F3 New Orleans

Tag: Steve

  • Carpe Diem Convergence

    The F3 Nation knew about YHC before YHC knew about the F3 Nation.  You see, YHC’s brother-in-law, Lynchpin, lives in Charlotte.  In the early days, before the F3 Nation planted its flag in NOLA, Lynchpin routinely and enthusiastically regaled YHC with stories of legendary beatdowns and CSAUPs, tongue in cheek nicknames, funny exercise names and other F3 lore.  Then, when F3 decided to expand to NOLA, Lynchpin tried to EH YHC, but YHC begged off.  It all sounded, well to be honest, like a cult and how could YHC trust Lynchpin anyway?  After all, he married YHC’s sister.  Ugh.  But resistance was futile.  The NOLA PAX crossed Lake Pontchartrain in its Durham boat, Reluctant Yankee at the helm like George Washington crossing the Delaware. Nacho and Chewy fell in upon the PAX’s arrival and, together, they planted the shovel flag in the Gloom on April 9, 2016.  F3 Northshore was born.  How could YHC resist a free workout in his own backyard?

    A few weeks later, the NOLA PAX boarded their Durham boat and retreated back across the Lake, leaving the Northshore PAX to make the most of their gift of F3.  We stumbled about, we made mistakes, we created a new AO only to abandon it a few weeks later, and we had more than a few beatdowns with one or two PAX.  Somehow, however, we made it and two years later look forward to seeing one another regularly to suffer and have fun together.

    As this morning’s two year anniversary convergence approached and YHC learned that the weather more likely than not would be awful, there was no concern.  Two years of meeting rain or shine, hot or cold, left no doubt in YHC’s mind that the PAX would post.  And post they did.  And you know what?  The weather held off just long enough for us to celebrate our birthday with a 3 hour beatdown, visiting 5 of 6 Northshore AOs by the mechanical device known as the bicycle.

    Mandeville Lakefront:  4 burpees OYO, 19 SSHs IC, 20 IWs IC, and 16 Seal Jacks IC.

    Captain’s Cove:  4 vertical jumps OYO, 19 Copperhead Squats IC, 20 Sumo Squats IC, and 16 Regular Squats IC.

    Milestone Marsh: 4 plyo Merkins OYO, 19 Merkins IC, 20 Shoulder Taps IC, 16 slow seconds Mission Impossible.

    At this point, Chewy politely pointed out that he had figured out what YHC was up to with the count but that our birthday is April 9, 2016, not April 19, 2016.  Point well taken.

    Grandmother’s House:  4 Sister Mary Katherine’s OYO, 9 front to back lunges IC, 20 45 degree lunges IC, and 16 later lunges IC.

    And then, after a 10 mile mosey on the Tammany Trace to Covington:

    The Gipper:  4 Freddy Mercury’s IC, 9 Freddy Flutters IC, 20 Hello Dolly’s IC, and 16 Flutter Kicks IC.

    Then we mounted our bikes for the 10 mile ride back to the shovel flag for the countorama, nameorama, Shooter’s prayer and a coffeeteria, arriving about an hour later than anticipated.  No one will confuse YHC for a Swiss train conductor after this morning’s logistics, that’s for sure.

    Thanks for letting me lead, guys, and thanks for your willingness to try something different and new and for posting despite the threatening weather and actually being disappointed it didn’t pour on us.

    Some parting thoughts:

    We’ve come a long way on the Northshore.  Things have become almost comfortable and, while there’s a lot of positive to that sentiment, there are dangers too.  We could stop growing.

    So here’s a call to action.  Commit to EH’ing more FNGs and supporting them through their virgin post so that they return.  Commit to Q’ing more workouts, putting time into planning your Qs, and posting timely BackBlasts.  Commit to a CSAUP.  Commit to making yourself better and leading by example, always keeping your eyes open for growth and leadership in all three of the Fs.  If we want F3 Northshore to grow, then we are the ones that need to make it happen.

    Carpe Diem.

     

     

     

     

  • I’d better get this backblast done before Turbo yells at me

    Have you every felt like “Phil in the backseat of the Mirthmobile?”

    Some of you young whippersnappers may not be familiar with Phil, if so, check out this link

     

    So as the heavy weather plowed through Covington early Wednesday morning, it made me think of the lyrics from Bohemian Rhapsody…Thunder Bolt and Lighting very very frightening me….

    anyways… with the inclement weather I had to ditch my workout plan and go with the Bohemian Rhapsody:

    Bohemian:having informal and unconventional social habit

    Rhapsody:episodic yet integrated, free flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, color, and tonality

     

    Here is how it went in the steady rain:

     

    Warmup: Side Straddle Hops,Squats, Arm Circles, Seal Jacks,Butt Kicks, Toe Touches, Speed-Skater Hops, all 20xIC, with plenty of merkins in between.

    Mosey over to the parking garage for Hurdle and Plank fun-o-rama:

    Each pax in plank position, spaced about 10 feet from each other. One jumps up and hurdles each of the planking pax, then assumes plank at the end of the line. Did this up the ramps to the upper deck.

    Then we ran the stairwells up and down and around with a task (burpees, merkins, ditchdiggers, duckhops) in between each of the four roundtrips.

    Then we did a few sets of sprints across the top deck and back. The rain was feeling good!

    Then we did a slow meandering Indian run down the parking garage ramps & back to the flag.

    A few minutes of mary: Nolan Ryans and flutter kicks.

    Count-o-rama, announcements, and Astro leads us out with a prayer.

     

  • Rollin’ Dice in da Rain (Gambleholics Anonymous)

    So Much for the ch4 forecast last night saying that the rain would be out of here by 5am and we would only get about 1/2 an inch! Fortunately, it settled to a light drizzle by the stroke of 6:30am. (not so much for our southshore bretheren)

    But the 1st rule of Gambleholics Anonymous is to show up…I suppose. And so 4 brave PAX indeed did just that. Calling a rain-induced audible to the planned strategy for YHC’s clandestine beatdown, we opened with a little warm-o-rama consisting of 20x each:

    Toe Touches

    Windmills

    SSH

    Imperial Walkers

    High Knees

    After an unusually brief mosey we commenced with a dice-rolling, knowledge-testing, beatdown of fun, ass-whoopin dimensions! And speaking of brief, for those who did not claim victory over the dry fart sack and the torrential weather that southern Louisiana was presented with this gloom, this is all of this sure-to-reappear beatdown  you have access to at this point.

    After returning from whence we came, we closed out with Mary consisting of 20x:

    Freddy Flutters

    Crunchy Frogs

    100s

    Count, Name , Prayer

    2 year convergence next saturday, sure to be an adventure not to be missed. Bring your bike if you can/have one

    Many thanks to the PAX who posted and endured the beta test if YHCs lead today. For those who didn’t…you’ll get your chance soon – I pinky promise!

  • To Run or Not to Run?

    Well you see it goes like this. We had an F3 Brother who advertises he’s going to make Captains Cove this Friday since he’s on this side of the lake this weekend.
    So F3 Brother Steve gets excited to host our brother in his first Northshore appearance and makes a Hard commit to show up for the 10K Friday even though he has a 10K race the next day. Witch and trainer would tell you to take the day before a race off and rest your legs!
    Well since this Q has been canceling so much lately and also likes to cater to our F3 Brothers when ever he can. He also against better judgment woke up at 3:50am to be there for our guest. Captain Sparkles shows up early when he shows up lately. Steve rolls in minutes to spare. So no South shore guest yet. Well it’s his first time to this AO he might have got lost. So Captain Sparkles & Steve start talking about the Movie industry. And next thing you know it’s 5:30am well Steve looks at Captain Sparkles, Captain Sparkles looks at Steve and both with happy looks on our face say well looks like he’s going to be a no show. So using good judgment we do what any hardcore F3 would do with a race next day. Yep we high tailed it back to the fart sacks. To rest our legs. So every sad story has a Silver lining.

  • Circuit training

    5 pax met this morning at the trailhead, YHC stole the Q from the ailing Turtle.

    Warm up: Down Dog and hip flexor stretch

    Circuit Training:

    1. Jump rope 4 x 50
    2. Lateral band walk
    3. Forward and backward lunge with indian club swings
    4. Single leg RDL with 15lb DB
    5. Wall slides for lower trapezius

    Rinse and Repeat

    Cool down: Hamstring, Piriformis, hip adductor stretch

    COT: Name o rama, prayer.

    Thanks guys for letting me lead.

    Chewy

     

     

     

     

  • Mastering the 8-Count

    Warm Up: Toe Touches, Good Mornings, Windmills, SSH’s, Toy Soldiers, Seal Jacks, Sister MK’s, all IC at or around 20x.

    The Thang:

    Mosey East towards the Lakefront playground, hitting a series of 8-count exercises at each cross street:

    1st 20x 8-Count Bodybuilders

    2nd 15x 8-Count Absolutions

    3rd 10x 8-Count Bodybuilders, 10x 8-Count Absolution

    So the F3 Nation website or – the more frequently visited – Grundy Audited Database (GAD for short) says that a wise Q will introduce the 8-count cadence for the exercise known as Absolution, but then “instruct the PAX to do the exercise OYO, lest he give the impression of weakness.”  Well, YHC has never been accused of being wise and this group of men has certainly already seen me act weak (ahem… the high-pitched squeal as Captain Sparkles emerges from the bushes), so… time to forget one’s pride and school the Q in mastering the 8-count!

    The thing is, the 8-count isn’t actually that difficult.  So really, this was more of an excuse to wreck the PAX early on, which seemed to have worked.  (At the very least, it wrecked this here Q.)

    A few 10-counts later, we arrived at the playground and split into partners for a little routine up the tallest “hill” in Old Mandeville.  These sort of rigorous elevation changes would be good training for those running the Blue Ridge Relay this fall.  Here’s what we did:

    P1 does squats, P2 run-walks (aka, lunge walks) up to the swingset pad and back.  Flapjack.

    P1 does merkins, P2 bear crawls up and back.  A little slippery this morning.

    P1 does lunges, P2 frog jumps up and back.

    And finally, P1 does Freak Nasties, P2 does an 80% sprint around the perimeter.

    A few more 10-counts sprinkled throughout, and we’re onward to the back of the baseball field, which had a lot of action for 0700.  Gearing up for an early morning game, the PAX got to watch some kids practice their swings, and also witness the slowest-ever flag raise while we planked up and one by one (or two by two, I suppose) hit the pull-up bars for 8 pull-ups.  The 2nd round was 4 pull ups, and the flag had still only made it to half mast.  Did a round of 25x IC Mountain Climbers, but still didn’t get to see that flag hit the top.  Oh well, can’t plank forever.  Time for an Indian Run back to the flag.

    T-Claps to Low Nays who overcame the strong urge to splash some merlot and made it back to the flag for some Mary: (all IC) Flutter Kicks x20, Leg Raises x 15, Putins x20, Jane Fondas/QuickPulses/Heel-to-Knees x20 each leg.

    Countdown, nameorama, announcements (Sign up for the Classic!  Sign up to Q!), and The Manny led us out in prayer.  Thank you guys for the push to be a better man, and for a truly great start to the weekend.

  • “Hello Dolly!” or is it “Rosalita!”

    YHC arrived with the return of Waterpik awaiting in the Gloom. Fresh off a trip to NY. We started some chatter about his experience while away. It appears there is a play named “Hello Dolly” that the pik and his M took in on there trip. All along one might think F3 had created the term or redefined its meaning of sorts, which the latter must certainly be correct. Simply put, I don’t think the play in NY was based on grown men laying on their backs and swinging out there legs in cadence. Although that may be appealing and theatrical in a place like NY. After all it is a big city with many different walks of life and one would never know what to expect or SWING into in such a place.. Maybe her name was “Rosalita!” Who really knows? Either way with Steve rolling up right on time, we get after it starting with a little warmup before our journey on this cool below 50 degree Gloom. 20 IC SSH, 10 IC GM, 20IC WM and 10IC Ws (chewy), which amount to what seems to be a reverse shrug compressing the upper back muscles. With headlights approaching the PAX is soon joined by the Choppa right before our departure.

    thang

    QIC explains to the PAX that we will be incorporating intervals of 30 second burst starting at 20 percent, 30 percent, etc. etc. increasing through the run till the final burst. We went after it at 100 percent completing the last as a sprint to the finish.  Now it did feel fitting to skip the 90 percent since we started with the 20 instead of 10. So in all when complete we totaled 8 intervals. YHC quickly realized on the last interval that Waterpik runs similar to the shifting of a CVT transmission.  His pace just continued to climb with no shift point and no chance of getting passed with a passing gear applied by the Q.

    Nice finish Waterpik!!

    Arriving with 15 to spare we head to the playground to tackle the ISI challenge of the day (1 min pull-ups) Upon completion we hit the deck for Spider man Merkins each leg totaling 10 in all. Then we take to our six for Mary. First we do hip raise hold better known as wife pleasers. Q implemented a 3 count hold at the top to 15. Next we did 15IC FK, 15IC Hello Dollies and closed with 15IC Rosalitas..

    count off, announcements, COT

    Appreciate Choppa for taking us out in prayer!!

    Always enjoy the lead gentleman!

  • Another day at the Office

    Another beautiful morning at The Gipper and another beat down in the books.

    Warmup of lateral lunges, airplanes, seal jacks, squats and forward lunges.  All 20x IC.

    Mosey to the Justice Center for some 11s.  Merkin/Shoulder Taps combo at the bottom of the stairs, In and Out Squat Jumps at the top.

    Recovery walk to the Justice Center benches.  Lateral shuffle between two bookend benches with a lateral step up at each bench.  5 trips OYO.  Then back to lateral steps ups 7x IC, cross over lateral step ups 15x IC, then regular lateral step ups again 8x IC.

    Back to the Justice Center entrance for our ISI AMRAP Challenge of the day:  how many Merkins can you do in one minute?  So simple, yet not so easy.

    Circuitous mosey up and down the Justice Center parking garages ramps and stairs before heading back to the shovel flag, the PAX hitting some short accelerations along the way on the command of “sprint” and some soccer headers on the command of “jump.”

    Mary of windshield wipers 20x IC, Nolan Ryans 20x IC each side, Jane Fondas 10x IC each side, and 45 degree leg raises 10x IC.

    Moby Dick, still on IR but almost ready to get back in the game, joined the PAX for our countorama, nameorama, and Einstein’s prayer.

    Thanks for letting me lead, guys.  I always look forward to Wednesday morning at The Gipper with you.

     

  • A CSAUP Convergence in the Mud

    Well, the day was finally upon us. With a 50% chance of rain it was anybody’s guess what the weather would do. But when it’s called Tough Mudder, either way is good. The clown cars converged at NOLA Motor Park and the clowns met up just inside the official Tough Mudder grounds. The southshore boys called a last minute audible.With Fracsac having to pull out, Cowbell, was and easy EH to grab his spot. Speaking of last minute, YHC pulled up to the meeting spot to see that none other than the elusively nomadic Butt Splice had joined the party, having bought his ticket yesterday.

    Due to the race being 12 mud-filled miles long, not to mention this guy’s exhausted brain, I won’t list all the obstacles, but give a greatest hits and honorable mentions overview.

    Like ripping off a band aid, the 1st obstacle thrown at us was Kiss of Mud 2.o, involving an army crawl under barbed wire through the soupy mud. Butt Splice was fully submerged and in heaven!

    The Hero Carry obstacle (which was much easier the 1st time around) found us carrying our partner about 50 or so yards, then switching for the next 50. Strategically speaking we tried to match up size-wise with Steve/Tanked Up, Butt Splice/Gabrielle, Shooter/Walleye, Bushwacker/Ocho (had I only known this deceptively sized man was actually heavier than the solid Shooter, I might have chosen more wisely), and Reluctant Yankee/Cowbell. Jingle Vader paired up with a random to complete the obstacle.

    Much better acquainted, the fun continued.

    Somewhere along the way, we chanced on a solo mudder who by some stoke of good fortune joined our  regal ranks on this muddy mission. This bald bruiser (sorry the alliteration is addictive) was visiting Nawlins with his lovely wife (who was a loyal spectator) from Chattanooga, TN. An easy Eh and a great F3 fit to round the crew out at 12.

    There were more muddy water-filled pits, walls, hay bales, nets and unpredictable terrain in store for our daring band of F3 brothers. The course lent itself to some quality mumble chatter that added to the intrinsic appreciation of the experience. Speaking of mumble chatter, between Gabrielle and Ocho’s slew of  salacious interactions with random members of the fairer sex, I’m surprised we didn’t walk away from the course with our own fan club. Or better yet, a new cadre of FIA recruits!

    Not that we didn’t all have an appreciation for the females we ran into. A bunch of us made a new friend in a medical assistant at the Trench Warfare obstacle when we gave her a big F3 group hug, sharing all the muddy goodness we had to offer…especially Ocho.

    There were back busting back flips and reverse swan dives at the Shawshank obstacle. This one was quite refreshing!

    At Everest 2.0 we joined the waiting crowd in an attempt to scale the slick quarter pipe and, with the assistance of the previous victors, to mount the 15′ summit. In an attempt to get up quickly and help some folks, F3 and otherwise, YHC skirted the waiting onlookers and made a few unsuccessful shots at the top. In between tries, many, especially the tall gents, were making it look like child’s play. I returned to the fold to find Ocho back on the ground after having already made the ascent. Butt Splice had inadvertently pulled him back down as he tried, in vain, to make it up. With the brilliant Walleye extending his lengthy arms towards the next contestants, the guys one by one made it up. After an embarrassingly  high number of failed tries, this now bruised and battered Q joined his comrades in victory.

    Anyone who knows anything about the tough mudder knows that that one of the most anticipated , and feared, obstacles is the Electroshock! While most of us caught a shock or 2, poor Shooter, who had almost made it through with only 1 zap, took a shot that rung his bell. Being St.Patty’s day, the luck of the Irish must have been shining on Steve, Reluctant Yankee and Jingle Vader (hope I got that right), because they got through scott free. We were all entertained as we prepared to move on by a bald, hardcore ranter who got tagged in the face and many other places as he worked his way through – SON OF A BITCH!

    At the last obstacle, Happy Ending, we ran into fellow F3 Saxon who, along with Jesse from Chattanooga, Ocho, and Butt Splice, formed the base and extension of our human ladder that helped a lot of recently rinsed fools get to the top. Eventually we retrieved our magnanimous brothers and slid down the other side to cross the finish line, arms locked.

    As we gathered post-race with out victory beers (and recovery drinks) in hand to close out with a COT, we were in a unique and enviable position to name an out-of-state FNG. Welcome Big Easy to the F3 Nation! We hope he returns to Chattanooga and hits up one of the 5 area posts up that way. Thanks to Butt Splice for his emotionally aroused prayer to take us out.

    Gentlemen, despite some bumps and bruises this was an extraordinary adventure, and I am blessed to have taken the journey with each of you. Many thanks for following my lead to the starting line today.

  • Long Lost Pelican and the Ubiquitous Captain

    As the latest CSAUP is nigh upon us, 3 of the bold participants gathered in the frigid gloom to do what we do here in F3, for ourselves and for our brothers -get the heart rates up and micro-tear a little muscle. You see, the thing about obstacle races is that there’s a lot of running, but its broken up intermittently by various physical challenges. And so, in a mildly similar fashion we proceeded to scramble.

    After seeing the important-yet-forgotten dimension of fitness that Chewy has brought back with his recent Qs, I decided to start things off with some intentional ballistic stretching. Once we got going, the idea was that at random moments YHC would say STOP! and call out an OYO exercise for the PAX to knock out. The 1st instance was 25 merkins within the 1st block of our run. A couple of blocks later came 25 squats. Next was 10 burpees. With the power of the pied piper, I reversed the usual route, taking us to sunset point 1st. At the end of the pier we jumped on the benches for 25 calf raises. Our boisterous activity spooked a pelican perched on the rail, who found another section of rail closer to shore. The pelican may have gone away, but we knew he couldn’t STAY away (Where you at Pelican?)

    Now, YHC finds, and the PAX would certainly concur, that our F3 runs are enjoyable spans of time based , especially, on the the company of our F3 brothers. This morning that could not have been more true for the sudden and abruptly unexpected appearance of Captain Sparkles, who, dressed in his fisherman’s finest, jumped out from behind a bush with a loud AAAAGGGHH! as we cleared the end of the pier. While Shooter and I were certainly given a bit of a shock, poor Steve, who was closest to the perp,  barely escaped the experience with clean drawz LOL. A life-long fireman, Sparkles had to  flex his pranking muscles before he shoved of with Turtle and a group of guys making for an off-shore fishing trip.

    Having recovered our sensibilities, we stopped for 50 LBCs (DISCLAIMER: events may or may not have happened in the exact order YHC currently recalls). Upon exiting the sunset point gates, we took advantage of a 2 foot tall section of concrete to grab 25 incline merkins. Along the subdivision loop we knocked out 25 toes touches to stay at our peak of nimbleness. At some point Shooter’s off hand comment having something to do with “core” and “back” inspired 25 supermans. And finally, at Florida (Hwy 190) we dropped to the invitingly soft grass for 25 heal pulses (heals to heaven).

    After proper consideration, we decided to shut things down officially before moving on to anything else with COT: count-o-rama, name-o-rama, announce-o-ramma, and prayer-o-ramma (thank you Steve). I always enjoy my F3 beat downs, but there’s something appreciably special when I get to experience it with, what could arguably be considered the true core of the northshore, Steve and Shooter. Thank you gentlemen for following this pied piper’s little ditty in this star-filled gloom – the honor is all mine.

    AND THEN…

    LAGNIAPPE: 3 ISI participants can’t walk away without knocking out the challenge of the day. Specifically, 1 minute decline plank followed immediately by 1 minute of derkins….followed immediately by 3 strong, proud, adult fathers collapsed in heaps on the pine needle-covered ground. good times!