F3 New Orleans

Category: Backblasts

  • Ruckin And Runnin

    Beautiful moring in the gloom.  Low Humidity, Low 60s.  Best time of the year, in YHC’s humble opinion.  Enjoy now, the summer humidity will be here soon enough.  The Ruckers made an early morning appearance, followed by the Runners at the normal 530 start time.

    The Ruckers: 3.5 miles along the usual bayou route covered in 1 hour.

    The Runners: 5 miles along the usual bayou route covered in 45 minutes.  YHC cannot answer questions about what the Ruckers discussed during their stroll, but YHC can say he greatly enjoyed the company of, and conversation with, Tool.

    All gathered again at the VSF for count off, name-o-rama, and ball of man for closing prayer.

    As Tool and I ran past the 2 confederate monuments on our morning run, I could not help but reflect on the atmosphere of discord and animosity that seems to be permeating our interactions.  Too often, we begin to see the world as “us” and “them”, and  ascribe the worst of intentions to people with whom we disagree (“those guys are racists”.  “he’s just grandstanding”).  Jogging along Jefferson Davis and seeing the barricades intended to separate the two sides in the current dispute with a 10 foot gap between them (a Neutral Ground on the Neutral Ground) emphasized to YHC how awful we can become in our treatment of each other.  Whichever side of this issue, or any issue, you find yourself on – always remember that the person you are interacting with is a human being, made in the image of the same Creator as the one I believe made me.  How can that person be treated any less respectfully than I would treat my M, my 2.0, my parents, my friends.  How can I presume to understand the intentions of that person, or treat his words with less respect than I expect him to treat mine?  I must be prepared to disagree and hold firm on my convictions, while finding the patience to be respectful and the openness to hear.  And learn.  And retain respect for all others and treat with dignity, even when, ESPECIALLY when, I do not receive that dignity and respect in return.  And I must encourage that behavior in those around me.

    Thanks again for the chance to be a brother of you all.

  • A Deck of Cards Will Never Look the Same

    In blackjack there is the common phrase to ask for another card. That phrase is “hit me”. Well today we also had a deck of cards, but the cards were the ones bringing the punishment. Whether you asked for it or not.

    Warmup:

    • Windmills 20 IC
    • SSH 20 IC (At least I wasn’t Chewy and make you guys do 40 IC. My revenge is coming Chewy. As sure as the sun will rise, so will my revenge be sure to be exacted upon thee.)
    • Mountain Climbers 20 IC
    • 10 merkins
    • 10 copperhead squats
    • Shoulder Series (4 directions 15 IC)

     

    The Thang:

    Moseyed to an open spot for a Chattanooga Choo Choo. All PAX got in a low plank side by side and the one farthest to the left got up and leap frogged through the line and rejoined the group in a plank. The entire group continued this until we reached our mark (about 35-40 yards). The Pax was certainly out of gas at that point (or would the proper expression be that they were out of coal?).

    Moseyed to right before the park for some good old fashioned up downs. The PAX would do quick feet with their hands up until I said down and then they would hit their chest to the ground and return to the quick feet. We went for about 1 minute and then for the last 30 seconds we turned the quick feet into a high knees sprint. One thing we learned for sure was that Tanked Up could still be playing some football. And to answer your question Turbo, I was invited to the group by Triple Shift on the south shore. Aren’t you glad I’m here?!

    We then moseyed to the park for the real beatdown. Everything up to that point was just a warmup. Turbo was aware of what would be coming when I pulled out that deck of cards. Thus began our battle with the deck of death.

    No amount of card counting could have helped you with this one (although shooter seemed to have some expertise in this area). The beatdown has a simple premise. Every suit is an exercise (hearts were merkins, diamonds were squats, clubs were situps, and spades were 15-20 feet sprints), and the reps were the card number. Face Cards were 10 reps and Aces were 15 reps. And you can’t forget about those jokers. When a joker popped up the PAX did 5 burpees and a lap around the park through the playgrounds. Of course the last card was the Ace of Spades (okay, so you got me, it wasn’t a completely random deck).

    Shooter took over for the last sequence where we did 4 corners (moseyed to a corner of a street and did 10 burpees, moseyed to the next street for 20 hand claps, moseyed to next corner for 30 lunges, and moseyed the last block and finished with 40 SSH (Tanked Up made me do a bit more there)). And of course it took us right up to the flag. Good planning there Shooter!

    We finished with some core exercises

    We circled up for the Counterama and Namerama and Chewy closed us out in prayer.

    Great job today guys! Let me know when you guys want to play some cards! As long as Shooter isn’t allowed to come (Do you have a checkered past we don’t know about there?).

    Thanks for letting me lead guys! As always, sorry if I missed anyone

     

     

  • Troubled Waters – Wait for the Q!

    As the Flag was planted and the PAX arrived, the disclaimer was given with the warning this was my first Q so lets get on this and ride this thing.

    Warm-up

    • Side-Straddle Hops x 10
    • Windmills x 20
    • Side-Straddle Hops x 10
    • Copper Head Squats x 20
    • Side-Straddle Hops x 10

    Once the Q learned how to breath and keep cadence, it is a workout all on its own, we then mozy over to the tennis courts, to have a little variation on 4 squares.

    At each corner we stood waiting for instructions from the Q – Q getting his breath once again.

    4 stations – once all complete, rotate to the next station until all done each for 1 round.

    Round 1 – 4 

    • Med Ball Burpbees x 10
    • Merkins x 10
    • WWII Sit-Ups x 10
    • Hollow Body Rocks x 10

    Round 5 – the Burpbees were the timer

    • Med Ball Burpbees x 10
    • Merkins x as many as possible
    • WWII Sit-Ups x as many as possible
    • Hollow Body Rocks x as many as possible

    And just for some core fun, Superman holds were completed, 3 x 15 seconds each, leaving a mark on the tennis courts to prove we were moving it. Mozy over to the play-set for the next round of fun.

    Follow the Power Merkin 

    Using 15 Power Merkins as the timer, we worked through each pain point below for a total of 3 rounds.

    • Box jumps or Step-ups x as many as possible
    • Rows x as many as possible
    • Pull-Ups x as many as possible

    After all that fun was done, we mozy over to the Flag to do a little ab work on our six.

    • Hello Dolly x 20
    • LBC x 20
    • Full leg raises x 20

    Once all was done, the body was beat once again into submission and a great day was in store for us all. Thank you for letting the large guy Q for you!

    –Terabyte

  • Holding Down the Fort

    On the 6th of May 2017, two men gathered in the gloom with a mutual objective. The regulars of Troubled Waters went to support another AO, leaving only two to keep watch over Troubled Waters. And even if our wannabe FNGs had escaped the EH we put them in, it was go time. Mammon was calling on Q after the gloom, so Q audibled and decided we’d try to condense the beat down to 45 minutes. A mosey to the starting line for the morning delight.

    Warm-Up:
    Ain’t nobody got time for that, it’s go time! The PAX was on the move and did our rounds around the park, dropping every quarter mile for 25 merkins. But today isn’t chest day.

    The PAX lapped a few power walking FIAs (unofficial), realizing the 6:30 AM Saturday “gloom” might as well be the afternoon. Halt at the pull-up bar for a change of pace.

    Quick Circle Line of Pain:
    1. PCMBs (Prisoner Cell Merkin Burpees) x10
    2. Pull-Ups x10
    3. Merkins x10
    Well that was nice, let’s do it again.

    Okay, enough of that, on your feet! Double time to the tennis courts. A set of 10 Bay City Scissors just to say we did abs today too.

    Now, who’s bright idea was it to do 300 squats a day? That’s irrelevant. 6 sets of 50 squats coming right up! The PAX took brief rests in between sets to do bench dips and daydream about what the crew was doing at the Mothership AO. With burning quads, Q thundered his seal of approval during the last set. I believe it went something like this:

    PAX approved.

    Our watch was over and the PAX was content with our decision to take the Red Pill today and continue our quest to be HIM. Counterama and Namerama (nothing but mutual hate today), Announcearama, and the Ball of Man to send us on our way. T-claps to Joe Dirt for his DRP commitment and healthy competition. We may have to upgrade our EH to ETKs to bring in some more FNGs. But for now, the core is strong, and we’re committed to the mission.

  • Uptowner Yoga Challenge – Week #7

    Conditions cool and breezy – 59 degrees

    What is up with the cool temps?  I was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt to a May workout.  Nice to see a couple of Uptowner Kotters this morning, Bogey recovering from a torn rotator cuff and Bubba getting back into it after his M’s boot camp.  They were looking for rocks, but I’m sorry…there are two weeks left in the Yoga Challenge.

    The Thang

    • SSHs IC x 30
    • IWs IC x 30
    • Squats IC x 20
    • Arm Circles IC x 15/15
    • Ocho count Body Builders x 10
    • Wide Leg Hamstring Stretch
    • Twisting Torso Stretch
    • Split Leg Hamstring Stretch
    • Standing Side Stretch
    • Sun Salutations (x3)
    • Runner’s Stretch
    • Crescent Pose
    • Warrior 1
    • Warrior 2
    • Reverse Warrior
    • Triangle Pose
    • Right Angle Pose with Grab and Hold
    • Chair Pose
    • Prayer Twist
    • Tree
    • Namaste

    Thanks,

    Hawg

  • 610 Stomp #88

    Shorty requested the prescribed GRT training today at the Stomp and YHC was happy to oblige.  The training for today involved sprints with some rest built in between.  We had 4 rucks among us so we modified some of the rest time.

    The Thang

    Ruck to the track and warm-up with SSH IC x 30; Imperial Walkers IC x 30; Windmills IC x 15; Squats IC x 20; Flutter Kicks IC x 20; and 8-count Body Builders IC x 10

    4 x 400m run with a 2 minute “rest” period between each 400.  When you finished the run you were to grab a ruck and do 15-25 reps of the given exercise.  Put the ruck down while the next man does his.  Keep alternating until the 2 minutes is up.  On average everyone did 2 sets of 20ish for each rest period.  Exercises were:

    • Rest 1 – Shoulder Presses
    • Rest 2 – Squats
    • Rest 3 – Shoulder Presses
    • Rest 4 – Squats

    Next we ran 8 x 200m runs with a 1 minute rest between each 200.  This was a true rest with no exercises included.  When we finished we rucked back to the flag and sealed the deal with 15 burpees.

    Moleskin

    So we ran 2 miles in 31 minutes and it sucked.  You can walk two miles faster than that, but running intervals for two miles is complete suck.  There is no way I would have completed that workout on my own.  We were all pushing each other and 4 different guys finished first at one time or another.  Running intervals hard is so much different than jogging at a steady pace.  Good lesson about running 10ks and half-marathon events – don’t start too fast.  It wears the body out quick.

     

     

  • Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen

    And that’s because I took a week to write the backblast.

    The Thang

    Warm-up (All IC):  SSH x 30; Imperial Walkers x 30; Windmills x 15; Low Slow Squats x 25; 8-count Body Builders x 15 (Apparently this week’s warm-up area was much cleaner than the one Torque likes to choose).

    Back to the flag for some GRT training.  I brought a ruck to share.  We circled up.  One man did Shoulder Presses in cadence while the rest of us did two 8-count body builders.  So that’s 8 shoulder presses and two body builders before the ruck is passed to the next man.  We did two sets so each man did 16 shoulder presses and 28 body builders.

    From there we headed to the levee for 5 rounds of Tyson D’Han style.  Start at the top of the levee, run down to River Road for the 10 reps of the prescribed exercise, back up and over the levee to the other side for 10 more reps, back up and over to River Road again for 10 more reps, then to the top to plank and wait for the six.  We did the following exercises:

    • Merkins
    • Lunges
    • Hello Dolly
    • Donkey Kicks
    • Burpees

    Quadraphilia – 4 minutes down the levee and back up always facing River Road.  #crowdpleaser

    Back to the flag for Jack Webb – 1:2 ratio of merkins to air presses ascending to 10.

    DJ style Mary

    • YHC – Russian Twist IC x 20
    • Chipper – Flutter Kicks IC x 20
    • Joe Dirt – Tin Snips IC x 20
    • Mathlete – Dragon rolls x 10
    • Torque – American Hammer IC x 21 (because Rocky won)
    • Terabyte – WWII Sit-ups x 20
    • Reformer – LBC IC x 20

    Moleskin

    • T-claps to Chobani for posting on his trip to New Orleans.  He asked for prayer as he prepares to travel to Greece for a church plant.
    • T-claps to the D’Han krewe for their continued run of successfully naming FNGs.
    • The levee at Troubled Waters is a definite asset.
    • The Croissant Sandwiches at Donut Land are another asset.  As are the Apple Fritters and the Bacon Maple Donuts.
    • T-claps to Joe Dirt for his box jumping skills demonstrated after the workout.  T-claps to YHC for having enough sense to not try what he did
    • I thought it would be cool to show the pax how I packed my ruck.  They decided it looked like I was smuggling coke into the AO.

     

  • The Uptowner Yoga Challenge – Week #6

    The Thang

    • SSHs IC x 25
    • IWs IC x 25
    • Windmills IC x 15
    • Squats IC x 25
    • Wide Leg Hamstring Stretch
    • Twisting Torso Stretch
    • Split Leg Hamstring Stretch
    • Standing Side Stretch
    • Sun Salutations (x3)
    • Runner’s Stretch
    • Crescent Pose
    • Warrior 1
    • Warrior 2
    • Reverse Warrior
    • Triangle Pose
    • Twisting Triangle Pose
    • Right Angle Pose with Grab and Hold
    • Chair Pose
    • Prayer Twist
    • Tree
    • Namaste

    Moleskin

    • 2 weeks of the yoga challenge left.  I don’t know that my hamstrings are that much more flexible, which is the main reason I wanted to do this.  I have developed a mean Warrior 1 though.
    • T-claps to Fracsac for inviting The Endor to The Uptowner.
    • I like the definite article, but it may be more efficient to change it to Endor.
    • T-claps to HVAC for volunteering to Q once the Yoga Challenge is over.  Mark your calendars now.

    Thanks,

    Hawg

     

  • No sweat

    6:05 am … 56 degrees … summit of the Mountain … sunrise over downtown … glorious …

    But first, the pain —

    The Pax was aimlessly waiting for the Q as YHC rolled in hot at 5:30 sharp.   Quick disclaimer on the move and we were off to the Loyola lawn for a warmup:

    • SSH x25 (IC)
    • Hillbillies x25 (IC)
    • Parker Peter x20 / Plankjack x20 (IC)
    • Burpees x10 (OYO)

    Short mosey to the benches for a COP all IC:

    • Decline shoulder taps x10 / Derkins x 5 / Decline shoulder taps x 10 / Derkins x5
    • R side step up x20
    • Dips x15
    • L side step up x20
    • Dips x15

    Hustle over to base camp and work our way up the Mountain doing BLIMPS, with a stop at each end of the deck:

    • Burpees x5
    • Lunges x10 (each leg)
    • IW x15 (each leg)
    • Merkins x20
    • Plankjacks x25
    • Squats x30

    By the time we got to the top, we had made it up to “P” on the second set.  T-claps to those able to do another round of S, B, and L, while waiting for the six.

    Partner up with PAX 1 running all the way down the first staircase and lunging up the second.  PAX 2 stayed on top of the Mountain doing LBC (about 150+).  Flapjack, then repeat the loop, except with PAX 1 running up the second staircase and PAX 2 doing Mountain Climbers (about a billion).

    Run back to the flag and arrive just in time for an impromptu 30-count Mission Impossible.

    Count, name-or-rama, and prayer.  Sign up for the GrowRuck.  If the fitness, fellowship, and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get trained by an ex-Seal isn’t enough to entice you, do it for the free T-shirt.

    Great time this morning.  Appreciate the opportunity to lead.

    -Mulligan

  • Northshore GrowRuck Training #9

    Three Northshore PAX moved out from the Justice Center Parking Garage promptly at 1900 for an hour and a half ruck around old Covington.  Halftime stop at St. Paul’s school for some tire flips and pole carries.  It has been especially considerate of St. Paul’s Athletic Dept to leave their equipment available for our surreptitious use.  Great F2.