F3 New Orleans

Blog

  • Squat n Pickle

    Pre-Thang

    It was super cold for NOLA this morning.  All you North Carolinians would laugh at low 40’s but it’s a wet, bone chilling kind of cold with a whipping wind.  YHC brought along a piece of firewood to keep everyone warm though.  It was pretty awkward to lug around the AO.

    Warm-Up

    The PAX set off around the street car tracks and over to Touchdown Jesus:

    • COP IC: SSH x 30, Imperial Walkers x 20, Seal Jacks x 30, Hillbillies x 20

    The Thang

    Mosey to Wolfpack Hill.  Run up the ramps backwards and down the straight away forward up to the fourth floor.  Time for some Squat-n-Pickles:

    • PAX line up single file against the wall in Prayer Squat position
    • Man on the end runs down and back up the stairs while rest of PAX does 5 shoulder presses with the fire log to stay warm
    • When man returns, next man runs stairs while the rest of PAX proceeds with Pickle Pounding
    • Continue flapjacking Squats to Pickles until every PAX member has run stairs twice

    This was probably the first time any man has simultaneously pounded their pickle while squeezing a log…

    Mosey back down the hill and over to Wolfpack Stairs for Bear Crawlin around in escalator formation:

    • 5 Burpees
    • 10 Derikans
    • 15 Peter Parkers
    • Bear Crawl to start
    • Rinse and repeat with Parker Peters on 15 count

    Mosey across St. Charles and over to the swing set for a quick Mary circuit.  Everyone paired off into 4 stations.

    • Feet in swings for Hip Slaps (10 is the count)
    • LBCs
    • V-Ups
    • Russian Twists

    Mosey back to the flag

    Name-O-Rama: 8 men decided to warm up in the cold this AM.  It wasn’t a bad showing considering the F3 Levee Christmas Party took place approximately 10 hours prior.

    Shout Out:  Today’s intention is around self-confidence and choosing your attitude.  YHC experienced a tough project evaluation last week and felt down in confidence.  Upon further reflection and contemplation, failure is only a perception of oneself.  If you view failure as an opportunity, you choose to have an optimistic attitude in becoming better.  Without failure there is no success.  Attitude is a choice.  Staying positive is a choice.  As our lives progress, nothing ever gets easier, but our attitude dictates our emotions.  Prayer requests go out to Seaman’s friend who recently had a stroke.  We ask our Sky Q to be with his family and inspire them to keep a positive attitude.  Be optimistic in times of hardship.  Have the confidence and perseverance to keep pressing forward.

  • Three Flags Strong

    We gathered with Marlin….3 layers strong, expecting the worse.

    Mosey to the rock pile…

    • Side Straddle Hops x 20
    • Arm Circles -15 forward/15 back
    • Peter Parkers x 20
    • Windmills x 20
    • Imperial Walkers x 20

    To the football field we go, rocks in tow….

    • Every 20 yards alternating 10 burpees & 10 LBC’s.  There and back.
    • Now this time alternating 10 squats & 10 shoulder presses, with rock.

    Time for a picnic…

    • Dips x 20
    • Right Leg Step Ups x 20
    • Dips x 20
    • Left Leg Step Ups x 20
    • Circle in tight and pass the rocks, placing it at the foot of the neighbor on your left…starting with two rocks and adding two more.  Now shift gears and go the other way.  5 minutes.

    Mosey back to the rock pile…

    • American Hammer x 20
    • Flutter Kicks x 20, slowing down the cooooouuuunt dramatically.
    • Hello Dolly x 20, slowing down the coooouuuunt dramatically.

    Back to the flag

  • Puddles’s Kotter

    Five of F3 Nola’s finest met at the SF eager to improve. This was Puddles kotter after posting last year. He was asking for his buddy, Rudy. We explained he was out of town and would join us again soon. We stepped off for a nice easy four mile run. There was conversation and F2 for the whole run. On the way to and from the 2 mile turn around, Bienville St., Puddles hit every puddle along the way. It was a lovely morning for a run…with Puddles… After arriving at the SF, we “Sealed the Deal” with the traditional 10 burpees.

    Countoff, namerama, announcements, shoutouts, prayer and we’re out….

  • Sandbaggin’

    The shovel flag is now a regular fixture at the Covington Trailhead on Wednesday mornings. City employees have embraced the PAX.  One glance at Tank-Up counting out his Merkins have them convinced that we are some sort of retired SEAL collective.

    So the PAX got down to business this morning with a dynamic warmup under the Gipper’s gaze.  Multiple drills down a 20 yard lane…heel to toe walk, forward backward and lateral skips, lateral bounces, figure 4s, lunges with a twist, Frankenstein kicks, caricoa, hamstring sweeps, and a few more that YHC remembers from his soccer days but cannot remember as he writes this post…followed by 6 strides/sprints down the lane at increasing intensities.

    Mosey to the Justice Center, spread out along the breezeway curb, and hit two minutes of toe touch bounces off the curb.  YHC suggested that he would call out either #1 or #2 randomly at which point the PAX would execute vertical toe touch bounces (#1) or lateral toe touch bounces (#2), working hard to stay off the ground and in the air for as much of the two minutes as possible.  YHC was thinking of making this a longer exercise but is glad he reigned himself in at the last minute.  Two minutes was plenty as the PAX got after it and made every second count.

    Well earned recovery walk to the top of the Justice Center Parking Deck where the Sky Q fortuitously placed a few sandbags.  Mumble chatter from the PAX accusing YHC of pre-positioning supplies.  YHC has to admit he would have done exactly that if he had thought of it.  To give himself some time to figure out what to do with the sandbags, YHC set the PAX to running Xs on the parking deck.  Sprint diagonally across the deck maybe 40 years to the opposite corner, mosey the length of the deck to the adjacent corner, sprint diagonally to the opposite corner, mosey the length of the deck to the adjacent corner…hitting as many reps as possible through and around the big square for 5 minutes.

    Back to the sandbags.  With 5 PAX and 3 sandbags, YHC challenged the PAX to move the sandbags from one side of the parking deck to the other.  However, the PAX had to follow two rules:  (1)  the sandbags could not touch the ground and (2) no PAX could walk or run holding a bag.  It took a minute but only a minute before the PAX worked out a system to get the bags moving, passing them down the line and sprinting to the head of the line like an Indian Run with multiple sandbag exchanges.  Fun exercise, and the PAX will see it again if they ever ask YHC to Q in the future.

    Mosey back to the Trailhead for a Merkin wave 50x IC.

    Count-o-rama, name-o-rama, and Tank-up prayed us out.

    Thanks for letting me lead.

  • Gluteus Maximus or lack thereof…

    5 pax showed up this morning for a dreary work out in the gloom. Not a bad turnout considering 2 regulars (Sea Bass and Burgundy) decided to fartsack.

    The shovel flag is still being held hostage by Nacho, who has been in the fartsack since early October.

    The Thang:
    -warm up lap around the parking lot, stop to pick up 2 stragglers, and mosey to livingston playground:
    ~Plank walk x 50 feet
    ~Swingset sets: legs on swing for Pike ups x 10 IC; TRX rollouts x 10 IC; lat pulls x 10 IC

    mosey to monkey bars:
    superset: 5 pull ups/20 squats, 4 pull ups/20 squats, 3 pull ups/20 squats… you get the idea.
    Knee to chest, hanging from bar x 10 IC…killer.

    Fartlek run from play ground back to weird bus stop thing by the trailhead.

    Circle up: scorpion kicks x 10 IC, Supermans x 5 with 20″ hold

    back to the benches: glute bridges x 15 IC, split squats x 10 IC, box jumps x 10, split squats x 1O IC, box jumps x 10

    Circle back up: glute bridges x 10 IC, Single leg glute bridges x 10 IC each leg, Sidelying jane fondas x 15 IC with John Kerrys x 10 IC B sides

    Reverse Lunge x 20 yds, forward stop motion lunges x 20 yds

    Toe touch stretch x 5, monkey humper stretch x 5

    Mosey back to invisible flag,

    COT: Nameorama and Prayer.

    Well done gents.

    T-claps to Paison for his second showing and bringing a pal, Chris, who shall remain FNG until he completes a workout and is named. (he left 5 minutes early to get to work on time)

  • Round Robin Q

    8 Pax posted including one FNG for a workout at the freshly saturated Lakefront.

    Because we forgot to pick a Q last time, and because YHC is too unorganized to formulate a proper Q schedule, we decided to go round robin style. Which turned out to be not too bad, mostly because someone was loitering outside of RIPS and Turbo tax was unable to kill us with his 13 minutes of anaerobic torture!

    Warm-up (Chewy):
    -plank walk 20 yds, lunge walk 20 yds, crabwalk 20 yds
    -Circle-up: SSH x 20 IC, Merkins x 10 IC, Mt climbers x 20 IC, Side planks x 30″ B,
    Peter Parkers and Parker Peters x 10 IC, Burpees x 10 OYO

    Next up (EiEi): Mosey to wall: Box Jumps, Irkins, and Freak Nasties x 10
    Mosey back to lawn for Jack Webb 1:10 ratio (ridiculoso) to a 5 count

    Next up (Turbo): as mentioned before Rips was unavaible so he found another way to leave the pax hobbling with 6 minutes of sprints, tree huggers and squats

    Up Next (Steve): Mosey back to seawall Derkins on wall with sprint to street and back with progressing reps up to 10
    Mosey down to Eastern playground, for 2 rounds of catch me if you can with P1 doing burpees and then Super Star Jumps and then hustling to leap frog over P2 as he loops around.

    Last but not least (Big Fish): with arm clappers, arm circles, street fighting core punch things, and PTGs (pray to God’s) all led with a cadence call that sounded straight out of full metal jacket.

    the green mile back to the shovel flag: Sprint to each fire hydrant x 10 squat thrusts

    COT, welcome FNG Sam (Paison) to the Pax, who YHC EH’d at the baby pool this summer.
    He recently moved here from the Blue grass state, to plant a church, awesome stuff.

    Prayer of thankfulness for our health.

    Coffeteria at the beach house. Well done guys!

    Cheers,
    Chewy

  • Dodging extras and cars and extra’s car

    13 PAX for a beatdown. We had a #suddenchange with the Q. I signed someone up but I forgot to remind them so my error – so I Q’d.

    We started off with a Tinkles special- F3 St Charles BLIMPS Charge.
    A letter of the BLIMPS at each intersection all the way to TD Jesus.

    We mosey’d to Wolfpack Mtn. Passed through a crowd of extras. We did a lunge walk up the first ramp. Then we dodged cars and extras all the way to the top of Wolfpack Mtn. On the way up we did 10 Merks and 10 Pickle Pounders.

    At the top we did a quick COP. Side lunge x 20, Crab Toe Touch x 20, Side Crunch-Left x 20, Side Crunch-Right x 20

    Then we mosey’d down the stairs through the extras again. We went to Wolfpack Hill. Ran up the ramps to the top. At the top we did the exercises Roots left on the columns in chalk. One group did Russian Twists – 1st lap and LBCs 2nd lap. The other group ran down a flight of stairs and then up the ramp backwards.

    At that point we mosey’d back to the flag for the COT. In the COT I used my 7 yr olds advent calendar which reminded us to include those who are lonely or who might need someone to talk to this holiday.

    It is always a pleasure to Q.
    RY

  • #PreBlast – Around the Fly 2.0

    This will be my third Q, second F3 post and first preblast.  It’s been a weird weather weekend – super humid, super windy, barely chilly with light rain at times.  Forecast is for more of the same in the gloom tomorrow AM.  Here’s how it should go down at 0530 at The Skinny.  We’ll do a lap around the Fly + a visit to the WWI memorial in Audubon Park if we have time:

    THE THANG

    Run to the soccer fields in front of the Zoo for…

    Warm Up

    • 10 x SSH
    • 10 x Imperial Walkers
    • 10 x Squats
    • 10 x Windmills

    … then Indian Run to the soccer fields @ the Fly…

    • We’ll do a sprint back-and-forth across the field width-wise with a 1-10 Jack Webb on the baseline
    • Then the same counting back down w/Burpees

    … then POW Run to the Labyrinth…

    • 10 x Double Dollys
    • 10 x Superman / Sun Gods
    • 10 x Little Baby Flutter Kicks

    …then Easy Run to WWI Flagpole…

    • 10 x Dips
    • 10 x Decline Merks
    • 10 x WWIs

    …then Slow Mosey back to base for COT.

    When my wife & I were in Asia, we spent a night in a buddhist monastery outside Seoul, South Korea.  We ate simple meals, assisted the monks with their chores around the monastery and participated in their worship.  A key part of Buddhist worship is the 108 prostrations, or bows.  Buddhists believe there are 108 defilements in the mind, and so by prostrating 108 times, we clear each potential pitfall one by one.  As we make each prostration, we clear that portion of our consciousness and repent.  It’s a beautiful worship, and a decent workout!  I’ll share a few prostrations each of my next few Qs:

    • I prostrate in repentance for being ignorant of where I came from and unmindful of where I will go.
    • I prostrate in repentance for having taken my body for granted.
    • I prostrate in repentance for having taken my ancestors for granted.
    • I prostrate in repentance for having taken my parents for granted.
    • I prostrate in repentance for having taken my relatives for granted.
    • I prostrate in repentance for being unmindful of all those who have contributed to my learning and education.
    • I prostrate in repentance for being unmindful of all those who have grown, prepared, and provided my nutrition.
    • I prostrate in repentance for being unmindful of all those who have made and provided my clothing.
    • I prostrate in repentance for being unmindful of all those who have built and provided my shelter.
    • I prostrate in repentance for manipulating people for my own selfish needs.
    • I prostrate in repentance for having ignored the effects of my misdeeds on others.

    Amen.

  • Stolen Sandbags

    It’s a dangerous place we live in.  Nothing his safe – not shovel flags, not 50 lb bags of play sand.

    YHC arrived to find a full parking lot.  Triple Shift and Duct Tape both arrived with FNGs in tow.  HVAC came in hot and in need of a restroom.  We pointed him toward the port-a-potty on the far side of the park and told him we would see him after the warm-up.  I gave the disclaimer and being the Uptowner we were off on a ten foot mosey for the COP.

    The Thang

    Warm-up (all IC): SSH x 30, Imperial Walkers x 25, Windmills x 20; Arm circles – Forward x 15, Backward x 17 (YHC was distracted), 8-count body builders x 12?  – I’m not sure.  The Pax was not counting and I couldn’t keep it straight, so we went until I was tired.

    We headed over to retrieve some sandbags for the next COP and instead of 6, we only found 4.  Luckily 4 was the perfect amount, but I am not sure where the other two have gone.  Hopefully whoever took them got as much use out of them as we got out of the 4 they left.

    Dora 1-1-1 – We partnered up.  Pax #1 bear crawls out and back (50-60 yards in total) while Pax #2 does the prescribed exercise with the 50 lb. sandbag.  Set is over when the team reaches 100 reps in total.

    • Set 1 = Rows
    • Set 2 = Shoulder lifts (move sandbag from one shoulder to the next)
    • Set 3 = Squats (hug the sandbag like Al Gore would a tree).

    We finished the day with some Mary interspersed with 8-count body builders, all IC:  8-count BB x 10, LBC x 30, 8-count BB x 10, Dying Cockroach x 25, 8-count BB x 8, Putins x 20

    Grab a sandbag and return it to the not so good hiding spot.

    COT included an lengthy Amnesty style announcement session complete with F3 mission statement, historical significance, AO list and reviews, etc.  We named the FNGs and closed it out with a prayer for those in the Smokeys, Baton Rouge, and the sick.

    Moleskin

    • T-claps to Triple Shift as he continues to infuse our workouts with new blood.
    • T-claps to Duct Tape for his consistency (due in no small part to the bounty of information Amnesty provided him with).  Today he brought his 2.0, the first 2.0 we have had in a long time.
    • Strong showing by the FNGs.  I had thought figured the Dora with the sandbags would be tough, but the FNGs had no problems with it.  If only we had more sandbags to make it harder.

    Thanks,

    Hawg

  • Stomp #67 – Change Up

    A modest PAX of 4 posted on Tuesday for the usual run/cardio fix.  An iffy forecast may have scared some of the fair weather fans away but we were greeted with dry conditions.  No one signed up for this week so YHC, being the site Q, decided to try a few variations of previous workouts.  The “standard” Bayou St. John route is always enjoyable but YHC thought we could use a change of scenery.  After the disclaimer, we were off in an Indian Run past the museum, then picking up the pace a notch down Lelong Ave and back to the track making for 1.5 miles total.  Quick breather at the edge of the track while YHC got the PAX on board for part B:  Goal of 10 laps on the track OYO, starting the first lap with 10 Burpees and descending down on each lap….always adding up to 11…which is something YHC realized halfway through.  T-claps to Rudy for pushing hard and making all ten laps.  T-claps to the rest of the PAX for getting near the goal.  T-claps to the SUNO track team that was practicing out there and making hurdle jumping look easy.  Time was ticking so mosey back to the virtual flag where we sealed the deal with 10 more Burpees.  Total distance for the morning was 3-4 miles and 55-65 Burpees.  Ended with a COT and prayer.

    The turnout on Tuesdays have been spotty.  Hopefully we can think of ways to keep it fresh and appealing…whether it be through straight up runs or other running/cardio variations or new routes or???  YHC asks the PAX to put their thinking caps on and sign up on the Q list.

    Tool