F3 New Orleans

Category: Backblasts

  • Monday, Monday, but where’s Marlin?

    YHC checked the schedule late Sunday night, worried that he might have forgotten about a Q.  Instead, YHC saw that Marlin was listed for the Q.  Lets Get It, Baby!  YHC cuddled up under the covers, looking forward to a Rock City morning of inspiration and encouragement from our resident coffee-drinking-bike-riding PAX.

    But alas, it was not meant to be.

    The morning 55 degree chill must’ve been enough to keep Marlin home in bed.  Brrrr….  He might not have had enough clothes to keep warm in this bone-chilling weather.  So at 5:30, YHC tried to do his best impression, and with a “Lets Get It, Baby” the PAX took off into the morning gloom.

    Warm Up

    • Peter Parker x25
    • Shoulder Taps x25
    • Plank Jacks x25
    • Parker Peter x25
    • LSS x25
    • IW x25
    • 10 Burpees OYO

    Grab a rock, and lets head to the track, for….

    Dirty MacDeuce

    • All IC: 12 Shoulder Press, 12 Squats, 12 Box Cutter
    • Run a lap
    • 12 Curl, 12 Lunge, 12 Cockroaches
    • Run a lap
    • 12 Shoulder Press, 12 Squats, 12 Box Cutter
    • Run a lap
    • 12 Curl, 12 Lunge, 12 Cockroaches
    • Run a lap

    Mosey over to the playground, and partner up for a circuit

    • 15 Burpees (the timer)
    • Pull Ups
    • Merkins
    • Big Boy situps (in the mud)
    • Under-dogs (Rev-Sox claims this is a real thing – “Its in the lexicon!”)
    • Throw-the-rocks-over-the-fence

    Mosey back to the rock pile to deposit our friends, and then back to the flag – 6:15 on the dot.

    Count-off, Name-o-rama (welcome back, Mambi!!!  Glad to see Frac didn’t permanently scar you with that name choice!), and finish with our morning prayers.  Remember those who are sick, those who are travelling, those in the middle of war zones.

    NMM: YHC really wanted to hit the snooze button this morning.  At 5:00 am, I just didn’t think I had it in me to get out and do this.  But words from Dredd – If you hit snooze, you’ve lost your first battle of the day – made me drag my lazy butt out of bed; I did not want to start the week with a defeat.  The surprise opportunity to Q was a welcome start to the week: it allowed me to begin with a full U-Turn from where it could have been – instead of fartsacking alone, I was blessed with a chance to step up and lead.  Thank you all for letting me run with the Q.  And may you all have an inspired and successful week.

  • Clear Eyes, Cold Hands

    Great morning in the Gloom with a visitor from NC and two FNGs.  After a thorough disclaimer and explanation of the 3 Fs, we were off to the Magazine/river corner of the park where we circled up for a quick warmup:

    • SSHx25
    • IWx25
    • LSSx20
    • Mountain Climber x20 / Plank Jack x20

    Mosey from there to the Fly entrance for Merkin slalom.   We ran up the levee, did 11 merks at the top, ran down the levee and around the light pole, then repeated increasing the merk reps in increments of 1 until we got to 15.

    Jog along the levee and re-convene at the base of monkey hill.  After some whining from the Pax about their delicate little hands, we did the following:

    • 5 burpees, run over the hill
    • 10 plank jacks, run over the hill
    • Repeat 4x

    We made our way back to the levee by partnering up and alternating bear crawls and sprints.  Then indian run back to the Fly entrance for:

    • Dying cockroach (1 min. OYO)
    • Hello Dolly (1 min. OYO)
    • Russian Twists x25 (IC)
    • Real Freddy Mercs x25 (IC)
    • Elbow Mountain Climbers x25 (IC)
    • LBC x25 (IC)

    Run to the Audubon statue and grab some bench (all IC):

    • Dips x20
    • Incline merks x20
    • L Power ups x15
    • R Power ups x15
    • Dips x15

    After a long jog back to the flag, we wrapped up with a mini-Plank-o-rama and the COT.

    Welcome to FNGs Peppa and the Ponz!

    -Mulligan

  • Long Duk Dong and The Marsh Revival

    After a weeklong hiatus from F3, spent hanging with Captain Hollywood aboard the USS Kidd, it felt really good to be back in action this morning.  First off, t-claps to Bushwhacker, who responded promptly to Turbo’s call to EH more FNG’s, producing one the very next beatdown at the near-comatose Marsh.  Just more proof that Wacker’s gift of gab is good for more than just entertaining the men of F3.  Our FNG – Big Tuna – jokingly introduced himself with his own nickname (one that had us all laughing but won’t be printed here for posterity), a nickname that had YHC thinking of a classic character from 1980’s cinema (and yes, likely an offensive cliche) – Long Duk Dong, aka “The Donger.” YHC slightly regretted not bringing this up, because upon further reflection on the car ride home, YHC decided ‘The Donger’ is a pretty great nickname.  So like that time when Rudy wanted someone to be named Apples and willed it to be, YHC may be bringing The Donger out again in the near future.  But…  ‘Big Tuna’ fit the bill just as well, and he was a very welcome addition to the crew this morning, single-handedly getting the Marsh back up on its feet with SIX  PAX posting.  It felt like old times.  Now if we could get Splice back out there, this AO’s days of solo posts could be a thing of the past.

    Warm-Up: SSH, IW’s, Windmills, Toe Touches, Good Mornings, High Knees, Butt Kicks, all IC at or around 20x.

    The Thang:  Back at the Classic a few weeks ago, Shooter, Sparkles, Wacker and YHC passed the practice track in City Park and remembered fondly the 14 hours of pain and misery known as the Grow Ruck.  YHC is pretty sure the Marsh was borne out of that experience, where many of us first experienced the army physical fitness test.  Butt Splice opened the Milestone Marsh for business soon after, pushing us to set a benchmark each week with 1 minute of merkins, 1 minute of sit-ups, and a timed 1 mile run.  Keep your count and try to improve each week.  It’s been a while, and YHC thought it’d be nice to bring back a component of that.  So we began with:

    1 minute, as many merkins as possible.  The Pelican knocked it out of the park, so he took a water break while the rest of us hit 10x burpees, OYO.

    Next up, 1 minute of sit-ups.  YHC is not sure who won the count on this one, but it didn’t matter too much since there was no time for another 10 burpees, gotta keep this train moving.  So we moseyed onward, to the lakefront.

    Stop at the sea wall for: Irkins x10 IC / BSS L x10 IC / Freak Nasties x 10 IC / BSS R x10 IC / Derkins x10 IC.

    Then, on to the legendary stairs of Rips for a twist on an old classic: PAX performs Rocky Balboas, while one man begins the ascent, performing 10x calf raises as he hits each step.  At around the 3rd step, he call the next man up.  And so on, until the entire crew is lined up staggered on the stairs, pulsing up and down like a bunch of madmen.  Once you hit the top platform, knock out 10x merkins and then begin the descent, this time performing 10x squats on each step.  As each man completes the journey, he returns to the curb to continue with the Rocky Balboas until the entire PAX has completed the routine.

    Finally, mosey back to the Marsh to hit an abbreviated Mary: Leg Raises 15x IC, Putins 20x IC.

    Countdown, Nameorama and naming of the FNG, Announcements and Pelican prayed us out.  Welcome Big Tuna, great to see a new man post at 0500 on a Monday morning!  Hope to see you out there again soon.  And thanks guys for the opportunity to lead and for the motivation to get out of bed, I appreciate it!

  • Northshore at The NOLA Mothership

    With the Northshore convergence taking place, YHC wasn’t sure how many Pax would post to the Mothership.  Expecting a large presence on the NS, YHC was surprised to find 25 Pax gathered around the 4 shovel flags.  YHC was very happy to see 3 FNG’s post, keep up the EH’ing!

    YHC decided it would be a good idea to dedicate the Mothership beat down to the Northshore in honor of their 2 year convergence.  Since the NS was planning a beat down that would visit each AO, YHC created one as well, with more of a virtual visit to each AO.  0630, so time for the disclaimer, then….

    Mosey to the Great Lawn for the Warmup.  The Pax will begin and end at the Mothership….

    SSH IC x 31
    Imp Sq Walkers IC x 10
    10 Burpees OYO

    With the warmup complete, the Pax took a virtual bike ride to the first AO…

    Milestone Marsh

    YHC read a BB that had Waterpik doing suicides on the basketball court, so cones were set up to resemble a court for:

    Burpee Suicides
    Start at base line, sprint to first line, then back to base line for 5 Burpees
    Sprint to half court and back to baseline for 5 Burpees
    Sprint to 3rd line and back for 5 burpees
    Sprint full court and back for 5 Burpees

    The Pax mount their virtual bikes for a ride to the next AO….

    Grandmothers House

    YHC read a BB where Pelican, Shooter, and Ocho did some 11’s. Using the first and last row of cones…
    10 merkins first row, 1 Bobby Hurley last row
    9 merkins first row, 2 Bobby Hurley last row
    Continue until 1 merkin and 10 Bobby Hurleys.

    The Pax mount their virtual bikes for a ride to the next AO…

    The Gipper

    Turbo seems to like sprints, based upon his BB. Using the cones again….
    Sprint from first row to last row, and complete 5 burpees, then slow mosey back.
    Sprint from first row to third row, then some exercise, 5 merkins maybe…slow mosey back
    Sprint from first row to second row, then maybe 5 squats, slow mosey back….
    Sprint to last row again, and collect cones on the way back.

    The Pax mount their virtual bikes for a quick ride to the next AO…

    City Hall Scramble

    Apparently Bushwacker likes to do a 5k run with Burpees and merkins, according to the BB…..
    The Pax did a modified 5k run, stopping near Morning Call for 10 Burpees OYO. The Pax continued to the open lawn
    near NOMA where they enjoyed a round of:
    Catalina Wine Mixers IC x 10 (YHC had to fit them in)
    Continue on to the NOMA fountain for:
    Freak Nasties IC x 20

    The Pax mount their virtual bikes for a short ride to the next AO…

    Captains Cove

    Captain Sparkles really likes to run…..seriously, he has a running AO named after him….that’s cool!

    This AO is a 10k run, which the Pax did a modified version…
    Line up in two columns on the path that goes around Lagoon Number 7 for:
    Bataan Death March!
    An Indian Run where the last Pax drops for 5 Burpees, then sprints to the front. Each Pax got to do a set, which took us one lap around the lagoon.

    The Pax mount their virtual bikes to ride to the final NS AO…

    The Lakefront

    Steve had a BB where there was some bearcrawls and 8 Count Body Builders…nice
    8 Count Body Builders IC x 10
    line up at first tree, bear crawl to third tree for 5 Burpees OYO
    Bear Crawl to 5th tree
    Merkins IC x 10 (4 count)

    Mary

    Flutter Kicks IC x 20
    Hello Dolly IC x 20
    Rosalitas IC x 20
    Tins Snips aka Egg Beaters IC x 20
    American Hammer IC x 20
    LBC’s IC x 20

    The Pax mount their virtual bikes and head back to the Mothership Flags, but with a 6:29 arrival, the Pax had time for a quick mosey to the Great Lawn for:
    10 Burpees OYO

    Mosey to the Flags

    COT
    Count Off, Name-O-Rama.
    3 FNG’s joined us this day and were brought into the F3 Brotherhood. Welcome Mambi (He’s a hunter, said he harvested Bambi’s brother), Wolverine, an Ohio State alumni, and Recall, who does something with food and beverage.
    Intentions, and closed with a prayer.

    Great coffeteria was enjoyed by all that stayed.

    YHC hopes you enjoyed this tribute to our NS brethren. YHC will make it back up there before long.

    Thanks for posting with me today, and for pushing me.

    NMM
    It’s the little things that matter. After the 8 Count Body Builders at the Lakefront AO, YHC was about wiped out. Walleye apparently noticed, and he gave YHC some words of encouragement that proved enough to take it to the finish line. We push each other to improve and to succeed, taking our bodies farther than we thought they could go. That’s F3.
    Remember, F3 is an organization of leaders, not an organization with leaders. If you haven’t signed up to Q yet, get your name on the signup sheet.

  • Carpe Diem Convergence

    The F3 Nation knew about YHC before YHC knew about the F3 Nation.  You see, YHC’s brother-in-law, Lynchpin, lives in Charlotte.  In the early days, before the F3 Nation planted its flag in NOLA, Lynchpin routinely and enthusiastically regaled YHC with stories of legendary beatdowns and CSAUPs, tongue in cheek nicknames, funny exercise names and other F3 lore.  Then, when F3 decided to expand to NOLA, Lynchpin tried to EH YHC, but YHC begged off.  It all sounded, well to be honest, like a cult and how could YHC trust Lynchpin anyway?  After all, he married YHC’s sister.  Ugh.  But resistance was futile.  The NOLA PAX crossed Lake Pontchartrain in its Durham boat, Reluctant Yankee at the helm like George Washington crossing the Delaware. Nacho and Chewy fell in upon the PAX’s arrival and, together, they planted the shovel flag in the Gloom on April 9, 2016.  F3 Northshore was born.  How could YHC resist a free workout in his own backyard?

    A few weeks later, the NOLA PAX boarded their Durham boat and retreated back across the Lake, leaving the Northshore PAX to make the most of their gift of F3.  We stumbled about, we made mistakes, we created a new AO only to abandon it a few weeks later, and we had more than a few beatdowns with one or two PAX.  Somehow, however, we made it and two years later look forward to seeing one another regularly to suffer and have fun together.

    As this morning’s two year anniversary convergence approached and YHC learned that the weather more likely than not would be awful, there was no concern.  Two years of meeting rain or shine, hot or cold, left no doubt in YHC’s mind that the PAX would post.  And post they did.  And you know what?  The weather held off just long enough for us to celebrate our birthday with a 3 hour beatdown, visiting 5 of 6 Northshore AOs by the mechanical device known as the bicycle.

    Mandeville Lakefront:  4 burpees OYO, 19 SSHs IC, 20 IWs IC, and 16 Seal Jacks IC.

    Captain’s Cove:  4 vertical jumps OYO, 19 Copperhead Squats IC, 20 Sumo Squats IC, and 16 Regular Squats IC.

    Milestone Marsh: 4 plyo Merkins OYO, 19 Merkins IC, 20 Shoulder Taps IC, 16 slow seconds Mission Impossible.

    At this point, Chewy politely pointed out that he had figured out what YHC was up to with the count but that our birthday is April 9, 2016, not April 19, 2016.  Point well taken.

    Grandmother’s House:  4 Sister Mary Katherine’s OYO, 9 front to back lunges IC, 20 45 degree lunges IC, and 16 later lunges IC.

    And then, after a 10 mile mosey on the Tammany Trace to Covington:

    The Gipper:  4 Freddy Mercury’s IC, 9 Freddy Flutters IC, 20 Hello Dolly’s IC, and 16 Flutter Kicks IC.

    Then we mounted our bikes for the 10 mile ride back to the shovel flag for the countorama, nameorama, Shooter’s prayer and a coffeeteria, arriving about an hour later than anticipated.  No one will confuse YHC for a Swiss train conductor after this morning’s logistics, that’s for sure.

    Thanks for letting me lead, guys, and thanks for your willingness to try something different and new and for posting despite the threatening weather and actually being disappointed it didn’t pour on us.

    Some parting thoughts:

    We’ve come a long way on the Northshore.  Things have become almost comfortable and, while there’s a lot of positive to that sentiment, there are dangers too.  We could stop growing.

    So here’s a call to action.  Commit to EH’ing more FNGs and supporting them through their virgin post so that they return.  Commit to Q’ing more workouts, putting time into planning your Qs, and posting timely BackBlasts.  Commit to a CSAUP.  Commit to making yourself better and leading by example, always keeping your eyes open for growth and leadership in all three of the Fs.  If we want F3 Northshore to grow, then we are the ones that need to make it happen.

    Carpe Diem.

     

     

     

     

  • The Passover

    On a Friday morning with perfect temps and dry conditions, we started on what I hoped would be the greatest, most spiritual F3 workout of all time. It was time for Rev Sox to emphasize the Rev in his name and throw imprecatory curses on the Sox.

    To give this exercise greater spiritual significance we warmed up with:

    SSH x24

    IW x 24

    PlankJacks x 12

    Hillbillies x 24

    I am preaching on the First Communion this Sunday at Grace Community Bible Church in River Ridge (gcbcrr.org) at 10am. Since I was meditating on Communion and the Passover, I themed our workout around the Passover story in Exodus. The story begins with 400 years of slavery in Egypt as the children of Israel made bricks for generations, so we grabbed our rocks and made bricks.

    Making Bricks

    While carrying our precious rocks, we slowly made our way across one of the Pontiff fields by dropping down to our knees and rising back up followed by one lunge on each leg and repeated until we crossed the field.

    The Ten Plagues

    We did a series of 10 exercises. 10 reps each time and we never put down our rocks between sets to picture the 10 plagues that God sent on Egypt to rescue the Israelites.

    10 Shoulder presses

    10 Curls

    10 rows

    10 low slow squats

    Repeat all 4

    10 bench presses

    For the 10th and final plague, we painted the doorposts of our homes to protect our families from the angel of the death. The rock was the paintbrush. Starting position was holding the rock by your right foot, the rock was lifted straight up above the right shoulder, moved over the head to above the left shoulder, and slowly brought down to the left foot. The rock was brought back to the right foot for one rep. We painted 10 doorposts (we are friendly Israelites).

    Wandering to the Red Sea

    Following the plagues, Pharaoh sent us out of Egypt. Like the Israelites, we wandered around the desert on our way to the Red Sea. We walked around the bases of two baseball fields while holding our rocks. A few times everyone was instructed to lift their rocks above their heads as Abacus and Hawg serenaded us with In Your Eyes.

    Waiting for the Water to Part

    We went to the fence and took a seat on the fence to remember how God parted the Red Sea as the Israelites watched in awe. We did two sets of 10 curls while seated against the fence as we gathered our belongings to go across the Red Sea.

    Mary to Freedom

    This is where I ran into trouble. I thought the 10 plagues was going to take longer than it did, so we had a little extra time. My story got kind of forgotten as I struggled to think of Marys to finish the workout.

    Penguins x 20

    Big Boy Situps x 20

    10 Burpees

    10 Burpees

    LBCs x 20

    Here I was planning on sharing that the Egyptians ran in after the Red Sea but the water came in top of them. They tried to flutter kick their way to the other side, but their armor weighed them down and they became dying cockroaches. (I forgot this part of the story in my panic to think of things to get everyone to 6:15)

    FlutterKicks x 16

    Dying Cockroaches x 20

    Russian Twists x 20

    Oh Dolly x 20

    We counted off, shared our names, and named an FNG (Max) Mani-Pedi. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to fly my Bible nerd flag. It was awesome.

  • He just cursed them out!

    With Captain Sparkles and Steve pursuing the bright lights of Hollywood South, only two F3 brethren took to the streets of Old Mandeville for the morning’s beatdown.

    6.2 mi run at comfortable pace—I mean, seriously, the Crescent City Classic is over, and February’s Run Ranger Run has been overshadowed lately by the latest ISI challenges (Turbo and Bushwacker, I’m cursing you under my breath)

    2.5 minutes of absolute pain thanks to Bushwacker’s ISI challenge on  the way out.

    YHC prayed us out  Thanks, Shooter, for responding to my EH yesterday and posting this morning at the Cove.

  • Detours come in many ways at the Scramble

    The Scramble produced a multitude of Detours on this Gloom. Two of these Detours would be produced by a single PAX member named Bushwacker. Upon his arrival the QIC and Waterpik were welcomed by him exiting is vehicle in what seemed to be LIME green Yoga pants or may be better explained as Leotards. Either choice would lead one to think he reached into the Ms wardrobe without proper lighting, but truth be told the QIC later learned they were closely monitored from shelf to clearance awaiting to be purchased. With close consideration one could only associate the seen with safety for the PAX as we make our journey down dark roads and the iridescence glow would prove as a reflective protection along our path.

    to be continued…

    warmup

    15 IC GM, 15 IC TT and a simple stretch of palms to the ground.

     

    the thang

    Began our journey down the standard route with chatter of the upcoming Convergence on Saturday. Quickly into the Mosey we see heavy equipment across the roadway to Sunset point. The Q is tasked with considering a different route? Or should we proceed as trespassers of a construction site? Well of course we know nothing is out of the question with this crew. So we proceed our entry toward a massive excavator with decisions of choosing left or right. Q hears chatter from Pik about going left but instead YHC  decided otherwise and thankfully so because left would have been reminiscent of a recent Tough Mudder event through drainage pipe.. We get across on a narrow piece of earth to continue our journey. We get to the pier and proceed back when yet another Detour would be presented to the Q. Bushwacker has to make a pit stop at a plastic disposal site better known as a Porta Jon. With keeping with no man left behind YHC and Waterpik interrupt the run by knocking out 30 IC SSH, 20 IC Slow Merkins and wrapping up with 15 IC WM. Rejoined by our Leprechaun we continue to the finish line with 5 to spare. We hit our 6 for the ISI of  2 min hundreds and complete the beatdown..

    Countarama, annoucarama, COD

    Thanks to Waterpik for praying us out!!

    Enjoyed the journey and fellowship with you fine men no matter what the attire may be!!

    Appreciate the lead

  • No arms… kinda

    From the Tough Mudder almost a month ago, YHC banged up his right arm good and sore.  Although it’s no longer lovely shades of green, brown and yellow, it’s still nowhere near 100%.  So today YHC attempted an armless BeatDown.  He was successful…mostly.

    After a disclaimed, the PAX was off to a new field past the Mardi Gras fountain–with Rudy’s mumblechatter in high pitch.

    • SSHs 30xIC
    • Hill Billies 30xIC
    • Low Slow Squats 20xIC
    • Squatting Pulses 20xIC

    Mosey to the waterfront from box jump reverse-suicides: mosey to the first planter for 10 box jumps, mosey back and then to the second for 9 box jumps, etc., to the tenth planter for 1 box jump.  A nice gasser to finish up the warm up.  Then mosey to the tenth planter for some static pain:

    • Dips 20xIC (here’s where the kinda came in; these don’t hurt YHC’s arm, so there it was)
    • Right Leg Power Ups 20xIC
    • Irkins (same kind of kinda)
    • Left Leg Power Ups 20xIC
    • Dips 20xIC (last of the kinda)

    Then circle up for a Cowbell special: the Hurricane Ho Down.  Seven flutter kicks in a V position with arms in the arm, then seven more with arms extended on the ground, then seven more while leaning on elbows, and then more with a flat back.  Rinse and repeat with six of each, then five, four, three, two and finally one of each.

    Mosey on over to the levee for some Elevens.  At the toe of the levee, ten Big Boy Sit Ups, then mosey up the levee for one squat, then mosey down for nine Big Boy Sit Ups, then up for two squats, etc., until one Big Boy Sit Up at the bottom and ten squats at the top.

    No time left for Mary.  So everyone’s favorite close out: 12 burpees.

    Then Countoff, Name-O-Rama, Intentions and a COT.  Thanks  for letting me Q twice this week.  Birthdays are great.  Everyone should have one at least once a year.  Jingle Vader

  • What its all about

    Today’s workout reminded me why I love F3. I showed up to one lonely pax member standing by the shovel flag and ready to go. It is a bummer when you show up for a workout and you are the only one there (Sorry that happened waterpic), but it does happen from time to time.

    But, what is the alternative? If we go to the gym to get a workout, you may have some nice chats with people you know, but ultimately you are just in proximity to other people, you are not really together.

    I was glad that I didn’t fartsack, and got to workout with another member of the pax…together.

    The workout was great we jumped rope, worked our glutes and core…etc; but what was awesome is that we got the chance to be together, giving us time to talk about life, loss, joy, hope and stuff that really matters, encouraging each other to be better in all aspects of life, not just our physical fitness.

    The pax may have been few in number today, but today’s beat down for YHC, epitomized what its all about.

    Thanks guys.

    Cheers,

    Chewy