Author: Faceplant

  • Evil Elf Christmas DJ

    YHC said that this was not going to be an annual workout last year, but YHC cannot be trusted. YHC saw an opening Q spot for Wdog and swiped it up. YHC used to not like Christmas music and despised it, and would only listen to it on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but that has changed in YHC’s old age. Now YHC LOVES Christmas music, listens to it all the time from post Thanksgiving on up to the day after Christmas. YHC spent the week listening to all up-tempo Christmas music to improve upon last years Christmas playlist.

    YHC was happy to see a return of Exit Row to Wdog, welcome back pal good to have you out in the gloom!

    First song, to kick things off during some light stretching was Linus and Lucy from the Vince Guaraldi Trio, also known as the Peanuts theme song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbPy7hxvj9Q. We started off with some light stretching, dead mans hang, reach up to the sky, legs spread apart touch right foot move over to left foot.

    The PAX was good and stretched out at that point and we moseyed on over to the amphitheater with music in-tow. The first stop and exercise on the Christmas themed tour was 50 box jumps on the amphitheater steps.

    Next we moseyed on over to the shorter version of the rusty cage and did 50 jerkins. Then moseyed on over to pick up some holiday themed coupons and did 50 overhead presses. Left the coupons in the circle then on back to the rusty cage and did 50 knee raises. From there we did 50 lunges then jogged the rest of the way back to our coupons. Picking the coupons back up we did 50 squats to overhead presses with the coupons – always making sure the coupons touched the ground.

    The Christmas music was cheering our hearts and warming our blood and we continued on with the workout. We put away our coupons and moseyed back to the amphitheater. Somewhere in there YHC’s bluetooth speaker breathed it’s last breath, and it died. Phone stepped in and at a much quieter level the music kept playing. YHC will be asking the M for a new bluetooth speaker for stocking stuffer. That Jambox was 10 years old… Keeping with the theme of 50, we did 50 supermans, 50 WW2s, 50 flutter kicks, 50 side straddle hops, and the cheery on top was 50 burpees. Well not quite 50 burpees, for every artist that the PAX guessed correctly for the Christmas songs one burpee was removed, so it came to a grand total of 44 burpees. With just enough time to spare we mosyed on back to the flag and wrapped things up with some stretching, and YHC’s favorite the ‘have a nice day stretch’.

    YHC took everyone out sharing a story from a family tradition in YHC’s family of the oldest grandchild having to lead the family in grace for Christmas Eve dinner. YHC is the oldest grandchild so YHC has the distinct honor to say grace every Christmas Eve. On the first Christmas Eve that YHC was old enough to lead the charge, YHC didn’t actually know what to say, BUT YHC did know one prayer and that is the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer.

    The Prayer is more of a prayer for battle and less so a blessing to kick off Christmas Eve dinner, so much to YHC’s family’s surprise when the following words came out of YHC’s mouth – it left the table with jaws open in confusion but everyone was ready to go to war.

    Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.” …and now let’s eat Christmas Eve Dinner!

    If you want to listen to the playlist… here it is!

    https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/73d5e836853746108e45d4f24c7a2078sune?ref=dm_sh_HSrR33Ajg27z0psJmExYyuk0N

  • Icey Sleety Potato

    Four plus one late-comer from afar descended upon a sunny and 70 degree morning at WDog. Typical WDog conversation about when the Carillon would re-open and who has seen the fence up the longest was a consistent theme of chatter. YHC saw it was 5:30 and no Q so Hot Potato was called.

    YHC started it out with a quick stretch, because well stretching is always important.

    • reach for the sky
    • deadmans hang
    • right leg over left leg and touch toes and then flap jack
    • some arm stretches

    Then we were off for a nice mosey to the first circle near the amphitheater. Since there were just four at the time, each team of two put their hands on the curb around the circle and at each break point in the curb did one merkin, each team of two proceeded in opposite directions around the circle side-ways bear walking, until the teams met up on the other side of the circle. Neutral made an appearance somewhere in the circle exercise and he was welcomed into the PAX.

    Then on down to the amphitheater, each step up descending squats, 1 on up to 18. At the top wait for the 6 then YHC handed the potato off to Corned Beef. Sidebar discussion here, as we got to the top of the amphitheater we thought it was starting to rain but it was too hard for rain and a nice big sleet storm rolled through dropping a bunch of ice balls on us. It quickly passed and Corned Beef had us mosey on over to the poles for some pole smokers. 5 leg lifts each with each person holding 6 inches, Neutral held 10 inches.

    After that mosey on over to the blocks, everyone gets a block, and each person runs to 6 trees sans block while rest of the PAX does exercise of runners choice. 5 rounds of this, then returned blocks and potato went to Bleeder. Sidenote, YHC did not listen and only ran to one tree, but PAX believed that YHC was just so fast that no one questioned, YHC will make up for it later.

    Bleeder lead all over to the triangle hill. 3 rounds,

    1st round – bear crawl flat, run down hill, 10 burpees at bottom, and Bernie Sanders up hill.

    2nd round – lunge flat, run down hill, 20 WW2s, and Bernie Sanders up hill.

    3rd round – backwards lunge flat, run down hill, 30 somethings, and Bernie Sanders up hill.

    Mosey on back to the flag for names, numbers, and announcements

    YHC took everyone out, remember to be kind to people was the message of the day.

  • Shooting Stars and Tacky Lights

    YHC did not sign up to Q, but YHC made a suggestion on a possible route and that turned into the Q… Someone said flat, someone said it’s December, and YHC did a quick math equation and spit out the answer. The answer was run down Monument because it is flat and look at the Christmas lights because it’s December. YHC believes it was Wedding Singer that said the route looks like the big dipper with everyone coming back down Grove after heading out down Monument. Pun intended, because the stars aligned and as YHC and Handshake were heading down one part of the dipper YHC glanced up and saw YHC’s first EVER shooting star. Never in YHC’s 37 years on God’s great earth had YHC seen a shooting star, it was impressive.

    Mileage ranged from a few miles this morning on up to 10 miles. You will have to guess who did 10 and who did the few miles.

    It was good time to catch up with Handshake on the run, and then at the end for the final stretch pretty much the entire PAX reconvened for the last bit or running, even Saab! YHC did a victory lap with Saab and proceeded to bring up all the episodes that YHC had listened to of the dormant F3RVA podcast which Saab was a host of.

    It was a good morning, and was nice to be back running with everyone.

    Names, Numbers, and Announcements. With such excitement YHC even counted twice.

    Handshake took us out, prayers for Evan and those who know him and for the upcoming PAX with 2.0s. Other 2.0 news, YHC’s twin brother Rip Cord who has been a bit absent relayed a message to YHC that his M is due with twins next week. So please keep Rip Cord in your prayers he’s going to need it!

  • Lessons in counting side straddle hops

    A lucky 13 showed this morning for the kick off to Thanksgiving week. For those of you keeping record, this was the first Q for YHC at Hoedown, YHC’s newest Monday home. To keep the PAX on their toes, YHC had some games in store. Thankfully the rain held of for this mornings festivities. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits at the get go.

    To get things warmed up, stretching ensued. YHC is a firm believer in actually stretching now at the start. Deadman hang, right leg over left, Michael Phelps, elbow over head.

    For those keeping count, we then did the first round of 21s. Everyone lost and 10 burpees ensued.

    Then first game, called Tag. One person is it, stay in a tight group and mosey, the it person drops and does 3 merkins then sprints up to the group and tags someone new. They drop and do 3 merkins, and repeato. Catch is you cannot tag the person that tagged you last.

    Mosey on down to the bottom of the hill. There partner up and do 20 bo-ya merkins. First partner then runs to the top of the hill and does 3 burpees and runs back down the hill. Second partner starts to head up hill doing bear crawl alternating with lunges each round. At the top both partners then do 20 more bo-ya merkins

    Tag back on up to the parking lot for another round of 21s. Everyone lost again, more burpees.

    In top lot, did an apple turnover with two layers in honor of thanksgiving week. Each white line in parking lot bear crawl alternating with crab walk, all the way to the top of the lot and back. Second layer, alternating each line, 3 merkins and 3 WW2s.

    Mosey on to the top black top for another round of 21s. All lost again. More burpees.

    Partner up for another game, this one is called rock, paper, scissors. Partner up, stand on opposite side of lot with your partner, run to the middle and do rock paper scissors. Loser does 5 burpees, winner holds plank. 10 rounds total – keep score. Lots of cheers and shouts and groans of bad luck during this game. It’s a favorite of YHC’s because it gets the competitive edge out in even the calmest of PAX members.

    Next YHC believes there was another round of 21s, or maybe not.

    Mosey on back to the circle for a quick triple check. First partner does wall sit, second partner does flutter kicks, and third partner runs the circle. Hitchhiker did a great job pushing YHC to sprint hard. Then back to the flag for the COT.

    Names, Numbers, and announcements

    Don’t forget YHC’s Thanksgiving morning extravaganza at Mary, then Black Friday to Forest Hill Park for loops – FUN TIME, YHC highly recommends both events, two thumbs up.

    YHC took it out with prayer.

  • Tour de Park

    A recent record breaking number for the AO this morning. The PAX welcomed Swirly back to the WDog fold, all were in great spirits on his return. Doozy sent word that we would have an out of town visitor from St. Louis in our midst. We welcomed Bad News to WDog, and YHC wanted to make sure that Bad News would be able to bring back Good News to St. Louis that WDog has lots of great places to work out. YHC proceeded to try and tour all the highlights of WDog.

    It went down like this.

    Stretching was the first thing:

    • dead mans hang
    • dead mans hang but left leg over right and then flap jack
    • stretch arms
    • Michael Phelps
    • Fuddskie
    • Wilsons
    • and a few other odds and ends

    Mosey to the toll plaza, cross the nickel bridge, doing 3 merkins at each light pole, when we got to the other side, head back and do 10 LBCs at each light pole. Doozy performed some road crew clean up duties removing a Michael and Sons’ flattened HVAC installation material. Thanks Doozy. We did one extra round of LBCs stopping at the American Flag pole that looked like a light pole.

    Then mosey from there through the valley to the coupon pick-up. On the way over we played ‘tag’. The way it works, the PAX has to stay within arms reach of eachother all running together. One person is ‘it’ and they have to drop and do 3 merkins an the PAX keeps running. The ‘it’ person then has to tag someone and they drop and do the merkins. The catch is you cannot re-tag someone who just tagged you in revenge. It ends up looking like an amorphous blob style native American run.

    At the coupons, everyone partnered up. We had an even 6 which was welcomed by Bodos deciding to sleep in this morning. With our new found bright light, one person runs with coupon to the fence and back, while the other does 5x rounds of: overhead presses, kettle bell swings, arm curls, squats, and plank on coupon. When that finished up, we took the coupons back into hiding.

    Mosey over to the amphitheater which was equally well lit and well mowed, only the best for our visitor. Up the amphitheater, 5 dips at each step. At the top mosey on back to the flag for some cool-down stretching, and the introduction of an exercise from the exicon – the angle grinder. It’s fun, you all should try it. Then and finally then we wrapped up with a have a nice day stretch.

    Names and Numbers

    Announcements: TYA’s Thanksgiving day extravaganza at Mary, followed by black Friday at forest hill park for loops – its a good one, definitely not to miss.

    Doozy took us out with some very kind words.

  • Candy Coma

    Six warriors with bellies full of candy from the night before descended upon the empty parking lot to kick off the week. It was a hot potato kind of morning and Bodos kicked it off right. We did some stretching and moseying.

    Then the Thang, Bodos did that and YHC cannot remember it all.

    After that Bodos handed it off the potato to Garbage Plate. Garbage plate worked the PAX out hard, and then handed the potato off to Neutral for what may be have been his VQ potato. Neutral moseyed us on over to the blacktop and we did a 4 corners. We went back to the flag and circled up some quick merkins, then we hit the clock.

    Bodos took us out with some thoughtful words.

  • Freed to Pass Out

    All eight of the PAX were able to find their appropriate new parking spots, and met at the new hang out spot for 45 Minutes of Mary! Rumor was one of our own indicated he would lead this morning but he may have given too much blood and bowed out. The potato was ready and waiting and Swirly picked it up to start it off.

    In the light of the 100,000 lumen light fixture the Swirly led us in some stretches. Next the THANG started, everyone found a pole along the perimeter of the parking lot and there was a Native American style pole smoker, with 5x leg lifts and the rest of the pax holding feet up.

    Potato was getting hot so Swirly tossed it to Oyster. Mosey on to the black top, split up into two groups of four, for a triple check. One station is the peoples chair, next YHC forgets, and then run to the fence and back. Oyster then led us over to what I believe is a dirty 4-corners. first corner 10 merkins, next, 20 jump squats, third is 30 WW2s, and YHC forgets the last one. That took a while but it also was a good workout.

    Oyster tossed the potato willingly/unwillingly to YHC. Sticking to the tennis courts, ascending suicides, run to first line, one merkin, run back to start, then run to first line one merkin, run to second line, 2 merkins, then run back, rinse and repeat until all 8 lines are hit, 4 courts two lines each. Then back to the flag for some modified mary, and rounded it all out with a have a nice day stretch.

    Prayers for a swift recovery for Handshake

    Seymour took us out.

  • Running from Work

    Running from Work

    Four working stiffs left the office early on Thursday to partake in some corporate team building, some 5K running, and beer drinking. YHC and PAX all signed up for the Anthem Corporate Run held in the rolling hills of Innsbrook office park.

    YHC’s company team took top honors in their Coed team race brackets for the Engineers and Architects category. BUT if you slice and dice up enough categories, divisions, and sub divisions then every team seems to get a ribbon these days. YHC would like to point out that the CapTech team lead by Splinter beat everyone else with their fancy display showing real-time race results that Splinter personally wrote the code for in C++

    Honeydo and Doublemint also had strong showings, nice job gents!

    YHC out!

  • Three’s a crowd

    Three WDog regulars including one new regular descended upon the greatest park the City of Richmond has to offer. YHC is nursing a shoulder injury, so legs and abs were all that was on the menu for today. Since YHC realized only after the fact that YHC signed up to Q the week after BRR a lot of stretching was in order to kick things off.

    Circle or Triangle up at the flag and stretching ensued. YHC led the PAX in some stretching to both ease into the work out and get all those BRR muscles acclimated again to working out. After stretching YHC lead some side straddle hops and imperial walkers to get the blood flowing.

    Mosey over to the posts along the road, each PAX took a post and did 5x leg raises for a native American style run/series along the posts. Each person does 5 leg raises while the others hold 6 inches.

    Then Mosey on over to the amphitheater but a stop at the top for a quick introduction to a new exercise. YHC attempted to do a waterfall leg raise but need more than a traingle for it to work correctly. So maybe next time.\ YHC has been perusing the Exicon and a new one has appeared, it’s called the Butkus and it’s simple. Find a curb and do fast step-ups for 1 minute straight on the curb, then 30 second rest, then repeat for as many rounds as YHC desires. YHC recalls we got through two rounds perhaps. Then on down into the there we did 5 WW2’s at each level up and then head back down for 10 spice rum squats down. So spice rum squats are inspired by the one and only captain Morgan, so think captain Morgan stance with one leg up on the high area of a step and one leg down, then do a squat. 10 spice rum squats for each level and down to the bottom.

    Then YHC and company headed down to the bottom of the hill for a DORA, but there were three of us so two people ran at the same time, one person was always the first runner and one person was always the second runner. after you run two hills then swap out with the person doing the DORA count. 100 WW2’s and then 200 WoJo Squats where you slap the ground with your hands ‘like a crazy Duke basketball player’ as per the Exicon. The PAX only got partially into the WoJo squats when it was time to mosey back to the flag.

    At the flag there was time for some more stretching then time was up.

    Names, Numbers and Announcements. YHC took us out.

  • No Running Games Today

    YHC welcomed 20 harriers to Spider Run today to share in some pre BRR tapering. Unlike past YHC run routes, there were no games to be played, no dice to roll, and no chalk markings. Everyone was sad. But do not worry, the games will be back soon.

    YHC has a propensity for not remembering directions, so YHC had to keep it super simple this morning. The route went like this for 1 milers, 2 milers, 3 milers, 4 milers, 5 milers, and 6 milers, and everything in between.

    Head out the bat cave, run past the future site of the drive through Starbucks, cross the James river on the bridge, head east down Riverside Drive until you hit 22 minutes, turn around and do 23 minutes back. That’s it.

    Everyone made it back safe and sound.

    Numbers, names, and announcements.

    YHC took us out.

    Two and a wake up to BRR!