Tag: @Jose10k

  • Marsh Madness 2021 – from Zoolander

    Welcome to Marsh Madness 2021. Twenty-four Pax converged upon the Milestone Marsh for this second-time event1

    In the presence of the Pick Axe-entrusted Freedom Hammer, we started with a quick disclaimer, Warmorama, Bushwacker-style2 instructions, and then the THANG.

    The Pax counted off in 4’s and formed 4 x 6ish-man teams at each corner of the court with a basketball. While 1 member of each team backpedaled with their ball to half court, performed a Bobby Hurley, and drove to goal for a shot of his choosing:

    – Layup (1 point),
    – Free Throw (2 points), or
    – Three point shot (3 points)
    Zero points for missed shots

    the rest of each team completed the following series of exercises in cadence led by a rotating corner Q.
    • Burpees
    • Air Presses
    • Shoulder Tap Merkins
    • Copperhead Jump Squats
    • LBCs
    • Plank Jacks
    • Monkey Humpers
    • Flutter Kicks
    Each man – including FNGs, 2nd timers, and celebrity guests – had multiple chances to lead the cadence.

    Shooters marked their points with sidewalk chalk and fell in line to call the cadence for the next exercise. It took a few rounds before each team found its own rhythm, but after that it was like watching a philharmonic orchestra playing Mary had a little lamb.
    After “40 minutes of hell,” team member points were tallied, and the highest scoring individual from each of the 4 teams were down-bracketed to a 5-shot “Around-the-World” shoot out on their respective side of the court. The rest of the Pax performed Goofballs and Side Straddle Hops to distract the Final Four shooters.
    Grundy, with accountant like focus, out-calculated Speedy;
    Ocho outdanced Whip.

    Grundy and Ocho were then down-bracketed to compete in a best-of-10 shootout from the free throw line. As luck would have it, they tied, and we went to Sudden Death from the Three Point line. Despite Ocho’s shenanigans, Grundy stomped the Stomper and emerged as the 2021 Marsh Madness champion!

    – Trophy
    – Count-orama
    – Name-orama – Welcome FNGs Sonar (EH’d by Turbo Tax) and Gomer Pyle (EH’d by Sparky).
    – Announcements
    o Northshore 5-year convergence led by Waterpik at the Lakefront on April 10.
    o Next F3/FiA mixer is 4/29. Thank you Jose10k, some of us do have to plan ahead for weeknight workouts.
    o ZOORICH CLASSIC at the Lakefront on April 24. (See how I slipped that in there Cowbell?…never too early!)

    QIC prayed us out and group photo followed. Great job by all. We’ll see if Grundy can defend his title in 2022. Thanks for playing along men. See you in the next Gloom.

    Footnotes:
    1Seriously, footnotes in a Backblast? Why not? The first Marsh Madness was in 2019 with a small, dare I say Elite, group of 8. Bird was an FNG and drained 16 x 3-point shots. The B-ball gods did not favor him today though. And well, Corona (as it was called back then) had other plans in ‘20.

    2Bushwacker-style instructions typically include circumlocutory, sesquipedalian musings about man’s ultimate life purpose with some semblance of what the Pax should be doing for the next 40-50 minutes. They are often accompanied by Mumble Chatter and confusion by all within earshot. Bushwacker-style instructions are the exact opposite of Turbo-style instructions, which are direct, concise, and never to be interrupted without penalty.

  • A la Moby – from Bushwacker

    It’s been too long…I’ll be missing a lot of F3 in the next few months…Jose’s a nagger. Take your pick, but YHC felt it was high time he made an appearance at the A1C (2nd of the year?) and as Q at that! Now there has been frequent talk and use of “coupons” lately. So much so, in fact, that the warning to “bring Gloves” has simply become assumed. The problem is that Q is NOT a fan of cinder blocks. They scrape forearms and lead to poor form – simply not ergonomic enough for a former weight lifter (yea yea boohoo). So, Inspired by a favorite beatdown, “Moby’s heavy-ass chain”, YHC brought a 50lb &30lb pair of doumbbells, as well as x2 25lb, 35lb, & 45lb plates!

    WARMORAMA

    This time inspired by Turbo Dog, we started off with (IC x10): Squats (sans poop), High Knees, T-Stretches, Torso Twists, Air presses, and Self Love.

    THANG

    With the plates on one end of the garage roof and the dumbbells at the other end, the PAX split up to either side. One man would carry any weights of his choice, so long as each hand was gripping metal, and move from one end to the other in any fashion he found sufficiently challenging. Meanwhile the rest would be doing a core exercise, changing each time someone returned with weights. There was walking and running, while doing shoulder presses, shrugs, flies, arm swings, or just carrying. While on the ground, you name it, someone did it. There were even games of keep away and fetch thrown in for good measure!

    MARY
    We finished with 2 minutes to spare, and the PAX were kind enough to grab the weights and return them to the back of my truck.

    COT
    BBQ prayed us out and all was right in the world! Thank you guys for rising to meet my ergonomic challenge and start the day out right.

  • Who really needs their shoulders? – from Jose10k

    Warm-up: ssh, torso twists, self love, toe touches.
    Mosey off to get a coupon, and moseyed back to the A1c. Time for 11s, 10 merikans using your coupon, left hand on the ground, right hand on the coupon, then flip( 2 is 1), the over head carry your coupon up to the first level for 1 squat thrust, overhead carry back down. Rinse and repeat 9 then two, you get it. Once finished, curls for the girls, return the coupons and cot . Thanks for letting me lead gentlemen.. #hogs breath, #Einstein, #fletch, #twin span

  • First Ever Northshore F3/FiA Mixer – from Cowbell

    If you ask someone that rhymes with mushtacker when is the best time to post a back blast, he would probably say within 5 minutes of it ending. I, on the other hand, like some time, a week give or take, to reflect on what the workout meant to me and the pax.

    Just kidding, I’ve been busy, and enjoy making mushtacker wait to see in writing form what it is he did himself.

    25 pax met at the Covington trailhead for the first ever joint F3/FiA workout

    COP #1 Warm Up (all IC X20)
    SSH, Seal Jacks, IW, Arm Circles (F/B), Toe Touches, OH Arm Claps, Mtn climbers, Windmills

    The Thang
    Tabata Style (45 sec work, 25 sec rest) 6 stations

    Exercises included:
    Burpees
    Freak Nasties
    Chest press with block
    Bobby Hurley
    Big Boi Sit Ups
    J Lo’s

    Rinse and repeat

    COP #2 6MOM
    20 X Hello Dolly (Hey zoo)
    20 X LBC
    20 X Crunchy Frog

    COT: Count, Name (a lot of FNG’s), Jose Prayed us out

    We met at the Covington Tap Room for post work out beverages.

    All in all I think the first mixer was a success. looking forward to doing another one in the next month or so.

  • Springtime couponing at the A1c… – from Shooter

    YHC was looking forward to leading the A1c this week and seeing some guys from the Gipper crew. I had unfortunately (not) missed Akbars Wednesday Q, which I heard and read about as being quite intense with a block and high rep count. Ideas swirled my mind throughout the week and Sir Wacker resurrecting the Dice of Doom the previous day at the Scramble helped with finalizing what the A1c should and would expect on this mid 50s Gloom. Leaving the house a few mins early YHC stopped by the supply shed at the trailhead to scoop up 6 coupons. Arriving to the likes of Jose 10k and Backdraft atop the parking garage with Einstein arriving shortly after. As we chattered and started to get ready the PAX could see the ascending BBQ arriving right on time.

    Warmarama
    15IC Imperial walkers, Mummy kicks and SSH
    10IC Toe Touches, Good mornings, and Torso twists.

    Thang
    PAX instructed to grab a coupon out of the roomy Honda FIT mid section, which I know impressed a few as this was not to be expected coming out of YHCs clown car.. but hey as I like to say everything fits in the FIT..
    We assembled at the Southern end with coupons in tow and utilizing the Dice of Doom count block for our called rep count. Q rolled out the first 25 at which we completed Chest press and Freak Nasties followed by a mosey down the steps and back up the parking garage. Next roll 20 Military press and Squat thrusters R/R the Mosey. Third roll wouldn’t you know 15 Curls for the girls and Rows for the _____…….. R/R the Mosey. Passing the roll off to Jose he drops a 50 which the YHC could not have planned out had he tried. This time he completed 50 rep counts of all of the above finished by our Mosey.. 😢😢 With time to spare upon completion each PAX rolled both dice for the next series of work to complete while incorporating our coupon along the way. BBQ rolled 25 Merkins using the coupon as a tight military style. Einstein rolled 10 Burpees which we converted to Man Makers. Backdraft rolled 15 2xPutins which we included at 5s 15 LBCs with coupon. And to finish Q rolled his lucky number 50 jump squats which after 10 we included a squat thruster. Finished off with one more Mosey and then wrapped things up with our count, name and COT as BBQ took us out..

    Thanks for posting men and following my lead… Until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • This is what happens when you don’t sign up to Q – from Amnesia

    Pre-Thang: Some of the PAX ran the 2 mile Pre-Thang to get those miles in for RCR.

    Warm-O-Rama: 25 SSH, 25 Imperial Walkers, 20 mountain climbers – we needed some warming as the temps were still below freezing.

    The Thang: YHC had signed up planning to run the whole time, as Run Cajun Run was still ongoing. After warning from some PAX as to the running abilities of other PAX, YHC had to adapt. So adapt we did! We ran to the beach, with random stops for 5 burpees OYO.

    Then we came back and completed Dora at Marigny Avenue. You know the drill: 100 merkins, 200 big boi sit-ups, and 300 squats cumulative – one partner runs while the other completes the exercises.

    I don’t blame Jose 10k…at this point he said “screw it” and left the workout to get pure running in. Which was my intent anyway.

    Next was BLIMPS…5 burpees at the shovel flag, then run a block and complete 10 lunges…continue with 15 Imperial Walkers, 20 merkins, 25 plank jacks, and 30 squats. I had the leaders complete SPMILB on their way back to the shovel flag.

    Mary: After running back to the flag, we had barely enough time for 20 each of leg lifts and hello dolly’s.

    Name-O-Rama and COT concluded the beatdown and then YHC had to skip coffeeteria as a drive to Dallas was planned for that afternoon!!

  • Boom-Shaka-Laka! And Then There Was Chainsaw! – from The Hammer

    As YHC has/am learning, a large part of being a parent is nothing more than a glorified chauffeur/ATM. If you are Pickaxe’s dad, you can add scribe into the mix. An excuse to get in my cave and crack some AC/DC while I write. So all good!

    Pickaxe has been itching to Q again since his initial Q the day after Christmas. With a dearth of Northshore PAX donating their talent to the Lakefront beatdown, no better time than the present. So off we go…

    Warm-o-Rama

    Windmills
    Waybacks (Toe Touches w/ extra stretch at end)
    IW
    SSH

    This 9 year old drill sergeant made us bear crawl towards Noah’s Ark. Along the way, he planted several Easter Eggs with exercises or candy in them. As we approached them, he had members of the PAX open and read them. On our journey to the Ark, we did:

    Jump Squats x 15
    8 count Bodybuilders x 10
    Luigis x 10 (This is a PIckaxe original spawned from a Mario video game wherein a short, fat Italian plumber falls down, does some movement only possible through coding, and arrives in an erect posture. In practice, it must be modified from its video precision, and basically looks like a burpee where you turn over on your back before you jump up.)

    For the second half of our journey to Noah’s, we karaoked. Once at the Ark, our leader had us partner up for the following:

    Burpees x 120
    Freak Nasties x 240
    Crunchy Frogs x 360 (We missed you, Cowbell!)

    Cumulative, done by one while the other partner ran around the Ark.
    As an aside, the human body is not designed to do 360 Crunchy Frogs. Just an aside.

    On the mosey back, Pickaxe saved the most brutal Easter Egg for last. Another Pickaxe original that he made up one night as his father begged him not to! Boom-Shaka-Lakas! What is that you ask? It is a “different” kind of cadence exercise. While Pickaxe said “Boom-Shaka-Laka, Shaka-Laka, Shaka-Laka, Shaka-Laka, Boom…”

    Now, we started doing Merkins, then when he said Boom, we turned over into a crab-walk like position to do what can only be described as elevated Wife Pleasers (Hip Thrusters according to Pickaxe ;). Nonstop. 20 of them. There was almost Mutiny on the Bounty. Had our Q been old enough to see a PG-13 movie, there almost certainly would have been! However, his leadership and willingess to push all us old dudes is actually inspiring (if YHC does say so himself.)

    Back at the flag, we did some Mary, ran to the Gazebo and back, Name-o-Rama, COT. We had one FNG, Pickaxe’s younger brother, who happened to turn 7 on this day. He wanted to come out to F3 to support Pickaxe. His older brother gave him a ridiculously awesome name that he made his dad call him the rest of the day.

    As Pickaxe shared, his brother once cut his foot on a chainsaw…so welcome, Chainsaw! It was a special day for both Pickaxe and Chainsaw. Shooter bequeathed the Freedom Hammer to Pickaxe’s care for the time being, and the PAX sang Chainsaw Happy Birthday. Be it known that later that day, Chainsaw and his friends “played F3”, with Chainsaw as Q.

    Thank you to all for allowing yourselves to be led by a 9 year old, and for making a 7 year old’s birthday so special. Their dad just might be proud of them.

  • I just felt like running…. – from Jose10k

    Hogs breathe, bbq, and yhc showed up this dreary morning, ready for the crazy Ivan. A simple poll was taken, and we just felt like running. Through the wet streets of Covington, the 3 of us jog at a slow pace. Discussions of family, work, the crazy Ivan, runcajunrun, and of course COVID. I realized that I am truly blessed to call these men my brothers, my family. We still have never had a solo A1C, and every workout has been great. Thank gentlemen for coming out, and I hope we see everyone out tonight for the crazy Ivan. Jose10k out….

  • Dreams Do Come True – A Tribute to MLK – from Akbar

    YHC arrived at the Marsh to a cool 32 degrees this morning. While Grover and I sat in the car for a pre-thang warm up, we were not the first to arrive. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a lone figure doing Burpees. At first I thought it was @Cowbell, since he left the only reply to my Pre-Blast about F2 after the beatdown. But no, it was none other than Russo. His Burpees were polished, in cadence, reminiscent of Mr. Miyagi’s flowing Crane kick. Alas, Cowbell did not show.

    Today we would celebrate Martin Luther King. A man with humble beginnings who had a dream that did come true.

    Warm Up: Grass Grabbers, Plank Jack, Self-Love, Big Arm Circles (front and back), Torso Twist IC x10-20

    Thang

    Modified Hero WOD for MLK based on events in his life.
    *The first 3 events, second exercise were 1 is 1; the rest of the second exercises were 2 is 1

    1929: Born in Atlanta

    19 Merkins 29 High Knees

    1944: King entered Moorehouse college at the age of 15. He would go on to receive a Bachelors in Divinity from Crozer Seminary and a Doctorate degree from Boston University’s School of Theology

    19 Freak Nasty’s 44 Randy’s (arms, up in field goal position, lower down and back up)

    1946: Atlanta Constitution publishes a letter to the editor from King stating black people should have same rights and opportunities as all American people

    19 Block Curls 46 Butt Kicks

    1955: The Montgomery Bus Boycott with Rosa Parks, King is thrown in jail for protesting

    19 Block Rows 55 Moroccan Night Clubs

    1956: US Supreme Court affirms Browder V Gayle – declaring Montgomery and Alabama bus segregation laws unconstitutional. King is one of the first to ride a bus with whites.

    19 Goblet Squats 56 Mountain Climbers

    1960: King met with Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower and John F Kennedy to discuss racial inequality

    19 Shoulder Thrusts 60 Butt Kicks

    1963: The march on Washington DC, Kings I Have a Dream speech

    19 Merkins 63 Step Ups

    1964: King receives the Nobel Peace Prize and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed

    19 Freak Nasty’s 64 Freddy Mercury’s’

    1965: The 54 mile march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery ending at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Riots broke out and this day would be known as Bloody Sunday.

    19 Block Curls 65 Lunges

    1968: King assassinated in Memphis, TN

    19 Block Rows 68 Arm Circles

    1986: Inaugural Martin Luther King Day

    19 Goblet Squats 86 100’s

    1/18/21: MLK today

    18 Shoulder Thrusts 21 Burpees

    Mary IC
    M: 20 Merkins
    L: 50 LBC’s
    K: 20 Knee Raises
    Heels to Heaven, Hands to Heels, Crunch Frogs for (the missing) Cowbell x10 IC

    Count, Name-O-rama

    Announcements: Krazy Ivan, Run Cajun Run (replacing Run Ranger Run)

    Although Russo, Waterpik, and The Pelican had to work, the rest of us had a great breakfast and F2 at the Waffle House.

    Always great to hang with you guys for F3 and F2. Thanks for letting me lead

    SYITG,

    Akbar

  • Disco Rumble – from Hogs Breath

    We began with a quick discussion between hogs breath and Jose 10k about who would Q this am. Hogs Breath assured the pax he would lead. About this time BBQ pulled in blasting his high school disco alma mater. Jose 10k decided to take this as a challenge and began a musical chorus to Berger’s, Abba and other disco greats!

    The warm up:
    15 mountain man poopers
    20 imperial walkers
    10 toe touches

    Jose then lead the pax to mosey and collect some coupons. After we returned to the height of A1C we began our “royal rumble!!!”
    Hogs breath put 80 seconds on the stopwatch and pulled out the “deck o’death”! The rumble began as a card was over turned, while the pax were completing the listed exercises, a single pax would take his coupon and run the perimeter of the A1C rooftop. If the pax completed the course prior to the stopwatch expiring the pax would take the remaining time to rest. Then the next pax would pick his coupon, a card overturned and the pain would commence again. Miraculously not a single Club card (these are core exercises) was overturned. The majority was hearts (cardio) and Spades (legs) with a few diamonds (arm) thrown in for good measure.
    At 0546 Jose 10k had to depart. Recognizing that the rest times were getting shorter and shorter…. we played a round of”F3 poker” were all pax drew 5 cards and the “winning” poker hand was the next round of exercises. BBQ turned over a pair of 6 so we completed 2 rounds of:
    Backward run
    Lunge walk
    Flutter kicks
    Jump lunges
    karaoke

    Ended with a count-o-Rama, circle of trust and announcements.