Author: Purple Rain

A cool, overcast morning with a tight-knit group of 5 rock n’ roll veterans. YHC did not show up with much in the tank, but we ended up having a tough beatdown anyway. 7 o’clock. Time to do what we came to do.

Mosey to the tennis courts. Standard warm up, a little shorter the usual.

11s across the tennis courts. Imperial squat walkers and scrunchy frogs. Nice.

A brief mosey past the dog park to the first pavilion. Deep dish called triceps dips on the tables, partner runs some distance and back, then swaps out. Three rounds.

Mosey into the woods on one of the trails. Steamer calls exercise bank. The PAX total their reps together to achieve a cumulative 80 merkins, 200 crunches, 300 monkey humpers.

Mosey further into the woods. At the top of a steep hill, I made the mistake of asking Melville what was next. 11s, again. Burpees at the top, hand release merkins at the bottom. Melville misread my joke that we should bernie from the bottom of the hill to the top, and that became an audible. About halfway through the 11s, Melville swapped hill bernies for walking lunges. Brutal. Thanks, Melville, for turning up the heat and making us work!

Longish mosey BTTF. Perfect timing.

Names, numbers, announcements.

Memorial Day convergence going down, location TBD. The choice is probably between dogpile and Brown’s Island if I had to guess. Keep an eye on slack.

I never regret attending a workout, but I do regret fart sacking. When my battery is low, there are always other PAX at a beatdown who have a full charge. They challenge me and restore my fire. Keep doing hard things, keep challenging the PAX and yourself. When you call an exercise and hear groans, pat yourself on the back.

Thanks for letting me lead you!

We had a visitor from downrange. Chowda, a Boston native, can’t remember where he resides now. Good dude!

Mosey to the tennis courts.

Overhead stretch, dead man hang, cherry pickers, helicopters, arm circles, Michael Phelps, SSHs, copperhead squats, merkins, the wife stretches, tempo Freddie Mercurys, APDs

Dora on the tennis court.

100 chain smokers, 200 SSHs, 300 plank jacks, runner around the perimeter of the courts

Mosey to the big parking lot next to the concessions stand.

4 corners, not lady of the night style. 10 burpees, 20 spiderman merkins, 30 Carolina drydocks, 40 merkins

Down by the ball fields:

10 dirty hookups, 10 derkins (merkins w/ feet elevated), 20 dips on the bleachers, repeat 3x

Short mosey into the woods.

Dora. 50 pullups, 100 imperial squat walkers, 200 jump squats, runner to the trailhead and back.

Five minute mosey BTTF.

That’s it, fellas! Great effort today. Thank you for letting me lead you. Until next time!

Windy morning today. Outwear became sails as they caught gusts. Great to see everyone, especially SinBin and Rosie, rarely seen at RnR.

Mosey to the concessions stand seeking wind relief. Andy Dufresne, helicopters, dead man hang, SSHs, Ukrainian soldiers, plank jacks, copperhead squats, merkins, Freddie Mercurys, box cutters, the wife stretches.

Mosey across the parking lots into the woods. Triple check. Runner to the trailhead and back. Pullups and merkins with feet elevated.

Mosey out of the woods to the base of the grassy hill leading up to the lot. Run from the bottom of the hill to the top, 10 burpees, and run back down. Ran back up and down the hill 4 more times. At the top were 20 jump squats, 30 merkins, 40 scrunchy frogs, 50 SSHs. Walk back up the hill to arrive at the edge of the lot.

Partner up. Partner 1 begins bear crawling across the lots headed for the concessions stand. Partner 2 runs across the lots, tags the concessions stand, and runs back to their partner. Partners switch places, 2 bear crawling, 1 running there and back. Walking lunges across the lot also performed while partner ran. Also, broad jump burpees. Kind of like love hill, sprinkled with the hardest mile.

At the concessions stand, balls to the wall, 10 in cadence shoulder taps, 20 in cadence hoe downs, 20 OYO APDs. Repeat 3x.

STILL time on the clock. A 6 pack. It’s like 11s, but with 6. Running across the width of the lot, exercises were imperial squat walkers and V-ups.

Mosey BTTF.

Tomorrow, Sunday, 3/29 @ 2pm, family ruck/hike in Larus Park. Meet at the outdoor green space next to Gelati Celesti (3004 Stony Point Rd). Ice cream hang after the ruck.

Prayers for Tin Man. I have a lot of respect for Tin Man, he’s quiet, reliable, works hard, shows up consistently, and he’s in terrific shape. A solid HIM. It freaks me out when someone like him has something like this happen. Prayers for healing, for his family and medical team. Speedy recovery, brother!  

Thanks for joining me, fellas. A pleasure to lead and put in work alongside you!

Facing unrelenting peer pressure, plus an anonymous PAX signing him up to Q, Pierogi took the reigns and led us. An FNG came along for the ride. Here’s what happened.

Mosey to the parking lot across from the dog park. Disclaimers provided, sufficient to cause even the most litigious personal injury attorney to pass on a case. Cadence is counted differently, apparently, depending on your country of origin, but the faithful PAX followed Pierogi into parts unknown.

SSHs, dead man hang, arm circles, merkins, LBCs, Roscoe’s mom.

Mosey to the tennis courts. Four corners, Polish style.

Corner one: 5 merkins. Corner two: 5 merkins and 10 squats, return to corner one for 5 merkins. Corner three: 5 merkins, 10 squats, 15 heels to heaven. Back to corners 2 and 1. Basically prostitute style, but with cumulative exercises. Corner four: 5 merkins, 10 squats, 15 heels to heaven, 20 LBCs.

Pierogi didn’t write this backblast, so he will have to settle for my poor recollection of his deeds. We did a bunch of stuff in the big parking lot: sprints, merkins, LBCs, lunge walks, side shuffles. Different, in good way.

Concessions stand next. Some stretches for our burning legs, then three rounds of 10 donkey kicks. One minute people’s chair, quick rest, and mosey BTTF.

A quick stretch at the flag and time called.

Names, numbers, announcements.

FNG David found us online and self radicalized after listening to some Dark Helmet podcasts. He hung in there. A friendly dude, he’s on the carnivore diet and lost forty pounds over the last year. Even more weight over the last couple of years. He bears a striking resemblance, mostly his hair and beard, to Michael McDonald. And so he was named Michael McDonald. YHC was sad to see most of the PAX unfamiliar with who Michael McDonald is.

We all enjoyed Pierogi’s beat down. Variety keeps things interesting, and many hands, e.g. many PAX willing to Q, make for light work.

Nice morning today. Feels a bit like spring. Enjoy the weather this weekend fellas!

At seven sharp, ten pillars of masculinity sprang into action with a quick mosey to the tennis courts. Long warmup, and it went like this:

SSHs, overhead stretch, overhead triceps stretches, helicopters OYO, dead man hang, cherry pickers, copperhead squats, plank to shoulder taps, merkins, plank jacks, Michael Phelps, tempo Freddie Mercurys x 30, the wife collection of stretches, the Hermey stretch

Finished with appetizers, we moved on to:

11s lengthwise across the tennis courts. Groiners and imperial squat walkers.   

Run to the concessions stand. Make our way over to the new ball fields, coming along nicely! I can almost hear the crack of a ball off a bat. We tested the fidelity of the newly installed backstops with:

People’s chair into hoe downs (20), dirty hookups (10), dips (20), repeat 3x

10 recovery burpees (just normal burpees)

Mosey across the parking lots, down the gravel road, into the woods. Triple check:

Runner to the trailhead and back, merkins, pullups in sets of 3 to maintain good form.

Long ish mosey BTTF.

Circle up. Moving clockwise around the circle, each PAX calls an exercise and rep count. We made it fully around the circle before time called.

Names, numbers, announcements.

Prayers for RC’s mom who is doing better, and for Big Rig’s mom.

Coffeeteria at Mugshot Coffee afterward.

Thanks for joining and great to see everyone!

The title says it all, a good summary of this morning’s events. Make today great!

Just kidding.

I arrived at 6:59:30, and some folks pulled in a little past that. Instead of running away from our tardy F3 brothers, we started with some SSHs in the lot until everyone assembled. Right. Let’s get to it!

Mosey to the tennis courts.

SSHs, Andy Dufresne, some overhead stretch I don’t know the name of, helicopters, dead man hang, cherry pickers, copperhead squats, tempo merkins, tempo Freddie Mercurys, Roscoe’s mom, super mans, butterfly stretch

Four corners, prostitute style.

10 LBCs, 20 super mans, 30 SSHs, 40 groiners

Mosey to the concessions stand.

Starting at the bottom of the steep hill next to the ball fields, 10 Lt. Dans, then bernie up the hill. Once at the top, 20 hoe downs. Finally, balls to the wall, and 20 double-count, in cadence shoulder taps (“chicken pickers” I’m told, it may have been “peckers”). Repeat exercises 3x.

Mosey to the edge of civilization. Bear crawl down the steep hill.

Mosey into the wilderness, to the workout equipment just inside the woods.

Exercise bank.

Form a circle, I call out an exercise with some absurd number of reps. PAX adds their reps together, it’s a cumulative total, like a dora. One PAX at a time falls out of the circle, performs 7 pullups, then falls back in. Pullup participants in sequential order clockwise around the circle.

200 burpees, 500 American hammers double count, 700 APDs.

Long mosey BTTF. Arrived just in time.  

Names, numbers.

Announcements:

• Rodeo Clown is participating in a charity hike this April in Shenandoah National Park. He’s seeking co-participants and/or sponsors. RC described last year’s charity hike as, “The best hike I’ve ever been on.” Contact him if interested.

Prayer requests:

• Big Rig’s mom starting chemo next week
• Rodeo Clown’s mom doing PT, relearning basic functions like walking, etc.

YHC took us out.

The absence of prayer requests is a blessed thing. Sometimes it takes something going wrong in your life before you realize what was going right. Don’t let that be the case. All of us have an abundance, and the best things in life are free. If you had a billion dollars, you’d still have a house (maybe multiple houses), a car (maybe multiple, expensive oil change-type cars), and “stuff.” None of it matters. In hundreds of years, we will all be dust like the great kings and pharaohs of the past. More money, more problems. Diddy said that and look where he’s at.

I’m thankful for you guys: motivated, hardworking, tough, servant leadership-types. And let’s not forget funny! My spirits are always higher after leaving an F3 workout.

Thank you for letting me lead you guys!