Author: Marv

  • Hoe-T Potato

    It was a collaborative effort this AM in the gloom of Tuckahoe Elementary and Hoedown. An absent Q left 7 of us making it up on the fly…and making it up on the fly, we did.

    The Thang…

    Handshake took us on a nice little jaunt to the east side of the Walgreens parking lot. COT with some side straddle hops, Donkey Hoteys, LBCs, calf stretches, some LBCs, Mercans.

    The PAX then stayed and did a 3X Check…jog around the pharmacy, while the other two did dips and hand release mercans.

    EF Hutton took the spud from there and we headed back to the TES parking lot. This was a Dora with pairs. Bernie up the concrete hill three times while we did 100 Imperial Squats, 200 Monkey Humpers and 300 SSHs.

    From there Bodo’s took us to the black top where we did a 4 corners. Burpees, Mercans, Carolina Dry Docks, Squats, maybe another one.

    YHC, took us out at the end with some American Hammers, 1 minute of elbow planks, Alabama Prom Dates and one (1) Richard Kimball.

    Fun mumble chatter on the way to Walgreen’s about the morning Conspiracy showed up 90 seconds late at Munford and TYA basically took the Q to the Museum District to workout. Conspiracy had brought props and wasn’t really all that happy with that.

    We’re thinking about our friend Chippendale and hoping Wojo is doing fine.

  • March Madness Westham Style

    How’s your bracket looking? No, not your men’s bracket. Your women’s NCAA bracket.

    To honor the other March Madness Tournament (quick factoid…did you know that this is the first year the women have used March Madness for marketing their tournament? Depending on what half hearted internet research you do, you may find that the women originally didn’t want the phrase…that they wanted to do their own thing. That’s changed in recent years and now it’s all under one big March Madness Umbrella).

    Anyway, to honor that bracket, we figured we’d all run through the women’s college part of the Westham neighborhood (although I don’t believe any of these colleges are playing this weekend in the D1 WBB Tournament).

    The Thang…

    Head towards the baseball parking lot and get to college (street number one with college ties). Take a right on University (street #2). Take University to Westham Parkway (street #3…West Ham College of Technology is in London).

    From there…hang a right on Baldwin (Street #4).

    4s–Right on Rock Creek (not a college). Right on Sweet Briar (Street #5), right on Woodberry (Street with college ties #6). Take that to Horsepen. Horsepen to Devon. Devon to Ridge Top. Left on Chandler. Right on Gardiner. Gardiner more or less dumps you out on the trail connecting to College. Head south on College through the baseball parking lot and back to the flag.

    5s–The head to Hollins (Street #7). Right on Hollins, right on Woodberry, right on Sweet Briar back to Baldwin. Baldwin to Brookside (probably a college somewhere, right? #8). Brookside to Bryn Mawr (definitely a college #9). Bryn Mawr to Woodberry. Woodberry to Horsepen. Horsepen South all the way to the dorm cut through…back to the flag from college.

    6s–Same as the 5s but then left on Devon, right on RTop…left on Chandler. Up Chandler. Back down Chandler. Left on Gardiner. Gardiner to College from the trail…from there, we were supposed to go up Boatwright…instead we just went to Towana and came back to the flag that way.

    Lots of Hills. Go Baldwin!!

  • It’s Still A Triangle, People

    Fourteen dudes showed up at Mary Munford’s Elementary School on a warmer March morning (it was 27 degrees on Tuesday, 62 today…life in VA is never dull) for a jaunt around the southside of Cary Street (which, by the way, is closed for the next few months west of MM. Keep that in mind).

    The route was an oldie but a goodie through Windsor Farms and then Hillcrest…for more detail…

    4s, 5s, 6s

    Take Kingscrest to Malvern. South on Malvern until it dead ends in Windsor Farms. Take a left on Canterbury and circle around to make the Millenium Falcon lookin’ design on your MapMyRun app. Don’t take your first left on Dover, but take your second (Dover cuts through Windsor Farms). That runs you into Lock…right there there’s a cut through that gets you on to Pocohontas.

    Head West on Pocohontas and then north on Hillcrest Avenue.

    4s head out of the neighborhood at the top of Hillcrest. Take Oak to Harlan to Patterson. Patterson to Commonwealth and your back at MM.

    5s take another lap around Hillcrest and then leave the neighborhood like the 4s.

    6s take that same lap, but then head back up via Charmian to Cary. Uturn on Cary back south on Lock. Left on Dover (again) and then left on Berkshire. That leads you out of the Wonderful Windsor Farms neighborhood and to the Flag.

    I hope everyone has a good weekend. I’m looking forward to trying to catch TYA on Tuesday.

  • Friday Trail Run (for 8 feet)

    Once again, YHC busted out the ol’ Windsor Farms to Hillcrest route…and I’m pretty sure, once again, I got one direction wrong out of the multiple twists and turns. I was very disappointed Bodos wasn’t there to not run the route explained…but then again, I got a direction wrong, so maybe it was for the best.

    I do think one of the reasons for the confusion is that as a former left handed pitcher, I truly don’t know my left from my right. I struggle with it constantly. Probably somewhat hazerdous when giving directions. Next time, I’ll just say “reverse Carrilon”.

    Here it is…

    Take Wilmetta to Kingscrest to Malvern. Go right on Malvern into The Farm. Take a left at the dead end in the Farm and run around the Millenium Falcon loop. Bypass your first Dover left, but take your second. From there, cross Locke Lane and get on Pocohontas by going off road for about 8 feet…between two big wood poles who were obviously placed there for such a run.

    4s–Y’all don’t actually get on Pocohontas, you take Locke all the way to Patterson and then east on Patterson to Commonwealth…it’s about 4.2

    5’s and 6’s–Pocahontas down to Hillcrest.

    5’s–Take one lap all the way around Hillcrest and get out of the neighborhood, across Cary to Oak and Oak to Patterson. Patterson all the way to Commonwealth. It’s about 5.2

    6s–Take two laps on Hillcrest and come up on Charmain…Charmain turns into West Moreland. Hairpin to go South on Locke then left on Dover….get yourself to Mary Munford as quickly as you can from there.

    Gents, on Friday the Rams play UofR at the Siegel Center. It’s been previously noted how I like to circle the arena the Rams are playing in on gameday. If anyone wants to do that Friday when the Rams play UofR…it’s a 7.2 mile jaunt from Munford to Siegel…circle Siegel and come back…all on Monument. (you can head north to Monument from Grove on any streets, really…I’m heading north on Malvern, then coming back on Commonwealth.

  • The Walls Come Tumbling Down

    We’re going to begin this morning by turning in our bibles to Joshua 6:1-27….the Old Testament story about the walls of Jericho. Most are familiar with the story, if not, it’s a quick and good read. There’s some legit OT stuff in there about war and God’s power, and marching.

    Traditionally, if it is all logistically possible, on VCU Gamedays, I try to enact my own walls of Jericho situation by jogging around the arean in which the Rams will be playing later that day. Road games in general are hard to win, so I’m not always successful but it has led to some cool runs over the years including, but not limited to…

    That arena in Maui you watch the games from during Thanksgiving. Atlantis. Over the Brooklyn Bridge and back to Brooklyn on the Manhattan Bridge. St. Lake City (where the Utah Jazz play). Portland on the Portland River (where the Blazers play). Key Biscayne in Miami. Alamodome in San Antonio in 2011 on the run to the Final Four.

    Anyway, in full Jericho tradition the PAX ran 22:30 towards the Robins Center to get ready for the Richmond Area Honda Dealers Capital City Classic and then 22:30 back to Munford. Splinter and YHC were actually able to make it around the Robins Center and circle it. No trumpets were blown and no walls came down, but we SpiderNation should know we were there.

    Have a good weekend, fellas.

  • First Class Run

    Still not really even a hint of Fall in the air as 12 guys took their running talents through the hills of the Lower Tuckahoe neighborhood.

    By the way…how about the new lights around the pond at UofR?? It’s like running in the daylight…for real. There’s lights and then there’s LIGHTS…and UofR went all in on their LED lights around the pond. Bravo.

    Our route…

    –Towards the baseball field. Through the parking lot to College. Left on College and Right on University. Take University all the way to Ralston. Left on Ralston. Ralston ends at River…go right on River.

    The 4s…they are a bit like Moses…they get to the edge of the Promise Land (in this case, the Promise Land is Windsor on the James, which, if you own a house in that neighborhood and want to sell it, would be the Promise Land)….anyhoo, they get to the Promise Land and double back.

    The 5s get to go into the Promise Land…do a lap around the neighborhood…and double back.

    The 6s go into the Promise Land…do the lap, double back until Westham. Left on Westham, right on Baldwin, Right on Wood, Left on Lakewood. Right on College…then a lap around the pond…where we saw the incredible lights.

    YHC took us out.

  • It’s a Bear Thing

    A, reportedly, record breaking 14 men were seen in the gloom on this sub 60 degree, well before the crack of dawn, First Watch.

    An interesting note before we get started…

    –Who knew that some of the guys really do get together at 4:30 for Yoga. Here I was, this fledgling member of First Watch, thinking that the chatter on the text was pretty much tongue in cheek. No Sir. When they say that they are on the mat at 4:30 am, they are on the mat at 4:30am. I would say that I would never do that…but then again, I can remember thinking that I’d never do First Watch, yet here I am.

    It’s been awhile since YHC, HC’ued a boot camp style workout. When I say awhile, I probably mean over three years. Reading that in print is pretty embarrassing, YHC needs to probably jump into that a little more. That being said, we decided to go THEMATIC for the morning…”Build a Bear”.

    The Thang…

    The morning got off to an auspicious start with a huge freaking crane where we planned to circle up to warm up. That moved the circle to the relatively damp grass in front of the soon to be under construction church (either that or someone just left a crane there).

    10 Donkey Hoetees. 10 Helicopters. 20 Side Straddle Hops. 15 arm circles forward, 15 arm circles backwards. 10 mercans. 10 Ukranian Freedom Fighters

    Mosey south on River to Country Squire Lane.

    The “Build A Bear” instructions were, apparently, lacking to some of the Pax and the mumble chatter ramped up a bit. Fair enough. Essentially, we were going to do three different sets of partner exercises on three different hills around the neighborhood…each having to do with a bear (Bear Crawl, Crawl Bear (thanks for the assist on that one Kubota), Polar Bear). Whichever “Bear” exercise you did for your first one, you could NOT do at the next location. Had YHC had to do it over again, he would’ve said “We are going to three locations over the course of the Q, this is our first one, you have to choose one of the three Bear exercises…whichever one you choose, you cannot do in the next two heats.” But it didn’t come out that way.

    Handshake mentioned that while YHC can run fast, I’m not that efficient. That’s been a lifelong struggle, but I also invite Handshake to run with me on Friday morning for 45 minutes.

    The Q went up the Country Squire hill by the Goodwin house, which I think is finally finished. Or maybe it’s close to finished and they just park their crane by the church on off days.

    Q then went down Westham Station road and “Built the Bear” (get it?) on Overlook Drive.

    Arm Circles and Mercans at the bottom of the hill.

    Q then went up Westham Station road and “Built the Bear” up to Ross.

    Arm Circles and Mercans at Ross.

    “Built the Bear” (the 4th time, alternationg from Polar Bear to Bear Crawl to Crawl Bear” back to Country Squire Road.

    Executed three Richard Kimballs on the way back to the flag.

    COT–Iron Cross, 20 American Hammers, Spell “Build a Bear”, Superman’s (with song), 10 Mercans

    YHC Took Us Out.

    Great to have Monroe visiting us from Wilson, NC.

  • Always Be Tapering

    A week ago coming down Westham Station road, before we plowed up Panorama Drive, Faceplant said to no one in paticular “it’d be nice to see the sunrise on one of these runs” as he stared off over the Huguenot Bridge.

    He was right. It would be nice to see the sunrise as it seemed we were right in the sweetspot of a 6:15am peak above the horizon by the sun. Thus, YHC, sent 15 men over the Huguenot Bridge this morning in search of that picturesque scene that all of us could enjoy, despite the oppressive humidity.

    As it turns out, it was raining this morning.

    And also, I feel like we’ve missed the window for the sunrise, at least for the time being. Or maybe there really was never a window and the lights we saw last week were just the lights from the Huguenot Bridge. Either way, we’re going to have to wait to see the sunrise at another time.

    With the BRR this weekend, YHC thought it’d be a good idea to give everyone a nice, flat, tapering run to get all those participating in peak physcial shape for their mountainous journey Friday & Saturday. (For the first timers, the best route is the one that starts in Boone and heads down the mountain…especially if you get to do it in the middle of the night. Actually, all middle of the night runs are really cool).

    The route–The basic up river route. 22:30 out and 22:30 back. Bat cave to Huguenot Bridge…right on the ramp off the bridge then a left on Riverside. That takes the 6s to Rustic, which sucks out loud when you take it up. Then we all come back to the parking lot.

    Faceplant reminded everyone of the Beer Mile on the 29th of October.

  • That Thursday that No One Signed Up to Q

    Coming off a Q-Less RAMM on the 29th of July, 45 MOM wouldn’t be outdone as it was Q-Less as well. (Speaking of “XXX-less” I highly recommend “Smartless” if you are into podcasting and you like to laugh.)

    I’m pretty sure Hutton took the first 20, Chippendale the next 20 and YHC took us home. I do remember making everyone do two (2) Richard Kimballs…which truly are the worst.

    Tough couple of days for Proud Mary…being left at the altar by the google doc. Fortunately she had better days ahead.

  • One Day in July When No One Showed to Lead

    What do you do when 17 men show up on a July Friday to trundle around the City of Richmond and no one is there to lead them? From what I remember (it was over a month ago) I’m pretty sure everyone went their own way on this Q-Less Friday.

    The 6s did the Bodo’s Run…which takes you through Windsor Farms then down Pocahontas to Hillcrest. Couple of loops around Hillcrest then back up Charmain. Charmain turns to West Moreland and then you hairpin on Locke. Locke to Dover and then back to the flag. It’s the Bodo’s Run because there’s always some consternation from our friend named after the bagel shop when we run it as a group.

    Not sure what anyone else did.