F3 New Orleans

Tag: Ya Mom n Dem

  • Blayne is a Bitch – from Saban

    I had looked on the Q sheet a few weeks back to sign up for the anniversary of my dad’s passing. Unfortunately there was another anniversary, High Rise had signed up to Q his two year anniversary. Guess it wasn’t meant to be…or was it. Early in the week, High Rise posted that he wasn’t able to take the Q so I jumped on it. Guess it was meant to be!

    I arrived slightly before 5:30 and was surprised to see 9 PAX getting ready to go and one PAX already on burpee #73! Nice work Catfish. A quick disclaimer and we were off. Stayed under the pavilion to get warmed up with:

    SSH X 20
    Imperial Walkers x 15
    Monkey Humpers x 15
    Peter Parker x 15
    Parker Peter x 15
    Mountain Climbers x 15
    10 burpees OYO

    Moseyed over to the mountain

    Let the PAX know that this was the anniversary of my dad’s passing. My dad was a fighter. He had cancer for over 15 years of his life. And each time a new bit of cancer popped up and things got tough he pushed through and overcame. He had it in his kidney, lost that kidney and recovered. He had it in his spine, lost feeling in his legs and was assigned to a wheelchair for the rest of his days but he continued to push. He had it in his knee so they cut off his leg but he pushed on. Even after the doctors issued him his last days. He pushed on for several more months! So what I have planned is going to be tough and will take most of us the whole time to finish but push through and fight until the end!

    This workout was inspired by Tinkles. It was my last workout before I found out that I had Covid. I had gone to Pontiff to support my uptown brother and this is what we did on a football field and it was really tough. I thought doing the workout up the mountain would add another element.

    I guess we can call these Mountain BLIMPS. Also, for some added fun I got to the mountain early to add the names of our late Wisner Mountain grafitti artists – Puke Dick, Dog Dix, Lucid, and of course Blayne is a Bitch. This created some great mumblechatter: How did Puke Dick get his name? Is Dog Dix French and pronounced Dog Dee? Was Blayne a girl or a boy? I guess we will never know…

    The Thang

    Run up 25 yards – 5 burpees – run back down

    Run up 50 yards – 10 burpees – run back down

    Run up 75 yards – 15 burpees – run back down

    Run up 100 yards – 20 burpees – run back down

    Rinse and repeat for Lunges, Imperial Walkers, Merkins, Plank Jacks, and Squats.

    About half of us finished. From there we moseyed back to the pavilion.

    COT, Count-off, Name-orama, announcements, and prayers. Prayed for everyone dealing with Covid and for everyone to be present to the loved ones that we still have in our lives. Thankful that my dads legacy can live on through F3!

  • Lakeview vs. Pontiff II

    Three months ago the men of Lakeview, unannounced and uninvited, strolled into Pontiff on the day of the Wally Run and threw down the challenge to the men of Pontiff for an Ultimate Frisbee battle. Pontiff never stood a chance as Lakeview mopped the floor with a commanding win.

    Thus began a new tradition, the Lakeview vs. Pontiff Ultimate Frisbee War. Lakeview may have won battle one, but the war was far from over.

    28 men came out for the competition on a cold December morning with 26 men playing for three months of bragging rights. Pontiff playing in Miyagi Do whites and Lakeview playing in Cobra Kai blacks. 13 vs. 13 Ultimate Frisbee – no rematch has been anticipated so highly since Rocky and Creed.

    The Pax ran 2 laps around Pontiff Park (next match there will be some sort of penalty for the team with the fewest number of competitors to complete the 2 laps). Then we split for a standard game of F3 Ultimate. 5 merkins for each turnover. 10 merkins for giving up a touchdown.

    Team Pontiff came out with bang like Daniel kicking Johnny in the face by scoring the first touchdown in moments as YHC caught one in the end zone and even completed a second pass to appease the doubts of team Lakeview, and Pontiff was off to the races.

    Thanks to the quality play of Scantron and Two Yutes scoring strikes down the field – team Pontiff won in a blow out – 8-3.

    The war is now tied 1-1. The next match comes in March.

    -Rev Sox

  • Trail Run #2

    Tclaps to Amnesty for getting this trail run idea started back during the beginning of Covid. Here we go for round #2!

    Stayed up late trying to plan a workout in a space with a lot of unknowns. Then, naturally, my youngest woke up at 2:30. The fear of oversleeping kept me mostly awake until 4:30 when I popped out of bed. I thought I would get out there early to scope things out again to make sure we didn’t get too lost. I arrived at about 10 after five, strapped on my headlamp, and mosey my way over to forest. I wasn’t even a few steps in when I saw a possum crawling towards me, a turtle to my right, and what looked like multiple sets of eyes starring back at me! I decided it was probably best to just trust my instincts wait for my brothers to join me on this adventure!


    Fifteen brave souls showed up for the adventure. There was lots of stretching going on pre-workout and not much talking, except when Ya Mom n Dem tried to give away his hat lamp! It was only a minor crisis when High Rise decided to wake up some peacefully sleeping ants. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Sandbar had gotten his passport just in time to attend the work out. Also, good to see Screwtop out for the second day in a row! 5:30 struck and with the normal disclaimer we were off. Started off in the open field to get things warmed up.


    SSH x 20

    Imperial Walker x 20

    Mountain Climbers x 20

    Left leg hip stretch

    Right leg hip stretch

    Peter Parker x 20


    Moseyed into the forest with an army of 14 behind me to the big open area by the swing. Split up into five groups of three. The count was 10 pull ups on the tree branch while one of the other PAX did dips on the fallen tree and the other did full body ab extensions on the swing. The other four groups were:


    Low slow squats

    Decline merkins

    Flutter kicks

    Decline merkins


    After everyone got their turn on pull ups we went into the thick of the forest! The tree branches were low so we decided to bear crawl through the narrow pass. When the trail opened back up we mosey through the forest and found our way to the gravel path. Headed down the path to the big open field. I had noticed when planning the work out that in this open field they had what looked like two big cement circles that resembled a figure 8. With the HATE8 on the horizon I thought it was a good opportunity to get some work in. Exercise was for 10 minutes:


    Bear crawl The stretch of grass between the two circles, run around to the top of the circle, five Burpee‘s, run down to the bottom of the circle, bear crawl across the grass, run to the top of the other circle, five burpees, run to the bottom of the circle. Rinse and repeat for 10 minutes while listening to Van Halen‘s greatest hits!


    Next, we moseyed to a separate gate back to the forest. This led us to the hill which is apparently the highest point in New Orleans. I thought Monkey Hill in Audubon Zoo was the highest point in New Orleans but I guess it’s for debate! At the top of the hill we squeezed in on the concrete pad and did some Mary:


    Pickle pounders x 20

    Freddy Mercury x 20

    Dying Cockroach x 20

    Reverse Crunch x 15


    Moseyed down the hill and headed to what I thought was the way out. We weaved back-and-forth through a very narrow trail head and ended up all the way in the back of the forest! We eventually found water and knew that we could follow the water back to the bridge that would get us out of the forest. There were several wrong turns and a couple of dead ends but we made it out and back with all 15 PAX! The unexpected detour caused us to be three minutes late. We got together in the open field for COT. Count off, Namorama, and a prayer for the upcoming hurricane with the sounds of what we think was ol’ Puke Dick in the background! This was a fun one. Thankful for the opportunity to lead!

  • Lesson: Do Not Do Murder Bunnies on Pavement

    7 strong arrived at City Park on a cool early Fall morning to once again tackle Wisner Mountain. The plan for the day was a Dirty Double, running a Dirty MacDeuce over Wisner Mountain, with some Dirty Manmakers in-between. The usual disclaimer and off we go.

    Warm up COP: SSH x 20 IC, IW x 20 IC, Grass Grabbers x 10 IC, Windmills x 10 IC, Arm Circles 10 forwards and 10 backwards IC.

    On the mosey to the mountain we discussed the origins of the Dirty MacDeuce. Captain Seamus MacDeuce was an esteemed war hero loved by his crew. He started working as a deck hand at the age of 12, and commissioned his first ship before the age of 20. He captained 12 ships over the course of his long and storied career. His men loved him for his honor, his bravery, and his commitment to his crew. He was equally well-known for his feats of strength and his love of Rum. His physical strength was unparalleled, and including arm wrestling and the ability to overhead press full barrels of Rum. He was both loved and feared as a man of the sea, and his strength of character serves a a beacon for the men of F3.

    The Thang: Dirty MacDeuce over the Mountain: 12 exercises, 4 sets of 3 (shoulder, legs, core), 12 reps IC, while running back and forth over the Wisner bridge.

    Set 1: Hand release merkins, Imperial squat walkers, American Hammer

    Set 2: Merkins, Monkey humpers, Crunchy frogs

    Dirty Interlude: Murder Bunnies under the mountain. The plan was Murder Bunnies on the pavement for 30 yards, 10 Dirty Manmakers, and Murder Bunnies back. Dirty Manmakers are a Manmaker with 3 hand-release merkins at the bottom, and 3 shoulder presses at the top. Catfish would love them. On the first 30 yards, the Murder Bunnies attacked Saban. Saban’s block crumpled on the pavement under his brute strength. Saban left skin and blood on the mountain this day, but with bloody knuckles he persevered to finish the workout. Seamus MacDeuce would be proud, Saban. After the Murder Bunny bit Saban, we modified to rifle carry with the blocks. I think this may be way the IPC performed Murder Bunnies on grass, not pavement. But we did get the better off them during the IPC. Even Score. Murder Bunnies: 1, NOLA Pax: 1.

    Set 3: Leg cross-over merkins, Alternating lunges, LBT’s

    Set 4: Wide merkins, Squats, Flutter kicks

    We moseyed back to the flag for the COT with count-off, name-o-rama, announcements, intentions, and a prayer. Lesson learned: no murder bunnies on pavement. Thanks for letting me lead. Sorry about your knuckles, Saban.

    Walleye

  • 76’s

    I was on the drive home from Florida when I realized that I had the Q on Monday morning for swolefest. I had a lot on my mind as I was thinking about my dad and who he was and what he meant to me. I wanted to offer a solid beatdown and show honor to my father through the things that he taught me throughout his life. My dad lost his struggle with cancer on January 22, 2017 after a 20 year fight. Yesterday, August 9th, would have been his 76th birthday…

    FOURTEEN pax showed up for the beatdown. It was good to see a number of guys getting back out after a long hiatus. I was pleased to see Breadsticks, especially since I had just eaten at Vincent’s last Thursday for my birthday. After the normal F3 disclaimer, I informed the group that the beatdown would be inspired by my late father.

    I also had to give a disclaimer that we would not be running or doing much lower body since I have a torn meniscus in both of my knees. And without further ado we were off. Started the warmup with sets of 20 which represented the number of years that my dad fought cancer:

    Hillbillies x 20

    Wind Mills x 20

    Peter Parker x 20

    Parker Peter x 20

    Next, I informed the group that my dad’s name was Jack and that I had done some research on the lexicon last night to find some good “jack exercises”.

    In my three years of F3 I hadn’t come across these, Happy Jacks. Five count jumping jack in cadence followed by two jump squats. We did four rounds of 5 counts.

    My dad would have been 76 yesterday so I let everyone know to look out for that number. Some of the exercises would be difficult but if there was one thing that I remember about my dad was that he was a fighter. A lot of times you have to push through the struggle in order to get to the joy on the other side.

    We started the 76’s easy with plank jacks. All of the exercises would be done on your own so I let the pax know to go at their own pace:

    Plank Jacks x 76

    From there we got into a more difficult exercise, man maker merkins! I chose this exercise because it reminded me of the things my dad taught me about being a man. This was the highlight of the workout for me. The exercise starts with your block to your right while in merkin position. Perform one merkin then pull the block across the ground to the other side, perform another merkin, and pull it back to the right. One is one, all the way up to 76! There were some breaks in between but we all made it through.

    Next, we did curls. 76 reps OYO.

    My dad was an architect and a builder so we had to get some 8 count body builders in. We did them with the coupon, Catfish would have been proud! I intended to push for 76 but realized that was not realistic about 10 reps in. We made it to 30.

    I could tell that we were needing to give the upper body a break so next we went to goblet squats, 76 reps OYO.

    Finally, had to get one more jack exercise in and multiple pax knew it was coming, Jack Webbs…actually, Block Webbs!

    We changed the count to one merkin and one block press. We aimed for 10. On the 9th round I began to feel nauseous. I thought for a moment that maybe we would stop at 9 but got encouragement from the group to push through to 10. We did it!

    When I stood up I felt like I was going to pass out. There were just about 5 minutes left in the workout but it was that bad. I had visions of Holy Grove passing out of dehydration at WPM and knew that I had to get some water. I told High Rise to lead the group in some Mary to finish things up. Tool followed me to my car to make sure I was alright. I took a sip of water but still felt like I was going to pass out. I sat down, another sip, still nauseous. Finally, I laid on the ground. I was there for about 30 seconds then miraculously felt instantly better. Took another sip of water and walked back over. I was able to finish the last two Mary exercises with the group.

    So thankful for F3 and for the group of guys that were out this morning! F3 has meant so much to me over the years. My attitude has suffered over the last month or so that I have been out dealing with the torn meniscus. That’s why I keep pushing to go out even though I know that I should be resting. F3 gives me resilience throughout each day to push through the difficult parts of life.

    You know, you get that part every morning that you post. There is always someone there pushing you to finish strong and I really appreciate that. But this morning I experienced what makes F3 so special. It’s not every morning that you push yourself to the brink of exhaustion both emotionally and physically but that was the case this morning. I am forever grateful to have my health and to know that if I fall that there is someone there to help me up. It reminded me of the verse in Ecclesiastes 4:10 that goes like this:

    “For if they fall, one will lift up his brother. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”

    Thank you Tool for looking out and thank you brothers for pushing me every day to be stronger and thank you dad for being such a good father to me and showing me what its like to be a good man. I miss you dearly.

    Thankful for the opportunity to lead!