Category: Northshore

  • Tabata timer please!! – from Shooter

    Big thanks to Moby for having the Tabata timer available this gloom as the YHC came less prepared.. 6 PAX converged on the corner by the gravel pit after warmups of 20IC/10IC Imperial walkers, Hillbillies, SSH, Cherry pickers, Arm circles, Good mornings and Mummy kicks..

    30 secs work, 20 secs rest, 4 rounds of each and loops around the rail.. Rope, one arm kettle swings, curls, chest press, squat thrusters and Shoulder press..

    Thanks to Hammer for COT and the headlock for 5 AM Spartan at the Scramble…

    Appreciate the post gentlemen and until the next Gloom 👊🏼👍🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Inquerious Questions of Guidance – from Steve

    It took 3 attempts before auto-correct finally let that title stand as is. And even now I’m not sure it’s right… But there it is, in all its glory, preserved for the annals of F3 history. What the hell it means is anyone’s guess.

    Rowdy crowd of 6 this morning at Granny’s, (7, if you count the monster mosquito hawk that was making a racket during warmup and Mary). So rowdy that a bleary-eyed Chewy and I wondered what the hell was going on as we attempted to keep cadence count. I mean, sure, Jose wakes up ready for a fight. That makes sense – teaching junior high you gotta be on your toes and ready to knock someone down a rung or two. (Plus, he’s got the additional 20 minute drive of wake up time.) And now that Bush has become the new grumble grumble, well, let’s just say the back and forth between these two has become a joy to witness. Though it does make counting difficult.

    Luckily, we quickly moved on to the thang, a semi-random circuit of increasing reps that spanned most of the trailhead:

    – Derkins
    – Step Ups (ea. leg)
    – Lunges (2:1)
    – T-merkins
    – Donkey Kickoffs
    – Crunchy Frogs
    – Apollo Ohnos (2:1)
    – SSH’s
    – Freak Nasties

    Each round ended with a set of x3 calf raises up the stairs, then start again, increasing the rep count by x5.

    We mostly stuck together today, entertained by the barefoot Duke and his parkour moves. It was a big day for him, as he saw his net worth nearly double to $24.12 and, more importantly, learned the subtle distinction between the adjective demure and the verb to demur. Hard to believe one day we could be reading a backblast written by Wacker’s offspring. We can only hope he inherits his father’s love of flowery language.

    And, of course, there were also the usual F3-type ramblings about Scientology, drinking vials of blood, moon landings – that sorta thing. Hey, Russo is right – the internet does indeed always win.

    COT and Chewy prayed us out. Appreciate you gents, was fun to have a bigger group out there today.

  • Dropping Bombs in the Tunnel – from Steve

    No, no – Hammer wasn’t there Friday morning, we’re not talking about his drive-by cropdusting of Jose. Not those kind of bombs. The old school, F3 kind – B.O.M.B.S.

    Just Russo and YHC this past Friday for a leisurely stroll to the tunnel, with a brief pit stop at the Depot for:

    12x Step Ups IC (ea. leg)
    12x Freak Nasties IC
    12x Bulgarians IC (ea. leg)
    12x Freak Nasties IC

    Onward to the tunnel for:

    25 Burpees
    50 Overhead Claps
    50 Merkins
    50 Big Boys
    50 Squats

    There may or may not have been merkins en route…. My Q’s have started to become so habitual it’s all a blur… Did you feed the dog this morning? Yes. No. Yes?

    COT, YHC prayed us out with gratitude for this great group of men that provide me and many others with strength, week in and week out. Appreciate you guys.

  • WE ARE F3 – AROO AROO AROO!!! – from Bushwacker

    This fall, some of the PAX of the Northshore will be CSAUPing at the Spartan Beast obstacle race near Dallas. There is a palpably intense excitement in the air and this beatdown was designed to make sure all in attendance felt it. YHC, along with some some kind and committed brothers, arrived at 5:15 to begin setting up. We just beat the pre-thangers back to the flag in time to get things started promptly.

    WARMORAMA

    Warm up consisted of briefly attended tabata, and a garbled pronouncement of rules, regulations, and “the way things aughta go”, which, thanks to Jose’s requisite comments and interjections of others, were immediately and throughout the course disregarded, slightly adopted, and outright ignored. But a great challenge was mostly bested and a fun time was had by all teams of 2 who attempted.

    1. Tire Shuttle – step in each of 6 tires while running through (QIC tripped and fell so never assume anything is TOO easy!)
    2.Sandbag StepUp – holding 50lb sandbag, 10 Step Ups on sea wall (MAY have forgotten to mention the step up part)
    3. Bucket Carry – 5gallon bucket filled with sand carried out and back
    4. Sledge Hammer Slam – 15 wacks on the tire with a 10lb maul
    5. Tire Toss – 2 tires tossed individually out and back
    6. Sled Drag – 2 45lb plates on a minil sled pulled out and back
    7. Battlerope – 3″ battlerope slung up and down for 15 reps
    8. Rope Climb w/ Cowbell (not the short crunchy-frogging runner) – climb rope appx 12′ and tap the bell. As indicated prior to start, if a PAX was unwilling or unable to complete an obstacle, they were to complete 10 Burpees and move on. However, the rare and awesome challenge that a rope hanging from a tree posed caused a bit of a pile up by the time QIC and partner Shooter arrived. Immediately Shooter was pulled in by the tractor beam as well
    9. Dummy Drag – appx 150lb hose dummy dragged out and back
    10. Tire Pull – giant tire with long rope attached, pulled length of rope
    11. Spear Throw – in addition to the Rope Climb, Farmer’s carry, Sand Bag, flags and cones our own Zoolander (aka Chaka Zulu)supplied his new favorite toy to be thrown at and stuck into a foam target strapped to a tree. However, our honorary FNG, Al Gore, let us know with great protest that we were committing arbocide and proceded to take picture of the crime scene, and tear down the foam target for good measure.
    12. Farmers Carry – set of appx 30lb logs with handles carried out and back
    13. Tire Flip – giant tire flipped end over end out and back
    14. Sawhorse Hurdles – 4 8′ sawhorses spaced 6′ apart hurdled over

    Strong Work, great fun, fantastic teamwork!

    COT

    Count, Name, Grappler demurred praying us out in lieu of Rev Russo.
    Just a small taste of thing to come in October, gentlemen. Thank you for allowing me to lead you in tackling this Fire/Spartan obstacle course

    Post Script: Many thanks to the many hands who made light work of picking up the coupons!

  • Coupons & Sweat at The Gipper – from Einstein

    Good group of seven today at The Gipper
    Warmup: toe touch, side straddle hops, arm circles, imperial walkers, scissors, hillbillies, hi jack hi jills, smurf jacks, etc.
    Thang: 3 sets of coupon work interspersed with downtown trapezoid runs.
    Fletch prayed us out.

  • Every left turn – 20 Merkins – from Waterpik

    A large crowd assembled today for the scramble. Instructions from Y.C. were run the lakefront route and every time we take a left jump down and do 20 Merkins. The watch said we got in 4.2 Miles and we did 100 Merkins a nice even number.

  • Granny’s magic!! – from Shooter

    Four rounds, four exercises and four loops was the magical number for our 45 mins in the Gloom.
    After completing a loop around the Trace brief warmup of 15IC and 10IC Grass grabbers, Toe touches, Abe Vogadas, over head claps, Cherry pickers and arm circles..
    Thang was 3 coupon stations and a jump rope station..
    Timer was 1 min of work 30 seconds of rest 4 rounds of motion.
    Coupon 1 Chest press
    Coupon 2 Curls
    Coupon 3 Overhead carry up and down the stairs. Intensity version shoulder presses while going up and back down.. After 4 one min rounds PAX made a loop around the Trace.
    R/R till each PAX completed all stated exercises.. For you math folks out there, total work was only 16 mins of engaged movement not counting the loop’s.. Doesn’t seem like much but I promise by rd 3 the burn was real and I believe the PAX got their monies worth..

    Finished right at 6 and we announced multiple CSAUP opportunities ahead.. 4 on the 4th, BEAST, Turkey trot and I believe some other hot ass marathon or something… Not really certain, but one thing is certain, Cowbell lives and he mentioned a possible Saturday post for the Wacker Q..

    Russo graciously took us out and until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Spartan Murph – from Zoolander

    A random shout out from Zoolander for an evening Murph , with Spartan related coupons, gathered the likes of Bushwacker, Bird, Jose 10K, and Baby Yoda to the Marsh for some extracurricular activities on this wet Sunday.

    YHC showed up early after dropping Yoda off at OLL for his Eagle scoutmaster’s conference, and starting unloading a bevy of intensification items to be sprinkled into the workout. A lone basketball player was on the court and, after being approached by some weirdo with a couple of logs with handles and a huge tire, was 100% in for some F3-style pain!

    Grundy was the next to show. After a quick introduction to our new addition, he was off early. You see, he was going to be a little slow…because he had a 30lb ruck sack on!

    Next to appear was Jose, always an exuberant advocate of La cosa nostra F3, he started preaching to the already converted upon meeting Devon Marques (Mr. Right Place at the Right Time).

    Bird and Zoo rolled up having finished a 2 mile pre thang, and we got down to brass Tax.

    THANG

    1 mile run from Livingston to the Lakefront and back, then beginning 20 sets, as a group, of 5 Pull ups (varied grips called out by Zoo throughout), 10 Merkins ( some using the logs for deep reps), and 15 Squats (some using the logs as weights or for Squat Thrusters). Random lagniappe as desired was a rope climb set up by the swing sets, Tire Flip (or carry if you’re Grundy aka Tank Jr), and Lunge Walks with the logs.

    Baby Yoda walked up and jumped right in around round 4 or 5 and started Sweating with the Oldies! Devon was really giving it hell for an unexpected event of such retarded proportions, and thrilled to be just where he needed to be… and then proceeded to splash merlot! But that didn’t keep the young buck down, as we finished up round 20 and prepared for an extended final mile, looping back down Marigny. Now, as the PAX was departing on our closing mosey, Devon planted his phone in a front yard on Lamarque so as to avoid losing it on the run. Upon our return, well, he lost it! The PAX gathered to assist him in his search, and Baby Yoda who can find anything from lost phones to lost trails turned up the prize.

    COT

    Count/Name special intentions for Devon’s quest of self-improvement, Jose prayed us out. Welcome ET (phone home)! Thanks to Zoolander (Chaka Zulu)for pulling this together. SYITG

  • THIS IS SPARTA!!! – from Zoolander

    Steve and Shooter are right, we need to be able to insert a GIF into backblasts. Y’all had the same image in your mind when you read the title, be honest. Welcome to a Spartan Murph!
    A regular murph intensified with obstacles. 100 pullups, 200 merkins, 300 squats. The obstacles: rope climb, two logs used for squats or squat thrusters, and a tire flip station. Once you finished your 5,10,15, you got your choice of which “extra” equipment you wanted. As always, Grundy went full on beast mode doing the entire thing with a 30 pound pack. At one point, he picked up the tire and carried it around like a child. Bird, as always, intensified. Using the dip bars to do his deep merkins. Zoolander called out various grips and types of pull ups. The group even added an extra half mile at the end. We had a FNG, Devon, who kept repeating over and over again: “Yall are crazy”. He even splashed a little merlot in there.
    COT, Jose prayed us out, and we named the FNG. We were thinking Merlot, Pignot…but once he lost his phone(the youthful eyes of Baby Yoda found it) we decided to call him E.T. Hopefully he’ll post tomorrow. Thank everyone for posting or if you’re just reading this backblast. SYITG

  • Inaugural Lakefront Rugby Sevens – from Brexit

    12 HIMs graciously posted for my Virgin-Q in full knowledge that it would likely be an absolute shambles. I had to do something British-themed for my first ever Q so, with it being the day of the London Sevens which is an annual rugby sevens tournament, I decided to do a Rugby Sevens inspired workout. You may not know it, but the US is part of the World Rugby Sevens and they’re sometimes pretty good at it (although sitting at 9th in the standings right now). Sevens is a much more simplified version of rugby, which is probably why the US is better at it than normal rugby, played with seven players instead of the full 15. Thought that by focusing on sevens it could be a good intro to the game.

    Warmup:
    Side straddle hops, arm circles, grass grabbers, toe touches, imperial walkers, peter parkers, merkins (only messed up the cadence once)

    Got into pairs and moseyed to the shaft passing the rugby ball between each other. The Rugby ball can only go backwards so each player had to sprint ahead to pass the ball backwards to his teammate. You could not move if you didn’t have the ball. Any dropped passes meant 5 burpees which is the number of points you get for a touchdown in rugby, aka, a try.

    7 burpees on our own at the gazebo after regrouping. Continued the passing drill to the shaft with the addition that the person without the ball had to do a single burpee while the person with the ball moved ahead of him. It appeared that I had over-estimated the hand-eye coordination of the group (to be fair, some of the pairs were geared up more than others…only so many rugby balls in circulation here so some were forced to use toy footballs that got completely taken with the wind with each pass…) and so was running a little behind schedule but we made up for this for a quicker than expected Sevens (staying on theme) – derkins and sister Mary Catherines. Bear crawl one way, run back.

    Moseyed to the rugby pitch, no passing this time.

    Get into teams and then did a passing along the line drill. A dropped pass was 7 burpees for the team (this was changed to 5 burpees for the team that YHC joined in with). The other team did merkins/squat jumps in the meantime (merkins on way up, squat jumps on way back).

    YHC gave his best attempt at explaining the rules of touch rugby in about 3 minutes and then game-on – 15 min (7 min halves).

    Skins v Shirts with Shirts kicking us off. Good formation to start with but it seemed like some of the players got confused with the fact that you are actually allowed to run forwards, you only have to pass it backwards…not too much territory made in the opening play. The Skins got the first try after a good line break (apologies, can’t remember which HIM scored first as I left it a week before I wrote this), but the Shirts re-grouped and came back strong to score two tries in quick succession. After a high-risk move to intercept the ball by the Skins didn’t pay off (if you don’t catch an interception and fumble it, it means a possession turnover), the Shirts were in a commanding position. In the closing minutes of the game, the Skins had their backs against the wall in defense but held firm to win a turnover deep in their own territory. From this position, Zoolander scored a highly controversial try to level the game in the final seconds. The try was awarded against a fierce appeal from the Shirts about a forward pass…this decision was in no way affected by the fact that the impartial ref had jumped into the game a few minutes beforehand and had started playing on the side of the Skins.
    Throughout the game, there was some obvious flouting of the offside rule and a little bit of confusion on the number of touches before a turnover, which wasn’t helped by a very forgetful ref, however we had some great runners of the ball on both sides and, all in all, was very impressed with the ability of the HIMs to pick up the concept of the game very quickly. Obviously a testament to the Q. It was great way to get some good cardio in while having some fun. Next time we’ll be introducing scrums…

    After a few reminders about time running out, we moseyed back, no passing the ball. No time for any core.

    Announcements – Spartan Beast, T-shirt ordering and Bogue Chitto trail run on June 15.

    COT – Russo closed us out with a special prayer for Grundy and his soon-to-be new addition to his family.