Author: Lab Rat

  • The Rise of Mechanicsville

    An intrepid 9 showed up for a beautiful morning on the trails, half of us representing Mechanicsville!  After some ribbing from Phonics regarding YHC’s speeding to the AO, and then TYA regarding YHC not being fast enough, a run actually did get done.  Below is what transpired:

    Route:

    North Bank to Brown’s Island.  Take T.Potter bridge over to the south side, and Buttermilk back.  Longer runners took Forest Hill loop in reverse to tack on 3 miles.  Common consensus should have the medium runners just over 7, and the longer route just over 10.  “Out and backs” are always supported for those who are looking for shorter routes, just as an FYI for those not up for the full route.

    NMS:

    -Great to see ALL the guys out this morning.  Many conversations covering the gambit this morning, feel free to add in your own in the comments section.  Lab Rat will add a list of movies that were either quoted or talked about today….consider it a list of “recommended watch” movies to be able to follow  the many conversations that break out during our jaunts on the trails:

    • Caddyshack and early SNL’s (Bill Murray and Chevy Chase)
    • The Big Labowski (of course)
    • The Great Santini/Prince of Tides
    • High Fidelity
    • Grosse Point Blank
    • Almost Famous
    • Anything with Seth Rogen in it…..that was a weird twist

    Extended visit to ET’s was full of interesting topics as well.  TYA is not into the idea of sitting at the “Friendship Table”, Saab is a card carrying dirty old man, and Upchuck has a story for all occasions.  Lab Rat as always, over-shared.

    Thanks for letting me Q, at least for most of the morning.  Ya’ll rock.

     

    Lab Rat out.

     

  • Dry trails again

    “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now“. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
    ― Stephen Grellet

     

    Six adventurous souls met at the trail head Sunday morning to enjoy a day created for running.  Here is what went down:

    Route:

    -Buttermilk (thru the tunnel) to Forest Hill Loop and back to car.  Most GPS’s had  7.0 miles.  Rosie’s took a short cut.

    -Saab and TYA opted for a longer route of which YHC was not privy to.  My guess is these long runners got in around 12 or so miles.

    NMS

    -Saab didnt know about his Facebook fan club.   He does now.  Also, he now has a beer!

    -Honeymoon was impressed with Forest Hill loop.  YHC is guessing he will be a regular on the trails in short order.

    -When TYA is on a mission, he is head down plow forward.  He was all business today.  YHC thinks he may have left his tights in my bed though.  My truck bed, guys!  Grow up!

    -Be careful how fast you are running on the trail, you never know when Hardywood will be coming the other way.

    -Upchuck is proving to be much better versed at talking and running than Lab Rat.  There is a shifting in the universe, and Lab Rat might be losing the mumblechatter king (or at least jester) title.

    -It’s really hard to make fun of Rosie, he’s just too damn nice.  Great running with you again, brother!

     

    Lab Rat out.

  • Herding Cats

    16 pax plus Q gathered this morning in the parking lot of Mary Munford for 45 minutes of chaos.  The Q heard grumblings of rain drops, but the weather seemed kinda 70 and sunnyish to him.  Here is what was attempted:

    Warm up run

    COP (Yes, TYA…slightly extended)

    • SSH
    • Scissors  Top Hat and Cane Dancing Frog Rag Time
    • Copperhead Squats
    • Arm Circles
    • Merkins
    • Freddie Mercury’s
    • LBC’s
    • Crab Cakes
    • Crunchy Frogs

    THANG

    Relay Race Potpourri- Teams of 4 (Q was odd man out and shadowed Saab), perform stated relay on tennis courts.  Waiting pax alternate between planks with X5 IC merkins and Al Gores with X5 IC Copperhead squats per runner.

    • Burpee Suicide Relay- Runner performs suicide with a burpee at the end of each tennis court.  Touch the line upon returning each time, tag out to teammate when you return from the 4th court.
    • Bear Crawl/Crab Walk relay- Runner bear crawls past 2nd net, then performs X10 merkins.  Crab Walk past 4th net, perform X10 crab cakes.  Sprint home.
    • Wheel Barrow relay- Partner wheel barrow the length of tennis courts, swapping out at each court.  3-legged run with partner back.
    • Karaoke relay:  Combine into 2 teams of 8, karaoke facing school to 2nd net, karaoke facing Cary Street to 4th net, sprint home.

    NMS

    The pax seemed to be working against the Q this morning.  YHC wonders if this was out of love of the Q, or revolting against him due to his silly idiosyncrasies.  (YHC has settled on love of the Q, for the sake of his fragile ego.)  It all started when Q asked the pax whether they would like the standard boring counting for SSH’s, or the making a glorious sound method made (in)famous last time YHC had the Q (Doo Wah Diddy).  Pax resoundedly chose cadence….whatever.  Then, they just started singing on their own.  To protect the Q’s ego, he will chalk that up to him inspiring the pax to make their own glorious noises instead of just listening to the Q sing.

    Then, the circle started shrinking! It got smaller….and smaller…..and smaller.  The Q had a choice to make, fight or flight!  Lab Rat quickly picked the closest hole between two pax members and rag-timed his way out, barely making it to safety before the pax closed in on him for good.  It is also important to note that, while flustered, the Q’s cadence calling remained consistent.  YHC found that this is important to TYA’s well-being this morning.  You want to make TYA quit, change the cadence.  Good to know.

    YHC has done relay races in the past.  He did not remember the instructions being so difficult to convey to the pax.  So many corrections to be made!  It started out pretty rough with teams leaving before the Ready set GO!  Team 2….the whole team….took off on the 2nd relay together.  By the end though, the pax started to catch on, and we had a really competitive relay to finish it off.

    Although YHC likes to have something for the winners (such as calling out the next exercise or something of the sort), he was just too busy trying to make sure at least the important instructions were clear enough so as to minimize the standing around and make sure everybody gets a good workout in….while hopefully having a little bit of fun at the same time.  Mission accomplished?!?  The Q has no idea, but he is sure that the pax will let him know in good time.

    Special thanks to Saab for going twice on the wheel barrow relay, so that the Q would not get accused of holding the “clip board”.

    Thanks for playing along, gentlemen!

    Announcements:

    -Lunch today, noon o’clock at Pops Market on Broad.

    -Glad to see Guiness (Charlotte), Wheelie (Mechanicsville), and Carmen San Diego (Southside) make the trip to Mary this morning.

    -Circle K is still wearing his G-string looking for any dollar bills he can get to pay for the sex change CSAUP refreshments.  Hook the man up!  Truly men, test that thong and stuff it with a roll of nickles.

    -Thoughts and Prayers for Guiness’ sister in law, Kathy.  She is in the hospital and working hard on a recovery.  (Septis?)  Whatever it is, we wish her a speedy recovery.

    Lab Rat out.

     

  • ReeseStrong Dry Run

    A friendly 15 hit the pavement and graced Atlee High School this morning with their shining happy faces.  Spit and Circle K raced to put up the shovel flag, and Spit won (he had a head start though).  The weather was dark.

    Parking Lot Tracers

    • TYA rant.

    COP

    • SSH
      • TYA rant
    • Copperhead squats
      • TYA rant
    • Don Quixotes
      • TYA rant
    • Arm Circles
    • Merkins
    • LBC’s
      • TYA rant
    • Crab Cakes
      • Entire Pax rant

    THANG

    Mosey to elementary school for “the hard way” track work:  Run track, stopping as a pax every 5 minutes for 25 merkins + 25 squats.  Extra credit stations along the route inculded (but not limited to) bleacher dips, AMRAP pullups, sprints, karaoke, LBC’s.

    Roll back to the six:  Run back to flag, with the Q kicking anybody back to the six that caught up to him, until finally he rolled back to the six as well.  This quickly transformed into whomever was leading at the moment to roll back to the six.  Picture perfect.

    NMS

    This was probably the easiest (to lead) workout YHC has ever Q’d, even with TYA’s watchful eye and liberal critiquing…..a true you v. you workout.  Once the COP was over (yes, that happened after Parking lot tracers) and instructions were given, everybody was pretty much on their own and all the Q had left to do was monitor the time.  Plan was to get 6 sessions in, but we only managed 4 due to the distance from the flag and extended COP.  If anybody didnt work up a sweat this morning though, it was his own fault….but everybody seemed pretty lathered up.

    TYA was in rare form this morning, commenting first on the order in which things were taking place (he is not a fan of tracers before COP), and then he lost his marbles when faced with the “DaVille count”.  Insert Upchuck counting in broken spanish and Emoji throwing out random numbers, hilarity ensued.  The entire Pax lost it when Lab Rat tried to rotate during Crab Cakes.  This was definitely one of the rowdiest COP’s in a while.

    Over at the track, the code word for the 5 minute mark was “tomato” (this is Hanover, you know).  This brought a brief discussion up regarding “safe words” and what words would make terrible safe words.  Tied for first in YHC’s mind were “more” and “harder”.

    If you really want to get grossed out, talk to Emoji and ask him about how his wife is similar to Doc Ock.

    Standout effort from the Q’s eye this morning goes to Opus, who is finding out that getting stronger at F3 just means you get to do more stuff.  Also, notable mention to MudFace, for pushing thru a run-heavy workout.  Great work from everybody this morning.  Lab Rat could not have been more proud than seeing all the pax rolling from the front to the back on the run to the flag.  Poetry in motion.

    Random note:  Spike now has an F3 shirt.  We will be looking for that VQ, soon now!

    A great workout and lots of laughs this morning, gentlemen!  It was truly a pleasure this morning.

    Announcements:

    • Frozen Triangle CSAUP:  Saturday at 6 a.m. starting at DogPile.
    • Lab Rat has 1 DaVille XL shirt left, $25.  Get with him if you want it.  He also has a fistful of free F3 stickers he keeps forgetting about.  They are a micro-step below mandatory on your car.

    Lab Rat out.

     

     

  • Function follows form, at least for a little while

    16 showed up, the weather was notable, the pax was hungry.  Here is what we did:

    COP

    • SSH IH (in harmony)
    • Ball Dippers IC
    • Arm Circles IC
    • Merkins IC
    • Freddie Mercury IC
    • Don Quixote determined to be not necassary by pax

    THANG

    • Playground Tracers:  Follow the leader: run up one side of playground, karaoke over to next corner, backwards run down, then karaoke back to starting point.
    • 11:11 left in the game, 11 seconds on the shot clock on 1/11 (aka 4-corners):  4 groups of 4 (or whatever the hell the pax wants to do), each group starts at a station and rotates thru all stations twice:  Merkinville, Kneeliftsland, Pullupington, and Diptopia.  Emphasis was put on maintaining good form, over high reps.
    • Too Many Lunges:  Partner up, 1st pax starts lunging, 2nd pax starts running around the track.  Flapjack whenever runner catches lunger.  Go around the track once.
    • Plank Walk Do-si-do:  Keep same partner, form 2 lines facing each other.  Bow/Curtsy to partner, then plank up.  Plank walk 10 steps IC North, then 5 merkins IC.  Repeato South, East and West.

    NMS

    YHC was running late this morning, and was very happy to make it on time….with 2 minutes to spare.  That is fine when one of the pax, but way too close for the Q.  My apologies for that.

    YHC tried to make it up to the pax by starting off with a “glorious sound” as Opus would say….we sang Do Wah Diddy Diddy during SSH’s (2 of 3 verses, thanks Pucker).  This was an attempt to maintain Lab Rat’s 2 new year’s resolutions:  1) make a pax member laugh at every workout and 2) make a pax member roll their eyes at every workout.  Mission accomplished?!?  The pax took a minute to warm up, but was sounding wonderful by the time we hit the chorus.

    The 4-corners was re-named while listening to the smooth oral stylings of our very own Marv during the game last night.  Speaking of always making the audience smile, my man has a gift!  The Q almost did 11’s, but decided that would just be too literal.  YHC still needs to ask Marv what the difference is between a rolling timeout and a “slick tip”.  Maybe Saab knows….

    Plank walk Do-Si-Do brought the house down….as noted by the groans coming down the line towards the last set of merkins.  That will have to start becoming a regular in the Lab Rat arsenal.  Special thanks to my partner Hardywood for that picture perfect curtsy.

    Also thanks to EF for busting out the SF this morning after the tomatoes of the family teamed up to break mine in half.  Anybody know where to get a new one???

    Great job to the pax this morning, way to not get your back readjusted by falling branches.

    Announcements:

    • Willis River 35K goes off Sunday at 8:00
    • CSAUP:    http://f3nation.com/2017/01/06/pre-blast-f3-rva-frozen-triangle-csaup/#comment-102057 .  Sign up so that Circle K will know how many wieners to get.
    • Lunch today, 12:00 at Pop’s Deli on Grace.  Lab Rat is a hard commit.
    • LBC count:  0

    Lab Rat out.

  • Pre-Blast: 12/28/16 trip to Appalachian Trail

    In the name of training for spring trail runs…or just for the hell of it…a few pax members are heading up to Afton for some trail running on the AT.  The planned route will be a 1 way long slow run on the AT heading into the Shenandoah National Park.  The planned route is 18-20 miles, and should take around 5 hours.  Those that would like a shorter route or would like to bike on Skyline Drive should feel welcome to join us and we will come up with a game plan for alternate activities.

    We will meet at the Park and Ride at the Gum Spring exit on I64 (exit 159) at 6:30 a.m., carpool up, run, then swing by Bodo’s on the way home.  We should be home in time for you to fix dinner for your family (or at least dump a load of fresh bagels on the table).

    If you are interested, please post up in the comments section, or get in touch with Lab Rat or TYA.

    Also, tagging Roanoke, just in case our brothers from the other side of the ridge would like to join us.

    Lab Rat out.

  • How Soon After a Vasectomy is it Safe to Run?

    4 Richmond regulars gathered in the breaking gloom for ….but wait, who’s that?!  Obama coming in hot makes 5!  Now it’s a party:

    The route du jour had us running Buttermilk to the new T. Potter bridge, figuring out how to get down to it, then continuing downstream to the pipeline trail.  Climb the ladder to the canal walk back to Brown’s Island, then North Bank back home.  Splitting the uprights on the  two GPS watches in tow put us covering 8.5 miles.

    Lab Rat was very excited to try out this route today, since he finally discovered where to pick up pipeline trail off Brown’s Island.  For the reading population unfamiliar with said trail, it is actually a pipe with a cat walk on it that extends over the rapids of the James…pretty freaky honestly.  Lab Rat asked TYA if he was claustrophobic before getting on the pipe, and he said no.  He immediately changed his answer afterwards.

    Although bummed that Saab and Offshore made an early day of it, Lab Rat was happy to chat up Obama and get to know him better.  Obama is a solid dude, and YHC would have zero problems sharing a run with him any time.  Luckily for Lab Rat, Obama is recovering from a vasectomy, so he could actually keep up with the usually much faster Obama.  Other fun facts were learned that have no business being in print (ever), so inquiring minds will have to get their butts out to the trail some time if they want all the gory details.

    Afterwards, TYA and Lab Rat solved a couple major world issues over muffins and all you can eat bacon, so you’re welcome.

     

    Lab Rat out.

  • Move 60

    12 regulars plus 2 LIFO’s came together with joy in their hearts to tackle another rendition of the best 60 minutes of any Saturday, affectionately known as Dogpile.  Here is how we move 60, the F3 way:

    Warmup:

    -1 mile jog. AKA, Dodge BoBo

    COP

    • SSH
    • Ball Dippers
    • Don Quixote
    • Imperial Walkers
    • Arm Circles
    • Merkins
    • LBC
    • Crab Cakes

    THANG

    • “8 is enough was already taken, but 11’s is ridiculous, so 8 seems like about the right number”:  11’s reduced to 8’s, pullups and booya merkins with a partner.
    • F3 Relay Race:  pick teams of 7, relay race performing some F3 favorites.  Course was bear crawl to first cone, do 10 merkins (Sippy Cup style).  Run backwards to 2nd cone, 10 2-count crab cakes (opt out 4-count flutter kicks).  Crab Walk to 3rd cone, sprint back.  Winning team members got to choose ab exercises to perform rapid style.  Also, winning team had the option of watching losing team perform said exercises, but they joined in the fun anyways.  Seriously though, who could stay away from Offshore calling “Upright Alabama Prom Dates”?
    • Ring of Fire: Speed thru a round of ring of fire while cones were collected from relay race.

    NMS

    Lab Rat didnt want to hear complaints about the cold this morning, even though it wasnt nearly as cold as the morning previous.  So the plan was to keep moving a majority of the time to keep the blood pumping.  He also had been missing the pre-workout jog around the AO from the run-a-mile challenge, so decided that would be a perfect way to kick things off.  Had Lab Rat known that Bobo would be waiting for us at the bottom of the hill, he may have picked a different route.  To keep the pax together, once somebody got to running beside the Q for a minute, they were sent to collect the six.  This seemed to work perfectly, only to find out that later at breakfast, the Q had inadvertantly snubbed Saab, who was trying to provide Lab Rat with mumblechatter.  Whoopsies!  Lab Rat promises to be all ears tomorrow during trail run.  The pax was excited to see Upchuck coming from Carillon to find us as we neared the end of the loop.

    As soon as we had circled up, another surprise LIFO was Hardywood, who fell asleep  before setting the alarm last night.  He made the correct decision to take a little abuse for being LIFO instead of regretting missing all together.  AYE!  Being that the pax was now complete, we could actually get some work done.  YHC tried to keep the exercises moving at a pretty good clip without taking too much time in between.  Several pax members broke out into song during the 2nd half of COP, which the Q encouraged to keep going, especially during the double time Imperial Walkers (hard to do).

    Hardywood had us do 11’s a few weeks ago (heck, could have been last week) at Rusty Cage with pullups and Booyah merkins.  YHC thought those two made a glorious combination of struggle and pain, but decided 8’s were a little less of an insane number.  YHC got to partner with Sippy Cup, who is guaranteed to make his partner either practice great form or self loathing.  Lab Rat took the former, and it dang near killed him.  Lately, the rusty cage is veiled in pitch black, so YHC cannot comment on anybody else, however much grunting and groaning was to be heard, so he is sure good work was performed.

    The relay race was a little tough to get going due to excessive instructions and a lack of a dry erase board.  When the pax saw the cones, nervous mumblechatter concerning “Bronson” was heard, and sighs of relief woke the neighbors when the Q gave the negative.  Besides the slow start, YHC believes it was a success.  YHC picked the “Chiropractic Duo” as captains so that they were assured to be on different teams.  We wouldnt want them putting their spines together and forming of some weird Wonder Twins stuff to give an unfair advantage.  They both showed extremely poor judgement by picking Lab Rat last, however (hello middle school, I missed you).  Pax members left it all on the field for their team, and it showed, as team Flash barely nudged out Team Flip.  Helix almost ran down Offshore in the end, though.  It pays to be a winner, so Team Flash got to call out what were supposed to be rapid fire ab exercises, which was going fine until we got to Upchuck and his 5 minutes of 6 inches.  Offshore brought the house down with his signature “Upright Alabama Prom dates”.

    2nd F was in full form today, with most pax members filling up ET’s.  Thanks for the hard work this morning, gentlemen!

    Lab Rat out.

     

    Announcements:

    -HDHH at Triple Crossing on Foushee Street this Wednesday.  This is the original, not the new one.

    -Short and long trail runs on the docket in the morning.  Come out and join the fun.

  • Sometimes plans go awry, so it’s best to not have a plan

    A grateful 8, including 1 FNG spread the mist this morning for a DaVille kind of day.  What transpired is a whole lot of this:

    -Parking lot Tracers X2

    COP

    • Ball Dippers
    • SSH
    • Arm Circles
    • Merkins

    -Mosey to elementary school track via the parking lot so that anyone that overdressed could shed a layer on the way.

    THANG

    • Oval of Love:  Using the standard Love Hill exercises, move around the track while partner runs track until catching partner.
    • Ups and Downs:  split into 2 teams, 1 team performs 30 dips, other team performs 10 pull ups.  Flapjack X2
    • Indian run back to flag (burpee option as always)

    1 MOM:  American Hammers

    Numbers, Names, Abacus took us out

    NMS

    Lab Rat came with one plan in mind:  Keep off the grass (due to recent rains).  So we started with what is becoming a DaVille favorite, parking lot tracers.  It’s a good way to knock the cobwebs out and get the body warmed up.  This morning was so nice, we did them twice!  You’re welcome, Spike.  They must have worked pretty well, because there was a yard sale developing after COP, so YHC took a stroll thru the parking lot before making the trek over to the elementary school.  Creative license may have been taken here, but there was at least 1 sweatshirt on the pavement.

    If anybody ever needs gloves, please see Emoji.  He sells them out of the back of his estrogen mobile (BMW) in the dark corners of the AO like a crack dealer.  I kid, I kid!  Way to hook up Wheelie this morning.

    The oval of love definitely took much longer than planned, since the run didnt get any shorter as it usually would during Love Hill…..since it was an endless track.  Thus, this exercise took longer than originally thought. Lab Rat was really happy to draw a Sugar Ray for a partner this morning in Helix, but quickly discovered that because Helix is going to touch his knee to the ground during every damn lunge, that we were doomed.  DFL (dead f’ing last)  Way to squeeze every drop out of it, Helix!

    With this taking dang near half the workout, plus the few minutes it takes to get back to the SF, we were pretty pressed for time.  YHC wanted to get in some pull ups though, taking advantage of the unusually small pax size for a DaVille workout.  So instead of something cute, we just divided and conquered.

    Abacus did point out that we pretty much skipped all core today.  YHC apologizes for that, and he promises to make up for it on Saturday, when he Q’s again.  So he expects to see a large overlap of today’s pax post Dogpile so that he can claim a full body punishment to said pax for the week.

    Spit has quietly become a pax leader out there, showing that youth will be served.  He is also Q’ing up at least once a week, and has his first one hour Q coming up at Dogpile next Saturday.  Lab Rat is sure it will be a doozy.  AYE!

    Also, welcome to FNG David (Wheelie)!  He worked hard today, and persevered thru a whole bunch of running.  Wheelie belongs to a large church that is a hard 3 iron shot from Daville, and YHC believes has zero presence at F3.  Lab Rat hopes that Wheelie will be changing that real soon with some EH’ing after Sunday service.

    Opus, you are killing it lately.  You should be proud.

    Well done, guys.

    Lab Rat out.

     

     

  • Tomato Run is under new management

    This morning, Lab Rat set out to find out if there was still a pulse in the Tomato Run since the AO was switched over to the Rutland clubhouse.  He got there, looked around and saw no signs of life, so decided to climb back in the ratmobile to wait a couple minutes for stragglers then head back to more familiar territory and a solo run.  Alas, here comes Spike to scare the hell out of Lab Rat and let him know that the run was a GO.

    This is a long standing neighborhood run, so YHC will cease to do F3 backblasts regarding this event.  However, F3 members have been invited to join in for a friendly bro-code run on Monday mornings, conveniently starting at the traditional time of 5:30 (a.m. of course).  All “pax” stayed together this mornig, and the mumblechatter was flowing.  YHC guesses the pace at around 9:00 minute miles, but didnt bother to look at GPS.  3-5 mile loops are options on this run.

    YHC had a very pleasant run this morning, and he hopes to see a few more of the local pax venture out to meet up with this fine group of men.  Take note however that the meeting place is a short walk from the clubhouse, at the corner of Combs and Oakham Drives.

     

    Thanks to Spike for banging on the glass and saving me from a lonely run this morning.  I enjoyed the company!

     

    Lab Rat out.