Conditions: 72 degrees, 90% humidity, winds out of the SSE at 4 mph.
Participants: 30 Pax including, 7 H8!ers, and 14 first timers.
Each lap consists of running south to the top of the levee, crossing canal (bear crawling the neutral ground), running south to the bottom of the levee, cross canal and run north to the top of the levee, cross canal (bear crawling the neutral ground), running north down the levee and back across canal to the starting point. At the starting point you do a descending burp and merk pyramid starting at 8 (burpee with 8 merkins, burpee with 7 merkins, …..burpee with 1 merkin)
At the end of the 2nd lap the burp and merk pyramid starts at 7, etc.
The goal is to complete 8 laps in 40 minutes. According to MapMyRun, each loop is approximately 0.4 miles. Therefore, to conquer the H8! you will have to do the following in 40 minutes:
Run just less than 3.5 Miles of Hills
550 Yards of Bear Crawls
36 Burpees
120 Merkins
We did AMRAP and then moseyed back to the flag.
The Skinny
12 finishers for a 40% success rate: SOGO, Cowbell, Smooth, Mahatma, 86, Thighs, Mariah, Triple Shift, Dirty Dell, Ya Mom N Dem, Screwtop, and Hawgcycle
No one got nine. Who will be the first?
I feel like YHC spent most of my energy chirping at Mahatma, at least until the 5th lap at which point he left me far enough behind he couldn’t hear me anymore.
I may have to put cones out next time to protect the integrity of the H8!.
Rudy had his first DNF at the H8! but it was for medical reasons. His doctor says no burpees. I would like to find a doctor like that.
Well the ISI challenge brought a record crew to Colisseum Square run. 10 PAX headed out after finding the correct starting spot (bigger round fountain on the uptown side of the park.) Headed down to Melpomene then up to St.Charles for a run in the Neutral Ground. Fast group made it to Napoleon (others turned earlier) then down to Magazine and back to the start. Lead group paced at 8:10 mile with the last 2 miles under 8! At the imaginary flag- misordered name-o-rama and countoff and then a prayer for charity. Great morning!
Im over a week late so apologies if I missed anyone or got their name wrong. We mixed it up this morning. We stayed together for the most part for the first half and had some jazz fest artists’ music playing in the background. After disclaimer, we did some quick active stretching. Then it was a “blue” Indian run to where esplanade ends (or begins depending on how you look at it). We circled up and did a few more exercises then it was all out sprint down esplanade to dog park across from Santa Fe restaurant. From there we cut over toward the fairgrounds mixing in some exercises with sprints until the entrance to the jazz fest. It was on your own back to the flag following the same way we came. About 5.0k distance covered in honor of the 50th fest. A little bit of time for some stretching then the circle up for name o Rama, intentions, and announcements. Fun work out this am. Thanks screwtop for the pic.
Man, what a beautiful Saturday morning in April. It’s really one of the best months of the year in NOLA. 20 men gathered on this beautiful day for some F3. The usual disclaimer and off we go.
We moseyed to the great lawn, unusually soggy and muddy on this day, for the warm-up COP:
SSH x 20 IC
Peter Parkers x 20 IC
Abe Vigodas x 10 IC
Arm Circles 10 Forward, 10 Backward IC
Hill Billies x 20 IC
Mountain Climbers x 20 IC
Next a short jog to the front of NOMA where we crossed paths with the MuscleShip, on their turf. Here YHC distastefully lead the Mothership pax in 10 Monkey Humpers in the general direction of the MuscleShip pax. Sorry @Abacus, not very tasteful of this Q. I do apologize.
Then we lined up for an inverted BLIMP pyramid along the tree line, or something like that. Exercise, then run to the next tree.
5 Burpees
10 Lunges each leg
15 Imperial Walkers each leg
20 Merkins
25 Plank Jacks
30 Squats
30 Squats
25 Plank Jacks
20 Merkins
15 Imperial Walkers each leg
10 Lunger each leg
5 Burpees
We moseyed to the end of Lelong Drive for the next COP:
Side lunges x 10 IC
Low slow squats x 20 IC
Tree Huggers x 10 IC
Then travelled back down the opposite side of Lelong Drive, heading back toward NOMA, with animals on parade. Parade for 6 trees, doing a different animal at each tree. Then a Route 66 back to NOMA, stopping at each street light for 5 jump lunges with each leg.
Back at NOMA, pair up for 2 rounds of Merkin ladders. One pax does a Merkin ladder up the steps of NOMA, 8 Merkins at the bottom to 1 at the top, while the other pax does alternating step-ups at the fountain. 2 rounds.
Mosey to the baby foundry. Each pax does 10 pull-ups, 10 dips. 2 rounds.
Mosey to the fence at Tad Gormley stadium for calf raises. Regular calf raises x 20 IC, toe-in calf raises x 20 IC, toe-out calf raises x 20 IC.
Finally mosey back to the flag for some hamstring stretches before the finish. Count-off, name-o-rama, intentions, and a prayer. Welcome to our FNG, Donatello. Thank you for letting me lead.
In a feat only New Orleans can accomplish, the PAX arrived to a cool yet muggy morning at 5:30 today. The sun might even have been peeking through the clouds as we set off into the humid air for a run. With the H8 last week, the new sprint workout, and the general level of intensity at the workouts lately, YHC thought a simple run this morning – no burpees, no sprints, no Mary – would be a nice change of pace. And so, that is what we did.
One of the nice things about a run is that it gives you time to talk. I personally got to run with several different PAX and catch up on all the latest. Among those I was able to run with was Steinbrenner from F3 Memphis, who is in town for a convention. We traded some war stories, learned we were both former high school wrestlers with a tendency to eat an entire large bag of chips in one sitting, and talked about the myriad ways F3 had affected our lives. Somewhere along the way, he looked me in the face and said “F3 has changed my life”.
Later I went to lunch with a friend, and we were joined by another PAX member from this morning, Briefs. Briefs is new within the last month or so, but you wouldn’t know it from the workouts. As we were walking out of the restaurant and chatting about the run this morning, he looked me in the eye and said “F3 has changed my life.”
They say good things come in threes, and it is F THREE, so I will say this much: F3 has changed my life. I think the myriad ways in which this statement is accurate are well known to all of us, and to suggest it’s only a physical change would be silly.
So thanks to all of you for that, as well as the opportunity to lead this morning.
The newest F3 Nola workout exploded on to the scene today with a Pax of 6. This was my first workout with Rudy since he has been back. It was nice to have him keep me accountable on the time as I started one minute late with the disclaimer.
Warm-Up
I believe this AO will prove to be high risk / high reward so the warm-up will prove to be the most important part of the workout. Today was cooler than normal so it became extra important.
Jog to the track and continue for one lap (About 1/3 of a mile).
Lunge walk x 10 each leg
Elephant walk (Reach down with your right hand grabbing the toes on your right foot and pull up on them for 2-3 seconds. Take three steps and repeat with left foot, yadda, yadda, yadda.
High knees
Butt kicks
Carioca right then carioca left
Exaggerated Skip aka Super Mario
Short sprints with recovery (10 yards, 20 yards, 30 yards, 40 yards, 50 yards)
The Thang
We ran a mile for time to set our baseline. The plan is to check our progress in 3 months or so. Here are the times:
El Guapo: 7:01
High Rise: 7:54
Kuch: 7:29
Rudy: 7:09
Screwtop: 6:48
Hawgcycle: 6:37
After finishing the mile we did some more stretching: Butterfly and Hamstring.
A few more sprints: 220m at 75%, 110m at 50%, finished with 3 100m sprints at full speed
Cool Down
Easy Jog for 330m followed by lunges x 10 each leg and a mosey back to the flag for COT.
The Skinny
Cool morning so the long warm-up was necessary. I stuck with my plan in spite of Rudy’s mumble chatter. To tell you the truth, I enjoyed it. It’s been a while. It’s possible that I started a minute late and extended the warm-up just to hear his sarcasm.
Kuch and Screwtop set the standard for the 100m sprints.
Screwtop and YHC both left the track a little gimpy. Based on early returns there is only a 33% chance of getting injured at this AO. This is better than I envisioned. The risk is high, but I think the reward will be greater.
Screwtop stepped up to take the next Q. Don’t miss out.
Still looking for a name. I’m good with “Need for Speed” if nothing else emerges over the next week or so. After he set the bar for the first two 100m sprints, we could go with “The Kuch is Loose.”
As many New Orleanians might be aware, Hamilton has been playing at The Saenger for a 3 week run. As many F3ians might be aware, Da Parish and Rudy have a thing for musicals. So of course, the Hamilton workout was an obvious combination. And a plot was hatched – only publicized to those PAX that were In The Room Where It Happened….. So Hamilton and Burr signed up to Q the Mothership and Muscleship.
6:29am, PAX loitering around both flags wondering who was stepping forward to claim the Q. Especially loud grumbling at the Mothership flag from Jingle Vader, who repeatedly expressed his dislike for all things in Pop Culture.
6:30am, Rudy at Mothership and Parish at Muscleship give the disclaimers to PAX (most of whom seemed to be saying “Yeah, I figured.”). And both PAX took off to meet at the flag standing by a large box in the field in front of the museum.
And what was in the box? No – this isn’t a Brad Pitt “What’s in the Box?” scene. Instead, it was the exercise gear for the Qs…
And all the PAX grumbled and groaned, but still circled up in one large combined workout circle.
The Warmup – Qs alternating exercise callouts
16 SSH (Hamilton was 16 on arrival to US)
7 Burpees OYO as we begin spelling out Burr
21 Imperial Walkers (Hamilton was 21 when he became aide to Washington
Up/Downs to Burr’s cadence
30 Peter Parkers (Hamilton was 30 at the Constitutional Convention
Rocky Balboas to more of Burr cadence
Then (thanks to Mahatma’s good advice), PAX numbered off. 1s go with Hamilton (Rudy), 2s go with Burr (Parish). The Q vs Q Showdown begins…
Burr – Round 1
Dora 1-2-3 to Aaron Burr, Sir & My Shot. Pax 1 will perform the exercise while Pax 2 Burr Crawls to the 2nd tree & back.
Floyd Mayweather x 100 (2=1) – Hamilton upon meeting Burr advised he had recently punched the bursar of Princton
Squats x 200 – Burr advises Hamilton, Laurens, Mulligan & Lafayette that he’d rather sit than stand for the revolution
American Hammer x 300 – Hamilton does not throw away his shot and drops his American Hammer on Burr, Lafayette, Laurens & Mulligan
MerKING Wave/Burr Crawl to You’ll be Back
While PlanKING during the song sung by King George, pax will do a MerKING wave (1 merkin performed in a wave around the circle). When the last pax merks, the entire circle will Burr Crawl clockwise 1 rotation. Repeat the MerKING wave with 2 merks, Burr Crawl, etc until song is complete.
Mary to the song Guns & Ships.
Hold out your gun at Yorktown by holding a James Bond for :30 center/left/righ
Yorktown would not have been a victory w/out the French ships in the harbor. Hold your Boat/Canoe for :30 and finish out the song.
Hamilton – Round 1
Hamiltabata. 8 exercises, 45 seconds high intensity, 15 seconds of rest. To the songs Alexander Hamilton and My Shot
Happy Jacks (5 SSH, 2 Squat Jumps)
Absolution (8 count plank-position exercise)
Merkins
Imperial Squat Walkers
Lunges
T-Merkins
Outlaw
No Surrender (aka “The Genuflect”, in F3 Nola lexicon)
20 Count
To the 2:30 song Aaron Burr: Burpees. OYO. Go. Until the song ends. Yes, grumbly PAX – I mean it. Till the song ends.
20 Count
Mosey to the fountain for a version of the Cabinet Battle.
PAX 1 planks
PAX 2 dips x30 – with feet on PAX 1 back.
Flapjack.
Flapjack for x20
Flapjack for x10
Interlude
Both groups met at the lawn, and switched. Now the 2s go with Hamilton and the 1s go with Burr.
Burr – Round 2
Take a Break while we mosey to the Foundry
Time for an amRAP Battle while we hear Cabinet Battle #1
5 Pull ups, 10 Merkins, 15 Squats, Repeat until song is complete (3:35)
How are you going to Say No To This first American Political Sex Scandal. Hamilton was being extorted by James Reynolds while Hamilton had sex with his wife Maria. The first time it happened Hamilton gave Maria $30. Perform 30 reps (IC) of these 3 Big Sexy Exercises
Pickle Pounders
Wife Pleasers
Monkey Humpers
Mosey back to the flag…Mr Burr has business to settle with Hamilton. Your Obedient Servant
Hamilton – Round 2
Same as Round 1. Equal amounts of grumbling about the burpees. Some members of this group seemed to have an entirely different perspective on the Plank/Dip combo. Rudy suggests the Uptowners pull their minds out of the gutter.
Rudy does note that this routine was significantly harder the 2nd time around….
The Duel
All PAX meet back at the flag for the final 10-Count Duel. Qs alternate calling an exercise, making a ladder.
1 Burpee
2 Squat Jumps (then 1 Burpee)
3 Merkins (then 2 Squat Jumps, then 1 Burpee. You get the idea…)
4 Lunges
5 Country Crabs
6 Dr W
7 X Fit Merkins
8 Box Cutters
9 Turkish Getups
10 Rise Ups – Hold a Squat while Q counts down from 5, squat Jump, immediately return to Squat.
And with that, the F3 NOLA Tribute to Hamilton comes to a merciful close. Just a few minutes overtime.
Countoff and Name-o-rama, welcoming our new FNG Water Boy (named quickly before the uptowners could start suggesting based on Water Boy’s pronounced profession of selling Industrial Hoses).
Upcoming F1 / F2 this Thursday night at Greenway (6:30) and Wrong Iron (7:00).
Intentions called out, ask all of us to offer our own prayers for the intentions (spoken and otherwise) for all of our brother PAX. Finally, circle up for our closing prayer. Offer of thanksgiving for the glorious day God has given us, and for the grace of His wisdom to use this gift wisely.
Rudy and DaParish both thank the PAX for their merciful tolerance of this workout.
We have the honor to be your obedient servants….A dot Ham….A dot Burr.
Last Thursday at Okwata Rudy being Rudy suggested I sign up
to Q. At first, I said to myself “not
going to happen” then over the course of the day I decided to look up the Q
sheet just to see when the next Q spot was open- thinking it would be about 5-8
weeks out. Not the case, there was an opening the next week (today). I decided
to rip the band aide off and pop my Q cherry and sign-up for my VQ.
18 PAX met out on the banks of Okwata with 15 mph winds whipping
a nice cool 50 degrees through our bodies. Considering this is the 2nd
official day of spring I hope the cold weather is past us. The 20 degree
weather swings from 5:30am to Noon is getting old.
We started off with a Mosey to the grass by Landry’s for
warm-ups. Probably one of the only time’s you’ll ever hear the restaurant Landry’s
come out of my mouth. The warm ups
consisted of:
25 – SSH IC 15 – Should Taps IC 15 – Arm Circles Front IC 15 – Arm Circle Reverse IC 15 – Plank Jacks IC 15 – Peter Parkers IC 15 – Mountain Climbers IC
In full disclosure the above workouts above were “the plan”
not sure what the final counts were. Never realized how hard it was to count when
the Q. Much respect for my past Q’s. Also,
a lot of mumble chatter about having to get back to your feet for arm circles
and then back down again for plank jacks might have to incorporate more of this
in future Q’s since everyone enjoyed it so much.
My novice and out of breath warm-up Counting self, decided a
30 second count down was a good idea – After some grumbling – Kuch quickly
counted to 10 (thanks for the help!) and we then proceeded to split into 2
groups for an Indian Run back to the Hill. At the Hill we partnered up for a
little “bern”. One partner did a Bernie Sanders up the Hill and run back down
(then switch) until the below exercises were complete.
Now that our legs were nice and “berning” we crossed the
street to complete running to the street light and post up for 5 merkin’s X 3 lights.
The goal was to hit 3 street lights that were a decent length from each other,
however I didn’t realize there were two sets of street lights one’s on the left
and one’s on the right. My intentions were the left (the distance one’s) however
we improvised and completed the exercise. We circled up for Mary where we did:
20 Flutter Kicks IC 10 Turtle Crunchs IC 10 Hello Dolly IC 10 Big Boy Sit Ups OYO
Again, this was “the plan” not sure what the final counts were
as I was once again out of breath from counting. Definitely need to work on
that for next time!
With 3 mins to Spare we Moseyed back to the Flag where Mahatma
suggested a little ring of Fire. 6:15am came and we circled up. 18 PAX were at
the AO. We welcomed a new FNG “The Greek”. Congrats to Two Yutes on making 10 years of
marriage!
YHC and Ya Mom n’dem learned Monday morning as they rode in the Lakeview clown car home from Rock City that Abacus would not be able to Q the Stomp today. Instead of throwing it out to the Mumblechatter in search of a Q, an idea was born: why not do everyone a solid and bring the burpees back? Who wouldn’t appreciate our generosity?
And so, after a brief yet rambling disclaimer, 16 men set out to do the 610 Stomp our forefathers had envisioned when they created this workout many years ago: 6 minute run, 10 burpees; 3x on the way out, then turn and do it 3 times on the way back. Ya Mom n’Dem kept the time while YHC jsut tried to keep up. The Pax managed anywhere from about 4-5 miles (and however far Smooth ran) in 40+ minutes with 60 burpees thrown in for fun. Definitely a solid Tuesday.
We closed it out with IC LBC’sx20 and IC crab cakes x15, and then 5 Turkish getups OYO. Everyone made it back to the flag in time, and we welcomed back Woz, who had a strong showing back from several months laid up with an injury. We prayed for those dealing with cancer in our F3 family and extended F3 family.
This month I’ve tried to focus on appreciating each moment of each day, and making a concerted effort not to waste it. The basic concept is that if you do only what you have to do and what you really want to do, you will have more time to focus on those things, as opposed to procrastinating, playing on social media, or engaging in other non-productive/non-enjoyable habits we form. And so, we reminded ourselves to take advantage of today, but to also be thankful that we are able to – and to never take that for granted, because none of us is guaranteed anymore than this moment.
Meanwhile, I’m thankful for the privilege to lead this group. – Kuch
It was chilly, rainy & dark when I got out of bed on Saturday morning, so I was dragging my feet a little to get dressed. On the Mumblechatter, Tool & Kimchi posted messages to get the PAX motivated to get out of bed & come post. While the LV fellas (Kuch, Half Nelson, Abacus & High Rise) & myself were clown carring to the AO, we bounced some workout ideas off of each other. One idea was to avoid the rain altogether & head strait to Navarre café so that the PAX could all drink coffee & share their respective feelings with one another in lieu of working out in the cold/rain. Once I saw Mahatma arrive at the workout, I knew this option would be a tough sell, so I proceeded to commence the beatdown.
Warmup: We mosey’d to the pavilion by CBS; circled up, and then proceeded to do the following in cadence:
side straddle hops – 20
imperial squat walkers – 20
plank jacks – 20
high knees – 20
Next, we split into 2 groups. Group 1 moved to 1 side of the pavilion, and group 2 moved to the other side:
Group 1:
10 inchworm burpees
50 big boy sit ups
100 seal jacks
Group 2:
10 regular burpees
50 dips on the benches
200 shoulder taps
Group 1 did their exercises in cadence, and then made sure that Group 2 was aware that they finished their exercises first. We then switched sides / exercises. For this round, Group 2 did their exercises in cadence (loudly to jab back at Group 1), and Group 2 finished first. Group 1 pointed out that Group 2 did LBC’s instead of big boy sit ups, and that’s why they finished first. This was in part (and by, in part, I mean 100%) the Q’s fault, as I mistakenly said LBC’s to Group 2 when giving the instructions for round 2.
Next we attempted to do a long jump / inchworm burpee combo, but it was too wet/slick in the pavilion, so we shut that down and mosey’s back to the fountain. Once at the fountain, we did an interval exercise where the PAX did 1 box jump on the fountain, ran to the museum steps, bunny hopped up the steps, did 1 merkin at the top of the steps, then ran down the steps back to the fountain. Once at the fountain, the PAX did 2 box jump, ran to the museum steps, bunny hopped up the steps, did 2 merkins at the top of the steps, then ran down the steps back to the fountain. We did this until we got to 10 box jumps / 10 merkins.
Next, the PAX mosey’d to the side of the museum & proceeded to do the following:
Group 1 – people’s chair on the wall
Group 2 – 200 Rocky Balboas (timer)
Once Group 2 finished the Rocky Balboas, we switched and had Group 1 do the Rocky Balboas & Group 2 lean against the wall to do the people’s chair. At one point, Rudy questioned Mahatma’s cadence technique while he was leading Group 2 in doing the Rocky Balboas, but ultimately the math checked out & we proceeded on with the workout
Next, we mosey’d to the grass & did the following:
Lunge walk / inchworm burpee combo from Tree 0 to Tree 1 & back
Bear Crawl from Tree 0 to Tree 2; do 31 squats (not sure where the number 31 came from, it just felt like the right amount); and then Bear Crawl back
Lastly, we headed back to the fountain & did the following in cadence:
Irkins – 21
Dips – 16
Left leg high knee step up – 21
Right leg high knee step up – 21
Dirkins – 16
Plank jacks on museum steps – 31 (there’s that 31 again for no particular reason. Classic)
Once completed, we mosey’d to the flag for the count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions & prayer. Thanks for posting on Saturday morning, fellas. I enjoyed it!
