F3 New Orleans

Tag: Waterpik

  • Marsh Madness 2021 – from Zoolander

    Welcome to Marsh Madness 2021. Twenty-four Pax converged upon the Milestone Marsh for this second-time event1

    In the presence of the Pick Axe-entrusted Freedom Hammer, we started with a quick disclaimer, Warmorama, Bushwacker-style2 instructions, and then the THANG.

    The Pax counted off in 4’s and formed 4 x 6ish-man teams at each corner of the court with a basketball. While 1 member of each team backpedaled with their ball to half court, performed a Bobby Hurley, and drove to goal for a shot of his choosing:

    – Layup (1 point),
    – Free Throw (2 points), or
    – Three point shot (3 points)
    Zero points for missed shots

    the rest of each team completed the following series of exercises in cadence led by a rotating corner Q.
    • Burpees
    • Air Presses
    • Shoulder Tap Merkins
    • Copperhead Jump Squats
    • LBCs
    • Plank Jacks
    • Monkey Humpers
    • Flutter Kicks
    Each man – including FNGs, 2nd timers, and celebrity guests – had multiple chances to lead the cadence.

    Shooters marked their points with sidewalk chalk and fell in line to call the cadence for the next exercise. It took a few rounds before each team found its own rhythm, but after that it was like watching a philharmonic orchestra playing Mary had a little lamb.
    After “40 minutes of hell,” team member points were tallied, and the highest scoring individual from each of the 4 teams were down-bracketed to a 5-shot “Around-the-World” shoot out on their respective side of the court. The rest of the Pax performed Goofballs and Side Straddle Hops to distract the Final Four shooters.
    Grundy, with accountant like focus, out-calculated Speedy;
    Ocho outdanced Whip.

    Grundy and Ocho were then down-bracketed to compete in a best-of-10 shootout from the free throw line. As luck would have it, they tied, and we went to Sudden Death from the Three Point line. Despite Ocho’s shenanigans, Grundy stomped the Stomper and emerged as the 2021 Marsh Madness champion!

    – Trophy
    – Count-orama
    – Name-orama – Welcome FNGs Sonar (EH’d by Turbo Tax) and Gomer Pyle (EH’d by Sparky).
    – Announcements
    o Northshore 5-year convergence led by Waterpik at the Lakefront on April 10.
    o Next F3/FiA mixer is 4/29. Thank you Jose10k, some of us do have to plan ahead for weeknight workouts.
    o ZOORICH CLASSIC at the Lakefront on April 24. (See how I slipped that in there Cowbell?…never too early!)

    QIC prayed us out and group photo followed. Great job by all. We’ll see if Grundy can defend his title in 2022. Thanks for playing along men. See you in the next Gloom.

    Footnotes:
    1Seriously, footnotes in a Backblast? Why not? The first Marsh Madness was in 2019 with a small, dare I say Elite, group of 8. Bird was an FNG and drained 16 x 3-point shots. The B-ball gods did not favor him today though. And well, Corona (as it was called back then) had other plans in ‘20.

    2Bushwacker-style instructions typically include circumlocutory, sesquipedalian musings about man’s ultimate life purpose with some semblance of what the Pax should be doing for the next 40-50 minutes. They are often accompanied by Mumble Chatter and confusion by all within earshot. Bushwacker-style instructions are the exact opposite of Turbo-style instructions, which are direct, concise, and never to be interrupted without penalty.

  • Stretch it Out at Home – from Bird

    Seven strong posted for Scramble at 0515. A little cooler temps than expected this am as a result of the storm that rolled through Mandeville yestereve. Personally still adjusting to the time change and shaking the cobwebs off at the early hour is still a work in progress. Q arrived 0505 to find Ackbar stretching it out and getting loose. The rest of the PAX posting for the morning included: Shooter, Bushwacker, Zoolander, Waterpick (ran from his house wearing some crazy red, white, and blue getup) and Cowbell (rolling in hot as per usual).

    Q counted down watching the clock to get moving right at 0515 beginning with 10 counts, in cadence, of side straddle hops, toe touches, windmills, and torso twists. A ten count forward fold was sprinkled in to try and further loosen the hamstrings; however I recently read that there isn’t supposed to be any stretching in F3 – you’re supposed to do that at home! I guess that’s a bit like no crying in baseball? Keep stretching it out at home fellas, don’t wanna get too tight!

    The brief warm up with F3 exercises was followed by a “dynamic warmup” with a lunge walk with twist, t-walk, and ninja squats. PAX was commenting at YHC’s flexibility during the ninja squats, but little did they know that a muscle pulled during the process was concealed so as not to show any weakness prior to the beatdown.
    Typical route to sunset point was mixed up with 4x4s (burpee to plank, 4 merkins, and 4 mountain climbers). After starting with 3, PAX added 3 more each time passing the intersection at Monroe and Massena, finishing with 12 4X4s on the return trip. PAX mostly stayed together during the run, but regrouped after each round of 4x4s to begin again.

    Along the run, YHC and Bushwacker exchanged grateful observations of the night sky, clear and bright after the previous night’s washout. During the 4x4s, it was obvious that the after-effects of Shooter’s Building Blocks at the Gipper on Wednesday were taking their toll. As I’m writing this post-Saturday beatdown, YHC is amazed at the Ackbar’s dedication to the merkin. I had to pull out excel to calculate the Scramble merkins (120 if you didn’t already count), but that pales in comparison to the 500 PAX executed this am.

    PAX arrived back at City Hall with only a few minutes remaining and alas there wasn’t time for the Bruce Lee that Q had planned. Those arriving first dropped into a plank hold while waiting on the six. The rest of the PAX dropped into plank and alternated chill cut and high plank until 0600. COT, YHC prayed us out, and announcements. If you haven’t heard, next Saturday’s beatdown in at the Marsh!

  • We’re Caught in a Trap, and Can’t Walk Out… – from Akbar

    Because I love y’all too much baby.

    And so it began, the 2nd annual Merkin Trap on the lakefront. Last year around this time we did 400 Merkins, could it be topped? I think so.

    18 PAX converged at the Lakefront today (without Gnats!) to make ourselves better. It could have been an even 20 if TankedUp didn’t steel Bush and Steve for a OYO Marathon.

    Gloom Factor – overcast, chilly 47 degrees

    Warm up – Nada. It’s time to get to business

    THANG – multiple exercises, mosey’s, and a lot of Merkins with a surprise thrown in mid-way. Exercises were done IC, 12,8,5 (50 reps) and some OYO.

    Starting out at the shovel flag: SSH | Merkins IC 12,8,5

    Mosey to Rips for Calf Raises on the stairs | Dirkins on the curb. 12,8,5 IC

    Mosey to the wall: Step Ups OYO in sets of 12/8/5 | Irkins OYO 24, 16, 10

    Run 2 blocks to Jefferson, stop for 10 Merkins at Claiborne. Monkey Humpers |Stone Mountain 12/8/5 IC

    Run 2 blocks to Monroe stop at Madison for 10 Merkins. Squats | Leg-up Merkins 12,8,5 IC

    Run to the Marsh, stop at Livingston for 10 Merkins

    Milestone Marsh: 50 pull ups, 50 Freak Nasties OYO – modification was supine or negative pullups

    Cowbell gave me a time check before we hit the Marsh, and after 100 reps YHC had to modify to make it back in time.

    Run back to the flag, stopping at each street for 15 Merkins.

    On the way, some father son intensification took place with Hammer and Pickaxe. Hammer carried Pickaxe most of the way piggyback style, and I took a turn for 1 leg. While Hammer and I did Merkins, Pickaxe did a Luigi (I think) – or pretty much a Merkin with no arms. At least he didn’t have to carry Shooter for 6 blocks.

    Back to the shovel flag for the wrap up.

    · Crunchy Frogs for Cowbell | Merkins 12,8,5 IC
    · LBC’s IC 12,8,5 24 Irkins OYO 8,5 FIA Merkins IC
    · Hello Dolly | Merkins IC 12,8

    500 Merkins in an hour, Advil post beatdown OYO

    Count, Name – Welcome FNG Binky!

    Announcements:

    1. F2 with FIA Thursday March 25th, 6pm at the Lakefront Gazebo and Barley Oak afterwards. Bring your wife, girlfriend, your female children, and their friends. Who wouldn’t want to attend that!

    2. Zoolander Q next week at the Milestone Marsh – NOT THE LAKEFRONT

    Thanks for following my lead,

    Till Next Gloom – Akbar

    Moleskin

    I first did this workout in Atlanta and loved the cadence. Last year we did it with 400 Merkins and hit 500 this year. 600 in 2022?

    Great to see Blaze back at the Mothership again.

    Zoolander had a 3 man EH. T claps for What’s That making the trip all the way from Kenner.

    T Claps to Pickaxe who hung in there, that’s a long way to run for a young man.

    Great to see Steve again at coffee and glad he’s back in the workforce.

    TankedUp is either crazy, a beast, or both. He just decided to run a marathon in Covington on his own. Maybe because Hammer called him Geriatric. T Claps brother.

  • Gnats 1 PAX 1 – from TurboTax

    It was a draw. The Gnats mobilized early and mounted a fierce attack, but the PAX persevered and evened the score with a strong showing. It all started with a burpee heavy warmup which, in all honesty, wasn’t much of a warmup at all. It was The Thang from the bell. Burpees were performed with a sprinkling of standard warmup exercises added to the mix and then it was on to the main event…PAX vs sandbag. Dividing up into teams of two and three, we moved back and forth in 10 yard increments carrying our sandbags in various fashions while bear crawling, running, burpee long jumping, etc in between rounds. We then dropped the sand bags and ran a few sprint relays wrapping things up with some Mary after returning to the Shovel Flag. Countorama nameorama and Russo prayed us out. Thanks for letting me lead guys and making us all look good for the little old lady videographer. Hammer, did you remember to give her Bushwacker’s contact info?

  • Brood of Vipers – from Akbar

    4 braved the frigid 37 degrees this morning to start out their week right. We arrived to witness the leftovers of a Sunday birthday party, and the Marsh was trashier than usually this gloom. Waterpik said it best – “the best thing about having a birthday party here is you don’t have to clean up.”

    6am – YHC, Hammer, and Waterpik started out with warm ups consisting of Windmills , SSH, Torso Twist Imperial Walkers, and… Hogsbreath pulls up speeding in Cowbell-like fashion to join us for Hillbillies

    If you ever run out of ideas to Q, the Exicon (frequently perused by @Shooter) and other backblasts across the nation offer a wealth of pain. That was the case for YHC this weekend, spending way too much time reading what our brothers have been up to in the gloom. Also gives you ideas on new exercises you may not of heard of – like the Wojo Squat, Flock o Seagulls, or String Rippers.

    QIC settled on a modified Brood of Vipers, from F3 Greenwood

    Thang: Three round ladder, 5 sets, 3-4 exercises in each set, IC and OYO, recovery run in between rounds

    All exercises Copperhead Style

    Round 1 12 reps
    Round 2 10 reps
    Round 3 5 reps

    1. Negative Pull Up (12 count down), Supine Row
    2. Calf raises, Wojo Squat (slap the ground), Side Lunge
    3. LBC, Hello Dolly, Heels to Heaven
    4. Merkin, Irkin, Werkin
    5. Freak Nasty, Cobra Merkin

    Mary IC

    Flutter kicks, E2k x 20, Stone Mountains x10

    Count, Name, Hammer prayed us out.

    Moleskin

    Hogsbreath was rather witty this morning. When we got to the second round of Irkins, Hogsbreath said “you’re really Irkin me.” Also noting as the daylight started to set in, that “the brighter it got, the uglier you guys look.”

    The term “looks good on paper” came to mind after set 4 & 5 in round 1, when YHC realized doing 3 tempo Merkin exercises x12 followed by 2×12 triceps was difficult to say the least. But we pushed through.

    I got enough workouts from surfing backblasts for 5 weeks. 😉

  • We’ve Had Enough of Your Shenanigans, Shooter! – from Bushwacker

    Everything is relative. This morning’s 40° Felt like 35° to YHC, and 55° to Shooter. He was already off to a bad start.

    WARM UP (to 50°)

    IC x10: High Knees, Butt Kicks, Toe Touches, Imperial Walkers, Windmills, Torso Twists

    THANG

    The pack of 6 PAX ran the regular route together at slightly slower than a 9 minute pace. Great mumblechatter complete with contemplations and chuckles.

    MARY

    After another appropriately extended absence, the Dice of Doom emerged from the presumably dank and dark dungeon where they reside when not inflicting groaning terror, generally at the hands of Shooter. And so it went that after Pelican started us off with a roll of 20 Merkins, it was Shooter’s turn. Shooter, Dice of Doom, Scramble – only one possibility, 50 Burpees! Instantly tired of Shooter’s shenanigans, instead of passing the dice to Waterpik, we wrapped up with 100 100s and 50 LBCs.

    COT

    Pelican prayed us out. Thanks gents, Shooter, you’re out!

    #Shooter #The Pelican #Waterpik #Akbar #Zoolander

  • Minute Mania – from Shooter

    Great showing at the Marsh following the month of RunCajunRun. Q planned a beatdown with minimum running this Gloom as I know many are wanting to rest the tread on their sneakers coming off an incredible month as mentioned by RY in his email.. YHC brought a companion (30 lbs Ruck plate) to the beatdown to inspire the PAX..

    Warmup
    10IC Windmills, 15IC SSH, 20 IC Grass grabbers and 25IC Butt kicks.

    Thang
    Wanting to bring back the premise of how the Marsh was formed YHC with phone in hand for the timer kept the PAX busy with multiple timed reps of exercises.

    All exercises would be max reps for a minute. Split into 2 groups of 4 with pull-ups and swing tucks. F/J
    Upon finishing PAX met on the sidewalk by the playground for Carolina dry docks and Sister Mary K/Catherine’s..
    We then ran down to school and back.
    Assembled at the court for the company of the ruck plate. Each PAX alternated running suicides with the plate for a min until each member completed a round. The rest of the men completed called exercise. Exercises included Mountain climbers, Peter Parker’s, Parker Peters, Shoulder taps, jump squats, Bobby Hurleys, Lunges and squats. Next up we took to our six for 3 rounds of chest press 5, 8 and 10 looking for the right number to complete in a min as the PAX completed LBCs passing along the plate.. Next up curls for the girls which proved inefficient in form with 10 and only getting through half of the PAX before the timer sang so we completed regardless. Then we were able to complete 10 shoulder presses while the PAX did overhead claps. We did SSH on a 2nd round of shoulder presses. With 8 mins remaining we completed a lap around the block returning for time for 20IC Crunchy frogs 🐸, because 360 on Saturday wasn’t enough. And ended with 20IC Flutter kicks…

    Appreciate the great showing on a Monday, especially Backdraft making the decision to join instead of hitting that snooze 😴…

    Let’s make sure we give Russo a similar showing at Grannies on Tuesday!!

    Until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Which way did he go? – from Shooter

    7 PAX posted on this spring feeling gloom to get in some more mileage as we close in on the RunCajunRun. At least 2 of the Qs teammates from team “Crawldaddies” have posted each Thursday for the month of February and have even had days where 4 and 5 posted.. Unfortunately though team “Unitards” have represented respectively in just about every AO for the month and the most important of them the 10k AU lait on Sunday mornings logging some freakish mileage. YHC decided today we would take another path, so after a brief warmup of 10IC SSH, Mummy kicks, Butt kicks, GM and Toe Touches the PAX ran through the park into Lakewood heights subdivision to the red light crossing on Florida into Greenleaves for a route that Pelican has been spotted on a couple times this month. Instructions were simple, journey out 20 mins and return.. The path along the way proved to have some obstacles such as leaning sidewalks (Ragnar preparation Akbar) and blinding lights that threw sir Wacker into an arms waving panic that caused a morning commuter to pause as if there was trouble ahead. The seen reminded YHC of recent memories at the Crazy Ivan where plenty PAX illuminated the path with headlamps blinding some along the way, but providing illumination for others. I guess the lights on this Gloom affected more PAX than originally thought as we had some detours taken on our return to the flag with Cowbell and Waterpik turning early and Bushwacker leading Akbar a stray in attempting the same detour.. All PAX eventually returned safely for our count and Cowbell graciously prayed out the PAX. If your M is on the fence of what it is we enjoy so much and so early in the Gloom get her out tonight at the Gipper for a 30 min beatdown at 6 with F3 and FIA hosted by Cowbell followed by some F2 at the taproom..

    Appreciate you men following my lead and until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!

    #akbar,#bushwacker, #cowbell, #pelican, #waterpik, #zoolander

  • Logging miles for RCR – from Waterpik

    5 Pax set out in the early morning gloom to log some miles for the RCR CSAUP at the Mandeville City Hall Scramble. Two laps around the circle, hit the pier and head back to the starting line for COT, count off and prayer.

  • Crawl Daddies Converge – from Shooter