F3 New Orleans

Category: Northshore

  • Mean while…Machines at the Marsh

    A new day dawns and another gloom is met by the cantankerous crew of the F3 Northshore! The shovel flag is planted, the pre-thang crew comes rolling up, and away we go!

    To respect the time as best as possible, YHC took all Iron Pax Challengers on a mosey to the Marsh, while the rest hung back for the regularly scheduled beat down lead by Steve.

    Having deposited a supply of coupons ahead of time with the welcomed assistance of Jose and Speedy, the men of the Marsh were prepared to tackle this week’s IPC:

    10 Pull Ups

    15Hop over (coupon) Burpees

    20 (coupon) 2 Arm Bicep Curls

    25 (coupon) Squat Thrusters

    30 Gas Pumps

    AMRAP for 43 minutes

    The scene was grippingly intense – each man was handling the long ride in their own style in order to make it through. 1 round in to YHC’s 2nd attempt for the week, the heavenly songs of ceramic-throne seraphim began to call, thus assuring no PR would be set this day. Toto and Pickles were having a fraternistic chat relying on Russo math to set their pace. Speedy, dripping with double hate, was giving it his stoic all. Meanwhile, uncle Jose was across the playground in “leave me the hell alone” land staying in his head with his earphones blasting. Jose had to drag Speedy away kicking and screaming early in order to make soccer practice… go Coach Dad!

    Mick put every damn thing he had into the challenge (with a smile) and enjoyed a brisk run back to the flag upon completion. Also on the dark side of the moon it was Hammer time! He looked as though he should’ve had a grey hoodie on with giant beatz headphone on listening to the rocky 4 soundtrack – Eye of the tiger!

    But there was one area no more than 8 feet away from the monkey bars where the devil himself dare not tread. With the piston-striking intensity of the fabled John Henry, Frankie C – the Italian Stallion – worthy of double respect and more – Tanked Up attacked with every fiber of his being. SMASH! One cinder block couldn’t hang, so YHC scurried to bring him another. With the fully-vested totals brought forth this week by the likes of Turbo, Grundy, and Bean, there was clearly not an ounce left to give when Frank Caragliano completed 904 reps on the hallowed grounds of the Milestone Marsh….

    After moseying back to the flag and just missing COT, the PAX proceeded to do a 2nd COT, with Hammer praying us out, as we honored the loss of Captain Vincent Liberto, who was killed in the line of duty yesterday, and lifted up our prayers for the wife and 7 children he left behind.

  • Pain Cave

    10 men visited the Pain Cave this morning at The Gipper. F3 Greenwood tried to kill us all with the inaugural Iron PAX Challenge last year and, having failed, have renewed their efforts in earnest with this year’s challenge.

    After a very brief warmup and some pre-challenge logistics, it was time to get started. The buzzer sounded and the troops were off for AMRAP in 43 minutes of:

    10 pullups

    15 burpees with lateral jumps over a coupon

    20 coupon curls

    25 coupon thrusters and

    30 gas pumps.

    A combination of Cowbell’s head banging music and everyone’s muscle fatigue soon heated up the AO as the PAX pushed themselves to accumulate reps. All in all, it was a good showing for a group of men who all look much better than they did on their virgin posts.

    One more week to go men. Thanks for letting me lead.

  • Remembering

    5 men did the annual 9/11 stair climb on Tuesday to remember and honor those 2792 men, women, and children who died 18 years ago. Hard to believe it’s that long ago already, and how much that event changed our world.

    With the grueling Iron Pax Challenge happening both the day before and after this beatdown, this was a great opportunity for us to slow down a bit, talk, and reflect.

    Sweating profusely with the 100% humidity that seems to accompany every day here, we wondered aloud how difficult it must’ve been for those firefighters to ascend in all their gear, with all that weight and heat, and with the knowledge that things would likely not go well for them. YHC cannot imagine the fear that would produce, and that these men were able to push that aside and rush up is astonishing.

    So we climbed 82 1/2 flights at Grandmother’s, which according to Pelican’s calculations approximated the 110 floors of the WTC. Quick Mary of 20x Merkins, Hello Dolly’s, Freddie Mercs, and LBC’s. COT and Chewy prayed us out, reminding us to be thankful for the sacrifice those men and women made for our country.

  • Float like a butterfly, sting like a…

    The Killer B’s ended with a bang Saturday morning, with Grundy taking the Northshore lead by mere seconds.  Sure, we could debate the fairness of doing it on the lakefront’s luxurious grass vs. the Marsh’s unyielding concrete, or the legality of the proctor himself taking home first place, but when it comes down to it, we must (begrudgingly) give Grundy due credit (and hate!) – it was a pretty inspirational effort.  In fact, Tank was nipping at his heels the entire time and it seems the two were feeding off one another’s energy to push each other to their record times.

    So t-claps to those two men for giving it their all and, while we’re t-clapping, we might as well toss another one out to Zoo and his miraculous self-healing leg, for taking the opportunity to hit the challenge for a second time and improve upon his score.  Alright, the rundown:

    Usual pre-thang 2 miler featured guest appearances by both Bushwacker and Garfield, and then we went right into the warmorama: Arm circles (forward/back), IW’s, copperhead squats, toe touches, hillbillies, SSHs, mountain climbers, all x20 IC.

    Thang:  Half the PAX followed Grundy to complete the IP challenge, while those that had already had their fill followed YHC.

    First stop on our tour of the lakefront was an old favorite that can be difficult to use with a large pax: Rips.  Instead of the traditional stair run/Rocky Balboa’s, though, we simply grabbed a handrail and did one legged negative calf raises, at a slow cadence: x15 per leg.

    Then, eastward towards the baseball field, stopping for a quick COP of high knees and a burpee wave.  About 6 rounds, and then onward…

    To the pull-up bars behind the baseball field.  Circled up on our six for flutter kicks, while 2 men got up to do 5x pull-ups.  Around the circle again and again and again, until each man had 25 pull-ups.  We maxed out on flutters and at some point switched to Freddie Mercs, which did not really help all that much.

    Next up, flip over to a plank for plank jacks, while 2 men got up to do hanging knee tucks x10.  Round the circle a few times, switching about halfway to shoulder taps, until each man had 30 tucks.

    Mosey back towards the boat launch to split into two teams for a 100-yard sprint relay race.  Losing team gets hit with 25 burpees, winning team gets 25 merkins.  (YHC has learned that, in the realm of F3, the winning team never takes the easy way and sits out on the work so why even bother pretending there’s a reward.)  With Bean pulling double duty for Team 2 to secure the win, they performed their merkins and then jumped in to help Team 1 finish up with their burpees.  And then everyone took a page from Pik, who’s been keeping Old Mandeville clean for the better part of two years, and did a quick sweep of beer bottles before heading over to the playground for a quick partner routine.

    P1 holds people’s chair while doing air presses, P2 bear crawls up the small hill to the swingset pad for 10 merkins and then bunny hops back down to flapjack with P1.

    Just enough time to Indian Run back to Rips, get in one more set of calf raises (x10 each leg this time), and back at the flag for a round of boxcutters, x20 IC.  The rest of the gang joined us at this point, looking thoroughly destroyed, and we circled up for COT.  Zoo encouraged all to share the gift of F3 and bring out some new brothers, and Maverick took us out with a prayer, encouraging us to be men of strength. Then off to coffeeteria.  Thank you men for the opportunity not only to lead, but to get stronger and sharper alongside you.

  • EiEi no show!!

    Kudos to all the men on the Northshore this week who responded to the ringing of the Cowbell this pass Saturday.. Tuesday produced 8 men with Zoolander back at the weekly post bringing out an FNG “Handy”, 10 on Wednesday with the Manny making a Gipper appearance and Maverick back in the mix as well and Thursday brought out the likes of Akbar with his virgin post at the Scramble.. All in all a great week at the posts and had our “EiEi” posted it would have been even better… Site Q took the helm to lead the PAX on this slightly less humid Gloom.

    Warmarama

    10IC Good Mornings, 20IC SSH, 10IC Torso Twists, 20IC Imperial Walkers, 10IC Scorpion kicks and 5 Burpees OYO..

    Thang

    T-👏🏻 to Steve for posting although not able to run he stayed at the AO completing some Merkins, Manmakers, Freak Nasties, Core, etc. etc. The 3 Stallions quickly jumped out the gate and began their galloping as 3 Clydesdale’s trotted in the back..

    Stallions Bushwacker, Cowbell and Water Pik finished with a high sub 7 pace and rejoined Steve for some of that Core work as the Clydesdale’s came in around high 9s. With a debatable 7 mins remaining YHC brought the PAX over to the exercise equipment for 2 rounds of 7 various movements. 5 pull-ups controlled the rest which consisted of Burpees, Plank Jacks, Chest press, Knee ups, leg raises and Freak nasties..

    Count, Annouce, COT

    YHC prayed the PAX out with tribute and remembrance of the lost from Katrina 14 years ago today..

    Thanks for following my lead and 👊🏻💪🏻✌🏻 Till the next Gloom!

  • I didn’t go to Notre Dame

    We did a lot.

    Bushwacker sends us on our way with his St. Paulesque – Epistle to the Gipperians.

  • The Backup

    Being called in as a last minute backup can go one of two ways: either you’re a little stressed because you have to plan a beatdown quickly, or maybe the opposite, a little too relaxed, shirking that preparation because… hey, you’re the backup, what’re they expecting?

    Now, I’m not gonna say that YHC came wholly unprepared, not my style.  But preparation was …light.

    We already knew Pik and Wacker were out this morning, so Shooter and I stood in the darkness wondering if it’d be just the two of us.  Then we saw Cowbell’s truck coming in hot… or at least, we thought it was Cowbell’s truck.  It came and went.  Hmm. “I guess that wasn’t Cowbell,” I say to Shooter. “No, that was him,” he responds. And sure enough, the car returns after pulling a three-point turn and Cowbell pops out.  Hmm. Well, it is early in the morning, no judgement here.

    Warmorama:  Torso twist, arm circles, SSH, IW’s, high knees, and butt kicks, all x20 IC.

    Thang:  Mosey a whopping 20 feet to the edge of the basketball court for a mix of suicides and AMRAPS:

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of merkins

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of BB sit-ups

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of jump tucks

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of one leg lateral hops, another minute for the other leg

    Full court suicide

    1 minute of Aussie pull-ups

    Full court suicide

    90 seconds of plank jacks

    Lunge walk half the court, bear crawl back

    1 minute of shoulder taps

    Full court suicide

    Over to center court for a rousing round of Burp n’ Merk (ascending merkins with each burpee), up to 10. Shooter requested we descend back down to 1, as real men would, but time was short.

    Closed it out with some Mary, little manny crunches, hello dolly’s, x 25 in random cadences.

    COT and Shooter prayed us out.  A sincere thank you for the opportunity to better myself with good men like yourselves.

  • Back Blasts from the Past

    Inspired by Chewy’s spate of back to back to back blasts, YHC figured it was time to put some fingers to the keyboard. I love to read these things, so why have I shirked my duty for my last 3 Q’s?  

    Alright, let’s forget the counts just this once, as I’ll be lucky to get the rest of it right:

    Warmorama – SSH, IWs, Cherry Pickers, arm circles, air presses, etc.

    And finally, high knees until called, then drop for a burpee…. round the circle we went, a few times.

    Thang: Over to the pull-up bars, my favorite feature of the marsh.  One man does 5 pull ups, while the rest of the pax does flutters.  5 rounds of this, (that’s 25 per man for you non-mathematicians) and then on to hanging knee tucks.  10 per man this time, while everyone does J-Los.  3 rounds here of this.

    A long mosey from the warm confines of the Marsh to the warm expanse of the lakefront.  Oh, forgot – we sprinted a few of those blocks.  Maybe… 2?   Then hit up the sea wall for none other than: Step Ups, Freaks, Bulgarians, Freaks, Step ups with Knee Raises, Freaks.

    Over to a grassy spot for some Captain Thor, 1 sit-up to 4 putins, up to 10/40.  This was Cowbell’s virgin Thor experience, he seemed to enjoy.

    Mosey back to the Marsh, this time stopping at each corner to do 10 merkins.  Switched it up each block, alternating between wide, diamond, T, and your plain ol’ average merkin.  

    COT and Cowbell prayed us out.  Thanks gents for the opportunity to lead, and for keeping each other sharp.  Love to start the week out here with you guys.

  • B-Limps

    8 pax met at Gma’s house on the gloriously muggy morning.

    The attendance was a little up this morning, after Cowbell’s call to action on Saturday at the lakefront.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to parking lot for Quick Warm up:

    SSH x 20; IW x 20; Merkins x 20 all IC

    Mosey to the under pass for

    1 lap of hill repeats and 25 Burpees, Lunges, IW, Merkins, Plank J’s, and Skwaats after each

    Mosey back to the Flag
    Distance 2.5 miles according to Cowbell.

    COM: including Side ups, and V Ups x 25 and BB sit ups x 10 led by Zoo

    Zoolander, again showing his ability to heal like Wolverine, running hill repeats < 10 weeks post-op ankle surgery.

    COT, Name-o-Rama: Welcome FNG Handy, who is married to Zoolander’s sister. Prayer .

    thanks guys for letting me lead,

    Chewy.

  • SOAP Note

    Subjective: The pax arrived at Shovel flag, everyone was happy to see EiEi and Burgundy. They haven’t been around in a while.

    Objective: Warm up exercises including jane fondas, wife pleasers, Mt climbers and IW x 20 each. The pax then ran 3.something miles, and then finished up with 100 skwaats.

    Assessment: Cowbell and Waterpick are fast, they had to plank a long time waiting for Ei and YHC. There was a lot of grumbling about the 100 skwaats, but overall everyone enjoyed the run and seemed to tolerate it well.

    Plan: Lets do it again next Thursday!

    Thanks for letting me lead,

    Chewy