F3 New Orleans

Tag: Akbar

  • The Milestone Marsh

    Cool temperatures greeted the PAX in the gloom at the Milestone Marsh. After a long, hot summer, the drop in temperature offers a nice respite for the hard-charging men of F3 Northshore. Even Shooter would have sweat less if he was out there today.

    YHC led the PAX straight into the fray by Warming up with Sets of Tabata w/ increasing levels of difficulty

    Tabata Sets: (30 secs w/ 30 secs rest)

    SSHs, Arm Circles, Squats, Imperial Walkers. Then some ball buster sets: merkins, burpees, bobby hurley’s, crunchy frogs, plank jacks, mountain climbers.

    Mosey to Lakefront, stopping at each intersection:

    more exercises…jump squats, flutter kicks, hello dollies, J- Lo’s, Leg raises, more of Cowbell’s Crunchy Frogs, more merkins, more burpees.

    At the Lakefront, the PAX hit the seawall for some boxjumps and freak nasties.

    Mosey back to Marsh.

    Thanks to Grover for praying us out!

  • No Burpees Were Performed At This Beatdown

    YHC issued a GroupMe message last night in an attempt to lure a few more bodies over to The A1C: no gloves required. That’s right, no coupons. No bear crawls. Hell, I’d even drop burpees from the menu! (This, of course, was more of a technicality, as you’ll see below.) Unfortunately, the bait didn’t quite work. Maybe everyone’s resting in preparation for the Butt Splice beatdown tomorrow (which is probably wise).

    One of the things I’ve enjoyed about The A1C is the traveling jukebox that accompanies the pax to each station. When YHC showed up early, Jose had the tunes blaring, and was running all-out sprints. We’re talking Cowbell/In Time speeds here. The man was moving. I had planned to join him on a light jog, but when he barreled past I was having second thoughts. Luckily, 10k slowed it down for me and soon after, Akbar and BBQ pulled in so we began.

    Warmorama: Self love, arm circles, air presses, SSH’s, slow squats, IW’s, windmills, seal jacks, all IC at or around 15x.

    Thang: First up, a trip to the back of the courtyard for a partner routine. P1 grabs a bench and does 2x irkins, walks hands down to ground, 2x merkins, walks back up and repeats until P2 relieves him. P2, meanwhile, bunny hops down the corridor and up the stairs, does 15x smurf jacks and runs back. Flapjack.

    Continued this idea with P1 switching to horizontal squats (x5, feet on bench) followed by shoulder taps (x5, feet still on bench), repeated until P2 returns from lunging corridor and doing 15x star jumps at top of stairs. Final one was irkins then flip over for freak nasties repeated, with P2 bunny hopping and doing 15x Sister Mary’s up top.

    Once completed, we headed back to the parking garage for a series of deconstructed burpees: 12x squats, 12x merkins, 12x groiners, 12x jump squats. Run the ramp up to the top, then perform the same series, decreasing by x2. Back down and up the ramp until we reached 2x everything. Unfortunately we lost Jose (and thus our traveling jukebox) around this time, but the pax powered through the final minutes.

    Circle up for a COP: plank and chat about Akbar’s relentless set of interviews, mountain climbers IC x20, rotate circle clockwise, plank a bit more, right arm high, left arm high, plank jacks IC x20, rotate circle counter-clockwise, plank a bit more, then knock out 10x merkins on your own.

    It was safe to do a quick set of sprints now that Jose had left (mixed in with some Peter Parkers and shoulder taps), before finally settling down for some scorpion kicks followed by Mary: heel pulses, leg raises, LBC’s, and hello Dolly’s, x12 IC.

    COT with BBQ praying us out. Thank you men for the opportunity to lead, for posting early on a Friday morning and pushing me to get better, and thanks to Jose for taking the initiative to get this Friday beatdown going. What better way to kick off a Friday than with you guys?

  • Cool Runnings

    With a majority of the PAX still reeling from Week 3 of the IPC, YHC knew the turnout would be relatively light for today’s Scramble. With a light breeze making for some “relatively cool temperatures”, the minor break from the heat and humidity gave the PAX a September reprieve.

    The Rules of the Gloom were each PAX had to do 100 merkins and 100 squats along the traditional Scramble route. The only other wrinkle was that each man was to pick up the pace along the long straight road to Sunset Point, both coming and going.

    Five minutes of Mary and thanks to Bushwacker for praying us out.

  • ROOTS

    Over the past 6 months since since the quarantine, there have been many different routes / variations / themes (speedy’s sprints come to mind) taken for the weekly F3 5K. Today, YHC decided to take the 5k Scramble back to it’s roots, which is around the loop, then all the way to the end of the pier at Sunset Point. Back at the flag, we hit the workout equipment for 10 minutes of circuit training (bear crawls, freak nasties, hanging leg tucks).

    COT and thanks to Akbar for praying us out!

    SYITG

    Pik

  • Duck Hunting 101

    YHC has always joked that he does F3 to he can be in shape for duck season, among MANY other reasons. Duck hunting on public land in the Mississippi Delta is a very physically demanding hobby and for some strange reason I absolutely love it. Waking up at 2am to wade through waste deep water in 20 degrees just sounds fun, right??

    Well, YHC wanted the Gipper pax to learn a thing or two about the prep that goes into a morning of duck hunting, sans water and 20 degrees.

    Disclaimer was given and PAX was instructed to grab some gear from the camp (cinder block). Each block was to account for all of the gear needed on a hunt.

    COP #1- Warm Up:

    10 Burpees OYO

    20 X SSH

    10 X Good Mornings

    10 F/B X Arm Circles

    20 X J Lo’s

    10 L/R X Nolan Ryan’s (on crushed gravel!)

    Now we need to load up the truck: 10 L/R X Elf on a Shelf with block

    Mosey to the courthouse walkway (boat launch) at a brisk pace as we need to beat all other hunting parties to the duck hole!

    Load the boat: split into 2 lines with blocks at the end of each line. Pass block down to the end of the line, and back down. R&R X3.

    The boat is launched, now we need to drive as far as we can in the timber…quick mosey to the parking garage entrance and ramp. Leave your gear while we go search for a good spot to set up: Run up the ramp and complete 10 burpees on one side and 10 merks on the other side all the way to the top. Repeat.

    We found a prime duck hole at the top of the garage!! grab your gear and meet there.

    Now its time to throw out the decoys, we brought 3 dozen this trip..

    Block swings X 12, R&R X3.

    Now its time to actually hunt, so we need to practice raising the gun to our shoulder: Chest press X 10, R&R X3.

    We shot a few ducks but ran out of time to pick them up!

    Carry your gear back to the camp.

    Count, Name, and Grundy took us out with a prayer.

    Thank you all for hunting with me and appeasing me!

    Cowbell

  • Murph: The Chill-mode Edition

    Yes, maybe it was a bit cruel to spring a Murph on the Marsh crew on a Monday morning.  I figured I’d get a, “Oh hell no,” from Cowbell.  And a, “Yeah, that’s great, thanks Steve.  After I’ve done 120 frickin’ ISI squats,” from Jose.  And a lot of eye rolling from the Wacker.  But c’mon, taken at slightly less intense pace (apologies Tank), the Murph is really not as bad as it sounds.  

    So we started with some warmorama just to give Cowbell some time to navigate around the deep and dangerous ditches surrounding the Marsh. Then ran the first mile down to the lake and back at a leisurely “warm up” pace, loosening us up for 20 sets of 5 pull-ups / 10 merkins / 15 squats.  We did it together, waiting after each set before starting the next, and I think the pax would agree, it really wasn’t so bad.  T-claps to Pixie Stick, who did great in his first (near-complete) Murph.  

    Another leisurely mile run to the lake and back, some flutters, and we were done.  Countdown, nameorama, and Jose offered up a powerful prayer to close it out, with intentions for Goose’s soon-to-be born baby, Akbar’s travel to the Smokey Mountains, and some healing for our divided nation.

    Thank you for the opportunity to get stronger and better alongside such good men.  I truly appreciate it.

  • Cloudy With A Chance of Unitards

    It’s been threatening rain all week.  And the forecast for Thursday evening’s F2 beatdown was no different, with a 60-70% chance as of that morning.  YHC seriously envisioned 10k and I sitting under the gazebo drinking alone (he his bud light tallboys, me my overpriced hipster beer), while 10k grumbled about the sunset and my beer.  And while that vision partially came true – with the added bonus of a “only-in-Hollywood” rainbow overhead – we were spared the actual rain and a decent size group posted.

    YHC had planned for no warmorama, since time was short, but as BBQ was dealing with securing his bike (he rode from Covington! 👏👏👏), we knocked out some SSH’s before jumping into 20x burpees OYO.

    Next up, a Lazy Dora.  Same as the usual Dora (100 merks, 200 squats, 200 LBC’s), but instead of running between sets, the alternating partner would hold a static pose until it was his turn.  So plank for 10x merkins, Al Gore for 20x squats, and 6” hold for 30x LBC’s.  Cumulative goals were reached pretty quickly, and we moved over to the seawall for some leg work.

    20x jump squats, lunge walk to sidewalk, 20x monkey humpers IC

    20x Bulgarians IC (10 ea.), lunge walk, 20x Apollo Ohno’s

    20x calf raises IC (balancing on the edge of the seawall, which was more difficult than you might think), lunge walk, 20x Sister Mary’s.

    Finally, back to the wall for shoulders: 15x freak nasties IC, 5x derkins IC.  Rinse and repeat with 10x freaks IC / 10x derks IC.  Then 5x freaks IC / 15x derkins IC.

    Around this time we had an In Time flyby, with his cross country team in tow, and we then circled up for an abbreviated Mary of heels to heaven and leg raises, both x15 IC.  

    Upon completion, the guys noticed a rather large and somewhat magical rainbow stretched across the lakefront sky.  Turbo joked that all we needed now was a unicorn and, lo and behold, the hero we both deserved and needed materialized: Amnesia, donning, that’s right, a unitard.  (At least, according to Jose that is the official name of said bodysuit.  The differences between a unitard and a leotard and a bodysuit is a mystery to me, and one I’m not willing to google.)

    COT, prayed out by Akbar, and we all headed to the Gazebo joined by Cowbell, Tank, and Tank’s son (a soon-to-be named F3 brother).  Good beer, good company, and a good sunset – what more could you ask for?  Great time out there with you guys, thanks for posting and thanks for the opportunity to lead!  

    *rainbow and unitard not captured on film due to Cowbell’s usual tardiness

  • Back to the Basics

    YHC signed up to Q long before knowing Tuesdays would become interval running days. The solution was simple, no running and do some quality exercises, Tabata style.

    Disclaimer was given and we did a short mosey to the commuter bus stop.

    COP #1) Warm Up

    20 X SSH, 20 Jlo’s, 10 X PP, 10 X PP, 20, Mtn Climbers, Arm Circles, 10 X LSS

    Mosey back to the stage area for little activity: Everyone take off your shirt and put it on the ground in front of you. Now get in balls to the wall stance and try to put your shirt on. I think we got close to 100% completion!

    COP #2) Tabata (10 Rounds, 1 min work, 15 sec rest)

    1. Burpees
    2. Merkins
    3. Sister Mary Catherines
    4. Freak Nasties
    5. LBC
    6. Derkins
    7. Box Jumps
    8. Serratus Merkins
    9. Crunchy Frog
    10. Low Plank Hold

    Rinse and Repeat

    We still had some time left so we started another round of Tabata to stretch out, something we all admitted we could use more of.

    1. Straight leg hold
    2. Hip Flexor Left
    3. Hip Flexor Right
    4. Quad Left
    5. Quad Right

    Mosey back to the flag for COT. Count, Name, Goose prayed us out.

    F2 this Thursday right in front of Barley Oak. 30 min beatdown led by Steve with Tailgate beers to follow.

    Thanks for letting me lead!

    Cowbell

  • A Pictogram is Worth a Thousand Words

    *Stick figures not to scale, rep counts lost in the haze of the last few weeks.

  • Hip old granny, who can hip-hop, bebop, dance til you drop…

    Alright, aside from some bunny hops up the stairs, this was a fairly laid back beatdown at Granny’s House.  Almost enjoyable one might say.  In retrospect, it was as if YHC knew that Bean would bring the pain the next morning and that Cowbell’s 1 mile time trial would bring back memories of last year’s Nutria.  So we pushed, but also had enough running breaks that we could chat between sets.

    Warmup: windmills, toe touches, IW’s, SSH’s, arm circles, etc.  All IC, at or around 20x.

    First up, a set of 11’s on the Stairs:

    Merks at bottom, the aforementioned bunny hops up to the top of the stairs, then squats up top.

    Next up, the Dirty McDeuce over at the Stage: Three exercises at x12 reps each, 4 rounds total.

    Round 1:

    • Diamonds
    • Jump Squats
    • LBC’s

    Round 2:

    • Wide armed
    • Lunges
    • Leg Raises

    Round 3:

    • T-merks
    • Groiners
    • Crunchy Frogs

    Round 4:

    • Burpees
    • Monkey Humpers
    • Hammers

    And the finale, a few races down the corridor where the winner chooses both the next exercise as well as the method of racing back.

    A sprint first, which Goose won easily and chose LBC’s x12 IC.  Then he picked broad jumps for the race back.  

    YHC was close, but Cowbell pulled off the win on this one.  We did some (?) crunchy frogs and then he chose a backwards shuffle as the next race. 

    Obviously his strength because he won that one as well (even though Goose put up a good fight) and called of penguins x12 IC as the final exercise.  Time up, COT with Akbar praying us out.

    Thank you men for the push and for the chance to lead!