11 Pax arrived on a cloudy and not so windy morning for week 3 of the IronPax Challenge. We met at the courthouse to get started in the interest of time.
YHC chose to forgo the pain until Saturday, and proctered the event.
Warm up: Instructions and focus on form
Thang
300 Merkins, 250 squats, 3 mile run for time
T claps and Mucho Respect for strong finishes from BBQ(62), Einstein(64), Fletch (57), and Legal(54)
Cowbell
34.25
Bean
36
Steve
36.28
Einstein
37.49
Legal
39.34
BBQ
40.12
Smokey
40.22
Grover
41.44
Russo
43.32
Fletch
46.36
Who’s ready to take on Cowbell, Bean, and Steve Saturday?
7 brave PAX ventured into the windy gloom this morning to tackle week 3 of the Iron PAX Challenge: https://f3greenwood.com/2020/09/13/2020-ironpax-challenge-week-3-keep-it-simple-stupid/
Shit got real very quickly, and I didn’t feel like I was missing out on the 100 merkins to start. Fast forward to the end – less than :45 across the board – and I’m proud of the group for pushing through. Final times:
Back in the day, YHC was really into the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. One of the few I remember was called The Cave of Time, where you enter this cave and, depending on the path you choose, you might find yourself stuck in an Ice Age, or in the Jurassic Era, or in a never-ending time loop. The great thing about these books is that there were many, many bad endings. If the series was written today, every ending would probably be a happy one. But no, in the 80’s, death awaited at every turn!
So much like The Cave of Time, the 28 pax who posted were faced with a similar “choose your own adventure”™: take the path to the left, and follow Bushwacker into the world of pain known as The Iron Pax Challenge; or take the path to the right, and follow YHC into a potentially less painful but hopefully equally rewarding beatdown. As in the books, misery awaited the pax in both paths! (Obviously, YHC is a sucker for bad endings.)
A couple of new faces, so a hastily given disclaimer was issued, before launching into:
Warmorama: Good mornings, arm circles, torso twists, IW’s, Seal Jacks, mountain climbers, plank jacks, and SSHs.
The Iron Paxers took off with Bush to begin their timed misery, while the rest of us moseyed to the splash pad, stopping at each intersection for a quick round of exercises:
@ Marigny:
20 Wide armed merkins
20 Jump squats IC
20 LBCs IC
@ Lamarque:
20 Diamond merkins
20 Sister Mary’s IC
20 Leg raises IC
@ Foy:
20 T-merkins
20 Monkey humpers IC
20 V-ups OYO
Finally at the playground, time for a quick COP:
Circle Burp! (high knees while each of the pax drop for 3 burpees)
Then, Al Gore while each of the pax knock out 3 jump squats
Over to the curb for a set of 11’s:
1 Mike Tyson, bear crawl to opposite curb, 10 star jumps, continue until numbers are reversed.
Here’s where things got brutal. YHC had heard of Mike Tysons (which involve planking with your feet on the curb, doing a horizontal squat, then back out to plank for a merkin – that’s one), but never actually tried them. Combining those with bear crawls for a set of 11’s was one of those “it looked good on paper!” moments. Nevertheless, the pax pushed on, unaware that YHC would call it about 3/4ths of the way in. T-claps to the younger men in our group who put in a heroic effort here.
And finally, one more routine just for Jose 10k (only two more days to fill that jug!): Sprints! P1 sprints, while P2 does: Peter Parkers, then rinse and repeat with plank jacks.
With time running short, time for a Bataan Death March back to the flag (t-claps to Shooter for picking up the six).
The Iron Pax men were still wandering around looking like someone hit them with a hammer, but YHC was able to convince a few to drop to their six for an abbreviated Mary of Dollies and Rosalitas. T-claps to all the men who attempted the challenge this week, regardless of times. It was a tough one.
Countdown, nameorama, and naming of FNGs. YHC is very bad at naming FNG’s, so apologies to the new guys. Welcome Cucumber, Squid, and… TruCoat! (That’s right, there was a post-coffeteria renaming of our final FNG.) It was determined by the two co-Q’s that Woodchuck was just too lame. So in a nod to the movie Fargo, he was renamed for the following scene:
Mathlete prayed us out, with intentions for Legal’s friend, and everyone made their way over for some coffee… some even got a lift in Amnesia’s sweet new ride!
Thank you men for the tremendous push this morning!
Sunday Fracsack and myself set out to mark 400 meters for week 0 of IPC. Hopefully the city of Kenner has a power washer because several more lines were painted than needed.
10 Pax(including 2 FNGs) eagerly awaited the start of week 0. With the clock indicating 0530, a brief disclaimer was given, and a warmup began.
Warmup
Side straddle hop x 20
Abe Vigodas x 15
Imperial Walkers x 15
Grass grabbers x 15
Chinook x 15
Self love x 15
Once warmup was complete the IPC was explained and the workout exercises were demonstrated.
Da Thang
Completed 4 time and timed
Squats x 50
BB situps x 40
Merkins x 30
Bonnie Blair x 20
Burpee x 10
400 meter run
After this we circled up for count-o-rama and name-o-rama. 2 FNGs were given their F3 names: Wingnut and The Joy. Hokie Pokie did a wonderful job at inviting the new F3 members in and explaining F3 and what it’s all about.
Was really impressed with everyone and their times. FracSack rocked it. Looking forward to week 1.
The 2019 Iron PAX Challenge is now in the books for the F3 Northshore PAX. T claps to F3 Greenwood for throwing the challenge out to the F3 Nation and keeping so many men across so many regions working hard and engaged for an entire month. The beat downs have been epic, and there is something really positive and rewarding about overcoming physical and mental challenges throughout the course of a month. Monday sees the return of our regularly scheduled program at the Milestone Marsh.
After a combined warmup of 15x IC of Seal Jacks, Mountain Climbers, Windmills, Butt Kicks, Merkins, OH Hand Claps, and SSHs, the PAX split with Grundy taking the IPC PAX westward and YHC taking the non-IPC PAX eastward.
The eastward bound PAX circled up across from Rips for some Peter Parkers and Parker Peters, 15x IC, and then made their way to the Rips stairs for 5 minutes AMARP of 10x regular Rocky Balboas, 10x lateral Rocky Balboas, and a trip up and over the stairs. Then it was time to mosey down to the Harbor playground for fun and games.
YHC deployed some cones and balls from his backpack and engaged the PAX in a passing game with increasing levels of difficulty. We started bounce passing the ball to one another in a predetermined order within the confines of the paint (an area otherwise known as the spash pad and usually occupied by wet and screaming rug rats). Every dropped pass earned the PAX a penalty exercise of 5 burpees, Bobby Hurleys, Bonnie Blairs (hair of the dog), Merkins or I’m a Star Jumps. Proficiency ensued and so the PAX advanced to Level 2 where a trip out of the paint and around a cone was required after passing and before receiving the next pass. The game continued with increasing levels of difficulty and at the very end, before our Indian Run back to the Shovel Flag, the PAX returned to Level 1 and impressed themselves with their passing and communication prowess. Forty minutes of honing skills paid dividends.
Countorama, nameorama and then over to the coffeeteria after reuniting with our worse for the wear looking IPC brothers.
Thanks for letting me lead guys and congrats to all of you who participated in the IPC. You are all better men than you were 4 weeks ago.
The Gipper PAX closed the books on the 2019 Iron PAX Challenge in the Gloom this morning. Hauling their concrete blocks to the concrete roof of the concrete parking deck of the Justice Center, the PAX jackhammered and pounded their way through the grueling Week 4 workout. Merkins, squats, swings, Bonnie Blairs, thrusters, lunge walks and cinderblock carries for time…it was all an oxygen deprived affair in tropical conditions. To its credit, the PAX refrained from tossing the cinderblocks from the roof when the final whistle sounded, but it’s safe to say that it may be a while before The Gipper AO sees cinderblocks again.
Thanks for pushing yourselves and YHC, guys. There’s something powerful about tackling a month long challenge with your buddies. None of us would have pushed ourselves as hard alone.
Now we need to get creative and come up with a challenge that we can send F3 Greenwood’s way…
My quasi virgin Q came in the form of a Week 4 IronPax Challenge Beatdown called “Sugar’s Pick Your Poison” at UNO’s Chamber of Horrors. Tclaps to Kuch and Belloq for getting our AO ready.
At approximately 5:20 AM, YHC kicked things off to the sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire “September”. My highlight of the workout was Kuch’s beatdown of 2 Coupons that weren’t regulation. The Pax of 7 completed this leg intense 3 rounds workout in an average time of 52 mins. and 45 secs.
We wrapped things up with CoT and a Prayer of Generosity.
Enjoyed the opportunity to lead my first Q and participate in my first IPC.
10 men visited the Pain Cave this morning at The Gipper. F3 Greenwood tried to kill us all with the inaugural Iron PAX Challenge last year and, having failed, have renewed their efforts in earnest with this year’s challenge.
After a very brief warmup and some pre-challenge logistics, it was time to get started. The buzzer sounded and the troops were off for AMRAP in 43 minutes of:
10 pullups
15 burpees with lateral jumps over a coupon
20 coupon curls
25 coupon thrusters and
30 gas pumps.
A combination of Cowbell’s head banging music and everyone’s muscle fatigue soon heated up the AO as the PAX pushed themselves to accumulate reps. All in all, it was a good showing for a group of men who all look much better than they did on their virgin posts.
One more week to go men. Thanks for letting me lead.
