Author: Fireman Ed

  • Hot Potato Ridge

    4 valiant gentleman descended on Heartbreak Ridge to find again that there is no Q. There seems to be a pattern here which needs to be broken soon.

    COP by Fireman Ed: Lap around the track, 10 Don Quixotes, 10 Arm circles, 15 2 count mountain climbers and 10 merkins

    First Exercise: Take 5 benches. do 5 dips, then up to 25 dips by the 5th bench

    Baton is passed to Ronnie: Mosey to front of school – do 5 merkins, crab walk to other side do 4 merkins, bear crawl to other side, and so forth down to 1 merkin.

    Go to tables, Do 5 box jumps to seating benches, 5 burpees. I may have forgotten something here.

    Mosey to side of school and do a pole relay. while one pax is doing pole leg lifts, the other three are holding 3 inches, We did that relay for most of the side of the school. Baton passed to Fireman.

    Doras with 100 donkey kicks, 200 jump squats and 300 2 count flutter kicks. Baton passed back to Squeaker.

    Mosey to chin up area. Pax 1 did 6 chin ups, Pax 2 did dips on the somewhat high bar, Pax 3 did ass to grass squats and PAX 4 did elbow to leg plank.

    Baton passed back to Fireman who led in mountain climbers, 2 rounds of merkin mary and 5 OYO burpees.

    Announcements: TYA is leading Turkey Day convergence at Mary at 6 a.m. (thanks for letting us sleep in:) and Friday at 7 at Forest Hill Park is the CSUP (CSOP).

    Even though it was a hot potato, thanks to God for giving us the health to get out there and better ourselves.

  • Proud to be an American

    We had 9 of able bodied souls at U of R west (Tuckahoe Elementary) going for a work out on Veteran’s Day. Even though I am not a veteran, I respect the sacrifices those individuals have made to allow us to keep the freedoms that most nations don’t have. Off to the workout:

    COP: 34 SSH (in honor of the Jets’ epic 34-27 win over the Giants), 10 DQs, 10 Arm circles, 10 Merkins. Mosey to Bodos’ 3rd parking lot across the way from his church.

    First Exercise: Four corners: 10 HRMs, 20 jump squats, 30 monkey humpers and 40 2 count flutter kicks. Follow this up with a burpee with bear crawl per parking space for one side of the lot (~15 burpees)

    Second Exercise: Doras with 100 bike rack merkins (BRMs), 200 box jumps, and 300 2 count flutter kicks (I like those flutter kicks).

    Third Exercise: Triple check with Donkey kicks, WWIIs, and run to the chin up bar and do 8 chin ups.

    Finish with 19 American hammers (not sure why I ended with 19), 34 Freddie Mercuries and 10 arm circles.

    Announcements: CSOP on 11/29 at Forest Hill Park. Working off the gluttony of turkey, mashed potatoes by doing some loops. See TYA for details. Gridiron this Saturday 11/16 will NOT be held at its normal location in order to support Blue Moon running the VCU Health Marathon that morning.

    Even though I was not on my A game (forgot an exercise, COP cadence a little off and a couple mispronunciations) I am happy to lead this group and I hope everyone takes a few minutes to think about all that our Veterans do for us. Thank you Gomer for your service.

  • Hazy Shade of Winter

    10 PAX including one FNG (Welcome Deliverance) took to the grounds of the county’s famous (maybe infamous) Short Pump Middle School for a cold beat down.

    It went a little something like this:

    COP: two loops around the football field with high knees, karaoke and Bernie Sanders mixed in. 25 side straddle hops, 10 Don Quixotes, 10 arm circles and 10 Russian soldiers

    First exercise: Go to the overhang by Short Pump Middle. At one pillar do 3 2 count flutter kicks and at the next pillar 3 heels to heaven. After getting to pillar 30ish, we reversed direction and did one burpee per pillar.

    Second exercise: “Yog” our way to the open pickleball court at the park. Do elevens with jump squats and side straddle hops

    Third exercise: Partner leg tosses 100 per “couple” in honor of the Spiders hard fought 100-98 victory over mighty St. Francis of PA. Sky is the limit y’all.

    Fourth exercise: Mosey to benches, Do 20 dips and add 5 derkins and drop 5 dips till you get to 20 derkins 0 dips.

    Mosey to parking lot after performing lunges and a bear crawl. Ended with 25 Freddie Mercuries, 25 2 count flutters, 20 American hammers and a merkin ring of fire.

    Closed in prayer in advance of Veteran’s Day. thanks to the military for their continued service. Welcome to Mack (Deliverance). He like Johnsonville comes from across the riva. He has a lot of legal counsel experience and is a less than stellar banjo player, hence the name Deliverance.

    Fireman Ed

    NOTE: In order to watch Blue Moon compete in his marathon, on 11/16 Gridiron will NOT be held at Short Pump Park. We the mature folks of Gridiron are looking at a location at Libbie Mill or somewhere near the race course. Be on the lookout for more details over the next few days.

  • 16 12 18

    9 glorious men headed out to the pre-rain festivities at W-dog. This workout is in honor of my 16th anniversary which happens to be the 12th birthday of one of my daughters (Olivia).

    The workout went like this:

    COP: 16 side straddle hops, 12 don quixotes, 16 Freddie Mercuries, 12 burpees OYO

    Mosey to the amphitheater.

    First Exercise: Start with 1 derkin and 2 dips on the first step, box jump to the next step, go to 2 derkins and 4 dips. After realizing that I underestimated the # of steps I called an audible after I was on step 14. That comes out to 105 derkins and 210 dips, not too shabby. I was reminded that there are and always have been 18 steps. Well now I know.

    Second Exercise: Mosey to the Pumphouse area and try to avoid potholes. Modified dolly: 120 2 count mountain climbers, 160 plank jacks, and 240 2 count flutter kicks. Other partner is doing Bernie Sanders up the road and running back.

    Third Exercise: Long mosey up the Pumphouse road to the big triangle. Commence a very long bear crawl up the road and end with 16 WWIIs.

    Mosey to the meeting point and do a merkin ring of fire. Most of the pax had special merkins, some of which worked well (e.g. Sippy alternating raised leg merkins) and some which did not (Bodos trying to flip in the air spin like on the Matrix but falling well short of a 360).

    We closed with announcements (Poker night on 10/21 at the Commonwealth club for a good cause – see Greenbow for details).

    Prayers are for Marv’s mom, praise for Helix’s daughter’s recovery and for my daughter undergoing an MRI test on her brain this Saturday.

    Make today a great one.

    Fireman Ed (fan of the one win Jets, Sam Darnold is the man)

  • As Cool As the Other Side of the Pillow

    On a beautiful mid 50s morning, 10 able bodied fitness champions showed up to Mary for a beatdown. It went like this:

    COP – 10 Don Quixotes (Saab style), 10 arm circles, 20 side straddle hops and 20 LBCs

    Exercise 1: Merkin run, run as a group – do 10 merkins when ordered. Did 60 merkins total. Two female joggers were able to witness the magnificence of some of our merkins but somehow kept their composure and went past us. Mosey to the field.

    Exercise 2A: Fireman’s carry across the field run back

    Exercise 2B: Wheelbarrow halfway down the field, bear crawl back

    Exercise 2C: Lunge halfway down the field, crawl bear back. Mosey to tennis courts

    Exercise 3: Modified Doras: 75 Burpees, 150 Carolina Dry Docks, 225 2 count flutter kicks. Mosey to chin up/monkey bars

    Exercise 4: While planked up, each PAX does 2 sets of 5 chin ups. While waiting the PAX planked, did merkins and tricep dips. The arms were feeling good by the end of this.

    Finished by doing more arm circles and Fireman closed in prayer.

    Announcements/Other:

    Prayers are with Helix and his family, Wojo and his family and for Viral to get better.

    This Saturday is the big campout in Amelia. See Vinny for details if you are interested. TYA is leading Dogpile this Saturday. Tater has his first Q at Gridiron this Saturday and Hitchhiker is doing his first Q at Mary on 9/26.

    The weather was fantastic making me think of the Stuart Scott saying, hence the above title.

  • Scrooge is Legal

    9 mostly young warriors headed out to the gloom of Huguenot High to get a good beatdown. And in honor of Scrooge’s special birthday, we embarked on a 21 themed workout. I was initially disappointed to not see Scrooge at the COP. But right after I made a comment about it, he showed up 30 seconds later:)

    COP – Run to bottom parking lot, 21 SSH, 21 Freddy Mercuries, 7 Don Quixotes, 7 Helicopters and 7 arm circles

    First Exercise: Four corners with 21 heels to heaven, 21 hand release merkins, 21 2 count mountain climbers and 21 WWIIs; mosey to next parking lot

    Second Exercise: Four corners again with burpees, one at the first corner, 3 at the second, 7 at the third and 21 at the last corner (32 burpees in total); mosey to amphitheater (with long pole giving me directions)

    Third Exercise: 21s in combination of tricep dips and box jumps. Start with 20 tricep dips and 1 box jump, decrease 3 dips by step, increase 3 box jumps by step. I noticed that I even at 6’1 had more trouble with the jumps than the more vertically challenged guys.

    Fourth Exercise: Triple check with wall sits, Carolina dry docks and runs around 2 different medians (Figure 8). The Figure 8 run took more time than I thought making the dry docks quite a challenge.

    Last Exercise: 2 sets of 21 PLTs each

    Closed in prayer.

    I enjoyed my first SOJ Q. I do feel older with this group but that is all good. I noticed that Fresh Prince is super fast and I am not. I was thinking about making Scrooge drink but while it may be 12 o’clock somewhere, 6:15 in the morning is pushing it.

    Prayers go out to Helix’s daughter, Wojo for his sister, and Orange Crush for his son. Hope they all recover completely.

  • The Big 80!

    28 warriors including one FNG hardened by humidity staked their claim on Byrd Park this morning.

    COP: 7 Don Qioxotes (a bit too fast for Saab), 6 Helicopters, 19 Freddie Mercuries and 39 Side Straddle Hops – this represents my dad’s birthday of 7/6/1939 – he is 80!

    First Exercise: Ran up Blanton Ave, mixing in a little karaoke, high knees and butt kickers. Had to move for a few cars that came by.

    Second Exercise: Lunge across the tennis courts

    Third Exercise: Modified Doras – 80 Burpees, 160 jump squats and 320 2 count flutter kicks; Mosey to fitness trail section nearest to police statue

    Fourth Exercise: Bear crawl from fitness trail halfway, 20 WWIIs bear crawl rest of way to statue , 20 more WWIIs. Crawl bear back to where we started same cadence of WWIIs. Mosey to the cage

    Fifth Exercise. Three stations: Station 1 – Alabama prom dates – 24, Station 2 – Pull up bars – 8 and Station 3 – Dips – 8. There was confusion around # and direction but after some trial and error the PAX got it. We got through three rounds of each station on average.

    Last Exercise: Share 80 PLTs (40 each). There was concern over dripping sweat on partners but I think everyone did OK with it.

    Announcements:

    F3 Mosey shirts on sale – see Lab Rat for details.

    Another upcoming happy hour/work out at Palani – details will come shortly

    5K race per Krytonite, I think it already happened by the time this publishes:(

    Labor Day convergence, any leaders want to set up/run? Kubota can pass along his wisdom if you are willing.

    Closed in prayer. Keep Helix’s daughter and family in your prayers.

    Enjoying leading a larger group today and it was good to see the burpees lessened the mumble chatter. Good to see Abba bring an FNG. Welcome Dancing Queen visiting all the way from Sweden.

    Speaking of my 80 year old dad, he still walks ~5 miles a day (he picks a 1/4 to 1/2 mile route and does it over and over again). I don’t think he can handle 80 burpees but I am still proud of his determination. He is a good example of persistence and humility that I hope to continue as I get older.

  • The Fab Five

    5 Fantastic athletes showed up wondering who would take the lead on this nice warm morning.  It went a little something like this:

    Handshake Q: 

    COP:  20 Side Straddle Hops, 10 Don Quixotes, 10 Merkins and 20 (?) Freddie Mercuries.   

    First Exercise: Indian Run around Quioccasin Middle School

    Second Exercises: Pole Running – each PAX grabbed a pole and alternated between flutter kicks and leg lifts while a PAX ran down and up the bus loop. Did that a few times and my abs are looking good right now.

    Passed to Fireman Ed for Q:

    Third Exercise: Run to benches in front of school. 2 sets of 20 Tricep dips with a set of 20 incline merkins

    Say goodbye to Handshake who had to leave at 5:55 p.m.:(

    Next Exercise: Partner up and share 100 PLTs

    Next Exercise: 3 sets of 8 jerkins on the bars by the track. Remembering Conspiracy’s advice, I requested that we go slow and hold at the top.

    Ran around track, did a bear crawl up the hill to the parking lot and closed with 30 American hammers, 20 mountain climbers and a bunch of LBCs.

    Closed in prayer.

    It was nice to have a small group including a visitor from DaVille or SOJ (Corned Beef). Handshake showed his devotion by working out around the track before Heartbreak to get his 45 minutes in before he left at 5:55 (not sure why he had to leave at that exact time).

    Announcements:

    Puppy Pile 7:05 6/29, Convergence – 7/4 at 7 (I think) at Tredegar, some social going on at Independence on Thursday per Corned Beef and retreat on 9/21 (sign ups for Cornhole tournament need to be done soon).

    Have a productive day!

  • D-Day at Mary

    On a nice humid low 70s morning, 14 beasts showed up for a good beatdown from the Fireman.  

    COP (Warm Up) – 6 Don Quixotes (Saab kept going – I think he did 9), 6 OYO burpees, 19 Freddie Mercuries and 44 Side straddle hops.  So the PAX are wondering why the odd #s.  The reason is that on 6/6/1944 the Allies landed on Normandy for what we call D-Day.  After an “appropriate” recovery period we headed down for our first exercise.

    First Exercise: In honor of the 75th anniversary of D-Day, we split up 75 burpees into 19 sets by doing a set of 4 burpees at each tree (1 extra since we are tough).

    Second Exercise: At the next corner we bear crawled and at the first tree did 1 WWII, bear crawled to the next tree, did 2 WWIIs and so on. We stopped at the next corner.

    Third Exercise: We did lunges from the road to half way across the tennis court. I was initially thinking of going all the way across the tennis court but after someone asked when we should stop I stopped halfway.

    Fourth Exercise: We did modified Doras with a partner and did 75 Hand release Merkins, 150 2 count mountain climbers and 300 2 count flutter kicks.

    5th Exercise: We gathered around the monkey bars and we had 2 rings of fire with 2 participants doing 5 chin ups while the others were in plank position, doing derkins or tricep dips. I thought this was going to go around once but the group was so fast we ended with 2 times around and Swirly and Goldberg going 3 times. I guess they love some chin ups.

    Last exercise was 35 American hammers.

    Announcements: Summer Tour still going on, sign up if you haven’t already. Early risers club (or last call for you youngens) is on 6/22 at Dog Pile/Byrd Park. See HoneyDo for details.

    Musings: It was fun Qing Mary for the first time. The group tends to partake in more mumble chatter than at Hoedown or Heartbreak. And yes I am not a “personalized” trainer.

    Welcome Pistorious (FNG). He did a great job keeping up with the burpees, bear crawls and hand release merkins. He works with prosthetics hence the name.

    Lastly, let’s take time to remember those who lost their lives on D-day. Do Great things men!

  • Near Derailment

    On a beautiful Monday morning, 12 mighty warriors met up for a beatdown and i believed they received it.

    Warm ups:

    10 Don Quixotes, 20 Side straddle hops, 10 forward and backwards Arm circles and 10 Merkins

    First Exercise:

    Doras with 100 Gaga jumps (jumps over the Gaga Ball pit boundaries), 200 Carolina Dry Docks and 300 2 count flutter kicks, Other partner is running to the other side of the black top and back.

    Mosey to Hillsdale road

    Second exercise:

    Fireman Carry up the hill around the cul-de-sac back down the hill

    This is where Roger Roger carrying Bodos nearly toppled. I credit Roger Roger with a good save but it was close.

    Bear crawl up the hill ~1/8 mile jog down the hill and plank

    Mosey to the field behind TES

    Third Exercise:

    Triple check with Donkey kicks, Tricep dips and run to the chin up bar and do 5 Burp ups (burpies to a chin up).

    Last exercise:

    Run to the horsehoe and share in 65 PLTs. 65 to 1 were the odds of Country House winning (or winning by default) the Kentucky Derby. Was that a foul or not? I have no idea. Finish with 15 merkins.

    Announcements: Bodos first Q is this Wednesday at Dog Pile.

    We have Field Day this Saturday. For those at Tuckahoe Nano Region, represent with the collared shirt and old khaki shorts, I’d say even a visor.

    I had fun Q’ing again although I was unable to complete the triple check due to being slightly out of shape. I also had a few comments on my sleeveless shirt. I think my look resembled the latest photo of Christian McCaffrey (look up Christian McCaffrey jacked). Have a productive week and god bless!