On this day, the Master Melvin PAX was out to prove that we can do more when we have a partner with us.
At 0500, we welcomed an FNG brought by Hawcycle and then quickly mosied over to our warm-up area. After a few warm-up exercises, we partnered up for the main workout.
As one partner ran a half lap around the park, the other partner started building on the following exercise pyramid. Once the first partner finished their lap, they tagged out and that partner continued building the pyramid.
25 – Burpees
75 – Merkins
125 – E2Ks (left side)
175 – Squats
125 – E2Ks (right side)
75 – Merkins
25 – Burpees
Once each team completed the exercise pyramid, we did some new partner exercises for the AO.
3 laps of 100ft of Partner Carries
10 – Sqerkins
10 – Partner Merkin Curls
After some cool down stretches, we mosied back over to the flag to welcome our new FNG named Sunday. What a great story from Sunday. When you meet him, please ask him his life story.
Overall, we were all surprised how well we did together both in quantity and how fast we did the workout. As we found, we can do more when we work together.
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!
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.
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.
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!
YHC hasn’t been posting nearly as much as he should, and there may have been a chance for a fartsack this day as well, except that Mambi was on IR, and unable to Q his long awaited One Year Maniversary Epic Beatdown! When YHC was asked if he would take the Q, seeing as YHC was the Q for Mambi’s first post, it sealed the deal. What did the Mothership beat down comprise of this day you ask? Read on…..
YHC arrived a few minutes early and prepared the parking lot for a fine tasting beat down with a few cones.
12 veteran men of F3 were prepared to make a downPAINment on improving this day, so YHC provided a brief disclaimer at 0630, stating that he hoped to make Mambi proud, followed by lots of mumblechatter, which would have been far worse with Rudy present, followed by a short mosey to the Great Lawn……..
Warmup
SSH IC x 31 IW IC x 20 Abe Vigodas IC x 10 Grass Grabbers IC x 10 Arm Circles IC x 20 (10 fwd, 10 back) Peter Parkers IC x 20 Mountain Climbers IC x 20 Parker Peters IC x 20 'Merkins IC x 20
Short mosey to the parking lot with the cones for Suicides! Set up like a Basket Ball court:
Sprint to quarter line and back, 5 Burpees Sprint to half line and back, 5 Burpees Sprint to 3/4 line and back, 5 Burpees Sprint full court and back, 5 Burpees Repeato with Squats for round two, followed by Bobby Hurley's for Round three.
YHC had the men count off. Instead of choosing partners, YHC had 1 partner with 3, 2 with 4, 5 with 7, etc, for a little Dora 123….
50 Burpees 150 'Merkins 300 LBC's Partner 1 starts the exercise, while partner 2 runs suicides (just like above with no exercise). Flapjack and keep cumulative. Once your team finishes, partner 1 continues with suicides while partner 2 does Burpees, waiting for the six. No easy plank and wait today.....
Mosey to the fountain at NOMA, Freak Nasties IC x 20.
Mosey to the Trail around the Big Lagoon for Bataan Death March! It’s an Indian Run where the last man drops for 5 Burpees and sprints to the front. It was during this time The Mothership crew spotted the men of the Muscleship! But our crew was busy with a beat down, no time to stand around in a circle and chat as they were……
Upon completion of the Bataan Death March, mosey back to the tree line near NOMA, near the Muscleship flags for some Burpees and Bear Crawls….
Starting at the first tree, bear crawl to second tree, 5 Burpees, bear crawl back to first tree, 5 Burpees. Rinse and Repeat.
About the time The Mothership crew were finishing up this latest evolution, sweating profusely from the solid beat down, the Muscleship crew arrived. It was no Burr vs Hamilton, or the likes of Westside Story. But YHC took the opportunity to face away from their circle, and in a line with sixes toward the Muscleship crew, completed Monkey Humpers IC x 15. It was pretty Epic…….
Before departing the Muscleship Crew, a couple minutes of Mary:
Dying Cockroach IC x 20 Crunchy Frog IC x 10
Mosey back to the Great Lawn
Just enough time for: 10 Burpees OYO Catalina Wine Mixers IC x 10
Mosey back to the flag for the COT
Count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and closed with a prayer to the Sky Q.
Thanks for posting with me today, and for allowing me to be one of you. Here’s wishing you a speedy recovery, Mambi!
Enjoyed coffeteria, where Hawgcycle made an appearance with Mike from Morning Call! Good times!!!
After the PAX moseyed up to our usual WPM meeting spot in front of the Audubon Park fountains at 5:30AM, QIC asked if we had any FNGs, which we did not, and welcomed our out of town guest, Iron Horse, from F3 Tallahassee. Imagine Iron Horse’s surprise when he was informed that he came all the way to New Orleans to receive a Hurpees beat down with his F3 NOLA brothers. The disclaimer was announced, and the PAX performed 5 Hurpees on their own before moseying to the lawn in front of Tulane University for warm up. The warmup consisted of the following, all in cadence:
Imperial Walkers x 20, Windmills x 15, Arm Circles Front and Back x 10
Before greeting Touchdown Jesus on the lawn in front of Loyola University, the PAX knocked out 5 Hurpees on their own.
Once at the Loyola Lawn, the PAX partnered up to perform a 30, 60, 90 DORA consisting of Hurpees, Low Slow Squats, and Real Freddie Mercuries, respectively. While PAX 1 was exercising, PAX 2 had to cross the lawn as his favorite animal. PAX 1 and 2 alternated until all exercises were complete. QIC witnessed several Bear Crawls, Crab Walks, Bunny Hops, one Squirrel Slink, and something that resembled a wounded Duck Walk.
After a 10 count by King Kong, the PAX moseyed to the base of WPM where we split into 3 lines for an Indian Run up to the 4th floor. Even though QIC directed the left and right lines to sprint on the outside, this direction was not followed. QIC did not realize that Hurpees negatively impacted the PAX’s hearing.
Once on the 4th floor, Brown Bag was asked to indulge the PAX in a 20 count. Upon conclusion, the PAX circled up for a round of Jack Webbs. After several groans, the PAX progressed through the Jack Webbs to complete 10 merkins and 20 air presses. Before gathering to conquer the remainder of WPM, the PAX performed 5 Hurpees on their own.
The PAX continued to the top of WPM sprinting on the flats and running backwards up the inclines. Once gathered under the stars, the PAX circled up again, this time for a round robin of MARY. QIC started the festivities with a slow cadence of Penguins x 15. The remaining exercises were as follows:
War Eagle – Dying Cockroach x 15
Brown Bag – Real Freddie Mercuries x 20
Bartman – J Los x 20
Angie’s List – LBCs x 40 (ridiculous)
Quarter Pipe – I’m going to call this a low plank, reverse wife pleaser x 15 Imagine the PAX on Airline Highway, in the act of contracting a real case of Hurpees. The PAX would have been happy doing these on a crawfish farm, if you get my drift…
After five more Hurpees on their own, the PAX moseyed down the stairs and gathered in front of TDJ for a brief round of shoulder, quad, and hamstring stretches, to which Angie’s List exclaimed was the cure for our recurring case of Hurpees.
The COT commenced with a count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and a closing prayer. The PAX was then dismissed for additional treatment.
While this title refers to everywhere if you happen to be Hawg, most of us resort to our carefully fitted and selected-for-foot-type running shoes. However, we could all borrow a page from Hawg’s book (maybe minus all the straps) and run barefoot on the track at Lafreniere. It’s some kind of composite rubber wizardry that feels both springy and cushioned at the same time, never leaving my knees hurting the next day.
The other great thing about Popeyes is the dedication of Rev Sox. Most of us post, Q from time to time, and make a comment on the mumblechatter every once in a while. Rev has done everything in his power to get a great AO going out in the depths of Metairie, first manning a workout that regularly averaged only a few attendees, and ultimately moving it a bit closer in to an even better location, never giving up on it. This has already paid dividends in forcing some newer guys to step up, and drawing some new blood from that area. So T-claps to Rev Sox for a job well done. Repay his service by making your way out to this AO every once in a while, and I doubt you will be disappointed.
The Workout
Speaking of disappointment, I’m sure the PAX was less than thrilled when 5:30 struck, and YHC was nowhere to be found. The LV clown car was moving a little slower than usual this morning, and we had a few coupons to place, so we pulled up at 5:31 sharp, and the PAX, to its credit, had already moseyed and was doing some SSH, where we joined in for:
SSHx25
Arm Circles forward and back
Hill Billies
Peter Parker / Parker Peter
Next, YHC asked for directions for the easiest path to the workout area where the coupons awaited. Helpful locals Boo Boo and Pai Gow showed us the way and off we set on a brisk mosey to the workout area for the thang:
6 Stations, Rotating
Absolution x10 (timer – I messed these up a bit and excluded the plank jack when down on elbows. My mistake). Everything else, AMRAP
Arnold Press with pavers, drop set
Turkish Get-ups w/ 5 lb dumbells
Straight legged deadlift w/ 10 lb kettlebells (bought a couple of these – if anyone ever wants to use them, I can bring them)
Kettlebell swings with cinder blocks
Hang from pull-up bar as long as possible.
PAX was encouraged not to cheat yourself. Get every rep. Don’t do 9.5. Don’t lose form. Don’t cut corners. Don’t be afraid to take as long as necessary to complete an exercise. Inspiration: I read this post yesterday, and it made me rethink some of my recent workouts – did I do all 60 burpees yesterday, or did I accept 57 or 58? Do I always do every merkin, or am I afraid of everyone finishing before me? Great read: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=683278642142599&id=100013814083617
After that, we sprinted across the field and bear crawled back, where High Rise took over:
Wife pleasers w/ legs on bench x15
Single leg wife pleasers w/ legs on bench x10 each leg
W’s x20
I’d promised High Rise more time, but had also underestimated the time it would take to get back to the flag. Plus, this time we had coupons. So we finished up with a 5-minute coupon run to the flag, where we all learned that it actually kinda sucks to run with a cinder block. Good to know for future reference. We also left some pavers behind with Rev Sox, so Popeyes now has some coupons.
Some brief announcements, notably, the 5K run at the Belle Chasse base this weekend, and Rev prayed us out. Come be a part of the great thing we’ve got going at this AO. – Kuch
12 PAX posted up this morning at the Foundry. At 5:30am I gave the disclaimer and we were on our way to the track for a little warm-up. At the track we did:
High Knees Butt Kicks Karaoke Left side Karaoke Right side
We then proceeded for a warm up run around the track. We stopped at the back part of the track for some more warm-ups: SSH X 25 – IC Self Love – X 15 IC Low Slow Squats – X 15 IC Jump Lunges – X 15 OYO
We then moseyed on over to the Foundry where we split to 4 groups.
Group 1 – Timer – Duck walk to the water fountain and then sprint back- thanks Triple Shift for sending the animal exercise video yesterday to the group; the PAX really enjoyed doing this. Group 2 – leg lifts with a partner (not sure what this is called- it burns the hell out of your core though) Group 3 – Jump overs on the squiggly line Group 4 – Pull-ups Rinse and repeat for 2 circuits.
Quick mosey to the NOMA wall. Where we partnered up. One partner sat on the wall while the other partner is the timer doing shoulder taps- 1 is 2 —- Da Parish quickly corrected my count to 2 is 1 (newbie screw-up on my part). My initial plan was to do this for about 4 mins, however Da Parish enjoyed this so much we decided to go for 8 mins. Followed up by 10 decline merkins on the curb.
Quick mosey to the Fountain for: Incline Merkins X 10 OYO then run to the stairs to Bunny Hop up the stairs with 5 burpees at the top. Bunny hop down.
At this point we had about 4mins to get to the flag; I didn’t realize how far out we were……we came in 2 mins over schedule. Sorry about that PAX.
We welcomed a new FNG – Breadsticks. We finished off with COT and prayed for Patience. It was an Honor to lead this group.
