Author: Jim Huddle

  • Be safe

    9 for Heartbreak today. I went light on the Merkins today because Kubota celebrated his 45th birthday yesterday with 180 merkins, plus some bear crawls and Carolina dry docks. Unfortunately, no one else here today was at Hoedown yesterday. That’s life.

    Disclaimer:

    The following were done in cadence unless otherwise stated.

    Mosey to Parking lot by benches: 20 SSHs, 10 Man-maker Merkins, 15 knee-ups, stretching exercise

    Mosey to covered walkway at Quioccasin: 20 IWs, 10 Diamond Merkins, 15 American Hammers, stretching exercise

    Mosey to Pemberton Parking lot: 20 Squats, 10 Stagger arm Merkins, 15 Crunchy Frogs, stretching exercise

    Mosey to other end of Parking lot and watch out for the goose poop: 20 Ukrainian Soldiers, 10 Stagger arm Merkins, 15 Dollies, 15 Helicopters

    Mosey to the pull-up bars behind Pemberton: 10 Pull-ups OYO, 20 Squats OYO and 30 LBCs: 3X

    Mosey back to Pemberton parking lot: BLIMPS in parking lot, single count: 5 Burpees, 10 Lunges, 15 Imperial Walkers, 20 Merkins, 25 Plank Jacks and 30 Squats

    Mosey to covered walkway at Quioccasin:

    People’s Chair 15 Air Press, 10 BTTW Hip Slaps, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    People’s Chair 15 Muhammad Ali, 10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    People’s Chair 15 Milkers, 10 BTTW Toe Taps, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Mosey to the benches in front of Quioccasin: 10 Dips, 10 bulgarian split squats each leg: 3X

    10 Mike Tyson in cadence

    Back to the flag for Mary.

    Time’s up.

    Announcements: in 10 days, we will have a Convergence at Dogpile (Labor Day)

    Commentary: Be safe out there. All, or perhaps virtually all of us, drive a car routinely. You have to be careful of pedestrians who aren’t paying attention. Maybe they are listening to music instead of paying attention to the traffic when they cross a road. Or maybe they even walk in the road when they shouldn’t. This is especially an issue early in the morning when it is dark and we are coming or going to a workout.

  • Darth Tater

    8 for Circus Maximus today. Three days in a row for our recent FNG, Lasso. Lasso is Lighthouse’s niece’s husband. Great to have him! Great to have Fireman Ed back from vacation. The highlight from his vacation was without a doubt, the visit to the Potato Museum in Idaho. Maybe followed by the 40-degree nights. However, lately temperature wise in Richmond, I can’t complain, especially for August.

     

    I forgot my kettlebell. Byproduct offered me his and was going to take the 20-pound KB I use to anchor the flag. But fortunately, Whitedeer had an extra 25-pound KB. The great thing about kettlebells is that it’s like a handicap with golf. You can compensate with the weight of the KB so everyone is equal. Sometimes, I feel guilty only handling a 25-pound bell when Offshore has a 45-pound bell. But I am able to get over it.?

     

    We started with a warmup:

     

    SSHs, Ukrainian Soldiers, Don Quixote, stretch arms, stretch hamstrings.

    20 High Pulls (single count): 20 Deep Mountain Climbers (in cadence); 18 of each, 16 of each, etc.

    Stretch and catch breath

    Slingshot 10 each direction (around body)
    Halo 10 each direction (handle points up in front, upside down in back)
    Single Arm Deadlift (Keep back and legs straight, bend at waist, KB on ground to KB at waist) 10 each side
    Single Leg Deadlift 10 each leg (Same leg goes up as the arm with the kettlebell, try to maintain balance)
    Turkish Getup 5 each side (leg bent at knee is the same side as upraised arm)
    Run around Island Oyster backed off at the last letting me have first place. What a pearl of guy!
    Goblet Squat 20 in total (handles pointing down, deep squat)
    Racked squat 10 each side
    Racked lunge 10 each side
    Alternating Single arm swing 20 in total
    Clean and Press 10 each side (start with KB on ground, bend knees, keep KB close to body)
    Run around island
    Squat and Press
    Bottom up Clean 10 each side (KB upside down at rack, hold 5 seconds)
    Overhead squat 10 each side (KB held with arm straight above head)
    Curls 20 each
    Snatch 10 each side (Start with KB between legs, End with KB above head.)

     

    Waiter’s carry to the flag. 20 flutters in cadence, 60 second leg raise. Finish

     

    Numberama, namerama, announcements

    Announcements:

    The Crucible this Saturday at 7:30. Offshore has the Q. Blackwell Elementary, south of the James. Byproduct reported that Labrat rode 18 miles on his bicycle recently. How wonderful!

     

    Takeout by YHC.

  • Warmup

    only 2 of us for WaThoHuk Wednesday. We ran a big square from the school, to around the lake, around the new condominiums, to Broad Street to Pump Road to Three Chopt and back to the school. We still had time left, so we did 20 Merkins, 20 Dollies, 20 Merkins and 20 Dollies. Then to the track. I managed 3 laps and a little more. Lighthouse did more of course, including merkins and dollies. Back to the flag.

  • Es ist heiss

    Probation pulled up as we were circling up for the first COP in the parking lot. We added Homer and Gypsy, having done a pre-run, after the 5 minutes of Burpees and Blue Moon came towards the end to make sure standards were being maintained while he’s recovering from knee surgery.

    Fireman Ed called the next exercise as he has memorized my routine. (I have certain ‘sets’ I do so I don’t have to carry a weinke around.) For that matter, Whitesnake also predicted the BTTW routine. Mariner dragged the average age down considerably. All in all, a total of 13 today.

    It went like this.

    20 SSHs, 10 MM Merkins, 15 Knee-ups, (all in cadence), stretch

    Mosey to nearby pull-up bars

    20 IWs, 10 diamond Merkins, 15 Crunchy Frogs (all in cadence), stretch

    5 minutes of Burpees, stretching exercise

    Using Pull-up bars:

    11s with Pull-ups and Bulgarian Split Squats at picnic tables, stretching exercise

    Back to football field near fence

    10 Romanian Leg Lift (in cadence) Left leg then right leg

    Football field

    Burpee/Broad Jump to 30-yard line, stretching exercise

    Jog to end

    11s with get ups and Ukrainian HRMs, stretching exercise

    Jog to Wall in front of school

    15 People’s Chair air press, 10 BTTW Hip slaps, (all in cadence), 15 donkey kix

    15 People’s Chair milkers, 10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers (all in cadence), 15 donkey kix

    15 People’s Chair la-lanes, 10 BTTW toe taps (all in cadence), 15 donkey kix

    Stretching exercise

    Mosey back to football field

    Bear crawl/Crab walk to Midfield alternating every 10 yards

    Mosey to parking lot

    20 Flutters, 20 Rosalitas (all in cadence), 6-inch leg lift to count of 60.

    Announcements

    August 6 at 7:30, SOJ, The Crucible, supporting Healing Hands. More information on Slack

    10-year anniversary of Gridiron coming up. More information to come on this. Please invite those who have dropped off.

    The heat made it a tough day today.

    You don’t always know what those around you are going thru. If you are struggling physically, from an injury, it’s fairly obvious. But if your situation at work or at home is bad, it’s not so obvious. So please reach out to a brother and provide support. You might be making a difference to someone.

     

     

  • Purgatory

    At Hoedown today, we had 15. Someone said today was like purgatory. I took that as a compliment because there is a worse place than purgatory. It started like this.

    Mosey to the Corner Parking Lot

    20 SSHs

    10 Man Maker Merkins

    15 Knee-ups

    20 IWs

    10 Diamond Merkins

    15 Gorilla Jacks

    20 Ukrainian Soldiers

    10 Stagger Arm Merkins

    15 Crunchy Frogs

    I detected an increase in the level of complaining. Perhaps a change of scenery would help. And so we moved to the asphalt playground.

    10 Don Quixote

    10 Stagger Arm Merkins

    15 Flutters

    Stretching

    Line up about 2/3s from the end of the asphalt playground.

    Burpee/Broadjump to the first white line and then Bear Crawl to end

    Crab Walk back 2/3s of the way and Burpee/Broadjump to the starting line.

    Stretching

    To the grassy area in back

    Count off in 3s; Circuit with 20 Hanging Knee-ups at pull-up bars, at the benches for 20 Dips, 20 Ukrainian Hammers close to the swings; 3X Counter-clockwise.

    To the wall for Angry Donkeys (11s with People’s Chair air press and Donkey Kix)

    To the rails for 10 Bulgarian Split squats each leg (single count), 10 derkins (single count), 9 and 9, 8 and 8 etc.

    Wall Courtyard: 15 air-press (People’s chair) in cadence, 10 BTTW hip slaps in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Wall Courtyard: 15 milkers (People’s chair) in cadence, 10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Wall Courtyard: 15 Lalannes (People’s chair) in cadence, 12 BTTW ToeTaps in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Stretching and time’s up.

    It was great to have this group to lead today! If you haven’t already, I encourage you to be the Q. You get an additional amount of adrenaline so you’re able to do more. You’re in control. You can back off when you get sufficiently tired. And it’s always amazing knowing that the pax will actually follow your lead!
    One standard I’ve been a slack about is the disclaimer at the beginning of the workout. We should always do this.

    Below is what I found on F3nation.com. I think I need to work up a shorter version.

    Disclaimer and Notice

    F3 Nation, Inc. (“F3”) is a peer-led, zero-cost non-profit workout group. F3 makes no representations with regard to the skill level of workout leaders, the safety of the exercises performed during workouts or the hazardousness of the premises upon which workouts are conducted. The men who lead F3 workouts are not paid to do so and no representations of any kind are made by F3 about their skill level. The premises upon which F3 workouts are conducted are not owned or maintained by F3. F3 makes no representations of any kind regarding their safety. Although F3 workouts vary widely in intensity, all F3 workouts tend to be rigorous and are undertaken upon uneven ground during periods of limited visibility. Therefore, there are certain dangers inherent in participating in an F3 workout. Participants must be 18 or older and are assumed to have made their own reasonable decision as to whether they should so participate. Participants under 18 must be accompanied by a father or male legal guardian. F3 disclaims any and all responsibility for any individual’s decision to participate in an F3 workout. By participating in an F3 workout, an individual assumes the risks inherent in doing so. This Disclaimer and Notice is made by F3 on its own behalf and on the behalf and for the benefit of any person leading an F3 workout and/or otherwise acting for the benefit of F3.

     

    Announcements:

    • Update your contact information in Slack. I had to do this on my computer. I could not get it to work on my cell phone. I clicked on my picture in the top right corner. Selected ‘profile’ in the drop down and scrolled down to see the emergency contacts.
    • Gomer Pyle is looking into getting ‘dog-tags’ we can wear with contact information.
    • At Robious Elementary Homerun derby tomorrow.
    • HumpDay Happy Hour at 6:00 at Snuff’s. Bring swimsuit, beer. Details on Slack, #2nd F Fellowship
    • Leadership call tomorrow at 5:00. Details on Slack. See #Leadership.
    • At least one person in every group should carry a phone in case it is needed. If someone has a heart attack, you don’t want to have to run back to get a cell phone.

    Takeout by YHC

  • ET Phone Home

    Baker’s Dozen at Heartbreak Ridge today. But no ET. What Whitesnake said was true. ET got a permission Slip not to be here in order to get ready for BRR. But Handshake was here.

    Pinto was released from Injured Reserve so that he could make it today. In honor of his return, we climbed no trees and handled no gas-powered equipment.

    Doozy and Posey (Doozy 2.0) were here. Last time I saw Doozy, he was inflicting a severe beatdown at Gridiron. Today was not up to a Doozy standard but I did my best.

    Somehow or another, I’ve missed Bacon Bits for about a month. Atilla showed up in between managing winning championships in baseball. Nice to have Flo here. Despite yesterday’s awful beatdown at Hoedown, Flo was back for more. We had Seymour and Rosie who worked Heartbreak into their rotation. In addition to those previously mentioned, great to have the usual suspects here (Lighthouse, Honeydo).

     

    And so it went like this:

    Warmup head-fake in the parking lot. We didn’t run anywhere.

    SSHs, Helicopters, IWs, Don Quixote, Plank stretch

    Mosey to Railings

    11s Hand Release Merkins and Ukrainian Hammers while running over/under railings

    Mosey to at the basketball courts behind the school and tried to avoid falling down due to the sand on the bottom of our shoes.

    15 People’s chair air press in cadence

    10 BTTW hip slaps in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair milkers in cadence

    10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair Lalanne in cadence

    10 BTTW Toe Taps in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair Muhammad Ali

    10 Dirty Hookup

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Mosey to the covered walkway:

    Run to the end but Belly touch every 2 poles.

    2X

    Bear crawl/crab walk to the second doorway

    Mosey to the benches in front of the school; 3X

    15 Dips single count Cadence

    15 Derkins single count Cadence

    10 Bulgarian split squats, right leg back, single count Cadence

    10 Bulgarian split squats, left leg back, single count Cadence

    Line up on curb near benches and burpee/broad jump to the loading dock

    Mosey to flag

    4 minutes of Mary

     

    Announcement:

    Hump Day (minus 1 day) Happy Hour tonight: Southside at Triple Crossing Beer in Midlothian. Questions? Contact Doozy

     

    Take out by YHC

     

    I was very happy to see so many people today! More than the normal numbers. It reminds me that once in a while, I should visit some other locations and meet some other people. As many have said, I am very grateful for F3 and the people I have met here. It has really made the move from Charlotte to Richmond wonderful.

  • Numerology

    At Circus Maximus, we did numerology. We did a triple check with 4 exercises and 5-man teams. Latter, we did 11s with 10 people.

    Warm-up:

    SSHs, Don Quixote, IWs, Ukrainian Soldiers, Hamstring stretch,

    Partner up:

    1 partner carries both bells, other does 10 merkins, around island to the end of the walkway closest to where we begin.

    Divide up into 2 teams with 4 partners and do the following 3X:

    Goblet squats

    Overhead press

    Situp using KB to anchor feet

    Timer runs to end of walkway and back

    Next, go to courtyard with your teams and do the following 3X:

    Steps ups

    Curls

    Jackknife

    Timer runs around the courtyard

    Back to middle of walkway and walk between the middle and the end of the walkway:

    11s: waiter carry between

    Triceps and Racked Lunge (both legs count as 1)

    We didn’t finish.

    Back to the flag.

    Announcements:

    2nd Tuesday lunch on the 12th. Location to be announced.

    Matthew 6:34 is “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

    There is more than one of these “don’t worry about the future” verses in the New Testament. This one is easier for me to grasp. To me, it says focus on what’s you’re doing right now. Where I used to work, we periodically hired consultants to promote various ‘programs’ such as the Quality Improvement Process. One of the programs had the mantra “Be Here Now”. I liked that. Focus on what’s in front of you. I don’t mean to suggest that you don’t think about and plan for tomorrow. But like many people, I try to multi-task. That often doesn’t work out well. Try to deal with what’s in front of you right now and get that done right so you won’t have to worry about it later because you messed up what you were doing right now.

  • Prime Number

    A prime number, 7, for Heartbreak Ridge. In attendance today were the essential food groups; Bacon Bits, Tater and Pigskin; 2/3 of the professoriate of VCU (Offshore and Lighthouse); the Championship Baseball Manager who destroyed the Roman Empire (Attila the Hun, congratulations on this past weekend’s 2 championships); and a White Snake fresh from rescuing ET from a pack of wild cyclists at RAMM.

    It went like this:

    A Warm-up mosey, Karioke left, backwards run and Karioke right in the parking lot.

    COP with 20 SSHs, 10 Manmaker Merkins, 15 Knee-ups and a stretching exercise.

    Mosey to Heartbreak hill for a Jacob’s ladder (run to top, 1 burpee and return to bottom, then 2 Burpees, etc. up to 7)

    Mosey over to the railings behind the Quioccasin parking lot and hand-foot walk the rails from the bottom to the top

    Mosey to the wall under the side covered porch of Quioccasin for;

    15 People’s Chair/air press in cadence, 10 BTTW hips slaps in cadence, 15 Donkey Kix OYO;

    15 People’s chair/milkers (moo), 10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers, 15 Donkey Kix

    15 People’s chair/Lalannes, 10 BTTW Toe Taps, 15 Donkey Kix

    Stretch

    Over to playground at Pemberton

    The following 3 times: 10 Pull-ups, 20 Merkins and 20 hook your feet Sit-ups

    Mosey to parking lot for BLIMPS; 5 Burpees, 10 Lunges (each leg), 15 IWs, 20 Merkins, 25 Plank Jax, 25 Squats

    Mosey to front of Quioccasin picnic tables for; 15 Dips in Cadence, 10 Bulgarian Split Squats in cadence (right leg back), 10 Bulgarian Split Squats in cadence (left leg back): 2X

    Back to start:

    20 Flutter kix in cadence, 20 APDs in cadence. 60 count 6-inch leg lift.

    Acabado

    No announcements. We’re not aware of a July 4 convergence.

    Takeout by YHC (first verse of “Be Thou My Vision”)

  • Animal Kingdom and Gummy Bears

    There were 6 for Heartbreak Ridge. I was returning from a week at Disney World where I saw one of Whitesnake’s relatives at Animal Kingdom. I was inspired to do the following workout.

    Warmup:

    Mosey to the front parking lot. All in cadence:

    20 SSHs

    20 IWs

    20 Skaters/touch toe

    20 Ukrainian Soldiers

    20 Alternating Lunge Twist Right/Left

    Mosey to the grass in front of the school

    Do the following series of 4 exercises 10X, then 9X, then 8X, etc.

    Burpees

    WWII

    Jumping lunge

    Merkins

    Find some wall, under the covered walkway.

    15 People’s chair air press in cadence

    10 BTTW hip slaps in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair milkers in cadence

    10 BTTW Australian Mountain Climbers in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    15 People’s chair Lalanne in cadence

    10 BTTW Toe Taps in cadence

    15 Donkey Kix OYO

    Mosey to the benches over by the parking lot; 3X

    15 Dips single count Cadence

    15 Derkins single count Cadence

    10 Bulgarian split squats, right leg back, single count Cadence

    10 Bulgarian split squats, left leg back, single count Cadence

    To the football field

    Line up at goal line; Run to the other goal line but one belly touch every 10 yards.

    Alternating bear crawls and crab walks every 10 yards to the opposite 40 yard line. (3 bear, 3 crab)

    Backwards run to the goal line.

    Repeat belly touch, bear crawls and crab walks.

    Back to the flag for dollies, Travoltas and 30 seconds of plank.

    Announcements:

    The Bridge this Saturday. For details, see Slack.

    Prayers for Gypsy, Blue Moon, Pinto, Lab Rat and the people of Ukraine.

    I recently got back from a trip to Disney World. While we were there, one of our grandsons ate some Sugar Free Gummy Bears. If you want to read something truly funny, read product reviews of Sugar Free Gummy Bears. The following is one of the links I found. I could not complete reading this from laughing so hard. You will likely have to copy and paste the following to get the link to work.

    https://www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/2755/The-Reviews-For-These-Sugar-Free-Gummy-Bears-Will-Have-You-In-Tears-Laughing?fbclid=IwAR0nkN9KG0gfgqOJMEJ-iYBhCTrawyMm1syWeV1n4G2vXZ9uYwxezqujaUU

  • Heisse Kartoffel

    Circus Maximus had 6 for a Hot Potato today, including an FNG headlocked by Offshore. Fireman Ed receives credit for the coming up with the name ‘Bedpan’ (our FNG works at an Assisted Living facility.) Unfortunately, I forgot his hospital name! But he’s from Statesboro Ga, went to Wake Forest, knew Offshore before he moved here recently, his wife is from Atlanta, she’s part Lebanese, she worked at the Lebanese food festival this past weekend which apparently was a big success, he works for Beth Sholom assisted living, his children go to Godwin HS and Quioccasin MS and he lives about 1.5 miles from Godwin. They looked at a map and decided Richmond was the place to be. Not too big, not too small, just right. The Goldilocks of cities.

    YHC started off with the warmup: SSHs, IWs, Don Quixote, Cherry Pickers and the Plank stretch.

    Offshore took over and we split up into 2 groups of 3s for a triple check of KB swings, KB High pulls and the timer running to the end of the covered walk and back. 3X

    Next, Fireman Ed had us each do a different exercise (pole smokers, KB bench press, KB swings, KB Squats, KB Lawnmowers) while the timer ran around the island. 2X

    Wrapping up, Whitesnake with 11s: Sit and press and Step ups. Unlike earlier this week, no benches were destroyed on the step ups.

    That used up the time.

    Announcements:

    May 30 Memorial Day Convergence at 7:00 AM at Brown’s Island

    June 4 Blood Drive at Epiphany Lutheran from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Sign up at Redcrossblood.org

    June 4 is also The Bridge.