F3 New Orleans

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  • Splish Splash

    Workout started dry and rain started to fall during our warm up.

    Rain ranged from moderate to heavy throughout but the lightning stayed away.

    15 pax weren’t deterred by the weather and pushed through.

    Started with a warmup in the great lawn:

    side straddle hop x 31 ( because that’s what everyone seems to start with and I didn’t want to rock the boat)

    Imperial Walkers, arm circles, hold plank for a minute and after 20 Peter Parkers we weee warmed up

    Mosey to the museum steps.

    Here we did my modified version of an 11. Some have called it Stairway to Heaven. Some have called it Stairway to Hell:

    Bunny hop up the stairs, 10 Burpees at the top, then on the way down the stairs on merkin and then one dip in the fountain ( if you count the merkin and dip as the same exercise it adds up to 11). Then proceed in typical 11 fashion.

    Mosey to the pier over the lake for some Mucho Chesto.

    Mosey to the picnic benches under the pavilion for

    A series of dips with a break to do some step ups.

    By this point the rain was so hard we all looked like we had just climbed out of a swimming pool (but at least it wasn’t hot and there were finally no mosquitoes)

    Zombie walk on the way back to the museum.

    Break into groups of 3. Backwards crawl ( at Kim Chi’s request) up the side museum steps while the other two pax in the group do Rocky Balboas and LBC.

    We finished with a couple of the only women we met in on F3. One is Mary and the other is Roxanne.

    One FNG today who I’m pretty sure I’ve seen wearing a black and gold helmet on TV before.

  • Twice the Fun

    Pre Thang: Eleven Pax showed up eager for the mountain, so after a quick disclaimer YHC obliged.

    The Thang: Short mosey across the avenue and straight to WPM with a brief stop at the bike rack for 50 SSH IC, then over to the base of the first ramp. On the way up–BLIMPS with the usual exercises at each level on the church side. Burpees x 5, Lunges x 10, Imp. Walkers x 15, Merkins x 20, Plank Jacks x 25 and Squats x 30 at the top. Plank and wait for the six.

    Circle up for Mary: R. Twist x 25, LBC x 50, Hello Dolly x 25 all in cadence. Recover to your feet. Arm Circles standing on your left foot x 20 IC. Arm Circles standing on your right foot x 20 IC.

    BLIMPS again for the descent–modified w/ a stop on the university side for 25 LBC’s at each level, inspired by RY on the way up. T-Claps! Plank and wait at the bike rack.

    Mosey over to one of YHC’s favorite areas. The benches… Derkins x 15, LLSU x 20, Irkens x 15, RLSU x 20, Dips x 25 all in cadence.

    Mosey back to the flag for a four minute plank-o-rama.

    COT w/shout out by YHC.

    Special intentions to keep in our prayers: Saban’s dad, who is in hospice. Tinkles friend, who is recovering from a near fatal 4 wheeler accident. Reluctant Yankees mom, who is undergoing open heart surgery next week.

    T-Claps to the Pax for pushing hard on another nasty humid morning.

    Good Times!

    Roots

  • Inaugaral Bucktown Coastie

    YHC and Torq started in the gloom at our virtual flag and did a short COT.  After our prayer for F3 and all the men that will be coming in the future, Torq proceeds to lose his balance while on his bike and scrapes up his knee and shin.  Not a good start but he wasn’t deterred.  After checking to see if he had broken anything, we start to pedal away but Torq’s chain had fallen off.  A bad omen….not likely because WE ARE F3 (SPARTA)!    We rode west on the Lakeshore path that ends at the sea wall in Kenner then turned around and headed back.  We did a steady ride that averaged 16 mph for a total of 19 miles and it took 75 minutes.

  • A Big Leap for F3 Gear: MudGear Shirts to be Built in the USA

     

    MudGear Built in the USA
     

    MudGear is a company born from the F3 experience. In 2012, a FEBA-filled Malkovich and a small crew from F3 Charlotte Metro stepped up to take over F3 Gear ordering responsibilities from OBT, who had grown weary of handing out shirts from the back of his car.

    The operation nearly failed to launch when the first print order under Malko’s watch arrived with a huge 7 inch F3 on the front. (These misprints have since become OG collector’s items.)

    The team quickly recognized that gear sales would be an important part of the F3 growth strategy and began adding a few bucks to each shirt to fund operations. After a few successful orders, sharp legal minds advised that reselling shirts would require collecting and remitting NC sales tax to keep F3 out of trouble. Malko offered to set up a separate legal entity to manage the gear sales and remit a logo royalty to F3. He had always dreamed of starting a small business anyway, so Malko filed papers with the state and county and MudGear was born.

    The first big leap for MudGear happened later that year. Still filled with exuberance and unhappy with the existing choices for fitted performance shirts, we decided we could manufacture our own version, specifically crafted to withstand the abuse of a mud run and the daily pounding of an F3 workout. After months of fabric testing and fit prototypes, “The Horse” in Charlotte helped to bring this to life with his industry background and production capabilities in India.
    Sundancer in v1 MudGear
    F3 Sundancer in vintage v1 MudGear
     
    In Dec 2012, we launched our first web store that allowed PAX to make individual orders rather than collecting money, and we figured out a fulfillment system to ship orders to each customer instead of requiring a guy to tote shirts around to each workout.
    The first F3 Gear Store circa Dec 2012
     

    In 2013, MudGear moved all printing and embroidery for F3 Gear to Mooresville, NC where F3 Chief owns a full-service screen printing company. (Yes, we can definitely help you with shirts and gear for your non-F3 companies and groups!) Malko moved the entire inventory of F3 Gear in Rock Hopper’s 18 foot open trailer. There may still be a few F3 shirt boxes in the woods off the highway.
     

    F3 Chief and Screenprinting
    F3 Chief hard at work on the heat press and an F3 Crossroads logo screen
     

    F3 Gear had become (and still is) the largest source of funds fueling F3 Expansion. We were blown away by the number of F3 logos and regional teams we were seeing at the Ultimate Challenge Mud Run convergence in Columbia. The photo that year underscored the growth and potential.
     
    F3 takes over the Ultimate Challenge Mud Run
     

    MudGear was growing in its own right as well. MudGear socks were designed and produced in Hickory, NC to combat the nasty gashes that our guys were suffering at the mud runs that year. The socks took off and soon the sales on the MudGear website started to outpace the F3 Gear sales. A MudGear Pro Team of professional Spartan Racers was launched and the social media buzz of MudGear on the race podiums fueled additional growth.
     

    MudGear Pro Team
    MudGear Pro Team Members Laura Lunardi, Brakken Kraker, and Robert Killian
     

    Things were going great, but this is where we veered off course. We chose to follow the well-worn path of the sports apparel industry to Asia to learn how to make inexpensive gear for import. We navigated a production round of v2 MudGear shirts from China that arrived by boat smelling like gasoline. We had to unpackage and air-dry every shirt for a couple days to get the smell out. Continued communication problems and delays caused us to break ties with that factory and begin a new search for manufacturing closer to home.

     

    We found the difference between working with Asian apparel manufacturers and US manufacturers to be striking. Chinese factories, especially government-owned ones, value full employment, so they have lots of manpower, including many account reps working to get and keep your business. It seems they will do and say anything to get your orders in the door then figure out how to make it work afterward by changing some small details you may not notice like um… sewing quality. American manufacturers, on the other hand, have been in survival mode for the last couple decades. The remaining ones are only in business because they have been ruthlessly efficient and extremely selective about who they’ll work with in order to not waste resources. Luckily, many of these survivors are here in North Carolina where the history of making quality apparel in the USA runs deep.

     

    With our past order history and proven market of loyal F3 and MudGear customers, we were finally able to get the attention of two NC-based manufacturers and have reached an agreement to make the next round of MudGear shirts, boxer briefs and arm sleeves here in the USA. This will bring us to over 95% of all MudGear products being made domestically. We’re incredibly excited about the quality of the new prototypes and love having the production closer to home.

     
    MudGear shirt development in USA
    v3 MudGear shirts currently in development in North Carolina
     

    What does this mean for F3 Gear?

    We think this move is a long-term gain for F3 Gear with some short-term pain. We expect to run out of stock of several sizes of v2 MudGear shirts before the next version arrives. We are already out of stock of the MudGear boxer briefs and most sizes of the padded arm sleeves. We apologize for these delays and will have other brands of gear available for F3 shirt orders to fill the gap. Additionally, we’ve had to consolidate our fabric purchase to a single color dye lot which means we will be going back to all bad-ass black in MudGear shirts for most of this year. With continued growth, we hope to be able to pick up other colors of American made MudGear soon. Nothing else is changing at this time. Our high level of customer service for F3 PAX and expert F3 printing by Chief and crew all stay the same.

     

    What does this mean for MudGear?

    A high-quality US manufacturing partner is a huge deal for our growth. Better communication and faster turn times should help us build great gear that is responsive to the needs of our customers. The future is bright. After 4 years of plugging away, Malko has left his day job to pursue growing MudGear full time. MudGear was recently the Official Sock of the OCR World Championships in Ontario, Canada and we just announced several new sponsorship deals including becoming the Official Sock of Savage Race for 2017. We’re looking to push into specialty running stores and hybrid gyms this year as well. Our socks continue to pick up accolades and were voted the 2016 product of the year by Mud Run Guide.

     

    Finally, with this milestone, I want to take the opportunity to again thank all of you in the F3 community for your support and patronage of the F3 Gear Store. Your support (and purchases!) have been incredibly meaningful and allowed us to fuel lots of F3 expansion activities. MudGear would never have been created without the power of F3 to reinvigorate dormant leadership abilities and foster the iron-sharpening of many brothers along the way. A huge FEBA to you all.

     

    As always, you can reach us with any concerns or questions at support@mudgear.com.

     

    Aye!

    Malko
     
    Shop F3 Gear

  • The Uptowner, not Rock City….

    The Uptown 12 mosey to the parking lot.

    Warm ups

    • SSH X 30
    • IW X 30
    • PP X 30
    • AC X 30(15 each way)
    • Windmill X 20

    Mosey to the field 15 yards away, but still evoking whining from Rudy.

    • Burpees X 20
    • Jack Web – 1:2 ratio X 20(air press)
    • Monkey Humpers X 20(in cadence)
    • See Saw Sit Ups X 40(20 each)
    • Burpees X 15 – the chatter begins to subside
    • Jack Web – 1:2 ratio X 16(air press)
    • Monkey Humpers X 15(in cadence)
    • See Saw Sit Ups X 40(20 each)
    • Burpees X 10
    • Jack Web – 1:2 ratio X 10(air press)
    • Monkey Humpers X 20
    • See Saw Sit Ups X 40(20 each)
    • Burpees X 5
    • Jack Web – 1:2 ratio X 6(air press)
    • Monkey Humpers X 20
    • See Saw Sit Ups X 40(20 each)
    • Burpees X 20
    • LBC’s X 30… slowing the cadence for a bit to induce a bit more pain
    • Hello Dolly X 20….same as above
    • American Hammer X 10
    • Parker Peter X 50

    Mosey back to the rock pile, and to JV’s chagrin….

    10 more Burpees

    Quick count off and Name-O-Rama, and naming of our FNG – Flick

    No need for announcements…Amnesty will cover in detail on Saturday.

    Ball of Man, Prayer, and goodbye’s

  • Water World Swim #1

    Three men put on their water wings and hit the outdoor pool.

    The Thing:
    -freestyle 500m
    -fin 200m

    First official F3-Nola swim workout a success!
    Countoff, namerama, announcements, shoutouts, prayer….great way to start the day!

    You gotta show to change the name…..

  • 12 Men and a Levee

    Okwata is an incredible AO.  With all the mumblechatter of finding new AO’s to avoid Okwata, YHC felt obligated to bring a good beatdown.  In order to keep it real, YHC needed to bring his “A” game.

    12 men of F3 gathered around the flag (a real one courtesy of Kimchi) in the gloom, ready to take on Okwata. After giving a quick disclaimer…..

    The Thang

    The PAX began their mosey around the Mardi gras fountain, Carioca looking left, then Carioca looking right.  Circle up for:

    Warm Up

    SSH IC x 25
    Windmills IC x 11
    arm circles IC x 20 (10 front, 10 back)

    Plank-o-rama
    Peter Parker IC x 25
    Mountain Climbers IC x 25
    Parker Peter IC x 25

    Mosey to Canal and the top of the levee. If one wants to bring some pain to the PAX, the levee with burpees is a great way to ensure delivery of said pain.

    Levee Fun – One

    Pair up and gather at the base of the levee on the lake side.  While always facing the lake, one PAX runs backwards up the levee and forward down three times, all while the second PAX is doing Burpees.  YHC originally stated five times up and down, but quickly changed it to three.  The PAX, including YHC, will have to work up to five.  In case one may be wondering if this Burp Back Mountain will show up again, the answer is yes, and probably with four levee hikes, working our way up to five.The PAX accomplished 100 burpees per team, cumulative, working together.  Once any team finished, that team continued hiking “back” up and down the levee until all teams finished.  This was a real downPAINment on our commitment to Okwata, but we were not finished yet!

    Levee Fun – Two

    The PAX moseyed to the east side of Canal and Lakeshore Drive for Four Corners.  YHC instructed the PAX to run to each corner, starting with 25 Monkey Humpers at the first corner, and increasing by 25 at each other corner. It took some PAX a little while to catch on, but they made up the MH’s, so all was good. It went like this:

    run south to the corner of Canal and Amethyst, then do 25 x MonkeyHumpers
    run across Canal and do 50 x MH’s
    run north to Canal and Lakeshore Drive and do 75 x MH’s
    return to first corner and do 100 x MH’s
    Al Gore until all PAX finished

    Mosey back to the flag for some Mary

    Mary

    Box Cutters IC x 25
    Real Freddie Mercury IC x 25
    Tin Snips (Thx HVAC) x 15
    Hello Dolly IC x 25
    LBC’s IC x 50

    Time was almost up, but two minutes left, so….

    Merkins IC x 10 (that’s 20 total)
    Plank position for 30 seconds
    Left side plank for 30 seconds
    Ride side plank for 30 seconds
    LBC’s x 25

    Circle back up at the flag for count off, name-o-rama, and to name an FNG.  Welcome Vespa!  T-Claps to Triple Shift for the steady stream of new F3 Men to the PAX.  T-Claps to Kimchi for being the last man standing by not missing a post in the NYR challenge to date.
    Finally, T-Claps to all the PAX that showed up at Okwata this AM, including some Uptowners!  I guess I’m due to visit Uptown soon to reciprocate.

     

    Announcements and intentions, and ended with the Ball of Man!

    Moleskin

    YHC has given constructive criticism in the past in regard to the lack of BB’s being posted, so YHC was not surprised to receive much grief for posting this BB 7 hours after the Beatdown happened.  Although being punctual in a BB is good, being succinct is not.  YHC felt that having an accurate and comprehensive BB was more important than beating YHC’s previous record of 45 minutes.  #awesomeexcuse

    Thanks for letting me lead, and for helping me on my journey to becoming a stronger leader.

     

     

  • Walkin’ Tall

    Another beautiful morning in the gloom at the Covington Trailhead.  The PAX gathered and got to work straight away with a dynamic warmup using the train platform:  heal to toe walks, lunges, shuffles, skips, freestyle shoulder swing toe walks, backstroke shoulder swing toe walks, carioca and a few other exercises down the platform with a short mosey back to the starting point after each trip.

    Mosey to the Taj Mahal where the PAX formed up in a large COP around the flagpole.  SSH, IW, Merkins, mountain climbers, dynamic back planks, twisting SSHs, squats, all IC 20x collapsing the circle to the flagpole and back to the starting point between each exercise with sprint/backpedal, forward and backwards frog jumps, forward and backwards bear crawls, forward and backward knuckedraggers, forward and backwards crab walks, and an ostrich walk.  This last “walk” was a new one for the PAX and if the neighbors didn’t think we were weird before they definitely do now.

    Switch gears but remain around the flagpole for a quick battery of shuffles around the circle, sprint/backpedal to the pole, and take a lap up and over the Taj Mahal front steps.  After about 5 minutes of this nonsense and a 10 count, the PAX moved on to the main event at City Hall.

    So YHC promised the PAX cinderblocks this morning and he delivered, sort of.  Paving stones served as the weapon of choice for a set of 11s.  Bench presses on the grass using the paving stones on one end and Tonya Harding ice skater hops hugging the paving stones on the other.  The tough part was the in between…walking tall back and forth holding the paving stones overhead with elbows locked out.  YHC’s thought process went something like this:  this paving stone is too light; this paving stone is getting heavy, $%#^%%*!! this paving stone!  At any rate, the PAX did themselves proud, kept their weapons high and completed the mission.

    Quick Mary on the spot using the paving stones for some weighted torso twists then mosey back to the Gipper for the count-o-rama, name-o-rama and prayer of gratitude.

  • Foggy Roads Ahead

    “A journey of 1,000 miles begins with the decision to start the first mile.” – Confucius

    Eight men set off to some unknown, foggy beatdown that YHC cooked up… yes, even me… i didnt even know what I was going to do!?!  Unlike Kim-Chi who said he has been planning his Okwata beatdown for 3 weeks or so.  Anyway, 0530 hours hit, and the DISCLAIMER was given.

    The Thang

    Mosey over to the track and circle up in the open rubber area inside the track.

    COP #1: Warmup

    Held High Plank in between these:
    12x Merkins IC
    12x Plank Jacks IC
    12x Peter Parkers IC
    12x Shoulder Taps IC

    Then, did:
    20x Squats IC
    9x Low Slow Single Leg Squats (Right) IC
    9x Low Slow Single Leg Squats (Left) IC
    20x SSH IC

    Mosey over to the far side of the neutral ground for some foggy Route 66.  We did two rounds with some unique exercises in between to recover…let me explain:

    Round 1: Jump Lunges – modify the “Jump” as necessary (1 rep = 1 right & 1 left).  Increase reps with the park benches.  There were 12 benches….yikes!  Plank and wait at the opposite side.

    COP #2:
    15x Standing Oblique Crunches (R)
    15x Standing Oblique Crunches (L)

    We looked ridiculous….but it was effective!

    Round 2: Dips.  Same instructions as Round 1

    COP #3: Hip Flexor Work
    15x Single Leg Marches…Hold the last one up (R)
    15x Single Leg March Pulses…Keep holding up (R)
    15x Single Leg Kicks (R)
    Flapjack to the Left Leg.

    Quick mosey back to the Warmup site, and circle back up.

    COP #4: 6MOM
    16x Putins IC
    16x Hello Dolly IC
    16x Flutter Kicks IC
    16x Wife Pleasers IC – for the tomatoes next to us

    CBS wink winking scorpion cabegallo

    16x Supermans IC
    16x Rocketmans IC

    Back to the flag, where we held the COT.  Thanks for letting me lead!

    Moleskin

    Calling all swimmers!  Amnesty is starting up an all swim workout at UNO tomorrow.  If anyone is interested, message him via email or groupme.

    Tclaps to Kim Chi for the his 2017 posting streak.  Keep it up man!

    Basin run tomorrow afternoon!  Contact Da Parish for details.

  • Who or what are you taking for granted?

    I signed up Reverend for this Q a few weeks back but I never checked in with him about it – so as punishment for my failed forced Q – I covered the Q.

    Today as I walked up the flag was there -thanks whoever brought it. Douille was there in long sleeves – it is 75 degrees but he is still adjusting after his Disabled List run. I was surprised to see Hawg – I guess he was hoping for Reverend’s Q. Word on the street Reverend brings tons on non-traditional exercises – sorry Hawg.
    Also Whoop! was in the house. Welcome back Kotter. 14 PAX in a humid, foggy gloom.

    I brought James’s speaker for some Tabata but first things first. Disclaimer. Then a short mosey to Oak Alley for a COP warmup.
    SSH x 20, Hillbillies in honor of Hawg x 25, Plank Jacks x 20, Peter Parkers x 20, and finished with Squat arm circles front x 12 back x 12

    Then a short mosey to the over-hangy thing. or as Roots calls it a Shelter.

    Here we did our first “real” timed event.
    30 secs of Lateral Jump Burpees, 10 sec recover 30 sec of Lateral Bear Crawl. We did 4 rounds of this.

    Then mosey for .33 miles.

    Next we did traditional Tabata. Sumo Squat Jump 8 rounds 20 secs on 10 sec recovery. Then we did Staggered Merks 8 rounds 20 secs on 10 sec recovery. Seaman was excited about the Sumo Squats – he has been asking to round out his glutius maximus.

    Then we ran a lap to the golf course side. . 25 miles.

    Back for some more traditional TABATA. Here we did 8 rounds 20 Sec on 10 sec recover of Broad Jump Burpees and then we finished TABATA with Walking Plank.

    Then we mosey’d to the FLAG. We arrived at 613 so we did 20 Russian Twists to get us to the 615 mark.

    COT: A prayer for my mother who had a mini-stroke 2 weeks ago. I asked us to be aware of the people we take for granted and remind ourselves to appreciate them NOW. Watching my father care for my mother was eye opening and made me reflect on who we care for and how we care for them. Love your loved ones with real deliberateness this week. (and always but we always slide back into the routine don’t we…)