F3 New Orleans

Tag: Dagwood

  • Our White Knight

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Cloudy. Chilly for a Baton Rouge March.

    Welcome

    Disclaimer

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Looked like a b-class soccer team as we jogged about 50 yards, and then in pairs went to a lightpole about 20 yards away and did:

    High Knees/Butt Kicks/Side shuffle/Knee over-unders/Jog backwards

    Jogged to the sun dial for some fake jump roping! all reps of 20x:

    Regular jump rope/ side to side/ one legged/ one legged side to side/ double jumps.

    Now that we were nice and warm!

    —

    The Thang:

    11 is the #!

    11 reps of six different exercises followed by 11 burpees after each set.

    Box jumps/pistol squats/split squat jumps/paper beneath hands merkins/derkins/merkin walkout(which is underrated!)

    Our white knight came sprinting across the land halfway through this exercise^^^ that helped us grind through it.

    Ran over to the jungle gym and split into three groups. Each group had to do 100 total reps of each exercise:

    Al gores/big boy sit ups/inverted row

    Mosey’d back to the flag!

    Mary:

    15x:

    starfish/flutter kicks/upper circle crunches(brutal)/plank work

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM:

    Great times before the humidity!

    Announcements:

  • 70-0. First Round Draft Pick!

    70-0. First Round Draft Pick!

    The Scene:The Knoll

    Conditions:41*, Overcast, and slightly wind. Park was rather abandoned…

    8 Pax made it out of bed and posted! Where did the warm weather go from this week? 

    0700 – YHC was the only one not wearing a jacket…but of course he was the Q, so he knew how warm we’d be getting in our beatdown! He brought out a speaker…what would that be for?? The Pax would see.

    The flag was flying better than ever with a nice steady wind. It was cold and rather depressing looking outside like the scene from an abandoned town. A few brave souls were jogging, but no cross-country meet was taking over the park.

    No Disclaimer since there were no FNG’s…hopefully we’ll get some out next week.

    Warm-a-Rama:

    1 lap (opposite way as usual) around the “track.”

    Finkle Swings x11

    Goofball x16

    Plank jacks x12

    Smurf Straddle Hops x14

    Seal jacks x20

    Peter Parker x10

    The Thang:

    YHC pulled out his phone, connected it to the speaker, and played Thunderstruck. Pax were instructed to get in plank position and do a merkin every time they heard the word “Thunderstruck.” Backflip wanted to get even more buff, so he added merkins to the word thunder too. Some Pax joined in. A few minutes later, our arms were shaking, and we resented the ACDC artist for singing “Thunderstruck” so frequently at the end of the song.

    YHC had mercy on the PAX and decided to let the next the next ACDC song play while we stretched. As “You shook me all night long” played, we stretched hamstrings, glutes, groin, hip flexors, calves, etc.  

    Backflip gave a recovery countdown while YHC put the stereo away… Pax played Frogger and moseyed across Highland road to the baseball field.

    The scene was set…it was a baseball game that had 4 innings…

    In inning one, YHC announced that PAX had allowed 7 runs, so we did 7 burpees at each base, moseying in between. 

    In inning two, YHC announced that PAX had allowed 14 runs, so we did 14 merkins at each base, moseying in between. 

    In inning three, YHC announced that PAX had allowed 21 runs, so we did 21 flutter kicks at each base, moseying in between. 

    In inning four, YHC announced that PAX had allowed 28 runs, so we did 28 Al Gores at each base, moseying in between. 

    70 runs allowed!

    Yes, it was a fake game, but the workout was as real as it gets…Any team that bad would be deserving of the first-round draft pick!

    Then Pax moseyed back across highland to the pav.

    Partner exercise – one partner did a wall sit while the other ran to the pullup bars for 10 pullups, then ran to the sundial for 10 freak nasty’s and finally rounded the corner with 10 merkins at the last “base.” When your partner got to the sundial, the wall sitters added air presses as well. Dagwood showed his real speed, earning himself the gold medal…we all coveted Shangeaux who was paired with Dagwood and therefore had the shortest wall sit…good father/son combo.

    Finally, we finished off by visiting the zoo with a duckwalk and bear crawl back across the path followed by a crab walk and frog hop back. Snack pack enjoyed the bear crawl the most since he was rocking his Baylor Bears gear.

    Mary:

    YHC grabbed a coupon from the car…

    American Hammer – 5 each with the coupon, passing it around while the rest of the Pax did non-coupon hammers when it wasn’t their turn. 40 total. The overachiever once again was backflip who cadenced his 5 hammers making them 10.

    LBC’s – same as hammers but with coupon held over the head.

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT/BOM:

    Prayer requests:

    Worms announced his daughter passed a retest at OT school that she had failed the first time…answer to prayer. 

    Backflip’s baby is due in April…now we see why he was overachieving (trying to avoid the dad-bod!)

    YHC prayed… thanked God and lifted up baby backflip.

    Most Pax left, a few went to lighthouse coffee house for fellowship afterward.

    Ready for warmer weather…see you Wednesday at the Coliseum!  

  • 15 Reps For The 15th

    15 Reps For The 15th

    The Scene: The Knoll
    Conditions: Sunny. Not too humid. Crowded with college cross country participant’s
    Welcome: Hi y’all!
    Disclaimer: Don’t hurt yourself guys.

    The 4 brave  50 yr old F3 men and one twenty-something whippersnapper planted the F3 shovel flag inside the grass area of the walking path. Youthful college eyes were on the “elder” motley crew wondering who we were. The men of F3 in no sense felt intimidated by the amount of athletic youth present at the park for a college cross country event. It was obvious the college kids were jealous of our varicious pump-ah-tude in our pectorals. It’s not our fault we made the gurley men jealious. Money Cat was the Q for this beautiful Saturday morning. It was announced since the date was the 15th that all reps would be in the count of 15.

    Warm-a-rama:

    15 – arm circles forward.
    15 – arms circles backward.
    15 – overhead claps.
    15 – hamstring stretches.
    15 – windmills.

    The men of F3 mosey’d on the walk path and stopped at the area of the workout bars for pull up reps. Since other men were working out in this area the F3 men took separate turns with pull ups and ab exercises. Reps of 15 were still the count for the day.

    Money Cat kept an eye on the time wanting to keep each stage of the workout at 15 minutes.
    Finishing up at the bars the men of F3 moved down to the hilly landscape towards Highland Road for working out the quads. At this time Mistletoe joined us after finding us amongst the crowded park. We obviously stood out with all the yooooth’s in the park. We walked backwards down the hill and walked up it backwards several times. More leg exercises were to come and we moved across the street to climb the bleachers at the softball field. This exercise was only done once since the morning dew on the metal bleachers could have caused more damage than we would have liked. Staying at the field we performed pushup reps of 15 by using the parking lot bars or the ground. Afterwards, we lunged down to an area of the parking lot and did more pushup reps. We walked across Highland Road and climbed the hill backwards toward the flag.

    Money Cat keeps a coupon in his vehicle for spontaneous moments when a work out might breakout. We lined up with our six on the ground and passed it around keeping our feet off the ground.

    We completed our Mary’s in this area since we were in the shade.

    15 – left leg raises.
    15 – right leg raises.
    15 – both leg raises.
    15 – right side Jane Fonda’s.
    15 – left side Jane Fonda’s.
    We got up and walked backwards to the flag for Count-o-Rama and Name-o-Rama.

    Ended in prayer for our F3 brothers in North & South Carolina enduring Hurricane Florence.

  • Chumbawamba!

    Chumbawamba!

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Sunny. Humid. Watery grass.

    Welcome

    Disclaimer

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Looked like a b-class soccer team as we jogged about 50 yards, and then jogged backwards to the flag.

    Butt kicks about 20 yards out and then high knees back to the flag.

    Shuffle facing the road about 20 yards and then shuffle back.

    Brought us to the real warm-a-rama.

    Q asked the pax if they loved 90’s music. Chumbawamba was mentioned (t-claps to Shangeaux for supporting this).

    Proceded to play Chumbawamba’s only hit, Tubthumping. Performed SSH the entirety of the song and everytime the song said “I get knocked down, but I get up again…” the group did a burpee. It started with fun smiles and ended with everyone hating the repetitiveness of this hit.

    —

    The Thang:

    Indian run to the football field.

    Wide football sprints in place (think remember the titans but without the up-downs. We did not get blood on our uniforms).

    Lined up under the field goal. Sprinted to the other field goal post. 15 second break. Did this 4x overall for a real punch to the gut.

    Lined up three cones five yards apart for shuttle runs. Line up at middle cone, sprint to one cone and touch the line, run to the farthest cone and then back to the 2nd cone. Pax planked while everyone went through this d-lineman drill.

    Took three cones and made a ‘L’ shape, 5 yards apart. Start at one cone, run around the middle cone and make a hard u-turn around farthest cone, and then sprint back to original cone. Pax did six inches for six while everyone did this drill.

    —

    Made a baseball diamond with the cones. Pax divided into four teams of three. Each team starts at its own base. Teams completed a cumulative number of reps of different exercise at each base:

    100 team merkins at first, 100 team crab cakes at second, 100 team lunges at 3rd, 100 team squats at home, and then sprinted to each next base. Each time a team passed a station, it got a point. Did this for a 15-minute period.

    A solid competition ended with 2 teams having 13 points, one with 12, and one with 11. A masterful effort.

    As reward, the 13-point teams ran to midfield and back, the 12-point team 75 yards and back and the last team ran to other field goal post and back.

    Mosey’d back to the flag!

    Mary:

    Crunchy Frogs x20 in honor of Snackpack being back!

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM:

    Great to see Snackpack and Trooper!

    Announcements:

  • 7-18-2018 at the Colloseum

    5 posters this morning but I didn’t get the exercise list.  Who was the Q?

  • partial Backblast for July 15, 2018

    F3 July 15, 2018, LBCs, IMG_0008

    I’ve been out of town and didn’t get the BB from Dagwood before I left so the above is all I have at the moment.

  • Backblast for 7-8-18. The Knoll

    The Scene:

    The Knoll

     

    Conditions:

    Surprisingly refreshing for a July Saturday morning at 7am.

     

    Welcome:

    8 men posted.

     

    Disclaimer:

    Money Cat: “I am not a professional trainer….huh? Why’s that funny to y’all??? Seriously guys…why is that funny?? Stop laughing or I’ll bring back Fastball and make all of y’all feel the pain!!!”

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Money Cat led the first third of the workout. I told the guys we would start off on a mosey but would call out a change and to mimic my movement regardless if I was at the front or the back because I’m usually in the back on these running kinds of things. At the sundial I called out a fast walk. At the next change I called out a mosey and after that was a fast walk. I decided to try something different. I called out a left side straddle mosey. During the side straddle mosey I called out to switch sides and lead with the other leg…(that means we now switched to leading with the right leg.) By now we had mosey’d the course almost two times and felt for the last 50 yards (I’m guessing) to the sundial we needed to do a full sprint. I could tell the guys were itching for me open it up a bit. I had the lead the entire way until I yelled out “FULL SPRINT!” And suddenly Mega Dad passed me up. What he doesn’t know is I allowed him to pass me on my left side. I didn’t want all the attention by getting there first so I turned down the after burners and slowed up a whole lot….it’s my story and I’m sticking with that. Remember….don’t question the Q.

     

    Money Cat called out a recovery countdown….it sure seemed to go by fast.

    We began our morning exercises.

    20 Arm Circles Forward

    20 Arm Circles Backwards

    20 Raised Arm Claps

    20 Dips

    20 Mexican Dips

    20 Walking Al Gore’s

    10 Burpees

     

    I was glad to turn over the next 3rd of the Q to my F3 brother Work Horse.

    Workhorse jumping in!  Well, missing Fastball’s beatdowns I decided to combine his “quarterpounder” and the “Murph”.  We based in the Sundial as it’s called, so it went like this!

    I had four F3 brothers pick an exercise, Topanga (Al Gores), Dagwood (Little Baby Crunches), Big Easy (Merkins), and Shangeaux (Side Straddle Hop). The strategy was to do a 25 count on exercise #1 and then run a lap around the running track and at the last turn heading back to sundial, turn and run backwards to complete at sundial. Plank until the last man was in!

    #1 – 25 Merkins and Lap

    #2  – 50 Little Baby Crunches and Lap

    #3 – 75 Al Gores ( which Shangeaux hijacked from Topanga )

    #4 – 100 Side Straddle Hops (which actually “unfortunately” with Topanga’s count ended up being 200) then a Lap, but changed the turn at last corner to a sprint to the sundial.  Shout out to youngster Trooper, he was in the mix leading the charge back to complete.

    At this point, we began a mosey back to the flag to do some Mary’s to close it out.  Megadad took over from there.

    • Lay Flat sit ups
    • Buddy Back Squats (wall squats on partners back)
    • Crunchy Frogs
    • Jane Fonda’s ( 3 ways right and left) for Rocket
    • Partner Leg Toss ( 10 straight, 2 left and 2 right)

    Circle of Trust

    • Name off and prayers ( special intention for F3 brother “Trooper” recently lost his daughter )

  • Stretching & Sweating in the Sun

    Backblast.  June 30, 2018

    So who else is noticing that after exercising for a couple of months and more that your T shirts must be shrinking?

    By Worms, with comedic assistance from Moneycat | June 30, 2018

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: 82F, got warmer as it went. Ahhhh….the “cool of the morning” in BR.

    Welcome: 9 men posted.

    Disclaimer:

    “I am not a professional trainer….well, you guys know the rest.”

    (Sorry about the pics guys.  Even if I flip the image upside down on my computer before uploading the photos they still come out upside down on the Backblast posts.  Just so everyone knows, we were not doing head stands to take our photo.  That came later.)

    Warm-a-Rama:

    The local MADD group had a festive event going on at the park this morning, not to be confused with DAMM, Drunks Against Mad Mothers. They were taking over OUR parking places, so we moved over a little down the parking lot.

    Had some new exercises this morning requiring new coordination. Some of us neared falling down on some of these.

    Capri lap Squirm.  Not a “run” but can still call it a “mosey”.  (A squirm is a fast walk  To be “walking” you have to have one foot on the ground at all times.  “Running involves a moment in time where no foot is touching the ground. Its about 4-9/13  microseconds, I believe.)

     

    Goofball – A standing mountain climber (running in place) while you alternate your arms up and down (like climbing a ladder). Call it goofball b/c you look exactly like one when doing this.

    Annie – This exercise instructs pax on the art of clean floors, be warned some pax may break out in song and dance. Hold plank and rotate one arm in a circular motion while holding plank with the opposite arm.

    Sky Reaching – Long reaching upwards with your fingertips high.  Can be as strenuous as you want to make it.  You can be lazy and just point up like you want to ask a question, or you can stretch about 64 muscles till they hurt if you like.  If someone was asking a question I ignored them. Sorry. No questions can be asked once the counting begins.

    Sun God’s – This exercise is the rotating of shoulders through act of moving outstretched arms (with purpose and intensity) forward or backward in circular motion – Options for little Sun Gods and/or Big Sun Gods for desired effect.

    Batwings – Progression of arm exercises that are deceivingly difficult and named after Austin’s bats. Start with 20 x Forward Arm Circles, hold, 20 x Backwards Arm Circles, hold, 20 x seal claps, hold, 20 x overhead claps. Everything is on a 4-count. Remember to enjoy the pain on the faces of your fellow men.

    Fabreze – Certainly not the first production run of “Fabreeze” air “freshener”.   How do you make air “fresher” by contaminating it with “pretty” smells?   My sinuses rebelled with that stuff and I told my wife to throw it out and never buy it again. On your six, do 2 Big Boy Situps. Remain upright after last BB and lift feet up 6″.  Do 10 Air Presses.  (Thanks to Sparknut, visiting from Raleigh, pointing out that this is an arm press in the air, not a leg press.)  Back down for 4 BB followed by 20 Air Presses with legs held 6″. Repeat using increments of 2:10 ratio. (2:10, 4:20, 6:30, 8:40, 10:50, etc…). Didn’t quite do the numbers as planned because the Worms was tuckering out.

    Goose Step – Marched 65 paces just like the Nazis though we don’t hold to the fascist model otherwise.  A real leg muscle stretcher.

    Finkle Swing – Named for the infamous kicker “Ray Finkle” it is said that this was the stretch that lost him the big game. Pax swings one leg at a time back and forth to warm up those hips.

    Happy Jacks – Do 5 side straddle hops in cadence then after the 5th one everyone does two jump squats. Like this… Side Straddle Hops IC: One, two, three, ONE! One, two, three, TWO! One, two, three, THREE! One, two, three, FOUR! One, two, three, FIVE! Quickly followed by two jump squats. Repeat 4x or until no one can breathe.  Cool activity twist on some familiar exercises.

     

    Mozy to the sundial for da thang……..

    Dem Thang

    Freak Nasties – One stand, straddle other’s head.  Man on ground feet up high grasps the standing man’s ankles for support.   The stander throws the other man’s feet straight away 2 times.  To left 2 times, to right 2  times then over again.  SWAP positions.  That was the plan but I think most of us just did the throw straight away routine.  16 reps

    Hillbillies – Similar to Imperial Walkers but knee comes up to elbow on same side of body as side that knee is raised. About 16 reps

    Happy Feet – Arms out to sides.  Feet do rapid running in place but spread shoulder width apart.  Commonly a football exercise.  20 reps.

    Stormtrooper: Another similar to Imperial Walker but with a twist. Extend arms straight out in front of the body. Twist arms to one side of the body while raising and twisting the knee and hip the opposite direction. Can be done IC or OYO. Repeat both sides until the Q halts. Like a pretzel, twisting, sprinkler head thingy. Good back and hip stretch. Sound effects optional.  16 reps

    Ring of fire with a twist: A spin on ring of fire. Pun intended. In a walking side squat, rotate in a circle until the Q gives an order to “SPRAWL” then back to the squat walk. We went in CW and then CCW directions.  The Q would instruct everyone to “sprawl” after a varying number of steps.  (“Sprawl:  body straight like in a plank. Arms straight.  Bow your middle body down deeply towards the ground while attempting to face upwards as high as possible.  This is an exercise used by wrestlers and other marshal arts as a beginning to other actions.  I’m not talking about the scripted, choreographed entertainment some of you watch with the wild outfits and raging threats to their opponents, then the girls with the signs. What do those signs say?)

     

    Sometime during the exercises at the sundial Moneycat took a catnap in the shadow of the sundial brick. The Cat looked a bit woozy in the sun. It was probably the heat. We all heard him loudly purring on the other side of the wall. The cool of the dew must have caused him to fall asleep very fast. But his catnap didn’t last long as he quickly woke up to go play with rocks. He must have heard ball…….

     

    Mosey to the creek for fun with rocks (coupons).

    -find the rock you like and lineup

    -chest pass the rock with 2 hands, up the hill, as far as you can, pick it up and chest pass over and over until we make it to the plateau of the hill. About 6-10 throws, depending on how well you chose your rock and how far are your throws.  Choosing the pea gravel ain’t fair.

    -chest pass up the hill.  Rocks don’t move uphill by themselves, despite evolutional theories to the contrary.

    -Alternating right arm then left arm shotput throws, down the hill.

     

    Posed for a rock picture at the base of the hill by the creek.  We’ll call that a Rock Shot. The “older” guys might be mistaken for Rolling Stones ( minus Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. ) There was much “Satisfaction” in this exercise.

     

    Mosey to benches at the pavillion.   Did step up with right leg first, 20 reps.  Then did step up with left leg first.

    Mosey’d back to the flag for Circle of Trust and a group pic.

     

    Circle of Trust, COT

    Welcome to the new member Cyborg and thanks to Sparknut for bringing him.  Sparknut is from BR but now lives in Raleigh.  Super glad you all posted with us this morning and looking forward to seeing you all again soon!

    Ended with prayer.

     

    Five met at Starbucks for coffee, water, cool down and man-talk.  Great conversation. After a quick search on Facebook,  Moneycat realizes he went to college with Sparknut’s wife! Amazing connections.  This means 4 men missed out on the social time with the Pax:(

    Thanks to all for posting this morning and putting up with the old man’s beat down.  Did you sweat?  Its been 16 hours now and I’m still sore from this mornings beat down, but I know I’m getting stronger for it.

  • Scales and Burnout

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Sunny. The sun makes you sweat while you stand there with no exercise.

    Welcome

    Scales came today, which was awesome!

    Disclaimer

    Warm-a-Rama:

    Little mosey around the “huge baseball field”, aka to the sun dial and back to the flag via the path.

    [All in place]

    • Jumping Jacks x12
    • Butt Kicks x12
    • High Knees x12
    • 123 Heisman (strike the heisman pose with side-to-side shuffles in between) x12
    • Mummy Kicks x12

    Moseyed to the sun dial as part of the warm up. This round we did it as fast as we could to really fire up the muscles.

    • Jumping Jacks x20
    • Butt Kicks x20
    • High Knees x20
    • 123 Heisman x20
    • Mummy Kicks x20
    • 5 burpees-on your own

    Two sets of recovery countdowns after that warm-up. Worms points out the sun dial doesn’t work correctly.

    The Thang:

    The pyramid!

    • Slow-Jangle Biscuit x15
    • Merkins x20
    • Al Gores x25
    • Freak Nasties x30

    ***recovery countdown*** Did each exercise as a pulse-style on the way down the pyramid. Start halfway positionally and then you are doing small “pulse” reps during the count.

    • Freak Nasties x30
    • Al Gores x25
    • Merkins x20
    • standing lunges on each leg x15

    ***Hard to walk after the way down the pyramid. They do say it’s harder to go down stairs than up.

    —–

    Moseyed to the patio area for the circuit.

    **15 reps each exercise; 3x on our circuit**

    • Dwight Howards (bend to to a squat position next to a wall and then explode up like you are trying to touch the top of the backboard)
    • No-momentum Merkins (go down in your Merkin to where your chest is on the ground, act like you are skydiving, and then go back up)
    • Faux Upper Cuts (sit in the squat position and then upper cut with alternating fists)
    • Take a lap around the building

    —–

    **really starting to sweat now.

    Walked to edge of grass of our proverbial football field.

    Wide football sprints!

    In place, hands out, quick tapping of your feet while on our five pax sprinted to the sundial across the grass and back. Once they got back we did an up-down, and then the next person sprinted out. Props to Shangeaux for really legging it.

    —–

    We walked to the jungle gym (I can’t remember what worms called it!) as our recovery countdown and did a team exercise.

    Gathered around a middle-heigh pull up bar. One person stepped up and did burn-out pull ups from a 45 degree. (arms in pull-up position on the bar, feet “stepped through the bar” so when you are “down” you are at a 45 degree position to the ground. Pull up.)

    The pax gathered around and counted/cheered for each guy as they stepped up and gave every rep they could. Gotta love the burn out! Very fun.

    Props for Scales for killing it with 60! Those biceps…

    Moseyed back to the flag and did six inches for six till Worms finished telling a guy about F3. T-claps to worms!

    Mary:

    • Crunchy Frog x10 (shout out to Snack Pack)
    • American Hammers x15 (Rocket, I thought of you)
    • Ski abs x20 (Worms said he’s a great skier)
    • Leg lifts x25

    We all laid on the ground for a solid 30 seconds.

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    COT / BOM:

    Duracell’s wife coming home from Thailand!

    Scale’s friend.

    Fastball being gone to Georgia. #respect

    Announcements:

  • Fastball honorarium event exercise

    By: Money Cat

    The Scene:  The Knoll

    Conditions: Sunny (longing for arctic air in June.)

     

    The men of F3 Baton Rouge gathered together in a circle. A voice spoke up, “who’s going to Q?” Immediately the men’s eyes darted skyward and downward. A look so reminiscent from childhood as if their mother’s caught them with their hands in the cookie jar. You could cut the fog of silence with a dull butter knife like Scooby-Doo did in his weekly cartoon. A lone wolf could be howling out on the football field. Suddenly, Fastball spoke up…”I’ll do it!” And thus was born the Ballad of Fastball.

     

    Welcome: 11 men posted.

     

    Disclaimer:

    After the disclaimer Fastball informed the men this was his last week in F3. He explained his job with Home Depot ( cue Home Depot music ) will take him out of town for 2 weeks and after that he’ll be home to help family pack up and make the move to Georgia. This sudden news caught the men by surprise. We knew Fastball would be leaving us soon, but not this soon! The men began loudly weeping and tearing their shirts!!! Runners near us stopped in their tracks, cupped their hands to their ears and headed back in the direction they came. Thankfully someone made a joke about all of us receiving Home Depot gifts (free orange aprons) Fastball would send back to us. Aprons are nice for making lemon zest bundt cakes but I believe many of the men secretly longed for one thing and one thing only…power tools and bandoleer’s filled with beef jerky (GRUNT!) (GRUNT!) (GRUNT!)

    Warm-a-Rama:

    We mosey’d around the track once and cut into the middle for warm ups.

    Jumping Jack’s, arm circles-forward and backward, goof-balls, Bobby Hurley’s were all done in cadence.

    Merkins and burpee’s were done on our own in a count of 10.

    The Money Cat was breathing heavily when Fastball gave the order to mosey to the football field. 

    The Thang: 

     

    Out on the football field Fastball explained the routine.

     

    • Sprint out 25 yards and perform 25 merkin’s. Run backwards to start.

     

    • Sprint out 50 yards and perform 50 Al Gore’s. Run backwards to start.

     

    • Sprint out 75 yards and perform 75 crazy leg stretchy thingy’s. Run backwards to start.

     

    • Sprint out 100 yards and perform 100 jumping jacks. Run backwards to start.

     

    After each man lost 5 pounds of sweat on the field, Fastball told us to mosey to the sundial for more back breaking exercises.

     

    At the sundial many F3 men planked while waiting for Worms and Money Cat who was ripely turning into a Smelly Cat. The next group of exercises started at 25 and decreased at increments of five. There were two sets: merkins and dips. The Money Cat was running on his 7th life and ready to give up his 8th when the tiny twinkling stars appeared in his eyes. He began pawing at them like a real cat would and was meowing loudly. Money Cat realized it would be best to lie down on the concrete bench and perform standard flapping motions with his arms. The amusement was seen by all but just like the Honey Badger…..Money Cat don’t care!

     

    Fastball gave the order to mosey to the pavilion for some warm tepid water. At the pavilion Fastball noticed Money Cat hiding in the slender shadow of a pole. Fastball asked him if he was ok. Money Cat gave him a thumbs up as he figured it would be impolite to give him the middle finger of friendship. Fastball yelled out, “hey gang….lets go have a groovy time across the street on the baseball field” or at least that’s what I think I heard??? The Money Cat realized he needed water. He lumbered to the Catmobile and secured his iced cup of H2O. He and worms made it over to the ball field where the guys partnered up. Half the guys ran around poles out in the outfield and the other guys did grunting exercises. Money Cat couldn’t see what the exercises were because his concentration was on the clear frosty water cascading down his throat providing well needed relief to his thirsty soul. Not excited to pass on a raging case of cooties to the other men…Money Cat drank alone.

     

    The guys made it back to finish up with Mary’s at the Pavillion. Not wanting to have all the “Q” glory to himself, Fastball started the first set but called out F3 names to lead a Mary. The called on dudes did as they were told and there was great splendor in the grass……well, not the 1961 dramatic romance movie staring Natalie Wood type of splendor in the grass. That…would…just…be…wrong…..

     

    Count-o-Rama

    Name-o-Rama

    Circle-o-Rama 

    ***TISSUE ALERT***

    All of us F3 dudes are going to miss Fastball saying, “I’ll go ahead and Q, but you guys are going to hate me!” We are going to miss the pain our F3 brother put us through. I recall being partnered up with Fastball when he used baseball seasons’ opening day as his theme. When we ran the foul poles 5X’s in the outfield…I thought I was gonna die!!! But I didn’t and if I had…the Money Cat has 8 more lives to give. I went back to read all the back blasts that he led on those early Saturday mornings. Reading these memories are good for the soul! It reminds me what I was and where I’m headed. I believe I speak for all of us F3 guys that Josh Black aka FASTBALL lives the F3 Credo: leave no man behind, but leave no man where you find him. Fastball, you have left your mark on F3 Baton Rouge -The Knoll and The Colosseum. We all thank yeaux for molding us into better and thinner men. We know you’ll leave your mark with more guys where ever the Lord leads you.

    Friends – Michael W. Smith

    And friends are friends forever
    If the Lord’s the Lord of them.
    And a friend will not say never
    ‘Cause the welcome will not end.
    Though it’s hard to let you go
    In the Father’s hands we know.
    That a lifetime’s not too long
    To live as friends.