F3 New Orleans

Tag: Russo

  • Nickel and Dimed to Death OR Steve Is a Mean Stupid Face – from Bushwacker

    First off, let’s just take a moment to recognize the Pax that got out there early for the pre-thang – I think there were 7-8 guys? And that’s not counting Jose and JV, who started even earlier to roll at their own pace. AND, an additional t-claps to Jose for not only EH’ing JV, but also for getting out to the Marsh extra early for a pre-pre-thang of 30 minutes of pull-ups.

    And I’d argue we were off to a good start even before that, when in the wee hours of the morning the temperature mercifully dipped down into the mid-60’s. That small fact made all the difference – were it not for those 8-10 degrees, JV (by his own admission) would’ve punched that guy on roller blades in the face. And hasn’t Christian Slater suffered enough these last few years?

    Usual warmorama (can you decode them all?): WM’s, IW’s, GG’s, HB’s, AC’s, SSH’s. And 20 Merkins OYO.

    Split Q today, with YHC (Steve right now), up first. I tried to find the most pricker-filled patch of grass to mosey to for our first set of:

    Nickel and Dimes I:
    5 burpees, 10 hand release merkins, then SSH until next minute – for a total of 5 minutes. (Shout out to Catfish who taught me that one way back when.)

    Many noticed PI’s entrance at this point, but few saw Zoolander’s sly exit.

    Next up: Partner Races (or foot races, if Turtle had been there):
    Line up at the start of Marigny for a sprint down the longest block known to man. Winner does 10 merkins, loser 10 burpees.

    Tank, who positioned himself as the final sprinter, noted that every guy looked good running that block. “If I was passing by and saw those guys, I’d say, ‘Wow, those guys are athletes.’” High praise from the leader of the gazelles.

    Back at the pricker-filled, ant-infested (sorry Bird) patch of grass for:

    Nickel and Dimes: First Blood Part 2
    10 Sister Mary’s (2:1), 5 squats, plank until next minute. 5 minutes.

    And another partner race down Marigny, with winner taking 10 merkins, loser 10 burpees.

    There were plans for Nickel and Dimes III: Nickel and Dimed With A Vengeance, but thankfully Bushwacker had arrived and it was time to cede leadership duties. Even I was hating myself by this point. (Though I’ll point out, quite a few guys still had plenty fuel left in the tank for Wacker – including Russo, who was somehow able to calculate the age of Madonna’s hoo-ha in between Side Straddle Hops [approx. 130 yrs old, if I heard correctly].)

    So without further ado, time to turn the pages of this backblast over to the man himself, the Wacker of Bushes (and here you thought he was the long-winded one!).

    Geez! Chatty Cathy, huh, guys?

    Anyhoo, YHC got a taste of this race business (10 Burpees courtesy of Mr “I’m not really trying hard” Tank), and no thank you sir! Instead, a healthy order of circuit training was on the menu.

    All OYO, plank for the 6:

    50 100s, 40 SSH (single count), 30 Freddy Mercury’s (2is1), 20 Jump Squats, and 10 Burpees. 1 lap around Noah’s Ark and plank for the six. I reckon we made it through 5 or six rounds, with the final lap continuing to the flag.

    COT

    Count, Name, Steve prayed us out. Guys, I don’t know why you put up with Steve and his shenanigans, but I know he appreciates the allowance of said pied piper status. On a much more humble note, I appreciate this brotherhood and the ability to contribute in any small way to its lively and fulfilling existence.

  • Nickel and Dimed to Death OR Steve Is a Mean Stupid Face – from Bushwacker

    First off, let’s just take a moment to recognize the Pax that got out there early for the pre-thang – I think there were 7-8 guys? And that’s not counting Jose and JV, who started even earlier to roll at their own pace. AND, an additional t-claps to Jose for not only EH’ing JV, but also for getting out to the Marsh extra early for a pre-pre-thang of 30 minutes of pull-ups.

    And I’d argue we were off to a good start even before that, when in the wee hours of the morning the temperature mercifully dipped down into the mid-60’s. That small fact made all the difference – were it not for those 8-10 degrees, JV (by his own admission) would’ve punched that guy on roller blades in the face. And hasn’t Christian Slater suffered enough these last few years?

    Usual warmorama (can you decode them all?): WM’s, IW’s, GG’s, HB’s, AC’s, SSH’s. And 20 Merkins OYO.

    Split Q today, with YHC (Steve right now), up first. I tried to find the most pricker-filled patch of grass to mosey to for our first set of:

    Nickel and Dimes I:
    5 burpees, 10 hand release merkins, then SSH until next minute – for a total of 5 minutes. (Shout out to Catfish who taught me that one way back when.)

    Many noticed PI’s entrance at this point, but few saw Zoolander’s sly exit.

    Next up: Partner Races (or foot races, if Turtle had been there):
    Line up at the start of Marigny for a sprint down the longest block known to man. Winner does 10 merkins, loser 10 burpees.

    Tank, who positioned himself as the final sprinter, noted that every guy looked good running that block. “If I was passing by and saw those guys, I’d say, ‘Wow, those guys are athletes.’” High praise from the leader of the gazelles.

    Back at the pricker-filled, ant-infested (sorry Bird) patch of grass for:

    Nickel and Dimes: First Blood Part 2
    10 Sister Mary’s (2:1), 5 squats, plank until next minute. 5 minutes.

    And another partner race down Marigny, with winner taking 10 merkins, loser 10 burpees.

    There were plans for Nickel and Dimes III: Nickel and Dimed With A Vengeance, but thankfully Bushwacker had arrived and it was time to cede leadership duties. Even I was hating myself by this point. (Though I’ll point out, quite a few guys still had plenty fuel left in the tank for Wacker – including Russo, who was somehow able to calculate the age of Madonna’s hoo-ha in between Side Straddle Hops [approx. 130 yrs old, if I heard correctly].)

    So without further ado, time to turn the pages of this backblast over to the man himself, the Wacker of Bushes (and here you thought he was the long-winded one!).

    Geez! Chatty Cathy, huh, guys?

    Anyhoo, YHC got a taste of this race business (10 Burpees courtesy of Mr “I’m not really trying hard” Tank), and no thank you sir! Instead, a healthy order of circuit training was on the menu.

    All OYO, plank for the 6:

    50 100s, 40 SSH (single count), 30 Freddy Mercury’s (2is1), 20 Jump Squats, and 10 Burpees. 1 lap around Noah’s Ark and plank for the six. I reckon we made it through 5 or six rounds, with the final lap continuing to the flag.

    COT

    Count, Name, Steve prayed us out. Guys, I don’t know why you put up with Steve and his shenanigans, but I know he appreciates the allowance of said pied piper status. On a much more humble note, I appreciate this brotherhood and the ability to contribute in any small way to its lively and fulfilling existence.

  • Birfday Cake – from Russo

    73 degrees, San Diego, no wind to speak so a very humid morning. Conversation this morning centered around soft hands, melting servers, pregnant coworkers, and single vs. double ports.

    Warmup (10x, all IC)

    -Toe touches
    -Self love
    -Arm circles
    -Grass grabbers
    -Air presses
    -Imperial walkers

    Thang: somewhat inspired by our conversation on how many different exercises we do, YHC took the opportunity for a reminder of just that with a cakewalk around the Pad. It wasn’t my birthday, but it was for Fred Astaire, Bono, and John Wilkes Booth, so we moseyed around singing Elevation (in the rain) while we plotted to do horrible things to our least favorite Lincoln (YHC’s was Riley, head coach of LSU’s next football opponent.)

    The cakewalk order:

    45 Seal jacks
    44 High knees (2 is 1)
    43 SSHs
    42 Plank Jacks
    41 goof balls
    40 squats to a
    39 Hello Dollies
    38 Calf raises
    37 Apollo ohnos
    36 Freak Nastys
    35 step ups
    34 flutter kicks
    33 butt kicks IC
    32 Peter Parker’s
    31 imperial walkers
    30 Shoulder taps
    29 American hammers
    28 Monkey Humpers
    27 Merkins
    26 Smurf jacks
    25 wife pleasers
    24 Rosalitas
    23 crab jacks (crab position – think reverse plank jacks)
    22 groiners
    21 Bear crawls (counting your right hand as a rep)
    20 murder bunnies
    19 Wide merkins
    18 slow squats
    17 crab cakes
    16 circle ups
    15 Urkins
    14 Durkins
    13 Sister Mary Catherine’s
    12 LMCs IC
    11 diamond merkins
    10 star jumps
    9 donkey kicks
    8 arm circles (should have been 8 count body builders but we were running short on time)
    7 merkins (the first repeat, will need to change that up for the real one)
    6 Box cutters IC
    5 Carolina dry docks
    4 Wife pleasers (the second repeat)
    3 jump squats
    2 burpees
    1 minute plank

    COT, name-o-rama, announcements, and prayer closed us out. Steve and Bushwacker have Q tomorrow, there’s a Beast to be unleashed on October 19th, and life is good.

    SYITG

  • Brevity is…. Wit – The Simpsons – from Steve

    If yesterday’s rambling, stream-of-conscious BB was in the vein of Donald Miller, today we’re shooting for Raymond Carver (or Chewy):

    It was dark and humid and there were merkins.*

    Tunnel, backpedal, more merkins.

    Selling books, AI refrigerators, termite swarms, the lost AO of Abita Springs.

    And. More. Merkins.

    Jane Fondas back at the flag, Russo closed us out.

    *Carver’s famous editor would’ve scratched out every line but the first one. I just can’t bring myself to be such a purist.

  • These Hands, They Look Like Good, Strong Hands (or: Are You Happy To See Me, Or Is That a Buck Moth In Your Pants?) – from Steve

    [*Again, a situation where YHC could use a GIF (hard g, soft g, doesn’t matter), for those who didn’t grow up with a luck dragon named Falkor, being chased through the swamps by The Nothing and a bad tempered, green-eyed wolf. And as for the buck moth in your pants, well, that’s not something we’re going to delve into here… file that as one of those had-to-be-there moments.]

    So. A fairly big (six!) crowd at the Pad this humid morning – and, incredibly, Bushwacker somehow simultaneously posted to both the Splashed and the A1C. He and his clone are working overtime this month to blow the lid off those Pax Miner charts.

    But – before Bush’s clone rolled in with a buck moth in his pants, and before any of the other guys rolled in – it was just Russo and some young woman with a knee brace knocking around a soccer ball. She kept suspiciously re-parking her car in various spots around the trailhead – maybe looking for some privacy? Unfortunately for her, on this particular day we happened to be bear crawling all around the trailhead, which proved slightly awkward when every now and then we’d turn a corner and catch a glimpse of her coming out of a thicket of bamboo with her ball. It was very bizarre, though I’m guessing she thought the same – seeing six men crawling up the corridor and down the street.

    And that, obviously, was the main order of the day – bear crawling. We started on the eastern-most end of the corridor, crawling the long straightaway first before stopping for:

    10x merkins
    10x slow squats
    10x Apollo ohno’s (2 is 1)
    10x star jumps

    More crawling, this time to the stage, and again the same 4 exercises. Then to the west end of the corridor, and yeah, you get the idea. We eventually found ourselves at the bus depot for the usual leg business:

    Step ups, freak nasties, step downs, freak nasties, Bulgarians, freak nasties, jump overs, freak nasties – all x12 IC.

    Bear crawling our way back to the start, we swapped out the initial 4 “rest” exercises for:

    10x big boy situps
    10x crunchy frogs
    10x american hammers (2 is 1)
    10x 100’s (4 is 1)

    This is when things started to get a little dicey and when YHC realized just how soft I’ve gotten lately – quite literally. I guess wearing gloves the last few years has made me a baby because my hands have been jacked up since that beatdown. I don’t know if it was the loose gravel or what, but I’ve got blisters all over them. And the big boys would’ve likely have added a flayed coccyx to the list of injuries (hmm, that does not sound right), but most of us wisely took to the grass for those.

    COT and Pelican prayed us out. Thank you gents for the camaraderie, the push, and the opportunity to get out there and get stronger alongside you. I appreciate you guys.

  • Tabatta Tuesday – from Chewy

    Tabata Tuesday
    Seven PAX met up last Tuesday at the Mandeville Trail head for a Tabata Tuesday workout. Exercises included jump rope, agility ladder, side, straddle hops, mountain climber, lunges, and a flight of steps.

  • Chewdoku – from Russo

    Upper 60s this morning at the Pad, where a Pax of three took to the streets (which were surprisingly busy with traffic).

    Pelican was in his normal Friday position, but we were met with a returning Quarterpipe (sans Halloween alien costume) that was a welcome addition. YHC and Pelican had already started in on political discourse by the time QP joined, so we had to apologize in advance for starting off hot.

    Warmup (all 10x)
    – Sealjacks
    – High knees
    – Arm circles
    – Cherry pickers
    – Grass grabbers
    – Toe touches
    – self love
    – Torso twists

    Thang
    Mosey around Old Mandeville, stopping at corners for what I called the Escalator – 7 exercises, varying rep counts from 7 to 1. Next round, what was 6 reps becomes 7, 5 becomes 6, rinse and repeat to where 7 becomes one.

    If you looked at the screenshot of the Excel schedule I used to compile (the printer was doing printer things so no hard copy) it, you’d see why it’s an escalator. Or, as Pelican noted, “more like a conveyor belt”. Chewy had the best response to my explanation at one point, dead panning “So….Soduku?” So from now on, it will be entitled Chew-doku.

    Once we hit the lake, it was 10 freak nasties, BSSs, and box jumps just to say we did.

    Back at home, COT and all that entails closed us out. Thank you gentlemen for joining, Steve I hope you feel better soon, remember there is the annual Zoo-rich classic tomorrow, and SYITG!

  • Solving the Fitness Function – from Steve

    Long before he was counting cards in the Deck of Death, before he was hosting Cinco de Mayo or Pi Day numeric-themed beatdowns, and way back before we all knew him as the only man who could’ve filled Jose’s sweat bucket more quickly than Jose himself, there was a young Russo who competed at the highest levels of high school academia as… that’s right, a Mathlete. YHC got to hear Russo’s origin story, that rare formative experience that, dare I say, altered something in his brain, changing the trajectory of his life and sending him on his destined path as the greatest mathematical mind of the Northshore F3 Pax. (Ok, Grundy may want to challenge you there, Russo….especially if an award is being handed out.)

    Anyway, that story and others were told as Russo and YHC did a Tabata-style Block Party, 45 seconds on, 15 seconds rest. This was another interesting experiment in time dilation (the first being Chewy’s 8-year anniversary beatdown which, with its three exercises repeated ad nauseam, somehow felt longer than last year’s 12 hour anniversary beatdown). Here, the clock slowed to a crawl for the 45 seconds of work, and then miraculously went into overdrive for the 15 seconds of rest. We did 4-45 second sets of each of the following exercises (with a trip up the stairs between):

    – Curls
    – Squat Thrusters
    – Flutter Kicks (holding block up)
    – Goblet Squats
    – Bent over rows
    – Chest Presses

    COT with Russo praying us out. Thanks Russo for the post and the opportunity to lead!

  • Solving the Fitness Function – from Steve

    Long before he was counting cards in the Deck of Death, before he was hosting Cinco de Mayo or Pi Day numeric-themed beatdowns, and way back before we all knew him as the only man who could’ve filled Jose’s sweat bucket more quickly than Jose himself, there was a young Russo who competed at the highest levels of high school academia as… that’s right, a Mathlete. YHC got to hear Russo’s origin story, that rare formative experience that, dare I say, altered something in his brain, changing the trajectory of his life and sending him on his destined path as the greatest mathematical mind of the Northshore F3 Pax. (Ok, Grundy may want to challenge you there, Russo….especially if an award is being handed out.)

    Anyway, that story and others were told as Russo and YHC did a Tabata-style Block Party, 45 seconds on, 15 seconds rest. This was another interesting experiment in time dilation (the first being Chewy’s 8-year anniversary beatdown which, with its three exercises repeated ad nauseam, somehow felt longer than last year’s 12 hour anniversary beatdown). Here, the clock slowed to a crawl for the 45 seconds of work, and then miraculously went into overdrive for the 15 seconds of rest. We did 4-45 second sets of each of the following exercises (with a trip up the stairs between):

    – Curls
    – Squat Thrusters
    – Flutter Kicks (holding block up)
    – Goblet Squats
    – Bent over rows
    – Chest Presses

    COT with Russo praying us out. Thanks Russo for the post and the opportunity to lead!

  • Four Corners of The Apocalypse – from Steve

    Well, I’d hardly call it an “apocalyptic” beatdown. Nor was it truly a “four corners” (more like 6). But hey, sometimes you need a title just to get these things off the ground.

    Marsh-style beatdown on this humid Tuesday (delayed bb here, so this was before out little cool front), moseying to the lake with a stop at each intersection for 15x merkins, 15x lunges, 15x flutter kicks IC. You know you’re firmly middle-aged when conversations yo-yo between healthcare costs and the financial viability of art galleries with wine bars. Other, more fun topics were surely mused over, but hey, YHC is 45 – I can’t remember what happened a week and a half ago.

    Once at the lake, we headed to the Rip’s staircase for calf raises x5 each step. Chewy, Russo, and YHC were there for (and very likely contributed to) the demise of the previous set of stairs at Rips, so it’s good to see that these fairly new ones are still holding up. Then it was over to the wall for some step ups, freaks, step downs, freaks, Bulgarians, freaks, all x12 IC. And back to Rip’s for more calf raises.

    With time closing in, we headed back, this time foregoing the merkins and lunges at each intersection, but stopping once at the midway point and knocking out the flutter kicks all in one go. Once back, COT, nameorama, and Chewy prayed us out. Thank you gents for the camaraderie, and for posting regularly – it pushes me to do the same.