F3 New Orleans

Tag: Jose 10k

  • A Bonnie Blair By Any Other Name Still Sucks – from Zoolander

    I know it says Zoolander was the Q for this one, but that’s only because YHC’s name isn’t on the dropdown menu yet. And, it was ultimately Zoo’s idea to get the fellas from down the bayou to Q a November Lakefront beatdown, and we couldn’t be more grateful!

    YHC showed up in the Goosemobile with four men and two boys who’ve been looking forward to this for weeks. It’s become very clear to me over the years that God has wired men in such a way that the more we suffer together, the more we come to care deeply about each other’s well being, regardless of differences in background, lifestyle, (number of kids), etc. So, it was easy to jump at the opportunity to travel north and lead a beatdown out of gratitude for the men who have allowed me to suffer with them and who first shared the gift of F3 with me. Now, the cycle is continuing down in Thibodaux with a growing PAX!

    Disclaimer was stated for the benefit of an FNG (Welcome, Crock Pot!). Warmups consisted of IC: SSH, Windmills, Imperial Walkers, Arm Circles, Cherry Pickers, Self Love, High Knees, and Butt Kicks, followed by a mosey to Noah’s Ark.

    YHC revealed an F3 Workout Deck, and three cards were pulled and listed exercises completed with a promise of more random suffering to come. This was followed by partner BLIMPS, but with a bit of a twist. Grundy’s late arrival provided an opportunity to reminisce back to YHC’s first beatown, whcih was Q’d by Grundy. It included Sister Mary Catherine’s in the warmup, which totally burned out my legs before we even got to Noah’s Ark. A fitting memory to share before introducing these BLIMPS:

    Thang 1:
    Partner 1 ran around Noah’s Ark, while Partner 2 huffed and puffed his way through their shared total of:
    50 Bonnie Blairs (another name for SMC’s),
    50 Lunge Jumps (another name for SMC’s),
    50 Iron Mikes (another name for SMC’s),
    50 Merkins,
    50 Plank Jacks,
    50 Sister Mary Catherine’s (SMC’s)

    Thang 2:
    Moseyed once again, stopping to complete exercises from three more cards from the deck, then lining up along the wall for two version of a newly minted “Indian Inchworm Wall Crawl”. The first version consisted of all PAX in dip position on the wall moving to the right and completing a dip with every “step” while the man in the rear of the line crab walked to the front. After a number of traffic jams and Bushwacker grumbles, the last of the PAX had crabbed their way to the front, so it was time to turn around and go the other way. Pax assumed the irkin position on the wall and moved to the right, completing an irkin with every “step”. The rearmost PAX bear crawled their way to the front of the line this time, so things moved a little more quickly.

    Thang 3:
    Another short mosey brought us to a grassy area big enough for the highly anticipated Tunnel of Love. Ironically, Zoolander had just shared his gratitude that YHC hadn’t included this exercise since it was a memorable highlight from my VQ a few years back. So, it was with a special joy that I announced that all PAX would be snuggling up shoulder to shoulder in plank position while the rearmost PAX in the line army crawled through Tunnel of Love. Bushwacker’s encouraging “love whacks” kept the line moving while the plankers’ shoulders burned and threatened to give out.

    Hope then rose in the hearts of many as we lined up for what would be a wildly chaotic Indian run back to the flag with many PAX digging deep, knowing that this would ultimately be the last time they’d have to push. But, YHC knew what lurked amongst the cards in the deck, and after two relatively harmless pulls to fill the small amount of time left before 7:30, a third and final pull was offered to the FNG. It was the new guy, at 7:29, who managed to pull the 400 meter sprint card, arguably the worst card in the deck. So, despite the shared astonishment and disbelief, the beatdown ended with 25 men sprinting toward an inhabited car and then back to the flag, all residual energy and will to live good and drained.

    COT, announcements, and prayer by Enron of F3 Thibodaux.

    Coffeeteria offered time to catch up and enjoy the beautiful weather before the long ride home to Thibodaux. All PAX in the Goosemobile shared their gratitude for the opportunity to experience F3 on that level and for the men who were willing to suffer with us as we continue to strive to get better at doing hard things. It was a great gift to get to spend such high quality time with you guys this morning, and I very much look forward to seeing you in the gloom (wherever that gloom might be)!

  • Fall Back – from Steve

    Talk about a dark warmorama. About the only definable figure I could make out was, well nobody, really, since Shooter wasn’t there. Of course I knew Jose was present from the early morning grumbling, but the rest of the crew were shrouded in mystery. Given such circumstances, YHC delivered a clear disclaimer in case there were any FNGs (turned out there were two), and we got things rolling.

    Started off with the usual – good mornings, windmills, torso twists, arm circles, IW’s, Hillbillies, SSHs, High Knees – mostly at 10x IC, but a 15 and a 30 crept in there. I like to say those instances are “to keep the pax on their toes,” but of course the pax is smarter than that – they know it’s just early morning brain fog.

    We hadn’t moseyed to the playground in a while, so that was on the menu today, stopping at each intersection for a set of 10x deconstructed burpees. Zoolander’s No-Booze-November had hit a snag the night before (a snag by the name of Woodford Reserve), and so my originally planned set of x20 burpees seemed cruel as he had, not but 5 minutes before this point, requested “no burpees, please.” So we deconstructed instead, which would mean 10x squats, 10x groiners, 10x merkins, and 10x jump squats. Knocked those out at the three intersections and then hit a fourth one when we reached the playground.

    Then it was time for one of my lakefront standards, a partner routine where P1 wall sits and performs overhead air presses while P2 hits three stations: 10 t-merkins, 10 jump squats, 10 big boys. Three rounds of that and it was on to neighboring grass patch for a few games.

    That’s right, games. Let it not be said (Toto) that I do not include any fun in my beatdowns! First up was a game called When Animals Attack, which features one pax (it) bear crawling to tag any of the other guys, who are all crab walking. Any one who is tagged then performs 5 burpees and immediately joins in as a bear, to help tag the rest of the crew. I had initially envisioned a rabid, growling Tanked Up tearing through that patch of grass, but alas, when the sun finally rose this morning and it was clear who was standing before me, there was no Tank to be found. Grundy was the next best choice, so he became the first bear. Now, whoever invented this game clearly did not know the Northshore region’s distaste for crab walking because when the game finally began, the crabs all just sat in place waiting to be tagged. Some even moved closer to the bear! It seemed unanimous – the guys would rather do their 5 burpees and half-heartedly attempt to tag others than crab walk five steps. The next round was hardly better than the first, with Zoolander and his stomach of steel as the bear, and so we moved on to another game: Duck Jousting.

    To say duck jousting was more successful might be a stretch, but it was certainly more entertaining. In this game, it’s every man for himself. You get in a low duck walk position with your arms across your chest, and hobble over to the nearest pax to try and topple him without the use of your hands. Once you’ve been knocked over, you start high kneeing until the game ends.

    Though this was totally a Mathlete type of game, a surprise attack by Zoolander knocked him out early on. It came down to Jose, Swole, and Zoo. Swole attempted a Switzerland type of strategy, where he simply sat (or squatted) off to the side and awaited the victor between Jose and Zoo. But this proved faulty when Zoo took him down by surprise. By this point, our two gladiators had entirely abandoned the rule of duck walking (well, let’s be fair, Zoolander was never actually duck walking from the start). Even with an assist from Bird, Zoo was unable to take down Jose, but one final assault sent both men to the ground in a tie.

    Time to head back, so we formed two lines and Bataan Death Marched back to the flag. Once back, we did some single leg squats to the sea wall while Turbo graciously picked up the six. Quick Mary and time for COT. Welcome FNG’s Slater and Woody, and t-claps for hanging in there. Hope to see you guys back out soon. (And a personal thanks to our FNG’s for forcing me to write a backblast after months of negligence.) Hammer prayed us out and off to Book and the Bean for coffeteria. Appreciate the opportunity to lead you men, SYITG.

  • Streaking – from Russo

    YHC believes streaks were meant to be broken, and then celebrated. Cal Ripken wasn’t penciled in for game number 2,633. DiMaggio went 0-fer in game 57. The Patriots couldn’t overcome a miracle play from David Tyree and Ei Manning and finished the season 18-1. YHC can only eat the same lunch for 5 or 6 days in a row.

    So hearing that Steve had Q’ed Granny’s for 4 or so straight weeks, I thought he might need a break and let someone else count cadence for once.

    Pretty decent weather on Tuesday morning for a Pax of 7, including a returning Bushwhacker, with temps topping out at 77 degrees, plenty warm enough to sweat profusely.

    Working in a profession that requires balance, order, and consistency, YHC carried that over to rep count.

    Warmup (all IC 15x)
    Seal jacks
    Imperial walkers
    Toe touches
    Cherry pickers
    Mummy kicks

    Thang
    With Granny’s still feeling the effects of a spruce up, remodel, and/or renovation, her benches were not available behind fence, so Pax moseyed over to the Rusty P for some work:

    At benches:
    15 freak nastys
    15 step ups
    15 derkins
    15 more freak nastys

    Some more moseying took us to the bus stop, where 15 box jumps were in order, and then more mosey to the tunnel, where we knocked out the main portion of the beat down:

    5 merkins, a mosey through the tunnel, where it was 5 more merkins in the center, and then a reverse mosey and 5 more merkins at the top, repeated 5 times.

    Heading back home, we knocked out 15 squats IC around coffee st., and then wrapped it up with some Mary:

    15 plank jacks IC
    15 LMCs IC
    15 six inch drill IC

    COT, name-o-Rama, announcements (F3 and FIA game night 10/21 at what’s left of the Mandeville Gazebo at 6:15, NOLA convergence on Saturday), and prayer closed us out.

    Thank you gents for joining and making it another good one.

    And If you’ve read this far because of the title and hoping to hear about us going streaking through the quad Old School Will Farrell style, I hate to disappoint you. But there’s always next week!

    SYITG

  • Iron Pax week 4: We’re all super ants! – from Russo

    Pretty nice weather, a little on the humid side, but that’s picking nits, for the final week of the 2021 Iron Pax at the Lakefront this morning.

    Between a storm, a sinus infection, and vacation, YHC has been MIA for most of this year’s IPC, so my goal was to at least proctor and attempt some of the fun this week.

    As we gathered, Tanked Up took things to that next level with a (homemade) tee showing off his Raider Pride. Any Rummel alumni worth his salt (admittedly not much) knows the story of the Super Ants: an underdog Raider football team defeated the might Chalmette Owls (!!!) back in the day, and the moniker Super Ants made it into the newspaper write up (remember those?). From them on, a super ant is anyone that displays courage, heart, fight, and a motor that never quits (all characteristics of your typical college football “possession receiver”). Think Don Beebe running down Leon Lett. Danny Amendola. Abram Booty. Any Iowa receiver.

    I digress, but this week there was a colony of super ants that gave an incredible effort and pushed themselves HARD in the gloom.

    Pre Thang
    Quick warmup of seal jacks, cherry pickers, toe touches, and mummy kicks approx. 10x each, all IC)

    Thang
    A descending ladder, each set 25 reps, with a 25 yard run, followed by three burpees, and then 25 yards back for the next round of 25 reps.

    Rounds were:
    8 sets of curls (200 total)
    7 sets of squats (175 total, you get the picture)
    6 sets of overhead presses
    5 sets of kettle bell swings
    4 sets of merkins
    3 sets of thrusters
    2 sets of Bonnie Blair’s
    1 set of blockers

    Finish those, and you work your way back up the ladder, times for a total of 52:30.

    Major T claps to Grundy and Tanked up for setting the pace, but incredible effort and very little resting (excluding YHC) from what I saw.

    A mosey back from the Shaft and a COT closed us out with name-o-rama, announcements (F3/FIA mixer on the 21st and NOLA convergence on the 16th), and a prayer. Special appearance by Speedy and Cowbell, while Bean, Swoll Patrol, and an FNG had to scamper out early.

    Much respect to Zoolander for commandeering the coupons and markers and helping to coordinate this week. It was very much appreciated.

    Raider Pride and SYITG

  • The Young and the Restless: IPC week 1.2 – from Akbar

    15 braved the Lakefront on a beautiful day for a beatdown, 1 in a stroller. No, it was not Bushwacker. The 2nd day of IPC week 1 was upon us, and the plan was to have 2 Q’s. Jose 10k took the 2nd Q with a plan for football, but with only 3 PAX not doing IPC, it was a bust. So – Jose10k and Barely Legal did it again. T Claps guys.

    After an elongated explanation and several questions, the playlist started and we got to work. Speedy and Tank were out of the gate hot with Hammer not far behind. Great work again guys, everyone finished. Here are the results from the score sheet – missing a few times.

    Speedy 26.24

    Tank 27.16

    Hammer 29.56

    Zoolander 30.0

    Steve 32.30

    Chainsaw 32.28

    Akbar 36.15

    Jose 10k 37:33

    Slider 38.15

    Enter your times here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdesBJtTGntJx9e2UfhmmcMyZ_UGEy6TtFk50Mz-W4DHHcN-w/viewform

    Bushwacker arrived at 0700 after his shift and Moby came strolling up in his convertible just in time for COT.

    And yes, Speedy beat Tanked UP! Impressive, a 17 year old and a 62 year old take the top 2 times. Tank may not be that restless – he went to cut a yard right after COT.

    YHC had trouble lifting the phone for a picture after this beatdown, great work by all.

    Jose10k prayed us out with thoughts and prayers, remembering 911.

    Coffeeteria at Book and the Bean.

  • IronPax week 1 – from Akbar

    8 strong this morning for Week 1. YHC proctored and DJ’d while 7 went to work. Cowbell dropped by after his run for some F2. Finishing times were:

    Bean 35.10
    BBQ 43 (modified)
    Jose 10k 43 (modified)
    Einstein 44.15
    Barely Legal, Moby Dick and Maverick were close to finishing but had to bolt early.

    YHC prayed us out with thoughts of safety and thanks for all those coming in to help in IDA recovery from out of state.

    Lakefront is 2nd IPAX of the week with separate Q for those already completed.

    SYITG – Akbar

  • Almost a Murph – from Akbar

    6 HIM arrived at the Milestone Marsh with a late 0700 start for a Labor Day Murph.

    Conditions: Blistering hot and no wind

    WU – SSH, Self-Love, High Knees, IW x10

    The first run was great, possible YHC’s fastest ever – maybe even a PR. We finished up and headed to the playground to start in reps of 5,10,15 x 20 rounds. Music kept us going with hard rock classics.

    With about 5 rounds left, our jam session was interrupted by “How Great Thou Art” (the piano version). Was this divine intervention? We were all doing great. Or did my wife just bogart Spotify for her morning coffee accompanied by hymns? It was the latter, of course. After scrambling to switch it over, we then returned to Quiet Riot’s Bang Your Head and finished up.

    Heading out to the last mile, the PAX requested we take the route to the Lakefront, since it was a mile. YHC’s math skills failed again by trying to convert feet to miles on the first run. It was .5 miles, so we came up just short of the traditional Murph.

    COT – Hammer prayed us out with prayers of safety and recovery for Louisiana, and those still struggling with COVID.

    Bird had some trash bags and we picked up the Marsh as is our custom every Monday. We found a $1 bill on the ground, which we decided to add to our Waffle House tip. Looking forward to some good grub and air conditioning, we headed out only to find that WH had limited food and we couldn’t eat inside. So, we ordered some hot food and sat in the hot parking lot using Jose’s car as a table.

    Gret work men, thanks for letting me lead – Akbar

  • Rock You Like A Hurricane – from Akbar

    YHC arrived early in the gloom to plant the flag’s, knowing that the pre-thang crew would see it and wonder what was in store. Jose 10k an Tanked Up! came running up from the 2 miler and settled in with 5 others as we began the warm-up.

    Conditions: mid 70’s, no rain, slight breeze

    Warm Up:

    SSH, IW, HB, HKNEE’s x 20

    Freestyle, backstroke x10

    THANG 80’S – one of the best decades, especially for music.

    Partner up, 80 reps per exercise. P1 works, P2 mosey’s to the flag and does 5 Hand Release Merkins, then returns to relive Partner 1. Sets were divided into 3 exercises of 80 reps each, when done plank for the 6. We did 6 rounds as outlined below.

    1. Shoulder taps (1=1), twinkle toes, freak nasty, karaoke, 5 HR Merkins

    2. Stone Mountain, superman, air squared (Al-gore with overhead clap), bear crawl, 5 HR Merkins

    3. Nolan Ryan’s, Freak Nasties, Monkey Humpers, sprint, 5 HR Merkins

    At this time, Zoolander showed up and joined in. Better late than never.

    4. Shoulder taps (2=1), twinkle toes, freak nasty, run 5 HR Merkins

    5. Stone mountain, squats, LBC, lunge walk to flag, 5 HR Merkins

    6. Nolan Ryans, Freak Nasties, Monkey Humpers, backward lunge to flag, 5 HR Merkins

    Head back to the flag for Mary

    Box cutters X 20 – 6 inch hold (feet together), dolly out, up, together, down= 4ct

    LBC, E2K L/R X20; LEG RAISES, HANDS TO HEALS X10

    Count, name, Happy Birthday (57) Yellow Snow! Hammer prayed us out – safety for all during and after the storm.

    It’s been a great two years: met a lot of great men, lost a lot of weight, did some stupid stuff, and look forward to doing it again and again. Thanks, Russo, for the EH!

    NMM
    The main thang went a lot faster than YHC expected. Originally only having 3 rounds of 6 exercises total, another 3 rounds were added with some quick thinking. Basically, whatever Bushwacker complained about – we did more of. He was sore from work – which is a lot harder than what most of us do.

    Hammer entertained us with his insane knowledge of everything, peppering “did you knows” or “remember when’s” throughout the beatdown.

    Jose 10k was hurting from last night, and after a while just did whatever he wanted (he did run with Tank on the pre-thang). Thankfully Zoo showed up to take his place. See what missing Pickle Ball does to you? Great work guys.

    Playlist:

    · Ratt – Wanted Man, Round & Round
    · Scorpions – Rock You Like A Hurricane, No One Like You
    · Def Leppard – Rock of Ages
    · Whitesnake – Still of the Night
    · Quiet Riot – Cum on Feel the Noise, Bang Your Head
    · Billy Squier – The Stroke
    · 38 Special – Hold on Loosely
    · The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go
    · AC/DC – Back in Black
    · Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock
    · Tesla – Modern Day Cowboy
    · The Cult – Love Removal Machine
    · Skid Row – Youth Gone Wild
    · Van Halen – Hot for Teacher
    · Queensryche – Jet City Woman
    · Echo and the Bunnymen – Lips Like Sugar
    · Violet Femmes – Blister in the Sun

  • Rising Up, Back On The Street – from Russo

    YHC was taught in 2nd or 3rd grade that if you want to attract eyeballs to your writing, you need a hook: a catchy title or an opening sentence or paragraph that draws attention.

    I may not always be successful, but that’s my goal with these. I had no hook for this morning: that is, until the twin muses of Eagle 98.1 and the band Survivor provided inspiration from the 80’s classic “Eye of the Tiger”.

    Good looking pax of 10 braved the heat and humidity this morning to “rise up” and get “back on the street”…literally. They did their time and took their chances, went the distance, and got back on their feet: just men and their will to survive.

    Warm-up (all IC 15x to 20x)
    – Seal jacks
    – Grass Grabbers
    – Cherry Pickers
    – Self Love
    – Torso Twists
    – Goofballs
    – Imperial Walkers

    Thang

    Tabata today, 45 seconds on, 15 seconds rest, 1 to 3 exercises per stop, mosey a block or two between stops.

    – 8 Count Bodybuilders
    – Squats
    – LBCs (multiple rounds)
    – Shoulder taps
    – Scissor kicks (definitely NOT flutter kicks)
    – Lunges
    – Flutter kicks (definitely NOT scissor kicks)
    – Peter Parker’s
    – Crab cakes
    – Burpees
    – Monkey Humpers (Not at Steve’s front door desire the request)
    – Star Jumps
    – Freak Nastys
    – Step UPS

    A mosey took us back to start, where YHC could sense Shooter itching to stretch out his calves, so we did 3 calf raises at each step of the pilot house.

    Back at the bottom, a few more LBCs, a standard plank, and a chill cut wrapped things up.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, Announcements (sign up for Iron Pax, leadership meeting tonight on SS), and Prayer closed us out.

    Thanks, gents, for joining me. It’s always enjoyable, especially when we’re graced with a Bushwhacker sighting. Best of luck to you as you start your new adventures!

    It was encouraging seeing a couple newer faces (Bends and Swoll Patrol). I hope these two stick around! And the same goes for the “regulars”.

    Until next time, SYITG.

  • No Respect – from Steve

    The other day I yawned and hurt myself. If that sounds like a poor set up to a Rodney Dangerfield joke, it isn’t. More of a morality tale, really – just another true life example of what happens to your body when you stop posting regularly. Things have gotten so bad, my Garmin now congratulates me if I simply cross the 6,000 steps benchmark. To put that in perspective for you non-pedometrists (yeah, not a word, I know), Hawgcycle will knock out more than that at 11pm on his daily 10k. Anyway, point is, YHC realized it was beyond time to dip my toes back in the water and get back in the Q game.

    A lone Jose was the only man present when I arrived, listening, I’m fairly certain, to a comedy routine on his phone. (It wasn’t, unfortunately, Dangerfield.). T-claps to Teach for making it out, as today is his first day back at school and he could’ve easily stayed back in Covington. But no, not this guy. The rest of the gang rolled in – Bypass, Hogsbreath, Zoo – and we got the party started.

    Warmorama: WM, GM, IW, AC, AP, SSH, HK, BK’s (yeah, a bit of decoding to do there); all the slow ones at x10 IC, faster ones up to x20 IC.

    YHC stretched the warm up a bit longer than usual, as I was expecting a late arrival from Cowbell. Was YHC disappointed? Of course not. It’s comforting to know that, in this rapidly evolving world we live in, some things really don’t change.

    The Thang:
    With Cowbell in tow, we kicked things off with 10x Kraken Burpees (3 hand release merkins in each burpee).

    Mosey towards the tunnel, stopping two more times for 10x Kraken burpees at each stop. With the Kraken fully released and the PAX already irritated at my return to Q, onward through the (darker-than-usual) wooded path to the tunnel, where all good things happen.

    Tunnel Partner Routine:
    Keeping things simple here, one partner runs the tunnel out and back, the other performs said exercises: big boys, squats, merkins, chest presses with rocks. That’s right, there are rocks next to the tunnel. It’s kinda like the Gipper’s quarry, just on steroids. Put it this way, YHC had planned on doing curls, but the rocks are just too damn big.

    As they say, time flies when you’re having this much fun, and so it was already time to hustle back to the flag (though we were able to stop and knock out a quick set of 30x IC Freak Nasties at the bus depot).

    Back right on time for COT: countdown, nameorama, announcement (Amnesia’s Tarpon Sprint Triathlon in Houma on Saturday – DM him for details if interested!), and Hogsbreath prayed us out.

    Thanks for the warm welcome back gents, and the opportunity to lead such a great group of men. SYITG.