Author: Mr Rogers

  • Still Thankful

    With a combined 115 years of life experience, these 2 F3ers knew that on the day after Thanksgiving you gotta fight the good fight against the ever-present Jester, jump out of the Fart Sack, get out and get back to it. We did just that. With the spirit of Currahee’s end-of-the-month Bro Code in mind, we did enough laps around Godwin HS to wear some grooves into the ground. Pigskin saved his hip some pounding by mixing in a few V-Ups and Merkins, and perhaps some other gems from his deep bag of tricks. Speaking of Pigskin’s tricks, during COT I learned a few of Pigskin’s secrets for maintaining a long life of mobility, flexibility, strength and a healthy weight. I’d share here, but it looks like some of the folks reading this need some extra motivation to get after it. If you don’t post, you don’t know.

    Pigskin took us out.

    Moleskin: After all the dishes from yesterday have been done and put away, my hope is that I take with me, into the coming year, an undying focus on all the many blessings I do have in my life. Despite my tendency to notice the few things not going so well at any given time, when I give it just a few moments of consideration, there are constantly an almost-infinite number of reasons for gratitude. I’m grateful for all of you guys. SYITG!

  • Birthdays All Around

    Welcome. Mission Statement. Disclaimer.  

    COP: arm circles, cherry pickers, DQs, SSHs, Mt Climbers, WWIIs, Merkins.  

    The Thang: 

    Since the Dog Pile guys were missing a DTH beatdown across town, I thought it would be fun to serve up a little number I got from DTH called…

    Burpee Back Mountain – 

    We partnered up for a Dora.  P1 was the timer and ran up and down the Amphitheater steps while P2 did Burpees (100 total).  

    Fail to Succeed – Many times you gotta fail before you succeed, so we stopped by the Rusty Cage, did Pull ups to failure, 5 Jump Squats & 20 LBCs (OYO, 3 rounds total).  

    Red Light, Green Light – 

    Lined up at the Carillon, called an exercise and controlled the Traffic Light.  When Red Light was called, we stopped and did the exercise, with no stopping until Green Light was called.  When Green Light was called, we ran like hell.  First HIM across the field got to pick the next exercise and control the Traffic Light for the run back.  Heist won, as did Boberry, Purple Rain and Yee Haw. We did some Plank Jacks, APDs, Flutters and Merkins. I thought this was a Mr. Rogers original, but Handshake let me know all my exercises are stolen.

    Curbed Enthusiasm – 

    Grab some curb, 1 Ball Dipper, Bear crawl across street to another curb, Crawl Bear back, 2 BDs, etc, up to 5 BDs. Same idea w/ Merkins and Hops, then Heals to Heaven w/ a Crab Walk, then Handshake shook things up with more reps, SSHs and a Backwards Walk/Stretch/Junk Accentuator that he probably stole from one of the Star Wars movies, but I wouldn’t know, since I’m not as nerdy as Boberry 🙂 At some point in all of this, the Pax sang HBD to me, followed by a few lines from the Mister Rogers theme song. Thx guys! As I face the big Four Five tmrw, it came to the light that Hitch already hit 46 on Wed (he strongly declares that he’s still in his mid-forties, not the late-forties – fair enough) and on the 9th Yee Haw will celebrate some much lower number. HBD Hitch and Yee Haw!

    Back to the Amphitheater to work our way down the steps with Dips, Flutters and Merkins. All were instructed to do as many as they wanted because it’s YVY and mumble chatter’s a lot more fun than counting.  

    BTTF.  Numbers.  Names.

    Announcements: 

    Gypsy’s pet project Shood offically starts on 11/12/23, but we can get on it early. Bring gently used shoes to DTH in SOJ, Corned Beef in Da-Ville and YHC at Dog Pile.

    Yee Haw’s daughter Liv wrapped up Chemo this week and is home from the hospital. So awesome! Prayer works. Keep ’em comin’ HIMs.

    It’s Sober October and it’s never too late to jump on this train. Keep up the good work Heist, Fudd, Purple Rain, DTH, Wildcat (anyone else?!?) Let’s goooooooo!!!!

    Prayer Requests: Continued prayers for baby Liv, prayers to have the SkyQ show us the next member of F3 (he’s out there, he needs us and we need him). And Hitch encouraged us to remember the guys that haven’t posted in a while. Reach out. Check on them. Invite them back out. Who knows what difference it could make.

    YHC took us out.  

    Final thought: EF Hutton, for next year’s Gloomies, if we have a Shortest-Coffeeteria-Stay category, right now Yee Haw and Heist are in the lead. 35 seconds is the time to beat. Haha! Enjoy the weekend gents thanks for letting me lead!

  • The Shoulders of Giants 

    Slaughter Start: 5 Burpees

    Mission statement and Disclaimer

    COP: Arm circles, Cherry pickers, DQs, SSHs, Mt. Climbers, WWIIs, Merkins.  

    The Thang: 

    Eye of the Storm – Five jump squats at the center of the Carillon field, moving randomly to it’s four corners for 20 monkey humpers, 20 SSHs, 20 dry docks, and 20 plank jacks, while going back to the center (for another 5 jump squats) between corners.  Slight mod here, but thank you Doozy for this gem.  

    Sippy Cup led us in plank variations while waiting on the 6.  

    On the mosey to the pipeline, 5 Burpees OYO.  Pit stop at the Rusty Cage for Pull Ups ‘til failure.  

    Triple Check on the Pipe Line – timer ran while the other partners did heels to heaven and plank hold.  Fun Fact: Sippy Cup was the creator of the pipe line triple check.  Good stuff stands the test of time.  

    Love Hill – Not much creative with this Q.  Just hard work offered up by those that came before.  Apparently, Toga (who I have never met) created Love Hill.   We partnered up for the usual torture: P1 ran 1/2 way up the hill, while P2 bear crawled.  Switch.  Then lunge and lastly broad jump burpees.  Then Mosey to the amphitheater for some…

    Amphitheater Fun- We went from the bottom to the top with a box jump, 2 dips and 4 flutter kicks on each step.  

    Fireman Ed led us in plank variations waiting on the 6.  

    Killed a few min w/ SSHs interrupted by various core exercises selected by the PAX.  

    BTTF.  Numbers. Names.

    Announcements: 

    7am at the Alamo 9/16 for Liv, Yeehaw’s child that has suffered from brain cancer.  Come on out, wear yellow and give some support.  

    Also on the 16th, 5k memorial run for a Freeman HS teacher that was lost last year.  

    9/23 is the F3 RVA anniversary convergence at the crucible at 7:30am (Oyster is gonna hit up Dog Pile first, he might inspire me to do the same).  

    And the Sit & Sip will be held later that day.  

    Prayer Requests: It’s not exactly a prayer request, but I shared with the PAX what Gypsy shared with Lighthouse and myself during the Currahee Run: Practice sharing a compliment with someone at least once a day. Make it sincere.  You will make an impact on the other person and you will walk away lifted up as well.  

    YHC took us out.  

    Moleskin: I don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  There is so much wisdom swirling about from the men of F3.  Great exercises exist.  Use ‘em.  F3’s entire blue print was just waiting on all of us to arrive and do something with it.  Practice something that has benefited another.  I can rise higher as I slowly work towards becoming the man God intended for me to be by trying to stand on the shoulders of those honorable souls that came before and those that are here now.  

    👊🏼

  • F3 is an Ark

    With only 3 men present (and a dog), we took off to the North, out of habit really. Since everyone was amenable to running the hills and dead ends off of Glen Eagles Dr., that’s what we did – followed by a couple of laps around John Rolfe Square, before a return to Godwin HS.

    But along the way, we had a robust conversation about religion: naive faith vs. cynical skepticism, strict vs. loose interpretations of spiritual writings, and the benefits of vs. the catastrophes caused by faith. We touched on the story of Noah’s Ark. When the Flood (the chaos of life) came, it was wise to turn to God (truth, selflessness, cooperation, empathy) and to get on the Ark. The Ark is shelter from the storm. Pinto made an insightful observation that if 9/11 made us stronger by drawing us together, the pandemic had a very different impact because so many were isolated, and isolation harms us. Togetherness is an Ark. Family is an Ark. Faith is an Ark. F3 is an Ark. The storms will come and we are blessed to have these sanctuaries with which to turn.

    Not a bad way to start the day. Thanks for the company, the discussion and the run Pinto and Lighthouse.

    As usual, I missed the COT, due to needing to get to work, but Lighthouse informed me later that it was business as usual.

    Announcement: Come join myself, Blue Moon, Warhol and Probation at the Dunkin’ on Lauderdale Drive on Tuesdays at 7pm. We’re Shield Locking, discussing spiritual matters and lifting each other up. Like Howard Ruff said, ‘”It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.” Come on out!

    SYITG!

  • The Case of the Missing Coupons

    Sharing of the Mission: The mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership. 

    Disclaimer.  

    COP: arm circles, cherry pickers, DQs, SSHs, Mt Climbers, WWIIs, Merkins.  

    The Thang: 

    Honey Bear Tree Challenge – In pairs, for solidarity, we Murder Bunnied to a tree, stopping to do 20 SSHs.  Then Bear Crawled to a different tree, doing 20 WWIIs, then ran to 3 trees, followed by 20 Merkins.  Did 3 rounds. Only problem was, the coupons have been removed again. We found a couple near the Rusty Cage. Some were huge. We modified the heck outta this one.

    Burpee Sandwich (hold the coupons) – 3 burpees before and after Lunges, Flutter Kicks & American Hammers (10 count each), repeato for 3 rounds.  

    Touching Cindy – we split into two teams and numbered off. Teams were placed “equidistantly” from coupon  (Cindy).  All held a plank, the numbers were randomly called, runners raced to touch Cindy.  Winning team did 10 LBCs.  Losing team did 10 jump squats.

    Mosey to the rusty cage for SEVENS (like 11s, but it’s 7s):

    • Pullups 6-1
    • Merkins 1-6

    Native American Run to the Carillon – 10 Jack Planks in corner 1st corner, run the length of the field, American Hammers in the corner 2, run the width, we then humped some monkeys in the next corner, SSHs, repeato until it was time to do a Native American Run BTTF.  

    Numbers. Names. FNG, Lightning, EH’ed by Wedding Singer, made it to us today all the way from Vermont. He mentioned doing F3 in Vermont & that there isn’t much of it. Good luck to you sir to bring the spirit of F3RVA back home with you. With a name like Lightning, you’re gonna need all the luck you can get. : -)  

    Announcements: America’s fastest growing sport and Richmond’s fastest growing AO: Pickleball, at Batteau on Monday mornings. Come on out. I hear Splinter and Bleeder are the men to beat. I’d like to see these 2 face off some time (a Clash of the Titans). In other news, Flatline wants to check all of your Colons, I mean, he encouraged all of you to get a Colonoscopy if you’re 45, as colon cancer is preventable. At Coffeeteria, one discussion was that in the cancer game, an ounce of prevention sure does beat a pound of cure. Also, the Pax was challenged to think of 2 people who might need some encouragement. Reach out to them. Maybe go visit them. Flatline pointed out that since texts are so normal, sometimes making a call can have a bigger IMPACT.

    Prayer Requests: Prayers for Machismo regarding expanding his business. Prayers for his leadership and wisdom as he takes on new challenges.

    YHC took us out. May we continue to grow, so that we may be there for others in need. Amen (translation: It is so.).  

  • Breaking Bread – Memorial Day Edition

    This one was totally done by the M (her name is of course Mrs. Rogers). She whipped up some Baked Spaghetti for 10, with a big ol’ batch of buttered rolls, some Caesar Salad and enough assorted cookies to put you into a diabetic coma. She’s a keeper!

    We dropped off the goods and hit the town for date night. Tip: Date your wife or someone else will.

    If anyone is contemplating taking on this 3rd F activity, Oyster will totally hook you up with detailed instructions – which makes it super easy (as does your M jumping in and doing everything).

    I hope yall are enjoying your Memorial Day Holiday!

  • Hutton, don’t touch my headlamp

    COP: arm circles, cherry pickers, DQs, SSHs, Mt. climbers, WWIIs & Merkins.

    Mosey to Carillon Field for Eye of the Storm: Start in the center of the field. Burpees x 5 then run to a corner, perform the following exercises, and back to the center until all 4 corners completed. Also, perform burpees x 5 upon each return to center. Corner 1: Squat Jumps x 5, Corner 2: SSH x 30, Corner 3: Merkins x 30, Corner 4: LBC x 30…it was at the end of this one that EFH began to get a little intimate with my headlamp. Luckily, it was marking the center of the storm and not on my head.

    To the Valley of Ill Repute for 7s.  6 Merkins then run to the other side for 1 WWII and so on.  Like 11s, but it was 7s.  

    Shout out to Sippy Cup for leading us, a couple times today, in excellent plank work as we waited on the 6.

    SSHs Plus – We switched to a lower gear to get those heart rates down, but only a little. Formed a circle.  Did SSHs OYO (at your own speed).  A member of the pax, when called on, initiated a core exercise. 15 were done.  Then returned to SSHs. Circle K, Honeymoon, Bone Thugs & Purple Rain all hooked it up.

    Mosey to the rusty cage for more 7s. Pullups 6-1. More jump squats 1-6.

    Partnered up with a Coupon.  Timer Murder Bunnied while the other did curls, then press, then KB swings. Lots of modifying going on at this point in the beatdown.

    Long Native American run BTTF with PAX performing 2 burpees when at the end of the line. This experiment worked better than expected.

    Numbers & Names.

    Announcements:

    Oyster let us know that Breaking Bread has open spots and we are now able to break bread w/ the folks there. Oyster will let us know a head count, for planning purposes. Feel free to double the fun by doing it with another pax and get those Ms and 2.0s involved.

    No need for more volunteers at VA Home for Boys and Girls today. Thanks to Honeydo, Whitesnake, Pigskin and EF Hutton’s daughter for all stepping up to help!

    Boberry let us know that there is a new ruck (see the ruck channel on Slack for extra dets). They will be talkin’ Q source, talkin’ leadership and ruckin’. Check it out!

    Prayer Request:

    Bone Thug’s father is experiencing health effects from his weight, but he’s losing it. Excellent! Keep him in your prayers as he moves forward on his journey.

    Hitchhiker has struggled for a while now with sciatica. And today, his right knee got injured. Please pray for him to have a FULL recovery.

    Prayer: YHC led us in a hybrid meditation/prayer. Remember those you can’t live without. Tell them. You never know what tomorrow holds. And for those you carry a resentment against, maybe it’s time to let it go. I’ve found, it only hurts me to hold on. Consider the part in the Lord’s Prayer that says, “…forgive us our trespasses, AS we forgive those who trespass against us…” Drop the rock. Get free. Go give some love and enjoy the heck outta this weekend gents!

  • Team Work Makes the Dream Work

    4 men and a couple of 14 yo that keep showing up ventured out into the gloom to see if it would be a beautiful day in the neighborhood. What transpired is as as follows:

    COP: Arm circles, cherry pickers, DQs, side-Straddle hops, mt climbers, WWIIs, and Merkins.  

    The Thang: 

    Burpee Back Mountain – partnered up for a Dora.  100 burpees.  Timer ran up and down amphitheater steps.

    Quadruple Check Choo Choo Train – Everyone got a coupon. The original idea had to be modified big time due to low numbers at DP today.  P1 was the engine of the wheelbarrow, while P2 held P1’s feet, while P3 lunged behind (with the coupon). Since this was a Quadruple check, we all performed each task 4 times. This experiment taught me that a triple check is better than a quadruple check. Next, we tried a double check. P1 murder bunnied from Penny Stage to the lamp post, P2 walked and followed P1 with the coupon overhead, P3 again lunged behind (with the coupon). Everyone kept their coupon as we moseyed through the woods.

    Due to differing fitness levels, various injuries, the Pax began to work as a unit. Some ran with a coupon. Some walked with 2 coupons. Some got to the next point without making their injuries worse (success!).

    Triple Check at the Pipe Line.  Timer ran the pipeline loop.  P2 did AHs and P3 did 4 squats (with the coupon) x 4 curls x 4 overhead presses (repeato).  

    I had much more suffering to dole out, but the clock struck 6:54am, so we moseyed back up to the Penny Stage, again coming together as one mighty force that had mere minutes to get some coupons back to their appropriate place.

    Native American run BTTF for COT.  Numbers.  Names.  

    Announcements: Loops at Forest Hill Park on Black Friday. Apparently, the reigning champ is Sippy Cup with 7 loops. Who’s gonna best him? Anthrax?

    Prayer requests: Chippendale asked that we pray for his son, a UVA student, as the student body is still dazed from their recent tragic event. YHC took us out.

    Final Thoughts: May we each continue to grow stronger, in all ways, so as to benefit ourselves, our families and our communities. May we not fall into paralysis when faced with the numerous tragedies that continue to befall our nation and the world. May we each do our part to improve the small portion of the world that we inhabit.

  • A Tour of the Lakes

    What should have been a unique exploration of RVA’s most bucolic and sprawling AO’s lovely lakes turned out to be a brutal death march.  Nevertheless, 9 brave souls answered the call, soldiered on to the end and got this beat down done.  

    COP: arm circles, cherry pickers, DQs, SSHs, Mt climbers, WWIIs & Merkins.  

    The Thang:

    At Shields Lake, we partnered up and Wheelbarrowed for 20 steps, then lunged together (20 single count), then switched positions for another 20 steps of Wheelbarrows, followed up by a 20 count run, before we Rinsed and Repeated.  Audible: Only 10 lunges and 40 count run.  This helped us make it around the entire lake.  

    Next up, 7 of Diamonds at Swan Lake.  We did 7 Jump Squats at every 7th “land mark” (benches, light poles, trees, trashcans, whatever), then 14 Merkins, 21 American Hammers, 28 SSHs, 21 AHs,14 & 7.  

    Since we were pretty well whipped at this point, YHC decided against moseying to Boat Lake in Byrd Park for Burpees.  

    Instead, we did a quick Love Street (bear crawls, lunges and broad jump burpees) on the way BTTF, followed by a slow, shuffling Native American run.  With a minute remaining, we knocked out some Freddy Mercurys.  

    COT: Numbers.  Names.  
    Announcements: DTH shared on GP’s Leadership zoom mtg about the Acceleration happening SOJ and YHC has been inspired to create a Shield Lock in the West End.  This has been a missing piece of F3 for YHC and something lacking in the region.  Check out F2L and QSource, create a group, or text me (804-615-3739) for details and join our group.  We are not yet the men God has designed us to be and there is growth to be had.  The only person to compare yourself to is yourself yesterday.  You just gotta be a little better than that guy.  

    The BRR launches next week.  Shout out to TYA and Vinny for organizing all the many logistics.  

    Face Plant will be hosting the annual Shawn G. Hogan Beer Mile soon.  F/u w/ him for details.  

    Labor Day Convergence is on Monday, 9/5/22 at Dog Pile with Florence Qing.  Come get some.  Ellwood Thompson afterward.  

    F3RVA will celebrate 8 years on 9/24/22.  Convergence at Grid Iron.  7am start time.  Technically, no other AOs should be operating this morning.   Let’s all celebrate together at Grid Iron!  

    Later that day (9/24), GP’s Family Farm in Amelia will host the annual Sit and Sip.  Starts at 1pm.  There was mumblechatter about hoping Hardywood will bring a llama or at least some special bread.  

    YHC took us out.  

    Keep on Accelerating gents!

  • House Party’s Pre-Party!

    COP: arm circles, cherry pickers, DQs, side-Straddle hops, mt climbers, WWIIs, and Merkins.  

    The Thang: 

    Burpee Back Mountain – partnered up for a Dora.  100 burpees.  Timer ran up and down amphitheater steps.  As soon as we all got through this one, Winehouse showed up looking fresh as a daisy.  

    Triple Check at Penny Stage w/ coupons – Timer did murder bunnies, P2 did curls and P3 did presses.  Lots of mumble chatter here about Spanx, back doors and how murder bunnies suck.  

    Rusty Cage – Triple Check. Timer did 10 Ball dippers, P2 did pull ups and P3 did dips.  We couldn’t decide if the exercise I gave an example of was a Lt. Dan or a Ball dipper.  But the timer was definitely on one leg a lot and many balls were dipped.  At this point 5 pax headed over to Rock ‘n’ Roll to support House Party’s VQ.  

    The remaining 4 Pax Moseyed over to the base of Love Hill and partnered up.  Timer ran 1/2-way up Love Hill and back.  P2 was to Karaoke, then lunge, then polar bear, then broad jump burpee.  This experiment with the Karaoke was a failure, as it was the only exercise engaged in.  For the 2nd 1/2 of the hill the Karaoke was nixed.  

    BTTF for COT.  Numbers.  Names.  

    Announcements: 

    Vinny is getting together a 49 and under team for BRR on 9/9/22.  Come on out young guns, b/c this year’s older bunch is an intimidating squad.  Let Vinny know if you’re interested.  If over 50, get with TYA.  

    Check out GP’s weekly zoom (Mondays at 7pm) regarding leadership.  The discussions have been very stimulating.  

    YHC has taken DTH’s challenge to read Freed to Lead in a week.  I’m a week in and about 1/2 way there.  When I’m done (God willing in about another week) if anyone wants to borrow my copy and take the challenge, just lemme know.  My knowledge of F3 has deepened immensely in a short time.  There is so much room for growth in F3.  

    Lab Rat has finished his treatment, is on the mend and was recently spotted gettin’ after it.  

    Prayer requests for Lab Rat and Hitch’s M’s ride.  

    YHC took us out in prayer, seeking daily guidance from the Sky Q in all things, large and small.