F3 New Orleans

Tag: Grandma's House

  • Someone used to be reliable with those backblasts. – from Russo

    Let me tell you about this morning’s workout from the perspective of Jose10k, who, mind you, wasn’t leading but set a personal goal with paxminer. The only way to achieve the goal is to get credit for the workout.

    First off, Jose10k, being the overachiever he is, strapped on a 25-pound ruck sack and decided to play Man vs. Mandeville before we even started. He ran through the downtown streets, up and down the Trailhead, and even made the stairs his personal Everest—for 40 minutes. This man was on a mission to redefine cardio. My backblast, my own personal compliments.

    Then Russo, the designated leader (but clearly not the main character), took over. He started with a warmup—nothing too fancy, just enough to make us wonder if Jose had extra oxygen tanks in that ruck sack. Afterward, we moseyed to the well-lit arches on the trail, probably so Russo could see the look of regret in our eyes as he introduced 11s: shoulder-tap plank jacks and merkins. Shooter made light work of the situation. Performing each exercise with perfect form and precision. He thoughts of the buck he’s been seeing on his deer cameras. His focus was on bagging this deer, and the pavement felt his wrath.

    Here’s the kicker: to get from one end to the other, we lunge-walked. Yes, lunge-walked, like we were auditioning for a low-budget version of the nutcracker. Then we backpedaled to the start, because apparently walking forward wasn’t hardcore enough. To top it off, we had to slalom the entire Trailhead back. By “slalom,” I mean weaving like we were training for the Winter Olympics, except instead of snow, it was pavement, sweat, and a faint sense of dread.

    Russo’s idea of “rinse and repeat” wasn’t so much about refreshing us as it was about turning our legs into spaghetti. Meanwhile, Jose10k cruised through it all with the casual intensity of a man who already ran a marathon before breakfast. Shooter set the pace, while we chased after him as fast as we could. Plus, as per the norm, Jose had to duck out early to educate the future leaders of tomorrow. As I heard through the grapevine, Shooter crushed the remaining 11s, and God help that Buck try to survive Shooter’s pursuit.

    In summary: Russo led the workout, but Jose10k was the workout.

  • Jose Can You See, By The Dawn’s Early Light – from Steve

    Yeah, I don’t know – I’m not spending 10 minutes racking my little brain for good title today.

    So it was a raucous start to the beatdown this morning, which was surprising considering both Russo and YHC were still half asleep when the gun went off. And that gun? Well, that would be everybody’s favorite jailbird, Jose 10k, fresh off the chain gang and coming in hot with a 5k already under his belt.

    Russo mentioned offhandedly that Shooter had signed up to Q for “like, the whole week,” and man oh man, that was when the fireworks began.

    “The whole week? 2 Q’s equal the ‘whole week’?! Do you Mandevillans know how to count?!?”

    I get it, though – don’t disrespect both math and the man’s 6-day Q streak in the same breath. Too soon, Russo, too soon.

    Well, it was time to get this party started, so naturally Russo took off his long sleeve shirt because yeah, even before the warmorama, 42 degrees is just too hot for him.

    Usual warm up before relocating to the beautifully lit archway on the trace (even Jose will allow that it is a “feature” of Granny’s/Splashpad) for a set of 11’s: T-merkins on one end, merkins on the other. We got maybe a third of the way through before Jose had to make his usual early departure, whereupon Russo and I quickly shut down the 11’s and headed out to the tunnel.

    20x lunges at every intersection. Then a quick incremental ladder of B.O.M.B.S with backwards run up the ramp between sets, and it was time to return, stopping for Bulgarians and calf raises and an abbreviated Mary.

    COT, with prayers for JV’s flight test today (he passed!). Thanks Russo and Jose for the laughs, the conversations, the push – appreciate you both.

  • Tunnel of Love: Nope, the Ladder of Hate – from Jose10k

    Muscle memory had me up early this morning, so YHC ran 2 miles before the beatdown. Of course there was music, classic soundtrack from American Pie inspired me to dance before the warm-up. It amused the guys.
    Simple warm-up- then to the tunnel……To the tunnel, are ya’ll crazy? Jose doesn’t do the tunnel. We moseyed to the outside of the stage where we were joined by an out of town visitor: Drillbit. Here is where we started the thang: Ladder Time. 10 reps of sumo squats, then run to the stairs, up the stairs, and back to the beginning. 10 more sumo squats and 10 lunges, run up and down the stairs again. Sumo squats, lunges, monkey humpers, dirkings, freak nasties, stone mountains, burpees, big boy sit ups, crunches, American Hammers, Penguins, and flutter kicks. Great mumble chatter and some grumble grumble. COT with Russo praying us out for safe travels for DrillBit and all those traveling for the Holidays. Thanks for letting me lead/reading this backblast if it posts….SYITGhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq8dCkkhYsk

  • It’s Raining (High Impact) Men – from Steve

    Many a Northshore pax can tell you how often we’ve had a forecast of rain only to post and be pleasantly surprised at how narrowly we avoided it. I can’t tell you how many near misses I’ve had over the years.

    But Tuesday was not one of those days.

    Jose took off for his usual pre-thang in a mild drizzle only to arrive back at 0515 to a full on downpour. YHC was surprised anyone showed up at all. But really, I shouldn’t have been – this guy has somewhere around 120 posts under his belt this year, and that’s only the confirmed posts. He’s probably got another 20-30 unrecorded because as he reminds us constantly, yes, us Mandevillians don’t write backblasts.

    Well not today, good sir!

    Usual warmorama and then into a pyramid style beatdown, where we’d start at one side of the corridor with a set of 10 exercises, increasing as we went until we hit the stage (which was always a peoples chair with 40 air presses), and then we’d then decrease on the other side of the trailhead back down to 10.

    Exercises were:

    10 burpees
    20 merkins
    30 squats
    40 air presses
    30 squats
    20 merkins
    10 burpees

    10 big boys
    20 merkins
    30 leg raises
    40 air presses
    30 leg raises
    20 merkins
    10 big boys

    10 SMK (2:1)
    20 m humpers
    30 lunges
    40 air presses
    30 lunges
    20 m humpers
    10 SMK (2:1)

    10 Carolina dry docks
    20 Mike Tyson’s
    30 dying cockroaches
    40 air presses
    30 dying cockroaches
    20 Mike Tyson’s
    10 Carolina dry docks

    At some point Jose had to leave, but he had done his job. YHC would’ve easily returned to the fartsack had no one posted, but now, wet and sweating, there wasn’t much of a choice. Just finish the damn thing.

    Thank you Jose for the accountability and continued commitment – appreciate you brother!

  • Election Interference – from Steve

    Well, the day has finally come. Would Tank make it through this final stretch without having an aneurysm or a heart attack? Quinnipiac polls had it at 50-50 odds. But of course we all knew that if the 100 miler or the Beast or the 2 Murphs a day couldn’t kill him, this election was also unlikely to.

    But not everything went smoothly yesterday – over at Granny’s we had some election interference with an unregistered voter named “Excitebike” attempting to cast a vote outside his district (and state!). Apparently, Excitebike (who could provide no proper identification), is in the process of Northshore naturalization and, after a pending move from Katy, TX within the next year, we will be seeing a lot more of him. So of course Granny welcomed him with open arms and we took off for the polling booths scattered down Girod Street towards the lake.

    Add an exercise at each intersection for two short ladders:

    R – Ranger Merkins x10
    E – E2K x20 (2:1)
    P – Peter Parkers x30

    D – Donkey Kicks x10
    E – E2K x20 (2:1)
    M – Merkins x30

    Once at the lake we did some sea wall business (Bulgarians, Freaks, Step Downs, etc.) and then over to Rips for some stair business (climb the stairs 4x skipping steps, calf raises), until finally it was time to head back for our last ladder:

    I – Iron Mikes x10 (2:1)
    N – Never Cross Dolly x20
    D – Derkin x30

    The remaining 3 intersections were simply stops for merkins cuz… well, ‘Merica.

    Back at the flag, we made sure there were no chads left hanging, as we closed it out with a quick Mary and COT. Russo took us out with prayers for healing our country and especially prayers for Jose and his family as they deal with the loss of Katie’s mom.

    Welcome Excotebike, looking forward to more posts with you, brother. As always, appreciate the opportunity to lead and to get better out there with you gentlemen.

  • Taylor Swift’s Rhythm Nation Halloween Spectacular (with special guest Brooks and Dunn) – as edited by Steve – from Russo

    About 65 degrees to start. It’s amazing what conversations can be had early on a Tuesday, all started with the simple “How was your weekend?” It takes me a while to warmup the motormouth, and I’m not the best at small talk, but once the motor revs it’s tough to slow down.

    Great conversation throughout revolving around T Swift and other concerts, Oscar-worthy film editing, boring desk jobs, bizarro beatdowns at the ‘Pad, and other minutia that kept things fun.

    Warmup – all 10x IC
    Seal jacks
    Toe touches
    Self love
    Imperial walkers

    Thang
    Mosey to the bridge, with 10 merkins and leg raises interspersed.

    At the bridge

    10 on each side, either wide merkins and flutter kicks, or Peter Parker’s and Rosalita’s, with alternating side shuffles, backpedals, mosey, or cariocas from one side of the bridge to the other.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, Announcements (Jose needs a Turkey trot compatriot), Prayer, in that order.

    Splice had Saturday lakefront Q, YHC has Splashpad Friday Q, and Halloween is somewhere in there.

    SYITG

  • Put The Bunny Back in the Box – from Steve

    You can probably measure the difficulty of the Spartan Beast by how many days it takes Jose to recuperate and return to the weekday beatdowns. Now, if he’s not back by Friday’s A1C beatdown, it might be time to worry. There were pictures of a shirtless Tank cozying up to Parrot circulating on Instagram and Snapchat this weekend, suggesting the ride home may well have gone sideways.

    Anywho… back at Granny’s, things were on the straight and narrow, as they say. Just Russo and I, doing the usual, which today was a simple circuit (designed to be able to chat and hear about the Beast, but alas, no Sprtaners were present to tell their tales of glory and valor):

    Start at x15 reps, then increase by 5 after each round:
    Benches – Freak Nasties
    Stage – Donkey Kicks
    West Corridor – Merkins
    Depot – Bulgarians
    Stairs – Calf Raises (*always x3 each step)
    Top of the Stairs – SMKs

    Throughout the beatdown, Russo was kind enough to indulge me in a Nicolas Cage retrospective, where we recounted the many wonders of his career – from Raising Arizona to Moonstruck, from The Rock and Face / Off to National Treasure and, of course, his Oscar-snubbed performance in Con-Air. Russo and I did our best “Cage Rage” impressions for the runners passing by, before moving on to a travesty equal to the Con Air snub: Russo’s loss in his company’s annual chili cook-off. I heard all about the machinations behind the scenes – illegal alliances and clever, quippy names that edged him out of victory with what I can only assume was a damn fine chili. But don’t count him out just yet, he’s got something special cooked up for next year’s contest.

    Ended with some Mary and COT, where Russo prayed us out. Thanks brother for the consistency, appreciate you!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNLOt–5zcg

  • DR MeeMaw comes to meet Granny.. – from Shooter

    The PAX of Grandma’s had the opportunity of a visitor from DR Tuscaloosa.. Steve, Russo and the unfamiliar fellow MeeMaw were already awaiting as YHC rolled up.. Quick introduction along with some chatter and then we got started.

    Warmup
    Toe Touches, Grass grabbers, arm circles, selflove, Butt kicks, SSH and Windmills.
    Lap around

    Thang
    1 coupon at the end of the corridor. PAX would complete stated exercises at one end while each moseyed down to complete coupon work and return. R/R

    First round
    Coupon work 20 curls and 20 overhead presses.
    Included some wall holds, plank, left and right plank holds and wall sits.
    Moseyed to the bus stop for 10 OYO bench jump overs, freak nasties, and reverse Irkins.

    Moseyed back to breezeway
    Second round
    Sprint down rifle carry coupon..
    PAX complete Mountain climbers, Peter Parker’s, Parker Peter’s and Squat jumps..

    Moseyed to the Treen center for 7s Burpees and step ups 2/1. Returned and closed with Mary ETKs F/J, Hello Dollies and Little Manny Crunches 15 IC..

    Count, Annouce and COT.

    Nice meeting you MeeMaw and until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • We’re Following the Leader Wherever He May Go – from Bushwacker

    The title says it all. The beat down consisted of consistent motion comprised of three minute rounds of following the leader wherever he goes, and doing whatever he does, with five second rests before the next man up. From parkour to Freak Nasty Scissoring (laces DOWN Dan!), we had a little bit of everything – all to the beat of Metallica’s drum. Bonus for not getting bit by the sleeping homeless guy’s guard dog, and Jose has an interesting new modification to T Stretches!

    SYITG

  • Ain’t Nuthin’ Lazy About It (Except Maybe The Q) – from Steve

    Definitely a lazy Q day. YHC coulda shoulda woulda done something a little more interesting, but hey, they can’t all be winners.

    Another muggy one, with Jose coming in dripping wet, looking like he just came back from getting some especially hot stock tips from Celeste and Lisa. (Sorry, I know the moment has passed, couldn’t help myself).

    Some light chatter about the magic of camera angles and Tom Brady’s skills in the announcing booth and then it was time to buckle down and get to it:

    Warmorama – Usual business…

    Time for the first Dora, P1 hits the stairs, P2 starts in on a cumulative rep count of:

    100 Merkins
    200 Step Ups
    300 Gas Pumps

    We took a “break” for a quick round of Captain Thor. Similar to Jack Webb, it’s an ascending count of big boy sit ups and American hammers (a 1:4 ratio increasing each round).

    With Jose moseying on to greener pastures, the three of us formed a team for our second and final Dora, the dreaded Lazy Dora:

    100 merkins, partner holds plank
    200 squats, partner holds Al Gore
    300 flutter kicks, partner holds a 6” hold

    Shooter is right, there ain’t nothing lazy about it.

    COT with talk of Grundy’s Spartan training coming up this Saturday, and prayers for Pelican’s boy. Appreciate you gents posting and allowing me to lead this morning!