F3 New Orleans

Tag: Smooth

  • Respect the Mountain

    I’m out of practice. Secondary to other commitments I haven’t posted at Wolfpack proper in several months. I underestimated the stairwells, especially the stairwells in June. More on that later. The red Friday workout in honor of Sgt. Joey Bovia from Metairie was planned for the Uptowner. In a clear move of imitation/flattery I wanted to incorporate the 8 exercise for 31 reps scheme into today’s beat down at Wolfpack.

    Disclaimer and brief introduction of the Angry Wave duo of Bad Moon and Roots and we are off.

    Short mosey to the bench area in front of Loyola for our 8/31 warm up:

    • SSH
    • Imperial Walker
    • Mountain Climbers
    • Peter Parker
    • RLSU
    • LLSU
    • RL Bulgarian Split Lunges
    • LL Bulgarian Split Lunges

    Mosey to the Mountain for a quick regroup and two-column Indian run to the top.

    Assemble on the peak for Dora 1-2-3. Burpees, Merkins, Russian Twists (one is one) while the partner goes down the stairs to the ground level and back up the other stairs. The stairwell loop took longer than expected and once I got started I don’t think I ever caught my breath or got my heart rate back below 130. After me and G-spot each did two laps we still in the middle of Merkins and time was getting short. Audible to staying up top and finishing your reps together. Kudos to the Pax for busting ass on this. The time passed quickly but the intensity didn’t allow for much banter which I missed.

    Mosey back to the flag. 35 pax! Had to grab my phone as my hypoxic brain wasn’t going to remember beyond the guy to my right. Two FNGs who, based on the namorama video footage, didn’t look too beat down. Welcome Creeper (a legit actor whose credits include some NCIS (he played a rapist) and Jeepers Creepers 3) who gave a nice reminder that every moment is a gift from God (paraphrase). Welcome Uncle Rico (almost ‘Precursor to the Heisman’ or similar) who has a career in football (coaching) who during his HS QB days was backed up by Baker Mayfield. I look forward to learning more about these two gents.

    COT with special intentions for BellHop and his battle with cancer and for a friend of Roots whose son was in a serious ATV accident. A prayer of thanks for great men like Joey Bovia and all the veterans who died on D-day or elsewhere to secure our freedom. A prayer of thanks for the strength we get from each other. Amen.

    Thanks for the opportunity to lead!

  • 17 – A Shoutout to War Eagle

    Why is 17 a shoutout to War Eagle? Because that’s as high as most people from Alabama can count… Okay, had to get one Bama joke out there. It’s actually the amount of National Championships their football team claims (infinite asterisks by that number of course). But still, on a day when our boy was dealing with some issues far more serious than anything even related to football rooting interests, it seemed appropriate to let him know we were thinking of him.

    Of course, this plan would have been better executed had Ya Mom’n Dem and I shown up on time. Employing perhaps the most tortured logistics one could imagine, YHC and YMnD first made a wrong turn, then after retrieving 2 cinder blocks from the pile by the field, made a lap around the park instead of just backing up to the baby foundry. So a 2-minute job took 10 and we pulled up as the PAX were running toward the track. Luckily Frac got the warmup started and we were able to jump right in.

    • SSHx31
    • IWx17
    • Peter Parkerx17
    • Parker Peterx17
    • Arm Circlesx17 (10 forward, 7 backward)

    Workout

    When YHC volunteered the clown car to take this one, he made it clear that either one of them should take it, or it was going to be a tabata and jump ropes day. And so it was. 8 stations

    • jumping rope
    • curl and press cinder blocks
    • sweat angels
    • pull-ups
    • dips
    • Angle grinders
    • burpees
    • Jump Squats ( real ones, 180 degree turn, drop down as you land and back up)

    Tunes:

    • Round 1: Calm Like a Bomb (Rage Against the Machine)
    • Round 2: Stronger (Kanye)
    • Round 3: Welcome to the Jungle
    • Round 4: This is how we do it (where I’m From) (Big Tymers)
    • Round 5: Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)

    Little help from Tool on selecting tracks, and I tried to offer options for the #respects and the #hates.

    Quick Mosey to the Neutral Ground for Choose your Own Adventure Mary. Everyone led an exercise. The point, possibly corny, was that when we work together, we can all take a little of the load off someone’s shoulders and offer a bit of help to those who need it. War Eagle has much bigger concerns than worrying about who is taking his Q, so we’ll all share the load a little. That’s kinda what we do here at F3.

    COT, Prayers for Jonathan Serigne, War Eaglet, War Eagle’s family, and everyone else dealing with health issues. Reminder to appreciate our health and reach out to those who are less lucky. I’m lucky to be a part of this group. – Kuch

  • Loose as a Goose

    It’s always stimulating to start of the week with an F3 beatdown first thing Monday morning. So when 5:30am hit, I issued the disclaimer and we set off to mosey to the track Once at the track, we did a dynamic stretching warmup that consisted of:

    • High knees
    • Butt kicks
    • Open the gate
    • Close the gate
    • Karaoke (30 yards out, 30 yards back)

    Following the dynamic stretching, each PAX did some individual static stretching on their own to get loose. Once everyone was loose as a Goose (Top Gun Danger Zone reference), we began with some ladder / sprint combos:

    • 1) High knees through the ladder, then 50 meter sprint. Mosey back
    • 2) Butt kicks through the ladder, then 50 meter sprint. Mosey back
    • 3) Squat jumps through the ladder, then 50 meter sprint. Mosey back
    • 4) Sideways in & out’s through the ladder, then 50 meter sprint. Mosey back 
    • 5) Sideways in & out’s through the ladder on the other side, then 50 meter sprint. Mosey back

    We took a brief 20 count break, then we proceed to do the same thing except we did 100 meter sprints:

    • 1) High knees through the ladder, then 100 meter sprint. Mosey back
    • 2) Butt kicks through the ladder, then 100 meter sprint. Mosey back
    • 3) Squat jumps through the ladder, then 100 meter sprint. Mosey back
    • 4) Sideways in & out’s through the ladder, then 100 meter sprint. Mosey back
    • 5) Sideways in & out’s through the ladder on the other side, then 100 meter sprint. Mosey back

    After this, we mosey’d to the middle of the track for some mary. We circled up, and then each member of the PAX had to lead a mary exercise in cadence using a 15 count. Screw Top & Smooth (if my memory serves me correctly) harnessed their inner Double J & decided to have us do some merkins instead of a mary exercise. Fortunately, though, no penalty burpees were issued for not following directions.

    Once every member of the PAX had finished counting off their exercise, we did some line drills. There were 5 drains along the inside part of the track, so we partnered up and then sprinted back & forth to each of the 5 drains. The first set of sprints was from shortest to longest (we began with the closest drain & ended with the drain that was furthest away). The next set of sprints was from longest to shortest (we began with the last drain & ended with the drain that was closest).

    After this, we took a brief 20 count break & then we ended with a 100 meter sprint and then a mosey around the track. Back at that flag, High Rise led us in some static stretching & then we did the count-off & prayer. I forgot the name-o-rama (was operating on 2 hours of sleep that morning), so we did the name-o-rama after the prayer was over just & then called it a day. Thanks for the opportunity to lead, fellas, and my apologies for the terrible Top Gun Goose joke above!

  • Mediocrity loves comfort

    On this beautiful day 35 years ago I was born, what better way to celebrate my birthday than with my fellow PAX for a beat down. The clock stuck 5:30am, I proceed with the disclaimer which included a quote that really got me thinking the previous night “Mediocrity loves comfort”.

    We started our traditional mosey to the field near the cinder blocks for a little Warm-up; within 30 seconds I heard “stop stop stop” I turned around and Shuffles was on the ground. Luckily we had Dr. Walleye with us this morning which he diagnosed him with a sprain instead of a break on the ankle. Shuffles hobbled back to the flag while we headed towards the field again. Warm-up included

    – SSH X 15 IC
    – Hill Billies X 15 IC
    – Self Love X 10 IC

    The Thang:

    Since the Danger Zone has cut into my rock city workouts I decided we would play with cinder blocks for the day. Going along with my quote the PAX were asked to get out of their comfort zone and do 5 extra reps of each exercise OYO after the cadence ended.

    – Curls X 15 IC
    – Shoulder Presses X 15 IC
    – Bus Driver X 15 IC
    – Flutter Kicks X 15 IC
    – Decline Merkins X 15 IC
    – Curls X 15 IC
    – Shoulder Presses X 15 IC
    – Kuch and Tool assisted with some exercises I forgot the name of
    – Decline Merkins X 15 IC
    – Bus Driver X 15 IC
    – others that I can not remember

    Once we completed our reps Dirty Dell thought it would be a swell idea to lunge walk back to drop our cinder blocks off so we did.

    Next Up:
    Run to NOMA where we partnered up. One partner sat on the wall and threw air punches while the other partner did 20 shoulder taps 2 = 1. At 6:10 with our shoulders on fire we headed back to the flag just in time for 6:15.

    We completed the COT, Intentions, and gave thanks to be able to get up and exercise this morning. Pleasure to Q – great way to start 35 off.

    –


  • VQ AT THE STOMP

    15 strong at The Stomp for a straightforward run for my VQ.  
    The exercise:  run 20 minutes out then 20 minutes in with 10 burpees at the halfway mark.  

    Following a quick explanation that consisted of the entirety of the previous paragraph and the obligatory disclaimer (for the record, I am not a personal trainer nor I am a professional one – thanks, Fracsac) we were off and running.  Thanks to Rev Sox for taking the FNG under his wing and relieving me of my duties to explain the route. 

    Despite the conditions (extreme mugginess) and the midway burpees, all 15 finished strong with 3 minutes to spare.  We stretched then circled for countoff, name-o-rama, intentions then prayer.    

    Three key observations:  
    1. @smooth is still fast; 
    2. given the thick and muggy air conditions, tank top Tuesday participants were at an advantage; 
    3. 10 burpees wreck havoc on pace.

    Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words for my VQ.  It is an honor to be part of the group.  This exercise was not the most complicated or creative to lead, but it was still highly satisfy.  Thanks for the push, @kuch and @craigjcordes.

    The Skinny
    • T-claps to Rev Socks for bringing out Tua.
    • Turns out Tua’s wife went to Alabama so we got the name right (he went to LSU).  
    • Did I already say burpees make running the second half of 20/20 more challenging?

  • Dirty Dozen at the Mothership

    A post following the Tchoupitoulas Bar-A-Thon is never easy, but 3 committed Pax (Sogo, YHC and Heisenberg) made it to bring the total Pax to a dozen. With the clock hitting 0630, time for the brief disclaimer, and then a mosey to the Great Lawn for……

    Warmup

    SSH IC x 31
    Hillbillies IC x 20
    Abe Vigodas IC x 10
    Arm Circles IC x 20
    Grass Grabbers IC x 10
    Peter Parkers IC x 20
    Mountain Climbers IC x 20
    Parker Peters IC x 20

    Thang 1

    Dirty Mac Deuce…..
    Round 1
    Merkins IC x 12
    Squats IC x 12
    Flutter Kicks IC x 12
    Do a Lap around the Great Lawn

    Round 2
    Shoulder Taps IC x 12
    Lunges IC x 12
    Hello Dolly IC x 12
    Do a lap around the Great Lawn

    Round 3
    Floyd Mayweathers IC x 12
    Side Lunges IC x 12
    Dying Cockroach IC x 12
    Do a lap around the Great Lawn

    Round 4
    Diamond Merkins IC x 12
    Monkey Humpers IC x 12
    Tin Snips IC x 12
    Do a lap around the Great Lawn


    If anyone really knows this guy, you know that Catalina Wine Mixers usually make it into the DMD, but we were doing the exercises on the brick path, and YHC does not like the feel of elbows on brick. Knowing the Pax was itching to do this exercise, YHC moved the Pax to the grass where we performed Catalina Wine Mixers IC x 10. With the crowd back under control, time to mosey to the NOMA fountain.

    Thang 2
    Right leg step ups IC x 15
    Dips IC x 15
    Left Leg step ups IC x 15
    Derkins IC x 10

    Thang 3
    Mini Dora 1…2….3
    Count off, 1 and 3 partner up, 2 and 4, 5 and 7, etc.
    Burpees x 50
    Squats x 100
    LBC x 150
    1 Pax starts exercise, Pax 2 runs the circle around NOMA

    Thang 4
    Mosey to the Tree line for some “Embrace the Suck!”
    3 minutes of 6 x SSH, 6 x Merkins, 6 x Bobby Hurleys (over and over)
    During the exercise, Shorty recommended renaming the Bobby Hurleys to Zions. Shorty doesn’t post much and rarely has good ideas. At least he fixed one of those issues today……
    Rinse and Repeat for 3 minutes of 6 x SSH, 6 x merkins, and 6 x Zions!

    Mosey back to the VSF for the COT
    Announcements, Intentions, closed with prayer.

    NMM

    It looks like Smooth is leaving us soon with an awesome adventure to Spain! Good luck and come back and visit. Send us a photo of the shovel flag when you start the F3 there…..

    Speaking of shovel flags, where are they? Someone must has several in their trunk……..

    Glad to see Quick Draw back! Kotter!

    YHC got the selfie, minus Hawg and Dax. Thanks for posting with me today, and for allowing me to be part of such a great organization. Coffeteria after at Cafe Navarre was awesome as always!

    SYITG


  • Shorty Dooby Doo…Where are you?

    So as YaMomAnEm and I arrived in the smallest possible LVCC possible to the AO a small group of men were ready to engage in some Shorty-style sprinting. I don’t own a watch but I knew 5:30 had to be approaching so I casually turned to Rudy and asked, “Is it 5:30 yet?” since our Q hadn’t arrived. He looked at his watch and said, “It’s 5:30 now. And since you asked you’re the Q.” Mildly taken aback I took it in stride, said the disclaimer, and moseyed over to the track.

    Dynamic Warm Up:

    • Frankenstein kicks
    • Butt kicks
    • Open the gate/Close the gate
    • Toe grabs
    • Karaokes
    • Standing quad stretch (with partner for balance)
    • 100m run at 50% speed

    At this point I opted to steal from Hawg’s Danger Zone debut so we did some sprints of varying lengths with a walk back to the starting line following each sprint. We roughly did 25m, 50m, 75m, and 100m sprints.

    After this, I stole from Screw Top’s Danger Zone beatdown and we ran 4 laps, split into 2 groups of 3, around the track with 100m sprints on the straight-a-ways and a mosey in the turns.

    During our 4 laps a growing crowd of runners was gathering near the entrance to the track. Following the completion of our 4 laps I wanted to perform some static stretching. Since there were only 6 of us, the PAX decided to perform these stretches in the warm-up section of the track in the turn to stay out of that group’s workout.

    Static Stretching:

    • Seated hamstring stretch 2 sets each leg x 15 sec hold
    • Butterfly stretch 2 sets x 15 sec hold
    • Supine figure-4 piriformis stretch 2 sets each leg x 15 sec hold

    Since the other group was breaking off into smaller running groups, I wanted to get 1 full sprint with all 6 PAX in our respective lanes. So we lined up for one more 100m sprint which YaMomAnEm took home handily. Afterwards we moseyed back to the warm-up area for some Mary.

    Mary (all done in cadence):

    • LBCs x 20
    • Sweaty Angels x 15
    • Dying Cockroaches x 20
    • Freddie Mercury’s x 15
    • Single-leg wife pleasers x 10 each leg

    Mosey back to (invisible) flag, count off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, sweaty ball of man.

  • H8! #6

    The Thang

    Event: The 6th running of the H8!

    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.

  • “F3 Has Changed My Life”

    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.

  • 4-getta-bout-it


    It was a beautiful Thursday morning on the lakefront last week. After a little chatter amongst the PAX, I issued the disclaimer and we mosey’d to the corner of lakefront drive / canal blvd. Once there we commenced with the warmup:

    • side straddle hops – 20
    • imperial squat walkers – 15
    • grass grabbers – 15
    • peter parkers – 15
    • arm circles – 10 forward, 10 backward

    Seeing as how the H8 was coming up in 2 weeks, I thought it might be good to do a little H8 pre-work. After Kuch’s Q at Popeyes on Wednesday, the LV clown car was talking about some different TV shows, and one of the shows that came up was the Sopranos. Anytime i think of that show, the word “for-getta-bout-it” comes to mind. Well since i was thinking of that show at the same time i was trying to think about what exercises to use during my Q, a nice exercise creation was born. It would aptly be called, the “4-getta-bout-it” and it would entail 4 figure 8 laps up & down the paved part of the levee with bear crawls across the center (just like the H8). We would also do a burpee / merkin ladder like the H8 as well. The difference with the 4-getta-bout-it would be that the PAX would have to run up each of the levees backwards (Bernie Sanders style backwards). So the good news is that it would be only 1/2 of the laps as the H8; the bad news is that running up the levee backwards is not what most people consider fun. Ultimately, all of the PAX completed the 4 laps (Smooth actually completed 5 laps, which has come to be known as the “High Five”), and then after a brief 20 count from Cowbell, we mosey’d to the benches. Once to the benches, we did the following:

    • dirkins – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to next bench
    • left / right leg step ups (10/10)
    • squat jump clockwise to next bench
    • dips – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • irkins – 10
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • windmills – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • LBC’s – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • dying cockroaches – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench
    • flutter kicks – 15
    • squat jump clockwise to the next bench

    Once completed, we mosey’d back to the flag for the announcements, intentions and the prayer. As always, thanks for the opportunity to lead, fellas. It’s a pleasure grinding through the beatdowns with y’all!