F3 New Orleans

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  • Welcome to The Uptowner

    After laying the guilt trip on Yankee, I got him to finally post at The Uptowner.  As lagniappe, he brought a flag.  YHC had a goal to meet so I told everyone to pick their rocks, a big one and a bigger one, as they rolled in.  The bigger one was to push yourself with.  The smaller one was for modification (without having to take the walk of shame).

    0530 and it was time to Rock ‘n Roll….something seemed like it was missing though…things felt incomplete…oh well, disclaimer given and let’s get it.

    Warm-up COP sans rocks and in cadence:  SSH x 20; Windmills x 10; LSS x 15; 8-count Body Builders x 7

    The Thang

    A close approximation of our Veteran’s Day GRT welcoming party – Deck of Death with flutter kicks with rock held above chest (or head if you are showing off), Squats con roca, Shoulder press con roca (this devolved or possible evolved into a push press for YHC), and 8-count Body Builders.

    All reps were in cadence.  The face cards represented 10 reps, aces 15 and all others were the card value.  The appearance of a Joker meant you did the previous exercise with twice the number of reps.

    The goal was to finish the deck, but we finished 7 cards short.  Next time it will be less time doing windmills and trying to build a card table and more body builders.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately if you like things easy) the first joker came after the 6 of Flutter Kicks and the 2nd was one of the 7 cards we didn’t get to.

    Total number of reps (counting 2 reps for each cadence count except Body Builders):

    194 Flutter Kicks; 178 Squats; 194 Shoulder Presses; 86 Body Builders

    *Note – a full deck w/o Jokers is 99 Body Builders and 198 of the others.

    Moleskin

    • Kimchi showed up part of the way through the deck.  That’s what was causing that uneasy something is missing feeling.  Fortunately he came on out after oversleeping to push the streak to 41.
    • Kimchi, 3Shift, and YHC got in a lagnilappe / tour of the new Pontiff benches and trash cans afterwards.  Nice work Jennifer Van Vranken.
    • T-claps to Yankee for making the drive.  Now you just have Okwata, The Coastie, and Lafitte’s Plunge left?  Speaking of which, by my count, JV is the only man to post at all 11 F3Nola AOs. #Respect
    • Glad Bubba made it out this morning.  It’s like he has a Deck of Death radar.
    • The GrowRuck is happening June 10th/11th.  Start talking it up now!  Hopefully the Deck of Death whetted the GRT appetite.
    • Quick Draw is having his 50th birthday party tomorrow morning at City Park for 0630.  Everyone is invited.

     

  • Switching From Whiskey to Water

    A dozen of F3’s finest posted in the cool gloom of City Park to get our usual Wednesday fix.  With the Tough Mudder a month out, YHC figured we should start to hone in on prep for that and push ourselves to achieve Herculean greatness.  After scouring the interwebs for some TM training videos, it became apparent that most of normal go-to exercises should prepare us well.  YHC asked to PAX to give it 100%, use good form, and try to refrain from cheating ourselves by slacking during an exercise.  Then YHC reminded the crew about a little something excerpted from the F3 Lexicon that we should try to avoid:  WHISKEY-DICKING (verb)-“Half stepping through a Workout or other Event. More generally, execution of anything without sufficient Zeal.”   Enough with the chatter, time to get the heart rate up.  Disclaimer and mosey down Roosevelt Mall for the Pre-Thang:

    • SSH x30
    • Arm Circle X20
    • Windmill X20
    • Plank Roll/Rotation x20
    • Pickle Pounder x20
    • Burpees X10 OYO

    Mosey to the nearby field and line up for some fun.  The well manicured grass provided a pleasant surface to get down low for some Tough Mudder prep:

    • Bear Crawl to the base of the hill (40+ yds away?)
    • Crab Walk back
    • Low Crawl to the base of the hill
    • Lunge Walk back
    • Low Crawl to the top of the hill
    • Plank and wait

    Short trot over to the foundry for 3 rounds of good form PIMPS, feather hat optional:

    • Pull Ups x5 (lagniappe encouraged)  
    • IPW x10 
    • Merkins x15
    • Plank Jacks x20
    • Squats x25

    Culminated our time at the foundry by striving to improve grip strength with a 1 minute dead hang.  It was a long minute since YHC failed to position his watch accordingly.

    Mosey back to the top of the hill for one last bear crawl to our starting point near the virtual cone/bag that blew away.  Circle up for some DJ style Mary:

    • Russian Twist x25 (Tool)
    • Penguins x20 (Cowbell)
    • Slooooowwww Dying Cockroach x20 ….these brought the burn (Kimchi)
    • Crunchy Frog x15 ….ouch!!!  (Shorty)
    • LBC x30 (Boogie) 

    Time was ticking so back to the flag for COT.  Welcome FNG Savory and t-claps to Wallaye for the EH.  YHC reminded the PAX that it’s up to us to make ourselves stronger, healthier, better men.  Some things in life we can control and others we can’t.  YHC also pointed out that there’s a difference between modifying and exercise and “whiskey-dicking.”  Modifying means you can’t do something and whiskey-dicking means you don’t want to do something.  Food for thought.  Wrapped up with a prayer for those in need closed out by a clip for the Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

    Thanks for letting me lead.

    Tool

     

     

  • El Wire’s Revenge Q

    A chilly Feb pre-Mardi Gras AM. With 13 PAX circled up and waiting for the joy that El Wire would bring us.

    We started with a long MOSEY to the soccer field in front of the ZOO.
    About halfway there – Nip/Tuck had to bail bc he wasn’t feeling well. Tclaps for the early wake up – Hope you get well!

    Circled up for the warm up: A Jack O Rama
    25 SSH, 25 smurf jacks, 25 plank Jacks, and 25 Seal jacks, 20 merks, and sealed with 10 burpees

    Then we had a medium mosey over to the LEVEE for 8’s.
    We did V-ups at the bottom and burpees at the top.

    Then we did a LONG mosey to the highest point in NOLA. The Hill on the Levee. At the HILL El Wire got his revenge for us picking on him about the HUMAN Centipede. I keep waiting for that to return.
    So we 5 merks bear crawl up the levee, bear crawl down the levee, 20 shoulder taps on the other side, then we bear crawl backwards up the levee and down the levee still backwards. Rinse and repeat 3 times.

    Then we did a medium mosey to exit to the FLY. Here we did 25 shoulder taps on the tracks for some Wiley Coyote. Some mumblechatter about the appearance of coyotes on the levee lately.
    Then we had the long mosey to the flag.

    A really nice COT reflection with El Wire reminding us to appreciate the people who support us in life and in our jobs.

    This BB posted by RY until he can offer a bbschool next Q by Wire.

  • Levee Work

    “It’s hard work getting there, but the view is much better at the top” – a wise man

    Five men gathered and stood aimlessly in the grass  #VSF.  Walleye was scheduled for the Q, but organized a replacement yesterday at The Foundry due to a scheduling conflict.  YHC stepped up to handle, but due to my recent history of fartsacking, Frac Sac and Kim Chi thought we should get some more replacement Qs just in case…Lo and behold, YHC did post and without a minute to spare, gave the DISCLAIMER, and we were off.

    The Thang

    Mosey around the fountain (not on…C’mon, Mitch!) and over to a grassy area.

    COP #1: Warmup

    20x SSH IC
    20x Plank Jacks IC
    20x Chilly Jacks IC (aka Low Plank Jacks)
    20x Smurf Jacks IC …. no Cowbell joke today since he wasnt there, the Pax was sad:

    friends hi depressed ross david schwimmer

    10x Single Leg Squat-Reach-Jump IC (R)
    10x Single Leg Squat-Reach-Jump IC (L)

    Enough for now, mosey to the levee and line up at the bottom.

    OYO: Jacob’s Ladder

    Pax runs up the levee, does 1x burpee at the top, then runs down the levee. Increase burpee reps by the number of levees you did.  Plank and wait once you do 7x burpees.  The great thing about Jacob’s Ladder is the synergy that forms between burpees and levees.  It makes everything else suck less!

    Once we had out six, we moseyed (what is the past tense of mosey?) down to a lit-up, grassy area.

    COP #2: Jack Webbs (1:2 Ratio)

    Pax does a merkin, then two air presses.  Increase merkins by 1 rep until 10x merkins; increase air presses by 2 reps until 20x air presses.  The hard part is the air presses!

    Mosey back up the levee and partner up.

    OYO: Colonel Trautman #exicon

    Pax #1: Run to the pull up bars and do 3x Pullups, then back up the levee to relieve Pax #2.
    Pax #2: Low Planks (first 3 rounds) / Al Gores (last 2 rounds)

    Mosey back down the levee and circle up.

    COP #3: 6MOM

    15x LBTs IC
    15x Flutter Kicks IC
    15x LBCs IC
    15x Hello Dolly IC
    ….Flapjack….
    15x Superman IC
    15x Rocketman IC
    ….Flapjack….
    15x Crunchy Frog IC
    15x Scissors IC
    ….Flapjack….
    Plankorama: High, Low, High, Right Side, Right Side Reaches x 10IC, High, Left Side, Left Side Reaches x 10IC, Back, Back Jacks x10IC (don’t do these again), High

    Mosey back to the top of the levee.

    OYO: Quadraphilia

    Run down the levee, then back petal up the levee… repeat, repeat, etc… for 3 minutes.

    Back to the VSF, where we held the COT – countoff, namorama, shoutouts, and prayer.  Thanks for letting me lead.

    Moleskin

    Tclaps to Kim Chi for hitting 40 straight post.  He was ready to Q today if YHC didn’t show.  He spilled his potential beatdown (fourties – like elevens, but with fourty total reps each time) to celebrate his achievement.  Pax was grateful YHC didn’t fartsack!

    Basin Run is tonight.  Message on the Groupme for details.

  • NEW-Lafitte’s Plunge

    Four brave men showed up to grow and improve themselves as better swimmers and athletes.

    Start with a 500 yard swim. Next is 200 yard with kick board. Then freestyle to finish the 45 minutes.

    Da Parish posted 5 workouts in a row at Water World and changed the name to “Lafitte’s Plunge”. Great Name! See you next Thursday at Lafitte’s Plunge.

    Countoff, namerama, announcements, shoutout, prayers….

  • “Extreme Couponing”

    The PAX gathered at the trailhead on a much colder than expected morning. The thang started with a warmup at the trailhead with ssh, iw, mountain climbers, hillbillies, and arm circles all 15x in cadence.

    Afterwards YHC supplied everyone in the pax with their very own coupon with which we mosey’d down to the justice center. A few in the PAX fell a little behind not sure what happened to them but everyone caught up and we started our next exercise. A 12 minute AMRAP of 10 burpees, 10 box jumps, and a mosey up the stairs down the ramp and back to start.

    After the AMRAP we headed for a ledge and did another two-minute AMRAP of vertical toe-touch bounces as #1 and lateral toe touch bounces as #2. YHC would call out randomly which exercise was up and the pax never stopped through the 2 minutes.

    After our second AMRAP workout we slowly made our way down the aisle of benches with 10 pushups, 10 coupon presses and a walk to each bench, repeat at each stop. About 6 stops total. 10 count. Then turn around and head back to the starting point this time switching out the coupon press for a shoulder exercise that chewy introduced us (the name of which YHC cant seem to recall the name of at this moment).

    After our final set of our coupon rally. We head back to the starting point for a quick mary of dolly’s, flutter kicks, and jane fonda’s.

    count-o-rama

    name-o-rama

    and chewy prayed us out

  • Spartacus Redux

    Can’t get too much Spartacus…

    DISCLAIMER and let’s mosey to the Warm-Up COP:
    -SSH x 30 IC
    -IW x 30 IC
    -Arm Circles x 30 IC (15 ea. dir.)
    -J-Lo’s x 20 IC
    Grab a rock, medium, one you won’t drop on your head…Let’s mosey to the shelter (cuz it has benches).
    It’s time for some Spartacus. The timer on my phone had us working out for 1 minute with a 15 sec rest for each exercise:
    -Goblet Squat w/ rock
    -Feet-Elevated Mountain Climbers
    -Kettlebell Swing w/ rock
    -T-Pushups
    -Step up, alternating legs with or without rocks
    -Rock Row
    -Side Lunge and Touch Rock (like moving the virtual rock pile back and forth)
    -Merkins
    -Rock Lunge and Rotation
    -Rock Push Press
    Rinse and Repeat for a total of two rounds.

    There’s just enough time to send the rocks home and do some Mary before we head to the flag.
    -LBC x 30 IC
    -Penguins x 20 IC
    -Flutter kicks x 30 IC

    COT: countoff, namerama, announcements, shoutouts and a prayer. See you in the Gloom!

  • Beware of Loose Shorts and Fat Tires

    Last week I added the Coastie to the Q sheet and jumped on the first available Q.  After today, you may not want that to happen again.  To prevent it sign up to Q here, dates are available for the rest of the year.

    So I rolled in with my cargo shorts, fat tires, spoke lights, and safety vest ready to lead a group of guys that actually know what they are doing on a bicycle and look the part.  Much to my pleasure, one of my own was there waiting for me.  JV must have heard that a fellow fat tire had the lead today and came out to show his support.  YHC started things off with the COT – cause that’s how we roll at the Coastie.  After counting to 7 and providing our names, YHC reminded the Pax that today is Valentine’s Day and in that vein shared a part of DREDDs Q-source on the M.  The point that I stressed is that in our relationship with our wives, we are either accelerating or decelerating.  If we consider ourselves in maintenance mode, then we are decelerating.  “The Q never thinks of maintaining his marriage. He always focuses on Accelerating it.”

    The Thang

    Warm up – Ride to Causeway (1.75 miles) and then re-group for further instruction.  At least that was the plan, but not well executed by the Q.  At Causeway we happened upon a barricade.  Da Parrrrrrish surmised that it must be for vehicles and not bikes, since there was just enough room for a bike to pass.  This seemed like perfect logic so we pressed on.  As we came to the top of the levee we saw two lights that we thought might be the POPO.  It wasn’t, just two fellow bikers.   They warned us of another barricade at Cleary (how you know where Cleary is while you are on the lake?  I’m not sure.)

    Tabata on Wheels – after regrouping I instructed the pax to do 4 minutes of Tabata – 20 second sprint and 10 second coast; repeat 8 times.  I planned to start this at Causeway, but while we were talking to the Not POPO, JV took off, fat tires and all.  So the first part of the workout became catching up to JV.  By the time we caught him we figured we were close enough to Cleary that we should pass that barricade before starting Tabata.

    Once we finally started it was glorious.  7 bikers sprinting as hard as they can for 20 second intervals on a narrow lakefront trail in the dark while passing bikers and runners both ways.  At one point, one of the oncoming bikers called one of us by name.  It must have been a birth name, because I didn’t recognize it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSC3Z1a-sbg

    I adhere to Tool’s philosophy that we should try anything once (except folk dancing and incest).  I think the Tabata on wheels is worth trying again, but take that with a grain of salt.  I also think working out with the Police Barricades and doing Yoga are worth trying again.

    For the rest of the workout, it was everyone at their own pace to the casino.  At the Treasure Chest YHC met up with Da Parish, Triple Shift, Woz, and Moped.  Apparently Bongo and JV turned around earlier, or were arrested by the POPO, or beat up by some other bikers….I don’t know.  Triple Shift and Woz carried on to the next parish, while the rest of us headed back toward Bucktown.

    Thanks for letting me lead and remember – if you enjoy the Coastie, sign up to Q.

     

     

     

  • 610 Stomp #78

    “You either get better, or you get worse… you never stay the same” – Professional Athlete / Coach

    A Pax of eight (7 men & 1 K9) met around….nothing…. where are the Shovel Flags?!?  Does the Uptown Pax use them for picnic blankets or warming cuddlers (e.g. Snuggies) at their AOs?

    FC Bayern Munich soccer cold bayern bayern munich

    It would make sense due to colder temps we are experiencing this Wintummer.

    I’m off topic…apologies… let’s get to it, but first….DISCLAIMER….

    The Thang

    Typical bayou route, but turn around after 10 minutes.  Stop every 6 min for a round of Merkins.   I believe the whole Pax made it to bridge on Bayou St John to turn around (Tclaps). After the run, the Merk count was 90 (3 sets x 30 Merks).

    Since it’s Valentine’s Day, and we need to look good for our ladies, YHC explained the 2/14 routine, which was 2 burpees / 14 merkins.  We did a round of this at the track entrance to bring our Merk count to 104.  Quick mosey over to the track.

    Sprint Work:  Pax sprinted 100 meters, performed the 2/14 routine, walked 50 meters, moseyed 50 meters, repeat.  We did 3 laps, which equals 6 rounds; and it brought our merk count up to 188.

    COP #1: 6MOM

    20x Lazy Boys IC
    15x Putins IC
    15x Lazy Boys w/ Arm Raises IC
    15x Lazy Boys w/ Arm Raises & Knee Curls IC
    8x R. Leg Curls & Raises IC
    8x L. Leg Curls & Raises IC

    Pax believe YHC makes this stuff up…sometimes… but in reality, the credit has to go to Shaun T. Either way, it sucks….and that’s the point!

    Back to the track.  We did a 40 Merks / 4 Lap Challenge for the remaining 10 min.  Pax completed this easily.  Merk count to 228.

    Since we had a VSF, we gathered at the track entrance due to time, where we held the COT, which included Countoff, Nameorama, and Prayer (for the sick, families of the sick, and for all to respect one another.)

    Moleskin

    The Pax at the Stomp definitely got better today!  They were flying through the park and around the track.  The track team even raised an eyebrow or two this gloom!  Best of all, Cowbell was sucking wind:

    basketball nba kobe bryant los angeles lakers lakers

    Kim Chi is still raising the bar for most consecutive post in 2017.  I believe he surpassed 40!  To some, that may be respectable, but what’s better than 40 you say??  Yes, it is in fact 50!  I mean, you don’t get “respect” until you’re in the 50 and older club.

  • Footfree Does Not Mean PainLESS

    YHC made the mistake of going to The Skinny on Monday (mostly because he couldn’t find his car keys to get to Rock City): bad judgment.  Left foot in bad shape.  It’s hell getting old.  No posts Tuesday or Wednesday; had to resort to Water World on Thursday.  So this morning’s post would be true to The Uptowner: no fancy footwork.  So that leaves lots of other body parts to abuse … er, improve.

    After a disclaimer, THE THANG, which went approximately like this:

    • Double-slow squats (in a 13 count, most of the time: four to squat, four down, four up, and one for the count): 25xIC
    • Left foot over right foot stretch: 20xIC (Tclaps to Kim Chee for how to count)
    • Right foot over left foot stretch: 20xIC
    • Merkins: 25xIC
    • Diamond Merkins: 25xIC
    • Elf on the Shelf (to the right foot): 25xIC
    • Elf on the Shelf (to the left foot): 25xIC
    • Tricep behind the head curl: 25xIC
    • Russian twists (con rock): 25xIC
    • Flutter kicks (con rock): 25xIC
    • On belly, for Ys, Ts and Ws: 25xIC each
    • Fence sitting: 1m30s
    • Fence sitting with overhead press: 25xIC
    • Fence sitting: 1m30s
    • Upper arm curls (definitely not for the girls), or head bangers: 25xIC
    • Dead lifts(???): 25xIC
    • LBCs: 100 (or 101) xIC (YHC wanted to go to 125 a la HVAC What the Hell?, but the PAX revolted at 100)
    • Left-staggered merkin: 15xIC
    • Right-staggered merkin: 15xIC

    Apologies to the PAX because I know the list above is probably somewhat out of order, is certainly missing a roung or two and may include one or two that didn’t happened.  But, hey, YHC’s foot did find: his pecs and biceps, that’s another matter.  But you don’t get stronger without a good DownPAINment.