F3 New Orleans

Tag: Russo

  • Old Reliable(s) – from Russo

    The beat up pair of sneakers you cut the grass in. The Dinner Party episode of the Office. The Lollapalooza ‘94 tee shirt with the hole under the arm. The first Karate Kid. 80s rock from Def Leppard. Anything by Led Zeppelin. Some things are just comfortable, reliable, and make you feel like all is right in the world.

    In my corner of the F3 Northshore world, reliable means a Splashpad Q, Pelican, an ongoing “feud” with the A1C that defines ISI, and weather that is continuing to turn more humid and getting close to “hot”. The weather that turns me into Jackson Pollock, where sweat beads down almost immediately and paints a dotted abstract picture on the ground when it falls. Art!

    Add in the reliable Deck of Death as a base, and one has all the makings of a classic beatdown.

    Warmup
    – SSHs
    – Grass grabbers
    – Cherry pickers
    – Self love
    – Arm circles
    – Seal jacks

    Thang

    Quick mosey of the block, directly into the deck of death. Rep count and exercise was based on suit and number. Deck was split into four groups below.

    Between groups we slalomed the columns or ran the block.

    Hearts – wide merkins
    Diamonds – Peter Parker’s
    Spades – 8 count body builders
    Clubs – merkins

    Hearts – burpees
    Diamonds – lunges (2 is 1)
    Spades – Monkey humpers
    Clubs – Big boy sit-ups

    Hearts – ballerina squats
    Diamonds – SMCs
    Spades – imperial squat walkers
    Clubs – Star jumps

    Hearts – leg raises
    Diamonds – V ups
    Spades – Gas pumps
    Clubs – Crunchy frogs

    Mary: 15 IC freak nastys and another brief mosey.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, and prayer closed us out. Reliable words that I’ve copied and pasted numerous times.

    In all seriousness, one of the most reliable things for me is to know there’s a group of men that will often meet to push each other hard, grumble about it constantly, hurt or ache for a bit, and then get up early to do it all again. Unless your Steve or TruCoat, we do it without a smile on our face while we’re in the midst of it. But there are reasons we do it, and for me, one of those is so that I can be more reliable, dependable, a strength to those around me, most importantly my family. I don’t always hit that mark, but that remains the goal, and without this group, that task is more difficult.

    Our church had a men’s dinner and short service after, and one of the notes our speaker reminded us of is that we are defined and shaped by the company we keep, and where we spend our time, talents, and money. Think limit the negative influences, accentuate the positive ones.

    That’s why I post, to surround myself with a group of like-minded individuals who have each other’s best interests. Well, that and because I am afraid Slackbot will come after me and not open the pod-bat bay doors should I ever need it.

    SYITG

  • One and Done – from Russo

    Mid 60s this morning at the Pad. I suspected Pelican was out (injured with a steel chair to the head by the nefarious A1C posse), so the “Leader of one” as Zoo noted last week was a Leader of None, flying solo this week.

    Warmup
    Nothing formal or IC, just a lot of stretching and moaning and groaning loosening up the muscles and making sure I could still touch my toes.

    Thang
    Tabata:
    – 1 minute each with bricks, 20 seconds rest, with some moseying through the columns or around the block after each of the four rounds

    Round 1
    – Modified 8 count body builders (swap the plank jack for an arm curl)
    – side to sides
    – Overhead claps
    – Nutcrackers
    – Hallelujah squats

    Round 2
    – Tricep extensions
    – Arm curls
    – Air presses
    – Side to side squats
    – Arm circles
    – Milk maids

    Rinse and repeat rounds 1 and 2 for 3 and 4.

    Quick prayer before heading back to start a Friday.

    Reminder that the Zoorich Classic is this weekend and for my money it is one of the highlights of the F3 Northshore calendar.

    Also, if anyone is interested, our church is having their annual Men’s Dinner this upcoming Thursday at 6:30. Reach out if you’re interested in attending.

    SYITG

  • Whose Flag is That Anyway? – from Bushwacker

    YHC FINALLY remembered to bring a truckload of shovel flags from the Fury, and, somehow still went home with 2/3 of them 🤔

    Good temp, succinct warm-orama, great cameo! Let me speak only honest words: QIC was relieved to not see Speedy upon last-second arrival. First “shared run” on new shoes, humidity on the rise again and YHC in less than peak form, you’ll forgive El Wackador if inner jubilation was present. I still love you Speedy.😘

    The consummate odd couple of Severn Ave. decided to ruck off in the direction of Sunset Point whilst the remaining trio ran for just over 4 miles that both broke down my silent resolve to be silent, and had a former Scramble shuffler potentially EH’d to return as maybe ruckless rucker? Good ol’ Garfield ran a little stretch of the lakefront with the crew, aflight such as we were.

    A brief slathering of yoga-esque recovery until the ruckers descended on the flag(s) deep in the throws of discourse.

    Count/name, Zoorich Classic Saturday – bring frisbees and friends if you’ve got either. Men’s dinner at St Timothy tonight @6:30 hit up Russo if interested in going. JV prayed us out.

    Many thanks, gents!

  • Old Faithful on a Friday – from Russo

    Pleasant morning that was a little breezier than it has been. Hammer took the opportunity to cheat on the A1C with Jose out, and YHC is glad he did.

    Warmup
    – SSHs
    – Toe touches
    – Self love
    – High knees
    – Grass grabbers

    Thang

    Quick mosey of the block, directly into the deck of death. Rep count and exercise was based on suit and number. Deck was split into four groups below. First flip: Ace of Spades, 15 8 count body builders Huzzah!

    Between groups we slalomed the columns and continued on our efforts to solve all of the world’s problems.

    Hearts – wide merkins
    Diamonds – Peter Parker’s
    Spades – 8 count body builders
    Clubs – merkins

    Hearts – burpees
    Diamonds – lunges (2 is 1)
    Spades – Monkey humpers
    Clubs – Big boy sit-ups

    Hearts – ballerina squats
    Diamonds – SMCs
    Spades – imperial squat walkers
    Clubs – Star jumps

    Hearts – leg raises
    Diamonds – V ups
    Spades – Gas pumps
    Clubs – Crunchy frogs

    COT, Name-o-Rama, and prayer closed us out.

    SYITG

  • Scrambling along!!! – from Shooter

    Great mix on this mild morning at the Scramble.. We had 3 runners, 3 joggers and 2 Ruckers and it all worked according to plan.. YHC would like to thank two of the runners Bushwacker and Zoolander for pulling back their reins 🐎🐎 to jog along with the BIG 🐳🐳 of the group. Admittedly, as well as visually the Q has packed on some pounds and the time has come to get focused again too shed the extras gained.. The Queen has always been the struggle.. JV and Russo graciously and comically reminded YHC about his statement from coffateria on Saturday.. Committing to eating 🐠 🐠 for the next two weeks as he and the M travel abroad on a cruise filled with endless buffets and refreshments to satisfy anyone’s pleasure… Guys, this is the moment one must literally remove my 🦶🏻from my mouth… What was I thinking in saying this? The temptations will be overwhelming and this guy has fallen to less pressures admittedly… I guess the short of this rant, I will do my best to hold true. I am grateful that the Raiderpride community amongst the PAX are sure to ask upon my return how things went…

    Let me just give you the answer now..
    #epicfail 😬😬😬

    However, when I return I look forward to these F3 brethren pushing back at me and holding me accountable to the main goals… ACCELERATING in all 3Fs that has kept me committed to this PAX for 6 years…

    Warmup
    10IC Grass grabbers, Carolina dry docks, Toe Touches, Scorpion kicks, Bridges, wife pleasers, SSH and self love..

    Thang
    Steve, Speedy and Waterpik off and down W beach ti Lakeshore and backup the street passed the bridge.

    Bushwacker, Zoolander and YHC standard route with sunset point minus the pier still..

    JV and Russo rucking to Sunset point and returning..

    Joggers and runners received 6 mins of Mary consisting of ETKs, LMCs, Flutters, Hello Dollies, Rosalita’s, Nolan Ryan’s, Leg raises, 💯s and Jane Fonda’s!!!

    PAX announced and placed wagers on how long Bushwacker survives silence at Manresa this weekend. Contact your local book for the odds.. 😂

    Seriously though the PAX hope he enjoys the experience, which I am sure he will..

    Appreciate you HIMs for showing up and showing out as usual until the next Gloom
    👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!

  • …and Zoo made two – from Russo

    Right at about 60 degrees this morning for Pax of 2.

    Warmup (all 10x to 15x)
    – SSHs
    – toe touches
    – Grass grabbers
    – Arm circles
    – Self love
    – Good mornings

    Thang
    Maybe not tradition, but as has become the norm, we moseyed around old Mandy, stopping every block or so to do a 5-4-3-2-1 rep for different exercises, even stopping a couple times at the Marsh to play on the swing set. Or at least take advantage of monkey bars.

    Reps/ exercises
    5 T merkins
    4 Peter Parker’s
    3 Wide merkins
    2 8 count body builders
    1 Burpee

    5 SMCs
    4 Ballerina squats
    3 Imperial squat walkers
    2 Star Jumps
    1 Smurfjack

    5 pull ups
    4 dips
    3 calf raises
    2 hanging knee raises
    1 leg raise

    5 Leg raises
    4 Crunchy frogs
    3 V ups
    2 Gas pumps
    1 Big Boy sit-up

    5 freak nastys
    4 durkins
    3 BSSs
    2 Box jumps
    1 Urkin

    Reverse! On the way back and at home base, we reversed the rep count (e.g., 5 urkins, 4 box jumps)

    Wrapped it up with some Mary: 3 calf raises all the way up the pilot house, and then a slaloming of the columns before count, name-o-Rama, and prayer closed us out.

    It is reported a good time was had by all.

    SYITG

  • E=M(Burpees)² – from Steve

    Looooooong beatdown today. Sometimes these things fly by, other times it takes an eternity to get to Mary. This beatdown felt like it fell into the latter category, with the only reasonable explanation being that all of this morning’s burpees created some sort of gravitational field that resulted in time dilating. Well, maybe it was the burpees, maybe it was the black hole known as humidity.

    Anyway, YHC woke up this morning and briefly weighed all options, but Waterpik had killed our legs at the Marsh the day before and, as for core, well… let’s just say YHC can’t do another sit-up for at least a week after Pope’s core-palooza at the baseball field during Saturday’s convergence. So upper body it was. (T-claps to Pope, btw, for handling the unruly men of the Northshore with such assured leadership.).

    Three pax turned into four when Onions rolled up on his bike for his second consecutive beatdown. 👏👏👏 YHC is no longer the only guy biking to beatdowns, so now I expect some sorta Jets vs Sharks face-off with runners Hammer and Pik on the streets of Old Mandeville.

    Warmorama: Grass grabbers, self love, torso twist, IW’s, SSH’s. x10 IC.

    Thang: YHC has often heard, “Nothing good ever happens in the tunnel.” And while that may be true, I’d argue that worse things happen on the way to the tunnel. This morning, though, wasn’t so bad as we nixed the Kraken Burpees and opted instead for 10x T-merkins at each of the three intersections.

    Moseyed to the base of the tunnel, where we partnered up for Burpback Mountain, with a cumulative tally of 75 burpees. Felt like that alone should’ve shaved 15 minutes off the clock, but no, only about 6. So we went directly into another partner routine, P1 performing alternating leg lunges (cumulative total of 100) and P2 up the ramp for x10 merkins and back down to flap jack.

    Next up, some quick leg work consisting of 10-15x IC squats, monkey humpers, and jump squats. Then a mosey back to the flag, stopping again at each intersection for 10x T-merkins.

    Surely by this point we’d be out of time, but no – amazingly we had enough time to squeeze in a set of 7’s (freak nasties down below, and Sister Mary’s up top of the tower) as well as a full 6 minutes of Mary where we practically hit everything in the book. But, if Wicket taught me anything at Saturday’s beatdown, it’s that YHC is a very poor judge of many things, time being chief among them.

    COT and Russo prayed us out, with thanks for our many blessings, above all the gift of grace. And thank you men also for the accountability, the opportunity, and the fellowship.

  • Banking 101 and Civics 201 – from Russo

    70 degrees this morning, no wind to speak of. Looks like the cooler weather has returned from whence it came to return maybe in September if we’re lucky.

    We were so close to solving all of America’s problems this morning through chatter. If we would have had 5 more minutes, we would have been able to move on from “identification and assessment of issue” to “develop and execute plan”, yet here we are. We’ll have to pick it up again next time. The minutes, however, will reflect that a good time was had by all.

    Yet another rerun this week, we’re in the middle of those while we wait for the new fall season to arrive.

    Warmup (all 10x or 20x IC)
    – SSHs
    – Toe touches
    – High knees
    – Imperial walkers
    – Grass grabbers

    Thang
    Tabata:
    – 1 minute each with bricks, 30 seconds rest, with some moseying around the block after each of the three rounds.

    -Arm curls
    -Air presses
    -Hallelujah squats
    -Arm circles
    -Triceps extensions
    -Milk maids

    Wrap up with:
    – 20 IC Freak Nastys
    – 10 IC BSSs (2 is 1)
    – 20 more IC Freak Nastys
    – 20 IC Crunchy Frogs
    – 20 IC American Hammers

    COT, Name-o-Rama, Prayer closed us out.

    Fury! Inferno! Both coming up over the next two Saturdays. Keep in mind Fantastic Fury Fun starts at 6 tomorrow.

    Blessed to have partners in crime, today and in general. In seriousness though, YHC’s heart is weighed heavy this week as I look upon the events going on around us. I am not sure how we got here, or what it all means, or even how to start fixing what’s broken, but something clearly is. There shouldn’t be this much division, hatred, manipulation, greed, whatever.

    My prayer though is that my (and our) will is aligned with God’s. To me, when it is, things seem to go better, and even when they don’t, I feel more safe and secure that all things are working toward God’s intention for me/us. I am thankful there are decent people out there (and most of you qualify) that have priorities in order, and I ask God to make these folks more powerful, deliberate, bold, and vocal in their communities so that the Spirit can work and guide us to something better.

    SYITG

  • And the walls… – from Russo

    67 this morning and humid from the rain, but Pax of 3 managed to avoid the storms and put in the work.

    Warmup
    All 10x IC:
    – Seal jacks
    – Grass grabbers
    – Torso twists
    – Toe touches
    – Cherry pickers
    – Good mornings

    Thang

    Mosey south to the Treen building for: Walls of Jericho (7 count of seven exercises 7 times around the hall)

    – Merkins
    – Ballerina Squats
    – Shoulder tap plank jacks
    – Monkey humpers
    – Groiners
    – Donkey kicks
    – Crunchy Frogs

    Followed by: 4×4 (4 more times around, 4 exercises, 4 reps at 4 corners)
    – Rosalitas
    – Leg raises
    – LMCs
    – American Hammers

    Mosey back to start where we wrapped up with a 20 IC flutter kicks, 20 IC penguins, and 10 gas pumps.

    COT, Name-o-Rama, Prayer.

    Fury is this weekend! Inferno coming up!.

    Great having you join/read. Let’s do it again soon. SYITG

  • A1C you later! – from Russo

    Warmer and breezy this morning for training session 6 or so for the Fury Friday match of death. I’ve now read and heard the promo from our compadres at the A1C, but as with any good movie (or home improvement show where they love to shout “we have something to tell you that will blow your budget”), there’s an Act 3 surprise: it seems the Splashpad now has a cornerman to counteract Turbodog: the Godfather, Quarterpipe. Much like Ali was in the Hulkster’s corner at the inaugural Wrestlemania, I fully expect Quarterpipe to run interference with a steel chair at some point (only to have Turbo chase him around the ring and throw him over the top rope).

    But I digress. Today was all about repeating a previous performance until it’s second nature. We’ll need that repetitive “paint the fence” and “sand the floor” movements to counteract the flying fists and feet of the Diabetic Diabolical Duo.

    Warmup – all 10x IC
    – SSHs
    – Imperial walkers
    – Grass grabbers
    – Toe touches
    – Self love
    – Cherry pickers
    – Arm circles

    Thang
    Mosey around old Mandy and lakefront, where at every other block or so, perform one of the following subs sets:
    10 shoulder tap merkins
    10 lunges (2 is 1)
    10 leg raises
    10 ballet squats

    Or

    10x Sealjacks IC
    10x Crab cakes
    10x Penguins IC
    10x Crunchy frogs IC

    Or

    10X Sealjacks
    Bear crawl around the square on the corner
    10x Donkey kicks
    10x Monkey humpers

    Once we made it to the seawall it was:
    – 10 IC Freak Nastys
    – 10 IC durkins
    – 10 IC BSSs (2 is 1)
    – 10 IC step ups (2 is 1)

    At rips: Rocky Balboas and 3 trips up and down the rickety but always reliable stairs.

    Lots of good chatter today, where we discussed the best movie scores, Tim Burton’s weird wife, The Goonies, Hollywood’s underbelly, afternoon PG-rated HBO movies (“Just One of the Guys” I’m looking at you!), and foods that make us belch (Cucumbers ftw!!)

    Mosey back to the Pad, where 6:01 meant it was time for COT, Name-o-Rama, and prayer to close out.

    Thank you to both of my compadres this morning and to the millions of our fans.

    SYITG