Author: Lab Rat

  • No Sixes in the Mixes

    Early in the gloom, the few runners we had just stood around looking at each other, so I asked the question: “Who’s Q?” More stares. Somebody threw out Reverse Carrilon, so that’s the route. Bleeder explained the route, which sounded good to me. Bodos said he knew the 5 miler, but Swiper did not have confidence. He came back to me twice with where do we turn questions, so looks like Im running with the 5’s!

    So this begs the question, how do you go from not wanting to get up, to running slow and comfortable, to running faster and farther, to ultimately being the Q?

    a) circumstance

    b) force

    c) willingness

    d) a mix of all the above

    Just like prison sex, its a mix of all the above.

    There were a whole lot more pax at the COT than were at 0530, and only Saab was spotted actually running this morning. What did they do?

    a) actually ran, and launched early to get in more distance

    b) ran to starbucks, shot the breeze for an hour, then came back and dumped water on TYA so it looked like they ran

    c) Ran over to MARV’s house planning on TPing his yard, only to find out that it was so humid, the toilet paper actually stuck to their hands and they couldnt throw it

    d) a mix of all the above

    Well done to those that ACTUALLY did run/bike this morning…..even if you cant prove it.

    Apology of the week goes out to TYA for making fun of how much he sweats, because that HAS TO BE a medical condition and he cant help it.

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Squibber and Pancake take to the field

    ULTIMATE frisbee morning at DaVille! A solid 6 v. 6 to make a very competitive and spirited game this morning.

    Many good plays and many more almost good were had by young and old alike. The first 10 minutes were touch and go with the darkness, but we made it work once the sunlight got on us. Thanks to Opus for bringing a school bus full of kids out to make the numbers work.

    Announcements:

    See Greenbow if you want to go on a men’s retreat to Asheville.

    Tentative plans to play some evening Ultimate for funs. Announcement to come on that.

    Apology of the week (if that can still be a thing) goes to either Trout or Fabio for going low. Take solice in the fact that I have a pretty good rasberry on my knee.

    Lab Rat apologizes.

  • 2 of the 3 had to go #2 and 1 did

    Farmhouse loop. There is a grey comfort station on the way out and back that has a higher stalactite than it did yesterday.

    Also, Mudface and No Idea were spotted doing their rucking thang.

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • A battle for the not-it Q slot

    I lost. I did not want to be the Q this morning, because I had a totally selfish agenda but Shakes guilted me into it. Official route was forest hill loop, that Helix and Pavarotti completed, followed by extra credit full monty loop for Shakedown and I. We passed Ollivander on his second loop, and got word that Offshore was wandering around solo as well. The trails were muddy in spots, but RVA Trail report gave the thumb’s up and the trails were shock full of runners. We past a few feet from a herd of deer that did not give a f***.

    We may have left early. If so, that was the fault of Shakedown as he had the Q at the time.

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Fear of Missing Out

    While the rest of the trailoholics were off frolicing in the woods, I made sure that the downtown trails were secured. Picked up a Sunday semi-regular in the Gentleman Farmer (cant remember his real name) and we ran Forest Hill. It was glorious, but ET’s was lonely.

    Lab Rat Apologizes…

  • Turkey trot the hard way practice

    The Mighty Nein met in the parking lot at DaVille this morning for some Gloom shenanigans. Parking lot tracers to get the blood pumping followed by what promised to be a No Idea and Mudface friendly workout. Neither were in attendance, but we perservered anyways. We made our way over to the middle school track, stopping at the bus parking lot for some warmup COP. It was Beulah’s first bootcamp workout, and second F3 gathering. Good on ya, brother! Hail and well met! We took a minute to give him a proper disclaimer then made our way over to the track for our main event. Opus manned the stop watch and gave us head’s up on our 5 minute times….every 5 minutes we bang out 20 merkins, 20 squats, then continue our way along the track. Beautiful vistas along the way include the canyon of dips, and the towering pullup bars….feel free to pull over and enjoy these majestic wonders at your own speed. After 4 rounds, we gathered back together to make our way back to the unplanted shovel flag by way of burpee indian runs. Timer went off again as we circled up, so 20 more reps called out by Opus.

    It was a beautiful morning, and I have to say it has been too long for me. Time to get back after it.

    Apology of the week goes to all DaVille regulars for being MIA for way too long. Also, Yard Sale for burpee indian runs.

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Do Your Thing

    Sunday trails were beautiful, and everybody did what suited them best. ET’s was the usual gathering place post run for muffins and hot beverages.

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Lack of Q Equals Carillon in Reverse

    With a minute to go, several announced the lack of Q. I was nominated when I suggested Reverse Carillon and got a couple “Sounds good” from the pax.

    One issue is that we still havent communicated to the 4 milers the proper route. As promised, I will post here the recommended route. I also respect the “we are the 4 mile group and will run wherever we damn well please” argument.

    https://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/2780528545

  • Core Principles

    A smallish crowd of 19 men showed up this morning to start their day the F3 way. Lab Rat was combining a 4 year F3 Anniversary along with his last day as a 48 year old. Much celebrating happened…..hooray.

    Standard COP this morning with the exception of the 49 Side Straddle Hops and 4 burpees for the much celebrating time as mentioned above. Some wore party hats.

    We broke in to two groups so that we could get in quality pullup time. One group did 5 sets of 5 pullups while the other group played touch a tree with 5 burpees, 10 squats, and 20 LBC’s. Both groups got a turn at each. We reassembled for a fell run (it’s a thing) across the fields to get to burpee lake. 2 burpees at each light, along with an extra for the city at each burned out light. It’s hard to imagine, but we did more burpees than if we just did the standard Charles Bronson….where we would have capped it at 49. The group handled it well though, and it felt good to run this morning with the cool temps. We finished it off with a little yoga at the flag to bring it all back around.

    I switched the COT out a bit from the usual prayer to express how important I believe F3 is to this community. My feeling is that over everything else, it is important that this group remains open to ALL men and that it is a place where men can come and feel welcome. Individual personalities will come and go, but the core value of a group of men that can gather, do something relatively difficult to strengthen bonds, bodies, and minds is important to keep available. To quote George RR Martin from the Game of Thrones, “when the long night comes and the cold winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives”. It kind of applies…..shut up.

    That’s probably about the heaviest bb I have ever written, and for that,

    Lab Rat Apologizes…

  • Run and Breakfast

    The four of us ran the 7 mile loop around Forest Hill then all went to ET’s for breakfast. It was awesome. Nothing else to see here, carry on.

    Lab Rat apologizes…