F3 New Orleans

Tag: Kuch

  • Trail Run #2

    Tclaps to Amnesty for getting this trail run idea started back during the beginning of Covid. Here we go for round #2!

    Stayed up late trying to plan a workout in a space with a lot of unknowns. Then, naturally, my youngest woke up at 2:30. The fear of oversleeping kept me mostly awake until 4:30 when I popped out of bed. I thought I would get out there early to scope things out again to make sure we didn’t get too lost. I arrived at about 10 after five, strapped on my headlamp, and mosey my way over to forest. I wasn’t even a few steps in when I saw a possum crawling towards me, a turtle to my right, and what looked like multiple sets of eyes starring back at me! I decided it was probably best to just trust my instincts wait for my brothers to join me on this adventure!


    Fifteen brave souls showed up for the adventure. There was lots of stretching going on pre-workout and not much talking, except when Ya Mom n Dem tried to give away his hat lamp! It was only a minor crisis when High Rise decided to wake up some peacefully sleeping ants. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Sandbar had gotten his passport just in time to attend the work out. Also, good to see Screwtop out for the second day in a row! 5:30 struck and with the normal disclaimer we were off. Started off in the open field to get things warmed up.


    SSH x 20

    Imperial Walker x 20

    Mountain Climbers x 20

    Left leg hip stretch

    Right leg hip stretch

    Peter Parker x 20


    Moseyed into the forest with an army of 14 behind me to the big open area by the swing. Split up into five groups of three. The count was 10 pull ups on the tree branch while one of the other PAX did dips on the fallen tree and the other did full body ab extensions on the swing. The other four groups were:


    Low slow squats

    Decline merkins

    Flutter kicks

    Decline merkins


    After everyone got their turn on pull ups we went into the thick of the forest! The tree branches were low so we decided to bear crawl through the narrow pass. When the trail opened back up we mosey through the forest and found our way to the gravel path. Headed down the path to the big open field. I had noticed when planning the work out that in this open field they had what looked like two big cement circles that resembled a figure 8. With the HATE8 on the horizon I thought it was a good opportunity to get some work in. Exercise was for 10 minutes:


    Bear crawl The stretch of grass between the two circles, run around to the top of the circle, five Burpee‘s, run down to the bottom of the circle, bear crawl across the grass, run to the top of the other circle, five burpees, run to the bottom of the circle. Rinse and repeat for 10 minutes while listening to Van Halen‘s greatest hits!


    Next, we moseyed to a separate gate back to the forest. This led us to the hill which is apparently the highest point in New Orleans. I thought Monkey Hill in Audubon Zoo was the highest point in New Orleans but I guess it’s for debate! At the top of the hill we squeezed in on the concrete pad and did some Mary:


    Pickle pounders x 20

    Freddy Mercury x 20

    Dying Cockroach x 20

    Reverse Crunch x 15


    Moseyed down the hill and headed to what I thought was the way out. We weaved back-and-forth through a very narrow trail head and ended up all the way in the back of the forest! We eventually found water and knew that we could follow the water back to the bridge that would get us out of the forest. There were several wrong turns and a couple of dead ends but we made it out and back with all 15 PAX! The unexpected detour caused us to be three minutes late. We got together in the open field for COT. Count off, Namorama, and a prayer for the upcoming hurricane with the sounds of what we think was ol’ Puke Dick in the background! This was a fun one. Thankful for the opportunity to lead!

  • Swolefest 10-5-2020

    The Swolefest AO is a great place to start off the week. Throwing around the cinderblock is a good way to get the blood pumping and the body moving. Today was no different. When 5:30am hit, I issued the disclaimer and then we proceeded with the warmup:

    WarmUp:

    • Side straddle hops – 20 in cadence
    • Mountain climbers – 20 in cadence
    • Windmills – 10 in cadence
    • Arm circles – 10 forward, 10 backward in cadence

    After the warmup, it was time to get it on. So we proceeded with the thang.

    Tha Thang:

    DORA 1-2-3:

    • 100 curls with the block
    • 200 bench press with the block
    • 300 plank jacks with the block

    Highrise gave us a 30 count, then we went ahead & did another DORA 1-2-3

    DORA 1-2-3:

    • 100 leg raises over the block
    • 200 step ups with the block
    • 300 bend over rows with the block

    Once we finished with the second DORA, it was right at 6:15am, so we did the count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions & prayer. We also had an FNG out there with us in the Gloom this morning. He was a friend of Belloq & Tool, and he did well out there during his first beatdown. After the name-o-rama, he went into the middle of the circle and told us a little about himself. After some deliberation, the consensus on his F3 name was “Heart-o-Quack.” Welcome Heart-o-quack. Hoping to see you in the Gloom for more beatdowns in the future. As always, thanks for the chance to lead, fellas. It’s always enjoyable.

  • Lesson: Do Not Do Murder Bunnies on Pavement

    7 strong arrived at City Park on a cool early Fall morning to once again tackle Wisner Mountain. The plan for the day was a Dirty Double, running a Dirty MacDeuce over Wisner Mountain, with some Dirty Manmakers in-between. The usual disclaimer and off we go.

    Warm up COP: SSH x 20 IC, IW x 20 IC, Grass Grabbers x 10 IC, Windmills x 10 IC, Arm Circles 10 forwards and 10 backwards IC.

    On the mosey to the mountain we discussed the origins of the Dirty MacDeuce. Captain Seamus MacDeuce was an esteemed war hero loved by his crew. He started working as a deck hand at the age of 12, and commissioned his first ship before the age of 20. He captained 12 ships over the course of his long and storied career. His men loved him for his honor, his bravery, and his commitment to his crew. He was equally well-known for his feats of strength and his love of Rum. His physical strength was unparalleled, and including arm wrestling and the ability to overhead press full barrels of Rum. He was both loved and feared as a man of the sea, and his strength of character serves a a beacon for the men of F3.

    The Thang: Dirty MacDeuce over the Mountain: 12 exercises, 4 sets of 3 (shoulder, legs, core), 12 reps IC, while running back and forth over the Wisner bridge.

    Set 1: Hand release merkins, Imperial squat walkers, American Hammer

    Set 2: Merkins, Monkey humpers, Crunchy frogs

    Dirty Interlude: Murder Bunnies under the mountain. The plan was Murder Bunnies on the pavement for 30 yards, 10 Dirty Manmakers, and Murder Bunnies back. Dirty Manmakers are a Manmaker with 3 hand-release merkins at the bottom, and 3 shoulder presses at the top. Catfish would love them. On the first 30 yards, the Murder Bunnies attacked Saban. Saban’s block crumpled on the pavement under his brute strength. Saban left skin and blood on the mountain this day, but with bloody knuckles he persevered to finish the workout. Seamus MacDeuce would be proud, Saban. After the Murder Bunny bit Saban, we modified to rifle carry with the blocks. I think this may be way the IPC performed Murder Bunnies on grass, not pavement. But we did get the better off them during the IPC. Even Score. Murder Bunnies: 1, NOLA Pax: 1.

    Set 3: Leg cross-over merkins, Alternating lunges, LBT’s

    Set 4: Wide merkins, Squats, Flutter kicks

    We moseyed back to the flag for the COT with count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and a prayer. Lesson learned: no murder bunnies on pavement. Thanks for letting me lead. Sorry about your knuckles, Saban.

    Walleye

  • No Peace Without War

    Like many of you, I’ve taken to reading and following David Goggins, whose story is both inspirational and at times, crushingly real. I won’t spoil any of it – the book is well worth the 20 bucks.

    One of Goggins’ guiding principles is the concept of going to war with yourself on a daily basis. He believes in challenging yourself, putting yourself in uncomfortable or impossible positions where you’ll be forced to make a decision to either quit or push through. Only by choosing to accept and push through the pain does real growth occur. This of course turns out to be a metaphor for life, where our ability to handle the difficult, the uncomfortable and the stuff no one else can do leads to true fulfillment.

    Today, as we set out on absolutely perfect morning, greeted by a breeze, temperatures in the 70’s, and a perfect sunrise, I borrowed some words of encouragement from his book. It’s only by giving more than we thought we had when we got there this morning that we grow. I think we all lived up to that today.

    Quick warmup of SSH, Hill Billies, Arm Circles and Mountain climbers, followed by a brisk run (thanks Catfish) to the base of the intersection.

    Once we arrived we partnered up for some 1. AMRAP Mary (to give the shoulders a break from Iron Pax) 2. sprints up and mosey down the levee.

    Once complete, we lined up for an Indian Run down the levee. Swept the 6, turned back for a Bataan Death March all the way back. As we got close, everyone was instructed to drop for burpees and sprint it out.

    We swept the 6 and headed back to the flag for some burpees to seal the deal as the clock struck 6:15. Moment of silence to focus on thankfulness for the present and how we could help others today. Surge led us out with the prayer for generosity.

  • Surprise…cinder blocks!

    When the opportunity arose to step up and take the Q on Friday I jumped on it. I had signed up a bunch of Pax to Q a while back and was waiting my turn to stock the new AO with some cinder blocks! I stopped at Lowe’s on my way home from work on Thursday night and bought 12. My little Audi A4 had a hard time making it up Wisner Mountain with all the extra weight in the trunk! Even got some gloves because I figured the pax wouldn’t be ready for this.

    The thang

    Five pax showed up on this wet morning. We moseyed towards Wisner Mountain but pulled off in the grass to do a little warm up. There was some mummblecatter about how Catfish would not have approved on the length of the grass.

    Hillbillies x 20

    Grass Grabbers x 10

    Peter Parkers x 20

    We moseyed on to the base of the mountain. Started things out with 10 burpees before heading up. At the top of the mountain exercises were:

    Decline Merkins x 15

    Low Slow Squats x 15

    Merkins x 15

    Moseyed to the other side of the mountain and around the road underneath the bridge. I had seen what looked like to me a whole bunch of pull up bars. To the not F3 person these were just the beams that held up the bridge. We congregated here for 10 pull-ups OYO. We then started to mosey back to the base of the mountain when we stumbled upon these 12 cinderblocks under the bridge! There was conveniently 5 pairs of gloves to hold these cinderblocks with! We each grabbed a cinderblock and headed to the base of the mountain. Exercise that followed was quite painful:

    Ascending Manmakers up the mountain. At every other line we did a manmaker but increased the block press each time (kinda like Jack Webbs). First line, one manmaker plus two block presses

    Second line, two manmakers plus four block presses

    And so on, all the way up to ten manmakers plus twenty block presses.

    Needless to say we needed a breather after this. We walked our blocks back down to the base of the mountain. Next, we did squats with our blocks up the mountain in the same ascending fashion:

    First line, one squat

    Second line, two squats

    Third line, three squats… all the way up.

    Time was running out so we walked our blocks back to their storing place and moseyed back over the mountain all the way to the pavillion.

    Circled up for count off, namorama, announcements, and prayer.

    Intense workout, good company.

    Appreciate the opportunity to lead.

    The AO is stocked with 12 blocks if anyone is interested in using them for any future Q’s!

  • 4 Years of F3 and You Could Look Like Me

    4 Years of F3 and You Could Look Like Me

    Four years ago in the gloom of the Peristyle, YHC was EHed by Heisenberg to check out this men’s only fitness group. Bubba’s Beatdown was all it took to keep YHC coming back for more. What better way to celebrate my anniversary than to recycle my first Q, which was at Okwata. Thank you to all of the PAX that posted today.

    W/U

    • SSH x 30
    • IW x 15
    • HB x 15
    • AC x 10 x 10
    • Peter Parker x 15
    • Parker Peter x 15
    • Self Love

    The Thang – Mosey to Canal blvd and partner up. PAX 1 will AMRAP while PAX 2 runs up Canal, bear crawl the median, and back down Canal. Switch.

    • Plank Jacks
    • Tempo Merkins – 2 count up, 2 count down
    • Step Ups
    • Dips

    Mosey back to the Lakefront area across from the fountain and circle up for the Lazy Q. Each PAX step into the middle and call an exercise to be performed for 22 Reps.

    Counterama, Namerama

    Announcements – Register for the IronPax Challenge. Pay attention to Mumble Chatter and emails for information regarding recovery efforts for our neighbors in Southwest Louisiana who are suffering from Hurricane Laura.

    NMM – Takeaways from today’s beatdown were not announced but included awareness or PTSD and Mission 22, a organization dedicated to Post Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury, substance abuse and all of the issues veterans are facing today.

  • Stomp #260 – Barefoot and Barechested

    Another 610 Stomp in the books…the 260th one to be exact-ish.  Strong showing with 14 PAX ready to run and test the limits of our middle-ages chassis.  This was the 3rd Summer Series 2-mile time trial, with several of us gunning to break our previous times, and perhaps set a new PAX record.     
    Started with a warmup mosey on a Palm Dr with a pitstop COP to make sure all cylinders were firing, then moseyed to the Festival Grounds track for a 2-mile timed run/race.  Times were as follows:


    High Rise 17:23

    Einstein 16:07

    Rudy 16:15

    Bongo 16:37

    Boo Boo 18:08

    Belloq 18:34 *ran barefoot! 

    Catfish 13:20 

    Kuch 16:00

    Snooze 18:54

    Screwtop 15:10

    Breadsticks 15:15

    Tool 16:44

    Sheetrock 13:45

    Saban 17:00-ish *modified/planked


    Mosey back to base via the “short route” after zero enthusiasm was directed towards the long route option.  Capped things off with LBC, Flutter Kicks, Dying Cockroach, followed by a minute of stretching and COT.   

     
    NMM:

    Good to see Sheetrock back in the gloom, running shirtless in case the ladies were out.  


    Very little traction could be gained for the rename of Catfish to Barracuda or some other fast swimming fish.   

    Saban ran, likely to defend his first-place title, even if it meant he could blow his third knee out. 


    Belloq continues to be a beast.  He ran barefoot again as he deals with an injury…most would take a few weeks off from running, but not this guy.  

    A new 2-mile record was set today, by over 1 minute.  T-claps to Catfish and Sheetrock for being the first to run sub-14:00 times! 


    T-claps to Kuch for the mid-workout EH on a fellow runner at the track.

       
    Einstein posted 2 days in a row!  Welcome and glad to have you in the mix.  


    Boo Boo posted despite an iffy knee.  Way to stay committed and always good to see some PAX from the western parts pop in from time to time. 

     
    Rudy implied that 20 flutter kicks were sufficient, no need to do 25 like everyone else.  YHC was glad to see the quarantine has not affected the rudyisms that we’ve all grown to enjoy.  

    Good stuff, great way to start the day. 
    -Tool 

  • 76’s

    I was on the drive home from Florida when I realized that I had the Q on Monday morning for swolefest. I had a lot on my mind as I was thinking about my dad and who he was and what he meant to me. I wanted to offer a solid beatdown and show honor to my father through the things that he taught me throughout his life. My dad lost his struggle with cancer on January 22, 2017 after a 20 year fight. Yesterday, August 9th, would have been his 76th birthday…

    FOURTEEN pax showed up for the beatdown. It was good to see a number of guys getting back out after a long hiatus. I was pleased to see Breadsticks, especially since I had just eaten at Vincent’s last Thursday for my birthday. After the normal F3 disclaimer, I informed the group that the beatdown would be inspired by my late father.

    I also had to give a disclaimer that we would not be running or doing much lower body since I have a torn meniscus in both of my knees. And without further ado we were off. Started the warmup with sets of 20 which represented the number of years that my dad fought cancer:

    Hillbillies x 20

    Wind Mills x 20

    Peter Parker x 20

    Parker Peter x 20

    Next, I informed the group that my dad’s name was Jack and that I had done some research on the lexicon last night to find some good “jack exercises”.

    In my three years of F3 I hadn’t come across these, Happy Jacks. Five count jumping jack in cadence followed by two jump squats. We did four rounds of 5 counts.

    My dad would have been 76 yesterday so I let everyone know to look out for that number. Some of the exercises would be difficult but if there was one thing that I remember about my dad was that he was a fighter. A lot of times you have to push through the struggle in order to get to the joy on the other side.

    We started the 76’s easy with plank jacks. All of the exercises would be done on your own so I let the pax know to go at their own pace:

    Plank Jacks x 76

    From there we got into a more difficult exercise, man maker merkins! I chose this exercise because it reminded me of the things my dad taught me about being a man. This was the highlight of the workout for me. The exercise starts with your block to your right while in merkin position. Perform one merkin then pull the block across the ground to the other side, perform another merkin, and pull it back to the right. One is one, all the way up to 76! There were some breaks in between but we all made it through.

    Next, we did curls. 76 reps OYO.

    My dad was an architect and a builder so we had to get some 8 count body builders in. We did them with the coupon, Catfish would have been proud! I intended to push for 76 but realized that was not realistic about 10 reps in. We made it to 30.

    I could tell that we were needing to give the upper body a break so next we went to goblet squats, 76 reps OYO.

    Finally, had to get one more jack exercise in and multiple pax knew it was coming, Jack Webbs…actually, Block Webbs!

    We changed the count to one merkin and one block press. We aimed for 10. On the 9th round I began to feel nauseous. I thought for a moment that maybe we would stop at 9 but got encouragement from the group to push through to 10. We did it!

    When I stood up I felt like I was going to pass out. There were just about 5 minutes left in the workout but it was that bad. I had visions of Holy Grove passing out of dehydration at WPM and knew that I had to get some water. I told High Rise to lead the group in some Mary to finish things up. Tool followed me to my car to make sure I was alright. I took a sip of water but still felt like I was going to pass out. I sat down, another sip, still nauseous. Finally, I laid on the ground. I was there for about 30 seconds then miraculously felt instantly better. Took another sip of water and walked back over. I was able to finish the last two Mary exercises with the group.

    So thankful for F3 and for the group of guys that were out this morning! F3 has meant so much to me over the years. My attitude has suffered over the last month or so that I have been out dealing with the torn meniscus. That’s why I keep pushing to go out even though I know that I should be resting. F3 gives me resilience throughout each day to push through the difficult parts of life.

    You know, you get that part every morning that you post. There is always someone there pushing you to finish strong and I really appreciate that. But this morning I experienced what makes F3 so special. It’s not every morning that you push yourself to the brink of exhaustion both emotionally and physically but that was the case this morning. I am forever grateful to have my health and to know that if I fall that there is someone there to help me up. It reminded me of the verse in Ecclesiastes 4:10 that goes like this:

    “For if they fall, one will lift up his brother. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”

    Thank you Tool for looking out and thank you brothers for pushing me every day to be stronger and thank you dad for being such a good father to me and showing me what its like to be a good man. I miss you dearly.

    Thankful for the opportunity to lead!

  • Sprinting on Wisner Mountain

    A hot but not so muggy morning presented me with another opportunity to Q. Over the last several weeks we have done some interesting beatdowns involving the Wisner overpass. I thought I’d try something different today. Kuch and Snooze joined me by the festival grounds for a change of pace.

    Warm up:

    Mosey around the parking lot and circle up.

    • SSH x 20 IC
    • Windmill x 10 IC
    • Grassgrabbers x 15 IC
    • Standing quad stretch each leg x ~30 seconds
    • Mountain climbers x 20 IC
    • Walking Frankenstein kicks through the parking lot

    After the warm up we moseyed over a portion of the trail surrounding the festival grounds on the way to the base of Wisner Mountain. From here, for research purposes, we moseyed up and over the mountain at a steady pace which took ~3 min (I’ll bank that knowledge and use it at a later date).

    From here we would work on some sprint intervals.

    • Sprint to the first expansion joint, recovery walk back to the start
    • Sprint to the second expansion joint, recovery walk back to the start
    • Sprint to the apex of the mountain, continue recovery walking to the other side

    Following a brief rest the running resumed

    • Mosey up the mountain and sprint the decline to the bottom of the other side
    • Sprint to the apex of the mountain, recovery walk to the bottom on the other side
    • Mosey back to the playground

    A round of round robin Mary commenced. Count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and physically distances COT. Thanks for the change to once again lead. God bless.

  • Tabata, Tabata, and more Tabata

    Monday morning came and after discovering a treasure trove of exercises and routines on a Youtube page recently I wanted to try out a leg dominant beatdown. But don’t worry the upper body was addressed at the end. 5 PAX joined me, including 2 PAX that have not been able to attend in a while, in the muggy gloom.

    Warm up:

    After a brief jog around the fork in the road we circled up in front of LCM.

    • SSH x 20 IC
    • Windmills x 10 IC
    • Grass grabbers x 15 IC
    • Hillbillies x 15 IC
    • Mountain climbers x 20 IC

    Today we performed an APEX routine. Anterior muscle exercises, followed by Posterior muscle exercises, and completed with Explosive exercises. Once this series is completed follow that with 2 “corrective” exercises consisting of hip abductor strengthening exercises.

    Round 1:

    Goblet squat, bridge march with cinderblock on waist, and kettle bell swing with cinderblock. Rest 30 seconds.

    Perform 30 seconds each leg: sidelying leg raises and 1 1/2 standing hip abductor slides.

    Round 2:

    Reverse lunge, sprinter lunge, and jump squats. Rest 30 seconds.

    Perform 30 seconds each leg: 1 1/2 sidelying leg raises and standing hip abductor slides.

    Round 3:

    Neverending squat, hamstring RDL, and Glut RDL. Rest 30 seconds.

    Perform 30 seconds each leg: sidelying leg raises and 1 1/2 standing hip abductor slides.

    Round 4:

    Reverse creeping lunge, long legged bridge with block on waist, and Bonnie Blair’s. Rest 30 seconds.

    Perform 30 seconds each leg: 1 1/2 sidelying leg raises and standing hip abductor slides.

    Now that the leg portion had been completed I kept with the APEX theme for a few rounds of upper body Tabata.

    Round 1:

    Block biceps curls, Overhead triceps extension with block, and T merkins

    Round 2:

    Front raises with block (heretofore known as Walleye’s), prone T’s, and Burpees

    Round 3:

    Repeat round 1.

    Round 4:

    Repeat round 2.

    Cooldown with various leg stretches. Countoff, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, physically distanced COT. As always it’s a pleasure to lead the fine men of F3. Can’t wait to do it again.