F3 New Orleans

Tag: Steve

  • Audible at the Scramble

    YHC decided to change up the routine slightly at the Scramble in the Gloom. Each Pax had to complete 50 merkins, burpees, and squats during the course of the 5K. It was good to see Mathlete make a surprise appearance, even though he said he wont be coming back when he learned the Scramble was our running AO.

    It was good to share the streets of Old Mandeville with you, men! As always, it was my privilege to lead you guys this morning. Y’all push me to become a better man every time I am with you.

    Thanks to Steve for praying us out.

  • 1 Mile Time Trial #2

    12 strong showed up for the 2nd running of the 1 mile time trial.

    We started off with some light active stretching:

    15 X SSH

    15 X Mountain Climbers

    15 Leg Swings, L&R and Forward/ Back

    15 X 4 corner hops

    Skips down the parking lot

    1 mile warm up

    The mile course I plotted started at Causeway Approach heading south with ONE left turn (heading east) on Villere St. and finishing just before Coffee St.

    Ringo was on bike with a flash light and stopwatch to guide us.

    Finish times were:

    Cowbell 6:03

    Steve 6:13

    Turbo 6:13

    Waterpik 6:13

    The Hammer 6:33

    Bird 6:40

    Pixie Stix 7:13

    Shooter 7:37

    Pelican 7:43

    Russo 9:14

    Bushwacker DNF

    The Pax did a 1 mile recovery mosey as a pack back to the flag.

    We had a few minutes to spare so YHC led some light static stretching and 15 X Crunchy Frogs.

    Sealed the deal with 5 Burpees OYO.

    Thanks for coming out and testing yourself this gloom.

    Targeting March 2021 for the 3rd running!

    Thanks for letting me lead.

    Cowbell

  • The Milestone Marsh

    Cool temperatures greeted the PAX in the gloom at the Milestone Marsh. After a long, hot summer, the drop in temperature offers a nice respite for the hard-charging men of F3 Northshore. Even Shooter would have sweat less if he was out there today.

    YHC led the PAX straight into the fray by Warming up with Sets of Tabata w/ increasing levels of difficulty

    Tabata Sets: (30 secs w/ 30 secs rest)

    SSHs, Arm Circles, Squats, Imperial Walkers. Then some ball buster sets: merkins, burpees, bobby hurley’s, crunchy frogs, plank jacks, mountain climbers.

    Mosey to Lakefront, stopping at each intersection:

    more exercises…jump squats, flutter kicks, hello dollies, J- Lo’s, Leg raises, more of Cowbell’s Crunchy Frogs, more merkins, more burpees.

    At the Lakefront, the PAX hit the seawall for some boxjumps and freak nasties.

    Mosey back to Marsh.

    Thanks to Grover for praying us out!

  • No Burpees Were Performed At This Beatdown

    YHC issued a GroupMe message last night in an attempt to lure a few more bodies over to The A1C: no gloves required. That’s right, no coupons. No bear crawls. Hell, I’d even drop burpees from the menu! (This, of course, was more of a technicality, as you’ll see below.) Unfortunately, the bait didn’t quite work. Maybe everyone’s resting in preparation for the Butt Splice beatdown tomorrow (which is probably wise).

    One of the things I’ve enjoyed about The A1C is the traveling jukebox that accompanies the pax to each station. When YHC showed up early, Jose had the tunes blaring, and was running all-out sprints. We’re talking Cowbell/In Time speeds here. The man was moving. I had planned to join him on a light jog, but when he barreled past I was having second thoughts. Luckily, 10k slowed it down for me and soon after, Akbar and BBQ pulled in so we began.

    Warmorama: Self love, arm circles, air presses, SSH’s, slow squats, IW’s, windmills, seal jacks, all IC at or around 15x.

    Thang: First up, a trip to the back of the courtyard for a partner routine. P1 grabs a bench and does 2x irkins, walks hands down to ground, 2x merkins, walks back up and repeats until P2 relieves him. P2, meanwhile, bunny hops down the corridor and up the stairs, does 15x smurf jacks and runs back. Flapjack.

    Continued this idea with P1 switching to horizontal squats (x5, feet on bench) followed by shoulder taps (x5, feet still on bench), repeated until P2 returns from lunging corridor and doing 15x star jumps at top of stairs. Final one was irkins then flip over for freak nasties repeated, with P2 bunny hopping and doing 15x Sister Mary’s up top.

    Once completed, we headed back to the parking garage for a series of deconstructed burpees: 12x squats, 12x merkins, 12x groiners, 12x jump squats. Run the ramp up to the top, then perform the same series, decreasing by x2. Back down and up the ramp until we reached 2x everything. Unfortunately we lost Jose (and thus our traveling jukebox) around this time, but the pax powered through the final minutes.

    Circle up for a COP: plank and chat about Akbar’s relentless set of interviews, mountain climbers IC x20, rotate circle clockwise, plank a bit more, right arm high, left arm high, plank jacks IC x20, rotate circle counter-clockwise, plank a bit more, then knock out 10x merkins on your own.

    It was safe to do a quick set of sprints now that Jose had left (mixed in with some Peter Parkers and shoulder taps), before finally settling down for some scorpion kicks followed by Mary: heel pulses, leg raises, LBC’s, and hello Dolly’s, x12 IC.

    COT with BBQ praying us out. Thank you men for the opportunity to lead, for posting early on a Friday morning and pushing me to get better, and thanks to Jose for taking the initiative to get this Friday beatdown going. What better way to kick off a Friday than with you guys?

  • Main Event Was Not a Work Out

    Yes, you guessed it! The main event surrounded Jose’s pride and joy–his sweat jug! You remember… the one that some of his teacher friends reportedly spotted in the back seat of his car during a recent, quick trip for lunch. Mickey D’s, anyone? Just imagine the ‘splainin that must have taken place on that ride. Oh, to have been a fly on the windshield that day. To the amazement of the Northshore PAX, Jose 10k, in typical F3 fashion, rose to the, ahem, “challenge” and filled his sweat jug in a measley 16 DAYS! I’m sure in Zoo’s wildest dreams he did not figure he’d be getting doused on the Lakefront on September 12th. If I were a betting man, Halloween would be where I placed my moolah. And I’d imagine that’s what Zoo was counting on, too. But, not Jose. He “squeezed” in about 4 T-shirts a day! Let’s count em. 1) The beatdown in the gloom. 57 straight, but who’s counting? 2) ISI 3) mowing the lawn (everyday???) 4) moving Goose out of his house (lagniappe). 5) Who knows what else? It’s Jose. The man never stops!

    So there we were. Zoolander. Jose 10k. The entire F3 Northshore PAX. And the Smelly Bucket of Sweat with that BROWN STUFF at the bottom. Does anyone know what that stuff was? I was afraid to ask. Anyway, back to the moment. It was time for Jose to do the honors. And that he did, launching the Lowe’s bucket full of brown, rancid, baked / aged sweat at Zoolander, blasting him squarely in the chest. Zoo, then did the best thing he could to quickly cleanse the body, jumped in the Lake. But, hey, I give Zoolander credit; he took it like a man. The anticipation was palpable, Jose was giddy, and Zoo, a man of his word, was brave. And the PAX? We were nauseated, looking at the rife liquid in the bucket. The Hammer said he turned around so he didn’t barf. And poor Zoo, I don’t think he would have ever heard the end of it if he tried to get out of it. So T-Claps to him, for coming up with the challenge and taking it like and man, and to Jose, for filling the bucket so quickly, so we all could get a good laugh.

    Did I mention there were 2 beatdowns today?

    Well, there was, and the toughest one is part of a nationwide F3 challenge sponsored by F3 Greenwood, South Carolina. It’s called the Iron Pax Challenge, and it’s not for the faint of heart. After a brief warmup of Seal Jacks, Arm Circles, Cherry Pickers, Mountain Climbers, and Imperial Walkers, Steve led the Iron Paxers to the west on the Lakefront for a grueling 43 minute circuit beatdown, where the PAX moves from one station to the next, carrying a cinder block coupon, doing exercises along the way try in AMRAP fashion.

    Of course, it should come as no surprise that the Iron PAXers acquitted themselves admirably with the following rep counts:

    TankedUp – 651

    The Hammer – 545

    Butt Splice – 528

    Zoolander – 490

    Jose 10k – 486

    Toto – 450

    T-Claps to all PAX willing to endure Iron PAX. It definitely is a DOWNPAINMENT!

    Meanwhile, YHC led the rest of the PAX Eastward for a series of Tabata sets. Clock set for 30 second sets, with 30 secs of rest between. Exercises were merkins, plank Jacks, jump squats, smurf jacks, flutter kicks, Apollo Ono’s, monkey humpers, and leg raises.

    Mosey to playground equipment at East end of Lakefront for 4 rounds of the following exercise:

    19 Merkins (commemoration of 19 yr anny of 9-11-01)

    Bear Crawl 20 yards

    Pop up and Run around perimeter of entire fence at east end of lakefront, back to starting line.

    Rinse and Repeat 4 times.

    Mosey back to Flag.

    Thanks for the entertainment today, Zoolander and Jose 10k! We enjoyed it!

    Prayers for our nation and for those families affected by the 9-11 Terrorist Attacks. May we always REMEMBER. STAY VIGILANT. STAY STRONG

    Thanks for following my lead today, guys.

    COT and thanks to Russo for praying us out!

  • Jose’s Pride and Joy

    Yep, you guessed it! It’s his sweat jug! (Zoo is starting to get nervous, folks). It’s not that he has his very own AO, the prized, smartly named, A1C (reminds me of Vanilla Ice). Nor is it his nickname, which he re-branded himself from Jose Mourinho to Jose 10k, more recently to Grumble Grumble (and who knows what else).

    We came here to exercise didnt we, Pik? Oh, yeah, here we go…

    YHC broke out and old standby today at the A1C, the Tabata workout. Every 30 seconds, the PAX did an AMRAP exercise with 30 seconds of rest in between. The exercises were: big boy sit-ups, merkins, derkins, flutter kicks, Hello dollies, more merkins, jump squats, bobby hurleys, apollo ohnos, leg raises, stone mountains.

    Thanks for hard work this gloom my brothers! Until next time, SYITG

    Pik

  • Farewell Q

    It is with great sadness and much gratitude that I write my last backblast as a regular member of the Northshore F3 family. (I trust you’ll forgive the length!) As I shared with the men this morning, F3 has been an overwhelming answer to prayer, and as Bushwacker reminded me, it’s the individuals involved who truly make it what it is, so huge thanks for all of you guys allowing me to participate. More on this toward the end.

    This morning’s beatdown was meant to be a quick rundown of a few of the life lessons that F3 has confirmed for me in very concrete ways. The first, of course, being the necessity of a good warm up when you know you’re about to get your rear end kicked:

    Warmup: IC Windmills, IW’s, Cherry Pickers, High Knees, Butt Kicks followed by the first exercise listed on the Exicon (Shooter aced the pop-quiz, like I knew he would!):

    21’s–21 side straddle hops in cadence, but only the first 5 are counted out loud with an expectation that all PAX count the rest silently and end in perfect sync after the 21st. 10 burpees and start over if anyone is anything but perfect.

    Life Lesson #1: Togetherness is more about what’s in your head than it is about the people you’re with. (I may or may not have just made that up, but I think it’s got some staying power.)

    After one penalty set of burpees and a second round of SSH, YHC decided to modify for the sake of time and get moseying to the rock garden for Colt 45’s and Bolt 45’s.

    Colt 45’s = 15 curls from halfway down to all the way up, 15 curls all the way down to halfway up, and 15 curls from all the way down to all the way up.

    Bolt 45’s = same as above, but with squats (and rocks)

    Life Lesson #2: Don’t let your ego determine the size of your rock, especially if you don’t know what’s coming. But no matter how heavy or what the task ends up being, carry the weight you’ve got with courage. Own it!

    After “gently” replacing our rocks, we moseyed to the courthouse steps for some partner work:

    Partner 1 ran up (and down) the stairs using the following pattern: 2 up, 1 down, 3 up, 2 down, 4 up, 3 down, etc. until the top was tediously reached, then ran back down to Partner 2 who did continuous flutter kicks (round 1), Freddy Merc’s (round 2) and LBC’s (round 3) while waiting. In lieu of Jose’s math teaching prowess, Whacker provided tutoring for those who struggled.

    Life Lesson #3: Real progress is usually gradual and hard earned, so be patient, stay focused, and fight discouragement.

    This, followed by a mosey to the top ramp of the parking garage for more partner work:

    Partner 1 holds plank while Partner 2 sprints up the ramp, around to the opposite stairs, down, and back to Partner 1. His job is to get there in enough time for his partner to have held his plank without modifying; if his partner modifies, the sprinter has to do 5 burpees, so the planker’s job is to hold his position for the sake of his partner.

    Life Lesson #4: We are naturally more willing to endure pain and push harder for other people than we are for ourselves, we just need to tap into that power. F3 seems to exists for this reason!

    After two rounds of losing our breath (and eventually losing Bushwhacker to the irresistible call of nature), we moseyed back to the courthouse stairs for an exercise YHC forgot: three rounds of crab walking both up and down the courthouse stairs

    Life Lesson #5: Some things are easier for tall people. (Truth be told, pretty much every other F3 exercise seems to favor the smaller guys. It was nice to finally have an advantage over Cowbell.)

    After this we moseyed back to the flag for the last exercise/lesson:

    Followed the directions given in the song Flower by Moby (“Bring Sally up, bring Sally down…”) with squats, up and down with the words “up” and “down”. Thank you’s to Cowbell, Steve, and Amnesia for modifying with merkins and mission impossible planks to save their legs for the big race tomorrow–you guys made our leg pain seem relatively minimal in comparison.

    Life Lesson #6: Pain is temporary, though the worse it is, the more we tend to fear that it will last forever.

    COT and YHC prayed us out.

    Thanks, gentlemen, for following my lead today, and for an awesome year of comradery, creativity, and the best reason to get up early and sweat that I’ve had since college. Special thanks to Maverick who got me out there, the men who reached out to me during those first few beatdowns to make sure I felt like I was part of the team, the guys who hung back so often with me and kept up conversation to get my mind off my lack of oxygen, the men who were willing to share their lives with me during the longer runs, for the guys who continually witness to the truth that the men we’re exercising with are more important than the exercises we’re doing, and to the men who continue to push beyond their comfort zone so the rest of us can follow.

    It breaks my heart to leave what has become such a central part of my (and Pope’s) life, and though I’ll be working to get F3 started in the Thibodaux/Houma region, it won’t be with you guys, so know that you’re deeply appreciated, and you’ll be greatly missed. I know that God has great things in store for my family and I down there, and I’m sure there are a lot of guys who will greatly benefit from F3, so please keep us in prayer for the transition, and that we’ll remain open to all that God has in store for us, both the blessings and the trials. You’ll certainly be in mine.

    SYITG,

    Goose

  • Sayonara Fujiwhara

    Granny’s House was supposed to be a wash out this morning.  70% when I checked last night.  And as much as YHC appreciates a good wet beatdown, after the Marsh’s Week Zero IPC beatdown yesterday, it seemed like maybe some shelter was in order.

    Of course, there was no rain. But we remained sheltered regardless!

    Warmorama: Good mornings, windmills, torso twists, seal jacks, IWs, and SSHs.

    Thang:

    Starting at the trailhead stairs, we’d bear crawl to every 4th column in the corridor and then perform an exercise.  (The guys were probably dismayed to discover these columns just kept going and going…) 

    Exercises were:

    • 60 Squats
    • 50 LBC’s
    • 40 Merkins
    • 30 Flutter Kicks IC
    • 20 Donkey Kicks
    • 10 Burpees

    And then, of course, head back to the start:

    • 60 Dollies
    • 50 Scorpion Kicks
    • 40 Staggered Merks (20 ea. side)
    • 30 Jump Squats
    • 20 Groiners

    What, no 10 burpees? Well…

    Coconuts was on the brain after talking about him at coffee Monday, so I thought we should bring back one Coconut classics, The Dab:

    10 burpees EMOM for 5 minutes, followed by a 300 yard run.  Rinse and repeat! (This seemed brutal, but then I just kept thinking about the time that Maverick began a beatdown with 100 straight burpees.)

    Normally YHC would search for a GIF to insert here and make the Coconuts tribute complete, but I gotta get to bed for Goose’s final Q tomorrow.

    Mary: Dying cockroaches, leg raises, Freddie Mercs, Rosalitas, something else? 

    Countdown, nameorama, Chewy prayed us out, and Jose filled the sweat jug.  Thank you guys for the push this morning, it was one of those mornings that I really was not feeling, I definitely needed you men out there to get ‘er done! 👊

  • Audibles at Granny’s (I’m not a Professional)

    As YHC pulled up to Granny’s, there was an unusually large group of F3 men ready to start the day off right. With the incessant soreness from Cowbell’s ISI pull-up challenge and Bushwacker’s consistent weekly prodding for some yoga infused workouts, we got started with some power flow, sun salutation, warrior 1, 2, 3, 4, half moon, whatever, whatever…I’m not a professional!

    Mosey to the bus stop. Not a lot of mumble chatter here, and Cowbell even kept his shirt on.

    – Bulgarian split squats (IC),

    – Box Jumps (OYO)

    – Burpee Box Jumps (OYO)

    – Irkins (IC)

    – Dirkins (IC)

    – Freak Nasties (IC)

    – Balls to the Wall Burpees aka Decline Burpees (Durpees?) OYO.

    Mosey to the tunnel, where, according to Jose, nothing good ever happens (including QIC’s cadence counting).

    – Top of the tunnel – 10 Jump Squats IC

    – ½ way down the incline – Merkins, I think

    – ½ way through the tunnel – 12 count body building, mounting climbing, shoulder tapping, squat jumping, burpees (IC). QIC was just calling audibles at this point. I’m not a professional!

    – Sprint to the top of the tunnel for some cool down Imperial Walkers

    – ½ way down the incline – hand rail dirkins, I think

    – ½ way through the tunnel – We did something. It’s a blur after the earlier 12 counts.

    – ½ way up the incline – slow Peter Parker/Parker Peter (there’s a yoga term for this, I’m sure…Bird said we were “flying”…I guess that’s what birds do.)

    – Top of the tunnel – 20 Sister Mary Katherines

    Mosey back to the trailhead, bunny hop up the stairs and reconvene at the shovel flags. Jose, did you notice we had two this morning?

    Closed out with Cowbell Crunchy Frogs and Goose-led Nolan Ryan’s.

    QIC prayed us out into the day. Thanks for posting in numbers today and following my lead, men. SYITG.

  • ROOTS

    Over the past 6 months since since the quarantine, there have been many different routes / variations / themes (speedy’s sprints come to mind) taken for the weekly F3 5K. Today, YHC decided to take the 5k Scramble back to it’s roots, which is around the loop, then all the way to the end of the pier at Sunset Point. Back at the flag, we hit the workout equipment for 10 minutes of circuit training (bear crawls, freak nasties, hanging leg tucks).

    COT and thanks to Akbar for praying us out!

    SYITG

    Pik