Who’s going to step up and do something that will make an immediate impact on another person’s life? If you dont know what’s up, give this a quick read: http://www.dailyplanetva.org/give-help/breaking-bread/
I need a lead HIM and a couple helpers for this Sunday July 23rd. You should plan a meal purchased or prepared, and plan to serve and eat with the guests.
For details, call Lab Rat: 804-263-3570.
Three pax charged into the morning, and were blessed with a dropping humidity to make the sunny and 70 a little more tolerable.
Route: North Bank to Belle Isle, hug the downstream side of the island, and up to Buttermilk. Return on Buttermilk for 7 miles, and optional Forest Hill loop to make it an even 10. 1/3 of the pax took the option.
NMS: Pucker and Offshore kept each other company in front most of the morning, while Lab Rat guarded the six. Awesome to see these two men out here this morning! Great run, enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Lab Rat apologizes.
A hearty three said “no thanks” to the snooze button, even if their wives kept them up watching Game of Thrones last night. It was hot, it was muggy, but there were hills to be conquered:
COP- not necessary
THANG- Mosey back to bridge in the woods at the bottom of the hill for Jacob’s Ladder Hill Repeats. 1 burpee at the bottom, 2 at the edge of the woods. Continue until 10 burpees, for 5 hill repeats. Mosey on back to flag.
7 Minutes of Mary- Round Robin. Exercises included Rosalita, freddie mercury, LBC, Heels to Heaven, 6″ hold, Hello Dollies.
NMM- As proclaimed, Lab Rat made today what Green Acres was made for, a run heavy AO. I mean, seriously, there are parts of the AO that you cant even get to without running a half a mile first. The pax made it to the back with little issue, and were rewarded by the sights (and smells) of nature waking up to the day. In the first half mile, the pax came upon a deer on the edge of the woods, a skunk that was WAY too close for comfort, and then another deer that decided it was just too damn hot to stand anymore. She was laying almost next to the road in the grass, and paid us no mind as we sauntered on by.
Once in the woods however, we were the only wildlife to be seen. TBH, the Q was a little nervous running the path downhill in the dark, considering it is snake season, and Toucan’s recent killing of the copperhead. Spit killed it today, leaving Hurricane and Lab Rat to bring up the six. We had ample time to talk about many subjects in between sucking wind, including his knowledge of the Niagra Falls area, and how the first person to go over the falls was in a pickle barrel. Smart man, that Hurricane.
Full disclosure, the heat got to Lab Rat today, it was a real struggle in the home stretch. Tomorrow’s run is sure to be a sweat fest as well.
Until then, Lab Rat apologizes.
A pax of eight this morning for DaVille were greeted with a (debatably) full moon. Sunny and 70’ish weather made for perfect conditions to hit the track:
-Parking lot tracers
-COP including SSH, IW, hand release merkins, DQ, arm circles, LBC, maybe something else.
THANG- track work the hard way: Pax was given instructions to continue around the track at their own pace. Every 5 minutes, Q will yell out or sing something, which all pax would then bust out 25 merkins and 25 squats, then continue the journey around track. Optional stations of dips, derkins, and pullups were also pointed out. Continue until told to stop (we got 5 rounds in).
Circle run back to flag- Man in front peels off and runs back to six. Repeato.
Mary- American Hammers, hold 6 inches, and Rosalitas
BOM- Cosmo took us out.
NMM
There was a lot of time this morning to pack up and get some mumblechatter in. Opus was stepping up and giving some much needed criticism to Lab Rat on how unkempt his COP was. My response was along the lines of “what does it matter, as long as I get you doing the exercise”. His comeback was that I constantly critique him on the order of things, it would just seem fair to give that critique back. Fifteen-love, Opus….touche’
There was much discussion of the “ghost flag” this morning as well, especially from our resident #mumblechatter expert Phonics. Yeah, you read that right! He surely talks more than Lab Rat, he just does it at a lower, more pleasant volume. Discussion was heavily slanted towards which zones get to claim which pax members. There are surely some irons to wrinkle out here, but I think the idea is solid. DaVillians are also still looking for some written records that Swirly has actually been to DaVille rumor has it he has, but nobody here remembers…..
So getting around to the elephant in the room, Cosmo told me about half way thru the workout that he has news to share afterwards, so I invited him to take us out. He held out until announcements, when he took the floor and let us know that he will be leaving us in the next couple weeks and moving out to Oregon. This is a move that he and his wife have been looking forward to for some time, and he snagged a job at HP recently. Cosmo, I personally am very happy for you, but bummed that you will be leaving us at the same time. We wish you all the best of luck.
On that note, we twisted his arm into Q’ing next week at DaVille. Seems like a great reason to road trip it up here for a little send off, what say you, gentlemen? Can we get some numbers out here next week? Lab Rat is a hard commit.
Apology of the week goes to the dude on the track that I tried to EH while running with Phonics and Cosmo. With all the best intentions, in my out of breath state I’m pretty sure I just yelled at the guy.
Lab Rat apologizes.
4….wait, no 5 pax members that obviously had nothing better to do the previous night showed up for WDog, which had everybody scratching their heads wondering if there was a party in which we were not invited to that raged on to the wee hours. We were there to get in a workout though, so onward we pushed:
Warmup mile: Pax stays together for a jog around the lake and back to the first circle.
COP: In cadence, SSH, DQ, IW, arm circles
THANG:
NMS
OK, I guess Circle K dropped the hammer yesterday morning, because NOBODY showed up! I’m sure we would have to go deep into the files to find the last time WDog was even single digits, much less 5! No matter, Lab Rat had a plan to implement that was not affected by the relatively small pax size. I did feel guilty when Bootleg came running in with Sippy Cup looking a little rough around the seams and I informed him we were doing a warmup mile. We modified the run a bit to keep the hills out for his well being.
Lab Rat talked everybody thru the run (shocker, I know) telling tales about the family’s grand adventure to SNP yesterday. Waterfalls, raspberries and snakes…oh my! Sippy’s form has not suffered thru his rehab…he still runs effortlessly, even though he says he feels it the next day. Bootleg powered thru a real stinker of a morning today…the humidity really takes a toll. Hang in there, brother! Pay your toll thru the summer and you will be crushing it in the fall! Bleeder is just a huge success story on the running. Truly remarkable that he is able to run at all, much less putting in 5-6 workouts and runs a week. Perseverance at it’s finest! Flipper got his own warmup lap in, probably pushing a little over the one planned warmup mile. Bleeder tried to count as loud as possible for his benefit, only to wake up a park resident that was camped out in the amphitheater. He eventually found us during Dora and jumped right in.
In case the reader was wondering, “Work Release Dora” was a smashing success! Everybody left a sweaty mess and the amphitheater looked great.
I hope everybody had a great long weekend and got some good family quality time in. Big happenings this week revolve around DaVille, as we are playing Ultimate (frisbee) tomorrow at 6pm at Atlee High School (DaVille AO), followed by beers at COTU. Also, Reesestrong registration is now open and Phonics has created the F3RVA team: https://runsignup.com/RaceGroups/4045/Groups/386047 .
One last note: Thoughts and Prayers go out to Circle K’s father, who has been moved to Hospice as his health continues to decline. Circle K, you know where to lean, brother. We got your six.
Lab Rat apologizes…
A questionable number of runners descended upon the trails today at differing times, with the main brunt leaving at the designated 0700. It was hot and sticky, which will be the name of the game for the next couple of months, so we may as well embrace it. Here is the shakedown:
Route: North bank to Canal walk and loop around the Pipeline trail (swim break). Cross the river on T. Potter bridge and return on Buttermilk. Official GPS (mine) clocked in at 8.5 miles. YMMV
NMS:
-Always a pleasure to have Obama join us for trail run! He acted as group photographer today and kept Helix and Hat Trick from taking it easy. Speaking of Helix and Hat Trick, they were the only other takers on swim call. What doesnt kill you makes you stronger! We’ll have to continue it when the water gets colder.
-Aisle 5 is feeling the calling of the mountains and has upped his running game in preparation for BRR. Hell of a job today, buddy!
-Special thanks today to Upchuck for minding the six. Appreciate it, man!
-Great to run with EF Hutton today, even though I broke his heart. He informed me he was finishing up Corporate Challenge today. I asked him how was the double dip yesterday and he said “what do you mean?” Whoops. Good job on the streak though. He lamented on that the rest of the run….
-We caught up to Saab limping his way back along Texas Ave. with yet another injury. Tough break, buddy. Get well quick.
-RUMOR has it that Bleeder ran this morning. Soooooo……what does Big Data count, cars or faces? YHC is being generous with the pax list today, but he thinks that some rulings need to be made on this subject. The pax was joined by TYA and Wedding Singer who either took a shower right before we showed or actually ran today.
20 pax showed up for a Q-less run/ride this morning. Lab Rat knew about the empty slot and came prepared, calling the Carillon route. Marv gave the flying assist calling for the Carillon route in reverse! Splinter was maintaining the official clock, so when YHC turned to him regarding time, he said GO.
The reverse Carillon route is such a classic because it forces the 6 milers to commit the extra 3/4 of a mile right off the bat (5 mile route is actually 5.25). This gives the route a bit of a fox v. hare scenario, where the 5 milers (hares) are wanting to stay out in front of the 6 milers (foxes). Sometimes you win, sometimes you get eaten. This morning, the 5 milers fared pretty well against the 6 milers, with a good majority finishing in front of MARV, who led the way on the long route this morning. Splinter is recovering from losing 7 pounds somehow after getting his wisdom teeth pulled. I didnt think you could shave 7 pounds of Splinter without removing a limb.
Awesome to see some old faces out again….Sippy Cup, Aisle 5, and Pucker. Cake is visiting from Roanoke, and (smartly) brought his bike along to get in some miles with the GEARS folks. BRR season is upon us, guys! Great job to all this morning.
Lab Rat Apologizes…
Two men from Richmond did the last ride down 64 westbound to give it away to our brothers from Charlottesville. Not to disappoint, 10 strong locals rolled up, including 3 FNG’s. Here is how things shook out:
COP
THANG
Mary
COT/BOM
NMS
Lab Rat was very excited to finally get to head up to meet these guys that he had only met thru phone conversations and email correspondence-so excited in fact, that he was up and at ’em at 3 a.m. this morning! OK, the jet lag and wonky schedule might have assisted as well, but still. HoneyDo is always a great conversationalist though and the ride flew by. The Richmond crew arrived in plenty of time to plant a flag and check out the AO ahead of the pax. There was NO WAY we werent running that hill today!
YHC was primarily concerned with giving some of the pax members practice in cadence calling, then giving them routines that would be easy to remember going forward….things they have probably seen already in some fashion. Triple checks, 11’s, suicides are staples in the RVA and seems to work for us. I am sure that the CVIlle pax will come up with their own flair going forward, but hopefully they have a base to pull from.
Lab Rat was looking around before taking off today and was amazed that he was the most out of shape guy there. HoneyDo’s comment was “where are all the fat guys?”
Hampton Roads can keep their “Sunny and 75”, ’cause that’s what it was today and it was ROUGH. YHC took an unprecedented for F3 1-minute water break so that we didnt lose anybody today. The pax worked hard though and there are some seriously in-shape dudes at CVille! One other impressive feature of the guys that were present this morning was their enthusiasm for F3 in such a short time. Yessir, F3 CVille is in good hands.
Apology of the week goes to Buck3 and whomever the other guy was that totally ate it coming off that hill today. It was funny as hell, and I apologize for laughing my ass off right in front of you.
Guys, it has been a true pleasure getting this going and I am SO HAPPY to see the quality of men that have gathered on that field the last few weeks. I hope that you will develop the same bonds that I have been able to form over my time in F3……and that, my friends, is why we “give it away”. Best of luck to you all, and I look forward to our next chance to meet.
Lab Rat apologizes.
Who will make himself available? Will it fall to the same guys that have already been, or will someone new step up?
I need that special High-Impact Man that can rally up a couple buddies to go give away what has been given to him in Charlottesville this Saturday at 0700. Bodo’s afterwards with the fellas. If you are willing to step up and BE AVAILABLE, contact me directly: 804-263-3570.
Thanks for considering,
Lab Rat
5 pax showed for trail run today, with a guest appearance by TYA. Rumor was Bleeder was also there somewhere, but the pax never caught up to him. Here is a brief synopsis of the day:
Route: North Bank, Belle Isle, Buttermilk About 7 miles.
NMS:
Great to have Honeymoon and Wilson back out. Solid work.
Helix killed it as usual. Upchuck got in some extra hill work. Wow…anything extra today is impressive.
We rolled in a man and his two kids into the group today that just moved from DC. I expect them to make an appearance at an SOJ AO sometime soon. They sounded excited about it.
It was super hot today. One of those runs that you are just glad that it’s over. 70 and sunny my ass.
TYA ran early and came back in as we were about to leave in the most ridiculous outfit….Upchuck was heard to say: “what I am thinking is offensive to the gay community”. Imagine a black romper with black lederhosen….then TYA inside of it. Let your imagination do the rest.
Lab Rat apologizes.