Author: Heist

  • dumar was here

    no big herm. Nancy MIA.

    Doors and Track.

  • Red Flag day

    Circa 2001, ole Heist and Handshake were wrestling buddies at JRHS *a blue ribbon school of excellence.* Back then, coach would have a “red flag day” which was basically a slaughter start, followed by all out intensity. Today was a red flag day at the Alamo.

    Fourteen dudes joined me on this brisk morning. Began with a curve ball mosey, to parking lot and guys started to circle up for typical warm-up…not so fast. Straight to the hill behind the pool.

    Part 1 – Hill 11s (Squat and Merkins). Start with 1 squat and 10 Merkins. No time to catch breath…off to bottom of the Alamo’s love hill at very bottom of EndStone Trail.

    Part 2 – All the way to the bottom guys….groups of two for typical love hill with a twist (bear craw, lunges, broad jump burpees). Twist —> Runner has to do a burpee for every mailbox when running to relieve partner.

    Part 3: Mosey to Rudy’s playground. Triple check — stepups, chin-ups , runner to HOA violation snowman and back.

    Part 4: A few rounds of wall sits (1 minute), followed by a few sets of donkey kicks.

    BTTF for about a minute of stretching.

    Welcome to Hermey’s son Liam aka “Mr Miyagi”

    What’s coming up:
    1) Two-year Q for Crabgrass at Alamo next week.
    2) Grow-ruck for the guys NOS in September. Way to go!
    3) Alamo year-3 anniversary coming up March 30th. Can we squeeze out and FNG or three?

    Prayers:

    1. Guys on IR (Cookie)
    2. Prayers for our healthy children (and that they stay healthy) and that we remember each day how blessed we are to have our children bouncing around (even early in the morning).
    3. Prayers for Wildcat. He has some very important cancer scans next week (11th I believe), which dictate the course of his treatment. No matter what – God is good.

    Way to go guys for pushing it a bit with me this morning. Good stuff.

  • Backblast posted earlier than Nancy Lopez

    When you hit 1000 posts you can post a backblast at your leisure 😛. JK. Love ya Nancy.

    Back to this morning —> started with a big loop indian run with caboose doing one burpee and running to front. Circle up in culdesac near dog walk path for stretching and warmups.

    COP 1: All leg triple check. Squats, Lunges, runner to top of of hill (near Wilson’s) and does five fire crackers.

    COP 2: Mosey to rock pile. Grab a coupon. Circle up. Pax selects exercise and then runs to green electrical box and back. Standard stuff like curls, squats, overhead press, chest press, etc.

    COP 3: One more triple check near playground. Stepups and Pullups. Runner to the bars for jerkins and back.

    Announcement: Frozen Triangle in two weeks.

    Stay safe this weekend.

    Heist out.

  • Snuck in 2 miles at lounge

    I role in at 5:25, to see some suspicious men scrambling with a coffee maker and a table. Apparently, we have some trick outlets at Bettie Weaver elementary. Guys began to circle around, 5:30 am, we set off at a gentlemanly pace towards the Blue Ribbon school of Excellence James River...

    For the record, James River received this honor first:

    🏆 Chesterfield County High Schools That Are National Blue Ribbon Schools

    Midlothian High School – 2019 (National Blue Ribbon School)

    James River High School – 1999–2000 (School of Excellence designation)

    Cosby High School – 2015 (National Blue Ribbon School)

    I digress, circle up at the front of the school for various dynamic stretches and made an attempt to avoid a cadence count.

    COP 1 – Touch a tree by the band practice area (near the steel observatory tower). Pax instructed to select a leg exercise below ten reps, run across parking lot and touch tree. Repeato. We did lunges, squats, sumo squats, calf raises, 1 burpee, and some monkey humper.

    COP 2 – Switch to upper body. Gentle mosey to the pull-up/jerkin bars behind the school. Pax did 6 rounds of jerkins/pullups (5 reps each), combined with a short bear crawl uphill towards the loading area (5 pushups at top).

    COP 3 – To the track. Team jog on straights. Core exercises at each curve, followed by skipping the curves. Fan favorite was certainly the glute bridge (APD finishing move).

    Back to flag for a few stretches.

    THANK YOU to Last Call for the coffee. Good convo with the dudes after.

    Announcments:

    1. Frozen Triangle is 2/7/26 – 6 am launch. Get there at 5:30 for some extra miles with Draper (his birthday).
    2. Head to bridge with Pigskin on 1/24/26 – all F’s involved.

    Prayers:

    1. Prayers for OC’s coworker. The poor dude is in the ICU with the flu
    2. Prayers for all the kids (and big kids) going back to school.

    Lounge is always a good time, give it some love sometime!

    Been a minute since I had the Q (No Wood in The Woodshed!!! – F3RVA Archives | F3RVA) anywhere. Great to lead today!

  • Hot Tater at the ‘Shed. Got some budding leaders coming up.

    Hot Tater. El Heisto warmed em up.

    Threw Q to Murr. We grabbed coupons. Did a few rounds of exercises under cover of clubhouse area (curls, squats, etc). Futon suggested “bus drivers” an exercise with coupons, which was tough. Run to playground a few times.

    Q tossed to Kenny G, channeling his inner Flyboy with exercises based on 100 less your age. LBCs, run to playground for stepups, run back pavilion for Flutters.

    Kenny G then took the coupons to the parking lot for several rounds of coupon farmer carry while partner does exercises (burpees, squats, merkins). Switch.

    Futon finished things off by lining coupons up for the “coupon plank of doom”. Bear crawls, crab walks, alternating hand walks along coupons. Running down to coupon storage each time.

    Andy Dufresne in the rain.

    announcements:

    1. 11 year Saturday
    2. CSAUPO LiTO next Friday

    Big Herm took us out in prayer.

  • No week 1 fartsack for this crew.

    Warm-Up

    530 on the dot. Looked around with pride at a group of 16 HIMs who fought the urge to fartsack and week 1 football temptations.

    Quick mosey. Circle up for the “social media algorithm” routine (worth a try):

    • Hop in place
    • Body waves
    • Arm swings
    • Trunk twists (golf swings)
    • Dead-arm swings
    • March in place

    Stretch what you need for 30 seconds.

    The Thang

    • Mailbox Burpees – Line up along Graythorne. One burpee for each mailbox on the right. Plank-o for the six. (Plenty of mailboxes!)
    • DORA at Alvecote Terrace (modern home cul-de-sac) – All ab work:
      • 100 LBCs
      • 200 American Hammers
      • 300 Heels to Heaven
        Long run (~100 yards). Mosey/walk to Woolridge.
    • Triple Check at Rudy’s Playground – Pull-ups / Squats / Short run.

    Mosey back to the flag.

    Announcements

    • 3PM Saturday – Casa del L Woods. You bring sides, he brings the meat.
    • Shoes/running gear needed for our brothers in Kenya. See Nancy Lopez.
    • Golf tournament hosted by Futon/Fudd/Warby to raise money for mental health. See them if you’d like to donate.
    • C SoP – 9/26, Alamo, 8PM–Midnight. Beverages afterwards. See Crabgrass.

    Prayer Requests

    Prayers for mental health and patience as we serve as husbands, t-ball coaches, dads, leaders, etc.

    Honor to lead.

    Heist out.

  • Not too much Lounge

    Warmarama:

    • Mosey down to James River High School
    • Various stretching
    • Side Straddle Hops
    • Fan favorite: Long and deep Alabama Prom Dates
    • Solid mumber chatter on the Lethal Weapon series including Lastcall’s teenage crush portrayed by actress Patsy Kensit in Lethal Weapon 2

    The Thang:

    1. Triple Check

    • Dips on benches
    • Squats
    • Runner to the farthest light in the parking lot

    2. Dora at the Pull-up Bars

    • 50 Pull-ups
    • 100 Side Straddle Hops
    • 150 Squats

    3. Hill Work (small hill near Betty Weaver Elementary)

    • Bernie walk up hill → 5 squats at the top
    • Walk down → 5 Side Straddle Hops at the bottom
    • Repeat x5

    4. Mosey back to the flag

    • Light stretching to close

    Announcements:

    • Homegrown Half – Saturday, 8/16

    Prayer Requests:

    • All students returning to school—from kindergartners to college students
    • Those battling cancer or illness
    • Men with nagging health issues—encourage them to get checked out

  • ”Is this a KB AO?”

    Iron was sharpened at the Forge this am with 8 HIMs.

    Two glorious American flags flapped in the breeze. Let’s go!

    Warmup – jog 2.5 minutes down hill….a little longer back up the hill. Back to flag area for a little stretch, merkin, scorpion kicks (apparently a westho thing), rosalita, dying cockroach, some zesty *APDs*, etc.

    Thang 1: Mosey down to jerkin station at base of hill for a triple, no wait quad check! Two groups of four. Ejercicios were KB swings, KB chest press (it was push press, right NTB?), Jerkins, and runner up the hill to “the stop sign.” A few different interpretations on what stop sign it was, but essentially 2/3 of the way up the hill. A few observations:

    1. Quad checks take a long time
    2. If you add a hill, it takes longer
    3. My forearms are sore from carrying cindys at Teddy KGBs VQ.

    Finished quad check with about 10 minutes left and the sweat is pouring. BTTF

    Back at the flag, I threw together several rounds KB exercises:

    1. KB fire bucket. Line up on butts, pass the KBs carefully back and forth a few times.
    2. DTH inspired circle of doom. “Why dont we circle up so the KB handoff never ends?” So we did that for a bit and did KB push press (5x pass along), KB rows each arm (5x pass along), KB squats, etc

    Really enjoyed that last circle rotation. Recommend it to all the Circus Maximus and Old Hundred guys. The different weights and sizes of the KBs adds another level to the exercise.

    Numbers/Names

    Announcements:

    1. Bridge Saturday.
    2. Rock and Roll Kids workout on Sunday 7/27.
    3. *Update* 7/22 – SoS vs NoS Ultimate Tournament at No Toll. Be ready to roll at 530 am sharp.
    4. NTB really wants some of the SOS guys to join him at GTE in NC this October. I nominate Wildcat and le Duke. Even Focker would probably do it.

    Prayers:

    1. God is good. Wildcat’s scans look good again. Continued prayers for our HIM.
    2. Prayers for community healing down in Florida, where accusations of child abuse at a church have come out.

    El Heisto will be gone for two weeks (work and then vacaY). I plan to post in Indy next week. Keep up the good work.

  • Let’s rock! 2/2 FNGs!

    16 dudes (including two FNGs) got in done this morning at Rock and Roll.

    Plant the flag….started a little before 7:00 a.m. because I was ready to go!

    Jogged to the basketball court for F3 mission statement, five principles and disclaimers. Knocked out various warmup exercises (starting with SSH of course).

    COP 1: On basketball court, we did 11s: Squats (1x) and LBCs (10x). Finished up and had mudslide do a twenty count.

    COP 2: Mosey to playground area, split into groups of three for triple check. Runner to snack bar, exercises on the benches and tables were decline merkins and dips.

    COP 3: Walk to parking lot to SLOW things down a bit for some Mary. Highlights: 2x APDs, and a round of pickle pounders.

    COP 4: Mosey to the snack bar area. Partner up for DORA. Runner goes down stairs and back up. Exercises were 100 Donkey Kicks, 200 Hoe downs (which took forever), and 300 SSH.

    COP 5: About 10 minutes left…mosey to pull-up bar area, split into groups of four, each group doing 100 total reps of pull-ups.

    BTTF

    FNGs:

    Jordan: From Cali, likes wine, works at AWS. Of course given the name “Thunderbird” which is a cheap wine alternative apparently.

    Matthew: From NH, former cop, does investigative work now, so he his now “Bluey.”

    Announcements:
    1) DTH kid friendly workout tomorrow at Forge (7 am)

    2) Mudslide will throw together a July 4th workout

    3) Home grown half either the weekend of 8/9 or 8/16

    Prayers:

    1) Recovery for Big Rig’s mama (had surgery)

    2) Prayers for family members of Rosie dealing with cancer.

    Enjoyed the Latino market post workout with Rosie, Bluey, Thunderbird, and Mudslide.

    Good work dudes!

  • Exploring Dogpile/Woodsman first time/Senor Frog is in love!

    I joined 10 of F3 RVA’s finest HIMs today on a journey around Dog Pile’s little known treasures….buckle up let’s go.

    6 a.m. on the dot, we took off towards the nickel bridge, where UpChuck jokingly warned me the bridge was closed (I guess he didn’t want to do a burpee lightpole session). With that nugget in mind, I knew where would head first after our warmorama…

    Warmup: Circle up (Rosie made me in the middle of the circle)…began to give the F3 mission statement amongst chit chat…Hitch joins the crew (a little late). Warmup exercises included SSH, stretches (possibly Heist’s wife stretch? Wasn’t glorious enough for my M, so not this time!), copper head squats, APDs, Rosco’s mom, LBCs, merkins, Wilson and Fudd’s wife.

    Part 1 – Yes – the Bridge! But first – an amazing fart from Senor Frog (apparently held in for a week). Run down the nickel bridge and back, alternating between squats and burpees at each light pole. May or may not have waited for the six at the turn around, but instructions were “down and back.” Picked up the six with Mr. Roger and Rosie. Pretty sure Mr. Roger and I got a little out of sync with our burpee/squats despite the easy pattern (Rosie can attest).

    Senor Frog was so warn out from all his honeymoon luvin’ he began to lay on the ground. 20 count was the best medicine for that (thanks Hitch).

    Part 2 – I decided to slow things down a bit, so did a few rounds of stepups and dips by the Pump House Parking Lot. Said hello to a few short shorts runners who strolled by.

    Part 3 – My original plan to do a triple check by the pipeline, but when I saw the amazingly pristine hand bars by the Byrd Park Pump House (some nice landscaping and an ADA compliant switchback style path recently installed), I knew an audible was needed.

    Two sets of jerkins performed (20 reps – apparently that was too many)…these guys need to come to Satan’s Hill on Flex Friday where we eat jerkins for breakfast!

    Next, I took the guys over to this rock slab for a brief thrill of sliding on your six about 2 seconds. Quickly gave the “you vs you, don’t hurt yourself speech.” No injuries and I think everyone found it amusing.”

    Part 4 – Pump House trail exploration: Per request of Senor Frog, we journeyed up the Pump House trail loop. At the halfway point, I led us in a few rounds of Mary. We were about to turn back when Hitch asks, “are we going to the skate park?” Curious to see a new Dog Pile landmark, I said take it away Hitch. Off he ran, Pax followed along to the break in the fence that separates the world from the train tracks and boxcar hobos. Sure enough, there was a “skate park,” which was a pool like structure nestled between the train tracks and el rio Jaime. Hitch was happy, so I asked him to lead us in whatever one does there. A few rounds of bear crawls, crab walks, and sideways “actual” crab walks. Walked along the perimeter of the skate park too, one misstep would certainly be a fall in the rapids.

    Part 5 – Worked our way back towards the Pump House….only an about 14 minutes left, but I really wanted to get in that triple check along the pipeline. And so, we did it, merkins and WW2 sit-ups were the exercises of choice. With only minutes left, we made our way back to the flag, late by 2 to 3 minutes. No “buy the Pax” breakfast penalty….this time.

    Numbers/Names

    1. Convergence Monday at Tredegar Iron Works (down from the VA War Memorial). Starts at 7 a.m. with Boberry leading a pre-run at 6:25 a.m.
    2. 2nd F – Please take shot to serve those fine folks at both Breaking Bread and the Bridge Ministry.

    I shared that I had wanted to make this a Memorial Day themed workout, but just didn’t work out that way today. However, going back for the six a few times reminded me of the fact that, many soldiers have likely sacrificed themselves defending our great nation by “going back for the six” in times of war (think about the Marcus Lutrell story). No prayer requests, but Flatline reminded us to call a veteran we know. Check in on them.

    Took us out in prayer.

    Good times at Libby Market today. Enjoyed a few servings of Major Dickson’s blend.

    Honor to lead!

    El Heist out!