After the looming destruction of the storm (formally known as Barry) disrupted participation for my last Q on the Lakefront, I felt as if some guys missed out on a nice wholesome exercise, and it was in our best interest to bring that mother back for round two.
The PAX started with a quick warm-up; arm circles, windmills, imperial walkers, toe touches, and side strattle hops. We mosied to the rock garden, where each man selected a stone/boulder that we carried overhead to the top floor of the courthouse parking garage (feel the burn).
We proceeded to sprint and jog around the lot, broken up by exercises that I called out: Merkins, Colt 45’s with the rocks (look that one up), burpees, squat to push press, hammer curls, shoulder press…on and on. Doesn’t sound hard? Try it for 35 minutes.
We mosied back to the rock garden with stones overhead (feel the burn), which, by this time of morning, we had a couple of curious onlookers. No time left for core, no one cared. A good time had by all. More to follow…..
The mumble chatter started the previous night at the successful meet n greet campaign party for our very own Hammer about the fact that if Turbo had the Q for Saturday, then it was either fun n games or, more likely, plenty of running, much to the consternation of more than one PAX both present and away. While, in a sense, fun n games were in fact afoot, today was a run day!
WARMORAMA
x20 IC:
Seal Jacks
Imperial Walkers
Toe Touches
THANG
Mosied westward down the lakefront for a stretch before we stopped for some merkins. Continued up Marigny and stopped for some Mountain Climbers. Finished up at the Marsh where we partnered up for a little competiton.
4 4 minute rounds with a running total per team:
Round 1- P1 SSH while P2 runs to opposite side of the court and performs 2 Burpees
Round 2- P1Butt Kicks, P2 2 180 degree hops
Round 3- P1 Lateral Hops, P2 2 Tuck (Squat) Jumps
Round 4- P1 imaginary Jump Rope, P2 2 Bobby Hurleys
In between each round was 30 seconds rest, 1 minute of Plank, and 30 more seconds of rest. Teams that scored under 82 total points (all?) dropped for 10 penalty burpees.
Next, the Pax split evenly and competed head-to-head in a relay race from one end of the court to the other. The Odd numbered team performed another set of 10 penalty burpees. YHC must note that never has he seen such an intense show of drive and performance from every man at the same time as was displyed during this race!
Same teams did a double-line Indian Run back to the Lakefront, where the PAX planked for the 6, followed by a slow mosy before an all out sprint to the flag.
COUNTORAMA
NAMEORAMA
Naming of FNG Black Cat. Welcome brother, better late than never!
Phoenix prayed us out.
T Claps to Turbo Tax for a well put together, high intensity beat down. It’s always a privilege to follow a great leader. Who says running can’t be fun!
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”
Yes, and us polite Northshore`ians would face the uptowners guillotine late Wednseday night. So an easy workout was the call for Wednesday morning.
Here is how it went:
disclaimer
warmup ICx20: ss hops, toe touch, arm circles, good mornings, imperial walkers, high knees, butt-kicks, smurf-jacks
mosey to the Taj-Mahal: circle up around the flag pole for a ring of fire – pushups and bear crawl clockwise, pushups and bear crawl counter clockwise.
step over to the nearby “Grassy Knoll” for 10 sprawls and 10 roll-ups
mosey to the Justice Center parking garage top for a deck of cards routine – using: clubs to do crunches, hearts to do hillbillys, spades to do squats, diamonds to do merkins, joker to do wife pleasers. When a “2” card turned up, we did a 2 minute plank
mosey back to the flag as time expired.
Shooter prayed us out with a good one.
Thanks guys – it’s always a fun Wednesday morning at The Gipper.
At the zenith of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and its satellite states held May Day parades every May 1st to demonstrate their military might for the Free World to contemplate. Fortunately for those of us old enough to remember school time nuclear war drills in which we learned laughably to take shelter under our desks, the threat never materialized. That didn’t stop the Northshore Cold Warriors from celebrating May Day this morning, however.
After a warmup of Seal Jacks, Good Mornings, SSHs, Windmills and Imperial Walker Squats, the PAX mosied over to Bedrock for
19 Romanian Deadlifts with a nice sized rock
then to the Justice Center for
19 Bulgarian Split Squats each leg and 89 Russian Twists IC
all to celebrate 1989, the year the Berlin Wall crumbled.
The PAX then mosied to the front of the Justice Center to partner up for some BOMBS; that is, 50 burpees, 100 OH hand claps, 150 merkins, 200 big boy sit ups, and 250 air squats…one partner performing exercises while the other ran up the ramp and down the stairs to relieve his partner.
Appropriately, the PAX finishing first performed isometric Wall sits instead of planks.
Next, we made our way to the Veterans Memorial for a plank parade, lateral plank walking the Memorial semi circle there and back.
Back to The Gipper, who certainly played his part in the collapse of the Evil Empire, to close things out with a countorama, nameorama and prayer.
YHC arrived at the Gipper with an entire workout planned with my girlfriend Sandy. But since the temperature was a balmy 30 degrees with high humidity, the mandeville usuals took a well deserved day off. With only 5 men by the time 6AM rolled around, the Q had to call an audible and save the original beatdown for another date. I got an earful from Sandy in the car on the way back about dragging her out of bed. She might hit the ice cream extra hard and put on another 5 pounds.
After a warmup of seal Jacks, arm circles, high knees, and butt kicks we moved on to the beatdown.
With the original workout scrapped, YHC called upon an old faithful workout you can summon in a pinch. A super 21!!!
Start 1 rep each of Merkins, Plank Jack’s, Shoulder Taps (2 count), and LBCs and do a lap around the perimeter of the gipper. Upon returning you do 2 reps of all of those exercises and then take another lap. Rinse and repeat until you get to 21 reps of each exercise. Blackjack!
That workout always gets the blood flowing and somehow we were all breaking a sweat in that freezing temperature. After we finished we had a few minutes left where we did some leg work and then some mary.
We circled it up and Jose 10katie closed us out.
It’s an honor to lead gentlemen. Thanks for being a continual reminder of what it looks like to seize each new day.
We cranked up the morning with a 2 mile run. Tanked Up shared a quote from a book he had on his shelf. The quote stressed when we work our butt off in the streets of Mandeville, or wherever you may be, the satisfaction of that workout lies in the “effort” you give. Full effort is Full victory. Something tells me most of us gave full effort this glorious morning.
Warmup–SSH, windmills, arm circles, flutter kicks, low ssh,
The Thang–
Ab work- circle up in a plank position. Rotate right,stop, merkins, rotate merkins, rotate merkins. Let’s throw in Peter Parkers, Parker Peters and some Up/Downs.. Tanked Up challenged Brother Martin nemesis , Turbo and soccer pal, Jose 10k to some face to face up/downs. Raider Pride.😁
20 minute challenge-4 exercises merkins, crunches, ssh, squats, 25 reps then run 300 yards. Repeat for 20 minutes.. Zoolander decided to come out guns blazing!
To the sea wall– 2 exercises by the wall. Derkins Burpees 5,4,3,2,1 reps followed by ascending order 1,2,3,4,5
Over to the flag for more AB work led by Bushwacker, could not tell you the exercises due to fatigue!
Circle up for close out. Prayer led by Steve! Coffee and cake for one of the older men in the club.
Enjoyed the morning with some of the best of the northshore..
Weather.com predicted a 100% chance of rain, but the conditions are always cozy in the “Hall of Justice” parking structure. #ThanksParishTaxPayers
DISCLAIMER
YHC forgot the disclaimer. I don’t remember any major injuries, so I think it’s a “no harm, no foul” situation. #Don’tSueMyMalpracticeInsuranceHasLapsed
THE WARM UP
All exercises done IC, or in cadence-ish. YHC’s counts were so far off, it was a miracle the assembled PAX didn’t disband then and there.
Split jacks X15
Toe touches X10
Abe Vigodas X10
Ray Finkles X10
Steve Earles Copper head squat finished with hill billy X 10
THE THANG PART 1: Bleeping beep test
After warming-up the PAX moseyed to the parking garage at the “Hall of Justice.” Lo, and behold, the magical, beatdown elves had already set up cones precisely 20 meters apart, so it was only natural for the PAX to test themselves against that grueling, gym class, fitness benchmark: the beep test, a.k.a the bleep test a.k.a the multi-stage fitness test, or in F3 lingo, Highlander.
9 PAX lined up and started running, as the sadistic, electronic tones of the test app, beeped faster and faster. The PAX did fantastic and displayed the fitness levels and VO2 maxes of a bunch of doped up Lance Armstrongs. Whenever a PAX bowed out of the beep test, they kept getting stronger by doing sequences of merkins, squats and LBC’s. TClaps to Turbo who was the last bleeping man standing after the rounds of the test had progressed well into double-digits.
We all know, Turbo could have kept racing the beeps all morning, but he threw in the towel to give the PAX a break from doing Merkins.
THE THANG PART 2: Play that funky music till you die
Since the speaker was already set up for the beep test, PAX hung around for three consecutive music driven workout routines.
“Bodies” by Drowning Pool 3:21 – Plank through song with donkey kicks and merkins mixed in
“Baba O’Riley” by the Who 5:00 – Imperial Walkers for what feels like a lifetime
“Tubthumping” by Chumbawumba 3:33 – SSH plus 27 burpees
Rumor has it that Einstien sure plays a mean, pin ball.
MOLESKIN
Well done, F3 bros. Props to Bushwhacker for helping the PAX to clean up the parking garage, because our brother knows that “every day is earth day.” #CaptainCore.
CountORama, NameORama, and COT
YHC prayed us out.
Thanks F3-bros, for the fellowship, the beatdowns and for being willing to follow my lead.
I know what you late 30, early 40 F3 brethren who use to listen to Naughty by Nature are thinking.. However, let’s keep this PG13 and call it “Other Positive People”, “Old People Power”, “Obvious Pure Perspiration”, or simply makeup your own acronym of sorts and roll with it..
Prethang
YHC and Steve arrived 1 min late for the prethang as we stopped at every red light along 190, which will soon have additional lights to impede our journey north to the Gipper from Ole Mandeville. If you listen to 43 feet F3 podcast, one must agree as Dredd has stated in the past of this PULMAN. Turning these lights to blink yellow until after a reasonable flow of traffic begins to mount would be one suggestion, attention to any traffic light engineers in the audience.. Uoon arrival Moby informs us the PAX has already begun so we Mosey to catch-up as they make the halfway turn.
Warmup
All IC to 15 Imperial walkers, Hillbillies, Butt kicks, SSH, Mummy kicks and Toe Touches..
Thang
Inspired by talking with Gabrielle (#KrazyIvan VictoryMember) at the Barly Oak at Saturday’s F2 Q decides to keep the workout with all partner routines. PAX Mosey’s to the Taj Mahal for the O.P.P. This consists of P1 holding arm chair doing overhead claps, while P2 does Plank Jacks to 20. Partners switch and then on to the next Peter Parker’s followed by Parker Peters. Up the ladder and down the ladder then R/R… Q has a proud moment noticing Turbo has begun to perspire.. Whenever, I lead this is certainly a goal of mine which rarely is achieved so 👏🏻 to the man above for the 70 degree 100% humidity Gloom which surly assisted with this task.. Upon completion we journey to the justice center for B.O.M.B.S, (50 Burpees, 100 Overhead claps, 150 Merkins, 200 Big Boy sit-ups 😩, 250 Squats) keeping count cumulative while P1 did exercise P2 moseyed up the stairs and down the ramp. This was pulled from another PAX who seemingly never gets tired Tanked up, but also who fortunately the Q paired up with 😬.. Trying hard as I may to gas this animal it is with great disappointment that I fail… With Steve, Ringo, Einstein and Barely Legal pushing the Q on the run up the stairs and down the ramps, YHC quickly realizes that no matter how much better he thinks he his there is always room to improve.. Appreciate the push Brother’s!!
With time quickly aproaching first team that finished assisted the other team with completion of the counts to respect the time. Moseyed to the flag to close.
countarama, namarama, COT
Tanked up prayed us out with thoughts of striving to always be difference makers and light to those in darkness!! Appreciate you Tanked up (#wolverine)
Always enjoy the beatdown and F2 with the PAX at the Gipper!!!
With our designated Q, Maverick, busy with his new 2.0, it was up to the PAX to deliver their own beatdown Wednesday morning at The Gipper. Go time arrived, the assembled veteran PAX disclaimed themselves silently, and then we got down to business.
YHC initially took the lead with a warmup of SSHs, windmills, merkins, plank jacks, toe touches, seal jacks, imperial squat walkers and torso twists, all IC.
Tanked Up! picked up the baton and moseyed the PAX to the back of the Taj Mahal where he administered a series of suicides – sprint/backpedal; shuffle there and back; and then old fashioned sprint there and back. Tanked Up! then ran us around to the front of the Taj Mahal, assembled us around the flagpole, and turned things over to Ringo.
Ringo adopted Einstein’s “give the PAX an exercise to do while you bear crawl to the flagpole and back” routine and worked us over pretty good with merkins and various Mary exercises.
After giving Einstein a little bit of his own medicine around the flagpole, Ringo then led the PAX to the front of the Justice Center for box jumps, the freak nasty, and step ups.
Bushwacker took over at that point with a mosey around the Justice Center to the back stairs where we performed Irkins up the stairs, followed by bunny hops down the stairs. Rinse and repeat twice, descending with backwards bear crawls the first time and crab walks the next.
Finally, Shooter mercifully took us back to the shovel flag for Mary: 45 seconds each of planks, Nolan Ryans each side, Rosalitas and finally Tanked Up!’s favorite, wife pleasers.
Countorama, nameorama and Einstein prayed us out remembering our Southshore brother Terabyte and hoping that Maverick’s M and 2.0 are healthy and happy.
Very gloomy Gloom at The Gipper this morning, but that didn’t stop the veteran PAX who took their red pills and showed up ready to make themselves better. In fact, most of the PAX, at least those tuned into this month’s ISI challenge, participated in a little foreplay by putting in a mile run before the beat down. The mumble chatter emanating from the Southshore about the Krazy Ivan seems to have galvanized the Northshore PAX in defense of the Freedom Hammer.
Change of pace with our warmup this morning, using the simulated train platform at the trailhead for a dynamic warmup of skips, lunges, shuffles, carioca, freestyle, backstroke, ascending strides, and backpedals.
Mosey to the front of the Justice Center for a passing game. We counted off and then bounce passed a tennis ball to one another in order while moving constantly within a square. Mastering the basics quickly, the PAX progressively added levels of difficulty, i.e. leaving the square after a pass to perform a SSH before coming back in to receive a pass, etc. YHC was impressed with the PAX’s dexterity. We seem to be getting better at these games. Or maybe just more tolerant of stupid ideas. At any rate, we dropped the ball less and consequently performed fewer penalty exercises than past attempts.
Mosey to the side of the Justice Center for some Mary. Box cutters and then dynamic side planks, 20x IC each exercise.
Recovery walk to back of the Justice Center for some agility drills and ramp action. First up was a 10 yard acceleration from cone to cone immediately followed by a sharp backpedal to the starting position. A couple rounds of interspersed with some Wile E Coyote, an exercise learned on a visit to Metro Charlotte consisting of a suspended “walk” laterally up a ramp by placing feet and hands on the railing. No one face planted so that was a plus.
Then we hit agility round 2 with an X drill…sprint diagonally to a cone, shuffle laterally to a cone, and then turn and sprint to another cone. Mixed bear crawls up the Justice Center ramp with this one.
Mosey back to the trailhead for two quick rounds of dot drills, essentially two foot hops in a diagonal and lateral pattern. Then another round of Mary with box cutters, Jane Fonda circles, alternating Supermans, and long flutter kicks, all IC 20x.
Countorama, nameorama and Shooter prayed us out. Thanks for showing up men and thanks for letting me lead.
