F3 New Orleans

Tag: Convergence

  • Northshore Convergence – 3 Year Anniversary

    We all come to F3 as individuals, men with our own past and our own unique stories.  But we all share one very similar story, which is the story of our first post to an F3 beatdown.  This story usually involves a little fear, a lot of pain, and in some cases, a splash of merlot.  My story took place at Grandmother’s House (before it had a name), and I can be honest and say it was filled with trepidation: Will I be able to make it through this?  What if I don’t like some of these guys?  Are they going to ask me to lead part of it?  And why the heck am I up so damn early???

    Everyone knows how the story goes – YHC was accepted but quickly pushed to be a better man in all aspects. That impact – an effect felt on all F3 brothers – is what we came together to celebrate on the Lakefront today. F3 has now been thriving and changing men on the Northshore for three years now.

    A few lucky Southshore men arrived early, unaware they’d get roped into a 2 mile pre-thang. Back at the flags (four flags this morning), YHC gave a quick welcome and disclaimer, and we got this thing started:

    Warmorama:

    Three years, three sets of 8-count bodybuilders.  Founding year 2016, so 16 reps of each.  Sprinkled some standard warm-ups in between:

    • 8-count bodybuilders x16 IC
    • SSH, IW’s x20 IC
    • 8-count bodybuilders x16 IC
    • Toe Touches, Windmills x20 IC
    • 8-count bodybuilders x16 IC

    The Thang:

    3 Stations for 3 Years: Every Man Leads

    Leadership is one of the skills F3 hones that YHC is most thankful for. It’s also the thing YHC was most uncomfortable with those first few weeks. These stations were meant to honor the leadership impact that F3 spreads.

    The PAX was split into three groups, with three leaders picked for an impromptu lead at each station. The leader got two minutes to come up with a routine while the rest of the PAX circled up for Peter Parkers x15 IC, Shoulder Taps x15 IC, and Merkins x15 OYO.

    If memory serves, here’s what each leader had us performing:

    Station 1: The Gazebo, led by Sparky Time

    Freak Nasties x10 IC, Step Ups x10 IC (each leg), Squats x10 IC, repeat.

    Station 2: East Swingset Pad, led by Jose 10k

    Squats x10 IC, Jane Fondas x10 IC (each leg), Lunges x10 IC, Monkey Humpers x10 IC.

    Station 3: West Swingset Pad, led by Russo

    Little Manny Crunches x10 IC, Six-Inch Exercise x10 IC, Crunchy Frogs x10 IC. (Pretty sure there was something else in there….)

    Mental and Physical Toughness with Fracsac

    Next up, the baton was passed to Fracsac for a little taste of the Southshore. He told us of his recent Spartan Race with Triple Shift, how challenging it was, and how F3 had prepared him both mentally and physically.  So this next pearl would exemplify both. 

    The physical part was an Indian Run (PAX split into 2 groups), where the man sprinting to the front would yell out an exercise, the PAX would quickly disperse and perform 5 of said exercise (burpees, jump squats, derkins, one-armed merkins, to name a few) before getting back in line and continuing the run.  Halfway through we were stopped for the mental exercise: perform 21 SSH’s, with only the first 10 called out in cadence.  If one man fails to halt at exactly 21, there was a penalty of 30 burpees.  After some mumble chatter about who’s cadence was the correct cadence, we all performed the penalty burpees. The Indian run then headed in the opposite direction, with the same mental exercise waiting at the end of the line – this time 17 SSH and only 6 called in cadence.  Another failure and another 20 burpees were in order.

    Team Races: Pushing Each Other Forward

    YHC took the final pearl with some competitive team exercises. This section was cut short due to time, so we did one quick hopscotch race: the original three teams lined up in plank position, with the last man rising to bunny hop over the rest of his team, and then drop back into plank position. Teams finished once their last man crossed the finish line – the infamous lakefront shaft.

    The two losing teams would need to do a penalty exercise, but the true winning team would never be known because there were some last-second shenanigans on all three teams as they neared the finish line. So we all performed the penalty together: the 8-count exercise known as Absolution.

    Mosey back to the flag, where Shooter led a very abbreviated Mary of planking before we called it.

    COT: Count-o-rama, name-o-rama, naming of an FNG (welcome Stockboy!) and Triple Shift led us in a prayer of thanks.

    Coffetería brought out a few of our injured brothers, with Butt Splice, The Manny, and Tanked Up joining us. T-claps to our Southshore brothers for making it across the pond to make this a true convergence, it wouldn’t be the same without you guys. And t-claps to all the guys who led today, it’s an honor to work beside you men. SYITG.

  • Pre-Blast: F3 Northshore 3 Year Anniversary Convergence

    Calling all regional PAX! The Northshore will be celebrating its three year anniversary this upcoming Saturday, April 6th, at 0630 on the lakefront (0610 for the usual pre-thang). You won’t want to miss it – convergences are a great opportunity to meet your F3 brothers from across the pond and celebrate this great thing called F3.

    In the 3 years since F3 hit this side of the lake, many crazy things have happened.  Pokemon Go sent people walking off cliffs, Roseanne was back on and quickly back off the air, Michelle Obama and George W. became friends, and the UK kinda/sorta attempted to exit the EU.  But those events, and the many other wild things that have happened in the past few years, pale in comparison to seeing Shooter bear crawl down Bourbon street, or seeing Butt Splice go full predator mode at the Tough Mudder, or even to the legendary parties thrown by our very own, Tanked Up.

    So mark your calendars for next Saturday, April 6th – there’ll be fun and games, F3-style, as well as the usual misery.  Hopefully, a few brothers from the south and a few from the west will join us to celebrate and, of course, feel free to bring an FNG. Afterwards we’ll head over to Kona and have Tank regale us with stories from his youth. And while we won’t be walking off cliffs, I can’t promise that you won’t bear crawl or bunny hop off something.  

  • Convergence ’18

    f3nola.com/…/uploads/2018/10/IMG_5366.mov

    In celebration of the 4 year Anniversary of the starting of F3 NOLA,  a Convergence was called at the site where it all started, the Mothership.  PAX from every AO in F3 NOLA; Northshore, Westbank, Kenner, Baton Rouge, Metairie, Mid-City, and Uptown, converged on City Park for a celebration of the past 4 years of Men growing in Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith, and the growth and success that F3 NOLA has experienced during that time.

    Rudy got the party started early with a small group that arrived at 6:30 with a quick 5K Run through City Park; around the Festival Grounds, the Lagoon and back around to meet up with waiting PAX back near the Peristyle.  8 Flags were planted in the ground at the corner of The Great Lawn and the PAX slowly began to gather.  The Detailed Disclaimer(“You can’t sue us”) was given by Triple Shift, and off we moseyed to the large lawn near NOMA.

    The Beat-down was divided into four 15 minute segments, each with a different Q taking an opportunity to lead.  Each Q was selected to represent each of the 4 years of F3’s existence.

    1st Q – Triple Shift – Led off representing the founding group that started F3 NOLA that first year

    2nd Q – Turbo Tax  – represented the 2nd year growth and addition of Northshore PAX to F3 NOLA.

    3rd Q – FracSac – represented the third year and the growth of the Metairie, and Lakeview/Mid City AO’s

    4th Q – Medulla Oblongata – YHC, represented the recent surge and growth Uptown by the recent “HNJ Invasion”

    After a quick mosey to the lawn to the side of NOMA we circled up for the a warm up.

    WARM UP  – In Cadence

    31 – Worlds Slowest, Side Straddle Hops

    10 – 6-Count Burpees

    20 – Imperial Walker Squats

    10 – Abe Vigodas

    10 – Arm Circles – Fwd & Rev

    20 – Plank Jacks

    20 – Peter Parkers

    15 – Merkins

    The Q was passed to Turbo Tax who moved the Pax over to lawn slightly closer to NOMA.  Turbo started off by asking everyone to take off their shirt and create a “Flag” by tucking it in the back of your shorts.  This generated plenty of Mumble chatter among the Pax.

    FLAG GAMES

    2 Minute Flag Games – Your shirt is your Flag, Don’t let it get pulled!

    1st Round – 2 Knee-to-Chest Jumps every time your flag gets pulled, reload and continue  pulling after jumps.

    2nd Round (x2) – Tennis Balls and a Nerf football were added as additional “Ammo”, In addition to Jumps for flag pulls, if hit with the tennis balls – 5 Merkins, hit by the football – 5 Burpees, reload flag and keep going after exercise.

    3rd Round (x2) – Same Rules as 2nd round, but no reload of flag, perform penalty exercise, Plank and wait in place till end.

    4th Round – Trophy Flags – Same rules as Round 3 but Flag puller keeps and collects flags he pulls, Person with the most flags wins.

    Not sure if anyone kept track of the winners but as Turbo Tax said we’re all WINNERS!

    The Q was then passed to FracSac.  We remained in place and lined up along the First Tree Line.

    SUICIDES

    Run to tree 1 and back 5 Burpees

    Run to tree 2 and back 5 Burpees

    Run to tree 3 and back 5 Burpees

    Run to tree 4 and back 5 Burpees

    Burpee Broad Jump to tree 1 and back

    Catalina Wine Mixers IC x 10

    Run to tree 1 and back 5 Merkins

    Run to tree 2 and back 5 Merkins

    Run to tree 3 and back 5 Merkins

    Run to tree 4 and back 5 Merkins

    KimChi lost his Applewatch in the Chaos that was Flag Games so we lined up and Bear crawled to the 4th tree while looking for the watch.  Not found, but later found by KimChi behind the area we bear crawled.  Crisis averted!

    The Q was passed to YHC and we moseyed back to the Great Lawn.

    CONVERGENCE CIRCUIT

    8 stations had been designated around the perimeter of the Great Lawn with a Flag positioned in the Center. Each station was marked with a sheet of paper with the exercise for each station.  The Pax was divided into groups at each station.   The Bobby Hurley station would provide the count of 20 reps,  while every other station did AMRAP of their designated exercise.   At Halt, Everyone ran to middle of lawn to CONVERGE and partner up for 5 Patty Cake Merkins, then rotate clockwise to the next station.  PAX was instructed to pick a different partner each time they returned to the middle between stations.  The stations were:

    Bobby Hurley’s

    Merkins

    Mountain Climbers

    Plank Jacks

    Low Slow Squats

    Jump Lunges

    Dips

    Monkey Humpers – (by the street, of course)

    One round was completed and time was getting short so we circled up for some quick Mary

    2 MINUTES OF MARY

    Dying Cock Roach IC x 20

    Wife Pleasers IC x 20

    We are done!

    COT

    Circle up for Count-O-Rama – 66 PAX!!,  Name-O-Rama 3 FNG!!

    FNG’s Named – Welcome to Blanks, Chalk Talk, and Green Screen!!

    Bring it in tight for a Sweaty Ball of Man!!  Butt Splice finished it up with a prayer.

    NMM

    We moseyed over to Morning Call  where a awesome spread of food awaited us.   Spinach Mushroom Egg Scramble, Bacon, Pork Loin, Bananas, Croissants, Bottled Water, and Iced Coffee.  Mike as usual took great care of us with plates and napkins and great service.  Rudy presented Mike with his honorary membership and a blue F3 NOLA shirt.   Some great F2 went down as we ate and drank our fill.  Big thank you to all who made it out for this awesome beat-down in the park.  Big thank you to everyone who organized and provided the food and drinks we enjoyed.  Finally, big thanks to Woz for documenting the whole event with pictures and video.   I know, I  speak for all the Q’s when I say, it was a pleasure to lead as always, and thanks for the opportunity to lead this great PAX.

    Hope to see everyone and more next year!!  SYITG!!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Pre-Blast – Convergence to HONOR our Brother Dipstick – March 4, 2017

    On Saturday March 4, 2017, the #HIM of the GrandStrand will converge and post at 0700 at #Warthog to HONOR our Brother, William “Willie” James Pederson – aka Dipstick

    Billboard will be on Q.  Other AO’s here will be closed.  Please post at #Warthog
    If you are visiting in the area, please join us as we HONOR and REMEMBER our Brother

    William James Pedersen
    Myrtle Beach, SC
    William James Pedersen, age 34, passed away, Tuesday, February 22, 2017 at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center.
    William was born in Myrtle Beach, a son of the late James Pedersen and Sharon Fuller Fletcher. William was a US Army Combat Veteran and a small Business Owner. He will be truly loved and missed by all.
    Surviving are his wife: Melissa Pedersen; two sons: Christian Pedersen and Luke Pedersen; brother: Rusty Pedersen and a number of nieces and nephews.
    A memorial service will be held at a later date.
    McMillan-Small Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
    An online guest book is available at www.msfh.net

    Date: Saturday March 4, 2017
    Time: 0700
    Where: #Warthog – Market Commons, Myrtle Beach

  • F3 NOLA’s Second Anniversary

    Nice turnout of 34 for the F3 Nola 2 year anniversary convergence.  Hawg and RY split the Q.  Yankee, being the elder statesman was first up.

    The Thang

    A sloppy disclaimer, by his own admission…then a short mosey to the Great Lawn for the largest COP in NOLA history.

    Traditional warm-up with SSH x 20, Imperial Walkers x 20, Mtn. Climbers x 20, LBC x 19, and Low Slow Squats x 21.

    As Yankee started the LSS he hiked his shorts way up and started showing some lily white thigh.  I thought it was a strange addition to the COP.  Hope it doesn’t catch on.  

    Then we spread out for 10 minutes of 4 corners.  Corner 1 – 10 burpees, Corner 2 – x-fit push-ups, Corner 3 – Surfer Burpees, Corner 4 – 180 jump squats.

    This was a shout out to Chewy who included this in his Q almost two years ago.  Most got about 2-2.5 trips around the quad in the 10 minutes.

    At this point YHC took the Q and led a mosey to the NOMA lily pond for Red Hot Chili Pepper:  Derkins x 16, Bulgarian Split Leg Lunge Left x 8; Incline Merkins x 16, Bulgarian Split Leg Lunge Right x 8, Derkins x 12, BSLL Left x 6, IM x 12, BSLL Right x 6, Derkins x 8, BSLL Left x 4, IM x 8, BSLL Right x 4, Derkins x 4, BSLL Right x 2, IM x 4, BSLL Left x 2

    This was a redux of Chong-Li’s workout at the launch.  Next came the first bad idea of the day

    We attempted a Route 66 with bear crawls between each lamp post and an increasing number of jump squats starting at 1 and ending at 11 in theory.  There was lots of modification on this one and we ran out of time before it was finished.

    We headed back to the lily pond and did 10 jump squats (or 5 to the top ledge).

    Then mosey back to the Great Lawn for some DJ Style Mary:  SFX led us off with 16 Dr. Ws.  Then Turbo Tax represented the Northshore with 15 Nolan Ryans on each side.  Next was Jingle Vader and 25 Putins (Shorty and I thought it might be infinity, fortunately JV cut it short).  Next was possibly the greatest moment in the two year history of F3 Nola when Tool led us through the alphabet.  Kim-Chi took us home with 20 dying cockroaches with 5 at super slow speed to end the set.

    Moleskin

    Thanks to all who came out this day and who keep coming out every day.  This has allowed me to work out consistently for 2 years and for that I am grateful to all involved.  It was great to see all of the Kotters come out.  By nature the second F suffers when guys quite showing up or when we split workouts.  The convergence is just another workout when it comes to the First F, but it is special when it comes to the 2nd F.  We should do it more often.

    Thanks to Amnesty for opening his home to us for breakfast afterwards and thanks to our brothers on the Northshore for making the trip down.

    -Hawg

     

  • Duck Diarrhea aka 6 Month Anniversary – Convergence Part 2

    Convergence Part 2.  I made an executive decision to have 2 convergences due to the fact that we have a pretty divided group of weekday guys and Saturday guys.

    It has been raining all week.  Everyday – all day!  And so it was no surprise Saturday AM that it rained the entire workout.  In honor of the Convergence/6 Month Anniversary of F3 NOLA we decided to go with a mixed DJ set for the workout.  Roots started us off –  as the honorary Captain of this leaderless/leaderful (is that a word?) band of guys connected by F3.  I missed some great mumble chatter b/c this backblast is a day late.  Sorry.

    The Pre-Thang – This first workout at our new time slot of 630AM hit hard.  Why does sleeping that extra 30 min seem like such a big deal.  Had to hustle to the AO because of a slow wake up.  I was still recovering from  crawfish and a few 12 oz curls just a few hours before this workout.    Raining steady — I was pretty sure this would interfere with attendance at our Anniversary bash/Convergence.  Pleasantly surprise to see about 10 guys hanging around where the shovel flag should be – oops I had the flag.    Excellent Kotters — Redfish (kind of – he was around a week or so ago) and Buster.  Welcome back.  Wait a moment and then the I’m not a trainer speech from Roots and we were off!

    First COP led by Roots was on the Great Lawn.  The steady rain must have made the GREAT LAWN the perfect outhouse for a thousand ducks because the field was covered with duck diarrhea.  Oh the smell.  And of course my boy Roots chooses not to modify.  Even with our whining…

    SSH x 25 IC, Lunge x 10 IC, Imperial Walkers x 15 IC, Merkins ***NOOOO please x 15, Plank Jacks x 25 IC ***Ohh gross,  Squats x 30.  Roots was kind enough to modify and let us skip on the plank walks but he made up for it with two #suddenchange  10 burpees on your own –the PAX was surpressing dry heaves the whole burpee fest.

    Roots passes baton to YHC – Reluctant Yankee

    We mosey over to a few raised benches by the Sculpture Garden and go for a few rounds of

    Step Ups x 30, Inclined Merks x 15, Squats left leg x 20, Sudden Change 10 burpees OYO, Declined Merks x 15, Squats right leg x 20, Sudden Change 10 burpees OYO, Step Ups x 30

    Mosey to the Baseball field and Hand off Q to Mr Awesome

    First exercise is the SNO-BALL – a team sprint from deep right field to homeplate to get our team Sno _ Ball post game!

    Then first base 5 burpees, second base lunge jumps, third base mountain climbers, and plank and wait – rinse and repeat two times – all OYO

    Then line up on 3rd base line.  There was a nice sized trench there and MR A calls for 20 Cross fit push ups in your puddle to clean off the duck diarrhea.  Then we added some burpees and mountain climbers to get you a little wetter.

    Then Mr A hands off to Reveille for our 4th Q.  We run to the track through some small lakes and ponds.  Too late to worry about wet shoes but I can’t help but wonder why I wore socks.  Reveille takes us to the track for some modified (due to time) DIR-TAY MAC – DEUCE.

    Sumo Squat x 12, Mountain Climber x 12 then a lap

    Lunge High Kick and wife Pleasers x 20 then a lap – no eye contact please

    Side Lunge and Low Squat x 20 then a lap

    After the last lap – Rev handed off to Hawg.

    Finally Hawgcycle runs us a good mile back to our shovel flag.  Still sitting there – thankfully present.  Hawgcycle sits us down in some thorns and fire ants for 6MOM and decides to modify us with a move to the Peristyle.  Thanks for not pushing us out to the Duck Diarrhea.

    Mary was as follows:

    LBC x 62 IC; LBT x 40 IC; Flutter Kicks x 40 IC; Russian Twists x 20 IC; Real Freddy x 25 IC; Superman to Boat x 3
    YHC was impressed that Hawg could count to 62 IC.  He was a math teacher but he is also from Arkansas so it was an impressive feat.  The PAX tried to #pushthemselves but the Hawgcycle can NOT be stopped – you can only hope to contain him.
    Strong finish for the Convergence and the rain felt so good – post Mary.
    Shout Out –
    We prayed for Bubba and his newborn.  We prayed for the sick.  We reflected on how appreciative we are to have F3 here in NOLA and in our lives.  We definitely marked our 6 months with hope for a bigger F3 in NOLA but with contentment that it even exists for us at all.  FNGs almost got named Jammy and Fanny in honor of Splash’s Friday workout but we decided to save those names for the next 2 FNGS that Splash brings.
    Coffeeteria:  I usually don’t mention the coffee post workout but today was special.  While we were the only paying customers at Morning Call due to the copious amounts of rain – we were treated to a movie shoot.  The director was not a fan of F3.
    First he had to ask us to stop dragging chairs over to make a table big enough for the gang.
    Second he had to ask YHC to stop starring, he said it makes the fake movie – look – well – fake (I wasn’t starring)
    Third he had to ask Amnesty to stop rubbing his nipples on the window
    And lets just say it was a good thing reveille wasn’t sitting in a spot where the director could see him bc it was about to get ugly.
    Any attempts to EH said director were ignored.