F3 New Orleans

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  • To Bata or not Tabata – from Mobydick

    An overcast damp AO greeted the PAX this morning. Apologies to the runners. No moseying. After a 10 minute stretch and a little butt kicking and SSH YHC turned over the workout to the Tabata app. 45 sec exercise 30 sec rest. 6 exercises SSH/squats/merkins/crunches/freddie mercuries/box cutters 5 sets of each 1 minute between sets. Timed sets give everyone the chance to pack in all the reps he can.
    COT. and prayer for acceptance.

  • The Long Game – from Waterpik

    Every once in a while, you’ve just gotta go for it. That was YHCs mindset when I decided to send the Pax all the way down the mandeville lakefront to the stop sign at Girod st. For those unfamiliar, that adds another mile to the normal route at the weekly 5K.

    And so there you have it. After a very brief warmup, the Ruckers started out on their journey and the runners did the same.

    With 2 minutes to spare the pax reconvened at the mandeville city hall for cot, announcements. Thanks for Russo for praying us out.

  • Splashpad reopens – from Russo

    66 or so this morning for the reopening of the Splashpad. One of those days where YHC could just tell the fog would continue: humid, still, overcast after a rain. But a beautiful day nonetheless for I’m thankful for many things, like the ability to move my body, nachos, football, our Veterans, and a day off because of it, and this little F3 thing that seems to be catching on, among others.

    Warmup (all 10x IC)
    – Toe touches
    – Arm circles
    – Torso twists
    – Seal jacks
    – Grass grabbers

    Thang
    Mosey to lake and back, each block a different mode of transportation:

    Mosey
    Side shuffle
    Back pedal
    Skip
    Sprint

    We stopped at each stop sign (according to the rules of the road) for 10 merkins, 10 squats, 10 Peter Parkers (2 is 1).

    At the lake: Tabata (40 seconds on, 20 seconds off)

    – Freak nastys
    – BSSs
    – Urkins
    – Step ups
    – Buzz saw
    – SSHs
    – Mountain climbers
    – Crunchy frogs
    – Penguins
    – Cherry pickers

    Back to base, where COT, NOR, Announcments, and Prayer closed us out. A good time was had by all.
    SYITG

  • 2x2xTriple – from Charmin

    Started with two Knotts and two rucks. Ended with the same plus triple. Consistency and opportunity.

  • Chaos Monkey on the loose – from Kenna Brah

    Mosey to JPAS entrance:
    We started off with using the mace bar for 10 reps while everyone did slide straddle hops switched PAX for two rounds.
    Imperial Walkers 15x

    Two pax drag a large tire while one PAX did:
    10 Merkins
    10 BB Situps
    10 Bonnie Blairs Run to catch the two PAX, then switch PAX till we get back to the start

    Then Dora while the timer drags tire up the ramp and back
    100 Merkins
    200 BB Situps
    300 Squats
    Took the opportunity to use a grocery basket tied to a rope with the large tire, for a rope pulling the cart uphill through the grass as the timer.

    Chase the tire all the way to COT

    It was fun!!

  • Push and Pull – from Honeysuckle

    YHC arrived extra early at the Lion’s Den to perform a general site survey and determine the rough distance around the Civic Center, for no particular reason. Goose and Pope were the first to roll in, bearing the flag and bug spray. America’s Best arrived shortly thereafter. After Cardinal was initially mistaken for Enron, YHC knew it was going to be an interesting morning. As the rest of today’s PAX emerged from the gloom, a new figure was in their midst. Some might describe him as a silver surfer, but not today. This FNG would eventually be known as Captain D’s, in a cruelly orchestrated maneuver by AB. More on that later.

    Warmarama

    Hopefully sufficient disclaimer
    Side straddle hops
    Windmills
    Willie Mays Hayes
    Arm circles forward
    Arm circles reverse
    Cherry pickers
    High knees
    Butt kickers
    Toy soldiers
    Mosey around the Warren J Harang Municipal Center; carioca facing the center on the first side, nur on the second side, carioca facing the pond on the third side, run to the lion. The exercise is left to the reader whether or not we properly changed direction for the second carioca or unintentionally did the same direction both times.

    Thang 1

    Today’s theme is celebrations due to recent get togethers. E.g., Festivals, cook-offs, St Thomas Aquinas Family day this past Sunday, Gander going away party, AB pregame party. While some celebrations deal with more superficial ties we have with each other, many involve values, beliefs, communities, and people that are important down to our cores. As we thought about that, the PAX were to do three sets of 100 core exercises:
    –100 LBC’s
    –100 flutter kicks (2:1)
    –{10 v-ups, 10 Freddy Mercuries (2:1)} x 5 sets

    A run around the WJHMC would kick this off, as well as a lap between each set of 100. So 4 laps total. The difficulty of the core exercises took YHC a little by surprise (how soon Jurptober fitness wears off, as a wise PAX mused), and a few other PAX independently reached this conclusion as well.

    At the beginning of this Thang, we were 11 PAX strong. As YHC was performing LBCs, a second new figure arrived. Thinking that this was an OG member that YHC had not met yet, or perhaps Tree Root, YHC simply said, “Do 100 LBCs”. During one of the laps, YHC asked the new figure if we had met before. That is when the new figure introduced himself as Squanto from outside of Houston, who was in town for business. What a great day, to have a FNG and a downranger at the beatdown. Squanto did not do the beatdown in shoes, but as he is not on the Group Me, how would he have otherwise known to bring shoes?

    Thang 2

    The second class of celebrations covered today was birthdays. YHC has gone back and forth in terms of downplaying (YHC’s own) birthdays and celebrating them. YHC’s current opinion is that they should be celebrated, as an expression of gratitude for another year with loved ones.

    If this all sounds like a big circle burp, it was not. True, to an outside onlooker it appeared to be a big circle burp. The exercise was in a circle, but instead it was a burpday party. One at a time, a PAX says his birth month and whatever the numerical equivalent was, all the PAX do that many Kraken Burpees. It became quickly evident that Kraken Burpees were not the right exercise on this particular day, so after completing the Kraken Burpees for the first PAX, YHC changed them to be regular Burpees. In case any PAX thought that giving out his birth month was divulging precious personal identifiable information (PII), all that YHC really cared about is that they said a number between 1 and 12, inclusive. To date, YHC is aware of only one PAX faking their number. Some time in the future, this thang will be repeated with Social Security Number digits and will be known as the “Credit Freeze.”

    The PAX ultimately made it through this circle, and YHC is breathing a sigh of relief that the number of burpees wasn’t the day of the month as originally planned.

    Thang 3

    The PAX handled everything thrown at them today so far, perhaps due to the bifecta of having an FNG and a downranger. We had time to discuss one more celebration, the celebration of our suffering as Goose eloquently covered during the last Tough Guy Thursday. Over the past week or so, the PAX has celebrated F3 during its manniversary, with stories, videos natively and effortlessly inserted into the GroupMe chat, and a lone instance of a link to a YouTube video. All these have covered funny events from the past and gratitude for where we all are in our Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith journeys. F3 also pushes us to look forward, to keep pushing for how much farther we could be in those areas. To achieve this, we help each other in two broad ways: push and pull. The push includes words of encouragement or picking up another PAX as he finishes. These are intentional things we do to help each other. The pull is simply how we handle situations, whether others are watching or not. But when they are watching, sometimes we will never know how we may have inspired someone based on our example. Looking to your left or right during a beatdown, knowing everyone is tired, but seeing the other PAX grind it out. Seeing how someone is handling a difficult situation with strength and grace, or someone who is really strong in his faith. These set the examples of where we ourselves could be.

    So, instead of a commemorative plate or CMU about all this, the PAX partnered up for a commemorative Dora-like exercise. One partner is the push. He begins doing Bonnie Blairs. The other partner is the pull. He begins by running to the other side of the field and, when he gets there, doing Apollo Ohnos. As soon as the pull arrives to the other side, the push runs to the other side also and does Apollos. Then the pull immediately runs back and does Bonnies. And so on. This proved to be a nice, yet not comfortable, way to spend 8-10 minutes, and as YHC hoped it would add quite a bit of running to the beatdown, disguised as a Dora.

    Name-o-rama

    The FNG explained several things about himself, but his affiliation with Spahr’s had to be pried out. It was clear that AB had something up his sleeve. You could see it in his eyes. Apparently still raw about being named after a second-rate eye care center, AB was hungry to drag someone else down with him in an analogous way. Unfortunately for this FNG, names such as Long John Silver’s were mentioned. YHC ultimately agreed to Captain D’s. Looking forward to more beatdowns with Captain D’s.

    Animal-o-rama

    Hypotenuse bestowed the Animal to Safety Valve.

    Announcements covered a few additional details regarding Saturday’s and Sunday’s events. AB will keep everyone posted in the chat on Saturday, as to contingencies in case it rains. Bring bug spray Sunday.

    Intentions. As we brought the circle in, Squanto had some words of encouragement about the importance of F3.

    Enron prayed us out.

    Tclaps for everyone posting today, despite rumors of a runmageddon. We will hopefully be joined by Squanto again during his work travels.

    SYITG,
    Honeysuckle

  • Dora at The Gipper – from Einstein

    Fair Weather this morning at the Gipper – mid 60s

    Warmup: toe touch, sshops, arm circles, imperial walkers, hi jack hi jills, hillbillys,
    peter parkers, snap crackle pops, and more

    Thang: mosey to the St. Tammany Courthouse promenade for Dora-1-2-3
    partner up, 100 merkins, 200 lunges, 300 squats. While one partner works on the totals the other partner runs up the runway, up the stairs, perform one burpee, then back peddle , side shuffle or karaoke back to relieve partner.

    Mosey back to the flag.

    Mary: round robin of core, each pax picks a favorite; box cutters, crunches, leg lifts, American hammers, crunchy frogs, Ja-Lo(s)

    Returning Guest Pax Dinghy did the prayers honors

  • Double Pidgeon, Butterflies and Scantron Running (Oh My!) – from Charmin

    At 5:29, jokes were made about YHC’s shirt since it was part of my Halloween Costume, but now it is just a part of my rotation. After the jesting, YCH lead the count off since Triple Shift was already there thus we figured more coming wasn’t as likely.

    Starting at 5:30 Knotters walked away backwards, stretchers walked away backwards, and the runners ran away forward sine they apparently still haven’t received the memo.

    That being said, YHC mentioned on Monday that his hips were tight, so he directed Stretching with that in mind. We started out with Pool Boy (THE New Orleans Resident) and at some point he was traded for Kennah-Brah from the runners. YHC won’t say who received the better end of that deal, but all the locals know.

    At 6:12 with YHC watching my watch, wanting to get back to the proverbial shovel flag, Bolt decided to get creative by creating a stretch. We had just done the Pidgeon Stretch; so he decided to do a Double Pidgeon. It ended up being one of his better creations. Maybe Kennah-Brah was rubbing off on him.

    With a little over a minute to go, we make our way across the field and notice all the runners sitting doing a butterfly stretch. Apparently, they forget to run for 45 minutes without Pai Gow, or maybe we should rename Tuesday to Wally Stretch.

    That being said, we all start walking towards the flag and notice a tall, lanky, skinner runner coming in hot. It wasn’t until he was on top of us, that we realized that Scantron was coming in HOT! Jokes were made about him not running backwards, but it was good to see him push himself.

    COT consisted of Count-Off, with more that we started with, Name-O-Rama, and Announcements and Intentions. YHC then read from Matthew (9:20-22) galvanizing the PAX to discern what we have been suffering with for too long, and to take that to Our Father in Heaven. Even though he knows all, just like an earthly father wants, he desires his children, us, to share it with him.

  • “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything” – from America’s Best

    Disclaimer: Those who have admitted to not seeing “Back to the Future” may some may experience significant shade during this backblast. Reader discretion advised.

    YHC loves time travel. Whether it melts your brain (Primer), or rots your brain (Hot Tub Time Machine), YHC will watch it. And in most of these tropes, there are plenty of numbers, pseudoscience, and doing something, going back (Jack) and doing it again– much like an F3 beatdown.
    And so today, just after the 68th anniversary of the day Doc Brown hit his head on his toilet and devised the Flux Capacitor, the PAX joined the ranks of Bill and Ted, and time travelled.
    The pioneer, at least in YHC’s mind, was Marty McFly, so this beatdown was themed on his first foray into the past.
    We start in present day (1985), will travel to 1955, and then hopefully, back to the present again. As everyone (except Enron) knows, we need two things in order to travel: 88 MPH, and 1.21 Gigawatts.

    Thang 1: Time travel from 1985 to 1955
    M= 0.88 miles
    P= 88 Peter Parkers
    H= 88 Hillbilly Squats

    This was knocked out as we ran/nar, answering random time travel/BTTF trivia (including BTTF music trivia). Montana impressed with his knowledge of the future (2015).
    Upon returning to the flag area, the PAX quickly knocked out a round of 21s (curls) which represented the necessary 1.21 gigawatts of power. And like that, we were in 1955.

    Thang 2: Time travel from 1955 back to 1985
    This is obviously going to be more difficult, as plutonium cannot be purchased at every corner store in 1955.
    88 MPH this time:
    88 Merkins
    88 Parker-Peters
    88 Hydraulic Squats

    This proved to be more time consuming than YHC had planned, so we aborted early and moved to the 1.21 gigawatt portion of 1955. What other way would one achieve 1.21? Blackjack.
    Start on the sideline between picnic tables. Perform 20 coupon curls – run to other tables, perform 1 V-up. Nur back and do 20 coupon curls. Run back for 2 V-ups. Repeat until you do 1 CC and 20 v-ups, running between the sidelines. Always adds up to 21.
    (“ Black Jack” officially calls for Merkins and LBCs, but more Merkins seemed too extreme*, and LBCs seemed to easy. And… I’ll say it… we don’t do enough curls).

    The required effort was great, but the motivation to return to the present was even greater—don’t forget, in 1955 your mother is trying to get in your pants (YHC recently re-watched the film, and this theme is much more disturbing than remembered).

    In the end, ironically, we ran out of time.

    We headed back to the flag for the final trivia question:
    At precisely what time was the clock tower struck by lighting? (and not by a tornado, Enron)
    YHC reminded everyone, that just as in the prior song trivia section, where no answer resulted in 10 merkins, and incorrect answers resulted in 4, this time an incorrect answer (or no answer) will result in 10 merkins, a correct answer, only 4.

    And so we all did 10 Merkins. The correct answer is right there. Right… there.

    Thanks for playing, everyone.

    To be continued . . .

    – Goodbye Goose Get-together Nov 12th at the Enron property
    (undercard event at AB’s house the day before, weather permitting)

    COT and Dox prayed us out.

    …Coda (the end is the beginning is the end):
    YHC ran out of time, but we got it right. We finally got it right. The first 17 times YHC ran this beatdown, tragedy befell the PAX. Once, blinded by poor parking protocol rage, Dox smashed the Prius with such force that it ripped the space-time continuum. *Another time, YHC had programmed merkins for Blackjack, and Enron’s shoulders finally exploded. And then there was the iteration where Tree Root showed up. Luckily, YHC had upgraded his Turo rental DeLorean with the Mr. Fusion attachment, and was able to keep going back and doing it over until we got it (mostly) right.

    “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
    …

  • That’s a whole Tabata bricks – from Russo

    With attendance waning, Granny regular Steve potentially out with flu-like infirmities, and regular Marsh posters completing their early week duties, YHC assumed he might be flying sad clown solo this morning. Admittedly, I thought about turning over and sacking, but I’m glad my feet hit the floor, since a pax of 5 greeted Granny for some brick work.

    Warmup – 10x IC
    – Seal jacks (eventually)
    – Toe touches
    – Imperial walkers
    – Grass grabbers
    – High knees

    Thang
    Tabata:
    – 1 minute each with bricks, 20 seconds rest, with some moseying through the columns after each of the four rounds

    Round 1
    – 8 count body builders
    – Cherry pickers
    – Overhead claps
    – Nutcrackers
    – Hallelujah squats

    Round 2
    – Tricep extensions
    – Arm curls
    – Air presses
    – Squats
    – Arm circles
    – Milk maids

    Rinse and repeat rounds 1 and 2 for 3 and 4.

    COT, with NOR and prayer before heading back to start a Tuesday.

    Pleasant surprise seeing you all this morning. Mumblechatter was high on the entertainment scale, as movie quotes ruled the day. SYITG.