Author: Lab Rat

  • Road Runners or Sidewalk Runners?

    16 pax showed to a beautiful morning with the Strawberry Moon shining bright to get in some miles by bike or by shoe.  Here is what went down, from the shoe point of view:

    Route:  Carillon route in reverse.  The lone 6 miler (MARV) had to do the extra loop first before catching up with the pax.

    NMS:

    Snookie and Lab Rat were quite comfortable acting as sweepers this morning for the first half of the run, until all hell broke loose.  It started with TYA without his spectacles taking Flat Line and Swiper on an extended route.  We saved Taxi from the same fate.  We were then looking for Swirly, and it took a little bit to figure out he went back the way we came out.  MARV caught up to the tail end of the 5 milers around this point, and Lab Rat did his best to hang with him for a bit, but lost the pace on the hill up Grove.

    Saab rolled out of the Rover this morning limping.  He tried out the leg, but it didnt go his way.  Heal quick, man.

    So, the title came from an altercation the pax had with a grumpy cyclist.  This guy decided to start yelling at us to get on the sidewalk after what seemed like he was going to try to thread the needle between MARV and Lab Rat.  “Angry Cyclist” was answered with many explatives from the pax….led by YHC, by the way.  Probably better ways to handle it, but at least we didnt knock “Angry Cyclist” off his bike and SHOW him the sidewalk….so we got that going for us, which is nice.

    Apology of the week goes out to Angry Cyclist.  I’m sorry you have so much hate, and I’m sorry that I told you to F*** off….kinda.

    Other than Saab not having the runs and meeting Angry Cyclist, it was an absolutely stunning morning for a run/bike.  Everybody go out and have a great day!

    Prayers of healing to Saab and Circle K’s father.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes.

     

  • What Time is the Official Start Time?!?

    Six gentlemen posted for a nomad run this evening, including 1 gear head FNG near and dear to Lab Rat’s heart.  Something transpired, here is a screen shot:

    Route:  Choose your own adventure of long loops and short loops, both of which held no reprieve from the hills of the Near West End.  3 big loops or 6 little ones bought you a 5 mile patch.

    NMS:  YHC and FNG Toro pulled up at 4:45 to find two familiar cars already parked and empty.  Lug and Bleeder got a super early start after their respective M’s put time constraints on them.  Not to be deterred, they got it in early.  TYA and Swirly joined in shortly after, so we started with a “warm up” loop.  Back the parking area at the given start time with no takers, so off we go again, all in different directions.  Continue until expired.  It was a beautiful evening for a run, if you didnt get one in on “International Running Day”, you missed out.

    Lab Rat was SUPER proud of his oldest boy coming out and pushing hard on the pedals today, and could not be happier that he is now part of F3.  He hopes to be able to make it at least a semi-regular thing, because although Toro was a little shy to start with, YHC thinks he is secretly enjoying his new nickname.

    Announcements are the same as what they were this morning.  Carry on.

    Lab Rat apologizes….

  • No Toll is the ULTIMATE AO

    10 pax showed up ready to go, and we grew to the magical number of 14 before the COP was done.  Perfect number for the plan of the morning, and the fields of No Toll were calling!  Here is what transpired:

    COP

    • SSH
    • Invisible Jump Ropes (in honor of Circle K)
    • Copperhead Squats
    • Arm Circles
    • Hand Release Merkins
    • Don Quixotes (Abe Vigoda)
    • something for the abs???

    THANG

    Ascending 4 corners:  (10 reps each)

    1. Hand release merkins
    2. hand release merkins, WW2 situps
    3. hand release merkins, WW2 situps, burpees
    4. hand release merkins, WW2 situps, burpees, Lt. Dans

    Plank for a minute or two

    Ultimate:  Break into shirts v. skins and play ultimate for a half hour….what else you need?

    Mary:

    • Freddy mercury’s (dodge car)
    • American Hammers
    • flutter kicks

    NMS

    OK, so let’s address the elephant in the room:  DaVille was invited to do this a couple weeks ago and nobody showed (Phonics was the exception).  So thinking about what Lab Rat was going to pull out of the bag for the No Toll regulars, he thought about that shiny new frisbee that he bought for the Green Acres workout and decided today is the day.  A little flustered at Go time for the small numbers, but the No Toll regulars did not disapoint as the LIFO’s kept rolling in to fill out the teams to an even 7 on 7, which just so happens to be the regulation number for actual Ultimate!

    The teams were chosen at random, and it turns out that the skins had gained a hidden ringer in Viral.  My boy can throw a disk!  Antics were supplied by Gumbo today, who embraced the “skins” opportunity to show off the beach body.  Just think “all about that bass, no treble”.  Thanks for shaking what you got!  Some impressive diving catches were made this morning as the pax went all out for their team.  Most notable was a diving score by The Carpenter….it was a thing of beauty.  The skins mounted some great drives powered by Flashdance, Oyster, Hammer (Mecca), McRib and Honeymoon to make it close.  But, in the end, shirts took down the victory led of course by Rosie, with a strong effort by Tobit and relative new comer Shakedown.

    High fives were exchanged all around and Lab Rat believes that this was a smashing success, as everybody was pretty well spent after going hard for a half hour, and nobody got hurt.  There were a couple collisions out there today, Lab Rat got to find out where Hammer got his name.  Otherwise things went smooth and fast.  So fast, in fact that the Q didnt catch all the details.  So pax please fill in some stories about those not mentioned above.  YHC should know a thing or two about McRib, as he feels he guarded and was guarded by him a good bit.  Also, Mr Roper and Marmaduke deserve some love.  No slacking out there today!  Great work men, that was a blast.

    Apology of the week goes to the Mechanicsville regulars. Lab Rat is sorry yall fart sacked 2 weeks ago and didnt get to have this much fun.  That’ll teach you to sleep on a Lab Rat Q!

    Lab Rat apologizes.

     

  • One on One Ultimate Frisbee?

    On the morning that the Q had proclaimed a “fun day” on Tuesday to 18 pax, at 5:30, there were two lone soles staring at each other in the empty parking lot.  With much regret, Lab Rat put his frisbee back in the truck and announced to Phonics that we were heading to the back of the AO for a trail run.  As we were heading out the parking lot, along comes Mudface (NOT a runner…yet anyways), which put a fork in Plan B.  Yard Sale was hot on his heels, so Plan C would be performed on the fly.

    SOP (square of pain)

    All not in cadence:  SSH, Lt. Dan’s, merkins, WW2’s, LBC’s Freddie Mercury’s, Diamond merkins

    THANG

    Space Exploration-

    At school playground:

    • walk out merkins on the swing sets- put your feet on the swing, do a merkin, hand-walk your feet up, do a merkin.  Repeat to failure (these SUCKED)
    • Pullups/leg lifts on the monkey bars X10 each, then flapjack.

    At Park playground:

    • People’s chair- high, then low.  Repeato
    • bearcrawl the playset, pick a slide down.
    • Prison cell merkins- for 1.5 minutes
    • Dreya rolls- for 1.5 minutes

    Love Skatepark: partner runs to skatepark and back, other partner performs exercises:

    • Lunge
    • broad jump burpee
    • walk out merkins

    Mosy back with karaokes, backwards runs, and side shuttles to mix it up

    Mary: American hammer, Freddy Mercury, Dying Cockroach, something else

    1 minute of Superman for the LIFO’s

    NMS

    Admittedly, the Q was less than enthused about not getting to do Plan A this morning, as he bought a new damn frisbee for it!  He was really looking forward to playing and was surely visibly downtrodden when nobody showed.  He also didnt feel like doing anything in cadence this morning…maybe out of rebellion for nobody showing up for Fun Day.  Another time, another place, he guesses.  The pax did take advantage of the non-game day though, got in a few different exercises than we normally do, and got to play on some of the county provided equipment.  Let’s just say that we stress tested the equipment and are able to put the safety seal of approval on both playgrounds.  This was the first time that YHC has ever actually gone down a slide at an F3 workout, so there’s that.

    We purposely ran over 1 minute this morning, since Phonics and Lab Rat decided to wait on MudFace and YardSale…Superman with both the original and the Costanza versions were sung to the best of the pax’s abilities.

    Great job this morning, gents!  See you soon.

    Lab Rat apologizes.

  • Tie Dye Spanx and Steel-Toed Boots

    18 pax came out for a soggy DogPile, where the weather was 70 and sunny, but you wouldn’t have known it with the variety of outfits that made an appearance this morning.  MARV’s weather app may have disagreed with the corporate weather forecast, but that’s what you get for ten bucks a month.  ShovelFlag’s got planted, jokes about the time got made, and away we went:

    COP

    SSH, IW, DQ, arm circles, Hand release merkins, LBC

    THANG

    11’s in the amphitheater:  burpees at the bottom, WWII situps at the top.  Run the perimeter when complete.

    Triple check on the Carillon:  Balls to the flower pot, Freddie Mercury’s, and run around the Carillon.  No snakes.

    Goldberg’s Bar Work:  As per special request of Goldberg himself, partner up, 50 pullups as a team.

    Beast Relay:  3 teams of 6, as a team perform a beast the length of the Carillon field (berm to berm, baby!).  Each team member does one leg.  Exercises were:  WWII situps, merkins, burpees, jump squats, 2-count mountain climbers, and LBC’s.

    NMS

    OK, so right off the bat, Kotters to Flatline!  Love you man, great to have you back.  But you are a regular, and you should know that if you show up in hiking boots OR tie dye tights, it will be noted.  Both at the same time, you get the back blast named after you.  Great to have you back out, baby.  Keep showing up!  Way to own your outfit.  That is twice TODAY that the Q, who regularly runs in flip flops, had to point to somebody else’s footwear and say “DAMN!”  Upchuck and his white socks and sandals got the nod as well.

    Which brings us to the next topic of debate:  What should be “standard issue F3 gear” for regular pax members?  This would be items that you should have to make the posting lifestyle more manageable.  The Q’s thoughts this morning went to black shirts, a boot dryer, and bag balm (WD-40 for your balls, corporate sponsorship still available).  Q will leave the rest up to the pax….discuss.

    Speaking of corporate sponsorship, pullups were brought to the pax by special request of Goldberg. The Q’s arms were still mighty sore from Phonics’ heavy use of Rusty Cage from Wednesday, and was planning on skipping it…..but who is Lab Rat to ignore requests?  This turned out to be quite the pax motivator, as we got to witness Cosmo and Helix show how to truly GUT OUT the last few.  They both left it all out on the bar, showing what a pullup should be.  Straight arms at the bottom, chin above the bar at the top.  RESPECT, gentlemen.

    The balls to the flower pot (not the way Circle K demonstrated) turned out to be quite the arm burner.  Luckily, everybody heeded Swirly’s warnings regarding slick steps and the pax emerged without a scratch from the triple check.  The same cannot be said about the relay, however!  Some interesting form was witnessed in the transition between sprints and exercises.  First, Lab Rat’s slide into the first set turned out to be a horrible idea when he stood up afterwards wearing a thong.  Bleeder used the “sack of potatoes” method, just falling at each stop to bang out his LBC’s.  Angus had arms flailing on the way out, barely saving himself from performing a perfect albeit unintentional scorpion pose.  Just imagine chest on the ground, back bent over, with feet on the ground in front of face.  Or Circle K from when he pulled off said pose at the exact same place.  That field is friggin’ long!  Also, the guys that drew burpees in the relay performed 102 of them in the hour….Hardywood, Helix and Gumbo with his very white Frog Togg jacket….great job, fellas. (YHC really wanted to fit in the jacket, but couldnt find a better spot.)

    With the exception of a couple dads that had to make a track meet, everybody showed up at ET’s afterwards to continue the good vibes and warm up over coffee, beet juice, and cough syrup flavored water.  At least six of us were camped out for the better part of the morning, wondering if this is what retirement is like.  Several references to Merino Wool were made, but Lab Rat missed the first iteration of that so only could laugh along with how many times it was mentioned.  A couple jokes regarding fellatio were made.  That’s more Lab Rat’s wheelhouse….he got those.

    Gentlemen, thanks for throwing common sense out the window and following a motley fool around for an hour this morning.  There are very few things that the Q would rather do on a Saturday morning regardless the weather.

    Apology of the week goes out to all you suckas that stayed in your bed this morning because your momma said you couldnt get wet.  You missed out.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • A swollen river and tacky trails

    “The river was angry that day.  Like an old man sending back a bowl of soup in a deli.”

    Fearsome 5 showed up for this morning’s hopeful running of the trails.  The Q was pretty concerned about the shape of the trails with all the rain that fell earlier this weekend, so he had a road backup plan just in case.  Turns out the trails were in great shape, so we took advantage.

    Route:  Over Nickle Bridge to Buttermilk and down to Reedy Creek.  Head over to Forest Hill and back.  Return on Buttermilk for the 7 milers, Head over to T. Potter and back on North Bank Trail for an even 10 miles.

    NMS:

    Good to have Upchuck back out this morning to carry some of the mumblechatter weight.  He also took two for the team and twisted both ankles!  Hope it was nothing serious, dude.

    Helix was there to show us how effortless running can be.  Good to hear about Hat Trick’s aspirations in his future running endeavors.  When the kid starts a new sport, he goes all-in!  YHC will not be betting against him.

    Taxi Cab had to endure some abuse for not letting the pax know about Angus’ past endeavors.  He claims ignorance, so we only gave him so much.  YHC got Taxi to cuss this morning, so things are falling right into place!  Awesome to have another regular on the trail run crew.

    TYA was trying really hard to have a nice and quiet solo run this morning.  Sorry, not gonna happen.  The extra miles gave the Q some time to catch up on the going’s ons with Casa de TYA.  Good stuff today.

    Other than that, just another georgous day on the trail.  A couple mountain biker issues, but another couple of great interactions with other MTB’ers to make up for their two wheeled brothers. The beautiful weather brought out the crowds though, as it was tough to find our cars when we got back to the lot.

    Good run today, ya’ll take care until next time.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes.

  • Slaying the Beast

    An even 10 posted to DaVille this morning, the weather was here, wish you were beautiful.  Spit and Opus planted the flags this morning while the Q assembled his shoes.  Bonus flag courtesy of Bleeder had the F3 banner flying today.  More on that in a bit.

    -Parking lot tracers (of course)

    -COT

    • SSH
    • DQ
    • IW
    • arm circles
    • merkins (form focused)
    • LBC

    -BEAST

    • WW2 situps
    • merkins
    • burpees
    • Mountain Climbers
    • Carolina Dry Docks
    • WW2 situps

    -BEAST RELAY

    • Pax split into 2 teams of 5 and perform same as above (minus the 2nd set of situps).  Next guy leaves when guy in front completes 3rd set.

    -Mary

    • American Hammers, Heels to Heaven, Freddie Mercury’s, Dying Cockroaches

    -NMS

    Listening to the podcast on Sunday, YHC heard some chatter regarding the beast, and how we havent been doing it lately.  Well, who am I to pass up a chance at an easy Q?  I don’t know about the hard to finish though, as the pax this morning DEMOLISHED the beast and spit out the bones!  We had a little extra time to kill, so I decided to make it a relay, as has been my mode of operations lately.  Practice makes perfect, as this went off without a hitch!  Team #2 (Q’s team) took an early lead, but Lab Rat could not hold off Phonics on the Mountain Climbers and team 2 took over.  With Spike on the anchor for team 1, there was little hope on re-capturing the lead, but we made it close.  Everyone pushed hard and it took a minute to catch our collective breaths to make it back to the flags.

    Upon arrival in the light of day, YHC noticed that the F3 flag was upside down!  Luckily, there were no Seal Team or X-Wing Fighter crossfit groups nearby so as to think that F3 was in distress.  We flipped the banner over and banged out a few minutes of Mary while the Q cried inside (The relay took it’s toll).

    Announcements:

    • Ashcreek 5K May 20th.  Confirmation that at least some people will be doing it the hard way.  If you need to borrow an F3 shirt, I will be happy to lease some of my collection out.
    • New AO at Pole Green Elementary starting soon!  Dry run this Thursday.  5:30 at the school.
    • It’s spring time….and that means it’s EH season!  Ten at DaVille in good weather is not enough, hit up your neighbors and co-workers.  Try to find somebody to bring to a workout.
    • 72 WW2 situps for everybody, the lucky 2 that got them in the relay enjoyed 108.

    No apology of the week yet, but the week is young.  Stay tuned….

    Lab Rat apologizes….

     

     

  • So how do you do a burpee while holding a clipboard?

    16 men (1 FNG), 6 killer deer, 2 good good slobber dogs, and 1 pissed off certified personal instructor staged themselves around Dogwood Dell in order to make backblast writing a breeze….just for YHC.  So here is what happened:

    -COP

    • SSH
    • IW
    • DQ
    • Dying Cockroaches
    • Arm Circles
    • “I miss Sippy Cups”- from curb, bear crawl in, 10 merkins, bear crawl out.  From curb, crab walk in, 10 merkins, crab walk out.

    -Rusty cage- 10 burpups, followed by 10 jerkins.  We out.

    -Parkour around killer deer.

    -Love Hill- partner up with shared head lamps.  One partner goes down to pet BoBo, other partner performs exercise while proceeding down hill.  Exercises performed were lunges, broad jump burpees, shine light in Saab’s eyes, and walk out merkins.

    -Polar Bear races (permit required)-  Divide pax into teams, scatter pax out among the carillon field and perform a team relay doing polar bears down and back on the field.  Directions were screwed up by a prick with a clip board, so it got a little messy.  Lab Rat’s team won, though.

    THANG

    A humid and misty morning at one of our fine city’s beautiful public parks had all in attendance this morning!  While there were a few notable regulars down range, enough of the regulars were there to let you know you were in the right spot.  Circle K pointed out it was time to mosey by careening thru the park on 2 wheels.  It’s not Sippy Cup’s pelvic light, but it will do.

    A regular not in attendance was Sippy Cup.  YHC misses not having him out front, so the end of COP was an homage to the man.  YHC remembers him leading this exercise a while ago, and thought it a good one to throw at the pax.

    It was a quick hit it and quit it at rusty cage this morning because the Q recognized that several pax members hit the pullups yesterday, and we had other things to accomplish.  Lab Rat has not done them in a while though and needed to be done.

    The ferocious deer were guarding the woods on the mosey over to Love Hill.  One of them took a swipe at Circle K with its sharpened hooves, as I heard him squeal out from behind me! Near miss for sure.

    Love hill is still dark, but some of the pax brought head lamps.  The Q did a crap job of sending word out, as he just texted a couple people and told them to bring one.  Good note to pax out there though….you should always have a light in the vehicle just in case.  Bleeder said it best:  If the Q brings a light or is wearing gloves, you should probably follow suit.  Bobo and company were at the bottom of the hill wagging tails and licking faces of any pax member needing inspiration to make the uphill turn.  Always a pleasure to see our furry friends!

    The polar bear relay race was much more organized in the Q’s head, but got thrown off by time running low and then some A-hole certified personal instructor asking if we had a permit.  Why would we need a permit for polar bear races?  They arent REAL polar bears.  Some people…geez.  Luckily, TYA jumped in to tell the guy that it was just an excersize, and that no bears were actually present.  Or something like that.  Hopefully, TYA also warned the certified personal instructor that there were actual REAL killer rabid deer loose in the park, and that he owed it to his paying customers to keep them safe.  One last note, if you get a sweet sweat suit like our new certified personal instructor friend was sporting when you finish certified personal instructor college, then sign me up!  I think it was made of velvet.

    Apology of the week goes to:  Certified Personal Instructor.  Sorry I honked at you while driving home, that was uncalled for.

    Announcements:

    -Good luck to racers this week!  Ragnar and Colonial 70 relays going down.

    -Dogpile Q slot is open.  Possible hot potato Q happening, so have something in your back pocket if you are posting.

    -It’s EH season!  Grab a buddy as you head out to your next workout.

    -Welcome to FNG GMO!  GMO is our friendly neighborhood ET’s manager, so it is extra special to have him come out.  Everybody take the time to tell him how awesome Jim is to you every Saturday morning.

    Well done everybody, thanks for humoring me yet again.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes..

     

     

  • The “Taper” Before the Relays?

    Three trails regulars were in town and undeterred by the weather forecasts this morning.  Although the pax was ready for the trails, the trails were most assuredly not ready for the pax.  The easy decision was made to stay on the pavement, so we threw together a quick route, talked Helix into running further than he had planned, and away we went.

    Route:

    Riverside Drive to T. Potter Bridge.  Up 5th Street to Monument.  Right on Boulevard to Love Hill, then over to Boulevard Bridge flag poles.  Stop at 9.000 miles.

    The Deets:

    Saab was thinking he was in for a wet solo run this morning, but he got neither.  Little did he know that YHC was back from Roanoke and Helix is more dedicated than he gets credit for.  Very interesting running with these two speedsters this morning, as it has been some time since Lab Rat has been the meat anchor.  YHC did his best to keep pace, but eventually the quick pace got the best of Lab Rat and he caught a crack in the side walk and went down hard.  Luckily, he had just enough wherewithall to dive for the grass…saving him from some serious road rash.

    Saab and Lab Rat finished up the morning hashing over some serious topics over selected hot bevereges at ET’s this morning.  Absense of some notable regulars was felt, but Saab and Helix are as good company as YHC could hope to keep.  Great run and extra curriculers this morning, gentlemen!  Thanks for pulling back the reigns for me a bit this morning.

  • What would happen if your wife helped you with the BB?

    Another workout for the books.  A bunch of old guys worked out.  It was so great, we should all write about it. Post your impression of the workout here.  Be nice, and remember……

    Whenever you are resting, someone somewhere is practicing.  And when you meet her, she will beat you.

    Namaste,

    M. Lab Rat