YHC arrived at the AO a little early to put some miles in to continue preparing for the half marathon coming up in October. After 2 miles, YHC made it back to the flag to see what other Pax were there. Upon finding only Hokie Pokey, it was decided we would focus on running this day.
4.3 miles later, we finished up with a COT. 100% participation at coffeteria.
This Sunday was off on the right track!
SYITG
Thirty something men assembled in the gloom under a full moon to celebrate Friday the 13th. Apparently the next time a full moon falls on Friday the 13th is 2049 so I hope y’all enjoyed it. I also hope Jadaveon will remeber all of us when he is the sole memebr of the PAX around to enjoy it again. Disclaimer was given and the Mother Ruckers spilt off to walk and tak. The remaining pax headed to the circle of palms to commence the beatdown.
WARMUPS
SSH X 49 (this really irritated Mariah)
Arm Circles fore and aft. Was Seaman there? 10 Fore and 10 Aft
Grass Grabbers X 20 (Pulled a Hammy)
Merkins X 20
THE THANG
Mosey to the base of the mount. 2 lines. Indian run to the top.
At the top split PAX into 2 groups (thanks Kuch for logistics)
1st group runs and tags opposite wall. 2nd stays and does 5 Burpees. Groups switch and go until 25 burpees are done.
Next same with something I cant remember then once more with Merks. Whatever it was was a pretty good workout. I was cussing the Q the entire time.
PEOPLES CHOICE MARY
Circled up for some Mary
JV suggested Doc W’s
Peaches suggested Penguins
Somebody came up with LBC’s
There were others but the full moon wiped my hard drive.
BENCHES
After the mount we descended the stairs (Yankee is hands down the fastest stair descender amongst the PAX) and grabbed some benches for some quick leg work/ dips
RLSU X 20
Dips X 20
LLSU X 20
Dips X 20
Decline Merks X 20
Back to the flag for count off, name o rama, announcements and intentions/ prayer followed by coffeeteria at PJ’s. Thanks for letting me lead. Sorry if I forgot you were there.
YHC has made it a habit to attend the Sunday morning workouts at the Renaissance as we can workout, have coffeeteria, and still be home by 8am before the house wakes up. One constant exercise that has showed up in each Q the last few weeks is Donkey Kicks on the back wall of NOMA – in fact, we now call Donkey Kicks – “Sunday Mornings”. The inspiration for today’s Q was Sunday Mornings and trying to incorporate some music into the work-out. So with the help of my family at the ranch – we set up a play list last night and made sure the Bluetooth speaker worked. Off we go……
7 pax met at the flag at 6am. Quick disclaimer and a short mosey to the grassy area between NOMA and adjacent to the lake for warm up. TRACK 1 – VAN HALEN’s – JUMP – played during the warm-up with each time we hear the word “Jump” the PAX did SSH. In between, PAX did some Imperial Walkers, Arm Circles, and Mountain Climbers to warm up.
TRACK 2 – THE BLACK EYED PEAS – LET’S GET IT STARTED (- RUNNIN’ RUNNIN’, RUNNIN’) – perfect song for indian run up and around delong drive in front of the museum
TRACK 3 – SURVIVOR – EYE OF THE TIGER – three minutes of Rocky Balboa’s in front of the museum
TRACK 4 – PETER GABRIEL – KISS THAT FROG – i am a huge fan of peter Gabriel so we had to incorporate one of his songs. For the length of the song perform flutter kicks – when Peter sings “Kiss that frog” – time to morph to Crunch frogs.
TRACK 5 – BEASTIE BOYS – BRASS MONKEY – hold the Al Gore, until “Brass Monkey” transition to monkey humpers. This was more monkey humpers than Al Gore. Around the time Belloq noticed the sunrise – a site to see this morning over the lake in front of NOMA.
TRACK 6 – IMAGINE DRAGONS – THUNDER – Dragon Walk on the neutral ground in front of NOMA about 30 yards.
TRACK 7 – LIONEL RICHIE – EASY LIKE SUNDAY MORNING – mosey to the rear wall of NOMA for some Sunday Mornings – aka Donkey Kicks. Hold Al Gore or People’s Chair throughout song – Each time Lionel belts out “Easy like Sunday Morning” time for 10-20 Donkey Kicks on count of YHC.
TRACK 8 – MAROON 5 – SUNDAY MORNING – No rain was falling so the PAX were in for more Sunday Mornings at NOMA – Incline shoulder taps with feet on back wall of NOMA with “Sunday Mornings” sprinkled throughout the song.
With about 7 minutes left circled at the flag for some Mary – each PAX led an exercise in cadence – LBC’s, boxcutters, Cockroaches, SSH, then with one minute left and Fracsac yet to lead – you guessed it 10 burpees.
Circle up for announcements and intentions. Enjoyed the opportunity to lead and had fun this morning. If you have not been to the Renaissance, come check it out on Sunday.
The Master Melvin is dedicated to the IPC this month, regardless of circumstances. For example, Frozone brought 2 FNG’s to the gloom, but may have failed to fully disclose what they would be doing. As the supplier of coupons, Frozone made sure there were enough to go around. These West Bank Pax don’t play around….
YHC made a stop at the AO the night before and measured out a 400m track WB style. Once T-Square gets that pull up bar in place, this AO is going to be the place to be when you feel like knocking out a Murph! But back to the here and now….
7 Pax, including 2 FNG’s hit the ground running with the week 2 IPC. This week was no joke, but YHC is glad he did it! A couple guys had to leave early, as this one ran over the normal time. Times have been entered in the spread sheet.
COT with Count off, Name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, FNG naming, and closed with a prayer to the Sky Q.
NMM – Welcome Roscoe (reference to Roscoe P Coltrain) and Hack Attack (Cyber Security guy). T-Claps for showing up and rocking the second week of the IPC! The WB is growing, men are getting stronger, and leaders are being created.
Thanks for allowing me to be part of this incredible organization!
SYITG
Attendees: (9) Abacus, Belloq, Catfish, Chips, Fracsac, Gideon, Heisenberg, Hokie Pokey, Sogo (+1) Dog (DJ Diver)
YHC wanted to plan his second Q carefully after he personally perceived his VQ at Okwata over a year ago a failure. With Catfish in the PAX on Sundays, you don’t want to be remembered as the guy who bored him to the point that he decides to do burpees because you haven’t challenged him enough.
I have been hinting that it would be a workout of yoga and when they saw me arrive in my favorite Lululemon shorts, I could see that the 8 other men who got out of bed this morning were worried we’d be stretching for 44 minutes with 1 burpee to make it count as a Sunday morning beat down according to Fracsac; however, I had a road trip in mind…
Started with the disclaimer and circled up the 8 around YHC in the 85° gloom to start the workout.
Warm up:
The Track Thang: Moseyed to the practice track and planked for the 6. Bataan Death March with 3 burpees x 2 laps for 800 meters total.
The Foundry Thang: Moseyed to the Foundry for 8 stations one full cycle
The Wall Thang: Mosey to our wall on NOMA and plank for the 6. During plank, YHC held an informal poll to determine name for next exercise. Sunday Mornings or Sunny Sundays? Sunny Sundays was unanimous so we proceeded to do Sunny Sundays.
Sunny Sundays were brought to us by Gideon from our brethren in Austin. The cycle includes the following:
Squat with back against the wall in a chair position. 10 air arm presses while holding chair position.
Go to all fours with hind side to wall for 5 donkey kicks.
Hold fifth donkey kick and walk legs up the wall into a handstand. Do one handstand body weight press. We rinse and repeated twice for a total of 3 cycles.
The Mary Thang: Moseyed back by flag and circled up for a little Mary:
Knowing we have a new Iron PAX challenge starting Monday and given the clues to add construction equipment to the back of my truck over the coming week, I decided to go cardio heavy on our workout.
We lost Chips on the way due to a quick break and unfortunately I didn’t give him my plan so he ran around NOMA until we returned. T-Claps to Chips for not giving up. Also, T-Claps to Gideon for a beastly Flex Arm Hang which to be fair was done during Catfish’s turn to be our timer, but I still think his effort was outstanding.
Thank you all for the opportunity to lead these incredible men as we start our week. Remember safety and hydration in this heat.
YHC took advantage of Labor Day and posted at the new AO Chamber of Horrors to get the first opportunity of the week in for the IPC. To his delight, Short Bus made the trek as well. Would that mean the Master Melvin was going to be down 2 Pax? Hardly! YHC arrived a few minutes early with a 100 foot tape and some cones to set up the field.
At 0500, six devoted Pax were assembled around the flag planted on site. YHC gave a brief disclaimer, then mosey for a warmup:
SSH IC x 31
Abe Vigodas IC x 10
Grass Grabbers IC x 10
Arm Circled IC x 20
With the warmup completed, mosey to the cones for the main course, The IPC week 1 “Killer B’s”
Times for the Pax ranged from 28+ to 31+ with improvements from both Short Bus and YHC.
Good times!
SYITG
We had a nice breeze Monday morning when we arrived at the UNO Human Performance Center for the newly dubbed Chamber of Horrors. The instructions were simple – do the Iron Pax week 1 challenge, consisting of an aggregate 150 yards of broad jumping, 150 yards of bear crawling, 150 burpees, 150 big boy situps, and 150 Bonnie Blairs. The challenge itself was anything but simple. Everyone rose to the occasion anyway, and we all completed it in under 40 minutes. Breadsticks paced us at right around 31 minutes.
When I first began F3, I could not do a burpee. Rather, worse, I did not even know how to do a burpee. First, I did something of a squat thrust, completely omitting the merkin and the jump. In fact, I thought the guys jumping and clapping after each rep were taking a victory lap on me or something. Look at me, this is so easy I’m gonna let you know each time I complete one by jumping and clapping for myself. I thought my squat thrusts were pretty damn good, even if I could only do about 5 of them before exhaustion.
Then, I found out the jump portion was not optional. This makes a lot of sense in hindsight, and my only defense is that I function at something less than optimal mental processing at 5:30 in the morning, especially before I got used to it. Squat thrust + jump. Okay fine, I can do this, but I don’t have to like it.
Then I noticed the merkin part. Ohhhhhhh. When guys around me are generally saying to no one in particular “watch your form on those burpees”, they’re totally talking to me, right? Damn.
Since then, I have made burpee form something of a personal crusade. It’s funny how you can take something you’re bad at, and really focus on it, and all of a sudden, it’s not so bad anymore. You crack the code. By paying careful attention to each step AND committing to yourself to never do 9 when 10 is called, to never cheat on form, and to never accept less than your best, you can improve.
And so if I’m a bit of a burpee nazi with others sometimes, please accept my apologies. I wish someone had more directly told me that I was not doing burpees correctly early on in my F3 career. This is the form I at least attempt to emulate at all times:
If you ever see me doing them wrong or dogging them or you think I’m cutting a corner, please return the favor. Don’t let me get away with cheating myself, and I won’t let you get away with cheating yourself. Deal?
Afterwards, we gave prayers of thanks for all we have, and enjoyed a coffeeteria at Starbucks on Harrison.
There were no holes-in-one, but this is two backblasts-in-one…
FIRST: Typical turnout at Wolfpack Mountain with a sub-krewe of ruckers showing up for their training. Those compact packs easily outweigh a fully stocked golf bag. Serious respect.
Quick warm-up with SSH, mountain climbers, grass grabbers, and then mosey to WPM. YHC intended for all the golf participants to captain a team in order to earn mulligans during the tournament later that morning. Alas, only FracSac and yours truly emerged so we divided in half.
Bulk of the workout was ascending WPM with stops every level for 5 burpees, 10 merkins, and 20 air squats. Team FracSac prevailed and we regathered at the top for a round of Mary. Walking lounges across the top level, down the stairs to the benches for dips, and hustle back to the flag. Plank to failure rounded things out.
SECOND: Four of us played golf. It was a blast.
Although turnout was lighter than expected, we still managed to have a great time. Quiche had to peel off shortly after the turn, I had to bail on 16 (s-l-o-w), but by all reports Babyface and FracSac finished out the 18 and crowned themselves inaugural co-champions.
Despite the low numbers, we learned a lot about the timing and format so be on the lookout for future golf details. We’re thinking next time will be in the late fall in City Park on a Saturday. More to come on that front…
SYITG,
Nine Lives
On 29 Aug 19, the pax of AO F3 Westbank called Master Melvin celebrated its 1 year anniversary.
What started with a core group of men drinking beer and seeing visions, resulted in a year’s worth of great memories, hard workouts, and good friendships.
To celebrate the 1 year anniversary, 4 of the core men that were part of Master Melvin in the beginning led 10 minutes each of the total workout.
9 total PAX braved the 0500 calling including one FNG.
Fracsac opened the 0500 workout with some warm-up exercises.
Then the group moseyed over to the large parking lot where we remained the rest of the workout.
Thighs led the first workout with a unique challenge. With a 1 year anniversary in NOLA, we had to celebrate with some Mardi Gras magic. So, with the help of an ‘ancient Zulu King’, Thighs brought Mardi Gras cups each engraved with a unique workout and reps. As the PAX pushed out in a very wide circle, the Mardi Gras cups were laid randomly in the middle. On your mark, get set, Go, the PAX raced to the middle grabbed a cup, returned to their place and performed the reps/exercise indicated. The goal was to collect as many Mardi Gras cups as possible until time or cups ran out. At the end, TripleShift and T-Square had accumulated the most at a whopping 6 Mardi Gras cups.
35 Cups; w/ equal amounts of cups having the following:
Then T-Square led the next set of exercise. With a speed ladder and a cone placed about 10 m away, T-Square led us in a series of exercises that pushed the heart rate up with the muscles burning.
As PAX waited to go through the speed ladder they would SSH. The first set, PAX would step each foot into the ladder and out rapidly to the end of the ladder and then bear crawl to the cone and then jump-lunge back to the beginning. We did this 2 times.
Next, the PAX would jump both feet into and out rapidly of the ladder to the end. Then we Burpee-Broad Jumped to the cone. Then we Bobby Hurleyed to the beginning. We did this 2 times.
Next, the PAX would high knees both feet into and out of the ladder to the end. Then we plank-walked to the cone. Then we high kneed to the beginning. We did this 2 times.
FroZone took over at this point. He led us in some suicides that kept our heart rates very high.
First set was suicides from beginning of the parking lot to the first light pole, then to the second, and finally to the end of the parking lot about 100m away. At the end of each set of suicides, we did 10 squats.
Next set, required 10 jumping-lunges at the end of each suicide.
The final set, required 10 Bobby Hurleys at the end of each suicide.
With only 2 minutes left of his workout time, we continued doing jumping lunges until Frasac, official time keeper, announced for a change over.
Medulla Oblongata took over as the final Q. Given all the heart racing exercises we did up to this point, he had mercy on us and required us to partner up to a Lazy Dora, which I think may be harder than an actual Dora…
When Fracsac, announced the end of our time, we collected all the gear and moseyed back to the flag.
At the flag, a cold Gatorade was waiting for us to refresh us and to celebrate the conclusion of our 1 year anniversary workout.
Speeches were made. Pictures were taken. And FNGs were named. Welcome SpeedTrap!!
It was definitely a hard workout that challenged everyone in different ways. But our brothers were there to encourage us and to see us to the end. It was a great workout to celebrate the many, many creative ways the Qs of Master Melvin has kept our workouts interesting, challenging, and positively memorable.
Congrats, F3 Westbank on 1 year anniversary! Here’s to many more!! #MasterMelvin
So the time had finally come. The great scepter of Q had been passed to YHC, for the first time ever – with wise words from the Q’s before, and much great advice, pomp and circumstance; I had been called to lead and could not refuse. Humbly, I accepted.
And while some historians may have differing stories… about how the burden of Q leadership was thrust hastily upon the first available, unsuspecting, member of that weeks coffeteria; or how there were no wise words, or any advice, or how the pomp mostly came from the circumstance of bad jokes and poor planning… YHC chose to see the bigger picture, to take away the more important lesson: Historians are dumb, and only believe what they read in books, or on Backblasts. So there is really no way way of knowing exactly what happened on that day except that the result was, I was an HC to Q the #Renaissance for my VQ.
In the darkness of a sultry morning, while the rest of the city slept, like so many sheep, YHC went to the AO early to scope out a few areas for our challenge – only to find a wiley Catfish who apparently had run to the site to warm up for the beatdown. Tclaps! (and consequently ran to coffeteria and then home…)
As a small digression, YHC had just spent the week in Austin on a work trip and was able to commune with the NATX AOs to stay sharp. It is a powerful and reassuring feeling to stumble in to another F3 group (in another city, in another state) and see them keeping the same commitment, the same standard, to the F3 code. Our brothers are out there just as we are here, every day.
So as we waited for the remainder of the Renaissance crew to materialize in the gloom, YHC had the eerie feeling of waiting on all the other good men, materializing in the gloom of cities all across the nation. All, ready for a new day and a new beat down.
THE THANG
The rabble gathered and YHC gave a short disclaimer sure to let all know he was not the professional he appeared to be, and a circle was made.
All IC:
x10 Grass Grabbers
x10 Toe touches
x15 Windmill
x20 Peter-Parker
x20 Parker-Peter
A quick turn around in the grass, facing up Lelong Dr, with Trees to our left, noting them as markers for first exercise (as measured on gmaps, Trees are 50ft apart):
OYO, in succession no break-
5 Burpees
Bear Crawl to next tree
5 Burpees
Crawl-Bear to next tree
5 Burpees
Crab Walk to next tree
5 Burpees
Walk-Crab to next tree
5 Burpees
Sprint distance back to start
Plank for 6
Next a mosey up Roosevelt Mall to Track, plank for 6
Partner up
Next Ex:
Catch Me if You Can – One man starts with 3 Burpees while partner runs/sprints backwards around track. When Burpees complete, sprint normal to catch partner; alternate. Tagged man goes down for Burpees while other switches to backwards run… Until tagged… Continue all around track. – 1 lap. Plank for 6
Next Ex: Move to open area of track
Keep your partner
100 Merkins/Plank combined. Alternate in intervals of 10. While partner completes merkin set, you hold plank, back and forth… hold plank for 6
Next:
200 Squats/Al Gore combined. Alternate intervals of 20 squats. While partner completes set, you hold (a tree) Al Gore, back and forth…
Next:
300 LBCs/Leg Raise combined. Alternate intervals of 30 LBCs. While partner completes set, you hold 6in leg left (or modify with legs kept in LBC position…. either way, no touching the ground till complete), back and forth.
Might have had a 20 count in here for recovery, but I’m no historian…
Mosey back to flag, stop at rear of NOMA to post up against the wall for a rest… sort of.
Next Ex:
x3 sets of following, OYO
1 set =
Peoples chair timed by completing x10 Jack Reachers
x5 Donkey Kicks (half plank type position, kicking both feet up and back against wall)
Straight in to Balls to the Wall, or Reverse Wall Stand (Kick feet all the way up, walk back if need be, doing hand stand). Do 1 hand stand press, or hold count 10. (YHC open to better name for this maneuver, or maybe one already exists).
Complete mosey back to Flag
Approx 4-5m easy stretches
All above written upon memory of YHC, the quality of which cannot be accounted for or verified. As a reminder, YHC is NOT a historian. So while no one really knows what happened on this day, or others before it, the sound of trumpets were heard in the distance at one point, and it has been said that a bevy of doves was seen above, as this VQ came to a close (whether or not those trumpets were the screeching brakes of local dump trucks and the doves were pigeons is not for us to debate). But one thing is for sure, no more Gold of showing up to another man’s Q, just to make it through. It’all Iron now.
Jokes aside – I am thankful for the opportunity to Q, had a lot of fun doing it, and I hope I presented a challenge to those who showed. Tclaps to FracSac for nudging me in and putting me on rotation. I am appreciative of the F3 brotherhood and have seen huge strides in health, fitness, and energy in just the few months I’ve been committed. Thanks to all who continue to show up daily so that we can all hold each other accountable, to be just a little better, every day. Thank you, F3 NOLA.
