F3 New Orleans

Tag: Milestone Marsh

  • Code Red at the Marsh

    It’s been fairly well-documented, but The Marsh has been on life support for weeks.  A harsh winter and the prolonged absence of Butt Splice has put the AO into a deep coma, and resuscitation has been slow and unsuccessful.  YHC provided some half-assed CPR this morning, but knows that it’ll take the return of Señor Splice and some warm weather to really get this AO moving again.

    Here’s what went down this morning: YHC rolls in a little early (that’s right, I’m back in a car now), and whips out the phone to see who’s Q.  A glowing, empty slot stares back at me.  So… it’ll either be a Round Robin, or no one will post.  Turtle made some vague mention of possibly-maybe-potentially showing, and one of the Seal Team 6 members can always surprise you.  But as the minutes wore on it became clear no one would post this morning, and YHC felt awake enough to do something.  Now, if this comes off as, Hey, look at me, guys! I went out and got some while you guys fartsacked!, let me just assure you that last Friday at the Cove was another no-show morning, and YHC did absolutely nothing.  (I noted to myself that it took 66 steps to get to the car and only 42 to make it right back to my bed.)  And this morning was not much more: a bit of standard warm up, jog around the block, descending ladder of pull-ups, the ISI challenge of the day, and some mary.

    Now, with the Marsh facing such decline, I’m going to make a commitment to make at least the next two Mondays.  Maybe the next three.  And I challenge you guys to do the same.  Shooter’s got the Q next Monday, let’s show the man some support!

     

  • A Grueling Murph for President’s Day

    YHC has only done one murph in my year plus stint with F3 and it was brutal.  Why I wanted to revisit that experience is beyond me, but I decided President’s Day was as good a day as any to give it another go.  (And if some loose association was needed, it was Washington himself who first awarded the Purple Heart some 223 years before Michael Murphy would get it for his heroism in Afghanistan in 2005.)

    So yeah, this seemed like a good idea last night.  Now, running to the AO at 0440 (who uses cars these days?), it suddenly seemed like a terrible idea.  My mind was scrambling to come up with other options.  Then I strolled up to the Marsh to find Sensei Shooter (also carless) waiting alone, and I knew the Murph was going to happen.  You see, Shooter has come to every beatdown for the past two weeks.  And for the past week, he’s been running to each AO (save the Gipper, of course) rather than driving.  AND, he’s putting up consistent mileage each day for the run challenge.  And the man has a job and a family.  He’s an animal and an inspiration.  So had it been anyone else, I might’ve altered course and given in to the weaker me.  But Shooter inspires the best in everyone and therefore deserves the best.  So we got down to it:

    1 Mile

    100 Pull-Ups

    200 Merkins

    300 Squats

    1 Mile

    We made pretty good time, coming in just under our allotted 45 minutes.  Thanks brother, for elevating all those around you.

  • On Holiday At The Marsh

    Dashing out the door this morning in an effort not to be late to my own Q, I neglected to bring my gloves or even a sweatshirt.  As soon as the wipers hit a massive sheet of unyielding ice on my windshield, I realized I was woefully underdressed for the 29° weather.  Too late, no time.  And so, pulling up to the Marsh right at 0500, I sat in the car and began that inner monologue that has become too familiar over the past few cold weeks: Maybe no one will show today…  Maybe I can turn this car back around… Maybe I can get right back in bed… This mantra never really works, and post-beatdown, I’ve always been happy for that.  Which is why it was so shocking that today, for the first time in a long, long time, no one posted.

    I suspect that was partly due to the cold, and mostly due to the fact that it was MLK Day, and many were off work and could sleep in for a change (ahem…especially those returning from a big hunting trip).  Well, I’m not gonna lie and say I wasn’t a little bit excited by the prospect of a no-show.  But, in honor of King and his famous speech (which will have it’s 55th anniversary this year), YHC knocked out 55 pull-ups, followed by 55 merkins as quickly as humanly possible.  Then I drove back home (I’m not a total idiot), got my sweatshirt and gloves, and went for a short mosey.  And then… I got back into bed.

    It certainly wasn’t the caliber of a true F3 beatdown, but it was just enough to get out of bed for.  And it was a good reminder of why I need the F3 brothers in my life.  King’s notion that we are all brothers and sisters, despite our many differences, is a powerful one, and one that I see at work in the F3 nation every week.  So thanks to my brothers, enjoy your holiday, and YHC expects to see you men back out there tomorrow at Grandmother’s House.

  • Santa’s Last Stop

    Twas the gloom before christmas when all through the marsh not a creature was stirring except for c. sparks. The shovel flag dug in the cool of the air, knowing the rest of the pax would be there!!

    These Pax must be loco! we all roll up sharing our stories of the Ms calling us nuts for posting on Christmas! but this is f3 and we can’t stop won’t stop!! Sparkles filled the prophecy of the santa suit minus the belly with a dazzling santa sweatshirt! Bushwacker in the christmas spirit wore his santa hat too!

    WARMARAMA

    Ssh 20 ic

    toe touches legs apart 20ic

    half mile mosey to the lake

    THANG

    20 box jumps and 20 squats oyo rinse and repeat x3

    20 derkins and 20 freak nasties oyo  rinse and repeat x3

    mosey back with 10 stride sprints at each stop sign

    20 dips and 20 pull ups oyo rinse and repeat x3

    20 australian pull-ups oyo

    MARY

    20 lbc ic

    20 freddie mercuries ic

    20 flutter kicks ic

    rinse and repeat

    cot, bom

    shooter with a pray out!

     

     

  • Pub Crawl, F3 Style

    It was a rainy morning at the marsh and one of the nice things about that particular AO is that the large covered basketball court provides ample shelter for a beatdown with no need to get wet.  But where’s the fun in that?  Any man willing to show up at 5am in the rain is prepared for pretty much anything, and getting wet is likely the least of his concern.  But before venturing out, we’d start off with a warmorama under the cozy confines of the court: Good Mornings, IW’s, Windmills, Seal Jacks, SSH’s, Butt Kicks, High Knees, all IC, at or around 20x.

    The Thang:

    What better way to start the morning than with a 6 pack?  Similar in count to a set of 11’s, but starting with 5 merkins and 1 pull-up, and finishing at 1 merkin and 5 pull-ups.  Then a mosey in the rain to…

    Old Rail Brewery for a Pub Crawl: The Pax lines up along the parking curb, bear crawls through a small, refreshing reservoir in the middle of the lot to reach the opposing curb and perform 1 derkin, with feet propped up along curb.  Bear crawl back, 2 derkins.  Repeat, all the way to 13 derkins.

    Slow mosey over to the trailhead stairs and partner up: P1 runs half the corridor, up the stairs and back, while P2 does squats.  Again, with merkins, monkey jumpers, squat jumps.  Repeat, adding calf raises to the mix.

    Mosey back to the marsh for one last 6 pack before shutting this crawl down with a mary of 50 LBC’s, IC.  As The Manny noted, this was definitely the worst pub crawl any of us had been to.  But no one splashed merlot, and we hobbled away a bit stronger and with our dignity in tact.

    On a side note, this run in the rain reminded YHC that I neglected my backblast duties after our 10k in the sleet two Friday’s ago at the Cove (12/8/17).   It’s was borderline freezing, with a mix of rain, sleet, and hail – just another instance of the indomitable spirit of the Northshore Pax (Bushwacker and Pelican, I’m looking at you) that should be noted for posterity.

  • Rounding the Corners of A Cold, Cold Marsh

    At 38 degrees, this was one of those mornings where YHC was entertaining the possibility of no one showing, and slipping peacefully back into the warmth of my bed.  But if there’s one thing you can count on, it’s the Northshore F3 PAX representing.  Light representation, but hey, representation nonetheless.  It only takes one… The Manny was already warming up when I rolled in, and it goes without saying that the always-present Shooter rolled in shortly thereafter.  Alrighty, let’s do this then…

    Warm- Up: Good Mornings, Seal Jacks, Mummy Kicks, High Knees, Butt Kicks, Seal Jacks, and SSH’s. Then mosey

    Four Corners (and then some): We started on Lamarque and Livingston with 10 merkins.  Headed south, alternating between sprints and moseys, adding 20 shoulder taps to the 10 merks at the next corner.  Continued on, adding at each corner until we were at 10x Merkins, 20x Shoulder Taps, 30x LBC’s, and 40x Mountain Climbers.  Another 4 blocks descending back down to 10 Merkins.  Which dropped us off at…

    The Bus Depot Benches: 15x IC Left Leg Bulgarians, 15x IC Freak Nasties, Right Leg, Freaks.  10x IC Left Leg Ups, Freaks, Right Leg.

    Mosey back to the Marsh, hitting the trailhead stairs 4x up/down on the way.

    Once back, hit the pull up bar for a descending ladder of pull ups and knee ups: 10 of each, 8, 6, 4, 2.

    Quick Mary of Freddie Mercs, Flutter Kicks, 100’s, and Crunchy Frogs, countdown, nameorama, and The Manny led us out with a prayer.  Thanks guys for showing up this morning.

  • The Four Corners of the Marsh

     

    Be still and the Earth will speak to you.   – Navajo Proverb

    YHC passed through the Four Corners this past summer and saw the above proverb painted on a few landscapes by the local artists.  The monument is run by the Navajo Nation and while it’s undoubtedly an overpriced tourist trap, it’s also pretty cool to chat with the local Navajos that are creating and hawking their art in the surrounding space.

    All the same, though, this quote doesn’t really apply to today’s beatdown.  And while the PAX was anything but still this morning, we did manage to clear our minds using a different technique: by knocking out 150 merkins in the first 20 minutes of this beatdown.  Here’s how it went…

    Right out of the gate, 25 merkins OYO.  Then some standard warm-up: Good Mornings, Windmills, SSH’s, IW’s, High Knees, and Butt Kicks, all 20x IC.  Finish the warm-up with another 25 merkins.

    Mosey over to the corner of Marigny and Livingston for the start of 4 corners: Start with 20 burpees, sprint a block to the next corner perform 20 burps plus 20 squats.  Next corner add 20 (full grown man) sit-ups, and at the last corner, add 20 merkins to bring the tally up to 150.

    Back into the Marsh for a quick 10 pull-ups OYO before hitting the legs.  Started out with 20x IC lunges, depth charges (t-claps to Grundy for the cooler name), calf raises, monkey humpers, and grab a pull up bar to finish with knees-to-chest.  Repeato.

    Back to the court to circle up for Mary.  The PAX attempted 5 prisoner get-ups with varying degrees of failure.  Entirely YHC’s fault – next time I’ll watch a Youtube video and demonstrate proper form beforehand.  Then onto LBC’s, starfish crunches, Freddie Mercs, and Nolan Ryans, all 20x IC before we ran out of time.  Countdown, nameorama, and then Turtle led us out with a prayer.

    More than once I’ve mentioned that I’ll be taking Monday’s off, and yet I keep finding myself back at the Marsh.  That’s because this really is the best way to start the week.  Thanks for the opportunity to lead guys.

  • Murph at The Marsh

    Rise and Grind!! A true statement for those who post when most of the world is asleep! Northshore pax have, for the most part, been keeping up with this months ISI challenge. But for some odd reason QIC noticed many had not completed the Murph by Monday morning (including himself). With this having honor and impact for good cause QIC thought it necessary to make sure this challenge was met.

    Thang

    1 mile run

    100 pull-ups modify if needed

    200 merkins modify if needed

    300 squats no modification

    1 mile run

    a tough challenge but necessary indeed!

    the pax thanks you hawg!

    COT BOM

    In honor of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphywho died serving in Afghanistan 2005.

    thank you to all who serve with their life on the line.

     

     

     

     

     

  • The Milestone Globetrotters

    I guess there were a lot of people who broke the first rule of the Northshore F3 rulebook. That is, don’t skip Mondays!!! Regardless, the real men showed up this morning (Shooter and the Captain) and worked their butts off extra hard with all of our fallen brothers in mind (fallen into bed I mean).

     

    So YHC was feeling a little nostalgic this early morning so I decided to bring some exercises in that I used to do during my basketball days.  But first a quick warm up:

    Warmup (or what I can remember of it)

    SSH 20 IC

    Shoulder rolls both directions 20 IC

    Windmills 20 IC

    10 OYO Merkins (No Cap, not burpees. But you can go right ahead).

    Basketball warmup that I used to do:

    • Start on right lower corner of the court and sprint to the top right corner, shuffle to left corner, backpedal to lower left corner, and shuffle right to the start. Continue for 5 laps.

     

    The Thang

    I decided to do an interesting take on a suicide. Why don’t we bear crawl the entire thing!!!

     

    Bear Crawl suicide! Man that was “fun”.

     

    After that we did a conditioning drill we used when we were trying to simulate fatigue in games to work on our late game free throws. The objective was to sprint the width of the court back and forth with the goal of completing 12 trips in 1 minute. If we didn’t all make it then there was a penalty of 10 burpees for everyone. Well I guess these guys just hated the idea of burpees because they got right under the time every time we did it. Even on the last trip when I dropped it to 55 seconds. I am a man of my word and I didn’t make them do any burpees. Another day gentleman, another day.

     

    We then did Wilt Chamberlins. He famously scored 100 points in a game so we did 100 reps of 4 different exercises in succession.

    100 lbcs

    100 squats

    100 flutter kicks each leg

    100 Merkins.

    We were out of time so we circled up and quickly counted off (counting to three goes by very quickly) and gave our “real” names. And Cap closed us out with a great closing prayer.

     

    After we finished, YHC was looking forward to getting home and showering and getting to lay in bed for a few extra minutes before my day had to start. But there was some mumble chatter that rose up and struck the right chord to get me to do one more thing. Captain said he and Shooter were off to be “above average”. I guess I can’t go home to sleep after that challenge. So off we went to get in our 1008 steps at the Mandeville trailhead.

     

    AND… Now we’re done. I hate you guys, but I love you more!!!

     

    Have a blessed one!

  • Monday Blues

    The pax are nuts to be coming out 0500 on a Monday!! But thats what its all about!! #1 rule… never skip Monday! For the true and dedicated we stood in silhouette as the gloom consumed us. The quiet of the morn broken by the 4 world disclaimer.. “Im not a professional”. 7 warm bodies quickly came alive as we began our endeavor!!

    WARMARAMA

    All in cadence X20:

    SSH

    TOE TOUCHES

    IMPERIAL WALKERS

    HILLBILLIES

    SLOW SQUATS

    LIL ARM CIRCLES FWD/BKWD

    (In honor of our Q School YHC decided to introduce some):

    8 COUNT “UPPER” BODY BUILDERS… 2 count merkin, 4 count shoulder taps, 2 count merkin

    and Steve (out the loop) had a burning desire to know what the original

    8 COUNT BODY BUILDERS were

    the YHC had the pax do 20.. for demonstration purposes of corse!!

    THANG

    At half court BEAR CRAWL to baseline for 1 BURPEE.. BUNNY HOP back. Rince and repeat with ascending BURPEES all the way to 10!!!!! Easier said than done!! Also an easy way to quiet down the mumble chatter to quickly be replaced with grunts and gripe.. and Grundy’s inspiration as he enters the plank before the rest of the pax.

    insert 10 count here…

    WINDMILLS x20 (for YHC to think)

    At half court LUNGE WALK to baseline for 5 J-LO and 5 FREDDIE MERCURYS..SPRINT back Since and Repeat descending the exercises.

    MARY

    All X20

    FLUTTER KICKS

    LBC

    FREDDIE MERCURY

    HELLO DOLLY

    ROSALITA

    and…

    1 MIN PLANK (thanks grundy for the assist) who wanted badly for a second minute. but the Qlist said Butt Splice!!

    COT, BOM 

    Prayer For all those affected by Hurricane Harvey