F3 New Orleans

Tag: TurboTax

  • Northshore 5 year convergence – from Waterpik

    What a great day it was, as today’s experience crystallized the essence of F3 in so many ways. YHC awakened, checked my phone and noticed a text from cowbell, inquiring on the status of the beatdown on behalf of the PAX from Nola who were preparing to cross the causeway. That was at 0455! T-Claps to those guys for even considering making the trip across for the convergence. After all, and unbeknownst to them, the causeway was CLOSED at the time due to the severity of the weather.

    And don’t forget Goose, who decided to make a surprise appearance and left his home in Thibodeaux at 0445, driving through rain storms, lightning, and thunder at a mere 45 mph on the interstate before encountering the closed causeway bridge himself. T-Claps to you, Goose, for your perseverance and your faith that F3 would stick to its credo of “rain or shine”. And that we did! It was really go to see you, Goose!

    And what about Jose and Speedy and Bushwacker, who showed up at 0600, ready for the pre thing on the Lakefront? Thanks for sticking around, guys, until 0730, and for your dedication to our Organization.

    And then, despite the horrific weather over night, 15 PAX showed up the beatdown! T-claps to all of you guys who showed up for the convergence. Without a PAX, we are all sad clowns. And thanks to F3 for giving me more than I have given to it! I am definitely a better man now than I was before. That is, more dedicated, more confident, more responsible, more faithful, more resolute, more grounded, and more and more and more!

    And here’s a prayer for F3 Nation, who has had a change of leadership and has very ambitious goals to keep growing, thriving, and adapting. Those will be no easy tasks, but my prayer is that they (we) will succeed. It’s because of PAX like YOU GUYS that I have confidence that WE can do just that.

    And by the way, there was a workout. It was much of the same. You know the drill, merkins, cinder blocks, Mary, COT, special intentions and Goose to pray us out

  • Marsh Madness 2021 – from Zoolander

    Welcome to Marsh Madness 2021. Twenty-four Pax converged upon the Milestone Marsh for this second-time event1

    In the presence of the Pick Axe-entrusted Freedom Hammer, we started with a quick disclaimer, Warmorama, Bushwacker-style2 instructions, and then the THANG.

    The Pax counted off in 4’s and formed 4 x 6ish-man teams at each corner of the court with a basketball. While 1 member of each team backpedaled with their ball to half court, performed a Bobby Hurley, and drove to goal for a shot of his choosing:

    – Layup (1 point),
    – Free Throw (2 points), or
    – Three point shot (3 points)
    Zero points for missed shots

    the rest of each team completed the following series of exercises in cadence led by a rotating corner Q.
    • Burpees
    • Air Presses
    • Shoulder Tap Merkins
    • Copperhead Jump Squats
    • LBCs
    • Plank Jacks
    • Monkey Humpers
    • Flutter Kicks
    Each man – including FNGs, 2nd timers, and celebrity guests – had multiple chances to lead the cadence.

    Shooters marked their points with sidewalk chalk and fell in line to call the cadence for the next exercise. It took a few rounds before each team found its own rhythm, but after that it was like watching a philharmonic orchestra playing Mary had a little lamb.
    After “40 minutes of hell,” team member points were tallied, and the highest scoring individual from each of the 4 teams were down-bracketed to a 5-shot “Around-the-World” shoot out on their respective side of the court. The rest of the Pax performed Goofballs and Side Straddle Hops to distract the Final Four shooters.
    Grundy, with accountant like focus, out-calculated Speedy;
    Ocho outdanced Whip.

    Grundy and Ocho were then down-bracketed to compete in a best-of-10 shootout from the free throw line. As luck would have it, they tied, and we went to Sudden Death from the Three Point line. Despite Ocho’s shenanigans, Grundy stomped the Stomper and emerged as the 2021 Marsh Madness champion!

    – Trophy
    – Count-orama
    – Name-orama – Welcome FNGs Sonar (EH’d by Turbo Tax) and Gomer Pyle (EH’d by Sparky).
    – Announcements
    o Northshore 5-year convergence led by Waterpik at the Lakefront on April 10.
    o Next F3/FiA mixer is 4/29. Thank you Jose10k, some of us do have to plan ahead for weeknight workouts.
    o ZOORICH CLASSIC at the Lakefront on April 24. (See how I slipped that in there Cowbell?…never too early!)

    QIC prayed us out and group photo followed. Great job by all. We’ll see if Grundy can defend his title in 2022. Thanks for playing along men. See you in the next Gloom.

    Footnotes:
    1Seriously, footnotes in a Backblast? Why not? The first Marsh Madness was in 2019 with a small, dare I say Elite, group of 8. Bird was an FNG and drained 16 x 3-point shots. The B-ball gods did not favor him today though. And well, Corona (as it was called back then) had other plans in ‘20.

    2Bushwacker-style instructions typically include circumlocutory, sesquipedalian musings about man’s ultimate life purpose with some semblance of what the Pax should be doing for the next 40-50 minutes. They are often accompanied by Mumble Chatter and confusion by all within earshot. Bushwacker-style instructions are the exact opposite of Turbo-style instructions, which are direct, concise, and never to be interrupted without penalty.

  • Take Shelter – from TurboTax

    8 High Impact Men took their red pills this morning and posted to The Gipper for what looked sure to be a wet workout. Of course it remained dry the whole beat down, but YHC had inscribed the beat down on his stone Winkie and weather conditions were irrelevant. Time to take shelter and get busy.

    After a warmup of Imperial Walkers, Mountain Climbers, Seal Jacks, Parker Peters, Windmills and Peter Parkers, all 10x IC, it was time for the Main event.

    5 burpees every minute on the minute for 40 minutes broken down into 8 sets. Each set coupled 5 exercises with the burpees: 5 burpees with 5 SSHs, 5 burpees with 5 squats or squat jumps, 5 burpees with 5 toe touches, 5 burpees with 5 calf raises or jump ropes or one foot hops or ice skater hopes and finally 5 burpees with 5 air presses. Rinse and repeat with some intensity added, finishing up with 100 air presses before retiring to the COT. Countorama, nameorama and Einstein prayed us out. Thanks for letting me lead guys and hope to see you all Thursday 1800 at the Lakefront Gazebo for our joint beat down with FiA.

  • We’re Caught in a Trap, and Can’t Walk Out… – from Akbar

    Because I love y’all too much baby.

    And so it began, the 2nd annual Merkin Trap on the lakefront. Last year around this time we did 400 Merkins, could it be topped? I think so.

    18 PAX converged at the Lakefront today (without Gnats!) to make ourselves better. It could have been an even 20 if TankedUp didn’t steel Bush and Steve for a OYO Marathon.

    Gloom Factor – overcast, chilly 47 degrees

    Warm up – Nada. It’s time to get to business

    THANG – multiple exercises, mosey’s, and a lot of Merkins with a surprise thrown in mid-way. Exercises were done IC, 12,8,5 (50 reps) and some OYO.

    Starting out at the shovel flag: SSH | Merkins IC 12,8,5

    Mosey to Rips for Calf Raises on the stairs | Dirkins on the curb. 12,8,5 IC

    Mosey to the wall: Step Ups OYO in sets of 12/8/5 | Irkins OYO 24, 16, 10

    Run 2 blocks to Jefferson, stop for 10 Merkins at Claiborne. Monkey Humpers |Stone Mountain 12/8/5 IC

    Run 2 blocks to Monroe stop at Madison for 10 Merkins. Squats | Leg-up Merkins 12,8,5 IC

    Run to the Marsh, stop at Livingston for 10 Merkins

    Milestone Marsh: 50 pull ups, 50 Freak Nasties OYO – modification was supine or negative pullups

    Cowbell gave me a time check before we hit the Marsh, and after 100 reps YHC had to modify to make it back in time.

    Run back to the flag, stopping at each street for 15 Merkins.

    On the way, some father son intensification took place with Hammer and Pickaxe. Hammer carried Pickaxe most of the way piggyback style, and I took a turn for 1 leg. While Hammer and I did Merkins, Pickaxe did a Luigi (I think) – or pretty much a Merkin with no arms. At least he didn’t have to carry Shooter for 6 blocks.

    Back to the shovel flag for the wrap up.

    · Crunchy Frogs for Cowbell | Merkins 12,8,5 IC
    · LBC’s IC 12,8,5 24 Irkins OYO 8,5 FIA Merkins IC
    · Hello Dolly | Merkins IC 12,8

    500 Merkins in an hour, Advil post beatdown OYO

    Count, Name – Welcome FNG Binky!

    Announcements:

    1. F2 with FIA Thursday March 25th, 6pm at the Lakefront Gazebo and Barley Oak afterwards. Bring your wife, girlfriend, your female children, and their friends. Who wouldn’t want to attend that!

    2. Zoolander Q next week at the Milestone Marsh – NOT THE LAKEFRONT

    Thanks for following my lead,

    Till Next Gloom – Akbar

    Moleskin

    I first did this workout in Atlanta and loved the cadence. Last year we did it with 400 Merkins and hit 500 this year. 600 in 2022?

    Great to see Blaze back at the Mothership again.

    Zoolander had a 3 man EH. T claps for What’s That making the trip all the way from Kenner.

    T Claps to Pickaxe who hung in there, that’s a long way to run for a young man.

    Great to see Steve again at coffee and glad he’s back in the workforce.

    TankedUp is either crazy, a beast, or both. He just decided to run a marathon in Covington on his own. Maybe because Hammer called him Geriatric. T Claps brother.

  • Building Blocks – from Shooter

    Knowing that our coupons have never been tampered with at the Gipper, YHC planned a beatdown all around the blocks. Q has been absent on Wednesday the last two weeks, so it felt like the perfect setting to return to strength focus on this mild gloom. T👏🏼 to Barely Legal and Einstein staying committed to the prethang miler and the return of Bubba to the Gip… PAX swelled to 13 before long and 0600 had arrived for us to get started.

    Warmup:
    10IC Arm circles (flapjack), Cherry pickers, Torso twist, Windmills, Grass grabbers and Imperial walkers.

    Thang
    PAX converged at the coupon yard to grab from our selection of mixed weights of blocks. Really didn’t matter if one thought they had escaped the dense 35 pounder as they quickly learned the blocks would soon be mixed in our parking lot around the corner. On this Gloom all parties involved would get a touch of the varying weights not by choice but possibly by default of being the last to select in some cases right BB?
    💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼
    First the PAX stacked all the blocks at one end of the lot them formed an assembly line to move the blocks down the line. As each PAX finished with the last block he would flip one of 2 tires placed in the lot earlier 2x and then rotate to the other end of the line to return all the blocks to the original starting block. Once complete we duplicated accept this time keeping the blocks overhead as we passed down the assembly line. R/R with the tire completing 2 rounds of each.

    FLORA 123 was next on the agenda.
    PAX partnered up for 100 (Merkins/Plank holds), 200 (LBCs/6”holds), 300 (Goblet squat/ Goblet hold).
    Example:
    100
    P1 10x Merkin with feet on coupon P2 hold plank with feet on coupon.
    200
    P1 20x LBCs with block on chest, P2 holding block above with 6” leg hold.
    300
    P1 25x Goblet squats, P2 Goblet arm chair hold.

    All about the Benjamin’s up next.
    Split the PAX on opposite ends of the parking lot.
    G1 completed 25 Curls for the girls while G2 25 Lunge walks across.
    Flapjack
    Next
    G1 Overhead press 25 and G2 25 Lunge walks with Block.
    Flapjack

    Returned our coupons to their resting place and finished with setting up for the farmers market.

    Count off, announcements and thoughts and prayers to our brethren Toto and Hogsbreath!!

    YHC prayed out the PAX

    Privileged to lead you men and would build with you anytime..

    Thanks for the post and until the next Gloom 👍🏼👊🏼✌🏼!!!!

  • March On – from Einstein

    Short disclaimer …

    Warmup:
    all 15xIC; side straddle hops, toe touch, imperial walkers, drew brees, knee highs, good mornings

    Mosey:
    to the front of the Taj-Mahal, circle up around the flag-pole, for the MROF (Merkin Ring Of Fire)
    all pax do a merkin then sidecrawl counter-clockwise, then repeat in the clockwise direction, with a set of ten jumps squats in between

    Mosey:
    to the top level of the St. Tammany Parish Courthouse parking garage, line up and at each of the parking stripes, do a burpee (twenty five in total) then follow with a core exercise.
    We repeated this sequence about six times, inserting a different challenge for the stripes

    Mosey:
    back to the Gipper statue as time expires,
    count-o-rama, Bushwacker leads us out with a prayer.

    It’s always fun running around downtown Covington, and thanks guys for letting me lead today.

  • Gnats 1 PAX 1 – from TurboTax

    It was a draw. The Gnats mobilized early and mounted a fierce attack, but the PAX persevered and evened the score with a strong showing. It all started with a burpee heavy warmup which, in all honesty, wasn’t much of a warmup at all. It was The Thang from the bell. Burpees were performed with a sprinkling of standard warmup exercises added to the mix and then it was on to the main event…PAX vs sandbag. Dividing up into teams of two and three, we moved back and forth in 10 yard increments carrying our sandbags in various fashions while bear crawling, running, burpee long jumping, etc in between rounds. We then dropped the sand bags and ran a few sprint relays wrapping things up with some Mary after returning to the Shovel Flag. Countorama nameorama and Russo prayed us out. Thanks for letting me lead guys and making us all look good for the little old lady videographer. Hammer, did you remember to give her Bushwacker’s contact info?

  • First Ever Northshore F3/FiA Mixer – from Cowbell

    If you ask someone that rhymes with mushtacker when is the best time to post a back blast, he would probably say within 5 minutes of it ending. I, on the other hand, like some time, a week give or take, to reflect on what the workout meant to me and the pax.

    Just kidding, I’ve been busy, and enjoy making mushtacker wait to see in writing form what it is he did himself.

    25 pax met at the Covington trailhead for the first ever joint F3/FiA workout

    COP #1 Warm Up (all IC X20)
    SSH, Seal Jacks, IW, Arm Circles (F/B), Toe Touches, OH Arm Claps, Mtn climbers, Windmills

    The Thang
    Tabata Style (45 sec work, 25 sec rest) 6 stations

    Exercises included:
    Burpees
    Freak Nasties
    Chest press with block
    Bobby Hurley
    Big Boi Sit Ups
    J Lo’s

    Rinse and repeat

    COP #2 6MOM
    20 X Hello Dolly (Hey zoo)
    20 X LBC
    20 X Crunchy Frog

    COT: Count, Name (a lot of FNG’s), Jose Prayed us out

    We met at the Covington Tap Room for post work out beverages.

    All in all I think the first mixer was a success. looking forward to doing another one in the next month or so.

  • Building Blocks – from Akbar

    Pax Grover, Maverick, Bruno, BBQ, Bean, Barely Legal, Moho, Fletch, Turbo, Moby Dick, Cowbell, Maverick, Tarheel, Akbar

    14 strong at the Gipper on a chilly morn in the gloom. Actually, it felt more like 24 degrees after a few days near 80. What a great morning for a block party!

    WU SSH IC x 15

    Torso Twist, Self-Love, Grass Grabbers, Butt Kicks IC x 10

    Thang

    7 block exercises, complete 10 reps, .2m run to Beck and Call and back

    Rinse and repeat, adding 1 rep per exercise for each round

    Manmakers

    Block Curls

    Block Squat

    Bicycle Block Press

    Kettle Block Swing

    Triceps Block extensions

    WW1 Situps

    My count had Turbo in the lead with 17, all in all a brutal beatdown where most finished 5-7 rounds. Might need Bean to check my math, but that’s 531 to 756 reps per man in a 35 minute time span.

    Mary IC x 12

    Hello Dolly, Heels to Heaven, Hands to Heals, Flutter Kicks, Leg Raises, LBC, Crunchy Frogs for Cowbell

    Count, Name-o-rama, quick shout out to the Unitards RCR win

    QIC prayed us out

    Well done guys, thanks for letting me lead

    SYITG – Akbar

    Naked Man Moleskin

    It was great to have Bruno back with us again, and T-Claps for him coming out every time he’s in town – even if BBQ makes him

    Great to have Moho back as well after learning last week that us old guys should probably not sprint, at least until we stretch for 15 minutes.

    It’s always a crapshoot when picking out blocks at the Gipper, could get a 28 or 35 pounder. But those blocks were definitely waterlogged today!

    As Cowbell noted on GroupMe – it did feel good to have the blocks out after all that running in Feb.

  • This is what happens when you don’t sign up to Q – from Amnesia

    Pre-Thang: Some of the PAX ran the 2 mile Pre-Thang to get those miles in for RCR.

    Warm-O-Rama: 25 SSH, 25 Imperial Walkers, 20 mountain climbers – we needed some warming as the temps were still below freezing.

    The Thang: YHC had signed up planning to run the whole time, as Run Cajun Run was still ongoing. After warning from some PAX as to the running abilities of other PAX, YHC had to adapt. So adapt we did! We ran to the beach, with random stops for 5 burpees OYO.

    Then we came back and completed Dora at Marigny Avenue. You know the drill: 100 merkins, 200 big boi sit-ups, and 300 squats cumulative – one partner runs while the other completes the exercises.

    I don’t blame Jose 10k…at this point he said “screw it” and left the workout to get pure running in. Which was my intent anyway.

    Next was BLIMPS…5 burpees at the shovel flag, then run a block and complete 10 lunges…continue with 15 Imperial Walkers, 20 merkins, 25 plank jacks, and 30 squats. I had the leaders complete SPMILB on their way back to the shovel flag.

    Mary: After running back to the flag, we had barely enough time for 20 each of leg lifts and hello dolly’s.

    Name-O-Rama and COT concluded the beatdown and then YHC had to skip coffeeteria as a drive to Dallas was planned for that afternoon!!