F3 New Orleans

Tag: Russo

  • Inquerious Questions of Guidance – from Steve

    It took 3 attempts before auto-correct finally let that title stand as is. And even now I’m not sure it’s right… But there it is, in all its glory, preserved for the annals of F3 history. What the hell it means is anyone’s guess.

    Rowdy crowd of 6 this morning at Granny’s, (7, if you count the monster mosquito hawk that was making a racket during warmup and Mary). So rowdy that a bleary-eyed Chewy and I wondered what the hell was going on as we attempted to keep cadence count. I mean, sure, Jose wakes up ready for a fight. That makes sense – teaching junior high you gotta be on your toes and ready to knock someone down a rung or two. (Plus, he’s got the additional 20 minute drive of wake up time.) And now that Bush has become the new grumble grumble, well, let’s just say the back and forth between these two has become a joy to witness. Though it does make counting difficult.

    Luckily, we quickly moved on to the thang, a semi-random circuit of increasing reps that spanned most of the trailhead:

    – Derkins
    – Step Ups (ea. leg)
    – Lunges (2:1)
    – T-merkins
    – Donkey Kickoffs
    – Crunchy Frogs
    – Apollo Ohnos (2:1)
    – SSH’s
    – Freak Nasties

    Each round ended with a set of x3 calf raises up the stairs, then start again, increasing the rep count by x5.

    We mostly stuck together today, entertained by the barefoot Duke and his parkour moves. It was a big day for him, as he saw his net worth nearly double to $24.12 and, more importantly, learned the subtle distinction between the adjective demure and the verb to demur. Hard to believe one day we could be reading a backblast written by Wacker’s offspring. We can only hope he inherits his father’s love of flowery language.

    And, of course, there were also the usual F3-type ramblings about Scientology, drinking vials of blood, moon landings – that sorta thing. Hey, Russo is right – the internet does indeed always win.

    COT and Chewy prayed us out. Appreciate you gents, was fun to have a bigger group out there today.

  • Dropping Bombs in the Tunnel – from Steve

    No, no – Hammer wasn’t there Friday morning, we’re not talking about his drive-by cropdusting of Jose. Not those kind of bombs. The old school, F3 kind – B.O.M.B.S.

    Just Russo and YHC this past Friday for a leisurely stroll to the tunnel, with a brief pit stop at the Depot for:

    12x Step Ups IC (ea. leg)
    12x Freak Nasties IC
    12x Bulgarians IC (ea. leg)
    12x Freak Nasties IC

    Onward to the tunnel for:

    25 Burpees
    50 Overhead Claps
    50 Merkins
    50 Big Boys
    50 Squats

    There may or may not have been merkins en route…. My Q’s have started to become so habitual it’s all a blur… Did you feed the dog this morning? Yes. No. Yes?

    COT, YHC prayed us out with gratitude for this great group of men that provide me and many others with strength, week in and week out. Appreciate you guys.

  • WE ARE F3 – AROO AROO AROO!!! – from Bushwacker

    This fall, some of the PAX of the Northshore will be CSAUPing at the Spartan Beast obstacle race near Dallas. There is a palpably intense excitement in the air and this beatdown was designed to make sure all in attendance felt it. YHC, along with some some kind and committed brothers, arrived at 5:15 to begin setting up. We just beat the pre-thangers back to the flag in time to get things started promptly.

    WARMORAMA

    Warm up consisted of briefly attended tabata, and a garbled pronouncement of rules, regulations, and “the way things aughta go”, which, thanks to Jose’s requisite comments and interjections of others, were immediately and throughout the course disregarded, slightly adopted, and outright ignored. But a great challenge was mostly bested and a fun time was had by all teams of 2 who attempted.

    1. Tire Shuttle – step in each of 6 tires while running through (QIC tripped and fell so never assume anything is TOO easy!)
    2.Sandbag StepUp – holding 50lb sandbag, 10 Step Ups on sea wall (MAY have forgotten to mention the step up part)
    3. Bucket Carry – 5gallon bucket filled with sand carried out and back
    4. Sledge Hammer Slam – 15 wacks on the tire with a 10lb maul
    5. Tire Toss – 2 tires tossed individually out and back
    6. Sled Drag – 2 45lb plates on a minil sled pulled out and back
    7. Battlerope – 3″ battlerope slung up and down for 15 reps
    8. Rope Climb w/ Cowbell (not the short crunchy-frogging runner) – climb rope appx 12′ and tap the bell. As indicated prior to start, if a PAX was unwilling or unable to complete an obstacle, they were to complete 10 Burpees and move on. However, the rare and awesome challenge that a rope hanging from a tree posed caused a bit of a pile up by the time QIC and partner Shooter arrived. Immediately Shooter was pulled in by the tractor beam as well
    9. Dummy Drag – appx 150lb hose dummy dragged out and back
    10. Tire Pull – giant tire with long rope attached, pulled length of rope
    11. Spear Throw – in addition to the Rope Climb, Farmer’s carry, Sand Bag, flags and cones our own Zoolander (aka Chaka Zulu)supplied his new favorite toy to be thrown at and stuck into a foam target strapped to a tree. However, our honorary FNG, Al Gore, let us know with great protest that we were committing arbocide and proceded to take picture of the crime scene, and tear down the foam target for good measure.
    12. Farmers Carry – set of appx 30lb logs with handles carried out and back
    13. Tire Flip – giant tire flipped end over end out and back
    14. Sawhorse Hurdles – 4 8′ sawhorses spaced 6′ apart hurdled over

    Strong Work, great fun, fantastic teamwork!

    COT

    Count, Name, Grappler demurred praying us out in lieu of Rev Russo.
    Just a small taste of thing to come in October, gentlemen. Thank you for allowing me to lead you in tackling this Fire/Spartan obstacle course

    Post Script: Many thanks to the many hands who made light work of picking up the coupons!

  • Granny’s magic!! – from Shooter

    Four rounds, four exercises and four loops was the magical number for our 45 mins in the Gloom.
    After completing a loop around the Trace brief warmup of 15IC and 10IC Grass grabbers, Toe touches, Abe Vogadas, over head claps, Cherry pickers and arm circles..
    Thang was 3 coupon stations and a jump rope station..
    Timer was 1 min of work 30 seconds of rest 4 rounds of motion.
    Coupon 1 Chest press
    Coupon 2 Curls
    Coupon 3 Overhead carry up and down the stairs. Intensity version shoulder presses while going up and back down.. After 4 one min rounds PAX made a loop around the Trace.
    R/R till each PAX completed all stated exercises.. For you math folks out there, total work was only 16 mins of engaged movement not counting the loop’s.. Doesn’t seem like much but I promise by rd 3 the burn was real and I believe the PAX got their monies worth..

    Finished right at 6 and we announced multiple CSAUP opportunities ahead.. 4 on the 4th, BEAST, Turkey trot and I believe some other hot ass marathon or something… Not really certain, but one thing is certain, Cowbell lives and he mentioned a possible Saturday post for the Wacker Q..

    Russo graciously took us out and until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Inaugural Lakefront Rugby Sevens – from Brexit

    12 HIMs graciously posted for my Virgin-Q in full knowledge that it would likely be an absolute shambles. I had to do something British-themed for my first ever Q so, with it being the day of the London Sevens which is an annual rugby sevens tournament, I decided to do a Rugby Sevens inspired workout. You may not know it, but the US is part of the World Rugby Sevens and they’re sometimes pretty good at it (although sitting at 9th in the standings right now). Sevens is a much more simplified version of rugby, which is probably why the US is better at it than normal rugby, played with seven players instead of the full 15. Thought that by focusing on sevens it could be a good intro to the game.

    Warmup:
    Side straddle hops, arm circles, grass grabbers, toe touches, imperial walkers, peter parkers, merkins (only messed up the cadence once)

    Got into pairs and moseyed to the shaft passing the rugby ball between each other. The Rugby ball can only go backwards so each player had to sprint ahead to pass the ball backwards to his teammate. You could not move if you didn’t have the ball. Any dropped passes meant 5 burpees which is the number of points you get for a touchdown in rugby, aka, a try.

    7 burpees on our own at the gazebo after regrouping. Continued the passing drill to the shaft with the addition that the person without the ball had to do a single burpee while the person with the ball moved ahead of him. It appeared that I had over-estimated the hand-eye coordination of the group (to be fair, some of the pairs were geared up more than others…only so many rugby balls in circulation here so some were forced to use toy footballs that got completely taken with the wind with each pass…) and so was running a little behind schedule but we made up for this for a quicker than expected Sevens (staying on theme) – derkins and sister Mary Catherines. Bear crawl one way, run back.

    Moseyed to the rugby pitch, no passing this time.

    Get into teams and then did a passing along the line drill. A dropped pass was 7 burpees for the team (this was changed to 5 burpees for the team that YHC joined in with). The other team did merkins/squat jumps in the meantime (merkins on way up, squat jumps on way back).

    YHC gave his best attempt at explaining the rules of touch rugby in about 3 minutes and then game-on – 15 min (7 min halves).

    Skins v Shirts with Shirts kicking us off. Good formation to start with but it seemed like some of the players got confused with the fact that you are actually allowed to run forwards, you only have to pass it backwards…not too much territory made in the opening play. The Skins got the first try after a good line break (apologies, can’t remember which HIM scored first as I left it a week before I wrote this), but the Shirts re-grouped and came back strong to score two tries in quick succession. After a high-risk move to intercept the ball by the Skins didn’t pay off (if you don’t catch an interception and fumble it, it means a possession turnover), the Shirts were in a commanding position. In the closing minutes of the game, the Skins had their backs against the wall in defense but held firm to win a turnover deep in their own territory. From this position, Zoolander scored a highly controversial try to level the game in the final seconds. The try was awarded against a fierce appeal from the Shirts about a forward pass…this decision was in no way affected by the fact that the impartial ref had jumped into the game a few minutes beforehand and had started playing on the side of the Skins.
    Throughout the game, there was some obvious flouting of the offside rule and a little bit of confusion on the number of touches before a turnover, which wasn’t helped by a very forgetful ref, however we had some great runners of the ball on both sides and, all in all, was very impressed with the ability of the HIMs to pick up the concept of the game very quickly. Obviously a testament to the Q. It was great way to get some good cardio in while having some fun. Next time we’ll be introducing scrums…

    After a few reminders about time running out, we moseyed back, no passing the ball. No time for any core.

    Announcements – Spartan Beast, T-shirt ordering and Bogue Chitto trail run on June 15.

    COT – Russo closed us out with a special prayer for Grundy and his soon-to-be new addition to his family.

  • The Roger Rabbit, The Sprinkler, & The Running Man – from Steve

    What do these have in common? They’ll all be featured in a Russo-choreographed dance routine that his daughter will perform as her first “contemporary” solo with her dance company sometime in 2025. That’s right, few knew it before this moment, but Russo is a regular Bob Fosse (minus all the smoking, drinking, and infidelity, of course).

    During the warmorama, we mulled over some of the moves that he had already scratched from his repertoire (Moonwalk, Walk Like and Egyptian – “overused,” “cliche” he says), some that he was on the fence about (Electric Slide, The Snake), and others (The Robot, The Chicken Wing) that he was confident would add texture, but was having trouble working into the routine without making it feel a bit too heavy-handed. Hey, it’s a delicate balance.

    Hearing about all this dancing had me jazzed for our coupon beatdown, a retread of something YHC did solo last week:

    100 Squat Thrusters (25 reps, x4)
    200 Curls (40 reps, x5)
    300 Chest Presses (50 reps, x6)

    In between each set of reps we slalomed the columns (a Russo original, inspired by his love of ski ballet, apparently) over to the stairs for 10x calf raises.

    Another talent you may not know about Russo: he can expound upon the technical brilliance of Mad Max Fury Road and also give me the cliff notes to an epic, 4-hour YouTube review of the Star Wars hotel, all the while keeping the rep count in his head. (This seems to be an F3-honed skill that happens once you hit the 7-8 year mark; though Russo, being mathematically minded as he is, was of course on the fast track.)

    YHC envisions a day when we might combine the previously mentioned dance moves with our 25 lbs coupons. I mean, hell, I already felt like I was lifting up Jennifer Grey as I was doing the squat thrusters today. Could be a whole new era for F3. Or, at the very least, a new category in the lexicon: 80’s Power Pumps. I know I’d be down for the playlist alone.

    COT, and the man himself, Russo, prayed us out. See you gents tomorrow for what we all know will be a punishing beatdown from the tyrants Pickaxe and Chainsaw!

  • How is it not summer yet? – from Russo

    How do I know it’s unofficially summer? Close to 80, crazy humid, not a breeze to be had at 5:15 AM. Oh, and Jose posted which means school is all but wrapped up.

    Pax of 4, with regulars Steve and Chewy rounding out our barbershop quartet. Yes, Chewy moved up to regular status this week in YHC’s opinion. Pax Miner is pleased.

    Warmup (all 10x)
    – seal jacks
    – Self love
    – Good mornings
    – Toe touches
    – grass grabbers
    – Torso twists

    Thang
    Mosey to the bridge, where at every block it was 20 plankjacks and 20 squats merkins.

    At the bridge: 7s (Peter Parker’s 2×1 and Donkey kicks)

    Between:
    – Mosey
    – Carioca
    – Back pedal
    – Lunge walk
    – Skip
    – Mosey again (I forgot we could sprint, high knee, or side shuffle, knowing a bear crawl was out of the question)

    Back at the pad, Mary included some 10x IC core (LMCs, flutters, B2K, Rosalitas, Wife Pleasers, American Hammers) and a column slalom.

    COT, NOR, Announcements, and Prayer closed us out. SYITG

  • Til the Medicine Takes – from Akbar

    Mid day text from Whacker alerted YHC that rain was in the forecast. Even when there is an 80% chance of rain, there is an 80% chance that it won’t rain. Last minute change to the Marsh was necessary. We finished the original workout in 30 minutes, which is the average time it takes a medicine to start working. Good thing YHC has done this before, we filled the time quite nicely – with only 1 moment of thought blockage.

    PAX : Baby Yoda, Duke of Hazard, Buttsplice, The Hammer, Jose10k, Russo, Trucoat, Brexit, Bushwhacker, Grundy, Zoolander, Steve, Akbar

    Warm Up:
    SSH, Grass Grabbers, Arm Circles, Self-love, IW, Hillbillies, Windmills

    Thang:
    Full body 4 ways: with runs and bear crawls in between. And some other stuff made up on the spot – Steve Style.

    Each set included 2 exercises, performed with 4 variations: Cobra style, regular, fast, and a 10 count hold in the middle of said exercise to finish. x10 IC each round

    Round 1: Merkins, Lunges, Bear Crawl to the White mailbox, run to the stop sign and back

    Round 2: Stone Mountain, Freak Nasty, Bear Crawl to the White mailbox, run to the stop sign and back

    Round 3: Pull Ups, Supermans, Bear Crawl on the court, run back.

    Intermission 1: Bear Crawl court again, sprint back.

    Intermission 2: Swerkins (Knee Tuck Merkin with feet on the swing) while partner holds Chill Cut – 3 sets

    Another set, 3 rounds of Freak Nasties and Bulgarian Split Squats x10 IC.

    Sprints on the the basketball court, high knees and run, then 11’s of Crunchy Frogs and Little Manny Crunches. There may have been other things as well.

    Mary – Flutter kicks IC for 1 minute

    Count, Name, and Zoolander prayed us out.

    Announcements
    Atlanta Beastrun in October – still taking sign ups.
    Brexit VQ / Birthday Q next Saturday
    Saturday Q sheet is full through June 22

    Thanks for the opportunity to lead –

    SYITG, Akbar

  • Birds were the word – from Russo

    Not cold this morning after last night’s storm. I was so busy figuring out if I was a better Bob Breck or Margaret Orr last night to set my alarm, so I rolled over onto my phone around 4:53 and hustled out of bed, arriving juuuuuusssst before Pelican and Bird made me an honorary member of the Aviation Krewe (code name: Dodo).

    Warmup – 10x IC
    Seal jacks
    Toe touches
    Arm circles
    SSHs
    Self Love
    Torso twists
    Cherry pickers

    Thang
    Walls of Jericho at the Treen / Training / Trane Center (7 count of seven exercises 7 times around)

    – Crunchy frogs
    – Lunges
    – Star jumps
    – Merkins
    – Monkey humpers
    – Shoulder tap plank jacks
    – Jump squats

    Mary
    7 calf raises then up and down the pilot house (7 times)
    IC 7x LMCs
    IC 7x wife pleasers
    IC 7x Rosalitas
    IC 7x Hello Dollies
    IC 7x Right and Left Leg Bridges
    A slalom of the columns

    COT, Name-o-Rama, and prayer wrapped us up. Fun fact to go: David Treen was Louisiana’s Governor in God’s decade, the 80s, sandwiched between Edwin Edwards 2nd and 3rd terms. Edwards took those four years off to practice holding out his hand for kickbacks and signing casino licenses. At least I think that’s right. I learned it in 8th grade Louisiana History, shout out to Mr. Altobello, Raider pride!

    SYITG

  • Weekday Wild Q!! – from Shooter

    Picking up the Q at Granny’s proved to be Wild in many ways. First off was the continuation of conversations about Madonna from Saturdays beatdown… Which by the way aged YHC, but probably not to the point made about 130 years referencing things I won’t state here.. See Jose10k, we know how to keep it clean on the BB for Granny… Secondly it was Wild to get a Quarter pipe sighting on our journey through Mandeville along with a shoutout good morning to the PAX… I know the question you all are wondering, did he join the PAX? 😬
    Let’s just say we may not have another post from QP until he thinks of another AO to create and handoff to the PAX to run TBD.. 😂
    Third, there is something Wild and eerie about a cyclist cruising the trace in the dark morning hours blasting Beethoven, as he cruises around passing the PAX not once but twice..

    Enough chatter and here’s the details.. Warmup was variation of 10IC GM, Arm circle’s, Superman’s, Scorpion kicks, bridges, self love and Cherry pickers..

    Wackers dice came along for the Wildness on this Gloom and the Wild Q presented itself on multiple occasions. PAX moseyed around stopping at various points to roll the dice.. Jump squats won the day with multiple reps, as well as mixes of Merkins, Donkey kickoffs, some stretch’s, gas pumps, MCs, Peter Parker’s, calf raises, Rock balboa’s, bunny hops, SSHs and some others I probably missed… Returned to Granny’s with a min plank to close.. Announced the BEAST with the same somber responses of consideration with exception to Russo.. Wacker that’s your Q to launch the EH tentacles!!🦑

    Appreciate the post and safe travels to Chewy for his trip to Mexico..🇲🇽

    Until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!