Tag: The Gipper

There certainly are no mountains in Covington but we do have stairs, plenty of fog this time of year, and YHC believes that Einstein could sing a plaintive Bluegrass tune or two if requested.  It was that kind of morning as the PAX converged around the shovel flag in the foggy gloom.

The Thang kicked off with a mosey to the Taj Mahal.  The PAX circled up around the flagpole for the warmup:  SSH, IW, Butt Kicks, High Knees, Windmills, Torso Twists, and Front to Back Lunges…all IC 25x.

The PAX then put the Taj Mahal stairs to work.  One PAX hit Merkins and one hit Seal Jacks while the third ran up and over the stairs.  Rotated through the line up, AMRAP for 6 tough minutes.

Mosey to the Justice Center Parking Garage benches for Step Ups, Derkins, Freak Nasties, and Irkins..all IC 15x.

Mosey to the Justice Center itself for some speed and pre-agility work.  The PAX made six trips down the back entrance alley.  The first two trips consisted of a backpedal for 20 yards, turn and sprint for 10, and then decelerate quickly for 5, sticking the last footfall like a Romanian gymnast.  The next four trips substituted carioca for backpedal and then it was time to mosey back to the Trailhead for Mary.

Roaches, Freddy Mercury’s, Jackknives, and Scuba Steves…all IC 20x.

Count-o-rama, name-o-rama, and Einstein prayed us out.

Announcement:  Collard Greens has his Virgin Q next Wednesday so plan on getting out of your fartsack and joining us in the gloom.

 

 

“Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way” …Frank Costanza

Well.. today, the PAX had no festivus pole, no airing of grievances, but we did have feats of strength, and we did find another (F3) way…

warmup
20xIC side straddle hops
20xIC windmills
20xIC imperial walkers
20xIC squats
20xIC arm rotators
20xIC toe touches
20xIC hillbillys
20xIC sealjacks

mosey – jog to the school board building (Taj Mahal) parking lot
run the parking spaces, yellow line to yellow line crossing over right-to-left
10xIC leg swings left to right, right leg
10xIC leg swings left to right, left leg
run the parking lot spaces, yellow line to yellow line crossing over left-to-right
10xIC leg swings front to back, right leg
10xIC leg swings front to back, left leg

 
mosey – to the front of the St. Tammany Courthouse
lunge walk to the first set of benches, 10 merkins
lunge walk to the second set of benches, 10 derkins
lunge walk to the third set of benches, 10 irkins
run up the steps, through the facade, around and down the block to starting point
… and repeat

mosey – to the back of the St. Tammany Parish Courthouse Annex parking garage,
run backwards half up the first floor ramp
turn and sprint up rest of the way
jog across the second floor ramp
run backwards up third floor ramp
turn and sprint up rest of the way

 

feats of strength
on the top deck of the parking garage
The PAX spelled out a giant Merry Christmas, leaving a trail of sweat and puke that could be seen from outer space.
with each of member of the PAX taking a letter, choosing the exercise, tracing the letter(in cursive), with the rest of the PAX following in Indian fashion, until it was his turn for the next letter. We did letters in bear crawl, crab crawl, lunges, skips, hops, box jump, etc. Ended with a burpee exclamation point!

 
mosey – back to the trail head

 

no mary – the clock ran out

 

count-o-rama

 

prayer; safe travels & Merry Christmases all around

 

dismissal

 

 

 

The shovel flag is now a regular fixture at the Covington Trailhead on Wednesday mornings. City employees have embraced the PAX.  One glance at Tank-Up counting out his Merkins have them convinced that we are some sort of retired SEAL collective.

So the PAX got down to business this morning with a dynamic warmup under the Gipper’s gaze.  Multiple drills down a 20 yard lane…heel to toe walk, forward backward and lateral skips, lateral bounces, figure 4s, lunges with a twist, Frankenstein kicks, caricoa, hamstring sweeps, and a few more that YHC remembers from his soccer days but cannot remember as he writes this post…followed by 6 strides/sprints down the lane at increasing intensities.

Mosey to the Justice Center, spread out along the breezeway curb, and hit two minutes of toe touch bounces off the curb.  YHC suggested that he would call out either #1 or #2 randomly at which point the PAX would execute vertical toe touch bounces (#1) or lateral toe touch bounces (#2), working hard to stay off the ground and in the air for as much of the two minutes as possible.  YHC was thinking of making this a longer exercise but is glad he reigned himself in at the last minute.  Two minutes was plenty as the PAX got after it and made every second count.

Well earned recovery walk to the top of the Justice Center Parking Deck where the Sky Q fortuitously placed a few sandbags.  Mumble chatter from the PAX accusing YHC of pre-positioning supplies.  YHC has to admit he would have done exactly that if he had thought of it.  To give himself some time to figure out what to do with the sandbags, YHC set the PAX to running Xs on the parking deck.  Sprint diagonally across the deck maybe 40 years to the opposite corner, mosey the length of the deck to the adjacent corner, sprint diagonally to the opposite corner, mosey the length of the deck to the adjacent corner…hitting as many reps as possible through and around the big square for 5 minutes.

Back to the sandbags.  With 5 PAX and 3 sandbags, YHC challenged the PAX to move the sandbags from one side of the parking deck to the other.  However, the PAX had to follow two rules:  (1)  the sandbags could not touch the ground and (2) no PAX could walk or run holding a bag.  It took a minute but only a minute before the PAX worked out a system to get the bags moving, passing them down the line and sprinting to the head of the line like an Indian Run with multiple sandbag exchanges.  Fun exercise, and the PAX will see it again if they ever ask YHC to Q in the future.

Mosey back to the Trailhead for a Merkin wave 50x IC.

Count-o-rama, name-o-rama, and Tank-up prayed us out.

Thanks for letting me lead.

Great to see Collard Greens and Tank-Up return for their second post this morning.  Something about the approaching storm motivated the 4 strong PAX to get after it without delay, warming up with a sense of urgency under the Gipper’s gaze:  Seal Jacks 20x IC, IW 20x IC, Torso Twists 10x IC, Merkins 10x IC, Mountain Climbers 20x IC, SSH 20x IC, Butt Kicks 20x IC, and Windmills 10x IC.

Mosey to the Justice Center Veterans’ Memorial for a shoulder/rotator cuff complex: lateral arm raises 10x IC, front arm raises 10x IC, thumbs up 45 degree arm raises 20x IC, thumbs down 45 degree arm raises 20x IC, small arm circles forward 20 count, small arm circles backwards 20 count, touchdown rotator cuff raises 20x IC, and arms in front pulses 20 count.  Separately, not very challenging, but when linked together and the challenge of not dropping your arms is issued, quite challenging indeed.

Short mosey to the Justice Center Oak Alley for a burpee gauntlet…burpee at each oak tree down the alley.

Recovery walk to the rear of the Justice Center where the PAX combined repeated strides at 85% down a lane with return agility drills back to the starting point:  lateral bounces each direction, carioca each direction, low slow lateral shuffles each direction, heal walk, toe walk, and finally ankle flips.

Mosey back to the Trailhead, grab some coupons (T claps to Steve for replacing the coupons that the PAX destroyed a couple of weeks ago), partner up for 5 minute AMRAP of OH cinderbock walk for partner 1 while partner 2 hits as many Merkins as possible, switch up, and get in as many rounds as possible.

On our sixes for some coupon pause bench press, then flutter kicks and Hello Dollys 10x each IC holding coupon arms extended, and wrap it up with some wife pleasers 20x IC.

Count-o-rama, name-o-rama, and Einstein prayed us out as the storm arrived.

Solid effort this morning.  Thanks for letting me lead.

“The wild gander leads his flock through the cool night;
Ya-honk! he says, and sounds it down to me like an invitation;
The pert may suppose it meaningless, but I listen close;
I find its purpose and place up there toward the November sky.” …Walt Whitman; Leaves of Grass

 

And Ya-honk we did!, as a PAX of four, sounded out our elementary numbers in cadence

Warmup:
SSH 20xIC
imperial walkers 20xIC
torso twists 20xIC
windmills 20xIC
seal jacks 20xIC
hillbillies 20xIC
arm rotaters 10 each limb
one leg lunges 10 each limb
squats 20xIC

Mosey – to the Taj Mahal parking lot
stop-start ladder, sprint up 20′, back peddle 20′; repeat 40′, 60′ 80′
leg swings – left to right, right leg, then left leg
stop-start ladder, sprint up 20′, back peddle 20′; repeat 40′, 60′ 80′
leg swings – front to back, right leg, then left leg

Mosey – to the Justice Center
lunge walk to first set of benches, 10 merkins
lunge walk to second set of benches, 10 derkins
lunge walk to third set of benches,10 erkins
sprint up courthouse steps, down the ramp, out to the street and back
repeat

Mosey – to the Justice Center parking garage
sprint backwards half way up first level ramp, turn and sprint to east end,
jog second level to west end
sprint backwards half way up third level ramp, turn and sprint to east end,
nancy kerigans 20xIC
jog around the upper deck
piller push/stretch
down the stairs to the the “ledge”
knoodle for rats – amrap pullups
down the stairs to the grass
burpees 10xIC

Mosey – to the flags in front of the courthouse
plank up, do one push up , bearcrawl quarter turn clockwise, do one push up, four total to complete circle
repeat in counter-clockwise direction

Mosey – back to the Gipper

Mary
plank up on elbows, one leg lift, 10xIC, repeat with other leg
V-ups 10xIC
jane fondas 10xIC, on one side, then the other

count-o-rama
name-o-rama, welcome – Tank-UP !

prayer – for a Blessed Thanksgiving – encouraged the PAX to look up Abe Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. Check out both the 1863 and 1864 proclamations.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=69900
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=69998

 

More like Breakin’ Cinder Blocks in the Gloom to be honest.  So YHC was careful to give the disclaimer this morning.  Not only did the PAX include FNG Collard Greens, but the THANG included the inaugural use of cinder blocks on the Northshore.  While the Southshore PAX are rock and cinder block experts, YHC was concerned that their country brothers here on the Northshore might not prove quite as adept at handling awkward objects.

So the THANG started with a warmup under the Gipper’s gaze:  SSH, IW, Merkins, torso twists, windmills, and arm circles, all IC mostly for 15 reps.

Mosey to the cinder block pile, grab one and then mosey over to the School Board Taj Mahal picnic area for a couple sets of:  squats, RDLs, upright rows, curls, shoulder presses, and manmakers, all IC 10x with the cinder blocks, followed by box jumps up and over a couple of picnic tables.  Lucky for all the School Board employees, Collard Greens waited until the end of the beatdown to splash Merlot discreetly.

Next up were five sets of quick foot toe taps on the cinder blocks, a 30 yard or so sprint across the parking lot, followed by a return mosey and then a cinder block throw.  This is where YHC’s inexperience with awkward objects made itself evident.  Green Mile crushed, and YHC means crushed, his cinder block with a throw.  Not really thinking things through, YHC encouraged continued destruction (who doesn’t like breaking things?) but reversed himself in short order once it became evident that the PAX would not be returning to the Trailhead with any City owned cinder blocks unless YHC reigned them in.  So we replaced the throws with squat jumps after the second set, but YHC is determined to find something the PAX can throw once he pays off the installment loan on the replacement cinder blocks he will promptly deliver back to the City.

Indian lunge walk back to the Trailhead exchanging the remaining cinder blocks under EiEi’s guidance.  Mary at the Trailhead:  Putins, ABCD abs, Scuba Steves, and Nolan Ryans, all IC.

Count-o-rama, name-o-rama, and prayer.  Einstein has the Q next Wednesday.  Thanks for letting me lead.  Welcome to the PAX, FNG Collard Greens.

All Souls Day started out with TurboTax being nudged in the shoulder by a live bat, and not the World Series kind, but one of the bug-catching kind!
Could this have been some soul reaching out? Don’t know, but the bat thing has to be a first for the F3 nation

Anyways, four live souls posted today, and we did the Tour-de-Covington, hitting all of the hot-spots

warmup
20xIC side straddle hops
20xIC windmills
20xIC imperial walkers
20xIC squats
10x one left leg behind up on bench, squat forward
10x one right leg behind up on bench, squat forward

 
mosey – to the school board building (Taj Mahal) parking lot
stop/start ladder sprint up 20 feet, back peddle, sprint up 40 feet, back peddle, sprint up 60 feet, back peddle, sprint up 80 feet,back peddle.
10xIC leg swings left to right, right leg
10xIC leg swings left to right, left leg
stop/start ladder lateral cross-overs – right foot over left foot, up 20 feet, left foot over right foot back 20 feet, repeat over 40 feet, repeat over 60 feet, repeat over 80 feet
10xIC leg swings front to back, right leg
10xIC leg swings front to back, left leg
stop/start ladder lateral hops – lateral hops 20 feet, back 20 feet, repeat over 40 feet, repeat over 60 feet, repeat over 80 feet

 

mosey – to St Tammany Parish parking garage

10xIC burpees
bound up two flights of stairs
run across parking garage deck
10xIC speed skater shuffle, (aka Tanya Hardings, credit EiEI)
run down the stairs
10xIC squats
forward lunge walk, half way across the front of the parking garage
backward lunge walk, the remaining half way across the front of the parking garage
10xIC burpees)

 

mosey – to the back of the parking garage,
run backwards up the first floor ramp
jog across the second floor ramp
sprint up the third floor ramp
10 count
run down the stairs one level to TurbTax ledge
jump up, catch the cement ledge with your hands,(aka Noodling for Rats) and do AMAP pull-ups for 10 seconds
10xIC mini box hops

 
mosey – to the flags in front of the St Tammany Court House
3xIC plio push-ups , then bear crawl counter clockwise 1/4 way around circle, repeat 4 times to complete circle

mosey – to the trail head

no mary – the clock ran out, poor clock managment on the Q’s part

count-o-rama

Prayer – GreenMile leading the Prayer, with a good one.

note; Steve has his Virgin Q next Wednesday

dismissal

Only Blackbird could return from a week of backpack elk hunting in the Utah mountains refreshed and ready to humble the Covington PAX.  EiEi is used to it by now but welcome Steve to the geriatric Covington PAX where sextuagenarians abound, and bound, and jump and crush and inspire the young PAX to get after it in the gloom every Wednesday.

So this morning’s Thang all started with a mosey to the Justice Center Veterans Memorial and a warm-up COP.  SSH, windmills, squat thrusts, torso twists, Merkins, airplanes, arm circles…all IC 20x more or less.

Then down to business with lateral plank walks over a wide white line; back and forth IC 20x; then 20x hipslappers IC.  Rinse and repeat.  Quick mosey up the Justice Center Stairs and back for more white line work.  Lateral hops back and forth IC 20x then People’s Chair hold for a long 10 count.  Rinse and repeat 2x for 3 total rounds.

Recovery walk to Justice Center Oak Alley where YHC stole and modified Hawg’s bear crawl fiasco from F3 NOLA’s weekend convergence.  Who says bad ideas have to die?  YHC liked Hawg’s bad idea and figured it just needed a little fine tuning.  So the PAX bear crawled to the first oak tree, lunge walked to the second, etc, etc. down Oak Alley and its 7 million oak trees.  Remember this is the St. Tammany Justice Center we are talking about here; we like trees in St. Tammany.

Mosey back to the Trailhead for what seemed like another bad idea but actually turned out to be interesting and fun, a 5 minute pretzel AMRAP.  Starting at the top of the Trailhead hill, the PAX ran to the nearby bandstand where they jumped, climbed, and otherwise got on the bandstand, then headed down either the stairs to the left or ramp to the right and back up the hill to the starting point.  This one is kinda hard to describe with any accuracy and no one should try this at home, but the thing ended up looking like a bunch of moderately physically fit middle aged men running around in the shape of a pretzel.  Blackbird lapped the field at least 57 times.  This event definitely played to his endurance sports background.

A few ten counts later and the PAX were ready to finish off the morning’s beatdown.  Desperately looking for a way to get even with Blackbird, YHC got the PAX moving with an 11…Merkins on one end and Burpees on the other.  Thankfully the buzzer rang halfway through and without too much embarrassment we packed it up with a count-o-rama, name-o-rama,and prayer.

Blackbird is on for Q next Wednesday.

It took half a week to find an October quote to lead-off with…

Anyways…’twas a nice morning for posting; somewhat cooler, and less humid than normal.

And two posted, to work on their stalwartiness….

warmup
20xIC jumping jacks
20xIC windmills
20xIC imperial walkers
20xIC donkey kicks
20xIC arm swings
10x imaginary kettle ball pick-up, with one leg forward and the other leg back
10x lunges; one leg back on bench, lunge with the other, alternate.

 
mosey
to the school board parking lot
stop-and-start ladder: sprint 20 feet, back peddle to start, sprint 40 feet, back peddle to start, spring 60 feet, back peddle to start, sprint 80 feet, back peddle to start
leg swings left to right,
repeat stop-and-start ladder
leg swings front to back.

 

 

 

mosey
to the justice center parking garage
sprint up incline to level one, jog across level one, sprint up to level two
gather for 10xIC skater hops – legs bent (Nancy Kerigans)
jog down to TurboTax Ledge for 20 seconds of Noodling-For_Rats, Turbo did about 20 pull-ups, Einstein did 3.5
jog down the stairs to the grass, 10xIC burpees
lunge walk forward 40 paces, lunge walk backwards 40 paces
jog back to the garage entrance for some more…
sprint up incline to level one, jog across level one, sprint up to level two
gather for 10xIC speed-skater hops (full Tanya Hardings)
jog down to TurboTax’s Ledge for 20 seconds of Noodling-For-Rats, Turbo did about 20 pull-ups, Einstein hung there like a suit.
jog down the stairs to the grass, 10xIC burpees
lunge walk forward 40 paces, lunge walk backwards 40 paces.

 
mosey
to the flags in front of the justice center
4x plio-pushups with bear crawl 90 degrees clockwise between each pushup
4x plio-pushups with bear crawl 90 degrees counter-clockwise between each pushup.

 

 

mosey
jog back to the trailhead for mary.

 

 

mary
10xIC v-ups
10xIC freddie fercs
10xIC plank up on elbows and heel of one leg, while kicking up the other leg; alternate legs.

 

count-o-rama

 

prayer

 

vagabond dismissal

 

 

Solid effort from 3 PAX this morning.  Would have made The Gipper proud.

The Thang:

Warmup at the Covington Trailhead:  SSH, IW, torso twists, windmills, hillbillies, squat thrusts, arm circles, leg swings, lateral lunges…all 20x IC more or less with a short recess to EH a passerby runner.

Mosey to the Justice Center for a grind, power up and hold session:

1x Merkin slow count 15 seconds down and 15 seconds up, 15 seconds of plyo Merkins, then 15 second isometric Merkin. 10 count then…

1x squat slow count 15 seconds down and 15 seconds up, 100% effort sprint to and up the steps to the Justice Center entrance, then 15 second isometric squat digging our heals in and pressing against the Justice Center.

Recovery walk back down Justice Center alleyway.  Rinse and repeat.  5 total sets.  Good stuff.

Mosey back to Trailhead for Mary:  Peter Parkers, Parker Peters, jackknives both sides, then supermans, all 15x IC.

Count-o-rama, name-o-rama, and a prayer.