Author: Bootleg

Five men emerged from the gloom looking for opportunities to improve themselves and, under the right circumstances, make a little extra cash. According to Flatline, people pay a lot of money for old wood if you can deliver the goods. As for improving ourselves, this is how it went down:

COP: All IC – SSH, Helicopters, DQ, Copperheads, IW, side lunges, Merkins, LBCs, APDs

Mosey to Rugby Rd Triangle: 3 Loops – Bear crawl, run, Bernie – Exercises at the corners/ Loop1: Dry docks, WWIIs, Merkins/ Loop2: xx, LBC, Merkins/ Loop3: HR Merkin, AH, Merkin

Mosey to the Ha’ Penny Stage: Partner up for three rounds – Runner touches 5 different trees – Exercises: LBCs, Squats, WWIIs

Mosey to the Rusty Cage: 3 solo sets of Pull Ups or Jerkins – 10/8/6

Mosey to the Pipeline: Each man runs while PAX does plank exercises

Mosey to the Field for “11 corners”: At each corner perform two exercises in sets which add to 11 – Start with 1 LBC and 10 Burpees. Called at around half way due to time.

Back to the flag for some stretching to close out.

NMS:

Announcements: Sign up for Breaking Bread in July and August if you haven’t already. See everybody at the Memorial Day convergence Monday at Tredegar downtown

Glad to have five Dogpile regulars together to appreciate the gorgeous weather and tour the AO. As always, coffee and cheesy egg sandwiches, and great conversation at Libbie Market helped round out a great start to the holiday weekend. SYITG

Eight emerged from the gloom to see how work is progressing on the Carillon. According to the dogs staging a sit-in at tables in the Amphitheater this is what transpired.

After the customary disclaimer QIC opened the back of his standard size SUV and handed each member of the PAX at least one shiny new cinder block. Some were fortunate enough to receive two! The group moseyed to the Ha’ Penny Stage to begin replenishment of the coupon supply.

At the Stage – COP: SSH, Helicopters, IW, DQ, C Squats, Merkins, LBC, APD all in cadence

Coupon Count: 10

Group into groups of about 4 for a Triple Check with the new coupons – Curls, Chest raises, runner touches 5 trees. There was some confusion about groups and actual head count. After a couple rounds QIC decided to move to the next activity with hopes of keeping things a bit more organized. Deposit coupons under the stage. One coupon did not survive it’s initial action encounter. RIP

Coupon Count: 9

Mosey to the street at the opposite end of the big field: Increment merkins at lightposts to intersection /Increment burpees on the return

Mosey to the Amphitheater – 5 box cutters on each step going down, 5 merkins on each step coming back up

Mosey to the Field – The Beast (6 sets of 6 exercises repeated at 6 intervals down the field and back). Exercises were LBC, Squats, Carolina Dry Docks, American Hammers — called for time

Mosey back to the start by way of the Ha’ Penny Stage to collect the remains of the broken cinder block. Limbs and torso were disposed of.

Three minutes of Mary: Freddie Mercury’s IC, APD’s IC, Flutter kicks OYO

Numberama / Namerama. YHC took us out. 2nd F at Libbie Market as per custom where we had a Flatline sighting in a snazzy Army sweatshirt.

Announcements:

• CSAUP May 6 at Currahee – see the pre-Blast and Gomer Pyle for info – Ruck 6am, Bootcamp 7am, Relay Run 8am

• There is a volunteer opportunity at Dogwood Dell on Sunday 5/7 at 8:30a – Come help build a children’s play area in the garden area that has been developing along Love Hill behind Barker Field. Posh has info which was shared in the 3rd F channel on Slack

Prayers: Fergie’s brother was diagnosed with cancer this week. It’s been an unexpected blow to his family but they are ready to fight! Up Chuck’s nephew is dealing with the loss of a Marine buddy in a training accident.

Thanks to everybody who posted today and helped shuttle the new coupons into place. I didn’t expect to break one out of the gate but thank you also for helping to clean up the fragments. Thinking about the coupons being removed/cleaned up lead me to reflect on how fortunate we are to have access to the public spaces for our AO’s and how important is we continue to respect them and respect other users of them. I’m proud of how well we do this! Our opportunity to use these spaces the way we do is a privilege we never want to take for granted.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead and be part of something bigger than myself. SYITG

Work on the Carillon appears to be happening. That’s about all I can say.

A baker’s dozen emerged from the gloom near Dogwood Dell on this crisp 70 and Sunny February morning for an opportunity to improve themselves. This is how it went.

Mosey to Reservoir for COP – All IC – SSH, Helicopters, DQ, Imperial Walkers, Copperhead Squats, Merkins, LBCs, APDs

Mosey to the Boathouse on Boat Lake for Dirty Mac Deuce – four sets of three exercises OYO – 12 double count reps/four count cadence/whatever…24 of them. After a set, run around the triangle (about .25 mile distance). Set 1 – Merkins, LBCs, Lunges; Set 2 – HR Merkins, Reverse LBCs, Jump Squats; Set 3 – Diamond Merkins, Flutter kicks, Backward lunges; Set 4 – Wide Arm Merkins, American Hammers, Monkey Humpers

Mosey back in the direction of the field at the Carillon – starting about half way, do one Burpee at each light post

At the field, 11’s across the short direction – Merkins and lunge across, American Hammers and Bernie Sanders back

Mosey to the flag for 5 minutes of Mary IC – 20 x Freddie Mercury’s, 20 x American Hammers, 20 x LBCs, 10 x Heels to heaven

Numberama/Namerama/Announcements

Prayers – MMOB (see below) requested thoughts and prayers for Ellie in Charlotte recovering from an accident. Remember there are always folks out there in need of some good thoughts even if you don’t know exactly what they’re going through.

Oyster gave an update on Breaking Bread – it’s back to in-person, coming inside and serving. F3 Richmond has been covering dinner the last week of the month for a number of years. Let’s keep it up! Look for open slots on the Q Sheet.

Pigskin’s church held a blood drive today. I didn’t get the backblast out in time to be ahead of it. Blood donations are always needed. Look for an opportunity.

We had a special visit from the Mothership Saturday – Mighty Mighty Owl Bait was in RVA for a rugby tournament and stopped in to DogPile to get a beat down on the road. It was a great opportunity to show off one of the most beautiful locations in Richmond and certainly one of F3 RVA’s AO jewels. Really glad to have you join us and get to know you a bit. YHC was proud to show off just a small part of what DogPile has to offer as an AO.

I once again appreciate the opportunity to come out and lead this group which has changed my life for the better in so many ways. SYITG

Five men emerged from the gloom to push themselves to be a little bit better than they were the day before. Based on the detailed notes taken by YHC it went like this:

COP: All IC – SSH, Helicopters, DQs, Copperhead Squats, Merkins, APDs, LBCs

Mosey to the Field – Four Corners – 10 HR Merkins, 20 Regular Merkins, 30 LBC, 40 2 ct Lunges

The plan for the day called for a few triple checks, difficult to manage with a PAX of 5. Upchuck related the concept of a blank check where a ghost runner stood in for the sixth man. After getting their heads around the concept it worked well.

Triple check at the Ampitheater – Merkins and WWII’s, run to the top of the stairs

Triple check at the Rusty Cage – Pull ups and dips, run to the hyrdant

Tripe check at the Carillon – LBC’s and squats, touch 5 trees

Back to the Field for Four more corners – 10 Merkins, 20 LBC’s, 30 Lunges, 40 SSH

10 IC Side Lunges to open the hips

Mosey to Death Valley – 11’s – American Hammers and Merkins, rim to rim, truncated due to time

Mosey back to the start to close out the hour with a relaxing elbow plank.

Announcement: Swirly has rescheduled his 8 Year F3 Anniversary Q for DogPile on 2/4!

2nd F at Libbie Market, cheesy eggs and coffee. Mmmmmm

Thank you for the opportunity to lead this morning.

Following a day of heavy rain and tornado warnings, daylight savings brought the sun out early to confirm it was going to be a beautiful, if not a bit warmer than expected day at the Carillon on its way to Sunny and 70. On occasion of this 12th day of November, QIC arrived with some ideas of how to celebrate his 49th trip around the sun. As documented by YHC it went something like this:

COP – SSH (11), Helicopters (12), Imperial Walkers (11), DQ (12), Stretches, Forward Lunge (6), Backward Lunge (6), Side Lunge (6), LBC (19), HR Merkin (7), Burpee OYO (3) (11-12-1973)

Ampitheater – 7 Incline Merkins and 3 Box Jumps, repeat for seven steps (49 Merkins, “73”)

Death Valley/Fishbowl – 11’s – WWIIs and Merkins

Ha’ Penny Stage – Coupons and Partners – A set = Block Plank while partner does 4 coupon squats, rotate, partner does 9 squats. Repeat set for total of two

Rusty Cage – 12’s – Pull-ups and American Hammers over at two trees a short jaunt away

Return to the flag for Mary – Freddie Mercury’s (11), Box Cutters (12), Elbow Plank, Merkin Ring o Fire

Announcements/Thoughts/Prayers – PAX wished the best for all of the Richmond Marathon and Half-Marathon participants in the warm weather. YHC has been thinking about Anthrax and his Knucklehead 2022 but forgot to include the good vibes out loud in the wake of the workout.

YHC took us out

Musings – Welcome to Joe Pa visiting from Charleston, SC. He and Body Karate are on day 75 of some insane consecutive-day challenge as I heard it. Hats off!

Saturday was my 49th birthday and as birthdays do it got me looking back. I am immensely grateful for Sippy Cup who brought me to a DogPile workout lead by The Carpenter in June of 2017. Hard to believe it’s been more than five years! I went back to that Backblast to review what we did (it was kind of a blur at the time but started with a lot of SSH of course) and a comment he closed with is very apt for today: “YHC couldn’t be more proud of the way each man fought through today’s workout and pushed themselves while encouraging one another. We are all getting stronger as we push through one workout after another together. YHC would not even come close to doing half of what we knock out as a team if I tried alone.”

I came in with a plan built around 11’2, 12’s, 49’s, 19’s, and 73’s. Two-thirds of the way through 11’s in the fishbowl as the mumble chatter was already heating up and basically asking “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”, my thoughts were “Oh no. What have I done? Can I even do this?” but I and the group all pushed on and I said to myself the refrain I’ve heard many a time “If you can’t do it, don’t Q it”. I adjusted the block planks a bit and then we headed to the rusty cage. I thought about changing but ultimately stuck with the pull-ups because those have been the bane of my existence and I always need more. It was a lot. I saw some adjustments from the pax as the total mounted and I myself took advantage of some leg assistance but completed the sets.

On my own I would never achieve anywhere close to what I achieve by being part of this group and today, as I took my turn as a leader, I did even more as I felt the responsibility to follow-through on what I started even tho my body was yelling for me to stop! I will remember this long after the soreness I’m feeling today subsides.

Thank you to everybody who came out and stuck with me as we sweated through this warm November morning. Congratulations and fist bumps to everybody who challenged themselves this weekend.

According to anecdotal accounts of events, 11 men materialized from the gloom at Dogwood Dell to take part in organized exercise and self-improvement. This is what transpired.

PAX started carrying coupons freshly snipped from the latest Penny Saver over to the Ha’ Penny Stage where CoP was convened:

SSH IC x 10, Helicopters IC x 10, Imperial Walkers IC x 10, Dead Man Hang, LBC IC x 10, The Merkin IC x 10

Remaining in the general vicinity, Touch a Tree: Partner up with one coupon per team, 3 rounds, runner touches 4 different trees per round. Coupon exercises per round – Curls, Shoulder Press, Rows

Mosey to the pit of Ampitheater: Starting at the base each man repeats the following exercises at each ascending level in counts of 2, 3, and 4 respectively, returning to the pit by way of a run around the outside of the facility – Round 1 – Merkins, WWIIs, Step-Ups; Round 2 – Dips, LBCs, Squats; Round 3 – Incline Merkins, V Ups, Lunges (curtailed at about 75% in interest of time and allowing for another activity to wrap us up)

Mosey to the Triangle: Bear crawl + 10 LBC, Jog to bottom of hill + 10 flutter kicks, Bernie Sanders up + 10 Merkins.

Back to the cars and 1 minute of plank to 7:00.

Announcements: 8th Anniversary Convergence at Gridiron 7/24 @ 7:30a; Sit n Sip/Retreat/Cornhole Tourney later on 7/24 @ Gomer Pyle’s in Amelia County; Shawn G Hogan Beer Mile 10/29 @ 7p – see Faceplant for details

Safe/successful completion and return home for BRR participants was on our minds as QIC took us out. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead and be lead by the men of F3. My life has changed significantly over the past 5+ years and F3 has been an enormously positive factor pushing me toward positive change for myself and everyone around me.

Mumble chatter during the workout and continuing after at Libbie Market carried an air of aristocratic propriety. The status of British Monarchy following the passing of Queen Elizabeth was on the mind. “When Prince Charles becomes King and decides he doesn’t want to be King anymore it is called….Coronation?” The proper terms and usage of coronation, abdication, succession, and merkin were discussed and general agreement was reached on proper use of each. Take care if you decide to do your own research and google the terms on your own…