F3 New Orleans

Author: Hawgcycle

  • Another Q – Another Stupid Idea

    YHC pulled up to Okwata at 0527 (super early for me) to find Griswold patiently waiting.  Tool pulled in hot, doing a donut in his Chevy long bed while chunking the shovel flag like a spear out of the window into the ground at our feet.  YHC volunteered to Q, forgot the disclaimer and headed out.

    The Thang

    Warm up COP – SSH x 30; IW x 30; DQ x 15; LSS x 30

    We then moseyed to the levee.  YHC decided to run up the slickest part and close to face planted as I reached the top.  From the top of the levee we completed a set of Quadraphiia* – four minutes of running down the levee forward and back up backwards.  We ran up and down 7 or 8 times.  I was shooting for 12, but that was some very poor estimating.  There is an added degree of difficulty to Quadriphilia* on this levee due to the fresh sod.

    *Found out Quadraphilia sounds remarkably similar to something Tool picked up during Spring Break back in the late 90s.

    From there we moseyed along the top of the levee stopping to do a set of Jack Webbs – escalator from 1 to 10, merkins followed by air presses.  At this point Tool questioned what the standard is for the last number in a Jack Webb.  I think it is 10, but maybe that is up for debate.

    After the Jack Webbs we moseyed to the bottom of the hill for some Mary:  LBC x 40; Penguin x 20; Elbow Plank Jacks* x 20; Dying Cockroach x 20; Elbow Peter Parkers* x 15; Flutter Kicks x 20.

    *This was the first time I have done Elbow Plank Jacks and Elbow PP (chuckle).  I highly recommend them.

    We followed Mary up with 10 hill sprints – sprint to the top of the hill and recovery jog back down, everyone stays together.

    Mosey to the water’s edge for some arm work.  20 dips followed by another bad idea by YHC – decline merkins on the steps leading into Lake Pontchartrain x 9.  Fortunately no one indeed up in the lake.  We followed that with Incline Merkins a safe distance from the water x 6 (I didn’t think about how embarrassing that would be to write) and Squats x 20.  Then it was time to Mosey back to the flag

    Announcements: BR Mud Run 4/16.  Let’s do it.  http://www.battle611.com/battleofbatonrouge/

    We ended with a Shout Out.

    Griswold has the flag for Saturday.  Aye!

     

  • 610 Stomp #28

    YHC returned to action at The 610 Stomp.  It was good to be back.  Some of the regulars were treated to a visit by RY as his M recovered from a PR in the Rock ‘n Roll half.  Some chit-chat, a quick disclaimer, a quick overview of the route and we were off.

    The Thang

    PAX choice today regarding how to treat the 1 minute interval.  Burpees seemed to be the pain of choice today.  Two groups of three formed.  The group YHC was in made it past Canal, but didn’t make it to Airline.  Banks St. I think.  It was dark and I was tired.  RY treated our group to some interesting history lessons about the statue of the Cuban National Hero Jose Marti at Banks and Jeff Davis.  Once we got back to Roosevelt Mall Nip/Tuck kicked it in to another gear.  T-claps for finishing strong.  Our group met back up with the others at the flag and we sealed the deal with 15 burpees, at which time RY let out a guttural yell akin to a Spartan going into battle, screaming 15! with all his might.

    Announcements

    Baton Rouge Mud Run 4/16 – Let’s do it! – http://www.battle611.com/battleofbatonrouge/

    Shout Outs

    Continued thanksgiving for our health and opportunity to come out and get better.  Special prayers for our Ms and 2.0s

     

  • Monday Morning Math

    6 men met in great temps for a Monday morning workout and old-school Algebra II lesson at Rock City.  Unfortunately, a record turnout down South and a late evening backblast puts us at 0-2 against The Skinny today.  Congrats huggers.  Don’t worry, we’ll be back.

    Always great to see the Mav at #RockCity.  As he tied his shoes (#safety1st) YHC finished the disclaimer and we headed to the Rock Pile,  We picked up Cowbell and Shorty on the way.  No pre-thang Chit-Chat for these two.  They also missed the disclaimer, and perhaps YHC should have reiterated it.  Not sure these two are the wisest Rock selectors among us, but I should probably remove the beam from my own eye on that one.

    The Thang

    Warm-up COP:  SSH x 25; IW x 25; Don Quixotes x 15

    We selected our rocks.  Not much running today, so YHC advised the pax to go big.  We headed a few yards to the t-ball field where we gathered for 10!

    10! – 3 exercises all in cadence:  Squat Presses, Bench Presses, Back Rows.  We started with 10 each, then 9 each, 8 each, 7….2, 1.  That made for a total of 55 Squat Presses, 110 Bench Presses, and 110 Back Rows.

    We then hit the track for a Tabata run.  Sprint 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds of slow jog recovery.  We continued for about 1/2 a mile, until we reached the playground

    Mini-Murph:  5 pull-ups, 10 merkins, and 15 squats.  The goal was to do this 10 times, but the pax was so fast we through in an extra cycle for a total of 55 pull-ups, 110 merkins, and 165 squats.

    Time to mosey back to our rocks, we cut diagonally across the park, hoping to save some time for Mary.

    6 MOM:  LBC IC x 40; Dying Cockroach IC x 30; Penguins IC x 20; Russian Twist IC x 20

    Return the rocks and horses to the stable back to the flag.

    Shout out

    Great work by the pax today.  We got through more then I thought we would.  Really fast on the Mini-Murph.  Continued prayers for Monte Williams and his family.  Praises for the weather and this group of men and the accountability they afford.

     

     

     

  • The Bar Has Been Set

    T-claps to Jingle Vader who saw his NOLA record of 17 straight posts come to an end at Okwata this morning.  Rumor has it he is out of town.  I would also like to note that, although not nearly as impressive, YHC’s streak of 10 straight fartsacks also came to an end.

    The Thang

    YHC gave the disclaimer as Bubba rolled in hot to make a JV-less pax of 5.  We moseyed around the Mardis Gras Fountain and selected a nice mushy area where there had obviously been some sort of monster truck competition for our Warm-up COP:  SSH x 30; IW x 30; Don Quixote x 15; LSS x 30; Arm Circles Foward x 15 and Reverse x 15

    We then moseyed to the top of the levee where we prepared for some Quadraphilia.  I saw this once in some old back blasts, but they never explained what it was, just that it was awful.  Fortunately, it was recently defined on the exercise page, so it made it’s Okwata debut this morning

    Quadraphilia – Run down the hill forward and up the hill backwards.  Continue for four minutes. #crowdpleaser

    We then moseyed along the top of the levee stopping right before Canal Blvd.  Here we ran down the levee forward and back up backwards once more to get our mind right for some push-a-rama

    Merkins x 10, Wide-Merkins x 10, Diamond Merks x 10, Stagger Left Merks x 10, and Stagger Right Merks x 10.  Rinse and repeat for a total of 100 reps.

    We recovered and headed to the Lake Okwata aka Pontchartrain.  Here it was every man for himself as we grabbed some ledge and did 100 dips OYO.  (Note to self: this is harder than I thought).

    After a 10 second rest as we waited on the 6:00 am Lakeshore Dr. traffic, it was back up to the top of the levee for some Triple Nickel

    Triple Nickel:  Run to the bottom of the levee and perform 5 reps of said exercise, run back up to the top for 5 more reps.  All running is forward this time.  We did 5 sets varying the exercises (Burpees, Lunges – 5 each leg, Merkins, Burpees, four count flutter kicks).

    Then it was 100 LBC’s OYO and back to the flag.

    Shout Out

    Continued prayer’s for OSHA’s wife.  We also prayed for the family of Monte Williams after the death of his wife Ingrid.

    We also took it upon ourselves to rename Fountain.

     

     

     

     

  • 610 Stomp #22

    “To Fartlek tis better than to Fartsack” – Anonymous

    A sub-40s morning in NOLA as five men braved the cold to stomp the gloom.  We were missing some of the usual suspects.  Rumor has it that they have started a 6 days on / 6 days off routine.  YHC gave the disclaimer and we were off.

    The Thang

    We took the usual Bayou route.  6 minutes of jogging followed by 1 minute of the PAX choice.  Rinse and Repeat.  YHC has been wanting to substitute a 30 second sprint for the burpees every since I read about it’s introduction by SFx a few weeks ago.  I was also looking to stay away from burpees after the beatdown my lower back received during Heisenberg’s Rock City Q yesterday.  Thankfully SFx joined me in the sprints.  We made it to the middle of I-10 before we had to turn around.  On the way back we past a man impersonating Griswold.  Finally, at the start of Roosevelt Mall, we caught up to the real Griswold along with Tool and OSHA.  SFx was excited about the opportunity for the PAX to finish together for the first time in Stomp history.  Then Tool dashed his hopes as he shouted out “Finish Strong” and took off in a sprint.  This “Finish Strong” call proved to be far to early as YHC finished very weakly.  We sealed the deal with 15 burpees.  That’s how we Stomp.

    Shout Out

    Continues prayers for family members and friends facing health issue.

     

  • Pourin’ on the PAX

    6 PAX posted in the pourin’ gloom.

    Began with splashing puddle mosey to museum and back to peristyle to warm up.

    In peristyle:

    SSH x 20

    IW x 20;

    Peter Parker x 15;

    PlankJack x 15;

    Parker Peter x 15;

    Arm Circle x 40 one-way and then 40 the other way.

    20 IW Squats.

    Happy Jacks (5 SSH – 2 jump squats – 6 cycles )

    Mosey back out into rain in great lawn

    Bear Crawl Ring of Fire (2 rounds with 10 merkins).

    Black Jack across great lawn side line to sideline. Burpees on one side, squats on other. Made about halfway through.

    Next was Four Corners of great lawn – 2 rounds with 10 of the following respective corners: dollys, flutters, Russian twists, and LBCs.

    After four corners, headed out of rain under peristyle for two rounds of “Bring Sally Up”, first merkin style and then squat style. The merkin Sally up was a beat down.

    Ended with Russian twists and dollys before mosey to flag.

  • Gaude-loopy

    On the Feast of OLG in mild New Orleans December morning in the gloom,
    19 Pax, including 2 FNG, began with moseyed to the museum for
    warm-ups. SSH x 40; IW x 30; Peter Parker x 15; PlankJack x 15; Parker
    Peter x 15; Arm Circle x 40 one-way and then 40 the other way. Ended
    warm-up with 20 IW Squats.

    We moseyed to picnic shelter near lake. Inspired by RY on my first F3
    work-out, we broke out the Deck of Death. Everyone got a piece of a
    picnic bench
    Spades=Derkins
    Clubs= Dips
    Hearts=Mission Impossible Holds
    Diamonds= Floyd Meaweathers

    Went about half way through deck, then went to lake track for Indian
    Run with 10 burbees half way through and then 30 slow slow squats
    about 2/3 way through (Squats included 10-sec holds at bottom of squat
    10, 20, 25, and 30).

    Pax moseyed back to shelter to continue deck of death. Had to cut
    short to mosey. Stopped at museum for one round of People’s Chair.

    Moseyed to great lawn for Mary’s Deck of Death.

    Spades=Russian Twist
    Clubs= Reach-Throughs
    Hearts=vertical toe touches
    Diamonds= flutters

    Didn’t finish- sprinted to flag.

    Two FNGs:
    Stephen=Kim Chi
    Todd=Wolf

    Prayer:
    – mention of Our Lady of Guadalupe Feast Day, Patroness of Americas
    and the Unborn Child
    – Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ’s “Fall in Love” Prayer

    -Bubba

  • Bloom Where You are Planted

    A lot of pre-workout mumble chatter regarding Shorty’s double Q beatdowns at both Rock City and City Park last week.  The yoga master left quite an impression on the Pax.  YHC can only assume our skinny armed brethren had two flags this morning as there was none to be found at Rock City.  After a quick disclaimer, we moseyed to the Rock Plie

    The Thang

    Circle up by the tracks for the warm-up COP all IC:  SSH x 30; Good Mornings (aka Hammy Poppers) 20; Forward Arm Circles x 20, backwards arm circles x 20; merkins x 15; calf raises x 40; squats x 30

    We Selected our rocks and moseyed about 20 feet, circled up, and dropped our rocks. We then went back to the rock pile to select a bigger rock to go with our first one.  YHC did have plans for using the first rock, unfortunately those plans never materialized, as we stayed in this COP using the big rock for the rest of the workout.

    All exercises were in cadence and included 5 sets:

    • Shoulder Presses x10, x8, x6, x4, x2.  Total = 60 reps
    • Curls x10, x8, x6, x4, x2.  Total = 60 reps
    • Bench Presses x20, x16, x12, x8, x4.  (That one was harder than I thought it would be)  Total = 120 reps
    • Rows x20, x16, x12, x8, x4  (This one was as hard as I thought it would be)  Total = 120 reps
    • Squats x10, x8, x6, x4, x2.  Total = 60 reps
    • Lunges x10, x8, x6, x4, x2.  Total = 60 reps
    • Calf Raises x30, x25, x19, x12, x7.  (YHC missed the mark on the number of reps a few times with this one.) Total = 186 reps

    We returned both rocks back to the pile and then ran horses to the stable back to the virtual flag.

    Naked Man Moleskin

    It was great to see Jingle Vader back at Rock City after his recon mission to The Skinny last week.  When we asked him what it was like, he said it was mostly hugging and talking about your feelings.

    This may have set the record in New Orleans for the least amount of moseying.  That wasn’t the original intention, but it worked out.  As I sit down to right this up, I am a little dismayed that it took the whole time to do that one COP.  I guess we will know later today or tomorrow if it was effective or not.

    It seems like there is an inverse relationship between running and #mumblechatter.  With almost no running this morning, #mumblechatter was rampant.  T-claps to Bogey and Amnesty for their ability to distract the Q with random questions about astrology and Q commands.  YHC was a little slow on recognizing their tactics.

     

  • 11 Habits of Partially Effective Qs.

    Partially may be too strong of a word.

    15 residents and 2 prodigal sons gathered in perfect temperatures for this morning’s mystery Q.  The scheduled Q had to drop out so YHC and RY thought it would be appropriate to share the love and give some of the newer Pax a chance to Q, all the while proclaiming our sage wisdom to their eager ears.

    Habit 1:  Arrive to the AO 10 minutes early.

    Habit 1:  Grow an awesome mustache that commands respect

    Habit 2:  Don’t wear monkey feet

    Habit 3:  Watch out for bikes.

    Habit 4:  Always start with the disclaimer

    After explaining the importance of having different people Q and forgetting to state the disclaimer, we took off across Magazine  (taking slightly different paths) so we could warm-up within earshot of the tomatoes.

    Habit 4:  It’s important that you give the Pax clear direction.  We introduce each exercise with a standard set of three two part commands, e.g.  Command 1:  “Next exercise is (pause) The Side Straddle Hop!”…Command 2: “Ready position (pause) Move!”…Command 3: “In Cadence (pause) Exercise!” and then start the count.  Don’t forget the last command of “Exercise!.”  That is the one that ensures everyone starts together.

    Warm-up COP all IC:  SSH x 30; IW x 30; Merkins x 20; Plank Jacks x 30; Low-Slow Squats x 29; Peter Parkers x 24

    Habit 5:  If some jackass calls you into the COP to lead an exercise without any warning, then you should do some random number of said exercise so that he will be faced with how awful his memory is when he goes to write the backblast.

    From here we moseyed to the abandoned soccer goal and divided up into four groups, forming a diamond about 20 yards apart.

    Habit 6:  Design the workout so that no matter the fitness level, all men get smoked and no man gets left behind.  One way of doing this is for the Q and the fast guys to run ahead to the next location and plank or perform some sort of exercise while everyone catches up.  Another way is to include timed exercises where the pax does AMRAP (as many reps as possible).

    Rocket Man – AMRAP at each station for 30 seconds with a 10 second recovery as you rotate to the next station.  Peek-a-boo pull-ups, Squats, Merkins, Burpees, Rinse and Repeat.

    Habit 7:  Plagiarize.  If something works, steal it and use it the next time you Q.  There are hundreds of great exercises listed on the website.  Don’t feel pressured to be original.  By the way, thanks to Yuengling for Rocket Man.

    At this point YHC passed the Q off to Reluctant Yankee who had his heart set on driving his Chevy to the levee.  However, a train cut off our access to the levee so Yank made a sudden change to 6 MOM.

    Habit 8:  The best laid plans sometimes go awry.  Fewer pax may show up than expected, or more pax may show up, or a train may get in your way, or they may suddenly replace your favorite pull-up bars with some kind of twisted metal, post-modern sculpture with chains.  The point is you need to have some extra workouts in your back pocket (literally in your back pocket if you are using a weinke and wearing bike coach’s shorts) ready to use at a moments notice.

    Habit 9:  Remember that pace is important.  Standing around and not doing anything purposefully is a workout killer.  This is a corollary of Habit 8, or maybe vice versa.  I’m not really sure, but it probably doesn’t matter (Notice how obnoxious it is to ramble and not be purposeful, even in the backblast).

    Six Minutes of Mary all IC:  LBC x 25; Flutter Kick x 24; Rosalita x Veinticinco, LBT x 23; Russian Twist x 20

    At this time the train was gone so we followed Yankee to the levee

    Chevy to the Levee:  10 Burpees, 25 Mary Katherine’s at the top, 25 Parker Peters on the other side.  Run back to the beginning and repeat doing 10, 25, and 20 reps.

    Hit the rail road tracks for Wiley Coyote IC x 12

    Habit 10:  Never lead the pax into doing something illegal or highly dangerous

    Back to the park for some Tchoupitoulas Tchoo-Tchoo.  Pax in a line in plank as the man at the end bunny hops over everyone.  We made it through one rotation.

    Back to the flag for the COT.  Prayers for friends and family facing treatments and surgeries during the holidays.  Celebration of Amnesty’s grandmothers life.

    Habit 11:  There is probably never a good reason to quote John Cougar Mellencamp during the COT.  

    • T-claps to all the men that stepped up and led exercises today.
    • T-claps to Osha for channeling his inner Corps Commander.
    • T-claps to Heisenberg for being able to count to 3 in Spanish.
    • T-claps to the pax for being able to count to 25 in Spanish.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • 610 Stomp #15 – Bayou Boogaloo

    5 Burpee starved men met in the brisk City Park gloom hoping to earn their turkey and dressing this week.  There was some necessary needling of Amnesty for missing his Q yesterday.  YHC decided to stick with the new Moss Street route, extending it two blocks past Canal to get it closer to 4.5 miles.  After a quick disclaimer we we set off

    The Thang

    Run past the museum and out of the park.  Head Southish on Bayou St. John / Moss St.  Continue 2 blocks past Canal, then turn around and come back to the flag running along the other side of the Bayou.  All the while, stopping every 6 minutes to do one minute of burpees/recovery.  Once everyone gets back to the flag we seal the deal with 10 additional burpees.

    Naked Man Moleskin

    • In reality the route was about 4.3 miles.  I think we can stretch it out to Banks and make it 4.5.
    • Great job this morning.  I think everyone ran this route faster this week than last week.  Everyone was under the 10 min/mile pace.  Time to add more burpees?
    • For some reason Shorty and SFx decided it would be a good idea to try to fit in 15 burpees at each stop.  T-claps to them for getting in 100 burpees this morning.
    • The dew on the banks of the bayou is much thicker and wetter than other places.  #Science
    • The Ideal gas station near Parkway Bakery has gas for $1.53 #Corn

    Shout Out

    We prayed for those facing physical ailments and poor health during the holidays.