F3 New Orleans

Tag: Steve

  • 1 Mile Time Trial

    Writing this in a hurry, so i’ll keep it short and sweet.

    9 pax gathered this beautiful gloom for the first 1 mile time trail. YHC has had this on his mind for a long time to set a baseline for himself as well as the rest of the pax.

    We started with some running stretches, including Jose’s favorite high jump skips. The PAX then did an easy 1ish mile run to the starting line on Carondelet and Jefferson. Bushwacker immediately took off on his mile like a bat out of hell, he sorta looked like Eliud Kipchoge, right Akbar!?! While the rest of the pax took a breather and listened to the Q for the countdown..

    We took off and ran 1 mile down Jefferson St and finished at the corner of Lamarque.

    Finishing times were as follows:

    Steve 5:53

    Cowbell 5:53

    Waterpik 6:00

    Bushwacker 6:36

    Goose 6:55

    Speedy 7:30

    Akbar 7:50

    PixieStix 9:00

    Jose 10k 9:30

    We finished with an easy 2ish mile run back to the AO.

    Jose prayed us out.

    Looking forward to seeing the progress the pax makes at the next time trial.

    As always, thanks for letting me lead!!

    Cowbell

  • All Aboard! Hahahaha – 1 Yr Anniversary

    At this time last year, I showed up to my first lakefront beatdown (thanks Russo), and almost didn’t come back. I was a gym rat, couldn’t run a mile, ate like crap, and hovered around 190. But I was intrigued by the companionship of the PAX that day, the leadership focus, how no man was left behind, and pressed on. I attended Saturdays through September, then cancelled my gym membership, and went all in averaging 4 days a week, including the scramble (thanks Shooter). Since then, I’ve lost 25 pounds, done CSAUPS and F2 events, and ran 80 miles last Feb during Run Ranger Run. My only regret is that I didn’t find this earlier.

    PAIN TRAIN

    26 posted (6 under 17) at the mothership Saturday to help celebrate YHC’s 1 year anniversary, and take a ride on the Pain Train. We traveled from the flag to the shaft, stopping at 8 pain stations along the way, accompanied by motivational tunes. *I understand that most songs could not be heard, songs are listed after each station

    Pre-Thang: 2 miler

    Warmorama:  Arm Circles, SSH, Torso Twist, Self-Love, Hillbillies x10 IC

    THANG:  All About the Benjamins – Everything equals 100 reps.

    • Exercise 1: 25 reps at the wall
    • Travel in various ways 55 feet to the flags
    • Exercise 2: 25 reps, run back to the wall Rinse and repeat
    • Total of 50 reps of each exercise
    • All exercises done OYO, plank for the six

    Pain Station’s 1 and 2

    1. Freak Nasty, Bear Crawl, Mountain Climbers
    2. Run, repeat
    3. Dirkins, Flying Nun (Lunge with arm circles), Twinkle Toes (Al Gore calf raises)
    4. Run, Repeat
    • It’s All About the Benjamin’s,  P.Diddy et all
    • C’Mon ‘N’ Ride it (The Train), Quad City DJ’s
    • Crazy Train, Ozzy Osbourne
    • Breathe, The Prodigy
    • Song 2, Blur

    Pain Station 3: Let the Good Times Roll

    Burpees on Good Times Roll, air presses in between.

    • Let the Good Times Roll, The Cars

    Pain Station’s 4 and 5:

    1. Bulgarian Split Squats, Army Crawl, Superman’s
    2. Run, repeat
    3. Stone Mountain, Crawl Bear, Renegade Row (1 arm plank, 1 arm row)
    4. Run, repeat
    • The Kill, Thirty Seconds to Mars
    • Firestarter, The Prodigy
    • Fly from the Inside, Shinedown

    Pain Station 6: The SSH Motivator

    IC 10 full SSH, Shoulder level, down and out, then hands at sides, then 9 each, then 8, etc. non-stop

    • ‘Till I Collapse, Eminem & Nate Dogg
    • Gonna Fly Now, Bill Conti (Rocky Theme Song)

    Seemed easy enough, but what ensued was a painful comedy of errors. YHC had a tough time conveying and keeping the order of positions, which kept us out of synch just a tad. To curious onlookers it must have looked like a bunch of birds trying to take flight.

    After a while it seemed it would never end, why was it taking so long, why do I feel like I’m about to collapse? I kept my gaze at Bushwacker (who brought us The Motivator), seeking some rescue by mental telepathy – but all I got was a big smile.

    Legend has it the Arnold Schwarzenegger and his buddies would go camping and do squats until they couldn’t stand any more. This was not to be our fate, we would persevere!

    Later in the day I sought advice from the engineering mind of Grover and he did not hold back. “You did it wrong dad: the positions were wrong and you did a double count instead of single.”

    Ah, all makes sense now. So we did 440 SSH instead of 220. Way to hang in there guys.

    Pain Station 7

    Merkins on New Day Rising, plank in between

    Pain Station 8: Mary IC

    1. 8 ct Peter Parker Merkins (Perkins) x10
    2. Crunchy Frogs x20
    3. LBC x50
    4. LMC x25

    Count, Name-o-rama, Welcome FNG Laces!

    COT: Prayers for the crazy world we are in, safety, and thanks for blessings.

    Coffeteria: Book and the Bean

    All said and done, including WU and Mary – 1096 reps, 100 yards of crawls, 100 yards of runs

    Thanks for a great year, friendships, pushing me beyond what I ever thought I could do, and the opportunity to lead.

    SYITG – Akbar

  • QUAD-rophenia

    Blame Akbar.  This was his doing, really.  His “block party,” (henceforth known as ‘Akbar’s Abomination’) – which was preceded by Tank’s Murph – pretty much guaranteed that Saturday’s beatdown would focus on legs and core.  

    But first, the pre-thang : the usual 2 miles out and back with the usual suspects.  Now, YHC was definitely not looking at Bushwacker’s butt.  And neither was Tank.  But I mean, really, when the guy’s shorts are that tight and he’s running in front of you, it’s hard not to take note.  Looked like he had those things painted on.  Tank was comfortable enough in his masculinity to throw out a few catcalls.  Though, judging by Wacker’s mustache (which was recently tamed from a Guy Fawkes-type stache to a more respectable – and less anarchistic – Tom Selleck-type), it is possible that he is more in tune with the modern trends of the day and hey, what do I know, maybe the short shorts are making a comeback this year?

    Yes, this was created with MS Paint.

    Back at the flag, there was a surprisingly large group milling about.  Most noticeable were all the 2.0’s.  It was great to see the Baby Yoda, Pope, and Pixie Stick (along with Grover, who is now a fixture at most beatdowns) posting alongside their fathers.  Also of note, the (second) return of Backdraft, who’s already committed to leading in the near future.

    Warmorama: Good mornings, torso twists, IWs, toe touches, SSHs, merkins, shoulder taps, high knees, all at or around 15x IC.

    Somewhere around the SSH’s, Sparky shows up.  Turns out Bushwacker does not stand alone in his love of Magnum P.I.

    The Thang:

    Simple enough opening routine: Lt. Dan’s to the gazebo.  Which, okay, yes, is about 400 yards.  And felt longer.  But at least the guys had some time to catch up.  

    Next, Core COP: The Bruce Lee.  We’d do all six exercises, x20 IC, then take a 30 second break:

    • Hammers
    • Leg Raises
    • LBCs
    • Heel Touches
    • Crunchy Frogs
    • 100’s

    Rinse & Repeat. Initially we were going to do three rounds, but honestly, YHC can’t multitask – I can either call out cadence for 6 routines or I can suffer through them properly, but doing both proved too much for a third round.  So onward to the bridge!

    Partner up for a Dora:

    P1 runs up and over the bridge and back to swap with P2, who begins knocking out the cumulative reps of:

    • 100 Merkin Toe Touches
    • 200 Freak Nasties
    • 300 Squats

    Nearly out of time, YHC called it so we could make it back to the flag promptly.  Double lined Indian Run back to the flag, where we closed it out with a quick set of Jane Fonda’s.

    Countdown, namerama, and welcoming of FNG Pixie Stick!

    Grover closed us out in a prayer of thanks and everyone set out to coffeteria.  YHC feels blessed to have this group of men pushing me to be a better version of myself.  It felt good to be back out there with such a large group (25 men!), and to see the gift of F3 passed on to so many 2.0’s.  Thank you men for the opportunity to lead!  

  • Full-On Irish Beatdown

    Inspired by St. Patrick’s use of a shamrock to explain the mystery of the Trinitarian God, we soothed our anxious souls in the gloom this morning with a full-on Irish, trinitarian beatdown.

    Warm-ups were SSH, Seal jacks, arm circles, Windmill’s IW’s, high knees, and butt kicks. Then, after a moseyed lap we were back to the splash pad for the thang: three routines, each with three parts (shamrock-style).

    First: partners work together to complete 100 Merkins, 200 LBC’s, and 300 squats. While one did 10 Merkins, the other held a plank, then switched until 100 were done. Then, while one did 20 LBC’s, the other did a 6″ leg lift/hold until 200 completed. And, while one did 25 squats, the other held Al Gore position until 300 were done.

    Second: same partners–one ran up the stairs, around, and down while the other chipped away at 100 freak-nasties, 100 box jumps, and 100 walk-up incline Merkins on the benches.

    Third: each man for himself–sprint the length of the columns, then turn around and crab walk the length of three columns before gator crawling the length of two columns. Rinse and repeat for three times total. Competition was heavy, as was the breathing.

    Bonus: Chumba-burpees–played the song, “Tubthumping” by Chumbawumba since they are an Irish band whose lyrics only make sense to the natives of the Emerald Isle. SSH’s for the duration except for burpees every time they said “I get knocked down, but I get up again”. After the previous exercises, the SSH’s were the worst part…at first.

    Tempted to call it two minutes early, YHC decided instead to offer up a set of Freddy Mercury’s and box cutters for the Southshore F3 community since they’ve had to cancel for an undetermined time.

    On a serious note, it was truly a blessing to be able to post this morning during such turbulent times when everything seems to be out of our control. Having the chance to choose to run a little harder, to do one more burpee, to push through when everything in me wants to stop, and to have other men challenging and supporting me is a gift I’m not taking for granted. It’s an intense reminder that there is always something I can control: myself. I can control how much I’m willing to give, to keep pushing forward, and to choose to be a man for others, for something bigger than me despite the circumstances.

    Thank God for F3 and for you men. He will lead us forward.

    See you in the gloom,

    Goose

  • Leg Day

    Still smarting from the Downpainment put forth on the Lakefront by Akbar on Saturday, YHC was looking for a reprieve from upper extremity soreness to start the week.

    So, with that in mind, LEGS were the order of the day.

    Mosey to Lakefront stopping at each intersection for: Jump squats, Mountain Climbers, Peter Parkers, Flutter Kicks and SMKs.

    Mosey to Marigny for some speed work. Split the PAX into 2 groups. Object is to go around Noah’s Ark as fast as you can. Rinse and repeat and hold plank while your partner Circled Noah’s Ark. After 2 rounds, YHC, fully exhausted, called off the 3rd set and Hit the Seawall for: Bulgarian Split Squats.

    With time running out, it was time to Mosey back to the Marsh making just in time before the Bell sounded

    COT and thanks to Goose for praying us out.

    SYITG

  • The Return of Captain Sparkles!

    An unexpected hero materialized out of the gloom this morning: Captain Sparkles, the firefighting leader of men with his amulet of FD power returned to show the PAX how a real man carries another man through a tunnel.

    Warm-ups were SSH, Windmills, Arm Circles, IW’s and Butt Kicks. Then, we moseyed to the tunnel for the thang that YHC has been dreading for two days:

    THANG: Basic premise is moving through the tunnel using a variety of methods with 10 burpees after each. All methods of forward progress (except the alligator crawl, which could only be completed halfway up the opposite ramp) were accomplished on both the down and up ramps with a short, slow-mosey break on the flat part at the bottom, and each followed by 10 burpees at the top.

    Started with lunge walk, then crab walk, then partner carry, flapjacking for a second round after burpees. This is where Captain Sparkles’ years of fire rescue skills left YHC in the dust carrying Zoolander on his back, confidently riding like an ostrich-jockey (metaphor provided by Hammer). Next was the brutal alligator crawl, followed by back-pedal, then sprint, and finally bear crawls (and 80 burpees overall).

    After arriving back to the flag two minutes over time, COT, and Hammer prayed us out.

    Thanks, gents, for your willingness to persevere and for giving YHC a reason to finish what we started this morning.

    See you in the gloom!

  • He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother

    From Goose: As the PAX circled in the light of a cold Saturday morning, YHC received for the first time as Q the focused look of many men trying to guess the type and magnitude of the pain they’re about to endure. And, though the beatdown wasn’t an overwhelming challenge for most, it was certainly a different experience than they could have guessed.

    Warm-ups consisted of IC: SSH, Seal Jacks, Windmills, toe touches, high knees, and butt kicks. 

    The Thang was varied and sundry:

    First, moseyed to the small open field area before the gazebo and broke into two teams of eight, then into groups of four facing each other about 10 yards apart for 6 rounds of shuttle runs using small cones for moveables. Each round was followed by decreasing numbers of burpees and big-boy sit-ups.

    Then, moseyed about half a mile away from the flag, just over the bridge to a larger open field. Here, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we all got a little closer with some touchy-feely quality time. 

    This started with the Tunnel of Love during which all PAX lined up shoulder to shoulder in plank position while the man on the end army crawled through the tunnel followed by the next until all had wormed their way through and all jokes about overhead clearance were exhausted.

    We then flipped onto our 6 for the Bridge of Hate: all PAX lying shoulder to shoulder as the man on the end lowers himself onto the row of eager hands to be passed, crowd-surfing style, to the end. Each man endured the slow, sloppy process, though wardrobes threatened to malfunction, and the use of knees became necessary to move more than a few men. (Grover, however, being last, was shot like a javelin down the line.)

    This was followed by Three Amigos: the PAX split into groups of three, and each group stood back to back, linked arms, and dropped into a chair-sit position. They then walked in that position about ten yards, completed five copperhead squats together, and squat-walked back.

    We finished in that field with four rounds of exercises (50 LBC’s, 40 SSH, 30 jump squats, and 20 Merkins) each followed by a forty yard sprint into a ten yard army crawl.

    We moved back to flag using a lighter version of a Bataan Death March: Indian Run with the last man stopping and doing three burpees before catching up, tapping the new last man (so he can stop and do burpees), and running to the front. The line was long and the distance short, so most only had one round, but with the time left at the flag, we completed one round of vacuum cleaners and a couple of side-plank domino/waves in a circle. 

    Vacuum cleaners: partner 1 holds partner 2’s legs wheelbarrow-style and moves forward ten yards where partner 1 does 5 Derkins, then moves backwards in the same position to the start before flapjacking. Communication was key for this one, and hand-walking backwards was unexpectedly brutal.

    COT, Count, Name, and Maverick prayed us out.

    Thanks to all who posted for this VQ!  It’s truly an honor to journey with this crew!

  • One long mile with a strong… draft.

    Man it’s been a long time since YHC has written a backblast. And while I’d love to blame it on that insanely good BB Hawg dropped on us last week (I mean, who wants to follow that?), it is of course out of pure laziness. So thanks to today’s special guest for helping to get me back on track.

    Usual warmorama, went something like this: arm circles, cherry pickers, windmills, imperial walkers, seal jacks, toe touches, all IC at or around 15x.

    Thang: Started things off pretty foolishly, considering the Nightmare was a mere two days ago: a Merkin Mile to the tunnel. That’s 1/4 mile, x25 merkins, 1/4 mile, x25 merkins, etc. Once we hit a mile at the tunnel, and 100 merkins, we partnered up for:

    Wilt Chamberlains, or some modification of it: 100 LBC’s, 100 squats, 100 flutters (2-count) and 100 lunges. Cumulative count, with P1 running down to the base and backwards back up for the flapjack.

    Modified Merkin Mile back to the flag, with only half the merkins (that’s right, only 50 this time, that’s it. Not like Hammer and I didn’t do 400 two days ago), back for just enough Mary with a guest appearance by our own Backdraft, back from Gitmo! In his prolonged absence he had all the times wrong, but hey, we were happy to catch even a few minutes of him.

    Mary was leg raises, Putins, Jane Fonda’s (including all three stages: plain jane’s, quick pulses, and heel-to-knees).

    COT with Pik praying us out. Welcome back-Draft, it’s great to have you posting again. Start recruiting some of your friends for next year’s Ivan, seriously, it’s never too early to start plotting.

    Thanks to Goose for stepping up to Q ( a VQ no less!) this Saturday, let’s all post to support… and thanks men for posting this morning, for getting me out the sack, and allowing me to lead such a great group of men. It’s always a pleasure.

  • A Measly Two Blocks

    It wasn’t particularly gloomy this morning (instead it was crisp, bright and clear). But it was pretty darn cold, at least compared to the warm winter we’ve had thus far. Given the conditions, it might’ve been a wise idea to make the trip down to the lake and witness the rare, clear night sky. But YHC is not, in fact, a wise man, so instead we opted for a simple trip around the Marsh, x2.

    YHC has gotten into the bad habit of trying to lose the always-fashionably-late Cowbell during the warmorama. So after a quick set of SSH, we took the warmup on the road. A short mosey down Lamarque and we heard a car behind us, accompanied by flashing lights. Then we heard some loud grumbling and realized it was actually the Wacker of Bushes that we had left behind.

    After some hustling, he caught the group at our first cross street, just in time for the first of 3 warmup stations: Seal Jacks, toe touches, and high knees. Mosey to the next street for: torso twists, windmills, butt kicks. And onward to the final intersection for: squats, imperial walkers, and x10 merkins OYO.

    Back to the start the make the trip once more, but this time:

    • Bear crawl to first cross street, then shoulder taps x40 IC.
    • Lunge walk to next street, big boy sit-ups x40.
    • Broad Jump/Bunny Hops to next street, T – Merkins x40. (ouch!)
    • Mosey to final cross street, 180º jump squats, x40.

    Each block is about 200 yards, so this one took a bit off the clock. But the simplicity of the routine made it a good time to catch up with the guys: talk about the Ivan, talk about our weekends, talk about the new neighbors on Lamarque who, unbeknownst to us, have been watching us each Monday morning, fondly referring to us as, “those crazy guys.” We saved the 180º jump squats specifically for their intersection to further our reputation. (Yes, of course I had considered monkey humpers, but then thought that it was a) too obvious, and that b) by the way the refer to us, they had likely already witnessed that one.)

    Next up we quickly hit the pull-up bars for x15, then the benches for x20 freaks (IC), before settling back in center court for some Mary (Putins, Freddie’s, and Leg Raises, x20 IC).

    COT with Pik praying us out. I’m incredibly thankful for the beautiful weather this morning, and for you three men who reliably post each week.

  • 5 Years of F3?

    I should be in better shape by now. I haven’t been as intense as many of you, and I’ve definitely taken some chunks of time off, but I keep coming back. I come back because of you. Thanks for pushing me harder than I ever would have gone on my own.

    We did a workout that followed the evolution of what types of exercises were popular in each of the last five years (at least through the eyes of Maverick – maybe your experience was different).

    We kicked things off with a 2015 style warmup:

    Side straddle hops, imperial walkers, peter parkers, parker peters, and some arm circles.

    And then off to what I remember doing lots of in 2015: Animal Planet. Spider Crawl, Bear Crawl, Crab Walk, Backwords Bear Crawl.

    Then in 2016 running workouts with stations became popular:

    To re-live that we had four stations around Noah’s Arc. 1st: 5 burpees, 2nd: 20 merkins, 3rd: 30 squats, 4th: 40 LBCs. oh – and from this point forward anytime we heard “Sudden Change” shouted we all had to stop where we were and do 5 burpees. This happened several times during the workout. A pax popularized this in 2016 but it hasn’t been much since.

    In 2017 I remember partner exercises being in vogue:

    So we did a partner carry, leg throws, swap, repeat. Then a wheelbarrow with our partner, leg throws, etc..

    In 2018, I moved to the Northshore and remember several rounds of Tabata. I might have brought a few of those. Quick modified Tabata with high knees, butt kicks, flutter kicks, and mountain climbers.

    In 2019 games became popular. These have been some of my favorite workouts. We brought back a game played on the southshore one crazy morning in 2016 which was ultimate frisbee but the catch was we could only move by bear crawl. Ugh. We used a football and only got to do a couple of drives because of time.

    That brings us to 2020. Who knows what new exercises we’ll be doing this year, but we’re off to a good start. We did partner merkins. Maybe its new, I don’t know. Saw it in a NYC subway station a few weeks ago. Strange. Face your partner – merkin together, come up and give your partner five with your left hand, repeat with right hand, we did this x20.

    And finally we brought back something I did on my VQ. I was scanning the F3 wesbite looking for something unique to bring and not disappoint. I found Roxanne which has been a staple ever since. It doesn’t disappoint – still feeling it.

    That’s it. Thanks for a good 5 years. Hopefully many more to come.

    Welcome Diplomat!

    We closed with these words which are possibly attributed to Mother Theresa:

      People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.

            If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.

            If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.  Succeed anyway.

           If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

          What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

         If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.

      The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.

    Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.

       In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.