Three options for the pax: Pai Gow sprinting, Scantron KnOT, Bolt S&M
Category: New Orleans
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O Brother, Where Art Thou? – from Goose
Though this title could refer to a few of the PAX who didn’t show this morning, the crew who did show were of such high quality, YHC was lifted above any yearnings for missing brethren. Goldilocks/Animal was there for his third in a row, revealing later that CrossFit was now dead to him; Econoline returned after a brutal reentry with dimples shining in the moonlight; and Michelin was back and ready for whatever! The ever stalwart Smooth, Enron, and Diddle rounded us out, and though the warmup chatter was low, the spirits were high.
Every now and then, a line from the movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou” (Cohen Brothers movie with George Clooney) will jump into YHC’s head and bring with it delightful feelings of nostalgia from the many times it’s graced my screen. There are very few movies YHC can watch more than once or twice, but this is definitely one of them. The dialogue, the characters, the acting, and the ridiculous story-line have yet to get old. So, YHC dragged the rest of the PAX through the plot this morning via physical exertion.
Warmup of the usuals, including some sharply executed Moroccan Nightclubs, followed by a bumper mosey to wake the legs up and start the process of getting the gallons of lactic acid built up from Saturday and Monday out of the system (it would take almost the full length of the beatdown to complete that process).
The movie starts with footage of a prison chain-gang busting up rocks somewhere in Mississippi in the 1930’s. Three men, chained to one another, escape by running “stealthily” through a cornfield toward a railroad track with hopes of jumping on a train. So, we lined up along the edge of the grass, linked up with our arms over each other’s shoulder, and the all 7 PAX lunge walked together to the sidewalk. I felt sorry for the short guys, but that’s the way it goes when you’re chained together.
Next, since we missed the train, we had to flag down an old, blind man cranking one of those manual railway cars. YHC pulled the first song off the soundtrack, “Keep on the Sunny Side”, and we did alternating overhead presses with those gray bricks that the 2.0’s have been using, and upright rows on every “sunny”. But, we only had 5 sets of bricks, so two guys had to use blocks…which was tough. T-claps to Enron and Smooth for taking that one.
Next, the three escaped convicts made their way through many obstacles and opportunities to get back to the leaders’ wife, who was about to marry an upstanding man, a bonafide suitor, claiming that her convict husband had been hit by a train (“blooey!”). So, we ran through a sort of montage inspired relay race: Partner 1 was stationed a quarter of the way around the track and did Apolo Ono’s until Partner 2 completed 15 merkins and ran past Partner 1 to halfway around the track and took up the Ono’s. Once Partner 2 passed Partner 1, Partner 1 switched to 15 merkins before running past Partner 2, etc. This went on for three laps, and I think the winning team was Enron/Econoline. In case you were wondering, it was the merkins. The merkins were the crux. I love it when a routine ends up revolving around a seemingly harmless piece that no one expected would give them much trouble!
After this, instead of a ten-count, we went right into another song, which YHC hoped would provide both a breather and a shoulder burner, but it ended up being pretty weak. The song, another from the soundtrack, was “I’ll Fly Away”, and we planned to do shoulder fly’s with the bricks on every “fly”, but there weren’t nearly as many as YHC remembered. (Should have tested this one–overconfident.). Smooth and Diddle ended up with the blocks on this one since YHC promised it would be a little easier–not sure it was. We ended up basically just doing a bunch of fly’s/block curls along with some heel raises till the end of the song, which provided enough of a burn to get us to the next thang.
The movie’s climax is when the companions jump up on a stage at a campaign rally so Everett can get closer to his wife, who’s seated up front. They play “Man of Constant Sorrows,” (a song they played over the radio earlier in the movie to make a few bucks) and unbeknownst to them, reveal that they are the now wildly popular “Soggy Bottom Boys” that everyone’s been dying to hear. So, we took to the stage and did a continuous series of 10 dips, 10 alternating step-ups (1:1), 10 dips, and 10 box jumps until the song ended (about 4.5 minutes).
Our performance was so good that we were reunited with our wife with plans to remarry. This led us nicely into some themed Mary, which included lots of Hello Dolly’s, LBC’s, Wife Pleasers, high, slow flutter kicks, slow penguins, and J-Lo’s.
COT, Animal shirt went to Enron, and Enron prayed us out.
It’s been an awesome start of the week, but everyone’s looking forward to Cardinal’s birthday Q on Thursday at the Den. Would love to see us break 13 for that one! Rest tomorrow and get there!
And, watch the movie–we need a collective agreement on whether Paradiddle’s taste in movies is calibrated as poorly as YHC suspects.SYITG,
Goose -
Misty Mountain 6-17-2023 – from Almonaster
College World Series!
PAX:
– Gabby
– King Kong
– Willie
– Jingle Vader
– 86
– Almonaster
– This is three days late, apologies if anyone was missed.Started with some gate opening and closing at the Tulane sign.
Mosey to the Breezeway.
Warmup:
SSH – 20 IC
Arm Circles -10 IC
Reverse Arm Circles – 10 IC
Imperial Walkers – 10 IC
The Morpheus – 10 IC
Balance on 1 foot for 10 seconds – each
Grass Grabbers – 10 IC
Windmills – 10 IC
Mountain Climbers – 10 ICThe Thang:
Mosey to the Grotto.
Baseball is a game of nine innings with three outs for each team. As our theme suggests, we played mental baseball against a team. Three exercises and then run a lap to conclude the inning.
Merkins – 10 IC
Leg Lifts – 10 IC
LBC’s – 10 ICDiamond Merkins – 10 IC
Lunges – 10 IC
LBT’s – 10 ICWide Merkins – 10 IC
Backwards Lunges – 10 IC
Real Freddie Mercuries – 10 ICNolan Ryans – 10 IC
Squats – 10 IC
Hello Dolly’s – 10 ICMosey to the field behind the Tulane Union (LBC)
Time to play an actual game of Baseball! Using a soccer ball because we didn’t have gloves. We played a pickup game where the rules were, at every at bat, if the field dropped the ball, then 5 burpees. If not, then 10 squats. It was a lot of fun and we had some good plays, it was great to see the teamwork, esp. when someone was thrown out at base!
Back to flag!
Thanks for the opportunity to lead! -
The Happiest Animal in the World – from Paradiddle
After getting the initial nerves out of the system from his VQ, YHC was determined to have a bit more fun with his second Q. He was feeling free, and after seeing the hustle of the pax from May’s ISI challenge, he knew everyone could dig a bit deeper than they give themselves credit for.
YHC has recently been inspired by the mustache’d man from Kansas who found himself coaching the struggling AFC Richmond UK football team. Now, let no one be fooled, YHC knows next to nothing about football (and US football), but Ted Lasso has been a source of inspiration and joy. The “Lasso Way” is a controversial way that Ted coaches the team by seeking to help the players grow both on and off the field. One immediately sees the growth of certain characters, such as Roy Kent and Jamie Tart, who both go from egotistical bad mama jama’s to virtuous men and best friends. It’s not frequent that you see truly good men on television. But Ted Lasso illuminates the goodness in each of these men as they truly are the iron that sharpens each other. This would be YHC’s inspiration for the beatdown.
YHC woke early, left on time, and even managed to pick up a fun old sorta new guy, Goldlocks, for the beatdown. Arriving ten minutes early, YHC found Smooth awake from his post-work slumber, Enron fishing for hints on what the beatdown might be, and Wet Tap, who came in clutch with the perfect dry erase board needed for the exercises (YHC was going to resort to cardboard and a sharpie). After preparing the board, YHC did his own pre-thang (not by choice) to deliver the goods to the ED White track, which was under construction, but YHC might have completely missed that due to his extra excitement for the morning (the introvert was feeling extroverted this morning).
Returning to the Pelch, YHC found the rest of the pax assembled, mumble chatter was strong, and debates of who was on “the Diddle List” filled the air. Warmup consisted of the usual SSH, some thing I can’t remember, arm circles, pickers, mtn climbers, and high knees. YHC still has a good bit of learning to do, as every exercise started with a different variation of “Exercise, ready, move, in cadence, exercise…start.” We’ll get the kinks worked out soon.
The pax moseyed the stadium where one set of stadiums were part of an extended warmup. Goose and Goldilocks were excited for the fresh challenge, while YJ held down the back of the train, his chatter weighing him down (the complaining kept a grin on YHC’s face).
THANG 1
YHC gathered the pax on the track where he asked an important question – What is the happiest animal in the world? A goldfish. Why? Well, because they have a 10second memory. (All information comes purely from YHC watching Ted Lasso and not actual research) YHC then, in his own introverted super brief storytelling way, tried to explain to the pax how Roy helps Jamie to grow as a soccer player by consistency showing up at his house everyday at 4am for them to run together. The pax both knew and feared where this was going. YHC revealed the board of doom with thang 1 bulleted.AMRAP – 25min
– 1/4 mile run (1 lap around the track)
– 15 declined push ups
– 10 Mountain Climbers (2 is 1)
– 10 Groiner w/ Flying V
– 10 Peter Parker’s
– 10 V Up’s
– 10 Bonnie Blair’s
– 10 Step Up’sDue to the field being cleared of benches, YHC nixed the step up’s and everyone began. The pax only made it 1.5 times through the list before a real life Colossus XXL (Cars 2, people) made its way on to the track. YHC called an audible and with the help of Goose, relocated inside the Peltch. The pax grinded out what must have been 5-7 laps of the exercise (most of it while being serenaded by MC Hammer’s 2 Legit 2 Quit – DJ Dox must have really liked that one). 25 solid minutes of Zone 4 by every pax. The shirts were off, the sweat was pouring, Dox’s back had more grass stuck to it than a farm growing St. Aug. Smooth’s classic “next” moved us to our next activity.
THANG 2
Burpee Sprints
To keep with tradition, burpee sprints are typically 10 burpees followed by sprinting the length of a football field (100 burps & 10 fields total). If only we had a football field… YHC picked the tree that resided behind the Dawson house for YJ’s Christmas Classic as the end of the field. The pax took off, and soon YHC realized, not for the sake of the pax, but for the sake of time, that a full set of burpee sprints wouldn’t be possible. Audible two was called and we counted down each set (10, 9, 8, etc til 1). A few chirps from Lil’ Cuz during the runs made YHC smile, but otherwise the pax were a silent bunch this morning for some reason. Oh no! What’s that? Is it a rustling in the distance?! No – it’s Yankee, on his six in pain. His back struck again (we really need to get Heath on speed dial – YHC is sorry for your back, and I really hope it gets better soon). The pax finished strong – at least five shirts off, and we finished as a team. The F3 motto “Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him” rang true on this hot Saturday morning.We moseyed back to the flag and for a 40 second round of Mary we each breathed independently. It was needed. Name-o-rama and Tana prayed us out (I think).
What a morning. I’m constantly inspired by a group of men that don’t complain, always push harder, and who are growing stronger every beatdown. I know that just the last two months have pushed me harder and made me stronger than I have probably ever been. It is because of the accountability of showing up and walking next to this group of men who pray and play together. You each put in the work. You each push past the point of comfort for the betterment of yourselves and your families. We do this for more than ourselves. The pain is temporary – go one more.
– Diddle
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Can I get the Instructions Again? – from Architect
Let the KOT folks get on with their routine, then gathered the PAX for some warm-ups and stretching. Proceeded to induce confusion early on which lingered throughout the workout.
Everyone grabbed their favorite rock, and we made our way to the parking lot. I provided as much clarity as possible as we went through some suicides with and without the rock. FNG showed up late, but jumped right in. PAX felt guilty and grumbled that no one brought an extra rock to share.
We moseyed over to the Hill, and capped the workout with some 11’s accompanied by OHP at the top.
Ended with more confusion in the COT, but was finally able to get FNG a shiny new name, Radiohead.
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Run to the Father – from Paradox
9 strong at the stage and ya know dat bayou summer is in full swing when it’s a balmy 81 before you even slip on your mudgears. YHC rolled back in (after forgetting JBL on the charger) to a steadily growing group of Pax bolstered by a fresh wave of our seminarian Pax getting back in dat action.
The promises had been free flowing in the preBlast groupme with commitments of all shapes and sizes. Hopeful commits, repeat HC fartsack offenders, cardinal fanning flames, Even a brand new “FC”. That’s a frog commit, when pickleball says Jump , you say how high?
Ya really really hate to see it but we pushed forward.Duke! run back home and get the footage. Your still a good boy!
Warmup
A respectable set of the usuals with extra care for the lower back.
The newest fad injury in F3 Thib is a tight back (although YJ will say he’s been doing it before it was mainstream) and after getting nuked by the diddle list on Saturday we all needed some careful grass grabbers.The Thang
YHC decided that directly after Fathers day was a good time to cover the parable of the prodigal son. So many perspectives to reflect on from this amazing parable but today YHC wanted to focus on the contrasting emotions and inner turmoil of the father/son. YHC Just needed a good canvas for this medium and during a recent downRange vacation post YHC was introduced to the total brutality of a Jack Webb medley (shout out to HouseCall). It felt like a great way to express the conflicting inner emotions of the parable all while pondering if Thibodaux has any oxygen in the atmosphere.
First we had to take the inheritance and run away. We formed up in a Indian run with a last man Drop off – 10 Carolina dry docks facing away , see your family getting farther away.
We jammed to Ghetto Cowboy while we counted our inheritance cash followed by a choice Goose selection of Ford Econoline and all was right in the world…Feeling pretty good about ourselves with endless money we stopped for Jack Webb #1
Merkins and Air Raises up to 10/20
The son beats his chest while the father prays “why?”We moseyed on starting to feel the strain of responsibility but still depending on ourselves we ditched our van and set out on foot looking for love in all the wrong places.
100ish yard Lunge to DJ Snake/Bieber “Just let me Love You “
Are you a Beliber now Cardinal ?We continued forward in a Jello Mosey
There is now a famine in the land, times are tough. But the son still depends on himself.
We headed for the pig pen to get in the slop. (Perfectly placed port o potty)Jack Webb #2
Captain Thor
BBSU/American Hammers (3 count)
The son is pulling himself up (BBSU) while the father continues wrestling with his absence (hammers)Time to Run Home
No money
No love
No friends
Deep in the slop just hoping for a bite of the pig food.
The crucial moment of uncertainty. I will return to be my fathers servant , but will he accept me ?Air Squats/Mountain climbers
1 squat and 2 MC to depict the son running to the Father who was not only waiting but fervently seeking him daily.Run Back home w guidance
Pair up and one pax run while guiding is partner in Nur.Back Home
Song
– Run to the Father -Matt Maher
We held Tipper Gores on the song (atleast initially) with jump tuck on Run and Merkins on Again.
Legs got reallll wobbly.Animal shirt awarded to Goldilocks! Back to back posts and this man is in pretty good shape if you are taking notes at home. Stay golden brother.
COT and Diddle prayed us out
Great effort across the board and awesome to have Goldilocks and Econoline in the mix. Grateful to be alongside you men today and always a privilege to lead.
YHC is often reminded of the repetitive nature of the “returning to the Father “ portion of this parable. So easy to get bogged down the moment we return to the ole pig pen especially when you have been there sooo much the pigs know you by name. But there is such deep consolation of knowing that even as we tire in repetitive sin our Fathers endless mercy is always waiting.
SYITG
Paradox -
Confusion at the Renaissance by Triple Shift – from Vagabond
It’s Father’s Day and I was all excited to bring out the coupons (kettlebells and dumbbells) to get our old man strong bods in shape. After talking with Fracsac yesterday at coffeteria, he said no has signed up so I said I would take it. After signing up, I received an email that confirmed that I was the Q. The only problem was that I signed up for next Sunday, June 25th. Insert Face Plant meme here.
As I started to unload the bus with all the weights, Vagabond informed me that he was the Q and graciously allowed me to co-Q with him especially will all the gear I brought. Anyway, here we go.
Vagabond starts us off with 25 SSH, 10 Slow Vigodas, 10 Grass Grabbers, 10 Bob and Weaves, 10 Hill Billys, 10 Hip Slappers, and 10 Wax on/offs. Short mosey to the grass to the left of NOMA for a descending ladder of 20/15/10/5 Merkins, 20/15/10/5 Big Boy Situps, and 20/15/10/5 Bobby Hurleys. After we did a first set, we lunged walk up the ramp then ran back to the beginning. On the second round after we did the 15/15/15, we lunged walked then bear crawled then ran back to the grass. On the third round after the 10/10/10 we lunged walked, bear crawled then did 2 burpees at 4 well-spaced orange cones then ran back to the start. Finally, after 5/5/5, we lunged walked, bear crawled, then did 4 burpees at the 4 well-spaced orange cones the ran back to the start.
Time for the hand off and then the weights. The instructions were to pick up a weight and start at the landing area in front of NOMA. We would do 20 single arm rows, then farmer carry the weight to the first light pole then do 18 squats. From there we would farmer carry the weight to the second light pole and do 15 hand release merkins. Continuing with the farmer carry, we would go to the third light pole and do 13 American Hammers with the weight in a letter ‘U’ pattern. Finally, we would farmer carry the weight to the fourth light pole and perform 10 bulgarian split squats with the weight (each leg). The numbers 20, 18, 15, 13, and 10 are the ages of my children and I was hoping to do 5 rounds of this routine but that was too ambitious, and we didn’t have enough time. Mosey back to the front of NOMA to drop off our weights and we headed to the back of NOMA for a surprise and of course Sunday Mornings. The surprise exercise was Burpees/Donkey Kicks! Like a Jack Webb routine, we did 1 burpee in cadence then 2 donkey kicks. We increased it all the way up to 6 burpees / 12 donkey kicks. #Crowd Pleaser. Finally, we did 2 Sunday mornings then headed back to the flag.
Countoff, namerama then memory lane. I asked the PAX to share a good memory they had with their father in honor of Father’s Day. What a special time getting to hear the stories of time well spent and memories made with their dads. I prayed us out and ask God to bless us to be the fathers we were designed to be. Happy Father’s Day!
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7 Years of Acceleration and Growth – from Fracsac
The last 7 years of my life have been my best years thanks to joining F3 and engaging in workouts, CSAUPs and F2 events with the HIMs of F3 Nola. To celebrate, YHC signed up to Q the Mothership.
Brief disclaimer followed by a mosey to the great lawn for a warmup with regular stuff, including 31 SSH. The question surfaced about 31 and how that is divisible by 7. Patience grasshoppers.
Mosey to the red baseball diamond near the Stadium for some 7 of Diamonds!
Round 1 – 7 burpees at each base OYO
Round 2 – 14 Flutter kicks IC
Round 3 – 21 Superman at home and 2nd. 21 ‘mericans at 1st and 3rd.
Round 4 – 28 LBTs, LBCs, dying cockroaches and Hello Dolly’s.Because someone….eh em Rudy….attempted to evade the sugar cookie style evolution, high knee burpee penalty in the middle.
Just to make sure we were all good and coated, army crawl from home plate to pitchers mound.Mosey back to flag, stopping at the Tool Wall for calf raises and monkey humpers per pax request.
Set up some cones in the grassy spot behind the flag and do SSH mind games. Count SSH IC followed by silent set count with all pax to stop with Q or suffer penalties. We had 3 rounds of high knee burpees. Time to move on.
Ultimate pass football in the cones. 5 passes equals a point. This really kept the heart rate elevated.
COT followed by Coffeteria where Triple Shift joined us.
I’m blessed to have been brought into the F3 fold and I’m honored to know each of you. I love you men, and I look forward to accelerating for the next 7 years.
SYITG
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The Fat Boy Food Adventure – from Smooth Operator
Participants: paradox, Enron, superfund, FNG (Michelin), Yankee Joe, Paradiddle, Goose, Smooth Operator
I pulled up to the Lions Den at 0455 to find a FNG sitting in his truck. It looks like he had been there for quite some time and was ready to get his first F3 experience going.
After that Enron pulled up and started giving us the synopsis of his Mexico City trip. He went on a guys trip and apparently ate at one of the best restaurants in the world, but for some reason either the restaurant or all of Mexico does not do Michelin stars. This brought us to another interesting topic, the Michelin star program is put on by the same people who sell tires. You learn something new everyday.
At 0515 we had 7 eager adventurers rocking out to YHC’s musical fanny pack, and ready to overcome whatever craziness that YHC had planned for the PAX.
We started with SSH and Goose gave the F3 disclaimer. After this we did windmills, arm circles cherry pickers, high knees, butt kicks, and mountain climbers. Somewhere in the middle of this Paradiddle snuck in probably saying something about a train or stomach issues or being busy making a list as reasons for his tardiness. Either way this dude is always ready to roll on minimal warm ups.
The thang
After this it was time to talk about our adventure. Two things you need to know about YHC. Even though I lost a little bit of weight YHC is still a certified fat boy. It has nothing to do with F3 which has done great things for me but it kind of hard to outwork the fork when you spend most days eating like crap. It’s something I got to work on and I will, but first I figured let’s have fun with it. Secondly through the last couple monthly challenges YHC has learn that I like to ruck and am not a big fan of long distance running which seems to be involved in the majority of our beatdowns. So I figured let’s combine these two things and let’s see what happens. This is how YHC came up with the Fat Boy Food Adventure.
The Fat Boy Food Adventure basically goes like this, the PAX would carry our coupons in whatever manner possible to various locations visiting some of YHC’s favorite restaurants in the area. The only time we would need to put the coupons down is to perform some manner of exercise that would almost always be more taxing on the body than rucking. Our mode of transport would be an Indian ruck with the last person dropping off to do a couple man makers and hustled to the front of the line. We started with 5 man makers and eventually went down to 3 then 1 as our journey got more difficult and time started to become a factor.
First things first, we started our journey at the flag with 25 man makers which seemed to be a big hit with the PAX. From here we headed up the reservoir and across the bridge to the parking lot of 5 guys burger joint all the while jamming out to some southern and classic rock complemented by a couple of Spotify ads.
At 5 guys, we did 25 coupon curls and 25 Chuck Norris merkins and discussed there delicious burgers, cajun fries, and YHC’s personal favorite their bacon flavored milk shake. It was nice to put a-little sweat equity down as payment for the next time YHC goes there to shovel down some more greasy food. After this, we continued our journey across the slightly less deserted parking lot of Rouses to our next work out location. After everyone completed 5 man makers YHC dropped it down to 3 due to the doozy of a work out coming next.
Our next stop was across the large parking lot of Rouses heading up LA 308 where a car was parked conveniently about 30 to 40 yards away. YHC decided this would be our stopping point for some parking lot suicides.
Half the PAX would be doing suicides while the other half completed 25 coupon squats and then we switched.
The suicides were pretty straight forward, touch the closest yellow line and head back to the curb hitting every line until you reached the car.After this we headed to another great restaurant Big Mikes BBQ. You could smell the meat smoking as we reached the parking lot for another exercise. The exercise was 25 world war 2 sit ups and some bear crawl suicides. Once we started doing sit-ups YHC realized that we would not be able to complete the entire exercise as planned so YHC started cutting it down to make it back to the flag for 0600. So YHC deferred the bear crawl till Part 2 and we continued our ruck.
The Pax started rucking down the road passing in front of Anytime fitness, the dog park and hustled up the reservoir levee. We stopped near the bridge intersection and performed 15 coupon swing which may have disrupted a couple of curious reservoir walkers on accident.
From here we headed to the Civic center HVAC system to do our next exercise. At the Back corner of the Civic center we did 15 tricep curls and headed back to the flag to complete our last leg of the ruck.
Once at the flag with a couple minutes to spare the PAX completed 25 more world war 2 sit ups, 25 PAX approved star jumps, and Apollo onos AMRAP for a couple minutes as 0600 was approaching quickly.
We finished up with COT and named our new FNG Michelin due to our pre beatdown conversations and the fact that he is a trained chef. Paradox passed the distinguished ANIMAL shirt to a well deserving Superfund. Enron prayed us out as a muffler-less vehicle decided to make its presence known.
Thanks to all the PAX who came out and decided to embark on this adventure. Without y’all always pushing YHC to the limit, I would still be a sad clown sitting on the sideline.
SYITG
Smooth Operator
Part 2 coming to the Lion’s Den soon