Author: Lab Rat

  • Cliffhanger Hangs out @ Breaking Bread

    2 dads and 2 sons met up with pots, pans and other assorted cooking implements to feed some folks at Breaking Bread on a Sunday evening.  This is how it all got eaten:

    -Warmup:  lug all Lab Rat’s crap up the steps.  Let Cliffhanger know that he’s cooking.

    -THANG:  The Chicken Bog:  Saute some onions, garlic and sausage and warm up the broth.  Combine above with fresh pulled chicken and rice.  Cook for 20 minutes.  Load up bowls and serve with butter bread.

    Mary:  mint chocolate chip ice cream (plus some other kind, who cares?) plus chocolate chip cookies.

    NMS:  Young Cliffhanger got handed the reigns of tonight’s dinner right out of the gate by the Q, and there was no turning back.  He handled it like a pro though, kid’s got game.  Also, he’s just about as tall as daddy now too.  Toro did a great job of guarding the chair by the door.  To his credit, a room full of strangers is not his wheelhouse.  He complained minimally.

    Somehow, we ran out of food, with BARELY enough to feed the guests (everybody got some, a couple folks got seconds).  Rosie, Toro and Lab Rat took one for the team and skipped the meal.  No worries though, there was plenty of ice cream and cookies for us to calm the rumblings enough to get home and make an alternate supper.  Next time 3 chickens.

    As always, these are some down on their luck folks trying to get by and are super appreciative of a meal.  Thanks to Rosie and Cliffhanger for lending support and knocking dessert out of the park (did I mention the mint chocolate chip ice cream?!?).  Rosie, you should be proud of such a grounded young man you are raising.

    Announcement:

    -November 25th is the last Breaking Bread that needs a Q for the year.  Get some.

     

    Apology of the week goes out to Rosie for no dinner.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Is it still Politically Correct to Say “Hobo”? Also, is the Female Version “Hoba”?

    A mighty 17 braved the rain to make their day count.  Here is how we did it:

    Warm up COP

    The Bronson:  48 of the following exercises, followed by a 100 yard sprint, a 10 yard army crawl, and a recovery run back to the start:  SSH’s, merkins, burpees, LBC’s, and jump squats.

    Add One:  4 teams of 4.  Line up so that 2 teams face each other.  A pax number says an exercise and both teams do one.  Another pax number says another exercise, then all pax does both.  Keep adding an exercise until two pax on a team mess up.

    Amphitheater 11’s (animal addition):  10 monkey humpers at bottom, 1 crunchy frog at top.  Rinse/repeat adding one at top and subtracting 1 at bottom until reversed.

    3 minutes of Mary, Goldberg style.

    Ok, so it’s Lab Rat’s birthday….48 years young.  I also forgot to mention that this is close enough to my 3 year anniversary to call it a done deal as well.  Yay me!  Bronson on my birthday is always a crowd pleaser.  The logs made another appearance today (from Wdog), even if they were merely used as lawn ornaments.  Goose made the astute observation that the field cones he keeps in his car would serve the same purpose and be easier to place.  Touche’, Goose, touche’…. The pax seemed to be entertained enough by them to carry them all the way to the amphitheater without my knowledge though.

    While in the amphitheater, a horny barred owl came over to make some mating calls….which spooked several of the pax to the core.  If you havent heard this sound, it’s understandable.  It sounds like a woman screaming, only for much longer.  Google it.  Im not sure Wilson still believes me or not, but that’s what it was.

    Props to the New Market GoRuck team for their pre-game and all the guys that did the CSAUP today.

    No apology of the week on my birthday.  Come on, cant I have one day!!!! Geez people….

     

    Lab Rat apologizes….

     

     

  • Morning Wood

    A pax of thirteen strong braved the Seal Team parking job to attend Shakedown’s birthday celebration beat down.  Unfortunately for the birthday boy and the rest of the pax, he has a nasty cold, so Lab Rat stepped in.  The beat must go on, so here is some stuff we did:

    COP- SSH, IW, helicopters, DQ, WW2 situps, arm circles, hand release merkins

    Rusty Cage- partner up, 50 pullups as a couple.

    Proper Dora- 1 merkin, 2 situps, 3 squats.  Partner runs around amphitheater.

    Fun with wood- pick up a log and work out:  curls, overhead press, overhead squats, over head tricep press, calf raises 3 ways, lunges.

    NMS-  The Seal Team was gathering up the same time that we were leaving, and for some reason those jokers parked all over the street instead of pulling in to the parking lot.  What gives?  It really didnt effect us much until it was time to leave, but still.  Seal Team also took over the carillon field, causing an audible to be called from the Beast that was planned to an amphitheater switcharoo to everybody’s favorite, Proper Dora.  My in-laws were kind enough to provide some excellent coupons that (I think) most appreciated to finish out the morning with some different exercises.

    Three hip horays to EF Hutton for his three year anniversary this morning!  It’s good to have you around, brother.

    Apology of the week goes out to missing the opportunity to EH the dude in the four square truck that almost walked in to our group while looking for Seal Team this morning.  We could have saved that guy a hundred bucks a month.  Oh well…

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Variability

    Nine folks showed up yesterday to run all kinds of different routes.  One was a Fun New Gal, and didnt have the entire pax to really nail down a name, so she was Christened several names to match all the different routes run by the pax.  If she returns, we will pick one.  Saab joined a few of us at ET’s, which made me want to stay there all day….we almost accomplished that.

    A beautiful sunrise greeted us as we crossed Nickle Bridge.  These are the glory days.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Training Day for October Challenges

    4 trail runners were graced with a cameo from F3RVA royalty to make 5 strong on the first day fall actually had a fall like feel.  Spoiler alert:  Sippy Cup was there!!!

    Route:  North Bank to T. Potter bridge and home on Buttermilk with a little Lariat loop just for fun.

    NMS:  Great day.  I was actually surprised by the lack of pax this morning, given how comfortable it was.  Good to meet Foley, and catch up with Pert+ after his big weekend of races.  Surprise showing by Sippy Cup, who ran a couple miles with us before he had to break off.  Pert+ and Foley set the pace, dragging Shakedown and Lab Rat along for probably the quickest pace trail runs I have been on.  Including water stops and more than a couple flying EH attempts by Shakes, we stayed below 11 minute miles overall.

    Among many things discussed, Shakedown and I decided we are in for a mile a day challenge starting tomorrow, along with the super secret probation challenge on the F3 RVA Garmin site for the most steps in a month.  Good luck to all!

     

    Apology of the week goes to Sippy Cup for being called F3 Royalty.  Lab Rat knows you are actually a hard working blue collar F3 pax member, but poetic licenses were taken.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • “A Much Needed Run”

    The three regulars got together for some exertion therapy this morning.  The usual route was taken and some things got aired out.  At the end, one pax exclaimed the back blast title and the other two nodded in agreement.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Twenty’s company, but thirty is a crowd!

    The MOST pax ever witnessed by my eyes in the Mary Munford parking lot converged today for a Friday morning!  Included in the crowd were 1 FNG, a visitor from Asheville, and 1 fairly new guy who’s first day was yesterday.

    Nothing fancy today, just the solid Reverse Carillon route.  There was a bit of discussion over the four mile route, which Lug Nut was able to put to rest.

    Phonics and Saab dropped back and ran with the 5 mile pack this morning…Saab on the mend and Phonics bouncing Convergence ideas off of Lab Rat and Shakedown.  Fudd was busy chasing down Swirly…but I dont think that he ever caught him.  The 5 milers were pretty well spread out, but it looked like the 6 milers ran in a pack for the most part.

    Bikers did their biking thing, their ranks a little bigger today with the addition of TYA and Circle K.

    Great job to all that posted, and welcome to FNG Timeout!  He is another addition from the Woodfin family, and got named Timeout because he had a basketball jersey on, and the sports fans in the pax thought it was funny.  Good enough for me!

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Old Glory, Old Skool

    11 Awesome North Siders gathered around the mobile shovel flag for the Lab Rat version of Old Glory.  Research was done.  Notes were taken.  Game plans were drawn, scrapped, and redrawn.  Here is the final outcome:

    1 mile run….bro code style passing the flag around along the way.  Down the back past the football field and thru the gate, then cut up around the elementary school and plant the flag on the back side  of the track.

    For 20 minutes, run the track and stop at each of the 4 corners to perform the following:

    1. 20 merkins
    2. 20 jump squats
    3. 20 WW2 situps
    4. 10 pullups

    1 mile indian run back to start, with the leader performing a positive transfer of the flag…so that the flag is always in front.

    3 minutes of mary to wrap it up.

    NMS

    I thought I had an FNG lined up this morning, so this morning started by my sitting in front of this dude’s driveway staring at a completely lifeless house until 5:12.  I gave him 2 minutes past our appointed time to surprise me.  Obviously, he did not surprise me.  Shame.  No matter, I knew we would have at least a few guys to keep me company.  I had hard commits from Kit Kat and Spike yesterday when we ran together, and barring baby issues, Spit would be there.  Surprise showings by Helix (back from IR) and Rounders (work release?) were a bonus.  Flounder has been staking claim on being a regular DaVillian….have you made it to a Dogpile yet?  If not, we need to get you down there.  Chowdah, L.P., Opus, and Wheelie rounded out the pax to make it a Usual Suspects pax list this morning.

    I had pretty much set my sights on Old Glory Sunday afternoon after seeing Gumbo drag it out last week, thinking it had been a minute since we had done it at DaVille.  Talking with Rosie about the differences of No Toll and DaVille OG’s got me to thinking there should be a better metric if we are actually going to record these things.  Also, when talking with Kit Kat during our run yesterday, he seemed disappointed when I told him no pull ups on the Weinke.  Wheels grinding, I pulled some old school back blasts out from down south then put the pieces together for the DaVille AO.  Here is how it lays out in Lab Rat thinking:

    • To get to the back side of the track the long way is almost exactly a mile.  Original Old Glory starts out with first mile all you got….but that’s stupid and a good way to pull a hammy.
    • The track is exactly 1/4 mile.
    • pullup bars next to track in one corner.  BONUS:  Jerkin bars right next to it for those that choose to modify.
    • Could have done an all you got run back with the flag, but I wanted to keep the pax together.  Besides, a mile indian run is NO JOKE.  (as always, burpees optional)
    • Bonus thought on restrictor plating this:  Once you lap a pax member, you have to do an extra burpee per station.  Add a burpee for each additional pax member lapped.  This was NOT implemented this morning.

    So there you have it…..only time will tell if this version will stick.  By the way, for those of you following along and would like to see how things shaked out, Spike was well in front and I think he finished with an even 4 laps.  Lab Rat was middle of the pax’ish with 3 1/4 laps.

    Well done by all this morning!  I would love feedback on whether you liked this or not….and also what everybody thought of the 1 mile indian run to finish.  Spit was right behind Spike and he had 3.5 miles covered.

    Lab Rat took us out on thoughts regarding 9/11 and what it means to live free.

    Apology of the week goes out to any pax that wanted a mushy theme for 9/11.  Lab Rat is not too good at mushy or themes, so he leaves it to those that are.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • This Was NOT Mr. Holland’s anniversary workout

    Four men met in a parking lot with a butt load of buses and no Q.  Mumblechatter placed some missing pax members at WDog due to Mr. Holland ringing the 1 year bell this morning.  Hot potato workout….hot dog!

    Gumbo:

    -COP with the usual suspects.  This was followed by a Dora, run around the lower parking lot loop while partner performs 100 merkins, 200 squats, and 300 1-count Freddie Mercury’s.

    Lab Rat:

    -Parking lot tracers down to the back of the parking lot.  Extended plank routine.  Sideways parking lot tracers back up the hill.

    Bag Phone:

    -Bench work:  dips; incline merkins; step ups; muscle ups

    Swiper:

    -Partner up, one partner bear crawls the length of field while other partner runs to goal post and back then swap.  Continue until both partners reach the end of the field or one dies.  No one died.  4 minutes of Mary to wrap it up.

    Gumbo took us out.

    NMS:

    Lots of buses in the front lot, with the Gumbo-mobile sitting in there amongst them.  I pulled up next to chat for a minute and noticed a homeless man at the bus stop reading the signs.  Umm, excuse me, that’s just Swiper.  Bag Phone arrived at the witching hour and gave us even numbers.

    While performing flutter kicks during the COP, the little dipper was easily spotted high in the darkness of the Midlothian sky.  Bonus.

    While performing parking lot tracers, Swiper lost control of the throttle….he was all out on the backwards run and couldnt seem to dial in the speed.  Hilarity ensued.  First time I have ever had problems on a parking lot tracers!  And from a guy who can flat out run, too.

    Great to meet Bag Phone!  Hopefully we can meet again when you travel a little ways north.

    Submitting travel expenses to Corporate this morning for gas money and tolls…

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…

  • Old Stomping Grounds

    A pax of 3 eventually converged upon the fields of Holton to do some exercising where audience participation is always welcome.  Lab Rat was late due to a dead car battery, but made it just in time to pick up the Q from Chumbucket and give him the night off.

    Stuff:

    -COP included invisible jump ropes, side stradle hops, helicopters, Don Quixotes, merkins, LBC’s, and Hillbillies to test the commitment of audience members (they were commited).

    -Mosey to jungle gym for pullups and derkins.  3 sets of 7 and 10 reps, respectively.

    -Little 4 corners on the black top:  1) deep squats 2) APD’s 3) Carolina dry docks 4) WW2 situps

    -Big 4 corners around the block:  same as above

    -Human steeplechase:  Go over one way, go over back, then alternate over/under

    -The Abyss:  picnic bench abyss merkins X10.  Done correctly, 10 is all you need.

    -Mary and a little yoga.

    NMS:  I told Chum Saturday I was a maybe, but if I could make it I would gladly grab the Q.  I got the go-ahead from Mrs. Lab Rat to go LATE in the day, and was eagerly anticipating getting back out to Holton!  After wrapping up grilling duties and leaving the family with a quite awesome dinner (feeling proud, I must say), I jumped in the Ratmobile only to hear the dreaded clicking of a drained battery.  I was able to put the charger on it just enough to get the engine to turn over, but knew I was not going to make it by 1830.  Chum and Nightcrawler were all too kind though and didnt go far to start the COP…and Chum handed the Q off upon arrival.

    We were on the Boulevard side for COP, and after a couple rounds, we noticed that there were several women gathered in the front yard of a neighboring house following along!  Fun times were had with them, as cadence got louder so they could keep in step.  Lab Rat decided to really test their commitment with Hillbillys and they were right in step.  Alas, all good things come to an end and we waved farewell to our lady friends and headed back to where the real work got done.

    It needs not be said how awesome and committed Chumbucket is for keeping this workout going.  I really got to thinking about the many mornings that were spent around the grounds in the early days with the old guard before they moved on to Batteau and Hoedown.  Hell, my first Q was Punisher!  While lying on the grass in the back corner of the soccer field, I couldnt help but reflect back on the time Bleeder ran me over with his bike in that very spot.  Good times….

    Back to reality, it was great to meet up with Nightcrawler.  This is a dude I need to hang out with some!  Serious fisherman, and he likes to chase all kinds of fish, too….my kind of guy.  We talked of catching bowfin, carp, and the mighty chain pickerel among other non-glamour species.

    Apology of the week goes out to that little girl on the jungle gym that had to wait on us to get our pullups in before she could feel comfortable hanging on the monkey bars.

     

    Lab Rat apologizes…