Author: Lab Rat

  • Pre-Blast HDHH at the new DaVille AO and Ratskeller

    Below is a copy/paste of original message by Circle K.  Bumping it back up for max coverage.  Text AYE to 804.263.3570 for RSVP to the Ratskeller (so I know how many glasses to clean).

     

    It’s time for some 2nd F. Why not launch a new F3 AO, while enjoying some coldbeer, hot eats, and a campfire.

    Lab Rat and I have been talking about establishing a new F3 AO in Mechanicsville to increase the F3 RVA Pax and the F3 footprint in the RVA area.  Come check out Da’Ville for March 2016 HDHH at Atlee High School, 5:15pm.  The plan is to meet at Da’Ville for a 30-35 minute F3 workout to check out the new AO site.  While we are working out, Lab Rat is going to be tending to his home brew, slaving over the BBQ/Smoker, and building the campfire.  After we finish sweating off a day’s work, we will form a chain of cars to Lab Rat’s place for some outdoor 2nd F.  What better way to rehydrate after a workout than sipping home brewed beer and eating some of Lab Rat’s home made eats, while singing KumBaya around the campfire.  If you can’t make it to the workout, plan on coming to Lab Rat’s place around 6PM.  Atlee High School is located at:

    9414 Atlee Station Road

    Mechanicsville, VA 23116

    Lab Rat’s Address :

    9212 Wagon Court

    Mechanicsville, VA 23116

    The plan for Da’Ville is to incorporate the new AO into the rotation beginning on Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at 530am.  As NoToll is growing to record numbers every week, Tuesday’s will allow for another option for the F3 RVA Faithful (possibly keeping the NoToll numbers manageable and allow NoToll continued growth) and attract new Pax members from the North of the River (ie, Mechanicsville, Ashland, Northside, West End, etc).  If you have been putting a friend, colleague, family member in the Emotional Headlock for a while, invite them to the new AO, Da’Ville, for an introduction to the three F’s of F3.

    Circle K/LabRat

  • The sun was LIFO this morning

    Five men showed up in the gloom this morning to find a packed parking lot at the Pump House.  Some dude waiting for a car pool joined Aisle 5 in his car for a pre-run coffee…only to find that Aisle 5 was not his ride.  Never a dull moment…

    The five original pax started across the bridge when Sippy Cup came flying up from behind, quickly said his good mornings to us mere mortals, then left us just as quickly, dragging Saab along with him in his wake.  Glad to see you back in the fold, Sippy!

    The route this morning was Buttermilk to Forest Hill loop….YHC’s GPS put him at 7.5 miles, individual mileages may vary.  YHC ran with Udder this morning, great getting to know you a bit better, my man!

    Aisle 5 continues to post up to the trail run, getting in those miles.  YHC is impressed with his fortitude.

    TYA, you know where you are at, brother.  A staple on Sundays.

    Well done this morning, gents.

    Saab abides, and I am Lab Rat

  • It’s a friggin’ triangle, people! Version 2.0

    17 RVA Pax, 1 cameo appearance from Greensboro, and 2 FNG’s met the gloom this morning with joy in their hearts to face what was advertised as a “run heavy” 45 MOM.  YHC did his best not to disappoint.  Here is what transpired:

    Warmup lap around the campus to standard COP spot:

    COP

    SSH X31

    DQ (old man style) X15

    arm circles:  10 little, 5 big, then reverso

    IW: X26 increasing in speed

    Incline Prom Dates:  X20 (OYO) for demonstration purposes

    THANG

    5 Corners, or “it’s a friggin triangle, people” (named after Saab’s now infamous workout). Run the track, stopping at the “5 corners” to do an excersize.  Repeato X3 X2 then continue running the track until all pax are complete.  Advanced version, stop at stations where someone was still working and join in.  Q knows when everyone is done by nobody at stations (everybody running).

    Station 1:  Incline Prom Dates X20

    Station 2:  Dips X20

    Station 3:  Merkinville (X5 of any style merkin, then change styles X4, totaling X20)

    Station 4:  Leg Lifts X20

    Station 5:  Pull ups X10

    Burpee Shuffle

    Burpee Indiginous People Run- 1 lap around the campus.  Two columns of EQUAL numbers, do a standard indian run, but drop and do a burpee before sprinting.

    Cirlce of Mary:  instead of standard Mary excersizes, pax did 20 15 Richard Kimbles (thanks, Honey Do)

    Back to VSF, COT, out with a prayer by YHC.

    NMS

    So, the mumblechatter started early, when TYA announced (subtly) it was time to commence said workout.  More mumble when YHC led pax out the wrong way.  Love you all, too.  Toga tried to give grief about the run heavy shot called, but to be honest, his heart wasnt in it.

    Word was, we could have had the longest disclaimer in RVA F3 history this morning.  There are some people you just dont hand the mic to, everybody knows that.

    YHC did his best to remember everything wrote up, but forgot the Richard Kimbles during COP.  Happy to be able to work them in later, though.

    Going forward, the Burpee Indian Run should be Indian run with the burpee optional.  Seems like the waters muddied a bit here.

    Notables:

    Thanks to Toga for dropping back to bring in stragglers during said burpee run.

    Rumor has it that Offshore was busy admiring his fancy space shoes and walked smack into a pullup bar.  Good times…

    So happy to have Greensboro regular Nancy with us this week.  He invites us all to join in if we are down that way.  It is rumored you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a COP in Greensboro.  Way to bring it!

    Fudd was early this morning.  WOOT!

    2.36 miles on the GPS, for those in the run challenge.

    Welcome Swiss Miss!  He is a friend of Marv’s that has been in the EH for 6 months.  Does a bunch of international traveling so the names were all over the map….literally.  Pax liked Swiss Miss, and it stuck.

    Welcome also to Fiona!  Co-worker? to Lug Nut and had also endured a long EH, but finally succumbed to pressure.  YHC made a joke from Big Bang theory about his Chinese symbol tattoo being for “soup”.  He confessed it actually read “little silver princess”.  You cant make this sh*t up.  Fiona was a slam dunk allyoop.  YHC is sure there is a great backstory on that TAT, he will be looking for him during run days to get that story.

    Also, welcome back to a few Pax that have either been absent for a while,or are still pretty new:  Cooler, and Goldberg.  Glad to meet you both

    Lastly, way to keep posting Mr. Rogers!  Quickly becoming a regular!

    Announcements:

    UGH!  Several…see Splinter’s list from yesterday.

     

     

  • Virgin Q remix

    After having caught enough flak for only Q’ing for runs, YHC decided to finally Q up a “real” workout.  Just to put an exclamation mark on it, he declared this would be a “NO-RUNNING” beat down.  YHC, Mr. Rogers, and FNG Tom (Sassy) fell out of the clown car early to find a shovel flag planted, weights already on the tailgate, and 4 smiling F3 regulars ready to roll.  Fudd, Rosie, Offshore and Circle K filed in to fill out the Pax, and we got to work.  It went down something like this:

    COP:

    SSH IC: X29

    Imperial Walker IC: X0 (stupid Q forgot)

    Don Quixote (old man speed):  X20ish

    Arm Circles IC:  10 little, 5 big, then repeato reverse  (fins up, fins down)

    Merkin IC: X10

    THANG:

    Mosey to the Swirly-mobile and pick out a weight:

    Farmer’s carry- walk with the weight either overhead, chest level, or like a bucket 4 times around parking lot, switching sides each lap. Al Groh (Al Gore with a brain fart) with weight when finished.

    Farmer’s carry back to the benches for some OYO intervals:

    -right leg step ups X30

    -incline prom dates X20

    -left leg step ups X30

    -full range release merkins X20

    -goblet squats X20

    Repeato, substitute 4-count American hammers (with weights) X20 for merkins

    -Final set of American hammers to failure or 20 reps (4 count, of course)

    Partner up for 2 sets of weighted merkins:  partner holds both weights on back, do merkins until failure, then switch.  Next set, remove one weight.

    Farmer’s carry back around the parking lot one more time, swapping sides X4.

    Gather around the SF.

    NMS:

    Once we got started, there was very little mumblechatter, seemed like nobody knew what to expect from this oddball workout and new Q.  First lap, Fudd made a feels like a women’s group comment, but YHC thinks that the second loop took care of that sentiment.

    Honey Do pointed out the eerie silence was most likely due to the fact that YHC was trying to make sure he didnt goof up the count, thus couldnt make totally pointless remarks.  Touche’

    This morning was a bit of a blur to YHC, so he hopes that it went smoothly for the Pax.  a couple observations though:

    -YHC never noticed how badass Splinter is…maybe the height is a disguise, or maybe YHC should pay more attention.  Way to get it done!

    -Swirly just plain old works.  Pretty well documented, but DAMN.

    Special thanks to Bleeder and Swirly for supplying the weights and the shovel flag.  Literally could not have done this workout without you!  Also, thanks for re-engaging YHC’s brain for nam-o-rama, he had checked out.

    Also thanks to Honey Do for pushing the VQ (remix) on me last HDHH.  Next up, Viral???

    To anyone that has ever Q’d:  RESPECT.  Yall make it look easy…it’s not.

    Also, a big welcome to FNG Tom (Sassy).  He ran the Bear Creek 10 miler with us, and finally got him out for a workout.  Glad to have you, brother!

    Newcomer Mr. Rogers came back out this morning as well (First post was Friday).  He is already securing a ride for 45 MOM.  Great to see more of DaVillagers making it out and getting in to the routine.

    Announcements:

    -Golf tournament for Suicide Prevention in April.  Please see Fudd for the details on this worthy cause!

    -Circle K and I are hosting HDHH on March 16th.  We will shore up the details very soon and post up a pre-blast.

    Please see pre-blast regarding weight loss challenge that popped up yesterday from Metro.  Bleeder is organizing this locally.

     

    AYE!

     

     

     

     

  • Go Outside RVA

    Alternative title:  To go far, run together….only not that together

    Alternative title #2:  Shorts?  You serious?

    5 Pax rolled out to greet the day on the trails of RVA.  Conditions were as cold as it gets in Richmond (round it up to 10F), but sunny and no wind.  Notable showings were Chumbucket and Flipper, plus Flipper’s pooch, but they were bound for a shorter route this morning and quickly broke rank.  The rest went down like this:

    Route of choice this morning went old school, taking North Bank out to Belle Isle, returning on Buttermilk.  Individual mileages may vary, but the Garmin rolled 7.7 miles at the end of the parking lot for YHC.  North Bank was definitely the warmer trail with the sun.

    NMM:

    The pax showed up in some interesting garb to say the least this morning.  While YHC, Chumbucket, and Flipper wore standard gloom workout attire, Saab rolled out of his British Jeep in cutoff jeans and a Metallica tank top.  Offshore must have come straight from his night job, where he seems to be taking an apprentiship as a brick mason.  (YHC would like to make note here that Saab’s outfit is exaggerated for entertainment purposes, but Offshore’s outfit is not.)

    There is strong evidence that jorts were not the best choice though, as Saab informed the PAX at the first loop back that he had best let the ponies stretch their legs.  Jack Frost was sure to be nipping at the bare knees.  YHC sent Offshore out to run him down, but Saab had motivation to blaze this morning and it was not to be.  YHC and Chumbucket leap frogged back and forth, but this morning’s run was pretty much a solo affair for everybody concerned.

    Absences of note:

    TYA had to call in sick.  The Pax was hoping that it was due to a failure to properly stretch before Valentine’s Day festivities, or possibly an erection lasting longer than 4 hours but there would surely have been a tweet about that, and was not to be the case.  Seems as though TYA is battling with a kidney stone, and the stone has the upper hand at the moment.  Here is to wishing a speedy recovery to him (TYA, not the kidney stone).  Corporate, please log this as an EXCUSED absence.

    Lockjaw continues to miss runs after throwing down the 100 mile gauntlet for March.  YHC hopes that he is just resting up the legs before March 1.

    Conclusion:

    Finished up this morning with F3’s shortest prayer ever, piled into our respective vehicles, and blasted the heat all the way home.  Well done gentlemen!

     

    AYE!

    Lab Rat

     

  • A rowdy and disrespectful clan takes to the streets of RVA

    Another fine morning for running, with clear, cold, and calm conditions (I question the conditions for wind making contraptions, aka bicycles).  14 Pax came out to embrace the morning, and get in a cardio workout of his choice.  It went down like this:

    Everybody out Commonwealth to Monument.  4 milers right on Boulevard, 5 milers right on Meadow, 6 milers right on Harrison.  Everybody back on Grove.

    Bikers, do their own thing, meet up at VSF for COT.

    NMM

    Sounds like we are having more issues with our designated early morning tomato greeter.  This morning, it seems as though we were being too loud and not respecting the neighbors.  YHC highly doubts that, being as there were only the 3 riders left when she got out of the car.  Maybe we should take back ownership of the parking spot to give her something more legitimate to complain about?  Probably not the Christian thing to do, but it’s worth considering…

    Run was pretty uneventful it sounds like.  YHC was really feeling the strain though after Saab’s relentless beatdown From 45 MOM the morning before.  Luckily Fudd joined up for the last two miles and was literally holding in merlot from the night before, which took the focus off my pain.

    Announcements:

    -Plenty of chatter about Riverrock in May, which also has several events for biking (just sayin’).  Also, plenty of chatter about BRR.

    -There was also much ado about the March monthly challenge (100 miles run/200 miles bike) laid out by Lockjaw.  Also of note:  NO post for Lockjaw this morning.  Corporate has made note of absence, which may have been listed as unexcused after laying down above challenge.

     

    Well Done Gentlemen!

    Lab Rat

    “If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.”

    African Proverb (and Mrs. Lab Rat)

  • Dont like Virginia weather? Just wait a minute…

    65 and “misty” 24 hours ago gave way to winter, as the PAX was greeted with snow flurries and wind this morning.  14 RUNNERS plus two from another AO rolled out of the fartsack despite to get in a few miles in the gloom.

    THANG:

    Straight out on Grove.  4 milers, hang a left on Boulevard. 5 milers, left on Meadow.  6 milers leg it out to Harrison.  Everybody back on Monument to Commonwealth.  No victory laps required.

    NMM:

    YHC is always amazed at the ability of the PAX to creatively complain about the workouts.  This week was no exception.  The complaint du jour was that we ran counterclockwise, but the wind was blowing clockwise.  My bad…

    Stand out gold star of the 5 miler goes to Brain Tumor.  Honey Do and YHC tried to keep up, but he was legging it out.  Well done, brother!

    For the bicycling  portion of the workout, complete with pictures and more creativity, please visit the RAMM gears BB.

     

    That is all,

    AYE!

  • Trail Run with Snowflakes

    4 Pax showed up for this morning’s edition of the RVA trail run.  Still dark at 7:00, but we followed a couple non-Pax (including Toga’s BIL) out into the gloom, testing our concentration skills.  Although Offshore rolled an ankle, that wasnt until later, so we cant blame the darkness on that (hope it’s good, Offshore).

    We ran out North Bank, across to Belle Isle, and back on Buttermilk.  Snow flurries started as we picked up Buttermilk, and were really coming down as we finished.  Quite the morning to run, one of those mornings that YHC is happy that he has the ability to be out on the trails.  Final tally:  6.85 miles according to Garmin.

    Nothing to really report other than the snow.  Everybody was in good spirits and ran strong.  YHC believes he didnt say anything too blue or outlandish that would require noting.

    Finished up with a quick COT that could have gone a little faster, but we started the count with Saab, whose struggles with numbers continues.

    Great run, gentlemen.  Always fun!

    AYE

  • River’s Up

    Three men showed up for this morning’s scheduled trail run, but it is still too wet to be on the trails without damaging them.  Plan for this morning was to run across the bridge, slide down the hill to the river and catch the maintenance access road.  Take that to Bell Isle for a loop, then back the way we came.  Offshore called an audible on the way home, took us up the steps to Riverside Drive in an attempt to keep the shoes dry.  Riverside is a BEAST of a road…totally wiped out YHC.

    In the end, we logged about 6.7 miles on a very humid and warm morning.  Fudd can pick  ’em up and put ’em down, easily keeping up with Offshore (who YHC already knew could run).  YHC struggled a bit with the humidity, but made up for it with a beefy fall that took a chunk of skin out of his palm.  Got to have something to talk about, right?  And Offshore….well that man is READY for Disney Marathon!

    See Ya’ll in the Gloom,

    Lab Rat

  • Forest Hill Loop Show-and-Tell

    6 faithful, plus 2 future FNG’s showed up for a chilly but gorgeous morning run along the trails of the RVA this morning, here’s the down and dirty:  Leave from the Pump House parking lot across the Nickle Bridge to Buttermilk.  At Reedy Creek, take the service tunnel to Forest Hill Loop.  Around the loop back to Reedy Creek, then back the way we came (with a slight detour on “the spur”).  Ended up tallying up 7 miles and change on the GPS.  Toga was on a time crunch, so continued on down buttermilk to North Bank (taking potential FNG’s with him).  Bummer.

    Notes from this morning:

    -Toga teaches Sunday School (we prayed for the children.)  Also, Toga continues to bring a surprising number of new guys to workouts.  YHC believes he could sell ice to Eskimos.

    -Saab has a busted headlight, passenger side

    -Doner Kebab can pull off royal blue tights….who knew?

    -Lockjaw’s running program would leave most mortal men crippled. YHC doesnt know how he does it.

    -DO NOT bet against Oyster on a race across Nickle Bridge, that is a sucker bet.

    -The guy that did the whale imitation in “Down Periscope” was Harland Williams.

     

    Announcements:

    Saab has the Q Thursday.  He is perusing the Exicon to put together a doozy.

    Bleeder is the Q tomorrow at Punisher.  Bring a kettlebell if you got one.

    No RAMM Friday for Christmas.

     

    AYE!