F3 New Orleans

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  • The bear went over the mountain

    The PAX gathered at the AO in the refreshingly cool morning gloom, and as Brown Bag was not wearing a parka, YHC knew it must be just above 50 degrees.

    Standard disclaimer and mosey around the track with a hard right turn across Magazine St, through the bollards and around much standing water to relative high ground in the oak alley.

    Warm up COP

    5 burpees OYO , SSH x20 IC, Peter Parkers x20 IC, 5 burpees OYO, Sealjacks x20 IC, ParkerPeters x20 IC, 5 burpees OYO, Smurfjacks x20 IC, Mountain Climbers x20 IC, 5 burpees OYO, plankjacks x20IC

    Mosey down magazine to the field in front of the zoo, which was looking like a lake. Much mumble chatter about puddles and wet shoes. We modified to the parking lot, using it as a large rectangle for cycling through BLIMPS at the corners. 5 Burpees, 10 lunges (2 legs is one), 15 Imperial Walkers, 20 merkins, 25 Plankjacks, 30 squats.

    PAX then assembled in two lines for Indian run across the levy to the ‘fly.  One large pool of water disrupted the smooth flow of the indian run formation with PAX tacking starboard and port to avoid it, except for Sea Man, who would not be deterred by mere water and kept his line straight down the middle of it.

    PAX assembled at the molehill at the end of the soccer fields.

    We then bear crawled up over and down the other side of the mountain, to see what we could see.

    On the other side we did 30 LBCs, then moseyed back around the mountain and reassembled.  Up and over the mountain again, but the second time we planked until all assembled, then Jack Webb 7s (merk followed by 2 air presses, to 7 merks) . Bear crawl back over the mountain to Jack Webb’s meaner brother, the Iron Hulk 6s. (merk followed by 4 air presses to 6 merks). Bear crawl back over the mountain.

    4 trips over the mountain and we were out of time.

    fast mosey back to the flag, COP, announcements and intentions.

    Thanks for the opportunity.

     

  • The Q needs a flashlight and directions

    The only thing worse than posting at 5:30am to workout is posting at 5:30am on the Monday after Daylight Savings Time. I should have checked on that before asking Hawg to let me Q for the first time. Hawg did make my morning by arriving with the flag just before we started to get going. I think this was the 3rd or 4th time I’ve seen the elusive F3 flag.

    Disclaimer and then mosey to the rocks.

    The cadence was shaky but we did:

    – SSH x 20

    – Peter Parkers x 30

    – Imperial Walkers x 20

    – Propellers x 22 (11 each direction)

    -Hillbillies x 20

    We grabbed our rocks for some classic rock city exercises with more of my shaky cadence:

    Shoulder Press x 15

    Curls for the Girls x 15

    Rows x 20

    Low, Slow Squats x 30

    We moseyed over to the playground equipment for a 4 part rotation exercise. I needed a little help along the way to locate both the swings and later to the hill. It turns out that working out in the dark doesn’t help me know how Pontiff Park is laid out.

    Our rotation workout:

    Elf on the Shelf with a rock for a 10 count while we rotated between elf, underdogs, dips, and mercins.

    After playing around under the swings, we took our rocks to the hill for elevens. It was 10 bench presses with the rock on one side of the hill and 1 burpee on the other to start.

    We ended with Mary:

    American Hammer x 15

    Penguin x 20

    Dying Cockroach x 15

    LBC x 15

    We dropped off our rocks and moseyed back to the flag. I got us there one minute early and was threatened to put shame upon my family name for finishing at 6:14, so we did Freddie Mercury for one minute.

    Count off, namerama, announcements, and a prayer.

    I led. I survived. I am now a man.

  • Marsh Madness!!!

    With the beginning of the week and March madness tipping off on Thursday. The QIC arrived at the Marsh to the sights of 2 Cinderella hopefuls waiting at center court. Would either be selected by the NCAA committee for this weekends tournament? Or would they need to except another invitation to the CUSAP at the Tough Mudder on Saturday spearheaded by the Bushwacker? With the latter of the 2 choices clearly in their sights as well as mine we tipoff our training with the warmup..

    25IC SSH, 15IC WM, 25IC IW, 15IC GM, 25IC BK, 15 IC SJ

    With the opportunity of slipping in as a number 16 seed the ISI challenge would prove the worthiness of one Steve rocking out 35 on this Gloom.. With Captain taking second and the QIC rounding out the PAX we all responded with a sigh of completion and reverence to Turbo for coming up with such great challenges… We began a Mosey down Lamarque to the lakefront. Arriving at the bulkhead we completed an upper body of 15IC Freak nasties, followed by 15IC Derkins and 15IC Erkins. Climbed on top the sea wall and Racoon crawled about 50 yards west. Next we focused on legs completing 10 step ups each leg, followed by 15 box jumps. Using the sea wall as a guide to a perfect 90 degree squat of 15 followed by right single leg squat 10IC back to regular squat 15, and completed left leg single 10IC. We then began our journey back up Marigny to the Marsh. Closing things up we completed 8 count bodybuildiers to 20 and then took to the six for Mary. 30IC flutter kicks, right single leg extension wife pleaser and left single leg wife pleaser wrapping up with 30IC flutter kicks..

    countoff, announcements, COT

    Thanks to Captain for praying us out and Steve for the lessons of survival when supporting a fellow brother on a bachelor party.. Well done lads!!

    Appreciate the lead!

     

  • Daylight Savings at The Knoll

    Knowing that we were about to lose an hour during the coming evening, we wasted no time getting started!

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions:  Chilly, a bit wet but no rain… we thought.

    Welcome. Saw no FNGs so we skipped the Disclaimer.  (Noted that since my last Q when I was not a professional trainer, I’m still not a professional trainer.)

    Warm-O-Rama:

    Mosey – Two laps around the Field – one forward, one back.  A bit of competitive spirit kicked in, with relish.  Then for some breath-catching and stretching exercises:

    Shoulder Circles.

    Imperial Walkers.

    SSH.

    Windmills.

    SSH.

    Al Gores.

    SSH.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to The Sundial, our faithful companion, for some upper-body work.

    Freak Nasties, putting “diamonds of gold” (a Tony Horton term) on our upper arms.

    Incline Merkins, to sharpen the edges of our pecs.

    Step Ups, to vary from upper body and give us the Buns of Steel that drive our wives crazy.

    And then some Partner Plank Curls, for biceps (which are hard to hit in F3) – where one guy planks and the other does standing bicep curls with his partner’s ankles.  We definitely learned a bit about ourselves on this one… and not necessarily for the better.  (10 curls each man, except for YHC who had no partner in this odd-numbered PAX)

    Then a second round of the above to make sure we all hit our Personal Best.

    Finally some La La Leggy to hit the buns again.  A 10-count of squats and lunges and calf raises.  (Yeah, your buns needed it, and you know who I’m talking to.)

    Mosey to The Hill, our Other faithful friend.  (Not the first hill, but across the creek to the second hill.  That’s where the action is.)

    Partner Run & Windmill Merkins.  One partner runs up the hill and back while the other does windmill merkins (just google it if you don’t believe me).  Got to 50 merkins per team, which brought a lot of groans from the girls in the group (And I’m talking about Tiger Bait, whose noisy complaining must spur him on because he finished first.)

    So we cooled down with more Shoulder Circles, before one more trek up the hill:  Bear Crawl Up, Crab Walk Down.  Dagwood made a fine showing until his log roll to the finish line.  But he also finished near the front of the pack.

    Then Black Snake back to the Shovel Flag – mosey in single file, with the last man weaving his way to the front until everyone has woven once.  This one seemed to raise everyone’s enthusiasm a bit, or maybe it was just knowing that we were almost done…..

    6MOM:

    LBFC:  LBCs while doing Flutter Kicks.

    Jane Fondas (in honor of Rocket who could not be with us.  I don’t know what he thinks of Jane’s politics, but he sure likes her leg exercises)

    American Hammer, to fist-pound our way to the finish.

    Homer to Marge (leg lifts), which always makes us recall The Simpsons fondly, and which also got us facing upward just as a delicate, refreshing drizzle began.  Just God’s way of saying He’s proud of us.

    And one more set of Jane Fondas, to close out with a second tribute to Rocket.

    COT/BOM.

    Then to the coffeeteria for some Friendship building, hoping the barista wouldn’t comment on the way we smelled.

    Now don’t forget to set your clocks forward tonight!

  • AB-solutely Appreciative

    “I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another” Thomas Jefferson

    And it was, indeed, a pleasure doing a good job whooping on the the PAX this morning!

    Warm-o-rama:

    Air Squared (people’s chair with seal claps) x20

    21s – SSH in cadence, 1-5 out loud, 6-21 in our heads. Shooter drew a yellow flag  by starting #22, so we dropped for 5 merkins and gave it another shot. An antsy Tanked Up tried throwing some accusations Water Pic(k)’s way, but the PAX wasn’t having a round 3.

    We finished up with a cameo from our ISI AMRAP, courtesy of Turbo Tax. Single-leg lateral hops, 1 minute each leg.

    The Thang:

    After moseying to Marigny and partnering up (thanks Beast for showing up late to even out our number), YHC unveiled the as-yet-unperfected Bushwacker’s Ladder. Using the 6 telephone poles as markers, while P1 did merkins at 1st pole, p2 bear crawled to second pole and proceeded to do merkins while p1 bear crawled to meet him. Proceeding thusly, burpees/ sprint, alt single leg lunge/ high step, plank/squat walk, and finally p1 &p2 together SSHed laterally to the last pole.  To get back to the lakefront p1 carried p2 half way, then switched to complete the journey.

    We mosied towards the little bridge near the “beach”, but, after realizing it was a farther mosey than YHC realized, we broke it up with a quick set of 25 merkins.

    At the bridge we secured our feet under the bottom rail and busted out 20 or so sit ups. Now realizing the agony of my decision to both our feet and tail bones, we shifted over to the grass for 25 LBCs and 25 Heels to Heavens.

    Half-way along our return mosey we stopped for an invigorating game of F3 Pinocle (f3nation.com’s spelling not mine). In a circle each PAX was issued before him 5 cards (though time only allotted the use of 3 each) from my son’s deck of average, non-playboy playing cards . Each at a time flipped and we all performed however many reps as the number on the card (A=20), with the suite determining the exercise: Heart = merkin, Spade = squat, Diamond = burpee, and Club = putin. Mostly putins, very few burpees, and only 1 Ace. YHC would like to think he wasn’t alone in being APPRECIATIVE that we did 3 rounds instead of all 5, as a revealing of the remaining unturned cards produced such terrors as the A of spades, A of hearts, and the dreaded A of diamonds.

    Mary:

    (2) 10x Outlaws aka OOOOH Marys (Someone check for security footage from Don’s!)

    25x Freddy Mercurys

    20x Feddy Flutters

    3 minute plank, while I expounded on my appreciation for the fine gentlemen who surrounded me, those who could not post today, and the F3 organization as a whole. We should never be so far gone as to lose sight of the gifts we’ve been blessed with.

    As a parting gift, the chiseled brother fresh on his journey into his 60th year on this planet, graced us and the Mandeville Lakefront public with a brief, but titillating, strip tease of male dancing as only a landscaper could!

    YHC prayed us out with more urgings of appreciation for all things precious

    Gentlemen, it was an honor and a pleasure

    Thanks for the generosities of Shooter

  • Its march, must be basketball time

    It’d been several months, but YHC was ready to get back to business. Unfortunately, in the meantime – apparently YHC had forgotten many aspects of how to Q, and the PAX was always ready and willing to point out his many mistakes and flaws. Oh well. You get what you pay for….

    Arriving at 6:20, YHC enjoyed some good F2 with the early arriving PAX. Slowly but surely a good size crew pulled in, and as 6:30 rolled around, the crew of 19 set off towards the east – enjoying the pink and orange hues from the sunrise as we moseyed towards the lawn in front of the museum.

    Warm up:

    • SSH x25 (Here comes Coxswain – he seems to think the workouts start at 6:35)
    • Smurf Jack x20 (Mumblechatter about “Smurf Jack” and “Cowbell” seemed rampant)
    • Hillbilly x25 (Bogey decided to point out some flaw in YHC’s form.  YHC thought his form was perfectly adequate.)
    • ISW x20

    Its March, leading up to the NCAA tournament.  So lets talk basketball…

    Thing 1: Notre Dame reference, of course.  Wednesday Night, YHC making dinner and turns on the TV to discover ND playing Va Tech.  Early in the second half, ND is down by 21 and looking terrible.  End of second half, ND is up by 5 and celebrating.

    • Peter Parker x21, 5 Merkins
    • Parker Peter x21, 5 Merkins
    • Shoulder Taps x21, 5 Merkins
    • Floyd Maywether x21, 5 Merkins

    Little did he know at the time, but our FNG is a Va Tech fan.  Sorry (but not really) about that.

    Thing 2: 2000s and the advent of the “1-and-done”- 1 year of college bball before moving on to the pros.  Anthony Davis wins national championship and Final Four MVP.  Then on to the Pelicans.

    PAX splits into 3 groups for the “1-and-done Indian Run”.  Each group runs from the front of the Museum out to Wisner, then back and on to the Refinery.  The “1-and-done” part: the last PAX drops for 1 Burpee before sprinting to the front of the line.  Each PAX seems to get about 5 burpees in during the run.

    Thing 3: Duke and the dreaded “Bobby Hurley”.  Dang them and their slap-the-floor approach to defensive intensity, epitomized by Bobby Hurley in the early 1990s.  PAX pair up – 10 groups.  YHC fumbles a bit trying to get the 10 exercises ordered to intermix legs, arms, and core.  YHC fails miserable.  Many PAX point out YHC failings.  YHC perseveres.

    • 15 Bobby Hurleys (the timer)
    • Box Jumps
    • Ski Jumps
    • Pull Ups
    • Step Ups
    • Dips
    • Mountain Climbers
    • Rows
    • Knee Ups
    • Merkins

    Repeat for 2 cycles.  Bobby Hurleys followed by Box Jumps followed by Ski Jumps: that’s a bad ordering of exercises.  Note to self to try and avoid that next time.

    Mosey to the great lawn

    Thing 3a: Quick Pitstop at the Tool Wall for 25 Calf Raises and 25 Monkey Humpers.  Just because.  Mosey on to the great lawn and plank in the center for the 6.

    Thing 4: Dean Smith and the 4 Corner offense.  OYO – 8 8-count-body builders at each of the 4 corners around the great lawn.  Start where ever, go in whichever direction.  YHC doesn’t care.  Just get to each corner and do 8.  Go.  El Guapo had to be reminded what a “corner” is.  its not the straight away.  Its the corner.

    Return to the center to plank for the 6.

    Thing 5: Fab 5 from Michigan – we’ll do the Ab 5

    • Ray Jackson (the lesser known member): LBC x25 (because YHC couldn’t think of a J ab exercise, though several astute PAX later pointed out the J-Lo….
    • Jimmy King: flutter Kick x25
    • Jalen Rose: dying cockRoach x25
    • Juwan Howard: american Hammer x20 (YHC feeling the pain…)
    • Chris Weber: that’s right, the dr. W x10

    Thing 6: Nolan Richardson and Arkansas “40 minutes of Hell”.  PAX finish with our version of “4 minutes of hell”.  Suicides across the great lawn OYO for 4 minutes.  Go.

    Mosey to the VSF (20 PAX and we have a VSF?  Where are the flags?!?!?!?)

    Count-off, Name-o-rama.  YHC told he is doing it wrong (which, apparently, he is).  Naming of our FNG – was “Papa Bear” (celebrating his brood of 3 married children and youngest 9 year old), until we realize that “Papa Bear” is already claimed.  So late pivot, naming him “Hokie Pokey” for his Va Tech connections.

    Announcements (Thursday Night Basin Run, next week’s Tough Mudder).  Intentions and Prayer to close.  Today’s scripture is the parable of the pharisee and tax collector praying in the temple.  Jesus instructs us to pray as the tax collector, humbly.  Lord, teach us to be humble.  Lead by our example, not by our words.

    Gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to lead.

  • Challenge excepted

    YHC arrived at the Scramble on this chilly Gloom with the idea of challenging the PAX to a faster pace on our 5k journey. In past runs we average between 28-30 mins.. As we chattered about the previous months RRR challenge and how neither of the PAX present have ran since shutting it down on the 28th. A challenge felt right and of course the challenge was excepted eagerly by Steve and Waterpic.. Usually getting right to it, the QIC decided to change it up and get the heart rate going as well as stretching out some of the stiffness before our journey.

    warmup

    20IC SSH

    15IC WM

    15IC GM

    the thang

    Off to the races back and forth we take turns as we all are testing to see who is going to establish the actual pace. In the end Steve prevails with his galloping stride, which seems like a horse cornering turn 4 in the Kentucky derby or Preakness for the straight away with victory in sight. Non of the PAX actually timed it but we completed between 24-25 mins with 15 to spare upon returning. QIC decided to get right to the ISI of the day put forth by Turbo. It certainly reminded this YHC how much he dislikes the Burpee but also challenged him to compete as his brethren held him accountable. We then did a series of Merkin balance beam as one man climbed the monkey bars and then balanced crawled across the parallel bars releasing another man until each completed the obstacle. To wrap things up we hit the six for some core. 20IC FM, 20IC leg raise pulses and closed with an 8 count leg raise front/left/right total of 8 using the poles on the swing set for assistance..

    countarama, announcements, COT

    Thanks to Waterpic for taking us out in prayer!!

    Always enjoy the lead and fellowship with you F3 brothers..

  • Rudy’s back

    Pro Bowl crew on a unusually brisk Wed morning…

    This is F3 blah, blah, blah…

    Warm up:

    SSHX28/ACX20(10&10)/Peter ParkerX20/Parker PeterX20/Abe G.X10/IWX20

    Mosey to nearest bench at R. Mall

    The Thang:

    Stand on bench, right leg to ground, up, left leg to ground…starting at 1 each leg then increasing by 1…to 10 benches/10 reps each leg.

    After 10th bench run to Fountain(NOMA) for: DipsX30/I MerksX20/DerkinsX10…run to first bench on opposite side of R. Mall.

    Step ups starting at first bench, 1 right & 1 left, increasing by 1 at each bench…up to 10 each leg.

    A few LBC’s while we wait for the Pax…

    Back to first bench: Dips – 2 at first bench, increasing by 2 at the next bench…10 benches/20 Dips.

    Run across to other side of R. Mall…

    First bench – 2 Inc. Merks, increasing by 2 at the next bench…10 benches/20 Inc. Merks.

    LBC’sX35

    CO, NameO, Announc., Intentions, Prayer…few stayed to complete the day’s AMRAP challenge.

  • The 5-Man Army

    The Scene: The Colosseum

    Conditions: Cold again (55). Really windy. Less than average muddiness.

    Welcome

    Disclaimer

    Warm-a-Rama:

    It was early, windy, and chilly, so the warm-up was a little longer than normal.

    · Capri lap – we did about 5 laps in the parking lot.

    · Mosey – ran to parking lot on other side of Olympia Stadium.

    · SSH – 25x IC

    · Bobby Hurley – 15x IC.

    · Al Gores – 10x IC

    · Merkins -10x IC

    · Burpees – 7x on own.

    The Thang:

    Due to the Oscars, we did a little movie theme:

    1. Lt. Dans – I called these Aiken Legs, but a better name is Lt Dans (from Forrest Gump), cause afterwards we all felt like “we aint got no legs.” We stood on one end of parking lot and lunged to the median. Then did 10 squats. Lunged back to starting end and did 15 more squats. Went back one more time for 20 squats. These were painful, and pretty sure someone cussed at me.

    2. Speed Burps – Named after the movie Speed. While the movie had a bus, Keanu Reeves, and a bomb, we didn’t. So, instead, we did 10 burpees at each speed bump as we mosey’d back to flag. I took a Christopher Columbus route (all over the map) to make sure we hit up all the bumps.

    3. Col. Trautman – Named after the fella from Rambo. We partnered up. One did freak nasty’s AMRAP while other partner ran to monkey bars and did 5 pull-ups. We did this 4 times. And as Col Trautman said, “It was a bad time for everyone, Rambo. It’s all in the past now.”

    4. Catch Me If You Can — We kept the same partners. One partner took off running backwards while the other partner did 10 merkins. After 10 merkins, that partner sprinted to catch his partner. Then swap. We went from parking lot to driveway, which we could see for the first time thanks to the sun rise. We did this 4 times. Wheezing and slouching were at an all-time high.

    Mary:

    We were running late for Mary’s. But we did it. Everyone led their favorite Mary exercise.

    · Fastball – LBCs – 10x

    · Rocket – Double Legged Mt Climbers – 10x

    · Dagwood – Jane Fondas (Rt) – 10x

    · Shangeuxs – Jane Fondas (Lt) – 10x

    · Worms – Oooh Marys – 10x

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM:

    Announcements

    FWIW – The 5-Man Army didn’t win an Oscar.

  • Run for the Hills

    Beautiful morning at The Gipper.  Six men strong.  Glad to see Astro and Grundy back in action.

    Warmup with Seal Jacks, Windmills, Squats, Merkins all 20x IC.

    Mosey to the Landing for a Ring of Fire.  Merkins, Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, Plank Jacks, and T Stands between plank walks around the ring in both directions.

    Recovery walk to the Main Event:  Hill Sprints from the Landing up the gravel road to the second oak tree.  About 15 feet of elevation gain.  The PAX started each sprint from a prone position, jumping to their feet and hitting it hard for about 35 yards. Recovery walk back to the Landing.  Rinse and repeat for six quality sprints.

    Then it was time for the day’s ISI challenge:  AMRAP of Butt Kick Jumps for 60 seconds.  Partner up and count for your partner.  Just as hard as expected with everyone fatiguing as the minute mark approached.  T claps to the Southshore PAX who reportedly put in a 90 second effort this morning.  That extra 30 seconds must have been tough.

    Mosey to the STP Emergency Operations Center for two rounds of 10 burpees OYO, 5 clap Merkins OYO, and 20 SSHs and then Seal Jacks 20x IC.

    Final mosey back to The Gipper for Mary.  Pulsing, alternate arm/leg Supermans and then straight leg Freddy Mercurys, both 20x IC.

    Good stuff this morning guys.  Thanks for letting me lead.