37 Pax showed up on this cool Friday morning for some fitness and fellowship. YHC was leading a run up the mountain, and 86 lead the Angry (Tepid) Wave for some miles around the Tulane and Loyola campus. The usual disclaimer and off we go.
We started with our usual jog, making a short loop down St. Charles Ave and back to the horseshoe lawn at Touchdown Jesus. There we circled up for our warm-up COP:
SSH x 20 IC, IW x 20 IC, Peter Parkers x 20 IC, Windmills x 10 IC, Arm Circles 10 Forward 10 Backwards IC, Mountain Climbers x 20 IC
Next we moseyed to the bottom of Wolfpack Mountain. The entire Pax ran up the mountain, forward running on the inclines, side-hopping the ends, and back peddling the staright aways. Once at the top, a COP with Merkins x 10 IC, Penguins x 20 IC, Left leg cross over Merkins x 10 IC, Dying Cockroach x 20 IC, Right leg cross over Merkins x 10 IC.
At the top of the Mountain, we knocked out some Dora 1-2-3. Apologies to the Pax, as YHC misjudged the amount of time Dora would take. We split into pairs. One Pax ran down the stairs one floor and back up the ramp, while the other Pax exercised. 100 Floyd Mayweathers, 200 Squats, 300 LBC’s.
We ran down the stairs to hit the park benches. Left leg step-ups x 20 IC, Dips x 20 IC, Right leg step-ups x 20 IC, Dips x 15 IC.
We moseyed to the quad for a couple quick sprints. Sprint the quad, 10 Merkins, sprint the quad, 10 Merkins. Then we moseyed back to the flag for the finish.
86 lead his Pax on a 5 mile run to Yulman stadium and back, hitting all 3 mountains along the way.
Count off (37 Pax today!), Name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and a prayer. I am truly grateful to have F3 Nola in my life. You guys are good friends, and you push me and hopefully make me a better man. Thanks for letting me lead today.
10 shoulder-tap merkins run down the incline followed by 10 burpees then backwards run up the incline, repeat twice and on the third time bear-crawl up the incline
So, YHC correspondent has been pretty busy having started and new gig and trying to ramp up as quickly as possible so I apologize in advance for the lateness in this backblast.
This morning would not only mark my one year anniversary of F3, but also the start of a new AO “The Angry Wave” . This AO name is in reference to the school mascot of the other school on St Charles Ave, Although there was much mumblechatter that it sounded like a STD, Which seemed appropriate with our F3 Urologist – Tinkles taking the first Q. I gave the usual disclaimer, Tinkles gave his announcement for Angry Wave that it would be an all running beatdown and the PAX split up and we were on our way. Interesting coincidence – Tinkles was the Q of my first F3 workout.
I had a plan in my head of what I wanted to do but that went out the window when I arrived to see the Park and Street car line were ponds from the overnight rain. So we moseyed toward Walnut and then back down the Avenue to our favorite spot of grass next to Holy Name Church.
Warm up
SSH x 20
Hillbillies x 20
Grass Grabbers x20
Mountain Climbers x20
Fwd/Rev Arm Circles x10 each way
Thang 1 BLIMPS around the Horseshoe – This was supposed to be down the Ave – which was what we did my first workout…
Burpees X5, Lunges x 10 Imperial Walkers x15, Merkins x20, Plank Jacks x25, Squats x30 While running around the horseshoe.
Thang 2 Mosey to the Circle on Loyola’s Campus
Right Leg Step Ups x15
Dips x10
Left Leg Step Ups x 15
Dips x10
Bulgarian Split Leg Squats x15 R Leg up
Dips x10
Bulgarian Split Squats x15 L Leg up
Mosey to the base of the Mountain
Thang 3 – Dirty Mac-Dulla Mountain
Trying to come up with something original I had scoured the Exi-con found this version of an Indian Run that sounded good but on paper but was kind of a cluster F. First guy in line drops and does 5 mekins and planks till the last guys passes him, then yells “6” to let the first person know to drop and start merkins.(Problem – 2 lines – so too many “6” being yelled out.
At second floor landing Merkins x10, Low slow Squats x10, Dying Cock roach x10, Run up to 3rd level landing
3rd level – King Kongs x10, Bobby Hurleys x 10, LBC’s x10, Run up to 4th level
4th level – Diamond Merks x10, Monkey Humpers x10, American Hammer x 10, Run up to 5th level
6th level – Merkin x10, Squats x 10, Penguins x10 With it raining and running out of time we did not proceed to the the top.
Flutter kicks x 15, Some other Mary I cant remember at this time. Then Mosey back to the Flag to meet back up with the Angry Wave guys. They put in about 5 miles, running around the park, to the levee, down the levee to Oak St. back up to Carrolton, and back down the Aveto the Flag
Count-o-Rama, Name-O-Rama. 2 FNG’s – Welcome Grimace and Da Cuzan (He’s Da Parishes cousin) Prayed it out.
I am so very thankful for starting F3 a year ago and am so much better for it. F3 has changed my life in so many ways. I am healthier, and more fit than I have ever been in my adult life. I have been presented opportunities professionally that would have never happened with out the fellowship of F3. I never thought on that first cold Feb morning that I would ever lead one of these workouts and now I do on a fairly regular basis. Thank you all for pushing me, motivating me, and always pulling me up even when I was the “SIX” for those first few months. I am forever indebted to you my F3 brothers! Always a privilege to lead this group of High Impact Men in the gloom. Thank you for the opportunity to lead! SYITG!
Started off with a circle in the clubhouse parking lot.
SSH X 20
Forward Arm Circles X 20
Mountain Climbers X 20
A little plank yoga stretching
We headed to the track for some interval sprints. Jogged to the first running man and then sprinted to the next. Then jogged two running men and sprinted two, etc. Kept this up until we got to the pull-up bars.
Split into 4 groups and rotated through the following:
Pull-ups X 20 as the count
Carolina Dry Docks
Jump Lunges
Squats
Repeated the jog sprint interval pattern to the Mary area by the drinking fountain for the following:
Freddy Mercury X 20
Penguins X 20
LBC X 20
American Hammer X 20
One more set of jog sprint intervals to the fountain. Stopped there for some benches.
Dips X 15
Box jumps on the bench X 15
Dips X 15
Diamond Derkins X 15
Dips X 15
Indian run with two lines to the row bars. Did some group led Mary while we waited for the 6.
31 PAX managed to meet up on a beautiful, calm, cold Friday morning for the WPM. At 5:30, YHC gave his disclaimer. This is YHC’s 1 year anniversary with F3 Nola!!! YHC gave thanks to all the PAX for motivating and pushing him at 5:30 a.m. on a regular basis. YHC told the PAX to modify as needed, whether increasing or decreasing the reps. The key is to maximize your own workout and no one is here to judge.
Warm-ups
Short mosey to Loyola campus and to do the following in cadence:
SSHs x 20
Windmills x 20
Imperial Walkers x 20
Seal Jacks x 20
The Thang
Moseyed to the base of the WPM.
1.) Ran up the first ramp and did slow merkins IC x 10, focusing on form rather than speed.
2.) Ran up backwards the second ramp, and YHC called out Bartman to show everyone how a low slow squat is done because YHC noticed Bartman always has perfect form with his squats. Also – YHC gave a shout out to Bartman because YHC’s first F3 beatdown a year ago was Q’ed by him. YHC still remembers his very first Dora 1, 2, 3. Thank You Bartman, who led low slow squat X 10 IC.
3.) Side hopped on the flat level from one end to the other and switched direction in the middle. YHC called out Reluctant Yankee to do his favorite exercise, low country crab X 20 IC. YHC remembers during his very first WPM – Yankee was sweeping the Six, which was YHC. YHC never forgets the importance of sweeping the Six. Thank You Yankee.
4.) Ran up the ramp, and YHC called out Fracsac. YHC’s very first mothership was Q’ed by Fracsac. After the beatdown, YHC remembers this guy loves suicides and Cat. Wine Mixer. Why not….. YHC asked Fracsac to demonstrate the mixer with a 6 count. He led Cat. Wine Mixer X 10 IC.
5.) Karaoke on the flat level from one end to the other and switched direction in the middle. YHC called out Douille for his “Classic Douille”, American Hammer X 20 IC.
6.) Bear crawled up the ramp. Instead of crawling all the way up on this ramp, YHC broke up the crawl by yelling “HALT.” Stayed where everyone was and did 15 incline plank jacks IC. Bear crawled again and “HALT” again and did 15 incline mountain climbers IC. Then finished crawling to the top.
7.) Prisoner ran on the flat level from one end to the other to get to the next ramp. YHC heard few mumble chatter here when YHC announced “burpee broad jumps on the ramp.” YHC broke up this workout by yelling “HALT.” Stayed where everyone was and did 15 incline Peter Parkers IC. Burpee broad jumping again until the next “HALT” and did 15 Imperial Walkers IC. Then finished the burpee broad jumps to the top.
8.) Ran on the flat level from one end to the other to get to the next ramp. The group did lunge walks to the top of the ramp. Once again, YHC broke up the lunge walk in the middle with a “HALT.” Thanks to Gabrielle, the group did 20 decline (rather than incline) Parker Peter IC. Then finished the lunge walk all the way to the top of the mountain.
9.) At the top of the WPM, YHC decided to do some suicides. Ran down the ramp to the third light post and back to the top of the WPM and did 20 leg raises. Ran down the ramp to the second post and back to the top and did 15 leg raises. Finally, ran down the ramp to the closest light post and back to do 10 leg raises.
Ran down the stairs back to Loyola campus where the group started the workout with our warm-ups earlier.
Round of Mary
YHC dedicated this round of Mary to all the HNJ dads, who invited YHC to F3. Without them, YHC would have no idea F3 NOLA is here. YHC called out the following HNJ PAX to lead the following exercise in cadence.
Willie – Very slow Penguins x 15
Medulla – Dying Cockroach x 15
Gabrielle – Nolan Ryan x 10 on each side
YHC wanted to continue to call out the rest of the HNJ PAX but ran out of time. Moseyed back to the flag for the COT right at 6:15 a.m.
COT
Count-O-Rama 30PAX, Name-O-Rama, announcements, intentions. We will start a new Uptown workout on Tuesday. We will meet at the same spot as WPM, top of Audubon Park on St. Charles Ave. Our thoughts and prayers for Piranha’s family as they are expecting their newborn on Monday. Also prayers for De La Salle’s President. I am blessed and thankful to be able to workout with my F3 brothers on a regular basis and hope to do so for many years to come. Thank You all again for the opportunity to lead. Always a pleasure and honor to workout with the PAX. SYITG
Jackie Robinson once said, “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives”. Today, 42 men showed up in the soggy gloom to face the Mountain. Today, we caught a glimpse of the incredible impact F3 has had on a growing number of lives as we set yet another AO record for attendance.
“Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.”
No spectators here – we jumped right into the thing after the disclaimer and an awe-inspiring cartwheel demonstration by Crop Duster.
Brief mosey to Tulane’s front yard for an oval warmup
Side Straddle Hop x 25
Imperial Walker Squats x 20
Arm Circles Forward/Back x 15
Mosey to top of the Mountain via the stairs
11’s comprised of Leg Raises and Burpees
LBC’s OYO to wait for the 6
Merkins x 10
Mosey down the Mountain to Touchdown Jesus via stairs
Pax formed groups of 3
Pax 1 executed Squats AMRAP style at one end while Pax 2 held a Plank at the opposite end of the lawn. Pax 3 ran to tap out Pax 2 and take his spot so that he could then take Pax 1’s position doing Squats. Continued this rotation allowing each Pax to complete Squats, then Jumping Lunges, followed by Monkey Humpers. This is tough to explain in writing, but much tapping occurred and all were jolly.
DIZZY BEAR! – Traditional Bear Crawl that leads into a Reverse Bear Crawl upon Q yelling, “DIZZY BEAR!”
Merkins x 10
Dying Cockroach x 20
“This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.”
It sure ain’t always fun, but it’s worth it.
I’ll leave y’all with one last Jackie Robinson quote as I think it ties even more directly into what we’re doing than the previous ones, “F3 is great.”
Lobsta (FNG), Grimace (FNG), Pops (F3 Cleveland), Monty (F3 Cleveland), Sesame Street (F3 Naperville), Crop Duster (F3 Naperville and visiting cartwheel extraordinaire), Gabrielle, Willie, King Kong, Medulla, Peppa, Douille, Saban, Sandbar, Brown Bag, Chiquita, Two Yutes, Fracsac, Bad Moon, Chowda, Jingle Vader, G-Spot, Bartman, Piranha, Landing Strip, Mariah, Reluctant Yankee, Flaming Lips, Giligan, Wash n’ Fold, Cavalier, Bones, Quincy, False Start, Cowbell, Angie’s List, Quarter Pipe, Tinkles, 86, Nine Lives
Seeing that I never Q’ed Wolfpack Mountan…ever! I decided to start 2019 a little differently. In fact, I have never Q’ed any uptown AO since the 2014 beginning of F3 or my second beginning in Sept. 2016. That’s an entirely different story for another time. Anyway, T-Claps to Yankee’s text reminding me of my date with destiny.
WARMUP
With 32 Pax strong, “we don’t need no stinking warmup.” I give a protracted disclaimer and we start with 10 burpees with much groaning and mumbling. After ignoring the uptown mumblechatter, I follow up with 9 burpees for a total of 19 for 2019. After we finish the warmup, we run to the base of the mountain.
THE THANG
We partner up and PAX 1 proceeds to run up the mountain backwards while PAX 2 does 5 burpees and sprints to catch up with PAX 1 and tags to switch until we get to Floor 4. From there, we take the steps to the top (skip 1-2 steps to make it harder)
We circle up for a little modified ‘Suck’. 2 minutes of SSH, Merkins and Jump Squats with a 1 minute cool down x 2. I had a little hiccup with my timer and only did a follow up 1 minute suck.
PAX 1 bear crawls about 40 yds while PAX 2 does Red Sun Supermans. After that cycle, PAX 1 does walking lunges while PAX 2 does wife pleasers.
6 MOM – 30 LBC, 20 Dying Cockroaches, 20 Hello Dolly and 20 Flutter Kicks x IC
With time running out, we proceed to do 25 Red Bull Smurf Jacks and 10 Merkins all IC. I’m hoping to get to 50 Red Bull Smurf Jacks one day but I digress. With 5 minutes left, we had back to the Virtual Flag
COUNTOFF, NAMERAMA, COT
With 32 strong, I was very honored by the showing and greatly appreciated the Uptown Pax accepting the leadership of a Lakeview foreigner. We welcomed two (2) doctors that Nip Tuck EHed and I hope that Quincy M.D. and Bonez make it back. Grateful for my brotherhood of F3 and prayers for God’s peace for those dealing with illnesses and the supernatural grace to lead well. May God bless your influence in 2019!
Being inspired by Yankee’s gentle reminder to post our backblasts, I went looking through my phone notes hoping I had written everything down. Luckily I never delete anything and found my notes at the bottom of a grocery list.
We started with the circle. I forgot to write these numbers down so the circle reps might be a little off.
Secure Shells(A little IT humor) x 30
Windmill x 30
Peter Parkers x 30
Mountain Climbers x 30
Imperial Walkers x 30
Then we did an Indian run to the top of the mountain.
At the top of the mountain we partnered up and took turns running all the way down the stairs and then back up and doing the following:
Burpees x 50
Jump Lunges x 100
Real Freddy Merucrys x 200
Next we moved to the benches for some rapid fire dips and incline m’rcans. We started with 12 of each back to back with no break and the intent was to work our way down to 1 reducing by 1 each time. Turns out this is ridiculously hard so once we got to 8 we reduced by 2 each time.
Once done we stayed at the bench for some step-ups and then moseyed back to the flag for a little bit of mary.
After the mary we did name-o-rama and and honored Ron Jeremy by naming the FNG Hedgehog.
After a week of on the rode for work – 2 Texas workouts (The Woodlands and Katy) I was ready to hit the Mountain running!
26 men showed up ( one out of town guest Pipeline from Charlotte) to what has become a legend in NOLA area AO status – Wolf Pack Mountain! After a quick disclaimer we moseyed towards the campus. As we entered the grounds of the area between the buildings and circled up, Triple Shift commented – we’re going to wake up some students! Oh how their lives would change if they decided to make the commitment to roll out the rack for a regular 5:30 beatdown…..but we’ve all been there – some in the PAX aren’t long from leaving a dorm room!
Warm Up – all 4 count
SSH x 26
Grass Grabbers x 15
Parker Peters x 15
Shoulder Taps x 15
Push Ups x 10
Count off 1 – 4 repeat – FracSac time warped to COT “5” – but we reeled him –
Mosey to garage – group 1 & 4 and 2 & 3 squared up on opposite sides of the stairs – PAX from the groups then paired up to complete a DORA
100 alternating merkins
200 jump squats
300 shoulder presses
PAX 1 from each group climbed the stairs to 3rd floor then ran down the ramp while PAX 2 started the DORA – swapping efforts until completed.
Then
Groups 4&2 and 1&3 lined up for a “Working” Indian run up to the top of WPM – Once to the front of the line – PAX would call out an exercise for the line to complete x 3 – all men stopped completed then started the run – both lines kept good pace finishing strong at the top.
Dilemma QIC had additional work with only 6 minutes to go – do we turn and had back or push forward?
We stayed in groups – splitting the upper parking area in 2 – PAX from each of the combined groups paired up.
Sprint to the wall on opposite ends of the parking lot – perform 5 Merkins then run back to the middle PAX 1 does 3 Burpees PAX 2 8 LBC
Run back to the opposite end perform 4 Merkins now back to the center where PAX swapped effort above – REPEAT this 3, 2, 1.
NOW back to the flag – QIC was still convinced that the PAX had more to give so we started to run down but bailed at 4th floor to the stairs – quick pace back to the flag!
All said we were only about 5 minutes over – SOLID work!
COT – Name O Rama – Announcements – Intentions
Holding each other accountable – Giving thanks to God and not taking anything for granted – accepting challenges while leading through character – OPEN our hearts to forgiving!
God Bless – It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to lead!
YHC texted the planned QIC, Tinkles, last night requesting the Q for Wolfpack Mountain. YHC was on the schedule prior to Halloween and was unable to fulfill his duties. This seemed like a good make-up date. Tinkles humbly obliged and the Downpainment was underway.
W/U
Mosey down the neutral ground to Walnut and cross over. Double back to Cowen Cir and find some real estate in front of the steps. 5 laps, with up & down being 1 lap. Since we could not get in to Tulane, Mosey over to Loyola to find Jesus.
SSH IC x 25
AC IC x 10, Reverse x 10
Peter Parker IC x 10
Parker Peter IC x 10
IW IC x 10
HB IC x 10
JL IC x 10
Mosey to the Mountain
The Thang
COP – Merkins IC x 10, Plank Jack IC x 10, Squats IC x 15
Partner Up
PAX 1 completes a lap up the mountain and down the stairs
PAX 2 completes the COP at each landing until PAX 1 catches him, then switch
Complete the COP until you reach the top of the mountain, and your partner meets you there.
LBC x 30
Alabama Prom Date x 10 on each side. (1 legged wife pleaser)
Mosey to the Flag
Counterama, Namerama, COT
Announcements – Holy Name Fair this weekend. Poboy Fest this Sunday, Son of a Saint will be the benefactor.
Prayer – The health of Supreme Court Justice RBG, The victims of CA mass shooting, and tolerance of our fellow Americans & fellow man.