Author: Splinter

  • I feel like I worked out with my 2.0

    Image result for workout meme funny

    Wait… I did!

    At least 6 stellar dad’s woke their kids up early for the first Puppy Pile of ’19. It went something like this:

    Mosey to the far circle for COP. The Q left behind his 2.0 for a while. Survival of the fittest!

    COP
    COP stuff. Stretching and warming up the muscles and heart

    The Thang
    Skip-to-my-lou over to the field for multiple iterations of partner carries. Twice the length of the field.

    Slow saunter over to the west side of the Carillon for touch a tree. Burpees, Merkins, SSH, LBCs. Many exercises were had. Wait, was it 1 tree, 1 exercise or 2 trees 1 exercise? Q can help explain. There were some monkey squats in there somewhere too.

    Long shuffle circumnavigating the Carillon and head over the the amphitheater for partner exercises, dips + running, step-ups + running. Maybe some more stuff? I think we squatted over some more monkeys.

    Cartwheel over to the nearest circle for Animal Instincts. Crowd favorites were seals, crabs, worms (audible to elephants). Maybe a few other exercises that the Q can fill in.

    Push and shove our way over to the field for some Sharks & Minnows. Why not? Only (2) 2.0s were injured during this less than desirable exercise.

    A tired stroll back to the VSF for some more squatting with monkeys.

    Did YHC forget anything? Only the Q would know.

    Moleskin
    24 hours is well past. YHC collected as many thoughts as he recollects and captured them here. Marv has officially lost his authoring privileges on the site.

    My favorite quote of the day was when my 2.0 Tidwell (as in Rod Tidwell, call my agent) walked in the door at home and what was the first thing he exclaimed to his family?

    “Guys – that was the most fun I have ever had. I had a grown up knock me over in sharks and minnows!”

    Sorry Sippy, he threw you under the bus.

    Till next time covering for Marv’s backblast…

    Big Data is watching.

  • Celestial Navigation

    Image result for celestial navigation

    Fourteen noble steeds emerged from their chariots eagerly awaiting a Splinter Q. Everyone huddled around before YHC asked, “who has the Q”. Upon realization of YHCs negligence, we settled upon Mount Henrico. Off we went with little instructions and only the simple question, “do you know where you are going?”

    4s, 5s, and 6s were bountiful. Huddle up for numbers, names and TYA insisted on taking us out with his recommendation not to rely on GPS. Good thing it wasn’t designed for military use where precision is important. Saab appropriately interjected with his support for high priced athletic tracking gear.

    Moleskin
    Apologies to the group for not having something more elaborate planned. YHC takes pride in proper preparation and for some reason did not look at the Q sheet yesterday. Had there been even a few minutes more, something else could have been called. I wonder what that could have been? Be forewarned, next time there will be ample planning.

    I am just glad that everyone loves my running routes. They may not be in Lockjaw territory, but the grin on Saab’s face when he hopped out of the car in anticipation of directions (which never came) gave me solace that I must be doing something right.

    Announcements

    • Awesome news but prayers continue for Toto’s family
    • PuppyPile will make is re-emergence Saturday 4/27 at 7:05AM. Marv has the Q. If you see him, be sure to remind him of this fact.
    • Congrats to TYA on his recent accomplishments and PR with the 50k.

    Big Data wasn’t watching very well today.

  • Babbling Brook

    Image result for babbling brook

    A mighty 11 came strolling into a not-so-dark Hoedown this AM for a Splinter led post vaca beatdown. Huddle up to watch Upchuck tie his shoes then off we went down to the bottom of Lindsay for:

    COP
    SSH x20
    Imperial Squat Walkers x20
    Don Quixotes x10
    Arm Circles each way x15

    The Thang
    1k5k. Partner up and one partner runs up to the top of Lindsay while the other does an exercise. Exercises were 100x Jump Tucks, 200x merkins, 300 two-count Freddie Mercuries, 400x LBCs.

    Mosey back to the blacktop for some more March Madness fun. 3 modified line drills on the blacktop, using the basketball hoops as our lines. At each line complete increasing number of specified exercise. 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x. First iteration was merkins, second iteration was jump squats, third iteration (much to the delight of Bodos) was two-count mountain climbers. Much fun was had.

    Bear crawl down the ramp (and via a shortcut if your name is Ronnie) to the cafeteria wall for COT.

    YHC took us out.

    Moleskin
    What a wonderful morning for some light jogging. BT clocked us at nearly a 5k (2.7 miles). We accomplished > 1k exercises so we will call that a wash.

    Great to see Two Can out and about again. Up Chuck was gracious enough to offer a second pair of gloves which required Up Chuck to re-tie his shoes, prompting for a delayed departure.

    The babbling brook was clean and active this morning. Nice backdrop for the 1k exercises.

    Announcements
    Game tonight. Make sure you post tomorrow.

    Big data is (mostly) watching…

  • 4th Annual March Madness

    24 dancers assembled in the rainy gloom for an experience as close to one shining moment as they will get. This was the 4th iteration of this novelty, AKA The Gheorghe Murisan Classic. Here is how it went down, give or take a few “you get the ideas…”

    Mosey single-file over the the illuminated hoops court for layup drill. 4 left handed then 2 right handed before lining up military style on the court. Instructions were followed and off we went.

    COP
    Invisible Jump Ropes x20 (nice Fletch touch Gumbo)
    Don Quixote’s x10
    High Knees x20
    Butt Kickers x15
    Defensive slide with floor slap x10

    Mosey to the end line for a quick line drill followed by a tribute to 3 of the 5 Virginia schools playing in the tournament. Mix in a few line drills in-between specials.

    Kyle Guy Special
    Pair up and complete 106 merkins, 1 for every three he has hit (so far) this year.

    The Justin… wait for it… Robinson
    1347 total points in his career. 13 burpees followed by 47 single count lunges. We stopped b/c I said so.

    The Marcus Santos-Silva Rebound Special
    338 total rebounds in his career so 33 two-count mountain climbers followed by 8 Lt. Dans.

    Tip Drill. It worked this time, except no one can follow directions. Anyway, that was kind of fun. Saab would have loved it.

    Form 2 teams for some risk/reward. Choose one person from your team to shoot, if they make it your team does said amount of merkins and other team does burpees. If you miss it your team does burpees and the other team does merkins. 5 merkins / 3 burpees for layup. 10 merkins / 6 burpees for free throw. 15 merkins / 9 burpees for 3 pointer. My team won, mostly because of Vinny’s banked in 3 pointer.

    Try the 1-1 challenge again. 4 attempts this time around? BT made the front-end one round and was the only free throw made. Lots of burpees, merkins, and squats.

    Form 6 teams of 4. See, math works! Two full court basketball games with two teams sitting out doing WWIIs. If your team wins you stay. Losers bump out. I think we made it through 4 games of about 3 minutes a piece. One game was called after YHC hit the game winner. What, you didn’t see the clock?

    Mosey back to the VSF where YHC took us out.

    Moleskin
    YHC was a little nervous that no one would show today as the weather was brutal for outdoor basketball. Nonetheless, we all adjusted and hopefully had a good time. Kudos to Vinny and Gumbo for sporting themed jerseys, Gheorghe Murisan and Fletch respectively. Wasn’t Murisan a Bullet?

    We always manage to have just the right number of people for a great series of games. One of these days we will play in the daylight.

    Announcements

    • Big weekend this weekend. HH Friday at TCB on Douchee (sic Viral).
    • Bracketology is up. Get your bracket in by noon and pay me your $10. Bragging rights up for grabs!

    Big Data is always watching!

  • F3RVA Bracketology

    Bracket challenge is back again this year. Pretty simple. Give me $10 and you might get it back. Splitting the pot this year to top 2 spots. Yahoo again.

    • 67% goes to the winner
    • 33% goes to first loser
    • $10 per entry by cash, venmo, paypal, zelle
    • bbischoff78 at gmail dot com
    • password is sunny70

    https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/group/126349/invitation?key=74b7ea567bcbe64a&soc_trk=lnk

  • Splinter Tried to Q

    Thirteen brave soles emerged from their car’s, some expecting a Lockjaw Q. Alas, they received a Splinter Q tribute to Lockjaw but in reverse/inverted/backwards order. It went something like this:

    Reverse Pitchfork
    4 miles – Out river road exit, through RR shopping center, down Westham Station, up S. Ridge to the light. Return to the start.

    5 miles – Same as 4 but on the way back hit Old Bridge to Highland

    6 miles – Same as 5 but also add on the other section of Old Bridge and add Panorama. There were a few 5+ folks that skipped the second Old Bridge but added Panorama.

    YHC took us out.

    Moleskin
    Great turnout today on a fabulous morning for a run. There was great admiration and excitement when YHC suggested that he had a route planned as a backup for Lockjaw today. One can only take that level of excitement as a compliment.

    Swirly secured the AO this morning, which included a brief discussion with a security guard about the need to corral a fox on the other side of the lake. Fox, not rabbit. Either way, we stayed away from that side of the lake and enjoyed the sights and sounds of Westham Station.

    Great to be back out there, even in limited capacity. See everyone in the gloom.

    Announcements
    Earth day is soon. Support your local earth by getting yet another free tshirt.

    Mark your calendar for the fall retreat.

    Splinter out

  • You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

    Image result for how the grinch stole christmas

    One shy of 12 huddled around big blue waiting for instructions but they never came. BT proclaimed, “It’s 5:30!” and YHC said, “Follow Me!”  Groaning ensued.

    Mosey by group to the base of Roselawn and Towana and collect the PAX. After the recollection of the good spirited cheer YHC received while trying to help propagate the 12 days of Christmas last year, YHC pronounced his intentions for this year’s 12 days. What better way than intervals.

    We’ve never done 12 intervals before so YHC figured today seemed like a great day to try. There was a warning blast on twitter indicating there was the possibility of mischievousness. Spider Run was the opposite of Christmas today. 12 intervals up Roselawn and Towana is a Grinch’s blessing indeed.

    Lots of recollection during today’s run.  The last time we did intervals at Spider Run was 7/17 in sweltering heat and humidity.  There was also discussion of the newly minted “No Dumping” sign in the vicinity of Fudd’s infamous tron squats.  Glad to see we are welcome in the neighborhood.  I was glad to see that Sippy has overcome the memories of reverse intervals down Towana.  That is a feat likely not to be repeated.

    YHC totaled about 4.5 miles and 552 ft. of elevation gain.  Bleeder managed to mix in a latte between intervals.  The Grinch would be proud.

    Announcements
    – Saab will cover Spider Run next week at the normal time.  Marv is coordinating a possible late morning or late afternoon 2.0 friendly run on Christmas.  Details to follow.
    – HDHH mañana

    Big data is watching…

  • Those Are Mighty Fine Poles You Have

    Image result for line of poles

    Seven south of the river stallions gathered at SoT for a much anticipated (by the Q) visitor Q.  YHC was looking forward to the expedition for a few weeks and it didn’t disappoint.  Mosey down the hill to the middle of the football field for:

    COP
    SSH – 25
    Donald J Quixote – 15
    Russian Soliders – 15
    Arm Circles – 10x & 5x both ways

    The Thang
    Continue to the end of the football field and line up on the goal line for something YHC called Fun on the Football Field. Work down the field to the goal post, completing 100 yards and 100 of the exercise.  Run back to the start and plank for the 6.  Multiple rounds were:

    Round 1 – Stop every 10 yards and complete 10 merkins
    Round 2 – Stop every 25 yards and complete 25 WWIIs
    Round 3 – Stop every 50 yards and complete 50 2-count flutter kicks
    Round 4 – Run 100 yards and complete 100 SSHs

    Saunter back up the hill with an impromptu stop at the nicely spaced poles along the road.  Pole smoker indian run with 5 pole smokers while the rest hold 6 inches.  Complete three rounds.

    Meander towards the back of the school, thinking about the stairs but then calling an audible.  Lindsays (a.k.a Johnsonville’s wife).  Run the length of the parking lot and complete 30 merkins and 10 squats.  Run back then 25 / 15.  20/20, 15/25, 10/30.  Plankorama for the six.

    Quick sidewinder run towards the corner of the school for triple check.  BTTW, mountain climbers and run half-way down the hill to the random school crossing sign.  Why do you need a school crossing sign when  you are smack dab in the middle of school property?  Anyway, that was fun.  Someone was squeaky on the wall.

    Short ROF without singing then back to the flag.

    Numberarma, names then YHC took us out.

    Moleskin
    Thanks to the SoJ regulars for welcoming me this morning.  Always great to see those you haven’t run into in a while.  Also great to see some fresh blood keeping DK honest.  Rooster banter was continued from NoToll yesterday.

    It’s hard to believe no one had found the poles previously.  They are in clear sight and you actually have to try to miss them when running to/from the football field.  Glad I could point out something that hasn’t been done at SoJ before.  Can’t wait for another sub-freezing day to try something else new.

    For those that haven’t made the expedition to SoJ on a Wednesday it’s a great AO.  Small groups will push you even harder.  YHC highly recommends it.

    Announcements
    6:00 Turkey workout at Mary Munford tomorrow
    Someone won DKs survivor pool and it wasn’t me

    Have a great Thanksgiving everyone.

    Big Data is watching.

  • Swimming at Hoedown

    https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fish_out_of_water.jpg

    Ten warriors, sans webbed feet, huddled in the crisp fall air before embarking on today’s hoedown.  Start off with a 3/4 mile run then huddle around the shovel flag.  Resist Conspiracy’s call to number off before tackling this ground ‘n pound.

    The Thang
    Repeat the following x2
    SSH – 25
    Merkin – 10
    WWII – 10
    Copperhead Squats – 10

    Repeat the following x5
    Merkin – 15
    WWII – 15
    Copperhead Squats – 15
    Worm Merkin – 10
    30 second plank

    Repeat the following x2
    Lunges – 10x each leg
    WWII – 15
    Flutter Kick – 30

    Mosey to the wall for triple check.  People’s chair, mountain climbers, and a lap around the loop.

    10x ring of fire then we were complete.

    Numbers, names and YHC took us out.

    Moleskin
    The idea for this workout started a few months ago when my daughter came home from swimming practice and told me they did a boot camp, after their normal swim practice.  She wrote it down for me and I filed it in the backlog for things to get to at an F3 workout.  Today seemed like a good day to test it out.  YHC added the run at the beginning and the triple check + ROF.  Everything else was stolen from her workout.

    YHC must have a reputation for patterns and numbers as the PAX was gleefully attempting to figure out the next exercise throughout the first two rounds.  Then they gave up.  Maybe out of boredom or perhaps out of exhaustion.  Today was no joke.

    For those counting, we did 155 merkins.  Apologies to Keymaster for attempting to run him off the road on Sunday.  It’s nothing against you, YHC frequently attempts to run people off the road.

    Announcements
    – Handshake VQ at Heartbreak tomorrow.  For those that want to run, UpChuck has Spider Run.
    – 1 hour Berkley plantation workout at Mary Munford Thursday morning at 6:00
    – Conspiracy has v1.0 of big data dating back to 2015.  According to his records F3RVA has a 70% abandon rate after the first post.  I think we’ve gotten better since then.

    Big Data is watching.

  • Obstructed Breathing

    12 galloping gazelles, one rover on two wheels, one owl whisperer, and one lanky giraffe gathered in the swamp that was Spider Run this morning.  No one signed up for the Q so YHC enthusiastically called River Run to avoid all the downed trees and power lines.  A few lower body tweaks here and there but no electrocutions.  All in all a successful morning.

    The Route
    Across the bridge.  4 milers do the half clover leaf and return.  5 milers to Rockfalls and return.  6 milers a few hundred yards past the Williams dam and return.  A few spartans braved Custis and reached the summit at Cherokee.  Kudos to Swirly, Sippy and Swiper? who made that decision.

    Moleskin
    The air was thick that day my friend.  Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.  The PAX got about 50 feet out before the great humidity beast appeared before us.  I tell you it was 100% if it was 10%.  As if sensing our presence, he let out a great bellow.  The PAX said… “easy big fella”.  Then as we all struggled, we realized something was obstructing our breathing.  From the path we were running we could see right into the eye of the great beast.

    From out of nowhere, a huge trough of stale air sat on us like an oppressive regime, it opened our pores and we found ourselves face to face with the great humidity beast  We had tears streaming down our faces.  We could barely see it was so thick, but we knew something was there.  So we slogged forward, step by step until we pulled out the obstruction.

    Image result for seinfeld titleist

    Titleist?

    Well, it was not a Titleist out there today but it certainly felt like I was running with an obstruction in my blow hole.  What a ridiculous morning to try and run.  Great job to everyone out there.  Go out and be the best that we can be, this weather has to be past us soon.

    Announcements

    Convergence this weekend, PuppyPile the following weekend, CSAUP 10/20.  Plenty of opportunities for brotherhood and fatherhood.

    #bigdata is watching