My quasi virgin Q came in the form of a Week 4 IronPax Challenge Beatdown called “Sugar’s Pick Your Poison” at UNO’s Chamber of Horrors. Tclaps to Kuch and Belloq for getting our AO ready.
At approximately 5:20 AM, YHC kicked things off to the sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire “September”. My highlight of the workout was Kuch’s beatdown of 2 Coupons that weren’t regulation. The Pax of 7 completed this leg intense 3 rounds workout in an average time of 52 mins. and 45 secs.
We wrapped things up with CoT and a Prayer of Generosity.
Enjoyed the opportunity to lead my first Q and participate in my first IPC.
Despite fair warning, 14 men set off into a pleasant September gloom this morning at Okwata. The warning: bring your running shoes, we’re trying something new. And so we did.
Since we started doing Okwata, YHC has been wanting to run to the large Lakeshore Drive bridge for a change of pace. Today, we did it.
It’s around 1.1 miles just to get there, so we had to be quick. We wrapped our warm-up into our mosey with some high knees, butt kicks, Super Marios, carioca, and Zombie walks.
When we got to the bridge, the instructions were simple: 11’s with burpees at the bottom and merkins at the top. YHC had measured it out, and from base to center of the bridge is about 1/10 of a mile, so each “lap” would be 2/10 of a mile. No one quite completed the 11’s, but Breadsticks was close. Breadsticks seems to have found another gear lately. T-claps for that.
T-claps to Two Yutes, who went back and swept the runners on the way there, giving them the instruction so everyone could get started. We called an end to the 11’s leaving around 12 minutes to return to the flag, and according to my calculations***, we arrived exactly on time. All in all, we ran about 4 miles, with about 1 mile of that being uphill, broken up with some burpees and merkins. We may try this one again during Run Ranger Run.
Surge closed us out with a prayer. Thanks for trying something new with me today. – Kuch
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.
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:
Chest all the way to the ground; everything hits at once. Back straight.
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.
16 men arrived to stomp through the streets of New Orleans this morning, but YHC had other plans. YHC has enjoyed tracking his endurance and capabilities through the IronPax challenge, H8, and bi-annual F3NOLA races. YHC thought it was time to throw in another way to measure himself and his brethren.
Going forward whenever YHC Qs the 610 Stomp, the workout will be a 3 mile race followed by some fun and games. YHC’s hope is that the Pax will be able to track their time and distance to see how F3 has made us faster and stronger on this journey.
The Thang
Standard disclaimer and mosey from the flag to the track. The men lined up for an F3 race – 3 miles without using the inner two lanes in the track. This resulted in a 3.2 mile race. The times were as follows:
Shuffles 20:16
Screw Top 23:06
Belloq 23:43
Rudy 23:47
Tua 24:11
Sacagawea 24:15
Jesus Juice 24:51
Rev Sox 25:28
Col. Mustard 27:20
Swiss Miss 28:08
Kuch 27:25 – 11 laps
War Eagle 27:52 – 11 laps
Tool 28:08 – 11 laps
Complicated 25:05 – 10 laps
Hokie Pokey 26:37 – 10 laps
Hawg 27:04 – 10 laps
The Game
The Pax moseyed through the mud and over to the football field for some ultimate frisbee. The Pax counted off by two and spit into 2 teams. The skins blew out the shirts by a score of 28-7. The winners were YHC, Jesus Juice, War Eagle, Tua, Col Mustard, Kuch, and someone else on my team that I can’t remember.
The Conclusion
Count-Off, Name-O-Rama, and Prayer at the flag. Thank for playing some games and letting YHC score some touchdowns.
12 PAX were greeted with the perfect mix warm, muggy, and damp conditions at the new UNO site on Monday. Ideal setting to sweat out the celebratory weekend beers from a kinda-stellar Saints preseason victory on Sat followed by our little league dudes lighting it up in Williamsport on Sunday. YHC encountered Belloq upon arrival where we gazed upon the intramural fields at UNO, recalling our time spent out there mid-90’s playing sports for our respective fraternities, oftentimes with a cold beverage in one hand and football in the other. Yes, those were some glory days, but I think it’s safe to say we’re probably both in better shape now than we were then, at least we’d find out in the next 45 min. Perhaps our real glory days still lie ahead?
YHC stepped in to Q the day before, filling in for Holy Grove who originally stepped up to help lead, but is on IR and hopefully will be back in the fold soon. Quick warmup included paying a little homage to the Easbank All-Stars for playing strong, displaying great teamwork, and making Louisiana proud. Scores = rep counts. YHC is no ESPN commentator but did my best with a recap of the LLBWS:
SW/LA vs W/Hawaii 2-5 2 SSH- 5 Burpees
LA vs NW/Oregon 3-2 3 WM- 2 Burpees
LA vs MW/Minnesota 10-0 10 AC
LA vs MA/New Jersey 4-1 4 Side Lunge-1 Burpees
LA vs SE/Virginia 10-0 10 PP
LA vs W/Hawaii 9-5 (US Final) 9 IW- 5Burpess
LA vs Carribean Region 8-0 (LLBWS Final) 8 GG
Next up, time to pay some even greater respect to Staff Sergeant Edwardo Loredo by knocking out the Loredo Workout, a Crossfit favorite and the “preseason” workout for the F3 Iron Pax Challenge.
6 Rounds
For Time:
24 Air Squats
24 Push-ups
24 Walking Lunges
400m Run
Given the rainy forecast, YHC mapped this out to be done near the overhang at the front entrance to the UNO HPC Building, aka Chamber of Horrors, using the parking lot as our 400M lap, verified by Google. As the PAX started churning away, there were some pros and cons with our site. Pros included lots of dry pavement and a steady flow of puzzled student athletes tricking in the building for training. Cons included a rather slippery sidewalk for the walking lunges (hindering form for some) and what appeared to be a rather long 400M lap, despite what Google said. Anyway, we plowed through and several PAX pushed extra hard. T-claps to Shorty and Shuffles for blasting out of the gate and setting the bar…and t-claps to several others that YHC saw digging deep. All PAX managed to finish before the bell rang, with times ranging from 27:48 to 36:ish minutes.
Great job knocking out a not-so-pleasant WOD. September is going to be a looooong month, especially if one opts to do the Iron Pax workouts multiple times per week. Hopefully we’ll all be faster and stronger come October….the H8 should be chump change. We capped things off with a COT. Afterwards we officially named the AO “Chamber of Horrors” which is the old nickname for the adjacent HPC building which has seen many a sweaty athletes and students alike for the past 50 years.
NMM:
It’s nice to have dry-ish feet.
Pop Tart killed it and is filling Smooth’s shoes as a front runner.
T-claps to Shorty for knowing when to listen to your body/stomach and throw in the towel. With other PAX recently going down or feeling ill mid-workout, a new addition to the Lexicon has been proposed by Da Parish…..Kenny Rogers (verb?) – Knowing when to hold em and when to fold em.
T-claps to the PAX for posting and supporting the new AO. We pay back F3 not only by leading workouts, but by continuing to grow and spread the footprint…just like several guys did here when they kicked things off in NOLA.
“U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Edwardo Loredo, 34, of Houston, Texas, assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was killed on June 24, 2010 in Jelewar, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He is survived by his wife, First Sergeant Jennifer Loredo; his daughter, Laura Isabelle; his stepdaughter, Alexis; and his son, Eduardo Enrique.”
Thanks for the opportunity to lead and the motivation to keeping getting out in the gloom.
Conditions: 79 Degrees, 90% Humidity, Heat Index of 83
Lots of good grass at Okwata and a fair amount of smoking this morning.
Warmup
Mandatory mosey through Louisiana’s smallest registered body of water, the sidewalk puddle just east of the shovel flag. It was good to get the shoes wet from the start so that there would be no worries about anything that might come later. We circled the Mardis Gras Fountain (where are the lights Latoya?) with high knees, carioca two ways, but kicks, and bear crawls.
We then headed up the levee and proceeded west on the top of the levee. I almost ran over a local Shaman in Sukhasana. It would be helpful if all local Shaman wore blinking bicycle lights for safety.
After destroying that dude’s Chi we pointlessly gathered on the leeward side of the levee. I was hoping to find some well manicured grass, but there was none to be found. So we planked for the six and headed back over the levee.
The Thang
11s on the levee. Burpees at the top Squat Jumps at the bottom. After you finish, run back up with anyone more than a lap behind you.
House of Pain – Three lines at the pull-up bars. Each man does Bernie Sanders (L-hang on pull up bar for as long as you can), 30 dips, then go to the back of the line and do BLIMPS until you get back to the pull up bar. We did 2 rounds.
Quadraphilia – 4 minutes up and down the levee always facing the lake #CrowdPleaser
Mary – LBCs x 20, Flutter Kicks x 15
COT
Announcements: Extra Summer Series at Lafreniere. Anyone want to lead? 5-year Convergence 10/12 – Start working on your buddies that have been AWOL. New Monday Workout at UNO – Post this coming Monday.
Prayers: Spouse facing surgery, Friends and Relatives with cancer, Praise for new grandchildren, prayers for those that have recently lost loved ones.
NMM
Great to be back at Okwata. My odd race preparations have derailed my Okwata attendance over the past year, but it is still one of my favorite AOs. Glad Mahatma asked me to fill in for him.
Speaking of odd running habits, the Half-Fast running club sauntered by while we were at the House of Pain and gave me a serious case of #FOMO. They were running way too fast. I’m not going to be able to keep up when I return. It’s like a couple of new kids showed up to school when you were absent and the next day you no longer have a seat at the lunch table.
I still believe you haven’t really done 11s until you’ve done them on the levee at Okwata with burpees. Are you diggin’ me Uptown? River < Lake.
Usually time flies when you are having fun, but this seemed like an extra long 45 minutes. May have been the trip to the flag at the 15 minute mark that did a number on my cognitive functioning.
According to MapMyRun this workout was 3.8% more intense than my Popeye’s Q last week. #Acceleration
Mumblechatter award of the day goes to……JV the all-time champ. During Quadraphilia:
Me (in my Rah-Rah voice): C’mon men, you can do anything for four minutes!
JV: My wife would disagree.
T-claps to Room Service for leading us out with Flutter Kicks.
It was a somber day on August 16, 1977. Elvis Aaron Presley was just finishing up his
morning glory when the King collapsed due to heart failure. Today we honor that great American in the
best way we know how; by empowering our bodies through exercise and our souls
through listening to his music. Elvis
was a HIM before we know what a HIM was.
W/U
Side Straddle Hop x 42
Imperial Walkers x 20
Hill Billies x 20
Arm Circles x 20
Mountain Climbers x 2o
J Lo’s x 10
The Thang – Complete each exercise for the duration of the song
playing.
American Trilogy – Merkins x10, Staggeredx 10, Staggered x10, Diamond x 10, Wide x 10, Chuck Norris x10, Crossfit x 10, – 4:28
Burning Love – Pure Burn (1. Face the fence 2. Get in the squat position 3/4 up while holding the fence; 3. On the balls of your feet (tiptoes); Pulse 3/4 down to 1/2 (90 degrees) X 10; Pulse 1/2 all the way down X10; Repeat) – 2:50
Intentions – Those with cancer, our new students starting
another school year especially Brady Lefleur, those intentions unspoken and
kept in our hearts.
Thank you for the opportunity to lead, thank you very much!
Eager to mark our territory with a trail of sweat, 14 PAX, aka privateers, gathered this Monday for a maiden voyage in the uncharted waters of northern 70122, and area deep with nautical history. This would be a test run to check out the area and also see what interests there may be in establishing a new AO. As the clock neared 5:30, it was encouraging to see a mix of guys, coming from near and far, that all wanted to be in that number. Before we set sail, YHC mentioned that this workout would be somewhat of an exploratory mission and perhaps a work-in-progress as we bounced around. The disclaimer came next followed by the annual recitation of a crude yet useful nugget from the F3 Lexicon that is something we should strive to avoid: Whiskey Dicking (verb) – “Half stepping through a workout or other event. More generally, execution of anything without sufficient zeal”…recently updated to read “Tentative execution of a task”. Basically, try to give it your all and make the most out of the next 45 minutes. Here’s what we did:
Quick “capri lap” around the parking lot with a COP in the nearby field for a warmup of IW, Phelps, WM, AC, Toy Soilders, LSS.
Then we kept it close for any lost latecomers with a continuation of the warmup, getting in a diamond formation for Burpees x20, Bench/Bleacher Dips x15, Jump Squats x10, Tire Flips x5. This circuit would hopefully be repeated later on but no dice.
From there, we moseyed into the heart of UNO’s campus, with a stop to plank for the six followed by 10 Merkins. T-claps to Kuch and Gideon who YHC overheard discuss trying to nudge a guy back out in the gloom…#HIM! We ended the mosey near an area officially named “the lazy river” by Gabrielle which is adjacent to a few tall sets of stairs leading up to the amphitheater hill. Here we dropped anchor for the first round of Dora, partnering up for 100 crossfit/hand-release Merkins while PAX#2 ran a lap up and down the stairs and hill. Pull anchor up…
Northerly mosey to the concrete planters in front of the Alumni Building for the second round of Dora. T-claps to Holy Grove and others for pushing hard then sweeping the six. Partner up with someone different (swinger style) for Inclined Hip Slappers x200 while PAX#2 run to the top of the levee and back. Some groans and panting were heard on this one.
From here we changed course back towards harbor, stopping in front of The UC for the third round of Dora. Original plans called for a stair running loop but time was ticking and we had to wing it with LBC x300 (in sets of 50) which PAX#2 held a low squat #ISI. We had to cut this a tad short and hightail it across the field to the flag. Shout out to HG and JJ for kicking it in high gear on the final run. Total distance covered was approx 2.17 miles. YHC’s goal of scoping out the area was accomplished but the run/plank time squeezed out some of the circuit work.
Finished things off with a COT. Next two workouts in that location (NW corner of Leon C. Simon and Elysian Fields) will be 8/26 and 9/9. Input and Qs are welcome so please chime in and/or step up. Hopefully this AO takes off, in turn further growing the footprint of F3 and having a positive impact on more men. T-claps to Gideon for the nudge and pledge to help get this going.
The Tuesday crowd at the Stomp has exploded recently. YHC saw an opportunity to take the Q and bring a little something extra to the AO. Since everyone loves Burpees, YHC knew that incorporating them in a way not done before would be received with joy! YHC was not disappointed!
24 Pax posted to improve their running ability, and their endurance. But first a brief disclaimer, and a very quick warmup:
Grass Grabbers IC x 10 followed by Arm Circles IC x 20
Instructions were simple. Run as a group down the traditional Bayou St John route. Every time the Pax came across a person or group of people, we would call out “Good Morning!” If we received a “Good Morning” back, all did 5 Burpees. If no “Good Morning” was received, then 10 Burpees was coming our way. If the Pax attempted to prod for them to say it, the penalty was 15 Burpees.
How many Burpees completed? There were approximately 10 stops for 5 Burpees and only 1 stop for 10 Burpees. The Pax covered around 4 miles, and many folks on the streets of NOLA were greeted with a kind gesture.
Good Times had by all.
COT for Count off, name-o-rama, announcements and intentions.
Thanks for posting with me today, and for allowing me to be a part of such a great organization!
