F3 New Orleans

Category: Northshore

  • Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

    11 Pax posted for our Saturday beat-down.

    I hate burpees, so we knocked out the big rocks first:

    10 burpees, 9 burpees, 8 burpee,…. etc and on with the pattern continuing down until there was nothing left and then we finished off with another.. 10 burpees.

    Then we did short a short mosey to go warm up.

    • Side straddle hop (20x)
    • arm circles
    • imperial walkers
    • hillbillies
    • peter parkers
    • plank (1 minute)

    Then a short mosey over to an animal planet:

    • bear crawl (approx 15 yards out and then back)
    • crab walk
    • spider-man crawl
    • bear again

    Another short mosey:

    We reflected on a conversation from Alice in Wonderland:

    Alice: `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
    `That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
    `I don’t much care where–‘ said Alice.
    `Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

    We tied this in to our purpose for where we are going with family, community, career, and more relevantly – how we can reflect on our direction in and purpose on this workout to strengthen our bodies to do more of God wants us to do.

    We put this practice with a round of Merkin Tabata

    Then to help us push through limits… we reflected on this recent article from the WSJ: The Mental Tricks of Athletic Endurance

    Another round of Tabata but this time all 4 minutes were mountain climber.

    Short mosey over to do a partner wheelbarrow out and back about 20 yards – 2x

    Mosey back toward the flag. We slowed it down along the way with about 30 yards of Zombie walkers.

    Final COP of abs:

    8 more minutes of tabata with flutter kicks, american hammers and hello dollies mixed in.

     

    And.. we closed out with Roxanne.

     

  • Level 3 Running Achievement Unlocked: Bleeding Nipples!

    Yeah, you read that right.  Now, seasoned long distance runners know about this and prepare properly for it, and YHC had heard of it and maybe even seen a few ghastly pictures at some point.  But, YHC assumed that our (relatively) measly mileage this month wouldn’t cause such a disturbing phenomenon.  (I thought you had to be running full marathons for crazy shit like that to happen!)  Well, YHC was clearly incorrect and will now employ a band aid tactic for all runs from here on out.  (In case you were wondering about previous levels, Level 1 is Severe Shoulder Stiffness, and Level 2 is Shin Splints – congrats Beast!)

    Anyhow, that happened today.  And I should add, it couldn’t have happened without the Pelican, for had he not shown up, YHC most likely would’ve thrown in the towel and headed back to bed.  But there he was at 0445, fresh off a Disney Cruise and ready to hit some solid ground.

    So we got to it, dove deep into cruise boat and Disney politics, and made the best out of our slower-than-usual pace (entirely due to me and my running fatigue – Pelican was ready to roll, but kind enough to stick with me).  So thanks Pelican for helping me to unlock my latest running achievement – despite my gripes, I really do appreciate the push!

  • Scramble indeed!!

    0425 came and went with your QIC reaching over to his nightstand hitting what he thought was the  snooze. Soon the realization as he reached yet again to see the illumination of his phone showing 0507 and so the Scramble of sorts begins.. Having clothes laid out like he is on fire watch, QIC quickly hops into action throwing on his attire dressing as if a Fire alarm had just rung and there is no time to spare.. Upon arrival through the park I can see what appears like a vehicle of familiarity belonging to the Waterpic. Indeed it is he accompanied by the man himself Steve chattering it up. I proceed down the walk to plant the flag as Waterpic explains the machine Steve has already put in 5 miles on his prethang. Now Steve has mentioned my determination of sorts in running to the AOs in recent Blast, but as you can see this fellow Brother has taken it to yet another extreme in the challenge of this months ISI RRR.. Coming in hot Choppa jumps out the car to join the PAX and we are off and running. QIC took the PAX on the standard route incorporating 5 burst to build a respected pace of 8.24 over 3.3 miles. We return to the AO where I decide to give the PAX a modified version of stretch (yoga)  cool down. Appreciate Chewy’s introduction of this at past Scrambles. With 3 mins to spare we round it out with some Mary. 25IC LBCs, 25IC FKs and 15IC isolated right elbow to left knee crunch and vice versa on the other side.

    countoff, Announcements, COT

    Big thanks to Choppa for taking us out in prayer!!

    Always enjoy the fellowship and chatter with you men in the Gloom!!

    Thanks for the lead

  • Some are twice the men of others at the Gipper!

    QIC arrived at the AO with the welcoming of 2 PAX. Turbo and Einstein who are just as loyal as the Ronald Reagan statue, which stands at attention welcoming all who journey to the home we call the Gipper on Wednesday gloom’s.. The sound of gravel and the closing of doors soon produce 3 more men. Low and behold it’s the Ocho arriving with an (FNG), soon to be named twice the man of his own stature. Welcome to the PAX Sweet Sixteen. Not sure how the Maverick times it out so perfectly, maybe he has an app for the timing of the row of lights on 190 that always seem to slow the QIC for his arrival. The high humidity would soon be assisting on this beatdown with perspiration to make the QIC look like a fitness guru.. Enough rambling, quick disclaimer so let’s get after it..

    warmarama

    15 IC GM, 5 Burpees, 15 IC WM, 5 Burpees, 15 IC Overhead hand claps, 5 Burpees, 15 IC Armcircles F/B, 5 Burpees, 15 IC IW, 5 Burpees.

    The thang

    Moseyed to the Taj Mahal, the PAX breaks into 3 teams. Partner 1 wall sits while Partner 2 Moseys around the building to back for a slalom shuffle through the parking post and upon return partner 2 duplicates. Next up Sumo Squats while partner journeys and repeats the slalom. Final alternating leg lunges and closing with the slalom. Indian run to the parking garage for our next missio. PAX line up at the bottom partner 1 back sprints halfway up turns and sprints while partner 2 does plank jacks. Arrival at the top partner 1 does plank jacks awaiting the arrival of partner 2. R/R backdown and up again. After completion needing some O2 the QIC request (2) 10 counts. Thanks for the proper count Ocho and Maverick. Next we sprint up as a PAX to the first ramp and Caricoa across the flats sprint up the second and Caricoa across the top flat rotating legs of course for a balance of sorts. Arriving at the top we use the parking strips 7 total for bear crawl partner 1 and Merkins partner 2 and then partner 2 proceeds to bear crawl while partner 1 does Merkins R/R. Mosey down to the courthouse corridor of sorts for a little obstacle course. Partner 1 doing FKs while partner 2 sprints to steps catching each step to the top, drop for 5 Burpees, down the right steps to the bench for 5 box jumps, back to relieve your partner. Next partner 1 does LBCs while partner 2 sprints and up the steps, drops for 5 Burpees, down the left handicap ramp and slaloms trough parking curbs. With 4 mins remaining we Mosey back to the flag for 3 mins of Mary.

    25IC MC, 15IC Parker Peters and 15Peter Parker’s..

    count off, naming of (FNG)Sweet Sixteen, Announcements, COT

    Big thanks to Ocho for taking us out in prayer!!

    Welcome Sweet Sixteen glad to have you!

    Appreciate the men of the Gipper for indulging me on this Humid Gloom!! 👍👊

  • A Grueling Murph for President’s Day

    YHC has only done one murph in my year plus stint with F3 and it was brutal.  Why I wanted to revisit that experience is beyond me, but I decided President’s Day was as good a day as any to give it another go.  (And if some loose association was needed, it was Washington himself who first awarded the Purple Heart some 223 years before Michael Murphy would get it for his heroism in Afghanistan in 2005.)

    So yeah, this seemed like a good idea last night.  Now, running to the AO at 0440 (who uses cars these days?), it suddenly seemed like a terrible idea.  My mind was scrambling to come up with other options.  Then I strolled up to the Marsh to find Sensei Shooter (also carless) waiting alone, and I knew the Murph was going to happen.  You see, Shooter has come to every beatdown for the past two weeks.  And for the past week, he’s been running to each AO (save the Gipper, of course) rather than driving.  AND, he’s putting up consistent mileage each day for the run challenge.  And the man has a job and a family.  He’s an animal and an inspiration.  So had it been anyone else, I might’ve altered course and given in to the weaker me.  But Shooter inspires the best in everyone and therefore deserves the best.  So we got down to it:

    1 Mile

    100 Pull-Ups

    200 Merkins

    300 Squats

    1 Mile

    We made pretty good time, coming in just under our allotted 45 minutes.  Thanks brother, for elevating all those around you.

  • Pre-Mardi Paws Beat Down!

    With port-o-potties, white tents, and police barricades surrounding the AO, the 5 Pacs that showed up knew that a post Mardi Gras parade was coming, so let’s get this beat down started.

    Warmarama

    21’s- Q starts off exercise in cadence up to 5. From there, everyone is quite as a church mouse. All pacs need to stop at 21. If all the pacs don’t finish at the same time, everyone does 5 penalty burpees.

    Exercises completed with 21 count were side straddle hops, knee highs, butt kicks, imperial walkers, and wind mills.

    This is harder than it sounds. We were only able to complete the side straddle hops without any penalty burpees.

     

    Mosey to the corner of Marigny and the Lakefront. Start off with one exercise, mosey north to the next block, rinse and repeat the last exercise plus another. We did this for 5 blocks, and here is how it went…

    Block 1 – Merkins, 10 – IC, Slow Count

    Block 2 – RR + Copper Head Squats, 10 – IC

    Block 3 – RR + ECBB’s, 10 – IC

    Block 4- RR + Overhead Claps, 10 –IC

    Block 5 – RR + 10 Burpees OYO

     

    Lunge Indian Run

     

    Pacs line up in a single file line. Pac in the front of the line leads group in squats IC. Last pac in line does lunges to the front of the line and takes over the count, just like an Indian Run.

     

    An overzealous Q wanted to do this a full Old Mandeville block. Half way through the block, he quickly realized how long this takes. Had to adjust on the fly and cut it to half a block. Mosey to the Marsh.

     

    Play a ten minute game of half-court basketball. It was a little challenging with 5, but we made it happen. Every time a point was scored, the team that got scored on had to do a penalty exercise. They ranged from 5 burpees, bear crawls to half court, suicides, and sprints the length of the court.

     

    Mosey/Indian Run back to the flag. We flip flopped one block of regular mosey for a block of a regular Indian Run until we got to the Lake Front. Mosey to the flag once we got to the lakefront.

     

    STEVE took over the Q for some Mary to wrap up the beat-down. I am not sure of the grueling details, but I heard hello dolly and some grunts.

  • Who Wants it. Earn it!!!

    Well after EIEI getting me all excited about him and a unknowing Shooter Running an extra 6.2 after our regularly scheduled 10K. Only 4 of our Seal Team 6 showed up for the 10K Friday with Captain Sparkles setting an example getting there a few min. Early to get in an extra mile thinking some pax’s Running that extra 6.2 just might edge by in our map my run challenge. But with our regular no show master at work in his fart sack the lead is safe for now! With two pax Shooter & Bushwacker staying to put in an extra mile or so made me proud to see them not settle for what was on the schedule and having an appetite for more puts a smile on my face. After our long time joking about the F3NORTHSHORE having a
    Seal Team 6 I figured let’s put some names to this face. So at the end of our Run Ranger Run month and it benefiting our Veterans there is no better time. So put the work in and do something above average to get named in our elite
    Seal Team 6 for the Northshore.

    Ok for the start of our day.
    Countoroma, Captain Sparkles leading us in prayer then heading out for the oh so well known journey to sunset point and back. 6.2 miles complete.

  • No show Tortoise and The Hares!!

    Awoke this morning to heavy morning dew and fog lingering. Decided to get in a little pre-thang before the Scramble to make sure I keep pace with the rest of the Northshore Gazelles. Challenges seem to bring the best out of these men and the RRR has surly sparked some impressive numbers thus far. As I journeyed along with the pre-thang,  jamming to some tunes my phone begins to ring at 0455. First  thought entering the mind is it must be one of seal team 6s men calling for a location to join in on the pre Mosey. Or could it be Turtle calling to let one know he has hit the snooze button one to many times and a Fart Sack was inevitably going to be the end result.. With only part of my first 2 assumptions coming to pass, I notice it’s Backdraft calling to confirm the locale of the morning beatdown. I am inspired by the self discipline and drive you have as a young man to arise extra early knowing your  journey to the AO is 30 mins at minimum. And what’s even more inspiring is that Low Brass is along for the ride. Let’s  face it not many men or young men when presented with the option of being on a holiday week enjoying the comforts of rest would choose to arise so early and get in some work before the rooster crows and welcome it with such passion and Hare like abilities.. So, if you two would so kindly indulge this tortoise of a runner to join in, it would be much appreciated.

    Our journey begins on the standard route at a hare like pace and thoughts quickly run through my mind.. Can I keep up? Will these young men lap me? Can you push them as much as they push you? Well, the end result is the tortoise and The Hares completed the 3.2 in what seemed like a shooting star pace (at least to me) and arrived back to the AO with 20 mins to spare.. Decided to head over to the monkey bars for descending order pull-ups 12/10/8/6/4/2 with 12 Merkins and 20 TRX swing pulls bets each set of pull-ups. Closed out with some Mary. 25IC LBCs, 25IC FK and 25IC Freddy Mercuries..

    countoff, announcements, COT

    Thank you for your inspiration on this Gloom!!

    Surly would not have achieved on my own!!

     

  • Valentine’s Day Massacre

    Madness has officially descended upon the Northshore PAX.  At first, it was easy to blame Captain Sparkles and Bushwacker, who, like tyrannical taskmasters, drove the PAX to run ever-increasing distances.  But eventually we must all shoulder the blame for the insanity, with Shooter, EiEi, and YHC taking things a step too far ourselves, going as far as to suggest (and then carry out) a 5 mile run ahead of today’s usual beatdown.  When the foreplay becomes a thang in and of itself (and it certainly felt like we went far beyond 2nd and 3rd base on this Valentine’s day), then perhaps the F3 lexicon needs to be expanded – ‘foreplay’ and ‘pre-thang’ just don’t seem to cover it anymore.

    So when Grundy rolled in to the Gipper this morning to find Shooter and YHC already sweating profusely, he wondered aloud what was going on but privately, I suspect he wondered when and where he could get in on the action.  And that’s what I’m taking about when I say we must all shoulder the blame: this is our group’s mentality and I can pretty much promise you, it will only get worse… (which in our F3 world is, of course, always better).  Don’t say I didn’t warn you PAX!

    Warm-Up:

    SSH x25, IW’s x25, Good Morning’s x15, Windmills x15, MC’s x25, all IC.

    The Thang:

    On to the Taj Mahal for a COP: Plank – 10 Merkins – 10 Peter Parker’s (left leg only) – 10 Mountain Climbers – 10 Parker Peter’s (left leg only) – Chillcut Plank… hold and recover.  Next up, hold Al Gore, while PAX rotates performing 10 Sister Mary K’s.  Then the same plank routine, but right leg for the Peters and the Parkers.  And finally, Al Gore routine with jump squats in place of the SMK’s.

    Short mosey to the Justice Center for a partner routine: P1 sprints to first set of benches, 10 merkins and jogs back, sprint to second set of benches, 10 merkins and jog back, and finally all the way up the stairs, 10 merkins and jog back.  P2 performs that lovely 8-count exercise that YHC has been driving into the ground lately: plank, groiner and back, chillcut, plank jack, and back up to regular plank.

    Second routine using the same path: P1 lunge walks and performs squats at each set of benches, while P2 does flutter kicks.

    Mosey back to the flag for the finale, an AMRAP of Turbo’s raccoon crawl up the wall along the small hill, forward rolls or crab walks back down, hop up to the stage for 10 merkins, and back around to rinse and repeat for 6 mins.

    Mary: Freddie Flutters x22, Leg Raises x20, Putins x20.

    Countdown (we missed you Einstein, sorry to see your streak come to an end!), nameorama, and Shooter prayed us out.  Even though, comparatively, this was a fairly tame beatdown, it felt like a massacre to YHC by the end.  Thanks guys for always pushing, I can’t say enough about all the motivation/inspiration this group provides.

  • No Batman, All Robin (with a little bit of Voltron)

    If ever any of you guys watched cartoons in the mid eighties (or 2010’s as it’s been remade), you may remember Voltron: Defender of the Universe! This precursor to the Power Rangers idea of separate robots fighting bad guys then combining to form a badass robot to take on the main villain was playing nostalgically in my mind as we  passed a Mardi Gras morning at Grandmother’s House. You see, each lion would come from a different environment: volcano, jungle ocean, dessert, and  cave. Similarly, each member of the PAX came rolling in on feet or wheels from their own point of origin, and three of the four brought their own flavor (it must have been THE Manny’s birthday because we all brought him  beatdown presents;)

    There was a warmup lead by Steve (the black lion)

    I recall some seal jacks, windmills, perhaps imperial walkers, and I think we started with good mornings (all too apropros)

    He then brought us to the end of the covered walk way leading to the stairs where we teamed up: p1 sprint to 4th column for 25 merkins, then run backwards to his starting point to tag his partner. Meanwhile, p2 is doing peter parkers. Next round to the 8th column for 50 plank jacks, with p2 doing squats. Final round, to the end, mountain climbers (was that each leg Steve?) and more peter parkers.

    With the blood really flowing, Shooter  (the yellow lion) led us on a mosey to the marsh where we each took a station and rotated until we had all completed each one. Station #1 was monkey bars A & B, pull up and laterally traverse each consecutive set of bars, while…..station #2 was dipping during monkey bars A and Australian pull upping during monkey bars B. Station #3was at the swing set doing the poor man’s TRX: feet on the swing , hands on the ground, knees in and out. Final station on the court was bear crawl to half court and crab walk the rest of the way. Next, we ran a set of suicides and a lil’ rinse and repeat. Back to Grandma’s…..

    I (the red lion) took the PAX to my favorite place – AB CLAAAAASS! Starting with a newly invented exercise, I conservatively put us a about mid column and, once again in teams, p2 held p1’s feet while p1 did a sit up. Immediately, p2 spins around and onto his 6, while p1 runs in front to hold p2’s feet for another sit up. This progression was continued until reaching the stairs. Sit up Caterpillar? Ab Crawl? Indian Sit up? Name, I suppose, to be determined. With precious few minutes remaining, I brought the pain: All 25 count IC, freddy flutters,  LBCs, and 100s.

    count, name, announce, pray.

    For the record, THE Manny was the blue lion, and we were green lion-less

    The Voltron Force
    • Keith – leader of the group and pilot of the Black Lion.
    • Lance – hot-headed ace who pilots the Red Lion.
    • Pidge – young genius who pilots the Green Lion.
    • Sven – stoic pilot who initially flies the Blue Lion.
    • Hunk – muscular yet soft-hearted mechanic who pilots the Yellow Lion.