Blog

  • Lone Ranger

    Arrived to a quiet Scramble with a lot of regulars deciding to take either a smart sack or a fart sack. Whichever the choice there was a Lone Ranger in Garfield as he appeared out of the darkness minus Tonto. After some chatter we jumped into our warmup.

    All IC 10 Windmills, Toe Touches, Imperial Walker Squats and SSH.

    Moseyed our route crossing paths with one time poster Roundup as we headed toward the fishing pier.. Garfield and the YHC shared in some great conversation along the way. Garfield clearly showed mercy pacing with the Q as to not leave him journeying all a lone…

    Returned to the AO and completed 20 IC Scorpion kicks, 20 IC Little Manny crunches, 20 IC Hello Dollies and closed with 10 IC Jane Fonda’s 10 IC Toe to knee L/R..

    Appreciate the post Garfield!!

    count, announce, COT

    YHC prayed us out..

    👊🏻👍🏻✌🏻 Till the next Gloom

  • Rise of the Q

    El Wire couldn’t Q this AM – has been getting his butt kicked at work! So I decided to take the Q for him. I haven’t been taking the DAILY RED PILL the last few glooms. After some nudges from Tinkles and Angie’s List – I knew 4 misses were too many in a row – so I was back out in the GLOOM.

    We started with a heckle from Swamp Cock to quit talking and get to work. We mosey’d over field across from the zoo. Here we had our first COP:

    SSH x 20, Slow Squats x 20, Dying Bugs x 20, Mtn Climbers x 20 and Morning Glories x 10.

    Mosey’d over to the FLY. On the way we got crushed by the stench of dead crawfish.

    Circled up by the RIVER – beautiful view of the Mississippi.

    Here we did IC Merks x 20, Walking Planks x 20, Wife Pleasers x 20, One leg left wife pleasers x 15, one leg right wife pleasers x 15, fire hydrants each leg x 20, Donkey Kicks x 20 (supposed to switch at 10, Bartman forgot now one butt cheek is bigger than the other!)

    From here we Mosey’d over to Monkey Hill. At Monkey Hill we did MONKEY HUMPERS 20 on one side, climbed over and did 18, then back for 16, and bounce 14,12,10, 8. At 8 we stopped.

    We lined up for some head to head sprints: Tinkles vs I Love You Man – I love you man won. Yankee vs Stubing – Yankee lost, Stubing won but it was close, Sandbar vs Saban, GSpot vs NipTuck, etc I didn’t check in to see who the victors were but I definitely ran faster bc I was running against another human. I plan on bringing more of this type of thing – I need this kind of pressure.

    After our sprints we did the long mosey to the labyrinth. PAX was required to PINGPONG back and forth to sweep the SIX. Before the mosey we did 20 LBT and PICKLE POUNDERS to catch our breath – then we took off.

    At the labyrinth we did 20 dips IC on the benches, 20 dying roaches, 20 lbcs, 20 Russian twists, and 20 low country crabs. After that we did some backward bear crawls, sideways bear crawls.

    After this we mosey’d back to the FLAG. At the FLAG we did a plank rotation to fill the last 2 minutes.

    Always a pleasure to lead, thanks for the nudges aka mini headlocks to get me back to the gloom. I usually resist the wake up but I have NEVER regretted posting in the gloom.
    See you in the gloom every Mon, Wed, Fri for the near future!

  • Easter is Coming

    Having conquered the trail on their trip to the Olympic Park in Conyers, Georgia, a trio of Ragnarians returned to The Gipper this morning for a beat down. Expecting a running adverse Q named Maverick, the PAX were crestfallen to learn that Maverick had taken ill and had roped YHC into “running” the show. Not sure what got into him, but YHC took mercy on the Ragnarians and uncharacteristically kept the running to a relative minimum while focusing on agility, strength and balance instead.

    After a warmup of Imperial Squat Walkers (10x IC), Seal Jacks (20x IC), Windmills (10x IC), Imperial Walkers (20x IC), Toe Touches (10x IC), and SSHs (20x IC), the PAX moseyed over to the Justice Center.

    With a starting line about 30 yards from the Justice Center stairs, the PAX executed the following agility sequences flawlessly: run there and back at 60%; run there at 70% and return walking down the stairs backwards with a back pedal back to the starting line; backpedal there and run 70% back to the start; crossover run there and back both directions; carioca there and bunny hop each stair to the top of the stairs then bunny hop down and carioca back; repeat facing the other direction; shuffle ten yards, reverse direction shuffle for five and then run at 95% to the top of the stairs; and finally repeat facing the opposite direction with a 100% run. (YHC didn’t say there would be NO running, just “not that much”).

    Recovery walk to the side of the Justice Center to partner up for wheelbarrows…out for 20 yards or so then switch up and return.

    Mosey to the front of the Justice Center and circle up for: T Merkins, Nolan Ryans each side, long slow flutter kicks, copperhead Merkins, dynamic side hip planks each side, Freddy Mercury’s, Merkins, jackknives each side and finally A-B-C-D abs, all 10x IC.

    Mosey to Bedrock on our way back to the Shovel Flag for some coupon work. Partner up for torso twists with the coupon one direction for 10x OYO, then opposite direction 10x OYO, then over unders 5x OYO each direction, then rinse and repeat the torso twists.

    Final mosey to The Gipper for the Causeway sobriety balance challenge. A good parlor trick as it is much harder than it appears.

    Countorama, nameorama, and Einstein prayed us out.

    Thanks for letting me lead this morning guys and here’s hoping Maverick, Coconuts, Tanked Up! and Moby Dick conquer their respective illnesses and injuries so they can return to The Gipper soon.

  • Spot Start at Popeye’s

    Rev Sox is on the IL with shoulder inflammation so the team at Popeye’s turned to YHC for the spot start. Temps were in the mid 60s and the birds were out in full force.

    Warm-Up

    SSH x 25, Mountain Climbers x 26, Imperial Walkers x 20, Grass Grabbers x 15, Parker Peter x 20 – this all occurred after a mosey of about 15 feet.

    The Thang

    We moseyed to the ledge by the replica of the West Metairie Canal, for some 363 exercises. For those that have forgotten, the 363 was the developed to commemorate the World’s victory over Uptown at the 2017 Gnarly Nutria: World 363 – Uptown 360. The exercise consists of 3 reps of super slow cadence. If you are doing merkins it is a 4 count to go down, another 4 count to come up, etc. You end up holding yourself in the worse possible position at the end of these 3 reps. That didn’t quite come out right, but I mean for merkins you would be holding a mission impossible, for squats it would be an Al Gore…you get it. After those 3 slow reps, you do 6 regular cadence reps that again bring you to Mission Impossible or Al Gore or whatever at the end. Hold that and then start 3 more super slow reps. It’s meant to be a burner, they way it burns the World Victory into your memory forever.

    We did 3-6-3 Merkins, 3-6-3 Squats (using the ledge for full compliance), 3-6-3 Inclined Merkins, then 10 box jumps, 3-6-3 Decline Merkins (by far the worst), Tatum Channings x 20, Channing Tatums x 20.

    Long mosey to a sticker filled soccer field near W. Napoleon for 5 minutes of 12 Burpee EMOM. That’s 60 burpees total for everyone reading this not named Abacus

    Partnered up at the outdoor gym for partner assisted pull ups on the rings: Reps of 10, 7, and finished with 4.

    Long Mosey around Gar Lake to the pavilion. Here we (and by we I mean I) introduced Dr. Webb to F3 NOLA. This is a marriage of Dr. Ws and Jack Webbs that comes from the sick and twisted mind of F3 Jackson’s SFx (formerly of F3 NOLA and F3 Valley Forge. I’m not sure if Jackson claims him or not. He’s definitely a nomadic ginger). JV will love this. 1 Dr. W followed by 4 Dying Cockroaches in cadence, 2 Dr. Ws / 8 dying cockroaches, 3/12, etc… We worked our way up to 5/20 before I felt like time was short (yeah, that’s why I stopped at 5) and moseyed to the flag.

    Luck would have it, we were two minutes early so we did another 3-6-3 set of merkins and squats.

    Boo Boo gave a good reminder to us all about the importance of gratitude in our prayers. I prayed us out, struggling to be heard over the chatter of the birds.

  • A Fill in Fartlekker

    Rudy’s not allowed to Fartlek right now, so he needed a fill in for the 610 Stomp. YHC is an old Fartlekker so it was not a probably for me. I showed up at roughly 0529:40 and gave the disclaimer. It was a beautiful day for a run. Here’s how it went

    • Normal Pace to the NOMA Fountain. I call it the fountain, but there is no fountain, just a lily pond with a huge statue of tri-colored bacon. Upon arrival I gave the instructions. I would call out an effort number from 1-100 (100 being a full out sprint) and a landmark to run to. After reaching said landmark, the pax was to circle back and pick up the 6.
    • 75 to the end of Lelong Drive
    • Easy jog to across Esplanade and down the sidewalk to Moss Street
    • 100 to the first big tree on Moss
    • 70 to the curve
    • Easy jog to Dumain
    • 50 to Orleans
    • 65 to the Lafitte Greenway
    • Easy jog to Bienville
    • 58 to Canal
    • Easy Jog back to Bienville
    • 70 to Conti
    • Avoid the car and truck at the Lafitte Greenway
    • 55 to Orleans
    • 70 to the curve (the real curve) near Cabrini
    • Easy jog to the bridge
    • 60 to Esplanade then an easy jog to City Park until the 6 arrives.
    • Easy Jog to Roosevelt Mall
    • 88 to the Flag
    • Seal the Deal with 20 Burpees
    The Skinny

    If you question the accuracy of the above – you should……my nine year old and Rev Sox both have this in common: they giggled when I announced our exercise this morning. I’ll have everyone know that fartlek is a bonafide Swedish running term used with a straight face by Kinesiology majors around the world no matter how funny it sounds in English……we covered approximately 4.5 miles give or take, depending on how many times you swept the 6. I feel like we got our money’s worth……I was glad to see that so many guys survived Tool’s Big Rock Challenge on Monday. Cowbell reminded me of my own foolishness. Is it better to not be able to perform any of the exercises or admit defeat and take the walk of shame? I contend that the walk of shame is never acceptable…….we had a Recall sighting. He ran with us for a bit on the bayou then peeled off to run the Wisner bridge. Not sure why he is choosing to run alone instead of with the pack. Perhaps it is the shame associated with being a Razorback fan. It does make life difficult, but you have to be tough and overcome it…….sealing the deal is a Stomp Tradition and it brings joy to Fracsac’s heart. Our next site Q needs to make sure it regularly happens ……. speaking of which, thanks to Cowbell for his reign as Stomp Commander. Under his tutelage the Stomp has grown at least two-fold in average attendance. If U.S. Presidents can take credit for economic growth, then Cowbell should be given credit for this ……. next man up. Who will take the reigns at the Stomp and fill the teeny-tiny shoes of Cowbell? From what I can tell, it mostly involves having someone else type your name into the spreadsheet, occasionally telling people to sign up to Q, then ignoring messages on GroupMe from people that need to reschedule their Q until someone else answers them and says that they will take it. You can’t really mess it up, well actually you can, but that takes a very special person.

  • Grandma says come as you are, slippers and and all!!

    With aching legs still lingering from Ragnar YHC planned on an upper body tear down of sorts.. Arriving to the sites of 1 fellow brethren being Zoolander illuminating the inside of his vehicle secretly watching video of Bushwacker closing out our Ragnar event in his loaned out kilt.. No worries Zoolander the representation was successful, as well as welcomed by all.. However, there was an exception of an ole timer of sorts wearing one and coming over prompted by Ocho to remind Wacker simply that “His kilt was not as real as his own..” Zoolander being the trendsetter proved consistent in posting with his slippers.. Although some may have put limits to what can be done with those slippers there was no modification on this Gloom..

    Warmup

    All IC 15 SSH, Toe Touches, Windmills, Butt kicks, Arm circles and wrapped up with a recently learned favorite Donkey kickoffs. Q was a little aggressive wanting to complete 5 rounds increasing the counts by 5 with equal hold times.. Had to modify at 20 (YHC was gassed)..

    Thang

    Moseyed over to the Marsh to utilize the play ground. 3,6,9 Pull-ups, Merkins and Jump Squats.. R/R (5).

    Moseyed back to the Trailhead where we completed 50, 100, 150, 200 cumulative. Burpees, Merkins, Squats and Plank Jacks.. One completed exercise while the other moseyed the corridor to the steps returning with sprints picking up count..

    Finished with Plank holds, little MANNY crunches 20 IC, Freddie Mercury’s 20 IC and Hello Dollies 20 IC..

    Appreciate the post Zoolander and you following my lead!!

    YHC prayed us out!!

    Till the next Gloom 👊🏻👍🏻✌🏻!!

  • 1 lil 2 lil 3 lil running men

    Nice cool April 15th morning, tax day at its finest.

    Started out with a casual jog to circle up near the track. A few stretches and a 15 count of windmills (yes I said count).

    Then to the track to preform exercises, descending at every walking man(5 walking men per exercise).

    The following were the exercises:

    5-1 hand release burpees (hurpees)

    10-2 lunges

    20-12 merkins

    10-2 groiners

    20-12 air presses

    10-12 v-ups

    20-12 Russian twists

    50-10 lbcs

    10-2 monkey humpers

    5-1 hand release burpees (hurpees)

    Almost made it all the way around the running path but had to finish up with 2 line Indian run to the flag.

    COT, count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions and prayer.

    Thank you to the PAX for entertaining my workout.

    86

  • Ragnar or Bust (Selong Delong)

    After multiple reports (including my own) of some of the M’s quickly growing worn out and weary of our battlefield chronicles, YHC decided to keep this CSAUP back blast short, ambiguous, and hopefully entertaining.

    To be certain, the Ragnar weekend was a grand adventure, complete with near death experiences, incredible feats of athletic performance and endurance, more laughs than any group of guys should be blessed to have, new friends and teammates and enough post-race alcohol that the rest is a bit hazy…

    From the time we took off from the Winn Dixie parking lot in Mandeville until the return trip, the nick names were flowing with abundance. Some had multiple names in fact! With that, you’ve seen the PAX list, try to match the nicknames with the Ragnarian. To see if you’re right, be sure to post at your nearest northshore AO. (1 did not get a nickname and several had more than 1. Also, some names have been slightly altered so as not to offend any non F3 readers that may see this on social media):

    -“Male Chicken”-Ring, Teabag, Broke “Richard” Mountain

    -Mr. Awkward, Medium (Shmedium)

    -Shaddow

    -Confusion

    -Wet Wipe, William Wallace

    -Hail to the Chaif, Beef Jerkey

    -Sinatra, Shane

    -McConaughey, Chip n Dale

    -Cocktail, Post Post

    -Story Time


    Thanks for enduring this insider info. Next time take the red pill and be on the inside. The opportunities are everywhere, including anywhere you see an F3 Shovel Flag!

  • We Interupt Your Regularly Scheduled Beat Down for Some YOGA

    As YHC laid his head down last night, he thought about why, after getting 12ish hours of sleep in the last 85, along with running almost 17 trail miles of sweet Georgia terrain topped off with more liquor than he had consumed in the entire last year, he was going to wake up in the 4 O’clock hour. To put it simply, he can’t get enough of F3!

    That being said, this would not be any old beat down. Those in need go for restorative yoga indeed!

    WARMORAMA

    With supportive Steve handling technical difficulties, we started with some nice N easy…

    Toe Touches

    Abe Vigodas

    Imperial Walkers

    THANG

    Down Dog picked a million-in-one time to be glitchy, so with the other technical difficulties handled, it was You Tube to the rescue. Our 40 minute yoga session was lead by an attractive , soft-spoken, slave mistress and torturess. With no mats, the tough PAX really took it on the knees! Still it was just what the doctor ordered, and we closed with set of slooooow Toe Touches.

    COT

    Q prayed us out with all the thanks and appreciation that we who are so blessed should have. Thanks, guys, for showing up and ,especially Pik, for not walking away shaking his head, at the mention of a yoga-ful beat down.

    And speaking of Pik, T-claps to the leader of the Northshore H8 for running a charity 5k at a blistering sub-8 minute pace this weekend! (just because he felt like it)


  • 4-getta-bout-it


    It was a beautiful Thursday morning on the lakefront last week. After a little chatter amongst the PAX, I issued the disclaimer and we mosey’d to the corner of lakefront drive / canal blvd. Once there we commenced with the warmup:

    • side straddle hops – 20
    • imperial squat walkers – 15
    • grass grabbers – 15
    • peter parkers – 15
    • arm circles – 10 forward, 10 backward

    Seeing as how the H8 was coming up in 2 weeks, I thought it might be good to do a little H8 pre-work. After Kuch’s Q at Popeyes on Wednesday, the LV clown car was talking about some different TV shows, and one of the shows that came up was the Sopranos. Anytime i think of that show, the word “for-getta-bout-it” comes to mind. Well since i was thinking of that show at the same time i was trying to think about what exercises to use during my Q, a nice exercise creation was born. It would aptly be called, the “4-getta-bout-it” and it would entail 4 figure 8 laps up & down the paved part of the levee with bear crawls across the center (just like the H8). We would also do a burpee / merkin ladder like the H8 as well. The difference with the 4-getta-bout-it would be that the PAX would have to run up each of the levees backwards (Bernie Sanders style backwards). So the good news is that it would be only 1/2 of the laps as the H8; the bad news is that running up the levee backwards is not what most people consider fun. Ultimately, all of the PAX completed the 4 laps (Smooth actually completed 5 laps, which has come to be known as the “High Five”), and then after a brief 20 count from Cowbell, we mosey’d to the benches. Once to the benches, we did the following:

    • dirkins – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to next bench
    • left / right leg step ups (10/10)
    • squat jump clockwise to next bench
    • dips – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • irkins – 10
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • windmills – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • LBC’s – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • dying cockroaches – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • flutter kicks – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench

    Once completed, we mosey’d back to the flag for the announcements, intentions and the prayer. As always, thanks for the opportunity to lead, fellas. It’s a pleasure grinding through the beatdowns with y’all!