Tag: Roots

  • F3 NOLA Convergence 2021 (a.k.a.”Crew Change”) – Mothership 2021-10-16 – from Reluctant Yankee

    A fine morning, with a change in the weather providing a fitting backdrop for the changing of the guard on the F3 New Orleans Leadership Team.

    Kicked off at the flag zone with naming of the F3 NOLA Rookie of the Year and F3 NOLA Man of the Year. These went to Almonaster and Hokie Pokie, respectively. High praise and congratulations to both of these high-impact men for their efforts during the past year!

    Yankee then kicked things off on the Great Lawn with:
    Side Straddles Hops x27
    Hillbillies (in honor of Hawg’s prom) x 20
    OYO burpees x10
    Side Lunges x20
    Low Country Crabs x20
    Dying Cockroaches x20

    Moseyed to the track where Hawgcycle took over. Hawg brought the hurt with a modified Dirty Mac Deuce featuring:

    Larry Craigs x12
    Sumo Squats x12
    LBC x12

    Pax then partnered up. One pax sprinted 200 m around the tracks while the other moseyed across, then vice versa. Pax reassembled for announcement of the new SLT.

    It was time. Time to give a speech that would last generations, a speech commemorating the past 7 years, and one that would empower the incoming SLT for what was yet to come. Reluctant Yankee reached deep within his well of indisputable high octane expressions, and it was there and then he passed the torch of F3 Nola to Fracsac and Catfish, his great words of wisdom spreading across the field of F3 Nola men, leaders of this Fitness Fellowship and Faith thing we simply refer to as F3. Did anybody write down what he said?

    Fracsac circled the pax up on the field and did 5 SSH IC, followed by 10 burpees OYO. Many thought Shock and Awe was in the works, but nay, just an attention grabber. Next up was the mental challenge.

    6 SSH IC followed by 11 more in silence, all must end with the Q or a penalty would be handed out. The Pax passed with flying colors….but did they?

    4 corners on the track with 10 x 8 count body builders on 2 corners and 10 x burpees on the other 2. Circle back up for mental challenge again.

    This time there was a failure, with 10 x 8 count body builders as the penalty. The pax completed it the next go flawlessly.

    Pax had had enough mental abuse at this point, so there was much rejoicing when the workout was handed to Catfish. Catfish gently led things forward with:

    8-Counts x10
    Low Slow 8-Count Squats x20
    Bonnie Blairs x15
    Mosey back to the Great Lawn, with a quick stop at the baseball field behind Tad Gormley to do some Jack Webbs (up to 13, 11 got skipped). Continued the mosey back to the Great Lawn.

    At the Great Lawn, LBTs waiting x15 for the six. Frac then came back for a rousing round of Catalina Wine mixers (x15) for the finish.

    Back to flag for COT.

    Announcements: Roast on the Coast Starting Nov 5; GoRuck Tough NOLA the following weekend on NOV 12; Almonaster Qing a Christmas charity effort related to Operation Sweet Tooth (details to come)

    Delicious coffee and breakfast followed. Thanks to all who assisted with preparation for this.

    Thanks to all who attended and assisted with today’s convergence, and stay tuned for further announcements from the new leadership team!

  • SLT 2.0 – Summary – from Reluctant Yankee

    This is a no frills backblast summary of our organizational meeting on Tuesday 8/18/21 7pm at the PJS on Magazine St. I am sure if Hawgcycle wrote this – it would be witty and clever but I am neither of those things. I assigned it to the Birdcage AO but this really belongs to ALL AOs.

    The rain tried to keep us away, but we would NOT be deterred. Even non-beatdowns happen rain or shine. During the meeting the PAX enjoyed bourbon produced by a PAX member and beer brewed by a PAX member. Seaman brought his own stuff.

    The PAX – assembled…Tool, Roots, Catfish, Triple Shift, Mahatma-Ice, Cowbell, Fast Tax, Kuch, Seaman, Vagabond, Sandbar, FracSac, Rudy, Rev Sox and Baywatch. We were missing Hawg and Gabby due to RONA, several PAX out of town, several PAX had other obligations.

    Tclaps to Aubry Miller – owner of PJS magazine for reserving the space for us!

    The outline of the meeting was…
    1. The History of SLT 1.0
    -Here I explained how I landed the sweet job of Nantan for the last 7 years-(not really 7 but since we became a region). How Hawgcycle became Weasel Shaker and how Tool, Roots, and Rudy(Comz) ended up becoming part of the SLT 1.0 although we never truly embraced this idea. Instead, we focused on the Starfish and all of us equally stepping up and in when and where needed-along with many other PAX of F3 NOLA over the years. Side Fx, Woz, Amnesty and some other PAX have been part of the “undefined” SLT in the past.

    2. Leadership Roles in F3 Nation (typically)
    Nantan – Q of the Region “the guy”
    Weasel Shaker – Support for Nantan but also the guy that keeps people from weaseling out of things. Q school guru. Finger on the pulse of our region guy.
    1st F Q -Fitness: Checks and makes sure we have site Qs, Q schools, checks to see if all Aos are viable,etc. **This is just the surface but you get the idea
    2nd F Q Fellowship– Mr Party Pants “the glue” CSAUPS, etc
    3rd F Q Faith – Dr Dynamite. This is Qsource, Bible Studies, Shield Locks, Outreach, Service opportunities, etc (This model isn’t compulsory- just what is typically done)
    And Comz.
    NOT part of SLT but part of the regional leadership are the Site/AO Qs.
    Each AO has a site Q – we will start to push for yearly leadership change at each AO.
    Site Q duties are:
    a.) Manage Q schedule for AO, headlocks Qs.
    b.) Welcomes Fngs – gets their information to COMZ
    c.) Sells AO, and the mission. Qs when Q fartsacks.
    d.) Harass Qs to write BBs. 1 year term.

    3. The plan for SLT 2.0 — We spent a chunk of time debating selection of the SLT members outside of Nantan and Weasel. Hawg’s wacky lottery idea and my more normal idea that comes from almost all of the other F3 regions concerning selection of SLT by Nantan and Weasel. The end result merged both ideas.
    -Term will start at the CONVERGENCE 10/16/2021
    -SLT 1.0 will not be permitted to serve on SLT 2.0
    -2 year terms (maybe first two appointees only serve one year so that we can change the rotation of leadership to every year we have 2 new leaders every year)
    –New Nantan and Weasel Shaker will be selected by SLT 1.0
    –New SLT breakdown will be 2 selections by the new Nantan/Weasel. 2 selections by self selected lottery. If you agree to be in the lottery – you agree to also be selected by new Nantan/Weasel for the two positions of their choice.
    –Rudy will be COMZ until we find a suitable replacement – that change can happen as soon as we find “the guy” otherwise our leadership is stuck with him
    –SLT 2.0 will need to have meetings (don’t commit to this if you don’t have time)
    –I will reach out to the PAX via the weekly email to volunteer to be in the lottery this weekend.

    4. The plan for future growth (for the SLT 2.0)
    a.) 501c – Tool and the $$, Gaby and Moana
    b.) Slack vs Groupme
    c.) Growth of AOs in the region (Northshore region plan, Thibodaux, West Bank,etc)
    d.) EH Outside our demo

    5. CSAUP calendar
    a.) IRON PAX – Sept – start getting Pax registered now
    b.) 10 yr anniversary in Wilmington, NC aka CAPE FEAR Oct 9/10
    c.) Roast to Coast – first weekend in NOV
    d.) Go Ruck Vets beatdown in NOV
    e.) Christmas Party – Almonaster has the Q

    I am looking forward to pushing forward with SLT 2.0. I can’t wait for some explosive growth in 2022. I hope that we can keep our own regional identity and stay true to the starfish and really insist that we are all the F3 NOLA leadership. Also – NO Otisbombs. If you have a great idea for F3 NOLA – you step up and you Q it!
    SYITG –
    Reluctant Yankee

  • Armistice 2020

    I looked for a good Veteran’s Day themed WOD and found 2 that I liked. I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take to complete (particularly Catfish) so the plan was to have everyone complete WOD #1 and then transition to WOD #2 with the left over time for AMRAP. Turns out WOD #1 was all that was needed.

    Warm up:

    Mosey around the traffic circle and end at the second intersection. Circle up.

    • SSH x 20 IC
    • Windmills x 10 IC
    • Arm circles fwd/rev x 10 each IC
    • Hillbillies x 15 IC
    • Peter Parkers x 15 IC

    Tha Thang:

    Everyone would need to grab a bench throughout Roosevelt Mall. The plan was to complete the WOD and record your time.

    11 rounds for time

    11 Mountain Climbers

    11 Squats

    11 Hand release Merkins

    11 Box jump burpees

    200 meter run (this consisted of running around the neutral ground to the bench opposite where you started)

    Kudos to Catfish as he was the only PAX to complete all 11 rounds. As the time approached 6:15 PAX were instructed to head back to the flag once they had finished their respective round for some Mary.

    Count-off, Name-o-rama, Announcements, Intentions, COT.

  • 6 Year Anniversary (10-14-2020) – The Birdcage

    Woke up early to this beautiful, cool, dry morning to setup the field in front of Audubon Zoo with our F3 flags. Then I moseyed to our usual Birdcage COT spot to meet up with 45 other PAX to celebrate F3Nola’s 6 year anniversary. Before the disclaimer, I told the PAX that this is our actual anniversary date, and The Birdcage was our very first weekday AO. We then headed over to the field in front of Audubon Zoo with our warmup exercises in cadence. To honor our 6 year anniversary, we started the day with 6 burpees OYO.

    1.) SSHs x 20

    2.) Windmills x 10

    3.) Self Love x 10

    4.) Imperial Walkers x 20

    5.) Peter Parker, Parker Peter, MCs x 15

    We divided the PAX in 2 groups in the middle of the field. One group was facing the Zoo while the other was facing Magazine Street. Each group had their own marker to reach to (which was about 50 feet away).

    Round 1 – moseyed to the marker and did 10 hand release merkins. Then moseyed back to the middle of the field and went back out to marker to do 15 hand release merkins. Then moseyed back to the middle of the field and went back to the marker to finish off with 20 hand release merkins. Then converged back to the middle of the field to wait for the Six (SSHs until the Six was done).

    Round 2 – similar routine as round 1 except we did 10, 15, and 20 big boy situps.

    Round 3 – similar to round 1 except we did 10, 15, and 20 jump lunges. Also, instead of running, we were side hopping.

    Round 4 – similar to round 1 except we did 10, 15, and 20 leg raises.

    Round 5 – similar to round 3 except we did 10, 15, and 20 squats.

    Round 6 – similar to round 1 except we bear crawled to the marker and moseyed back to the middle of the field with 20, 40, and 60 overhead air presses in between.

    Round 7 – similar to round 6 except we bunny hopped to the marker and moseyed back to the middle of the field with 5, 10, and 15 burpees in between.

    At some point during the workout, we saw a shooting star with a crescent moon in the backgound.

    Round of Mary

    We did the following in cadence:

    1.) American Hammers x 20

    2.) LBCs x 20

    3.) Hello Dolly x 20

    4.) Low Country Crabs x 10 (Yankee’s lead)

    5.) Dying Cockroach x 20 (Hawgcycle’s lead)

    COT

    We finished the beatdown with COT. Announcements and prayers. Someone mentioned Bogey is buying for everyone who shows up at the Deutsches Haus tonight. We thank Sky Q for giving us the strength everyday so that we can do this on a regular basis. Always grateful to be out in the AM with the PAX and hopeful for many years of this.

    Few of us had some F2 coffee at PJ’s on Magazine. Always entertaining conversations with the PAX. SYITG

  • The Bridge Run

    YHC signed up for the Ocean Springs Bridge Run on September 12th in Mississippi, so he wanted to practice running some bridges. The best place to practice bridge running is the Wisner Bridge. Therefore, this morning’s 610 Stomp was off to the bridge!

    New Route

    Down past the Museum of Art and take a hard left right before the park exit to run alongside the Big Lake and toward the festival grounds trail. Once the Pax arrives at De Saix Blvd, sweep the six, so we can all arrive at the base of the Wisner Bridge together. (At least this is a new route for me)

    The Thang

    Run over the bridge and back, repeat

    Run one lap around the Festival Grounds Trail

    Back to the bridge for two more trips over

    Run back to the flag for the COT

    YHC greatly underestimated the distance to go over the Wisner Bridge and back. Most of the Pax completed the two trips over the bridge and the lap around the old festival grounds, but only Shuffles and Bongo made it back up to the bridge following the mile lap. We will try it again this fall and hope to find a higher percentage of runners make it back up the bridge.

    Closing

    Count-off, Name-O-Rama, Intentions, and Prayer

    Thanks for the opportunity to lead

    Rev Sox

  • D.B.B’s (Decline Bridge Burpees)

    Gentlemen,

    Today ‘twas my first Q since sometime earlier this year. Apparently having a 3rd child during a global pandemic can be a bit cumbersome, but fortunately I’m back in the proverbial saddle and back out in the gloom attending some beatdowns with the boys. To get things kicked off, we did a warmup:

    Warmup:

    • Side straddle hops – 25 in cadence
    • Mountain climbers – 25 in cadence
    • Windmills – 10 in slow cadence
    • Arm circles – 10 forward, 10 backward in cadence
    • Grass grabbers – 15 in cadence

    The Thang:

    Next, we mosey’d over to Wisner Mountain. At the base of the mountain, we partnered up and then we sprinted at 85% to the top of the bridge. Once at the top, we rotated some exercise as follows:

    • Dirkins – 25 count
    • Box cutters – 25 count
    • Low slow squats – 25 count

    Then, we mosey’d down the other side of the bride and did the following:

    • High/Middle/Low push ups – till arms got tired
    • 1 legged squats – 15 per leg
    • Calf raises – 25 cadence count
    • Dying cockroaches – 25 cadence count
    • LBC’s – 25 cadence count
    • Merkins using the bridge to hold up our feet – 25 in cadence

    After that, we hit another sprint at 85% back to the top of the bridge. Once at the top, we did D.B.B.’s (Decline Bridge Burpees) all the way down the back side of the bridge. At each new slab of concrete, we stopped and did a burpee. I obviously didn’t do a great job of counting the concrete slabs on my initial sprint up the bridge because I thought this would equate to around 15 burpees or so. But by the time we got to the bottom, I would estimate that we each did between 30-40 burpees on the way down the bridge. One theory on how my burpee estimate was so off is that on our first trip up the bridge, we were sprinting so fast that it was physically impossible for any human to accurately count the number of concrete slabs on the bridge. Tool was next to me while sprinting, so he may be able to verify if this was indeed the case.

    In any event, after finishing the burpees, we took a brief stretch break and then mosey’d back to the flag. Once there, we did the count-off, name-o-rama, announcements & prayer. We also had an FNG out in the gloom with us this day. Roots brought a pal of his out there named Jake. Jake was wearing a red shirt, and somehow or another someone ended up calling him Jake from State Farm at some point, so after a little banter we decided to name him ‘khakis’ referencing the fella named Jake who is wearing khakis in those State Farm commercials. Thanks for the opportunity to lead, guys. Felt great to get back out there and lead a beatdown again.  

  • Bringing the Thunder

    13 PAX braved the feels like temp of 93 degrees and the threat of storms this morning at the Birdcage. We were lucky to avoid the torrential downpours that immediately followed our COT, and I thoroughly kicked my own ass during this beatdown. Hats off to my fellow F3 brothers who pushed me to the brink today.

    The Warmup…Short Mosey to an Open Field (not the best idea surrounded by lightning, but what the heck), SSH X 20, Windmill X 10, Imperial Walkers X 20, Grassgrabbers X 10, Imperial Walkers X 20, Mountain Climbers X 20, Peter Parkers X 20.

    Short socially distanced mosey to the Zoo parking lot where we began a routine of Some Merkins, Core, Legs, Run around the parking lot…Repeat

    1. Merkins X 11 IC, LBC X 20 IC, Squats X 20 OYO, Run a lap
    2. Merkins X 12 IC, Dying Cockroach X 20 IC, Bonnie Blair X 20 OYO, Run a lap
    3. Merkins X 13 IC, Real Freddie Mercury X 20 IC, Imp Walker Squat X 20 OYO, Run
    4. Merkins X 14 IC, Flutterkicks X 20 IC, Side Lunge (10 each side) X 20 OYO, Run.

    The original plan was to repeat this with some variation on rep count, but the ominous skies provoked a Mosey back near the shelter. It was there, in honor of the conditions that we summoned Captain Thor.

    • The Captain Thor: Exercise OYO, but start as a group at the beginning of each round.
    • 1 Big Boy Sit Up, 4 American Hammer (2 is 1), 5 Merkins,
    • 2 BBSU, 8 AH, 5 Merkins
    • 3 BBSU, 12 AH, 5 Merks
    • 4, 16, 5
    • 5, 20, 5
    • 6, 24, 5
    • 7, 28, 5
    • 8, 32, 5

    With a little over 5 minutes left I called on some old fashioned burpees.

    • As many Burpees as you can in 30 seconds, followed by 1 minute of rest X 2
    • As many Burpees as you can in 20 seconds, followed by 1 minute of rest X 2

    Back to the flag, 30 seconds of plank until time. Count o Rama, Name o Rama, Soc Dist BOM and COT.

    Thanks again for providing me the opportunity to lead. I swear every Q I’ve had I end up doing more than I bargained for, and more than I thought myself capable of. I guess that’s the thing about Leading…you dig into yourself in a way that you didn’t think possible. So, it should stand to reason that stepping up to lead in our community (no matter how small) will afford us the same opportunity…finding out just how much you have inside of you, and realizing there’s a lot more than meets the eye. As we all reflect, discuss, and reflect some more about the current circumstances I just urge us to keep prepping ourselves by becoming the best version of ourselves everyday. The chance to rise to the occasion will present itself, and when it does…How will it find you?

    Thanks and see you in the gloom.

  • 9 holes Mardi Gras golf

    Got the park early for a little Birthday Q!

    After a quick disclaimer we did the small loop and met at the stage for warmup

    SSH, grass grabbers, mountain climbers, plank jacks, toy soldiers

    Next we moseyed over to the First hole for 9 holes of Mardi gras golf

    1st hole – Merkins 10x

    2nd hole- American hammers

    3rd hole- Rosalitas

    4th hole- Dying cockroach

    5th hole- Imperial Walkers

    6th hole- Gorilla humpers

    7th hole- Reverse crunckes

    8th hole- Alternating shoulder taps

    9th hole- Squats

    Next we moseyed over to the shelter for:

    Incline merkin, RLSU, decline merkin,Dips, LLSU. There was a little chatter about the increase in pace. Sorry

    Next we circled up for Mary: crunchy frog, leg lifts, sorry forgot the other 2

    We had a few minutes to spare so we did another small loop around the parking lot and moseyed back to the flag for name-o- rama and a little mardi gras prayer.

    Second Q was definitely a lot easier than the first thanks to a lot of those early morning F3 workouts.

  • Monkey Humper Monday

    Got to bed late and was feeling tired and uninspired this am – forced myself to the beatdown because I was the Q today. First person I saw was Revit and I mentioned that I wasn’t feeling it yet – and he reminded me that sometimes getting out of bed “the daily red pill” is the biggest challenge. And he is right! The whole day is better because of that one decision.

    Got the PAX together and ran across Magazine to the Figure 8 path in front of Audubon statue. Here we did a quick warm up: SSH x 20, Low Country Crabs x 20, Mtn Climbers x 20. Then we did 20 Monkey Humpers OYO, and do 20 MHs OYO at the tip of the 8s and where the line crosses so we did 100 MHS total.

    Then we moseyed to the FLY. We did some LBC x 20, Leg Lifts x 20 and dying roaches x 20. We also did 20 Monkey Humpers OYO.

    From there we moseyed to near the hill – at the hill we did Merks around the clock. With our hands on the curb. at 12, 3, 6, 9. oclock.

    After that we moseyed to a softer spot – and did 20 Jlos. Plus 20 Monkey Humpers.

    I let the boys open up the throttle for a full run to the Labrynth. The lead guys were supposed to ping pong for the 6 to get those extra miles.

    At the Labrynth we did Bulgarian splits L and R and Dips.

    Then we went for the long mosey back to the FLAG. Got to the FLAG early so we did Monkey Humpers until the 6 got there. With the 6 we did another 1 min of Monkey Humpers.

    Thanks for making me take the DRP today – I will be back at it on Wed!

  • Let’s go down and up the ladder. It’s Mardi Gras time!

    Yes, Mardi Gras time is upon us.  After a long first weekend where YHC walked in TWO parades, YHC was wondering how he could plan a challenging beatdown that wouldn’t use much of his voice.  Hmmmm…let’s see.  Welcome and Disclaimer let’s mosey to in front of bandstand for:

    Warm Up

    • Imperial Walkers IC X20
    • Toy Soldiers (in place) IC X20
    • Windmills IC X15
    • Self-Love IC X15

    Mosey to lagoon side of bandstand for:

    Cooper!  A Burpee/Squat/Merkin ladder beginning at 10 count of each exercise descending down 1 rep with a long lap from bandstand to track through parking lot and back to bandstand between each round.  For those that make it all the way down the ladder, go back up starting with 1 rep, 2 reps, etc.    As an added bonus YHC has brought some music for your listening pleasure!  Sorry for “You’re the Best” Angie’s List, you Karate Kid hater.  I think I made up for it with a little Tenacious D.

    Time is up.  Mosey to Flag for Mission Impossible to Close Out

    Nice job PAX!  Especially those PAX who ran over 4 miles.  Looking at you Mariah and Bieber, who may have run a half-marathon. 

    Count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions and prayer.

    Thanks for letting me lead!