Fourteen runners + two bikers ran and rode today. Some started early while others showed up to a Q-less RAMM. YHC took control and spouted out an easy one.
East on Grove North on Malvern Cross Broad, Cross the Bridge East on Laburnum 6s briefly went North on Hermitage
Out in 23 minutes back in 22 minutes.
Announcements and YHC took us out.
Announcements – Best wishes to Gomer as he heads out on mission. Safe travels! – See Offshore for info on 10k support for the Healing Place. – Stay away from the Capitol on Monday.
Whose roads these are I think I know Ten men with TYA thinking he was the bro; Splinter trumps, all PAX belt out a cheer Intervals were the way to geaux.
Turning left up Ridgeway to the top we steer Three times repeating YHC commandeered Roads were a river, almost a lake Difficult, but not quite Mount Rainier.
Back down Roselawn, we jiggle, we shake TYA glasses turned opaque. Only two times up that Roselawn heap Then turn right for goodness sake.
Three times up Toana and nary a peep, U-Turn down Campus needing a Jeep, Two times up Bostwick before I sleep, Two times up Bostwick before I sleep.
Eighteen shivering somebodies emerged from the headlights with unabated excitement for today’s iteration of 45 Minutes of Mary. After minor banter about the possibility of the tuckahoe early risers leaving a deposit in Saab’s driveway, the PAX scurried off to the center of the basketball courts for:
The Thang Short mosey over to Reveille via Willetta and Ashlawn for a field trip, stopping at the Cary St side of the parking lot for our first segment of fun with partners. Wait a few seconds for Lab Rat’s mumblechatter to subside before relaying instructions:
Partner up. One partner does flutter kicks while the other partner runs to the first line, does 1 burpee, and comes back. Second partner also runs to the first line, does 1 burpee, and comes back while the first partner does flutters. Continue, adding a burpee and a line until you get to the end. 6 total lines. Kind of like a line drill but with burpees and a partner. This worked out well with little added instruction needed. Brief plank time while everyone finishes.
Mini fun run to the circle and find a new partner. One partner lines up around the arc of the sidewalk and performs WWIIs while the other polar bears around the circle. Complete 3 times before gathering the pax with various exercises including Al Gore, Donald Quixotes, and finishing with Cherry Pickers in cadence. Yes, cherries grow on trees.
Scurry out the parking lot and away from Reveille via Antrim by mixing in backwards running and forwards running until we got to the first parking lot by the greek church. Quick virtual high-five to BT who is apparently in Vegas but was with the PAX in spirit today. Triple up for triple check with boxing cockroaches while the third partner karaokes to the end of the parking lot and back. Three times. Plankorama led by Bodos for those who wanted to listen.
Time left over for some 4 corners with 4 corners of 10x merkins with various forms of running between corners. Second iteration alternate between merkins and jump squats before gathering the pax and heading back to the VSF.
Numbers (18 of them in fact), names, and then YHC took us out while a man and his dog awkwardly stared.
Moleskin Lots of mumblechatter this morning as we had a vocal PAX. Energy level was high for an off campus field trip. YHC enjoyed the different scenery and hopes the PAX didn’t wake up too much of the neighborhood.
Great to see some old faces in a new year.
Flipper is only moderately upset with YHC for not accepting his JMU fight song challenge. Check out Facebook for his attempt to go viral.
Saab tried to get some extra stretching in but YHC surprised him with a Saab sized portion of SSHs during COP. Quick reaction time promptly got him in position to continue.
Announcements – See DTH for tshirt orders. Countdown is on! – Winter tour is live and free! – Slack is free! – JMU plays at noon on Saturday on yes, ABC
Fourteen able bodied gentlemen gathered just in time for instructions to today’s edition of Spider Run. Moon Pie appeared just in time to hear instructions that made no sense. Regardless, off we went for a relatively error-free route that included:
The Route 4 milers – Head west towards the baseball field, up in front of the Robins Center and left on College. Right on Lakewood. Right on Wood. Left on Beechwood. Left on Westham. Cross River and head down South Ridge. Left on Westham Station and work your way back to the commons via the main entrance on River Road.
5 milers – same as 4s except add the down and back Ross after you cross over River.
6 milers – same as 4s except add the Cameron to Culpeper jug handle before heading down and back Ross. Also add Old Bridge to Highland on Westham Station.
Very few announcements then YHC took us out while making sure the seals heard our prayer.
Moleskin Relatively uneventful Spider Run today. Very methodical execution from the PAX. Hitchhiker is building towards something as he ran from his house to Spider Run and then back. TClaps for seriously putting in the miles these days.
Six mile chatter centered around snow sports and the desire (or lack thereof) to participate. The steeds lost me on Highland and YHC was left with his thoughts the rest of the way.
Lug keeps pushing it too. He added Ross but didn’t quite see the bottom.
Swirly wore his favorite shirt but that didn’t keep him from getting temporarily misguided on Ross.
Welcome Moon Pie to his first Spider Run (YHC believes). Upon declaring his name during pre-run introductions, Hitchhiker came out of the blue and asked if Moon Pie had ever been to China. Stealing a line from the #daville regulars, “As usual, I have no idea what that means.”
Eleven 12 Days of Christmas dodgers huddled, backs to the lake, to avoid the lake effect wind. Today was YHCs gift to the PAX, extra miles to push ourselves heading into the holiday season. After BT confused Saab with references to Bavaria, YHC gave instructions, which went something like this:
The Route Everyone head over the bridge in front of the Commons, left up towards the Chapel and right on UR drive. Continue to River, left on River, cut through the shopping center, right on Huguenot and across the bridge. Loop around to Riverside, left on Riverside, right towards Flatwater, left on Riverside.
4 milers – continue on Riverside and turn around at Rivercrest for an advertised 4.5 mile route.
5 milers – continue on Riverside until it turns to Hickory. Stop when you get to Cherokee and return the same way for an advertised 5.5 mile route.
6 milers – continue across Cherokee, right on Rustic. Left when that ends, left when that ends, left when that ends and return via Hickory and Riverside for an advertised 6.5 mile route.
Numbers, names, pause for a brief announcement from Saab (that never came) and then YHC took us out.
Moleskin YHC wanted to push it a little this morning so apologies to the PAX for dragging you along my desire to do more. Pushing beyond our normal distances is good from time to time to see what you body, and mind, can tolerate.
Routes were a little shorter than advertised but still longer than normal. A feat not often realized by the PAX today.
Lockjaw has the Q for RAMM Friday. What could he have in store???
Ten plump turkeys strutted their way over to the parking lot for this week’s iteration of Hoedown. Nary a mention of the Redskins today so off we mosey’d to the front of the school, passing the neon ladies, for something that went like this.
The Thang Mosey back over to the blacktop for Lindsays. Squats and straight up merkins. Run the distance of the blacktop between sets.
Scurry over to Linsday Ct for repeating iterations of catch me if you can. Partner up with one partner doing 5x burpees while the other Bernie Sanders up the hill. Burpee-er catches Bernie by running forwards then switch. Recover back down the hill and repeat 2x with WWIIs and Jump Squats.
Meander through the darkness towards West Drive Circle, stopping at the circle. Since we lost Toto we could safely complete a triple check. LT Dans and WWIIs while the third runs the loop.
Dosey Do back to the AO proper, stopping at each mailbox and performing 5 merkins. We completed 0 merkins.
Audible and ramble down Hepler, stopping at each lamp post or house light and perform 5 merkins. Collect the PAX at the bottom and then run back to the VSF.
Sequentially declare our position, state names, announcements, random thoughts by Offshore and then YHC took us out.
Moleskin Great job by the PAX this morning, enduring another Splinter workout with no theme nor reason for leading.
YHC forgot that Westham doesn’t have mailboxes (at least none at the street) but a SNAFU was avoided by modifying to lamp posts.
Mumblechatter was minimal this morning. Everyone appears to be ready for the week of giving thanks for all that we have.
Announcements
Celebration of gathering at Berkeley plantation is at 6am on Thursday morning at Mary. 1 hour special.
Eleven runners plus four on rubber didn’t really gather at 530 and everyone did a variety of things.
Due to limited numbers at 530, YHC called the negative split route up Commonwealth and east on Monument. Turning around at 23 minutes and getting back in 22.
The original intent was to do Fartleks. Sippy showed up right at 530 and YHC was able to convince him that Fartleks were the way to go. So, 15 minute warm up followed by ten 1 minute pickups. 1 minute hot at a faster than 5k pace followed by 30 second recovery. Do this for 15 minutes then cool down for 15 minutes on the way back to RAMM.
RAMM is very scattered these days. Early starters, modest numbers at 530, then there is always a good contingent of gears folks. Still always good to see everyone.
Make sure you come out next Thursday for a fake news history lesson on Thanksgiving. See TYA for details.
Also, black friday shopping starts at 7am at shelter 1 in forest hill park. TYA has coupons.
Everyone reach out to someone they haven’t connected with in a while and just give thanks for being a part of your life.
Thirteen randomly dressed middle aged men assembled near the high pitched hissing generator for today’s 45 Minutes of Mary. Many wondered if it would be 45 minutes of merkins given the gauntlet thrown by El Doctor on the other side of the river. Alas, no gluttony, just a healthy dosage of merkins.
Mosey over near 2nd base on the blacktop for today’s rendition of COP which went something like this:
SSH x25
Merkin x1
Copperhead Squats x10
Clerkins x2
Imperial Walkers x15
Werkins x3
Russian Soldiers x10
Stagger Merkins x4
Arm circles x10 (no big ones)
Stagger Merkins x5
Mountain Climbers x10
Merkins x6
LBCs x20
Clerkins x7
Jump Squats x10
Werkins x8
Helicopters x10
Stagger Merkins x9
Lunges x10
Stagger Merkins x10
Quick jaunt over to the east end of the field via the west end of the field. Continue the escalating merkin pattern with sprints across the field. Sprint across the field, do X number of merkins, 20 leg exercises, 30 ab exercises then sprint back and repeat, adding 1 number to the merkin count each time. Planks and Señor Gore’s between even sets to collect the PAX
11 merkins, 20 jump squats, 30 WWIIs
12 merkins, 20 jump squats, 30 WWIIs
13 diamond merkins, 20 lunges, 30 flutter kicks
14 diamond merkins, 20 lunges, 30 flutter kicks
15 werkins, 20 reverse lunges, 30 american hammers
16 werkins, 20 reverse lunges, 30 american hammers
17 stagger left merkins, 20 mountain climbers, 30 ab exercises of some sort
18 stagger left merkins, 20 mountain climbers, 30 ab exercises of some sort
19 stagger right merkins, 20 squats, 30 freddie mercuries
20 stagger right merkins, 20 squats, 30 freddie mercuries
Jovial saunter and circle up around the pull up bar for ring of fire. 5x pull ups while plankorama ensues. Hitchhiker awarded the Merkin Presidential Award to Swirly during the process.
Cozy little stroll back to the VSF for 21 merkins since we had another minute.
YHC forgot to prompt for announcements but we counted our digits and proclaimed our given and re-given names before YHC took us out.
Moleskin Quite a lively crew today and Marv took much of the brunt of pre-launch banter due to his choice of outfits. That and his appearance for Mary which used to be a staple of his. Glad to have you out.
Other poking and prodding of individuals was limited during the workout until the end when TYA’s math skillz were highlighted. Proud of his ability to recant Gauss’ formula and his overwhelming confidence in his correct answer that the number of merkins performed was 210 for the day, YHC gave him the opportunity to think about his answer and then call me later in the day to discuss. After showing his math, TYA did realize his mistake and the walls came crumbling down. My attempt to be gracious in victory was overwhelmed with TYAs desire to be right.
231 gentlemen. Even Carl the kindergartener could have figured that one out.
Fourteen fleet a foot plus one on two wheels and birkenstocks huddled and waiting for rain that never happened. After some finger pointing as to who had the Q, YHC proclaimed he grabbed it last night. Routes were as follows and then a prompt 0530 departure courtesy of TYA.
Routes Meander through campus towards the River Road exit, crossing through the shopping center and across the bridge. 4 milers complete the cloverleaf and then return. 5 and 6 milers go downriver (east). 5s take the first right onto Oxford and then another RIGHT onto Arrowhead. Continue up to Cherokee and return via the same path. 6s continue on Riverside then right onto Rockfalls followed by a slight left onto Hill Rd. Continue to the top near Lewis and return the same way.
Numbers, names, 2 announcements from TYA + 1 proxy announcement from TYA before YHC took us out.
Moleskin Wonderful morning for a run, with fall temperatures sticking with us long enough to get a run in. Energy level was high and the 6 milers shot out like a gaggle of geese during hunting season. Great work to all.
Sippy disclosed post run that he was planning a route across the bridge and through Oxford but YHC beat him to it. Apologies but there are plenty of opportunities coming up to do a little exploration.
Announcements
It’s Saab’s birthday and he’s celebrating in his favorite place on earth (Vegas)
Black Friday loops in Forest Hill Park. 7am start. See TYA for deets.
Lug is going to crush the half marathon this weekend. Give him some kudos when you see him
Fifteen intrepid nincompoops met at the commons today for another set of seventeen turns to complete a Spider Run. Someone stole the last parking spot by the lake which resulted in YHC driving in circles today. PSA – you must arrive early to Spider Run to get a prime spot.
Regardless, we did a big loop today. 6 mile loop is above with 5 miles coming back on Lakewood and right on Westham. 4 milers stayed on Westham the entire jaunt south.
No one was lost. Bleeder actually knew which direction he was heading and the 6 milers were “late” by 15 seconds back to the VSF.
Lots of random runners out there but no Keymaster sighting.
Prayers go out to Marv and his family. The PAX is all thinking about you.
