F3 New Orleans

Category: Northshore

  • AKA, Patiently-Waiting Penny

    For the nearly three years that we’ve been coming to the Justice Center parking garage, she has been there.  Waiting, presumably, to clock in across the street.  But why two hours before?  Where does she come from?  What is she doing on her phone for two hours?  And why the heck does she leave her car running even in the greatest of weather?

    These questions and many more may never be answered.  And that is as it should be.  For Patiently Waiting Penny (AKA, Smartphone Stalking Suzie, Carbon Monoxide Camille, Facebooking Fanny) is an enigma and should remain one – something for the PAX to ponder as we  shuffle backwards up the parking ramp.  As such, a portion of today’s beatdown was dedicated to our most ardent, yet involuntary, fan.

    Warmorama: 

    Arm circles x15, toe touches x15, IW’s x15, Abe Vigodas x10, air presses x25, SSH’s x20, all IC.

    The Thang:

    Started with a mosey to the Taj, to do a riff on last week’s parking garage exercise: the pax is divided in two, with each half headed in opposing directions around the building.  Bunny hop the east/west sides, bear crawl north/south.  At the meeting point on the opposite side, we did 8-count bodybuilders 10x.  Head back the same way, and did another 8-count exercise, absolution.

    Next up, mosey to the bottom of the parking garage for a SCOP (semi-circle of pain): The Penny.  The Penny consists of the stupidest and most awkward-looking exercises in the exicon.  These are the exercises that are not suitable for the public eye.  But of course, with the amount of time Patiently-Waiting Penny has already put in with the Pax, she is practically one of us.  So we opened our circle to her and performed the following:

    • Goofballs x20 IC
    • Smurf Jacks x20 IC
    • Star Jacks x20 IC (look out PAX, YHC has a new favorite!)
    • Howling Monkeys (each man performs 10X IC monkey humpers while the PAX holds their ankles)
    • Wife Pleasers x20 IC
    • Hello Dollies x20 IC
    • Rosalitas x20 IC
    • Pattycake Merkins x20 OYO

    Having amused YHC, we moseyed (then sprinted) up to the top, where we then began a Bataan Death March.  Well, more of a Bataan Death Loop as we circled until each man got his burpees and sprints in.  Then a short Indian run back to the flag for…

    Mary:  Crunchy frogs, flutter kicks, and Freddie Mercuries, all x20 IC

    COT and Shooter prayed us out.  Thank you gentlemen for the push and for indulging me today’s lead –  I appreciate it!

  • No Rain

    90% chance….whipping gusts….but no rain! No fishing or camping either, I might add (and you call yourselves Ragnarians).

    As expected, the reliant visages of Waterpik and Garfield greeted YHC as he rolled up. With another three amigo post apparently in store in store for the scramblers, it was a pleasant surprise to see Burgundy join us to give his recovering leg a little work.

    WARM UP

    Torso Twists x10

    Toe Touches x10

    Cherry Pickers x20

    Imperial Walkersx10

    High Knees x10

    Fire Hydrants x10 r/l

    Scorpion Kicks x10

    THANG

    The regular route was run, an we ran into the regular runners along the route. The 4 scramblers held together as the PAX all participated in the ramblings of early-morning mumble chatter. A slightly deceptive 8:41 was the pace, and as we returned to the flag, Burgundy exclaimed that there was no rain! “BOOM,” retorted Mother Nature!

    THANG PT2/Mary

    Inspired by both Shooter and Coconuts, Q had a mind to insert a plethora of burpees for the rest of the beatdown. However, 2 rounds of 10 burpees on the minute was all the painment Q decided to dish out. We did follow up with some calming stretches and some iso ab work.

    COT

    Burgundy lead us out with a familiar, yet always apropos theme of appreciation.

    While we saw no rain, we held no illusions as to the rest of the day. Gentlemen, enjoy this wet n wild Thursday!

  • Three Amigos

    YHC arrived at the Marsh for 0450 on this cool Gloom. As the 0500 start time approached the normal illumination of headlights glowing through the streets of Mandeville were indeed lighter than normal.. With usually the likes of Bushwacker arriving in his winters finest on cool mornings and Coconuts already standing at center court awaiting the instructions of the Q. However, neither brethren were present on this April fools to partake in the action the YHC had in mind.. But indeed 2 of the Qs most consistent and loyal Amigos (Steve and Water Pik) showed right on time as if their intent was to fool the Q into believing this Gloom might be a Post all alone..

    Warmups

    IC 15 Windmills, Good mornings and Toe Touches.

    Thang

    Moseyed to the Treen center around the corner from Grandmothers house for the only make believe track loop of sorts the YHC could think of. The work on tap would be The Sheldon Cooper, found in the list of exercises. 10 Burpees, 10 Merkins, 10 Squats and 10 Big boy sit-ups followed by a lap around the track.. R/R 10,9,8, ……. and lagniapped witb a close of back to the top with 10.. When all said and done PAX completed roughly 2.5 miles of track and 65 each exercise for a total of 260 reps in approximately 30 mins.. Moseyed back to the Marsh for the close.

    15 IC Swing crunch’s, 15 IC Little Manny crunches and a series of Jane Fonda’s each side straight leg 15 IC followed by toe to knee 15 IC and pulses 10 IC..

    Count, announce, COT

    Appreciate you Amigos for the post and following my lead..

    YHC closed with the prayer..

    👊🏻💪🏻✌🏻 Till the next Gloom..

  • No Animal Left Behind

    We began with a brief warmup: Side Straddle Hops x 15/Windmills x10/High Knees x15/Butt Kicks x15/Imperial Walkers x 15 in cadence.  We then finished with 5 Burpees on your own. 

    QIC then had us mosey to begin our commemoration of the biblical account of Noah’s Ark.  We paired up, and while one partner ran the length of the ark (450′) out and back, the other did Mountain Climbers until each team reached a cumulative of 600 (Noah’s age when he built the ark. 

    All teams performed that task with such ease, we added 300 cumulative Merkins on the back end, much to Shooter’s chagrin. (Noah lived for another 300 years after the flood.) 

    With our chests nice and fatigued, we moved on to the animal portion.  Each partner stood 75′ apart from each other (the width of the ark), and took turns doing the following:  Bear Crawls/Crab Walk/Duck Walk/Gecko Walk/Rabbit Hop/Run.  While one partner was performing the task, the other waited by doing squats.  

    As if that were not enough, we then honored the 40 day/40 night flood by doing 40 Frek Nastys/ 40 Lunges/ 40 Monkey Humpers.  (3 sets to honor each of Noah’s 3 sons.) 

    We then moseyed back to the flag for some Mary.  Since there was no dry land for 7 days after the rain stopped, we performed 7 different exercises to finish up:  20 x Crunchy Frogs/Dying Cockroaches/Freddy Mercurys/Putins/Peter Parkers/Parker Peters/Little Manny Crunches. 

    We finished by saying the Pledge of Allegiance before Bubba prayed us out.  We then enjoyed some F2 at the Beach House, as is customary. 

  • I Am Groot-er!!!

    YHC walked up to the flag and waited for the overachievers to make their way back from their run, and as that infamous group rolled in there was one notable absentee. Shooter was not among the Mandeville crew and he was the one that was supposed to be the Q!

    It turns out that Shooter had one great reason to be out. His daughter was in the hospital about to make Shooter a grandpa!!! Grandpa Shooter, or what I would like to call him “Grooter”! I hope all is well in the family my friend.

    With the Q understandably out, we all chipped in for a round robin beatdown!

    Warmup

    Bushwacker picked up the torch first and warmed us up with some different items all IC

    Toe Touches
    Cherry pickers
    High Knees
    Butt Kicks
    Scorpion Kicks

    Bushwacker threw down the torch and Steve picked it up and we moseyed to the Justice center stairs

    The Thang

    Steve pulled out his favorite bag of tricks starting with 11’s. Bottom of the stairs was erkens, and top of the stairs was derkens.

    We then did a series of moves all IC to 12.

    Step ups (both right and left leg)
    Freak Nasties
    Albanian Split Squats (both right and left leg)
    Freak Nasties

    Turbo was next and he had some diabolical plans in the tank. We moseyed to the top of the parking garage and partnered up for a series where we traveled to opposite sides of the garage (either in side plank crawls, lunges, crab walks, or bear crawls) and went down to the bottom of the stairs and back up until you met your partner back up top.

    Killer idea there Turbo!

    Next YHC took the final leg and took us back to the Justice center where we did a yet to be named sequence where you cover a distance by taking two lunges forward and one lunge back. Tough stuff.

    We moseyed back to the flag for a quick 20 IC reverse crunches. We circled up and Bushwacker closed us out.

    Great job everyone!

  • That’s One Nasty Six-Pack

    I think the summary of this workout is perfectly captured by what Shooter said at the end.

    “I’ve had my share of six-packs in my day, but that one had to be the worst”

    Warmup

    SSH
    Shoulder series

    The Thang

    We got right into the meat of the workout and today we worked on a six pack.

    A six pack is similar to 11’s but the sequence is totals 6. The sequence is one burpee and five pullups. The challenge was that the the burpees were done on the Mandeville Trailhead splash pad, and the pullups were done at the playground at the Marsh. Which is about a little over 3/10ths of a mile away.

    Continue that sequence until you have completed 5 burpees and 1 pullup.

    That was a brutal beatdown on YHC but that’s why I picked it.

    We finished with 5 minutes of Mary and normal closing ceremonies.

    Thanks for letting me lead!

  • Tomorrow Never Knows

    After a lousy night of sleep, YHC was not particularly excited to get up and Q Granny’s House. But you never know what surprises might await and, as often happens, this gloom brought a big surprise with the welcome return of Ringo. Back in town for a few days before the madness of Spring Break begins, the PAX was surprised to see that Ringo has lost a bunch of weight while not posting to F3 beatdowns and… while running a pancake eatery??? The mysteries of the world are endless, people.

    The surprise return of a slimmed-down Ringo did nothing to diminish the return of Captain Sparkles, though, as his post today marks the start of an intense (albeit, abbreviated) training for the Ragnar in two weeks. If you doubt this man’s methods, look no further than last fall’s half marathon, or even the grow ruck back in ’17. If anyone can prepare this quickly, it would be Cap.

    Warmorama: (all IC)

    SSH x10, Toe Touches x15, SSH x10, Windmills x15, SSH x10, IW’s x15, SSH x10, Copperhead Squats x15.

    The Thang: A quick mosey around the block to get Cap’s running legs back, and then down to business. First up, a set of stations in the amphitheater area of the trailhead:

    • Burpees x20 / Shoulder Taps x5 on the stage
    • Big Boy (Big Ass/Huge Ass, *copyright pending*) Sit-Ups x20 / Freddie Mercuries x5 (IC)
    • Irkins x20 / Derkins x5 on sitting platform
    • Jump Squats x20 / Monkey Humpers x5

    Rinse and repeat, but with each cycle the first exercise at each station goes down by 5, the second goes up by 5. After 4 rounds, we were done.

    Recovery walk over to the corridor for an Indian Bunny Hop: PAX planks in a line, first man bunny hops over and drops into plank at the end, next man up, and so on until we reached the end of what felt like a very long corridor.

    Next up, a set of sprints with a partner.  First two men would sprint 100% to the end and jog back, while PAX performed squats.  Next two up, and so on.  With Waterpik doing extra credit and all men giving it 110%, this was a bit of a blur and YHC can’t remember exactly how many rounds we did.  What I do remember is the Big Man – Shooter – burning me every single time, and Cap looking like Turtle back in his glory days. Nothing like sprints to get the PAX going!

    Finished with a little Mary: Flutter Kicks x30 IC, Hello Dolly’s x20 IC, Rosalitas x20 IC, and Nolan Ryan’s, each side x10 IC.

    COT, Ringo prayed us out, and we discussed the Northshore’s upcoming 3 year anniversary. Look out for an email soon! As always, thanks for the lead guys.

  • The Trifecta and Smart-Sackin’ Steve

    With a pre-announced smart sack strategy, YHC knew The Marsh would be Steveless. And with a congressional psychology strategy (ask for more than you need then negotiate down to what you want;), Shooter was a lock. The rest of the PAX was going to be a mystery. The rest of the PAX turned out to be The reigning Northshore H8 champion, Waterpik! With a trifecta achieved, we began…

    WARMORAMA

    15xs IC:

    Toe Touches

    Cherry Pickers

    Torso Twists

    Imperial Walkers

    High Knees

    Butt Kicks

    Fire Hydrants

    Scorpion Kicks

    THANG

    We started at the monkey bars with 4 “as long as we can” rounds of this month’s ISI of flexed arm hang/dead hang

    Inspired by the consistently frenetic quality of Saturday’s H8 beat down, QIC lead the guys around the block 2 times, with a high rep exercise at each corner:

    50 merkins

    50squats

    100 LBCs

    50 lunges

    50 100s

    50 jump squats

    50 freak nasties (a la conveniently placed neighborhood bench)

    50 freddy mercurys

    10 burpees

    MARY

    The PAX finished with some well-deserved and much-appreciated yoga stretches

    COT

    Q took us out with appreciation of his F3 bothers and the day full of possibilities and opportunities. Many thanks, guys, for your diligence an effort. There can be no one to lead if there is no one to follow.

  • Full Moon Fever

    Anyone who has posted this week has probably gotten glimpses of the glorious full moon, made even more unbelievable in its larger, low-hanging position somewhere in the 0500 hour.  That, combined with our near perfect temperatures, makes this that rare Louisiana week that is about as good as it gets for running.  And run we did! But first…

    Warmorama: Toe Touches, Good Mornings, IW’s, Copperhead Squats, SSH’s, all 15x IC, then lunge walk over to Garfield’s car.

    The Thang:
    Settled into our traditional run at our traditional pace….

    … until about a mile in where Coconuts and Garfield hit their strides. Now if you haven’t run with Coconuts and Garfield, you wouldn’t know that Coconuts looks like he’s taking a gentle stroll at a 7:30 pace, and Garfield is literally walking as you gasp to catch up with him. If that sounds like standard backblast hyperbole, just ask the other Scramble regulars. Anyhow, YHC foolishly decides to try to keep up with Coconuts on this beautiful gloom and, though I was unable to, he did push me to my best Scramble pace yet. So thanks to Garfield and Coconuts for the extra motivation – there’s always something to get from your F3 brothers!

    Back at the flag, and with a quick goodbye to Chewy, we hit the playground equipment stations. Each man did one of the following while one performed 20x burpees to start the rotation: pull-ups, sit-ups, freak nasties, hanging knee tucks. After one full circuit, moving at a Coconuts-inspired pace, we were still able to get in some Mary with: flutter kicks x25 IC, crunchy frogs x15 IC, Putins x 15 IC, and Freddie Mercuries x20 IC. COT and Shooter prayed us out.

    Thank you men for following my lead and always pushing me to get faster, stronger, better!

  • Northshore H8!

    Beautiful morning on the Mandeville Lakefront. Bean joined YHC to lead a warmup of Arm Circles, Overhead Handclaps, Merkins, Seal Jacks, Butt Kicks, Imperial Walkers, and Windmills, all IC 10-20x. The PAX then moseyed westward for The Thang…Northshore H8!

    AMRAP in 40 minutes:

    35 yard bear crawl, .4 mile run, 35 yard bear crawl, then 7 burpees and 1 Merkin to complete Round 1

    Rinse and repeat working towards 1 burpee and 7 Merkins

    Goal of 8 Rounds.

    The Northshore H8!, last attempted six months ago, once again proved to be a tough challenge for the PAX. Only superheros Waterpik and Bushwacker completed all 8 rounds in 40 minutes. This benchmark workout definitely gave the rest of us good reason to keep working hard to get better. Deceptively difficult, this beat down will check the ego every time.

    Slow mosey back to the shovel flag for shoulder taps, IC 20x.

    Countorama, nameorama and Bean prayed us out.

    Welcome FNG Clean Hit!