F3 New Orleans

Category: Northshore

  • (Erotic?) Dreams of TurboTax, Mowing Grass, Wherethehellissparkles, and a Pair of New Shoes

    That pretty much says it all….

     

    Start off with COT as is reasonable and customary at the Captain’s Cove.

     

    Good mumblechatter this morning with a couple of great guys.  Whacker seemed particularly pumped up this morning, detailing the twisting, turning story of his dream that included our very own Turbo Tax in a nocturnal F3 AO setting.  Really, you’ll have to ask Bushwacker about this one.  Not withstanding the many praises I have received for my supposed and alleged high brown and cerebral writing skillz, I am in no way prepared to recount this dream.  I will say that the recounting of Wackie’s dream was complete with a disclaimer that mind altering drugs were not in fact ingested prior to the dream.

     

    For any tips on either remaining hydrated or being extremely efficient at solo lawn mowing, also please consult Bushwacker.  These etherial musings were also debated during our 6.3 mile tour along the lakefront and amongst the Quercus virginia.

     

    Where the hell is Captain Sparkles?  Demotion to Seal Team Zero is imminent.  Hollywood movie sets are actually not F3 AO’s.  Sparkles – Come back!!!!

     

    Shooter got a new pair of running shoes.  His shoe size did indeed increase.  I am sure Ms. Shooter appreciates this.

     

    Thanks for getting me out there guys.  And thanks to whoever put me down as Q.  I needed an extra point in ISI.

    Ei

     

     

  • The Day Time Stood Still

    For those individuals who showed up (the few, the proud, the elite) and didn’t break the first rule of the Northshore F3 rulebook of not skipping Mondays, this beatdown will not soon escape their minds. It was a beatdown that made it seem as if time stopped working. A day time seemed to call in sick. It will be remembered as the day time stood still.

    Let the warmup begin:

    Warmup

    SSH 25 IC

    25 Side lunge jump shots OYO

    Forward arm circles 15 IC

    Backward arm circles 15 IC

    Overhead claps 15 IC

    10 IC Chicken Claps

    10 OYO Merkins

     

    The Thang

    We started on right lower corner of the court and sprint to the top right corner, shuffle to left corner, backpedal to lower left corner, and shuffle right to the start. Continue for 5 laps.

    We then did some suicides! 2 series of regular suicides (fine, I guess we can get a 10 count). We then did a bear crawl suicide!!!

     

    After that we did a basketball conditioning drill. The objective was the sprint the width of the court back and forth with the goal of completing 12 trips in 55 seconds (every subsequent attempt we would add 5 seconds to account for fatigue). If we didn’t all make it then there was a penalty of 10 burpees for everyone. First trip came in at 56 seconds.

    Penalty burpees!!!!

    After that series it felt like we had to almost be nearing a close right? Nah. It’s only about 15 minutes in!!! Like I said before, time decided to take Monday off and hit the snooze button. Well not us!!!

    In between the sprints we would head over to the benches for some step ups and Freak Nasties (15 IC).

    We also did some Wilt Chamberlin’s. He famously scored 100 points in a game so we did 100 reps of 4 different exercises in succession.

    100 lbcs

    100 squats

    100 flutter kicks each leg

    100 Merkins.

    Time still was not out so we did one last thing to wrap it up, 1 minute dead man’s hold (feet six inches off of ground).

    Time finally decided to end the insanity as the three numbers I was looking for flashed on my watch (5, 4, 5). Time’s up!!!

    What a great effort from all of the men who showed up today. It’s an honor and a blessing to call you friends.

    Thanks for letting me lead!

  • Grandmas boot camp!!

    QIC set the alarm a little early with a prethang run in mind to Grandmothers house. Along the way a creeping SUV pulls along side throwing up a wave, which quickly brought back flashbacks of my youth when one could have mistaken the slow creep for some type of turf check or creepy guy slow crawling the neighborhood in search of some illegal  substances. Waterpik quickly dismissed those thoughts with a smile and fist pump as I entered the tarmac of the Trailhead less anxious to bolt through the woods or cut down a cross street. Arrive on the scene at Grandmas House to Steve, Dr. “NO” and Waterpik. With brief chatter of Grundy’s Q at the Marsh we jump right in.

     

    warmup

    20IC SSH, (Welcome Chewy/Choppa) 20 IC Mummy kicks, 15 IC WM, 20 IC Seal Jacks, 20 IC MC and finish with 15IC Good mornings.

    thang

    Moseyed to the stage for a splitting of the PAX into 2 groups. We partake in the Wall of Pain where each member holds a wall sit while 1 man from each group does 10Merkins, 10 LBCs and 10 Burpees replacing another PAX till all cycle. Chewy’s crew being over zealous quickly begins to R/R so we completed 2 cycles. Then we Moseyed to the bus stop for Left leg step ups IC 15 followed by 15 OYO jump overs. Completed the same for Right side. Next we did a box jump 180 degree style IC which proved to be very taxing. On completion we Moseyed to the stairs and partnered up. Partner one did LBCs and alternating left/right ISO crunch while partner 2 started with 5 calf raises 2 steps,  10 calf raises 2 steps, 15 calf raises 2 steps, etc. etc. Thanks to Chewy for calling an audible alternating inward/outward/regular to focus on different areas of the calf. Inspiration came from the days of past remembering our vertical shortcomings as Waterpik   gave us a recap of the Western Conference finals from the night before. Upon completion we went into what I thought was the Crazy Indian, however before writing this backblast I reviewed my notes and the Crazy Indian is a BTTW workout which was in the running bought never made it to the beatdown. So the correct term is Indian Bear Crawl. We modified with multiple rounds first being Merkins, then Peter Parker’s, Mountain Climbers and closed with Groiners.. With a min to spare we took to plank with Choppa’s alarm being the final bell..

    countoff, announcements, COT

    Q prayed us out into the day!

    Appreciate the lead and you men posting!

    ✌🏻 Till the next Gloom!!

  • Burps in the Oak grove

    “Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.” -Jerry Seinfeld

    10 pax met up Saturday morning for a nice beat down on the lakefront. Yada, yada,yada…

    Prethang 6:10-6:30 mosey west and back to shovel flag…

    the thang:

    warm-up: SSH, mt. Climbers, IW x 20 IC

    mosey to the oak grove

    5 burpees/5 jump squats/5 merkins x 10 rounds

    jane fonda series: leg raise x 15 ic>pulses x 10 ic> knee to knee x 10> foot to knee x 10

    2 min single leg squats each leg

    5 squat thrusts/5speed skaters/ 5 merkins x 8 rounds

    Glute  bridges 3 sec x 20; single leg glute bridges x 10 each

    mosey east toward flag:

    fwd lunge with arm swing overhead x 10

    bkwd lunge with arm swing x 10

    single leg RDLs x 10 IC each leg

    mosey to shovel flag

    mac tar jai x 20 ic

    russian twist x 20 ic

    name o Rama, cot, prayer, coffeeteria

    thanks guys for letting me lead,

    chewy

     

     

     

  • Cold front at the Cove!!

    Arrived to the AO with sights of Steve coming in from Lakeshore Drive. YHC surly needed to see another PAX to spark motivation on this in between Gloom of sorts. F3 has changed the YHC sleeping pattern of sorts to where now the internal clock refuses to allow one to over sleep and Fartsack even though it would be truly welcoming at times.. As we begin to chatter, the sighting of an original Cove member turns in hot jumping out ready to get some road work in at this 0445 Post.. Welcome back EiEi, as with tradition we count first, COT and begin our journey. Along the way with great chatter, EiEi mentions the cool front of sorts, which was experienced at the Scramble the day before midway between the Lake and Monroe street. Would the PAX have yet another cooling experience yet again? Sure hope so, because the winds a blowing from the south are sure heavy and humid as the warm record heat of this week have overly saturated the Q at all Post thus far.. As we get to the end of the lakefront headlights beaming at our backs I wonder if someone is lost on this Gloom.  There is rarely a sighting of vehicles at this early post and especially at the end of the turn around. Wait that’s Hollywood Captain Sparkles checking in on his Cove crew rolling in from an all night screening of a movie production. With influence from EiEi to park that truck and join the PAX Captain quickly salutes and begins his journey homeward bound.. Good to know you thought of checking in on us though Capt. See you on the next one.. Journeyed on and as expected upon heading North we experience a cooling of sorts. We complete our route in a respectable time of 8:50 pace or so according to Steve and say are farewells..

    Appreciate the fellowship and run with you men this morning!!

    ✌🏻 Until the next Post my brothers!!

  • Running Behind but the Timing’s Unreliable!

    YHC had a sneaking suspicion when I opened my eyes that my wake-up window for making the scramble had already started closing, rather than opening with the sounding of my alarm at any moment. I had to pee and I was wide awake – my body was screaming at me that I had missed the alarm by 20 minutes! An immediate text to the rock of the f3 northshore and it was understood that the scramble was copacetic, but without my normal morning routine would I be…?

    The now co-Q arrived on the scene to see the PAX in good hands doing lunge twists, and jumped in. The scrambling commenced along the traditional route. As we hit the Loop, though, Chewy called an audible, a la Steve’s beat down the previous day at the gipper. The Pax split up, each group heading in opposite directions around the loop in a seeming attempt to instill a little variety and sense of competition in an otherwise no-man-left-behind scenario.

    The public at-large must’ve read Monday’s back blast and sought to challenge the PAX, because there seemed to be more littler for us to tackle than normal. However, with Waterpik starting early with a piece of trash near the flag, we tackled said challenge with flying colors.

    YHC felt compelled to stop the PAX after coming off the pier for 50 OYO freddy mercury’s to throw a little more spice on the run. And upon returning to the flag, the dreaded dice of doom were brought out for for some human sacrifice! Being uninitiated, Chewy and Ei took the first 2 rolls, followed by the rest of us. 10-20 merkins, side straddle hops and putins were all well and good, but when a 50 came up, we trembled in unison as we gazed upon the other die, silently praying for anything but burpees! Jump-squats it was, and we put our lower bodies through the wringer.

    The wacker of all things wackable prayed us out, as we offered our sacrifices of copious amounts of dripping sweat for the sins of our fathers.

    Welcome back the the scramble Ei and thanks to Shooter for the cover and to the Pax for giving me a reason to look forward to waking before the sun!

  • Running In Circles

    There were a couple of noteworthy things at this morning’s beatdown: Bubba’s victorious return after a lengthy F3 hiatus, Moby’s first completed workout since suffering an ankle injury, and Maverick’s remarkably prompt arrival at the Gipper!  T-claps to all these men for stepping it up.

    So… after a month of running stagnation, YHC was finally in a running mood this morning.  Most of the thang today therefore involved… you guessed it, running.

    Warm-up: Good Mornings, Toe Touches, Windmills, 15x IC.  SSHs, Seal Jacks, and High Knees, 25x IC.

    The Thang: First, off to the Taj for a new partner routine: PAX performs flutter kicks while two men run the perimeter of the Taj in opposite directions.  Once they meet on the other side, they knock out 5 burpees and then return along the same path.  Next pair up, and so on, until the entire PAX has completed the run.  Followed up with the same drill but mountain climbers replaced flutter kicks, and lastly, jump squats.

    Mosey to the grass in front of the parking garage for a quick set of Catalina Wine Mixers, 15x IC (at an odd 6-count that miraculously went over smoothly).  The name may be hoity toity, but the exercise itself is straight grunt work.  Then up to the 2nd floor to start another partner drill: P1 begins lunge walking up the ramp, while P2 runs past him to do a loop – up, around, and back down the stairs to catch P1 and switcheroo.  Then bear crawls, then broad jumps.

    Lastly, before returning to the flag: burpee suicides.  Sprint to mid-parking lot and back, 5 burpees.  Full length and back, 5 burpees.  This one was inspired by Grundy’s looooong PFT sprint, which I think I can safely say kicked everyone’s ass last Saturday (except Turbo, of course).

    Back safely at the flag, there was just enough time to do Jane Fonda’s, 20x IC each leg.

    Countdown, nameorama, and Moby prayed us out.  As always, thank you men for the opportunity to lead and get stronger with you.

  • NO FEAR!…or trash

    What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

    -Vincent Van Gough

    Fear, largely based on the unknown, keeps us from even attempting things sometimes. Courage is the power to conquer the fear despite the unknown. Fear can pervade every area of our lives, as we can all attest, and for YHC, fear inundated me on several levels as I put together today’s beatdown – and even more so as I pulled up to the Marsh in the gloom! You see, I can’t shake the words of our illustrious brother Turbo Tax following the 2 year convergence when he told us, in essence, to stop phoning it in and be the F3 that we want by, among other things, putting thought and preparation into our beatdowns. With that in mind, I fearfully sprinkled just a little bit of Bushwacker Orgininality Spice on a piece of paper, worried that, as good as it sounded now, it may end up a flop. YHC may end up pushed past his breaking point. The PAX may snicker and scoff at the ridiculous commands presented to them and secretly ridicule the Wacker (as the southshore did with the ISI week of 100s). But courage overcame the baseless fears, and the trusty Men of the Marsh met to Master another Monday ass whoopin!

    Pre-Thang

    Slow dynamic stretching seemed in order so…

    All IC:

    Toe Touches x30

    Imperial Walkers x30

    Abe Vigodas x20

    Thang

    Off to the playground equipment for…

    (all OYO)

    5 pull ups, 10squats, 25 merkins, 50 LBCs

    5 chin ups, 10 lunges (5each leg),25 freak nasties, 50 heal pulses

    5Australian pull ups, 10 1 leg squats (5 each leg), 25 derkins, 50 putins

     

    Back to the B Ball court and partnered up for my own take on  B.O.M.B.S. called B.I.T.E. M.E.

    50 Burpees

    100Iron Hulks (1:4 ratio of merkins to air presses)

    The Two Amigos (wall squat back to back and walk from one end of the court and back)

    200 E2K (ankle over knee oblique crunch, 100 each side)

    Empty Wheelbarrow (crab walk with partner holding your legs)

    Wrap Up

    Pushing the limits of temporal respect, we finished sweaty sore and exhausted with COT and a prayer from the Sharp Dressed Pik himself.

    LAGNIAPPE (or Post Thang)

    As has proudly become somewhat of an F3 northshore tradition, we scoured the Marsh like kids on an easter egg hunt for all the litter we could find, so as to leave the place better than it was when we arrived.

    Thank you gentlemen for your friendship, comaraderie, and following my lead, despite my fears

     

    A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature

    -Ralph Waldo Emerson

     

    As a post script for those of you still reading, I just read an article that says a meta study comprised of 2 Harvard studies that followed over 700 men for 75 years testing all aspects of health and happiness found “The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.” — Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. We, gentlemen, will live forever!

  • 2 is Enough!

    Well after a long month of filming a movie and missing many Q’s it was time to get back in the picture. Can’t say i was overly anxious to run 6.1 miles at 0445am
    But new i had to get back at it. Then the thought crept in my mind maybe no one will show and I can just go to gym for a light workout. But the morning breeze was so nice that thought left and new thought of maybe doing the lakefront and back little over 3 miles. But thanks to ONE of The Seal Team 6 members for showing up and pushing me a little further than a solo run would have brong. Shooter the man who really inspired the start of the cove held me accountable. Thanks Brother.
    There is NO doubt we are STRONGER together!

  • El Cinco de Dolor y Miseria

    Well, as they say… that happened.  The FBI physical fitness test pre-thang Q’d by Grundy started promptly at 0545 as promised, but it would require a prodding Bushwacker to keep this thing on schedule.  You see, until this morning, none of us (least of all Grundy) realized just how patriotic our lakefront residents were.  After knocking out as many sit-ups as possible in a minute, we slow-moseyed down the street looking for Grundy’s starting line… “a bench lined up with an American flag.”  Turns out there are a lot of American flags, and a bunch of benches out there.  A bit of confused back and forth and finally, worried about respecting the time, Wacker just took off on the 300 meter sprint.  The rest of the PAX quickly followed.

    T-claps to Grundy who got us out there, and to those men who got up early to complete the PFT: 1 minute of sit-ups, 300 m sprint, max out on merkins, 1.5 miles in less that 12:50.  YHC would call out each man individually, but the fog of being thoroughly beaten has settled in, and it’s a miracle I even remembered the 20 PAX who posted today.   Not sure who passed and who failed, but all men did admirably and with all the turnover going on at the Bureau these days, it’s a good thing they’ve got some young men like Grundy coming in.

    So yeah – 20 PAX this morning!  All the EH’ing and warm weather is paying off.  FNG’s are rolling in each week and that’s got the rest of us posting more regularly and upping our game.  Speaking of upping our game – YHC had sincerely thought last night about doing… well, not an easy beatdown, but maybe a more mild one?  But nah…

    Alright, enough rambling, here’s what went down:

    Warmorama: Toe Touches, Imperial Walkers, Seal Jacks, SSH, Butt Kicks, High Knees, Mountain Climbers, Plank Jacks.  All 20x IC.

    The Thang:

    Mosey west for a COP: 20x IC side to side plank hops, plank jacks, partner up for jump overs (20 OYO), in-out jump squats, and everyone’s favorite, monkey humpers.

    Ei said it best when he noted, “Well, now that we’ve embarrassed ourselves there…” onto the next location!  Mosey to the loading dock for what I knew would be a real crowd pleaser: burpees down the street!  More mumbling from Bushwacker (you really can’t be fasting that much with all today’s chatter), trying to tell me that I can’t eat an elephant one spoonful at a time, or some such nonsense.

    Because there were so many men this morning, YHC decided we’d partner up and P1 would hold plank while P2 burpee’d down the street.  It goes like this: burpee with the standard 1 merkin, but on the jump up do a broad jump forward.  2nd burpee has 2 merkins, followed by 2 broad jumps, 3 x 3, and so on, down the road.  It was fun.  Even better than I imagined on paper. 

    At about this time a few 10 counts were needed (in espanol for Cinco de Mayo), and then we moved over to the playground for a few stations.

    P1 holds a wall sit and does air presses while P2 hits the three padded stations: Sister Mary Katherine’s x15, hand-release merkins, and LBC’s, all single-count x15.  After 2 reps each, P1 does heels to heaven while P2 hits the stations, flapjack, 2 reps each.

    Next up, formed two lines to indian run back to the flag.  Finish up with Hello Dolly’s x25 IC.

    Countdown, nameorama, naming of our two FNG’s  (welcome Doolittle and Vel-Vito!!), and Splice prayed us out.  The only thing that would make this beatdown more complete would be a drive-by from Choppa…

    On to the Coffetería, which looked to have a little more action than usual with the table dancing, but you’ll have to check the groupme for that report.  A sincere thanks to this great group of men – despite my body’s response, YHC had a great time out there this morning.  Keep posting, keep the FNG’s coming, and hey, let’s try to get some of our missing comrades (ahem, Turtle and Bubba) back in action.  See you guys out there.

     

    EDIT: One (hopefully) final edit on this unusually long backblast: this was likely Carpool’s final posting as a Northshore resident.  As his family makes the trek over to the Woodlands, we wish them nothing but the best.  He’s been a great addition to the F3 family over here, and Houston will be lucky to have him.  Stay tuned for info on Carpool’s Woodlands launch (potentially mid-July?), would be great if a couple of us could make it out there to support him.