Author: Rosie

  • Slowly up the hill

    We went down the hill and then we made our way back up. That is all – end of backblast.

    Not really, it was a challenge to remember all that we did but here is my best recollection.

    After NTB warned Rev that ‘Rosie’s a runner’ and Gumbo provided a correction that you never know what you’re going to get with Rosie at the helm, a mighty 15 took off in a slow mosey down the hill.  The cul-de-sac was much further than I remembered but we made it in tact.  #16 arrived after a brief search of the AO.

    Warm up starting with DQ (you’re welcome Last Call), Ukrainian Soldiers, Imperial Walkers, SSH, Shoulder Taps, Peter Parkers, Tempo Merkins, Freddie Mercuries and LBC.  After rave reviews of the low rep/good form at Dogpile YHC tried to recreate a similar beatdown to work our way back up the hill.  Exercises included lunges, no-cheat (HRM w/ shoulder tap) merkins, American Hammers, bear crawl, crunchy frogs, 30 seconds of curb taps, reverse lunges, copperhead squats (add the twerk, if needed), single leg squats, werkins, heels to heaven, and burpees.

    Mosey to the ramp railing for an indigenous jerkin run.  Everyone hang, those with long arms may have a cheat code, man at the end does 3 jerkins (chest to bar) and run to the front – 2 rounds.  Mosey to the box office for diamonds merkins, WWII, wall sits, questionably cadenced hoe-downs, and high donkey kicks.

    Mosey up the stairs to the next level for more lunges, stagger merkins, and varying speed flutter kicks – the only exercise with high reps and obviously a crowd favorite.  Up to the next level for bear crawl, crab walk, reverse lunge, and plank jacks.  Mosey to the flag for a ring of fire but first, we have to scratch the itch for arm circles – do them in a boat position, legs raised, back off the ground – forward and reverse.  Solid flair during the ring of fire with some Chuck Norris, HRM, Hitchhikers, single leg, and others.  Stretch it out to close out the full 45.

    NMM

    Minimal running today but solid work by the PAX on a beautiful late summer morning.  Chatter with other PAX recently have lamented the lack of good form in some exercises.  Sometimes it good to do high volume, fast, and to fatigue but there is a lot of benefit to getting it done right– including a lower risk of injury – and sometimes that takes lower reps. 

    Solid chatter around the PAX this morning but I missed most of it trying to think of what to do next. Go out and get better today, it takes effort but the PAX is there for support.

    Announcements –

    James River Float Sunday at Huguenot Flatwater

    F3RVA 10 Year – Friday 9/20 and Saturday 9/21 events – see pre-blast.

  • Dogpile Classics

    5 Dogpile regulars joined YHC for some of the Dogpile Classics. Chatter around the flag continued through the mosey to the circle and into the warmup with most of the exercises done In Conversation instead of in cadence. Mountain climbers shut down the chatter and the workout was on.

    Avoid the tall grass and downed branches on the way to the Rusty Cage for 3 rounds of a Murph starter package. 5 pullups (assisted if needed), 10 Booya merkins, and 15 jump squats. Finding the trail helped on the way back to the amphitheater. Going up the stairs working on low reps, good form with a variety of exercises on each step – merkins, dips, lunges, WWII, capping it off with burpees. Down to Posh’s garden which needs some attention for the start of Love Hill. Runner to the gate – rotate through lunges, Polar bears, broad jump burpees. Since the amphitheater was such a hit, we had to go back down with the same stuff – low reps, focus on form. Back to the flag for some stretching to close out the hour.

    Lots of good chatter this morning with some OGs at Dogpile this morning.

    Labor Day Convergence tomorrow – 7am Nuckols Farm Elementary

    We talked about how it doesn’t take much for a guy to slide out of the routine and get into a Sad Clown cycle. If you’ve read the backblast this far, reach out to a couple of guys that you haven’t seen in a while, F3 or not, invite them to Labor Day or the 10-year or just check in. It doesn’t take much but it may mean more than you realize.

  • F3RVA 10-Year Anniversary

    F3RVA 10-Year Anniversary

    Gentlemen of F3RVA – you have been hearing announcements, you’ve seen the T-shirt orders, and heard bits and pieces about the 10-year F3RVA anniversary. F3 was started in Richmond 10 years ago with what F3 Nation referred to as a ‘Leap’. They found a few local contacts to get something started and built it out with Charlotte PAX coming up for a Q-school and preliminary workouts before passing it off to the locals on 9/20/2014. Thanks to Big Data (ahem, Splinter), you can read all that happened that day here: https://backblasts.f3rva.org/2014/09/20/old-dominion-welcome-to-f3-nation/ I am sure you will recognize a couple names in the PAX list. After that inaugural beatdown, the PAX from RVA took off and have helped bring F3 to all of us in Richmond, plus assistance in launching Hampton Roads and Charlottesville.

    Events for the weekend are below:

    • Friday 9/20 – Weekend Kickoff Happy Hour – 5pm at Casa de Snuff in Bon Air – 2032 Buford Road – 5:00-7:00pm – Park at BACA or St. Michaels
    • Saturday 9/21 – Workouts at Dogpile
      • 5am tentative Early/Premature Beatdown/Run/Smokefest – Big Rig will be leading this – don’t miss a chance to get the day started right
      • 6am – Pre-Run and Ruck options
      • 7am – Main Event – 10-year Anniversary Beatdown – Special Guest OG Qs
      • 8am – Stick around for post workout refreshments
      • 8am – Team Brightside Fundraising and F3RVA awards
    • Saturday 9/21 – Family Cookout – Huguenot Park at 1:30pm – all PAX and families invited

    This is a special event, we have all been fortunate to have the F3 community in our lives so let’s use that weekend to celebrate and energize us to keep giving it away. We want to get as many guys out as we can so start headlocking now – reach out to any guys that may not be on Slack or don’t post very often, they won’t want to miss this.
    More info to come on details. Reach out to me or Gomer if you have any questions.

    Most importantly – Put 9/21 at 7am on your calendar and someone else’s! Let’s GO!

  • Slow and easy but also flat

    The call for an easy Sunday Run was put out and the PAX delivered. Despite the lower humidity we found the flattest roads in Salisbury, including where YHC grew up, and kept it slower than usual. The runners even beat the walkers/ruckers back, that’s what I call easy. The consensus is we need more of the slow pace long runs. Time will tell if we keep to that, I know Honeymoon will approve.

  • First Watch is Overrated

    The cars kept rolling in at WaThoHuk despite the locals’ insistence that there are only a few regulars. Discussion pre-workout centered on the typical WTH routes and also furnished the BB title, stated by a PAX not to be named but is older than YHC. Hint, all but Hops are older than me. After ensuring Pigskin that he would not need a head start or directions we headed off into the gloom.

    Around the bus loop and to the track behind the school. No warm up (this is a run) let’s dive right into the Mega Beast. Run the track stop every 100m for 6 reps, finish the lap and reverso stopping at the same spots. 1/2 mile per round. Exercises were jump squats, merkins, WWII, Monkey humpers, Carolina Dry Docks, and Heels 2 Heaven. Hops was a little disappointed that burpees was not the last round but today did not feel like a burpee day. A group lap and extra lap around the parking lot got us to 4 miles total.

    Phonics and Hops set the pace and the PAX enjoyed Olympic related chatter across the board, including disadvantages of using additional poles in the pole vault or the American 1500m winner. Good luck to Hops, visiting from C’ville and providing continuing education to the attorneys of the world. Look for him again in the coming months – we’ll make sure to have some burpees for you next time. The sign up on the Q sheet threw the regulars out of sync with an SOJ/Summer Tourist Q and downrange and DaVille PAX too. Thanks for letting me take the lead and fill in as Q for the morning.

    Announcements – Westhoe Lunch next Tuesday; Others – See Slack

  • Toga’s Time Bomb

    7 strong from across RVA joined YHC to avoid potential injury on the Ultimate field and instead opted for potential injury from excessive KB work.

    Vague recollections of a Circus workout by Toga years ago and YHC playing with the ‘Workout’ function on my watch led me to the Time Bomb. After a brief warmup we got to the main event. 6 exercises – 30 seconds each; rest between exercises decreasing from 30 seconds down to no rest in 5 second increments. For those not wanting to do the math, that’s 7 rounds. Exercises were Swings, Press, Goblet Squat, Halo, KB merkins (one hand on KB), and Sit and Press. Lots of good shoulder work against Dumar’s Dr.’s orders.

    Farmers walk around the parking lot and circle up for some Mary – beginning with the Alabama Honeymoon – the advanced KB version of the APD. Add some flutters, some complicated KB American Hammers, and a few regular APDs to close out the time.

    NMS: Excellent muggy morning to get some KB work in and for those that didn’t want to run, this was the workout for you. Welcome to B.O.B. – 2nd post in 2 days, great to have you out. Hopefully Hermie doesn’t need to do too many root canals today, the arms may be a little dead holding them in someone’s mouth. Despite moving to the City, Gumbo still found his way south of the river, just can’t take the SOJ out of him. Nancy may be starting a Pre-Pre-early Wood workout of Sitting 2 year-olds starting at 3am – be on the lookout for the pre-blast.

    Announcements:

    Float the James – Sunday Aug. 11 – See Meatball

    Sat. Aug. 17 – Pickleball Tournament – See Oyster

    Wednesday Aug. 21 – Upchuck’s 100 @ First Watch

    Wed. Aug. 28 – Magnolia Green AO Launch

    Monday Sept. 2 – Labor Day Convergence – More info to come

    Sept 20-21 – F3 RVA 10 year anniversary festivities

  • Irish Exit

    Tobit was expecting to slink away to Charleston with minimal fanfare but Boberry thwarted that with a TwinTeam slack post that brought out a few well wishers. Despite proposed redirection and uncooperative joints, the PAX was able to make a trip up Twin Team hill so Tobit could bid adieu.

    THANG

    Mosey to the bus loop for some standard warm fare. Before we leave the bus loop, we checked in on an old favorite, the curb crawl – up to 4 repeat 4 and back down. Consensus was it still sucks.

    Mosey to Twin Team – up the hill with 5 jump squats and each mailbox. Mary and the top – roll back down with 5 merkins at each mailbox. At this point with YHC bothered by a trick knee we settled in for some plank/merkinrama in the cul-de-sac until the shoulders were sufficiently worn. Next some extended Mary until enough groans and feet slapping the ground were heard. Bullseye may have been the only one appreciative of the non-running portion of the beatdown.

    Mosey on back to the flag for some additional Mary before time is up.

    NMM

    Our man Tobit is headed south as a Lt. Col. in the unorganized militia of South Carolina where he will learn the ways of F3 Charleston and Slack buzz from Cal Worthington, dress in snazzy uniforms, teach maths and other numbers to the youth, and enjoy a new level of humidity among other things. Good luck Tobit and we’ll see you on the Farewell Tour over the next 9 months. The expected rain did not materialize at the AO although I think we would have welcomed it by the end of the workout. I appreciate the PAX picking up the six, YHC, as I struggled through the morning. The support across the board is always welcomed, appreciated, and well received. Individual goals for F3 vary man to man, but overall the mission does not change – Plant, Grow, Serve.

    Announcements – Pool Boy VQ, Holy Water, Paddle, Float, and lots more. See Tryhard’s or Upchuck’s recent BBs but note the date of the 10year convergence is 9/21/24 not 9/28.

    Thanks for letting me lead.

  • Coldest water fountain

    3 walkers and 2 runners got a hot start to the morning in Midlo. Boberry and YHC found the Salisbury water fountain cold as usual about halfway through the 7 mile jaunt. According to Aisle 5’s step counter, the walkers logged 3.5ish miles. Typically, the 2nd F was just as good as the 1st.

  • What’s the Rollercoaster again

    4 swift of feet headed out for Week 2 of the River Run return. With the goal of reminding the PAX of the regular River Run routes after last week’s OG, this week was the Rollercoaster. For those that need a refresher – 4 mile is out to Robious, left on Riverdowns South Drive, Left on Queens Grant Drive, right at the top of the hill on Royal Crest Drive, turnaround at the Riverdowns South Drive and reverso. 5 milers add the loop around the school at the beginning of the end. More than 5, continue past Riverdowns S Drive to the former casa de Gumbo or further.

    A pleasure to return to this as an official AO and chase Doozy up and down the hills. Looking forward to some alternative slower recovery day options in the not to distant future.

    Next Monday – 6/24 Alamo for Wildcat Bday Q

    July 4th convergence at Batteau, 7am

    Lots of other things on the agenda for Summer – keep an eye on Slack for more info

  • Does Bear mean the same as Beaver

    4 summer tourists and 7 locals met up ina parking lot in Mechanicsville to see what the SOJ Q had in store. According to Phonics’ 2.0, here is what went down.

    Start in front of the Middle School for warm up, DQ, Helicopter, SSH, variety of Mary and merkins.Mosey to the middle school track for Dirty Macdeuce – 12 reps of arms, abs, legs then a lap, repeato x4. Round 1- HRM, WWII, copperhead squat, 2- T-Merkins, dying cockroach, monkey humors, 3- stagger merkins, gas pumps, lunges, 4- merkins, leg lift, jump squat.

    Find the shaded parking lot for a Dora. Runner runs down the short hill and bear crawl back. P2 does 50 Makhtar N’diayes, 200 LBC, 300 curb toe taps. Wall sit fun for the camera. 2 rounds of a Ring of Fire. Merkins and Mary and close with some stretching and chatter.

    Thanks to Heist, Blue Moon, and Upchuck for joining me on the tour and the DaVille guys for showing up in force. The workout was great but the coffeeteria may have topped it. Good to chat with Blue Moon and learn a little about Phonics’ shoes. Excellent finish to my SOJ takeover week at DaPile.

    2.0 workout at DaPile next Saturday

    6/24 at the Alamo, be there for Wildcat

    More info on the 10year convergence coming, save the date 9/21/2024