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  • The Great 8

    YHC was going to fall short by a tenth of a point in the ISI challenge for the month of May.  But yesterday YHC saw an opportunity to take the lead, but was careful not to taunt Shooter from the Northshore and chance getting crushed!  Those NS Pax are relentless!  YHC saw that Shooter was also Q’ing this morning, which meant a fartsack by yours truly was not acceptable.  Thanks for pushing me hard this month Shooter!

    YHC was happy to see 7 others post at Okwata, 7 men committed to improve.  There were three shovel flags planted and the clock showed 0530, which could only mean one thing…..brief disclaimer….and mosey…

    Mosey around the fountain, carioca left, then right, followed by butt kicks.  Circle up on the grassy area in front for:

    Warmup

    SSH IC x 31 – Hawgcycle gave an explanation of why he uses 31 at Pontiff, which is a tribute to the number 31 worn by the great Wally Pontiff who sadly died too young.  YHC has a different reason for the 31, and that is a reference to the ship I served on in the US Navy.  It was the USS Strerett CG-31.

    The Sterett was 547 feet long, with a compliment of 418 men.  I proudly served as part of her crew from December 1988 until April 1992.

    IW IC x 20
    Abe Vigodas IC x 10
    Michael Phelps (Hug Yourself) IC x 10
    Sun Gods IC x 20 (10 fwd, 10 back)

    Mosey to the barre for double shots with Jack Webb

    1 merkin followed by 2 air presses (double shots) in the people chair against the barre.
    2 merkin……..4 air presses
    3 merkin……..6 air presses
    you get the idea
    10 merkins……20 air presses

    Mosey to the House of Pain for Circuits
    Pair up, four stations
    Station 1 – Bear Crawl up levee and complete 5 merkins, run back down (timer)
    Station 2 – Squats (AMRAP)
    Station 3 – Step Ups (AMRAP)
    Station 4 – Pull Ups (AMRAP)
    Rinse and Repeat

    Mosey to a steep part of the levee for 11’s

    1 Squat Okwata side, run up and over, 10 Burpees opposite side
    2 Squat Okwata side, run up and over, 9 Burpees opposite side
    You get the idea – always adds up to 11
    10 Squats Okwata side, run up and over, 1 Burpees opposite side

    The Pax seemed let down that YHC did not invoke the DirtyMacDeuce this day, and especially because this caused them to miss out on the wonderful Catalina Wine Mixers. YHC can’t leave the Pax wanting, so…
    Catalina Wine Mixers IC x 10

    Mosey to the Flag for Mary

    Flutter Kicks IC x 20
    Hello Dolly IC x 20
    Dying Cock Roach IC x 20
    Penguins IC x 20
    LBC’s IC x 20

    COT
    Count off, Name-O-Rama, Announcements, Intentions, and Closed with a Prayer.

    Thanks for posting with me today.

    NMM
    Join us for the summer series next Wednesday night. Check your email and Group Me to find how to contribute as F3 is sponsoring. It’s going to be Epic!

     

    SYITG

     

  • Little Humid Today?

    yes… I saw the Gipper statue whip out his hankie and wipe the brow of his over-sized head
    Guess the cool mornings are gone for the next five months or so.

    Anyways, it was still a good day to run all-over downtown Covington.
    and it went like so…

    short disclaimer …

    warmup
    all 20xIC; side straddle hops,good-mornings,lunges,imperial walkers,toe touches,hillbillys,arm circles,high knees

    mosey a few blocks down towards the Bogu Falaya, to Keith’s gravel road with a hill
    buttkicks,then sprint up the hill, walk back
    high knees,then sprint up the hill, walk back
    lunges, then sprint up the hill, walk back
    squats, then sprint up the hill

    mosey a few blocks to the back parking lot of the Taj Mahal
    line up for stops and starts;
    buttkicks, run up 2 parking spaces, back peddle 2, repeat for 4,6 8 spaces
    high knees, run up 2 parking spaces, back peddle 2, repeat for 4,6 8 spaces
    lunges, run up 2 parking spaces, back peddle 2, repeat for 4,6 8 spaces
    squats, run up 2 parking spaces, back peddle 2, repeat for 4,6 8 spaces

    mosey to the front of the Taj Mahal
    break up into two teams of three, one team holds in wall-chair position while the other team runs around Taj. Repeat

    mosey back to the trail head
    one minute of merkins

    count-o-rama, announcements; Moby in for eye surgery next week,
    “I was spottin those raccoons…” ‘They were mailboxes, you idiot. I didn’t have the heart to tell you.” ~~George Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld in “The Glasses”

    Maverick leads us out with prayer.

    Thanks guys, for another enjoyable start to the day.

  • Someone get that man a pump!

    The Scramble began with upper 70s and what felt like 100 percent humidity. One could break a sweat by merely walking to the flag. With YHC in pursuit of the ISI challenge for the month, profuse sweating should count for .1 or .2 maybe in the ever tight race between south shores Fracsac and I. However, caps off to you Fracsac as the Q was reminded by Steve that you indeed would be Qing as well in this Gloom. So, I humbly accept 2nd place for the ISI in May and don’t plan on calling for a recount of sorts. Unless my legal counsel finds flaws in the reporting system of sorts and believes there to be merit in such a decision.. Congrats!

    Enough of that, so 4 men decided to embrace the heavy Gloom with the YHC. We started out with a warmup of 20 IC Windmills, 20 IC Good mornings and alternating lunge twist for about 50 feet. We start into the run with Chewy quickly noticing the flat of another mans shoe hissing out air as we begin. Appears Choppa has sprung a flat, which Pelican responds with remembrance of the old Reebok pump up shoes “Just pump it up!” YHC decided to mix up the standard routine and incorporate some sprints along the way. Q would call out a land mark at which point the PAX would quickly accelerate for 10 long strides then backdown to Mosey. This took place throughout our run. I am not sure of the total amount of burst we completed but the end proved to be very taxing. After we passed a little beyond the halfway mark returning off sunset pier we paused for some core work 25 IC LBCs, 25 IC Flutter kicks and 15 IC Alternating elbow to opposite knee crunches (left/right). Returned back to Mosey till completion. Once back at the AO took in some more core. Elbow plank, left/right elbow plank, alternating leg wife pleasers and regular wife pleasers wrapped up with Nolan Ryan’s left/right.

    Count off, announcements and COT

    Appreciate Pelican for praying us out!

    ✌🏼 till the next post!

  • Memorial Day Murph

    Growing up, Memorial Day represented the first weekend of summer.  This was the first time we would pack up the car, hitch up the boat, and head to Lake Norfork on the eastern side of the Ozarks; a ritual we would repeat every weekend until Labor Day.  I loved Memorial Day and hated Labor Day.  Labor Day represented the end of summer, the beginning of school, and the end of fun.  Made sense that a holiday celebrating work would represent all those terrible things.  Also appropriate, Memorial Day represented freedom.  School was out.  It was time to be care-free and head to the lake.  I had a good understanding that Memorial Day represented freedom, but I never considered the cost associated with that freedom.  And that is unfortunate, because that is what the holiday is really about.

    So for Memorial Day 2018 F3 New Orleans did our best to recall the sacrifices made.  We, like many others around the nation, completed a Murph.  A Murph is a 1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 merkins, 300 squats and a 1 mile run, named in honor of Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy Seal who lost his life in Afghanistan.  I have feeling the real Murph didn’t modify his pull-ups as much as I did.  Oh and he wore a weighted vest through the whole thing.

    Naked Man Moleskin

    Great showing by the Uptown and World Pax, coming together at City Park.  I was impressed.  Further confirmation that 0530 is the right time to workout on the weekdays:  November Project showed up at 0600 only to find us on the equipment.  It worked out though, mainly because the F3 Pax crushed this Murph.  We were all running our final mile by the time they needed the pull-up space.  Lucky for them, there was no showdown.  Also lucky for us Da Parish and Rudy were not around.  I’m certain they would have broken into song from West Side Story.

    Impressive times by all.  I believe Mahatma and Gabrielle completed it in about 36 minutes. We finished with Mary, culminating in a 21 gun salute of the American Hammer.

    Great way to start the week and honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.  Thanks guys.

  • The Dome Patrol

    Nip/Tuck has been leading a band of merry Blue Ridge Runners in a parking garage training run downtown by the dome.  We decided to make it official.  So if you want to attend F3 New Orleans newest AO, meet near the dome at the corner of Poydras and LaSalle.

    This weeks run consisted of the Arena parking garage (3 times) and the Hyatt Parking Garage (3 times).  In all we ran 4.6 miles and my Garmin tells me we climbed 186 ft.  To Tinkle’s point, seems like 6 garages would be a little more elevation, but probably not a lot.  The mileage and elevation gain are approximately equal to leg 9 of the BRR.  In case you were wondering, it’s one of the easy legs.

    We finished up on time and had a COT to make it official.  Come join us.

     

  • Wally Warm-Up

    Sorry, really late backblast.  Better late than never, but not much as the memory had faded.

    I do remember the warm-up, or at least the theme.  It is common for a Pontiff workout to start with 31 Side Straddle Hops.  Wally Pontiff, the namesake of the park, wore 31 playing baseball at LSU.  He died of a heart attack in his sleep when he was 21.  Had that not happened, he’d probably be working out with us in the gloom.  Starting the workout with 31 SSHs has always been my way of thanking a family that’s given to our community and honoring a guy that died way to young.

    So today I wanted to stretch the warm-up out a little and make it a little more challenging than normal.  We did 31 of each exercise.  It went something like this:  SSH, IW, Squats, Moroccan Night Club, Peter Parkers, Windmills, Parker Peters, Dying Cockroach, Calf Raises

    Then we grabbed some rocks and did a couple of rounds of 3-6-3 exercises.  This involves 3 super slow reps, a hold, 6 normal, in-cadence reps, a hold, and then finish with 3 super-slow reps.  I made it up almost a year ago, because I’m a punk.  The World had beaten Uptown by a score of 363 to 360 in the Gnarly Nutria.  I Qd a month later at Audubon and developed this exercise pattern to remind them of the winning score.  However, it’s actually a pretty good workout.  So we did 2 rounds of shoulder presses, Squats, Curls, Toe Raises, and Rows.

    Then we carried one large and one small rock to the playground.  3 stations:  Bench Press with large rock AMRAP, 90 degree hang, and Plank.  30 second plank was the timer.  2 Rounds of that.  Then we moved to 3 more stations:  Swing Merkin, Swing Row, Tricep curl with small rock.  7 Swing Merkins was the timer.  We completed 1 round and returned our rocks.

    Good workout with a couple of great guys.  r

  • Stomp #144

    A half dozen of NOLA’s most elite, middle-aged athletic phenoms showed up on Tuesday to prove we can still run like, or even better than, a bunch of youngsters.  After exchanging the usual pleasantries and kicking around some ideas on which route we’d run, it was concluded that we would embark on a variation the original route, which is now safe and enjoyable since we have some daylight to work with.  This week’s Stomp entailed the following:

    Mosey OYO down Marconi to Harrison (or Filmore for the non-conformists), down Harrison to Wisner, Wisner to the road in front of Pan Am, then make your way to the practice track which was 3.15 mile, or 4.5ish for the show-offs that went to Filmore.  Once back at the track, use remaining time for some speedwork, running the straightaways and jogging/walking the turns.  We headed back to the flag with a few minutes left for Plankorama and hip flexors to make sure we stay young and agile.  All PAX were able to run between 4-5 miles ea in 40+ minutes….well done men!

    Always a good way to start the day.  Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

    Tool

     

     

  • Do You Know What It Means To Miss (F3) New Orleans?

    Last week’s hiatus from F3 gave me a bitter taste of what my next four months would be like.  I mean, sure, I was well-rested.  Aside from that, though, there was a massive hole in my daily routine.  It just proved to me that F3 is irreplaceable, and can F3Nation just hurry up and expand westward already??

    YHC has been getting over a nasty cold and wasn’t sure I’d be able to get the count out in the manly fashion the PAX is used to from me.  But the coughing fits subsided long enough and all went fairly well.

    Started things out as we often do, with SSH.  Then: IWs, Hillbillies, Toe Touches, High Knees, Butt Kicks.  All 20x IC.

    Then up onto the trailhead stage for The Dirty McDeuce.  3 sets of exercises, 12 reps each, followed by a mosey around the trailhead perimeter.  4 times.  The exercises were:

    Merkins – Squats – LBCs

    Hand-release Merkins – Jump Squats – Freddie Mercs

    Derkins (off stage wall) – Monkey Hummers – Heel Pulses

    Burpees – Sister MK’s – Putins

    Next up, partner up: P1 Lt Dans across the corridor to P2, who is performing Sumo Squats.  Flapjack.

    Then over to those brand-new blue benches: P1 knocks out AMRAP Freaks Nasties, while P2 does three laps up and down the stairs.  Switcheroo.  (Clearly, someone on the city council caught footage of the beast Shooter pumping out a set of Freak Nasties on those flimsy wooden benches and thought it a wise idea to replace them.  Smart move, we were definitely gonna break one at some point.)

    And finally, a little Mary: Hello Dolly’s, Flutter Kicks, and LBC’s, 25x IC.

    Thanks men, it was good to be back in your company this morning.

     

     

  • Curls For The Girls

    Seven men got some loving with rocks on Friday at Pontiff…gotta get those guns and upper body honed for the summer.  No running involved so lot’s of time to hopefully build some muscle.  Here’s what we did:

    • IPW x25
    • Goofballs x20
    • AC x20
    • WM x20
    • Crab Cakes x20
    • LS Squat x20
    • 1 round of Crowd Pleasers (Merkin:Groiner, 1:1, 2:2, 3:3, 4:4, 5:5, 4:4, 3:3, 2:2, 1:1)

    Headed to the rock pile and grab something large for curling then circled up for Curls x12 IC

    Deposited large rock over outfield fence, grabbed a regular/medium rock, lifted overhead, and lined up for an Indian Lunge Walk to the field entrance.  From there we deposited med rock on baseline, then bear crawled to get large rock.

    Next up, everyone’s favorite, 11’s:

    • Side #1 – Curls w/large rock
    • Bear Crawl approx 10yds to…
    • Side #2 – Squat Press w/med rock
    • Backwards Bear Crawl Back

    Then time to break for some Mary:

    • Rosalita x25
    • Penguins x20
    • WWII Sit Ups x20
    • Chest Press w/large rock x20
    • Flutter Kick holding rock above chest x20
    • Russian Twist x20
    • Row ? x20?

    Just enough time left for one last upper body COP, this time rotating clockwise and using next rock in line.  YHC mentioned it never hurts to try some “strange”.  Seven rocks so seven quick rounds, all IC:

    • Curls x5
    • Curls x5
    • Curls x5
    • Shoulder Press x5
    • Shoulder Press x5
    • Curls x5
    • Curls x5

    Walked back to base, keeping rocks moving the whole time with more presses and curls.

    COT to cap things off.  Fine job men!

    Tool

     

     

     

  • Murph Marsh Monday!

    YHC arrived at the AO to an early return of vacationer Waterpic..  Figured with the holiday the Marsh would not produce many at this beatdown and unfortunately my thoughts were correct as many chose the path of Fartsacking on this memorable day we call Memorial Day!! Time is of the essence and we have non to spare with the Murph on the agenda. So let’s pay homage to our Veterans past and present. Also let us remember the sacrifices put forth by both themselves, as well as their families..

    Simple explanation broken in 2 sets. 5 rounds of 10 pull-ups, 20 Merkins and 30 Squats. Followed by 1 mile run. R/R. Of course some modifications needed through this challenging beatdown, with much respect to Lt. Murph knowing he did no modification as well as completed with a ruck sack in tow…

    Returning we count, name and pray!!

    Waterpic recommendation of a little F2 coffateria afterwards proved just as rewarding!!

    Apprecite the post Waterpic!!

    ✌🏻 till the next beatdown!!