welcome the stomp with the sunrise seems to already be in the past, so instead we welcome the PAX in the Tuesday morning Gloom.

    The Pax: Another week with a near-record crowed: 13 PAX in the gloom to go out for a run.  Rudy Q – means we’re running.  None of this “Hey, lets kick a baseball.” stuff.  Nice to see Shorty back in the fold, as well as a newly Respected Amnesty.

    The Route: 30 minutes.  15 out and 15 back.  At your pace, meet back at the track at 6:00.  YHC enjoyed getting pushed by Smooth, El Guapo and Shorty (WELCOME BACK!).  At least until Smooth turned on the after-burners at the entry back into City Park, leaving us in the dust.  Good addition to Team World!

    The Track: Gathering back at the track at 6:00, give everyone a minute to catch their breath.  Then we’re on to the Sprint Ladder:

    • 100 sprint, 100 recovery
    • 200 sprint, 100 recovery
    • 400 sprint, 100 recovery
    • 200 sprint, 100 recovery
    • 100 sprint, 100 recovery

    As PAX finish, settle in on your backside to get some Rower Situps in.  x10.  Then x10 more.  Then x10 More.  That brings the 6 home to roost.  Mosey back to the flags (thanks FracSac for tending the flags!).

    Count-off, Announcements.

    • Gnarly Nutria tomorrow night.  Hawg promises to bring a Leg beatdown to the Birdcage tomorrow, while Tool promises an arm-focused workout at The Foundry).
    • Picnic on Saturday

    Intentions (safe travels, blessing on kids – and blessings on Belloq travelling with his Youth Group).  Close out with a prayer.  Thank you for letting me lead.

  • Stair climb rain out (Lightning)

    Well since Captain Sparkles is starting to prepare for the annual 911 New Orleans Memorial Stair Climb it was on his agenda to incorporate the Mandeville Trailhead stairs into the Beatdown.
    But Mother Nature had other plans throwing some lightning around.
    So for the warm up.

    Side straddle hops originally planned on 20 but with late comer Chewy felt the need to extend the count so Chewy wouldn’t miss out on a few so extended it to 50 as I was approaching 50 got some mumbling from Mr Shooter thinking it would never end. Lol.

    25 Imperial walkers in cadence
    25 mountain climbers in cadence

    The Thang

    Partner up for sit ups
    50 each
    50 Merkins or your best without stopping
    35 sit-ups
    35 Merkins
    15 sit-ups
    15 Merkins
    Totaling 100 of each
    Jog to bus stop in remembrance of Steve
    His favorite. Yep on benches
    10 Freak Nasty’s
    10 box jumps
    10 Freak Nasty’s
    5 box jumps
    10 Freak Nasty’s
    3 box jumps so I’m out of shape
    Jog back to Trailhead
    2 min. Forearm plank
    25 flutter kicks in cadence
    2 min. Elevate legs 6” above ground or as long as you can.
    30 right leg step ups
    30 left leg step ups
    Gave last 3 min. To Chewy for some stretching exercises.

  • The Skinny Backblast -SUPER 21s!

    It was a light showing after the spillway classic and the running of the bulls last weekend so we worked out extra hard for all those who fart-sacked. There was some concern about working out in from of the Zoo after the jaguar escape over the weekend. No one said it, but we all thought it “I don’t have to run faster than the Jaguar, only faster than you.”

    Workout totals were approximately 3 miles of running, 290 chest movements (mericans, dips), 150 abs.

    Quick warmup on our way out to the levee

    1. Side straddle hop – 25
    2. Arm circles – 20
    3. Stacked foot – staggered hand Mericans – 40 (20 per side)

    At the Levee

    1. Mountain climbers while partner lunges to the top of the levee and high knee runs back. Then upon return, both partners low plank run x 5 together, and partners switch. 1 iteration.
    2. Same as above but replace lunges with backward run up the levee. 1 iteration.

    Run to Zoo entrance

    At zoo entrance:

    1. Super 21s in pairs. Alternate mericans with situps, 1 and 1; 2 and 2; 3 and 3 etc to 21. Partner runs the loop and swaps out on count.
    2. Super 21s in pairs. Alternate dips with stepups. Step-up count in left leg + right leg = 1.

    Run to Skinny.

  • Round Robin!!!

    With a recent resurgence of F3 posters at the Marsh,  this Gloom would provide the opportunity for a round robin of sorts.. Knowing the Q was out on IR would allow for a mixed bag of goodies like rolling through a drive thru at Red Robin to get your hand into a greasy bag of salty fries on a summer vacation across an interstate near you.. 6 PAX descended on the Marsh to become better and to start the week off right. Captain-Chief Sparkles with push broom in hand cleared the center court circle as if he were Prepping for an inspection by the city of Mandeville recreational department. As in BB past we know the Marsh never lacks the need for a pickup of sorts following a festive weekend. Grabbing the BULL @OCHO YHC took the lead to assemble the men around center court and extend his thoughts of a round robin for this beatdown.. Taking the first 15-20 min YHC started the PAX with a warmup series of 20 IC Seal Jacks, 20 IC  Monkey Humpers (yes in the warmup Bushwacker), 15 IC Windmills, 10 IC Armcircles out forward/up inward and reversed for a total of 4 rounds. Concluded with 20 IC SSH..

    thang

    As I peered into the thoughts of  fellow brethren Bushwacker we took to the baseline for 5 Burpees sprint the court, 10 Burpees sprint the court 15 Burpees sprint the court 20 Burpees. Rinsed and repeated with 2 other exercises  same counts Steve’s Groiners and completed with Squats. Passed the baton to Bushwacker for a core crippling experience. Partnered up for 200 flutterkicks, 200 Putin’s, 200 Bicycles and 500 LBCs. Partner 1 ran suicides free throw, half court, free throw and other baseline while partner 2 took to his six keeping count with partner assuming count upon return till completion of each exercise. Upon completion baton handed off to Waterpik for the closeout who makes sure we get in the ISI on the day or at least conquer some to make the thought of getting the rest done seem like a cake walk. We head to the play ground area of mulch at the suggestion of the author as he recalled producing a a blister of sorts on his dairy air a few weeks back and was not looking to replicate.. On arrival we take to our 6 for 20 rower sit-ups, 10 Merkins, 20 more rower sit-ups finishing with 20 Merkins..

    Assemble back to the shiny circle for count off, announcements and COT..

    YHC lead us in prayer.

    Appreciate the post F3 brethren and the accountability to become a better man..

    👍🏻✌🏻👊🏻

  • Obstacle Course on the Mandeville Lakefront

    The idea was simple: raid my junk filled garage to come up with some objects to create an obstacle course on the Mandeville Lakefront for the Saturday morning beatdown.  Here’s how it went, more or less.

    Short warm up, then mosey down the Lakefront to the large grassy area for some fun.  (at least that was the original idea)

    PAX lines up behind a set of cones while one man at a time starts running the course.   When one man finishes the first obstacle, the next man goes until everyone is on the course.  The first obstacle was hurtles (2 ice chests and a wagon). Second obstacle…I took the net off of my son’s field hockey goal.  It was perfect to crawl under, or you could pretend you were sliding head first into second base.  PAX moves on to third station.  And on, and on it went.  There were a total of 7 stations. Before moving on to the next station, each man had to complete an exercise.  Here’s a flavor of the exercises we completed: merkins, hello dollys, flutter kicks, Steve’s groiners, burpees, putins, squats, jump squats, sister mary katherines, etc.  After 8 grueling trips through the obstacle course, time was up.  It was time to…

    mosey back to flag for announcements, countarama, and thanks to Maverick for praying us out.

    thanks for letting me lead today, men.  and thanks for helping me become a better version of myself.

    Waterpik

  • Backblast for 7-8-18. The Knoll

    The Scene:

    The Knoll

     

    Conditions:

    Surprisingly refreshing for a July Saturday morning at 7am.

     

    Welcome:

    8 men posted.

     

    Disclaimer:

    Money Cat: “I am not a professional trainer….huh? Why’s that funny to y’all??? Seriously guys…why is that funny?? Stop laughing or I’ll bring back Fastball and make all of y’all feel the pain!!!”

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Money Cat led the first third of the workout. I told the guys we would start off on a mosey but would call out a change and to mimic my movement regardless if I was at the front or the back because I’m usually in the back on these running kinds of things. At the sundial I called out a fast walk. At the next change I called out a mosey and after that was a fast walk. I decided to try something different. I called out a left side straddle mosey. During the side straddle mosey I called out to switch sides and lead with the other leg…(that means we now switched to leading with the right leg.) By now we had mosey’d the course almost two times and felt for the last 50 yards (I’m guessing) to the sundial we needed to do a full sprint. I could tell the guys were itching for me open it up a bit. I had the lead the entire way until I yelled out “FULL SPRINT!” And suddenly Mega Dad passed me up. What he doesn’t know is I allowed him to pass me on my left side. I didn’t want all the attention by getting there first so I turned down the after burners and slowed up a whole lot….it’s my story and I’m sticking with that. Remember….don’t question the Q.

     

    Money Cat called out a recovery countdown….it sure seemed to go by fast.

    We began our morning exercises.

    20 Arm Circles Forward

    20 Arm Circles Backwards

    20 Raised Arm Claps

    20 Dips

    20 Mexican Dips

    20 Walking Al Gore’s

    10 Burpees

     

    I was glad to turn over the next 3rd of the Q to my F3 brother Work Horse.

    Workhorse jumping in!  Well, missing Fastball’s beatdowns I decided to combine his “quarterpounder” and the “Murph”.  We based in the Sundial as it’s called, so it went like this!

    I had four F3 brothers pick an exercise, Topanga (Al Gores), Dagwood (Little Baby Crunches), Big Easy (Merkins), and Shangeaux (Side Straddle Hop). The strategy was to do a 25 count on exercise #1 and then run a lap around the running track and at the last turn heading back to sundial, turn and run backwards to complete at sundial. Plank until the last man was in!

    #1 – 25 Merkins and Lap

    #2  – 50 Little Baby Crunches and Lap

    #3 – 75 Al Gores ( which Shangeaux hijacked from Topanga )

    #4 – 100 Side Straddle Hops (which actually “unfortunately” with Topanga’s count ended up being 200) then a Lap, but changed the turn at last corner to a sprint to the sundial.  Shout out to youngster Trooper, he was in the mix leading the charge back to complete.

    At this point, we began a mosey back to the flag to do some Mary’s to close it out.  Megadad took over from there.

    • Lay Flat sit ups
    • Buddy Back Squats (wall squats on partners back)
    • Crunchy Frogs
    • Jane Fonda’s ( 3 ways right and left) for Rocket
    • Partner Leg Toss ( 10 straight, 2 left and 2 right)

    Circle of Trust

    • Name off and prayers ( special intention for F3 brother “Trooper” recently lost his daughter )

  • Backblast – Catfish Saturday VQ (2018-07-14)

    Greetings folks,

    Had a great workout this morning with Mr. Catfish’s Virgin Q.

    Attendees:  Catfish, Rudy, Mahatma Ice, Da Parish, Reluctant Yankee, Cliff Notes, Tool, Babyface, Triple Shift, Fracsac, King King, Mambi, Woz, Gabrielle, Medulla Oblongata, Bogey, Cooch, Calliope, Jinglevader, Dewey, Pie Gow, Abacus, Moist, Belloq, Whoop, Two Yutes

    Also had an FNG come in, who now has been officially christened as Beignet.  Turns out Beignet lives in Phoenix, so he will be bringing some N’awlins flavor back to his F3 group there.

    On to the workout:

    Started with a mosey over to the Great Lawn for Side Straddle Hop, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, Plank Jacks, Imperial Walkers

    Moved to side of great lawn for a B.O.M.B.S. variant (50 burpees, 100 overhead claps, 150 merkins, 200 sit-ups, 250 squats).

    Moseyed to the fountain for some dips, step-ups, and derkins.

    Lined up and did 2 laps of indian run on the main road to the museum.

    Moved to the field adjacent to the museum for a combo of lunges, bear crawls, duck walk, and burpees.  This involved lunging for two trees, then 5 burpees, bear crawl two trees, 5 burpees, then duck walking two trees, 5 burpees.  Rinse and repeat.

    Moseyed back to flag for our CoT and naming of our FNG (beignet).

    Thanks again to everyone for coming out.  27 strong is a hell of a way to do a Virgin Q!  Hope be able to do it again soon!

    Catfish

     

  • Helping Hands

    There have been many times that QIC has thought about coupons to spice up a beatdown. Honestly there has also been a  lot of forgetfulness or unpreparedness that has spoiled such ideas. Not this time! Gentlemen, we have garbage bags! Turning the scramble into an easter-egg hunt of sorts, the PAX was prepared to rid our 5k route of every scrap of litter it spied.

    Beginning in a more intentionally subdued manner:

    10 deep inhalations and exhalations (eyes closed IC)

    15 toe touches IC

    Off we went! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you asked) YHC didn’t grab quite enough garbage bags, and so Chewy and Sprocket mosied empy-handed, more able to focus on their run. The rest of the PAX, upon entering the stretch of road leading to the vaulted, though never close, gates of sunset point, were scrambling at every wayward piece of refuse the eye could detect.

    Upon Pelican and my later-than-the-rest return due to a little Wacker gimpiness, there was  just enough time for 1 throw of the Dice O Doom by The Pelican himself. Much to the PAX’s delight, 25 putins were all the Dice demanded of them. Waterpik prayed us out, and cold water was had by all!

    As some altruistic professionals are never off-duty, Chewy took the time to do a little diagnostics on YHC’s leg issues. I’ve always been quite impressed by the glimpses I’ve had of his knowledge, as well as the true passion he has for his craft. Final diagnosis: there’s a broken Bushwacker who has a lot of “pre gametime” work to do.

    Many thanks, gentlemen. I appreciate you all more than you could know.

  • Breakfast at Landry’s?

    Huge Crowd at Okwata this beautiful gloomy morning.
    YHC had a basic plan to run a good amount with no additional leg workouts and spend time focusing on upper body.

    DISCLAIMER

    Mosey across Lakeshore Drive and head East.

    COP #1: WARM UP
    Imperial Walkers X 20
    SSH X 20
    Windmills X 15
    Low Slow Squats X 15
    Peter Parkers X 20
    Row Sit Ups X 10 (This months ISI challenge, Today we needed to complete 65)

    Mosey further East down the Lakefront and grab some ledge
    Ierkins X 20
    Dips X 20
    Derkins X 20
    Row Sit Ups X 10 (20)

    Mosey further East down the lakefront near the lighthouse and get in two lines
    Group 1: 20 Hand Release Merks
    Group 2: Elbow Plank
    Flapjack
    Row Sit Ups X 10 (30)

    Mosey further East up the stairs to Landrys front door.
    Burpee Circuit:
    5 Burpees at the top, run down the stairs and up the other set
    4 Burpees…..
    Row Sit Ups X 10 (40)

    Mosey across Lakeshore Drive and begin to head back West
    Descending Merkin Sprints:
    Line up in the parking lot, complete 10 Merks, sprint to the other side and complete 9 merks.
    Repeat until reach 1.
    Peoples chair waiting for the Six
    Row Sit Ups X 15 (55)

    Mosey further west on the lakefront for Mary:
    American Hammer X 20
    Crunchy Frog X 20
    Flutter Kicks X 20

    Mosey west to the levee at Canal Blvd and head to the house of pain.
    Everyone complete 10 Pull ups, assisted if need be.

    Mosey back to the flag.
    Row Sit Ups X 10 (65)

    Count off, name o rama, announcements, intentions.

    Welcome Mackey D from Atlanta!

    Thanks for letting me lead!