Author: Sippy Cup

It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.

— Herodotus

The THANG

Mosey to the circle with snow shovels in hand for a snowy COP.  Dig out a spot for 25x SSH, 20x Russian Soldiers, 10x Merkins.

Starting at the road circle, scoop a shovelful of snow and run to center of circle, dumping it there, run back to starting place.  Repeato ~15x.

Mosey to center of circle.  Shovel to make the mound larger, and then, Bearcrawl from the edge of the circle to the mound and then do 5 Derkins with feet on the mound.  Bear Crawl back to edge.  Repeato 3x.

10x slow bending squats with shovel overhead.  10 x slow bending squats with shovel overhead filled with snow.  Al Gore with Shovels at shoulder level gripping and pulling apart hands until the 2^nd crew arrived.

Split up onto groups.  2 guys run around circle while the rest build up the mound. Swap roles.

Mosey with shovels to the area west of the carillon for Touch a Tree.  Touch 3 trees, then 5, then 10 trees each time returning to starting position and planking.

Mosey to pullup bars and plant shovels.  Navigate the trail down the pipe to the road.  100 LBCs OYO.  Run up the pipe to the pullup bars and hold body aloft on parallel bars until all PAX arrive.

Down under pullups to failure on parallel bars.  Plank, 10x Merkins in Cadence.  Down under pullups to failure. Plank, 8x Merkins in Cadence.  Down under pullups to failure. Plank.

Mosey the area behind the amphitheater.  20 Donkey kicks on the stone wall followed by balls to the wall while we wait for all of the sleds to be gathered and the last 2 Pax to arrive.

Sledding on Jacob’s bowl.  Sled down, run up opposite side for 4 minutes.

Mosey back to flag for COT.

Moleskin

Unlike many workouts, the adventures began before the workout started.

YHC arrived on foot about 15 minutes early to Dogpile this morning to see one car in the lot waiting and a Woodfin truck, Swirly’s, leaving the AO (more on this later).  The other vehicle, belonging to Circle K was a nice shelter from the snow and ice while we waited for the rest of the Pax to arrive.  Circle K stopped by 7-11 on the way in and said the cashier was mystified that he was on his way to an outdoor workout.

Just before 6, Splinter and Honeydo arrived, and we started the workout on time with our shovelfest.

About 8 minutes in, a clown car of Saab, Lockjaw, Fudd, and Offshore pulled in and joined us.  TYA and Swirly came 40 minutes later and participated in the donkey kicks and sledding.

It turns out that Swirly had left the AO in order to rescue TYA, who had ended up in a ditch.  He didn’t make it very far from his house, only getting a few yards up his street before sliding off the road into a ditch.  TYA was the only one who braved the elements in a small, non 4×4 vehicle.  Foolhardy New Englander!  Anyway, using a tow strap Swirly eventually was able to pull him out and they were able to get his car back into the driveway.  He will get some grief from M TYA for this one.

Attire:  It was interesting to see how the PAX dressed for the snowy conditions.  Honeydo came robed in his military fatigues, but most PAX wore snow pants and ski gear as well as boots.  YHC wore running attire, running shoes and thick wool socks, which were great for mobility but NOT insulated enough once we stopped moving.  TYA came with plastic grocery bags tied around his ankles that inflated somewhat when the wind caught them just the right way.  Hmm.

Audibles.  YHC was not planning on running up and down the pipe due to darkness, but the snow made the trail completely visible, and beckoned to him.  Fudd did not approve of this decision, but we made it out okay, except for one spill.  Also, the pullup bars were slick with ice and impossible to grip, so we, at Fudd’s suggestion did down under pullups instead.

Spills.  Despite the slick conditions, only two PAX bit it during the workout as far as YHC is aware. Splinter took a fall on the trail, and YHC fell down a few feet from the flag at the end of the workout.

Fellowship.  The conditions were harsh, but everyone was in a good mood after the workout.  In fact, everyone stuck around for at least 15 minutes in the cold to catch up. At one point, we all realized how crazy we were and retreated to our cars.  Even YHC opted for a ride home–thanks Saab!

Crazy.  YHC’s M commented last night that “you’ve finally found a group of guys as crazy about working out as you.”  I concur and am still amazed that 10 of us showed in snow ice and wind.  This week should be a fun one too.

Announcements.  It looks like a group is meeting on Sunday at 7 at Tuckahoe Elementary for an impromptu workout. Check with Saab or TYA for details

8 Pax gathered on a surprisingly warm mid-December morning.

The Thang

COP:

Arm circles w/o cadence switch directions and angle of palm on Q’s command.  Imperial Walkers 20x, SSH 20x, LBCs 20x, Mountain climbers 20x.

Mosey to the star for a tower workout.  Pair up, bunny hop up stairs and proceed around the back of the carillon until you meet your partner, then proceed doing the backwards version of the exercise until you reach the steps.  Run back down the stairs to the star.  1st Bear Crawl/Crawl Bear. 2nd Duck Walk/Backwards Duck Walk, 3rd Crab Walk/Backwards crab walk, 4th Lunges forward and backwards.

Mosey over to pullup bars.  Partner up.  Do max pullups + 5 with help from partner.  Switch roles.  3 sets.

Mosey to the carillon field for 4 Corners Choose Your Poison.  For each evolution, the Pax chose arms, legs, or core.  Once chosen, the pax did the same exercise on all 4 corners.

Rnd 1: Arms: 10 close grip merkins; Legs: 10 Storm Squats; Core: 10 cross leg lifts.

Rnd 2: Arms 20 merkins; Legs: 20 Ball Dippers; Core: Freddy Mercury.

Head over to Vita course for Burpees or a 1 mile time trial.  Each Pax could choose to do 100 burpees or run around the vita course (1 mile) at max pace.  The Burpee group’s goal was to complete their 100 Burpees before the last runner completed the circuit.

Head back for ~100 meter sprints.  1 at 50%, 1 at 75%, and 1 at 100%.

COT

Moleskin:

Last week YHC learned that the rest of the PAX places bets on when he’ll show up (as I’m usually one of the last guys to post).  So this morning, I arrived early and snuck up on the gathered PAX taking a running route that placed me behind Swirly’s Woodfin truck.  I enjoyed the extra few minutes of joking in preparation for the workout and will plan to arrive early more often.  Aisle 5 was in a particularly jovial mood and asked me if I ever stop flexing my legs.  Nope, permanent flexion. Actually, I would gladly exchange my rippling legs for those 6 inches longer.

For the workout, YHC chose the pick your poison so that he could avoid doing any Merkins as his pecs and back are still sore from the 5000 Merkin challenge.

We were able to calibrate our 1 mile times to a new metric–which I will call the Wilson Burpee Scale (WBS) .  In this first iteration, the numbers ranged from 80 to 110.  YHC finished in 80WBS, Rosie ~85 WBS, Grizzly came in at ~100 WBS, and Aisle 5 was at 110 WBS.

It is great to see that Winstons is becoming a Dogpile regular.  He particularly impressed today on the Carillon exercises.  And, Rosie and Aisle 5 have some serious wheels on the sprints.  Aisle 5’s back stride is particularly impressive on those all-out sprints, I think his heel comes almost as high as his head!  I’m still in awe of Blood Test and Grizzly who push themselves hard and earn their Respect/Respect and Respect, respectively.  Swirly, as usual rocked the Pullups and Merkins.

This was a tough workout, but you guys are a pleasure to lead.  Good attitude, guys!

Announcements:

It is Virgin Q week!  Lab Rat on Sunday, Circle K on Monday, Rosie on Tuesday, and Aisle 5 on Wednesday.

HDHH will happen on Wednesday.  Lockjaw is in charge–

11 Pax joined us on a crisp fall morning.

Sippy Cup leading:

COP

SSH x 25

Russian Soldiers x 20

Arm circles OYO big/little, backwards/forwards palms up/down

Merkins x 12

Russian Twists x 30

Peggy Flemings (new calf burner exercise)  Balance on left leg with right leg out in front of you ~ 6 inches of the ground.  Hold.  On Q’s command swing the right leg back behind you while bending at waist to maintain balance.  Hold.  Repeat front and back one more time.  Switch legs and do the same with the right leg straight and left leg off the ground.  10-15 seconds per hold was a good challenge.

Mosey up to top of carrilon steps for a 4 corners.  10 Burpees, 20 Ball dippers, 30 Merkins, 40 LBCs all on the carillon platform.  Bear crawl between corners, rather than run.

Mosey to Hate Hill.  Exercises: Lunges, Walkout pushups, Duck walks, repeat

Run up pipe and when you get to top do an isometric hold with locked arms on the parallel bars while waiting for the six.

Wilson leading.

Diagonal 4 corners (run along short end of field, sprint diagonally).  Exercises all x15 (LBCs, Right cross leg lifts, Left cross leg lifts, heel touches (from crunch position)).  Done 2x.  Finish things off with 10 pickle pounders in cadence.

Dealers Choice Ring of Fire.  Each man calls out exercise for person to his right.  When dealer calls bonus, everyone does the exercise.  Exercises included: burpees, merkins, Carolina dry docks, Scorpoin dry docks, Peter Parkers, Mountain climbers, Parker Peters and some others.

Partner up for Pole smokers x 15.  Finish off with 50 Merkins.

Mosey back to flag.

COT

Moleskin:

It was nice to have out of town guests Sir Topham Hat, OBT, Disney, and Exeter from Charlotte with us today.  They have family in Richmond and are up for the Thanksgiving weekend.  Have a safe trip back gents.

Peggy Fleming is worth doing again.  The credit for naming Peggy Fleming goes to OBT.  There was a lot of laughter during this exercise—some of the Pax are balance-challenged, and others became balance challenged when they were laughing at those who were.  We tend to lack calf-specific exercises, so this is a good addition.

Part way through Hate Hill, several Pax relayed the message that there were dogs and “Look out for Bobo.”  As it turned out, halfway through our exercise a man had pulled up in a pickup truck and had let out his dogs.  The first two dogs were unchained didn’t care at all that we were there, and YHC and TYA, who were running together, wondered what the big deal was.  As it turns out Bobo, the third dog, was chained to the truck right near the gate where our turnaround was.  As TYA approached the gate, Bobo him know with a vicious bark and snarl that getting any closer would be very unwise.   Everyone gave Bobo a wide berth after that.  “Look out for Bobo” became a workout theme.

During the 4-corners diagonal exercise, Aisle 5 seriously impressed with his speed, blowing away most of the rest of the PAX.  Wow!  Sir Topham Hat, Disney, and Rosey also brought their wheels.

Not all of the PAX made it up to 50 Merkins to finish off the workout—but we are getting stronger and even to suggest this exercise several months back would have been laughable.

YHC’s choice of Hate Hill was a bit questionable since it was still kind of dark.  It would be best to move that to the end of the workouts until the morning light comes earlier.

Good work guys!

65 degrees on a cloudy morning—very warm for November

COP

Russian Soldiers 15x, Imperial Walkers 20x, A number of variations of arm circles, LBCs 30x, Merkins 10x

There and back: A series of exercises moving forwards to the center of the circle and backwards to the edge.  At each direction change do 5 merkins.

1. Bear Crawl/Crawl Bear 2x
2. Forward Lunge/Backwards 2x
3. Crab walk forwards/Backwards 2x
4. Military crawl forwards/backwards 1x

Hate Hill—partner up.  1 partner runs to the bottom of the hill and back, and the other does an exercise.  When the runner reaches his partner they switch.  Cycle through: 1. Lunges, 2. Walkout pushups, 3. Broad jump burpees.  When both partners reach the bottom of the hill the exercise ends.

Run up the pipe

Pullup bars At pullup bars do sets of: max pullups + 5 jump up lower down, max decline Merkins with feet on parallel bars, and 20 mountain climbers.  ~3 sets.

Mosey Back to Flag

COT

Moleskin:

We gladly welcomed back Standard time with some nice exercises on the hills and trails in daylight!  The fall colors in the woods were quite amazing also.

This was a pretty punishing workout with lots of cardio and not a lot of rest.  A Sippy Cup special!  The last sets of pullups/merkins especially generated lots of groans and moans.  Solid work gents!  I noticed there were no double-dippers today, so YHC thinks he did his job!  Post workout YHC went home and fell asleep on the couch.

It was great to have Wilson and Aisle 5 back with us after a several week hiatus.  It was Marv’s first time to join us too, and Lab Rat’s second.  It was great to have you guys  We welcome FNG Winstons, who received his name because he is a pulmonologist at VCU.  I had a nice talk with him post workout and while exhausted, he had fun.  Good encouraging atmosphere, guys!

For those of you statheads:

Merkins: here’s my count: COP—20, There and back—90, Walkout pushups ~20, Decline merkins (YHC had 60).  Total 180ish.

Running—we ran about a 5K during the hour.

Five of the faithful gathered in the cool, surprisingly non-humid morning for a beatdown.

The THANG

COP

Russian Soldiers X 20, Arm circles, Torso circles, Don Quixote x 20, Merkins x 10.  LBCs x 30.

Mosey over to the western edge of the fitness course for the “Cinco check.” Similar to triple check, but with 4 exercises (Alternating ring pullups/squats, Merkins, Jumping Lunges, Carolina Dry Docks were spaced out over 1/6 of a mile along the fitness course.  1 Pax at each exercise and 1 running from the Dry Docks back to the starting pullups.  Each pax did each exercise 2x.

Mosey to the Amphitheater for Pac-Man.  1 Pax, the Pac-Man, started with an incline plank in the middle step at the center of the Amphitheater.  The remaining Pax (Ghosts) started in decline plank at the far end of the Amphitheater.  Pac-Man tried to reach the far end without being caught by the ghosts. Both Pac-Man and Ghosts could move up and down or right to left, but maintained their orientation throughout the exercise.  Repeated 5x so each Pax could be the Pac-Man.

Jacobs Bowl.  Ascending 1-7 Burpees at the top of the hills.  Bear crawl up the hills, and run down.

COT

Moleskin.

It was a smaller group today–many were participating in the Rugged Maniac or were away.  The five PAX really put in a solid workout.

YHC turned the triple check into the cinco check on the fly as we had 5 Pax.  The increasing number of exercises and longer distance between each exercise meant the Pax had to do many more repetitions at each station.  All stations were very tough, but it seemed that the Carolina Dry Docks registered the most complaints.  Burn, shoulders, burn!

Just like in the real Pac-Man game, Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde, improved with each subsequent screen and finally caught Pac-Man Swirly on the last round.  The Ghosts were aided by Swirly’s flesh wound sustained when his feet slipped and shin banged into a stone step.  This exercise was fun and has a lot of future for add-ons and upgrades.  Glowsticks for power ups, Ghosts descending from both directions, multiple Pac-Men, etc!

Announcements:

You can check all of the other backblasts for the standard October races.  In addition splinter will be hosting a 2nd F gathering at his house on 10/21.  Look at the pre-blast here.

 

 

 

9 of the faithful gathered on a beautiful, fall day to play around at the #Dogpile.

The THANG

Make a loop around the field and then:

COP:  25x SSH, 25x LBCs, 25x Imperial Walkers, 20x Freddy Mercuries, 12x Merkins, 5x Face Jacks (new exercise, see below)

Mosey to amphitheater for decline plank-o-rama.  Plank facing stage with feet on steps behind.  Move right, left, down, up, or turn180 on Q’s command.

Incline Merkin ladder— start at stage and go from 1 to 15x and back down to 1, ascending one step each time up to 15 and then descending a step back to 1.

Jacob’s ladder—run up and down stone steps.  At top, do 1 Face Jack, repeat up to 7.

Head down trail at the base of the stairs to the narrow wood bridge the site of: (A) 3 sets of 10 wide grip dips on the bridge rails, and (B) Parallel bar style walking with hand across the bridge rails.

Mosey to the pump house.  Run up hill to pipe, run up pipe and down trail to the pullup bars.  8x pullups, and 16x down under pullups, each exercise twice.

Mosey back to flag:

COT.

Moleskin.

YHC’s gimpy calf prevented a typically Sippy Cup hill-style workout today, so he opted for less running and more upper body/core work, stealing some workout ideas from BT and DK.  Fortunately the calf loosened up a bit during the workout and is feeling somewhat better tonight, but is still quite sore from Friday’s beatdown trying to stick with Marv and Saab.

Face Jacks—these are similar to plank jacks, except you move both your arms and legs back and forth in the plank position, just like you are doing a SSH except parallel to the ground.  We found these to be tough, as each time you basically have to jump up off the ground like an insect while you move your feet and hands into their new position.  Kudos to Wilson whose long frame required extra side-to-side movement, and who, unlike Fudd, kept his six low to the ground for each rep.  Unfortunately Conspiracy was not around to compliment his form.  Post-workout YHC thought Face Jack was a good name as there were comments about the risk for face plants after each rep.  I’d like to see TYA try these!

Welcome to FNG Lyndon (Iditarod) who was quite impressive on the pullup bar—I think he ended up doing 4 sets in the time it took the rest of us to do two.  YHC asked him later how many pullups he could do—his max is 33!!!! Seriously strong dude!   He got his name as he is serving in the military and is about to be posted in Fairbanks for the next 3 years.  Wilson invited him as his mom cuts Wilson’s hair.

As always, it was great to see both Aisle 5 and Blood test who are now becoming regular Dogpile Pax.  And, Viral was back too, after an extended summer hiatus.  Good work to day Fella’s.

On a wonderfully cool and non-humid morning 6 Faithful gathered for a beatdown at the Dogpile,

The Thang:

COP: SSH (25x), LBCs (25x), Imperial Walkers (25x), Merkins (15x), Freddie Mercury (20x), Plank pushups (10x each arm).

Whamo springs:  One Pax throws frisbee–everyone sprints until Frisbee lands and does an exercise until reaching the disk.  Exercises included: Lunges, Crab Walks, Bear Crawls, Broad Jumps, Duck walks, Walkout pushups,

Jacob’s Bowl:  Run down hill, Bear Crawl Up, 1 x Burpee, repeat up to 7 Burpees.

Hate Hill–Aka, Love Hill starting at the top and ending at the bottom.  Partner up–one partner runs down then up hill, and the other partner does exercises down hill until they meet.  Flapjack.  Exercises were: Lunges, Duck Walks, and Broad Jumps.  Mosey to the pipe.

The Pipe.  Run up Pipe Hill and then do 3 sets of: Pullups (8x), Australian Pullups (10x), Merkins (20x)

Mosey to the flag

COT

Moleskin:

Strong work by the Pax today.  Aisle 5 continues to improve and made a particularly strong showing as did Blood Test who back for his second workout.  Swirly and Wilson also showed bursts of speed and almost caught the Frisbee during different pulls.  It was nice to have HoneyDo back from his vacation.

There was some mumblechatter surrounding the downhill lunges which were much tougher than expected.  There was also some discussion about bicep exercises, and YHC was happy to oblige with a pullup-heavy finish to the workout.  And, all in all we ran over 2.4 miles, most of it up and down hills.