F3 New Orleans

Tag: Steve

  • Do You Know What It Means To Miss (F3) New Orleans?

    Last week’s hiatus from F3 gave me a bitter taste of what my next four months would be like.  I mean, sure, I was well-rested.  Aside from that, though, there was a massive hole in my daily routine.  It just proved to me that F3 is irreplaceable, and can F3Nation just hurry up and expand westward already??

    YHC has been getting over a nasty cold and wasn’t sure I’d be able to get the count out in the manly fashion the PAX is used to from me.  But the coughing fits subsided long enough and all went fairly well.

    Started things out as we often do, with SSH.  Then: IWs, Hillbillies, Toe Touches, High Knees, Butt Kicks.  All 20x IC.

    Then up onto the trailhead stage for The Dirty McDeuce.  3 sets of exercises, 12 reps each, followed by a mosey around the trailhead perimeter.  4 times.  The exercises were:

    Merkins – Squats – LBCs

    Hand-release Merkins – Jump Squats – Freddie Mercs

    Derkins (off stage wall) – Monkey Hummers – Heel Pulses

    Burpees – Sister MK’s – Putins

    Next up, partner up: P1 Lt Dans across the corridor to P2, who is performing Sumo Squats.  Flapjack.

    Then over to those brand-new blue benches: P1 knocks out AMRAP Freaks Nasties, while P2 does three laps up and down the stairs.  Switcheroo.  (Clearly, someone on the city council caught footage of the beast Shooter pumping out a set of Freak Nasties on those flimsy wooden benches and thought it a wise idea to replace them.  Smart move, we were definitely gonna break one at some point.)

    And finally, a little Mary: Hello Dolly’s, Flutter Kicks, and LBC’s, 25x IC.

    Thanks men, it was good to be back in your company this morning.

     

     

  • Dice of Doom’s Hard Opening and The Battle Old Mandeville

    With the winds died down and the hail unscathingly passing us by, it seemed like a good morning to bring out the Dice of Doom for and official hard opening. 12 PAX made sufficient numbers for a team battle of epic proportions.

    WARM UP

    each x20 IC:

    Toe Touches

    Windmills

    Imperial Walkers

    THANG-A-LANG

    Ok, so it went down like this – team 1 rolls the dice and then attempts to answer a trivia question for a point. While they perform the resulting exercise, team 2 planked. After each team had a chance to be “plank-in-waiting”, they each took a round to hold and Al Gore instead… and so on and so forth. The team with the most points at the conclusion won the right to casually watch the losing team do an exercise of team 1’s choice to whatever rep count team 2 rolled.

    Adding a lil lagniappe to this beat down, the PAX started at the flag and mosied down the lakefront to Marigny for the next roll, then up Marigny 1 block for the next, east 1 block, back south the the lakefront, and finally east to the playground/splash pad for the final roll.

    Considering A. this was an idea that YHC was conducting semi-on the fly and B. YHC was also doing all of the exercises along with both teams, the exact numbers and order are a little jumbled in my Wackie mind. However, there were a superlative amount of jump squats, some putins, a WILD Q set of freak nasties, a sparse sampling of merkins, and a round of 50 side straddle hops.

    QIC felt that the PAX was enjoying themselves a little too much, as shown by the over-abundance of mumble chatter. Thusly, the whoopin stepped up a notch with and abbreviated version of the B.I.T.E.M.E. (inspred by B.O.M.B.S.) better recognized as B.I.M. – 50 burpees, 100 iron hulks, and 150 moroccan nightclubs. That changed the PAX’s tune, or at least winded them enough to give their gums a little respite.

    Broken back into team 1 and 2, the indian run back home commenced. Big props and T claps to Moby who kept moving at his best pace after pre-thanin’ it and recently returning full time from IR. Double respect was duly shown by a majority of the PAX circling back to join Shooter in rolling in with the great White Whale.

    MARY

    All x20 IC:

    LBCs

    Flutter Kicks

    Freddie Mercury’s

    And finally, with a Dice of Doom trivia tie hanging over the PAX like spring-time storm clouds darker than 50 shades of gray (absolutely not erotic!), there was a final showdown still to be played out. Steve representing team1 stood eye to eye – nay, brow to brow with Ei of team 2, as these 2 titans of F3 lore faced off, each with a stare of intense animosity and rivalry that would have slain a fire-breathing dragon! With fists clenched, sinewy muscles taught, and lightening flashing in both of their eyes, their respective teams chomping at the bit with flared nostrils of wild stallions, QIC handed the numbered die to Steve to roll like a steel gauntlet slapping with indignation the faces of each of the battle-worn members of team 2. And what a blow! 50 – there would be no topping it, only another roll of 50 would agonizingly drag this battle out. Alas, it was not to be, for the brave and venerable Ei’s roll, as though time was moving at a near stand-still…..came up a 20. With the sweet taste of victory like honey on their lips, team 1 doled out the harshest penalty to their vanquished foes, BURPEES! As team 2 collapsed to the earth with the weight of the world on their backs to serve their sentence, a ray of sunny good will began to shine when team 1, under no obligation to do so, dropped to salute their worthy foes with planking of of superiorly perfected form.

    Ok it wasn’t EXACTLY like that, but more or less.

    COT, Bubba prayed us out with solemn vigor, and The sharp-dressed man himself, Waterpik pick up the forth-coming coffee. Many thanks to you both, and to all of the PAX who put forth a mighty effort in the wake of my humble lead!

    PS – I’d also like to give special T Claps to the stellar beard that Turbo picked up in Colorado! Clean up the edges a little and you may look like a respectable lawyer of some sort.

  • The Day Time Stood Still

    For those individuals who showed up (the few, the proud, the elite) and didn’t break the first rule of the Northshore F3 rulebook of not skipping Mondays, this beatdown will not soon escape their minds. It was a beatdown that made it seem as if time stopped working. A day time seemed to call in sick. It will be remembered as the day time stood still.

    Let the warmup begin:

    Warmup

    SSH 25 IC

    25 Side lunge jump shots OYO

    Forward arm circles 15 IC

    Backward arm circles 15 IC

    Overhead claps 15 IC

    10 IC Chicken Claps

    10 OYO Merkins

     

    The Thang

    We started on right lower corner of the court and sprint to the top right corner, shuffle to left corner, backpedal to lower left corner, and shuffle right to the start. Continue for 5 laps.

    We then did some suicides! 2 series of regular suicides (fine, I guess we can get a 10 count). We then did a bear crawl suicide!!!

     

    After that we did a basketball conditioning drill. The objective was the sprint the width of the court back and forth with the goal of completing 12 trips in 55 seconds (every subsequent attempt we would add 5 seconds to account for fatigue). If we didn’t all make it then there was a penalty of 10 burpees for everyone. First trip came in at 56 seconds.

    Penalty burpees!!!!

    After that series it felt like we had to almost be nearing a close right? Nah. It’s only about 15 minutes in!!! Like I said before, time decided to take Monday off and hit the snooze button. Well not us!!!

    In between the sprints we would head over to the benches for some step ups and Freak Nasties (15 IC).

    We also did some Wilt Chamberlin’s. He famously scored 100 points in a game so we did 100 reps of 4 different exercises in succession.

    100 lbcs

    100 squats

    100 flutter kicks each leg

    100 Merkins.

    Time still was not out so we did one last thing to wrap it up, 1 minute dead man’s hold (feet six inches off of ground).

    Time finally decided to end the insanity as the three numbers I was looking for flashed on my watch (5, 4, 5). Time’s up!!!

    What a great effort from all of the men who showed up today. It’s an honor and a blessing to call you friends.

    Thanks for letting me lead!

  • Grandmas boot camp!!

    QIC set the alarm a little early with a prethang run in mind to Grandmothers house. Along the way a creeping SUV pulls along side throwing up a wave, which quickly brought back flashbacks of my youth when one could have mistaken the slow creep for some type of turf check or creepy guy slow crawling the neighborhood in search of some illegal  substances. Waterpik quickly dismissed those thoughts with a smile and fist pump as I entered the tarmac of the Trailhead less anxious to bolt through the woods or cut down a cross street. Arrive on the scene at Grandmas House to Steve, Dr. “NO” and Waterpik. With brief chatter of Grundy’s Q at the Marsh we jump right in.

     

    warmup

    20IC SSH, (Welcome Chewy/Choppa) 20 IC Mummy kicks, 15 IC WM, 20 IC Seal Jacks, 20 IC MC and finish with 15IC Good mornings.

    thang

    Moseyed to the stage for a splitting of the PAX into 2 groups. We partake in the Wall of Pain where each member holds a wall sit while 1 man from each group does 10Merkins, 10 LBCs and 10 Burpees replacing another PAX till all cycle. Chewy’s crew being over zealous quickly begins to R/R so we completed 2 cycles. Then we Moseyed to the bus stop for Left leg step ups IC 15 followed by 15 OYO jump overs. Completed the same for Right side. Next we did a box jump 180 degree style IC which proved to be very taxing. On completion we Moseyed to the stairs and partnered up. Partner one did LBCs and alternating left/right ISO crunch while partner 2 started with 5 calf raises 2 steps,  10 calf raises 2 steps, 15 calf raises 2 steps, etc. etc. Thanks to Chewy for calling an audible alternating inward/outward/regular to focus on different areas of the calf. Inspiration came from the days of past remembering our vertical shortcomings as Waterpik   gave us a recap of the Western Conference finals from the night before. Upon completion we went into what I thought was the Crazy Indian, however before writing this backblast I reviewed my notes and the Crazy Indian is a BTTW workout which was in the running bought never made it to the beatdown. So the correct term is Indian Bear Crawl. We modified with multiple rounds first being Merkins, then Peter Parker’s, Mountain Climbers and closed with Groiners.. With a min to spare we took to plank with Choppa’s alarm being the final bell..

    countoff, announcements, COT

    Q prayed us out into the day!

    Appreciate the lead and you men posting!

    ✌🏻 Till the next Gloom!!

  • Burps in the Oak grove

    “Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.” -Jerry Seinfeld

    10 pax met up Saturday morning for a nice beat down on the lakefront. Yada, yada,yada…

    Prethang 6:10-6:30 mosey west and back to shovel flag…

    the thang:

    warm-up: SSH, mt. Climbers, IW x 20 IC

    mosey to the oak grove

    5 burpees/5 jump squats/5 merkins x 10 rounds

    jane fonda series: leg raise x 15 ic>pulses x 10 ic> knee to knee x 10> foot to knee x 10

    2 min single leg squats each leg

    5 squat thrusts/5speed skaters/ 5 merkins x 8 rounds

    Glute  bridges 3 sec x 20; single leg glute bridges x 10 each

    mosey east toward flag:

    fwd lunge with arm swing overhead x 10

    bkwd lunge with arm swing x 10

    single leg RDLs x 10 IC each leg

    mosey to shovel flag

    mac tar jai x 20 ic

    russian twist x 20 ic

    name o Rama, cot, prayer, coffeeteria

    thanks guys for letting me lead,

    chewy

     

     

     

  • Running In Circles

    There were a couple of noteworthy things at this morning’s beatdown: Bubba’s victorious return after a lengthy F3 hiatus, Moby’s first completed workout since suffering an ankle injury, and Maverick’s remarkably prompt arrival at the Gipper!  T-claps to all these men for stepping it up.

    So… after a month of running stagnation, YHC was finally in a running mood this morning.  Most of the thang today therefore involved… you guessed it, running.

    Warm-up: Good Mornings, Toe Touches, Windmills, 15x IC.  SSHs, Seal Jacks, and High Knees, 25x IC.

    The Thang: First, off to the Taj for a new partner routine: PAX performs flutter kicks while two men run the perimeter of the Taj in opposite directions.  Once they meet on the other side, they knock out 5 burpees and then return along the same path.  Next pair up, and so on, until the entire PAX has completed the run.  Followed up with the same drill but mountain climbers replaced flutter kicks, and lastly, jump squats.

    Mosey to the grass in front of the parking garage for a quick set of Catalina Wine Mixers, 15x IC (at an odd 6-count that miraculously went over smoothly).  The name may be hoity toity, but the exercise itself is straight grunt work.  Then up to the 2nd floor to start another partner drill: P1 begins lunge walking up the ramp, while P2 runs past him to do a loop – up, around, and back down the stairs to catch P1 and switcheroo.  Then bear crawls, then broad jumps.

    Lastly, before returning to the flag: burpee suicides.  Sprint to mid-parking lot and back, 5 burpees.  Full length and back, 5 burpees.  This one was inspired by Grundy’s looooong PFT sprint, which I think I can safely say kicked everyone’s ass last Saturday (except Turbo, of course).

    Back safely at the flag, there was just enough time to do Jane Fonda’s, 20x IC each leg.

    Countdown, nameorama, and Moby prayed us out.  As always, thank you men for the opportunity to lead and get stronger with you.

  • NO FEAR!…or trash

    What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

    -Vincent Van Gough

    Fear, largely based on the unknown, keeps us from even attempting things sometimes. Courage is the power to conquer the fear despite the unknown. Fear can pervade every area of our lives, as we can all attest, and for YHC, fear inundated me on several levels as I put together today’s beatdown – and even more so as I pulled up to the Marsh in the gloom! You see, I can’t shake the words of our illustrious brother Turbo Tax following the 2 year convergence when he told us, in essence, to stop phoning it in and be the F3 that we want by, among other things, putting thought and preparation into our beatdowns. With that in mind, I fearfully sprinkled just a little bit of Bushwacker Orgininality Spice on a piece of paper, worried that, as good as it sounded now, it may end up a flop. YHC may end up pushed past his breaking point. The PAX may snicker and scoff at the ridiculous commands presented to them and secretly ridicule the Wacker (as the southshore did with the ISI week of 100s). But courage overcame the baseless fears, and the trusty Men of the Marsh met to Master another Monday ass whoopin!

    Pre-Thang

    Slow dynamic stretching seemed in order so…

    All IC:

    Toe Touches x30

    Imperial Walkers x30

    Abe Vigodas x20

    Thang

    Off to the playground equipment for…

    (all OYO)

    5 pull ups, 10squats, 25 merkins, 50 LBCs

    5 chin ups, 10 lunges (5each leg),25 freak nasties, 50 heal pulses

    5Australian pull ups, 10 1 leg squats (5 each leg), 25 derkins, 50 putins

     

    Back to the B Ball court and partnered up for my own take on  B.O.M.B.S. called B.I.T.E. M.E.

    50 Burpees

    100Iron Hulks (1:4 ratio of merkins to air presses)

    The Two Amigos (wall squat back to back and walk from one end of the court and back)

    200 E2K (ankle over knee oblique crunch, 100 each side)

    Empty Wheelbarrow (crab walk with partner holding your legs)

    Wrap Up

    Pushing the limits of temporal respect, we finished sweaty sore and exhausted with COT and a prayer from the Sharp Dressed Pik himself.

    LAGNIAPPE (or Post Thang)

    As has proudly become somewhat of an F3 northshore tradition, we scoured the Marsh like kids on an easter egg hunt for all the litter we could find, so as to leave the place better than it was when we arrived.

    Thank you gentlemen for your friendship, comaraderie, and following my lead, despite my fears

     

    A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature

    -Ralph Waldo Emerson

     

    As a post script for those of you still reading, I just read an article that says a meta study comprised of 2 Harvard studies that followed over 700 men for 75 years testing all aspects of health and happiness found “The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.” — Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. We, gentlemen, will live forever!

  • El Cinco de Dolor y Miseria

    Well, as they say… that happened.  The FBI physical fitness test pre-thang Q’d by Grundy started promptly at 0545 as promised, but it would require a prodding Bushwacker to keep this thing on schedule.  You see, until this morning, none of us (least of all Grundy) realized just how patriotic our lakefront residents were.  After knocking out as many sit-ups as possible in a minute, we slow-moseyed down the street looking for Grundy’s starting line… “a bench lined up with an American flag.”  Turns out there are a lot of American flags, and a bunch of benches out there.  A bit of confused back and forth and finally, worried about respecting the time, Wacker just took off on the 300 meter sprint.  The rest of the PAX quickly followed.

    T-claps to Grundy who got us out there, and to those men who got up early to complete the PFT: 1 minute of sit-ups, 300 m sprint, max out on merkins, 1.5 miles in less that 12:50.  YHC would call out each man individually, but the fog of being thoroughly beaten has settled in, and it’s a miracle I even remembered the 20 PAX who posted today.   Not sure who passed and who failed, but all men did admirably and with all the turnover going on at the Bureau these days, it’s a good thing they’ve got some young men like Grundy coming in.

    So yeah – 20 PAX this morning!  All the EH’ing and warm weather is paying off.  FNG’s are rolling in each week and that’s got the rest of us posting more regularly and upping our game.  Speaking of upping our game – YHC had sincerely thought last night about doing… well, not an easy beatdown, but maybe a more mild one?  But nah…

    Alright, enough rambling, here’s what went down:

    Warmorama: Toe Touches, Imperial Walkers, Seal Jacks, SSH, Butt Kicks, High Knees, Mountain Climbers, Plank Jacks.  All 20x IC.

    The Thang:

    Mosey west for a COP: 20x IC side to side plank hops, plank jacks, partner up for jump overs (20 OYO), in-out jump squats, and everyone’s favorite, monkey humpers.

    Ei said it best when he noted, “Well, now that we’ve embarrassed ourselves there…” onto the next location!  Mosey to the loading dock for what I knew would be a real crowd pleaser: burpees down the street!  More mumbling from Bushwacker (you really can’t be fasting that much with all today’s chatter), trying to tell me that I can’t eat an elephant one spoonful at a time, or some such nonsense.

    Because there were so many men this morning, YHC decided we’d partner up and P1 would hold plank while P2 burpee’d down the street.  It goes like this: burpee with the standard 1 merkin, but on the jump up do a broad jump forward.  2nd burpee has 2 merkins, followed by 2 broad jumps, 3 x 3, and so on, down the road.  It was fun.  Even better than I imagined on paper. 

    At about this time a few 10 counts were needed (in espanol for Cinco de Mayo), and then we moved over to the playground for a few stations.

    P1 holds a wall sit and does air presses while P2 hits the three padded stations: Sister Mary Katherine’s x15, hand-release merkins, and LBC’s, all single-count x15.  After 2 reps each, P1 does heels to heaven while P2 hits the stations, flapjack, 2 reps each.

    Next up, formed two lines to indian run back to the flag.  Finish up with Hello Dolly’s x25 IC.

    Countdown, nameorama, naming of our two FNG’s  (welcome Doolittle and Vel-Vito!!), and Splice prayed us out.  The only thing that would make this beatdown more complete would be a drive-by from Choppa…

    On to the Coffetería, which looked to have a little more action than usual with the table dancing, but you’ll have to check the groupme for that report.  A sincere thanks to this great group of men – despite my body’s response, YHC had a great time out there this morning.  Keep posting, keep the FNG’s coming, and hey, let’s try to get some of our missing comrades (ahem, Turtle and Bubba) back in action.  See you guys out there.

     

    EDIT: One (hopefully) final edit on this unusually long backblast: this was likely Carpool’s final posting as a Northshore resident.  As his family makes the trek over to the Woodlands, we wish them nothing but the best.  He’s been a great addition to the F3 family over here, and Houston will be lucky to have him.  Stay tuned for info on Carpool’s Woodlands launch (potentially mid-July?), would be great if a couple of us could make it out there to support him.

  • Tramps Like Us

    These days, it sure doesn’t feel like YHC was born to run.  Mosey, maybe.  But run?  And run with sprinting?  No, no, no… not with the post-Classic staleness I’ve been battling.

    Of course, that’s the thing about F3 – the exercises you despise… well, they somehow, in some twisted way, make it into your Q.  And make no mistake, this is my least favorite beatdown.  But with Chewy firmly back in the fold, it seemed appropriate to bring back his most excruciating gift to the PAX: High Intensity Interval Training.  Basically, interspersing long sprints within our usual 5k run (the key word being ‘long’).  I know, it doesn’t sound too bad on paper, but boy is it miserable.  (A little less miserable than I remember, probably due to our slower pace and the fact that summer hasn’t fully kicked in yet.)   At one point Chewy provided some scientific papers to prove the method’s effectiveness over traditional running, but hey, you’ll have to scour the history of Northshore backblasts for that one. 

    First, though, a little warmorama: PAX lined up along the parking lot edge and did the following dynamic stretches: lunge twists, high kicks, knee tucks, carioca.

    Then time to hit the HIIT, knocking out about 5x 300-400 yard sprints sprinkled throughout the usual path to and fro Sunset Point.  Unfortunately for the PAX, Wacker is on some crazy fast and so the mumble chatter was, as POTUS might say, low-energy.

    Once back, a quick plank stretch before the PAX humored me by hitting the monkey bars for some hanging toe touches – hang from the bar, kick your feet up and attempt to touch your toes to said bar.  x12, with only intermittent success.

    And finally wrap it up with 15x IC Manmakers & 15x IC Crunchy Frogs.

    Countdown, nameorama, and Shooter led us out with prayer.  T-claps to Sprocket who’s now made two consecutive Scrambles after a long hiatus – good to have you back.  And thanks guys, I certainly would not have done that on my own!

  • to be continued…..

    Instruction received from a previous email posted by Northshore core Turbo who by the way will probably post a .5 on the ISI for his pre thang run sparked this Q to dive into the Lexicon in preparation for the Gipper beatdown. Had I known the astronomy lesson would incur upon arrival at the Gipper, one may have looked into the galaxy of workouts awarded your YHC and properly planned out the parameter of time before becoming overly zealous in the selection process. The Q and Steve were greeted by a St. Tammany worker gazing into the night sky, which he quickly pointed out Jupiter in the distance between trees followed by 10 o’clock of the moon and some other (forgotten named planet) closing with a lesson of seeing Saturn with binoculars on a clear night.. That is the extent of my learned lesson of astronomy. Anything further than that may I recommend a post at the Gipper.. With 4 ideas picked out for the beatdown, 0600 quickly approaching and the sound of gravel turning beneath Grundy’s mini wagon it’s time to circle up.

    Warmup

    15IC Windmills, 15 IC plank hand in front rotations right/left (to prepare for this upper body intense planned beatdown), 10IC front deltoid shoulder rolls in plank, 20IC Toe touches

    thang

    Moseyed to the back of the Taj Mahal for are first set. Dan Taylor’s 1:4 ratio of squat and alternating leg lunges. Setting the bar at 20:80 total the Q was quickly reminded by the ever specific Grundy that this was indeed NOT upper body.. Oh so correct Grundy! 20 would have certainly taken to long and so to be continued… has started. We completed 10:40 and proceeded to the flag pole in front where we partnered up for some 4×4’s. PAX keeps elevated palms to the sky while one of the pairs drops to plank for 4 Merkins followed by 4 MC. Upon return to their feet the next pair drops so on and so on. We make 4-5 rounds in total, Q has never claimed to be accurate with numbers that is Grundy’s deal anyway.. 😏 Upon completion we journey to the top of the parking garage for a distant, often, planned and forgotten Deck of Death.. My memory serves best of Glooms past at the Mothership, Marsh and ISI challenge of October 2017, which shall never be forgotten as the “I want to pump your chest until your pectorals bust those already tight shirts.” Instructions Hearts are Burpees, Spades are Merkins, Clubs are FK and Diamonds are sprints… Cards are face value with Jacks being 11 Queen being 12, etc. etc. with 2 jokers valued at 50 and the person who flips calling the exercise. Thanks Grundy for the continued upper body tear down with IC shoulder taps so what should have been 50 total turned into 50 each side 😩. After about 3 cards in the PAX welcomes in the baton carting Maverick, realizing time will become a factor we push to 0640 at which time the YHC informs the PAX of bad news and our

     

    to be continued…

    Moseyed back to AO with a min to spare and assume plank for completion..

    Nice job today men!!

    Keep pushing Moby, progressing well Brother..

    Till the next Gloom ✌🏻