F3 New Orleans

Tag: Russo

  • If My Calculations Are Correct, When This Baby Hits 88 mph, You Are Going to See Some Serious… – from Steve

    My favorite part of Q’ing a Gipper beatdown? The disgusted look on Moby’s face when he finds out I have the Q and starts muttering obscenities under his breath. It warms my heart and makes me realize that some tiny part of me actually looks forward to being Moby’s age.

    Light chatter among the gathering crowd before a group of us took off on the 1 mile pre-thang, which saw a little excitement today: a silver sedan barreling down Theard and blaring Fortunate Son, thought it’d be a wise idea to take a left turn (and, mind you, not an intersection empty of… say, 5 running pedestrians) at 65 mph and accelerating, nearly taking out Einstein. Of course, you can’t take Einstein down that easily – he deftly outmaneuvered both the vehicle and a large puddle without much effort. I guess all those ice skater hops and star jumps have paid off. The whole episode became slightly awkward when we then caught up with Fogerty only a block later, to find him gently reversing into his apartment parking spot (still full volume with the Creedence, though; I’m sure his neighbors love him).

    Having survived a brush with death and safely back at the Gip, we found a nice crowd of 10 for the Juneteenth holiday. Knocked out the usual warmorama before taking off for the back of the Justice Center for a routine of 3 exercises, 15 reps of each, followed by a lap around the courtyard and another 3 exercises:

    – Merkins, Squats, Dollies (IC)
    – Hand-release Merkins, Bobby Hurleys, Gas Pumps (IC)
    – T-Merkins, Lunges, Dying Cockroaches (IC)
    – Staggered Merkins, Star Jumps, Box Cutters (IC)
    – Wide Merkins, Sister Mary’s, Wife Pleasers (IC)

    Chatter of Shooter’s burpeepalooza from the day before – a routine named “Hightower” (but apparently NOT after the character in Police Academy?!?) – sent our Pax down the 80’s rabbit hole, with characters and quotes from One Crazy Summer, Better Off Dead, and others being bandied about.

    Next up, over to the front of the Justice Center for the usual leg routine:

    x12 IC Step ups, Freak Nasties, Step Ups (other leg), Derkins -> 5x calf raises up each step
    x12 IC Bulgarians, Freak Nasties, Bulgarians (other leg), Derkins -> 5x calf raises up each step
    x12 IC Step downs, Freak Nasties, Step downs (other leg), Derkins (we caught you doing extra derkins, Moby – so don’t be acting like this was a hard beatdown!)

    After solving the mystery of whether it was a Yorkshire terrier or Amber Heard that crapped the bed, it was finally time to call it and return to the flag. COT, announcements (more brutal Spartan training at the Scramble and an Akbar 5-year anny on Saturday), and then Einstein prayed us out with intentions for the Perrin family, the Tillery family, and Grundy’s new baby. It was really great to be back at the Gipper, made me realize just how much I miss this AO and the Covington Pax. Thank you gents for having us and for the opportunity to lead!

  • Walls of Jericho!! – from Shooter

    The title explains it all except for the warmup and core wrap up..
    Warmup
    Mixture of 12IC and 20IC
    Selflove, Cherry Pickers, Arm circles, Butt kicks, Grass Grabbers, Good Mornings.
    Thang
    Walls of Jericho
    8 count Bodybuilders, Merkins, Mountain climbers 2/1, Flutter kicks 2/1, LBCs, Jump squats and Sister Mary Katherine’s 2/1..
    Wrapup
    Bridges, wife pleasers, Superman’s and Nolan Ryan’s..

    Appreciate the post gents and until the next Gloom. 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼

  • A Mini Spartan at the Scramble – from The Hammer

    The Hammer decided that it’s time to up the preparation for the Spartan Beast in October. Since YHC is off for the summer, I get to write the backblast. It’s only fair, since he created the workout. 6 arrived at 5 for 6 stations, 1 minute at each station, then rotate. The stations: dirkins, knee ups, planter carries (grip strength prep), rifle carries, pull-ups (which for round two turned into knee ups, then for round 3 was a dead hang), and the last was a 1 minute plank. 3 rounds total in 15 minutes, give or take. Then we moved to the running. 20 burpees followed by 1 lap around the park. 4 rounds of this was rough. The chatter was on point as usual. YHC brought the music which reminded the music videos of ACDC. Unfortunately, I cannot remember which videos I was supposed to come home and compare.
    One runner: Waterpik
    3 ruckers went 20 minutes out, 20 minutes back: Russo, Chewy, and Akbar. From what I gathered, they nearly solved all the world problems on the way out, and focused on conspiracy theories on the way back. Something about chem trails….Not quite sure.
    I believe that we are going to try and make this a Thursday thing for my fellow Spartan warriors. If you have any ideas to prepare for the Spartan, please share.
    COT with Hammer praying us out. Intentions: continued prayers for Bird’s family, and a Happy Fathers Day to all the Dad’s out there. SYITG!

  • A Mini Spartan at the Scramble – from The Hammer

    The Hammer decided that it’s time to up the preparation for the Spartan Beast in October. Since YHC is off for the summer, I get to write the backblast. It’s only fair, since he created the workout. 6 arrived at 5 for 6 stations, 1 minute at each station, then rotate. The stations: dirkins, knee ups, planter carries (grip strength prep), rifle carries, pull-ups (which for round two turned into knee ups, then for round 3 was a dead hang), and the last was a 1 minute plank. 3 rounds total in 15 minutes, give or take. Then we moved to the running. 20 burpees followed by 1 lap around the park. 4 rounds of this was rough. The chatter was on point as usual. YHC brought the music which reminded the music videos of ACDC. Unfortunately, I cannot remember which videos I was supposed to come home and compare.
    One runner: Waterpik
    3 ruckers went 20 minutes out, 20 minutes back: Russo, Chewy, and Akbar. From what I gathered, they nearly solved all the world problems on the way out, and focused on conspiracy theories on the way back. Something about chem trails….Not quite sure.
    I believe that we are going to try and make this a Thursday thing for my fellow Spartan warriors. If you have any ideas to prepare for the Spartan, please share.
    COT with Hammer praying us out. Intentions: continued prayers for Bird’s family, and a Happy Fathers Day to all the Dad’s out there. SYITG!

  • Inquerious Questions of Guidance – from Steve

    It took 3 attempts before auto-correct finally let that title stand as is. And even now I’m not sure it’s right… But there it is, in all its glory, preserved for the annals of F3 history. What the hell it means is anyone’s guess.

    Rowdy crowd of 6 this morning at Granny’s, (7, if you count the monster mosquito hawk that was making a racket during warmup and Mary). So rowdy that a bleary-eyed Chewy and I wondered what the hell was going on as we attempted to keep cadence count. I mean, sure, Jose wakes up ready for a fight. That makes sense – teaching junior high you gotta be on your toes and ready to knock someone down a rung or two. (Plus, he’s got the additional 20 minute drive of wake up time.) And now that Bush has become the new grumble grumble, well, let’s just say the back and forth between these two has become a joy to witness. Though it does make counting difficult.

    Luckily, we quickly moved on to the thang, a semi-random circuit of increasing reps that spanned most of the trailhead:

    – Derkins
    – Step Ups (ea. leg)
    – Lunges (2:1)
    – T-merkins
    – Donkey Kickoffs
    – Crunchy Frogs
    – Apollo Ohnos (2:1)
    – SSH’s
    – Freak Nasties

    Each round ended with a set of x3 calf raises up the stairs, then start again, increasing the rep count by x5.

    We mostly stuck together today, entertained by the barefoot Duke and his parkour moves. It was a big day for him, as he saw his net worth nearly double to $24.12 and, more importantly, learned the subtle distinction between the adjective demure and the verb to demur. Hard to believe one day we could be reading a backblast written by Wacker’s offspring. We can only hope he inherits his father’s love of flowery language.

    And, of course, there were also the usual F3-type ramblings about Scientology, drinking vials of blood, moon landings – that sorta thing. Hey, Russo is right – the internet does indeed always win.

    COT and Chewy prayed us out. Appreciate you gents, was fun to have a bigger group out there today.

  • Dropping Bombs in the Tunnel – from Steve

    No, no – Hammer wasn’t there Friday morning, we’re not talking about his drive-by cropdusting of Jose. Not those kind of bombs. The old school, F3 kind – B.O.M.B.S.

    Just Russo and YHC this past Friday for a leisurely stroll to the tunnel, with a brief pit stop at the Depot for:

    12x Step Ups IC (ea. leg)
    12x Freak Nasties IC
    12x Bulgarians IC (ea. leg)
    12x Freak Nasties IC

    Onward to the tunnel for:

    25 Burpees
    50 Overhead Claps
    50 Merkins
    50 Big Boys
    50 Squats

    There may or may not have been merkins en route…. My Q’s have started to become so habitual it’s all a blur… Did you feed the dog this morning? Yes. No. Yes?

    COT, YHC prayed us out with gratitude for this great group of men that provide me and many others with strength, week in and week out. Appreciate you guys.

  • WE ARE F3 – AROO AROO AROO!!! – from Bushwacker

    This fall, some of the PAX of the Northshore will be CSAUPing at the Spartan Beast obstacle race near Dallas. There is a palpably intense excitement in the air and this beatdown was designed to make sure all in attendance felt it. YHC, along with some some kind and committed brothers, arrived at 5:15 to begin setting up. We just beat the pre-thangers back to the flag in time to get things started promptly.

    WARMORAMA

    Warm up consisted of briefly attended tabata, and a garbled pronouncement of rules, regulations, and “the way things aughta go”, which, thanks to Jose’s requisite comments and interjections of others, were immediately and throughout the course disregarded, slightly adopted, and outright ignored. But a great challenge was mostly bested and a fun time was had by all teams of 2 who attempted.

    1. Tire Shuttle – step in each of 6 tires while running through (QIC tripped and fell so never assume anything is TOO easy!)
    2.Sandbag StepUp – holding 50lb sandbag, 10 Step Ups on sea wall (MAY have forgotten to mention the step up part)
    3. Bucket Carry – 5gallon bucket filled with sand carried out and back
    4. Sledge Hammer Slam – 15 wacks on the tire with a 10lb maul
    5. Tire Toss – 2 tires tossed individually out and back
    6. Sled Drag – 2 45lb plates on a minil sled pulled out and back
    7. Battlerope – 3″ battlerope slung up and down for 15 reps
    8. Rope Climb w/ Cowbell (not the short crunchy-frogging runner) – climb rope appx 12′ and tap the bell. As indicated prior to start, if a PAX was unwilling or unable to complete an obstacle, they were to complete 10 Burpees and move on. However, the rare and awesome challenge that a rope hanging from a tree posed caused a bit of a pile up by the time QIC and partner Shooter arrived. Immediately Shooter was pulled in by the tractor beam as well
    9. Dummy Drag – appx 150lb hose dummy dragged out and back
    10. Tire Pull – giant tire with long rope attached, pulled length of rope
    11. Spear Throw – in addition to the Rope Climb, Farmer’s carry, Sand Bag, flags and cones our own Zoolander (aka Chaka Zulu)supplied his new favorite toy to be thrown at and stuck into a foam target strapped to a tree. However, our honorary FNG, Al Gore, let us know with great protest that we were committing arbocide and proceded to take picture of the crime scene, and tear down the foam target for good measure.
    12. Farmers Carry – set of appx 30lb logs with handles carried out and back
    13. Tire Flip – giant tire flipped end over end out and back
    14. Sawhorse Hurdles – 4 8′ sawhorses spaced 6′ apart hurdled over

    Strong Work, great fun, fantastic teamwork!

    COT

    Count, Name, Grappler demurred praying us out in lieu of Rev Russo.
    Just a small taste of thing to come in October, gentlemen. Thank you for allowing me to lead you in tackling this Fire/Spartan obstacle course

    Post Script: Many thanks to the many hands who made light work of picking up the coupons!

  • Granny’s magic!! – from Shooter

    Four rounds, four exercises and four loops was the magical number for our 45 mins in the Gloom.
    After completing a loop around the Trace brief warmup of 15IC and 10IC Grass grabbers, Toe touches, Abe Vogadas, over head claps, Cherry pickers and arm circles..
    Thang was 3 coupon stations and a jump rope station..
    Timer was 1 min of work 30 seconds of rest 4 rounds of motion.
    Coupon 1 Chest press
    Coupon 2 Curls
    Coupon 3 Overhead carry up and down the stairs. Intensity version shoulder presses while going up and back down.. After 4 one min rounds PAX made a loop around the Trace.
    R/R till each PAX completed all stated exercises.. For you math folks out there, total work was only 16 mins of engaged movement not counting the loop’s.. Doesn’t seem like much but I promise by rd 3 the burn was real and I believe the PAX got their monies worth..

    Finished right at 6 and we announced multiple CSAUP opportunities ahead.. 4 on the 4th, BEAST, Turkey trot and I believe some other hot ass marathon or something… Not really certain, but one thing is certain, Cowbell lives and he mentioned a possible Saturday post for the Wacker Q..

    Russo graciously took us out and until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!

  • Inaugural Lakefront Rugby Sevens – from Brexit

    12 HIMs graciously posted for my Virgin-Q in full knowledge that it would likely be an absolute shambles. I had to do something British-themed for my first ever Q so, with it being the day of the London Sevens which is an annual rugby sevens tournament, I decided to do a Rugby Sevens inspired workout. You may not know it, but the US is part of the World Rugby Sevens and they’re sometimes pretty good at it (although sitting at 9th in the standings right now). Sevens is a much more simplified version of rugby, which is probably why the US is better at it than normal rugby, played with seven players instead of the full 15. Thought that by focusing on sevens it could be a good intro to the game.

    Warmup:
    Side straddle hops, arm circles, grass grabbers, toe touches, imperial walkers, peter parkers, merkins (only messed up the cadence once)

    Got into pairs and moseyed to the shaft passing the rugby ball between each other. The Rugby ball can only go backwards so each player had to sprint ahead to pass the ball backwards to his teammate. You could not move if you didn’t have the ball. Any dropped passes meant 5 burpees which is the number of points you get for a touchdown in rugby, aka, a try.

    7 burpees on our own at the gazebo after regrouping. Continued the passing drill to the shaft with the addition that the person without the ball had to do a single burpee while the person with the ball moved ahead of him. It appeared that I had over-estimated the hand-eye coordination of the group (to be fair, some of the pairs were geared up more than others…only so many rugby balls in circulation here so some were forced to use toy footballs that got completely taken with the wind with each pass…) and so was running a little behind schedule but we made up for this for a quicker than expected Sevens (staying on theme) – derkins and sister Mary Catherines. Bear crawl one way, run back.

    Moseyed to the rugby pitch, no passing this time.

    Get into teams and then did a passing along the line drill. A dropped pass was 7 burpees for the team (this was changed to 5 burpees for the team that YHC joined in with). The other team did merkins/squat jumps in the meantime (merkins on way up, squat jumps on way back).

    YHC gave his best attempt at explaining the rules of touch rugby in about 3 minutes and then game-on – 15 min (7 min halves).

    Skins v Shirts with Shirts kicking us off. Good formation to start with but it seemed like some of the players got confused with the fact that you are actually allowed to run forwards, you only have to pass it backwards…not too much territory made in the opening play. The Skins got the first try after a good line break (apologies, can’t remember which HIM scored first as I left it a week before I wrote this), but the Shirts re-grouped and came back strong to score two tries in quick succession. After a high-risk move to intercept the ball by the Skins didn’t pay off (if you don’t catch an interception and fumble it, it means a possession turnover), the Shirts were in a commanding position. In the closing minutes of the game, the Skins had their backs against the wall in defense but held firm to win a turnover deep in their own territory. From this position, Zoolander scored a highly controversial try to level the game in the final seconds. The try was awarded against a fierce appeal from the Shirts about a forward pass…this decision was in no way affected by the fact that the impartial ref had jumped into the game a few minutes beforehand and had started playing on the side of the Skins.
    Throughout the game, there was some obvious flouting of the offside rule and a little bit of confusion on the number of touches before a turnover, which wasn’t helped by a very forgetful ref, however we had some great runners of the ball on both sides and, all in all, was very impressed with the ability of the HIMs to pick up the concept of the game very quickly. Obviously a testament to the Q. It was great way to get some good cardio in while having some fun. Next time we’ll be introducing scrums…

    After a few reminders about time running out, we moseyed back, no passing the ball. No time for any core.

    Announcements – Spartan Beast, T-shirt ordering and Bogue Chitto trail run on June 15.

    COT – Russo closed us out with a special prayer for Grundy and his soon-to-be new addition to his family.

  • The Roger Rabbit, The Sprinkler, & The Running Man – from Steve

    What do these have in common? They’ll all be featured in a Russo-choreographed dance routine that his daughter will perform as her first “contemporary” solo with her dance company sometime in 2025. That’s right, few knew it before this moment, but Russo is a regular Bob Fosse (minus all the smoking, drinking, and infidelity, of course).

    During the warmorama, we mulled over some of the moves that he had already scratched from his repertoire (Moonwalk, Walk Like and Egyptian – “overused,” “cliche” he says), some that he was on the fence about (Electric Slide, The Snake), and others (The Robot, The Chicken Wing) that he was confident would add texture, but was having trouble working into the routine without making it feel a bit too heavy-handed. Hey, it’s a delicate balance.

    Hearing about all this dancing had me jazzed for our coupon beatdown, a retread of something YHC did solo last week:

    100 Squat Thrusters (25 reps, x4)
    200 Curls (40 reps, x5)
    300 Chest Presses (50 reps, x6)

    In between each set of reps we slalomed the columns (a Russo original, inspired by his love of ski ballet, apparently) over to the stairs for 10x calf raises.

    Another talent you may not know about Russo: he can expound upon the technical brilliance of Mad Max Fury Road and also give me the cliff notes to an epic, 4-hour YouTube review of the Star Wars hotel, all the while keeping the rep count in his head. (This seems to be an F3-honed skill that happens once you hit the 7-8 year mark; though Russo, being mathematically minded as he is, was of course on the fast track.)

    YHC envisions a day when we might combine the previously mentioned dance moves with our 25 lbs coupons. I mean, hell, I already felt like I was lifting up Jennifer Grey as I was doing the squat thrusters today. Could be a whole new era for F3. Or, at the very least, a new category in the lexicon: 80’s Power Pumps. I know I’d be down for the playlist alone.

    COT, and the man himself, Russo, prayed us out. See you gents tomorrow for what we all know will be a punishing beatdown from the tyrants Pickaxe and Chainsaw!