Category: Backblasts

There was a time when they said that it couldn’t be done.   F3 only grows in concentric circles, they said, it’s been that way since the dawn of time, they said – it’s the only way that works.  But the world didn’t want to hear that – the world needed F3 to grow faster – further – and so from the #swirlingsnakes of #sadclownsturnedwarriors the #LEAP was born.  Two intense weeks and F3 is yours – one torch lighting another and re-igniting the fire that is masculine leadership.  Nashville – Launched, Richmond – Launched, and now – the LEAPiest LEAP to date – F3 NOLA – launches tomorrow.

When:  Saturday, October 18, 2014 – 6:50 am: Gather for some quick fellowship and instructions – 7:00 am – 8:00 am:  Workout!

Where:  City Park Track – Directly across Roosevelt Mall from Tad Gormley Stadium.

We will meet right where the path to the track intersects with Roosevelt Mall.  Look for the F3 NOLA Shovel Flag.

No prior training is required and the workouts are designed to keep all fitness levels challenged and striving to improve.

Post workout we will gather for coffee and fellowship at Cafe Navarre (800 Navarre Avenue)

Bring as many FNGs (Friendly New Guys) as you can EH (Emotional(ly) Headlock).  All men are welcome.  Learn more acronyms here: http://f3nation.com/lexicon/

Want to know more?  Check this link:  http://f3nation.com/2014/07/18/set-of-11s-on-f3-expansion/

Last minute questions?  email nola@f3nation.com or tweet @F3NewOrleans

See you in the gloom tomorrow brothers.

Aye!

Aye, 5 men, including one FNG, posted in the Gloom for the final F3/New Orleans pre-launch workout at City Park Track.

The Thang:

OBT: Warmup lap around track, including stretches of bear crawl, crab walk, backwards run and walking lunges.

Warmup COP: SSH, Imperial Walkers, LBCs, Mountain Climbers

Jog partway around track for set of random sprint combinations across the infield, including straight sprints, backwards run, burpees, etc.

Under the big oak that overhangs the backstretch for a plank rotation: Regular, Cross Plank, Right Hand High, Left Hand High, Makhtar N’diaye x 12.

Hand off to KeyMan:

Run to traffic circle for COP that includes several sets of Larry Craig Pushups.

Run to park offices, push through bamboo behind parking lot and climb Nola’s Biggest Hill to the RR tracks.

The Wile Coyote: Pushups with hands on one rail, feet on the other.

SSH in between the RR tracks.

Back down the RR embankment and into the park offices parking lot for a set of Hello Dolly. Run back to workout starting point. Hand off to Roots:

Run the length of Roosevelt Mall (about a quarter-mile).

Pusherama: Merkins, Diamonds, Larry Craig, Chuck Norris

Run back along the length of the mall to the football field behind the track. From the goal line, 15-yard sets of: Walking Lunges, Bear Crawl, Leapfrogs.

Jog back to track, sprint the 100 meters on the backstretch.

Hand back to OBT: Final set is a 45-second plank hold at 6 Inches.

COT

Spreadsheets from the Gloom:

_ T-claps to KeyMan and Roots for stepping up to lead segments of the workout today. A great start and a good chance to get that VQ out of the way.

_ T-claps also to Wicked, who has been re-named The Reluctant Yankee and who brought the group’s first EH, Craig from Arkansas (nickname Hawgcycle).

_ Y’all might want to keep an eye on KeyMan, who seems to have a knack for leading folks into #UnexpectedDanger. Every time he set up a COP in the middle of one of the park’s roads, a car came by to break it up. And the trip to the railroad tracks and pushups on the rails had YHC frantically reciting the #disclaimer to the pax.

_ Dredd’s #LexiconPromotionCampaign may be having an effect in Nola: Roots informs YHC that the Nola version of #SplashingMerlot is #ThrowingGumbo. Y’all just have to have your own way of doing everything, don’t you? They can’t just be medians, they have to be Neutral Grounds, you’re useless if you can’t pronounce a French “g” …

_ Finally, YHC had the honor of presenting the Snoop-crafted Nola ShovelFlag to the pax, who were suitably impressed by the care and craftsmanship. Great work, Snoop, and there’s a group of men down here who  can’t wait to thank you in person  when you come down to Q a workout for them.

_ Reminder: The public launch of F3/Nola is Saturday at 0700 at the City Park Track. Plan to arrive by 0650 to stretch and introduce yourself; look for the Snoop ShovelFlag. Your leaders will be the dynamic duo of Chong Li and Gandalf. Coffeeteria to follow at Cafe Navarre, 800 Navarre, about a half mile from the park.

_ I’m headed back to Charlotte, but want to extend my deepest gratitude to all of you in Nola for making me feel at home this week and for helping to make this thing happen by giving up your time and taking a chance on something completely random. We’re excited for you to take this in a uniquely Nola direction and get it in front of men throughout Louisiana. Keep EHing!

OBT

 

Aye, 8 pax posted in the Gloom for pre-launch workout #2, only to learn that they had stumbled into the Land of the Clipboarders.

The Thang:

Jog around City Park Track to warmup COP: SSH, Merkins, Flutter Kicks, Mountain Climbers

The Dirty MacDeuce (12 reps of 12 exercises, broken into 4 blocks of 3 exercises with a lap around the track in between each block):

Block 1: Larry Craig; Hello Dolly; Squats

1 lap around track

Block 2: Lousiana Dry Dock; LBC (Little Baby Crunches); Rock Hoppers

1 lap around track

Block 3: Diamonds; Bicycles; Peter Parkers

1 lap around track

Block 4: Crab Roll; Rosalita (High Dolly); Burpees

1 lap around track

How To Count (H2C) instruction with whole group.

COT

Spreadsheets from the Gloom:

_ An impressive doubling of attendance from workout #1! Congrats and welcome to FNGs Buster (Dean Roy) and Triple Shift (Chris Chin). Buster is a friend of Chewie, an Area 51 veteran (and brother-in-law of the Ginger King himself, Sir Topham Hatt), who recently moved to the North Shore of Lake Ponchartrain; Triple Shift and YHC have been talking about F3/Nola ever since his M emailed the website to inquire about FiA in Nola.

_ We were also joined by special guest and AG Redwood Original Achtung Baby, who made his way over from a work conference taking place downtown. Thanks to Achtung for dropping some additional #F3wisdom on the pax.

_ The track had a few folks on it Tuesday, but Wednesday is clearly the big day for the Nola Clipboarders — there were at least three separate Pay-to-Play workouts going on at various locations around the track. One guy had staked out the whole rubberized part of the infield for his group, who all had BYO towels/yogamats/water bottles — he supplied the boom box, megaphone and Little Baby Hand Weights (just like a Hitman workout!). I had to suppress the instinct to apply a Flying Headlock to some of the dudes working out in the tomato-filled field — it’s considered bad form to try to steal a guy’s clients right out from under him.

_ Thanks to KeyMan for taking the Shout Out — and doing it well.

_ Updates on the rest of Launch Week:

• We will have a final pre-launch workout tomorrow (Thursday), 10/16, at 0530 at the City Park track. KeyMan and Roots will each lead segments of the workout and I will hand off the F3/Nola Shovel Flag to the pax before heading back to Charlotte.
• The public launch is Saturday, 10/18, at 0700 at the City Park track. EH everyone you know to come on out and look for the F3/Nola Shovel Flag! Your Qs, down from NC for the occasion, will be Gandalf and Chong Li. Coffeeteria to follow the workout at Cafe Navarre, 800 Navarre Avenue, about half a mile from City Park.

OBT

Aye! All my dire warnings about the horrors that would befall those who obeyed the #Cantores (who said there was an 80% chance of monsoon-like precipitation during the first Nola pre-launch workout) were for naught, as the Gloom was clear and cool at 0530 Tuesday after a night of heavy rains and thunderstorms, and the ground was drained and just barely damp.

Three brave FNGs met Your Humble Correspondent on Roosevelt Mall in City Park, across from Tad Gormley Stadium and we proceeded promptly to …

The Thang:

Jog to warmup COP: Side Straddle Hops, Merkins, Flutter Kicks, Low Slow Squats

1 lap around the track

Ark Loader: Lunge Walk; Bear Crawl; Crab Walk; Leapfrog

1 lap around track

Burpee Suicides on football field: Sprint from goal line to 10, 1 burpee, sprint back; sprint from goal line to 20, 2 burpees, sprint back; … to midfield and 5 burpees, sprint back.

1 lap around track

Push-o-rama COP: Merkins, Larry Craigs, Diamonds, Stagger Right/Left, Chuck Norris.

1 lap around track

6 Minutes of Mary: Flutter kicks, Hello Dolly, High Dolly, Rosalita, Little Baby Crunches, Bicycles, Superman (with singing)

1 lap around track

Plank Rotation: Regular, Right Hand High, Left Hand High, Elbows, Southern Gentleman, Yankee Aggressor, Cross Plank, Tom Cruise.

1 lap around track, sprinting the final straight away.

COT

Spreadsheets from the Gloom:

_ FNGs were Jim Parrie (initially nicknamed Spreadsheeter, but a quick name change to KeyMan (explanation below)); Chris Mysing (Roots); Christian Vaicius (Wicked).

_ The Nola guys have been a little quiet on our e-mail chains, so I challenged them last week to give me an “Aye!” to confirm that they would be coming out for these sessions and not leaving me standing with my ShovelFlag in my hand in the middle of the City Park Gloom. KeyMan and Roots have been enthusiastic Aye-ers, so I was expecting to see them, but Wicked was a pleasant surprise, as he had remained quiet on all emails after our initial phone conversation.

_ The track across from the stadium apparently was the warmup track for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials, which were held at the stadium. It is a full 8 lanes, in great condition, is nicely lit even in the Gloom and was well populated with other folks getting after it in the pre-dawn, including some speedy varieties of tomato. This is going to be a great F3 AO, particularly with the rest of the park to explore.

_ As we wrapped up the COT, Spreadsheeter realized that his car key had fallen out of his pocket at some point during the workout (this led to a quick lesson about the car-key-on-top-of-the-tire trick). After a search of the AO in the dark, we decided that it would be easier to take him home for a spare, then return to the park for his car by which time the lighting would be more conducive to a search. The spare was retrieved and the key was found after the sun had come up, but Spreadsheeter is now KeyMan.

_ The pax were just as weak on the “Greatest American Hero” theme as their predecessors in Richmond were last month. Here’s the YouTube link, men, with the full opening credits sequence and awesome early 80s fx. I expect you to be in full throat by Saturday’s launch workout.

_ After returning KeyMan to his car, I had a very good breakfast at Cafe Navarre, on Navarre Avenue about half a mile from the AO. Potential good spot for Saturday Coffeeteria.

_ Cobains to F3/Metro Redwood Original Achtung Baby, who took a fruitless ride in a Nola taxi trying to get to the workout from his downtown hotel. That’s what you get staying in a fancy CBD hotel instead of a right-next-to-the-interstate no-tell motel, AB. Tomorrow, I’ll pick you up.

OBT