Author: Pucker

Nine strong came out to enjoy the balmy conditions (relative to yesterday) and start their day off right. 7 boot campers and 2 walkers enjoyed the 70 and sunny weather. Here’s how it went down…

COP: Jog out a block and back to warm up, then circle up by school. Dead Man’s Hang, SSHs, Don Quixotes, Arm Circles, Helicopters and finally side elbow planks.

Mosey to the blacktop for a Triple Check of People’s Chair, Plank with Spider man stretches and run out to the fence and Bernie Sanders back. This warmed the group up so much we decided to do 5 rounds instead of the customary 3.

Mosey to the tennis courts. Here began the exercises that took inspiration from what is called “Dryland Training” in the Ice Hockey community. Otherwise known as boot camp training to most. The Russian National Ice Hockey team’s coach Anatoly Tarasov employed these training tactics in the 50s and 60s for a team that dominated international ice hockey at the time.

First exercise: Bridge Rolls. Start in a plank position, raise up hand and leg on one side, rotate over to crab cake position, rotate over again back to plank and continue for 5 rotations, then rotate back to start point. We did 3 rounds of this.

Second exercise: Partner Stand ups. Partners sitting toe to toe lock arms and stand up, and then down together in unison, slowly and in balance. Repeat 10 times. Then sit back to back, lock arms and standup in unison, slowly and in balance. Repeat 10 times.

Third Exercise: Compass Point Jumps. Starting from a center point, Jump with both feet together forward then back to center, then backward and back to center, to the right then back to center, then left and back to center. Do this 5 times. Then do 20 LBCs and wait for the six. Repeat 3 times as a group.

Fourth Exercise: Sprint Box. On one half of a tennis court, starting in one corner sprint from baseline to the net, do crossovers to far side of net, Bernie Sanders back to baseline, do crossovers the other way back to starting point. Repeat 3 times. Crossovers are basically high knee steps, crossing your one foot over the other in one direction. Common ice hockey drill.

Mosey to the street and line up for an Indigenous People’s run – up to Cary then back to Pavilion with anchor man sprinting to the front of the line.

At the Pavilion, partner up for Hop and Catch. Partners hop from one foot to other, tossing a ball (lacrosse ball in this case) to each other throwing/catching with one hand. If the ball falls to the ground, partners do 10 dips each. The final “dryland” training exercise was Zig Zag Skaters – hopping from one foot to the other, going as wide as you can and landing/balancing on that one foot only alternating feet. Group did this together for 20 reps.

Mosey back to parking lot to finish with a ring of fire of Merkins.

Numberama, Namerama. YHC was stuck on Wednesday and announced a HHDH that had already occurred. Bodos pointed out we’d need a time machine to attend which always brings in interesting time travel dilemmas. YHC took us out

Thanks for letting me lead. Hope everyone had a little fun as well.

8 Hardy Souls arrived to find perfect conditions of 70 degrees and sunny for a solid start to their day. Here’s what transpired…

COP – 56 SSHs, Dead Man’s Hang, 14 Imperial Walkers, 14 Arm Circles, 14 Don Quixotes and 14 Ukrainian Soldiers.

Mosey to the blacktop for four corners – only thing missing was Fudd and his dislike of this particular exercise plan. In his honor we did 4 rounds of the following – 14 LBCs, 14 Merkins, 14 Flutter Kicks and 14 Crab Cakes. One member of the pax mumbled about repetitive exercises but to no avail.

Mosey to the field for a version of 11s (or 10s) depending on how many trees you think are on the Cary Street side. Whatever the number, we performed 5 exercises at each tree. Three rounds of this – one doing jump squats, one doing hand release Merkins and one doing mountain climbers. That got the PAX breathing hard.

Mosey to the pavilion and partner up. Partner 1 performs 14 pole smokers while partner 2 does Lt Dans. Four rounds of this were executed. One member of the pax initiated his approach to the pole perhaps a bit too quickly but luckily was wearing his foreskin head cover that averted any serious injury. No need for concussion protocol.

Numberama, Namerama and Prayer. Hitch’s M is due with their third child in June. He is prepping for that and for his mother and his mother-in-law coming to town. Prayers for him.

10 Strong gathered at Mary to start their day off right. Two walkers and eight boot campers. YHC took the campers off-campus to a favorite locale near Mary – Reveille.

Mosey to the blacktop to warmup – dead man’s hang, Don Quixote’s, Helicopters, Imperial Walkers and SSHs.

Mosey up Willeta and Ashlawn to the back gate entrance to Reveille. Made a couple of stops on the way to do 20 LBCs then 5 burpees. Mosey to front of church for a Dora. Construction on the driveway didn’t deter the group. Dora consisted of 100 Merkins, 200 Flutters and 300 Squats as partners Bernie Sanders around the circle drive. Top off with a bit of stretching.

Mosey to back of church for a triple check. Dips, hold legs at 6 inches and run around the lot. Mosey up Antrim to Kingscrest on way back to flag. Along the way stop for 20 Mountain Climbers, 20 WWIIs and 10 Lt Dans and done.

Another beautiful fall morning and welcome to Mahyem from VA Beach/Chesapeake area.

Announcements: Memorial Beer Mile at Faceplant’s this Saturday.

YHC took us out. Thankful for this group and thinking of the many of us who are in “the sandwich” caring for kids while also having to care for our parents. Enjoy the time while you have it.

YHC saw the Q was open for today and filled the need if only to ensure I had to be there in the morning. It was another beautiful day in RVA. 4 strong arrived for what they may have assumed was a well planned workout – including Chaplain on his summer tour. What in fact occurred was this…

Mosey to corner of Grove and Westmoreland for a geriatric warmup: Deadman’s Hang, 10 Don Quixotes, 10 Helicopters, 10 Arm Circles/5 Big Arm Circles, 15 Imperial Walkers, 20 Flutters and 20 SSHs.

Mosey on to the back of the school and do 20 WWIIs OYO then onto to the fields for the first of the planned exercises – along the way Hitch mentions he had 4 pickle ball paddles in his minivan, conveniently. YHC took that into consideration and the “plan” was adjusted.

The group perfectly executed Pucker’s 11s, performing a set of exercises at all 11 trees along Cary Street. First 3 Burpees at each tree, then 10 LBCs. YHC then dropped most of the rest of the plan for the morning, sent Hitch to his car to get the pickle ball paddles while the remaining three did a triple check on the blacktop (Wall sit, elbow plank, run up/Bernie Sanders back).

Hitch returned with the paddles and we were able to get a little instructional time in, a doubles match and then a singles match as well. Thanks Hitch for mentioning it.

Appreciate the opportunity to lead this morning. I felt like I was in a pickle ball promotional video given the many plugs Hitch offered for the fastest growing sport around.

Announcements – July 4th convergence at Dogpile 7AM, and Hitch is planning a Back to School Pickle Ball convergence on August 26th (I believe). More to come. Maybe you can even get F3 pickle ball swag at the next pickle ball outing!

11 strong rose to the challenge at Mary today. There was much mumble chatter on this topic of the number 11 quickly confirming the theme of the day. These go to 11 (or not).

COP – mosey to front of school on Grove. SSHs, deadman’s hang, Don Quixotes, imperial walkers and helicopters to get us started.

Mosey to the field and line up for….wait for it….11s! Apparently this 11s is new to the pax so I am happy to introduce a new exercise regimen to them. At each tree (of which there are 11), perform a set of one type of exercise. Round 1 – 3 burpees at each of the ELEVEN trees. Round 2 – 10 LBCs at each of the ELEVEN trees. Round 3 – 3 Lt Dans at each of the ELEVEN trees. The concept of 11 trees was too much for the pax and threw them off for the remainder.

Nonetheless we were able to get some work in. We next moseyed to the pull-up bars and while the pax did dips on the low wall around it, 2 pax would do 5 pull-ups. We did 3 rotations in random fashion as pax was unable to grasp concept of moving clockwise direction like we always do. They were still thinking about the number 11.

Mosey to blacktop for a triple check (not an undecuple check). Wall sits, Flutters, run to fence and Bernie Sanders back. Pax was still thinking of the number 11 and had difficulty forming groups of 3 or 4.

Mosey to front of school for a curb crawl. Bear crawl to other side do 1 incline merkin, bear crawl back do 2 decline merkins, and so on up to 5 and back down to 1.

Mosey to covered pavilion and partner up – one partner does 10 pole smokers and other does step ups on the benches. 5 rounds. We finished with a ring of fire of merkins and hit time.

Based on the fascination with the number 11, YHC may introduce a version of 4 corners called 11 corners or the Hendecagon. Be on the lookout!

Numberama, namerama, YHC took us out. Good luck to the 11 running the Bear Creek this weekend (see what I did there!).

YHC’s luck with rain seemed to have ended as it had started by the time we arrived at the AO. However it was light and while YHC had devised a plan to keep (mostly) dry, things would need to be modified mid workout.

Here’s how it went down…

Mosey around the school to the blacktop to warmup with dead man’s hang, Don Quixotes, arm circles, SSHs and Merkins.

Mosey to covered pavilion which was unoccupied and the site for all of YHC’s original plan for the day. Partner up with P1 running to corner of Grove and Commonwealth and back, P2 does wall sit (against a pole). 3 rounds.

While YHC‘s counting admittedly may have been imprecise the mumble chatter began to grow forcing an audible on my part. Mosey back out to the blacktop for a new concept – “5 corners”. As a group run to each corner and the center of the blacktop to do Carolina Dry Docks and LBCs – 30/10, 25/15, 20/20, 15/20, and 10/30. Not a dry shirt in the house.

The mumble chatter hit a crescendo at this point thus we continued to avoid the dry pavilion and moseyed to the tennis courts for some partner booyah Merkins. Start at each side of one court, bear crawl to center and do 10 booyah Merkins then Crawl Bear back. Repeat 5 times. Heavy breathing was the dominant sound at that point.

Mosey back to the blacktop for a triple check. Wall sits, Lt Dans, run to fence and Bernie Sanders back.

We moseyed to the pavilion and discovered that the tomatoes had taken this spot, so as gentlemen and to avoid potential charges being pressed we moseyed to the parking lot to finish. First we partnered up for a mini Dora – 25 flutters, 50 Imperial Walkers and 75 SSHs partner runs to end of lot and back. Then the last exercise was P1 did 20 donkey kicks while P2 did American Hammers until time.

numberama, namerama, YHC took us out. While my counting may have been imprecise my math I believe is still OK. This group certainly lived up to the “Geri Mary” nickname for this AO given 6 of us are in the respect category. Even with recent birthday boy Handshake coming in hot with 10 seconds to spare the average age of the group was north of 50.

Handshake is Qing Dogpile Saturday for his 5th anniversary.

YHC reminded all to take the time to give a hug to those you love as you never know when you might see them again. Every moment is precious.

9 Strong were undeterred by the previous nights deluge and assembled at 45MOM to get their heart rate going for the day. It went something like this…

Mosey to blacktop for Warmup…Dead Man’s Hang, 10 Helicopters, 13 Don Quixotes, 10 Arm Circles (Forward/backward), 15 Imperial Walkers, 20 SSH

Slightly longer mosey over to Reveille Church Pavilion. Pair up in Pavilion and do 5 rounds of one partner doing 10 Abyss Merkins while the other partner did SSH. With the heart rate up, we then did a Triple Check with one man doing dips, one doing LBCs, and the pacer running the loop of the parking lot.

We moseyed back to the tennis courts at Mary for some Tracers. One round down all 4 courts, one round back. Up to the net, back to the service line, shuffle along service line, up to middle of net, shuffle to far side, backwards to baseline – repeat on each of the 4 courts.

Final test was under the Pavilion at MM where we paired up again with one partner doing 10 Pole Smokers the other doing Lt Dans – 5 rounds. Much discussion was had about the poles. When done, we were at time and moseyed back to the flag.

Numberama, Namerama and YHC took us out.

We welcome FNG Chipper who was dubbed “Fargo” very quickly and without any debate (thus backblast title). Fargo has never seen “Fargo” the movie so he has some homework. Welcome Fargo! Hope to see you out again soon.

A good reminder was shared by a couple of the Pax. You never know when or what someone is struggling with and they may never tell you – unless you ask how they’re doing. Check in on your family, friends, coworkers – just say hi and ask how they’re doing.