Run Ranger Run crunch time ensured that we had a healthy number of Stompers on Tuesday. In order to maximize our time, we ran the traditional route down the bayou, 22:30 out, then turned around and came back. The only rule was that you must have a negative split. We didn’t all achieve the negative split, but we were close. We circled up for COT a minute or two late and gave thanks for the day.
NMM
T-claps to Smooth. He was able to make it just past Earhart. That is the farthest I’ve ever known anyone to make it. 6.5 miles for a just over a 7 minute/mile pace. That’s poster material.
T-claps to War Eagle. He has become a runner in the past couple of months. The young buck must have been feeling his oats as we rounded NOMA on the back stretch. Like a horse to the barn he took off as Rudy and El Guapo approached. He was a good 10-15 feet ahead of me and I was not able to close the gap. I was seriously wondering if he was going to beat me to the flag.
He didn’t.
There was a supermoon in the sky. Problem was that we couldn’t see it. If you haven’t noticed, it will be raining in New Orleans for the next two months.
T-claps to Amnesty and Tool who, each nursing their injuries, were willing to get out on their bikes and get some work in. The ride-by heckling was a nice touch.
Running in shoes is the worst. How do you all do it? It’s awful. If anyone is headed to Hawaii soon, let me know. I’ll give you $5 to pick me up a pair of Locals slippers from the nearest CVS.
Run Ranger Run 10 Member Team Standings as of 1512 hours on 2/20. It’s tight:
1st Shot at Qing the newest AO – I showed up early to drop off the “tire” and set up the cynderblock playground then ran to the fountain to get things kicked off.
Disclaimer – mousy to the “long way” to the playground – with the muscle flag stand, exactly 1/2 mile. Circle up for a quick warmup. All in cadence:
SSH x 20
Scorpion Kicks 10 x each leg
Shoulder Taps x 12
Everyone grab a block – mousy over to edge of the field and line up.
1st Effort – Bear crawl out 30 yards with block – perform 10 merkins – Bear crawl back with block – 5 man makers
2nd Effort – Kong out 30 yards with block – perform 10 merkins – Kong back with block – 5 man makers
Count off 1,2,3
Group 1 – tunnel block slide – pull the block under yourself passing it to next pax get up run to the end waiting for the block to be slide down – continue to mark and head back to the start.
Group 2 – over under with the block – out and back to the mark
Group 3 – 10 curls – 10 squat press – 10 man makers – continue until both group 1 and 2 complete their journey
Rinse and Repeat
Group 1 – Timer – Indian style tire flip, jump through then go to the back of the line. Challenge apprx 40 yards.
Group 2 – Sledgehammer tire slam. 100 count each Pax does 10 reps while the rest of the group does alternating block step overs. If rep count reached then each Pax does 5…..
Group 3 – block squats, deep block merkins, alternating block merkins, overhead block press
Rotate through all 3 stations.
Before returning blocks – 2 sets of arms in cadence curls x 20 with 10 secs rest then overhead tricep press x 20
Roll tire back to QIC truck – Tool recommended Pax should run around the tire while rolling to the truck – challenge complete.
Indian Run back with the Muscle Flag stand in hand leading the charge.
4 minutes of Mary finish with 3 burpees.
COT – Count off, Name O, Intentions, Prayer of Thanksgiving.
YHC has not been extremely active on the Q sign up sheet. This is kind of been disappointing b/c being the Q is the only payment that F3 truly request. After so much that has been given to YHC, he feels that he owes much more. Of course, he has his excuses, but if he were being completely honest, there is no excuse. If you can post, you can Q. When today’s scheduled Q did not show, YHC seized the opportunity to lead and to pay back F3.
W/U
SSH x 30
IW x 10; HB x 10
AC x 10; reverse x 10
PP x 10; PP x 10
J Lo x 10
Take a Lap around the Track
The Thang
Route 66 down the mall – Derkins
Mosey to the side wall of NOMA
Peoples Chair – List your F3 Name, Favorite Mardi Gras Krewe, Favorite Mardi Gras memory #HailThoth
Mosey to the Foundry
4 stations x 12 – Big Boy Sit-ups, Rows, Dips, Merkins
Run around the neutral ground by Christian Brothers & back
Partner up. Partner 1 mosey across infield, Partner 2 Spring 1/2 the track. Switch on the other side. (2 laps)
Mosey to the Flag
Annoucements
Amnesty has a quarter Keg of the Official F3 Beer, Shovel Flag. He will host an F2 Event on Wednesday 2/20 1800 at his home, 136 Middle Park Pl. New Orleans. (YHC could be up for a Pre-F2 Run)
COT – Lots of intentions were mentioned today for personal friends, F3 families, and thanks were given for our fortunes.
Thank you for the opportunity to lead, SYITG
Da Parish
NMM – Plenty of PAX are members of Mardi Gras Krewes. YHC rides w/ the Krewe of the Rolling Elvi (in Muses only), as well as Krewe of Thoth (float 9a, last man, top deck). YHC loves hearing the crowds and especially his name or see a sign. If you feel comfortable, share your Krewe & Float w/ the PAX.
With my knee giving me some issues this week and on the schedule to Q the mother ship I had to make an audible and Hawg was happy to swap AO’s for the opportunity to throw down a run heavy beatdown on the Mothership to rival Rudy’s beatdown the prior week. I planted Tools creation in the ground that is the Muscleship Shovel Flag and gave my usual disclaimer. Let’s Mosey. One lap around the museum.
Warm Up – At Muscle-ship we get JACK-ed
SSH x 20
Imperial Walker x2 0
Grass Grabbers x 20
Seal Jacks x 20
Red Bulls Smurf Jacks x 15
Plank Jacks x 20
Arm Circle Fwd & Rev x 15 each way
Thang 1 BLIMP Mosey to the blocks.
Mosey when Q yells HALT we did the usual BLIMPS progression all the way to the blocks. 5 burpees, 10 Lunges, 15, Imp. Walkers, 20 Merk’s, 25 Plank Jacks, 30 Squats.
Grab a block and partner up!
Thang 2 – DORA 1 – 2 – 3 – 2 – 1
PAX 1 carries block above head while PAX 2 does exercise to get combined count of each exercise:
100 Thrusters
200 Curls for the Girls
300 Chest Press
200 Goblet Squats
100 Tricep Extensions
Mosey back the Fountain
Thang 3 – Fountain work
Right Leg Step up x 15
Incline Mercks x 10
Left leg step up x 15
Decline Mercks x 10
Bulgarian Split Squats r leg up x 15
Bulgarian Split Squats l leg up x 15
Mosey to the flag and circle up for some Mary
LBC’s x 20
Dying Cockroach x 20
Flutter Kicks x 20 (RUDY ran by us, by him self and just kept on going)
Penguins x 20
American Hammer x 15
Freddie Mercury x 20
COT
Count-O-Rama 11 PAX, Name-O-Rama 1 FNG – Welcome Brown Eye! He’s a GI Doc! Announcements and Prayer
Another good beatdown! Thanks as always for the opportunity to lead.
The Uptowner was greeted with 14 fiends this week itching to get their Friday fix. Although YHC had been voluntold to Q weeks ago, he slacked on working up a fancy workout with a cool theme, laminated weinkie, or pre-arranged cones. Therefore, back to basics for the PAX with 45 action packed minutes of good old-fashioned exercises and circuits, with hopes of leaving stronger than when we came. As the PAX rolled in, YHC gave the usual discalimer along with second disclaimer and warning that his sharpness as a playcaller may be hindered by the aftereffects of the evening beatdown and IPA fuelled F2 hours earlier. Here’s what went down:
Warmup: IPW, AC, WM, LS Squats, PP, Plank Roll, LC Crab, all various reps IC, followed by a Bear Crawl approx 40 yds to the rock pile.
The Thang: Countdown circuit with 4 exercises, all IC and same rep count, to be varied up along the way. These tend to be tough but the descending count provides some light at the end of the tunnel.
First round consisted of: Curls x15IC, Low Slow Squat w/rock x15IC, Shoulder Press x15IC, Mary/Rosalitas x15IC. Rinse and repeat x14, x13, x12, x11 all with varying Mary exercises at the end. YHC enlisted the help of the PAX to share the cadence duties.
Break for a bear crawl around our circle of rocks followed by a Alabama-cousin-marriage joke complemets of War Eagle.
Next round: Curls x10, Lateral Lunge x10, Shoulder Press x10, Dealer’s Choice Mary x10, rinse and repeat x9, x8, x7, x6.
Final round: Curls x5, Front Lunge w/rock overhead x5, Shoulder Press x5, Mary x5. Not much time left to keep working our way down so we had to cut it short and deposit the rocks.
Last 90 seconds included Hip Flexors and Plankorama.
COT to seal the deal. Welcome to our FNG who gace us lots of info on himeself but not much nickname material…hence the name Vanilla.
T-claps to the PAX for pitching in on the never ending cadence.
Some of us are born flexible and some of us are born…well, not. Either way, good running requires good stretching before and after the actual running. I’d first like to thank the good people at Runner’s World as well as the folks at Google for helping me create this Q.
F1/F2 event this Thursday at Wrong Iron. DownPAINment will begin at 18:30 sharp.
This Thursday & Every Thursday is the Lakeview Running Club. Meets up for 18:30 for a 5K or more run followed by complementary Jambalaya Girl & Cash bar.
Intentions
A family friend & fellow Holy Cross grad, Jacob Stetchmann, fell 34 floors to his death in Honolulu. Please keep his soul and his family in your prayers through this difficult time.
“Without continual growth and progress. such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” —Benjamin Franklin
The Muscleship blasted off in solid fashion this Saturday, thanks in part to the 16 PAX flight crew that hopped on board for the maiden voyage. This new workout and AO was strategically engineered to accomodate the every growing number of men eager to start their Saturdays with a F3 beatdown. Several guys got in some RRR miles before blast off…T-claps! As the clock approached 6:30, it was good to see several reguklars trickle in and a few koters to boot. After a brief description of what was in store, and of course the disclaimer, we made our way over to the front of NOMA to get started.
Warmup Part 1: IWx20, WMx20, LSSx20, SSAC (Sixty Second Arm Circles, from the F3 website…T-plank Left ACx15, LBCx15, T-plank Right ACx15), capped off with IPSWx20. In the middle of this we noticed The Mothership trying to invade our territory in the nearby field so we upped the volume on cadence in an effort to claim dominance. Before departing, YHC asked the PAX to start thinking of some good jokes, hoping Bogey would be the star of the show.
Warmup Part 2: Short mosey to the banks of The Big Lake for some Planking and Merkins. We lined up all holding a high plank, then 5 Merkins, then a joke, then 4 Merkins, joke, 3 Merkins, joke, 2 Merkins….at this point The Mothership did a fly by so our last joke was centered around them, then 1 last Merkin.
Foundry: Short mosey to The Foundry where YHC realized the PAX was too large for plan A so we settled for Plan B: Split up with group #1 doing 3 rounds of PIMPS (timer) near the pull-up bars and group #2 doing BLIMPS AMRAP in the grass. Flip flop with a “pimp daddy” being chosen in each group to be the timer. Lots of intense stuff here with very little opportunity for small talk.
Lake-North Side: Next stop was another stretch of shoreline for Inchworm Burpess x10, joke, x8, joke(s), x6, dirty joke, x4, another dirty joke, x2, maybe a final joke.
Lake-South Side: After a pit stop at the water hydrant to hydrate, we made our way over to the raised ledge along The Big Lake track. We rotated duties with mutiple PAX running cadence and various counts for LLSUx20, Dipsx20, RLSUx20, Derkins x15…breather….rinse and repeat with the highlight being Bogey and Abacus peforming a duet in tandem.
Lelong Drive for Cinco de Cardio: Here we gatherded for five 1-minute rounds of various cardio-rich exercises which proved to be much more manly than the moseying and frolicking that our counterparts were doing with The Mothership. We dug deep and did Semi-Circle Mountain Climbers, Rocky Balboas, Partner Plank Slaps, IPSW, and Groiners as the finale.
One minute left so back to the flag to call it a morning. COT, annoucements, prayer, and some admiration for the new steel encased shovel flag that may be worthy of it’s own name. Also, YHC thanked the PAX for posting and making The Muscleship launch a success. YHC wasn’t sure what to expect knowing so many of us enjoy and look forward to The Mothership each week and trying to split that up is no easy feat. The F3 vatican has always encouraged an “addition by division” concept when trying to grow so it was good to see all the PAX on board with that. YHC also mentioned a workout several years ago where a fellow PAX Q’d with some new exercises and routines, which worked well, and after talked about one of the strengths of F3 is that the group always supports those trying new things, typically with little or no heckling from the peanut gallery. Thanks to the PAX for pushing hard and helping to make it a good one!
My thermometer on the car showed 39 F driving in the gloom, could have been worst (610 Stomp yesterday…) given little wind and no rain. Regardless, (9) PAX showed up wide eyed and willing to help celebrate a beat down marking (3) years in F3 for me! Everything revolved around the number 3 or multiples of, so off we go into the cold.
Warm Up
(27) — SSH
(18) — IW
(18) — Arm Circles
(18) — Mountain Climbers
(18) — Toe Touches
Now to formally “Warm Up”:
Route 66 via Burpees at each park bench, easy enough….
Then to the open field across from the new Children’s Museum under construction
Bear Crawl Ring of Fire: All PAX form a circle and get in a plank position, in a counter clockwise order each PAX does 10 Merkins. After one rotation we near bear crawl 1/3 of the circle circumference. Repeat for one full 360 rotation.
Move on to Museum pond, after a brief recap of risks of box jumps and former incident…. exercises in cadence excluding Box jumps:
(18) Dips
(18) Right Leg step ups
(18) Left Leg step ups
Repeat 1 X
Mosey back to Track for Mary:
(30) LBCs
(18) Flutter Kicks
(18) Hello Dollies
(2) Laps around track sprint straight aways, jog curves, after curve (6) Jump Squats
Back to flag for COT. As I noted above, many thanks to F3 for the opportunity to lead and participate in this experiment. Emphasis on the 2nd F for Fellowship and the drive to get us all out here on a 39 degree morning for the good of all! Also welcomed PAX from Tallahassee F3 Chapter in town for a visit, and likewise Tclaps for the hurricane recovery efforts from F3 in the area ongoing from last season, hard to think about tropical storms on a morning like this, but we are familiar.
Take it easy and see you in the gloom and on the radio.
Thanks to Gabrielle, YHC had a different take on his usual Stomp-and-Sprint workout. So Tuesday am, time was right to give it a test run. I think it has some potential, but needs some help. We will definitely try again soon.
12 PAX gathered in the gloom. Nice to see a good sized crowd on a Tuesday am – thanks, brothers! Warmer than expected, causing YHC to regret the choice to bundle up. Oh, the fun of winter weather cycles in NOLA. After a disclaimer, the PAX set off for 30 minute run: meet back at the track at 6am.
Not surprisingly, Smooth, El Guapo and Mahatma took off to the front. Even less surprisingly, Mr. Freedom-Hammer himself decided he didn’t want to hang back with El-G or M-Ice, and bolted. Smooth sure can fly. YHC enjoyed the chance to catch up with Sesame Street – I wish I had his dedication when travelling. 5 days in NOLA and 4 workouts. Nice work!
Back at the track at 6am (Hawg straggling in late at his 11:45 pace), we gathered to try Gabrielle-themed workout. Split into groups of 4. 3 of the 4 take their position on the track roughly 1/3 apart from each other for a sprint relay. The 4th toes the line to get ready….
Position 1: 25 LBC
Position 2: 25 PJ
Position 3: 25 Merkins
Go… PAX sprints to the Position 1. Tag, you’re it! PAX from Position sprints to the next spot, while the arriving PAX does the exercise and waits for the relay to come back around. That’s the cycle. Sprint when its your turn, do your exercise on arrival, and wait. As YHC says – needs a bit of work, but everyone got 3 or 4 sprints in before we headed back to the flag.
COT ends with our count-off, name-o-rama, and close with a prayer to use the gift of Tuesday, January 22nd wisely.
A beautiful, crisp Saturday morning for the Mothership, with a quick disclaimer we ….circled up.
For the last couple of weeks, YHC has been thinking about events that have occurred in our F3 family. These include Terrabyte’s passing, illness with our F3 brother’s loved ones and the impending closure of Morning Call and loss of employment, at least temporarily, for our faithful waiter, Mike. As YHC was preparing for his Q at the Mothership during the week, YHC noticed an old favorite movie had been added to Netflix, Black Hawk Down. This film is about the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia in the early nineties which resulted in the death of 19 American Soldiers, YHC noted some explicit themes in the movie such as “No Man Left Behind” and “We fight for the man next to you”. There was also some implicit themes including no man is on his own. Clearly, all of these themes are echoed in the F3 credo “Leave no man behind, but leave no man where you found him”. So in honor of the 19 American Soldiers who died in Mogadishu and all of our F3 Brothers going through tough and uncertain times, this Mothership beatdown will have no OYO exercises. One other note on Blackhawk Down, in the movie there was multiple references to “chalks”. After some quick research with the source of all sources, Wikipedia, a “chalk” in military terminology is a group of troops (think platoon) in an airborne assault. PAX, count off 1, 2, 3, 4 and form up into Chalks 1, 2, 3 and 4. This will be your group throughout the workout. Each Chalk designate a Chalk Q and grab a Flag.
Mosey to Great Lawn for Warm Up
Form rows of by chalk starting with Chalk 1 then Chalk 2
followed by Chalk 3 and 4. Chalks try to
stay in formation Let’s begin:
All exercises until Q yells Halt
Walking Soldiers
High Knees
Butt Kicks
Carioca
Circleup for additional warm-up:
Self Love I/C X20
Imperial Walkers I/C X20
Hillbillies I/C X20
Form your Chalks into
circles on the Great Lawn for the next thang… Bear Crawl Ring of Fire:
Bearcrawl Counter-Clockwise till Q yells halt
10 merkins in ring of fire fashion starting with
the PAX to the left of the Chalk Q
Bearcrawl Clockwise
10 wide merks Bearcrawl Counter-Clockwise till Q
yells halt
Let’s increase the difficulty!
Boo Boo Bearcrawl Counterclockwise Right Leg Up
10 staggered right merkins in ring of fire fashion starting with the PAX to the left of the Chalk Q
Boo Boo Bearcrawl Clockwise Left Leg Up
10 staggered left merkins in ring of fire fashion starting with the PAX to the left of the Chalk Q
Chalks grab flag, form columns and march to road in front of
Storyland. Line up chalks in four
columns facing towards museum for Indian Runs to Fountain.
At Fountain circle up staying with your Chalk for Red Hot Chili Pepper:
Right Leg Step Ups x 16; Decline Merkins x 8; Left
Leg Step Ups x 16; Incline Merkins x 8
Right Leg Step Ups x 12; Decline Merkins x 6; Left
Leg Step Ups x 12; Incline Merkins x 6
Right Leg Step Ups x 8; Decline Merkins x 4; Left
Leg Step Ups x 8; Incline Merkins x 4
Right Leg Step Ups x 4; Decline Merkins x 2; Left
Leg Step Ups x 4; Incline Merkins x2
Next, down Lelong Drive for more Indian Runs in Chalks. T-claps to Chalk 3 for hanging back to keep their chalk together. Now you’re getting the idea!
Mosey in Chalk to side of NOMA and partner up in Chalk for
O.P.P.
One PAX does OH Claps (O) in People’s Chair (P) while the
other PAX does 20 Plank Jacks (P) Flapjack till Q yells halt. These were done in 2 count cadence. Let’s try to stay together on cadence Chalks!
Time is running out so grab Flags and mosey in Chalk columns
to great lawn for:
Quick Mary:
Flutter Kicks I/C X20
Hello Dolly I/C X20
Times up so circle around Flags in Great Lawn for CoT
Count-Off, Name-o-rama (1 FNG who was named Twin Span as he’s
from Slidell), Intentions and Prayer.
T-claps to all the PAX who did the daily double, the
Mothership and Krazy Ivan. Southshore brought
the Freedom Hammer home!
Thank you PAX for embracing the Beatdown’s theme of no man
is “on his own” in F3. As we all go
through life’s ups and downs, it feels good to know that we have our F3’
brothers to watch our six. We are truly
our Brother’s Keeper!
NM Moleskin
For 4 years, the PAX have been enjoying F2 and F3 at the Morning Call in City Park after the Mothership. For most if not all of those coffeetaria’s, we have arrived to ice cold water to refresh us and been served “Hot” au laits, “Cold” iced coffees and for a brave few “Hot Black” coffees by our faithful waiter Mike. We all know that this past weekend was the last for Morning Call and there is some uncertainty whether Mike will come back with Café du Monde. Even if he does, he will be out of work for at least a month. So in true F3 fashion, an operation was drummed up. In a short week, what became known as Operation Big Tip was put into full effect to thank Mike for all of his service to the PAX. The PAX raised $349 for Mike and a Framed Picture signed by the PAX was delivered at Coffeetaria. YHC even noticed a tear in Mike’s eye. The PAX should be proud of their efforts. This is the best of F3.
