Author: THE Yankee Aggressor

  • Sunday Frisbee

    One megastud (and one companion who will not be named) launched for a Sunday run at 6 am and ran for 13 miles.  This megastud started his trail running career less than six months ago and completed a full half marathon this weekend on the trails.  Bootleg is that megastud. He has consistently posted on Sunday’s and on other run days and increased his mileage along the way.  He is prepping for the Patrick Henry Half Marathon in late August and if yesterday was any indication he  will slay the run.

    Since the two early/late runners did not cross path’s with the normal Sunday trail runners, they were deemed to not be worthy of getting credit for the run.  Fair enough, but Bootleg deserves to have his awesome feat from this weekend memorialized.

    Unnamed companion out.

  • Frisbee Free Zone

    9 studs posted on a Friday morning for normal F3 activities, running and biking.  There were 5 runners and 4 bikers.  Routes varied, but lots of hard work was put in.  Swirly and TYA went for an 8 mile jaunt through windsor farms and by the carillon.  Bootleg, Lug Nut and Pullout meandered through the west end neighborhoods to log their miles.  The normal bikers were accompanied by Wedding Singer today who was a hitting RAMM gears as part of the summer tour.  Not sure what kind of bike he had, but I am envisioning a tricycle with big wheels. Great to have Clavin back and the Profit continues to post for the friday morning spins…No tools is a machine.

    TYA OUT

  • Shorts and skins

    7 two legged and one four legged beast posted for a Sunday morning run. Route was across to the buttermilk, forest hill loop and then back on access road.

    NMM

    Great day for a run in the RVA.  Vinny continues to push himself to new and higher heights every week. He found out this week that Forest Hill is a little more challenging than the normal buttermilk, northbankt loop.  But persevere he did…the guy is a beast.

    Great to have Lab Rat back out there today after a little hiatus from the trail run.  Also good to have a college classmate of Offshore’s Lt. Zika out there.  He is a commander in the Health Services and works of the CDC.  Nice guy and a good runner.  Today was his first day out on the trails.  He did well.

    We all stopped at the river on the way home and took a quick dip in the water.  The stop was about 1 mile from the finish.  The water did a good job of cooling the body down, and with the breeze coming back over the bridge, I was almost completely dry when we got back to the car.

    TYA OUT

     

  • A raining day to play in

    5 strong posted on a hot and wet Wednesday afternoon for a run.

    2 big loops for some and 2.25 miles for others.

    NMM

    Great day for a run, and great to have Husky, Kubota, and EF out there with Swirly and I.  Swirly and I were in taper mode (ABT) so we were in a slow mosey mode today.

    Husky is a beast.  He and Kubota put in 2.25 miles in today. 3/4 of a mile more than last week.  When we launched at the beginning of the run, Husky took off like  a rocket.  We chased for a while, but he was on a mission.   Reward afterwards was two pieces of cheese pizza and a juice box (for Husky, I presume).

    TYA OUT

     

  • Three cardinal sins – on day one?

    Six strong posted for a Sunday Morning jaunt on the trails.  The route was north bank to buttermilk  and back.

    NMM

    Sticky morning today, was drenched with sweat five minutes into the run.  YHC opted for the bike shorts and no shirt to start out.  I know that it is not a good look, and I would much rather cover up my 55 year old body…but, the weather dictates the outfit.  The rest of the PAX started with shirts on, but finished the day shirtless.

    Saab’s M has been hitting the trails for the past several months.  He finally convinced her to give it a go with us.  After throwing up upon seeing my outfit, she did well.   She has run the full monty of the trail several times now and is improving every time.  She got the name tourist as she spends a good amount of her time noticing everything along the way.

    Tourist broke three cardinal rules today.  YHC didn’t call her out on it as it was her first time, but can’t resist here.  First, she took a short cut.  We never, ever take short cuts.  Walking is fine, declaring a different route at the beginning is fine, taking shortcuts is never fine.  Second, she didn’t declare her shortcut, so the PAX was temporarily unaware of where she was.  Saab did a long back run until he realized what she had done.  Always tell someone if you are going to divert to a different path.  We leave no-one behind, but finding you is difficult if we don’t know where you are.  The third rule is while you are on the trail, you are to take in the ambience of the trail, see the scenery, and let go of the outside world.  About 2 miles from the finish she got a text and actually stopped and answered the text.  A reminder to everyone here, she is Saab’s spouse.  WHAT THE HECK, he gives me crap for listening to my iPhone on a 100 miler to distract myself.  A 7 mile run and your answering text’s?

    Ok, having said all that it was a pleasure to have her out there with us today.  The trail run is open to any and all comers or any skill or ability.  Come one, come all….it is a blast (and we will teach you the rules along the way).

    TYA OUT

     

  • Holy flock of wool batman!

    3 rested and ready posted on a Sunday morning for some fun on the trails.

    We went buttermilk to northbank this morning, crossing back over on the T. Pottersfield bridge.

    NMM

    Vinny is a beast.  Today was his first posting at the Sunday trail run for a 7 mile jaunt and he slayed it.  I am not sure what Vinny’s longest previous recent run was, but this was further than he has gone in a little bit.  He was rock steady the whole way, just punching in the miles, staying steady and moving forward the whole time.  I love when existing F3 guys come out to the Sunday run and punch in 7 miles when they haven’t done that in a while.  The best part is that in a months of so, they are keeping up with the PAX and have no problem with the trails.  It is impressive….Go Vinny!!

    Speaking of Vinny, he made us do 7 merkins in cadence following the run today in honor of his seven on the trails.  There was already a group of women looking at us curiously because they thought I had just got back from a swim (no kidding, they asked me), the merkins only added to us as an oddity.

    Great to run with Shakedown this morning.  He slowed his pace to accommodate both Vinny and I.  Despite the heat, the trails were a pleasure this morning.  It seems that every man in Richmond (except the 3 of us) took care of the family this morning.  This left the moms open to hit the trails.  And hit the trails they did.  There were a lot of folks on the trails and most were female.  As Vinny or Shake accurately assessed, most of the women that run on trails are in pretty good shape.

    TYA OUT

  • Precision Timing

    Four rested and ready runners arrived for a run around the river.  Regular route for the run.

    NMM:

    First hot day of running in Richmond.  Weather was north of ninety at the start, but humidity was low.  Launched with plenty of cold water and the bubblers are now on around the trails so water is plentiful.  Lots of sweat, but no overheating issues today.  YHC did not follow EF Hutton’s lead and wear the headgear and had a sweat in the eye problem.  For a few minutes crossing the bridge at the end when the sun was in my eyes, I was running with my eyes closed because the sweat was burning so much..  I won’t neglect to wear something to keep the sweat out of the eyes next time.

    Gomer Pyle texted Swirly that he was running four minute late for the run, but was on his way.  We all waited patiently for his arrival.  When he emerged from the car, it was exactly 5:34:00 GMT on both Swirly and YHC’s watch.  That is what I call precision timing.  Pretty impressive.

    TYA Out

     

  • Pre – Blast Wednesday Run

    Swirly and I are planning on running the trails this evening.  530 at the pump house for a seven mile jaunt.  Shorter distances available.

    TYA

  • Its not about Desiree

    10 stalwarts posted on a perfect Tuesday morning in RVA.

    Route for the day was “Mount Henrico”.  4 milers head towards mount Henrico and do one lap around Arlington Circle.  Five milers skip Arlington and head to the top,  Six milers hit Arlington circle on the way to and the way from Mount Henrico.

    NMM

    Mileages were a little bit off today…YHC hates that.  I knew that the five miler was a bit more than five miles and I clocked it in at 5.3.  Bleeder reports that the four mile route was about 3.7 and Splinter and Saab clocked the six miler in at 5.7.   I will have to take a look at the options for adding a bit to the 4 and six mile routes for the next time we do that route.

    During yesterdays Boston marathon, a wonderful thing happened along the way in the women’s elite race.  One of the favorites, Shalene Flanagan (from Boston BTW), let one of the other runners know that she had to take a pit stop to the porta johns.  The other runner slowed her pace to wait for Shalene to make it easier for Shalene to catch up to the lead pack.  They caught up pretty quickly (Shalene has some super porta john skills and was in the blue monster for just under 20 seconds) and continued on in the race.  The women who helped Shalene was Desiree Linden, the eventual winner of the women’s race.  What a great example of being a good sport and selflessly helping another human being.  I just hope that we can exhibit this type of behavior more often. As Inky Johnson says “Its not about you”

    TYA OUT

     

  • Cat Daddy and a Pack of Wool

    19 brave souls posted at 530 for a beatdown in Richmond’s west end.  Spring has sprung.  Shorts and a t-shirt were the uniform for the day.  Jerusalem cruisers were optional.

    The Thang:

    Mosey to side of Tennis courts for COP.  10x Don Quixote’s (Saab did 3), 10x Helicopters, 20x SSH, 20x LBC. Mosey towards Reveille church, stopping along the way for a little bit of exercise at intersections.  Take the short cut to the Reveille, ring of fire with 5x hand release merkins.  Mosey to Windsor Way.  Lung down the yellow brick road, one pax does 5 hand release merkins and 5 WWII setups.  Mosey to church for Elevens.  Swirly picks hand release merkins and Saab picks Burpees as the exercise.  Mosey to other short side of field.  Triple check one pax does WWII setups, second does jump squats and third runs to other side of field and runs backward to other side.  Mosey back to Mary Mumford, again stopping to get a few merkins and setups along the way.  Finish up at 616 in the parking lot.  YHC took us out.

    NMM

    I owe the PAX a minute.  I pride myself of starting and finishing the workout on time (for confirmation of this, please talk to Conspiracy).  We started precisely at 530 GMT (Garmin Mean Time), but we finished 1 minute past the appointed finish time. It is kind of challenging to manage time when you are commuting to a field a half mile away, but a commitment is a commitment and I didn’t meet mine this morning.

    There was a little controversy when I said lets go to the short side of the field.  A few of the PAX asserted that the field was a square and therefore didn’t have  short side.  I think once we ran the short way, it was apparent that it was indeed a rectangle.  Speaking of the field, the dew was heavy this morning and the grass on that field is deep.  Don’t get me wrong, its a nice field (not up to the standards of no toll) but cutting the field once a year or so might be a nice idea.

    Many benefits to the good weather.  No layers of clothing, no need to stay in the car pre workout to stay warm and most of all, no rush to get to the cars post workout. As such, several of us lingered around the AO post workout. For the most part, who know what silly subjects we covered.  One thing that did come up from Vinny was a new code name for a group of women.  There was a group of women running by the AO at around 630 and Vinny said “there goes a pack of wool”.  When someone pointed out that there was one male amongst the women, he simply amended his quote to the backblast title.  I don’t know what that all means, but it was as funny as heck.

    Thanks for all the birthday well wishes.

    TYA OUT