Category: Northshore

  • May Day

    At the zenith of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and its satellite states held May Day parades every May 1st to demonstrate their military might for the Free World to contemplate. Fortunately for those of us old enough to remember school time nuclear war drills in which we learned laughably to take shelter under our desks, the threat never materialized. That didn’t stop the Northshore Cold Warriors from celebrating May Day this morning, however.

    After a warmup of Seal Jacks, Good Mornings, SSHs, Windmills and Imperial Walker Squats, the PAX mosied over to Bedrock for

    19 Romanian Deadlifts with a nice sized rock

    then to the Justice Center for

    19 Bulgarian Split Squats each leg and 89 Russian Twists IC

    all to celebrate 1989, the year the Berlin Wall crumbled.

    The PAX then mosied to the front of the Justice Center to partner up for some BOMBS; that is, 50 burpees, 100 OH hand claps, 150 merkins, 200 big boy sit ups, and 250 air squats…one partner performing exercises while the other ran up the ramp and down the stairs to relieve his partner.

    Appropriately, the PAX finishing first performed isometric Wall sits instead of planks.

    Next, we made our way to the Veterans Memorial for a plank parade, lateral plank walking the Memorial semi circle there and back.

    Back to The Gipper, who certainly played his part in the collapse of the Evil Empire, to close things out with a countorama, nameorama and prayer.

    Happy May Day men and God Bless America!

  • ZOORICH CLASSIC

    After a quick disclaimer and Warmorama (18 x SSH, 18 x Toe Touches, 9 Windmills), the Pax moseyed westward and partnered up to commence a frisbee golf challenge. We had 18 holes i.e. crawfish trays (‘tis the season!) with a total course length of ~1 mile. For each hole, one partner threw the high quality, PDGA-approved disc (courtesy of Dollar General), while the other partner performed the following exercises between strokes for the respective holes. Partners alternated throwing and exercising throughout the course.

    Between Strokes

    Holes 1 – 3: Bear Crawl

    Holes 4 – 6: Wheelbarrow

    Holes 7 – 9: Lunge Walk

    Holes 10 – 12: Groucho Walk

    Holes 13 – 15: Frankensteins

    Holes 16 – 18: Burpee Broad Jumps

    Once the team completed a hole, both team members performed the following exercises with the rep count equal to how many strokes the team took to complete the hole.

    Hole          Exercise

    1                # x Freak Nasties

    2                # x Jump Squats

    3                # x Derkins

    4                #  x Squerkins

    5               # x Copperhead Squats

    6               # x Hello Dollies

    7               # x Gwerkins (As if the Squerkins weren’t bad enough)

    8               # x Burpees

    9               # x Donkey Kicks

    10            # x Plank Jacks

    11            # x Sister Mary Katherines

    12           #  x Big Boy Situps

    13           # x Crunchy Frogs

    14           # x Groiners

    15          # x Body Builders

    16          #  x Dive Bombers

    17         # x Box Jumps (No one completed as time ran out)

    18         # x Patty Cake Merkins (No one completed as time ran out)

    Team BEAN HAMMER started out rough with the first throw on the first hole in the Lake, but quickly recovered.

    Team STEVE GRUNDY put on a racy display of Squerkins, which are very likely to never be incorporated into another F3 Northshore beatdown.

    Welcome back two Pax back from Injured Reserve, Butt Splice and Tanked Up!, who inadvertently won unattributable points for best team name: BUTT TANK!

    Thanks to team JOSE RUSSO for scooping up the coupons at the end.

    Team scores were recorded on scorecards provided by the Q and tallied below with penalty 6s for unfinished holes. This simplified scoring normalization yielded team Shooting Sparks as winner of the 2019 Zoorich Classic. Congrats guys. Wear this badge of honor proudly!

    Counterama, Name-orama, ceremonial naming of FNG – Speedy Gonzales, and Butt Splice prayed us out. 19th hole coffeeteria at our usual spot. Thanks for allowing me to lead, Men. Hope you enjoyed it as much as YHC had dreaming it up. SYITNG!

  • Three’s Company…Plus an 80lb Ball of Concrete

    Arriving a little early to tackle what would most certainly be an unfortunately large amount of litter waiting at the Marsh, YHC was also greeted by an itinerant millennial hanging out. We exchanged a few pleasantries and he was extended a beat down invite before Shooter and Pik simultaneously rolled up.

    WARMUP

    All x15 IC:

    SSH

    Toe Touches

    High Knees

    Slow Squats

    Cherry Pickers

    Windmills

    THANG

    In homage to our IR Marsh regular Coconuts, the PAX hit the intersection for 10 burpees every minute on the minute for 5 minutes, followed by a run 1 block south down Lamarque and back. Next was 20 squats in the same fashion plus the run.

    Lurking in the shadows behind the basketball goal waiting for an opportune time to make a startling appearance was one of Mathlete’s 80lb atlas balls from a Saturday beat down several months back. Round 1: while one man did ball rolling suicides, the other 2 planked. Round 2: zig zag rolling from one post to the next and back while non-rollers did LBCs. Round 3: ball carrying suicides while the others did cherry pickers.

    COT

    Q prayed us out, overwhelmed by the example of challenges displayed by our visitor, and grateful for the blessings of tenacity, determination in the face of adversity, and the support that we all give and receive every day.

    Thank you, gents, for giving me another chance to grow in my leadership!

  • Gipper It

    It was said that Ronal Reagan loved jelly beans, and kept a jar of them on his desk in the oval office.

    Strolling up to the A.O., looking up at the statue of R.R., one has to wonder if all of the carnuaba wax in those jelly beans contibuted to….

    Anyways, it was a beautiful post-Easter day to work off the candy consumption. And here is how it went:

    Warm-up: all 20xIC; toe-touches, good mornings, imperial walkers, arm circles, ss hops, high knees, seal jacks, butt kicks, smurf jacks

    Mosey to justice center parking

    Lunge walk, backwards halfway, then sprint the other half…repeat to the upper deck.

    For the main event: we did 10 burpees, 10 merkins, 10 sit-ups, sprint 300 feet. Repeat in decending order 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1. For a total of 55 burpees, 55 merkins, 55 sit-ups, and 9 sprints.

    Mosey to the N.E. corner of the upper deck, do an exercise-then run a loop across the deck-down the stairs-then up the ramp – repeat four times.

    Mosey back to the flag. Moby strolls up with his pet cat

    Bush Wacker prays us out.

    And, welcome Cowbell, hope you enjoy the Northshore PAX

    postscript; Jelly Belly makes an interesting assortment of flavored jelly beans – even a coconut one.

  • Uniformed celebrity sightings at the Scramble!!

    5 PAX converged on the Scramble to post before the rain showers arrived.. YHC noticed Water pik already under the lamp post as I emerged from the park.. With no vehicle in sight Q realizing Water Pik had gotten in a little pre thang by running from home.. Garfield emerged from the darkness as Zoolander turned the corner and rolled in. With chatter bouncing around as each PAX joined, the time to begin quickly arrived but headlights rounding the bend revealed the Scramble would add yet another PAX in Chewy as he waited for him to join in…

    Warmup

    10 IC Imperial Squats

    15 IC Toe Touches

    10 IC Scorpion kicks (Garfield fav)

    15 IC Windmills

    Alternating lunge walk 30 yards to Zoolander’s car..

    Thang

    PAX began our Mosey down the standard ole Mandeville Route quickly establishing 2 different paced groups.. With Water Pik, Garfield and Zoolander pacing out front.. YHC and Chewy pulled the 6 with some great chatter along the way.. Returned to the AO for playground work with each PAX cycling through 10 pull-ups while the rest of us completed little Manny crunches OYO. 10 IC Freak nasties as each man completed Flutter kicks. Closed with Plank hold, left/right arm high as our Celebrity uniformed Captain Sparkles rolled in to make a down painment of different sorts..

    Count, announce, COT

    Appreciation to Zoolander closing the PAX with prayers to the sky Q!!

    Always enjoy the Gloom with you men 👍🏻👊🏻✌🏻 Till the next Gloom!!

  • Dropping Like Flies

    Small crew at Granny’s House this morning.  With Coconuts on IR, Ringo beachside until the fall, Bushwacker taking on a Spring Break adventure (or at least attempting to), and Chewy… wait, where has Chewy been? … Well, anyway, it was up to Shooter, Pik and YHC to hold down the fort.  And Pik, relieved of carpool duty this morning, pulled a Shooter and ran to the AO, so his warm up was accounted for.  But there’s a format to this thing and by golly we’re sticking to it.  Soooo…

    Warmorama: Arm circles (forward & back), SSH, toe touches, IW’s, seal jacks, and butt kicks, all at or around 20x IC.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to the tunnel but, en route and surrounded by the darkness of Granny’s woods and a few lone fireflies, YHC decided to stop for an impromptu minute-and-a-half plank.  This hopefully gave us some time to take in our quiet surroundings, think about the day to come, and contemplate just how insane that running crew would find us if they happened upon us huddled on the pavement in the middle of the pitch black woods.  But alas, a minute and a half passes and not a soul in sight.

    Onward to the tunnel, and once at the base, we started a Burpback Mountain (one pair running backwards up the ramp while the other starts the burpee count), up to a cumulative x60 burpees.

    Having got what we came for, we head back through the woods to the bus stop.  Is this even a bus stop?  I’ve never actually caught a bus at this location, and I live on this street.  Either way, it’s been money well spent for our crew, and we stop for some derkins, step ups, hip slappers (legs up on the benches), Bulgarians, jump overs, and freak nasties.  All about 15x IC.

    Next up, an AMRAP routine at one end of the corridor: merkins x5, squats x10, wide-armed merkins x15, LBC’s x20, then run the corridor, up the stairs and back down, sprint 100% to the start to rinse and repeat.  After YHC’s arms couldn’t muster another round of wide-armed merks, I called it and we moved on to a true 6-minute Mary.  

    It must’ve been a while since YHC has done a full 6 minutes of Mary because this one seemed to last an eternity.  PAX knocked out crunchy frogs, Putins, flutter kicks, leg raises, 100’s, and LBC’s (all around x15-20 IC) before calling it for the COT, where we discussed Wacker’s status as the CSAUP king and then Pik prayed us out. Thank you men for the post, the push, the lead – nothing beats starting the day with guys like you two.

  • The Millennial Beatdown

    Who knew that a workout titled “The Millennial” would actually be difficult? One would assume that given the reputation of Millennials, this would be the workout equivalent of watching Netflix. That being every 5 minutes someone asks “are we still working out”? Instead, we were introduced to a series that put the PAX and YHC into survival mode.

    But before that we warmed up with (All in cadence):
    1. SSH
    2. High Knees
    3. Butt Kicks
    4. Windmills
    5. Shoulder Series

    We then moseyed to Noah’s Ark (what I think we should call the neutral ground near Rips ever since Hammer’s beatdown) for the main event.

    Like I said before, the workout routine was called “The Millennial” and this is what we had to do. The goal is to get to a total count of 2000 as a team (roughly the time period Millennials were born). 1000 reps of exercises and 1000 meters of running. It turned out the loop around Noah’s Ark is around 350 meters versus 100 and so we ended up running around 3,500 meters. But as demonstrated on Saturday, my counting was not up to even 5th grade levels (as was pointed out by Jose).

    The sequence was the full pax does 100 reps each of a called exercise, then runs a lap back to a point where they gather again for the next called exercise. There were 10 cycles, which would get you to your number of 2,000 (Or 4,500 in our case).

    Millennials are always taking credit for other’s people work so why should the workout be any different? The first nine cycles end when the FIRST person gets to 100. The last cycle, is done together because eventually Millennials need to learn that they have to pull their own weight.

    We started each set with 6 burpees (It was 5 upon initial construction but changed last minute which led to a multiplication error).

    The sets were: 1) Carolina Dry Docks; 2) Squats; 3) Russian Twists; 4) Merkins; 5) Lunges; 6) LBCs; 7) Shoulder Taps; 8) Monkey Humpers; 9) 100s; 10) Burpees (Remaining number to get to 100 after burpees from previous rounds)

    We moseyed back to the flag and arrived at 7:30 on the nose. We circled up and Hammer closed us out.

    Thanks for letting me lead gentlemen. You always make me better!!!

    Over and Out,
    Grundy

  • Round Robin Roll around!!

    With an early morning text sent out asking for assistance with the Q, 3 of Northshores core arrived at the Marsh with sights of left over Easter eggs scattered throughout the AO, as if someone had forgotten where all the eggs were hidden.. This crew was sure to find the remaining few and dispose of them properly before we would proceed with our beatdown..

    YHC took the first 15 min with the warmup and mind readings of the other 2 PAX over to the playground equipment..

    Warmup

    SSH IC 20

    Windmills IC 10

    Imperial walkers IC 20

    Toe Touches IC 10

    Butt kicks IC 20

    Donkey kick-ups OYO 10

    Thang

    5,10,15 pull-ups, Merkins and Squats reducing by 1 down 4,9,14/3,8,13/2,7,12/1,6,11 and closed with 5,10,15..

    Passing of the baton to Steve who took the PAX to the street for some 4 corner action.. PAX moseyed to the first completed 10 hand release/T Burpees, 20 Squats and 30 IC Flutter kicks. Sprinted the next block, upon arrival the welcoming of a 10 count and then R/R. Mosey to the next R/R and Sprint the final with Bushwacker red lighting the jump only to still smell defeat as Steve and the YHC cranked it up a notch, R/R…

    Arrived back at the AO for the pass off at which Bushwacker announced Bear crawl suicides.. Upon completion the sound of possible Bunny hop suicides filled the air to pay tribute to the recent holiday, however an audible was called to a different type of suicide.. We will call this one the barrel roll suicide modifier.. For those who have seen the movie Grown-ups with David Spade and Adam Sandler imagine the scene as Spade rolls down the hill in the tire and is abruptly stopped by police officer Shaquille O’Neil directing traffic and instantly splash Merlot’s…. Let’s hope this one leaves the mind of Bushwacker for any future Qs..

    With 6 mins left we take center court on our six to finish out with alternating call of Mary. Bushwacker 25 IC Little Manny crunches, Steve 25 IC Wife pleasers, YHC A,B,C,D holds various calls and closed with Bushwacker 25 IC Freddie Mercury’s…

    Count, announce, COT

    Thoughts and prayers to those in the tragic event that took place on Easter Sunday with the bombings in Sri Lanka..

    👊🏻✌🏻 Till the next Gloom!!

  • 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

  • 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.