Vagabond was very insistent that the shorted form of his name is pronounced Vag and not Vag. Since he ran with Fracksack, we named them Vag Frack. Bolt tried to steal the Q but when he said he didn’t want to write the Backblast so YHC is getting credit again.
Ended in a COT praying for family members both who are sick and who have passed on since it is All Souls Day today.
Same ole same ole. Consistency is key.
-Can a man change over time?
-Can a beatdown plan pivot on the spot when the need is great?
-Has YHC listened to the song “When the Saints go marching in” a single time in his life ?
-Was man created to Jurp alone?
These were the questions 9 High Impact Men had to ponder on a crisp cool (dare I say chilly) Tuesday Tuff at the stage.
On Saturday at the Peltch we searched for the monster within and YHC thought it only appropriate on All Hallows Eve that today we search for the Saints within. (Plus I used up most of my primo Haloween material) YHC also had the privilege of leading the beatdown on the last day of Jurptober so there was no pitch left but the surgically repaired fastball. YHC had a loosely knit plan to go heavy burpees/merkin. But you know how it goes , sometimes God sees your plan thinks it’s cute and suggests ManMakers instead.
Duke!! you are not the patron saint of baked beans
Roll the footage!
Warmup
Props to the 3 pax who came in costume! Goose was terrifying as Dredd, Pope looked valiant as Pat Tillman and YJ was spot on as “that guy from college that wore a t-shirt in cold weather to impress the ladies”. Groundhog Ronnie was sporting long sleeves which tells us it was somewhere between 30-50 degrees F. (If that man puts on pants you will need Vaseline to keep your eyelids unfrozen ). We did all the usuals with some MCs to get the blood dispersed evenly.
Ominous mosey to the Coupon Depot
I had intended this little warm up song to be standard issue IW/burpees format. But when I saw the way Wet Tap was looking at those coupons…I hope my children look at their spouses with that much love one day….that’s when the audibles began. Who am I to rob a man of his God given right to lift heavy concrete?
Song
“When the Saints go Marchin in “
Curls on song
2 Man Makers on Saint
(24 man makers, laughable amount of curls)
YHC knew this would be pretty humorous as soon as we got started. Listened to this one on the way to the beatdown and I could have sworn there were only 4-5 “saints “ in there. Pesky memory.
Thang 1
The Road to Sainthood
YHC has recently been fascinated by the process of Sainthood. The scrutiny , the interviews, and the thorough search of a life for holiness. It can reveal so much about how we can strive for this in our own lives and the variety of grace God bestows on the saints when they depend on him.
There would be 4 stops
*Indian run there with drop off 3 burpees , it felt right.
25 Big Boys (servant of God)
25 v ups (Venerable)
25 burpees (Blessed )
25 man makers (Saint)
Again this was originally going to be merkins and burpees at the end but the call of the man makers won out.
So now we have an idea of the process of sainthood. Another amazing aspect is the wide variety of vocations God calls us to. As CS Lewis said “how monotonously alike are all the tyrants and conquerors, how gloriously different are the saints. “
So we would try our hand at a little Patron Saint Trivia.
Correct – 7 burpees
Incorrect – 7 burpees, bearcrawl , 7 merkins
Patrons and Saints below :
PS of retreats/retreatant-St Ignatius
PS of Academics- St Thomas Aquinas
PS of doctors – St Luke
PS of Eyes- St Lucy
PS of Finance- St Matthew
PS of Musicians- St Cecilia
PS of Engineers- St Patrick
PS of Internet- St Isidore of Seville
PS of Parish Priest – St John Vianney
PS of Military- St Michael
The men crushed these and racked up 70 burpees in a flash. And YHC was shocked to look down and see 2 minutes left on the clock. Another audible
Only one way to finish the beatdown portion of Jurptober …
AMRAP man makers.
It was glorious , pretty sure Wet Tap cried tears of joy.
Amazing effort here by all.
Back to the flag for numbering naming and such.
Announcement
**F3 Thib MAnniversary Thursday at the peltch
**Goose Farewell Party Nov 12
COT and Goose prayed us out
Mega shoutout to all the hard core Jurpers out there. I’m sure YJ and Goose will be covering this more eloquently but there was some serious iron sharpening going on this month.
Glad to see dat Dawg alive and well with the Thib pax.
Thank you for the privilege to lead today men.
Epilogue
The following is a journal excerpt from Vatican records of the Cardinal Cause of Saints in the year 2623 during the investigation of the last documented Miracle of Blessed Yankee Jeaxsiphine.
It’s recorded from the personal writings of a Franciscan friar, Fr Paradox the 19th. He was tasked with finding and interpreting ancient USBs from the year 2023 , the year it was reported that the Blessed Jeaux had organized a men’s workout challenge called Jurptober…
Journal Entry -Fr Pdox
Nov 2, 2623:
Today I completed my life’s work.
After years of searching the deep jungle bayous of ancient Thibodaux my team discovered the USB from a hut in the Rienzi Temple district. After careful extraction of the data we reviewed , my team was baffled. It contained data accumulation that should take 20 men 2 years to compile but there was only one with admin privileges in 30 days!
How…how could it be? One man! This much data , it was so neatly organized, this much dedication to iron sharpening ?! My eyes went blurry as I realized I was looking at the final miracle of Blessed Jeaux. I wondered what had driven a man to this level of commitment. then I read a tiny note accompanying the usb. It was one of Blessed Jeauxs original entries dated Oct 31, 2023.
“Today Dox was nice to me, maybe …maybe, we can all change.”
I want to be in that number …when the Saints go marching in…
SYITG
Dox
Warmup
Football Field
Do each of the following then run 100 yards and back plank and wait for 6
100 flutter kicks 1 is 1
90 Shoulder taps
80 side straddle hops
70 Plank jacks
60 LBCs
50 Squats
40 Curls
30 rows
20 overhead press
10 prisoner kneels with rock
Ring of fire
Originally, YHC was supposed to Q this workout on 10/23, however when a stomach bug required more Charmin than anything, plans had to be postponed.
That being said, a week later, the Q comes and 5 pax show up.
Important Numbers for this workout: 12, 3, 10, 22,
My father was born on 12/3 and died 10/22/22 and so these numbers served as the basis for rep counts for this workout.
Countoff to start so that we would know that no man gets left behind.
Mosey to jungle gym area.
12 x SSH IC
3 x Burpees OYO
10 x Grass Grabbers IC
11 x Peter Parkers IC
11 x Parker Peters IC
(11+11=22)
Arms: 10 of each Forward, backwards, T Claps, MNC’s, Picking Cherries, Dropping them in a bucket. Picking and Dropping Cherries was done until groans since Kennah-Brah didn’t think that they hurt enough from Monday.
Mosey on over to JPAC. Along the way, there was mumblechatter about if it was JPAS or JPAC and it was decided that from henceforth, it would be know as JPAX.
Self love at the newly named JPAX.
The Thang:
Wall of Jericho as a group around the JPAX. Talk about your fathers and a memory you have of/with them while doing this. When we return to the front, we would do one of the following exercise.
12 x Merkins IC
3 x Monkey Humpers towards to police station OYO (this received more criticism than expected)
10 x Groiners IC. Since this weeks Q-Source is about apprenticeship, YHC decided to apprentice Vagabond in leading groiners.
22 x Squats IC
12 x Partner Shrugs OYO. This was a good trust and ab exercise and will be incorporated i to future workouts much to pax’s chagrin.
Back to Playground for Mary
ABC’s with our feet, which are a great but simple way to end the workout. Also note, all capital letters.
COT Ended with YHC sharing about my father and the impact he had and continues to have on my life. While his death was sudden, the way he lived his life was purposeful. His love language was definitely asks of service, which has shown me how to love others intentionally.
YHC debated posting as he handed out candy and occasionally ate some (to merely enhance the taste of the wine—er, I mean heart “medicine”). Charmin shared he was a scratch, choosing salvation over suffering in the gloom, as did Minute Rice…my likelihood of posting was dropping with the temperatures. War Eagle called for attendance in Slack and offered to Q—there was no going back; I had to Q lest I be subjected to whatever War Eagle would’ve cobbled together and with text commitment from Rev, it was decided.
Waromrama of the usuals sans music (I did not like it—one and done). Queue the music for the Thang:
30 sec timer holds a pull up position while pax do an exercise AMRAP, rotate until each pax is timer: Merkins, Squats, Derkins, Lunges
Make our way to gym equipment changing mode of transport every other light pole: high knees, mosey, shuffle each direction, Carioca facing each way, walk forward/ backwards, toy soldiers, open/close gate.
Once at the gym, Morning Calls (5 pull ups called while pax plank and move on the count: derkins). The Thang, Thang: Four stations with 1 minute of work
Followed by 10 sec rest/switch stations: Incline press, tricep dips, step ups, decline big boys. Rinse and repeat then mosey back to flag on Rev’s pace.
Not wanting to cheat the pax out of their final minute, on the six for everyone’s favorite: Protractors! That seemed like and 86 second minute.
COT. Prayers for PVC’s nephew, Boo Boo, War Eagle’s wife’s pregnancy, and Bolt’s boss after the loss of her dad. Thanks for keeping me accountable, men.
YHC was running late after gathering four large Loofah Gourd’s from my back yard and loading up my vehicle with an 80# sand medicine ball, 60# sandbag and a frisbee. I had agreed to Q at Frac’s suggestion after coffee on Saturday. I didn’t complete the signup until 6:00 am on Sunday, which created some confusion as Vagabond saw an empty signup sheet and was intent on Qing a Halloween themed workout. I arrived at 6:30 ran to the PAX who were lined up and took charge in my rightful role as the officially signed up Q. Vagabond kept the PAX entertained with a Halloween themed selection of music.
The warm up – Grass Grabbers, Abe Vigoda, Imperial Walkers, Side Straddle Hops.
The Thang – Mosey to the Foundry for some Murph training. Two pax took the sand bags while the other PAX used the Frisbee to move to the Foundry. After 5 frisbee throws the coupons would rotate. If the frisbee fell to the ground three burpees. Once at the foundry we began rounds of 5 pullups/rows, 10 Merkins, and 15 Squats. I think the winner was Vagabond with 14 rounds. Using the same mode of transportation we headed to the back of NOMA for some Mary (LBC, Flutter kicks, Freddy Mercuries). 5 Sunday mornings then back to the flag. Where minds were tricked with Loofah treats.
Welcome back Smooth who returned the day before from Spain after finishing his four year work assignment.
FYI My neighbors have an extensive trellis in their back yard and I am often the benefit of their botanical bounties that grow on my side of my fence.
Not a typical garden vegetable, luffa grows slowly and matures well into autumn. It prefers plenty of sunshine, hot summer temperatures, adequate water and well drained soil. In the right conditions, luffa vines grow vigorously, sometimes as long as 30 feet. When provided an overhead trellis, the vines’ tendrils twine and wind up and across overhead supports. They can even create a natural shade canopy.
Eye-catching, sunshine-yellow flowers appear in late summer through early fall. The flowers attract bees, ants and other pollinators. After the flowers are spent, elongated fruits form up and down the vines. They dangle here and there in random fashion.
The adage “things get better with age” applies to luffa. The fruit should fully ripen on the vine before it is harvested. As it matures, the fruit lightens in color and loses water weight. The shell hardens and starts to separate from interior fibers. Typically the vine starts to dry, as well. However, wait too long and the outer shell may over harden, which makes peeling difficult. Decay also can begin, as evidenced by dark spots, when fully ripened fruit is left too long on the vine.
Growers typically break off the mature fruit’s outer shell by slamming it on a hard surface or crushing it with a heavy utensil. If peeling is still difficult, a drench of water sometimes helps. Peeling reveals a spongy fiber within, which should be extracted, washed and squeezed to remove excess water. A bleach-water soak can lessen persistent stains. Otherwise, the fibrous “sponge” should be left in the sun to thoroughly dry, which helps curtail mold growth.
10 Pax showed up to celebrate 9 years of F3 in NOLA
Thank you
Double Fudge
Fast Tax
Hand Grenada
Hokie
Manuel
Mayhem
Mr Rodger’s
Pool boy
PVC
Vagabond
For coming out to play!
Warmorama
10 Abe Vigodas
18 grass grabbers
14 arm circles
9 low slow squats
The THANG
4 corners at the goal line and the 50 honoring 10.18.14 birth of F3 NOLA and our 9th Man-iversary
Round 1 – 10 Honest Merkins each corner with mode of transportation between corners as follows
50 to Goal line – forward lunge
Close goal line corner to far corner backwards run
Goal line to 50 – backwards run
Far 50 to close 50 – forward run
After Doing the same # of reps and the same exercise at all four corners each round Pax would Shoulder taps waiting on the six to complete each round
Round 2
18 bicycle big Boi
Same mode of transportations
Round 3
14 Star Toe Taps
Same mode of transportations
Round 4
9 jump for Joy
Same mode of transportations
Last Monday, it was the same thing. Crickets on GroupMe after a tough Saturday and a last minute Goose fill-in on a blank Q slot. Thankfully, Safety Valve had already HC’d on the Jurptown group, and Paradiddle started chirping early enough to prove he was already on the road navigating the killer cane trucks appearing suddenly out of the fog. So, YHC knew that he and Pope wouldn’t be attacking the points monster alone.
And, this proved to be the attendance list–four men, unafraid of posting two days in a row; unafraid of the nonsense that comes into YHC’s head at 10pm the night before a Q. This time it was math, psychology. and diamonds.
YHC knew we had to try to get as many points as possble in a 45 minute window while not destroying the morale of a small crew and keeping it somewhat interesting. So, a brainless grind was off the table, as was any strong theme that might suck up time. YHC settled on the 7 of Diamonds. Any ladder exercise gives you an insane amount of reps while not feeling like an insane amount of reps because you’re doing a limited number at a time and you’re very focused on counting.
After some solid warmups and a trip to the coupon stash, we stowed our coupons on the far side of the stage patio and then gathered on the lot side for instructions.
Round 1:
-First corner of the track = 7 burpees, run to next corner
-Corner 2 = 7 burpees, 14 merkins
-Corner 3 = 7 burpees, 14 merkins, 21 V-ups
-Corner 4 = 7 burpees, 14 merkins, 21 V-ups, 28 Curls
The mind trick here is that you think you’re just adding a few more of something at each corner. But, you’re actually cranking out the reps, which is pretty exhausting, and we needed a ten-count before Round 2.
Round 2: (carried coupons with us this time)
-Corner 1 = 7 burpees
-Corner 2 = 7 burpees, 14 Bonnie Blairs
-Corner 3 = 7 burpees, 14 Bonnie Blairs, 21 Curls
-Corner 4 = 7 burpees, 14 Bonnie Blairs, 21 Curls, 28 Big Boys
At this point, YHC explained that we had just done 56 burpees in about 10 minutes, in the midst of other not-so-easy exercises. And those were the easy part. It’s amazing what the body can endure when the brain is focused elsewhere. So, YHC then explained that we’d be doing 11’s with manmakers and merkins, which was similar to last Monday. This initially made SV and Pope doubt the wisdom of posting this morning; but, just like last Monday, we’d start with 10 of the hard one, and work our way down. The brain can then focus on the relief it’s getting with every round instead of on the fact that we’d be completing 55 manmakers in 15 minutes in the midst of running and nurring over a half mile and doing 55 merkins.
These guys are beasts, and they flew through these despite YHC’s interesting new playlist rolling along behind them (and maybe the strange combination of songs provided a bit of a distraction from the pain as well). And, so, four men, in just making the decision to get out of bed, show up, and not say no, completed the following number of exercises one set, one rep at a time:
55 Manmakers
56 Burpees
100 Merkins
42 Bonnie Blairs
82 V-ups
70 Curls
28 Big Boy Situps
1 Mile
Total: 600 points
On this second-to-last day of Jurptober, YHC is proud to be joined by these men and driven by them and for them to choose to keep pushing the limits of what’s possible in 45 minutes. These are things that I would never do for myself, but just as in every other aspect of life, I always benefit more from the decisions to let go of my comfort for the sake of others than I do when I’m chasing my own fulfillment. This is what life is all about, and it makes me extremely grateful for these experiences with you guys.
SYITG,
Goose
YHC rolled in a touch early to the Peltch to lay out a few stations for our trick or treaters. Greeting Ronnie and Fresh Gi on the way I made a few cone deposits, worked up a lather and visited the haunted ghost toilet for an early backblast. Jeaux had been correct previously noting the eeriness of a densely fogged peltch morning and YHC planned to weave it into todays theme.
On return Ronnie and Gi had been joined by a stout group of 12 more pax. It was another true gloom and YHC had trouble distinguishing everyone but found early inspiration in a returned Fire in the Hole and a sweaty HoneySuckle, already 7 miles deep on the day. (Campaign to rename him RunnySuckle?)
Slowly noting my error in a late groupme invite to wear a costume YHC was ready to be “that guy”’when the Old Testament Tundra rolled in and out stepped Malachi Obadiah Dawson the IV , the great Shepard/Prophet/Early Church Father( his story is in one of those apocryphal books so don’t sweat it ).
It was a clear sign the cardio strain was about to get biblical.
Let’s get it !
Duke! Get the candy corn
It’s F3 Thib Halloween!
Warmup
SSH
IW
Frankensteins (shout out to America’s FrankenBeast )
Bat Wings (10 AC, 10 CP, MNCs, Self Love )
HIgh Knees, Butt Kicks
Indian run to ThunderDome with last man dropping off for 3 Peter Parker Merkins as a shoutout to Gooses lifelong love of the spidey suit.
Because if a full grown man can’t be spiderMan every year till he’s 99 then what are we even doing with all this freedom ?!
We had a fine Indian run with some Halloween selected jamz leading us back to the Tdome for jurps and treats.
As this backblast goes to print we are 28 days into what the critics are calling the greatest ISI of our age. Jurptober has had it all. Feats of strength, bonding, betrayal, ghost poops, Merkin miles, berkin miles (hushtones), ageless wonders, Google sheets meltdowns..all under the careful eye of the Architect. So it was difficult for YHC to refresh the jurpee but if there’s one thing that always moves the needle in F3 Thib it’s the feared emom timer…
YHC dialed up 2 minutes with 3 kraken burpees as the kicker.
All finished in fine form and Smooth beat the clock on round two of the Kraken by atleast 14 seconds.
**Trick or Treat**
Roll first dye – Take standard 15 reps (treat) OR add the trick and roll the second die with lower or higher. (Die have 5-10-15-20-25-30)
We rolled every time we change locations or as a ten count.
Along the way we did Burpees , BBSU, LBCs and Most Pax chose the conservative 15 rep approach. (Lame!)
Mosey to the Chimney to start the Monster Mash
The Main Thang was all about releasing dat Monster within.
We trained in each of the 4 traditional Halloween monster disciplines. Listed below with their correlating groupme hype actors. Name image and likeness were taken from these men with no consent and they will have little help with litigation as my legal team is busy battling no less than 17 active Jurp citations this month.
Da Monsters:
I.) The Werewolf (Yankee Jeaux Jackson before turning full werewolf in the Thriller video)
7 Werewolf’s (Carolina dry dock into upward dog yoga pose )
Run to the chimney , Nur back
1 BBSU
Increase the BBS and decrease werewolves until complete.
This had several pax booking early Monday chiropractic appointments for shoulder evals.
2.) The Zombie
Pax split into equal teams
Hold plank in a line with enough room to frog hop in between. The last pax hop to the front and do 5 merkins. Repeat until your entire team crossed the cone. The return race would be a team arm linked lunge. Epic graveyard race and YHCs vision was too blurry to call it anything but a photo finish.
Mosey to monkey bars
3.) The Vampire (Count Goosula)
Hanging in the Cave
P1 hanging leg raises AMRAP
P2 10 burpees
2 rounds each to complete 40 burpees as a pair.
4.) The Mummy (our Knights in shining Armor Ronnie and Tana)
Pyramid Scheme of Burpees
Bearcrawl to cones
Increasing burpees , then crawl bear during descending burpees
1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1
YHC set the course up for some intended gang clashes and was not disappointed when I hit a smooth wrecking ball and was almost shanked by a an optometrist. Ya love to see the competition.
Back to the flag for name off count off
Jurpee numbers (adjust if you see fit)
1 jurp
67 burpees
Merkins depending on graveyard race cycles
50 BBSU
Intentions
Announcements:
AB house party upcoming Nov 11
Goose Leaving the Nest party on Nov 12
(I’m still in denial, it’s just a prank…sigh)
More deets on these in the GroupMe
Ronnie Prayed us out
Had a blast getting better and finding some monsters today men.
Great work
Enjoy a feast on your 2.0s candy
It was well earned.
Here’s a Dox of Chocolates:
Ever found yourself curious as to what a psychedelic experience would feel like? No?…
No one? Okay okay then, play it coy, your secrets safe with me *wink *wink
Buttttt if you had, and didn’t want all the baggage, (health risk, weird shaman named Marley, unhealthy fear of leprechauns) then yesterday morning at Peltier park at approximately 6:39am you had a perfect opportunity. You could have sat right in the Thunderdome, on a bleacher, sober as a church mouse and witnessed quite a trip:
A light fog sizzling off the hard pan spicy grass, backlit by a tremendous blazing full moon. A shadowy hearse standing ominously at center stage. Street light splotches of hazy orange along the pavement. Fluorescent greens and purples from a blow up haunted house add to the dizzying effect. And then you hear the growing foot falls of 11 men, 3 children and a well worn wagon. Led by a desert prophet they jog by single file maniacally tossing dice to and fro. Anchored by a ghostbuster, occasionally one loses all function, drops to the ground and pretends to be spiderMan. They continue in this manner until reaching a pre arranged destination surrounding the hearse. That’s when the shrooms really kick in. They start a synchronous series of exercises while the Blue Oyster Cult reminds them to not fear the reaper. Not satisfied with this they disappear into the gloom looking for more monsters to mash with.
Ya know
Maybe my 6th grade DARE teacher was right
Maybe you can get high on life.
I’ll need a few more beatdown to be sure…
SYITG
Dox
